Naruto: The Forgotten Nation

Last Breath's Curse

(song----Akatsuki Theme 3 Hidan Naruto Shippuden soundtrack)

Chapter 24 - Last Breath's Curse

Esunea

I had managed to get Tamara home by taking her to Mira-nee's first. She was a little bit upset that I had woken her up way passed midnight, but after calming down she had told me how to get to the girl's house. Tamara had still been delierious when I had dropped her off at the front steps of her home.

The day after the Dreaming Festival, it had rained so I had stayed indoors. It had been boring, looking out the window at the tremendous amount of rain that obscured the vision of my neighbor's apartment across from me. Laying on my bed though, and listen to it pour seemed to calm me though.

The next day, I was visited by a shinobi from the Kage's office. It was one of the messengers that carried orders from the Kage to anyone within the village or beyond. Their one task was to deliever the words of Haramuka as fast and safetly as they could to those who the words were meant for.

The man didn't come inside, for he didn't have much time to speak before he needed to visit someone else. His kind wore plain white masks. If the mask had been shaped like an animal's head and included splotches of color, then that would have told me he was from the Ambu. The message division man spoke his message after I'd opened the door fully.

"The Hosekikage orders you to visit her at her office imediately." He said, his voice muffled by the mask he wore.

As soon as he had came, he was gone in a flash. I presumed it was serious if Haramuka wanted me imediately. Seldom did she ever tell someone to come to her right away. I was already in my causal clothing, so all I had to do was grab my key and lock up my apartment before journeying to the Kage's office.

　

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The stone statues of all five Kage seemed to be staring at me as I walked onto the platform and waited for those up top to activate the mechanics of the maching with their chakra. There were of coarse stairs, but those were just for decoration. They soon slid so that the surface was flat and the platform rose.

This was the best defence for the village, and in case of an emergency, the townspeople would be taken up to the Kage's office to avoid casualties. There they would wait until the danger was over. The only way up was this platform since the steep stone walls had no foot holes for one to climb. It was impossible to jump up as well. The platform could even be locked in place, and the stairs, once flatted out, could be righted vertically and blend in with the steep slopes around it.

At the top, I stepped off the platform as people got on. Not many people could get on it at once. There were no hand railings---the only mistake in the machine's design. The firing of its internal engines could be heard as I walked away towards the single building that donned this summit.

Kotone greeted me just a few minutes after I had entered the building. If anyone wanted to see the Kage, they had to go through her first.

I noticed that her cheeriness was a bit off this time around, as if some information had effected her. She did her best to cover it up though. Kotone showed me to Haramuka's office and opened the door for me.

"You wanted me?" I asked as I walked in.

The Hosekikage was at her usually place---the window that overlooks the village.

She turned around."This time no."

"I was the one who wanted to see you." The Hokage spoke up from the side of the room. I hadn't even noticed her.

I turned slightly towards her, but my eyes flickered to Haramuka one last time before looking at her.

"I was told that you had a nasty curse mark placed on your arm." Tsunade began and stood up."I'm an expert in the medical field and I believe I might be able to remove it from your arm."

I doubted it. Many others had tried when I was young. Haramuka had given up long ago, giving into the fact that the curse mark would just have to remain on my left arm. She had even told me what to say if anyone discovered it. Not even those close to me knew that it existed. But, I might as well give this woman a chance.

"Come with me." the Hokage ordered as she stepped passed me and exited the room.

I did as she told me, knowing that I didn't have a choice. Haramuka had handed me over to her. Tsunade took me down to one of the more private halls of the building. I knew the rooms down here were for torturing or conducting secret business. They were also so far set into the stone beneath the Kage's office building that no one could hear you if you screamed.

I walked behind her, not bothered at all where we were going. After all, I had been down here twenty seven seperate times in the attempt to remove the curse mark from me.

The curse mark, as Haramuka called it, was located on the upper part of my left arm. It appeared to be more of a tattoo though. Mostly it was just black bands that ran around my arm that were different widths. On the outside of the thickest band, four spirals peeled off of it. Another set of four spirals were on the inside lines as well. The most distinguishing part of the curse mark, was the in the very center on the outside of my arm.

It was an upside-down pentagon, with two triangles on top of it. A rectangle sat on top of the pentagon's point. A diamond shape was in the center of all of this and on either side of it was rombuses that were tilted inwards. The result was that the shapes combined to look like a wolf head with a jewel sitting on its forehead. It was the thing that scared most medics whose eyes had landed on it.

As I laid down on the medical table, I was asked to push the sleeves of my outfit up and away from the mark. Tsunade wasn't the only person in the room. A team of medics from my own village, the same team mind you, always came when Haramuka had thought she discovered the way to get rid of the mark. I was used to each of them, even though their faces were usually covered and they didn't speak much to me.

I forced the sleeve up my arm so that they could look at the mark and laid still on the steril table. My hearing was keen enough to tell Tsunade's high-heeled steps from the steps of the medics around me. She walked around to my left side and gaze at the mark.

For a while, she did nothing. It was customary every time that a medic tried to cure me, that they would suddenly stop in their tracks. The curse mark confused them every time.

Curse marks usually have a category they fall into. There's seeking, where the person with the mark seeks out the one who placed it on them. There's also one for making yourself stronger, of coarse at a price, but even those are always simular in one way. My curse mark matches none of the categories created by the medical ninja. There are no wordings as to say what type it is or what its used for.

Nothing at all.

I don't even remember how I got it, so I can't tell them how the person conducted the cerimony to place it on me. For that to be true, I would've had to have it before my clan's massacre. It could even be possible that I'd had it since I was a baby for all I knew.

The very last time Haramuka tried to remove it, she gave up and instead placed a sealing jutsu on it. The sealing marks looked like needles being stuck into the outside spirals of the curse mark. As if it was keeping them from unwinding, pinning them in place.

Tsunade studied this all before deciding to do anything.

I just laid back and relaxed, staring up passed the large light that shone down on me.

　

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I sat back up on the medical table and pulled the fabric back down over my curse mark. Tsunade had done nothing but irritate my skin during the whole procedure. The curse mark was the same as it always was.

"Perhaps more than you think, girl." The deep voice inside my head chuckled.

It was at that instant that I realized she'd just made it worse.