Butterfly
Butterfly knives are not shinobi tools. The time in which it takes to open one, though the graceful spin is to be quietly acknowledged and admired minutely, is more than an assassin of the shadows is willing to take. Even katana and tanto, with their sheathes on the users' backs, are greatly preferred over the seemingly waste of metal that the shinobi consider the butterfly. Such a weapon is a civilian one, and is below the ninja. No competent ninja would willingly wield a butterfly.
This is precisely why the butterfly is so perfect forKamizuki Izumo's mission.Disguised as a gypsy fortune-teller new to the civilian town on the outskirts of the Fire Country, he is to be seen and underestimated while his partner Hagane Kotetsu investigates more discreetly. Currently, the heir to the Divine Moon clan is making himself at home in a fortune-telling booth he has set up. Being the first full psychic the Kamizuki have had in decades has its uses, and Izumo tells people what they want to hear while gleaning the local gossip.
Kotetsu walks into the shadowed booth on the third morning since he officially entered the town. Before that, he had watched the town undetected for a week from just outside the walls and in various forms using henge. Kotetsu's summoned sparrows were useless, as they were not a native bird. Izumo had spent the week setting up and getting on the good side of the locals.
His partner has been idly flicking out and in a butterfly knife, waiting patiently for the expected customer. Out. In. Out again. "Good afternoon," Izumo greets Kotetsu, gesturing for him to sit. He hides a smile as he continues to play his part and puts away the knife. "I foresaw your coming."
"I'm sure you did," Kotetsu responds, sliding a bit of paper currency to him.
Izumo glances casually at the message- "You're in danger"- before he speaks again. "The mind is most vulnerable when it is off-guard, is it not?" I expect I'll be attacked during the evening, when these enemy nin expect me to be tired. Really, have the other countries nothing better to do than send their best after gypsies?
There is a slight frown on Kotetsu's face as he drinks the offered tea and responds to Izumo- both the spoken word and the projected thought. "It seems that way. Therefore one should be constantly vigilant to avoid such an attack, ne?" You know, usually I'm the one who jokes around, here. You're a real idiot, not even carrying a kunai or senbon for protection. You don't honestly expect that waste of metal to do any good. Have you figured out the attack pattern for yourself?"
"Night would be the hardest time to remain vigilant. Even those attuned to the sights of the future grow weary as night falls." I'm not an idiot, just so you know. I'm setting it up so he attacks me when I want him to attack. It's a full moon tonight. And waste of metal though it may be, the butterfly is the perfect tool for this job.
"Just be careful, then. It wouldn't do for the town to lose another diviner, especially a new one like you. The attacks on them are random." It's your head, then.
You're a prat and you know it. "I've had my future looked into, and my death was not foreseen. Even fortune-tellers have rules, you know. It's taboo to divine my own future." Izumo smirks a little as he takes Kotetsu's cup and scrutinizes the dregs at the bottom. Uncle would have my head if I attempted to divine my future. Not to mention what Mother would say.
"Yep, that's why I'm asking you to divine my future, not yours." Kotetsu grins back. You're thirteen years old, Izu. Where's your rebellious streak?
You stole it. "I see you being a desk jockey in the not too distant future. Take whatever outside work you can until then. What profession did you say you were in?"
Sure. Blame me for your lack of spine. I'm serious though, how the hell are you going to protect yourself against those psychos? I took out one last night, but he was just a Chuunin like us. Some of his comrades are Jounin. "I didn't."
"Touché." I've got it covered. They won't even know what hit them.
And indeed the enemy ninja do not know what hit them. At first, they have the new diviner cornered, in no position to defend himself. They laugh a little as the teen pulls out a butterfly knife, and mock him as he holds the closed blade upside-down. "By the time you have that blade out, you'll be dead," one informs him. Clearly these shinobi are new, for no seasoned shinobi ever underestimates a target. It's a practice among the Chuunin of the Hidden Leaf to assume the worst: that the target is S-class and they'll have to use all they know to bring them down.
The newbies do not know this, nor do they know the hours Izumo put into perfecting this technique. Kotetsu does, however, and wisely leaves his position on the darkened roof for the alley nearby. He goes unnoticed by all except for his partner. Without warning, the blade is charged with chakra as it flips out, point facing downward. Izumo slams it into the ground up to the handle, the chakra bursting out to form a circle that binds his enemies to where they stand, unable to move. Seconds later, they are dead, courtesy of the ninja they had previously thought to be a civilian with no concept of fighting skills and the one they had not noticed in the week and a half since his arrival to the area.
Izumo dusts off his yukata as he stands. The butterfly is a dusty and crackles with residual chakra. The dark haired boy shakes his head, disappointed in himself. "I'm still putting too much chakra in the blade. Ye gods, if Iruka knew I was wasting chakra…" he shakes his head again as he strips off the yukata to reveal long shorts and a sleeveless shirt. Kotetsu throws him his Chuunin vest.
"I'm sure he'll just be glad you didn't blow up the blade again." As a personal quirk, Kotetsu is frisking each body for weapons and scrolls. His reasoning is that a civilian with too much time on his hands and not enough brains might find and misuse the shinobi tools. Izumo's contradiction is that Kotetsu is a kleptomaniac at heart. Kotetsu does not agree or disagree. "Let's go before someone comes."
Izumo's family has never approved of Kotetsu, and blames their child's- son's, grandson's, nephew's, cousin's- interest in the butterfly on him. They argue that the heir to one of the great clans of the Leaf- they refuse to acknowledge the Hyuuga or Uchiha, the lot of cheaters and thieves don't deserve the prestige they receive, that honor should be for the true geniuses like the Nara and of course the Kamizuki. However, the former are uninterested in the spotlight and the latter play the gracious one and have come to terms that though their skills are greater than that of any technique thief the ones higher up often fall the hardest. They are suitably distressed when Itachi slaughters his own clan, mostly because they may be next, though honestly the next on the weasel's hit list should be the Hyuuga- should be learning traditional shinobi weapons and techniques, particularly and especially those of their clan.
Izumo learns these as his clan requests-orders- and while he is with his former team, he trains in the more…unusual arts. Kotetsu had been the one to give him the butterfly knife he now wields as a last resort. The Hagane had no use for such an awkward weapon, except to maybe melt it down so he could make it into a kunai. Iruka was the one who had speculated that focusing the binding chakra circles that the Kamizuki had recently developed through a medium such as a weapon might better focus the attack. When Izumo showed the new skill to his parents and clan head, they were both pleased and horrified in equal amounts. Pleased that the heir was finally displaying the talent they knew he had, horrified that he was using such an anti-traditional weapon, and basing his technique off ideas of a smart ass weapon maker and a clanless hothead.
Kotetsu smiles as they leave the town after properly disposing of the bodies. "ne, Izu? Do you think your parents will be happy when they hear that you used the butterfly knife on a mission again?"
Izumo's response is a snort. "I'm sure they'll be thrilled."
---fin-
End Notes: I've actually used a butterfly knife before. It's a pain in the rear to use it in the normal fashion-for me at least- and I can't quite get it to work the way I have Izumo using it. I'm still working on it. Sorry about the sporadic italics and hyphens everywhere, I'm experimenting currently. Flame away.
If you want full reasoning as to why I portray the Kamizuki as a group of psychics, see my profile. It's too much to put here. The Kamizuki have a bit of an ego problem and resent the Hyuuga and Uchiha, as demonstrated in the last part of the fic. They're with Maito Gai on the entire spiel that hard work so kicks blood traits- that is what he and Lee are always going on about, right? Hard work being just as good if not better than genius and blood trait? -so they like to think they're on the same level as those two clans.
Canon Kotetsu probably isn't a klepto either, but I like to think it's a trait he outgrew, or that maybe he still takes the enemies' weapons. It's the only sensible course of action to take, really. For more information on him, see my profile.
Meh, I rambled again. Criticism is welcome.
Disclaimer: I don't own Izumo or Kotetsu or Naruto or anything affiliated with the show except for the Sasuke plushie someone gave me. Apparently, the Chuunin get no love.