There was silence, nothing more than that. Some dust was falling down the hole that was sealed two seconds after she fell into the abyss.
It was difficult for her to move due to the heavy fall, but that didn't stop her from holding a kunai in her hand, after all she was accompanied by the enemy, who at that moment just woke up. Ajisai waited patiently lying on the ground holding the kunai.
Meanwhile, Tenten held a glow stick in her hand that she took out of a scroll along with some canteens with water. She got up from the ground and looked around until she found Ajisai lying on the ground.
"Hey, are you okay?" Ajisai didn't respond and prepared to attack, but Tenten sighed. "You know this isn't a good time to fight, right?"
Ajisai put away the kunai and sat down on the ground with her back to Tenten. Seeing this, Tenten smiled and took one of the canteens with water and offered it to Ajisai. "Here. For now we'll have a truce until we get out of here, is that okay with you?" however, Ajisai shook her head.
"It's fine with me, but... I don't accept charity from the big countries."
"Charity?"
Tenten didn't know what Ajisai was talking about. She cocked her head curiously and then watched as she pulled out a card with a painted seal on it.
"Kaifū no Jutsu [Unbroken Seal Jutsu]." Ajisai placed the card on the ground and a small of cloud exploded, revealing a water bottle made of bamboo. Ajisai drank the water and then put it back in the card again.
"You could have told me you had that" Tenten complained a little. She watched Ajisai put the bottle away.
"Hm... big countries don't know what pain is."
"Pain? What are you talking about?"
To Tenten, Ajisai's words made no sense at all. She simply brought up that topic of conversation at a random moment. This left her confused, but Ajisai continued talking.
"Of that sort of thing. They don't know or understand the pain they cause to small countries."
"I still don't know what you're talking about. Still, we have to make an effort to get out of here, but..." She looked everywhere. Everything was strange because of the symbols carved into the sandstone of the walls. Tenten didn't know where she had gotten herself into. "What the hell is this place?"
"It's obviously ancient ruins from the wind country. Judging by their appearance, this is an information gallery, but there are no scrolls or anything like that. Possibly it was all destroyed in the past."
"Hum...~ it doesn't look like it, but there are shelves here and there" Tenten touched the walls carefully and checked the places trying to find a way out, but there was nothing. "Looks like we'll have to look for a way out somewhere else."
"Ouch..."
At the least expected moment, something small fell on Ajisai's head. This caused her to let out a small whimper of pain much like that of a child or a kitten. Tenten looked at her and tried to contain her laughter. Despite the very suspicious attitude she had, she seemed to be hiding very interesting things.
As for what fell on Ajisai's head, it was a worn and broken scroll.
She took this in her hands and looked at it for a few seconds. Then she kept it in the pouch tied to her thigh thinking it would come in handy later and looked down the large hallway that stretched the length of the place.
"So we're leaving already?"
"I think so..." Ajisai said.
***
Minutes passed and both girls walked around looking for an exit. To the bad luck of both of them, many of the possible exits ended in dead ends or collapsed structures that seemed to have interesting things.
Tenten felt that the silence was getting more and more uncomfortable. Ajisai didn't speak, she just stared straight ahead with an expressionless and sometimes somewhat annoyed face. That was why she decided to talk about something and avoid dying of embarrassment in this crushing silence.
"And how are your teammates?"
"What do you mean?" Ajisai answers with another question.
"Well... my teammates aren't good at finding people. So I'll have to go out on my own."
"I see. I'll have to go out on my own too."
Nothing more was said after that.
Ajisai thought he had to find a way to find out if Tenten has the scroll. He looked at Tenten's flat body with an expressionless face, but found no clue at a glance.
"They say it rains in Amegakure all year round, is that true?"
"Yes, it is true."
"Wow... I can't imagine something like that."
"Yeah..."
Ajisai's cutting answers hurt Tenten's pride and patience. It didn't matter how long it had been down here, she still had that annoying and distant attitude. Tenten was already getting a vein swelling in her forehead because of it.
"You know... you've been acting like that ever since we fell here, but it's his fault that we don't know anything about Amegakure. They say it's a country that depends on its secrets. Does it really have that many important secrets?" Tenten shook her head. "Still, you can come to my village or Suna whenever you want, but if I went to Amegakure I couldn't, could I?"
"You are correct. But that's just an important precaution for Amegakure, it's no big deal."
"Ha~ there are small countries, but Amegakure sure is pretty special."
"Yes... Amegakure is special."
Because there's Toru, that's what Ajisai thought at that moment.
-Three months ago-
Ajisai's whole team fought against that dark angel, but they were easily outmatched and defeated. The angel had wild but graceful movements. His daggers moved like two strange glowing lights that would tear the life out of anyone who came near.
It was a superior existence, someone mysterious who has not even shown his face, but judging by his voice, they were sure that this angel was a man.
The angel was standing in front of them as the rain drenched their clothes. It seemed that the darkness of the night embraced him, at the same time, the light of death illuminated his eyes.
"You three have quite a bit of potential. You lack fixing some things like your taijutsu, but the coordination you guys have is perfect. I like that..."
The dark angel sat up in the air as if something invisible was holding it up. "Now what else do we do? My lab has barely started its construction. So I have nothing to do until I finish the construction of the entire building" Playing a little with the strips of cloth on his hat, the dark angel smiled.
There was something he wanted to try, something he had never done in his life. Besides, to do this he would have to act differently than usual.
So, Ajisai watched as the angel walked towards her. When he arrived, the angel bent down, grabbed her chin and forced her to look him in the eyes. Ajisai could see how an X slowly turned inside the iris of each of the angel's eyes. They were strange, sky-blue eyes that glowed faintly.
"May I know your name?"
"A... Ajisai..."
"Ajisai-san, uh..." The dark angel smiled and slowly took off his hat. Suiren and Fuyo almost choked on their own saliva when they saw that this angel looked just as young as them.
He was a handsome boy, with a fine girl-like face. His hair was black and his eyes were silver after the dying light disappeared. His face showed a kind and understanding smile. Besides that this boy's hand somehow felt quite soft to the touch. Because Ajisai was close to him, he could notice a scent much like vanilla cookies.
"I see in you... there is something I can see in you... in your eyes, in your helpless body, in your hands that have worked quite hard. I see pain in you. You have suffered a lot, Ajisai-san" In fact, Toru didn't see any of that. He simply came to the perfect conclusion after analyzing Ajisai. Her hands were not soft like those of a girl her age, her gaze was a bit dull and her body seemed to accept death without any fear.
When she heard this, Ajisai's eyes widened a little and she raised her head a little more.
There was someone here, who saw through her easily.
"May I know their names too?" Toru asked, and they introduced themselves right away.
"I am... Fuyo..."
"My name is Suiren."
Toru thought for a second. He gently let go of Ajisai and stood up. "Ajisai-san, Fuyo-san and Suiren-san. I won't forget your names. They will work for me from now on."
Well, Ajisai wasn't completely sure about this. But it was Konan who ordered them, so they could not disappoint her. From now on they were to follow this boy's orders.
"Those of us who know pain are able to move on."
"Huh?"
Expectant at Toru's sudden words, the girls were confused. They saw Toru look up at the sky with a calm smile.
"You guys know the pain... the pain of losing what you love the most. That's why I know we can get along from now on. My name is Toru, and I belong to the extinct Asahi clan. I am an orphan, and it seems that you are too."
They understood now why such a young boy wears Akatsuki's clothes. They understood why someone from Konoha is in this village. They saw the Konoha bandana with the symbol crossed out by a line. A renegade ninja, a dark angel that the world turned its back on. One who understands the pain of others is one who has experienced even worse pain.
Ajisai looked at the scene of the boy watching the rainy sky. He was lonely and beautiful. And though she might not be able to trust that boy, maybe... he could lead her back to the light.
"I have some free time. Come early tomorrow morning to this place. From now on you will use the pain you feel to move forward. The pain will strengthen your bodies and hearts. The pain... will lead you to fulfill what you most desire..."
This was Toru imitating Pain. He thought that this way he could make these girls trust him. Which worked, after all they were easily influenced by Konan's words about changing the world. Normally, when human beings feel cornered and fearful, they look for someone who can give them hope.
They have found that hope. They found Toru.
***
A few minutes passed while these girls searched for the exit, but in vain. They could not find anything. Now they were resting for a while sitting on some rubble that was near a column.
Ajisai was drinking water and eating a dry bread. Tenten was fixing some old seals.
For a few seconds Ajisai thought about the scroll that fell on her head. So he took it out of his bag and looked at it carefully.
"What is that?" asked Tenten.
"It fell on my head when we got here."
"Oh, so that's what it was."
"Yes..."
Ajisai opened the scroll and there she found a very familiar emblem. Tenten looked at this and almost fell head over heels when she saw that the emblem that was the emblem of the Uchiha clan. It was a scroll that belonged to someone from the Uchiha clan or was written by an Uchiha.
There was quite a bit of textual content on the scroll, however, most of it was quite poorly preserved to the point that only 20% of what was there was readable.
One of the halfway understandable paragraphs read:
[The mystery remains undisclosed. We only know his name, but not his abilities. He seems to be someone dangerous]
After that, much of the text is impossible to read. Although there are also other understandable paragraphs.
[The war continues. Senju Hashirama is ......... we will not be able to continue like this. But .........]
[That man challenged Madara-sama....
That man.......... Zel........ he can st.........]
[It was to be expected, not everyone will be willing to fight in the war. That's why Uchiha T........... but he died......... we will take his corpse, but not...........]
[Zel........... completely. Madara-sama continues to wait. We will continue to wait.........]
"What is that... Uchiha Madara? The one who died fighting the first Hokage?" Tenten, even though she didn't understand most of what was written on the scroll, could only turn her attention to one specific name.
Ajisai seemed to understand a bit more of it. Apparently, at that time there was a dangerous man who challenged Madara, people who didn't want to participate in the wars and also an Uchiha who died whose name starts with the letter T. Although for Ajisai, these historical accounts no longer have any value if the information has been drastically corrupted by the passing of time.
"Uchiha... the Sharingan clan, right?" Ajisai asked.
"Yes... that clan is the one that carries those crazy powerful eyes. I met an Uchiha two years ago. But now he's gone, I won't talk much about it because I literally don't know anything."
'Hum... the Sharingan is red... Toru-sama's eyes are blue. Toru-sama said he belongs to the Asahi clan, so he's not an Uchiha... I should take this scroll to him, he might be interested in reading it' Ajisai got up from the rubble and put the water bottle away in a stamped card. Then he looked at the surroundings. "Shall we continue?" asking Tenten, Ajisai held two cards in his hands.
"Of course!"
***
One hour... one hour passed and nothing. No sign, no little glimmer of hope, nothing. They could not find any way out and this was beginning to bother them.
It even seemed like they were walking in circles. Although they could confirm that they were not because they left some marks so as not to return to the same place where they started.
"I'm getting tired of this already. Looks like we'll have to-"
"Shhh..."
Ajisai shushed Tenten and pulled out a kunai. Just then, in front of them a giant two-meter tall ant walked somewhere.