"Get up." Danzo ordered. "If you want to survive, get up."
Kotone shook as she tried to stand, but collapsed back down onto her stomach. Her fingers trembled uncontrollably. She felt Danzo forcibly lift her face as he glared, his nails digging into her cheeks.
"Are you giving up?" He asked.
"N-no."
He threw her into the ground. "Then get your pathetic, sorry ass up and do it again."
It took the last of her strength to find her feet. Kotone was given no time to think as the ANBU came at her full force. She leapt away willing chakra into her feet and hands, but she needed to be faster, if she was to win, she had to be faster than the person in front of her.
The ANBU, Fox as named by his mask, grabbed her wrist and had her pinned in seconds. Kotone breathed raggedly.
"You're done for the day." Danzo turned away. "See to her medical attention. We'll start again at five a.m."
The table at the back of the room was lined with an infirmary's worth of supplies, and now had an added two crates full of hemoglobin and chakra infused clotting vials. Kotone was only bruised; none of the taijutsu yielded any broken skin just yet, but at the rate she was going, it was a matter of time. She lost count of how many days she had spent like this and Danzo never breathed a word if she was making any sort of improvements or if these hours were worthwhile.
"Fox?" Kotone questioned, wondering if he would respond to the name. Without Danzo to bark at them for interacting, he looked up, so she went ahead. "I can take care of myself today."
"I have orders."
"I'm not really hurt."
"My orders are orders."
"What time is it?"
"Ten p.m."
"I'm hungry." She muttered, "I haven't eaten anything in forever."
"Undress."
No matter how many times they did this, Kotone's face still flushed red. She was left with only her bra and underwear, and she wondered if Fox ever felt uncomfortable constantly having to look at her half naked.
"Any trouble spots?"
"I said no already."
Splotches of deep purple covered her ribs, they hurt like hell and Fox knew it. Her blush deepened at the obvious lie. She heard a sigh from behind the mask. Fox slowly stood and then faced the wall. "Take care of the bruises."
Quietly, she injected the needles and told him she was done. He did a quick once over to check before nodding again so that Kotone could put her clothes back on. After snapping the vest shut, he handed Kotone her mask from the wall. Danzo wanted to watch her expressions during fights, but otherwise she followed the anonymity of all ANBU.
"I'll take you to the mess hall."
"What? Really?"
"Orders were three days without food, the third day is over." Fox started walking then paused. "You would do well to not talk so much, Falcon."
She nodded.
.
.
"What is your mother's name?"
Kotone held her head high with a sad attempt of pride. At the slash to her face, she bit down on the inside of her cheek. It had been the hardest two months of her life. When it wasn't combat training, she endured hours of torture and interrogation. Never show weakness. The words play over and over in her head, don't let information slip, don't make a sound, don't ever let the enemy know they were breaking you.
"Pour it."
She took a last breath of air, but it was soggy, droplets of water already filling her nose. Within minutes her lungs were on fire, each breath painful and shallower than the last. A screech inched its way up her throat, but she forced it away, sheer desperation keeping her from losing her mind.
Danzo waved a hand and she was tossed up into a sitting position, rag removed from her face. "Your mother's name, what is it?"
It was the eighteenth time they had asked, the eighteenth time that day that they had put her on the verge of drowning.
Before she could stop the words from slipping out, she gurgled. "Go to hell."
A smile etched itself onto his face. "Very well, Falcon. You're done for the day."
Kotone gulped in air.
"Lord Danzo." She spoke hesitantly, the words raspy and sore. He paused just before he reached the door. "You said you had information on my parents- do you know why was my mother killed?"
She went through more genjutsu than she could count, more than she imagined she would in a lifetime, and each one showing her friends dying in the most grueling ways: captive and beaten, broken beyond recognition, and now, now she was annoyed. She had been promised answers from every which way and all came up empty.
"Your father's selfishness."
She leaned forward just a tad, selfish wasn't a word she had heard used to describe him. Fox held back a sigh at her attempt to hide the eager behavior... she just couldn't help herself. "And who was he?"
Danzo's eyes were cold as he whipped around. "I'll tolerate this insubordination of yours today as I'm sure your brain is lacking oxygen. I told you on your first day that it is not your place to ask trivial questions nor will I humor you with the idea that you are to know such information."
With that he left the room in a ringing silence. Danzo didn't mind her talking back, it was nearly beaten out of her and she sure as hell was becoming ruthless. The gash across Fox's arm from a spar earlier in the day proved that.
Fox stood beside the chair, untying the leather straps holding Kotone down. His movements were slow, and even his lack of words weighed heavy in the air making Kotone unsettled as she rubbed her wrists. Even without seeing his face, she sensed his apprehension.
"What?" Kotone hopped out of her seat, wobbling a little as she reached for her mask.
He was too good to show a reaction, physically anyway.
She repeated more forcefully. "What?"
Fox didn't turn to look at Kotone. "You should really stop talking so much."
A snort came from her. "You say that like you care."
"Falcon, there is a lot of shit in this world you don't understand. You obviously joined ANBU with a reason, but you can't just blatantly demand answers. You're a shinobi, you have to look beyond what's on the page. And on top that, you make a fine habit of pissing Danzo off."
"Not on purpose." She muttered.
Fox sighed, it was heavy and extremely tired sigh. He couldn't get it through her head that silence was safest. Watching over Kotone was a task he sometimes wished he hadn't been given. "You have tomorrow off."
"Oh, alright." She said, then reached her hand out to grab his arm. "I don't think I've thanked you for helping me train."
"It's my orders to help you in any way I can."
"Yeah, but…"
The boy- maybe man, Kotone actually had no idea and it made her stop. Who was this person who was stuck to her side? It wasn't as if ANBU were forbidden from seeing or knowing another ANBU.
"Your training will be over soon." He cut her off. "I assume the reason I was sent to help you is that they intend to have us partner up when the mission comes."
"Wait, you're a part of the recon thing?"
"Yes. A team must know each other's strengths and weaknesses."
"But then why-"
"Falcon."
They were trained to remain as emotionless as possible, monotonous in speech; Fox didn't raise his voice, he didn't sound angry, but there was tension behind his words that made Kotone freeze.
"Stop talking. Stop asking questions."
"Right."
"Enjoy your day off."
"...Right."
.
.
Kotone should've been relieved to be given her first break from isolation in months, but instead she was restless. Civilian clothes left her feeling naked, every movement from any shinobi in her village could be against her, she heard a lot, saw almost everything: the twig that snapped under an Academy student's foot, the uneasy breathing of a man stumbling out of a bar as a midday drunk.
No average shinobi would notice those things and Kotone realized that this was made them ANBU. Not the vest, or the mask, or directly following the Hokage, but the constant paranoia and inability to trust anyone even within their own home. The smiles people greeted her with seemed so incredibly fake she found her fingers linger over her pouch as she walked.
Her feet dragged their way along the road. The best way to disappear was to fade into the crowd, making the marketplace equally heaven and hell. For every disadvantage a crowd offered, it at least let Kotone become no one discernable, nothing more than another passing face in the place Hidden Leaf shinobi called home.
Kotone slipped into the side store with waves of caution, every nerve on edge being around so many easily accessible weapons.
"Hey, whatcha looking for?"
"New set of standard issues, an order was placed for me a week ago, order number 1310."
"Ah, yeah," The shop owner smiled, unfazed by the scribble next to the order noting it as ANBU, "It's in the back, let me go grab it for ya, young lady."
She raised a brow as he vanished at the sight of a little hand reaching upward at a shelf across the store. Slowly, she walked toward the two pig tails jumping up and down. The girl froze at Kotone's clearing of her throat, and Kotone found a wide pair of doe eyes staring at her.
"Do your parents know you're in here?"
"Uh uh." She shook her head no.
"I think that's a little sharp for you." Kotone stated her eyes flickering to the double serrated shuriken on the wall.
"Nuh uh, I like it."
"You like that it's sharp?"
"Yeah. It's…" She furrowed her eyes hard in concentration then thinking of the word affirmed with a grin, "cool."
Kotone almost laughed. It made its way up as a silent shake of the shoulders; she guessed she thought weapons were cool when she was around three or four as well. That was when parents or whoever was around started prodding to see if the child would be sent to the academy
The man reappeared. "Alright, got your stuff young lad-" He stopped midsentence with demeanor changing completely. "You! You're the little brat who's been stealing stuff from my store!"
Catching her arm, Kotone raised her brows again at the girl who blushed heavily. "Stealing is bad."
"I don't got any money." Her worlds fumbled.
"Get out of here." The man growled at the little one. Kotone let go and watched her make a bee-line out of the store.
He sighed irritated. "Damn orphans, they're always running in here without money and then expect me to just let them play with this stuff!"
Kotone froze. "She's an orphan?"
With a wave he kept talking. "Nothing wrong with being an orphan, just bad for business and no one to corral them out of here but me. I have a business to run, I'm not a baby sitter."
"Is she in here a lot?"
"That one? Practically every day."
As Kotone counted her money out on the counter, she caught the girl peeking back in. "Does she have a preference for stuff?"
"Can't keep her grubby hands away from the scrolls half the time."
She slid an extra wad of cash to him. He looked up surprised.
"Add a beginner's scroll and a sign book."
"Uh… sure."
"Give it to her next time she comes in."
"You don't want to give it to her now?" He nodded at the doorway causing to the girl to hide again.
"No."
Kotone was extraordinarily grateful for her anonymous donor; her wanting to know who it was and why they did such a thing was part of what kept her going, and if this little kid was dead set on weapons, her path was inevitable, so Kotone would give her something to pursue and to stay alive for.
Doing what she had been taught best, Kotone vanished into the streets. She mentally prepared herself for the bird waiting at the training field. Hayabusa promised to work on the Falcon Sage Jutsu again with Kotone, and she was ready to push herself to the limit to get to it.