Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Imouto Trilogy :: Hatake :: Even After All These Years ❯ Chapter 12: The Kunoichi ( Chapter 12 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

 

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

 

(1) - Kuro means black in Japanese.

 

Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations!

 

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Even After All These Years

 

Chapter 12

The Kunoichi

 

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As Naruto trotted down the road alongside his team he attempted to keep an eye on the forest around him. It didn't work. No matter how hard he tried to concentrate, he constantly found his mind drifting back to the events that had occurred earlier that day. It stood out stark in his mind, though fortunately his emotions had calmed down a bit since his talk with Kyomi.

 

Naruto held back a sigh and wiped off his face. He knew that there wasn't really anything there--he must have wiped it a couple dozen times that day already--but it felt like there was. He could still feel the blood that had been splattered on his face. He could still feel it running down his face like some twisted parody of tears, crying without sympathy for those whom would never rise again. And no amount of rubbing would remove that blood.

 

Abruptly, Naruto became aware of the fact that Kakashi was walking beside him. The group was no longer in formation--there was no need now since Daichi had been safely delivered to Hajime--but last Naruto remembered, Kakashi had been up in the front of the group, while Naruto himself was taking up the rear. Had he really been so out of it that he hadn't even noticed his sensei dropping back so far?

 

Despite knowing that Naruto had acknowledged his presence, Kakashi still didn't say anything to the blonde. Instead the two just walked along side by side, Naruto taking comfort in the simple knowledge that his sensei was there.

 

Meanwhile, up ahead, Sakura and Sasuke too were wrestling with their own inner demons. Despite having been Genin for several years, they, like Naruto, had never actually killed before. Even that day however, Sakura had been lucky enough to not have had to kill. She'd still be introduced to death though, which had been more than enough.

 

Sakura chewed on her bottom lip, her eyes staring unfocusedly ahead. At the moment her mind was running around in circles and her emotions were going through a roller coaster ride. She really just didn't know what to think.

 

When she'd signed up to become a kunoichi, Sakura had known that she'd have to kill someday--it was a part of the job description. But knowing something and actually seeing it happen, seeing her teammates brutally kill other people, were two completely different things. Sakura honestly wasn't sure if she'd be able to go through with killing someone when the situation came upon her.

 

Suddenly Sakura's thought turned to what had occurred after the battle--if you could even call it that--had been over, and how she'd quickly set upon healing everyone. Well, everyone except for Naruto, who didn't seem to have a scratch on him. She could have sworn that some of the blood had been his, but...

 

Sakura suddenly realized that that situation--healing her teammates after a battle--was why she'd followed to path that she had. She was a healer, apprenticed to the great Tsunade, because she'd much rather give life than take it away. Sakura felt her back straightening as she gained a sudden strength from realizing what her purpose as a kunoichi was. Then she had to smile lightly. Naruto would probably be shouting for joy if he knew that she was thinking about following "her own ninja path".

 

Sakura suddenly faltered. The old Naruto probably would have been shouting for joy, she realized, but she wasn't sure what this new, silent Naruto would do.

 

Sakura glanced back at the blonde just in time to see him wipe his face. As the pink haired Genin turned back toward the path before them, she frowned. She had already seen Naruto doing that several times, and couldn't understand why he was. There was nothing on his face, but just kept on rubbing at it, as if trying to get something off. Perhaps she'd ask Tsunade about his behavior when they got back to Konoha.

 

As Sakura looked forward, her other teammate, Sasuke, caught her eye and she immediately felt worry override all of her rationality.

 

'Poor Sasuke-kun!' she thought as she held her hand up before her. 'He had to kill today!' From there her thoughts degenerated into mindless chatter. 'I can cheer him up,' Sakura suddenly thought. 'Then he'll finally get over his shyness and admit his love for me!'

 

Meanwhile, Sasuke was brooding, blissfully unaware of his female teammate's daydreams. He had sunk into dark thoughts; his mind conflicted over the recent events. Sasuke was no stranger to death, certainly, but he had never actually killed before. A shiver ran down his spine at the very thought.

 

Now more than ever he couldn't understand how his older brother had been able to murder his entire clan. Killing a stranger in self defense was one thing, but to kill your family, your parents...

 

"Alright everyone," Kakashi suddenly said, causing almost everyone to jump. They turned there attention onto him, his own students in particular feeling half annoyed, half relieved for the interruption. "We've been walking for long enough. Let's pick up speed."

 

And with that the eight shinobi took to the trees and easily disappeared from sight.

 

 

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"Well, well, well, if this isn't a surprise."

 

At the sound of the voice Kyomi tensed and whirled around, attempting to remember where she'd heard that voice before. It was tickling in the back of her mind, but she just couldn't remember...

 

At the same time, Kyomi was cursing herself. Why the hell hadn't she heard the person approaching?! She'd been on high alert, completely focused on her surroundings!

 

Kyomi's eyes searched the alley around her, but to her shock she found that she couldn't figure out where the voice was coming from. She knew that someone was out there, but to all of her senses the alley was empty except for her and her client.

 

Behind Kyomi, Daichi was whimpering. Sparing a quick glance back at him, Kyomi found him huddled up again the wall, looking like he was about to wet his pants--or maybe already had. He was in a patch of bright sunlight due to the angle of the sun and Kyomi was tempted to tell him to move into the shadows, but at the last moment decided against it. It would be easier for her to protect him if she could easily see him.

 

Kyomi turned her attention back onto the other, shadowed, side of the alleyway just in time to see something shift. Quickly, she pulled out a pair of kunai that were hidden in the folds of her kimono and moved down in a half-crouch so that she was resting on the balls of her feet. In this position, she could easily move in any direction when the shinobi--for that's whom she was pretty sure that it was--appeared.

 

As if replying to her thoughts, the shadows across the alley suddenly shifted once more. This time however, a figure stepped forward, out of the shadows themselves, revealing themselves.

 

Kyomi's eyes rested on the pure obsidian black mask covering the figure's face and immediately recognized the person to be the kunoichi that she'd run into just a month ago. The long, braided black hair trailing down her back and the black handled scythe in her hands only reinforced the girl's identity.

 

Kyomi's hand tightened around the handles of the kunai as she watched the kunoichi take a couple of steps forward. She was waiting for the dark haired kunoichi to attack, but the girl didn't seem inclined to do so just yet if her body language read true.

 

"Definitely a surprise," the kunoichi murmured. Her tone said that she was smirking even if her face could not be seen. "I didn't expect to see you again."

 

Kyomi's eyes narrowed and her mind began racing a mile a minute. How the heck did the kunoichi recognize her?! Kyomi was well adapted to using disguises, and not even the Genin whom she'd met before had recognized her. Hell, not even Naruto had really known that it was her until she talked to him. On top of that, Kyomi had been wearing her ANBU mask when she'd met the kunoichi, so there was no possible way for her to recognize her face. So then how the heck did she know who she was?!

 

"Well then," the kunoichi continued, "Let's make this easy--unlike last time. Just hand over Kurosaki Daichi and there'll be no problems."

 

Kyomi felt her eye start to twitch. "Like hell I will," she snapped.

 

The kunoichi chuckled again. "I figured that you'd be stubborn about this."

 

Kyomi forced down the growl that was surfacing in her throat. "Well I obviously will be. I'm not just going to stand by and let you murder an innocent person!"

 

The kunoichi let out a bark of a laugh. "Innocent?! I'd hardly call him innocent. And what's this about killing him?"

 

Kyomi paused to stare at the shadow kunoichi in confusion. What? She wasn't here to kill Daichi? Then why the heck was she here?!

 

Before Kyomi could voice her questions however, and understanding spark came into the black haired kunoichi's eyes. "Ah," she said, her eyes sliding over to Daichi for a moment. "Is that what he told you? That I was here to kill him? Let me guess, he also fed you some bullshit about how assassins were after him because his father's a rich merchant?" She paused to chuckle once more. "No, I'm afraid that his actions were solely his own. We have no intention of killing him...yet."

 

Kyomi's mind was racing. It seemed that there was a whole lot more to this situation than there'd originally appeared. She wanted to think that the kunoichi was just trying to trick her, but she could tell from Daichi's renewed whimpering that it was the truth. Suddenly however, the kunoichi last sentence caught in Kyomi's mind. The girl had said "we". Not "I" or "my employer", but "we". What did this mean? From what she had said earlier Daichi had done something to make this "we" mad at him. Something that was bad enough for him to lie to the Hokage about it. But what?

 

Kyomi focused all of her attention back on the kunoichi, only to find that the dark haired girl was looking at Daichi, who was shaking like a leaf and looked as pale as a geisha.

 

Kyomi turned back to her opponent, a question on her lips. "Was it you whom sent out those bandits?"

 

The kunoichi smirked, her sapphire eyes dancing with mirth. "No, I didn't send them out personally," she replied.

 

Kyomi narrowed her eyes. She understood what he shadow kunoichi was saying: she hadn't sent out the men, but whoever she was working with--or for, she couldn't rule that out yet--had.

 

"But enough of that," the shadow kunoichi said suddenly, gripping her scythe tighter. "Yesterday is gone and tomorrow has not yet come. We only have today so let us begin."

 

In a flash, the girl moved forward, her black handled scythe slashing through the air. Kyomi quickly rolled out of the way and then deflected a second attack with her two kunai, cursing the gods that she hadn't been able to bring her ANBU-issue katana with her due to the mission parameters. And now those parameters didn't even matter anyway because the kunoichi had recognized her. Kyomi still had no idea how the dark haired girl had managed that.

 

As Kyomi moved forward toward her opponent she quickly fell into a rhythm of a fight. This battle, however, was quite a bit different than the one that she'd fought with the kunoichi before. This time around the girl was using a lot more force and was incorporating her shadows into almost every move.

 

To Kyomi's increasing anger, she quickly found herself being pushed back and outmaneuvered. And she didn't even know whether or not the other girl was even a kunoichi for Kami's sake! Sure, she had the skills of a shinobi, but she also had yet to use a single jutsu--well except for her shadows, but for some reason Kyomi didn't think that that was a jutsu. Granted, Kyomi herself was also being careful in the jutsu department, but that was half because she didn't want to risk injuring Daichi, even if he had lied, and half because she didn't want to damage the buildings around them.

 

The worst part of the fight, however, was that the shadow kunoichi almost seemed to be just playing around with her.

 

Putting on a burst of speed Kyomi slashed at the kunoichi and then moved away. Without waiting for her to recover from the blow Kyomi quickly ran though a series of handseals, bit her thumb to make herself bleed, and then slammed her hands onto the ground.

 

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

 

A burst of smoke later, a large pure black wolf was standing in front of Kyomi, his gleaming golden eyes piercing through the darkness. He was massive, standing as high as Kyomi's waist, and currently he was growling menacingly at the dark haired kunoichi before him.

 

This was Kuro(1), a summon which Kyomi had never shown to Naruto during their training. After all, Kyomi just wanted the dogs she summoned to track the boy, not kill him. And unlike Paa-kun, Kakashi's favored summon, this half-wolf, half-dog, Kyomi's personal favorite, was trained solely for attacking instead of tracking.

 

As they had fought together so many times before, Kuro didn't wait for Kyomi's commands. Rather, he just leapt forward, his teeth bared. Directly after him Kyomi moved as well, also attacking the other girl.

 

Now that she had two opponents, the shadow kunoichi was a bit more hard pressed. Kuro managed to quickly learn how to avoid her shadows and stay in the light for as long as possible. Kyomi, meanwhile, kept the kunoichi's attention off Kuro as much as she could by attacking furiously, adding a couple of low-level jutsu into the mix simply as a distraction.

 

After several minutes the shadow kunoichi moved backwards a bit, brining her shadows up to protect herself. Kyomi dashed forward, attempting to get around the kunoichi's guard, but before she could the dark haired girl's scythe suddenly flashed forward from within the shadows.

 

Kyomi cursed, knowing that she should have expected something like that, even as she ducked out the way and leapt backwards to avoid certain death, but not before receiving a deep gash on her left arm.

 

Kyomi snarled lightly, brining up her other hand and pressing it to the wound tightly. At the same time Kuro dashed forward and, using the shadow kunoichi's distracted triumph to his advantage, and managed to sink his teeth into the girl's lower calf. The kunoichi quickly used her shadows to shove Kuro away, sending him flying into a wall, but the damage had already been done and how the kunoichi had a noticeable limp.

 

Kyomi grinned ferociously, glad that the fight was beginning to turn in her favor. She swiftly pulled out a handful of shuriken and tossed them with unerring accuracy at the shadow kunoichi. They were all blocked, but Kyomi knew no more than that as her vision was suddenly filled with a sea of black with red clouds. Above that was face with a pair of crimson eyes containing three spinning black tomoe.

 

Itachi.