… I was awakening. I opened my eyes narrowly and found that I was sitting up against a tree, an orange light filling my vision. It flared and sparkled, crackling in my ears. For a moment I looked at a wobbly orange light until my head slowly became clearer. The day's events came rushing into my head in a sudden realization. My vision became clearer and the orange blob in front of me became a fireplace with three shadowy figures lying around it. The sound of cicadas reached my ears and I felt quite calm, all things considered. I moved my green eyes to the side and wrenched a bit to feel the robes that bound my hands and feet. Someone had treated my shoulder because there was a white bandaging wrapped tightly around it. None of my clothes was removed though. I wrenched some more in silence and ended up falling sideways, landing on my good shoulder. An annoyed snort escaped my mouth when I tried to roll around on my stomach, wrenching the ropes to get them off. If I just could escape now, while they were asleep.
What a stupid situation to be in Toshi! I cussed myself for having been so weak. It was almost embarrassing, and I felt a jolt of embarrassment travel through my stomach just as I noticed a figure move from a branch in a nearby tree.
"It's no use. They absorb the chakra in your hands" A voice spoke. I frowned annoyed while looking for the source of the voice, though it was quite limited when laying on your stomach with your hands and feet bound! Two feet landed in front of me. I looked up to see the Grey – or Kaka-something; Oh' who could remember? Something scarecrow-ish… Whatever.
"I'll give you one last chance to set me free, Grey weirdo!" I snapped in a cocky way and wrestled with the robes again, trying to look upwards as much as I could. He looked rather dumbfounded and pointed at himself with one finger.
"Grey… Weirdo?" he repeated plainly.
"Are you stupid or something?" they could take me away from my village, but never my temper or pride (mwhahaha). I cleared my throat, to stop myself from making inappropriate jokes.
No seriously, I knew he could kill me in one second if he wanted to. I looked at him with a cocked eyebrow, unable to read his face, not even able to get a hint of what he was thinking… I blamed the mask for that. He bowed down in squad position and took a peep at my face. It was kind of rude and inappropriate if you asked me (not that I was the one to talk about what was appropriate or not)
"What is it that you love so much about your village, that makes you so reluctant to come with us?" he asked, voice plain with a hint of irritation which indicated that his intentions with this question was not the answer, but just random chatter to come to another topic… He was damned skilled. Besides, what right did they have to come here and take me away from my home? I choose not to answer him, and simply looked away annoyed, one eyebrow raised in a cocky way.
"You're probably thinking that we have no right to take you away. But we do. As one of the strongest villages we have responsibility to protect other people as well and you were definitely a threat to your own village" he narrowed his eyes the slightest to scan my face.
"How you can live with that, I don't get" he muttered. I pouted sullenly, no one had ever spoken to me about such things before so I didn't know how to react other than just reject and deny what he said.
"You know nothing" I hissed while looking at the flaring fire in front of me.
"Kakashi sensei? Is she awake?"- of course, Kakashi was his name. The raspy voice of the Naruto kid came from somewhere beside the fireplace. He was sitting up, hair messy and with sleepy eyes which he rubbed once, blinked and then narrowed his eyes so they became so small that I couldn't see anything but the outline of his eyes. The Jounin (a.k.a. Kakashi. Gotta get used to calling people their actual names) sighed
"Naruto go back to sleep" he said annoyance evident in his voice.
Obviously Naruto didn't take that as a command but more the less as a suggestion cause he only smiled big and jumped out of his sleepingback and walked eagerly and enthusiastic over to the Gr—I mean Kakashi and I.
"I couldn't sleep anyway" he said bluntly, eyes focused on me as if I was some sort of thing he wanted to poke. His sensei sighed heavily this time.
"Is she awake?" He took a peep at my face and scratched his hair while pouting curiously.
"Are you blind or just a moron?" I spat with gritted teeth, lifting my head to show him that I wasn't afraid.
"Huh?" this 'statement' came out rather dumbfounded from the kid and the he looked absolutely empty. Then his eyes opened in a sudden fury and there was no question about I'd pissed the kid off.
"What did you call me?" he shouted and held up a fist. Darn that kid had a bad temper, no wonder why KAKASHI (yes I said it right this time) sighed so much.
"You heard me, moron!" a smug appeared on my face. It was actually quite funny how the kid got so hotheaded in no time. He growled and clenched his fists, with a frown in his face. Hah.
"I'm going to beat you up!" he shouted and pointed (what was up with all that pointing?) at me before flinging a fist towards me. I was ready to, bite, move – whatever that could take his punch. But his hand never got to me, it was another hand that pushed me into the dirt and I almost ate some it. Actually, he pressed my head down so hard that I couldn't breathe and I wrenched underneath the pressure.
"Naruto stop, don't let her get to you. That's what she wants" Kakashi said (I couldn't see a thing so I couldn't describe any other thing than his plain voice… But you already know that)
Kakashi began to lecture Naruto, and that wasn't helping on my oxygen level. I gathered some strength and forced my head against the pressure of his hand, since the mumbling and groaning wasn't enough.
"Air!" I gasped before my face went down into the dirt again.
"Oh" was the only thing the jounin said and took his hand away.
I looked back at the two, and I could only guess that I looked insulted and pissed. Kakashi's eyebrows rose a bit, and Naruto looked at me dumbly. Then the brat cracked up in a laugh, mouth wide open and all.
"You should see yourself; you have dirt all over your face!" the kid could barely get the words out. This was quite humiliating so I looked away coldly. What the hell was I supposed to do, other than just lay at the ground? I snorted, and began to think of ways to escape. Kakashi looked at his pupil and sighed (again).
"Naruto, keep an eye out for me, will you?" Kakashi shifted a bit, looking as if he didn't want to waste his energy on what he was about to do.
"He-hey!" Kakashi rolled me around and grabbed me by my collar and pulled me up against the tree, a sudden change in his intentions DEFFINETLY evident. God, how I hated to be pushed around and being controlled!
"Let go!" I hissed and wrenched in the robes again, but with no luck whatsoever. The jounin looked serious; if he really was serious or just did it to gain a quick answer for what he was about to ask - I couldn't tell.
"Tell me. What did you do right before you blacked out?" his one dark grey eye narrowed fiercely, looking intensely at me.
"What are you talking about?" I lied, and looked away with smug. He was referring to the mind-incident.
"You know what I'm talking about!" his voice was now a bit more threatening, but he was so good at keeping everything about himself so plain and calm that it was almost creepy. Naruto peeped over his sensei's shoulder with narrowed and curious eyes, but still he looked hesitant, afraid to interrupt something important.
"I don't… Do I look like I do?" I snapped and widened my eyes at him. Perhaps that could convince him. Yeah, right Toshi… idiot.
"You did some kind of jutsu, a rare one that can't be taught easily. But you failed somehow, cause you only left me dizzy" he said and tightened the grip around the collar of my shirt.
"Listen, I don't know what the hell you're talking about. Perhaps that sharingan of yours backfired or something. What do I know?" I pushed my lower lip out and looked away, cause his gaze stared so intensely that it made me wonder if he could see through my lie.
"… You're not going to tell me are you?" he asked suddenly in defeat.
"Yeah! What did you do to Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto shouted (just a bit too late). Kakashi seemed to scan my eyes for a moment which provoked me to glare right back at him.
"She has no reason to tell us…" he muttered in conclusion. He looked at me for a short moment and then lifted me up a little bit, only to tilt me to the side (again) so I landed on my stomach with a grunt.
"Jeez—" I said before it became a muffle when my head was pushed into the dirt yet again. What cruel treatment. I could feel his gloved hand remove the hair from my neck carefully, my neck being a very sensitive area. It tickled when my hair swayed over the skin around the pearl in my neck (it always did), but my attention was moved to the low gasps that came from both ninja's. It was the mark of Eien no Honou, the purple pearl engraved in my neck they gasped at.
"Look" I could hear Kakashi mutter to his student.
"Yeah, what is that?" Naruto sounded just as amused (and a bit disgusted) as his sensei had done. I could feel his hand reach out for the pearl and that made me snap out of my observing state of mind.
I panicked if anyone touched the pearl roughly; it would be the same as releasing all of Eien no Honou's chakra in one burst! (Now, that didn't feel nice) I forced my head up in sudden panic
"Don't!" I roared and in the same instant Kakashi had grabbed Naruto's ignorant hand only inches away from my neck. I breathed out heavily in relief… That was one close call.
"Be carefull Naruto" Kakashi warned him and pushed the curious kid away from me. He stood up, leaving my on the ground and then I noticed another figure awakening from beside the fireplace.
"Jeez, it's hard to sleep with all that noise" the black haired kid sat up, his hair flat and messed on his left side of the head. Looked quite funny. (… oh just forget it!)
"You think so too Sasuke?" the pinky head popped up from her sleeping back the second after the Black had spoken. He mumbled something evasively and crossed his arms
"I'm not even tired! Can we continue to go back home Kakashi-sensei please please please?" Naruto pulled his sensei continuously in his sleeve which seemed to annoy the plain expression Kakashi had been holding so bravely all this time. He shoved his hand discreetly away from the kid
"Good idea Naruto" he said, indifferently though.
The team began to pack around me, and I just lay there, alone and ignored and with a quivering eyebrow of annoyance. Because of the time I was given to think, I noticed the fire inside that began to burn warmer. It was Eien no Honou that was beginning to get impatient, and she was beginning to influence my thoughts. Good for me that my better half still was there, telling me how stupid it would be to show them Eien now. The robes around my hands were beginning to loosen ever so slightly.
"Okay, let's get going" now I had the attention of the jounin again, who looked down at me with smiling eye(s). Sure, you can't fool me with that look.
"Woah! Hey!" he slung me over his shoulder which knocked all the air out of my lungs. Especially when you haven't eaten for a few days it feels as if there's nothing left, the place where your stomach is bending. I groaned at him and shocked myself quite a bit when my blood came rushing to my head in a very uncomfortable way (no I was not blushing, but blood tends to be effected by the gravity). Eien roared an ear deafening roar in my head.
I was suddenly dropped down again, landing with a thud on my butt. I looked up, about to shout, yell – whatever that would get to the Jounin! But, I realized that he'd felt Eien's chakra burst out of me. Before I could react though, I felt a hard knock in my head and the blackness consumed me once again.
The wind whistles in my ears like a shrill voice, rocking me roughly up and down. My head hurt like hell and felt as a heavy burden attached to my body. Oh… Now I know why; I was hanging upside down, over a shoulder. It wasn't the wind that rocked me; it was the one carrying me who was jumping from branch to branch. I opened my eyes narrowly groaning because of the pain in my stomach. The position wasn't good for stomachs especially not when the person holding you was jumping. I peeped narrowly around, still hanging limp so no one would notice that I was awake. The first thing that struck me was the question of how long I'd been unconscious. I couldn't see a thing from my current position and the gates of Konoha could be just ahead. My hands were now tied in front of me, which would make it much easier to escape from the Jounin carrying me.
I closed my eyes and prepared to make the most forceful spin that I'd ever made with tied hands and feet… Okay this was my first time… Whatever.
I flexed my muscles, turned my upper body a bit (receiving a 'hm?' from the jounin) and twisted my body so hard upwards that Kakashi dodged my uncontrollable fists once before jumping a branch backwards, while I spun countless times around before I actually began to fall downwards. I landed heavily on the ground, bending, using my hands for support as well. I found myself standing on a broad, sandy path. I didn't get to think much more when the kids lashed for me, getting me to instinctively turn at them with a hiss. Shock took over me momentarily when I saw that huge gates of Konoha towering up behind the kids which made me feel reluctantly small and insignificant.
"Wait!" Kakashi landed on the path and in front of the kids only turning his side to me.
I wasn't sure of what I was capable of with bound hands and feet, but what I did know was that my head hurt like hell and that my wounds had reopened because of that spin! I was pretty consent to the fact that I couldn't beat the damned Jounin, especially not in this state - so my only option was to just run away. A thunder echoed dully in the sky, and that was when I noticed that it was raining. Obviously was it raining a lot these days, but it looked kind of off because the sun was about to rise, creating a strange purple color. Kakashi looked at me intensely from the side, standing perfectly still.
"God! Why can't you just come with us already!" Naruto snarled in my direction taking two hand frustrated to his forehead.
"Why can't you just let me go?" I shouted back aggressively lowering my stance. Not that I had any place to go now. I didn't know the way to my village…
"We are doing you a favor, when will you understand it? Other assassins will kill you eventually. We're offering you an alternative, all things considered."
"That still doesn't justify what you're doing! You just show up without any warning, attacking me and leaving me with no options!" my voice was beginning to sound hysteric and desperate. Kakashi turned to face me fully, seeming to hold down his irritation
"It wasn't right for Sasuke to attack you" he shot the kid a glance – " But we've already told you why you have no options, and you yourself are reason enough for justifying our actions"
My face contorted in pure anger which was a reaction to the frustration I felt about not having any answer to what he'd said. I wrenched my brain for something to say, but soon realized that I was out of anything to say. I began to pant harder and cussed the raindrops that fell into my mouth, irritating me exceedingly. I backed away slowly putting one foot behind the other which sunk into the muddy path, plopping every time I lifted one foot.
"Just stay away from me! You're pathetic, bound to the rules and leader of your village!" I spat
I noticed the Naruto kid tremble again, and I bet with myself that he was ready to lash forward anytime. Kakashi stood dead still, his eyes now showing the most of seriousness that I'd seen so far.
"You three… Wait at the gate. I got this" he said, tilting his head downwards and moved his arm slowly through the air to take some kind of stance. I looked confused after the kids that obeyed with no hesitation. Panic started to spread in my body, as I stood bound in front of a strong Jounin. I lowered myself ready to jump, but just as soon as I moved he moved as well and he was there in front of me in a split second, kicking me in the stomach, knocking the air out of me forcefully. There I flew silently through the dawn until I hit a tree so hard that the wood behind me broke into a thousand pieces, piercing my back. Before his leg fell, he was there by the tree, holding his hand around my throat before I could even fall to the ground. I looked into his cold eyes and wasn't able to read anything, but only the image of a cold-hearted ninja in front of me. I grabbed his wrist as much as I could to loosen the weight in my neck. Gasping for air of all of my heart, clinging to life, tasting the metallic blood in my mouth I looked at him, terrified of what he could do to me.
"We're all tired of your whining. You shouldn't talk about things you know nothing of." he said collected but irritation was definitely evident in his voice. He tightened his grip a bit as if he was unable to control his irritation
"You—" I coughed and relented. I didn't have any strength left to ignore the massive pain that shot through my back every second and at the same time fighting with the lack of air. My lungs burned for air in the rainy dawn, pricking and drowning me inside my own body.
"Do you want to stay out here and lick your wounds in the forest, with no home and no place to go to?" he breathed and the pressure of his hand strengthened.
He was uncomfortably close which made me want to surrender only so he would take some distance. His warm breath was in high contrast to my cold and wet skin, reluctantly sucking in the last warmth I'd probably ever feel again. I looked in the direction of the kids who stood as small dots in the purple light, under the big gate of Konoha. They were all looking in this direction. Somewhere in my mind I knew he was right, but I had to deny it, there was no way that I would change my way of living. I was usually good at controlling my expression but I was afraid that my eyebrows had turned the opposite direction of angry. The sadness and panic that suddenly consumed me drowned my physical pain, and I felt as if the kick had made a gaping, empty hole through me.
"Thought so." he said collected and loosened his grip around my neck. I looked at his eyes briefly and saw sadness and pity hidden in them, and a hint of jealousy of him rushed through me before I looked to the ground where I slowly glad down the tree until I sat down in front of him. I looked at his shoes and the golden light that was cast on him from the rising sun. I felt misery and disappointment when I sat before him, like some pathetic loser. At that moment I realized that these were the first people to take SOME kind of interest in me.
"Kakashi-sensei?" The Pinky called from the gate.
The pain of the splinters came in waves and I felt his gaze on me, but didn't have any strength to look up. I probably looked plain, with unfocused eyes. He sighed.
"I'm taking her to the hokage, anyway. She's too weak to sit out here" he said back loud enough for the kids to hear. But I couldn't understand it. After all this, I would've thought that he would just leave me out here to die… Why would ANYONE take someone like me inside, after all the trouble I'd caused, why not just kill me off? I looked up at him in shock.
He grabbed my arms to make sure that I wasn't going to do anything unpredictable, and then swooped me into his arms, lifting me up in bridal style. I suddenly couldn't look him in the eyes, I felt too embarrassed and at the same time the pain worsened so much that I had to clench my eyes and grown. You can imagine how uncomfortable it is to bend in the way you do when you're lifted in bridal style.
He put his hands together abruptly and smock grew quickly around us while I felt as if I was dragged into his jutsu, consumed by his chakra and then the smock cleared and I weakly noticed a huge, orange, round building but I had a hard a time to pay attention to my surroundings. A wind took a grip in the rain which washed over me like small needles. Kakashi's footsteps lingered in my ears for some time and then suddenly the rain stopped and the surroundings were warm and light. My head yanked limply up and down in rhythm with his footsteps and it felt like forever before he stopped. I concentrated to figure out where I was and looked faintly to the side, seeing an old man with spiky hair sitting behind a desk filled with papers. Behind him were large windows that made a perfect view over the rooftops of the village.
The old man rushed up from behind his desk, almost knocking over a cup of tea in the process.
"Kakashi?" he looked at me wide eyed, almost with disgust before turning his gaze to Kakashi
"We've brought Toshi Setsuko, so team 7 has completed their mission" he said, his voice pressing with a tone of irritation.
"Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura have gone home to rest." he continued. The hokage looked at me and I closed my eyes weakly; How easy it would be to just give in to the heavy burden of my body which pressed down on my like a black blanket. Silence lingered between the two male ninja's before the hokage broke the silence
"I see she wasn't as easy as we'd thought… " he said questioningly.
"That is an understatement. She didn't match the details we'd gotten about her – one bit." Kakashi said.
"Well…" the hokage massaged his temples – "At least you brought her back alive. Good job. Now, I can see she needs treatment if she's going to survive. Bring her to Konoha hospital and deliver the rapport some time in the next few days." The hokage began to look in some of his papers
"Bu—" Kakashi was about to protest but was cut off
"And, now that you're here I could assign team 7 to guard her at the hospital to make sure that she doesn't do anything harmful to anyone. I assume that she isn't very thrilled about the idea of coming here." The hokage said and shot me a pitiful look.
"I'll give you further information when she's healed" and that was the end of the conversation. He sat down behind his desk and nipped a bit at his pipe, like everything was back to normal.
I was already getting comfortable, there, on the floor, and it would be overly satisfying if I could just lay there. Kakashi gave the hokage a surrendering nod, and bowed down to lift me up. The pain that was alleviating came back like a giant wave and I clenched my teeth hard together while pressing out a groan of pain. I had to breathe hard to deal with the pain.
Kakashi was a little unsure about what he felt. Maybe he'd beaten her a bit too much, but what else was there to do to get the stray girl to come inside Konoha? She could've died from that punch he gave her, so perhaps he had went a bit overboard, but she was terribly mischievous and ruined. Of all ninjas he'd met, and he had met a lot of ninjas, was she an outstanding case. She was utterly caught up in her own world, and was completely blind to how her own norms looked like. How the hokage wanted to make her into a leaf ninja, did he not get. It would probably be a process out of great peril, if not, was she probably incapable of any kind of change at all. That was what annoyed him. He knew that if he was assigned to be her guide to a world that (for her) was upside down – it would take a heck lot of energy and concern out of him, now when he had enough in Naruto and Sasuke.
He raced along the rooftops with the blonde in his arms knowing that she was in pain. But she deserved it. Now she could feel the pain that she'd inflicted on other people. But deep down he just pitied her. He knew that if you had turned out the way that she had, you definitely were in mentally pain.
She groaned a couple of times, but kept silent otherwise until he landed in front of the hospital, pushing the doors open with his one leg, trudging inside, soaking wet from head to toe. A secretarian looked curiously up from her desk, and adjusted her glasses; one glance from Kakashi and she knew what to do. She called after a nurse over the speakers and after some silent minutes – with a limp girl in his arms – an overstrung little nurse appeared.
"O' dear! What happened to her?" she asked, eyebrows furrowing in compassion for the criminal blonde in his arms. Well… She didn't know Toshi, only that she needed treatment.
The nurse's objective point of view eased Kakashi's view on the blonde the slightest and he let himself relax some more, looking forward to letting the nurses handle the criminal.
"I just came home from a mission, and I'm sorry to say this, but she's only a criminal who needs some medic attention." he said, eyes softening a bit. The nurse's expression didn't change, she still looked very concerned.
"Oh' my" she said and mentioned Kakashi to go with her. The nurse's footsteps were quick and stressing, and it seemed like forever before they reached a room. The nurse shot Kakashi a nervous glance and pointed to a surgery table. He didn't blame her though. He probably looked scary to her, especially when he was this wet and grumpy.
"Put her there, please." she said. Kakashi was about to put the blonde down but stopped.
"I better put her on her stomach. I think that her back is severely injured" He said, and rolled her out of his arms. Toshi gasped in pain and clenched her eyes tightly.
"What was that? Is she still conscious?" the nurse squeaked and began to fumble after some anesthetic.
Kakashi stood there for a moment looking at Toshi's back. The clothes were soaked in blood; it'd probably left a stain at the hokages floor… He turned around when a doctor appeared in the doorway, carrying a piece of paper in his hands.
"What do we have here." he asked not looking up from his paper.
Kakashi stepped a bit into the background, feeling somewhat curious about how bad her back was, though he really wasn't in the mood for looking at wounds and blood. He was actually quite tired after the mission, and the jutsu-thing she'd done to him had made him a bit light-headed all day.
"A patient who needs treatment immediately" the nurse said and put the needle of the syringe into the blonde's arm.
The doctor rushed over to Toshi's limp body, handing out commands to the overstrung nurse. He began to cut open Toshi's clothes with a chakra string. Carefully the doctor picked off the blouse that was like glued to her wounds and the nasty sound that came made Kakashi cringe briefly and look away. But when the nurse gasped loudly he looked back, and his eyes twitched by the sight. He had expected her back to be covered in blood, but was sure that it had just been the rain that had made it so dramatic. But everywhere were splinters of wood stuck in her back, blood pouring out from every spike and out of the ripped flesh.
"I'm sorry Mr. Hatake, but I'll have to ask you to leave." the doctor said and grabbed for the cleansing the nurse was offering.
"Of course" he said with a shrug and performed the art of evaporating discreetly.
He walked through the hallway, recalling the many times he'd been in here. A shiver ran through him; he hated to be in the hospital. He ignored the wet sleeves that glued to his arm and ruffled the water out of his hair, no one was looking anyway, and who would mind a few drops of water on the floor?... All things considered was he glad that the mission was over and that he could go home to read his book. The blonde weren't going to wake up anytime soon.