Dust particles danced, glimmering in the shards of sunlight that pierced the cracks in the roofing. Particles, that soon brought Momochi’s allergies to difficulty. The nagging irritation on the tip of his nostrils beckoned to be scratched, ripped, and torn asunder. But no movement pervaded his calloused hands. In fact the only thing that did pervade Momochi was hemp rope tied securely about him. It was a rude awakening, and Momochi was dulled with the murky mists of the head. The chair to which he was bound was sturdy, and unmoving, probably bolted to the floor. Moments passed in silence save for the sporadic, nervous, pounding of his heart as though it would soon burst from his chest. A hundred heavy beads of sweat dangled and tingled down his brow. Momochi grinned as he regained his senses… his memory brought only the image of a tea cup for explanation.
“How did I…” it was more of a conversation with himself than an actual question. He barely had the energy to even change his tone enough to make the pitch reflect a question.
“So, you’re awake I see.” said a familiar female voice with sarcasm. “Sorry chum, but you’re as unlucky as you are dumb.” a snap of her fingers resounded in the chamber.
A sheer and outrageous pain flooded Momochi’s head like a thousand giant needles racing each other to gouge through his skull. Blood soon trickled down his brow thicker than his sweat. So much blood… Momochi knew if this kept up, even with his iron skin, he’d pass out from the blood loss. The bolts in his chair began to untighten slowly but surely…
”I hear you Suken have a thing about blood… They say you’ll turn into a monster like a vicious little shark when you smell other’s blood. So what happens if it’s yours instead?” Cynicism and sadistic curiosity flooded her words. This lady wasn’t the one hitting him… she was facing him straight on, but the blow came from behind. There was a light that shined down on Momochi. It was like a nightmare and he felt like the science project about to be dissected piece by piece. Even with the blood and sweat blinding him, he could still make out the silhouette of a woman he’d been tracking for several weeks now. Blond, cruel, slender, and mischievous, was the Speeding Devil formerly of Hidden Mist. Aomoto Suki.
Many things had brought him this great distance from his homeland… it was strange to think all this had started after so much preparation and effort, and then it would end so abruptly as this…
At the age of 15, most ninja had accomplished little more than chuunin-hood. Momochi, being not particularly interested in the affairs of Iwagakure, hadn’t even gone that far. Jakku, his father told him that “the time had come” and that he was to be sent on a Rite of Passage. In the years before, the Suken clan’s Rite of Passage was essentially sending all members of the clan to a war. Their place on the battlefield was marked, and marked well as they were always near the front. Only in the last generation had the clan adopted a new policy.
The many wars between nations and villages had essentially been brought to their end. Iwagakure was served well by the Suken, but then when Stone no longer waged wars, the clan was forced to hire out as mercenaries. When wars between the other nations, far and wide, began to dissipate as the case with Stone, the clan’s new policy began. At the age of 15, each male descendant of the main house would be sent on a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage of battle, glory, and loneliness. No longer was the entire clan present for battles anymore. Members of the clan couldn’t simply coordinate with their brethren and survive; the Elders said this would yield stronger combatants, even more so than the battle-hardened veterans of the ages before.
Now it was Momochi’s turn. His ship took a while to arrive on the mainland in water country. He spent some time in the woods… they weren’t much different from home save for the lack of dust and the abundance of sunlight. Making himself dinner a few times from bear and deer was rather tricky. Momochi hadn’t hunted an animal before and hunting a man was quite different. Momochi soon came upon the Hidden Mist village in traveling Water Country. Momochi hadn’t been particularly educated in geography. In fact he was rather stupid when it came to even the simplest directions. But even he knew this was Hidden Mist. The giant Mist-like symbols everywhere made it easy on him. Momochi thought it best to look around for work.
He tried to find mercenary work but the Mist-nin took up all the positions on his level. Momochi soon attempted many different jobs in the pursuit of discovering the very vague answer to his strength. He became a waiter, but constantly forgot to write down parts of what was ordered. He tried to get a job teaching at the academy but he was assaulted by the 5th grade. He even tried being a musician, but the band split up over who played lead. Right about when Momochi was near his limit, sitting in the mud, knees pulled up close to his head, he discovered a poster as it danced through the air right up to him. It was the face a woman, a dangerous shinobi… there was a number beneath her portrait.
100,000 YEN.
Momochi took a moment to digest that. 100,000… that was enough to open a small restaurant. It could certainly provide a better life for him than the gutters. He started asking questions all around Mist about the bounty. Her name was “Aomoto Suki” and she was one of the most feared missing-nin of her time if the rumors were to be believed. Suki was a specialist in light projectiles, and her speed was legendary. But neither of these were even vaguely daunting to Momochi.
The word on the street was she had a small army doing her bidding, causing trouble for some plot to black-mail the feudal lord. Momochi had been trained since birth to combat specialists and non-specialists alike. Combat was his bread and water… but Momochi had been out of the game a few years now. It seemed almost like divine providence delivering this opportunity to him… and Momochi would not disappoint. It took him a few weeks to figure out where most of Suki’s gang was attacking. A series of small villages up north had been plundered through the night; the family’s forced to part with their able men in exchange for their lives.
Momochi took care not to be noticed and watched one of the larger fishing villages. Without fail, Suki’s men arrived and took more than their share of supplies, men, and women. Momochi observed only… he had no interest in the peasants or their predicament. He watched the gang leave and he followed in stark silence. They rode their horses for hours deeper and deeper into the forests. The leader of the raiding party finally stopped after a day of riding. He signaled the men and they followed suit, as did Momochi. The party leader lifted his hands in seal, facing a tall boulder of stone. But the rock and earth broke revealing a great crag wide enough away to ride through. The horsemen continued on into the darkness, but Momochi dared not go, choosing instead to wait for a safer time.
For days he watched the cave until finally Suki departed the grotto. She was cloaked and disguised as an elixir saleswoman. Momochi followed her as she ushered on a horse-led wagon through the winding canyon trails. She stopped in a few villages, her act was almost perfectly in tune with the disguise. Momochi was indeed, impressed, but he knew better than the poor saps buying her fake medicinals. But this lady had balls. Momochi didn’t even fully appreciate how very ballsy this Aomoto woman was. She rode her coach right up to the gates of Hidden Mist. Momochi decided to approach her. He waited till after she’d finished giving her routine with the citizens of Mist.
Then he pounced.
Suki was packing up some of her elixirs. Momochi hadn’t changed his clothes in a while and he didn’t have the money for newer clothes anyways. Ironically this worked out for him now. He didn’t look anything like a ninja. Unless ninja had recently added “hobo” to their infinite repertoire of synonyms. Then with even more perfect timing, Suki tripped on herself and a few bottles of her “heal-all-elixir” fell from her box. Momochi reached out catching all, even the last one (balanced by the tip of his finger). Momochi slowly set them all back into Suki’s box
“Whoa… you’re a quick guy.” She said smiling, a little impressed.
“No trouble… hey, you’re the elixir lady aren’t you?” Momochi was stretching the street urchin business, but he thought he was fairly convincing.
“Well yes I am, no doubt you’ve come to purchase one of my elixirs. Known for their potency and restoration of youthful vigor~. In fact, I’d say you’ve earned yourself a bottle saving me the trouble of cleaning up my messes.” Apparently his clothes did the trick. She turned from a purchase to a free gift after briefly observing him. Again she sounded perfect for the part. But there was no mistaking this woman was Aomoto.
“Actually ma’am… I was wondering if you needed any help? You might need an extra pair of hands on the road! I swear I won’t take up much room you don’t even have to feed me if you don’t want to…” Momochi spoke in desperation, pure, undiluted, desperation. It was a lot more real than he would have liked to admit. If she didn’t take him on now, he would have to risk a confrontation right here right now. The Anbu would probably arrive just in time to find his body. The biggest inconvenience to Suki would be that she couldn’t use this elixir disguise in Leaf again.
“Uhhh…” Suki was in an ethical corner. Momochi didn’t know why there were 100,000 Yen on her head, but he expected a cold heartless killer. Not a cheery, clumsy, elixir girl. She was having a moral dilemma and it looked quite real. “…well, I could use a handy man.” Momochi hugged her around the box of elixir in her arms. Suki imagined it was because of her kindness, but Momochi in his own mind, was hugging something much less subtle. 100,000 little yen, and they felt warm and inviting.
Momochi rode around with her for a few weeks. They went through more small villages and towns here and there. Suki was cagey. She loved talking, and asking about Momochi, where he came from, who his family was, what he did before he got to Water Country… he lied profusely in this regard.
“So Momochi, you were really a ninja from Cloud?!” she asked in excessive surprise.
“Yep. Sure was. Up until I graduated from the academy… I thought I’d travel the world after that but things have gone down hill a bit since then.” He smiled shyly, scratching the back of his head.
“I guess that explains why you’re so quick with your hands…” the sun was setting as she drove her wagon along the road. The way the wind swam about her golden hair, Momochi couldn’t help but stare a little. He caught himself without her notice and his cheeks went a little flush. He tried to tell himself to focus.
“So have you always been an elixir saleswoman?”
“Well not always… I used to be an acrobat with a traveling circus. You could say that’s where I got my amazing showmanship!” she laughed merrily as though she were Saint Nicholas showering gifts on children. Much to Momochi’s surprise that’s exactly what she did.
The sun had crashed into the horizon like a child’s ball on the water… it began to sink just as they came upon one last village. There were a few broken and dismal huts. Here and there were signs of old achievements… the skeletons of gigantic, exotic fish, Shinto charms with colorful stones… even an unfinished statue in the center of the little fishing township. With barely a moment’s notice, the wagon was set-upon by no less than 50 smiling, shouting, dirty, children. Suki hopped in the back and pulled away a canvas covering crates of food, and tools. At this point, Momochi progressed into deep and heavily seated doubts. He even felt an inborn… guilt.
The children flocked about the wagon, up, into, and over it. Momochi and Suki stepped down and packed some of the crates into the biggest looking shack. It was dark, there were sounds of dripping every few seconds, but it was dry for the most part. Once they’d finished packing in the crates and greeting children whose names Momochi would never remember, Suki and Momochi adjourned to what appeared to be the nicest of the huts in the village.
Upon opening the door, Suki hung her hat and coat on a hook to the left.
“Please sit down Momochi…” Suki seemed troubled. She sighed like she was about to put down a puppy. Momochi grew somewhat alert.
“Are you ok miss Suki…?”
Momochi had messed up. Suki knew it. But pretended not to notice, in fact she started smiling brightly as though the stars had aligned for her.
“Lets drink some tea and relax its been a long day.”
Momochi sniffed the tea. It didn’t smell like poison. Suki looked at him funny as she drank her entire cup. Momochi pretended to drink the tea, still keeping his wits about him. Suki’s cheeks turned a little red and she stared out the window as she spoke.
“…do you love somebody Momochi?” Momochi coughed and swallowed a little tea as he was pretending. He staggered for a moment and spilled his tea all over the floor. He struggled to clean it as he coughed and all the while tried to come up with an answer. She stood from her chair and attempted to help even against Momochi’s many assurances that he would take care of it. Her hand reached out boldly despite their frail dantiness and latched onto Momochi’s own hand. He looked up at her smile… her sparkling eyes and her gentle complexion. His heart pounded like a river flowing pure undiluted joy into his limbs and his face and everything about them. By the time he realized it, his face was adorned with the widest smile he’d ever had.
"Suki I... do you... I don't know how to say it." His body acted as though his mind didn't even give it person and Momochi's lips dove for the strike. They met Suki's own, uncontested, and they held each other for what could have been an eternity. The night was cold and dark, but Suki revised the cold into a spark of fiery warmth. They made love that night and neither slept more than a second's worth let alone closed their eyes, for fear the other would vanish like a dream. But when the morning came, and Momochi had finally fallen asleep, he awoke to find Suki sitting on the edge of the bed fully clothed.
"Are you alright Suki...?"
She turned and looked at him, her eyes soaked and marked with agony…
“I love you Momochi… Forgive me.” A loud crack resonated through the air and his skull felt as though it were split in two. As everything faded to black, he watched Suki’s hands reach up and cover her face as she ran in shame.
Suki… as Momochi sat, tied to a chair of steel, being tortured by criminals, he remembered the face of a tormented girl. The woman watching him squirm in agony at this very moment was not the Suki he knew.
“I’ll answer your question… just answer one of mine.” Suki laughed, although she was somewhat intrigued.
“Alright Eldest heir of the Suken, ask your question.”
“…where is she?” Suki’s laugh turned to a vicious cackle, drowning the echoes of dripping water. Well they were in a cave. Momochi made the mental note as Suki finished her maniacal laugh.
“Pretty good body double wouldn’t you say? You know how I found her? Somebody tried to kill her because they thought she was me. Imagine… that girl passing for me? What a joke. But a lot of people were easily convinced. Even the Eldest son of Suken Jakku accepted it.” She knew father? Momochi didn’t care to know how or why she knew Jakku. He only knew that she didn’t answer his question.
“I can’t help but notice you didn-“ Suki walked into the light and delivered a jaw-breaking punch from the side.
“…And I’m not going to, so you best answer mine shark boy,” Momochi grinned a little, spitting out a tooth and some blood.
”Like a vicious little shark you say… oh no ma’am you see…” the bolts that secured Momochi to the ground spun rapidly all of a sudden shooting up into the ceiling as they became unscrewed. The henchman behind Momochi quickly went into action swinging some sort of blunt object Momochi hadn’t identified yet. Momochi, and the chair to which he was bound began to levitate. The henchman, though surprised got right to business swinging his mace at Momochi’s head for a second blow. But the chair flipped about and one of its legs parried the mace’s cruel spikes away and soon the floating chair and Momochi went on the offensive. A side swipe from the mace, a dodge by the chair, a low jab from the mace, a small leap from the chair. Until finally, the maceman grew tired and frustrated enough that he threw his body into the attack.
Even within the chair, Momochi dodged easily to the side and when the maceman fell face first into the ground, Momochi’s chair promptly slammed into his body like a judge pounding his gavel. The chair legs, now embedded in the henchman’s skull, shoulders and upper back, were broken. Practically shattered, and Momochi stood from the seat slowly, shirking aside the ropes pretending to barely attend Suki’s presence.
“…you see ma’am… I’m not some little tiger, I’m the Great White.” Suki laughed and cackled all the more merrily as though it was a blood-drenched Christmas morning. Momochi made a quick pace to her position and reached out with his right hand to lift her by the throat.
But his hand passed through.
His eyes went wide as he realized the mistake and Suki laughed on and on.
“Whats the matter Great White? Can’t you smell me?! Hah! Here, I’ll make you a bet! Keep up and I’ll show you where she is!” and then the illusion sped off like a bolt of lightning, running so quickly Momochi couldn’t hope to keep up. But he sped after her, illusion or not this was his only lead. The illusion slowed little by little but it was still a huge head-start. Momochi going at his fastest could barely keep up, not to mention keep up whilst dodging the stalagmites and stalactites of the tight-knit cavern. He spotted light. The illusion turned and winked as it ran swiftly into the sunshine.
The mouth of the cave collapsed right after. But Momochi couldn’t stop, he was charging the fallen boulders full speed… he had no choice. With a few quick and sloppy seals, he shoved aside the granite stones, launching some of them hundreds of feet into the open hills. He stopped himself just before he came to the drop of a sheer chasm. He sighed in instantaneous relief and drew himself back towards safer footing.
Then he heard the laughter once again.
His neck wrenched about as his body turned 180 degrees. Standing atop the cave, on the sun-soaked hillside, stood Suki. But she wasn’t alone, to her left, to her right, and directly in front of her, sat three girls. All looked exactly the same with only subtle differences. All wearing the elixir salesman outfit. All blind folded, gagged, and bound to chairs… and exploding notes were firmly fixed to each of their foreheads. Momochi's eyes turned to fiery glares… Suki was laughing even harder as she saw Momochi’s reaction, even gripping her stomach from the amusement. She wasn’t just the fake cliché of evil… this sadistic scum was enjoying every moment of this.
“So take your pick Momochi! Which one is which!? Let’s make it interesting! Every time you guess wrong, one will explode!” Momochi was defeated. He knew there was no way to win this, and even if there was, Suki wouldn’t let him win.
“Here you know what…” Suki lifted her boot to the back of the chair on her left.
“…since you’ve been so much fun, I’ll take away one of the fakes!” some muffled screams issued as Suki kicked the girl on her left down the hill towards the forest. Momochi tried to catch her as she came down past him but he wasn’t fast enough. Just as Momochi reached out his hand, a few inches too short, the note on the girl’s forehead exploded. Suki was laughing, but Momochi was near the brink of sanity. For all he knew that was the girl he was looking for.
That could have been the girl he loved.
“ENOUGH SUKI ENOUGH! Just leave and I won’t chase you anymore! I’ll do anything just don’t kill them! PLEASE!” Momochi’s eyes were moist with rage and fear.
Suki just laughed.
“You want her Momochi? What about 50 of her? What about 10,000?” Momochi didn’t get it at first. But then… Suki brought her hands up in seal. Momochi moved as quickly as he could to get up to them, but he wasn’t fast enough. Fire began burning the two girl’s on their foreheads and muffled shrieks of agony and horror. Momochi was 5 meters away when it happened.
The paper bombs went off.
The explosion ripped the mountainside to pieces and all manner of rocks and greenery came flying through the air… Momochi included. His body was broken, bleeding, and rock was embedded in his body with blood for mortar. He rolled and rolled till he reached the cliff and he went right over the edge, barely clamping on with his left hand. His body was in so much pain madness was the only thing that could keep a normal man from shriveling up and dying. But Momochi wasn’t just a man anymore.
In the past minute, he had lost the only person in the world he had ever truly loved. His heart… was empty. Less than empty. Like a black hole sucking away every image of her smile, every ounce of her joy. His heart had turned hard as the stone. Things like “pain” were too trivially to allow to kill him. Blood loss was long past the point of no return. He had nothing now… but Rage. He lifted himself into the air a dozen meters with only the pull of his left arm. He landed neatly on the cliff and made slow, deliberate steps towards the spot where Suki had stood.
The mountain was still reacting to the explosion and all kinds of debris were coming down. A gigantic boulder at least the size of a house was rolling, at high speed, straight at Momochi. With a wave of his hand, the laws of gravity themselves shifted and the stone flew off to his left as though he were batting aside a child’s toy. Suki was laughing up on a new hill since the one she’d been standing on before was now gone due to her handiwork. Her smile didn’t remind Momochi of the girl he knew; no matter how much they looked alike. Her laughter wasn’t the beautiful laughter of the girl he’d do anything for… and it enraged him even further. Momochi’s bleeding had stopped almost everywhere, but now his eyes no longer dripped tears of water… they turned to tears of blood.
Suki was laughing on and on until she looked Momochi in the eye. She wasn’t laughing anymore… in an instant her eyes turned from sadistic mockery to wild and uncontrollable fear. She tried to run but Momochi brought up his hand and swept it as though slapping a fly. Suki was shoved face first into the ground. She turned over and looked up at him with nothing but fear.
“Wh-wh-what ARE YOU?! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR EYES!?” Momochi hadn’t noticed the change. His body had grown numb, his mind had been focused, and truth be told, be barely even registered the words Suki spoke. Momochi’s arm was focused and unmoving directly at Suki. He lifted his arm, and so lifted Suki. Her body floated up into the air, her screams and shrieks fell on deaf ears. With speed unlike any he’d ever mustered Momochi brought down his arm, and so brought down Suki.
Her head-first landing had mangled her body and though still breathing, she wouldn’t be for much longer. Momochi gave it no mind… he didn’t even give her a second glance. He turned and walked back to the origin of the explosion… searching. He didn’t know what he was looking for, but his body demanded he search. Then he spotted a shred of blond hair behind a rock. He rushed at it batting the boulder away without a second thought to it. He discovered the body of one of the girls. He fell to his knees beside her and his eyes were wet with joy. Her chest still heaved up and down, though with labored and quickeningly short breathes.
Her legs had been crushed by the stone, but the Explosive note on her head had failed to go off. Momochi stripped it off and pulled away the blindfold and gag. Tears rained down his face openly now without reserve. She looked up at him and smiled. She didn’t have much time… but Momochi didn’t care. He didn’t know. All he knew was that she was here, and she was with him. She reached out her hand and squeezed his own weakly. She smiled. She smiled the smile Momochi knew and loved. She gestured for him to come in closer, and whispered into his ear.
“What happened to your eyes silly? They change color often?” it was a poor joke, one met by the cruel and bitter laws of Mother Nature. The girl coughed up blood, and she didn’t stop coughing. Momochi’s joy turned to fear yet again. He tried to do a healing jutsu but his knowledge of medicinals was horrible. He’d never needed a medical jutsu till this moment… and it was a long moment. When it was done, the girl he loved, whose name he never knew, had faded away like the summer rains.
