Rogues
Minato's world was hot. Full of fire. It rushed before him, trees and burning bark and dead leaves. He couldn't find his footing.
He stumbled into smoke, heavier now, falling. He wondered if he was going to die. He landed face first in mulch.
Nothing happened. He stayed on the ground and waited for a few precious seconds. The Fox was silent. Eaten alive by its own host. Minato could no longer feel it squirm beneath his skin. He choked on smoke and flipped over on his back.
It seemed to be over. He nearly cried with relief, gasping. He'd done it. The fox was gone. For now. He closed his eyes, and almost slipped into a bone-weary sleep, fire forgotten.
His eyes snapped open.
Mikoto!
How much time had passed?
With a grunt Minato flipped over onto his stomach, crawling through the leaves. His word still spun. He felt weak. Everything seemed surreal. Sounds muted and muffled. Colors too bright. Shadows too quick to move. Like he was lost in a dream. Minato gasped.
"Mikoto," he coughed out. "Mikoto..." He wobbled to his feet and ran forward. He reached the spindly tree he'd left her by in a few strides, refusing to believe his own eyes.
There was no one asleep by the tree.
Mikoto was gone.
Minato stared at the ground dumbly, swaying. He had set her there. Right there. His head whipped to the right, to the left.
Had Kosuke woken? Had the toad found them? Would he have left Minato alone so suddenly?
Right here. Right here. He'd left her right here-
"MIKOTOOOOO!" Minato screamed, stumbling and that was a burning branch fell from the canopy above. He heard the hiss and break of it before he saw it. His bared Sharingan slowed its speed, and Minato leaped out of the way.
"GIVE HER BACK!" he howled at the trees, and he threw a shuriken star as if it might hit some unseen enemy. It disappeared in the canopy, and the trees only burned, groaning and cracking under the heat of the fire.
Minato's chest heaved. "GIVE HER BACK!" His eyes spun wildly, searching.
He caught sight of a figure darting away, leaping higher and higher into the canopy in an attempt to disappear. Minato charged chakra to his feet, clambering up the nearest cedar tree.
The chase began.
But Minato wasn't alone. The fire sped behind him, hungry, quick. Faster, faster, and faster still. He never outran the heat.
And the figure ahead never outran Minato.
His father had always said he was quick on his feet. Father had lost him once, in the wood. One moment four year old Minato had been trailing behind, and the next, Minato had been gone, running after a monkey.
He could hear the monkeys' chattering screams in the canopy as he ran, rising in a crescendo with the crackle of the fire and the distant roar of battle somewhere he couldn't see.
Suddenly the figure ahead vanished, and Minato paused, stock still on his branch. Seconds passed. A minute. The monkeys' screams began to taper away as they moved across the forest, and then he heard it. The landing twang of someone dropping to a branch. Just behind him. Minato tensed, eyes wide. She wasn't quiet, and Minato heard her coming long before he saw her.
She swooped down from behind, propelling herself forward from an higher branch. Minato dropped to a lower branch, missing the kick of her studded boots by seconds, and grimaced as he locked eyes with the enemy.
It was not the kunoichi Minato feared. He groaned in frustration.
She was just a civilian, maybe even a rogue. He sneered up at her.
She stared back at him with iron-black eyes, her face carefully blank. She seemed too out of place in such a fiery red forest teeming with nin, with her clean, plaited black hair, clad in only a tank top, mesh long sleeve, and cropped pants, like she'd been waiting in the trees. Her skin wasn't streaked with soot and ash. She was paler, like bone, lighter than anyone Minato had seen in summer on this mountain. There was a scroll tucked into her heavy belt. Minato eyed it warily.
Mikoto was nowhere to be seen.
"Give her back," he croaked, steadying himself.
The girl stood tall, her fists clenched at her sides. "The kid was alone, knocked out. You weren't there. A retrieval team nearly had her. This place is teeming with enemy nin. Do I look stupid to you?"
Minato grimaced, drew a finger over his right cheek, tracing telltale whisker marks. "A little," he grunted, not amused.
Her face was bloodless in her anger. "We just had an imposter talk us into handing over a kid. I won't make the same mistake again. Prove who you are, and I'll give her back." She stepped closer to the trunk of the tree she waited on. Minato noticed her fear.
She waited. Minato said nothing as he concentrated on keeping his feet rooted to the branch below him. The girl must have decided she'd waited long enough, or that Minato was too stupid to think of something good. She dropped, aiming another kick. He was faster. He caught her leg, throwing her as she yelped. She caught her fall by grasping onto a lower branch. She hung there for a moment, her face twisted, arms shaking.
"Where is she?" Minato asked.
The girl said nothing, only kicked off the tree trunk to launch herself upright. She threw a punch. He blocked with his forearm, surprised at the strength that greeted him, and he cradled his arm with a grimace and a curse. For one wild moment, he'd thought it was broken. He flexed it experimentally, glowering. Never underestimate an opponent, Minato, he remembered Father saying. He wouldn't forget again.
The fire crept closer.
Minato and the girl danced through the trees, away from its heat, little by little. She used only taijutsu, and the scroll on her belt was left forgotten, much to Minato's relief.
She had a strength in her punches he wasn't used to fighting against, and he found out too quickly he had to rely on speed and agility. She could easily break a few bones, maybe even rupture an organ, if he wandered too close. She kept trying to lure him closer, trapping him, a sheer blunt force.
"She's my sister," he tried again. The girl only hollered as she charged. Minato sidestepped, grabbing her by the braid as she shot past. He flung her. She tripped him as she flew backward.
They dropped to the ground in a snarling tangle. He straddled her, narrowly avoiding the headbutt she sent his way. Her knee caught his ribs as he jerked away from her, just enough, and he wheezed, distracted. Her skull cracked viciously against his own then, sending him falling over with a heavy thud. He lay there gasping, trying to punch the blurring world back into his brain before the dizzying pain of a broken rib stalled him any further. She was standing over him then, and Minato rolled away at the last possible second, barely missing the charged fist that maybe would have caved his skull in. He wasn't sure, but the fist-sized hole her punch left in the ground was pretty telling.
"Shit," he gasped, scrambling upright.
He kicked her in the mouth as she plucked herself free, and she stumbled, her head snapping back. He summoned a clone at the same moment she reached for her scroll. A beast erupted from the yellow parchment, and maybe he'd missed her seals, had he missed them? He hadn't thought so. His mind whirred in a panic.
How had she done it?
It was black, the beast that burst into existence. Large like the stone Shishi Minato had seen at a temple once. The fierce, growling lion-dogs that guarded shrines.
Minato's eyes widened. He summoned clones to his side.
It roared like a lion and clashed with Minato's two clones, rearing up on its hind legs to rip into the throat of the first and bucking wildly as the other clambered onto its back, fists balled in its inky mane with a hollered, "hell yeah!"
The fire crept closer still, and Minato looked challengingly at the girl. Her mouth was bleeding. Her chin was red. She stood firm. The clone on the beast's back reared back with a raised kunai, plunging it deep between the eyes of its enraged mount. With a sudden squeal, the beast disappeared, popping like a bubble of ink. Minato's clone fell hard, kunai in hand.
"We don't have to fight," Minato panted. If she heard him, the girl didn't seem to care. Her eyes flicked to the ground. Minato followed her gaze.
The ink ran in little rivers, past his feet, pooling behind him.
And then Minato felt the growl of the beast behind him. He spun on his heel to look upon it, and as its jaws gaped open wide, Minato jumped back, forming the seal for his father's fire jutsu, shielding his face after the ball of fire struck the lion-dog. It howled, lost in the inferno. For a moment Minato was relieved, and he relaxed, backing up, slumped, against a tree.
Until the damn thing burst through the dying flames.
The beast caught him in its fangs, and Minato howled as it threw him. He landed hard against a conifer and gasped again. The pain from the fox was still fresh, still bone-deep, and he curled in on himself, closing his eyes like it might all disappear if he willed it. His clone skidded to a halt beside him. Minato could feel the rakes of the beast's teeth still burning on his chest.
The clone was on his feet before Minato was.
"Wake up, shit for brains! What are you gonna do now? Hey! Hey!" The clone waved a hand in front of his creator's dazed face.
"Wake. The fuck. Up."
Minato groaned.
The girl watched with a sneer, her lion-dog pacing restlessly, waiting for a command.
The girl spat blood on the ground. She pointed. She didn't perform a seal.
The beast leaped.
The clone waved Minato off with a snarled, "forget you then!" and charged with a scream. It popped when the beast caught his head in its jaws. And for a moment, it played with the smoke in its jaws, shaking its massive head. The beast didn't bother running, or leaping. It only stared. Minato summoned another clone at his side, not bothering to get up.
Minato slid his gaze up to the clone, who looked down at him grimly.
"You gonna stay down there?" the clone sneered. He offered a hand. Minato took it. The girl waited.
Each breath burned.
"I'm gonna try it again," Minato whispered, and the clone's mouth went slack as realization dawned upon his face.
"I can't get close enough." Minato summoned another clone. The first shook his head, barking out a surprised laugh, but there was no humor in it.
The second shrugged and said, "I guess we're running out of time. Get rid of it any way you can. Simply tearing through it, stabbing it, none of that's worked so far. Best bet is to get that damn scroll. She doesn't seem to be performing any jutsu to control it. It's like...it's like it comes to life just by touch."
"You wanna die today, don't you?" the first clone shot to his brother in a hissed whisper, "But we've been here long enough, and I guess if you're done playing around..." he trailed off, looking to his creator. "You need to give us enough time. Don't be rash. Patience is key here." Minato nodded distractedly, rising to his feet, and the clones took advantage of the thickening smoke to hide away from view.
"If you don't tell me," started the girl, eying the fire nervously now, and she nearly disappeared behind a veil of smoke "who you are, I'm not letting you get any further." Her voice quaked just slightly; tired, afraid, but that didn't hinder the threat behind it.
Minato nearly swallowed his tongue trying to speak, because at that moment somewhere behind him, something exploded, and heat scorched his back. He tumbled forward. The girl yelled and fell back. The fire came closer, closer. The girl lost her nerve then. She'd had enough.
She threw a kunai.
Minato jerked away from the metal hiss.
He heard the shishi roar, and Minato performed the seals.
"NOW!" he yelled, and the smoke cleared with the gathering wind, dangerous, charged, and uncontained, just as he knew it would be. The clone holding the energy was yelling, arm slowly disintegrating from the power of it.
"Hold it!" Minato screamed, and the clone grunted, eyes bulging. Soon it would disappear from the damage gathering the energy would inflict. Father would have called him foolish. Dad would have said something like you wanna kill yourself today? You can't even control it!
But, Minato supposed, that was the point.
"HOLD IT!"
But then shishi leaped, and the girl pulled another beast out of her scroll with a simple touch. She must have been saving it.
The clone gathering the energy in the palm of his brother began to disintegrate. His eyes bugged when he chanced a glance at Minato.
"DON'T!" the clone screamed.
Minato reacted on impulse, and his fingers relied on muscle memory more than thought.
Minato spat a fireball, at the exact moment the clones burst from existence, unable to hold any longer, and a gust of violent chakra-surged wind cut through the forest, colliding with the fire technique.
Maybe Minato hadn't thought it through clearly. Maybe he should have leapt out of the way. Maybe he shouldn't have counted on the fireball stalling the two beasts before his clones released the wind technique. He'd hoped to send the girl flying back. He'd hoped the force of the wind energy would rip the scroll from her hands.
The result was the largest burst of flame Minato had ever seen. It spilled forward like the head of an explosion, quick, bright, and gone in an instant. He could see, in that split second, the way the girl's eyes widened fearfully, how she tried to use all her momentum and speed to dart out of the way.
It burned.
Oh, it burned.
Dazedly, he realized his own jutsu had harmed him, burned his face. He cried out when he rolled onto his stomach, the mulch of the forest floor like iron pikes against his seared cheeks. He tasted mud in his mouth. For a moment he couldn't breathe. The smoke was thicker. And in the distance, he could hear agonized, shrieking screams. Fast, one after the other.
The girl was rolling on the forest floor, her right arm seemed stripped of the mesh sleeve and boiling red.
She didn't stop screaming.
Her scroll was gone. And so was the beast.
"SATSUKI!" a voice yelled, and Minato rolled onto his side, groaning and choking on leaves and dirt and smoke.
"Satsuki!" A figure dropped from the trees. Long, lean. Hair piled into a ponytail. The nin eyed their screaming comrade silently for a moment, before their head slowly turned. Their eyes didn't narrow when their gaze fell on Minato. It was unnerving.
"I want," gasped Minato, trying to crawl forward and stand, "I want my sister-" his body seized, and he realized he couldn't move. Minato's limbs locked, frozen in place. His eyes bulged. A jutsu? What else could be binding him to the forest floor? He squirmed, in a panic.
"My sister!" he yelled, fingers digging into the earth beneath him. "SHE'S FIVE, BLACK HAIR, DARK EYES, MARKS ON HER CHEEKS. ANSWERS TO MIKOTO, PLEASE!"
Minato coughed on smoke.
They were all going to burn alive. If they didn't suffocate on the smoke first.
"Yeah?" replied the other, who seemed undeterred by the nearing danger. The cool attitude chilled Minato in the heat. The way the other nin sat down on the ground, elbows on their knees, face still obscured by smoke, observing with eyes as sharp as a cat's as their comrade screamed and yelled and sobbed.
"Shika!S-Sh-Shika! My arm-!"
"Shut up, Satsuki," her comrade said softly, and the nin's voice, though quiet and controlled, seemed to rise over the crack and spit of the fire behind them. Satsuki wailed.
"Well, Foxy, can I call you that? I'm gonna call you that. That jutsu burned your cheeks to shit, but I can still see the marks. It's like you have a red fox face. Look at the shape my teammate's in," the nin gestured behind them, and Minato's eyes followed, skipping over Satsuki and closing.
"This," and the bonds around Minato tightened. He gasped. "Is all I really know how to do, and my girl here?" The ninja jerked their chin back at Satsuki.
"I want my mom..." Satsuki sobbed. "I want to go home..." Her companion ignored her.
"Satsuki was my muscle." The newcomer, Shika, snorted. "Sort of. Nothing compared to the legendary strength you hear about in stories, but strong enough. She got lucky, with parents who wanted to try and show her some shit on the sly instead of pretending those ninja days never happened. Me? I had to go on my dad's lame ass scavenger hunt to find some stupid scroll to learn this shit. She can at least run. Throw a kunai. I can't. At least not well. And now you've hurt her."
"Please," Minato tried again. Shika talked over him. The smoke was filling Minato's throat, burning it. Shika didn't seem to mind, only coughed daintily.
"I mean, I'm no medic. I can't heal the arm you just torched or make Satsuki stop screaming for her mommy loud enough to make special ops hear us from a mile away."
"I just want to find my sister-"
"Oh, oh, I get it. I'm looking for someone, too. I try to be understanding, Foxy, I really do. But I wanna find my girl a little more than I care about you getting your sister back. You seen my girl? Tall. Beautiful dark brown skin. Larger than me, built like a boulder and just as tough. Lighter hair. Goes by ChouChou." Shika was chewing gum. Blew a bubble. Minato stared. He could feel the skin on his cheeks flake and split and heal slowly.
"No," Minato answered quietly. For several long seconds, Shika stared at him. Minato held his breath.
"Came all this way," Shika lamented, "to find her. And Satsuki was the only one who I could convince to come with, because of that stupid Hyuuga boy. Couldn't rely on my family," she let out a breath, "or friends."
"So much for them. So much for you. Damn shame." Shika's voice dipped low.
Minato squirmed again. "My sister-"
"Safe," Shika deadpanned, stuffing ash-marked hands into the pockets of their flakk jacket and turning away. "Me and Satsuki've been collecting them like dragonflies in a jar. We hand them off to the right people. If you get running now, you should be able to catch up to the group before they disappear. Bunch'a women and kids. One has a scar you can't miss on her face. One was called Hoshi, I think."
Minato breath left his lungs in a whoosh when the jutsu binding him was suddenly released. He hadn't realized how tightly it had held his ribcage, how thinly he'd been stepped over him, and Minato burned the face he saw above him into memory. It was a thin face with a sharp jaw. Feminine, he thought.
"See ya, Foxy." With that, Shika, reached down to hoist Satsuki over her shoulders, Satsuki's burned arm hanging limply in the air. She screamed when her burned skin knocked against Shika's clothes. But her friend said nothing. Only slung Satsuki over like a scarf, and without another look back, started a slow trek forward.
Shika had nearly disappeared into the woodsmoke by the time Minato scrambled upright.
"Wait!" His lungs seared as he shot upright, gaining momentum with each step.
They couldn't have gone far.
He slipped a kunai into his palm, and in a few seconds, he'd caught up to them. He rounded ahead, cutting off Shika's path, aiming the point of the kunai between the nin's eyes.
Shika's gaze dropped to its point before shooting Minato an irritable look.
"Really? You really wanna do this now?"
"Show me."
Shika rolled her eyes. "Probably long gone by now."
Minato's nostrils flared. His heart sank. "YOU SAID I COULD CATCH UP TO THEM IF I RAN!" he shouted, and Shika winced, voice dropping low.
"Hunters were circling the area not too long ago. You wanna call them right to us?"
Minato's thoughts blended together into one exciting whir. He swallowed thickly. "You said Satsuki was your muscle. That you can't do much else, right? Now that she's hurt, she can't protect you while you search the village. You said yourself all this noise's gonna attract other nin to the area. And you're using jutsu you aren't authorized to use. You'll get in trouble. Worse than that. People are being killed for less. And you can't fight. You only got one skill. I can fight. Get me to the group you gave my sister to, and after I see her safe, I'll help you."
Satsuki shouted when Shika tried to reposition her. Minato winced.
Shika's jaw twitched. "Yeah?" she said quietly, chewing on her lip. Her eyes scanned the trees before she sighed, coughing on her breath.
"Guess us rebels gotta band together then, huh? Fine. Whatever. Let's just get out of here before we roast. You see that handkerchief sticking out of my pocket?"
Puzzled, Minato followed the tilt of Shika's chin to the cloth peeking out of a pocket on her flakk jacket.
"Stuff it in Satsuki's mouth."
Minato stared.
Satsuki cried quietly.
Shika said, "Do it."
Minato grabbed it quickly, moving over to face the girl he'd burned. Satsuki's eyes were squeezed shut, face streaked with tears. Her mouth was moving, lips chapped. Her eyes opened. She shook her head.
Minato looked away and shoved the cloth into her mouth. She coughed on it. Cried some more. Minato didn't look at her.
"Take her," said Shika.
Minato stiffened. "What?"
"You got the strength. You carry her. I'll navigate. Hurry up."
Satsuki was lighter than Minato expected on his shoulders. She didn't stop crying. The cloth muffled her screams as Minato hefted her onto his back.
Minato followed Shika out of the smoke.
A/N: Minato's perception of Shika is not correct. Preview. Next we start with Satsuki's partents, Sakura and Sai, who are preparing to go search for their daughter.
Haruno Sakura watched the evening wane.
The drone of summer cicadas began to mellow as the crickets twitched to life. Their songs came slow. It would be a warm night.
Sakura shivered.
The sliding door to the back balcony opened, and her husband stepped out onto the deck beside her. Their apartment sat five stories above a busy market street, and below, the last of the day's shoppers were scurrying home, cursing the heat. Sakura kept her eyes on an bare laundry line stretching over the road.
Sai sighed. He did not reach out to her, but he kept his eyes trained on her figure. Through the open door, he listened to Kyosuke whine a little before he finally said, "She took my scrolls."
"You should have never made them," Sakura replied, but her voice was tired, unafraid. Ready. She'd always known, and maybe Sai had too, and that was why he'd made them. Just for her. For Satsuki.
"They were always for her," Sai reasoned. "Do you remember how much she loved them when she was little? Back then, it was like magic. They were harmless then. Bunnies. Puppies, because we'd decided on no pets. Remember?"
Sakura's smile was slow. "You had to have known," she said, and maybe Sakura had always known, too. "You had to have figured that one day, she would realize she could use them for more than playtime. You didn't slave away figuring out how to seal your art just for playtime."
Sai said nothing, but he stepped closer.
"Is that why you taught her how to fight?" he wondered.
Sakura smiled. "She still doesn't know enough." She bit her lip, gut twisting.