Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or anything other than my OCs.
Kai stood stiff in the midst of thick trees. Laying in front of him was a corpse. He turned and looked over his shoulder, another corpse. A scream echoed in the distance followed by the shuffling of the leaves above him. A corpse fell from the trees above and landed with a dull thud. The murderer dropped down beside him in an unfamiliar manner. One to-be victim attempted to escape but he's cut down by a gargantuan blade. Another corpse.
The blonde doesn't understand why he feels pain. His arm is bloody and his hair is soaked in blood. Is it his or was it the enemy's?
"Kai-san!" The giant blade glints as Toshizo straps it to his back once more. The battle is over. "Your arm!"
Kirishima Touga, their team's new leader, glances at him as if they're making a big deal out of nothing. Touga's own fingers are drenched in blood and the man has a deep gash down the front of his chest but his expression is dull like Kai's own.
Kai took careful notice of Toshizo's own blood-stained face, the deep cut on the chunin's cheek is bleeding heavily but he spends all his time worrying about his arm instead, "This is nothing."
Even as he spoke, Kai could feel his head spinning. He counted four corpses and he recounted them. There should be one more.
"Saizo? Where's the last one?" Touga demanded.
"How am I supposed to know?!" The blond snapped sharply, "I thought you said you would handle him!"
"I told you to keep those three occupied!"
"Oh yeah… Expect me to do all the fucking work?!" Kai could feel his anger rising. The worst possible outcome was precisely this one. They had lost the man that was holding their retrieval item. He got away. Mission failed. This mission had only proved one thing. This team had the worst teamwork.
"I asked you to do one simple task! How could you not even complete one task?!" Touga was equally frustrated. He turned on Toshizo, "And where did you disappear to in the middle of the fight? I turned to give you orders and you were gone! Hiding like a coward!"
"Don't yell at him, you fucking twat!" Kai snarled before an apology could leave his teammate's lips, "His weapon is a puppet! It's most effective when he hides, you moron!"
"You should learn some manners before you try to teach me how a puppet works!" The older male snapped right back, "I didn't order him to hide!"
"It's common sense! He doesn't need orders for that!"
"This isn't the time for this!" Toshizo shouted, "We have to find him before he gets away!"
"He already got away!" Kai threw his arms up, "And you can blame it on that twat!"
"You insolent fool!" The ANBU op was clearly good at expressing just one emotion and that emotion seemed to be anger.
"I thought you people were supposed to be emotionless! Why the hell are you so damn good at getting mad?!"
Touga was thrown off by the sudden revelation. These mere children had drawn emotion from him. How was that possible? This was their very first mission as a three man cell and yet the two younger ninjas had drawn distinct anger from the depths of his heart.
"Hurry up!" Kai huffed, turning and hurrying off towards the deeper parts of the forest, "We have to catch him."
"Wait for me!" Toshizo complained and hurried after him.
Touga's eyes grew wide as he watched them dive into the forest without looking back. Behind Saizo Kai was the image of a red-haired shinobi, her silhouette sparkling with radiance. The ANBU op shook his head vigorously, the image was gone but it was already too late. He knew exactly who it was he saw in the short-tempered jonin and he regretted seeing it. It stirred up the emotions he thought he had vanquished so many years ago.
O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O
To Hyuga Kori,
I don't ever doubt you. If you say you'll think of me in your last moments, that must be true.
If you cannot tell me your future goals, you are the one that doubts me. It doesn't matter how embarrassing they are. I won't laugh. Your dreams are yours alone and I have no right to laugh at them. I can only hope that I will somehow be of assistance to you.
Aside from that, tell me about your family. You seem to have a strong relationship with your older brother. Do you have any other siblings?
I read your letter at night but opposite to your wishes, I hope you'll read my letter in over again in the morning.
Good morning,
Gaara
P.S. I will teach you about cacti. Thank you.
She glanced up at the clock. It was not yet noon. She whispered a quiet good morning to Sunagakure's Kazekage as well. He could not hear it but it was her own silly response. She wrote her reply immediately and dropped it off at the Aviary Building on her way to the Academy.
Iruka greeted her in the classroom during lunch break. She had arrived a little early but he appreciated her respect for time. He smiled as he thought of Naruto's usual truancy.
"I've come to observe your afternoon shuriken training." Kori explained, "I'm sure it's not much different from what I experienced under your teachings a few years ago but I'll watch carefully."
"Oh." Iruka smiled softly, "It's much different from a teaching perspective. It's two different viewpoints and two different experiences."
And it truly was a whole new world.
As a student, she learned and practiced and learned and practiced. That much was clear but teaching was not what she expected. Teaching was not just the instructions and orders she had received as a student. It was about understanding each student's abilities and assessing their talents. Iruka was not just lecturing or commanding, he was sharing experience.
She did not understand his instruction very well as a student. When he said throw a kunai, she did just that. If he ordered her to throw a shuriken, she did just that. Each weapon that hit a target was just practice to her. She threw each knife leisurely and with the same smiles as most of Iruka's students now.
She never understood what Iruka said about the weight of the weapon or what he said about knowing where her weapon fell if she were to miss her target. Those words came from Iruka's own personal experience. That advice told a story about the man's own battlefield experience. She understood now.
Iruka spoke not only of the kunai's real weight but of the weight blades carried in a person's life. She knew the weight he spoke of was the capability within the blade. That kunai could easily take a life, could easily save the life of an ally, or could easily be a shinobi's one regret should he miss the target. Iruka clearly felt that weight and responsibility from all the possible outcomes of throwing and he had been telling her that in advance. She knew it now.
Knowing where a weapon falls if it misses its target is crucial. If she had run out of blades in the midst of battle, she might have to find and retrieve a fallen blade. It would be helpful to know where one stray kunai had landed.
Iruka had probably been in such a situation. Those words held no meaning before but now it was a different story. She understood those words now. Iruka shared those words hoping that at least one student would remember those words and not share the same pain he had experienced because he didn't know those small details.
He was an amazing man. Much more amazing than any student had ever given him credit for. The true heroes of this village were not the men who fought on the battlefield and returned with glory. The true heroes of this village were the people who quietly taught those men all they needed to know to survive those battlefields. They did not complain about their lack of fame, they did not complain about their lack of funds. They put all their heart in teaching the future heroes. They protected this village in their own way.
People had a certain image of the Academy teachers. Much like Kai, they thought the chunins that taught here were not capable of carrying their own weight on the battlefield so they stayed behind to teach the young to-be ninjas what little they knew. That was not true. These men were more than capable of putting their all into something for the sake of the village. Something more important than fighting on the battlefield.
The kids scrambled away with their lesson complete. The day was over and they rushed home with half-hearted goodbyes to the teacher who spent his day giving them the skills they would need to survive. Looking back, she had also been one of those ignorant students.
"So how was it?" Iruka called out with that same gentle smile.
It looked much different now that she had realized so much about the man that was once her guidance into the ninja world.
"Iruka-sensei is… much more amazing than Saizo or Neji." She smiled back, something she might not have done so much when she was his student. She felt sorry for it now.
"What are you saying?" He was clearly happy about the praise but he modestly refused, "You're all jonin now. You've all surpassed me by a lot."
"No." She said with conviction, "You know, I never thanked you. It's because of you that I've come this far. Thank you very much."
"Aww come on." A slight tint of pink was on the man's nose, "I was just doing my job. Anyways, how was my lesson? The same as you remember it?"
"The words might have been the same but the meaning was different." She admitted, "That stuff you said about knowing where my blade falls if I miss my target… Those words have probably saved my life sometime along the way."
"Yeah? That's great." He nodded proudly, "Those words saved my life once too."
"I only wish I had understood that before."
"Well you understand now and that's all that matters." Iruka's words were kind and showed the patience that he had always had in regards to his students, "Tomorrow, you can come for the morning lesson. I've prepared something that you can actually participate in."
"Eh? No I couldn't… I'm not ready to teach anyone."
"You're ready." He assured her, "You don't have to prepare anything. I've done that already. All you have to do is come and be yourself. A person with as much experience as yourself is perfectly capable of teaching."
"I'll trust your words." She murmured as he laughed and patted her back as kindly as he always had.
He had been her teacher until yesterday but today, he was a hero.
O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O
Yui stared blankly at the envelope in her hands, the messenger hawk she had stopped from continuing on its way cawed angrily from the cage at her side. It was the letter from Kori to the Kazekage. This was one of the letters that Danzo had ordered her to intercept. It was her mission to stop this letter from reaching Gaara.
But her conscience pricked at her. The letter felt heavy in her hands. She would not allow it to pass. She would hold the bird for three days and then release it under a thick genjutsu that would make it think that it had already delivered the letter. By the time the genjutsu wears off, the hawk would already be back in its cage at the Aviary Building. Her mission would be just that much closer to being accomplished.
She sighed. How could she bring herself to do this to a friend? It was a mission but maybe Sai was right. The precious bond she had created with Kori would be broken if she ever found out. If something important was in this letter and it was never delivered, there would be some emotional trouble for the Hyuga.
Yui's fingers pried the envelope open carefully. She would read it. If it was a traitorous letter, she would keep it. If it was innocent, she would send it on its way.
Gaara-sama,
I would never doubt you. I'm only embarrassed to say because it's not as grand as your goal to become Kazekage. My long-term goal is to always protect the friends and family that have given me strength.
I don't have any siblings or direct family aside from Neji. The Hyuga Clan is my family. My uncles, my aunts, my cousins. Those who are closer to me are Neji and my cousins of the Main Branch, Hinata-sama and Hanabi-sama. Our clan's leader takes care of me from time to time.
In return to your greeting, I also say "Good morning" so I hope you'll read it at the appropriate time,
Hyuga Kori
Yui folded the letter back up and returned it to the envelope. She held it only a moment longer. The letter was harmless. It should be sent. She tucked it back into the hawk's carrier and released the bird from its confines. With a mighty screech, it took to the skies. Yui turned back to the village and resolved to stop the next one no matter what.
O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O
"Ibiki! Ibiki!" Aya screeched at the top of her lungs, "I got it this time! I swear!"
"Yeah. Yeah." Ibiki rolled his eyes, stalking his overly excited companion towards the training room she always used. The sarcasm was thick in his voice, "I doubt that."
Ibiki's final test was upon her and she was not one bit nervous. She had perfected her technique this time. She would not fail. The clone kneeled before her in the guise of a prisoner. The technique slowly began to fill the room with mist. The temperature fell, three icy pulses cut through the air, and the mirror began to appear between the young kunoichi and the clone.
A calm and coaxing voice called out, "Look deep into the mirror. Tell me what you see there."
The clone began to shiver along with the other members of the ANBU squad in the room. They were all bearing witness to her final exam. Most of them were certain that she would pass.
"I see an island." The clone murmured his response in a daze.
"Yes. An island?" She giggled, "Do you see the people?"
"What people?" The clone had lost all control of his vision and he was now searching the mirror for people that were not there yet.
"Those people that are stealing all your things. You are now unarmed." She said in a slow and hypnotic voice.
The clone shuddered.
"Your close friends and family are being tied up and taken away." She smirked, glancing up at an expressionless Ibiki, "If you just tell me the password, I'll save them."
Shinobi-like with resolve, he said, "I refuse."
"Watch out for the spear." Aya murmured, "That spear aimed for your throat."
The clone's imagination supplied the rest. A grunt of pain, a long gash across his jaw, and yet the clone remained. Small damage was always good. A smile from the onlookers.
"There's two of them, huh?" She continued, "I can make them go away. You just have to tell me the password."
The clone was too far gone to return to his senses. The island of cannibals that was only inside the mirror was now his reality. A long and pleading scream came next. Aya could no longer figure out what he was seeing, his own fear took hold of the whole process but she knew when to intervene.
"Quickly." She said when his screams were the loudest, "The password. It will all stop if you just tell me."
"5-1-0-!" The clone vanished, the password unfinished.
Aya blinked at the empty space in confusion. She was certain that she had just one more number left to hear but why did he disappear? Her technique was under control. There's no way she could have screwed up again.
"Too bad." Ibiki smirked, the other ANBU leaders seemed confused for a moment, "You'll need to train some more."
Aya screamed in frustration, "NO! I had it! Just give me one more chance!"
"Just train for a few more days." Ibiki snorted and proceeded to leave the room as Aya began another tantrum and round of insults.
A senior member of the squad hurried after Ibiki and out of earshot, mumbled, "It was rigged, hmm? You had the original hide in another room and disperse the technique."
Ibiki continued on his way with a mysterious smirk.
"She's talented. Why do you keep her from passing?"
"Because it's dangerous in the real world. The prisoners fight back more than she expects. This clone is just the beginning."
The senior shinobi could say nothing to that for that was the ultimate truth in their shinobi world. Foreign ninjas would most likely rather die than spill the information they're so closely guarding. Even the toughest of shinobi prefer death to torture, Aya would not have it so easy. Small girls like Aya were often overrun by their own prisoners. Things did not always turn out so easy and despite all their bickering, Ibiki would shield her from that for just a while longer.