Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Fireflies over Rice Paddies ❯ Chapter 3

 

 

He patched me up quickly, hands never straying as many men's would have. It was in fact the opposite; he seemed to avoid touching me at all. He bandaged what wounds he could through the tears in my clothes without moving them, and made splints for the most obvious broken bones. It didn't seem to be the most effective way to treat wounds, but I didn't bring it up, not wanting to alienate the only person who seemed willing to help me, even if his motives were still rather unclear.

 

He was silent as he worked, and I wondered if he really had much training in bandaging others. He seemed rather strange to begin with, taking in an injured person while he was out on a mission. At least, I assumed he was on a mission, because why else would he be in this blasted cave to begin with? Also, his nervousness when it came to touching me made me think of him as a younger man, perhaps even in his teens. Even then, it seemed odd to me. I may not have been the prettiest girl, but I was hardly ugly enough to be scaring people away.

 

At the same time, a young ninja probably wouldn't be on a mission by himself. Unless, of course, he wasn't actually on a mission. He could be keeping me here for his own amusement, or he could be a rogue.

 

“I'm almost finished.” The ninja said suddenly, after it seemed he had been working on me for hours. “You should rest when I'm done.” I didn't say anything, as his words needed no response. It seemed more of a command than a suggestion, and I wondered if he had something to do that he wanted me asleep for. It was strange, though, how steady he kept his voice when his hands were shaking.

 

He did in fact finish quickly, moving away from me wordlessly. I let my eyes slide closed; turning my back to the direction he had approached me from and leaned against the cave wall to my side, pressing my face against the cool, damp stone. There was the feeling that I needed to say something to him, though I had no idea what. As the feeling grew, I resigned myself to it, murmuring a soft `thank you' that I wasn't sure that he would hear.

 

He did, though, and stopped moving, the area falling silent for a moment. “You're welcome….” His voice was steady, but something else. Something hidden deep under the layers, some sort of emotion. Before I could think much about it, though, I was asleep.

 

~*~

 

I awoke some time later with no real way of knowing how long I'd been asleep. As I slowly started to move, the rough rock of the cave wall scraped against my cheek, throwing me into full wakefulness and reminding me what had happened in the past however many hours had passed. I was in a cave with the man who had rescued her. He was a ninja, a person with secrets. A person who didn't take too kindly to being snuck up upon or surprised. That idea firmly planted in my head, I sat up, drawing my legs underneath me, keeping my eyes closed and my face aimed firmly at the ground.

 

“I'm awake now.” I said to the crisp, cool air. I had no way of even knowing he was there, or if he was long gone, maybe taken my sleep as a chance to get far away, after coming to regret what he'd done. But it didn't do any good to think like that, and so I continued. “I…. is there something that I shouldn't see, or can I open my eyes now…?” I phrased it awkwardly, but there didn't seem to be a good way to say what I was trying to get out.

 

“It is safe.” He replied without any sounds of motion. He was careful, if he had kept things hidden the whole time in case I woke up. Of course, when I opened my eyes, I remembered the other reason he could have for his imperturbability. I couldn't actually see anything, a fact that greatly reduced the probability of me seeing something I shouldn't. The question was whether he knew about that or not, and at the moment I sincerely hoped not. Blind people were simply far too easy to take advantage of.

 

I snapped out of my thoughts just in time to catch him as he started speaking again. “It seems that you know a bit about ninjas.” He said slowly, phrasing it almost like a question. It annoyed me, But since I wasn't sure quite why, I decided to answer him anyway.

 

“The world is built on them.” I said before thinking about it and realizing that I had been so vague that I didn't even understand what I had meant. Shaking my head, I started over. “They have their secrets, and a smart person does not pry into their lives.” Tracking him by the sound he had made, I opened my eyes and looked right at the spot he was at, trying to fool him into thinking that my sight was just fine.

 

“Wise,” he said simply, pausing before he continued. “However, it seems you may have pried a little, judging from that scene earlier. When you are ready, I would like to know more about those three I saved you from.”

 

Those words were a subtle reminder; I still owed him, in a big way. I sighed and looked down, giving him a slight nod. “As repayment for your help….” I didn't like being trapped like this, but I did owe him, and so I bit my lip and traced my fingers lightly along the stone ground, thinking of what I would say. My brain was still fuzzy- either from large amounts of sleep or multiple blows to the head, or some combination of the two- and it made thinking and speaking rather difficult. I finally sighed again, closing my eyes. “I will answer your questions, Rescuer…. Any and all.”

 

“Thank you.” His voice was quiet, almost hollow sounding, but he didn't make any response to me calling him `Rescuer'. It was as good as anything, I supposed, if he was not going to tell me his name. It didn't seem right to ask him, and I could convince myself it was solely because it was taboo for civilians to ask ninja about themselves and their lives, and not because of the fairy tale-esque glamour of being rescued by an unnamed man. At least, I could if I didn't think about it too much.

 

“What is it you want to know?” I asked, taking charge of the conversation and trying to rid my mind of the childish ideas that parents take so much effort to implant in their children.

 

“Your name would be a good start.” The ninja said pleasantly, seeming almost like he was humoring me in my lack of knowledge about interrogation techniques.

 

It was a rather inane question, and I laughed harshly, cutting off with a wince when I felt something bubbling inside my lungs. “You wouldn't believe me if I told you….” I managed to get out without much more pain

 

“Alright, but I would like to know anyway.” He said in a rather calm tone, not seemingly bothered by this. “However, I suppose it is not the most important piece of information. Will you at least tell me what you were doing out here in the border lands?”

 

I hesitated, considering what he said for a few moments before opening my eyes and turning them in the direction his voice had come from, sitting up straighter at the same time. “Firefly. That's my name, Firefly.” I closed my eyes again, trying to think, to find a way to answer his question. “I was trying to go…. Somewhere….” In truth, I didn't know where I had been going, didn't know if I had ever known. My mind was simply too foggy, and it was a fight to remember even small pieces of information that had happened in the past week.

 

I hesitated here, waiting for some sort of comment or noise, but none came. After taking my time to catch my breath and carefully think out what would come next, I began speaking again. “I—in my younger years I was… Enchanted, I suppose… by the idea of a `ninja'. I left home to find the Hidden village, though when I got there, I found myself penniless, begging coins on the street, before I was taken in by a group of ninjas. They kept me around, possibly amused by keeping me as a pet…” I paused, waiting again for a reaction as I caught my breath.

 

Again there was nothing, though I fancied I heard his breathing change ever so slightly. “In the end…” I continued with a sigh, wondering what sort of cold hearted bastard had no sympathy for any of this, “I started making some of my own choices, instead of simply doing what I was told. Not always the best choices, mind, but it felt good to be guiding my own life. After that, I got sick of the whole thing. Secret meetings, codenames; none of it is really my cup of tea. I tried to leave, and as you probably guessed, they weren't to happy about it…” I finished in a dry voice, leaning my head back against the wall, looking sightlessly up at the ceiling. “I don't know what else I can tell you…”

 

“Perhaps you know what they're doing here?” My Rescuer asked expectantly, to which I could only shake my head sadly

 

“They had some sort of orders… I planned to escape when they left me on this mission, but they brought me along.” I looked back up at where he stood, trying not to bite my lip nervously and reopen the split in it. “Are you going to send me back there…?” It seems now like a stupid question, but some mixture of pain and fear made me seriously believe that the worst thing possible would happen.

 

“No!” he snapped, then hesitated, as if surprised by his own vehemence. “You can stay here until you heal a bit, or I can figure a way to get you out of here. It is quite obvious that you are noncombatant.” He said in a calmer voice, and I noticed for the first time his odd manner of speech, not like anything I had ever heard before. Was it something he picked up for this mission, or was he from somewhere different? It was another of the many questions I had about him, and it seemed unlikely that she'd ever find answers for any of them.

 

“I wish I could tell you more…” I finally sighed, deciding that he was trustworthy, at least as trustworthy as ninjas ever were. “I only ever knew them by their codenames, even…. Yama, Ata, and Naga were the ones that you saw…. The other two in the house were Saru and Mati…. They called me Ai. I don't know if this helps you any….”

 

“Thank you.” He replied without emotion, moving for the first time in the entire conversation. “Please rest if you need to do so. I have more things that I need to do.” He moved thing as he walked around the area, and I suddenly wished that he would leave me something to protect myself with when he left, but despite all I'd said to him, speaking was still rather painful, and so I didn't ask. Maybe my thought showed on my face, however, because he seemed to sense it. “You should be safe here, and I will be back as soon as I can.”

 

“Please come back safe…” I said softly, though it was more for my own sake that out of any real worry about him.

 

“Thank you.” He said again, possibly thinking he was being too quiet for me to hear him, barely louder than his light footsteps as he left.