Monsters

Mei had sworn she would never be in this situation yet here she was. Chained up with enough Chakra suppressors that it would take weeks to break through them with interrogators trying to pry information from her every time she opened her eyes. It wasn’t a walk in the park that's for sure, but honestly? She had experienced worse pain than this, been on death's door time and time again only to have her best friend pull her back, and then there's what happened before she took the position of Kin-Slayer.
Though it was getting harder to heal with all her energy focused on trying to get outta this place before they realized they wouldn’t be getting anything out of her. Once that happened they would have no reason to kill her.
For that reason, she threw a metaphorical bone every once and a while, mostly to the questions she found hilarious.
“Where were you abducted from?” She wasn’t, she joined of her own free will. The shinobi had theories though that the children were inducted as a group and then joined, which Mei would have found hypocritical if she knew.
“Where did you hide the scroll you took?” By the Naka river near where they had found Mei is what she had answered. However, she did keep to herself that it wouldn’t be there anymore as a friend would have taken it. More specifically one who always lived inside the village. Not like he was loyal to them though!
Mei didn’t say anything about why she stole the mission report of all things. Maybe that's what Shimura claimed it to be, but it was a mission request for the white fang, it was encoded of course but there are details on there that made it quite clear why the white fang had ended up on a mission like that. He was meant to die, one way or another. Mei didn’t know why nor did she care why the bastard had decided that, but it was just another way to make sure he couldn’t slip away. That when Tenko finally killed him, why they did, it would not be another thing that the Hokage swept under the rug. Not like with Root, or with the snake, or the stealing of kids, both clan and civilian alike.
Mei liked kids, she liked knowing that those kids would grow up happy, with all the experiences of childhood that one should have. They should never have to kill, to feel another being's warm blood seep into their skin. This is why she hated what the villages stood for and she was sure every other being like her felt the same. She was right of course, but child soldiers are a common thing in this world.
Plus the shinobi world was dumb.
Coming back to the moment, Mei looked down at the weakest link of the chains, it would be so easy to break out of them but she had a simpler solution in mind. She imagined that her captors had thought she had been mindlessly scribbling on the walls with her blood as a way to pass time or some crap but in reality, she had been drawing sigils. She knew Tenko had scribbled a bunch on Naka's floor and she only understood about half of what they were for but he had made her memorize one. A reverse summons, one that would ordinarily send one of them back to their birthplace. However, Tenko had tweaked this one a bit to always summon them either to Naka or another one of their friends depending on who was closest. A bit like what Namikaze had made, the only difference was this one was a bit in reverse. Instead of going where you put the mark or threw it in the Namikazes case, you went to specific people. She hoped she had enough use over her chakra to make it seem like she used it. She flared it out and placed a bloody hand over the sigil and let her Mana flow. With a sound like a firecracker going off, she suddenly appeared in the Naka river and within moments she could feel the algae-like fur tickling her back that let her know Naka was there.
His claws grabbed her and quickly brought her to the surface, she hacked up a mixture of blood and saliva.
“Thank the Sage! Tenko get your blue ass out here! She got out!” She hears the river spirit shout. However, Mei is aware that the shinobi only gave her enough medical attention from the wounds they inflicted to keep her on the brink of death. Her scabbed-over injuries had opened again when she fell and were now weeping blood. That combined with starvation and thirst led to her starting to pass out.
“Shit! Mei come on!” A new voice had joined the conversation.
‘Oh wow look at that.’ that was the last thought Mei had before the darkness claimed her mind.

Mei had woken up slowly with pain tingling through her nerves and the familiar constricting feeling of bandages around everywhere. Tenko was leaning against one of the supports of the temple. His eyes were closed it wouldn't have made a difference as there was a jagged line across his face. Tenko had originally gone blind due to it, it also didn’t help that his eyes had been torn out of their sockets. He looked tired though, no doubt because of what Mei had gone through. He was always like a big brother to Mei, a sudden thought occurred to her though and she pushed herself up.
Almost instantly Tenkos's head snapped up.
“You should lay back down Mei. We did our best but your ribs were…” Tenko trails off, and Mei understands, even now her body screams with the pain of everything that was done to her. Mei knew she was lucky they didn’t puncture a lung.
“Where Naka?” Her voice rasps out, her voice was raw.
“Out, can’t you hear the storm?” Mei listened and she could. The rain came down like bullets and the wind howled as a warrior scorned. Or perhaps family. Now and then she could hear another boom of thunder. However, in the temple, she knew it was slightly muted, thanks to it being the river spirits' own. This meant that even if it was loud inside, outside and those that lived in the village had to experience one of the worst thunderstorms of their lives.
“You should have seen him when you passed out Mei. I- I don't think I've ever seen a river spirit so angry, nor so protective.” He says softly, something like awe painting his tone. Mei stares at him like he’s an idiot.
“I’ve been here for just two months, that's not a lot of time for a thousand-year-old water spirit.” Tenko snorts at Meis response.
“We’ve had this conversation before Mei. Time may not be as relevant for beings like us but that doesn’t mean that not every day counts. Plus you’re a good kid, you’d have to be blinder than me not to see it.”
“You are blind Tenko.” She retorted rather bluntly.
“Exactly.” There was something smug in the elder spirit's voice
Mei threw up her hands in the air not understanding her friend. A frown splayed out on her lips.
“What’s wrong?” In an instant, Tenko could tell something was off with his pseudo-little sister.
“I can’t stay here, my scent may be washed away but I didn’t hide my signature when I teleported. As of right now, I’m a sitting duck with these injuries and Naka can only keep the storm going for so long.” There was something defeated in Mei's tone.
“Mei the suppression seals will keep you hidden, and you know how many hidden rooms Naka added to the temple.” Tenko may be able to defeat arguments with logic, however, he could see where Mei was heading.
“Still, they will know I’m not alone which will make them look for you, granted they won't find you but it'll make your job harder. Shimara will increase scarcity in that base. I keep supplies hidden everywhere and seeing how one of the questions I got asked was where I was keeping everything else, well I’m sure you can see the solution as to where I got medical attention.” Mei was planning on using herself as a scapegoat, the only person who would get caught in the end yet Tenko disagreed further.
“You can’t even sit up without feeling pain, how the hell do you expect to avoid being captured?” Tenko wanted her to stay and heal but he knew how she would answer.
“Simple, use the forest spirits. You can feel it can’t you? They are just as angry as Naka is though for different reasons. I’m sure they would help if I asked.”
She could tell Tenko hated it but he already knew that he wouldn't be able to change her mind.
“Please, just stay a week at least. Nakas pissed off enough that he should be able to keep the storm going for a while just…” Tenko's arms were trembling as they crossed, “I thought you were going to die in there Mei, that any instant I’d feel your soul depart.” Every bit of him is trembling like a leaf in autumn winds. “Please just- just stay for a little while?” His face is open in a way that makes Mei want to kick herself. She hasn’t seen the older demon this worked up in a long time. Then again he hasn’t seen her this injured since she was fifteen.
“Ok but only two days or less after the storm ends. I can tell I’ve been unconscious for a while.
Tenko takes a minute to respond. “Five days, I managed to hold Naka off from making the storm for three of them. “ The trembling gets worse while he says this, Mei knows what he’s not telling. He was worried she wouldn’t.
Mei hates that it took that long to wake up, she knew she hadn’t been able to stomach much while they had been here, however, she never expected to end up as starved as she was in T&I. All that was left was lean muscle and a tiny bit of fat. She could feel her bones through her skin. Though it seemed they had been stuffing her with enough food that she regained some of it back. Either that or what was dubbed the ‘miracle IV’ by other Kin-Slayers. Full of needed fat, minerals, and vitamins, horribly expensive to make though, so they were only used in emergencies.
Mei looks around her wrists to see if she can spot it and there it was, on her left arm, being that it had the least fractures and breaks. Her right arm looked like it had been in a meat grinder. Or at least it had. She was lucky her kind healed easily due to the environment they lived in. She and Tenko much like Naka were not human. They were Oni, with front-facing horns, and bright skin colors of white, red, and blue. Eye color if they had them was bright too, her own eyes being a neon green, and she knew Tenkos used to be a brilliant icy blue.
However, since they were in human form you wouldn’t know this if you looked at them.
“By the way, did you find the mission reports I stole from the old bastard?” She talked nonchalantly but her hands were picking anxiously at the wool blanket covering her.
“Yes.” It was all that was needed and for a moment, Mei saw the energy sifting around her friend in a red mist-like haze before it seemed to get sucked back in or more specifically grabbed.
“Thanks, Hisako.” She swears she sees a ghostly thumbs up before that too is sucked into the space where a soul would be.
“I hate the fact she likes you more than me,” Tenko muttered, Mei, snorted at the pouty expression on the older devil's face.
“It's because we both support you taking care of yourself.” Mei instantly regretted saying that when she saw the sadistic look on Tenko's face.
“Oh? What's this I hear? It's the sound of hypocrisy!” Mei grimaced before looking away but Tenko wasn’t done, “Have you forgotten how many times I’ve had to drag your stubborn ass to a healer? Especially when you have enough blood loss to be delirious and start cussing in Spanish at everything under the sun?” Tenko's eyebrow raised, which looked odd when one did not have any eyes.
“I know you can’t see it but I’m rolling my eyes,” Mei replies.
“Brat,” Tenko says fondly, something soft in his expression.

As Mei and Tenko had agreed, as soon as Naka ended the storm, the timer had begun. From what Tenko had said they had about four days before they found evidence of where Mei was hiding, probably fewer. During that time both Naka and Tenko extended as much energy as they could to help heal Mei to the point while she wouldn’t be able to run away from them, she could still stay in the village undetected.
There were two reasons she was staying despite the risk. One she was determined to help Tenko as much as she could, injured or not. If the village was concentrated on her, they wouldn’t think to look for Tenko, especially if things still went missing. The second being that Shimura was a human that repulsed her to the point she had to hold herself back from killing him several times but the orders were specific ones.
Get as much proof of what he and the Hokage had done, then show it to everybody in the village. Whether or not it caused a civil war was not a concern for those that had requested it, only that the people who killed them, silenced them, were shown the consequences of their sins. When it came to spirits who requested missions like this, it was always the vengeful ones that become the bloodiest.
Perhaps they were quick to judge but demons had seen many sinners enter the pits, they had seen the sins that every human who came committed. One would be surprised at the volume, especially these days.
Plus they were demons, they weren’t known to be ‘nice’ or to ‘play fair.’ Their origins were from the mistakes of gods, the sins of humans, and the sins of holy creatures. They were selfish beings who held those they loved close and dealt with threats to them swiftly. Not to mention sadistic, once the Shimura was dealt with publicly, his death was going to be as slow and painful as they could make it. Most shinobi saw them as man-eating monsters and frankly, they weren’t even wrong on that part.
Though they weren’t cannibals, after all, they weren’t human, to begin with. Also, they didn’t eat every human they killed, certain things the body did ruin the meal after all!
As for why they ate most of the bodies, most Kin-Slayers were demons or spirits with carnivore diets. As such they needed lots of meat or protein in their diets, it would be wasteful not to do so. If they did do something quite repulsive with their bodies, then they were ground up and made into fertilizer.
In short, Kin-Slayers were pretty similar to shinobi in some ways. However, they refused to induct kids into their ranks. Or at least that was the norm, Mei was the youngest, only being a fresh baby-faced seventeen. Though she was younger when she joined it was because she snuck in underneath the regulations.
The Kin-slayers at the time along with her family tried to pull her back, to make her go home but as soon as she learned how to get out of Hell, well it became a lot harder to send her back. Thankfully the underworld's government had made swift work of making sure no one else could slip through the way Mei had. Plus now that Tenko was in the ranks he could usually stop her from doing something stupid.
It was these thoughts that led her to walk along the shores of the Naka river. She could see a flash of scales now and then as fish darted about. It was there she saw the kid. They were tiny things, short and skinny that spoke more of malnutrition than anything else. Considering that the child was fishing with what looked like string attached to a stick she imagined they didn’t have a lot of money.
He looked a bit like a spirit who hadn’t learned how to hide parts of itself in a human form. Certain aspects such as hair gold as the metal, eyes that were a bit too blue, and whisker marks on both cheeks. They were staring at Mei in curiosity, and perhaps a bit of fear. An inquisitive tilt of the head made him look like a fox.
However out of all these what grabbed her attention was the Kodama sitting atop a few of what she knew to be Konoha Anbu. Thankfully asleep with a few well-placed illusions. Some of the Kodama had traveled closer to where the child was seemingly basking in the powerful presence they gave off.
Was this child… one of them?