Chapter 7: hide and seek: Himiko's story
A/N: This final chapter is dedicated to the most inspirational story/fandom, the masterpiece we call 'Naruto' as the manga officially ends this week/month (people please don't give out spoilers, have some decency!). It's been a privilege...
A fine autumn breeze snaked its curves across the greenest waist high grasses and exhaled out to cool off the inside of a stuffy old church packed with lugubrious mourners in downtown Kusagakure: The Grass Village. A blinding light appeared in the empty space next to the mourners. The light painted in the essence of a pink haired teenage girl who manifested among them.
Sakura saw her body appearing bit by bit into an unknown church and took in her surroundings in amazement.
Below the holy altar lay open a black wooden casket of a dead body dressed in a Sunday best suit. Alongside the corpse flourished a thousand blossoms for his departed soul. Sakura examined the congregants of mourning, grieving and black-clad people paying their last respects...until she looked down to see someone sitting on the wide lap of a stern, mean spirited looking middle aged woman in the front row pews...
Himiko.
Sakura surveyed the surroundings cautiously and looked at herself again when a thought occurred to her; it was Himiko, this was her memory that she'd been thrust into because of the backfired body possession jutsu when it had been interrupted.
The five year old dark haired little girl was tugging at the uncomfortably tight neck collar of her beautiful grey funeral dress tied with a green bow as a necktie and long hanging sashes, until she was given a quick smack on her wrist to stop fidgeting by the scowling woman whose lap she was sitting on. She appeared as innocent as the photo in which Sakura had seen her taken from the seventh bedroom.
Sakura looked back to the altar as an old man with a white beard pointing low to his chest came to stand before the congregation. Himiko's strict and puritanical yet highly respected grandfather and leader of the Kamakura clan known for his conservative values, Lord Izanagi no Kamakura-sama, stepped forward. He was flanked by Himiko's uncles Fujiwara Kamakura, the kind-hearted funeral director, and the ever stoic Yamaga and Noburu Kamakura standing with their heads bowed respectfully.
Sakura did a double take after she'd acknowledged the men in her head, having no idea how she knew who the people were. Her mouth hung open when a thought occurred to her; the genjutsu controlling the minds of other people was surely being used to look into their minds and memories as genjutsu was a manipulator of the mind anyway, she knew that it had to be the way in which Himiko knew not only the names of people but their personalities, in order for her to help her 'pretend' to be them when she possessed their bodies. Sakura looked down at the little girl again in awe; it was astonishing to her how Himiko was able to wield and control such a magnificent power at such a young age.
Himiko's pouting at her aunt Miyako's reprimand vanished as Lord Izanagi retreated from the altar after speaking to everyone, to make way for a beautiful young woman in a tightly bound long black kimono gliding towards the podium. As Himiko watched proudly, Sakura etched ever closer for the first time, entranced at the elegant young mother and funeral poet stopping before the crowd to offer words of peace, healing and hope to grieving family. Sakura lit up, grateful at finally having the chance to watch Namiko Kamakura read her self-written poetry in person. She was as graceful as she'd imagined.
After the inspiring message of hope and healing Sakura turned to observe how Himiko watched the grieving family; she appeared confused and heartbroken at the sight of people in pain yet again having gone to many funerals before. Himiko turned back to stare mesmerised at the coffin as if bidden to do so; Sakura narrowed her eyes at her suspiciously waiting to see what Himiko was about to do. She appeared hypnotised by the body in a way that made Sakura feel uncomfortable as Himiko stared unblinking at it until she closed her eyes...
With a feeling of inevitability, Sakura walked up to the open coffin lying at the altar. Her heart gave a startled jolt and mouth flew open when the dead man's eyes opened steadily. He opened his eyes to stare at the ceiling just as Sakura hovered her invisible face above the coffin, praying that the naïve little girl wouldn't do what she probably thought was a way to make the grieving family happy again. But it was exactly her intention; Himiko as the dead man lying in the coffin sat up slowly. Sakura cringed and covered her mouth waiting for the damage to happen...
A grieving woman who'd had her head buried in the chest of another family member sitting nearest to the altar was the first to notice; she blinked away tears as her eyes grew wide in horror. She emitted a piercing scream that alarmed the whole congregation as she pointed at the dead man waking up to look at them smiling happily.
Chaos erupted from the church as people grabbed their belongings and fled as they screamed; Sakura saw the confused look on Himiko as the dead man's face; she honestly and innocently thought that animating his body would bring joy to the family as they would reunite with their dead loved one.
It was a panicked stupor; Sakura saw Namiko looking around for her daughter only for Himiko's aunt to scream so loud that it stopped everyone in their tracks to look at her. Himiko's body was shaking uncontrollably, limbs twisting and contorting with her eyes rolling to the back of her head as if she was in an incantation. Everyone's heads shifted from the dead man woken up, to Himiko's body and back...they put two and two together and realised that the old dead man was actually Himiko somehow.
The dead man's body dropped to the floor and began to also shake uncontrollably as his soulless eyes rolled to the back of his head. Himiko's body stopped shaking instantaneously. Himiko returned to her own body as her mother picked her up.
A thousand pairs of conservative religious eyes were locked on the mother and daughter. Himiko's aunt shook her head slowly in horror and yelled out to the crowd "witches!" with a long pointed finger...
A swirl of motion in the air and Sakura was taken to a different setting in a quiet neighbourhood. Sakura was taken to a home, presumably belonging to Namiko and her vilified daughter, and sure enough the two hurriedly walked into their home where Namiko stooped down onto her knees in the house corridor and looked Himiko straight in her eyes to inquire about her daughter's power. Sakura saw that Namiko's eyes were far more of a concerned nature rather than the accusatory fear like the people of the church.
Himiko told her mother that she'd always been able to feel the spiritual energy of other people including her own somehow, but she didn't know how or why. She explained that she once found a way to 'move into' the bodies of other people once when she woke up in someone else's body but couldn't understand what had happened to her so she'd kept quiet. She also added that that she'd just wanted to help the grieving, pained family. Sakura knew immediately that she had inherited a special kekkei genkai that her family was probably unaware of. It was the only explanation of her power.
xxx
Soon the entire village was buzzing about the 'devilish' act witnessed in the church by a member of the highly respected puritan noble Kamakura family who were long responsible for burying the dead of the Grass and how the virtuous clan had been shamed beyond comprehension; no one would ever want a family associated with witchcraft to look after their dead and trust another Kamakura for as long as they lived. False claims heightened and exaggerated fear quickly made sure that all kinds of rumours spread to the people and well past the borders of the Grass Village of a young girl who was an 'evil witch' they spoke, who 'brought the dead back to life' by her 'mother's command' as she read from her 'grimoire book' they gossiped, until the day when gossip brought about its real damage.
Sakura was taken to a quiet day in Grass Village where people were going about their day, including Namiko holding her daughters' hand as they prepared to leave the house, covering her and Himiko's face with a hooded cloak to avoid any unwanted prejudice from the superstitious people, and the two headed out into the day market.
As Namiko and Himiko strolled through the marketplace, a rambling sound shook the green blanketed ground. Even though Sakura couldn't exactly feel it, it still made her look uneasily at the mother and daughter. She remembered Himiko's drawings of a monster coming to destroy their home...
Everyone in the Grass Village stopped what they were doing and stood watching, waiting for the source of the disruption to appear. Slowly one by one they all turned their heads towards the main gate of the village with Sakura following suit.
Boom
A giant snake with three heads broke through the main gate and slithered into the village, destroying many of the buildings and houses lining the streets and anything in its long tails' path. People scattered and ran for their lives, until one single purple snake emerged behind the three headed python, and on it...a cruel snake; the embodiment of a man known for his disregard for human life.
Sakura clenched her fists involuntarily as Orochimaru riding on his snake Manda broke through the fleeing crowd of people and instructed his snake summoning to block the people's paths with its thick body, forcing them to stop running. Orochimaru looked hungrily at the crowd as he licked his lips with his abnormally long sickening tongue...
Then he did what Sakura feared from the start...he asked for her...Orochimaru demanded the people of the Grass to hand over the girl he'd heard had the power to possess bodies. Everyone's eyes turned to a young mother holding her daughter close to her as they recognised her face from under a hood. Namiko tried to make a run for it with Himiko but was hampered by people in the way...
Orochimaru instructed his snakes to go after them both; Sakura felt her heart clenching painfully as she saw Namiko be the only one to run to protect her little girl. Luckily it didn't last long; more than two dozen shinobi dressed in black and animal masks wearing headbands of the Grass Village and as Sakura noted appreciatively, of the Leaf Village swooped in on the area forcing Orochimaru to retreat. Namiko was finally able to stop running. Himiko's confused face looked up at her relieved mother.
But Orochimaru wouldn't allow himself to be bested; he stretched his snake like neck across the courtyard as the ANBU gained on him; it happened too quickly for anyone to realise what was happening. Orochimaru sank his teeth into Himiko's shoulder then pulled his neck back into its original length and began retreating as the black ops chased him. He promised the people of the Grass that he would return for her again one day...
Namiko pulled her daughter closer to her in a panic; Himiko began screaming in a tortured piercing assaulting scream clutching and ripping her tiny fingernails through the flesh of her shoulder as it burned as people crowded them and blocked their ears. Sakura knew the scream all too well as she'd heard it a number of times. It took her back to when Sasuke had been bitten by Orochimaru in the Forest of Death during team seven's first Chunin exams; Sasuke had also been in excruciating pain afterwards. Namiko picked Himiko up as her shoulder began bleeding from her unrelenting scratching at the intense burning as she hurried back to their home.
By the time they got back to their mostly destroyed home Namiko noticed that her daughter's condition had worsened; Himiko had frightful looking black markings appearing on the left side of her body. But the horror was far from over, Namiko saw that her little girl's left eye was turning into a red demonic colour as she placed her in the broken bathtub. She wept for the tainted innocence of her daughter that the demon snake had marred with its curse placed on her neck. Sakura closed her eyes in sadness at their fate.
xxx
The scene changed and Sakura opened her eyes again to see that the daimyo of the Grass had sent a letter to Namiko Kamakura stating that she'd been summoned for a public discussion and intervention about what had happened. Clearly the talk of the village could no longer be ignored.
Namiko made her way to the Grass Village public square with Sakura following behind her uneasily. As they walked through Himiko's memory she saw how most of the village had been reduced to rubble under the load of the giant snakes from Orochimaru. The Grass Village had never been as developed and prosperous as the Leaf Village so their infrastructure had taken a huge hit.
Piercing, biting, judgemental and narrowed eyes followed Namiko and her cowering daughter at her side covered in another hooded cloak, as they stood on a raised platform with the daimyo of the Grass and Lord Izanagi, elder of the Kamakura clan and Namiko's father. Lord Kamakura-sama shook his head at her in disdain. Namiko looked away unknowing of what to do.
Then the fireworks from the people came; they lambasted her to give the 'demonic' child up; they blamed her for the old noble Kamakura clan's irrevocable disrepute. They pointed and yelled out obscenities at her as their anger of their destroyed village spilled out and begged for her expulsion and excommunication from the church and village. They saw her as a threat to their future security as the 'demon snake in the Grass' vowed to come back for them both. Himiko saw the way in which her mother was being treated; as much as she didn't understand local politics, she did at least understand the hostilities in their tones of voice and began crying. Sakura remembered Himiko's drawing of her blue crayon tears...
The defiant and courageous Namiko stood poised before the crowd and refused to give her child up. Namiko could see it in her father's and all the Kamakuras' eyes; their anger was exacerbated by her being an unmarried woman protecting her love child with a man long gone. They didn't see Himiko as a real Kamakura as she'd been fathered by an outsider which was unheard of for the religious, conservative, puritan clan. The daimyo spoke with Lord Izanagi softly in his ear then addressed the crowd and Namiko.
He agreed to sentence Namiko and her illegitimate daughter into hiding on the outskirts of the Grass, where one of the the oldest Kamakura residences lay, to keep the people of the Grass safe from another attack from the 'demon snake'. The people cheered as the verdict was given out. Namiko looked at her disapproving scowling father one last time as he made another announcement: that the family was disbanding as it was the most honourable thing to do in the face of the scandal and shame. But he would remain the Grass until his death but his three sons Fujuwara, Yamada and Noburu and his daughter Miyako would vacate to other lands while Namiko went into hiding.
Namiko put on a brave face as she packed her and Himiko's belongings amongst the destroyed area and people rebuilding. Sakura only wished she could only help them somehow but it was a memory...
It was afternoon before Namiko and Himiko were about to leave, she stopped by the main gate when a warm hand gently touched her shoulder as she turned around. Her kindhearted brother Fujiwara Kamakura promising to send a builder to the old Kamakura house in Minamoto No Forest they were heading to, to help them reconstruct the house for them to properly hide in before he left for another land; after all he couldn't leave his younger sister to fend for herself.
She thanked him for his neverending generosity and allowed for one final tearful sibling embrace before she turned around and saw men chipping away at a sign painted 'Kamakura Funeral Services' on a surviving nearby old building. With a pained heart she headed out into the day with nothing more than a few backpacks and only child and an invisible Sakura.
xxx
The memory changed again and Sakura saw it before it came; her stomach tightened at seeing it again... the isolated Kamakura house that her Leaf team along with the Taka had taken shelter in. It appeared to be the same except that there was no genjutsu hiding anything and no trapdoors, secret passageways and fireplace...
As promised by her loving brother a few days later a builder came over to their home and was willing to help with the reconstruction, being her brother's friend, he didn't carry the same prejudices of the Grass Village people. He showed them his plans and began building the trapdoors, and replaced the centuries old firepit with a more modern fireplace then added the secret passages leading to every corner and escape route of the house, including the underground room with a ladder and a trapdoor that Sakura knew would one day be hidden by Himiko's genjutsu. He even built a swing for little Himiko and painted it pink. Before leaving for good he left the two with an entire case of paperbombs for safety sake in case they were ever discovered.
Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, months to years as the memory sped up giving images of what happened during those times as Sakura finally saw how everything had come about...
Namiko and Himiko adjusted to their new life in isolation as Himiko read and reread a book her mother had brought with her called: 'Kunoichi on the Battlefield: A history of the female ninja' to try and tame whatever power her daughter had. Himiko practiced her body possession with passing strangers and even the body of a shinobi killed in one of shinobi wars buried nonchalantly a few miles from the back of the house. Sakura was grateful that during their stay they'd never stumbled upon the grave overgrown with tall grass. Watching her daughter inspired Namiko pull out one of her poetry books and wrote the poem 'Changes in the Wind'.
As time went on, they continued their lives in isolation even as it was perpetual fear, as every snapping branch, or unfamiliar sound sent them into a dizzying scare and a need to hide. Every now and again they would practice hiding in the house as well and making a point not to get caught. Namiko told her daughter that it was a game of 'hide and seek' to help her understand.
xxx
The memory began to slow down again... an invisible Sakura sat next to Namiko on the steps of the house as they both watched an innocent Himiko's years of practising the jutsu of the 'Kunoichi on the battlefield' book to the best of her abilities never having a proper teacher to oversee her training. Himiko slapped her hands together trying to master genjutsu but it was proving difficult without any proper master; at least she was having fun trying.
Then...
Himiko dropped the book and bent down to pick it up when she noticed a shadow by the forest. She hastily snatched the book up and gasped aloud frozen as her mother narrowed her eyes at the trees along with Sakura. A cold wind began to blow as Namiko also noticed the shadow of someone and stood up, yelling for her young girl to stay by her side as they held onto each other. Namiko stood where she was unknowing of what the intentions of the person were, friend or foe...until Himiko's shoulder began to burn profusely as the girl screamed her lungs out. Then it suddenly stopped; Namiko's head shot up and saw a hooded man step out of the woods and make his way to them while removing his hood.
Silvery white hair. Black round glasses and an overly smug grin on his sneaky face.
Namiko's eyes grew wide as she realised their location had been betrayed. Only the people of the Grass knew where they were hiding...
She hastily picked Himiko up and ran inside as Kabuto Yakushi strolled to the patio knowing in all his arrogance that he'd accomplish his mission to bring the little girl to his master. Namiko rushed as fast as she could packing all the necessities they would need and ran to the fireplace to try and grab one a hidden firebombs there but was too slow; Kabuto made it to the front door and was sliding the doorknob open. Namiko had no choice but to abandon the weapons and run to the trapdoor in the hallway with a frightened Himiko holding onto her back just as a noise of someone bursting in came. Namiko covered her daughter's mouth to prevent her from screaming, reassuring her that it was a game of hide and seek; just like they'd practised so many times to calm her down. But the opening of a hatch came...Namiko knew that he'd found their hiding place so they traveled even further into the secret passageway to try and get away from him.
Then Himiko used the very little genjutsu that she could use to open the hidden trapdoor so her and her mother could hide in the basement. Sakura wished she could see what Kabuto was doing as it sounded like he was retreating but she was confined to only what Himiko remembered. They waited in silence...
BOOM
A giant blast sounded above them as they both screamed involuntarily. Flames engulfed the entire house when the two ran back up the ladder as debris of the burning house threatened to fall on them. Sakura had a gut feeling that Kabuto had found some of the firebombs in the fireplace and set the house on fire to force them out of hiding. Namiko took a different path to a trapdoor leading to the outside and she and Himiko ran, never taking any breaks but ran far into Minamoto No Forest with Sakura in their wake.
xxx
They both only stopped running once they'd reached the Yoritomo Lake. Namiko breathed as she sat at the bottom of a tree and placed her daughter on her lap to calm and soothe her. She took out a book and wrote the poem 'Snake in the Grass' of her frustrations of the Grass Village people being so selfish in their acts of betrayal.
Namiko stood up along with Himiko and they walked towards the lake. It was merely a few hours away from the border of Fire country; if they were successful they could cross the border and the Leaf ANBU monitoring the border would detect them and would hopefully help them get away from their assailant. Himiko looked at her mother apprehensively as her mother smiled back gently and reassuringly. She turned around to pick up their belongings.
Her face collided with the metal of a Sound Village headband on someone's forehead.
Himiko screamed as Namiko tried to back away and yelled for her daughter to flee. The little girl stood frozen. She tried to possess Kabuto's body but he'd found a way to block her; no doubt a trick shown to him by his master. Kabuto seized her throat as she pleaded not for her own life but for the mercy of her daughter. Kabuto used his medical ninjutsu to block her chakra points and her body went limp. Himiko's scream froze in her throat at the sound of her mother's neck snapping and her limp body being thrown into the lake. Unable to move her limbs to swim up, Namiko sank until her head was submerged and reflected in her daughter's wide eyes eyes who she watched helplessly. Sakura couldn't help but yell out in frustration at the sight of Namiko's gruesome death in front of her daughter...
Himiko fell to her tiny shaken knees as tears glistened on her face, innocence stolen. Kabuto grabbed Himiko by the collar and threatened to do the same thing if she didn't cooperate and come with him. Kabuto retrieved the body and hid it underground.
xxx
Himiko had no choice but to be tugged along back to the Grass Village. Once there Kabuto used the pretext of being a relative from the Sound Village to take Himiko as his own because her mother had drowned in Yoritomo Lake a day earlier. When the daimyo found out, he sent word out to the other Kamakura's about the girls' fate but they rejected her to come and stay with them as they saw her as an 'evil illegitimate non-Kamakura child'. Not even Namiko's kindhearted brother Fujiwara was able to take her in as he was killed by a bandit who tried to rob him as he left the village years ago.
Sakura watched sickened as Kabuto smiled his smug grin in victory like always: he had succeeded. Sakura could see it in Himiko's facial expression; her changing and hardening face as a female journalist working for the 'Kusa Chronicles' newspaper wrote the story of her mothers' drowning and took the photo of Himiko's that Sakura recognised as the one where Himiko had looked so embittered and enraged. Kabuto graciously asked to left out of the picture. Once the formalities were taken care of, Kabuto led the girl out of the village.
xxx
The Sound Village: A place for the damned.
A hell for slaves of the evil snake which inhabited and controlled it.
As Kabuto dragged a terrified Himiko along the long winded tunnels of one of Orochimaru's hideouts, Sakura grew afraid of what Orochimaru might to do her and having to watch her torture.
Himiko was given at least a moment's spare as she was thrown into a prison along with a dozen other deformed and wretched looking people. They frightened her in the way they stared at her as fresh meat come to join death. She cowered by the prison bars as Kabuto locked the gate and she slumped down and covered her face to cry. A little boy with blonde hair also in the same prison came up to her and introduced himself as Yukimaru. Himiko dismissed him in fear and hugged herself.
The clicking of a lock and chains made Himiko jump up in startle along with Sakura fearing that someone had finally come for the little girl. Instead a prisoner was being led back into the same cell as Himiko. He was shoved in aggressively while the guard locked the gate again.
Sakura had expected it to be Kariin but she remembered her saying that she'd never seen the little girl before but...Kariin had never mentioned which one of Orochimaru's hideout she'd worked in anyway.
The man appeared into the dim light of the prison and hovered above Himiko curled up on the floor crying. He sat down next to her and waited for Himiko's curiosity to kick in and look up at him.
Her tear stained eyes looked up at a man smiling gently at her that made Sakura let out an unheard gasp of surprise.
A young man with long spikey dark brown hair and his own curse mark on his upper shoulder smiled a genuine smile at Himiko. Sakura stared at him: Hayashi Fukazawa: the would-be apparent 'pretender'. He didn't look in any way that Sakura remembered. He was definitely banged up of course but his skin was a normal colour and he wasn't evil looking nor did he have the bandage wrapped on his upper neck.
Hayashi pulled something out of his pocket and held it out to Himiko. It was a Barbie doll with long blonde hair and brown eyes. Himiko's eyes jumped back and forth from him to the doll for a long time before she reached her hand out to take the doll.
And smiled at him back.
Hayashi told her that the doll had once belonged to his own daughter who had been a toddler and that she'd reminded him of the daughter he'd once had back home wherever that was. It was touching for Sakura to see them both as she finally understood the bond the two shared in the hellhole and Himiko finally having someone to lookout for her.
Then Kabuto came back again.
He grabbed her arm and dragged her kicking and screaming out of the cell while Hayashi pleaded for Kabuto to take him instead but he didn't ever look back.
Himiko was taken into a dark room where hardly any light was visible. Sakura braced her soul for the worst, having to witness whatever Orochimaru did to people...Kabuto exchanged smiles with his master as Himiko stared at the' demon snake' stood up from his chair and walked up to her. Himiko fell to the ground and looked down as fear overwhelmed her trembling body. Sakura felt close to tears at having to watch her alone and unknowing was would become of her.
Orochimaru let out a chuckle and told her not to be afraid as he picked her up by the arm and took her into his lab and placed her on an operating table between two unconscious people lying beside her on their own tables.
Then Orochimaru did some unknown jutsu with his hands and grabbed Himiko's neck who screamed and screamed her lungs out. Orochimaru didn't flinch as an orange chakra glowed in the dark room. He repeated the jutsu as many times as the orange chakra grew stronger and brighter, he appeared to try and extract it...
Sakura closed her eyes...
After what felt like forever, Orochimaru stopped and called Kabuto out to take her back while he wrote down some of his intriguing findings that excited him. He stated that he would resume his research with her later...
Himiko was near unconscious as she was taken back to her prison. Hayashi then placed her on the floor for her to rest before shooting a scathing look back at Kabuto locking them up again.
Once Kabuto was out of sight, Hayashi walked over to another prisoner who'd been chipping away at the bars of the window for months for a chance to escape and nodded at him. The other prisoner told him that it was ready and walked over to the window of the cell, pulling off four of the bars. It was just enough of a space to squeeze out. Sakura smiled when she saw the escape route as Hayashi took Himiko and placed her over his back to squeeze himself out then began to run.
As Sakura was about to leave with the escapees, she noticed that a few of them had decided to remain behind, namely the tiny boy Kukimaru who she'd see again one day...
The alarm only sounded once they'd already made their glorious escape.
As Hayashi ran, he asked Himiko where she'd come from and she'd responded with the house where she'd been living with her mother so both Hayashi and Himiko headed out back to Minamoto No Forest...
xxx
The scene changed and Sakura saw that they were back at the isolated house burned by Kabuto. Once there Hayashi became somewhat of a father figure for the orphaned Himiko.
Hayashi began cleaning up the place again; he fixed the floorboards and some of the rooms in the corridor of the seven bedrooms that Himiko would later hide with her genjutsu and helped her perfect her genjutsu, taijutsu and ninjutsu, also her special body possesion jutsu once he learned of it. In a few weeks Himiko had become unstoppable in her training, even perfecting the skill used by kunoichi centures ago to increase her speed thanks to the 'Kunoichi on the battlefield' book that had survived the fire.
Later, he helped her make a pact agreement and contract using her blood and a long scroll with a beast that she could summon anytime she wanted. As Himiko's blood touched the scroll and did a summoning for the first time, a giant oni beast appeared roaring with a flaming tail and eyes. She looked pleased at its massive size, perfect for protecting them. Eventually Hayashi helped Himiko retrieve her mother's body from being buried earlier by Kabuto and placed it on a table in the underground room where she hid the trapdoor leading to it with a genjustu.
But their glorious days in training were almost at an end when a chance encounter further destroyed Himiko's already fragmented world further...
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A furious venomous and fed up Orochimaru arrived at the house unexpectedly one day...Himiko was sweeping soot out onto the patio when her curse mark began burning...she knew what it meant immediately and screamed for Hayashi inside.
Hayashi burst out of the front door of the Kamakura house and saw the demon snake. He yelled for Himiko to use her fast speed to get away while he fought back.
Orohcimaru didn't have the patience for this fight as he'd stumbled up on their property by accident; it appeared as he was just as surprised to see them as well. Sakura gasped as she saw the direction where Orochimaru had come from: Tenchi Bridge. She wondered if it was the same time that her, Naruto, Yamato and Sai had also been discovered hiding in the same forest by Orochimaru...it was mindblowing...
Orochimaru regurgitated a giant sword out his mouth and used it to stabbed Hayashi through the gut, spilling out all his insides in a gruesome and furious attack. But it gave Himiko a chance to get away.
Himiko watched from the forest of another parental figure being ripped from her life once again... this time it was by a sword through the gut instead of water...she remained in the trees for several days. As days went by, her heart grew ever hardened by the murder of her mother and Hayashi by the people who'd betrayed her.
Alone, angry and afraid, she devised a plan of revenge for the people of the Grass with her hating heart, using her favourite game she'd played with her mother. It was only fair that the betrayers got a taste of their own medicine in the way that Namiko and Hayashi had died. She then placed a massive genjutsu over the whole forest to manipulate and use whatever resources she wanted. It spanned out like a tangled spidersweb, hiding all nature and giving the forest its eerie ambience.
She decided to use Hayashi's body since people of the Grass would recognise her own real one, and thought of the idea of being a gardener in order to be allowed into the village for work.
xxx
The reaping began on a cool summers' day in the Grass...
Sakura watched horrified as Himiko possessed Hayashi's body and went with him into town to do his job as a gardener but he stopped at a butchery; a slaughterhouse would be perfect irony of a place for her to try out her sadistic plans.
Himiko in Hayashi's body walked up to the butcher and took the thick butchers knife out of his hands; the instructed him to hide away and make sure that he is not found. The butcher, thinking he was a robber, did as he was told and hid away which in turn unknowingly trapped himself in Himiko's genjutsu... she continued to look for him until she found him behind the door of the pantry. Then she possessed the butcher's body leaving Hayashi's body nearby against the wall and walked back into the butchery store while breaking the genjutsu.
The butcher's wife walked out as a few customers waited in line for their orders. Himiko make the butcher walk slowly up to everyone eyeing him and pierced his belly with his sharp knife as they all watched in horror. Then she slid the butcher's knife across his stomach. Blood amongst his insides spilled out, the man's body collapsed as his wife screamed falling to her knees and the customers ran out for their lives. As the woman screamed she saw a man with dark long spikey hair walk out casually...
It happened again and again over and over again in the Grass Village...Everytime Himiko pretended to be someone long enough to have them kill themselves in front of ther loved ones; she carried their bodies back to Minamoto Forest for future usage then hid their bodies in the tangled spiderweb of her choking genjutsu surrounding the area.
Sakura was shocked at how Himiko's reign of terror was relentless for such a little girl; she targeted anyone and everyone she saw. Ordinary people walking down the street she'd walk up to them as Hayashi and tell them to start hiding. Then once they were trapped in her genjutsu and were found she possessed their bodies and threw them down wells, waterways, pools and any body of water to drown just like her mother. Or if they had a knife near them-disembowelment like her father figure.
The recent spikes in what appeared to be suicide followed by a mysterious looking man wearing brown working overalls and dark brown hair prompted the daimyo of the Grass to ask for assistance from the nearby well equipped Leaf Village while Himiko saw the dispatch, she as Hayashi retreated back into the forest.
xxx
Himiko was herself when she heard people in the forest. Firstly she saw teenagers, one with blue-black hair who was being followed by a girl with cherry red hair, a skinny boy with a shark tooth who was complaining and a big guy with orange hair. They were all wearing strange cloaks with weird clouds on them. As if it wasn't enough another group had arrived and were heading for a collision with the other group. She shook her head in overwhelming fury, Sakura could feel in her memory that she was under the impression that the Taka and Leaf teams or 'betrayers' were looking for her to take her to Orochimaru. But she felt like playing a game with them. Her favourite game.
Sakura stared at herself and the rest of the Leaf team arriving to the forest early afternoon and were heading straight for the Taka. Himiko was right above them in the trees. She saw them start to argue when the Leaf team and Taka collided, especially when Naruto was freaking out at suddenly running into Sasuke and Himiko grew annoyed then grabbed a fistful of paperbombs and lit them all at once... throwing them right in the middle of the group of people which sent them all flying and knocked them out in a blast.
Sakura saw Himiko jump down and touch Ino's beautiful hair then took over her body but Himiko immediatley knew that something wasn't right. She was unable to read Ino's thoughts and tap into her mind...like her mind was protected by a hereditary mind jutsu. This angered her as her eyes rolled back into her head and she stabbed a kunai into Neji Hyuuga's head... ]but saw that the pink haired kunoichi was stirring so she possessed her body just as the dark haired Leaf shinobi woke up. She placed a genjutsu on him so he wouldn't feel the giant blade etching him closer to his death in his skull.
It was bizarre for Sakura to see her body being taken over by someone else. It made her feel strangely self-conscious.
Himiko read Sakura's mind, the shinobi was called Neji and he was of the Hyuuga clan of the Leaf. He walked up to her as he greeted her then she walked over to him and gave him a hug which puzzled him; she was unable to resist when she saw the blade in his head. Then she asked him the magic question: whether he wanted to play a game of 'hide and seek' but he refused as she took his hand and they walked around. Himiko could feel the blonde girl stirring again, so she ran away and hid herself in the genjutsu telling the Leaf shinobi that she needed the 'loo'.
None of the Leaf shinobi knew that they were only a few metres away from each other but were being hidden by the genjutsu of the forest and so were many dead bodies. She abandoned the body of the pink haired kunoichi at the base of a snow laden tree and decided to scare the 'Sakura' girl by screaming and whispering in her genjutsu 'hide and seek' hide and seek'...after her amusement at her fear and bloodied nose, she went over to posses the blonde kunoichi.
Himiko as Ino watched amused as the pink haired shinobi searched around relentlessly for her friends only a few metres from her until she saw a house; Sakura's mind was numb at seeing the truth of what had happened to them all.
Himiko as Ino though it was a good time to call out and so the pink haired Kunoichi came and found her but once again the thoughts of the blonde kunoichi were unavailable. She was unable to read the blonde shinobi's mind. She remembered that the pink haired girl's name was 'Sakura' having possessed her body previously. After a few attempts she was also able to learn that her name was Ino and she was afraid that someone called 'Sasuke' would reach someone called 'Naruto'.
The pink haired shinobi enquired about her bloodied hand which had been used to stab Neji Hyuuga but Himiko as Ino couldn't make anything up or further read the blonde's mind so she attacked the girl called Sakura. Just as the strong Sakura girl she was about to deliver the final blow she transferred her chakra to a dead body underground to protect it.
Once the majority of the Leaf shinobi had found each other along with the Taka, Himiko decided to summon her giant oni beast as small as she could get it, she pulled off her summoning jutsu near a shinobi who'd been injured by her shuriken shower when she was the girl Ino. He had spikey brown hair that reminded her of Hayashi...
She watched in amazement as the giant oni grew and the Leaf shinobi with the spikey brown hair scramble away with everyone else heading towards the genjutsu house, just like she'd wanted... Sakura stood in Himiko's memory watching the truth unfold.
As she walked through the forest, trying to get away from the impending storm, she ran into the last boy with yellow hair as he woke up. She asked him whether he wanted to play a game of hide and seek but once again she was rejected so she did her body possesion jutsu.
Himiko found herself in a damp corridor...she was shaking as she noticed that even though she was hiding, she had somehow been felt by something terrifying. She had seen it as she moved past a giant cage and screamed a piercing scream in fright.
The boy had some scary creature inside him but as long as she remained hidden, nothing would happen. Then she placed the body atop the stairs and thought of a story to tell. She decided to tell the people inside that she had been blown forward by a gust of wind and had been knocked out for hours. The 'Naruto' and 'jinchuriki' boy was whiny and loud-mouthed as described by the girl Sakura when she'd read her thoughts, but he was cared about by all.
Himiko Kamakura as Naruto Uzumaki banged on the front door of the isolated house in Minamoto No Forest whining to be let in: It was playtime...
5:00 pm
"Sakura...Sakura! Can you hear me?..."
A distant voice called out as the world spun in a dizzying blur when Sakura felt herself being pulled back into her own mind...she stirred and opened her eyes to feel her hand burning as it was still touching Himiko's head and fiery chakra.
She was still tied up onto a beam of the destroyed flaming house along with Naruto and Sasuke a short distance away.
She let go of the young girl's head as they both came back into consciousness.
The dark haired girl breathed hard and narrowed her eyes which made blood seep from her nostrils as she flared them in a ferocious anger. She stood up shaking and picked Suigetsu's blade up...Sakura stared into her dark merciless wide eyes as she was about to swing the blade...
"Wait, please Himiko, listen to me," Sakura pleaded but the young girl's livid face was unrelenting in all her fury. She clutched the hilt tightly and...
"He'd dead! Orochimaru's dead!" she yelled as the sharp blade stopped just before her temple. She held her breath along with Naruto who froze with her.
"Dead?"
"Yes...you don't have to be afraid of him anymore or anyone wanting to hurt you. See that boy over there with the dark blue hair?" she breathed gesturing to Sasuke with her head, "He killed Orochimaru. Orochimaru is dead"
Himiko turned around slightly to look at Sasuke's daring glare...
"Please you don't have to live in anger and fear anymore. I want to help you. Let us take you back to the Leaf..."
"Sakura! Have you lost your mind? Think about what you're saying, we can't take her back to the Leaf" yelled Naruto outraged from where he was.
"Yes we can. She deserves it. Himiko, everything you and your mother went through was because of the people of the Grass Village. Come back with us to Konoha, we'll take care of you, get you proper training and give you a home and friends that will give you a proper motivation to fight for."
She surveyed Sakura through doubtful eyes. Naruto looked at Sakura open mouthed, but he didn't understand; seeing Namiko and Himiko's plight in memories made Sakura feel that she owed it to Namiko to protect her daughter...
"Himiko I promise, we won't hurt you. I just want to help you, let your mother's legacy live on" whispered Sakura.
Himiko froze for what felt like forever staring silently at Sakura's eyes, trying to spot a bluff, but she appeared to be sincere. The little girl took a long breath and closed her eyes.
The fire encircling the house vanished.
The forest hummed a quiet silence full of birds and wildlife.
Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke were released from their tightly bound rope.
The sunset of the first day was visible through the forest as birds began to chirp and dead bodies along with everything that had been hidden by a genjutsu appeared.
In the forest...Neji Hyuuga opened his eyes and got up steadily. Underneath the house Shikamaru and Tenten rubbed their stiff neck and woke up, Shikamaru wiped his bleeding nose. Kariin, Suigetsu, Jugo and Ino stood up from the snow covered ground outside the house where they'd been hidden. Sakura smiled gratefully and nodded in approval at Himiko when everyone made their way slowly and disorientatedly, back towards the house. She extended a hand to Himiko who gently smiled back at her...but her smile froze and Sakura noticed imediately.
The little girl's smile vanished as quickly as it had come.
Himiko's eyes grew wide as a charging light illuminated around and behind her.
Sakura saw her frozen face and looked down at her abdomen as a sharp blade pierced through Himiko's belly along with a bright blue electric charge of the chidori as blood splattered onto Sakura's frozen face.
A drip of blood fell from Himiko's mouth and nose as her body fell forward into Sakura's arms.
"I can't allow the Leaf Village to have such a powerful weapon in its arsenal. I'm still chasing my revenge!" spat Sasuke.
Sakura stared blankly into his vicious black eyes as she held onto Himiko's body and he retracted his sword.
"Let's move!" he yelled to the Taka. The four of them sped away along with their team leader.
"Naruto! He's getting away!" Sakura screamed with all her might unable to move out of shock.
Naruto looked towards the trees and saw his best friend fleeing once again.
"Sasuke! Get back here!" he screamed giving chase. His fingernails began to grow again as he jumped into the dense forest and from branch to branch. Kariin had a difficult time keeping up. Naruto was able to grab a hold of her Akatsuki cloak.
She let out a yelp as Naruto yanked the hem of her black cloak, pulling them both falling down to crash onto the soft thawing snow on the forest floor.
Jugo jumped down into a thunderous crash to grab her and continue running while he swung his arm at Naruto getting up who flew a few metres away at theimpact of the punch. Naruto tried as fast as he could to bounce back but all he could do was watched the hem of the black cloaks vanishing from sight...
"SASUKE!" he screamed after him in an echo. Naruto punched the nearby tree in frustration and walked back dejectedly back to the rest of the ninja...
"I...I failed" Sakura whispered allowing her head to sink as she placed Himiko's body on the floor.
"No we did what we had to do. Our mission was to assassinate the rogue ninja and here we are." came Shikamaru still reeling from his ordeal.
"That's not what I mean Shikamaru; Namiko...I wanted to protect her child, there was no rogue ninja, just a confused child looking for justice and revenge," she said to which Naruto arriving touched her shoulder, "Sounds familiar".
"C'mon, we have to report this to the daimyo of the Grass so they can send people to remove these bodies back to the Grass Village for proper burial and we can head back home." said Neji balancing his shaky body against Tenten supporting him.
Ino looked up at Shikamaru wanting more than anything to give him a hugof relief but whatever had happened between them had to be over.
Sakura walked back into the underground basement of the house to place Himiko's body next to her mother's one and walked back out to the rest of the Leaf shinobi finally grateful that they were leaving...
Sakura looked over her shoulder at the house once again with one final sinking feeling...
"At least the people of the Grass can rest easy knowing the suicide 'hide and seek' serial killer of water and disembowelment is over" came Tenten.
xxx
Several months later...
The long Grasses of the spring returned to the isolated house when a team of morticians arrived at the house to retrieve the final few bodies of people killed by Himiko: 'the pretender' as the village had been so shocked to find out.
One man who discovered a few of the remaining bodies near the house prepared to lift a body into a body bag...
When he fell to the floor squirming and trembling with his body contorting in a freakish manner and his eyes rolling back into his head...
Luckily for her they had forgotten that she couldn't be killed for as long as she had a body, dead or alive to possess...she knew better than to trust anyone...
"Hey, Takanori are you okay there?" called someone approaching the fallen man.
"Oh yeah I'm fine but I'm getting kinda tired of doing all this work you know," the man called Takanori whined as his colleagues helped him up.
"You're tired of working here, then what do you want to do?" asked the man put off by the laziness as he walked away.
"Oh I don't know...maybe play a game of... 'hide and seek..." he said.
A menacing smile broke across Takanori 'the pretenders' face as the once eerie forest once again became far too quiet to be considered normal and natural...
-The end!-
-Thank you everyone, until next time. Holla bekke! If you still have some unanswered questions don't hesitate to ask-
Disclaimer: 'Naruto' by Masashi Kishimoto-sensei.