DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO, OR BLUE OCTOBER, OR ANY OF THEIR SONGS.
IF YOU READ THIS, YOU WILL UNDERSTAND LATER THAT PART OF THIS CHAPTER IS SORT OF LIKE A SONGFIC. THE WORDS OF THE SONG WILL BE ITALICIZED AND SURROUNDED BY TILDAS, WHICH ARE THESE ~ ~ ~ ~ I DON'T KNOW WHY I'M TYPING IN ALL CAPS MUAHAHA!
The song is called "Let It Go" by Blue October.
Chapter 7: Broken Mirrors
"Hello? Anybody home?"
Kagami padded through the dark house, wondering why none of the lights were on. She walked into the dining room, where she smelt the scent of iron.
A flash of lightning shot across the sky, illuminating the room for Kagami to see bodies laying on the floor.
She screamed, instantly backing up to a wall. A candle light flared up, revealing Orochimaru's face.
"Well, well, we meet again, child."
More candle lights lit up, showing the girl the faces of the people who laid around the room. Her father laid on his backside on the dinner table, a sword protruding from his ribs. Roji laid face down, near the table. Chiyo looked like she was slapped, and fainted onto the ground. Taoru was sitting against a wall, his head down. Daisuke was nowhere to be seen.
Kagami leaned backwards onto the wall, eyes split open in horror. "You…YOU! You killed…my family?" she shrieked. "WHY?"
Orochimaru gave her a disdainful look.
"I stuck a sword through your father, and knocked out your brothers and sister…however, they'll be dead soon anyways. But me? Kill your family? No, Kagami…you did."
Thunder boomed. A loud crash was heard outside, and huge fires ignited. There were shrill screams, and there were sounds of kunai clashing and blood being split. The village was being invaded and destroyed.
Orochimaru continued. "Look around you. Look at all of this. This is All. Your. Fault."
Lightning zapped. Enemy ninja were coming in, completely wrecking everything in sight. Rain began to fall.
"You were careless. Remember that letter you read a few days ago? You let that letter fall into the wrong hands…my hands."
Kagami's eyes flickered with terror, panic, shock, and dread.
"That letter could have saved your father's life. It could have saved the lives of your beloved siblings. You could have prevented me from wreaking chaos onto this village, and all of your pitiful lives!"
The rain fell harder. Thunder and lightning crashed.
"But NO! You chose to be ignorant and foolish, and your family fell by your own hands. They died because of YOU!"
Another flash across the sky, and another boom in the air, and in the hearts of those who were still alive. Alive.
Orochimaru flicked his tongue out and slowly licked his lips, savoring the guilt-trip he pressed onto the child cowering before him.
"And how does it feel to bring down your own village? How does it feel…" He paused, listening to the screams outside, then smiled, "…to destroy your own home?"
Kagami was frozen.
"But me? Kill your family? No, Kagami…you did."
"This is All. Your. Fault."
"They died because of YOU!"
It was a nightmare. The whole thing had to be a nightmare. Orochimaru's words echoed through her head, ricocheting off the imaginary walls of her once innocent mind. They repeated themselves, smacking her in the face with the reality of the scene of the bodies that laid before her.
Suddenly, there was a poof of smoke. Yokotoro stepped out. He was carrying Daisuke underneath one arm. The boy appeared to be unconscious.
"Lord Orochimaru! I got him. I caught him while he was running towards the hospital, carrying some weird liquid with him. He put up a good fight, so I had to knock him out before I performed the chakra extraction jutsu on him. The only one left is-"
If it was possible, Kagami's eyes widened even more. She gazed upon her sensei, someone she looked up to, someone she trusted. She saw a different sign on his headband. There was a little song note in the center, instead of the split up V with a squiggly line going through it.
"Yo-Yokotoro…sensei…why?…" Kagami whimpered.
Yokotoro looked at Orochimaru with his mouth open, then set Daisuke down on the floor.
"You told me I wouldn't have to face her! You told me I wouldn't have to see her! You promised! I did what you told me to, what happened to your part of the deal?" he yelled.
Orochimaru scoffed at him. "How disrespectful! I'll finish you off after I deal with her."
He turned to Kagami and sneered at her.
"I thank you for your teleportation jutsu and your wolf spirit. In return, I'll send you to the afterlife where you can be with your family again!"
He lashed out a hand, which turned into a snake, and aimed for the girl's neck.
"NOOOO!" Yokotoro roared.
He bolted for Kagami, speedily picked her up, then raced out of the house, breaking through one of the paper sliding doors.
There was turmoil outside. People were running around, mothers with children in their arms, men hugging their wives, fleeing out of the village. Ninja was pitted against ninja. It was the Valley against the Sound.
Rain beat down as Yokotoro tore through the village, running as fast as his legs would let him. Kagami was facing what was behind her sensei, being carried in his arms. She saw sparks of blue and yellow of the kunai and swords that clashed against each other. She saw restaurants, shops, bars, bookstores, her favorite ramen shop, all go up in flames. She saw people die.
By now, Yokotoro had exited Hikunakure, running through the end of the valley, running, running, running, running not for himself, but for his student. For Kagami.
Without warning, a sharp pain bore through his leg, causing him to fall onto the muddy ground. He flipped around so he would fall on his back, and Kagami would still be intact on top. They crashed into the ground. Brown water sloshed as he tried to get back up quickly, to keep running, but then he realized his leg had been cut off. Someone was pursuing them.
"Kagami! Kagami! Get up! RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!"
The girl had her head on her sensei's chest, unable to comprehend his words. To her, his voice was distant, the rain was distant, the pitter-patter on her skin was distant.
"KAGAMI! Your family is dead! Your village is destroyed! But you're still alive! You have to run! You have to go! Get out of here and survive! GO AND LIVE!"
That was when it hit her. She sat up, and vigorously shook her head, drops of water flinging from her hair and face. Quickly, she rolled off of him, and sat next to him on the watery path of dirt. She saw that his leg was cut off, and he was coughing up blood.
~Where do you go, when the…day is long?~
"Sensei…why…why did you save me? Why…?"
"Because he's a traitor."
A man with a silver ponytail and glasses jumped down from a tree. There was a music note on his headband.
"Kabuto," Yokotoro spat out.
The man named Kabuto slowly walked towards Yokotoro and Kagami, a blue blade of chakra in his hand.
Kagami gasped. She was confused, and her head was in a jumble, but she wasn't about to the last person she knew die because of her. Mustering courage, she stood up in front of her sensei, her feet shoulder-width apart, and stuck her hands out to her sides, open wide.
"Don't even bother," the man with the glasses said. "He's about to die anyways. And why would you want save him? He betrayed you. He even betrayed us. He's a disgusting guy."
"He's my sensei," Kagami croaked, tears already trickling down her face.
~And where does your heart beat and, who is wrong?~
Yokotoro wheezed, and coughed up more blood. His student looked back at him, then fell by his side. She held his shoulders as he uttered, "Kagami…Don't ever…lose sight…of who…you are…"
And he was gone.
Kabuto condemned Yokotoro. "How pitiful."
Kagami hung her head over her sensei's face, her hair falling over him, dripping with rainwater. Tears ran from her eyes, down to the tip of her nose, and dropped onto his bloodied mouth. If he was still alive, he could have experienced her graciousness as she kissed him goodbye on the cheek.
She abruptly leaned back, craning her neck towards the unforgivable sky. She let out a heartbroken wail, a sound that no child should have to make at the age of ten.
~Why do I feel this way? Why do I kneel?~
Swirls of white chakra began emitting from her body. As she continued to cry, the white chakra took the shape of a wolf, and it grew larger, and larger, and larger.
~How could I let it go? Why do I feel?~
Kabuto widened his eyes at this.
"This is bad. I better do something about it now!"
He charged towards the girl, hands equipped with his blue chakra blades. As he prepared to take a swing at her, a white tail smashed him backwards.
He struggled to sit up, squinting with a bruised eye. A white wolf, with enraged blue eyes, stared back at him. It was colossal. Kabuto compared it with the size of Orochimaru's summoning, Manda The wolf bared its teeth, and huge amounts of saliva dropped down in front of him, splashing with the rain. The thunder rumbled and lightning sparked. It was as if extra large kunai were clashing in the dark skies above.
"What have we here?"
Kabuto looked to his left. Orochimaru had appeared.
"Lord Orochimaru! It's that girl! She started crying, and I-"
"Kabuto, you obviously do not know how to tame a beast. Let me show you."
Kagami was unconscious now, but her wolf spirit had awoken. She lay somewhere inside the flesh of this immense beast, but her feelings and emotions fed it.
Orochimaru dashed to his right, feigning a move, then whipped out a multitude of snakes. As they assaulted, the wolf only stood there, growling at its enemies. The snakes attempted to bite the beast, only to be thrown back and knocked out on the ground by mirrors.
"It's fur is made out of mirrors? How interesting!" Orochimaru crowed.
The wolf bent its head down to prepare for its attack, its coat of mirrors sticking out dangerously all over its body. It charged towards Orochimaru, who leapt backwards, then jumped forwards towards the beast's head. He took out a sword from his throat, and thrust it between the wolf's eyes. The sword crushed upon contact, and a mirror reflected the strength of the attack, blasting Orochimaru back.
"This could prove to be quite difficult," he said to himself, after he landed on his feet.
This isn't a tailed beast…is it?
He peeked behind the wolf, taking note of its one tail.
No…it isn't…but nevertheless, this is an astonishing power I cannot ignore!
As if justifying his observation, the wolf displayed its strength. Bursts of chakra discharged from the wolf's mirror coat, and the mirrors themselves flew out, aiming sharp points everywhere. It wasn't just a crazy, all-out attack, but a genjutsu as well. Whatever image hit the mirrors, it would reflect into the eyes of the enemy, and at the most confusing angles. To Orochimaru and Kabuto, it looked like it was raining up and down. The trees began to float and charge towards them, and the clouds were not just in the sky, but around their feet.
"Lord Orochimaru! This is insane! We have to escape!" Kabuto panicked.
Orochimaru hissed, "Hear me, Kagami Watanabe! Your power will be mine!"
And with that, they disappeared in a poof of smoke, which shortly dissolved in the rain.
The wolf slowly panted, lifted its snout to the air, and howled into the black night. It was a howl that twisted the heart, that pierced the soul with melancholy and sorrow. It was the cry of a young child, whose nightmare had become reality.
For Kagami, everything shattered. Her world. Her home. Her family. Her life.
Once a mirror is broken, it will never be the same again. It can be fixed with tape, with glue, with anything. But there will always be a tiny piece that's missing, a tiny piece that can never be found, that can never be replaced. It's only a matter of time before someone comes along who wants to fix it, who wants to fill in the missing pieces, who wants to put it back together despite the pain of handling the shards of glass. The only question is…who?