(song - Lacrimosa )
Chapter 67 - Wings and the Beautiful Summer
Esunea
"Why did we stop again? Are there more Edo Tensei?" Ichigo asked from my shoulder. Her little black and white head was stretching so I could see more of her white neck.
"Hush." I told her, pushing her head back down with my right arm. Reluctantly, she shrunk back. "Hide on my back, underneath my hair so that you won't be seen." I whispered so that only she could hear me.
"But why?" Ichigo cocked her head to the side, her confused little eyes staring up at me.
"I don't want you getting hurt." I murmured back. "And if I get into a tight situation, a secret weapon is good to have."
Her eyes lit up in excitement at saving me from some future disastor so she followed my order and vanished. She weighed next to nothing, so I hardly felt her hanging onto the back of my jacket. I turned my attention to in front of me, where more enemies were approaching our group.
Seven coffins rose in front of us on the bare ground. Everyone stiffened as one by one the lids fell in front of the boxes and the figures inside stepped out.
"Nagato!" Naruto almost cried out, but he managed to muffle his voice before the sound reached the other side of the field. "And Konan too?" he added in a whisper.
I noticed a man with white hair on the other side of the field. He was litterally skin and bones and the black with red cloud cloak he wore was torn on the left side, exposing that part of his chest, shoulder, and arm. A woman in a black and red cloud cloak also stood beside him. Her hair was deep purple, a section of it put up in a bun with a paper flower in the center. After closer analysis, I realized she was helping him stand up.
Thinking back, they were two of the Edo Tensei that Madara had had with him back at the lake. He had surrounded me with several of the reanimated ninja so I had no method of escape. Except for the loophole that he had no knowledge of. The Riubi had been sealed underneath our feet and I had lead him into the perfect trap. I had meant to pit the bijuu and Edo Tensei leader together, hoping that the wolf would annialate Madara, but things had never turned out that way.
Now I was staring at two of the faces that had been at the lake. The other Edo Tensei I didn't recognize, but the others did. There was a man wrapped in bandages whose chakra I couldn't sense. Another man looked like he could be Killer Bee's father. Beside him, there was also a man with sleeked-back blonde hair and a thin mustache. At the front of the line, there was a man with redish brown hair. The red in his hair wasn't as obvious as Garra's. It was more or less a rusty color.
All of the Kage's eyes were wide as they recognized each person. Few of them could even bring themselves to talk. I heard Garra whisper father to himself as he stared at the man with redish brown hair. Now that I noticed him, I could see the family resemblence between the two. And thinking about him and his father, my eyes were almost too frightened to look at the end of the line at the seventh, and final, Edo Tensei. Slowly, I started to turn my head to face that last person, only to feel as if the world was going to give out on me.
He was tall and dressed in a pair of black trousers. The pants were tucked into a pair of silver boots on his feet that covered the toes. Covering his chest was a blue robe-like garment, with one part of the jacket covering the left. His middle was wrapped with a dark blue cloth that kept the jacket from slipping apart. On the forehead was a headband with the clan symbol upon it. His white hair hung down on either side of his face, parted in the middle so that the headband could be seen. I stared at sky blue eyes, which in return, were staring into my sky blue eyes.
My father, Tsubasa Nakamura, was standing in front of me.
I knew he hadn't come back from the dead. Not really. The Edo Tensei jutsu had only brought back his soul and placed it in a body that looked like his. The whites of his eyes were black, proving my point, but I couldn't stop staring at my father. I couldn't help thinking what he thought of me. The last time he had seen me was the night before my mother and him had gone to fight off Shouhei's men. I had been seven back then. I was seventeen now. Ten long years had passed between us, enough to make a significant change in the way I looked. I wondered if he even recognized me.
"Esunea." My father's lips formed. His right hand started to raise, like he wanted to reach out and touch my face to make sure it was real. "Run." he commanded me.
In that instant, I realized he wasn't trying to find out if I was real. His hand was raising because he was about to use a jutsu. I didn't have time to run, however. It had taken me too long to figure out what was really going on. I couldn't dodge, let alone protect the others who were just as prone as I was.
"Garra!" the man with the redish-brown hair cried out to his son, knowing the danger and wanting to warn him before it was too late.
Garra, off to my left, snapped out of the trance he had been in with his own father and opened his eyes to the real world again. He waved his hand in front of all of us, throwing up a wall of sand as a blast of air came charging at us. The sand shifted constantly, pulling itself back together as the wind attempted to pull it apart. Off to the sides, trees bended and broke under the intense pressure. They were flung aside like toothpicks as the wind continued to rage.
It seemed it would never end. I knew my father's gift was the ability to control wind at will, but I had never expierenced his power first hand. Standing behind Garra's sand wall, I even wondered if the sand could hold out. The wind kept on whipping around us and trees were pulled up like weeds. I figured it was only a matter of time before the Kazekage gave out.
Suddenly, something shiny peeked out from Garra's sand. It glinted and glowed, but it put me on full alert. The gold was seeping through the sand and pulling it apart, tearing holes in the wall. On the outside, the wind was still at full strength. If it succeeded in pulling the wall down, we would be blown away. Garra was aware of this and tried to thicken the wall, burrying the gold for a moment, but a minute later it was back. It tore a giant hole in the middle, allowing the air to woosh inside and spread the sand even thinner.
I, luckily, had gotten my sword out and stuck it in the ground. With my feet frozen to the ground and my right hand iced to the hilt of the sword, I was able to remain standing up even after the sand wall was knocked down. Killer Bee and Naruto in front of me had managed to go bijuu mode and dig their hands into the ground, keeping them in place as well. The others were continually blown back. One of the Edo Tensei, the one with the bandages, lifted his hand up. A stone wall was raised up behind our allies, stalagmites pointed towards them.
I couldn't stop the rock wall. I'd never even attempted trying to learn Earth style. I could, however, redirect my father's jutsu so that they weren't blown into it. I lifted my left hand and tried to use my chakra to funnel the wind towards me and then up at the sky. It worked to perfection, drawing the powerful winds into a tight, spinning vortex. The twister spun up towards the sky and scattered the leaves that it had picked up off the ground.
The air quickly revolted against me. Taking advantage of its tornado-shape, it grew outwards. The ice at my feet and on my hand couldn't handle the stress and broke. Even the sword in the ground was picked up with me. Naruto, Bee, and I were thrown around in the vortex until we neared the outside. There, we were tossed out like garbage. I rolled on my side four times before I came to a stop.
The others hadn't been affected by this new move because of the distance they were from us. They instead, had landed in heaps on the ground before the stone wall. I had successfully kept them from being impaled, but now our group was split.
Naruto cried out to my right, drawing my attention. The guy with white hair had managed to move on his own. He held the spikely blonde hair boy by his neck.
"Nagato!" Naruto shouted, but the Edo Tensei didn't stir. He was completely under the control of his master.
The blonde grunted when chakra from his golden tailed beast cloak began to be taken from him. The man's white hair turned scarlet and his face and arms filled out. He had regained his strength and instead of looking seventy years old, he looked like he was in his twenties. Nagato's other hand plunged itself into Naruto's stomach, causing the boy to squirm. When his hand began to withdraw, a strange whitish blue chakra followed with it.
"Like I'd let you do as you please,
this has got to be a tease,
Yeah~" Killer Bee appeared off to the side of the two.
His large shark-sword had been drawn and stood by ready. With one swipe, he cut the chakra that Nagato had pulled out of Naruto's body. The whitsh blue chakra went back to its original source, completly disappearing. The Edo Tensei jumped back to reconsider his stradegy.
"Thank you, Bee." Naruto got to his feet and prepared to launch himself back into the fight. His face suddenly turned towards me. "Esunea, why don't you go help the others? I'll take care here."
The determined look in his face told me he wasn't going to let me aid them, so I turned away from his battle and looked to the others.
The Mizukage was fighting the woman named Konan, spewing lava-style onto the pieces of paper that had almost completely covered her up. Her protectors, Choujuurou, a sword user, and Ao, a man who I hadn't learned his abilities yet, stood off to the side. They looked like they wanted to help, but they couldn't quite see how they could fit in the fight.
Beyond them, Garra was fighting his father. Wherever a wave of sand went, it was met by a wave of gold flakes. The scene reminded me of ocean waves crashing together. Temari used her fan to blow the sand and gold dust away when it got too close to Konkuro and her. Compared to Choujuurou and Ao, they looked like they were just trying to survive the battle.
Tsunade was currently fighting the man with the sleeked-back blonde hair. A giant clam raised up from the soft earth, opening itself up in attempt to swallow her whole. The Hokage dodged its gapping mouth barely. Her two Anbu protectors lept with her, staying at her side always.
That left three other Edo Tensei to move from battle to battle, terrorizing those with already a strong enemy to face with another at their back. My father was one of the ones constantly changing. Right now, he was forcing Garra closer to his father with a air blast. The gold flake sand was opening up, ready to enclose itself around the red head once he was inside the hallow.
From my spot on the other side of the field, I couldn't possibly help in time if I tried to run. So instead, I stayed where I was and summoned my special weapon. The ring with kunai welded on the outside could be controled by metal strings that were so thin that you couldn't see them by the normal human eye. Not even eyes that could see chakra could see them because I didn't use chakra to control it.
With the metal strings looped through my fingers and a hand on the weapon, I spun in a circle and released the device. It twirled through the air, headed straight for my father who should have no idea it was headed for him. He dodged it effortlessly. When he landed on his feet, his head turned to look at me.
How had he seen it when there had been no chakra to sense? His head had even been turned away from it so he couldn't have seen it out of the corner of his eyes. Had the changing of the air around the weapon alerted him? I had no idea how he could have detected my attack.
My father remained staring at me, until his body turned to face me. From the sleeves of his jacket, a pair of baton swords much like my own slid out from their hiding places. I slid my pair out soon after. I had become his newest target.
Whatever control he had had before was gone now as we raced towards one another. His eyes had clouded over, telling me that he couldn't even see what he was doing. We met in the middle of the field, blades clashing.
His sword was infused with wind chakra, making his sword even more deadly. Even as I held my own swords in front of me, the wind on the tip of the blade cut my cheek. A small trickle of blood flowed down the side of my face. I couldn't let him get closer or he'd chop my entire head off.
Lightning chakra raced through my sword, clashing with the wind. Wind style was weak to lightning, so I gained an advantage over him. The lightning fended off the flesh-cutting air and sent small zaps to his joints in attempt to weaken him. His arms and legs buckled the second the lightning hit them, but he didn't go down. He remained standing after ever hit, impervious to their attacks.
A few minutes later, the wind style left his sword and was replaced by lightning. I had never seen him use lightning style as a child, but then again, I should have suspected it. There had to be a reason why I had inherited the ability to use that style and my father was the reason why. The lightning fought with each other just as the blades clashed. When neither one of us could keep the jutsu up, we jumped back and retreated from the other.
I didn't want to fight my father in front of all the others. It wasn't out of embarressment that I thought this, but out of all the contradicting feelings I was having. There was so much I wanted to ask him and, if I got away from the other fights, he could possibly answer. Maybe if I could get him away from the other Edo Tensei, the control on him would loosen and he would be himself. At least enough for me to talk to him.
So when I dashed out to the right and he followed me, I didn't mind trading blows with our swords as long as he was still right beside me. We disappeared into the trees that hadn't been affected by his earlier jutsu, hiding him from the other Edo Tensei's eyes. They hadn't even noticed us slipping away from the other groups. I led him further still, so that it was only him and I.
Far into the forest, I stopped and faced him. I was out of breath while he looked like he could go on for days. His eyes un-clouded and I knew he was himself again.
"Esunea." he spoke endearingly, as if a great weight was upon his chest. "You shouldn't have separated from the others." he murmured.
His eyes traveled upwards, staring at something behind me. I turned my head to see what looked like one of the White Zetsu, but it wasn't. Not exactly. He was half white and half black on the skin of his body. The strange man's face was surrounded by some sort of venus fly trap that seemed to be apart of his body. He was dressed in a black cloak with red clouds upon it.
"Hello!~" The white half of him said cheerfully. "Don't worry, we're not going to capture you!~" he told me as if that was suppose to reassure me.
"We're only here to observe." the black half finished.
I looked back at my father. He hadn't returned to his puppet-like state. The stranger was still keeping his position on the tree he was standing on. Madara must have wanted me to meet with my father like this. He was trying to draw information out of me, but what information he was after, I had no clue. I had nothing left to reveal, so it couldn't be me he was interested in. It had to be my father. I wasn't the only one who wanted answers from him.
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Luarsha
Refusing to go with the Allied Shinobi Force had been apart of my plan. I didn't want Esunea to know that I was coming with them, even if the Kage themselves didn't know it. That said, I had to make sure I kept my distance. The Nakamura clan gift to sense chakra from miles away would reveal me right away if I got too close. Training with Esunea had given me the privalledge of knowing her range was eight miles in a perfect circle around herself. Which meant that I had to painfully swing around a good eight in a half miles to get around the force without her knowing.
Ahead of them, I jumped from tree limb to tree limb hoping that I would run into the Edo Tensei first. Two of them in particular I wanted to stop before they reached Esunea. Her parents were sure to be among the resurrected and I couldn't bear to think of the child's face when she saw them and heard from their mouths who killed them. It was better for me to face them and put them back to rest than for their daughter to. I was the one who started this, it was just as good that I was the one to end it.
The trees thinned out ahead of me, forcing me to drop to ground level in order to keep moving on. In the middle of the field, the ground bulged. I stopped, knowing that it meant Edo Tensei were rising to face me. Instead of two coffins, only one rose. The lid dropped to reveal Esunea's mother, Ayaka.
She was as I remembered her---dressed in a beautiful blue kimono that went all the way to the ground. Her waist was bound by a white cloth that held the dress closed. The long, lustrious brown hair that went to the mid of her back was still long and lustrious. The bangs of her hair were drawn back by the jeweled family pin. Her deep, blue green eyes gazed upon me as they hid behind the veil.
"Ayaka." I dared to murmur her name out loud. "I know I have no right to keep you from your daughter, but I....I've come to pay the debts I owe you and your husband." I paused, unable at the time to make myself say more.
"You never did owe us anything." She replied, calm and collected, like always. "Tsubasa knew that you would come to kill us, just like he knew you would come to apologize to me when I was reanimated. We accepted our fate without grievance. The only regret I have is leaving my daughter behind without an explanation."
My eyes softened at this. They weren't angry at me. I wasn't the reason why they had come back as Edo Tensei. Their guilt for leaving Esunea behind had made their souls ripe for the picking.
"Even if you had told her," I found my voice again, "she wouldn't have understood at such a young age. Only after going through all the suffering could she come to understand the corruption that tainted the underside of the city red."
Ayaka nodded. "And so it comes to this." she muttered.
"And so it comes to this, my friend." I sighed.
In one move, I drew my sword at the same time Ayaka controlled the water from a nearby spring. As my steps carried myself towards her, the water sped across the field towards me. Before I could reach her, the water bound itself around my ankles and wrists.
The ending I should of had, I thought to myself, if they had protected themselves that night.