A Lethal Weapon (Naruto) [ALW Series Book One]

CHAPTER SEVEN: Fire

The next morning, four ninjas met at the village gates to prepare themselves for their leave.

“Are you ready, kid?” One of the ninjas asked to the smallest.

“Yes, Father,” she answered excited and with a grin plastered on her face.

“Is it the first time that you go out of the village, kiddo?” Another of the ninjas asked the little girl.

“Yes,” she replied harshly to being called ‘kiddo’.

“I see... You’ll have fun...” said the last, walking over to Yusuke. “What’s the plan, Captain?”

“If we leave now, we’ll arrive in the evening to the village where we’ll find the missing scroll. We’ll look for a place where we can take refuge without being detected and, at midnight, we’ll infiltrate to recover the scroll.” Everyone nodded and looked at the little girl. “We will not rest until we get there, if you get tired let me know and one of us will carry you.”

“Don’t worry about me, Father. I’ll be fine,” the girl assured him. “After all, I’m a ninja, like you,” she said pointing to the headband with the symbol of the Konoha village on her forehead. The others just smiled to the confidence of the girl and departed for the border between Kusagakure and Iwagakure, the setting where their mission would take place.

After several hours of traveling, as expected, Hanako got tired and had to be carried by one of the shinobi from Yusuke’s team.

“You shouldn’t have brought your daughter with you, Yusuke-san,” the one carrying Hanako ─who at this point was sound asleep─ said. “Where we are going is a place where Konoha is considered an enemy; and the Third War has barely ended. Most likely, they’ll wait until we want to recover what was lost and they’ll be waiting for us Yusuke. It’s possible that the mission happens to be of a higher rank.”

“The Hokage gave me the necessary authorization.” Yusuke frowned thinking of the possibility of an ambush.

“That’s a lie. Hiruzen would never put at risk the life of a little girl.” There was a pause. “You didn’t say anything, did you? Why did you bring her, Yusuke?” the ninja inquired.

“So Danzou wouldn’t lay a finger on her in my absence,” he said calmly. ‘Trust me Yoshito, if there were another option I would have taken it,’ he thought.

“I don’t know what the elders have against your daughter, but I can assure you that she would have been safer back in the Village.” The ninja narrowed his eyes as Yusuke just remained calm looking forward, without even taking glances at him.

“You would be surprised,” he finally muttered. “Hanako needs experience, she needs her instincts to naturally develop. And that can only be achieved if she’s thrown into real life.”

“Is that what you want?” The ninja widened his eyes. “You are going to destroy her childhood, Yusuke.”

“If that makes her strong,” Yusuke said with sadness in his eyes which was noticed by the other ninja. “Then let it be.”

“I can’t believe you.” The ninja sighed as he watched Yusuke intently. “I seriously can’t.”

“That’s because you don’t understand.” Yusuke slightly frowned. “Her chakra is special and if she becomes a shinobi, it is most likely she won’t have a peaceful life. She is the goal of many others seeking her power. Like Danzou... I just don’t want that to happen, Yoshito. She needs to learn to defend herself.”

“Back in the village there’s a lot of people who can protect her. Fugaku-san, Akira-san…even her own sister,” Yoshito said to his companion. “Here, it’s only us against an army of Kusagakure and Iwagakure Jounin. You’re making a big mistake, Yusuke. Some of us will probably die in this mission.” The Uchiha only continued forward without saying anything. Yoshito sighed.

After this, the shinobi remained in silence until they reached a small cave on the outskirts of the village. Hanako woke up in time to hear the strategy that was to be carried out at midnight to retrieve the missing scroll. They had everything planned. Almost.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” A ninja from Iwagakure was standing at the entrance of the cave. “Shinobi from Konoha?”

“It seems that there were no elite ninjas to send a child to missions like this one...” Another one said as he played with a kunai on his hands. One of the ninjas of Yusuke’s team positioned himself in front of the brunette as he tried to protect her.

“I can take care of myself!” Hanako complained.

“Sorry but these ninja are just too much for you. You can’t defeat them on your own.” He —trying to protect her— was Yoshito, the one who had carried her during the trip.

“It’s over, we are surrounded!” Another leaf ninja said desperately.

“We can still try…” Yusuke said as he activated his Sharingan.

“Maybe,” Yoshito said. Hanako imitated her father and also activated her mastered Sharingan, calling the attention towards her. “Well to be a ‘kiddo’, your eyes have been well trained…” Yoshito muttered amazed.

“It seems that this is going to be interesting.” The ninja from Iwagakure laughed again slightly while wearing a camouflage technique to appear invisible. The others imitated him. The Uchiha due to their Sharingan could see where all the ninjas were, but they were also too many to reveal the position of all of them. In a single attack, they killed one of the teammates from Yusuke, leaving only the two Uchiha and Yoshito.

“Girl,” Yoshito turned towards Hanako. “I need you to go into that building, and look for a red scroll that has a Konoha seal on it. When you find it, rush directly to the village, forget about us.” Hanako widened her eyes when realization hit her. “We will distract the ninjas and buy you some time.” She turned to look at Yoshito and her father as she felt her chest tighten. She shook her head as a she felt her eyes get watery.

“I...” She tried to say but she got cut off.

“Go.” Her father looked at her with a kunai in hand. Hanako clenched her hands into fists. “I believe in you, Hanako.” Then she noticed the explosive tag tied to its hanger and Yusuke threw it to a tree near them.

When it exploded, all the area was submerged in thick smoke. Taking advantage of the commotion Hanako managed to leave the battlefield, hiding behind the shadow of a house. She ran quietly, trying not to be noticed by any of the guards; although thanks to Heaven, there were just a few of them since they were all fighting the two infiltrators. After she arrived at the big building mentioned, Hanako was able to easily enter and seek out the scroll. When she finally found it in one of the drawers of the desk on the top floor, she smiled victoriously and kept it in her backpack. When she returned to the battlefield, she noticed that Yoshito had been murdered and her father was wounded and completely surrounded. The tightness in her chest came back.

“DAD!” The girl couldn’t help but scream in horror.

“Hanako...run. Don’t let them get to you,” the man said to her daughter, although there was a deeper meaning to those words than what she could understand. Hanako, at seeing one of the ninjas charging at her, took off to one of the rooftops and began to flee, possessed by terror. The ninja threw a kunai and got her in her back, although the girl disappeared in a cloud of smoke leaving in her place a log.

“Shit...” the ninja said, looking everywhere around him for the girl. “You should not be very far away girl, admit it, you have no escape.” He laughed maliciously.

Hanako watched him, hidden in the shadow produced by a house. He was right, she had no escape route if it wasn’t dying right there.

From where she was, she could see how they tortured her father. Thanks to her eyes she could read his father’s whisper, his last words to her before they stabbed him with their sword right through his heart.

I’m sorry, Hanako. I didn’t want you to see this... And he died, his body dropping to the hard soil motionless. I believe in you. She heard his voice in her memories, the last time she actually heard his voice was before he threw the kunai with the explosive tag. Her mind then drifted to when they had their walks; sometimes they would just lie down on the ground and watch the clouds. They would think the many strange shapes each cloud may have and then laugh at the silliest ones.

She felt a strange warmth envelope her in an embrace and she couldn’t help but think about her father’s hugs every time she had a nightmare. She wanted to wake up; this nightmare just seemed too real. She closed her eyes tightly and bit her lip so tightly that a trickle of blood fell across her chin. This wasn’t a nightmare. She fell to her knees as they couldn’t hold her weight any longer. The warmth still continued to envelope her and tighter. She braced herself as several treacherous tears were running down her cheeks.

I will always be here for you, don’t be afraid.

Those words... He would always say to her those words just to calm her down. She lowered her head and covered her face with her hands to try and stop the tears from falling. ‘Stop it,’ she said to herself. ‘Ninjas don’t cry.’

“So, here you are.” She heard a male voice behind her and her body stiffened. She turned to look at him, her Sharingan still activated. “This time I will not let you escape,” he said derisively.

Hanako didn’t understand her feelings, she only knew that she felt an intense hatred surging through her. Hatred towards the shinobi at that place. Hatred towards Iwagakure shinobi in general.

“This time I will not run away…” she hissed venomously. She felt something strange, not only her whole body was burning but her eyes as well.

“Oh really? And what will you do?” he mocked until his voice faded and his eyes widened. “Your eyes...what happened to your eyes?!” He immediately pulled out a kunai and got into a fighting stance. Hanako looked to her surroundings and noticed a large tank full of gas.

“The gas in that tank over there is flammable right?” she asked maliciously as she threw a kunai with an explosive tag, making it explode close enough so that a hole was opened on one side of the tank, letting the gas escape all over the small village. Quickly, the girl ran, taking advantage of the distraction the explosion caused on the ninjas, and positioned herself over the top of the large tank while the remaining ninjas stood just below it.

“Quick! Don’t let her do anything, she’s just a kid!” One of them screamed with wide eyes, noticing that the girl started to make some hand seals.

“Too late.” She did the tiger seal announcing it would be a fire technique. “Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu.” From her mouth came out a big ball of fire. As it made contact with the gas, fire spread and quickly consumed all the village. The smoke of the burning started to go up and take possession of the oxygen. Because of this, Hanako began to gasp for air and fell to her knees, starting to lose her consciousness.

She felt strong arms wrap around her and she was pulled out of the fire and smoke into the woods that surrounded the village. The girl barely opened her eyes and noticed a familiar orange mask.

“You again?” she said looking uneasily at him.

“I see that this time you remember me,” he responded with a deep voice. “You’re lucky to still be alive,” he continued as he carried her on his back. After a few minutes they stopped over the top of a hill, from which the small burning town could still be seen. “Look at what you did.” He showed her the fire that was reducing everything of what was formerly a village to ashes. “You told me earlier that you’d become strong.” Hanako tightened her fists grabbing the black clothes of the man. “With this you’ve already shown me how much potential you actually have.” He started walking away from the hill. “I will take you back to Konoha. From there you’ll have to give the report to the Hokage and the news of the deaths of the shinobi accompanying you.” She looked sadly to the ground.

“Thank you…” she said to the man’s surprise.

“For what?” He raised an eyebrow from behind his mask.

“If it wasn’t for you, I would be dead by now. Thank you,” she said again, closing her eyes before drifting into unconsciousness.