Kakashi’s POV
Wood, she had wood release. I thought the only one who had it is Yamato, but she used it to capture Kiyoko. This doesn’t make sense at all. Kiyoko’s wounds were a little more serious than I thought, turns out she had some internal bleeding, the pressure of the wood wrapped around her cause it, but Lady Tsunade healed her, and she was going to be just fine. I sit down by her bedside, her right leg and right wrist is wrapped in gauze, what had she seen? What did she go through, while she fought them alone?
Her black hair was spread out in her pillow, she had recovered the color in her face. Someone knocks on the door, and enters. I see Yamato slide the door open.
“She’s not awake yet?” I shake my head, its been two days already, and she hasn’t opened her eyes yet, or moved her hands, no movement.
“Do you think her half sister was an experiment too? Maybe Orochimaru is working with that Village as well.” He says. I don’t know what to think, maybe Kiyoko knows, she’ll tell us.
Kiyoko’s POV
My body feels like lead, i hear voices, but I can’t distinguish what they are saying. I try to move my legs and arms, but its hard to do so. My wrist is bandaged and so is my leg, I feel the cloth around them. I open my eyes, my eyelids move upward, I see the white ceiling, and I hear the beeping of my heart beat. I smell the sterile hospital odor, I turn to see Kakashi and Yamato talking, they don’t notice I am awake. How long have I been out?
Yamato notices first, and Kakashi turns to see why Yamato smiles a bit.
“How are you feeling?” Kakashi asks.
“Been better.” I say, but my voice is rough, I need water. Yamato takes that as a hint and gets me a glass of water. I hold it with my left hand, afraid that my right hand still hurts. The cool liquid feels heavenly as it coats my dry throat with moisture.
“How long have I been out?”
“Two days. Any other person would have been out for much longer, but you heal at an incredible rate,” Kakashi says. Yamato bites hit inner cheek, like he wants to say something but doesn’t. He must have questions, and so do I?
“You can ask me Yamato, I’ll answer them as best as I could.” Feeling my body lighten as I adjusted to the world again. Yamato sighs.
“You said your half sister, Asami, used the Wood release.” He says. I nod.
“Do you know how she got it?”
I shake my head. “That was my first time I ever saw her. My father remarried, and had her. She said she didn’t want to use it, but I left her no choice. It looked like it took a lot of chakra out of her.”
Yamato nods. He puts his hand under his chin, thinking of it. Why is the wood release so interesting?
“Why is the Wood release so important? What is it?” I ask. Kakashi replies, Yamato is still thinking.
“Well, the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju was the only person who could use Wood Release. Wood is a hard nature to use, and its very powerful, that’s why its so important. If you have wood style, then you can control the tailed beast much easier. Yamato has Wood style, because he has the cells of the first Hokage in him. No one else has it, but Asami used it, and we don’t know if she is a descendant of the senju, or if she had the cells of the first hokage implanted in her.”
No wonder I couldn’t break through, wood is powerful, that’s why I felt panicked when I was stuck in the cage.
“I think its the latter of the two. My father and my mother were born and raised in the Moon Village, and so was my grandparents, and generations before them.”
“ There could be a possibility that Asami’s mother is a senju,” Yamato implies. That can be a possibility. There was so many possibilities, we can’t be sure if any of them are true or false. The only way to find the answers, is to ask my father personally, but I wouldn’t want to see his face in this lifetime. Its too dangerous to infiltrate the Moon and search for answers, who knows how strong the ninja there are.
I have two less days of a month, to get ready for the individual duals. I want to jump out of bed, and get to training, and to perfecting more jutsus, but I know its impossible with these two in the way. Kakashi won’t let me out of here until I am recovered, considering the last time I pushed myself too hard I ended up in a genjutsu and depressed. I need a way to get them to leave, so I can escape. A knock on the door interrupts my plan. I see Hinata peak in, she smiles when she sees me. The door slides open the whole way, Hinata walks in followed by Kiba, Akamaru, and Sakura. Hinata holds a bag in her hand, I can take a guess to what it is, lunch.
“I’m so sorry Kiyoko, we should have never left you, then maybe you wouldn’t be in the state you are in. I’m very sorry.” Hinata bows, I laugh a little, she’s too polite. Kiba leans on the wall facing my bed. I’m glad to see them safe and sound.
“Its okay, I’m glad I’m in here instead of you two. I’m proud that you guys accomplished the stage for us, and warned the rest.” Kiba’s eyes don’t land on me, he’s much more serious than ever. Hinata leaves the bag on my bedside table.
“Let me guess, food?” I smile, when she nods. She unpacks it, several servings, way too much for me.
“I thought we can all eat.” Hinata gives the containers to everyone, including Kakashi who justs holds it in his hand. Is he shy to eat in public? Yamato agrees to stay, they drag chairs around my bed. I bite my bottom lip, I can’t let the tears fall. I’ve never felt important, but seeing as they gather and worry, I feel like I actually exist. Its a new experience that’ll always remind me I have a reason to live, even when I think I don’t. I wish Naruto was here to be part of it, and Sai too. I eat my food in bed, Kakashi saves his for later, I test my right hand’s mobility, and grin when I realize that it doesn’t hurt anymore. I move it in circles, bending my stiff muscles and tendons. My leg is better to, I wonder how other’s heal, if they don’t heal like me. I can’t imagine the thought of waiting weeks for an injury to heal.
“Thank you Hinata,” I say once I finish my food, the others have finished and said their goodbyes, Kakashi and Hinata are the only ones left. Its nearly sun down, and my eyes were beginning to feel heavy. Another knock wakes me, I sigh softly, I love company as long as they are as quiet as Hinata and Kakashi. Orange hair flaps into view, Eri, nope she’s not quiet.
She gives me a side smile, and slides the door behind her.
“You look like hell.” Eri laughs, and somehow I end up laughing too. Always being honest, I smooth my hair down.
“Well if you were about to be killed I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have looked all that great either.” I joke around, she chuckles, death isn’t something normal people laugh about, but I’m me, and I’m far from being a normal ninja. She sits in one of the empty chairs, with a smile plastered on her face. I didn’t know why, but seeing her smile lightened my mood.
“I’m so proud of you! You’re almost a chunin. God I remember the exams, I on the other hand didn’t get sent on to the hospital. I sent my opponents to the hospital.” She held out her arms, displaying the small biceps she had. I never knew she participated in the exams.
“So you passed?”
Eri nodded. “I even became a jounin, You know just because I’m pregnant, it doesn't I’ve always been weak. I was a badass. And now I’m stuck on the sidelines.” She pats her stomach. I try to imagine Eri in ninja gear, and a Leaf forehead protector around her head, its hard to see her in it.
“I think I’m going to need pictures to believe it,” I tease her. She smirks, and agrees to show me pictures some time. Hinata leaves for some training, leaving us three adults in the room. Eri brings her hand to her nose, “Oh god, what is that smell?”
I take a deep breathe, barely noticing the odor that lingered. It was Kakashi’s food that he didn’t eat.
“Their dumplings, Hinata made.” Eri turns green, running to the bathroom on my right, I hear her vomit. It must be a symptoms to being pregnant. But she loves dumplings.
“Do you know how hard it it to not vomit at the smell of dumplings? Its heart breaking, they’re my favorite. I guess the baby isn’t a fan of them,” Eri says as she close the bathroom door. I feel bad for her, pregnancy doesn’t seem all that fun.
“I’m going to go before I barf all over the room, I’ll come tomorrow morning.”
“That’s if I’m still in here.” I tell her before she shuts the door, keeping the smell from following her. Two days have been more than enough rest for me, my broken bones are healed, and after eating Hinata’s cooking I feel rejuvenated.
“You won’t be out of here for another couple days, so don’t even try to escape. I’m not letting you out of my sight.” Kakashi says, he pulls out a book out of his pouch.
“Oh, come on. I’m completely healed.”
Kakashi lifts his eyes from the novel, and eyebrow raised. He closes the book, setting it down on the window sill near him, before he stands up.
“Get up.” He waits for me to say something, but I obey, and sit up, my toes skim the cold ground. I trust my leg, I do. There is nothing to be afraid of, I’ll show Kakashi he doesn’t need to keep an eye on me. I hop to the ground, my leg aches from the sudden weight, I shift most of my weight to my left side, my wrist throbs from the blood flow increasing.
“See perfectly fine.”
Kakashi hums, and walks toward me, I stay in my place, scared that if I move he’ll see the balance issue. He taps my shoulder, I stay balanced, but he knows I’m not putting much weight on my leg. He’s just waiting for me to admit it. I get back into bed, I won’t say it out loud, so I’ll surrender silently. Kakashi looks satisfied as he settles back into his chair, reading. I sigh of boredom, what am I going to do. I watch as the clock ticks, its only five in the evening.
My mind wanders to the events that happened a couple days ago. Asami's wide eyes still linger in my mind. She looked terrified as the cat slashed its claws through her. It was an order that she couldn’t stop. Its the way my father programmed her to think. It always goes the way he wants it to go, because he knows how to manipulate a human’s thinking. He’s cunning, and I hate that about him. I imagine what my life would have been like if I did stay, and how it would be like if Asami and I got along like siblings. I would braid her hair, and then she would braid mine, and her mother would pack my lunch, and we’ll walk to the academy together. Then after school my father would walk us home, and we’d do homework together, and eat dinner as a family. I imagine, but I knew that if I stayed none of those things would have occurred. I would have ran away sooner or later, and I chose sooner than later.
If father wants the power so bad, why doesn’t he come personally. He’s a strong shinobi I know he is. He’s the leader of our island after all. I’ve seen him throw a few kunai here and there, they would always hit dead center of the target, he wouldn’t even look. He just threw and they landed. As a little girl, I always wanted to ask him for help, but I never had the guts to ask him. He would have rejected me anyways considering he hated me the most out of everyone in the village.
“I’m gonna go home and grab a few things. I’ll be back before you even have a chance to get out of bed, so don’t even try.” Kakashi leaves his book on his chair, and walks to the door. He makes sure I’m seated when he closes it behind him. I don’t feel up to being hunted down and scolded at, my leg isn’t in the position to run anyways. I think of all the possible things I could be doing right now, but I don’t know what I can do to pass the time.
I felt tingles run up my leg, my foot was asleep, and I knew a perfect way to make it go away. I get out of bed hopping to a wall with empty space, I face the window, and crouch down, before I kick my legs up. The sun looks like its rising rather than setting, the blood rushes to my head. I used to do this when I was younger, I forgot when was the last time I did this. I laugh a little, but the flush of blood makes me feel weird. My wrist aches a bit, but it adjusts to my weight. A little daunting idea pops into my head, you know I’ve never walked on my hands, but the boredom was killing me, I had to find something to do. I take my left hand first, and step forward, the wall behind me no longer supported my balance. It was easier than I expected, it’s like walking on your feet, but you adjust your weight in your legs when you walk on your hands.
“What are you doing?”
I turn to see Kakashi standing at the doorway, it looks like he’s hanging from the ceiling like a bat. I get back on my legs, well on my leg, sitting on the open chair. The bed was making my back ache.
“I ran into Lady Tsunade, she’ll be here in a few minutes, she wants to know everything that happened from your point of view. On que, Lady Tsunade slides the door open, a clipboard in hand. She looks at Kakashi first and then me, her eyes had some uncertainty in them.
“I’ve been given the run down, but I have yet to hear the entire story, so please enlighten us.” Lady Tsunade stands before me, she’s much more intimidating now than ever. I swallow, and gather my hands, remembering how it all began.
“Hinata, Kiba, and I had just gotten the earth scroll from another team, and we were about to leave for the tower. It was Akamaru who sensed them before any of us, they attacked me first, I was the closest one to them. Hinata told us they had their scrolls already, I asked them why they wanted the scrolls, if they had your's. It was the girl of the three, Asami, my half sister who answered me. She said they wanted me. Their appearance changed, and they showed us who they really were. Moon ninja, Asami tried to convince me to go home with her, that my father misses me and wants me to be a part of their family. I knew my father would never say that of course, she knew I wasn't going to go with them. They wanted the power I hold. I sent Hinata and Kiba to call reinforcement and sent them away from harm."
"You shouldn't have done that." Lady Tsunade says.
"The Moon Village ninjas are powerful. At a young age a ninja are sent on harder missions. An expected age to become a jounin is ten. Because the Moon village is small, the teachers spend more times with each students and help their growth. Every child must go the academy, and become a jounin, and at the age of thirty everyone has a choice to leave the ranks and work in the Village or stay a ninja. I knew that Asami, Kin, and Ken, the other two ninja were powerful, and jounin level. I couldn't let Hinata and Kiba get hurt, it was my fight, it's my past and no one should get tangled into it. After they left, I used shadow clones in my advantage. It was three cats, that they summoned and three ninja. I personally took Asami, but she had earth nature and I had water. I used tearing torrent but increased it's chakra concentration and rotation, it went through the earth wall, but I broke my wrist doing so."
I look at my wrist.
"Asami was impressed I could do that, she said she didn't want to use that jutsu, but I left her no choice. Her arm began to change, and that's the first time I saw wood release. I used paper bombs and smoke bombs to confuse them, I thought I would use that time to escape. Asami was a step ahead of me, she built a cage around me. I tried to get out, but I couldn't. She wrapped wood around me, I thought I was done for. I spit on her face, in disgust, and desperation. I thought they were finally going to get their hands on the beast, she broke my leg after I did that. Asami took the cage down, and her fingertips glowed with red chakra. She used the wood to lift my shirt and find the sealing. I closed my eyes, I didn't want to see what happened then. I saw Kakashi use his chidori to break me out. Yamato, and ANBU ninja were there too. Asami, Ken, and Kin knew they couldn't win a fight against them. So they summoned cats to kill them. The cats slashed at their bodies making sure the intel division wouldn't be able to gather an information from them," I tell her.
"It looks like someone managed to implant my grandfather's cells in her, or somehow she managed to learn wood release on her own, but that impossible if your body isn't from senju bloodline. It's a hard jutsu to learn, but it's possible as long as your descendants from a senju." Lady Tsunade taps her nails on the clipboard.
"My father is not a senju, but I don't know anything about Asami's mother."
She paces back and forth, looking for answers that weren’t there. There is no way of knowing, not without the intel that was destroyed.
“The only way to know the truth, is to go and find it.” Lady Tsunade says.
“You can’t mean actually infiltrating the village. That would only start conflict between the Leaf and the Moon,” I exclaim. Conflicts between the Leaf and the Moon, wouldn’t be a little problem, considering I am from the Moon, they’ll would probably bargain with my life. They’ll want me back, and if it endangers the people of the Leaf, I’ll be sacrificed. The Moon are strong and small, their quiet killers. They are the type of ninja someone would hire for a dirty job, murder, genocide, the skill jounin ninja from the Moon are high. I have yet to see the skill level the Leaf jounin when they are at their highest. They’ll see through any transformation jutsu, infiltrating would be near to impossible, father keeps an eye on everything, always a tight schedule, and I never knew why. He must have something to hide. Like Senju cells. The puzzle was coming along, now to know if its actually correct, that’s the tricky part.
“Of course not, who do you think I am? I’ll need to think of it more thoroughly before I make any decisions. For now focus on healing, meaning no all night training.”
They were never going to let me forget it, were they? I nod, letting her and Kakashi know I won’t be sneaking out tonight, if I’m here tomorrow, I might try it. She flips through the clipboard papers.
“Well, the internal bleeding has stopped, and everything looks normal. Your healing abilities remind me a lot of Naruto’s. I thought I could finally let loose for a while, but you're full of surprises. I’ll release you the day after tomorrow, so don’t think about sneaking out tomorrow either.”
Can she read minds?
“Right, sorry for being a bother.” I play with the hem of my shirt, not knowing what else to do under her stare. I don’t know how Sakura trains with her, I would be too intimidated to even move when we are under the same roof. I see her give me a small smile, satisfaction written over her face, but I don’t know why. She leaves without another word, I finally exhale, a breathe I didn’t know I was holding.
“I was about to tell you to breathe. Jeez you were beginning to turn blue” , Kakashi smirks, or I think he does, I can’t tell if he is when the mask is in the way.
“I brought something to pass the time, since I know you’re getting restless.” He grabs a bag he brought, but I didn’t see it before. He pulls out a large wooden box.
“Its called Shogi.”
He sets it on a stool between us, lifting the lid, and taking a board out. I’ve never seen this before, I never played around when I was a kid, and I was too busy trying to survive to notice when I was on the run. Kakashi takes out small boxes, little pieces are full of them. He starts setting them on the board.
"It's a strategical and tactical game. The goal, is to capture my king, using your other pieces.”
There were pawns, lance, knight,silver general, gold general, bishop, rook, and a king. Kakashi went on explaining every move each piece can do. I have to think like Kakashi if I want to win, always be a step ahead of him. I can’t beat him on the field, but on the board, I’ll crush him. Ever since I began training I found quality in me, I’m competitive. I hate losing, so when Kakashi is up against me, I want to win, but I always end up losing, it makes me want to train and get better.
I let him have the first move, exchange turns, we play for two hours. My pawns have been defeated and my knights and lances are the only ones defending my king, Kakashi on the other hand, still has three pawns to spare, and all of the other pieces. I tuck my hair behind my ear, what do I do now? I was a fool to be on the offensive, attacking first, leaving my defenses weak.
“I give up, you win.”
“What? You can make a comeback if you tried.”
“Not against you. I won’t let you get my king, so I surrender. Don’t let this get to your head, Kakashi. I’ll get you one day,” He stands up to stretch. I follow.
“Is there anything you’re not good at?” I ask. He’s a great ninja, and he plays shogi so well. He looks unstoppable.
“Yup, plenty of things, but I won’t tell you, that’ll make me look bad,” He says. I smile, a little, even he has an ego he wants to keep intact.
I help put the board game back in its box, it was night already, and the moon was like a slither, a clip of fingernail. The day’s events flashback into mind, especially what Lady Tsunade said.
“Kakashi can you promise me something?”
He was settling into the chair he planned to spend the night. He looks up, wondering what I was about to ask.
“Will you promise me to tell me, if Lady Tsunade does decide to infiltrate the Moon. If they do decide to do that, I want to be part of it, no one knows the island like I do.”
I explored the island as a little girl, finding ways to pass the time, since I was always alone. I know every crook and cranny of the island. I turned every rock, and smelled every flower. I know where every tree is located, I know where the weakest point of the island is. Where the easiest way to get in is. I don’t know, however, where the information they want is located. It would probably be stored away somewhere in father’s office, I do know where that is.
“She won’t send anyone out there. But I promise to tell you if she does decide to go to the Moon,” Kakashi compromises. My head rests with the answer. I pray Lady Tsunade isn’t desperate enough to actually send anyone to the isolated island, I used to call home.
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