Chapter Text
Chapter 52 The Forest Scrolls
THE NEXT DAY
THE LAND OF STONE
IWAGAKURE
JUST OUTSIDE OF THE TSUCHIKAGE’S BUILDING
THIRD PERSON POV
Mariko hums as she stares down at the waiver in her hands, all the Genin taking the Chunin Exams needed to sign it in order to move onto the next part of the exams, which were apparently taking place in Iwa’s version of The Forest Of Death, theirs was called The Forest Of Demons. The waiver was merely to keep Iwa out of trouble if any of the Genin died or were otherwise injured, which seemed reasonable.
“Should we really sign these…? I mean you're a Kage Mariko - if you die out there then Uzushio won’t have a leader and also you're the Gods Champion, you dying would just piss them off and also should they really be putting us in such deadly situations?” asks Hanako, staring down at her own waiver with skepticism.
“Well I don’t think the gods will let me die and these waivers make sense, this part of the test is for our survival skills, if it wasn’t dangerous it wouldn’t be practical,” says Mariko, shrugging.
“Huh…I guess that makes sense,” says Hanako.
“But anyway what do you think dad? Should we sign them?” asks Mariko, turning towards her father.
“Well Kurama thinks it’s a bad idea but I would sign them - we don’t want to start a war if any of you die out there, which you won’t, I have full confidence that you’ll both survive and do amazingly,” says Minato.
“Thank you…that makes me feel better about this,” says Hanako.
“Of course,” says Minato, smiling as the girls sign their waivers.
“So why do you think they call it ‘The Forest Of Demons’?” asks Umi from her perch up in a tree. Looking up at her Sensei Mariko can’t help but chuckle internally, both her teacher and Kakashi had a particular liking for sitting up in trees, it was honestly very amusing.
“I think I can answer your query, Umi,” says a female voice from behind them.
All of them yelp in fright, Umi nearly falling off of her branch as the Shinobi on the ground draw kunai and spin around. Standing behind them looking very pleased with herself is Lady Izanami, her hands folded in front of her and a pleasant smile on her face.
“Sweet Jesus Lady Izanami! Why!? Could you not just show up like a normal person!?!?” asks Mariko, placing a hand over her racing heart as they all lower their weapons.
“Oh no, watching you all jump is far too fun to do that. Also don’t you have other gods to invoke - like your Patron?” asks Izanami, her eyes gleaming with amusem*nt.
“Oh yeah right - sorry,” says Mariko, blushing in embarrassment
“Oh it’s fine honey, old habits die hard after all and Susanoo finds it funny every time you invoke the name of someone who does not exist here,” says Izanami, waving a dismissive hand.
“But uh…what are you doing here if I may ask?” asks Minato, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh well I came to wish you girls good luck - and to give you these,” says Izanami and from an inner pocket in the dark violet Kimono she was wearing the goddess pulls out two small perfectly circular purple gems, offering them to Hanako and Mariko.
“What are these Izanami-Sama?” asks Hanako as she and Mariko take the gems.
“Their totems of mine - you see the Forest Of Demons is highly dangerous, even for fully grown Shinobi let alone Genin. These gems are totems so that while you're in there you’ll have some protection. Just smash the gem and it will summon one of my personal Shadow Soldiers to protect you,” says Izanami.
“So basically you're playing favorites and giving us an extra boost with undead knights?” asks Mariko, looking down at the gem in her hand.
“This seems like cheating…that seems kind of unfair to everybody else…and also wrong…,” says Hanako, frowning a bit before realizing what she had just said to a literal goddess.
“Not that we’re not grateful of course my Lady! We mean no disrespect and are not trying to deny your gifts what-so-ever!” says Hanako, waving her hands desperately as her face turns bright red. All Izanami does however is laugh for a moment before moving to speak herself.
“It’s alright Hanako - you're showing no disrespect. And my soldiers are not undead Mariko, their immortals. My Shadow Soldiers are a group of twelve gods I created when I first journeyed into the Underworld - their my protectors and are gods of Demon Hunting - while I used my power to run the Underworld and at first bring it structure my Shadow Soldiers protected me from the Demons lurking in the depths of the Underworld. Now they will protect you if you need them too. And also you're our Champion Mariko, we’re allowed to play favorites with you, besides, we’re gods so we can do whatever we want and I want to help you two succeed so it’s not cheating either,” says Izanami.
“Oh…well uh…okay then,” says Mariko as she and Hanako pocket the totems.
“Uh I have a question,” says Umi, jumping down from her tree branch and raising her hand like she was in a classroom.
“Yes Umi,” says Izanmi, nodding to the Jonin.
“Why is The Forest Of Demons so dangerous? What’s in there that you want to give the girl’s totems to summon one of your personal bodyguards?” asks Umi, frowning as she crosses her arms.
She did not like her girls going into such a dangerous place without her there to protect them.
She didn’t like it one bit.
She could not lose another student. She just couldn’t.
“Well you see the Forest Of Demons is a unique place, it sits just above a rift between the world of the living and the world of the dead. And this rift is something I can not close for the life of me, no matter how hard I try. This rift also floats right near Hell most of the time, meaning Demons will often try to escape through the rift and attack anyone stupid enough to enter the forest. The rift is unable to be seen by Human eyes, even Dojutsu or the Uzuamki’s Mind's Eye cannot see it so Demons often just suddenly appear to humans in the forest. Izanagi and I helped the ancient people of this land build a wall around the forest covered in seals that will keep the Demons from leaving the trees at least but I’m not risking either of you girls getting killed out there if I can give you an extra bit of help surviving,” says Izanami, frowning and crossing her own arms. Clearly she didn’t like talking about The Forest Of Demons very much.
“Well damn - I should really talk to Onoki about stopping Genin from going in there after this year when Iwa hosts the Exams. If it’s that deadly then children shouldn’t be going in there alone,” says Minato, frowning.
He really didn’t want Mariko going in there now but she’d already signed the damn waiver and Izanami was giving both girl’s a safety blanket with those totems…
“Yes please do that - too many souls of scared children have entered my realm far too early because of that forest,” says Izanami, her eyes turning sad.
“Oh hello Lady Izanami, what are you doing here?” asks Kushina’s voice. The group looks over to see Kushina and Tsunade approaching them. Kushina looked completely calm in seeing the goddess but Tsunade looked more than a little surprised to be meeting a divine being.
“Oh just wishing the girl’s good luck before their test - The Forest Of Demons is a rather dangerous place,” says Izanami.
“Well thank you for that - I’m sure the extra encouragement is well appreciated,” says Kushina.
“Hey mom,” says Mariko, jogging over to Kushina and hugging her. The older woman laughs and hugs her daughter back.
“Hey kiddo - I just wanted to come and wish you luck for the test - you’ll do amazing out there, both of you will, just stay close to Hanako okay?” asks Kushina as she moves to hold Mariko by her shoulders at an arm’s length away.
“Yeah mom I know,” says Mariko, smiling.
“Good, love you sweetie,” says Kushina, taking a moment to peck Mariko on the top of her head.
“Love you too mom,” says Mariko, chuckling slightly.
A BIT LATER THAT DAY
THE LAND OF STONE
IWAGAKURE
JUST OUTSIDE OF THE FOREST OF DEMONS
THIRD PERSON POV
Mariko stands next to Hanako as their test proctor appears before them in a puff of smoke. Their proctor is a short brown haired Iwa Shinobi with green eyes and tanned skin. She has a scar slashing across her face and she looks very serious in her Shinobi Uniform. In her hands she’s holding a bunch of scrolls - the scrolls Mariko knows are for their test. Behind her lay the forest of demons, Mariko could barely see tree leaves poking over the top of the tall wall. It was made of gray stone and carved into the wall were a bunch of seals, most of them Mariko couldn’t quite understand but she recognized a few different kinds of containment seals and shield seals. And even though Mariko knew the other students couldn’t sense it even now she could feel Izanami and Izanagi’s chakra interwoven into the stone so heavily that it was almost suffocating to her senses, even several thousands of years after the seals were placed.
All eighteen teams of Genin were standing before her, all carrying packs to last them the five days of this testing round and looking a bit nervous. Nearby Mariko could see the Tani Trio out of the corner of her eye, Suzume was fiddling with her braids nervously and Kai was twirling a kunai between his hands. The only one of them who looked calm was Daiki, one of his aunt’s BlueJays was sitting on his shoulder and was most likely there just to watch him for Kasumi’s sense of mental security. On Mariko’s other side off to the right she could see Chisuke actually standing with her teammates, however where the other two looked scared the white haired girl held an expression that Mariko could really only describe as bored. She looked the same as when Mariko had last seen her, the only difference was that now draped over her shoulders was a cape style cloak with a lowered hood and the Akatsuki clouds on it, most likely for warmth.
“Alright Genin! Welcome to the second trial of your Chunin Exams. I am your Proctor Anko Nagasaki. This second stage as you know is being held in The Forest Of Demons behind us. In a moment each of your teams will either be given a Sky Scroll an Earth Scroll before you are to enter the forest. You will then have five days for your entire team to reach the building in the center of the forest with one of each scroll in your possession. How you will acquire the other scroll is up to you and any method goes out in the forest. Because of the natural hazards of the forest, the absence of services or outside assistance from anyone in Iwagakure or visiting our village, and the likely conflict with other teams, you all were made to sign liability waivers before entering to release Iwagakure from responsibility for any injuries or deaths that may occur. If your team manages to royally screw up and somehow loses your starting scroll you have no reason to fear as you are not automatically disqualified. You, in fact, may use the remaining time to acquire another copy of the scroll you have lost. By the same extension, acquiring both scrolls does not guarantee completion of the second stage, as you still have to reach the center building in time. I want to make it clear to you all that ALL GENIN, including the children, relatives and personal students of Kage that we have competing this year, are forbidden from opening either scroll until you have reached the central building. If you follow this instruction, the scroll willsummona higher-ranked ninja to grant you your well earned advancement to the next stage. If you don’t follow this instruction, the ninja will render you, your teammates and everyone else in the area unconscious for the duration of the second stage and you will fail. Is everyone clear on the rules?” asks Anko, looking at them all sternly.
When all of the Genin nod Anko smiles slightly and begins handing out the scrolls, when she gets to Mariko and Hanako however she pauses.
“Huh - usually teams come in threes - where’s your third member?” asks Anko, tilting her head to the side in a curious manner.
“Um…he’s…” begins Hanako, frowning.
“Dead - killed by enemy ninja - that’s all you need to know,” says Mariko, taking the offered Sky Scroll from the Iwa Kunoichi. Anko frowns slightly but nods and moves on.
When she’s finished handing out the scrolls Anko moves back to standing before the Genin.
“Alright kids - I have one last thing to say to you before you go. Good luck, may the gods have mercy on your young souls and may the odds forever be in your favor,” says Anko.
“Now BEGIN!”
The gates to The Forest Of Demons then swing open with a powerful gust of wind and all the Genin rush forward. Mariko grabs Hanako by the hand and yanks her forward, quickly jumping up into the trees and jumping from branch to branch away from any of the other Genin Teams. Mariko and Hanako drop down and into a clearing and Hanako moves to lean on a tree.
“So which scroll do we have?” asks Hanako.
“The Sky Scroll - meaning we need an Earth one,” says Mariko.
“So, think we should trade or steal it?” asks Hanako.
“Steal it, I could get one of my foxes to help us out with that, it might be better to avoid an all out confrontation with another team. Besides I want to get this over with as soon as possible - I don’t want to be in this forest longer than necessary,” says Mariko.
“Definitely not… …Do you think we’ll encounter a Demon?” asks Hanako, looking a bit nervous.
“I hope not - but given my sh*ty luck we might,” says Mariko, frowning.
“Well then let’s pray it’s a weak one,” says Hanako.
“Amen to that,” says Mariko, nodding.
Suddenly the bushes near them begin to rustle and Mariko in a reaction as quick as the lightning she can wield stretches out a hand. Golden Adamantine Chains shoot from the ground, wrapping tight around the Shinobi trying to sneak up on them. The chains shift, dragging the tree Genin out into view. However Mariko laughs a bit as she finds the Tani Trio, looking rather sheepish, caught in her chains and being held several feet up in the air.
“Hey guys…” says Daiki, chuckling.
“Could you maybe put us down Mariko - please?” asks Suzume as the Earth Scroll their team had been given falls from her hand.
“Haha yeah sure - sorry about that I thought you guys were enemies,” says Mariko as her chains loosen and gently drop the Tani Trio onto the grass.
“Oh it’s okay,” says Kai as he hands Suzume back their scroll.
“So, what do you guys want? A trade?” asks Hanako, eyeing the Earth Scroll Suzume holds close to her chest.
“No actually. We came to propose an alliance. We work well together and it would be advantageous for us to help eachother advance to the last round of the exams,” says Daiki.
“Oh well I’m good with working with you guys - Hana thoughts?” asks Mariko, looking over to her teammates.
“Oh yeah we can work with them. Like Daiki said - it’ll be advantageous for all of us,” says Hanako, nodding in agreement.
“So which scroll did you guys get?” asks Kai.
“A Sky Scroll,” says Mariko, holding up her scroll.
“Ours is Earth, meaning we need one of each,” says Suzume.
“Well that seems manageable - we were planning to steal what we needed. Mariko said her Kitsune would be able to help,” says Hanako.
“Yeah stealing was pretty much our plan too,” says Kai.
“Well alright then - we should go searching for another team for a while before we make camp for the night,” says Mariko before she begins leading her friends out of their clearing.
“Oh and stay close to us - this forest literally has an invisible rift in it that Demons from Hell crawl out of - according to Izanami she can’t close it so she just keeps the Demons in the forest with all the seals on the outer wall,” says Hanako, her voice a tad too cheerful for the topic she had brought up.
“Oh so that’s why it’s called The Forest Of Demons! Freaky,” says Suzume.
“More like terrifying. If we can’t see the rift how are we supposed to see the Demons coming?” asks Kai, looking nervous as he draws his sword from its scabbard.
“We don’t. We just need to stay alert. But don’t worry, Lady Izanami gave me and Hanako these,” says Mariko, holding up her totem to show her Tanigakure friends. Once they’ve seen it she pockets it again.
“What was that thing?” asks Daiki.
“A totem, if me and Hanako smash them on the ground they’ll each summon one of Izanami’s twelve Shadow Soldiers - their the gods of Demon Hunting and have been ordered to protect us when summoned,” says Mariko.
“Well damn. We didn’t get any fancy totems, sounds like the goddess of the dead is playing favorites,” says Kai, frowning a bit.
“Well I am special to the gods - I get special treatment because of that. It’s an advantage that by working with us you're also getting,” says Mariko, smirking as she looks back at the others.
“Fair enough,” says Kai, shrugging.
“Well - it’s reassuring at least to know we can call on the Divine if absolutely necessary,” says Suzume, smiling cheerily.
“Oh yeah totally - plus my chain technique will probably be able to trap any weaker Demons we come across,” says Mariko, nodding.
Mariko hums in thought, stopping in her tracks as her widened sense picks up on three chakra signatures nearby and heading towards them. Mariko swiftly hops up into the trees and taking the hint her friends follow her. A few minutes later one of the teams from Iwa appears in their sight line.
“I have an idea for dealing with them,” says Mariko, being sure to stay quiet so only her friends hear her as she eyes the leader of the group carrying their scroll.
Her friends nod and Mariko smirks. When the Iwa team is right under Mariko’s chakra chains shoot from the thick tree branches. Her chains wrap tight around the waists of the three Genin who scream in terror as they are yanked up into the trees. With ease Mariko flicks her wrist, having the chains pin the kids to the tree branches.
“Who the f*ck are you?” asks the lead Genin, a scruffy looking boy with black hair and brown eyes as Mariko stands above him, a fox-like grin on her face and her Uzushio headband being the only Ninja mark he can see on her.
“I’m the Uzukage - leader of the people of Uzushio and the girl who just chained you up,” says Mariko, chuckling as the boy’s mouth drops open in shock.
“They have a Kage competing in this!?” shouts one of his teammates, a dark haired and skinned girl with amber eyes.
“Yes they do and thank you for the scroll,” says Mariko, taking the scroll from the lead boy.
“Hey! Give that back!” protests the boy but Mariko just laughs.
“Nope!” says Mariko.
Looking it over she finds it to be a Sky Scroll which she promptly tosses over to Suzume who catches it easily and gives her a big grateful smile. Mariko and her friends then hop down from the trees and land nimbly on the ground.
“H-hey - aren’t you going to l-let us down!?” stammers the dark skinned girl.
“Oh you’ll be let down -- in an hour -- don’t worry!” calls Mariko up to them, cackling at the horrified looks on the faces of the three Iwa Genin.
Mariko then begins leading her friends away as the lead boy of the Iwa Team shouts insults at them. When he’s finally out of earshot Mariko turns around to face her friends as she walks backwards, confident they’ll warn her for tree roots and stuff.
“Man…that was way too easy,” says Suzume, laughing.
“Oh yeah totally,” says Mariko, feeling pretty proud of herself.
“That move with your chains was pretty cool,” says Kai.
“Thanks!” says Mariko, smiling even more.
“I have a feeling getting the next scroll is going to be harder though - this test can’t be that easy and we may end up having to fight another team,” says Daiki.
“Well at least we have the numbers advantage - plus as long as we avoid Chisuke I think we’ll be just fine,” says Mariko as she pushes a low hanging tree branch out of her way.
“Who’s Chisuke?” asks Hanako, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion.
“She’s the white haired girl from Ame - you know mean looking, cool tattoo, never smiles,” says Mariko.
“Oh her! - Yeah she seems scary,” says Suzume, shuddering a bit.
“Yeah I saw her the other day at the Tsuchikage Tower when I was with my dad. Her Chakra feels all angry and bleeds danger, plus she’s a personal student to Konan and that’s pretty bad for us if we had to fight her,” says Mariko.
“Who’s Konan?” asks Kai even as Hanako’s face pales, she knew exactly who Konan was and exactly why Chisuke being trained by her was such an important thing.
“Konan helps the Amekage run the Hidden Rain, she’s very smart and very powerful - so if she trained Chisuke then Chisuke is probably just under Konan’s level and that could be very bad for us if we face her,” says Mariko to which the Tani Trio share a concerned look.
“Couldn’t you take her Mariko? You're pretty strong,” says Suzume.
“I could but take her in a fight most likely I don’t know how she fights - but if I had to guess she fights to kill and I’d rather not deal with that,” says Mariko.
“Then it’s settled - we’re avoiding Chisuke and her team as best as we can,” says Daiki.
“Agreed,” chorus the rest of the group simultaneously.
THE NEXT DAY - AROUND THREE IN THE AFTERNOON
THE LAND OF STONE
IWAGAKURE
THE FOREST OF DEMONS
THIRD PERSON POV
Mariko hums as her group comes across another empty clearing, they hadn’t come across another one of the teams yet but Mariko had a feeling they would be running into someone soon. They had the rest of today and then four days left to get their last Earth Scroll and get to the center building otherwise they’d fail. Camping on the ground hadn’t exactly been comfortable but they had each taken a turn watching for threats while the others slept so it hadn’t been completely terrible and the night had been quiet and peaceful. Over their heads the sky was a cloudy gray - it was probably going to rain later.
Suddenly the sounds of screams reach their ears and they group tenses up. Next to Mariko, Kai draws his sword and Hanako’s eyes glow with the ruby red of the Sharringan. Papers begin floating around Suzume and Daiki draws a kunai in each hand.
“That was one of the other teams - they’re this way!” says Mariko, adrenaline rushing into her veins as she leads her group towards the screams.
The teens run through the woods, Mariko leading and they quickly come to a new clearing where a gruesome sight meets them. Blood stained the grassy ground and hovering over one of the teams from Kiri was a snarling black dog. It was the size of a bear with two sets of glowing red eyes, massive fangs and goat-like horns curling from its head just behind its ears. All three kids were absolutely ripped to shreds and looking at their torn and mutilated corpses made Mariko throw up a bit in her mouth.
Forcing the bile back down her throat Mariko sends out a quick prayer to the gods that the Demon Dog hadn’t heard or seen them coming. Slowly beginning to back up as quietly as possible Mariko keeps her eyes on the dog, next to her Kai and Suzume had both gone a deathly pale - faces terror stricken. Daiki looked like he was about to be sick and Hanako’s eyes were blown wide, tears pricking at the edges of her eyes as the horrifying images were burned into her brain thanks to her Dojutsu.
Suddenly the dog’s head jerks up from where it’s literally eating the insides of one of the dead Kiri children and it makes eye contact with Mariko. The dog and girls stare at each other for one silent, tense moment. Mariko can’t breathe, terror clutching at her heart. The dog snarls, Mariko yells out to her friends;
“RUN!!”
The kids immediately begin running as fast as their legs can carry them, hearts pounding and brains panicking as no coherent thoughts other than escaping filled their minds. Behind her Mariko can hear the sounds of crashing branches and leaves as the dog chases them. The beast howls a haunting noise that strikes even more terror into the teenagers.
“Suzu - send out a cloud to block its sight - we need to split up! It can’t chase all of us at once!” shouts Daiki, somehow managing to formulate a plan of action through his terror to which the others nod.
Paper files out from Suzume’s pouches, most of it shoots back towards the massive horned dog, spinning around it and causing the dog to howl in outraged confusion as it slows down. The rest of Suzume’s paper wraps around her, forming into bird-like wings. The Origami girl takes off into the sky as Hanako veers off to Mariko’s right, Kai and Daiki running off to the left.
Scrambling on Mariko screams in terror as she trips and falls over a tree root. Scrambling to her feet Mariko hisses in anger as she hears the dog begin chasing her again. Well, at least it wasn’t going after her friends. Idly the girl wondered if she should use her totem, was it too soon to call on Izanami’s guardian when they had multiple days of this forest left to deal with. She was honestly too scared to look back even as she could hear the beast getting closer to her.
Running into a clearing Mariko screams in pain as her foot is caught on a loose rock and she trips, landing wrong on the ground. A sick crack permeates the air and Mariko whimpers from the pain shooting up her leg - she’d definitely just hurt her ankle somehow. Overhead the sky was getting darker by the second and faint thunder rumbled. Looking back, eyes slightly bleary from the throbbing pain in her right ankle, the primal fear of death surges through Mariko as the Demon Dog looms over her.
It was so big…
The dog was snarling, saliva dripping from it’s massive fangs and it’s red eyes looked even more terrifying thanks to the lack of light from the darkening sky above
No no no!
She couldn’t die here!
There was too much she needed to do!
Tears begin welling up in Mariko’s eyes, fear felt like it was choking her.
The dog roars as one of its massive paws raises in the air.
She couldn’t move!
WHY COULDN”T SHE MOVE!
Her sight was getting blurry as tears rolled down her face.
Claws as big as Mariko’s forearm outstretched, the dog’s paw seemingly in slow motion began to descend towards Mariko’s chest to rip her open.
Oh.
This was how she was going to die.
Thunder rumbles above her.
The sky was black.
…
…
CRACK!!!!
…
…
The sky itself seems to split open as a massive lightning bolt arches down from the sky and strikes the Dog dead in its chest.
The beast stays still for a moment, paw frozen in mid air as electricity sparks over its body.
Mariko gasps, air wasn’t coming to her lungs properly, her fear still choking her.
The beast that loomed above her as a terrifying specter of death begins to smell of ash and burnt skin, the smell is sickening.
Mariko wants to throw up.
The beast looming above her turns to ash and is blown away by a strong gust of wind.
It begins to rain.
The rain is heavy and strong, washing away the smell of ash and burnt flesh and blood.
Mariko lays there on the ground for a minute, panting heavily and struggling to breath.
Oh gods…!
She’d almost died!
That thing had nearly killed her!
Mariko could feel her stomach churning as sickness swirled in her.
Pushing herself up the girl leans over and throws up, the remains of the breakfast she’d had that morning falling into the grass.
A Choked sob finally escapes Mariko’s lips as tears finally fall from her eyes. Crawling away from the spilled contents of her stomach another tight sob sounds as the heavy rain mixes with her tears.
She was scared…
Mariko wanted to go home…
She wanted to be with her mom and dad and siblings somewhere safe and warm…
Another sob escapes her lips and Mariko barely registers the shouts of her name from her friends as they search for her. The rain seems to get heavier as more sobs and tears fall and the noise is carried but a rushed wind to her friends.
She’d almost died.
“Mariko!!” shouts Kai, rushing into the clearing, the others weren’t far behind him.
Seeing her made him want to be sick.
He’d never seen someone look so defeated and small. Her ankle was twisted at a very wrong ankle and she was sobbing, tears rolling down her face that were almost indistinguishable from the heavy rain. Fear and sadness clutches at Kai as he runs over to her, seeing the lightning had been bad enough, this was almost worse. His only consolation was that she was still breathing.
“Mariko…Mariko… hey - hey - I’m here - can you hear me? It’s Kai. I’m here. I’ve got you,” says Kai in worry as he kneels next to Mariko. His hands move to cup her face and through the rain and her tears Mariko’s sky blue eyes connect with Kai’s.
“K-Kai…!” chokes Mariko, her face twisting from anguish to relief.
“Yeah Mariko - it’s me I’m here,” says Kai as the others enter the clearing.
“Oh gods,” murmurs Hanako, horror filling her as she looks towards her friend and the kneeling Suijin next to her. Hanako moves to go help Kai comfort Mariko but Daiki stops her. Placing a hand on Hanako’s shoulder and shaking his head. Hanako glares at the frowning boy but stays in her place as the three hover on the edge of the clearing to give Mariko the breathing room she needed.
Mariko lets out another sob as her arms go around Kai’s neck, holding him in a vice as she cries into his shoulder. Kai hugs her back, gently stroking her hair and muttering comforting words in her ear.
“I-it almost…I-I almost…” murmurs Mariko as slowly her crying begins to stop.
“Shh…shh - I know, I know, it’s okay I promise. You're safe, you're okay, everything’s gonna be okay,” says Kai, gently rocking Mariko back and forth in his arms and cursing internally at the beast that had scared her so much as he felt her shaking form in his embrace.
Slowly Mariko’s tears stop and she pulls away from Kai to look at him. Her eyes were red and puffy and she looked miserable, shaken and pained. The rain making her look like a drowned Cat really wasn’t helping matters either. Looking into Kai’s worried eyes Mariko manages a small ghost of a smile, just for him, him being here was already making things better.Mariko moves to lean back into him, hiding her face in the crook of his neck. Kai wraps his arms around her in a hug again and turns towards the other, motioning that it was okay for them to approach.
The other three run over and one of Hanako’s hands goes to squeeze one of Mariko’s shoulders.
“Mariko…the rest of us are here too…we’re okay,” says Hanako, being careful to keep her voice gentle and unworried even if she was terrified for her friend.
Suzume and Daiki also make sure Mariko knows they're there before Suzume, as the resident medical ninja, goes about checking on Mariko’s ankle. Frowning Suzume stares at it for a moment before speaking up.
“Okay it’s definitely dislocated - we need to get to a more secure place before I can reset it,” says Suzume.
Out from the tree line comes a rumbling shadow, the kids tense up in fright seeing that it’s a brown bear. However they soon relax a bit as the bear calmly sits down next to them, revealing the collar made of pearls around its neck. There was also a tag on its collar that read ‘Hercules’. Looking up from Kai’s shoulder Mariko looks over the bear that was just sitting before them calmly.
“I don’t think we need to be afraid - bears are Bishamonten’s sacred animals,” says Mariko quietly.
“What is Bishamonten the god of again?” asks Hanako, looking at the bear with fear.
“War - specifically the honorable parts of war,” says Mariko.
“What’s honorable about war?” asks Suzume in a hissing tone.
“The duels, fighting your opponent on equal ground and giving them a fair match - that’s the type of war Bishamonten represents - there’s also a god of slaughter and a god of strategy and I think a second deity of war but I’m not sure on that last one. But Bishamonten is known to be rather kind, especially towards children, despite what he represents as something rather unkind; he believes in battle with honor and not harming those weaker than you unless given a good reason too,” says Mariko.
“That’s um…reassuring,” says Kai.
The bear - Hercules - stares at them for a moment longer before getting up and beginning to walk away, at the edge of the clearing it pauses however, looking back at them as if expecting the children to follow him. Getting the hint the kids quickly stand up, Kai scooping Mariko up into his arms bridal style. The children begin following the bear through the forest as the rain pours.
“How do you feel?” asks Kai softly, looking down at Mariko with worried eyes.
“My leg hurts - I want to go home - I want to see my family - I want to be done with these Exams that slaughter children and traumatize the survivors - I feel terrible, But… having you guys with me makes it at least bearable to be here,” says Mariko, smiling ever so slightly up at Kai. The boy blushes but nods.
“Don’t worry Mariko - we’re here for you and you’ll be home before you know it,” says Kai.
“Ha! I hope,” says Mariko, leaning more into Kai’s shoulder as they continue on in their trek to wherever Hercules the bear was taking them. Hercules leads them into a clearing where the kids find a large cave waiting for them - inside Mariko can just make out through the rain the sight of a roaring fire and two figures waiting for them. On the wind she can smell something that seems like an Uzushio Stew but it’s hard to tell.
The bear looks at them for a moment once they enter the clearing before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
“Do we go in there?” asks Suzume, eyeing the figures wearily.
“It beats staying out here in the cold rain and I’m not sensing malice from either of them,” says Mariko.
And with the Kage’s executive approval the others nod and walk into the cave. Inside they find two men waiting for them. The first is tall - like over seven feet with tanned skin, large muscles, red eyes and black hair. His hair is cut short and he has a neatly trimmed beard, an x shaped scar sits over his right eye and the man is wearing dark colored armor. Leaning against the wall behind him is a large battle axe and a Helmet. The other man is shorter and lankier than him with dark brown hair, blue eyes and fair skin. He’s wearing black shinobi sandals, brown pants, a light blue long sleeved short under a dark blue shawl decorated around the edges with lighter blue bird feather designs and black fingerless gloves. Sitting between them is a well lit fire and cooking over it is a pot of stew.
“Welcome inside kids - you look cold come here - get warm by the fire! I made stew,” says the lankier man, offering them a friendly smile as he motions them towards the fire.
“How do we know we can trust you?” asks Daiki suspiciously even as the kids move to sit around the fire, Kai being careful not to jostle Mariko’s ankle as he sets her down.
“Their gods - they won’t hurt us - I don’t think,” says Mariko simply, she’d spent enough time around the Divine to know the aura they gave off.
“Hurt you? OH please we would never! We have standards!” says the shorter god, crossing his arms and huffing indignantly. In a flash of blue bowls with spoons are sitting near each of the young teens and a ladle is sitting in the stew.
“Take as much of the food as you want but first let’s dry you off,” says the shorter god. Twirling one hand a strong gust of wind blows over the kids, drying the water out of their clothes and hair and leaving them completely dry.
“Your Fujin right? God of wind?” asks Mariko.
“Yup that’s me - that’s Bishamonten, god of honorable war - he’s a man of few words,” says Fujin, the taller god grunts but his eyes flick down to Mariko’s hurt ankle.
“How is injury?” asks Bishamonten.
“It hurts but Suzume can probably fix it…right?” asks Mariko, shooting a look towards Suzume.
“Oh yeah totally,” says the Origami girl, moving to sit in front of Mariko.
Suzume’s hands begin to glow with the soft green of healing chakra as her hands go around Mariko’s ankle.
“This is going to hurt a lot for a second while I reset the bone, then it’ll stop hurting while I heal it up to make sure you're not gonna be walking around with a cast or anything,” says Suzume.
Mariko nods and Suzume does a silent count to three before pushing on Mariko’s ankle. Biting her lip so hard it begins to bleed to keep from screaming Mariko’s whole leg lights up with a firey pain as Suzume forces her bones back into their proper place. However the pain begins to fade almost as quickly as it had come as Mariko feels Suzume’s chakra sliding into her injury and healing it with a feather light touch. After a couple minutes of serious concentration on Suzume’s part she removes her hands from Mariko’s ankle and smiles.
“There! Good as new, maybe just don’t put any weight on it for a few hours okay?” asks Suzume.
“Yeah, I can do that,” says Mariko.
“The rain is definitely not letting up anytime soon - you kids can just stay here until tomorrow alright? - Now eat up, I’m sure you're hungry,” says Fujin, smiling as he gestures to the soup.
Now that she was really taking in its smell Mariko can’t help but smile, it was definitely an Uzushio recipe, one that she’d even made before for Naruto. The kids go about lading their bowls full of soup and eating hungrily. While they eat the gods go about watching for dangers and eating some stew themselves. When everyone is finished and had their fill the bowls and pot of stew vanish in a bright flash of blue. The gods stand and Bishamonten goes about collecting his weapon and helmet.
“Now. We’ll leave you kids here to rest but our lingering presence in the cave should ward away any Demons wandering around the area. I’d stay here until tomorrow morning, okay? And sleep well tonight,” says Fujin. The kids all nod and Fujin is vanishing in a sharp gust of wind. A moment later Bishamonten is gone as well in a flash of red light.
“Well, that was not what I was expecting to happen today,” says Hanako.
“No but you should always expect the unexpected with the Divine,” says Mariko.
“Fair enough,” says Hanako, shrugging. The kids go about setting up their bedrolls around the fire and assigning watch shifts for when night fell. Outside the rain still poured and the forest was quiet, a bit too quiet for Mariko’s liking but she supposed the Demons in the woods left the natural wildlife like birds and small mammals pretty much non-existent.
LATER THAT NIGHT
THE DREAM WORLD
IN MARIKO’S DREAMS
THIRD PERSON POV
Mariko blinks, looking around - she was confused, what was going on? Where was she?
Looking around and letting her blurry eyes focus Mariko finds she’s standing in an odd void. Mist was pooling all around her feet and she was standing in some inky black void. Spinning around Mariko feels fear tugging at her as she realizes she’s all alone.
“Hello! Is anyone out there!?” shouts Mariko into the void yet no one seems to hear her.
Mariko looks up as a green colored spotlight seems to fall on her. What she can see is the Earth Scroll she needs. Jumping up to try and grab at it Mariko hisses as the scroll floats up out of her reach, vanishing as the green light disappears. Frowning Mariko’s eyes widen in shock as a burst of red light appears behind her.
Spinning around Mariko screams in horror at what she sees.
Lying on the ground are Hanako, Kai, Suzume and Daiki, all of them have massive gashes running through their chests and Hanako’s eyes have been plucked from their sockets. There’s blood everywhere and standing at the source of the red light is someone Mariko’s never spoken to before but she has seen.
Standing over the corpses of her friends is Chisuke.
The white haired girl's braid and Akatsuki cape style cloak are blowing in a non-existent wind and she’s standing mostly with her back to Mariko. Chisuke’s face is hidden from Mariko’s view but she can see what Chisuke is holding in her hands. In right hand is a sword of some kind hanging limp at her side, blood dripping from the silver blade and falling into a puddle on the ground. Clutched in Chisuke’s left hand are Hanako’s Sharingan eyes, the flower pattern of her Mangekyo stood out eerily in the red light.
“Ahh-...-w-why?” chokes Mariko, feeling tears spring up into her eyes as grief consumes her.
Chisuke shifts on her feet, not seeing anything but shifting so that Mariko can see her side profile. Blood is splattered across her cheek and she holds an emotionless expression, her eyes glow with a red Dojutsu that Mariko can’t recognize off of the top of her head.
Suddenly white cracks, like broken glass, form over Chisuke’s heart. The cracks then shake and expand until Mariko is surrounded by them.
Then the world around her literally shatters.
Mariko screams in terror as the images of her dead friends and Chisuke varnish and her feet are yanked out from under her. Now she’s floating in an inky black void, shards of glass made off all different sizes and shapes floating around her.
…
“~Mariko~”
…
Whispers a silky smooth female voice in the void.
“What!? WHO ARE YOU!? Where am I!?” yells Mariko, arms flaring out to pull her knees up to her chest.
The world seems to still with a deafening silence for a moment before the woman’s voice sounds again.
…
“~I am Yume - goddess of dreams and you are in my realm~”
…
Mariko looks around, eyes catching on the image of a woman in one of the larger panes of broken glass near her. The woman’s face is cut off on the upper right half thanks to the broken shard but Mariko can see long flowing violet hair speckled with silver flecks of starlight, sharp golden eyes staring at her pale skin and a silver and gold braided ringlet around the woman’s head. Mariko can even see the beginnings of black high colored outfit with silver hems the woman is wearing. Pinned to the ear that Mariko can see is a golden six pointed star.
““Why are you showing me this? What do you want?” asks Mariko as Yume’s image flickers and fades from the pane of glass.
...
“~I want nothing from you Mariko Namikaze. I only come to show you the future…to warn you…~”
…
“What!? The future!?!? Are you saying Chisuke is going to kill my friends!?” screams Mariko, a new type of terror filling her to the very core of her soul. The void is silent for a brief moment before Yume giggles.
…
“~I did not say she would kill them Mariko Namikzae. But she will~ if you fail to help her~”
…
Yume’s voice is a sing-song as she speaks, sounding far too amused with being vague as hell.
“What do you mean Yume? Help her with what!?” asks Mariko in terror, only for Yume to laugh.
Suddenly the void around Mariko begins to shake violently, as if being struck by an earthquake. The glass shards around Mariko begin to spin rapidly and Yume’s voice sounds again, it’s pinched and clearly irritated.
…
“~Dammit! Little Baku always coming in to mess with things…~”
…
Mariko blinks as the world around her begins fading, her mind barely has time to register what Yume is saying - Baku were Dream Spirits - they ate nightmares so scared children could have peaceful sleep without the sometimes cruel and scary dreams Yume created to plague them. Yume was a very neutral deity, she could be kind or cruel depending on the day and it was often impossible to predict what she would show you as you slept. The Baku were spirits created by Izanagi to combat Yume’s more sad*stic dreams by eating them and rendering Yume unable to give that person any more dreams for the rest of the night.
THE WAKING WORLD
THE LAND OF STONE
IWAGAKURE
THE FOREST OF DEMONS
THIRD PERSON POV
Mariko’s eyes fly open and almost immediately adjust to the dark cave she’s lying in. In the dim light of the faintly glowing embers of their fire she can see a shadow hovering over her on the cave wall. It was wispy around the edges, wasn’t very well defined for features or anything and had very few things that stood out. The only things that stood out about the shadow on the wall were the human legs it had, that were floating disconnected from anything that could be casting the shadow, the two holes in it’s face indicating eyes that were glowing a very faint red, the wide sharp toothed grin is had, it’s long knee length flowing hair that reminded Mariko of Octopus tentacles and the curving Devil horns on the top of it’s head. The shadows twist, an arm extending to wave at Mariko with a four fingered hand that looked like it had claws, as if the spirit knew she could see it. The creature lowers its arm again and the creature fades away and the shadows on the cave wall become indistinguishable and dark, no longer forming the shape of a demon-like human.
Sighing silently to herself Mariko shifts in her bed roll, Hanako, Suzume and Daiki are all fast asleep in their own bed rolls but Kai sits awake, on watch duty, at the edge of the cave. His sword was drawn and was sitting on his knees as he sat in a criss-cross position. His face was turned away from her, watching the forest before them. It had stopped raining and Mariko could just barely make out a starry night sky outside of their cave.
Knowing she’s definitely not falling back asleep Mariko sits up, smiling softly as Kai looks over at her. Getting up, Mariko goes to sit down next to Kai.
“Hey - what’s wrong? Bad dream?” asks Kai.
“Yeah. Something like that,” says Mariko.
“Oh. Do you wanna talk about it?” asks Kai in concern.
“No,” says Mariko, leaning her head against his shoulder. She really didn’t want to tell him that he would die if she didn’t even help someone with a problem she knew nothing about.
“Okay well I’m here to listen if you need me too,” says Kai.
“Yeah…thanks,” says Mariko.
“Of course,” says Kai, nodding and shooting her a soft smile.
Mariko hums softly to acknowledge him before the two fall silent, Mariko’s mind drifting off to think about the dream she’d had.
What was going on with Chisuke?
Why would she kill Mariko’s friends?
How could Mariko help her if she didn’t even know what the problem was?
Why did Yume feel the need to warn her about this anyway?
And what the hell was she going to do now?
THE NEXT MORNING
THE LAND OF STONE
IWAGAKURE
THE FOREST OF DEMONS
THIRD PERSON POV
“Okay team! We’ve got today and three days left to get that last scroll and book it to the center building - what should our game plan be?” asks Suzume as Mariko and her friends walk through the woods. They’d packed up and left their campsite about an hour ago and Mariko, still preoccupied with her dream from the night before, let Daiki take up leading the group.
“I think we should move towards the center building - though I’m not really sure which way we should go to get there,” says Hanako.
As the Saisei girl is finishing up her sentence a Sparrow flaps down towards them, landing on top of Suzume’s head. The Origami girl giggles and offers a hand for the Sparrow to hop onto. The bird does and chirps cheerily at them.
“Huh. I didn’t think there were any birds out here,” says Kai, staring at the Sparrow curiously.
“There aren’t - Sparrows are Fujin’s blessed animals,” says Mariko.
“Oh,” says Kai.
“What are you doing here little guy?” asks Suzume, giving the bird a little pat on the head with a singular finger. The Sparrow chirps and flaps off of Suzume’s finger beginning to fly off to the right, pausing only in midair when it sees that the children aren’t following it.
“Oh! - I guess it’s heading us in the right direction!” says Hanako, her face brightening up with realization.
The Sparrow legitimately nods and begins flying again, the kids moving to follow it. The kids follow the Sparrow for a little while - about half an hour - before the bird stops and lands on a low hanging tree branch. In a flash of blue light there’s a sheet of paper in the Sparrow’s beak. Suzume reaches up, taking the paper and handing it to Mariko when she sees that it’s addressed to her Uzumaki descended friend. Looking down at the note Mariko chuckles. Fujin was giving them a map leading right where they needed to go.
“He’s given us a map to take us the rest of the way to the center building - however I suck at reading maps - who here is actually good with maps?” asks Mariko.
“I am,” says Daiki. Mariko hands the boy the map and he nods before beginning to lead them forward, the Sparrow chirps what seems to be a cheerful goodbye before flapping away.
Daiki begins leading them through the trees and they walk for a while before they come into a clearing, however what they find lying inside has them all reeling back with horror. Hanako lets out a scream and Suzume’s hands fly over her mouth as a horrified gasp escapes her lips. Daiki and Kai both hiss in horror and Mariko stares down at the three bodies in terror. Lying in the clearing was one of the other teams from Konoha, their throats had been slit and they were all lying in puddles of blood. One of them was an Uchiha, based off of the symbol on his shirt, and his eyes had been plucked from his skull, leaving behind bloody gaping sockets.
“Oh my gods…” whispers Daiki in horror.
“Do you think a Demon got to them?” asks Kai.
Mariko frowns and walks over to one of the bodies, kneeling down and nudging the body slightly with her foot; she carefully examines the slash on the girl’s throat.
“No. This cut on her throat was made by a kunai…one of the other teams killed her and her team,” says Mariko, her voice horse with horror.
These bodies were far too much like the bodies of her dead friends from her dream…
Had Chisuke killed these Genin?
Suzume whimpers softly, terrified by what she sees. Looking over at Hanako, Suzume frowns deeper as she sees Hanako staring horrified down at the Uchiha boy’s body, specifically at his eyeless sockets. Suzume quickly scoots closer to Hanako, taking the girl's hand and squeezing it tightly to provide some comfort, that boy used to be a part of Hanako’s clan before the Saisei split away.
“Why would another team kill them?” asks Suzume softly.
“To eliminate competition perhaps…or because they wouldn’t hand over their scroll,” says Daiki.
“I’m really not sure,” says Mariko.
“Why would they take his eyes then?” asks Hanako, finally managing to tear her eyes away from the dead Uchiha boy.
“I don’t know,” says Mariko as she stands up.
“We need to keep moving, maybe stop whoever is doing this if we can,” says Mariko.
The others nod as Mariko begins leading the way, Daiki directing her with the map clutched tightly in his hands. Suddenly Mariko senses multiple Chakra signatures nearby, one of them blips out and suddenly a bone chilling scream permeates the air. Immediately Mariko takes off towards the signatures she can sense as another dies away. Behind her she can hear her friends chasing after her, not really sure what’s going.
Speeding up Mariko bursts forth into a clearing to a gruesome sight. Two Kumo Genin are lying on the ground, dead, their throats were slit. Chisuke was standing over them, holding up the last Kumo Shinobi by the shirt. Mariko watches in horror as a bright flash of metal moves, cutting into the terrified boy’s throat. The boy coughs and Mariko stares in horror as the life leaves his eyes. Chisuke tosses his limp body aside and turns to look at her, violet eyes hard and cruel, that anger Mariko had sensed in her was blazing now. Mariko could see that Chisuke’s teammates were cowering behind a tree, eyes terrified as they watched her commit murder for seemingly no reason.
“Oh look…more Konoha brats,” says Chisuke, her voice holding a cruel sneer as Hanako and the Tani trio burst from the bushes behind Mariko. Mariko holds out an arm to stop her friends from getting too close as Chisuke tosses her kunai away, it sails through the air and hits a tree, embedding itself there with a thunk.
“Why did you do that?” asks Mariko.
“Retaliation,” says Chisuke, a wide manic grin spreading across her face.
Chisuke laughs viciously as her hands go to the cylinders at her sides. She draws them from her belt and flicks them out, sword blades swoosh out and gleam brightly in the sun. Mariko can’t help but think the blades look almost identical to Rayla’s swords from ‘The Dragon Prince’.
Chisuke rushes forward and jumps up, swinging her swords down at Mariko. The Uzumaki girl barely has time to draw a kunai and block Chisuke’s attack before the other girl is literally on top of her, crossing swords pressing down on Mariko’s kunai and forcing the other girl to strain her arms to keep Chisuke from slashing her apart.
Mariko kicks out at one of Chisuke’s legs before scrambling into the center of the clearing. Chisuke spins around and rushes at Mariko again, swinging for a kill. Mariko ducks and slides out of the way of sword blades, heart beating rapidly as adrenaline rushes through her veins. Mariko yelps in fear as she ducks, a sword blade just merely missing cutting her head off.
“Mariko!” Yells Hanako as she and the others move to approach, weapons drawn.
“NO! STAY BACK!” yells Mariko as she blocks four more rapid fire sword attacks from the manic and bloodthirsty girl trying to kill her.
“Awe trying to protect your pathetic friends? How cute! Don’t worry they’ll die just as you will,” says Chisuke.
“You're not killing anyone else!” yells Mariko as she blocks another sword swing thrusted down at her head.
“Who are you even trying to retaliate against?” asks Mariko as she pushes Chisuke back a few feet with a bit of enhanced chakra strength, Tsunade had taught her the basics of the technique before they’d left Konoha.
“Isn’t it obvious? The Hidden Villages of course! - They destroy and terrorize everything and everyone they come in contact with so I’m just returning the favor by weeding out their fresh meat,” says Chisuke, twirling her swords in her hands.
To Mariko’s utter shock and horror white Chakra swishes down Chisuke’s sword blades, coating them in a white glow. The Ame Genin then rushes at Mariko again, swords swinging for her throat. Yelping and scrambling away, Mariko dips and dives away from multiple near misses with Chisuke’s swords before one of the older girl’s feet swings out, tripping Mariko. Falling to the ground Mariko’s eyes go wide as she rolls away from nearly being impaled by both of Chisuke’s swords. Chisuke hisses, eyes tracking Mariko as she backs away from. Ripping her swords from where she’d embedded them in the ground, Chisuke laughs, a cold and hollow thing, to Mariko’s horror the Chakra coated blades had left visible cracks and burns in the ground where they had been placed.
Mariko stumbles back, tripping over one of the limp dead bodies of the Kumo Team. Scrambling away from an approaching Chisuke, Mariko stares in horror as the girl easily kicks the body away like it weighs nothing to her. Chisuke rushes forward, jumping up and swinging down towards Mariko. However the Uzumaki girl acts quickly, hands forming the right signs to bring up an Earth shield. As Chisuke’s swords slam into her shield, cracking and then shattering it Mariko rolls away and jumps back up to her feet, moving away as Chisuke is quick to follow.
“How are you doing that? White Chakra is a Hatake Clan Technique and it’s hidden from outsiders!” says Mariko as she beckpeddles away from chisuke who swipes at her once and then twice again.
“Well I mean it is a technique of my Clan ~ by all means I should be able to use it as I please,” says Chisuke, shrugging her shoulders as the white chakra coating her blades begins to crackle like lightning.
“WHAT!?” screech both Mariko and Hanako in shock.
Chisuke was a Hatake!!
But how??
Why wasn’t she anywhere near Konoha then!?!?!?
“Why? Why do you want revenge on the villages? What did they ever do to you - and as a Hatake shouldn’t you be loyal to Konoha,” says Mariko.
“They ruined everything! Why can’t you see that they ruin everything!?!?!?” asks Chisuke, her voice rising into a shout of anger as her arms flail up into the air, the white chakra vanishing off of her blades. However laced into her tone Mariko hears something she wasn’t expecting, a soul deep and definitely old hurt, the kind of hurt that reflected a scared, alone and confused child who wanted to make the world that hurt them hurt back.
“If the villages weren’t so cruel I’d have my family, I’d have both my clans, I’d have a home!! But NOOOOOO!!!! They just had to go and ruin everything!” says Chisuke.
“How did they ruin everything? - They don’t…they don’t ruin everything…” says Mariko.
“Of course they ruin everything! You of all people should know they ruin everything after all! The villages killed everyone in your ancestral home - Uzushio - remember? Or did you just forget your people?” asks Chisuke, a slight sneer making its way into her voice.
“I would never forget my people - but the villages did good too. They unified people and brought some order to lands filled with chaos. I can’t ignore the good they’ve done and only focus on the bad,” says Mariko.
“Oh please! The “good” they do is nothing compared to the bad!” says Chisuke, before continuing on speaking, seemingly deciding to take a break in attempting to murder Mariko to get her point across.
“Decades ago, before the villages were properly formed my mother’s clan, the Chinoike, lived in the Land Of Lightning. One of my ancestors ended up falling in love with a man from the family that would go on to found Kumogakure - because of that we were elevated to a noble status and no longer did we need to be mercenaries to survive. However that man died soon after his marriage to my ancestor and his first wife blamed her for his death, claiming she murdered their husband. And everyone believed her lies. So the nobility that would go on to form and lead Kumogakure not even a decade later hired the Uchiha Clan to chase us out of Lightning. The Chinoike were forced out of our homes, had many of our possessions stolen or burned and were banished to The Valley Of Hell, a desolate place in the Land Of Hot Water that could barely support life at all because of all the iron in the water. And who sent us there? Oh right! One of the founding clans of Konoha after the founders of Kumo banished us and claimed us to be monsters! Somehow we managed to survive in the valley and made a life for ourselves but no one ever came to visit, no one really knew we were there and we couldn’t leave - we were still technically citizens of Lightning and the Diamiyo had ordered we not leave where the Uchiha placed us, failing to comply with the order was a death sentence,” says Chisuke, her voice was angered and spiteful, her eyes bled hatred when Mariko looked into them and it was terrifying.
“And it’s even worse when we move over to my father’s clan. The Hatake were scooped up early by Konoha, praised as strong fighters and often placed in the ANBU or sent on dangerous missions that often resulted in death. In only a few decades Konoha, by sending us on death missions and placing us in their most danger prone groups, had massacred the clan until there were only two of the Hatake Clan left. The last two Hatake were siblings, brothers. You’ve probably heard of the first and older of the two brothers - The White Fang - Sakumo Hatake. Now wasn’t he an incredible Shinobi? He was very successful, very skilled. The village loved him!” says Chisuke, pausing for a brief moment to laugh in a slightly hysterical fashion before continuing on with her monologue.
“But when he prioritized the lives of his team over a mission - ha! - That was a big f*ck up in the eyes of Konoha. Instead of being praised and revered for doing the right thing by saving his teammates, what did Konoha and its people do? They dragged his name through the mud! They shunned him! They hated him! Everyone turned their backs on Konoha’s shining hero and drove him to Suicide! What hypocrites!!?? Konoha says that their ‘teams are families’ and that ‘you should protect your team as if you were clanmates’ but then when Sakumo did exactly that they treated him so badly he killed himself!” says Chisuke, her hands flailing wildly around her as she speaks, her anger was practically bleeding into the air at this point, her Earth Release was causing the ground under her feet to crack as she spoke.
“But the younger of the two brothers - well you’ve never heard of him for a reason. - His name was Hayato Hatake and he was my father. He was a member of the ANBU, in his time in that damned organization he had one hundred and eighty successful missions, zero failures and seventy kills He kept his distance from Sakumo and his son - mostly just to protect them from the darkness the ANBU lifestyle brought but when he learned while out on a mission that Sakumo had killed himself my father decided he was done with Konoha, done with being their good little puppet, done with it all. So he defected from his village, he threw away his headband and his mask and ran far away,” says Chisuke.
“He left the Land Of Fire altogether and wandered the world - acting as a mercenary to get by and survive. Then he ended up in the Land Of Hot Water and stumbled into the Valley Of Hell, the waters turned red by iron and the weary clan living inside this place made him nervous but he was welcomed by someone, my mother Akane Chinoike. She allowed him into her home and offered him a place to stay and hot meals if he helped her out with chores and the like, my father thought the idea agreeable and they began living together. Over the next few months they bonded and eventually shared their life stories and the stories of their clans. They found solace in each other and fell in love and were married secretly. A year later my mother discovered she was pregnant with me. The villagers were outraged - they had tolerated my father, the white haired stranger, living with them for long enough but they didn’t trust him, not after what people attached to the Ninja Villages had done to them, and to impregnate my mother was a sin in amongst itself and then they…they….” begins Chisuke, seeming to choke up close to the end as she speaks, tears that she furiously blinks away gathering at the corner of her eyes.
“What did they do?” Mariko finds herself asking in a quiet tone, her voice laced with sympathy and a quiet understanding.
She had a bad feeling about where this story was going to go.
“They killed him, my clan killed my father and left my mother a widow before I was even born. When I did come into this world sixteen years ago my mother feared the clan would kill me too in a fit of paranoia. So she began to make preparations to run away from The Valley Of Hell and use my Hatake Blood to get into Konoha despite what the village had done to us. On the night she ran away the clan was arguing amongst themselves, talking about wanting to attack Konoha for what the Uchiha had done to them and for sending my father, they believed that Konoha had sent him to infiltrate and destroy the clan. Some of them wanted to commit the attack, others didn’t, the arguing got physical and in one bloody night the Chinoike clan massacred itself,” says Chisuke, the anger slowly bleeding out of her tone as it became indifferent and cold.
“My mother ran away from the fighting and then just like that we were the last two of our clan. The last of the Chinoike. My mother traveled across the lands, going from place to place as she struggled to take care of me, to make enough money to survive. She’d pick up odd labor jobs from time to time - weeding out gardens or cooking for someone or fixing a broken fence, but most often she was forced to sell her body to greedy pigs of men just to feed herself and me. It was sickening. My mother did everything in her power to raise me right, to protect me, to provide for me even as we traveled from place to place, never having anywhere to call home. And eventually we ended up in the Land Of Rain during the height of the Third Shinobi War - things were at their most brutal and it was a disaster. I was six at the time and we were in Amegakure. We’d been in that village for the longest time I’d ever spent in one place, my mother feared leaving because of the war raging on. But when my mother got so sick she became bedridden and I tried to find help,” says Chisuke, a haunted look forming in her eyes as she describes her life.
“I walked around Ame - it was terrifying being on the streets of the city alone but then I ran into Konan-Nee, literally. I asked for help and she obliged, finding it in her heart to take pity on the small scared child she’d found. By the time we made it back to where my mother and I were staying however she passed from her illness… Konan-Nee took me in after that, not wanting to leave me orphaned, and I came to live with her and Nagato-Nii, he’s the Amekage. They took care of me after that, protected me, taught me. My Mother had already taught me to use the Chinoike Dojutsu and the Hatake’s White Chakra as my Father had shown her to use it, so while I had skills Konan-Nee and Nagato-Nii taught me to apply them properly. I learned over the years of what the villages had done to Ame, what they had done to my siblings, the people who’d let me into their family and I learned of their ideals…” says Chisuke.
“So when you ask me Mariko Namikaze why I want to hurt the Ninja Villages here’s your answer. Because if they didn’t act my clan would have never been banished from their homeland, the clan of my father would have never died off, I could have had a family, I could have had a clan, even two, my uncle would not have committed suicide, my father and mother would be alive and everything would have been better because they chose not to be cruel hypocrites that destroy everything in their path for their own gain. I hate the villages because they took everything from me, they robbed a good future from me before I was even born and they have destroyed the lives of people I love as well. So when we complete our plan - bring real peace to this world - there will be no ninja villages to plague the innocent anymore and everyone will understand the pain of loss. No one will suffer anymore and things will be better and the people who wronged me and those I love will pay for those wrongs,” says Chisuke, her stance shifting back into an offensive one, clearly the time for talking was over in Chisuke’s eyes.
“Look Chisuke - I am so sorry for what happened to bu--” begins Mariko only to be cut off by a large growling.
“What?” asks Mariko.
Suddenly the ground shakes and rumbles, all of the Genin struggling to keep their balance as the shaking grows in its intensity. And then BAM!!
The ground bursts open in an explosion of stone and dust, the Genin are all sent flying back as trees are ripped out of the ground and thrown away by the intensity of the explosion. Mariko hisses and flips midair, managing to land on the ground in a crouch, sliding to a stop. Hanako, Kai and Daiki land just behind her, Chisuke and her teammates are a ways away and Suzume is hovering above Mariko, Hanako and the rest of her team, paper bird wings beating rapidly to keep her in the air.
Looking up Mariko gasps in horror as she sees what came from the ground. A horrifying fifteen foot tall Demon was standing in the wreckage of broken earth. Its skin is pale and white with thin back lines all over, its body was humanoid, it was very muscled and it had beedy yellow eyes in its head. The Demon had large horns and behind its head floated an odd wheel-like object - the beast seemed so familiar to Mariko…
“Holy sh*t is that Maharaga!?” asks Mariko in horror and terror as it finally clicks in her brain where she’s seen that monster before.
Oh she was so f*cked if that monster was anything like Maharaga from JJK.
“Maha-what!?” asks Hanako, her voice high pitched and filled with fear, as the creature roars again, the noise is deafening and sends shockwaves of air at them.
“Mariko! Hanako! Now would be a really good time to use those totems because we definitely can not outrun that thing!!!” yells Kai, his voice fear stricken and face pale with horror.
The Demon raises one of its hands and from out of nowhere a large black Claymore perfectly proportionate to it and very deadly looking just appears out of nowhere. Mariko curses internally, why did it have a f*cking sword!?!? The Demon’s eyes flick around the area, seemingly not noticing Mariko and her friends and instead focusing on the trio from Ame. Chisuke’s teammates whimper and begin to back away but Chisuke stands her ground, glaring daggers at the monster. Looking at her Mariko could see she was scared but not willing to die like a coward, Mariko didn’t know whether to be impressed by the other girl’s bravery or feel bad for her because she was being stupid. … Well Mariko wasn’t just gonna let the thing kill Chisuke - she was supposed to help this girl after all.
“Chisuke! MOVE!” yells Mariko as the Demon raises its sword.
Mariko begins moving towards Chisuke, intent on saving her and Hanako is quick to follow, not wanting to let Mariko go into this alone. The Demon roars as in a blur of black movement the blunt side of its sword is cleaving down and connecting right with Chisuke’s chest. Blood immediately flies from the girl’s mouth as she is sent flying back into a tree. However the tree shatters and falls as Chisuke is sent right through it. Chisuke lands on the ground roughly, coughing up blood as the tree she’d been thrown through lands on one of her legs. Her scream of pain is enough to send a spike of terror through Mariko’s heart.
Reaching back to grab Hanako’s hand in hers and with the other Mariko grabs one of her Flying Raijin Kunai. As the giant sword wielding demon looms over Chisuke, intent on crushing her to death with its blade, Mariko throws her kunai. The kunai lands right next to chisuke and between one blink and the next Hanako and Mariko are kneeling next to the white haired girl. Mariko immediately moves to try pushing the tree off of Chisuke’s leg, straining at the weight of the wood as Chisuke coughs up more blood.
Suzume circles them overhead, heart racing as panic fills her. Chisuke - as crazy and broken and murderey as she was - needed a healer and Suzume was a healer. Someone also needed to protect her friends before that thing attacked again. Its biggest weakness seemed to be how slow it was, judging by the size of its eyes it also probably didn’t have very good eyesight. . But what could she do? That monster could easily cut through her paper. Down below Kai and Daiki were having the same problem, clearly torn between being frozen with terror and doing something pitiful to try and help Mariko and Hanako.
Hanako moves to stand in front of Mariko and Chisuke as the beast raises its blade again. Her eyes bleed red and her Sharringan spins rapidly as her Mangekyo forms. The black claymore swings down and -
BANG!!
The claymore slams down and freezes as it makes contact with a pink shield.
“What?” asks Mariko in shock looking up as she finally manages to get the tree to budge a bit.
Hanako stood in front of her and Chisuke, her back to them and her hands were shaking, clenched in fists at her sides but surrounding them was a half formed female version of the Susanoo, protecting them from harm. It was bright pink like Hanako’s chakra and the upper half of the body surrounded and protected them. The Susanoo’s arms were raised and holding a shield which was what was blocking the Demon’s giant blade.
“Oh my gods…..,” murmurs Chisuke before bursting into a coughing fit, blood splattering out of her mouth.
Hanako turns to partially face them, a side profile of her face showing, and Mariko takes in a sharp gasp. Blood was leaking from Hanako’s Mangekyo Eyes like crimson tears but she still held strong and her Susanoo stood firm. One of Hanako’s shaking hands reaches into her pocket and pulls out her totem from Izanami. A small hole forms in her Susanoo and the totem is thrown out of it and shatters against a rock. A second later there’s a flash of bright purple light and standing where Hanako had broken her totem was a tall man dressed in all black armor, his face obscured by a black knight’s helmet and a long silver sword held in his hands.
The Shadow Soldier turns towards the Demon, his sword held in a ready position as the beast roars in rage, shaking the earth around it. The Shadow Soldier rushes forward in a blur of black movement and sends the Demon flying back almost twenty feet as he swings his blade, a burst of purple magic shooting from the sword to strike the beast down. Wicked looking burns appear across the Demons chest as it screams in pain where it lays on the ground.
Between one blink and the next the Shadow Soldier is standing above the demon, using Chakra to perch on a tree. The Shadow Soldier vaults himself into the air and swings his sword down, cutting the mighty Demon’s head clean off in a massive splatter of black blood. The soldier stands back up, head turning to look at the gaping young Humans staring at him in amazement as his blade drips black.
The Demons body begins to fade away, turning to ash that is carried off by a gust of wind. The Shadow Soldier looks at them for a moment before stepping away from the quickly disintegrating Demon. The Shadow Soldiers bows to the young teenagers before his shadow swirls up, wrapping around him and letting him disappear.
Hanako’s Susanoo flickers and the Saisei Girl falls to her knees, coughing. Kai and Daiki run over to Mariko, taking her place in trying to get the tree off of Chisuke as Mariko moves to check on Hanako. Suzume is dropping down next to them in a second and out of the corner of her eye Mariko can see Chisuke’s teammates slowly approaching them, fear leaking from their expression, eyes and body language.
“Hanako? Hanako are you alright?” asks Mariko, kneeling next to Hanako.
When Hanako doesn’t respond Mariko grabs her shoulders worriedly and shakes them lightly, Hanako’s head is dipped low so Mariko couldn’t even see her face. With worry clutching at her heart Mariko squeezes Hanako’s shoulders a little tighter and the Saisei girl slowly raises her head.
Mariko lets out a horrified gasp as she looks at Hanako.
Her best friend had gone incredibly pale and while her eyes were back to their normal shade and no longer showed her Mangekyo Sharingan they were dim and slightly cloudy, blood was leaking from both of Hanako’s eyes, falling down her face like bright red tear tracks.
“Hanako…are you alright?” asks Mariko.
“I’ll be - fine - totally fine. Just let me rest my eyes for a bit,” says Hanako as her eyes close.
“Okay I’m going to go help Chisuke alright?” asks Mariko gently.
“Yeah - she needs you more than me right now,” says Hanako, nodding slightly. Mariko nods softly and gets up, chakra pouring through her arms to make them stronger as with the help of Kai and Daiki she’s able to push the tree off of Chisuke’s leg. The girl let’s out a soft wheeze, clearly in an incredible amount of pain as Suzume’s hands hover over her chest, the Origami girl’s eyes analyzing and critical.
“Is…is she going to be okay?” asks one of Chisuke’s teammates. She’s a girl with sand colored short cropped hair styled like Hanako’s, fair skin and brown eyes. Her Shinobi clothes are standard and her Ame Headband had a crack running down the metal from a fall she’d taken.
“Yeah, don’t worry, I can fix the damage in her chest,” says Suzume, nodding before she looks down at Chisuke.
“Okay Chisuke, so all of your ribs are broken and I’m sensing a lot of internal bleeding, I’m going to start work on fixing it okay?” asks Suzume. Chisuke nods and Suzume’s hands begin to glow green with healing chakra.
Suzume presses her hands on to Chisuke’s chest and the girl coughs as some blood leaks from her mouth. Sweat begins to form on Suzume’s brow about five minutes later as clearly she’s slowly running out of chakra to heal Chisuke and isn’t done fixing her injuries yet. Mariko moves over to Suzume, grabbing her hands and funneling her own chakra into Suzume so she can use it to heal Chisuke. After another agonizing ten minutes of healing Suzume removes her hands from Chisuke’s chest and the Chinoike girl wipes the blood off of her chin.
“How do you feel?” asks Suzume.
“Better, my chest doesn’t feel like it's collapsing and I can actually breathe but my leg hurts like hell,” says Chisuke, grimacing as she looks down at her injured leg. And it did look pretty bad, all crushed and twisted.
“Okay, I’ll check on that,” says Suzume, her hands hovering over Chisuke’s leg.
“Ah sh*t……the bones in your leg are practically shattered entirely - I don’t know how to heal shattered bones and probably don’t even have enough chakra right now to fix it,” says Suzume, grimacing in irritation.
“Oaky new plan…we’re getting her to the center building and summoning an adult to help - and maybe getting the last scroll me and Hanako need,” says Mariko.
“Why should we help her? - She tried to kill you and killed teams from two villages,” says Daiki, frowning.
“Yeah well she’s a person, a person who’s been hurt by the world and led astray by bad ideals, the wrong people have taught her that killing will solve her problems and that’s simply not true. I don’t know about you but I can not and will not leave her here to die or to stew in her rage. I won’t be the next person from a Shinobi Village to screw her over so you can help or you can’t but I'm helping her,” says Mariko, her voice firm and strong.
Mariko shifts and carefully pulls Chisuke into her arms, scooping her up and being as gentle as she can in picking the Chinoike girl up into her arms so as to not aggravate her injured leg. Standing Mariko stares down at her friends and the four of them share a look before the Tani Trio and Hanako stand too. Daiki pulls out the map from Fujin and Hanako pats Mariko’s shoulder in a silent show of being with her in helping Chisuke. Suzume jogs off for a moment and comes back with Chisuke’s swords. Handing them over to Chisuke Suzume offers her a smile as Chisuke twists her handles, letting the blades retract.
“Alright, the center building is that way,” says Daiki, pointing towards her right. Daiki begins leading the way and the others move to follow him. They needed to get to the center building as soon as possible.
LATER THAT NIGHT
THE LAND OF STONE
IWAGAKURE
THE FOREST OF DEMONS
THIRD PERSON POV
Mariko looked up at the starry sky above her, a half moon hung in the air and it was beautiful. The rest of the group were asleep all around the small campfire they’d made and Mariko was on watch duty. Frowning Mariko looks over as she hears Chisuke groan. Mariko finds the white haired girl near her sitting up in her sleeping roll.
“What’s wrong? Bad dream?” asks Mariko softly.
“Couldn’t sleep,” says Chisuke, a scowl on her face as she shifts, using her arms to scoot out of her bed roll and closer to Mariko.
“Oh. Something on your mind that you wanna talk about?” asks Mariko.
“Not really,” says Chisuke, shaking her head.
“Okay well if you wanna talk I’m here to listen,” says Mariko, shrugging.
Chisuke scoffs slightly and the two fall into silence for a moment before Chisuke speaks back up, her voice is quiet, insecure sounding and sad.
“Why are you doing that?” asks Chisuke.
“Doing what?” asks Mariko, raising an eyebrow as she feels confusion tug at her mind.
“Pretending like you care about me. - How could you possibly care about me when I tried to kill you, killed a team from your village and threatened your friends?” asks Chisuke, looking towards Mariko. The two make eye contact and Mariko can see confusion, hurt and anger clouding in Chisuke’s eyes.
“I’m not pretending to care about you Chisuke. I do care,” says Mariko.
“But I tried to kill you…” says Chisuke, her eyebrows furrowing as confusion washes over her face.
“I know--,” says Mariko, shrugging.
“--But I know you're also someone who’s lived a hard life thanks to the actions of others and the ripple effects of those actions. You're hurting inside and I want to help you, besides I can tell you're not a bad person underneath all that anger you've built up, hell, I’d even say the Akatsuki nurtured your anger to weaponize you,” says Mariko, chuckling slightly.
“Don’t speak poorly of the Akatsuki - they took me in when I had no one - they’re not bad enough people to do something like that,” says Chisuke, an angry expression crossing her face.
“Oh I didn’t say they were bad people Chisuke, some of them are very bad people for sure, monsters even. But not all of them are bad, some of them have just been corrupted by manipulation and circ*mstance. Konan and Nagato for example, their good people from what I know about them but their circ*mstances and the lies and actions of others pushed them to turn their peace organization into a terrorist group,” says Mariko.
“They’re not terrorists! And we will bring peace through the shared suffering of everyone!” says Chisuke, more anger licking into her tone.
“They are terrorists, Chisuke. Do you know about their Eye Of The Moon Plan?” asks Mariko. At that Chisuke’s anger falters a bit…her facial expression reading doubt and some shame as she frowns.
“No…not really - Konan-Nee and Nagato-Nii are secretive, they say it’s for my safety and that they’ll tell me when I’m older and all that but a part of me thinks they’re going to keep me in the dark forever… I’ve heard them bring it up a few times but I don’t really know what will happen with the plan and none of the other Aktsuki Members will tell me either…” says Chisuke.
“Mmm well I know some things about it. Like, for example, the plan involves the Akatsuki capturing the Jinchuuriki and ripping the Tailed Beasts out of them and putting those Beasts into a statue to make a Mega Tailed Beast that will be used for their ultimate goal. But do you know what will happen when the Tailed Beasts are ripped from the Jinchuuriki?” asks Mariko. When Chisuke shakes her head in a ‘no’ , Mariko continues.
“They’ll die. To rip a Tailed Beast out of a Jinchuuriki is to kill that Jinchuuriki,” says Mariko, pausing for a moment to analyze the slight bits of horror forming on Chisuke’s face.
“And I know multiple Jinchuuriki well, in fact I know them very personally. Two of them and a previous one are from my own family. The last Jinchuuriki for the Nine Tailed Fox was my mother, she died the day my brother was born because your masked Akatsuki member friend ripped the fox out of my mother right after she gave birth to my little brother, she died that same night. My father then had to use a Fuuinjutsu technique that would kill him to split the fox into two halves. He put one half of the beast inside of himself and the other half into my little newborn baby brother. Both my parents are only here now living and breathing because the Gods saw fit to bring them back from the dead. My little brother is eight Chisuke - to complete your “non-terrorist’s” organization plan you’d be murdering an eight year old child and the best Hokage Konoha has ever had. And my little brother isn’t even the only child Jinchuuriki. The Jinchuuriki of the One Tails is an eight year old boy from Sunagakure - he;s good friends with my little brother and they write each other letters all the time. This little boy is the son of the Kazekage and a woman who was half Uzumaki and half Suijin, two of Uzushio’s clans. The Jinchuuriki of the Seven Tails is a girl a few years older than my little brother and she lives in Waterfalls. The Jinchuuriki to the three tails is the Mizukage, the two tails Jinchuuriki and the Six Tails Jinchuuriki are both in their early twenties, the eight tails Jinchuuriki is actually super nice, I’ve only met him once but he very fun to be around and the Jinchuuriki’s for the four and five tails are both in their forties I think,” says Mariko.
“But that’s not even the worst part - all of the Jinchuuriki are like you Chisuke, they’ve suffered, they’ve been torn down and beaten and tossed out by the people around them, by their villages. My little brother Naruto for the first eight years of his life before our father came back from the dead was treated worse than dirt by our village. I was forced to raise him on my own because none of the adults who wanted to raise me and Naruto weren’t allowed to. The villagers called him a Demon, spat insults at him and taught their children to fear and avoid him, store owners would charge us higher prices than everyone else and sometimes things would even be thrown at my little brother. The One Tails Jinchuuriki didn’t have it much better either, the whole village called him similarly cruel names and attacked him more frequently, his own father tried to have him assassinated when he became uncontrollable even though his father had been the the one to put the One Tails inside of him before he was even out of the womb. His Tailed Beast tried to drive him insane, convincing him to kill people which just increased the village’s fear and hatred of him. By the time me and my dad came to The Hidden Sand the boy was spending days at a time awake because if he fell asleep the Ichibi would take over his body and attack the village, we had to do major repairs on the boy’s seal and threaten his father with death if he didn’t start treating his son well. The Mizukage was appointed because of his strength, he wanted to help Kiri, do good for it, but instead you're masked friend put him under a Genjutsu that he didn’t even know he was under and mind controlled him into massacring those with a Kekkai Genkkai, the bloody mist village came to be what it was because of the actions of one of the Akatsuki’s Leaders. The Six Tails, Five Tails and Four Tails Jinchuurikis all ran away from their villages because of mistreatment and are missing Nin somewhere. The Two Tails Jinchuuriki was socially isolated and brutally trained as a child and taught to bond with her Tailed Beast. The Eight Tails Jinchuuriki managed to form a bond with his Beast after a long drawn out battle but was still disrespected by most of his village. The Seven Tails Jinchuuriki is the only one of them who’s been treated well by their village Chisuke. Do you really want to murder people just like you? Do you really want to support a plan that will kill children? How can you say the people who you care for, who you live and work with aren’t terrorists when they're planning to murder children and outcasts? How are they not terrorists when their grand plan of bringing peace to the world is to literally make everyone feel pain and fear as a shared experience? They’re not saints Chisuke, far from it even. Some of them are redeemable and some of them belong in Hell. Think about all of this before you decide your going to help them with their plans,” says Mariko, her voice firm and serious as she watches Chisuke slowly adopt a look of horror at what she’s hearing.
The two fall silent for a while, the faint crackling of their little fire keeping things from being too quiet as Chisuke thinks over what she was told.
To think Tobi, the most ridiculous member of the Akatsuki, was that powerful…that he had caused all that suffering… was a terrifying thought.
Chisuke had always thought their plan would work, that by bringing mutual pain to everyone no one would want to make anyone else suffer anymore… But now with what Mariko had said it seemed far less likely that bringing pain to everyone would do any good. In fact it seemed like bringing suffering, like what the Kyuubi Attack had done, had just made people angry and paranoid, choosing to abuse a child as the scapegoat for their suffering. In fact bringing pain to everyone in the name of peace seemed cruel when she looked at the individuals of the world, especially people like Mariko and the Jinchuuriki who’d already suffered so much at the hands of others. Did she…did she really want to help bring more suffering like what she and her family had experienced?
She believed in Konan-Nee and Nagato-Nii, believed that they really did want to bring peace and that they were good people but maybe… Maybe Mariko was right and someone was acting as a puppet master, leading them astray from their goal and lying to them, tricking them, so that they would help the puppetmaster with their goal while believing they were bringing peace. But who was the puppet master? They had to be someone very smart and very good at acting… Orochimaru maybe… He was a genius and a mad scientist but something about that option just felt wrong… Tobi perhaps… His outlandish nature had always felt scarily fake to Chiuske, even when she was a child and from what Mariko said he was incredibly powerful if he was giving Jinchuuriki a hard time on a regular basis…. Was Tobi ruining the goal of the Akatsuki for his own gain?
Frowning, Chisuke looks away from the fire and back towards Mariko.
“You make a good point…” says Chisuke to which Mariko looks at her with a slightly surprised expression.
“Your right in the fact that not all of the Akatsuki members are good people, your right in saying they are terrorists. I believe that like you said, some of them are good people but I’ve also concluded that you saying they were corrupted by manipulation and circ*mstance is true. Someone is manipulating the Akatsuki, there is a hidden puppet master in our organization and I think I know who it is,” says Chisuke.
“Who?” asks Mariko, raising an eyebrow.
“It’s the masked man - his name is Tobi - I don’t see him very often but he’s never as intimidating or powerful as you claim him to be. If anything he’s a goofball and a weirdo. But that goofball silly attitude he presents has always felt fake to me….like he’s pretending to be a crazy extrovert to make people trust him more. I don’t like it and I’ve never liked it. I don’t know what he wants or what he’s planning but I’m going to find out. It probably has something to do with that statue you mentioned and uh…I’ll tell you about what I find. If Tobi’s motives turn dark and cruel and he is planning to hurt people like your little brother then I can’t stop him by myself. I’ll need help so - consider this as a helping hand - you and your father have a spy in the Akatsuki,” says Chisuke, her hands shaking slightly but her eyes held firm with a new determination. However before Mariko can speak Chisuke continues on.
“I don’t want to make everyone suffer pains like mine or like yours - some people have suffered enough and other people need karma of some kind but… to make the whole world suffer to bring peace feels wrong now that you’ve contextualized it for me and I don’t think it would even work anyway… I believe in bringing peace, just like what Konan-Nee and Nagato-Nii want, but I think we need to go about it in a different way….. So thank you - thank you for making me see that truth before I fell too far into the wrong ideal,” says Chisuke, a grateful tone making its way into her voice at the end. Mariko stares at her for a moment, absolutely dumbfounded, before the younger girl blinks and gets back to reality.
“Your welcome Chisuke…I’m glad I could help… and thank you too. Having a spy inside of the Akatsuki will be incredibly advantageous for us,” says Mariko, smiling brightly at Chisuke who returns the gesture with a small smile of her own.
“Don’t get things mixed up though - I still hate the Ninja Villages for what they’ve done, even more so now that I know how they’ve treated their Jinchuurikis and you, but destroying them entirely and slaughtering everyone inside as my first instinct feels wrong, plenty of those people are completely innocent or just misguided and acting out of fear and a lack of understanding. So while my gut tells me to destroy the places and people I hate, the rest of me thinks a different approach would be necessary, one where they’re educated and taught to be better but… People may not listen to such an approach, force often works far better in our world than empathy,” says Chisuke.
“Well I mean my empathy worked on you… I showed you compassion by helping protect and heal you even after you tried to kill me, I offered to listen if you were struggling and I helped change your mind about a bad way of thinking so if my empathy can work on someone as angry as you I think empathy overall will work on a majority of people,” says Mariko, shrugging as her tone becomes hopeful.
“Maybe…I think this world just needs to be taught to be kinder,” says Chisuke.
“Oh it definitely does,” says Mariko, nodding in agreement.
The two fall into silence for a little bit before this time it’s Mariko breaking the silence.
“You know if you ever want to live in a Ninja Village that’s actually kind and treats everyone in its borders well then you could move to Uzushio. Just give me a couple years to rebuild it and track down the surviving clan members and you could join us, we’d gladly welcome your presence. We even have a habit of picking up the lost and downtrodden and taking them home. My mom likes to joke that it’s ingrained into the Uzumaki Nature to want to adopt sad broken people,” says Mariko, chuckling
“Hmmm…I think - I think I’d like that… Amegakure has never really felt like home to me, it’s too cold and dark and the constant rain is just depressing,” says Chisuke.
“Well then you're welcome to join me and everyone else I bring along on Uzushio, we’ll be happy to have you. Plus I think Kakashi-Nii will be glad to know he’s not the last of his clan,” says Mariko, smiling cheerily.
“Huh?” asks Chisuke, raising an eyebrow.
“Sakumo’s son - his name is Kakashi - my dad adopted him a bit after he became one of his Genin students so he’s my big brother,” says Mariko.
“Oh. I uh - I honestly thought my cousin was dead,” says Chisuke, briefly looking away from the redhead.
“Oh come on - tell me you’ve heard of the Copy-Ninja,” says Mariko, her tone joking as she gently nudges Chisuke with her elbow.
“Well yeah I’ve heard of him, I just always thought the stories were exaggerated or just plain made up,” says Chisuke, rolling her eyes.
“Well they're true and I’m sure he’d love to meet you,” says Mariko.
“Hmmm…I think I’d like to meet him too,” says Chisuke.
“Well you can, he didn’t come with us to Iwa for the Chuunin Exams but I’m sure we can arrange a meeting at some point,” says Mariko.
“Ha. Thanks - your uh - your way to nice you know that?” asks Chisuke.
“Nah! I’d say I’m the perfect level of nice,” says Mariko before both girls burst into a fit of laughter. As it dies down Chisuke looks up towards the stars.
“This is…nice, I’ve never really had friends before…” says Chisuke.
“Really?” asks Mariko.
“Yup, no friends. I was a loner, spent most of my time training by myself, studying or being with Konan-Nee and Nagato-Nii, most of the other kids I ran into were scared of me and all that but you - you're not scared at all,” says Chisuke.
“Oh no I’m definitely not scared of you, I mean, you are a bit scary but I’ve seen angry gods up close and nearly died to a demon dog the other day so you really aren’t all that scary by comparison,” says Mariko, chuckling.
“Hm, I think I’ll take that as a compliment,” says Chisuke to which Mariko giggles.
“Well I should get some sleep, Daiki said we’ll be walking most of the day before we reach the center building tomorrow,” says Chisuke as she begins shifting back towards her bed roll.
“Yeah good night Chisuke, sleep well,” says Mariko.
Chisuke offers her a smile as she lays back down. Soon Chisuke drifts off into sleep and Mariko goes back to watching for danger, in about an hour she’d be waking Hanako up for the next watch shift.
Hopefully everything would be fine by tomorrow…
THE NEXT DAY
THE LAND OF STONE
IWAGAKURE
THE FOREST OF DEMONS
THIRD PERSON POV
“Guys…we’ve got three Chakra signatures coming up…” says Mariko holding up her hand to halt their group.
“What should we do?” asks Suzume.
“I have an idea,” says Mariko.
In a puff of white smoke one of Mariko’s foxes, a regular fox without a tail, appears in front of her.
“Okay little buddy I need you to scout ahead for me, check out the team and if you see that they have an Earth scroll I need you to steal it, can you do that for me?” asks Mariko. The fox yips and nods at Mariko, its tail wagging before it runs off into the bushes.
“Okay now we wait for my fox to come back - if it comes back with the scroll great, if not that’s fine too - then I can lead us around the other team,” says Mariko.
“Seems reasonable,” says Kai, nodding as the others murmur other agreements.
The teens wait for a few minutes, taking the time to rest for a bit before the bushes shake and Mariko’s fox runs over to where she’d sat down on a rock, an Earth Scroll clutched in between its teeth.
“Oh good job little guy! Thanks,” says Mariko, laughing as she rubs the fox behind its ears.
Taking the scroll from her fox Mariko pockets it and lets the Fox go back to its den in a puff of white smoke. Mariko then goes about leading her team around the unknown team with Daiki’s help to make sure they stay on course towards the center building.
After about another hour of walking Daiki leads them into a large clearing where they all cheer at the sight of the round circular building.
“Finally! I’m so over this busted leg,” says Chisuke as they all walk over to the building. Chisuke’s teammates carefully set her on the ground before pulling out their set of scrolls, the Tani Trio and Mariko and Hanako also pull out their sets.
“Okay - we’ll all open them together in three … two … one!” says Mariko and at once all three sets of scrolls are torn open and a second later three puffs of white smoke appear. When the smoke clears three Iwa Shinobi are standing there.
“Hi! We finished the test and our friend is hurt - think we could go back to the village now?” asks Mariko, gesturing over to Chisuke. The Iwa Shinobi standing in front of the kids from Ame kneels down next to Chisuke. The Shinobi is a dark haired woman in a standard uniform with green eyes, freckles and fair skin. The woman looks over Chisuke’s clearly injured leg before nodding.
“Well you all did make it to the building with your sets of scrolls - so congratulations! You’ve passed this section of the exam!” says the woman, offering the teenagers a smile.
The kids then stand, Chisuke getting picked up by her teammates as the adults lead them to the large wooden doors of the building. The woman unlocks the doors with a golden key and lets the kids inside. They all go inside and the woman shuts and locks the door behind them as one of the men with her goes over to an empty wall and presses one of the stones. The ground shakes and slides around, revealing a neatly carved hole and a spiral staircase heading down.
“Wow…that tunnel goes down deep,” says Hanako, peering down the hole, her eyes glowing red with her base level Sharringan. Hanako blinks and her eyes go back to normal as one of the male Iwa ninja uses a fire jutsu to light up some torches lining the wall along the stone stairs. The adults then lead the teens down the steps in a single file line.
“Damn, a fall from this height would not be pretty,” says Mariko as she carefully peers over the edge of the steps before continuing on walking downwards.
“Yeah you guys should really put in some handrails or something - ‘cause this is not up to stair safety code,” says Suzume as one of her hands trails along the wall as she was putting as much distance between herself and the deadly drop as possible.
“Ha! Try telling the Tsuchikage that,” says the Iwa woman, laughing.
“Oh I could totally tell him that,” mutters Mariko under her breath.
The group walk down for a few more minutes before they finally reach the bottom of the stairs and stare down a long tunnel filled with torches and dirt.
“Come on kiddos - the walk will take us a few hours but then we’ll come topside in the village outside of the hell forest,” says the Iwa woman to which the teens nod and keep following her down the tunnel.
A COUPLE OF HOURS LATER
THE LAND OF STONE
IWAGAKURE
THIRD PERSON POV
Mariko laughs as she hugs her parents, feeling a lot happier as they immediately hug her back.
“Oh my gosh you're okay! I was very worried,” says Kushina as Mariko pulls back to look at them.
“Well I’m okay. I only almost died three times and the gods were a big help. Also I made a new friend,” says Mariko, pointing over to where Chisuke, who was completely healed up now, was talking with Konan.
“While I’m glad you made a new friend and passed this section of the Exams sweetie - you almost died!?” asks Kushina, her voice turning worried.
“Yup, one time from a Demon Dog, one time from a really big Demon, Hanako used her Totem to get us a savior, and Chisuke tried to kill me - and then that big Demon attacked us and we saved her and chatted and now we’re friends,” says Mariko.
“You made friends…with someone who tried to kill you…” says Minato, eyebrows furrowing.
“Yup,” says Mariko, nodding.
“Why am I not even surprised by that?” asks Minato, sighing in fond exasperation.
“I actually have a lot of important stuff to tell you guys about but that can wait for now. I want a hot meal and nap,” says Mariko.
“Well then we can get you both of those things,” says Kushina as Hanako, Tsunade and Umi walk up to them.
“WEll congratulations on passing this part of the test girls, all that’s left is the one on one sparring matches,” says Tsunade.
“Yup and I think we’ll do pretty good on those,” says Mariko.
“Well we know you will Mariko, you're a vicious fighter, I just worry about my chances, close quarters combat isn’t my strong suit,” says Hanako, rubbing the back of her neck a bit sheepishly.
“Don’t worry Hanako - you're still a good close quarters fighter even if it’s not your best area. Besides, even those couple days of training with Tsunade and Kenji did a lot of good for you in terms of improvement,” says Umi, giving Hanako an encouraging pat on the shoulder.
“Yeah Hanako you’ll do great,” says Mariko, smiling.
“Thanks guys,” says Hanako, smiling gratefuly.
“Hey guys! We were going to go get some Ramen - Kasumi-Sensei found a shop while we were out testing - wanna come?” asks Suzume as she jogs over to the little group of Konoha residents.
“Ramen!? Yes please!” says Kushina, her eyes practically lighting up with stars.
“Well I guess we’re getting Ramen then,” says Minato, chuckling as they begin following Suzume back to her team. As they walk past Chisuke and Konan Mariko waves and Chisuke shoots them a quick smile.
TWO DAYS LATER
THE LAND OF STONE
IWAGAKURE
A HOTEL FOR VISITORS TO THE VILLAGE
THIRD PERSON POV
Mariko flops onto her bed and takes in a deep sigh. The numbers of competing Genin were even smaller now as they had been announced earlier that day by Onoki.
One team from Kumo had been eliminated killed - (thanks Chisuke.)
One Konoha team had also been killed by Chisuke and another one had been eliminated fairly.
One team from Suna had apparently been killed by a Demon.
Two teams from Iwa had been eliminated.
One team from Kiri had died from that Demon Dog’s attack.
That left one team from Kumo, one team from Ame, one team from Tani, one team from Kiri, two teams from Suna, two teams from Iwa and two other teams from Konoha not including Mariko and Hanako. The final round of the exams would certainly be interesting with so many people Mariko knew personally competing but it would be interesting if she had to fight one of her friends.
Gods she was really looking forward to the end of the Chuunin Exams…
