Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Blind Destiny ❯ Fragile. ( Chapter 1 )

It was twenty more steps up and three paces to the right. She pressed a hand against the cool plaster of the wall, took a shaky breath and counted again, making sure she did not miss a step. She faltered on the last step, braced herself against the nearest wall and drew another shaky breath only to gag at the stench of blood. Something was not right and she could not place her finger on it but it would not be wise to linger. Instead she pushed on, past three paces, ten then twenty. Racing down a hall with her hand grazing the side of a wall, praying she did not falter now when someone needed her most.

 

Umazaki Naruto braced himself as Neji charged him, a grin plastered on the brunette's face, his hand meeting the orange surface of his jacket only to have it snatched by the fox boys hand. He found himself flung from the bridge they had been training on and into the water.

“ Come on Neji, stop going easy on me.”

Neji surfaced, shaking the water from his hair, “ Naruto you know you should not be training at all, let alone on top of that poor excuse for a bridge.”

“ It teaches balance and if you were going to go easy on me you should not have accepted the offer to spar.”

“Perhaps you have just gotten faster” teased the young boy as he lifted himself back onto the log. He paused, glanced into the sky, a frown appearing on his face, “This peace, it frightens me…”

Naruto nodded, his head buried into the nook of his arms as they rested on his knees, “ I wonder to myself when it will end, tomorrow, next week…today.”

Neji nodded in agreement, flinching at the thought. They could not afford to have this peace end when for so long they had fought for it.

“ Temporary peace is sometimes the most valuable, unstable as it is.”

The two boys found themselves staring at the copy ninja, his hand crossed across his chest in habit, a small smile visible from behind the navy mask.

“ I would think you would still be in bed Naruto.”

“ With what might happen at any time I don't have the time to lay around and wait for them to find me.”

“ You sound more and more like an adult each time I see you.”

“Everyone has to grow up sometime…”

Naruto flinched as a hand fell gently onto his head, “ You should not be so worried about something like that…I would never let something happen to you.”

 

Blood, the smell of it, the feel of it, it seeped into her pores and she held back the urge to lose her lunch. It was still warm, which meant whoever had died had died recently and whoever had killed them was still there. She shook the wave of nausea from her head and braced herself, her ears pricking at the sound of shallow breathing that was not her own.

“ An old lady and a blind girl, what a pity there was not enough fun in this.”

“Who are you and what have you done to her?”

Her voice was shaky and she could no longer find the courage to face him, not now that her grandmother, her eyes, had been killed.

“Do you really care to know the answer to that?” A blade tip touched her neck, the cool metal sending shivers down her spine, “ do you really want to know what that wench was up to? Her scheming, her planning, thinking that we would not find out? She wanted to betray her own country, and you; a little blind girl was her key. Pity she did not choose a more worthy child to do her evil bidding. It would have been more fun to rid our country of someone worth the fight.”

If she could have seen him, she would have seen what he had done, something that seemed like butterflies massacred by a cruel child. But she could not, all she could do was smell and hear him and for the first time in a long time she found doubt in herself again. A doubt she had buried long ago with her training, with her smile and her love…but what could love do? It would not bring back her grandmother and yet this man had the right to accuse her of betraying a country she loved…

 

“ You are wrong…she would never betray her country…She loved her country, she fought for it and this is her reward? Murdered by a man who had the nerve to kill an old woman and wants now to kill a blind girl?”

That had been what she had wanted to say and yet the words had not come from her mouth, instead they had come from behind her, their owner walking past her, pushing her to the side as to protect her.

“A Konoha dog come to interfere in affairs not of her business. Shame on you Tsunade, did you not bring your little friend?”

“ I don't need her to beat your head in for what you have done.”

“No.…” The two paused, surprised by the soft voice of the young girl, “It was my grandmother he killed…it is my fight.”

“Don't be a fool girl, Keno is an S class criminal…. let me handle it for now.”

“Please…please don't underestimate me…”

Tsunade froze, and then she smirked, the face had been familiar, the comment was all too real and reminded her so much of a certain blonde that she could not help herself, she took a step back, “ Then he is yours.”

“ You come to rescue the girl and now you let her fight, are you planning to kill me by using her as bait.”

“I won't need to kill you, she will do just fine.”

Tsunade would never sleep again, not after that sight. Not but two minutes after she had allowed the young blind girl to fight her grandmother's killer was it over. She had dismantled the killer with her bare hands; she had to pry her from his lifeless body and shout at her before she had broken into tears. Begging her to let her finish let her revenge her grandmother. Only when she had been able to whisper that she had did she stop, her arms going limp as she slunk to the ground.

“ We should not stay…it would not be safe for you to remain here. There will be more.”

She gained a firm nod and that had been enough for her to whisk the girl away, they would not stop until they had crossed the border. It had been risky for the fifth to take this mission personally but then again the request had come from a personal friend. A friend who could not be refused…

She laughed bitterly to herself, she had failed once again to save someone…she would save the girl, at least that part of the promise she could keep.