Pages: 10

Words: 5, 488

Chapter Seventeen: Mission

It was completely silent, the sky had completely darkened, the wind had stopped blowing through the trees and the birds had stopped chirping. Sasuke's bangs shaded over his eyes as he leaned his head down. The memories were replaying themselves from that day. It went up until the point where Itachi was squeezing a younger Kagome around her neck holding her away from his body. Just as Kagome was about to tell him, that he could tell her the tale another time, Sasuke broke the silence and started to speak. In a way he believed he owed it to her because he was responsible for letting her get hurt. He was a weakling back then; this was just another reminder that he had to get stronger.

"I watched as I thought Itachi had snapped your neck then tossed your body through the sliding doors. I had to ask him why he killed everyone he said 'I wanted to see if I could' and that 'they were an important test' I went to punch the bastard, but he was too fast and punched me first," Sasuke paused wanting to make sure that he recounted the events the way it had gone. Water droplets had started to fall when he had started retelling what happened, it was raining a lot heavier now. He had decided to relocate and go back inside so now there they were sitting at the kitchen table as they sky continued to darken outside even more. "I saw my parents' dead bodies up close… they were so close to my face, I could almost smell their blood. I was a coward and I was scared. I yelled at my brother not to kill me and I ran away like the pathetic coward that I was, but Itachi was already there waiting for me and he told me 'If you want to kill me…..then hate, spite, and survive pathetically…. run,…run... and cling desperately to life.' Since that day I have become an avenger, he's the reason why I train hard every single day that I can. So that one day ….I will be the one to kill him."

'What a horrible thing for Itachi to do…I wish I could tell Sasuke how bad I feel for him, but he doesn't need my pity. It will only remind him of how weak he thinks he is, even though we were just kids when it happened.' She looked up to see Sasuke looking in her direction with his fingers intertwined as he rested his chin on top of his folded hands he was probably wondering what she was going to say back to him. "Do you know the reason why I was brought to this village?"

"Your village was destroyed by a youkai." He didn't know where she was going with this.

"Un but I didn't live in that village until my Kaa-san, Souta my otouto and Jii-chan were killed by one of the people I considered to be my best friend," Kagome could tell that Sasuke was interested in what she had to say, the way he had leaned forward slightly, gave it away. "I don't remember his name whenever I try to I just hear a bunch of static. All I know is that he had this two triangular dog ears on the top of his head, had silver hair and always wore this red fighting kimono. He was a lot older than me and he was half youkai. And many years prior to me meeting him he had a girl he was in love with, her name was Kikyo and she was killed by a youkai impersonating the dog eared youkai. But this wasn't any ordinary youkai though. This one went by the name of Naraku and he is the self proclaimed ruler over all the other bad youkai. He's probably one of the most powerful youkai out there. He is able to manipulate rouge youkai to do his dirty work for him and sends hordes of them to destroy as many villages and eat as many villagers as they can and takes pleasure from seeing it done. Anyways Kikyo the girl that the dog eared youkai loved, thought that the real dog eared youkai had killed her so she pinned him to a tree using the last of her power and shot him with a scared arrow."

"So he was killed by one arrow?" 'That was the most pathetic way to die I've heard yet.'

"Iie, he didn't die he was just put him in a death-like state somehow preserving him until someone was able to pull the arrow out and that person, just so happened to be me. I was running away from another youkai that wanted to kill me. I got too close to the dog eared boy and for some reason he was awakened from his slumber and he protected me. We became friends and along the way we met up and became friends with this young full blooded youkai kid who had no parents-"

"That's not dangerous at all, becoming friends with a full blooded blood thirsty monster."

"Not all youkai are out for blood Sasuke," She said rolling her eyes. "We eventually met up with Miroku, Sango and Kirara they had no real family either and had lived hard lives because of Naraku. Like Miroku's family was cursed by Naraku and his father was killed by it and Sango's entire clan was killed by her otouto, Kohaku who was being controlled by Naraku. Sango herself was also manipulated by Naraku's lies and tried to kill the dog eared boy but she found out that Naraku was the one feeding her lies. We all became close friends and we would go camping all the time together. It wasn't until another youkai made a clay version of Kikyo and brought her back to life and she would come around and try to take dog eared youkai. She tainted him by telling him that he deserved to go to hell with her because she still believed that he was the one that killed her. And if he still loved her like he claimed he did, he would go with her. But for some reason even though the dog eared boy still was in love with her he wouldn't go because he needed to gather something that was broken…and kill Naraku for what he had done. But out of anger his dead girlfriend joined sides with Naraku."

"She could bring that boy to hell? What kind of jutsu is that?" Sasuke was intrigued if was able to learn a powerful jutsu like that then he would have no problem at killing Itachi at all!

"I don't think it was any kind jutsu, I think it was because she was already dead."

"Hn."

"Then one day the dog eared boy just sort of left our group leaving us to defend ourselves against the youkai, he was the one in our group who usually protected us by killing them. Everyone was still out camping then too; we were pretty far away from the village. Then when I finally got ho-home everyone was de-dead they're hearts had been torn out from their bodies."

'I didn't know that she had also seen the bodies of her dead family members too…she's trying to hide it but I can see that tears are falling down her cheeks. Should I-?' Before he could finish that thought she started to speak once again.

"After that I went to live with Obaa-chan with everyone else. Even then we still went camping. We were still searching for the thing that had been broken…and while we were camping Naraku attacked us, he wanted something from me but I can't remember what it was. He kept on hurting me and I felt like I was going to die. He told me that the dog eared boy had been the one to kill my family as well as Sango's otouto, who was being used like a puppet by Naraku. Then this bright light came out of nowhere and then he was gone and he had done something with the small full youkai boy. Naraku's probably killed him by now… Then I remember seeing a giant grayish black light and a small ghostly looking girl. Then that dog eared youkai but instead of the dog eared youkai's voice and eyes, it was Naraku's. Then after that I remember being in a lot of pain and everyone being saved by Kakashi-kun and waking up here at your house. Sango, Miroku and I train hard almost every day because we know that we are the ones who have to kill Naraku to make sure he can never hurt anyone, like he's been able to hurt us, again."

As Kagome finished telling her story she quickly looked out the kitchen window, which thankfully was now closed. She wiped away the tears from her eyes; it was silly that she was still crying about it. After all she couldn't change what already happened, but she could prevent other bad things from happening to other people. That was her goal. The rain continued to pour outside and the wind was blowing so hard that the trees were almost lying directly on the ground it showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. Konoha had been awaiting this rain for many months and now they were really getting the rain. She really didn't want to walk home in this weather…

'I could never have guessed that she had such a painful past, she acts like she's always so happy. It's all an act though; she's secretly hurting on the inside like everyone else but she hides it so well...' Sasuke figured out a small piece of the puzzle that was Kagome, who was looking out the window with an 'I have to go out there?' expression on her face. "You can stay here until it stops. I'm going to make some soup do you want some?"

"Un! Arigato," It was tomato soup poured directly from a can into a pot and served in a bowl with a side of crackers. Kagome's eye twitched as she starred at the 'meal' that was placed in front of her. "Is this what you've been surviving off of for the last three years of your life?"

"Hn," He didn't see anything wrong with it, this was a really quick to make and he ate it at least once a week. "I eat other things too."

"Like what fruits, vegetables, rice, different types of soup, crackers, onigiri, bread and eggs?-"

'How the hell did she-?'

"-because from what I've seen that's all you have in your refrigerator and cabinets. How boring, no wonder you never say 'iie' ['no'] to whenever I offer to cook you food. Even my Obaa-chan can whip up a better meal then this in the same amount of time you used and that's saying something because she kept trying to put poison into my food." She said gulping down the soup in one go after shoving a handful of crackers into her mouth.

Sasuke gave Kagome a blank stare as he put a spoonful of his soup into his mouth. The reason why she acted so unlady like was probably because she hung around Naruto too much almost making her eating habits as bad as his. He crinkled his nose in disgust as he carefully chewed a cracker thoughtfully before drinking more soup. Maybe it was also because she spent so much time living with her Obaa-chan, training. How strong had she gotten really? She didn't seem any stronger from the last time he had seen her when they were kids.

"I'll drag a futon into my room and you can sleep on that." He returned with a futon in hand along with a pillow and a duvet cover.

"You mean I can't just sleep with you on the same bed? I don't see what's wrong with that we used to do it when we were younger." She questioned with a pout on her face. His bed looked so much more comfortable, it was big enough too!

"…Iie," Sasuke replied dropping the stuff he was carrying on the floor then he climbed into his bed instantly jumping away like he was burned. "Get out of my bed!"

"Sasuke you're no fun!" Kagome whined lightly crossing her arms over her chest as she sat back down on the hard futon staring in Sasuke's direction in the dark. "I miss my bed now."

"Then go home." Was his tired response as he rolled over in his bed as he tried to go to sleep because he was meeting with his team tomorrow morning, they were going to do their first mission together. He could only hope that his wretched teammates didn't get in his way.

"It's still raining though," She said quietly as she listened to the raindrops slowly pitter patter against the window. Kagome then got an idea using her reiki she lulled the already sleepy Sasuke to sleep then dragged the futon next to his bed. Then she stood on his bed and used her feet to push him off of his bed and made sure that he landed on the futon and finally she pushed the futon back where it had originally been. "Victory!" She whispered snuggling down into the soft warm bed that smelled faintly of pine and burning wood, it made her smile.

The next morning Kagome woke up early and slipped back into her apartment and jumped into her bed. Since the rain had slowed to a light drizzle she decided to go home. It would be too complicated to explain to Sasuke why he had woken up on the futon so she had decided to leave, but not before placing another bowl on Sasuke's head and making him a plate that had a piece of toast on it, with two fried eggs for eyes, a bacon shaped into a smile, a slice of tomato cut into a triangle to look like a nose and the rest of tomato was used up to make a bowl or hat shape on top of the face.

"Kagome when did you get-? Never mind get your butt out of bed come on, Ebisu-sensei came back from his mission a day ago and he spent it recovering and then today he came here and told us to pack because we're going on our very first mission as a team! This is going to be great." Sango said excitedly throwing Kagome's backpack at the sleeping lump.

"Mission? Whadda we have to do?" Kagome asked as she yawned while her belongings were thrown at her by Sango.

"We have to hurry up and pack! MIROKU you better not be in the bathroom still otherwise I'm going to take a kunai and shave your head right down the middle, then leave the rest of your hair untouched." Sango yelled making the boy run out of the bathroom smiling to herself as she quickly as she shoved a couple youkai bone weapons into her backpack.

"Alright so now that everyone's packed up what's this mission we were given?" Kagome asked using her two thumbs to pull against the straps of her backpack while they waited at the Konoha gates for their sensei to arrive.

"We're just supposed to get rid of some youkai that keep attacking villagers who come out at night. I just hope this village has pretty girls in it, so that they will praise me for saving them." Miroku imagined being carried around on a giant purple lounge chair and being fed grapes off of the vine by kawaii girls, he had a bit of drool hanging out of his mouth.

"Not only are we getting rid of the youkai but we are to deliver this shipment medicinal herbs to the villager leader also. "Ebisu said slumped over 'I can't believe that I have to bring Kagome-kun, her very first mission and it will be a C class….If we get into any trouble the others and I will be able to protect her if needed. This should in fact be a really quick and simple mission.' He thought as he walked up with an armful of herbs in bags. He placed his backpack on the ground and put the bags inside before they set off.

"When are we going to get to the village Ebisu-sensei?" Miroku asked with a bounce in his step that only the thought of pretty girls would bring.

"We will be arriving around mid-day. Once we get there we'll deliver these herbs to the appropriate person and then rest up so when night falls we'll be ready to take on any of those youkai who come our way!" Ebisu replied making sure he was keeping his eyes peeled for any suspicious activity.

"How are these missions classified?" Kagome after they had been travelling for at least two hours, she sat down on a log as they had decided it was time to take a short break.

"Every day Konoha gets requests all of them are written down and divided into a rank: D class, C class, B class and A class missions. D, C are the type of missions that you Genin are allowed to do, CB are what Chuunins are capable of doing and A missions are those are given to a well trained Jounin like me. If all goes well and the mission is completed we receive a payment," Ebisu explained filling up his canteen of water he caught some movement in the tree tops when he looked at the reflection of the water. "Ha ha and Kagome-kun don't think I have forgotten about that promise I made you about the all you can eat ramen, as soon as we get back from the village I will make sure that I keep my end of the deal."

"Okay sensei, so what kind of mission is this one is it a D?" She asked sensing a youkai circling the group this one was definitely a scout to the village that was a couple miles down the road that was completely infested with youkai…good or bad? She couldn't tell without meeting them first.

"Iie! Thank Kami, this is a C class. Miroku and I got to do all those boring D class missions like watering plants, washing windows, finding peoples stuff, gardening and many other utterly boring ones. You're so, so, so, so, so lucky that you were put on our squad and that you probably won't have to do those." Sango replied the hair on the back of her neck was standing up which meant there was a youkai nearby.

"Un Kagome you should consider yourself lucky that we have already done the suffering for you. We're usually given C class missions now since we've already been Genin for more than a full year now. Also because there is a fresh batch of Genins like Naruto that will have the pleasure of doing all those 'fun' D class missions." Miroku his eyes were narrowed slightly he could sense the youkai and he could tell everyone else had noticed it too.

"You were helping Konoha become a better place by doing those D class missions! Those missions have made you become better shinobi's without you even knowing it!" Ebisu told them, he couldn't believe what he was hearing! Whatever the threat had been, it was gone for now so he became more relaxed.

"Is that why you never helped us?" Sango asked looking at him with a blank expression. She clearly remembered the time where Miroku and her had to clean all the windows of the Hokage tower and all Ebisu did was stand there using his finger to point out spots that needed to be cleaned again or that hadn't been cleaned yet.

"Sango-chan whatever do you mean, I was always there supervising the both of you to make sure my precious Genins' never got hurt and always did a job well done!"

"What about the time when those girl's were throwing rocks at me while we had to clean out that old shopkeeper's dirty gutter?" Miroku asked as they were getting ready to leave.

"Was that the time when you kept asking random girls walking by if they wanted to go out with you and then you started singing to them? If I were them and had to hear you sing rocks would be the least of your worries." Sango said as she jumped from one tree branch to the next.

"You're so cold to me." Miroku said shivering as he dodged a small twig that had threatened to jab his eye out.

"That's because you can be such a drama queen at times."

"Well at least we all know that I can get in touch with my feminine side unlike a certain Sakimitama over here who does nothing but train day in and day out. With those arm muscles you have I sometimes wonder if you're secretly a man because you act more like a man than-"

"Hiraikotsu!" Sango pulled the weapon off of her back, making sure she was mindful of Kirara who was perched on her shoulder and then swung it around so that it connected with the back of Miroku's skull, rendering him unconscious.

"Sa-Sango-chan!" Ebisu said both of his hands up in the air grasping for nothing. Inwardly he wondered how the boy was still alive after being hit the head so many times.

"Wakatta [Got it] since I knocked him out I'll have to carry him until he's conscious again." She grumbled grabbing the limp boy by his left leg then continued to go from tree to tree making sure that Miroku's body 'accidentally' was dragged and beaten against the rough bark of every single branch.

"Do they display such vulgar behavior at home too?" Ebisu directed this question to the newest member of his team who was happily grinning at what had taken place.

"Un! Most of the time it's Miroku's fault for saying something stupid though he doesn't know when to stop, like in this instance he accused Sango of being a man because of her arm muscles. They aren't even that bulky at all and Sango needs them to be able to carry and throw Hiraikotsu around. Plus her punches really hurt because of all the training she does." Kagome said before running ahead to catch up with Sango to reassure her that Miroku was being an idiot and he was just jealous of her upper body strength.

As Ebisu had predicted they arrived at the village a little while after mid-day. There were villagers out buying produce and everyone was busy talking to one another. But as soon as the group of four stepped into the village everything went quite and all eyes were on the tasty ningens [humans] who were the first to walk through their village in a very long time. These were the guests that they requested for and everyone couldn't wait for them to arrive. They all grinned when they saw them check themselves into the village's only hotel.

"Is it just me or does this place give you the creeps?" Miroku asked while placing his belongings on the ground, they were all sharing one room together.

"Your intuition is as sharp as ever Miroku-chan everyone, make sure if you go somewhere another person is with you. Something in this village isn't right and we're here to figure it out." Ebisu informed his squad pushing up his glasses as he walked around their room.

"It probably has something to do with that giant glowing purple orb that's floating in the middle of that giant fountain giving off small bursts of energy every now and then." Kagome's reiki sizzled under her skin just looking out of the window and seeing it.

"I think you're right Kagome." Sango agreed quietly, there were footsteps approaching their room.

Tap. Tap

"Room Service." A voice hissed sliding open the door carrying a tray of freshly cooked food, the woman gracefully slid in placing them all down on a table another maid had set down.

"You must be mistaken Ma'am we didn't order any room service." Ebisu said waving around his hands wildly as more people came and went bringing many more dishes of food.

"This is the weary travelers' package. We give a meal to all who pass through our village so they can continue on with their journey with their bellies full of food," She said her eyes were an eerie yellow green color, she had on too much red lipstick, her hair was tangled in a giant nest and her nails were extremely sharp looking too they could pass for claws. "It's free of charge so please go ahead and eat as much as you heart desires. If you need anything else please don't hesitate to ask. I'll be around servicing our other guests that are currently staying here."

"Alright who can say no to all this free food, they must be crazy." Kagome said smiling happily sitting down at the table and breaking apart the disposable chopsticks.

"Make sure that you add the tea leaves to your cups before pouring the hot water from the teapot into it." The woman said closing the door behind her wearing a massive grin that showed all her rows of sharp jagged teeth. 'They won't know they've been poisoned until it's too late, just like all those other ningens who have the 'pleasure' of staying here.'

"Well we do need our strength for later." Sango said as she dug into some okonomiyaki [pancake] it tasted a little odd... but maybe it was because she wasn't used to the seasonings.

"I suppose you're right," Miroku said as he sat down at the table waiting to Ebisu to finish serving himself some rice so that he also could take some. "Kagome what are you doing under the table?"

"My takoyaki [octopus dumpling] fell as I was trying to put it into my mouth! I didn't get to taste one yet," Kagome grumbled finally grabbing the pesky dumpling that kept running away from her and throwing it away in the trash with a sad sigh before grabbing another one in her chopsticks, but that one also managed to slip away from her too. "Get back here, you're supposed to go into my tummy. Not roll around on the dirty floor you stupid takoyaki!"

"Be careful! You're going to hit your head on the end of the-"

"Itai! [Ouch!]" Kagome cried out holding her head and rubbing the throbbing lump that had grown she sighed as she wasted another morsel of food by throwing it away in the trash.

"-table, now don't say I didn't try to warn you." Miroku shrugged his shoulder placing vegetables into his mouth, there was something that was making his stomach feel uneasy.

"After we finish eating all of us can go to the village leader to deliver those herbs." Ebisu said putting a spoonful of chicken and rice into his mouth. The numbing sensation in his mouth was getting worse, so it wasn't just his imagination- there had to be something wrong with the food.

"Ano guys, I don't want to startle you or anything but just so you know, this food is poisoned!" Kagome said spitting out what she had previously put into her mouth. Everyone else had dropped their eating utensils their mouths were all hanging open. They could tell that she wasn't joking because they had all tasted something odd. They didn't want to point it out in case it was just the food item that they were consuming.

"Kirara stop eating the food it's no good!" Sango yelled as she spat out the food that had been in her mouth.

"I knew there was something wrong with this food but I have never heard of another village poisoning mere genin shinobi that they hired to help them! Maybe they thought chuunin's would be sent to complete this mission but Konoha has never done anything to anger this village. I just don't understand why they would want to kill any of us." Ebisu said the color had drained from his face.

"It's because everyone here is a youkai and they like the taste of ningen flesh!" Miroku was using both of his hands to scrape his tongue clean.

Kagome watched with mild amusement as everyone tried to make themselves vomit so they could rid their bodies of the toxins. "You know we have the antidote right?"

"Where's the antidote?" Ebisu asked feverishly grabbing Kagome by the shoulders and shaking her back and forth. He felt like he was going to be sick if she withheld the information.

"In your bag, the herbs we're supposed to deliver just put three of those leaves in your cup pour boiling water onto it wait five minutes. Then when it changes into a medium brownish color you can drink it. You should feel back to normal in ten minutes." Kagome said watching as everyone scrambled to put the correct amount of leaves into their cups before pouring the steaming water onto it. They stared at their cups anxiously as sweat being to form on their brows.

"I've already prepared you a cup Kagome-kun," Ebisu said his breathing had gotten faster when he pointed to the cup beside his one. "Alright five minutes it up!"

"Here you go Kirara this one is for you, drink up." Sango said pouring the liquid onto a dish and placed it on the ground while rubbing her throat after drinking down the burning hot liquid.

'Man if this is how they acted when they found out about this they wouldn't have lasted a week of Obaa-chan's training.' Kagome thought to herself as she drank down the contents of the cup. It was the same bitterness her taste buds had tasted many times prior to this day yet they still all cringed when the hot substance passed over them.

"Won't the hostess be suspicious when she comes back to check on how we're doing to see us still alive? Another thing that I'm curious about is why these youkai want so much of those particular herbs given to them. If that dried plants only purpose is to cure this poison that they've been giving to travelers, how are the youkai getting poisoned because of that, unless…." Miroku asked looking at the many empty plates that were in front of him.

"They have been eating them and getting poisoned that way." Sango finished his sentence receiving a solemn nod of confirmation that, that was what he was going to say.

"Eating them?" Ebisu asked his voice rather high pitched, he had never ever been to a youkai village before. As a matter of fact he didn't know any villages like this one existed until now. Why was he the only one freaking out while the kids were acting rather calm about the matter as if it were normal occurrence for them!

Youkai had started appearing well before the Kyuubi attacked Konoha there were very few of them only popping up every couple of years or so, but most of them were easily dispatched and it was extremely rare for anyone to be harmed by a youkai. It wasn't until around the time the Kyuubi attacked that youkai attacks became more and more frequent but the destruction that they caused would never be compared to the massive scale damage that the fox youkai caused. Then after the Kyuubi was sealed in Naruto, more youkai started appearing on a regular basis. Sometimes even in hordes completely destroying an entire village in one night leaving no survivors only torn up half eaten carcasses. Until three survivors were found in a destroyed village and they were brought to Konoha.

"I wouldn't talk so loudly if I were you Ebisu-sensei, most youkai have enhanced senses. That means not only can they hear things further away but they can smell fear among other scents on the human body." Kagome wriggled her nose tapping on it with her index finger.

"Back to Miroku's question, maybe we can just pretend like everything is normal when the hostess returns. I don't think she'd come right out and say 'why aren't you dead' and that she tried to kill us." Sango said pushing her plate in away from her, she wasn't hungry anymore.

"I think you're right. If anything she'd probably just add more poison too our 'complimentary dinner'," Miroku said shrugging his shoulders. "Well it's worth a shot, Ebisu-sensei what are we going to do about those bad youkai we were sent here to get rid of since… well we were just poisoned and that doesn't classify these ones as good, what do you think we should do?"

What is your greatest fear?

Best review for the last chapter: Masquerade-Ninja