An elegant blonde turned back to look at the upper layers of trees. A flock of sparrows and titmouses scurried across the smaller branches, browsing the thick leafage for insects. The sharp glance of the young woman focused tighter on the birds that appeared to be completely unaffected by the noise she supposedly heard.
"Is something wrong, Kiyomi-sama?" a nearby ninja with a Konoha military uniform and the signature, flowing bright hair of the Yamanaka clan held tightly in a ponytail so that they did not disturb the man in the cases of close-range combat as much as such hair should have and kind eyes inquired.
"If you can't sense anything, I guess not…" the Yamanaka heiress closed her eyes for a prolonged moment and turned right back around.
"She's just postponing returning back to the village. The little heiress has spent so much time in the Yamanaka resort that she doesn't want to leave…" a middle-aged woman with spiky, short hair and same typical Yamanaka features noted. Her tone was rude for someone talking of an esteemed and highly regarded clan figure and her smirk was nothing if not crude but by now Kiyomi had learned to stomach the woman's personality and she knew that Inozawa did not mean anything truly crude with her rough social skills.
Something long and thin, yet sharp as a recently maintained blade of the finest steel alloys pierced the air. Kiyomi stepped aside, without even turning at the whipping piece of a steel string, avoiding the killing strike that easily split the ground beneath her feet into a fissure. The Yamanaka took ample time to turn back at the assailant that hid in the same foliage she so recently glared at and concluded that there was no one there.
"Hmph… I guess it is my bad… This person appears to have suppressed their chakra signature." Kiyomi's male Yamanaka bodyguard lamented before bowing his head in Kiyomi's direction with apologetic intentions.
"You think just 'cause three years had passed you can show your face around the village!?" a hate-filled voice emanated from the same location where the assailant had tried slicing Kiyomi in half with one quick swoop. For all the failure of his stealthy takedown, his plan and execution were impressive someone who managed to suppress their chakra to elude an intermediate sensor who passed right below them and then unleash all of their suppressed signature all at once must have had remarkable chakra control.
Red eyes flared up from the shade inside the leaves, they moved in a blur, leaving faint traces of crimson as the pitch black haired ninja with tall, spiky hair swung from atop of the branch he hid on and landed firmly on the ground, using the same steel wire device he clutched in his hands. The device sliced right through the branch that the ninja swung on but also picked something else up.
A wire trap. One piece of string pulling on another, that in terms yanked on yet another loop and so on ad infinitum. The steel wire pressed tightly against Kiyomi's body, as well as those of her bodyguards, effectively trapping them in suspended animation that would have required grievous wounds and lacerations to escape.
"Look into these eyes and lament the fact that your death comes from an Uchiha." The man pointed at the two three-tomoe possessing Sharingan orbs in his eyes that were lustering with all of their enigmatic beauty.
"You're not a real Uchiha." Kiyomi sighed. "As much as it pains me to admit, you're not representing the actual clan. You're just one of those splinter group assholes, what was it again?"
"Kiyomi-sama, that manner of speaking is not very ladylike!" the male bodyguard yelled out, he struggled in vain to attempt and yank himself out of the trap but it was to no use. Judging from the simple way he attempted to escape, the Yamanaka was not really even trying.
"The Red Hawks," Inozawa grunted out. The woman looked troubled by the predicament but, for her own reasons, she chose to completely not show any signs of a struggle and just curse at the entrapment.
"The only reason why we exist is because the main branch is too weak to do what is needed. They just let a death of one of our own and the loss of their eyes go unpunished. Maybe it was not entirely your fault, perhaps you were trying to recover the eyes but all of that does not matter. You've made our clan weaker through your failure and that's something deserving Heavenly Justice." The Uchiha from the Red Hawks played with his string device that reminded of a stopwatch of sorts from which strings of steel wire that must have been chakra conductive wrangled out.
"Ugh… I can't believe I'll be giving the Uchiha this freebie by disposing of you…" Kiyomi complained.
"Dispose of me? Your own executioner? How will you do that when you cannot even move or connect your hands to use hand seals?" the Uchiha looked confused.
The fingers on one of Kiyomi's tied hands formed a one-handed hand seal while the ground beneath the feet of the confused Uchiha shifted. A massive rock platform sky-rocketed through the trees and up into the sky as if launched there by a bursting geyser stream when in fact it was chakra transferred through Kiyomi's feet and the girl's increased skill in Earth Release ninjutsu that achieved it.
Due to the immense speed of the soaring rocky platform, the Uchiha felt the colossal weight of gravity press him down onto the ground and greatly reduce his mobility. The air up where he was became rare so even if he wanted to curse and complain, he would only have been wasting the few gulps of it that he had.
With a white flash, Kiyomi blitzed past the Uchiha, delivering a diving kick to his jaw from aside. She was not just about to let the Uchiha assailant escape after declaring that she'd eliminate him for the main branch of the Uchiha as an accidental favor. A temporary alignment of interests.
The eyes of the Red Hawk assailant traced the falling blood that appeared to be rising. By the time he had realized the trajectory of the falling platform, it was too late as Kiyomi oppressed the Uchiha with a relentless offensive of taijutsu combinations that kept him grounded to the platform.
"You bitch, you'll die too unless you leave this platform!" the Uchiha declared. He moved his hands in together for Substitution Hand seals but Kiyomi's well-placed palm strike aimed at his right elbow misplaced the man's hand and failed his string of hand seals.
The Red Hawk assassin waited until the very final second for the opportunity when Kiyomi would attempt to leave the falling platform that became almost meteor-like in its velocity and size. With a mighty smash back into the ground that reduced the surrounding trees to measly chips of wood and destroyed the support for the wire entrapments, the rogue Uchiha laid with a snapped neck and a multitude of broken bones.
Kiyomi's body was nowhere to be seen, just a puff of bright grey smoke that surrounded the area and mixed into the general confusion of the dust and debris raised by Kiyomi's destructive technique.
"I guess even with the Sharingan this man did not realize you never left the trap he had set for you. Your Shadow Clone did." The Yamanaka bodyguard noted with a tone that complimented Kiyomi for her strategy.
"I can't believe you guys forced me to split my chakra in half just for this bastard." Kiyomi squinted at her bodyguards. "You could have escaped this trap and killed this guy in a second."
"Attacks like this will become more often, you would be wise to expect them every time you leave the village until the Red Hawk are captured or exterminated." The male bodyguard noted, he spoke in a very scolding manner that ticked Kiyomi off even more.
"You were also pretty lucky he was so focused on you and blinded by the ecstasy of his inevitable revenge. Had he noticed your strategy, given that you were tied up, he may just have killed you. You should not have fallen for his trap in the first place." Inozawa joined in on her colleague's moralizing.
Kiyomi pouted and twisted her lips. As if rebelling against the sudden outburst of morals directed at her, the girl escalated her step to where she ran off significantly ahead to the party ensuring her safe return to the village. When the black, silk dress of the Yamanaka heiress caught on to some branches she was about to yank it out before freezing in place, taking a few deep breaths in and carefully removing the piece of cloth from the obstacle in her path.
"I must say, Kiyomi-sama's maturity is impressing me greatly. Even though she had every reason to despise the Uchiha and blame them for all of her latest misfortunes: spending three years away from her friends and her mentors, her entire village even, this attempt at her life, she can see clearly enough to see the distinction between the rebellious Red Hawks and the Uchiha." The ponytailed Yamanaka bodyguard smiled, observing the heiress rush on ahead.
"Yeah. Her fighting skill is off the roof as well. In her current state, she's a rival to any one of us and she's not even tapped into half of her potential." Inozawa nodded with a smirk that was a rare guest on the woman's rather brutish face. "Not to mention she makes much better tea than even you, Inosashi…"
"She's only made tea for us once. I was not prepared for the potential competition. I am sure that in a proper ceremony…"
"Humble in defeat, as usual…" the woman laughed out.
"Whoah! What happened to this place!?" an enthusiastic and slightly to the masculine side in its brunt nature voice echoed through the Konoha streets in the southern district of the village. "Just leave it for a handful of years and it all completely transforms!"
"Konoha isn't the only place that's transformed." A middle-aged woman of an athletic build and long, flowing chestnut-colored hair smiled softly while looking at her student and companion. The melancholic look in her eyes suggested that she was almost sad to part ways with the redhead that has become such an integral part of the tough and sweet times they've been through.
"Huh?" Meiko turned back, she was not used to her locks growing quite as long and unruly as they have so a handful smacked her on the face out of the suddenness of the girl's turn. "What else? What did I miss!? I swear I could just run around the place experiencing everything that's changed, it's been so long!"
The blacksmith had completely blown the lid off of her and was rampaging all around the entry area, causing general social mayhem by engaging the passing caravans, villagers and even the gate guards in a casual conversation. Most often the words that left her mouth were questions about just what has changed recently about the village.
"Ah, I see what you meant, sensei!" Meiko pointed her finger at the Hokage Monument, displaying a new face just past the fair look of Chestnut Hanasaku, the temporary Lady Fifth and the long-haired features of Lord Sixth – a man with a spiky hairdo moving past his shoulders and extending past his face even on the carved image of the statue.
"The Seventh Hokage…" Hanasaku mumbled to herself, wondering what may have happened to the Sixth. It was quite rare for a Hokage to pass up their post unless they ended up dying, growing too old or them only having taken up the big chair temporarily, just like Lady Fifth herself had done. "His face looks familiar…"
"I dunno… Those statue faces always seemed kinda iffy to me. Can't tell a thing, after all, it's just a mug plastered on a stone. Metal face plating – now that's art…" Meiko leaned back on her arms while squinting at the giant mountain structure in the distance.
"Do not call slamming a raw plate of steel alloy at someone's face hard enough to leave their augmented face's image on the plate art." Hanasaku sighed.
"If swordsmanship and martial arts are arts, hitting someone really hard with a plate of steel is also art!" Meiko took her artistic identity rather seriously and was ready to argue and fight to defend it.
"Well… In any case… I guess this is it for now. I bet you're sick of seeing my face so I'll let you go realize all those wild "When I return" list dreams you have." Hanasaku smiled fondly at her student and companion. "Thanks for being by my side while I traveled around the world, it's been my lifelong dream and while, initially, it was not working out but… There was no one else I'd rather have had by my side. Well… Maybe except Kiyomi."
"Yeah… Sounds about right." Meiko smiled. She closed her eyes and her nose began sniffling. "Damn… Now I know why Mana keeps her hair this long…" the blacksmith muttered as she looked down to have the front of her hair cover up her emotional face.
"Oh, come on… It's not like I'm dying or we're never gonna see each other again. Stop embarrassing yourself…" Hanasaku smiled and moved up closer to place her hand on her student's shoulder before wrapping the whole limb around her neck and gently comforting her silly companion.
"Y-Yeah but… We've been together for so long. Just you and me traveling around the place through good and bad… I've gotten so used to that… Training, fighting for our lives, nearly dying, moving forward… It's all like one big running wheel and… Then, all of a sudden… It just stops…" Meiko mumbled out through emotional sniffles.
"Stop living in the past. Go and forge new moments that will become the routine of your new life. When I said Konoha's not the only thing that's transformed, I meant you. You've completely rebuilt yourself, you've become stronger and smarter, more than that, you're no longer just a bud with infinite potential. You've started to bloom. A bloomer like you deserves a new, better life than that which the bud lived in, it needs more sunlight and more water."
Meiko's stomach rumbled and roared. The blacksmith pressed her gauntlet against the ruined by countless battles chainmail emitting a clang under the rough rag that she wore as a cover atop of her worn out armor. Some parts of it were well-maintained and repaired every day, for some, more intricate repairs, the lifestyle of a traveler did not afford the needed time, some repairs have been interrupted by a life-threatening crisis and needed to be postponed indefinitely.
"Go! Show Konoha that its heroes have come back." Hanasaku smiled, gently pushing Meiko forward. The blacksmith did not need to be asked twice, she turned a full one-eighty and shot off like a speeding arrow. "I'll report our return to Lord Seventh."
Kiyomi walked up to the outskirts of the village. For someone that has spent so long away from the village, it was ironic that one of the first things she did after returning was to roam the outskirts. Her trek was not aimless however and Kiyomi's heart drained of energy the closer she got to the goal of her search.
The blonde almost raced past the red statue symbolizing the Will of Fire, bearing the "Hokage" kanji symbol and entered the field filled with small, stone slabs with names carved onto them. The testament to many deaths and a growing problem of the village's outskirts no longer serving the intended purpose of housing the dead became almost monotonous as one stone slab switched the other, even the flowers placed by the graves started to look all the same the more Kiyomi treaded into the mad bunch of memorial slabs.
Like a field of swords after a battle…
In all of that monotony, a sight of a familiar shape peaked Kiyomi's interest. One of a slender young woman with a top hat that made her appear taller than she actually was standing by the very same grave that Kiyomi had come to see. The raven hair of the young woman scattered and moved elegantly in sync with the winds of an early spring.
Kiyomi did not speak up or distract her old friend from glaring at the gravestone of another old friend. No… The man lying there was more than a friend. The gravestone read "Eiju Fuuhen". It had plenty of flowers covering the recently weeded out and maintained soil and the gravestone had a few symbolic additions to it that suggested greater, more honorable importance to the grave compared to the others around it. The gemstones with silver and gold linings were like medals that the deceased could carry into the Pure Land. In a symbolic way, at least.
"We all knew that this was going to happen. He walked right into it, he chose this instead of the sort of life he was living. And yet… It caught us all by surprise." Mana spoke up somberly. She had sensed for a short while that a familiar signature was closing in, especially when it did not even attempt to disguise itself, then again, why would it?
"That's why I was fooled into thinking I loved this asshole." Kiyomi smiled, she clearly did not mean offense with her words, she of all people knew the type of crudeness that Eiju preferred in all things in life. "The absolute freedom to do whatever the hell one wanted… Even if it meant dying in a year or two, living your life to the fullest. He may have passed on but… I can't help but think he flipped us all off, death included… Did you see it happen?"
"No. I was training away for the last three years. Working through recovery. It's odd, he helped me so much with that and the last time I saw him I was… Not the kind of person I want to be remembered as. Broken, confused… He must have felt some signs even back then and yet…"
"Look at this fancy grave. He must have laughed his ass off knowing that after spending his whole life as a Quack he'd be remembered as and honored as a hero almost. He did work hard for it though… Tried changing his act a bit, cleaning himself up but…" Kiyomi's words started lingering. It became evident that both young women struggled with words sticking in their throats like fur-balls moving up and down.
"It did not suit him." Both said at the same time.
"Still, he played his part. This memory must have been important to him, it was what he wanted." Kiyomi sniffed a pair of times.
"Sure it was. No one could have made him do it if it wasn't." Mana's lips almost turned upside down.
