It took all of a millisecond for Arisa to realize just what had happened.
When she'd exited the bar, she'd noticed something small make its way into an alley. It hadn't seemed important to her less-than-sober-self, and she'd just assumed it was a dog. She'd led her 'attackers' into the same alleyway. The small form was not a dog. It was a boy. A small, blond boy with familiar markings-
How the hell had she not realized he was there? How had she failed to notice the massive ball of chakra that was Uzumaki Naruto?! Again?
…Maybe it was because she'd been around the kid for four years, and sorta learned to ignore his chakra?
Like one eventually stops noticing the taste of water after they've drank it long enough, or the smell of cigarette smoke in their childhood home. It's there, you've just experienced so much it becomes easy to ignore if you don't pay attention.
And at the end of the millisecond, Arisa concluded that the five men were now threats to Uzumaki Naruto. From where she stood (behind the four-year-old's 'protective' stance), Arisa could see the rage blooming on the five faces.
Arisa may not have been Risu, but that didn't mean that the four years Risu spent taking out people who were threats to Naruto hadn't programmed into her. Just because she didn't have her Mask on, it didn't mean she could just…stop being what she was when she'd worn it Mask.
She lunged forward, quickly scooping Naruto up with one arm. At the same time, her other hand shot out and she grabbed Doorknob (who had climbed out from under Doofus and was trying to stand up) by his collar. Making sure to hold back so she didn't kill him, the woman used her grip to throw the man at his friends, knocking Dingus, Dumbnuts and Dimwit over.
Naruto's arms wrapped around her neck. Using the arm she'd grabbed him with, she pushed him around so he was on her back. The little boy held on tighter with his arms and legs, knowing what she wanted him to do. It wasn't the first time an adult had to fight holding him…but they usually wore masks.
With both her arms free, Arisa had a much easier time dealing with the five men.
Breezing past Doofus, her arm shot out to hit the pressure point on his neck. Before he'd even hit the ground, she'd moved on to the other four. Doorknob hadn't moved since she'd thrown him- Arisa had heard his head hit the pavement. He was still breathing, but she was quite sure he'd lost a few more brain cells than he had to offer.
Dingus was up on his feet, as were Dimwit and Dumbnuts. Dimwit was actually showing some form of basic intelligence and was trying to make a run for it.
Dumbnuts was being stupider than the rest and charging at her.
In her eyes, the civilian man was slow. Like molasses in the winter. She easily batted his swinging fist to the side, before burying her own fist in his gut. He doubled over and began to heave. He dropped completely as her hand once again found a pressure point.
Careful not to jostle Naruto too badly, she darted forward once again. This time, she took Dingus by his hair, fingers weaving into the strands. Her momentum continued long enough to smack his head against the wall behind him. He dropped like the other two.
Dimwit had made it out of the alley but made it no further than a couple steps before he was knocked out by a Masked shinobi.
There was a pause as Arisa and the ANBU stared at one another. Arisa was aware of the little boy still clinging to her back. She knew that the ANBU probably wanted to take the boy away now. Tuck him 'safely' away in the orphanage.
But.
With a slight smirk, she turned away from the ANBU. Kneeling, she let the little boy slip off her back. When Naruto's feet were safely planted on the ground, she gently placed her hands on his shoulders and looked him over. The fight had been brief, and none of the men had managed to hit her, or the boy for that matter…save for when he had tackled one of them.
"That was sooo cool!" He loudly declared, grinning up at her, "You were all like 'zoom!' and then 'whack' and they all just fell down! Awesome!"
She pulled her lips into an awkward smile, "Thanks kid…Now, you aren't hurt anywhere or anything, right?"
Naruto's eyes widened. Adults never asked him if he was okay- Well. Most of the time the only adults he talks to are either the ones hurting him, or the Masked guys that keep an eye on him. Only, they don't really answer when Naruto talks to them.
He couldn't help but stutter as he mumbled a reply, "N-no…I'm okay."
Arisa ruffled his hair, and her grin became a little more normal, "Good. I can't have you getting hurt fighting people in alleyways- What are you even doing here anyways?"
The little boy suddenly looked anywhere but at her, "Um…well…I was taking a walk and I got lost?"
She scoffed, "Really now...and you didn't ask one of your guards to take you back to the orphanage."
Naruto looked down, staring at his feet. He'd been caught, and he knew there wasn't much point in trying to convince her otherwise.
"I thought you understood I didn't want you following me?"
"I know…but you were so nice to me!"
Arisa blinked, and let out a heavy sigh, "You know, I got in trouble with your Jiji for talking to you the other day."
"What?! Why?"
"Because some mean people saw us getting along, and didn't want that…so they told the Hokage I was gonna try and kidnap you," she told the boy, lying through her teeth.
"But you were just being nice!"
"I know that, and you know that…and so does the Hokage and Inu-chan over there…but you following me around in dark alleyways at night isn't gonna help, you know."
The little boy blinked, and realized what she was suggesting. Arisa was saying this looked like one of those 'stranger danger' moments Jiji was always telling him about.
When Arisa saw the understanding bloom across his face, she nodded once firmly, before she continued on, "Now…what the heck were you thinking?!"
The boy's eyes widened at the rise in volume, "Eh!?"
"What were you thinking? Kid, you could have gotten hurt! Five grown men!"
"B-But they were gonna hurt you!"
"Naruto, kid…do you really think I'd have gone down a dead-end alleyway with them following me if I couldn't take them?"
From the look on his face, it was pretty clear that the boy hadn't thought she could take them at all.
Slightly put out that even a four year old had underestimated her, she made sure to keep smiling, even though her cheek was beginning to twitch something fierce, "I'll share a secret with you."
Bright blue eyes widened and stared up at her. She leaned in, and he copied her so she could whisper it to him. Pale eyes glanced over the little boy's head to look at the ANBU. Inu-chan was staring directly at her.
Arisa almost wanted to scoff. Did Inu-chan think she was going to tell the boy something classified? There was really no need to look so strict.
"See…I'm actually a very, very strong ninja."
"What?"
"Yup. In fact, I've been a jonin for four years now!"
"A jonin?!"
Arisa nodded her head, "Yup yup."
"Woah…four years?"
"Yup!"
"I'm four…"
Arisa chuckled, but internally something in her heart gave a painful twinge at the reminder of that night, "I know."
"Can you teach me how to be a ninja?!"
The laughter died from Arisa's face, "No…I don't think I can, Naruto. Falls under the same category as me and you hanging out in alleyways."
Inu-chan's foot scuffled noisily on the pavement as he took a step forward. Wordlessly, he was telling Arisa that her time with Naruto was up, and he had to take the boy 'home'.
"Now then. It looks like Inu-chan has to get back to work, and that means taking you back to the orphanage tonight."
"B-but!"
"Hush. I'm sure we'll see each other again sooner or later."
"Like when it's your turn to sit in the tree?"
Both Arisa and Inu-chan froze for a millisecond, before Arisa's expression morphed into one of 'genuine' confusion, "Hm? What are you talking about?"
"Well…Inu an' a bunch of others are always sittin' in trees watchin' me and stuff. Y'know, stopping mean people from attackin' me and stuff? Well…you kinda remind me of one of them!"
"I'm afraid you're mistaken, little buddy. Inu-chan and the others are all a special kind of ninja…I'm not one of them," Arisa said, giving a carefree shrug, "Your jiji has other plans for me."
'Like my 'retirement' from ANBU.'
"Oh. That's too bad! You remind me of the Squirrel-mom-lady!"
"Um…what?"
Naruto gave Arisa a beaming grin, "Mhmm! She's the nicest outta all of them! Sometimes when I was really little, an' I couldn't sleep, she'd stand in my room and hum pretty songs 'til I fell asleep! An' sometimes she gives me snacks. An' then there's all the times she came and beat up people who're botherin' me! The other kids're always talkin' 'bout how their moms do those kinda things- well their moms don't beat up people usually- so I thought maybe she was my mom!"
The brunette woman awkwardly raised her eyes to stare into the empty holes of Inu-chan's Mask. She could feel the other shinobi's gaze, heavy and somewhat-judgmental.
"Well Naruto, it sounds like she's a very nice woman. I'm very happy you think she and I are similar… Now. I think it's time you went to bed, and I have to take these bad guys away."
She gestured to the five unconscious men around them, before ruffling Naruto's hair and gently pushing him towards Inu-chan.
The ANBU picked the boy up and locked eyes with Arisa once again. Silently, the pair shared a brief conversation, mostly through minute shifts in body language, and the occasional hand sign.
Squirrel-mom-lady, eh?
I didn't think he'd notice if I left some things for him from time to time. You know I'm not the only one.
And the lullabies?
Humming doesn't count as talking, so in no way did I broke that rule…?
Lullabies?
I couldn't just let him lay there awake…kids need adults to take care of them when they have nightmares.
...The boy's comments are in no way necessary to this evening's report…as they are about past events unrelated to this one.
Aw, thanks Inu-chan! I knew you loved me!
…On second thought I'll be alerting the Hokage.
With that 'said', the ANBU and his charge vanished, leaving Arisa to take care of the attackers. She sighed, raising her hands to create a couple shadow clones to help her.
"I'm REALLY hoping he was joking about telling the old geezer…"
One of the clones heaved an unconscious man onto her shoulder, "You know he wasn't."
"Inu-chan's a bit of a hardass," the second clone agreed, already lifting a second man, so that she carried a man on each shoulder.
"But that ass though…" The first clone sighed, making both Arisa and the second clone laugh.
There was a slow, hesitant knock on her front door, dragging her attention away from the book she was trying to 'get into'. 200 pages in and they were finally leaving their home village. Ugh.
Stretching as she set the book down, she tried to peak out the window at who was there, but they were standing too close to her door for her to catch a good glimpse.
When she opened the door, she was amused to see an embarrassed-looking chunin waiting for her.
"Good morning, Iruka-kun! It's nice to see you again." She smiled cheerfully at the boy, "I was worried I had scared you off, the way you ran away last time."
The younger shinobi's cheeks darkened, "A-Ah…good morning Tsutsuji-san…it's nice to see you again too. I- uh- sorry about last time? I had a lot to do…?"
The eighteen-year-old nodded understandingly, "Of course! You chunin are always being run ragged by the Hokage! The way you guys get sent running across the village, back and forth. I'm sure I wasn't the only one you had to come visit that day."
Something about what she'd said seemed to relax the other teen, and he gave her a slight smile of his own.
At least he wasn't running away from her now. And he was sort of cute when he smiled…
"Now, Iruka-kun…I imagine you're here because I've been summoned to the Hokage's office again?"
"Looks like it. This is the second time in a week, isn't it, Tsutsuji-san?" Iruka asked the older teen, "I'm starting to think you're a trouble maker!"
She pouted, "Come on Iruka-kun! You don't have to call me 'Tsutsuji'...we get along alright, don't we? Besides…it makes me feel old! We're practically classmates- well not really 'cause we were in different grades and I wasn't there very long in the first place, but you get me, right Iruka-kun?"
"I- Um… Alright…Arisa-san…?"
Arisa let out a heavy sigh, but shrugged her shoulders, deciding it was good enough. At least he wasn't calling her Tsustuji anymore. If her name hadn't matched her surname, it would have been fine…but with a name that was literally 'Azalea Azalea'…It was a bit too much.
Better to just forget one of those names existed, lest it become redundant, yes?
"Well, Iruka-kun…we might as well start heading to the Tower now- unless you have more stops to make?"
"Sure. You were the last on the list."
She couldn't help herself, she just had to do it. Smiling, she practically purred to the "Saving the best for last, were you?"
In reality, she was sure he was just trying to avoid seeing her for as long as possible…but a girl can dream.
The younger teen's face ignited into that flustered blush that had amused her earlier in the week. She refrained from cackling this time, and instead started walking. Iruka followed a moment later. Once he had calmed down, the boy seemed almost amused by the situation.
It was nice to know that she could still amuse people. Living in the ANBU HQ, it had been much harder to pry a laugh out from under her squad.
"Ah, good morning Arisa! Have you been enjoying your time off?" The Hokage greeted, not looking up from the paperwork placed upon his desk.
"Yes, Hokage-sama. It's been very…sedate."
Sarutobi looked up from his paperwork and lifted an eyebrow, "Now, now. That's not what I've heard. I heard you had a rather eventful night yesterday. You managed to capture several dangerous individuals that the Military Police have been trying to capture for weeks now."
The eighteen-year-old shifted, "I did."
"And I'm sure we don't have to worry about you turning into a vigilante, will we?"
"Um…what?"
"Well, given that you have been put on leave, and you seem to be having some troubles settling back into civilian life… it would not be that surprising if one in your situation turned to vigilantism. You've been put on leave, and several days later show up at the Military Police station with five men in your custody."
At that, Arisa's expression changed to one of indignation. She was most definitely not about to become a vigilante of all things! While she might not always be respectful of her superior officers, and she might have a tendency to bend the rules, particularly when they were stupid rules pertaining to the small child she'd be told to protect for the last four years, but that by no means meant she was about to go breaking the law, just so she could get her adrenalin going.
The Hokage chuckled at the expression on her face, "As I said, I'm sure you won't resort to such a thing… as it stands, there was also a witness willing to vouch for you. He witnessed the men attack you in the alley. The conflict that followed was self-defense- as well as defending a child, given Naruto's…surprise appearance."
Again, she shifted awkwardly, "I assume Inu-chan told you about what Risu might have done?"
"Yes, Inu-chan informed me last night after he returned Naruto to the orphanage. Would you mind elaborating for me what exactly Risu did?"
The woman couldn't help but laugh upon hearing the Hokage use the name 'Inu-chan' for her comrade. She was sure some of the ANBU hidden in the room would agree that it was a hilarious thought, given how much of a badass Inu was.
After a moment, however, she straightened up and began to explain herself (well technically, all the documentation in the village said that Arisa and Risu were not the same person.)
"Prior to the night of the Kyuubi attack, I had spent some time reading up on childhood development and what babies and small children need to be happy and healthy, given that-" her voice paused for a moment, and pale blue eyes stared off into the distance as memories rose up.
This time, it was the Hokage who shifted. It had never really occurred to him that Arisa should have been sent to be evaluated after the attack. She had been before, and passed with flying colours, but a great deal had changed on the night of the attack. Arisa, having not received any help or spoken to anyone of what happened that night, had not been able to heal afterwards.
He had likely only made things worse, putting her on Naruto's guard rotation. He had thought that it would help ease the pain, but with how she had thrown herself into the duty…
"I am sorry for your loss, Arisa."
She jerked from her thoughts and forced a smile, "I- Thank you Hokage-sama… Anyways, since I- Risu had this information, they knew that the conditions that Naruto grew up in would be detrimental to his health- deadly even- if Risu didn't intervene. Babies need a certain amount of care, and it's safe to say that he wasn't receiving nearly enough. Risu would, when necessary, go beyond what was outlined in their orders. If his diaper needed changing, and none of the orphanage staff felt the need to do their job, Risu would do it instead. If he was hungry, Risu would feed him. Burp him, bathe him- Hokage-sama, the people left in charge of Naruto's care were- Risu filed multiple complaints and attempted include observations about the boy's care in their reports, but nothing ever came of it."
Hiruzen frowned. He did not remember any such information in the reports. Somehow, that didn't surprise him though.
"And that's just the basic care- there were times where Risu would have to hold the child, simply for the human contact- infants need to be held. And spoken too- Risu was specifically told not to speak to him, so they resorted to humming instead, which wasn't really much, but it seemed better than just leaving the kid with nothing?" Arisa continued, starting to get on a roll the more she spoke of what Risu had done to make sure Naruto had some sort of support, "When he got older, Risu made sure the boy got enough to eat when the orphanage staff under fed him, and they were there when the boy woke up in the night from bad dreams."
"I see…Is there anything else that Risu has done that I should know about?"
Arisa paused for a moment, head tilting slightly as she delved through her memories of the last four years. There didn't seem to be anything too important that she had left out. Just general caring-for-a-baby-on-the-sly stuff.
"No sir, I believe that's all?"
"And…is there anything you'd like to say on Risu's behalf?"
The teen took a calming breath, "Risu understands that their actions, while technically not against orders, were done without the knowledge of their comrades and superiors. While Risu is not sorry for what they've done, given that their actions were done to protect their 'objective'. They are of the firm belief that had they not 'bent the rules' as they had, Naruto likely would have suffered far worse neglect. As such Risu will not be apologizing for their actions but will gladly take any form of punishment that you deem fit, Hokage-sama."
The old man steepled his fingers, taking a moment to mull over what 'Risu' had said.
It wasn't like he could let this go unpunished, even if Risu hadn't actually disobeyed orders. If he let them get away with it, some of the others might try the same. And while he appreciated that his shinobi had feelings, morals and the ability to make their own decisions…those weren't always qualities one wanted in an ANBU Operative. That was not to say he was going to put them through the sort of training Danzo put those children through before Hiruzen had put a stop to Root (although he had heard whispers that his 'old friend' was still up to his games). But all the same he was going to have to punish her somehow.
And maybe… The way things had gone for her so far since she began her time off… An idea came to the old man, one he was sure would only need a little meddling to come to fruition.
"Alright then," the Hokage gave a tired sigh, before speaking in a bored tome, "Given that Risu went through with their actions, and feels no remorse for their disregard for their orders, which easily could have been arranged had they spoken to me in person, I'm afraid I will have to suspend Operative Risu for no less than…"
Dread pooled in Arisa's stomach. This would not be good.
"One year's time."
Silence fell over the room as pale blue eyes stared at him, wide with horror. He couldn't be serious, right? This had to be a joke- revenge for her sticking her tongue out at him, and terrorizing Inu-chan and Iruka-kun and all the other things she did before her time in ANBU.
But…a one-year suspension from ANBU meant she'd be stuck making public appearances for an entire year. She wouldn't get any assassination missions. No espionage and no sabotage.
And no guarding Naruto.
For 365 days.
"I- Hokage-sama-"
"And I do not simply mean ANBU duties. Operative Risu is suspended from all shinobi duties, unless a village-wide alert is released, or they are otherwise ordered by myself. Is that understood?"
"Please you can't-"
"Is that understood?"
"I-" she stopped herself before she could let loose the protests building inside her. There was no point arguing it. She'd already said she would take any punishment he gave her. Better to just…accept it now, and then get nice and drunk once he let her leave. "Yes sir."
There is a moment of silence. Arisa stood there, waiting for the old man to dismiss her so she could make her way to the nearest bar, but the Third Hokage just stared at her for a long while as he smoked from his ever-present pipe.
Finally, the old man moved the pipe away from his mouth and gave Arisa an almost mischievous smile, "You know, since 'Risu' is suspended, they can hardly be considered a shinobi…particularly a shinobi under my command, seeing as you aren't going to be receiving many commands from me in the next year."
"So?"
"Well it just occurred to me that there really shouldn't be any issue with you speaking to the boy in public, should he approach you again."
That was most definitely something to think about.
"And as you will be suspended for the following year, I think we can safely say you will not be needed that leave period anymore. I always could have added that on top of the suspension."
"No!" Arisa exclaimed, taking an unconscious step forward, "That's fine! One year is definitely enough time not working! Pllleeeeeaaaassse!"
The old man chuckled at the panicked look, "Alright, alright. That's all for today, Arisa. You're free to leave."
She didn't need to be told twice.
Hello everyone! Been a while...i sorta dropped off the face of the planet, but I'm back! Ish. Got a new job and its kinda unpredictable what days I'm working, and I have to sleep at a friends house a lot of the time because its a hassle getting rides in- so I haven't spent all that much time with my laptop lately. Hopefully I'll update this sooner next time but... the universe is mean.
Mother's Mask now has 20 Reviews, 64 Favourites, and 133 Followers!
Big thanks goes out to Amegakure no Kunoichi, XWingedWolfX, Guest, sparrowhawk13, GalliumStoat, barrrbs, HavenHearts, and Sweet-Strawberry-09 for reviewing!