45 Careful What You Wish For
A Good Fight, Hot Soba, and an Unwanted Reminder.
"So yeah, just ignore me and walk off with her. See if I care. It's not like we ever had anything real between us in the first place." Kotori repeated the damning words to herself as she launched blow upon blow against the wooden practice post, feeling the surface tremble under each impact but knowing that inside she shook just as badly. Her knuckles throbbed with each ensuing hit and tears began to roll down her cheeks, but not from the pain her body felt. "Like it or not, you haven't been exactly welcoming to anything Tai ever did or said. He's the only one that treats you like a person, and you keep shoving him away." Slam. "And you let it happen! You thought she wouldn't have the guts" kick, wham "that wet-noodle-for-a-spine Hinata would just blush and run away" thud "but no! Congratulations, Kotori, you are... an idiot." Now sobbing openly, she let her face rest against the now-splintered post, feeling the shards of wood digging into her cheek but really not caring. "Wow, I really am stupid. Totally underestimated the whole thing. But why the hell am I so upset? Like I said, it's not like there was anything real between me and the Sparkle Prince... and he confirmed it! That's what hurts the most."
Had Kotori moved her head even the slightest fraction of an inch at that moment, she would have found herself impaled by twin shuriken that, aimed as they were, merely chopped a few strands of her hair short. After realizing the near miss, though, the girl leaped away from the post as if she'd been goosed and glared up at the offending weapons, yelling out, "Hey! What the hell are you thinking? Are you trying to hurt me or just being a jerk?"
A mocking chuckle sounded from immediately behind the girl. "Why don't you just turn around and find out?"
The voice immediately identified its owner, causing Kotori's blood to flare with rage. Dismissing the pain in her body from her efforts against the post, she spun and aimed a solid punch at the face of her taunter. "Uchiha, you b– "
Immediate wrenching pain traveled up her arm as the young man caught Kotori's wrist in his hand, clenching his fingers with enough force to bruise skin and underlying tissue before releasing. "Bastard? How unoriginal." Letting the girl's arm drop, Sasuke snorted in disappointment as she involuntarily clutched her damaged limb close and glared at him with eyes like smoldering ice. "Leave your weakness exposed and someone will go for it – or did they not teach you that wherever you grew up?" A smirk appeared as carefully scrutinizing eyes – Kotori noted that they now glistened red and black in his clan's bloodline signature – examined her from head to toe and ended with their owner shaking his head. "You make fun of my ego, but here you go getting emotional over something that's really not important. So she walked off with your boyfriend" a marked sneer accented this word "but so what? You're right, you are an idiot."
Realizing this to be a trap to deliberately goad her into action, Kotori forced herself to at least be outwardly calm. "And here you claim to be superior, but in fact you're wasting your time rubbing my face in what you think are my flaws. Don't you have anything better to do?" She unclenched her fists and shook the hands out to loosen them up and ease tension. "Like training to become strong enough to obliterate that brother I heard about, maybe?" The smirk tightened a bit around the edges, and Kotori knew she'd hit a nerve. "Standing around teasing a stupid little girl like me really won't help you get to that goal, now will it?" She next relaxed her arms, wincing a bit at the remaining ache where her punch had been nullified but otherwise showing no sign of anger. "Although I know one thing it will help..." The smirk had disappeared entirely now, replaced by thinly veiled irritation. "Your ego. So, feel like boosting your confidence?"
"Challenge accepted." And before Kotori could blink, she was on the defensive against a flurry of fast-paced, high-powered feints and jabs, barely moving quick enough to dodge, much less think of a counter. Well, Kotori, be careful what you ask for. You wanted a fight against this one and you've got it, the girl mused grimly as she arched back to avoid an incoming punch, falling into an agile flip to put space between herself and the again-smirking Sasuke. He's enjoying this, too. The zanbatou is too slow and unwieldy for this style of combat and there's barely any water around to use any techniques that you're skilled at. Anything that you can do, he'll see right through it. A quick substitution guaranteed evasion from incoming projectiles as well as a few extra seconds of thinking time for Kotori, who was forced to admit that she was at a marked disadvantage and would fall soon unless she acted decisively. What can I possibly do that he can't?
The decision was made for her, though, as she leapt up to dodge a massive fireball launched in her direction. Twisting in midair, she threw a kunai at her opponent to divert his attention only to have her target vanish in a puff of smoke. Damnit! I was just asking for that, now wasn't I? Then a sharp kick from below lofted her even further skyward, followed by a series of percussive hits that threw her back earthward. Finally came another kick, a painful echo of the first that slammed her into the dirt like a meteor strike, spraying up turf and rocks where she landed. Kotori could only lie there in stunned pain, coughing as she tried to get her equilibrium back to normal and plot her next move. "Come on. Don't tell me that was all it took..." A shadow fell over her, briefly blocking the sun. "For a demon vessel, you sure don't have a lot of staying power. And you come from Hidden Mist, don't you?" Kotori felt herself being lifted by her throat, dangling from her opponent's hand like a useless rag doll. "You sure don't act like it. They're brutal and merciless, and you're a coward. All talk and little else."
A coward...! Resolve fired through Kotori's limp body and a plan began to take form. Even as the grip around her windpipe tightened, Kotori brought her own hands up to take hold of Sasuke's arm and the betraying pulse of his heartbeat. Within five seconds she had attuned the pulse to her own, synchronizing them in a rhythm that she could turn to her advantage even after they separated. He wants brutal and merciless, huh? Working up what reserves of moisture she had, Kotori spat with vicious aim into her attacker's face and used that brief moment of distraction to slip away and once again stand at a distance. Come out and play, Hellkitty. Let's teach him a lesson about the Hidden Mist. Renewed strength flowed through her limbs as she stood ready, raising one hand in the classic gesture of chakra focus and eyeing Sasuke to read his next move.
He's not sure what to do now, the demon reported smugly. So I'd expect him to fall back on one of his old standbys, to give him time to think. Nodding once in acknowledgement, Kotori brought her hands together in the first of a set of seals even as Sasuke began to do the same, watching his movements in order to divine which technique he would use. Tiger! He's going for fire again. What did I tell you? She grinned in agreement with the demon, gathering her chakra for her countermove as yet another orb of flame arced in her direction. Slowing her heartbeat and lowering her body temperature to chilly extremes for a sliver of a second, Kotori then inhaled once and let her breath out again in an icy cloud. Frost and flame collided with a deafening hiss as ice absorbed the heat and converted to vapor, and with a serene smile the girl led her hands through a second series of seals. The stupefying speed of her movements betrayed extreme familiarity of use, and Sasuke could not stop a brief flicker of memory from rising as she once again put one hand to her lips and lifted the other above her head.
Within the blink of an eye the field was shrouded in fog and all was silent, the only sound being the sudden hammering of the young man's own heart in his ears as he realized that he was completely blind to any incoming attack. "How are you coping with the loss of your Sharingan?" came a disembodied voice along with an eerie girlish giggle. "And I can see that you've dealt with this before. You were helpless then and helpless now, because those who fail to learn from their past are surely doomed to repeat it. Or did they not teach you that wherever you grew up?" The words now came at him from all sides, cutting as slivers of ice, and with each passing breath Sasuke felt his body grow heavier and less responsive. "There are eight vulnerable areas, Uchiha, this you have no doubt learned from my brutal kin. Throat, spine, lungs, liver..." again the giggle "jugular, subclavian, kidney... and heart. You can feel my hand there in your chest as you struggle to breathe, can't you? Slowing your pulse and freezing your airways. It's getting hard for you to think with all that ice in there, isn't it? I could kill you, but I'd only get quick satisfaction from that – so we'll finish this later. I'll even give you a heads up – knockout in three hits."
"One." In a crude parody of his earlier attack, Sasuke could not lift a finger to halt his unseen foe as she lofted him into the air. "Two." A second strike rotated him so that his vision was filled with nothing but the rapidly approaching ground, and the last blow – "Three!" – slammed into the back of his skull with enough force to make his vision shimmer briefly with pyrotechnic fury before all went dark.
He's down for the count, the Nekomata murmured, receding back to its usual place in the back of Kotori's mind. And for that matter, you're coming close yourself... Strength ebbing as suddenly as it had come, Kotori sank to the ground next to the unconscious Sasuke with a weak cough, her lungs still recovering from the vicious bite of cold they'd received. Congratulations, though. I don't think our creators ever thought of turning the River of Life Freeze technique on themselves for combat use, and that was inventive of you to use it as a counter. As for the Kirigakure jutsu, I figured you'd use it but I thought you'd stoop to something like using your own sweat as a medium for the fog instead of creating more water yourself.
"Whatever it takes, disgusting as that sounds," wheezed Kotori, weakly wiping at the fresh trickle of blood from the reopened seal on her shoulder. "And it just goes to show that you don't need the Sharingan to copy a skill. All you need to do is keep your eyes open and pay attention..."
"But your learning curve is very steep," a muffled voice grumbled as Sasuke came to, barely mustering enough strength to flip himself over so that he was not eating turf. "If you hadn't had that demon to help you, you wouldn't have survived." He feebly spat a few chunks of clumped dirt and grass out of his mouth, then tried to sit up and failed, sagging back to the ground with a grunt of fatigue.
"Be that as it may, I was still the last one standing." Kotori mustered up the last remnants of flagging energy to rise to her feet again and dust herself off. "If you're really so ass-hurt about being beaten by a scrawny little nobody from Mist, you're more than welcome to look me up and try again." Shrugging first one shoulder and then the other in a sinuous stretch, Kotori walked away from the practice field.
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The public baths were relatively empty when Kotori arrived, but the few others present made up for any lack of numbers by the strength of their reaction to her appearance. It was when she looked in a mirror that she realized what a toll the skirmish had taken on her, the overall impression being one of raggedness and fatigue, dirt and dust overlaid with sweat and blood coming together in an unsettling composite. What lay underneath the begrimed clothing was not much better, the scars on her shoulder raw and oozing and her torso liberally laced with lacerations and rapidly purpling bruises. "He really worked a number on me, much as I hate to admit it," she murmured, stretching and wincing as new aches made themselves known. "But it was a good fight."
Indeed, the Nekomata agreed, yawning in fatigue as it likewise stretched. It would be safe to say that both of you learned a few things. He was reminded never to underestimate an opponent and you learned not to let emotion lower your guard. I'll fix up your scrapes but they'll still sting for a little bit. Hope you don't mind.
"Have I ever?" Brisk, vigorous application of soap and water helped to restore Kotori's body to its usual degree of cleanliness, and once this purification was complete she adjourned to the bath itself to immerse herself in its steaming depths and re-settle her mind. "Did you see his face when he woke up again? I don't think he liked being beaten at all, and certainly not by me."
As you said, you only won because you were the last one standing. He won't take this sitting down, I'd bet... he's feisty. I like that in a guy. A pause, then a delicate cough. That reminds me of something. We do have our deal, and it's almost time for you to pay up on your end.
Kotori abruptly put two and two together and sat up straight in the bath, displacing a good deal of water with her sudden action. "Absolutely not. Not with that one, anyway."
You have no say over who I choose, remember? Be thankful that I'm giving you a warning. The cat grinned, adding, I forget, you're young yet in this world. Maybe someday you'll thank me for letting you experience the sheer variety there is out there.
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After finishing her bath, Kotori dressed in something more loose-fitting and relaxed that wouldn't chafe against her newly-acquired injuries before setting out for the Ichiraku. The ramen shop was blessedly empty of patrons, allowing her peace and quiet to think at her usual spot at the counter. "There has to be some way to stop her from doing what I think she's going to do," she could be heard muttering into her soba, casting a dark look into the bowl of noodles as if they would provide some answer to her dilemma. "Anything…"
Seeing Kotori's unease, Ayame glanced at her with concern and asked, "Is something wrong?"
Quickly shaking her head, Kotori waved a hand dismissively. "No, no, it's nothing to worry about."
The waitress was unconvinced but chose not to press the matter further, instead turning to greet another customer. "Welcome, Sasuke! What can I get for you tonight?"
Kotori flinched in surprise and vague disgust as her challenger of earlier slid up onto the stool next to her with not so much as a glance in her direction, ordering miso ramen and hot tea before sinking into silent thoughts of his own. In spite of her better judgment, she could not help but blurt out the suspicion lurking at the front of her mind – "Are you stalking me?"
Her words at least provoked a reaction, a sideglance and rolling of dark eyes. "No. Why would I want to?"
"It just seems that I've run into you everywhere this afternoon," Kotori reasoned with the feeling that she was grasping at straws. "If that's a coincidence, it's one hell of a big one…"
"Don't flatter yourself."
This simple statement was all the reassuring that Kotori needed and she let herself slump down in her seat with a sigh. "So you won't take me up on it if I suddenly come on to you like a bad rash? I'll tell you now – if that does happen, it's not really me."
A small smile was the reward this time, along with a muttered comment. "Good to know we're on the same page."
No further words were exchanged between the duo for the rest of the time they sat together, Kotori feeling the icy chill of relief that she'd managed to avert disaster. I don't know how I'd react if I woke up with that one next to me, that's for sure. Over the hum of her thoughts, she barely heard Ayame greet a third customer who seated himself on the other side of Kotori. His chuckle of sudden comprehension provided all of the identification that she needed, and she wasted no time in settling her tab and getting up to leave. "It's not what you think, Uncle, so stop laughing." Then, without waiting for a response from him or the other two, Kotori beat a hasty retreat from the restaurant before the situation could be made any more awkward. But then again, I don't know which would be worse – waking up next to the Uchiha or the sheer load of crap my uncle would give me about it. Hopefully I won't find out.
Don't claim victory just yet, the Nekomata replied, flexing its claws, and it was with this dire admonition in mind that Kotori made her way back to her home.