Title: Louder Than Words

Summary: It's the worst sort of cliché, but it just became my life. Here's hoping I survive it. OC SI

Author's Notes: Thank all the gods I got this out a lot quicker than last time! Jesus, it feels wonderful not being ill any more. And don't worry, I am working on Chapter 25 of On the Ocean Blue, it's just coming out really slowly. And painfully.

*Gai is currently 18 years old, or thereabouts. I'm not good with dates and timelines and what have you. (But neither is Kishimoto, though, so…)Also, while I will be using bits and pieces from the anime, a lot of what was established by it will not be appearing here, and I will not be staying fully on the Track of Canon established by the manga either.

While this won't be completely AU, it's going to be a bit different than the Canon was.

Chapter Four:

Precognition

[...clairvoyance relating to an event or state not yet experienced...]

I was one hundred percent correct on two things.

Gai was fucking nuts about taijutsu, and he did kick my ass.

Continuously.

Every time we met.

I lay face down in the grass, my legs screaming with agony, my chest struggling to draw in more air, my hair soaked with sweat, while Gai – who wasn't even remotely winded, gods all damn him – circled around my prone body on his hands. It had been close to two weeks since I'd started taking lessons.

"Are you all right, Kaname-san?" he asked, nothing but concern in his voice, and I groaned, before prying my head out of the ground and giving him a weary smile.

"You kicked my ass, Maito-sensei," I teased, and giggled when his eyes sheened over with excited tears.

"Sensei! Why, Kaname-san, I'm not-"

"My mother would be appalled to know I haven't given someone who's taking time out of their day to teach me something the proper respect," I said as primly as I was able, considering that I was still all but embedded in the earth. "Appalled, let me tell you…Now, uh, sensei…could you help me up? I can't quite feel my legs."

Gai flipped to his feet, and did just that, his arm like a band of steel at my sweat-soaked back. I grinned lazily at the younger man, swaying a bit. I had rarely had so much fun with a trainer in my entire life.

The only time I'd ever enjoyed doing anything like a workout was the daily dance classes I had been taking back home. But Gai – all of eighteen or so years old, green from head-to-toe, and clothed proudly in his admittedly very dashing jōnin vest – was the most motivating trainer I'd ever been blessed with.

I would probably be cursing his name before two months were up, but still! I had a lot of fun, and that made me want to do more, and become even stronger, and that was the most important part of exercise!

"Piggyback ride?" I asked him hopefully, as the jelly that had replaced my knee joints quivered alarmingly.

"I will get you back home in under twenty seconds, or I will do three hundred laps around the village!" Gai boasted, and swung me onto his back. I squeaked and clamped on, giggling helplessly.

"On your hands, right?" I asked, before shrieking as the world bled into color.

Gai was the only ninja I'd met who could do the shunshin properly, in my honest opinion.

I could feel the earth splitting beneath me.

There were screams.

Hundreds upon thousands of them.

I was failing.

And my people would pay the price.

"Kaname-san, please re-shelf these," the matronly woman who was the evening librarian said, pushing a small cart loaded high with books over to me.

"Of course, Matsuda-san," I said with a respectful smile, taking the cart and pushing it to the shelves.

The Library of Konoha was much smaller than the libraries I remembered from my home, and from my childhood days. But it was still extraordinarily extensive, especially for a militaristic society that had only just several generations ago been immersed in a brutal series of civil wars among themselves.

I could marvel at that, even as my mind balked at the thought of the Warring States Era and the sheer amount of death involved in it. It was funny, to see that Konoha used the same names as Japan did, though that was only to be expected, considering Konoha was essentially (something of) an older Japan-expy.

…With superpowers.

And anachronisms galore.

I shook my head wryly, and went back to shelving the books. At the very least I was lucky that I'd been slingshot into this world with an added ability to read and understand Japanese – or whatever language was used by the natives. I never would have done half as well here if I hadn't.

My fingers slipped into a book on a town near Konoha – called Kitano, and wasn't that a jolt to hear – and I opened it for a quick look.

The kanji were still as legible as ever – Kitano has a population of 5,000 and is primarily home to textile merchants… - even though I'd never taken a day of Japanese in my life. Perhaps it wasn't too out of left field in regards to my verbal understanding the language, as I'd been an anime person all my life, even using Spanish subtitles on Japanese dubs to further my understanding of both languages…

But kanji?

I hadn't even gotten far enough to understand the written word with Arabic, and I'd taken Arabic classes for close to three years.

I sighed, and shelved the book, before continuing down the aisle.

Fire raged.

Fire consumed everything.

I lay on the ground, dying slowly, my husband dead.

A gasp left me, trembling and broken.

The moon was full.

Sarutobi Moriko was the most intimidating woman I had ever met in my entire life.

Also, I really wanted to kick her in the shin.

And my knees hurt like hell.

The elderly, grey-haired retired kunoichi sniffed audibly as I wrote with painstaking caution, careful to write out the kanji that spelled my new name without getting the sleeves the probably expensive as fuck kimono I had been given in the ink.

Of course, I had to do all of this utterly and absolutely gracefully, without a single error.

"Wrong!" The woman snapped, and I managed to keep myself from jerking and smearing the words into a blur.

I kept my head down, and boiled with annoyance.

"The spirits only know why the Hokage thought I could do anything with someone as ramshackle as you," the dark-eyed woman sniffed, perfectly poised. "I feel pity for whatever man he chooses for you. Sit straight, girl!"

I did so, and fixed the expression on my face I'd learned many years ago while a theater student -absolutely attentive, alert, and respectful, without showing a single shred of my real emotions.

"Hm…" the woman glared at me. "The elders will expect much more of you than this paltry nonsense, girl. Pour tea, and do it right this time."

Help! I begged, shameless in it, and felt the laughter that had become so very, very familiar spiral through me.

There was a feeling of unseen hands wrapped around me from the inside out, and a gracefulness I had never possessed suffusing me. A noble sort of air, one that allowed me to float out of the annoyingly painful seiza position and to my feet with little effort.

I gathered the instruments needed, made and prepared each cup, and then poured the tea, before setting the cups before her, and then me. I sank back into the position, and we drank.

It was testimony to my training, self-control, and the help of the voice inside my head that I didn't spit out the horrifically bitter tea but instead sipped it with quiet ease.

"Adequate," Moriko said grudgingly. "Perhaps you will not be a total failure."

Thank god, I thought, without a single twitch on my face to show my true feelings. But then she kept speaking, and my inner triumph melted away like quicksand.

"Show me how you've progressed in your work with the kudaragoto," she ordered, pointing at a cursedly familiar instrument resting in the corner of the room.

I inwardly groaned.

Noblewoman's training sucked ass.

People never changed, no matter where they were from.

The temples burned, my people slaughtered, betrayed.

I pulled the air from the lungs of a man with unearthly skin.

Then another, and another.

Die, die, die, die, DIE!

The dummy thunked as the kunai whacked into it. It was ridiculously far away from the red and white circles that formed the target, but at least it was actually on the dummy-

I winced as the kunai fell out, and rubbed my wrist.

"That's, uh, really difficult," I said sheepishly.

Haruki shook her head.

"You're doing well, especially for a first time student," she praised, and my face flushed.

"Thank you, Haruki-san," I said with a shy grin.

I'd only started my lessons with the older woman less than a week and a half ago, but I was still stuck on throwing practice kunai. I wouldn't even get to using practice shuriken for a long while yet.

But at least I got to spend time with Haruki. She was a far better teacher than her jackass of a mother, and had a lot more interesting stories to tell and things to teach.

It had taken a bit to get her to see that I wasn't entirely useless and creepy, but she had seemed to warm up to me after that. I was glad, because Haruki with a smile was a sight to behold.

"You know," Haruki said suddenly, as I was gathering the kunai and storing them in the box they were kept in. "The first time I practiced with kunai, I hit my brother in the ass."

I choked.

"No, are you serious."

Haruki chuckled a bit, rubbing the back of her head.

"I kid you not. He must have leapt six feet into the air. Accidentally used chakra to boost himself. Landed in a thorny bush."

I cackled. "Oh, wow. He must have gotten you back good for that," I said, falling in step beside her.

I had never had siblings, but I had had enough friends who had siblings to know how these things usually went.

"He put itching powder on my bed sheets."

"A classic."

"I got him back, though."

There was Haruki's rare smile, with a hint of a smirk, proud and curling at the edges, genuine warmth and good humor, with the sort of sadism best personified by younger (and older) sisters everywhere.

"Tell me everything," I said, my eyes all but sparkling.

I staggered to my knees.

Not now. I could not die now.

There were hundreds of more men coming.

I threw out my hands, one last attack, to push back this betrayal.

But I knew would never see my family again.

Rie's house was probably one of the few in all of Konoha that had actual air conditioning, in light of the experiments she conducted as part of R&D, a fact for which I was exceedingly grateful.

And it was likely I would be spending a great deal of my free time here, for both the cool air and the obvious welcome Rie had for me. It was hard for me to remember that the confident woman was still considered as much of a foreigner as I was, even though she'd been here for years longer.

I supposed her being originally from the Land of Lightning didn't help her case any, though she'd lost her family to Kumo-nin.

Being among company that didn't look at her suspiciously had to be a breath of fresh air, in any case.

I breathed out, and the candle on the table in front of me flickered. The machines I was hooked up to rattled dangerously, and I broke off, seriously alarmed.

Rie laughed.

"No need to fear, Minori-kun. I already told you things will more than likely explode during these sessions of ours, and these machines are replaceable."

I gave her and the machinery an exceedingly skeptical look, which made her laugh all the harder.

"It's not a problem, Minori-kun, I promise you that, in light of what you're bringing to the table. And you've made such progress that even if you don't do well with your presentation to the Sarutobi Clan Elders, they certainly won't be able to throw you out. Your kekkei genkai is much too powerful."

My fingers brushed over several small burns on my fingertips, and I scowled.

"Crotchety, old, power-hungry fucks," I groused.

Rie's hand brushing over my head was sympathetic.

"I know, but you'll be out of it soon. Has the Hokage decided on a husband for you yet?"

My spine went straight, and my face went sullen. I couldn't help, and more importantly, I didn't want to help it.

She sighed.

"Not looking forward to it?"

"…No."

Rie stood, and walked to the machine closest to me, fiddling with it a bit.

"You're not the type to accept false platitudes, Minori-kun. So I won't give you any."

She stopped, and looked at me. Her eyes were sad and maybe a little bitter.

"You'll have to get married, undoubtedly, as the village will make sure of it. Your powers are too extraordinary to let die out. But that does not mean you cannot make things work for you. Find a husband who either loves you beyond all others, or find a husband that will give you all the things you most want. Do you want power? Respect? Wealth? The ability to do what you want, unhindered? Or even the freedom to pursue those you may be more attracted to? Find someone who can give those things to you – a Konoha man, naturally - and make sure you get him. Just because you must have a husband, does not mean you must be stuck with one who does not suit."

She smiled then, a sly upturn of her lips, and her fingers glowed with chakra, like tiny stars.

"I grew up poor. I grew up poor, our family destitute. We were a branch house, you see, poor in everything except for our bloodlines. Oono Akihiro was a kind man, a gentle man, but above all, he was wealthy and he was connected. I was determined my children would never suffer as I had, that our family would never suffer as I had, to the whims of differing political views among shinobi," Rie said, walking back over and sitting down before me.

Sitting there stupefied, I realized that I was entranced by her words.

"I wanted my Akihiro, and I got him. I was friends with Himawari-sama, and Hiashi-sama could deny her nothing, after all." She pressed a finger to my chin and pushed it up, making me look her in the eyes.

"I would never have suffered a man who would have stood between me and my goals. And you don't have to, either," Rie said, and smiled, soft and real and genuine. "I will help you in this regard."

"…Thank you," I breathed, aware of how big a gift she was offering me was. She kissed the top of my head, before settling back, and into her more businesslike demeanor.

"Anyway, let's get back to work. Try lighting the candle again, if you would."

I came into a broken world, my people long dead.

My gifts and my connection to the dying spirit world could not help me.

It was a latch ditch effort, my birth, to heal the wrongs.

I came into a broken world, the last of my people.

And I left it even more broken than it had been before.

I was being watched.

I was being watched, and it was driving me straight up the fucking wall.

During my training sessions with Gai, my lessons with Moriko, during work, when I was out and about, during my free time – someone, or several someones, was watching me.

I wasn't stupid. I was a foreigner with strange abilities in a foreign, uber-militaristic village where ninety percent of the population had either sociopathy in varying levels, PTSD out the wazoo, or a combination of the two. I would have been quite surprised if I hadn't been followed.

But for the love of God, I didn't think I would be so completely aware of them.

Weren't ANBU – and I knew they had to be ANBU, from the flashes of uniform I had occasionally spotted, and the presence that had first alerted me to my stalker(s?) – supposed to be the 'elite of Konoha's elite' or whatever?

And I knew – don't ask me how, I still didn't know – that whoever followed me thought less of me.

They thought I was stupid, thought I was weak, and a waste of Gai's time, and god only knows what else. The feeling their presence carried with them held the snooty sort of air that a rich, snobby brat might have when expected to be around 'lesser', poor children.

And it made me very, very angry.

I walked to the clearing where I would be starting to learn katas from Gai, feeling the presence alighting on trees behind me, and felt a smile curve my lips. Wicked, wicked, wicked!

But hell, I couldn't resist.

Tucking my hands into the pockets of the shorts I was wearing, I veered off and to the left, vaguely registering the wary surprise of my stalker. I broke out onto an uncrowded street, where they would be forced to tail me closely, or risk letting me get out of range.

I stopped by a small, red-roofed building. This was a part of town that was only sparsely inhabited, and mostly belonged to shops and the like that weren't open this early.

My stalker perched on the roof near to me as I planted my feet on the ground, breathing deeply.

Then, as quickly as I could, I put my fingers to my lips and blew the single most piercing, most ear-splitting whistle I'd ever let loose in my life. It could have probably been heard clear over the borders of Suna.

I'd spent innumerable summers at my cousin's sheep farm. If I could do anything, it was blow a man's eardrums out with a proper whistle.

I heard a curse, a clatter, and a thump.

Blowing the still unseen presence a kiss, I propped a hand on my hip and said "The Hokage really should get someone better to watch me, ne? I get the fidgets whenever stalkers can't be arsed to hide themselves, you know. Good try though!"

Not one to push my luck, I quickly hurried off to meet Gai, giggling helplessly all the way.

A woman floated above me.

The sky was red and burning, and her eyes were mad.

I held a boy in my arms, kneeling on the scarred earth.

He had blond hair and blue eyes dulled by death.

I screamed in anguish.

And I-

-woke up.

My face was soaked with sweat, my chest heaving, and it took effort – far too much effort – to crawl up onto my elbows. Thoughts flickered like darting fish through my mind, unable to hold still for too long.

Those damn nightmares. Fucking hell, but I was getting so sick and tired of the incessant nightmares.

At home, I'd rarely, if ever dreamed. Sometimes I'd been beset with the occasional surreal dream or half-mad nightmare, often a whirling riotous blend of colors that left me choking and gasping when I woke up, but this.

This was something else entirely. The despair, the fear, the choking insecurity, the death-

God, I felt like I was going mad just by going to sleep. At least I hadn't known any of the people in the previous dreams. I could maintain something of a distance with them. Just a little of it.

(Not really, but at least it hadn't stayed with me for too long…)

But this last one – the white-skinned woman, the strange, inhuman gaze, the blood seeping over my hands, the red sky – I shuddered, and wrapped my arms around myself.

I had been holding Uzumaki Naruto. A dying Uzumaki Naruto, and facing-

I shuddered again.

Ōtsutsuki Kaguya. The Ten Tailed Beast.

An emotion that was a lot like recognition, ancient and grieving and endless, rushed through me and I sobbed, curling my arms around my knees and burying my face in them.

"No, no, no, I don't want this, please don't…" I pleaded.

What did it mean? Was it just some sort of fever-dream brought upon by my proximity to Naruto? Was it just homesickness and loneliness and the fear of what was to come?

Should I have told someone? Gotten this knowledge off my chest? Told the Hokage or Inoichi about it?

…No. No, that I couldn't do.

My position was precarious enough as it was, and if it got out what I knew…

I would be forced to live under lock and key, or maybe people would think I was crazy and ignore me entirely, or maybe someone like Orochimaru would get their hands on me. And that was if Danzō didn't try to have me killed.

…No.

I had come too far into the future to actually do anything, and my knowledge (such that it was now, all faded at the edges by time and past lack of interest) was by no means complete.

If I let things continue, if I didn't interfere, it would all turn out all right.

Naruto would defeat Kaguya, the world would be saved, everything would be fine, if I didn't interfere.

Right. I could do that. I could-

the sky was red as blood

-do that.

I dropped back onto the pillows, and pressed my hands over my face.

So why did that feel like so much of a lie?