"Where is Kazuto?" Ibiki Morino had questioned as he raised his blade toward Kisame Hoshigaki.
"Kazuto? You mean, the one with the pair of Byakugan?" Kisame asked.
"That's right."
Kisame remained silent, then he smirked in front of Ibiki and his Konoha allies. "Heh."
Ibiki grunted as he saw Kisame's irritated him. "I'll ask you again!"
Kisame continued to smirk at his enemies as he stood close to the edge of the cliff where Kazuto and Miru had both fallen from. He glanced at each and member of Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Force. One by one. He looked at Ibiki, last.
The Konoha Shinobi were in contempt in capturing Kisame with force.
"I'm afraid your friend is quite dead." Kisame replied and answered Ibiki's question.
"What?" Ibiki replied.
"I'm afraid he took a nose dive trying to stop me." Kisame said proudly.
"Tch!" Ibiki grunted in frustration. Ibiki than glanced his eyes around a bit, taken a few steps back and noticed the corpses of the male members of the Cypher Division. Ibiki than glanced at Kisame's katana. Which happened to have blood on the tip. "Another question. Why did you kill your comrades?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Kisame asked with a confident smile. "These people talk too much. We can't afford the Cypher Division to fall into enemy hands." Kisame had answered Ibiki's second question. "You of all people should know that."
Ibiki than noticed Kisame's feet moving backwards. He then glanced at a smiling Kisame. "Stop him!"
"Let's meet again in the future-that is if you and I both survived." Kisame laughed as he quickly jumped off a cliff to escape Ibiki and his fellow Konoha Shinobi.
Ibiki and his comrades were a bit too late to catch Kisame Hoshigaki and stop him from jumping.
"Shit." Ibiki had cursed under his breath as he watched Kisame jump off the cliff. After ten seconds of staring, Ibiki than turned his head and looked at the bodies of the Cypher Division. "Hide the bodies!"
"Sir!"
As the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force had begun working to remove the corpses of the Cypher Division, Ibiki couldn't help but look at the black night sky.'Where are you, Kazuto?'
Meanwhile...
"Um... hello? Excuse me. Mister, please, wake up!"
Kazuto had gasped when he heard a yell. When he did, he found himself looking up at the night sky. Before he had regained consciousness, everything was black.
"Are you okay?"
Kazuto then heard a sweet and innocent feminine voice. His eyes followed the voice and looked up. As he did, Kazuto had spotted the pretty face of Miru leaning over him. His living body was lying on the ground and his head lying on Miru's lap.
"I have attended to your wounds when you were unconscious." Miru stated.
Kazuto blinked, twice. Hoping that he wasn't dreaming. He then groaned in pain as he slowly tried to raise his head.
Miru gasped when she saw him try to move his body. "Please, stay down. Don't try to move." Miru asked as she calmly lied Kazuto's head back down on her soft lap, gently.
"Why?" Kazuto asked as he groaned. His right eye had twitched.
"You hit your head really hard, when you were protecting me from the fall. We ended up falling in a river." Miru stated as she looked down at Kazuto.
"Fall?" Kazuto had asked as he could not recall.
"Mm-hmm." Miru had nodded. "You might still have a concussion, so please. Don't move."
'I don't remember a fall-wait a minute...' Kazuto had thought to himself.
Brief Flashback
The moment when Kazuto and Miru had fallen off the edge of the cliff. Miru was screaming and Kazuto had grabbed Miru's as he pulled her closer and buried her head in his chest and wrapped his arms around her back.
"Hang on!" Kazuto yelled, then closed his eyes tightly.
Within the next five seconds, Kazuto and Miru had fallen down as they had landed into a river.
As soon as they landed, Kazuto had hit his head on a big rock at the bottom of the river. Making him lose consciousness.
End Brief Flashback
'Oh yeah. That's right. We both did land in a river when we fell.' Kazuto had thought. Then his eyes wondered and saw a bunch of plants and trees all around him. He even saw a small bonfire that was a few yards away from him. "Where are we... anyway?" Kazuto asked Miru.
Miru turned her head left and right to see nothing but wildlife such as plants and trees all around. "I don't know where this current location is... but I believe that this might be a jungle."
"Might?" Kazuto had asked.
Miru nodded. "Mm-hmm. And that we are still in the Land of Water." She said as she looked down at him.
"The Land of Water... still?" Kazuto had asked.
"Mm-hmm." Miru had nodded.
After that moment, Kazuto and Miru just looked at each other.
"So... now what?" Kazuto asked.
"Um... I guess we just wait here and maybe reinforcements might come?" Miru had replied as she did not know her next move.
"I see." Kazuto said, then he grunted when something had clicked in his mind. "Wait, what do you mean, reinforcements?" He asked Miru.
"Hm?"
"What kind of reinforcements are you talking about? Konoha reinforcements or Kiri reinforcements?" Kazuto asked.
Miru looked at the leaf symbol on Kazuto's headband and remembered that he was a Konoha Shinobi. "Oh, right. I forgot. Sorry."
"What are you apologizing for?" Kazuto asked.
"Because, when I said reinforcements... I was only thinking of Kirigakure." Miru chuckled, embarrassingly.
Kazuto looked at Miru, then looked away from her as if he was disappointed.
"What's wrong?" Miru asked.
"I can't afford to be captured." Kazuto said.
"Huh? Why not?" Miru asked.
"Because, not only I'm from Konoha... I have something that might be highly valuable to Kirigakure."
"Highly valuable?" Miru asked.
Kazuto then turned his head back to Miru. And activated the Byakugan in both his eyes. "This."
Miru gasped when she saw Kazuto's eyes grow a bit bigger and veins had appeared around his eyes. "Is that?"
"This is called the Byakugan. It is a special Dōjutsu and a precious Kekkei Genkai that belongs to the Hyūga Clan in Konohagakure." Kazuto had stated.
"I think I heard of something like that, before." Miru said.
"It's very sacred to my clan-no. My village ti where we can't let it fall into the hands of outsiders." Kazuto stated.
"I see." Miru said as she had absorbed all that information in her head. "So, what do we do now?"
Kazuto looked up at the night sky and thought for a moment. "Hmmm..." He closed his eyes for a minute. He thought about his mentor, Ibiki Morino and his Konoha comrades. Kazuto then opened his eyes. "I think it's best that we rest here for the night."
"That is a good idea." Miru replied.
"And by tomorrow, we will meet up with my comrades." Kazuto said as he thought of Ibiki Morino, once more.
Miru had gasped. "You mean, the Torture and Interrogation Force from Konoha?"
"Yeah. My squad had set up camp further up the mountain. I'll take you there so you can safely be escorted to Konoha. But, the only downside is... that you'll be questioned and interrogated for your knowledge about Kirigakure, though." Kazuto said.
Miru had frowned after hearing Kazuto's speech Her eyes followed and looked at the bonfire. "I don't know if I can go through with that." Miru had shook her head no.
"Huh?"
"I have a vast knowledge about Kirigakure that I cannot reveal to other lands. If I do reveal it, then I will later be hunted down and punished for it." Miru stated.
"Look, I get it. Betraying the country that you grew up in is a huge risk. But it's better to spill the beans and live another day rather than be struck down in cold blood by your own comrades!" Kazuto said.
"Are you referring to Hoshigaki-san?" Miru asked.
"Yeah. I saw the body language he had. The way he looked at you and his comrades... The way he held his blade... He did not show the slightest hesitation when it comes to killing." Kazuto stated.
Miru's facial expression had gotten sad. "But, Hoshigaki-san would never-"
"Think about it. You said it, yourself! You hold valuable information that you cannot reveal to outsiders." Kazuto then closed his eyes. "He probably would've killed all of you-if it meant protecting that valuable information you have on Kiri. He's probably hunting us right now as we spee-" Within a second, Kazuto felt a single tear drop fall on his left cheek under his left eye. "Eh?" Kazuto quickly opened his eyes to see a single tear on his left face. In the next second, he looked up to see Miru having a nervous breakdown over him.
Miru had covered her mouth with her right robe green sleeve. She had heavy tears streaming down her face and some landed on Kazuto's cheeks.
Kazuto quietly gasped when he saw Miru cry in front of him. 'Shit. I think I went too far.' Kazuto had thought as he watched Miru cry over him. "Hey, I'm..."
Miru shook her head no, as she declined to let Kazuto talk. "You're probably right." Miru had sniffled as she continued crying.
Kazuto can't help but feel bad as he made Miru cry by giving her the cold heart truth.
One Hour Later...
Kazuto and Miru were lying next to each other, side by side. Miru lied on her left side on Kazuto's right side. She had finally calmed down from all the crying she did during the past hour. The bonfire that helped keep them warm had been put out by dirt.
"Hey."
"Hm?" Miru had responded.
"I never got your name." Kazuto said as he took an interest in learning her name.
"My name?" Miru had blinked, once.
"Yeah. My name's Kazuto, by the way." Kazuto said.
"Kazuto..." After learning his name, Miru had smiled. "That's a pretty name." she giggled.
Kazuto blushed a bit, then turned his head to the left in embarrassment.
"My name is Miru." Miru had said.
'Miru. That's a cute name.' Kazuto had thought.
"Hey, Kazuto?"
Kazuto quickly turned his head back to the right and met Miru's gaze. "Hm?"
"I'm sorry for asking you at this time of night, but... why did you save me?" Miru had asked.
Kazuto lightly gasped. "Because..." Kazuto paused as he stared at Miru. He saw a visual of a young woman with dark brown hair, a pair of white eyes and fair skin. She smiled.
''I'll always be with you, Kazuto-kun."
Kazuto had gasped when he saw that image again.
"What's wrong?"
Kazuto blinked, once he saw Miru, once more. He saw her staring at him. "Nothing. It's just that... you..." Kazuto was afraid to finish his sentence, so he turned away from her by lying on his left side with his back facing her. "You remind me of someone that I used to know." Kazuto muttered.
Miru had lightly gasped when she heard his answer. She then slowly drew a smile on her face. "Hey, Kazuto.
Kazuto had remained silent.
"I've done some thinking... about what you said." Miru had said.
Kazuto blinked while his back was still facing Miru. "About what I said?"
"I've decided... to go with you to Konoha." Miru said.
Kazuto had gasped in shock. He quickly switched from lying on his left side-back to his right. "R-Really?"
"Mm-hmm."Miru happily nodded.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Kazuto asked, feeling a bit concerned.
"You said it, yourself. It's better to spill the beans and live another day, rather than be cut down by your own comrades." Miru chuckled.
'She's right. I did say that.' Kazuto thought. "Okay. Tomorrow morning, I'll safely guide you to Konoha." Kazuto smiled. He then notice Miru stretching her left hand out toward him. Wanting it to be touched. Without a moment's hesitation, Kazuto rrespinded by stretching his right arm out and touching her left hand with his right.
There will be more chapters in the future.