Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto
Hopefully this makes chapter 3 seem a little less out of place....
Chapter 4
Long Awaited Propositions
Scoffing to herself, she shook her head at the memory of how stubborn she had been so many years ago. No longer absorbed in her thoughts, Kaya realized that she was not being led to the Hokage Tower, not that she was surprised, instead she was led around it to a hidden alleyway. The alleyway curved around the Hokage Tower and led to a lone door that looked as if it hadn't been used in ages. It was this aging door that Kaya was led to by Kakashi.
When they reached the door, Kakashi stepped aside and gestured for Kaya to enter.
"I can't go any further."
"Where are we," Kaya asked suspiciously, she didn't trust the man before her and she didn't like the looks of the door or the feeling that she was getting from it. Or lack of feeling she was getting from it would be more accurate. Beyond the door there seemed to be a black hole where she couldn't sense any chakra or even life at all. Eyes narrowing, she clenched her teeth and glared Kakashi.
"That's for you to find out," Kakashi replied blankly before putting his hands together in the sign of the Ram and poofing away.
Frowning at the door, Kaya stepped forward and put her hand on the knob. She took a moment to close her eyes and try to focus on what might lay in wait behind the door. Her senses were telling that there was nothing there, but she didn't buy it.
Bringing one hand up in front of her chest and pointing her thumb, index and pointer fingers towards the sky, Kaya sternly uttered a single word. "Release!"
Eyes reopening, Kaya smirked proudly. The emptiness that had laid in wait beyond the door was now riddled with chakra signatures and she could easily pinpoint them all. Each person behind the door was trying to cloak their chakra, but that made no difference to her, she could sense them now that she had broken through the genjutsu that had clouded her senses.
"Use all the high rank jutsu you want. It won't work."
Twisting the knob, the door opened silently on well oiled hinges.
Beyond the door was a sea of darkness. Nothing at all could be seen and she was fairly certain that a jutsu was being used since even the light from outside couldn't penetrate the blackness on the other side of the door frame.
"What?" Kaya said in surprise, looking down at her hand to see that a thin wire had wrapped itself around her wrist.
Before she could even move to cut the wire, she was pulled into the darkness and the door slammed shut behind her.
"Good afternoon, Itachi, it's a pleasure to see you again," the reappointed Third Hokage greeted kindly.
In the five years since the retired Hiruzen Sarutobi had retaken the title of Hokage due to the passing of his successor the man had aged considerably. His hair was graying and the lines around his eyes and mouth were more pronounced and noticeable, he looked as if he rarely slept.
Itachi bowed respectfully. "It's an honor, sir."
Leaning into his chair, the Hokage sighed and folded his hands on the desk in front of him and an air of seriousness replaced the carefree smile on his face. "I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to cut to the chase. ANBU is looking for new operatives and your skills have put you on the top of the list for recruitment. If you are interested in a position in Black Ops you will be asked to carry out a mission and how you perform on that mission will determine whether or not you will be accepted. Are you interested?"
"Yes, sir," Itachi replied without hesitation.
As an Uchiha and the son of the current clan head, he was obligated to climb as high as he could in the ninja ranks. His father had been waiting for the day that Itachi would be asked to join ANBU and now that the day had come Itachi knew it was only a matter of time before he would be asked to spy on the village for the sake of his clan. A clan that was more concerned over things he considered trivial when compared to the safety and wellbeing of the village that he took great pride in protecting.
"I thought so," Sarutobi replied thoughtfully. "You may go, Itachi. You will be contacted with details about the mission you are to undertake within the week."
"Thank you." Itachi bowed and left the office of the Hokage thinking to himself that the older man seemed more tired and almost withdrawn than he had ever seen him.
Standing from behind his desk, Sarutobi heaved another sigh and made his way out of his office to see how Kaya had fared with the test that had been set up and designed specifically to test her skills as a Fumei. It had been eight years since anyone had acknowledged that she was a member of the legendary clan and now she would be tested to see if she had managed to harness the powers of the clan. If she had, Kaya would have to embrace the blood that flood through her veins and use it to do what the Fumei had always been best at. Killing.
He remembered the talk that he had with his former teammates that also served as Konoha's and his Council. As well as with Danzo. He didn't regret a single decision that had made despite the fact that Kaya was so young and would be used as a tool to improve Konoha's standing in the shinobi world.
"Is it true? Is that child a member of the Fumei?" The man who spoke didn't appear very intimidating, his right eye was covered in bandages and his dark hair was rather messy.
Sarutobi nodded. "It appears so."
"Yet it was most likely the Fumei that tried to murder the girl. Why do you think that is, Sarutobi?"
"Her mother had defected from the clan, they had spent many years running, but it seemed her mother finally got tired of all the running. It was her intention for Kaya to come here and live with Sakumo and to have a normal life. Or as normal a life as a member of the Fumei can possibly get," Sarutobi answered the woman who had asked. She was beginning to bend under the strain of age and her gray hair was pulled into a bun.
"What are we going to do with her," this time it was a different man than the first who had spoken. He was tall with a graying beard and wore glasses. "Is she trustworthy?"
The Hokage nodded, clasping his hands over his desk. "Yes, I believe she is."
"Then we should take precautions," the woman spoke up sternly. "If she is to be useful to us as a shinobi, we can't let it be known who she is."
"I agree with Utatane," the bandaged man said. "If she has the Fumei blood, she will be very useful, but her identity must be kept secret."
"Danzo's right," the man in glasses agreed. "We could use someone with her abilities."
"She's just a child," the Hokage sighed. "But I understand the importance of what she can do for the village. We'll say that Sakumo Hatake met her mother while on a mission, that they had a brief relationship and Kaya was the product of that relationship. Their relationship ended when Sakumo returned to Konoha, given Kaya's age, his wife would have already passed, there should be no problems from the other villagers. Kakashi may not like it, but that girl is his sister and he has a responsibility to help her raise. Not just for her sake, but for Konoha's."
"Will you tell Kakashi who she is?" The woman, Utatane asked.
The Hokage thought about his answer for a moment before shaking his head and heaving a deep sigh. "No. It's better that as few people know as possible. Her identity needs to be kept hidden."
He still agreed with the decision he had made eight years earlier. Kaya's identity needed to be kept hidden, no one could know who she was let alone what she would be doing for the village. He wondered how this had made Kaya feel, she was just a child still after all and he worried that being used as a tool would be something that the girl wouldn't understand even though she was one of the smartest and most dedicated shinobi the village possessed.
What the Hokage found when he entered the large circular room where Kaya would end up after her 'test', was not what he had expected. At all. The old man could only stand inside the doorway and blink.
In the center of the room was Kaya, she was plopped down on her butt with her legs crossed in front of her and a bored look on her face. There was hardly a scratch on her and it looked like she hadn't even broken sweat. When she saw the Hokage walk in, she looked up from examining her nails and waved unenthusiastically.
"Hey old man," she greeted blandly.
"Kaya," he replied slowly, looking around the room to see that the masked guards in this room were all unconscious. Some were riddled in cuts and bruises while others had senbon or kunai stuck into varies, non-vital parts of their bodies.
"I would think about calling a Medic nin before some of these idiots bleed to death," Kaya suggested.
Nodding, the Hokage sighed and gestured for Kaya to follow after him. The teenage girl lazily got up from the ground without bothering to dust herself off of the dirt that clung to her body and followed quietly behind the Hokage. She was led through dark halls where she could occasionally hear the voices of other ninja and townsfolk going about their daily business inside the Hokage Tower. When the Hokage finally pushed a panel of wood open he and Kaya stepped into his office from the back of the room.
"You did well, Kaya," he said to the young girl that was blankly watching him as he took his seat behind his desk.
"You sound surprised," Kaya replied boredly, looking around at the office that she hadn't been inside of for several years. It hadn't changed much.
Putting his elbows on his desk and entwining his fingers together, the Hokage leaned forward and studied Kaya closely. "The point of that exercise was-"
"To see how well I've managed to learn the jutsu of the Fumei, right," Kaya cut in.
Heaving a deep sigh, he nodded. "As I'm sure you are aware you were being watched the entire time you fought. The three that watched you will be here shortly and then we'll be discussing your future as a shinobi."
Kaya's jaw tightened ever so slightly, but she nodded in response before staring out the window and into the sky above Konoha.
After several moments of silence, Kaya spoke up, but her eyes remained fixed on the sky outside. "Itachi is being offered a position in ANBU, isn't he?"
"Yes, he is," Sarutobi answered, not seeing the reason in denying the truth when she would find out soon enough anyways. He watched Kaya with interest for her reaction.
"He always was one step ahead of me. Damn jerk," she grumbled childishly.
Smiling, the Hokage leaned back into his chair. "You and Itachi have always competed against one another."
"Of course," Kaya stated stubbornly. "Rivals tend to do that."
A graying, frizzy eyebrow tilted up questioningly. "Rivals? I thought the two of you had become quite...close."
Kaya's eye twitched, but she was able to remain otherwise unaffected. Her face stayed blank and her eyes bored. "If by close you mean friends, then yes, we're friends," she said, a hint of warning creeping into her tone at the last mention of friends. Thankfully the Hokage heard the warning and didn't press the issue, much to Kaya's pleasure.
"I see. Friends and rivals. It must be difficult."
"Not as difficult as it used to be," Kaya replied. "Itachi is a good friend and an even better rival. If it weren't for him and Asuma-sensei I wouldn't have gotten very far as a ninja. Apparently I tend to excel when Itachi is my opponent, it's caused me to learn a lot quicker and become a better ninja."
"And what are you going to do when Itachi is no longer your opponent," the Hokage inquired curiously.
Kaya raised a brow skeptically and let her lilac eyes slide over to the aging man. "Were you not paying attention downstairs? I can handle myself just fine regardless of who my opponent is. I simply meant that having Itachi around was very useful to me. I'm grateful to him for that."
"I wonder what Asuma would say if he heard you say that," he muttered thoughtfully.
Snorting, Kaya was about to make a comment that Asuma would probably think someone was using a henge to transform into her when the door opened.
"He'd say that it's about time you stopped being such a stubborn pain and realized you were in love with him."
"I am not in love with Itachi," Kaya snapped heatedly, glaring at her grinning sensei in irritation before huffing and tossing her head in the other direction.
She had grown so used to his chakra that she had a tendency to overlook it, just as she did sometimes with Itachi. It was proof that she had grown rather comfortable around them. Or it could have been that she was just too lazy to bother focusing much energy on the chakra of those in the area when she didn't believe there was a reason to.
"Denial, it's the first stage of love," Asuma replied, grinning when Kaya's shoulder twitched and he saw her normally expressionless face form a scowl.
"Asuma this meeting was private, did you need something," Sarutobi asked.
The change in the atmosphere was so sudden that Kaya couldn't help but to turn towards the father and son pair. She hadn't initially known that the two men were related, she had seen the similarities in them from the start, but she figured it would be rude of her to just assume they were in fact family. It hadn't been long after joining Asuma's team, Team 4, that Kaya had been informed by Itachi that Asuma was in fact the son of the Hokage.
"I was wondering why my student was in your office," Asuma replied bluntly.
"That's really none of your concern since she won't be your student for much longer," the voice of a woman answered stiffly from behind Asuma.
Stepping out of the way, Asuma watched as the two Council members, Utatane and Mitokado walked in followed by Danzo.
"So it's been decided," the Hokage asked.
"Yes, she passed the test," Danzo replied.
"She did much better than expected," Utatane commented.
"I had a great teacher," Kaya said brazenly, not caring that her tone was rather disrespectful as she stared blankly out the window.
"What's going on," Asuma inquired seriously.
Kaya remained silent, she wanted to know herself just what was going on. A test of her abilities was one thing, but she had an idea of what their intentions were and she didn't think that one little test was really enough proof for them that she could do as they wanted.
"You should leave, Asuma, Kaya is no longer your student," Sarutobi spoke up.
"And just what is she," he asked.
No one bothered to answer so Kaya decided to speak up. "A killer."
"What are you talking about," Asuma demanded.
Turning her eyes to face him, she answered. "You're one of the few people to know who I really am and you have to ask that question, Sensei?"
Startled by the blankness in her eyes and the tone of her voice, Asuma could only blink at his student as she looked away and ignored everything else.
When Asuma had been forced from the room, Kaya turned back towards the Hokage. "So," she began boredly. "I'm assuming that the test earlier was just the preliminary and that you'll be wanting me to prove I'm capable of handling myself as a hunter, right?"
Exchanging glances with the three others in the room, the Hokage nodded. "You have never experienced killing someone..."
"You need to make sure I can do it efficiently and without emotion," Kaya added when the old man trailed off.
He nodded again. "Yes, we need to test your ability to kill and not feel anything."
"Essentially we need to see that you're desensitized," Danzo spoke up.
Keeping her face blank, Kaya inwardly frowned, but didn't look away from Danzo. She didn't want to let the man think that he spooked her in any way. Even though he had. The idea of being desensitized to killing was something Kaya didn't understand, she had never had to kill before and though she knew she could do it. It was what she was born to do. She wasn't sure how easily it would be to kill someone and not feel something the first time.
She was about to find out though that Danzo and the Council had their own ideas on how to quickly release her from any emotion resulting from killing someone.
Kaya's breaths were little more than quick blasts of air being rapidly expelled from her lips, one of which was bleeding a continuous line of crimson liquid down her chin. She could only gasp for air, her shoulders heaving and her chest rising and falling rapidly. Hunched over from being near to exhaustion, Kaya's lilac eyes calmly shifted between the two black masked faces of the two men that surrounded her. Littering the ground around them in the circular chamber were crumpled and mangled bodies that were spilling thick red blood and other unsavory liquids onto the concrete floor.
One of the men stepped forward, unlike Kaya who had been fighting nonstop for over two hours this man had waited, just like the other, for her to tire herself out while dealing with the other eighteen men that had been sent into fight her. Quickly maneuvering his way behind Kaya, he aimed a brutal punch for her head.
Simply moving her head aside when she sensed the chakra her attacker possessed nearing her, Kaya spun around and sent her foot smashing into the man's stomach. He grunted, but grabbed her foot that she was too exhausted to move any quicker. With a jerk he twisted her ankle, hoping to break the bone. Using her free leg to launch herself into the air, Kaya twisted her body and let her knee slam into the man's head. A sickening crunch was heard as his neck bent at an angle that it was never meant to and his body fell to the floor, lifeless. Landing in a cat like crouch, Kaya's eyes snapped up to the last remaining man in the room.
With barely a thought, Kaya waved her fingers in the man's direction. Four senbon flew from where they were hidden in the sleeve of her top and not one of them missed their target.
Several of his vital organs pierced, the man gurgled up a stream of blood and fell to his knees before falling face first onto the concrete.
Letting out a deep breath and plopping down onto her butt, she brought her knees up and rested one elbow on a knee while using her other hand to hold herself up. "Happy now," she asked blandly through her ragged breaths, her eyes staring almost bitterly up into a dark, rectangular opening in the wall of the circular room. "They're all dead. Every single traitorous bastard you promised to free if they killed me, is dead."
There was a heavy silence that lasted long enough that Kaya was able to breathe almost normally before anyone spoke to her.
"Congratulations," a voice called from the darkness. Danzo's if she were correct, but it was hard to tell, she was too worn out to even try to feel out the chakras of the people watching her and she hadn't had time to bother searching them out earlier. "You are now the Hunter of Konoha."
"Congratulations, Kaya," the Hokage told the dirtied and tired young woman whose face was trained into a perfectly impassive mask. "You're going to be promoted to ANBU."
Raising an eyebrow, but remaining otherwise immovable, Kaya asked, "I thought I was to be a Hunter?"
A brief dissatisfied frown flitted over the features of the older man before he nodded and took his seat behind his desk so he could focus solely on Kaya. "Yes, but you are also receiving a promotion into ANBU. You're qualified and-"
"I need an excuse for why I'll be disappearing at random times?" Kaya cut in.
"Correct," he replied, leaning into his chair and folding his hands on top of his desk. "You may need to be gone from the village for several days at a time. Something that's common for an ANBU agent and while even ANBU usually works in teams, it is not unheard of to have them perform solo missions."
"I understand why it can't be known what I'm doing. After all, we can't have anyone finding out who I am, but you do know that Itachi will get suspicious, don't you? He's not to be underestimated."
"I know...But he'll have enough to deal with when he gets his own promotion, besides, you're a ninja, Kaya. You should be able to fool anyone, friends included."
Kaya's eyes narrowed, it was the most change in her expression in minutes. "This is Itachi Uchiha we're talking about, the genius prodigy of the Uchiha clan. He's not that easy to fool. Even for me. In fact I know that he already suspects something about my kekkai genkai. It's not everyday that a girl whose chakra can't be seen or sensed comes along, you know? It's not like he thinks I've been cloaking my chakra all of these years and the only reason he's ever felt is because I've let him. It's not that hard to fool the senses..For me anyways, but we're dealing with an Uchiha. He has a kekkai genkai of his own."
The expression on the Hokage's face became extremely serious and Kaya had the sudden feeling that whatever he was about to say was something she wasn't going to want to hear. An unconscious frown began to tug at her lips and she waited to hear what the man had to say.
After heaving a long sigh, the Hokage spoke, his voice was monotone and lacking emotion. "You should know that the position you are being offered as a Hunter has its restrictions. You will not operate like the Hunter nin of other villages."
"What do you mean?"
She knew from the day that she had arrived that Konoha would end up using her for her abilities if she proved she was as capable as the Fumei that those who governed it had heard tales of. She knew that it meant she would have to perform missions in secret and conceal everything about her identity in the process, but she hadn't minded that. It was the way the Fumei did things and she knew that even with that fact aside, it was safer to operate in absolute secrecy. Judging by the look on the face of Hiruzen Sarutobi at that moment though, she highly suspected that there was more to it than just secrecy.
"Should your identity become known to anyone then that person must not be allowed to tell of having ever met you."
Her eyes widened. "You want me to kill anyone that ever finds out who I am, as a Hunter, that is?"
He nodded. "Yes. No one can be allowed to know who you are. While operating as a Hunter am I wrong in assuming that you will utilize the abilities of your clan to their fullest potential?"
Eyes flickering slightly when she understood there was a deeper meaning to his words, one that implied he had known all along she wasn't utilizing her true abilities, she took her time in replying. "..Yes."
"Then it's safe to assume that should someone see you they may connect you not only to Konoha but the Fumei clan. We would like to avoid all unnecessary conflict. In which case I should probably mention that if you were to get caught, Konoha would not help you. You would be considered a missing nin that was acting of her own accord. You understand that the consequences of that possibility would leave you friendless and on your own. Should you escape you will still no longer be considered a friend to Konoha."
Sighing, Kaya nodded her head once. "I understand. If someone were to know what village I was allied with it would cause problems for Konoha ranging from small scuffles to war, depending upon the target. On top of that, if the Fumei were to find out where I was not only would I be in danger, but so would the entire village, they won't forgive you for harboring a fugitive of their clan."
"Your missions will be assigned to you by sending a scroll with the information on your target to you. The scroll will only contain basic information on the person you are to hunt, nothing more. Destroy it once you've read it and should anyone happen to see anything on the scroll-
"I'll make something up. Don't worry," Kaya cut in.
The Hokage continued with barely a pause. "You are also expected to bring an item back so that we can be sure you have successfully completed the mission, the items will vary and what you should recover from each target will be listed on the scroll. Your pay will come directly from me and the amount for each mission will vary depending upon how difficult the task assigned is thought to be."
Sitting quietly in thought for a few moments, Kaya finally nodded her head to signal that the terms were agreeable. It wasn't like she had much of a choice, if she declined she knew that she would be pressured somehow or another until she agreed.
"Well, then. I suppose we should finish this up..."
When she finally stepped out of the Hokage Tower night had fallen on Konoha. The streets were empty and quiet and only a few lights burned in the windows of a few of the residents. Pulling the cloak that had been given to her to cover her ripped and bloody clothes a little tighter around her, Kaya began to descend the steps stopping when she noticed a person to her right.
"Sensei?" She asked, confused at seeing her teacher sitting on one of the benches that lined the area surrounding the Tower.
Taking a puff from the cigarette in his mouth, allowing the tip to momentarily glow bright red, Asuma looked up. "Hey," he greeted emotionlessly. "You alright?"
"Fine," she answered monotonously, turning her head so that she was staring down the street instead of at Asuma.
Rising from the bench and shoving his hands in the pockets of his pants, Asuma stepped up beside Kaya when she began to walk away. "I'll walk you home."
An eyebrow rising ever so slightly, Kaya replied, "I'll be fine."
"I didn't say you wouldn't be."
After a few moments of a silence that was a bit too tense for Kaya's liking, Kaya sighed and spoke again. "You want to know what happened, don't you, Asuma-sensei?"
"...You're my student," he replied. "Given what you said earlier, before I was so kindly thrown out of the Hokage's office, I'm inclined to think that you're being forced into becoming something that you aren't... I'm worried about you."
It took Kaya several seconds to reply, when she did, she stopped and turned towards Asuma, her face blank and her eyes unreadable. "After tomorrow I will no longer be your student and you'll have no reason to worry for me anymore. What I do or don't become is up to me and like it or not I was born to be something darker than most. I am a Fumei, I was born to be a killer, nothing else. I've always known that." Without another word, Kaya turned away and disappeared.
She felt badly for acting unkindly towards Asuma, he had been a great sensei and had helped her become much stronger and more controlled in the years that Team 4 had been together. It wasn't easy to hide things from him, especially since he was only concerned for her well being, but she had no choice. Knowing him though, she figured he already had an idea of what the Council and the Hokage wanted from her. If he were to find out that he was right, she wondered how he would react. Shaking off the feeling of guilt that washed over her, Kaya continued her walk home.
Tomorrow she would no longer be a part of Team 4 and she would no longer be under Asuma's supervision. Her promotion into ANBU would become known, but the real promotion to her job as a so called 'Hunter' would forever remain only known to the Hokage, his two Council members, Danzo and herself. No one else could ever know about her other position because according to Konoha the position didn't exist.
~A/N~
I like how this chapter flows now. I think it's better than it was. What do you think?
Please review!!!
