THE COUNTER NINJA & THE COPY NINJA

PART ONE: The Request

A horse-drawn wagon towing a wooden prisoner box went down a rocky path towards the Village Hidden in the Leaf. In the tall trees along the path hid many ninjas from different hostile Villages looking for information on the transport below. The prisoner box was made of thick wooden panels and a heavy padlock that banged against the door as it rattled along the uneven stones. A covert operative group called the ANBU, from the Leaf Village, had dispatched a team of two to follow the wagon since it had entered their South-Eastern border from the Village Hidden in the Mist.

The wagon was travelling at the personal request from the Mist's Mizukage, who sought the highest opinion from the Head of the Hyūga Clan. Because the Mist territory was besought with civil unrest. The agreement was that a representative in the matter would bring this request to the Leaf Village directly, and the matter be concluded there. This of course was ripe with speculation, but the consensus was that it must have something to do with the Byakugan, the Hyūga clan's special eye technique for seeing chakra channels in the body.

Thus far, the young Leaf ANBU was not aware that his teammate had gained any intel as to what or whom was being transported. The box was tall and solid, with only a line of bars high along the top of each panel. The path ahead started to narrow with thick brush, and he saw an opportunity to get closer. Without breaking momentum, he settled on a raised tree root, hidden in the brush, and peered inside the wooden box. Through the bars he saw a grey blanket concealing a girl with long black hair. Possibly the same age as him but not any different than most of the girls in his village.

"Yūrei!" She gasped, as a white kitsune mask with one red eye watched her from the bars as the wagon passed.

As night came, he caught the movement of a hand reaching through the bars of the wooden box for the flowers growing on the trees along the road. The flowers were always just out of reach, and he thought her carelessness would surely draw unwanted attention of enemy ANBU. He continued to move ahead of the wagon and when the moment presented itself, with the smallest effort, he gently pushed a flowering branch closer to the box and felt a tug of the flower being removed. A moment later, the girl's face peered out at him over the bars.

When the wagon finally passed through the village gates, he took off ahead as fast as he could to report back to the Leaf Village's leader, the Lord Hokage.

The cell was dingy with few comforts, save a padded bed. The heavy door shut with a bang and the girl crawled over the lumpy mattress and curled up into the darkest corner. She drew the blanket over her head and exhaustion took her.

Still in the early hours of the morning. In a building concealed somewhere in the vast Leaf territory. An elder member of the Leaf Council sat at his desk writing. He only paused when he sensed a presence at his door. He gave the signal to enter and an ANBU operative from his Root division presented him with a small scroll with the seal from the Mist Village. He took a moment to read what was written, before tucking it into the folds of his clothing and made his way down deeper into the Root facility. It was dimly lit, save the light coming from under the door ahead. Upon entering, a man with black hair and white skin stood at a table engrossed in a pair of different coloured vials. The Root Overseer said nothing and placed the scroll on the table beside him. This caught the attention of the man's golden snake-like eyes and he put down his experiment to read it.

The sounds of keys jingling signaled both guards to stretch their backs and relieve the stiffness from the long post. A Leaf Intel officer approached the cell accompanied by an official looking man from the Mist. When the door opened, the Official told the girl to follow and she did so obediently.

The Mist entourage was immediately brought to the compound of the Hyūga Clan. Where they received the girl and the Mist Official in the clan's large reception hall. The girl stood stiffly and stared at the ground as both Villages exchanged formalities. She was then told to stand in the middle of the room before the leader of the Hyūga Clan.

The request was for 3 tests to be done. The head of the Hyūga clan was asked to only give non-verbal responses for yes or no to the questions that had been written on a scroll; that only he had been allowed to read.

The first test was just on the girl herself. She reluctantly stood with her arms crossed, as the man's eyes change with the activation of his Byakugan. There was silence as he assessed her chakra channels and he shook his head.

The second test was for the girl to do a simple substitution jutsu. She had been practicing the hand signs for months and the result was always the same. Anticipating her failure, the Mist Official had warned her prior to their arrival to not show weakness. Despite the accuracy of her signs, she braced herself and winced as she was struck in the shoulder and leg by a pair of shuriken. Again, the Hyūga leader shook his head.

The final request was to be done at the training arena and the meeting was adjourned until later that day. The Mist Official bowed deeply to the leader of the Hyūga clan and thanked him for his time as did the girl upon instruction. The Hyūga Clan was aware of the Mist's brutal teaching techniques and they offered to have a medical ninja heal the girl's wounds. The Mist Official curtly refused the offer and hurried the girl out.

She was returned to her cell with her head bent forward; her long black hair hiding the vacant look in her eyes. The wounds on her arm and leg had been wrapped. The Official walked her to the door and left when the door closed. The two guards stood silent as for the next few hours all they heard was her occasional soft whimpers.

The third and final test was sat by only one spectator, the Lord Hokage of the Leaf Village. He had not been formally invited, but upon hearing of the Mist Official refusing medical attention to a child. He cancelled his remaining duties to personally oversee the final test. Since he had also given his blessing to have the Mizukage's request be held in his village, the Mist Official was in no position to object.

The area was off limits to everyone except for the parties concerned, and ANBU Leaf operatives had been posted everywhere around the perimeter now that the Hokage was present.

The head of the Hyūga clan stood from the seat beside the Lord Hokage and waited for the test to begin in the arena below.

There were three Mist ninjas standing in front of the Official and a young girl standing by herself just off center of the arena; facing what looked like a firing squad.

The girl stood in the designated spot. Her movements were rigid. Her fists clenched in anticipation. She heard the Official signal the first ninja to begin. She was tired of these so called 'tests.' Her heart ached for home. She wanted to be with her family again, and her chest tightened knowing that she never would, not in this life. Her reaction to the incredible mass of boiling chakra approaching was instantaneous. Her eyes locked onto the men from the Mist in the distance, paying no heed to the giant fireball that was blazing towards her with every intent to kill. To the surprise of the onlookers, the fire had burned and scorched everything else, but the girl stood unscathed without performing any jutsu. Let this be the end, she thought, and it spurred her to run towards them.

Without hesitation, the Official signaled the next operative and a massive surge of water followed. It completely pushed everything that was not grounded back but the girl, who merely broke through and kept rushing towards them. An incensed scream tore from her throat as the Mist Official called for the final attack.

All the ANBU guards from both factions turned to watch this young girl charge towards her entourage, as the ground shook and a massive hand made of Earth rose from behind her. The men from the Mist began to back away, only the one operative stubbornly remained locked in his jutsu. Realizing his mistake too late, as he was cast in the shadow of his giant fist, and it slammed down with such force it left a crater at the Official's feet.

The arena fell silent as the dust billowed. When it dawned on him that her intent was to kill. The Official quickly brandished a knife from his robes in time to cut cleanly across the girl's chest, as she threw herself at him in a wild vicious rage; before collapsing on the ground from his strike.

The medical ninjas reacted instantly. Not much could be done for the Mist ninja flattened by his own attack, but the girl was still alive. Infuriated, the Mist Official screamed at them not to touch her. But the Lord Hokage stood up and the Official's request was ignored. There was commotion among the medical ninjas that their healing jutsu had no effect. Watching as their green healing chakra repelled from the girl and clung to their arms instead. They looked puzzled, but not for too long as her wounds grew darker and her breathing shallowed. They placed her in a stretcher and rushed her to the Leaf hospital. The Official composed himself as he struck the dust from off his robes. Although clearly displeased with the situation, it did not seem to be over the health of the girl. He looked over at the head of the Hyūga clan who now stood with the Hokage. The Hyūga leader met his gaze and shook his head as his final answer.

The girl was now in the care of the Leaf. After a long and arduous evening of surgery, she is stitched and bandaged; and recovering in a hospital bed.

Whisperings of the events that day were being carefully guarded, and there had been a long discussion amongst the Elder Leaf council. The Lord Hokage instructed the young ANBU ninja to be his eyes but to not engage with the girl. Since there were no unauthorized personal allowed in the recovery room. He took a position outside her window and stayed hidden in the shadows to watch unnoticed.

As the night dragged on, the young ninja's thoughts drifted to a haunting memory of a young girl's face caught moments before her death.

"Hello Yūrei, "said a voice.

He turned his head to see the young girl out of bed, looking at him from the open window; the wind running its fingers through her long black hair. He was instructed not to engage so he did not respond. Watching her awkwardly move out onto the tiles of the roof. She was bare, save the white bandages covering both her arms and chest, and a long thin skirt that fluttered in the breeze. They sat there in silence for a long while. He recognized her despondent gaze as they watched the silhouettes of night birds pass across the surface of the bright moon.

"Who was she?" She asked him suddenly.

The question sucked all the air from his lungs.

She watched him recoil back into the shadows as if her words had struck him. She rested her chin on her knees and played with the hem of her skirt. "My Grandmother called it a Pure Soul's Kiss. "She gave a sad smile at the thought. "It's very rare. She must have been very special." Expecting a response when there was none, she looked over and could tell that she had spurred an emotion in him that was still very raw. She apologized and looked away. They continued to sit there until the wind took on a chill and she shivered. Surprised, when a long robe swept over her and brought a sudden rush of warmth. She did not move, as if she had forgotten what the feeling of warmth was. Before she could say anything else. The handle of the door of her hospital room suddenly turned, and both the ninja and his robe vanished. Leaving her to be yelled at by a nurse to come in from off the roof.

Her performance had peaked his interest. The man with the golden snake-like eyes had sat in the small room for so long the smell of candle wax was palpable, and the room was so dry that the delicate bamboo scrolls could ignite at a moment's notice. There were piles of scrolls strewn around the room. Filled with thousands of historical accounts throughout the Shinobi history. He had read through all of them, some many times over, until he found what he was looking for.

The scroll told of a man who lived during the period of the Warring States, who saw chakra as a corruption and denounced it. As a young monk, he watched as one by one his temple brothers were lured with the godlike abilities the chakra brought and watched helplessly as they killed each other for more. Many of their sacred temples were burned to the ground and many thousands of innocent people died. The monk's sadness was so great that it broke his soul in two. He vowed to shepherd all his brothers back into the folds of sanctity. There were further writings of a monk known as the Tamshi no Hitsujikai, the Soul Shepherd, who was impervious to chakra-based attacks and saved many villages from hostile shinobi.

This possible lineage was too great an opportunity to pass, and he made his intentions known to the Root Overseer.

By midafternoon, the girl was given a fresh t-shirt to wear and permission to sit in the Hospital courtyard as part of her recovery. She closed her eyes to the warmth of the sun before being startled by a sudden yelp, followed by a crash from behind the wooden fence where she sat. The girl wondered around to find a wooden cart tipped over, and dozens of flowers scattered along the ground. An elderly woman cursed and gripped her hip; spying the young girl that had happened upon the scene. "My advice to you girl, don't get old."

The young girl gave a small grin. It was the same thing her grandmother used to say to her. "Let me help you," she said, and together they set the cart back onto its wheels and collected all the flowers.

"You're a sweet girl," said the woman, when everything was put back as it was, and they began to walk towards the main road. "I know many Clans in this Village, but I don't recognize you. What's your name?"

"My name is Morika Yatōnaka, ma'am. I'm not from here."

The woman thought for a moment, before offering to show her around as they walked towards the Village center. The girl was captivated by all the colorful buildings and busy people, that she barely heard the old woman's praise of their Lord Hokage. A man who sat third in a line of many powerful men that shared the title before him. Together with the strong shinobi clans of the Leaf Village they lived for the most part in peace.

As they rounded a corner, she saw a boy not much older than her, sitting on a bench reading. He was dressed in a shinobi's casual clothing, with clumps of wispy white hair poking out of his headgear. The road was very busy, with many villagers walking past them. For all she knew, he could be anyone from the Leaf Village, but the only glaring difference was the tiny ethereal writing scribed over the boy's heart. It glowed from a self-admitting light and made silhouettes of the Villagers around her. It was the same Pure Soul's Kiss that the Yūrei had.

Noticing that the girl was looking at the boy, the woman tittered under her breath, and then spoke with a much louder voice about all the young men in the village, and how a pretty girl like her would find many suiters here. As the old woman expected the girl blushed deeply. Feeling the eyes of the crowd around her, she tried to humbly correct her elder as they walked past and further down the path.

The young boy looked up from his book. Puzzled, at how she could tell it was him without any possible way of knowing what he looked like out of his ANBU gear.

The Lord Hokage was surprised when the Root Overseer paid him a visit. The Overseer suggested that the Leaf encourage the girl to stay as her abilities would strengthen the village. As a civilian, she could choose to live in the Leaf Village and not go back to the Mist. The Lord Hokage questioned what possible motives the Mist could have to have had brought the girl here. It seemed odd that the Mist would risk exposing such a defensive advantage to a rival Village.

That night the Leaf guard that was posted outside her hospital room was replaced with one that was affiliated with Root.

Inside the hospital room, the girl awoke to an overwhelming feeling of dread. The window was closed, and the hospital room was still. She laid back down on the bed and drew the covers closer in hopes that the feeling would pass. She rested her eyes on the flower the old woman had given her for her help, and a nurse had kindly placed it in a vase. She slowly began to drift back to sleep when the slight movement of the flower petals caught her eye. It was subtle at first, almost undetectable, but as she looked closer there was a definite breeze that was not coming from the window. A hissing noise came from out of the darkest corner of the room and she froze. A volley of chakra propelled shuriken came flying out of the shadows and fell instantly against an invisible barrier around her; the metal clanging as it hit the tiles. The shadows started to take the form of a man with a pair of golden snake-like eyes staring back at her. She saw a light catch the edge of a kunai the man held in his hand. He then threw it at her with such precision that she barely felt the blade carve a path in her cheek before striking the wall behind her.

The man's presence was paralyzing, and she was completely at his mercy. Her abilities to block chakra meant nothing if she could be cut down by simple steel and he knew it. Terrified, her heart pounded in her ears and she glanced towards the window. The man's left arm started to contort and took the shape of a massive snake that lashed out and blocked the whole wall with such unbelievable speed, she had barely finished forming the thought to escape. The snake's head hovered just out of range; its fangs poised to strike her at a mere thought.

"You are an intriguing find," he mused. As he approached her, he summoned a swirl of wind chakra to the tips of two fingers on his right hand and slowly reached towards her. Watching as his chakra was slowly pushed back along his hand and up his arm. Closer still, he caught a wisp of a pellucid membrane reacting to the chakra as it touched. She felt his finger pass over the cut the kunai had made and winced, as he pressed into her flesh with more force then needed. He brought his finger back with a smear of her blood and he licked at it with his engorged tongue.

His face reacted instantly as he spat it out. He could taste a putrid ferment in her cells. A necrosis that he had only smelt on the bodies of his test subjects; he knew it very well. There were stories throughout history of spirits that would wonder the physical world tied to a powerful emotion that had manifested just before they died. He gave her a strange look, as if her blood had shared something that he had not considered; and the snake hissed in response.

"I'm told that they found your family slaughtered," he said matter-of-factly, keen to her reaction.

Her fingers gripped the bedding. His cold words seemed to pierce her heart, and she could feel icy fingers start to weave and spread throughout the rest of her body. She clutched her chest as it began to strum to the heavy weight of his words. "Your mother, your father and your brother were all found cut to pieces," he continued.

A vivid torrent of violent memories stirred. The feeling of walking in a slick of her family's blood, the look of their soulless eyes, and the smell of their burning bodies hit her senses all at once. She pleaded weakly for him to stop, but the man kept talking. Her heartbeat was all consuming as it strained to beat within the ice that was forming around her heart. His muffled words seemed to filter through her as though she were moving further away from the room, and towards an internal wailing of grief within.

The man's golden snake-like eyes leaned in to watch as a thin blue liquid slid slowly down from her nose.

And with that, the girl's eyes rolled upwards, and a ghostly face appeared to wear her like a second skin. The snake struck in an explosion towards her but the second it touched her, the snake stopped abruptly as tiny shoots of semitransparent tentacle-like arms started to sprout and wriggle from out of this new form. Its ghostly arms passed through the physical body of the snake and extracted a serpent-like soul. The man faltered, feeling as if his very soul was being sucked out along his arm. He immediately broke the jutsu before it could reach his body and the tentacles turned the snake into an accelerated pile of decomposition. He watched with a mixture of fascination, disappointment and amusement as the girl struggled against the overwhelming spirit taking over her. He heard the commotion of medical staff running down the hallway and he stepped back to avoid the growing arms. He grinned to himself, before disappearing back into the hospital floor.

The girl within the creature screamed, as its ghostly appendages lashed out and filled the room searching for more souls. She clawed at her throat, desperately fighting against her waning consciousness. This was not her intent. She only wanted revenge on one man, and it was a feeling like an incredible thirst. A thirst for the one that took her family. Not for all the innocent lives in the Leaf. Sister, she thought weakly. Sending a calming memory of a soothing lullaby she used to sing while she gently brushed the long white hair of her twin sister.

When the medical staff finally entered, they found the girl collapsed on the floor in a fetal position.

As the Mist entourage was set to depart, the Lord Hokage met them in the area just before the outer gates of the village. He apologized for the attack on the girl whilst in the care of the Leaf and extended an offer for her to stay.

She looked despairingly for a moment. She would like to. There were genuinely good people here. However, she would only bring them misery. She thought about the boy with the Pure Soul's Kiss; a mark that symbolized the ultimate sacrifice. She was not looking to start a life; she was looking to take one. These thoughts seemed to steady her resolve, and she gave a deep bow before the Lord Hokage, apologizing that she could not accept his gracious offer.

The Lord Hokage was a wise man and closed his eyes and nodded. Maybe he could sense the conflict within her, and she could see why the old woman had praised him. She turned around and made her way back into the prisoner's box.

The young ANBU ninja was not sure he had heard right when he learned that the girl had refused the offer to stay. He assumed she would, and that he would be able to ask her what she meant that night on the hospital roof. A part of him regretted not being there the night she was attacked. There had been rumours of enemy ninja in the area and his team was tasked to find them. He and his partner had thought it was possibly bad intel, as they found no signs of anyone. He rushed out to catch up with the wagon. It would be close to the border by now, which did not give him much time.

When he saw the wagon, his momentum threw him against the wooden box, and he grasped the bars. The noise he made caused her to look up and she smiled sadly. "Goodbye Yūrei-kun."

A shuriken struck the wood siding of the box with a thud of warning, and he forced himself to jump away the second the wagon crossed the border. Watching as a stream of thousands of tiny flower petals flew from out of the prisoner's box and washed over him as the wagon disappeared back into the Mist.

END OF PART ONE