Yo hello there
Well this concludes Saki's backstory. Somewhat.
After this is THE WAR from both sides.
Well like always. Happy Reading !! 🎊
===========
Chapter: 6 : Scars II — Part II
She tightened her grip, eyes dead, she took the kunai and.. pointed the tip towards her neck and plunged it.
But something inside her head awakened at the last second —a dormant, battle-hardened instinct — before the kunai could touch her neck, her body refused and in a great display of dexterity she spun the kunai in her fingertips and —SquELCH— plunged it through the neck of her captor. Killing him instantly. He never expected the attack from her. Then she jumped from his falling body and landed on the ground.
Now her once lively eyes were completely dead. There was no light. No shock at her first kill. No hope. Nothing. Her face held no emotion, only tears and coldness. But her body. It was in the perfect posture of a killer ready for any movement, as if it had known war and fought countless battles herself.
The remaining ninja stopped to look at the source of the sound.
When they saw her, standing with a bloodied kunai in her hand, their strongest member lay dead at her feet. Goosebumps ran across them.
The girl's eyes were as good as dead — they had seen those eyes countless times — But her posture said another thing altogether. She was like a predator ready for a hunt.
The leader signaled his team. And three ninjas vanished.
Then he threw some shurikens at her. Saki didn't even move, she looked at the three shurikens that were coming in slow motion and her eyes tracked them with mechanical precision. Then she shifted her gaze mapping the trees, the rocks, and the hidden enemies.
She shifted her head slightly. The three shurikens passed her by inches.
She leaped, dodging the hands bursting from the earth below, and seamlessly kicked two incoming kunai towards the third ninja. And grabbed the third Kunai in spinning motion and threw it at the leader in the same motion.
She knew a battle of attrition was a disadvantage for her. She needed to thin their numbers, before they figured it out.
So, she targeted the leader.
She moved with a kunai in her hand. The ninja that was underground began to follow her. Saki didn't even register him as a threat and targeted the leader with the same bloodied kunai. Just as she was about to reach him she stopped instantly at the last second. A ninja appeared from underground where she would be with a tanto now aimed at the air.
The ninja who was halfway through, and was sure of the hit. Now had a kunai a few centimetres away from his eye. Before everyone could understand what happened.
Saki's kunai was already in his eye socket and pierced through to his brain. Then she took his tanto from his hand before his body could fall. And tucked her bloodied kunai in her wrist holder.
Two down. Five more to go.
Now with a slightly larger reach it would be manageable.
She jumped sideways. And deflected a kunai with the tanto with great precision, opened the attacking ninja's guard and sliced his head clean through.
She jumped again to dodge. But this time a kunai grazed her shoulder. It was close. She was slowly losing stamina.
She could feel everything in her surroundings but her body was not able to keep up with her.
The leader who saw everything, from start to finish was horrified, not because of her men dying. But by the ease they were dying.
She was not fast. Not strong. Then how did he lose three men in less than a minute?
Then he moved, and he was sure he was at her blind spot. But at the last second she dodged and his tanto could only graze her clothes.
Then he attacked again, this time engaging her in pure kenjutsu. They both exchanged some blows, mostly he was attacking and she was blocking or deflecting the attacks with minimum movements.
She sensed the remaining ninja moving around her. But she did nothing; or more like couldn't do anything. She had to shift the battle.
Her eyes briefly surveyed the surroundings again. Her ears caught the sound of running water. A river, which was not suitable for her. Then forest it is.
Then she blocked a particularly heavy attack from the side, which rattled her hands but she stopped it. Then ran her blade across his blade intending to slice his hand. But she had to rotate on her toes and dodged a tanto that was aimed at her heart. And in a fluid motion she came behind the attacker and tried to behead him. But the leader's tanto blocked it.
She then jumped back a few meters assisted by the momentum. And with a slightly ragged breath she vanished in the woods.
"Boss, should we follow her?" a third ninja said in a fearful voice. "She—she is a monster."
The other two nodded and looked at him.
"Idiots, she was getting exhausted. Didn't you see her getting slower?" he said with gritted teeth. "She was an Uzumaki. We should hurry before she recovers." and he wouldn't let her get away after killing his men.
Then they followed her.
After a few seconds of search from tree top to tree top.
The leader saw a few strands of red hair peeking from behind a tree trunk. He signaled his team with his eyes and they nodded, and began to converge on it, from branch to branch making as little noise as possible.
The leader and two other ninjas attacked from the left and right side and the frightened ninja stayed some distance behind for support. But there was nothing, only a few strands sticking out of a tree bark.
Rustle.
"Shit…"Then he heard a rustle from above and instantly raised his tanto for defence. But the attack never came.
He jumped back and looked above.
He saw the girl descend from the higher branches and attack the frightened ninja with an aerial spin. The man raised his kunai, but it wasn't even in a proper guard. And before he could even land on the ground from the backward leap, both the ninja's wrist and his neck were cleaved clean through.
She landed softly, blood dripping from her blade. She turned to face the final three. Her chest heaved, but her expression was carved from ice.
Now it was her turn. She could handle the three. And began charging towards them. The leader and his remaining men also charged towards her from different angles.
First she ducked the leader's strike and used her small size. Jumped ahead aiming for his leg in a horizontal slash. He had to jump back but the blade still nicked his leg.
But she rotated her body in mid jump and transitioned to a circular attack. Taking the left ninja's wrist, who was caught off guard. And took a kunai in her stomach by the right ninja, but in return completed her circular attack by taking his head.
Now Saki stood. Her stomach pierced but eyes blank looking at the leader a few meters away. Whose body was trembling slightly.
Then eyes shifted to the groaning ninja beside her and —Puchi— stabbed his neck, ending his misery.
=========
Just after young Saki was taken.
At the top of a cliff sat real Saki beside her brother's corpse, in front of the flower. Staring at the decapitated head. She couldn't even move it closer. Then she suddenly felt three presences closing in.
"Are you sure you felt correctly, Mito-sama." came the voice of a man.
"Akamitsu, I said I sensed something and I am pretty sure what I sensed." came an annoyed voice.
"But there is nothing.. We searched everywhere Sis." The voice of a boy came.
"There is one place left.." the female voice said.
And Saki felt them nearing.
She didn't remember seeing any of them here, at least not this early. But she didn't dwell on it.
Then they came one after another.
"Shit.. how an Uzumaki here." Akamitsu exclaimed and instantly came near the corpse and began examining it. " The blood is still flowing.." The other two's faces were pale by the scene.
"There were two people here and by the lack of struggle. They met with powerful enemies." He said after examining the scene. "We have to hurry, another one might still be alive." then looking at Mito he said. "Mito-sama, can you sense anything else?"
Mito swallowed her unease and used her Mind's Eye of the Kagura and scanned her surroundings.
"I sense some people moving towards the port town in that direction. They are not far, only a mile away."
Then Akamitsu grabbed both of them by their collars. " My apology, young lord and lady. Please, bear with it." And jumped from the cliff and in mid-fall vanished along with them.
They reached there in a few moments.
Akamitsu was puzzled by the scene. Few low ranking nin— no mercenaries, not even jōnin. The strongest was perhaps a high-chunin. But when he saw a small girl on the man's shoulder. He understood, they were weak to him — a jōnin. But to the girl they were powerful foes she could not defeat.
When Mito saw a small girl on the man's shoulder.
Her blood ran cold and then she saw that lifeless look. Something in her heart broke.
Horror washed over her as the girl —who was much younger than Mito herself — raised the kunai to her own throat.
She felt Akamitsu tense beside her, preparing to intervene.
But the shock didn't end there. She saw how at the last second she plunged that kunai at her captor's neck. Blood sprayed her face as she removed the kunai from his neck. Even she had to wince at the gory display. But the girl's face was ice itself.
Then she saw the girl's whole vibe change. And the carnage began. She saw the enemy's eye stabbed through and when she removed her kunai, blood and brain matter escaped through the eye hole. Then took the tanto from the enemy she just brutally killed.
Then Mito saw the impossible. She decapitated enemies like they were chickens she was playing with. Each of her strikes was for a kill.
She wasn't impossibly fast—Mito could easily track her movements—yet the mercenaries kept falling like they didn't know how to defend.
Akamitsu's assessment was completely different. He saw the display of almost absolute control over her body and her surroundings. She was conserving her stamina but the flawless execution was jarring to watch. From the movement of her foot to her breathing were coordinated, too coordinated.
Something even he, a fully-fledged jōnin, hadn't mastered yet.
As he observed. He became more and more sure she was a prodigy. Everything about her — her footwork, her decision making and the surrounding awareness.— cemented that fact.
Especially the time she exchanged a wound to her stomach for a kill. How she moved her body slightly, so the kunai would not target her major organs.
Yes, it was a stab but not a fatal one. He extended his hand and stopped Mito and Kenji from intervening. Then he gave them a hard stare.
If his deduction was right then the girl needed to do this for herself. He would not let her die here, but he also would not interfere.
Then he continued watching, as another child lost their innocence to this accursed world.
Mito and Kenji both watched. An injured child was fighting.
They wanted to help her but the look Akamitsu gave, stopped them.
Mito wanted to ask why he was not helping her? But she held her tongue. She would ask later.
She watched them move and their clash began.
The girl was already dominating the fight with more than five enemies. So now with only one left; she was dancing around him. First she cut his knees by taking advantage of her small stature. After that it was just her making sure he died as painfully as possible. She cut his wrists one by one, then his hands, then his legs. Throughout all of it the mercenary was howling in pain. Begging her to kill him.
Now she got her answer why Akamitsu did not help— no, interfered.
The girl threw the tanto away and came close to the limbless body, who was still groaning. And sat at his chest.
She removed something from her wrist — a kunai — held in both hands, then she raised her hands above her head.
Mito's eyes widened and she hurriedly covered her brother's eyes — whose face was pale as paper — and Mito herself looked away.
Then she heard it —StAaB— QulCH— even from hearing alone she wanted to vomit.
The whole fight hadn't even taken ten minutes.
=====
Saki, who just burst a head like a watermelon. Suddenly looked up.
Towards a tall tree's branch. Which was empty. She sensed someone watching her.
After a few seconds of staring and sensing nothing. She turned towards the cliff, and began sprinting.
She reached the base of the cliff in a few minutes and jumped from edge to edge upwards.
She reached in front of the flower. For a few seconds she just stared at it.
It was bloodied but still stood like she first saw it. Her hand moved. Fingers touching its petals. Then her hand hovered over it — intent to crush it — but her hands didn't move. Her brother's face came in front of her every time she tried.
She lowered her hand. Instead, her eyes saw the dead body with a missing head. Her eyes shifted, looking for it. She found it a few meters away.
She walked mechanically towards it, and picked it up. Then came near the corpse in the same mechanical way.
She sat beside it. Severed head in her lap.
Saki — the real one — also sat at the exact position as her younger self or more like, young Saki sat in the exact position as her older self.
Then came sobs.
"Hic… Hic.. Hic.."
The instinct left her body, in its place was the sorrow of a little girl that lost her everything.
Real Saki looked at her lap where the head rested and her younger self who was crying above it. Her own tears were merging with her younger self's.
Young Saki cried there for a few hours. Until no tears were left to shed. Until unconsciousness claimed her.
Throughout this, three people from behind the trees, were keeping their ears on the weeping girl, as they looked at the horizon.
Mito's eyes were moist as she heard the broken sobs of the girl. Then she looked at her brother — from whose eyes tears were running — then her grip tightened around his small ones. Trying to comfort him and herself.