The faint noise of footsteps and the blinding light that went through my eyelids slowly woke me up.
I slowly opened my eyes but refused to move otherwise. My memory was fuzzy, and I couldn't quite recall who I was with. It's just a precaution, no one has to know I'm awake, that gives me some time to figure things out. I saw I was on someone's back. The person was running through a clearing, headed for a village.
It is day. Noted. No one is following us. Noted. Aside from being tired, I am not really physically hurt. Noted. This person who is carrying me does not show any evil intentions, yet. Noted. I can feel the scroll with my scythe poking in my stomach, I still have my weapon. Noted. The person who is carrying me is steadily growing out of breath. Noted.
I suddenly recognize said person. It's Kawaki. Okay. Okay, that's good. I can scratch the idea of evil intentions. That's a relief. I move my head to get a better look at the village we're heading to. I know this will reveal that I am awake, but I'm with Kawaki, so it's fine. It should be fine.
The village is not too big. It is heavily populated, though. I assume lots of travelers come here to rest. I notice a train track. Okay, maybe the village is bigger than I originally thought. People continuously walk in and out of the village. I see a couple of shops, tons of houses and I can feel the cheery atmosphere from here.
"Oh, you're awake?" Kawaki interrupts my observations. I turn to look at him. "Yeah." I stay silent for a bit. "You've found the village." "No I didn't." He turns his head and meets my eyes. "You found it."
I snorted. "I only gave you a rough direction and then blacked out. I think it's safe to say you found it." He studies me for a moment and then turns his attention back to the village. "I disagree. But whatever you think is fine."
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I was only allowed from Kawaki's back when we stepped into the village. He insisted that I get enough rest. That I was awake didn't mean I had enough energy to move around on my own. As much as I hated to admit it, I was grateful. I was indeed still very tired, I just didn't want to be a burden.
"Alright. The plan. We need food." I spoke. "And a place to both hide from those shinobi and rest." Kawaki chimed in. I nodded and thought for a couple of seconds. "I don't think we should split up, if something happens, we should be together. At least until we're fully rested. We can figure out what we do then afterwards."
Kawaki agreed and proposed to get some food first. We went on our way. Since we both don't have any belongings nor money, we had to steal. Something we also couldn't afford, was drawing attention to ourselves.
That's why we searched for a less populated area in the village. All we had to find was a used house where no one was home. That way we could break in and be certain there would be food. After a little searching, we found it.
It was a small house, near the train station. You could only access it after you went through half off the village, however. We supposed that was why the area was less populated. We walked to the door and tried to open it. Locked. To be expected.
Kawaki moved back. He was going to force it open. "Wait!" I quickly interrupted. "We shouldn't use force, that will once attract attention." The boy looked at me with an annoyed expression.
"How else do you intend to get in, then."
"I can just use my nature energy. It'll be over in a second." I spoke as I kneeled in front of the lock. After a quick inspection I found out it was a simple lock, all you needed was a key. Fortunately for me, I could harden the air in the lock, making a precisely fitting key on the spot.
The door opened almost immediately. I smugly smiled at Kawaki. "See? No force needed." He stormed the house in. "I have eyes, dumbass." I chuckled and followed him inside, closing the door behind me.
The boy had already found bread and was quickly eating it. He offered me some and I gladly accepted. It was quiet. Both of us were simply enjoying our first meal since getting out of Kara. A couple pieces of dry bread isn't exactly what you'd call a meal, but we didn't care. We were cherishing this moment.
And I was glad we did, because not much later I sensed people coming this way. I immediately sat up. "We have to get out of here. Now." I grabbed little more food and walked towards the door. "What? Why?" Kawaki asked confusedly.
"The original owners of the house are coming back. We don't have much time, hurry!" I spoke and we hurried through the hallway. We didn't have to open the door, however. Our visitors had that covered.
Everyone stilled as we looked at each other. Kawaki muttered "Fuck." under his breath and not a second later we pushed them aside and ran out of the house. "Hey!! Get back here, you scum!" one of the owners of the house yelled. They started following us. "You can't just break in our house!"
If two teens running through the village didn't attract any attention, we were definitely spotted now. "Sorry, I should've seen them coming sooner." I apologized as we bumped into people. "It's fine. We had a head start at least." Kawaki said.
By now, the police were following us. "Stay where you are!" We absolutely did not stay where we were. The authorities were quick on their foot, however, and had us surrounded not much later.
"Any plans?" Kawaki asked as we stood back-to-back. I grabbed my scroll and summoned my scythe. "Fighting our way out of here seems like a reasonable idea, don't you think?" Kawaki grinned and turned his arms into blades. "That sounds like a great plan."
I dived forward, spinning my scythe in my hand. Nature energy was gathering around me and my weapon, ready to be used. The police used some sort of device and suddenly we were ingulfed in fire.
I sensed Kawaki absorbing it with his Karma. I used my nature energy to stop it. "Attack, I'll use the fire to increase the intensity of your blow." I said just as the boy started creating an attack just like the one with Garo. I redirected the fire and shot it at the same time Kawaki fired his attack.
We couldn't really do any damage, however. A man in yellow and orange clothing appeared and stopped our fire shot. He was glowing? "What is going on here?" He demanded. It was already obvious he was the leader.
Kawaki and I stayed silent. 'None of your fucking business.' I thought, but was smart enough to not say out loud. The man continued. "Ah, I see. You two are the ones I was informed about." I narrowed my eyes.
One of the bystanders spoke up. I recognized him as one of the owners of the house we broke into. "Lord Hokage! These brats broke into my house! My family and I were out for groceries and when we ca-"
"What do you want from us." I interrupted the man as I stepped in front of Kawaki, my gaze not leaving the Hokage's eyes. I tried to sound as confident and cold as possible. Not sure if I managed though. The Hokage gently smiled at us. "I was just stopping by to see what was going on. I was on my way to you two, however, so this works out perfectly."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"You are correct, it doesn't. Let's find a better place to talk, shall we?" The Hokage gestured beside him. 'He wants us to go with him?' I thought. 'Why?' Kawaki beat me to saying anything, however. "We are not going anywhere with you. You can answer her question right here."
A big crowd surrounded us by now. I could see the Konoha shinobi we escaped from the "prison" standing at the sidelines in my peripheral vision. 'When did they get here?' I questioned.
The Hokage seemed to think about something a little while. "Okay. I will answer your question. I was in charge of figuring out what to do with you." He gently smiled again. "I have decided to look after you guys myself."
I scoffed. "Figuring out what to do with us? We're not objects, nor are you in charge of us. We are our own people; you don't get to do shit with us." I rotated my scythe between my fingers. "Now if you'll excuse us, we have an organization to escape from."
Kawaki leaped forward to punch the Hokage, however was quickly stopped. I knew what it meant to be called Hokage. This man was the leader of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, the strongest shinobi of the Nation of Fire. I knew we had no chance against him.
That didn't stop me from attacking. I was used to fighting people I can't beat, take Jigen for an example. I gathered nature energy and ran towards the two of them. I noticed Kawaki was visibly getting tired, and quickly.
I sent a couple of slashes in the form of wind towards the Hokage. Which he dodged? How? Its nature energy, normal people can't see that. "That is a very impressive technique." The man spoke. "I'm surprised you know about nature energy and are able to use it to your advantage."
I was surprised but didn't dare show it and attacked with my scythe. He grabbed a kunai out of his bag and easily stopped the blade. "Don't use too much of it, though. It is very draining." The Hokage said with a smile. It was only then that I noticed the energy seeping out of me.
"What are you doing. Why is my energy draining." I said as I jumped a couple steps back. "This is for your own safety. Don't worry, we'll take good care of you." The Hokage was walking towards me, Kawaki blacked out in his arm.
'This is bad news. This is really bad news!' I thought. This reminded me too much of Jigen. He had said the same thing. Look where that ended up. I couldn't find the energy to move away, so I resulted in spitting out a sentence before I lost consciousness. Again. I really have to stop doing that.
"Yeah no, I'm sure you will. That's what they always say."