Chapter 7 – Old and New Friends
oOo
Terumi Mei was having a bad day. She'd received no word from her rival in trade, no thanks for the child offering, and no terms to meet in order to get her workers back. She had no proof the man was holding her workers hostage, but they were reliable people, as trustworthy as one could be in the smuggling trade, and their loss was crippling her business. New workers didn't want to take up the transportation job out of fear of suffering the same fate, and her employers were growing impatient with the meager stock of weapons they were receiving to back their schemes and plans.
To top it off, she'd received no word of that cocky little brat since she'd sent her away. Zabuza had suggested that maybe she'd just ditched the mission as soon as she'd walked out the door, but one of Mei's informants reported that they'd seen the little girl sneak onto a boat headed for Kiri.
And since that asshat of a boss hadn't contacted her at all, the useless kid had probably died at some point before she reached him. Well good for her, choosing death rather than the fate he would have probably sentenced her to.
Mei felt the sharp sting of guilt and tried to suppress it, her lips tugging downward. What kind of monster was she, sending a little kid to that beast of a man? She'd been a war orphan with nothing before, and here she was ruining the lives of others subject to the same fate. It was disgusting. She was disgusting.
"You're worrying too much," Zabuza's flat voice carried over to her, and she glanced at the boy, pressing her lips together into a thin line.
"She's better off dead than with that man," Mei murmured, hands curling. Zabuza was unfazed.
"She lied to us and suffered the consequences. If she'd been talking to an adult in this trade, she'd be long dead to begin with." The words were harsh, but effective. She could see the truth in them.
"We didn't even know her name," Mei sighed, "And now we're no closer to the truth than we were before. Our business is collapsing, and our employers' complaints are being redirected from Kiri and Wave to us. We're the ones they're going to come after when their rebellions and assassinations fail."
Zabuza just rested his cheek in his palm, his dark eyes brooding.
"Like I said, you worry too much," he muttered. "Go to sleep already. You look like shit."
He then proceeded to roll over and take his own advice. She felt her vanity flare a little, because no man should ever say that to a woman, and she'd paid her dues during puberty and struggled to transform from that awkward pre-teen into someone strong and successful. But then again it was Zabuza, and she knew he gave absolutely no fucks about her taking offense, so she just dropped the issue and saved both of them the headache.
Then the back door opened without any warning, and a flurry of action ensued. Zabuza sprang for the open door, clearly not as unaware as he had seemed, and his sword immediately lashed forward, aiming for the low neck of the unannounced intruder.
The girl behind it tensed, ready to tackle forward, because that was really the only offensive maneuver she knew, but even she could see that she couldn't dodge in time, and was probably about to earn a nasty gash to the throat. Then suddenly Kaoru was in between them, arms crossed tight across his front as he puffed his chest out threateningly. Well, as threatening as a six-year-old could, anyways.
"The hell you playing at, Zabuza?" Kaoru snarled, and both Mei and Zabuza recoiled like they'd been shot, the latter freezing in mid-attack. The sword jerked to the side and sank into the wooden doorframe, causing the entire room to shudder. Mei stood abruptly, her mouth parting in shock, but Zabuza spoke first.
"Kaoru," the dark-haired boy breathed, eyes wide and bewildered. His hands loosened around the hilt of his blade.
"You know that guy?" the little girl's curious voice piped up from where she stood out of sight, now behind Kaoru.
"He was the one that freed Mei, Imouto-chan," Kaoru murmured. "He replaced us with war corpses three years ago at Kiri Academy and told everyone he killed his class."
There was a pause, and then suddenly the girl's head poked out from behind Kaoru, her eyes wide with realization.
"Oh!" she beamed at Zabuza, who stared at her with an intense expression, his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes scrutinizing her hard. "You're a nicer guy than I thought! Can we come in?"
Zabuza wordlessly stood aside, and the two entered the room, turning to face Mei.
Mei could have been replaced with an alabaster statue while their backs were turned and the girl doubted it would have looked any different. Her beautiful face was drawn and pale, her lips parted slightly and her hands lax at her sides.
Then as if a flip had been switched, she jerked out of her reverie and turned on the little girl, who jumped at the sudden movement, startled.
"I sent you to Kiri for my workers," Mei stated calmly, though her complexion and expression had yet to match the evenness of her tone. Kaoru stiffened, anger flashing across his eyes, and he opened his mouth to speak, but the little girl behind him beat him to it.
"I brought them, too," the girl answered simply, and pulled the map from her shirt. It was now soggy and ripped, and totally ruined, but Mei accepted the paper back anyways, her mind going blank as the implications of the child's words registered.
I brought them, too. Simple words, but the meaning behind them… The children and the workers, returned in a matter of days?
This wasn't possible. A hundred different scenarios had played out in her mind. She had tortured herself over how this little girl would die. It had never crossed her mind that the kid might actually survive, let alone be successful.
"That's not possible," she whispered through pale lips, and the little girl smiled a little awkwardly, scratching her head.
"W-well, I'm supposed to take you to 'em, cos… I didn't think you'd like it if I brought a bunch of grownups to your hideout, so…" she trailed off, blushing pink as she stared at her shoes. Stupid beautiful teenagers, making her feel like a socially awkward lump on a log.
"How did you survive?!" Mei's voice rose as she took a step toward the little girl. "You should not have been able to complete this alone! How did you find the workers and…" her voice faltered. "And our old class?" she finished in a whisper. The child perked up.
"Oh! That's easy. That's because I'm lucky!" she jabbed a finger at her chest and beamed, flashing her contagious bright smile. Mei did not return it, resisting the urge to grab the girl and shake her by the shoulders.
"Who did you get to assist you? Who did you tell of this mission?" she pressed urgently, because that was the only believable way... The little girl frowned, scrunching up her face as she tried to think.
"Well… I told the guy you sent me to, and he sure talks a lot for a liar, and I told his guard Sharky on accident because I thought he was the boss at first, but he wasn't, he was just a scary guy with cool teeth. And then… I told the workers why I came, and that was it." She finished counting on her fingers and nervously glanced up at the teenager.
"Sh-should I have kept it more of a secret?" she mumbled, flushing a dark red. "I didn't mean to tell. Sometimes I talk too much." Just like she was right now, she scolded herself, and abruptly closed her mouth.
"Canary-chan, you didn't do anything wrong," Kaoru interrupted, moving to meet Mei's eyes. "Mei's just a little surprised that you did everything right, even though you're little."
Her smile returned, and it was radiant.
"Really?" she breathed, and Mei couldn't help but return it slightly, her expression fond, even if the child's words were ludicrous. She nodded. Canary, huh? What a fitting name for such a naïve little bird.
"Take me to my workers, little Canary," she requested, and felt a warm glow when the little girl nodded and slipped her warm hand into Mei's, pulling the older girl back out into the alleyways. It wasn't forgiveness, because the little girl had no idea that she had been wronged, but to Mei it felt like something similar, and it eased the worst of her guilt. If this girl spoke the truth, she owed a huge debt, and it was one that she would not forget.
Kaoru followed wordlessly, his expression oddly reserved as he stood close to the little girl's side. He didn't speak once as they returned to the workers, his gaze shifting uneasily to Mei every few minutes. The reunion was brief and happy. Some of the smugglers sported expressions of disbelief, and the girl knew they hadn't really expected to be reunited with Mei, since everyone else didn't really believe her except some of the kids, but it didn't bother her.
Mei hugged several of the children and talked to them in a quiet voice, a warm smile curling at her lips, and the little girl smiled a little herself, happy because everyone was happy, and she was warm and snug in new clothes, and she had made friends all by herself, and that made it sting a little less when she thought of Anbu-san.
They entered a run-down tavern and some of the adults ordered drinks with stolen money while Mei began talking to Zabuza in a low voice.
"Wait here for a bit," Kaoru told her suddenly, and she blinked up in surprise as he made his way toward the two. He wasn't smiling.
"Okay," she agreed, settling down in between Muku and a girl she hadn't gotten to know yet. Muku absentmindedly patted her on the head before continuing his conversation, and she felt warmth heat up her chest. Maybe it was possible for her to have a family… just, a different kind of one. A family of friends, and of people that smiled at her, but didn't smile the way she did. A family that smiled and meant it, because they liked her.
Her eyes turned in Kaoru's direction, and the warmth slowly faded when she saw him arguing with Zabuza, Mei standing uncomfortably in the middle. She edged from her seat and walked towards them, a little worried. They were all back together now, so they should be happy, right?
"…four years old," Kaoru was hissing at Mei.
"Liars on the streets don't get second chances," Zabuza snarled right back, defending his partner as she swallowed hard, the words clearly hitting home.
"We got one," Kaoru growled in a low voice. "But it wasn't because you guys came to save us, was it? It was because you sent a little girl to die and she got lucky."
Zabuza's eyes ignited and his fists clenched at his sides.
"Don't you dare…" he broke off, jaw tightening, and his next words were spat through his teeth in little more than a whisper. "There wasn't a single fucking day she or I forgot about you. We regretted losing that fight every second."
"But you never came," Kaoru answered calmly, his eyes cold. "Someone else did."
"Stop it." The three stiffened and turned, only to have to glance down at the dark haired girl staring up at them with wide, worried eyes. "Don't fight," she requested quietly, grabbing Kaoru's and Mei's hands with her own. "I wanted to go, because I was hungry."
"Hungry…?" Kaoru trailed off, confusion clouding his expression for a moment.
"So don't fight, okay? You're back together now."
"Canary-chan," Kaoru crouched a little so that they were eye to eye. "Mei shouldn't have sent you all by yourself to do something so dangerous. Do you understand what could've happened to you?"
Do you understand what they expected to happen to you?
The silent question burned in his eyes, but she refused to back down, staring back at him worriedly.
"But—"
"Canary-chan, I'm sorry," Mei squeezed her hand, her eyes strangely bright as an undercurrent of shame colored her voice. "He's right, none of us thought you would actually return, and I especially—"
"I don't care," the girl answered simply, interrupting the teenager mid-sentence. Mei blinked, shocked into silence. "Like I said, I was hungry, so I did it. That doesn't matter." She shifted from one foot to the other impatiently. They weren't getting the point, it didn't matter. She was fine, so it was a moot point what had happened either way. But they needed to appreciate this happy moment, before they were forced to split up. They had to understand that they wouldn't be able to stay together for long, without putting each other and their trade in danger.
"Don't fight," she repeated carefully. "You just got back together. So enjoy it now, as long as you can, okay?"
"Canary-chan," Kaoru stared at her, his expression unreadable.
"As long as we can, huh?" Zabuza scowled at the little girl, his tone dark. "Want to explain what you mean by that?" Kaoru's jaw tightened as he turned on the ninja.
"Oi, asshole, how 'bout you show some appreciation—"
"Sure," she answered, squeezing Kaoru's hand to stop him from being rude. "I didn't do anything to your boss. I just freed the people I felt like helping and we snuck out together. So he's going to come here pretty soon, and he's gonna be mad."
Her smile faded a little.
"You guys gotta separate for a while, so he can't find ya. And me, well… he's probably really gonna be mad at me, so I gotta leave you guys and go back to where I came from, too."
She gently released Kaoru's and Mei's hands, clasping them behind her back.
"So… you gotta enjoy this time, right now, okay? No fighting." She glared sternly, her lips pressing together into a pout, and Mei blinked. Zabuza snorted.
"Alright, kid," the dark haired boy agreed gruffly. "You get your wish. She's not wrong, Mei. Most of us will have to split up for a while, go incognito so we can't be tracked down. He's big in trade, so we haven't seen the last of him."
Mei nodded, still pale, and Kaoru blanched at the nonchalant atmosphere.
"What are you talking about?" he demanded, turning on the young girl. "You're going off alone? Why can't you stay with us? Even if we're splitting up, I'm not leaving Muku, and we don't want to leave you either. You can join Kiri Academy with us. We'll get strong and protect you, so don't give us this… this crap about you going off all by yourself, that's stupid!"
She shifted her weight a little, staring back at him.
"I… will never join Mist," she told him flatly, her voice darkening for a moment before it returned to normal. "I like you guys a lot, but I don't like this place. Plus, I gotta see if my friend came back from his trip." She smiled cheerfully, feeling a sharp tug in her chest. Anbu-san. "But that's really nice of you, Kaoru. I'll miss you a bunch."
He blinked, surprised and still a little distressed, and she hastily tried to improve the mood.
"B-but all the more reason to have fun now, right?" She tugged on his shirt, a smile lighting up her face. "Kaoru, buy me some candy! It'll be like a party!"
Inwardly, her chest ached, because the thought of having a real family that cared was so appealing it hurt, but she had a fear of Mist. A fear of becoming like the people responsible for her mother's death. Mist shinobi, losing control of a tailed beast. Mist shinobi, trying to unleash that terror on to another's home in the first place. And her, laughing and smiling and playing in blood that belonged to her mother, something only a demon would do.
She didn't want that demon inside of her to rear its ugly head. Already her mother's face was beginning to fade away, and only grew harder to remember as the days passed, despite her desperate attempts to remember. She didn't want Mist to twist her into the monster she kept locked away. The monster that would play in blood and smile while others choked on it.
So instead, she grinned brightly at Kaoru and watched him struggle against her smile before finally folding with a sigh and giving in to her request. She supposed she did have a pretty smile, then, just like her mother said. She wondered if one day, she might ever meet someone that could actually see through it.
But not today. Today, she wouldn't let such things bother her, because according to her own advice, this was a party, and she was determined to totally enjoy it before she had to return to the sparse woods where her pitiful and lonely campsite awaited.
oOo
"Hey, Canary-chan, I want to talk to you for a little bit," Mei touched the girl's arm, and big warm eyes blinked up at her curiously. A light blush tinged the girl's cheeks and she nodded. "Somethin' wrong, Mei…san?" She frowned. "-chan? No, that doesn't sound right… -hime?" she hummed. "That sounds like a fairy tale, but ya do look like a princess. Maybe… hmm…"
"Just Mei is fine," Mei assured her, unable to keep an amused smile from touching her lips. She pulled the girl to the side, and crouched down a little so she could meet the girl's too-kind eyes. Honestly, how had a child so compassionate ended up in a place like this? Usually that kind of warm-heartedness was crushed swiftly and cruelly by the adults in the Land of Water.
"I know you said you don't care that I sent you to Kiri, and that's fine, I won't argue," she continued hastily, when she saw the girl's mouth open to protest. "But I care. I was alone once, and I know what it's like to not have anywhere to go. I know how hard it must have been so well that it hurts." She took the little girl's hands in her own. "So what I did… it was no better than what all the grown-ups here have done to me. I don't want to be that person, and I want to make it up to you. Does… does that make sense?"
The little girl pondered that, frowning a little as she thought, and then met Mei's eyes once more.
"So you're saying… you and Bandages want to owe me a favor?" she tried to confirm.
"B-bandages?" Mei questioned, before glancing at Zabuza and eyeing the wrappings covering the lower half of his face. Understanding crossed her features and she couldn't help but grin a little, because it was too accurate, and also because Zabuza would hate the nickname, which was exactly why she was never going to correct it. Hell, she might even use it herself. She returned her attention to the girl, focusing once again.
"That's… a mild way to put it, but technically… yes," she admitted. The girl's eyes sparkled.
"Great, that's really great, because there's something I can't do, and I really need help," she told Mei excitedly.
Something Canary-chan can't do, Mei thought with increasing apprehension. Something that this child, who had snuck into a hidden village, pissed off a drug lord who dabbled in human trafficking, kidnapped his goods and freed his hostages…. Couldn't do. She couldn't even begin to imagine what this little girl possibly thought she wasn't capable of. Become Mizukage, maybe? Or worse, assassinate a Daimyo? Maybe cross the Elemental Nations and conquer as she went?
Some may have thought that Terumi Mei was horribly exaggerating, but she was one hundred percent serious, and more than a little frightened. What kind of horrendous favor would she be subject to? This little girl was more than capable. She'd proved that much. She sucked in a deep breath and steeled herself. She had brought this on herself, and she would suffer the consequence appropriately and with pride.
The little girl leaned forward to whisper in Mei's ear, seemingly unaware of the teenager's growing apprehension. It seemed to be a secret, then, so it would be sensitive information, which did not bode well for the level of danger they would be put in… maybe she should have offered something else…?
"Can you teach me how to light a fire?"
Mei blinked, unsure whether she had heard the whispered words correctly.
"…what?"
The girl's eyes grew wide and serious.
"Without any cheats, like matches and stuff. It's really important to me," she explained, still keeping her voice low.
"You… don't know how to light a fire?" Mei repeated, still trying to wrap her head around the fact that she wasn't being introduced to the end of the world or a lifetime of servitude. The girl shook her head.
"No, but I'd like to learn. When I go back to my campsite, I don't wanna freeze, because it gets cold at night, and even though I have this super cool jacket now, I still think the winter will be pretty hard to tough out, so…" she trailed off awkwardly, frowning a little at Mei's dumbfounded expression. "I'm not totally useless," she defended herself, a little affronted. "I just… wasn't paying attention when other people did it… and… and I never needed to light a fire before I came to the Land of Water, y'know."
Fire was kind of taboo in Grass, for obvious reasons.
"Uh, n-no," Mei shook her head, trying to reassure the girl. "It's not that, I know you're not useless, Canary-chan, it's just… that's not the kind of thing I thought you would ask for," she laughed a little. "I'll do you one better than just teaching you that. I bet you don't know how to hunt, either."
She shook her head no, and Mei smiled.
"I'm sure Bandages would love to teach you some snares for trapping… wouldn't you, Zabuza?" Mei glanced to the side, where Zabuza was leaning against the wall a few feet away, watching their conversation from the corner of his eye. He just grunted in response, uncaring.
Mei winked at her.
"We'll come with you when you go back, and teach you what you need to know before heading our own way, deal?"
She nodded.
"Okay," she agreed easily. "Deal."
And so they partied. For one night, illegal merchants and escaped children and weapons smugglers and a little girl who didn't know what she was yet, celebrated and ate until they could eat no more, and drank until half of them passed out at the tables, and the rest mumbled incoherently at one another.
Several of the children began to slip out in twos and threes, thanking the little girl one last time, and promising never to forget, before choosing destinations to make their way in the world. The adults stayed in larger groups, and briefly spoke business to Mei, or tried to, through their drunken stupor, before she sent them off, annoyed.
"Just find me later," she snapped at the one man still stumbling over his words of loyalty and willingness to stay in the trade. "I'll still be alive tomorrow, but the same can't be said of you, wasted as you are. Go," she practically pushed the man out the door, still leaning heavily on his friend, and the man slurred out a thanks before finally trudging away.
Finally, only a few remained.
Kaya offered the little girl a swift kiss on the forehead as she left, promising to someday return and repay their gratitude, and the old man gave her a warm hug, his eyes shining with unshed tears as they left together.
When the sun began to dip behind the horizon, only Kaoru and Muku remained of the children, and Mei turned toward the little girl, suddenly looking exhausted, but much more content than she had felt in a long time.
"Now then," she sighed, a small smile toying with her lips. "Shall we go?'
It was a short trek to the outskirts of the settlement, back to the safety of the tree line. Mei curiously eyed the sparse remains of a campsite that appeared to have been set up for two people, but when she asked the little girl who she was staying there with, she just answered that she had a friend who went on a trip.
To Mei it looked more like this 'friend' had abandoned the little girl, but she chose not to comment. Instead, she would just make damn sure the little one knew the basics of survival. She offered to let the young one join them, since three wasn't particularly conspicuous and Mei had more than enough business recovered to provide, but the girl politely declined, instead just saying that she made some sort of promise. Mei couldn't help but think whoever was on the other end of that promise didn't deserve that kind of blind loyalty; leaving a toddler alone in the woods.
She did more than teach the child to light a fire. She taught her how to scope out a campsite away from the wind, to be able to recognize weather patterns when the temperature dropped or the clouds changed. She had Zabuza teach her three basic snares, and then showed her how to stalk her own prey and move quietly through the forest like a wraith. The latter she struggled with, and would take practice, but she didn't complain and she learned quickly, avoiding fallen leaves and crunchy debris where she could.
Mei taught her how to fish and the difference between edible, poisonous, and medicinal plants. She explained which foods could be eaten raw, and which ones had to be cooked to prevent disease. They stayed for three whole nights, much to Zabuza's displeasure, but he didn't complain, only grunting when Mei asked him to demonstrate something and obliging reluctantly.
He was on edge, ready to move on, but he recognized a debt owed when he saw one. He just figured their efforts would go to waste. Even if nature didn't kill this little girl, the Land of Water would. War-torn territories were unforgiving places to go on a camping trip. Especially with her eyes so eerily reminiscent of a clan well-known for their ocular abilities. Her eyes didn't quite match, just a shade darker than the famed Hyūga (Zabuza had killed one during the war, so he would know), but they were close enough that others would easily be fooled.
On the third day they finally bid their farewells, Mei giving the girl a warm hug and Zabuza reluctantly permitting her to fondly pat him on the cheek before she headed off into the woods, waving over her shoulder.
"Not a chance in hell she'll make it," Zabuza grunted, once the girl was out of sight.
"Not a chance in hell a toddler can infiltrate Kiri and return with half a man's underworld merchandise in less than a week," Mei answered. "I have a feeling we'll run into her again."
"You're crazy."
"Wanna bet on it?"
He turned away, dark eyes brooding.
"…not really."
oOo
The little girl returned to her campsite refreshed and awake, with only minor stinging from her lasting injuries, and set about finding some materials to set snares for dinner. She wasn't sure how long she should stay before starting to steadily travel back to Kusagakure, but figured one more night in the Land of Water wouldn't hurt. Besides, the fish here were better than anywhere else. She was determined to catch at least one.
But when she returned to her meager belongings, she quickly felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise as she realized she was not alone. Someone was there. Her adrenaline spiked along with her heartbeat as she registered the existence of another presence.
As if he'd melted out of the darkness itself, Anbu-san stood before her campsite, arms crossed tightly across his chest, his dark, glittering eyes staring her down from the depths of his mask.
She froze in her tracks, eyes locking with his. At his side, a young boy stood just even with his hip, watching her with suspicious, untrusting eyes.
He lifted a hand casually, as if he hadn't left her to die for a week.
"Yo."
Her anger flared, but she buried it fiercely, along with her desire to cry, because he had left her dammit, and she had ben terrified, but more than scared, she was pissed, but she didn't want him to see. So she smiled and stared right between his eyes, her own expression blank.
"Anbu-san," she greeted blandly. He twitched, though she couldn't tell if he was bothered by her response, expecting her to run to him or something, or just itchy, because Anbu were kinda weird like that.
"Miss me enough for a replacement?" she asked, nodding toward the boy, who stiffened. Anbu-san shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets.
"More or less, something like that." His casual tone grated against her nerves, but she didn't allow her smile to fall.
She stared at the weird looking boy with curiosity and a morbid kind of fascination. What had happened to this boy? Another predator trying to kill him, only to be interrupted by Anbu-san? Was he a homeless boy, like her? Did he say goodbye to a family?
"This boy is going to be your partner from now on," Anbu-san told her in that blank voice that meant he wasn't in the mood for putting up with any bullshit. Which was a real shame, because she had a lot saved up for him.
"His name is Yagura, and from now on, you two will watch each other's backs. Understand?"
"Okay," she answered easily, meeting the boy's strange violet eyes, just a shade darker than her own. They could probably pass for siblings, actually, though his hair was much lighter than hers.
"Nice to meet you, Yagura," she held out her hand and he glared at her through slitted eyes, clearly not appreciating the gesture. Anbu-san nodded and disappeared, off to do whatever Anbu did when they didn't recruit little children to become secret soldiers.
"You can call me Master," the boy grunted. "If you are worthy of being my partner, I won't kill you."
Ohohoho, one of those types.
Her smile widened, which seemed to throw him slightly, but he just firmly crossed his arms, refusing to
take a single step toward her outstretched hand.
"I'll call you what I want to, Yagura, and you should just be happy I ain't callin' you dickwad for having your panties in a twist. Now quit being stupid and c'mere, I wanna show you something cool."
His brow furrowed and he walked forward, fists clenching at his sides. She beamed at him. There. See, that was how people were supposed to get along. Then his fist came out of nowhere and crashed into her throat, sending her straight into the wall with a crunch.
Her head smacked into the rock hard enough to make her vision spin, and a splatter of blood stained the wall and dripped toward the floor. She focused on him slowly, waiting for the three Yaguras to narrow back down to one.
He smirked at her.
"Master," he insisted darkly, and rather than flipping him off in response like she intended to, she felt her stomach lurch and she heaved, throwing up all over his shoes. She lifted her head slowly, meeting his now disgusted gaze with a feral smile as he scrambled away from her regurgitated lunch. Then she lunged at him, nails scrabbling for purchase anywhere they could, raking across his face and neck and any skin he was stupid enough to leave exposed before attacking her.
They wrestled across the floor like rabid dogs, kicking and scratching and biting and pulling hair. Finally they seemed to reach an impasse when she nailed him in the groin and he landed a solid kick to her solar plexus.
"Bitch," he spat on the floor, wiping blood from his mouth with a snarl. She smiled at him, her head cocking to the side, and her eyes glittered with something feral.
"Dickwad it is." She then plopped down cross legged on the floor and stuck her tongue out at him before beginning to tend to her own scrapes and bruises like a wounded dog. He snorted and shook his head, bemused and annoyed and frustrated all at the same time. She could tell he wanted to kill her, but they both knew he wouldn't. Not with Anbu-san lurking in the shadows.
"She's weak," he snarled at Anbu-san when the man returned and tossed the carcass of a deer at their feet. "Find me someone else."
The Anbu stared back at him with empty, dead eyes.
"No," he answered flatly, and that was that.
As soon as Anbu-san left, Yagura turned on the girl and glared. She stared back at him blankly.
"I'm the boss of you, and you belong to me until you can beat me."
She nodded sagely.
"And you're my dickwad until you're good enough to be my friend." She blinked, rethinking her statement. "…mm, that sounded weird to me. Was that weird to you?"
He growled at her and grabbed at her hair, and she stuck a finger up his nose. He gagged, retching, and his elbow slammed into her face, sending them tumbling apart.
"Doethn't feel too hoth, doeth ith?" she empathized, sporting a bloody nose with a cupped hand. He muttered a curse under his breath and she grinned, ready to go again. There was nothing like a good old-fashioned brawl to release some pent-up anger. And boy, did she have plenty of that. He scoffed and turned away. She shrugged and turned back to her previous task of doodling graffiti on the bare walls of her new home. His problems had nothing to do with her. She was just fine minding her own business.
She didn't have a real problem with him at all until evening, when he swiped her share of dinner right out from her hands.
"Mine!" she demanded, reaching out toward the meat he'd taken. He took a casual bite and stared at her blankly, chewing slowly and moving back out of her reach.
"What's yours is also mine until you are strong enough to do something about it," he informed her with a perfectly serious face and she actually felt the heat rising in her face and burning in her ears. How dare this asshole just assume… She had been friendly! Much friendlier than he deserved, by all rights, and here he just… he just took her food as if he were allowed, as if he were entitled, well. She was having none of this fuckery. He could punch her in the face and throat and wherever all he wanted, but this… this was personal.
"You give that back, you dumb sack of shit," she told him blankly, her expression carefully cordial. She wouldn't look angry at him, not yet. Instead she would smile as she tore him to pieces for stealing her dinner.
"Master," he grunted, but other than that did nothing but proceed to take another slow, deliberate bite, his eyes never leaving her. The Alpha in her reared its ugly head beneath her skin, boiling in her blood and making her itch to bare her teeth. It came so swift and strong it took her by surprise, and she struggled to keep her hands from curling into fists at her side. He was challenging her and it got under her skin and made her teeth grind hard against one another.
Suppress it, her thoughts whispered, that's not who you are.
Slowly, her hands relaxed, and the tension bled from her posture. Her jaw unclenched, and she calmly stood. Fine, if that was the way he wanted it, then so be it. She wordlessly turned and ran out of the cave, straight into the woods, only to be stopped a few yards in by a moving dark blur.
It was creepy the way Anbu-san could just appear out of nowhere, gliding out of the darkness silently and eerily like the shadow of a snake. He stood before her, arms crossed, and she let out an annoyed huff, her breath crystalizing in the cold air.
"I'm going hunting," she emphasized, and he scrutinized her for a moment, undoubtedly searching for evidence of dishonesty. Finally he nodded, and she grinned before turning and disappearing into the trees. It was too dark to really see, so she focused on listening, following the telltale sounds of small animals rustling through the foliage. She wasn't strong enough to take down a deer or anything, but she could set a few snares for a rabbit or some squirrels.
She heard the little chirps of squirrels and the quiet sound of nuts being crushed and set her snares carefully, hiding them the way Zabuza had taught her, as if they were meant for people. She had to just in case, because some animals (like raccoons) were smart, and knew how to disarm them. Kami, she hated raccoons. Stupid little panda squirrels, always screwing with her catches.
An hour of patient waiting brought success, much to her delight. Usually she would have to wait half a day or so before her efforts bore results. She couldn't wait to see the look on that dickw ad's face when she returned with her prize. She killed two squirrels and let a mouse go, since mice were barely worth eating, and stuffed them into her bag, searching for certain plants to cook with, and it was hard, because she could barely see her own hand in front of her face, let alone the shapes of the leaves around her, but she managed, because Anbu-san was undoubtedly watching her or at least checking in on her and he would never let her hear the end of it if she couldn't do things without her sense of sight to guide her.
And she meant that. He would harass her with ridiculous training for weeks, doing crap blindfolded and probably letting Yagura treat her like a chew toy for a few hours. No, thank you.
At least, that's what he probably would do if he still even cared about her training. Now that he'd replaced her with that thieving bastard, maybe he wouldn't need her to do all those warmups and crazy exercises. He didn't bother checking up on her the week he was gone, that she was sure of.
She finished her preparations and returned to the shelter, pausing to smirk at Yagura as she approached the fire. He didn't seem to appreciate the gesture and his strange eyes narrowed at her as she pulled a skinned squirrel from her bag and roasted it over the fire. The smell of cooked meat began to fill the shelter and she added a few herbs just because she could, causing the aroma to quickly shift from pleasant to mouthwatering.
She put out the flames to let it cool so that he couldn't heat up his own meal, because she felt like being a dick, too, and then picked up the stoke and examined the squirrel, proud of her efforts. Yes, it was absolutely perfect, and the meal was small, but the taste would totally make up for it.
Her smile vanished as the stick was ripped from her hands.
"Should've eaten in the woods," Yagura grunted, before taking a huge bite out of the squirrel. She watched him blandly, waiting.
He chewed slowly, lips turned upward in a smirk, before his face slowly flushed to a dark crimson.
"What's wrong, dickwad?" she asked sweetly. "Don't like sea food?"
He spat out the mouthful, revealing half chewed eels stuffed within the meat that could bring tears to a grown man's eyes. She could practically see the tension and heat rise in his face as he threw the squirrel aside and screamed at her, his face and neck all turning a splotchy red.
"YOU!" he roared, lunging at her and slamming her into the ground by the neck. "I COMMAND YOU TO NEVER DO THIS AGAIN!"
She beamed at him, the expression turning a little wild as she planted her feet against his chest and kicked him off of her for all she was worth.
"I command you to kiss my ass, Dickwad!" she shouted back enthusiastically.
His nails dragged across her neck as he was forced back and she scrambled to her feet but he was larger and stronger, and he grabbed her around her waist and threw her into the remains of the fire. She rolled rapidly away, but not before the dying embers seared her hip, burning the exposed area and leaving her skin mottled and red.
She let out a wail of pain and curled up by a wall as Yagura bolted for the exit. She watched him with tears of pain and anger in her eyes, confused and frustrated.
"Running away from me, you dumb shit?!" she screamed after him, but she didn't get a reply. She distantly heard a splash and realized with a slightly hysterical smile, oh, he needed water. His mouth and throat were still full of eel oils. Well good, she thought bitterly. It served that jerk right.
"Did I perhaps miss something important?" she turned her head to see Anbu-san at the doorway, back from scouting the perimeter or doing whatever he did after he made sure she wasn't out hunting too long.
He was staring at her hip, and at the tears in her eyes, but she was too tired and angry to care. She curled up into herself and smiled, but it was not a kind expression. It was angry and wicked and full of victory and mirth, but also full of pain, but she didn't care because she was still smiling, and that counted for something.
There's that pretty smile I lo—
"Nothing," she bit out in little more than a hiss, before turning her face away from him and toward the wall, her smile disappearing. The bastard had just left her, and she was still mad. "Yagura's in the river."
She heard the telltale swish of a cloak and knew the man had gone to check on the boy and make sure she hadn't maimed him or something. A part of her wished she had, but she wasn't strong enough for that. Stupid egotistical boys and their stupid displays of dominance. She'd never been against getting along, but no. This kid and his holier-than-thou attitude was too stubborn to treat her like a friggin' human being.
She lost her appetite that night, whining and shifting and trying to find a position that didn't stretch the burn on her hip. It was really hard, but at least Yagura hadn't come back to see her acting like a total crybaby. Anbu-san had, and he'd wordlessly dampened a cloth and pressed it against the burn, blatantly ignoring her wails until it was sterilized and bandaged. Now it was just itchy as hell, and she wanted to scratch at the gauze and rip it away. Her neck stung a little, but those were just scratches, and she got those all the time in scuffles and training.
Burns were a whole new kind of pain, and she loathed it.
It took hours of shifting and complaining, sporadically mixed with muttered profanities toward Yagura and the world in general, but finally she settled into a semi-comfortable position far away from the fire. Anbu-san laid out a bedroll adjacent to her as she scratched more aimless doodles on the walls to distract herself from the pain, pointedly facing away from him.
"You seemed to manage fairly well on your own for a week," he noted flatly, hiding a note of curiosity that might have been audible if he weren't trained better than that.
She just grunted, uninterested. Yes, uninterested, because she didn't pout. Why would she pout? It wasn't like he'd abandoned her without a word and left her in the middle of the wilderness alone in enemy territory to die.
Oh wait.
The girl was once again reminded of how young he was as she glanced at his smooth features. Only a few years older than Mei. How did he get so skilled so quickly? Had he established underground connections as well? Learned through experience? Then she remembered that he had probably been active throughout most of the Third Shinobi World War, and she probably would be, too, once she was deemed strong enough for field work. Oh.
"Anything interesting happen while I was gone?" he asked offhandedly.
She blinked at him a couple of times before returning to doodling graffiti on the walls.
"Nah, not really."
oOo
Anbu-san would never admit it, because he had a personal vendetta against allowing children's egos to swell too much, but he was impressed. He hadn't expected to find much when he returned, except perhaps maybe the cold remains of their campsite with no sign of the girl, (or the cold remains of a girl with no sign of a campsite) because of course she wouldn't know how to hide evidence of a fire, and he had expected her to go to the nearest village for help once he was gone. How would she know that Kiri wasn't exactly the nicest to little girls? She wouldn't, because she was an ignorant little brat, but he had originally intended to come back after a single day, and it would be a moot point anyways.
Perhaps she would've been begging on the streets, or being cornered by thugs, or shuffling around the red light district like she had been when he had found her, not that Whirlpool's was anything impressive. He had expected, that if she was even alive, he would swoop down and save her from some morons with poor excuses for fighting skills and her face would light up in that way that he definitely didn't think was adorable, and she would be loyal to him as an asset for many years to come. She would be sobbing and wailing and clinging to his pants like she always did while he stood proudly as the hero, walking away from the bad guys as they burned behind him. And then they would explode and highlight his silhouette, because reasons.
He had expected her to be thin as a rail and on the verge of tears, and she certainly had lost weight since his absence, but it wasn't at all like he had expected.
She had moved their campsite a mile or so downwind, seeking out shelter from the wind in a natural cave formed by the outskirts of the mountains, which, he was grudgingly forced to admit, was an admittedly impressive leap in logic for a kid her age.
On top of that, he could see no sign of a fire since the one he had lit a week ago, and wasn't sure whether he should be exasperated at her lack of ability to make one, or if the little girl had somehow managed to go a full seven days without. She even had new clothes. Mist style clothing, though she probably wasn't even aware of the similarity. Could the child steal? Had she learned how to steal? It should be impossible. She should have frozen to death in the night.
So why hadn't she?
Hell, the brat hadn't even looked like she was glad to see him, and he'd be lying if he said that hadn't stung a little. She'd stared right passed him as if he wasn't there and just smiled to him (but not at him) like she hadn't needed him there at all.
Admittedly, he hadn't intended to come back after his initial task turned out the way it did, but she should at least have cried or something, right? Maybe run toward him and tried to cling to him like the affectionate little brat she was?
This was a complication, and Anbu didn't like complications. She had turned out more promising than he had anticipated, but now he would just have to use that potential to pit against Yagura as an incentive for him to get stronger. Competition was quite the motivator, after all.
He didn't like the fact that she had lied to him, though. What was she trying to hide, that she would shrug carelessly and state that 'nothing' had happened in the past seven days? And since when did she know how to hunt? Was it even possible to teach yourself that kind of thing? Or was she just being an annoying brat and trying to get under his skin? He firmly reassured himself that it wasn't working, before turning on his bedroll to face the wall.
Little kids were stupid anyways. He'd get the truth from her sooner or later.
oOo
"Uhhh…" the girl stared at the new obstacle course with an almost dead expression. Then she plopped down on the ground and continued to chew on her leftovers from the night before. "Nope."
"Get up," Anbu-san ordered, and she ignored him, because she hadn't been slacking off, and had definitely continued doing her own two hundred lap warmups, but this… this was stupid, and she was hungry. So she just noped right out of it.
"I already did my warmup," she whined, doleful eyes moving up to meet his.
"And your form was sloppy," he answered dryly. "Now get up."
Form? Since when did her playful (if exhausting) routine have anything to do with form?
"What form?" she asked, squinting her eyes at him. "I'm not a ninja, Anbu-san. There's no form."
"There is now," he snapped, and she heard irritation laced in his words. She scowled.
"If you're mad about my form, then maybe you should've been here to correct it," she huffed, and received a hard kick in the shin for her snide comment.
She swore loudly, tears gathering in her eyes. What a dick, she thought angrily. That was a low blow.
"Up," he ordered, and she rolled to her feet and shot him a poisonous glare before stumbling to the new course with her throbbing leg.
She had no idea how he did it, but he had laced the entire grove around them with traps. Maybe it was because he was a fancy schmancy Anbu Captain, and they could do anything. The thought was accompanied with a copious amount of bitter sarcasm.
And now, the course was a race. Yagura would be training alongside her, and the loser of the course had to repeat it. Like, repeat the whole damn thing that took like two hours to finish just once. And gee, wasn't that just as fair as could be, considering Yagura was at least two years older and already towered over her in height.
Yeah, no.
She was just fine, thank you very much.
The bastard was smirking at her from the starting point, and she felt a small burst of vindication when she smiled sweetly at him and his eyes narrowed.
"You hungry, dickwad?" she asked him kindly, her eyes sparkling, and his smirk transformed into a scowl so quickly it was almost inspiring.
"Go!" Anbu-san barked, and Yagura's fist smashed into her face before he took off. She stumbled back, clutching her nose (which still hurt from yesterday, she might add) and blinked rapidly, bewildered and stunned.
He was already far ahead of her, activating some traps as he passed them, and dodging the projectiles from others.
She wiped the blood from her face and took off after him, a new determination fueling her steps. That self-righteous prick! Both he and Anbu-san really were the worst. Well, it wouldn't matter in the end, because Yagura could flaunt his muscles and physical strength all he wanted, but she was faster than a full-grown man, and he could suck on that when she passed him up.
Then the first blunted kunai gutted her in the stomach. She stumbled back, surprised, and then darted forward again, only to be tripped by ninja wire as she face planted into the mud. Then she realized her error of judgement.
It didn't matter how friggin' fast she was if she couldn't dodge anything. She couldn't run in a straight line without being tripped up or targeted, and she couldn't speed through traps if she didn't know how to deactivate or avoid them.
She didn't even complete the course the first time, knocked out by a suspiciously accurate projectile straight to the side of the head, and when she woke up, she was still face down in mud, (because neither Anbu-san nor Yagura bothered to help her, screw them both) and Yagura was back at the cave shelter with her supposed guardian.
"Again," he called, when he sensed her return to consciousness. She peeled herself off the ground with a moan, wondering if this was even legal. No, of course it wasn't, because Anbu-san had specifically met with someone to bypass finicky laws and make her Grass Anbu or whatever the hell she was enlisted as.
She resisted the urge to insult him and instead dragged herself to the starting line, narrowing her eyes at the hated course and all the traps that had been reset.
(He took the time to reset every single trap in a two hour course but couldn't roll her over two feet out of the mud, those dicks.)
But at least even without Anbu-san's orders she wanted to complete the course now. She'd been training really hard, so it stung that she hadn't even been able to finish it. She was going to try again, and again, and again, and dammit, she would beat Yagura, but it would take practice. A lot of practice.
She hated training, but if she turned it into a game, it wouldn't be training at all. So she did what four year olds were best at, and she pretended.
She pretended that this course was her playground, and she was an Anbu Captain, scoffing at its weakness. No, scratch that, she was the first female Mizukage, and she was going to clear this course like the child's play it was and look good doing it. She took off again, rolling under a fallen tree and lunging forward.
She didn't make it through the course that time, or the next, or the next. But when Anbu-san finally called it quits and allowed her to stop, she smiled to him and returned to the starting point while he turned his attention to Yagura and spoke to the boy in a measured voice.
She just laughed quietly to herself, because an Anbu captain and his pet dickwad couldn't possibly understand the complexities of being the Mizukage, and the leader of the Land of Water did not give up, nor would she succumb to the orders of those foreign enemies, only posing as her allies.
She hurled herself into the course again, shoes abandoned in favor of agility, and learned slowly but surely how to weave through the traps.
Those simpletons, setting snares and nets as if she were an animal being hunted. Didn't they know that wouldn't work on the illustrious and amazing Mizukage? What morons.
(She earned a nasty gob of mud to the face immediately following the thought.)
And who knew the Mizukage had the potential to be so flexible? She accidentally slipped into a split, braced on either side by boulders, narrowly avoiding the kunai arcing over her head, and was more surprised than hurt.
After that, every rock changed from an obstacle to a new handhold. Every tree transformed from a hindrance to a shield, and she learned to think from a three dimensional perspective. Why couldn't she use the sky if her legs had the strength to shoot her upward? Why not dive underwater if there were gaps in the ice? (Besides the fact that despite its efficiency, it was colder than Anbu-san's attitude and she totally regretted it.)
What was wrong with catching a projectile and hurling it back at the trap's source if she was fast enough to pluck it out of the air?
Absolutely nothing, was the answer in her opinion. And by the time dusk was beginning to fall over the mountain side like a husky blanket, the last rays of the sun slipping away into the dark, she stood at the finish line, grimy and sweaty and bruised and cut up, but with a giant smile so bright it might've put the moon to shame.
Yagura was eating dinner, casting surly glances in her direction, the firelight from their campsite casting haunting flickers across his brooding eyes, and Anbu-san was watching her silently. He caught her eye and offered the barest of nods, a motion of approval.
She hadn't done it for his approval, but the acknowledgement still filled her with pride, because he was damn near impossible to satisfy, and she laughed out loud, falling backwards into the sludgy mud mixed with snow, letting out heavy breaths that fogged up the air above her.
She was exhilarated and proud, and she let the feeling swell in her chest until she felt like she would burst. If this was what it felt like to train and get stronger, maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.
oOo
Over the course of the next week, the girl realized that Yagura was low key trying to get her killed. It had started with the snake in her bedroll, which could've been retribution from Anbu-san, but she doubted it. Then after Anbu-san had changed up the course like he did on a weekly basis, Yagura had reached the top of a mountain suspiciously close to the time an avalanche had nearly crushed her. He'd really underestimated her speed, she supposed. Hell, she'd underestimated her speed. Who knew imminent death could inspire so much motivation to go faster, oh shit faster, OH KAMI FASTER, because it definitely pushed her to basically teleport down that mountain at ungodly speeds.
Then there was poison in her meal, which was stupid, because she'd invented that prank, so there was no chance she'd fall for it. And then there were their routine brawls which he committed to with a viciousness that was impressive, but really unnecessary in her opinion. The jerk had even pushed her off of a low hanging cliff and into a ravine, which revealed that she could, in fact, flail around enough to stay afloat. Hence, she somewhat knew how to swim. Who knew? But toward the end of the week, his efforts were growing increasingly ineffective, and she took a certain kind of glee in driving him crazy with each failed attempt.
"She's too weak," he snarled at Anbu-san once again, while they were traveling back toward Grass, crossing a deep river with their packs above their head while their teacher loftily strutted across the water's surface like some kind of magical sea creature. He actually walked quite normally, but her imagination painted him otherwise in her jealous envy. He crossed in record time, completely ignoring Yagura just as he had every other time the boy brought up her incompetence, and disappeared into the trees, not waiting up for them. She knew they would have to catch up and discover his new campsite on their own.
At that point, mostly because she was cold and in a bad mood, she turned on Yagura with her trademark grin.
"I think you're weak, too, dickwad," she returned sweetly, and he stiffened.
"I've surpassed you in all ways," he argued, eyebrows drawing together. She probably should have left it there. She'd never really been one for verbal argument before, more of a 'punch you in the face' type, but she was tired of this.
"So what, you can go through an obstacle course? That don't make you strong," she answered flatly, her words laced with the barest hint of ice, and he stopped, waist deep in water, surprised, because the naïve child had never spoken to him like that. Like she was… like she was better than him. She stopped too, turning to face him. "If you're so strong, I bet you could handle at least a week on your own, with no one to look after you, but wait…" Her smile widened, purple eyes flashing. "What about food? You can't hunt. What about warmth? A fire will get you killed with no big scary Anbu Captain to look after you. What about shelter? You'll freeze to death in the cold. And aren't you still eating Anbu-san's catches?"
His expression progressively darkened as she spoke, his complexion turning an interesting shade of magenta, but she didn't pause. She always had been one to talk just a little too much. "Why don't you try to hunt some meals yourself instead of trying and failing to get rid of me, you pathetic, weak-ass excuse of a teacher's pet?" She scoffed and turned away, shaking her head in dismissal. "Kiss-ass."
His eye twitched, and then Yagura completely lost his shit.
"I'm not the weak one!" he roared, lunging at her, and their supplies splashed into the water around them as he tackled her and sent them both underwater.
She snarled in reply before bubbles and water surrounded her as they thrashed beneath the surface. She could feel him wrap around her like a constrictor, her head locked in his arm as he squeezed the air from her throat. She resisted the urge to claw at the arm, instead shoving her hand into her pocket for the wire she set traps with. She forced her arms between them and pressed the wire against his neck, switching the ends behind him and pulling them back toward her, hard. His arm flexed, his bicep tightening around her neck as he resisted, and her foot connected with his gut as she sank her teeth into his hand.
The double hit forced him to loosen his grip and she immediately wriggled free and shot to the surface, flailing her way back to the bank. She gasped as she finally emerged, drawing in deep, shaking gulps of air before scrambling back onto land, expecting him to lunge out of the water after her and continue their duel.
No one came.
She could still see him thrashing, fighting against something she couldn't see. She squinted at the water. Had her wire caught and pinned him under? She waded back in, feeling the icy bite of the water set in, and automatically started circulating the heat in her body like she had the first time she saw snow. Even if it was all in her head, the trick still worked, and she wasn't very cold when she took a deep breath and sank beneath the water.
Glints of light were flashing off of nearly invisible strings as Yagura increasingly tangled himself worse in the sharp wire. Blood was beginning to color the water, seeping from his neck and arms, where he was caught the worst.
She could see some of them anchored to a moss-covered log sitting at the bottom of the river, and she waded towards it cautiously, skirting around Yagura and crouching as best she could by the knotted tangles. This was good wire, and he was just wasting it.
She would've sighed if she weren't holding her breath. She broke the soggy log with one weak kick, and the caught wire floated free, allowing Yagura to surface.
He was only struggling weakly now, so she swam toward him and latched onto his collar before dragging him toward the bank. Honestly, the idiot tries to kill her and can't take it when his plan backfires? What a moron.
She dragged him onto the bank as well as she could, which wasn't really very far, since he was at least a couple years older and man, he was heavy. Then she set about untangling him from the wire and rewinding it while he gagged and spluttered and vomited water, muttering about wasting tools as she did.
Finally, he took in clear, shuddering breaths, and her wire was safely in her pocket. She smiled falsely at him. She wasn't one to hold grudges, but he was being particularly annoying today.
"Ready to go?" she asked cheerfully, and then she squeaked in startled shock as his hands closed around her neck and she was shoved to the ground. Unprepared, she let him get her on her back, and could do nothing but stare into his closed off, empty eyes as his fingers squeezed the life from her body. He was pushing up into her jaw, preventing her from biting him, and his knees were pinning her arms to her sides.
She felt her teeth grind together as she flailed, because the first time was bad enough, and this hurt. Black spots began to appear at the corners of her vision, darkening her sight much faster than the first time. Then in a display of sheer flexibility, she twisted her wrist around his leg and wrapped her fingers around a smooth stone, squeezed her hand between the small space between his thigh and her waist, and smashed it into his temple.
She empathized with his pain as he released her and tumbled to the side, clutching his head. A rock to the head really smarted. With a speed and precision that was a little deadlier than she usually preferred to be, she grabbed the back of his neck and shoved his head face down into the mud, winding her wire twice around his neck before he could get his bearings and solidly placing a foot on his back, ready to lean back and suffocate him at best, decapitate him at worst.
She felt him still beneath her, realizing that he was in no position to fight back.
"Give me a reason, dickwad," she said quietly, her voice strained from the abuse to her throat.
"Do it," he spat, fingers digging into the ground to keep them from trembling. "Weakling." His voice stumbled over the word, his face pale with cold, and maybe fear. "You've beaten me twice, so go ahead."
She dropped the wire, letting it go slack, and crouched in front of him, resting her palms on her knees.
She pouted, and he blinked.
"Don't tell me what to do," she answered with a huff, and that tone he had heard for the first time vanished as if it had never existed in the first place. "I hate that."
Then she turned and waded back into the water.
Neither of them said another word to the other until they crossed the river and tracked down Anbu-san's campsite. Dinner was oddly quiet, with everyone eating their share. There were no squabbles about portions, no poisoned meat, no post-dinner spar… instead, Yagura was oddly observant as she disappeared into the trees and returned with her traps and spoils.
He still didn't bend his pride enough to follow her and watch, though. She may have been right about food, but he was still physically stronger, and he could still beat her in every training regime they did. It didn't matter if the Anbu Captain hunted deer and wildcats. He could throw a kunai up to twenty feet away and knew up to level 2 taijutsu forms in Kirigakure Standard. So what if she could trap a rabbit? Big deal.
But was she really weaker? He'd tried to kill her. A lot. Like, at least six times. And not only did it not work, but she had spared his life. Twice. It stung a little. (Actually, it stung a lot.) And she had been on her own for a week. And survived. And he hadn't. (That stung worse.)
He scowled as he bit into his meal, earning a glance from the Anbu Captain at his side. He was curious about her, and maybe if he gathered some intelligence on his new pet, (not partner—anything but partner) she would prove herself more useful than he'd thought.
"Sensei," Yagura grunted, his eyes flicking over to the masked man tending to the fire. The porcelain accessory tilted slightly in his direction, his only motion of acknowledgment. Yagura nodded over to the girl, still dancing around the course like it was her playground, only occasionally getting grazed by a blunted edge or clump of dirt.
"What's her name?" He had turned his gaze away from the man, and was instead staring at the girl, smirking slightly when she slipped and smacked face first into the mud, narrowly avoiding a shuriken skimming over her head. Perhaps if he had been watching, he would have seen the man next to him stiffen almost imperceptibly, a tremor of surprise running down his spine.
Anbu-san's answer came after a pause that was just slightly too long, but when it came his voice was even and flat.
"Why don't you ask her yourself?" he intoned dully, and Yagura tore his gaze away from the girl to glare at him. He snorted and shook his head stubbornly, turning to face the wall.
"Never mind."
oOo
Yagura was endlessly irritated with the girl. His mind kept circling back to the river, and the feeling of wire pulled taut against his neck.
Give me a reason, the whispered words, sharper and colder than any child's voice should have been.
Anbu-san offered him a mildly disapproving stare as he tried once again to mold chakra, some magic kind of energy his teacher had sworn would bring him great strength.
"You aren't focused," the man noted idly, not even looking up as he continued writing in a leather-bound book.
"I don't even know if I have this stupid energy," he snarled, shaking his head and standing.
"You'd better hope that you do," came the bland reply. "Because if you don't, you either don't exist, or you're dead."
Yagura let out a growl of frustration and stalked to the course. At least physical training he knew what to do. But of course, the infuriating child was there, dancing through the course like she owned it, and like always, she was smiling. As if it were a game. She'd tied a cloth over her eyes, practicing the course blind, and she was frighteningly close to finishing unscathed.
He picked up a rock, testing its weight in his hand before hurling it at her. Maybe with a little luck, it would knock her out and he could have the course to himself. It spun toward the back of her head, and he could've sworn it was impossible to dodge until she moved.
She dropped from her balanced stance on a boulder head first and caught the stone in the curve of her ankle, flipping it back toward him as if it were a ball. She couldn't quite land on her feet, and belly flopped into the mud, but she was standing up in a flash, facing him. She tore off the cloth, spitting mud onto the ground.
Inexplicably, her smile widened when she saw him.
"Wanna play a game?" she asked excitedly, mud all over her face. "I just got an idea!"
"No," he snarled at her, because everything was a game to her, and she took nothing seriously, and it was infuriating and frustrating and confusing because why did she do it?
She was ignored by the Anbu captain and he tried to kill her all the time and her life was threatened constantly and she just kept smiling. Like it was all just a game.
And then the answer dawned on him.
"Oi," he called, and she paused, cocking her head to the side curiously as he picked his way toward her, thoughtlessly crushing the traps that activated as he did so. "Why did you do it?" he demanded suspiciously. He walked right up to her, staring down right into those purple eyes he hated so much.
"Do what?" she asked, trying to rub a bit of mud off her cheek and only managing to smear it worse.
"Why did you save me, when you could've left me to die in the water?" he demanded, hands curling into fists at his sides. It didn't make sense, but she treated life like a game, like it was something to be spared or lost at a whim. And as someone who valued his life above everything else, it grated against everything he was, and everything he aspired to be. He hated that she had saved his life and was unconcerned when he tried to kill her in return. She hadn't cared.
"Leave you to die?" she repeated, her eyebrows drawing together. "Why would I do that?"
"Because I want you dead," he snarled, hand twitching toward her neck. Was she an imbecile?
Her eyes flickered to his fingers before meeting his gaze again. Her smile faded.
"So? I don't want you dead."
He stilled, his mind going blank with shock. She didn't want him dead. The feeling wasn't mutual. It hadn't even occurred to her to leave him behind. He had assumed she simply wasn't strong enough to try to kill him and had learned her place, destined to struggle for her life until he finally succeeded. He had been wrong. So why? Why didn't she want him dead? Or did she just not care?
He felt a trickle of anger. Was it just another game?
"Besides, I need my wire to hunt. You were wasting it." She stuck her tongue out at him. "Selfish."
She stepped back a little, stretching out her arms in ways that he was pretty sure arms weren't supposed to go. Her flexibility was starting to get a little unnatural with all her playtime on the courses.
"Yagura, if you aren't going to train, I suggest you return and resume your molding exercises," Anbu-san's voice cut through the air. The girl smiled.
"If you don't wanna do your boring sitting game, I have an idea for a real fun one," she offered excitedly. "C'mon, let's try it."
She grabbed his hand and tugged him toward a section of the course. Without thinking, he ripped his arm from her grip and lashed out at her, his hand catching her in the collar bone and sending her skidding back.
"Don't touch me!" he snapped. She wheezed, and then stood upright, breathing hard.
She let out a huff, crossing her arms. He noticed the way she winced slightly as her arm pulled across her chest and felt something hot burn in his throat and face.
"Alright, alright," she pouted and turned, walking back to the beginning of the course. "Go dream up murder plans under your boring tree, you dick."
Again, no anger, just minor annoyance. He didn't understand it at all, but he wasn't sure if he even wanted to either. She should want him dead, he thought as he turned away as well, heading toward Anbu-san. Any sane person would.
A/N: Anbu-san returns out of the blue, and enter another canon Mizukage. I realize that in canon, it was implied that Yagura was Mizukage when Zabuza massacred his class, but it wasn't explicitly stated, only that Yagura supported the student killing exam. But just in case, there's a small ripple effect that has taken place to keep Yagura from being Mizukage, caused by our very own main character. That'll be explained later if I don't forget about it.
Thoughts: Is it confusing that the two story lines are set in different times? Considering Itachi's story is set in the future, how do you think Canary-chan will meet Team Itsuki? Hint: It's coming soon.