Chapter 15: Realization
The world lurches violently out of its endless spin as the ship grinds to an abrupt halt on the beach. Tenten lofts a length of rope down the side and gingerly lowers herself toward solid land once more, the whirling nausea reawakening as she descends. She does not look back; the captain has long since succumbed to his wounds. Part of the hull has been ruptured by the rough landing and the brine and blood contained within cascade down the wooden planks, like a dying beast bleeding in sympathy for its fallen master.
Her legs buckle when she hits the ground and pitch her headfirst into the sand. She tastes grit and salt in her teeth and struggles not to vomit, half-afraid that she will find human flesh in her stomach. The journey is a blur to her, full of screaming and full of death; the fevered memory alone makes her queasy and she forces herself to her feet and to move onward. She manages to stumble her way haphazardly all the way to the treeline, whereupon she collapses again, breathing raggedly. Tenten chokes down a bit of dried fish she has salvaged from the pirates. It tastes – and reeks – of death, but it fills her hollow stomach somewhat and helps it settle.
Voices. Up ahead. Tenten is instantly on the alert, adrenaline thrumming through her veins. Her cursed seal – is it hers, or is she its? – is mercifully dormant; she assumes it has either burnt itself out or burnt her out. She dares even to hope that she has learned better control of it, somehow. It tingles faintly even as she mulls over its existence, as though aware, and she is more or less relieved to know that its power is still available to her. She grits her teeth in helpless anger at own thought process. When did she stop relying on her own strength? No matter. For now, it's survival first and methodology last. She isn't sure where Neji falls on her list of priorities. Would she die for him?
She shakes her head to clear it, instantly regretting the action as another wave of dizziness threatens to pull her under. No time for that now. Tenten creeps through the foliage carefully, producing a full complement of throwing daggers and setting aside a slender rapier – also scavenged from the scavengers – as the silhouettes of a group of people become visible to her.
【[_|[__§__]|_]】
Neji maintains a stoic silence as he walks, guarded on all sides by Orochimaru's subordinates. They did not question his lie about delivering Kimimaro to their master and have not even bound him in any way; their fanaticism must blind them to even basic logic. He ignores their laughs and jeers. There is nothing to be gained from contesting them at this point. Let them gloat, if they so wish. They will see his true intentions in time, and not a moment before then.
One of the jesters finds himself especially humorous and lets out a raucous bray of ignorant mirth. It dies the instant it leaves his lips in a gurgle as the hilt of a throwing dagger seems to sprout from his throat. His companions are fools, baring cutlasses and cowering low in vain attempts to ward off the wrathful hornets that buzz through thick and fast to mow them down. The vengeful metals hit their marks unerringly, and before the first corpse hits the ground, all but the three behind Neji are dead.
It is Tenten, he knows, and she is exhausted. No one else could have killed his escorts so efficiently, and to finish off the huddled survivors would have only taken a few steps to sufficiently change the angle. He is proven right on both accounts as his teammate steps out of the shadows in front of him, leaning slightly on a thin sword with a weary weight no one would have noticed, save for those who know her best.
A similar weight drops into his heart at her appearance. He can feel the regard of his remaining entourage in his back, and he cannot reveal his artifice yet. Tenten's entrance has put him in a position where he can only preserve either his objective or her life. Even as he compresses strands of calcium together inside his body, he knows that she will not be able to defend herself for long.
【[_|[__§__]|_]】
Damn. Three left.
Tenten steps out boldly, armed and ready, hoping that she appears stronger than she feels. Her bluff holds for the moment; none of the survivors dare to peek around Neji's borrowed body. She grins slightly as she hefts the length of steel up. Despite her crushing fatigue, the tip does not waver, and neither does her resolve. This is the instant she's been waiting for the whole time. She can finally take Neji home.
Confusion gives way to shock as Neji shakes his head ever so slightly and unsheathes a blade of bone from his skin. She barely moves her head out of the way in time to avoid the osseous bullet that thwacks into the tree behind her. The next projectile – fired out of his phalange – skips off of her hand guard and wracks her wrists with rattling vibrations. She doesn't know if she moved to parry, or if the shot was poorly aimed.
Her arm is still numb when she lifts it, just in time to halt the advance of Neji's overhand chop. She hardly notices. The rest of her seems numb as well. Her rapier snaps in half under the smashing force of another assault, and Tenten raises her hands mechanically in the Shape Will stance.
Parry. Parry. Evade. Attack. Parry. The defenses are alien and robotic, like watching someone else fight. Her attacks are without passion and fall far short of their mark. What is happening? Why are they fighting? What happened to the happy ending to her epic tale? The severing void of denial fills with the boiling magma of outrage. How dare he. How dare he look at her with those malachite eyes, probing for weaknesses when she has rid herself of that luxury for him? How dare he spit on what she has discarded and what she has endured?
Tears break through her dam walls with the pressure pent up over several days. Are they of anger or sadness? Her vision blurs, but there is still no dark coffee hair. No, it is only Kimimaro and that damn slashing edge, taunting her with the doom that has already overshadowed her soul. The doom that her body still automatically fends off, through the haze and through the pain. This is not the strength she sought, and this is not the Neji she knew. She had been cut in the past, but she only now realizes how much hurt an untouched body can feel.
"You're in the way."
Never have his words rung out so cold. This shell, this copy, this imposter, dares to desecrate, to mock, her memory of her teammate in this way? Even the voice is foreign to her, projected from unfamiliar vocal cords over ever-shifting air to break her heart. Her grief soaks into the granules underfoot, but her cheeks are fast-drying in the swirling wind, and she makes her decision as she deflects the next charge.
Kimimaro will die, even if she must die with him.
Another thrust and she skids back from her hasty dodge. She knows that she only has enough energy for one lethal technique: a heart-rupturing Shape Will straight. The focused strike will bypass bone like a shaped charge and detonate fatally like poetic vengeance. Kimimaro's feints are transparent, and his blows are like child's play to defend against. He is clearly unused to the way his body moves and is amateurish at best with a weapon. His tactical sense is flawless, though, and Tenten finds herself cornered against a log too large to step over.
She welcomes it though, bracing her back foot against the implacable mass. Certainly, he would not have suspected a suicidal sacrifice from her, and from the looks of it, he still does not realize her ploy. Her analysis of Kimimaro's attack patterns is almost complete, and the leverage can only assist her. The soft turf no longer hinders her, and she readies herself for the end. For both of their ends.
Time seems to slow as Kimimaro rears back one last time. The space between thuds of her pounding heart stretches on for an eternity. Funny how it can still work, despite feeling as though it's been shattered. Focus. The next target will be her carotid artery, a glancing, diagonal pass from his right to her left. She will go into shock within seconds and be dead before the minute ends, but it is more than enough time.
She closes her eyes and unleashes the end of all things.
Feedback is welcome.