The Poisonous Flower of Kumo - Chapter 2
The Eight Days of Hell
The Next Day
Early the next morning, I bid farewell to Karyo, my only friend. It wasn't overly an emotional event, I only told him goodbye and that I was going to the front lines. We both knew there was a good chance I'd never come back, but there was nothing either of us could do about it. So we smiled and acted I was only going on a trip, that I was going to come back perfectly fine.
I only had the time to talk to him a bit before I had to join my new troop with all of my equipment, which wasn't a lot of stuff, I was an orphan academy student, I was poor.
I still had quite a few senbon, most of them were lost ones of other shinobi that I had found and decided I was their new owner. I also had a few kunai, wire strings, a dagger, which I used as a sword because of my size, I was only 3'5" (104 cm), barely more than a meter tall. For extreme cases, I had some poison, and a few explosive tags and smokescreens I had stolen from the Academy. I'd need them.
As I was now a Kumogakure shinobi, I was given a dark grey flak jacket, black pants and a light-grey shirt to go underneath the jacket. It was the standard Kumo uniform and, for whatever it's worth, I quite liked the colour scheme, though I did not expect them to have it in my size.
As I met my squad and was not surprised when most of them only looked sad as they saw their new Genin, they were an experienced troop, so they had seen their fair share of atrocities, but seeing an adorable small girl going to war always had that effect on people.
There was a very short briefing where we were introduced and where our goal was told to us, our task was to defend a crucial valley on the border between the land of Frost, our allies, and the land of Hot Water, Konoha's allies, thus our enemies.
In a normal situation, there would've been at least two other squads, but there simply was not enough ninja available, so there was only us.
The Jonin commander didn't try to coat his words, we were at one of the harshest points in the front line, it was expected of us to die for our country and take as many enemies with us as possible. As long as we held the bride for eight days, it would be considered a win, even if we all died.
We were fifty, ten Jonin, twenty Chunin and thirty Genin, three sensors and two medic-nin amongst them. We were expected to be against three times that many enemies, though they supposedly had only fifteen Jonin. It was less than ideal, but I could not escape or run away, quitters were seen as traitors and executed as such. I just had to pray to some god of luck that I would be fine.
That was my luck, being thrown into one of the deadliest battlefields immediately after graduation.
The trip to the front line took ten days, we were travelling at a very fast pace, but I had not been idle those ten days, I had convinced I few shinobi to show me exactly which plants were poisonous and how to extract their poison, anything to give me a higher chance of winning, even if it was "dishonourable." I believed in the old saying, "A shinobi who's playing fair isn't playing right."
The Chunin and Jonin I had asked did not refuse to explain to me because even if they were battle-hardened, they still had a heart somewhere and I was cute, too innocent to go to war, to die and that there was no reason to give a mere Genin some more skills, we'd probably all die anyways.
The one who helped me the most was a kind medic-nin, a Chunin, who had shown me how to make a lot of useful poisons. He was quite old, apparently he worked as a healer for most of his life, he disliked killing people, but the war had forced him to fight, so here he was. He still smiled a lot, though. I did not know his name. Didn't want to, he'd probably die…like the rest of us.
The trip was different from what I had expected, the first few days we passed a desert, then there were trees everywhere.
When we finally arrived near the valley, it was the opposite of what I thought it'd be, it was the point where the forest ended and endless plains started, but it was surrounded by mountains that were pretty much impossible to climb, even for shinobi, making the ten kilometers wide valley a key point to control as it gave access to the land of Frost. At least we had the geographical advantage, we would be able to ambush them in the forest.
Another fortunate thing, we had a day "off", to rest as we were faster than anticipated, our scouts and sensors told off that the enemy was near, but not in attack range.
This was unexpected, but extremely welcome news, it meant that we would have time to set up traps and prepare the battlefield to our advantage, something that would immensely help us in the long run.
As I was not needed to set up the traps, I used this free time to brew more and more potent poison, anything to give me a higher chance of survival. I did not have high hopes for my future at the moment, I was desperate for anything that could help me.
Day 1
The fated day finally came and, to make things worse, it was rainy and foggy as hell, it was impossible to see more than a foot in front of us, which was kind of in our favour, as they wouldn't be able to see our traps. But it made communicating between us with hand seals much harder, impossible even.
We were quite deep into the forest, about a kilometer from the end of it, but everything in front of us was littered with horrifying traps, ninjas were effective.
Nothing happened for most of the day, until the sun started to die down…
The tension was stifling, but it was complete silence, we were all at our assigned position, on some trees, ready to fight with our lives, but completely silent, we did not make a single noise, there were no signs that we were here.
We had orders, and would follow them, we had to fight as much as possible, to buy time, before falling back to the meeting point, setting fire to the most trees we could. Everything to slow down Konoha's advance.
Then, the first scream happened.
It was blood curling, obviously coming from someone who wasn't even an adult. He had probably been caught in a trap. My blood froze, but I forced myself not to panic, it would do me no good, this was war.
It was at this precise moment that I truly realized this, I was in a deadly war, I probably wouldn't even survive…Everything happened so fast, it seemed as if just yesterday, I was happy and both my parents alive or I had just started the Academy.
But no, I was now graduated, before I was even supposed to start the Academy.
I was scared, terrified even, I did not want to die.
And this was war, people died.
I regained control of my nerve and stopped the unconscious shaking of my hands, readying myself for the incoming enemies, there was no use in worrying now. I would plenty of time to panic if I survived.
Then, the second scream happened.
Then the third.
The fourth.
And so on…
Each of them closer than the last.
Then…nothing.
For a few minutes, or maybe hours, I don't know, I didn't know, I couldn't feel time anymore, the silence was so thick I thought I had gone deaf.
Darkness so thick I thought I was blind.
It wasn't good for my nerves.
I faintly heard leaves rustling on my left and immediately threw a senbon there, before throwing myself back. I climbed a bit higher on the tree and hid myself behind the foliage, in a shadow.
A kunai impacted the bark just behind I was standing on a second ago and before I could think, I could already climbed another tree, trying to locate my opponent, hiding myself once again, this time better, though.
I heard a quiet grunt and saw someone remove a senbon, the one I had thrown, from their arm. They had a Konoha forehead protector and were a Genin, that was all I needed to know. They would die, as they deserved. The Konoha bastard.
I took a few poison coated senbon and threw normal one at him, then poison coated ones at his left and right so that he would dodge into them. It wasn't strong poison, though, only one that would dull his sense, but it acted quickly.
He dodged left.
He was hit.
He realized where the thrown weapons had come from and quickly muttered "Lightning Release: Lightning Shuriken", along with a few hand seals, before throwing three shuriken, using the strategy I had used against him.
By the time I saw the shuriken, it was too late to dodge, the fog had obscured them, they were moving too fast, so I did the only thing I could do, I replaced myself with a log and reappeared higher, on another tree.
I stilled, always keeping him in my sights, waiting for the poison to act. We started to play a hide and seek game, I hid, keeping him in my sight, while he searched for me. I had to narrowly dodge some kunais a couple of times, as I tried not to use chakra if I could. My reserves were pitiful.
Fortunately, it didn't take long for the poison to work, at one point I noticed that it took longer than it used to for him to locate me when I hid, then he stopped finding me completely. He could not detect me anymore.
I threw a senbon at his throat, but he dodged again, slower than before, only getting hit in the arm instead, but he was unlucky, I hit somewhere that caused him to lose function of that arm.
By the time he had figured out where I was, I wasn't there anymore.
Then, another senbon got him, this time at a particular point in the leg, his leg stopped responding to him.
I acted quickly from this point on, harassing him with the tiny needles he couldn't dodge until he was on the ground, having lost mobility, but still very much alive.
After I made sure he wasn't faking it, I approached him, taking out a kunai, intending to slit the throat of this filthy Konoha scum, but I committed a mistake, I looked at him in the eyes.
I saw myself, a terrified child, no more than twelve years old, who never asked to be thrown in this war, he had nothing to do with the murder of my parents, he had probably been forced into the Academy, the same as myself.
Even if he was from Konoha, did I truly want him to die, he was innocent…
Did he kill my parents? Does he deserve to die? Do I want him to die?
I froze for a second, thinking about the answer.
No.
Konoha would pay, not small boys who had nothing to do with my parent's death.
I did not want him to die.
He did not deserve to die.
But I realized something.
Did it matter? Do I have the choice?
I had no other choice, it was him or me, so I took my kunai, steadied my hands… and slit his throat, trying to make it painless. Looking anywhere but his eyes. I did not want to see myself, vulnerable, dying.
He died. My first kill.
It was all pointless. But it is war.
Before I could continue my crisis, I heard a shout close to me, so I took his forehead protector, and any equipment he had on him; a few shuriken, kunais and a single explosion scroll. And I got the fuck out of here.
I would think about this later, when my life wouldn't be in danger…
I pushed back my emotions at the back of my mind, the next few hours passing in a blur. The guerrilla warfare continued, but I was not involved in a one-on-one fight like this one again, I had killed another Genin with the help of a Genin on my side, although the boy helping me had also died, I think.
There was bad news, we were being pushed farther back into the forest.
Fortunately, I had stayed relatively unharmed throughout all of it, I had been grazed by a few kunai here and there but I had made sure were not poisoned.
Most of the fighting was simply us trying to buy time and them trying to push us, to gain more territory.
Then, the sun peaked in the horizon, blessing us with its presence. It was our cue, so with a minor fire trick, we set fire to everything we could find and retreated.
We would normally be in the forest for sixteen hours per day, then spend eight our sleeping and eating while our sensors detected them if they tried anything funny like a surprise attack. Every minute of sleep was invaluable.
The Konoha shinobi did the same thing.
I met back with the rest of my troop only to realize I had been one of the luckier Genin, or shinobi in general. We were now only forty-three alive, seven had died, six Genin and a Chunin. Another ten were quite seriously injured but still able to fight.
I sat down near the fire, eyes lifeless, as my experiences of the day finally crashed in, I had killed someone. I had killed two people in fact. I was a killer. Someone was dead, by my hand, and I was still alive. That's what mattered, no? I was still alive. And my opponent was not.
I was too exhausted and I didn't have an ounce of chakra remaining that I could use. I was dead tired. Too tired to sort my emotions out, I'd do that if I survived, there was no use in doing it now.
And we needed to hold it eight days, waiting for the reinforcements.
If the first day was like this, what would the fourth day, the seventh day be like?
I, lost in thoughts, sat in a tree and ate a bit, two Konoha forehead protectors hanging on my waist. I received a few approving looks for the others when they saw them, mixed with the usual pity, but I didn't see the pity anymore.
I was startled back to reality when one of the medic-nin of our troop came near me, asking me if I needed healing. He was the kind man who had shown me the poisons, in the measure where a trained killer can be kind. I absentmindedly shook my head.
I was fine, there was no need to heal me.
"Keep your chakra for those who need it."
"Good, I assume you weren't injured. Tell me if you need something, I know war can be hard."
"Especially for children" was not said, but we both knew that's what he meant.
He muttered something else under his beard but I didn't hear him, so I shook my head again, I didn't need anything except rest.
Then, after a quick meal, I tried to get the most sleep I could, because I felt every minute of sleep would be precious.
Day 2
I was not-so-gently woke up a few hours later by another Genin, the sun was now at its peak in the sky. We needed to go back to the forest, Konoha had restarted their push.
The weather was still trash, we could barely see the sun through the clouds and fog. I hoped it wouldn't rain today.
I took my position in a tree, again, preparing myself for opponents. I knew today would be harder, everyone was more experienced and there were no traps to slow them down anymore.
And it was.
It was brutal.
They came lusting for our blood, pushing relentlessly, trying to take as much ground as possible now that there were no deadly traps waiting for them. They knew that if we managed to last eight days, it'd be bad for them.
At one point, I had received another kunai to the leg, but I had quickly bandaged it, after cleaning. I just hoped it would worsen.
But this injury was bad, I had a limp for the rest of the day.
It didn't prevent me from getting another kill, though, but I had used two explosive tags for this one, I had exploded their legs, then waited for them to bleed out.
It was a girl.
Eleven years old, I think.
Did it matter?
I did not think about it, I did not want to. The answer wouldn't change anything.
And I was starting to get short on supply, even while looting the deads, allied or enemies.
I now had three Konoha forehead protectors.
The night finally came and both sides were thankful for it. We were all tired.
Today, we had suffered eight casualties, we were down to only thirty-five shinobi alive, but we thankfully still had all of our Jonin by some miracles. The number of Genin was dwindling fast, though.
The same medic-nin healed my leg, I was able to walk normally again. A kind Jonin who specialized in Ninjutsu had given a couple of senbon he wouldn't use anyways.
This day, I slept again like a brick, too tired to think about the girl I had killed, all of my emotions had started to dull, even my fear.
It had taken me two days to start to get indifferent to all of the gore.
Day 3
Today, all the clouds and fog had mysteriously disappeared, I didn't know if this was a good thing or not. It was bright, the sun was smiling, but the forest was thick, so we were thankfully under a shadow.
I woke up, and did as I did the day before, I prepared myself, taking position in a tree, preparing myself for another long and exhausting day, only hoping it wouldn't be as bad as yesterday.
I was wrong.
It was worse.
The sun had maybe emboldened them, we were on the passive, on the defensive, the whole day, because they were awfully aggressive. Even more than the other days.
I had not managed to do a lot, today, except get myself injured. At the end of the day, I was limping again, except this time I also had a useless arm, pending to my side. I was covered in blood, from head to toe, though it was not mine, a fellow Genin had been hit by a particularly violent wind jutsu that had narrowly missed me.
The remains of it had been enough to injure my arm, that was what had rendered it useless. I didn't want to imagine what would've happened to me if I had been hit. It didn't have to, my fellow Genin had not dodged in time and was now only a pile of bloody flesh on the ground.
I wanted it to end, I was tired of this all. I wanted to go back to the village. But I couldn't, I would continue to fight.
Until I died.
Or we won.
Whichever came first.
I limped to our resting place, noticing I was the last one to arrive. I received quite a few surprised look, I guess most people had guessed I was dead. After all, who expected a not-even fire years old to survive on the front lines.
A few minutes later, the same medic-nin as before, whose name I still didn't know, came to treat me again. Fortunately, it was nothing too serious, it could be healed without problems, nothing was broken or infected.
Each time he saw me, each time he needed to heal me, I could feel him dying a bit inside, his anguished face telling more than it should. He knew I had killed, but it wasn't that that deranged him, it was the fact that I had been forced to kill, forced to participate into a war I had nothing to do with.
I took the time he was healing me to look around and realized today had been a deadly day, there were twelve fewer people than yesterday, it had only been three days, but we were down to only twenty-three soldiers.
Only seven Jonin, eight Chunin and eight Genin remained. The number of Genin kept diminishing, our lack of experience showing, and three Jonin had died today, it was a disastrous day. Even worse, one of our three sensors and the other healer were now in the afterlife.
I hope that tomorrow would be better, it was the only thing I could do.
Somehow, I doubted it.
Day 4
It was still sunny today, a bad omen, according to me, I had a bad feeling. I was still tired, I was certain I had big circles under my eyes and I'm sure that my reaction time was marginally slower than before. But I was not the only one in this exact situation, we were all out of shape and too exhausted to care about anything.
After a small, but nutritive breakfast, I hid on a tree again, determined to survive the day.
The first few hours were uneventful, I was partnered up with another Genin, who had also managed to survive so far. I didn't know his name, and I didn't want to know it, it made him human, and I felt it when humans died, so I called him blondie.
I had let my instincts take control, I was constantly vigilant, waiting for the slightest thing out of the ordinary.
So when I suddenly noticed a shadow moving, which meant…
"DUCK"
Blondie was smart, he listened to me, and ducked just in time for the tree behind him to get skewered by a shower of kunais.
We fell back, and got closer to each other, already knowing our plan. Blondie would go up close and I would support from behind. He was a low-key genius in taijutsu, really good for a Genin, and he was also experienced, being twelve years old.
Three Shinobi emerged from the shadows, all Genin, fortunately, but they were three, and we were two already exhausted. It didn't look good for us.
All of a sudden, they attacked, in an obviously well-practised teamwork, like an oiled machine. They evidently had experience.
It was bad, very bad.
So we played dirty.
We would've done so anyways.
I used everything in my repertoire to make their lives hell for the fight; smoke bombs, poison, ninja wire and so on.
A couple of minutes later, we were both still alive, but exhausted, even more so than at the beginning of the fight.
Our opponents were all poisoned, courtesy of me, but not with anything deadly or anything more than a nuisance or a small disadvantage. I did not have more powerful poisons.
It was bad, worse.
After a quick stare-off, five seconds, they went back to the offensive, but with a different tactic. Instead of trying to get rid of blondie directly, two of them distracted him while the last one went for me, expecting me to be helpless in close combat.
He'd be quite right, usually, I wasn't the best at taijutsu, but he was poisoned, a slow-acting poison which weakened the muscles. He did not know it yet.
I engaged him in close range and quickly realized a disheartening fact, he was still better than me.
I was smarter.
I ducked under a high-kick (I was small, okay) and stabbed him min the leg with a kunai, not expecting it to be a feint.
I was smacked on the ribs by a powerful punch and thrown backwards while my opponent fell for the branch we were fighting on because of his injury.
I saw an opening, adrenaline filled my system for what I felt was the hundredth time today and replaced myself with a piece of bark that was falling alongside him.
I appeared right next to him and stabbed him with a kunai in the back of the neck. Blood gushed, painting my body and uniform crimson.
He never knew what hit him.
I landed roughly on the ground, shaking, only to see blondie explode himself in an attempt to get rid of his opponents, he had been too injured and knew he would die soon, so he opted to take them out with him.
He failed, the two Genin narrowly escaped the blast by replacing themselves with whatever they could find.
Guts, blood and bones painted an horrible scene, and my opponents where momentarily distracted by it.
I saw another opportunity, another opening. Even if I was low on chakra, I could do it.
Still on the leftover adrenaline, I replaced myself with a big rock that had been sent flying behind one of my last two opponents.
He sensed my apparition, and turned around just in time to receive a kunai in the eye.
He fell.
I sighed, trying to locate the last one, I could do it. I sensed something coming fast at me, at my right.
I reacted too late, a kick impacted me on the ribs, that had already been hit earlier, and I was lunched off the ground into a nearby tree. I felt something crack. I did not want to know what it was.
I saw stars, my balance was completely thrown off. I tried to stand up again, but another kick kept me at ground level.
I coughed up a mouthful of blood and raised my head a bit.
I feared this was my end; at least I had gotten five kills.
I was terrified, but I still took a kunai in my hand behind my back.
He approached me, while I faked being down and scared. Yes, I was scared of death, but if I died, he'd also die with me.
Then, he made the same mistake I had made the first day.
He looked at my eyes and saw the defenceless four-and-a-half-year-old girl thrown into a war she had nothing to do with. He saw the small, cute kid, not the shinobi who had just killed his two friends.
And he hesitated for a moment.
A fatal mistake.
Because I did not.
I launched myself off the ground, impaling my left arm on his drawn-out kunai, but before he was out of his stupor, I had slit his throat.
Blood gushed, and the last one fell on the ground. I fell on top of him.
I had won.
A pyrrhic victory, I was too injured to do anything. At least I was alive, I tried not to think about blondie.
I knew I wouldn't be able to stand for long, so I took the equipment of every deceased, even my teammate, and the forehead protector of my victims. I don't know why I did it, but I still took them and tied them to my waist.
After that, I went back to the meeting point, it was starting to get dark, it would soon be time to fall back anyways.
At least I tried.
I walked… And lost feelings in my legs.
I walked… I felt light, my head my spinning.
Fortunately, no one crossed my path, I was at the stage where I was functioning on pure willpower alone, I had trouble standing, let alone walking, and I was horribly chakra exhausted.
I walked…I couldn't think anymore.
Then, I saw the light, a fire.
I walked and saw some figures.
I walked, and saw a face.
I fell, the day having taken its toll.
A/N: For those who think Hana is too weak, well, she's not even five and not from any clan. She'll improve. Those that think that the ennemy Genin were too weak, think about this. They were sent to a battlefied were they had a high chance of dying, so of course they wouldn't be from important clans, nobody would accept if the Kage sent clan children to their death, so they were probably also fresh out of the academy Genin, just like our MC.
Also, Hana is the same age as the sannin (or very close).
