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Part 2 of One Shall Find Flames
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Published:
2019-06-25
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2023-08-25
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Eight

Summary:

The Third Hokage was dead.

It wasn't enough.

Team Eight knew loss like the seals on the backs of their tongues. They'd been silenced, branded, abandoned, ambushed, left on the enemy's doorstop like a gift--unlucky was their nickname, but they would make it their trade.

The Third Hokage was dead.

It was Danzo's turn.

:: ::

SEQUEL TO: Hoshigaki (2017-2019)

Commissioned Cover by AwesomeDragonTamer on Wattpad (caleb-crow on Tumblr; caleb_thalia_crow on Instagram)
BETA: ofcloves

Chapter 1: The Lovely Lost

Chapter Text

@caleb_thalia_crow (tumblr)

:: ::

"When tree leaves dance, one shall find flames. The fire's shadow will illuminate the village, and once again, tree leaves shall bud anew."

-Sarutobi Hiruzen-

:: ::

Kumogakure was hidden in a range of tall mountains, clouds weaving between peaks like snakes and the air so fresh and thinning. Six thousand five hundred seventy two steps was what it took to reach its gates from the shrine at sea-level, and those who made its journey could attest to sore muscles and a peaceful climb.

And despite their shameless reputation, a Kumo-nin could be noted with three distinct features: their upstanding views on justice, their refusal to back down, and the loyalty they held not for the village but everything the village should stand for.

They never once had any particular interests in other village's individual shinobi aside from leverage and special techniques, and they knew they never would.

:: ::

"Today marks the one month mark of the Konoha team's capture, sirs," Mabui reported diligently. Her deep green eyes were alight in their depth as both A and Darui offered up their full attention. "There has not been a single attempt at escape since their capture, though the guards have noted that they each have recently started exhibiting unusual... behaviors."

"Unusual?" A repeated, throwing his arms over the back of the long red couch that served as his office seat. Darui stood just to the side, his hands in his pockets and the usual dull look on his face. Light spilled into the room from the windows that acted as most of the walls.

"Yes, Raikage-sama. It appears they are teaching themselves," she said as she glanced down at the clipboard in her arms to make sure she was understanding it correctly. "The guards hadn't been too sure they were documenting it correctly, but the opinions offered by the attending medics have confirmed that all three Konoha shinobi have been participating in some form of ‘self-education’."

Darui exhaled softly. "Sounds boring." But still, his attention remained sharp as ever.

"We asked for their names in the beginning and Intel has determined that they did not lie and their identities are who they said they were, and we have been gathering information on them since," she continued. "The one in the large jacket and glasses is Aburame Shino. He has been self-mutilating his body and healing the injuries he's caused. This includes breaking bones, tearing muscle, and slashing veins. The guards have not intervened thus far, but medics come in twice a week to assure he's never near death." Mabui, in all her respectful professionalism, couldn't help the slight furrow in her brows. A and Darui exchanged startled glances. "The one with the fangs is Inuzuka Kiba and the canine is his partner, Akamaru. He has been draining blood to write seal theories on the walls. He's completely written over the floor and two of the four walls of his cell, and is halfway through the third."

A's whole face scrunched in confusion. "That's..."

"The one without part of her left arm is Sakura, no surname. She has been going through physical exercises to the point of such over-exertion that she passes out. In her latest collapse she has not woken in three days, and medics had to hook her up to an IV. The guards have said that she sleeps from midnight to four in the morning precisely and the schedule is only interrupted by states of unconsciousness."

Discomforting quiet filled the office for a beat before A spoke. "And who exactly are these three?"

Mabui glanced down at her clipboard once more. "They're a team who competed and passed the most recent Chuunin Exams."

"The one interrupted by Orochimaru and Suna's coordinated attack."

"Yes, sir," she confirmed. "This is the first mission they've taken on as official chuunin. Our sources have confirmed it as at least a B-rank and is speculated to have to do with the kidnappings around the Sekai Sea. We don't know exactly which island the chuunin were assigned to, but the trail we followed led to Koinobori Island."

Fishy.

It's the first word that would pop into anyone's mind hearing that the first time. Investigating kidnappings, even somewhere as remote as the Sekai Sea Islands, could never constitute as a B-rank; it's a A-rank in the very least and everyone involved should have known that. And B-ranks were only assigned to experienced chuunin, so what were fresh-out-the-exam shinobi doing on it? Not to mention they'd gone to the Coliseum and came out alive .

"They remained at the Coliseum for nearly a month and a half before they retreated to the islands near Lightning where three of the four of them have been captured by our border patrol."

"The Aburame are a noble clan in Konoha," Darui noted, his hands slowly coming out of his pockets. "Surely word has spread that something's happened to the team and a search party, no matter how small, has been sent for them. Or an alert. You know, something ."

Mabui shook her head, a troubling feeling seeping through her facade in the way her ring finger twitched against her clipboard. "As far as we know, no action has been taken for their retrieval. What's even stranger is that the team believes no one will come for them and has informed us of as such upon their arrival. Of course we thought them to be bluffing, but now, a month later..."

A's thick eyebrows pulled together and a scowl twisted his lips. What game was Konoha playing? What—they were just going to send an inexperienced chuunin team so far off so close to the destruction of their home village? Had it been his plan, the chuunin would help with the rebuilding while the upper shinobi divisions would be out collecting funds for construction and the other internal issues. The Konoha council was old enough to understand that much.

"There are a couple more... disconcerting details," Mabui started. She pressed her twitching finger flat against the board and met the eyes of both her boss and comrade with a posture of concern. "Surveillance who followed up on Koinobori Island have reported that it has more or less been reduced to ashes and it's speculated the chuunin team had a hand in the destruction. Though when taking into account border patrol's report of the day of their capture and the prison guards' daily observations, we're also led to believe that the team had been attacked and restrained minutes before being found by our forces."

A was suddenly on his feet. "Take me to this Konoha team," he demanded.

:: ::

C walked up and down the short corridor of three separate, but occupied cells. His eyes went from the way one boy set himself up to break another one of his bones (if its his ankle or shin he'll do this time, he'll never know until he hears a resounding crack ), to the other boy who ripped at his skin with his fangs so that his fingers dripped with the blood he used to keep on writing (what he was trying to figure out, he's at a loss for), to the girl who'd been dead to the world for three days and counting (how she managed to willingly drive herself to such a state was a cause for concern), then back to the first.

All of their items had been confiscated and sent to the Analysis Division to determine if they were full of traps or jutsu, but nothing had been found.

These were Konoha dogs. Despicable shinobi. Enemies to the Kumogakure name. Those whose words could not be trusted.

Yet, he couldn't shake what the girl told him before sinking into her current state.

"We're of no use to you, nin-san," she told him quietly, respectfully, but with no cowed head. "We have nothing to give you, and Konoha won't give anything for us."

"If we tell them we do indeed have you? Send proof? Make sure this isn't some measly threat?"

She stared him straight in the eye. "Then you're just wasting your time," she said. "Inexperienced chuunin are expendable."

And she didn't break his gaze until he was the one to look away.

C grit his teeth. None of this made any sense! These brats—these baby-faced chuunin —couldn't be here for no reason. There was no way. And the only possible information they could extract was clan jutsu or something along those lines, because they were too low of a rank to hold any substantial information about their village and for some odd reason, those seals examined on the backs of their tongues were determined to be cursed seals; the worst sort of fuuinjutsu meant to block verbal freedoms.

Prisoners had those, or special forces. But the way border patrol had found them injured and incapacitated...

He shook his head and sighed. They had what seemed like infinite injuries, amputations, cursed seals on their tongues, brands in the shape of mice on the backs of their necks.

And now, they had the prisoner identification bands Kumo tattooed on their forearms.

If every shinobi in the world could list every assault on their person throughout their whole careers, half of those wouldn't be half as long as those Konoha-nin.

C peered into the cell with the Inuzuka and his partner. Both of them were pressed up against an unbloodied corner with the boy's shoulders hunched up to his ears as he tucked his face into white fur.

At the sound of the door being thrown open, the Kumo-nin forced a blank face and turned towards the sound. Quickly, his heels snapped together and his spine straightened.

"Raikage-sama," he saluted. A strode in and came to a brisk stop at the cell on the floor. The Aburame's. "I have finished today's medical assessment of the prisoners. Would you like an oral report of the findings?"

"Is it any different than the other reports?"

"Negative, sir."

"Then save it for your written report and get me into this cell."

Mabui and Darui stood next to C as a guard unlocked the metal door and A stepped through the entryway.

And he had to pause.

When he heard of these chuunin, he was expecting someone who looked, well, like a shinobi. Maybe time at the Coliseum would have them weathered a bit and maybe they'd be more on the sickly side due to the treatment they most likely would have suffered at the hands of such an institution.

But he wasn't expecting to see a kid.

The boy slumped against the wall had cuts up and down his arms and all across the visible parts of his leg, all of them smeared in dried blood and callously healed so the scars were ripped and jagged, the ink of the identification bands stark against his skin. A half-lidded eye glanced up while the other was merely a socket —an old injury, by the look of it—but an unsettling one nonetheless.

The chakra-controlling cuffs around his wrists and ankles made him look smaller, too, and A almost felt bad just having to look at him.

"Raikage-sama," the boy greeted quietly. His roughened voice churned out of his throat like an unoiled gear. "What can I do for you?"

A's brows scrunched. "Name?"

"Aburame Shino."

"How did you come to Lightning Country?"

"By boat from the Coliseum. I believe the island it was on is called Koinobori." A shaky breath left his lips as his body sank even further into the concrete. But he held himself up. "... It was burning when we left. If it's not gone, we will continue to set fire to it until it is."

Behind him, Darui and Mabui shared a look. C pressed his lips together.

"What village do you hail from?"

"Konoha."

"You say they won't come for you."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"... Why?" Shino repeated. His eye closed and he went silent for a whole minute. A didn't budge as each second ticked by, even if the tension notched up bit by bit in the unwavering silence. But the boy shifted, using his heels to push him backwards and help prop him up. "... Be... cause... we were never... worth it."

His head tapped against the wall and some of his cuts began to bleed.

A backed up into the hall. His open white haori swished at his knees as he made his way back out the cell block, Mabui and Darui following close behind.

"Lock it back up and start on more permanent security measures," he ordered. "The Konohans are gonna be here a while."

And the door shuts, just C and a couple guards left in the hall.

After a beat, C took hold of the door and started to push it closed, but not before Shino spoke up again. Much softer, much hoarser, much younger.

"My... my team...?"

"... They're alive," C informed.

Shino exhaled out his nose. "Thank... Thank you."

C had no reply for that. He didn't know if it was from the shock of decency or that he had nothing in him to humor a prisoner of the village, but he shut the door without another word and sent out a pulse of his chakra to lock it.

Konoha dogs. Baby-faced chuunin. Prisoners.

... Kids.

He left the cell block for the day and headed straight for the hospital. It was almost time for his shift.