Hakai and me had left the Yugakure for a while now. He was carrying me on his shoulder because I was too tired and he didn’t want to waste any more time which basically meant he was going to carry me for the rest of the journey. Honestly, I had no energy to argue anymore. After knowing that we had an anbu after us as well I too wanted to reach the safehouse as fast as possible.
We weren’t talking to each other like always; but instead of it being the usual silence it was more serious. The atmosphere was tense.
“Why didn’t you apologize for what you had done?” this thought had been plaguing my mind for some reason. Although it wasn’t his fault directly and I was also a part of the blame he could’ve at least act apologetic.
“And what would that do? Would that change anything? Would it heal Isao?”
That question struck my mind. He was right. Would that have done anything? Apologizing at that point would have been useless. We went back to being silent but it wasn’t as unbearable as before.
…
…
After another day of travel, we reached a mountain range. The temperature had gotten extremely hot right now. It was definitely evening right now; the sun was setting down but it felt like midday. The atmosphere was damper than usual as well.
We travelled deeper into the mountain range, moving along multiple gorges. Trekking and climbing through some parts. It was getting hotter and hotter progressively. There was barely any vegetation around now. Just some plants and shrubs scattered around sparsely. There were random shots of hot spring water coming out from everywhere. The terrain surrounding here had made the journey unbearably slow as well. Hakai had an extremely strong body so we were just about making through some of the terrain but he still refused to use chakra until it was absolutely necessary. If he just used some chakra to attach himself to some steep climbs we wound be going way faster.
After putting our body through torture for two other days we went through a passage crossing into a mountain and found a valley situated in middle of other mountains. Although I was being carried around al lot, it was really hard for my toddler body to adapt. At this point I just wanted to drop down and go to sleep. “Hakai, let’s just return. Aren’t you really strong? We’ll just kill all our pursuers.”
“Are you dumb.” He smacked my head. “I told you I’m not using my chakra until absolutely necessary. Also, I can’t fight against all those shinobi with a deadweight like you around.”
“Then let’s just die! It’s better than travelling for days in this mountain range! I can’ count how many days we have spent just travelling. We have had shit food and no rest. All my body feels is pain!”
Hakai looked at me like I was retarded. “Did you forget about your Mariko-sensei already?” He turned my head towards the valley. “Besides look we are already at the destination. Do you really want to travel back again?”
I looked at the valley. “We have reached your damned safehouse?”. Tears almost felt from my eyes. We had done it! We had reached the destination. Although it was mostly Hakai who had done the hard work. But it was him that had put us in such a situation in the first place!
I was excited, overjoyed and filled with hope… until I looked at the valley more closely. I had forgotten that it was better to have no expectations when it came to Hakai. The valley had nothing but rocks and springs scattered around. Unlike the mountains that at least had some shrubs here and there this valley had nothing. There were only hot springs and boiling hot water offshoots coming from the ground.
However, that wasn’t even the most shocking part. I though my eyes were playing tricks on me so I ran closer to one of the bodies of water near the valley. It was red. All the water surrounding this place was red in colour. The springs, the offshoots… everything. Everything was red. Not only did it look like diluted blood it even smelled like blood. Then I saw a woman further in the distance filling a bucket full of the red water and even sipping some water from the spring.
“Blood… She’s drinking blood!” I panicked. What sort of weird place had we come to?!
“Shut up. Don’t be rude.” Hakai who had suddenly appeared beside me again chopped at my head. “Do you really think all of this is blood? It’s only water that has something called iron mixed into it. Iron makes the regular water appear red when it is mixed with it.”
“Ohhh.” I can’t believe I had reacted in such a bigoted way that even Hakai looked more well-mannered and educated than me. The heat must be getting to me.
The woman finally noticed us when we entered into the valley a bit more. She quickly closed down on us with shocking speed and came to a halt a few meters away. She had a knife in her hand pointed towards us. “Who are you? What is your business here?”
Hakai grabbed for something inside his clothes.
It made the woman grab the knife even more tightly making her more wary towards us.
Hakai took out a wooden token and threw it towards the woman. When she caught and examined the token, she finally relaxed placing her knife back where it was previously.
“I’m sorry we usually don’t have visitors.” She bowed while apologizing to show her sincerity. “Follow me.”
We walked deeper into the valley with her. I noticed bones scattered around everywhere. They were some animal, birds and even human bones submerged into the red water making it look rather dreary.
Soon we came across a settlement made up of various huts. It was a fairly large settlement for an area with living conditions like these.
There were people on the streets who looked at as with various expressions. The children were curious, the adults looked wary and cautious. “Who are they?” A man asked.
“They are guests of the elder.” When the woman escorting us said that the rest stopped staring at us and went back to their chores.
We went by most of the huts until we arrived at a slightly larger one. This one was the largest hut, it was built of mostly wood and looked well maintained than the rest. A thatched blanket was covering the entrance.
“Wait here.” The woman went inside the hut. She returned shortly giving us permission to enter now as well.
Hakai nodded at her before we moved the thatched blanket and walked inside. There was a withered old man sitting on a very roughly made bed. He stroked his extremely long beard while looking at us. He had an air about him that made the surroundings a bit heavy.
“Hakai, you have returned. Welcome back to the Chinoike clan.”
