Chapter 22: Confronting Suzune
(Kamui's Point of View)
Things had deviated significantly from the original plan. Once the operation started, Kamui warped her jutsu in front of Suzune, but Kagari somehow managed to intercept it in time. It wasn't a complete loss though, since he was close to death from the attack. From the looks of it, his steel release barely saved his life; though, he probably wouldn't survive the wounds after the battle. In addition, her reinforced shadow clone had already gone to find Tonoe. That was still going to plan at least. She was honestly a little excited to try out the steel release technique she saw Kagari perform. Even if it didn't fully survive her attack, it was still very impressive.
When they engaged Suzune, she recognized Kamui right away. Considering the fact that she was the Hokage's daughter and had a very distinct physical appearance, she shouldn't have been surprised.
The real shocker though, was the conversation they had with Suzune. To hear such hate, such rancor for her father. To hear someone so willing to sacrifice their everything for a mere chance at causing him pain went against everything she'd ever believed about life. What this girl talked about wasn't life. She might as well have been a dead woman walking. What could drive someone to this? While the death of her father would be awful, surely it wouldn't lead to this, right?
Then, when her sharingan met Suzune's eyes, she received her answer. Brief flashes of events gone by entered her vision. A little girl in tears for her dead father, the villagers' contagious hatred for the man they perceived responsible, crippling poverty in a dysfunctional family, a mother's suicide to be with her beloved again, a personal vendetta to make everything as right as possible before the end, and finally, the current mission and the acts of evil they committed to achieve its success. While she couldn't experience it from the girl's perspective, she could feel the raw emotion in each scene as if it were her own.
It was odd; she had never heard of the sharingan having this power. It probably didn't normally. After all; how could a clan with eyes like hers grow arrogant and warmongering like it had in the past? To experience someone else's emotion and feel their pain should have abated that, at least partially. She would make sure to figure out the details later; Yume would probably have the answer.
When put together, what she found out about Suzune through their conversation and this vision rocked her world. She was a monster, yet she was pitiful. She committed pointless atrocities on mass for the small chance that it would hurt the yellow-flash, but died a little each time. She was basically a little girl that had been indoctrinated in a village of hate. Through her unfortunate background and circumstances, it could be argued that she had little choice but to end up this way. Kamui wasn't even sure if the Tsuchikage was at fault, Konoha could have ended up in a similar manner if they had lost the war in a similar way.
Thinking back, if her biological father hadn't made the decision to take the fourth's place, Konoha most likely would have ended up the same way; they would have lost their war hero and symbol of victory to a demon fox that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Danzo would likely have still been alive, actively spreading hatred and the third is too weak a person to stop that avalanche of emotions. Considering that Naruto would have been the sole jinchuriki in that case, it wouldn't have been good. He most likely would have been to the villagers, what Minato is to this girl, a scapegoat.
Even Konoha, for all its strength, only endured due to the circumstantial actions of one clan leader. Even then, if she wasn't born that day, his decided course of action wouldn't have even been an option.
"Enough talk. This will end here for me… one way or the other." Suzune managed to get out, the previous explosive rage, simmered down into a cold fury.
'It's sad how she doesn't believe in anything, but her hatred and revenge. She clearly isn't the only one either. From her vision, a large portion of Iwa's shinobi forces is of a similar opinion and if you apply a similar chain of logic, Suna's likely bitter as well. Then, you have the battlefield nations who endured the five great nations warring on their soil; it's a mess. This needs to be fixed; I don't know how, but it needs to be fixed.' Kamui thought to herself as she ran through the largest scale problem she'd identified to date, one that she didn't know how to fix.
A vision flashed in Kamui's mind as she remembered her mother's words on getting stronger to change what she doesn't like. To become strong enough to impose her will on things that she felt were stupid, which she was finding out were a lot of things. While it was originally meant as a statement against the clans' outdated traditions, it would work equally well here.
'Well, this'll probably be the hardest problem I've tackled, but when I become the strongest, it'll be much simpler. I'll change the world and save these people from themselves. I'll do it for people like this girl who haven't been taught how to do anything else but hate and kill. Hopefully, I can think of the 'how' in the years it'd take to reach the pinnacle of strength.' She resolved herself. With that, her eyes glowed amethyst for a brief moment and the tomoe did so in their respective colors as Yume acknowledged her conviction. Then, as quickly as they glowed, the glow faded from her eyes leaving her resolute expression for all to see.
If this was a problem that polluted the world to the extent that it corrupted entire villages, she would need to learn more. She would need to see the world with her own eyes and understand the metaphorical enemy she would face. Only by understanding it could she truly fight it.
"Sensei, I would like to take her alone. I want to feel the weight of her hatred; it'll be a good learning experience." Kamui requested, her eyes blazing with resolution. She needed this.
This would be her purpose. Her dad had once told her that she would know her purpose one day. Every shinobi has a purpose, a dream they want to fulfil. It had honestly been one of the things that bothered her over the years; she didn't have anything she wanted very strongly. She had searched her feelings constantly; there had to be something she wanted to use her powers for, aside from the mundane notions of carrying the will of fire. According to her dad, 'one's purpose isn't something that's formulated by simply thinking about it, but through a desire that comes about through one's experiences in the world.
This was it. She hadn't felt so strongly about anything until this moment. This was a goal she could work toward that was grand enough to honor her predecessor's legacy. Even if it was premature, she could always refine her thought process later.
"Alright, but I'll be watching." Yugao said.
Hearing this, Kamui nodded and then turned toward Suzune. Looking at the girl in front of her, Kamui spoke, "Know this, I will kill you today and free you from your suffering, but I pray that in your next life, you grow up in a world where you can be happy." Kamui stated confidently, her voice filled with a calm conviction. She continued, "One day, I will make this world into such a place and I will do it for people like you, who were never given that chance." She finished.
On the side, Yugao's eyes widened in surprise.
'Did this girl really change Kamui that much? Will this unimportant soul become a cornerstone of her ninja way?' It was absurd. What was supposed to be a random bandit extermination turned out to be a defining moment of her ninja career. It was a weird feeling seeing your student take such a major milestone from something so simple. Then again, Yugao hadn't realized all that Kamui had seen from the girl. She had yet to be informed about Kamui's memory dive.
With Suzune, her furious expression paused for a moment. Numerous thoughts on the silliness of the girl's words came to her mind. She even considered whether this girl was trying to play mind games with her; it was a common shinobi tactic. Those thoughts were soon crushed under the sincerity she could feel from her; she meant it. This girl meant every word with a passion so hot it could incinerate the sun. It helped her conclusion that she was currently in the disadvantageous position. Therefore, what reason would the girl in front of her have to lie?
If her words are true, what would drive her to desire to do that? It's not like she could understand her pain.
What Suzune didn't realize was that Kamui had gotten the best glimpse of her pain that anyone could ever hope to achieve. She may not fully understand it, but it was enough to break any illusion she might have had of the world; it was enough to give her a glimpse of the world's darkness.
With that, her temper cooled down. First, her face expressed confusion, then mirth, and finally she began to chuckle. Seconds later, the chuckling had crescendoed into an uproarious laughter.
Seeing this odd behavior, the two Konoha shinobi looked at her with confused expressions.
Settling down, Suzune looked at Kamui, her face relaxing for the first time since the start of the engagement; she was at peace. She would give everything in this fight to kill her target, but if she failed, at least it'd be to someone like this.
"Fine then. If you win, I will hold you to your words from the pure land. You must win here though. If you can't even survive this fight, then those were just empty words. Make no mistake, I will give everything to kill you." Suzune stated calmly as she took some distance and spread her arms wide; this stance allowed her to gather chakra for her strongest technique. She didn't have a choice, her body was too damaged by the scorch release to do much else at this point. The damage was getting worse at an exponential rate, so this jutsu was all she could do.
As Suzune got ready to perform her jutsu, Kamui's mind reached for her storage sash and soon after, two marked tri-pronged kunai appeared in her hand. Seeing this, Suzune's expression warped in anger at the metal objects. Her focus sharped on them, anticipating their use.
Kamui focused her chakra on her shadow clone and communicated a plan to it. Every shadow clone is connected to the original, even if ninja normally can't perceive or interact with the connection. Yume could bypass this restriction and facilitate the communication. It's an ability Kamui would inherit later, but was being facilitated by Yume for current use.
Moments later, Suzune placed both hands together in front of her and a yellow ball of energy with arcing yellow lighting appeared in her hand. Quickly, the ball accumulated energy as Suzune put most of her chakra into this attack. Her thought was that, based on the situation, Kamui would let her get off this attack. It was symbolic and the girl seemed like the honorable sort, which was different than most ninja she'd interacted with during her short life. It would be her death. Honor was weakness and this weakness would be the end of her short life.
There was no way Suzune would have lived after the initial scorch release jutsu anyways. She could feel the damage the heat inflicted on her internal organs and her rage induced verbal assault made it worse. The best solution in this case was to use the girl's honor to blow them both up with every bit of explosive release chakra she has left. It would take her final move; the one that converted her life force into the most potent chakra she could muster.
Yugao and Kamui smiled. Yugao knew what was about to happen. It was a move the fourth developed right before his fight with the nine-tails. Hence, Iwa didn't know about it.
Soon, the glowing ball grew to an impressive size, just smaller than Suzune was. Seeing this Suzune smiled. She couldn't make it any bigger than it was. Moments later, the smile turned into a smirk as the ball fired from her palms.
"Explosion Release: Final Flash!" She screamed.
[A/N: I had to. In reality though, the execution is a combination of big bang attack and final flash.]
Once she heard Suzune's release command, Kamui threw the two kunai in her hand; one flew at the charging ball of destruction and the other close behind it.
Once the first kunai was in inches of the ball, they both vanished. A second later, an extreme explosion comparable to a tailed beast ball from the seven-tails sounded in the nearby hills, shocking Suzune.
Coming out of her stupor, she screamed, "No!" That explosion came from the hills where Sima and Tomoe were. Since when can the Flying Thunder God jutsu teleport other jutsu?
Before she could further comprehend what happened, the other kunai passed close to her. In a final act of desperation with anything she could drudge up, she fired a close-range explosion, annihilating her right hand and pushing her away from the kunai of death.
Before her ragdoll body could hit the ground though, she felt pain in her spine and ended up suspended in the air. Struggling to figure out what happened, she pushed herself to turn her head with everything she had. However, when she saw what happened, she knew greatest despair.
Behind her was Kamui with a blade of solid ice running through her spine. As soon as their eyes made contact, Kamui launched a quick genjutsu to extract every bit of information she could and moments later, it was over.
"Sensei, I have everything we need." Kamui said to Yugao, who nodded.
"Good, finish her." Yugao stated simply. She was actually surprised how vicious that move was. Using the girl's last-ditch attack to murder her comrades, then using her eyes to teleport behind her to ram a blade through her spine, and finally extracting any final bits of information through genjutsu before the end. It's a move worthy of an anbu if she was being honest.
"Wa..it…" Suzune struggled to get out, causing Kamui to pause. "How …did you…. get behind….me?" She wheezed. She could already feel blood vessels all over her body rupturing from the wave of freezing chakra proliferating her system.
"You were so focused on what my dad could do 17 years ago, you never considered that there was more; your eyes were so fixed in the past, that they lost sight of the possibilities." Kamui explained.
Hearing her words, Suzune began to chuckle, blood pouring out of her body.
"So…. they...were…." Suzune whispered as she took her last breath.
"I meant everything I said, now please get some rest." Kamui silently stated as the ice sword in her hand melted and a ball of scorch release took its place. The corpse was incinerated in seconds leaving naught but a pile of ash. Then, with a wave of her hand, a gust of wind scattered the pile into the distance.
Even with that corpse gone. Kamui stood in place contemplating her decision. Moments later, a hand landed on her shoulder, causing her to flinch.
"Are you OK?" Her sensei asked.
"Yeah, it was just…. a little sad to have to end someone like her. I'll be fine. I just need a little time to sort out my thoughts. Before I do that though, let me go over what I've learned."
Hearing that, Yugao nodded. The mission came first after all. This would allow her to consider the mission variables, while Kamui was contemplating this annoyingly eventful mission.
With the two of them done here, they headed to the site of the team's base; the one Kamui just blew up.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Falsic
Falsic Truthfully, this was a very hard chapter for me to write. The challenge was to convey the change in Kamui without making it too grand. It's easy to make these kinds of scenes too impactful for what the character has realistically experienced. On the other hand, I couldn't make it worthless as A, there needs to be character development, and B, this is Kamui's first mission outside of the safe haven that is the village.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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