This would chronologically be the first chapter. You know, if this had been written in order...
A crisp breeze scattered the last of autumn's leaves across dry, yellow, dormant grass while Itachi pulled a wrinkled manila folder from his coat. He opened it to find it contained only two pieces of paper. The first was a standard 8.5" by 11" paper found in any office. It was a grainy, black-and-white photocopy of a ninja's identification form that was just as creased and wrinkled as the folder. The image was photocopied noticeably off-center and some lines of text had been redacted with a black marker. Holding it up to the sun as a backlight, most of the redacted information could be seen anyway, like the individual's official citizenship and registration numbers, 35 and 2, respectively. It was shoddy work.
Still, it was nice that someone had done their research for him. Normally all he got was a name, a general description, and perhaps a vague notion of where to find them. The second piece of paper was a typed note with instructions to kidnap the individual at the provided date, time, and location. A pretty specific location, too; "The bonsho on the eastern ridge of Rengeoin Temple," it read. What luck. Someone really had done their research.
"So, what's our next assignment?" Kisame asked him.
"We are going to Earth country to detain an Iwa kunoichi until further notice." Itachi said.
"Is she in Iwa? I don't want to have to infiltrate a village."
"No, she will be at Rengeoin Temple in a fortnight. Quite a distance from Iwa and close to the northeastern border."
"Ah, that's good." Kisame said relieved. "Who is this kunoichi?"
Itachi perused the first paper. It was a young woman- a girl, almost. He stared at the weird kanji of her name. The surname was straightforward enough, "Kagami," but her given name was a different story. How was that supposed to be pronounced? It made no sense as a name. He thought for a while before deciding it must be "Tomoyo." That spelling was just a pretentious way of naming a kid "Tomoyo."
"A Kagami Tomoyo, it appears. A jonin. Supposedly a mid-range fighter with excellent chakra control." Other than that the document didn't actually say that much about her. It was pretty sparsely detailed regardless of the useless redactions.
"Ah." was all Kisame said. It made no difference to him. There weren't many who could give him a real fight.
Itachi tucked the papers back into his coat. Earth country was a pain in the ass to traverse. But the relative isolation of the mountains did make staying undetected easier than in most other places. It was a double-edged sword. But no matter, a mission was a mission.
Sitting alone in a far row of a formal event at Rengeoin Temple, Asaya had to resist the urge to pick at a stray thread on the seam of her cerulean kimono. She would unravel the whole thing out of sheer boredom if she started. Running her tongue over her teeth, she resented being sent to this event event in the first place. She never left the village. Ever. She was specifically labeled as undispachable since two years ago when she was officially appointed her apprenticeship. Although technically this was a diplomatic visit, not a mission, she supposed. Still, she definitely did not want to be here right now. She certainly didn't ask to sit through boring, long-winded speeches at dumb events with the purpose of promoting "goodwill" between Iwa and the people of Earth country's many territories.
This was definitely a scheme cooked up by the Tsuchikage and his family. Asaya squinted, annoyed at the little manipulations they constantly threw at her. This wasn't a straightforward, yakuza-style threat where she had to worry about someone setting her apartment on fire or breaking her kneecaps. This was the dirty, underhanded, social pressure tactics employed by politicians and rich people. Of which the Tsuchikage's family was not uncoincidentally both.
Applause erupted through the room as the mayor of the local city finished his speech with a generic statement of gratitude for the "prosperous" relationship the region shared with the monks of Rengeoin Temple, the ninja of Iwagakure, and the Empire of Earth Country. Asaya clapped her hands with everyone else, patting the fingers of one hand into the palm of the other. The white beads wrapped around her left wrist jostled and clinked, but even though they were only a foot or so from her ears their sound was squelched by the din.
Ostensibly, she was there to stand in for her master, Mistress Fukurou, who was the most senior member of Iwa's Grand Council. "Senior" in both in time served and in age. Lady Fukurou was probably the oldest person in the history of the country. She was so old they didn't even have records of her birth. So old she could not travel these distances herself. Which may be true, but Onoki could have sent someone else if had wanted to. He only sent her because he was giving her an "opportunity" in exchange for indebting her to his family. The bastard was playing for the long term. She was almost surprised one of his dozen or so bachelor grandsons wasn't personally escorting her.
Uggh… Honestly, she wanted nothing to do with this tangled web, but she was already caught. The real struggle was not getting tangled further. She tapped her fingers on her knee while looking again at the itinerary pamphlet. Just another hour or two of these talking heads.
After the talking heads had finished, the event moved to another hall, where the attendees went about chatting and socializing with one another, mixing and mingling in small groups. Under the high, wooden ceiling, Asaya felt small and adrift in a sea of people. She was pretty crap at socializing anyway, but these people were out of her league. Everyone here was some sort of bureaucrat, official, politician, or wife thereof. And occasionally a monk or nin like her. Maybe being a kunoichi was novel to these people but ultimately she had no rank with which to meet approval. An apprentice was an apprentice, not a master. She was a token interest, at best. Yet there were only so many times one could walk around the room before it felt weird not to be conversing with someone. She sighed. Maybe she just had to suck it up and deal. Diplomacy was her mission, after all.
"Kagami-san," a voice addressed her from behind.
She turned to see the speaker was Sanmyaku Isamu, her captain and the Tsuchikage's second son. They and two others were the only people from Iwa at the event.
"Yes, sir." She addressed him.
"You seem rather diffident this evening." He stated bluntly.
Embarrassed, Asaya said "Oh, no, sir." This was the real challenge; appearing happy and positive because you'll ruin the mood and leave a bad impression otherwise. "It's just, well-" She couldn't think of an excuse. "This is all so exciting and new it's overwhelming."
Isamu raised a stiff brow. "Kagami-san,"
Uh-oh, she could tell by the stiff twitch of his jaw that she was about to be chastised.
But instead he clasped his hands behind his back and said softly, "If you would like, you may leave for a bit." Well, softly for a burly man in his fifties. His words sounded more flat than empathetic.
Asaya's mouth involuntarily slackened a bit.
"I understand that engagements like this are not your strong suit." He said.
Ouch. "My apologies, sir, I didn't mean to be a-"
He raised a hand to quiet her. "It's alright." He furtively glanced around before discreetly saying to her, "These people are all a bit snobbish, don't you think? They don't notice you now, so they won't notice if you leave."
Not that Sanmyaku was a man known for being tactful, but Asaya honestly couldn't tell if he was trying to be nice to her, or trying to be nice about expressing disappointment, or what. The signals were too conflicting.
"If you exit through the door over there," he gestured over her left shoulder, "there is a pathway that leads to a bonsho that overlooks the next mountain. It's a bit of a hike but it has wonderful views of the sunset. Why don't you go watch and just come back after sundown for the closing ceremony?"
Either way, he was definitely asking her to leave. "Yes, sir." Then she awkwardly added, "Thank you." before turning to leave the way he suggested.
Isamu responded with a hesitant, unusual "Your welcome." as she walked away.
Behind a large, grey boulder Itachi and Kisame hid themselves while they waited for their target to appear. The sky over the ridge was a flat, solid, orange disk that cast long shadows down the side of the mountain where they lay in wait. The landscape itself was pretty barren, but the shadows from this position downhill made for good cover.
"So you're sure she'll be here?" Kisame said, restless. They had been there for an hour at this point. "Seems a bit too easy, if you ask me."
"'Sundown at the bonsho at the end of the eastern mountain ridge.' That is what our orders said." Itachi exhaled and looked up the mountain ridge at the bonsho. "If she doesn't show then we will find her the usual way." It wouldn't be the first time they were given a false lead.
Another few minutes ticked by as they waited, until a black silhouette appeared jogging across the top of the ridge towards the bell. The distance and sunset shadows made it impossible to see the figure in detail but it had to be their target.
"Kisame, look." Itachi said.
The shark raised a hand over his eyes and looked in the direction his partner was. "Well, well. It appears that our orders were correct. This is too easy."
"Approach from the stairway over there." Itachi instructed. "I'll approach from behind."
"Alright, then." Kisame stood up and slung Samehada over his back.
Damn, getting out here really was a hike. This had to be about 3 kilometers from the temple. Considering the time it took her to get out here, she'd just have to turn back around in a few minutes. Her footsteps made a distinct, hollow banging noise as she took quick steps up the three stairs of the wooden structure in which the bonsho was housed. Some of the planks creaked under her weight as she approached the bronze bell. It was clear by the small chips of red paint, splintered and warping floorboards, and tiny rocks littering the floor that this bonsho had declined in popularity. It was unusually far from its temple, after all. So far that Asaya wondered for what purpose it had originally been built.
Reaching behind her head, she unclipped the silver barrette that pinned her hair into a twisted bun and massaged her fingers through her scalp. Her hair had been pinned up so tight for so long that the roots felt numb and tingly, like a limb that had fallen asleep. Her barrette was engraved with Iwa's symbol and she used it to mark her status as a kunoichi in place of a hitai-ate, which were just obnoxious and gaudy. This was much more discreet, elegant, and even functional as far as she was concerned. She stuffed it into her periwinkle obi for the time being and let her long, soft brown hair rest freely down her shoulders.
Walking around the bell, she looked at its ornamentation. The casted inscriptions and images were speckled with mint green and blue oxidation. Unfortunately, she could not read the written history as the inscriptions were too corroded. From what she could tell by the images, however, the narrative seemed to be something about the bodhisattva Kannon protecting travelers from disasters and outlaws in the mountains. Appropriate, considering this was an Earth country temple dedicated to Kannon.
Asaya delicately ran a hand across the cold metal, which felt slightly grainy against her bare fingertips. Outstretched, the cerulean sleeve of her kimono caught the twilight. Its red light cascaded over the canvas of silk and stained it deep, variegated hues of purple.
She felt conflicted between the relief of not having to be at the party and the shame of being a failure for leaving. Sure, Sanmyaku had given her permission and she took it, but she should have just gotten over herself and stayed. Her stomach knotted into a dense mass and sunk into her abdomen and she backed away from the bell to look over at the next mountain. The sky cast a fiery, yellow-orange backdrop over the blackened mountain range, as if the sun were angry at the earth for turning and spinning away. Spinning in an orbit that was, paradoxically, dictated by the star's own gravitational pull. She should head back now, she decided.
Asaya turned to leave, but pivoted back to look down the stone stairway carved into the ridge. A figure in a black and red cloak was approaching from downhill. A high collar prevented her from seeing most of the figure's face, but a large weapon of some sort was strapped to the figure's back. A sword? Reflexively, Asaya put her right hand on the beads around her left wrist. Once he stepped close enough, she realized the figure was a rather tall man and that the marks on his cloak were red clouds. They were distinctly menacing in a tacky way.
"Who are you?" She shouted at him.
Unaffected, he kept climbing the stairs, coming close enough for her to see his unnaturally blue, oddly-textured skin and tiny, yellow dots for eyes. Across his forehead a defaced hitai-ate of Kirigakure was proudly displayed. He was clearly no pilgrim.
"I said, 'who are you?'" Asaya shouted again.
The man halted. "Kagami Tomoyo." He said it like he was filing down a nail.
Asaya unwrapped the beads from her wrist. "Why are you here?" Examining his face further, she saw he didn't just look unnatural, he looked inhuman. Like a shark.
"I am Hoshigaki Kisame. One of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist." His voice was simultaneously slimy and gritty.
"Why are you here?" She repeated herself again.
"Kagami Tomoyo." He said.
What an obtuse ass. Not that he was pronouncing her name correctly, but how did he know it? "And?"
The man took the giant weapon from his back with one hand and swung it to his side. It really was a giant sword. How banal.
"You will be leaving with me now, girl."
Asaya stepped down from the bonsho, porcelain beads gripped in her right hand. Like hell she was.
Aggressively leaping towards the intruder, she landed just in front of him and a stone spike erupted upwards to strike him. He easily dodged by jumping to the side, but Asaya hadn't expected to actually hit him. She was simply sending the message that she planned to fight.
He lunged at her with his sword, smashing it into the stone stairway. But when the dust settled she had disappeared. Kisame scanned the ground. She must have burrowed herself under it. Typical Iwa ninja.
A shadow suddenly cast itself over him. Startled for a second, Kisame looked up to see a large boulder had appeared above him. He jumped downhill just in time to avoid being crushed. As soon as he landed, something like a whip appeared from the corner of his eye, headed straight for his face. He brought his left forearm up to block the blow, but instead of smashing, cutting, or otherwise injuring him, a string of pearls wound itself tight around his limb so tight he could feel them bruise his flesh. He looked at the other end of the sting to see the girl clutching it some meters away
"Next time will be your neck!" She yelled and then violently twisted her body.
By the string around his arm Kisame was whipped into the air and crashed into the side of the stone ridge. Bitch! He made to strike the string with his sword, but she retraced them. Enraged, he made a few seals and a giant wave manifested and rushed forth.
He was clearly trying to envelope her in his element. Trying to give himself the advantage. But water? On a mountain in Earth country? Against an Iwa shinobi? What a joke. Asaya knelt down and pounded both fists into the ground to summon a great barrier of stone. Despite the wave's immense volume, it ineffectively crashed into her barrier and the water simply drained down the ridge in an equally immense waste of effort.
Asaya shifted back to her feet, crouching with her weapon at the ready, eyes and ears open and waiting for his next attack. He may be a fool, but he was a strong fool. Taking any kind of hit wasn't an option. He appeared at the top of the wall then jumped to strike down at her with his massive sword. She leapt back to avoid the impact, but between the shock vibrating through the ground and her unsupportive formal footwear her ankle gave out and she stumbled.
Kisame saw his chance to strike the girl and took it. He lunged at her but instead of slashing, he scooped her up and flung her into the air, then waited for her to fall back down.
Danmit! Asaya thought midair. At the apex of her flight, she looked down at the shark-man. He looked up at her like a predator about to ambush his prey from below- like a shark about to devour a bird on the water. Knowing what he planned, she brought one hand to her chest in a seal while the other reached back with her beads.
Kisame's beady eyes widened as the girl flew helplessly through the air. Suspended, she was unable to control her movements as effectively she did on the ground. That meant she couldn't attack with the same force, but more importantly it meant she couldn't dodge. As for blocking, she obviously had nowhere near the physical strength he did. Kisame jumped upwards swinging samehada to devour her.
As soon as he left the ground, Asaya cast her string of beads. They multiplied in length and laced together into a net and flew at him, entwining themselves mercilessly around his limbs and ensnaring him. Shocked and rendered powerless, he dropped his sword and fell to the ground on his back with a stiff thud. Arms and legs completely entangled, he was unable to move. Asaya landed neatly and looked down at him in contempt while he floundered at her feet.
A jagged rock dug into Kisame's back painfully as he writhed. "You bitch!" He yelled at her while struggling against his bonds.
This man really was strong, she realized. It took much more of her power to keep him bound than she expected. "Who sent you after me?"
"Heh, wouldn't you like to know?" He mocked her, still raging in her trap.
Asaya rolled her eyes. She didn't know why she bothered asking when she knew he wasn't going to cooperate. No matter, she supposed. It would have been nice to bring him back alive so that interrogation could get the information out of him but she couldn't risk him breaking free. It was better to just kill him now. She raised a hand to her chest and prepared to make a seal.
Perched undetected atop the bonsho, Itachi had watched the whole fight. He was honestly impressed that the young woman was able to strike Kisame more times than he did her. And even more so that she was able to subdue him. It was certainly something he had never seen before. He looked down at his partner struggling fruitlessly in the woman's snare. He had better intervene before she killed him.
Asaya was about to execute the shark man when a new presence appeared suddenly behind her, alighting swiftly and silently like a great, black bird. Startled, she turned and stepped back. Where did he come from? She hadn't sensed anyone else's chakra.
"Kagami Tomoyo, I would have you release my comrade now." He said coldly.
This new figure was a young man with black hair and a fair complexion. The matching cloak he wore told her immediately that this new man was the partner of the one she had bound. Unlike his comrade, he looked like a normal human, but… his eyes… They were a deep red. More red then the painted structure that housed the bonsho. A glassy crimson made all the more intense by the refracted light of a violent sunset. Asaya had never seen anything like it. And the detached, expressionless way he looked at her… almost as if she weren't even there. Her lungs stopped breathing while her heart beat faster. He was someone to be afraid of.
"W-who are you?" Wary and on edge, her brows pinched together. She was unable to move while binding the shark monster. Vulnerable, even.
The young man's scarlet eyes almost burned her. "My name is Uchiha Itachi, and you will be leaving with me now."
When he finished the last word her vision involuntarily unfocused and her knees wobbled. The shadows of the mountainside stretched and warped together until they enveloped the whole earth. Then they kept twisting and growing until they crawled up and shrouded her own body in darkness. An illusion…? was her last thought before she lost consciousness.
Itachi caught her limp body as she fell forward into his arms. For all the trouble she had just given Kisame, subduing her with a genjustu was surprisingly effortless.
The chain of beads that ensnared Kisame retreated into its original form around the young woman's wrist. Itachi had thought they were some sort of onenju, or prayer beads, but upon examination he found they didn't have a larger guru bead and appeared to contain more than the usual 108. They were just a necklace of unglazed, porcelain pearls.
Kisame groaned and stood up. "You didn't have to intervene, you know. I could've broken free." He walked over to where samehada had landed and returned the sword to its place on his back.
Saying nothing to acknowledge the false statement, he gathered the unconscious woman in his arms and turned to walk away. "The disturbance will have attracted the attention of other shinobi. We should leave quickly."
"Feh." Kisame sneered and followed his partner.
The large, heavy, wooden double doors of the Tsuchikage's office slammed open as Mistress Fukurou entered.
"Where is Asaya?" She demanded. "What has happened to my apprentice?!"
Onoki and the two ranking officials at his desk looked up, startled. This was not unexpected, however. He knew the witch would come for him eventually. "Calm down." He said.
"Don't tell me to 'calm down.'" She rebuked him.
"I'm in a meeting! Can't you see that?" How dare she think she could just interrupt him on a whim? "Bother me when I'm not in the middle of business."
The two officials looked to each other hesitantly, then to Onoki and the old woman, clearly at a loss for what they should do. Mistress Fukurou sneered and they cowered like dogs. "You both, leave." She ordered.
They looked at Onoki as if he were going to save them.
"I said 'leave!'" Mistress Fukurou shouted at them while stampeding towards the desk, her wooden cane loudly striking the stone floor every other step.
They immediately stood up from their seats and scurried out of the office knowing it was better not to get caught in the fight.
Onoki sat back and huffed. "I don't appreciate you coming in here and-"
"You're the one who insisted she attend that event." She lambasted him. "You knew there was no reason for her to go. It was just a meaningless security risk because you wanted to use my apprentice in one of your selfish schemes!"
"Well maybe if you had been a good instructor and actually taught her to fight and defend herself this wouldn't have happened!" He countered.
"I'm a better instructor than you! I'm not the one whose own son knowingly disregarded the responsibility of protecting his charge."
"She left of her own free will!"
"After your son told her to!"
Would the old bat just die of a self-induced stroke? She was singularly the greatest adversary of his entire career as Tsuchikage. Onoki took a deep breath. He needed to think very strategically about what he was about to say. "I have already have men on the case to find her. We will find who is responsible for this and she will be returned safely in no time. Until then be patient."
"You have 'men' on the case? You have three inept children on the case. The leader of whom is the same son who allowed this happen in the first place."
He wanted so much to yell at the old bat to vacate his office right now or to threaten to call security. Ultimately it would just make him look bad to have an elderly woman forcibly removed from his office, nonetheless a fellow member of the Grand Council. It would be seen as weak, uncooperative leadership. "What exactly do you want from me? To go find her myself?"
Mistress Fukurou manipulated the string of ivory beads around her neck with her large, arthritic joints and bony fingers. "I want you to assign someone highly experienced this case so that my apprentice has a chance at coming back alive. Time is critical, Onoki-san." She pinched a single bead and rolled it between her index finger and thumb.
Crossing his arms, Onoki contemplated his options for a moment. If Fukurou didn't get what she wanted, or at least something, she'd retaliate by obstructing every other order of business he had. But he couldn't just let her win either. "Very well, I will assign additional, experienced personnel to the case."
"That's not good enough. I want you to replace your son with someone specializing in search and rescue."
Now that he definitely could not do. "You would insult my son?" It wasn't the first time she had offended him or his family- not by a long shot.
"I have been insulting your son this entire time. Do keep up." She said curtly.
Damn it, Fukurou. He thought. "I'm not going to publicly disgrace my son's-"
"He has already seen to that himself, don't you think?"
"Fine." Onoki waived an arm, defeated. "Fine! I'll find someone else and assign them to the case."
Mistress Fukurou stopped fiddling with her beads and brought her hand to rest by her side. She had won, but only mostly. "You know, Onoki-san," she tapped her polished wooden cane once as she prepared to leave, "perhaps you are just using this as an excuse to slight me, but the security of the entire village, not to mention Asaya's life, is what you are gambling with just to do so." Walking away, she said over her shoulder in disappointment, "I cannot imagine why that would be worth it to you."
"Ow…" Asaya winced. She brought a hand to cradle the side of her head. A pounding headache drummed against her temples. Weakly, she propped herself up and looked at her surroundings. The sky was cloudy and moonless, but she could tell she was on one of the craggy, infinity indistinguishable mountainsides of Earth country. Not that it helped her any. She remembered fighting two men before passing out. Well, one of them she fought, the other… What was his name?
"You're awake." Came that man's voice in the darkness.
He sat a few feet in front of her and the shark man rested a few feet beyond him. Instinctively, she grabbed her left wrist only to find that it was bare.
"Looking for these?" He said and held up her beads. Their pristine white almost shined through the night surrounding them. "You're quite formidable with them." She watched powerlessly while he tucked her beads back into in his cloak as if they were being swallowed by a black hole.
Once they disappeared, she looked back at the young man's face. She remembered how his eyes seemed to radiate a vivid, crystalline red, but now her eyes met a perfect black that did not gleam like normal eyes would. Asaya's chest heaved shaky and anxious. An unyielding, inescapable black that effortlessly subsumed and dissipated all light, squelching any hint at its true depths.
The young woman looked up at Itachi with a storm of conflicting thoughts and emotions concealed behind a pearlescent face. She was afraid of him- the slight tremor of her breath told him as much. Yet, she gazed directly at him- into him- gleaning all that she could.
In the dark, overcast night, Itachi met a small, constant glimmer.