Insert disclaimer here
Blah Blah Blah basic text (i.e. description, speech, etc)
Blah Blah Blah Thought or some transaction within someone's mind (also flashbacks)
Blah Blah Blah Kyuubi talking Jutsu will also be bold
BLAH yelling, or emphasis of some sort
Wrath of a Woman Scorned
Rated M for: language, violence, adult situations and concepts, lemons, and graphic imagery
Chapter 4: Wandering Feet Wandering Minds
Konoha Main Gate
The next morning found the gennin of Team 7, minus Aki, and Tazuna waiting for the last members of their party so that they could be on their way.
"Alright, now all we need is Aki and we'll be ready to go," Kakashi said as he walked up to the group.
"Aki? Who the hell names their kid Evil Spirit?" Tazuna asked.
"I did," Aki said as she dropped down next to him, nearly giving the old bridge builder a heart attack.
Sasuke and Sakura exchanged a significant look. She had chosen her name? Did that mean she had changed it or was she just a nameless orphan that picked something out for herself?
"Ah, there you are," Kakashi said, giving his usual smile. "Alright, now we can get this show on the road."
It was as they started walking that Sakura noticed something, "Aki, where's your pack?"
Instead of answering Aki gave Sakura a pointed look as though questioning her intelligence.
'Oh right, she sleeps in the woods,' Sakura thought, remembering Sasuke telling her about how he'd found her the day of Kakashi's test. 'Come to think of it does she even own anything other than what she carries on her?'
"Didn't Iruka-sensei mention some kind of seal that you can put stuff in once?" Inner Sakura asked.
'You think she uses storage seals? Isn't that a little advanced?'
"We're talking about a girl that makes 'Death Glare' a statement of fact. What do you think?" Inner Sakura responded sarcastically.
'True…'
"Why do you think she does it?" Inner Sakura wondered.
'Why does she do what?'
"You know, sleep in the woods and stuff."
At first Sakura didn't have an answer to that. Why would someone choose to sleep in the middle of the woods? Sure temperature and weather didn't seem to bother Aki in the least but that couldn't be comfortable…
Flashback
She was sitting against a post, hunger eating away at her stomach, staring in open disbelief as her red haired teammate ignored her lunch.
"I don't eat anything that I haven't prepared myself."
End Flashback
As Aki's words from Kakashi's test rang in Sakura's head she began seeing a pattern, 'Aki doesn't trust anyone…'
"What's that?"
'I said that Aki doesn't trust anybody, she's paranoid. She doesn't eat anything made by anybody else, she sleeps in a different place every night, she's in a constant state of alertness, even when she's sleeping,' Sakura thought, remembering how Aki had nearly killed Sasuke when he'd tried to wake her up. As the evidence tumbled through her mind she could help but feel that Aki's behavior was… familiar.
"She's like one of the vets," Inner Sakura muttered thoughtfully.
'How do you mean?' Sakura asked.
"All the old guys that were in the second and third great wars… she acts just like them. Constantly vigilant and aware of their surroundings, they react violently when somebody surprises them, that sort of thing. She acts just like that. It's almost like she's expecting to be attacked or something."
All of a sudden Sakura stopped dead in her tracks, 'That's it…' she realized.
"Huh?"
'She's expecting to be attacked…'
"Sakura?" Kakashi asked.
"Huh?"
"Why'd you stop?" he asked
"Oh," she muttered, flushing with embarrassment as she hurried to catch up with the group making a mental note to tell Sasuke about her revelation.
Giving her a curious look Kakashi wondered, 'What she was thinking about?'
Sasuke, meanwhile, simply ignored this in favor of his own thoughts. He'd read some more of "The Wrath of a Woman Scorned" a few nights ago. He hadn't been able to get very far in it. Since becoming a gennin spare time was something he'd found himself having very little of what with training, missions, and looking for information about Aki, and to be quite frank he wasn't sure how to feel about what he'd read. He was still near the beginning so the plot was still building. So far most of the story had been explaining the almost casual systematic mistreatment the heroin had suffered. It had amazed him that someone could endure that kind of punishment and remain sane, it was rather admirable really. In hindsight the events described were probably embellished somewhat, but even a fraction of what she went through would break trained ninja and she was just a child. Whether it was that it was just normal for her or sheer force of will that she possessed, it amazed him that she could keep smiling. But everyone breaks… everyone.
The last chapter he'd read had been… graphic, detailing how the heroin was kidnapped by "faceless tormentors" that had a particularly zealous hatred of her. Then how she was kept in the dark for days as her captors tortured and abused her before the chapter ended abruptly. Then, as a break between the chapters, there had been a poem.
You say that I'm a demon
That I've done such horrid acts
But what I've done I could not say
So let's look at the facts
You say that I'm a demon
As you fix me with a glare
But I have never done you wrong
And I don't think that's fair
You say that I'm a demon
As you treat me like nothing more
And so I find myself a demon
Though I wasn't one before
You say that I'm a demon
And now I say to you
If it be demon that you wish me
I'm a demon it is true
So you say that I'm a demon
And a demon I may be
But they say "it takes a village"
So maybe now you see
That you say that I'm a demon
That I'm evil through and through
But it's you who made me what I am
So what does that make you?
The poem had struck a chord in him, especially the last stanza, which he found oddly familiar, like he'd read it before somewhere, but for the life of him he couldn't place it.
Either way, though he hadn't read further, the message was clear, the girl had finally broken and become the very thing her tormentors had feared she was. Ironic really, but that wasn't what was bothering him. The concept of those people creating the thing they had sought to destroy and the parallels it shared with his own development disturbed Sasuke. He hadn't wanted to admit it at first but when he compared his vision of Itachi, the cold hateful murderer, with how he acted most of the time…
'How did this happen?' he wondered.
How had he become so much like Itachi without even realizing it? He supposed that because he had always viewed Itachi as the strongest he may have subconsciously been modeling himself in that image but if that were true wouldn't that, in the end, make him just as bad? He had tried to reason that they were different, that he wasn't going to slaughter anyone to test himself and was being cold to not get close to anyone so that he wouldn't be tempted to activate Mangekyo, but now he was starting to question that reasoning. He had, after all, followed Itachi's instruction to use his hate as a source of strength, so in that regard he was playing Itachi's game even though he had vowed to go his own way. At this thought a deep frown creased Sasuke's face. Now that he actually stopped to think about it, very few of his actions made sense for his overall ambition of avenging and restoring his clan, so why had he-
'That's it!' he thought, a new idea coming to him that explained everything. In fact, considering they had learned some psychology in the academy, he couldn't believe that he hadn't seen this sooner.
He had always thought of Itachi as his measuring stick, it was a simple concept: "If I'm better, I can kill him." It made sense considering his mindset when all this had started, after all, in a child's mind what is the most simple way to beat someone? Hit them harder. Then, at some point, he must have transitioned from simply seeing that as the level he needed to reach to achieve his ambition to actually competing with Itachi, wanting to beat him at everything instead of being focused on what would help him kill his brother. He supposed it had been something of a learned response considering they had been siblings for years prior to the massacre and his vow to avenge the clan, some leftover reflex to compete with his former idol, but it had still cost him. By attempting to surpass Itachi he had progressed without thought, with no true plan of action, haphazardly spreading his efforts as thoughts, memories, and ideas struck him.
'Jack of all trades, master of none,' he quoted dryly, 'Damnit! This is going to set me back years!' he raged but quickly got ahold of himself.
He needed to think, needed a plan, something that would allow him to correct his handicap. He'd long ago chosen that they'd meet in open combat, or at least, "open" for ninja. He knew that it wasn't the most wise option, poison or some other indirect means would make more sense considering the power discrepancy, but that would be far from satisfying. He wanted Itachi to see him coming, to see his death drawing closer and closer as the members of their clan had when he'd slaughtered them. There was just one problem with that, Itachi was light years ahead of him in the power department so if he wanted to complete his ambition in any reasonable amount of time he needed an edge.
'I'll never beat him at his own game. That much is certain, he already has too much of a head start. He'd have to be half dead already for me to have a reasonable chance. So how do I make up the difference?' he wondered, thinking of the powerful warriors in history and what made them strong.
There were the classic examples like the legends like the Shodai Hokage and his Mokuton or the ghost stories that his clansmen had told him about the terrible power Uchiha Madara had wielded. The problem was that they were just that, legends and ghost stories that rose up before the Hidden Village during the days of the Clan Wars, he couldn't draw the kind of inspiration he would need from them.
Thinking of legends he thought of the man that had started all of this with his book. Jiraiya of the Sannin, the former student of the Sandaime Hokage, was born a no name, penniless civilian boy that entered the ninja academy with no advantages and became one of the most celebrated warriors in the history of the Hidden Leaf.
Then there was Jiraiya's student, Namikaze Minato, the infamous Konoha no Kiroi Senko and Yondaime Hokage. The only man whose exploits during the Third Great War earned him a classification all his own, SS-rank or "Flee on sight," and the man that defeated the Kyuubi no Yoko.
Speaking of teachers and their students…
Sasuke glanced at Kakashi, 'I wonder how many of the rumors are true.'
From what he'd heard Kakashi was no slouch, lazy perhaps, but still formidable. A ninja before most children entered the academy, chunnin shortly thereafter, and jounin by the time he was Sasukes age. Then he supposedly did a stint in ANBU doing who knows what and, if he was remembering his history lessons correctly, "Hatake" was the clan name of Konoha's White Fang, a ninja said to have been on the level of the Sannin.
'What do they have that I don't?' he wondered, still staring at Kakashi as though the answer might appear on his flack jacket. Then he remembered what Kakashi had told him when Sasuke had asked him why he had passed them.
Flashback
"You disobeyed my order to not feed Sakura," the jounin answered.
"But I didn't-"
"You didn't stop it either," Kakashi pointed out, but seeing that Sasuke was still confused. "Just because you didn't participate doesn't mean you aren't responsible, always remember that. All that is needed for evil to flourish is for good men to stand by and do nothing. Also remember that while it's true that orders are important, as a friend of mine once told me, "Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are less than scum.""
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sasuke asked, still somewhat confused.
"It means that some rules are worth breaking for the right reasons," Kakashi replied firmly.
"Huh?"
For a moment Kakashi said nothing as he prepared his next explanation, "Alright Sasuke, let me ask you this. What is Konoha?"
"It's our village," Sasuke said. What was Konoha? What kind of stupid question was that?
"Wrong."
Wait, what?
Taking a lecture tone that made Sasuke feel like he was back in Iruka's classroom Kakashi elaborated. "True, our village is named Konoha. However, Konohagakure no Sato is not a place or walls and houses. Konoha is the people, you, me, Sakura, the Sandaime, everyone who shares the ideal that my friend's words embody, they are Konoha. Walls can be repaired, buildings can be replaced, the village can be rebuilt, but people—your friends and comrades—cannot. They are the reason for your missions, they are what you are working to nurture and protect. Now tell me, if they die anyway... what was the point of completing the mission?"
End Flashback
Kakashi's words finally hit home for Sasuke, memories of how he had lost his family giving him an intimate understanding of Kakashi's point and ultimately the answer he was searching for.
The Shodai and his triumph over Madara…
The Nidaime's victories in the First Great War…
The Sandaime's success as Hokage despite his advanced age…
The Sannin's legendary synergy…
The Yondaime's exploits and defeat of the Kyuubi…
And thousands of others that accomplished what others thought impossible…
What those figures had—what they all shared—was the desire to protect that which they held dear and the will to see it done at all costs, even their own life.
But what did Sasuke have to protect? His family was dead. Because of his actions he had no friends. There wasn't really anyone for him to use as a focus, was there?
Then as he turned away from Kakashi he caught sight of Aki. 'What makes her strong?' he wondered.
He had no doubts that she was, in fact, powerful but she didn't seem to fit into his new theory. So what made her so strong? What was her secret? Why? For what purpose?
Suddenly Sasuke's inner monologue came to a grinding halt as saw something that chilled him to his core, a thing that told him that something was seriously wrong. Aki smiled… a malicious, blood chilling smile, the battle mask of a predator.
The next second two figures leaped from the puddle that the group had just passed wrapping some kind of chain around a surprised Kakashi before pulling it taught and shredding the silver haired Jounin to bloody pieces.
Edited: 6/10/17
End Notes
Just so you all know that poem, "So You Say That I'm A Demon©" is mine and I have it documented, I have no problem if you use it as long as you cite that you got it from me. However, I worked hard on that thing to get it right, so if I find anyone that used it and tried to pass it off as theirs I will come down on them like the hammer of god.