17 Reunited

"The battle is practically over already."

Even before her the sound of voice faded, her seductive frame began to blur as she used the body flicker technique to disappear from the scene.

A confused mass of prisoners were left standing in her wake, wondering what to do. Some wanted to fight, even knowing they would lose. Some wanted to run. But none of them had anywhere to go back to, anything left to return to in this world. The mix of relief, confusion, grief and distress in their eyes tore at the soul.

My own eyes, however, contained none of this. Only one person filled my eyes, and one emotion filled my heart. I could barely contain my ecstasy and relief at finding my mother alive.

"Kaito!" Her call pulled at the deepest parts of my soul, stirring the storm of emotions that had already been overtaking me into an even greater frenzy.

I raced towards her as fast as my weary body could move itself, tears beginning to stream from my eyes. She also rushed towards me, the bottom of her lip quivering as she fought to keep her emotions in check.

Blinded by our tears and hastened by emotion, our reuniting ended up occurring in an awkward, half collision, half embrace. Neither of us cared. The depth of the relief and fulfillment we each felt at finding each other hit harder than any physical collision could.

"Mom..." I finally squeezed out the word I had been desperately longing to say for a year now.

I felt myself being pulled tightly into her embrace, as if she meant to hold me so tightly to herself that we could never be separated again. I nestled happily into her loving embrace. Words could not describe how I felt in that moment.

Mom was alive. Looking at her now, a number of cuts and bruises marred her once flawless skin, but she was relatively unhurt. And we were free.

She suddenly pushed me away from her, holding my small body at arms length as she half knelt in front of me. Her shining black eyes strictly scanned over my body.

Thwack!

A stinging pain suddenly radiated from the top of my head.

"Why would you come looking for me you imbecile? Did you honestly think you could rescue from an army of enemy shinobi? Why would you risk your life for an impossible mission? We would all be dead now if not for that woman!" She harshly demanded as she pulled her hand back after angrily slapping the top of my head.

"But..."

"No! No buts! You're never allowed to do something so dangerous again!"

"Well don't get captured again..." I mumbled back.

Her eyes couldn't help but soften as she heard this.

She stared at me for a moment, her thoughts unreadable.

"Thank you." She suddenly pulled me back into her embrace.

"One day, Kaito. One day, I will rely on you for everything. But not yet. It is too early. So as grateful as I am to you, promise that you'll always put your safety above mine. Until you have the strength to protect both of us, and anyone else without concern."

Her eyes meaningfully shifted to Mio as she spoke, who immediately blushed a bright red.

"Uhh.. I... I... I don't mean to interrupt... but uhm... we should probably go before the Kiri shinobi begin to return."

"...."

"...."

We stared at her for a second. That was... probably true. We were very emotional, ok?

Mom suddenly stood up, exuding a sudden aura of commanding dominance as she addressed the other kekkei genkai clan survivors.

"Everyone!"

They all turned to look at her, desperately hoping for someone to provide a path for them to follow in this time of darkness and confusion. A few of them had already disappeared into the forest.

"Please listen for a moment." Unexpectedly, she didn't say anything more, instead gesturing for me to continue.

I cleared my throat awkwardly at the sudden responsibility. The clan ninja looked at me awkwardly. They were not exactly looking for a child to guide them at this moment in time.

Still, I would do the best I could.

"Everyone! My name is Kaito Yuki, heir to the Yuki clan. I think you all should have realized by now. The war is lost. Kiri has won, and none of us have homes left to return to. I have travelled through almost all of the Land of Water looking for you, and only destruction can be found in areas not under Kiri control.

This land has nothing left for us. Only enemies still reside here! One day, one day we will come back! And we will take back our homes! Take back what has been stolen from us! But... Now is not the time.

We have no hope of accomplishing anything as we are now. We need time to grow, time to strengthen ourselves. We need somewhere that will provide us with safety and refuge!

There is only one place open to us now. One place that will accept us. Konohagakure, the village hidden in the leaves. They respect, no they desperately want kekkei genkai clans there. They are open and accepting of us and our bloodlines! They will welcome us there, as an independent clan affiliated to the village!

The journey will be long. Getting there will not be easy. But, if we unite together, the survivors of the Kekkei Genkai clans of the Land of Water, into one force, it will be but a trivial matter. United, we will be strong. United, we will survive! United, we will grow into a force capable of taking back our homes!

So please. We have all lost so much that we held dear to us in this war. But I beg of you, set this hatred aside. Now is not the time for hatred, but for solidarity. So we, and our clans and bloodlines, can continue to live and prosper. I do not want to go down in the history books as a powerful force. I want to remain a force to be reckoned with until the end of history! And our families, our friends, and our clans would have wanted the same.

Come with us to Konoha. Come with us to start new lives for ourselves, until we are able to take back our old lives, or choose where and how to live as we want! I ask, who will accompany us?"

It was truly an odd image. A four year old child passionately addressing a group of powerful shinobi adults. But the charisma and persuasiveness behind my words overrode the sense of ambiguity that would normally arise from such a situation. The emotion I projected, and the emotion felt by the listening ninja, was what remained imprinted onto their minds.

I had decided to completely stop hiding myself. Hiding my intelligence. These were people I needed to be able to trust. They could become the foundation, the backbone of my force in this world. But for them to trust in me, I first needed to show that I was trustworthy. And I would.

After a moment's hesitation, a man stepped forwards towards me.

"I will come." He said simply, his expression blank. He stepped over to my side.

Like that, the dam broke. Quickly, a stream of freed prisoners made their way to my side.

Unfortunately, even then, quite a few of the shinobi disregarded my words with blank, unresponsive faces, mumbling to themselves that they no longer had anything left in this world and it was better to just go and fight to the death against the Kiri shinobi that had taken everything from them. I couldn't blame them.