This is not for your eyes to see

[shunshinoshishi]

Who: Uchiha Shisui shunshinoshishi , Oyama Ami 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. 

Comments

[abileunaspada]

"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."

[shunshinoshishi]

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."

[abileunaspada]

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.

[thelittleprincess]

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.

[shunshinoshishi]

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.

[abileunaspada]

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...

[thelittleprincess]

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...!"

[shunshinoshishi]

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...

[abileunaspada]

"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."

[thelittleprincess]

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?"

[shunshinoshishi]

"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.

[abileunaspada]

"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.

[thelittleprincess]

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."