Zetsu watched Ansei go with a longsuffering sigh. It wasn't that he needed to breathe, but after living so long amongst humans, he picked up their mannerisms. Ansei was like a perpetual headache that wouldn't go away, not matter what. He had to babysit the boy constantly and attempt to put his mind at ease. It was a chore. His only solace was the thought of ripping Ansei's heart out of his chest right as he thought he had won.
A change in the air made Zetsu turn to the door. The bloodstained child walked to Zetsu and dropped to his knees, placing his head on the ground at Zetsu's feet. "Good evening, Kami-sama," the child whispered in the deepest respect. It went beyond that, though. The child worshiped Zetsu as a god and spoke to him with reverence.
"I have a mission for you, child," Zetsu said. The boy lifted his dead grey eyes and smiled wickedly. The boy was blind, but that meant nothing in this world. He was born blind and had always lived in the darkness. Zetsu would often smile at the divine perfection of the child's situation. He was born in darkness and lived there without ever seeing the light. If there was a true god, then he had a twisted sense of humor when it came to the creature before him
"Anything," he said.
Zetsu smiled. "The reincarnation of the other sibling has been located," he said. "I need you to bring me this person."
"Alive?" the boy asked hopefully.
"Unfortunately, yes," Zetsu answered. The boy's face fell. "I do only need a DNA sample, but it would be best if you bring them to me alive. But not entirely whole, if you so desire. A missing limb won't hurt my purpose."
"IT shall be done."
"But first, I have a gift for you, child." The boy stood excitedly and they moved through the base. Zetsu turned to the child beside him. His name was Akuryo; a dark spirit. Zetsu had found the child not long ago and while he needed Ansei, the Hyuuga was disposable once the Rinnegan was awakened. They stopped in a room. "In here." Zetsu opened the door. A man stood in the room. He narrowed his eyes.
"You brought a child?" he snapped.
"This is your gift. Do as you see fit, Akuryo." Zetsu stepped back. Akuryo was a better fit for this plan. Ansei wanted peace, but Akuryo had no wants or desires. His only desire was what people told him he wanted. The tanned child stepped towards his victim. There was a major difference between the two, and that was why Zetsu favored his little demon more than his little Hyuuga.
Akuryo stepped closer to the man. His eyes were dead and soulless black pits. A black and purple aura surrounded him. The man backed away, but was quickly engulfed in the black chakra. Akuryo laughed as the man screamed in pain as he began sweating blood. Akuryo grabbed the man's arm and his flesh began to die.
Zetsu watched with a grin on his face. While Ansei had a moral compass that prevented him from doing anything that would harm anyone senselessly, Akuryo had no such soul. He was a twisted, perverted creature that could only be described as death in a human form. He would get things done and would kill anyone or anything that got in the way of his god's plan.
**********************
"I'm going to murder him!" Sarada growled as she stared down at Boruto's empty bed.
"This is unfortunate," Mitsuki muttered, "but not entirely surprising. Boruto is a self-righteous fool."
Sarada clenched his fists. "He's such a moron sometimes!" she snapped, ignoring Mitsuki for the most part. The boy sighed and leaned against the wall. Boruto was indeed a fool, but not a moron.
"He simply did not want to lead us into a battle we can't win," Mitsuki said with a shrug. Sarada glared at him.
"How can you be so calm?!"
"Worrying about him now is pointless. He is gone." Sarada clenched her fists angrily. "Whatever you plan on doing to him will be a cake walk compared to what Himawari-chan will do to him when she finds out he's left us."
Sarada's eyes widened and Mitsuki smiled. No matter how scary Sarada could be, or even Sakura, Himawari was worse, especially when it came to her family. "Poor Boruto," she muttered. "He'll never experience so many things in his life."
"We should wake her," Mitsuki said as he started walking away. Sarada reached out and grabbed his arm.
"Let's wait, okay?"
"If you say so. But we should perhaps try to figure out where Boruto went and what time he left."
The two walked out of the house and went to their summons. Mitsuki spoke with his snake while Sarada spoke with the hawk. When they came back, Sarada looked defeated. "No news?"
"He said Boruto left about midnight," she muttered. "What about Manna?"
"He said that he was asleep," Mitsuki said. Sarada groaned and sat down.
"He's such a moron!"
"Manna is not a moron. He's very smart. He is a clone of my parent's old summon, Manda," Mitsuki defended flatly.
Sarada rolled her eyes. "I didn't mean Manna, I meant Boruto."
"Ah, yes, then your assessment is correct. Boruto is a stubborn fool." Sarada groaned softly. "Sitting here and moping about it will not help. We should get moving. Boruto's previous fight with this man did not go well, from what I heard." He remembered the stories and the countless hours waiting at the hospital. During his stay, the child had flat lined several times, and even now, though he was loathed to admit it, his heart was still weakened by the devastating blow. Mitsuki ran his hands through his blue hair and sighed softly.
"That idiot is going to get himself killed!" Sarada snapped as she started for the house. An angry shout from inside informed the two ANBU level shinobi that the genin had found out her brother was gone, and chills went up even Mitsuki's spine. The two rushed inside.
"Where is he?" Himawari shouted. Sarada was quick to try and explain, but Mitsuki's blunt attitude was faster than any calming lie.
"He left," he said simply. Himawari's eyes widened.
"I'm going to kill him!" she shouted. "Let's go!"
"Now, Hima-chan!" Sarada said quickly. "We shouldn't rush after him so rashly!"
"Why not?" Mitsuki asked.
"Shut it! You aren't helping!"
Himawari wasn't listening. Mitsuki understood that much. Trying to calm her would do nothing, so it would be better to accompany her instead of letting her run off in such an angry mindset. It was all very rational and Mitsuki wasn't sure why Sarada was trying so hard to avoid the logical course of action.
Sarada relented after a few more moments of arguing with Himawari. "Are we leaving?" Mitsuki asked.
"Might as well," Sarada grumbled. The three spent almost an hour packing supplies from the house. They left enough money on the table in the main room to pay from the sheets, blankets food and weapons they took with them. Mitsuki was in charge of the rest of their savings and then the three ninja took off. Sarada took to the sky with her hawk while Mitsuki and Himawari stayed below with Manna.
"Boruto does this because he cares deeply for you," Mitsuki said after a while. He had noticed that Himawari didn't look angry so much anymore. She looked hurt and sad.
"If he cared, then he wouldn't do it!" Himawari snapped at the pale man. Mitsuki frowned. It was an odd thing to say. Did caring mean to take a course of action that would prevent physical harm and possibly death, but emotionally hurting the one that needed protecting? Or was it letting that person walk into a battle beside you? Mitsuki pondered the thought. He wasn't like Sai, who had hardly any concept of emotional connection. Mitsuki loved is parent, for the most part, and respected him as well. He understood that... but these situations had always been a mathematical calculation to him.
To him, Boruto hadn't acted out of caring. In Mitsuki's mind, Boruto had calculated the chance of survival and had acted accordingly. He had greatly diminished his chances of living, but had also increased their chances of living. But isn't that selfish? He asked himself as he stared down at the dark haired girl beside him. He realized then that he was faced with a question that had no clear answer. At least not when you add humanity to the equation, he modified with a nod. Without the wildcard known as humanity, the choice would be simple. They would march into battle together. Everyone would sacrifice their own one-hundred percent chance of survival and fight equally.
But when humanity is thrown in, one does not want to watch their loved ones die, Mitsuki continued, even though he knew he should have dropped the subject in his head by now. That makes us do stupid things, like march into an unwinnable battle in order to protect the ones that we love. If Himawari were to get injured or killed on this mission, Boruto would not be able to say that it had been a possibility and move on. Surely he would feel responsible, even If he was not the one to actually kill his sister...
Mitsuki sighed and smiled at Himawari. He was no closer to the answer than he had been before he started that long rambling in his head. "Your brother is blinded by his love for you," he said with a cute, innocent grin. "He may be stupid, but doesn't love make us do stupid things?"
Himawari frowned and looked up to meet Mitsuki's golden gaze. She returned his grin after a moment and turned away, a faint hint of pink entering her cheeks. Mitsuki frowned. Sarada did that when she looked at Boruto sometimes. "Thank you," Himawari whispered.
"You are most welcome, Hima-chan!" He placed a gloved hand on her head.
"I'm still going to kill him."
Mitsuki paused for a moment and then laughed full heartedly. He wasn't sure what had been so funny. Perhaps it was because it had been the complete opposite thing that the situation called for. Mitsuki was good at reading the situation. It was a calm, delicate moment. Had he been in her shoes, he would have smiled and started planning how they would find Boruto. After he took a moment to regain his composure, he looked at the sky. Sarada was coming down. "I would not have expected anything less from you."
Sarada landed and looked between them. "You two look to be in high spirits," she teased.
"Did you find anything?" Himawari asked hopefully, ignoring her comment. Mitsuki made a note of that.
Sarada shook her head. "We don't know what we're looking for." Mitsuki opened his mouth to clarify that they were looking for Boruto, but he was silenced by a glare that promised death if he so much as uttered the remark. I'm not being sarcastic, his inner monologue defended.
Himawari closed her eyes for a moment before snapping them open. Her Byakugan had been activated. "Take me up," she said to Sarada. The girl complied without question and the two took off on the back of the hawk, leaving Mitsuki alone on the ground with his summon. He sighed and looked at the dark snake.
They were gone for several minutes before coming down. Mitsuki looked at them, but Sarada did not seem in the mood. Himawari seemed to be almost terrified. "What has happened?" Mitsuki asked quickly. The mood had changed drastically.
"An enemy, heading straight for us," Sarada said.
"How can they be after us?" Mitsuki said calmly. "They do not know that we even exist." Sarada shook her head. Himawari was spooked and her face pale. "What did you see?" he asked.
"Nothing good. After us or not, we don't want to be around when that enemy comes through here." Mitsuki nodded. He turned to the snake. Sarada wanted them to take to the sky, but the hawk wasn't strong enough to carry three people and a large snake.
"Do not worry, Mitsuki-sama," Manna said with a bow of his head. The snake quickly went underground and Mitsuki mounted Sarada's hawk. They took to the sky without another word. Why had this enemy scared Himawari so much? He looked down at the forest below, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.
And, in the next second, they were falling. Mitsuki's eyes widened. He didn't remember an attack on their bird. One second they were in the air, the next, they were falling. His eyes searched wildly for his teammates. He looked at the ground. Ten seconds, he thought quickly. This speed is too fast! They weren't simply falling, they had been thrown. But how?! I don't remember an attack! He spun in the air and spotted Himawari. With a burst of chakra, he reached out, stretching his arm. The second he had her, he threw her higher into the air to slow her descent. He gasped. The pain involved to not only stop a falling body, but completely change the direction was blinding. His looked around quickly, but Sarada was nowhere to be seen.
Mitsuki grabbed a branch as he fell, releasing chakra into his limb to stretch it so he wouldn't completely rip it out of its socket. He let out a loud gasp as pain tore through his body. He stayed there, dangling in the tree for a moment, gasping for air and waiting for the pain to dull. "Mitsuki-kun!" Himawari shouted, bringing him back. She had landed expertly on a branch above him.
"Are you well?" Mitsuki called.
"Yeah! What about you?"
"I am fine! Where's Sarada?"
"Here," Sarada called. Mitsuki sighed in relief. He was the team leader, after all, and it would do him no good to lose a team member. "Did anyone see what hit us?" Sarada asked. Mitsuki shook his head. "How's your arm?"
"It's not broken," he answered bluntly. In truth, he wasn't entirely sure, but he ignored the pain. There was nothing to be done about it. Suddenly the tree he was in shattered. Mitsuki jumped and landed beside Sarada. He blinked. Their assailant was a child who looked to be younger than Himawari; but his strength made Mitsuki shudder. Sarada lunged at the boy, but Mitsuki wasn't watching. He was looking at where the boy hit the tree. It wasn't his strength. The wood was rotting away before his eyes with a vague, black smoke coming from it. Mitsuki turned to the child, whose ungloved hand also had the same black smoke.
Mitsuki understood in that moment. "Don't touch him!" he shouted. Sarada didn't question her teammate's advice. Mitsuki wasn't one to just call out without reason. She dodged her attack, landing just behind him. With unnatural speed, the child spun, placing a hand on Sarada's exposed calf. Mitsuki hurried forward and Himawari was right behind him. She slammed her open palms, stopping centimeters from hitting him. He went flying. Mitsuki did a few handsigns and water sprouted from beneath the boy in deadly ribbons. Mitsuki turned to Sarada. Where the child had touched her flesh, it was already black with decay. He pulled out a scalpel and threw her to the ground. Before she could question what he was doing, he cut the layers of skin that were dying.
Sarada bit her lip against the pain. While she was the daughter of Sakura, she hadn't wanted to identify as the "medic" of the team growing up. Mitsuki, whose parent was Orochimaru, and whose "uncle" was Kabuto, had gladly taken role of medic. It was, however, imperative, that most, if not all, members of the squad knew at least basic medical ninjutsu in order to make up for an injured, or dead medic. "It spreads," he explained as he healed the freshly cut skin, "faster than I can heal it." Sarada nodded, though she still seemed a bit annoyed that her teammate had taken a chunk out of her leg without asking. Mitsuki took a moment to put a bandage on the wound. "It should be fine for now," he said. "But when we get out of this, we need to clean it better."
"Right," Sarada said. She stood, wincing at the pain. Mitsuki was about to tell her to stay down, but she glared at him. Her eyes widening told him to duck. He spun, kicking out at the tanned child with black eyes. Mitsuki did a quick check of the battlefield. Himawari was fine.
"Perhaps we can talk about this," Mitsuki said with a forced smile. He didn't like fighting an enemy that he knew nothing about. As his parent always said, fighting a battle you know you can't win is stupid, after all.
"I have come with a decree from god. Your life will gladly be sacrificed for him," the boy answered.
Mitsuki sighed and rubbed the back of his head. That wasn't exactly what he had been expecting. "I am sure that we do not want to be your sacrificial lambs today," he offered with a nervous smile. He hadn't expected that talking it out would work, but he wasn't expecting to be told that they were to be a sacrifice for some mad god either.
The boy grinned. He's blind, Mitsuki noticed. The child never made eye contact with him and when he spoke, he wasn't looking at them, but behind them. It was the sign of someone listening for the location of his enemy. Mitsuki turned to Sarada and pointed to his own eyes. She seemed confused for a moment, then took in the situation. That didn't make it any easier, but at least they knew something about their enemy.
"One does not get to choose when they are a sacrificed," he said. "But it is not your blood I'm after. I am to kill anyone who gets in my way, however."
"Who are you looking for?" Mitsuki asked. He was formulating a plan and buying time, but if they could stall their attacker for just a moment, he felt like he could have an idea on how to beat this kid. Touching him is lethal, he thought. I don't know how, but that doesn't matter. It has to deal with his chakra, meaning we have to block his chakra flow. He turned to Himawari. She wasn't part of their squad, so she wouldn't know the entirety of the silent language he, Sarada and Boruto had come up with. He moved to her silently as Sarada lunged at the ground, not only to attack the child, but to confuse him.
"We have to block his chakra flow," he told the girl. She nodded. Her Byakugan was already on.
"He has a weird flow," she muttered. "It's sporadic. There's no pattern to it at all. And it has a weird feeling, like it is cold."
Mitsuki sighed. He wasn't sure what all that meant, but he couldn't be bothered. It didn't matter what kind of weird chakra this kid had. All that mattered is that they didn't touch it. "Can you stop it?" he asked.
"I should be able to, but I need a direct hit to his heart."
"Can you not see the chakra points?"
Himawari shook her head. "I can, but I can't pinpoint them like I can with your chakra. His system is completely unbalanced, so I need to shut it down at the source."
"Then let's go." Mitsuki and Himawari ran forward. Mitsuki had a tag team move with Boruto that worked and he hoped that Himawari would pick up on it. Sarada slammed the ground, unbalancing the blind child. Mitsuki threw his palms to the ground and a massive wave came up towards their enemy. Hiding inside the wave was Himawari. She ran just in front of it, tracking the movements of the child. He was confused and disoriented with the shaking and the loud noises. Just before the wall of water crashed into the boy, Himawari slammed her open palm on his back.
Mitsuki watched with apprehension as his jutsu ended, flooding the area. He bit his lip, searching for their youngest member. Worry spread through him. Boruto would kill him if he knew that he had sent Himawari into battle, especially as a point runner. The second she emerged, Mitsuki was by her side. "Let's go. I have a feeling that won't hold him long," Mitsuki called. Sarada nodded and the three ran.
"Where's the hawk?" Mitsuki asked Sarada. She looked at him for a moment, then bowed her head. Mitsuki frowned. They ran for several more minutes before coming across the body of the beast. The smell was nearly unbearable. The thing looked like it had been dead for weeks, not just shy of half an hour. "This is our enemy," Mitsuki whispered. Sarada looked down at her bandaged leg as if realizing that it could have been her with those wounds. She wiped a tear from her cheek. The creature had been her main summon. "Should we give him a proper burial?" Mitsuki asked, unsure what to say in this situation.
"No," Sarada muttered. "It's fine." Mitsuki knew she was upset, but Sarada was a lot like him when it came to pushing away emotion for the sake of the mission.
"He said he's after us because of a god," Mitsuki said as they continued walking. "What do you think that means?"
"That he's crazy," Himawari offered. She was looking at her hand, but Mitsuki had already checked it. She hadn't been infected.
"That is true," he answered with a nod. "But what else?"
"Why does it matter?" Sarada snapped.
"If we know his motives, we can predict his next move. He needs one of us alive."
"But which one?" Sarada asked. "He went after all of us with the intent to kill."
Mitsuki nodded. That was true. The boy hadn't seemed to care who he was about to kill. "We will need to get gloves," he said. "And long sleeves and pants. This child can start the decaying process in living tissue. You almost lost your leg, Sarada. We cannot let that happen again." Both girls nodded and he looked down at his hands. Who would know anything about this? Where had the child come from and why was his chakra network more tangled than their internet connection back home? "We also need a town or village, preferably one with public computer access."
"What about Boruto?" Himawari asked.
"We'll need to find him too, but later. We need better transportation. I don't like being on foot, and Manna, where ever he went, isn't the best mount for this."
"We have to find my brother," Himawari snapped.
"We have to stay alive," Mitsuki argued. The two glared at each other. Mitsuki never understood how hard it was for others to make these calculations. Finding Boruto did not benefit their chances of survival. Boruto wasn't an idiot and could take care of himself. Obviously he wasn't that child's target.
"Mitsuki is right," Sarada interjected quickly. "We need to find some information as well as a flight."
"An airship, perhaps?"
"To where, exactly?" Sarada asked. "We don't know where Boruto is."
"This is true, but there is no way that Jinchuuriki keep going missing by the same group and no one has information on them."
Sarada looked confused for a moment, then smirked. "You devil," she teased.
"What?" Hima whined. "What did he do?"
"Airships are the travel method for merchants that need to travel long distances, like if they finish their rounds and they are eager to get home."
"Or," Mitsuki continued, "a way for the wealthy and the powerful to get places without having to walk or take a caravan."
"It's safer, with no bandits."
"For the most part," Mitsuki interjected. Sarada nodded to acknowledge his comment.
"And it's cheaper than paying for a ninja escort from a village."
"And freelancing ninja aren't exactly the most reliable." Mitsuki offered.
Himawari's eyes widened. Mitsuki smiled. It wasn't often that ninja got to ride an airship. He had only been on one once for an escort mission. Bandits often found it easier to steal from the ships. "But, we don't have enough money for three tickets, and no idea where to go," Sarada grumbled.
Mitsuki removed his headband. Freelance body guards were often cheaper than going to a ninja village. However, they would have to try and overcome the stigma that freelancers got. They had the skills, at least. "Then we'll just have to get hired," Mitsuki said with a smile.
Himawari's eyes widened. "Can we really get hired without a ninja village?" she asked.
Mitsuki nodded. He assumed that the economy in this world was similar to theirs. Though this world didn't seem to have the same stability in peace, they also hadn't been going through war after war. Their non-peace was less violent. They hadn't had any major wars in quite some time, it seemed. The landscape wasn't scarred by massive battles like their own. It was reasonable to believe that the two worlds had come to the same economic and social place by taking different paths. Even in Konoha, he had noticed the technological advances, though he wasn't sure how far they had come in the six years since the time Boruto had been there. He didn't feel like he was stepping into the past at all.
The three continued in silence while Mitsuki formulated a plan. They weren't dressed in any uniform, meaning that they could pass for freelancers. Sarada might have the advantage, Mitsuki thought. The Uchiha are alive in this world, sure, but it would be odd to have an Uchiha freelancer. They might be more willing to pay for us with her in the group. He nodded. They could use their names, as they had no record. He decided to keep Himawari's identity as a Hyuuga secret for the time being.
As noon came around, they noticed a large town in the distance. Mitsuki smiled. It seemed to have exactly what they needed; it was busy and it had an airship yard. "Alright, guys, remember, we need information."
"This still seems like a roundabout way to find Boruto," Himawari grumbled. "Wouldn't it be easier to track him?"
Sarada shook her head. "Your brother has learned to hide from your father," she pointed out. "If he doesn't want to be found, he won't be found by tracking."
"But... The Byakugan," Hima retorted.
Sarada smiled. "Sweetie, he hides from you more than he hides from your father."
Mitsuki smiled softly as the two walked in front of him. He had always considered himself the calmest of the group, and often took on a leadership role. He shoved his hands in his pocket, watching Sarada explain to Himawari the plan that he had formulated. She modified it as she saw fit. He shook his head and laughed slightly. She'll make a great Hokage, he thought with a nod.