Shattered Destiny:
Chapter 10: Kirigakure scouts
I can barely move my head because of the way the bandages were wrapped. I've long since healed, but whenever I fiddle with the bandages everyone gets mad at me.
We managed to avoid detection for the rest of the day and through the night.
Well, I assume that since we're having peace and quiet that we've been avoiding detection, for all I know we've been being followed by every ninja in the country. I trust Koi-sensei, she hasn't lied to me…. Yet.
We didn't even stop at the hot springs Hot Water's known for.
"We're going to be dangerously close to Yugakure." Sensei tells us. "If we didn't run into those shinobi yesterday we'd try going through it."
"Why?"
"It would be less suspicious to go through the village that spans nearly the entire width of the country."
My eyes widen. "You mean their village borders both Fire and Water!?"
"We'll be within eyesight of the village no matter what we do." Sensei nods. "You three need to be quiet for the next several hours, if not the rest of the day."
Three kids, one adult, foreign country…. I wonder how long and who breaks the silence.
…
"Are we there yet?" Me and now.
"Keiki, that's not funny." The venom in sensei's voice has me biting my tongue.
Don't piss off a jounin, note made. Satu-chan's stifling a giggle, Zabuza-san's staring daggers at me.
I never got an opportunity to explain my Kekkei Genkai, Sensei said that explanations can come when we're at our destination. I'm not saying that I'm glad for the intervention, but I'm glad for the intervention.
It's not long until we see the steam rising. "There it is, Yugakure." Sensei tells us, pointing at the wall of mist.
"I can't see it." I say, looking at the mist wall.
"T-the hot springs around Yugakure make a natural wall of steam." Satu-chan explains.
"Oh." How can anyone see us from behind that? I shake my head in thought. Impossible.
Sensei ushers us into the treeline, there's a cliff going down into a valley, on the other end of it is supposedly Yugakure. Looks more like a volcano than a village honestly.
There's not much foliage to hide behind, kinda expected when you look to one side and see the village, then look to the other side and see the coast. Why aren't we by the coast, putting more foliage between us and that wall of steam if everyone's so concerned about it?
I trust Sensei, doesn't mean it makes sense though.
Frost's border comes into view, you can see the sudden change in climate as on one side of an invisible line is lush with greenery, while the other side is covered in beautiful snow.
I stop in wonder, as do my teammates. Living on an island like Kirigakure there's never any snow, it looks like a blanket of white gently covering the landscape. "Wow." I can hear Satu-chan breathe.
"Is that… Snow?" Zabuza-san asks, just as revered as I am.
"Is frost covered in it?" I look up at Sensei.
"Yes, my genin." Sensei nods with a grin on her face. "Once we step into that snow the shinobi of Hot Water will leave us alone."
"Why?"
"Hot Water is trying desperately to stay out of the war, and shinobi traveling their country freely could be seen as picking sides if they openly deny passage rights to everyone."
"Oh."
A kunai hits the ground near us. "Run! It's not far now." Sensei says.
Without a word we start running towards the snow.
-5 health.
A kunai hits my shoulder and I let out a cry. "Kirigakure no jutsu!" Sensei shouts, a mist erupts from the nearby ocean and covers the area, I can barely see my hand in front of my face.
"Stay close, keep moving, and stop hiding your headbands." Sensei says, her voice echoing softly in the fog.
I can barely see the shapes of my teammates. "What is this?" Zabuza-san asks with awe.
"Later." Sensei tells us.
"Why didn't we travel Hot Water like this before?" I ask sensei, looking up at her shape.
"Later."
Okay fine, don't tell us. It's so surreal to be traveling like this, I can feel how unnatural this fog is, my skin crawling as the droplets in the air hit my skin. It's a fog, so my skin's constantly crawling.
"What happened?" a voice rings out through the fog.
"I've never heard of a Fire nin spewing mist."
"Isn't this a Water technique?"
We can hear the Hot Water shinobi talking, like echoes in the mist somewhere. It just adds to the already weird atmosphere.
"I thought we were pursuing Fire shinobi!"
The voices don't stop, sometimes they're shouting and other times they're whispering.
I've lost track of how long we've been trapped in the mist, there are times when I think somehow we've been separated.
Any moment we could get jumped by Hot water shinobi, can Sensei react to something she can't see? Surely they have a ninja that can see through this mist somewhere.
My feet hit snow. "Release." Sensei says and the mist vanishes. "Keep going! They shouldn't chase us past the border."
"What if they do?"
"They won't." A shinobi appears from the snow, startling most of us. "You the guys from Water?"
"Isn't the chakra mist a good enough indicator?" Sensei asks, shaking the man's hand.
Anyone can feel the tension leave the air. "Need to make sure, name?"
"Serizawa Koi." Sensei greets herself, showing him her headband. "And these are my genin, Momochi Zabuza."
Zabuza nods.
"Matsuo Satu."
"H-hi!" Satu says with a red face, unwrapping the end of her scarf from my arm, didn't even notice her do that.
"Sekine Keiki."
"Nice to meet you, sir!" I bow respectfully.
"Do you have the letter?" The Frost Shinobi asks, guiding us away from the Land of Hot Water.
Man it's cold! "I do." Sensei fishes out a letter from its hiding place, she didn't even tell us we needed one, and hands it to the shinobi.
He opens the letter and reads it. "Finally, you need a different route." He sighs.
"Yeah, I get the feeling that going through Hot Water won't be an option anymore." Sensei agrees. "but with Lightning occupying Khyallin, we don't have much of a choice."
"Right, on to Shimogakure." He nods.
Wait, Frost is working with Water? I thought everyone was at war with everyone else… I should stop making assumptions.
Thankfully we weren't followed across the border, but they'll be waiting for us to go back through, I'd bet a million yen on it. True to his word the Shimogakure shinobi took us to his hidden village, on one side of the village is a fast moving river, to my surprise it's not frozen.
It feel like it's in the negatives, how can the water avoid being frozen? If only I knew. Anyways, on the other side of the village is a glacier, completely blocking off most of the village, meaning if anyone wanted to attack Shimogakure they'd have to cross the river. Only one bridge, made of stone, ice and wood, is in sight.
It's larger than any street I've ever seen. I'm glad I wasn't the first one to slip on the ice covered flagstone. "Are you okay?" I hold a hand out for Satu-chan.
"T-thank you, Keiki-kun." She takes my hand and together she's on her feet. "W-what if I slip again?"
"I can keep holding your hand if you want." I shrug, it'd be easier to keep her from falling if I'm holding onto her.
"H-holding m-my..." She buries her head in her scarf.
"Uh… if you don't want to."
"N-no! It's okay." She hastily gets out, popping her head out of her scarf.
"Okay." Weirdo… I'll get used to it, I hope.
The sides of the streets are piled high with snow, other kids have made some snow forts, throwing snowballs at one another. "What're they doing?" I point at the kids.
"It's called 'A snowball fight'." Sensei tells me. "They throw snowballs at one another, sometimes with forts until they get bored."
"Doesn't it hurt?" Satu-chan asks.
"Unless they're lobbing balls of ice at one another, it's harmless." Our guide assures us. "This way, the Kage and your scouts will want to speak with you as soon as possible."
"We've been pushing it for the past few days to get across Hot Water, can my team get some rest?" Sensei asks.
"That's been taken care of." he nods. "You'll be staying in the Chunin exam dormitories, feel free to use the facilities as you want… minus breaking anything."
"Of course, where are we going first?" Koi-sensei looks around idly, seemingly uninterested. I look at her strangely.
"What're you going to do until we head back to Kiri?" I ask Zabuza-san.
"Train." He says resolutely.
"Boring." I stretch my free arm. "I'll probably join you." I say begrudgingly.
"Don't like training?" Zabuza asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Only the right kind of training, I owe you an explanation remember?"
"Glad you remembered." He nods. "I'm still holding you to it." He prods my chest, where the hole in my chest is.
Both surprising and unsurprisingly it doesn't hurt. "When are we taking these off?" I ask Satu-chan, the bandages are starting to itch now that we're not in a forced jog.
"I-I can change them when we have the chance." She tells me, pointedly looking me in the eye.
I let out a soft, annoyed groan. "Speaking of which." Sensei joins our conversation. "I need to know how bad his scars are going to be so I can prepare myself."
My mother did say that she'd kill her if anything happened to me, I'd say something happened to me. "Yes Sensei." Satu-chan and I answer uniformly.
"Also, I would like to be there for your explanation, if possible."
"Sure." I nod. "Can you wait a bit longer, Zabuza-san?"
"I'll manage." He nods.
"Here's our first stop, Koi-chan." The shinobi stops us in front of the Kage's office. "I'll take good care of your genin, don't worry."
"You'd better." Sensei enters the building covered in ice so dark you can barely see the material it's covering.
"This way you three."
Everyone knows what the Chunin exam is, it used to be a huge multinational event that took place twice a year, everyone argued who would get to host it. Everyone handled it differently.
Konoha's chunin exam took place inside of a giant death forest full of mutant death beasts. Suna's was a specific place in the desert, with death beasts lurking beneath the sand. Kumo's is strange, they host thiers on the back of a giant turtle with a forest on its back? And it's filled with death beasts. Iwa's is mountain climbing, with death beasts!
Kiri's is different, Ours takes place in an underwater cave system that's half flooded, no death beasts in there! I think. The lesser nations, like Frost, have their own chunin exams, but guess what the minimum was to pass that quiz so I didn't have to redo it!
I was surprised to find that we entered a structure built halfway into the structure. "There, aren't any death beasts in your glacier… are there?" I ask the shinobi.
"That's the dorms for the other nations to stay in, this isn't anywhere near the exam grounds." He chuckles.
Oh, that's a load off of my mind. Ours is in the cave network, I assumed that the rest of the nations had thiers inside the exam grounds like Kiri.
Our guide knocks on the door in a rhythm before turning to us. "Okay, see you later, maybe."
"Wait! We don't know our way around!" Zabuza pipes up.
"You're not the only ones staying in here." With a wink, the shinobi vanishes.
"What does he mean by that?" I ask Satu-chan, who's still holding my hand.
"A-are the scouts waiting for us?" She asks, fiddling with her scarf.
The door opens, and we're greeted with a sea otter. "Kirigakure genin?" It asks.
Our silence is profound. "Hello, otter-san!" I bow respectfully, satu-chan follows my lead.
"Name's Sakue, come on in!" She ushers us in. "There are other humans here, don't worry." after closing the door behind us she half waddles and half walks besides us. "You're fresh out of the academy?"
"Yes, Sakue-sama." Satu-chan says.
"Ah, this must be among your first encounters with a summon."
"Second." Zabuza-san says.
"Third." I say proudly. "Do you know Yoritomo-san?"
"He made it to Kirigakure!?" Her ears pick up. "I'm relieved, Lightning's presence has unnerved the clans of Water." She explains.
"How many clans are there?" I ask.
Sakue thinks about it. "Over a dozen at least." She nods.
"Of summons?" Zabuza-san asks.
"Yes." She glances at the door. "Don't tell anyone who lives here that though, summons are a well kept secret."
"What about the otter clan?" Satu-chan asks.
"Frost knows about us and only us, we'd rather keep it that way." Sakue answers. "Our summoners are in the main room."
Six kirigakure shinobi are waiting for us, gathered around a table with our village's logo on the tablecloth. "Are these the courier's?"
"Y-yes sir, Sensei is speaking with the kage as we speak." I answer, bowing in greeting.
"We'll meet your sensei before long, how long did it take you to get here?"
"Four days?" Zabuza-san hazards a guess.
"I think it's three." I tell him.
"We didn't get much sleep." Satu-chan lets out a stifled yawn, muffled by her scarf.
What time is it? It feels like midnight. "Rough trip?"
"We were attacked by Hot Water twice, Sensei saved us." Zabuza says with pride in our sensei, it doesn't stop him from yawning.
"Go pick a few rooms." One of the summoners points towards a hallway.
"I'll have something cooked up for when you wake up." Sakue tells us.
"Thank you." I tell the otter, bowing yet again.
"How's the drinks coming?" One of the summoner's asks Sakue as we leave the room.
"A few more minutes!"
Zabuza-san and I took one room, and Satu-chan took another. She seemed happy as the door closed, glad to finally have a chance to relax most likely.
I hope being a ninja isn't nearly as stressful all of the time, but if it means keeping my family safe…
There are three beds, I take one and zabuza takes the other, leaving the middle one empty. "Hey Zabuza?" I ask him.
"Hmm?"
"Why did you want to become a shinobi?" I ask glancing sideways at him.
"My father was a shinobi, he died before I was born." Zabuza says.
"I'm sorry." I don't know what to say.
"I failed the physical, it's required before you join the academy."
"There's a physical? I didn't take it."
"Really?" Zabuza leans on an arm and looks at me. "Why's that?"
"Mizukage's orders, something happened to all the students at the academy and." I scrunch my brow. "I think my mom called it 'a draft for child soldiers'?"
Right…" He gets quiet. "Can we go to sleep? I'm exhausted."
"Okay, sorry."
Blessed sleep, not any of the 'we could get killed at any moment' kind of sleep, I haven't slept this well since-
"Morning!" Darn it Sensei!
"Already?" feels like I just closed my eyes.
"Yup, have a good nap?"
"Everyone else awake?"
"And having hot chocolate." I don't remember getting out bed, but I'm already out the door, with sensei laughing behind me.
There's a table set up next to the war table, Zabuza-san and Satu-chan are already there with three mugs in front of them. "H-hi Keiki-kun!" Satu-chan waves in greeting.
"Sleep well?" I ask my teammates, getting my cup and settling down in one of the chairs.
"Here's your Coffee, Koi-sama." Sakue returns with her cup.
"Thank you."
"Better than back home, it was so quiet!" Satu-chan says happily.
Home… "How long are we going to be here?" I ask Sensei.
"A few weeks?" She guesses.
"I need to wake the rest, excuse me." Sakue bows and half waddles half walks away on all fours.
"I'd like to purchase an explanation, please?" Sensei looks at me.
"Only if you take these things off, they itch so much!" I prod at the bandages. I think I'm being choked… slowly.
"They do need to be changed." Satu-chan agrees, sort of.
"Yes!" I ignite my hand and start burning the-
"No."
-5 Health.
"Ow!" I rub my head, Sensei didn't need to hit me so hard!
"I'm all for letting you express yourself like the snowflake you are, but lighting yourself on fire isn't on my list of reasons to get killed by your mother." She's not even looking at me. "We'll use a kunai."
On the bright side, I'll have some cool scars! I got this one by being stabbed through the heart, these? Two blades deep in my throat.
"Where're the scars?" Zabuza-san asks, staring at my chest as if I suddenly sprouted a third arm.
"What?" I look down, thought it'd take longer to cut that bandage off. There's no markings where the kunai got stuck in my ribs. "Shouldn't I have some sort of mark!?" I say in dismay. I've seen some of the scars fishermen have, and they looked awesome. While I'd never mutilate myself to get one, I hoped I'd get a couple to gloat about!
"His neck, lets see if those are still here." Sensei says, as surprised as Zabuza is.
Nobody heals from wounds like that this fast.
"Unbelievable." Sensei says as I rub the parts of my neck where I used to have kunai. It's as if it never happened. "On the bright side I don't have to tell your mother anything happened." She lets out a nervous chuckle.
"I wish I could say I knew what's going on." I tell them.
"Can you tell us what you do know?"
Authors Notes: Uuugggghhh, despite feeling like crap I managed to finish this within a week and a half! I'm so happy that so many people are enjoying Shattered Destiny, I hope you enjoyed this chapter (Despite writing it while mostly sick) and take care!
PS: Merry Christmas! (I didn't plan for it to be christmas when they got to a snow covered country… it just happened)
PPS: I post updates on my profile as they happen, better than it being per chapter Imho.