She walked heedlessly in the direction of the smoky smell, still intent on mentally perfecting a new move she'd come up with. It only became apparent to her when she came closer to the camp that the smoke, now stronger, had taken on a certain unpleasantness in its smell. Aya wondered at this momentarily before her thoughts wandered back to their original path. The black shadows flitting past her barely registered in her mind, and the muffled cries for help fell on deaf ears.
Until she crossed into the clearing where the nomad camp had been, and saw complete and utter chaos.
She watched from the far side of the clearing as people scattered everywhere, fleeing from burning tents and caravans. They weren't making it very far, however, before being cut down brutally by green-vested assassins that swarmed the camp and its terrified occupants like flies on a carcass. They were sparing no one. Men, women and children alike were falling as they ran, wild-eyed with fear, desperate for anywhere that represented safety.
'Apparently the legendary Nomads are no more than cowardly milksops.' Sneered a voice suddenly, disturbingly soft but carrying perfectly on the smoke-laden wind. 'Unrivalled masters of weapons! Hah! And I actually thought that this mission would be foolhardy! Kabuto, have we found them yet'
'We found the boy and the parents,' Another voice replied. Aya had to squint through the smoke to see that it belonged to a tall shape with a shock of long, almost iridescent silver hair. There was a short silence.
'Go on..' The first voice said, so venomous that even from where she was standing Aya could almost feel the other recoiling.
'Well..We don't know where the girl is. I.. don't think she was at the camp.'
'She had better be found quickly, Kabuto. It looks like the Nomads are beginning to rally. Take the boy and the parents away and continue searching. Everyone here is expendable, shed as much blood as you like, employ whatever tactics you care to. But she MUST be found. Torture it out of the parents if you want but the boy must not be harmed, nor the girl when she is taken into our custody. You know what will happen to anyone who lays a heavy hand on them'
'Yes, Orochimaru-sama.' The silver-haired Kabuto nodded. 'We will continue to search.'
It took a few moments for Aya's blurred mind to realise that it was she that these murderers were looking for, and that it was her parents and Youkai had just been kidnapped.
She stood frozen stock-still for seconds that ticked by with the length of eternities, too gripped with terror to move. She closed her eyes, hoping desperately that if she couldn't see, she couldn't be seen. She knew it was flawed logic but logic at this moment evaded her. All she was aware of was the massacre at the camp, and the knowledge that the ones that had taken the rest of her family were now after her.Through all this somehow it had never occured to her to run. She just stood, eyes closed and still as the rocks at her feet, trying incredibly hard to blend with the lengthening shadows and surrounding shrubbery.
Aya never realised that the trick had actually worked. The patrol was sure they had caught a shimmer, a reflection, a glimpse of red and black, but they were too unsure of what they had seen to go after it. After all, it had flickered out of existence just as quickly as it had been noticed. They continued on their search, oblivious that their target was mere inches away from them, hoping desperately and praying to whatever higher power that existed that she wouldn't be found by these monsters.
She stayed on her feet all that terrible night, unmoving, eyes closed with senses strangely heightened. Every moment that passed she felt sure would bring her closer to her capture, but somehow the inevidable never came. The place was crawling with patrols but amazingly even as close as they got to her, she was never once detected. Wondering at her incredible fortune, she listened as they began to move off, either back home or to another place to search. she was relatively safe for the time being.
It was dawn by the time Aya had worked up the courage to open her eyes to slits and witness the havoc that had been wrought while she was cowering. She noted cynically from her vantage point the way the early morning light illuminated the destroyed camp, filtering through the smoke that was still dancing, and making the carnage almost seem picturesque. Bile rose to her throat at the thought of going down to the charred remains and looking for clues at who had taken her family and obliterated everything she ever knew.
It took her hours to work up the courage to fight back the nausea and the fear and move from her spot, but she was rewarded almost immediately. A metallic shine caught her eye and upon investigating further, she discovered a ninja's forehead protector bearing an unfamiliar symbol.
A music note.
The conversation between the poisonous-voiced villain and his silver haired subordinate flashed in her mind, hardening her resolve. They were the ones that ordered this, and they were who she would hunt for the rest of her days.
