Samurai are warriors bred like no other, brutish beasts in comparison to shinobi, power shelled in steel. There is no focus on ninja arts ; genjutsu and ninjutsu were treated as nothing but silly tricks. Hand seals proved useless in the face of iaido. Shuriken, kunai, poison, smoke bombs, and explosive tags had next to no effect on a samurai's armor, even when wielded by the most skilled shinobi. A balance of physical and spiritual, samurai are a force to be reckoned with.
Hanae was not the most skilled of samurai in her family. Tadou and Tatsui Umu were both respected taisho, helmets adorned with horns and four swords welded to their haidate. Like father like son they both excelled in pure strength and military might. They were the ones to rush into battle headlong, to crush an enemy before they could make their move. They embodied brawn in every sense of the word.
Standing at 5-feet-7-inches Hanae had an adequate reach and strength behind her swing. She excelled in speed and stamina, and was often the one relied upon for knowledge of triage and treatment. But she had another skill, one not learned or passed through blood. A natural skill heightened in few.
Zanshin - a samurai's ability to sense danger. Unlike a sensor type shinobi, zanshin is not an ability to sense chakra. It does not utilize emotion, does not create a physical image of chakra signatures, and does not allow an enemy to be identified. In fact, zanshin had nothing to do with chakra at all. Zanshin was a feeling ; a shift in the wind, electricity coursing through veins, a vice around the heart, the sinking feeling of dread in the pit of a samurai's stomach. It was a sensation that could not be ignored.
And try as she might, Hanae could not push the lump out of her throat today. It had begun the night before, bile swelling beneath her tongue whilst preparing dinner. Sweaty fingertips caused her to drop her chopsticks twice before the twisting in her abdomen chased her appetite away. Her skin erupted into goosebumps despite the steaming bathwater enveloping her up to the collarbones.
The morning fared no differently. Upon waking her heart galloped and forced the woman onto her knees. She clutched at shivering shoulders and fought the alarm clock for silence. Something was trying to warn her, anxiety screaming through her body. Even Hikoboshi seemed to sense it. He screeched upon being summoned, great wings thundering against the still air. Hanae tried to calm the owl, and eventually succeeded through face pats and kisses. But she still took precaution. Yuki no Michi, the wakizashi that had rested untouched above her bed, was secured across the small of her back before the Land of Iron natives embarked on their Tuesday routine.
The water of Konoha's sole river flowed smoothly as ever. Fish lazed downstream and deer drank from the banks. Birds hopped through the branches and sang their morning calls. Nature continued on as usual without a care in the world.
So why had she been so apprehensive? There was no reason. Everything was so peaceful, so natural, so familiar. Still, the unease persisted. Even as she busied herself with unearthing Japanese sweet potatoes, the woman could not shake the dread muddling her mind.
It all happened so fast.
A shock ran down her spine as a shrill keen filled the air. Without a moment to think, Hanae unsheathed her blade and launched a blue crescent from the chakra shrouded blade straight at Hikoboshi. The owl took flight with a ghastly scream just as an ear numbing explosion launched debris from the village. Over the wall surrounding the village he was safe from the chunks of stone that rained over the farmlands.
A piece of what must have been a home struck Hanae's left side. It threw her back against the white painted fence and came to a stop in the soft dirt. Her arm was pinned between the wood and rock, limb snapped and contorted into an unnatural angle. She howled in agony, retching onto the ground between her legs as shock shook her body. More explosions sounded in the distance. The ground trembled, shifting the shattered bone.
She pushed against the stone and dropped her head back to assess the damage. Her forearm bent in the middle, back of her wrist brushing against the point of her elbow. The sight brought another wave of dry heaves.
Hikoboshi was upon her moments later. Forced to flee from his master's attack, he had been saved from the aerial assault that pelted the ground with pieces of the village. He grasped the debris as gingerly as a bird could before hauling it out of the ground. Hanae shrieked as her destroyed arm smacked against the ground, but the pain was soon thrust out of her mind when pillars of smoke erupted into the sky. She climbed onto his back with gritted teeth and only when they were in the air could she take it all in.
Konoha was under attack. Inky black plumes stretched into the sky, weaving between fallen buildings. Those still standing had been gutted, gaps in their structures threatening collapse with each passing second. After a moment, the screaming began. Cries of terror, of pain and of anguish, echoed through the disfigured landscape. They were already so loud and only crescendoed as Hanae rushed into the city.
The hospital still stood and this is where Hikoboshi flew, disappearing as soon as Hanae set foot on the cracked stone roof. Her nerves were a mess and her chakra suffered greatly from it. She couldn't keep the summoning up, but that didn't matter now. Shaky feet carried her down into the building.
Every floor had become a triage center. Villagers of every age and gender lay in different states. Some groaned, some screamed. Most were bloodied and some were in utter disrepair, twisted and missing limbs, and hemorrhaging abound. Few lay motionless, their help coming too late. A nurse barely out of her teens rushed to Hanae's side and gingerly took her arm. Green chakra enveloped the twisted limb but Hanae wrenched from her grasp.
"No, don't waste that on me! Save your chakra for the more seriously injured, just set the bone and I'll be fine!" She didn't mean to snap at the girl but her blown pupils spoke volumes to the pain she was in.
The nurse nodded and left Hanae leaning against a support pillar. She was replaced by two men dressed in similar white smocks, the smaller of the two carrying thick wrappings and a wooden dowel. Hanae took the dowel without a word and shoved it between her teeth. The larger of the men grasped her dangled wrist, glancing at her with a knowing look. She responded with a stony stare of her own and braced her body around the pillar, sliding her eyes closed in anticipation.
"Three!" The bull of a man yelled, skipping one and two. The mangled arm was forced straight with a mighty pull. Hanae howled as he manipulated the bone under bruised skin, ulna and radius finally lining up with a wet crunch. The smaller man took action and fervently wrapped the crudely corrected limb. She was blinded by the pressure throbbing in her arm, nearly snapping the dowel in two with the force of her bite.
The woman collapsed as soon as the process was over, pressing her forehead against the cold stone support for even a nuance of relief. She realized she could still move her fingers and that served as relief enough. She rose to her feet, grasping at the shirt of the smaller man, the two still abuzz with concern and panic.
"Get me a saline IV and someone leading the rescue," she panted. Her glare silenced the two and sent them off to meet her requests. Alone, she focused her breathing. Inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth. Her heart rate had slowed somewhat by the time the bullish nurse returned. He inserted the thick needle of the IV into her inner elbow as the walked towards the center of the room.
A man with a stern expression stood watching over everything. He stared at Hanae suspiciously as she approached, her taking the saline bag from the nurse and squeezing it in a regular pace. "What?" His tone was short, angry, and he was most likely panicked on the inside.
"Let me help with rescuing the trapped villagers." she matched his tone through pain gritted teeth.
The man quirked a brow, "who the hell are you? What do you think you can do with an arm like that?"
"My name is Hanae Umu. I'm a samurai from the Land of Iron. I can help -" Her words were cut off by gasps stemming from the people around her.
They all spoke at once. "The Land of Iron?" "A samurai? Those barbarians?" "This has to be the Land of Iron's doing. . . ." "Yes, they have to be the ones! Samurai hate shinobi!" "They were sent to destroy the village!" "She's going to kill us!" A cacophony of panic exploded in the room, but she did not feel angry.
Their words hurt, yes, and the fact that there was so much distrust and misunderstanding directed towards her people made anger boil in the pit of her stomach. But Hanae knew they were scared. They were innocent people caught in the middle of a terrorist attack. Their friends, families, and people they knew were being slaughtered by the hundreds. And she grieved their loses with them, for Konoha was her home as well. But that didn't matter right now.
"I can help!" Hanae snapped, silencing the murmurs. "I can use my summon to bring people to the hospital!"
"And how do we know this isn't just a ruse to kill the ones still out there?!" The disgruntled man screamed back, He grabbed at her shirt and nearly pulled her off her feet. "How do we know you're not part of the assault on our village?!"
"Because this is my village too!" Hanae spat. Tears began to fall down her cheeks. "I've been living here for two years! Konoha is my home and I'll be fucking damned if I let another minute go by without doing something for the people living here with me! For the children who can't even understand what is happening! And if you still don't trust me, I'll turn myself in after all of this is over and let you do whatever you want! But every second you waste interrogating me now is another second wasted and another life lost!"
Still caught in his grasp Hanae stared the man deep in the eyes. Tears pelted his fist closed around her collar. Ensnared by silence, he relented and set her down, turning his head towards the stairs she had stumbled down.
"Fine," he muttered angrily. "But the moment this is all over, I'm turning you into Ibiki myself."
Riding on the emotions of his silent threat, Hanae rushed back out onto the roof. The shock had mostly resided and her hand moved enough to be able to resummon Hikoboshi. He was still panicked, heart shaped crest around his face amplifying every bone-jarring burst. She grabbed his face with her uninjured arm, pressing her lips to his beak. She thanked God that out of all the birds she could've learned to summon she had been bestowed with a barn owl, a bird with unparalleled hearing.
"My Hiko-Hiko. I need your help. We need to help the people trapped. Listen for their heartbeats and dig them out. Then we can get them to safety."
He blinked slowly as if in understanding and stooped low to let her on. With a strong downward shove, they were propelled above the chaos, bodies heavy with grief as they set off to help the few still clinging onto to hope.