Shiro Ume

The sun was bright but it had little warmth, merely lighting upon the bare branches of hapless trees and sharpening the contrast between dormant plant and bright white sky.

A young boy, just about to enter the eighth year of his life, crouched in the small cemetery on the outskirts of the town. People had left offerings to their relations and friends, letting the spirits know that they were gone but not forgotten.

The boy sat back on his heels, scowling as he tried to light a stick of incense with a match that refused to light. He struck the match again and again but only got it to spark weakly and then immediately go out. He cursed, shoulders slumping.

“Here, let me.” He jumped, spinning around to stare at the pretty young woman that had just appeared. His eyes immediately flicked to the forehead-protector she wore, marking her as a ninja. In his shock he dropped the stick of incense which was ruined in an icy puddle. He swore again but the girl stopped him from surging forward to pick it up. She smiled at him. A gentle, slightly sad smile that nearly lit up her blue eyes. She pulled a scented twig from the sleeve of her short kimono that was as blue as the ocean depths.

“Would you like-” the boy offered her the match but she shook her head. She touched a finger lightly to the end of the incense stick and it began to send up curls of smoke. She pulled a beautiful lacquered bowl set with enameled plum blossoms from her dark sash and set it on the ground between two grave-markers.

The two knelt there for a moment in silence before the boy asked, “Did you know them?” The girl blinked, as if startled from a reverie.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear.”
“Did you know them?”

Her smile widened slightly. “Did anyone really know them but them?” she sighed, disturbing the wisps of pure-white hair by her mouth. She asked the boy, “Did you know them?” He shook his head.
“I know of them. He-” he indicated the grave-marker on the left, his hands deep in his pockets. “-killed Gatou, a businessman that tried to take over a few months ago. But he-” the right grave-marker, that time, “-nearly killed Naruto-nii-san and Sasuke-san. But he protected Him that killed Gatou.”
“Were you there when… they died?” Her voice grew soft and the boy found himself having to lean forward to hear her over the chilly breeze.
“I wasn’t,” he said sullenly, drawing his elbows tight against his body to try to stay warm. “But I was there when they got rid of Gatou. I heard the rest from Naruto-nii-san.”

“And so…” the girl- young woman really- trailed off. She’d only heard official reports and it seemed she would never get the full story unless she hunted down this “Naruto-nii-san” and questioned him. “What did Naruto-nii-san say happened?”

The boy squared his shoulders and scowled at the ground, not really seeing it. “He said that there was a fight on the bridge. You can see it from the entrance. My grandpa built it and he was in the middle of construction when these bad guys, hired by Gatou, showed up. Naruto-nii-san is a ninja too, like you, lady.”

The young woman continued with her slight smiling, nodding at the recognition of her profession. “Well, Nii-san and his ninja team, along with their sensei, were there to protect my grandpa. So there was a fight during which Haku-san and Zabuza-” he motioned to the grave-markers. “-tried to kill Jii-chan. Zabuza and Kakashi-san paired off and started fighting. Haku-san trapped Naruto-nii-san and Sasuke-nii-san in his ice mirrors. They said he had a blood… limit?” he looked questioningly at the woman. She nodded encouragingly. “So Haku-san killed Sasuke and Nii-san went crazy. He didn’t tell me too much about this part except that he beat Haku-san and Haku-san wanted Nii-san to kill him because he had been defeated by Nii-san and that he wasn’t fit to live as Zabuza’s tool anymore.

“But Nii-san wouldn’t kill him at first so Haku-san begged him. Nii-san was about to, but Haku-san stopped him, saying that he had to protect his ‘precious person’ and then… he died.” The little boy finished rather lamely.
“How?”
“Kakashi-san used some sort of ninja technique. I have no idea what. Nii-san called it ‘Chidori’. He tried to kill Zabuza but Haku-san got in the way and it killed him. Then Zabuza and Kakashi started fighting again and it turned out Sasuke-nii-san wasn’t dead and Sakura-nee-chan told Nii-san but Gatou wasn’t finished. He’d hired Zabuza and Haku-san in the beginning but he had planned to kill them anyway after they killed grandpa. And then Gatou… he desecrated Haku-san’s body. Nii-san started shouting at Zabuza, telling them that he was cold-hearted to not care that his companion for years was dead and that Gatou was disrespecting him. Then, with nothing but one of those kunai-things in his mouth and with both arms ruined and wounded…” The boy looked up, his voice and eyes filled with awe. “He killed so many of Gatou’s men, he was like a demon! It was amazing. He wouldn’t stop, no matter how many times he was stabbed by Gatou’s men and how much blood he lost. He just ran into Gatou and killed him with the ninja-knife thing and Gatou’s head went over the bridge.”

He took a deep breath, eyes shining with admiration, awe, and more than a little fear. “But he was too badly hurt. He was going to die. So Kakashi-san put him next to Haku-san and he died, having avenged his ‘tool’.”

“Inariiii!!!” a woman stood near the gate at the entrance to the cemetery, wrapped in a thick warm coat and waving to the little boy. The boy turned to the pale girl.
“Would you like to come to my house for lunch? It’s really cold out and my mom makes really good-”
“I can’t, but I thank you for the offer.” The girl rested a hand briefly on his messy black hair. “Go along home and be thankful you have your mother.”

He ran off, looking back once more at the pretty fair-haired girl in blue with the sad sky-colored eyes. “Who was that, Inari?” he walked off with his mother, rubbing his hands together for warmth.
“Don’t know. She’s a ninja, though. She wore the same forehead-protector as Haku-san.”
“Did you invite her to come with us?” his mother asked, dark pretty eyes worried as she looked back at the lone figure.
“Yes, but…” Inari shrugged and looked up at his mother. “I think she wanted to be alone with them. She knew them, I think, so I guess she just wants to say good bye.”

The girl glanced over her shoulder and saw the boy, Inari, leaving with his mother. She folded her hands in her lap, not minding the cold in the least as she had her own way of keeping warm. She lit another stick of incense and put it beside the one she had ignited earlier. “So…” she began, running pale fingers gently through her even paler hair. “Here we are.” The silence stretched, almost as if she were waiting for someone to answer.

She coughed slightly in embarrassment. “Sorry. We never really met, did we?” she bowed low from her kneeling position. “I am Kotone Kiyoizumi of Kirigakure-no-Sato. I think you knew my father Kaito Kiyoizumi, Zabuza-san. He spoke of you and the other Seven Swordsmen quite often.” She straightened, her voice trailing away to almost nothing. “But he is dead now. He died last June, so you know. We also have a new deputy Mizukage, and the economy is improving so a few new shops have opened-” she continued to catch the deceased ninjas up on the local news of their home village. She spoke as if they could still hear her and it was as if she were half-listening for a response.

“I’m sorry,” she said at last, tucking a few strands of hair behind her ear. “I’m babbling, I apologize. You probably still don’t really know who I am. I was the hunter ninja on your trail for three years.” She laughed softly. “When I first started, it took me three months to find the two of you. I planned for weeks before I finally made my move. Imagine my surprise when I, the top of my class and rookie of the year, got spectacularly beaten by you, Haku-nii-chan.” She blushed suddenly, hands flying to her mouth as her cheeks burned a brilliant pink. “Please forgive me! I didn’t mean to be so informal. It was rude of me. You probably don’t remember but we played sometimes when we children. Kami that was a long time ago…” she trailed off, lost in thought.

She shook herself mentally and blushed even more deeply. “This is so embarrassing! I stumble over my words and I chatter worse than a spring brook!” her shoulders slumped in defeat. “My apologizing all of the time is probably very annoying, isn’t it? I’m sorry.” She flinched and laughed, throwing her head back and chortling, startling a few birds of a nearby tree. “I’m hopeless and I still need to improve myself. You helped me to realize that, Haku-san, when you and I fought that time. I’d immediately gone for Zabuza-san in ambush but you didn’t let me get within five feet of him, didn’t you? You were so fast, and I was no slouch either! You gave me many chances to escape but I did not, and Zabuza-san just stood of to the side, leaning against the tree and watching us.

“I was stupid. I didn’t realize that I wasn’t quite up to par with you yet and I still had a long way to go before I could hope to ever beat you. You were amazing with your senbon. I was a porcupine before three minutes had passed. You gave me another chance to run for it and regroup, and Zabuza-san told you to just kill me. But I didn’t leave. I was ashamed. I had thought myself so skilled because I had made it to Hunter Ninja rank at the head of my graduating year and the youngest in my class. Anyone else would have killed me right then and there, and I would have deserved it. Instead, you pierced my neck just so that I entered the Death State.”

Kotone bowed even lower, her forehead-protector touching the icy ground. “I thank you. When I awoke I found my wounds already bandaged and starting to heal and I was out of the way of the elements. Thank you for taking such care and I apologize for being so brash and making you go to all the trouble of fighting and then saving me, Haku-nii-chan.” She didn’t notice as she lapsed back into informality. “I dragged myself back to Kirigakure to fully recover and to train myself even harder. My father finally made me stop half-killing myself every training session and told me that I couldn’t possibly improve myself any more physically and set me to sneaking into the Mizukage Residence to read scrolls. It was treasonous to do that, I know, but it improved my stealth and book-learning a thousand fold. I learned that I had a definite knack for fire jutsus.” Her smile wasn’t quite so sad anymore.

“So I went back into the field and found you again swiftly, my head filled with the contents of ancient scrolls and the reproofs of the archive guards who had caught me my first few times of sneaking before I got wise to their ways. I don’t think you ever saw me as I watched you, did you? I waited for months that time so that I wouldn’t be defeated again. But in those months of plotting and planning, I realized something.

“You two shouldn’t have had Hunter Ninjas on your trail.”

Kotone paused to watch a few birds pecking along the frozen ground in an attempt to scavenge for a half-dead worm or a few over-looked grass seeds. She crumbled a slightly stale piece of bread from a small drawstring back she had stowed between her long-sleeved knit shirt outer kimono. She scattered the crumbs nearby and gazed at the drab little birds making quick work of the scraps.

“You had forsaken your village and fought and killed for money. Can any other shinobi of Kirigakure say they do any differently?” she asked, still looking at the birds, her eyes soft and clouded. “I can sense a war on the horizon that will involve our village. Someone is trying to do something that the gods decreed shall not be so, I can feel it! Though the economy improves at home, people still leave in search of more peaceful professions, leaving our village with fewer shinobi to guard it. We have already suffered a skirmish from Otogakure. We are weakening, but we shall remain firm.

“I had become fascinated by you, Haku-nii-chan, and you, Zabuza-san. You looked out for each other. You, Zabuza-san who had up and raised an orphan left to die by the side of the road. Haku-nii-chan, you protected the one who had protected you, trained you, taken care of you, with your life. I only hope to do such as you, to watch over my… what did Inari-kun say...precious people.

“My father fell ill. Some sort of poison had infected him during the fight with the Otonin. I went home to take care of him, my mother having passed away many years ago, my father without other children, and neither of us having any other family. He died after lingering for a month and finally wasting away to a shadow that just gave up on life. I went back to find you, having been permanently assigned to your case. What do I find?”

Her voice broke as she laughed without humor. “Dead! Both of you dead. I’d thought you invincible but you got beaten by a Leaf ninja and some samurai thugs.” Her tone softened. “I know that you would not have been beaten easily. You died for Zabuza-san, Haku-nii-chan, and Zabuza-san you avenged him and rid this country of someone who could have turned into one of the greatest dictators this world has ever known.”

The birds flew off, finding their snack finished.

Kotone braided her hair loosely, eyes looking into another time entirely. She tied off her braid with a length of blue cloth and stood up, brushing dirt from her knees. A mask appeared in her hand out of her sleeve. It was white with red flames licking up the base and curling around the narrow eye-slits. “I must leave,” she said faintly. “I have another of the Seven Swordsmen to chase. His name is Hoshigaki Kisame. I’m sure you’ve heard of him. He carries a giant sword called Samehada.” She coughed. “I do not believe that I shall ever come back from this mission. I have done treason, leaving you alive, and I’m sure the Mizukage knows that this is a suicidal mission. It is just his way of getting rid of troublesome, rebelling ninjas.” She almost grinned. “I’ve escaped death too many times and done too many things. I shall depart this life with honor, having paid my respects to the both of you. I hope that I shall breathe my last as you had, protecting the people and the memories that are precious to you.”

She padded off silently, faint tears coursing down her heart-shaped face, hidden beneath her heartless mask.

Snow began to gently fall from the sky, drifting from the heavens to cover the harsh world in a soft blanket of pure white. The last stick of white plum incense burned out, leaving the lacquered bowl in front of the grave markers without its comforting glow. Kotone was gone, but not forgotten. Her visit was appreciated and sparked dim, happier memories of times long past.