A/N: THANK YOU FOR ALL THE FALLOWS AND FAVORITES, BUT I'M ENCOURAGED MOST BY REVIEWS.
ALSO, I'LL BE STARTING A NEW JOB SOON SO I WON'T BE ABLE TO UPDATE AS MUCH.
It took a lot to unnerve Irene, so much so that it became a very rare experience for her. Normally she was the one that unnerved people, both civilians and her fellow warriors: she spoke even less than Teresa, and had a way of standing so perfectly still that she would pass as a statue. But the thing that unnerved others the most was her stare; she never blinked and seemingly noticed even the tiniest of actions, creating the distinct impression that she was capable of studying their innermost secrets.
Yet for all of these things and despite all of the people she unnerved on a regular basis, even she had one thing that could affect her: standing before the Elders of the Organization in their dim meeting hall. There was just something about them that set her teeth on edge and sent chills crawling up her back, some factor that escaped her intense notice, but that she was still acutely aware of. The one time she had tried to describe the sensation to Teresa – all Irene had been able to say was that it was like "staring at something wholly different than either a human or an Awakened Being, and far more terrifying than facing all three Abyssal Ones on your own" .
Still Irene refused to reveal just how much the Elders unnerved her; she had only ever shared that with Teresa. Keeping her face clear of expression and eyes focused on Rimuto, she waited for the man to begin the debriefing so she could get some distance from them. But it seemed that the man had no intention of speaking anytime soon, interested more in simply staring at her and listening to the utter silence that filled the stone chamber.
"Let us begin." One of the other Elders said at last, his voice soft and raspy. Irene didn't respond, not until Rimuto gave a faint nod - technically she should have started when the first man spoke but she had always waited for his permission. It somehow seemed safer that way.
"We have a task for you, Quicksword Irene. We assume you felt the sudden intense yoki that had suddenly made an appearance and caused mass Yoma migration as a result of the Yoma's attempt to fee from what was generating so much power?"
The second-strongest of the current generation of warriors nodded mutely. Felt it? Her yoki reacted to it and she'd almost awakened involuntarily because of it. All the warriors had. Some trainees and lower-digit warriors needed to be euthanized because they actually HAD Awakened. They were all talking about it. Plainly put, whatever that yoki was, it had all the Warriors shaken.
"Good. What we require from you is that you go and locate that yoki's source. This is a reconnaissance mission, not a hunt. We need to know what the being that gave off such power is, and Abyssal Ones are all beginning to mobilize in search of that power themselves, this is why it requires nothing less that Warriors as strong as either yourself or Teresa. We cannot allow them to lay claim on something so powerful. Failure is not an option. If it has already fallen into the hands of our enemies such as the former Number Ones that have become Awakened Beings, destroy it so that they cannot utilize it against us."
"Understood, sir." Irene said, bowing, "However, what of my usual duties?"
"We'll dismiss you being absent from Yoma hunts as being on a long-term special assignment," Rimuto said, "that IS what you'll be doing in any case."
At that, Irene was so shocked she forgot her anxiety. "Wh-what?! All due respect, but as a warrior of the Organization, I cannot do that! If I go on this assignment, who'll protect the region I'm assigned to?"
"A valid concern, however, it is nothing beyond the level of ability held by our current Number One, Teresa of the Faint Smile." one of the Elders said.
Irene fought down her ire at that, her protectorate region given to her rival...still, orders from the Elders had to be obeyed. And since she was on an assignment to find the cause of that yoki spike, it was something she could understand as well as possibly hold over the Number One's head.
The idea of that made it somewhat more tolerable.
Irene inclined her head. "Understood."
With that, she turned and exited the chamber, eager to get out of the Elders' presence, as well as start her mission.
Stepping outside, Irene grimaced. She was actually going to try finding the source of that yoki? That was insanity at best. Still...orders were orders, and the Organization didn't tolerate any form of deviation or disobedience, no matter how slight.
While death itself didn't frighten Irene, dying without leaving anything behind and being forgotten as a result was something that did. She wanted to have some proof of her existence. To mean something, to matter. If she died, her name would be erased from the records of the Organization, her rank eventually given to someone else, and her symbol erased or given to another.
One more meaningless footnote that no one even bothered to record.
If she were honest with herself, THAT frightened her.
To live without leaving a mark was a terrible thing. To die forgotten was even worse. Yet life was so short and fragile that there was hardly any time to DO anything to ensure either of those things.
It was what pushed her actions. What made her survive.
She couldn't even remember being human anymore, the memories faded to gray and washed away in blood, both that of humans and that of Yoma. And what had that done for her but make her unhappy?
Despite protecting humans, Warriors were feared and shunned due to their incredible powers, their relation to Yoma, and their typically aloof attitudes. Humans often refer to them "silver-eyed witches", "Slayers" or "monsters." Family members of individuals impersonated by Yoma tended to be banished from villages out of fear that they might be Yoma too, and it was often that young girls who suffered this fate or were survivors of villages and towns wiped out by Yoma were drafted into the ranks of the Organization.
Due to their background, the Yoma blood, training, the social isolation and harsh lives, Warriors tend to be outwardly cold, unexpressive and emotionless. They lived unhappy, lonely lives due to their solitary lifestyle and the knowledge that the only thing they have to look forward to was either death or Awakening. Some become hot-tempered and aggressive, some suffer from psychological problems and mental instability, most often due to emotional trauma, and others become homicidal killers who enjoy taking any form of life, more savage than the Yoma they hunt. Generally, companionship with humans was avoided.
Now she was heading out on a potential suicide mission.
She shook her head. There she was thinking about those things again. Warriors weren't supposed to say or think things like that. But the more she did her job as a Yoma-slayer, the more the thoughts snuck up on her.
"You ok, Irene?" a light, seemingly cheerful voice chirped.
Irene rolled her eyes and felt a headache building at the sound of the voice alone.
Teresa...well this was just perfect. The LAST person she wanted to see was her rival right now. Still...given that Teresa was most likely going to be assigned to watch over both of their protectorate regions while Irene did this special assignment, it was inevitable that they would have to deal with one another.
"Fine." the elfish-appearing woman growled, shooting a glare at the one she was out to surpass. "Sent out to track that strange yoki's source and race to discover what it is before Isley, Riful, or Luciela do. And as a solo mission."
Teresa stared, then winced. That was going to be nasty. When she'd felt that yoki, Teresa was in so much agony due to her exceptionally sensitive ability of yoki detection, the pain was so extreme that she almost Awakened willingly just to try blocking the sheer agony out, and then there was needing to find it before the Abyssal Ones...a race against them wasn't going to end well at all.
And, for better or worse, that the insane amount of yoki that had thrown the Organization in a state of panic like this as they scrambled to find the source, had it's echo hanging over the entire land like a shroud still, effectively hindering the warriors ability to sense yoki until it fully disappated. So The Organization's Warriors, the Yoma, the Awakened Beings, and even the Abyssal Ones would all have their yoki-sensing abilities blinded. It masked the energy of them all, so moving around would be easy...it was the fear of being blindsided that was worrisome.
"...Good luck, you'll need it, first or not to find that source." Teresa said.
At that, Irene scowled at the other single-digit. She viewed Teresa as her rival yes, but Irene also respected Teresa more than she did anyone else. "Not to worry...I am only a step behind you, after all. And my fighting style isn't dependent on my yoki-senses."
It was an old quarrel between them, almost ritualistic in nature.
"We seem to have this discussion every time we are about to enter a fight or a hunt," Teresa observed, almost amused
With a chuckle, Irene nodded, "That's all right. I only hope we keep having it, because if not-"
"One or both of us will be dead-"
"Or we'll have Awakened-"
"And then we might as well be dead." Teresa concluded with a bit of grim humor, her infamous faint smile upon her lips. It had become an old joke between them.
Nodding, Irene shouldered her claymore and walked away. She needed to start her search immediately. And she had to do it the hard way.
Naruto gasped as he ran, one of those monsters were after him. One that looked like the ones he apparently killed before.
It shouted something at him, but it was utter gibberish to the boy.
...Of course, from the way the creature kept roaring and licking it's fangs made what it wanted clear enough: it was gonna EAT him!
How had this happened? He had just been wandering aimlessly as he looked for anything that could lead him home and had come across a village. Sure it was built in a way none of the ones back home, this one having stone buildings, but he didn't care. Hopefully he could get some directions and maybe some food.
Stopping at a stall that had a row of fresh baked loaves of bread,
The man looked at him oddly, what the heck did "Shitsurei, Watashi wa ich o motsu koto ga dekimasu shite kudasai" mean? Sounded weird. Still, the man blinked and laughed when he heard the strange boy's stomach growl. So that's what he wanted!
The man who ran the stall told Naruto something incomprehensible and got a confused look in return.
Realizing they didn't understand one another, the stall owner rubbed his fingers together in the universal gesture for money.
Naruto sighed and turned away. He didn't have so much as a wooden nickle to his name. Even if he did, part of him doubted the currency was the same.
Walking through this place, he felt eyes on him and heard people muttering, while Naruto couldn't understand a word, he was used to people talking about him behind his back enough to know it was about him, and everyone was giving him weary looks seeing as how he stood out with his eyes, hair, whisker-marks, and the way he dressed.
There was some kind of bad feeling around here too, he couldn't explain it, but it was just something he could feel. It worried him because it was different from the kind of bad feeling normal people gave off somehow. It felt...worse, but that was all he could say since he'd never felt anything like it before.
As it got closer, Naruto got more and more nervous. Then, spotting a lit lantern, Naruto suddenly grabbed it and ran over to a barrel filled with animal fat and dunked it into it before tossing it at one of the townsfolk and it shattered as soon as it hit him, causing him to be covered in flames as the glass shattered and the fat caught fire.
As the townspeople looked on in horror at what Naruto had done, some even moving to restrain him, they all froze as an inhuman roar bellowed through the village and the man he had lit on fire stood up, his expression understandably furious.
The man roared again and Naruto watched, frightened, as the man's eyes turned gold with vertical black slits for the pupils and his skin suddenly burst apart, but rather than bone and organs, instead was a seven-foot monster with golden cat-like eyes, razor sharp teeth and claws, muscular, elongated limbs, a barrel torso, and brownish-gray skin.
People screamed and ran as the thing snarled something he couldn't understand to him (Naruto guessed it was a curse, he'd lit it on fire after all). and roared, then lunged, arms out to grab the blond boy whichever way he tried to dodge. Naruto dropped to the ground and the creature flew over him and crashed into the ground, tumbled a little ways, and stopped before pushing itself up, glaring at Naruto.
He could feel how badly this thing wanted to kill him.
Seeing the fangs and claws the beast had, Naruto grabbed a medium-sized hammer with a long handle and a rounded blade on one side of the head from a smithy nearby and faced this new enemy, trying to be brave, just like his idol, the Yondaime Hokage, must have been when facing the Kyuubi no kitsune.
Knowing that waiting would be a bad idea, Naruto rushed forward, then when he was close enough, threw the hammer, surprising the thing he was fighting seeing as it clearly didn't expect the young boy to do such a tactic, catching the monster right in the nose. It backed away, clutching the broken bone and crushed cartilage in pain, somewhat stunned and very angry. Picking up the hammer again as he got near the thing he was fighting, Naruto used the hammer to break the thing's kneecaps and when it hit the ground, started banging the creature on the head, trying to hurt it...maybe kill it. But it grabbed his arm and snapped it like a dried-out branch, then grabbed the hammer itself and, somehow standing as if speed-healed and grinning malevolently, the beast started savagely beating him over the head with it. Naruto, struggling to stay conscious, did the only thing he could think of: He kneed the monster in the groin.
It yelped, releasing both the boy and the hammer, which Naruto picked up and swung with all his might, first smashing the creature's hands and then flipping it around and smashing the rounded blade into the spot his knee collided with moments ago.
The creature bellowed the loudest at that, smacking Naruto away and sending the hammer snoring away down the street and, to Naruto's shock, the creature's fingers shot out and stretched into long, flexible, thin blades and shattered the makeshift weapon to pieces.
Then it glared murderously at hima as Naruto quickly looked around and saw there were still a few poorly-hidden people in the area. He stood up and turned his back to the creature before bending over and yanking his pants and boxers down, exposing his bare butt to the monster while also flipping it off before pulling his pants up and rushing off, his meaning clear: Come and get me.
The monster snarled and bolted after him, challenge issued and accepted, but was shocked when it couldn't catch the little bastard it aimed to kill out of principle alone, to hell with his eating his innards!
Now, that monster was chasing after him. And had been for the past hour and a half.
Lunging, the monster tackled Naruto and pinned him to the ground then sunk it's fangs deep into his right shoulder. Naruto howled.
Spotting a sharp rock, he picked it up and jammed it into the monster's eye, gouging it out. The monster released him as it bellowed in pain and he took advantage of the opening and ran.
The thing continued to chase him into a valley surrounded by mountains on all sides with a mountain pond. He kept running, thankful he was at least fast and had a lot of stamina. Stopping at a broad sandstone formation that curved out of the ground like a great hill and was pocked with caves of varying sizes, Naruto scrambled up it, making his way to one that, he was glad to see, couldn't be seen from the ground. He had to confess the cavern made a good place to rest, it was a good hundred feet long and more than twenty feet wide, yet it had a small opening that protected it from bad weather and prying eyes. Darkness swallowed the far end of the cave's interior, clinging to the walls like mats of soft black wool.
Sighing, the boy felt relieved. He was safe here.
That was when he heard dark chuckling coming from behind him and Naruto whipped around, his face draining of color as the thing that had been after him!
Naruto backed away until his body connected with cold, hard sandstone. The monster almost waltzing with the slow, self-assured gait of a predator that was facing prey that both knew there was no escape, it glared at the blond from it's good eye while the one Naruto had gouged out was shut, swollen and bloody as the creature licked it's fangs, ridding them of the crimson, life-giving fluid that had come from the child's shoulder.
As it did so, Naruto's eyes widened as he realized how he'd been found. His wounded shoulder.
Blood...this thing could smell his blood!
As he shook, Naruto heard another voice, this one he could understand. And it was coming from within his own mind.
"Ho, let me take care of this...you'd better be grateful to me...though I DO like getting to rip things apart, you're even more hopeless than I first thought before I was stuck in here..." it said in exasperation before Naruto felt something hot run through his chatora network (as he called it), and vaguely recalled it before the burning seemed to take hold of his thoughts and squeeze then so tightly that he felt them seem to shut off yet he was still awake, like some reversed kind of sleepwalking, if he had to describe it.
What happened next, the blond boy wasn't sure, but when the fire faded from him, his body had a burning sensation in it and he was suddenly happy at what was finally some good news: his shoulder was somehow healed.
Then he caught sight of something that shattered his good mood.
"No..."
The monster that had been after him was now all over the cave's walls and floor.
Naruto should have felt happy he was safe, but as it was, he was even more frightened.
What had that voice in his head been? What was that burning he'd felt? Why couldn't he remember anything? What happened to kill this thing? An what...what was happening to him?! He didn't understand.
He didn't understand, so he fell back on the one emotion humans always felt when facing something unknown. He was afraid.
Trying to wrack his mind for possible answer to what was happening to him, he recalled how he was treated back in Konoha. The way the villagers always gave him such an ugly, icy stare...how they all shunned him...how they all seemed to know something he didn't about himself...how they always called him a freak, a monster, a murderer, and a demon.
Ho Kami-sama! Was that what was happening to him?! That he was the same as this thing, a monster running around in the appearance of a human?!
The idea brought a wracking sob as it made the child feel horrified and broken inside. He slid down the back of the cave and curled up into the fetal position, shivering and cowering in fear with his head buried in his arms and he rocked back and forth.
"Not a monster...not a monster...not a monster...not a monster..." he whimpered, repeating it like a mantra, trying to reassure himself of his own humanity.
He was driven out of his thoughts as his stomach growled, hunger and exhaustion finally caught up to him. Looking at the dead creature, his hunger felt worse all of a sudden.
Meat...
Naruto shook his head and recoiled from the bloody chunks, appalled at the sheer thought. Yet the young boy felt his stomach growl louder and he was too exhausted and distraught to leave the cave and he didn't know about foraging or what was or wasn't safe to eat in the wilderness, they'd never taught him that back in the academy back home.
No choice.
"Don't wanna do this...starving though and can't buy food...don't wanna steal, its wrong...so hungry..." he whimpered with a grimace as he shook all over, his hands closing around a ham-sized lump of the monster's carcass.
Swallowing and closing his eyes tight, he brought it to his mouth and bit down. The initial bite was the worst; it stuck in his throat and metallic, slimy taste of the blood threatened to make him sick as it filled his mouth and ran down his chin. He was actually glad the meat had no flavor to it while he kept his eyes closed and tried to forget just what he was eating as he tore strips of meat off with his teeth, chewed, and swallowed so the meat slithered down his throat and sat like a rock in the pit of his stomach.
After eating his fill of the raw flesh of the monster's corpse, revolted with himself and the idea that he'd have to acquire a taste for the meat of these monsters unless he learned how to hunt since they went after people and would come to him whether he wanted them to or not, he curled up in the middle of the pool of dark purple blood on the hard stone floor. The seven-year-old whimpered, wishing he were a ninja so he could actually know how to fight the monsters back...wishing the Old Man were there to protect him...and more than anything, wishing he were back home in Konoha.
Sure, he wasn't well-liked there, but he could at least know what was going on, and know it was safe there.
Tears running down his face, the whiskered child wondered what he had done wrong enough to deserve this. Being sent somewhere that he couldn't understand, the language and letters making no sense, he wouldn't even be able to get food without resorting to theft or by making a vulture out of himself and feeding on carrion like this, the land was utterly foreign and the people avoided him because they found him odd and allowed their superstitions to rule them, and there were monsters that wanted to eat him alive for no other reason than just because.
All he had wanted to do was help that Uchiha lady...was that so wrong? Why was he punished this way by being made to go through all of this for wanting to be good and do what was right?
It wasn't fair!
Sure his life back in Konoha had been far from perfect, but at the very least, it was better than here. Back home he knew there were people he cared about and that he could make his wants and needs known, back home at least he had dreams to give his life a sense of direction.
Here, wherever this place was, he had absolutely nothing. He was nothing. Just an out-of-place curio that shouldn't even be, something of even less worth than a speck of dust.
But he would survive. He needed to. Until he either learned about this place or found a way home, all he could do was survive.
With such thoughts weighing his heart down, Naruto wept until he fell asleep.