The Hidden Countries;
Chapter Fifteen,
Hostage,
Rose was never very good with sad people, actually, she was worse than very bad – she was terrible. She was worse at funerals; she just wasn't sure how to act around people who were mourning.
So Rose just sat at the back by herself, she figured she owed it to the old Hokage to be there. Rose hadn't really known him at all – but it seemed to be the right place to be.
Rose watched as many mourners came to bid the Hokage farewell, it was an upsetting scene – like the entire village was in mourning. The worst part was his family. Rose had spotted Asuma near the front with his nephew, both with misty eyes. It reminded Rose that she didn't really belong here.
"Does anyone know?"
Rose turned her face to see the harsh face of the toad Sannin. Rose raised an eyebrow. "Know what exactly?"
Jiraiya simply flashed a manila folder at her and Rose got an odd sense of familiarity. Rose sighed. "Where did you get that?"
"Sensei's office, he doesn't hide things very well."
Rose shook her head with a slight smile on her face. "I didn't, and I don't know if Hokage-Sama did either… I'm sorry by the way."
Jiraiya nodded his head with a heavy sigh. "He was a good man, a great leader and an amazing teacher. But I'm not here to talk about him."
Rose raised an eyebrow at him, and tiled her head to the side, but her eyes were glued into the newest crying family. Rose hadn't realised just how much the people of Konoha valued their leader. "Then what?"
Jiraiya's eyes followed Rose's path of sight. "Naruto obviously."
Rose rolled her eyes, her mouth set in a frown. "I'm not here for Naruto – for the last time."
Jiraiya nodded his head, his face still set in a very stern look. He gestured to somebody in the crowd – but Rose couldn't see who. "I never said you were."
Rose felt confused; she didn't know what he would want to talk with her about Naruto. "…What did you want to talk about then?"
Jiraiya was silent, and then Rose noticed Kakashi walking up towards them. "Jiraiya-Sama, Rose. What can I do for you?"
"Yes, Kakashi, Rose, I wanted to tell you two that I'm taking Naruto with me to go and get the new Hokage."
Rose raised an eyebrow at the exact same time as Kakashi did. "Of course, Jiraiya-Sama."
Jiraiya smiled despite the rather sombre setting, although it was very fleeting. "I figured you should know, being his Sensei and closest living relative."
Kakashi's eye widened and Rose glared at the Sannin. "Curse you," Rose muttered.
"There should be no secrets' with a couple as cute as you two are!" Jiraiya shoved the folder into Rose's hands, before nodding to Kakashi and leaving the event. Rose blinked and looked up at the slightly surprised Kakashi.
"…You are a Uzumaki then?"
Rose's jaw dropped. "You knew?"
Kakashi shrugged his shoulders. "Yes."
Rose cursed, before she remembered where she was and she looked up at the newest crying couple. "I'm not here for Naruto."
Kakashi nodded. "I know, you would've been gone a long time before now if you had."
"When do you think I should tell him?" Rose asked hesitant. She wasn't sure if she should, she didn't want to give the kid any sort of… unrealistic hope. But, he was family and Rose didn't leave anyone – especially family behind.
Kakashi shrugged. "Soon, Naruto will simply be ecstatic that he has family. You'll make him very happy."
Rose nodded her head. Naruto was like a younger version of her – just wanting to have her family back, or know that she was wanted by someone – that some sort of family out there cared at all.
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"Didn't we say that we'd be gone by now?" Fred asked as he threw his wand in the air only to catch it again.
"Yes, shouldn't we go?" George asked, he was in a similar position as his twin was.
"Yes, we were thinking-" Rose began.
"That's never a good thing," Fred commented with a measure of wickedness in his voice.
"Shut up. Anyway, Ron, Hermione and I decided that we should stick around until they got a new Hokage, you know get on their feet and stuff."
Remus hesitated, looking at Rose and Ron, who were both sitting on the floor seriously. "Rose, you know that we're short on time."
Rose nodded her head, showing her seriousness, but it was Hermione that answered. "We know that, but after some due consideration we realised that we have a duty to… Konoha to uphold and should stay until the new Hokage comes."
George and Fred squinted at Hermione, who was leaning against a wall, near Rose and Ron. "You wouldn't be saying that because of that brown haired fellow?"
Hermione went slightly pink. "Shut it Fred."
"I'm getting told to shut up a lot this morning Gred," Fred mused thoughtfully.
"Why yes you are, Fordge."
Remus sighed. "The twins and I will go back, and when the new Hokage comes, I expect you three back so we can get to our plan. Alright Rose?"
Rose nodded her head. "Thank you for trusting me Remus."
Remus smiled as the twin starting throwing their wands back and forth. "You're our best hope Rose; we can't do this without you."
Rose smiled at the magical group but she couldn't help but feel like she was being selfish. Why would she stay in Konoha, even if they were down a leader when her home was in trouble and only she could fix that? Why would she wish suffering on innocent people just because she was having fun.
Rose sighed, why did it always have to be up to her?
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"You know, I think Haku is upset."
Rose looked at Hermione with her eyebrow raised. "Why would you think that?"
"He's been awfully quite since, Remus and the twins have left," Hermione explained, as Ron took them down another road on the way to the ramen stand. Mmmm, ramen.
"It's because he knows Rose is going to leave," Ron butted in, his eyes never leaving the road, he was at least ten steps in front of them and Rose wondered how in hell he could even hear them.
Rose's eyes widened. "Do you think we should do something for him?"
"Like?" Hermione asked intrigued.
Before Rose could answer her though, there was a sword at hers and Hermione's necks. Hermione froze and Rose not really caring there was a sword about to cut her head off looked to the side to see a man that was a half-fish.
Ron just kept walking completely oblivious, and Rose rolled her eyes. Seriously, that boy and the Ramen stand.
No seriously, he was half fish. Was that even possible? The Hidden Countries always seemed to throw Rose for a loophole… "What-?"
"We got hostages now, Itachi," Fish-Man said, to an older looking Sasuke – who Rose assumed was this Itachi.
They were hostages… Wait what? How did this happen?
"Huh?" Rose asked her eyebrow farrowing. "We're what?"
"Be quite, and look scared," The Fish-Man said grinning, Rose could see the rows of sharp pointed teeth… "Now, Copy-Cat-Nin, will you let these innocent citizens get killed or... You will you tell us where Uzumaki Naruto is?"
"Do you always have to behave so delinquently?" Itachi muttered, sighing.
Rose looked up to see that she and Hermione were now in this sort of showdown. Kakashi, Gai and Asuma –(Who looked like he had fought a bear)- were on one side and they looked like they were ready to fight, and Fish-Man and Itachi, Hermione and her were on the other side.
There were actually no citizens around to get in the way of the fight. Which was strange considering that half of the buildings around had still gone un-re-built, so there really should be many people around just building the houses and things up again – it was strange. It was like they all left just for this fight…
Wait, they wanted Naruto?
"Why don't you let the young girls go, and let the fight stay between ninja?" Asuma asked, sounding like this was nothing new to him.
Fish-Man's grin widened, but it was the Sasuke-look-alike that responded. "The problem with Konoha ninja… Is they are not willing to let anyone get hurt. Give us Uzumaki Naruto."
"You're awfully demanding you know?" Ron said. He had been walking in front of Rose and Hermione earlier, and he seemed to have finally realised that they weren't there and had backtracked to see them almost getting their heads chopped off. "What are you two doing? We're meant to be getting ramen."
Rose sighed, and a small smile entered her face. Their stay here had really turned them insane. "We're being held hostage, ramen shall wait."
"Ramen never waits," Ron muttered. "Merlin I sound like Naruto…Okay, who did you piss off this time Rose?"
"No one!" Rose insisted.
Fish-Man chuckled, and Itachi sighed. "Can we get on with this?"
"Go ahead," Rose muttered. "But I have one question… Why do you want Naruto of all people? He can't even tell the difference between a bar of soap and a rabbit."
There was silence. Rose felt she was starting to truly go insane.
"Alright, she's staring to annoy me now, give us him or they're dead," Fish-Man said as he rolled his eyes.
The Konoha ninja hesitated. "How about no?"
Fish-Man grinned. He pulled the sword back in a motion that would have completely beheaded the two girls if they were normal. As it happens, these two girls were anything but normal.
With a loud crack the two girls disappeared from behind the sword and reappeared right in front of the Konoha ninja, Rose's face was full of surprise.
"Warn a girl, why don't you?" Rose muttered and Hermione rolled her eyes.
"This is interesting…" Itachi muttered. "Kisame, it seems that you picked two people with unusual abilities."
"Does that mean I can kill them?" Fish-Man or Kisame, answered with a blood thirsty grin on his face. Rose looked at him slightly disturbed. That sword should probably be taken off him, if they wanted to stay alive…
Ron it seemed had the same idea. "Accio."
The sword ripped itself out of Kisame's grip, despite his efforts to keep the sword and sung towards Ron who caught it and plunged it into the ground in front of him. Ron seemed pleased but Kisame seemed to be very annoyed.
"You brat," Fish-Man seethed.
"Sorry," Ron said awkwardly. "Didn't want to get killed you see."
Kisame grinned widely, savagely and Rose felt like they had just kicked a sleeping dragon in the eye. That was never a good idea. Kisame moved forward his eyes bright with his new perceived challenge.
But he got stopped.
Kakashi was right in front of them and out of his spot in ten seconds flat, his body seemingly lax, but the blazing red eye was anything but. Kisame stopped his movement forward, never losing the feral grin on his face.
"You want to fight me, Copy-Ninja? I want to fight the kids!" Kisame shouted - he seemed to be very happy with this.
Itachi the other man, who was wearing a black cloak with fluffy red clouds adorning them, just shook his head. "Please, remember why we are here Kisame. Not to fight. I see that we are getting nowhere, we shall leave."
Itachi made to walk away and frowning Kisame stood his place. "What about my sword?"
"You lost it, and I'm leaving."
"I don't think so," Kakashi said, almost cheerfully. "Do you think I would let you just walk out?"
Itachi sighed. "I see."
Rose blinked; she didn't understand what he saw. Were Kakashi and Itachi going to fight? Who was Itachi, he looked like he could be Sasuke's older brother or something!
Rose wanted to know what was happening and why she almost got kept a hostage for Naruto! What in the hell was going on? Naruto had already left to go find this Tsunade woman…
In a blur of motion, Kakashi and Itachi met with the sound of clashing metal before they both jumped apart, their eyes glued on each other. They were both still for a minute before Kakashi disappeared and reappeared behind Itachi, stabbing him in the back only for him to dissolve into water.
Rose blinked, was that another clone thing? Kakashi then spun around his red eye spinning, a kunai in his hand that he threw to the left of him for seemingly no reason. Then Rose heard the sound of metal on metal and Kakashi ducked just before one of those ninja stars could cut his neck.
Kakashi then made some strange hand sign things with his hand and slammed his hand on the ground causing spikes that were actually made out of the earth to push out, in a deadly line. In the corner of Rose's eye she saw the black-haired male jumping into the air to avoid the spikes.
Itachi made his own hand signs whilst spinning in the air, and brought his hands to his lips and breathed out a fireball right onto Kakashi. Rose's eyes widened as she noticed Kakashi get enveloped by a ball of fire, not being able to do anything. When the fire cleared Kakashi was nowhere to be seen, but there was ash where he had previously been standing.
Rose was amazed. Before Rose could react, Kakashi was behind Itachi again, his hand crackling with electricity. Itachi swiftly avoided every swipe Kakashi gave – until the ball disappeared.
"You have done well in mastering you Sharingan, Kakashi-San. But, you do not have Uchiha DNA, I will show you how an Uchiha uses the Sharingan," Itachi stated with no emotion in his voice, closing his eyes briefly. Kakashi's eyes widened drastically.
"Close your eyes, right now!" Kakashi shouted, panicking. Rose instantly saw everyone around her shut their eyes, and she hurried to do the same, she was greeted by blackness. "Whatever you do, do not open your eyes. Only another Sharingan user has a chance against this. You look into his eyes, and it's over."
Rose was no stranger to having to fight without her sight but this was terrible. She really wished that she could see what was going on. She hated not knowing with this place mainly because the people that were here just had reflexes inhumanly better than hers.
Man, she wished she could see what was going on. Rose tried to focus on her hearing.
"Only a Sharingan user can defeat me true," Itachi's voice sounded dark, and full of sadness. "But only one of the same blood. My illusion Tsukiyomi cannot be defeated."
Rose's eyebrows drew together, she felt… dread. Dread for Kakashi, he was close to being one of her closest friends bar Ron and Hermione. She didn't want Kakashi to get hurt; she wanted him to be safe. She wanted to help protect him - but she couldn't and she hated that.
Rose heard a body hit the ground. Rose had to resist the urge to rip her eyes open and see what had happened.
"Kakashi, what happened?" Asuma asked his voice strong but held a twinge of worry. "Kakashi!?"
There was silence. Rose couldn't help herself and she opened her eyes wide, taking in Kakashi's prone form on the ground. Rose's eyes widened even further. "You shouldn't have opened your eyes young lady."
In panic Rose yelled; "Stupify!"
The spell went too quick for Itachi to fully realise what was going on and it hit him in the chest, he fell backwards stunned.
Rose turned to Kisame who looked like a kid in a candy store. He laughed loudly. "Itachi you got beat by a little girl?"
Rose then realised that all of the others had just ripped their eyes open to survey what had just happened.
"Rose?" Hermione asked warily.
Rose shoulders hunched. "Take Kakashi and get him medical treatment Hermione. I'll take care of the fish."
"Rose…"
The 'fish' laughed loudly, wildly. "This is going to be a good fight!"
"Hermione… Please… "
"Alright."
There was a loud crack and Rose knew Hermione had left like she asked. The point where they wanted to hide the extent of their powers was gone, it was gone the second that Kakashi got hurt.
"You guys might want to stand back," Rose warned. "I'm not very happy at this moment."
Rose watched Ron step back majorly, the ninja hesitating deciding not to move more than a few steps back.
"I want my sword," Kisame grinned.
"Where would the fun in giving you your sword be?" Rose asked him rhetorically. "Incendio."
Fire whipped around Rose's feet like she was an angel of hell, her eyes slowly turning a sickening shade of yellow-green. Rose gritted her teeth roughly. Rose tried to ignore Kisame's growing grin. The fire shot towards Kisame at an alarming speed.
Kisame tried to dodge, but he seemed to quickly realise that Rose was controlling where the fire was going. With a few strange words and a few strange hand signs, there was a strong amount of water battling Rose's fire. Rose narrowed her eyes and held her arm up, pointed towards the fire to keep it burning stronger.
The fire seemed like it was going to be winning one minute and then
Kisame's water seemed to gain a new level of strength and slowly got pushed back towards Rose.
"Stupify!" Ron called, but the jet of light just bounced off Kisame's scaled skin. "Together!"
Rose nodded her head; she just needed to wait for the perfect moment to go. After a few more minutes Rose started to realise that she was getting overpowered and she started to randomly nod her head again. She couldn't let the fire go and let the water get her though…
That was when she heard a shout from Hermione, and Rose let the fire go and the water got redirected into a house completely destroying it.
Quickly Rose and Ron shouted in union. "Stupify!"
Kisame feel to the ground as well. Rose huffed in annoyance.
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Rose leaned over Kakashi wanted to poke his cheek and then he would magically wake up, she huffed loudly.
"Rosie… I don't think - … he's not going to wake up…" Hermione muttered from her position behind Rose, next to Ron.
"Yes, he will."
Rose heard Hermione sigh. Rose heard a door open and she walked out of the way of the incoming nurse. The three teenagers stood by the door, quietly watching as the nurse took all of his vitals with a sombre look on her face.
"Doc, tell us what's wrong with him?" Ron asked not bothering to be fancy.
The nurse sighed. "He's in an induced coma where he is getting tormented… Only someone with a strong mental fortitude can withstand it, and we're not sure if we can wake him up," The nurse explained, sounding upset.
"There's nothing any of you can do?" Rose asked desperately. "Are you all that useless!?"
The nurse pursed her lips angrily. "Well, Tsunade-Sama might be able to but other than that, I have other patients to attend to."
The nurse left the room in a huff, and Rose glared after her – not at all any bit sorry.
"Rose," Hermione reprimanded. "You shouldn't be rude."
"I don't care…" Rose muttered, still annoyed. Then Rose realised something… Tsunade! Wasn't that the woman who was meant to be the next Hokage? Magic was a great tracker and she could go help Jiraiya and Naruto to find her, and then she could get her to help Kakashi!
It was a full proof plan.
Rose suddenly made her way towards the door. "I'm going to help find the new Hokage, Tsunade. Feel free to go back home."
"Rose!"
"What?" Rose snapped.
"I thought we had an agreement that…"
"I don't care! I'm going to go find her!" Rose declared before storming out of the room.
Ron and Hermione shared a look before they looked at the unconscious Hatake. "She… She loves him doesn't she?"
"I think she does Ron, I think she does."
Both Ron and Hermione just realised that things just got complicated.