CHAPTER 10

Salt Walkways

Kabuto walked through the rain. Buildings around him stood dim and dank. Water damage lined even newer walls and balconies. Older structures remained half crumbled, destroyed by two bigger powers intent on seizing control from the others. The people here still put out salt along walkways to ward off the worst spirits. A mourning ritual they'd not yet finished. Their homes their families destroyed.

Suffering so strongly displayed, death less merciful for how it had been performed in droves. It was little wonder the people of Amegakure saw evil in the world. The immediate details had been taken, the mass graves dug, but there wasn't time enough to dull this pain so intentionally and casually wrought. Kabuto first saw Ame after he failed his first Chūnin exam. There he and his team met a man as shadowed as the history of their village, someone who was working to change how this world was run. Kabuto's mother would have approved. She once said the best thing he could do in life was make the place they had better.

He was doing it. One mission at a time. A Genin who had a purpose beyond the Corps. They might be the 33% who weren't assigned long-term sensei, but it hardly mattered when their first steps were just beginning to form. He was young, barely a teenager, and he already had a mentor sending him scrolls and giving his team opportunities they'd never have. Not if they stuck doing grocery runs with the Genin Corps.

Around him Ame continued to rain. The sound relentless against the metal rooftops. Leached iron ran from the buildings to the streets and swirled down drainage paths. Children played in the same streets, carefree, happy, and well fed. The God of Amegakure took care of its people, that's what they said.

Under a burnt orange awning he stepped into a dry veranda. The shoe rack almost empty. The sign above demanding muddy shoes be left outside. He took off his boots. They were brand new and kept his toes dry and warm. He'd bought it with his 3rd month of Root's salary. They gave a health program and took issues of uniform so seriously, all he'd needed to do was mention his sandals were falling apart. The new leader had his equipment form and increased salary signed the next day. Kabuto stared at his new boots, muddy yes but holding back the swamp, and still couldn't believe it. They were the sturdiest he'd ever owned. Maybe if his mom had been this well taken care of she'd still be here. He would make it better. He'd make it better for her.

In nothing but his socks he stepped into the quiet building, pushed past two curtains, and made his way past the bar and into a quiet lounge. Soft music floated from a stereo across the room. The corner where his Senpai sat held an expansive view of the forest beyond. Rain refracted light on the window pane. It cast the man and everything near in blues.

Kabuto bowed low, "Orochimaru-sama."

"What have you heard?"

"You are right, there's been no word of Tobi, not since his last letter. Patrols around the compound have gotten worse. We lost our original tail on the prodigies."

"And the new leader?"

"Stuck on some girl. Danzo's last order. It's doomed to fail."

"Exert pressure, give your advice, their services can be better used elsewhere."

"Hai."

The Sannin smiled, "You've done well Kabuto. Are you happy?"

"More than I have been in a long time. Thank you."

It had been a quiet day and was an even quieter night. Around her Junior ANBU Barracks was empty as it always was on the early weekend. It seemed the time when everyone's schedule collided and she regularly got left alone. Inu's clone was her only company. Later she'd realize just how lucky she was.

Lucky Inu's clone had been there, because she didn't hear the first one come in. She just felt the dead and almost drained chakra as it stepped from the shadows of the hall behind her. They got to her door. It swung open and creaked the hinges. Sakura looked up to find a blank masked woman towered above her. More shadowed colors of suppressed chakra behind her. The closest one, the woman raised an arm. It looked so pale in the dim of the night. The arm guard curiously different than all the other ANBU level nin who came to the underground facility.

In a blink they were next to her bed. Sakura jumped backwards, tangled in her blanket. Her sleepy brain panicked as if this were a nightmare. The woman's arm swung forward with a glint of a wickedly pointed senbon. It's tip still wet from whatever she'd dipped it in. Sakura kicked her feet against the too large blanket.

Inu's clone moved so fast she didn't see the kunai until it lodged in the woman's neck. It snuck in right under the blank white mask and stuck out the side. It's blade severed an artery, one of the big ones. The clone pushed the spurting body away. Deft and quick he found a corner of the messy bedding and tugged away Sakura's blankets.

She stood, shaky, and backed quickly away. Inu's clone helped her towards the door. On the way he bent down. When he pulled the kunai from his victim the spurting got worse. The clone held it out to her. His clone's dampened voice now sounded off for how urgent it spoke. How forcefully he put the kunai in her smaller hand.

He instructed, "Run. If they're inside we need to get out."

Sakura bolted for the open door. She no longer questioned orders like that.

It was in the hallway they got Inu's clone. The clone took out a pair of blank masks before one of their swords caught him. Inu's figure poofed with a disheartening and sudden absence of friendly chakra. The clone's smoke just enough cover for her to run into the man trying to block her. She used the kunai. The handle still slick from the previous woman's neck. She ran around the next person trying to get her. The smoke wafted around her, excessively, as if the clone still tried to protect her even in it's death.

Those two remaining in the hallway felt dark, unwelcome, and full of bad intent. Sakura ran just as Inu's clone told her. Down the halls, through the short cuts by the bathroom, between a book case full of spare black uniforms. Her heart hammered so loud it really felt like a dream. The dark hallways didn't light up around her, not like they should. Instead they only held a dim glow, the ambient energy which never powered down from the sealed surfaces. In the utter dark they had a faint hexagonal pattern from which she could sense every ANBU's chakra who'd ever fed it.

She expanded her chakra outward. It was dangerous, Senju Tobirama once wrote in his letter to his healer cousin, because any sensitive person in the vicinity would be able to feel you. Sensors are best when they go unnoticed. Sakura's heart skipped, but she pushed her chakra out anyways. Searched, pushed, and desperately tried to find someone familiar. There. Three blocks away, on the same level and moving towards the younger ANBU Barracks. It was faint, clearly masked.

Faint and far away, but familiar. Sakura knew that chakra. It was strong. She blared out her own chakra in the same distress pattern she'd felt Shisui use. Help. Help. Help.

The chakra signature raced towards her. Sakura almost cried when she recognized who it was coming for her, the tall Panda masked woman. The ANBU Captain who always was so strong. She arrived in the common room before her, Sakura sensed the Captain's entry, her precise location in the underground facility, and spun sharply to veer in that direction. When Sakura rushed in, a blank masked follower was close on her heels. 15 meters, 10 meters, she sprinted hard around the last corner till she found the familiar signature. Unfortunately the bad one still followed. Sakura could feel them gaining and ducked when they lunged. From over her shoulder she saw the blank masked man, the same one she'd run into under the cover of smoke. His long blade missed her head. His swing arched and overextended his arm.

The blank mask didn't have a chance to use their blade a second time. Panda flickered. One moment the Captain was across the room. The next her white armor plated forearms were reaching from beside the man's extended arm. His neck broke with a sharp twist of the woman's hands.

Panda communicated, "I locked down the facility. All doors should be sealed to any signature but the Captains' and Commander's."

Sakura didn't know if she liked that, "We're locked in?"

"Yes," The grim determination in her voice resonated with the Captain's chakra. "But so are they."

Just as she said this a thunderous boom shook the room around them. For the first time Sakura seemed to feel the weight of soil and buildings above them. The underground facility echoed the explosive noise. It seemed to rattle everything from her bones to the mush between her ears. They started ringing and she cupped her hands to the side of her aching head.

Across the room an ominous orange and gold color started to glow around the door frame. Sakura watched, never having seen any of the ANBU's seals do this before. She sensed the building energy. A toxic and unstable little pool only held back by a metal door. Their side of the door began to waft smoke. The smell of hot steel filled the room. A pop sounded when the nearby wall formed a hairline crack adjacent to the frame. More smoke drifted through when a second crack formed in the reinforced cement.

While she'd been gawking the Captain had been quick and moving around behind her. The focus of the serious woman's chakra seemed to hone in. Intensify in precise motions as she went from task to task. Sakura realized the woman was setting up traps around the room.

The door got incredibly hot. Panda's head snapped up and her motions became rushed. Panda flipped up a huge fluffy chair. Then a corner table and layered them against each other.

"Panda?" Sakura asked, scared.

The Captain's chakra spiked with anxiety and focus. She didn't respond, but threw a thermal blanket over the upturned and protective fort in the corner. Where did she get a thermal blanket and water bottle? The Captain grabbed something else out of a pouch and threw it across the room. The 6 year old's eyes followed the exploding tag, fixated on it as the chakra infused paper fluttered from where the kunai stuck in the far wall.

Sakura felt her shirt jerk. Her miniature, mint condition, ANBU uniform was strong. When the Captain pulled her shirt up the rest of Sakura easily came with it. Sakura found herself shoved into the corner. The side of her face pressed against the table. Her legs too long and awkward against the squishy sofa chair. The next boom shook the entire Common Room. Above her she felt the edge of the thermal blanket flutter. A crack and hiss of sparks far worse preceded a hideous snap sound. Then, within Sakura's limited vantage something huge was airborne and smacked into the interior plaster not a meter from her. Sakura shrieked, a high pitched, panicked noise.

In front of her the huge piece of metal groaned and slipped from the wall. Much too close to the protective sofa chair.

The destroyed metal door slammed to the floor with a bang of sparks and flames. One moment her toes were fine and only barely sticking out the underside of the sofa chair. The next she squished backwards. Bringing her feet with her, Sakura barely avoided being crushed under the remains of the hot metal door. She squeaked when she wasn't fast enough and it burned her bare toes.

Sakura would later remember the Captain's voice, shouted from across the room as it released the chakra on the exploding tag. The noise, its resulting percussion of air, the way her ears rang, the steaming sound of the burning leather chair next to her head. Till they were overtaken when screams lit the air. She heard those.

Sakura blinked hard against the pain in her toes and tried to curl into herself. The sounds of metal clashing, feet scuffling, furniture flipping and tearing, all of it faded and dim.

Someone did find her. They tore away the fluffy and charred chair. Sakura scooted back trying to stay under her protective table. Till that to was shoved and suddenly there was nothing blocking her from the room.

Sakura peered up. Ceiling lights above remained ominously dark. It looked even creepier with nothing but seal work glowing and the edges of a blank mask came into view. She held her breath as the figure leaned closer.

She saw a single dark glove reach out and grip the edge of the wood. A blank mask shifted the table away to till they looked over the edge and found her.

A surge of fear made her move. She kicked the wood. The wood was hard. Connecting her foot hurt like blazes lit under her already injured toes, but she was too scared. The table didn't even hit them. It tottered, fell flat, and the blank mask neatly avoided her leg as she tried to kick them again and again. They grabbed her foot and stepped closer. Sakura screamed.

One moment the masked person loomed over her, the next a sword stuck through their shoulder. Its point glinted, barely distinguishable in the glow of overhead seals. Its tip glinted and dripped as it slid further through their shoulder and closer to Sakura's face. Till it quickly retracted and jerked sharply to the side. The blade slid inside their chest. It rented a gruesome curve then pulled free. Their corpse hit the table and slid to the floor.

Sakura scrambled further into her corner and held her own sides as if it'd keep them away. Panda before never seemed too much worse than Itachi or any of the others. Only just then there wasn't anything friendly or familiar about her.

The Captain was a nightmare stepping out of the dark. Her mask gruesome. Her white armor flashed ominous and rendered carnage in her path back to the middle of the room. Flash, flash, flash, she moved and they fell. This commotion held the center of the common room. Everything seemed to rotate around Panda. Even Sakura herself. It held her gaze, she was trapped and not a little awed and terrified by the single woman army.

"Oni," Sakura whispered, for the woman moved like a demon from the worst stories.

Now there were only four blank masks left. They circled around the center of the nightmare. The one who stepped forward was slight, young, and their chakra swirled in a strange way before being forced into action from some command seal in their head. It was the oddest sight. Odder because she'd seen it before. Sakura recognized the messed up chakra of a boy they'd called Tenzo. He wore a blank mask, but his chakra was the same as she'd seen that night as Inu ordered him to the Hokage tower. Well he was here now.

He stepped up to the Captain and attacked, his movements forced the other three blank masks back. From his jutsu numerous wood staffs shot, halting the Captain's movements, the wooden beams shot out with vicious speed and thunked hard against everything they hit. One clipped the Captain right in the forehead. The reinforced panda mask cracked with a broken porcelain noise and shattered when it hit the floor. The place it'd hit broke through and cut the Captain.

Panda bared her teeth. Her response spiked the Captain's chakra. She was furious, "You."

Sakura wasn't sure what the Captain did to the boy, but one moment he was standing and the next he'd slumped. His leg at a bad angle and his head tilted. She stood over his unconscious figure, blood rushed down her cut to paint half of her face in a vicious visage. She snarled.

In the dim lit room Sakura truly believed it was oni they housed in the depths of the village.

Panda left bodies all over the common room. Her motions got slower and slower until she was the only thing left standing. The side of her face had become a dripping mask of blood. Later Sakura would remember, when everything became still and quiet, how the woman called for her when it was all done. At the time she didn't register it. The moment froze her with everything else and she couldn't seem to move.

"Sprite, are you there?" Her voice sounded scared. For such a tall woman the tone didn't match. Such a strong Captain seemed incapable of fear. The pedestal Sakura placed her on had grown to the height of the Hokage mountain. "Sprite?"

Sakura, whose shaking hands were clamped around the edges of her useless table, peaked out from behind her hiding spot. At some point she'd sunk behind it again. The table wobbled on a leg broken from when the body landed on it. She looked around the shards of the leg to look from the slumped forms, to the whole that used to be the doorway, to the exploded wall, to the two bodies suspended by ninja wire. Their legs and arms outstretched at odd angles from how they'd been caught in that trap.

"Sprite?"

Sakura's head snapped back towards the center of the room, to the white armor and Captain who looked so bright in the dim light. She'd later remember how Panda's purple hair fell forward as she leaned her hands on her knees. Her face writ with exhaustion and relief.

"You're ok."

Sakura remained crouched, mute, and afraid to move. Crimson appeared almost black in the common room's dim lighting. There was so much of it. Blood splattered the walls. Gore coated the scattered chunks of concrete and metal which had been the door. There had been so many people 5 minutes ago. Now it was just her and a scary looking Panda breathing ragged and holding a hand to the puncture wound in her stomach. Through increasingly winded words Panda had to ask her question a few times before the 6 year old heard it.

"Kid, you heal right?"

Sakura jolted forwards. Her bare feet skidded and slid on the blood. The floor was a mess. Destroyed cushions and feathers like islands in the black crimson. The blood squished and squelched between her toes when she stumbled to a stop before the ANBU Captain. The tall woman lowered herself. Her form landed against the ruined couch. It might have been graceful, but for how heavily the Captain fell onto her knees. The mockery of a polite greeting.

Panda asked quite randomly, "How are you doing tonight?"

Sakura, her eyes still wide in shock, looked from the bloody wound spurting between too pale fingers and up to the woman's face. The female ANBU Captain had never spoken this much or so freely. Her words slurred.

"I got books and food for you. Inu sends his love."

The woman sounded drunk. Alarmed Sakura's hands glowed green and shot forward to brush away the woman's own now sickly white hand. Blood loss. Hadn't one of Inu's books mentioned that? It had been one of the more useful ones. A journal written by an ANBU during the 2nd Shinobi War on battle medicine and triage. Sakura followed the advice now. She always had been good at reading and book learning.

The Captain's organs and muscles knitted underneath her fingers. She could feel them closing. Their chakra pathways repaired. The muscle around them shifted, repopulated cells and stimulated a careful and controlled growth. Not too fast. She had to be careful to stop the growth after. Then the skin, only by then her arms were shaking and the green around her palms sputtered.

Her work got increasingly sloppy but she pushed just a bit further till it closed. Into a puckered patch covering what had been a hole she could fit her own small fist into. Her shaky fingers, now bloody, brushed across the uneven puckered skin. If she didn't feel so empty as if all the chakra had gone from her limbs, she'd get rid of the scar.

Yet having run so fast with chakra pumping through her legs, having healed the oni in Captain's armor who should have their face carved in stone for the message it would send... Sakura's thoughts were starting to ramble and skip. She raised her hands again to the Captain's puckered skin, but her chakra just sputtered out. The scar stared back at her. It was messier than she'd like.

She looked up to see the Captain's eyes had shut. Her breathing shallow. Her posture heavy against the destroyed couch. Her head rested back against a dismembered arm. The arm still had a glove on, still had hair just like a normal arm, and if it's bloody stub wasn't visible Sakura would have thought it still attached. Panda fell unconscious against it like it was a pillow.

The squishiness between her toes had gotten worse. The couch was dripping. Her mouth twisted as the smell got to her. This side of the room was worse. More bodies sprawled. They'd previously been hidden by the furniture Sakura crouched behind. Now she saw them. Her breath jilted and stuck in her throat.

Sakura tried to ignore the bodies. Only the more she thought about it the more often she glanced to the one whose guts strung out in a long line on the floor, or the one who'd been cut down while jumping over the couch. Or the four who'd caught an exploding tag in the doorway and piled there, or the one with wood still sticking out of the floor near his feet who'd been sucker punched when he thought he had her out and put in a choke hold until he passed out.

Now their blood leaked under the furniture and was creeping towards her. She almost went to the couch to perch there for safety only to see it too was glistening and soaked. The closest lifeless eyes stared at her. Milky blue eyes of a Yamanaka, the same eyes as her classmate. Next to them was a boy, he'd been knocked out, but the bugs inside his young flesh still buzzed agitated. An Aburame. Sakura swallowed. She wasn't sure what was worse, staring down a dead all seeing Yamanaka whose mask had slipped off or the boy with the agitated bugs. These were all Konoha Shinobi they'd hidden beneath blank masks. Konoha Shinobi had tried to kill her.

If the cold lady captain hadn't been there dropping off Inu's latest gift of food and books, she'd have been all alone. Sakura's breath came fast. When others arrived Sakura was still kneeling next to an unconscious Panda and the severed arm.

The hours after that may as well have been seconds for how much she remembered. Inu's concerned face appeared before her. He spoke but her head seemed too fuzzy to listen. Genma came next. Even Itachi and Shisui made an appearance when the ANBU Commander stopped by. Shisui gave her the oddest look. At some point someone escorted her to the showers, got her dressed, and got her tucked into bed. At some point someone brought her breakfast then lunch and dinner.

The next evening Panda visited. It was unexpected as Panda never visited just to visit. The woman wasn't wearing her mask. Her long purple hair was glorious and spilled over her shoulders. The bags under her eyes and sallow skin made her look tired.

She knocked on Sakura's already open door, "May I come in?"

"Sure."

The six year old scooted across the bed and tidied her tangled blankets. She hadn't slept well last night. Even after the other ANBU arrived and Inu appeared and everyone started cleaning and building new walls and doors. Even after all the drilling and construction noises quieted, she hadn't been able to sleep. Even with the four guards in the hallway. Even when her door was left open so they could check in on her. During her brief nap this afternoon she'd woken up short of breath and with invisible hands reaching for her.

Looking at Panda, the woman was doing just as bad.

"Are you ok Panda-san?"

The Captain's lips twitched.

"Mitarashi."

"Huh?"

"My family name is Mitarashi. I've never had a 6 year old save my life before. I think I owe it to you."

Sakura's eyes were wide, "No. You got it wrong. You saved me."

The woman snorted, her face relaxing by the second. She sat gingerly on the other bed.

"You know how many clients are useless in a fight? How many would see me or one of my people injured and be glad they'd paid top ryō? Thinking at least they weren't the ones bleeding out. Kid, not a one ever tried to help us. Why do you think Shisui is so scared of you?"

Sakura was numb with the information. She stated, "I healed him and gave him a hug."

"We are expecting to die. We aren't expecting to be cared for."

"That's so sad."

"Hm."

Sakura sat with the woman in her room. It was such a novelty to have a female around. She was just as presentable as Itachi and just as tall as Shisui. She spoke enough and sat easily enough Sakura almost would think she was sitting with one of her normal entourage. Similar to how Inu or Genma would stay with her just for a chat. No strings and no rush. Just conversation. As if they were friends. It was nice.

Panda spoke with her. Explained, very briefly, why she'd been so angry with the blank mask they called Tenzo. It ended with a sneering finality, "They should have just cut his tongue out and healed it."

"His tongue?" Sakura was almost not sure she wanted to ask.

"Root members have a seal on their tongues. There are only two people in the village who can counter those sort of insidious and controlling seals. One is hardly ever here, the other, she's got a problem with most. The Hokage doesn't know what to do with her and doesn't trust her to get anywhere near Root or anyone else." Panda sighed, a sad and strange quality to her voice, "He stuck her in T and I. Probably hoping the problem would fix itself and he'd never have to see the Snake Sannin's Apprentice again."

Panda's voice remained neutral but her chakra swirled more under this topic than when she'd been facing Root nin in the blown open doorway.

"You know her?"

"My sister. Her name's Anko."

"Do you think if I asked nicely, if she'd teach me? I promise I'll be nice."