Under the Moon's Eye: Shoyu

by LolaLot

Follow up to Under the Moon's Eye. Shoyu is now almost grown up and figuring out what he wants out of his life.

A/N: Hello, everyone! This is a follow up to a story I wrote with Amrun, Under the Moon's Eye. I just can't get enough of it so I decided to write a little more. It will follow one of the characters introduced in the story. If you haven't read it yet, I suggest you do, otherwise this probably won't make much sense to you. You can find it under Amrun's profile. The rest of this story will be posted in Under the Moon's Eye as well, so everyone should go there to read it! It's in my favorites for easy access.

Chapter One

"Shoyu?"

Shoyu straightened his back the best he could. "Yes, Hokage-sama?"

Sasuke looked him straight in the eye, face impassive. "Are you listening?"

"Cut him some slack," Naruto said, grinning. "This is some big news to digest."

Kakashi put a hand on Shoyu's shoulder. Shoyu looked up at his father. His face - or rather his mask - was neutral, but Shoyu could read it as easily as his mom could.

"Pay attention, son," Kakashi said. Shoyu nodded listlessly. "This is not the time for distractions."

"I apologize." Shoyu bent at the waist. "I… was not expecting this kind of news."

Naruto laughed, leaning back far in his chair. "I bet. But don't worry, Shoyu-kun. It's gonna be great, really. Having a tailed beast with you is like having a best friend inside you." Naruto paused, rubbing his chin. "Once you get past the phase where you hate each other, at least. But then it's awesome!"

"It's a good thing - now," Kakashi added. Sakura smiled at him, bittersweet, from Shoyu's other side. "You should accept."

"Kakashi - " Sakura grabbed Kakashi's sleeve at the elbow. "Maybe we should talk this over first?"

"The decision won't be made today," Sasuke cut in, hands folded under his chin. "Shoyu is certainly the best candidate, but not the only one. Should he refuse, there will be other options."

"But why would he?" Naruto said, turning to Sasuke with a frown. "I just told him how great it is."

"I'm sure you thought so when you were young, too."

Naruto's lips thinned in a tight line and he stared at the desk. Shoyu looked down at his feet. He'd heard stories of Hokage-sama's youth, of his ascension to greatness. It had not been an easy path, but one the entire village admired. Now, though, as his father said, tailed beasts were no longer considered the enemy. He would not be shunned as Hokage-sama was.

"Shoyu-kun," Sakura called. "Do you have anything to say?"

Shoyu scratched the back of his head and shook his head.

"You accept now, then?" Kakashi said.

Shoyu's stomach tightened so hard it hurt. He'd only been told the news minutes ago - how could he decide now? And if he refused, what would his father say? It was so clear on his face that no was not an option he would accept.

"I won't accept an answer today," Sasuke said. Naruto frowned at him, but remained silent. "Shoyu will come to us when he has made a decision - on his own."

Dismissed, Shoyu left with his parents. He stared at his father's back on the way home. Kakashi was a living legend, as were the Hokages. It was hard to picture his father as he was in the tales - a grand, ruthless warrior - when all he ever saw of him was so mild. He was very affectionate to his wife, teasing to his former students… A goof.

Stories said this same man ripped out the hearts of his enemies with lightning.

Shoyu stared at his hand. The raikiri had been passed on to him long ago, but he had yet to spill blood.

"Shoyu-kun."

Shoyu looked up at his mother. She was smiling as she always did.

"How about we take the day off training today?" she said. "You seem like you'll be too distracted to be any good to patients today."

Shoyu nodded. The last thing he needed was to kill someone in a surgery meant to save them.

"We'll spar then," Kakashi said, turning to Shoyu to ruffle his hair. "It's been a while since I've had a chance to see how your training with Sasuke-chan is going."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "You're so obsessed."

"I am not."

"Yes, you are," Sakura chastised. "Things are different now. You can relax, you know?"

Kakashi said nothing. Shoyu looked up at the sky. The morning was just starting and he could tell the day would be rough.

…

Shoyu groaned as his side hit the ground. His father had no doubt broken his rib. It didn't stop there - Kakashi rushed him and landed a few more decent hits before Shoyu fought back. All it took was one strong pulse of chakra up Kakashi's shoulder to paralyze him just long enough to gain the advantage. Shoyu flipped them over and put a hand on Kakashi's throat, panting and clutching his side.

"Good work," Kakashi said, still wincing from the pain in his shoulder. "You need to be more aggressive, though."

Shoyu slid off his father and got to work on healing his shoulder. "It's just sparring, Dad."

"It's not just sparring," Kakashi said. "This is training. So you'll be ready when you need to be."

"For what?" Shoyu sighed. With Kakashi's shoulder fixed, he moved on to his own rib. The pain made it hard to talk. "There's hardly been any fighting for over a decade. What do you think is going to happen?"

Kakashi sat up, frowning. "Peace never lasts, son. I want you to have the strength you need to protect those you love when the time comes."

"I'm strong already. Right?"

Kakashi nodded.

"How much stronger do I need to be, then?"

Kakashi remained silent. Rib healed, Shoyu sat with his father. He didn't know what had happened to make his father like this, but he wished he could hear the story someday. To know why his eyes went dark and vacant as they did sometimes like now. His mom knew, he could tell from the way they both stared at each other in silence sometimes, but he didn't dare ask.

"Dad?"

"Yes?"

"What was your life like when you were my age?"

Kakashi hummed in thought. "How old are you already?"

Shoyu nudged his shoulder. "Come on, Dad. Be serious. I'm seventeen, I'm not a child anymore."

Kakashi smiled and wrapped an arm around Shoyu's shoulders, pulling him tight against him. "I was a ninja. You know that already."

"But what did you do?"

"Missions," Kakashi said blandly. "Whatever the Hokage asked of me."

"What about your family? Did you live by yourself?"

Kakashi ran a hand through Shoyu's hair, pulling back the silver mess that was so similar to his. He stared at him for a while, as if comparing himself to his son, and Shoyu did the same. He envied his father for his stronger cheekbones. He'd inherited his mother's round cheeks and they made him look younger than he was.

"I lived by myself," Kakashi finally said. "My family was dead."

Shoyu had already known his father's immediate family was dead - he had no grandparents or aunts or uncles, after all - but he hadn't imagined they had all died so early. The only person with a living grandparent he knew about was Choko, Choji's daughter. Grandparents were rare.

"How did they die?"

Kakashi hummed again. "It's not a nice story."

"I want to know," Shoyu said, firm. "You're always talking about me needing to be strong, but you won't tell me about anything like that. Don't you think that's unfair?"

"You remind me of your mother." Smiling under his mask, Kakashi ruffled Shoyu's hair. "You win, then. My father killed himself and my mother went missing on a mission when I was still a baby. It was assumed she died."

"You never knew for sure?"

Kakashi shook his head. "They were never able to retrieve her body or confirm her death, but it's the likely outcome."

"Why… why did your father kill himself?"

Kakashi told the story slowly, but succinctly. Shoyu stared down at his shoes. The world his father - and mother, and all the adults, really - knew was so different from the one he grew up in. There was no tailed beast destroying villages, no missions where ninja killed each other. Suna had only recently returned to their country and relations with Kumo were good.

"I hope things stay as they are," Kakashi said, eyes up to the sky. "Peaceful, quiet. It's how it should be. I'll do anything if it means you and your siblings get to have that kind of life."

"Do you ever miss your old life?"

Kakashi took a moment to answer. "No, not truly."

"Boys!" Sakura called from a distance behind them. "It's time for lunch!"

Shoyu stood up. His stomach had been growling a while already and he was more than glad to be done fighting for the day.

…

The rest of the afternoon, Shoyu did his best to teach Sasuke's son the fireball jutsu. Sasuke had taught it to him when he was Shirakaba's age, a decade ago, and Shoyu was eager to return the favor. He'd been teaching various jutsus to Shirakaba for a while now and he finally seemed ready to take on a bigger challenge.

A fireball the size of Shoyu's palm came out of Shirakaba's mouth and promptly went up in smoke.

Shirakaba frowned. "I can't do it."

"It's okay," Shoyu comforted. "You'll get there. It just takes time and practice."

The truth was Shirakaba was taking much longer than anticipated. Sasuke had been hailed a genius early on, but the same certainly couldn't be said of his son.

"How long did it take you, Nii-san? I've been trying for months."

Shoyu patted his head, smiling. "It doesn't matter how long it took me. Just keep working hard, Shira-kun. You'll get it."

Shirakaba dropped to the ground on his butt, pouting so fiercely Shoyu couldn't help but laugh.

"Want to hear a story about your father?"

Shirakaba immediately perked up and nodded vigorously.

Shoyu sat with Shirakaba on the grass. "When he was your age, he was learning this jutsu, too. But you know what? His father was so focused on teaching his brother that he had no time for Sasuke. So Sasuke learned it all by himself. You know how?"

Shirakaba shook his head.

"Through hard work and determination. He wanted to succeed so much that he never gave up until he reached his goal."

Shirakaba's pout returned. He crossed his arms over his body. "But he learned it all by himself. I can't even do it with you. And it's not even a nice story! Dad's dad spent too much time caring about others instead of him, too."

Smiling, Shoyu laid a hand on Shirakaba's shoulder. "It's a nice story. Don't you understand what your dad learned besides the jutsu?"

"That he's a genius?"

Shoyu laughed and shook his head. "No. He learned he could be strong by himself, that he didn't need to rely on others. And that he could work so hard nothing would ever be impossible if he really tried. He learned about his strength."

Shoyu himself had always enjoyed the story. It was one of the few snippets of Sasuke's past he was allowed to know about. To this day, Shoyu could still remember the moment Sasuke had told him about it as clear as water. It had only taken him a few times before he was able to spit a decent fireball, and Sasuke had shared the story with him as a reward of kinds. A warning, rather.

Shirakaba sat silent on the grass, deep in thought. "I want to be like Dad."

Shoyu smiled. "That's a good goal, Shira-kun."

After their break, Shoyu continued supervising Shirakaba's attempts at a fireball jutsu until his chakra ran too low and they moved on to taijutsu. There, Shirakaba had a much easier time. Sasuke's speed and reflexes had definitely been passed on to his son. Teaching Shirakaba always brought a smile to his face and he wondered if his father and Sasuke felt the same about teaching him when he was younger. It was just too cute watching a little boy a tenth of his size flailing about.

Senses tingling, Shoyu hopped to the side just in time to avoid Sasuke's surprise attack. Shoyu and Shirakaba should have been done training a while ago, he realized. Sasuke continued his onslaught and Shoyu dodged. Shirakaba was cheering them on from the side, clapping. Sasuke summoned a large burst of electricity and Shoyu had no choice but to counter it with a bolt of equal force if he didn't want to be fried alive.

Sasuke didn't relent yet. He sent a fireball his way and Shoyu blocked it with a mud wall. Sasuke was already at his side and kicked him into the wall. It was over then, with the sound of raikiri ringing in Shoyu's ears.

"You're too soft," Sasuke said.

Shoyu sighed, rubbing his sore shoulder. His ears still buzzed and his head was still fuzzy from hitting the wall. Both Sasuke and his father told him this often and he was tired of hearing it. He was good enough at dodging and he did not want to practice being hit more than necessary.

Sasuke, though, hardly cared and made sure he practiced every time they met.

"Your mother is waiting for you," Sasuke said to his son. "You're late for dinner."

"Aren't you coming, Dad?"

"Later," Sasuke said, his voice soft the way it was only for his son. "We'll play hide and seek tonight, but for now I need to talk to Shoyu."

Shirakaba nodded and ran to Shoyu, giving him one great big hug. "Thanks for training today, Nii-san!"

Shoyu smiled, returning his hug. "I had fun too, Shira-kun. Now go eat dinner before it gets cold."

Shirakaba nodded, gave his father the same hug, and ran back to the Hyuuga estate.

Now alone with Sasuke, Shoyu looked at him, waiting for him to speak. After a moment of silence, Sasuke placed a hand on Shoyu's head and smirked.

"I knew you'd be taller than your father one day," he said. "I didn't realize it would come so soon."

Shoyu's cheeks flushed. "Am I? I didn't notice."

Sasuke hummed and took his hand away to pinch Shoyu's cheek instead. "You blush so easily."

Naturally, Shoyu's cheeks only became redder. "I'm not blushing."

Sasuke laughed and began walking away. "Let's have dinner together."

Shoyu followed, jogging behind him until he matched his stride. "I don't really want to talk about today."

"Then we won't."

Trailing behind Sasuke, Shoyu realized he was right. He'd grown taller and Sasuke no longer seemed any taller than him. His shoulders, though, remained broader.

"Do you have plans for the night?"

Shoyu nodded. "I'm going to visit Otafuku again. I found a lot of cool stuff last time, but I didn't have enough time…"

Sasuke smirked, throwing an arm around Shoyu's shoulder. "So you told your parents you'd be spending the night over, didn't you?"

Chuckling, Shoyu scratched the back of his head. "I did."

"Your mother would be horrified if she knew you were able to lie," Sasuke laughed. "You're still her sweet baby."

"I guess it's just natural." Shoyu shrugged, all too conscious of the weight of Sasuke's arms on his shoulders. "There's a lot she doesn't know about me."

"Why is that?" Sasuke asked, watching Shoyu. "What don't you tell her?"

Shoyu stared at Sasuke for a second too long, then looked away, cheeks burning. "I don't know. I just don't think my parents need to know everything. Is that so bad?"

Sasuke shrugged and his arm slid away from Shoyu. "No, it's not. It's just interesting."

Relieved, Shoyu continued walking in silence. He wished he didn't always feel so embarrassed around Sasuke lately, but it wasn't something he could change, he supposed. Life was the way it was.

"Is there anything you don't tell me?"

"A few things," Shoyu said. "Not much."

"Tell me."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because." Shoyu frowned, pointedly looking away from Sasuke. "No one says everything to anyone."

Sasuke hummed and nodded. "I'd be worried if you told me everything so easily."

"What? Why?"

"Because people who have nothing to hide aren't normal," Sasuke laughed. "We all have some secrets we can't tell others."

"Tell me some of yours," Shoyu said, halting his walk. Sasuke stopped a step ahead and turned back to him. "You never say anything about yourself. That's not normal either."

"I never said I was normal."

"But you want me to be normal?"

"Yes." Sasuke nodded. "Is it so strange?"

"I suppose not," Shoyu sighed.

"I'll tell you one thing."

Shoyu looked up at Sasuke, ears perked up.

"I'm married to Hanabi-chan for appearances only."

Frowning, Shoyu cocked his head to the side. "What does that mean?"

"It means we married because it was mutually beneficial," Sasuke said. "Not because we loved each other or wanted to."

"Why?"

The concept was entirely foreign to Shoyu. His parents still seemed in love to this very day, and so did Ino and Lee. The very point of marriage was to unite two people in love, wasn't it?

"She loves women," Sasuke said, resuming their walk. Shoyu followed eagerly. "Not very conducive to having children for her clan. I wanted a child and no wife, so we married and had a child."

"But now you have a wife."

"Aren't you listening?" Sasuke chuckled. "On paper, I do."

"And not on paper?"

"I get to do what I want."

"Who you want, you mean," Shoyu said.

Sasuke laughed. "I knew you weren't that dense."

Shoyu pursed his lips.

"You're still a virgin, aren't you? That's why you blush you so much."

"Stop saying I blush."

"You do."

"You don't have to keep pointing it out!"

Sasuke laughed again and Shoyu could only frown in defense.

"Say," Shoyu whispered. "Does that mean you like men?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Why are you asking?"

Shoyu shoved his hands in his pockets and shrugged. "If your wife likes women and married you because of that, maybe you like men and married her for that? So you both do what you want?"

"Who we want." Sasuke smirked. "That's not a question I'll answer. Not for free."

"What's the price then?"

Sasuke hummed. "Tell me your most embarrassing secret."

Shoyu sucked on the inside of his lip. It wasn't hard to decide what his most embarrassing secret was. He looked at Sasuke, at the wolfish grin he so often wore, and his heart raced.

"I can't," Shoyu finally said.

"Then I won't answer your question."

Shoyu sighed. "You're always so difficult."

"You're just too soft," Sasuke said. "It's not so hard to get what you want out of people if you try."

"What's that even supposed to mean?"

"You could get your answer from me if you wanted. Who said you had to tell the truth about your secret?"

Shoyu paused. "But I don't want to lie to you."

"That's alright," Sasuke said. "I'd rather you don't. But it is why you're too soft - you can't trick people."

Staring at his feet, Shoyu thought of his spar with his father just that morning. Both of them reproached him this quality. It must be what his father meant, too. Sasuke and his father both fought dirty by his standards, but it was how they always won against him in the end.

…

Crouched down, Shoyu chucked a piece of chicken jerky between him and the cat hiding under the table. It was horribly skinny and could use the food much more than he could himself. The cat drew his ears back, back round, but his nostrils flared as it smelled the meat.

"It's okay," Shoyu whispered.

He held his hand out, showing the cat the back of it. The cat inched closer from under the table, watching Shoyu intently as it inhaled the meat. Shoyu took out another piece and held it out. It took a while and some more coaxing, but the cat finally came close enough to take the piece from his hand.

"There you go."

Shoyu offered it a few more pieces until the cat was relaxed and purring as he petted it. Scrawny as it was, it was still cute. He could probably get away with bringing it back home once he was done here.

While Prawn - because he had a soft brown fur that reminded him of cooked prawns - ate his fill, Shoyu took his sweet time to explore the bookshop. There were books in Konoha, but certainly not a store that sold them. There were only a handful of stores in the village, nearly all for basic necessities like food and clothing. There were still price tags on the books, some not so worn and still readable. He recognized the sign of the currency as the one they still used, but he doubted it translated well to today's value. Or maybe the before-people were rich enough to spend a week's worth of food money on a single book?

Several books caught his attention; the first of them being Icha Icha. His mom had often said the name while teasing his father. He shouldn't have been surprised to find out what kind of book it was. With a shrug, he threw it in his backpack, followed by books on cooking, the history of Konoha and Suna, and modern technology. One more attracted his eye, but he opted to leave it behind. His bag was becoming heavy and he had no piano to practice what the book would teach him anyway.

Shoyu hummed and looked around the shelves once more until he found a book about cats. It might help him know whether or not Prawn was sick.

"Ready to go, Prawn?"

Prawn meowed loudly, all the while purring. Shoyu laughed and picked the cat up. It settled on his shoulder, comfortable and clawing at his back.

Just as he had the last time he came here, Shoyu walked slowly through the streets. He fed Prawn a piece of meat every now and then. Everything felt so foreign to him. Even the ground below his feet was fashioned from some type of rock. The streets were lined with tall logs of wood and strange tubes were connected to them. Wires, he'd found out. They carried electricity that produced light coming from the bulbs he saw everywhere here. That such a thing was possible was beyond him, yet it was real.

His parents often lamented the lack of electricity and how convenient everything used to be. When he was a child, he would produce a small amount of electric chakra in his hands and present it to his parents, hoping to please them, but they only laughed. It wasn't quite the same, they said, and he now guessed he needed to channel the electricity through those wires somehow.

There were many restaurants and stalls along the road and a quick check inside them revealed that their cooking tools were also connected by wires. The before-people didn't use fire to warm their water or oil. Throughout the kitchens, Shoyu found many items he wished he could bring back to study further. One metal grid with many small, round holes looked particularly funny to him, but he also liked a certain cube thing he found. He didn't know the material it was made of very well - plastic, if he recalled correctly - and it had a glass panel on the front. He would ask Sasuke about it.

When he entered a new shop, Shoyu froze. There was a man inside. Silent as he could be, Shoyu hid Prawn in his bag and placed it just outside the door.

"Hello," Shoyu said.

The man jumped and turned around, drawing his weapon.

Shoyu held up his hands. "I'm not a threat."

The man wore a headband like his father and Naruto did, only with the Kumo insignia. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm just looking around. You?"

"You're from Konoha."

Shoyu nodded. "And you're from Kumo?"

The man was still poised for battle. Shoyu controlled his breathing the best he could, every muscle in his body tight. The man's sword glistened just barely, reflecting what little moonlight there was.

"That's none of your business. Get out of here."

"I'm just curious - " Shoyu took a step back when the man lifted his sword. "I just want to know what you're doing here. You knew this place before the war, didn't you?"

"What did I say?" the man growled. "Fuck off!"

"I'm not hostile," Shoyu repeated.

The man either didn't believe him or care - he rushed forward. Shoyu dodged the first swing of his sword. His heart raced and boomed in his ears. He had definitely aimed to kill. Shoyu ran for the window and crashed through it. He fled, but the man followed him.

"Go away!" Shoyu shouted. "I'm not a threat!"

It was no use. Shoyu couldn't shake him. Swallowing against his dry throat, he stopped and faced the man. He must have had a good thirty years on him - thirty years of fighting experience just like his father had. Shoyu hurried the hand seals for a mud wall and tried to trap the man in a cage, but in his haste, the wall was too weak and crumbled when the man crashed into it.

Backed into a wall, Shoyu had no choice but to fight in close-quarters. He dodged the first slash, but the second sliced his side and Shoyu yelped in pain. He tried to run again, but the man grabbed his collar and sent him tumbling to the ground. Shoyu rolled out of the way when the man aimed the tip of his sword towards his heart. Hand coated in chakra, Shoyu grabbed the sword and pulled as he hard as he could. The man came down with the sword and Shoyu pressed a hand to his chest. His chakra control would normally be as precise as his mother's, but today, it came in one strong burst. There were crunching and squelching sound inside the man that almost made Shoyu retch.

Shoyu shoved the man off of him and scrambled away until his back hit the wall. The man lay lifeless before him, back twisted grossly. Trying to catch his breath, Shoyu stared at him. There was no blood. There hadn't even been a sound - he'd died instantly. He'd only meant to severe the largest blood vessel in his heart. Instead, he'd… pulverized, it felt like, his insides. It had been easy, even.

Swallowing, Shoyu stood up. He stared a moment longer, like the man may still come back to life and try to kill him again, then hurried back to hurried back to where he left Prawn and his bag.

A/N: Just reminding you all that if you want to continue reading this story, you will have to go to Amrun's profile and select Under the Moon's Eye. You just have to fast-forward to the last chapter. All chapters related to this story will be called "Shoyu" so they will be easy to find. Thanks to everyone who read and I hope you liked it!