The corpse that was G fell, and I took a second.
Dear God I just killed someone.
The only thing that kept me from going into shock was the sound of muffled crying coming from the dropped sack.
I kept pressure on the kunai in my side, keeping it still as I cut open the sack with my Bowie very carefully.
Inside was the toddler Hyuga heiress, blindfolded, bound, and gagged.
"Hey there, I'm Genin Sekitangara, I'm gonna cut you loose, but I need you to stand still for a second, okay?" I asked softly, tunnel vision keeping me from noticing the world outside the immediate three feet. "I know your ears are ringing something fierce right now, but I need you to listen to me okay?"
Hinata's shaking form gave a sniffle and a nod, stilling her shaking hands enough for me to snip her bindings. I pulled off her gag next. She moved her hands to her blindfold but I stopped her with my free hand.
"Not yet. There's some things here that you really don't need to see, little sunflower." I spoke softly. I carefully pulled her to her feet and turned her away from me and what used to be G.
"I'm going to remove the blindfold, you run and don't look back okay? I'm not a good sight to see right now, I'll give you nightmares."
Hinata nods again, and I pull the blindfold free. She's a good kid. Runs out of there right into the arms of who I figured was Hyuga Hiashi.
Now.
"Can I get a freakin Medic?!" I called out, finally looking around to see a number of Shinobi all keeping a respectable distance from me.
I was feeling the pain in my side more, as well as my wrist paying the price of me going full redneck and one handing a goddamn twelve gauge.
Freaking hell this hurts.
"Call off your Grandma and we can help you!" Nanako shouted from next to the Hyuga head.
"The hell are you talking…about…?"I turned around slowly to find an ethereal spectre of a woman there, standing there brandishing a staff, drumming her fingers on it and glaring daggers at the surrounding Shinobi.
She's tall, with short spiky hair that wisps in a nonexistent breeze. She's wearing a Jonin vest, but there's a sash around her shoulders also flowing in that ethereal wind.
The Sash of the Twelve Guardian Shinobi.
Now that I looked properly, I could see a definite circle carved into the dirt around me and the corpse of G with frost lining it. Huh…grandma's looking out.
"Nana Shion?" I whispered, and the spirit's attention snaps to me, a soft smile appears on her face, and she kneels.
She gives me a smile filled with pride, and a bit of worry, but says nothing. But I can feel it, that feeling of cold that I've only felt once before. My throat chills.
"Nana…you shouldn't be here. You need to rest." I speak firmly, only earning a shake of a head and the tamping of her staff into the dirt, frost spreading from the impact.
She points at my neck. The message is clear.
If I didn't get to rest, why should she?
"Grandmother, please." I plead, earning a flat look and a smile that held a light amount of exasperation.
She rolls her eyes, steps forward and places something on the ground in front of me before fading away.
A small bell on a string.
"Okay, Nana." I whisper. "I'll call you when I need you."
I pocketed the bell and instantly I felt my right arm get thrown over a shoulder.
"We are definitely having a long chat later, cousin. Let's get you to the hospital."
—
-Nanako POV-
The following morning after Isshin's surgery I had went to the hospital to debrief him properly. The only other person that should've been there before me was Dad.
So when I heard voices inside his hospital room, I grew concerned.
"Are you certain of this course of action, Genin Sekitangara?" Danzo.
Fucking ROOT always pulling something.
"You can have my shit when you pry it from my COLD! DEAD! HANDS!" Isshin snarled loud enough that it rang through the hallway, the door to his room opened and Danzo stepped out, he turned to give some sort of parting shot, but Isshin's knife buried itself into the doorframe next to his good eye.
Thats my baby cousin!
I put on my ANBU face as Danzo decided that discretion was the better part of valor and walked away. Once he was out of eyeshot I let my smirk grow back and pulled the absurdly large knife out of the wall.
"The repairs are going to be coming out of the bounty, just so you know, Isshi." I chuckled at his pout before putting the blade down on his bedside table. I settled into one of the visitors chairs, uncomfortable steel things, but they served their purpose.
I laced my fingers together and settled my baby cousin with my best ANBU interrogator stern glare.
"We need to have a discussion, Isshi-Chan."
Isshin seemed to sink in on himself a little bit. He never was the best liar. Now half-truths? Misdirection? He could give someone the run-around like he was old hat, something he picked up from Sakura-san. But still, his body language told me all I needed to know.
He was about to sing like a bird. I discreetly pasted a privacy seal in place with my shoe as he lifted his eyes to meet mine.
"This ain't my first turn around the bend, Cousin." He spoke softly, and I let out a scoff.
"No shit, Isshin." I deadpanned. I had an inkling the moment he caught sight of me when he met Dad last year. No one can track ANBU on just talent. That has to be learned. Practiced. Repeated a thousand times until it becomes reflex.
I shifted five feet under cover of Genjutsu, and he had still noticed. Hiding that you can do such a feat takes even more practice.
Tora seeded Isshin for ANBU then and there. She could give two shits about who his grandfather was, you don't leave a resource like that untapped.
"Hey, I didn't ask to get my freakin throat cut!" He snaps before collecting himself. "I made weapons. If you think what I did to G was fucked…Nee-san this is the equivalent of casting a knife out of bronze."
I squashed down my heart's internal squeal at being called 'sister' and leaned back in my chair.
"Dad knows?"
"So does Auntie."
"That's why I was briefed on your designs being A-Ranked secrets…now, the elephant in the room. Auntie Shion."
Isshin shivered a bit at a chill that I couldn't feel, he unconsciously rubbed at his throat as his eyes flicked to the corner of the room.
A moment later I see her. Translucent, but there. She gives me a smile and a wave of her fingers.
"The dead aren't meant to speak to the living. But she gets her message across. She clawed her way back from the pure world. Through Willpower and Spite." Isshin spoke, and Shion gave a pair of fingers to the ceiling.
I gave a bit of a chuckle before she faded into invisibility once more.
"What's with the Ice?" I asked, and immediately regretted it.
Isshin's pupils dilated and became dull, he spoke in a whisper.
"Death is cold. So cold you feel your blood slowing to a standstill in your veins even as your heart stalls to a stop. The pain isn't even the worst part, it's the damned cold." Isshin shakes his head and I see the light get back into his eyes.
"I am not the norm, Nee-chan. Neither is Grandma. I don't want anyone going through what I have. For a while there when I first figured things out…I thought I was going to go insane."
He takes a breath.
"I have twenty-five years of memories in my head. Memories of a Dead Man. A language only I speak, a culture only I remember. A God only I pray to. It's maddening." He lies back into the bed, giving me a smile that's too tired to be on a six year old.
Before I know it I'm hugging the damn idiot.
"Teach us, then. You, me, and Asuma. Maybe your teammates. We can free up some space in that big brain of yours, Isshi-chan."
A grin grows on his face as his eyes light up in a mischievous gleam that I know comes straight from the ghost in the corner. His next words were choked out between mirthful laughter.
"…I don't think the world is ready for a Latina Nara Yara, Nanako."
It was a good talk.
—-
-Hiruzen Sarutobi POV-
It was rare when the Hokage would need to leave the village. However there are certain incidents in which it is a necessity. The moment Isshin had been declared stable, I set out to the Land of Iron with a squad of ANBU and a select few Jonin.
Neutral Ground for…negotiations.
Biwako had been ready to march to Kumo directly, such was her fire, but no. There would be retribution for this insult, but war was not tenable. Not yet.
"We can shelter him, Hokage-sama." Tora, the current head of ANBU spoke whilst we moved.
"He's a child, Tora." I shot back.
Tora. The code name for the head of the ANBU black ops. A tradition since the founding of the village. They are the most ruthless, fearless, and effective. I've sent her on more missions that were deemed suicidal than I could care to count. Yet every time, she would return with a body in a scroll or a severed head on her hip.
"A child who killed a Jonin, Hokage-sama. It's only going to get worse as time goes on. You know this, you've seen his designs." She pressed,
"And I damned myself in doing so! I will handle this, Tora. Leave him be. You'll have your agent when he's ready. You'll break him as he is now."
Tora shakes her head as we dart through the trees, stark white hair trailing behind her.
"He's already broken, Hokage-sama. He needs to be rebuilt." She has a point. As much as it stings to admit it. Even so, I am the final authority.
"I will think about the options available to me, Tora-san. I would at least prefer he be a chunin before he goes on pilgrimage." I speak softly, but there's no room for argument in my tone.
I am still the God of Shinobi. I am still Sarutobi Hiruzen, Third Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
Days later, the Fourth Raikage enters the meeting room to find me sat at a table, I set my pipe down and exhale a cloud of smoke that frames my face.
"I'm not happy, A-san." I speak, rising to my feet, fully armored, with Enma perched on the windowsill behind me.
"Not. Happy."
—
-Isshin POV-
I was constrained to the hospital until Grunkle Sarutobi gave the okay for me to be back out and about, and considering he was out verbally ripping the Raikage a new asshole, I was stuck here for a little bit.
It wasn't all bad, Itachi came by with Sasuke, and he was being, well a toddler. Barely controlled chaos and upset that I was taking his big brother's attention away.
Still there was a tension that was in the air. Things were being discussed, threats were being made, and being kept out of the loop was making me jumpy. On the third day, I got a visitor.
"Sekitangara-san." The voice was prim and proper, but soft-spoken. I raised my gaze from my journal to see Hyuuga Hiashi there, and a familiar head of blue hair hiding behind his leg.
"Hyuga-sama." I greeted, shutting my journal and giving a quick bow.
The clan-head gives me a nod of acknowledgement and urges Hinata forward, who tentatively approaches the edge of the bed with, of all things, a sunflower and a cinnamon roll.
"T-thank you for saving me, Genin-san." She speaks, offering the items, I take them with a soft smile.
"How are your ears doing, Sunflower?" I asked, earning a raised eyebrow from the Hyuga head. Sorry pal, she's a chibi, she gets a chibi nickname. Them's the rules.
"I'm okay…the ringing stopped yesterday." She supplied, and I gave a nod and a smile.
"Alright, but you stay away from fireworks for about a week or so to be safe, y'hear? Your hearing comes back, but not all the way each time."
"Like Elder Junbei, Papa?" Hinata asks, turning to her father, who gives a nod,
"Like Elder Junbei, Hinata. Come here, I have some questions to ask Genin Sekitangara." He replies, and the young heiress nods and returns to her father's side.
"Sunflower?" He asks, and I shrug.
"Hinata: Facing the Sun. What does a sunflower do?"
"Fair enough. How goes your recovery?" He's being cordial enough to look past my giving his daughter a nickname, I guess he's not one hundred percent a hard-ass.
Yet.
"Penetrating stab wound to the lower left abdominal, pierced my small intestine and nicked one of my kidneys. Medical Ninjutsu's a hell of a thing." I spoke, I know had a thin scar just the same diameter of a Kunai at it's broadest in my side. Doc's said it'd fade over time.
"You seem to be doing well enough."
"My stitches are holding, Hyuga-sama. All I can hope for at this point. How can I be of service?" I asked, wondering why he was here. Could just be that Hinata wanted to thank me, but that's no cause to stick around and chit-chat.
"You saved my daughter." He speaks, placing a gentle hand on Hinata's shoulder, who gives a small smile towards me. "The Hyuga clan owes you a debt, and I, personally do as well."
I quickly raise my hand and wave him off.
"Nope. I'm stopping you right there, Hyuga-sama. I just did what any man worth his salt was supposed to do in that situation."
"At personal harm to yourself."
"Pain and injury come with the job, Hyuga-sama, and I'm no stranger to either. You don't owe me spit." I quickly cut back in. I don't want to get involved in Hyuga Politics, especially since I don't know how this whole situation with Kumo is about to pan out.
I never saw Hiruzen before he left, but when Biwako came in, she was livid.
"Even so-"
"MY BABY!" Oh hi mom! Pa had told me she'd gone out of town to do some contract renegotiation with a few of our suppliers. She must've hauled ass when she heard the news.
Hyuga-san gained an amused smile on his face as he ushered young Hinata away.
I had a feeling our conversation wasn't over.
Mom fussed over me for a good while.
"Does it hurt? Are you okay? Are you stiff? What happened?!" She shot off rapid fire questions until I got my arms free enough to pull her into a tight hug, she buried her face into my shoulder, hugging me tight.
"They hurt my baby boy…" oh there are the tears.
"I'm okay, Mama. You should see the other guy." I spoke, pulling back and giving my mother a confident smile.
"I'd like to give 'em a piece of my mind that's for sure." She muttered, wiping her eyes, I saw Dad stepping in with a 'you deserve this' look on his face.
Which, is fair.
"His is all over the floor, so…" Pa spoke, moving to stand by Mom's side.
"This is no time for morbid humor, Yoroi! Our baby was stabbed!" Mom snapped, and I quickly had to step in.
"Mom, I'm okay. I saved a princess too!" I emphasized, earning a sobbed laugh from my young mother. She pulled me into another tight hug that my father joined in.
An idea jumped into my head, and I discreetly gave the Bell a chime.
"What was…that…" Mom's question faded as the ethereal form of Sarutobi Shion faded into view. She was giving me an unimpressed look with her arms crossed before Ma and Pa turned around to face her properly.
"Mom, Dad…meet Grandma." I spoke softly, whilst Nana rolled her eyes and gave a wave.
"Mom…" Pa spoke, voice hitching. Grandma stepped up to him, looking over him. She taps her eye and raises an eyebrow.
"The Nine-Tails got it." Pa speaks, and Grandma nods, a proud smirk growing on her face as she gently cups Pa's face with one of her hands.
Yeah. He's her baby. That's love in those eyes if I've ever seen it.
"I keep telling her to rest, but she's stubborn as a mule." I groan, falling back into the cot, only to dart up as ice taps the bottom of my foot. I glare at the spectre as she silently giggles whilst twirling her staff.
"Well…we know where he gets it from at least, Yoroi." Mom speaks, drawing Grandma's attention to her. Her gaze snaps from her, to dad, then to me, and another smile grows on her face as she nods, pride in every iota of her body language.
"Have you showed Dad yet, Isshin?" Dad asks, and I let out a huff.
"Pop Pop's been avoiding me. I think he's heard rumors, and I can't beat some sense into him when I'm confined here." I grumbled, grandma nodding in agreement with a pout of her own on her face.
"Good Kami they really are mirror images of each other." Mom whispered, and I couldn't help but fall into a fit of giggles.
"I don't blame him, Mom being…ba-"
"She's not back, Pa." I cut in, grandma also making a cutting motion with her own palm.
"She's still…dead." I explained, Grandma nodding, pantomiming chopping her head with her hand. "But…Ma, I have a question. Was I…stillborn?" I asked, and Ma flinched. Well that answered my question.
"Three minutes, twenty six seconds before you burst out crying." She whispered, and I nodded, giving her hand a supportive squeeze.
"That might explain a few things. My chakra, it's almost all Yin, according to grandma." I spoke, Nana once again nodding, spreading her arms wide to emphasize. "It's why I can sense so well…and why Nana can piggyback off my soul."
I took a breath.
"I crossed over, and I dragged some of it with me when I came back."