(Welcome back! This is the Final Chapter of a new 5 Part Arc. There is trouble in Hidden Mist Village, but what does Kuroda have to do with it? The criminal is fast, but are ninja faster? I love feedback and constructive criticism, so please leave a review so I can improve my writing and storytelling skills. Enjoy!)
"I think he is coming around," a light voice says. It definitely sounds female, but Kuroda can't quite match a face to it. He tries to open his eyes, yet he can only get them to let in flickers of light. Choosing to be patient and let them open on their own time he tries to recall the last thing that happened to him.
"I remember I was giving Kasumi her final instructions," he thinks, "and then...oh yeah..."
"Yep, he is definitely coming back to us," a much deeper voice agrees.
When Kuroda wakes up two days later in a soft and comfy bed, the others are all standing around him. "I should make a mental note not to let her do that again," he thinks as he struggles to sit up and starts rubbing the back of his aching neck.
"Jeez, you should have been the first one up, because you were attacked first," Naoko comments, her tone full of irritation.
Kuroda feigns ignorance and asks, "What happened, and how did I get back to the Wasabi mansion?"
Shun explains, "When I woke up we were all outside the cave and that Mist Ninja was nowhere to be seen. I waited until Tousen was awake and we decided to come back to the mansion."
"I've already sent word about this incident back home," Tousen says, showing a worry on his face that he usually hides behind a laugh, "Since the Mist Ninja seems to have fled the country we are going to head back to the village in the morning and give a full report to the Hokage."
Kasumi arrives at the entrance to her village where she is met by some guards. The air is filled with a light mist, which is a common occurrence in the Land of Water. This particular area is a semi-rainforest type setting that is thick with trees. The tall, white wall separates the untamed nature from the pristine organization of the village. This is one of the lesser used entrances because of all the foliage and the main gates stay permanently closed. The only way in is the small side doors that the guards use.
However, she barely acknowledges either one of the men. Her mind is racing through recent events, trying to rationalize what happened to her but still finding everything impossible. In fact, she is so focused on sorting through things that she doesn't even notice how bad her body is shaking. But this of course is on purpose because she doesn't want to have to think about what they will do to her once she gets inside.
"What the hell happened to you?" one of guards questions, his expression one of shock and concern as he scans over her injuries. He knows who she is and what she is capable of, and seeing her like this scares the hell out of him.
"It's none of your business," she says coldly, "Just tell them I am back."
"Yes ma'am!" they say in unison, instantly deferring to her superior rank. They salute and then one of them goes inside to get someone while she waits.
A young boy appears from nowhere, eerily drifting into view from out of the mist forest. He casually says, "You back already, sis? Always looking to finish as soon as possible, but you don't look too good. Did you underestimate your opponent again?"
"Shut up, Desh," she sharply spits back at him, "You should not concern yourself with my missions unless you are included in them." His presence makes her skin itch, as if thousands of tiny bugs are crawling underneath her skin. Her palms become sweaty and her stomach unstable. Everything about her brother makes her want to puke up her lunch. Of course no one knows any of this as she keeps her outward appearance calm and composed like a true shinobi should.
The guard returns and says, "Come with me, Lady Kasumi."
"Took you long enough," Kasumi grumbles under her breath, grateful to get away from her brother as soon as possible.
The guard sees Desh and tells him, "The Mizukage was looking for you, he wants to talk to you right away, and he isn't in a patient mood."
"Damn," says Desh warily, "Well, see you later sis." He reluctantly dashes off, giving her one last glance before vanishing back into the forest.
Once through the white wall, the guard leads Kasumi through a series of buildings and trees and into an underground tunnel and up to a door. Along the way they don't encounter anyone else, but that is to be expected since this meeting is highly classified. She moves on from the disturbing feeling she got while in her brother's hostile presence and tries to go back to thinking about Kuroda. However, she can't because the thing she was more worried about creeps into her mind. The fear she was avoiding throughout the journey home has finally taken over. It seeps through her veins, slowly freezing every nerve in her body to the point where she can barely even take the next step forward. It peaks when they arrive at the discolored blue door. It creeks open, the darkness inviting her in to be swallowed up. She silently enters and her escort returns to his post.
Team 15 is about halfway home when they decide to take a short break. They stop by a small spring that Naoko remembered seeing on their trip to the Tea Country. She kneels down by the water and splashes some in her face to cool off. Rame Tsu settles down by a large tree and promptly pulls off her backpack and sticks her hand inside the main pocket. She fishes inside for a while before pulling out a pair of candy bars. She tosses one to Naoko before setting her pack to the side and ripping the seal to open the food.
"Are you sure we shouldn't have stayed and made sure she isn't still in the country, Sensei?" Shun inquires, running his hands through his afro as he stares at the water.
"I doubt she is still there," Yoshikuni replies, "And if she is the Hokage sent an ANBU squad to investigate the site, so they will detect her if she is close by."
"I am going to look for some rare berries I heard were around here," Kuroda suddenly announces, as he stands up and walks off.
"Just don't go too far," warns Yoshikuni.
Kuroda wanders around indeed looking for the rare berries, but he also has another motive for wanting to be on his own. As soon as he is out of sight he grabs his left arm, which has been burning with pain ever since he woke up. He thinks back on his battle with the Mist Ninja, "This must be the residual effects of that water Jutsu she hit me with. I thought it was simply an attack of force, so that is why I only had my clone reattach my shoulder after it was separated. But her Jutsu must have been embedded with her chakra nature and produce some other sort of effect. I didn't feel it during the fight because of all the adrenaline coursing through my body."
"This is going to be a problem for me," he says flexing his fingers and moving his arm around, testing the part of his body that was affected by the water Jutsu, "I'll need to have Emi examine it as soon as we get back to the village. But I'm fortunate that this is all I have to deal with. I was lucky to be able to manifest without a marker, otherwise I would be dead. However, since it is over and done with I would have to say it was worth the risk."
He reminisces about the battle more, going over every detail multiple times. The smile on his face grows ever larger as he thinks about his accomplishment, "Kasumi Momochi, thought to be a prodigy and a future kage. I soundly defeated her while only acquiring one serious injury. Then I was able to convince her to join my cause. She truly is gifted, her speed and strength alone are formidable, but she also has powerful Jutsu and knows how to use them effectively. Now that I have her on my side my plans can advance much further. With her and Kayo on my side I have secured two very important pieces, and if you add in the princess then I would say I am ahead in the game. Plus if Yukiko and Sakura end up paying off then I'll have even more strong pieces on my side."
Out of the corner of his eye Kuroda spots one of the rare berries he is looking for. He remembers reading about their special healing properties in one of the books from the library, and is eager to acquire some for personal use. So he walks over to inspect it when suddenly a small pricking goes off in the back of his neck. "Shit, why now?" he complains as his body is instantly dissolved into nothingness and he is transported away.
When Team 15 realizes he is gone they begin to look for him. After an hour they decide to give up and head back towards the village and send a search party of tracker ninja back to find him.
When Kasumi closes the doors she sees the outlines of five men, but can't see their faces even though there are several small candles bringing light to the secret room. She knows these men are some of the highest ranking Jonin who are under direct orders from the Mizukage. She also knows that she has a 90% chance of not leaving the room alive. She takes a few steps forward, trying not to shake, and then goes down to one knee to show the proper respect. After a moment one of them says, "Kasumi Momochi, it is very surprising to see you. Why did you abandon your mission? You were supposed to be in the Tea Country for two more months."
Another one questions, "And why are you so badly hurt? You are one of the top young Jonin in our village."
A third, the tallest man, demands, "Answer us now! Explain yourself or face the punishment!"
"All of you shut up!" One of the final two yells, "How is she supposed to talk with you badgering her? Now speak, Kasumi!"
She takes a gulp of air and then recounts, "I was discovered by a team from the Hidden Leaf Village. I lured them into a cave so I could take them out without anyone seeing as the mission plan specified. Everything was going fine; I was in the middle of fighting them when suddenly a figure appeared. This… mysterious ninja was so fast that I could barely see what happened. He attacked both me and the Leaf Ninja. When I woke up I was outside of the cave in this condition and the Leaf Ninja and the mysterious ninja were nowhere to be. I thought it was best to return here and report what happened."
The room is dead quiet, none of the men say a thing as they analyze and dissect the explanation. Kasumi waits patiently on her knee, staring at the ground awaiting their response. Finally the men exchange glances, speaking without words. Then one stalks over to her, tilts her chin up, and slaps her across the face proclaiming, "You lying b...!"
She falls to the ground clutching her face, pleading, "I would not lie to you! My only purpose is to serve you! I am telling the truth!"
The men exchange glances again and then one motions his head, signaling them to come together for a consult. They huddle up and talk amongst themselves whispering and debating, each member fighting to have things resolved in their favor. After the short meeting of minds they turn to face the young woman and explain their verdict.
The more rational one of the group speaks again and explains, "It is the determination of this committee that since you failed such an important mission and revealed yourself to an enemy village that you will be killed and the village would claim that you were a Rogue Ninja not acting on our orders."
"But…my lord…" she begs desperately, loosing control of her emotions as tears fall down her face.
The man on the committee that has so far been silent pulls out a long sword. He is not moved by her tears, finding it disgraceful that a shinobi like her does not accept death honorably. He aims it at her chest and everything seems to slow down. Kasumi looks from one man to the next pleading for her life, but she finds no comfort in any of their faces. She stares at the blade as in inches toward her heart, her body becomes paralyzed in fear and she can do nothing to save herself.
In the blink of an eye Kuroda materializes and blocks the attack, the blade pierces his left hand but he is able to halt it. Kuroda acknowledges that he should be in pain, but his mind overcomes this fact as he takes in as much of the scene as he can before the enemy starts to react.
The sword wielder yells, "Who the hell are you?" Everyone else in the room freezes for a moment, they are caught off guard by the intrusion into this highly secretive meeting.
Another of the committee members sees the Leaf symbol on Kuroda's headband and yells out, "She is a traitor! Kill them both!"
In a single swift motion Kuroda swats the sword away and takes out forty of his special kunai and scatters them all over the room. Some of them manage to hit the committee members in non-vital spots, but he wasn't truly aiming for them. After a lightning fast weaving of hand signs, he whispers, "Flying Thunder God Technique."
He flashes in and out of view, jumping around all corners of the dimly lit room like a ghost. First, he aims for their throats, slashing off their ability to alert any guards nearby by taking out their vocal cords. Then he goes for their vital areas, flashing around the dark room, killing all five men before they can even try and defend themselves.
Kasumi's eyes widen as she stares in amazement, not even able to track what is happening. She realizes, "Is that his real power? If he had used that against me he could have defeated me easily with that technique. Was he only testing my abilities when we fought?"
When he is done, Kuroda takes off his headband and stores it in a pocket. Then he walks over to one of the corpses and takes the mist headband and puts it on. After that he sets out and collects all of his special kunai that are scattered about the room. He does all this without saying a word or even acknowledging that Kasumi is in the room. She watches him as he goes about these various tasks, staring at him dumbfounded. Her mind is caught between comprehending that she is still alive and that all of her five extremely powerful superiors were taken down so effortlessly.
He finally speaks, "I guess you weren't kidding when you said they would kill you. I will remember to believe you next time. However, they should believe you this time, so tell them that the mysterious ninja from earlier followed you back and assassinated everyone but left you alive for some reason."
"Yes, I will," she replies, still in a daze.
"Oh, and since I am here I wanted to ask you about that Jutsu of yours. I believe you called it the Rapid Crasher," he says, "What kind of effects does it have?"
"It causes massive internal injuries," she explains, finally coming out of shock, "If I would have hit you anywhere on your torso or your head you would have been paralyzed and then died from internal bleeding after a couple of hours. If you can't heal it yourself you'll need someone else to look at it as soon as possible. If you don't you might permanently lose the ability to use that arm."
"Good to know," he says nodding, "Next time you use it I hope your aim is more true."
"I'll do my best," she promises, a little taken aback and not used to being spoken to so casually by a commander.
"Now then, I assume we are deep inside the Hidden Mist Village," he comments, "What is the quickest way to get out of here?"
"Go out that door and go straight for 100 meters," she says, "Then turn right and you'll see the village wall about 300 meters away. But if you go that way you will run into a lot of guards. I could lead you to a lesser used entrance…"
"No, it is fine," he says, "I'll be able to get past them without fighting."
Then, without any warning, he stabs her in a particularly painful spot close to her spine and she lets out an excruciating scream heard throughout the village. She stares at him in disbelief as she clutches the dagger and tries to pry it out of her body. But this only causes her to scream out in even more pain. Guards from all over abandon their posts and come running in the direction of the scream.
He opens the door and uses his Flying Thunder God Technique to escape the village and head back to his own. The wheels in his head start spinning as he starts to think up how he will explain his sudden disappearance to the Hokage when he gets back to Konoha.
*A few minutes earlier*
A young man with spiky, blue hair travels through the relatively barren streets of Kirigakure heading towards the outskirts of the village so he can leave for his newly assigned mission. The night is still young but most villagers don't like to be outside after sunset. A chill seems to set in at the end of the day and people have been known to disappear as random clouds of mist spring up unannounced. So like usual unless they have business to attend to or are posted on guard duty the occupants of the village stay inside their homes at night. People who do happen to pass by Desh on the dark and lonely streets give him a large berth when they sense the aura around him. Some even do a double take thinking that they literally see steam exuding from his body. Yet Desh Momochi ignores them all, focused on his problems.
"Damn idiots, why do we even allow useless people to become ninja?" he grumbles, anger and irritation making his hand long to stab a weapon into someone's flesh, "Now I have to head all the way over to Iwagakure just to clean up their mess. When I become Mizukage I'm not going to tolerate this shit."
"You look like you're in a foul mood," says a friendly voice nearby, "Something wrong?"
Desh looks up to see his comrade Ju. There isn't a whole lot to say about Ju. He has no distinguishing traits whatsoever. Brown hair, blue eyes, standard ninja gear, everything about him is average. In fact he is the most average looking guy that Desh has ever met. If you mention him in conversation most people forget they have even met Ju unless he is standing right in front of them. But this trait actually works as an advantage for Ju and allows him to complete assassination missions with relative ease. It also helped Ju earn his rank of Jonin and his nickname, the Faceless Ninja of the Mist.
"I have to go clean up a mess some morons made in the Stone Country," Desh explains as he flexes his fingers out and then into a fist and then back out again.
"That doesn't sound too difficult," Ju replies with a chuckle and a smile.
"It isn't," Desh responds, "I'm just pissed because I just got back from Sand Country today. If they would have reported their failure a few days ago I could have saved myself the trouble of traveling thousands of miles."
"That is pretty inconvenient," Ju agrees, nodding his head, "But there's not much you can do about it now."
"Yeah, yeah," Desh sighs, relaxing a bit.
"Hey, I passed by your sister a little while ago," Ju mentions.
"I already saw her earlier, what about her?" Desh responds, picking at dirt in his nails.
"Frankly, she looked like shit," Ju says earnestly, "Someone really did a number on her."
"Yeah, I noticed that. That stupid bitch deserved to get her ass handed to her. I knew that slut wasn't as invincible as everyone thinks she is," Desh replies, "I didn't get to talk to her a whole lot, so I wasn't able to find out who did it. But next time I see her I'm going to find out. Then I'll go and kill the bastard and earn myself a promotion."
"It really concerns me though," Ju comments, rubbing his chin as his demeanor sours, "I mean she is supposed to be a prodigy, the next in line to be the Mizukage. But if she was able to get trashed so easily is she really that strong?"
"What did you just say?" Desh questions, his face turned red with fury and his eyes locked on Ju with murderous intent.
"I just said I don't think your sister is as strong as she lets on," Ju says, unaware of the other male's change in attitude.
Without warning Desh pins Ju up against a wall and has a kunai at his throat.
"Hey, man, what is your problem?" Ju asks, caught off guard, but not acting like he thinks he is in danger.
"You're the problem!" Desh shouts, "You're talking crap about my sister."
"Huh? But you were just doing the same thing!" Ju points out, now struggling to break free of the hostile Chunin's grip.
"Yeah, but the difference is that I am her brother," Desh explains, his tone deadly serious as he continues to press Ju against the wall, "I can say whatever the fuck I want about that filthy bitch. However I'm not going to tolerate anyone else saying shit about her and calling her trash."
"Okay, okay, man I'm sorry," Ju apologizes, just hoping to get away from the crazy kid as fast as possible.
Desh releases a breath and calms down a bit as he releases the man's shirt from his grasp. "Good, it seems we have an understanding," he says, "But if I ever hear that you've been talking down about her again I'll slice you into little pieces and feed you to the fish."
"No problem, buddy, I won't say a bad word about her," Ju says as Desh takes the knife away from his throat, "She is a great ninja, she is sure to become the next Mizukage."
"Yeah, right," Desh laughs, "I'll gut that whore myself if she becomes Mizukage before me."
"Man, this guy is a psycho," Ju thinks to himself as he puts on a fake smile and rubs the back of his neck, "And his sister is a piece of work too. It probably would have been better if their Clan had died off before the 4th Great Ninja War like everyone thought."
Suddenly a piercing scream interrupts the silence of the night.
"What the hell was that?" Ju asks.
"Sounded like a woman being assaulted," Desh replies. As lights turn on and people start filing out of their homes to find out what the disturbance is a blaring alarm erupts throughout the village.
A group of ninja drop down next to Ju and Desh and girl with curly, pink hair asks, "What's going on? Are we under attack?"
"Not sure, I don't recognize that alarm," Desh replies.
"It sort of sounds like one of the signals that the Hunter-nin use, but I've never heard that version before," Ju adds.
"Maybe a spy has infiltrated the village?" A man with a burn scar covering the upper portion of his face suggests.
"We'll assume we are under attack," Ju orders, "Desh, you go back to headquarters and find out what is going on. Everyone else report to your assigned posts."
"Right!" all the ninja say in unison before zipping off to fulfill their duties.
"I have an uneasy feeling about this," Desh thinks, "I hope Kasumi is okay."
(That is the end of the chapter, what did you think? How will Kuroda explain where he has been all this time? Read the next chapter to find out. As usual, if you want more information on my characters you can see their bios on my profile page. Be warned, there may be some spoilers. Also I'm in the process of getting pictures drawn for the characters, but I have no idea how long that will take. If you're interested in drawing and have a DA account then send me a Message. Enjoy the next chapter, and please review.)