Madara and Setsuna headed home a bit excited to know that Kagari was away for the night. Izuna and Aoko stayed a bit longer with Yuril to drink, but they headed back to the apartment she shared with her father after a while. Apparently he already knew everything about them, and was cool enough to let them have their trysts there. As Yuril headed back home alone, she had a bit of a heavy feeling in her heart. She knew that the time where she was the center of her brother's worlds was over, and that from then on, she would have to start getting used to being alone a lot of the time. It felt kind of surreal to be like this, experiencing the emotions of a middle aged woman, while she was in the body of a twenty-one years old. She wondered if she should just give in and start having meaningless one night stands to fend off the loneliness, but she knew that she couldn't. If it wasn't for a mission, she was one of the people who needed to feel a deep connection with someone before having sex. So she picked the healthier solution of binge drinking and smoking, if she wasn't burying herself in work. Still, nights like this were hard to deal with, when a heavy silence followed the pleasantness of being surrounded by your loved ones. A tiny voice in her head mocked her because even if everything in this life was different, she was in the exact same spot as her last life. Her brothers were happily making their lives, while she lay alone, in the dark, in her futon, staring the ceiling and wondering what exactly was wrong with her. Why was it always her who ended up staring from the outside at other people's happiness?
The next day, she woke up bright and early, had breakfast with Tajima and Kagari and headed towards the hospital. She met Madara on his way to his office and they started walking together, while sharing their thoughts about how much they liked Aoko and thought that she was the right one for Izuna. Suddenly, Hikaku came running towards them.
"Bad news! That Reto guy, the Land of Wind shinobi that can control sand, is back at it again. Our border patrol spotted him near the border, with a group of puppeteers and some other really capable shinobi. They request assistance immediately."
Madara cursed. Reto of the Desert was a serious menace that came to existence seemingly out of nowhere a few years ago. He was about Madara's age, and although not quite as powerful, he inflicted some serious damage, and was not to be underestimated, as he seemed to become stronger every time they met. One of his powers was also his ability to charm many of the usually independent dwelling shinobi, and make them join his growing small army. If he was there, then their squad needed to personally lead the counter-attack. Without needing to be told, Yuril rushed to the hospital to get ready. The field hospital they had there was fully stocked and always ready, but the presence of puppeteers meant poison, and that meant that they needed their best medics in place.
Everything was ready in under an hour. As they stood outside the compound, Madara said good-bye to his worried wife and kid. Tajima was staying with them in the compound to run things in Madara's absence. It was funny to think about, because he was still in name the leader of the clan. Aoko was one of the party, and she was ecstatic at being able to mount Sora for the first time. Once she told him that she could give him dirt in Izuna, he had warmed up to her quite quickly. Izuna, Aoko and Yuril would get there first with Sora and Yozora's help, while Madara and the rest of the group made their way on foot.
They had arrived in time. Clearly the desert shinobi weren't that good at spying, because they weren't aware of the precious opportunity they had just lost by not attacking in the morning. Everybody knew to avoid battle in the desert at noon, in the middle of July, so it was only around five in the afternoon that the two groups stood facing each other. Reto was business as usual, but he did a poor job of hiding his smugness at a promise well fulfilled. In his last fight with Madara a couple of weeks back, he had fled while promising that he would be back with a stronger army. And he had indeed. The number of his shinobi almost rivaled the number of the Uchiha, and who knew what sort of freaky stuff they were capable of. The puppeteers alone made Yuril feel the headache coming.
Right next to her stood Aoko. The girl was even taller than her, standing at around Izuna's height. He himself was at the other side of Madara. Their ranks were still different, and while he fought in the first lines, Aoko was enrolled in the staff that protected the medic-nins while they were at work, and then transported the wounded to a safer location. The tall girl was shivering a bit, so Yuril grabbed her hand reassuringly. Aoko was a bit startled, but she looked at her with a sheepish look and whispered.
"I'm sorry. This is my first time standing in the front, so I'm a bit impressed. And it doesn't help that that motherfucker is intimidating as hell. He and the dudes with freaky makeup."
Yuril laughed at that and whispered back."If you think an enemy is intimidating, then you have to do something that will knock him off his pedestal. Mentality is an important factor in battles like this." Aoko gave her a serious nod, committing the advice to memory.
Yuril was amused by it, and so she said, "I will help you for the first time." And with that she turned to face Reto, a hand on her hip, and she shouted loud enough for everybody to hear her. "Hey Reto-san! You look impossibly dashing today! Are you sure you don't want to take me up on my offer, and let the both of us settle this in a more private setting?"
The Uchiha all howled with laughter at that. Most of them had already heard her make these types of comments at her enemies to throw them off their game. And it helped a lot that she was the number one beauty of the Land of Fire. Shinobi, like Aoko, who were new to this were amused but still slightly confused. Madara just shook his head with a smile, while Izuna threw their opponents a mocking snicker.
And sure enough, the response they were all expecting came. From earlier experience they had learned that the shinobi of the Land of Wind were a lot more conservative than them. They covered themselves in some hideous clothes, and most of the time it was hard to distinguish man from woman. They were also not used to women who carried themselves like Yuril did, aware of their attractiveness and not against flaunting it. When shinobi who weren't aware of her identity after the look change met her for the first time, they had made the mistake of underestimating her and even calling her names. They had paid for it with their lives. So when a man like Reto, who like to carry himself with a dignity and propriety that could rival the daimyo's, met a woman like Yuril, he was put at a bit of a disadvantage. From previous experiences, they knew that he wasn't insensible to her charms, and that she could rile him up quite easily. Like right then, as soon as he heard her, he avert his eyes to glare at everything but her, while a faint blush crept to his face. He knew that it was useless to try and hide it, because their Sharingan enhanced eyes had already seen everything.
Still this brief interlude didn't mean that he was any less dangerous, and it only prompted him to give his signal faster. Madara did the same and the battle began. Frankly even as minutes passed, there was no clear advantage on any side. The two groups where losing men at equal speed. Yuril had started busying herself with the wounded. By now, she already knew most of the puppeteers poison repertoire, and she carried on her antidotes for every single one of them. While the other medics busied themselves with the other wounded, they left all the ones touched by a puppeteer to her. Their wounds were never really serious, so she could advance quickly, after administering the right antidote, and cover a large area all by herself. From the corner of her eye she could see Aoko running around, picking up bodies, and rushing them to safety, while killing some of the shinobi who stood in her way. That girl was definitely going places, and Yuril would give one of her special punches to anyone who dared to say that she only advanced due to her relationship with Izuna.
Suddenly, one medic-nin, came rushing towards her.
"Taichou, you need to come see this."
Yuril was worried. They were only to come get her if they stumbled upon a poison they couldn't identify, or in the case of a bad wound that could still be saved if she intervened. Since she had been taking care of most puppeteer related injuries, this was probably the later.
Reality proved her wrong. The medic-nin had led her to a group of three. One other medic, one member of Aoko's squad, and a dead shinobi. He was lying on the ground, eyes wide and face twisted in pain. But the most worrying thing was that he was foaming at the mouth. Yuril cursed her luck. They had come up with a new poison, and she needed it to implement the countermeasure. She started barking orders.
"The two of you medics, take him back personally to the tent, and take all the anti-contamination measures you can. We don't know what the hell this is, and how contagious it might be. Start working on it without me, you know the procedure. You, the support shinobi, this is the area you are responsible for right? I want you to tell me exactly what you saw happen, and if possible, point me towards the shinobi responsible for this. We need to warn the others against them."
The two medics had already put on their face masks and a new pair of gloves. They picked up the body and rushed with it. The support shinobi started on his report.
"It wasn't exactly a shinobi. More like a seven years old girl with one of their creepy puppets. She is quite skilled, but she was struggling against our shinobi. Even after she scratched him, he was still fine and kept attacking her. The Land of Wind isn't like us, and they don't have laws against child soldiers, so he had to defend himself against the vicious pest. But suddenly he started foaming at the mouth and fell to the ground. He was still alive when I got to him, but it took him only thirty seconds to die."
Yuril frowned. "How long do you think it took between the time she managed to scratch him, and the moment he fell down."
The shinobi thought about it for a second and then answered. "About two minutes."
This was bad. She hurriedly got up while saying, "I think I know what we are dealing with, the bad news is that I don't have an antidote for it ready on me, and it would take me around an hour to make it. The good news is that it's a poison that relies heavily on the opponent moving around. I need you to get help and spread a message around: If anyone is scratched, by that girl's puppet they need to stop moving around immediately. Someone in the vicinity will take care of her, so I want them to lie down and wait for me. The less the movement, the more their chances of survival are good. When this is over they can be carried back to the field hospital, where I will make the antidote."
The shinobi nodded heavily and disappeared.
Yuril spread the word too, while looking around for that girl. She needed to be neutralized fast. But she was impressed. She knew that each puppeteer made their own poison recipe and that they didn't like to share. So for such a young girl to be able to come up with something like this, she must be quite brilliant. It was a shame that she was the enemy. She came across Izuna who was just finished with taking down Reto's second in command. When she explained everything to him, he paled and turned around pointing towards the area where Aoko was.
"Do you mean that girl? She had been giving Aoko a hard time for quite a while now. And I'm pretty sure that I saw her land a hit."
And sure enough, a small shadow that could barely reach Yuril's waist was standing not far away from the place where Aoko was battling a puppet while protecting a body behind her. She hadn't noticed that the body she was protecting was already dead and foaming at the mouth. An experienced fighter could clearly see through the little girl's game. She wasn't fighting to land a hit anymore; she was just stalling for time while keeping her opponent moving. And Aoko was falling for it.
Before the twins could move a muscle, Aoko stopped moving, and her hands went to her neck, like if she was choking on something. A white foam started coming of her mouth, and she collapsed to the ground. The twins rushed to her side, but the little girl who saw them coming had rushed to Reto side, and hid behind him while his sand was fending off Madara, but she continued peeking at them. Yuril knelt next to Aoko, who was struggling to breathe, and for the first time in years she didn't know what to do. It was over. The poison had circulated and no antidote will work, even if she had made one. Aoko only had a few seconds left. And she would spend them in an agonizing pain.
Izuna was frantic. He was holding her hand with tears all over his face, while he kept begging her to stop moving around, and not to leave him. Aoko's eyes were wide and they kept darting around, her expression showing the extent of her pain. And suddenly it was over. Her eyes landed on Izuna, fixed him and stopped moving. She just kept staring at him, one hand around her neck, the other in his. There was no movement, no muffled sounds, and no breathing. That was it. She was gone. They couldn't even exchange a goodbye. Izuna tried tentatively, his voice holding a terrified tremor.
"Aoko? Love?" But she didn't answer him.
He let out the most anguished howl, Yuril had ever heard, while grabbing Aoko's lifeless body and hugging it as hard as he could. He kept howling. " No, no, no, no! Don't leave me! Please, don't leave." His frantic cries and desperate screams had such a chilling effect that all the fighting had stopped. Nobody dared to move a muscle. Yuril could only kneel facing him, choked, and at a loss. She couldn't even register what was happening. Her brother's happiness had been snatched away in such a horrible way. A young, lovely and promising person was gone so fast. Just what the hell had exactly happened?
Madara, had stopped his fight with Reto and rushed to his sibling's side. Once he saw the body in Izuna's embrace, his face was stuck just like Yuril's. No one knew what to do. Finally, Yuril was the one to gather her courage and put a hand on Izuna's shoulder while saying, "Izuna, sweetheart…"
She couldn't continue, because that was all she could come up with.
But that wasn't all what fate had in store for them that evening. When Izuna heard her call, he tentatively raised his head from the crook of Aoko's neck. Madara and Yuril were startled at what they saw. Izuna's handsome face bathed in tears and twisted in agony, but what caught their attention was his Sharingan. It wasn't there anymore. Instead, his irises had black font, with a red dot in the middle, and their perimeter was outlined with thick broken red lines. Madara was the one to stutter, probably for the first time in his life.
"Your… e…eye…s"
Izuna seemed to finally feel something, and he freed up a hand to try and touch his eyes.
He did that for a while and finally his face twisted in a diabolical smile. Madara and Yuril didn't understand what was happening to them, but they suddenly felt themselves surrounded by a really strong chakra. The sensation wasn't bad in the slightest. The chakra even wrapped around them like a protective blanket, ready to shield them from any harm. Suddenly a sky blue transparent ribcage appeared around them, Yuril's eyes darted around, and she wasn't ashamed to say that she was too terrified to move. The transparent bones kept forming until there was an entire upper body skeleton, which enclosed the three siblings and Aoko's body. Izuna gave her one final look, and then carefully handed the body to Yuril, who caught it without knowing why. He then said, in a bit of a deranged tone.
"Keep her safe for me for a while. I will be back once she is avenged." And with that he stood up, and turned around facing Reto and the girl cowering behind him.
The skeleton upper body seemed to have a floor of its own, and it clearly obeyed Izuna, because it advanced with him towards his target, while dragging the other three with them. Reto was clearly scared of what he was seeing. He started yelling at his shinobi to retreat, and they didn't need a lot of encouragement to do so. He too was looking for a way to retreat, without turning his back on the enemy coming towards him, and still protecting the girl. A part of his sand shot up to grab the skeleton, while another part slid under them, and started carrying them back to safety. But Izuna just laughed at that.
The skeletons hands shot forward, effectively getting him rid of the sands tight hold, and then made for Reto and the girl. Reto kept sending wave after wave of sand at them, and finally he made a move to use his most powerful jutsu, one he always kept for the end of his fights with Madara. It was a giant sand statue that could attack using some powerful Futon techniques. Only Madara's Gunbai could fend that off. But even when it attacked the skeleton, Izuna still just stood protectively in front of his siblings, confident that he could resist it. And sure enough, the people inside the skeleton didn't even feel a light breeze.
Reto's sand cloud was still speeding up, and the statue was still there, but he looked positively horrified at the uselessness of his jutsu. Finally Izuna let a loud growl and the skeleton punched the statue as hard as it could. The sand instantly collapsed, but Izuna's skeleton did too. Reto was finally able to flee, while Izuna turned around to look at them, with soulless black eyes, and collapsed instantly. Madara was quick to catch him, and as he held his little brother in his embrace, he and Yuril exchanged clueless and worried looks.
Finally, the memories in the back of her brain came rushing forward and it hit Yuril as she exclaimed.
"That was the Mangekyo Sharingan."