A/N: Alright, the wait, as it were, is over. Now I know readership is low right now (We're standing at 8 views total at the time this is being written) but I'm confident that I'll get somewhere. Hopefully.
The night air was still. Which, after the events that just occurred, was appropriate. Denji sat there, frozen, as he stared at the woman who had saved them. She didn't look very nice though, with her hardened blue eyes and taut stature. Her face was more angular than most women and her hair was a decent length of purple. She wore a cloak that covered her entire body but for her face, and she had a hood behind her head that she retracted.
"Well, are you kids alright?" It took a second for Denji to register what she said.
"Um, for the most part." However, Yukio was a bit more distraught.
"What happened to Arine? Is she alright?" He was moving his head from side to side as if looking around. Arine spoke up to calm him.
"I'm alright. Though I could be a lot better." The woman eyed Arine with curiosity.
"Attempted rape is generally something that scars most people for a good while, even making them unresponsive for some time after the event occurred." Arine, who covered herself as much as she could, returned the woman's glare.
"We've dealt with worse than attempted rape. Do you know who Orochimaru is?" The woman's left eye twitched at the mention on the albino man.
"I know what he can do to people, but what does that have with you three?" This time Yukio spoke up.
"We're escapees from one of his prisons. Those were two guards who must have been searching for us." The woman focused her attention on the blind boy. However, her gaze wasn't as hard.
"I think I see now. His prisons are infamous around these parts. I'm surprised kids as young as you are still sane." Yukio took that opportunity to ask another question.
"Where exactly is 'these parts'?"
"You're in the Land of Fire." The collected children gasped. It was farther than they expected. "So what plan did you kids have in mind once you got out?" None of them answered. Yukio managed to say
"I guess find our way to our homes." The woman felt a slight pang of concern. Damn it. She sighed and made them an offer.
"Tell you what, how about I take you to where I live. I can get you cleaned up and then maybe you can figure out what you want to do from there." The three children thought about it. It was a good offer, one they'd be hard pressed to pass up. However, they were still wary.
"Before we go anywhere, what's your name?" Yukio asked. The woman eyed the three fo them.
"My name is Aika. And are you going to accept or not?" Yukio spoke.
"We've got no other safe choice. So yes, we accept." He stood up along with Denji. Aika walked over to Arine.
"Do you need me to carry you?" She was about to protest when she remembered she wasn't fully clothed and she was exhausted from what happened. However, she remembered something else.
"Yukio's blind, at least for now. He'd be the better one to carry since he's lighter than me and he needs it more." Yukio protested.
"Arine it's best you get carried, Denji can guide me."
"Actually" Aika responded "My place isn't incredibly far from here. We can travel by foot if we need to." Yukio nodded.
"Then you can carry Arine. Denji will guide me." Denji nodded.
"I'd watch out when you carry her though. She bites." Aika nodded sarcastically as she knelt down and let Arine grab on to her shoulders.
"Denji I will kill you one of these days." Arine retorted. Denji smiled and put a hand on Yukio's shoulder.
"She'll be fine, buddy. Let's get going." And so the quartet started walking. Denji and Yukio kept close to Aika, who lit a stick on fire for light. After a while the children asked Aika some questions.
"Where are you from?" Yukio asked.
"I'm from the Hidden Leaf village. Though I haven't had anything to do with them for a good while." Arine asked the next question.
"What did you do in there?"
"I was a shinobi. And a damn good one. However, things happened."
"Like what?" Aika sighed.
"That doesn't matter right now. We're here." The trio of kids looked to see a two-story building near the edge of a cliff. It was made of wood with few windows. It had support beams at the bottom to keep it stable. There were no lights on and, if the moon light weren't present, the cabin would have blended in with the forest, somewhat. The space between the cabin and the cliff edge was about the size of a normal backyard. Aika, making sure no one had followed them, went to the front door of the cabin and opened it, ushering Denji and Yukio in before carrying Arine in.
"What's going on? Why is it so dark in here?" Yukio was, surprisingly, the one making the observation. Denji had a little snort.
"It's always dark for you, Yukio. But hey, soon you might get to take off those bandages." Light flooded in the room as Yukio was about to respond, but Denji shushed him. Aika set Arine down on the solitary couch in the room and removed her cloak to cover the young girl.
"Alright, first things first: We need to clean you guys up a bit." Looking at Arine, Aika continued. "Perhaps you can wear something of mine till tomorrow when we can go get some clothes for you all." She glanced at Yukio and Denji. "However, I want to clean and change those bandages. They look disgusting." None of the assembled could disagree. So Aika went over to another small room and brought out some bandages, a cloth, and disinfectant.
"Will this hurt much?" Yukio queried. Aika sighed and knelt down to Yukio's eye level.
"Kid, this will probably sting quite a lot. But this is minor compared to what you all probably went through in one of Orochimaru's prisons." With that, Aika unwrapped Yukio's bandages, which were dirty and long overdue for a change.
When she finished she was greeted with the face of a normal boy, but the area around his eyes was red and swollen, with a cut having some green due to infection. Biting her lip, Aika put some disinfectant on the cloth and started wiping the red area. Yukio flinched at the pain, but quickly got used to it. The swelling decreased a bit and his skin lost some of the red, but that cut started fizzing, showing that the disinfectant was getting rid of the bacteria.
I just might need the help of a medic nin for this. He might have early blood poisoning, I don't know. Aika cleaned Yukio's closed eyes as much a she could before wrapping clean, white bandages around them. When she finished, Yukio smiled in relief.
"Thank you, Aika. It feels good to have a feeling of cleanliness again." Aika felt a twinge of pity. It sucked that these kids were out on their own, but to be stuck in one of Orochimaru's prisons…. She shuddered. That man was a menace. However, Aika kept a straight face and stood.
"No problem. Now you, with the silver hair." She pointed at Denji. He had a look of realization on his face.
"Denji."
"Denji, do you have any wounds that need any treatment?" He shook his head. He felt fine. Aika turned to Arine. "Is there anything I can do for you?" Arine shook her head as well. Aika sighed. "Alright then. You all need some sleep and so do I. So I'll take you upstairs and lay out some mats for you to sleep on, is that alright?"
"It's better than what we've been given of late." Yukio stated. Aika nodded.
"Alright, Denji, could you take Arine upstairs please?" Denji shrugged and walked over to Arine, who seemed too tired to protest. While they went upstairs, Aika held Yukio back for a second.
"Is something wrong?" Aika sighed.
"Listen Yukio, I'm not a medic ninja so I can't cure your eyes. What I'm thinking is that tomorrow or sometime soon, we contact a friend of mine who's a good at medical ninjutsu. She might be able help us figure out if your eyes are going to see again and if we can heal them. Is that okay?" Yukio tilted his head down for a second before responding.
"Yeah, it's fine. I can wait." Aika grinned slightly.
"Alright, you head upstairs, you need your sleep." Yukio cocked his head to the side, as if her statement confused him.
"What about you? Shouldn't you go to sleep?" Aika had to hand it to this kid. He was blind at the moment, and possibly for the rest of his natural life, but he had something about him that made him curious and logical. The logical side she remembered from… that wasn't important.
"I don't sleep much kid. Besides, I wasn't chased down by Sound nin. You need it more than I." Yukio seemed to ponder for a moment before turning around a few times until Aika led him to the stairs. He got on his hands and feet and crawled up the stairs slowly. She had a slight chuckle she suppressed. He was allowed, considering his blindness. Once he was safely upstairs, Aika walked over to the door and exited her cabin. She gave a whistle and a small bird with a pack on its back flew from the trees and landed on her shoulder.
"You think you can carry a message?" The little bird nodded and chirped. Aika sat down on the steps to her cabin and pulled a piece of paper and a pen. She started writing out the message to her friend. Hopefully, she'd respond with good news. Signing it and rolling the paper into a cylinder, Aika sored it in the little bird's pack.
"Get this to you know who ASAP." The little bird chirped and flew off. Aika sat for a second before standing and making her way back into the cabin. This wasn't a night she'd sleep peacefully.
"So what did Aika want with you?" Denji asked. Yukio turned his head to him.
"She said she knew a medical ninja who could see if my eyes will work again." Yukio hated being blind. He was a liability. He hoped this medical nin could cure his eyes.
"So what you're saying is that there's a chance." Yukio turned his head in the direction of Arine's voice.
"Basically. A chance, but I don't know the odds."
"Don't even try, Yukio. You're not the greatest gambler." Yukio turned his head to Denji's voice.
"Hey, at least I care to figure out the odds as opposed to going in without thought." Denji chuckled.
"Relax Yukio. It was a joke. And besides, charging in any situation without knowing is fun. The most fun one can have." Arine snorted.
"What about your thievery skills? Doesn't that take a little planning out?" Denji scoffed.
"Oh please. All it takes is knowing where the shadows are and sticking to them." Yukio took advantage of Denji's slip-up.
"But that's planning ahead, Denji. Figuring out where the shadows are and how to stay in them is reconnaissance. That's prior planning." Denji sighed. Yukio found that to be one of Denji's less than reputable qualities.
"Fine! I guess even my thievery takes a little planning."
"And suddenly, the incorrigible idiot makes an admission of intelligence." Yukio chuckled at Arine's quip while he heard Denji snort out of annoyance.
"Yeah, yeah, you guys got your jokes in, now can we get to sleep? I'm tired." Yukio heard Denji lean over and click something. Must have been a lamp of sorts. And due to a lack of power out in nature, it must have been oil powered. Much like the one in the front-room. In fact…
"Yukio!" he turned his head in Arine's direction at her rough whisper. "Just go to sleep. We should rest up and save our energy for later. Can you not think about stuff for one night?" Yukio gave a small noise of agreement before he lay down on the soft bed roll beneath him. Thinking generally helped to drown out the moans and mutterings of other prisoners. Now that he was in a sparsely populated space, he found the silence deafening. He hated that. So he started thinking, solving problems, and coming to conclusions before he fell asleep due to exhaustion.
Aika's little bird, Botan, made his avian way to a loud and obnoxious town. He dived under some beams and found the place he was looking for. He landed on an outside window sill and pecked at the window until a form rose from the dark room and opened the window. A woman stood and looked down at the bird, a look of recognition on her face. She opened his pack and pulled the roll of paper and read it.
Shizune I've got three kids I rescued from some Sound nin. Apparently they're escapees from one of Orochimaru's prisons. One of them has his eyes in a bad way. They did something to them in that prison and I need you to check if he'll be able to see again. And perhaps a check-up on the other kids. Please respond.
- Aika
Shizune read over the paper a few times and thought. She turned to Tsunade, who was passed out drunk on one of the bed rolls, her clothes… not completely covering her. Sighing, Shizune figured that a tip to a gambling town near that area wouldn't be suspicious. And Tsunade wasn't incredibly keen on helping people when she thought she was on a streak. Grabbing her writing materials, Shizune wrote down a response. Once finished, she put it in Botan's pack and sent him off flying. Shizune closed the window and tried to go back to sleep. It was tough, with the mention of Orochimaru. She'd get to the bottom of this child's issue.
A/N: Well, there's chapter 3. Took less time than expected, but what are you gonna do, eh? As of THIS particular authors note, Absent Serpent has 11 views. I'm past 10, hell YES! So yeah, please read and review.