-By Proclamation of the Magician's Court-
No magician shall willingly use their magic to torture, injure, or steal an innocent's soul.
No magician shall willingly use their magic to shatter any soul, innocent or otherwise, without permission from the Court.
A magician may only tamper with another soul if there is no other choice.
No magician shall tamper with a soul less than eight years of age.
Those who fail to comply with these commandments will be apprehended, judged, and fed to the Shadows.
Contrary to popular belief, shadows were not mere spots of darkness.
Oh, if one were to look at a shadow, that would no doubt be all they would see – a patch of dim shade, not quite pure black and nowhere near as bright as full light, laid across the surface of the world. Even shinobi, those who lived, worked, and observed from the shadows every day of their lives, would see only that – a shadow.
But that was because they were looking in all the wrong places.
These shadows moved. There were no animals, objects, or people casting them – they simply pulsed in the air, twining in great smoky tendrils around one another until their movement wove them into a wall of black and violet that dispelled all senses but sight and sound.
The dense fog was parted by a waving hand, a hand formed with veins of a very pale, almost white, twilight grey.
"Is everyone here?"
The voice echoed in this strange space, but it was recognizably human, despite the alien surroundings.
The owner of the waving hand waited as, one by one, other figures, some veined with the same bright twilight as himself, others with black or grey or violet, materialized out of the mist.
"Sure thing, Yuugi!" One figure – medium height, outlined by strings of almost-white, with a head of shaggy hair barely visible in their abstract surroundings – called. He shifted his weight from foot to foot experimentally. "Man, I'm never gonna get used to talking like this…"
"Get used to it quick, Jou. You're a part of the Court now, we can't be kept waiting for you, even if time's a little wacked here."
"Hey, I resent that! I'm on time!"
"This time."
"What was that, Kaiba?!"
The first figure – the one addressed as Yuugi – sighed as the by-now traditional and mostly one-sided argument began. Ignoring the rising voices, he instead turned to the other four arrivals, checking each of them for the distinctive shades of the auras. One, in the vague shape of a man in a turban and cloak, nodded to him respectfully as his gaze passed over them.
"Well," he raised his voice so it could be heard over the other voices, "everyone's here. Jou, Seto, would you mind leaving your spats for later?"
Grumbles of assent from both men.
"Good. In that case, I officially call order to the Magician's Court!" He clapped his hands together, the harsh sound ringing in the otherwise dead silence.
When he was sure everyone was paying attention, Yuugi continued professionally, "Now, how have things been going on your end? Has anyone ran into any trouble since last time?"
"The shinobi of the Land of Lightning have been particularly active lately," one figure – shorter, veins dark as coal – said, in a tone of voice that suggested he was scowling. "Someone got the bright idea to hire a couple of the weaker ones to assassinate me. I sent them to the Shadows a week ago."
Several voices groaned, one, a woman's, softly scolding the man for his behavior.
"Marik, you can't just set the Shadows on anyone."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fully aware of that, thank you. I made sure to give them a chance to back down."
Shaking his head, Yuugi turned his attention to the tallest figure, who took a moment to gather his thoughts.
"Nothing amiss on my end, apart from the mutt apparently having been hired by my company without my knowing."
"Hey!"
"Anyone else?"
The other five shook their heads, murmuring.
"In that case," Yuugi crossed his arms. "On to the real reason I called the meeting early." He took a deep breath.
"I'm going to scout out Konoha, to see if I can find any budding mages there."
"What?!"
"Are you nuts?!"
"That has to be the third stupidest thing you've ever suggested."
He raised both hands quickly. "Whoa, calm down! It's not that big of a deal!"
"Not that big of a – Yuug, you know what'll happen if 'ya get found out!"
The young man sighed. "I do know, which is why it's only me and Yami going. I can pull off the 'harmless civilian look' pretty well."
Mutters of dissent.
"Look, I never said I would be staying there for long," he added. "It's not like I'll be moving in. Besides, it's unlikely that I'll actually find anyone, especially with all that ambient chakra hanging around. You guys all know what happens with magic and chakra in the same place."
They did. In an environment where chakra usage was great, magic had next to no foothold, and mages were even rarer than in the rest of the world – a one-in-a-million chance versus the normal one-in-several-thousand chance. In other words, more or less impossible.
"I don't like it," the other woman in the circle sneered. "If the odds are that low, why risk yourself at all?"
There was a derisive snort from the tallest figure. "There's no point in wondering. It's Yuugi."
Some muffled, anxious laughter, and some sighs.
"Besides," the man continued blithely, "there's no point in trying to convince him not to do his little scouting mission, because he's probably already in Konoha."
Some cries of disapproval, alarm, and the other figures turned towards Yuugi, who could do nothing else but grin cheekily at them.
"Well, now that that's been cleared up –" he began cheerfully.
"Yuugi-!"
"– I think it's about time –"
"Yuug, don't you dare –"
"- that I get on with what I mean to do! Meeting adjourned!"
And with a snap of his fingers and a vaguely disembodied chuckle that didn't quite sound like his, Yuugi Muto disappeared from the strange, dark place with a speed that would have had any ninja drooling in envy.
You're going to pay for that later, aibou, I'm quite certain of it.
The voice, not quite a thought and not something audible by the human ear, was deep and echoing faintly, leaving imprints of dark amusement in its wake.
Yuugi's grin, which had yet to actually go away, grew larger in response.
I know. He thought. But I need to keep them on their guard somehow, right? They need to get used to the unexpected.
And wanting payback for their joint prank had nothing to do with it, I gather?
The grin turned into a full-blown evil smirk. Of course not.
He wiped the smirk off his face before any passerby – shinobi or civilian – could notice, and sat up from his reclining position on the bench, stretching stiff muscles and groaning weakly. Jonouchi wasn't the only one still getting used to the Court's newest means of communication – though, for Yuugi, who had the most experience with the shadows thanks to his darker half and his own personal experiences, it was less a matter of strangeness and more a matter of fatigue. Despite all his power, and the closeness he had with Yami, both of them were still technically only half souls, with hardly any of the endurance that the others had.
It was a little frustrating, but he'd rather lose every ounce of endurance he had than go back to being completely whole. At least with him and Yami separated, he always had someone to talk to, someone to confide in.
Yami, would you mind searching the village while I book a room for the night?
Look for the normal signs?
Yes, please. Remember, be careful.
The slightly darker violet tint to his shadow – one of many signs that his other self was present and accounted for – jumped to a much larger shadow cast by a nearby building, before vanishing. The sudden departure made him shiver involuntarily, wrapping his arms around himself as the strange, disjointed feeling of being in two places at once made itself known.
After a moment of recovery, the young man sighed and forced himself up onto his feet, wincing at the pins-and-needles sensation left over from his nap.
In his old village, and the surrounding towns, Yuugi knew every road, every sign, every shortcut, every pond and animal trail, even knew every animal that traversed those trails by the unique sensation of its soul.
Konohagakure was not his old village.
This became blatantly obvious to the young mage when, after booking his room and deciding to wander and immerse himself in the sights and sounds of the town, he got hopelessly, pathetically lost.
Not that he minded, honestly. So long as he stayed within the fortified walls, he had no doubt that Yami would find him again with relative ease, and being so well acquainted with the shadows of the world would more than make up for his sense of direction.
Also, this town was actually rather nice, for what was basically a military outpost. The buildings were in good repair, freshly painted, with colored roofs and awnings, colorful shopfronts, charming cobblestone streets, and plants growing in abundance. Add the majestic sight of the huge rock faces of the Hokage, the surrounding forest, and the tall white tower at the center of the village, the place had a mysteriously charming vibe.
There was an undercurrent of tension in the people as the went about their day to day lives, however. Nothing serious, no panic, nothing violent, and it seemed to not even hinder them as they went about their day, but it was there, buried under the normal, everyday emotions. It was especially noticeable in the few ninja (recognizable by the familiar green vests and leaf headbands) he spotted on the roofs or in the street.
He felt a little tense himself, though for completely different reasons.
Chakra – the energy used by shinobi to perform their superhuman feats – was a powerful thing. To the untrained – or non-magical – senses, it was invisible, and yet it permeated the very earth around them, laced through every fiber, every stone, every cell. But to a mage, here, in this village where it was used in great quantities every day, it was an itch that was borderline overwhelming.
How could the shinobi live with this, every day, and have most never even notice it?
His musing was cut off by a familiar flicker of violet.
Done sight-seeing?
Yuugi half-smiled at the teasing. I guess. Did you find anyone?
Instead of an audible response, there was just a general feeling of no.
Well, he hadn't actually expected anything from this place, anyway. Like he's said to the Court earlier, magic and chakra didn't get along too well – and even if someone with chakra could potentially use the Shadows, it would be a minimal, temperamental usage at best.
In that case, would you mind leading me back to the Inn?
A moment of silence, then a subtle tugging at one of his legs, urging him to start walking.
There were children nearby.
This wasn't particularly unusual, of course – even in a military village like this one, there were bound to be families settling down. Still, it was such a bright, cheerful sound in an otherwise quiet place that he couldn't help but be drawn to it.
He settled down on a bench, and watched with amusement as several children, all around eight to ten years old, ran and tumbled and mucked about in one local playground with the air of people who'd been confined indoors all day, and wanted desperately to relieve their stress.
I'd imagine they have been indoors all day, Yami commented wryly. They're certainly old enough to be in school.
And at least a couple of them are in the Ninja Academy, Yuugi noted, as one boy, stocky and brown-haired, accompanied by a tiny white dog, jumped from one of the platforms and rolled when he hit the ground, absorbing the impact. I can't imagine they get to act like children too often there.
They watched the boys and girls for a few more minutes, as they switched between different games – tag, catch, what might have been a failed attempt at hide-and-seek. Then, just as Yuugi decided enough was enough and stood up to leave, he noticed another child.
A blonde boy, the same age as the others, standing awkwardly to the side, fidgeting and watching, just as Yuugi was. He was barely visible, hidden in the shadows of one of the trees lining the little playground, but he wasn't quite invisible enough for Yuugi to not notice, with a single glance, the darkness behind his blue eyes, and the dark shadows lingering around him.
Yuugi frowned. Of course, it stood to reason that a village like this, which trained it's children to be assassins and warriors, would have a few lingering around who had lost someone. That was his first thought, seeing those shadows, that this little boy had lost someone, and recently, judging by the rawness of those blotches of darkness on his soul.
The other children finally noticed the boy, and stopped playing.
"Hey, look," one of them hissed. "It's that kid again."
"Geez, why won't he just leave us alone? Doesn't he get that no one wants him here?"
"Hey, dumbass!" the boy with the dog shouted, smirking. "Shouldn't you be at home with your parents?"
This earned a slight flinch, and an angry glare from the blonde.
"Hey, we shouldn't be talking to him," one of the girls said, turning her nose up at him disdainfully. "He's bad news, mom told me."
Now there was a flicker of hurt in blue orbs, and, with an angry glare, the blonde turned and ran away. The other children jeered after him for a few moments, until he was out of sight, then turned back to their peers and started chattering and playing again like nothing had happened.
Not one of them seemed the slightest bit guilty.
Well, that was rude. I wonder what he did to deserve that kind of treatment?
Yuugi frowned. He doubted it was anything the boy had done. He recognized bullies when he saw them, no matter what age they were.
Making a split-second decision, he turned away from where Yami had told him the Inn was and followed the young blonde.
Yuugi –
I'm just making sure he gets home okay, Yuugi reasoned. He ran off on his own, and I'm sure his parents or guardians would be worried.
A sigh. Very well. He turned down the first street to the left.
He followed the trail the boy's wounded soul had left behind for some time before he actually caught up. He'd walked almost across the entire village, leaving the park far behind and coming across what he assumed to be a market street, lined with numerous shops, mostly restaurants, judging by the myriad of delicious smells. People were hustling and bustling about with a bit more purpose here than the rest of the town, but Yuugi hardly paid them any attention, zeroing in on the aura he'd been following.
He found the boy inside one of the restaurants, a little building whose entrance was covered with banners declaring the place to be called Ichiraku Ramen. The inside of the building was rather small, with only a single counter and row of bar stools, and the boy was perched on one of the stools, working his way through a bowl of noodles, broth, and what looked to be pulled pork.
Yuugi considered him for a moment, then pushed aside the banners and made his way inside.
"Hello!" said the young woman behind the counter, giving him a winning smile. "Welcome to Ichiraku's! How may we help you today?"
Yuugi gave her a kind smile back.
"Hello. I'm afraid I've never been here before, do you have any recommendations?" He gestured to the menu.
"Oh, a traveler?" she asked. He nodded. "Well, the Miso Ramen is a customer favorite."
"May I have a bowl of the Miso, then?"
"Coming right up!" She disappeared through the door to the kitchen. After a moment, her head popped around the doorframe again.
"Oh, and Naruto, your second bowl is almost ready for you! Father will bring it out shortly."
The boy grumbled what might have been a thank you, but otherwise didn't react. The woman gave him a sympathetic look before pulling her head back into the kitchen.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, Yuugi sparing brief glances at the boy. Up close, he could see a series of strange birthmarks on his cheeks that vaguely resembled whiskers.
Finally, his other half said, He's been glancing at you frequently since you arrived, out of the corner of his eye.
Now Yuugi turned his head, in time to catch the boy's suspicious stare. The blonde froze.
Yuugi smiled. "You know, it's rather rude to stare."
The child just turned away quickly and started shoveling his ramen into his face with ease of practice. He didn't apologize, just kept his gaze fixed firmly on his bowl, his hands clenching particularly tightly.
"There's no need to be uptight about it," Yuugi reassured him, apparently surprising him into looking back at him. "I get a lot of stares." The young man gestured at his wild head of gravity-defying, black, red, and blonde hair, his smile turning rueful. "It comes with the hair, I suppose."
This earned the first sign of levity he'd seen from the boy – a small, almost imperceptible, snicker.
"How…" The boy paused, then finished quickly, "How did you get your hair like that anyway?"
He waited uncertainly, as if he half-expected Yuugi to refuse him his answer, but what he got was an even wider grin and a chipper, "Oh, it's natural!"
Cue those blue orbs blowing up to the size of dinner plates. "No way!"
"No, it really is, it runs in my family!"
"That's...that's…"
"Weird?" Yuugi supplied.
"Cool!" The blonde blurted out. "I mean, your hair looks really cool, so –"
He stopped, the budding innocent enthusiasm in his eyes and voice fading a little, then bit his lip and looked back down at his bowl.
"Sorry," he muttered.
Yuugi frowned, watching the boy with concern, noting the tightening fists, the tense muscles. It was almost as if the child was preparing himself for a physical blow.
Abused, perhaps?
Better take this slow. If he was a victim of abuse, then he might bolt for it the instant he asked an incriminating question.
"Your name's Naruto, right?" he asked gently. The boy looked up at him sharply, as if surprised.
"You didn't know?"
"No, should I have?"
"Well, yeah… I mean, if you're from Konoha."
He gave Naruto another rueful smile. "I'm not from around here. I'm just passing through."
The blonde grumbled, and stuffed the last bite of ramen into his mouth just as a middle-aged man emerged from the kitchen carrying a fresh bowl of steaming food. He set it down in front of the boy, and after a quick little bow and a mutter of thanks, Naruto started stuffing his face with that, too.
He waited another minute (during which his own bowl of ramen was brought out and he took a few careful bites – it was quite good, no wonder it was a customer favorite), before he hesitantly asked, "Are you alright?"
Naruto choked, coughed, spluttered for a few moments, before whipping around to face him with the most shocked expression he'd shown yet. He didn't even bother to hide it.
"W-why do you want to know?" he managed.
Concern, both from Yami and Yuugi himself. Why such an extreme reaction? Sure, he was just a random stranger, but that couldn't have been all of it, could it?
"Well," Yuugi began a little uncertainly, "you seem a little upset." More than a little. "And you're alone. Don't you have any friends to spend time with?"
Naruto's eyes darkened, and their shared sense of concern grew into something approaching alarm as his lips curled into a hateful sneer.
"Who needs friends?" he snarled. "They're all stupid. I hate them!"
"What about your parents?" Yuugi ventured. The darkness in his eyes intensified, thought this time, when he spoke, his voice was almost indifferent.
"Don't have any. They died when I was a baby."
An orphan?
"What about your guardians, then?"
"Guardians?"
"You know, the people that take care of you now that your parents are gone?" Why was he feeling a rising sense of dread?
"Oh, well, Gramps stops by every now and then to give me my money for the month and Iruka-sensei takes me shopping sometimes."
Yuugi just stared at him in astonished horror. That wasn't a guardian's duty, to just leave money for a child to survive on for a month with no idea how to spend it!
"That's not what a guardian does! Who takes care of you now that your parents are gone?!"
The little sneer that had started to disappear turned into a full-blown, animalistic snarl, Naruto's eyes scrunching up in anger.
"I take care of myself!"
"But surely some adult here in the village –"
Naruto finished one last gulp before slamming his bowl on the counter with some yen underneath it, and storming away.
"Hey, Naruto-kun, wait a moment!"
He sprang to his feet, pushing aside the curtains, ready to pursue – when he felt the faint sensation that was Yami's equivalent of putting a hand on his shoulder.
Aibou, wait.
Wait? But –
Look.
He did.
And what he saw was, as the little boy ran off into the crowd, the adults quickly pulling away, some pulling their own children with them so they were out of the way as he passed. Some went so far as to shield them with their bodies. Murmuring began – he couldn't hear the exact words, but the tone was an unmistakable one.
Disapproval. Fear. Hatred.
All of those hateful faces, aimed at the disappearing back of a little kid with no family to turn to.
That little girl said "He's bad news, mom told me," He remembered, the feeling of dread only intensifying as Yami inevitably came to the same conclusion as he did.
The entire village has turned their backs on him.
What did he do to deserve this?
Even though his original plan had been to simply spend the night, and leave when morning came, Yuugi booked a couple extra nights in his room and spent his days searching for Naruto. Yami, who would normally remind Yuugi that people didn't always take too kindly to even friendly interference in their lives, took to stalking through the streets himself, jumping from shadow to shadow in an effort to find the boy.
Two days later, Yami suddenly came surging back.
I've found him! He's back at Ichiraku's.
Yuugi more or less dropped everything and rushed to the little shop.
Sure enough, when he stopped outside, there was Naruto, just leaving the shop and waving over his shoulder to the owners with a smile on his face.
Though the boy seemed more cheerful than before, that loneliness, as he'd eventually recognized the unknown emotion to be, was just as pronounced as before.
He waited, watching as the boy turned away and started trotting at a leisurely pace, seemingly unperturbed by the continuous barrage of hate coming from the crowds around him.
Yuugi…
He didn't need his darker half's prompting. He quickly walked after the boy, deftly weaving and bobbing through the throngs, and telling himself that no, this did not count as stalking.
He tailed the boy out of the market, through various main streets and some alleys – shortcuts, he guessed – all the while ignoring the stares he was getting, until suddenly the boy stopped at a little bridge that was free of traffic, and turned around quickly.
"Why are you following me?" he asked suspiciously. Yuugi shifted his weight nervously. His first impulse was, of course, to say I was worried about you, but considering how Naruto had reacted the last time…
So instead of following his instincts, he took a slightly safer path and asked, quietly, "Why do they hate you so much? The villagers?"
A scowl crept across the boy's face, but he just looked away.
"I don't know," he said. "They just do."
They stood there in silence for a moment, as Naruto supposedly waited for another question and Yuugi struggled to think of something else to say, something to help.
Unlike most wounds to a human soul, loneliness could not be healed with just magic. The wounds themselves could be forced to scar, but if the afflicted remained alone, the scars would just reopen. The only real cure was to find someone to lean on, to share burdens with – someone to dissuade that loneliness. Friends, family, anybody.
But no one in the entire village, save for this "Gramps" and "Iruka-sensei" that Naruto had mentioned and the two owners of Ichiraku's, seemed to even want him around. Their hatred had obviously been passed down to their kids as well – he'd bet those children at the playground weren't the only ones who openly mocked him, bullied him, whenever he walked by.
"And you don't have any friends…?"
Naruto shook his head sullenly. "I don't need any."
That was a lie. His eyes spoke volumes, even with the lighter mood he'd been in. He wanted, no, needed someone to confide in.
No one here, save a few, were willing to really help him. The few who seemed to treat him alright didn't count, in his eyes, because despite the fondness in the boy's voice when he'd spoken of them, and the smile he'd given the Ichiraku's owner, it was obviously far from enough to even begin to heal those wounds.
"Well," he began, "even if you say you don't have any, it would be nice to have at least one, right?"
"Yeah, so? It's not like anyone here wants to be my friend."
No one here to help. Which meant…
Yuugi, are you sure?
He took a deep breath. Positive.
"That's not quite true," he said. "I want to be your friend."
Silence. Then Naruto turned to look at him.
He looked stunned.
"Y-you – y-you what?"
The mage gave him a smile – a wry one.
"You seem nice enough to me. And you're the first person I've met to call my family's hair cool."
"B-but – b-but –" Naruto gulped, struggling to squash the hope rising in his eyes. "You're not from here, right? Wh-what about your family?"
"My grandfather died two years ago, and my parents travel frequently, so I rarely see them."
"D-don't you already h-have friends…?"
"They travel a lot, too. We mostly talk to each other through letters." And through the shadows. "Actually," he added thoughtfully, "if I moved here, it might be easier for them to send me things. You don't really have a mailing address if you're just wandering around."
Naruto's mouth was opening and shutting, that bright gleam in his eyes growing.
"B-but… what about the people here? If you be my friend, they'll hate you, too…"
Yuugi smirked, letting Yami's amusement at the idea leak through to the outside world.
"Naruto, they can hate me all they want. I don't need their approval, and you certainly don't, either."
He held out one hand, his smile growing. "Well? What do you think?"
He waited.
He didn't need to wait long.
The weak brightness in the boy's eyes grew until unrestrained glee was pouring from them, and with a happy yell, the boy sprung forward to latched onto Yuugi in a bear hug, almost knocking the short man over.
Amused – and glad he'd finally gotten a real smile from the child – Yuugi ruffled his hair.
"So does this mean we're friends now?"
A beaming smile was aimed up at him.
"Yes! We're friends!"
And as Naruto eagerly took Yuugi's hand and walked with him back to his hotel, babbling eagerly about apartments near his that Yuugi could move into, and how "Gramps" might give him money too, if he asked, and the two of them drew numerous astonished stares, Yuugi suddenly remembered something he'd said during the Court meeting, and couldn't help but laugh a little at the thought.
Looks like I'll be moving in here after all.
