Uzumaki

Venom

Kotetsu and Izumo liked to work guard duty.

Izumo was an early riser, so they were always first to the shift assignment sheet. Guard duty wasn't fun, but they got to personalise the place the longer they stayed. They had cards under the desk, and a little table for a game of Go. Sometimes Kotetsu put on slippers.

As they settled in, he reached under the counter, reaching for the worn cardboard box and pouring out a stack of cards into his palm. The sun was snuffling at the edge of the horizon, like an old dog. "You wanna play rummy?"

Izumo pulled the stool to the counter, hitching his legs up and stretching. "It's too early for problem solving, Kotetsu."

"That's not the can-do shinobi attitude we like to see in jounin, Izumo." Kotetsu splayed the shuffled cards across the desk in a bow. "You wanna see a magic trick?"

Izumo raised an eyebrow, motioning him on, an exhausted twirl on his lips as he sipped at a coffee. "Alright, I'm watching. Go ahead."

"Okay, so, pick a card."

Izumo pulled one out from Kotetsu's hand, before glancing at it and putting it back in the pile.

"You sure you aren't just screwing with me?"

Kotetsu hummed, shuffling the pile absent-mindedly as he stared across the path. No one had passed through yet. Hot pinks and oranges on the horizon made Konoha look tropical: the birds were warbling in the trees.

Something caught his eye.

"Kotetsu? I wanna see the magic trick, c'mon. Or were you just-"

"Hey," said Kotetsu. "Izumo."

At his tone, Izumo's expression tightened. "What is it?"

"No, just..." Kotetsu put the cards on the desk. "You see that? In the grass?"

They stared: nothing. But then the sun must have rose just a millimetre more, and it caught the light again.

"There, Izumo, do you-?"

"No, no I see it," said Izumo. He stood up, stretching his arms and cracking his fingers. "Probably just some trash from the festival, though. Still. Let's go."

Izumo left first, and Kotetsu kept his eyes on the shimmering. It was almost white, and reflected the light impressively: the way it peaked out between the grass was like a lurking jungle snake.

People were opening up shop down the road. The town was quiet apart from the birds, the quiet muttering of early-risers in the road, and a strange, coarse noise. It eked back and forth like a scrubbing sponge sanding away at glass, sharp and discordant.

He grew anxious.

As Kotetsu peered over the grass, Izumo swore, taking a step back.

"Fucking hell," Izumo breathed.

Buried by the long grass, a young woman was sprawled, eyes open and unblinking.

She convulsed with gasps for breath, the noise that he'd heard wheezing past her lips as shrill rasps. Froth bubbled from her mouth. She was still wearing an expensive lavender kimono, the layers strewn across her awkwardly bent legs: her sandals had fallen off.

At least two feet of hair streamed through the grass, pins and ornaments scattered in the soil, the luminous blonde he'd spotted still tangled in near-invisible light cream hair pins. Her fingers twitched.

"That's Inoichi's daughter," Kotetsu whispered, voice failing him. "Fuck me, that's Yamanaka Ino. Izumo, have you seen him?"

"He's at T&I as usual, but-"