Kenchi looked at Miki, she was knelt down holding her blood soaked arm. She was clearly in a tremendous amount of pain, blood matted down her bangs and stained her right cheek.
"Stand up Miki." Kenchi commanded her.
"Kenchi..." She squeezed her eyes shut, wincing in agony before opening them. "You're here."
"Get up and finish this." Kenchi reached in his pack and pulled out a scroll. "Your fight isn't over yet."
"But my arm." Miki flinched. "The bone is shattered."
"And the Gods graced you with another arm. Now, stand up." Kenchi summoned infinity with the scroll and held the massive hoop blade with one hand.
"Infinity..." Miki eyed her weapon.
"Remember your training. Push the pain aside. Put it away in the furthest corner of your mind. We'll get through it later..together." Kenchi's voice softened from his commanding tone as he added, "Like last time."
Miki pushed herself to her feet, her body protesting at every muscle movement. Her hand gripped her shattered arm as she stood. She coughed for a moment before wiping the fresh blood from her mouth.
"Don't be an idiot, Miki." Nami snorted. "You are clearly beaten."
"Miki!" Gai called. She looked over her shoulder at him and smiled before turning her attention back to Nami.
"I thought I could heal everyone. If I could just understand them..." Miki pushed back her blood soaked bangs, her left arm hung limp at her side. "But I do understand you, there's nothing but vengeance in your heart."
"As there should be in yours." Nami answered, flicking her dark hard over her shoulder.
"Vengeance is holding your own free will prisoner." Miki steadied herself into a defensive stance. She reached inside of her own mind and pushed the pain as far back into a corner as she could. Her breathing slowed down to normal as she stood more confidently and opened her eyes.
Nami's eyes widened as she gasped in surprise.
"You wish to control people's free will. But how can you when you can't control your own?" Miki looked over her shoulder at Kenchi.
Kenchi smiled as he tossed her infinity, her hoop blade. This was the Miki he had trained over the years and he was proud of her. He was ready to jump in, should she need him. He would not let his comrade die, but this was her fight and she needed to finish it.
Miki caught the massive hoop with one hand as she turned to Nami and said, "Once we start down this path, it will only end when one of us is dead. This is your last chance to let go of the hate in your heart. If you have any doubt of your path of vengeance, now is the time to confess...otherwise, prepare yourself."
Nami snorted. "This will only end with either your complete submission or your death."
Miki pulled the hoop blade over her head and stopped at her waist and sighed, "I thought as much." She began to swivel her hips as the hoop danced around her ominously, making a whistling noise. "This is infinity. Both of you are about to become well acquainted with each other."
Kakashi commented to Kenchi, "That's a very large weapon for her size."
Kenchi smiled, "I never noticed that. She handles it very gracefully."
Kakashi looked over at Blitz and said to Kenchi, "I'll take creepy eyes over there."
Gai looked over at Rowan and said, "Consider it an honor I challenge you as a worthy opponent."
Blitz sighed as he rolled his eyes. "Why does everyone always call me that? I mean at least I have both of my eyes."
"I'll be on stand by to support Miki if she needs it." Kenchi told Gai and Kakashi.
"She's in no condition to fight!" Gai protested.
The sound of Miki's hoop blade striking against Nami's dagger rung through the room.
"I think we can trust Kenchi to know her limits, Gai. He's the one she trains with after all." Kakashi reassured him. Truth was he was a little uneasy about her continuing to fight Nami in her state, but he was going to have to ultimately trust Miki to know her own limit. He watched her dance gracefully with the hoop blade as Nami deflected each attempt before he turned to his opponent Blitz.
Nami was beginning to lose ground with Miki. She caught the hoop blade using her two daggers before it could strike her in the face.
Nami frowned as she strained. "It's a shame you can't see the truth for what it is."
Miki snorted. "That you want to use mind control to have your vengeance?"
"You may see it as Vengeance, I see it as serving justice. Its a pity I have to kill you. When I'm done with you, I'm going to kill your fake brother and then your two friends." Nami growled.
Miki in her fury, forgot not to make eye contact with Nami and their eyes met. Instead of feeling the familiar pull into the other person's mind, she felt Nami intruding into her own. Miki was unable to block her from entering, The sounds of battle and the room faded away into darkness.
Miki gasped as she dropped her weapon and looked down at herself. She was spotless, not a drop of blood on her and her arm was no longer broken. She felt panic rise at the realization she was inside her own mind and Nami was in here with her.
"Nami?! Show yourself." Miki whirled frantically.
"Lots on interesting things in here." Nami answered, echoing in the darkness.
Miki laughed. "If you're going to try to break me mentally, don't waste your time."
Nami stepped into view from the darkness. "I pity you. You let your mind be abused for years in the name of helping that place you call home."
"My mind was never abused. Everything I did was of my own accord." Miki didn't bother getting into a fighting stance. Its impossible to do physical harm in someone's mind. This had turned into a completely different type of fight.
"You have experienced what you call echoes. In the times of our clan, it was a sign of trauma and mental abuse, being forced to see and experience things to violent for your own mind." Nami averted her eyes in disgust. "In simple terms, they stretched you beyond your mental capability. This probably explains why you can't see things clearly. You're damaged."
As Nami spoke, she showed a montage of the horrific things Miki had seen in the minds of the criminals she had spoken to over the years. Different images of herself being raped or beaten.
Miki looked away. "None of that really happened to me. It was all just in the mind."
"You honestly believe that...little sister?" Nami approached Miki slowly before putting a hand on her shoulder. "You don't understand that the mind and soul doesn't see a difference between physical reality and..." Nami waved her hand to the images. "And this?"
"I saved lives, innocent lives going through what I did. That was worth it to me!" Miki glared at Nami as she shoved her away.
"At this rate, in a few years you will become mentally unstable. You won't be able to distinguish between reality and illusion. You will become a danger to yourself and anyone around you. You think me to be a villain, but there's so much that you don't know." Nami spoke in her sweet voice.
Everything Nami was saying was everything Miki had ever feared about herself. She constantly battled with the idea of herself being damaged and hurting people she cared about. She could never forgive herself if she hurt her brother or her friends. "That's not true." She shivered as she mumbled to herself, sinking to her knees. Her legs felt to rubbery to stand on. "That's not true."
"I'm only telling you this in compassion for you. I offer you a merciful death. I would rather let you go peacefully than see you tormented any longer. Aren't you tired of suffering quietly inside of yourself?" Nami looked down at Miki with pity. "I had no idea you were so tormented."
Images of Miki filled the darkness, images of her waking covered in sweat and screaming, her cutting or stabbing herself to stop the echoes. She felt heavier, an invisible force was pushing her to the floor. She wanted to lay down, her energy was leaving her.
"You were always suffering, alone. Let me end that for you. I love you too much to see you like this." Nami knelt down and smiled at Miki.
Alone...Miki thought as she closed her eyes. She thought of all the times she went home..alone after a rough day. She cried into her pillow at night when the visions were too much. Then she remembered Gai's smile. She remembered when they were kids and he would sit up with her all night when she couldn't sleep. She almost smiled as she recalled how over protective he could be, especially when it came to her dating life. She remembered Kenchi visiting her in the hospital when she was injured and all the training sessions they had together. She gasped when she thought of Kakashi. He had been inside her mind and he completely accepted her for who she is.
She was never truly alone...and the times that she was alone it was because she had chose to be alone. She had people in her life that loved her.
"No." Miki opened her eyes. "I was never alone."
"Really? You poor delusional thing." Nami gestured at the images of Miki suffering, "You can't even see what's in front of you? They've destroyed you."
"No they haven't." Miki stood. "They made me strong."
Nami took a few steps back from Miki as the images changed. It showed Miki training at the lake with Kenchi, he was pulling her out of the water. Another showed her teasing Gai with the cat, Sushi. An image of Gai carrying her home after she was too exhausted to walk emerged. And then, an image of Kakashi kissing her showed itself.
"There's so much love in my life." Miki smiled. "What you're looking for is just the bad. You want me to be as miserable as you are, but it doesn't have to be that way Nami. You can have happiness too, you just have to let go of that hatred inside of you."
Nami grimaced a moment before recovering with a smile. "I have happiness. I finally have the jutsu I need and killing you will only bring me more happiness. I tried to be merciful for you, but you wouldn't listen to reason."
Miki closed her eyes and divided her chakra as the air around them thickened with soundless thunder. She disrupted Nami's chakra flow as she acted in the mind realm as well as the physical world.
Nami's eyes widened as she grunted. "How?" She coughed as blood trickled from her lips.
The world came crashing back as they were sucked out of Miki's mind and back into reality. The Miki that stood in front of Nami disappeared with a poof! to reveal the real Miki standing behind Nami. One of the jagged edges of her hoop blade impaled Nami from behind and was sticking out of her chest as blood began to bloom around the opening.
"How?" Nami's voice screeched.
"You were in my mind..." Miki said softly as she pulled out the blade. "I can still control my physical body because my consciousness never left it. You were too arrogant to see the error in your plan in breaking me emotionally."
Nami fell to her knees as blood began to flow more freely.
"Nami!" Rowan shouted as he ran from Gai to be at her side. He caught her and held her in his arms as she coughed.
"Rowan.." She whispered as she touched his face with a trembling hand.
"Hey..." He brushed her hair away tenderly.
Nami tried to speak to him, but could only make gargling noises.
Rowan smiled with tears in his eyes. "Remember the meadow? Remember spending time together there? That's the Nami I remember. Think about that."
Nami coughed. "Y..yes."
"It's summer time and the field is buzzing with those annoying bugs you hate, but we're together." Rowan pulled her closer. "We'll always be together. I love you."
"I...love you." Nami replied almost completely inaudible. Rowan was the only one that heard her. Her face went slack as her body went limp.
"Nami?" Rowan choked as he embraced her tightly, but Nami didn't reply.
Nami was dead.