Chapter Text
Chapter Thirteen
(Nine Years Old)
The entire team was out on a mission right now, and it bored Kazeshini half to death. They had been hired to help a civilian family by guarding their ship and goods. The entire team was currently guarding the ship while it was out at sea and Kazeshini was currently playing solitaire with a handmade card deck that she had created. Each card was made to be used as a weapon if needed, Kazeshini felt as though one could never have enough weapons and cards were just another weapon, she could use on the chance that it might save her life.
A sea gull chirped from high above them and Kazeshini slowly flipped a card over from the small deck of cards in her hands.
"Fuck!"
With a cry of anger, Kazeshini threw her cards up in the air as her game ended and she lost not even halfway through the deck.
Itsui grinned and came over to watch as Kazeshini collapsed on her back with a grumpy huff. "Lost again? What was that, the sixth time in a row?"
Yuri chuckled at her friends and teammates, "Nope, I've been counting her games in between watching the sea, that would be the ninth time she lost in a row."
Hisane chuckles filtered down from where he seemed to be meditating up on the crow's nest of the ship.
Kazeshini mock glared at her comrades, "So what if I have crappy luck at card games, at least I always beat you, you always lose 'cause you don't have a poker face."
Itsui clutched his chest in mock pain and gave Kazeshini a hurt look, "How could you be so cruel to me? I have excellent luck at card games!"
"Nope," Yuri mocked as she sat down on a bit of railing overlooking the side of the ship, "You're only good when you cheat, and we always know when you cheat."
Itsui went over to cultivate mushrooms on his own, a pout quite prevalent on his face, "You're all so cruel to me!"
Yuri and Kazeshini shared a look until Kazeshini collected her cards so none were lost. "So, Kaze-chan, why are you playing cards anyway? I was just wondering since you don't normally like playing cards."
Kazeshini just shrugged and put the card deck away in her pouch. "I got bored of drawing and I wouldn't dare right any new fuinjutsu while on an unstable ground, the ship rocks too much for me to feel comfortable to try drawing out experimental seals."
Hisane butted in while looking down at his younger teammates, "Which I agree with!"
Kazeshini only gave her team leader a raised eyebrow, normally during training the man was a harsh and serious taskmaster but his personality relaxed a bit when out on a mission. She assumed it was because it was how he coped in such situations, or it might be to lure any enemy combatants into a false sense of superiority.
"Well, I got tired of drawing the ocean and the ship and anything else my mind came up with, so I started playing cards. Now I'm a bit too frustrated to continue and so I'm gonna train a bit."
Itsui seemed to have cobbled together his 'hurt' pride and asked, "Train, with what? We're out in the middle of the ocean and we shouldn't really expend chakra on a mission when it isn't needed."
"I was just going to go through my sword forms."
Itsui shivered, "You seem entirely too fond of sharp pointy objects."
Yuri gave a giggle and Hisane chuckled while Kazeshini gave Itsui a well-deserved eyebrow raise which seemed to show more than enough mockery as it was more than appropriate for a shinobi or kunoichi to be a little more than fond of sharp objects. In Kazeshini's mind, one could never have enough weapons because she knew that chakra exhaustion was a very real and very dangerous thing as a ninja, and weapons could help keep her from reaching that point which could be a major deciding factor in any fight.
Kazeshini sighed and walked to the middle of the deck, a point on the ship where the sailors rarely hung around because they were always off working elsewhere on the ship. A simple cut of her finger on a small pin specially sewn onto her kunai pouch so she wouldn't have to bite her thumb for the blood sacrifice; Kazeshini unsealed her training sword as she didn't need to draw out her actual sword when training. It helped to not draw out an actual sword when on a ship around mostly civilians so as not to worry them and make them nervous of a small girl carrying around live steel.
For the next few hours, Kazeshini went through her forms, mindlessly so, and only paid attention so that her form was correct and proper. Her training sword on the other hand, without any sailors on the ship having noticed, had dropped the ship down in the water line. The only thing keeping Kazeshini from crashing through the wooden deck was the fact that she had etched seals on it before and made sure not to go jumping around with her wooden training blade.
Currently, she was swinging around a wooden blade that had been etched with seals to increase its weight until it was as heavy as an actual eighty-foot oak. Kazeshini was careful when swinging around the training sword as it was too heavy for her to control it when she was going for speed. So, she went for control while trying to build up her strength.
With another swing, sweat dripped from her brow and she gasped for air as her muscles burnt from the strain. She took a step, shifting the position of her feet, and began a new set of practice moves until she reached an exact hundred of going over the same set.
Once finished, she sealed the practice sword away and took deep gulps from a water bottle she had sitting on the floor next to where she was practicing. She wanted to get strong, and even though she was forced to use chakra to help augment her strength, it was still difficult and straining to train with such a heavy blade.
Compared to others in the clan who practiced the sword, they didn't weigh their blades more than a few pounds extra, all wanting to practice their speed and technique. However, Kazeshini had thought that there must be some method to the madness of a weighted sword and had etched seals onto the practice sword so that she could practice. It had done remarkable things to her sword play, and while her technique was still a tad sloppy in the middle of a fight, the finesse would only come with time and experience.
Taking a break, as her arms were currently shaking and the rest of her body was sore from exertion, Kazeshini stretched a bit to keep her muscles from going stiff before climbing the rigging to sit next to Hisane.
"So, Taicho, how far from Giugen?"
"Not too far, just another day of sailing. Be on the watch out tomorrow though, I have the good experience that a ship carrying merchandise such as this one, will most likely be ambushed by either pirates or other shinobi a little before we get to port. They like to hang around the area as it makes it easier to get a ship instead of having to try tracking it down which is harder to do." Hisane answered easily while looking like he was halfway to napping.
Kazeshini nodded and looked up at the seagull flying circles around the ship and the wispy clouds that decorated the sky.
She felt stretched thin, as though too little butter across a too large piece of bread. Her body wasn't exhausted, but it was her mind and spirit that was exhausted.
For a while now, Kazeshini knew that she would be forced to do something about all that she knew would happen in the future. It wasn't that she was being forced with a blade at her back or anything like that, but her conscience wouldn't allow her to turn away from such devastation. She knew that all the characters, all those people, would go through terrible circumstances if she didn't somehow step in and help. Though she still didn't know what she would be doing.
Kazeshini knew for a fact that she had no idea where in the timeline she was at save for the warring clan era. She knew that too much change could make it so that the future was completely different from all her future knowledge, but she also didn't know how time would react to her influence. She didn't know if her interference would throw things so far out to the left field that people might not be born or not be in the right place to save someone's life; she also didn't know if time was firm and that things would progress in a familiar path no matter her meddling.
It terrified her that she could cause the butterfly to create a disaster, yet she knew that she needed to help because her conscience wouldn't allow her to do otherwise.
Kazeshini sighed deeply, ignoring the questioning look from her team leader and instead pulled out a jutsu scroll that she had borrowed from her parents. It detailed a futon jutsu that would allow the user to spit out slices of sharpened wind to cut the target from ten feet away, but the technique couldn't go much farther.
Not daring to spit out copious amounts of chakra in the name of practice, which would light up the ship like the sun to any decent chakra sensor when out in the middle of the sea, Kazeshini just went over the mechanics of the technique.
Once the sun fell, the team took turns on watch and Kazeshini pulled the second to last shift. She was awoken from her sleep by Yuri who took the second shift and Kazeshini yawned a bit before getting out of her hammock, as she hadn't wanted to sleep on the deck or on a bed which Kazeshini assumed had to be infested with mites or other bedbugs.
With a yawn, Kazeshini stretched a bit and went out onto the deck to keep watch. She shivered as the cool night air chilled her skin, as she was only wearing a battle kimono with mesh armor underneath. She wasn't wearing any traditional shinobi armor like the rest of her team because she would only outgrow it within a year, and it would be a waste to have to spend money to replace it. The armor she would wear would be created by her, and she wanted it to be perfect.
At home, Kazeshini was already practicing the art of the blacksmith, which being a strong kunoichi with plenty of chakra helped immensely. In her previous life, she had loved reading and watching videos about interesting but altogether useless things. Well, the things she learned were pretty much useless in her previous life but held plenty of weight in her current one. With a bit of practice, and half remembered knowledge, Kazeshini had started building a forge in her backyard to make her own armor and weapons. It was plenty of trial and error, more error than success now and more expensive than she had thought it would be, but Kazeshini was determined to create her own personal sword.
She wanted her weapon to mean something, not to have something she bought from another blacksmith. Kazeshini knew that she could create weapons to rival the best of blacksmiths, all because she had knowledge pilfered from her previous world that could be combined to create something better than anything in use today. However, the day that she finally created a weapon that would meet her expectations was far out in the future by at least a few years even if she abused various clone techniques and abused the use of chakra to simulate the strength and endurance of a true blacksmith.
Kazeshini looked around the sea and noticed a slight glimmer in the horizon, with narrowed eyes, Kazeshini sharpened her senses and sighed as she could feel the chakra of some sort of person waiting to ambush the ship. The person trying to hide, but not really succeeding, was still a ways out but Kazeshini would have to alert the team leader if the person came any closer.
A few minutes later, she felt chakra spike in the opposite direction of the person she was monitoring, and she scowled darkly. With a quick chakra sequence that Hisane had made sure she knew and would wake up alert to, she had her entire team awake and coming out onto the deck alert and ready for anything.
"What is it, Kaze-chan?" Hisane asked but it was a redundant question since he was already using his own senses, which were quite a bit better than Kazeshini's own.
"I felt a chakra signal, from what I assume is a civilian, but I can be sure, and then a chakra spike from what I assume is a shinobi in the opposite direction. I felt it prudent to alert the team just to be safe."
Hisane patted Kazeshini's head and nodded, "Good call, alright team, prepare for some combat. Yuri, Itsui guard the ship. Little Kaze-chan and I will be going out to greet these shinobi. Let's see if we can trip this trap and turn it on our would-be ambushers."
"Hai, Taicho!" Yuri, Itsui and Kazeshini answered before Kazeshini and Hisane jumped from the deck of the ship to the sea.
"Alright little Kaze-chan, this will be your first combat and I can tell these guys aren't all that strong so it should be relatively alright. Just be careful and watch your back and you should be okay. Now, weapons out and be prepared to engage."
Kazeshini gave a short nod, nervousness making the gesture short and jerky as her muscles seemed to want to lock up. Half terrified, since she had never actually been in a fight against enemy shinobi who would be aiming to kill her, Kazeshini focused as much of her attention on her sword which she had already unsealed and was ready to unsheathe.
They ran silently across the calm ocean waters, the stars still out and the moon barely a sliver of light in the sky, until Hisane used quick hand signs too fast for Kazeshini to decipher. With a roar of water, a shinobi who was crouched low on a small raft was flipped into the suddenly churning and dangerous waters of the ocean.
Kazeshini cut the chakra to her feet and slipped silently into the waters of the sea, letting all the attention stay on Hisane as she used careful bursts of chakra to propel herself forward while underwater. It was silent while underwater and nearly so dark that she couldn't see in front of her face. The only assurance she had of being under her target was the chakra signal that had suddenly spiked as the enemy stopped trying to hide his or her chakra since they had already been found out.
With a short but strong burst of chakra, Kazeshini was propelled right out of the water with a loud splash and her ears were suddenly tuned to the sound of grunts and a few calls of the enemy shinobi trying to use some team formation against Hisane.
Kazeshini's sudden explosion from the water startled the man she had appeared behind and her sword met no resistance until the blade cut into cloth, flesh and bone.
Kazeshini flinched as she truly realized what she had done, not really realizing that she had killed another person until he was already dead and sinking into the ocean. It had all been like training and she had just reacted like she had practiced before while in the safety of Uzushio. Kazeshini gagged and nearly lost what was in her stomach.
"You bitch!"
"Kaze, move!"
Kazeshini hadn't registered the angry cry of one of the enemy shinobi but dodged at the command of her team leader.
"Pull yourself together, Kaze! I can't have you freezing in the middle of combat! Get it together!" Hisane called out from where he was engaging two shinobi at once.
Kazeshini could barely bring her blade up in time to block the downward slash of the kunai that was being pressed down on her from the third shinobi that had attacked her for killing one of the group. She flinched at the killing intent aimed her way and only just dodged a jutsu that had been aimed to kill her. With tears flowing down her cheeks, Kazeshini slipped underwater and maneuvered herself to be able to slash her attacker at the hamstrings.
The shinobi collapsed and Kazeshini could only slash the man's neck, blood splattering across her face even as the man sunk into the ocean just like his companion before him.
Hisane finished off his own opponents and came over to pat Kazeshini on the head, "You did well."
Kazeshini didn't even look away from where the body of the man she had just killed disappeared into the dark waters of the ocean. Then, with a violent body reaction, Kazeshini threw up and kept throwing up until she was dry heaving with tears streaming down her cheeks.
"It's alright, you did just fine. Everything is good, and you're going to be fine." Hisane murmured even as he rubbed Kazeshini's back while trying to calm her down.
Once she was calmed down, Kazeshini wiped her mouth and looked to her team captain, "Was it supposed to be so easy? It was just like in training, I cut them down just like I do during practice. It was so easy, shouldn't it be harder? I hate that it was so easy, it should be harder; and I feel so horrible. They had to have a family! Parents, wives, children! And I just cut them down as easily as if it were a training log during practice!"
Kazeshini was working herself up into hysterics until Hisane pulled her close and looked her in the eye as he kneeled down to her level. "Killing should never be taken lightly, and you did the right thing because these men would have hurt your teammates and your own family without second thought. The men and women that you kill will always weigh down on you, and you should remember that weight so that you never forget the weight of a life. As long as you fight and kill to protect your family and others, I know that you will always be able to bear the weight of the responsibility of taking a life. You did good, you did good, Kazeshini, and I will never tell you different."
Kazeshini calmed down during Hisane's speech and sealed her sword away.
"Now, let's head to the ship and get some rest, we still have a little while before we dock." Hisane clutched at Kazeshini's shoulder and helped guide her over the now calm waters of the ocean, an ocean that looked as though nothing had changed even when it had swallowed four men down to the depths.
Kazeshini stared blankly at the dark waters, her chakra keeping her on the surface without conscience thought, and fisted her blood covered hands. She hadn't quite understood the actual weight of having to kill another person. In her previous life, she had lived as a civilian and had never even contemplated killing anyone. Now, she wasn't even a teenager yet and her hands were already stained with blood.
Determined, Kazeshini vowed to herself that no matter how many lives she had to take, no matter how many lives were cut short at her hands that she would never indiscriminately kill. She vowed that she always think of the weight of a life and she promised to herself that she would never kill just because she could or because someone was in the way.
With her determination renewed, Kazeshini's steps became a tad more assured and her confidence in herself restored. Though she was still quite a bit leery at the fact that she would have to touch the same blade that had taken those two lives, just the thought of having to clean the blood off the blade made her queasy and guilt ridden, though she knew she would have to get used to it to continue with this path that she walked. As a kunoichi and as a person who would try to change the future for the better, Kazeshini knew this was just a stumble on the long road that was her current path in life.