Chapter 5 – Sheer Dumb Luck
oOo
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, before the sound vanished all together and a haunting, pensive silence hung heavy in the air. He could be anywhere and everywhere, training rendering his footsteps noiseless. Fear sank into the Kaya's bones like icy venom.
"Stop!" the woman yelled hoarsely, breaking the silence though she knew it was hopeless. "She's just a kid!"
The guard lunged for the girl like a viper, his hand snapping out to grab a fistful of her shirt. The little girl shrieked in terror and farted. There was a stunned silence as he tried to process the fact that he had inadvertently scared a kid into nearly soiling her pants, but she didn't seem as bothered as he was, taking full advantage of the opening and diving into him like a missile, head butting him in the groin and grabbing at his face. She jammed two fingers up his nose and yanked on his hair with her other hand, letting out a yelp of pain when he punched her in the side in bewildered instinct and sent her tumbling away.
As she struggled to breathe, barely moving on the ground, he noted somewhere in the back of his mind that her expression hadn't changed once since she attacked him. She was absolutely terrified, and her face showed it. But at the moment, he was seeing red and his nose was already swelling from the persistent violation. What the hell was this brat thinking? Did she want to go for his airway and then opt for the opening without sharp teeth? Oh wait, they'd actually discussed this, hadn't they?
But still, was she really stupid enough to try and fight him?
He made another swipe for her, this time unsheathing his sword, and she dove between his legs. Having such a large weapon was turning out to be cumbersome and incredibly difficult to wield in such a small space. She scrambled for the tunnel she'd come in at, and he belatedly wished he hadn't closed off the entrance with a large boulder so that he could chase her down in the open.
Fortunately, she would reach a dead end and he could finish the job there. He heard her scrambling across the rock, scattering dirt and pebbles behind her, and heard an ominous crack from within the tunnel.
The low chasm shuddered, and dust sprinkled from the opening.
He slapped a hand against his forehead with a frustrated groan. Of course, the boulder was putting too much pressure on the opening and threatening to cave it in. Of fucking course. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now…
He'd love to leave her to die in the shuddering tunnel, but that would trap him in the damn cave, too.
He jammed his sword hilt down right next to the opening, using its wide blade to support the ceiling, and carefully climbed around it and into the tunnel after the infuriating girl. Samehada was still new to his hands, and wasn't always averse to eating his own chakra. Damn sword was still sorting out its loyalties after he'd killed its previous owner and his former master.
He heard her squeak of fear when she reached the end and found only darkness and solid rock. Kill her and then move the rock. It was really simple in his head. He couldn't possibly mess this up. He palmed a knife and zeroed in on her, instincts sharpening as they always did before a kill.
And then she screeched, loud and obnoxious, the sound so loud and high it actually hurt as it reverberated in the closed in space, and the next thing he knew flat teeth were sinking into his ankle.
The pain shed a new light on the fear people must feel when seeing his teeth. There was no pain quite like being bitten, and this brat had her mouth clamped down on his leg as if her jaws were made of steel. He kicked the offending girl off, shaking his leg, and in the slippery tunnel, upset his footing and was sent skidding backwards.
He felt her let go and heard her land on all fours, scrabbling for purchase on the slippery walls so that she didn't follow him down. Then he slammed straight into his own sword.
Samehada was strong, and didn't budge from its place lodged in the cave. Instead, he immediately felt the massive depletion of his chakra stores like a heavy blow to the gut, leaving him immediately exhausted and drained.
Seriously? Was this for fucking real? He let out a jumbled curse, disoriented and pissed. He'd had a plan. A simple plan.
Screw enclosed places, and little brats, and giant swords that couldn't figure out their own fucking meals.
The little girl braced her hands on either side of her, eyes wide as saucers, and watched as the giant guard tumbled backwards and hit his own weapon. She watched him slump immediately, like he'd just turned into a rag doll rather than a functioning person, and then let out a startled intake of breath when the sword sank into the earth, its edge suddenly much sharper, and the guard's head slipped and smacked against the ground with a sickening crack.
Blood leaked onto the cave floor.
She slowly climbed down and edged around him, her eyes worried and scared. Had he just… died?
His eyes were closed, but she couldn't tell.
"Hurry, little one," Kaya whispered urgently from the far wall, breaking the stunned silence. "Before he wakes up, free one of us and we can bind him to the wall." She nodded slowly, dazed, and walked back over to the wall, lifting the keys from a ring hanging tauntingly across from the prisoners.
The boss was a cruel man indeed.
"That was the dumbest luck I might've ever seen in my life," the other man muttered in awe.
"What a moron," voiced another.
Her voice spread soothingly through the air as she went from one to the next, freeing each captive one by one and singing to herself to help calm her nerves and steady her shaking hands.
"Kiri had a little bird with feathers bright and yellow
He flew quite fast and spread the word to his shinobi fellows
The sweetest notes he always sung with messages to carry
He saved lives but he was hung, the sweet little canary."
The song sounded melancholy and creepy in the cave as it echoed in the dark, rather than a soothing song for upset infants as it was intended to be. The irony of the old lyrics was not lost on her as she moved from captive to captive.
She caught one of the younger boys as he collapsed to the ground the moment his shackles were opened, cradling his head in her lap, humming softly as she patted his hair, probably the first gentle touch he'd received in days.
His eyes slowly opened, staring into her own, unfocused gaze tracing the small upward curve of her lips as she smiled gently at him. The expression was almost unbearably cute, and he found his lips parting to return the smile automatically.
The man who had spoken earlier rubbed his wrists and took it upon himself to drag the guard over to the wall and latch one of the shackles around his wrist.
Another few people gathered together to remove the boulder closing off the entry way, grunting with the effort but eventually shoving the blockage aside.
"Who are you?" Kaya walked over to her, rubbing the circulation back into her hands and crouching down to help lift the boy into a sitting position. The girl just smiled and kept humming, before standing slowly and stretching, her body suddenly feeling very achy and tired. Maybe it was the climate?
"Mei's friend," she answered simply, because man was that a loaded question, and then helped herself to a small barrel filled with stagnant water at the corner of the dimly lit enclosure.
An older man was sitting cross legged on the ground, his eyes following her as she washed her face and plopped down onto the ground with a satisfied sigh.
"You have our deepest gratitude, little Canary," he rumbled, his eyes ancient and tired. "Because of you, the darkness of Kiri will once again see a ray of hope."
She blinked at him once.
"I was just hungry," she answered him truthfully. She hadn't been trying to be a hero or anything, she'd just done what she was asked to and then went the extra mile when she saw people getting hurt. They were like the gentle rabbits, helpless and afraid, but now they were free, and they would be able to help themselves. Maybe every once in a while, they would remember this and even help her.
If he was confused by her statement, he didn't show it. Instead, he ran a hand through his thinning hair with a deep sigh.
"Are you guys gonna go back with me?" she asked curiously, and he turned toward her.
"Back where, Canary-chan? We've lost our homes to war."
"Back to Mei, of course," she answered matter-of-factly. "So that you can keep tending to your 'simple market'." She snickered, and a wan smile touched his lips. Clever child, he thought, how much have you learned on your little journey?
"A few may wish to stay behind and start new lives, or perhaps search for the children," he told her quietly, his eyes suddenly ancient and sad. Next to him, the girl stilled, and after a moment she repeated the word as a soft question.
"Children?"
"Has Mei told you much of underground workings, Canary-chan?" he asked, glancing at the little girl with open curiosity. A few minutes earlier and he would have laughed at the very notion that someone so small could understand anything of the world. And yet, a grown man had been taken down and an entire group of smugglers freed because of the actions of a toddler.
Dumb luck, yes, absolutely. But it took wit to make it this far into Kiri alive. He'd seen many a child prodigy in the war, from Leaf's Yellow Flash to Kiri's famous hunter-nin Ao to Suna's wielder of the Gold Dust. All had shown intelligence far too young, and been matured by war. She was just another among hundreds with that frightening potential. He wondered how many people wished to claim and mold it. The very thought made his head ache.
"No. I invited myself," she answered childishly, and he might've chuckled if the thought of caged children were not so vivid in his mind.
"Wave is known mostly for drug smuggling, Whirlpool weapons, and both have certain groups that handle different aspects of their trade. It's a complex business, and quite dangerous. Kiri, however, is by far the worst. Their acts are the most morally reprehensible, especially as Kiri is famous for its red-light district, though naturally I wouldn't expect you to know much about what that is. Probably for the best, considering."
She glanced at him and just shrugged. She was practically raised in one before Anbu-san came along, but he didn't really need to know that. He waited for a moment, his eyes growing distant.
"Kiri is the hub for human trafficking," he murmured, and she stiffened. "They're selling babies?" She asked softly, and he shrugged, mildly impressed that she'd made the leap in logic. Or perhaps she already knew what it was. He wouldn't put it past Mei to educate a smart girl of any age.
"Infants, kids, teens, anyone they can train up for the business." The man's voice filled with controlled anger as he spoke, letting the bottled up anxiety and frustration flow from his lips in the form of bitter words. "The man in charge here was planning to steal an entire class of Academy kids, pick 'em up as they filtered in the classroom and then blow up the place to make it look like one huge disaster, but one of the students found out."
The man sighed.
"And isn't that just awful, Canary-chan? Kidnap an entire class of future soldiers, make it look like collateral damage of the war, and sell 'em off to the worst kind of people this nation has ever seen?"
The man hesitated, because the girl was so very still, her eyes distant, and for the first time he'd seen, she wasn't smiling. Perhaps it was wrong of him to vent his frustrations on a child after being chained in captivity for so long, to force this burden on a little person that couldn't possibly do anything about it. But who else would listen? The other ex-captives already knew, and were done discussing it until it was time to take action. So, for his own selfish reasons, he continued.
"That one boy, the one that found out about the scheme… he took the bodies of the children that had died in the war, several of whom were just left to rot in the slums in piles and piles… orphans who starved, and child soldiers cut down… and he cut them up and dragged them in the classroom, so mauled up they weren't even recognizable as students anymore. He did that in the night, and told his class to hide. When the teachers finally came in, he was standing there alone, covered in blood, surrounded by war corpses, and he told them he'd killed his class to prove himself worthy of being a Genin."
The man slammed his fist against his knee, trembling in rage. She jumped at the sudden movement, startled after being so lost in the story.
"Bloody fools, the teachers were. Ate his story right up. Bragged that he was the strongest of the generation, pretended to mourn the class that had been 'cut down', and immediately gave him a spot in the Genin corps. The kid was only nine years old."
There was a brief silence as she absorbed the disturbing story.
"The teachers like it when their students kill each other?" she asked quizzically, her head tilting to the side, and the man shook his head in silent dismay.
"And they wonder why our village lacks loyalty," he muttered bitterly.
"What happened to the class that boy saved?" she asked, and knew she had hit the heart of the man's tale as his face seemed to age right before her eyes.
"He brought them to a settlement in the outskirts of Kiri, but the boss found out and attacked him, almost killing the poor kid. The only one he was able to save was Mei, and in return Mei healed him and swore she would never stop hunting that man down. That bastard got the kids, though. He took them all, and he's just waiting for them to become old enough to sell."
"Do you know where?" she asked curiously, her head tilting to one side. He blanched, his face draining of color. "Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you, Canary-chan! You're younger than they are, how could you possibly—?!"
"Ossan, I just asked if you knew where they were," she said bluntly, cutting him off. "I'm not saying I'm gonna go running around a village of child-killers." Of course, she never said she wasn't going, either.
He flinched slightly at the bluntness with which she used the term, but there was no denying the truth of it. He offered a nervous chuckle and ran a hand through his grimy hair.
"Ah… ah yes, of course," he answered weakly. "I can't be certain, but it would have to be somewhere near him. He has to keep them alive, and that includes tending to their basic needs." He looked down at his hands. "All an old man like me can do is pray for those poor souls."
"What the hell are you filling this girl's head with?" Kaya approached suddenly and laid a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder, glaring daggers at the man. "A story like that is nothing a child like her should be learning of! What kind of sick old man are you, huh? You'll give her nightmares of cages and predators, you will!"
The old man let out a rattling sigh before meeting the woman's cold grey eyes.
"Ah, but Miss, little Canary-chan has already traveled through Mist once, and she has yet to return. I'd fancy ignorance wouldn't suit her very long."
"Telling her of tortured children will take her farther then?" she snapped, and the man winced. "We've been here a long time," Kaya continued after a pause. "I understand that there are things the world needs to know, that we haven't been allowed to tell." Her hand tightened on the girl's shoulder. "But this," she hissed, "…is not the world. She is a child, and you owe her your life. Don't leech the sanity from her mind with the bloody tales we have suffered over in silence. No human being deserves that."
The old man slowly lowered his eyes, the words hitting home.
"I understand," he answered in a heavy voice. "My apologies, Canary-chan, it wasn't my place."
She just shrugged.
"S'okay. I already know what predators are anyways."
Both the man and Kaya stiffened almost imperceptibly, their expressions mirroring one another, equal parts surprise and worry. She pushed herself to her feet and crossed her arms with a huff, glancing around the enclosure and the listening to the faint sound of rain echoing from the surface.
"Let's wait till tomorrow to go back to Mei," she suggested suddenly, trying not to whine because she barely knew these people, but she still did not want to travel back to her campsite damp and freezing. They could call her selfish if they wanted, but she was tired of this dreary weather. No one refuted her suggestion, surprising her a little, because so far, most of the people she knew weren't too interested in listening to a four year old's opinion. Maybe they were tired, too.
Unbeknownst to her, majority of them agreed out of newfound respect, strange as it was. Limited due to her age, yes, because she was just a little kid after all, but even so, after all this time, she was the only one that had come for them. Not Mei, not the boy who saved and lost the children, but this scrawny, adorable brat, who traipsed in like she owned the place and set them all free.
Their gratitude belonged to her, even if she didn't know it.
oOo
That night, when soft snores filled the large cavern, a tiny figure tip-toed through a maze of sleeping bodies, dancing around fingers and taking care not to step on any toes. She remembered the words of the man she had met with, and suddenly did not think so kindly of him.
Perhaps if you were interested, you could join my collection. It is not a boring life, I assure you, little one.
The bastard kept them all beneath his very own house, tucked away and safe right beneath his nose.
"Sneaking off, eh?"
She whirled around, jumping in fright, only to meet the cold eyes of one very irritated guard. He was leaning against the wall, hands still shackled, but now that he was awake, the metal around his wrists suddenly didn't look so strong.
"Y-you can't hurt me," she told him, trying to convince herself. "…or stop me," she added, because that sounded much less wimpy.
"Maybe not, but he fuckin' will."
He had to be talking about the boss. There was no other 'he' that they both knew.
"You couldn't," she mumbled in spite of herself, and to her surprise, the guard snorted, cracking a smile.
"Yeah, you're right," he muttered, shaking his head. "You got me good."
She eyed him suspiciously and he raised his shackled hands.
"You won. I'm not a sore loser. That guy, though, he is. And revenge ain't gonna get you shit."
A strange expression crossed her face.
"Revenge?" she repeated. "I'm going to get the kids."
He didn't look confused, per se, because he was likely trained to hide emotion better than that, but a flicker of something uncertain crossed his eyes.
"Kids?" he questioned gruffly, and she nodded.
"I won't let you stop me, Sharky," she told him gravely, and he blanched at the nickname.
"Kisame," he corrected automatically, but she continued anyways, ignoring him as if he hadn't spoken.
"Black market trade has morality in shades of grey, but human trafficking is black. I am going to get those little kids out or die trying, and once I make it out, I will come back, even if it's years from now, and I will tear that man and his business to pieces."
She smiled, and a wicked sort of glee glittered in her eyes, the same look he had borne when he killed his master. He felt an involuntary shiver.
She crept toward the hole when he didn't answer, but paused at the opening.
"Did you know?" she asked in quiet voice. "About the little kids?" She would take his word for it either way, because trust came easier when you were little and logic was straightforward.
"No," he answered honestly, feeling a small trickle of discomfort himself. He'd been told that weapons were the only dealings taking place, not that it was any of his business at all. He was paid to kill, not know things. He watched her nod shortly and then crawl out, leaving him behind, and he wondered if perhaps he really had fulfilled his final order by letting her go.
oOo
The little girl crept back to the boss's home in the dead of night and walked around the house slowly, making a full perimeter to check for any obvious ways to get in. That guy must have been pretty confident in his trade and secrets, because she didn't run into any guards or trigger any traps or anything. Which was kind of weird for a man of the underworld, but she attributed it to overconfidence in his abilities and powers. Must be pretty easy to get that way when you could kill a leak with a wave of your hand.
She shuddered and trapped off that train of thought firmly. Was it just her, or was Anbu-san's dreariness wearing off on her? She dearly hoped not, and wondered if she could convince Anbu-san to visit with Junko again, so that the woman's snarkiness might catch instead. She kicked a rock dully, her lips forming an angry pout.
If she ever saw that stupid bastard again, anyways. The rock landed with a quiet plop into the man's pond, and then she jumped when a solid clunk followed immediately. She rapidly whipped her head around, freezing like a cornered deer as she searched for anyone who might have heard the noise.
Then her eyes slowly turned to the shimmering black water. That was not a natural sound for a pond to make. Wrinkling her nose in distaste (because it was cold in Mist, and the water was even colder), she reached her arm into the water around where the stone had fallen. Her hand almost immediately brushed metal slick with algae and she wrenched her arm back in surprise. There was a door right there.
Leave it to a Mist civilian to hide their merchandise in the water.
She hesitantly reached down again and wrapped her hand around a metal bar that could only be a handle, and then pulled.
It didn't budge. Steeling herself, she yanked. It groaned, and then rose smoothly, like a well-oiled machine, and opened automatically after the initial tug. Rather than open and allow the water to pour in like she had expected, a metal cylinder slid from the water and rose out of the pond. On the top side of the flat handle, she saw a small pattern of strange black markings arranged in a circle.
Words? She wondered, because despite her dumb luck and supposed abilities, she couldn't read. Or was it something else?
"If you were so eager to join my collection, you could have just told me, little one."
A pleasantly calm voice cut through the air like a razor blade. She shrieked and whirled around, feeling her heart stop dead before it remembered how to beat again and did so at an alarming rate. The boss grabbed her upper arm and she sank her teeth into his wrist, making him rip his hand back furiously.
She bolted, and she was much, much faster than she once was, feeling his fingers brush her collar as she poured on all of the speed she possessed and slipped from his grip. Anbu-san was a total dick, but she thanked her lucky stars he had trained her body to unnatural speeds. Then she felt a projectile slam into her head and she crashed face first into the ground.
Her gaze blurred and then focused on a blood-spattered stone even with her nose on the ground.
The bastard hit her with a rock. She felt a hand close around her upper arm and drag her away, the once pleasant voice now muttering curses as he dragged her into the cylinder and pressed his thumb against the markings. There was a faint blue pulse and the door opened with a hiss as she was dragged inside.
Her vision tilted sideways and unfocused as she tried to gain her bearings, but everything around her was moving, even the floor, and wow, this hurt a ton more than when her house had collapsed. Then all of a sudden she was kicked out into a large cavern. She tumbled across the floor and slammed into a row of metal bars.
Tears sprang to her eyes as she gasped for air, curling into a shaking ball.
"I think you'll enjoy being part of my collection," the man murmured calmly, walking toward her. She tried to scramble away but the pain in her back flared, making her cry out. She slowly turned her head toward the bars and her mouth fell open, her breath leaving her in a choked gasp.
Two dozen pairs of eyes stared back at her dolefully. Children sat huddled in twos and threes, thin as rails and hugging their knees. She jumped as she heard the metal clang of a door being unlocked and the whine of rusty hinges as she was lifted off her feet by the back of her shirt and tossed inside with them. She hit the ground with a grunt, her cheek scraping against the earth as she forced her head to turn to the side and meet the man's gaze, a wild look starting to creep into her expression.
"Not big on being held captive, I see," he noted as she wrapped a hand around one of the cold bars and stared at him with cold, angry eyes. "You'll quickly adjust."
He turned, and didn't see her speak in a low voice. He didn't see her whisper two sentences to the children at least twice her age, and didn't see them stiffen. He certainly didn't see the dim hope that fluttered in their dead gazes, bringing them back to life.
"Please go along with me. Mei sent me to bring you home."
The whisper carried throughout the children like water through a stream, and in a single moment, all eyes were on her. Then she lunged onto the nearest kid and bit down hard on her tongue. Blood filled her mouth and dripped from her chin, splattering his neck as she whispered feverishly into his ear.
"Dead," she hissed, and his eyes widened before he let out a very realistic gurgle and dropped like a stone, his throat stained red.
Then the children started panicking, and the man turned. What he did see made the blood drain from his face. He saw a demon awaken within a little girl as a six year old boy dropped from her mouth with a gurgle, the flesh of his throat ripped out by her fangs. He saw her snarl as she descended on an eight year old girl, rolling under the terrified child's clumsy block and pulling her backwards, forcing her off balance as she grabbed the girl's head and jerked it to the side. There was a sickening snap as the girl's eyes fluttered closed and she fell, facedown and unmoving. His mouth parted to release a furious roar as four of the kids desperately tried to grab her, to control her, and she slammed the first's head into the ground with a crunch, letting out a scream to answer his roar.
He didn't see her spit on the boy's neck, or hear her pop her fingers as she pulled the girl's head to the side, or shove the boy's head onto the soft flesh of her own hand, crushing the bones of her palm with a crunch.
He just heard her wail of pain as a challenge to him, to everything he worked for, and he saw red as he wrenched the door open and grabbed her, kicking and screaming, and tore her off of a nine year old girl, her face coated in a layer of sticky blood, her eyes open and staring. He ripped the demon away, coated in blood that wasn't hers, (but it was) and wrenched the door open.
"Filthy animal!" he roared at her, dragging her out and crashing her against the bars. She let out a scream of pain and he fumbled to lock the door before pocketing the key and dragging her upstairs out of the only other exit. She reached with her good hand and caught the ring on her little finger, pulling the keys to her mouth and biting down on the cold metal. In his rage, the man didn't even notice. She let her mangled hand fall limp, blood dripping from her fingers. She forced her eyes to stay open as he made his way up a staircase, panting and disheveled, and watched him lift a hatch. They emerged into his home, another exit thoughtlessly revealed, and he dragged her to the back, trailing blood, and stopped when he reached his yard, icy water lapping peacefully a couple feet away from his toes.
"Die in the wild where you belong," he snarled, throwing her with renewed vigor into the freezing pond.
oOo
The icy plunge soothed her aching bruises but was like a gunshot to her head, filling her mouth and ears and nose and stealing the warmth from her body. She thrashed and flailed, teeth clenched tight around the piece of metal that could save the children, and her tears and blood mixed with the brackish water as she felt the life begin to leave her body. Bubbles streamed from her lips and pressure crushed her lungs from all side, making her chest involuntarily spasm and seize.
Drowning, the thought barely registered as she kicked futilely, her shoes filling with water and weighing her down. I'm drowning.
Then her thrashing limbs smacked against a cold handle.
The metal was slick with algae, but she clung to it like the lifeline it was, dragging her body forward until her neck and chin met cold mud. She dragged herself with her hands, one ruined, onto the bank, mud sliding against her skin and working itself into her clothes. She puked water from her lungs until her throat was raw and bloody, sucking in ragged gulps of air.
Too much, she thought dimly. That was too much for her body to take. She'd reached her limit. She gagged suddenly, and her tongue pushed a cold lump of metal from her mouth and into the grass. She stared at the key blearily, surprised that she hadn't swallowed it.
(She actually had swallowed it, and then vomited it back up seconds later, but she was far past noticing such things.)
Children, her thoughts whimpered to her. There were children waiting for her. The man was nowhere in sight, but she could distantly hear him by the mountains, calling for his guard. He wasn't in the house, and he wouldn't be for a while. This was her only slim chance, so why wouldn't her body move?!
She crawled, dragging herself across the freezing ground, and stumbled back into the house, freezing at the unexpected blast of warmth. It brought fresh pain to her fingers and toes, and her eyes filled with tears as she collapsed in the front room, her hands sweeping across the floor where she remembered the hatch was, because she had forced herself to stay conscious. Just like she was now.
Her bleeding fingers found a notch, and she scratched at it until it cracked open. She shoved it halfway open and wriggled through, falling with a grunt and tumbling down the stairs with no energy to catch or stop herself.
She raised her head groggily, staring at the bars of the despicable prison, and saw the children huddled near the door, their eyes wide and disbelieving, several spattered in some way with her blood. She spat the key into her hand and listlessly threw it toward them. It landed about a foot from her face. Ugh.
She groaned, picked it up, and hurled it at the bars. The boy with blood on his neck picked it up wordlessly, and stared at her with huge brown eyes.
"Are you a god?" he whispered reverently, taking in the fragments of ice in her hair and the blood soaking her mouth and hands. One of the older children rapidly took the key from him and unlocked the door, herding them out.
"There's no time," she hissed. "She gave us a chance, so you fools better take it." The girl nodded to the limp four-year-old. "Grab her and let's go."
The young boy wordlessly pulled the girl onto his back and trotted up the stairs, the other children close behind. They ran out of the house, following the girl's weak hand as she pointed in the right direction, and the last few kids paused to erase the tracks of blood trailing from the pond to the house.
At some point along the way, the girl lost consciousness, and they were forced to take shelter in the mountains without directions to follow. They found the best buffer from the wind that they could, and huddled together as a full group for once, rather than their separated twos and threes they had formed while caged and trapped with a fate outside of their control.
"We can't stay here long," one boy hissed, huddling closer to the center of the group. "That shark freak and the boss will be on our trails in less than a day."
"We have nowhere to go, and she can't travel much farther," a young girl piped up, resting a hand on the little girl's head. "She needs help."
"No one in Kiri will help children meant to be sold as merchandise," an older boy stated calmly. "If she has no sanctuary for us, we will have to find our own way."
"We aren't merchandise," the girl shot back with a surprising amount of venom. "We're training to be soldiers."
"You were trained to be a slave," the boy shot back shamelessly. "Everyone thinks our class is dead."
"There's no point in arguing," the boy carrying her sighed, reaching out to hold the girl's ice cold hand. "We have to wait until she wakes up, and if she can't help, we'll have to find another way to get back to Mei and Zabuza. We don't have much of a choice right now, and there's no way we can leave her behind. We owe her everything."
"She's barely a pup herself," the older boy answered, his eyes darkening. "What if she doesn't wake up?" There was a pensive silence that followed.
In the end, he received no answer.
oOo
The little girl heard muted whispers as her head throbbed, and her hand flared, and her back ached.
"…have to protect…"
"…he's too close…"
"…you four, go… false trail…"
Her eyes slowly cracked open, and she squirmed, not knowing why it was so hard to move, but stopped when she realized she was wrapped up in several cloaks. She felt a burning hot hand squeeze hers and she blearily shifted her eyes to meet warm brown ones.
"I'm glad you woke up," he whispered, and she remembered. This was the boy with the ridiculous idea that she had been a god. She tried to laugh, but instead, for some reason, her eyes pooled with tears and she began to silently cry.
"Hey, it's okay," he said simply, brushing her tears away with his free hand. "The boss is angry, but we're setting false trails. We'll save you, just like you saved us." He smiled at her. "You're pretty brave for such a little kid, arentcha?"
And that just made her cry harder, but she smiled a little, too.
"I'm Kaoru," he offered, and she hiccupped before finally managing to speak without her words coming out in a jumbled mess.
"Hi, Kaoru," she smiled weakly. "I'm glad you're okay."
"I could say the same for you," he returned, appalled.
"Kaoru," one of the older boys barked, and the boy's head turned. "The rest of us are gonna have to go. The boss is hunting them down too fast, and we need more trails."
"She's awake now," Kaoru protested. "We can't leave!"
A startled look crossed the boy's gaze as he briefly met her eyes, his face crumpling with indecision.
"We owe you our lives," he murmured softly to her. "We cannot thank you enough. It's our turn to protect you now, but we have to leave and come back."
She stared at him with swollen eyes and puffy cheeks, looking ridiculous bundled up in all of their cloaks, and he snorted and cracked a smile.
"We promise, Imouto-chan, we're gonna come back and get you." His features hardened and he turned to Kaoru. "C'mon. Time to go."
"There's a cave," she blurted, panicking, because what if she died while they were gone? Where would they go? Her efforts would be wasted. "In the mountains behind the house. The rocks are shaped funny. Like noodles." She paused and drew in a breath. "There's a hole, and I fell in it." The boys glanced at each other and then gave her a strange look, probably wondering if her condition was making her ramble nonsense. "People there will help," she explained. "They're going back to Mei, too."
Understanding flickered across their faces and Kaoru grinned cheerfully.
"Then you can show us the way as soon as we come back for you," he answered, and squeezed her hand once before joining the older boy and following him out. She let out a heavy breath, and descended into a fit of coughing that left stains of blood on the cloaks and the ground. Her breath fogged up into the air, and she slumped against the mountain side, distantly hoping the wind wouldn't blow unfavorably. Despite the cloaks and the protective mountain range, her body was steadily cooling, and her teeth rattled her skull with her incessant chattering.
Hours passed.
It was cold. A kind of bitter, painful cold that stole the warmth from every vein in her body, every pore in her skin, and allowed the icy stiffness of sluggish blood to spread from her fingertips and toes toward her core.
She could feel a bit of warmth in her stomach, a tiny pool among her stiff and frozen limbs, and she felt it flare as she exhaled a tiny wisp of air through blue lips. Her frozen eyelashes fluttered as her eyes began to close, and she imagined she could move the warmth, and spread it out, through her chest and down her arms, swirling in the pools of her feet and glowing in her face.
The warmth followed her mental commands, and it made her crack a hysterical smile, because now she was certain she must be dying, or losing her touch with reality, because it almost felt like she had control over her body's heat, and wasn't that just a ridiculous thought?
Flakes of crystallized water showered from the sky with little flurries swept in spirals by the wind through the mountains, and she remained transfixed by the sight. It was her first time seeing snow, and even in her state, it was more beautiful than she could have possibly imagined. Her breath left her lips like a dying gasp, and the air fogged in swirls that matched the delicate crystals.
This wasn't a bad way to die, she thought vaguely. She'd saved lives. That was… that was pretty darn good for a four year old, right?
And Anbu-san… well, she still thought he was a jerk, but she couldn't bring herself to hate him now. If he hadn't left, she would have never interfered with a morally fucked up trade, would have never saved prisoners used for sabotage, would have never freed an entire class of children from predators, would have never seen snow…
But he was still a total dick for just abandoning her.
She heard footsteps crunching over half frozen grass, and her half lidded eyes took in a pair of thick leather sandals. Those were ninja shoes, she thought dully. So someone was sent to finish her off after all. That boss sure didn't mess around, did he? Followed every loose end all the way to their death. Paranoid psycho, he was. She waited for a blow that didn't come and instead almost cried out when arms slid underneath her body and lifted her into the air. Her cold and numb body suddenly burned as stress was put on it once more.
She would've wailed out if she'd had the energy to do anything more than breathe shallow puffs of icy air.
"Fuckin' moron," she heard grumbled into the air before her vision slid sideways into darkness.
oOo
"Canary-chan!" arms suddenly gripped her shoulders, pulling her up, and she felt her neck protest as her head fell back, and she released her grip on the warmth in surprise. It slowly drew back to her belly, and she wondered if this was death.
If so, then why was she still so cold?
Her eyes opened unwillingly, her vision slow to focus, and once it finally did, she was back in the original cave, where adults were still sitting, unchained, most now huddled around her.
"Wusgoinon?" she slurred, her voice coming out gravelly and weak.
"What happened to you?! Canary-chan, you… we thought you were dead! And instead you come back, with—with…" The woman, Kaya, she remembered, trailed off, and fat, hot drops fell on the girl's face. Belatedly, she realized the woman was crying.
She blinked, her eyes widening.
"Kids," she mumbled, craning her neck to look around. "Kaoru?" Man, she sounded awful, croaking out words like an incoherent frog. The woman wiped at her eyes and lifted the little girl into a sitting position so that she could see a full set of awkward children sticking together by the wall, a few of them edging as close to her as they could without garnering too much of the adults' attention.
"Canary-chan?" A hesitant voice called, and she locked eyes with the older boy that had promised to come back, with Kaoru at his side.
"Ahh," she raised a hand weakly, and then glanced at her bloodied fingers, a funny expression crossing her face as she wiggled them. "Ew," she mumbled, because they looked really gross, but her other hand was bandaged, and didn't feel too terrible at all. Which was really weird, because she was almost positive she had crushed it, and had done some nasty damage to her ribcage as well.
"How do you feel, Canary-chan?" Kaoru asked, walking over to her and crouching next to Kaya.
"Ehhh…" she let her hand drop, and felt a new appreciation for Kaoru's willingness to hold it. "Uh?" she confessed. "Why're yuheere?" And of course, her words still weren't quite up to par with her head.
"We found this place easy, with your directions," he told her. "We were trained in the basics, and stuff. But once we checked it out to make sure it was safe to bring you there, well… you were already here. Just kinda… passed out by the hole."
"Uhhh…" she squinted, trying to remember, but thinking made her head hurt, so she aborted that train of thought quickly.
"We brought you in, and one of these old guys knows medical ninjutsu!" one of the younger girls piped up, making the confused girl smile weakly.
Well, that was nice. That was why she didn't feel like a complete and total train wreck. She just felt like… half a train wreck. A partial train wreck. A train fender bender.
Yeah, that sounded about right. What was a fender again?
"You shouldn't have gone, Canary-chan," an ancient voice rumbled to her left, and she met the gaze of the old man, who had tears slipping down his cheeks and into his long beard. "You shouldn't have gone, and I'll never forgive myself for letting you go, but…" he smiled at her, his eyes crinkling at the corners. "I'm glad you did."
A warmth that had nothing to do with hallucinations of controlling her body heat filled the girl's stomach, and she smiled.
"It's time to leave if you feel up to it," the woman was telling her. "Somehow, Hoshigaki escaped in the night, so he and the boss could be here at any moment. We know a safe path through the mountains, a shortcut back to Whirlpool, but we can wait a bit longer if you need to rest."
"Nahs'kay," she mumbled, not even caring that the guard with the cool teeth was gone. It was so low on her priorities it was almost laughable. "Lesgo," she cheered dully, raising a hand in an attempt to be enthusiastic. Kaoru snorted, and wordlessly pulled her onto his back, daring anyone to take the job away from him with a glare. She locked her arms around his neck and snuggled into his warm shoulder.
"Alright then," the woman huffed, a small smile touching her lips. "Let's go home."
The journey was slow and uneventful.
Actually, to be perfectly honest, she slept about ninety percent of the way, her exhaustion warring with her hunger but winning out in the end. She couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten, and thinking about it made her sad enough to start crying again.
It was the little things, you know?
She did try to learn the names of most of the adults and children, just because in her mind, they were all friends now, since they'd all had an adventure together, and she should know the names of her friends.
She learned that Kaoru's older friend was named Muku, and that he was a compulsive worrier. Kaoru kept snickering about how guilty Muku felt leaving her behind, and how he wouldn't shut up about it the whole time they'd spent leaving false trails. That made her feel guilty, because she'd only come to help them out, so why was he being all backwards and worrying about her?
It didn't make sense.
Still, it was nice that an eight-year-old was on her side. He had a good four years on her, and the early training to back it up. It was reassuring. Kaoru was only two years older, but he still kept her company and didn't complain once the whole time he carried her, rejecting all of Muku's offers to switch out with him.
So they were both pretty strong, but she supposed that couldn't be helped, considering they'd spent a couple of semesters at Mist's Ninja Academy. She didn't even want to know what kind of horrid training they did to end up like that giant of a guard. It made her feel better about her crazy agility exercises, but only a little.
"Canary-chan?" Muku asked hesitantly, once she woke up from a rather long nap. They had rented boats a little while ago, courtesy of the old man stealing Hoshigaki's pocket change before he escaped, and were steadily paddling across the ocean toward Whirlpool.
"Uhh?" she mumbled drowsily, rubbing her eyes. Muku smiled a little, because really, it was unfair how sweet she looked, and he had no idea how that guard could bring himself to attack her.
"How'd you think of that plan so fast?" he asked.
"What plan?" she blinked blearily, frowning at the shooting hunger pains in her belly.
"Y'know, the one where you were pretending to kill us so that the boss would take you out. Like… like two wild animals that shouldn't be put in the same cage together, y'know? Did you plan all that out?"
She frowned, thinking about it as she blinked the last of her drowsiness away. No, not really, was the truthful answer, because she hadn't even gone to Mist with the intention of walking straight into the hub for human trafficking. She remembered the story of the little boy who dragged corpses into his school and insisted that he had taken their lives, and had come to the obvious conclusion that dead merchandise was useless merchandise.
So if one wild card was making the boss's goods useless, it would have to be removed.
She wasn't really sure how she came to the conclusion. She'd just remembered the boy and wanted to be like him. She'd wanted to save the class, too, because they were people, not things, and that adult was stupid for thinking anything else.
"Well," she shifted and faced Muku, stretching her arms behind her back to loosen her muscles after being in one position for so long. It felt wonderful, and almost distracted her from her answer.
"Have you ever met a wild animal that you were sure wouldn't bite?" she asked, and he slowly shook his head. "I haven't either. I just thought that, y'know, that guy thought of all you guys as animals, and me too, and if we were animals, being treated like that would start a frenzy. So I just… started a frenzy."
He blinked.
"Wouldn't an animal just bite the owner?" he asked, and she nodded gravely.
"I tried that, too," she told him seriously, "but I have flat teeth." She opened her mouth wide, proving her point, and he winced a little at the bad breath. He knew he had to have it worse, because oral hygiene wasn't exactly available at the moment, but her breath smelled like blood, and it was a little creepy. "I don't have those cool sharp teeth, so he just threw a rock at me."
"What a dick," Muku muttered, and she nodded sagely in agreement.
She didn't mention that she had also just acted as the demon she already considered herself to be. That she had pretended to give into the side of her that had laughed and played in the blood of her mother. That was… that was secret, and she kept it locked away deep down. But that didn't keep the memory and disgust from aching.
They arrived in Whirlpool just as dawn was touching the horizon, and the little girl decided she wanted to walk and stretch out her legs, now that the old man's healing had been steadily working on her for a full day. One of the smugglers nicked a civilian's wallet and bought her some bread, and she nearly inhaled the stuff, satisfying the worst of her hunger pains.
Kaoru held her hand while they walked, with Muku on the other side, and made sure that no one tried to steal from her or get too close. They spread out and slipped into the small village from different directions so that they wouldn't look like a suspicious group suddenly arriving, in order to avoid tipping off Mist informants. They agreed on a meeting place near where the little girl said Mei would probably be and decided to meet up at noon.
It would give them time to clean themselves up and transform into decent looking civilians rather than the ragged captives they appeared to be.
Muku and Kaoru decided to stay with her, and the rest of the kids divided easily into their original twos and threes, off to steal and do whatever they needed to before noon. Most of them were murmuring amongst themselves excitedly, eyes alight with life and mischief, and several nodded to her before slipping into the streets and blending in with the civilians as if they were born there. It was fascinating to watch, and delighted her to see, because she had been vaguely worried she would have to teach them all how to slip into the slums, especially since Mist ninja were typically recruited from wealthy families and clan kids. Apparently the time in captivity had long since ingrained poverty and hunger into their lives.
As someone who had watched her father hand away money for her meals to giggling women, she was no stranger to the life of hunger. It sucked, but she was glad she wouldn't have to teach them how bad it sucked.
"You got blood all over your clothes, Canary-chan," Kaoru informed her brightly. "Let's nick some cash and pick out a new Kiri outfit for ya. Your foreign colors are showing through. The little girl glanced down at her blood stained green shirt and navy pants. Now that she looked, most of the Land of Water settlers dressed in muted aquas and lavenders, blending in with their purple mist and watery habitat. She supposed she did look a little out of place in deep green.
But it wasn't like Kusa was on poor terms with Mist, as far as she knew. She hated them because of what happened to her mother, a deep scar that twinged painfully even in passing thought, but as far as she knew, Kusagakure's daimyo could care less who was using his land as a battlefield.
Well, whatever. She was covered in dry blood.
She watched with interest as Kaoru let go of her hand and slipped into the crowd, watching him cling to the shadows as he snuck up on a civilian's hand bag. The woman noticed the slight brush and turned, but by then Kaoru was long gone, nearly back at their side already as a small bag of coins was slipped into his pants.
He linked an arm through hers and tugged her to the nearest shop.
"C'mon," he urged cheerfully. "You can let us pick something for you."
The little girl had never been in any sort of shop before, unless brothels counted as a shop, and she was pretty sure they didn't.
But once she was inside, it was like a wonderland of colors and things. There were goggles and hats and gloves and were those giraffe print leg warmers? She totally wanted them.
"Wow," she breathed, taking in all the clothes. So many clothes! Enough to fill up ten closets, at least. This was beyond cool. This was… this was a magical place.
From next to her, Muku rolled his eyes and dragged her over to a rack of kimono style shirts and dresses.
"Pick one you like," he offered, smiling a little as her eyes grew wide and round.
"Any one?" she asked disbelievingly. Kaoru snorted.
"Yeah, Canary-chan. Pick any outfit you want, and make sure it fits good and you can run around easy in it. You get into trouble a lot, so don't wear stuff that'll slow you down."
"Trouble?" she frowned at Kaoru, slightly affronted. "I don't get into trouble." Both he and Muku stared at her in flat deadpan and she shrank back.
"I don't," she insisted with a small pout before turning back to the magical rack of things in front of her. Her face screwed up in concentration. How was she supposed to choose just one? It was hard, harder than training, or sneaking into Mist, or freeing a bunch of smugglers and an abducted class. It was too hard.
She scanned the shelf intensely, unaware of Muku and Kaoru trying not to laugh as they stood behind her, barely suppressing their grins.
"Okay," she let her breath out in a whoosh, pressing her hands together. "Okay. I've decided."
"Well grab it then, and we'll go look at the pants."
She gaped at them.
"We're getting pants, too?"
This was the biggest luxury she'd received since ice cream. It was like being rich, or a noble, or having a pet dragon. She was going to be like an upper class civilian with new clothes.
"What do you think an outfit is?" Muku muttered, but she wasn't listening.
"Okay," she sucked in a deep breath. "Okay, that changes things."
Twenty minutes later, the boys had bought the little girl her first new outfit, and she was practically dancing out the shop door, ignoring the strange glances and suspicious glares of the employees.
"People will think you're itchy if you keep rubbing your face against your jacket, Canary-chan," Kaoru informed her brightly.
She stopped rubbing the fur lined hood against her cheeks just to beam at him.
"But it's soft," she breathed. "Feel." She sidled up to him as he rolled his eyes and rubbed her on the head, running his hand over the grey fur.
"Very soft," he agreed. "Good choice."
She grinned proudly and pulled the muted blue jacket tighter around her small frame. He shared a glance with Muku and they both grinned at the same time as their little hero toddled around dressed like she belonged in the Land of Water.
Muted blues also made her strange purple eyes seem brighter, though that might've just been the happiness rolling off of her in waves.
"It's almost noon," Muku reminded her. "We should meet with the others so you can take us to Mei."
"Mhm!" she nodded and they headed toward the meeting place, where she immediately ran to Kaya and the old man to show off her new clothes.
"See, and the pants aren't baggy because I trip a lot, and that's why Kaoru wouldn't let me get leg warmers even though they were so cool, and look, they have pockets. I can put stuff in there, like candy and my gloves. Did you see my gloves? Some of the ones there had no fingers, which is weird, I mean, what's the point of gloves without fingers? But don't worry, mine aren't like that…"
The old man chuckled and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"Good for you, Canary-chan. You look like a fine little lady."
Kaya raised an eyebrow at the boys and Muku shrugged.
"She's never been shopping before," he explained blankly.
The little girl finally paused to catch her breath, and then gathered herself once more, blushing a little.
"Um, anyways, I'll go find Mei and bring her back here, so… so I'll be right back."
"I can come with you if you want," Kaoru offered, and she nodded.
"Okay," she agreed, and she waved at the group (with her new gloves on!) and slipped her hand into Kaoru's, leading him further into the alleyways.
oOo
A/N: So our lovely main character has a stupid amount of luck. Like, Monkey D. Luffy level luck. Unfortunately, luck is iffy, and can be bad just as often as good. She'll probably get a taste of that later. Also, enter some of our favorite Mist canon characters! We'll be seeing them sporadically in the future.
I'd like to point out that Canary-chan isn't super beautiful or unnaturally good-looking. She's just a kid, and little kids are adorable, especially a happy little girl that rescues someone from captivity and sings little songs to herself to stay calm. They haven't seen anything pleasant for a while, so it's exaggerated in their minds.
Thoughts: What is Anbu-san doing right now?