Fire Lilies— when you look at them and indulge in their fiery beauty... what do you see? What do you feel?
Do you see how it burns so fiercely? How magnificently bright and full of fire it can be? Do you see its captivating beauty? Are its blossoming petals glowing under the sun like tongues of fire?
They say these flowers mean hatred and revenge.
There was a time when I didn't know what hatred was. Back then, I was nothing but a princess. I was just another feather in my grandfather's cap– the granddaughter who was the apple of his eye.
There was also a time when I came to know loss– true, cruel loss. The kind that eats your soul, little by little. The kind that tears hope apart leaving you with nothing except loathe.
That was the time I met hate.
The funny thing about hate is that it breeds hate, and where hate flows and amalgamates...That is where the lust for revenge is born.
•••
"Princess Tsunade!"
Numerous people called out to me at once. My eyes darted across the barracks, not knowing what to do first. Doctors and medics were running everywhere, chasing to accommodate the wounded and the critical.
One medic shouted that they needed me to perform poison extraction, and another needed me to remove an impaling spear.
"Princess!" One of my assistants called. He was haggard and panting as he grabbed my wrist. "I need you over here."
A dying shinobi covered in gashing lacerations laid helpless on the stretcher behind him. There was nothing more we could do for him, I was certain just at a glance.
"No," I responded firmly— trying to pull myself together. "I need you. Implement the triage system for me. We, specialists, need to attend to those who are critical yet can live. The walking wounded can be attended by the medics. Get one person to set aside the dead and those in impending doom— there's nothing more we can do for them. We need to save those who can be saved first."
It pained me so much to say those words. Everyone here in this army was fighting to live— they were fighting to survive this earthly hell. Everyone needed a chance to be saved, but I needed to be frank and grounded in reality.
We lacked medical ninjas. The warriors outnumbered the healers. Hence, we needed to conserve our energies to save those with the highest potential to continue on living and fighting.
My attendant was disappointed— that shinobi was probably his friend, but he nodded and proceeded to do his task quickly. I watched him pull three medics aside to relay the information.
It was just one night after the Amegakure battle, the battle where we encountered Hanzo of the Salamander. Jiraiya had gone to take care and train three Ame orphans, while Orochimaru was called back to Konoha. I, however, was pulled to the frontline of the war against Sunagakure where countless shinobi fell prey to puppets and poison.
I looked around the horror that surrounded me. Wounded people flooded into the barracks and the number of the dead rivaled the number of the living.
I felt anger stir up inside me. When will this ever end?
These people are children of the Leaf— the legacy of my clan. These are my people; they are my family.
A teenage boy about the age of nine caught my eye. The nurse attending him was panicking— she didn't know what to do. The boy's eyes rolled back as his spine arched; his body was shaking tremors.
"Give way!" I shouted.
I opened his eyes to see one constricted pupil, while the other was dilated. "What happened to him?"
"Chiyo's poison," the nurse immediately answered— she was young and small. She was probably just a genin, yet she seemed so experienced.
This war was poison itself. It stole the innocence and youth from these children. Like the way it stole my brother's life.
I directed my attention back to my patient. Indeed, a single needle was swatted on his right hand.
"Alright, I need you to compress his left arm, just after his wrist and maintain moderate pressure as you remove the needle. Got it?" I instructed.
"Hai!" She nodded.
"Do you know how to extract poison? Please tell me that you do," I asked. I needed to focus more on the main intervention for the poor boy.
"Yes, I do!" She responded immediately.
Thank heavens! Thank kami! I silently rejoiced.
But wait, the boy stopped seizing, yet his blood pressure was spiraling up. This was bad.
"Kuso," I bit back a curse. "I need to make skull holes."
"S-skull holes?" The nurse asked nervously— ceasing her procedure.
"Focus on your task, girl," I ordered as I took out my knife set. A series of scalpels, forceps, and kunai were displayed in order.
I immediately picked up a kunai, concentrating the right amount of chakra into it. I sliced through his scalp with utter precision while the nurse was just finishing her poison extraction. She watched as the tip of my kunai met with the patient's cranium. I put more chakra and force as my kunai penetrated through his skull, creating a small hole leading to the temporal lobe of his brain.
"Just as I thought," I muttered.
My eyes fixed onto the massive blood clot that covered his brain. "We have a case of increased intracranial pressure. This clot was the reason he was seizing," I explained as I utilized my forceps to remove the clot, revealing the shiny, pulsating dura. I let out a sigh of relief.
I made another hole on his frontal lobe, removing the entire clot completely and relieving the pressure inside his brain.
"Check his blood pressure for me please," I requested the nurse. "Is it lowering?"
"Y-yes!" The nurse spoke with astonished eyes. "A-amazing, Princess! No one has ever done this procedure before."
"There's always a first for everything," I responded flatly though deep inside, I was happy.
Another life, another future was saved.
"What's this boy's name?" I asked. "He's so young."
"Ibiki Morino," the nurse responded. "He's a genin, but he's one of the best."
"Hm, good," I spoke. "Give me the extract, please."
She immediately handed me a basin-full of poison. It looked like tar— black and viscous. I clicked my tongue.
"Damn that hag," I muttered. "I will not let you take any more of my people."
•••
Outside my tent, I could hear medics and doctors shouting amidst wails of pain. I knew I was losing my battle against time. There were more people who had been affected by the poison, and the mortality rate had gone to a larger scale.
Burning the midnight oil, I sit at my desk with Katsuyu perching over the basin filled with Chiyo's poison. I, on the other hand, had my nose buried in books. I had to find out what this poison was and its antidote.
"I have charcoal, dragon bone, ginger, rose extract, gold chips... None of these are going to work. Dragon bone may perhaps lower the blood pressure, but..." I spoke as I took out bottles and jars of antidotes I have previously concocted.
"May I ask how the poison works, Princess?"
"It's neurotoxic and cardiotoxic," I answered briefly. "Just a small, minute amount possesses very high concentration. It baffles me how Chiyo came up with such a poison. Once it enters the bloodstream, it damages the brain tissue along with the nerves which are why victims get seizures. Another effect is that it narrows the blood vessels making the blood pressure spike up."
I groaned as my hands pulled on my hair.
"Fire lilies, Milady," Katsuyu spoke.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Fire lilies are in bloom at Shikkotsu Forest."
"I'm sorry, Katsuyu, but we don't have time to chat about the flowers in... Shikkot...su..."
My eyes zeroed onto the magnificent, brilliant, incredible, marvelous, prodigious slug of mine.
"You are a genius, Katsuyu!" I exclaimed in triumph. "Can you please fetch them for me?"
With a small puff of smoke, Katsuyu returned back to her home.
I sucked in a deep breath as I leaned back in my seat. To the general knowledge, the flowers were nothing but a myth– an old folktale passed by ancient healers and shamans to their younger disciples.
However, to me, it was within arms' reach thanks to Katsuyu. Fire lilies had the strongest healing power in all existing medicinal things. They were the strongest, most potent elixirs in the universe. They were the slugs' most treasured, most apprized possession and pride. The flowers only bloomed once in ten decades and were only found in Shikkotsu Forest.
The timing could not have been more perfect! It was our saving grace.
Moments later, Katsuyu appeared before me along with a bed of fire lilies. They were bright and beautiful– glowing like flames in stark contrast with the shadows in my tent.
"They're beautiful," I muttered as my fingers laced around one bloom.
"It's quite funny how they stand for revenge, don't they?" Katsuyu giggled.
I smirked as I picked up a bundle, bringing it to my desk. I began pounding the petals, chopping the stems, and crushing the leaves. Finally, I poured the mixture into the second petri dish of poison.
And then, just like magic, the poison miraculously evaporated– not a single drop, a single speck was left.
"Amazing," I breathed, bursting into a chortle at our latest breakthrough. "Amazing," I repeated.
Katsuyu let out a giggle at our triumph. We were going to win this war.
"Princess Tsunade!" My messenger burst through the door without warning.
"Yes, Toro?"
"I bear good news," he panted. "Chiyo has retreated back to Suna. She has probably gone back to replenish her chakra reserves."
I smirked. Once more, the timing could not have been more perfect. The universe was on our side tonight.
"Toro, tell them I need at least three medics in here. Get me the rookies, the ones who aren't really needed back in the infirmary. Tell them we're going to start a mass production of antidotes."
•••
She cursed at me so many times, I lost count– calling me names like slug-girl and foolish child. I must be the bane of her existence. All her poisons were countered by my antidotes. My soldiers have gone from susceptible to resistant.
Each team had a medic carrying the adequate supply of antidotes, and with Katsuyu multi-tasking, the shinobi of the Leaf were indestructible.
"We're going to win this war, Chiyo!" I exclaimed as my punch collided with the ten puppets that charged at me like a jet stream.
"Ha! Where's your sense of respect, slug princess? You're only twenty years old!" she cackled as her puppets surrounded me, shooting at least a hundred poisoned needles at point-blank range.
I cursed under my breath as Katsuyu engulfed me in a blink of an eye, buffering the artillery that came at me. I heard her muffled curse and groan as Katsuyu collapsed into a thousand smaller versions of herself.
I was vexing old lady Chiyo. I had to admit that it was amusing. This woman was my sworn enemy, and I was hers. I was the thorn that embedded in her spine, that one pique that she couldn't reach and relieve. I could tell that she gravely needed to dispose of me, lest Suna would lose to Konoha.
"Let's end this, grandma," I muttered as I charged her head on.
She was vulnerable to me now. At the last second, she tugged on her puppets' strings, pulling them in to shield her from another blow from my palms. But, I knew that it was no good. It had to take a shield of diamond to withstand this assault.
"Body Pathway Derangement!" I exclaimed as the pads of my fingers brushed against her nape.
Victory was mine. For a puppeteer, perfect body synchronization was essential. In fact, it was their crowning glory. Now, I have disarmed Chiyo, the most notable puppeteer of Sunagakure.
"What have you done to me, you slug?!" She screeched as her brain's signals were scrambled, sending commands that move the arms and fingers to the legs and different parts of the body. She was disabled and defeated.
"You-" she hissed, attempting to charge at me but her knees buckled and fell to the ground instead. "What have you done to me?!"
"If I told you, you'd easily find the method to my madness. It'll be like handing you the map to my labyrinth. You're Chiyo after all," I spoke as I slowly approached her limp form.
She cackled. "You credit me now that you've defeated me? Tell me, how did you find the antidote to my poison?"
I smirked as I crouched down beside her. "Fire lilies, the flower of revenge."
Her eyes widened in disbelief. "Don't joke around, girl. They're mere legends... fictitious fabrications of tales of old."
"Well, I'm not kidding. What made you indestructible was your poisons that were formulated without an antidote found in this world. What I did was simply finding an antidote out of this world," I explained as I stood back on my feet.
Chiyo was out of chakra. She was tired and worn out by months of aimless battles.
"Flowers of revenge, huh," she chuckled. "Make it quick, Sannin."
I smirked as she finally acknowledged me.
I released my blade from its scabbard– its sharp metal glinted as the sunshine licked its stainless tip.
"You fought well, Chiyo."
My katana swung up in the air as my enemy smiled contentedly– she fought to the last after all. She did her piece for Suna without any setbacks.
As my blade came to almost a full-circle, two shinobi interrupted the moment simultaneously. Without fail, my hand gripped the hilt of my sword tighter, ceasing just an inch above Chiyo's heart.
"Ceasefire!" They both shouted.
My eyes widened as my katana fell to my side.
"What?" I muttered.
Chiyo cackled in delight. "I guess, it's not my time to go."
The runners came forth– one from Suna, one from Konoha.
"The Kazekage and Hokage have called armistice. Konoha has won the war. I have come to collect, Chiyo-sama," the one from Suna announced.
"Well... Looks like you've bagged this one, Slug Princess," Chiyo mumbled as the Suna soldier cradled her. "Until the next war!" She called as he wafted her away.
I stood wide-eyed and baffled.
"It's just with Suna, Princess. Our war with Kumogakure is still on-going. But it's all thanks to you that Suna has decided to retreat. This was your fight, Princess. This was your victory."
"Well, then," I spoke, returning my blade into its sheath. "There is no time to dawdle in delight by snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Let's end this war, Toro."
"But Princess, my orders are to escort you back to Konoha. You need to take at least three days off. Lord Orochimaru and Lord Jiraiya have been called to the frontline in your stead."
"Ah," I huffed. "Do you think I can sleep soundly when it's still a running battle up North East? Moreover, do you think those two can fight in harmony side by side without me as a buffer in between?" I chuckled.
"Well," Toro laughed sheepishly.
"We are the Legendary Sannin. All three of us. I cannot miss out on this fight," I paused.
"We're going to end this war, Toro. Believe it," I swore...
I swore with every fiber of my being. I will save the children of the Leaf, and I will win this war. It is my revenge— my fury.
~Ayame