Hashirama
The rest of the day was pretty lax. Madara and I couldn't decide on whether we wanted to move on past the town or back toward the previous towns and just branch off into another direction. Because of another toss, which I won again, we went back toward the previous towns. We passed the hot spring and the forest where we'd seen Mito and, despite the dizzily, cloudy morning, I felt warmth spreading in my chest.
I don't want to leave her...
Madara didn't seem to be thinking about anything like that at all. He was absorbed in his own thoughts, allowing me to wallow in mine. I began thinking back to the conversation I had with Hisa-san.
This field trip is supposed to be a mission but I'm treating it like a game. Madara could be a threat to the clan... Messing with me just to catch me off guard. But no one is that conniving, right? Especially not him...
I glanced over at Madara who was walking with his hands behind his head. His white shirt billowed in the wind, keeping his chest exposed.
I snickered.
He's mostly just a pessimist. Only harmful to himself. But still... I question my own intentions. Do I really want to know for sure if he's from that clan or not? And if I find out that he is, what will I do?
He glanced at me.
"What?"
Certainly I wouldn't turn against him... What I told Hisa-san is just an alibi, isn't it?
"What?" he repeated, shoving me. "Stop staring at me."
"I was just thinking that with your chest open like that, it's no wonder you attracted perverts."
He lunged at me, almost succeeding in yanking my hair. I stumbled backwards with my dark brown locks falling into my eyes, realizing for the first time that my hair was growing longer.
"Hey, Mada. Is my hair longer?"
He was still fuming over my joke and roughly crossed his arms.
"I don't care."
"Maaaaaaadaaaaaaaaa" I whined.
He sighed and reluctantly looked over at me.
"Yeah, kind of." He said. "It's completely covering your forehead now."
He reached out and ran his hand through it.
"And it's almost reaching your shoulders."
I shook my head.
"I can't let that happen yet." I said dismally. "Only clan leaders are allowed to have hair past their shoulders."
Madara shrugged out of his white, dirt-stained shirt as we walked. Leaving his upper torso completely bare.
"That sounds like a Senju rule." He replied as he shook his shirt out.
I stiffened.
...How did he...?
I resolved for watching him carefully and saying nothing but he didn't pursue it, he didn't even look at me like he'd said anything weird.
Perhaps it was just an off handed assumption?
"Let's get some money somehow." He spoke up. "I want a new outfit."
"Realizing what I said was true, right?" I asked, elbowing him.
"Shut up." He retorted. "It's just cold... All this rain makes me want sturdier clothes."
I laughed.
"Yeah, right." I joked. "If it's so cold, why do you have your shirt off now?"
I slapped him on the back, causing a red spot to grow. He hit me back and then the rest of the journey was running back and forth, hitting each other like the initial way there. We paused at a small town that we'd initially skipped which had one very busy, and well-known, bakery. When we walked inside, more for a place to sit out of the rain than anything, the store keeper probably thought we were orphans and offered us a job for the day.
"I can pay you for one day." He said multiple times. "Just one day."
"We got it!" We exclaimed in unison.
And so, just like with the fabric shop, we worked a job, selling pastries and treats to passersby. We both worked in the back of the shop, rolling dough and spreading fruit sauce for hours on end.
"It sucks that we can't eat any of this..." I said, after rolling my fiftieth ball of sweet dough. "After eating all that gray stuff, even a piece of this will be heaven."
I licked my lips mischievously but Madara abruptly elbowed me.
"Don't mess up." He said, then he motioned toward his shirt which he had put back on. "I want a heavier shirt and you want a haircut, right?"
I frowned and shrugged. More hours passed with us working, periodically making jokes and messing with each other. Finally, it was close time. The owner came back and blessed us with more than enough money for what we wanted but probably not much to last us more than two or three days.
"Thank you!" I said to him as we left the back kitchen.
"Hey, are you guys still open?"
"Nah." I responded, while pulling my apron off. "We're-"
I froze.
"Hey, Hashi! You dropped some of the money, you dumbass!" Madara said, hopping over the counter. "And you need to come back later, they're closed."
"Mada." I said steadily.
"Oi, Oi... Look who it is..." the person said.
He looked up as he walked over to me and also paused. We both stood rigidly. Kakeru and Masato grinned down at us.
"It's the little bastard that robbed us." Masato said, then he tsked. "We've been busting our asses looking for you, kid."
"Me?" I asked, trying to laugh light heartedly. "What's going on friends?"
"You owe us." Said Kakeru, smiles gone.
"Right now." Masato agreed.
Madara discretely touched my palm, drawing out kanji characters...
RUN!
We both ran back, running toward the kitchen doors but, suddenly, someone else walked out through them.
"I was listening outside." He said, cracking his knuckles. "Thought I'd hold off the back door entrance."
Shit... It's that shaved haired guy from before, too!
All three of them surrounded us. I faced Kakeru and Masato and Madara faced the bigger one. Our backs pressed together.
"Getting out is first priority." I whispered.
"I know." He whispered back.
"Saying your prayers?" Kakeru asked, cocking his head.
He and Masato pulled two knives out of their pockets.
"Now..." they said. "Come with us, kid, or your friend there'll get it, yeah?"
I glared at them. They edged toward me.
"You wouldn't want him to get stabbed would ya? There's no medical tents this far away from the frontlines, remember?"
I could feel Madara's breathing rate jump rapidly. It might've been my connection to the wooden floor and the trees and dirt growing about underneath it but I could feel him very clearly.
"Ahhh..." I heard the larger one say. "You remember this, don't you?"
Madara tensed. I wanted to turn but I knew who I needed to keep my eyes on. I concentrated on the ground, using the cracks in the wooden floor to my advantage.
"Where did you get that?" Madara retorted.
"I think you know where..." the shaved man said behind me. "I also think you know what happens to little kids who like to play games."
Kakeru licked his knife in front of me and winked. Masato nodded and mockingly pouted his lip.
"Poor babies... Well, the shitheads are with their Mommies in bastard heaven, now!" he remarked, laughing loudly.
I took that moment of distraction to dart at him. I felt Madara darting for the other one simultaneously. I used my forearm to hit Masato in his wrist, causing his knife to fly out and onto the wooden floor. Kakeru came at me immediately with the other knife but at that time, I brought my knee straight up into Masato's crotch, causing him to instinctively double over. Kakeru lunged at me but Masato bent into the way.
"Ah!" Masato exclaimed as he fell to his knees. "Watch it you idiot!"
As Kakeru stared at Masato in surprise, I stepped toward him and swept my right leg under his left foot causing him to take a step back to avoid tripping. When he looked down, to step back, I quickly kicked his hand, knocking his knife across the floor toward where Madara was holding his ground against the bigger guy. And at that point, he was exactly where I wanted him so I stopped pursuing him and, instead, slid behind Masato before he could get up and wrapped my arms around his neck, forcing him into a headlock. Masato bucked against me, trying to roll me over and kick and hit at me but my small stature compared to his worked in my favor. I had his arms up, over my head so he couldn't grab me and his legs were too long to kick me. He was flapping around the floor like a fish, struggling to breathe.
Kakeru stared at me as I lay on my back, slowly forcing Masato into submission.
"You won't be able to put him out before I run and get his knife." He said, motioning to Masato's knife next to me.
With one arm still around Masato's neck, I reached for him, outstretching my hand. Thinking I was reaching for the knife, he darted, exactly like I wanted him to and stepped onto the plank I had dislodged by disturbing the wood properties in the floor. The floor snapped, bringing him knee deep down into the floor and then I felt out the chakra, winding a tree root tightly around his leg. Feeling it, he squealed and struggled to get up out of the hole in the floor but it was no use and by that time, I had successfully made Masato unconscious.
I looked over at Madara who hadn't moved the entire time I'd fought. He and the large man were sizing each other up. But the closer I looked I noticed he was edging back very slowly and steadily...toward Kakeru's knife that I had knocked away.
"You two are idiots." He said smirking. "You're better off dying now anyway and you don't even realize it."
Like I suspected, what he'd been holding earlier, taunting Madara with, was a brown satchel... The same one I'd taken from them previously, filled with their money, and then given to those orphaned children. But if they'd gotten the empty bag back, then that meant... Those kids... The kids we were trying to help... I shook my head, opting to save my depression for later.
Keep on sliding Madara... Slow... Slow...
"I never told anyone this but I was ninja born." The shaved headed man said.
Madara froze.
No! Stop listening to him, keep going!
I began to try to make preparations in the circumstance Madara failed. But the issue was, I was only experienced at moving one tree root at a time. I couldn't keep the one tightly around Kakeru who was still muttering curse words and hopping up and down and attack the other man with another one. I pushed Masato off of me and knelt up.
I'll have to charge him and then we'll run.
"What clan?" Madara asked. "If you truly are."
The large burly man crossed his arms and grinned, tilting his head backwards.
"We have no name... We're simply known as 'The Accursed'."
My eyes widened.
That clan?
"Oh, don't you two worry." He said locking his bright red eyes on us. "I was ninja born but, strangely, I didn't acquire the traits of that clan and was banished."
He rolled his neck around.
"Nope. It's my brothers you've got to worry about." He said. "You see, they're coming from our clan's location just past the rocky wolf mountains and once they get past those wrecked towns out there, they'll be around here."
He smirked at us.
"So, unless you want to be torn limb from limb, I suggest-"
After hearing that, Madara stopped sliding backwards and simply turned, kicked the knife up, caught it in his hand and jabbed with it.
Just like him to have to fight with such an ostentatious style...
The man expelled an ear-splitting, hair-raising scream as the knife pierced his thigh and stuck about four inches deep in. Madara kept his hand on the knife, keeping the pressure as he screamed.
"What direction are they coming from?" he asked him.
"AGHHHH!"
"WHAT DIRECTION!?" Madara shouted.
I'd never seen him look so angry before.
"The north!" the man shouted. "The northern mountains!"
Madara dropped his knee into his stomach and then kicked him across the side of the head.
"And that's for thinking some half-bred, bastard of a cursed clan could even think to raise a candle to me!" he shouted.
He ran past me and I followed quickly, dodging Kakeru's flailing hands which were begging me not to leave.
Someone pulled the door open but Madara didn't stop to find out who it was, he shoved it back and burst into a run, down the crowded nighttime path of the small town. I paused momentarily to get a good look at who had opened the door.
Nanamba?
His eyes were wide, white hair swishing in his face, but I had no time to address him. I sprinted after Madara, struggling to catch up to him but when I finally did, we were far out of the town, going back the way we'd come that morning.
"What are you doing!?" I managed to yell.
"The northern mountains." He called back, swinging from tree limb to tree limb. "That's-"
Mito's face flashed in front of my eyes.
"Shit! Where the castle sits! I almost forgot!" I exclaimed.
My legs picked up then and my heart was racing.
Mito...
We jumped through the trees, launching ourselves in and out of the branches trying as hard as we could to make it all the way back up and through the hill. It felt like it was taking centuries longer to get up than it took us to get down. The forest became dark and closed in feeling. The trees surrounding us looked almost black in color. Thunder rumbled overhead.
Please let them all have left with the money already... Please...
There were wild howls out there. Out... Out there... Somewhere...
There was something wet on my face, something like...
Oh, right. These? These are tears...
And soot from the fire mixed in with them making my cheeks burn.
We were too late...
The entire barren village was up in flames. That accursed clan had definitely come through there. That insane murderous clan. They destroyed everything in their path and broke more than enough candle holder lampposts on the path sides to start the fire. The entire town seemed even emptier than usual. There was nothing but the sound of crisp burning fire and a very present wisp of burning flesh.
The howls sounded again.
Those murderers are out there celebrating their craziness... They're the equivalent to monsters in the ninja world. Cold blooded killers. And the next day, they don't even remember who they've all killed.
Madara and I stood at the edge of the castle. It was ripped to shreds. The highest tower, the one we'd slept in and observed the stars on top of, was smashed into the rest of the castle creating gargantuan cracks that ran down the rest of the stone. It was completely dark there. Nothing to help us see except for the ominous light from the flames burning the town below us.
"They could have left already." I whispered.
My eyes were closed. I was pressing my fingers against my eyelids trying to rub the smoke and soot out that were causing my eyes to tear up. Madara shook his head and pointed.
"The clothesline is still..."
It would've been Mito's turn to dry the clothes that day. Their presence meant...
I shook my head.
No, no, no... I know she's fine. I know she's okay. She's... She's...
"Right!" I said, eyes popping back open.
I held my depression back for the hope on one last gamble.
"Mito likes to hide!" I said. "I know where she is! She's hiding! She has to be!"
I darted from the bottom of the hill up it and around the side of the house. I ran as quickly as I could hopping over large holes in the grass that weren't there that morning and running around clumps of kitchen supplies that had burst out of the side of the castle when it collapsed until I got all the way to the well at the top of the hill.
"GURRAAAAAARGH!"
I looked up as a straggler from the clan was still surveying the area. His eyes locked on me and he roared, jumping into the air and up toward me. I didn't even stop running. Using a lone kunai knife on the ground by my feet, I dropped to my knees and slid about three feet in the dirt. He overcame me and I slid under him, slashing upwards across his chest simultaneously and jumped back to my feet as he fell to the ground behind me.
"Mito!" I shouted.
I kept running even though the roses didn't move.
"Mito!" I called again.
I stopped next to the roses, trampling them, picking at them but feeling no sign of her.
"Hashi?" a soft voice said.
I got to my feet and looked toward the well where I could see a pair of small pink hands, turning white, most likely at having been holding on so long, on the edge of the well wall.
I peered down into the darkness and felt the shock of relief coursing through my veins as my eyes adjusted to take in the locks of bright red hair. I gripped her around the torso and pulled her up. She immediately fell into my arms and began sobbing with tears.
"Hashi...Hashi... I was so scared." She whimpered.
I found that I couldn't speak. I was so relieved, words couldn't be formed in my mouth. I stared her in the eyes, realizing that more than anything, I was just grateful to be able to see the blood running through her cheeks and hands. She was alive. She was okay.
I touched her cheek tenderly feeling the warmth there and reflection of the flames from the burning town in her eyes. Her lips were full and damp and I couldn't help licking my own lips at the sight of them. She held close to me, shaking slightly still, and I dropped my lips to her cheek and kissed her.
"I'll stay with you forever, Mito." I whispered in her ear. "I promise. Forever."
She nodded, hair brushing against my cheek, and then looked up at me and leaned forward, blessing me with the feeling of her round, pink lips on mine.
Suddenly, breaking us out of our romantic illusion, I heard a jarring sound behind me. We both turned to see Madara shaking the person I had slashed. He was quickly going back from his crazy, hard-skinned scaled form into a human form and Madara stopped, seeing that he was just a boy around our age. Mito and I made our way over to him as he breathed heavily. I had cut him deeply with the kunai knife. He bled heavily into the grass and his eyes fluttered about in a confused way.
"I'll ask you again." Madara said. "What happened to the people here?"
The boy's eyes blinked at him weakly. It bothered me to look at him. Even though he was looking, there was nothing there, nothing in his eyes.
"Kill...me..." he whispered.
"Where are they?" Madara asked.
"Just...kill...me..."
Madara picked up the knife I had dropped and held it toward his neck threateningly.
"Don't ask for something you don't truly want."
But the boy did want it, though he was bleeding and half disoriented, he cried.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." he said over and over. "Just...kill me."
Madara sighed and stood up.
"These curse marks..." He said, fist tightening around the knife. "They all turn into crazy monsters like these at random times and go on rampages, taking down entire villages and towns by themselves and then... At the end of it all..."
At the end, they say they're sorry... And make you believe it.
He dropped the knife into the boy's hand.
"Kill yourself." He said and then he turned and walked off.
I followed closely behind him and pulled Mito but she stopped.
"Mito, come on." I said.
She shook her head and bent her arm toward the boy's mouth.
"Bite me." she said.
I cocked my head. Madara paused and looked over his shoulder. The boy, looking similarly as confused, bit down on her and, as though like magic, the wound I had inflicted on him closed up and he sat up, perfectly okay.
"Are you alright?" she asked, checking his chest.
He nodded slowly, looking at her like she was the strangest thing he'd ever seen in his life.
"I can hear your clan howling." She said, motioning down the hill. "They're probably waiting for you. Go to them."
The boy slowly got to his feet. When he did, it was clear that he was several feet shorter than us, probably no older than nine years old. He stood next to her, still whimpering with tears.
"I'm sorry." He said again. "I'm so, so sorry."
"Go." Was all she said.
He nodded and turned, running down the hill. His shirt was nothing more than tatters and he was barefoot but he continued running and we stood on the hill, watching him run until he was out of sight.
I looked at Mito, who shook her arm which hadn't even been affected by the bite mark on it and suddenly, everything about her made perfect sense to me.
She's...
She turned toward Madara and I and bowed her head.
"I wasn't able to save them from the rampage." She told us.
She told us the entire story, from beginning to end, how they were all discussing whether or not to leave with the money like Madara's note instructed when it sounded like something had exploded in the highest tower room of the house.
"Hikari-san and Tsuyoi-san thought you both had died." She said. "There was nothing left of the room, but I had a feeling that you left... And... Left this money in your wake, right?"
We nodded.
Tsuyoi went outside with his weapons to try to decipher the intruder and they heard him starting to fight. She said they heard him yelling for them all to run and then it was silent for a long time...except for the howls. Hikari-san believed it was too dangerous to run outside of the castle. She thought the fortress was strong enough to protect them, so she tried to hide everyone in the cupboards and cabinets of the house but there wasn't enough space for her. She was standing next to the wall, trying to get everyone to stay quiet, when suddenly they burst through that side, blasting a hole into the kitchen. The entire wall collapsed, crushing Hikari-san, who Mito believes probably died on impact. The hole they blasted destroyed the cabinet Mito was hiding in, giving her a straight shot to pull herself out of the rubble and crawl through the hole but with the way the wall fell into the kitchen, everyone else was still trapped inside.
She didn't have to describe what happened next in detail. We could both pretty much grasp the decision she made, and how everything had happened.
She probably...ran from that castle and hid inside the well, listening to the little toddlers' screams cease one by one as they were all found and murdered.
"All the kids are..." she whispered, voice cracking. "And it's all because I...I..."
Madara suddenly stood up. He walked back toward the house and inside. There was a bit of rustling inside, and then he pulled out a body. And he went in again and pulled out another. I got to my feet, too, and went after him. One after the other after the other. The last two bodies, Mito got up and pulled them out...Kita and Lugen, the infamous, identical dark skinned, blonde haired twins that I later discovered were actually biological children of Tsuyoi's.
Tsuyoi-san's body was in tatters around the side of the castle and we all had to work together, Madara and I holding up the wall, and Mito pulling out, to get Hikari-san's body.
To the tune of the softly rumbling sky, we dug holes, with the assistance of lone kunai knives but mostly with our bare hands. Mito couldn't stop crying. Madara stopped about halfway through and pulled something I didn't recognize out of Tsuyoi-san's pocket, after rolling the small box around in his palm for a while, he got up. I watched him standing there alone near the cliff side gripping his stomach until he fell to his knees in the grass. I couldn't see what he was doing but the consequent sounds and the shaking of his body gave me a clear idea.
The bodies were grotesque, like chunks of flesh had literally been ripped off. As Madara compulsively vomited and Mito relentlessly cried, I alone worked on the rest of the bodies. My eyes were open but I didn't see the individual faces, the individual bodies. Everyone's face looked like Itama to me and my forearms felt heavy, like they were bearing weight. At some point, I started having involuntary tremors. But I ignored it. When my fingers couldn't grasp anymore, I beat them against the earth until they stopped shaking and worked again. When it was completely done, the sun was rising.
I found myself getting to my feet, walking, until I was standing on the edge of the hill next to Madara. He was rolling up the sleeves of his white shirt that was so heavily stained in dirt and blood, it barely looked white anymore. His eyes... I avoided them. I was worried I'd find detachedness or even worse...tears.
"We're going to fix this."
"What are you talking about?" He retorted.
His voice was snappy. I could already tell he was beyond anything I could say but I kept going.
"Remember, that's what the village we're going to create is for." I told him.
"Are you blind, Hashirama?"
I said nothing.
"How the hell are we going to create a village as a solution when we are the ones that's the problem?" he asked me.
I lowered my head.
"We're the enemies here... People like us... We're all...murders. Just blood thirsty, malicious, murderers."
"Look, Mada, you know as well as I do that-"
"That what?!" he asked, finally turning to look at me.
Instead of finding the sadness or separation I feared all I saw was anger.
"Are you going to tell me some bullshit that ninja are necessary in the world to create peace and that just because some of us are bad doesn't mean we all are?! Give me a break, Hashi. Give me a fucking break!" he shouted at me. "Those guys that destroyed this town could've been my clan or yours, and you know that! Our existence is evil in itself. We... People like us... Shouldn't even exist!"
I glanced at Mito who had looked up, startled by his outburst. I grabbed his arm.
"I get what you mean, okay?" I said. "Just relax."
He pulled his arm away from mine.
"I'm not going to give up until we live in a world where there's peace." He said. "I mean true peace. Not peace created by people like us... People who have been murderers since they were four years old. I mean... A world where there doesn't have to pain...or shadows."
And in that way, Madara was even more idealistic than I was... Because even though I could identify with him and feel his pain, I knew. I knew better than I knew my own name that that was impossible. Pain, and shadows, and grief and death... Those things... Not only were they apart of life. They were necessary for life to grow... Move on... Persist. And destroying them...would be similar to destroying everything.
But I didn't explain that to him. Instead, I reached for his hand again and gripped it.
"No one likes killing people." I told him. "Especially not people like us..."
I thought back to what Tsuyoi-san said.
"But, unlike them, Mada, when we kill or see death, we empathize with them, soak in their blood... Killing without feeling... That's the true sin, right?"
He slowly turned and looked at me. The sky was clearer than it had been in weeks. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky. The morning sun just began to get over the rocky wolf mountains and beamed out at us, shimmering into Madara's eyes.
"Because of that, even though we're ninja... You and I... We're different from them." I whispered to him. "We're not their kind of people."
The morning air was crisp, edging on chilly. Madara looked down at his hand in mine and slowly nodded, I squeezed his hand. Mito chose that moment to come up on my left side and slide her hand into my other one. We all looked down at the burned down town below us and over to the other side of the valley with the marshy lands. Our hair waved in the wind, shinning from the bright orange and pink rays of sunrise, and I felt the presence of a new day. Inspiring...however daunting.
Madara
Mito's a ninja. She has to be. What she did wasn't normal.
These were the thoughts that crowded my head as I got far enough away from the castle not to feel completely sick to my stomach anymore.
We spent the early morning heading southeast, trying to avoid the areas we had been to before so that we wouldn't run into anymore "vengeful gamblers" as Hashirama put it. I felt that he just needed to own up to the fact that he stole and got what was coming to him.
We crossed over a large valley that consisted of stone structures more than fifty feet tall that we had to hop across to get to the forest on the other side.
Hashirama edged a couple of steps back, to get a headstart, and then ran as fast as he could to the edge of the cliff, jumping at the last moment. Skillfully, he landed hard at the other side. Mito peeked down into the valley and shook her head.
"No way, the gap is too wide. I won't make it." She said.
"Well, then I guess you're not coming with us." I told her, backing up and preparing to run.
I ran for the cliff and swiftly and suddenly, she positioned herself in front of me.
"Wait!" she yelled.
Startled, I fell into her, pushing her backwards. She pinwheeled her arms, grasping at nothing and with a high pitched screech began falling over the side. With ninja like reflexes, I was easily able to gauge the time I had and act accordingly. I dove over the side of the crest and grabbed her hand. She grabbed onto my right hand with both of her hands.
"Guys! Hang on, I'm coming back!" I heard Hashirama call.
"No!" I managed to shout back.
The cliff he's standing on is lower than this one, if he tries to jump back from there he'll either die or have to use Ninjutsu to live. And with this nuisance here who already suspects that we're not ordinary travelers, this could be dangerous...
But I was beginning to slide from the edge of the cliff, my knees were bloodying, scraping across the sharp rock as I tried desperately to hold on and soon my entire torso was out over the edge. Her own fingers were slipping.
I'm going to have to...
I pulsated chakra through my body and down to my legs so that I could keep my knees and the tips of my toes stuck to the ground. Then, without a waste second, I knelt up on my knees, pulling her up with me and we collapsed on the side of the cliff. Breathing heavily and grasping our chests.
"Whoa. Thanks, Madara, I really would've-"
"You're so useless." I interjected, sitting up. "If you can't even get across a ridge on your own, then just go home!"
I picked at my scraped knees in irritation as she frowned.
"I would if I could." She said quietly.
I stared at her, registering the tone of her voice. I shook my head, blocking the empathetic questions that wanted to leave my lips and said something else instead.
"Just leave me alone."
I stood up brushing the dirt of my shorts and backed up a bit. This time when I jumped over the gap, she didn't stop me. I landed a lot further onto the other cliff than Hashirama did. We both looked back up to Mito who backed up and jumped also. She stretched out in mid-air and, just barely, grabbed the cliff side. Hashirama rushed over to help her over the edge and they jumped up and down triumphantly.
"I did it!"
"You did it!"
"Thanks for helping me up, Hashirama, you're such a sweetheart."
He grinned and showed off his arm muscles again.
"No problem." He said.
As she walked past me, I shuffled my feet, purposely kicking loose dirt and pebbles around.
"Mada, stop kicking dirt on me."
"I wasn't even trying to kick it on you." I muttered, crossing my arms.
But as she walked in front of me, I continued dislodging and nudging rubble. It didn't matter though, because the next second, she said something that stopped us both in our tracks.
"I know the truth."
And before either of us could even react, she turned around staring us down with a steady expression.
"You're ninja."
Hashirama froze but I immediately reacted.
"What?!" I asked. "That's an empty accusation."
"No it isn't." she said, interlocking her fingers behind her back. "I have proof."
Hashirama raised my eyebrows, waiting for the petite four foot, ten inch tall girl make her case.
"I was watching you both that day when we were hunting for the wolf with Tsuyoi, you knew to lighten your footsteps and walk a great distance from each other to catch the prey even though you said you'd never hunted before."
True...
"And you're both very agile and strong for regular twelve year old village boys." She pointed out. "The way Madara scaled that mountain side that day and the muscles you're always showing off, Hashirama."
Both of us tried very hard not to give each other accusing expressions.
That's also true...
"And despite the fact that you're supposed to be homeless like everyone else, it's clear that you'd rather travel alone than stay in a group." She said. "It's like you think you're invincible."
Because we are...
"No, we're not!" Hashirama spoke up. "What about Madara's close call? He was about to get-"
"Can we just forget about that?" I quickly interjected.
"I was held up on that, too." She said, visibly pondering it. "And now seeing Madara's personality, it was really strange that he'd fall into that kind of trap... But then it all started making sense when Hashirama got sick last week."
We both raised our eyebrows.
"You're inexperienced with the dangers of a regular town child because you're not regular town children, you're ninja." She said. "A regular town boy would know immediately what to do in that situation, run and yell. But a ninja boy, who is only acclimated with the skills to kill and not avoid, would be completely lost. It actually makes perfect sense that he would freeze up."
I cringed hearing the phrase "freeze up".
"I didn't freeze... I wasn't even in any danger..." I muttered indistinctly.
"The same goes for your sickness, Hashirama." She said. "Any real travelers would've been used to eating crappy food like that but it made you sick. And also, unlike the rest of us, both of you are very healthy and well nourished looking. It means you normally eat very well, right?"
"That's all circumstantial." Hashirama protested. "It's not like you caught us performing any kind of Ninjutsu."
She frowned.
"Well... Actually, I did but..." then she shook her head. "Fine, I'll explain."
She pointed to the cliff we had all just jumped from.
"Earlier, I pretended to accidently fall off that cliff because I wanted Madara to save me." she said. "I did this because I was almost 85% sure that he was a ninja and would use some kind of Ninjutsu to save me."
I crossed my arms.
"How did you know I would save you?" I asked.
She gave me a knowing smile which made me reconsider my question.
"Well... I guess there was no way I could've known for sure." She said. "But I bet on the fact that if you had the opportunity to save my life, you wouldn't just let me die."
Of course... You think you have me all figured out, don't you?
She grinned at me.
"That's why I got in your way."
I looked at her carefully. All fun and games were out of the window. If everything that she was saying was true, she was way too intelligent to be a regular town girl. She was...
"And then, over here, I pretended not to be able to get up the cliff so that you would help me up, Hashirama."
"What were you doing? Just gauging our strength?" I asked. "That's not concrete-"
She held her hand out, palm up.
"I sensed the chakra you were both using to save me." she said. "Madara, you were pressing the chakra in your legs to the surface of the rock and Hashirama, you were using chakra to hold your chest to the ground."
She shrugged, throwing her hands behind her back again.
"The reason I was holding your hands when we hunted that day was because I was trying to sense your chakra out then. But the problem was that you weren't flexing your chakra at that time because there was no danger, so I couldn't sense it. So, I had to try it again this time around."
Hashirama frowned.
"I thought you were holding my hand because you liked me." He said, pouting.
Behind his back, he quickly motioned to me. That signal means...
Cover me.
"Aw" she said, ruffling his hair.
Yes... Stay off guard.
"Of course I like you, but I just-"
She stopped herself, a pensive expression crossed her face and she suddenly jumped into the air.
"Shit." I cursed.
The tree root Hashirama had been sliding across the ground, trying to use to restrain her extended but she had already jumped out of reach. I ran at Hashirama, jumping onto his back, off of it, and then at her. I grabbed her, bringing her down and tackling her to the ground. I lifted my hand and balled it into a fist, plunging it down at her face. She quickly moved her head to the left, dodging my blow.
"Madara!" she exclaimed, eyes wide. "You were really trying to hit me!?"
She suddenly bucked me off of her, rolling over and pinning me into the dirt. She cocked her fist far back and, in the sunlight, I could see the ring glittering on her finger, reflecting colors like a rainbow. Her fist plunged down, I was going to let her hit me but something, perhaps the pressure in the air, raised my suspicion and forced me to jerk my head to the right just at the last moment.
A five inch crater appeared where my head should've been. Her arm was almost elbow deep in the hole and...I...I couldn't even move. She jerked back and forth as she straddled me, trying to pull her fist out.
She's strong!
"You're...so...lucky...Madara!" she yelled as she struggled. "That would've been your life!"
I found that my heart was pumping wildly in my chests...and not because of fear. Her red hair fell over me, ticking my face as she continued to struggle.
She's...really strong...
"I'll hit any guy that tries to hit a girl!" she said to me, eyes glaring into mine.
Her face was barely an inch away from mine. I felt heat rushing to my cheeks and...other parts of my body.
This is making me feel...
"You idiot." I said, looking away from her. "I wasn't actually going to hit you."
She immediately stopped moving.
"You weren't?" she asked.
"Of course not. If I wanted to hit you, I would've hit you." I explained, still keeping my eyes locked on the ground next to me. "We were just testing you."
She relaxed then and that easy going smile that she normally had reappeared.
"Oh! Okay, then." She said, finally succeeding in pulling her fist out of the crater.
Hashirama stood next to us and grinned.
"You lose." He said, thumbing her down.
"You guys shouldn't have tried to ambush me before giving me time to talk." She said, pulling herself off of me.
"Doesn't matter." He said. "I proved it. You're a ninja, too."
"So, you admit that you two are ninja?" she asked, eyes flicking between us both.
"Not unless you admit that you're one!"
They stared at each other with hard, steady expressions and then, abruptly, they both burst into laughter.
"I can't keep a straight face." Mito said, laughing so hard she had to hold her sides.
"Yeah, me either!" Hashirama agreed.
They both stood up and then Mito shrugged.
"Okay, okay, we're all ninja. So what now?"
Hashirama smirked at me.
"First, we have to get Madara up off the ground. I think he's star struck."
My face exploded into a deep shade of red and I quickly got to my feet. The truth was I was thinking about her clan. If there was anything I was "star struck" by it was her power. She had to be harnessing an unbelievable amount of chakra to be able to direct it toward a single body part and hold it there for such a strong attack. A power like that was only recognized by the Senju clan.
Is she a Senju?
Hashirama and Mito continued walking ahead of me, cracking jokes and grinning.
"Sorry about attacking you." He said. "But you had no problem showing us up, you must be really skilled."
She shrugged, looking off into the distance.
"I guess..." then she smiled. "But you're much better! I didn't know you could manipulate plants! No wonder you could spell my name out in the garden, you sly devil."
"You're the sly one." He said. "You're very perceptive... Watching us this entire time, taking tabs on everything we do."
"Well, you we're both very unusual for town boys. It was obvious that you were hiding something...and then that first night we spent on the roof, I knew you both had to be ninja. There's no way normal boys would understand war the way you two do."
He grinned.
"Well, you understand it pretty well yourself." He said. "You're really smart."
She nodded.
"Well, I've experienced a lot of it..."
"I heard from Madara you don't have any parents." Hashirama spoke up.
Mito raised her eyebrows and turned as we walked, looking back at me.
"I don't recall telling him that."
Crap...
"I overheard you." I said, avoiding her gaze.
Her face turned red as she realized what conversation I'd overheard.
"Mada, you-"
"Is it true?" Hashirama asked, cutting her off.
Distracted, she turned to him.
"Well...yeah..." She confessed. "They died about a year ago. I've been wandering ever since."
He nodded.
My thoughts returned back to figuring her out.
But she couldn't be a Senju... If she were, she would be able to manipulate some aspect of nature, right? Instead, she seems to be adept at sensing chakra and healing injuries.
My gaze settled on the bite mark on her arm.
Though, to spare chakra for other people's injuries, she must have a lot of it. A strong life force is also characteristic to Senju.
As she walked, she began pulling her hair back into the side pigtails she usually wore, framing either side of her face in long, red waves.
That's it! Red hair! Now I see... She's a...
"You're an Uzumaki, aren't you?" Hashirama asked.
She looked at him, eyebrows rising.
We were already in the marshy lands. Our sandals sunk almost a foot into the muddy land as we walked through naturally made holes in the hillsides that acted as overpasses of some sort.
I expected her to question him or at least to deny it, but she nodded.
"Yes."
We were silent for a while.
"Don't you want to know how we figured it out?" I asked.
"It's obvious, isn't it?" she asked, pointing to her hair. "Of all the clans invested in this war, ours is the only one with long red hair, right?"
Right...
"That isn't how I figured it out." Hashirama said. "It's your sealing ability."
Sealing? ...What?
"Sealing is a key factor to the Uzumaki clan. Theirs is superior to all others in the entire land of fire."
"I didn't perform a sealing jutsu." She pointed out. "I couldn't have, anyway. I haven't mastered any yet."
"Your ring." He said, pointing. "When you punched the ground, it was glowing. It must have some kind of chakra seal on it that allows you to release enormous amounts at will, right? That's why you wear it."
"And you call me perceptive?" she asked, looking shocked. "You're like genius level!"
He smiled bashfully.
Yeah, yeah, whatever... If my clan was closer to the Uzumaki's, I could've figured that out, too...
"But you're off a bit." She explained. "You're right... This ring and rings like them are a sign of Ninjutsu readiness. In our clan, when you're given one, that means you're ready to being learning Ninjutsu. It's called a mother-ring because your mother gives it to you. They're always passed down from mother to daughter, on and on."
Right, because unlike most clans, the Uzumaki clan takes enormous pride in their females, pushing them into battle even more so than males. Perhaps that is why she's orphaned...
"I was given mine when I turned nine almost four years ago." She said. "When you become a woman, then you're allowed to take it off and fight without it."
This intrigued me.
"How do you know you've become a woman?" I asked.
She held her ring finger up at me.
"Well, the ring gathers your chakra for all the years that you wear it. It takes about 15% of your chakra force each day for that time period, storing it up so that it all can be expelled in one burst, like now." She explained. "When you have enough chakra control, you stop needing the ring and instead, you can seal it into your body...like here."
She pointed to the center of her forehead. I suddenly recalled seeing a good amount of adult female Uzumaki members with diamond symbols in the center of their foreheads.
"And then you're able to do all types of complicated Ninjutsus and summonings." She said.
Hashirama nodded along, very intrigued.
"So, how long do you have to go?" he asked.
She slipped her ring off and tossed it from one hand to the other.
"No idea." She said. "I...don't really care much..."
I raised my eyebrows.
"Don't you want to come of age?" I asked her.
"Not really." She said simply, slipping it back on.
"Hey." Hashirama said pointing. "Looks like there's a small shop coming up."
I cocked my head, glancing down at my shirt and running my fingertips over the mud and blood stains.
"About time..." I muttered.
Hashirama
We spent the rest of the day drawing further into the land of fire. We were almost to the sand desert area when we stopped, deciding to spend the night in the green plains.
We were lucky that the small shop sold clothes and one of the men working there was able to cut my hair. They cut it rather sort so that it was more so the length of Tobirama's hair than how it usually was but I didn't fret, it was pretty much a given that it would grow back to the way it was by the time I even got home. My hair grew very fast.
Madara was given a pair of pants with a matching long sleeved shirt. He rolled the sleeves of his navy blue shirt up as we positioned ourselves in the middle of a barren field that went on for miles and miles. As I gazed as his new outfit, a thought came to mind.
"You know." I began. "Instead of black or gray pants and a shirt, I think the color you're wearing would be better to blend in with the trees."
Madara glanced down at his navy blue shirt and matching pants and nodded.
"With long sleeves, too?" he asked.
I nodded.
"Less skin showing the better." I replied.
"So that's what you guys were always talking about?" Mito piped up.
We turned to her.
"Yeah." I said. "One day, we're going to build our own village and invite all the clans of the world to live in it with us in peace and harmony. We were just thinking about what the uniform would be."
She grinned and bounced up and down on her haunches excitedly.
"Can I help make the village, too?!" she asked.
"Sure." I replied the same time Madara said "No."
I glanced at him as he rolled his eyes.
"It's our thing." He muttered. "Stay out."
She poked him in his ticklish side, a spot I thought I was the only one who knew about, and giggled as he squirmed.
"If you don't let me in, I'll tickle you to death!" she said.
Madara, deathly afraid of being tickled, jerked backwards, holding his arm out to her.
"Fine! Do whatever you want!"
She smiled at him in a self satisfied way and then turned to me.
"So, what do you have for the uniform so far?" she asked.
"The jacket I'm wearing except it'll be a vest and we'll wear it over the clothes Madara's wearing. Pretty simple." I said.
She frowned.
"Maybe too simple." She said, pondering. "You're going to need some headbands. Those'll make you look ultra cool."
My eyebrows popped up and Madara cocked his head, showing he was considering it.
"That is a great idea! Why didn't I think of that?"
Mito flipped her hair over her shoulder in a mocking way.
"You need to be a woman to understand true style." She said, mock pretentiously.
"Please..." Madara muttered.
"Anyway, I guess the headbands could be navy blue like the shirt and pants but they'd also serve a greater purpose than just matching and looking cool." She explained. "We can fit them with metal plates with a symbol on them to show all opposing entities that we're a unit, a solid village."
I observed her closely as she spoke.
Of course, she would bring up a point like that... Coming from the Uzumaki clan.
"A big issue these days is that a lot of accidental deaths occur because people don't know who is from what clan." She pointed out. "This would make it obvious. But even more than that, it would also make your village feel like a family."
Madara nodded, finally taking her at face value.
"Clan cohesion is very important..." he said, then he pointed at her. "Is the reason you're thinking of this because the Uzumaki clan is so dysfunctional?"
That is not the way you ask that type of question... Damn, Madara, find a filter...
But she smiled at him, never taking offense to his harsh tones.
"I guess you could say that." She said. "Our clan is very divided. Even though, we're supposed to be close allies with the Senju, a lot of us don't believe in that and help the Uchihas instead, and others don't want to war at all and move away from the warring lands altogether, wandering around like nomads. And then a lot of us completely branch off and make our own separate colonies in other areas..."
She shrugged and looked up at the quickly dissipating sunset sky.
"Unlike any of the other clans, we can't even decide on a single leader. All of us believe so many different things... That's why we're unstable and we keep dying like we do." Then she smiled sourly. "Can you believe it? There's probably more than fifty different Uzumaki colonies scattered all around and not one of them can find a stable leader."
Madara shook his head.
"When we make our village, let's make a mental note not to appeal to the Uzumaki's." he said. "That type of disorder will rot a village from the core."
I rolled my eyes.
"Our village is that of change." I reminded him.
I grasped Mito's hand.
"It's Mito's village, too." I said. "We won't discriminate against her clan or any others. Who knows? Maybe an Uzumaki will completely change the world one day."
She gave me a sly smile.
"Then...can I make a change to the uniform?" she asked.
I shrugged. She rubbed her hands together manically.
"Uzumaki clan symbols." She said.
Then she tapped me on the back, in the center of my forest green jacket. "Here." She said, then she tapped Madara on his shoulder. "And right here, and on the other shoulder, too. Three total."
"What?!" Madara exclaimed. "Why would we put your symbol on the village uniform?"
"Because I'm the one who came up the headband idea. And besides, I didn't get to contribute to any other part of the uniform."
I shrugged again.
"Like she was saying, the Uzumaki is a generally neutral clan, so all the other clans get along with them fine. It shouldn't hurt anything." I pointed out. "Besides, red's a cool color."
He crossed his arms and muttered. "Fine."
She pumped her fists into the air.
"Yes!"
We were silent for a while. My mind wandered to thoughts about what Mito had said and I realized a very big question was nagging at me.
"If there are so many other colonies that you could go to, why are you still alone?" I asked her.
She didn't turn to me. Instead, she gazed up at the hazy pinkish orange sky with the stars struggling to shine through.
"I can never go back." She said.
"Why?" Madara asked, quick on the uptake.
"It's a long story."
"We have time." I said. "It's not like we're doing anything else."
She sighed and tucked her legs into her chest, resting her chin on her knees.
"The Uzumaki colony I lived in was kind of small. Only around forty people or so. Our base was at the outskirts of the sand desert that we're really close to right now. But because there isn't any nutrients in the sand area, everyone was starving." She explained. "But we couldn't move like someone of the nomad Uzumaki's because that was when the war was really bad and it was really dangerous. Staying off to where we were was our best chance of survival, being such a small colony."
She picked the grass at her feet.
"I lived in a small shack made out of dried sod and tree bark with my mother, father and younger sister, Ayumi-chan. Even though we didn't have much to eat, my childhood was still fun and exciting. My mother and father adored us and spoiled us, even during training." She said. "Even though my sister was four years younger than me, she was almost as good at ninjutsu as I was. It wasn't until I was almost ten that things started to go really wrong."
I bristled, feeling a chilly wind go by.
"I'd noticed that a lot of the local people had begun going missing. One day, they were there and the next day, they weren't." she said. "My father told us not to worry about it. He said that if they died, they didn't have to bare the misery of starvation and if they ran away, then perhaps they found food. I always believed my father to be a firm optimist, trying to look at things from the bright side. And more than that, I wanted to be believe nothing was wrong... I desperately wanted to believe it..."
Then she looked up at us.
"But it didn't make sense." She said, grabbing her head. "It didn't make sense at all. We were all starving. We were all so hungry... But suddenly, people started disappearing and...and...at home, for Ayumi-chan and my mother and I, there was more food."
Wait... Wait... Wait...
"I asked my Mother why." She said. "I remember asking her where father was getting it from and I could see she felt disturbed like she'd been thinking about it, too."
This can't be what she's insinuating...
I glanced at Madara who was staring at the grass with a tortured expression on his face.
"She put Ai-mi and I to bed early that night." She said, voice dropping to a whisper. "She handed me this ring and told me that if anything were to happen to her, I should fight using it and never stop fighting. She told me that ninjas need to be strong and courageous and that it might be time for me to abandon everything and become a true Shinobi."
A small smirk passed on her lips.
"I didn't even register what she'd said. I was just excited that I'd finally gotten the ring passed down to me. My sister and I admired it as we lay in bed and she kissed us on the forehead and left, going to confront my father." She said quietly. "Then the next day, father told us mother left abruptly to go on a journey and there was no telling when she would get back."
I noticed that her hands were shaking.
"By that time, the amount of people in our colony had dropped 87%." She said. "Because of the disappearances but also because of people just dropping dead in the sand from starving."
Her tremors got more noticeable.
"I remember... Having dinner set in front of us that night and... I remember... Seeing what father had called chicken. And I remember... Knowing deep inside me. So deep that there wasn't even an inch of doubt anywhere, that the meat on my plate was that of my mother." She said. "My father had done a good job chopping it up to make it look like some kind of forest animal, but I could still piece together in my mind the pieces that would make up the arm and the leg and...everything."
I could feel my stomach turning. Madara had both hands on his mouth, probably struggling to keep down what little food he had. Mito went on, though her hands were shaking and her voice was cracking, not a tear slipped down her face.
"I ate her." She said simply. "I knew what it was... I knew what I was doing... I knew what was happening, what my father was responsible for, but I did it anyway... My younger sister didn't like the taste of it, but I forced her to eat also. I just didn't want us to die... I just... I..."
She swallowed and said nothing for a second.
Now I get it... You're not perfect at all... You greatest flaw is that...you're... You're...
"I'm a coward." She whispered.
Yes.
"The next day, when my father left on a hunt for food, Ai-mi and I followed him." She said. "I guess I just wanted solid proof or... I don't know... I don't know what I wanted but I followed him. We saw him try to overpower one of our Mother's brothers and sat in the bushes, cringing as he lost the fight he picked and got stabbed to death by my Uncle. I guess that was when I decided..."
She looked up at us.
"I decided that I was going to run away and never look back. Our uncle came out of the shed with our Father's blood all over him and looked down at us. Ai-mi screamed and cried and I got to my feet and turned and ran. I saw him bending over her, grabbing her, picking her up, but I was too afraid to think... I just kept running and running and running and..."
She trailed off, lips moving but no sound came out.
"And you've been running ever since." Madara finished.
She nodded slowly.
The story was over. I sighed, looking at the fog of breath waft up in front of me.
I'd heard of cannibalism in some of the more insane clans. People pushed to the point of eating each other for survival but never that harsh, never that real.
"Did your father ever give an excuse?"
She shook her head.
"I never let him know that I knew." She said, then she swallowed hard. "But he cried as we ate my mother that night. I think that... In some sick, twisted way he believed murdering the starving was putting them out of their misery..."
"And what did you believe?" I asked.
"I? I... I didn't believe anything... I... I didn't let myself believe anything. Even now... I'm not letting myself think. I'm telling you guys the story...The evil inside of me. What I've done... But... I'm still...separated from it, you know? I-I'm still..." then she swallowed again.
"Running." Madara said. "You're even running from your own mind."
She slowly lifted her finger and pointed at him.
"You... Mada... You're also running." She said, then she looked at me. "And you, too. Hashi..."
She shook her head.
"That's why I was attracted to you more than anything because...you're like me."
"I'm nothing like you." Madara said immediately. "I'm not a coward."
A side of darkness I'd never seen on her before overcame her as she regarded him.
"Then why don't you go home?" she retorted. "You have a mother and a father and probably a sibling waiting for you, don't you? Why are you out here playing town boy with Hashi, if you're so brave?"
His eyes hardened.
"Shut up."
"Just admit it." She said, returning her eyes to the grass. "Admit that you're just as sorry as I am... And, you too, Hashi... We're all just... Running from war, aren't we? Forever dreaming of a day when we won't have to run anymore."
Madara balled his fists but said nothing. I felt the emptiness of the argument inside me.
She's right... I am running... I told Hisa-san I was going on this expedition to figure Mada out but the truth is... I don't even want to figure him out. I don't give a damn what clan he's from. And even more than that, since the moment I began this mission, I knew... Deep inside... That all I wanted... All I really wanted was just to...
"We said it in the beginning didn't we, Mada?" I found myself speaking up.
He slowly looked over at me.
"Wouldn't it be nice if we could just escape?" I repeated.
He nodded and slowly opened his mouth.
"And never come back..." he whispered.
And still... Even now that I'm coming to terms with what I'm really doing... I still don't know if I want to go back...
UpNext: Mito confesses her love...to who?! See who it is and how they react! Also, EPIC fighting, memory loss, smoking (which is bad for your health) and a tearful departure all in the next and FINAL part of this story! Don't miss it!