Yuki
Yuki Yuki stood at the bow of the ship as it cut through the sea of blood. The sky above was a foreboding shade of red, the same shade as the blood that the ship now sailed through. They blended together and seemed to form an endless void of crimson. The air was thick with the stench of decay. She held her shirt collar over her mouth and took a deep breath, trying to escape the smell.
The sea swirled with black and purple tendrils of corruption that made her skin crawl. It seemed to be alive, pulsing with a malevolent energy. It felt as if it were watching them, waiting for them to make a wrong move.
This was just one of the several thousand crowded ships that now made up the mist fleet. Even a few months ago, the fleet had not nearly been this large. Most of these ships had been purchased or commandeered for this very crossing. At the mizukage's orders, they'd taken every ship in the entire nation. They'd filled them, overfilled them really, with shinobi first and then with civilians. There were more desperate civilians trailing behind the fleet in smaller crafts, some even in rowboats. Once or twice, she spotted a couple of people paddling a raft.
Yuki couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness as she looked back towards the island they had just left behind. The Mist village had been her entire life, but now it was to be nothing more than a distant memory.
She remembered the day the decision was made to leave. The waters around the island had become completely corrupted, killing off all the fish, their main source of food, and cutting off their trade lines. The village leaders had made the difficult choice to abandon their home and seek refuge on the mainland.
Yuki sighed and turned her attention back to the sea. The ship rocked back and forth as it cut through the bloody waters, and she could feel the spray on her face.
As the ship continued its journey towards the mainland, Yuki couldn't help but feel a sense of dread. She knew that the journey ahead would be long and difficult, and that the corrupted sea was just the beginning of their troubles.
But she also knew that she had her friends by her side, and that together, they could face whatever lay ahead. They'd prepared their whole lives for this, afterall.
Not to mention the man who had prepared them. Okojo was up ahead of them, leaning against the mast, his arms crossed and his headband pulled down over his eyes.
Yuki Yuki's life began in a sterile laboratory, where she was grown in a tube like a plant in a greenhouse. She was created with a specific purpose in mind: to fight the corruption. From the moment she was born, her life was one of intense training and rigorous conditioning. She'd been aged unnaturally over the course of a week until she was biologically thirteen.
She wasn't the only clone. There was Koshimaru Kaguya, a short and wiry boy with a shock of white hair, and Terumi Aska, a tall girl with long brown hair and aquamarine eyes. The three of them were all clones, grown in vats six months ago. They'd been created in only a few days and had come out of the vats biologically teenagers.
One day, Yuki, Koshimaru, and Aska were led outside of the secluded laboratory deep within the Mist village, where they were introduced to Okojo, the man who would be their sensei and guide. Okojo was a man with long straight dark hair and a well-groomed goatee. He carried himself with a quiet confidence that demanded respect.
"Welcome, young ones," he said, his voice low and measured. "I am Momochi Okojo, and I will be your mentor for the foreseeable future." He paused for a moment. "Since you're about to find out anyway, and since we will be together long term, I'll tell you something else. Momochi Okojo is what I'm called but it's actually Uchiha Okojo. I'm a clone like you and it could be bad if the leaf found out about me." He didn't need to trust them not to spill this information. All three had cursed seals on their tongues, so that wasn't even a possibility.
The three genin bowed in unison, their eyes fixed on the ground. Except Koshimaru, who tilted his head up so the bow came out more as a playful leaning forward.
Okojo continued, "We must prepare your minds for what is to come. This will not be an easy journey, but if you work hard and stay focused, you will emerge stronger than you ever thought possible."
With that, Okojo's eyes changed, taking on a tri-symmetrical shape. The genin felt a sudden pressure in their heads, as if a great weight had been placed upon them. They tried to move, but found themselves unable to do so.
And then, suddenly, everything changed. The world around them faded away, and they found themselves standing in a vast, empty expanse.
"This is the realm of the mind," Okojo said, his voice echoing in the emptiness. "Here, we will train your minds to resist the corruption, to build your mental fortitude, and to hone your skills as ninja."
And so began their training. Day after day, they would be put under Tsukuyomi, living out years in the span of minutes. They trained relentlessly, building their minds to resist the corruption that threatened their world. Kazuo also gave them general shinobi training while in the realm of the mind. Using the accelerated growth vats and the hyperbolic time effect of Tsukuyomi, they were able to train up three skilled shinobi in such a short amount of time. But it had come at a cost.
As Yuki emerged from another grueling session in the realm of the mind, she felt a sense of pride and accomplishment. She was still just a genin, but the three of them were all chunin level in power, and she was certain they would quickly become something more. And with Uchiha Okojo as her guide, she knew that she could accomplish anything.
Blood dripped profusely from Okojo's eyes. Dribbles of blood had started several months into their training and happened periodically. But recently it had become more and more frequent. But this time was different. Okojo was staring past them instead of at them.
"I know you've said you were fine every time we asked, but are you sure you're alright sensei?" Aska asked.
Okojo stared at the wall for a long moment. "I can't hide it at this point. I'm afraid that I can no longer rely on my Sharingan to train you."
Koshimaru waved his hand in front of Okojo's face which stood stone still. "Sensei, you're…"
Okojo sighed. "I could barely make out your forms before I cast Tsukuyomi. Now, I can't see anything at all."
"Maybe you need a break? Take a few days to rest your eyes?" Yuki asked.
"Kirigakure doesn't have much information on the sharingan, so I've had to figure it out myself. Remember that time I was gone for five days on a mission? I didn't use the final form of my sharingan at all then. What I found is, once my vision is damaged by the Tsukuyomi, it never recovers."
"How are we going to get strong enough to destroy the corruption, then?" Koshimaru asked.
"You've already lived sixteen years inside the Tsukuyomi, three more than your biological ages. That amount of experience will have to do. We didn't get hundreds of years like we'd hoped, but we can't say this program was a watste either. I will continue training you in the real world, but we don't have long now before we make the exodus."
Koshimaru was eyeing Okojo from across the ship. "You know, I always thought he'd look better without the beard, eh Yuyu?"
"He does have a pretty face," Yuki said.
"He told me once that he grew it out because he doesn't want anyone to—" Aska stopped talking as her face twitched. Yuki knew this happened when the cursed seal was stopping one of them from saying something.
"I get the jist," Koshimaru said.
Okojo was a clone. They all four were. That meant there was, or had been someone out there who had the exact same face. Was the goatee and now the headband over his eyes meant to hide who he was a clone of?
Before too long, the sea itself seemed to become angry at the humans who had dared to intrude into this godforsaken land.
Yuki clung to the railing of the ship as it pitched and rolled in the turbulent sea, the spray of the salty ocean blood stinging her eye. The air was thick with the smell of blood and fear, but they had trained their minds. She was not shaken by this.
Suddenly, a massive tentacle burst from the water and smashed into the side of the ship, causing it to shudder and groan. Yuki's heart leapt into her throat as she saw the enormous form of an abhorrent sea monster rise from the depths. Its body was covered in writhing tendrils and glowing runes, and its thousand eyes burned with a sickly green light. In the distance, she saw more creatures like this one, emerging throughout the fleet.
Yuki gritted her teeth as she prepared to defend herself. Koshimaru and Emiko were doing the same, their faces set in grim determination. Yuki and Koshimaru charged forward, dodging the creature's thrashing tentacles and hurling bones and ice at the beast's body.
Yuki saw a mass of black fire launch from somewhere overhead out at the creature. As they hit its body, It let out a horrid shriek that was like clawed tentacles digging into her ears.
The monster dipped into the water, but when it emerged, it was still on fire.
Now it was angry. The burning monster flailed its arms, dangerously, unpredictably.
And the ship was smashed apart, wood splintering and flying everywhere. Yuki felt herself thrown into the air, tumbling head over heels as the world spun around her. She caught a glimpse of Kenta and Emiko being swallowed up by the waves, their screams lost in the chaos.
Yuki hit the water hard, the impact knocking the breath out of her. She struggled to stay afloat, kicking her legs and flailing her arms. She could hear the creature's roar echoing in her ears, and she knew that she was in mortal danger.
She felt something slimy move past her. She knew she would be in the thing's grasp at any moment now. She needed to protect herself quickly.
It was a desperate move but… it was the right move, she decided. After making some quick hand signs, the blood around her shoulders began to freeze. She was plunged underwater for a moment. She felt the ice cover her entire body, encasing her.
She would awaken eventually. That was part of the technique. She just hoped everything would be alright when she did.