Chapter Three: Eyes to See
Kakashi and Yukio sat glaring at each other from across the strategy room, Kakashi kept fingering the rings on his shurikens, while Yukio's left hand was never far away from the hilt of his sword. Yet neither said a word, preferring only to watch and gauge each other, looking for any sign of hostility, even the barest movement would suffice, the tension in the room was so high. Finally, Yukio muttered, "It was self-defense." Kakashi's black eye opened wide, and he was swift to hiss, "Liar!" back at the dark-haired man. Sighing, knowing that the Leaf would never believe him, Yukio eased back into his chair and gazed up at the bamboo rafters of the Konoha shinobi headquarters and wondered how he could explain himself. Nothing came to mind immediately.
Returning his eyes to the white-haired jounin, he returned to looking him over. The two men were now allies, but only by necessity. Memories stood between them, a painful rift that would not likely be bridged in the short time that Yukio planned to be here. He honestly didn't want to try, but he did not want the copy-ninja to seize an opportunity in the coming mission to make sure the Cloud did not come back. Even if they weren't going to become best friends, he had to make sure that Kakashi would at least tolerate working with him, and that meant making sure that his hatred of the other jounin was lessened.
Kakashi could barely keep still as he sat in his chair near the door of the room. Every fiber of his body was telling him to launch himself at the sable-bearded man across the room, but his mind was keeping him put. His thoughts kept returning to Rin. He had been there, at the end, arriving just in time to see the Cloud tear into her with his jutsu, to hold what was left of her cooling body as she faded away. It had been war, but he had sworn, after…after Obito that none of his comrades would ever die if he couldn't help it, but they had. Rin wasn't the only one who died in that war, but she had been the last that Kakashi would tolerate. He could still remember it like yesterday…he had said goodbye to Rin as they had left the camp, running his hands through her chestnut hair, as she traced her finger along the scar of his eye, the one that she had transplanted in the previous war with Rock…that had been the last time he had seen her alive and conscious.
Yukio was growing tired of waiting for Tsunade to return with the team of shinobi he had requested. This mission would require complex planning, and he needed to know exactly what assets he had. Yet all he could do for now was to stare at a man who hated him almost more than any other foe. Eventually, Kakashi's gaze faltered as the Sharingan began to ache in his eye socket, something it had been given to do in high-stress situations. He risked raising his headband a bit to rub at the eye with a hand, shutting both eyes in the process. Seeing the pale yellow of the scar under Kakashi's palm brought an idea into Yukio's head, and he was surprised he hadn't thought of it earlier.
"While I know you won't believe me if I just talk to you about it, I can show you proof that I had no choice in fighting your friend," Yukio announced, breaking the silence abruptly, causing Kakashi to jump and gather a few shuriken into his fist. The Cloud stood up, and turned around, undoing his vest's front. Yanking up both it and whatever was under it, he revealed three greenish-brown marks in his ribcage on the right side, each resembling a jagged star. "Do you know what these are?" Yukio asked, though he knew that the Leaf could not possibly mistake them, if his guess was correct.
Kakashi's eye narrowed as he tried to place where he had seen scars like those, then it came to him. "Rin's poison darts…" he admitted hesitantly. Poisoned senbon needles and darts had been Rin's preferred method of attack, taught to her by Tsunade herself, a technique now practiced by Shizune. As a medic, she wasn't strong enough in regular taijutsu to warrant regular weapons, so she improvised with poison attacks. Having been hit by some himself, Kakashi could recognize what untreated wounds from such darts would look like.
"Like I said, I had no choice. It was imperative that we captured a ranking intelligence officer to gain vital information, or we would have sacrificed an entire flank of our defense unnecessarily," Yukio began to explain, his blue eyes flashing, but Kakashi interrupted him, blurting out, "Capture and torture Ibiki, you mean." Growling with frustration, Yukio gritted his teeth. This was proving as difficult as he had expected. "Do you want to know what happened or not?" he demanded, cracking his knuckles in annoyance. Kakashi grimaced under his mask, but fell silent.
"As you well know, we had sent our left flank in a full assault against your lines in Grass country in the hopes of breaking through a perceived weakness, but you kept reinforcing your ranks somehow. We desperately needed to figure a way to outpace you, which meant gathering intelligence, by any means necessary. My team was sent to the other side of the lines, where we had learned the command camp was, in a grab-and-extract mission. It didn't go as planned."
Eleven years ago…
Yukio Katsumasa crouched in the high grasses and waited for Tatsu and Yasuro to catch up. They had been moving along the Aoikage River to make sure that no patrols were going around them, cutting off their escape route through the water. Yukio was the point man, sent ahead to spot the patrol that had the ninja they needed. Not that he was worried. Tatsu and Yasu had been with him since their novice days, the three of them had lost their kunoichi partner, Yae, five years ago, but the three of the former four-ninja Team 2 of Kumogakure were still going strong. Reaching one of the odd rock outcroppings in the otherwise featureless grass sea, Yukio paused and waited. As agreed upon, he took his knife and tapped the hilt sharply against the rock three times and waited. Not six seconds later, he heard a low warbling chirp, Tatsu's response. Good, they were right on time, so far everything was going as planned.
He resumed running; ears wide open for any sounds other than the rustling of the grass from his passage. He was nearing an open clearing in the fields when he heard speech and skidded to a halt, carefully crouched and held his breath, falling absolutely silent. The sounds of talk had stopped briefly, but resumed shortly. Excellent, he hadn't been detected. He ran a hand over his stubbled chin, trying to recall what his commander had told him would be the markings of an intelligence officer. It was only when he heard Yasuro's high-pitched cheeping signal that he remembered. It was the roughly diamond-shaped swirled tattoo of the Konoha ANBU. He honestly didn't know how they were supposed to succeed on this mission. Only he had been promoted to jounin three weeks ago, Tatsu and Yasuro were still chuunins. ANBU were supposed to be the best that Konohagakure no Sato had to offer.
Licking his lips nervously, Yukio crept closer to the clearing before giving the 'ready' signal. He was only sixteen for crying out loud…what was he doing out here, miles away from home, fighting just because he had been told to? Running a hand through his short, spiky hair, he amended that. Cloud needed land; the famine had made it necessary to do food raids as early as seven years ago. It had been a well-kept secret, but Kumogakure no Sato was running close to starvation in the more distant areas, and rationing was present even in the most well stocked cities. The war had started two years ago, when the attempt to seize Grass had been made. But Konoha had fought to protect their ally unexpectedly. Everyone had heard of the attack by the Kyuubi, but no one in Cloud had anticipated that they could recover quickly enough to give aid to the weaker Grass ninja.
Reaching the grasses at the edge of the clearing, he parted the stalks ever so carefully and looked in at the people he had heard talking. It was as he had hoped. The only adult there was a brown-haired man, whose spiky locks spread out over his head-protector. There was a girl with purple bands on her face…a medic by the look of her gear packs…And the prize of the group, a blond-haired, arrogant-looking boy not much older than he was. And he was wearing the gear that had been described to him, a sleeveless white vest, navy ninja pants, the usual shinobi gear, and most importantly, both a white animal mask, and the swirled tattoo on his left arm.
This is what they had been looking for, but now that it was upon him, Yukio wasn't sure what to do. Yasuro's chirp came again, and Yukio was forced to give the 'wait' signal of a grumbling trill, meant to resemble the call of a stag deer from the grasslands. All three Konoha ninja's heads whipped in Yukio's direction upon giving the cry though, and for a moment, the young man's heart leapt up into his chest, and a cold sweat broke out on his skin. But impossibly, a miracle occurred. Not far from where he was crouched, a stag raised its head out of the grass, confused as to where the call from a 'rival male' had come from. Sighing in relief, the Leafs settled back down, the blond boy scratching his head in annoyance, the girl giggling lightly. But the man remained wary, looking around still. He was going to be a problem.
Marking out mentally that he needed to attack the older man first, he gave the signal to attack, the screech of a heron. Hearing the rustling of grasses as his teammates moved in, he took three deep breaths, gathering chakra into his shoulder as he prepared himself. The Leaf ninjas were now looking around again, but it couldn't be helped, it was now or never. Weaving through signs as quickly as he could manage, he released the jutsu just as Tatsu and Yasuro burst through the side of the clearing, drawing the attention of the enemy. "Denkatahiji!" he bellowed, a thrust of his legs heaving him off the ground, as a strong burst of air shot from his feet, propelling him forwards as his left shoulder crackled with electricity. His aim was as true as he could have hoped, and he connected hard with the adult Leaf, a boom of thunder sounding as lightning lashed against the older man's body, burning his face where it hit.
"Raidou!" he heard the girl cry, even as the blond boy lashed out with some kind of fire-based jutsu against Yasuro, who leapt high to avoid it, responding with a hail of knives, propelled by his favorite air jutsu. Even in the midst of the battle, Yukio couldn't help but smirk at the appropriateness of the man's name. But as he recovered from his attack, he was dismayed to see Tatsu being wrapped in a shroud of earth, his attempts to blast himself out using lightning techniques all but useless. Cursing, Yukio ran forwards and blew the dirt away with a burst of wind, freeing Tatsu, but leaving himself open to a strike of darts from the girl. Three pierced his side where the armor was left open, but Tatsu caught two in the throat and went down.
Slicing out with a blade of wind, he forced the girl to dodge, but when he whipped back around, he saw it was too late to help Tatsu. The wounds were turning greenish-black, and air was bubbling from where one had pierced his windpipe. Tatsu's eyes were glazed, and he lay there twitching as the poison was swiftly carried to his brain. Yukio could feel his own side turning numb as the poison worked through him. Tears threatened to spill from his eyes at Tatsu's fate, but he couldn't grieve right now, he had himself and his remaining teammate to worry about. Reaching into his pouch, he took out antivenin and applied it to the wound, a gift from his sister, which he didn't think he had needed, but took it along anyways, a true blessing now.
"Kaze no Kiba!" Yukio growled, forming the signs, and thrust his hands forwards, wind fangs slicing through the grass, narrowly missing the blond Leaf, but it gave Yasuro enough time to perform his own jutsu, "Kirikingake", and mist swirled up from the ground and wrapped itself around the blond ANBU. But the red-haired chuunin was going to have his hands full maintaining the trapping jutsu if the girl was still free. Before the mist gagged him, the boy shouted out, "Run Rin, go get help!" From somewhere in the grass, the girl shrieked, "I won't leave you Ibiki!" That was precisely what Yukio didn't want to hear. A retreat would make their escape all the much easier, they would fade into the grass with their catch in tow if she left, but that didn't seem likely now. His blue eyes narrowed as he searched the grass for movement. Those darts were deadly…if they hit Yasuro, he would be facing down two ninjas at once, alone.
As expected, more needles shot out of the grass, forcing Yukio to sweep out a gust of air to blow them aside, but they kept coming from rapidly changing spots. Comforting himself in that this seemed to be the girl's only attack, the Cloud raced towards what he assumed was her hiding position in the grass and lashed out with a jolt of electricity. But there was no accompanying cry of pain, only the whisper of grass. Cursing, he ran back towards Yasuro, who was struggling mightily to hold the thrashing Ibiki in his grasp. But as his feet pounded the grass, he could hear the girl yelling into a radio for reinforcements, as well as the reply that they'd be there in less than two minutes.
As he entered the clearing once more, his face blanched when he saw the needles sticking out of Yasuro's leg, his sweating face, and the now free hands and face of the Leaf. Gasping for breath, Yasuro's otherwise slender and feminine face was contorted in agony and effort, and yelled to Yukio, "Please, get her! I can't hold him and fight her at the same time!"
More darts now lashed out from the grass, and Yukio barely managed to block them with his sword. The situation was deteriorating rapidly. From here, even he could hear the rustling of grass from far to their left, where the Leaf reinforcements were surely coming from. He had no choice, it was she, or him and his only friend left alive. He had never performed this jutsu outside of training, but it covered a large enough area to get her no matter where she hid. He gathered his chakra carefully, he needed to expend just the right amount to be able to complete the powerful technique and still have enough energy to get out of there.
He had sworn only to use this jutsu only in the most desperate of times, and this didn't seem to qualify somehow in his mind…if only he could find her, he wouldn't have to do this. But he could not fight a new team of shinobi all by his lonesome, the information from the ANBU was too important to let go. Weaving the symbols in the air, he named the Four Winds, "Boreas! Eustus! Notus! Favonus!" Glowing marks of chakra appeared in the air as his energy gathered to those four spots. Gathering the right elements to each symbol, Yukio noticed the girl emerging from the grass, a kunai in her fist, apparently out of darts. But it was too late for her. "Cloud Shinobi secret technique, Yon-Kaze Hukisusapu!" Yukio cried, sweeping his chakra-laden hands in a wide circle, connecting the four symbols with a glowing ring of wind chakra. With a roar, the winds burst forth from their cages and rushed forwards, each bearing their element with them, ice, thunder, water, and fire. The freed winds expanded out in a growing compass pattern, at their fullest they would cover nearly twenty meters of the grasslands. Even if one or two winds were blocked, the remaining spiraling winds would catch anyone unfortunately to have been in the direction of the jutsu when it had been unleashed. Nobody was quick enough to escape it.
Rin saw the attack coming, but could not stop in time. She dodged to the side with all her strength, but the fiery Favonus wind was coming too fast. It hit her full on in her legs and midsection, charring her lower body into ashes. Boreas barreled past her as well, freezing what Favonus had singed. His breaths coming ragged with exertion, Yukio stumbled towards Yasuro, who had collapsed to one knee. Almost casually, the coal-haired youth brought an elbow crashing down on Ibiki's temple, knocking him out. Yukio carefully applied the antivenin to Yasuro's leg, and helped him lift the unconscious ANBU onto their shoulders. As they turned to leave, Yukio saw out of the corner of his eye a white-haired Leaf shinobi burst into the clearing. This new arrival was about the same age as Yukio, but he looked somehow more experienced, more serious. But as he noticed his fallen comrade, he dashed to her side, leaving them alone, but the two Clouds could hear the rest of the reinforcements coming fast.
Without further ado, they carried the Leaf away, not hearing the cry of pain and loss that a young man who had lost everything let rip from his soul behind them.
Present day.
Kakashi's eyes still blazed, but he had relaxed his position into the chair, and had a resigned look on his face. "So, you probably only survived thanks to your sister," he stated, knowing what Yukio's likely response would be. "Yes, but we both know what happened to her, don't we?" Yukio replied drolly, a bitter smirk on his face.
But before either man could snap at the other, a knock came at the door. Sighing, Kakashi reached over and opened the door without getting up, admitting Tsunade, followed by Naruto, Kiba, Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino, Tenten, Rock Lee, and Shino. Yukio's face relaxed as he saw how many had come, eight was better than he had hoped. But when he saw bugs flitting from underneath Shino's collar, he stood up and raised both hands in a halting gesture. "You're an insect user…an Aburame, correct? You probably shouldn't go on this mission, given who you'll be facing," he told the boy, who pushed up his shades and looked at the Cloud jounin expressionlessly. Naruto began to protest, but Shino himself hushed the blond, asking flatly, "There will not be any there that do not know Thunder jutsus?" At Yukio's shake of the head, Shino turned without a word and went out the door again, as silently as he had entered.
Naruto was scratching his head in confusion when Shikamaru noticed the confused look on his friend's face. "How troublesome," he grumbled, drawing Naruto's attention. "What?" Naruto asked dully, still not comprehending why Shino left. Exasperated, the shadow-manipulating ninja was about to explain when Ino leaned in and exclaimed tartly, flipping her long blond bangs back from her face, "You dummy! If Shino tries to fight the Clouds, they'll fry his bugs like a giant fly-zapper!" Naruto remembered in a flash the sizzling and popping of the fly-zapper outside Ichiraku, and grimaced when he saw what Ino meant…Shino himself would be in a great deal of trouble, given how integrated the bugs were with him.
Yukio stood up and went to the blackboard at the end of the room, and the corners of his mouth turned down involuntarily when he saw the expressions on the faces regarding him. Tsunade and Naruto looked at him with a mixture of hope and regret; Rock Lee and Chouji were the only ones who seemed genuinely excited to have him here, and the others all regarded him with suspicion. Knowing that he'd best start explaining things before tensions came to a head, he sighed and began. "I called you all here for a delicate reason. The younger sister of one of your classmates, the girl called Hanabi of the Hyuuga family, has likely been kidnapped by some of my countrymen, who have gone rogue."
As he expected, this caused a great deal of anxious and even angry chatter. Kiba growled from where he sat, his white dog Akamaru echoing the guttural noise from where he lay beside the hooded boy's chair, an intimidating sight, now that the former puppy was now the size of a wolf. The Inuzuka boy finally yelled, "What do you mean, rogue? They're your allies, right? If you think we're going to start trusting you…" But Kiba was cut off by Yukio, who shouted at the Leaf boy, "I don't expect you to trust me, I expect you to follow orders, soldier, got it! I know two things: One! That you want this girl back, unharmed if possible. Two! That if she dies, or if these bastards manage to extract the Byakugan jutsu from her body, both of our countries are in a lot of trouble, and I…don't…WANT THAT!" Kiba fell silent, shocked by the outburst from the formerly calm Cloud Nin.
Yukio seethed, but struggled to keep himself under control. He reached inside his vest and pulled out a pack of jerky, trying to convince himself it was the hunger that was doing this to him, that he wasn't old enough for…But he realized he needed to set things right, and calm the nervous teenagers. Calming himself, he stood back upright, chewing on a piece of the jerky, and continued, "As I said, the group that I followed here are acting on their own. They are not sanctioned by the Cloud Shinobi headquarters, and are all members of one kin group, similar to your families. They have tried to kidnap the older of the Hyuuga main family daughters before, and they may have tried again, except we know that…Hinata is safe. They want the Byakugan for themselves, so that they might further their clan's power struggles, and to garner favor with the Raikage. But what they only faintly realize is that such an attack on Leaf will start a war, and neither of our countries can handle that at the moment. This conflict is pointless, and the Dragon Summit, our special shinobi corps, has sent me to either convince the Yamakata clan to turn back, or take them out."
"Why do you need us for then?" Chouji asked, eyeing the beef jerky that Yukio held in his hand. But Shikamaru, running his thumb over his chin gave a snort as he realized the answer to Chouji's question. "You got something, Shikamaru?" Chouji asked, recognizing the sign of an idea popping into his friend's mind. Yukio smiled faintly at their banter…after all, they were like he and…it was better not to think about that, so he gestured to Shikamaru and said, "I think this young man has realized it, go ahead, tell them." Shikamaru's almond-shaped eyes crinkled in amusement and pride, and he stood up and turned to face his former classmates. "If you were trying to get into a bandit's base, and you were dressed as one of them, would you bring in a bunch of police with you to take them out? Or people they didn't recognize?" he explained to them. "Precisely," Yukio called from behind him, "I cannot ask the older shinobi of the Leaf to help me, since they would be recognized by the Yamakatas. But you seven haven't attracted enough renown yet to be recognized by sight, or have any particularly family-related features. But there is another reason why I have asked you in particular to come along."
"And that is…?" Ino demanded impatiently, her pupil-less blue eyes looking straight at the older man. Yukio's own blue eyes drilled back into hers, wordlessly mocking her for her lack of tact, but he replied, "Because most of you also have had practice fighting in sightless environments. I will be using a jutsu that will remove all sight and hamper other senses, making those with visual jutsus useless. Some of you can hunt by smell or hearing," gesturing to Kiba, "Others can attack at a distance, or take control of the enemy," sweeping his hand towards Shikamaru and Ino, who were sitting rather closely together with Tenten nearby, "Or you have enough raw power to make up for any other special skills, once I deem the odds evened up," finishing by pointing fingers at Chouji, Lee, and Naruto. Though they had gained respect by becoming chuunins or greater, the young Leafs felt a surge of pride that they had been chosen by an expert ninja of another land for such an important mission.
Yukio walked over to a table where he had laid several packs, which he had hidden out in the forest earlier, where they had been tied to a horse he had brought. Gesturing to the parcels, he told the gathered ninja, "These are Cloud chuunin uniforms. They contain a scarf, which you can choose to wear or not to help conceal the fact that you are not from Cloud. I recommend that you stay silent when I take you to their camp, and wait until I perform my jutsu to attack. I will try of course to negotiate Hanabi's freedom before that, but I know their leader…and he and I are…not the best of friends. You can prepare however you like, just be ready to leave by tomorrow dawn." Realizing his hunger and exhaustion, he staggered off to a chair in a corner of the room and flopped down, reaching deeply into the bag of jerky and chewing the beef ravenously. Recognizing that Yukio would rather be alone, the younger Leafs picked through the packs until they found uniforms close to their sizes, and left.
Tsunade and Kakashi had stayed behind, but with a look, Tsunade indicated that the white-haired jounin should leave as well. Kakashi was about to complain, but when the Hokage's glare deepened, he shrugged and slunk out, giving a dark look to Yukio before he headed out. As soon as the door closed, Tsunade sighed with relief and walked over to Yukio and placed a hand on his forehead before he could protest. "Why do you do this to yourself? You need to eat more, or else you'll need to feed off of…" she began, but Yukio waved her off, and responded, "I know, it's my family's curse, nobody knows better than I." "Suit yourself," Tsunade murmured, moving to a chair nearby, sitting down and folding one leg over the other and observed him while he ate. After a while, she asked, "I can guess why you came without other Clouds, but you're still acting rather recklessly, and it's not like you. Just why did you come alone, and why are you acting so strangely?" Yukio raised his ice-blue eyes to look at the Sannin, and he heaved a deep breath, wondering what to tell her.
After a few more bites, finishing off the jerky, he told the blond woman, "Because, frankly, they still don't trust me fully, even back home. I can probably guess that's what happened to 'her' when she came back, am I right?" Tsunade knew right away what he meant, and the pained look that she had on her face earlier returned. "I don't know the full story, but yes, Anko has had a difficult time since she returned to us. I helped her the best I could, but eventually I had to leave. Since I've returned, I've noticed that she's been trying, but with her personality…it has…been troublesome." When Yukio raised his head again to look at her, Tsunade was startled by the pain and loneliness she saw in his eyes as he demanded, "Why didn't she recognize me, sensei? Why did she fight me?" Tsunade got off of her chair and hurried to him, clasping her arms around him, careful not to press against his bad arm, and he curled his good arm about her shoulder. After a while, Yukio sighed, and breathed, "Thanks, I needed that I guess." But the look he got from Tsunade was a stern one. "I don't know what you intend to do with Anko, but I urge you to just leave her alone. Her mind was badly disjointed when she returned, I healed her as best as I could, but some of her memories have been suppressed because of her trauma. If you try to remind her, you could well drive her mad," Tsunade told him, her face gravely serious. Yukio returned her look, disturbing the older woman with his intensity. "She's all I've got left of those days…the only one who knew what we both went through," he stated, getting up and walking to the door before Tsunade could grab a hold of him. Before he walked out, he turned back and looked at the Sannin and hissed, "She and I still bear the same mark on our shoulders. If anything, one of us will have revenge."
Thirteen miles out from Konoha…
Hanabi woke up to total darkness. Was it night out? She could hear crickets, but she couldn't see anything, which worried her. Was she blindfolded? It seemed she was, as when she raised her hand up to her face to check, bandages were wrapped around her eyes. She sat up, finding she wasn't bound, but as she did so, a wave of dizziness swept over her, and she nearly vomited. Steadying herself, she placed one hand on the cot that she had been placed on, and with her other yanked the bandages off, and opened her eyes. The darkness continued, despite the fact that she could hear a fire crackling. She was growing increasingly frightened. Even when she had woken up in the middle of the night in all her young years, she had always been quick to adjust her night vision to see. This total blackness was terrifying. What had happened to her eyes? She reached her hands up to her face, feeling for her eyes…
Her screams broke the night in the Yamakata's camp, and Soshiro chuckled to himself as he relished the victory his hard work had presented him with. In the dish at his side, two silvery disks glittered in the firelight.