I pack my collection of kunai and shuriken into my thigh pocket and gather my other things into my bag. I have added a new belt over my cloak, my two-bladed daggers hanging on its back. In my bag I have scrolls that I have sealed all my puppets in – as well as some other things, like utensils and a sleeping bag.
"So, what's our mission?" Kazuto asks right away when I get to the other three. I am the last one to reach the village entrance.
Rasa nods. "This is the first C-rank mission for you. Our objective is to help a wealthy resident of Land of Crystal to journey to Land of Sapphire. They're quite far from the battles so there shouldn't be any enemy shinobi there but there's still a chance of running into bandits looking to merit from the confusion of the ongoing war."
"So, guard duty, eh?" Kazuto sighs. "How far is it?"
"Land of Crystal is about a three-day journey from here. The journey from there to Sapphire should take around four days. Now, let's get going. We want to cross the border today."
Nobody says anything against him, and together we head northwest.
»»-««
"Are you sure you're up to this task?"
I squint my eyes at the tall and thin man with a narrow face. With this pale face he looks quite sickly. He is wearing a white, spotless kimono with silver and gold flowers embroidered to it. A young boy is keeping him company and carrying a few bags that almost seem to crush him under their weight.
"They are one of the best-"
The man stops the future Kazekage without even glancing at him: "How old are you three?"
"Eight," Kazuto and Sanji answer in unison before I tell him I am six.
"Six..." The man scoffs. "My cat is older than that. Well… My name is Koin Kameyama. I believe you are familiar with the task ahead of you?"
"Yes. We are to-"
"Good," Koin stops Rasa once more. Sensei's eyebrows are twitching in annoyance, and something about the sight makes me want to laugh, but I succeed in hiding it within a fit of cough. "Let us depart then."
The first day is completely eventless. We just walk along a road that takes us through some fields, plains, and forests. For the night we stop at a village where Koin sleeps in an inn with Rasa, and we three and Koin's servant – Rikyu – sleep in the nearby forest.
The next day we run into a group of bandits. It's about noon, and a small rain shower has just passed. The scenery reminds me of the first C-rank mission of Naruto… Silently I do hope I wouldn't have to face something like that right off the bat.
I raise my head when I sense six chakra signatures on both sides of the road in the forest. All in all, there's twelve of them. Rasa glances at me and I realize that the boys haven't noticed anything yet. Have I really gotten over my terrible sensory skills? Well, honestly, it is more likely that the duo just sucks.
"Kameyama-sama, please stop." Rasa's quiet but serious tone makes the rich man stop immediately. As soon as he does it, twelve men dressed in gray flak jackets surround us. Or one of them is a woman. Every single one has a long and thin sword that is only sharp on one edge.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" The woman laughs. I am almost happy. Seems like the woman is the leader of their little group. "I ask you to kindly hand over any valuables. And your lives."
"I am afraid we cannot do that. You three, deal with them however you see fit. I will be the last line of defense," Rasa instructs us, and I smirk. A weird, tickling feeling in my stomach makes me wary of it being fear or tension but soon I realize it is pure excitement.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Sanji gets to work, and Kazuto runs towards a few of the men. I bring my hands behind my back and get my daggers out, running towards the closest man. I focus my chakra to my feet, accelerating my movements. I suppose the man did not expect my speed, and soon his throat has been cut clean. A bit of blood sprays over me as the man slumps to the ground.
That was your first kill. I furrow my brows slightly at the thought. Did I just call myself 'you'? But I have no time to wallow on that or anything else, as another man is running towards me. I dodge the sword stricken towards me by leaning to the side and spin around to strike my two daggers into the back of the attacker. He falls almost immediately over his friend. As he does, two other men run at me from the sides. I think for a moment and throw the daggers towards them. Both of them dodge. I raise my hands and pull the daggers back with chakra threads before they escape too far away. Neither of them expects this move and so, they both get a dagger to their backs. One falls to the ground, but the other just grunts and continues towards me.
Sighing, I pull the dagger out of the fallen man's back and jump away, needing to suddenly dodge the sword of the leader. I let myself glance at the battle quickly. My both friends are busy, while Rasa seems to be playing cards with Koin.
"What is a little kid like you doing playing shinobi? Shouldn't you be home with your mommy?" The woman mocks me as she strikes again. I jump away from her and chuckle, without bothering to answer.
When I have gotten a little bit of distance between me and the woman and the man, I pull out one scroll, and soon a small squirrel is standing in front of me. The woman laughs at me as she runs towards me with the man not far behind her. I launch the needles in Ichi's tail, and they both get a load of it. Soon after they run into the ground, frozen as statues. I smile at them and summon Ichi back.
I am not going to endanger myself if one of them happens to be only acting, and as so I pick up my two-bladed daggers with chakra threads and cut open their throats. Then I raise my gaze to the others. I have taken care of five, so seven should be left… There's three dead men lying in front of Kazuto, and Sanji is just cutting the throats from two others. The last two ones are lying dead near him.
"Well, that was some nice work." Rasa slams a few cards down. Koin groans. I look at the eye made of gold dust hovering behind our client's back in exasperation. It is showing all his cards to Rasa. "Looks like I win."
"You were really playing cards while we risked our lives?" Kazuto snarls at him, swishing his swords so that most of the blood on them flies off. Rasa glances at him.
"You seemed to be handling yourselves well enough. Especially you, Kuroyuri. I believe you will become a great shinobi one day. You have a lot of potential."
"Ah, thank you, sensei." I rub the back of my head in embarrassment. I am not used to compliments like that.
The third day of the journey goes peacefully, with me healing some of Kazuto's wounds he had gotten in the fight. On the fourth day we arrive in a big town built on a hill. We get there when the sun is setting. When we come to a stop, Koin gives Rasa a bag of gold.
"Here you go. Thank you for your help."
"Pleasure doing business-"
"Hai, goodbye young ones," Koin continues his habit of interrupting the fourth Kazekage and waves his hand at us before he turns to leave with his servant. Rasa lets out a sigh of relief when the man has disappeared from our sights.
"Do you want to sleep in an inn or head straight back?" Rasa turns to us.
"Inn!" Kazuto exclaims right away.
"I'd rather head back," I state, and Sanji nods.
"I want to get back as well."
"Alright, are you fine with this, Kazuto?" Rasa glances at the black-haired kid, who sighs and gives a reluctant nod. "Okay, let's head back."
We run for four days before we finally get back. Nothing happens during the journey – not counting a few wolves and a small pack of hyenas. When we get back it's afternoon and Rasa lets us go right away – giving even the following day free. I hurry home to unpack my bag. After a quick shower I start installing new needles for Ichi's tail. It goes a lot faster with chakra threads than before, but it is still exhausting.
When I have done that, I try to go to sleep, but despite my exhaustion I just can't seem to fall asleep. For some reason I am feeling uneasy, maybe somewhat skittish. For a while I just lay on the bed in annoyance, but eventually I get up with a sigh and go see if kaachan is home.
I do succeed in finding her in her room, studying some scroll. "Is Akari home?"
"No. Mission."
"Can you train me?"
"I don't have time."
I sigh again and go back to my room to grab my bag and head for the training ground. I wonder if Sasori is home…? I let the thought just pass and sit in the middle of the training ground, taking out the scroll Akari gave me ages ago. I can do the three first techniques; Kirigakure no Jutsu, Suiton: Suiben, and Raiton: Jibashi. I am definitely not perfect with them, but I also feel like there is not much I can do to improve at them right now – I do believe my age is holding me back quite a bit from getting good at jutsu and other complicated things.
And so, I decide to turn my focus on the next technique on the scroll.
"Hijutsu: Kirisame," I slowly read from the scroll. I don't remember a technique like that. And the Hijutsu part… It means that the technique is a hidden one. A technique that shouldn't be known by anyone other than a few selected ones. I smirk and wonder where Akari had gotten this scroll. It seems like something that would be kept locked away in a safe place. And the fact that she had given it to me instead of keeping it to herself or submitting it to the Kazekage's office…
I get no results from training, but I am used to that. Usually, I have to train so long that I can use my own sweat as part of the technique. For some reason it works, and even helps. But I don't get anything done now, so I just head back home completely exhausted. I want to go get another shower, since I am sweaty and dirty, but I force myself to be content with just washing myself in a washtub. This time I fall asleep right away when I get to the bed.
After eating breakfast, I head to Sasori's home. Chiyo is there to open the door for me. Since this world doesn't have phones or anything of the sort we could use, I always had to do this and more often I end up hanging out with Chiyo than Sasori. Luckily, I do see the boy outside of his house as well, or otherwise my life would've taken a ridiculous turn as Chiyo's best friend. Or only, most likely. Not that I really care.
"Is Sasori here?" I ask and get a nod in answer for once, followed by a request to come in. Chiyo shows me to the basement, and I scuttle there happily.
"Sasori-kun! Are you here?" I ask in surprise when I arrive in the dark cellar. If Sasori is here, the lights would be on. Had Chiyo lied to me? But why…?
Something grabs my shoulders, and I let out a squeak, jumping away and turning around. I bat my eyes at the puppet in front of me. It looks exactly like Komushi. A smile finds its way to my lips when I notice Sasori behind it.
"Do you like it?"
"It's amazing!" I breathe out, and really mean it. It looks more real than I had expected. Like Komushi really is in front of me.
Sasori lets out a content hum. I do spend a lot of time with him since I have learned to read every facial expression and little act he does – as little as they may often be. "Glad you like it. So, how was your mission?"
"Nothing special," I shrug and follow Sasori to the table. The side Chiyo had used ages ago is now full of my stuff. "We ran into some random bandits and nothing else. Boring as hell."
I shrug as I sit down at the table and gaze at the pieces of wood in front of me. I don't feel like doing anything with them right now.
"Hmm…" Sasori sighs. He doesn't seem to be really doing anything either.
"Want to go do some sparring or something?"
He opens his mouth just as we hear Chiyo calling for me: "Kuro-chan! Your mother is here!"
"Kaachan?" I frown. How does she even know where I am? And before that, what does she want? Utterly confused, I stand up and head for the door where I find my mother standing. She looks like she has cried.
"Kuroyuri…" She sighs. I blink almost fearfully.
"What is it?"
I sense Sasori has followed me but is leaving some distance between us. Chiyo has already disappeared somewhere.
"Akari has died."
Kaachan seems to be waiting for some kind of reaction.
"…Oh." I simply do not feel anything special. Well, maybe I feel a little surprise, a little empty, even a little sad. But not enough to cry or be depressed about it. "How?"
"Some Konoha kids killed her."
"Kids?" I repeat. "She was killed by genin or something?"
"I believe so." Kaachan nods, staring at me. I grimace.
"That's just-" I close my mouth. She is already staring at me in confusion. Shocked, scared. No need for me to make her worry even more. "Sorry. I just can't believe it."
Kaachan gives me a soft smile I have never seen on her face before. "Well, have fun with your friend."
She turns around and walks away.
"So lame." I roll my eyes after I have closed the door and turned around. "To get killed by some brats, and Konoha brats at that… I thought she was better than that."
Sasori chuckles. "Didn't you like your sister+"
"Sure I did." I shrug. "But I just can't bring myself to care about them for some reason. I told you once before, didn't I? Maybe I am just a heartless monster.
I citate my own words I had used when my father died, and Sasori smiles at me. It is not quite like his usual smiles, but I can't figure out the difference before it has already disappeared. "Then there is two of us."
I grin and am about to repeat my earlier question about training, when someone gets to the door again, flying it open without even knocking.
"Sasori, we have a new- Who's this?"
I turn to look at the brunette I barely remember.
"Hi, Karura." I wave my hand at her. She looks at me suspiciously.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Kuroyuri. Nice to meet you." I give her one of my patented fake smiles, raising my hand in hopes of her shaking it.
"Isn't that the flower that smells awful?" She does shake my hand. "That's an unfortunate name."
Not as unfortunate as your fate. I decide I do not like her.
"You never told me you were friends with someone like her." Karura turns to Sasori, ignoring my presence completely. I roll my eyes. How does she end up with my sensei when she's clearly so keen on going after Sasori at the moment? Maybe it has something to do with Sasori defecting… Oh, crap. Does that mean they actually do have a relationship at some point?
"Like her?" Sasori rises his eyebrows at her before I can think about Karura's choice of words more.
Karura glances at me, thinking for a moment. "Well, you know… Aren't you something like five years old?"
Wow, at least she addressed me this time… I stop myself from killing her only because I know it would wreck the timeline completely, with her being Gaara's mom and everything.
"Six," I decide to inform her.
"Same thing."
"This is exactly why I never hang out with you," Sasori mumbles as he rubs his temples. "I'm getting a headache already."
"Drama queen." I roll my eyes, and Karura looks shocked. Sasori scoffs. "Well then… Have fun on your mission, Sasori-kun!"
The redhead blinks in confusion when I quickly hug him with one hand. I throw one last smile at the annoyed Karura and make my escape.
I spend the rest of the day training the Kirisame and look for other lightning techniques from the scroll. The scroll reminds me of my sister which in turn gives me the idea to investigate who killed her. I could at least avenge her death… Konoha, eh? And around the same age as me… I rub my forehead as I try to remember. I believe Kakashi's age group is just being born. Minato and Kushina had been around 25 when they had died, so…
My head hurts. Sasori is twenty years older than Naruto's age group. Which means Minato and Kushina are seven or so years older than me…. It's more than likely that at least Minato is currently a genin, or higher rank. Minato? For real?
A stabbing pain pierces through my head, and I groan, mostly just ignoring it. I let my thoughts wander, and find myself thinking about my previous life. I think about my family, and once more a pounding pain starts in my head. Had I had more than one brother…? What was his name again? I can't remember.
I groan as the pain gets greater the more I try to focus on those memories. Black spots dance in my eyesight. I make a quiet promise with myself to not think of my previous life anymore. I am not that person anymore. I am Kuroyuri.