This chap contains a lot of shit, so be warned for depictions of hallucinations, anxiety, phobia, nightmares, insomnia, also warnings go for slight mind control and other symptoms of PTSD you may come across.
The Mizukage was satisfied.
She and her shinobi had just enough problems with the upcoming attack. A nameless, soulless and faceless shadow like he had been planned and made into proved to be more than useful. Tentouchou had done an excellent work again. It didn't matter she was pregnant; her methods had always been better than her husband's and her solutions to their problems more effective.
It had been more than a month now. He didn't defy, didn't talk back. His work was discrete, clean and flawless. He was kept in secret, separated from her other forces and from anyone. He was standing on two feet, spoke the same language as them, and looked exactly like one of the Kiri shinobi or Anbu when on mission - yet no one bothered considering him human. He wasn't one of them. He was just a machine.
And the Mizukage was satisfied with her "Noone". He wasn't perfect, but he was the best of their efforts so far. He could do missions none of her chakra-dependent squads could. He was able to master extremely difficult sealing techniques in no time.
And she wanted to exploit his abilities.
She wanted him to do the impossible: to be an invisible and invincible shield, a secret one-man-army, fighting for the greater good of the Elemental Nations, and soon, he would be ready to serve all five of them. But before that, she needed a few things from the ruins of a long lost village. He would gather them on her order, and then, all would be set.
- Time is precious. - Mei smiled as she handed him his next mission.
Fuuga was dropped off at a deserted island near the Land of Fire's coast. He wasn't given any information, just a map with a location marked on it and a description of items he had to obtain. The sun was rising as he navigated through the ruins and bushes of that old village. He couldn't use his chakra to scale the collapsed houses - the place must have had some kind of seal on it -, so he climbed his way through until he found the right spot.
It was a robust building with its first two floors sunk in the ground, probably by an earth-type technique from long ago. He found a window clean from ivy and climbed in, then searched the entrance of a hidden room in the cellar, as it was ordered. The building was empty, not even a rat or a cockroach lived there. The walls were barely standing, painted black by age-old smoke. Remnants of furniture scattered on the hallways, ashy doors hanging opened, silence and scorched mummies of the dead all around. He searched every little room. He didn't find anything. 'Maybe the place was mistaken?' He shook his head and turned to leave.
He noticed something moving in the darkness.
He grabbed a kunai from his pouch, switched off his lamp and glanced around with his other senses. Anything was there, would be no longer alive. He readied himself and turned the corner.
Then they appeared.
His scream tore through the ruins. He dropped his lamp, and cut towards those glistening crimson insects, flailing around in panic. But then, those things disappeared – or they weren't even there in the beginning. He scanned the hallway with rapid glances, and saw no blood-red butterflies in the darkness.
It was damn hard taking control over his shaking breathing and body. 'C'mon, that was just a ghost, yeah, just a vision, it wasn't alive, wasn't there, just your mind was playing tricks with you', he repeated in his head. He glanced around with his other senses again and again. 'Nothing's here-' He took a deep breath, and narrowed his eyes as he spotted something glowing gold for him.
He found it. At the end of the hallway, on the wall he saw a sealing formula with a spiral in the middle of it. The same spiral he had seen here and there on the ruins, the same that lied invisibly on his back, the same sign that moved something deep inside of him. He repressed the feeling with sheer willpower as he stepped closer to examine the seal, and entered a small area where his chakra wasn't blocked anymore. In front of him a quite complex Fuuin formula decorated the wall and protected what was behind. He knew the mechanism well; he opened it quickly and a door emerged.
The hidden room was ridiculously small - there was space enough only for a child -, but it held a great value. Dozens of scrolls lied on the shelves, older than him, maybe older than a century. All of them bore the same spiral, the symbol of a certain respected and extinct clan.
Under different circumstances, Fuuga would be jumping in joy. But now, he was struggling with himself, to repress everything again. His face didn't show the emotions twisting inside, he didn't allow himself to feel them. Just like he had done in the past weeks. His limbs were moving without command as he collected the necessary items into the seal resting on his right forearm. When he was finished, he closed the room and reactivated the seal.
He took deep breaths and went through his mission again. Step one, get inside. Step two, secure the scrolls. Step three, get out. Yes, that was it. Out. He needed to get out. So his legs moved.
He found himself climbing out of a window when he heard noises from outside. He hid himself and listened to the shouts and the clash of metal that told him there was a fight nearby. He wasn't noticed, he knew, so he sneaked closer check the battle. He saw two groups of foreign shinobi playing cats and mice in the ruins, none of them being familiar or from the mist. He didn't waste another second to get out of there.
The Mizukage looked up and down at him with pride and satisfaction. His mission was successful like always, and the last few pieces of her plan were finally ready to becarried out. All she needed to do was giving him another order and wait.
She held some of the scrolls Fuuga delivered, examining them with care and respect. - We've only heard about these seals in legends! - she smiled, placed them on her table and swept her hair off her bare shoulders. – Well, Fuuga, do you know what I like about you?
- I don't, Mizukage-sama.
She chuckled. What a good boy. – I like that you're like a black cat in the shadows. You're skilled enough to not be seen or heard, but... - she gestured at him. - You have a tiny little flaw in you, which, fortunately, can be fixed.
He listened carefully.
- You can still be spotted by the eyes of certain bloodlines. You can still be sniffed out by any ninken or Inuzuka. And then, there are the chakra sensor types of course... But! All of them are helpless against this Fūin jutsu. – she sang in a mocking tone and handed him one of the scrolls he had taken from the ruins. – A heritage of the Uzumaki clan. It was one of the reasons it was wiped out. This jutsu is so difficult, that no one was capable of using it in the past hundred years.
– What would you like me to do? - Fuuga blinked at her with confusion. and glanced at the scroll. - Deliver it to someone, or destroy it?
- Neither. – she smiled. - I want you to learn this technique, as fast as you can. Along with the rest.
Fuuga replied nothing, just stared at her. She saw his tired eyes widening and the rise of his chest before freezing as his breath stuck in his lungs. - Oh, don't worry, you can take them, I'm sure of it. – she winked. - Your missions will be suspended until you finish. Do you have any questions?
- ... N-no, Mizukage-sama. Or rather... I have one.
- Yes?
- There was a scroll I brought you, namely the Scroll of Strange Rocks. It doesn't sound like a sealing technique. May I ask what that is?
- Oh. – she chuckled. - Just a request from the Hokage. She needs it for some history research.
Had he reached his bed a second later he would have collapsed to the cold floor and stayed right there. His body was exhausted, his mind and his soul were drained, again. He pushed his face into the pillow, hoping he would fall asleep but he couldn't. He hadn't been able to sleep enough for days.
He knew another one was waiting for him... Those nightmares, those goddamn nightmares!
He saw enormous crimson butterflies circling over his home island. They looked peaceful and beautiful. They only looked like that; he knew what they were about to do, he knew the merciless destruction they were about to bring.
They vomited fire and pain all over the village and they massacred everyone they reached.
Every time they did catch his family. Every time they ripped them apart and fed themselves with them, snickering like the devil. Every time he was held back from saving them, every time he was late, every night he had to watch it happen, every night he had to hear their shrieks and shout, every night he woke up with a cry, tears in his eyes, and with that feeling in his chest like something was tearing him open-!
Nothing was comfortable any more. Nowhere was safe. Everyone was an enemy. A monster. A crimson butterfly.
He silenced his raging soul again. He shouldn't feel anything, he wasn't allowed to. He couldn't, he couldn't! He was but a tool, he knew. And a tool should not feel. It would halter his work. And his work would stop the butterflies from flying over his village and kill everyone, he was certain. He believed. It had to be!
He had to do his work to protect his home. (He clutched his head every morning and told himself: "obey!") He had to continue. ("Obey them!") He had to get up. ("Obey her! That's how you can protect them!")
He pushed himself to his feet. He dragged his tired body to his table where he sat down and went through the scrolls for the hundredth time. – This Whirpool Chain was easy, similar to what I learnt back home... Chakra Black Hole? Too drastic, I'm too tired to control it. Whirpool Shell, to counter its effects? – he yawned. – Quite the social seal... Ethereal Blindness?... – he had his head propped on a fist. – Might work on this then...
He closed his eyes, just for a second. The second turned into several minutes, and the minutes turned into five hours. It was the longest he was able sleep in a row for weeks, and it ended the same way: with slaughtering butterflies and a scream from his throat.
Fuuga noticed his sadist overseer being more jumpy than usual in the past few days. The man watched every shadow, every bush and tree as they hurried away from their training field. – Just follow me. – he ordered and a few minutes later they entered an abandoned-looking wooden house. – Put on the soundproof seal. – Fuuga did as he was told, then Kirishichi faced him with his impatient and stern question. – How is the progress with the seals?
- I'm not quite sure...
The man shook his head. – We need them now.
- But... – he whispered. – Please, let me work on them just a little more!
Kirishichi shook his head harder. – We're out of time, the attack will be tomorrow.
- Attack?
- A bunch of rogue ninja is aiming an assault on the Daimyou and the Mizukage. We just found out it won't be happening in a week like we anticipated, but tomorrow at the party, around midnight. And your seals are needed in our defence.
Fuuga took a deep, shaky breath and sighed. – I'll try to get it done.
- Don't disappoint us! – Kirishichi snarled, then went on. – I'll tell you what you need to know...
He nearly fell from the rooftop he was hiding on; he was a second away from giving in to the charming calling of unconsciousness. Neither his mind nor his body was in the right state for a mission, and it almost ruined everything. One of the sneaking assassins noticed him moving in the shadows, but an Anbu dispatched her before she could have warned the others. Fortunately the Ethereal Blindness seal that kept his other clone's and eight mist shinobi hidden didn't vanish, and the enemy was getting closer and closer to the Mizukage Building. Just according to plan. Another three squads were waiting for them there.
'The rogue ninja are walking right into the trap...', another clone opened his eyes after he stayed motionless for a bit to sustain his sage mode. This one had an easy work inside the large ballroom of the Mizukage Building, as a door guardian of the charity event going on. From behind his fox mask, he had to keep an eye out for strange chakra signals. For hours, nothing interesting happened, just drinking people, classical music, performances and a lot of cakes. His sage senses didn't notice anything in the crowd of nobles, civilians and ex-shinobi, but his other senses were starting to whisper danger to him. He scanned the many faces, looking for eyes with ill intent until…
His gaze moved to the Water Daimyou and to the son of the Wind Daimyou. A man standing near them poked his senses. He raised a hand to his earphone and reported his findings to the squad leader. A few seconds later a shinobi disguised as some noble of the party walked up to the foreigner and quietly led him out of the room after taking suspiciously long to be convinced for a private chat.
Fuuga returned to his searching. The whisper didn't cease, it even became louder and more menacing. His breathing and heartrate quickened as his senses hurried to find the enemy. Tiny insect wings were gathering to obscure the edge of his vision as he clenched his shaky fists behind his back.
A glance towards her and a second of stillness.
- They're at Mizukage-sama. - He whispered into his microphone. - On her right, two men in tuxedos, one with beard, and three women in black and green patterned kimonos.
He immediately received the orders in his ear. The Mizukage was also informed; she was slowly walking towards to the door he was standing at, with the Water Daimyou at her side. She was luring the suspects into the room behind him; while the civilians in there were being guided out on the other entrance and replaced by disguised jounins. Just according to plan.
In the moment she passed him, he felt one of his clones disappear in the fight outside the building. In the moment she passed him, he heard her quietly exhaling the word "silence". A reminder for him that his main task there was to keep the nasty things hidden from the charity party. So when the last suspect entered the room, he performed the necessary hand seals and stepped after him; closing the door and silencing the room.
He didn't need to fight. His roles were merely strategic. The clone outside dispersed because of exhaustion. The clone in the ballroom was concentrated on keeping the room silent. The original one was hidden away, guarding the secrets of the Mizukage's office.
Fuuga nearly fell asleep. His clones would have disappeared. He almost didn't notice those two sneaking towards him. He didn't pay attention to the warning crawling up on his back.
His senses sharpened in the last moment. The seal on the office was lifted without setting off the built-in alarm. It was an excellent work of a Fuuin master.
He jumped, settled on the ceiling above the door and waited. Two men entered; by their outfits they looked like they came from the ballroom. They must have evaded his clone's attention. 'What are you looking for?', Fuuga wondered after they passed by sealed scrolls of official reports, plans and even sensitive information about the Land of Water. 'They don't need those? Then what are you after?'
After about three minutes, one of them held up a scroll. – Got it.
He leapt from the ceiling and pinned him down. The other invader attacked him right away; in response, he created a clone to deal with him while he knocked out the other one and sealed him motionless to the ground. A moment later, he saw his clone disappear and his opponent rushing out of the room. He made another clone to stay and he ran after him.
On the hallway he had a clear sight of the man. The blond launched golden chains from his hands, which wrapped around the invader's body and he fell to the ground. Fuuga sighed, and with a motion of his arm he pulled the man towards him.
But the chains melted and let him go. He was the sealing expert.
The hooded blond blinked in surprise. 'What?', he looked at the chains, then at the man who just bolted out of a window. 'No way!', he quickly jumped after him, but in the moment he was outside, he was greeted by a smoke bomb.
His body hit the ground hard, but he got up to his feet right away and glanced around. The invader had disappeared. 'No-no-no!', he coughed and used his other eyes to find his trail. The man had taken to the rooftops - so did Fuuga. He was at serious disadvantage, he didn't even see his target with bare eyes. 'No, I can't let him get away! If they find out he escaped, I-, no, the village, the butterflies! No, I can't let him-!'
The trembling returned to his mind and his body as he leapt and jumped, following what his senses told him until he spotted the invader in an alley. He smiled in relief, even when the man noticed his figure and resumed running from him.
He would definitely catch him, no doubt.
The trembling was replaced with something else that bubbled up in Fuuga. He felt his target's sudden fright and the joy of the chase in his own system overwhelming the panic. His muscles lost the fear in them and now they worked with utter excitement as a strange but familiar vibration flowed through his body. Yes, it was joy...
The joy of the starving wolf released from its cage to catch a rabbit.
He ripped his mask off to get more of the chilly air into his widened nostrils. His lips were distorted into a lustful smirk. His senses heightened. Jumps and landings, his feet bruising the tiles under him, the air rushing by his ears, the urge to reach his target, to catch him and end him as soon as possible were making him intoxicated. He knew and trusted his abilities, they gave him the feeling of control in this chase, and oh god, did it feelgood.
Even more now, as he felt the cold metal on his left forearm he had just got back.
It was begging to be used.
His target jumped to the streets; he was getting slower. Maybe running desperately had drained his reserves. Good, very good. Fuuga quickened his pace, gathered his chakra into his legs to make him ever faster, then as he reached the edge he leapt.
It slid out silently.
A few moments disappeared, and then, he was on top of his target; his blade right in the heart, waiting for the enemy's soul to leave his jerking body.
The blond was wheezing, from the climax of his hunt. His scar tingled as images flashed into his mind: a place with giant rocks from far away, striking blue eyes, an unusual cone-shaped house, an old man with a big red nose, the sea, Kirigakure, the Mizukage's Building, the Scroll of Strange Rocks in his partner's hands right before the blond pinned him down.
The strange, vivid blueness in his victim's eyes faded into misty greyness. Fuuga shook his head. He was still panting, trying to understand what he just saw. Was that a vision? He didn't know. Could it be that those images belonged to the man he just killed? He wasn't sure. He was confused.
His blade scratched something metallic as he slowly pulled it out. Fuuga frowned: his victim didn't wear any armour beneath his elegant robes, what was it then? He noticed a medal tied to a silk string under the man's shirt. He lifted it up and what he saw froze him to his spot.
On the medal, there was a carved hare, sitting on its back feet, facing front. And it was holding a tiny red cross between its paws.
A group of Kiri shinobi along with his personal sadist arriving to the scene pulled him back to reality. He stood up from the corpse. They gave him questioning and suspicious looks while Kirishichi checked the pulse of the invader. He straightened himself and turned to the group and Fuuga. – Mission accomplished.
As he learnt later, the party was a success. Both in the meaning of charity and catching the group trying to take the Water Daimyou, the Mizukage and her Kekkei Genkai out of picture. Fuuga wasn't given more information, only a slight caress on his shoulders and a few grateful words from the Mizukage.
They didn't know he kept the pendant. Kirishichi didn't notice, or at least didn't show it.
After the party however, things went back to "normal". His hell haven't changed. He got his missions and succeeded in them. The number of his trophies grew, although he didn't count it. The other shinobi might have treated him differently, but he assigned it to his imagination. And again and again, every night he watched the butterflies burn his island. He watched them killing his family and tearing apart what he called home. He watched them eating up his intestines. He was killed several times, until nothing remained of him and he became a ghost. And he stayed silent. Because his mouth was stitched shut and he didn't know how to speak. But his soul, oh, his soul... it never stopped crying.
In a few weeks the nightmares were starting to permeate his woken hours. Every time he saw a little butterfly, a cabbage moth or even a leaf moved by the wind, his stomach clenched and he felt his skin getting soaked by cold sweat.
Fuuga watched one of those rare, deep blue butterflies fly and land on a tiny wood violet. His mouth became dry, his attention focused, his heart nearly burst through his chest as he stared at it, waiting for it to turn crimson and grew bigger than himself. It didn't do anything though, just stayed there, opening and closing its beautiful patterned wings. It moved its legs to clean its head. Then it was motionless again. Fuuga almost jumped away when it decided to leave the flower and flap away into the forest.
Birds darted up from the canopies and bushes around him. A moment later, the thing appeared. It turned its white and blank face completely around. Then its long neck came, followed by its oversized dear-shaped body and four human legs as it carefully stepped around. Fuuga watched it, hidden behind a tree. He waited for it to get closer. When it was only eight metres from him, he prepared a seal and mounted it on the tree. In the same moment two clones of him launched chains at the chakra monster, pulling it closer and trapping it at that tree.
Its unearthly shriek shook the forest. Fuuga didn't flinch, just made sure the Chakra Black Hole Seal on the tree, and the counter-seal on him and his clones were working properly. He adjusted the chains on the monster, which began to shrink as its chakra was drained away. Its cries dried out and its movements slowed down as it reached the size of a cat. Then it stopped moving. Fuuga released the chains and the creature's body turned to dust.
He dispersed the clones, performed a few hand-seals and touched the tree. He felt the chakra the seal had collected entering his body, and for a second he thought he saw the face of another white creature on the tree. When the marking disappeared, he heard cracking. The parched tree moved away from his touch and fell to the opposite direction.
Fuuga blinked at it and at the remnants of the still standing, but shredded trunk in front of him. 'Did the seal absorb the tree's chakra as well?', he looked around him, noticing several dried plants. The wood violet had withered too.
- How come the tree fell but you did not? – Kirishichi landed next to him.
- The Chakra Black Hole Seal drains every living being's chakra from its surroundings except if they have the Whirpool Shell Seal on them to counter it, like I-
- Yeah, yeah, whatever. Put on your hood. We're going back to report.
- Do you not want me to seal the chakra into a scroll?
- Not now. – he put on a sly smirk. - We're doing a little experiment.
The Mizukage was standing at the window, her thoughts lost in the text in her hands. – I believe you succeeded. – she stated, not turning towards the duo entering her office.
- Yes, Mizukage-sama.
- Well done. – she held her hand out. - Fuuga, come here and transfer the chakra you collected.
He stepped closer and placed his palm into hers. A second later, Mei shivered. –Hah, more pleasant than the scrolls! – she smiled at him gently, and when Fuuga released her, she moved her hand.
- That's all I got from the chakra monster.
- Are you sure?
Fuuga nodded as a response to Kirishichi's snarl then he froze. He felt the smooth touch of the wings of a butterfly on his cheek. His muscles tensed, ready to jump, but then, he realized it was just the Mizukage's fingers caressing his face.
- Nice job, Fuuga. – she winked at him. – How long can you keep foreign chakra in your body without using it?
- I-I don't know... I never tried it.
- And how much?
- My answer is the same, Mizukage-sama.
She hummed and stepped back to her table. – Are you able to store three hundred units of chakra for about two months?
- I'm not sure... It could be possible. Why do you ask?
Mei chuckled. - Because I owe a bet to the Kazekage.