A/N: I'm back! And this is so long... (I tried really hard to finish this arc before chapter 30, the result was a 10000-word chapter and a half-dead beta). A warning, some sections are not beta'd (my fault ... I changed the story plot after they beta'd the first version), so please excuse some grammar mistakes.
Chapter 29 - Requiem
"So you want us to fight for you?" The leading wolf said with an expression that could only be the wolf equivalent of raising an eyebrow. They had given me just enough time to explain the deep shit I was in before they had gone back to baring their teeth and eyeing us like the supper.
"Yes, but I don't expect you to do it for free." At this point, there was really no point in mincing the words. The wolf pack started to stir again, a few rustled uncomfortably and the others murmured in something I couldn't understand. The armoured wolf opened his jaw to say something, but before he could, the white wolf beside him whispered in his ears. As the summoning creatures discussed among their own, I just stood there motionlessly.
"You are honest, I'll give you that." This time, it was the white wolf who called out to me. "However, we don't trust words here, and our help doesn't come cheap. Step closer, human, let's discuss this." Warily, I took a step forward just as the White wolf trotted out of her pack, with three wolves trailing behind. Beside me, Kakashi also took a step, but his movement was interrupted quickly by the female wolf.
"No, I only want to talk to the girl. It's her price I'm asking, after all." Upon hearing her icy words, I turned around and give Kakashi a small nod. Hesitantly, he stopped moving and I continued to walk forwards. Instinctively, my grip tightened around the sword at my waist, and the white wolf's gaze flickered with amusement.
"What is it that you want?" I asked when we were only five metres apart. If she tried to lash out at me, you bet that she would meet my swords first.
"Just to see if you can pay the price." She said with such ambiguity that I couldn't understand her at first. But when the wolves disappeared from my line of sight faster than I could blink, I suddenly realised, they weren't trying to isolate me from the crowd, instead …
Immediately, I turned around with the metallic swords already draw out, but I was too late. Before any of us could react, three claws were already placed on Kakashi's neck, pressing onto his skin dangerously.
"I wouldn't do anything rash if I were you." The female wolf said as she walked around my Captain so casually that I wanted to stab a sword through her face. "Now that we have the price, let's discuss."
"Whatever you want, take it from me!" I almost growled the words out of my teeth, but I didn't dare to inch closer for the fear of causing an imminent death for Kakashi.
"We are bored here, being trapped in this land for decades, so we want to see some entertainment. Our rule is quite simple, entertain us, If you can't, then your friend here will die. I am waging our clan's welfare by considering to help you, therefore, I think you should do the same." That was not what I wanted. Getting others involved in my business, that was never my intention. Maybe my hands just trembled for a second, but I was sure that the cunning female wolf picked up the sign of a crack.
I had considered about rushing to Kakashi's aid, but another sentence from the female wolf completely dismissed that thought. "Don't even try, perhaps you should worry about your own safety. The show is starting, right behind you." She dared to say that with a smirk.
I felt a rush of the wind behind my head and immediately, I lowered my head just in time to dodge a claw that swung above my head. I twirled around and slashed my swords horizontally, only for them to bounce harmlessly off a set of armour. As I slid the sword across the wolf's chest plate, the friction produced a trail of sparks that forced him to jump a step back.
"You have fifteen minutes, I suggest your hurry. After fifteen minutes, I can't guarantee your friend's safety, nor yours." And why don't you just shut up before I cut off your head? I didn't have time to curse at her because the grey wolf was circling slowly and I had to observe his muscle movement with everything spec of attention.
"You are unfortunate, to have caught Fuyuki's eyes. Perhaps I won't even need to use ninjutsu, then maybe you will last longer." The large grey wolf said bored as if he had just found a bug to crush. To be fair, I barely had enough chakra to keep the Sharingan running, let alone using ninjutsu.
Truly, there was nothing more insulting than your death being dismissed as a simple game.
Slowly, he crouched down in a battle stance and his armour clinked in harmony. Just for a moment, I closed my eyes and attempted to shut off the rage that had gone haywire just a second ago.
Take a breath, calm down, adjust your attention to the battle in front of you. Treat it as a mission, you need to eliminate your target and save your teammate.
At the corner of my eyes, I saw Kakashi's unmoving figure, still being held hostage by the trouble I had gotten him into.
Please, please let this work. Or god helps me, I will level this country if that's the last thing I do.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
It was quick thinking, Kakashi supposed. Decoy, backup, a summon could solve all those problems very nicely since they basically operated on an instant teleportation system.
However, the problem was, she was probably going to die. It wasn't very obvious seeing that the dance of blades and claws were still raging in front of him. But Kakashi knew that Maiko was going to lose if she continued at this rate.
In all aspect, she was tired, drained and injured before she even started the battle. He could see that unlike the wolf, she didn't pick the taijutsu approach by choice. The worst of all, Kakashi could see that the grey wolf hadn't been using his full strength. He had been slowly adding on to his speed and power at each hit, pushing Maiko to the limit and tiring her even more like this was some kind of entertainment.
The claws made sparks with the metal blades and those slim blades shook under the force. Kakashi wondered if her swords could even withstand that much power without breaking. As the sparks grew bigger, she ducked down to avoid the threatening jaws aiming for her head. It was always the same ordeal: Maiko's swords weren't sharp enough to cut deeper than a scratch, but the wolf's claw could easily tear open her body. It was only by the sheer speed that she had managed not to get ripped apart. Other than that, all she could do was block and run.
The saddest part was, Kakashi wasn't even sure what the hell happened that landed them in this sketchy situation.
"I don't buy it." He uttered, despite the fact that every book of survival told him to keep his silence when murder weapons were around his neck. "Your clan is too organised for them to be nothing but a bunch of violent brutes, and you look too smart to start a fight because of boredom." Kakashi addressed the white wolf who was pacing in front of him, and she turned around and face him with curiosity.
"You are a smart one, Shinobi." The female wolf as white as snow walked in front of him and she continued to explain. "Our clan originated from the Land of Snow, and despite the fact that we call it our home, we are forever trapped here, only able to step on the ice and snow. The only way for us to go to the outside world is through a human contractor. As much as we love it here, decades of boredom does entice some desire for the outside."
"But as the second in command for our clan, I need to make sure that the human whom we will give our lives to, deserves our trust." And what does that have anything to do with killing each other? Kakashi wanted to ask, but it seemed like the wolf hadn't finished her speech yet.
"Fear not, Shinobi, we are not savages. I'm sorry we have to do this, but one can never be too careful in choosing their comrade. Even if she fails, we won't kill her and we will let you go, alive." Kakashi mentally sighed in relief, that was, until he heard the next sentence.
"I do see a lot of potential in her, so if she fails, we will simply keep her here and train her, until she is ready to contract us. I don't think she will object if we propose to trade your freedom for hers. After all, we don't get a lot of candidates around here." Oh no, keeping her prisoner will only drive her crazy. Besides, there was no way that Kakashi was willingly leaving a teammate behind in a foreign country, let alone one that had actively tried to kill them.
"What does she need to do in order to pass?" Kakashi asked as he turned his eyes to the white wolf. She had never for once explain the rules of her so called test. That, or Kakashi had missed the memo.
"One's fighting style can expose their personality and nature, especially in a situation where lives were on the line. Do you see that? How her strikes are so precisely balanced that they maximise efficiency and minimises the damage done to her." Reluctantly, Kakashi returned his gaze back to the battlefield. He wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not, but he had definitely wished so.
He was the one who taught her how to be an Anbu agent and it was really not nice to say that his pupil was not qualified. Of course, that was under the rule that she was being evaluated as an Anbu agent. Right now, even a blind man could see that this wasn't the case.
"From that alone, all I can see is a poor girl hanging onto nothing but survival. So let's hope that you can actually motivate her to have the gut to do something." Kakashi frowned at the wolf's words because he was completely lost as to what she was talking about.
"Anyway, we shall see, she still has some time. However, if she dares to kill anyone in our clan, I will personally guarantee both of your deaths." And here is our problem.
From the five years Kakashi had known Maiko, one fact he could confidently say was that her default response to any threat was death because it was part of the job requirement.
However, this was a different kind of situation, where neither being killed or killing the opponent was an option. So he wondered for her and for himself, is there a way out of this?
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
I was losing very badly.
With the problems of injury, chakra exhaustion, and fatigue, the only thing I could do at the moment seemed to be running away. He was huge - twice my size. He was fast - pushing me to the point of having no time to breathe. My sword couldn't cut deeper than a few centimetres, but his claw could definitely rip in half. Every rule book about survival told me that I should run away, recover and find another way to engage the enemy.
But that was not an option because he had something I couldn't leave behind. So I was here, in this game of 'tag, you're dead', like a mouse caught in the cage with cats.
Wait, perhaps it was a rabbit who got caught in the wolf den. How ironic.
I didn't even have time to contemplate the theme of irony, seeing that I was slammed into the ground again. When I felt a shadow looming over me, I rolled away and one of his huge paws bashed down on the ground, creating a small crater where my head had been just a second ago.
The wolf eyed me arrogantly as he shook out the sword that was embedded shallowly in his skin like it was merely a useless piece of metal. Perhaps to him, it really was useless. Painfully, I stood up again, wiping the blood away from my face to get a clearer view.
Time was flying away as some imaginary clock made tic-toc to announce my doom. With no choice, I charged with only one sword in hand. I zig-zagged towards my target and aimed a blow at his neck. He reacted just in time to snap his jaws at me instead, but I managed to turn my sword right at that moment so that it pressed onto the metal armour over his nostril. Using that as a platform, I flipped over him and landed on his back. With all the strength I could gather, I punched him in the right eye.
Not going to lie, it felt good when he howled in pain, but that pride was short lived. Quickly, one of his claw came up, swinging towards my head and I ducked at the last moment. Like a child, I plastered my body onto his back, one of my hands wrapped halfway around his large neck and gripped his fur tightly while the other hand stabbed the sword as hard as I could into the back of his head. For any human, that was a killing blow. However, the hardness of his pelt was absolutely inhumane, and his general weak spots such as his throat and chest were protected by metallic armours.
The wolf rolled his body again and crashed onto his side. This time, I learned from my last mistake and pulled out the tantō, jumping off quickly before the right side of my body could be crushed. The jump was really not as elegant as a shinobi should be. The quick response tipped off my balance so I landed on my side instead of my feet. It was only by sheer luck that my fallen ninjatō was right next to where I. The wolf didn't even bother to kick the weapon away.
My stomach was throbbing in pain, and it certainly didn't help when the awkward landing reopened my wound. With each heartbeat pounding hard against my chest, I could feel a pulse of blood running down my hastily patched wound. I only stayed on the ground for a few seconds, but a small pool of blood was already gathering under my body.
"Are you going to continue this farce? Your attacks are not working." Yes, I know that, thank you very much. "Unless you can show me something other than this repetition, you are not qualified." I am trying! Don't you think I know that? My teammate's life is in your hand, and I have no way of getting him out other than being forced to play your game. A game that waged a life that wasn't mine; a game that I am losing.
I thought the ice was supposed to slow the bleeding, but all it did was making the pain worse as ice shards grazed my wound. I could feel my own consciousness drifting, probably due to the loss of blood. I had to find a way to stop the bleeding, otherwise, I might as well just die of exsanguination before the wolf could tear me in half.
It was the worst timing ever, but who was I kidding? This whole trip in the land of snow was like some kind of déjà vu and this near death experience was bringing me closer and closer to the past. So as I reached out for my fallen blades and clutched onto them despite the stinging pain, the trip down the memory lane began …
I was born abandoned. No parents, no family, no future. I was simply not wanted in the legitimate world, so the dark side of the world took me. There is a philosophy that describes when a person is born, he/she is a blank slate. It's only the conditioning and the nurturing that determine their essence. OLYMPUS believed that, at least to some extent, so they proceeded to gather orphans and unwanted infants in any way they could. I was one of them.
OLYMPUS was not an orphanage, make no mistake. It was a battlefield. From the moment I was collected, the selection had begun. Infants die all the time if proper care is not given and OLYMPUS was not a babysitter either. I was one of those who survived, against the climate, against diseases and against the loneliness. This was a natural selection of some kind, a way for OLYMPUS to select those who had the ability to survive in the present because the future could only be worse.
I had no identity, I was simply 'that girl' or 'that brat' for the adults that guarded us. I had no birthday and I didn't have an age. However, from what others told me, I was close to five when my training started. For the first time in my life, I had an identity, even if it was just a number: 31.
"Your everything belongs to us. Your body, your identity, your life and your future. You are what we make you and you are what we want you to be. Remember that you are nothing more than a tool that was built and designed to serve OLYMPUS. Only the useful tools will be kept, and the defective ones will be disposed of." That was the 'initiation' speech they gave us. The first warning of the life to come. A week after that, I was taught how to assemble and shoot a gun.
My hands moved fluidly around the components, picking out the recoil spring, the barrel and the slide. In precise motions, I attached them together with the main frame, hearing the clicking of parts when they fitted perfectly together. Finally, I inserted the magazine from the bottom of the handle and pulled the slide back in preparation for the shots.
However, before I could pull the trigger, six shots sounded in succession at the station next to mine. My own shots quickly followed, marking bullet holes on the dummy fifteen metres in front of us.
I looked at the positions of the holes on my own dummy. Four were dead on while the other two were slightly off. Then I looked at the dummy beside mine. All six hit the centres of the small circles marked on the dummy. I was not good enough.
Soon, the training facility was filled with the bangs of gunshots as my fellow trainees finally finished assembling and firing their own guns. The evaluator eyed the line of dummies and wrote something down on the chart.
"31, your accuracy needs work. Fix it." The evaluator said without lifting his eyes, but I still dipped my head to show that I understood my position. "32, you took three seconds longer than your record time today. Fix it." Subtly, I eyed the brown haired boy next to me, who also dipped his head down just like me. For a quick second, I thought I saw something that shouldn't exist here: resentment.
"Everyone else needs to decrease their assembling time by five seconds before the end of the week. Am I clear?"
"Yes, Sir!" We spoke like a well-trained choir because we all understood the meaning behind those words. We either reached the standard or we were useless. For the rest of the day, we continued to practice. Round after round. The boy next to me would always assemble the gun quicker and fire them more accurately. He was my partner for training, 31 and 32.
He was always better than me in dealing with guns. So why was it that I was the one who survived in the end?
When I was around seven, my trainee days were over. The final evaluation was very straightforward, so befitting of the style of selection in OLYMPUS: a dual to the death between training partners. 31 and 32 went into the survival arena at the same time. 31 put a bullet through 32's heart. It didn't matter what happened in between because I honestly couldn't remember. 31 came out alive, but 32 didn't. From that moment, 31 became 'Operative 31'.
For the next seven years, I lived in the same monotone lifestyle. I always felt the guilt for what I did, but I never failed to push the guilt down when the next mission came around. Maybe the number coding was supposed to dehumanise us, so we would feel like machines rather than humans. Operatives came and go, but somehow, I remained alive. It was not until when I was about thirteen that my identity changed again.
'I don't want to die. I want to live.' That was the belief that made me endure the rounds of beatings and interrogations. Eventually, they left me alone and I started to get rid of the ropes. It was stupid, how long it took me to wriggle out of bindings. When the next time that masked man came around, my body just flew into motion before I even thought about it.
I kicked his knee with sharp force and watched him stumble, then I swiped my leg against his. As he hit the floor with a 'thud', his hands reached for the gun tucked in at his belt. I couldn't let him do that, so I found the only thing available in this room: the chair they had bound me in.
It was an impulsive action, I did it without much reasoning but rather relied on my survival instinct. I grabbed the rusted metal chair as the man temporarily laid on the floor. Then, I aimed one of the dull chair legs at his throat and thrust it down. All that was left was the sound of the man silently choking as blood leaked out of the hole in his neck.
Eventually, he stopped the spasms and the pool of the blood spread out on the floor, with his throat as the centre point. After an awfully long moment of stillness, I pulled the chair leg out. I supposed that there was a bit of curiosity that drove me to bend down and remove his blood soaked mask.
I was dumbfounded when I saw his face. I knew him; he was one of the operatives in the organisation with only a number to identify himself, just like me. I was confused. So confused. Suddenly, I realised how ludicrous and absurd the situation was. What was I supposed to do? I killed someone I shouldn't. This time, killing the others wouldn't save me.
In fact, I was so confused, I sat back on the chair I had just used as a murder weapon and slumped my body in exhaustion. I was even more confused when 'Hecate' came in, not to reprimand me, but to promote me.
I had another codename. 'Artemis'. I was 'upgraded' from the dehumanising number system, but I had no idea why. What did they want from me? What did they want me to do? Obviously, just doing my job wasn't good enough. That agent was just doing his assignment when he 'kidnapped' us for the evaluation. But in the end, he still died. So tell me, what do I need to do to survive?
I never found the answer to that, simply because I didn't survive in the end. I died. Sent on a suicide mission by the organisation I was forced to devote my life to. I died, and I had no idea why.
But now, I needed that answer, because I didn't want what happened last time to repeat ever again.
Memory is knowledge and knowledge is power, I chanted silently as I finally pushed myself up from the ground. My opponent was giving me time to recover, and I couldn't believe how long it took me to realise this: This was never about the outcome, this was a presentation. And Kakashi, he was just the incentive to keep me in this game longer.
Under the wolf's watchful gaze, I gathered the last bits of my chakra and forced them into fire natured chakra. With a light snap, a small spark of flame danced on my fingertips only for a second as it burned my wound with precision. It sure hurt like hell, smelling your own flesh burn. I was sure there were whimpering and gagging sounds, but I refused to scream. The bleeding had stopped, but the pain worsened. My Sharingan had died, but I didn't.
Shun had mentioned that there was a block - a foreign object as he liked to call it - that seemed to forbid him from accessing my mind completely, maybe it was doing the same to me as well. Just like how Sasuke wasn't able to re-activate his sharingan until recently unless he opened that 'block' in his heart, maybe it was the same with me. For better or worse, all I needed was to unravel my mind.
Give me back my memories. I need them to keep me sane.
It was almost like a click. The moment that it was decided, the block just unravelled itself spontaneously, as if it was always just a part of me that was always eager to return.
Memories. Not a lot of them, just for two events really, but they were all I needed. Now that everything was out, I guess my natural defence against mind invaders wouldn't work anymore. Shun would definitely exploit this opportunity to repay every time he was 'booted' out of my mind during our childhood, got to keep this bits of news away from him.
"I said, kill me! It's the only way that I will get out of this hellhole!" I did what you asked, 32, and from then on, I just couldn't stop following the orders.
"Sophia Crowford." That was one of my many insignificant names - the start of my demise.
"You know the rules." I did. But now that I thought about it, I should have just thrown it out of the window. Because in the end, it was a set of rigged rules that got me killed. OLYMPUS wrote the rules, and they broke it when it was convenient. I was just one of the pawns that never got the memo.
I'd like to say that it was just the adrenaline, but really, after so long in this world, I couldn't believe that I was actually making sense of what was happening here. Memory was power here, literally. It could exist in the form of yin-chakra - the thing that we Uchihas were so good at.
You see, I had this mental map in my head: A tumour sized block had just erupted in my brain like an aneurysm. With the memories, came a torrent of yin-chakra that had nowhere else to go. Therefore, they rushed to the nearest beacon - my swords, Hyakkiyakō and Senbonzakura, forged by my Uchiha ancestors who had nothing better to do than playing with yin-chakra.
The result was a pair of swords coated with highly concentrated yin-chakra. People often coated their weapons with chakra, hell, I had done the same with lightning natured chakra once upon a time, before I was drafted into covert missions where there couldn't be any flashy sparks. However, I had never tried with yin-chakra before, because unlike elemental natured chakra, yin had to be balanced with yang. But you know, I'm weird. Now that my Sharingans were shut down, this weird thing that had just happened to me might actually give me a chance to do something even weirder.
I didn't really have time to thoroughly plan out anything because when I looked up again, my opponent wolf was already charging towards me at full speed as if he had sensed the danger of unknown. With a fluid motion, I ducked under his giant claw and spun my twin swords like a windmill. To my surprise, and probably to his as well, my first sword - the ninjatō made a deep gash on his exposed stomach, cutting deeper into the flesh than I had ever been able to before. Unlike before, where the wolf had just shrugged off the scratched and continued with his attack, he actually jumped back at an alarming speed and pushed away my tantō, making another spark of light.
Please tell me it hurts, I really need to know that. I might actually be able to kill him, now that he had to take my attacks seriously. But no, I wasn't actually planning to kill anyone, because I had a feeling that it would just make things worse.
When the wolf charged again, I realised, much to my dismay, that my vision was tunnelled. I could only see the storm of grey in front of me as I parried and blocked, with no extra attention to spare. I wrestled with the wolf as I kicked his limb, then we crashed on the ground together. I could see the familiar mass of grey looming over me, but I was already rolling away under his claws, not forgetting to add another scarlet red slash on his leg, missing the joint by just an inch.
However, before I could get up, something strong clamped one of my arms onto the ice painfully. Without hesitation, I changed the grip on my tantō and stabbed the wolf claw on my arm. Immediately, it retracted, but only for it to clamp onto my sword instead, pinning the shorter blade onto the ground.
I was awfully calm when his other claw came swooshing down towards my throat. My guess, those 'scratches' really hurt. Normally, I supposed that I should block it, or abandon my tantō in an attempt to get away. But no, not this time. Instead, I forced my eyes open and tried to ignore that large sharp claw which could result in a pretty bloody image for me. Then, I raised my ninjatō and pushed the silver blade forward, aiming right at his right eye.
Then, everything stopped. The claw was an inch away from my neck and my ninjatō stopped just above his right eye, hovering less than an inch above the pupil. If he dared to shift his claw so much as for a twitch, I was confident that I could pierce his brain through the eye. And the same thing applied to me.
"Let him go, or I will stab your brain out through your eye," I said to the wolf coldly. Honestly, this trip to the Land of Snow was all about threats. The wolf knew I could do it. Now that my blade was enhanced with chakra, it was lighter, faster, and way more deadly.
"I can kill you with a single touch, or are you forgetting something?" The wolf shouted back immediately. His claw was dangling very close to my skin, how could I forget that?
"You treasure your life, but at the moment, I don't. You want to live; I want my friend's safety. Either we all go down, or we all get what we want, your choice." My voice trembled slightly due to the fatigue, but my hand was very steady in keeping that blade above his eye. You don't make the rules here, not anymore.
"I believe both of you can let go now." Our deadlock was interrupted by the voice of that female wolf who spoke up before - she should have just kept her silence because now I wanted to kill her. "Please, let go." She ordered me again, this time harsher, seeing that none of us moved an inch.
"I am not the problem. It's her who wouldn't give up." The large wolf growled in displeasure, but I just snorted in contempt.
"Let my friend go first, and then we can discuss this." I could hear the low growl sound the wolves made in frustration. They started it first, it would be impolite of me not to respond the favour.
"I have already let him go. We never meant to hurt him, it's just a test." When I heard the female wolf's voice again, I wanted to laugh out of the spite.
"Easy for your to say," I yelled back, still unable to move my eyes from the wolf and the blade in front of me. If I lost focus for a second, I would lose all my bargaining chips.
"It's okay, Maiko. You can put your blade down." And just like that, my determination faltered. Really, Kakashi, they put claws on your neck, and now you are their spokesperson? What happened to all my effort?
"Fine, show me you that you mean it. Back away, and trust that I won't slice your brain open." I turned my attention back to the wolf in front of me, who looked like he wanted to do anything other than being here with me. Oh, the feeling is mutual. Reluctantly, he retracted his claws and moved a few step back, all the while eyeing my glowing swords with distaste and caution.
When the wolf was considerably away from me, I managed to turn my face just a bit to see that Kakashi alive and well, without those blasted claws anywhere near him. Then, all the energy just kind of disappeared.
I dropped my swords all of the sudden and they hit the ground with two 'clinks'. The silvery glow lingered for a few seconds before they swirled into the carvings on the base of the blades and disappeared. On the other hand, now that the adrenaline was gone, that badly burned patch of skin on my stomach was giving me a hell of a time.
"Looks like you figured out how to coat weapons with yin-chakra. Impressive." Remind me again why is she still speaking? I thought as I laid on the ground, trying to push the wrenching pain away.
"Yeah, no thanks to you." I wanted to lay a little longer, maybe the ice was helping the burn (probably not). But before I could close my eyes, I saw Kakashi's unimpressive face as he loomed over me. Got it, I made this mess, I fix it.
"So much attitude, but I guess that you have a right to. We just want to make sure that you have the qualities we are looking for." I sat up slowly and forced myself to look at the white wolf as she continued to speak. "Not quite how I imagined it, but let's just say that you pleasantly surprised us. Therefore, we will help you, on the condition that you bring us out to the world outside of this land through a contract."
I raised an eyebrow at her incredulously, now that was what I would call an attitude change. I turned my face to Kakashi next and silently asked 'Do I have to do this?'. It wasn't really a surprise when the answer I got was 'yes'.
"Fine, but if you pull that one more time―"
"It won't happen again. Once we put our faith in you, we don't waver. The contract binds us to never harm you, and the same applies to you. Do you accept?" She was the first one to cut off a threat during my whole trip in this country. If I wasn't so pissed at her at the moment, I might actually like her.
"Your name," She asked as she unfolded a scroll in front of me.
"Uchiha Maiko," I answered while putting back my fallen swords back to their holsters.
"My name is Fuyuki," the white wolf introduced herself as I signed my name in blood. After I had done that, she rolled the scroll back and with a poof, it was gone. "I can send you back to the Land of Snow, but only two hundred metres from the point which you had entered. Call me when you need me, I believe that you will find me very useful." Why do I have a feeling that I was being sold into something?
"So, the young one and the smart one, you have a place you want to be?" Fuyuki asked, but in my mind, it all sounded like she was either mocking me or threatening me. Besides, what kind of naming system was that and why did he get to be 'the smart one'? On the note of the actual question, anywhere but the castle.
It seemed that Kakashi and the she-wolf had reached an agreement just when I was hit by another wave of exhaustion. I wanted to lie down again and let the ice numb me, but before I could do that, I felt a wolf claw on my shoulder. I didn't get a chance to cut that limb off because the next thing I knew, we were back at the ice cave again and that infuriating she-wolf was nowhere in sight.
"Where the hell have you two been? None of the ninkens could find you." The first thing that greeted us were Pakkun's slightly rageful words. With a sigh, I chose to ignore him and sat back on the cold, hard floor.
"Never mind that, what's the situation at the border?" Kakashi said quickly.
"Like you suspected, the harbour is thickly surrounded. Although there will be two major trading vessels from the Fire Country docking five hours from now. Both of the vessels are the official shipments from the Daimyo, one of them will be landing on the southern side and the other one, the eastern side." Pakkun illustrated the situation for us meticulously. This was good news, as long as we could get on a vessel, we would have a way home.
"Keep patrolling for any signs of enemies around here, we will execute our escape plan in five hours." Like a gust of wind, Pakkun took off again. Then, he turned his attention to me like he was studying a species that he couldn't understand. He took a breath in preparation to say something, but then, all that came out was a sigh.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He didn't have to say anything because as soon as we were alone, everything about me broke apart. "I am so sorry that I got you into this. I didn't mean to … If I had known this would happen, I would never have opened that scroll. No, I shouldn't have open that scroll in the first place …"
The guilt just wouldn't stop running. Perhaps it was because I had just gained some memories about my past life, and all of them were filled with guilt and remorse. The guilt just wouldn't stop flooding, so in all defence, I just closed my eyes.
I had just realised something. It wasn't death that I was most afraid of - it was death for no purpose, not just mine, but other's as well. And the worst kind? Making others pay for my mistake.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." I chanted that phrase repeatedly as if it made everything better. The cave was silent, so silent that I could only hear the wind howling in the background of my own inaudible chant.
"Open your eyes. You can't hide your way out of everything, you need to face it." He always has a point, doesn't he? Hesitantly, I opened my eyes.
"First of all, it's not your fault. What was that phrase again?" He sat down in front of me and rubbed his chin like he was really trying to think of something. "Right, 'it's not my fault, the Daimyo is just crazy'. If there was one thing that I agree with on this bloody mission, that's probably it."
"If you really want to apologise, you can write the mission report when we get back. With everything that happened, I'm not keen on trying to explain them to the Hokage. With that said, I do hope that you can distinct between recklessness and bravery in future circumstances, because the next time, we may not be this lucky again." Ah, there it was, the lecture. It was moments like these that he actually felt like a teacher.
"You know, I fully expect you to get me out of here, just that this time, I want to be alive, and so do you." That stopped the guilt, I supposed. For a second, I wondered if his charisma as a Captain was naturally born. I wasn't going to lie, I found comfort in associating with him because I admired him as the person whom I had always wanted to become. And with this second chance in life, I could.
"So, what's our escape plan? I'm all ears." I asked lightly, trying to clear the cracking sound in my voice. Emotions came and went like storms, but for some, there was no point in dwelling on them. There were longer lasting ones that one should hold on to.
"How do you feel about making some goddamn fireworks?"
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
"Why do I have to get her?" I asked with irritation as we crouched low on the roof of the train while it was still speeding fifty miles per hour. The escape plan started with the disguise. We jumped on a train, took two Snow shinobis out in mere seconds and dumped their body in the snowy land. As Kakashi and I changed into those two unlucky men using a transformation jutsu, Kakashi's ninken pack buried the bodies in a pile of snow.
The problem was, this disguise could only last for so long, and before the train would arrive at the harbour station and we could be exposed by a routine guard rotation check, we had to get some new disguises.
"She volunteered to help you, and she lowered your chakra cost for summoning by compensating it with her own share. Now that you've signed your soul away with the contract, you might as well learn to trust her." Look who's found his sense of humour? I rolled my eyes at him as I stabbed my blade through the metal roof and cut out a square. With the yin-chakra enhancement stored in my swords, the blades could actually cut normal metals like butter. Too bad that it was still chakra and therefore, would definitely be ineffective against the armours.
"Seriously? She puts claws around your neck just five hours ago, and now you are her public relations officer. Whose side are you on?" I shot back as I removed the piece of metal. He just sighed as he dropped down into the cargo room with me trailing behind. We were currently in a segment full of shipment meant for the Fire country. In a little less than five minutes, these goods would be carried onto that vessel on the Eastern shore, which would head straight for the mainland.
"We are all supposed to be on the same side." He responded with exasperation as I tiled the roof back to its position with my sword. Then, with a quick hand seal, a small stream of fire shot out of his mouth and the heat welded the metals back together. There, as good as new, under the dim light, nobody would see the difference.
"Uh-huh, let's believe that when she actually gives me a reason to," I said absent-mindedly as I peeked outside of the small window. Even from here, I could see the sea of soldiers crowding the harbour, making the view of the vast blue sea nearly impossible to find.
After the brief look, I returned my gaze to the cargo room. Crates of something was stacked in the room, with only a small aisle for passage. Somehow, Kakashi managed to rearrange the boxes in a way that it looked more or less the same on the outside, but with a small slit behind one of the crates at the back. He disappeared behind the crate, and with no other choice, I crawled in as well.
As the train continued to move, the cart shook slightly at each turn and bump. During another turn, the crates in front of us started to shift and the one on the top looked dangerously close to falling down. Instinctively, I raised my hand to stop it, only to flinch back in pain when the scalding wound on my stomach was strained too quickly. The crate never fell down, because Kakashi reached up just in time to push it back in its place.
"I'll say this again. Cauterisation, really?" He said to me in a monotone voice, but that disapproval in his voice was hard to miss.
"And I'll answer you again. It's either fire or ice, I didn't exactly have the time to stitch it up all nice and pretty." With one look from him, I knew that his next question would be 'why not ice?'.
"I'm an Uchiha, we would choose fire over ice any day." He rolled his eye at my snarky response. When we were in this banal place, there was nothing better to do than making sarcastic comments.
"So you are telling me that you would rather burn on a stick rather than freeze in a cave, because of genetic reasons?" See, he knew when to go with the flow. Frankly, I would prefer not to die at all, but I still nodded with all the seriousness I could muster. The moment that we fell silent again, the train started to slow down. Here we were, the harbour.
The plan was already in motion the moment the train door was pulled open by Fire Country workers. To put it simply, it was a mash-up of everything we could find: decoy, disguise, frontal assault, fireworks. We made sure that every failsafe was in place, and it was only a matter of figuring out when to switch from plan A to plan B.
"Get the shipment loaded, people! The ship will be leaving soon, so if you want your payment, you better work fast." I heard a yell from outside the train, no doubt from the one in charge of the shipping. It was a good thing that the Land of Snow required every bit of crop traded from inland because of its harsh conditions, it was the only guarantee we had that the Daimyo wouldn't seal off the harbour completely.
One by one, the crates stacked in front of us were removed, and when there were only a few left, I heard loud yells from the outside. Then, there was a rush of footsteps along with the clinks of armours.
"Fugitives sighted!" " Move out, check for decoys!" I could make out some faint sentences in the rush of Snow army just as one of the Fire Country workers carried off the second to the last box in front of us. He was distracted from the yells, but he only stared at the direction where the commotion started for a few seconds to satisfy his curiosity before he turned his attention back to work. For civilians, it was always the safe choice to leave shinobi businesses alone.
That one moment of distraction was all I needed to cast a genjutsu on him. Right now, both Kakashi and I were in another transformation jutsu to mimic the workers for the ship. I was sure that it would break the moment a Snow shinobi with the chakra negating armour touched us, but for the civilian, the combination of genjutsu and transformation jutsu was more than enough to fool them.
'What are you two still doing here? Start working before the ship leaves!" The man yelled at us harshly before carrying his own crate off of the train. Obediently, we started to carry that one last crate down the platform and headed for the ship.
As we walked, some shinobis ran past us, and for the sake of acting my part, I glanced back and feigned that curiosity despite the fact that I had already known what was going on. They had just discovered our clones - decoy number one.
See, the decoy was only about a hundred metres behind us, and they were highly unreliable because they were just lighting clones. The moment I turned my head, I saw my own clone being popped by an incoming kunai, releasing a stream of wild electricity that did absolutely nothing against the armours.
"They are decoys! Deploy the army to the other ship!" I heard a shout just as Kakashi urged me to keep up with the facade. Took you long enough. I thought as we inched closer to the ocean. There was still a thick defence line in front of the ship, including a carefully sealed checkpoint towards the boarding entrance, but some defence was already being transferred to the direction of the other ship docked at the southern harbour.
Of course, what speed up the process was the fact that some attack were occurring at the southern site - including some avalanches and screams.
With some squinting in my eyes, I could make out a faint white figure standing on top of a snowy cliff, shaving off some ice and rocks and shook them off as they rolled downhill straight into the snow Army. Kakashi's shadow clone was also near the front line, cutting off people's neck so swiftly that they couldn't even figure out how to response at the beginning. The Southern harbour had the perfect hill for an ambush, and that was why it made for a convincing performance.
"Sir! Our army is thinning on the other side, should we deploy for more?" As we headed towards the checkpoint, I heard an older soldier, probably higher in the ranks, being debriefed. He scanned his eyes across the Southern field, before returning his gaze to the ship in front of him. I didn't react at all when his critical gaze ran over me. It lingered for a second before the shinobi finally responded to the messenger.
"Deploy another hundred over, but tell the remaining force to stay put and examine everything that passes through the checkpoint. I want every worker, every crate searched for any sign of ninjutsu or foreign shinobi." I was afraid that he was going to say that, but hey, we had expected that and prepared for it.
Originally, there were around four hundred soldiers manning each ship to the Fire Country, along with another two hundred scattering around them acting as a mobile patrol force. However, with the actual, physical attack on the southern ship, the two hundred patrol was already gathering around there along with the hundred some deployed from this side earlier. With another hundred away, that meant for a short window of time, we only had to deal with a little more than two hundred soldiers, a huge improvement considering the situation.
The exact moment when our plan turned from A - decoy and disguise, to B - kill everybody standing in the way, was quite unclear. But all I knew was, when the shinobi at the checkpoint touched me and the disguise dispelled, I had already made an incision across his throat. From that point on, everything happened in a daze. In less than a few seconds, Kakashi's shadow clone dissipated to his annoyance, and I summoned Fuyuki from the other side of the harbour to my annoyance.
I elbowed one of the shinobi in the stomach and flipped him to the ground, face down. Before I had the chance to stab a hole in his neck, a row of earth spikes broke the ice and erupted from the ground. One of them impaled that Snow shinobi's neck while the others formed a thick layer of thorns in front of me, only for it to shatter a moment later from the torrent of projectiles that had embedded themselves in the rocks.
I barely had the time to turn and see the smirk on Fuyuki's face before another shinobi charged at me. I swore I rolled my eyes in irritation as I swept the enemy off of his feet, kneed him in the spine as he fell harshly on ground, and actually slashed his neck open.
"The ship! They are forcing the ship to stay!" I managed to yell at Kakashi as he flipped someone over his head and plunged a kunai in his eye. Brutal, but effective. He glanced over at the Fire Country Vessel, realising as well that there were some workers trying to argue with Snow shinobis who were probably trying to cut off our only escape route. So now, entered the plan C - actually getting on a moving ship.
"Go, I'll―we will hold them off here," I said to Kakashi, only changing the pronoun when I felt the heated glare from the white wolf. My captain nodded immediately, at this point, we all knew our parts. Kakashi would secure the ride; Fuyuki would be the decoy, the backup, and the bodyguard depending on the situation; and I had been saving my chakra all day for this.
I was promised some fireworks, so let it burn.
Kakashi flickered to the ship immediately, storming through the unprepared guards who clearly hadn't thought of the possibility that he would leave me behind. With a few well-placed taijutsu attacks, he flung them back to the wooden board connecting the ship deck to the harbour as the ship workers on the ship stepped back in fear.
Then, the black flames burned.
He sent a jolt of jagged electricity across the wooden board as Amaterasu continued to rage on. With one kick, the connection between the harbour and the ship was broken.
I willed the black flame to engulf those shinobis that Kakashi had left on the wooden board. The flame dimmed a bit as it moved across each shinobi, probably the effect of the chakra negating armours. It was giving me a splitting headache trying to resupply the chakra constantly.
A few more earth walls and ice walls arose from the ground as I tried to expand the Amaterasu until it could form a firm line in front of me, separating us and the ship from the Snow shinobi. See, this plan wouldn't have worked if we only had two people, because I would have probably been killed multiple times before I could form that impenetrable line of all-consuming fire.
It was Fuyuki who used her sharp claws to kill those shinobis that my fire couldn't reach in time; it was also her defensive ninjutsu that prevented the sharp metals in the air from killing me.
"I told you that you will find me very helpful." She smugly reminded me as she trotted by my side, lifting up walls to hold off the kunais and shurikens. They were shattered into pieces every time a new round of volley cannons fire, but she was making them faster than I could.
"Careful, you are obstructing my vision." I ducked as she made another wall that rose in front of me and curved over my head. The wall shattered almost immediately and I rolled away from the fallen debris, desperately trying to keep that line of black flames in sight.
Just because our enemies couldn't get through my Mangekyou, didn't mean that they didn't try. Every time someone tried to jump over my flame, I had to increase the height. Like an actual firework shooting from the ground, the shinobi got incinerated into nothingness. The feeling wasn't great when my hard earned chakra was sucked into oblivion every time they tried to cross Amaterasu. Blood was already filling up my right eye, dripping down my cheek like a mini waterfall. At this rate, I wouldn't even have enough chakra to water-walk to the ship.
"Oops, we would have to work on that, wouldn't we?" She answered cheerfully. Why is she so happy? Perhaps, it was because that she would finally be able to see the world outside of the ocean, and she was the first one in her clan to be able to do so in a very long time.
"You better get going, the ship is already more than fifty metres away from the shore and it's speeding away at every second." I didn't have the attention to check on the ship. I tried to raise the flames one more time to block another shinobi with a death wish, only to have the horrifying realisation that I couldn't. My chakra was drained, again, for the third time in this stupidly hostile territory. So instead, I drew my sword and blocked the shinobi at the last second to prevent an imminent death, before Fuyuki could cleave off his neck with her claws.
"You ran out of chakra, didn't you?" She said as she shook her head at me in mock pity. Well, don't just mock me, it's pretty obvious that the fireworks are over. "Well, get on, I'll carry you there. Personally, I can't wait to get in the ocean." For once, we agree on something. Without any hesitation, I climbed onto Fuyuki's furry back as the black flame behind me diminished rapidly.
"Maybe with this, we are even," I whispered into the she-wolf's ear as she sprinted across the water with showers of projectiles raining behind us, and she returned my peace offering with a laugh.
"We will grow on each other, I'm sure," She said confidently. When we were only ten metres from the speeding vessel, a patch of ice appeared under her paws. Using it as a platform, Fuyuki contracted her legs and leapt up violently. Like an arrow, she shot up into the sky, making a beautiful arching trajectory above the ocean.
With a loud 'thud', she landed on the deck just barely, much to the civilians' horror. Meanwhile, I had to grab onto Fuyuki's fur to prevent myself from crashing onto the deck.
Slowly, as if parading in pride, she turned to face the shore. The firework had long disappeared, but I watched crowds of soldiers standing along the shore in horror, witnessing our grand escape without the ability to stop us.
They couldn't stop us, if they so much as to put one shuriken on this ship, they would be openly declaring war against the entire Fire Country. But just because the Fire Country might give the Land of Snow a pass didn't mean Konoha was going to provide the same treatment, because we were still alive to tell the tale.
Bye bye, Land of Snow, let's see how you get out of this one.
A/N: Kakashi and ninkens: relationship goals. Maiko and Fuyuki: what happens when the relationship starts with a threat followed by another and some more (and this is a positive version ...)