"Today's the day we get out," came a deep baritone voice as Naruto sat in a straight jacket, with his back to the door of his padded cell.
"You always say that, Genma," came a soft masculine voice from the boy's throat while his eyes gently closed.
A whisper of a voice, dark and foreboding spoke next. "He's right this time. I heard from the shadows they are making everyone our age into ninja today," he informed as the blonde's shadow seemed to ripple and distend.
"If we gonna iskape, we need a plan," came a thick country accent.
"I can get us out," the alluring, sultry voice of a seductress began as a snake made its way up Naruto's neck and began biting at the shackles behind the boy's back. Without hands, the snake was forced to use its fangs to pull the locks loose. Something that would be tine consuming and noisy.
"You're wasting our damn time," came another female voice, this one sounding cute, yet tomboyish. Dust slowly spilled from Naruto's mouth, a thick black mess that resembled tiny pebbles. "Get your snake to put this in the shackles," the blonde ordered through a voice not his own.
The snake backed up to drape over Naruto's front, swallowing the pebbles down before wrapping, coiling, around the boy's midriff.
"Is... Is this gonna hurt? Like a lot," this time it was a child's voice speaking as Naruto's eyes shimmered in phantom pain, already fearful of the answer.
Again that first voice, a deep baritone spoke commandingly. "Pain is an illusion, brat. Besides, I'll heal any damages you take," he informed. "Now, do it!"
"Katsu," the tomboy commanded while a hand formed a seal.
BATHOOM!
(Present)
"Is there any word on his condition," Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Hokage, village leader and professor/god of ninja inquired of a nurse that sat over a hospital bed in which a man lay, coughing in a heavy fit.
The nurse looked up, a clipboard in his hand as he read the chart. The man was within a quarantine room, closed off from the rest of the village. As the nurse spoke, the man within hacked harshly, phlegm and crusted blood peppering the linen. "I've never seen anything like this. Whatever that little beast used," the nurse complained, pausing to shake his head. "Inoichi is bleeding out from the lungs and no amount of chakra or medicine is changing it. Can you ask the boy-"
Hiruzen raised a hand to stall the request as he looked within the room at one of his top ninja, Inoichi Yamanaka, head of interrogation and intelligence, Jounin level and a legendary member of team Ino-Shika-Cho looked so frail in there.
He couldn't even raise his head as his listless eyes made contact with Hiruzen.
"You know it's unreliable as often the identity we speak with knows nothing of the action taken by another, or the one responsible refuses to answer."
"I still say he's faking it! Putting on a show for us to keep out of punishment for his crimes," the nurse complained.
Hiruzen said nothing, only turning away and walking off, leaving the nurse to his duty.
(Hitomi)
She was alone again. Her teammates and instructor had each gone their separate ways for the day. A week had gone by since the team passed their test the teamwork training coupled with chakra control exercises given the young ninja many ideas on incorporating even more of the jutsu the voices knew, expanding upon them.
"We need to get to the library," she whispered to the voices that spoke animatedly.
They had agreed not to speak through her mouth as it drew too much attention, but it didn't stop them making a ruckus in her head.
Right now they all were screaming that the girl didn't need a library as they could teach her everything she needed.
Shaking her pretty auburn hair, Hitomi continued on her journey. "I heard Sakura mentioning chakra strings the other day. There may be a way to use some of our jutsu without revealing who I really am. I want to research these chakra strings," she pleaded.
The voices went quiet with the exception of one. "See wut ya kin fine on bugs. Bees n hornits 'specially," he requested with hope in his voice.
The girl nodded her head as she arrived at the front doors. The smile on her face threatened to split her head in half as she causally strolled within, no one looking twice at her.
She meandered along the many aisles, picking up and reading books that caught her eye on her way.
This book listed types of food one could prepare for a family and it made her heart flutter at the realization that she had one of those now.
The book spoke of many ingredients she had never heard of, nor could she associate the images with food stuffs in the markets so she placed it back on the shelf.
A little ways further she found another book, this one about ninja wire and it's uses. Amazingly it was the same wire one if the many had taught her to conjure and direct, only hers could be dissolved. The book spoke of coating it in animal fats and using it for fire techniques. There were so many fire techniques listed, yet none of the techniques mentioned other uses of the wire, such as stitching corpse puppets, electrocution or as medium for communication. Obviously the voices were smarter than this silly book, so she slid it back into place.
The sound of her humming a tune in time to the lute one of the voices was playing earned her a curious glance from a few shinobi. Music wasn't a common theme in the village.
Too noisy and distracting.
She picked up a book on poisons, curious what poisons actually were. The voice, the very dark one said poisons were stupid and useless when fast acting ailments worked faster and more effectively, yet Hitomi continued reading anyway.
Her humming stayed steady while she read about plants, fungi and animals that generated toxins capable of causing various effects from being disoriented to muscle locking, truth serums to lingering near-death torture. Hitomi decided to keep this book as even the dark voice had changed his mind.
With one book in hand she continued browsing and pulled a new book, this one about a giant fix demon with nine tails. It gave testimonials about the first time the Kyuubi attacked this village, controlled by a man named Madara Uchiha who sought to claim the heart of his crush while defeating his rival. Things didn't work out well for him as the Shodai tore him a new one. The many pages were filled with eyewitness accounts on the powers being tossed around and it scared the voices in her head silence.
Hitomi didn't know why they were scared, but the silence was nice, so she decided to keep this one as well.
A voice interrupted her. "Hitomi-chan," came the voice of a young blonde girl, her hair tied in a ponytail and face that reminded the pretender of the "mind diver". The mind diver was Naruto's personal bogeyman. He only came in when the darkness was around, one of the many reasons Naruto was afraid of the darkness, and would bind the voices away from Naruto. It was lonely without the voices so Naruto would invariably free them immediately after the mind diver would leave.
The day he escaped, he saw the mind diver in person and injected him with something the dark voice had down him how to culture, an illness that caused lingering sickness before death.
It was fitting, the botulism, and made Naruto happy.
Back to the present: Ino, the girl standing in front of Hitomi was smiling happily. "Hello Ino-san," she returned a bit formally, even bowing the slightest. She recognized the girl as a rival of the other Hitomi in the diary complete with a photo.
Ino waved the formality away. "Look, we're ninja now. We need to be able to work together in case we are given a joint mission," the blonde pointed out with that ever-present smile.
Hitomi relaxed her posture and returned the smile, her own soft. She wasn't as pretty as Ino, but that didn't matter to the young neo-girl. "M! Yeah, let's be friends," she encouraged happily. Another first! A friend! One aside from the voices!
Ino giggled in her girly fashion before looking at the strange mix of books the girl was holding. "Poisons, a bit eccentric. Isn't it?"
Hitomi nodded happily as she held the book up. "It speaks to me," she admitted. "Just think," she began in an excited voice as she clutched the book to her bosom. "You could greet an enemy by shaking hands and deliver a toxin through their skin that makes them see double!"
Ino blinked in thought, pausing before going on a tirade. "Hey, what about immobilizing an opponent, even temporarily?"
Hitomi's grin only widened as the two girls made their way to a table, speaking softly but animatedly about poisons and their usage while the dark voice tossed in ideas of his own.
(Hokage's Office)
Jiraiya, a legendary warrior and spy master, was seated across a desk from his teacher in his youth. Hiruzen Sarutobi, the third/Sandaime, Hokage gazed seriously into the eyes of his student after delivering the information on Inoichi.
"I've never heard of a poison like that. And it rejects chakra treatments," Jiraiya mused aloud. Granted he wasn't a poison expert like his former teammate or a doctor like his third teammate, but he was well-versed in counter toxins.
Hiruzen sighed in a tired manner. "I was hoping for a different answer." Jiraiya nodded in understanding and wiped at his brow, already knowing where this private conversation was headed.
"Jiraiya, we need her help," he asked.
The man signed pitifully and leaned back. "You don't ask small favors, do you, sensei," he returned jokingly. The air of the room remained pensive before the Toad Sage sighed. "When I brought her back the last time and she realized Naruto's condition was brought on by blunt-force trauma suffered by a beating from your citizens, she vowed to watch this village burn to the ground," he said softly, repeating his third teammate's words carefully.
Hiruzen nodded his head as if understanding. "Which is why I completely understand the difficulty in this mission. You may use any means necessary, even force to bring her here," Hiruzen informed as he stood up and began to pace the room. "If a cure isn't found, my councilors are calling for a reassignment of the Kyuubi into a more suitable Jinchuuriki. They've even located a young Uzumaki girl in Kusagakure whose mother is willing to agree for sage passage for the two. They are being escorted here by Team Gai as we speak," he informed seriously.
Jiraiya inhaled sharply and leaned away from his General while thinking hard. "If you outright kill the boy, I won't be responsible for her actions," he said calmly before standing. "She'll be here, I'll even leave a frog summon here get us back faster," Jiraiya acknowledged while fulfilling his words, bringing to life a small toad that sat on Hiruzen's desk with a have of his human-like hand.
Hiruzen nodded tiredly while the toad was informed and Jiraiya departed.
(Library)
Hitomi smiled giddily as she fell further into a giggle fit with Ino. "Man, you're so lucky," she praised Ino. "You're teammates were your lifelong friends, you already know everything about each other!"
Ino nodded her pretty head, that blonde hair dancing about. "Yeah, but we're kids from clans that have been allied since before the village was founded. If you play your career right you can earn a family name and even start an alliance or two for your children," Ino encouraged cheerfully.
While to some it may say harsh, but it was a factual statement. Her family, the Shimura were stripped of the name when they agreed to enter the village as there was already a Shimura ninja clan. They were all three starting over on the back of Hitomi, hopeful that she would earn enough to make the move worthwhile. It even said so in the diary, the day she had passed her exams.
Hitomi, the new one, fully intended on fulfilling his chief voice's ambition, becoming Shogun of The Dark, the Kage of Kage. Her family would be proud and Mizuki, another clanless ninja, she had realized, could marry into or swear fealty to her clan name when granted it!
Ino suddenly gasped as she looked at the time. "I gotta go! But, when you return that book on poisons let me know so I can check it out," the blonde girl cheered.
Hitomi nodded her head happily, almost vacuous, while clutching her three books to her bosom.
Slowly her feet settled on the floor, the sensation of floating on air subsiding. She was alone again. The young ninja dashed away to a counter and signed out the books in her hands. She hadn't found the books on chakra strings, but she was satisfied with what she had.
The librarian helped her with the process and even walked her to the door while explaining why there were no books focused on chakra strings.
"You see, next time you come through here you should grab the books on puppetry," the aged woman, one Koharu Utatane, suggested pleasantly.
Hitomi smiled fondly up towards the kindly woman, her joy reaching even her eyes while heading into the open village. The sun was slowly waning, colors beginning to grow darker, taking on a slightly more orange tint even as the hopped from one roof to the next. She knew she probably shouldn't do so as it drew attention, but honestly Hitomi couldn't bring herself to much care.
Three shadows formed around the girl, stalking her movements from each in a triangular formation, yet the held off, staying just far enough away to watch her with scrutiny. It was unnerving enough that the auburn-haired teenager dropped to an empty street a few blocks from home and waved towards the ANBU as they solidified. "Sorry, I was running late to get home ANBU-tachi," she called out sweetly as she began walking at a sedate pace through the streets. The three ninja with darkened and obscured masks nodded before wandering away while Hitomi began to skip along.
It didn't take long for her to spot something interesting... Just on the edge of her senses, something was following her, stalking her, like a predator pursuing its prey.
She didn't know who it could be as the stalker was too well hidden and made the voices angry.
While Hitomi changed course from heading home, the stalker altered path as well following the girl in another direction...
Hitomi grit her teeth harshly and began the process to generate chakra wire by the dozens, building essentially an invisible spiderweb of mesh before darting towards a nearby alley and falling into the shadows.
The voices were shooting now, becoming more irritated as she sat, perfectly still, waiting and feeling the street vibrations.
Something stepped on to the web of wire but it wasn't the stalker, she could feel the difference of something smaller. Was the stalker testing the lines? But, then how did they see them at all?
A threat! A very dangerous threat!
The voices were right and adamant. This stalker wanted to take away her happy life, thus Hitomi prepared for an assassination.
Slipping into a shadow she gave a sinister smile, a kunai in her hand.
Something came strolling through the area, a young boy with long black hair and pale lavender eyes each step he took was measured, moving in between the web like netting Hitomi had put in place. The sides of his face were swollen to the point the veins surrounding his eyes were clearly visible. His hands were ready to strike even as he neared Hitomi.
From her place, hidden in a shadow, she fired off the kunai at the boy's head. Be it luck or some twisted fate humor, she happened to be positioned just perfectly to throw the lump of steel into his blind spot, the kunai lodging into his skull and ending him.
Hitomi smiled darkly, pulling the kunai out and licking the blood while her eyes reflected the miniscule light of the moon.
Her happiness was safe, and there were no witnesses about. With grin, the girl fell into her own shadow and left the environment...