AN at bottom

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Warnings: Panic, bones, blood/bit? of gore, swearing, the usual

Beta: temporarily unbetaed (will probably soon reload beta-ed version)

Guest reply: Thanks for reviewing despite the language barrier! Orochi is quite an interesting character, isn't he?

Chap 13 Us Thirteen

Chakra had ripped through the fabric of the desert in great, stalking pillars of bone, bleached white beyond the capabilities of nature and pulsing with energy.

The last puppeteer, the one that was held off by the Yuki, had been impaled on two of the bones jutting out of the ground, while his lone puppet dangled stringless and broken on another. The empty clacking sounds it made when the bone crumbled caused shivers to run up and down my spine. I ignored the bloodstains around its wielder.

The desert felt surprisingly empty without giant summons and people throwing weapons and wooden parts at each other. The chakra, too, was much too calm.

I gingerly picked my way past one of the four-meter tall bone spikes. They looked a lot like the ribs of a giant creature up close, a giant, dead thing that was left in the sun for too long.

Perhaps the Kaguya was how the Mountain Graveyard came to be? The black Zetsu would certainly appreciate the irony when Madara and the statue of Six Paths ended up there.

But here, now, clutching the Kinme that less than ten seconds ago was pissed and embarrassed and so so angry, the sole clan member that less than ten seconds ago that I could guarantee was alive, I wondered if I was in shock. For all I know, the clan member that I was now lugging could be dead and I would only be holding onto a body, a corpse and a dead-end of a future.

Something in me wanted to scream, but was squashed down ruthlessly as my feet took me to where an impaled enemy relied on a spike of calcium carbonate to stay upright.

Having removed herself from the inside of my cloak, the young blue snake chose to sit in my hood, her head resting on my shoulder. Scar's a heck lot larger than me, and so required quite a lot of shoulder space. His partner (who I still can't recall the name of), was still limp in my cradled arms, scales visibly dimmer than before.

Yeah, screaming sounds like a good idea right now.

My frontal lobe very vehemently disagrees, with lots of pain and emotional numbness, loud sounds would definitely not be a boon to this monster of a future migraine. Nothing feels natural anymore.

The Yuki, Mako, and the Kaguya apparent, Katsuki (scowling and much too pale in the moonless night), were waiting by the hole in the ground, now one of many. Me thinks they bicker like an old married couple.

It wasn't until Mako was carrying everything my feet were carrying did I realize how tired I was, too much in too little time tends to have that effect. The adrenaline from having nearly been killed if Scar didn't summon a giant snake also caught up in the worst manner possible, another strong incentive to puke.

My stomach rumbled. I'm hungry. The arm that lugged me around by my stomach was cold, so I shivered a bit.

I could hear also Dōsukēru in my hood, who was just that bit pissed that we were once again assumed to be potatoes.

"Katsuki, help me carry these children or so help you, I will gut you." Mako-san also seemed pissed at being regulated the task of a pack mule, even if it was only a couple meters.

The Kaguya, Katsuki if Mako-san's words are to be believed, was garbed in dark pants and the bottom of a robe that resembled some odd combination of a bathrobe, and a toga. The top was currently shrugged down and tied around his waist, leaving a bare chest and too many ribs outside of the skin. The robe thing would certainly be an asset with how often Kaguya's would "accidentally" poke holes through their clothing, as armour never helped them much anyways when considering the bones under their skin functioned much better than steel, far more flexible too.

It did not, however, make the multitude of bones that protruded from his skin any less terrifying, horrifying, or daunting, whatever one might want to describe it by. If I wasn't already traumatized from dying, seeing the dead, and seeing impaled dead people, my reaction to seeing people being stuck on stalks of poles would have probably brought up too many reminders of my death, how... pleasant.

To stop myself from descending into despair of my hole-y death (still too early, but improvement?), I randomly blamed my knowledge of other clans fully on the knowledge hidden away in the Kinme clan library, which hopefully in some shape or form, still exists.

Goddamn it, I still need to return a scroll on Suna's weird-ass relationship with Shukaku.

(Or maybe I could "accidentally" drop it around another jinchuuriki, the poor bijuus need some form of sibling entertainment)

Whatever.

Jabbing my elbow into the side of the Yuki, I was very unceremoniously dropped.

"I'm not potato, damnit. Sorry." The bewildered ice-wielder had no clue how to respond to my mumbled random statement out of the blue, or the random apology. Rather, it was the bone-user that quirked an eyebrow at my poor grammer. Screw grammar, it can take a hike until my brain finds me again. I tried to ignore how the Yuki was trying to find a pulse on Scar's wrist, a move I recognized from traditional medicine of random places of Before, and failing that, finding a pulse on his neck.

Of course Scar wasn't going to have a pulse in his wrists, by this point, they're basically glorified white, scaled stone.

The needles that followed in a precise manner though, was rather straightforward and very… helpful? Painful? I don't know,

"So the child speaks," the teal-eyed bone user commented drily, "perhaps she'll realize that being carried is the only method to travel on the Yuki Waterways." Well, I can just hear the capitalized lettering, plenty pleasant when I suddenly realized that none of us are going through water the usual way.

"Hell crappin' buckets no." I scrambled back in the sand, shaking my head while trying to murder the ground via sticking to it.

It didn't work.

Running a pale, glinting hand down his face in annoyance, the Kaguya strode forward and plucked me off the ground by the back of my cloak, Dōsukēru was not amused, but her bite did nothing against his hardened skin. Apparently their calcification or whatever it's called, can extend to skin too. Nice to know.

The two of us could put up more of a fight if we wanted to, but it would be just that. A fight, with no real intent or purpose. At my six years of age, Kakashi had already become a genin, perhaps even a chunin, if the timeline decides to be annoying, and the three future Sannin, one of which is my younger little brother, would have graduated the academy and become a team under the third Hokage.

Anyways, the point is that I was probably at the level of a near-academy graduate, at least. I have the so-called basic three down, despite my preferences to the Kamiwari only, and not enough strength to back up my speed.

But, there isn't any point, really, is there? Against a Kaguya and a Yuki, both of the most prominent clans of Kiri, and one of them being known for being a bit of a battle junkie. I lost most of my heart, not my brain or common sense.

And so I ended up being picked up bridal-style this time, and then thrown over Katsuki-san's back in a mockery of a piggy-back where his reversed growing ribs held me in place. It was… interesting to say the least, as it wasn't everyday that I get to be held by a cradle of actual living bone (pretty sturdy if I had to say so myself, and no chance of escape either). At least none of them were hol-ding onto me. I shuddered. Never mind, puns aren't gonna cut it.

At least Dōsukēru was able to settle back around my neck after sliding out of the cloak's hood, she did not, however, appreciate the long white hair of the Kaguya that was tangled around everything, and I thought my bed hair was bad.

"Are you ready to depart?" Mako-san questioned the Kaguya, hopefully oblivious to my inner crisis.

I couldn't see Katsuki-san's expression, as I was sort of stuck on his back, but Mako-san huffed and extended the hand that wasn't keeping a comatose Kinme on their shoulder. At least, I hope he was comatose. That was really a strange thing to wish for, as I had assumed myself in a coma during my brief stint of encastion by calcium carbonate and chakra, but comatose means alive, and I could almost imagine his chakra was there, at the edges of my senses.

A moment of hesitation later the bone-wielder sighed and patted the unoccupied shoulder of the Yuki instead, both of their chakras were rather amused, despite being tinged with varying amounts of annoyance.

I could still see the muscles under the eye of the Yuki twitching though, which was rather amusing when the only other Yuki that dwells in my memory is one that is not yet born, will die young, be randomly resurrected, and "dies" again. My brain is just coming up with the best of scenarios, isn't it?

Ehh, I don't think I have time to care about possible deaths in the future, not when I'm so far back that the 'timeline' is probably fudged up just from my existence.

Then Katsuki-san started moving again, and Mako-san fell in step next to him, the poor Kaguya had nary a second to catch the Kinme that Mako-san tossed over, and then a cobra was then thrown around Katsuki's neck (not unlike a collar, perhaps even a noose). They had to stop while Katsuki-san adjusted his hold on Scar so that at least one hand was free. Guess what? He also ended up in a potato hold. When the white-haired man had the gall to growl, red dot markings probably crinkling above his eyebrows, I couldn't hold in my snickers anymore.

They sounded more hysterical than anything else, but at this point? I couldn't care less. If the fact that they helped to ease my lungs again was an indication of anything, at least I won't die of suffocation?

We were moving again a couple seconds later, Mako-san occasionally shooting glances to the two (or three, or even four) baggages that the pack mule known as Katsuki Kaguya was carrying to the gaping maw in the ground. This will definitely be interesting if they are going to do what I think that they're gonna do, but perhaps I'll lose a few brain cells. Life in the third dimension has to be healthier for us than that of the second.

The sound of a river rushing through its cavern underground only let itself be heard once we were right at the edge, the smell of a damp cave was much more pronounced.

"Hang on tight!" The Yuki crowed. Two seconds and a few handsigns later, Mako-san yanked on Katsuki-san's arm in a vise like grip and we were falling.

And falling.

And the up-throwing of a single kunai (Yuki-bloody-Mako-san).

And a hell lot of screaming (me).

And a hell lot more of panicked hissing (Dōsukēru).

And flapping around slack limbs and heads alike (everyone but the 'adults').

Then we hit ice bottom. Unlike what imagination might've granted me in this morbid moment, I was almost sure that something will go wrong, murphy's law and all that. Or maybe I've been charged enough by the law for a lifetime, perhaps even two.

Thankfully what we hit was ice, in fact, the mirror of ice that I had predicted (secretly, in the hell-deep depths of my mind) was placed somewhere not the center of the goddamn Earth. The fact that we didn't so much as hit, as slide into, was also appreciated, as hitting solid objects at terminal velocity is never a wise idea.

However, the sudden change of dimensional existence (and temperature) or whatever was weird as heck, and the fact that it meant three people in the same 'space' fitting into one?

Yeeah–no. Not an experience that I would necessarily enjoy repeating again.

But alas, it was an experience that was repeated, and repeatedly as well. Nearly the instant we were all 2D, Mako-san, our 'guide' in this freak space, somehow pulled us out despite 2D-ness not having any forces in the 3D world, at the same speed we were falling except up. And sideways.

And so it went.

Between the changing of dimensional existences, we were either travelling at insane speeds and through wetness and stinging winds that were thankfully averted by Katsuki-san's back, or coldness and flatness and the sensation of not being able to draw breath. It however, was always dark, almost no light reflected by the myriad of mirrors, I worry about the state of our "driver".

After who knows how many jumps later, there was a sudden, too-bright glare of light, and we were catapulting straight up, the ice mirror shattering behind us.

(Me thinks we broke gravity.)

Ah, there must've been a seal that chain-linked them.

Thinking back at the random kunai that was shot upwards before our… somewhat glitching journey, it made sense that our tracks will need to be covered as best as they could, considering the genocide that we pretty much left behind.

(That I ran away from.)

When the tinkling sound of ice shattering in my ears finally faded away, we had just reached the apex of the final jump, straight-bloody-up. Cue screaming once gravity decided that smashing six bodies into water would be a good idea.

Thank god for ninja water-walking, thank gods for the two being Kiri nin, so all the more better at it.

Once I could pry an eye open without being gripped in the deathly throes of possible-future-projectile vomiting, I blinked it close almost immediately, and burrowed into the back of the Kaguya. Unfortunately, it was a fact that did not go unnoticed by the Yuki standing a bit too close, and who started bloody cooing at me.

I… feel a bit conflicted.

On one hand, the Kaguya was so warm and I was still friggin freezing and the bones are still a cage that I didn't really want to contemplate.

On the other hand…

Well.

Six-year-olds aren't supposed to have much of a dignity anyways, right?

"Look at you three, just so adorable!"

Never mind, I like my dignity very much.

I will not be considered adorable next to a bone-using death machine and a potato-sack mimic.

"Can you please put me down, Katsuki-san?" Outside of a brief nod on behalf of the Kaguya, there wasn't much reaction. At least, not until the bone cage started to slowly retract into his back like some wrongly-positioned wolverine claws. With a startled yelp, I quickly launched myself out once there was sufficient space, and my partner also very efficiently chose to slide around my neck. Ducking into a roll with a snake in my unworn hood is even worse than rolling with too many boxes of take-out for delivery.

But, it was worth it. For when I staggered unsteadily back to my feet, stumbling and blinking blearily eyed, a little form garbed in a light-ish brown cloak collided with my midsection, sending me back down. Thankfully the 'ground' was some sort of thick moss covering, otherwise I would've earned via flying brother a rather bruised back.

Tiny, three year old hands clung desperately to the front of my cloak, heedless of the grime, sweat, bits of bile that shared residence on the cloth. I patted his back awkwardly, before my brain caught up and enabled my ability to envelope Orochimaru, the last of my close blood family, into a crushing hug.

I barely took notice when our partners slithered off to who knows where, probably conversing and venting out some emotion in methods other than cry into a sibling. I'll… probably just end up telling them stories later, the seals holding my stuff are still intact, after all.

Burying my nose into his hair, I took a deep breath. He smelled like tears and sadness and snakes and home. Of course by this point my partner had all but abandoned me the the mercy of my brother as she slithered off, probably to confirm the numbers of our remaining clan mates.

Then I sneezed, barely muffling it with my hand in time. Without the heater known as Katsuki Kaguya, my Kinme heritage does not let me keep as much heat as I would've liked. In fact, it wasn't nearly enough. Add on a literal weight crushing me (for such a small kid, Orochi weighs a lot right now), and I can practically feel the heat leaching out, cloak be damned. The little tyke sobbing into my cloak did not help either.

But… he's alive, I thought in relief, fingers threading through and stroking his currently shortish, a tad spiky hair. Plot armour probably doesn't exist considering how much the timeline already seems to be screwed (not like it wasn't before anyways), and that'll mean that the both, I mean, the four of us will need to work even harder than others to stay alive. I probably won't live to see canon, because it's friggin decades away, but I'll enjoy life while I can and make my mark. The Kinme will not have a reputation of being wiped out within a day, even 'scattering' tarnishes the pride my clan feels. After all, the only human on this damn continent that can probably match a Kinme in scientific and etc. advancements is Tobirama. Our clan has a bit of a rivalry with the Mara's so that settles that side, but science can never be completely replaced by the chakra bullcrap.

Maybe I won't specialize in research, but walk another route. Orochimaru has the research and experiment section of the Kinme legacy down, even if we are the sole survivors unlikely as it is, so I'll just maintain the shadows and traditions of the Kinmes.

And, thinking is tiring now. If the slowing hiccups and sniffles are anything to go by, so is my little Orochi. Sleep in fact sounds like a very good thing to do right now, in fact, I think I'll do that.

Moss is comfortable.

I woke hazely to a room, in a futon, and squished on both sides by bodies barely warmer than mine. After an inhale because both of my eyes are lazy little arses that don't understand the definition of working properly, I was able to identify the two warmth generators as a tightly curled up Orochi and a very randomly splayed out Hikaru. A couple more inhales later and my brain was functioning enough for the chakra of my surroundings to filter in to tell me that we were not alone in the room, and that the others present were not our snakes.

Actually, where were they anyways? Generally they would be somewhere by our heads, or just curled up over our not-really-a-pile doggy pile, but I couldn't feel their chakra anywhere in our close vicinity. No Ume-baasan, who is nowadays too scatterbrained to hold her attention for anything over two minutes but overly protective of Hikaru, no Sugiryuu, which is somewhat worrying because he is a lazy, curious cat in scales that somehow hogs all of our body heat despite being the friggin shortest snake of them all, and Dōsukēru, which is the most worrying. She… has barely left my side ever since I had started teaching her English, or even before, when I had first told her in a toddler's vocal chords that I'm a legit dead thing living.

Even in the instances where she has, she had never gone outside of my sensing range, which she very clearly knows the boundaries of.

And so, this is when I started panicking.

Hikaru woke up almost immediately after my breathing became irregular, but even he was slowed to the extent that only a couple of heartbeats later did he twist around unnaturally under our covers and kneel next to me, the warm air rushing out of the gaping hole he caused while doing so only caused a slight shiver.

Somewhere in the haze of where is she where is she where is my partner you jackass lunatical excuse for fate and oh kami thank kami my cousin is alive where I ashamedly regret that the first took absolute precedence, I felt my cousin's chakra weave in a soothing pattern, like he was trying to mimic a sound with vibrations of chakra instead of soundwaves. To my chakra sense, it felt like a horrible rendition of a fur elise. Like, Beethoven's doing- cartwheels- while- crying- so- many- buckets- that- he's- drowning- in- his- coffin horrible.

But somehow, the piece from a time Before managed to calm me down enough so that I was breathing again, ohhh, the irony.

However, both of us froze when the little midget beside me shifted in his sleep. I exchanged a brief glance with Hikaru, and we waited with bated breath to witness Orochi mumbling, rubbing at his eyes, and generally waking up at the speed of a moving glacier.

It was over two minutes later did he actually acknowledge us, with a murmured "nee-chan? Hikaru-niisan? Where are we?"

Actually, that's a very good question. I had no goddamn clue, and I couldn't really talk at the moment or I might not stop. But thankfully, our cousin did.

When our –kami above we're all orphans now– cousin replied that we were safe, Orochi just blinked, golden eyes subtly sharpening. He's… too sharp for a kid sometimes.

Then the moment was ruined when he sneezed, nose crunched up and eyes squinted as if also annoyed that his seriousness was disrupted by a particularly annoying bug.

Children will be children, and that is best kept a constant.

After I dragged both of my boys back to sleep, semi-confident that our partners will return in due time, we were woken up again by too much sound. I hate mornings.

"Hello children," a Yuki-that's-not-Mako garbed in flowing robes smiled pleasantly, "it's time for breakfast, there's coffee and hot chocolate."

The effect was instantaneous, all the other chakra signatures in our room flared and fluctuated as the aforementioned children roused themselves from their sleep and I could finally get a good look at them through the lighting of the passageway. From what my senses told me, there was about another ten or so signatures in the room with us, all immature, young chakra pathways waking up from whatever stage of sleep they were in. Our snake-bonded clan never really cared that we were only children, if one was old enough to hold kunai, one could most definitely drink coffee, but perhaps with liberal amounts of milk and sugar, and first started off with some strong tea. Well, the point is that we don't wake up well most of the time, and even worse when the weather is cold.

In short, most if not all of us are somewhat coffee addicts, or hot chocolate depending on the time of year, or tea depending on the age. Since it's winter, then hot coco for me, despite not being the same types as the ones from Before, the teas in this world is too strange for my stomach to settle with.

I gropped out blindly for warmth as Hikaru the traitor left the blankets and the cold seeped in, I used to love the cold (came with being a Canadian I swear) but now sharing similarities in constitution of a snake meant that our cold-bloodedness needed much more heat to rectify, and that everything is slow to us during the cold, hence why we are generally attacked in the night or during winter. But I can't be really sure if that's the overall trend, as I've only ever witnessed two actual attacks launched on our clan, insufficient data cannot support such a hypothesis no matter how likely it seems.

But, as I crawled out from under the blankets while dragging with me a whining Orochi, I realized that my clan is not just survived by us kids, but also by four adults that stood somewhere right outside in the hallway, and that the hallway was also the place where all of our snakes were congregated.

I hate chakra muffling seals.

It didn't help that all the chakra signatures positioned outside were in a state of muted grief, compartmentalization a popular tactic among Kinme's.

Thirteen. Thirteen of an originally over hundred clan is left. Thankfully that's discounting the snakes so far, because the possibly casualties of our partners is not one that I want to dwell on.

What an ominous number, thirteen.

But standing in a room surrounded by the familiar chakra of my clanmates, the last survivors of my clan, at least it's better than four?

AN: Someone please save me from the madness of real life. Granted, most is brought on by my procrastination, but who the hell thought teaching high school kids quantum physics was a good idea? Calculus (Actually, I'm fine with calculus)? Particle physics and random ass tests in Economics by a teacher whose never taught IB before? Welp. I'm screwed. At least I'm done most projects (finally) and above all, there's over 40cm snow tomorrow, lol. Happy belated Lunar New Year?

As per last time, would anyone want more of the soulmate AU? Otherwise it might be temporarily discontinued until my brain decides to work again.

I apologize for the lateness and if the chapter seemed a bit rushed, there was a brick wall of bedrock that composed my writer's block, not fun. Was gonna post yesterday, but didn't have enough time, sorry? Sorry bout long AN as well?

Now posted on ao3, and pop me questions on Tumblr? (Me not very coherent rn, sorry)

Please review on way out, they're love!

Thanks for reading!

~Cadriona Morningwing

Uploaded: February 12, 2017

As usual, if mistakes are spotted, throw them at me via review/pm.