This chapter is in dedication to Cantrona who kick started my muse with her fan art and sweetness. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Warning: All warnings are addressed at the bottom of chapter two.
Beta: Cyndaquil123
And maybe it's a dream; maybe nothing else is real?
But, it wouldn't mean a thing if I told you how I feel.
-Lizz
Everyone is gone.
Everyone will always leave.
I will forever and ever be alone.
. . .
. .
.
In this world wherever alcohol was served in, or near a hidden village, business would always be consistent. No matter the hour; lively talk, and gentle jesting would fill the atmosphere.
Three days ago that had changed.
For the first time in a long while a thick, uncomfortable, borderline-painful, tension ran through those establishments. There was no merry talk. There was no laughter. There was no jesting. A somber silence broken only by men and woman drowning themselves in alcohol, or whispering fearfully to one another, filled the bars.
At one such place, a blonde woman sat. Her dull eyes stared listlessly at her cup of sake.
"Did you hear the news?"
"You mean about the massacre?"
"God, what a fucking monster."
"The last real Senju... I can't believe what she did. Is it really as bad as they say?"
The woman at the bar clenched her drink, her attention now focused on the terse gossip around her.
"Yeah. It was a complete massacre... she really created the Yomi Pillars. That monster... Oni Kodama."
"My God."
"We have to travel through the woods tomorrow."
"Fuck."
"How old is she?"
"The bingo book says she's twelve."
"She's the youngest in history to have a universal Flee on Sight."
"Fuck," they echoed once more.
"I hope to God someone takes her out before she hits her prime. Can you imagine?"
The woman's heart stopped for a brief moment.
"I don't even want to think about that."
"She already has a huge bounty on her head for being a mokuton user. How much you think Iwagakure and Kumogakure gonna be willing to pay for her head?"
The woman's drink shattered in her hands.
The silence returned.
(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง
"How long am I going to have to use these stupid things?" I grumbled indignantly while shooting venomous glares at my crutches.
"Until you stop shaking," Panther answered, completely dismissive of my ire.
I stuck my tongue out petulantly at the unperturbed man, frustration at my physical limits bubbling inside of me. Almost a week after I had effectively beaten the enemy out of our lands, and I was still shaking. Granted, it didn't help that I had continued to ignore Panther's orders for strictly bed rest and repeatedly snuck out to keep regrowing the forest I had decimated through Madara's power.
"Well, if you hadn't insisted on growing that grotesque forest of yours you might have been off the crutches by now," Panther put in mildly.
"I had to finish it while people were still in awe of my sheer evilness," I insisted. "Otherwise, it wouldn't have had the maximum amount of impact."
"Heaven forbid people weren't terrified of you by the maximum degree."
"Exactly," I said, nodding my head. "You understand."
Panther looked up at the ceiling. "God, why do you create monsters that look like cute little girls? Why can't cute little girls only be cute little girls?'
I giggled. "I am pretty cute, but I'm no longer a little girl. I am clearly a young woman by now."
"Is that right."
"I think after slaughtering hundreds without mercy in the span of an afternoon (essentially) I've earned the right to be called a young woman," I pointed out, perfectly reasonably.
Panther leaned over to me and pinched my right cheek. "You still have baby fat on your cheeks."
I gasped, instantly offended. "I do not!"
He pinched my other cheek. "Yeah. That is definitely baby fat, ergo: little girl."
I whined. "But I want to be an evil mastermind of overlord-y-ness."
"You can still be an evil mastermind of overlord-y-ness," Panther responded patiently. "You'll be a cute little girl who is also an evil mastermind of overlord-y-ness."
I whined again as Obito entered the room. My teammate gave me an odd look. "Are you in one of your strange moods again?"
At even the vaguest hint of puberty (the word moody) I was instantly filled with a roaring hot river of hatred and I snarled at Obito, "Come closer and say that again, little boy."
Obito yelped, his face pale, and he turned on his heel and fled the room.
Panther shook his head pityingly at where Obito once was before he commented, "You're almost as bad as Kushina was."
I hissed. "I suggest you stop talking right now before you find your eyes ripped out of your head and shoved up your urethra."
"Why am I under the vague impression that you actually know how to do that?" Panther mused.
"I will end you, old man."
"You can certainly try, moody little girl."
With a roar I lurched myself at the veteran ANBU with every intent of following up on my threat.
(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง
"Enjoy another week with your crutches," Panther purred as he dropped me back off in the hospital bed.
"I hope your dick literally rots off."
"I'm sure you do."
(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง
"This is so boring," I complained as Kakashi carried me through the forest to where our team was rebuilding the main base.
"Stop wasting your chakra so you can get better, then," Kakashi retorted, completely unsympathetic to my plight.
I had finally finished replacing the lost part of the Land of Fire's forest, and so I was finally able to properly rest, but I found doing so was dreadfully boring. I couldn't even expend chakra to help out with the fuinjutsu and security of the new base. I was basically dead weight at that point (not that I felt the least bit guilty about that. I did save their sorry asses and probably won us the war. They had to do some work).
The Hokage had ordered us to remain until relief could be provided. He mentioned that he was anxious for me to return to Konohagakure for a verbal debriefing, but he wasn't going to needlessly call me back. I had given Konoha a huge advantage to the war and he would be a damned fool to waste it. The enemy had to be terrified of me (at the very least the average shinobi - perhaps ANBU would be an exception; but, it wasn't like I had a way to physically confirm any of that. It was a guestimate based on basic human psychology and personal experience working as a kunoichi), and of entering the forest . Their fear would be quite problematic for the leaders to deal with, and the leaders were likely already scrambling to make up for such a devastating defeat I had delivered to them.
I was quite excited to see what the latest Bingo Book would have in store for me (I must have made it, right?).
I rested my head on top of Kakashi's head, sighing contently into his soft hair while I daydreamed about the possible moniker I would be given.
Kakashi adjusted his grip on me (I was riding him piggyback) and paused in his leaps between the trees. "Are you falling asleep again?"
"No," I said instantly. "Just daydreaming about my amazing title."
"I wouldn't get your hopes up," Kakashi warned. "People aren't very imaginative." He paused. "People don't have your imagination."
"You mean people don't normally dream about impaling thousands of humans to slowly drain their blood in order to paint white roses red?" I asked innocently.
"Oh is that what you were dreaming about? Forget what I said. Everyone has that dream," Kakashi deadpanned.
"I'm so glad."
"I remember when you used to be shy," Kakashi sighed. "Whatever happened to that sweet little-"
My arms tightened around his throat and I purred, "You weren't about to call me a little girl, were you?"
"Hurrk."
I relaxed my grip and Kakashi turned his head in order to glare at me. "Stop being so sensitive."
"Hmph. Shut up and keep carrying me, peasant."
My childhood friend shook his head in exasperation before we continued our short trip to the new base.
We were nearly done with its reconstruction. The priority was establishing all of the security seals which Panther and Tiger accomplished within the first seventy hours of construction (and I helped with, like, two before Panther scolded me for lying about how sensitive my tenketsus were). Obito and Kakashi were left for the carpentry portion. Using the wood I had set aside and an abundance of clones, my teammates rapidly set up watch points around the base. On the fourth day of construction Flamingo had become coherent enough to assist, although she still required frequent breaks.
I was impressed by her ability to remain professional despite being obviously traumatized. There were moments where I caught the young woman completely unawares, and she would startle easily. I suspected that when we all returned to Konoha she would be checked in for at least a month with the Yamanaka Rehabilitation. In spite of everything, though, the woman was adamant and proved incredibly helpful in reconstruction (she was a doton user and she reconstructed the main tunnels and assisted Tiger in applying the chakra-infused cement). Without her, I was confident that reconstruction would not have been progressing as quickly.
With the bare bones of the base essentially finished the only thing left was stock.
Most of the items would be sent over to the new base with the relief team, but some required careful foraging (medicinal herbs, for example).
Kakashi landed softly on the ground; I appreciated how he evenly distributed the weight of the land as not to disturb my tired body.
He lowered himself and I slid off him and shakily stood on my own two feet. Kakashi straightened his back and watched me tremble for several seconds. "You sure you don't need your crutches?"
"My armpits ache worse than my throat did after I got it cut open," I told him. "I am not using them."
My knees chose that moment to lose all strength and buckle.
Kakashi reflexively caught me before I fell to the floor. He slid his right arm around my waist and slung my own left arm over his shoulder. I blushed at the physical contact (ahhhhh! Stop it!), and steadily ignored my rapidly increasing heartbeat. Kakashi raised a single eyebrow. "You want me to carry you?"
With all the dignity my shaking body allowed me to muster I sniffed, "If you wish, but I demand to be carried like the princess I am."
My childhood friend chuckled, warm amusement entering his tired eyes. I cursed my hormones further, and hurried to suppress them. Kakashi swung me into his arms, carrying me bridal style into the new base.
Upon entering the front room Flamingo greeted us. "Good morning, comrades. Hime, are you feeling better?"
"Loads," I lied.
"She still can't walk," Kakashi bluntly answered.
I glared at him. "Traitor."
Flamingo laughed quietly. "There is no shame in relying on your comrades, hime. You have done much for us, and now you must rest that precious body of yours."
"Heaven forbid anything happen to Konoha's mokuton user," I grumbled.
"That, too," Flamingo agreed. "But much more than that, you and your teammates are our future. We fight to protect you, just as you fight to protect the next generation."
"The Will of Fire."
"The Will of Fire," Flamingo murmured.
A thoughtful silence settled between us before Flamingo clapped her hands together and said, "Take her to Panther and then you may join your other teammate with Tiger in infrastructure."
"Okay," Kakashi stated, carrying me towards the old bastard. "Are you going to behave for Panther, or is he going to have to knock you out again?"
I protested, "It's his fault! He's the one baiting me."
"You're the one giving in," Kakashi pointed out. "I don't care if you're bored out of your mind; you need to rest, not look for fights."
"But I love violence."
"I know," he soothed me, "and after you're all better we'll find some nice enemy nin for you to play with."
I beamed and kissed his cheek. "You know me so well."
We both ignored the fact that Kakashi's face turned a little red.
(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง
"I thought we were almost done with this base," I commented. I was leaning against a wooden wall in a large empty room three levels down in the base, clenching and relaxing my hands. My legs were stretched out in front of me, and I was immensely pleased that the tremors came significantly less frequently than they had any other day. Panther sat on the opposite side of the room at a makeshift table, drawing explosive tags.
The room was decently sized, but almost entirely barren, hence why we sat on the floor.
"Technically we have done what we need," Panther answered, "but we have time until our relief comes here and we have more than enough supplies to continue construction. This base was originally planned for renovation before the war hit, might as well do what we can now."
"Renovation for what? Seems plenty big for me."
"It didn't have enough holding cells," Panther responded, pausing in his seal drawing. "The Land of Fire has always had difficulties with missing-nin, bounty hunters, or bandits crossing into our borders. Typically we would kill them and move on, but recent history tells us that enemy villages will hide a high level nin amongst low-level bandits to surprise an unsuspecting Genin team. Some villages will even 'hire' out such expendable people in order to test our border patrols. With more holding cells we have the option of taking more alive for interrogation, and possibly rehabilitation into our own network."
"Basically we didn't have enough torture cells."
"Basically we did not have enough torture cells," Panther agreed.
I frowned at how my right leg jerked on its own. "I love violence as much as anyone, but is physical torture really that effective?"
Panther chuckled mirthlessly. "No. Physical torture is rarely used for garnering information. People tend to say anything in order to make the pain stop. It's why the information is typically left for our spies, or Interrogation Specialists. We use torture for reconditioning, usually."
That was new information. Konoha didn't typically advertise what it did with torture. Hell, talking about torture anywhere outside the battlefield was heavily frowned upon, so it wasn't like I could ask about it.
"Reconditioning for what? I wasn't aware that I worked with previous enemy nin."
"Reconditioning so they are docile for our scientists. We can't make medical advancement, test new ninjutsus, genjutsus, or even fūinjutsus without live subjects. However, most of our researchers are not shinobi or kunoichi themselves so any subjects we bring to them have to be compliant."
Grotesque.
"Practical," I responded.
"Mn."
"So you said reconditioning was what we used torture for usually. Do we officially use it for anything else?"
"Aside from emergency information extraction?" Panther inquired, a slight hesitation in his brush strokes. "Officially, no. Unofficially, yes. I'm sure you've seen your fair share of ravished bodies."
My mind immediately reflected upon the worst I had seen during the war. The results of monsters. "Yes."
"Some shinobi, and kunoichi, prefer torture as a means of vengeance," Panther murmured quietly. "By performing brutal acts on who they believe are close to their enemies, or may in any way affect their enemies, they feel like they have regained some semblance of control. Or they are naturally sadistic and genuinely enjoy hurting others, competing with those around them to see who can be the nastiest. As much as our reputation holds us as the friendliest of all the villages, our forces are not immune to such acts. We certainly have our fair share of monsters in the ranks."
My lips pursed, and my left hand drifted up to idly play with the curls in my hair. The term monster made me reflect on my first real encounter with one. I wondered, then, if perhaps the others viewed me in the same light. "Like me?"
"I wouldn't call you a monster," Panther said gently. His words, for some reason, made me feel at ease. "All you have known is war, and as consequence all your actions and beliefs are tied to that. No one could reasonably expect you to be any different, when you have never been given the chance to act different."
"Then what's a monster to you?"
"A beast who craves war during peace."
"What about someone who starts a war for peace?"
"He would be a stupid monster, then."
I mirthlessly chuckled.
(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง
An odd kind of silence fell upon us for a while after that, neither uncomfortable nor companionable. My mind flickered back and forth between a variety of unpleasant memories. Each corpse I had come across in the war was burned in my mind. For the most part I distanced myself from what I saw-detached myself like Madara taught me to do-but it was difficult on some days.
Some days, no matter how hard I tried to repress, or remain apathetic, I simply could not.
One of such days, was the day I came to face to face with my first monster.
I remembered finding a string of young boys, no older than Obito, bound and naked. I had been alone when I found them, scouting for Madara one night. I was meant to kill a man and steal a valuable fūinjutsu scroll Madara wanted.
The target had created a bunker in the middle of nowhere to hide out.
I did not realize it was because he was a monster.
If I knew what I was getting into, that night, I would have prepared more.
I had gone into his eerie bunker, expecting a titular battle.
Unfortunately that had not been the case.
Instead, I found my target in a vulnerable position with one of those poor boys.
My rage was too swift and powerful to control at that moment. I snapped his knees and elbows immediately after paralyzingly him with a jab to his spine.
I did not end his life right away.
I patched up the traumatized child as best I could, my hands quivering all the while and my stomach churning. His own knees had been disfigured to the point where he would likely never be able to walk again, and one of his eyes hung loosely down his cheek. In spite of the horror he had gone through, and the pain he was in, he was adamant I rescued the others before I finished tending to him.
I tried to.
It seemed when my target had had his way with them he would castrate them via glass tubes, and leave them to either starve to death, die of blood loss, or pass away due to infection.
He had kidnapped no less than twenty six boys.
Thirteen were already dead when I arrived.
Five ate their nearby corpses, and had become too deranged to be allowed back into society.
Three passed away soon afterward my arrival due to severe exhaustion, blood loss, and infection, and my own lack of first aid skills.
Two begged me to kill them.
One was catatonic.
And the last one had yet to face the torturer.
I was in disbelief.
I was in anger.
I was in despair.
I was...
Twenty six missing boys. And not one person searched for them
Why? I had asked Madara.
War, he had answered.
Each of those boys disappeared around battlefields and marked as dead. No one believed civilian children would survive being caught in between two warring shinobi sides. No one thought it was worth risking their own lives to search for their bodies. If they survived, they would have come home, people would say.
Monsters thrive on war, Madara told me. No one suspects them. They take what they see at face value and never look underneath.
Does that mean they are more like this scum?
Many more.
Out of those twenty six boys, I could only save three.
It was one of the single worst memories of my life, and one of the most important. I had taken that monster back to my master, and I had begged Madara to show me the ways to hurt men.
I could not bring those boys back to life, nor could I undo the horror they had faced.
But I could bring them vengeance.
I could be their fangs, and claws when no one else would.
After all, it was these boys, these children, those wives, husbands, fathers, daughters, sons, mothers-they were my motivation. They were the reason I would be that foolish monster who would start a war for peace.
The world we lived in was unacceptable.
For their sake, no matter what, I would create a utopia.
My eyes drifted closed.
I will be the last monster standing in this world.
At. Any. Cost.
(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง
There was pressure in my lap, and on the top of my head.
My neck and back ached as I slowly came back to the waking world. I instantly cursed myself upon realizing that I had fallen asleep while Panther was working on the explosive seals. Being relatively alone and left to my thoughts made it undesirable to stay in the waking world.
Not that what I dreamed about had been all that pleasant, either. Thinking about what happened to those boys made me dream about all of the horrors I had seen throughout the war, and every monster I encountered then after. I had Zetsu scout out for all individuals who went missing (and declared dead) around large battlegrounds. For the most part they had indeed perished from being caught in the crossfire, and their bodies only had to be returned to their families; but, every now and then Zetsu would find another monster.
When he did, I hunted that night.
I received plenty of practice in the ways of making men and women scream and writhe underneath me.
Even when they would beg and beg for death, my hatred would not abate enough until the last drop of sanity left their eyes; when they could no longer understand how much pain they were in.
I saved lives.
But only handfuls.
I avenged hundreds more.
Why bother at this point? Madara asked me once, genuine curiosity in his voice. All of these horrors will be corrected once we accomplish our goal.
I don't know, I had answered.
He did not ask me to stop, nor discourage me from my hunts. He understood, even when I did not. Madara would always understand me.
My fingers twitched, and I blinked away the last of the remnant of memories I dreamed about. My gaze swung down into my lap where I found a passed out Obito, his entire form utterly at ease. I realized, then, that Obito was not the only one who had taken a nap with me, and I turned my head to the right to find that I had been resting on Kakashi's shoulder, and he had been resting on my head. When I had moved my head, Kakashi's head dropped down to my shoulder, a muffled snore escaping him.
We each had a blanket around us.
I glanced around the room, my eyes settling on Tiger, who was laying on his stomach, legs up in the air, while reading from a scroll. His golden brown hair gleamed in the candlelight (the only light source in the room) and when he noticed me, he lifted his head up to show me his heavily cracked ANBU mask.
He signed, Awake?
Yes, I responded. TIme?
You - ten hours. Silver - seven hours. Black - six hours.
A quiet sigh came from me. No wonder I'm so stiff.
Tiger seemed to sense my mild irritation because his shoulders shook with repressed laughter. I awarded him the finger, which only made his shoulders quake harder.
"Mn?" Kakashi stirred to my right, moving his head and tickling me with his hair. I held my breath to fight back a sneeze, my body tensing. "Naa...?"
My left hand reached over, and I gently placed my index finger on his lips before quietly motioning towards the sleeping Obito.
Kakashi looked down at the peaceful Uchiha before his right hand reached over and pinched Obito's nostrils close.
Obito let out a strangled gasp, his eyes shooting open as he spasmed out of my lap. "What the hell?!"
Kakashi smirked at him. "You were asleep."
"So were you!" Obito snapped. "I didn't wake you up, why did you wake me up?"
Tiger laughed loudly. "It's probably for the best. The relief should be arriving here in a couple of hours."
"I was having such a nice dream, too," Obito whined. "Oni-hime was actually a nice person!"
"I can be nice," I defended. "I let you sleep in my lap, didn't I? Kakashi was the one who woke you. I was going to let you sleep as long as you wanted."
Obito pursed his lips, a thoughtful expression on his face. "That's true. Nice cute girls always let the hero sleep in their lap after a long day."
"Hero?" Kakashi asked dubiously.
"I am pretty cute," I agreed. "Thank you for noticing."
Obito grinned cheerfully. "You can count on me, hime! I always notice cute girls."
"I guess every team has a pervert," Kakashi muttered.
Obito squawked with indignation while TIger nodded his head. "Yeah. I was the pervert on my team, believe it or not."
"I believe it," Kakashi assured him.
"I am not the pervert! I haven't even gone on a date before!"
"I'm not surprised," Kakashi said.
"You haven't, either!"
"By choice, though," he said, another smirk on his face. "You haven't gone on a date because no one would go out with you."
Obito's face turned a bright red, and I knew that the pissing contest was about to start up again.
"I have to go pee," I gracefully interrupted. "Someone carry me outside, please and thank you."
"Allow me, hime," Tiger snickered.
"I was hoping to prevent a pissing contest by having one of my teammates help me."
"I know. But I'm bored, and there's nothing quite like watching two adolescents try to kill each other."
"You're one of those perverts, aren't you."
Tiger flickered over to me, and shushined us out of the base. He rapped the top of my head, and sweetly said, "I've missed six months of my soaps. You take this away from me and you'll be keeping those crutches for six months."
"I hope all your favorite characters die," I snapped grumpily.
"Savage."
(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง
FIller chapters are nice for character development. I've wanted to write about one of Naasica's self-appointed vengeance missions for a while, but I kept getting side-tracked, and then I realized that if I did that mission I would likely be writing out a torture scene and I dunno if I want to do that or not.
Answer: *Sheepishly mutters* Amnesia...
Question: Most surprising plot twist? If you don't want to spoil it, then give me the name of the book / anime / game / etc.
Reviews are love!
Finals time for me and the beta, I believe, so edits are gonna be slow. If you see any big issues, let me know!
Oni Kodama means Tree Spirit Demon / Demon of the Trees / Demonic Spirit of the Trees (depending on how the kanji is spelled).