Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Moon On Fire ❯ Lessons In Tension ( Chapter 10 )

Chapter 10

Lessons In Tension

 

 

 

An hour later Sasuke was standing outside the unmarked, Anbu building watching Neji walk up the path towards him. Sakura and Naruto were still inside with Mizuki who had calmed down just a few minutes after the lights had been turned back on. She had stopped crying and pulled back from Naruto's arms with a shocked look.

 

“Naruto-san. I'm so sorry!” She said looking around as though she didn't really know where she was.

 

“Are you alright Mizuki-chan?” He asked softly, his hands were still on Mizuki's shoulders. He lifted his left hand slowly and brushed some stray strands of hair that had fallen in her face. She didn't notice.

 

“I think so.” She sat up straight as her bearings returned to her. She looked over to the Anbu, most who were sitting on the floor against the far wall clearly exhausted from the exertion of so much chakra. She looked in the other direction to Sakura and Sasuke who were still standing a ways away watching her. She felt her face grow red as the memory of what had just transpired came back to her. She shook off Naruto and quickly stood up. Naruto stood up with her and held his arms out incase she was feeling wobbly but she stood for a few moments, staring into space and taking in all that her memory was allowing her to see.

 

“Itachi… took my chakra didn't he?” She asked more than said.

 

“That's what you said.” Sasuke said stepping forward. “Do you remember anything more?”

 

“Not now.” The Anbu who had been questioning her stepped up. “She needs time to assimilate the memories that did return. You can come with her to the recuperation room but you are not to ask her anything about what she saw. Wait until she's ready to talk to you is that understood?” The three leafs nodded. Naruto took Mizuki's arm gently and led her to the room that the Anbu had pointed them too. Sakura followed but Sasuke did not.

 

“Sasuke-kun?”

 

“You go ahead Sakura. Mizuki needs your attention. I noticed that she hurt her hands during the session. I'm going to get some air. I'll be just outside if you need me.”

 

“You don't want to hear what she's remembered so far?” Sakura asked surprised.

 

“It can wait.” Sasuke replied, watching Naruto open the door for Mizuki. She gave him a bright smile in thanks but her eyes were downcast and her face pale. “She doesn't need me around making it harder for her.” And he turned and walked out the door. Sakura looked after him for a moment and then followed the others.

 

XXX

 

“I take it you've heard about Kurame-san?” Neji said quietly having reached the spot where Sasuke was standing.

 

“Yeah.” Sasuke said back just as quietly.

 

“I'll help you protect her as much as I can but we have our orders…”

 

“I know. You're first priority is to protect the villagers and stop Itachi. Protecting Mizuki is my job.”

 

“So how was Mizuki-chan's first session?”

 

“Illuminating.” Sasuke answered, grateful for the change of subject. He quickly related to Neji the basics of what had happened. Neji listened with wide eyes.

 

“He took her chakra? How would he do that?” Neji asked himself more than anything.

 

“More to the point, why would him taking her chakra amount to taking her name from her?” Sasuke asked.

 

“More questions than answers huh? Will she be up to her lesson this afternoon?”

 

“Of course. It's been over an hour since it ended. She'll be fine.”

 

At that moment, the door opened and Sakura appeared.

 

“Has she said anything Sakura?” Sasuke said impatiently.

 

Sakura's eyes dropped to her feet. She had healed Mizuki's palms which had been pierced by her own finger nails when her hands were clenched so hard. Mizuki had been silent, staring at the floor the entire time. Naruto had been leaning against the far wall trying to look concerned and reassuring at the same time which only succeeded in making him look confused. When she was finished she had sat up on the table with Mizuki and smiled at her.

 

“All healed up Mizuki-chan.” Mizuki had just nodded somberly.

 

Naruto had been just as silent as Mizuki but he spoke up then. “You can tell us Mizuki-chan. Whatever it was that you saw, we'll help you through it.” To Sakura's amazement, Mizuki looked up at Naruto and smiled.

 

“Naruto-san, I appreciate that more than you know but…” She looked back at the white tiles. “What I saw…only pertains to myself. There's nothing that would help you find or capture Itachi.”

 

“What makes you think I care about any of that?” Naruto practically growled as he suddenly walked over to where she was sitting and grabbed her hands. Mizuki looked at him shocked.

 

Sakura saw the fierceness in Naruto's eyes but how tenderly he held Mizuki's hands. She saw both their faces taking on a decidedly reddish tint and she found she couldn't take anymore. She jumped off the table and quickly excused herself. Naruto and Mizuki didn't even notice that she left. She brought her warring emotions outside to find Sasuke and Neji talking.

 

She had caught the tail end of what Sasuke had said to Neji though she barely registered what he had asked her. So she looked at Neji and said, “I'm glad you're here Neji, she could use the distraction. I'll go grab her.” She quickly turned back inside leaving Sasuke and Neji staring after her confused. She was at once glad for the excuse to interrupt them and also apprehensive at what she would walk in on. She hesitated at the door for only a moment when she couldn't hear anything inside but forced herself to turn the knob and open the door.

 

Mizuki was still sitting by herself on the table and Naruto was nowhere to be found. Sakura surprised herself by exhaling audibly. Mizuki took notice of her and said, “Naruto went for some water. I feel parched!” She forced a smile so pathetic that Sakura felt all her dark emotions regarding her and Naruto disappear.

 

“I'm sure you do Mizuki-chan, that was a tense first session.” She crossed the distance between them. “I just wanted to tell you that Neji-san is here.”

 

“Neji-san?” Mizuki's eyes widened as though she were just remembering her appointment with him. “Oh yeah. Thanks Sakura-san I'll go to him now.”

 

“Are you sure you're up to this?” Naruto said having come back into the room and catching the end of Sakura speaking. He did not speak to Sakura at all.

 

“Sure I am. I could use the exercise.” Mizuki said with another forced smile. Naruto's face said he didn't buy it at all but he gave her the glass of water and forced his own smile.

 

“I have some errands to do but after you're done with Neji how about a late lunch at Ichiraku? I've been dying to take you there.” Sakura's eyes widened. Had he just asked Mizuki for a date?

 

Mizuki seemed taken aback and she glanced at Sakura from the corner of her eye before she answered but her smile was genuine when she did. “I'd love that Naruto-san but will you be able to convince Sasuke he wants ramen as well?”

 

“Feh don't worry about Sasuke. I'll just tell him it's my treat and he'll come.” Naruto passed Sakura without a word but just before he reached the door he stopped. “Sakura-chan?”

 

“Yes?” Sakura said annoyed but relieved. She knew he wouldn't forget about her.

 

“Don't let Mizuki-chan over do it. Do your best this afternoon Mizuki-chan!” And he left.

 

Sakura stood motionless by the table which Mizuki now jumped down from. She stared after Naruto both shocked and more than a little hurt. It was pretty clear to her now how Naruto felt and while she should have been relieved that he wasn't going to get in the way of her conquest of Sasuke anymore, she felt anything but.

 

“Sakura-san are you alright?” Mizuki placed her hand on Sakura's shoulder. Her face was one of knowledge and concern. “If you rather I didn't go…”

 

Sakura felt her face turn red. “What? Oh no don't be silly Mizuki-chan! It's nothing like that. I'm not a huge fan of ramen anyway. So fattening you know. Come on, we shouldn't keep Neji-san waiting.” And she walked out the door without looking back.

 

Mizuki paused a moment longer watching Sakura. She'd been able to figure out a lot about the three leaf ninja friends and their relationships with each other. She knew about the love triangle that existed between them. They were probably the only ones in the village who didn't know or at the very least they wouldn't admit it. But watching Sakura over the last couple of days, Mizuki had decided that perhaps it wasn't such a classic triangle after all. More like a circle of denial. Mizuki shook her head and followed Sakura.

 

When she exited the building, Naruto and Sasuke had already left, leaving Sakura and Neji chatting lightly. Neji smiled when he saw Mizuki and she smiled back in greeting. She took only a moment to notice there was no tingling feeling in her face.

 

“Alright Mizuki-chan.” Sakura said trying to sound cheerful but only succeeding half-heartedly. “Sasuke will be back in a couple of hours when you're done. If you need me I'll be doing rounds at the hospital after I give my report to Tsunade-sama.” She said goodbye to Neji and left, leaving just the leaf Jounin with her.

 

“We will be starting in the West training ground today.” He started off to the left and Mizuki quickly fell in beside him. They had walked for perhaps ten minutes chatting lightly about what techniques they would be practicing when a chill suddenly went up Mizuki's spine. She stopped in her tracks and spun around wildly, trying to look everywhere at once. Neji walked another two paces before noticing anything was wrong. He turned back to see Mizuki scanning around her with a serious frown on her face. He looked around as well, clearly confused. He could not sense any trouble but just to be sure he muttered `Byakugan!' and looked all around himself. He could not see anyone around them except for Konohamaru who was sitting at a nearby café having a drink. His eyes returned to their normal state and he said, “I do not see anything out of the ordinary Mizuki-chan.”

 

“He's here.” She mumbled darkly still trying to see everywhere around her at once.

 

“Nothing escapes my Byakugan. Itachi is not here.” Neji insisted. “Perhaps you are feeling strange because of the stress of the memory retrieval.”

 

Mizuki did not believe that was it but she sighed and deferred to Neji. She had learned much about the abilities of many of the shinobi of the village from questions to Naruto and Sakura. Especially the Byakugan. She knew that if Neji did not see or sense Itachi, then they must be safe. She apologized for overreacting and they continued on towards the West training ground. The chill feeling in her spine though, would not leave her.

 

Neji had told Mizuki that they would start out lightly with positions and balancing that day. Based on Sakura's information, Neji did not believe they would get much further than that in only two hours. But Mizuki displayed exceptional equilibrium and after only 1 hour she had mastered not only all the positions he had intended to teach her but several of the punches and kicks as well. He was even more surprised at the strength behind her attacks. He said as much when they took a small break to catch their breaths.

 

Mizuki looked at her hands and nodded. “I understand. I swear to you I didn't know any of this before but it's as though, as I do the moves, something in my body wakes up and just starts doing it.”

 

“The skill you've displayed so far makes it very possible that you are a shinobi from another village and your skills, like the rest of your life, are currently buried in your mind. If we upped the difficulty level of your training, I wonder what other skills would reawaken within you.”

 

“I disagree.” Mizuki said simply. “I am not a shinobi.”

 

“What makes you say that?” Neji asked.

 

“Look at my hands.” She held her hands out to him. Indeed they were far too soft, the skin completely unmarked, unlike the hands of those who had been raised shinobi. Shinobi's hands were always callused; the skin rough and many times, even permanently scarred. “Also,” She said looking away. “Sasuke told me that a real shinobi would have been prepared to guard themselves against the full effects of the Tsukuyomi. What happened to me…” She paused as she looked at her hands. “Never would have happened to any of you.”

 

“Sasuke told you this did he?” Neji asked with an eyebrow raised.

 

“He made a point of it.” Mizuki said darkly remembering yesterday in the hospital when, after she had read about Genjutsu, she had made the mistake of asking Sasuke if it were possible to learn how to block the effects of the Tsukuyomi. Sasuke had gotten angry with her.

 

“How the hell would I know? Just because I have the same eyes as Itachi doesn't mean I know everything about him!” He had yelled angrily from his chair. Mizuki was shocked at his outburst but even more so when he said, “You know why you got as hurt as you did? Because you're no shinobi. A real shinobi would have been able to counter the worst of the Tsukuyomi which you obviously couldn't do. You should just shut up and let me protect you.” He mumbled and turned back towards the window but not before Mizuki saw his face turn three different shades of red. She felt her own face turn red out of what she told herself was anger at being assumed to be weak. She would have said more but Sakura and Ino had interrupted.

 

“I see.” Neji answered, not saying anything when Mizuki's eyes suddenly filled with anger and another emotion he wasn't sure if she even knew was there. “And yet she is skilled enough to not only block effectively but hit back with more strength than it certainly looks like she has.” He thought to himself. Out loud he said, “Just for fun, let's try increasing the difficulty of the moves.”

 

For the next hour he had her practicing moves he had not intended to show her for at least another few days. As he watched her he realized what she'd been talking about regarding her body `waking up'. After a couple awkward tries, it was as though her body suddenly remembered exactly how it needed to move and she was able to execute the technique perfectly. “I should not be surprised.” He though as she successfully blocked another hit and jumped several feet away. “It is not only the brain that has memory.”

 

Mizuki was both amazed and a little frightened at her rapid improvement. She could find no feeling or memory of having done any of these moves before but her body was acting almost on its own, without the aid of her mind. She had been unable to tell Naruto anything about what she had remembered as a result of the hypnotic Genjutsu, despite his sincerity but she found herself wishing he were here now, seeing her do these moves so well. He would be excited for her and her defences would drop again and she would feel good, for a few minutes. She wanted it so much that she wasn't paying attention to anyone around her and focusing on getting the kick she was trying to be perfect. As a result, when she heard the voice suddenly behind her, it scared her and her kick turned into frantic flailing as she tried unsuccessfully to regain her footing on solid ground. She closed her eyes tight in anticipation of the pain of hitting the ground hard but it did not come. Her eyes popped open as she realized she was no longer moving southward and she could hear laughter above her. She looked up to see Sasuke's face looking down at hers; his arms locked around her with an annoyingly smug look on his face.

 

“That's the second time you've wiped out in less than twenty four hours. Are you sure an amateur like you should be trying such a complicated move so soon?” He said with a thin smile as he gently lifted her up on to her feet.

 

Mizuki cursed under her breath as she stood up. She looked at Sasuke threateningly and was ready with a retort until she saw his eyes. He was looking at her and his eyes were slightly glazed over as though his mind were somewhere else. But they shone with compassion, humour and kindness. Mizuki could feel her heart suddenly thumping heavily in her chest. “He's never looked at me like that before. What is he thinking about?” She felt her face turning red and it was making her very uncomfortable so she made her voice as hard as she could. “Would you like to see how well I could actually do that move? I could give you an up close and personal show.”

 

Sasuke blinked back to his senses when Mizuki spoke and his eyes became hard once more. He turned his reddening face away quickly and said nothing as Neji came over towards Mizuki and they bowed their goodbyes. He knew Mizuki was able to execute that kick perfectly. He had been watching her practice for almost the entire lesson although he'd been hidden several yards away in a tree. He'd seen her first fumbling steps turn too quickly into fluid movements that didn't just look deadly. He had been downwind of them and so had heard Mizuki say with absolute certainty that she was not a shinobi and that she had no memory of having this kind of skill. He grimaced when he heard her tell Neji about what he had said yesterday. He hadn't meant to be so harsh about it. “She needs to stop pretending everything's okay.” He thought suddenly.

 

“Are you alright Sasuke?”

 

Mizuki's voice cut through his thoughts and he barely suppressed the urge to answer, “No…No I'm not.”

 

“Yeah I'm fine. You ready to go?” He didn't look at Mizuki but more at Neji who was also looking at him with a slightly weird look.

 

“Uh…sure.” Mizuki said with an eyebrow raised but she dropped the subject and turned to Neji. “Tomorrow then Neji-san?”

 

“Yes. I'll see you later.” Neji bowed to them slightly and left. Sasuke turned in the opposite direction and started walking. Mizuki followed and they said nothing to each other until Mizuki noticed they had arrived at the building housing Tsunade's office. She looked at him confused.

 

“Tsunade-sama wants to see you about what you remembered this morning.” Sasuke said without looking at Mizuki.

 

“I didn't really remember that much.” Mizuki mumbled.

 

“Anything at all that you've remembered will be considered important. Don't forget that we're also trying to find out where you're from and get you back home. The sooner the better” He said just loud enough so that Mizuki could hear it. She kept her face stoic but fought the anger bubbling just underneath her skin. They made it up the steps to the central building and crossed the threshold together but then Sasuke stopped. Mizuki took another few steps before noticing and threw Sasuke an impatient look when she did.

 

“What?” He said casually. “You don't need me there to tell Tsunade-sama what you remembered. Or do you?” He gave her a sly smile. “ Did you need help going to the washroom too?”

 

Mizuki could feel her face growing red with anger but forced a dangerous smile. “I just thought you'd be eager to hear what I'd remembered about your brother but if you're that scared then you should stay down here where it's safe.”

 

The sly smile disappeared off Sasuke's face in an instant. “I thought you said you didn't remember anything that would help us find…my brother.” He all but growled. Mizuki just smiled with narrow eyes, turned away and walked casually towards the steps to Tsunade's office. Sasuke growled low in his throat but he also felt somewhat relieved. “What happened last night doesn't matter. I definitely can't stand her.” He thought with a smile as he leapt up the steps to Tsunade's office after her

 

XXX.

 

“Interesting.” Was Tsunade's reply after Mizuki had relayed to her all the details she could remember from her hypnotic regression. Which wasn't much. She had been able to describe the room she was in, she had been able to describe Itachi (and had confirmed that he had been wearing the same Akatsuki garb he always did) but she could not recall the hand signs he had used for the jutsu that had been able to take away what effectively amounted to her life force.

 

“It was too fast.” Mizuki thought hard. “It looked like a blur and I couldn't hear the words he said clearly either. It felt like I was in a bubble.”

 

“The red light?” Shizune, who was feeling much better now that she was being included, asked. Mizuki nodded.

 

“What did it feel like?” Tsunade asked.

 

Mizuki thought for a moment and then said, “Like a layer of me disappeared. As though I were an onion and one of my inner layers was ripped out from right underneath my skin. It didn't hurt and I know I thought at the time it was just a game but…it still felt wrong.” Mizuki paused and looked down to the left, willing the memory to become clearer. “I was happy to let him practice on me but I was always happy when he ended the jutsu. When he gave my chakra back.”

 

“You were happy to let him practice on you?” Sasuke couldn't help asking.

 

Mizuki didn't look at Sasuke. Considering what they knew now it was a foolish thing to have done. “I don't remember how I knew him before all this happened Sasuke. I don't know what he was to me. It's just the way I remember feeling.” Sasuke didn't say anything and when Mizuki snuck a look sideways at him she was surprised to see he looked upset. Tsunade cleared her throat and Mizuki immediately turned attention back to her.

 

“So he performed an unknown and no doubt forbidden jutsu on you time and time again which somehow removed any traces of chakra or chakra network from your body and then put it back but it never harmed you that's pretty much the idea?”

 

“As far I can remember at this point yes.” Mizuki nodded.

 

“Except for this last time.” She pressed on with an intent look in her eyes.

 

“The last time…” Mizuki closed her eyes and tried to will something, anything to the front of her mind to satisfy these people who were working hard to help her. But whatever horrors were hidden in her mind, they stayed that way. “I'm sorry Tsunade-sama.”

 

“It's alright Mizuki.” Tsunade replied. “What about your name?”

 

“My name.” Mizuki said darkly. More than not being able to remember where she was from, being denied her name was the most bothersome thing about what was happening to her. She loved the name Gaara had given her but she felt that without her real name she was missing something. Something even more fundamental than chakra.

 

“It's strange. I get flashes of faces sometimes, I hear things sometimes, dream things I can't remember. I can feel the memories just under the surface of my consciousness trying to fight their way out.” Mizuki shook her head. “But I can tell you right now, my name is not there. I can't feel it anywhere inside me. Whatever Itachi did, he truly did steal it away.”

 

Sasuke sighed loudly and said, “You really are annoying you know that?” Mizuki glared at him, ready with a retort but she stopped short when she saw how white his face was. He looked truly disturbed.

 

“Is it because of what I said about Itachi?” She thought as he realized she had noticed something was wrong and quickly looked away, the white quickly becoming red. “Or is it something else? He's so much harder to read than the others. One minute he's being rude and selfish, the next he's being almost nice. I can never tell what he's thinking or exactly how he feels. Hmph. He's annoying.”