The Poisonous Flower of Kumo - Chapter 4
The Return
I woke up groggily, struggling to figure out where I was. The last thing I remembered was falling of exhaustion in front of a Kumo ninja, so I had probably been brought to a medic-nin. At least I hope I was.
I looked around and realized this was most likely the case, I was inside a tent, on a bed, with a white hospital blouse on me, and covered in bandages.
Wait! I was injured!
I checked my right side, looking for anything, any clues of my previous burns, but there was nothing, my skin immaculate, as f I had never been injured. There was not even a scar!
I also wasn't sore or exhausted for the first time in days, this was wonderful.
I tried to stand up, but a wave of nausea caused me to take support on the bed. After a few seconds of intense discomfort, I began to search for my things, mainly my flak jacket, uniform and weapons. I didn't feel safe without them.
I found the first two items, with my forehead protector, on a table near the bed and quickly changed myself into proper ninja attire. I then looked around for my weapons, anything, but my search was fruitless; I didn't find any..
Before I could continue my forage, a shinobi entered the tent, smiling politely when he saw me standing and conscious. He cleared his throat, getting my attention and spoke in a soft, slimy tone that reminded me of a snake. I immediately disliked him, his voice gave me shivers.
"I see you're awake, you were out for a day. We were surprised you had managed to survive at all, Hana Yoduku, when we found you, you had severe blood loss, one of the worse cases of chakra exhaustion we had ever seen and a severe lack of sleep. According to the medic, it had been more than forty hours since you last slept. Quite the resilient young thing, aren't you? And I must say, you served you village 'till the end, you were a walking corpse surrounded by enemy corpses."
He was a small man with tanned skin like many others in Kumo, white hair, black eyes and, where those fangs? Also, he kept looking at one of the walls for some reason. It was a barren wall.
"Well, I did what I had to do to survive, and here I am. Now, where can I have my weapons?" I croaked, my voice sore, painful to the use, from not having been used in so long. I quickly got to the point, no wanting to spend any more seconds than strictly necessary in his company.
"Not interested in the fate of your fellow shinobi? If you were curious, only two others survived, two Jonin. One of them will be fine, he only lost an arm, he'll be able to continue serving, but the other one lost the lower half of his body. It was a miracle he survived. Needless to say, his career was rather cut short…like him!" he continued, pretty much ignoring me, laughing at his own joke. I doubted his mental health, but this was a very common trait amongst ninja.
"Was the mission a success?" I asked, just now remembering our task, I had completely forgotten about it in my hurry after waking up. I hoped it was, anything to help us win the war.
He looked at the wall again for a moment, as if it had divine writings on it, suddenly enlightened.
"Yes! Yes, undoubtedly! When we arrived there were only twenty of them remaining, so the cleanup was quick and easy. Your troop did incredible, it's a shame they all died, but you...you surprised everyone, Hana Yudoku, twenty-one confirmed kills, nineteen Genin and two Chunin, at only four and a half years old. Quite an impressive list for someone so young, I hope you will continue to impress us, your potential is limitless…You certainly impressed a lot of people."
I stayed silent, sitting on the bed, waiting for him to get to the point. But I was happy to learn that we had completed our assignment.
"But where are my manners, I didn't introduce myself, I am Jonin Commander Shinrai, truly a pleasure to meet you. Why was I here again? Ah, yes, since your squad kind of doesn't exist anymore, you will be reassigned to a new one in the near future, after you give your mission report. As for your weapons, they are under the bed, along with all of your belongings. You will thus go back to Kumo with squad 9 in…"- he looked at the sky- "four hours. Everything will be explained to you a bit later. Dismissed."
"Ah, I can't dismiss you…I went to see you, seriously, what am I doing? Sorry for the inconvenience…"
After this weird exchange, he left my tent, muttering to himself again all the way back. I did not like him at all, he gave me the creeps, he moved and talked like a snake. I still trusted him as a commander, personal feelings had no place in war, but that did not mean I had to like him as a person. I didn't.
Remembering what he said, I looked under the bed and all of my weapons were there, along with the medic-nin's letter and the twenty Konoha forehead protectors of those I had killed.
After re-equipping my trustworthy weapons, I got out of the tent, finally feeling proper and secure. I went searching for food, I was starving, it had probably been days since I had last eaten something other than a soldier pill.
After searching for a bit in the camp, which was simply a couple of dozens of tents, I found something akin to a canteen and quickly got myself food, I felt as if I could eat my weight.
The shinobi, as always, were surprised to see someone so small amongst, them, but I could now see something resembling respect instead of the usual pity in their eyes. I guess tales of my exploits had been spread around a bit and, while what I had done wasn't that surprising for your average shinobi, it being done by a young child certainly changed their vision of it.
After my hearty meal, I still had more than three hours before I had to leave, so I did the only thing I think of, I went to restock my poisons. I had just been told I would receive a new assignment when I'd go back to the village, I wanted to be ready.
Four hours later, my poisons restocked, I met with squad 9, which was a small squad of either injured shinobi or ones that had special missions that necessitated them to go back to the village. Once everyone was arrived, we departed, not wasting a single instant. Time was precious.
I recognized one of the Jonin that had survived the forest, the one that had lost an arm, he was the ninjutsu specialist that had taught me a bit in the forest and given me equipment he wouldn't need. Curious, I went to talk to him.
"I see you survived, they could not get rid of you that easily, huh. I'm Hana."
"Good to see you too, Hana, I'm Sanji. Good to see you still alive, if someone said to me that the only one to survive out of all of the Genin and Chunin would be the small, harmless-looking girl, I probably would've laughed in their face. But here we are, it seems they could not kill you. Though the same can't be said of you, you clearly could kill them, I heard of your exploits," the now cripple said in a mocking tone, not mocking me, but the enemy shinobi, before bitterly laughing.
"They underestimated me, I did not. And here I am, alive. Did you see the other survivor? He's not with us, I'd think he'd come back with us, knowing his condition."
My interlocutor instantly became serious when I talked of the other.
"As you said, he knew of his condition and preferred to die in an honourable matter than as a cripple, we found him an hour ago, he had slit his throat…"
I was stunned into silence for a moment.
"Huh...May he rest in peace…"
"May he rest in peace…"
We stayed silent for a couple minutes, the news had surprised me, but I could understand him, it must've been frustrating for him, a Jonin, to be reduced to this state, so much that he committed seppuku.
After a bit, Sanji, who was walking beside me talked again.
"Hey, little girl, I was always curious about it, how in the seven hells did you survive? If even Chunin could not make it, what made you tough it out? Especially the last day, we had to fight for a good forty hours, most Jonin can't do that, but you did it, and got out unharmed. You even killed Chunin, two of them, I heard."
There was nothing preventing me from telling him, so I did, and he had helped me in the forest, I owed him at least that.
"Well, poison, nobody expects the poisoned senbon, especially inexperienced Genin. And they always hesitate when going for the killing blow, nobody wants to kill a small cute girl. As for the Chunin, well, the trick you taught me came in real handy. I guess I never said thank you for it, it saved my life. That and instincts…and willpower. I learn best under pressure I guess," I shrugged after thinking about it a bit. I did not have an answer as for how I had been able to fight for so long, it was a mystery even for me.
"I had not expected you to pull it off, but it seems you weren't half bad after all. Since you seem to have to have benefitted have a bit from this trick, want me to show you a couple of other ones? It'd be a shame if you died," He said, genuinely surprised, but he was believing me.
"Really? I guess I can't say no," I did not even think about it before accepting, such opportunity did not come often.
Anything to stay alive.
"Well, let's start bu the basics that you were probably never shown, do you even know your chakra affinities? It'll be important if you want to learn jutsu.
"No, we didn't have time to learn them…"
"No problem. Take…" -he searched inside multiple pockets of his jacket before finding what he wanted- "This! Chakra Induction Paper. Simply Channel Chakra in the paper and it'll show you your affinity," he finished, giving me a plain-looking piece of paper.
I took it and followed his instructions, channelling chakra through it, and was quite a bit surprised when the paper wrinkled, before splitting in two, Then, the paper started to vibrate so fast it blurred.
I looked at him and slowly raised an eyebrow, curious about my chakra affinity. This would probably shape my future combat style, though I did not have a lot of chakra.
He had frozen in place for a moment, mouth opened, before he regained composure.
"Well, you definitely have lightning and wind chakra affinity, there's no doubt about that...and you seem to have a Kekkei Genkai, and it's not one I've seen before, aren't you full of surprises. Go check the library once we are back in the village, you should be able to find out what it is. I also have Wind Release, so I'll be able to teach you a couple of tricks…"
For the next few hours, he taught me how to mould my chakra into my elemental affinities and some wind jutsu that were not necessarily powerful, but they were useful. I didn't have the chakra capacity for anything too strong anyways.
I always was a quick learner, and it seems the war had stimulated me even more , I absorbed everything he taught me like a sponge in water, it could be crucial for my survival. He mostly showed me how to deflect and change the direction of incoming weapons using wind chakra, how do extinguish or boost fires, how to redirect jutsu, how to make myself a little bit faster, how to channel chakra through weapons, tricks like those.
They didn't require a lot of chakra, but fine control, which was more my strength and my teacher knew it, that was why he taught me those, because I was sure he too had big and overwhelming techniques. He taught me chakra control exercises: water walking and tree climbing, as well as a bit of theory that could be useful.
We also sparred a bit, he gave me small bits of wisdom he had accumulated during all of his years as Jonin. This was how we spent our days coming back to the village.
I also spent all of my time thinking about my Kekkei Genkai, but chose not to use it until I knew what it was or if the village had no information on it. I had heard horror stories of people with Lava Release killing themselves and others because they weren't careful when experimenting. It was not as if I spent my days idle either.
One day, I realized something, and my curiosity got the better of me. I didn't know why Sanji did this, so I simply asked him.
"Hey Sanji, I was wondering, why are you helping me? I mean, I'm just a Genin and you're a Jonin."
He laughed a bit, it was not a happy laugh, and he had this look in his eyes, he was reminiscing of the past.
"I had a daughter a few years ago, before the village was founded... She was also forced to fight, though she was older than you. She died on the battlefield. I just don't want it to happen to you. And it's really fun to teach people that have talent, I can tell you'll go far in life."
I nodded, there wasn't really anything else I could do in this situation. He seemed to already have made his mourning long ago.
I spent the next few days training, and training more, I had to be prepared as best as I could, I had no doubt I would be sent to fight once again and I wanted to survive.
Until one day, we finally arrived at the village. The trip had taken eleven days, all spent improving myself. I was tired and desperately wanted, no needed to take a hot bath.
I entered Kumo and the tension was still there, if one thing it had gotten worse, it was wartime. I split with the rest of the squad, following Sanji to the administrative building. We had to file a mission report first thing. Then, we'd be able to collect our pay, which was quite substantial as we were the only survivors of our squad and had a lot of kills. I'd be around a hundred thousand Ryo.
A couple of hours later, I exited the building, having finished my report; I had detailed each day, my kills, who died, and so on, at the best of my ability
I had a couple of other things I needed to do before I could allow myself to relax in a warm bath: I needed to deliver the letter to the wife of the medic-nin, go to the library, go see Karyo to tell him I was alive and well and finally, I needed to go to the Genin office before the end of the day to receive my new assignment.
I decided to start with the medic-nin's latter, the sooner it would be done, the better, I bet it wouldn't be pleasant. At least I'd be done with it, it was a man's last wish after all, I couldn't simply ignore it.
Fortunately, medic-nin had been thoughtful, he had written his address, that had saved me a lot of trouble, otherwise it would've been quite awkward.
I stood in front of the door, his letter, miraculously still intact after everything I had gone through, in my hand. I took a deep breath, readying myself.
I just had to deliver the letter, then I could go take that bath.
I knocked three times.
A little girl opened the door.
Oh….Oh no…
She looked exactly like me, the only difference was her slightly tanner skin and her eyes were a lighter shade of blue.
Oh…that explains a lot. And that's awkward… Why does everyone have daughters looking like me?
She was most likely the same age as me. She had avoided the Academy, apparently.
Seconds later, a woman appeared by her side, looking like an older version of the small girl, same skin and eyes.
"Hello there, what do you need?"
I signed.
Worry and anxiety invaded the mother's face, she could tell by my body language I had news, and most likely bad ones. I sighed again and spoke, in a sad tone.
"I have a letter for you, Madam It was given to me by…"
"Is my Hyotori fine? Did something happen to him? Tell me, is he dead? Tell me he isn't dead, please. He can't be dead…he promised me would come back. He's alive, isn't he? Yes, he's alive," she interrupted me, borderline hysterical, shaking all over. I feared she would faint.
I didn't even tell her anything and she was already like this...
I felt bad for her, but I had to deliver the news.
"I'm sorry, Madam, but your husband passed away from his injuries two weeks ago. This later was given to me by your late husband, I'm sorry."
"You're lying! He can't be dead! You're lying, are you not? He promised me…he never lied to me before…" She started almost angrily, but got progressively weaker the more she spoke, starting to sob, taking support on a nearby table not to fall.
"I'm sorry….He died in his sleep, from his injuries. He told me to survive and deliver this letter to you," I calmly said, I knew getting angry would only worsen the situation.
"I see, after everything he had done for this village, it was not enough, they wanted even his life…Why did he have to die, why did he have to go…He knew he wouldn't come back…
"Mommy, what's happening? Is Daddy okay? When will he come back?," the little girl said, oblivious.
"Daddy won't come back…" she restarted sobbing, taking the letter from my hand, "Yui, Daddy's gone to the sky."
"No, Daddy can't be gone, he promised me he would play with me! You're a liar!"
This was quickly becoming extremely awkward, and I felt I was not welcome anymore, so I discreetly left, closing the door. I would leave them to their grief, I had already done mine.
It was cowardly, but, in this moment, I did not want to do this.
The first item on my list done, I decided to go see Karyo next, he maybe was worried about me, maybe not? Anyways, I'd probably be good to let him know I was alive.
I went to the orphanage I used to live in, right now I was not sure where I lived, I'd probably go to a hotel tonight.
Knocking on the door, I wondered if they would still remember me, it had only been a few weeks since I had left, but I was a quiet child and they were understaffed.
They did not.
They had treated me respectfully, as they treated any shinobi, but they had absolutely no idea who I was. I had only told them I was here to see Karyo and they let me in.
I knocked a door for the second time of the day, except this time it was to see a friend and I had good news, it immediately opened.
"Hello, I'm back from the front lines…"
There was an awkward moment of silence, Karyo undoubtedly shocked, his dropped jaw enough of a tell. After a while, he regained control of himself, excitedly speaking.
"Thank God, we were sure you had died with all of the horror stories we hear about the war. Are you fine? You seem fine…? Is it as bad as they say it is? Is it worse? Did you have to…kill?"
Before he could continue further, I interrupted his tirade, entering his room and sitting on a chair.
As I thought about how I should answer him, I decided to be honest, it wouldn't do him any good if I lied. I took a deep breath, my eyes darkening.
"I'm fine, don't worry, I was healed. But, the war, it's worse. Worse than anything you heard about it. We were fifty in my unit. Two came back, including me. And I had to kill…it's...easy, but when you'll have to do it, don't look at them in the eyes.
"Oh...I'm sorry."
There was another moment of silence, though it was less awkward this time.
"How many did you kill? What is it like? I want to know, I'll be there soon, I want to be ready."
"Don't regret this later…I killed twenty-one. And it's easy to kill. Almost to easy sometimes. Just don't go against the Chunin, you'll die. They're on another level. " I told him, only because it would help him in the future, it was impossible to describe the front lines.
And also because I would my stellar performance would probably be used as propaganda in the future, particularly in the Academy, it was important to give hope to the students and shinobi alike. And once-in-a-generation geniuses are a good way to spread hope.
Karyo's eyes widened comically again at my declaration.
"Twenty-one! You killed twenty-one… Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine…"
We spoke with each other a bit longer, mainly Karyo telling me what had happened during my leave. He told me about how the classes were still going, harder than ever, but he didn't like them, not anymore. He had always wanted to be a blacksmith, not a soldier, and the tales of the war I had lived through definitely convinced him. And he didn't have the heart to be a shinobi, he was kind, too kind, he didn't wish to kill, he wanted to help others.
But what choice did he have, he would be going, I just wished the war slowed down enough it wouldn't be too dangerous for him or maybe that we won and it stopped entirely.
We ended up spending close to two hours together before I left. We talked a lot, sparred a bit, I showed him so tricks I had learned or been taught, it was a relaxing and fun moment with a friend for me, something quite rare these days.
I went to the library, intent on finding about the Kekkei Genkai that I supposedly had. It had been on my mind for the past few days and could not wait to find out.
I asked for a book on Kekkei Genkai, and sat on a corner reading it.
Not Storm Release, Lava Release, Ice Release, Explosion Release, Magnet Release, Wood Release…
I could not find anything on it, it was nature transformation apparently unknown to Kumo. I searched other books, but I always got the same results. It was one of the lesser-known ones.
Until I got to an old, dusty tome that would probably be reduced to dust sooner than later. There, there a mention of a nature transformation that used Lightning and Wind chakra.
Swift Release.
It apparently allowed the user to move extremely fast, a blur, but there wasn't more information there except that it was hereditary, but the gene often stayed dormant for several generations and that good users of the Kekkei Genkai could become so fast were invisible.
This was similar to what had happened to the Chakra Induction paper. To be certain, I mixed my lightning and wind chakra, then mixing it and channelling it to my hand. My hand started to blur, shaking at an extremely fast speed.
I immediately stopped it, I did not have the chakra control to safely do this, not yet. My now sore hand was enough of a proof.
But I knew what Kekkai Genkai was, I had Swift Release.
It'd be useful, it complemented my fighting style extremely well.
This was extremely good news.
It would allow me to survive.
After having found out about Swift Release, I was extremely tempted to experiment with it immediately but I still had to report to the Genin office to receive my next assignment and get my pay for my mission, so I could get somewhere to sleep tonight. I'd have enough time to play with Swift Release later, there was a war going on. And I had a bath to take.
I quickly walked up to the building, which was higher on the village, near the Raikage's office, wanting to finally get this day done with so that I could take a bath then get a good night of sleep in a comfortable bed, a rare luxury for me.
Fifteen minutes later, I was done with it, I was a hundred thousand Ryo richer, I was rich! But I also had a new assignment…tomorrow. I was to go meet with the seventeenth troop the next morning. It was all I knew.
But I'd have time to think about this later, a bath was waiting for me.
It was divine, common things became a luxury in time of war, and baths were the best example of this. I could, would kill for this. I had killed for this, in a way.
It did wonders to my aching muscles and omnipresent headache, that I had forgotten I had.
That night, I had the best sleep of my life.
A/N: A little less happened this chapter, it was more of an interlude, so sorry on that…But it was necessary, and I feel non-stop fighting each chapter would be too much. Next chapter, though…(:
