Ten months had passed, leading the village into chaos.
Kurai pushed her way into the Raikage's office past other anxious shinobi wanting answers. Katsuo was right in front, clearing away for his smaller team-mate and secret girlfriend. He kept a tight grip on her hand and she on his, shoving people out of the way. No one complained. They were in their AnBu uniforms, after all, and warranted respect.
When they were finally admitted into the presence of the Raikage, they were met with the sight of twenty-nine out of thirty-two AnBu force. Their presence there would make it thirty-one AnBu. Inazuma looked weary and fragile, massaging her temples with one hand as she slouched over her desk. She opened a blood-shot eye when the door closed behind her niece and Katsuo and sighed. "You're probably all wondering why I called you here, even if you were out on a mission," she said without preamble. There were nods and mutters of agreement from each shinobi glad in the stark black and white of the organization.
"We have a traitor."
Tension mounted swiftly in the air as AnBu stiffened and some growled. Kurai slid over with Katsuo to where Getsu was standing, mask in her hand. The blonde mouthed a greeting to the two and then returned to staring intently at her Kage.
"Who's the traitorous bastard?" one AnBu growled, fearsome in his badger mask. Inazuma looked like she was about to break from the strain and the revelation of treachery.
"Yuudoku Shizuka." People edged away and shot dirty glances at Katsuo, Kurai, and Getsu, as they were Shizuka's friends and team-mates.
Kurai felt as if her lungs had turned to ice. Shizuka? No. She was among the most loyal and skilled medic ninjas she had ever known. How could Shizuka have betrayed them? It couldn't be true.
"What evidence against her is there?" Katsuo rumbled, glaring at those AnBu shuffling away from them.
"There has been suspicion, Mori, over the years." A peacock-masked woman said primly from the back of the room. "Shizuka Yuudoku has an unconfirmed past. We had only what she could tell us."
"Hey, Uta, wasn't it only two weeks ago that she sewed your thumb and pointer-finger back on?" Getsu sneered nastily. "Some training incident, wasn't it? Managed to cut off your own fingers?"
"Taku-" the peacock started to say angrily but Inazuma cut off their bickering.
"Shizuka Yuudoku is from Earth Country," The Raikage conceded. "Born in Iwagakure, in fact. Trained in the elitists' program before the fire about ten years back. Had dealings with the Akatsuki for years before finally joining at fifteen. The Tsuchikage can vouch for that. Apparently she and her partner, and orange-masked man called 'Tobi' tried to assassinate him."
"How do you know all this?" Kurai demanded. Inazuma held up a sheet of parchment covered in a precise and small hand: Shizuka's.
"The silly chit left a note. We have a situation on our hands, people. One of our finest has deserted us with village secrets. She claims she won't tell a soul… but she's Akatsuki. You can't trust any of those bastards. Every single one of them is an S-class criminal with a record, each labeled as 'kill on sight' in the Bingo Book!" her voice rose to a furious shout. "She betrayed us! I know she was a comrade to some of you, but I want her dead or in chains!" she roared.
Kurai ground her teeth, fangs digging in her lip. Akatsuki. Hikaru's past group. She thought wrathfully. Shizuka, you bitch. How could you? Is that who your "Aniki" was? One of the Akatsuki?
"Mori, Tora! As you've had dealings with the Akatsuki before, I want you to each pick out a squad. I will personally lead another one myself. She's dangerous, everyone. Most of you have served with her before. She possesses abilities- no, a blood-limit- that revolve around poison. She is poison, got it? Blood, skin, hair, whatever just don't touch her. Long distance weapons will work best. Make sure whatever you get her with has a protective coating of lead or whatever lethal thing the other medic-nins can brew up. Any of you get her blood on you or she touches you then you are dead as hell. Now, move, move, move!"
"I can't believe she'd do that to us," Getsu snarled to Kurai. She'd ended up on her team. The three other shinobi on her squad, including Uta, muttered in agreement. "When we find her I am kicking her traitor's ass up and down the mountains.
"Hey, Tora! Didn't Hikaru join Akatsuki?" the big badger-masked AnBu asked Kurai. She stiffened, leaping through the trees as the others followed her. Behind her mask, she fought back tears.
"Yes, she did," she answered, voice tight. "But that was years ago."
"Maybe she got Doku over to the dark-side," Uta snickered. A branch whipped back, cracking her on her bare shoulder.
"Sorry," Getsu said, but she didn't sound it.
"Doku was with Akatsuki before Hikaru," Kurai pointed out. "Raikage-sama said the letter said that she'd basically been raised by Akatsuki."
"Yes, I do. Aniki was everything, you know? He taught me everything and he always worked so hard to come home in-between missions. I loved Aniki."
Kurai scowled at the memory. It'd been ten months since then, but that simple statement had burned itself into her memory. She'd never heard Shizuka express much of an opinion of whether she liked something or not, but then she'd said as easily as breathing that she had loved her elder brother. Damn it, Shizuka… why did you have to go back to them? You could've stayed with us. I don't care that you were with Them, but going back?
The previous day….
"I'm sorry, Aniki," she told the little clay bird sitting on her windowsill, a red strip of cloth tied around its neck like a ribbon. "I can't stay here anymore. I've kept my contacts, but it's too much like Iwa." Her hair swung around her waist in a torrent of inky-blackness as she bustled about, going through her drawers and packing everything away in a valise.
Finally, Shizuka stood back to look out through the circular window high up in the wall. Rain pounded against the glass panes, rattling the frame. Her room was just a plain rented thing, the walls and ceiling basic white-wash and a simple closet built into the wall. A bed that was little more than a cot was against the wall underneath the window. She heaved a deep sigh and sat down on the hard mattress, leaning against the wall.
The clay bird shifted and watched her with an odd sort of intelligence. "I know what you said back then, Aniki," she said to the room at large. "But I just can't be out, not right now. I… I can't stand it here." Her voice trailed off to a whisper. "I know it seems weak and pathetic, but Raikage-sama's already done so much for me. I thought the AnBu would be a good match, you know? Assassination and healing are what I know best and I thought it would be the same. But, the pay was better with you guys and…" she grinned crookedly, a strange expression on her usually blank face. "I want to wear the red clouds again."
She lifted up a few loose floorboards underneath her bed, revealing a concealed space. Reverently, she lifted out the black and red folded cloak within, running elegant fingers over the material. Trousers, spats, and a mesh-shirt lay underneath. Quickly, she threw her usual black turtleneck, shorts, and magenta dress into the wastebasket by the door, donning the other set of clothes.
She swung the cloak about her shoulders, feeling the familiar weight settle. Looking in the mirror she realized she'd forgotten something. "Oi, get down here!" she told the clay bird. It complied, perching on the top of the mirror. She whisked off its ribbon, using it to tie back her hair in a low ponytail. She blew her bangs irritably out of where her right eye should have been, instead showing a curious contraption that looked like a camera lens. "Hey there, Gaki," she said cheerfully, grinning at the unrecognizable young woman in the mirror. "Been a long time, hmm? I missed you. What did we forget? Oh, yes, cough it up." Shizuka held out her hand to the bird and it spat up a ring into her hand. She slid it onto her finger, the kanji "毒", "poison" painted onto the purple stone.
Finally, she picked up the Kumogakure hitai-ate off of her bed where it lay limply. With a fingernail glowing with chakra, she scored its metal surface right across the Cloud emblem. "I'm sorry, Aniki, Raikage-sama, everyone-" she tied it around her waist. "-but it's what I know. I need chaos, not this Iwa-like order."
And she was gone.
Dear Raikage-sama,
Thank you for accepting me in your village. I'm afraid I must abuse your hospitality and leave.
I am originally from Iwagakure and was born and raised to the elitists' program where they train children to feel nothing, only to follow orders and kill. My blood-limit made it crucial that they train me from the beginning, as I have no idea what happened to my mother or the rest of my clan. I am the last of the Yuudoku line. I was rescued from the training compound fire ten years ago by a member of the Akatsuki.
Do not be prejudiced of all of the Akatsuki. I understand you knew Itachi-san years ago. My Aniki was an artist and a good person. He taught me all I know of jutsus. He took good care of me. When he died, I joined the Akatsuki at fifteen as I foolishly sought revenge against Aniki's killer. I tried to get revenge against the Tsuchikage as well for what his program did to us all when he burned it down. My partner and I did not succeed, but that particular Kage has a twitch and a permanent palsy to remember me by. But it is all in the past. I bear only a petty grudge and I hope you know that I will not betray any of your village secrets.
I will look fondly upon these memories of Kumogakure,
Shizuka Yuudoku.
She glared at the note a final time before shredding it with her claws and sending it raining down like confetti. She laced her fingers together, resting her chin on them and staring broodingly into space. You were a promising kunoichi, she thought. As promising as Kurai. You would've been a captain like Katsuo if you'd stuck with it. You stupid idiot. I will drag you back here with my own bare hands if I have to and you will meet justice.
Three weeks had passed with no sign of their prey. The AnBu were restless. No one had escaped them for that long when they had been on their trail merely hours after the treason.
--
"I hate this," Kurai snarled, slamming her fist into the trunk of a pine-tree. "I'm stuck going after some scaredy-bitch when I could be tracking down someone actually worth catching." She turned and leaned against the rough bark of the tree, eyes closed behind her mask. "It's crazy just how stupid this is."
"I dunno…" Katsuo said thoughtfully, pouring over their map. He had it laid out on a big table-shaped rock with pebbles weighing down the edges of the paper. "I kind of like being out here all alone with you."
His girlfriend pushed up her mask to give him a very not amused look. "Hardy har har," she said sarcastically. "You never quit, do you?"
"Come on, we've been going out for almost a year now. And I've known you since we were kids," He pointed out, one eyebrow higher than the other. It was just the two of them on the trail of their one-time friend. The sun was long-since hidden behind the clouds as they were in southern Lightning Country. The weather was renowned for being unpredictable in that region. "Why not just take that extra step?"
"Well I beg your pardon," Kurai began hotly, cheeks turning a dangerous shade of red. "I might have better things to do than think of that." Katsuo looked alarmed and started to say something but stopped. "I didn't know that reproducing was so important to you! You're a man. You don't have to worry about becoming incapacitated like that. I mean-" she planted her hands on her hips, face the exact same shade as an over-ripe tomato. "I'm a kunoichi! You know how hard it is to compete with you totally sexist males? Hmmmm? The only reason I haven't quit because of your gender's snide comments is because our very own Raikage is a woman. I don't need another person to look after inside of me. My god, what's wrong with you? I thought you were more sensi- what are you doing?"
It only took three swift strides for Katsuo to close the difference between them. He grabbed Kurai's shoulders and kissed her, refusing to let go when she tried to shrug away. "You over-react," he told her, gray eyes twinkling with amusement. Kurai looked at him, appalled and gulping like a fish. "I don't mean for that, goose. Karai Kurai, didn't you agree that one day you'd like to quit the AnBu and settle down and have a real family?"
"Well… if the right person came along…" Kurai muttered, blinking. "You're not… you're…?"
"I say we should get married."
Kurai's eyes bugged out and she began to babble. Katsuo silenced her with another kiss. "Do you only kiss me to shut me up?" she asked, slightly breathless.
"No. I kiss you for fun too," Katsuo grinned at her. A knowing, Cheshire-cat smile crept onto Kurai's face.
"What are you doing?" she asked slowly.
"I'm asking you to marry me," he explained, mock-patience in his voice.
"You know you'd have to go through my family," she pointed out, but her smile kept getting wider. "Asking for permission for my hand and all. I do belong to a very prestigious clan."
"Mmmhmm. Has anyone asked anyone for permission for anyone's hand over there?" Katsuo asked, nose to nose with the striking kunoichi.
"Pfft. That'll be the day. I don't think Mother would be happy to know that her only daughter had gone off and gotten married without her permission."
"So… is that a yes?"
Kurai kissed Katsuo on the tip of his nose. "Of course."
A/N: FLUUUUUUFFFFFFFFF!! :O
Wow. It's been SOOO long since I last updated. I'm so sorry. School has more than made up for my lack of inspiration. –chains rattling-
I'd like some ideas as to how this should all end. I have another fanfiction in the queue (where Haruki, Suzume, and Megumi and the rest come back and we see a certain character ((or two)) again). Should the end be Katsuo's and Inazuma's death, or should it go on longer? I plan to write that part sooner or later, but I'd REALLY like to get the new fanfic up and running.
Shizuka was always a little lost after Aniki died. She bounced from profession to profession, spending time in the Akatsuki, Cloud, then the Akatsuki again. I can't even begin to impress upon you the tragedy of Shizuka's character.
And! Inazuma will have her own fanfic someday, never fear. I think it will be her younger days in the AnBu, and we'll see Itachi and Kakashi AND Orihime –cough- I mean –cough- Kushina and Minato in it.
So, that's it for now.
Ja, matane!