A/N: This chapter takes place leading up to The Mute I & II and Snowflakes. It explains what they were doing in Snow country in the first place.
FYI This fic in now primarily posted on AO3. My user name is MajesticFlyingWalrus.
As of this update, the chronological chapter order is as follows:
1. The Night We Met
2. Serendipity
3. Wintersong (Trash chapter I recommend skipping)
4. Good Intent
5. Twenty Questions
6. Good Intent II
7. Good Intent III
8. Interlude (Skippable)
9. Smoke & Mirrors
10. The Mute
11. The Mute II
12. Snowflakes
13. An Eye For An Eye
14. Orbital Resonance
15. Visions
Asaya furtively tried to scribble on her left palm with a black ballpoint pen, but the ink kept clogging in the cold temperatures of Snow Country. Frustrating, because she was so close to finishing her work. Eventually she gave up and slipped the pen back into her pocket and covered her hand with a lilac, cable knit, fingerless glove.
Snow country was cold. This was obvious and easily inferred, but it was still annoyingly true, Asaya thought while rubbing her hands together. So long as they were walking the frigid temperature was bearable because the physical activity warmed her enough. Or while sitting in front of a campfire like they did nightly. But she had neither in present circumstances.
Kisame stood some feet away with his back to her while he viewed an old feudal palace that had been converted to a samurai military outpost off in the distance. He and Asaya waited in their usual uncomfortable silence for Itachi to return from scouting the location. Their current mission was to sneak in and steal some valuable object sealed behind a barrier.
Weren't fish supposed to be cold blooded? Asaya amused herself. Truly a biological wonder that Kisame did not freeze where he stood. The thought of tipping him over and shattering him to pieces didn't not cross her mind. Well, at least he wasn't actively antagonizing her.
Crunch, crunch, crunch… The sound of Itachi's footsteps compressing the snow signaled his return. "It's on the third floor. The easiest way in is to climb up the eastern flank of the fortress."
"Is that not what Zetsu suggested earlier?" Asaya asked. Gently, but she still asked.
Kisame scowled. She had grown too comfortable for a captive.
"Yes, but he is prone to amusing himself at our expense." Itachi answered sharply.
"Ah." She shrugged.
"A patrol passes through every few hours. Is that enough time for you to open the sealed door?" Itachi directly asked Asaya.
"I don't know. I'd have to see it first." She answered. "If Zetsu is capable of passing through solid matter, why doesn't he retrieve it? It seems much easier for him than us."
Kisame answered, "If he could make anything other than his own body pass through solid walls, he would."
"Oh." She shrugged.
Cheeky bitch.
"How much time do you think you will need to open the door?" Itachi asked.
"I don't know. I haven't seen it." She repeated herself. It was the honest truth.
"Useless." Kisame muttered.
"What are the odds you can open it in under an hour?" Itachi reframed the question.
"I don-" She began.
"Just answer the question."
"Fifty-fifty?" Technically an answer.
Itachi breathed in slowly. Why had he bothered to ask when he knew she couldn't give a meaningful answer if she wanted to?
"Could we sneak in, take a look at the seal, and then either open it then or leave and come back later with a different plan?" Not that Asaya should offer suggestions to terrorists, but helping was less boring than silent idleness.
"Generally speaking, that's an ill-advised strategy."
"Could-"
"Can't Zetsu get a look at the seal and tell us what we're dealing with?" Kisame suggested. It wasn't a bad Idea, actually.
Asaya frowned.
Thinking for a moment, Itachi said, "I don't know that he'd know what to look for. Asaya, what information would he need to bring back to you?"
Asaya rubbed the back of her neck. "A lot. Could he bring me a picture or replication of it?" Not that she didn't already know the answer.
"No." Itachi gave up on the idea as fast as he considered it. "And again, he isn't always the most reliable informant."
"So, we'll just have to find out when we get there?"
"Yes." Itachi sighed.
The three stood about 70 yards from the eastern flank. The fortress was impressive, at least in terms of size. Or, it wasn't unimpressive. Or, at least Asaya thought it nice for a military outpost. But what did she know about feudal palaces repurposed into military outposts?
It stood five stories tall and sat right up against the sheer edge of a cliff. The architecture was obviously period appropriate, with tiered irimoya-style roofing and almost entirely wooden construction. It was definitely the palace of a feudal lord from the warring-states era that had since been repurposed into a military outpost for Snow Country's samurai. Why else build something on the edge of a cliff, if not for natural defense?
"Do you think they will have anyone checking for two criminals and a woman scaling the side of their building?" Asaya asked while sizing up the building. Being an Iwa kunoichi, climbing near-vertical surfaces was second nature to her.
"Occasionally. And, Asaya," Itachi's tone lowered, "If you are thinking of intentionally getting captured just to escape us, don't. They'll kill you without asking questions."
Actually, she hadn't thought of it till now. "I thought samurai were neutral to towards all nations."
"They are. Which is why they won't care what you tell them before they execute you." Was Itachi's undiplomatic reply.
"Oh." She shrugged. There was a chance he was lying, but she trusted him to know when her life was in danger.
"We'll need to climb up to the fourth floor. Follow my lead and-" Itachi noticed her curiously raised brow. "The item is on the third floor, but the only way to reach that section of the building is by a staircase on the fourth floor."
"Ah." She gave a small nod.
"Kisame," Itachi addressed his partner," when we reach the stairs, you'll need to stay back and keep watch. It's not heavily guarded, but you'll need to prevent them from trapping us inside."
"Understood."
Itachi stepped forward first.
When they reached the walls surrounding the eastern courtyard, Itachi led them left for some yards before stopping and silently jumping up to latch onto the wall, scaling to the top, and peering over the edge.
The courtyard was completely dark with no patrol or stationed guards. However, on the second-floor balcony a guard with a yellow lantern was posted at the far corner overlooking the cliff. Itachi signaled behind him to Asaya and Kisame to stay put. After a few moments, the guard turned away and the lamplight dimmed to nothing as they disappeared behind the corner.
Itachi motioned for them to follow. Swiftly and silently, they darted across the courtyard, leapt up to the lowest-tiered roof, and then up to fourth floor where they then circled the wall until they reached a particular window.
Itachi again motioned for them to stop while he peered through the window pane. Patrols on the upper levels were not frequent, but there would be- inevitably- a guard posted by the entrance to the stairwell. Confident the hallway was clear, he grabbed a kunai and used it to skillfully pry it open with minimal noise. They climbed in and Asaya tried to shut the window behind them. It would close but it wouldn't properly latch. "Tch." She mumbled.
"Leave it." Itachi said in a low whisper and tilted his head to the side to indicate she should follow. Which she did.
The hallways twisted in the dark as they navigated through them. Luckily, they encountered no one until they reached the stairwell, where a single guard waited.
Careening her head around the corner, Asaya watched as Itachi calmly and confidently approached. The guard startled, clearly having never expected to actually encounter an intruder in his career.
"H-Halt!" He turned and faced Itachi with a wide stance and hand on the hilt of his sword.
Itachi merely gestured with a single hand and the guard fell over unconscious. Like magic.
Somewhere in her gut, Asaya pitied the guard. Then she realized that she must have appeared the same when Itachi used genjutsu on her and she frowned in embarrassment over her own weakness. She followed Itachi down the narrow stairwell while Kisame stayed behind with the unconscious guard.
"So, what are we stealing, anyway?" The question just occurred to Asaya.
"I don't know. I just know it's inside."
Her steps stalled for a brief moment. "So…?"
"It doesn't really matter what it is so long as I know how to get it. It's all the same whether it's money, a scroll, or a teapot: sneak in, grab it, get out."
"Or a person." She thought he'd find it funny.
He gave only an indecipherable, short, low hum.
"What if it's a 100-kilo gold statue?"
"It could be a corpse and the answer would still be the same." Itachi wasn't sure why she was asking. "I'd put it in a scroll for transportation, like the kind used to store weapons, and smuggle it out that way." He looked surprised by her question.
Asaya interpreted that to mean he had thought her question silly. "I could make one of those." She stated defensively. "Which is why I know they aren't easy to come by. I just didn't know you had one."
Itachi faintly shook his head and turned away, as if something troubled him, but she was not sure exactly what.
At the bottom of the stairs, they found a windowless room with a smaller chamber walled off within it- a sort of room within a room. The entire thing was simply lavish: gilded panels with intricately detailed depictions of pine trees, rivers, and red-crowned cranes; hand-carved crown molding finished with dark lacquer; gold-plated brackets accenting the joint of every post and mantle; enamel ceiling coffers of shippo patterns accented with yet more gold. Garish and nauseating was what it was. Definitely the sort of thing a wealthy but not-to-high-ranking daimyo would have commissioned to fancy himself cosmopolitan, both Itachi and Asaya mutually thought. Dust and cobwebs had accumulated within every coffer and all the gold had tarnished to a dull luster. For all it's former splendor, whatever use the room originally held had long lost after being converted into a military outpost. Its sole purpose now was the protect whatever was sealed away within the smaller chamber. They decided it was probably for the best that no one was regularly subjected to this tastelessness.
The smaller chamber matched the larger one- in that it was an affront to the senses- with the addition of a sprawling, black calligraphy pattern on all four sides. Reaching out and running a single finger down a line of ink, Asaya found herself appraising the craftsmanship of it.
"How much do you make for these heists? I imagine quite a bit if you're willing to go through the effort of abducting me for this." Another question that just occurred to her.
"Guess." Her question amused him.
"10,000 ryo." Asaya thought it was an overestimate.
"Multiply that by a factor of five."
"I don't believe you."
"If someone is in a position where they need to hire a criminal organization like the Akatsuki, they will pay almost anything. They don't have much of a choice." Itachi wondered what she might think if she knew what Iwa had paid them, what Iwa had paid them for, or what debt Iwa still owed them. But he would not taunt her with it. "What do you think of the seal?" He changed topic.
"Let me see…" She walked around the perimeter of the small chamber to inspect the seal's text. At first, the large size of it had intimidated her, but circling back to Itachi, she concluded, "I think it's just big. It seems to repeat the same pattern throughout." Recognizing a hint of hopefulness in his face, she anticipated his next question, "I'll still need to parse it out, but I think I can solve it quickly enough. How much time?"
"Not much. Maybe thirty minutes." Itachi said.
Asaya's eyes rounded just a bit.
"It is what it is."
Kisame waited by the stairwell's entrance. Somewhat restless, but he was used to waiting for extended periods until his strength was called for. If it was ever called for. He understood very well why stealth was needed for this mission- and most missions. But, Kisame was a strong man. His talents were wasted. Or at least underutilized. What a shame.
"So, it's not too complicated. But there is a catch." Asaya said.
"Is it going to explode?" Itachi eyed her with an unimpressed affect.
"They don't always explode." Smirking, she playfully rolled her eyes. "It requires fire to open, or fire energy. It's not unheard of, but I not something I've seen a whole lot of, either, because it's so simple."
"I think you can solve it." Itachi remarked.
"Your confidence in me is flattering, even though I know you're just being nice. But there is one problem." Her tone waivered.
Instead of asking, he simply kept looking at her.
"I can't use fire."
"So…?"
"I don't know. Let me think about it."
"Tch." Kisame glanced over the pathetically unconscious guard beside him and heaved a sigh. It was small fry entertainment but Itachi could have at least given hm something. He shifted his gaze back and forth down each side of the definitively empty hallway.
Asaya looked Itachi dead in the eye. "I think have an idea, but I'm going to need your help." An anxious finger tapped twice on the seal.
"Alright."
"I'm not sure it will work- and I'm sorry if it doesn't- but it's the only I've got, so if you don't mind helping…" She blathered insecurely.
"Asaya, just tell me."
Recomposing herself, Asaya explained, "I would like you to generate some fire energy so I can try and channel it."
Itachi nodded but said nothing, waiting for further instruction.
"Again, I've never tried this before." Her voice waivered again. "I don't really know if it's even possible, but it's the only idea I've got."
Itachi spoke as if to reassure her. "What do you want me to do?"
Placing both palms flat on the center of the seal on the inner chamber's double doors, she then instructed, "Put your hands on top of mine. I'll make some hand signs, and you'll conjure some fire energy. Then, I'll try and channel it into the seal."
Affirmatively, Itachi stepped towards her and positioned his hands over hers. He felt her body tense up and shy away just a little as he stood next to her. The breadth of his palms enveloped hers, the tips of his long fingers wrapping over her nails. He had always been able to overpower her, but now she felt acutely brittle as he touched her. As if he could crush her like a wren.
Lifting one palm, she began to make a sign.
"I can't make one-handed signs like you."
"Oh, right." Asaya had forgotten most could not. And it was probably best not to, anyway.
Awkwardly, she brought their four hands together. It took a few tries for her to figure out how to articulate their fingers cohesively. His bulk felt clumsy and slow to her, making her stretch her digits awkwardly wide to accommodate. But Itachi readily adapted to follow her lead, keeping his hands anchored to hers but relaxed enough to allow her to guide their movements. Asaya made a series of four signs- ox, sheep, rat, then dog- and pressed her palms back onto the door.
A short, sharp inhalation caught in Asaya's throat as Itachi's energy poured into her hands and immaterially wisped through her fingertips and up her arms. It felt warm and soft- velvety, even. However, it soon built up to a mild pinpricking sensation across her skin. Holding his energy was just like sitting too close to the fire: soothing at first but spiteful if one overstayed their welcome. Not quite a true burn but enough to make one flinch.
She realized she needed to channel it out of her body or she might suffer for it. Using her own energy, she tried to push his outward towards the seal. She met with only resistance, like slamming into a brick wall, and she fought the instinct to recoil. Itachi must have felt something, too, as he now looked at her apprehensively.
"Don't do anything." Asaya warned, now acutely aware of how reckless this was. She bit her tongue in anxious thought. Instead of pushing, maybe it made more sense to pull? She tried moving energy around his, like wind through the trees, and coaxed it into the seal. The black ink under their hands began to singe and burn in a red-orange glow as it peeled away and dissipated into the air.
"It worked!" She whispered in breathy excitement.
Asaya's moment of triumph was short lived.
Itachi's energy suddenly surged through her hands and began to blister her skin. The ink no longer peeled away, but lit up as it absorbed their combined energies. First red, then yellow, and finally to an almost divine white.
"Ah!" Asaya winced painfully as his energy scorched her. "Stop giving me so much. I can't control it!" Panic quickly overcame her as the white-how glow rapidly spread around the circumference of the inner chamber.
"I'm not giving you anything." Itachi insisted. He genuinely only felt her pulling it out of him. "Stop taking so much." From her reaction he realized the situation was far worse than he initially thought.
"I'm trying but I can't cut it off. I- I can't even remove my hands." Were she not so afraid, she would have screamed the words instead of just gasping them.
"What do you mean-"
Kisame leaned his broad shoulders against the wall beside the stairwell and wantonly kicked his heel on the floor. What is taking so long? Just as he tilted his head back to touch the wall-
Boom!
He felt the vibrations through his shoulders and skull. "Shit." A minute later he heard shouting down the hall and he grabbed Samehada's hilt. Three samurai rounded the corner and Kisame's small, yellow eyes flared with excitement.
"Asaya, wake up!" Itachi yelled as he shook her unconscious form. He leaned over and wrapped his arms under her back and knees to pick her up when she groaned and sat up.
Immediately she grabbed the back of her head where she could feel a bump rising. She opened her eyes but had to immediately shut them. Everything was so bright it burned. And not just her eyes, but her whole face, her limbs, and her lungs as she breathed in. Everything was on fire, she realized.
"Damnit, Itachi, get up here!" Kisame's voice bellowed down the stairwell.
"Are you alright?" Itachi offered his hand to help her stand.
"Yeah, thank you." She coughed through the smoke as he pulled her up. Blinking, she shifted her attention to the sealed chamber. It, too, was on fire, but the doors were blown wide open. Through the flames she could see the shadow of circular object centrally displayed within.
"We have to go-" Itachi began to say.
Asaya impulsively ran into the chamber and grabbed the object off its pedestal. It was warm, almost hot to the touch, and heavier than she expected but not cumbersome. As she ran out of the chamber Itachi pushed her up the stairs ahead of himself.
Kisame lunged and struck down the final samurai with a wet squelch. Although, the sound was hard to hear over the roaring flames around him. He was surprised that the samurai had been brave enough to stay and fight him in the inferno. Then again, he thought while looking at the burning walls, why hadn't he bothered to evacuate himself? Oh, right, because he enjoyed the thrill.
Kisame turned around to see Itachi and Asaya emerge from the stairwell. "What happened?" He yelled down the hall.
"Long story." Itachi said. "But we have the object."
Kisame noticed Asaya clutched a round item to her chest. "Well, whatever. Let's go."
Itachi made to step forward, but the burning wooden construction gave a long, loud creek before the ceiling collapsed between the two men. Itachi stepped back, turned, and said to Asaya, "Follow me." before running down the hall.
The hallways, once seemingly cramped in the dark, were lit up. Itachi and Asaya raced through them trying to find an exit- any exit- to escape the burning castle. They coughed and wheezed through the smoke. Hot air and ashes dried out and coated their throats and lungs.
Eventually, they found a window. Itachi thoroughly smashed it with his elbow in three hits. Glass shards cut into his palm as he lifted himself through the window with a hand on the bottom ledge. He then extended his arm to Asaya to help pull her through and he caught her by the shoulders as she landed. The ceramic tiles clacked under their feet.
They now found themselves overlooking the sheer face of the cliff. Itachi looked in every direction while trying to find an escape. Behind, below, and beside them was nothing but fire. The only place to go was up, but even that would only be safe for so long.
"Itachi, we need to jump." Asaya told him.
"We'd fall to out deaths." Itachi kept looking for a solution.
"No, we won't." She insisted. "Trust me, please." Her hand gripped is forearm.
He hesitated a moment before nodding. Alright. He seemed to wordlessly say.
Asaya kept her hand on Itachi as she counted "One, two, three!"
Itachi would be a liar if he claimed that the fall did not terrify him during the few seconds while the air ripped through his hair and the distance between them and the earth disappeared in a matter of heartbeats.
With her free hand, Asaya weaved a few signs and then outstretched her hand towards the ground. A dense, violent whirlwind erupted beneath them to form a sort of cushion upon which they floated weightlessly for a moment before gently landing on their hands and knees in the thick blanket of snow, some of which now clung to their hair and clothing after being kicked up by the wind.
Asaya brushed the snowflakes from her fringe. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah." Itachi swept the snow off his shoulders. "You?"
"Yes."
"I didn't know you could use wind. That's quite a useful technique." He was clearly relieved to still be alive.
Instead of acknowledging the compliment, she said, "Sorry, I would have told you but there wasn't time." She looked back up the cliff to the burning castle from which they had jumped. The drop had been a much longer than she expected. Although, that was a good thing because it meant no one would dare follow after them.
Itachi joined her in looking up at the castle. Flames spewed from every side on all three upper levels. At least it was magnificently on fire. "I thought you said it wouldn't explode." He meant it in jest, but she did not react to it as such.
"It didn't." A twinge of shame made her look away. "We did- I did. I messed up. I'm sorry." Reaching into her coat's inner pocket, she pulled out the object they had stolen. "Here." She offered it to him.
Itachi accepted it, but before she could withdraw her hand, he grabbed her left wrist and flipped it over to expose the red, swollen burns forming on the dorsal side. "You're hurt." He spoke with a subtlety she didn't want to place. "If it blisters, don't break them."
Startled, she snatched her hand back before he had the chance to examine further. "It's nothing." She deflected his comment while scrambling to put her lilac gloves back on. "And your hand is bleeding. The glass might have cut a nerve."
Itachi flexed the flesh of his thumb where the glass window had cut him. It was bloody, but he could move it and he did not feel any imbedded shards. "It's fine."
Silencing the urge to contest the issue, Asaya looked back up the cliff to see the top floor of the castle collapse. "I think-" her shoulders fell and she rubbed the back of her neck. "I think what happened is that when I guided your fire energy into the seal with my own, mine got stuck. It wasn't designed for anything but fire so it so it couldn't properly activate. It just kept drawing in and amplifying yours. Which, when mine prevented activation, turned it into a battery that could only hold so much until it… exploded." Asaya sheepishly explained, still unable to look at him. "My natural affinity is wind. I should have known this would happen. I'm sorry."
"We have the object." Itachi held it up. "It doesn't matter how."
"But I-"
"Unless you consider the loss of a minor feudal lord's third-rate architecture a global tragedy."
"No." She felt she ought to thank him for his sentiment, but the thought of it made her curiously shy. "It's a magic mirror, I think." She noticed his bemused expression as he examined it. "If you reflect light off of it, it will project an image."
Itachi arched a dark brow.
"Yeah. I'd demonstrate, but I don't have a proper light source for it." Asaya said. "Usually, they project whatever image is on the reverse."
Itachi flipped the bronze disc over to reveal two peafowl courting one another amongst camellia blossoms.
"That's a fairly mundane image. Chances are that it's a false back and the real image is something different. Something secret."
"That would explain why it's so valuable. Let's go, then. We'll meet Kisame at the rendezvous location." Itachi turned and walked away.
Asaya's footsteps echoed Itachi's through the snow and into the birch forest with a crunch, crunch, crunch…