Their Worst Nightmare

#3 Flying

Isla was halfway through cooking her rabbit when two men appeared in front of her. It gave her such a fright that she nearly stuck her hand in the fire.
"Who are you?" The younger man asked.
"Who are you?" Isla asked.
"I asked you first!"
"I asked you second!"
Isla felt slightly satisfied with making that sneaky reference but the man was glaring at her so she decided to do the same. The older man shook his head at the scenario. He decided to step in.
"Hello, my name is Haruma. We are both ninja. What is your name?" Haruma said in a calm tone. Isla smiled at he sweetly, but with a hint of sarcasm.
"My name is Isla. It is nice to meet you." She replied, her head tipped up slightly. Isla noted that Haruma was older than the other ninja and had light brown hair. He wore a somewhat stern expression with a scar going from his right eyebrow to his hairline. Haruma introduced his comrade.
"This is Katsuma." He nodded towards the younger male, who still looked annoyed. Katsuma was slightly taller than Haruma with brown eyes and black hair that reached to his shoulder blades. His features were quite soft but his skin looked paper white in contrast with Haruma's tanned complexion.

Isla thought about what she was going to say, for once.
"So, Mr Haruma, did you need anything?" She had decided to be polite as he looked quite scary.
"Yes, I do. Me and my subordinate wanted to know why you are trespassing in Senju territory and potentially burning down a the forest with that a mess you call a fire." He said it quite nicely but Isla had a feeling that he was mocking her. But she was also confused. Territory? What was this? Medieval times? And where exactly was she? For the first time in a long time, Isla didn't have a reply.

"Cat got your tongue?" Katsuma teased.
"No, of course not!" Isla retorted. "It's just that I'm trying to process all of this. My mind isn't in the right place at the moment." In fact, this was true. Her brain had 'Welcome to the Black Parade' on repeat and she felt severely triggered every time the start of the song came on.
"Well, if you don't mind, could you tell us what clan you belong to?" Haruma asked.
"The thing is," Isla started, "I don't quite know where I am. I don't belong to any clan either. My last name is Lane and I live in a small town with my family."
Haruma nodded, even though he didn't quite know what a town was and was quite sure there wasn't any nearby. So in other words, he was nodding just to reassure the poor girl.

It was a hard choice to make. There was a full possibility that she was lying and was actually armed and dangerous. She could be a spy as well. Taking in a spy to the settlement could be extremely bad and Haruma would be entirely responsible. But he also had to consider the opposite. What if she really was lost? She didn't have any skills as he knew that Katsuma had made the rabbit stop so she could kill it, resulting that they would have to go after her. He couldn't just leave her to die. Haruma decided that he get his student's opinion on this matter before he reached a final decision.
"Katsuma and I are going to discuss this matter privately. I suggest that you eat your rabbit before it burns." Haruma announced.
Isla nodded in response.

Haruma motioned for Katsuma to follow him into the bracken, not too far away.
"So, sir, what do we need to discuss?" Katsuma started off. It did sometimes annoy Haruma when Katsuma insisted on calling his 'sir' instead of 'sensei', but now wasn't the time to be picky on honorifics.
"We need to decide whether to take her back to the clan for questioning."
"Well, she said she doesn't belong to a clan and she doesn't seem threatening, sir."
"Even if that's true, I think Lord Hashirama may be a bit upset if we left someone defenceless to fend for themselves."
"I see your point, sir. That means that we should probably take her back with us, regardless."
"Yes, we should. Also, I shall carry her as I know you have developed a certain dislike for her."
Katsuma looked quite relieved.

Isla noticed the two ninja walking back towards her.
"Done deciding whether I should die or not?" Isla cheerfully called out. Haruma was quite shocked. How could this girl be so deductive?
"Hey? What's with that look? I was being sarcastic, y'know." Dread was building up in Isla. Were they going to kill her? But she was too young too die! Also, her birthday was soon so she couldn't let herself go now! Haruma's features softened, if that was possible.
"No, that was never an option." He lied. "We have decided that you will be taken back to our clan so... people can....ask you questions. Sound okay? You'll be cared for, of course, unless you are found out as a spy from another village."
To be honest, Isla was feeling slightly scared. The whole situation was kind of, dare it be said, 'spoopy'. So, Isla opted to be nonchalant as possible.
"Yeah, sure. Like, whatever." She droned while playing with her hair, try to give off the impression that she was fine and actually bored with the whole thing. All she got were strange looks, as per usual.
"How far is it to your clan?" Isla was trying to make conversation. It wasn't working very well.
"Three miles." Came Haruma's blunt reply.
"What?! I'm not walking that far!"
"You're not going to, we'll take you."
Isla breathed a sigh of relief. No matter how good her shoes were they were not going to do well in three miles of overgrown forest.

Haruma stepped forward to pick Isla up. She backed away for she was confused. Isla didn't know what he was trying to do.
"Miss Isla," Katsuma started to explain.
"It's just Isla."
"Okay then, 'just Isla'," Katsuma said. Isla gave him a death glare but it unfortunately did nothing.
"If you do not want to walk a whole three miles to our clan, you will let my captain carry you."
Isla let a a dramatic sigh and let Haruma pick her up, bridal style. She noticed that his grip was a bit firm for just walking. She was about to question him when Haruma suddenly lept into the air. Isla let out a yelp of surprise and attached herself to Haruma's gear.

After her nerves settled down, Isla was starting to enjoy the ride. Haruma and Katsuma were talking quietly. The wind in her hair was nice and the journey was smooth. In her head she was humming a song. Can you guess what it was?

We're soaring, flying,
There's not a star in heaven that we can't reach,
If we're trying, so we're breaking free.

Isla silently chuckled to herself. They were bound to be nearing the clan now, right? But she wasn't too worried about that. It was giving her time to think. She should have really been planning what she'd say when met the person who was going to be questioning her, but she obviously wasn't doing that. She was thinking about the knight in shining armour cliché. Was Katsuma going to be her douche in shining armour? He was fitting the bill quite nicely, except for being sickly sweet. But not all friendship starts off perfectly. Isla involuntarily shivered. The thought of marrying Katsuma was quite a strange one. Especially as she was currently flying through the air.

Isla was jolted when Haruma took a sharp left turn.
"What the hell was that for? You nearly let me go!! I don't want to get any bruises today!" Isla whined.
Haruma scowled. "We can't run into any other ninja, whether friend or foe, before we reach the clan."
"Then just use an invisibility cloak or something! You're ninja, aren't you?" Isla practically yelled.
Katsuma glared at her. "You stupid girl, keep your voice down. Haruma-sensei said that we don't want to attract any attention. We're nearly there anyway, okay? Also, we shinobi don't have invisibility cloaks or whatever."
Isla rolled her eyes. This was beginning to look more and more like a really bad dream.

About ten minutes later, Haruma set Isla down on the ground. They were still surrounded by forest. Haruma pulled out some rope. She had been tricked! Isla tried to run away. She was blocked by Katsuma. Isla turned around. She was faced with Haruma. She went to punch him in the face but was easily forced, face down, onto the ground. Haruma let out a small sigh.
"Do you always just jump to conclusions like that? I was just about to tell you what I was about to do. Katsuma has read your chakra signature and it is very unique and could possibly mean you have a special kekkei genkai. The quickest way to get your to our leader is to pretend that you are our prisoner. Unless you want to wait outside for a long time?"
Isla shook her head. Frankly, she thought that this day couldn't get any worse. But boy was she wrong. What even was a kekky genky or whatever? She let the ropes be tied around her wrists and one over her mouth.
Katsuma looked at her. "They aren't too tight, are they?"
Isla shook her head. Katsuma gave her a reassuring smile. Isla rolled her eyes and Katsuma looked dejected. Haruma helped her to her feet. He started to lead her and they both flanked her like some sort of celebrity as they neared the entrance.