- Scroll VIII -
- Recovering -
A sound like a cork being popped exploded in front of the sandaime's desk, and the Hokage jerked his tired eyes up as a circular swirl of smoke rose from the ground.
"Hokage-sama…" came the low voice.
It was Kotetsu - with the white strip of bandage around the bridge of his nose, bowing slightly, a brown shower of hair coming across his eyes.
"Hatake Kakashi wishes to speak urgently with you."
"Hmm, yes…" The Hokage's eyes closed, the corner of his mouth drawing upward as he grabbed his smoking pipe. "Let him in."
Kotetsu gave a nod and disappeared in another puff of smoke.
After a few moments the door opened, Kakashi entered into the room with an arm and silver and black locks creeping over his neck.
"Hokage-sama." The jonin murmured with a bow, Hiruzen's mouth parted at the sight of Mikoto Koyuki slumped over his shoulder. And a feeling of worry came over him as the waves of chakra nipped at his skin.
"Kakashi? What happened?"
"Koyuki was in an encounter with Itachi."
The Hokage flinched, as if a fast-moving hand had suddenly stopped inches from his face. But his voice was firm and controlled as he briefly eyed him.
"The wanted ninja is in the village?"
"Afraid so, Hokage-sama." Kakashi said, before his eye lifted in quiet anger, "And that is not all…"
"What is it?" Sandaime asked.
"There is a dead body that belongs to a fruit vendor…" he continued, "-and it is still there… in the girl's home."
"Call ANBU." Sandaime ordered, "Three troops. Send one to investigate the body in the house, and two to search out Konoha."
"Yes." Kakashi whispered.
He gestured to a small futon behind his desk and looked at the young jonin's heavy eye, "Place the girl there, I'll keep watch over her."
Kakashi adjusted Koyuki over his shoulder, she couldn't feel her body being lowered onto the floor, her consciousness lay somewhere else, somewhere deep in her mind, she was a little girl again.
Terrified, running across the distorted-looking streets of the Mikoto compound, everything was swaying but her feet pounded solidly into the ground.
Darkness grabbed at her legs as she struggled to get away from it. But she wasn't getting anywhere.
Several times she tried to cry out, but the voice only died in her throat.
The Hokage quickly reached into an already opened drawer and withdrew a small scroll.
Stretching out the thick bumpy paper, Sandaime positioned his hands in concentration, and then, his fingers wove into a graceful break-down of numerous complex hand seals. He pushed his palm into the paper and released a flowing line of red markings that emerged from under his hand.
The words wove up and down over the bumps of the parchment before finally embedding into the surface and turning into a solid lash of black at the bottom of the scroll — It was the Hokage's official mark of approval.
A Chinese brush now darted across the surface, a whirling scribble of quick words, as the Hokage proceeded to talk.
"Kakashi, you are former ANBU, and you know the protocol. I want you with them. If you find the man, bring him back, dead or alive."
The brush came down over the table with a clack for emphasis and Kakashi watched as the elder man tugged on the scroll's string, sending the paper back into its original curl.
His fingernails skimmed across the parchment, sealing it with chakra.
The string was tied, and with a resolute tap of the paper over the table he held the folded instructions out to Kakashi.
The jonin took the scroll and pushed it into his weapon holster.
"Give that to the three teams before you all separate. I'm counting on you."
The Hokage looked at Kakashi as he gave one solid nod, before pushing away from the table.
Sandaime turned his back to the jonin and sighed as his face lowered. His gaze observed the sleeping genin. Koyuki's body was trembling and the Third focused his attention down to where the girl's hands were pressed against her sides, Kakashi watched as the stiffened palms balled into fists, fingers biting into the corners of her white tank top.
"Don't worry Kakashi… I'll restore her to the best of my abilities." The Hokage's smile was soft, Kakashi felt it was a genuine promise. Kakashi closed his eyes, before lifting his head to give Koyuki one last look. And in another moment he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
The Hokage once again turned to Koyuki, and stretched a hand out towards the genin and a sharp glow of blue chakra emerged along the surface of his palm and fingers.
Hiruzen swept a steady line from her head down to her knees, lingering over a series of small cuts on the girl's left calf. His eyes lifted to Koyuki's face as she gave a small groan, eyebrows joining in an expression of agony, mouth drawing back in a flash of clenched teeth.
He pressed a hand to her forehead, lightly layered in sweat, at least she didn't have a fever burning under her skin.
But in her mind, the Mikoto compound that was engulfed in darkness suddenly burned brightly. Koyuki quickly closed her eyes from the intensity, shielding her face with raised arms.
Through the hazy cloud of her vision she saw it, snakes of flame wriggling up the walls to the ceiling. Already the heat was tremendous, soon the air would be full of acrid smoke.
She tried moving her feet, but the darkness forced her to the ground. Fumbling, she began to panic, small bouts of whimpering escaped her lips as the fire ate at the ceiling, smoke rolling towards her.
In the fiery blackness, there was a danger of becoming disoriented, even in such a large space. She held her breath, one inhalation would be toxic enough to have her choking, dizzy.
Koyuki pulled her arms out from underneath her, trying to pull her body forward, away from the black tide of smoldering, blinding smoke.
But she couldn't.
Her body was unusually heavy, uncooperative.
Why is this happening to me? She asked the darkness, not expecting an answer.
Her chest ached.
Her lungs were hot, as if fire had gotten into them.
She couldn't hold her breath for much longer, and she was aware of a growing inner darkness more dangerous than the outside one.
The smoke was still around her, she weaved to the right and onto her back - to her surprise - finding clean air, the first breath of which was painfully icy in her lungs.
What the…?
She blinked furiously, clearing her vision. A blur of grey hair, white and red robes… bright lights… and Koyuki found herself focusing on the hovering form of the Hokage.
No more smoke, fire, or the compound. It was just a nightmare.
"Hokage…-sama," She whispered breathlessly. "Itachi, he's here."
"Yes, I'm well aware of the current situation, Koyuki." The Sandaime said. Koyuki watched as the old man knelt in front of her. He touched her left shoulder, closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.
His voice came, low and quiet, "You are suffering from the effects of excessive stress on your body, your chakra has become unstable and unfortunately you passed out on your way here, according to Kakashi."
His eyes opened and after a short silence the Hokage rose. Smiling down at the girl, he spoke, "Rest, Koyuki, try to sleep. You will be able to leave tomorrow."
Her eyes felt like dead weight and after another minute, her chest rose and fell evenly with the arrival of deep slumber.
Koyuki stepped out of the Hokage's office, the very next morning escorted by Kakashi sensei and a medical ninja.
"Mah," the pepper-haired jonin pushed a gloved hand through the pockets of his pants, "your recovery is surprisingly swift as always."
Kakashi had already explained to Koyuki that he had spoken to the rest of his team earlier that morning, stating that the survival exercises would be put off until tomorrow. Kakashi didn't go into the details, other than stating that current situations required his immediate attention.
Beside Koyuki was the medical-ninja with her fingers pressed to her wrist, and eyes glued to her light blue watch, timing the girl's pulse-rate.
"Stabilized." She declared after a moment, "You're good to go."
She gave the disheveled-looking genin a slight smile, and then exchanged nods with Kakashi.
Koyuki waited for her to take her hand away before she sullenly clenched them at her sides.
Kakashi, Koyuki an ANBU captain and two medics had taken the body of the unfortunate fruit-vendor from the home. The man had no family and Koyuki, after years of buying fruit from him, still didn't know his name, never bothered to ask.
His body was now buried in the nameless cemetery just outside Konoha's border.
Somewhere west into the forest, off in a humble clearing surrounded by yellow-flowering bushes and thick vines.
During chosen hours of the day, the sun would break through the thick tree branches over the area, and shine mutely over the simply-marked graves.
The twitters of small birds, the rustling wind and the soft gush of water from the brook next to the clearing were the only sounds that ever drifted over the burial grounds.
It was peaceful and unnoticeable, much like the lives of most of the village-folk lain to rest there.
Kakashi and Koyuki were left to clean the pools of caked blood over the lower portions of the bathroom walls and on the wooden floor.
In silence they scrubbed at the floors, dragging the bamboo pail closer to their crouched forms as the smell of rusting metal, soap and lemon disinfectant surrounded them.
Once, Kakashi had tossed down his sponge, sighing from weariness, boredom, lament… no one would really be able to tell.
The jonin leaned back against the small cabinet next to the bedroom door and bowed his head, arms braced over his pulled-up knees.
His eye closed, to sleep or to think, yet again one couldn't be certain.
Twice, Koyuki had abruptly stopped and gotten up from the floor, wordlessly making her way to the bathroom.
The door would close with a quiet click and Kakashi would scrub for a moment in silence, before sounds of the genin retching behind the door stopped him from cleaning.
A minute would pass before the jonin heard the water sloshing with the chugging flush of the toilet bowl, and Koyuki would step out, bandaged arm pressed to her mouth, short silver and black bangs damp against her forehead, her face glistening with small droplets of water as she looked down at her teacher.
"Koyuki…" the jonin's eye would soften.
But his gaze was met with a steady, tired one.
"The smell makes me sick."
Then with a nudge of the genin's toe to the bucket, they would resume the incessant scrubbing.
Kakashi felt sorry for the man who had died.
He had probably been rinsing his fruits, or dusting his stall, maybe lying behind the booth pressed into the wall with a straw hat to his face, sleeping.
Dreaming listlessly, or perhaps peacefully listening to the chirping of crickets before his murderer had taken him.
Clearly, when the Akatsuki was involved, there was never a telling time or place, or victim. But death was almost always the final blow.
The jonin's chest squeezed tightly at the thought of his student, alone.
She had faced the nightmares of her past suddenly resuscitated, alive and vivid in front of her.
Right then, it had been nothing thicker than a cord holding the young genin from death.
At any time, Itachi could have killed her.
It was indecent, how Itachi loved playing with a victim, teasing and dancing around the idea of striking blood. Leaving one to think they had escaped with their life only to come and come again, until the victim was driven mad.
Now there was a dead body.
A reminder of just how insignificant sparing lives were to the Akatsuki.
And once again, Koyuki was left to deal with the mess.
No wonder the girl wanted to kill Itachi so badly.
It wasn't just for the justice, or the pride, it was for inner peace as well.
"I've booked you a place not far from here. Just in case you have to come back for certain things."
Kakashi watched Koyuki's back, before the genin slowly turned her face to him.
"You didn't have to. We have a mission in tomorrow anyway, and it's not like he's coming back to my home anytime soon."
The jonin didn't miss the fleeting look of helplessness and frustration pass Koyuki's face.
"Koyuki, I only have one eye covered, I'm not blind. In fact, I can see right through you. You're not sleeping here tonight, tomorrow or for the rest of the week for that matter."
It was that look of aggravation again, rolling off the genin in heated waves as she looked at Kakashi.
"We both know you don't want to be here." The jonin answered, evenly looking at her before tossing his sponge into the bucket beside Koyuki.
It landed lightly over the water and the girl's eyes lingered over her teacher's face a moment longer, before she stood.
"Okay, fine. I'll get packing."
"Yes, you will."
Koyuki scoffed and padded off down the hallway, Kakashi threw a lazy smile at the girl's back in return.
As expected Itachi had disappeared once the Hokage had sent out the ninja troops to survey the village.
Not a trace of him or any other possible Akatsuki member.
"Ah, shit Hatake… They're clean - those bastards -" the foul-mouthed ANBU captain didn't bother taking off his whiskered, tiger mask as he spoke, and his tattooed arm rippled as he reached up to brush at spiky strands of brown hair, "if the body didn't have the slice of a Katana across his neck, this kid of yours might have been brought in for interrogation."
"Well, Seikyu," The gray-haired jonin put a lazy hand to his peppered-hair and his face tilted forward as his eye curled into a half-moon, "if any of your three teams manage to find them… give my thanks... and don't cut down on the enthusiasm."
Kakashi's smiling expression and disinterested tone betrayed the frightening meaning of his words -
"Alright, let's be shithard-happy." Seikyu smirked beneath his mask.
Koyuki watched from beside Kakashi as the lithe-looking ANBU captain put one hand to his waist, and swung another over a thick post.
One leg braced over the railing that framed the view of neighboring residences in the compound.
"Movin' along, copy-boy…" Seikyu said, "-Don't stress or fret. I'll make sure we get on their trail. You know how it is, they're bound to fuck up even once, and that, copy-boy, will be enough-"
A medic turned to the captain, signaling that they were taking the body away and Koyuki watched the painted tiger mask give a firm nod before the ANBU captain turned to face her.
The tone of the man's voice changed, coming out gruff and more muffled as he said the genin's name,
"Mikoto, Koyuki…"
The girl thought that if her blonde teammate would ever make it to ANBU – if – then, he'd very much resemble this particular man. His stature, the slim formation of his limbs, even the way he gestured so casually, with that same disregard for any kind of formality. Most of all Koyuki noted, they shared the same straightforward rudeness.
The captain looked down at her mutely, before speaking again in that same low voice.
"I knew your mother. On the field, she was one-hell-of-a killing machine. One, two, three, even ten, she'd use those crazy ass wind techniques and cut 'em all down. Mercy was just never an issue with that woman! Not even when it was supposed to be…"
Koyuki saw Kakashi give the captain a brief look, and the man took it as a sign.
He expelled a long breath before finishing the sentence and slipped his foot off the railing.
"Yeah. Later- take care of yourself, kid."
And the genin could tell that the man meant it, wished it for her and warned her.
The captain gave another nod at Kakashi, who raised a gloved hand in return and with a tip of his holstered sword and a hand seal the captain had gone.
Kakashi's gray haired rustled with the sudden depart, and Koyuki watched the twirl of leaves and dust dancing along the spot where Seikyu had disappeared, wondering how long it would take for her to reach ANBU.
After another three hours, Koyuki's sponge grazed laboriously into the last patch of blood near a crack in the floor, her eyebrows stitched together and her jaws were clenched tightly as she worked.
Gradually, the stain disappeared into dampness and she let the sponge drag over the spot one last time, before pressing down on her palms and closing her eyes.
The weight of a hand rested over her shoulder, and she raised her head, eyes now looking straight into the green hard-bound cover of an Icha-Icha Paradise's Volume I.
Koyuki's eyebrows furrowed some more before she saw the book being lifted away, and Kakashi's masked face looking down at her with a crinkled eye.
"Come on, we're done. Let's move your things out of here."
The building was a small one, at least compared to Koyuki's home.
A wooden signboard hammered into the roof with roughly painted letterings in bright orange and lime green was the only thing that stood out amidst its shambled form.
Koyuki slung her backpack higher to her shoulder and looked into the small entry-way.
Her fists clutched at her house keys before she stuffed them into her pants pocket and walked towards the rickety reception table.
The air inside the inn was dank, and smelled a bit of layered dust, ancient upholstery and rain-drenched wood.
Behind her, Kakashi carried a paper bag, much like he would grocery.
In it were cups of instant noodles, fish crackers, powdered tea and an assortment of scrolls.
The girl's footsteps were light, soundless as she came up to the table and she paused, watching the oblivious woman behind the reception jotting down hurried notes on pieces of paper, before she stuck them to a small corkboard behind the desk.
"They serve limitless green tea." Kakashi said, winking down at Koyuki.
The woman's head jerked up at the sound of the jonin's voice, and the back of a hand brushed against her forehead where a stray strand threatened into her eyes.
"Oh, sorry. What can I do for you?"
"Reserved room…" the young genin said, "Mikoto."
"Oh yes."
Koyuki looked into the woman's smiling face, before she shuffled across the counter towards a cabinet on the wall.
Her fingers skimmed over a row of keys before she wrapped her fingers around a set and raised them off the cabinet hook.
"Mikoto," she murmured, and her eyes caught Koyuki's amethyst ones in a warm smile before she slipped the keys into Koyuki's open hand and gestured with a thumb at the stairway to the right.
"B-4, second floor. It's the third door to the right." She leaned against the side of the small counter's back wall and wrapped her arms to her chest.
"How much?" Koyuki reached into her back pocket to retract her wallet.
"Already paid for." The woman answered, giving the pepper-haired jounin a brief meaningful look.
Koyuki's hand hovered midway to her pants and she cast a sideways glance at Kakashi.
The teacher looked into the young genin's somewhat surprised expression and smiled behind his mask.
"You didn't have to do it." Amethyst eyes narrowed, though Kakashi glimpsed the girl's arm lowering to her side.
"I never thought of it as something I HAD to do." Kakashi quietly pointed out. "I wanted to."
Just as suddenly he handed Koyuki the paper bag, holding it against her chest.
"After you're settled in, give yourself about 2 hours to rest. And then go to the usual sparring grounds. I've called a meeting with Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura to explain last night's incident…"
The jonin's finger tapped lightly at the paper bag and the younger girl's eyes looked down into the contents.
"There's food, and something more important. Read those."
And then with a dismissive wave of his hand he turned around and began walking away towards the small entrance.
Koyuki turned the other way after watching her teacher's back disappear. Her eyes blinked up into the darkness of the stairway, and with a start she was climbing.
Ah, this chapter was a bit messy... at least I think so. ^^' Oh, and I also introduce to you: Seikyu, my ANBU captain! He's just playing a small role for this chapter, he might show up later in the story.
To those of you who haven't given up on the story... har-hars... next chapter I will bring the good stuff. *hands out Sasuke plushies*