Chapter 23: In the Name of Jashin
"Hokage sama, you called?" One knee already planted onto the ground, Shisui bowed his head out of respect towards his leader.
"Please stand," Minato requested in an exasperated voice. It wasn't the first time Minato had asked Shisui to stop with the formalities, but what could Shisui do? Old habits were hard to break.
Minato stood up from his chair, rounding the desk to stand in front of him. Shisui's eyes fell onto his outstretched hand, holding two different colored scrolls. At Minato's cue, Shisui took the scrolls.
"Last time, I granted your request to lead a search team to track down Orochimaru. Your team will be ready to depart tomorrow morning; the details of your mission is written in the blue scroll. Remember that your task is to find him, not to engage."
"And the green scroll?" Shisui questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"A side mission, if you're willing."
"Of course." Shisui didn't hesitate to agree to his request, even if he didn't know what the side mission entailed. Minato had done him a favor by allowing him to partake in the tracking mission; a move that others might have deemed to be special treatment since Shisui wasn't known for being a tracker. Teams of Hyuugas, Aburames, and Inuzukas had been built since the founding of the Academy for this exact purpose; his presence was unnecessary.
Regardless of what the mission was, there wasn't any reason for him to say no.
"I need you to deliver a message to Kumo."
Understanding dawned on him. There wasn't a single shinobi in the village who wasn't aware of the incident at the Hyuuga compound. One hour was all that it took for two of the Kumo nins to crack. By the end of the third hour, all four of them were sobbing messes, desperately pleading for their lives.
They spilled everything they knew. Shisui wasn't privy to the exact details, but if the Raikage was smart, then they wouldn't have much to spill.
The Raikage was a smart man. Perhaps, a bit too smart for his own good.
"Will the Raikage be expecting me?"
Minato shook his head. "No. I want to show them that we are able to accomplish what they attempted to do, but successfully. Do you understand?"
Shisui nodded slowly. While it would serve as a declaration of power to show that Konoha wasn't a force to be trifled with, it could also be perceived as a declaration of war. From his understanding of the Fourth Raikage's temper…he wouldn't be one to take such a message lightly.
Was Minato asking him to fan the flames for conflict? It was a move that the Sandaime would never make, let alone let it cross his mind, but then again his complacency probably stemmed from living through decades of being embroiled in conflict. Anyone in his position would want to maintain peace for as long as possible and Shisui didn't blame him.
From the start, Shisui sensed that Minato was a different kind of leader.
Was he the kind that Konoha needed? It was too early to tell.
"Are you sure that is what you want me to do?"
"Yes."
Shisui wordlessly accepted the mission. It wasn't up to him to question his leader's decisions; after all, politics weren't part of his expertise.
Right now, he was getting paid to carry out the mission.
Not to ask questions.
A bloodcurdling scream. A moment ago, everyone had been leisurely drinking their tea and chatting amicably with their companions and then the next, the entire shop erupted into chaos. Teas and desserts were abandoned on the tables and seats knocked over in their haste to stand up as everyone rushed towards the exit.
A maniacal laughter sounded over the panicked commotion of the customers who pushed and shoved others in their haste to get the hell out of the shop; their sense of self-preservation was too strong to consider anyone other than themselves.
Unlike the rest of the people in the tea shop, Mika and Hideki remained seated. Earlier, Hideki had taken one look over his shoulder and seen the bloody aftermath of the poor girl's remains. Now, he stared pointedly at a specific spot on the wall behind Mika, his curiosity no longer getting to him.
One look was all he needed to determine the girl had died upon impact.
From her position, Mika had an excellent vantage point to observe the murderer. A strongly built man, only dressed from the waist down in a pair of worn dark blue pants. Light lavender hair slicked backwards. A menacing red scythe in his right hand. Tongue darting outward to lick the droplets of blood that dripped down from the sharp end of the blade.
A hitai-ite hung loosely around his neck. The symbol, three diagonal lines, with a horizontal slash through the middle. Yugakure. A small country that often touted itself for pacifism. Mika didn't even think that a country whose economy thrived on tourism and trade even had shinobis.
Clearly, she was wrong.
Not only did they have shinobis, they had a dangerous one.
Mika stood up from her seat, every muscle in her body tense as she took one step towards the missing nin. A hand grasped her wrist. She glanced down. Hideki's eyes were wide and pleading as he desperately shook his head, trying to persuade her that they weren't his match.
If they left now, they would join the ranks of the civilians running away. They could easily mix in with the crowd, becoming only one of the many victims that the missing nin could choose from.
Facing him directly would entail a certain death. Running away substantially increased their chances of surviving.
But if they survived, that meant someone else would have to die. That someone else was most likely a civilian, someone who didn't have the capability of protecting themselves, of fighting back. Before the fight even began, they already lost.
Yoake was a civilian town. The only people that stood in between the missing nin and his bloody massacre were Mika and Hideki.
Running…that was a form of cowardice. However, Mika and Hideki had both done it once before, running away from their own village. The label of cowardice didn't matter to them; their reputation was already long tainted, riddled with a long list of accusations.
Protecting this town wasn't their obligation. With no attachments to this place, it was so easy to turn the other way. To pretend they were never there when the news of a bloody massacre inevitably spread to neighboring towns.
The missing nin grabbed the back of a young boy's shirt, easily lifting him into the air as if he weighed nothing. The young boy, looking no older than ten, kicked aimlessly in the air. Hands reached around his neck to claw viciously into the missing nin's hand. Yet instead of wincing from the pain, the missing nin appeared to relish in it. His tongue darted outwards, licking his lips.
"You'll be my next sacrifice for Jashin."
Before Mika knew what she was doing, a stream of lightning left her fingertips. Her aim, accurate as always, landed on the missing nin's hand. The sudden attack was enough to startle him into releasing his hold on the young boy. The moment his feet touched the ground, the boy scrambled out of the shop, sprinting like his life depended on it.
When Mika saw the missing nin casually twisting his neck to work out the kinks in his muscles instead of yelping from the pain of experiencing a high voltage current racing through his nerves, she wondered if Hideki was right.
They were no match for him.
Spinning on the heels of her feet, Mika reached down to grab Hideki by the crook of his arm and bolted out of the shop.
They made it three shops down the street before the missing nin caught up to them. His arrival was announced via an exaggerated landing in front of them that had them stopping to their tracks. Immediately, Mika and Hideki turned back the way they came from, but the missing nin didn't give them a chance.
Out of the corner of her eye, Mika registered a flash of red. She pushed Hideki away while sending a burst of chakra to her feet, just enough to push her out of the trajectory of the red scythe.
The missing nin scoffed. "Tsk. Quick on your feet, I see." The missing nin stood in between her and Hideki. Off to the side, Mika rapidly signaled Hideki to run while she bought him some time. When the missing nin shifted slightly, Mika caught a glimpse of Hideki furiously shaking his head no.
Damn it. No matter what Hideki thought, his presence here would only be a liability. Even if Mika had spent the last few months teaching him how to fight, Hideki wasn't a combat shinobi. In a fight with a highly skilled enemy like this, Hideki would only get in the way.
"Who are you?" Mika demanded, drawing her short blade. She didn't care who he was; she was simply buying time for Hideki to come to his senses and start running. Based on appearances alone, Mika pegged him as someone who was egotistical.
Mika hoped she was right.
"Hidan. I am a follower of Jashin; haven't you heard of me?" Hidan jammed the tip of the scythe into the dirt before throwing both hands up in the air. "Jashin is the ultimate god. Anyone who doesn't follow the ways of Jashin will become a sacrifice for him. What do you say, are you interested in joining?"
Absolutely not, but Mika needed to keep him talking. "What do you get out of following Jashin?"
"Everything!" A wide grin split across his face. "His greatest gift to me was the power of immortality. Now I have an infinite amount of time to carry out Jashin's ways and recruit other followers. Isn't that great?"
Jashin's ways…was ruthlessly murdering innocent people in the name of a deity that Mika didn't even believe existed? What kind of fucked up religion was this?
Something must have shown in her expression because the grin slipped off of Hidan's face. His hand curled around the handle of his scythe, pulling it out of the dirt.
"I see that you don't believe in Jashin."
Mika didn't even get a chance to protest. Hidan bolted forward, going right in for the kill. Mika ducked to avoid his swinging scythe, a swing meant to cleanly sever her head, and rolled in between the open space between his legs. On the other side, Mika sprung to her feet and bolted towards Hideki.
Screaming at the top of her lungs, she yelled at him to run. Her momentum sent the weight of her body crashing into him; the shove was finally enough to get Hideki moving. Whirling around, Mika blocked his scythe with one of her short blades. Despite using both hands, her arms shook underneath his tremendous raw strength.
Damn it. Close quarter combat had never been her forte, but Hidan seemed adamant in keeping this fight to taijutsu. Left with no choice, Mika placed all of her energy in defending herself while looking for an opening to force him on defense.
There were plenty of openings in his stance; his taijutsu form was one of the sloppiest that Mika had ever seen. However, Hidan made up for his weakness by attacking viciously and quickly, leaving only mere milliseconds of vulnerability for her to take advantage of.
She struggled to even keep up with his attacks; there was no time for her to counterattack.
Before Mika realized it, Hidan had backed her into a tree. She ducked to avoid his next swing. The sharp blades scraped against the trunk of the tree, sending chunks of bark flying everywhere. Running out from underneath his arm, her hands flew through the hand seals for her trademark jutsu.
Chakra thrummed in the palm of her hands. She stopped, turned and aimed.
Aimed right at his heart.
The cackling bundle of lightning energy shot outwards from her hands, hitting its mark. Hidan's footsteps halted. No reaction, other than Hidan staring in a confused manner down at his chest, where his heart was located. Then, his entire body began to convulse as the lightning current took ahold, zipping throughout all of the nerves in his body.
Anyone else would have been dead upon impact. Hidan didn't die. The claims of immortality were true, but that didn't matter because Mika intended to take advantage of his momentary confusion to run.
An immortal being…even the most powerful shinobis wouldn't be able to defeat him.
Mika didn't make it very far when she felt an explosive pain blossoming from her right shoulder. The searing pain was enough to cause black dots to swim in her vision, thwarting her view of the overgrown root. Her foot caught onto the root, sending her face first into the dirt.
"No one escapes from my grasp," Hidan stated. "If I deemed you as a sacrifice to Jashin, there's no chance of you escaping."
The tips of her fingers dug into the dirt as Mika attempted to pull herself forward. Yet, her attempt was futile. The longer she stayed on the ground, the easier it would be for Hidan to finish her; she was lucky that he hadn't followed up his initial attack.
Painstakingly, Mika managed to maneuver herself into a sitting position before pushing herself off of the ground. She stood up, her body swaying dangerously. Blood streamed down her right arm at an alarmingly fast rate. A few more minutes and Mika would likely pass out from blood loss.
A deep wound, one that had taken out a chunk of her flesh. Instead of finishing her off, Hidan took his leisure time pacing around the vicinity. Eventually he settled on a spot, lifted his scythe that was still dripping with her blood and began to draw a circle on the ground. Once the circle was completed, he moved to paint an uneven triangle in the middle of the circle.
The symbol of Jashin?
Hidan bent down, two fingers swiping the blood-coated dirt. Lifting his fingers to his lips, Hidan licked it.
The change was instantaneous.
His skin turned black. Cheeks sunken in, hollow-looking like he had been malnourished for months. The outline of his skeletal structure became visible, like Mika was staring at an x-ray film instead of a human.
Except Hidan was human, right?
Hidan raised his scythe. "I'll let you have a taste of true pain!" He swung his scythe in a downward arc, but instead of aiming it at her, the blade was aimed at his thigh.
Instinctively, Mika squeezed her eyes shut and then–
Nothing.
Instead of feeling another wave of exploding pain, Mika heard a slew of curses escaping from Hidan's mouth. After mustering up the courage to open her eyes, Mika saw origami paper wrapped around Hidan's scythe, stopping the tip of the blade from sinking into his thigh. More scraps of paper flew in his direction, the paper sticking itself to every inch of the scythe. In less than a minute, the entirety of the weapon was covered with paper, rendering it completely immobile.
"Mika, you're injured." Hideki's voice. Upon hearing his familiar voice, Mika allowed her tense muscles to relax marginally as his healing chakra flowed into her body.
"What, you think I only have one weapon?" Hidan yelled. Abandoning his hold on the scythe, he reached around his waist to pull out a metal stick with a sharpened end. Once again, he aimed the sharp tip towards his abdomen, only to be stopped when the paper origami attached to the scythe undid itself and wrapped itself around his hand.
"Careful," the angelic woman murmured. "I have some paper bombs mixed in there. One more move and I'll blow your hand apart." A woman with short lavender hair hovered in the air off to Mika's left, her paper jutsu forming makeshift wings.
Mika's mouth parted open in awe.
"If you're going to kill me, then kill me already," Hidan taunted. "Oh wait, you can't. I'm immortal."
"If you're blown into pieces, then you're as good as dead," the woman responded calmly. "Now tell me, are there any others like you? Where are they?"
Hidan raised an eyebrow, a smirk stretching across his lips. "Oh you mean the members of my cult? The followers of Jashin are everywhere. Even if you got rid of one, there will always be two more to take his place."
Mika rolled her eyes. She couldn't fathom there being enough insane psychopaths out there like him to form an entire cult.
"You can take your idiotic beliefs to the grave."
Hidan let out a confused shout as the earth beneath his feet gave way. By the end of it, only his head remained visible above ground. Another round of furious curses escaped from his lips.
"I swear I'll kill all of you when I get out of this hole!"
Another cloaked figure seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
"I planted paper bombs underground," the man informed them. "If you don't want to be blown to pieces, I suggest that the two of you move."
That was all of the prompting they needed; Hideki and Mika scrambled as far away as they possibly could in the next few minutes. When the explosions went off, the earth rumbled beneath their feet. Mika lost her balance, her hold on Hideki taking him down with her.
Ouch. Mika landed on her injured shoulder, undoing all of Hideki's hard work and reopening the wound once more. She let out a wince.
"Why did you come back?"
"I ran into them as I was running. They were also looking for that missing nin, so I thought if I led them to you, they could save you."
"Who are they?"
"I think they're members of the Akatsuki," Hideki whispered in her ear as if it was taboo to say their name.
The Akatsuki…the grassroots organization that had grown formidable enough to overthrow Hanzo of the Rain. The organization that now presided over the ruling of the Hidden Village of the Rain, transforming the desolate village into an economic powerhouse. The most powerful organization to have been created, with their influence stretching all over the world. The organization that touted themselves to protect the weak, to destroy corruption, to make the world a better place.
In Mika's opinion, their motives were quite questionable, but they must have been doing something right to win the favor of so many around the world.
Maybe her opinion was still skewed from her first encounter with the Akatsuki. The run-in resulted in her entire squad being slaughtered before her eyes. Mika would have joined her comrades as one of the many bodies in that forest, except she had been useful in some capacity back then.
Scared to the core, Mika followed their orders. Once her mission was completed, Mika fled as far as she possibly could. Although she hadn't done anything to betray them, Mika was still fearful that they would come back to finish the job.
She didn't even dare to return to Kumo. If the Akatsuki didn't get to her first, then the Raikage would certainly have her killed for acting against the objectives of the mission.
At sixteen years old, Mika became a missing nin.
"You're that girl from back then, aren't you? The Kumo nin."
Mika froze, not daring to turn around. Just her luck…of all the Akatsuki members to have shown up, it had to be one of the two that she encountered many years ago. Mika resisted the urge to bury her face into her hands.
"I don't know what you're talking about." The tremble in her voice gave her away.
He knelt down in front of her so that they were eye to eye. Except Mika was only able to get an eyeful of that damned Wolf mask. The pattern was already committed to her memory, as it often showed up in her dreams to haunt her.
Mika later found out that he went by the moniker, Okami. It was hard not to find out when
he was plastered on the front page of every nation's Bingo Book. His name became the forbidden whispers of every town, by shinobis and civilians alike.
"Why did you fight Hidan? Most would have run away."
It was none of his business, but mouthing him off didn't sound like a good idea.
"I don't know. I saw that he was going to kill a boy and I just…acted."
Okami simply nodded. He stood up, stepping away as the woman took his place. She extended a hand outward.
"My name is Konan. I'm sure you have heard of the Akatsuki organization. What you did today is certainly commendable. I think you and your friend would fit perfectly in the Akatsuki."
Her immediate rejection was already at the tip of her tongue; there was no way Mika was going to join the same organization that terrorized her in her sleep for years.
Konan stopped her. "Don't be so quick to reject my offer, Mika." She knew her name. Mika had already been on their radar and she didn't even know it. "Think about it before you give me an answer. I know how tough it is for missing nins like you to make a living. To make a living, you go against your morals and become mercenaries for hire. Sometimes you think your target's death is justified. Other times, you become involved in petty civilian conflicts. I'm sure that taking on these types of jobs isn't what you want to do for the rest of your life, is it?"
"You're still young, Mika," Konan continued. "Are you willing to continue to do things that betray yourself in order to survive? The Akatsuki can offer you a home."
A home…that was what Kumo told her too. Yet as Mika found, the price of having a home was too high. What did betraying her morals feel like? Mika didn't know because she couldn't remember the feeling of what it was like not to go against her morals.
"A home so I can just do your bidding instead of the bidding of rich strangers?"
"No one in the Akatsuki is forced to do anything they don't want to. There is a place for everyone. Healers." Konan's eyes flickered to Hideki. "Assassins." Her gaze fell upon Okami. "Recruiter." She pointed to herself. "And you? You can become anything you want."
On the surface, the offer was tempting. Mika could see why so many others had fallen for the same spiel. Not her though. No matter what Konan said, Mika couldn't unsee the heartless and brutal side of the Akatsuki.
"If you're really as good as you say, then why do you heartlessly kill people? Don't groups like you preach peace and non-violent methods?"
It was Okami who answered. "Make no mistake, we will utilize any method necessary to achieve our goals. We don't tolerate any interference with our plans."
The last sentence was specifically addressed to her. An acknowledgement of their first encounter six years ago.
And it was that statement that made Mika realize that Okami was many things, but at least he wasn't a liar.
"If I join the Akatsuki, I won't have to kill anyone if I don't want to."
"You won't."
"I won't be forced to do anything that I don't want to."
Mika could sense that Okami was rolling his eyes behind his mask. "You'll have to contribute in some way. We don't take in freeloaders. If you don't want to do shinobi work, at most you'll be forced into a civilian job."
"Why me?"
"Why not you?"
Mika didn't have a response for that.
Noon, in three days. Land of Whirlpool.
Attached to the note was a crumpled family photo. In the front and center of the photo stood Ren, one of the shinobis he sent on an infiltration mission to Konoha. Their mission was to bring back the Hyuuga heiress, but from the looks of it, the mission failed.
Even worse than a failed mission? It had been linked back to him.
In a fit of anger, Ay slammed his fist down onto the desk. Upon impact, the wooden structure snapped in half. The massive pile of papers scattered all over the floor. The random assortment of stationary and ornaments clattered noisily onto the ground.
Among the wreckage was that damned green scroll. The one that the Hokage had ordered one of his lackeys to deliver in the middle of the night without leaving behind a single trace.
Ay was pissed. How could his shinobi make the rookie mistake of carrying around personal items that would identify him? He even hand picked the members of the team, the best, the brightest, the most outstanding.
They were such a letdown.
Ay didn't think that he could get more pissed off than this, but then the Hokage had gone ahead and set him off further by delivering that message.
Or more accurately, a threat. An exchange to commence in three days; the Hokage wanted answers and cash in exchange for the return of his own men. Normally, Ay wouldn't have given in to such a request; if his men weren't good enough to avoid getting caught, then Ay had no more use for them even if they returned to the village.
He was content allowing them to die.
Only, the new Hokage had managed to push all of his buttons with a single message. To have someone sneak into the village, deliver it, and then disappear without a trace…what an arrogant declaration of power. One that was delivered in a mocking manner, as if to tell him that Konoha could do it too, if they wanted to.
Even if not to retrieve his shinobis, Ay was going to show up regardless.
He couldn't wait to wipe that arrogant smirk off of the Yondaime's face.
A/N: Hi again!
Thank you for reading. Until next time!
-MM
