Chapter Fifteen: Red Eyes and Ambushes
Kukikio didn't know how long it had been since she had seen Nori and Madara. Along with Toshi and Maemi, she knew her little god-daughter was almost three. She was almost fourteen, her old friends would almost be eighteen.
She still didn't remember when Hashirama's birthday was, but he seemed to run into her on that day. So it was a habit to carry around a present for him. Just in case. Hashirama and Madara were still at each other's throats.
Fighting each other if the Uchiha and Senju were locked in combat, same with Izuna and Tobirama. No one went near those fights, no one. Not since that women got her head cleanly cut off her shoulders, nothing had happened since.
She guessed even old dogs could learn. Kukikio was only graceful for one thing, Nori was in training and Itama was still with the Uzumaki's, even if their horrid fathers were still alive, slowly tightening the rope around their own necks.
Pausing she looked around herself, Mito seemed to think it fit enough to befriend her. Which confused Kukikio only slightly, it was like Mito knew something Kukikio didn't want her to know.
Not that the red head would tell her, not until Mito felt like it or it would give her some gain. Kukikio hoped that wasn't the reason, maybe she was getting paranoid. But her paranoia had kept her and others alive; so far.
Thinking about her paranoid and Nori. She could have sworn she sensed him nearby, along with forty other people. Turning around, she drew closer to Nori's position, but nothing could prepare her for what she found.
Nori was holding a boy's body, his shirt covered in blood to the point that Kukikio didn't know if it was his or the body's he was holding. Half the dead man or from the Uchiha clan, but the other half she didn't know. Even as she jumped in front of a man about to cut her foster baby brother in half.
Dark brown hair and tanned skin. Wind or Lightening country most likely. Empty black eyes make her bet Lightening, which meant she didn't know which clan he was from.
If he was from any at all. He could have been like her, an orphan fighting tooth and nail to live, narrowing her eyes she turned right to look into something a pair of eyes that had haunted her dreams since the war started.
Nori's eyes are red. Sharingan. "Oh, Nori," Kukikio said as she looped her arms around his shoulder, letting him drop the body of his friend. His arms around her, tears going down his face, she knew it was better if Toshi was here.
But he had her and she guessed that it was better then being by himself.
"I wanted to protect my friend. Hishi. I wanted to protect him," Nori told her, his arms tightening around her neck. Skin going whiter, even as Kukikio started to heal what she could reach, a ligjt green glowing around her arms. "Then everything started to slow down, and he was dead. They killed him, because he looked funny for a Uchiha."
"It's okay. You'll be fine," Kukikio told him. It felt like a lie, he was never going to forget Hishi being murdered in front of his eyes. Never. At least that was what Sasuke told her, that he never forget the day he killed his brother. He could recall the whole event by the second.
Snapping her head around, she could sense someone moving towards them. Sarutobi, Kukikio thought. He had the same chakra pattern as Sasuke Sarutobi did, so it was a high chance of being his uncle.
"It looked like Sasuke is final home," she whispered, raking her hand through Nori's hair. She didn't know when, but at some point, he had fainted in her arms.
She needed to get him to Madara. Picking him up, she quickly hid in a cave. They were bound to start looking for their missing squid, Madara more so then others, since Nori was with them.
"Please, be quick," Kukikio whispered.
-Snow-
Whoever was looking for her still hadn't found them, but Nori had woken up. His eyes were black, the horrors of his bloodline wouldn't leave Kukikio's mind.
She didn't know how much he knew, but she doubted that he knew about the next stage. No one did until Madara and Izuna got them.
"Hishi's dead," Nori said, his voice flat and his eyes wide.
"He is," Kukikio told him. "I'm sorry for your lose, but you know you've got it."
"Izuna's not going to be happy," he admitted, a hand next to his eye. Tapping slowly as he looked her in the eye. "I got mine before him."
"And I wish you didn't." Kukikio was sure he didn't know about the horrors. She had already healed him, but now she would have to pinpoint Madara's location and get him away from her trackers.
"Why?"
"Nori do me a favour?"
"Depends."
"Work on your speed first, just because you can see what's coming. Doesn't mean you'll be fast enough to dodge it."
"You know about the Sharingan?"
"Nori, Nori. It's well-known."
"But you know more then them."
"I had a friend. He's dead, but he told me about it."
Nori narrowed his eyes at the well. He didn't know about an Uchiha telling outsiders about their bloodline, but Kukikio didn't look like she was lying. "I see."
"I don't think you do," Kukikio told him. Smiling, as she picked him up. His arm around her neck, as she walked out of the cave looking around herself.
Jumping down in front of Madara, Kukikio didn't have time to say anything to him. As he looked at her like she had another head, she dropped Nori into his arms.
She never did tell him that she knew his baby brother, but she guessed he knew now. Using her father's trick, she disappeared in a blur of white.
-Snow-
Either the person following her was stupid. Or he was waiting for some sort of backup. It had been five days since she returned Nori to Madara.
And they still hadn't caught her. Even as she lead them in circles, more and more people joining. Until their were at least twenty following her around the woods.
Three years since the fire that took away the last Sarutobi Leader, along with almost taking his heirs. Kukikio guessed it was time for the idiot to learn that they were still alive.
Kukikio didn't think the Sarutobi Clan had idiots, but she guessed there was a rotten bunch in all family trees.
Turning around, she spotted Sasuke's Uncle. A man with dark brown eyes and hair. She guessed his colouring suited the site of his heart, it was most likely just as dark. Why else would he kill his own brother? And then go after his nephews?
Most likely to lead the clan himself, Kukikio thought to herself narrowing her eyes as she unsealing her sword. She didn't trust him, not when his aura was murderous.
She dealt with Kurama enough not to be unnerved from his killing intent. No one beat a pissed of nine tailed fox.
"There's a reason you're following me," Kukikio told him, the dimwit holding his sword with his left hand. "And I doubt it has nothing to do with me."
"Where is Sasuke," he demanded.
"Sasuke? Who is Sasuke?"
"You know where he is."
"No. I don't." And even if I did, Kukikio added in her head, I wouldn't tell you for all the money in the world. "You've just wasted your time."
"My spies saw you with him," he accused.
"Then you need to get better spies."
"You killed them."
Kukikio only lifted an eyebrow. So he's the idiot they belonged to, much to obvious. Jiraiya had taught her everything he knew about spying, everything he knew about sealing, even if she hadn't thought much of either at the time.
"You were with the Uchiha boy," he told her, slowly side stepping to her right. Kukikio left her sword, and she faced him her back never leaving the tree behind her.
She didn't trust him, and she didn't trust the people he had brought with him. She trusted Madara, who had just arrived and was waiting behind him.
"You're the one who that clan attack them," Kukikio asked, turning her hand slightly. The blade going across her body and she bite her lip. "I'm guessing that you've sent another team after the Senju's as well."
It seemed Madara had improved his speed from the last time she saw him, since he had already killed Sasuke's uncles back up and that was all she needed to race forward and stab him right in the heart.
"You think you're going to scare me?" Kukikio asked, Madara appearing behind her. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and frown. "Madara, I told you I was a sensor. How's Nori?"
"Fine. Mum's looking after him," Madara told her, tapping her on the head. "She told me what you did for her and Maemi."
"You're my friend. Even if you don't see me as one," she told him, her hair tie broken and her hair flowed down her back, dented slightly at her neck. "Toshi is your Mum. That's a lost I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy. No, I would, but you get my point."
"You risked your life."
"I knew I could help her. And I did, no regrets, wait doesn't that mean your father knows?"
"He died this morning."
"Oh." She hadn't known that, but she knew that Madara became Clan Head at a young age. Eighteen was far too young to led an entire clan didn't war.
But then, many didn't live to see thirty. So what would she know about it? Madara nodded, before starting to walk the direction he had came from.
Kukikio watched as he went. Turning his head, he glared and she followed. It wasn't like anyone would know where she went and she trusted him.
He started the war that killed most of her friends, and she trusted him. Naru would never had followed her worst enemy, no matter what happened.
But Kukikio was his friend, and he hadn't done anything to her and she doubted that he would. Or at least she hoped he wouldn't, at least she was going to see Maemi.
She wondered how fast her god-daughter was growing, and how spiky her hair was going to be. The sliver lining, Kukikio thought to herself. Always look for a sliver lining.
