One man bends down and picks up a stone. He tosses it a few times in his hand and runs a hand through his colorless hair. He looks down at the stone and allows the breeze to waft through his colorless hair before he combs some of it back with his free hand.
Behind; male.
He chucks the stone behind him, "Don't—"
"It's just me," the stone-catcher smiles as he tucks a strand of similarly colorless hair behind his ear, "Long time no see."
"Couldn't you have changed?" the stone-chucker scowls at the Kiri garb, "That blue is just awful."
"The same could be said about you. What's with those uneven sleeves? Have you forgotten symmetry?" the stone-catcher replies smoothly.
The stone-chucker looks out at the sky that's about to break for dawn. The stone-catcher sends a pulse of chakra through the stone and it crumbles to dust. He lets the wind take away the dust as he surveys the sea of graves before him. So this was the result, was it? He smiles smugly. As I thought.
"Do you believe what Tou-san said?" the stone-chucker asks softly.
"To an extent," the stone-catcher puts a hand in his pocket, "To a very, very limited extent."
"Why? Tou-san hasn't even caught on to us. He knows nothing," the stone-chucker raises a brow, "Besides, he'll be dead before he finds out. Even if he does find out, it's no skin off our backs," he shrugs, "Either way, we won't be the ones to kill him, ne?"
"While that may be true," the stone-catcher purses his lips, "I can't say there won't be complications. That Kumo boy makes my skin crawl."
"What about that Kumo boy?" the stone-chucker asks.
"Kami, you're a curious one today," the stone-catcher exclaims.
"Just answer it!" the stone-chucker glares at him, "The Sharingan?"
"Of course I'll answer you. Later," the stone-catcher smiles, "But, do be careful. Spies are everywhere. That Hokage isn't too bright, but if we don't watch our steps, I'm afraid we'll have to cut our visit short."
The stone-chucker grins, "Yeah. Now—"
"—we should—"
"Look for that girl," the two say in unison.
Desperately, she wants to believe that it wasn't true.
Kosari runs a hand through her hair and a few strands sweep into her vision. She blows a few wisps back, only for them to tickle her cheek.
Nohara Rin is the spy.
Highly likely, Kosari reminds herself. Hound takes a long sip of sake and glances down at the files spread out before her. It had taken half of the night to deactivate the majority of the files. She narrows her eyes at the pile she'd made regarding all of their experiments. Orochimaru and Rin's, that is.
In the beginning, the experiments were nothing that she found odd for two medical shinobi to go through: healing wounds and organ transplants of varying degrees of severity. Some were simply healing small cuts and others were replacing hearts and kidneys. Kosari found nothing terribly incriminating besides the fact both of them were mentioned doing experiments with one another and handwritten notes—a crosscheck of handwriting samples is definitely imperative—were prevalent throughout the files.
As Kosari continued on through the detailed experiments, Hound became increasingly irritated. Kosari kept Hound back from appearing at Rin's home and interrogating her right then and there as she read the experiments that became more nauseating: sets of twins were experimented on, blood transfusions of different blood types were analyzed, and various thresholds for pain were examined. Orochimaru expressed his interest in using children and once or twice, he mentioned 'Uchiha'. I don't think I was ever happy that only Sasuke is alive, but it certainly makes our job much easier. Yet… A few experiments, if dated correctly, were recent and focused on poisons, stab wounds, and heart failure and heart revival. Hound was almost out the window when Kosari noted that there was never any mention of anesthetics. In Hound's hand, the sake cup shattered. Blood dripped down, but Kosari was too shocked and horrified by a few of the notes, the most recent ones. She used her other hand to shift the papers a bit and looked at the experiment it mentioned.
As much as Kosari was adverse to Orochimaru, he did have a point: none of them wanted to fight in the Hokage's war. The mere thought of the War brought back a sea of bloodshed that she was eager to forget.
"But…" Kosari stands from her chair as the moon shines brilliantly from her window, "That War may have been just the first wave."
Kosari holds her head in agony as she grits her teeth, "I…I didn't kill them for this…"
'Soul Transfer' was the experiment. All of the experiments had one or two labels: a blue one for 'Success' and a red one for 'Failure'.
"Kaa-san…" Kosari whispers and clasps her hands together in a prayer.
Marked in blue, the experiment stared back up at her.
"Please help me."
The note read: 'Five weeks prior to the Chūnin Exams, make the final preparations for the Patient N to be in peak condition, ready to fight. –Orochimaru'
Rin jogs lightly with a calm expression as the moon lights her way from her home in a spaced out residential district towards Konoha's most important sector. On most maps available to Chūnin and above, this sector was the first sector built for infrastructural purposes and denoted as 'Sector 1'. Within this sector are the hospital, Hokage tower, T&I, Weaponry Division, and the ANBU barracks. The Hokage tower holds not only the Hokage's office, but several other offices that span half or the entire floor, including Shinobi Records, Finance, Foreign Affairs, among others. The basement of each building within Sector 1 requires at least a rank of Jōnin and the deeper it gets the fewer that can access it until the Hokage can count on one hand the people who have access.
Knowing this, Kosari can't help but think that Orochimaru must've somehow gotten even stronger to slip through Sector 1 for over a year. The ANBU she'd trained remained in Black Ops, but law required at least twenty members to stay within the village for security purposes. There was no way they could've overlooked something as serious as this. Yet, Hound's skin crawls with the terrible notion that Orochimaru must've not only infiltrated the village by himself and Rin letting him into the hospital, but the Border Division too must be infected with spies. Kosari bites her tongue from glancing over where the entrance (one of many) to the ANBU Black Ops barracks. She has no desire to entertain Orochimaru's doubtful and poisonous conjectures, but she can't help but wonder about Danzō. Being his top agent for years after breaking her back and constantly cutting away at her own heart, she'd come to know what was under his arm. Or rather, what was on it.
Ever since he was a Jōnin, he'd said, he'd come up with hundreds of ways to sacrifice his soul, heart, and body for the village. His wife and son were the only things he'd wanted nothing more than to put in a chest and set sail, far away so he wouldn't be tempted to sell them to the village and break his heart. The idea of putting eyes in his arm hadn't occurred to him until his son had been playing with a bomb as an Academy student and managed to ignite it and watched with a mixture of fascination and wonder as the tag quickly began to fizzle away. Danzō had nearly lost his son that day and never regretted the deep well of a scar on his hand. It had given him the idea to do implant eyes. Hound was mildly unconvinced regarding the unlikely reason, but said nothing. First was the Byakugan. He'd managed to falsify the death of a Hyūga disenchanted with her life in Konoha, not an uncommon story from the rich, and took one of her eyes after sending her away on a mission.
Rin enters the hospital and her heels click-click-click on the marble floors, unaware of the Hatake trailing her as she winds down the maze of a hospital, lagging by one corner without a single trace of chakra to speak of.
Panic soon set into the girl's heart and she began to fight back, angrily screaming to Danzō that he couldn't understand her devotion to the village and how dare he try to kill her for her eyes. A selfish man, she accused. Hardly, he replied, for he was simply going to use her to protect the village. She was going to even 'see' him protect the village and the people he was going to cut down to keep Konoha safe. She didn't understand. In her rage, she left behind a crater where only poisonous plants grow. Danzō had been unaware that another had set his eyes on the girl and was taken by surprise when another had stolen her body just as he was about to take her second eye. Two days later, Hound was dispatched to deal with a group of Kiri shinobi, one of whom was being pursued by a group sent out by the Hokage. It was a clash of ANBU and ANBU Black Ops. The shinobi leading the ANBU was none other than Uchiha Shisui and the lead ANBU in that group was Hatake Kakashi. Hound simply had Monkey with her.
Rin takes out a key and unlocks the door. Around the end of the hallway are walls that are yellowing and a few other doors marked with the same 'Lab' marker. The lock shakes as she struggles to open it before finally getting it open. Kosari quickly weaves a seamless genjutsu around her to keep the door open. She convinces Rin that the door is already closed and slips down. Between the rungs of the first few steps, Kosari looks as Rin scurries down the steps and reaches a lab whose walls are lined with cabinets and counters and endless amounts of paper. Rin moves a few things over and holds several slips of paper in her hands. She places each down on the floor equidistant of one another, bites her thumbs, and goes through about fifty seals. Fūinjutsu, huh? Then, Rin slams her hands down and a bright green light glows. From the light, it becomes clear that there's an engraving on the ground especially for that one seal. The light fades as something materializes before Rin. In the darkness, only so much chakra can help her eyes see better, but it's enough to see the outline of a stretcher. She can't see the face of the body, but Rin checks the body from head to toe and after a few moments, it becomes crystal clear to Kosari that the body is male and several chakra suppressors and bindings restrain him
"Right…Orochimaru-sama said he needed three vials of blood," Rin checks a few papers before nodding to herself. She pulls out three vials, a needle, an alcohol swab, a strip of elastic, and puts on gloves. She swabs an arm and begins drawing blood.
The needle suddenly shatters along with a several sickening snaps and Rin's surprised gasp and then a sigh of pain. Rin is thrust into a chair and wheezes as she looks up at two figures.
"Who…?"
"You need not know our names, miss," Kosari can hear the smile in the man's voice, "Just…give us the body."
"You know…?" Rin's eyes widen, "H-how?"
"Come now, miss," another voice chimes, "Orochimaru isn't a very good friend of ours. After watching you a little, it's easy to see you're his lapdog. We're not interested in you in the slightest, so killing you isn't in our forecast."
"What is, however," a man continues, "Is that you give us the body."
"And why should I do that with cowards who can't even muster up the courage to show your faces?" Rin demands.
"It's not that," he grins, "We didn't bother trying to find the light switch. Please, miss. Don't change the—"
Rin gasps as another bone in her body breaks.
"—subject. We'll talk civilly. Give us the body."
"Why?" Rin grits out.
"To be blunt: a dear friend of yours will suffer. What was his name…?" he thinks aloud.
"Ah!" the other says.
"What? Who?" he eagerly leans towards him.
"Hatake Kakashi!"
Kosari's heart sinks as Hound growls under the surface.
"You wouldn't want Konoha's safety, countless lives, to be jeopardized, do you? Hatake Kakashi, the gem of Konoha, is our weapon of choice. His name alone is enough to bring down Konoha's walls and turn you all against one another. War is quick to ignite, especially since Iwa and Kumo are only participating to gather intel and strike on Konoha. If Konoha is weak and rumors fly wildly about, then I'm afraid Konoha may as well be ashes now. You hold Konoha's future in your hands. Giving us the body will keep Konoha safe, and not giving the body will destroy it. Maybe not now, maybe not even after the Exams, but in the future."
"That's…that's not possible!" Rin cries out.
"Why not? Don't tell me you bought the story that Kakashi is dead," the man laughs, "That boy isn't dead, not yet anyway. But, he'll be hard to find. Right?"
"Yeah," the other replies in agreement, "I still haven't any intel on him since he just disappeared."
"Kakashi…" Rin mutters as tears roll down her face.
"Don't cry, miss," he wipes away her tear, "For there's something else that you could cry about."
"A rebellion is coming, miss," he cups her chin gently.
"Rebellion?" Rin parrots, "What are you talking about?"
Rebellion? I've never heard of any rebellion. Kosari narrows her eyes.
"So Tou-san has kept quiet," he looks at the other.
"That's good," the other replies as he turns to Rin, "You haven't heard of it yet, but I assure you that you will soon."
"I'll reiterate: Rin, we won't kill you if you don't give us the body. However, not giving us the body will cause not only Hatake Kakashi and his name to suffer, but also everyone around you. Spies from all over the world are currently lurking within Konoha, waiting for the Chūnin Exams to begin. Konoha will be weakened due to a stretched-thin security. I'd advise, in the name of peace and innocent lives, to give us the body. Dangerous sparks and skirmishes are sure to fly as Konoha's strength is tested in this next month. Most of the participants are already here early to get a feel of the village," he slips his hands in his pockets.
"And, I wouldn't be surprised if a few are already within this hospital," he smiles.
"Now, do you wish to incite war on your village, or do you want to keep Konoha safe and time to draw back her troops to ride out the rebellion's fiery wave? We'd even let you keep working as a researcher."
Rin stares, shocked they'd be so bold as to speak of war, something that was avoided narrowly by Shisui and his ANBU only a little while after the Yondaime Hokage died. She remembered vaguely treating Kakashi for some odd wounds, but never thought much about it. Him and Shisui seemed to 'mess around' for 'practice' a lot so…
And, to think that these men, strong and skilled enough to get into her lab and have already known about her connection to Orochimaru and even the identity of the body… Rin bites her lip. It's obvious these men aren't bluffing. If they were, they wouldn't have been able to get down here and take her by surprise. She'd had her guard up and knew no one was following her and there hadn't been any genjutsu cast on her from the moment she slammed her hands down and took the body from the sealing matrix. These men…they could kill me. I wouldn't be surprised if they did. But…why not just kill me or knock me out and take the body themselves?
"Miss, please make your decision," he reminds her.
"Why not just…knock me out?" Rin furrows her brows, "I don't understand. Why not just take the body now?"
He shakes his head, "I'm the one—"
Rin's hearing nearly fades away into a painful ringing. Her sense of gravity and balance goes flying out the window as her body quivers on the ground. She shakes with pain and feels her head. Something warm and slightly thick oozes out and she bites back a cry.
"—asking the questions."
"Answer him," he steps on her stomach and she can't even flail in pain; her limbs were all broken.
"N-never," Rin spits, "Never!"
"Very well, suit yourself," he sighs, "We'll make sure you go in the textbooks as the woman who started the Fourth Great Shinobi War."
This village sure is big.
Her grey pigtails, gleaming like a knight in shining silver armor in the sunlight, bounce with every skip of her step and lighten the hearts of all who see her smile, adorned by pink ribbons and a light pink frilly dress and leather magenta shoes. Despite the few civilians milling about at this early hour, everyone notices the girl and smile back.
As she skips through the streets of the village with so much greenery and life and sunshine, the scent of sugar fills the air. She stops to close her eyes and breathe it in. She peers intently around, looking for the source. She turns round and round until she spots a shop with pictures of pastries and pies and cakes. She skips over and presses her face against the glass. Her wide, curious eyes take in all the sights and scenes of the various cookies and display cases holding them for all to see.
She flinches when a weathered old hand rests on her shoulder and he points inside. She pouts as she digs in her pockets and holds out only a few ryo and a blue button she'd found earlier. He laughs, but no sound comes out. She tilts her head at that, but is quickly distracted by the growl of her stomach. He pats her head and opens the door. A bell chimes softly and—
"Welcome!" an even older man greets.
The old man smiles down at the girl and a drop of sweat rolls down his face as she once again presses her face and hands against the glass and goes across like a wiper, cleaning the glass as she scans each sweet treat. He sighs contentedly, having not seen such a young and innocent child in a long time. Reminds me of—
The bell chimes—
"Welcome!" the old man gives a wrinkled smile when a young woman walks in.
"I'd like an espresso, with ten shots," she says.
"Coming right up!"
Kosari kneels to the girl's height and deftly undoes the ribbons holding the girl's hair unevenly back and reties it evenly and beautifully, even plaiting a few parts. The girl examines herself in her reflection on the glass and pats the new ribbon loops, several more than she'd been able to incorporate, with apprehension. Kosari furrows her brows and opens her mouth to ask what's wrong, but then the girl squeals in delight and hugs Kosari tightly. She freezes in horror, but then rigidly returns the embrace. The girl jumps back to examining the cookies with unprecedented enthusiasm.
'Never thought I'd bump into you, Uchiha-sama, Kosari signs quietly, 'Who is she?'
'Just a child admiring the sweets,' Kagami replies.
'I'll pay,' Kosari signs suddenly.
'No, it's fine I'll—'
The girl suddenly whirls around and points excitedly to a few cookies.
"I'll pay for them as well, sir," Kosari picks up her espresso and looks at the girl and the cookies she was pointing to, "In addition to this espresso, I'd like to get ten of these bird-shaped cookies and…" she turns to Kagami, "Is there anything you'd like?"
He shakes his head.
"That's all," Kosari turns to the man as Kagami takes a seat as the man bags the ten cookies. He hands it to the woman, who hands it to the girl. She skips over to the table and clambers onto the chair and begins happily munching away at the birds.
She hands over more than enough money and the man sighs as he counts her change, "I might be getting old, but I don't recall a child nearly as cute as her. Shisui used to bring his cute little son here all the time," he hands Kosari his change, not noticing the iciness of her look, "That boy always got the same bird cookies as that girl over there. It's such a shame that he's not around anymore. I would've given him a free cookie. But you know, I'd always wondered about that boy's mother. Shisui was handsome, but the boy must've resembled his mother. She must've been quite the catch," he chuckles lightly to himself.
Kosari pours in some cream in her espresso and leans in close to him so that no one else could hear but him, "I'd advise you to be a little more considerate as to whom you're talking around, namely Uchiha Kagami-sama behind me, the grandfather of the boy who was murdered by his own father, Kagami-sama's son. I don't think I'll ever be buying from such an inconsiderate piece of scum like you again. If I hear you going on about an S-Ranked criminal so freely again, I'll have you turned over to the T&I before you can even blink for possible treason."
"I-I'm so sorry…I d-didn't notice…" he trembles.
"I'm sure you didn't," Kosari says kindly, "Thank you for this espresso by the way," she smiles as if she hadn't just threatened him. She takes a sip, "It's delicious."
The man shakes with fear and watches as Kosari takes a seat next to the girl and sips her espresso. Convincing Nohara-san with a genjutsu that the men had thrown her up into the entrance of the hospital wasn't easy and certainly left me rather drained. But, I had to. Leaving such an important kunoichi wounded like that wasn't an option if I plan on watching her.
"Aiko!"
"Aiko!"
"Aiko!"
He cups his hands once more and hollers out, "AIKO!"
He continues to run through the streets and his eyes scan every child, looking for her. He turns on a heel and goes blindly down another street. He runs past vendors and shops and peers into a group of children standing outside a candy shop and his head turns left and right as he desperately searches.
"Aiko!"
Suigetsu mentally curses Chojūro, who had refused to help out whatsoever in anything regarding Aiko, stupidly overlooking the fact that they needed her to even compete. If he wanted to get away so badly, didn't he understand that he needed to work with her in the Exams and get to the Finals where he could shine on his own and possibly move up a rank and get away from her? It's Chojūro who's six, not Aiko!
Still, that statement did nothing to help him find the elusive girl. It was as if she'd flew out the window and disappeared into a completely unfamiliar village.
He stops to catch his breath and looks up to continue his endless search. In that moment, something blurs past him and something trips him. He falls on his face and growls. What the…?
He sits up and turns to see Aiko with tears in her eyes, looking guiltily at a Jōnin, who kneels at eye level with the girl. She hands back a hitai-ate to the woman. The woman holds up a single finger in a disciplinary way and Aiko nods as the woman continues her speech. Suigetsu listens in on their conversation and blinks in surprise and confusion. I can't understand a single word…
The woman says something else and Aiko replies with her eyes downcast. The woman's stern look fades to a serene smile and she uses two slender thumbs to wipe away the girl's tears. She says something else quietly and then smiles again, "Ne?"
Aiko nods slowly and the woman pats her head.
"Y-you…" Suigetsu blinks in shock.
"Yes?" Kosari looks at him and then at Aiko, "Is she your teammate?"
"She can speak?!" Suigetsu exclaims, pointing at Aiko.
"Yes," Kosari says slowly, "Of course. She isn't deaf or mute, you know."
"How…" Suigetsu glances over at Aiko, who hides behind the woman's leg and grips onto her pant leg and looks up at him with seriousness.
"Do you know her?" Kosari asks.
"Yeah, she's my teammate," Suigetsu says, "We're from Kirigakure. I woke up this morning and she was gone. I've been looking for her all morning."
"Where's the rest of your team?" Kosari arches a brow, "I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but if a foreign shinobi goes missing, you don't go running around the village. You're to go directly to the Hokage or report it to any Chūnin or Jōnin you see."
"My teammate, the selfish bastard, didn't want to help look for her, and my sensei said he was going to be busy for the entire morning at some Jōnin sensei meeting with the Hokage," Suigetsu sighs.
"Meeting?" Kosari blinks. Oh Kami…
"Yeah, sensei said all sensei were required to attend," Suigetsu says, "More importantly, what dialect was that? I've never heard of anyone speaking anything else than what we're speaking. It sounded like some kind of code," Suigetsu frowns.
Aiko smiles slyly when Kosari suddenly flickers away.
This village sure is nice.
Nara Shikaku leans back against the wall before glancing over at the Hokage. Hiruzen blows out a few smoke rings before sighing, and for a moment, Shikaku was afraid the old man would die on him. Then, he looks back at the clipboard in his hand and shakes his head. They're practically the same person…so late…
Next to Hiruzen, an ANBU inclines his head slightly, "Shall I search for her, Hokage-sama?"
The doors suddenly burst open to reveal a female clad in Konoha's forest-green Jōnin vest. She doesn't break a sweat and Hiruzen almost smiles at the memory of Kakashi as a young boy, trying to always look like everything were effortless. He supposes that may not have been innate, but a learned behavior from the woman standing in the doorway.
"Attention!" Hiruzen calls over the buzz of chatter. With that one word of authority and the power held within it, the Jōnin line up in a block with Konoha shinobi in one area and other villages making up the other half of the group standing before the old Kage with his arms behind his back.
"I would like to express my gratitude that all villages are competing. Thank you for making the long journey to come here. I do hope your accommodations are most fitting. If not, we will do everything we can to find you more adequate arrangements," Hiruzen begins as he looks left and right at the faces of his shinobi and can't help but feel some sort of odd pride. Like a swan with white feathers, he puffs out his chest proudly. Thank Kami Danzō isn't here.
"Many of you may see familiar faces from previous Exams. However, after looking around for a while, you may spot a larger number of Jōnin who respectively lead teams without any prior experience in the Chūnin Exams. As a result, this year is sure to be very exciting," Hiruzen says, "Nara Shikaku, leader of the Jōnin Corps, will now, for your benefit, read off the names of Jōnin both domestic and foreign, who lead teams of fresh Genin."
"Yes, sir," Shikaku says as he looks at the clipboard in his hands, "Starting with Kumo, there are two teams: Team C and Team Darui."
C raises his head with pride, "I am C. I lead Tsuji, Toyo, and Korohi."
Beside him, Darui shifts his slouch slightly, "I'm Darui, leading Kuya, Kyoka, and Haruki."
Kosari looks over at her fellow Jōnin leading other fresh Genin, "You three can go first," she says quietly.
"Sure," Kurenai says, "But, why?"
"I'm not very good at public speaking," the ANBU smiles, "Please, I insist."
As the introductions continue, Kurenai opens her mouth to protest, but Gai stops her with a serious look. Kurenai gives Kosari one last look of apprehension before sighing. Gai nods to Kosari for some reason, but she hardly notices, lost in her own thoughts.
Hound was incredibly perplexed when the leader of the group of the simple ANBU members jumped down and glared harshly with his red eyes. She showed no signs of it as she knelt by the eviscerated body, covered in blood and flesh, searching for anything else incriminating and belonging to Konoha. The stolen eye of a Hyūga was more than enough. As he neared, Hound stood without fear.
"That was our," he gestured to his group of ANBU, who'd jumped down to glower over her, all five inches of rage, "Target," he grabbed the front of her vest, "How dare you not only apprehend our target, but rip him literally into shreds! Our mission was to bring him back for questioning!"
A few paces away was Monkey, who was checking the other obliterated bodies for anything of value, looks up and emanates a wave of concentrated killer intent upon the Uchiha gripping Hound's vest. Before he can move, Shisui pulled back his fist in a fist full of hurt pride. Monkey's eyes barely process the movements of the man touted Shunshin no Shisui.
One ANBU actually gasped when the ANBU Black Ops agent in Shisui's grasp disappeared in a flash of silver-ish light and reappeared next to the other ANBU Black Ops agent in the monkey mask. His silver hair glints in the sunlight.
"Taichō," Monkey glanced at Hound, who strained to remain standing in perfect form.
'Silence,' Hound ordered. She looked up at the ANBU in the trees and then at the Uchiha. After seeing her stunt, Shisui bristled with anger. She signs 'Let's go' to Monkey and disappeared into the trees.
"Hey!" Shisui yelled after her and quickly took to the trees. He jumped from branch to branch before he laid his eyes on Hound and teleported next to her. Monkey's eyes widened but before he could utter a single sound, Shisui tackled her and wound wire around her, keeping her restrained against the tree. She made no move to struggle, having no interest in straining to show how well Shisui restrained her. Shisui noted her lack of movements and supposed that beyond pride, she didn't have enough chakra to do much after that shunshin-like stunt earlier.
"Taichō!" Monkey said.
'Silence,' Hound ordered, her eyes slid over to him in irritation, 'There appears to be something that Uchiha-san would like to say. If he does anything, I can take care of it myself.'
Shisui crossed his arms with one hand gripping the wire tightly. His red eyes fade to black, but the scowl on his face deepened. The other ANBU assembled around in the surrounding branches. The shorter, silver-haired ANBU jumped in between Shisui and Hound, "Shisui-taichō," his obsidian eye glared fiercely, "Leave her alone," he turns and reaches out with a kunai to cut the wire.
It was then that Hound's irritation shifted from Monkey to the ANBU, "How can you call yourself an ANBU?"
"What?" the ANBU stopped in his tracks, "What does that mean?" he narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but couldn't bring himself to get angry with her.
"You are unfit for ANBU duty," Hound stated formally, "Due to the fact you have no respect for another ANBU, of a superior rank no less. You must have total trust in your fellow ANBU. Yet, you doubt that I could get out of these wires and further doubt that Uchiha-san wouldn't kill me. What could Uchiha-san gain from this, killing me? Nothing."
"—ri."
"Kos…"
"Kosari," Kurenai shakes her again. "Kosari."
"You okay?" Asuma glances over at her. Kosari blinks, "What?"
"Kosari," Shikaku calls out, "You're last. Go on."
"H-hai," Kosari mutters, "My name is Kosari. I lead Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Hyūga Hinata."
The room full of Jōnin shifts with surprise and apprehension. Kosari stares at a point on the ceiling, bored. I suppose the Hokage wants the teams to be pitted more firmly against one another to provide more entertainment, seeing how there are less teams than usual this year. Danzō-sama would've just let things happen without unnecessarily preempting any fighting.
She sighs. I can almost hear all the fighting among the Genin already.
"Hey!" Sasuke calls out, unspeakably annoyed, "What do you think you're doing here?!" And burning incense?
A young boy, around ten or eleven, stands before a house.
Sasuke scowls. Kumogakure. He's a little young to be a Genin already.
He stuffs his hands in his pockets and turns around slowly, full of attitude and arrogance. Sasuke bristles with rage and strides towards the boy. The boy's reply stops Sasuke dead in his tracks, "Lots of people were killed six years ago. I'm just paying my respects. I certainly didn't see you light any incense for anyone. And yet, you wear that Uchiha crest proudly," he narrows his eyes at Sasuke, "What a joke."
Flames come rushing at the boy and burn even hotter than usual. Sasuke smirks as he feels the heat and relishes in scorching the hell out of the trespasser. No one entered the Uchiha compound without some sort of business with Kagami-ojīsan, who isn't even in the compound.
And, Sasuke knows for a fact the boy had no business with him. It was his compound and his alone.
"Good job," a voice calls out behind him.
Sasuke turns, his eyes wide.
"That is," he smirks as he flicks off a few flakes of ash, "If you want to waste chakra."
Sasuke balls his fists and his glare turns icy, "Why are you here?"
The boy falters for a moment, "I…"
Sasuke waits with thinning patience, analyzing the boy carefully. The boy hadn't set off the barrier around the compound. Sasuke knows next to nothing about the barrier, but it's obvious the boy here knew more about seals than he does if he was able to hide his presence from the barrier's detection. The Kumogakure hitai-ate on his forehead gleams in the sun above his wide smirk.
"Because I have a proposition," the boy says.
"Oh?" Sasuke almost rolls his eyes.
"Don't make that face," the boy growls, his obsidian eyes narrowing, "Let's sit at the dock."
"How do you know there's a dock here?" Sasuke demands.
"I've been walking around this compound for about an hour," the boy says, a little exasperated, "Really, it's in your best interest to hear me out."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sasuke demands, grasping the boy's shirt in his hand. The boy stares defiantly back. If someone like me can walk in and for him not to notice me, then he's a goner in the Exams. Sasuke stares into the boy's face, gritting his teeth, and then suddenly lets go of him. The boy shoots him a dark look before leading the way as he brushes off his shirt. Sasuke's hand shakes as he stares at the boy.
"Hey," the boy is about to turn a corner, "Hurry up."
Sasuke follows him, not necessarily because he wants to hear this proposal, but because he doesn't trust the boy even the slightest bit. The boy had snuck into the compound and needs supervision, mainly to make sure he doesn't do anything beyond staring at houses and lighting incense. The boy stands near the edge of the dock and his eyes cloud with his thoughts for a moment, in another world.
"What's this proposal?" Sasuke snaps his fingers in front of his face.
The boy sits and his feet dangle just over the surface of the water. He stares into his reflection and sees something he doesn't like. He squares his jaw and burns away his tears, "I don't know about all of the teams, but I have information that you would find useful. It's on nearly all of the rookie Genin teams, the nine of them. I'm a little lacking on Konoha shinobi, but the one team from Iwa, two from Kumo, one from Kiri, and one from Suna I do have information on. Since you don't trust people very easily, like me, you should know that in Kumo all Genin are given information on both notable shinobi from other countries and, if the Genin are competing in upcoming Chūnin Exams, on other Genin."
Sasuke snorts, "Some village if you can't even get anything on Konoha shinobi."
To Sasuke's surprise, the jab to the boy's village doesn't elicit any sort of response. Doesn't he even like his village? Sasuke pushes the thought away, "And? What do you want in return?"
"An alliance," the boy says seriously.
Sasuke almost rolls his eyes, having halfway expected him to say that. The boy wordlessly takes out a scroll after having sensed Sasuke's skepticism. He bites his thumb and blood brightly bleeds out. He opens the scroll with his other hand and on what looked like the only matrix; he uses his blood as ink to write out the character for 'to remember'. The matrix carries out the order faster than Sasuke could comprehend and five different matrixes appear first. Sasuke sees something that looked like it could've been a matrix for a jutsu scroll peeking out from the rolled-up part of the scroll, but the boy deftly rolls over it, showing only the five matrixes.
"This better be good," Sasuke mutters.
The boy looks at him, "Which village's Genin do you want to see first?"
Sasuke looks at the matrixes, marked with 'Tsuchi', 'Mizu', 'Kumo', 'Suna' and 'Konoha'. He points to the Konoha one.
"Interested in what I know, huh?" the boy muses before unsealing several files. He hands Sasuke his own file, "Really, it's not much."
Sasuke scans the paper, mildly surprised, "This only has my picture, birthday, rank, teammates, and number of missions completed. There's nothing on my skillset," Sasuke hands it back to him, "If all the other files are like this, I'm not working with you."
"Then," the boy hands him two files, one on Suna's team and one on one of Kumo's team, "Read these."
Sasuke reluctantly takes them and barely reads them, skimming over it. Something catches his eye and he rereads it before the color drains from his face. He rereads the papers for several minutes before looking up at the boy with suspicion, "How do I know this isn't all lies?"
The boy opens his mouth to respond, understanding Sasuke's reluctance to even join, but someone beats him to it.
"Well, what do we have here?" an older boy with a similar Kumo hita-ate waltzes up with a grin, "Oh, it's the famed last Uchiha," his voice drips with sarcasm at the last two words, "I might just have to teach you a lesson for this."
"You're…" Sasuke says. He looks at the younger boy, "You may just have a deal."
"Planning behind my back?" the boy with hair tipped with a whitish silver color crosses his arms, "Sensei might just kill you for this, you know. Come back to the hotel room now and I won't tell anyone what treachery I saw here."
Sasuke defensively in front of the boy as he rolls up his scroll, "What a fool you must be, assuming ill of your own fellow Kumo shinobi. What if he came back with information on my team and I? Would you still raise your hand against him then? Fighting is prohibited before the Exams and this would cost you and your team's chance at competing. And here I thought that Kumo shinobi had some sense about them, but I guess I'm wrong; they're all weak idiots!" Come on, show me those eyes.
The boy snarls, "Like you're one to talk! I'm stronger than you, or anyone else!" the boy strides over to him and attempts to grab Sasuke's Uchiha-style collar, but Sasuke sidesteps and backflips onto the surface of the water. He watches the boy with mild amusement after observing hesitation on his face, "What, scared of a little water?"
Something snaps within the boy and in his reckless rage, his eyes turn from a black that shines a deep green to a blood red with a single tomoe. Sasuke smirks to himself, "I see." Got you.
"Haruki, don't engage him. You'll lose face and disgrace our village," the boy hisses to his fellow Kumo shinobi, "We have another month to watch him. Don't be so hasty."
"Like a brat can tell me what to do," Haruki snaps, "Because of you, no one likes me anymore! In the Exams, don't expect me to help you even if you're dying!" he yells and storms off, jumping from rooftop to rooftop.
The boy looks at Sasuke and Sasuke looks at him, "You have a deal," he steps onto the dock, "What do you want in return? You can't just want safety in greater numbers."
The boy shakes his head, "Of course not. Him and I, even as prickly as we might be around each other, are actually close. He sees me as a rival, mainly because in Kumo I had entered the Academy two years his junior but ended up graduating in the same year as he, who had been in the Academy for six years, and I only four. And, we look kind of similar, don't we?"
"Yeah, I noticed that," Sasuke says, recalling the shininess, both of the boy's deep black and Haruki's deep green, of their round eyes, facial shape, and jet-black quality of their hair. Haruki has straighter hair, but at the roots his hair is just as dark as Sasuke's, and just as dark as the boy's, "Are you two related?"
The boy shrugs, "I don't know. Both of us are orphans."
Sasuke doesn't show the boy pity, since he understood exactly what that feels like, "Well?"
"Is there somewhere private we can talk?" the boy asks.
Sasuke nods and leads him to one of the training grounds on the compound. He takes a seat on a tree stump and gestures for him to speak.
The boy takes a deep breath, "One of the reasons I wanted an ally was because my teammates aren't trustworthy. They'd been acting strangely lately back in Kumo. I never noticed it back in the Academy and not even up until recently. After a mission, I was tasked with writing the report and needed their input. I didn't know where they lived and ended up wandering around until I saw them walking towards one of the training grounds. I trailed them and once they stopped, I saw them exchange information with an old man with a rusted hitai-ate. After my teammates left, I apprehended the man and took the scrolls and papers. They were all classified documents, a few even mentioning several Jōnin. Some were even on Haruki and myself. Half of it was in some code and the other half in neat calligraphy. A few weeks passed before they just abandoned my sensei and I to infiltrate and blow up a huge mansion on a mission. In shock, I watched them murder all these people with silver hair and green eyes," he shakes his head.
Corpses litter the ground, lightly dusted with dirt and sticky with blood. Lots of blood. Arms, toes, legs, bones, rotting flesh... In the rubble, clearly the epicenter of whatever had caused such a huge wave of death, a child cries loudly. Upon seeing another person, dragging his feet in horror at the sight of all the death and flies and bodies halved and shaking, the child weakly brings herself to her feet. Small plumes of dust rise up with each shaky step she takes and desperation shines in her glassy eyes. A single crow flies overhead, cawing before circling away.
Aside from the girl and her ragged breaths and her bare feet stepping one after the other clumsily towards him, it is completely silent.
"The silence…" he mutters, "It's been a long time since I've heard silence like this."
The girl finally reaches him and then trips. Her small hand grasps his pant leg as he reaches down to grasp a ribbon in her hair, tying a pigtail back. The ribbon easily comes undone and short hair falls to create an even more disheveled looking girl.
She looks up at him, a monster of a man, and tears streak down her face as she pleads something. Of what, he doesn't know.
So, naturally, he offers her a lollipop with a smile, "Here."
A few minutes pass before her little hand tugs his pant leg along, leading him to the rubble. She vigorously points at the pile of endless rubble and gestures for him to lift it.
Are you sure? She's been through enough. She doesn't have to see what's underneath.
He bends over and chakra courses through his veins as he strains to lift up a large beam. After straining and grunting for a few moments, he throws the beam aside to reveal a handsome teenager about sixteen or seventeen with dried blood on his head. His pained face accompanies slow and shallow breaths. He opens his eyes, a beautiful shade of forest green with specks of gold, upon sensing the slight warmth from the sun. His eyes slowly look over and catch sight of the girl, who hesitantly smiles as she grips his rough hand in her smaller one. He wheezes, barely moving his papery lips, before coughing.
He reaches out and knocks the lollipop to the ground. He glares harshly, "Leave."
Bee is slightly taken aback by the boy's rude manner but decides to give the injured boy another chance, "What happened here?"
"Damn Kumo shinobi, that's what," he crawls from the rubble before collapsing on his back, his face red with the effort.
"What?" Bee frowns.
So you're serious enough now not to rap? Finally…
"Don't play dumb," he coughs before continuing, "You sent those assassins from the Royal Guard to kill us! Don't you understand we're fighting for justice?!"
With one eye closed, a scarred and charred landscape spreads out before him, dotted with blackened shrubs and lined by a thick forest half a mile away. With the other eye, he doesn't look at the burns and cuts and dried blood, but at the very irritated Kage a few yards away from him.
"You've no chakra after teleporting so many times over so many miles in such a short time," the Kage smirks, "Even if you pull something out of your sleeve, the ANBU outpost is in the trees behind you. Retreating to the outpost and turning yourself in for killing your clan will just delay your death. Stop running around and die!" the Kage rushes towards him.
Half a mile away, ANBU shout out flurry of orders as one Black Ops agent peers through a telescope. Oblivious to the chaos around him, he stares in disbelief at the two figures battling afar. In slow motion, the telescope drops as someone shakes his shoulder and birds fly out and several ANBU prepare sealing formulas and the telescope lens cracks and falls out. One figure will die, if not from the lightning radiating from the other figure, then from his wounds. A gash on his leg, a slash on his back, a bleeding bruise—possibly a concussion—on his head, all on top of slow reaction time and low chakra reserves.
Without a second thought, the Black Ops agent springs through the trees and leaves barely rustle as he whizzes past. He doesn't see the forest around him or the branches underneath his feet. He can only see the bloody figure ahead. He can only feel the bastardly fear in his chest. He wants nothing more than not to feel it and to remain at the post, but his body moved on its own. Being around her has certainly revived some sort of feeling in me.
The Raikage smirks widely as Shisui hits the ground and his body shakes involuntarily from fatigue and his vision blurs.
I've got to make it in time!
He prepares himself to bring down his fist upon the man's stomach and gouge out his eyes to use for his village's power. After all, there was never a limit to how strong a shinobi and his village could be. Shisui's open eye widens as his life flashes in front of him.
"Tou-chan, look!" he points rudely out to one of Konoha's heroes, "That's the Shiroi Kiba, right?"
Kagami places a hand on his younger son's shoulder, "That's right. He's a very strong shinobi."
Shisui squints to see the small shadow of a girl trailing the shinobi shining in the morning sun with confidence, "Who's that?"
"That's his daughter," Nagadachi looks over at his younger brother, "She'll be in your class when the Academy starts. Since her father is highly respected, be nice to her. If I hear you've done anything to disgrace our Uchiha name, you'll regret it," his black eyes bore into Shisui's menacingly.
Shisui rolls his eyes, "Yeah, yeah."
Kagami smiles a little, "Already five and showing so much attitude."
He can hear the buzzing next to his ears and then fear sets in.
"Kushina-sensei! Minato-sensei!" a Jōnin-level Shisui comes running up to them with overflowing excitement.
The woman three months pregnant with long red hair walks with a nervous blonde man gripping her hand until his knuckles turned white turn to look at Kushina's former student. She roughly pushes Minato away and smiles brightly, "Shisui-kun! It's been a long time. Busy with your clan? Mikoto-chan was telling me all about it."
He holds out a small box and opens it. Inside is a depression where something used to be. Minato furrows his brows, "Isn't that a ring box?" then his face brightens, "So that means—"
"She said yes!" Shisui exclaims.
Shisui sees a black blur and something shatters.
Tears roll down his cheeks in pure elation and joy and mild shock. His ears ring with the still-unfamiliar sound of the defiant cry of new life breathing in his first few breaths. Shisui can't take his eyes off of the crying infant and stares in disbelief.
"I'm…" he mutters as a beam threatens to split his face in two, "I'm a father!"
Porcelain shards fall to the ground as blood sprays everywhere. The shards catch the light and gleam like polished teeth. Lightning crackles loudly before slowly dying down. His heartbeat races and makes the veins on his neck quiver with each beat. Shisui looks up to see a man looking at him from the corner of his red eye, "A-are you alright…Shisui?"
A huge and terribly deep gash spanning from the Black Ops agent's shoulder to his stomach gushes with warm blood. It drips down thickly and some sit atop the white shards. It seeps into his clothes and into the ground and into Shisui's clothes. It coats the Kage's knuckles. The agent's gloved hands grip the Raikage's fist.
"N-nagadachi…" the name is oddly foreign.
"Nagadachi!" Shisui shrieks as sobs pierce the air and his elder brother begins to fall.