I am sooooooooo sorry! I know I haven't updated in a while! It's just that my job is taking more of my time than I thought and it has been hard for me to find time to relax let alone write! Anyway after this week my job is taking a 2 week break so I will have more time to write then, but for now please bear with me!

A thanks to all of you reading/favouriting/ following! And a big thanks to JackOfAllTraitsMasterOfNone, iluvfairytale, Elememtal1000 for reveiwing! You all are what make me want to write!

Anyway see you all at the bottem! ;)

Summary: Being a ninja is dangerous. You think I would've wanted to be a one considering I am aware of this? Ha, as if I had a choice in the matter. Semi- SI OC

Word Count: 3682

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity." -Dwight D. Eisenhower

"It's sad when someone you know becomes someone you knew." -Henry Rollin

Chapter 6

After my first mission I was quickly put into the middle of it all. They figured that if I could survive fighting a Chuunin then it was fine to place me into the midst of a battlefield.

I can't tell you how many times I came back to my room covered in blood and injured to the point that I was surprised I was even still alive. I was just glad that I hadn't run into any of the characters that came from Konoha, though I have seen glances occasionally, however I never stayed around to check. It was horrible, amazing and terrifying seeing the extent of damage shinobi can do when they are fighting.

Hell, I didn't even see Akira very much anymore.

… It's not like I wanted to see him. It just gets a little boring without being able to yell at and annoy him.

I was currently on my way back from the frontlines, and had decided that I was in good enough shape that I could have a quick look around the village, seeing as I only had some minor scratches and bruises. Seeing as the warehouse that the Shin'yu occupied on the outskirts of the village I had rarely seen anything of the village and was curious to say the least. They had finally decided that I wasn't flight risk anymore and now only had a small fuuinjutsu seal on the back of my hand to stop me from running. Should I leave the village without permission it would render me unconscious, a signal would go up that I had tried to run and then I would be handed off to Takeshi for punishment. I shuddered at the thought. It would be removed once I was back inside the warehouse, but I found that it was really annoying and itchy to have on.

As I made my way through the rooftops I looked down at the civilians and shinobi who were just going about their lives. I wasn't really looking at any their faces, and was just about to be on my way to check out some different location, when I stopped short (and nearly fell of the roof I was on) and I found myself looking at a familiar face.

Haruka.

I felt hate and anger bubble up in my throat at the sight of the horrid woman I was seriously tempted to use an earth jutsu to spear the damned woman. I could do that now, though I would probably pass out shortly afterward. My hands were itching to make the handseals and do it. I could see it in my head now, I would do the handseals and there would suddenly be a giant spike of earth goring the woman in the stomach. But after a moment of arguing with myself about if I should do it or not, I decided it wasn't worth the death sentence.

For now.

Instead I settled on following her. I don't know what compelled me to do it, but I did. It's not like I didn't have the time, I was sent back and was two hours ahead of schedule so they wouldn't miss me. I followed her as she made twists and turns that I could vaguely remember, and then I was met with a house that I hadn't seen for over two years. I had been taken about two and 7 months ago but for some reason I could still remember the house clearly as I was forcibly taken from it. I could even remember the screams of my brother and me as we desperately cried out for each other with disturbing clarity.

"Katashi-nii-chan!"

"Kiki-chan!"

I shook my head quickly to get rid of the lingering voices. I could feel a lump in my throat and my eyes were stinging, but I refused to allow myself to break down after only seeing the house. After the door was closed behind Haruka and I was able to vaguely sense her chakra move further into the house (I was making progress with my chakra sensing!) I jumped down from where I was crouched on the rooftop across the street and just stood there, staring. I didn't worry about Haruka, because if I remembered correctly whenever she came home from shopping she normally rested in the living room for a few hours, as if she had undergone some great burden by just walking with a few groceries.

I really hated that woman.

As I continued to look at the house I kind of wondered how I never noticed that it was made completely out of rock. Then again, it looked normal on the inside so that was probably it. I thought about all the times I had been read to bed by Katashi and how bored I felt when I was nothing but an infant.

Katashi would be around 9 years old now, I realised still looking at the house. His birthday was around a month after mine if I remember correctly, though the memories of my first month were kind of fuzzy.

I honestly don't know how long I stood there in the middle of the street just starting at the old house, reminiscing about the life I had before I was taken to that hellhole, but eventually I became aware of the burning gaze focused on me.

The only reason I hadn't noticed it before was because there was no Killing Intent in the gaze.

So I turned to meet the gaze of the person staring at me, about to tell them that it was rude to stare, when the words got caught in my throat.

Standing there, not even 6 feet away from me, was my brother Katashi.

I looked him over numbly, surprised at how much he had changed in the near three years I had been gone. The once six year old had grown considerably in the years that I had been gone, he probably stood at 4' 3'' as opposed to my 2' 11''. His black hair was now a bit longer, it was just a bit longer than the tips of his ears and his fringe was made to frame his face. He still had some of his baby fat, but even I could tell that when he was older he would be a heart-breaker because of his angular facial structure. He had gained some muscle, and from the way he walked you could tell he had been trained in the ninja arts. I had to guess that the Academy had done some good if he was able to sneak up on me, even when I had had my guard down. He now had an earring in his left ear and I found myself a little sad that I would probably never know what spurred him to get the piercing. I found it even sadder that my brother was now 9 years old and I hadn't been a part of his growing up, that there were many things about my brother that must have changed about him that I couldn't tell by just looking at him.

I mean, did he have any friends? I vaguely remember him talking about him playing with some of the neighbourhood kids when I was younger, but I couldn't remember their names.

How much had my brother changed while I was gone?

"Kiki-chan?"

I was brought out of my nostalgia and feelings of loneliness when I saw Katashi take a step toward me. I saw the hopeful and near delirious look on his face and I felt my defences go up instantly.

Suddenly, I was reminded of all of my training as a Shin'yu kunoichi and about how I was not supposed to let my old family members know who I am.

"Sorry, you have the wrong person," I said, panicking. I was suddenly very glad that I kept my necklace hidden beneath my grey shirt whenever I left the warehouse or else my cover would have been blown.

Quickly, before he could question me, I used the Replacement Jutsu to get myself out of the street and onto one of the rooftops across the street from my old house. I quickly hid my chakra and then watched as my brother looked around trying to find me.

I watched him until he finally gave up, and I watched as he walked dejectedly into my old house.

I watched as the door closed and I continued watching the house until I felt his chakra signature leave my field of sensing.

I got up from my hiding place and began my way back to the warehouse. I didn't let the moister in my eyes bother me as I jumped from the rooftops and as I got farther away from the house I felt my resolve strengthen.

This would not be the last time that I would see my brother, I thought to myself.

Oh no, I was going to make sure that this was not going to be the last time that I went to that house.

.

.

.

That night I didn't sleep much. I couldn't get the fact that I had seen my brother earlier that day out of my head.

Instead, I remembered the times that I had spent with Katashi, recalled memories of a better time with him by my side.

When I finally did fall asleep it was with a smile on my face as I cradled my necklace in my hand.

I couldn't wait until I could see my brother again.

.o0 - 0o.

Of course, I knew that I wouldn't be able to go see my brother every day, but for some reason I was still ticked off when I was given a mission the next day that would probably last about two weeks.

I told myself to suck it up and that I had known that this would happen, but even then I still felt annoyed.

Usually I would be deployed with Akira, something about us complimenting each other's fighting styles or something, I didn't really get it because he specialised in blowing stuff up and I mostly just had my earth jutsu, but since he was still on the frontlines I was left with others of the Shin'yu to be my partners.

I didn't know how I felt about that. It felt odd being without Akira to back me up. But then again it's not like I had a choice in the matter so that just sucked.

But anyway, two other child soldiers who I didn't know well and I were being sent with 5 normal shinobi to track someone. Those of us that were of the younger variety weren't given the knowledge of who it was that we were tracking, or even why we were tracking them, just that once we found the person we were to 'dispatch' them as soon as we could.

I honestly found nothing wrong with that part of the mission, I had done a few like it before, but what I found odd was how little information we were given. I also found the people that they had chosen for the mission strange. From what I remember of the children with me, their names were Yoshiro (who was a boy) and Rin (who was a girl). Yoshiro was a tracker and a really good one if I remember my spars with him correctly, the kid could smell me even with the smoke bomb that I had set off that day. Rin specialised in poisons and long ranged weaponry, she tended to dip her senbon and kunai in a lethal poison before throwing it at her opponents killing them near instantly, though she had others that were made to slowly kill her opponents and others just for paralysis. And then there was me, a sensor type with an arsenal of half assed defensive earth jutsu and a few offensive ones. I didn't know much about the other shinobi that they had sent with us, other than the fact that they were almost all above Chuunin if the flak jackets that they wore (that were only slightly different than what I remember of Konoha's) said anything.

If I was reading the information right, we were going after a high priority personnel that was an obvious threat to the people who were going after them and who was good evading the people tracking them.

Who the hell were we going after?

I wanted to ask questions so badly, but I knew that even if I did I wouldn't get an answer. So I set about trying to get my information the old fashion way. I eavesdropped on every conversation that I could.

It used to annoy me that the older shinobi tended to deliberately ignored me and the other children but I had gotten used to it by now. Plus it just made it easier for me to listen in on their what I got from my eavesdropping was nothing more than the typical slandering of the person we were tracking, and the occasional gossip.

On our second day of tracking I finally was able to get some useful information.

We had just set up camp a little ways off from the trail we were tracking, and I had been busying myself with setting up a place for me to sleep, when I caught our squad leader Masahiro talking to one of the other shinobi in deep discussion. It seemed serious and they looked distracted so I decided that now would be a good time to try my luck at finding out what's going on.

So very carefully I redirected some chakra to my ear, making sure not to add too much, because the first time I had done this I had almost blew my eardrum, and listened in on their conversation.

"-ure we are going to be able to take him out, Masahiro-taichou?" that was the other person; I believe he was a Chuunin. What was their name again? I couldn't remember, but they seemed nervous about the person we were tracking.

"I don't know, after all he has killed every unit sent after him yet," came the dubious reply from our captain. My eyebrows rose at that. It seems that the person was more dangerous than I previously thought if we weren't the first people to try and take him out.

"Kami-sama," the Chuunin whispered.

"I am not going to lie, we are all going to have the fight of our lives when we engage the target. So you better be ready for it, Hotaka." huh, no honorific so they must have been either lovers, which is unlikely in Iwa because homosexuality wasn't as accepted then in say Konoha, or they were really good friends which I found more likely. "And it is very likely that we are all going to die when we fight the target,"

My breath stopped for a moment at those words and it wasn't just me because it also took 'Hotaka' a moment before he could speak again.

"Then why are we-"

"Orders are orders, and our Tsuchikage has given us this mission with the intention of us completing it," there was a hard and almost final note to his voice and it gave me the chills.

I stopped listening after that and went back to setting up camp.

I really hated the kind of thinking that most Iwa shinobi had. It was the kind of diehard obedience that reminded me of the Hollo… the Hollo… the guy with the square mustache… Heim… Hit… goddammit the guy that started World War II! It was like when the Tsuchikage said jump, everyone jumped and if you didn't you were dead.

And I had a feeling that this was one of the missions where it was basically suicide.

Time to make a plan... or five, I thought to myself.

I wasn't about to die just yet, especially for something as stupid as a mission. I was going to make sure that saw my brother again, no matter what.

Besides, Akira would never forgive me if I died for something as simple as an assassination mission.

I stood up and began to make my way over to where I knew the Chuunin of the group had stashed their supplies.

I wonder if they had any solider pills I could swipe, I mused.

.

.

.

It was on the eighth day that we finally found our target.

We had been running for the past 4 hours tracking a fresh scent that Yoshiro had caught. We were now very far from the village, and while I knew that Tsuchi no Kuni was the second largest country in the Elemental Nations, I found it kind of weird that the person we were tracking was going farther inland rather than trying to flee the country altogether. It was rather odd behaviour for someone who was trying to get away.

As we ran I could feel the air becoming increasingly hot and humid. I sniffed the air and frowned at the slightly sweet scent mixed with the scent of water.

Why would someone hide in a hot springs? Unless they taking the time to have a relaxing hot bath, but that didn't make any sense. The person we were tracking obviously knew that we were after them, if the fact that it took us this long to even find the person. This person was smart enough to evade 8 highly trained ninja for days on end, so why the hell would they risk being caught by stopping at a hot spring? It was counterproductive. The only reasons that I could think of for the person we were tracking would stop here were either that they had water type chakra and then they would use the terrain to their advantage, or that they were lulling us into a false sense of security by making us think that they had let down their guard so that they could lead us into a trap.

That thought nearly made me trip.

Shit! This was a freaking trap!

I quickly looked around our surroundings as we entered the clearing of the hot springs.

And I used the word 'clearing' lightly, because in Tsuchi no Kuni there were very little trees, hence the name 'Land of Earth'. Basically, it was a roundish bowl shaped ravine that had outcroppings of rock filled with hot water, that had a couple of trees around the edges (that would have looked pretty if I stopped thinking that someone was hiding behind them), and it had tall mountain walls to box us in, all while covered in a heavy layer of steam.

Wonderful.

As we looked around the area looking for our target I let my chakra spread out. I gradually increased my range as my eyes scanned the steamy air, trying to find what lay behind.

I frowned when I felt an unknown chakra signature brush at the edge of my senses. It was huge and it gave me chills as I made my senses spread out to cover more of it. And there was a weird undertone to it that just set me on edge.

I quickly turned to face the chakra signature, making sure to let the others of the group know that we weren't alone. I watched as one of the kunoichi of the group went through the handseals to use a wind jutsu to blow the steam away.

As I readied myself for battle I went over the information that I knew about our target in my head. Because, for some reason, I felt the sensation that this was a person that I should know. So, following up on the hunch I thought of all the information that I had on the person we were sent to kill. The target was a male from Iwa that had done something to piss off the population if the way the other shinobi of the group talked about him. He was apparently really skilled if the fact that he was able to kill the other groups sent after him. Also, if I was reading his chakra signature right this guy was obviously a chakra monster. This vaguely reminded me of a person I had heard of in my old life, but the only person that I remember that came from Iwa was Deidara and I was pretty sure that he hadn't been born yet. Or had he? Well, even if he had a year old child wouldn't pose enough of a threat to warrant 8 fully trained shinobi sent to kill them, even a child from a clan that has explosive chakra. Who else did I know that came from Iwa? No one that I could remember, anyway. I told myself that, rationally, it was probably just some schnook that messed up and wanted out of the stupid village.

So why was this bothering me so much?

I quickly shook my head to clear my thoughts and watched as the steam was blown away.

As a figure became clear, I paled.

Standing there on top of the steaming hot water was a very tall man (or was he a teenager?) dressed completely in a red armor with his torso covered by a gray gi. He was wearing what looked like a backpack that was emitting steam, and had a red mask that covered half of his face. He had his arms crossed and his light brown eyes were looking us over calmly, but I saw the thinly veiled anger and hatred in his gaze as heavy Killer Intent leaked from the man.

I felt my body tremble as I realised who it was that we had tracking, who it was we were trying to kill, and now I understood why all the other groups sent after this man were dead.

Because standing there with an air of danger and hostility, was Han, one of the Jinchuuriki of the village.

Dear Kami, I thought to myself in horror, we're all going to die.

Rin- dignified, severe, cold

Yoshiro- righteous son

Masahiro- straightforward, wise

Hotaka- Tall grain

Taichou- captain/leader

Tsuchi no Kuni- Land of Earth

Kami (sama) - God

Yup! So we get to see our first cannon character in the story! While I do plan on getting Hibiki to meet more people from the series it will be slow going for all that I have planned while she is in the Shin'yu! I hope you all liked the chapter and I hope to see you all again soon, dattebane!

Byeeeee

~Hela