A/N: HE-LLO! I am back! Wow wow wow! Thank you so much to those reading this story, specifically those who have favorited/saved it and left a review. I am going to take a moment to go through some of the ones you've left so far:
Wolf0830: Yeah, I didn't realize what a bad idea it was until after uploading it. I'll take your advice and publish more sporadically from now on.
Darkangelynn5: Thank you, and well, here's more for you :)
PrismRootStarlight: And I squealed reading your comment! Thanks so much, glad to know you enjoyed it and I hope you stick around to keep on reading…
Guest 1: I wonder if you kept reading, but in any case I'm glad to know you found it engaging to read!
Guest 2: Thanks, I did try hard to make her feel real. She's not an easy one, let me tell you, but I've been studying about writing OCs from the inside and out, she's still getting there, but I was trying to do something nice with her. Thanks for you review!
Guest 3: First of all, allow me to thank you for taking the time to write your review, it was really complete and I was able to understand what you mean and your point of view. Now, about what you actually wrote and this is somewhat related to the answer I gave Guest 2… When I started to write this story I knew I wanted it to be character-driven, that is, not to write about what happens in the character's environment against its "self" (although, it is impossible not to do so, radically speaking), but focus on the interactions and development in her internal environment (at a personal level: her thoughts, feelings and emotions). I didn't want her to right upfront and drastically change the world (saving Rin, for example, we know would be a major change in the game), and I knew I wanted this story to be centered around "grief" and "identity" (the grief part, unable to be fulfilled if Rin was still alive). I write to outpour what I am feeling at the time, to break down certain concepts, while (hopefully) entertaining others and myself in the universes I enjoy. So, I am sorry you found yourself disappointed that Rin wasn't saved, but I thought it was hinted she was no longer around since the prologue speech. Indeed, the fic is called "Rivals" and I suppose one would think one's rival needs to be around for the rivalry-stemmed growth and competition to exist… but that's actually what I'll be getting into in the future. What is Gillie's purpose? She's still working on it, but yeah, Rin was never meant to take center-stage in her story, being more of a catalyst in the character development and story of Gillie Yubokumin/Nohara. That is not to say Gillie won't be doing some canon-diverging moves in the future, but you can be certain that whatever she does will be fueled by her everlasting rivalry to Rin. NEVERTHELESS, you've got me wondering what Gillie's life would've been like if Rin stayed alive… maybe one day I'll write an AU on that. On a final note, I am in no way an expert writer, I am learning and improving, and just hoping I'm doing well for people to read what I write. I know, eventually, I will return to edit some stuff, to extend some scenes, etc, etc, but for now this is working for me. Once again, thanks for your comment, it has brought me a lot of insight on what I need to make more evident or pay attention to in order to convey what I actually wish to convey.
Having said all of that, now everyone, the following two parts which I will be uploading separately (maybe a couple days apart, can't wait for you to keep reading), well… I don't want to make spoilers but as its name says we've got some background going on here, and I feel the need to give a WARNING on some darkish themes in this delivery, though nothing explicit, just toxic friendships/relationships and minor violence. (But, hey, this is the Naruto world, children play with kunai hah!)
I hope you enjoy it and, please, leave your reviews and criticism on part 1, it helps me a lot to improve and keep me motivated!
Rivals The Beginning: History of Three Yubokumin Girls Part I
"Society... perhaps, the greatest illusion permeating the shinobi world today. The idea that it is possible to unify our strengths with others, that it is only optimal to build deep bonds amongst stranger families, dismissing the importance of the loyalty strength behind bloodlines... It is a fool, naive and a weak illusion... As our kekkei genkkai demonstrates, we, the Yubokumin are not hostage of genjutsu."
The three year old listened intently to the fervent words of the old man with two red stripes on each cheek and wrinkled face she called Ojii-sama (grandfather) and nodded once. Her hands were curled fist balls on her sides, aching to get hold of the ball of red yarn the man was currently working on to weave with skillful hands.
"We keep to our own and accept into our family only those willing to settle for our rules. Our survival does not depend on our faith on others and we travel as to not generate attachments on villagers or their places." The man raised the finished ball in front of her face. "Only in that way we are able to protect ourselves, villagers and their places. We are neutral, because our place is in the path of life, and in the path of life we all survive."
Hesitantly, the girl raised one hand and reached for it. The man squat down to her height and gave the red ball to her.
"What do you sense?"
"It is..." The girl began slowly, turning around the ball, almost the size of her head, between her hands. She gasped. "Perfect! It is perfect, Ojii-sama!"
"Can you tell why?"
The little girl shook her head looking at him, and the man extended his head. The kid didn't want to give back the toy, but reluctantly did so.
"See how perfectly tight the threads of yarn are? They give it the perfect circular structure. If I were to pull one point away from the center..." The man said and the girl gasped watching how it was impossible to do so. "Not possible... But if I were to cut one part of the thread." The girl's eyes widened watching the man snipping the ball with a kunai, the whole thing came undone and she felt a massive need to cry with despair for the fate of what she had thought would be her new toy. "The clan is only as strong as our unity is, and this is best explained in terms of how well we follow our rules. We are nomad and we trust only ours. Do you understand, Airi?" The man finished, and out of his long sleeves took out an apricot-sized red ball that he offered the girl. Airi Yubokumin's eyes grew with excitement. The girl jumped, clapping her hands together and then took the smaller toy.
"Yes, Ojii-sama!"
The old man smiled with delight, watching his descendant running away in search of her brother to show her latest received gift.
"Onii-sama! Onii-sama!" The girl yelled repeatedly from the top of her lungs, lost in the middle of a dark forest, with eerie sounds like whispers coming from her surroundings. She panted looking around, her eyes filled with tears and trembling legs beneath her. "Onii-sama!" She raised her fists, squeezing her eyes shut hearing the vines coming to find her. They would soon trap her, suffocate her, kill her, as they had done many times in the past...
Many times in the past! That was it!
Airi gasped realizing she was in a deeply rooted and powerful genjutsu a simple release would not break away. In the middle of unstoppable sobs, the girl raised her two hands to the height of her chest, her hands crossed at the height of her wrists, thumbs and indexed joined forming a circle while the rest of fingers opened wide in the air. Just as she had been taught, she exclaimed: "KAI!"
The genjutsu around her began melting like a wax candle; the colors surrounding her began to lose its saturation and illuminated patches began to appear in the darkness. Behind the decay everything was a deeper blackness.
"KAI!" She repeated finding herself still in the middle of the partially released jutsu, while the vines kept on crawling up her body, even if they had lost their speed.
"KAI!" She repeated as they reached her neck, softly at first but then constricting her air vents. Soon, she felt herself losing the air of her lungs and she was gasping again but not because of fear, she was asphyxiating.
"Ojii-sama, can I-" She heard a concerned, familiar voice inside her head.
"Hold on." A second voice, equally familiar to her responded, leaving her inside the nightmare for longer. Eventually, and at the brink of losing consciousness she heard: "Let go, that's enough..."
She found herself falling face down on the ground, sweating and panting for air. Tears of sweat and dispair fell upon her hands mixing into mud with the dirt beneath her body. The flickering light of the tall lamps surrounding the meadow allowed her, through blurred vision to get a glimpse of her surroundings. She was at the exact same place she had been at during what had felt an eternity, but in fact, even her little head knew it couldn't have been more than 5 minutes. She felt her face returning to her normal skin color before growing red with shame. Slowly, she looked up to see Ojii-sama in the middle of stopping Onii-sama from coming closer, and her uncles, aunts and her mother staring down at her. Her mother's gaze, specifically, she focused on. For a long moment, no one spoke as she looked around at the adult members forming the large circle around her. The only sound in their surroundings was that of the girl's attempts to stop sobbing.
"She's a weak child."
It was her mother the one who concluded so. Ojii-sama lowered his arm and her older twin, wearing the red marks of the Yubo-nin walked towards her with heavy steps, holding his breath. Onii-sama helped Airi up once he reached her showing a deep frown in his face as he did so.
"She will never be one worthy of the title Yubo-nin nor a good mother to our clan." Their mother said coldly, her gaze no longer meeting hers, before walking away. Taking one's time after the woman, the rest of the adults began to leave the circle of ceremony, leaving only the girl, her older twin and her grandfather standing in the middle.
"Ojii-sama-" Airi called from her brother's arms. The older man seemed apprehensive on his next actions, but then he turned around as well, heads-down with disappointment and left the meadow with a heartbroken expression covering his face. Airi looked up to Onii-sama with tears rolling down her cheeks. He held her closer to him and covered her ears.
"Don't listen to them, Airi." Mamoru muttered. "You are stronger than you think, huh? Stronger than they will ever be."
The girl kept a decisive glare in the horizon, covered by darkness and trees. She was finding herself at a place very similar to that of her worst nightmares she always saw in the repeated genjutsus she was once induced into. This time though she wasn't fearing she would be attacked by vines, she was in the real world and she had a mission to fulfill. It would be too late for Ojii-sama to notice she had gone after the party gathering at the border between Amegakure and Konohagakure to help ease the growing tension in the zone. Everyone had left, even Mamoru Onii-sama, she could not stay behind with the elders and the younger children while everyone was off fighting. She didn't care about the trouble she would be getting herself into as much as her decision to show what she was capable of. In the worst case scenerio, how could the Yubo-nin punish her, anyway? They were all family and it was amongst their most important rules not to kill one's family, it being justified only under three scenarios, and for all she knew she was breaking none of The Sacred Three.
If she wanted to get there in time, considering the time advantage the rest had on her and the slower speed she tended to travel, she needed to run. She raised towards the tree tops as to travel with a clearer vision frame and with faster speed. From up above, she could see the sun setting in the distance. Once it disappeared she would have to stop. She couldn't keep on traveling without light and she was smarter than to try to use any fire ninjutsu. She didn't want to incinerate down the forest or herself with her lack of control.
She managed to traverse half of her journey before the light was gone a time by which, according to her map and if her direction sense wasn't failing her, she was somewhere near the outskirts of Tanzaku town. She had once visited the place and her brother and her had made a tour at the famous castle, however, this time she wouldn't be making touristic stops. She would only rest for a couple of hours and then she'd be gone by dawn.
She manually made a fire and sat close to it, rubbing her hands in front of her only noticing now that her body was cooling off how dreadfully tired she felt and how much she was growing on cold sweats. Airi squeezed her eyes closed and groaned. She couldn't allow herself to have one of her episodes.
Ever since she had memory, she had been plagued with a condition even the best medic-nins of her clan could not fix, yet the Sacred Three prohibited foreign healing hands to check on any of theirs, even in death or life situations, as to avoid any secret jutsus of their clan to fall in the wrong hands. Somehow, her chakra volatility had managed to affect even the genetic frame of her kekkei-genkkai. That had left her with the inability to form part of the Yubo-nins, deemed physically and mentally weak for their standards.
That night the wind blew cold as well, destiny not on her side, and with a violent gust her small fire extinguished leaving her in complete darkness. She complained aloud, with gritted teeth and eyes itching with the need to cry. She stood up, panting and searching around in the darkness for the fire stones she had left somewhere. Then the whispers and eerie sounds she had only ever heard in her nightmares arose in the dark night, filling her ears and chilling her weak bones, a sound of something traveling on the ground, sliding, coming her way... Vines?
She gasped jumping out of the way at the crawling feeling in her feet. She reached for the trees, but the exhaustion she had just been experienced led her to miss her grasp and slid down, falling harshly straight on her back towards the ground, the air coming out of her lungs just in time for the same feeling from before to crawl over her entire body, restraining her further to the ground. Even if she feared herself to be in a genjutsu, she couldn't try to release it, her arms and hands were being held to her sides. Now a cold, sliding feeling came over her neck. This was it. She was dying for real...
Or perhaps, Ojii-sama had sent someone after her? One of the strongest elders, perhaps, who was trying to give her a lesson?
"Alright, alright, you got me! I give up!" She exclaimed squeezing her eyes shut. "Please, set me free and I'll go with you!"
So much for a definite demonstration of her power, eh? She just didn't want to go through it again and if her clan had really found her, there was nothing she could do now but return.
"Mm? You're not a shinobi."
Airi scoffed opening her eyes. She found herself staring at an older boy, leaning over her, with a fire flame in one hand illuminating his extremely white face and the deep contrast it made with his pitch black hair and yellowish eyes. With his other hand he had one kunai extended pointing right towards her face. In this position, it was clear who was and who wasn't a shinobi, so the girl ended up biting her lip harshly, shutting her mouth.
"I suppose that is obvious." She said curtly after a moment.
"Are you a civilian from Tanzaku?"
"No.
"Are you a citizen of the Land of Fire?"
"Er... not really."
"Mm? Then what are you?"
"I'm not a what, I am a who! I am Airi Yubokumin, from the Yubokumin clan" At the sound of this the boy's brows raised slightly with recognition, "and now that you know I'm not a threat could you take that weapon away from my face and set me free?"
"Mmm..." The boy looked to the side and nodded his head away. The illumination provided by his fire flame allowed Airi to see that what she had initially thought to be vines were in fact long, lean white worms, who followed his non-spoken command and crawled up the boy, circling around his arms. No, not worms. Serpents.
"Did you really set me free that easily? How can you be so sure I am not a threat, trusting only my words?!" The girl exclaimed offended, more disturbed by it than by the idea of having had snakes covering her body. In a second though, her self-consciousness made act of appearance and she took a hand to her forehead. Did she looked physically ill enough? Was she really that pathetic-looking?
"It's because you're a Yubokumin who is not wearing the stripes of your clan." The boy pointed out with an index finger, kunai gone. "It's not hard to put two and two together. Miss, you are not a threat." The boy said smartly and the girl growled from the back of her throat. "What are you doing away from your people? Aren't you too young to be this far away?"
"I am 10! And, what do you care about me? I'm not a citizen of Konoha!" She said nodding towards the band he wore around his waist, showing the symbol of the Leaf.
"The Yubokumin are a neutral clan, and Konoha tends to have cordial relations with it, even if we couldn't be considered allies. We are taught since the Academy that if we ever cross paths with a nomad shinobi we are to treat them with respect and agreeableness. They are considered dangerous- Oh, but not you, miss." She felt a vein pop on her forehead, repairing on his emphasis in that fact. "Do tell, am I being agreeable enough?" The boy smirked.
"Nosy and pretentious is more like it." The girl bickered under her breath just for herself to hear, before snapping her head up. "Now that you know I am not an enemy, can you leave now?"
"Fine." The boy turned around so quickly and began walking away leaving Airi gaping, not expecting such a straightforward and immediate response. Why, she had only been preparing for a second remark.
"Hey!"
"Mm?" He turned over his shoulder.
"You just... did... what I asked for."
The boy smirked again.
"I suppose where you come from you don't get your way very much, do you?" He said and Airi balanced from side to side, looking down at her feet, "That's book protocol when meeting a Yubokumin. Was that agreeable enough to you?" He repeated. Feeling her cheeks growing even warmer since the boy seemed to be going off his way not to cross her, she thought she might as well request for something else.
"You could... make yourself useful and lend me your fire." She said unable to meet his face, feeling the cold sweats and swaying ground returning to her. "Mine was turned off by the wind."
This time, the boy didn't answer right away, he took his time to analyze her and the situation, which made Airi wish for the earth to eat her alive.
"Follow me." He said after a whole minute. "That will continue happening if you stay here. I know a place where you might have better luck."
Airi was surprised at the boy's offering and because of his firm voice and the unquestionable allure around him that she could only relate to what she had heard elders refer to as charisma (when they talked about her Onii-sama and never her, for example), she decided to follow him without a second guess. They walked for a long while until they left the forest behind and came upon fields upon open fields. They stopped next to a large boulder, huge enough to make a cover for them from the running gusts of wind, howling and fraying the edges of rocks. The boy pointed at the distance while she went to lean on the rock and control her breathing.
"That way is the border with Ame. If you go that way, you'll eventually find your people. That's why you are here, aren't you? You're trying to catch up with them."
"How would you know?" She asked looking up at him open-mouthed, because of his straightforwardness and by hitting the target. He smirked again and Airi fought the impulse to knock the expression off his face.
"You are clearly not one of your shinobi, but I infer you are on your way to prove yourself as one worthy of being amongst them. As I said, it's easy to put two and two together. I might have to warn you though, you might get in serious trouble with your own people, supposing you are lucky not to find other shinobi on the way, or..." He looked at her straight in the eyes. "You will die."
He said it directly almost sounding like a threat.
"Eh?" She irked a brow gaping.
"You are sick." He continued bluntly. "I don't know if you'll even make it to Ame before you die." Airi listened to his words carefully, taking them close to heart, before her emotions twisted upside down and she found herself grimacing at the boy, no longer charismatic and now plainly annoying.
"What are you? A medic-nin?"
"More of a scientist." He said stoically.
"You can't be much older than me." She said suspicious he was messing with her.
"I'm a prodigy."
"And prideful, by the sound of it." She scoffed looking away no longer talking just to herself. She looked back sensing the boy shrug.
"I just thought you might not want to die." She double looked at him with a frown, repairing on the dark circles under his bright yellow eyes, almost gleaming phosphorescent in the night and sighed deeply.
"Of course no one wants to die. You are shinobi, you should know that."
"Then, I've served my purpose." He bowed, seeming ready to leave.
"Wait!" She exclaimed, once again her cheeks burning red. She bit her lip looking towards the distance, where she could guess she'd find Mamoru, her mother, her aunts, uncles, cousins and their spouses. Then, she turned back to the yellow eyes of the boy. "What other choice do I have?"
The young boy took his time to ponder on the question.
"If you want to die by your own exhortation or the enemy's kunai, or suffer your own clan's wrath, follow that path of death." The boy raised a hand the opposite direction. "But it is known the Yubokumin are always searching for the path of life, aren't they?" She raised her brows on the boy's knowledge on her and hers. Perhaps, he was smarter than she was giving him credit for. Besides, how could she ever know more than a shinobi, all she ever did was stay at camp, take care of children, cook, clean, weave... "You may also come with me and I'll take you back to your home." The boy said with a tired sigh.
"Don't you have somewhere else to be... sir?" She added. The boy was clearly trying no to make an enemy out of her, he was indeed being agreeable. She could be cordial too.
"My team was assigned this zone to patrol. You are technically under my jurisdiction, therefore I can assist you on this."
"What if I ask you to assist me on my way to the frontier?" She blurted out and the boy looked back at her with a frown.
"I just said that was a path of-"
"Death, I heard you. What if I asked that?" The girl insisted.
The boy irked a brow and pursed his lips.
"Then, I would have to ask why are you insisting to go that way against your odds." He took a deep breath. "Sheer curiosity, you see. A curse, perhaps."
"Because, in truth, I have no other choice." The girl said decisively, fists raised. "Only in doing so I can truly go the distance of my strengths, become stronger and show my family I am not the weak girl they think I am."
"But... you are weak." The boy stated plainly, before looking down. "I guess, we all are at the end of the day," From that angle, the girl noticed, his eye bags became more pronounced and darker, "but you more than others. You must know that." Now it was her time to purse her lips.
"I have no other choice." She repeated firmly. She had just met the boy, and she could tell he was a skilled one at hiding his emotions if there were any, but somehow she could find herself reading easily how his brain began to work as he remained frozen staring into the nothingness.
"What if I could create another choice for you?" He blurted out making the girl irk a brow. "I invented some food pills, they are meant to grant you with vitality... They have... worked fairly well on myself." He licked his lips, the girl blinked before hesitating with a frown. "They can make you stronger."
"We...We, Yubokumin-We are not allowed to be treated by-"
"They are just food pills." He said opening his hands and, noticing her deliberation, quickly added: "You'll notice a change right away... You'll have to go back the way you came, though. Think of it as a shogi move, you take a step back only to return with a second, stronger move. What do you say?"
The girl took a hand to her chin and pondered on the offering for a long while. She looked by the corner of her eye at the boy then back to the horizon, where her people were waiting for her, unknowingly. She was a pretty decent shogi player herself, good enough to give the clan elders a run for their money, another reason why she turned out a bigger disappointment for her family. They had believed she could have became an excellent strategist.
She could still become an excellent strategist.
"Mmm... What I don't see is... what do you win out of any of this, boy?"
"My name is Orochimaru." He said with a soft smile. "And I just want to help."
Mamoru was perhaps the person who knew Airi Yubokumin the most in the entire world. He was also not the brightest of boys, though compensated by his agility, strength and loyalty that their clan tended to reward more than any brain thought Airi always bested him at. Even for this usually distracted kid it was crystal clear there had been a sudden shift in anything regarding his sister, too quickly to even notice.
Airi would never be a Yubo-nin, she was too old for their rules to be taken in, she had lost her chance at the age of five, but if her health these days said anything, as well as her acceptance into their patrols as an unofficial Yubo-nin, her newly-found potential was worth checking into. Even the Medic-nins of their clan had revised his sister and found nothing, which only made their stoic mother proud. Airi was miraculously rid of her chakra volatility. Ojii-sama was smiling again at the sound of his sister's name.
Life was perfect.
Only, it wasn't. Perhaps, he was the only one who would have noticed, because he was the one who spend the most time with his sister and who knew Airi Yubokumin the most in the entire world... but she kept disappearing when no one was watching or interested in her whereabouts. After months of carefully investigating (because Airi was only too smart for his intentions) he was finally able to track her down to the gambling town of Tanzaku, only to find himself falling into a trap of hers.
"Onii-sama... what are you doing here?" The twelve year old asked her twin with her eyes wide realizing who was the person who had been following her. It was clear that if it came down to it she would not be able to overpower him. She lowered her kunai.
"That is exactly what I should be asking you, Airi. You must have known the truth always comes to the light, huh? Now, tell me what you've been hiding." He said planting his feet wide and firm on the ground. The girl's eyes got lost over the ground, her mind running at fast speed. She was considering her options, if he had found her now, there was the possibility he would do it again. Noticing the fear growing on her face, Mamoru took a step closer. "Airi, you can tell me anything. I am your big brother, I will always protect you." Listening to this, the girl's eyes grew wide still staring at the floor. "Airi?"
"Onii-sama... if your heart is truly on protecting me, would you believe me if I told you the best thing you can do is go back to the camp and stop following me around?"
"Airi... We used to tell each other everything. We still can..." Mamoru whispered with a growing frown. "What is it?" Her face scrunched up, menacing to cry. "What have you done?" He asked with concern and the girl gulped visibly. He took a deep breath raising his hands in front of him and took a step closer. She took a step back.
"I don't want to go back to being weak." She begged meeting his eyes and shook her head. "You wouldn't understand, you've never been-"
"Airi, what have you done?" Mamoru asked again growing alarmed. She turned around, giving him his back, heads down.
"I shall tell you... because it's the only way out I see right now. Otherwise, as nosy as you are you will never stop following me, or worse, you'll alarm the others." She looked back at him. "But if I tell you, you can never do that-"
"Huh? Why?!"
"Because, by the Sacred Three, you'd be declaring my death sentence."
Mamoru scoffed, taking a step back, before cracking a nervous laugh. This wasn't exactly what he had been expecting to discover when he started to follow his sister.
"Stop joking around, Airi, you know we cannot joke on such topics-"
"I met a boy. A scientist." She said quickly and stoically. "He has been... helping me." Mamoru's mouth fell opened. "At first, it was food pills and then medicine-"
"AIRI YUBOKUMIN, ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" Mamoru exclaimed from the top of his lungs with his fists clenched and raised. "That's a- You're breaking the-You're breaking the law!"
"I KNOW!" She yelled back with her raised fists too and gasped. "That's why I said you wouldn't understand! You've never been weak! You wouldn't know how I felt-"
"I never thought of you as weak." Mamoru whispered, shaking his head. They remained silent for a long while, staring at one another.
"Will you tell on me?" The girl asked, her small frame visibly trembling in front of him. He shook his head repeatedly, looking away, up to the sky, down to the ground and then back at her.
"I don't want you to die!" He exclaimed as if the question was stupid to even ask. "But..." He panted looking down at his feet. "You need to stop doing that."
"By doing that you mean taking care of herself?"
A third voice asked behind his back and he quickly snapped around, aghast for not having felt the presence of the fourteen year old boy clad in light clothing and pale skin contrasting greatly with his raven black hair and snake-like eyes. Realizing who this person must have been at the great scheme of things his first instinct was to launch himself against him, kunai raised toward his face. If he was shinobi, he wouldn't know because the boy wasn't wearing a headband, nor did he tried to evade the attack.
"Onii-sama!"
When the girl yelled, he froze in place noticing she now stood between them, arms raised and wide acting as a shield and down her cheek was rolling a drop of red blood from the gash Mamoru had inflicted upon her. Mamoru's eyes opened wide at her actions and his own for maiming his sister, while the girl reached to wipe off the blood, leaving a trail of two fingers on her skin. Mamoru's grew wider watching the hand of the stranger on his sister's shoulder, moving her a step away from the boy with his kunai still raised.
"You are extremely selfish for someone who pretends to care." Mamoru's teeth gritted, listening to the stranger's words. "Weakness, sickness, death... There are plenty options in the world to protect oneself from such things. Why should anyone give them up, be a prisoner, in the name of tradition?"
"Is that what you think, Airi?!" He yelled. "That you are a prisoner of the Yubokumin?!"
"No..." The girl muttered, still trembling but her eyes looking to the pale hand on her shoulder. "I- I just wanted to be a Yubo-nin... Like you, Onii-sama." She shook her head. "I'll never get to be a real one... so... can you, at least... grant this to me? I-" She squeezed her eyes shut. "Please." Mamoru saw the smirk on the stranger boy turn upside down at the sound of the last word. He had never in his life felt as out of breath as he currently felt. He needed to get out of here.
"I can't- I- I can't-" He said beginning to walk away, shaking his head, before disappearing.
These last words left Airi dreading the following days, waiting for any elder to come up to arrest her and sign her death sentence in blood, but it never happened. Duty, loyalty, respect, that's everything Mamoru had ever felt for its clan, even against its hardships and rigid rules, but his love for his sister was stronger, even if he could no longer see her in the face.
Mamoru Yubokumin thought he'd never get to see that pale face and yellow eyes once more, he had never wanted to see it a second time, but he was in the eve of turning sixteen when he found himself face to face with that stranger again. He had been laying on his back over a bed of leaves in the middle of the forest, with a fire crackling not too far away from him, close enough to keep him warm but far enough not to burn him. Mamoru raised up and winced, noticing the bandaged middle of his body.
"You have reawakened." The voice, almost a hiss or whisper, came from the darkness and he was able to notice the yellow eyes before he saw the rest of the body.
"You!" Mamoru exclaimed, before looking around. "What are you doing here, huh? And what am I doing here?"
"Hmm... I suppose I know understand what she meant by "not the smartest mind"" The teen smirked and Mamoru growled, inferring he was being made fun of.
"Where is my sister, huh?"
"She'll be back in a moment." The yellow eyes grew wide and the stranger licked his lips. "Now, tell me, how are you feeling?" There was no concern in his voice, but sheer morbid curiosity. Mamoru stared at the boy with gritted teeth and grimaced looking down at himself.
"Did you... treat me?" He asked, dreading the answer. His sister's friend nodded once and Mamoru let go of himself and slumped back on the ground with a painful groan shocking his body. "Then, I've also been soiled..."
"You, Yubokumin, and your purist ideas... Once a renown clan, feared by the Senjus and Uchihas before they joined strengths... and you remained on your own. It's what has ultimately led to your slow demise. Your strict rules and pretentious selflessness-"
"I thought Leaf shinobi were supposed to keep their mouths shut and nod when encountering a Yubo-nin-"
"Yes, I might have done so in the past. But you will soon realize I'm not very much like other Konohagakure puppets." Mamoru frowned still looking up to the sky and raised his head, eyes narrowed to see him through the darkness.
"Your words sound treacherous. What kind of shinobi are you?"
"I'm a scientist." The pale teenager's eyes grew amused. "But indeed, a shinobi, nonetheless. Just like your sister though, I can agree with some of the norms in my village, some others not necessarily-"
"Another rebel, huh?" Mamoru grimaced. "What is it with you and my sister, anyway? What do you want with her?" Mamoru took a moment to think of it. "If you wanted to leave the Leaf and be with her all you had to do was follow protocol. Once you pledged to the Yubokumin, you could have treated her and be of use to our clan-" Mamoru stopped talking when he heard the boy crackle up, leaving him even more confused on his intentions. Slowly, Mamoru raised himself to a sitting position again.
"What are you saying?" The eerie teenager scoffed.
"Don't you... Aren't you two... in love?"
"Love." The stranger scoffed again and stared at him, challenging him to think.
"Then..." He continued, realizing he had misunderstood. "why would you help her?"
The boy turned around, giving his back and looked up to the moon with a heavy sigh.
"Indeed, why? There were many reasons, I suppose." He said. "We were young when we met. Perhaps, today, I wouldn't have offered my assistance like I did then... It was pity, mostly. A sense of duty and a hero complex. Back then I thought I could actually help this rotten world with my abilities, one person at a time. The fear of death..." Mamoru would never know for sure, but he could have sworn he saw the boy tremble under the moonlight. "I've had it since I have memory." He paused, before turning back around. "Your sister had a losing hand, so I stepped in... Now, even if I try," Mamoru saw the face of the boy morphed again. Was it fondness, he saw? No, that couldn't be it. It was more like an obsession. "I can't get rid of her... She's threatened me to go search for me to the Leaf if I stop meeting her and giving her the concoctions she needs. As you might know, that is something I cannot allow to happen. I would get in trouble with my village if anyone discovers I've been disrespecting the Yubokumin culture by treating one of theirs." Even if he talked making himself sound a victim, he seemed to enjoy it.
"Why haven't you killed her yet," Mamoru was testing the grounds, trying to read the man's morality. "And get rid of the nuisance?"
"Kill her?" The boy's eyes gleamed with a maniacal glint and licked his lips again. Mamoru nodded decidedly.
"As shinobi and secret criminal, I don't think that's too far-fetched to consider."
"Mmm..." The shinobi smiled malevolently, looking to the side. "Why would I have wanted to destroy what was my longest and most successful experiment until not so long ago?" The boy tilted his head, while Mamoru grimaced at the way he referred to his sister. He had known this boy wasn't someone to trust since the first time they met, but here he was proving him right. Suddenly, Mamoru regretted having grown apart from his sister and leaving her to keep on meeting this sort of person. "She's back." The boy said, before walking away.
"Did you say something, Orochimaru-sama?" His sister's voice asked as she walked into the clearing.
Orochimaru-sama. Orochimaru. Mamoru frowned down at himself, trying to remember if he had ever heard that name before, but this person was a nameless shinobi, as of yet. He was in a debacle about this, when he found himself engulfed in a strong hold of a hug by his sister. She was crying.
"Onii-sama!"
"Airi." He blinked repeatedly and his initial questions returned, reigniting his curiosity. "What are we doing here?"
"You don't remember what happened? You don't remember... anything?"
Mamoru looked away and brought a hand to his forehead, where a migraine was forming as he forced his brain to retrieve the memories.
"I... we were... there was... " Mamoru squeezed his eyes shut. "We found those two Kiri shinobi... those with the large swords."
"Two of the Seven Swordsman, yes." She spoke as if she was out of breath, waiting for him to continue, fearing he would continue.
"It was... three against two." Mamoru' s eyes opened and looked up at her. "You and I... and... cousin... Cousin Kousei!" Mamoru blinked in realization, looking around, searching for him. "Kousei-sama was with us! He was injured and I..." He looked down at himself.
"Onii-sama..."
The male twin placed a hand over his abdomen and stared at it for a while, with a frown on his face.
"I died." He said. "Or, at least I thing I did... I was... almost cut in half."
"You two were at the verge of death, Onii-sama." She nodded with tears running down her face. She continued slowly and looked over her shoulder. "We were lucky Orochimaru-sama was scouting the area. He saved your life!"
"But, Cousin Kousei..." Mamoru frowned still touching his stomach. "Cousin Kousei was just unconscious. He was-"
"Orochimaru couldn't simply save you..." She said gravely. "You are the most important person in my life, Onii-sama... You have to understand me... "
It was like a bomb exploded in his face, even if he had already known it, somehow. Mamoru felt himself growing sick.
"You used Cousin Kousei?" Mamoru turned to meet her green eyes, but his own were void of life. "Airi, what did you do?"
The teenager walked towards the lookout bathed in the moonlight, where the robes of a lone figure swayed in the night wind. She walked towards the silent person overlooking the small forest town and stood silently next to him.
"You've been busy." Airi muttered to the young man.
"A war is coming." He said, unbothered to meet her gaze as she intently studied him. Almost impossibly, he looked as drained as she did, he was telling the truth. She looked back to the front and crossed her arms.
"What's the point of worrying about it if I cannot join the fight?" She muttered and sensed him looking his way. "I'll be just another casualty in the history of the world."
"They are no longer working?" He asked sounding more as an observation.
"They are, but I sense them. They have begun to lose its effects. Can't you do something else?" She snapped looking at him. "You said you were a scientist! Find a way! Cure me!" She commanded in hisses, before looking away again.
"I have no obligation on doing such thing."
The wind howled and the girl smiled emotionless.
"You are al I have left... Onii-sama is a deserter, a traitor... Ojii-sama passed away... Orochimaru-sama, you're all I have left." She repeated earnestly and paused, then in a quick motion, she locked him inside a despaired grasp, resembling of a hug. "You promised you would help me." Orochimaru softly set himself free, took a step away to create distance between them and looked down at her.
"I will no longer be under your threats. Try to get close to Konoha and I will personally kill you." He said before turning around ready to leave.
"What is it you want?!" She exclaimed at his back. "What is the thing you want the most in this world?!" She insisted. "I... I will get it for you! If you promise you will never leave me-"
"What I want is something you cannot give me." He swung around with a nonchalant stance. "Power." He extended a hand her way, waiting for his wish to be granted.
"I'll help you get it. Anyway I can. Just say it!"
Orochimaru stared at her for a long moment and then crossed his arms.
"A girl was brought into the village. An Uzumaki, the future Jinchuriki." His eyes hardened. "I want the beast... but even if I had it, how would I restrain it? The type of seal I would need... even I ignore." Airi looked around searching for an answer, hands twitching.
"We'll find another way." She insisted, walking closer to him and reached for his face. "Together."
Orochimaru looked down at her with a stoic face, with her hands cupping his cheeks.
"I could kill you right now and be done with this." He said darkly and she shook her head, growing more tired by the second.
"I don't want to die." She muttered and he took a step away as if burned and began to walk away. Airi felt herself growing colder under the moonlight blanket and whistling wind. She hugged herself, looking down at her feet in defeat.
"Are you coming or not?" She heard Orochimaru-sama's voice coming from the edge of the trees and her eyes lighted up. She ran after him.
The Sacred Three were the only death-deserving reasons as a member of the Yubokumin: 1) The attempt or succeed at killing the Clan Head, 2) the proliferation of family secrets through medical interventions, whether on receiving or transmitting knowledge, and 3) desertion. Desertion had the catch of being under the Clan Head criteria, but for all she knew, Airi had already broken the three of them. Kousei-sama had been after all next in line to be Clan Head, she had allowed a Leaf shinobi to practice his inventions on her and she had abandoned the clan to leave with the same shinobi, almost two years ago.
Even if she wanted to return, even if she regretted her decisions that led her Onii-sama to feel ashamed enough to desert, she didn't think that changed anything. She couldn't leave the shadows, she was now an experiment. It was painful and lonely, but then in that dark place a flicker of light emerged in the most unexpected of ways.
She marched into the main underground lab in the outer territories at the north of the Land of Fire. Orochimaru was back, as he always did whenever he wasn't at his village. He worked in front of a menace of beakers and vials she often tended to keep away from. This time, though, she stepped in between the young man and his work with tightened fists to her sides.
"I need to have a word with you... Orochimaru." She said and the man looked her in the face once and then proceeded to take off his gloves, tossing them to the side, with a scowl growing on his face and took a step backwards. He waited for her to speak. "Not here." She said slowly and they stood facing one another for a long moment before she nodded for him to follow her. Perhaps he saw something on her face that she couldn't see, but for once, he listened without reluctance.
The dark hallways of the underground site were illuminated by torches every few meters and she wandered aimlessly, feeling the heartbeat in her throat. She really didn't know where she was going anymore, so she simply stopped walking and turned around in the middle of one of them. She found herself unable to meet his gaze, even if she could feel his drilling a hole in her.
"You are pregnant." He realized with no trace of emotion in his voice and automatically she fell to her knees and placed her forhead on the floor. "Get up." His voice came out as a disgusted grunt, but she didn't follow the command.
"I believe it would be for the best that we suspend any further experimentation on my person-"
"No." It was all he said.
"I am pregnant." She snapped looking up at him. "I-I am pregnant!" She repeated with disbelief. "Do you- Have you gotten any idea on how many times I was only ever told while growing up that I would never be a able to become a mother?"
"Don't come to me with your human sentimental baggage." The young man said stoically, half-lidded eyes looking down at the 19 year old. "I knew you would eventually become a nuisance. You were never one made for my quest of knowledge..." On a second curious stance, he added: "What are you planning to do now?" Airi took a deep breath and slowly stood up.
"I will no longer be your experiment." She said definitely. "And I know that only means I can no longer stay here. There's no reason for me to stay..." She paused, waiting patiently for a reply.
"You're right." He said curtly, lips pursed. "Although," He grew amused. "are you really going out there on your own? You said it once yourself, I am all you have left." Before he could even finish she was already shaking her head. She smiled.
"I am no longer alone." She said, placing a hand on her belly. "And there is no excuse for you to maim me, I'm giving you what you've only asked for, for a long time. I'm leaving you. I will no longer be your burden. Isn't that what you've always wanted?" In the blink on an eye, the man had shortened the distance between them and held her chin in a painful clasp.
"I could kill you. I could kill you right now, if that is what I wanted." He hissed through gritted teeth.
"But you have never once acted out of a whim, Orochimaru." She hardened her jaw. "You always have a reason for doing what you do. Unless... you do have a good enough reason for being insulted at the mere idea of me leaving to justify wanting to kill me?" She scoffed. "In that case, you must love me very much-"
He pushed her away and scoffed.
"Get out of here then." He chuckled, pointing away. "But know that whether you want it or not, I will always be behind your back," He looked down at her. "as well as your spawn's." He looked back up. "My shadow will follow you two, because..." He chuckled again. "How long do you think you'll be able to live for it, without me? I have kept you alive all this time. Without me, you'll die! YOU. WILL. DIE!" He lost all composure and she took a couple steps back with fear.
"I didn't expect you to keep looking after me." She muttered and then nodded at him only now realizing something. "But now I see, it is not our proclivity to death what makes us weak, but our fear of it and the extents at which we are willing to go to refrain from dying. I am not fearing death and I am no longer fearing my weakness, because for once I feel strong." She smiled with awe. "I am not the weak one here."
"You're too ungrateful." He scoffed with amusement, looking down and away. He shook his head and turned around crackling up. "Go on. Leave." He said with a dismissing hand, before disappearing into the darkness.
Until she was sure she was alone, she finally let go again and fell on her knees, letting go of the tension and deep breath she had been holding. She placed a hand on her stomach and cried out the fear she had kept contained for so long.
With eleven years of old, Yuri Yubokumin was the oldest niece of the Head Clan of the Yubokumin and next in line to become the leader of the family. This happened after Ichiyo-sama's older brother's passing, shortly followed by his heir Kousei Yubokumin's death. Then, Ichiyo's eldest son deserted and two years later her second child disappeared. Ichiyo-sama was left without heirs and her husband had long since passed away. Thus, the line redirected towards her younger sibling and this sibling's older son, both also KIA, finally coming down to his second descendant and her niece, Yuri.
In fact, Yuri wasn't looking forward to become Head Clan. She loved her family, her myriad of second cousins, fourth cousins, fifth cousins (no, not the third ones), uncles and aunts, the elders and their porcupine pets. She also enjoyed being a Yubo-nin and what it represented...
But, the rules! SO. MANY. RULES. Agh!
If it weren't for the Sacred Three, she might have considered following older cousin Mamoru-sama into desertion. And, cousin Airi-sama? She hoped wherever she was, if she was still alive and well, she was having more fun than she ever would in the uptight environment of the self-proclaimed "free spirits" that were the Yubo-nins.
The best thing a girl like Yuri could do was immerse herself into the old pages of dusty books she retrieved from any source available for someone of limited resources as she was: itinerant sellers traveling around the Land of Fire as they did, or libraries from the towns they passed by and at times made stops at to fix a community quarrel. She had also been gifted once a book by an old lady that was part of a traveling circus, in which she could learn to interpret dreams. Yuri wasn't interested in books on dreams very much, but at least with its knowledge she was able to go around asking the elders what was it they dreamt the previous night and ponder on it for the rest of the day.
She was smart enough to keep from the foreign medical sort. Oh, no. She had tried once to read one and she wasn't even a quarter into it when Mama discovered it and burned it in front of her eyes. She didn't want to give Mama reasons not to let her keep reading anymore or burn any more of her other books... Although, as they traveled across the Fire territories, she sometimes wished she wasn't carrying around that many.
"Are you doing okay, Yuri?" Cousin Kaito teased, catching up with her at the back of the traveling group.
The Head Clan, as always was at the front, followed by the children and young members of the family, then came the elders, youngest children and the sick in the carts and wagons pulled by the cows and the Yubo-nins protecting all of their backs. Yuri was amongst this last group, however, being left further behind. Two boys had also slowed their pace only to mess with her.
"How could she? Half buried in that pile as she is!" Cousin Hideo stuck his tongue out at her.
"That's what she gets for always wanting to be the know-it-all of the pack."
"Being like that, she'll never find a poor sod who might want to marry her!"
"Uh-huh, because my biggest concern these days is whether I'll ever get married." The girl grinned sarcastically from ear to ear before raising a closed fist over her head. "Now, get lost, before I lose my patience!"
"Whoo-hoo-hoo! And, what could a little twig like you ever do against two fine shinobi?" Kaito-sama challenged her.
"You forget I am a Yubo-nin too." She narrowed her eyes.
"I repeat, what could a little twig like you ever do against two excellent shinobi?"
Yuri looked from boy to boy with a drop of sweat rolling down her temple and sighed tiredly. She cupped her hands around her mouth and began to yell:
"Uncle Giichi-sama! Auntie Namie-sama! Kaito and Hideo are-!" Before she could finish the two cowards disappeared from her sight in fear of being scolded by their parents. She thought she was finally alone, but then a male body fell next to her from the trees.
"Hiroshi-sama." She smiled up at the young man supposed to be her third cousin... Or was he a fourth cousin? He probably was a fourth one, because she found him to be nice.
Agh, Yubokumins and their extended branches.
"I heard you called. Is everything okay?"
She grunted with a nod and jolted to rearrange the straps of her heavy traveling back, almost crushing her.
"Kaito and Hideo were looking for trouble, they are gone now. Thanks for the concern, though." She decided it wasn't important to go into details, it was obvious they just annoyed her out of jealousy for her future position in the family.
"Give me that." He said before pulling the backpack away, leaving her hanging from it, her legs kicking in the air before she set herself free and fell on the ground. When she recomposed herself, cleaning the dirt off her clothes, her cousin had already arranged the straps on his back.
"Where is your own stuff, honorable cousin?"
"Mm?" The man turned her way, as they began walking again towards their group. "I travel light." He said with a smile. "Kumi is taking care of it in the wagon."
"How is she growing used to the path of life?" She asked with sheer curiosity.
"I've told her she'll eventually find her traveling legs." Hiroshi-sama grinned. "For now, she's slowly adapting. We have only been married for three months after all." Yuri blew raspberries looking away. "What is it?" He asked her.
"Don't take this the wrong way, honorable cousin, but did she really leave her hometown and freedom, only to join us and be with you?" She knew there was no way to not take it the wrong way, but Hiroshi-sama simply chuckled loudly.
"She's crazy, isn't she? Why, that is what I always tell her!"
Yuri smiled at his contagious happiness, before looking away with a frown.
"The Yubokumin are very strange. Why, I don't get how people fall in love too quickly before moving to our next destination."
"You might not be thrilled with everything about our ways, Yuri, but there are people out there that value what we do. They look up to us, we are a respected clan... They know what kind of family they are walking into so, I suppose, being a Yubo-nin has its perks with the ladies." The young man winked jokingly and the girl shook her head.
"I don't think I'll ever get married."
"What makes you say so?"
"Just a hunch."
"I see... It's not something you should concern your little head with right now, though." He said ruffling her bowl cut hair. "Now, do try not to stray too far behind. I'm going up there just to get a better view. Okay?"
"Hn." She nodded before watching him disappear up in the trees and sighted heavily.
Indeed, it was something she needn't concern herself with right now, but it was hard not to when it was all the older women and everyone around her (why, even those two idiots she had for third cousins) talked about, about her becoming a "good mother for the clan". Not that she didn't want to, but what if in her path of life she was never able to meet the one? Or, what if she did and cousin Hiroshi was wrong and she didn't receive the perk of that person wanting to leave his life behind to join her? She was too young to worry about these sort of matters, yet...
She kicked a stone on her path, feeling the absence of her books on her back. This is why she preferred to read and lose herself in words and pages. Especially in fiction books, it was easy to imagine herself in another situation, being another person.
If it came down to it... would she follow her significant other, instead? Even if it meant heading towards a darker path of life? Would she... desert?
Sometimes she wondered if that's what had happened with cousin Airi. No one knew exactly what had happened with her, right? She wasn't signaled as a deserter, she could have lost herself in her path, unable to return. She was a mystery. But what if she had fallen in love and simply ran away without an open declaration of desertion like her brother did? Yuri knew she wasn't the only one who thought this way, and the truth was...
The Yubokumin were all gossips, alright!
If one of them knew something, thought something or suspected something, almost everyone knew about it instantly. Perhaps it was ingrained in their culture, as a one tightly close family. Even the battle stories or the stories heard from outsiders soon became their children bed stories. Yes, there was no powerful warrior in or out the family across the Land of Fire that all the Yubokumin children did not know about... Which lead back to the disappearance of cousin Airi. If information traveled fast across the Land of Fire and throughout the family, how could they have not heard about the disappeared teenager?
She must have been dead... Or was she?
A fit of coughs brought Yuri out of her day reveries and turned around in time to see a young woman walking behind the trees and lean on them, trying to keep herself together.
"Mm?" Yuri stopped on her tracks with tilted head. The woman looked up at her, seeming as someone who just crossed the Suna dessert and smiled.
"I found you." She said.
"Who? Me?" The girl asked with a hand on her chest.
"My... family..." The woman panted and Yuri frowned, before leaning sideways, and taking a step into the darkness.
"Cousin... Airi-sama?" She asked and the woman nodded at her, before falling unconscious on the ground.
