sunshineverse | This is not for your eyes to see

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This is not for your eyes to see

Who: Uchiha Shisui

thelittleprincess , and Adela Milani

abileunaspada
When: April 21st
Where: Between Konoha and the Land of Tea
Notes: MISSION POST! 'Konoha is being contracted for a B-rank in the land of Tea by a merchant caravan.' You know how they always start out as B-rank missions--

He'd thought this was the perfect opportunity to allow Ami some experience. Perhaps diving into a B-rank mission was a little too ambitious, but Shisui had a feeling that it was more of a C-rank than anything. A mission fluffed up to make it look important. Plus, the Milani kunoichi would be joining them this time. He was a tad nervous about spending more than a week in her company, though, especially after that run in the other day when he'd been reeking manly B.O. Definitely not something he was proud of, obviously, and he'd hoped to make it up to her. Perhaps prove her otherwise. Subtly, of course-- That he didn't smell so awful on a normal day. He had a reputation to protect--!

But now with him going on a two-week long mission with her, which didn't guarantee bath-time in between-- it only meant that proving himself was going to be quite the ordeal. So he'd showered twice today to make up for it.

Standing by the gates of Konoha, Shisui waited for the rest of the team to gather at the allocated spot, cautiously sniffing himself while he waited.

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Okay, so she was with smelly guy and Ami. Aside from some fluffed up c-rank missions and paperwork around the village, this was the first true mission she'd been on in some time, so she wasn't going to complain about it. Well, not unless he reeked to high heaven again.

It was a bit of a weird setup for a team though; one each of Jonin, Chuunin, and Genin. She'd have to be extra careful with Ami around as well, making sure to set a good example and let her work without putting her in too much danger. But it couldn't have been that hard of a mission if the Hokage was willing to put a Genin on it as well, right?

Hm...

Well, regardless, they had a lot of ground to cover. So walked up, barely in the nick of time as she spotted Shisui and started looking around for Ami nearby while she asked, "Ready to go?"

She had all of her supplies, along with a few extra medical supplies this time... She wasn't going to slow her team down again.

Edited (Misread the starter) 2014-04-18 03:23 (UTC)

Ami wriggled her way off of a stool in a nearby stall, munching on a doughnut as she plodded her way over. She finished it in one big swallow and nodded solemnly, unaware of the powdered sugar she had somehow managed to smudge across one cheek. She had opted to come early and breakfast nearby, to save time.

"Are we meeting the clients here, sensei?" She squeezed the strap of her bag, but tried to stifle any other sign of nervousness. Even if this was her first time straying outside the walls of Konoha, she couldn't fidget in front of the people she was meant to be protecting.

It was unprofessional, after all. And embarrassing, but she had just watched her instructor whiff himself when he thought nobody was looking. Ami had thought that sort of thing was only done in children's cartoons.

He'd straightened the moment he'd spotted Adela, resisting the urge to sniff himself one last time, just to make sure. And the fact that Ami had probably seen him had him fidget in embarrassment for a bit.

"We're ready." He looked to the gates. "Our clients have yet to arrive. I figured we might as well meet up a little early in order to go over a few key points before we head off. Ami--" He pointed to his cheek, then brushed something non-existent away from it, indicating that she had something on her face.

"Okay, first things first." He motioned for the rest of the team to gather 'round closer. "Do not, under any circumstance, lower your guard. This might seem like a relatively easy mission, and the Land of Tea honestly doesn't really have too much by way of precious goods to be protecting, so there's a fat chance that the mission would go smoothly without attracting bandits or thieves. However, we cannot disregard the possibility of complications finding us along the way. Having said that, I will also stress that I will not stand for any kind of irresponsible behavior that will put either yourself, the team, or the client at risk and jeopardize the mission." Shisui paused here to eye each kunoichi with a certain degree of sternness. "Should that happen, be very aware of the consequences." What those consequences were, Shisui didn't elaborate on, but it ought to be presumed that they would be dire. At least, he preferred them to think so~

Okay. Very stern.

"Try not to be a hero in this should things start to go awry, and always, always keep your eye on the target. This isn't about showing off your skills, it's about applying them to the appropriate circumstances." Perhaps he was talking more to Ami than Adela, aware that Adela was no stranger to the nature of a mission and what it entailed.

He let up the serious expression here, relaxing a bit. "That said, try not to be too nervous. We're heading through some really picturesque countryside. If all things go smoothly, it should be nothing more than a fun hike."

Looking to Adela, Shisui nodded. "Adela, I trust you will lend us your skills and experience. We're also going to be passing a landfill along the way; you can stomach the smell, I hope?" Woah, did he really just--? Yes, yes he did. Ahem. How about a smile to go with it? A brief, deceptively polite smile that tried its hardest to hide a smirk. He had nothing against her, of course; it was just in his nature to tease. Subtly.

And then, to Ami-- "Ami. This is your first B-rank mission, and your first mission outside the village. I personally requested your presence on this mission not only because you are my student, but because I know that you have the skills necessary for the job. So..." He reached out to squeeze her shoulder, smiling softly down at her. "No need to be nervous, alright?"

When he glanced back over his shoulder at Adela then, he sent the older kunoichi a look that, while it was not quite pleading, clearly read: Please don't let anything happen to her...

And somewhere in the near distance, the distinct sound of hooves clopping against gravel made itself known.

"... I should be okay. A landfill's nothing to some of what I've been through," There was not-so-hidden barb behind her tone, but she was willing to let it drop there as Shisui went on to address Ami. This is all stuff she had heard before and she wanted to roll her eyes, but... She had to remember, there was a Genin present so going over all of it again was required. Not that she felt too worried about their youngest member, but it was important to get it out there.

Adela didn't miss that look however, so before their clients could get too close she knelt down, saying something for Ami's ears alone (though it would probably be easy for Shisui to hear her anyway), "You're here because you're ready and skilled enough to be here - even if the clients might say otherwise because of your size. Don't listen to them and remember this; we're counting on you, Oyama, and we hope that you can count on us too."

"Ah." Ami blinked in surprise and quickly scrubbed at her cheeks until she was satisfied that they were clean. She hunched her shoulders just enough so that she could inconspicuously hide behind her wide, high collar and conceal the blush she knew was trying to creep up. "It's okay; Uchiha-sensei packed fresheners, so you won't have to suffer." She made the delivery as dry as possible, in an effort to distract them from her moment of meekness. "I saw him pack them."

Her instructor's sudden lecture hadn't helped much with the bedlam of butterflies in her belly, but Ami wasn't planning on doing anything to disgrace her teacher, village, or self to begin with, so perhaps the impact was softened. She was a serious child by and large, so it wasn't as though she needed a reminder not to toe the line. Perhaps it was something all teachers had to do. Either way, it had been acknowledged with a short, pensive nod of assent.

Adela's little heart-to-heart was more unexpected. Ami reigned in the urge to headbutt her obviously well-intentioned senpai, because she wasn't being condescending the way others might when they knelt down to see eye to eye with Ami. She nodded again, this time more slowly, and after a short pause made one quiet correction:

"Ami."

It was as much a tacit admission of thanks as it was a request; if she addressed Ami by her surname, the clients were more likely to make jokes. A little girl being called 'big mountain' was a magnet for that sort of thing.

"W-wha?! No I didn't-- Those were uh-- canteens." Gosh, no, Ami, don't say that out loud! "Why would I carry fresheners anyway, that's Adela's problem if she can't keep her lunch in." That last bit? It was muttered under his breath.

They were off to a grand start, weren't they~?

When their clients arrived, however, Shisui nodded to his team, then set about introducing each other. "I'll be in the back," he said, finally, waiting for their clients to finish signing out at the gates. He did notice how unusually heavily guarded this caravan was, though. For just tea, that was a bit too much security, he thought. Especially when he was given dirty looks the moment he took a step closer to the back of one of the carriages.

Shisui shot his team members a look, meaning they were going to have to inspect the caravan at some point. Hopefully a little way into their journey, when most of their company were rather tired...

Briefly, before they set off, Adela was genuinely surprised when Ami told her to use her first name. It was weird, but it actually made her kind of happy to be given permission like that. She'd definitely have to keep it in mind, even if it was just for the mission they happened to be on. She'd do whatever she could to earn the respect she was being given with that permission, then.

But then wasn't the time to think about it. They had a mission to do, and she was already getting silent communication from their squad leader. Hm... So Shisui was suspicious already? Adela noted the look she was getting, and chances were she'd have to be the one to do the sneaking around while the others kept their clients distracted. It was one thing to be paid to help them transport their goods, but if it was contraband... That'd put them in a precarious position. They were ninja, so transporting illegal goods was probably just part of the gig, but that wasn't what they signed up for with this mission. They signed up to help these merchants ship tea.

They needed to know.

Still Adela remained silent, glancing to Ammi to try and communicate to her to keep her guard up. Maybe she was paranoid and misreading Shisui, but paranoia was more likely to save her life than hubris.

It had been very difficult to covertly sneak a peek at the inventory of the caravan that they were escorting, which in and of itself was throwing up warning signs. It was one thing for a group of civilians to be wary about shinobi poking around their things, given some of the stories that spread and warped with time, but it was another one entirely when a group of civilians kept a tight but casual watch rotation in place to successfully deter said poking.

Action had to be taken, which was why Ami had quietly volunteered to help break the pattern and create an opportunity the previous evening, once they had determined the normal pattern of their clients' rotation. A small amount of diuretic slipped into a single bowl had Ami trooping out into the woods with the unfortunate caravan member in the middle of the night. She dragged her feet as much as possible, trying to extend the window of time her temporary team had to work with.

Eventually, however, she noticed something amiss, and that the civilian had vanished.

She managed to dispel the genjutsu and get one long blade free before her attacker descended, but the scuffle was as intense as it was short-lived. At the end of it, there was only a familiar, if slightly tattered ribbon left crushed, half-hidden, at the foot of a scruffy bush.

Edited 2014-05-11 01:01 (UTC)

Ami had provided them with the perfect distraction just then, and Shisui had scanned the items from where he stood with his sharingan during that window. Whatever was in those crates didn't look like tea. Sure, there were packages of tea on the top of each neatly packed box, but interestingly, the bottom two thirds of each box was empty. Now, tea didn't float; everyone knew that.

A glance in Adela's direction meant he'd spotted something amiss. Coming to stand by her, Shisui said nothing, waiting for her to share whatever she'd found--

Only to notice Ami's chakra signature suddenly fluctuate, and then vanish completely.

Shisui's sharingan flashed crimson, tomoe spinning. He could suddenly hear his heart in his ears, and his fingers closed in around the hilt of his tanto. "Adela. Stop the caravan. Ami's in trouble."

...And these weren't civilians. These were shinobi in disguise.

Well. their suspicions were confirmed but-- Fuck.

Ami--

In an instant her hands flashed, an earth ninjutsu activating and softening the ground to sand before it hardened to solid clay, trapping the wheels of the caravan and bringing the entirety to a complete halt. It was when a couple of guards came by to survey the situation that Adela came around, and that was when the clash began.

Metal on metal clang as weapons collided and jutsu began to fly, Adela struggling to keep up with the shinobi on mission here. Of all the things to happen, and with a genin on mission too! But, even so, the girl remained focus on taking down who she needed to and knocking out the others. Once they were all restrained by Shisui's and Adela's combined efforts, they took the few who were conscious for interrogation.

That was when Adela looked to Shisui, frowning darkly.

"What's our directive now, Shisui?" Her tone was serious when she asked him, arms crossing over her chest but ready to perform jutsu or draw her sword at a moment's notice if it was needed. She was feeling a little strained from the fight, but right then and there her mind was focused on Ami - hoping that she was okay. They still hadn't found her...

He wouldn't have expected her to sound anything but serious.

He could pick out diminished pulses of Ami's chakra, and the worry grew with every passing moment. It took every ounce of restraint not to kill, though one relentless enemy shinobi found Shisui's blade slice his throat open faster than he could even see it coming. The weeping sound of the man's trachea being ripped open came much later, the red spray getting all over Shisui's right arm soon afterwards.

There was no hiding what he was feeling: Shisui was snarling, seething. But he was also required to think fast if he wanted to save Ami as well as alert Konoha and avert the imminent threat.

"Let Konoha know. Then we find Ami, and bring her back. Alive."

Genjutsu extracted pained screams from the enemy shinobi currently rendered incapacitated around them. "Can you bind them?" And leave a clone behind. He was already on it, fingers flying in making the hand signals for a shadow clone before he summons a dove. The message is concise, and the bird takes off almost immediately. They were going to need back-up, and a full-blown investigation was in order.

Whatever Obito would do with the information was up to Obito himself, but for now, Shisui understood that their main concern was Ami. "Let's go!"

"Just a second," Adela nodded, her hands flying into a complicated seal set before the metal in her bag began to move, attached to her fingers by chakra strings as it shifted through the air and slipped quietly around the unconscious enemy shinobi. It didn't take long to bind them to a thick tree, the final surge of chakra sealing the metal in its new form before she glanced to Shisui.

"How long until they wake up?"

The tomoes spinning on his sharingan, Shisui was already bolting away from the scene. "Maybe never," he said in passing, casting an excruciatingly painful genjutsu on the unconscious victims, enough to make them jerk back into consciousness, shrieking in agony before they fell back, knocked out. He didn't even care that some of them literally pissed their pants.

There was a reason an enemy chose not to mess with Uchiha Shisui.

These guys, however. They chose their fate.

He'd already shunshin'd off into the forest where he'd last seen Ami take off to. He wasn't surprised to not find anybody there, but keen eyes easily spotted a pattern of broken twigs and upturned soil where feet had dragged through the mud. "This way!" He called out to Adela, sending her a burst of his chakra through the ground to let her know where exactly he was in the thick forest, and where he was headed to.

It would only be seconds before he finds Ami's ribbon...

Shisui's hand trembles just a little when he picks up the ribbon, now stained with dirt. With all that was going on between them, with her feeling unimportant because of his teaching Sakura on the sidelines-- Words couldn't explain the weight of all that guilt that seemed to grow so much heavier now.

When his fingers curl around the ribbon again, this time they're trembling out of anger. There's a darkness around him even as he grinds his teeth together to stop himself from shaking. No one was allowed to take her away from him. No one.

Not when he still had so much to say to her. Not when he owed her an apology. Not when he still had so much to teach her. Not when he had a promise to fulfill.

A glance sideways at Adela is all the acknowledgment he gives her before sending off a few of his summons to discern where Ami was.

"Slow down, Shisui!" Adela was trying to keep up, frowning at what she just saw Shisui do to them. As bad as they were, they were civilians. Whatever he did, they couldn't have merited all of that. There was no way it was deserved...

The look in his eyes was frightening. At that moment, the chuunin was afraid of what her companion would do.

It was after a few hundred feet that Adela finally cut in front of him, trying to stop him from speeding off even further as she spoke firmly, "Stop for a second."

Shisui, slow down? Three words that were never really supposed to be in the same sentence together. And as for civilians-- he could care less right now. They took Ami.

The birds fly off in every direction when she steps in front of him, and he's glaring at her for daring to tell him to stop.

Tearing his eyes away from Adela, Shisui begins to tie Ami's ribbon around his wrist. "Stop?" He seems almost calm. Eerily calm. You just know that something was going to snap just then.

And it does. Right on cue.

When he looks back at Adela, Uchiha Shisui is almost unrecognizable.

"And wait till they kill her? Every second counts! Don't you ask me to stop when god knows what they're doing to her right this very second!"

Perhaps he should have asked why she wanted him to stop, whether she had a plan. But... no. He wasn't calm. He was risking everything, risking screwing up this entire mission because of it, and he just. Didn't know how to stop.

He'd only ever freaked out about Itachi before...

Edited 2014-06-09 03:45 (UTC)

"We would have found her body if they were going to just kill her like that, or even if they could! Stop and calm the hell down for a minute!" Adela shouted back, though not as loudly as he did. She didn't wait for him to respond again, instead getting right in his face and glaring directly into those frightening red eyes.

"She's fine for now, and we need to keep calm and have a plan so she doesn't get used as a hostage against us! That'll just put her at even more risk than she's seeing already! Don't forget that she's a genin that you taught too, do you really have that little faith in her!?"

She waited. Waited for him to strike, or ignore her, or do anything that wasn't outright listening to her. She didn't know if this was a good idea, but she had to get him to just think for a minute...

Edited 2014-06-09 03:51 (UTC)

"Oh sure, they must be torturing her as we speak!" He almost snarled at her, about to take a step forward and run right past her. He was almost tuning her out, though the logical part of him was literally screaming the same things at him. It was the only thing that made him stay his ground. And that last bit--

That made him stop.

Shisui didn't strike. He didn't yell or ignore her. He didn't do anything. He just--

His fists clenched, fingers digging into the ends of the ribbon he was still clutching.

---Do you really have that little faith in her?!

The words stung. Adela probably didn't know. But he was struggling against the wall of guilt he'd just run into; a whole damn river full of it, he couldn't hold it back any longer.

He'd been gone a whole month of the two since she was assigned to him. She had found out about him tutoring Sakura in genjutsu and had felt replaced. She looked up to Itachi more than she did to him.

He'd never done anything right by her. He'd never had the chance to make amends. He'd already been too late, and now he'd let her get kidnapped by the enemy. With Ami, he'd always been too late. Shisui wanted this to be the exception.

He didn't care if Ami was going to hate him afterwards; he didn't care if Obito would give her a better teacher than himself.

He just... Wanted to do this for her. Just once, just to let her know that he cared.

---And boy did he care.

As it were, it took him a while to respond at all to her question. He barely sees her in front of him so that when he finally does, he screws his eyes shut, looking away. Expression twisted like the way he felt inside.

"So what the hell is your plan." His voice sort of cracks mid-sentence, but he's determined not to let it do that again, swallowing hard instead-- pushing back that lump in his throat.

Angry. He was so fucking mad at himself.

"A combination of your genjutsu and my earth ninjutsu. We'll use those to sneak into camp, dismantle them, and ambush. Capture as many as we can, get them to talk, retrieve Ami and destroy their operation. And we need you to have complete control for it to work. Got it?"

She knelt then, detailing the plan in more clear methods so that they could plan this out. Where Ami was, and what she was likely doing. What would help as a distraction depending on where she was. Adela knew then that she had to be more focused, practically taking over the mission and having its success riding on Shisui's ability to control himself. It needed to be that, for all of their sakes -- setting an angry Shisui on their enemy would only make things worse than they already were.

They finally did manage to track down the camp, the teenager taking a breath as she focused her chakra, not wanting to waste even a little in this do or die attempt, "You ready?"

He listened with more effort this time, the urgency of finding Ami overriding the feelings of guilt (that didn't necessarily go away, but now hung about him regardless). Shisui only nodded in response to Adela requesting him to please keep a cool head about him in matters at hand.

His summons, having located said camp, made things easier for them when it came to locating it. It was barely a camp, though. Instead, it resembled more like some kind of docking station with crates and common cargo boxes being hauled all over. There were tea stamps all over, and Shisui narrowed his eyes.

A hand goes to grab Adela's by the forearm as he motions for her to still for a moment. "There's more than one," he hisses. More than one hostage. "Can you see her?" He figured they were going to have to scout out the place and grab a quick survey of how things worked before they ran the risk of messing anything up.

"I can't. That means we incapacitate everyone who isn't trapped in a crate as quietly as we can, to minimize the danger for the hostages right?"

Silence. "Mm." Yes. "How many can you incapacitate at a time?"

Calculating.

"Two. I can pull them underground and make sure they can't move. Two seconds to gag them after that, so if I worked like that they'd be yelling for help in that gap -- if I didn't have help anyway."

After a beat she glanced to him, frowning and speaking firmly, "We need them alive and able to talk. If Ami isn't here, we lose whatever leads we have if we kill them all. So aim for zero casualties."

He'd just been about ready to say 'okay' and roll with it, fully intent on slicing the enemy's throats on the way to get Ami. But Adela seemed to have read his mind, and Shisui groaned internally, teeth grinding in his jaw again.

"Fine."

He was nowhere near happy with the latter part of the plan.

"I can do plenty in two seconds."

He prepared himself, shifting his stance so as to make a dash for it while she got to work. A nod, and then-- "Go for it."

Silently she nodded, using the necessary seals before she sank underground and made the first move. Within seconds all of the guards and workers at the camp were taken out, either buried underground or otherwise tied to nearby trees. Coldly Adela continued her attack until it was done, sighing as she pulled herself out of the ground and caught her breath. That was always difficult to do, especially all at once like that, but it seemed to have worked.

Which meant that, now, they could search. They wouldn't ask unless they had to, but in the meantime they'd work on freeing all the hostages and, hopefully, Ami with them. At that point, Adela was just hoping and praying that she was all right and in one piece.

Ami was scared.

It was easy to admit as she was; fingers bound, laced together and taped down from knuckle to elbow, ironically locking her hands in a Snake seal that she couldn't use, due to her lack of Earth jutsu knowledge, and preventing her from forming any others. Not that she would have been able to, with free hands; her head was swimming, and whether it was from a concussion or the drug that her captor had hit her with, the end result made it difficult for her to think.

And in the absence of thought, fear reigned supreme.

Ami was bound and crammed into a dark box, with a thick gag wound around her mouth and forcing her to inhale what she could only assume was another dose of the drug in her system. That scared her even more, because it implied that she was going to be stuck in the box long enough for a second dosage to be necessary without her being taken out.

"Good work avoiding any deep cuts. She's a pretty little thing, an' she'll fetch more in a pristine condition."

Those words were the only clear memory she had between the fight and being put in the box. She choked on a sob, listening to faint thumps as heavy things—other boxes, other scared people, probably—were loaded on top of her prison. Her eyes burned, and something hot trickled across her face, towards the rough wooden floor.

Sensei.

It was the only really coherent thought she could muster.

I want Sensei.

Ami curled in on herself even more, ignoring the aches and pains she had earned in the forest, and shook with silenced sobs as she clutched the thought like a talisman against the fear, like a lifeline, like a prayer.

I want my Sensei.

Edited 2014-06-09 06:16 (UTC)

Shisui was a ghost among men, moving at a speed even the wind couldn't keep up with. At one point, he'd gagged two men just before Adela pulled them down. A punch to the teeth and then a piece of clothing or really large stone shoved in their mouths. Every single one of them was going to have to see a dentist, though. Every single one of them was forced to swallow their own teeth and taste their own blood.

Shisui was hoping and praying for the same, opening up containers with great alacrity and searching the hostages for Ami. He was slightly appalled at how many people there were inside, and had to pause to send another message to Konoha to please send for more back-up having explained the situation. Boxes upon boxes: some of them had tea, others had semi-conscious bodies. People. Scared. Trembling. He couldn’t leave them be, either. So with every new person he unearthed, he had to take the time to cut their bonds. And they wouldn’t let go so easily either. Some burst into sobs, others retched, some others were mute. He couldn’t talk to all of them, couldn’t sit there telling every single one of them to calm down, that things were going to be alright. He couldn’t.

There just wasn’t enough time.

“Have you seen a little girl about this tall, long blond hair, green eyes, lots of frills?” Some shook their heads, and he only bowed in return, pulling out more people out of their boxes while he could. Some were so out of it they were barely breathing. One of them seemed completely unresponsive, even after CPR.

Somebody informs them about a drug, and Shisui spots a pipeline leading into every box—one which he decides not to cut right through for fear of unleashing the gas on everyone else in the space alongside himself. Instead, he hurries on, quiet.

Little by little the stronger ones began to help out, and Shisui looked back in the hopes of catching Adela, trying to discern if she’d found Ami in the vehicle she was investigating.

Eventually, his mind swimming with all sorts of worst-case scenarios while he fought to keep his hopes up, Shisui comes across a box under a crate of tea. It’s small. Smaller than the others, and there’s that ugly hope—twisted because he doesn’t want it to be her, stuck inside a crammed box. But he also wants it to be.

He badly wants it to be Ami.

And it’s almost as if the heavens finally heard him because the moment the dim light shone on its contents when removed the lid, he could make out the frilly outfit and the long blond hair.

“Ami!” he breathes, reaching right in and ripping the gag out. “Adela.” It’s murmured. He’s forgotten how to yell.

Shisui is already picking Ami up, his tanto unsheathed as he makes quick work of her binds before pulling her to his chest. "Adela.” Still clawing for a voice.

Until finally—“Adela! I found her! Adela!"

He gathers Ami in his arms, checking first for a pulse while he pressed her head to his chest, his own face buried in her hair while his fingers alternatingly clutch at her locks, then stroke them. "Ami.” She’s breathing. “ADELA!!!”

God damnit his voice was hoarse.

He doesn’t realize he’s pressing his lips to the top of her head like he would have done to his own child had she been his. He’s almost rocking, holding her, waiting for Adela. Waiting for Adela to come and tell him he wasn’t dreaming.

“Ami—“ More whispers. They’re all he can manage right now. Relief doesn’t cut it. Still twisted up in agonizing guilt, fingers clutching the little body pressed against his chest to still his trembling hands. He wants to apologize. He wants to explain. He wants to lay it all out for her, to promise her it’ll never happen again, to promise her that he’d be more forthcoming in the future. But now wasn’t the time. Now wasn’t the time and he knows it.

He doesn’t know if he’d get another chance to say it though. He doesn’t know if she hated him.

He doesn’t know what the hell she’s gone through. He doesn’t know if he wants to know what they’d put her through. One of the other hostages they’d freed had informed him that whatever this was was a human trafficking ring. Human trafficking for what sort of thing? What would they need with a little girl?

He knew what, but he didn’t want to think about it. Shisui could taste bile at the very thought of what might have happened to Ami had they not found her in time. It made his blood boil. It made the sharingan flash dangerously in his eyes, red spinning like livid embers. He wanted to go out and kill them. Every single one of them. He wanted to tie them up and hang them where it hurt the most, listen to the pops as their joints dislocated. He wanted to hear them scream when he gutted them. Like cattle for the slaughter. He wanted them to feel despair. He wanted to listen to the sound of their tracheas weeping when he sliced right through them.

But Ami—

He realizes that the ominous thoughts swimming through his head and burning in his veins might upset her—one didn’t have to voice them for them to be made known.

And so Shisui’s voice softens, calloused fingers push back locks of hair from her face as he looks down at her with almost fatherly concern. “Sensei’s here, Ami. Sensei’s here.” Shisui didn’t miss the tear stains on her face either, and the pad of his thumb rubs away at the wet stain.

She wanted to stop what she was doing and reach Shisui, but first Adela had to free the rest of the hostages. It barely took her a minute before she returned, slowing her step and sighing in relief, the stern expression on her face shifting immediately to a much calmer one. Ami. She was a little beat up, and from the look of her she was frightened... But she was all right.

She knelt then, resting her hands on Shisui's and Ami's shoulders respectively when she did so as a small genuine smile tugged at her lips. They did it... They managed to save her.

"Ami. You're safe now, it's over."

Her mumble was soft, but it was above the whispers Shisui was giving as she looked them over. Yes, this was great. She was there, right there with them again, and they managed to avoid the worst. Thank goodness...

Free from the box, Ami was a bit worse for wear—a still-blooming bruise here, a shallow cut there, but the worst of it was the headwound that had ended the fight. It wasn't quite a concussion, but it had bled a scary amount before her captors had staunched the flow and shut her away in the box. It didn't hurt now, which was likely thanks to the drugs, but all of it had left her in a state far more vulnerable than she had been in years.

Weakly, she curled into Shisui, fingers clumsily clutching at his shirt. "...they took Daddy's daggers," she slurred out, and more tears rolled over Shisui's fingers as he tried to wipe the old ones away. It wasn't exactly what she had wanted to say, but it opened the floodgates and what little composure she had retained crumbled away. "I fought, I did, I promise but I...b-but I wasn't good enough, and...and..."

She tried to speak again, to explain the shame and fear and how she'd do better next time, she promised, but all that comes out is a tiny wail and renewed sobbing. Later, she'd be disgusted and ashamed of herself. But for the moment, all she can do is clutch Shisui's shirt tighter and cry. "...wanted Sensei...so scary...!"

He'd never had said it aloud before, but Adela's expression turning from grim to something more relieved did wonders to lift some of the tension he was struggling with himself. Shisui's lips quiver, tugging at the ends to form a smile. And when she rests her hand on his shoulder, there is gratitude in those crimson eyes. Gratitude for taking the lead, for being calm for both of them, for saving both himself and Ami.

He'd tell her this in person one day.

Or perhaps he'd pen it down. Shisui didn't trust the words that came out of his mouth when he already struggled with how he felt.

He'd seen the blood; it was all over his arm and on his fingers, matted, congealed blood, dark-- almost black against blond hair. He can only bite his lip at what she says next, shaking his head when she cries as if he thinks she could see him, as if he's hoping she'd stop. But she doesn't and--

"I know you fought. I know. And you fought well, Ami. Trust me when I say that you fought well. For once please-- please believe me. Sometimes things don't always go as planned, but that doesn't make us not good enough. Ami--" He was speaking over the sound of her sobbing, holding her face with his free hand so she would look at him. "I'm proud of you, Ami. I'm so, so proud of you. It was you who was brave enough to provide us with a distraction in the first place. Had you not done that, just imagine where all these other people would be? And your ability to make use of everything you've learned even in the direst of circumstances, to leave behind a clue-- Had you not done that, we would have been too late, Ami. Adela and I would have been too late. So don't you dare say you're not good enough, do you hear me?! Don't you dare. I'm proud of you."

He hadn't done it in years, but-- Today he wasn't thinking. He wasn't thinking about holding back in the present moment.

He refused to hold back when he leaned in to press his lips to her forehead.

"Oyama Ami. Sensei is proud of you." That-- that was murmured.

He was grabbing Adela's hand the next moment-- the one on his shoulder. "We could round them all up in one of the carts and slash the pipeline pumping the vapor in. They should be high on it by the time back-up arrives, and compliant. What do you think?" Yeah. They still had work to do...

"Sounds like a good call. Make sure they don't overdose, hand them over to our back-up and the local authorities, return everyone else to their homes," Adela nodded as she looked right at Shisui, and then she glanced to Ami. Ami, who was in tears, who was clearly distressed over the whole ordeal, and who deserved some sympathy then.

"You did well, Ami. Not every genin on their first mission would've had the foresight you had, and because of that we were able to save everyone. We'll let you clean up and search for your father's daggers together, ok? We'll get 'em before we go."

It took a couple seconds for the words to sink in, and one of her hands moved from his shirt to his wrist—to the ribbon wrapped there. Her ribbon. he had found it, and found her, and...and Adela was right, nobody but the bad guys were hurt, not really, and...and she was okay.

She was okay.

Ami took a few deep, shuddering breaths, and at length, the sobs abated. The odd tear trickled out, because the remaining drugs in her system didn't make it easy to bottle things away, but she was better. Calmer. Still totally disinclined to let go of her teacher, twelve-year-old dignity be damned, but no longer in the throws of hysterical relief.

"Okay." It was a mumble, but it gained strength as she repeated it. "O-...okay. Yes the—other people who were in b-boxes should get help too. And—they'll suffer, won't they? The bad people. They'll suffer for doing this...right?"

"Yes. They'll suffer." I'll see to it that they do, even if the law might not agree with me. He sends Adela this look when she basically instructs him not to kill them again. Shisui may be relieved, but he was far from calm; a month's worth of issues having piled up to create a twisting vortex inside him that just wouldn't still. "Hn. We'll let the local authorities ensure that the civilians are sent back to their home after been given sufficient medical care."

It is then that he stands, Ami still in his arms. It didn't look like she wanted to let go yet. And he wasn't going to put her down if she didn't want to. "There was a woman-- She could be dead." It's spoken softly so as to not create a wave of panic among the rest of the hostages now either sitting groggily or quietly gathering around each other in circles.

Shisui's eyes move to said body, the one he'd tried giving CPR to. She'd felt just a little cold, and her fingernails were torn and fingers bleeding. Perhaps she'd died of fright, he supposes, wondering how long she had been in there.

"We have to make sure the others don't run out and start killing the kidnappers." Nobody gets to finish them but me. He could sense all of them there, struggling to get out of the earth. "Let's go. Take the victims off to a spot where they're safe; I'll round up the enemy. We need to check up on the group we left with the caravan, too."

I'll round up the enemy.

Don't you worry.

"And look for Ami's knives." A glance at his student. "Do you know if they kept it on them or put them away with other goods?" It would be good to know, in order to narrow down the search. He was hoping the blow to her head and the ordeal hadn't given her temporary selective amnesia-- That would be most inconvenient.

"Judging them isn't our place. We'll leave that to the local law enforcement, but we'll make sure that they're put away for a long time for the things they've done with our testimonies," Adela had stiffened at the mention that one of the hostages might already be dead. Damn it... She didn't want that to be true. Maybe she was just unconscious, but Shisui would probably know better than she did. It made her sick, what these guys were doing to those people... It made her want to beat them within an inch of her life.

But, that wasn't the noble thing to do. She knew that.

"I'll check over that woman more closely and do what I can," Whether it was reviving her or identifying her corpse, she would do it. She wasn't a genin anymore, and she'd have to take on responsibilities like that, "Everyone else is going to be taken somewhere safe, and I'll make sure they get some water in them as well. There's a clean river nearby where we can give them fresh drinking water from. It's not the healthiest thing, but it's all we can do right now."

Don't kill them. Adela tried to communicate that with her eyes, knowing that no amount of damage Shisui could do would reverse what had already been done. Killing their assailants wasn't part of the mission, and doing so would make Shisui no better than a murderer - regardless of intent. That was what Adela believed. And it wouldn't help him at all, either.

Calling somebody 'no better than a murderer' was probably a sign that Adela would have been better suited to a life of crafting the instruments of murderers, rather than actively taking on the burden of a forehead protector and the expectations. Or maybe, it just made her a softer, kinder person at her core. She was right, perhaps, about the timing and likely wrong about the court they would be tried and probably executed, given the likely international scope of the ring, but Ami—Ami had wanted to kill the man who had beaten her down and put her in the box. She had wanted to slit his throat, and would have carved into it at the crux of the fight if her arms had just been a little longer.

But they hadn't been, and he had overpowered her.

"He has them on him," she said, clarity returning, and soft-spoken hatred overturning fear for a moment. "They weren't pretty—" She faltered slightly, frustrated and furious at remembering his words. "...they're quality, but not the type you display. So he was going to keep them."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This is not for your eyes to see

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Timeskip ho~

hoihvniofn ahhhh

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whaaaaat this idiot needs to stop with the emoshuns and step on it

Fffff what a dumb

orz XDDD

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