Chapter 3:

Stable Song

Ring like silver, ring like gold. Ring out those ghosts on the Ohio. Ring like clear day wedding bells. Were we the belly of the beast or the sword that fell…we'll never tell…

"Calming chakra, you say."

"Yes, ma'am."

"How did the medics describe this phenomenon?"

"Extremely smooth flowing chakra, ma'am. Similar to water, in their words, flowing smooth enough that it would emit a very calming effect that acts in a soothing manner, not unlike that of nature chakra or even the effect that a fetus feels from the chakra of its mother while in the womb. According to the medics the two are similar." The ANBU agent trailed off as if he did not really understand the explanation that was given to him. While unusual chakra natures cropped up from time to time no one really knew what caused the deviation from the norm except for those who studied chakra extensively, and many times even those experts did not have all the answers or could not answer in a way that anyone else could understand what they were talking about.

The woman leaned back in her chair and glanced out of the corner of her eyes at her fellow councilors. Their faces were all heavily lined from years of stress with the exception of Koharu who had aged as gracefully as a kunoichi of her prowess could. To a civilian, the age of forty-one was not considered old, or aged. To an active shinobi, living to their mid-thirties was a huge accomplishment, forties was rare. Most of those who lived that long rarely saw active duty, something that could not be said for Koharu.

Utatane Koharu knew that she was the most compassionate one of the three council members gathered, and the one most likely to seek what other options they could besides execution. Her teammate, Mitokado Homura would be the one to weigh the potential assets and liabilities of the situation before making a decision one way or the other, he balanced out Koharu's passionate tendencies with his even temper and calculating nature; even in their youth he had been the one that was never ruffled no matter the situation. Shimura Danzo, on the other hand, would be the one to lean toward eliminating a potential threat as soon as it was found. Danzo never was one for letting a situation play out and see what would happen, preferring to strike from the shadows before something could turn into a threat. Though it had saved them before, this hasty thinking had cost them allies and assets over the years despite how well-intentioned or well-structured his plans were.

Though Danzo was not on Koharu and Homura's official team which included the current Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, they had all made up an extremely well-balanced team that could overcome most anything that was thrown at them; each balancing the other out. Which was another reason the three of them made up the Hokage's Council, they all thought about problems in different ways and because they had known one another for years they could be frank with each other without fear of offending. Danzo would always urge the Hokage to war, while Koharu would demand action of some kind, and Homura would always analyze the situation before giving his advice, and the Hokage would always look for the decision that would be the most beneficial in the long term for the Hidden Leaf. Between the four of them they had prevented the next Great Shinobi War many times over. A village's leader needed a support system that could take some of the weight of responsibility off of him otherwise he would drown under minutia that came with the paperwork combined with the tough decisions.

Contrary to popular belief, the three did not sit up in the Hokage tower thinking up all the ways they could advise the Hokage to be more aggressive toward the Hidden Leaf's enemies. Much of their time was wrapped up dealing in the politics so that the Hokage could be free to make the decisions that he had to and gathering intelligence. Though their bodies weren't as young as they used to be their minds were as sharp as ever. They knew the repercussions of any actions that might be taken and acted accordingly.

No, despite what the younger generation wanted to believe, the three of them were a product of the times in which they had grown up and lived—breathtaking violence and years upon years of bloody war—and were appropriately paranoid about the world and their enemies. You could be damned sure that every other hidden village had councilors just like them advising their respective Kage. The current Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, was an idealist at heart and had adjusted to the long years of peace that had separated the First Great War from the Second better than his teammates had.

Oh, how Koharu longed for the days when she could move as only a kunoichi could and was still in her prime. Though dangers of those days were more numerous than the present she and her teammates did not have to rely on others to do what needed to be done.

While they were prepared to sacrifice for the village, they were also reluctant to let a possible asset out of their grasp. After several weeks of observation by ANBU, the calming effect exuded by the civilian woman who had been dubbed Yamada Hanako by her guards was found to create a relaxed feeling in those around the woman. The effect was described to be similar to the feeling of home and warmth, comfort, even. After a few hours of discussion with the current ANBU captain assigned to Torture and Interrogation the trio had come up with the idea of keeping the woman somewhere, whether with the hospital (unlikely according to Koharu, she'd only be in the way), near the ANBU barracks (unlikely according to the ANBU captain because of the constant distractions she would pose), or kept hidden within the ANBU headquarters in order to utilize this calming effect. ANBU operatives were wound up tight by the stress of their missions, and it was imperative to their health—mental and physical—that they be allowed to de-compress in some way. Some took up hobbies, some gambled, others lost themselves in drink.

After a while the idea was proposed by Homura to allow citizenship to the woman and have her housed somewhere within the shinobi districts and assign ANBU agents that were beginning to be affected by the more demanding missions to guard her. Officially, the woman would have ANBU guarding her so that they could keep an eye on here and watch for either suspicious behavior or any effect besides her unusual chakra nature. Unofficially the woman would be a tool to help with the mental health of ANBU agents and help give them a place besides ANBU headquarters that they could relax.

The masked captain brought up the possibility of agents seeking out the woman's company even when not assigned to guard duty and suggested that it might be prudent to make the safe-house a larger location than a simple-person apartment. To everyone's surprise, maybe even Danzo's himself, Danzo declared that if they were going to create a safe atmosphere so that their more paranoid agents could relax and not end up snapping from constant stress, then why forbid agents not on missions from seeking that out if they felt that they needed that calming presence? Besides, he added, it was possible that the woman's chakra nature would be passed on to any children that she would have, so it would make sense to encourage her to willingly establish herself within the village. And if, however it might or might not happen, that the father any potential children were a shinobi, then the child would be an asset either by joining the shinobi forces or by providing the same effect as the mother.

Koharu was surprised by Danzo's thinking; he rarely thought that far ahead on matters such as this. Maybe the birth of his first grandchild was causing him to consider more the future generations of the village than the current dilemmas it faced in day-to-day matters. Though the thought that a child would be a result of what they were going to do was a darker one, it was prudent and realistic to plan for it. Koharu knew exactly how higher level shinobi coped with stress. Although at least Danzo hadn't suggested a breeder route. Some villages contained departments that dealt with the—cultivation of bloodlines. Such a thought disgusted Koharu and left her with a dirty feeling. She would avoid that for the Hidden Leaf at all costs. Some things weren't worth the methods they took to get there, even for shinobi.

Then again, Danzo could be up to something. The members of the council and Hokage were in a constant struggle against one another; after all these years of knowing one another it was difficult for them to one-up each other and they would usually take the opportunity to rub anything in their peers' faces. They did the same thing when they were Genin, Chuunin, and Jounin, but their machinations didn't have as far-reaching effects as they did now.

God, Koharu missed the old days.

The days when she did not have to virtually sentence a woman to having a child because that was the only avenue she had to making sure another soul was not executed by the Hidden Leaf. The war had already taken enough to satisfy any blood-lust she might have held. Her village might have the reputation of being the 'good guy' of the shinobi world but that reputation was a façade every village tried to maintain that hid the things they did that left a sour taste in Koharu's mouth.

No matter.

After all these years that taste was all Koharu knew.

Things are weird now. Ever since I went into the office with the old man and the pig-masked man—Pumba— I could understand things. For whatever reason, I can now understand writing. Well, sorta. The symbols I'm reading—kanji, the bird-masked guy called them when he pointed to the words on the page—make sense. It's not like they rearrange themselves and turn into English on the page, but I can understand them. Like in the way one reads another language they're fluent in and understands what the words mean. I can't understand a word of what these guys are still saying. And the symbols themselves, well they're not a phonetical system.

I communicate with the guards, because that's what they really are to me, by writing back and forth. It's very strange and disorienting for me to think of what I want to say in English and then just knowing what shapes and lines to create to describe what I want to say in another freaking language. When I try to go through the process slowly in my mind, much like a musician practicing a single measure rather than an entire phrase, I get a slight headache. I still have that original piece of paper with me—the one that says 'Leaves Hidden of Village'. Or rather, after I mentally decipher it and try to think of it in a working way, 'Village Hidden in the Leaves.'

They gave me a small leather-bound journal. Just as "screw you" to them, I've been writing solely in English, rather than their language. A few things are coming back to me. I can remember why I want to call that guy Pumba, it has to do with a story about lions and a monarchy. There's a meerkat and a warthog involved, the warthog's name is Pumba. Pig equals Pumba. Other than that, I've just been writing down what's going on, writing down what's happened to me over the past few days. Also, I'm about seventy-five percent sure these guys are speaking Japanese, from what I can remember. Random snippets are coming back to me now: my name's Elizabeth, I prefer Elle, I was in college... No, I graduated. I was working before I got here—wherever here is—and I was pretty into working out. I remember that I was a business major, worked in accounting, but not much else. My family was large, but I can't remember if the blurry faces are siblings or cousins. Just small details, but the details that make, well, me.

Oh, the bird guy is back. I really need to decide on a name for him. Bird Guy is so—impersonal.

The ANBU operative watched Yamada Hanako finish writing out a sentence before she snapped her journal shut in a popping sound and set it and her pencil down beside her. She wrote using solely romanji characters, he had noticed. The strange alphabet was used so rarely he knew only what one or two of the characters meant. Hirigana and katakana were used for sounding out unknown characters, not that script.

She tucked a few strands of strawberry blonde hair behind an ear and peered up at him with grey-blue eyes. Rather lucky, he thought, that her right arm was uninjured. She wouldn't have been able to communicate with them via paper if it had been. She didn't look as bad now as she had those first few weeks after her interrogation. Most of her injuries were healed or still healing. The T&I department wasn't exactly known for its gentle bedside manner. Knowing that she couldn't understand him, he beckoned with his hand for her to get up and follow him. She looked a little annoyed at the gesture, but followed along.

Hanako said something in her own language as they left the room, but Sparrow ignored it and started the walk up to the outbound processing office.

Once they reached the processing office, Sparrow gave Hanako the packet of papers that detailed where she would be going, the details and terms of her release, and the terms of her continued residence in the village. She immediately started going through and devouring the details within with a ferocity that Sparrow could understand. As far as he and his fellow ANBU operatives knew, she had been plucked from whatever realm she came from by a botched summoning seal and dumped somewhere hostile where she didn't know the language and didn't understand anything that was going on around her. What was truly remarkable was how well adjusted she was about the whole situation. On the surface at least. On the inside, she was probably a few steps from a breakdown. Still, for a civilian, she was doing rather well.

Ever since the Yamanaka had performed their experimental justu on her, things were better, but that didn't solve the spoken language barrier. The girl had been reading through all the books they had given her concerning the Hidden Leaf and the culture of Fire Country and its immediate surrounding areas. Really the books were introductory texts for academy students, but they served their purpose just as well here.

After ensuring that the papers were read through and signed, a copy was given to Hanako, and then she was free to go. Well, metaphorically speaking.

Sparrow adopting a henge in a puff of smoke that startled Hanako, and he took on the appearance of a brown haired man of medium build in his late twenties.

'This is the appearance I will take on when escorting you in public places,' Sparrow wrote on a notepad that Hanako carried with her. 'I will now escort you to your new home.'

She read it and nodded, with a quick "Hai," one of the only words she knew so far.

The elevator ride out of the T&I department was a little tense. Sparrow could tell that Hanako was still quite uncomfortable with her new watcher. The tenseness in her shoulders, though she kept her back straight and shoulders squared, belied her underlying anxiousness. The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. Sparrow exited first and Hanako followed. The main lobby of building in which T&I maintained its 'public' face was mostly black and sleek looking, with lots of smooth stone surfaces. It wasn't a hospitable looking place, more like the lobby of a law firm or some similar place. Shinobi periodically flit in and out in streaks of motion that to a civilian would look like they were appearing and disappearing. Hanako stopped at the sight and didn't look like she wanted to go forward until Sparrow gently touched her shoulder. She flinched away at the movement, but the action snapped her back into reality, and she followed.

The Village Hidden in the Leaves was split into several distinct districts. The central district contained the epicenter of trade and was mostly markets, businesses, and restaurants. Very few people lived in the central district, those who did were mostly shop-owners who lived above their businesses. The districts directly surrounding the epicenter were more residential, and mostly segregated between civilian and shinobi, although the two intermixed in few areas. Beyond that, the outermost districts of Hidden Leaves were inhabited by clans and those rich enough to own estates of various sizes. Most of those estates, however, were passed down from the descendants of the founding of Hidden Leaves and were bound to various shinobi bloodlines. It was rare for those properties to ever change hands, and if they did, it was either a subject of great scandal, or misfortune.

Outside, Hanako looked around her with great interest. The sun had was still rising, but the early morning marketplaces were beginning. Housewives haggled for fresh produce while keeping an eye on errant children, and vendors not yet set up were standing up their booths. The air was fresh, crisp, and clean. Apparently industrialization hadn't made as much of a mark here as it had in most places in the world. The air was free of the pollutants that Hanako was so familiar with, and it only served to drive home the point that she was somewhere she didn't belong.

The streets changed as they walked. Markets and shops gave way to apartment buildings which then gave way to houses, which gave way to apartment buildings again, and then houses once more. Their destination was close edge of the line that divided the clan holdings from one of the shinobi districts, which was quite far from the village center. Sparrow led Hanako down a few small roads that branched away from the main one they had been taking. At the end of a row of houses, they reached their target: A rather unassuming house, small, painted cream with red shutters and a red door. Small flower beds were out front between the few feet of space that divided the house from the street, but they looked as if they'd been neglected for some time. Flowers grew, but a tangled mess of grass and weeds was starting to encroach.

Sparrow climbed up the five short steps and the added height only made him tower above Hanako, accentuating her slight build. He pulled a key from a pocket and unlocked the door. He gave the key to Hanako, with a gruff "Kore o toru."

Hanako didn't have any pockets to put it in, but she took the key all the same. The ANBU opened the door to the house and gestured for her to go in. Inside, it was lightly furnished. Two small couches and a coffee table were placed in the living room, and a table that sat four along with chairs was in the dining area part of it. The kitchen was at least good sized, and was separated from the living-dining area by a bar. To the right of the dining area were two doors, one which led to a bathroom and the other a bedroom. Beyond the dining area was a short hallway which contained a master bedroom with an adjoining bathroom. Both bedrooms had sliding doors that led to a back porch which ran the length of the house and faced a backyard. Hanako actually couldn't tell where exactly the back yard ended, as there was no barrier to define it. There was a ledge, however, which dropped down to reveal a river which flew from West to East. Both directions, she could see various bridges, all quite high. Hanako decided that during rain it must swell quite a bit for as tall as the banks were built.

Once back inside, Hanako began to more closely inspect the house. There were a few small cracks here and there in the walls, more a sign of age than disrepair. It didn't look like the place had been inhabited in a while. There was a layer of dust on everything, and the kitchen, while furnished with a few basic dishes and utensils, contained no food and the all the appliances were unplugged. Another door in the kitchen that Hanako had assumed was a pantry was actually a utility room which had a stacked washer and dryer, the pantry she had been looking for, and a side door leading to the outside.

The blonde started creating mental lists. Some shopping would definitely be in order: cleaning supplies, food, linens, dishes, and not least, some more clothes. The ones that she was currently wearing were given to her by the Intelligence division and were very plain, and made to fit someone slightly larger than her. Plain black pants that tightened and stopped at calf level, a loose black long sleeve shirt, and navy sandals. She looked quite unassuming and easily passed over. Hanako preferred something more—well, her own. But, she had a budget to stick to, and would have to prioritize things accordingly.

Lost in thought, Sparrow observed silently. The young woman had walked through the house, checking the cabinets and closets, taking inventory of her new home. The place was actually larger than what she would have gotten otherwise, the second bedroom was meant for whomever was currently guarding her. The house had been built right after the First Shinobi World War when many shinobi were starting to settle down after the long periods of fighting. As such, the place actually held a few tricks such as security seals that when keyed to a shinobi would alert them of trespassers onto the property. The last resident had been a war veteran who had died years before and had no heirs, so the property passed on to the village. The house had periodically been used as a safe house since, but not often enough to actually turn the water and electricity on very often.

Now, the village had a different use for it. Sparrow was well aware that his superiors thought that he was wound too tight. It didn't concern him too much though. Who wouldn't be, after the kind of missions he had been running for the past year and a half? Sparrow actually didn't think it was too bad of an idea, assigning the agents who had been running stressful missions for too long to simple guard duty like this. Safe in the village, in close proximity to some of the larger clans that ran security of their own, and assigned a low level target like Yamada Hanako who had no strategic value of note besides the effect her chakra had on those who spent an extended amount of time with her. If this were a mission assigned by the General Shinobi Corps it would most likely be taken by a fresh genin team. As it stood, any operative good enough to be accepted into ANBU would be perceptive enough to see the assignment for what it was: mandated R&R for the sake of their mental health.

A/N:

If anyone here is into geopolitics, you will know that the world is nasty. Like, a super fucked up, nasty, horrible place. Just think of the Middle East, for example: Five global powers are sticking their hands in there, stirring things around. Even if you are one of the people who wants the US to pull out of there, if the US does pull out, there will be repercussions out of that decision that may make the place worse or better than it is now. Decisions that seem on their face to be good from one side, may end up in the deaths of more people. Conversely, staying in may lead to the same thing. When you have that many players vying against one another, things get dirty fast. For the majority of us to stay safe, there are people in dark rooms who have to make terrible, fucked up decisions so that we can stay in our picture-perfect world. I don't support a lot of those decisions, but I also recognize that I probably would never want to know what all evil things have been done so that I can have the life I do today. I do hope that those decisions weigh as heavily on them as they should and haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Danzo, Homura, and Koharu are just some of the people in those dark rooms who have to make these decisions. I hold the personal opinion that ROOT was probably founded to do the things that Konoha couldn't do overtly, and, besides the brainwashing, probably wouldn't be as traitor-y as they were made out to be in the manga. Instead they would probably be super-patriotic. To the point of removing a Hokage if they thought that he was a danger to the village? Maybe. I don't know. But I think that they would be the roots growing in the dark so that the leaves could turn their faces to the light.

Hanako's Situation: I also want to be very clear: If Hanako didn't emit calming chakra, she would have been executed in Chapter 2. As it is, she doesn't have very many rights, similar to Naruto himself. She's classified as a Village Asset just like a Jinchuriki and several others of similar significance are. ANBU controls her entire life even if she doesn't realize it, and any freedoms she has are because they have been generously allowed, not because she really has them. She's essentially a prisoner in Konoha and if she ever tries to rock the boat, she'll find out just how true that is. Nobody from Konoha is going to have any sympathy for her either, because they know she's lucky to be alive and should be thanking the village just for letting her live.

Another deviation from the standard SI/OC and 'person finds themselves in the Naruto universe' stories; Hanako has no clue what Naruto is. She's never read the manga, never watched the anime. I've based her character off an amalgamation of people I know, and maybe one or two of them are into anime. In fact, I'd say that she's never watched a single anime before. She's as much of a movie and literature buff as the average person. So, how would an average person handle being dropped in that world? How would Bridgette in HR or Karen in Accounting do if you plucked her out of her office job and said, 'find your own way back. Good luck, fucker'? Hanako keeps to herself right now and keeps her head down because she's pretty depressed. If you've ever lived in another country that few to no people speak your language, you'd know that it's extremely easy to become a homebody and depressed even if you normally aren't because it's so fucking hard to get around easily and communicate with people. That's where Hanako is. She wouldn't normally be so quiet and introverted, but it's what would realistically happen to someone in this situation.

The Language: For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to say that the language of Fire Country is Japanese. It isn't, but since the manga is written in Japanese, there are so many words that won't really have an English translation (honorifics, words like ninja, shinobi, kunoichi, etc.). For words that do have a direct English translation, with the exception of some jutsu names, I'll just make it a direct translation instead of sprinkling a whole ton of Japanese words in here that I don't actually know. I'm not a huge fan of that trend of 'show off how many random Japanese words you know.' Now, we wouldn't expect all the surrounding countries to speak the same language. We won't pretend that they all speak Japanese across the Elemental Countries. I'll refer to the language of Fire Country as Blaze Dialect (If someone has a better name for it, I'm open to suggestions), and I'll name the other country's dialects similarly (Storm Dialect for Lightning Country, Gale Dialect for Wind Country, etc.).