(Edit: Sayaka's appearance picture here)
Indra's breath came in controlled bursts as he raced through the forest, Sayaka's weight in his arms barely slowing his pace.
The dense undergrowth provided some cover, but he knew their pursuer wouldn't be fooled for long.
"They're after me," Sayaka suddenly spoke, her voice devoid of emotion. "Not you."
Indra nearly missed a step at her words, his eyes darting down to her face. "What?"
"The missing-nin. They're here for me," she repeated in the same dead tone. "You should leave me behind. You might survive that way."
Indra scowled, leaping over a fallen tree and changing direction sharply. "And why exactly would four A-rank missing-nin be after a genin with no special abilities or bloodline?"
Sayaka's eyes remained fixed on some distant point. "Because the Tsukihana Clan doesn't tolerate embarrassments."
Before Indra could demand clarification, a deep laugh echoed through the trees. "Running in circles, little mice? How adorable."
Indra's eyes narrowed as he activated both his Sharingan fully, the single tomoe in each eye spinning rapidly before evolving into three - a transformation he had kept hidden until now.
With his enhanced perception, he could see their pursuer's chakra signature flickering between trees, deliberately slow.
"He's toying with us," Indra muttered, veering sharply to the right and ducking beneath low-hanging branches.
Sayaka stared up at his eyes, momentary surprise breaking through her fatalistic demeanor. "Three tomoe... in both eyes. You're far more talented than you let on."
"And you're far more annoying than I thought possible," Indra snapped back. "What do you mean, the Tsukihana Clan? That's one of the Five Great Noble Houses of Fire Country."
Raiken's voice called out again, closer this time. "I can smell your fear, little brats! It makes the hunt so much sweeter!"
Indra ducked behind a massive tree trunk, setting Sayaka down and pressing a finger to her lips. They remained motionless as heavy footsteps passed nearby, then faded slightly.
"I am Tsukihana Sayaka," she whispered once the immediate danger had passed. "Bastard daughter of Lord Renjirō, sent to Konoha to die with minimal embarrassment to the family name."
Indra stared at her in disbelief. "You're nobility?"
"I'm a stain," she corrected with eerie calm. "One they've finally decided to erase permanently. You shouldn't have interfered - you're risking your life for someone worthless."
The casual self-deprecation ignited something hot and angry in Indra's chest. "What the hell are you babbling about? Worthless? Because some pampered nobles decided your existence was inconvenient?"
He grabbed her wrist and pulled her up, continuing through the forest at a crouched run. "We need to keep moving."
For several minutes they navigated the increasingly dense woodland Indra constantly changing their path, doubling back, and using every evasion tactic he knew.
Their pursuer seemed content to let them run, occasionally calling out taunts that echoed unnervingly through the trees.
"Your fear is delicious, children! Like fine sake before the main course!"
Indra pulled Sayaka into a hollow beneath exposed tree roots, both of them breathing hard now. He kept his Sharingan active, tracking Raiken's movements at the edge of his perceptual range.
"Tell me everything," Indra demanded in a harsh whisper. "Now."
Sayaka's expression remained unnervingly serene for someone being hunted. "My mother was a servant in the Tsukihana household. My father took... liberties. When she became pregnant, she was quietly dismissed. She died in childbirth."
"And you?"
"I was raised in a remote family property until I was seven," she continued mechanically. "Then enrolled in Konoha's Academy under a false name. The arrangement was... mutually beneficial. My clan rid themselves of an embarrassment, and Konoha gained another potential shinobi."
"With the expectation you wouldn't survive," Indra concluded, the pieces falling into place. Her constant readiness for death, her perfect composure - she had been raised knowing her life was considered disposable.
"Precisely. I wasn't meant to graduate. When I did, it created... complications."
A crash nearby signaled Raiken's approach. Indra grabbed Sayaka again, this time throwing her over his shoulder as he sprinted toward a small ravine he'd spotted earlier.
"You know," Raiken's voice called out, much closer now, "I'm actually enjoying this chase! Most targets just beg and cry. You two have spirit!"
They reached the ravine, sliding down its muddy bank to crouch behind a boulder. Indra set Sayaka down, fixing her with a hard stare.
"So your noble family hired missing-nin to kill you, and they're using me as a cover story," he summarized. "Why now?"
"I'm thirteen," Sayaka replied simply. "Old enough to potentially make claims on family assets or reveal embarrassing secrets. And I've survived longer than expected."
The casual acceptance in her voice pushed Indra's frustration to the breaking point.
"And you're just going to accept that?" he hissed. "Let them kill you because they decided your life isn't worth the inconvenience?"
"It's inevitable," she replied. "It always has been."
"Bullshit!" Indra's voice rose despite the danger. "Nothing is inevitable. You think I survived this long by accepting what others decided for me?"
"You don't understand-"
"I understand perfectly," he cut her off. "You've given up before even trying to fight back. Where's your pride? Your anger? They treated you like garbage, denied you a family, sent you to die - and you're just accepting it?"
Sayaka's composure finally cracked, confusion showing in her eyes. "What else can I do? They're one of the most powerful families in Fire Country."
"So what? You're a shinobi now. You have power they can't imagine." Indra's eyes blazed with fury.
"You should want revenge! You should want their heads on pikes! You should want to burn their precious reputation to the ground and dance in the ashes!"
"I-"
"Do you want to die?" Indra demanded, gripping her shoulders. "Is that what you truly want?"
"I-" Sayaka's voice faltered.
"Answer me!"
"No!" she finally cried, tears welling in her eyes for the first time since he'd known her. Her hands clutched at his shirt, fingers digging into the fabric.
"I - I don't want to die! I want to live! I've always wanted to live!" As more tears began to fall from her eyes and she began to cry, throwing herself into Indra's chest.
Indra's expression softened, a small smile forming on his lips. "That's a good answer."
A slow clapping sound interrupted the moment. They both looked up to see Raiken standing at the top of the ravine, his massive frame silhouetted against the sky.
"Beautiful, truly beautiful," the missing-nin mocked. "Almost made me shed a tear. But playtime's over, children."
He leaped down, landing with enough force to crack the stone beneath his feet. Indra pushed Sayaka behind him, mind racing through options.
The ravine left them with limited escape routes, and Raiken's size and strength gave him a clear advantage in close quarters.
"Don't worry," Indra told Sayaka without taking his eyes off their enemy. "I'm not planning on dying today. And neither are you."
Raiken charged forward with surprising speed for someone his size. Indra waited until the last possible moment before moving, scooping Sayaka up and leaping backward.
The world seemed to slow down as Indra twisted in mid-air, Sharingan tracking every minute movement.
Raiken's face contorted in a savage grin, tongue lolling out as saliva ran down his chin. His massive hand extended, fingers spread wide, reaching for Indra's face - coming within inches of contact.
In that frozen moment, Sayaka watched in wonder as Indra's right eye began to change. The three tomoe melted together, rippling outward into circles that glowed with an otherworldly purple light.
"Almighty Push," Indra whispered, his voice as soft as falling snow yet perfectly audible.
The effect was instantaneous and devastating. An invisible force erupted from Indra catching Raiken at point-blank range.
The missing-nin's body was thrown backward - Raiken's face rippling away, showing teeth as he began to scream - slamming through trees and stone alike.
When he finally stopped, Raiken's massive frame lay broken against a boulder, arms crushed at unnatural angles, his skull shattered against the stone.
Dark matter and blood formed a grotesque halo around what remained of his head.
Indra landed gracefully on his feet, slightly out of breath but otherwise unharmed.
The purple glow of his right eye illuminated Sayaka's shocked face as she stared up at him from where he had set her down.
"The Eye of God," she whispered, her voice filled with awe.
Indra looked down at her in surprise. "What did you say?"
Sayaka's expression transformed completely, reverence replacing her earlier despair. "The Rinnegan - the Eye of God. I've seen illustrations in my father's ancient scrolls.
The eyes of the Sage of Six Paths, the God of the Shinobi World."
Her voice grew more fervent with each word. "Those eyes that hold dominion over all creation, that command the forces of life and death themselves.
The legends say that after the Sage, only one who is chosen by the heavens would be born with those eyes - the Second Coming of the Sage of Six Paths."
Indra raised an eyebrow at her increasingly zealous tone. "Okay..."
Internally, he wondered if the shock had made her slightly crazy or something. Her transformation from resigned fatalism to religious awe was disconcerting, to say the least.
He turned away, scanning their surroundings with his Rinnegan.
To his surprise, he could perceive more than just the physical world - faint, translucent shapes moved at the edges of his vision, and among the trees, he detected a presence that was alive.
"Someone's hiding," he muttered, releasing Sayaka and letting her drop unceremoniously to the ground.
She landed with a soft "oof" as Indra leaped toward the hidden figure's location. Drawing a kunai, he moved with immense speed, homing in on the concealed watcher.
The figure, sensing it had been discovered, attempted to retreat, launching backward from its perch in a tall oak. Indra raised his hand, focusing his will through his Rinnegan.
"Universal Pull," he commanded.
The retreating figure was suddenly yanked toward Indra as if caught by an invisible hook, arm moving for their pouch.
Taking advantage of the disorientation - both by being pulled and the fact Indra as a genin was now faster than Jonin - Indra drove his kunai deep into the figure's throat before they could recover.
As they both fell, Indra landing neatly on his feet while the other figure collapsed in a heap, he noted the porcelain mask covering the dying person's face - an ANBU mask, but with a blank expression and no colorful markings.
'Root. Danzo,' Indra thought, his mind immediately connecting the dots. Of course the old war hawk would have agents monitoring unusual situations, especially those involving Uchiha.
Sayaka ran up behind him, eyes widening at the sight of the masked corpse. "An ANBU? Why would-"
"Not regular ANBU," Indra cut her off, kneeling to examine the body more closely. "Something else."
Before she could ask further questions, Indra's head snapped up, his Rinnegan peering in the direction they had come from.
Through his enhanced perception, he could see the battle still raging - Yua facing off against the remaining missing-nin.
To his surprise, his sensei appeared to be holding her own.
Two bodies already lay motionless on the forest floor - the woman with crimson tattoos and the sickly man with sealing tags.
Only Kurosu remained, locked in combat with Yua, both moving almost too fast for normal eyes to track - but laughably slow for the Rinnegan.
"Sensei's alive," Indra reported, relief coloring his voice despite himself. "And she's taken down two of them."
He turned back to Sayaka, suddenly acutely aware of the situation. She had seen his Rinnegan - a secret he had guards more carefully than anything else.
Reaching out, he gripped her shoulders tightly, his fingers digging in hard enough to make her wince.
"You must never, ever tell anyone about what you saw - about the Rinnegan. Do you understand me?"
Rather than fear, Sayaka's face showed only deepening reverence. "I swear on my life and death that I will guard your secret. No one will learn of the sacred eye from me."
Indra searched her face for any sign of deception, but found only genuine conviction. The fervor in her eyes was almost disturbing in its intensity, but he could detect no dishonesty.
"Good," he said finally, releasing his grip. "Now help me. We need to make this look like they killed each other."
"Of course," Sayaka agreed immediately, moving to examine the Root agent's body. "What's our story?"
Indra considered for a moment. "The missing-nin was pursuing us. We split up to confuse him - you with Hayate and the administrator, me alone as a decoy.
I led him here, where this ANBU was waiting in ambush. They fought, killed each other. I found the bodies after circling back."
Sayaka nodded, already moving to position the corpses appropriately. "And your eyes?"
"Regular Sharingan only, activated during the initial ambush," Indra replied firmly. "Nothing more." After a moment of silence he added, "Actually, let's say my Sharingan evolved to two tomoe."
They worked quickly, arranging the scene to support their fabricated narrative.
Indra used the Root agent's own weapons to inflict wounds on Raiken's body that would match their story, while Sayaka gathered scattered equipment and positioned it realistically.
As they worked, Indra couldn't help but notice the change in Sayaka. The fatalistic acceptance was gone, replaced by focused determination.
Occasionally, she would glance at him with that unsettling reverence, but she followed his instructions efficiently and without question.
"Why did you save me?" she asked suddenly, a bit of hesitation in her voice, as they were finishing their work. "You could have left me behind. It would have been the logical choice."
Indra paused, considering his answer carefully. "Teammates don't abandon each other," he said finally. "And besides, I hate it when people give up without a fight."
Both true. He can't have secret where he once abandoned a teammate to death to protect his own behind. Secrets never stay fully hidden. It will only add complications in the future when he had more allies.
Besides that, he really hated giving up without trying, to accept death without trying to prevent it.
It was an insult to the gift of life - the gift he was most grateful for after having experienced death in his first life.
Sayaka studied him for a long moment,. "I won't give up again," she promised softly. "Not now that I know..."
"Know what?"
A small smile curved her lips. "That I have something worth living for."
Indra wasn't entirely comfortable with the implications of that statement, especially given her newfound religious fascination with his eyes, but he nodded anyway.
"Good. Now let's finish this and find Hayate and the administrator. We still have a mission to complete."
As they made the final adjustments to their staged scene, Indra deactivated his Rinnegan, returning both eyes to the Sharingan state before letting those fade as well.
The brief use of the Rinnegan's power had drained him more than he cared to admit - he would need to be careful about deploying it in the future.
One thing was certain: his first C-rank mission had become significantly more complicated than expected.
Not only did he have to deal with assassins and Root agents, but now he had a teammate who had witnessed his greatest secret and apparently viewed him as some kind of divine being because of it...
As he once more turned to the side and saw Sayaka not stopping her looking at him, rarely blinking, almost fearing to miss even a moment, he internally sighed.
'Man, what is this shit. Damn you Danzo, when I catch, I'll wring that fucking neck of yours!'
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(Author note: Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!
Do tell me how you found Sayaka's backstory as well as Indra's showing of the Rinnegan.
Also... What do you think of Sayaka's fanatic reverence towards Indra now?
Before I forget, yeah, Indra when really stressed or angry, can become a bit cruder in language use, like cursing and all that, but tries for the most part to keep it internal, since he likes to keep an image of being above those words.
Well, I hope to see you all later,
Bye!)