Yeah, alright, I'm weak. I can't wait until Saturday to post this. I simply am not that patient.
Unexpectedly long chapter – almost 1/3 longer than usual! I found no good place to end it, so I just kept it.
Take it as a gift from me to you:D
Important: I've changed the rating from T to M, because ninjas. Graphic descriptions of violence follow.
They give the fight a wide berth.
Instead they follow Anko's chakra signature further into the forest. There are more familiar ones emerging now; Inori-sensei and Ito-sensei for one.
They find the latter collapsed against a tree, conscious, but barely so. There's something big and hairy leaning over her, about the size of a dog. Hisana throws a kunai at it, which the thing easily deflects with a long, bald tail.
"A rat?" she squawks out, unable to help herself.
The animal turns towards her, arms akimbo.
"Yes, I am a rat," it says in a grand-fatherly voice, "You have a problem with that, little missy?"
"Ah – uh, no!"
"Good," he says, "now run along and help your little friends. I might be old, but I am still able to look out for my Oren."
A summon, she thinks faintly. How surprisingly grotesque. She always kind of imagined them to be … well, cute maybe. Pakkun at least looked as if he was supposed to be cute. Maybe even the toads and the slugs too.
Only with effort can she pull herself away from the strange sight. There are more rats around, she realizes. Smaller ones, an endless stream seemingly coming from behind Ito-sensei's back, and going only in one direction: the fight.
Sora and Choumei rush past her without stopping, but she ignores them.
"We … might need help," she starts, unsure whether or not she is allowed to ask someone else's summon for anything. "Choumei-san says there's a bunch of jounin with them and they have the rest of our teams."
Ito-sensei's eyes flicker over to her. All Hisana gets is a weak tilt of her head, but the rats apparently understand more; a smaller stream of rats splits off to chase after the boys.
"Go," the big rat says, "We will send help as soon as possible."
The boys are far ahead of her.
It comes as no surprise that they didn't wait for her, but instead already charged straight into the little clearing that reveals two more shabby wagons. There is a seal of some sort painted onto one of them. Chakra suppression maybe, she thinks. She recognizes Shiki and Haru, but their signatures are far weaker than they are supposed to be in this proximity. Sickly somehow.
On the grass, there is chaos. A cluster of fat snakes is crawling all over the place, and rats are swarming around, continuously launching themselves at the enemy. Anko looks exhausted; Inori-sensei is lying face down in the grass.
There are two men facing the only remaining tokubetsu jounin, both mostly uninjured, kicking at summons at an almost leisure pace. One of them looks awfully familiar.
"Ah," he says, peering around Anko and smiling at her, "I have to say, this isn't the right place for a young girl either. Have a taste for danger, don't you?"
"Don't talk to her," Sora snaps.
He's holding his arm, which is sluggishly dripping blood onto the floor. Next to him Choumei is fussing over Inori-sensei's prone form. Unconscious, she realizes with relief. Not dead. Yet.
"You three stay the hell out of this," Anko snaps, spitting a wad of blood onto the ground. "I have more than enough vermin tripping me up here."
She gives one of her own snakes a moody kick.
"Bitch," it hisses.
"Oh," one of the men interjects, "but wouldn't it be so much more fun with company? God knows you're not particularly entertaining."
He flicks a kunai with such speed, Hisana has no time to dodge. One of the rats launches itself in front of her face, catching the weapon aimed at her forehead with its body, and then vanishing in a poof of smoke. In the split second it takes her to realize that she almost died right here in this godforsaken backwater woods, Anko has already collected herself.
"Go!" she screams, "Get your damn teammates and run!"
Hisana pulls a kunai and jumps into action. Dodging the occasional attack thrown her way, she jumps onto the sealed wagon. It's more solidly built than the others; there are no windows, and there's a thick line of metal across the cracks of the door that suggest it's welded shut. A few kicks do nothing; a teppodama only sprays her with the backsplash.
Maybe the seal does more than suppress chakra. Maybe it's quite literally a seal. She can't think – not with the kunai constantly aimed at her back. She deflects a few more of them, but it's no use; as soon as she turns around, she can hear the next one coming.
There's a thunk thunk as the boys land hard on the wagon's roof.
"Any of you know anything at all about seals?"
It's not a very advanced one, she already knows that much. It's a simple matrix, but it's using values she's never seen before.
"I thought you're the genius here," Sora says nervously. "We can buy you time, but that's pretty much it."
They slide down onto the grass to shield her. The clink clink of metal hitting metal is still unnerving, but Hisana turns back to the seal. She really wishes she'd paid more attention during the sealing unit – screw that, she did pay attention.
Think! If you know how to disable the matrix the values don't matter, she reminds herself heatedly. Where did she see this before? It's a basic closing and containment seal. Closing down chakra, sound, entrances, information, …
The graduation exam. The matrix to take their chakra sample – it's the very same one. The unknown values could stand for oppression, she realizes. It would explain why the chakra inside seems so weak. After that unraveling the matrix is almost too easy.
She feeds destructive yang chakra into the center point and watches the paint bubble and peel off.
"Got it! Choumei-san – can you open the door?"
They switch places, and the Akimichi digs his fingers under the metal strips and rips them right off. There's an almighty crash and the whole door sails over her head and into the battle. Anko curses.
"Be careful where you throw that crap!"
Before they can even set a foot inside the wagon, one of the jounin appears right in the doorway. The boys are easily lifted off their feet and thrown at Anko, who collapses under the weight.
A fierce pain explodes in Hisana's face, and then she's suddenly flying. Her back collides with something solid. She blacks out.
When she comes to, someone is touching her face.
"Wake up girl, hurry, hurry."
Something warm is dripping down her nose and her vision is wonky.
"It's just blood; you're just bleeding a little. Hurry, hurry," says the same voice.
Confused she tries to find the source. It's one of the rats; it's standing on her shoulder, paws braced against her face.
"How long was I out?" she rasps.
"Not long, not long, few minutes. Hurry, get your friends. Help is coming."
It scurries off into the field. She has no time to see how Sora and Choumei are. Anko is on her last leg; Hisana really needs the rest of her team as soon as possible. Fresh, unused chakra reserves and Shiki's brain. Shakily she gets to her feet. Anko has one of the jounin by the collar, the other is covered in summons; snakes and rats have sunk their teeth and fangs into his face and arms. For the moment he's blinded. She makes a break for it.
Again something hits her in the head. Even with a boa slung around his neck, squeezing until his face turns purple, the jounin is standing above her again. There's a wild, angry look in his eyes. He opens his mouth, and Hisana recognizes the beginnings of a katon jutsu and then – his head snaps back.
The jounin is send flying back towards his partner, crashing face first into the floor. For a second Hisana thinks it's Kohaku-sensei who saved her, hand extended in the Gentle Fist Style, but it's not. It's the Hyuuga woman. She looks angry, and there is a single, bright red scratch below her eye, but her chakra is still burning bright and she seems largely unharmed.
"Go," she tells Hisana. "Now."
Again she struggles to her feet. This time no one stops her on the way to the wagon.
Inside a strange sight greets her. Shiki, Haru, and Inomaru are lying flat on the floor, neatly lined up. There are seals stamped onto their hands and foreheads, while their legs are still kicking, trying to get up.
"Hisana-chan!" Haru yelps. "What are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?" she rasps out, "Getting caught like idiots."
Gravity seals. Carefully she smudges out the singular value they contain.
"That's embarrassing," she teases weakly. "Out of commission because of some fuinjutsu."
"You look like hell," Shiki greets her, ignoring the jibes.
There's a crash from outside and the wagon shakes.
"Maybe we should keep the chit chat for some other time," Inomaru suggests nervously.
Outside Sora and Choumei have dragged Anko and Inori-sensei off the battlefield. Instead the Hyuuga jounin is handling her two opponents all by herself.
"Look at that," Shiki comments, impressed. "She's running circles around them."
They run over to the boys, to help, patch up some injuries, drag the injured further away from the fight – but instead of relieved faces, they find panicked eyes focused on them.
"Three," Anko forces out. "You said there are three jounin. Where's the other one?"
"The children," Sora yelps.
They all stare at each other.
"Run you idiots!" the tokubetsu jounin howls. "Hyuuga hurry the fuck up! There's one more!"
Leaving Anko and Inori-sensei to their fate, they race back towards the circus. Shiki, Haru and Inomaru trail them in confusion.
"What the hell is going on?"
"We left them alone," Choumei admits guiltily. "Hoga-san and Shizuha-san are alone with the children."
Shiki curses. It takes twelve minutes, maybe fifteen, but it feels far longer until they reach the rock formation. In front of Hisana Sora stops dead in his tracks. Startled, she crashes into him and they tumble to the floor. From where she's lying she can clearly see vivid red staining the ground. The rest of the team shoots past them.
"No!" she hears Choumei curse. "Goddamnit!"
Hisana scrambles to her feet. Just behind Hoga's wall of mud, Shizuha is lying.
"Unconcious," Shiki assures her hastily, "Just unconscious."
It's true. Shizuha's chest is still moving, and the blood isn't hers. It's Rui's. Her body is crumpled against the rock, head hanging strangely crooked onto her shoulder, and slit throat gaping wide. Everyone else is missing.
"What do we do now?" Sora whispers behind her.
He's still sitting on the floor, staring at Rui's body as if he can't quite comprehend what is wrong with her.
"We need to find the others," Hisana says. "Hoga is still out there somewhere."
"What if she's dead?" Haru suggests in a quiet voice.
Hisana thinks of metal bars groaning under the little medic's fist.
"No," she says. "Until we find her body I won't believe she's dead."
They decide to split up. It's dangerous, but no one of them is under the delusion that they could take on a jounin even all of them together. The only thing they could do was round up those who got away and hope for their own jounin to hurry up and get here.
The first light of dawn is breaking through the trees. While the light is a welcome change, it does nothing to help them navigate the woods any better. Hot Water is famous for its early morning fogs, brought by the cold wind from Frost Country.
Hisana feels for Hoga's chakra signature, but there is none. She must have suppressed it. The creeping fog makes the woods even more threatening than the dark. Every leaf rustling makes her ears twitch and her hands shake in anticipation. There's no way that the children can make sure to be caught by the right people, so they try not to get caught at all. It's like they're playing a giant game of hide-and-seek.
The first time she stumbles over someone, it's a corpse.
A young boy, only vaguely familiar. One of Sora's maybe. His head is twisted grotesquely and his eyes are wide in surprise. There's bile making its way up her throat. She can't leave him here. If she just leaves him here, the animals will eat him.
For a moment she only stares at the small body, undecided. Then she hoists it – him – onto her shoulder. The trees in Hot Water are the same thick oak-like ones that grow all over Fire Country. They don't get as tall, but it's enough to keep a little body safe from scavengers.
The second time she finds a child, she nearly cries in relief.
"Yuki-chan," she whispers, kneeling down and trying to look unthreatening. "You know me! Come here!"
She's no good with such small children; Hoga would have been much more suited to this. She remembers how easily the boy had taken to her and tries to mimic the medic's body language. Carefully she shuffles over to him. He's clearly frightened, traumatized possibly, by his sister's death. But in the end he toddles into her arms.
She'll need to go back to the rocks. There's no way she'll trawl the woods with Yuki in tow. It's so wrong to bring him back to where his sister's blood is still staining the mud, even if her body is already carefully wrapped in cloth and hidden away. But Hoga's wall still stands, and Shiki and Shizuha are still there. It's the safest place they have right now.
There's a cracking in the undergrowth; Hisana freezes. Not a ninja, she tells herself. If it were, you'd already be dead. Jounin don't make noise. An animal? Or maybe …
"Hoga?" she whispers.
"Nee-san!" it comes back.
Kenta stumbles out from behind a tree. He has a black eye and he's limping.
A flash of chakra makes Hisana snap to attention.
"Shh," she tells the boy, who is looking at her with wide eyes.
She twists around, trying to find the source. There's no noise, no presence, nothing she can see through the fog. Slowly she waves the boy over to her.
"Take Yuki," she whispers. "If I tell you to run, go that way. My team is waiting there."
Kenta nods. He reaches out to take Yuki from her.
This time the chakra is like an explosion right in her face. For a second she's blinded, stumbling backwards and trying to shield Yuki with her arms.
Something warm and wet splatters her face, clumping her eyelashes together and leaving a metallic tastes in her mouth. There's so much of it.
"Kenta," she wheezes out, dragging her sleeve over her face. When her vision clears, it's not Kenta who's standing in front of her, glassy-eyed and pale.
It's Hoga.
Her knees have sagged; whatever spirit is still left in her is expelled with a last shaky breath that disperses into the fog. The only thing holding up her body now is the slim blade wedged in her throat and splitting her chin.
"Ah," Kenta says. "That's not how it was supposed to happen."
Dispassionately he pulls the blade out of the body, letting it sink into the mud like a ragdoll.
"But I guess one dead brat is as good as another dead brat."
Blood is dripping into her eyes; it burns. Numbly she tries to wipe it away, eyes glued to the crumpled form on the floor. But more wetness follows, running down her cheeks and dripping onto her collarbone. She barely notices as Kenta forms a 'kai' and the genjutsu cloaking him disperses. The man standing in front of her is entirely unfamiliar. Tall, grey haired, surprisingly old. He takes a step back to scrutinize his handiwork. The limp is gone.
She stares at him; the information doesn't quite compute.
"You give me the kid, I'll make it quick, no hard feelings," he says in a deep, gruff voice. "You're going to see your friend real soon, so no need to cry."
I'm not crying, she wants to say, but she's not entirely sure if that's true. Yuki whimpers against her chest, a soft high pitched noise that snaps the world back into focus.
"It's ok," she tells him, her own voice sounding oddly far away. "I think you should have a nap now."
The boy stares up at her with teary eyes.
"When you wake up, it'll all be ok," she promises, only feeling a grim sort of satisfaction when his eyes drift shut.
The man watches her in interest as she puts Yuki down against a tree.
"Pretty confident, aren't you?"
He nudges Hoga's body with his foot.
"She was also pretty convinced you'd be back for them. And hey – you are! Just a little late."
He spits onto the floor.
I hate you, she thinks distantly. You should die.
It won't bring Hoga back, but it'll do something. Bring back balance. Restore Karma. A life for a life. Yes, that would be good. She wonders is she's said that out loud, because the man's face twists into something supposedly mocking, with a strange hint of something in the corners of his eyes.
"Are you afraid?" she asks apropos of nothing.
It seems like the thing to ask, even though a jounin really shouldn't be afraid of her. He twitches minutely.
"Understandable," she continues, eyes glued to his rhythmically pulsating carotid artery. "You're all alone now. Even if you get the children, we have killed all your partners. Your friends. What would you do with them, all by yourself? You fucked up. You should have run."
He snarls at her. His shoulder twists inward and the bloodied blade shoots out like a snake at her. She sidesteps it, digging her fingers into his hand on the hilt and pinning it against a tree.
"You fucked up," she whispers gleefully. "We are coming for you. Even if you run, we won't stop looking for you. Do you have family? Children? – No, but a wife."
It's as if she can see his brain working behind his eyes.
"Maybe it would be better if you just killed yourself."
"Shut up!" he yells at her; sweat is running down his face, and his eyes keep flickering back and forth between her face and his pinned hand.
"Shut up already!"
His fist comes at her from the other side, but she ducks and rams her knuckles into his throat. Choking, he stumbles back and trips. Pathetic, she wants to say. Didn't they teach you not to broadcast your next move?
"No, no – it's great idea, just listen," she croons. There's a sick sort of satisfaction as she takes his hand and places the blade against his throat.
"Your wife will be safe then, we won't look for her. And if you do it yourself it'll be quick, and you'll see your friends real soon."
He stares into her eyes, breathless and speechless.
"Go ahead," she coaxes, pressing the blade more firmly against his throat. There's a sickening shluck, as she encounters no resistance, pressing it deeply into the flesh. It only takes three minutes until he's bled out; she can't, won't, look away from his eyes.
"No hard feelings," she tells him.