Chapter 4: Konoha
*O*O*O*O*
Traveling through Konoha was weird to say the least, and that was ignoring the fact she was part of a village that taught people to hate it.
It was a nice looking town - not surprising, they were known as the most civilian friendly village - that, however, had few main streets and many, many places to hide and even more to travel undetected. She knew where the snake got the idea for his underground maze designs from the moment she laid eyes on the clusterfuck of backstreets this place had.
Alley spread into alley spread into dead-end seeming alley that actually led back onto a main road but was covered by roofs in a way it looked like another building from up above. Between shadows and trees, there was no way one could truly survey the endless paths without entering them oneself.
They turned their village into a god damned death trap.
The thought brought a smile to her mask covered face as she leapt to another roof. She had started to analyse the place while ticking off training fields in her search of the Uchiha. Did her a fat load of good. This was a place you just couldn't get to know without growing up here.
As she excused herself from the last field she had scoured for the boy, the ANBU that had been following her finally went down to a level of stealth where any halfway decent ninja would have noticed her. Tayuya briefly contemplated accepting the invitation and saving herself some scrutiny, but decided that if she was going to be posing as a runner, she might as well act like one.
Runners were not known for giving a fuck.
So even when the woman came up to directly stop her on one of the more sturdy - although most buildings here looked like they were capable of surviving combat - roofs, she just flashed her sigil and continued on unimpeded.
Her eyes roamed the surroundings, remaining on any mop of black hair or symbol reminding her of the Uchiha's fan for brief moments before moving on.
On the note of buildings, and ignoring the confusing way most of them were arranged, they all had at least two openings, not counting roof hatches or windows. And just to put the icing on the top, Konoha's wall - the only wall in existence effective against ninja -, for some reason, looked like it was just as hard to climb from the inside as it was from the outside.
And they had an evacuation plan that not even Orochimaru with all his insider knowledge had an idea how to exploit.
She really wondered why 'nice, slackly guarded village' was the first thing coming to mind to most visitors.
Still, she pushed the thoughts away as she arrived at training field three, which seemed to be in use, at least.
*O*O*O*O*
He was going to die.
A slight overdramatisation, admittedly, but he was getting far too close to it for his liking.
His crimson eyes flashed across the landscape, frantically scanning trees and dirt alike for the next tripwire, the next concealed trap or sabotaged footing, all while he ducked between a flurry of kunai thrown at velocities most experienced chunin would have trouble producing. The blades impacted the tree moments before his foot, the bark breaking where he placed it, making him sink into the tree's side halfway to his ankle. Several blades cut into his skin, leaving swallow cuts.
He stuck his palm to a non-weakened part of the trunk, pulling himself out of the sinkhole and out of the way of a wire that impacted the tree with the force of a chakra-charged whip. Just that normal whips didn't cut trees in half.
And people wondered why so many ninja got injured during training.
As he blocked the splinters with his arm, some managing to find their way around his arm guard and painfully biting into his skin, he belatedly noticed that his body was on collision course with one of the hanging cables he had memorised earlier.
His left eye turned just enough to see the thin metal spanning the space between the plants, glinting in the sparse sunlight, but so faintly that almost no one without his visual prowess would have noticed it. His momentum was carrying him right into it.
There was no stopping in mid air. There should have been no use in trying to avoid it, for the necessary level of movement was above most ninja to achieve without ground contact.
But he wasn't most ninja.
He was an Uchiha, one of the only survivors of the clan. Like hell was he going to get killed by a lack of aerial mobility.
His body turned, back facing the floor, arms stretched out upwards, palms facing the sky.
The twin explosions ripped his body.
He cringed from the feeling of his hands being scorched, just before the majority of his breath was forced out of his lungs as his arms rocked back, rattling his shoulder-joint and his body in equal measure. The remainder left him when he impacted the hard floor, just as the back of his head hit it, leaving him with an insistent ringing and thumping.
The sound of blades whistling through the air stopped abruptly as someone stepped up to him.
"Ma, Sasuke-chan, we're training to keep you alive for longer, not kill you prematurely" the scarecrow's foot cut through the air faster than his teammate's weapons ever could, leaving Sasuke with just barely enough time to not get caught by an attack that cracked the floor.
He grunted as their eyes met, his genjutsu being repelled almost instantly as a dozen kunai made their way to his teacher, some thrown by his abused arms, some courtesy of the pink-head - who he still was unable to pin the position off.
Or had been, anyways. But admittedly, it wasn't that hard to notice a body flying at insane speeds toward your face. Not being in a particularly good state, he got bowled over by his teammate, who had been used as a makeshift projectile.
A moment later their teacher appeared, looking as disinterested in everything as always. The copy they had been fighting disappeared in a plume of smoke.
It was humiliating how easily he was taking them out. It was even worse to remember even he probably couldn't notably harm Itachi.
He had a long road ahead of him.
Almost instinctively, his hand moved towards a spot on his neck. Even after it had been stabilized, putting the whispers of Orochimaru's soul out of focus for any notable amount of time was difficult while using it. And even more - it just wasn't enough. His baseline was too weak to properly use the boost.
He winced as the pain in his arms made itself known again and spared a glance towards the him-shaped crater his 'landing' had caused.
The next thing to distract him was deluge of water that absolutely drenched him. He glared at the perpetrator, who was still standing there, unconcerned by his plight.
"We have a guest coming, you should get cleaned up."
*O*O*O*O*
Tayuya landed at the edge of the next training area, searching it for her target. She was pretty far away at the time, but was sure someone had mentioned the Uchiha by name.
As the sounds of training had faded, she flared her chakra in warning before stepping into the field proper shortly after.
As she crossed the open, she was soon met by a dripping wet Uchiha. Blinking twice before remembering the gesture wouldn't be seen through her mask, she tilted her head in interest.
She got an annoyed glare for it.
"I have a message for Sasuke Uchiha." she showed the scroll in her hand and briefly flashed her sigil at them, then turned it and tapped the sealwork much like Kin had "And only Sasuke Uchiha."
The voice that answered was a lot more chipper than what the Uchiha probably felt like. As such, it was most likely the person that caused his current state "Well, seeing as my cute little student has something important to do, we will sadly have to end this session a bit early." the boy's teacher was standing there, completely dry and completely unapologetic as pinkie dragged her also wet self out of the trees behind him.
The Uchiha's glare quickly found the older man, before stopping the futile gesture with a sigh as its target disappeared in a Shunshin. "That's me, I guess."
She looked him over again and he briefly flashed his sharingan before coming up to her and grabbing the message. The seals on it lit up, confirming him as the recipient.
Tayuya handed him the scroll, they nodded at each other, and she went on her way. As soon as she left the training grounds, the ANBU that had been following her before was there again. She went straight through the village, after which her tail soon stopped following her, and into the Forest of Death. When she was about halfway to the tower, a tree that was unnaturally large even by this place's standart caught her eye.
Its crown seemed like a nice spot to play her flute for a bit. Not that she could actually do something so attention grabbing, but she might climb it anyways.
Of course, Tayuya didn't even have her instrument on her - it wouldn't do to take an identifying object with her while she was in hiding - but she would have to report in her success anyways. Maybe there was some time to play - and a secure place for that - afterwards.
Leaves and branches in the edge of her vision begann blurring together as she gained speed again, reaching the tower fairly quickly. She had memorized the way inside when Kin had shown her, and decided to go straight for it instead of wandering around.
She didn't meet anybody else on her way, although she heard enough people. Once she was inside the base, she made a short detour to her room in order to drop off her mask and cloak before going for her new employer, who was still sleeping on the couch. "Hey, you awake?"
"Girl." the response she got was more of a growl in nature. Tayuya felt a slight shiver run down her spine at the hostility in his voice "I hope you don't honestly believe there is a ninja that can sleep through somebody entering their room. What do you need."
Tayuya quirked an eyebrow at the way he devolved into a monotone over the course of his sentence, the memory of the danger she felt already fading "I'm done. Message delivered." She decided to not aggravate him with whatever would have come out of her mouth if she spoke any more.
"Oh. Cool." The simple answer seemed to mollify him well enough.
It took Kin snickering amusedly at the sight for Tayuya to stop staring at him with what had to have been an absurd expression. The girl only made the barest of efforts to suppress her amusement when Tayuya turned to her and instead waved her to follow.
*O*O*O*O*
Kin had calmed down by the time they reached what Tayuya guessed to be her workshop, but seemed to gain a grin any time their eyes met.
"So Red?" the smile on Kin's face grew just a bit "That's your codename, by the way. Red Fox - or Red, for short." she reached a table filled with an assortment of tools and what looked like a half finished mask "Not used to Konoha casualness yet? Don't worry - they're all weird in their own ways, although Naruto-sama admittedly does stand out a bit."
"I guessed."
"Most people do." Kin was more than capable of making up for the lack of amusement at the situation Tayuya displayed.
Tayuya watched as the black haired girl picked up the mask and turned it in her hand. The top half was still blank, while the bottom was shaped into a snarling face. "I started working on this when you came in yesterday, since you'll need something to wear when not working. Looks fine so far?"
There was a somewhat tense silence in the room before Tayuya responded "Fuck if I know." she pulled one of the chairs in the room to her and plopped down on it.
Kin turned towards her, what looked like confused concern written on her face "You sure you're okay? I know Naruto-sama is scary and all, but there's no need to be so tense about it - less point than with the snake at least."
Tayuya threw her hands up in exasperation but let them drop down again when she couldn't come up with anything to say. There were a few more awkwardly silent moments until she spoke "There's just.. he's so dangerous but if I'm not immediately experiencing it that becomes this impossible to grasp thing." she stood up and begun walking up and down the room, ignoring the way Kin's smile seemed to grow at her usual ranting habits "I mean, I know, subconsciously, that he's not somebody to fuck with - so I fucking don't - but whenever I look at him the conscious part of my mind just.." which was the part where she gave up resisting the compulsion and started gesticulating "..just. Just. That. Fucking that. Nothing. He seems so utterly unimportant, so utterly blank, even though he legitimately acts crazy even when there's no murder-aura leaking out of him." she let out a frustrated cry "And I can't fucking deal with it."
She sprawled down onto the floor, taking a deep breath before letting out a long, drawn-out sigh.
Kin went back to her workbench, awkwardly fiddling with the mask and her tools "I can't really tell you much about that." she sounded resigned as she went back to methodically chipping away on the piece of wood "To someone like me, Naruto-sama is always scary, playing the fool or not. That being said, he's still treated me a lot more reasonably than I've been in a while so it doesn't feel like I'm working simply out of fear."
She turned around again, her hair still long enough to trail after her at the quick motion "But, back to more cheerful topics… like the mask!"
Tayuya gave off a half-hearted laugh at that "Yes, the snarling ninja mask is a perfectly cheerful thing." she relaxed a bit more and closed her eyes "You know, if you weren't my cute little Bell-chan I would have to call you out on that absolutely shitty topic change."
"Does that mean you want a happier mask?" Tayuya's ears managed to catch her grabbing for something "Because I can start a new one just fine."
The grin that Tayuya showed the girl at that was probably terrifying "No what you have till now should be fine." she licked her lips "Oh fuck yeah, it's going to be totally fine. You won't even have to do much else, hear this.."
*O*O*O*O*
Tayuya turned the mask in her hands, not capable of stopping the devilish grin that formed on her face.
The snarling was more pronounced, to a point that it was visible even through the thin brown fabric that covered it like a half mask would on a normal face. The top half was still smooth, only a few lines having been added to make the eyeholes seem sunk in, which, together with black one-way glass that made them seem deeper than they actually were, reminded the observer of a dried-out corpse.
Nobody ever said she didn't have a feel for creeping people out - it was somewhat of a prerequisite for a Genjutsu user.
It had taken Kin a few days to finish since she had other jobs to do as well, but Tayuya had used those to get back to former level. During that process, she had learned a few useful fact about the base, one of which she was about to use.
As she walked into the cave-like training area/entrance, pushing some chakra into the activation for the sound-dampening seal. The tiny markings spread across the ceiling flashed for a brief moment, one right next to where she touched staying alight to show its active state.
Sitting against a wall, she placed her new mask on the floor and pulled out her flute. She gave the three clones that were still seated on the water a short glance before starting to play.
[Song: We all lift together]
The music was both far more quiet and far more calm than what she'd use for one of her genjutsu. It was carried through the air, filling the room, only the seals stopping an echo from developing.
It was a calming song, and even though she couldn't remember any of the lyrics the melody had stuck with her over time - over so long she had forgotten when she even heard it.
Tayuya sat there, endlessly repeating that one song, letting it lull herself into some sort of trance where she just sat there, playing, letting her own music soothe her. At some point she had cracked an eye open and found the clones slowly swaying with the rhythm, resulting in her continuing on with a small smile on her face.
Over however long she sat there, she noted several of the others passing her, sometimes staying a bit in the room, listening to her play. After a while, who she assumed to be the real Naruto sat down at his table and began idly sketching out seals. Some clones also brought in multiple bows, as well as a rod of metal that reached halfway into the cave even from where they had deposited it along the hall. It didn't seem to disrupt the dampening field one bit.
As she continued on to playing another song - by then she had switched through a few, but still repeated each of them several times before moving on - she decided that she wouldn't mind living like this.
Kin sat down next to her, adding her own humming to the tune.
Yeah, she could live like this for a while.
*O*O*O*O*
And that's that.
Again, a bit shorter, but so long as you don't mind, this is easier for me to write as I don't have to force myself to add on scenes when I reach a fine ending point. We'll have some longer chapters later on.
Anyways, thanks for reading! Leave a review!