Impossible to Forget

Chapter 36: Recite

One snore and Raiju was out like a light.

Nori was trembling in anger, frustration, disappointment? I wasn't sure what, but she was more than just a little bit terrifying.

"Well then," she pulled out her katana, "I guess that there's always another route that I could take to my goal. I'll just have to start over again. Shouldn't be too much of a hassle." She took a deep breath like she was trying to convince herself of that. She was almost sixty-one years old, there might not be enough time for her to start over again, and she knew that. "I think that I'll start by cleaning up the loose ends here."

Translation: I'm really pissed off so now I'm going to kill you to vent my rage.

You know what, I was pissed off too. She killed Bijonko, she killed in front of Anzu, she killed the four ANBU agents that were supposed to guard us (tortured one of them too), she tried to kill Kakashi, she tried to kill me, she used my dad, she used Sakumo, she was never a mother to me, and she smiled like a psychopath through all of it. Hell, at this point I was even mad at her for killing Sadao and Kanaye.

I stood up, "No, Mother. We are two loose ends that I won't let you clean up."

She charged and sparks flew as I blocked her sword with the kunai.

She leaned in towards my face, "And just how are you going to stop me?"

I laughed, "No clue. But you know what, it doesn't matter because I already know that you aren't going to win."

She backed up and swiped for my legs. I jumped up over the attack while opening up the first two of my Inner Gates.

"Oh really," she sneered.

I punched, kunai still clenched in my fist, and she blocked it with the flat of her blade, one hand braced behind that, and I could see the shock wave ripple through her body.

"You should have listened to Bijonko instead of killing her."

She snarled and swiped for the side of my head, ribcage, then my replaced hip. "Why's that?"

I blocked all three swipes with a clang. "Because she was right. Every time, she was right."

I decided to prove it to her. Bijonko's words had been ingrained in my memory, and I was going to share them with Nori.

She swiped for my head again, and I dropped below it.

"Darkness from the past."

I swiped at her stomach.

"Kunai ever looming."

My mother blocked me with a smooth stroke and followed through with a kick that cracked several ribs on my right side.

"Nights without rest, nights without slumber."

I jumped up into the air and flipped several feet back as she turned the ground at my feet to sand with a jutsu.

"She comes for you."

She was right there when I landed, and I pushed her sword strike to the side with my kunai.

"But not for you alone."

I pivoted on the balls of my feet and brought my right elbow to her jaw with a loud crack.

"Beware the dead once hailed as hero."

Nori jumped back and spit a blood-covered tooth out of her mouth.

"For eons."

I stepped past her guard and slashed her stomach with my kunai.

"The beast slumbered."

Nori retaliated with a kick behind her that cracked ribs on my left side as well.

"For eons."

I rolled to the side as she brought her sword down on where I had been a millisecond earlier.

"The beast slept unhindered."

I brought a round-kick towards her abdomen.

"Only now to be awoken again."

She lifted her leg up to block with her shin, and I felt pins and needles flow down to my toes as we clashed shin on shin, bone on bone.

"By the blood of the last of his line."

I jumped up and switched legs, bringing the other towards the side of her head.

"For years, she searched."

Nori ducked and planted a side-kick on the small of my back when I landed.

"For years, she looked."

I rolled to disperse the force of the attack as the wind was knocked out of me. I coughed before I was able to choke out the next line.

"She has found it."

I wiped away the small dribble of blood coming from the corner of my mouth. That last hit of hers was solid.

"Misguided endeavors."

Nori swiped at my neck, trying for her favorite way of killing people: separating their heads from their shoulders. I dropped the kunai, and caught her right wrist with my left hand, stopping the blow.

"Lack of knowledge shall be your bane, it shall be your downfall."

Her eyes narrowed in anger, and I dropped her wrist to block the punch thrown by her other arm. I grabbed that wrist and shoved her into the cave wall, my forearm across her throat, holding her in place.

"Your search for power is all for naught; lightning cannot be awakened, it cannot be revived."

She kneed me in the stomach. I stomped on the foot still on the ground, crushing the bones on the top of it.

"You shall fail."

I dropped her left wrist, and as she began to peel herself off the wall, I punched her right forearm as hard as I could, pinning it between unyielding rock and my fist. I felt bones give way and shatter beneath the strike. I dislocated my ring-finger knuckle, but as she dropped her sword from a hand that could no longer hold it, I knew that the move was worth it. "You shall... And that's where you killed her, remember? Maybe you should have stopped to listen to what Bijonko had to say next. Then maybe you could have avoided this situation."

As she stood there in shock, I kicked her in the knee, dislocating the joint and dropping her to the ground like a rock.