Standing toe to toe with Nami wasn't how Miki wanted to spend her evening.
"Well that's too bad..." Miki began to concentrate chakra to her hands. "Because you're not getting me."
"I was really hoping we could skip this part." Nami replied sweetly.
"And I was really hoping I wouldn't run into you. It just goes to show you...we don't always get what we hope for." Miki moved quickly, aiming a punch at Nami's gut. She was being especially careful to keep her eyes on Nami's feet so that she wouldn't be caught in her mind jutsu.
Unfortunately, Namie was much faster. She dodged Miki's attack, moving to the side before countering with a swift knee to Miki's stomach, forcing all of her air out along with some blood. Nami grabbed a handful of Miki's hair and forced her to look up at her. Miki clenched her eyes closed as she punched blindly, connecting with Nami's chin.
She opened her eyes quickly and scanned the ground for Nami's feet. She must be in one of the trees above me, Miki thought to herself.
"The Leaf destroyed my village and until now I thought Rowan and I were the only survivors." Nami's voice echoed. Miki focused to try to determine Nami's location.
"The Leaf would never do anything like that!" Miki shouted, keeping her eyes on the ground. She needed to keep Nami talking so she could find her location.
"Just ask the Uchiha clan. I'm sure they'd disagree." Nami's voice was no longer sweet, it was harsh and bitter.
"Well, at least people have heard of the Uchiha clan. I've never heard of a village of psyche ninjas that was destroyed and probably because such a thing never existed." Miki picked up the blood stained kunai from the ground.
"Because they feared us enough to erase us from history. Its forbidden in the Leaf to even speak of Kosome." Nami answered as leaves in the tree to the right rustled.
Miki turned in that direction in time to be face to face with Nami. She quickly averted her gaze to the ground and pointed the kunai at Nami's chest.
"You're lying." Miki held the kunai firmly.
"Look inside of my mind if you don't believe me." Nami rested her hand on Miki's shoulder gently.
Miki kept her gaze on Nami's feet, a bead of sweat trickled down her neck. Why would everyone lie to her? She didn't want to believe the Hidden Leaf would do something so terrible. The people of the Hidden Leaf were generally good natured, she thought. Then she remembered her training with Black Opps...there was a dark side. They didn't always do the most virtuous work, but it was always in the name of protecting the village. Miki shuddered as doubt crept in, how far would they go? Would they be so paranoid to destroy an entire village and wipe it completely away from history?
"It's a terrible thing..." Nami's voice was sad.
"A terrible lie." Miki whispered.
"You know as well as I that memories don't lie...look into my eyes. Find your answers." Nami's hand glided down Miki's shoulder and she put her hand over the kunai. "I will leave you in peace afterwards."
"Why should I trust you?" Miki shuddered.
"Because I'm trying to set things right again." Nami brought her other hand under Miki's chin.
"I don't believe you." Miki closed her eyes.
Nami raised Miki's chin so that they would be face to face. "See for yourself. I won't fight you."
"And you'll leave afterwards?" Miki asked, her eyes still closed.
"If that's what you want." Nami replied gently.
Nami was right about one thing that Miki could trust, memories don't lie. It wouldn't hurt anything to look at Nami's memories to see if her claims held any truth. The fear that they did made Miki's hands tremble. She took in a deep breath, weighing her options. After a few moments of consideration, she concluded the best option would be to hear Nami out and then hope that she kept to her word that she would leave.
Miki dropped the kunai and opened her dark eyes. "Show me."
Nami's dark smile silently answered as the scene around them faded and a new one blurred into focus. They were in a meadow, tall grass blowing in the summer breeze.
"Where are we?" Miki looked around the green fields.
"Just outside of Kosom...this is where I was when-" Nami's voice drifted as she looked into the direction of the smoke.
"What is that?" Miki squinted at the smoke above the trees in the distance.
"Our village." Nami stood next to Miki.
Miki ran, pushing herself through the green fields towards the smoke. She entered the woods, twigs snapping beneath her sandals as she propelled herself faster. Nami had to be lying, the Leaf wouldn't destroy an entire village...kill innocent people. She was approaching the end of the forest when Nami appeared in front of her. Miki stopped in front of her.
"Remember, this is only a memory...you can only see the things that I saw." Nami explained as she guided Miki to a bush near the edge of the woods. "This is where I watched. I'm ashamed to say that I was too afraid to show myself to them. I was only a child at the time though."
"Nami..." Miki swallowed the sympathy that she didn't want to have for this woman.
"Watch." Nami pointed outside of the woods.
Miki could already smell the smoke as she squatted down next to Nami and looked in the direction she pointed. The village of Kosome was on fire, people that ran from their homes were being cut down by ninja that moved to quickly to see.
"How do you know the Leaf was responsible?" Miki whispered, even though this was just a memory and no one could actually hear them.
"Keep watching." Nami whispered.
Miki kept her gaze on the burning village as the people's screams filled the air. She wanted to break the jutsu, to leave the horrible scene. But, she had agreed to see Nami's memory. After some time, the screams became less until gradually it turned into silence. The only sound was the fire crackling as the village continued to burn. Six figures began to emerge from the smoke, Miki squinted as they slowly came into view.
A familiar symbol on their headbands made Miki's breath catch in her throat. They were from the leaf village. She blinked away the tears that stung her eyes. She thought was she was feeling was betrayal until she recognized one of the ninjas walking away from the village. Miki brought her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming.
"What is it?" Nami grabbed her arm.
"That's-" Miki bit her lip as she watched the familiar man with dark hair and bushy eyebrows come into clearer focus. He was carrying something in his arms.
"What?" Nami gripped her arm tighter.
Miki swallowed audibly. "That's my dad."
"You mean the man that kidnapped you!" Nami hissed as she glared at him through the bushes.
"No." Miki whispered.
Nami gently put her arm around Miki. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way."
"Stop it!" Miki shoved her away as she broke the jutsu. "I don't want to see anymore."
They were back in the woods, just outside of the Leaf village. It was almost completely dark outside now, the stars were beginning to come out. Miki's knees trembled, threatening to give way. Nami reached out to her, but Miki slapped her hand away. She wobbled a few moments before she was able to steady herself.
"I don't believe any of it!" Miki shouted.
"It's the truth...think about it. The abilities you have are very unique, only the people of Kosome can do what you do. And you are capable of so much more, I could show you so many things. Come with me." Nami extended her hand to her. "Its where you truly belong."
Too many emotions coursed through Miki, her heart broke at the realization that her entire life was a lie. Her father wasn't who she thought he was, he was a murderer, a kidnapper, and a liar. And the village that she had fought to protect, lost pieces of her sanity over, and had permanent scars from...that same village was responsible for the destruction of her home. Her abilities had always separated her from others. When she was a child, her classmates called her a freak of nature and in her young adult years, the ones that knew of her abilities feared her. It was comforting to finally meet someone just like her and yet she felt connections to the leaf she couldn't ignore.
"I know you're conflicted, but we can sort it out together. Don't let them continue to use you as a tool... a means to an end. What you have is a beautiful gift, not a curse." Nami stepped closer to Miki.
Miki took a step back. "You promised you would leave."
"You still want me to?" Nami clenched her fists.
"Yes, please." Miki whispered.
A man with wild red hair appeared next to Nami. "Nami, we have to go."
Miki watched the two of them exchange glances before they looked at her.
"If you change your mind..." Nami smiled wistfully. "Meet us back here at dawn."
Miki was about to tell Nami she would never change her mind, but she and the red haired man disappeared. Miki's eyes floated over to the blood stained kunai on the ground. She walked over to it and knelt down to pick it up. She picked up the blade and wiped the blood off on the grass before putting it in her bag. She wanted to believe that Nami's memory was all a fabricated lie, that she wasn't a part of the gruesome scene she just witnessed. However, she knew that Nami was right... memories don't lie. It did make sense that she wasn't actually related to Gai and their father. Neither of the men could use jutsu, they could only use tiajutsu. Physically, the only resemblance they had were dark hair and eyes.
Miki stood and sighed at her emotional dilemma. Her thoughts of running away in the past came to mind, maybe she had constantly thought of it because she didn't belong here. She wasn't sure if it was fatigue from using so much chakra that made her feel so heavy or the weight of the truth she just learned. She stumbled forward and was about to shout for Nami to come back.
"Miki!" Gai shouted in the distance behind her.
Miki stopped, she leaned against the tree for support. She wiped away the blood from her lips with her sleeve as racing thoughts began to take over. How could she face her brother now? Did he know all this time? Was he just lying to her as well? He wasn't even really her brother, did she have a real brother or sister out there some where?
Gai stood next to her. "Are you alright?" His eyes widened at the blood on the ground.
"Don't worry, its not my blood." Miki's voice was distant.
"What happened?" Kakashi stook next to Gai.
Miki pushed herself up from the tree and began to walk in the direction of the village. "She just wanted to talk. Nothing happened."
"It doesn't look like nothing happened." Gai pointed at the blood.
Miki ignored him and kept walking past him and Kakashi. How could they not have told her about what the Leaf had done to her people? But then again, maybe they didn't know about it. What did her people do that made the Leaf fear them enough to destroy them and wipe them from history? Miki had so many questions about herself and about where she came from...and only one person could answer them. Was she really considering meeting with Nami in the morning?
"Miki?" Gai called to her, she could hear the panic in his voice. Real brother or not, she still didn't want him to worry about her.
Miki turned to him and Kakashi and smiled. "I'm sorry...I'm just tired."
"Who were they?" Gai asked, his bushy eyebrows furrowed together.
Miki looked out into the woods. "I'm not sure."
"Did she say what she wanted?" Kakshi asked.
"She just wanted to talk to me." Miki turned away from them, towards the village.
"What did she want to talk about?" Kakashi tilted his head curiously.
"Memories." Miki began walking towards the village.
"Memories?" Gai caught up next to her.
"Yeah... I saw inside her mind." Miki clenched her fists. Gai looked so much like the man she just saw walking away from the burning village, carrying her as a baby. Her eyes began to sting as tears threatened to surface.
Gai grabbed her shoulder and turned her to face him. "What did you see?!"
Miki narrowed her eyes. "Why are you so concerned? Do you have something to hide from me?"
Gai stepped back from his sister. He'd never seen that look in her eyes before, she was angry with him. She'd been irritated with him before, but never angry. Gai suddenly wondered if maybe this was an imposter, one to distract them from saving the real Miki.
"What's wrong with you?" Gai asked.
"Nothing." Miki replied quietly. "I'm just tired."
Gai cocked an eyebrow. "Where is the real Miki?"
"What?" Miki's voice squeaked. "I am the real Miki."
"He has a point." Kakashi stepped up next to Gai.
Miki forced a deep breath, it wasn't like the two of them were the ones she just saw in Nami's awful memory. She wished she could tell herself it was all a lie, but there wasn't any way that it couldn't be true. Nami wouldn't have known what her Dad looked like. That part of the whole scene is what caught Miki's attention. But she had to remind herself that Gai and Kakashi had nothing to do with it.
"Just use your sharingan. If I'm an imposter, then you'll see through it." Miki shrugged.
Kakashi moved his headband, uncovering his scarred eye that held the sharingan. After a few moments, he covered his eye and nodded.
Miki rolled her eyes and turned. She began walking towards the village again. Her chest felt tight and her hands were starting to tingle. Gai and Kakashi were talking behind her, but she couldn't hear them over the ringing in her ears. Her steps faltered as they walked out of the woods, Gai caught her by the arm before she fell.
She looked up at Gai, she felt her heart sink to her stomach. Why couldn't it all be a lie? She loved him so much, he was the only family she had.
"Do you love me?" Miki sniffed, she hated the tears that pooled in the corners of her eyes.
"That's a silly question." Gai replied with a big smile as he picked her up to carry her. "You know I do."
Miki leaned against him as he began to walk. "What if I wasn't your sister?"
"How hard did you get hit?" Gai laughed.
"What if you found out I'm not really your sister?" Miki forced her eyes open to stay conscious.
Gai snorted. "Now that is a crazy question."
"Just answer me." Miki sighed through half closed eyes.
"You'll always be my little sister. You're stuck with me." Gai answered.
"Good..." Miki opened her eyes again.
"You can go to sleep, little Miki. I got you." Gai reassured her.
"I'm not tired." Miki mumbled before she fell asleep.
Gai and Kakashi walked in silence until they reached the village.
"That mind jutsu uses a lot of chakra." Kakashi commented.
"Yeah." Gai answered. He wondered why she wanted to know how he would feel if he found out they weren't brother and sister.
"Hey Gai." Miki said lazily.
"Yeah?" He answered.
"Tell Kakashi he should switch to an eye patch." She mumbled with her eyes still closed.
Gai snorted a laugh as he looked at Kakashi. "I'll be sure to tell him."
"Is she talking in her sleep?" Kakashi laughed softly.
"Yeah. She does that some times." Gai chuckled. "She's said some really crazy stuff before. So... are you going to get an eye patch?"
"Never." Kakashi replied.