The Unsung Story of the Inconspicuous
A/N: ... Given the heartwarming level of feedback I got on the on before last chapter and the amount I got on the last one, I'm beginning to wonder about this.
Thanks Vanya Starwind, brilliant as always as a beta.
I do not own Naruto or any of its characters or affiliates.
On the morning of the Third Exam, Ryuu met Yamada at dawn and showed him how to make a storm. Daisukenojo fought his way free of a concerned medic of a mother and multiple devilish siblings to get good seats for him and his teammate. Mura left the compound before the light of dawn had struck the hidden village and Raiku followed and lost her.
It took dawn and four hours for her to find Mura again. Eyes bloodshot with the strain of keeping her mind within the parameters of her own skull, she rubbed her face wearily. She couldn't find her. She'd dropped down to street level, even, to try and ask around but…
No Mura.
But she knew where she was. She visibly seethed as from the stadium, explosions and cheers echoed faintly, knowing that was where she should be. Hell, it was where Shiranui should be, given he was an Elite Jounin. She shuddered at the thought that they could be 'otherwise occupied', recalling several flattering but ultimately disturbing rumours.
If Mura had endangered her life for this… She flexed fingers that stuck to each other uncomfortably, dried blood from her earlier mishap staining them patchy brown. She'd see whether full contact would kill or just cause arrhythmia. The attempt to find Mura through the only equivalent of chakra tracking she'd ever be able to use had been disastrous, the physical pull of electricity ripping her from her post on top of the building she had last seen Mura from and dragging her along iron shingles, ungloved hands clinging desperately to the conductor as she tried to calm herself. She hadn't had time to put on gloves and could only be thankful that she'd wrapped her hands the night before, a result of the nigh-perpetual insomnia she'd developed.
Mura was her responsibility, which Mura knew perfectly well. Mura's escape would jeopardise both their lives, and Raiku didn't bother to restrain the vicious backlash of heat surging up through her throat at the thought. Mura would kill them both. The Equalisers would come from behind because they always killed from behind and Raiku's existence would be completely erased. She couldn't let Mura be seen with Shiranui. Mura had used up her one chance, which was one more than they usually got. Raiku was responsible. She didn't want to think of the inherent flaws in having a thirteen year old responsible for a twenty-something year old, but Mura would have known them anyway.
How could she do this to Raiku? Raiku had done everything right, she'd done everything she was supposed to, and she was still-
'Gairano… Raiku.'
On second thought, she may find out a lot sooner. 'That's me,' she said slowly, frame remaining carefully relaxed, hands hanging with deceptive calm in front of her. Don't move. They may be there to give a message, there's no reason to do anything, she told herself to try and calm her petrified mind.
An odd and measured breath, as though they were breathing through the mouth instead of the nose. 'Where … is Gairano… Mura?'
The restrictive masks gave a deliberately recognisable, disjointed manner of speech. Raiku flinched. 'She's elsewhere,' she said evenly, eyes fixed ahead with focus many would find unusual for her, her speech stilted and formal. 'I am, of course, no longer responsible for her after the completion of my last mission.'
It didn't work like that, how could it work like that? She could run, but that wouldn't achieve anything. She could fight, but it was well known (in some circles) what Equalisers were like. One soldier, one mission. She could survive…
If she killed them first.
Raiku frowned to herself, thoughts flicking ahead in the scant time the Equaliser was taking to respond. Only the Equaliser on the mission was aware of the mission. That and her father, but he couldn't and wouldn't act once she'd proven she'd be willing to kill to live.
Wait, what was she thinking? This was ridiculous- she couldn't fight an Equaliser. They'd destroy her. She sighed wearily as the rasp of the Equaliser's breath drew closer. 'You are … still assigned… to Gairano Mura.'
She blinked in feigned surprise. 'I'm sorry, I wasn't quite-'
She ran, breaking off mid sentence to flicker through the distance like a series of motion captures, pushing off from the flat roof of a department store so hard the concrete cracked and blackened as she fled, already accelerated heart kicking into overdrive and form exploding into painfully conspicuous illumination.
IwanttoliveIwanttoliveIwantto- she shrieked in a combination of fear and pain as the tile she landed on turned black and cracked under her foot, sinking to send shards of hard-fired clay into her ankle and cutting through both wrappings and shoe. Ripping herself free with a stab of pain she lunged for the fire escape to try and get down into the virtually empty streets.
People. She needed people! For the first time in her entire life, Raiku sought the crowds. She changed direction mid-step and threw herself off the building in the direction of the stadium, plummeting downwards and landing lightly on her good foot, the other leaving a solid print of blood as she set off at a dead run. The Equaliser sped after her silently on the rooftops, flickering in what could, to the untrained eye, have been a match for her speed. But only techniques could grant speed unnatural, and their chakra would have to run out eventually.
She couldn't think, she didn't have time to think- she had to attack. She couldn't just run, even though it was looking really goddamn tempting, because when they'd recovered they'd come after her. Her head snapped up to check on the progress of her pursuer and she had to admire the speed of their technique because teleportation was hard-
The stadium was in sight and she could have sobbed with relief. They wouldn't hurt her in front of a crowd and it would give her time to plan and maybe even escape… The fire in her ankle was eclipsed by a more immediate problem. The concrete cracked and surged up to meet her, almost in slow motion from her speed. But it was enough to make her jump and land in something that gave more than concrete should have, her continued momentum almost slamming her into the ground as her feet stuck. She forced herself upright and tried to drag a foot free from sidewalk turned quicksand, only succeeding in driving the other downwards as it was forced to take her weight.
She cursed explosively, rubbing her hands together as a dark shadow flickered overhead. 'I will kill you Mura!' she snarled with viciousness that she was beginning to realise may be native to her, power exploding to life over her clothes and skin before a dark form slammed into her side. The Equaliser gave a brief cry and tore free, their hold on the technique vanishing. Raiku's palms hit the solidifying ground and let her tear herself out of the ground, shoes gone and wrappings hanging in shreds from bleeding legs. She grimaced, dashing over the cement and up the side of a brick building, leaving a trail of black after her glowing, bleeding feet and struggling to keep her breathing even despite the cracking of her ribs. She grasped the edge of the roof and swung herself up and over, catching sight of the Equaliser in her peripheral, flickering into places she had just vacated as she ran and tried to ignore the idea that the technique had been developed for this very purpose.
It wasn't far.
It wasn't far and if she wanted to live as badly as she thought she did she would make it. No one was as fast as she was. In answer to the challenge the Equaliser presented power ripped through her limbs and nerves, taking her from that blur to untraceable velocity and setting the world in relative slow motion enough for her to see it really was teleportation they were using, and that they were trying something else, leaving her with enough time to realise that her lungs were burning- how did she never notice?- and that if she didn't take time to breathe soon she would never have the chance again.
If it was Ryuu he would have caught me by now, she thought with no small amount of petty vindictiveness as the stadium loomed and she came to a crashing halt in the darkness of the entrance, surrounded by the comfortable roar of the masses before and above and concealed. She took a deep, shuddering breath, hands shaking from the adrenaline and mind quaking with relief that she hadn't yet been seen.
Her relief was, as always, short lived. The sunlight and more importantly, the entrance, vanished into a sea of darkness exploding upwards from the ground and left her in a dark box, even her panicked answering light swallowed by the shadow.
Contrary to popular belief, a life or death struggle in close quarters is not elegant. It is profoundly ugly. How could putting two or more people told to kill or die in a small space be anything less?
And she was in the dark.
Hands gripped her throat as she scrabbled blindly for purchase in the masked face above her and forced sharp fingers into the depressions where the eyes should have been, broken ribs violently protesting as the Equaliser screamed and her back crashed into the hidden floor, pinned there by the far superior weight of her would-be murderer. She gasped for air and smacked her free hand into the side of their head, fist glowing vibrantly and packing enough of a supernatural force to finally let the other nails puncture the featureless mask and rip a scream from the hidden throat. She surged upwards and rolled them, a hand digging wide fingertips into either side of her thin neck and the others wrapped around her ribcage. She let out a strangled gasp of pain as another rib gave with a sharp snap and sent a vicious jolt through desperately seeking fingers and the bared skin of shins pressed to her struggling enemy. Their back arched upwards and she made out a depression of a mouth opened in silent scream as the fingers convulsed on her covered skin.
She fisted her hand and brought it back to let it fly into the opponent's face and sinking into something that snapped and flooded the latex with the sickening warmth and smell of fresh blood. Her hand was grasped and yanked downwards until it smacked into pavement, leaving her to howl in pain and jerk her elbow into their throat as she was dragged downwards, pulling another strangled gasp of pain. And there, the kunai as the Equaliser's free hand sent it up between her ribs or where her ribs should have been, had she not thrown herself to the side. Her wrist gave in a way no wrist should when the Equaliser refused to let go of the hand they had captured and tried to drag her back, throwing their kunai wielding arm towards her and narrowly missing her elbow with the blade. Raiku's hand twisted and pulled free, leaving her with the knowledge of her mistake-
Never lose track of your enemy.
She scrambled to her feet and stood panting, fishing a kunai out of her previously neglected weapons pouch and holding it loosely in a battered hand, the other tucked protectively against her side as her eyes scanned the darkness blindly in an attempt to find the Equaliser.
She was irked to find she'd expected more finesse.
She was fast, yes- you'd have to be blind, deaf and stupid not to know that Raiku was simply the fastest. But she was weak and couldn't use techniques and she'd been under the impression she'd been put at a rather significant disadvantage- there. There was the flash of her own light reflected off a kunai as the Equaliser attacked from her left, swift and sure strikes with the small blade easily parried and countered by her own slim weapon, at last playing a game that speed could win her. She feinted to the left and brought it back up to where the Equaliser's neck should have been and found instead the soft flesh of the arm, giving the kunai a savage yank down the length of the limb and spinning in closer to the body to stab and pull upwards.
What should have been a killing, disembowelling blow left only a shallow slice in the flesh of their abdomen, thwarted by the swift movement of her opponent. But her fingers ceased to hold the handle of the kunai, letting it clatter harmlessly to the floor as she twisted and placed a bare hand solidly on the chest of the Equaliser, touching someone's skin through the ripped fabric of their shirt, touching someone's skin for the first time in her life.
If this touch was what she was missing and what made all relationships real in ways hers weren't, she never wanted to be anything more than alone.
They lit up like some grotesque beacon and shrieked like nothing she'd ever heard, voice hoarse and raised to levels no one should have been able to achieve, voice full of agony and horror as under her hand, the flesh blackened and peeled, blood spilling from exposed veins and muscles cramping spasmodically as nerves received all the wrong messages and inside, the organs burning and splitting under force the body simply wasn't built to handle.
Her hand remained weighted on their chest even as the Equaliser fell backwards and their grip, locked in the desperate hold of the dying, dragged her down with them. Their back arched off the floor, bones broke under the power of the muscles attached and the screaming just never stopped. Until suddenly it did and sparks crackled along into a body that simply jerked horribly with residual power, motivated by no conscious will of movement. The darkness sank back into the natural shadows of the entrance and left her with a blackened corpse, broken ribs, bruised neck, a ruined wrist and legs with broken pieces of clay still lodged into weeping, glowing flesh.
Raiku panted with hand still braced against her defeated enemy to keep her from collapsing, limbs shaking with lingering terror, adrenaline and in many cases, pain. She dragged herself into a standing position and cradled her injured wrist against her chest, blood from an injury she hadn't noticed dripping from somewhere above her hairline into her eyes. She blinked hard to clear her vision and took hold of one of the Equaliser's legs, dragging him from the stadium.
Raiku threw herself from the waiting shadows onto the back of Gairano Mura as she left the building she'd been occupied in for the past six hours, landing heavily on her back and pulling an arm up to lock both Mura's head and shoulder in a hold before they landed, injured shins readily accepting the impact into the concrete as Mura fell, effectively pinned.
'Are you happy now!?' Raiku hissed into her ear, voice hoarse from screams and strangulation as Mura gasped for breath, face pressed into the sidewalk. She tightened her grip, drawing a sharp inhalation from the pain.
'What are you talking about?' Mura gasped, breaking off into a groan as Raiku twisted her arm savagely, staining Mura's shirt forever with blood.
'You couldn't keep yourself under control?!' Raiku demanded, her injured hand burying itself in Mura's hair, grasping and pulling up sharply to expose her neck. The rage buried in her chest shrieked in vindication: at last, success! 'Is this worth it, knowing that you're only going to live because they came after me first?! I wanted to help you, I was just doing what I was told and you were going to let me die!'
Her grip tightened through no will of her own as she demanded an answer, hysteria rising in her throat to choke her. 'Is this worth it!?' she repeated, raising her voice slightly.
Mura swallowed awkwardly, neck bent painfully. 'Yes,' she rasped, closing her eyes to steel herself against what she believed Raiku had in store. 'It is.'
Raiku drew a shuddering breath and let Mura's head fall into the sidewalk with a dull thud, pulling her arm free and rising to a standing position. She drew a trembling hand up to her face and hid her eyes in her bleeding palm, shoulders shaking violently. The weight of the day hitting her young shoulders. Mura turned and rose with obvious caution, warily extending a hand to pat Raiku on the shoulder.
Raiku's voice lashed out like a whip. 'Don't!'
Mura's hand jerked back, falling back to her side as she watched the thirteen year old. 'You might understand one day,' she said, instead of the words of consolation and assurance that were vying for the opportunity to escape her.
'I hate you,' Raiku forced out, trying to breathe deeply and force herself to return to a state of calm. She found she meant it, found that the anger was trying to rip its way free past her fear and her trauma and was hindered only by the stabbing pain of broken ribs and ripped skin. 'I'll never understand, never.'
How could she, a creature like Raiku?
And then the explosions started and Konoha screamed, and the problems of a family and the manifestations of its love became inconsequential.
A/N: Raiku has trouble meeting new people. Sorry, Equaliser.
Review:
envysXsin: See, I was wondering where you'd gotten to. A concussion? Are you alright? I'm unsurprised that you've nominated Daisukenojo and will take that into consideration. Raiku doesn't get sad often, because getting sad leads to angst which is unacceptable. Hence rare sadness, hence lack of suicidal tendencies. Raiku is good in some areas... like murder! She's seriously ahead of the curve when it comes to murder. Thanks for reviewing.
