But There Ain't No Happy Ending
The place that she wakes up in a forest. Sitting up on her haunches, Kiyomi eventually managed to stand up, taking in the surroundings. If she hadn't known any better, she might have mistaken this place as Training Grounds 44. But the trees are different, the soil, even the scent in the air.
'Where am I?'
"You're dead." Pivoting on her heel, her left hand twitched and in motion too quick for the eyes to catch, Kiyomi had pulled a kunai from her thigh holster, while her right hand clamped around the throat of the individual behind her. "Motherfucker, you're fast!"
"Who are you?" Voice going flat and hard, Kiyomi pressed the tip of the blade into the woman's face, a nonverbal warning. Not that her captive took the threat seriously, her lips twitching as if she wanted to smile. "Where are we? Talk!" Her right hand tightened around her throat, debating with crushing the woman's voice box, bashing her head in, or just slitting her throat.
"I...told...you...already. You're dead." Baring her teeth, the woman sent Kiyomi a sneering type of smile. "Now get your hands off of me!"
A surge of anger swept through her body and she flung the woman away from her, too incensed to care about her deranged giggling. "No. No. I can't be dead. That's not possible."
"Generally, when someone shoves their hand through the back, people die. I think you would know a little bit more about that subject than I do since your kills tend to be, ah, what's the word? Messy." Snapping her fingers, the woman rolled on her side, smirk firmly on her face. "A killer with a conscious, quite the quandary, innit?"
"So, what, you're my guide into the afterlife? The person who judges whether or not I'm worthy?" Gesturing with her arms so that it encompasses her form, Kiyomi laughs. "Go on then. Do it."
The woman stood up, dusting herself off.
"Do it! Get off your pedestal, look me in the eye and tell me how worthless I am!"
"With such a great attitude like that, I didn't foresee you getting any Mother of the Year awards." With a simple sentence, Kiyomi lost her voice, hands drifting to her abdomen. "This should be a cold comfort but the babe didn't suffer."
"My baby…" Slowly, it was coming back to her and Kiyomi stood there, clutching at her stomach and tears trickled down her cheeks. "Are...are you sure?" Sniffling, she glanced at the woman, really actually taking her features in, unlike before where she'd been too furious to think clearly.
'Rookie mistake.'
The woman had long raven hair in a tight bun at the back of her head, alabaster skin without a blemish in sight, deep green eyes, and plush pink lips. Kiyomi could believe her to be a noblewoman if they'd met on the street, there was just something about her…
The woman stepped into her space and belatedly, Kiyomi realized that she was an inch or two taller than the exotic beauty. "If I'm certain of anything, it's that." Reaching up, the woman used her thumb to wipe away a tear welling up in her eye. "Shh, shh, none of that now. Dry your tears, dove. I have a mission for you."
It took a few seconds but Kiyomi managed to pull herself together. "A mission?"
"There is still one of your kin that yet lives. A boy, Sasuke Uchiha." The flat of the woman's palm is warm against her cheek. "He is on the path to being an avenger. That route will bring only loneliness and he will do unspeakable, terrible things." Pulling her hand away, the pads of her fingers tickling underneath Kiyomi's chin.
"Do not let that come to pass."
"But Itachi would deserve it!" The words were practically snarled, her anger at her lover's action, the death of her baby, welled up in her throat.
SMACK!
White-hot pain lanced through her cheek. The smack hadn't been too hard but it brought Kiyomi back to the matter at hand.
"Don't be an idiot. Itachi isn't the type of person that cracks under pressure. He's a nurturer, a protector and you know this. Think! Use your instincts." The woman was exasperated.
"There's something that you're missing. I want to tell you more but we've run out of time."
Dazed, Kiyomi could only blink as the woman took her hands, holding on firmly. There was a stinging sensation that increased in intensity as she began chanting in a foreign language. Some of the words sounded similar and she repeated a few of them again and again. Voice commanding, words of power, the kunoichi didn't need to understand the meaning as she found herself kneeling.
Then the woman reached out and touched where the hand had burst through her chest.
Kiyomi opened her mouth in a wordless scream as the feeling of fire spread throughout her being and refused to abate. Distantly, as everything became blindingly white, there was a whisper in her ear, seared into her mind.
Do not forget the mission.
Opening her eyes, Kiyomi sucked in a breath and nearly choked on the inhale, coming face to face with an individual wearing a monkey's animal mask. ANBU.
"Taichō! There's a living person over here." They must be new because it was easy to tell that their voice that they were rattled. "Uchiha-san, is it alright if I pick you up?"
'No, just let me lay here.' The tangy scent of blood wafted up towards her nose and like many times before, Kiyomi's hands drifted down to her stomach.
Pulling her hand away only to come away red.
"Uchiha-san…"
"Don't!" Kiyomi snapped, against her will, although she had fervently hoped and prayed… Lifting up just enough, the kunoichi could see the blood pooled around her legs. A great feeling of hopelessness and despair threatened to crack open her chest.
Do not forget the mission.
Hyperventilating, the last thing she saw before darkness claimed her vision was a shock of defying gravity, silver hair, and a wolf's mask.