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Torima's Vessel	By : jenniferboka Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 1195 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
Torima’s Vessel

Chapter 4: Invasion of Privacy (Part 1)

As always, italics are thoughts. ‘’ or “” indicate speech.

Both of them just stood there, motionless under the Godaime Hokage’s incredulous stare. “Could you repeat that, Kakashi?” Shizune grilled, Tsunade-sama steepling her fingers in front of her, eyes downcast and lips drawn in a firm line.

“The mission to retrieve Sandabado Koumori after she fled the Village’s hospital a week ago failed,” he answered, keeping his gaze level with the Hokage’s should averting his gaze make him give way to the guilt he felt for not being able to help Sano-sensei. “She’s confirmed dead, as of five days ago.”

“By what means?” Tsunade-sama questioned quietly but sternly under her breath.

At this, he watched Sakura’s whole body go tense as a few sweatdrops began forming along her generous hairline. She refused to meet Shizune’s quizzical look. Again, he couldn’t blame her.

“Killed in battle by a long-time enemy, Hokage-sama,” he replied with a slow sigh, as Sakura’s posture relaxed somewhat as she turned an appreciative gaze towards him. He briefly glanced at her, giving her a lopsided smile beneath his ever-present mask. She’d done as asked of her; it needn’t go any farther than that. Truthfully, he was grateful to her for ending Sano-sensei’s suffering. Her spirit and soul were truly at peace now.

The mutterings of the Hokage turned his gaze forward once more as Tsunade-sama rose from her seat behind her desk. “Sakura, you’re dismissed. Expect a new mission within the next week, understood?” “Yes, ma’am,” was the attended reply as his student strolled out the office, leaving him alone to face his fate as Tsunade-sama strode purposefully toward him from around her desk, Shizune holding her place next to the left of the desk with a concerned look.

“Now… tell me exactly what happened, Kakashi,” she bit out, trying desperately to keep from splitting her newest wooden desk into tinder and splinters just like its predecessors. “How did Sandabado-san die?”

He cast his eyes downward again, this time unable to mask the sadness he felt. “The one of the spirits sealed within her body found the readings on the Iraishin No Jutsu originally used to seal her within Sano-sen… Sano-san’s body. The flower seal on Sano-san's body was broken, and the spirit used the jutsu to enter the body of a Kusagakure shinobi. The shinobi’s identity is yet unknown, but his original intent was to kill Sano-san. Supposedly, the spirit fed off this energy and tried to kill Sano-san herself.”

“And what part did Sakura play in all this?” Tsunade-sama questioned, angry eyes slanted sideways to look over the bridge of her nose at him. Obviously, she hadn’t missed Sakura’s earlier agitation. Hard to fool a Sannin, let alone a Hokage, he thought to himself with a harsh chuckle. But all he could give was the truth.

“Sano-san asked Sakura to end her pain, and made it her choice. She did as requested,” he responded, finally meeting Tsunade-sama’s gaze in defense of his student. With this, Tsunade-sama seemed to deflate as her rigid posture slackened some. “I see” with a sympathetic look out the window after the young kunoichi, was the only acknowledgement given. “So Akirarabe managed to escape Sandabado-san’s grasp… But knowing Sandabado-san, I assume Akirarabe is also dead?”

“Yes,” he answered with a sigh of relief. But how did Tsunade-sama know the name of the spirit that had haunted Sano-sensei? With a mental slap to the forehead, he realized that Sano-sensei’d probably said something in delirium while she was in the hospital before she left.

“Alright,” she concluded, swinging around to face him at an angle with a sympathetic gaze. “Please accept my condolences for your late sensei. For as long as I’ve known her, she was a fine kunoichi worthy of the title ‘The Iron Maiden of Konohagakure.’”

“Thank you, Hokage-sama,” he accepted with a slight bow. “But that’s not all I’ve come to you for. I’d like to ask a favor.” At this, she fully faced him. “What is it?”

“I’d like to examine Sandabado Koumori’s personnel file and her records while in the ANBU Black Ops Corp,” he put out point blank, ready at anytime for the vehement denial he was expecting. “I believe her real name was Ano Kurabashi, a former Leaf kunoichi back in the time of the Second Great War.”

“And just how did you come about Sano-san’s true identity, Kakashi?” Hokage-sama asked, an indecisive grimace crossing her face. “And what about her are you trying to find?”

Pulling out the tracking journal he’d brought with him from his hip pouch, he gingerly handed it over to Tsunade-sama, and she began to flip through the pages. “I understand that Sensei fought in a tournament called the Taikai Heiwakokka after the Second Great War. From what I’ve heard, she won. If she won the tournament for Konohagakure, then I want to know why the tournament's existence was stricken from Konoha's records.”

With a sigh, Tsunade-sama returned to her place seated behind her desk. Closing the journal, her sad eyes aged her as her gaze took on a faraway look out the window. “The Taikai Heiwakokka was a tournament held after the Second Great War in order to foster good relations between the opposing countries who fought in it; mainly Kusagakure, Takigakure, Iwagakure, Amegakure, and Konohagakure. The tournament was held in our arena here in the Leaf Village. All the top officials of the countries attended, but the public was also allowed admittance. The tournament rules stated that the tournament - because the War had just ended - was not to be one of mass bloodshed. All of the contestants chosen were elite of their village.” She then pivoted in her chair to face him again. “You’re sensei was chosen to represent Konohagakure in the tournament, and along with the other contestants publicly agreed to the terms of the tournament: They’d fight, until they surrendered under the other’s skill.” Her eyes became even sadder as her fingers steepled again unconsciously. “I was there. I cheered her on and watched your sensei give it her all. But something happened. We’d all assumed she’d gone mad…”

“What happened, Tsunade-sama?” he probed gently, approaching her desk with caution as her grip tightened around her fingers. He watched in stunned awe as he saw Tsunade-sama begin to shake slightly, a slight look of fear developing in her eyes. “Lady Tsunade, maybe you shouldn’t,” Shizune soothed with a look of pity on her face, as the Hokage whipped toward her assistant with a determined, yet still semi-fearful, look on her face. “No, Shizune. …He wants know… and he deserves to. The secret’s been kept long enough.”

“Lady Tsunade.” Shizune returned to her place with a concerned look on her face. With a single vehement shake and a mutter of “So much blood,” Tsunade-sama reverted to the story. “In the middle of the tournament, for no reason at all, your sensei fell to the ground and began slashing at her collar with her kunai. Everyone heard her screaming 'No! No! Get back!’ The grass had melted to her skin as she writhed. But after a moment the slashing stopped, with not a single patch of her skin showing. She got up and began fighting like a woman possessed. Her movements were so jerky and wild, we’d all thought she’d gone crazy. And she'd performed jutsus no one had ever heard of before! In her delusion, she murdered all the contestants and the referee. The crowd was only spared her madness by a shield put up earlier around the arena to keep the contestants from getting any not-so-bright ideas. She’d then taken off the other contestants’ masks…”

“But Sano-sensei’d never…” he interrupted disbelievingly, not believing his sensei of breaking the one code all Elite followed when facing another Elite opponent. To break this code was the ultimate disrespect to an elite shinobi.

“But she did. When the medic-nin and police arrived on the field to subdue her and care for her victims, she stunned them unconscious with a bolt of lightning, gathered up the bodies, flew up, broke through the shield over the arena, and escaped. The public, needless to say, was outraged - as well as the major officials of each of the Villages. The Hokage, himself, purposely went after her with the other ANBU Black Ops members. When he came back without her, the Hokage held council with the other major officials. This council concluded that the Taikai Heiwakokka should be stricken from the record books of each country, and never be allowed to be spoken of ever again. The incident almost caused the War to reignite. After that, your sensei was considered a high-ranking criminal by all the other countries. She never returned here to the Village, as far as I know, until Sandaime-sama sent her the invitation to teach you.”

Opening the book again, she scanned the pages briefly. “Seems your sensei had many students, besides you, Kakashi. She taught students from many different countries, by what I see here.” He watched as her expression turned grim for a minute, her expression saying what she thought loud and clear. But instead of saying what he truly thought of what her face expressed, he answered, “Sensei taught us that as humans, we’re loyal to ourselves first by nature, and then everyone else we hold dear: family, friends, authority, etc.” At this, both Shizune and Tsunade-sama regarded him with a guarded, disconcerted gaze. “She said, as shinobi – not just Elite shinobi – we cannot consider ourselves human, unless that sense of self-loyalty make us into something we’d regret later, so we should consider ourselves something more than human. …Something better. She taught us all as individuals, and helped each of us help each other strive to be that something better. That’s what I’ll always remember about Sano-sensei,” he finished with a weary sigh.

“That’s Ano-chan, alright. Always the optimist,” Tsunade-sama concluded with a sad smile, returning her gaze to the journal and flipping to a page toward the end of the seemingly endless book. “Looks like the last entry here was made about nine years ago. Wonder why she stopped?” Tsunade-sama whispered to no one in particular.

This is what she read on the tear-stained page:

O---------------------------------------------------O

February 15^th 20 AGW (age 37)

I can’t believe how foolish I was to take Kiyuri on that reconnaissance mission with me. To take a trainee on a Level 3 operation… It’s too late to regret it now. I’m a failure as a Sensei. I let those Otogakure scumbags capture, beat, rape, and then kill one of my best students. And what could I do… NOTHING! As we escaped, she said she wanted me to sing to her, like her mother did when she was little to help her get to sleep. I tried everything I could think of to keep her alive, even the Forbidden Sewing Life Jutsu. It didn’t work.

Everyone I’ve ever cared for I couldn’t help when they needed me most! First, mama; then, Ana-sensei; then, Sandaime-sama; then, Yondaime-sama; and now, Kiyuri. I promised myself that I’d become a shinobi to protect those I cared about! But what’s the point of being a shinobi now!

I can’t take this pain anymore. …I give up.

O---------------------------------------------------O

“If I’m not mistaken, Kakashi, you entered the ANBU Black Ops nine or so years ago, correct?” Tsunade-sama asked with a bewildered look on her face as she read the passage, Shizune reading over her shoulder with a similar look. “And up until then, you trained only with Sandabado-san?”

“Yes, Hokage-sama,” he answered with a perplexed look.

“Who is ‘Kiyuri’ to you?” she questioned, closing the journal and turning it end-over-end in her hands, seemly studying it as if it hid a secreted weapon within its bound confines.

“Kiyuri is…” he stopped, chewing on the word as he continued more solemnly, “…was one of Sano-sensei’s other students whom she trained while I was training for the ANBU Initiation. She was a Kemurigakure kunoichi, and we used to spar together with a few of her other students. She was the only one of us who ever managed to get the best of Sano-sensei.” With this he looked up, seeking explanation from the two superiors in front of him. “What did Sano-sensei say about Kiyuri?”

With a slow breath, the Hokage gently laid the journal in the only clear spot on her desk, folding her hands together on top of it, the look on her face serious. “Did you ever learn the cause of Kiyuri’s death?” To hear it queried so bluntly, took him back to another time. A time he thought he’d locked away in the deepest vestiges of his memory. Now, it was his turn to hide a shudder as he remembered.

Kiyuri…

O---------------------------------------------------O

The day’s light was dimming as he’d been matching blows with Wabichi, Banyuu, and Wonigiru during instruction, Byakko taking over Sano-sensei’s usual role as instructor. Sano-sensei’d left three days ago, letting Kiyuri tag along, after receiving a message by carrier hawk.

“Hey guys,” Wabichi’d exclaimed, dodging under a punch by Banyuu meant for her jaw as she twisted herself beneath him, only to shove him up and throw him over her shoulder out into the nearby bushes, and then implemented the invisibility jutsu with a twist that she’d mastered – thanks to Sano-sensei’s encouragement. “How long do you think Sano-sensei will take to finish this mission?” Jumping a kick to her shins, Wabichi’d vaulted over Wonigiru’s shoulders to land a roundhouse kick to the back of his shoulders, setting the stunned Takigakure shinobi sprawled out on his front, trying to regain his breath.

“Quit the chatter! Talking won’t help you novices concentrate!” Byakko’d shouted from the edge of the clearing as he observed their battle tactics. This practice, as he’d put it mildly, was basically called ‘Sole Survivor.’ The objective: Be the last one to get knocked on your ass. The last one of them standing would face him, one-on-one with the no-holds-bar option open for whoever achieved success. After the many early morning to late-late night, nonstop training sessions they’d had when Byakko was instructor, the prize of being able to kick Byakko’s ass was foremost on all their minds. “I heard it’s only a reconnaissance gig on a bunch of thugs claiming to be doctors over in Aishu. I’ll bet she’s got all the information she needs by tomorrow. Whaddaya bet, Kakashi?” she bantered, as Byakko sent a barrage of kunai, senbon, and shuriken into the fray between the two of them to stir things up a bit.

Before he could even answer, a sudden crashing noise and a wave in the barrier set everyone on edge, hands reaching for various hidden weapons and implementing stealth techniques. This wasn’t the first time an intruder had learned how to enter through the barrier. But as they all turned to the source of the noise, through the bushes ran a blue figure carrying a huge tan-and-red sack over its shoulder. The figure then tripped, slamming face down to the ground with a sickening thud-crunch, as the blue coating around it faded into a green skin, refusing to let the sack go even as it fell on top of the figure.

“Ko… Where’s Ko?!” the green figure’d cried out, as it struggled to lift the sack without letting it touch the ground and stand up at the same time. Upon further inspection from his position at the time, he’d realized three major things. First, the green figure was badly injured with large gashes and slash wounds dripping crimson-red blood, as it tried to stand awkwardly on a severely broken leg. Second, there were translucent blue threads leading from vital points on the green figure’s body into the sack. Third, the sack was also dripping blood - whether it came from the figure or not he wasn’t sure - but one thing he did know was that something in the sack was moving… and then moaned!

Looking up, the figure’d finally noticed them and he’d realized what he was looking at. Wabichi’d put to words precisely what was on everyone’s mind. “Oh my god… SANO-SENSEI! SENSEI, WHAT HAPPENED?!” she screamed, abandoning her kunai to run towards their fallen sensei.

“STAY BACK!” Sano-sensei’d screamed back at Wabichi, causing the faithful kunoichi to stumble to a stop. Sano-sensei’s fearful eyes had turned their way as the brown in her irises turned a combination of yellow and orange and her pupil slitted before she shut her eyes, letting out a grunted scream as she clenched her eyes shut, still holding the sack tightly shut. “Byakko, take them to Zenu’s place,” she stated harshly between gritted teeth, before the object in the sack began to shift again and groan incoherently. “Get them out of here! NOW!” While Sano-sensei’d been shouting, Ko-sama’d finally arrived on the scene trying to get Sano-sensei to her feet, but he’d just watched Sano-sensei push him away from her as Byakko-san’d lead them the other way toward Zenu’s place – a longtime friend of Sano-sensei’s who lived about twenty miles inside Fire Country's border.

In the confusion of leaving, though, he’d managed to sneak away from the others and hid at the edge of the clearing about 200 yards from where Ko-sama knelt next to the sack, furiously trying to open it as Sano-sensei sat on the ground, babbling the situation in a hurry. He’d been only able to catch snatches of Sano-sensei’s hysterical rantings with his Sharingan covered. “…Ambushed… knocked unconscious… Kiyuri’s head… tied down to chair… 'Kira took over… so much blood… forbidden justu… escaped… blew up… HELP HER!”

What he’d seen Ko-sama pull out of the sack Sano-sensei’d been carrying made his blood turn to ice. Even Ko-sama couldn’t have been immune to the sight of Kiyuri’s detached head, as it made its way from the darkness of the bloody sack to the light of the fading day. Now he could see the translucent blue threads better as Sano-sensei removed the rest of Kiyuri’s gash-ridden, naked body from the sack. The threads on Kiyuri’s body and head were mirrored in their positions on Sano-sensei’s body. “Ko, you’re a medic-nin! DO SOMETHING!” Sano-sensei’d screamed in hysterics, as he watched in horrified awe as Kiyuri’s eyes had sleepily opened and blinked.

He’d watched as Ko-sama’d quickly, but gently set Kiyuri’s head down in its normal position with the rest of her body. Cracking his knuckles to release the green healing chakra he possessed, Ko-sama’d put one hand on Kiyuri’s head while the other went over her heart. He’d just sat that way for some time, his eyes crinkled in concentration as most of the gashes were healed, the whole time Sano-sensei murmuring comforting words to a dazed Kiyuri, until finally the green glow on his hands subsided. Ducking his head, the gentlemanly medic-nin had mumbled the words that no one wanted to hear. Wanting to know for himself, he’d uncovered his prized Sharingan eye, and both his eyes had widened at the conversation he couldn’t quite hear but now discerned.

“There’s nothing I can do for her, Sano-san.”

“What do you mean there’s nothing you can do for her, Ko?!” Sano-sensei’d raged, shaking hands fisted in her lap. “I promised her we’d get back here so that you could help her! PLEASE, KO, SAVE HER! DO SOMETHING!”

“Don’t you think if I was capable of doing something, I would have done it by now!” Ko-sama’d shouted back at her loud enough for him to hear, his voice shaking slightly with repressed emotion. “I don’t have the facilities or the equipment to do the reattachment safely. By the time we did secure those things, it’d be too late.” He apparently then noticed the threads running from Sano-sensei to Kiyuri, and rebuked her in a strong tone, “When did you learn the Sewing Life Jutsu? You know it’s forbidden.”

“Doesn’t matter. …She said that she wanted to see this place one last time. …I owe her that much, at least,” Sano-sensei’d finished, hanging her head in defeat, but then picking it up again quickly as a thought must have hit her. “No… no, she deserves better than that. Ko, I need you to prop her up somehow,” she concluded, as she rose awkwardly on the one good leg she had while tenderly placing weight on the broken one. Within minutes, Ko-sama had strapped Kiyuri’s body into a standing position against the nearest tree with her head sitting in its rightful place. Sano-sensei’d stumbled awkwardly to face Kiyuri, laying her hand against Kiyuri’s cheek with a loving smile. “Kiyuri,” she’d quietly stated, tapping said girl’s cheek gently. “We’re home.” Dazed eyes had slowly scanned the surrounding area, before settling back on Sano-sensei’s face with a smile.

“Kiyuri,” Sano-sensei’d burst, her battered body shaking and tears streaming down her face, “I’m sorry. …I’m so sorry. …I don’t deserve to be your sensei. …I couldn’t…”

“Sano-sensei,” Kiyuri’s cracked voice interrupted, capturing Sano-sensei’s gaze with a serious look. “It’s okay. I forgive you. Don’t worry about me.” A slight look of relief had entered Sano-sensei’s eyes as she took in a deep, shaky breath, letting it out in a pained rush. “Do you trust me with your life, Kiyuri?”

“You know I do, Sensei,” Kiyuri’d answered, the smile still in place.

“There’s nothing we can do to keep you alive for much longer. So I want to give you the next best thing. …A jutsu I know will let me pull your soul from your body and give it form. You’ll be free to come and go as you please, and leave for the other side anytime you wish. It’ll be over quickly and painlessly. Will you let me do this for you?”

“I trust you, Sensei,” was the only reply given as Kiyuri squinted her eyes shut with a pained grimace. A single nod of determination was given as Sano-sensei once again took a deep breath and backed from the tree and Kiyuri about fifteen hobbled paces. Closing her eyes in concentration, the blue shroud once again surrounded Sano-sensei’s body, until the shroud coalesced around just her hands, the light from it intensely bright.

“Inu… Uma… Tori… Usagi… O-ushi… O-hitsuji… Ryu,” Sano-sensei counted out with determined eyes, hands making the required seals along with the words. "I won’t let Kiyuri suffer for my mistake!" he’d heard her mumble reflexively, as if to reassure herself. Apparently, Ko-sama’d heard it too, as he put a comforting hand on Sano-sensei’s shoulder.

“Sano-san, if you don’t let me cut the chakra threads; when your jutsu strikes Kiyuri, you’ll…”

“I DON’T CARE IF I DIE!” Sano-sensei’d screamed, quickly putting her fisted right hand and spaded left hand together, arching them left and then pulling her fist down and right to reveal a blade of pure blue chakra. “I could do nothing while this poor child suffered! So I DON’T CARE IF I DIE!” With vehemence in her eyes, Sano-sensei’d charged at Kiyuri’s body as fast as her wounded leg would let her, hollering for courage.

“Sano-san!” Ko-sama’d shouted in disbelief and horror.

The next few moments seemed to move in slow motion for his then-younger self.

He watched as the elder Iwagakure medic-nin pulled out a sutra and kunai from his thigh holster.

Ten steps…

The sutra was wrapped tightly around the shaft of the kunai.

Five steps…

With a speed he’d never thought capable of Ko-sama if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, the elderly medic-nin had let the kunai fly.

Four steps…

Three…

“Shinzui Fukinkou Ken no Jutsu!”

Two…

One…

The chakra blade went right through Kiyuri’s heart… without a sound. He watched in awe as the spark of life disappeared from Kiyuri’s eyes and her body turned the pale white of the dead almost instantly.

“SANO-SENSEI!” he’d shouted unabashedly, running from his hiding place toward the scene, thinking Sano-sensei’d been successful in ending it for herself as well. As he’d reached her side though, he’d watched as Sano-sensei, severed chakra threads hanging from various vital points and a torrent of tears running down her blood-spattered face, began slowly pulling the chakra blade out from Kiyuri’s corpse. There wasn’t a scratch, let alone a new drop of blood, where the blade had entered Kiyuri’s body or on the blade itself. But as the last bit of the chakra blade re-emerged, he saw what looked like a pulsing white ball stuck on the tip of it. As he’d watched, Sano-sensei took the orb of white light off the end of the chakra blade as the blade faded from existence. Letting her hand fall away limp, the orb just hung there in midair, the pulsing behavior replaced by just a simple glow.

“Kiyuri,” Sano-sensei’d whispered quietly, as his eyes had turned to look at hers. A final single tear trailed down her face. Though her eyes were still that odd combination of orange and yellow, Sano-sensei’s eyes were dull in a slack face. “…I’m sorry.”

Her legs collapsing beneath her, Sano-sensei would have hit the ground face first if he hadn’t caught her in time. Ko-sama was right beside him in a matter of seconds, pressing here and feeling there as Sano-sensei’s body began to shake uncontrollably, crackles of lightning sparking here and there on her green body randomly.

“We need to get her inside, NOW!” Ko-sama’d instructed forcefully. He hadn’t argued, he’d just run for the nearest building, which just so happened to be the bunkhouse. They set her down on the nearest bed, before Ko-sama’d ordered him to get a syringe and the bottle filled with yellow liquid, top shelf in the storehouse, third from the left.

He’d gotten both quickly, but the scene he returned to left him motionless at the door’s frame. For inside, Ko-sama sat astride Sano-sensei’s torso, pinning her arms to the bed with his knees as she thrashed wildly, as if she was trying to throw him off; in Sano-sensei’s eyes was a look of pure hatred as she gazed upon the older Iwagakure medic-nin.

“Is her life really that meaningless to you, you miserable creature?” he’d heard Ko-sama exclaim with a determined face, maneuvering just slightly out of biting range as teeth launched forward toward his thighs. “Haven’t you made her life hard enough already?”

“She hasn’t even begun to feel the pain I have in store her!” issued a gruff and maniacal shout from Sano-sensei’s throat. But… that wasn’t Sano-sensei’s voice.

“If you hate her so much, then why’d you keep Kiyuri, one of her beloved students, alive?”

“That little slut Kiyuri had guts asking me to help her. Hell, even I can respect that! Made it more fun watching the bitch die!” Sano-sensei’d screamed out with an inhuman laugh, before a particularly large crackle of lightning made her scream and twitch in agony. “Damn bird! Leave me alone!”

What’s going on here?! he’d thought in sheer terror of the sight before him, as his mouth uttered the question, “Sano-sensei?”

The thrashing stopped as slitted orange-and-yellow eyes met his, and a sincere smile split Sano-sensei’s face. “I’m alright, Kakashi. Come here,” came the comforting voice he remembered as he stepped through the threshold of the bunkhouse toward his still-shaking sensei, the syringe and bottle in his hands all but forgotten.

“Don’t listen, Kakashi!” Ko-sama’d ordered, his knees pressing harder into his sensei’s upper arms. “Give me the bottle!”

“Ko-sama, get off! You’re making the pain worse! Kakashi, get him off of me!”

He’d stepped towards Sano-sensei’s pleading eyes, but Ko-sama’s words shifted his gaze again.

“Kakashi, trust me! This creature you see isn’t Sano-san! Give me the bottle and syringe!”

“Kakashi, he’s trying to kill me for killing Kiyuri! Stop him!”

“No, I’m gonna make sure this banshee doesn’t hurt Sano-san any worse! Sano-san’s spirit’s been broken, and she can’t fight back against this thing that wants to take over! That medicine will help her recover from this tragedy; now, give it here!”

“Don’t believe this traitor, Kakashi, help me!”

His mind had rallied from the shock as his gaze shifted between the two straining shinobi on the bed, the bed groaning under the combined weight. His gaze finally landed on Sano-sensei’s pleading face, a step in her direction made the smile on her face grow even wider.

“Now, you’ll get yours, you two-timing old goat!” Sano-sensei’d shouted in Ko-sama’s face as the smile grew triumphant and determined in nature.

The thud of a punch momentarily left everyone silent. The creature that had assumed herself Sano-sensei tried to double over to nurse air back into her lungs, but found herself held more fast as he’d braced Sano-sensei’s legs against the bed tightly, ensuring the creature couldn’t buck the medic-nin off. “No one insults Kiyuri-chan like that,” he stated gravely, mismatched eyes narrowing in disgust. “Not if I can help it!”

“You … son-of-a … bitch,” the creature had wheezed between gasps, as Ko-sama drew the right dosage into the needle. “You think... I’m gonna make it… that easy for you! … This body’s… finally… MINE!” she shouted the last word, giving one final heave with all Sano-sensei’s weight behind it. The move had unbalanced the medic-nin enough that the creature sunk Sano-sensei’s teeth into his thigh just as another crackle set both the creature and Ko-sama shaking from the sheer intensity of it, both of them howling in pain. He’d released Sano-sensei’s shaking legs in favor of a crosscut to the nose, the bone breaking with an ear-splitting crack. A pure-blue curse issued from the creature through Sano-sensei’s mouth, releasing the medic-nin’s injured thigh as Ko-sama shifted and sent the needle home into the meaty part of Sano-sensei’s left shoulder, quickly plunging the medicine as soon as it hit the right depth.

More curses issued as the creature kept flaying about but to no avail. The bucking and kicking grew weaker in strength and the crackles came more frequently and stronger as the medicine took its quick effect. “NO! NO! THIS BODY’S MINE!” the creature spouted one last time pitifully, before silence resumed and Sano-sensei’s head slumped to one side, the dull-eyed straight stare returning to her face.

“Oh, Sano-san,” Ko-sama’d shook his head sadly, carefully extracting himself from atop Sano-sensei’s limp body, “I’m sure you did all you could for her, regardless of what you said.” Seeing no viable response, he’d turned to head out the door, calling over his shoulder. “Come on, Kakashi. Sano-san needs some rest… and I need a strong drink.” He’d nodded reflexively, not taking his eyes off Sano-sensei’s then-still form, as he moved to follow Ko-sama.

“I never pictured you as liking coffee, Ko-sama,” he’d quipped, after they’d make their way to the kitchen/storehouse, Ko-sama immediately returning the half-full bottle of medicine to its rightful place, bringing Seggi’s prized bag of ground Indian coffee out with him to brew. “I never used to drink it, before I came here,” Ko-sama’d answered, taking a sip of the hot drink with a sigh of satisfaction.

“What made you start?”

Ko-sama’d paused, staring through the rough-boarded wall in the direction of the bunkhouse.

“Dealing with Akirarabe, that demon of a spirit you just met. This isn’t the first time she’s tried to break Sano-san’s spirit… but for a while now, Sano-san’s never let her get a significant swing at it. She’s always bounced back. But this… with Kiyuri…”

“Is Sano-sensei going to be okay?” he’d asked cautiously, gaze proclaiming to the elderly shinobi that he wanted nothing but the un-sugar-coated truth. Ko-sama’d upended the cup, swallowing what was left in the ceramic mug, before taking in a deep sigh, letting it out slowly through his nose, a hand swiping quickly through his graying hair.

“Honestly, I don’t know what will happen. It’s all up to Sano-san now,” Ko-sama’d responded, rising from his seated position before the heated stove. “If she decides her life is worth sparing, she’ll come back.”

“So what do we do until then?”

“That medicine I gave Sano-san should keep Akirarabe suspended for two days at most. Until then… we keep trying to bring Sano-san around… and wait. I’m going to send a message out to Zenu in the meantime. …You’d best get some sleep, Kakashi. Don’t worry, I’ll wake you if anything changes.” With that, Ko-sama’d left him to his own thoughts for the night.

He’d barely been able to sleep that night, and when he finally did manage to drift off, he was woken by the sound of heavy footsteps… and they weren’t Ko-sama’s. Regulating his breathing pattern to make them think he was still asleep, he kept calm until the touch of a hand on his shoulder made him pull the kunai he kept hidden inside his sleeve. The ring of metal-on-metal resounded in the small room, until he realized the person on the other end of the opposing weapon was Seggi-sama, the Kusagakure cook.

“Way to go, Lightweight,” the cook’d retorted with a serious air. “You ding-ed one of my best pans.” Returning the kunai to its hiding place, he’d stretched out a rather painful kink in his lower back while his eyes had taken in his surroundings. He was still in the kitchen. Must have fallen asleep at the table. Looking out the still-open doorway, he’d noticed it wasn’t quite light out yet.

“What time is it?”

“Too early for you to be up. But since you are, mind helping me out with breakfast?”

He’d reluctantly got up, taking the scarred pan from Seggi-sama, and placed it over the hot spot on the stove with a pat on butter in the middle. Soon, the two of them were making enough bacon, eggs and miso soup for everyone.

“When’d you guys get back?”

“About an hour ago. Byakko didn’t want Wabichi and the Ying-Yangs coming back half-crazy without any sleep,” Seggi-sama’d explained, then continued quietly, “…So the demon shows her face again.”

“What do you know about this ‘Akirarabe’, Seggi-sama? What is she really?”

“I wish I knew,” Seggi-sama’d said, an angry look entering his eyes as he flipped the eggs over a little too hard, the splatter on the stove sizzling to match his mood. The anger in him seemed to grow a little with every word. “All I know is that when that monster gets ahold of Sano-san, she’s the most dangerous thing alive. That thing managed to kill one of my best students, Sorren, when I used to be a sensei in Kusagakure. THAT THING isn’t remorseful about a thing she does! She doesn’t care who she hurts, as long as she gets what she wants!”

“Seggi, calm yourself!” Byakko-san’d ordered from the open door as he led the other students inside, each of them taking their usual seats. Seggi-sama’s ranting had stopped, but it didn’t extinguish the cold anger from the cook's eyes as both he and Seggi-sama’d taken their seats as well. The room was silent for several minutes, until Wonigiru spoke the one thing that was, no doubt, on all the other students’ minds.

“What happened?” he’d asked emphatically, accusatory eyes turning to Byakko-san.

“Sano-san was attacked,” Byakkosan’d answered quickly, and just as quickly continued, “…attacked from the inside.”

“What do you mean ‘attacked from the inside?’” Banyuu exclaimed impatiently, his brow wrinkling in confusion along with Wonigiru’s. The only ones who hadn’t been affected were himself, Seggi-sama, and Wabichi who’d remained uncharacteristically silent through the whole exchange.

After a sigh of resignation, Byakko-san’s eyes had taken on the determined look of a fighter about to do battle. “Sano-san is what the older generation calls ‘Nijuujinkaku,’ what you might call a double-personality. In that body of hers, there are two souls of which we know. One is hers, the one you see most often, even if she lets traits from the other slip through to test you guys’ mettle, occasionally.”

“Those eyes…” came the shaky, almost breathless voice of Wabichi, refusing to lift her head from its bent position hiding her face even as Byakko-san interrupted, “were NOT Sano-san’s eyes, Wabichi-chan. Those eyes you saw belonged to Akirarabe, the name we’ve given to the second soul that inhabits Sano-san’s body.”

“So this second soul… this ‘Akirarabe’…how did it get in Sano-san’s body? Am I wrong in assuming most people only have one soul in their bodies?” Wonigiru’d questioned, shaking his head confusedly, opening his hands in a confused gesture as he scanned the visible faces around the table for concurrence.

“No, ‘Giru-kun, most people do have only one. …From what Sano-san’s told me, she inherited the ability to hold multiple souls in her body without incident from her father, a man I knew named Osa. …But she says she got Akirarabe from HER elite-training sensei when her sensei died. So she’s dealt with this spirit for more than half her life. …At times, 'Kira’s gotten the best of her and taken over her body, like what you all saw earlier,” Byakko-san’s gaze at that point almost pinning him to his seat. “Most times, she’s able to get control back within a few moments at most, so 'Kira’s not much of a threat, but other times…” Byakko-san’s hands had then lifted in a defeated gesture. “From the looks of earlier, Sano-san knew she’d be no match for 'Kira’s will, this time.”

“That’s why she had us leave,” Seggi-sama’d finished for Byakko-san nodding his head in understanding now, Byakko-san mimicking the movement, disheartened eyes focused on the table.

“Where’s Kiyuri?” Wabichi’d questioned, her bent head turning to meet Byakko-san’s steady gaze, “What happened to Kiyuri?” Before Byakko-san could answer, Ko-sama walked in the door and sat down among them at the table.

“How is she?” Byakko-san’d asked, watching as Ko-sama scrubbed at his face with his hands, the shadows under his eyes standing out even in the low light of sunrise.

“No change. She’s still unconscious, and her body’s erected a small barrier around itself,” Ko-sama’d replied, putting his elbow on the table and his head in his hand as he chuckled to himself, “Barrier zapped me when I tried to set her broken leg. I think I’m going to need some help from you, Kakashi, being that you’re a thunder-energy, like Sano-san.”

“I’ll do what I can, Ko-sama,” he’d answered in resignation.

“Me, too!” “Me, too!” came the echoed answer from the Ying-Yang Takigakure brothers, as they turned their heads to challenge Ko-sama’s stare. With a sigh, Ko-sama’d answered, “The best way for you two, and you Wabichi, to help Sano-san is to give her body some time to recover and keep on training in the meantime with Byakko-san. Doctor’s orders!” Everyone’s jaws had dropped as this was the first time Ko-sama had ever pulled rank with any of them. Needless to say, most of them were speechless as they passed through the doorway, leaving their breakfasts to go cold - much to the chagrin of Seggi-sama who took after them all, screaming for them to eat their meal while it was hot. All those that remained in the kitchen were himself, Ko-sama, and Wabichi - who’d stopped at the edge of the threshold.

“Ko-jiji?” Wabichi’d asked almost imperceptibly, using her favorite nickname for the old Iwagakure medic-nin when she was being serious, refusing to turn around even as she asked, “what happened to Kiyuri-chan?”

“I’m sorry, 'Chi-chan, but Kiyuri-chan’s dead.” Wabichi’s stance had stiffened at the word ‘dead,’ her hands fisting and her body shaking with perceived grief as Ko-sama’d continued on in compassion, “She was killed by an enemy that ambushed her and Sano-san while on their mission. From what I can tell, Sano-san got Kiyuri-chan to hang on until they got back here, so that Kiyuri-chan could die in peace.”

An eternity seemed to pass by in a few short seconds as silence reigned over we three still in the kitchen. Then, a primal yell had issued from Wabichi’s mouth as her right fist had reared back and punched the doorjamb, the right side of the doorjamb splintering into pieces for her effort. Her body had still shook as she’d leaned against the broken side, her voice still quiet and shaky. “I see… Thanks, Ko-jiji,” was all she’d said before heading out to join the others for practice, as he’d stood with Ko-sama to go help revive Sano-san.

O---------------------------------------------------O

“Yes, I know the circumstances… but I don’t know the whole story, Hokage-sama,” he said with a shake of his head. “All I know is what we were told: they were attacked by enemies while on a reconnaissance mission in Aishu to apprehend a group of criminals posing as doctors. The enemies were most likely an early Sound Village shinobi group. Sano-sensei refused to give anyone the specifics after that....”

“Probably just as well,” Tsunade-sama interrupted.

“One question, though, Hokage-sama… if you could,” he’d added with a hint of embarrassment. “How do you know about Akirarabe?”

“Word got around this Village a lot faster back then than it does now. After Sandaime-san’s meeting with the other top officials from the Taikai Heiwakokka, he’d held another meeting with the ANBU Black Ops Corp. He’d ordered all ANBU Black Ops members not to pursue Ano-chan, unless she entered the Village itself. When asked why, he’d simply answered that ‘she wasn’t herself during the Tournament.’” A smile drew her countenance up as she began rummaging around one of the desk’s many drawers. “Sandaime-sama was never really good at giving subtle hints. A little more snooping finally gave us a name.” With an “Ahh! Here it is!”, Tsunade-sama pulled out a decent-sized manila envelope with a large stamp saying ‘Confidential’ on the front, throwing it the remaining distance to him. He caught it with practiced ease and flipped it over to read the name ‘Sandabado Koumori’ on the flap,

“If all you’re seeking is to understand her,” Tsunade-sama said with a serious expression as her fingers steepled themselves once again, “I don’t see any problem – you being a former ANBU, yourself – of reviewing her mission file. I’ll keep her journal in the meantime until I get it back. You’re dismissed.”

With a swift bow, he’d turned to go, cradling the envelope as close as he could to his body without smashing it, passing another shinobi on his way in to report. The door closed with a click behind him as he made his way to the balcony, taking one last glance through the window of the Hokage’s office. And… with a nod of appreciation, took off into the afternoon light.

Let’s face it a Hokage’s work is never done.

* Was originally take this chapter into steamy territory but I figured you’d have to know she got Akirarabe from her sensei first, before I got that far into it yet. If I do this right, the Invasion of Privacy title will be continued in between 2 and 4 parts, so expect more to come from this!

* ‘Iraishin’ from the Iraishin No Jutsu means ‘spirit of dependence’. Figured it fit being that they share the same body. I have it that the seal of this sealing jutsu is a flower shape. Again seemed appropriate for an Earth Style like Kira’s spirit.

* Was also gonna call the training exercise ‘Last One Standing’ but I saw more disclaimer complications with calling it that. I do like watching that show though on Discovery Channel. WOO, Raiko rocks!
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Torima's Vessel