Chapter 181

"Whelp, that was a bust." Suigetsu said as we sat in the inn of the village that Raiga and the Kurosaki clan were terrorizing, at least up until a few days ago. Because that was when a bunch of Konoha ninja, specifically, a team with two men with bad bowl cuts, a girl in a pink shirt, a pale eyed guy, and a ninja in orange, came in, beat them up, and killed Raiga.

"I'm a little disappointed. It seems like we just missed them." Haku said, showing just a touch more disappointment that he missed meeting with Naruto.

"There's no helping it." Chojuro said simply, and that was true. We had no idea they were even here until the previous day.

"It's both a good and a bad thing. If we assume the leafs took it with them, we can retrieve it at a later date since we're planning to open trade negotiations with them." Zabuza said.

"That's SO boring though. I would have loved to have fou…." Suigetsu didn't get the words out before the blow to the head splashed it in front of him. The rest of us backed up from the splash range, almost expecting it. Zabuza didn't start speaking until Suigetsu's head had reformed.

"What part of stealth mission do you not comprehend?" Zabuza said before starting another tangent to Suigetsu, who was only half listening.

I rolled my eyes as I sketched in my book a flowchart of our progress, which was, as of right now, none. Well, not really none, Konoha took the Kiba blades, which meant all we had to do was either ask for them back or wait for them to give them back to us. While it was entirely possible the sword might mysteriously go missing, I doubted Tsunade would run such a loose ship that something that important could be spirited away by Danzo.

"How long are we staying? You told the innkeeper you didn't know yet, that we were waiting for someone." I broke the argument up as I continued to draw on the paper.

"That's just an excuse for us to move around the town looking for people. We'll move on tomorrow." Zabuza said, his hand on Suigetsu's head pushing him face first into the ground like someone rubbing a dog's nose into their... well, "Why?"

"Then I'm going to get some food. Apparently they have a fantastic curry place nearby and I could really go for some." Leaving the paper there for the others to see I stood up and moved towards the door. Zabuza looked up and gestured, and a moment later Haku followed me. The order was clear, I wasn't to go anywhere alone here.

I shrugged and let him follow while Zabuza harassed Suigetsu. When we were outside I spoke to Haku as we walked, "You think he's comparing him to his brother when he pulls that sort of thing?"

"I never knew his brother." Haku replied as he kept in step, "He was never mentioned, in fact he does not ever talk about his comrades in those terms. He mostly just uses them as teaching examples."

"Never?" I was a bit curious, "Didn't they work together a lot?" Like now, no matter what the mission there was always lots of down time, and humans as hyper social as we are tend to at least share small talk. It was actually pretty unnatural for people not to connect in some way no matter what the circumstances of their relationship.

Haku kept his eyes forward as we moved through the streets, the words were still vague, we weren't using an air bubble since that would seem suspicious. "Does he really seem the type to talk during an assignment?"

"Um, yeah?" I said.

Haku shook his head, "This one isn't normal. He's our instructor."

"But he snipes at us all the time." Well he sniped at Suigetsu and I.

"And? You think his past teammates would allow him to speak like that to them?" Haku asked and then it dawned on me.

Zabuza was the only Seven Swordsman who wasn't from or associated with the Seven families. He was skilled, but he was also completely unassociated with the powers that ran Kirigakure at the time of his appointment. That rang true with what he said about the appointment of the seven swordsmen, it wasn't purely skill based, if it was, they'd just hold a tournament instead of it being an office assigned by the Mizukage. In fact, him not being attached to the seven families might have been the reason why he'd been given the position at all. He had been Yagura's tool, he'd all but said so. What did that make his work with the others like? He'd killed Jinpachi himself and we headed here to face Raiga, would he have even hesitated to kill him as well?

He didn't hesitate to try and kill Yagura, and he was Yagura's tool.

"That sounds... really lonely." I remarked as the thoughts circulated in my head.

Haku didn't comment on that as we continued to walk. Towards the store that had the so-called curry of life. Thinking on a lot of things, just the general dickery of this world and the things that happened I started to sort of hum as I walked along. The wood in this area, it looked familiar.

"Do they," I looked around, confused, "Do they export wood from this area to the village?"

Haku looked around, "Maybe, or maybe they use wood from the same place" Haku said, "I think that's the building."

It was a little bit away from the town proper, on the side of the road. Painted a faded red with a windmill next to it with yellow tiling making an overhang for the covering. It was so playfully colorful I couldn't help but smile as we walked forward. I continued to hum, it was a song from a musical.

As we approached I could smell the cumin in the air. "I wonder how it tastes." I said as I kept up my pace. There wasn't a lot of spice used in Land of Water cooking besides regular salt and soy. It was something that got imported and as such a luxury item.

"It does have quite the reputation." Haku agreed as we approached the door. Jogging up, I read the large kanji drawn on the outside before I got to the door proper and looked in. As soon as I did so however, I froze.

My eyes scanned the room, and I felt it, in my core, the wave of deja vu as I stared at it. The walls weren't red like the outside, they were concrete, chipped in some places panelled with wood. The table, the color, was an ugly color of wood, a greyish brown, used for a sturdy construction rather than aesthetics because it wouldn't rot easily even in humid areas. It was low, and it was long, well used, dented and chipped in certain areas. In fact, I could see, on the edge, there was an indentation, like someone had pushed through with a knife, no not a knife, a kunai.

There were two people there, one that looked like a young girl, the other a man with a headband, but they disappeared. Instead, there they were, figures dressed in grey, all sat in a row. Bowls of rice as they shuffled along the table in chipped bowls.

My breath started to come out in short gasps, each breath coming out quickly but somehow it still felt like I wasn't getting enough air. Still I stared at the spaces, at the faces, my lips moving, "Phantom faces in the windows," My voice must have sounded strangled, as my vision started to blur, yet still I saw them there, at the head of the table, sitting, smiling, I saw him there. "Phantom shadows on the floor."

Arms grabbed me as I started to buckle. Why was everything so heavy?

"Empty chairs at empty tables, now my friends will meet no more."

"Kyoko," The voice came from next to me, but I couldn't place it as hot tears streamed down my face. "Kyoko, what are you?"

"Don't ask me," I said, the words coming out, "What your sacrifice was for." I added the lyrical part to that last line as I leaned back into the arms. "Empty chairs at empty tables, now my friends will sing no more."

My eyes were crusty and my throat hurt when I woke up again. When I looked up I didn't remember why immediately, but a vision entered my head and a pain in my neck. My breathing started to pick up when a hand grabbed my head and I felt instead a deep fear or dread. I flinched back before looking up at Zabuza.

"Wha," My voice came out hoarse, "The fuck?"

"Fear's a good substitute." Zabuza surmised from his position as he went back to writing something on a piece of parchment that I couldn't make out.

"What?" I said, I tried to lean up, but found I was bound in the futon I was in. I started moving about. Zabuza made no move to help me and the others were absent. Eventually I got my good arm out and undid the tie near the top allowing me to wiggle my way out of the bindings. I had to look around to find something to drink. The entire time Zabuza kept writing. I was in normal clothing instead of my wraps and dress, so I couldn't pop anything out but I did manage to find a cantine. I took a deep long drink before I started rubbing my eyes. "Why was I bound?"

"Standard protocol." Zabuza said as he continued writing, "Any shinobi who show signs of a mental break have to be bound and isolated in case they turn violent."

I blinked several times, "A mental, I didn't…"

"Breakdown, you did." Zabuza said, "I didn't actually suspect it was a true mental break, at least not a severe enough one to be violent, but, you were inconsolable enough that Haku had to knock you out once he got you out of a public area so the two of you wouldn't draw any more attention to yourselves then you already did."

"I was knocked out?" The words came out as my thoughts tried to catch up to me. "What? Why was I…"

"Think about it." Zabuza said and went back to his writing. Placing a hand on my head, I tried to remember, tried to process. I thought, what had I seen, why did I….

The cafeteria.

The shop, it'd looked like a smaller version of the cafeteria from the ninja academy, it looked like... I remembered….

I let out a soft breath, "My platoon." Memories came unbidden as I remembered our meals at that table. Plain bland meals, only seasoned by soy, but then we sat down, and we sang, and we danced, I remember Enji beating on his bowl with Akio and Machi. Maemi, Tara and Kaito would sing with Kiriko, while I played my gottan. Yumi would try to make a grab for it, a game of keep away while I played because she wanted so much to try herself.

My head was awash with the familiar scene and suddenly with the sorrow that followed, eyes tearing up. I shoved my face into my arm to try and wipe them away.

"You did a lot of that while you were sleeping too." Zabuza said before rolling up the letter and tying it off.

"Where," I spoke out, my throat getting sore as the tears continued to flow, "Where are the others?"

"I sent them away." He said, waving a hand. "You're not going back out in public until you can get yourself together. Your little show drew too much attention. We'll be moving again soon."

I grit my teeth and looked up at him, "Gee, thanks, it's so nice to know that you care." My hoarse voice sort of ruined the deadpan I was going for.

"Just get yourself together." Zabuza said as he stood, "And summon one of your rabbits, I need to send a message."

You'd think Quarrentine would give me all the time in the world to write. But that requires me to have energy.

Reviews would be nice.