Chapter 07 | The Bandits of Kurata II
Mio saw Madara and Izuna off at the high walls of the northern castle as promised. There were ways to circumvent the issue because she was still considered a spy-in-training as much as she was a kunoichi-in-training by Uchiha standards and though she completed hundreds of jobs over the last four years, she made her accomplishments under the strict surveillance of full-fledged shinobi. She could have entered if Madara or Izuna requested it, but as they hadn't, she went off to ensure the pathways were safe for the daimyō's daughter and her attendants. They needed to drop their speed to accommodate them, resulting in the inevitable pass through one of the wintry villages of Kurata's trifecta and it had to be done without stepping anywhere near Kuronuma territory.
Snow swirled at her feet. A gale cut through the mountain ranges of Kurata, echoing back at her like a beast in the wild, where the stories paved the Kuronuma clan as fanatical cannibals. Tales as ancient as time itself, before the Sage of the Six Paths came and went, presented them as mystical, non-existing creatures in a world of humanity and war. But the truth spoke volumes of the skill of their shinobi and the dangers of their black water techniques, of their lives of quiet icy settings and a world of peace unless provoked. In the shinobi world, they were either ridiculed by the stronger clans who called them the "Rabbits of Kurata" or proven into non-existence by a staggering amount of facts.
Mio neither ignored nor mocked their presence in the snowy hills behind her as she found the precarious venture into the mountains through a snaking ice road, brittle to the slightest of weights, surrounded by treacherous cliffs. She took in the beauty and ugliness of the land, determining that Kurata was a dangerous world, in and of itself, by mere instinct.
Upon entering, the cold wind eased into her pours, freezing her bloodstream, and she felt her confidence in her safety diminish like wisps of white dust. She took on the perfidious road with a quickening sense of urgency, simply casting a glance over the edge sent her heart into an uncontrollable rhythm. It took every ounce of training Sachiyo pounded in her not to admit she feared the cliffs and the strangely soothing smell of everlasting winter.
She used whatever remained of her courage to inspect the treacherous roads but felt her resolve weaken with every step she took. The frozen path shook under her slight weight, cracked along the outline of her boots. The panic swelled in her stomach, twisting her innards and dispelled the remaining air from her lungs.
Mio lifted her eyes to the winding path to the bottom of the mountain, to the thick forest on her right crawling with the savage animals a guardsmen at the gate warned her about and the barren wasteland to her left that looked as though the dead trees were killed by a powerful fire before a storm withered them. She returned her gaze to the objective. She needed to finish quickly and relay her information to Madara, so she pushed aside the overpowering urge to turn her back and run.
She pushed forward, taking a quick approach. She jumped on the sturdier areas and continued onward smoothly until her judgment betrayed her. She landed swiftly at the edge of the path when the ice gave up under her. The weight of her body sunk her straight through the brittle road, but with flailing arms and desperation, she caught hold of the edge.
She yelped, louder than she realized. Her voice shouted back at her, forcing her heart and stomach into a flutter. Hung by the strength of a trembling arm, Mio avoided looking down to the deep darkness. Her heart skipped a single beat with the initial surprised, but she hadn't fallen. The sigh of relief that escaped her lips sounded a lot like a petrified shudder.
The ice felt fragile in her grasp and the cold seeped in through her fingertips, numbing her sense of feeling instantly. It burned like prickling needles stabbing a single place all at once, only multiplied to cover the rest of her palm.
She attempted to reach with her other hand, but the hard motion cracked the ice. She felt it splitting between her fingers as if there was a running current snaking between it. She feared the idea of falling from a cliff to her death. She took another shuddering breath and tried to swing her body slightly to reach the icy pathway once more.
The slightest shake provoked the whole chunk to split apart. Mio opened her mouth, watching as everything slowed down around her. The clouds idled overhead, the sounds deepened, and shards of ice split in her vision, falling across her cheeks, tangling in her hair like a shower of rain. She felt her weight becoming the object of her demise as the world gradually sped up and the wind pushed against her in ice-cold vengeance.
A shadow shot out to her, gripping her arm and hoisting her small form to a body radiating warmth that carried her into the safety of the barren plains faster than the scream erupting from her throat. It died there, but her trepidation remained.
She stared wide-eyed as a large chunk of the road split and tumbled across the dangerous cliffs, breaking apart until they melted in the dark waters beneath. She couldn't have done anything different in her situation. She would have plunged into the bottom and never see sunlight again.
The second Mio felt the sturdy ground under her feet she realized her entire body was shaking. Fear overpowered her, melting away her guard as the chunks of ice had in the water. The unwanted experience brought her back to the first time she traveled to Kurata. She went on an assignment that doubled as mental training where she faced too many fears while memorizing the terrain and names of neighboring shinobi clans. Many thoughts rushed through her head, painting pictures of all the horrible fates she could have experienced while crossing the roads. The steeper the slope, the heavier her breathing became, the thinner the ice, the harder her heart thumped.
Mio followed the familiar route that led them to the castle back to the foot of the mountain where she saw Kurata for what it was, brittle landscapes and abysmal pitfalls that made her hope that if she were to die then, it should be quick.
Something heavy and warm fell on her head as she glimpsed strings of white leaving her periphery. Mio tugged a heavy white coat from her head. It was lined with soft, white fur that carried the heat of an animal and in a hidden pocket inside she found the crest of a shinobi clan sown in fine black thread depicting a curving tendril of smoke twisting through the white fabric with a pair of dots near the swirling head.
She looked up at the sound of crunching feet to the broad back of a white giant. A mane of snow-white hair fell across his back, the straight strands twisting into tangles with every harsh whisper of the wind and his eyes were cut like amethysts. The man was built like an ox with sinewy pale flesh, a squared jaw and straight, pointed nose. He wore clothes that camouflaged with the snowy settings, simple trousers held together by a wide belt that carried the sheath of a misshapen dagger and a loose, sleeveless shirt that billowed in the restless wind.
"You came unprepared again," he said, a voice as deep as a wolf's growl. "I took you to be a cautious girl."
Mio still held the coat in her hands, feeling the sting of insult. He watched her enter Kurata during her first visit, only then would he have knowledge of her mistakes. After leaving the winter lands, she had assumed rumors of an eternal winter had been senseless gossip to build up and knock down the villages of Kurata.
She clutched the cloth tightly. "Thank you."
"It is not time to thank me," he said lowly.
He cut the distance between them, reaching for the dagger on his back.
'You blink, you die.'
Mio remembered the teachings of her father, but the fright possessed her. She was not strong enough to cast aside her childhood fears, just as she was not strong enough to face an opponent of this man's caliber. But she tried, throwing the coat between them as she jumped backward.
She only had two options, win or die.
The white giant ducked under his jacket and pushed forward, speeding up.
Mio launched two sets of five shuriken that sliced through the wind, the steel whistling as they spun closer and closer to his face. She could hear her heart beating in her ears as the rest of her body went numb with sudden frost.
He deflected them with a single swipe of his dagger. His eyes were slits of poison that proved taking her life was as easy as knocking ten shuriken out of their trajectory. He wanted to instill the fear in her and he accomplished it.
She lost her footing, slipped over the ice and fell hard on her back. She didn't struggle once he was on her, tightening a black, leathery rope around her wrists. She was his prisoner the moment he rescued her from that fall. She only noticed once he made it clear to her because she chose to ignore her fears than facing them. If she pretended she was someone else, she could get through the day without a hitch, but weakness and failure clung to her like a brand seared into her back.
The man pulled her off the ground and brushed the snow from her shoulders to find the Uchiha crest on the sleeve of her thin coat. "Ahh," he said in amazement. "A young Uchiha. How old might you be?"
"Is this relevant to my survival?" she asked firmly, wishing she could cover the Uchiha's fan.
He blinked, utterly confused. "Well no, not exactly."
"Then it's none of your business," she blurted.
He shrugged his shoulders, giving the leather rope a harsh tug. "I suppose it isn't."
Mio stumbled forward, forced to keep up with his long strides. She fell behind a number of times after he picked up his fallen jacket and started toward the stretch of white fields and steep hills in the opposite direction of the castle where the road would meet with the pine forest across them. She soothed her worries by mapping out the vast snowfield in her mind because if she managed to escape, she only had an instant to cut across valleys, naked fields and brittle ice roads without making another mistake.
But she knew escape was impossible. She had seen the crest he wore proudly once before and she swore never to forget it were she to travel through the mountains of Kurata. It belonged to the ancient clan of winter, the Kuronuma clan.
A long silence unfurled between them as they traveled far into the wasteland and further in where a marvelous waterfall once stood flanked by two mountain edges connected by a bridge. It was rickety old thing that swayed and creaked in agony with every step they took to cross it.
Mio glimpsed at the forty feet drop below, shrouded as one would expect of an abyss, and felt her heart leap into her throat. She couldn't pretend to be the Mio that wasn't afraid of that elevation and she was starting to feel her palms sweat.
"So are the rumors true?" she asked suddenly, asking the panic to die through conversation. She faced forward to the stretch of pines amassed in the distance.
"What rumors?"
"That the black water burns the flesh off bones."
"That's an interesting rumor," he said, astonished. "Too farfetched, don't you agree?"
"My opinion is irrelevant."
There were many steps left before they reached the other side.
"Is that your understanding or your owner's?" he questioned with a coy glance off his shoulder.
Their eyes met for an instant. Her insides grew colder. She hated his insinuation, she owed her life to Sachiyo and accepted that it belonged to her but she could form her own opinions.
"That is also irrelevant."
He paused, the bridge swaying as another gale flushed against it, and turned to her. She wanted to die as the echo of splintering wood reached her ears.
"Well, let's make a deal," he said lightly, moving closer. His towering form shadowed her entire body.
"I don't make deals with my captors," she said, observing his softening expression.
"I wouldn't go as far as calling myself your captor," he defended.
Mio looked to the rope cutting into her wrists and back at him, a blank canvas.
"Don't look at me like that."
"…"
"Anyway, we can make a deal." He reached to touch her face, pressing his thumb to the corner of her left eye. "I reveal the secret of the black water and you show me that dōjutsu of yours."
"No," she deadpanned.
He feigned concern. "No?"
"No."
"This is a good proposition."
"No," she repeated with finality.
"You're pretty boring, you know." He heaved a disappointed sigh.
She stared at him, blank faced.
"Stop looking at me like that!" he cried dramatically.
Her expression failed to change by the time he prepared his next question.
"Can you even use the Sharingan?"
"Irrelevant," she said inconsequently.
"Is that the only word you know?"
He was toying with her. "That question is also irrelevant."
"I guess it is," he intoned.
Mio felt the chill burn in her cheeks as he shifted his weight. The wood between them felt as brittle as the road that crumbled under her feet, yet it stood strong with the weight of this man that stood well over six feet.
"You're quite the spy," he said in a tone denoting humor.
"You talk too much."
She regretted starting the conversation in the first place. Her fear had already dissipated. She could be the Mio that wasn't afraid of anything now. She had the strength to face whatever the Kuronuma put her through during captivity.
"I get that a lot," he admitted.
"Though of shutting up?" she suggested.
He laughed, a laugh that boomed in the empty valleys, and reached to pat the top of her head with his giant hand. "I like you."
"I don't like you."
He laughed harder, shaking his head. "Let's cross now."
She meant what she said. He gave her a gentle tug, unlike the previous ones, and together with the sound of his laughing they crossed the remainder of the wooden bridge.
Once on the other side, he reached for her hands, digging his fingers under her binds and ripped them with ease. She stared at him gaping. She tried hard to cut through them seeing as they were only ropes, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't. He did it in an instant.
"I am called Enya," he said courteously. "I am a Kuronuma, ranked Elder by our shinobi laws, and will be twenty next month. I have introduced myself; I hope you honor me by doing the same."
"Mio of the Uchiha clan from the Fire Country in the south," she said amicably. "I am a spy-in-training and will be fifteen in four months."
"Should we wait?" he suggested, waving his arm over a mound of snow.
"For what?"
"The one you call Madara."
Madara…? She wanted to snort, but reserved the urge for when Enya was proven wrong.
"Be prepared to be disappointed, he will not come for me," she said, confident.
"You sell yourself short, Mio of the Uchiha clan," he said, seating himself on the mound of snow. "You are far more valuable than you are led to believe."
She found him peculiar, suspiciously so. She didn't believe his words. Madara would complete the mission even if it meant abandoning a comrade in the process because they were sacrificial pieces. He would leave Izuna behind if he decided to search the winter lands for traces of her. That was the type of person he was, with a heart meant for the cold of Kurata.
"I am a trainee," she continued. "There are a dozen others that can take my place."
"Your place isn't vacant," he said ominously, glimpsing at her with a happy glint in his eye. He faced the swaying bridge. "He will come."
"If he doesn't want his grandmother to kill him," she grumbled. "Are you sure it isn't Izuna?"
A humored smile curved his lips. "No. It is the eldest."
"If I show you my dōjutsu will you answer a question?" she proposed, bothered by his certainty.
"No."
"No?"
He shook his head. "No," he repeated. "I won't answer that question."
Mio frowned as a loud eruption shook the entire valley and flames licked across ice ridges. She sprinted toward the bridge. The fire died out, but the clash of weapons and shouts of wounded quickly echoed to her. Bursts of snow shot up into the sky, spinning under the control of a shinobi that weaved a thickening black thread of what resembled water. She attempted to rush forward to shout a warning, but Enya grabbed her by the collar.
She inclined her head to face him, ready to shout.
"We will meet again."
She felt no pain when darkness took her, but his words troubled her. She hated the knowing tone of them and dreamt wondering if any of them were true. She chastised herself as feeling abandoned her body because Madara would never come.
xl note: Because I am a disgusting pervert I totally read that last line wrong. Izuna POV next chapter.