Chapter 25: twenty-four: only to fall againSummary:
"Courage in danger is half the battle."
Plautus
Notes:
I do not own Naruto.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Becoming Hokage 101
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Section Five
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Chapter Twenty Four
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Travelling with Jiraya isn't quite as bad as I'd thought it'd be, in all honesty.
'Of course I don't love it, but considering the situation altogether, Team Choza could've been far worse.'
"Hey, do you think we're getting any closer?" Genma asks me in a strained voice from his position on the floor, trying to keep up with Gai's insane stretches.
"To where that person is? I honestly have no idea." I shrug kind of helplessly, watching as our green-clad teammate pulls off yet another ridiculous yoga position. "I kind of know what the iron in her blood is supposed to feel like, but I feel as if we won't find her unless she allows us to."
"Jiraya-sama seems to know exactly where she is, though." Gai quicks up, jumping to an upright position.
"They were teammates for a long time, so I suppose he does know her better than a lot of people, but I wouldn't say he knows where she is." I shrug again, not wanting to influence the boys' opinions more than I already have.
"I know he's a war hero and all that but-" The 13 year old boy groans and falls to the floor with a dramatic sigh, rubbing his back. "- he leaves us at the nearest inn every night to go off on his adventures. What does he think we are?"
I glance outside, where the moon is shining high up in the cloudless sky. I hadn't quite wanted to, but as the team leader, it was obvious my attitude towards Jiraya would become the norm.
I sincerely don't know how to feel about that man. On one hand, logic tells me that he'd never let anything happen to me or my teammates. On the other, I don't quite feel that… reliable energy oozing off him like I do with Choza or Shikaku or Fugaku. For a week now, we've been making good progress by foot during the day, looking around Tanzaku Town and its surrounding smaller villages, but when the sun starts to set Jiraya is quick to find an inn to drop us off. He then proceeds to disappear until the wee hours of the morning, with iron flowing rapidly and in short jumps through his blood vessels.
I've been treating him with detached respect, and the boys have been following my lead, although quite confusedly at first. Gai's suggested we actually ask for advice from him, since he's the Frog Sage, but Genma was quick to join me in my sourness. At the end of the day, Jiraya is a loyal and capable shinobi, but I don't know him personally, and something about his flamboyant personality, eyes full of contempt, and his perverted side grate on my nerves.
'Is he upset at me because I obviously had a hand in dethroning his teacher and making his teammate flee the village? Does he seriously think I'm the mastermind behind all that?'
"We live in a strange world, and everyone has their own quirks." The eleven year old sits next to me on the bed and shrugs, an unusual moment of seriousness in the air. "I mean; look at me."
"Well you're-"
"-you're perfect just the way you are." I blurt out, interrupting Genma. "You're out here, proving everyone wrong when they said you couldn't be a taijutsu specialist."
My teammate grins brightly at me, a cute blush on his cheeks.
"Thank you, Most Youthful Chiyuki! I, too, think you're on a path to-"
"-what's this, therapy hour?" The oldest grumbles, clearly embarrassed about having to talk about feelings.
"Aww, is wittle Genma too shy to talk about his love for us?" I tease him with a grin and watch delighted as he clearly takes the bait and pounces on me, making the three of us jump on the bed.
"You little shit, I'll show you-!"
"Youthful Genma, there's no need to be embarrassed of Youthful Feelings of Love-!"
I laugh as his face becomes scarlet red, all the way to the tip of his ears, growling as he cages us both in his arms.
"Bloody hell, you're both unbearable!" And giggles fill the room as easily as the night comes.
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As we always do on missions, we put the beds close together and decide on the first watch with rock-paper-scissors. I'd lost, and so I'd be the first to go. After that, it'd be Gai, then Genma.
"Don't sit too close to the window." The oldest says after a yawn, laying down on the bed against the wall.
"I won't." I reply, shuffling to stay in touching range of Gai's bed, the one closest to the door.
"Good night, my youthful teammates!" Said boy chirps and promptly hides under his blanket, breathing becoming soft after only a few seconds.
"Good night." I say with a smile, sharing an amused look with Genma.
"Good night." The boy whispers, lying on his side and closing his eyes.
Nearly two hours pass in the quiet of the night. As uneventful as this trip has been, we're still in the middle of a war, and even though Jiraya said he'd be nearby, there's no way we can sleep without someone keeping watch.
It's almost time for me to wake Gai up when I notice a small butterfly coming through the cracks of the closed window. It's beautiful, with flaming red wings and what looks to be two pairs of eyes, one blue, the other a blend of yellow, blue, and pink.
'How cute.'
I reach out a finger and it soon lands on it, and I watch mesmerized as it seems to walk leisurely on my hand.
"How odd. You're not supposed to be awake at this time, cutie." I whisper, and it moves its wings twice.
It makes me notice the quietness outside, and a chill runs down my spine.
'Something's wrong.'
The little insect flies away, but my mind is already working a thousand miles a second, the butterfly forgotten.
'It's not supposed to be this quiet. I can't hear the frogs, or the rustling of the leaves, or-'
I tense in the split second of stillness.
"Move!" I bark out in a loud voice, jumping to my now awake teammates' side as the room we were in explodes, millions of tiny pieces of wood flying under the moonlight.
Dark ebony hair flutters in the wind, a mocking smile on a face as pale as the moon. Heart hammering in my chest, I take on the destroyed part of the inn and the low, hissing sound that almost seems right by my ear.
"Hello, little princess."
My throat closes up and my blood turns to ice. Genma and Gai move to stand next to me, and I do my best to shove the gut-wrenching fear I feel to the back of my mind.
"Orochimaru." I'm surprised at how steady my voice sounds despite the sheer terror that's threatening my sanity.
"Hm, you don't seem very happy to see me. But then again, you never did."
I remain silent, not wanting to play his little mind games. Every word I speak can and will be used to manipulate me, and at this point it's best to just stall for as long as possible.
'We just have to hang on until Jiraya arrives.'
"Snake got your tongue? Your little teammates', as well." The man hums, and the energy shifts. The boys follow my lead and keep quiet, tensing next to me.
'Just a little bit more. He's coming.'
The Snake Sage starts to walk towards us in a leisurely manner, looking almost harmless. Pure instinct makes me activate the iron armor despite the chakra drain, legs tensing to quickly get out of the way.
'He's coming. Right?'
"Oh, you don't have to make that face. I'll be quick with them."
'Right?!'
"But with you, I'll take my sweet time."
His impossibly long tongue shoots out of his stretched mouth aiming straight at me, and I quickly jump out of the way. A pale arm is soon to follow, trying to grab my neck.
"Leaf hurricane!"
Gai hits the outstretched arm so hard I feel the iron in the man's blood rattling, but no bone breaks. Poisoned senbon rain down on the area, but somehow none of them hit Orochimaru who doesn't even seem to move from his spot.
My green-clad teammate is a blur, hitting the man and disappearing right as the hit lands, only to repeat the process at a frightening speed. Yet, the efforts seem to be useless, as Orochimaru effortlessly blocks all the attacks thrown at him. Genma continues to throw his senbon one after the other wherever Gai isn't attacking, and I form a quick plan in my mind.
'There's no way we can do this.' I think, barely holding onto my sanity, his chakra weighing down on my body. My mind goes back to the Chunin Exams, when the Snake Sage toyed with Team 7 as if they were mere dolls.
"Gai! I yell out, kneeling on the ground and making the tiger hand sign, focusing my attention and my chakra on my opponent. "Go look for Jiraya! Genma, cover!"
It's a testament to how much we trust each other that both boys dart in opposite directions as soon as they hear my voice. While the fastest and close-combat teammate is the most likely to find Jiraya in the shortest time possible, the oldest and long-ranged teammate is perfect to give me cover for something I'd only attempted once or twice.
While Gai disappears into the trees, Genma burrows into the ground and starts to lay a deadly trap of wire and poisoned senbon, and while I have no hope we'll win this, I'm confident we can buy some time, at the very least.
Orochimaru steps forward and activates the trap, immediately becoming entangled in a mess of sharp wire and poisoned senbon that clearly cut into his skin. While he's distracted, I focus on the iron pumping in his blood, flowing at a steady pace even during the middle of a battle. My hands clench into the tiger sign as I drop the armor, and in my head I bark out an order for the iron in his blood cells.
'Iron Release: Blood Manipulation.'
The Snake Sage stops moving, a surprised look on his face. Two seconds pass and his body falls to the ground heavily, still stuck in a mess of wire and senbon. Blood starts to drip from his nose and mouth, expression shifting to one of pure rage.
"You… what have you done?!"
Sweat starts to drip down my neck as I continue to focus on the iron in his blood, unmoving and immobile as his blood cells start to shrivel from the poisoned senbon.
"Oh, you'll pay dearly for this… Forget being Hokage, you'll die here!"
A scream tears through the forest; a gut wrenching sound that stills my heart and makes my focus waver.
"Gai!" Genma shouts, starting to sprint towards the sound.
"Oh no, you won't." A giant snake bursts from the ground right in front of the teenage boy, giving him no time to react as it sings its fangs on his neck. In a couple of seconds he falls to the ground, twitching and foaming at the mouth.
'Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no.'
I let go of the jutsu, stumbling to where Genma is. I adjust his body so that he won't choke, but with how quickly he's becoming pale, choking might be the least of his problems.
"As for you…" A hand grips my throat tightly, cutting off my breathing. I claw at the arm, quickly losing any sort of logical thought I'd had. "I'll enjoy breaking you, bit by bit."
A split second of air, sweet air, before I'm soaring through the air, body colliding heavily against the trees.
'Fuck. Shit. Fuck!'
My mind gives up on assessing injuries to focus all my energy and willpower in surviving. I cough a couple of times as I shakily get up, something red and warm staining my clothes more and more with each mouthful of air. I put up the iron armor again, despite the protest from my chakra reserves and my abused limbs. It helps little against the fist that crushes my head to the forest floor, barely preventing me from breaking my skull.
"That technique you showed there was quite fascinating, I must say. Is it similar to the Shodaime's Wood Release?" His hissing voice seems far away, until he decides I've rested enough and sends me soaring through the trees again.
"Shall I take you to my lab? Open you up like a little lab mouse, poke and prod at every inch?" Even though I can barely see anything through my blurry vision, Orochimaru sounds almost excited at the prospect of researching something he's never seen before.
'Should I use one of Shikaku's seals? Is it even gonna work?'
I black out for one, maybe two seconds, and then there's something crushing my body from all sides, squeezing until I hear a couple of cracks.
I cough up something thick and warm, feeling it drip down my throat. The pain is unlike I've ever felt before, constricting and maddening, making my head throb and my vision to black out every so often. Burning, stabbing pain shoots up from my ribs and makes me choke in my own blood, and I feel my body sag outside of my will.
'You're not gonna get what you want.'
A sibilant laugh claws its way through my foggy brain, and it wakes me enough to focus the last of my energy on my own blood cells. As the darkness welcomes me like an old friend, they stop moving and quickly start to vibrate in place.
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On the night before we're set out to depart from the village in search of Tsunade, Shikaku double checks the seals on my wrist, and if I didn't know better, I'd say he's fidgeting.
"I know the situation isn't ideal, but Jiraya-sama is a trust-worthy shinobi. He won't let anything happen to you or the boys." It almost sounds as if he's saying that more to himself than me, but I merely nod.
"I know." I reply, watching as the clan head gently lets my wrist go with a sigh.
"Don't be reckless."
"Okay."
"Call for help if you need to."
"I will."
Shikaku has a multitude of shadows on his eyes when he looks at me, and when they start to dance I lean forward and rest my face in the crook of his neck.
"I'll come back."
We don't hug each other, but he does lean his head against mine.
"I'll be waiting."
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