(WARNING: THIS CHAPTER IS DARK AND GORY AND JUST PLAIN GROSS. READ IF YOU DON'T GET NIGHTMARES *COUGH* BLUEPRINGLEZ)
After leaving the Land of Waves and we were walking back along the path we came through, someone jumped down in front of us from the trees. I prepared for an attack, until I recognized the Leaf symbol on the guy’s headband. My muscles relaxed.
“Kakashi,” the guy said in an official tone, while standing as if in order. “Lord Hokage sent me here to give you a message. He wants you to visit this small village in the Land of Water, since you’re already here, because of a mass murder of the clan that resided there.”
A lump formed in my throat. Oh no, it’s not my village, is it?
“What village is it?” Kakashi asked for me.
“The Aqua Village, sir. It’s a separation of the Hidden Mist Village that was cast off years ago and is now a new village; although, it’s still part of the country, sir.”
The lump tightened. The Aqua Village was my old village! And worst of all, we were going to inspect it!
“Were there any survivors?” Kakashi asked seriously.
“Well, there could possibly be one; it was a woman in her early 20’s who ran away before getting killed. No one has seen her since.”
“What clan is it?” he prodded on.
“The…Kobayashi clan, sir.”
“K—Kobayashi!” I burst out nervously, confusing everyone.
“Tomiko, have you heard of this clan?” Kakashi asked me.
“Um, no, never mind. At first I thought the name sounded familiar…” I muttered. Kakashi turned back to the ninja.
“What exactly are we doing there?”
"You’re going to try and track down whoever did this, but first you need to inspect the site of the murder. All the bodies haven’t been touched, so you can still observe them.”
The bodies…were still there? Does that mean I’ll have to look at them!?
“Argh!” Naruto grunted. “We aren’t detectives! Why do we have to do this stupid stuff?”
“The Hidden Mist Village asked specifically for Leaf Village ninja; they wanted no part in the affairs involving the Aqua Village.”
I clenched my fists. Typical Mist Village…they hated us to the bitter end. That’s why the whole clan longed for a worthy person in the Aqua Village to become the Mizukage to show up the Mist; my brother.
“Alright,” Kakashi nodded. “We’ll head there as soon as you give us directions.” Turning to us, he smiled. “I hope you don’t get sick over many dead bodies everywhere.”
I glanced over at Sasuke, who looked on edge. He glanced at me the same way I looked at him; do we have the same facial expression?
“Sasuke, Tomiko, what’s wrong? You both are looking a bit pale,” Sakura frowned.
Sasuke “hn”ed and turned his head away, sticking his hands in his pockets. “Nothing,” he snapped.
“Mr. Moody Pants probably just doesn’t want to admit that he’s feeling nauseous about those dead bodies.” I smirked at his new expression. “I know I am.”
I was truly. Not because of the reason of a whole bunch of dead people at my feet, but because they’re the people I know. The people I grew up with, the ones I loved and hung out with all those years. I have to look at all their faces again and try to keep a straight face, if possible, so my teammates don’t get suspicious. I can’t guarantee I won’t cry, but I’ll have to try my hardest to do it silently.
After Kakashi got directions from the Leaf ninja, he set off (right after taking a weary and almost unnoticable glance at the stone), as did we, on our own separate journeys. As we grew closer, I could recognize the path I took when running away from Yosuke Takeo and his men. The stone seemed to glow even faster at the familiarity I had with my surroundings. I noticed a large gateway just a little farther up ahead as the entrance to the Aqua Village.
Gulping down air, I tried keeping a steady pace with my team, but failed. I’d either speed up and go too fast or drag on and go too slow. All my emotions were conflicted and confused. At points, I’d just want to hurry to go see my old village again, but at the same time I’m scared out of my mind to see all those bodies lying around, rotting in the dirt and in the homes of my clan.
Kakashi sensed how tense I was. “What’s wrong, Tomiko? You’re falling back again.”
I realized how far behind I was and sped up to the speed of Kakashi, running in the tree branches alongside him. “Nothing,” I replied blankly, trying to have no emotion in my voice.
“Why are you sweating so much?” Sakura inquired. “You’re wearing short sleeves and capris, and it’s not even super-hot out. Also, you’re all pale in the face.”
I wiped the sweat out of my eyes. “I’m fine, just feeling a little motion sick. I’ll be alright.”
“Okay…” Kakashi replied, unsure, turning his head back forward. We emerged from the tunnel of leaves and into the sunlight, landing silently on the ground. Before us were the gates we previously saw from far back. My throat nearly leaped into my chest when I noticed the two armor-clad guards in front, the ones that always guarded our village, in a dried-up bloody heap on the ground. Their weapons were scattered around their bodies.
I put a hand to my head. I felt dizzy. The sight of those two guards made me fear for the worst with what was to come.
"Come on," Kakashi muttered, the slightest bit disturbed. He and my teammates ventured on, and I followed far behind, trudging through the gates. I took in a breath of air when I saw the scene.
Blood covered the walls of every single building, along with villagers' bodies leaning against them. The faint smell of bloodshed still lingered in the air. On the bodies of the villagers, you could see sword slashes and stabs in multiple places. I could clearly see the feared expressions etched into the many details of their faces. It was the last feeling they had before dying: fear.
"Alright everyone, let's split up and investigate. Meet back here in an hour." We all nodded at Kakashi's orders and separated. I, of course, had troubles resisting going in the direction of my home.
My eyes stayed looking ahead, and I ran at full speed, trying to narrowly avoid looking down at the ground where the dead bodies lay scattered. I put on my best poker face, trying to stay determined for Dad. I knew he was watching; it would be too hard to resist. He couldn't help it. I don't blame him.
My house was a medium-sized hut-type house a little cast off from the rest of the village. That was good, though; it gave me much playing space as a kid and a lot of ground to use for whatever I want. We practically owned all of the property.
I examined the house that sat in front me, my house. The one I spent my whole life cooped up in, not wanting to go to ninja school or make any friends, just wanting to never grow up. I was always a daddy's girl. I didn't even move out when I turned 20, like Hisoka did.
My first weary step on the creaky porch brought up lost feelings. I felt a mix of relief, happiness, despair, and grief all at the same time. I pulled open the front door, stepping into my home and shutting the door silently behind me. The whole place was dead silent. Bloody, muddy footprints lead all throughout the house. I followed them in the direction of the kitchen.
I held my breath, bracing myself for what I was going to see. I knew what was in there, and I wasn't sure I was ready to see it.
When I turned the right corner and peered into the kitchen, I nearly stepped on something. I glanced down and my eyes shot open.
There, lying in a crimson red pool of dried up blood, was my mother. Her blond hair was tangled and infested with bugs thirsting on raw skin. The stench was fowl, and nearly burned my eyes.
"M--mom?" I muttered, reaching a hand down to brush my fingers through her hair. I squeezed my eyes shut and felt the tears drip down my cheeks. I collapsed down onto her body, putting my face into her chest, bawling. "Mom! Why did...why did you have to go!?" I remained in that very spot for at least another three minutes before picking myself up, wiping the tears away from my cheeks. I noticed the stone started blinking faster. "I'm sorry Dad...Nothing's fair. Nothing in this cruel world is fair."
I backed up slowly from my mother's body, exiting the kitchen, and following the footprints through the living room and to the bookcase, pulling on that one green book in the middle that opened the secret door. A staircase lead downwards deep into the Earth, seemingly into eternal darkness. The lamp hanging on the wall was the only source of light I could possibly use to see down there; I snatched it up, switched it on, and ventured down the stairs.
The light lead the way to the bottom, and I stepped off the stairs, glancing around the small room. It was where my dad hid precious things that he didn't want other people to see in plain sight; he hid the stone down here for a while, until he decided on keeping a closer eye on it.
"Tomiko..." The voice sounded almost lifelike. It kept replaying in my head, from that night...the night of the massacre. It was Hisoka's voice that said it.
Of course, his body was down here with me. That was the main reason I came down here in the first place.
My head cranked to the right, seemingly an inch a minute, until the two chunks of bloody rank flesh on the far wall met my eyes. It was Hisoka; they cut him in half when he tried resisting. His body was lying right next to the money safe that he snatched the ryō from before dying. He handed it to me in his rush and said to run before the enemy got here.
My feet were aching from all the walking, but I forced them to move anyway. My head was spinning from both the sight and the smell. I crouched down and clenched my teeth, reaching a finger out to poke Hisoka's almost-perfectly preserved cheek. "Hey, it's your Miko. You really stink, you know."
No reply. Obviously. He's dead!
My eyelids squeezed tight. "Why did I leave you here to rot? Why didn't I let you save yourself rather than the other way around? Why didn't you exit out the secret passageway instead of pushing me through it?" Anger boiled up to the brim inside me. My fists pounded up and down multiple times on my brother's bodily remains, splashing blood and chunks of skin all over my clothing and face. "Why? Why? Why? Why?" I chanted out through gritted teeth each time my fist came down.
I suddenly stopped, realizing what I was doing. With my nerves breaking down, I brought my shaky hands up to my face and stared at them with wide eyes full of tears. Now my brother's blood was literally on my hands. They were completely drenched in it. I backed up against the wall and slid down on it, sitting right next to my brother's body. I was panting and dripping with blood, sweat, and tears. My head swiveled to the side to gaze at the determined yet feared expression left on my brother's face permanently, never to be wiped away by happiness ever again.
I tucked my knees up into my chest and clenched my skull in my hands, shaking violently. No one was around to see me like this, so vulnerable, completely off my guard, broken down. I was at my lowest.
(TEN MINUTES LATER)
Standing at the bottom of my main staircase, I felt terrible. Hisoka was still down there, being consumed by rats, flies, and any other animal that enjoys the taste of juicy raw flesh. I just left him there, again.
There was one left: Dad. He was upstairs in his bedroom, lying there on the cold hardwood floor, completely lifeless. He was the second one to try and protect me; first it was Mom, then Dad when giving me the stone, and Hisoka, after giving me a sack of ryō and then shoving me into the secret exit in our cellar.
I made my way up the small staircase, standing in front of those wooden double doors that belonged to my parents' bedroom. I heard the chirping of birds outside and scowled. This is really not the time for happy nature sounds.
Shoving open the doors, they smacked against the walls and I stepped in. My father was right there, in the middle of the room, dried blood surrounding him. He was lying face-first on the floor. A large sword cut was visible through his left stomach, where the blood originally was seeping through when he was first wounded. I ran over and kneeled next to him, placing both my hands on his back. His skin was cold to the touch, even through the shirt he was wearing.
The stone flickered even faster than it was in front of Mom and Hisoka. "I know this must be a very odd sight to see, Dad. I would be too scared to even look..." My wobbly smiled faltered into a frown. Silent tears dripped down my cheeks and seeped through my father's shirt and his scraggly hair. I was starting to get convinced that the tears never even stopped falling the whole time I was here.
It was like I was hit in the face with reality. That very night of Yosuke Takeo's invasion ran through my mind, every last bit of it, and they wouldn't stop going through every single event of that night.
~~
My parents never liked me to wander off into the woods. They said it was "dangerous," even for a grown woman like myself. I wouldn't listen to their warnings, of course; I was now 23 and independent. Moving out isn't what insures your freedom, so that's why I never did. Besides, who'll take care of my aging parents? In just a few years or so they could drop dead right on the spot.
As I navigated myself through the tree branches and bushes, I tried listening for the sounds of bustling people and activity in the village. Nothing. It was dead silent. That's weird...
I saw my house in the distance and sprinted for it. I rushed in and opened the door almost too hard; it nearly came off its hinges.
As I walked into the house and turned in the kitchen, I said, "Hey Mom, I'm--" I stopped dead in my tracks.
"Tomiko, g--get out...out of here..."
My legs started trembling. "M--Mom?"
Blood was trickling out of her mouth. "Go, get out! Now, Tomi...ko..." She collapsed right there face-first on the kitchen floor. Shaky breaths were all I could manage once I saw the giant bloody hole right in the center of her back, leading to her heart.
I clutched my chest with my hand. Dropping to my knees, I shook my mother's shoulders. "Mom? Mom! Mom, get up! Mom!" She wouldn't budge. She was...she was dead...
I picked myself up and stumbled up the stairs, searching for someone to help. "Dad, Hisoka, where are you? Help, something happened to Mom!"
A gruff voice I couldn't recognize answered my call instead. "Hey, who're you? Get her!" I whipped my head to the side, my eyes meeting a pack of men all wielding swords or knives. Some were just relying on jutsu.
I yelped and crashed into my parents' bedroom, my heart beating 20 miles per minute. My eyes widened at the sight of my aging father, in the center of his crashed bedroom, fighting a young, blond, pierced man with just the stone. Amazing power was being released from it, like purple beams of light. His blond opponent turned his head. When his eyes met mine, a devilish smirk crossed his face, and he ran over so fast my eyes couldn't even process it. In an instant, he had a kunai up to my neck and was making a stance behind me. I gulped.
"Make a move, and I'll cut your precious 'Tomiko's' throat out." I could feel the blond man smirking behind me.
"H--How do you know my name?" I muttered. "What are you doing here?"
"Get the hell away from her, Yosuke!" Dad yelled in such a powerful voice I almost didn't know it was his. His voice was choking back tears; I could tell. "You can't come invade this land and kill my clan just for this stupid stone! You'll never get your hands on it!"
"Oh? How do you think that? Look around you, old man! I've killed your whole clan, your wife, and I'm a centimeter away from spilling the blood of this beautiful young daughter of yours. You can't win."
Dad looked conflicted. He always knows what to do...I know he can figure this out.
"Wait, did you say you killed the whole clan and my mom!?" I screamed, so angry that tears started coming out of my eyes. My mom's kekkei genkai boiled up to the top and I shot out a burst of air at the blond man behind me, whose name I'm guessing is Yosuke. He hit the far side wall with an "oof."
Dad stared incredulously at me. "Tomiko, I never knew you had it in you..."
A flash whipped my hair to the side, and I turned my attention back to my dad. Yosuke was now standing behind him, unsheathing the giant sword he held on his back and slicing it halfway through Dad's stomach. He grunted and collapsed on the ground, the stone he clutched so tight in his hand a moment ago loosely rolling from the palm of his hand.
I ran over quickly, using my air jutsu to conjur up sound in the air and stun Yosuke for a moment enough to lean down to my father to hear him murmur three simple yet very important words: "Take...the...stone."
Without hesitation, I snatched up the stone and ran out of the bedroom and crashing down the stairs, gaining the attention of the gang of men and Yosuke. They were all on my tail. Taking a dash through the living room, I stood with my back facing the bookcase, fear and depression going all through my being.
Suddenly, a pair of hands came out from behind the bookcase where the secret door was at. They pulled me back and shut the door, taking me down the staircase. I looked behind me to see Hisoka tugging me along, holding a finger to his lips.
"H--Hisoka, you're okay!" I wrapped my arms around him and he set me down at the bottom of the stairs. "Mom and Dad...they were--"
"I know," he sighed. "Tomiko, you need to get out of here. I can't let my little sister die here because of a mass murder of our clan."
"Mass murder?"
"Everyone's dead, Miko." He stood up straighter. "And Dad left you with the stone, so he must've known you were the one supposed to come out of this alive. Here, you need some money to live off of." He crossed the room and started tapping in the combination on the safe.
"Wait, why would I need money to live off of?" I asked.
"You have to run away from here," he replied, reaching into the safe and grabbing all the stacks he could fit in the burlap sack he brought down with him.
"Wait, but what about you?" I demanded, taking a step closer. He just stuffed the bag of ryō in my arms and guided my shoulders towards the small door in the corner of the room.
"I'm staying. I'll watch your back, just make sure you get through!"
My jaw dropped and my eyes were threatening to spill tears. "N--No, Hisoka! I'm not leaving you! Stop being so stubborn, we can both get out of here quickly, together. You don't need to stay behind to try and protect me!"
"It isn't your choice." Withou warning, he shoved me down through the small crawlspace door and shut the door. I turned my body and peered through the tiny vent on the door. Hisoka put his face up to it and smiled. "I love you, Miko." Pounding footsteps were heard from above our heads and distant shouts. "Now get out of here!"
He turned away and backed up near the safe. A lot of enemy ninja came down the stairs, lead by the blond man Yosuke. He looked extremely angry. He pulled out his giant sword and held it up to Hisoka's neck.
"Where is she!?"
"Why would I tell you, the man who killed my family and my whole clan, where my sister went?" Hisoka growled, not backing down or darting his eyes away. Him and Yosuke had a stareoff.
I backed up a tiny bit, preparing to run through the secret passageway just in case he discovered my hiding spot, but still kept my eyes glued to the vent.
"I'm not just that man. I'm Yosuke Takeo, master at ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu, in the bingo book of all the top ninja of multiple lands, good enough to take control over the Akatsuki for a short period of time, the best assassination artist there is, and the man who is going to kill you right on the spot."
With a flick of the wrist, Yosuke brought his sword back and then brought it right into Hisoka's stomach, slicing straight through the center, blood spurting everywhere. My surroundings seemed to be in slow motion, but my thoughts were going in normal speed, capturing this very moment like a picture. Hisoka's lower half was detached from his top, leaving his legs and his torso separated from one another.
He was concious for one more second long enough to mutter one single word: "Tomiko..." His two halves crashed to the ground next to the safe, blood pooling all around Yosuke's feet. He started laughing like a madman, splashing his feet in the red puddle he was standing in.
I squiggled out of the passageway, finding my way to the opposite end and stepped outside. The small door lead to the back of my house. With the stone clenched in my hand, I stuffed the sack of ryō in the pack I had on my back when I was wandering in the woods and bolted for those very same woods, trying to find an escape from my pursuers. I knew they were following me. They must've figured out where I went by now. I just have to keep on running.
~~
I can't keep on running. Running away from problems solves nothing; I have to face them head-on and be the grown woman my parents and brother always knew me to be.
~~~~~
OMG. I updated. O_O
I kinda felt a little sick writing this myself. I'm not used to writing gore. :/
You know what sucks? Yosuke Takeo is young and hot. -_- (That's him on the side.)