The Red Maelstrom

[41] Amegakure Refugee Escort Mission: Start!

The morning of Kohana's second escort mission was colored distinctly by paralyzing dread. As Kohana stared at her reflection through a bathroom mirror that had long turned cloudy and black at the edges, as though she were trying to glimpse what she hoped with be a clear image amidst the vestiges of sleep and dream. After a few seconds of numb consideration had passed, she made the executive decision to tie her hair up. She found buns too restricting, but she figured that she didn't quite mind the extra risk that came with a hairstyle that could easily get caught in someone else's hand. This way, it would be easier to make like Sakura and cut all her hair off should anyone who wasn't an ally dare to touch it.

"Are you ready?" called Bunko from the other side of the door. Kohana said nothing in response—she took a large gulp of air to steel herself—and left the bathroom.

Bunko stood at her dining table with a tight smile. Because Kohana didn't have anyone else to share a nice breakfast with this morning, Bunko had eagerly offered her time. Kohana had wanted to turn her down; other time she would have rejected Bunko's considerate offer, but she didn't quite want to leave the village having eaten breakfast alone. Normally, she would have found any one of her teammates or Osamu to eat with, but they were all either busy or exhausted from prior engagements (except for Sasuke, but no matter how much Kohana adored him, he was ironically the worst person to be around in the mornings despite having already cemented himself as the true early bird of the team).

Kohana sent Bunko a grateful nod when her friend handed her rucksack over.

"I'll walk you to your meeting point."

"Okay..."

Kohana mechanically closed the lights and locked the door, only snapping out of her thoughts when Bunko gently pried Kohana's house key from her hands. "You don't have to keep your key out in the open anymore. I can hold onto it for you."

The suggestion was so relieving to Kohana's ears that she didn't even think twice before she agreed. She hardly cared about her pride; and though it wasn't like Kohana had anything too valuable in her house, she did have old notes for Flying Thunder God tucked underneath the floorboards near her bed. Bunko chuckled at her quick answer before stuffing the key into one of her pants' pockets.

They began to make their way toward the large tree by the village gates.

"So," Bunko started, "I was thinking about what you told me, and there's no reason to be so afraid about your strategy. You can do some preliminary tests before you leave the village."

Kohana hummed distractedly. After she started taking up missions with the team, she thought that she quite liked it when the village was still asleep; the silence eased her into her meditations, but it was different today. Maybe she would have liked a little more chatter and commotion about the block because the knowledge that her village was not in its original condition just about multiplied her unease.

"Preliminary tests?" She could feel Bunko's eyes on her, but Kohana was busy staring at the storefront at the end of their block—one of the very few places that got trashed in her residential area. It still wasn't up and running? Old Hag Saku was frightening and loud, but hers was one of the best stores in the village, and it was the store where Kohana got her wires, paper bombs, smoke bombs, and flash bombs. She'd had to go to other shops she didn't really know much to buy them; and some of her purchases had been cheaper, but that was because three products were waterlogged, worse even: the seals on the paper bombs had been smeared or tampered with. Maybe it was more complicated for shops to get their places fixed up; judging by Kohana's previous renewal missions, residential lots were the current priority.

"I mean on Flying Thunder God. So far, you know that you can use the jutsu on two people at once. One of them was a boy about your age, and the other was an adult man. You should use it occasionally when you scout ahead for hideaways."