Reborn in the Mist

Getting out of Amegakure was an easier task than getting in any day. The denizens were passively hostile to foreigners and no one was unhappy to see disloyal people leave. In fact, Mei would say she found more smiles on her way out than in.

Still, Amegakure was no slouch of a shinobi village and their domain extended well into the mud wet territories around the main village body. If she looked in the right places she’d find one or three Amegakure shinobi patrolling in the distance or keeping watch on the horizon of their border atop towers. It would be sometime before she or Daiki could relax.

They did nothing to hide the corpse of Hanzo’s loyalist in their apartment, Mei doubted she’d need to use this face or persona again, it’s not as though she was asked to build a network in the village. In fact, thinking back on her mission it quickly dawns on her how much leeway she’d been given in its objectives.

Yagura just…placed me here. Mei worried about the situation in the village, not because she lacked faith in him as Mizukage but because over the course of her mission her communique officer changed at least twice. She could tell the difference between Owl and some other ANBU even though she saw little more than the scribbles of orders written. But a dead giveaway was the transition from Owl messengers to common ravens and crows.

The final message to return was sent via owl though and Mei determined that meant Owl, the ANBU commander had had missions of her own of greater importance than being her mission handler.

That was just one of many clues she’d picked up through the messages she sent back and forth, Kirigakure was going through a change in power and a part of her was frightened that even though she’s discovered something of some potential use in Amegakure, the true trouble was at home and Yagura had spared her.

It was no secret that Mei held the power of Kekkei Genkai in her veins, being one of the few shinobi in all history to command not one but two. She had yet to master them as she wished but a lot of the time that was just an excuse to keep herself weak and non-threatening to the many Bloodline haters in the village.

However, her mind set about this changed the moment she was called up to participate in the Sandaime’s Succession trial. She stepped away because it was stupid to cut down a fellow Kiri shinobi— one that had the same potential for power as she did— in order to seize a throne. But there was another reason she stepped back, a truer reason.

Mei was no fool. Not only was she a Kekkei Genkai wielder but she was a grey area when it came to her place in the caste system. She was adopted during the Second Shinobi war by the Terumi clan, a mere babe at the time and so her Kekkei Genkai was not discovered until she turned seven.

Her mere presence brought the Terumi clan a lot of trouble and ire and even now, her relationship with her adoptive parents were less than ideal. It wasn’t her fault and it certainly wasn’t theirs either. For a mid-caste clan they strove to protect her from the gallows as much as she strived, trained and killed on the battlefield to earn herself and her clan the right to continue existing.

If I had by some miracle beaten Yagura-senpai and become Mizukage, I’d simply be torn off the throne within months, assassinated, blackmailed, family held for ransom. Mutinied against or perhaps simply refused the title in the end.

Kirigakure was not ready for Bloodline users in power but she and Yagura shared a dream. He would make it so. The thought of returning to a culturally improved Kirigakure—however so farfetched considering it’s only been five months— filled her with excitement.

She spared a glance behind, they’d long left the natural rains of Amegakure’s territory. The Rain’s god spared the main village rain but that power did not extend towards the outskirts where only shinobi, travellers and thieves prowled. And now, after nearly twelve hours of slopping and dragging their feet through the mud Mei and Daiki had almost escaped the outskirts as well.

The rain got thinner, to the point of spare drizzles. She had once felt this Pein’s power over the rain albeit briefly, she doubted it extended to the drizzling outskirts that pushed the boundary between the Land of Fire and Rain.

And so, she gave a curt nod at Daiki and the slipped further into the Land of Fire, the mud slop slowly replaced by ardent vegetation, towering trees and singing birds. Together they found a dry spot in the growing forest to splay out their wet clothes, empty their boots of the buckets of water trapped in it and once simple reconnaissance had been done by Daiki, change into their ANBU gear.

It wasn’t something too overt, simply enough to guise them as Hunter-nin so that if anyone asked, they were chasing a bounty. Mei breathed in the precious breaths of the forest fresh air before letting the mask settle on her face.

“I think we’re a little turned around.” Daiki said, kneeling by his pack to pull out a map. Pointing at it, he added, “This forest might actually be in the Land of Rivers, the way we’re headed we might meet up with Tanigakure shinobi rather than Konoha, Tani shinobi will be less of a hassle to deal with but this route is also a longer path back to Kiri.”

The lingering question stood, which path should they take? Mei took a moment to stare at the map as she thought. If for whatever reason Ame shinobi or that Angel of theirs chased them all the way to this point, it might be best to lead them on a wild goose chase.

There was also benefit to cutting it simple and rerouting through Konoha, they were a hassle but the bigger the hassle the less likely a pursuer, if any would want to cause trouble. But that meant Konoha shinobi would stick to them like mistletoes all the way to shore, and right now, Mei wasn’t looking to be on edge around Konoha shinobi.

She pointed at the map and dragged her finger as she determined their route, “We’ll cut through Tani down to shore and then beeline through land of fire to the waves, the less time we spend under scrutiny the better. Plus, we’ll be able to get aboard a vessel at the waves.”

Daiki nodded and sorted his pack, “Let’s go.”

The two got sprinting and leaping through the treetops, going deeper into the Land of Rivers, careful to avoid what sparse Tanigakure shinobi lingered about the territory. For shinobi of their tier it was easy to slip past the border guards of a minor shinobi village, to begin with, Tanigakure was little different from the Land of Fire as they outsourced a portion of their protection in contracts to the Hidden Leaf.

Fortunately, today was not one of those days a Konoha shinobi was on the prowl on their behalf. However, about an hour into their journey through the river split valleys and hills of the Land of Rivers, Daiki halted, switched to ANBU hand seals Mei had been forced to reacquaint herself with over the course of her mission with him.

His words, “We’re being watched. Above.”

Mei didn’t need to be told not to look up immediately, instead she leaped at his side and kept together. Whoever was following them would have to reveal themselves eventually, but another thirty minutes passed and Mei began to feel the presence watching them, yet no reveal.

She signed back, “Certainly not Tani or Konoha. Might be Ame.” It hooked her throat to even think that Amegakure shinobi had followed them all the way here and they’d just now noticed, however that wasn’t an issue anymore, “We get rid of the tail.”

Daiki nodded and burst to action, three hand signs was all it took for his [Hidden in the Mist] technique to envelope the river split valley in a thick fog. But not before four sharp projectiles fell through, aiming at slicing off his offending hands and decapitating Mei.

Neither Daiki nor Mei fell to panic, the projectiles were simple to avoid and the fog settled over them and the river with ease. Mei plucked one out of the stone it embedded itself in and found her worst thoughts confirmed.

Paper. It was rigid and sharp as steel, not to be underestimated or taken lightly. She looked for Daiki to communicate this but he was gone. She breathed, settling her pounding heart from her ears and she found him right behind her inching about with his sword drawn. Following his example, she readied her blade and chakra.

“Kirigakure shinobi, come out already or face the rain.” The Angel’s voice was softer than she imagined, yet the hardness beneath it and her threat was evident.

“Amegakure’s Angel I suppose, shouldn’t you be in Amegakure then?” The Mist was a double edged blade, it hid hers and Daiki’s movements and preparations but also their opponent above. Mei knew the mist would soon be useless, against an opponent that can fly? Surely she had command of Wind Nature chakra.

Her answer came in the form of a literal rain of paper blades. Daiki was swift, his instincts kicking in as he deflected each falling spear but the sound of his clanging blade only drew the focus of the Angel’s fire.

Fortunately, the double edge of the mist technique remains and with Daiki making a ruckus deflecting her the majority of the paper rain, Mei was free to erupt from the ground using her [Hiding in the Earth] technique. Without wasting a moment, she spat out her second prepared jutsu, [Water Release: Water Bullet] at the spot raining down paper.

She felt her jutsu hit something and the rain of paper blades ceased. Daiki released his mist technique but Mei persisted with her [Water Bullet], there was fierce resistance at the end of the condensed stream of water and she waited till the mist cleared to be sure she’d gotten the so-called Angel.

She hadn’t.

“There you are.” The Angel spoke behind unsoiled wings of paper, each as large as a person guarding her with their body yet stronger. She flew higher, escaping the pressure of Mei’s jutsu with ease as she soared down like a hawk with a snake in its sights.

“Daiki!” Mei called out for her partner to ready himself, he did not come out unscathed from the shower of paper, his armour was chipped and sliced but he stood firm to the Angel’s approach.

That’s unwise. Knowing better yet doing perhaps worse, Mei dashed out past her partner, hands flipping through hand seals as the Angel drew close to ground, her fluttery wings turned to zooming blades.

“Lava Release: Melting Apparition!” Meeting the soaring Angel head on, Mei spat out the viscous, acidic and flaming fluid of lava over a wide area. The sky above the Angel darkened as a wave of acidic mud lurched over her.

Once the jutsu was released, Mei did a one-eigthy and snatched Daiki by his arm, “Let’s go! This is not our mission!” She winced, gnashing her teeth as she ignored a paper blade cut through her armour and slice her fleeing back.

Daiki huffed beside her as they fled, not bothering to look back at the mess of steam erupting from the river as the lava boiled it. “Where do we go now?” he signed.

They were in the middle of the Land of Rivers at this point and if the Rain’s Angel followed them in here, what were the chances that she would follow into the Land of Fire?

Considering how she already knows we’re Kirigakure shinobi it’s likely she and her god don’t care about the power or threat of great villages. That was generally bad news, more so in this situation but she could make it work, all she needed was to rope in any one of Konoha’s border patrols or barring that, the Samurai Lords that secured—

Her train of thought vanished at the sight of paper butterflies beating their wings beside she and Daiki, in seconds their field of view was flooded by a host of paper butterflies. The horde disguised paper shuriken that sliced through their arms, legs, torso each time they leaped off a branch. It wasn’t long before Daiki and Mei were forced back to ground.

“You cannot escape me.” Her voice resounded from all sides, swarming them alongside the butterflies. A clump of them congregated together and formed the top half of her form, she wore a dark robe with red clouds.

What kind of a jutsu is this? “What do you want?” Mei demanded, all the while moulding chakra for her next jutsu.

“The better question is, what does Kirigakure want with Ame?”

Smirking behind her mask, Mei shrugged, “Sorry, that’s kind of classified.”

“Then I’ll simply have to extract the truth out of you.” With a wave of her hand the butterflies swarm and unfurled, revealing themselves to be a horde of paper bombs.

Cursing her luck, Mei was about to divert her chakra from the jutsu moulding within her to something else when Daiki executed his. “Water Release: Water Barrier!”

His jutsu transforms his chakra to water, snatching particles from the humid air to quickly summon a swirling mass of water that hastily wraps around she and he as the paper bombs go off in tandem. The flurry of sudden explosives rocked Mei and Daiki about, a side of her mask shattered exposing her eyes to the scalding evaporate of her partner’s jutsu buckling against continuous explosions.

Had he used this closer to the river he wouldn’t have to worry about chakra drain but Mei could tell summoning and maintaining this amount of water, even from humid environment cost him a lot of chakra. Hissing at the scald injuring her eyes, she abandoned her mask, knowing it could be a lot worse. Her vision wasn’t impaired but it stung like hell and the thunderous sounds rattled her head with concussive force.

Within their protective dome, Mei signed to him, “Run.”

He shook his head and signed, “You first.”

Mei was grateful for the loyalty but frowned, “My next jutsu will hurt you. Run.”

Realization dawn and he nodded just as the explosions outside came to a halt. He didn’t let his summoned water go to waste, though most of it had turned to steam, he congealed the rest into a beam of boiling hot water that tore an inch or more into the Angel’s guarded wings. “Water Release: Water Cannon!”

Seeing that filled Mei with glee and once Daiki started off running she released her technique, “Boil Release: Skilled Mist!”

A cloud of thick mist ascended with Mei as she ricocheted off tree barks around the hovering Angel. Arrogant, the Angel pronounced, “That will not work a second time.”

Her fingers actually moved this time as she moulded chakra for what Mei believes will be a Wind Release technique, but her mist worked faster and the edges of her top half began to sludge away, dripping against the hot, acid burnt ground.

The Angel was taken aback for a moment and her hand signs paused as she saw the obvious need to reconstitute her form. But Mei was upon her within moments, “Fire Release: Great Fireball!”

Battered by a near point blank fireball the Angel’s form was reduced to ash. Between her acid mist and the flames intense heat, no paper should remain intact, still, Mei waited, perched near the top of a tree that hadn’t fallen away due to her acid mist and watched.

The smoke cloud cleared in time and there, in the middle of it was a clutch of butterflies clinging together, trying not to burn. They changed shape and this time rather than the Angel’s top half it included only part of her face and mouth. She smiled up at Mei, a fraction of herself and said, “You are but one of two.”

Mei’s heart clenched in her chest at that but before she had a moment to respond the Angel was gone, her paper butterflies given up to the fire and lingering acid.

Daiki…no! She leapt off of the trees, searching for her partner but not daring yell out for him lest she give her position away to the Angel. But then ten, fifteen, thirty and a whole hour past before she accepted what she’d done by asking him to flee.

---