Chapter Twenty-Seven-

"Okaa-san?" Sazumi asked, "Okaa-san, will you listen to me play? I've been practicing."

She held out her bamboo flute and looked hopefully up at her mother.

"How cute," one of her mother's friends exclaimed, "Why, she's adorable!"

The woman reached out to pinch her cheeks, but Sazumi moved away. She did not like her mother's friends. They were noisy and smelled bad. When they were around, her mother never paid any attention to her.

"Not now, child," Sazumi's mother said, "You're five, aren't you? That's old enough. Go outside, you're such a bother."

"I'm six," Sazumi said slightly resentfully, but her mother was not listening, but had instead gone back to laughing and talking with her friends.

Sazumi did not go out, but instead went to the opposite side of the house. She slid open the door to her father's study.

"Otou-san?" she asked, "Will you listen to me pla-"

"Not now, Sazumi," he said, not even looking up from the document he was looking over, "Go ask your mother."

"She was talking with all those other ladies."

"Your tutor?"

"Sensei only comes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Otou-san."

"Go outside, then."

Sazumi swallowed and did as she was told.

"Leave us alone!" her parents yelled at the same time and Sazumi knew better than to argue.

Her face fell and she left the house. She did not cry as she walked through the mostly deserted streets. Crying was bad, she knew. Modoka were not supposed to cry. Instead, she chucked her flute at an empty bench and screamed. The sound echoed around the village and Sazumi flopped down on the bench and screwed up her face in despair.

She was never going back, she thought irrationally, never, ever, ever.

However angry she was, it didn't last long. The sun began to set and the night's chill began to set in. Twilight came and Sazumi started to become frightened. Suddenly, there were angry voices in the darkness and she stifled a soft cry. They sounded like angry adults shouting and Sazumi cowered.

"…ere did she go?"

"You idiot, why did you let her get away?"

"Damn demon!"

"She has to be around here somewhere! Spread out!"

Sazumi let out a squeak of fear as a dark shape ran past. It stopped, and in the dim light, could see that the person was staring at her. Sazumi griped the flute convulsively.

"What are you doing?" the shape hissed. It had the voice of a girl, "They'll find you if you hide there!"

The girl grabbed her by the wrist, and then they were running through dimly lit alleys towards the outskirts of the village.

"Where are we going?" Sazumi squeaked.

"My hiding place," the girl answered, "We're almost there."

The girl pulled her to the side of a large building and with a swift motion, unlocked a door that Sazumi hadn't even noticed. She was pulled into total darkness for a heart stopping moment and then the other girl turned on a light.

The other girl grinned and Sazumi observed her shyly. She was a lot older and taller than her, and had weird colored hair. Her skin was a pretty dark color and her brown eyes seemed mischievous somehow.

"Hi!" the girl said, oblivious of Sazumi's discomfort, "My name is Sekihara Yuuki and I'm eight years old!"

"Pleased to meet you, Sekihara-san" Sazumi murmured out of habit, bowing her head slightly.

She was slightly intimidated by this older girl. She looked around and found that they were in a storage room of some sort, packed with shelves of boxes. In one corner, their was a worn looking futon and a bunch of old clothes.

"What's your name?" Sekihara-san asked, smiling.

"Modoka Sazumi."

"Sasumi? That's a funny name." She giggled.

Sazumi felt her cheeks flush, "Ah, no, it's Sazumi. Not…what you said."

"Really? Sasumi sounds better! I'm gonna call you that, okay?"

It was not okay, but Sazumi could hardly tell her that. She was older than her after all. So she merely nodded and tried not to cry.

"Hey, Sasumi, why are you wearing that weird thing?"

Sazumi thought this was unfair. The other girl's clothes were old and tattered. She was the one who was wearing weird stuff.

"It's not weird," she muttered, tightening her green flower patterned kimono, which had almost completely come undone from the running.

"It's old," she said laughingly, "Are you part of one of those old ninja clans? I think I've heard the name Modoka before."

"No," Sazumi said, "We're a clan, but we're not shinobi."

"Oh," Sekihara-san said, looking disappointed, "I want to be a ninja."

"Huh? Why?" Sazumi asked before she thought better of it.

"It'd be awesome! I would get really strong and could fight in huge battles. Then no stupid grownups would chase me anymore!"

"I think it's scary," Sazumi said bravely, "Why were those people chasing you?"

"None of your business," Sekihara-san said crossly, "How old are you anyway?"

"Six."

"Ha, I knew you were younger than me!"

"I want to go home," Sazumi said in a small voice.

"Well, you can't," Sekihara-san said superiorly, "Now that you know where my hideout is, you can never leave!"

"Never?" Sazumi asked in horror.

"Never," Sekihara-san said triumphantly.

Sazumi sniffed and began to cry, though at the same time tried not to.

"Hey, hey, I was joking! I swear…Oh, stop crying!" she exclaimed angrily.

Sazumi began to cry louder, trying to stop the flow of tears with her fists.

"Geez…" Sekihara-san sighed, putting her arm around Sazumi's shoulders, "Don't be such a baby. Even if you are two years younger than me."

After a while, Sazumi's tears subsided and she glanced warily up at the older girl.

"I want to go home," she said again.

The girl frowned, "Well, you can't now. It's too dark out. In the morning you can, though! You can stay with me!"

Sazumi shook her head, "I have to go home," she said stubbornly.

"You can't!" Sekihara-san said sounding angry all of the sudden, "You have to stay here otherwise the mean men will get you! You don't want that, do you?"

Sazumi shook her head slowly.

"Well, then that's decided," she said cheerfully, "You can stay with me!" She gestured around the small room, "Hey, do you want some candy? I think I have some around here."

"I'm not supposed to take candy from strangers," Sazumi said quietly.

"We're not strangers!" Sekihara-san argued, "I know your name and you know mine! See!"

Sazumi nodded hesitantly.

The other girl beamed and began digging through her pile of clothes. The sleeves of her shirt rolled up and Sazumi saw huge bruises and half-healed cuts. She didn't say anything, but also took in her gashed knees and marked up shins.

"Here we go," Sekihara-san said triumphantly, holding out a dented tin of what looked like hard candy. She opened it and handed Sazumi a few of the colored orbs. She stared at them for a few seconds and then put them in her mouth.

"Good, huh!" Sekihara-san said.

Sazumi nodded.

There was silence only interrupted by Sekihara-san, who was the kind of person who liked to chew hard candy.

"Where are your parents, Sekihara-san?" Sazumi asked after a while. There was only one futon in the entire place.

"They're at home," she said, "I only come here to get away from those nasty people."

"Won't they be worried when you don't come home?"

"Nope, they don't care!" Sekihara-san grinned, "I can do what I like!"

Sazumi shifted uncomfortably, rolling the candy around her mouth.

"What about your parents?" the older girl asked.

"Oh! They…I'm sure they'll be worried…I mean, I think…"

All the playfulness melted off Sekihara-san's face and she looked at Sazumi seriously, "Your parents don't want you, do they?" she said, sounding sad, "I understand, neither do mine. Well, my mother; I think she likes me…but…"

"That's not true," Sazumi said, defensively "They are busy…I mean…"

She gripped the flute hard in her hand and tried not to cry a second time.

"Oooh!" Sekihara-san said, all sincerity gone, "Can you play that?"

Sazumi nodded, wiping her eyes.

"Play for me tomorrow, okay? Not right now because then the mean people will find us."

"Sure, Sekihara-san," Sazumi said, happy that at least someone wanted to hear her play.

"Don't call me that," she said, scowling, "That's what they call my father. Call me Yuuki."

"Yuuki…" Sazumi tried and smiled.

A few weeks later, Sazumi came back late from Yuuki's hiding place; only minutes before her lesson was supposed to start. The maids scolded her for being so dirty and gave her a bath, but no one seemed to have noticed that she had not slept in her bed.

Her tutor, a young woman in her early twenties, was annoyed at being forced to wait while Sazumi dressed and made her study more kanji than usual.

"I'm sorry, sensei," Sazumi said.

"You should be," the woman sniffed haughtily, "If I had known you were going to be late then I could have finished…"

"What were you doing, sensei?" Sazumi asked curiously, looking up from her calligraphy.

"That is none of your busin-"

Sensei stood in a dark room with another person. Her tutor wasn't wearing a shirt and the man next to her had his arms around her, was kissing her, was-

"-ay attention, Sazumi! Don't daydream."

Her tutor rapped her on the knuckles, startling her. Her eyes dropped down to her paper and she felt her cheeks burn. How embarrassing! Who was that man anyway?

"Is he your boyfriend, sensei?" Sazumi asked, after she gained enough courage to look at her teacher again.

"Who?"

"The man you were kissing. Before you came here, I mean."

The woman spluttered and her face turned a bright red, "Ho-How did you find out about-"

"I just knew," Sazumi said and then frowned, "Is that bad?"

The woman just gaped at her.

"Sensei?"

"The lesson is over," she said in an angry voice, gathered her things and left the room without a backward glance.

Sazumi frowned in confusion and went to her room. She lay down on her bed and stared at the ceiling.

"Okaa-san, Otou-san," she whispered sadly, "Why don't you want me?"

There was no answer.

One day, Sazumi went and sat by the canal. She watched the boats full of fisherman go by and felt lonesome.

"Hey! Sasumi! Hey!"

Sazumi turned around to see Yuuki running towards her, her long purple hair flying behind her. Her right eye was blackened and half shut. Sazumi frowned.

"What happened to your eye?" she asked.

Yuuki grinned, "I fell. Where's your flute? I thought you were going to play for me again."

"Sorry, I forgot it."

"S'okay."

A strong gust of wind blew, and Yuuki's hair was forced back, revealing her ears.

Sazumi stared. Her ears were pointed at the top, making her look like some sort of mythical creature from a story book.

"Your ears…!" Sazumi said, shocked, "Why are your ears so weird?"

Yuuki clapped her hands over them, "They're not weird," she said reproachfully.

"But they're all pointy."

"You're the one who's weird," Yuuki shot back, "You wear all those weird clothes and your hair goes all the way down to your butt!"

Sazumi instinctively latched onto her long braid of hair that she had had as long as she could remember.

"Why do you have hair that long anyway?" Yuuki asked curiously.

"I don't know," she said shyly, "It's always been that way."

"It's going to rain soon," Yuuki said, looking up at the perpetually cloudy sky, "You wanna come over to my hiding spot again?"

Sazumi smiled bashfully and nodded.

"Sazumi!" her mother called, "Sazumi!"

"Y-Yes?" Sazumi answered hopefully, coming to stand in front of her.

"I'm leaving the house for a few days, alright? Tell anyone who calls for me that I'll be back within the week. And don't bother your father."

She turned and picked up her bag.

"W-Wait!" Sasumi called after her, "Is…is that all?"

"Of course," her mother said frowning, "What else would there-"

"I've got to get out!" her mother yelled at her father, "I'm sick and tired of your dead clan! I need a vacation!"

"You couldn't even give me a son!" he father shouted back, "One measly daughter before you're infertile! I never should have married you!"

Her mother's face contorted in anger, "Well, you never-"

"Don't stare at me like that, it's rude," her mother told her, shaking her out of her reverie.

"Okaa-san!"

"What is it, child?" She looked impatient.

As Sazumi opened her mouth, there were so many things she could have said. Things like "Don't you care about me?" or "Do you wish I was a boy?" or even-

"Never mind," she said quietly, "Have a good trip. I'll-"

The door closed with a soft click.

"-miss you."

A tear fell down Sazumi's cheek, "Okaa-san, Otou-san, don't you remember? Today's my birthday. I'm seven."

"It's not that bad," Yuuki muttered, "I heal pretty fast. I promise. It just looks gross."

Yuuki's face was covered cuts and was oozing blood.

"Who keeps doing this to you?" Sazumi sobbed.

"I told you," Yuuki says without looking at her, "I was at the docks and this big dog came and-"

"You're lying!" Sazumi said, "You're always lying!"

Yuuki paled, "No, I-"

"Who is it? Those people who chase you all the time?"

"No, it's not-"

"I'll find out who it is!" Sazumi said and grabbed the other girl's chin, forcing their eyes to meet.

"Why not?" Yuuki cried

"Don't be a fool, girl!" a man who looked startlingly like Yuuki snarled, "We can't have monsters like you as part of the force! You'd probably kill everyone on sight if you got the chance.

"No!" argued Yuuki, "I promise, I wouldn't. Can't you tell them, Otou-san, please! You're a Captain, they'd listen to you!"

"Stop bothering me!"

"Otou-san!"

"Yuuki," a frail voice from another room called, "Please don't argue with your father. Come in here and I'll-"

"No!" Yuuki yelled, "You always side with him! I hate you!"

"Be quiet, child!" her father yelled and backhanded her in the face.

Yuuki fell to the floor and moaned in pain.

"No, dear!" the other voice called, "Please, don't hurt h-"

Sazumi gasped and withdrew.

"Your father!" she whispered.

Yuuki's eyes widened, "How did you know that?"

"I just …see it," Sazumi said, "I've always been able see things."

"I…He didn't used to be like that," Yuuki said without emotion, "But then he started drinking and…I'm afraid of him. He hates me and Okaa-san."

"Yuuki," Sazumi said, grabbing her arm, "Why does everyone hate you? When we go outside people stare and they say mean things."

"I…I don't know," Yuuki said in a bewildered voice and then began to cry.

"What did that man mean?" Sazumi asked Yuuki angrily.

"Nothing," she said moodily, and unlocked the door of her hiding place, "Don't pay any attention to what those people say!"

"He called you a monster, Yuuki! Other adults say that too! Why-"

"Because I am one!" Yuuki screamed.

"You're not a monster like me. Please don't hate me, Sasumi," Yuuki said brokenly.

Sazumi couldn't even if she wanted to.

"You're getting really good!" Yuuki said and Sazumi beamed, "What made you start?"

"My tutor told me to choose an instrument," Sazumi said, "and I picked the flute. It was hard at first. I always got dizzy!"

"I like hearing you play," Yuuki said, laying down in the grass. Sazumi joined her and they both stared at the sky.

"Sasumi?" Yuuki asked hesitantly, "Why do you play the flute?"

Sazumi did not say anything for a long time.

"I like to play," she said slowly, "it makes me forget."

She ran into Yuuki before dawn on the same bench they had met. She was crying softly and there was blood running down her face.

"It's okay," Sazumi said, dabbing the blood away and crying herself, "It's okay, it's okay."

It wasn't.

"What are those books, sensei?" Sazumi asked.

Her teacher shoved them aside, "None of your business. Focus on your kanji."

Sazumi frowned and looked inside the woman's mind.

Mind reading…psychics…ancient Kekkai Genkai…pre-formation of the Five Great Countries…destroyed clan…Yamaki bloodline-

"Yamaki bloodline?" she whispered unintentionally.

Her teacher stiffened and glared down at her with a look of such intense hatred that Sazumi cowered.

"Get out of my head, you little freak!"

She grabbed the books and left the room loudly.

Sazumi looked down at her paper covered in calligraphy, "What am I?" she whispered and touched the corner of her eye with a finger.

Sazumi held the final note as long as she could and then lowered the flute, taking a deep breath. Yuuki burst into applause.

"That was the best ever!" she said enthusiastically, "What is that song, I love it!"

"It's an old folk song, I think," Sazumi answered.

She felt slightly dizzy, but waved the feeling away.

"What is it call-" Yuuki started, but the rest of her sentence was cut off by a series of heavy coughs.

"Are you okay?" Sazumi asked concernedly, coming to sit next to her on the old futon, "What did he do to you?"

"It's nothing," Yuuki said, "Just spring allergies."

Sazumi's brow furrowed, "Demon holders get allergies?"

"Shut up," Yuuki said and then giggled.

"I had better go now," Sazumi said, "It's starting to get dark out."

Yuuki sighed, "When I'm grown up and a ninja, you're going to come live with me, okay?"

"I thought they aren't letting you to become a ninja."

"I'll find a way somehow."

Sazumi smiled at her friend's determination, "See you tomorrow then."

They wouldn't see each other for another seven years.

When Sazumi got home there were masked men at the door. They grabbed her and tied her hands behind her back.

"Let me go!" Sazumi cried.

Her parents came into view and she called out to them, "Otou-san, make them stop! Okaa-san!"

Her parents stood there with stony expressions and made no move to help her. Instead, they looked angry.

"You've shamed our name, monster child!" her father hissed.

"Okaa-san!" Sazumi screamed, still struggling, "Okaa-san, please-"

"You're no child of mine!" her mother snarled, and they both turned their backs on her.

"Wait!" Sazumi cried, tears beginning to fall, "Don't! Please! Otou-"

Then there was pain in her head and the world went black.

"That's her…the Yamaki!"

"Monster…look at those eyes!"

"She and the demon girl; they should've been killed at birth!"

In the total darkness, Sazumi wrapped her needle marked arms around herself and pressed herself against the far end of her cell more firmly, trying to ignore the whispers.

"Water," she gasped, holding onto the locked door with all her might, "Please, I'm so thirsty, so hungry."

They laughed at her.

"Why don't you just tell us? Then we can all go home and forget all about this."

Sazumi retched and sagged against the chains.

"I told you," she whispered brokenly, sick dripping down her chin, "I don't know."

"Liar!" Yuuki's father snarled and hit her in the same way Sazumi had seen him hit his daughter, "Tell us."

"I. Don't. Know."

He straightened, face alive with malice, "Very well, give me the vial and hold open her mouth."

Sazumi screamed.

Sazumi lay in a white bed, IV and wires wrapped around her body.

"Her condition is stabilized for the moment," a doctor was saying, "But her body can't last anymore of this kind of experimentation without their being permanent damage. I suggest you-"

"If we want your opinion, we'll ask for it," a nasty voice said, cutting him off, "I don't care about her condition. We want her transported back to the compound by tomorrow. Do you understand me?"

There was a pause and Sazumi eyed a surgical knife lying on the mobile cabinet next to her bed.

"Alright," the doctor said

It was her first and last suicide attempt.

"We have no choice," Yuuki's father said, "Bring out everything."

Sazumi shivered against the manacles. To her horror, she saw men bringing in what looked like a portable furnace, knifes, and strange, sharp-looking instruments.

"Please," Sazumi croaked, shaking uncontrollably, "Please!"

"Why don't you just tell us?" a shorthaired woman asked, smiling maliciously, "Then we can all go home and forget all about this."

"I told you!" Sazumi sobbed, "I don't know anything! I swear-"

"Just not the face," Yuuki's father said, smirking, "We may need that later."

Sazumi lay on the floor of a straw covered cell. Light streamed through from a bared window. She stared at the stone wall, not thinking or feeling anything.

"Hello," the guard who force-fed her called, "Special day today, huh?"

Sazumi gave no indication that she heard him.

"Oh, but you probably don't know, do you? Today's your birthday. You're ten."

Sazumi turned her eyes towards him.

"That's right, baby. You've been in here three years."

Sazumi's leg twitched involuntarily.

"Are you scared, little girl? Don't worry, it's only going to get worse. Once you've grown up a bit," He licked his lips, "we'll have a lot of fun with you."

Suddenly, a feeling of disgust and anger filled Sazumi in a way it hadn't for months.

Die, she thought angrily.

Ten seconds later, her eyes blackened and he did.

Sazumi stared for a while before it hit her. The seized up body of the guard had a ring of keys on his person. She slowly reached forward and grabbed them, savoring the feel of the cool metal against her burnt skin.

She painfully pulled herself into an upright position and limped towards the door. She unlocked it, stepped out, and closed it behind her.

Sazumi limped down the tiled hall and opened a door apprehensively. It led to a set of stairs. Sazumi slowly walked down them, her legs burning from injuries and disuse. The rough rag dress she was wearing also caused problems, rubbing painfully against her inflamed skin.

She reached the bottom of the steps and opened the door. She cursed as she realized that she had gone too far down and that she was in the basement.

To her horror, she heard noises above her. Sazumi limped through the door and pressed herself against the wall outside, hoping the person wouldn't come all of the way down.

"What the-"

Sazumi turned to find two ANBU gaping at her.

"Shit! How did she get out!"

"Quick grab her!"

"Go away," she said.

She left their bodies on the ground.

Others heard their screams and came rushing. Sazumi turned her eyes on them as she walked back up the stairs. When she reached the main floor there were more. They all cried out in anger and she killed them.

A blur went past her, and before she could reacts, she had been grabbed from behind.

"Monster!" the familiar voice hissed, "Freak."

Sazumi cried out as Yuuki's father broke her left arm with a painful blow.

She turned and look him right in the eye and then he was gone.

"Ah!" she cried and held her hands to both eyes, which had begun to burn inexplicably. But the pain went as soon as it had come and she was alone in a room filled with dead bodies.

Sazumi made for the door and ran. People stared as she went past and she did not stop running until she reached the walls. She slid through, hiding among a bunch of travelers and ran to the woods.

She didn't know how many hours she ran, but it was before noon when she stumbled and fell into a stream. It carried her away and she blacked out.

When she awoke next, it was dark out, and she was lying in the shallows. Pain came with every movement, but she dragged herself out of the water and into some tall grass. She wrapped her unbroken arm around herself and shivered.

In the morning, she drank from the stream and ate some berries from a bush. She looked down at her reflection in wonder. She had not seen what she looked like since she was seven. In awe, she traced her nose, cheekbones and finally eyes. Her hair, which had been chopped off years before, was shoulder length now and dirty.

She then set off, following the stream until she found a road. Sazumi reached a village soon afterwards and found that she was in the Grass. She stole an oversized shirt, bandages, and some sandals. She wrapped her arms, legs, and neck in bandages and then moved on.

Sazumi held out a cup with her right hand and sat against the wall, watching as the people walked by. Most of them ignored her, but some threw in coins. Sazumi hated this city and once she had enough money, she was leaving.

Entering the Fire Country scared her. She had seen it on a map and its size was intimidating. She hid as she saw figures coming down the path, going in the opposite direction as her.

"…strange people, those Konoha ninja," one was saying to the other, "It was certainly an experience, visiting Konoha was."

"Isn't that village supposed to be hidden?" his companion asked, "Where is it anyway?"

"Oh, northwest of here, I'd say. But, seriously, some of the people there were…"

The rest of the conversation was lost as they moved farther away from her, but Sazumi did not particularly care.

There was a flute on sale at a shop in Konoha and Sazumi wanted it. She had been working in a restaurant kitchen for some time now, but she could barely afford her tiny apartment. Sazumi turned away from the display case and winced as her left arm began to burn.

A few ninja went into the shop and Sazumi watched them closely, remembering an enthusiastic girl and her hidden room.

"Name?" the teacher at the ninja academy asked, pen ready to write it down on her application.

Sazumi hesitated. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a blond haired boy sticking his tongue out at another teacher, who then began to reprimand him.

"Name?" the teacher asked again, looking bored.

"Yamaki," she said after a moments contemplation, "Yamaki Sasumi."

A/N: Woah, long chapter…took me forever to write too. I'd had this chapter in mind for a while, but it came out a lot more violent than I thought it would be. The torture scenes actually disturbed me a little. I hope it wasn't too much (or too melodramatic...)

Anyway, there will be 1 to 2 more chapters, I think. And then maybe an epilogue. Wow, it's so weird to think that this fic's almost over…It's been nearly two years since I first started writing this.

So thank my amazing beta Torquad333 and please review!