Against the World

"Them or me? It's an easy choice."

-x-

It sounded terrible, but I couldn't for the life of me remember my first kill. I know it was before my team and I were captured, and after our first C-rank, but that was all.

I don't remember who it was. I don't remember if it was a man or a woman. I don't know how old they were. Was it an adult? A child? Someone in between? I haven't the faintest. It was all in the heat of the moment. I see their faces only enough to recognize "not an ally" before I move in for the kill. They blur together, unimportant. Just one more down.

I don't particularly care that I can't remember. Maybe I should. Maybe, earlier on, when I was new to this world, this way of life, I would have.

Now though?

What does it matter? It's not like death is the end. I know that better than anyone.

-x-

Seventeen

With the announcement that Team Four would be heading out to the front lines shortly, I knew I had to be more prepared than ever before. This was different from my previous missions.

The first thing I did after finding out about our assignment was head back to my apartment in the dorms to do an inventory on my storage seals.

I cleared a large space, which wasn't difficult considering how sparsely furnished my apartment was, and slowly started unsealing everything from my arm. Once that seal was empty, I moved onto the one on my thigh, and repeated.

I tapped my chin and stared at the seal on my thigh. I would be leaving the village soon, for who knows how long. I would be in a place where, potentially, a lot more people could see it, and worse, in a situation where I might be captured, and my captors probably won't have any reason to keep me alive. While it was hard to break that seal, if I was dead, it would be possible to brute force it. (If I was dead, sensei could brute force it.) I didn't want anyone getting their hands on some of this stuff, even if I wasn't around any more.

It took me some time, but a few hours later I had a new and improved seal. It would be troublesome to unseal things from it, but if I died, everything inside it would be destroyed.

With that out of the way, I started sorting everything I'd removed from my seals. Anything sensitive from my thigh seal went right back in to the new and improved version, though things that were less sensitive but frequently used were moved to my arm seal. I only paused when I picked up an old journal with English writing on the cover. Vaguely, I recalled stealing it on a mission ages ago.

I'd forgotten about it, which begged all sorts of questions because how the fuck did I forget about evidence that someone, somewhere, knew English when all my private notes are writtenin it? But still, I didn't have time to deal with this now, so I sealed it back in my thigh, made a mental note about it, and continued with inventory.

In the mess of items covering my apartment, I found many things. Among them were several sets of clothes that proved I had, in fact, grown over the last few years, if not all that much, an armoury's worth of kunai and shuriken, several odds and ends I'd lost over the years, and the documents Kairi-sensei had me seal in my arm before That Mission oh so long ago.

I'd forgotten I had them, and with Kairi-sensei being the only person to know I had them, and still in a coma, no one had ever asked for them.

Unable (or perhaps more accurately, unwilling) to fight my curiosity, I couldn't help but look over them. Most of it was written in code, so I sealed those parts away in my thigh to decipher later. While it was probably outdated information, it was undoubtedly something I wasn't supposed to know, and as it was, I wanted to know everything I possibly could about the war.

One of the parts that wasn't coded though, elicited a broken, bitter laugh. Turns out we did have the key, all along.

-x-

While I was away, I knew there would be no one to tend to Hanako and her daughter's grave, so once I was all packed I headed to the cemetery.

I stopped by my mother's first, in the civilian graveyard. Since she shared a headstone with many other civilians, the grave was in good shape, and didn't need any cleaning. I didn't have to worry about it being taken care of in my absence.

I sat in front of it for a bit, taking time to remember my mother. It had been a long time now, since she died. My memories of her were fading, and I hated it. If it weren't for the pictures I had been painting, I doubt I would even remember her face all that well.

Eventually, I pulled myself away, and headed towards Hanako's grave in the ninja cemetery.

Unlike my mother's grave, the one Hanako shared with her daughter was in much worse shape. It was dusty and surrounded by weeds. The flowers I'd laid on it were long since dead. I hadn't been back since I brought her here after she died, and it looked like no one else had either. I frowned. For all Tominaga Junichi acted like he cared, it seemed he couldn't even be bothered to visit.

Bitter thoughts of Hanako's younger brother filled my mind as I picked away at the weeds and wiped down the grave. Once it was clean, I traced my fingers over the engravings reverently. After everything, It didn't matter that we shared no blood, Hanako was the only family I really knew. The only family I could remember.

Even if, I thought to myself as I eyed the dates on the grave. Even if she was a liar.

I wished I had a chance to ask her about that lie. But it was far too late.

-x-

The next day I received notice of the designated meeting place for those of us being sent out.

Two days after that I showed up in one of the large training fields at four in the morning. Inside my seals, I had enough supplies to last me a year, and had scrolls with three months worth for Sakura and Aiko. I considered sealing away a year's worth for them, but I'd already spent more than I could afford stocking up, and unlike the seals on my body, the scrolls could easily be lost. It wasn't worth it.

I was early—very early. Officially we were supposed to arrive by six, but I couldn't sleep. The field was one of the largest I'd seen, empty, and completely flat. It was one I'd never been to before. I jumped up into one of the trees at the edges, and settled in to wait.

I'd been a ninja for three years, chuunin for over a year, and this was the first time I was being sent out on for a long period of time. My team had been lucky so far. Or fortunate, rather. Luck had nothing to do with it. We were valuable. We'd been chosen for important positions, were being groomed for them. They'd already almost lost months of effort put into training us, they didn't want to risk it again. Not when it was now years of effort.

So we'd been protected, trained, and kept away from the worst of the war as much as possible. We were, as much as was possible, coddled.

As the hours ticked by, other ninja trickled into the field. Most were wearing the standard navy uniform, but there were others who were like me and decided to stick with what they usually wore. While wearing your own clothes instead of the uniform could make you a target, some of us had gear tailored to our fighting style, and the standard navy blues just didn't cut it.

I was broken out of my musings by a hand on my shoulder. Jumping, I reflexively palmed a kunai, only to be met with a low chuckle.

"Relax, Sekai-kun." said a familiar voice.

I sighed. "Oh, it's just you, Itachi. Are they sending you out too?"

He hummed in agreement. "Come on, Sekai-kun. It's almost time to fall in, and your teammates just arrived." He pointed to the opposite side of the field, where Aiko and Sakura had appeared while I was speaking with him. "Go join them."

I nodded. Waving a temporary goodbye, I jumped down from the tree and headed towards my team.

"Sekai!" Sakura called as I approached. "We were wondering where you were." I noted that like me, she forewent the uniform and stuck to her typical red and black attire. Aiko, of course, wore the uniform, as she usually did.

"Sorry." I said, shrugging a shoulder.

Beyond that, we didn't have time to talk, as we were called to line up for attendance and briefing.

We fell in line towards the front, standing at ease. Around us, the other ninja did the same, except for Itachi, who I noted with some surprise was the leader of the this company. When everyone was in line, he pulled out a scroll and started roll call.

I noticed most teams didn't have a number, but were instead named after the captain, though we weren't the only team with a number. When Itachi got around to Team Four, I answered, as I was the nominal leader of the team.

I also noted we were some of the youngest ninja present. Most everyone was at least chuunin, and despite most people graduating from the academy by age ten these days, with the exception of children who's parents had the pull to keep them their until twelve, most took a few years to reach chuunin, if they did at all. (If they lived long enough to.)

Once certain everyone was present, Itachi began the briefing. We would be travelling to Base 121 in Hot Water Country, which was a minor base, intended for surveillance and as a place for the ninja fighting skirmishes in Frost Country to retreat to.

It should be relatively safe, since as far as I knew, most of the fighting was on the western front. I couldn't help but wonder if that influenced the decision to send my team to this specific base.

-x-

While in Fire Country, we moved as one large group. We travelled slower than my team was used to, but I suppose that was to be expected travelling with a whole company of ninja instead of just a team.

In further contrast, it was much quieter. Aiko, Sakura and I had a tendency to talk when we travelled, unless stealth was required. Now, no one spoke, and almost everyone was able to move silently.

The combination of a slower pace than I was used to and the silence made the journey drag on.

Shortly before the sun set, and close to the border with Hot Water, we made camp for the night. It was all done quietly and efficiently. Once we were done, a watch shift was established, we ate, and aside from the first watch, we all went to bed. Unsurprisingly, my team was one of the lucky ones that were not assigned a shift.

We woke early the next morning, and Itachi divided us into smaller groups. Team Four was paired with Itachi himself, and two men we'd never met, but appeared to be in their early twenties, and based on their purple pin, they were special jounin. They did not introduce themselves, and we did not introduce ourselves either. We simply followed Itachi's lead.

As a group of six, we moved faster than we had as an entire company, but equally silently. Itachi was careful to set the speed at something my team could reasonably maintain without exhausting us, though I'm sure he and the two special jounin could have travelled faster.

It was still a long journey into Hot Water, as the base was located deep into their territory, near the small stretch of northern coast.

The base itself was fairly large, with space for about three hundred people, though according to Itachi it typically only houses about two thirds of that. It was semi-underground, built into the base of a steep, but relatively short grassy mountain. The entrance was wide, almost half a kilometre across, and there were several outdoor log buildings nearby.

Itachi led us inside, through cramped corridors reinforced with earth jutsu for stability, to an office area. There, we each filled out forms verifying our arrival and making sure we would be allotted spaces in the barracks and regular provisions for the duration of our time at the base. When we were done, we were sent to the women's barracks.

Unlike the previous barracks we'd stayed in for only a few days back when we were genin, these ones were almost full. With a cursory glance around the room I counted about fifty beds, and only a handful weren't in use or marked with a reservation number.

My team found our designated bunks easily enough, and fortunately they were all clustered together.

"Swap you?" Aiko asked, indicating her bunk, which happened to be right below mine. I scoffed, but didn't otherwise answer. I was used to sleeping higher up. I wasn't going to switch to a bottom bunk, and she knew it before she even asked.

It didn't take long to get settled in, but we were told to wait here until we received further orders, so wait we did.

Sakura and Aiko took the time to converse, but I used it to study. Before I left, I copied out several interesting looking exercises from textbooks in the D-rank archives, so I wouldn't get bored in my down time on base. I'd been advised that life on base could be quite boring.

Hours passed while we kept ourselves busy, and other women joined us in the barracks. Most appeared to be in their late teens to early twenties, but unlike our previous experience in the barracks, no one made a move to introduce themselves. Roughly half of those who joined us, left soon after, taking their things with them and leaving empty bunks. They must have been some of the ninja our company was sent to relieve from duty. The other half seemed vaguely familiar, and my guess is that they were part of the group we'd split up with before crossing into Hot Water.

The last group arrived early the next morning when I was sleeping, just before sunrise, but before they could even settle in, our first orders as ninja stationed at base 121 arrived.

They needed back up in Frost, immediately.

-x-

We were sent out in the same groups we'd travelled in, so my team was joined by Itachi, and the two special jounin from before.

"The three of you are fresh—you've never been in a situation like this," Itachi said. He held himself stiffly, and the stress lines beneath his eyes seemed deeper than ever. He stared at us sombrely. "You've fought other ninja before, but this is different. It's going to be chaos. Things move fast. You need to pay attention at all times, and be careful to avoid friendly fire." He sighed. "I was hoping we'd have more time to prepare you for this, but the situation has escalated since the village has heard from this base." Itachi's gaze moved on to the other two males. "Kumasaka, Hayashi, do your best to watch over them."

The men looked at each other, trading a loaded glance, but nodded. "Yes, sir."

"We need to arrive as quickly as possible, so until we cross into Frost, we'll each be carrying a member of Team Four, understood?" We nodded. "Sekai-kun, you're with me. Kumasaka, you can take Aiko-san, Hayashi, take Sakura-san."

The three men all leaned forward, and the three of us girls leapt on their backs. I wrapped my arms loosely but firmly around Itachi's shoulders, and his arms supported my legs. Without further ado, we took off.

We ran like that for hours until Itachi signalled for everyone to stop, and gently set me down. The other two men quickly followed suit in urging Aiko and Sakura off their backs. By this time the sun had long since risen, and was reaching it's peak in the sky. We took a quick break to rehydrate ourselves and eat a niNRG bar. After refuelling, we continued on. Itachi took the lead, with my team following behind him, and the pair of special jounin behind us.

Trees hand long since thinned out, forcing us to move on the ground.

I could tell we were approaching the battle. Shouts and crashes could be heard in the distance, mingled with the screech of steel meeting steel. I noticed stray weapons littering the thinning grass, and the occasional corpse was lying around. It looked like we were succeeding in pushing the opposition back, at least.

The closer we came, the worse it was.

Before I knew it, we were almost in the thick of it. The six of us were forced to scatter when the ground beneath us collapsed from an earth jutsu.

I paid no attention to the appearance of the people around me beyond checking whether they bore the Leaf's symbol or not before attacking anyone who didn't, and helping those who did.

My small size left me largely ignored by the enemy at first, and I used the opportunity to ensnare enemy nin in genjutsu, disorienting them long enough for allies I'd never met to catch them unaware and dispose of them. Some of the more basic genjutsu Itachi taught me back in the day were ineffective, so I abandoned them for more subtle and less common techniques. It was a trade off, increased effectiveness for increased effort, but I didn't have to worry about my jutsu being shrugged off or ignored. I caught dozens of foes in my illusions, and they all perished, either at my hand or that of someone else. Sooner than I'd hoped, the foreign ninja who had yet to be caught in my illusions realized what I was up to. They shouted off a warning I barely heard, but I gathered they were identifying me as the one responsible for catching their ninja in genjutsu. Ninja who previously had no real target shifted their focus to me. I had become a target.

Unable to concentrate during the onslaught, I had to abandon my genjutsu efforts, and focus on close combat. With a kunai in each hand, I did my best to block and deflect strikes from fists and blades, countering where I could, but I was soon overwhelmed.

My size made it easier to slip in between enemy nin and dodge, but it was harder to attack them in turn. If I was out of their reach, they were even further out of mine.

I could fix that, though.

For the first time outside of training, I channelled chakra to the seal on my upper back.

Before she could react, the woman coming at me from behind was impaled by the small, sharp point at the end of one of my chains as it burst from my back with incredible speed.

I released a total of three of them, each a steely grey, and glowing faintly with chakra saturation. The connection to my chakra network allowed me to control the chains with little conscious thought, and I used my two free chains to bat away attackers while I pulled my third chain free from the dead woman's chest cavity.

With three extra "limbs" to fight with, I was able to distance myself from my attackers. In the brief reprieve I'd earned with the revelation of my chains, I took note of my condition.

My breath came in short, quick pants. I deliberately took a deep breath and slowed my breathing. I had no idea how long I'd been out here fighting. It could have been less than a minute or more than an hour, but I was already badly bruised and bleeding from the cuts of kunai and other blades I hadn't managed to completely dodge. There was nothing to be done about it, though, and I wasn't gravely injured, so I ignored it and reentered the fray, stabbing at another Cloud ninja with my bloodied chain.

I used one to attack, two to defend, and with the extra breathing room my chains gave me, I was able to focus enough to start casting genjutsu again. It wasn't as effective on the ninja who were directly attacking me, as most were expecting it, so I focused strikes with my chains on the people coming at me, and returned to using my genjutsu to assist the other Leaf ninja.

Despite the low cost of genjutsu and my chains, after using them so much, I eventually started to feel the drain on my chakra. The movement of my chains grew sluggish the longer I used them, and eventually I decided to pull one of them back to reduce the chakra consumption. The chains may have been saturated in chakra, but I still needed to keep up a small, steady flow of chakra to connect to and control them.

With only two chains left, I had to use them more wisely, so I ceased using genjutsu, which had the added benefit of cutting back on the chakra drain. A single genjutsu may not take a lot out of me, especially with my skewed chakra, but I must have cast over a hundred by that point, and it added up.

I had some soldier pills Sakura made, but they were sealed away in my arm, and I didn't have the time to unseal them and take one. In the future, I'd have to keep them somewhere more accessible. I'd never been in a situation where I didn't have time to unseal what I needed. Perhaps a seal on my tongue, that could release them one at a tim—

"Sekai!" I whipped my head to the direction of whoever called my name, but it was too late. While I was distracted thinking about a new sealing idea, a man with glowing fists had come up in my blind spot. He swiped at me, and while his fist itself missed, I wasn't quick enough to duck out of range of the chakra encasing it. It brushed up the back of my arm, from the elbow to the shoulder, peeling away the skin.

I screamed, dropping to my knees. My eyes watered and my vision grew blurry with tears. I blinked them away.

Furious, both with myself for not paying attention and the man for causing me such immense pain, I lashed out with my chains. I wrapped one around his torso, circling up to his neck. I tightened it, squeezing until his head popped off. Instead of dropping his corpse, I used it to block a barrage of projectiles, and swung it at his allies.

"Sakura, on Sekai!" The voice seemed distant and far away, but it was the same that had warned me of the man approaching. It was fortunate I heard, because I only barely restrained myself from swinging the body at the pink and red blur that raced towards me.

Sakura let out a roar, punching anyone who got between us, and sent them flying. When she reached me, her palm immediately lit up with green healing chakra. I hissed when it made contact and she began regenerating skin on my shoulder. She picked me up, holding me with one arm and healing with the other, and began to run away. I pulled my chains back, so it wasn't as awkward to carry me. Behind us, Itachi covered our retreat.

I realized it was he who had called out the warning that had probably saved my life. The man had been aiming for my head.

Once we were out of the thick of it, Sakura set me down. With one hand, she kept healing, and the other she reached into the pouch on her hip.

"Dammit Sekai, how did you let your chakra levels get so low?" she growled. "You're exhausted. Don't you have the soldier pills I made you?"

"No time t'un—" I hissed in pain as Sakura prodded a particularly sensitive area. "—t'unseal 'em. Too many of 'em at once." I slurred.

Sakura huffed. "Of course you'd jump in the thick of it. Reckless idiot... You need to pace yourself. Here, open up."

I opened my mouth, and she shoved two pills inside. A familiar black pill and something else I didn't immediately recognize. I started chewing. The distinct flavour of iron told me she'd given me a blood-replenisher along with the soldier pill.

As she healed me, the world slowly came back into focus. Colours intensified and sharpened. Sounds no longer seemed distant and muddled. Until that moment, I hadn't realized just how much I had filtered out.

"You've lost a lot of blood, but you'll be okay. The skin on your arm will be sensitive, and you have a mild, concussion. There's nothing I can do for that right now, so be careful, okay? Don't run off on your own again, like an idiot, shannaro! Stay with Itachi-taicho." she ordered.

I nodded absently, and followed her back to the battle.

This was far from over.

-x-

Notes: Sorry for the delay. I ended up getting caught up in a few new fandoms, so I lost a bit of inspiration for this for awhile. Then I was busy with school, too.

Winter term I took a class about basic encryption (discussing history, ciphers used historically, the enigma machine, how RSA works, how CSS works, etc.). I went back and added to the scene where Sekai wrote the Academy entrance exam in the AO3 version. I hope to add some more of it into the fic later.

Regarding the pandemic, I am in a relatively safe, low-risk location, and healthy. I hope everyone is staying safe and social distancing.

I have added quite a few new bits to the "Databook" on AO3, so if you're interested check that out.

Regarding the fight scene: Sekai became a target because while those she caught in genjutsu didn't notice anything before it was too late, it wasn't hard for ninja with more situational awareness, who were used to this sort of large scale open combat, to notice what was going on and find the source. Sekai is a true genjutsu user, which is rare. Aside from Uchiha, whom it's expected from, it's not common to see it used as Sekai does. And since it's not common to use genjutsu at the level she does, a lot of ninja are vulnerable to it. Making Sekai very dangerous if left unchecked. For the record, Itachi was also using genjutsu in a similar manner.

Furthermore, I tried to show that Sekai's not used to handling this sort of situation, and the fight details are vague, because Sekai was having trouble processing everything. She's largely acting on instinct. I hope the scene isn't too disappointing. Con crit is appreciated. In the future, as she gains experience, I intend to get more detailed about what's happening around Sekai.

I've been working on this on and off since December. Sorry it's still pretty short. I have a chapter by chapter outline, and I covered everything I meant to in this chapter already. I managed to meet my 4K minimum word count at least.

Thank you all for the comments/reviews, kudos, etc. I appreciate it a lot. Sorry for any errors.