She took a quiet and deep breath in, letting the chilling air cascade down her neck and into her lungs. Taking another steady step on the roof and staying in a crouch, knowing that her black cloak was like camouflage against the dark night. She peered over the ledge, looking down the tall building that ended up going below the surface, squinting her eye to get a better look at the meeting area used for the ROOT ANBU. Her jaw clenched unconsciously, already knowing what terrible things Danzo made kids do. Mina closed her eyes for a brief moment, concentrating on her surrounds. Testing to see if anyone was around her, sensing the area to find any chakra signature. There wasn't any.
With a satisfied smile, she leapt off the orange, tiled roof, letting her small frame fall into the depth of the ROOT headquarters, landing on a large, wooden beam. With a quiet tap of her ninja sandals on the wood, she stealthily moved her way down. Mina applied a small amount of chakra to her feet, making sure she stayed latched on to the red fence when she had jumped down.
A loud whistle pierced the dead of night, shocking the Uzumaki. She stayed as still as a statue, glancing around her, quickly as she stood in the wide open space of gathering area. Mina knew she shouldn't be standing in the open, in case anything were to happen, but it was the easiest way to travel around the building.
Realising that the loud whistle and howl that came after was only the wind, her nerves had calmed down a slight bit. She sprinted across the bridge, her arms flailing behind her, enabling her to sprint faster. She was at the end of the hall within a split-second.
Now standing at the end, curiously looking into the doorway. Nothing was seen further than about 5 meters, the little bit of light the moon provided faded into nothingness as she peered into the darkened hallway, not daring to take a step in yet.
She peeked backwards, looking to see if anything had changed since she had been there. If anyone was following her. Nothing she noticed. Mina hurriedly took steps into the doorway that lead to an unknown place. Her violet eyes adjusting to the darkness rather quickly, the shimmer of life in them seems to make them glow in the dark, the only thing visible in the blackness. Shadows casting over her face and the cloak making her invisible to the normal eye.
"Turn left, now." He spoke, calmness dripping from his voice.
She nodded only to feel stupid straight after, knowing that she may have looked crazy to others. But no one was able to see her as she followed his instructions. I thought you'd never talk to me again, she thought, knowing that the voice was listening.
"I can change my mind, can I not?" He asked right before he instructed her to turn right.
"You can," She whispered, stopping for a moment to check if anyone was near her. But I thought after what I said you'd never talk to me again.
"It's boring in being your sword. The others would always listen to what I have to say, thinking it was themselves," He explained, laughing, "You have to have some fun at times too. I hardly think you'd be able to sit still without any fun for thousands of years."
"Others?" Mina questioned. Her voice, a mutter. Choosing to question him on the 'thousands of years' later, hoping his explanation wouldn't rise up more questions.
He chuckled, "There, go through that door and you'll be where you're looking to be."
Mina stopped in front of a decent sized double door. The chipping off paint and the metal handle starting to rust, clearly leaving a metallic smell on her fingers as she pushed on it. With a loud scream from the door, Mina was standing in what would have been a large room if it wasn't for the multiple long tables with different things on that made the room look small.
She gagged, recognising one of the slimy items in a dusted jar. And when she regained her composure, she unexpectedly gagged again, this time, though, almost vomiting the dinner she had a while ago. Her stomach churned, flashes of her past resurfacing, making her glance rapidly around the other items on the tables as she took weak steps forward.
*-*
She moved hastily, thrashing her wrists and feet to the side of the metal, wanting some sort of freedom. But nothing of the sort came. Her weakened hits were useless against the metal that seemed like it would be made of titanium.
"Why try to escape, you know full well that it's impossible to escape at this point," Kabuto said, in his usual annoying voice.
A whimper left the depths of her throat, glancing hesitantly to the sides, with little hope of having something -anything- help her get out of the bindings of metal. Her glazed eyes blurred everything in view, not many things rendering as clear. Mina blinked, repeatedly and hurriedly, only to be horrified at the things she saw.
*-*
Breath ragged and heavy, she abruptly clutched the cloth over her chest, knuckles turning to a deathly white. Her head felt like it was being hit with a brick over and over, and the world actually felt like it was spinning. She lost balance, staggering forward and roughly grabbing ahold of the chipping, wood table. She held on to it for dear life, trying to regain her breath, chasing after it with every heave of her chest. It felt impossible.
Memories she had buried over the months she had been back in the village, came cane crawling out of the dirt like the revived zombie people that threatened her home a while back. She shook her head vigorously, wanting them to be thrown out of her house of memories and never be thought of again. But in a split second, through clouded vision, she spotted a horrifying sight.
The pain intensified tenfold. Now, to the point of almost crippling on the floor in pain, she blinked rapidly. Get it together, she shouted mentally, it's over! Nothing seemed to be of help and the tutting in her head from the voice made it worse. She finally clamped her eyes closed, taking her away from reality and the sight she had just seen, that is with the risk of seeing something much worse than reality -her imagination.
"I believe in you."
Everything stopped. No longer breathing heavy, no longer panicking. She heard -remembered- something worth remembering. The voice was awfully familiar, yet, it was different from the one she was used to hearing. Mina's blonde eyebrows furrowed underneath her headband as she stared blankly at the floor.
Taking a moment to finally regain her composure, she stood up. Not daring to look to the side again, Mina walked to the end of the room, scanning the wall for a secret opening. It should be here somewhere, the thought crossed her mind, Itachi hinted at it. She placed a gloved hand on the cold wall, feeling some of its moisture soak her glove. Flinching away, she used her other, ungloved, hand to search for a hidden button or opening.
Moments passed and nothing was found, so she stepped away, ready to bash through the wall if needed. But it wasn't, with a sudden sound, the wall was flung open, the sound echoing throughout the room and possibly into the ROOT meeting area. She stopped all movement, just to be sure no one followed her through. Hearing nothing again, only the sound of her beating heart. She knew adrenalin was pumping through her veins, so much to the point, she was on the verge of being paranoid. Or maybe it was just a hunch.
Mina took careful, quiet and light steps into the hidden room, observing the emptiness of it. It set a feeling in her stomach, the pure bareness of it was eery.
Her violet eyes browsed the room, squinting and widening in unsuccessful attempts to see in this new darker darkness. The room just felt darker. With every step she took, her almost soundless steps echoed loudly in the silence. "Why?" She whispered, the low sound still echoed in the room, "Why, why, why?" She repeated the word at a rapid pace, seeming to have no end.
"Why does this place-" A loud groan left her mouth, stumbling forward from the sudden contact with something on the floor, "have to be so creepy?" She finished grunting further from walking into something that laid on the floor.
Regretting not bringing something that she could use to help her see, she tried to inspect the box-like thing on the floor, in front of her. The metallic material was large and tall, the cuboid shape reaching up to the bottom of her chest. It wasn't shiny, nor did it reflect the light of anything -there wasn't anything to reflect. There was a slit, a gap, in the large metal cuboid, some sort of red-purple light glowing from it and, with a click of her fingers, fire exploded out of her fingertips, heating the atmosphere around her, also lighting it up. And she realised over what she had tripped over, it was simply a step.
The flame disappeared within a second. But that second was plenty of time for Mina, The Bloody Flash, to observe, inspect and memorise what the cuboid thing was. Creases were made between her eyebrows, images of the cube and its engravings looking awfully the same as the ones on this metal cuboid. Just what is it? She had questioned mentally, trying to fix the pieces of the puzzle together, trying to understand the link between that cube and this room -this metal thing.
"T-that," Her ears twitched at the voice, recognising it and staying silent to let her sword finish what he was saying. "Is not important," He said, suddenly changing the subject as he whispered in her mind, "What you are looking for is at the end of the room."
She clicked her fingers again, ignoring what he said and imprinted the image of the cube with the limited lighting into her mind. Possibly making the wrong move to take, but she took it anyway, on a hunch that this was important, very necessary information.
The flame lasted a second longer, allowing her to look at the end of the room.
~~~
It took a while, but she finally found what she was looking for.
In a dusted jar, dirt from unknown sources covered it and an unknown thick liquid from an unknown cause sat calmly in the glass. A brown piece of paper tied to it with fading ink, she read it with a widening grin, just what she was looking for. Those eyes. Bouncing around lifelessly, with a small string of something that was surely important if she were to reattach them to a being. She sealed the jar away quickly and turned back around, wanting to have one last glance at the cuboid before she used Flying Thunder God to get out of there.
But she froze, watching with wide eyes as the Ninja that surrounded her. All wearing masks, all apart from ROOT ANBU. Clicking her tongue, she scolded herself for not noticing the sudden light in the room and simultaneously starting to think of ways to get out without them seeing her face.
She rose a gloved hand, pulling the thick cloak hood down, in attempts to hide her identity.
"Uzumaki, Mina." Her name was called from the person dressed in old-fashioned robes, those two words sliding off his mouth in a disgusting way. Nothing more was said, nothing else was needed to be said.
"Danzo," she growled out, fists clenching and shaking with the force. "How'd you find me?"
He chuckled, eyes looking to close but never really closing. "I'd know you come here eventually, and you have," he tapped his cane on the ground a couple of times, smiling a twisted smile, "a special chakra signature."
"And the ROOT ANBU have nothing to do with this?" She asked with a scoff, raising a hidden eyebrow, "I admit, you trained them a lot better than I had thought an old man would able to, ya know."
"I'm only just beginning to get to my prime years."
"Oh," Mina's voice came out lacking the usual emotion it has, "so everything you did in order to have the title of the Hokage is finally paying off, right?!" She had unintentionally raised her voice, "Everything you did?! Creating the Uchiha Massacre? Forcing Itachi to become a murderer?! Forcing people to see him as a criminal when he had no other choice?!" The well-known emotion started to rise, from the core of her body, flooding her veins and reaching the surface of her skin.
"How do you know this?" Danzo demanded, glaring at Mina with fury. She noticed his grip on the cane tighten, the 'X' shaped scar on his chin twitching as he clenched his jaw.
The corner of her mouth quirked up, her whiskers creasing as she grinned. "Well, I have my ways, ya know," She mocked, placing a hand on her hip and swaying slightly in a way to irritate him further.
He stayed silent, fierce dark eyes staring blankly at Mina. He knew, he knew that she knew. And that was a danger. "You will get put into prison for trespassing, stealing and having contact with an Akatsuki member." He said calmly, bluffing the words he was saying. Mina caught the lie instantly, her anger not disappearing. It rose to the surface, escaping from the pores of her skin. The steam faded into the atmosphere, but there were plenty rolling off her. Waves of white steam rolled off her, seeping through the clothing.
She was mad, just staring at the despicable man angered her. It was worse knowing what he did. She felt a hot liquid run down her palm, it evaporated before the drip could touch the cool ground. Mina was burning, her skin seeming to become redder with the blazing desire to slaughter everyone who got in her way. The stinging from the punctured skin went unnoticed by her, too enraged to detect that her nails had transformed into claws, piercing her skin. Her vision became blurry, changing colour with the haze.
"Oh, I'm just returning something to its rightful owner, ya know. And I didn't see a 'do not enter' sign anywhere." She sneered, eyes staying open as she smiled, a bitter smile, keeping watch on the ANBU around her. He hesitated, and she saw. Narrowing her violet eyes, she watched as he opened his mouth and spoke the one worded command.
She jumped back, katana held at the ready, and in a position to attack at any moment.
At least those eyes were safe.
/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/
:D
unedited, 21/03/18
Barry-The-Berry~