Chapter 13: Reach
Degarashi Port appears over the crest of the last hill with the salty scent of the oceanic breeze. Tenten's knees nearly give out at the welcome sight, as foreign as it may be. She has had to jog the last stretch, from evening until morning. The slightest exertion more would bring with it the burning spread of the cursed seal and the gibbering insanity that whispered at the edges of Tenten's mind.
No matter. The end is in sight.
She makes her way through the town toward the docks. It is still early, and merchants are only just beginning to set up their shops and stalls. The roads are mostly empty and she traverses them unimpeded, arriving at the docks soon after. There's no sign of Neji, only the amiable chatter of friendly fisherman and the gentle lapping of waves. Now that she has reached the main exit for the town, she can work her way inward, confident that Neji will not slip past her.
The town is beginning to awaken, though, and an increasing number of people start to mill about in the streets. Tenten tries not to consider the fact that Neji may already have left. She weaves through the crowd carefully, occasionally getting jostled by a careless passerby, but she never takes her eyes from their search. He's here. He has to be here. Panic begins to claw at her insides, and her mouth feels dry. Has her entire journey been for nothing?
There! On edges of her vision, she sees a flash of white hair, so brief it may as well have been an illusion. She surges through the crowd after it, rounding the corner. It is Kimimaro, no, Neji, perhaps only fifty feet away. She moves faster now, barging through the throng, haphazardly shoving people out of the way. Wares fly and dropped boxes splinter, but she gives them not a second glance. She calls out to her teammate, but her cries are lost in the midst of shouting merchants and idle chatter.
He vanishes, phantom-like, into the dark maw of a small building and she presses on faster, acutely aware of the threatening tingle at the base of her neck. Someone she overturned previously catches up to her through the swath that she's cut in the busy marketplace, putting a hand on her shoulder and yelling at her to stop. Tenten has no time for apologies, no time for conversation. Without looking, she turns around and hurls a fist into his face, hurrying inside as he releases his grip and staggers backward.
A pair of guards moves to intercept her. Dammit. She is in no condition for combat.
Thinking fast, she yanks her collar down, revealing the ebony ink of the cursed seal. Both men blanch and step away, and she whispers a silent prayer to whichever deity watches over her as she moves through them. The way through is mostly linear, with scattered branches of residential areas, holding cells and what appears to be another lab. There are checkpoints set at regular intervals, as well, but her mark affords her passage through all of them. More worryingly, the further in she goes, the louder the sound of the sea becomes.
The last stretch is a straight and vaulted hallway. Tenten's worst fears are realized as she catches the smell of the salt and kelp on the cool wind and she arrives at the edge of the cove to see a ship disappearing into open waters with sails unfurled and full.
【[_|[__§__]|_]】
No. No, she refuses to accept it. She doubles back towards the lab she saw earlier. There has to be a map or a chart or something. Some kind of clue as to where Neji went. Some of the guards give her strange looks, having seen her go through the other way just moments prior, but their apprehension keeps their lips sealed. She reaches the lab again and closes the door behind her quietly, searching frantically through the folders and cabinets as soon as the lock clicks. Paper flutters around her like errant butterfly wings, settling to the ground like mournful funereal shrouds.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
A man in a lab coat stands up from where he was working, looking bemused at first at Tenten's sudden appearance, then irate. Shit. How had she not seen him before? He moves over to her and sets about straightening what she has knocked over.
"Who gave you the authority to come in here?" he demands angrily. Tenten flashes him the cursed seal, but he is not impressed. She doesn't have time for this, and she can't risk his braying bringing in more guards. Tenten takes a quick look around. They are alone.
"I don't care if you do have that thing, you can't just storm in h–"
In one decisive movement, she steps behind him and hamstrings him, clamping one hand over his mouth to stifle his pain as he sinks to the ground. Without a second thought, she slits his throat. His blood stains the papers on the floor scarlet, but she has already forgotten about him, busying herself with her frantic rifling. There is a soft, watery chuckle. Instinctively, she raises the knife, ready to stab the scientist again, but a voice, like oil over ice, speaks from another corner of the room.
"That was brutal. Just my style."
Tenten whirls on the source. A tank of water?
"Ah, yeah, that's me. You're after that bone guy, aren't you? Karin's new toy."
"Who are you? What do you know about... about Kimimaro?" she demands. For an instant, she thinks she sees the vague impression of a face in the liquid, but perhaps it is just her reflection. Or perhaps it is her mind, finally cracking under the immense strain of the past few days. She tries not to dwell on that possibility.
"Ah ah ah, rude. I'm Suigetsu. Suigetsu Houzuki. Pleased to meet you. As for... heh... 'Kimimaro'. He's off to another base. In the middle of the circle of islands. There's a map to it on my left."
Tenten's hand tightens on the hilt of her weapon before she relinquishes her frenzied grip. How would she harm water, anyway? Could it harm her? She edges around the tank, snatching up the map quickly and giving it a cursory glance, still wary.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Hm... why indeed. Mostly because... I hate Karin."
Tenten's eyes narrow suspiciously.
"And Orochimaru?"
"Hate him, too," the speaker bubbles, without missing a beat, "You think I want to be trapped in here?"
"I'll let you out, then," Tenten says after a moment of hesitation, "And you can help me."
"Nah," Suigetsu replies easily with a roiling, fluid chuckle, "I got my own agenda. Anyway, someone will be here for me soon. You're a good kid, whoever you are. The real map's to my right."
Tenten slams the point of her knife down into a desk, dark anger boiling through her veins. She feels the cursed seal spreading and hurries to tamp down her raging emotions.
"Don't fuck with me."
"Tsk, ah. At least I gave you the right information in the end."
"Or so you say."
"Mmm, true. But you don't have anything else to go on, do you?"
Tenten sweeps out of the room, taking both maps with her. She has no time to waste.
【[_|[__§__]|_]】
"I need your boat."
She must have made quite a sight, clearing the hundred feet from the pier to the fishing boat in one leap and half tattooed in ebon feathers. The fisherman recoils, only relaxing somewhat when she dumps a sizable bag of money brusquely into his hands. For a career ninja like her, it is only a significant amount, but for him, it is easily a month's worth of hard work.
"I-I... when?" he stammers.
"Now."
That is all the warning he receives before her hand seizes his neck in a vice-like grip. There is a moment's hesitation as he chokes in her iron grasp before she heaves him bodily overboard. Thankfully, the sail is already set and the boat is already making progress. It is not quite as large as she would have liked, nor is it quite as fast, but it will have to do.
She opens both maps and estimates a middle course between the two. Once she reaches the point of divergence, she will have to navigate by virtue of her eyes alone. Mentally, she curses never having paid more attention to nautical studies.
Tenten curls up against the mast, trying her best to ignore the whispering voices of doubt and darkness in the corners of her mind. It's becoming harder and harder to control the impulses seeded in her by the cursed seal: it was all she could do to stop herself from snapping the fisherman's neck. The shadowy patterns retreat, leaving her shivering and in a cold sweat.
She can only pray that her luck will hold.
Feedback is welcome.