Chapter 54
To save a person who didn't want to be alive was harder than killing a person who didn't want to die. That was the lesson that Sasuke learned from all of Maiko-nee's interactions with Itachi.
Haku was only asleep for a few hours. As soon as he woke up, he accepted quickly that Zabuza had died and he was still alive, even though he had desperately wished that it was the opposite.
"Konoha is so big, there's a huge Hokage tower. Oh, and the Hokage Rocks, where you see faces of the previous Hokage. Just watch, one day, my face will be on there …" Naruto was having fun telling Haku everything and anything in Konoha, trying to convince him to return with them to the village.
Haku listened with a smile plastered on his face. Despite the fact that he had fought and injured them earlier on the bridge, neither Naruto nor Sakura would keep their guard up against the boy. Haku's gentleness was natural, instinctual, and genuine, even Sasuke couldn't deny that.
Yet, that gentleness served as the perfect cover to hide the emptiness inside.
Sasuke waited until Naruto left for lunch, before walking towards Haku's bed and asked. "So, now that you don't have to worry about hurting his feelings, what are you planning to do?"
Haku didn't answer him at first. Instead, he asked, "That Anbu … she is …"
"She's my sister," Sasuke admitted without trouble. Haku must have seen her Sharingan and after that, it wasn't hard to put the two and two together.
"I'm sorry then, we … you must be worried," Haku apologized. Sasuke had to resist the urge to roll his eyes because it felt wrong to be mean to someone who was kind.
"We were enemies," Sasuke emphasized. Psychological tactics were always a part of the battle. It was Sasuke's own fault for falling for Zabuza's words.
"You never answered my question." Sasuke refused to be deterred by Haku's chit-chat. Kakashi-sensei never rushed them, but they couldn't stay here for long. The bridge was about to be finished in a few days and they needed to solve the Haku problem by then.
The boy's eyes dimmed as he considered the inevitable question.
Haku wasn't Naruto, after he got over the initial shock, he knew exactly what Zabuza wanted by saying those words to him. Zabuza forcibly cut the connection between him and Haku so that the boy wouldn't be associated with him, a notorious missing-nin with no home to return to. Zabuza released Haku from himself, telling him that he no longer had to live as his tools, an existence to serve him.
Yet, Zabuza told him to live, so Haku, who couldn't find a reason to live right now, must keep on living.
"Naruto-kun has been telling me all about Konohagakure, a place where children lived in the protection of the village, where people with Kekkei Genkai didn't have to live in fear. He wishes for me to go back to his village," Haku said, looking out the window, where morning mist stained the glass - a common scenery in villages close to the sea.
"So what, are you going to keep living for him now? Because he's the one who treated you with kindness?" Sasuke scoffed, finding the boy insufferable.
Haku didn't fault him for saying that, returning his harsh words with a smile. "Naruto-kun does have that magic, doesn't he? Making one feel like life isn't all that bad." Sasuke couldn't deny that, after all, he was the prime recipient of Naruto's bright energy.
A moment of silence hung between them before Haku spoke up again. "That Anbu said that Kirigakure has changed and that Kekkei Genkai users will be able to live in peace now."
Sasuke nodded. If his sister said so, then it must be right.
"Zabuza-san …" Haku bit his lips, but eventually, he continued, "He always wanted to stage a coup to take over Kirigakure. I never asked why, nor would I want to ask what he wanted to do to Kirigakure."
Kirigakure was Zabuza's obsession, anyone could see that, especially Haku, who followed him with silence. Never asking, never questioning, but it didn't mean that he was blind and deaf.
"I might go there, I suppose," Haku finally said. For what purpose, Haku didn't specify, but at least Sasuke considered it progress.
Haku called out to Sasuke before he left to find Naruto, who had probably fallen asleep right after eating his meal - he didn't want to leave Haku alone when he woke up, knowing full well what Zabuza meant for the boy.
"There is somewhere that I want to travel to … something that I want to do. Unfortunately, I don't think I will be coming to Konohagakure, please tell Naruto-kun that I'm sorry."
Sasuke snorted, giving the boy lying on the bed a once-over. "You can tell that to him yourself. With your body, I don't think you're going anywhere anytime soon."
Haku laughed gently and replied, "I suppose you're right. Thank you for talking to me, Sasuke-kun."
In hindsight, Sasuke should have seen it coming. At dinner time, Kakashi-sensei returned from the bridge with Sakura, waking up a sleepy Naruto, telling him it's time for food.
"Haku?" Sasuke heard Naruto's loud voice and when they arrived at the bedroom, Haku was nowhere to be seen.
It wasn't like Haku was a prisoner. Once Kakashi-sensei deemed the boy to be no danger to them, he clearly told Haku that he was free to go anywhere he wanted, whether returning to Konoha with them or travel to somewhere himself.
"Where could he have gone?" Naruto looked devastated. There was so much more that he wanted to share with the boy.
"He said he might go to Kirigakure and that there's something he wants to do." Sasuke furrowed his brow, remembering their last conversation.
"Kirigakure, huh," Kakashi-sensei narrowed his eyes in a direction outside of the window. "His scent moved north, that's not the direction to Kiri."
Immediately, Kakashi bit his finger and summoned his ninken. "Pakkun, track Haku's scent. I hope he's not going where I think he is going." The bulldog nodded with his droopy eyes, before jumping out of the window, soon disappeared from their vision.
Suddenly, Sasuke remembered. There was one more thing that could be said to be Zabuza's obsession - Kubikiribōchō, the legendary sword that the missing-nin never went without.
Zabuza's body was turned into ashes, but his sword was safely stored within a scroll, kept safe by Maiko-nee's Anbu team.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
The ink bird dived down from the sky and splashed into words.
"Moth's ink rats found a team of injured Kiri-Anbu. They're taking a detour to avoid them," I told Owl before burning the scroll. "We're getting close to the rest of the team, as well as our mysterious party."
Moreover, the fact that they saw injured Kiri-nin, still alive enough to continue their pursuit, meant that our mysterious party was losing their steam. Perhaps they were injured during the Kiri-nin's pursuit, or maybe they felt the fatigue of being continuously hunted.
"Should we meet up with them first?" Owl asked as we travelled through the branches.
"I'd like to, but we're entering a complicated area. Kirigakure Anbu, our mysterious party … They should all be in this area." I answered, nodding my head to the direction slightly to our left. "Over there, there's also a camp of Kekkei Genkai extremists, if my memory is correct. We need to be really careful not to disturb any of them."
"Kekkei Genkai extremist? The Mizukage still hasn't get rid of them yet?" Owl made a sound of disgust. Like the name suggested, these were people who still blamed Kekkei Genkai to be the cause of war, famine, and pain. Not all of them were shinobi, but they would shelter shinobi who viewed Kekkei Genkai the same way, in other words, they would shelter traitors as declared by the current Kirigakure and alert them if they needed to run away.
"The shinobi are slippery there because the villagers help them. Mei can deal with shinobi, but she would have a hard time dealing with the civilians." I shook my head at Owl. A shinobi village and the country it resided in would always be in a symbiotic relationship. When Kirigakure had its Bloody Mist period and genocide against Gekkei Genkai, those pathological ideologies spread from shinobi to some civilian villages throughout the country, whether by familial ties or by missions.
Mei had gotten the Water Country's support, but even with the Daimyo's help, correcting the view of some citizens would be borderline impossible. These villages became a safe haven for those shinobi who refused to follow Mei's orders, spinning their tales of oppression and how Mei was promoting elitism, using her two Kekkei Genkai as examples.
"Mei couldn't very well just kill them all along with the missing-nin. There are still Water Daimyo's subjects," I said, in conclusion. The topic of Kekkei Genkai extremists was always a sore subject for us, considering both Owl and I came from clans where Kekkei Genkai was their pride.
Despite everything I had said to Zabuza, Kiri was still a village shrouded in more problems than other major hidden villages. Dealing with them required much more delicacy. For example, I was already dreading the kind of explanation I had to give when I returned Kubikiribōchō to them.
Tsunade-sama wanted the sword to be a sign of good grace, but we had to make sure their feelings weren't hurt.
What a pain. Nothing good ever came out of my time near Kirigakure. I didn't know why I was expecting anything different this time.
"There's a signature, moving towards us." Owl stopped on the tree branch, looking behind us. "It's that boy with Zabuza."
Upon hearing that, I let out a sigh. "He must be here for Kubikiribōchō. I underestimated him, to think he tracked us this far." With that, I unsheathed the tantō and focused my gaze towards the direction that Owl signalled
A crystal mirror rose from the ground, a few metres in front of us. The next second, Haku appeared from the mirror and dashed out towards me. Still with that Kiri-hunter-nin mask on his face - now had a crack running down its centre - he stretched out his hand with senbon laced between his fingers.
I tilted the tantō and slapped him to the side with the blade flat, sending him flying to the branch behind me. Even with the mask, I could feel his gaze resting on the storage scroll hanging from my waist.
Haku made a seal with his fingers, and a mirror formed behind him. Jumping back, he disappeared into the mirror. Immediately, I made two hand seals and sent the crimson arrow behind me, to the mirror on the ground.
The Mirror shattered without resistance and Haku had no choice but to leave the mirror. Owl landed behind him on the ground, raising his fists, ready to strike as soon as he moved again.
"I'm not the boy you've fought on the bridge. Your mirrors don't fool my eyes and your ice won't hold under my fire." I told the boy, who had to tilt his head upwards to look at me. "But you must know that, so what are you really here for? Kubikiribōchō, or a chance to go to your death?"
"I might die in the process, but this is something I must do," Haku said after a moment of silence. He might not be the target of Konoha Anbu, but our patience towards his interference would be running thin at any moment.
He knew that, and he didn't even bother to hide the suicidal plan in his head.
Owl didn't give him a chance to call up any more mirrors, striking fiercely towards his tenketsu before he could escape. Again, we Anbu were not charity workers, so if he wished for death, who were we to convince him otherwise.
Owl punched him in the chest, pushing him into a tree. Haku managed to raise his hands for another hand seal, but a lightning senbon from me pierced through his finger and knocked his hand to the side. Catching that moment, Owl pushed his knuckle into a tenketsu near Haku's neck, sealing the flow of his chakra.
However, Owl didn't put in the finishing blow, instead, he shouted at me, "Another signature incoming. The Chakra is foreign, but it's very large. It's 300, no, 250 meters away."
"Only one?" I asked. "Only one," Owl confirmed and that was all I needed.
"Take him, we're avoiding the signature, fast." As soon as I said the words, Owl grabbed Haku and we ran across the branches. 250 metres would take a seasoned shinobi thirty seconds - or even twenty, if they were well versed with body flickers - to reach across.
A single target signature, out of all the messy parties in this area, that would most likely correspond to our mysterious party. Our mission was only for confirming their identity and our team was stacked full of sensors, including a Byakugan user that could do so from a safer distance.
Owl, as a sensor, gave us enough warning in advance so that we could get out of their path before their signature arrived.
Of course, all of this would be much more complicated if we were also facing a sensor-type shinobi.
Not even a few seconds later, I halted on the branch and turned around, making hand seals in the process. Numerous bubbles flew towards us, appearing from crevices between branches and leaves, following us as innocently as a child's prank.
A ball of electricity gathered in my hands before being partitioned into dozens of electric senbon. Not wanting to let the bubbles get any closer, I sent them off and one by one, bubbles were being popped.
The seemingly harmless bubble splashed onto the nearby trees and immediately, clusters of leaves were gone, being corroded by acids.
Behind us, a giant bubble flew down from the sky, blocking us from leaving. It was clear that our attacker could pinpoint our location with ease. Neither Owl nor I needed a reminder of the amount of chakra being wrapped in that bubble.
When the bubble dropped close, I flickered to my teammate, who let go of Haku and started to emit chakra from his tenketsu. In a split second, Owl spun furiously, creating an instant of chakra dome around us, clashing with the bubble. The moment these two chakra constructs clashed, the bubble exploded. Owl's dome of chakra lasted just long enough to repel the explosion. When the cover had dissipated, no trees were left in a five-meter circle around us.
"Why are you all so persistent, have I not killed enough Anbu to make myself clear?" I could hear the anger seeping through that voice when the man appeared from the forest.
For a shinobi, he dressed casually, with his blue yukata and a pipe in his hand. However, the large bloody cuts across his body spoke loud and clear of the fact that he had just gone through and survived a brutal battle.
I recognized the man despite the bloodied face - Utakata, one of Kiri's missing-nin listed in the bingo book. Compared to other more notorious missing-nin, there was very little information on him, just an order to hunt.
"I'm not coming back to the village," He spat out while staring at Haku, who was as confused as the next person passing the street.
Nevertheless, I got it. This was the Six-Tail Jinchuuriki from Kirigakure, fresh out from a battle with his pursuing Kiri-Anbu, presumably killed them all. Now, he saw Haku's mask in the midst of ours and naturally thought we were also here to take him back to the village.
Seriously, dude, can't you see our masks are from a different production line?
"We're not here to hunt you," I tried to reason with him, making hand signs behind my back, telling Owl to unseal Haku's Tenketsu. If we needed to run, Haku could run for himself. We were not carrying his chakra-less body.
"With that mask, you don't look very convincing," Utakata gave me a look that said I was stupid for trying. Personally, I found the intelligence of a man who couldn't tell the difference between Anbu masks quite concerning.
"He took a mask to fake his identity. Would a Kirigakre Anbu wear a broken mask?" I tried again, but the man just snorted at my question. "How do you know that it was Kirigakure Anbu that pursued me then?"
I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at that. At this point, I wasn't sure if he was mocking my observation skill or my logical deduction. Even if I didn't have a guess as to who he was beforehand, just from the reaction he had towards Haku, I could piece a lot of things together.
"Whatever, I'll just kill whoever that comes after me, and maybe one day Kiri will finally get the message." Without giving me a chance to explain another word, he blew out an ocean of bubbles from the pipe.
I signalled to both Haku and Owl - run. Technically, at this point, our mission was complete. A trained Jinchuuriki who was mad, even if injured, was an unpredictable component.
The bubbles surrounded us in an instant, making the forest a landmine of acid bombs. I flickered away from one bubble, only for another bubble to appear at where I had landed. Worst of all, the density of the bubbles forced us to separate and the man in yukata seemed certain that I was the leader.
Bubbles converged towards me, surrounding me from all directions. Immediately, I slapped my hand on the ground and a thin column of ruby-red barrier rose from the ground. Whenever bubbles touched the Uchiha Kaenjin, they exploded immediately, but the flame barrier evaporated the acid before they could get through.
'Che', Utakata let out a sound of annoyance and blew out more bubbles towards me. This time, the bubbles hovered in front of my barrier, combining with each other until the bubble was a glowing sun of chakra. Immediately, I knew that the Uchiha Kaenjin wouldn't be able to negate all of the damage fast enough.
I dropped the barrier without hesitation and recirculated the chakra in my body, letting a thin layer of lightning chakra fill my body. The moment the bubbles popped, I flashed out of the area. Within seconds, the soil and the trees turned black without any sign of life.
In the meantime, I flashed forward and plummeted my hilt into his chest, making him crash into a tree.
Owl was dealing with the bubbles using his ability to emit chakra along with his strikes, Haku was managing, almost struggling, with the bubbles using his senbon. However, the explosive bubbles were never-ending like a Jinchuuriki's chakra. I could get away using Jinrai if necessary, but the others? I needed to get the man to lose focus so that they could get a break from the attacks and run away.
More blood flew out of his open wound, staining his robe into a darker shade of red. He was so injured from his previous battle that even Jinchuuriki's healing speed couldn't keep up. No wonder he needed to kill us fast. He needed some peace and quiet to recover, so he must eliminate all potential danger in this area while he still could.
I left the state of Jinrai in an instant. There were too many bubbles floating around in the area and even my Sharingan might not catch all the obstacles if I flashed around constantly. Having the ability to use jutsu and negate the bubbles was much more useful right now.
"I said that we're not from Kiri and we're not here to hunt you. I apologize, but we just want to leave," I explained one last time as I sent lightning chakra down my sword, letting the electricity bounce onto the man's arm, making him drop his pipe blower.
"Like I'd believe that." Utakata stared at me with defiance despite the blood running down his mouth and immediately, I heard the sound of bubbles popping behind me one by one.
Lightning chakra filled my limps as I jumped upward onto a tree branch. My overstimulated vision supplied me with graphics every millisecond and from those, I saw my teammates running away, having already cleared a path of escape during the time our attacker was distracted.
However, on Haku's path, there was a bubble hidden by the shadows of the tree, glowing with chakra under my Sharingan, waiting to explode.
Immediately, I dashed down, trying to avoid all the explosions, using the remaining trees as turning points. Just as that hidden bubble was about to explode, Haku finally noticed the danger as he raised his arm to brace himself for the impact.
That wouldn't do. The boy would get his face blown off.
In the milliseconds before the explosion, I flashed between him and the bubble, pushing him away with the momentum.
A drop of liquid from the explosion touched my mask and within moments, it started to corrode through the mask.
Dropping Haku by a tree, I flicked the mask to the ground before the acid could touch my skin. I turned to look at the injured man by the tree who seemed to have exerted all his effort with that last attack.
His gaze reached my face and a look of surprise appeared on his face.
"Would you believe me now, when I say we're not from Kiri?" I stared at him, fully exposing my red Sharingan. If he couldn't see it before because he was too busy killing us, he would definitely see it now.
Beside me, Owl took off his mask too, exposing his Byakugan as a final confirmation.
"Sharingan, Byakugan … You're from Konoha, but why would … oh hell ..." Before he could finish his sentence, the injury seemed to overtake him as he fainted from the blood loss. To be honest, it was a true testament of a Jinchuuriki's life force, considering half of his robe was stained red and a pool of blood had already gathered under him.
"What do we do now?" Owl walked toward me and asked the question I would like to ask myself. "Also, this just came to me." Owl stretched out his arm, showing me an ink rat from Moth. The other ink animals must have run back to Moth, so the rest of our team was already nearby and would be coming to us soon.
"Normally, I'd say we leave now, but by the looks of it, he had killed all of his pursuers and no one would be able to stop him from rampaging if some missing-nin had stumbled upon him and decided to attack." A Jinchuuriki was the combination of two entities, even if the man had fainted, the beast inside wouldn't just sit back and watch if their host's life was threatened.
Like I had said before, this area was not lacking in terms of runaway Kiri-missing-nin who were Kekkei Genkai extremists. It wasn't like I cared about whether they were killed by a rampaging Six-Tail, but a rampaging tailed beast was definitely not good for Kiri's plan of keeping their runaway Jinchuuriki under the radar.
This, I agreed with them. Having the Six-Tail rampaging this far from Kirigakure was like waving a sign to Akatsuki exposing both the Six-Tail's location and the fact that he was outside of the hidden village's protection.
"We can't leave him here alone. Let's meet up with the rest of our team, then we'll retreat with the Jinchuuriki." I told Owl, who nodded. Then I turned to Haku, who was slightly less confused than before.
"Listen, boy, I can't let you interfere with our mission anymore, so you're staying here with us. If you don't cause me any trouble, I'll give you a chance to fight me for this scroll by the end of it, how about that?" I held out the storage scroll to show him what I meant. Haku's eyes glowed a little and he nodded without another thought.
"And for gods' sake, throw away that broken mask. It won't fool a real Kiri-Anbu with that crack and all it does is make a missing-nin charge at you."
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
I sat by the injured man, waiting for him to wake up from the realm of the unconscious.
Kakashi's ninken arrived not long ago, here to find Haku. I told Pakkun that I had the boy and he would be with us for a while, before finally sending him away.
Both Owl and Haku had some basic medical knowledge based on their familiarity with tenketsu and acupuncture. However, I didn't let them treat the man. I didn't know how the tailed-beast inside would react to a senbon punched towards a tenketsu, even if it was just to stop the bleeding. I didn't want to find out either.
Even then, the speed at which the Jinchuuriki recovered was astonishing. In an hour, his vitals had stabilized. By the time we made camp, his fatal wounds had already started to heal.
The missing-nin stirred on the ground, immediately, my muscle tightened, ready to move if he had decided to attack. Honestly, based on our previous interactions, I wasn't confident in his listening skills.
However, Utakata didn't attack me. He opened his eyes and saw my unmasked face by his bedside. He stared at me for a moment, judging, evaluating, trying to understand what I wanted with him.
"You're Konoha Anbu," He said as a matter of fact. I nodded, asking, somewhat mockingly, "Do you want to see the Sharingan again, just to make sure?"
Calmly, he propped himself up from the bed. One of his hands searched around until he found the pipe blower by his side. After he examined everything, he laughed, but there was no humour in that.
"So, you took in an injured missing-nin, gave him time to recover, and didn't confiscate his weapon? I didn't know Konoha Anbu were such naive people." He looked at me, suspicion clear in his eyes.
"I know you're the Six-Tail Jinchuuriki," I answered, not planning to lie. Utakata tensed up, his knuckles tightened on his pipe blower, as if he would attack as soon as I said another word against him. Still, I continued. "I can't let you stay there alone, not when there are camps of missing-nin nearby."
Utakata laughed again, finding my reasoning funny, but his hands didn't relax. "If you know that I'm a Jinchuuriki, then you would know that it's not me who will die if they want to hurt me."
"I know, but in your state back then, I feared the rampage that would happen," I explained, as calmly as possible, despite my every cell screaming at me that I was facing someone who could destroy this entire camp in seconds.
"Kirigakure's Jinchuuriki going on a rampage, what's that to Konoha?" Utakata asked, still suspicious of me, but the confusion was real.
This time, I didn't answer him immediately. Instead, I asked, "What did Kirigakure want with you, return to the village and be under their protection?"
Utakata narrowed his eyes and I knew that I was right. "Did they tell you about Akatsuki, or did they not get a chance before you killed them?"
Immediately, Utakata brought up his pipe blower, but not before I grabbed it by the shaft and halted its movement.
"Calm down, as a Jinchuuriki, you can kill us and get out whenever you want, and we have done nothing to harm you so far. I wish I can go my merry way and get out of Kirigakure, but something has to be said when we still have the chance," I said, eyeing him firmly to show that I was very serious.
A minute passed before he dropped his hand. "So Konoha also heard of this Akatsuki and by the look of it, that's where the news originated from. Do I have Konoha to thank for my sudden increase in pursuers lately?" He raised an eyebrow at me as if daring me to admit. See, he still had some intelligence when he wasn't overwhelmed by the urge to kill.
"Konoha shared the news of Akatsuki with Kiri, yes, but I assure you, both their existence and their goal of capturing the tailed-beasts are very real." I continued without giving him a chance to speak. "Kirigakure is keeping an appearance that the Six-Tail is still in the village. But if you rampage here, it's as good as telling Akatsuki what their next target should be."
'Che' Utakata let out a sound of annoyance. "Here I thought Kirigakure was crazy to be babbling on and on about this organization of S-rank missing-nin. To think a hidden village would fear such a band of missing-nin, I guess both Konoha and Kiri are so weak that they're losing their mind."
He raised his head a little in pride and said, "I'm a Jinchuuriki, you think I fear S-rank missing-nin?"
I wasn't surprised, Utakata exemplified what kind of reaction we were expecting to receive if we were to warn other villages and their Jinchuuriki about Akatsuki.
"You might be a Jinchuuriki with the power of a tailed-beast, but that is still only just a fraction of power in this world. These S-rank missing-nin have powers that we were uncertain of. It doesn't hurt to be cautious." Still, I had to try, even if what I said wasn't enough to convince him of the threat, it might plant a seed of warning so that he wasn't ambushed by the unknown.
"Whatever, I'm not going back to Kirigakure." Utakata was adamant about that part. "So if you're also trying to convince me to go back, then you better drop it before I decide to kill you all too."
Despite the death threats, it seemed that he was a little receptive to my words. At the very least, he gave up on arguing with me about Akatsuki, which probably meant that he didn't think that I was lying on that part. That was a good start already.
I was about to reassure him that I really didn't think I could do something that dozens of Kiri-nin had tried and failed, but before that, the tent flap was raised, revealing Haku who walked in with a bucket of water.
He stopped immediately when he realized that our guest had awakened. Utakata examined the boy, quickly equating him with the fake Kiri-nin he saw during our earlier confrontation.
"What is he trying to be, your spy in Kirigakure?" Utakata asked. Even as a missing-nin, he was still sensitive to the illegal activities between villages.
At this point, I had to roll my eyes. "Please don't insult my intelligence any longer, why would I send someone with a broken mask to be a spy, that's asking for trouble. He's just a wandering shinobi, who picked up a mask for easier travelling in this area."
With that, I turned to Haku and said, "Thank you." With a nod, he put the bucket of water by Utakata's bed. I asked him to get some water so Utakata could wash away his blood when he woke up. We tried our best to hide his trails, but his bloody scent was still a hidden hazard.
"Please wash up, your blood is leaving a scent trail. After that, you could stay here for a while until your injuries recover, or you can leave. We are hiding West of a village of Kekkei Genkai extremists, just be sure not to disturb them." I stood up, signalling the end of our conversation. With his Jinchuuriki healing speed, in a day, his most serious injuries should all be stabilized; in a few days, he should be fully healed.
"Hey, my name is not 'Jinchuuriki'. It's Utakata." The man called out before Haku and I left the tent.
I couldn't help but let out a laugh. "Sure, Utakata. I do read the bingo book you know, standard Anbu curriculum, no matter what village I'm from." From that, I knew that he decided to stay a little longer.
It wasn't necessarily because he thought this was a safe place to heal. On the contrary, he was conflicted by the information we presented. We hadn't harmed him, but it seemed too good to be true that all we wanted to do was to give him information and warn him of a future danger.
It seemed too strange that all Konoha wanted for the Six-Tail Jinchuuriki of Kirigakure was to survive.
He was confident that even if injured, he could eliminate us all as a Jinchuuriki should we have a more sinister goal underneath. The saying 'keep your friends close and keep your enemy closer' applied very well here whether we were 'friends' or 'foes'.
"And you, an Uchiha?" he asked me back. There was no point in denying after exposing my Sharingan.
Still, I raised the rabbit mask - a spare one, after my last one got destroyed by his acid - hanging from my waist, "You're right, I am an Uchiha. As for my name, You can call me 'Rabbit' if you want."
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
Utakata relied on the pain from his wounds to stay awake. Like the Anbu had said, when he fell unconscious, it was the Six-Tail inside of him that reacted to the environment.
He didn't want to go on a rampage any more than the next Kiri Anbu that met him.
He examined the wound on his stomach - this one almost sliced his gut out - and found it already healing to the point that he could somewhat move without reopening it. Carefully, he pulled his yukata over the bandages, hiding his weakness to the best of his ability.
Rabbit offered him some shinobi clothes since they needed to burn his old blood-stained robe, but Utakata just pulled out another yukata from his storage scroll. It was better with the yukata, it made him feel like he could truly forget about his shinobi past.
Speaking of Rabbit… Utakata stood up, swallowing down the pain that seemed to amplify with every movement he made. He pried open the tent flap, already hearing a discussion happening.
" … Continue to set up sensory parameters. Watch out for both Kiri Anbu and the missing-nin from the village. Moth will scout ahead for safe areas, we might change sites," Rabbit paused a little when her masked face glanced towards him, but she paid him no more attention and finished her orders. "Raven and I will finish setting up traps around the campsite. Any questions?"
"How long are we prepared to stay before returning?" It was the Owl-masked individual, the one with the Byakugan.
"Three days, maybe? I'm not an expert on Jinchuuriki healing speed," Rabbit answered and Utakata felt his eyebrow twitch.
"Two days, then I'll be off on my way," Utakata spoke up, successfully catching everyone's attention.
"Right, you heard him, two days," Rabbit corrected and the Owl nodded. Like a well-oiled machine, the Konoha Anbu team started on their respective posts, leaving Rabbit walking towards him.
She pulled off her mask and Utakata recognized it as a sign of good grace. For Anbu, masks were a function of protection and anonymity. Hiding behind a mask isolated them from the people they had to deal with. No attachment, and therefore no consequences.
But masks also meant secrets and lies. Rabbit was trying hard to convince him otherwise.
"I see that you're well enough to walk now." Rabbit said, somewhat disapprovingly, eyeing the bandage that stuck out under his yukata.
"Jinchuuriki healing, remember?" Utakata replied. However, bantering with her was not why he came out. "What is Konoha Anbu doing here in Kiri?" He was pushing it with this question, and with the way Rabbit raised her eyebrow, she thought so too.
He wanted to know how far she would go, to spin her tales of Akatsuki and Jinchuuriki hunt.
"We're here to hunt a Missing-nin. I'm sure you've heard his name, Momochi Zabuza," Rabbit answered rather calmly, not at all forced. As for if they had finished that missing, the fact that they were discussing returning to Konoha spoke enough.
Still, Utakata had his suspicions about that answer. "Really? I felt his presence and two of your other teammates' chakra signatures during my run a few days ago. Are you going to tell me that it's a coincidence?" He motioned towards the Raven-masked boy on the side who was quietly organizing his ninja tools.
"We also heard the news of dead Kiri-Anbu. Konoha needs to know if it's Akatsuki or you who had killed them." Rabbit didn't even put up a fight in keeping the secret. The more she gave in to the boundary he was pushing, the more uneasy Utakata felt.
What is her true goal? What does Konoha want with me? … Is Akatsuki truly as worrisome as she said?
After what happened with his Shishou, trust was a luxury that Utakata couldn't afford. Yet, even without establishing trust, Rabbit was already confusing him enough to make him think about her statements more than he would otherwise.
"You're telling me all this, and you're not worried that I'll share it with the Kirigakure shinobi always on my tail," He asked again.
"We kept our objective secret so Kiri-nin wouldn't interfere with our investigation. But as things currently are, I'd say our investigation was finished. As for the Kiri-nin, I don't imagine you'd waste time on chit-chatting when you see them again," Rabbit responded, again, no loophole could be found. If Utakata saw Kiri-Anbu on his tail, he would run without looking back. He had enough of the 'come back to the village so we can protect you' talk in the first few days on his run.
Utakata couldn't understand this Anbu team at all, but they seemed to have a logical answer for everything.
Again, this all pointed to one thing, they wanted him to believe their warnings at all cost. They could answer any of his questions, so long as he was willing to listen to them.
"I've been curious, why are you in the bingo book?" It was Rabbit's turn to ask questions. What she really wanted to know was why he had left the village. They were at that stage huh, where they could just pry on each other's secrets
Then again, he started it. Reciprocity nagged at him, showing that he still had a conscience, which he really should get rid of soon if he wanted to continue his life as a missing-nin. Furthermore, It wasn't like he cared if she knew. He didn't care for her opinion, didn't care what she thought of him.
After all, she was no one important to him. Not that he had anyone important left in the first place.
"I killed my Shishou when he tried to extract the tailed-beast in me." There, it wasn't that hard to say. "Want to know why I think this Akatsuki thing is bullshit? It's because I've seen what happens to people who think they can extract Six-Tail for power."
Saiken wasn't just a source of power, he is a living thing and he's got a temper, as Utakata came to realize during his training.
However, Rabbit didn't comment on his opinion of Akatsuki. Her black eyes reflected back the depth of the ocean as she said, "His betrayal haunts you."
Utakata regretted saying anything instantly.
"Sorry, a force of habit. I'm sensitive to emotions." Rabbit threw her hands into the air as if saying her words were just nonsense. But they weren't, and she knew that.
"How, because you're an Uchiha?" Even without the bleeding red irides that flashed in his memory, Utakata felt himself being examined by the 'perceptive eye'. "Or perhaps you're speaking from experience. I've heard about the Uchiha Massacre even as a missing-nin."
That tragic clan, everyone used to say, when they talked about how the Uchiha prodigy slaughtered almost everyone from the family he was born and raised. The once-mighty Uchiha, finally betrayed and crushed by a psycho from within.
Utakata didn't know what he expected from Rabbit. Perhaps she would get mad and finally show her true colour. Perhaps she would deem him unsalvageable and finally move on from her stories about Akatsuki.
However, Rabbit stretched the tip of her mouth, as if she wanted to laugh, but decided that it wasn't the best etiquette. She was calm, so calm that Utakata wondered if that was what time did to a person's feeling of betrayal.
Years had passed after he had left the village, but what happened that night was still fresh in his mind as yesterday. He wondered - and hoped - that one day he could finally let it pass because that man didn't deserve to haunt his memory.
Rabbit looked at him and said, "If you truly equate your experience with mine, then what you're angry at is not the betrayal on the surface, but the fact that you don't understand what led to it underneath."
Utakata wanted to tell her that she was off the mark by a mile. He knew exactly why his Shishou did it - for power, for fear. But he couldn't seem to say it out loud convincingly. Along with the memory of that fateful night, were the memories of that man, who looked like he cared for his life, just like a father.
In a battle of words, the first one who lost confidence in himself had no way of winning.
"If so, then peace won't truly come until you've found the answer - the real one that you could convince yourself without any doubt. Then again, I'm not here to give therapies. I don't get paid enough for that," Rabbit finished her words as she put her mask back on.
"If I were you, I would rest and not strain myself physically or emotionally. Who knows, you might heal even faster." And then we can go our separate ways and hopefully never see each other again, Utakata somehow got the unspoken words.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
Haku truly wondered if he would get silenced by the end of this.
With each passing moment, his understanding of words such as 'Jinchuuriki' and 'Akatsuki' became a little deeper, and the more he realized that this was not something privy to a nobody like him.
Still, that hardly seemed like it mattered. He just hoped that if Rabbit planned to silence him, she would do so after performing their deal.
After all, even he didn't know which way to go for the rest of his life. Death was simply another path.
He pushed open the tent flaps, not hiding his footsteps. It was safer, he concluded, to let the injured Jinchuuriki know that someone was coming than to sneak up on him.
When he walked in with the fresh bandages and a bucket of water, Utakata was already examining every detail on him.
"Rabbit told me to bring you some fresh bandages and water to wash up. She wants to burn the bloodied ones." Haku explained, putting the bucket of water down by the makeshift bed and placing the bandages on top of the bucket.
After a moment of silence, he heard Utakata saying, "Thank you"
Haku nodded, ready to leave. However, the man called out to him before he could leave the tent. "Who are you really? What made a team of Konoha Anbu pick up a random shinobi on the road, who had no allegiance to any village?"
That wasn't a very subtle way of soliciting information, Haku concluded. However, he had learned enough over the past few hours that the only reason Utakata asked it this way was that he knew he would get an answer.
"My allegiance used to be Zabuza-san," Haku said, watching the man raise an eyebrow at him.
"The same Zabuza that the Konoha Anbu hunted? And I thought they were the crazy ones."
"The circumstance of Zabuza-san's death was … complicated." Haku could understand where Utakata came from. After all, he was travelling peacefully with the presumed killer of his old master and the Konoha Anbu let him tag along instead of killing him right after Zabuza's death.
"So, what was Zabuza to you? Leader, superior, Shishou?" Utakata looked like he wanted to laugh. What kind of flimsy relationship did they have, for Haku to abandon his allegiance and turn to the enemy as soon as his demise? He seemed to say with his eyes.
Haku wasn't sure what type of relationship they had. Perhaps it wasn't very normal, but he just refused to think about it.
He used to think he had it figured out - he was Zabuza-san's tool. Their relationship was that of the one between a shinobi and his weapon - it was built on his usefulness. But would a shinobi die for his weapon, would a soldier give a will to his tool?
"Zabuza-san … taught me everything I knew, I don't know if that would count as a relationship between a Shishou and a student," Haku said, tilting his head to think about his next words, "but I supposed Zabuza-san is the reason I lived."
"What are you doing here, then, now that 'the reason you lived' is dead?" Utakata asked, voice full of sarcasm. The man spun the pipe blower with his fingers as he waited for Haku's answers.
"He told me to live, so I had to," The answer was that simple. It was only until now that Haku realized that he was trying to find excuses so that he would live.
He told himself, maybe he should go to Kirigakure because it was always Zabuza-san's destination. Maybe he should go get Kubikiribōchō back because it was Zabuza-san's pride. Just now, he thought, maybe he should go take a look around the village of Kekkei Genkai Extremists. It was, after all, the start of his meeting with Zabuza-san.
Even Utakata seemed speechless for a second. "He told you to live, huh." The man whispered as if those words reminded him of something. However, that trip down the memory only lasted for a second before Utakata snapped his pipe into his palm.
"Time to move on, kid. Whatever that weird bond you have with Zabuza, be it one between Master and Student, or something else, it won't last even if he wasn't dead," Utakata said, back to the cold mocking tone.
Haku furrowed his eyebrows at the man's words. Rabbit said that the betrayal of Utakata's Shishou haunted him and even a fool like him could see that now. He wasn't Rabbit, he couldn't piece together or understand what Utakata had gone through. All he had was his own twelve years of life to go by.
Haku placed a hand over his heart and pressed down. He said, "But here, it feels like I can't get rid of it even if Zabuza-san is dead."
Utakata opened his mouth, but nothing seemed to come out. They stared at each other for a few seconds. Thankfully before the air got too awkward, Rabbit slapped open their tent flap without an ounce of apology.
"Foreign signatures are coming. We need to move."
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
I considered if we should just leave Utakata. He didn't look very willing to travel with us in the first place.
Falcon reported more than three dozen signatures at the farthest parameter of his sensing range. These signatures moved in small teams of four or five, searching outward as a web, always maintaining a communicative distance.
These were Kiri Anbu searching for their lost Jinchuuriki. By the number they sent, it looked like it was their last draw. Utakata was getting too far from the village and had given them too many failed attempts. They were running out of patience.
As if noticing my glance, Utakata turned towards me. "Are you thinking of throwing me to Kiri Anbu? To be honest, I don't blame you." Right, he was also a sensor, he knew exactly what this number of Kiri Anbu meant for their plan.
"They know you're heavily injured. This time, they will try everything to capture you, even if you go on a rampage." I said to him. Even though we just established that having the Six-Tail go on a rampage was bad for several reasons, at this point, Kirigakure had no choice but to bet it all.
They were betting that even if the Six-Tail had started rampaging and exposed itself clear under the sun, they could capture him and forcibly take him back.
As long as they could take him back, things could be back under control again. It mattered not that Akatsuki heard of its rampage, as long as the Six-Tail was safely within Kiri's protection.
"If they want to push me into a rampage, fine. But they're a little too confident to think that they could take me back," Utakata replied, not hiding his contempt for Kiri's plan.
To that, I just shook my head. "They came prepared to be in a lose-lose situation, for both you and Kirigakure." They were prepared to lose many loyal Kiri-Anbu in the process and they were prepared for the Jinchuuriki to hate them. When one prepared to lose this much, they were bound to have something that gave them faith, something to make sure that their loss was worth it.
"Whatever. You Konoha Anbu should leave. If you don't want to be caught in a rampage." Utakata said, his movement slowing down as if he would leave at any second as soon as I said the words.
For a second, I was touched, really. To think he cared about our lives.
"Not to worry, we will leave you and run away when the time comes." There was no way Konoha Anbu would fight against Kiri Anbu on Utakata's behalf, especially considering that getting the Six-Tail Jinchuuriki back to the village was a step towards progress. It was a step that would produce a lot of damage, but it's progress, nonetheless.
Before Utakata could turn around, I continued, "However, now's not the time yet. We're going to turn right and move towards the village of the Kekkei Genkai extremist. The fact that they are still searching means that they haven't pinpointed our location yet. The area around the village would be the last place they search."
"You want me to heal even more and make Kiri Anbu's life more miserable," Utakata laughed, finding my reasoning hilarious. Because of the movement, blood started to soak through his yukata again, but he paid it no attention.
"No, I want you to heal up so that you can have the asset to negotiate with them," I corrected. Utakata and Kiri had a balance before that made them both very careful in revealing the final cards.
However, because Utakata was heavily injured, Kiri now had more confidence that they could contain him. Furthermore, since he was injured to the point that it would be inching closer to the Beast who made decisions in battle compared to the man, Kirigakure had decided to end it now because they knew they couldn't reason with the beast.
"Ask Kirigakure for the answer you wish to know. If you don't trust their answer, negotiate with them so that they would agree to let you find answers," I told the man. It was easier to see the issue when I wasn't in the centre of it.
Utakata wasn't like the usual Kiri missing-nin I had seen - he had kept many of his moral principles intact even after leaving the village. He left because he felt cheated by his shishou's betrayal, realizing that things couldn't go back to before, not after he had killed his own teacher, and not after his trust towards his teacher was lost. Kirigakure was not the reason he deserted the village, it was merely a by-product.
"Kirigakure is more desperate to please their Jinchuuriki than you would have thought, but that all relies on you being in control, not Six-Tail." Finally. I finished my words.
"You think I trust what Kiri had to say? You think Kiri trusts me after all that has happened?" Utakata mocked, looking at me as if I was crazy.
To that, I just repeated the point he had used against me countless times. "You're a Jinchuuriki, what are you afraid of?"
What did a village full of Kekkei Genkai Extremists look like? Not much different from a normal village in Water Country that was battered by war and poverty.
I picked up a piece of paper that had fallen on the ground. It was a propaganda flyer, encouraging people to open their eyes and see the sins brought by Kekkei Genkai.
'Unnatural', it wrote; 'abomination', it preached; 'A brighter future without them', it painted. I let out a cold laugh and burned the paper into dust.
Of course, the villagers didn't make this. They hardly had enough time to save their crops, who had the time to print and distribute the flyers? It was the shinobi who made and spread these flyers around. They needed places to hide, and to do that, they needed to control the civilians in the village.
There were four Kekkei Genkai users in our band of seven people, yet, we were hiding in the backyard of a village that would wish for our heads on a spike without a second thought.
Just needed to hide over the night, I prayed.
Haku looked around, taking in every detail he could find as if painting an image in his head. He saw the children by the river, dipping their buckets in the flowing water. Women knelt by the rocks, slapping the clothes against the harsh surface.
"What are you thinking?" I asked.
Haku took a moment to think, before answering. "It's like the village in my memory. It's all so peaceful … until Kekkei Genkai showed up." If Kekkei Genkai showed up, these villagers could turn their farming tools into weapons in seconds.
"It takes generations to change opinions, that's unfortunate in many cases," I replied. "As for the shinobi interference in this village, Kiri is looking for ways to deal with it." That was why I knew they would hesitate to disturb this area in their search. Before they had a sure way of dealing with the missing-nin here all at once, it was better to contain them at a single place for surveillance, rather than carelessly disturb them and make them disperse into god knows where.
But of course, when I tried to guess what Kiri Anbu was thinking, they were also deducing what we could be planning.
"The Kiri Anbu were not avoiding this village," Falcon reported to me, closing his eyes in deep concentration. "The shinobi signatures in the villages are stirring. They are agitated by Kiri Anbu."
I let out a deep sigh.
"It looked like your attempt was futile, after all." Of course, Utakata would say that. The bandage around his chest had already stained red by now. We didn't have time to change the fabric before running away.
Kiri-Anbu must have realized that the area near this village was the 'blindspot' when their initial search found nothing. Clearly, retrieving the Six-Tails was more time-sensitive here. Those missing-nin could keep running, but one day they'd get caught, it would just take much more effort.
"Let's leave. It's best not to get caught by the missing-nin as well," I decided for my team. Seeing that a meeting with Kiri Anbu was inevitable, we really didn't need to catch the attention of another group of missing-nin.
"Why are you trying so hard to change something that is inevitable?" Utakata asked with genuine confusion.
Perhaps I was delaying the inevitable - Utakata and Kiri Anbu would meet eventually and the whole world would know that the Six-Tail had gone on a rampage. What I was trying to do, buying time by hiding in this suffocating village, was just futile in the overall outcome.
But it shouldn't be like this, where much had to be lost just for the village and the Jinchuuriki to be in the same place. It was like playing right into Tobi's prediction: What could we do, when the world and the people were already broken and in pieces? Even with the knowledge of Akatsuki placed in our fingers, we couldn't do anything but watch the tragedy happen because nothing could be mended.
"It was a matter of belief, I supposed," I told Utakata, who raised an eyebrow at me. I shook my head, not wanting to explain anymore.
The missing-nin hiding in the village were already gathering when we made our way out of the vicinity. All of us hid our presence as we tread deeper into the forest.
"I heard the others saying that there are much more Kiri forces than usual." I caught one of them saying.
"Are they going to raid the entire village?" Another shinobi answered. This one was panicking.
"They can't be! That woman doesn't have the gut to kill civilians." A third one yelled out, he must be talking about Terumi. However, based on his shaky tone, he must be scared of the number of Kiri-nin presence as well. "See those children, if we need to, we can take them hostage and get out of here."
I felt my blood run cold when I conjured up the image of those children by the water, diligently bringing the water to wet the field so that they could support their village and the shinobi who had promised them protection.
One day, if they dared to run closer to the Konoha border …
Suddenly, Haku stopped moving. I furrowed my eyebrows, fearing what he was about to do. See, with this kid, he had no goal in his life, and thus, he could afford to do things by whims.
'Thank you', that was the first word he made. Then it was 'sorry'. Finally, he raised his hand and signed 'goodbye'
Before I could stop him, he had already dashed back to the village. He didn't go to the shinobi, to my surprise. Instead, he went to the children.
His sudden appearance caught the children by surprise. One of them already tensed up, probably because they were taught that all shinobi who were foreign were bad people.
"Ice Release," Haku whispered, as ice appeared under his feet when he walked across the river, inching closer to the children.
That was the last straw. The children ran back to their cottages, screaming, "It's a Kekkei Genkai! They're here!" Ice Release of the Yūki Clan, one of the oldest and most famous Kekkei Genkai that existed in Water Country.
I could feel anger and fear steaming out of the group of shinobi scheming by the river. Now that the village would soon be panicking, their plan of taking the children hostage wouldn't be so easy.
Soon, the shinobi cornered Haku with weapons ready against him. However, the boy stood on the river without a care in the world.
Beside me, Utakata said nothing as he blew out a series of ink-filled bubbles that homed in towards the missing-nin, who were unaware of the danger coming from behind.
"Not you too," I muttered with a headache.
"It's a matter of beliefs," Utakata said, repeating what I had just said to him a moment ago.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, this was it. When the missing-nin got enveloped by the black bubble and consequently got dissolved in front of a surprised Haku, Utakata pretty much told Kiri Anbu which direction he was in. After all, it would take a blind person to miss giant bubbles travelling up to the sky, displaying execution for everyone to see.
"The rest of the missing-nin would probably flee the village after seeing this, we should probably go too," Utakata said, ignoring the death glares I'd been sending him. Nevertheless, we ran, as far from the village as possible.
"Goodbye," I told him a few minutes later. We weren't planning to stick around to see a battle between the Six-Tail and Kiri.
"It's an interesting meeting with you all," Utakata raised his pipe towards me, and then to Haku, who was slightly confused about how he ended up travelling with us again despite already saying goodbye. I said nothing, leading my team and Haku away from the Jinchuuriki, where Kiri Anbu would soon gather.
When it was about 200 meters away, I said to Owl, "Relay to me the details of what's happening back there." My Sharingan could only give me dots of Chakra signatures at this distance, with Utakata's signature being the brightest one. However, Byakugan could see through everything.
"Kiri Anbu didn't waste any words, they are trying to restrain the Jinchuuriki." Owl described, veins popping around his eyes. With this information, I tried to conjure up an image in my head.
Utakata had run too far, he had killed too many Anbu. Kiri Anbu couldn't afford to wait when they had such a good opportunity. They needed to restrain the Jinchuuriki before any further action could be made.
That was why I hoped Utakata's injury was better. He needed to be conscious after being restrained - the water whips combined with electro-charge used by the Kiri Anbu was not pleasant by any means, and they would only amp it up for their Jinchuuriki.
"The Jinchuuriki … said something to the Anbu," Owl said with uncertainty. Even his eyes couldn't decipher exact words from this distance. However, given what I had known about Utakata, it was either a very angry "I'm not coming back to the village" or "Screw you all."
Still, I had hoped that Utakata was asking nicely about his dead Shishou instead.
"He's struggling to get out of the restraints." Maybe he's suppressing the Six-Tail from taking over. "But his chakra … it's changing." Nevermind.
A burst of chakra appeared in my vision. This time, I didn't need Owl to relay to me what happened. Utakata had fallen unconscious. It was now the Six-Tail who was trying to keep his host alive and eliminate all danger.
It was a split-second decision when I looked in their direction.
"Falcon, take everyone to a safe distance 500 meters away. Wait for Hokage-sama's reply. Run away if the tailed beast can't be contained." I said to my second-in-command.
Back when we first took in an injured Utakata, I made Moth relay back our slight deviation in the mission objective. However, at fastest, his ink bird would just be arriving now so I had yet to receive any further instruction.
"What about you, Captain?" Falcon had a bad feeling about this and he would be correct.
"I'm going to see if I can prevent the Six-Tail from rampaging," I responded in a calm voice.
If the Six-Tail was transformed to his full form and allowed to rampage, there would truly be no going back for both Utakata and Kirigakure.
"Don't worry, I've worked out the theories," sort of. "Just follow my orders and protect yourself." Without another word, I ran back to the starting point, even switching to Jinrai to move faster.
It only took a few seconds, before I dashed in front of the Head of the Kiri Anbu.
"Tsurugi," I greeted. We had met a few times in the Mizukage's office. While the rest of the Kiri Anbu shifted in panic, Tsurugi was more experienced.
"I was wondering how he knew to hide near the village. So it was you, Rabbit," Tsurugi replied, voice deep with warning. "What do you want, interfering with Kiri's private business?" He had very little patience left for me, it seemed.
I looked at Utakata - now just a blur of crimson red with six tails whipping in rage - who was trying to break out of the sealing restraints. Any minute now, the current seals would break and the agents currently holding down the seal would no doubt get fatally injured, even killed on the spot.
However, another circle of Anbu agents were already standing by, ready to apply a second layer of seal as soon as the first one lost its effects.
"I want to ask for your permission, to try to calm down Six-Tail, so that you're once again speaking Utakata the man," I told Tsurugi, watching his eyes widen at my outrageous proposal. Quickly, I added, "We both know that he will keep transforming into the full tailed-beast until he breaks the restraints. I don't want that any more than you do, considering our common threat."
Tsurugi narrowed his eyes at me and said with a harsh tone, "I happen to hear that the Mangekyou Sharingan was used to manipulate the Nine-Tail attack back in Konoha."
"If I wanted to do that, I had plenty of chances before this," I replied, hoping that this long-term relationship between Kiri and Konoha actually meant something.
In the short time we conversed, the first layer of seal had already been broken by Utakata's expanding body and the explosion of tailed beast chakra. Quickly, the field was littered with heavily injured Anbu agents, but their teammates couldn't treat them, not when their job was to restrain an evolving tailed-beast.
"What will you do if you fail?" Coming from Tsurugi, that was an agreement.
"I guess I will die," I answered, before turning to where the massacre was happening. As I looked in Utakata's direction, my Sharingan shifted until the tomoe was replaced by the tri-petalled flower.
I locked my eyes at the figure made of raging chakra. For that moment, I looked at the abyss, and the abyss looked back at me.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
Months ago, Itachi and I discussed what 'controlling the Tailed Beast with Mangekyou' truly entailed. It would be a topic that could land us in Anbu confinement. However, for us, it was necessary to understand how Tobi did it.
"The tailed beast technically existed in the energy form, whether when it was released into the wild, or being sealed within a human host. So, whatever the Mangekyou was trying to manipulate, it would be different from casting a genjutsu on a human from a fundamental level," Itachi had pointed out before.
Genjutsu didn't work on Jinchuuriki, because they were technically two entities. Therefore, Mangekyou must be directly affecting the tailed-beast in its energy form, manipulating the beast while making the human secondary.
"Controlling something usually involves a power difference. When we place genjutsu on others, the battle of control occurs at the victim's chakra circuit in the brain. So where would the battlefield be, if we were battling a mass of chakra energy?" I had asked, making Itachi raise his head and think.
"The mindscape of a Mangekyou is terrifying, that was what Shun had told me," I had mentioned to Itachi as a passing thought. A moment later, both of us sucked in a breath.
"It's within our mindscape." "We're drawing it into our mind." Both Itachi and I said it at the same time. To that, Itachi had the time to chuckle at our synchronicity.
"It's exactly what it suggests, Maiko. To control the beast, we have to tame it. The stronger one, the one with the more terrifying presence, tamed the other into submission," Itachi laid it out for us. To use the Mangekyou on a tailed beast, we would have to project ourselves into our mind, basically a process of converting a part of us into a form of energy. It was there where the Mangekyou set up a battleground, augmenting our presence to battle against the projection of the Tailed Beast that it 'captured'.
"It's very dangerous," Itachi concluded. "Even if it was just a projection of the tailed beast, they fight back all the same. Since it's a battle, we could become the loser just as easily." What would happen to our mind if we lost, I shuddered to think.
At the end of the conversation, I had asked, "If we can pull a projection of the tailed-beast and place a projection of ourselves into our mindscape, would it be possible for us to communicate with the tailed-beast?"
After a moment of thought, Itachi responded. "I suppose, in theory. However, to do that, both parties must be willing to talk."
The underlying message was clear. How would the tailed-beast feel, to be dragged into a mindscape where the environment was designed to suppress them into submission?
Talking was probably not very high on their priority list.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
I was drowning.
Sticky liquid filled my nose and my mouth, blocking my airways.
I felt pain.
I was being corroded. My skin was dissolving, my muscles, my bones … little by little, they were being eaten away. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't.
I was dying.
The red glow of the tri-petalled flower cast in the sky, shining down into the water, mocking the little consciousness I had left.
It was telling me, blink. So, I did.
I sucked in a breath, feeling the liquid leaving my body. I staggered forward, hearing the sound of water splashing resonating around me.
The moment I forced the Six-Tail into my Mangekyou mindscape, it had attacked. It tried to take over my battlefield, filling the arena with the acid, drowning me before I could understand what had happened.
But luckily, I was reminded who was the real owner of this space.
For the first time, I was seeing my 'world' clearly. Darkened sky surrounded the space like a dome without a boundary. Red stained the air, reflecting the light cast by the giant Mangekyou behind me. Static water pooled under my feet, covering up to my ankles. In the vast field of desolation, the only bright colour was the scattered Torii gates that seemed to have fallen from the sky.
Oh, and the giant white slug that was at the center of the field, surrounded by a dense array of red Torii gates, waving his six tails slowly.
"You must be Rabbit, the Uchiha with the Sharingan." I heard a high-pitched voice coming from the direction of the slug.
He talked, I blinked in surprise. Now, it would be awkward of me if I didn't say something back.
"That would be me. How may I address you?" I asked. 'Six-Tail' was a man-made construct. It seemed a little impolite to address him by such.
"The name's Saiken. I don't appreciate being dragged in by the Mangekyou."
Before he had finished his words, waves of acid clouds washed from his giant body, until it buried me in full.
A/N: I don't actually know controlling the tailed beast with the MS worked, so I'm just taking creative liberty here. Is it bad that I find Saiken the giant slug kind of cute?