Chapter 3 – Political Ties and Pulled Strings
oOo
Anbu-san took her to a tavern in one of the small colonies just outside Grass's borders. It was her first time being in one, but she didn't feel afraid of all the rowdy men laughing and arguing with each other. Instead, she mused that this place was kind of similar to a brothel, except that it was filled with more men than women. Even so, people gossiped about their partners and joked and laughed and argued all the same. Surprisingly, she felt quite at home.
A few odd glances and confused chuckles were sent in her direction, but she just stared back at their sources unrepentantly, taking care to stay close to Anbu-san, because that man glided through the crowd like a shadow, and she worried she might lose him if she wasn't careful.
He found a table and sat, and she sat next to him, shuffling awkwardly and fidgeting impatiently in her seat. It was obvious that he was waiting for someone, and only then did she realize that somewhere in between their walk and arrival, he had removed his mask and now appeared to be an everyday traveler or merchant with his worn cloak and layered clothing.
She stared openly at his face, and he didn't bother to look at her, though unbeknownst to her, he was resisting the urge to snap at her that staring was rude. He had a feeling she wouldn't care in the slightest regardless. Then she scowled slightly, still scrutinizing his face, and he raised an eyebrow questioningly at her.
It wasn't giving in, he told himself. Technically he hadn't said anything.
She just shook her head and snorted.
"I can't believe I've been taking you so seriously," she griped into the palm of her hand as she rested her elbow on the table. "You're just a teenager."
The remark did not offend him, he told himself. He could not possibly be offended by a four-year-old. He was trained better than that. Who had taught this brat to speak so well anyways? She should still be in the 'gimme' stage, or maybe the 'I want that' stage. I mean, sure, he'd been a mature kid, too, but he had been trained to be a ninja. She was just a stray Hyūga kid raised by civilians. Civilian kids were supposed to be normal. Or were they? Come to think of it, he wasn't friends with any civilian kids.
"How old are you anyways?" she asked, and he firmly told himself he wouldn't answer. He would stay professional and not say a word. He would not answer to the likes of a child, nor was he under any obligation to, regardless of the blow his pride took…
"Nineteen," he muttered through clenched teeth. Man, fuck kids, always knowing exactly how to get under people's skin. She looked delighted that he'd actually responded, and he resisted the urge to sigh.
"Well, well, look what the Cap dragged in," a voice drawled, interrupting her glee and his irritated silence. The girl's head turned to see a woman kick a seat out from the table and sink into it casually, draping an arm across the back of the chair before letting her amber eyes flicker to the young girl.
"What's she?" the woman scoffed. "Bait?"
The girl smiled and the woman's eyes narrowed.
"Find something funny, brat?" she asked, but the girl's smile only widened.
"I know you," she said, before glancing at Anbu-san. He stared at her for a moment and then returned his attention to the woman.
"Junko," he greeted her sagely. "This is the new addition to my team." The dark-haired woman nodded slowly, slowly shifting her piercing gaze from the girl to the young Anbu.
"Right," she drawled, every note dripping sarcasm. "And I'm the Sage of Six Paths. Whatever you say, Captain. Why am I here?"
"To get the council to approve her."
Junko stared at him in flat deadpan, the silence drawing out rather awkwardly.
"You're joking."
The man remained silent and she sighed, letting her head loll backward on the chair.
"Y'know I can't do that, Cap. I'm retired, and my old connections aren't as strong as they used to be. Even if I wanted to, I'd be hard pressed to get those guys to accept a fucking toddler as a soldier. Grass is struggling, but they aren't that desperate."
"The Daimyo favors you," he pressed, and Junko just sighed.
"He favors my kekkei genkai, which if you remember, I don't even use anymore."
"Only because Kiri shamed you for it," the man argued, and she groaned. "The Daimyo of Grass has little to do with the Mizukage, so that argument is void here."
There was a long silence as she scowled, thinking things through.
"I can't make any promises, but I'll do my best to pull some strings," she answered finally. "But you owe me huge. If I ever need anything, you better be first in line."
"Done," he answered immediately, and Junko smirked victoriously.
"You also owe me a drink. I've been travelling for three days straight, and I'm still a fucking century and a half from the Land of Water."
He snorted and tossed a few coins on the counter before standing.
"We'll be on our way then," he said, and she slid the coins into her own hand.
"Fine, fine, you socially constipated shit. I'll get a drink on my own." She offered the young girl a sympathetic glance.
"Hon, don't inherit this guy's fuckin' attitude, kay? He's a total stick in the mud, so you're gonna have to fight to have a good time. Good luck."
The girl offered her an unfairly adorable smile and nodded. Junko ruffled her hair, because damn the little one was cute, all doe eyes and bright smiles, before sidling up to the bar as Anbu-san headed toward the exit, his expression very carefully not pissed off, because that was unprofessional. And no, he was not being a stick in the mud, he was simply following orders and being professional. Because that was his job. To be fucking professional.
Kami, kunoichi were frustrating. And if the rumors were true and Junko's retirement had been due to pregnancy, well, he never had been good with infants, and he was not going to be guiled into babysitting, debt owed or not.
He would save her from an assassin or two, maybe tip her off when she was on a hunter-nin's hit list, but he was no babysitter, no sir. Not him. Even the toddler following him silently didn't count. She was more of… a package. A necessary asset for him to complete the mission he'd been given. His aforementioned package latched onto his hand as he moved toward the exit and he jerked his fingers away instinctively, before immediately regretting it. Awh, hell, if she started crying because of his callous mannerisms in the middle of a tavern…
She just mindlessly latched onto his pants as high as she could reach and kept walking, as if she'd barely noticed.
He realized then that she was simply trying her best not to get left behind in the crowded room, not searching for physical comfort, and he relaxed slightly, allowing a small sigh of relief to escape his lips. That was acceptable for a package.
oOo
"Again."
"Don't wanna."
Anbu-san glared at her as she pouted, sticking her lip out.
"Again," he repeated, his voice now laced with venom, and she grumbled under her breath, but obeyed, once more running through the makeshift obstacle course he had somehow set up in two minutes flat in the middle of nowhere. The first few times it had been fun. She'd crawled through tunnels and climbed up trees and sprinted in zig zags across creek beds with a sense of freedom and glee.
Now, however, the sun was high in the sky, her body ached, she was sweaty and grimy, and more than anything, she was hungry.
This new concept of playtime seriously sucked.
"How did you know Junko?" he asked, distracting her from her pained efforts. She took advantage of the question as an excuse to collapse on the ground with a huff.
She'd seen Junko near the brothels, of course, because how else would a Grass brat like her know anyone from anywhere? Of course, Junko hadn't been looking for a night with a man, (or a woman, she didn't judge) but had been smoking a cigarette on the corner, speaking to a few men in low voices.
She knew people like Junko, and people like those men. They were the snakes, and she was their Queen, pulling their strings so that they could bare their fangs at whomever she pleased. She had been warned to always avoid those people, because thugs and thieves were one thing, but the dealers of the underworld were quite another, and the Matron had warned her once of the black market.
It will sink its fangs into you if you get too close, the woman had told her, her voice husky and low. It will rip the morals from your heart and the sanity from your mind. They rule the illegal trade, the smuggling of goods, the organized crime, and a cute little thing like you would be torn to pieces the moment you were seen. Then she had cackled loudly, making her jump. Great advice from an old whore, eh, girl?
The girl turned her gaze to the sky. She liked this quiet peace away from the village, and away from the danger of the akasen of Grass. Even if only new dangers were ahead, she liked it.
"Just saw her once," she answered honestly, rolling onto her stomach and stretching out in the grass like a cat, relieving the ache in her muscles. "Never knew her name or anything."
Anbu-san hummed his assent before his eyes turned cold and sharp.
"Get up and do it again."
She whined and pouted, flopping over onto her back. Why was he being such a slave driver?
"You will do this course one hundred times every day, until you can complete it as a morning warmup."
She gaped at him, her eyes wide as saucers.
He did not react. It was not adorable, he told himself firmly. And he was certainly not amused by the disgust and horror on her aghast features. He felt nothing but a small trickle of amusement toward her reaction of the training she would have to endure. He was Anbu, and therefore he felt little to no emotion, because that was what was expected of him.
He certainly did not crack a smile behind his mask when she dragged herself to her feet and wobbled over to the course, shooting wounded expressions over her shoulder every few seconds.
It was not cute.
oOo
A month passed with surprising swiftness, and then two, and then three. She was fast now, and she couldn't squeeze her belly and make it look weird because hard muscles were emerging beneath the skin and ruining her fun. She found out that Anbu-san had a lazy eye, and it was really weird, and also that he hated pickled fish. She learned that he was kind of awkward, and didn't really like to linger and speak to his fellow Anbu comrades, despite the fact that as far as she knew, he was a Captain, and therefore should have a squad. Of course, she didn't know for sure, because it was Anbu, and they thrived on being mysterious and secretive and cool.
She'd stopped asking about it when he doubled her warmup exercises. Apparently talking about his old friends made him stingy and grouchy. Instead, she just tried to find new ways to one up him, whether by trying to sneak up on him in the night or by stuffing his food with bugs.
(The former made him instinctively impale her in the arm with a senbon and made her wail for hours, while the latter earned her a poisonous stare and a new workout regime that made her puke disgustingly copious amounts of fluid once she finally finished.)
Then there was one day when he just vanished. She woke up and he was gone, and she was left alone at their little campsite in the Land of Water.
They'd been gradually travelling across the map as she trained, and though she wasn't sure why, she did love seeing new terrain every couple of days. The pace he pushed was brutal, and the bastard didn't even stop when she puked, or when the bandage on her arm got caught on a tree branch and ripped open the old scar, or even when she sat down with a pout and insisted that she couldn't move another step.
He just kept going until she panicked and ran on her little legs as fast as she could to catch up. Anbu-san really was the worst. But now he was gone, and she was in a land of killers. Bloody Mist had a worse reputation than even Kusa, and she was outside its borders, but still felt more vulnerable than she ever had with Anbu-san at her side, alone in the Land of Water. Mist was the village that started that whole mission that killed her mother, and here she was dancing on the thin line of their territory. Sure, there was a massive body of water between them to cross, but what kind of obstacle was that to ninja who had lived around water their entire lives? It was basically home field advantage, and now she was alone.
When there was no sign of Anbu-san after forty-eight hours, she decided she had to move. She would starve to death if she didn't do something, or freeze if the temperature got to her first. She was too small to stay still for too long, even with her warmups. (Which she still did, even though he wasn't there, because she was scared that he secretly was watching her and would kick her ass again if she tried to skip out.)
She cried silently as she hunted, scared out of her mind of running into anything living besides game, particularly bloodthirsty Mist nin, and then sniffled, scrubbing at her eyes furiously so that she could see properly. It only made it worse.
She managed to catch a rabbit with the only snare she knew, which was the most basic one there was, but then couldn't bring herself to kill it and let it go. Squirrels were mean little fuckers, and so were raccoons, so them she could hunt. But rabbits were hard. Rabbits were soft and quick and gentle, and she wasn't meant to be a killer.
She settled for stealing some vegetables from a nearby farm and then high tailing it out of there as fast as she possibly could, because even Land of Water civilians terrified her. The squirrels and raccoons were too sneaky for her embarrassingly basic snares, and it was too cold to fish without risking her limbs actually freezing, so she munched on her vegetables in silence and tried to remember how to light a fire.
It didn't work. She had no idea.
She wondered if she was supposed to have been watching Anbu-san all this time, not only getting fast and strong but learning how he lived in the wild, without anything but a couple of weapons. She hoped not, because she hadn't been watching. She hadn't paid attention to shit. She cried a little after she ate too, because few things were more frightening than being a four year old alone near an enemy village with nowhere to go and no one to save her.
Mist doesn't protect its children, either, she thought miserably. They wouldn't help her. This sucked worse than cold, half ripened vegetables. And she would know. She had just choked down a bunch.
She woke up stiff and blue in the fingers and toes the next morning, and standing hurt. She ran through her warmup again, because this might still be a test, or some really, really sick joke.
"I'm sorry I put a snake in your bedroll," she sniffed, once she finished her exercises and stretched a little extra just to keep warm. The weedy trees around her were silent, and offered no reply. "I'm sorry I stole all of your senbon and tried to melt them together into a sword." Only the frosty wind answered, and she hiccupped, rubbing her red nose and then wincing because now it just hurt, just like her ears and eyes and toes. "I'm sorry I soaked your socks in the river and let them freeze overnight."
She sat down on the ground, her stomach rumbling tellingly, and her lower lip wobbled.
"Anbu-san," she whined pitifully. She didn't want to die out here. She didn't want to die at all.
She wished she'd eaten the stupid rabbit.
Finally, as the sunlight began to shift and fade, marking the end of her third day alone, she decided that she would have to face them. Face the nearest village, try to blend in, and find her way to shelter and food. The night was only getting colder, and her fingers had already started to crack and bleed a little. If she stayed much longer, she was going to die.
So she walked. Sometimes she jogged, especially when the wind blew, because it rattled her teeth and seemed to chill her bones, and she wondered if she might actually turn into ice if she didn't pick up her pace to warm up. But she came to a dead standstill when she reached the edge of the trees and stared down at the tiny settlement below. She studied the people for a good hour, picking out the orphans and beggars and memorizing the details of how they looked, how they acted, how they shuffled from one place to the other. She saw the familiar glowing red lanterns in a distant alley and realized that unlike a Hidden Village, this place was nearly entirely lower class based, and really could only be described as the slums.
And didn't it really just say something that she felt more at home with it that way?
She adjusted her clothing and wore it down a little more so she looked just a bit frayed at the edges. (It really didn't take much—seventy-two hours in the freezing cold with little food did most of the work for her.) Then she crept down the hill and slipped into the crowds, shuffling like she used to on her nights in the akasen. It did not bring back pleasant memories.
She took her time picking a target. She was starving and cold, but one wrong step could get her shanked instead of a deal. She spotted a boy leaning against a corner, his distrustful eyes scanning the crowd, and smiled slightly. He couldn't be older than twelve, and he was searching for something.
She slipped into the shadow of the wall and he turned on her immediately before she got anywhere near his back.
"Get lost," he snapped, widening his stance.
"I just wanna talk," she answered back, forcing herself to keep her hands relaxed at her sides.
"Got somethin' to trade?" he asked suspiciously, his eyes never leaving her.
"Got somethin' to give?" she inquired curiously.
"We ain't got room for freeloaders," he snapped, and her grin widened.
"I've got information," she offered, and his eyes narrowed, dark eyes suddenly intrigued. This boy knew something, she realized. She had no idea what, or what it had to do with, but only certain people were interested in information rather than tangible goods.
"What kind?" he asked slowly, and her smile turned icy.
"Got somethin' to give?" she repeated. He scowled, and then jerked his head to the left, jutting out his chin.
"We got a hideout. But you gotta be useful. We don't like—"
"Freeloaders," she finished for him with a huff. "I get it, kay?"
"No. We don't like spies," he growled at her, his eyes suddenly cold. Her own body stiffened, hiding her fear, because she knew what a statement like that meant, and suddenly she was not staring at a boy, but at a viper, coiled and ready to spring.
"No problem," she smiled, welcoming the fangs, and he nodded shortly, apparently convinced.
Black Market, her thoughts whispered, little more than a hiss.
Moments later she was in the back room of an office building that was little more than an abandoned concrete shack, with vines growing from cracks in the walls and the ceiling, but she was biting into a half loaf of stale bread and she had to consciously hold back tears, because she'd been so scared, and she still was, but she wasn't going to die, not yet, because they fed her. She would live just a little longer.
And Anbu-san could go jump off a cliff.
The boy next to her stiffened, and she turned her eyes slowly to a new presence that had just entered the dingy room. The girl standing in front of them couldn't have been older than fourteen, dressed in little more than a tattered kimono style dress with the sleeves torn off. Despite her dirt smudged features, however, she was almost depressingly beautiful. Her auburn hair curved around her face in sharp layers, covering one emerald eye while the other stared her down hard.
"Mei," the boy greeted her, his voice demurring to a much more respectful tone than the girl had ever heard from him before. She ignored him, her icy glare boring straight into the girl's purple eyes.
"What kind of secrets?" she demanded calmly, and the girl slowly took another bite of bread, chewing deliberately and staring right back at the beautiful street orphan.
Women rule this world, if you only look closely enough, the Matron's words echoed in her ears, and in front of Mei, that suddenly didn't seem so far-fetched. She ignored the venomous glare the boy shot her at her obvious lack of respect, and finally swallowed. Then she laughed, and Mei stiffened. The boy palmed a knife, clutching it threateningly, but the girl didn't care in the slightest, because Anbu-san was much scarier than that boy, and he was holding his knife all wrong.
"Secret secrets," she answered with a grin, daring Mei to attack her herself, because what kind of leader was too scared to fight her own battles? "I know lots of things."
"You'll have to be more specific than that, little one," Mei smiled daggers, her voice pleasant, and only received a snicker in return.
"I spent a lot of time in brothels growing up," she told Mei honestly. "A lot of important people came. Nobles, feudal lords, the occasional Jonin… they have lots of things to talk about in front of a naïve civilian child waiting in the front room." The little girl's smile faded slightly. "Do you know what they're starting to call the Hidden Village here in Water?"
"Bloody Mist," the boy interjected heatedly. "Because the shinobi of the Land of Water are strong, and they aren't cowards. They aren't like Leaf's peace-loving fools weak with their own compassion. That's useless information, we already know our own land. We fear no one."
"Quiet," Mei chided calmly, and the boy lapsed into reluctant silence, his dark eyes brooding.
"Fear no one," the girl repeated with a small smile. "Is that why Bloody Mist is losing the war?"
The boy lunged at her, his knife flashing, and she caught the blade in her teeth as he swiped at her face, wrenching it out of his grip with a twist of her neck. It cut into the corner of her mouth and the coppery taste of blood flowed over her lips.
Ooh, that was lucky! She thought a little frantically. If she'd bit down a moment later her jaw might have been sliced clean off. That boy was fast. Next time, she'd have to learn how to properly block. Damn, why hadn't Anbu-san taught her how to do that?
"Zabuza! Control yourself!" Mei's words were sharp as the boy's blade as Zabuza shoved the girl back on the ground before returning to his place against the wall, hands clenched into fists. He sneered at her, but turned away when Mei met his eyes.
"I suggest you make your point quickly," Mei advised darkly, her slanted gaze turning to rest on the girl. She spat the knife out on the ground, staining the floor red.
"This place is like the place I'm from," she told Mei, sitting up slowly and spitting blood onto the floor as she brushed herself off. "Your Daimyo doesn't care about the people, and the officials in charge are ruthless and ignorant. They are wallowing in riches while the common people starve." The girl wiped her mouth with her sleeve, eyes flashing. "Look around you. You already know how it is."
Mei didn't answer, her eyes dark and waiting, her attention never leaving the little girl. She spoke too well, Mei thought, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck rise. She switched randomly from childlike to adult-like in an instant, but why? Because Zabuza attacked her?
She also possessed raw strength. Enough corded muscle in her neck to loosen the grip of a boy three times her age. She wasn't skilled, or trained in taijutsu, nor did she have the telltale signs of being a ninja, but there was strength, and there was deception. Raw potential to be molded. Perhaps she could manipulate this one, use her false innocence in their smuggling trade.
It was amazing the things the homeless and starving would do for a chance at survival.
"I know where Kusa plans to place their allegiance," she stated blandly. "You're interested in the outcome of this war, aren't you?"
"Grass is neutral," Mei reminded the little girl, who just smiled back at her.
"Not anymore. You can thank Leaf for releasing a monster into their subdistricts," she answered quietly. "Publicly, Kusa remains neutral, but beneath the surface…"
"Grass wants to see Leaf burn," Mei breathed. "How do you know this?!"
"I'm just a kid," she shrugged. "No one cares what I hear."
"And what does that have to do with Kiri?" she asked slowly, her green eyes piercing. "Tensions are rising everywhere, entire countries pushing their neighbor's borders—"
"Because not everyone in Kusa appreciates being ignored by their Daimyo," she interrupted. And thanks to Anbu-san, who'd been educating her in Mist's politics as they neared the Land of Water, she knew Grass wasn't alone in such thinking. "What's happening there is starting to happen here, and if history repeats itself…"
Mei stared at her, her expression unreadable.
"A revolution is starting to ignite in Kusa, and all the variables that caused it are present here in the Land of Water."
Zabuza scowled and Mei blinked.
"What would you have me do about it?" Mei questioned quietly. "Our trade is simple and cost effective. I'm no manager of political affairs, only of a simple market. The girl snorted, and Mei suddenly felt like she'd walked straight into a trap.
"Just a simple market, huh?" the girl smiled again, and Mei cursed inwardly for even admitting to that much. Little kids had big mouths, and now she might be forced to tie up this loose end here. Then the girl casually stuck a finger up her nose as she answered the teenager's previous question. "I wouldn't have you do anything," she answered bluntly. "I hate this place."
Mei tried not to look disgusted, but wasn't quite sure she succeeded. From the corner of the room, Zabuza snorted.
"What if it were the place you were from?" Mei asked, now intrigued. "The place you said was like Kiri?"
She shrugged, examining her finger, which (thankfully) came out dry.
"Watch it burn, probably."
Mei shivered, and the dark-haired girl snickered.
"Man, you're weird! Asking what I would do? I just came here looking for food."
"And you received it," Mei returned coldly. She suddenly was struck with an idea of how exactly to tie up this particular loose end. "I'll let you have another meal in exchange for a favor, and if you succeed, you can join us and eat as much as you want."
The girl brightened and nodded before Mei even had a chance to explain.
"Done," she answered seriously.
Zabuza smirked and Mei smiled.
What an idiot.
oOo
"My market is a trade conglomerate divided into several sub sections," she informed the girl, "Understand?"
"Sure," she lied, leaning back against the wall and munching on a slice of meat, (real meat! Not half ripened vegetables!) and pretended to look interested with little success.
"My sub section is involved with… metalwork, I guess you could say," Mei murmured with a slight smile, and the girl smiled and nodded, playing the fool.
Weapons smuggling, but to and from who?
"Recently, we've had caravans go out, and the supplies is delivered, but the escorts don't return. Which means, basically, the number of people in my business is shrinking. It's shrinking a lot. If you find these people, return them to me and I'll let you off the hook."
"Why don't you just talk to the guys you send your stuff to?" the girl asked curiously, and Mei offered her a simpering smile.
"I can't leave my station," she answered sweetly. "I'm in charge here, and everything would go to shit if I left violent brats like him in charge." She nodded to Zabuza, who grunted, but didn't disagree. "It's a delicate network."
"You gonna tell me where you send your stuff?" the girl asked. "Or is that 'delicate' too?"
Mei's smile turned cold.
"I'll give you your destination, little one," she promised. "But watch that sharp tongue of yours, or I'll let Zabuza cut it out."
Mei smiled cheerfully, mirroring the girl's expression, and pulled out a marked map. "Follow this, and you'll meet the man receiving the deliveries. It's not far, so you shouldn't have a problem."
The girl stared at the map for a moment and Mei felt a flash of uncertainty as a hint of something wild and dark flitted across the young girl's face before just as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished.
"You want me to go to Mist." The girl's voice was uncharacteristically flat, and Mei saw Zabuza tense, one hand going for the hilt of a weapon. Had she miscalculated?
"Yes. Deliveries alternate between Wave, Whirlpool, and Kiri, but most of the disappearances were with this man in Kirigakure." She met the little girl's eyes. "Fair enough?"
The girl smiled once more, but after the flat, dead statement before, it now looked unnatural and threatening.
"Okay. I'll chase down your workers." She was silent as she rolled up the map and stuck it down her shirt. She walked to the door and lifted a hand. "Later."
Just like that, she was gone, and Zabuza snorted once the door was closed.
"No morals at all," he muttered with a smirk. "Sending a little kid walking straight to her death."
"That little kid just guessed our trade after a few words," Mei shot back. "We can't afford to leave loose ends. Our revolution will collapse before it begins. I won't allow that to happen again."
Zabuza's face twisted with something unreadable as the taste of bile burned the back of his throat, accompanied by a hot wave of regret. He just grunted in reply and turned away.
oOo
It didn't take long to smuggle herself into the island Mist was on, stowing away on one of the smaller merchant boats and eating out of the crates to progressively make more room for herself. Actually getting into the hidden village was much more difficult. Mist nin made sweeps of the perimeter regularly, monitoring both land travel and water, revealed to her by a ninja with a set of strange breathing goggles attached to his face as he rose from beneath the water to allow them passage. She'd had to abandon her hiding place before it was searched, and walk along the outskirts of the village, searching for a way in. Tall cylinders of concrete stuck out of the ground like tubes, square windows cut out of them at random intervals. The air tasted heavy and metallic with humidity, and true to its name, mist hung over the village like a wet blanket, chilling the air and making her involuntarily shiver.
She hated this place. She hated it with a passion. These were the people that fought Leaf in the war. They were the ones, along with Leaf, that abandoned her homeland and ignored the terrifying manifestation of chakra and fury they'd unleashed on her village. These were the selfish ones who cared nothing of others, and the truth was in the name itself.
She waited for the next boat, standing close to the docks, and patiently waited as the travelers were asked to step out of the boat as their belongings were searched. She stood close to one of the women, trying to appear as a daughter, and got back on the boat close behind the adult. No one blinked twice, but it was a large boat, and what kind of threat could a toddler possibly pose?
She toddled off on her own as soon as the ninja were out of sight, still shuddering from the experience of seeing them up close. They were formidable, ninja were. They stood tall and towered over her with their haunted gazes and dull forehead protectors, making the hair on her neck rise and her hands turn cold every time she made the mistake of meeting their eyes. They sneered at her curious gaze, and she didn't blame them.
They were strong, fierce, deadly… she was little more than an ant in their eyes. A pebble to a mountain. Yes, ninja were formidable, especially Bloody Mist's, and she hated them as much as she feared them. But she smiled and wandered around, steadily drawing nearer and nearer to her intended destination.
Her heart began to pound in her chest, fear slithering into her veins.
Never get involved with the Black Market, the Matron had warned, and here she was at its hidden doorstep. She was near the regular Market, and the loud calls of the merchants announcing their products and Mist civilians haggling prices settled pleasantly on her ears, reminding her that she was not in the slums, and she did not have to walk as if she were trash being blown in the wind, hoping she wouldn't be burned to ash. She did not have to tuck herself away and hide from predators.
She only had to be reasonably paranoid and keep track of her meager belongings as well as she could, until she reached the house.
Just like most of the other buildings, the structure was a perfect cylinder, jutting from a well-manicured lawn like a wide, ugly tube. She saw the corner of a small pond shimmering in the back yard, the natural mist hanging low over the dark water.
Wealthy from his trade, she realized blankly, and wondered how it worked that Mei lived on the streets and he lived in the middle-class districts when they were both involved in the same industry.
What a weird industry the black market is, she thought vaguely as she approached the front door. A huge man was standing guard on the porch, leaning back on a bench with his foot resting on his knee, the very image of relaxation. Well, maybe he would've been if not for the jagged edged sword dangling from his fingertips like an extension of his sharpened teeth.
He watched in utter disbelief as the little girl toddled up to him, pausing uncertainly in front of the door. Of all the homes, she chose the only one with a two-hundred-pound giant of muscle to beg from? Perhaps she wasn't quite right in the head.
"Get lost, brat," he growled, and she jumped, turning to face him and visibly swallowing. He smirked as he watched the little color in her face drain slowly. Yes, run away, he thought wryly. Back to your little street rat friends.
"Uh," she fumbled with her hands, stumbling over her words. "Are you Mei's friend?"
His eye twitched and she shivered. He paused, because he had once hooked up with a chick named Mei, but he highly, highly doubted they were talking about the same person, and that girl had been killed in a drunken bar fight by Kiri soldiers anyways. It was a real shame, actually. Careless idiots too strong for their own good were hazards when they got drunk.
"Mei makes deliveries here," the girl tried again, and the guard stiffened slightly because that kind of thing did sound familiar, but there was no way… there was just no fuckin' way…
"And I'm supposed to talk to her friend that gets 'em," the girl continued hesitantly, scratching her head awkwardly, and man, she looked adorable like that, but the guard violently squashed the errant thought and assured himself that he could definitely kill this girl if she turned out to be a threat to his boss's trade.
"You got a name?" he grunted, and she rocked back and forth on her feet, debating his question (but why? It wasn't exactly a fuckin' hard one, was it?) when the door suddenly opened.
"My, my, what do we have here?"
A man dressed in standard, if a little higher quality civilian clothes stood in the doorway, his thick beard just as immaculately trimmed as his lawn. Shaded glasses obscured his eyes beneath his thick eyebrows, despite the fact that the sun was hidden, just as it was nearly every day in Mist, and the girl glanced nervously between the guard and his boss.
"Street rat," the guard grunted. "Lookin' for someone who knows some girl named Mei."
There was a pause, and the guard blinked slowly before turning his eyes suspiciously to his boss.
"Mean something to you?" he grumbled, but the man just smiled pleasantly.
"Really, Hoshigaki-kun, you shouldn't be so rude to such a sweet child, coming all this way just to see us. Tell me, little one, how is Mei doing? She's an old friend of mine."
The little girl smiled hesitantly and clasped her hands behind her back.
"She's bossy," the little girl said bluntly, but honestly. "But good. She wants to know where her workers are."
The guard's eyes flashed and his boss shot him a warning glance.
"Why don't you come in, out of the cold for a bit? We can talk about it inside." He smiled a sugar-coated smile, mirroring hers, and she shrugged.
"I kinda just wanna know where they are. I don't really like it here."
"Oh?" he raised an eyebrow. "That's probably because you've only seen the… older parts of Kiri. Would you like to see something more refined?" he gestured to his house.
"No," she answered, not interested in the slightest, and the guard snorted, before passing it off as a strangled cough when his boss shot him a withering glare.
"Well then, at the very least, let me bring you some tea, and we can both sit here on the porch while we discuss it. Fair enough?"
She nodded agreeably, because damn, if it was gonna be that long of a conversation, she might as well have a hot drink. She'd hoped he'd just say, 'oh, they were killed by bandits' or 'oh, they got caught by the authorities and were detained' and she could just be on her way. She sighed as he walked back into his home and plopped down cross-legged on the ground.
"Too smart to walk into a stranger's home, eh?" the guard chuckled, low and deep. "Smart girl, aren't you?" In his not so humble opinion, she was an idiot for coming here at all. Any mention of his boss's 'business' was going to get her killed, just another kid's corpse to add to the war casualties decorating the streets of the slums. She was already a dead girl walking.
"Fuck off," she mumbled, breathing warm air into her hands and selecting another of the phrases she'd picked up from the women of the brothels. He choked, actually coughing for real this time, because shit, he hadn't expected that, and looked at the girl with renewed intrigue.
"I'm doing a favor, I don't just go around picking scary people to talk to," she mumbled crossly, because he'd definitely implied something along those lines.
"Think I'm scary?" he asked tauntingly, and she squinted at him, taking in his greyish blue skin and woah, were those sharpened teeth?
"Were you born with your teeth that way?" she breathed, totally impressed, and in spite of himself, he felt a light blush color tinge his face because, man, he'd been mocked and hated as an unnatural monster for most of his life, and here was someone who was almost complimenting him.
"It's kind of trademark here," he answered with surprising honesty. "Lots of ninja do it."
"It looks cool," she complimented distantly, staring at her hands. "But it also makes me nervous. Like you plan on biting people." She wrinkled her nose. Gross.
Only in Bloody Mist, she judged.
"That's the point, kid," he informed her, amused in spite of himself. There was a silence while they were both left to their own thoughts.
"I tried that once," she said suddenly, glancing at him. He raised an eyebrow. "Biting someone," she clarified, and then opened her mouth to point out her flat teeth. "But I didn't get away." He blanched, because that definitely didn't sound like a story a little girl would or should talk about so casually. "Maybe I should make my teeth like yours," she pondered. That would have surely done some damage. But then again, with sharpened teeth, her smile might not be so deceivingly young looking. She'd look like the child demon she thought of herself as.
The guard wondered what sort of condition she'd been in after that confrontation, and then grimaced. Probably in better condition than she was about to be, anyways.
His boss emerged a moment later, two cups of tea in hand.
"Hoshigaki-kun, if you would tend to things inside, I'll entertain our little guest from here on out," the man demurred pleasantly, and his guard grunted before standing, effortlessly depositing his enormous blade over his shoulder and turning to walk inside.
"Bye," the little girl raised a hand and offered a small wave before accepting the hot cup of tea the man offered her. He turned away wordlessly, eyes shadowed, because any response would only make it more difficult to forget once the kid was just another corpse among hundreds.
"I'm glad to hear that Mei is doing well," the man informed her politely. "Did she send you?"
She shrugged. More or less, that was how it had ended up. The man let out a slow sigh, taking a sip of his tea.
"About Mei's workers," he began to explain, getting to the point. Finally, she thought in exasperation. "I hate to burden you with this knowledge, but you should know that traveling is quite dangerous between villages, whether it's a shinobi village or not."
She nodded blankly.
"I'm sure those workers were very good, very trustworthy people, but sometimes bad things happen to good people, little one."
Another nod.
"So, I hope you can understand that crime is a terrible, terrible thing, but it happens, and I'm fairly sure your friend's workers suffered from it."
A stiff, short nod this time. Good fucking Kami, get on with it, she thought miserably. Yes, she was four, but she just wanted an answer, not a friggin' monologue. And her tea was almost gone. And it was freezing.
"I'm afraid Mei's workers were either robbed and taken by bandits or decided to leave the business upon their arrival in Kiri for personal reasons. Kiri does have quite a nice venue in some areas, so it's fairly reasonable."
She almost groaned aloud. Literally almost exactly what she had guessed earlier. Man, screw this guy for wasting her time and body heat.
"So, they just died or quit?" she summarized bluntly. He nodded slowly.
"Okay. I'll tell her." She stood and handed him the cup. "Thanks for the tea."
"Just a moment, little one."
She paused, glancing back at him, and smiled, inwardly whining at him for wasting more of her time.
"Did you come here all by yourself?"
She shrugged again, mostly because she felt a little nervous about admitting that yes, she came completely alone, and no, there wasn't a handy Anbu-san to impale him through the eye if things went wrong.
"That's quite impressive, for someone so young. You must be quite brave." He took a sip of his own tea, setting her empty cup down gently on the ground. "You know, I have a sort of… collection here, of promising young ones such as yourself. They are protected and cared for, and in return are sent on the adventures of a lifetime. Sounds interesting, doesn't it?"
He smiled, so she returned it and nodded, while in truth, he was boring the heck out of her and she wanted to leave. She was tired.
"Perhaps if you were interested, you could join my collection. It is not a boring life,"
She just impatiently shifted her weight.
"If I don't tell Mei that her workers are dead and done working for her, she'll just think more people went missing," the girl replied flatly, before remembering her manners. "Thanks, though."
He nodded and stacked the cups, one delicately on top of the other.
"Anytime, my dear. Please feel free to visit again. Perhaps next time you'll allow me to show you the pleasantries this village has to offer."
She smiled falsely and waved before turning and walking off, setting a brisk pace before he could add any more comments or offers.
"Hoshigaki-kun," the man called pleasantly, and the shadow of a swordsman silently approached, looming over his side.
"Follow her," he ordered with a lazy smile. "And if Kiri doesn't kill her, finish her off yourself."
oOo
The girl opted for the mountains this time, rather than the docks, because maybe there was a shortcut and… maybe because she didn't want to face the terrifying, formidable beings that were Mist ninja. She walked straight back from the boss's house, just realizing that for all his false politeness and ramblings, he'd never offered his own name. Well. She guessed that was to be expected in his kind of business. In his defense, she hadn't given hers either.
She didn't notice a dark presence lurking just out of sight, flitting through the trees quieter than the wings of a hummingbird, footsteps light and sure, or the shadow just barely fleeting across her blind spots as he began to corner her in.
Too easy, the guard thought dully, as he paved the way for her, guiding her where he wanted on familiar paths. She didn't question the unnatural blocks that he put in the way of her exit, nor did she examine too closely the ease of which she traveled the path she was on. It seemed she was simply walking, and making up her route as she went along, not minding that someone else was paving the very road beneath her feet.
He almost wished she would realize his presence so that he would feel absolutely zero remorse about killing her. Of course, he wouldn't feel guilty regardless, not really, but killing an unknowing toddler in cold blood would probably leave a sour taste in his mouth for a few days. Especially one that cursed like a Kiri ninja. That was weird, but kind of funny, too.
He repressed a sigh. Such a shame.
And then she dropped out of sight as if she'd fallen off of the universe itself.
He immediately did a double-take, freezing in his tracks and scuffing a branch as he skidded to an abrupt halt. His eyes had been on her. They'd never left her, and she'd just… fallen and disappeared. Had she noticed him? Could she possibly be trained? No, it was impossible. Even if she was training to be a ninja, which he found extremely unlikely, there was no possible way she could sense him, with his years of training under a sword master. He was fifteen, and she was… was… what, five? Four? There was just no fuckin' way.
He jumped to the ground and examined the clearing she'd dropped out of, wondering why the area looked so familiar, when suddenly he recognized the foliage she had disappeared to and the blood drained from his face as he cursed aloud.
He'd led her straight to the damn workers' prison out of habit. He pushed aside the brush and lifted the foliage. Sure enough, a familiar looking chasm in the ground opened up into an underground cave network, where his boss had decided to keep the workers he intercepted in order to sabotage the weapons smuggling industry.
The whole ordeal was none of his business, except for his duties to keep them and his boss alive. The drop was steep, but if the girl was lucky, she'd fall and survive with little more than a few bruises and maybe a fracture or two.
He was tempted to assume her death and turn, but knew if she somehow, inexplicably managed to get out of there, he'd be fired in a heartbeat, and the money he was earning would be lost.
Kami, he hated kids. After this crap, he would consider taking another look at the offer he'd received from the Cypher Division a few weeks ago. It would probably be boring as hell, but it was better than this shit. He silently crouched and dropped into the hole, noiselessly landing and creeping down the tunnel toward the captives waiting on the other side.
oOo
The girl was pretty proud of her efforts so far, to be perfectly honest. She'd figured out what happened to the workers, not been killed by an adult involved in underground business and was on her way back to several more meals. Things were looking up, even if she was so hungry she could probably eat her own weight at this point.
Then the ground just dropped from beneath her feet as if it simply never existed and she was rudely jerked by gravity into darkness with a startled shriek. Elbow, shoulder, knee, and hip all crashed into rock at some point as she tumbled down a crude tunnel and landed on her back with the air forced from her lungs. For a moment she just laid there, stunned, and then the pain began to set in and she let out a whimper, sitting up and staring with wide eyes at the abrasions on her knees.
They really weren't injured terribly, but the skid marks were wide and pinpricked with dots of blood and fear flooded her system before hurt could catch up, because there was blood on her and blood meant hurt and what if it was the same kind of hurt as her mom and she was going to die?! It was more blood than the hurt she had on her head and oh, Kami, now it was sliding down her legs all warm and sticky, mixing with dirt and she was scared. What if she never walked again?! What if her legs were broken?!
Then she heard voices and she scrambled to her feet, back pressed against the incline of the tunnel as she breathed huge, gasping breaths, because last time she checked, animals were native to caves, not people, and Bloody Mist civilians and ninja were bad enough. She did not want to deal with Bloody Mist cavemen.
She placed her hands on the tunnel but drew them back with a hiss when her skinned palms stung sharply. The rock was damp and slippery, and her tender palms weren't having it. She turned toward the voices, seeing the faint outline of heads and shoulders in the dim natural lighting. Then she saw the glint of moonlight on silver and blinked in surprise.
The cavemen were chained.
She walked toward them slowly, curiously, and jumped when a woman saw her.
"You, there," the woman barked. "Why are you here?"
"I-I fell," she mumbled, heat rising to her cheeks. She didn't like being talked to that way. The woman's eyes went wide.
"On accident?" she whispered, her voice slightly hoarse. "You happened across us?"
"Uh huh," the girl answered hesitantly, side stepping toward the exit.
"We're traders," the woman breathed, eyes lighting up with hope as the other voices in the room dropped into silence, all eyes turning to the little brown-haired girl. "A bad man is trying to sabotage us and took our caravan. There are keys to our chains on the far wall of this cave. Can you help us?"
Well, that sure sounded familiar. The little girl frowned for a moment, and then decided to ask, just in case.
"Are you guys Mei's workers?" The entire room stilled as breaths were cut short and eyes sharpened, watching her with a new kind of intrigue.
"You know Mei?" the woman whispered, and she nodded.
"I came to find her workers, but that guy who talks a lot told me they died or quit," she admitted, relaxing a little. They were chained to a wall, so they couldn't hurt her.
"He lied," the woman breathed, a small smile touching her lips. "We deliver weapons to countries and hidden villages fighting shadow warfare or planning to overthrow their government. I don't know what Mei has told you about us, but we need to get back to her. That man is trying to sabotage her industry."
"Uh…" the girl frowned, because she only understood about half of that sentence, but shrugged anyways. "Are you guys gonna attack me if I let you go?"
"Of course not," the woman insisted, affronted. "Why in the nations would you think that?"
"Because you're smugglers," she answered honestly, and the man next to the woman chuckled.
"Smart little girl has you there, Kaya." A small smile touched the woman's, Kaya's, she guessed, lips.
The man turned to her.
"We can't force you to help us, love," he told her quietly. "But we've been here a long time, and most of us are too weak to bother with something as silly as hurting you. If you think we're lying, think about that man you talked to. If we were anyone other than who we say we are, why would we be down here in the mountains directly behind his house? No one else lives in the area. Someone had to put us here."
She nodded, walking toward the far wall, even though he had totally avoided reassuring her. She knew they were who they said they were. They were smugglers. That's why she was worried.
"S'okay, I was gonna free you anyways," she told them blankly. "You guys are hurt, so I'd feel bad if I just left."
Kaya's eyes moved to her raw wrists, and to the brown and red stains on the cuffs holding them captive. She blinked rapidly to dispel the tears gathering in her eyes. Stupid kids and their stupid straightforward logic. She couldn't help but love them.
"Sweetie, I promise," she choked out with a smile. "We won't let you down."
Then the little light in the cave was suddenly expelled, shooting them all into darkness. Soft footsteps permeated the darkness, along with the ominous scraping of a blade against stone walls, the grating sound echoing in the small space.
Every single man and woman in the cave stiffened at the familiar sound of the terrifying monster that brought them food and water at the end of every day. He was early, and he was never early. Which meant he could have only come for one thing.
In the span of a moment, their hopes were brutally extinguished.
The grating sound paused, and the guard let out an exaggerated sigh.
"This fucking sucks," he grumbled.
oOo
A/N: So Kiri suffering from war is pretty easy to sneak into, especially if you're just a kid with no ninja skills. I'd also like to point out that the two halves of this story run different timelines. Itachi's POV is roughly three years ahead of our main character atm. Also Kisame is a dick who is not above hunting children on orders. Dammit, Kiri.
Junko is actually canon! (Sorta.) We may see her later. Actually, we'll totally see her later.
All mistakes are mine, does anyone want to beta? If so, I'd like to be very close friends with you and discuss nerdy stuff at length, so any dorks like me with lots of time on their hands feel free to help me out.
Thoughts: Which side of the story is more interesting? The nomadic wartime childhood or Konoha's comparatively peaceful lifestyle?