54 - Harmony

Rina's eye twitched.

'You might be a fake,' they said. 'We need to check you're not one of those Zetsu's.'

Please, as if one of those weird plant gurus could copy her. The pink haired woman bit back a string of colorful curses as the people questioned her. Once they were satisfied, Rina returned to running around with no clue what she was doing, looking for Sun Star's creepy ghost boomer.

"Where the fuck is Yurei?" she complained out loud, dodging away from a battlefield.

Rina crashed through another patch of forest, emerging right in the middle of another battlefield and crashing right into her old friend. "Koto?!"

Rina was mildly surprised to see that, like the rest of the Anbu during the war, Koto Okami was no longer wearing her mask. Frankly, she was more used to the mask, which was ironic since she had seen the wolf mask about 10 minutes in her entire life.

"Get out of the way, Rina. I don't have time to chat," the indigo haired Anbu replied coldly.

Rina gave her a 'yeah, right' face. "Having fun finally breathing? You're not fighting at full strength, this is war, no time to hold back."

Koto Okami was selected for the Anbu due to two reasons. One, her family's recessive Kekkei Genkai, the Echo Release, a sound-based nature combined of Lightning and Wind, which had popped up in her after several generations. Two, her ridiculous level of casual discipline that managed to keep Rina No-Last-Name in line.

As a child, Rina decided Konoha sucked.

They try too hard to appear 'good' in a world where there's only evil and the lesser evil. The village was filled with rules against profanity and death threats. It was annoying.

Koto was best friends with Rina back when they were younger. They often trash-talked Konoha's rules, and better yet, Koto let the pink haired girl curse as much as she wanted as long as she didn't break any actual rules. Frankly, Koto was the only reason Rina didn't go AWOL as soon as she decided Konoha was annoying.

In other words, Rina was unhinged.

Koto was from a ninja family, while Rina's parents died of the disease known as Irrelevance. With Koto's insistence, the two joined the ninja academy.

That was when Rina started getting worse.

The whole reason the two got along was that Koto was also not fooled by the colorful front Konohagakure put up. However, as they grew older, Koto became more integrated into the village.

Rina didn't like that, but she held on.

Since Koto was a year older and also more hardworking, she graduated from the academy first. That was when she joined the Anbu.

Rina was now officially pissed.

"My entire personality is about hating this village, I'm not gonna stay friends with another Hokage lapdog," she insisted. A week afterwards, Rina disappeared from the village.

Due to technically being a ninja-in-training, that was now allowed. However, Koto intervened and convinced the Hokage not to label Rina a missing-nin unless she actively schemes against the village.

Which was how one violent pink haired teenager ended up running all across the country, only occasionally threatening to stab people with random objects and use their corpses as kitchen decor out of sheer hatred.

Kyomu offered shelter. Rina decided, why not? If she decided she wanted to leave, she could just walk out. It's not like a cave had any security measures.

When she met Kessho, she decided she hated him because he had pink eyes.

Pink eyes were Koto's thing. Anyone else who had pink eyes should choke on a lego and die in a nuclear explosion, she decided. Because plagiarism. More like sheer spite, actually.

Before the two could argue some more, Rina suddenly whipped around and hurled a shuriken up in the air.

When invisible, Yurei's chakra is also largely suppressed. However, for someone who knew his chakra signature, it's not difficult to pinpoint him.

Of course, Yurei could just float past and ignore her, but thankfully the lavender haired boy materialized in front of the two a moment later. "Rina."

"You."

Koto raised an eyebrow, but she didn't question it. "This is one of the Edo Tensei reanimates, correct?"

"Well," Rina mused how to explain the whole thing. She settled for "Yes and no. It's weird. But we want to fight him because he's a dumb traitorous bitch who can turn spirit-mode at will."

Koto nodded quietly, having a built-in brain filter to Rina's unnecessary profanity. She produced a harmonica from her bag- maybe a strange belonging for most ninja, but not to an Echo Release user.

Echo Release comes entirely from the voice, despite it being actually unrecommended to sing. It's best channelled through any type of music, such as instruments, but technically the power still comes from one's voice.

Yurei narrowed his black eyes. "I have lived for far too long. This war will be my last stand. As soon as I find whoever is casting this Edo Tensei, I can tell them to dispel mine."

"A suicidal dumb traitorous bitch," Rina corrected, her shadow threads materializing. "Beat his ass."

With a nod, the Anbu member brought her harmonica up, beginning an average tune. "First Movement: Andante- Verse."

And yes, the author just googled a bunch of music words and stuffed them together.

By some lucky miracle, the attack managed to hit Yurei despite him vanishing. The lavender haired boy materialized a few meters away, a frown on his face. "How?"

Rina turned to Koto with the same 'how tf' face, only to receive the same 'I dunno, stop looking at me' expression in return.

"Perhaps," the Echo Release user explained with all the sensibility of an Anbu. "Due to the Echo Release being a sound based jutsu, it bypasses physical form and can damage anything that can hear."

"Are you sure?" Rina questioned, casting her friend/enemy/former friend/former enemy/frenemy/nobody knows a suspicious glance.

"Not at all," Koto replied smoothly, before returning to her playing. Yurei quickly jumped back into the air, fading away once more.

This time, prepared to actually be damaged, Yurei held onto his invisible state. He produced his signature ceremonial dagger from some mysterious pocket that all anime characters have.

Yurei wasn't a fighter, but at the same time, his power gave him all the fighting capability he needed.

"Rina, dodge!" Koto commanded, the pink haired girl lunging out of the way just as Yurei materialized with his dagger.

The Anbu quickly returned to her harmonica. "Chorus."

The previous sound wave bounced out again, significantly stronger. Yurei vanished once more, leaving Koto to hold her harmonica, waiting for him to emerge.

"This sucks, how can I fight that bitch like this?" Rina complained, waving her shadow threads around aimlessly.

"Stop being immature and watch for where he is," Koto reprimanded bluntly.

"I know, I know, give me a se-" Rina was cut off when Yurei materialized right beside her, slashing diagonally with his dagger. With a cough, the pink haired girl collapsed in a puddle of blood.

Koto narrowed her eyes, playing another tune on her harmonica. "Verse."

The back and forth went on continuously. Whenever Yurei appeared, Koto dodged, and attacked. When Koto attacked, Yurei disappeared and flew away.

Koto's Echo Release was a ramping attack. Andante was the weakest, the first movement. Once she has played both the Verse and the Chorus of Andante enough times, she can move onto the second movement, then the third, and so on.

But here's the problem- due to Echo Release being voice-based, the higher movements are damaging to the throat. Heck, Koto had never gone up to Fourth Movement.

Pausing in her cycle, Koto played a different tune. "Resonance."

Resonance was a sensing technique, like that of a bat's. Thankfully, it worked, allowing the indigo haired kunoichi to detect Yurei.

Koto narrowed her eyes, ducking just as Yurei appeared, swinging his knife. The lavender haired boy's eyes widened slightly. "You... can sense me, with your little sound wave trick."

Koto kept quiet, instead lifting her harmonica again. "Second Movement: Adagio."

The second movement is actually weaker than the first, but it inflicts immense pain. It's a good setup for the stronger attacks of the third movement.

Despite not being a close-range fighter, Koto thanked the Anbu training she received for the ability to dodge most of Yurei's sneak attacks. She cast a glance at Rina- the wound is bad, but there wasn't any time now.

Dodge, verse, wait, dodge, chorus, wait, dodge, verse, wait, dodge, chorus wait.

It was evident Yurei wasn't actually good at fighting. However, he was good at disappearing and hiding. Koto didn't know why he hadn't just left, perhaps it was out of respect to finish a fight, or perhaps getting killed would be the same for him.

Could Yurei be killed? The hits she had gotten in earlier hadn't healed yet, perhaps he doesn't have the recovery ability of other Edo Tensei reincarnates.

"Andante: Encore." This time, she managed to hit Yurei hard enough for him to flinch. Encore can be used at any time after the Movement has already ended, recreating the Chorus of any previous movement.

Koto kept playing. When Yurei is gone, she shifted to Resonance to locate him, before resuming her verse-chorus loop.

"Third Movement: Vivace."

Vivace was a fast-paced song, the first proper damaging powerhouse, but Koto rarely had to go up to it. After all, the Fourth Movement is where she starts taking damage.

Yurei managed to get a few slashes in, but Koto avoided most of them. Unfortunately, it was also the same the other way round.

"Chorus." However, the Anbu was also noticing that Vivace was indeed wearing Yurei down faster than before. On the other hand, she had... three, four more verse-chorus cycles before the Third Movement was over.

She cast Rina another glance. There wasn't enough time.

"Fourth Movement: Finale."

Like Koto had expected, despite her expertise in playing woodwind instruments, it was suddenly near impossible to breathe. She was forced to break off the song, coughing loudly for a few seconds.

Those few seconds were enough for Yurei to appear and deliver a fatal slash, which Koto only managed to half-avoid by kicking him back. Still, looking at the blood dripping from her arms and abdomen, she hadn't managed to fully avoid it.

Before the lavender haired boy could go invisible again, the indigo haired woman ignored all the pain searing at her to leap forward, kicking the dagger out of Yurei's hands and snatching it away.

She pocketed it, jumping back and lifting her harmonica again. Her pink eyes twisted in pain as she moved her arms, but she played another Chorus.

Verse.

Chorus.

Verse.

Wait.

Dodge.

Her eyes snapped onto the worn down Yurei as she materialized again, weakly attempting to snatch his dagger back. Her breath was basically gone now and her vision was tinged with black, she was left with enough energy for one or two more Verses or Choruses.

But it's fine, one is enough.

"Chorus."

Koto felt her knees tremble as she collapsed into the dirt. She laid there for who knows how long before a crew of medics rushed towards her.

"Okami-san, you took down the enemy," one of them assured her. "And you'll live."

The indigo haired woman opened her mouth to talk, but no sound came out-. Instead, she limply lifted a bloody arm, gesturing in the direction of Rina.

The second medic frowned. "I'm sorry, it's already too late for her."

Koto's eyes fell further. For a moment her eyes watered, then everything went black.