Rescue (4)

'Ok. Anyway, now's not the time to have my classic anime inspiration.'

There were many more pressing things to do. Coming to terms with this world's miserable fashion industry, trying Ichiraku Ramen... Oh, and let's not forget saving my mom from an army of shinobi more powerful than me and escaping safely after. Without letting get hurt. All in a day's work, right?

I concentrated on absorbing chakra from my surroundings and recovering my energy. Some twenty minutes later, I stood up, shaking out my aching legs and looking over to Mio.

"Mio, are you ready to go?"

I pushed all thoughts of fleeing into the back of my head. We had already come this far, and I would likely never get another chance to rescue mom like this one. I had to capitalize on it, as much as I worried about Mio. I had a feeling though, that she felt the same as me.

I had recovered about half my chakra, and my body was still aching and trembling a little. But I had to move before the battle was over.

Mio nodded in response, one hand holding her bruised ribs as she stood up.

"Let's go."

We again jumped into the trees, moving as stealthily as we could towards the Kiri camp.

'Hopefully they only left a small perimeter guard behind. If they left any substantial force behind as a rear guard... we're finished.' I couldn't help but grimace as I moved.

The moon slowly disappeared, slowly masked by the billowing tendrils of fog and mist that constantly haunted the nights in the land of water. Snow began to fall as we jumped through the trees; first light then progressively heavier and heavier.

'Shit. It's going to be harder to sneak into their camp against the white snow. Although I guess I could try that jutsu now...'

"Kaito! You're coming up on the prisoners now!"

Kiyo could use her senses without fear again now that the snow had returned.

"This... I can only sense one guard in the camp."

"One?! What...."

This didn't make any sense. Why would they only leave one guard? An attempt at freeing the prisoners seemed like an obvious action for the kekkei genkai shinobi to take. I mean, they did leave a perimeter guard. But why only have one guard at the camp? The perimeter guard wasn't even that strong. In fact, from how weak they were it seemed like they didn't even care if the clan ninja broke through the perimeter guard.

Who did they leave at the camp? Yagura? Even if they left one of their strongest shinobi, it wouldn't make sense to ask one person to guard something, even if they could take out a potentially limitless number of enemy shinobi.

I was suddenly even more nervous than before. I hated this feeling of confusion. Everything up until now, although it was all foreign and new to me, had still been within the limits of my expectations. But this... as much as I didn't want to admit it, I had no idea what to think. This unknown element... it scared me more than if Kiyo had said there were one hundred jonin ready there.

I motioned to Mio, and we slowed down as we approached the edge of the tree line. The clearing occupied by the Kiri camp soon came into view.

My eyes easily found the prisoners. The Kiri shinobi had made no effort to hide them, and I suddenly understood everything.

A large rocky outcropping rose out of the ground in the middle of the clearing. The kekkei genkai prisoners were chained in a circle around, pressed so tightly against the rock they couldn't even move. Above them, arrogantly perched in plain sight on top of the rocks, sat the guard they had left behind.

I recognized him instantly. He was one of the most memorable characters from the anime for me. And not in a good way. He had stood out to me as one of the most disgusting and brutal people amongst the entirety of the ferocious shinobi world - Kushimaru Kuriarare. Member of the Seven Ninja Swordsman of the mist, and wielder of the unique longsword Nuibari, the sewing needle. One of the two ninja nicknamed the Heartless Pair by Kakashi.

As he casually sat on the rock, he would occasionally twist his sword around, producing the eerie stretching noises of sinewy thread pulling tight against itself. Looking down from the edge of his sword, my eyes traced the faint outline of the thread downwards.

A burning rage sprung up within me.

The thread of his sword was tightly wound around the necks of each of the prisoners. He just had to channel a small amount of chakra through the thread and pull lightly and the heads of each and every prisoner would be separated from their shoulders. Every time he twisted his sword, the thread would pull a bit tighter around the necks of the prisoners.

He was torturing them. Even as he sat guard over prisoners in the middle of a war, he took the opportunity to savor the pain of others as much as he could.

I could feel my nails pressing into my palms hard enough to draw blood. But I couldn't unclench my fists.

I had to admit, it was an ingenious strategy. It was impossible to rescue the prisoners in a situation like this, where only a twitch of the hand was required to behead all of them. But... I found myself wondering once again how any human being could do this to another.

'F*ck. What am I supposed to do now? I understand why they only left one guard now... they really only need one.'

Then I saw her.

Her head was thrown back against the rock, her eyes clenched shut in pain. Dried blood stuck her hair to the side of her head. I had never seen her look so miserable. My mother, an exquisite beauty in the most compromising circumstances, looked like a lifeless shell of herself. A pained, abused, and hopeless shell.

"Mom.." I let out a pained gasp, tears coming to my eyes when I saw her like that. I couldn't help it. Hers was the look of someone who had given up on life. It was a look I would have given anything to prevent appearing on my mother.

Shit. I froze, calming my breathing as much as I could and masking my presence to the greatest extent possible. Mio did the same.

'What is wrong with me? Did I just give our presence away?'

I even slowed the flow of my chakra as much as I could. But it was too late.

"Ehee! Who's there? Do I hear more ants scurrying about out there? Show yourselves now, or they're all dead!"