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7: Laurel is Not Actually That Sneaky
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"Good morning, sunshine!" Laurel basked in her unnatural cheerfulness that morning, and pestered Naruto into sitting at the table, where she had a steaming omelette and three pieces of toast ready for him. She absently munched on her own blackberry-jammed-toast, perching herself on the bench this time around since it was clean.
Naruto tiredly blinked his way through breakfast, trying to wake up while the witch alternated between internally cooing over her young charge, and watching the sunrise outside. It was in the final weeks of winter, and she had a little less than three months to help Naruto become confident enough to pass the test.
She didn't really believe he was incapable of passing without her help, so she just needed to make sure he knew that he knew what he needed to.
While he was at school Laurel was planning to go over the books, since when she'd gotten back from the library the witch had felt like she earned a sleep. There had been nightmares, but no more than usual, and she'd woken up early enough to bake some fresh blueberry muffins.
Since she was thinking of it, "Hey, Naruto, you need a packed lunch for school right?" At his nod, she started packing him one, using one of the untouched bento/lunch boxes. She put one muffin in, some carrot sticks and a couple sandwiches. "Need anything else?"
"Nah," he swallowed his food before continuing at her unbelieving stare. "Only paper if I need to take notes, and I don't because most of the time I'm sent out of class until the lesson is over."
Laurel let herself gape at him, thinking, that is completely absurd! "Kid, after school, you're gonna tell me exactly what happens during school hours most days, teachers and students. That is not what school should be like." You know what? Screw that, I'm going to follow him today. See what it's really like, just in case he's exaggerating or downplaying something. "I'll pick you up after school, and we can start scheming our first prank." I can skim over the books during the day. Watching children at school is going to be boooooring.
The witch considered her previous plans for the day and realised it meant she'd be unable to do the clothes washing. She'd been plotting to steal Naruto's bedsheets and other clothes to get them all as clean as the rest of the apartment now was.
She might be able to manage it if she set it to washing itself and dried it with a spell once she got back, but that seemed risky in a town full of ninja. She didn't know that Naruto didn't have a ninja fairy godmother watching over and stopping people from actually genuinely trying to kill him. Or if anyone was likely to look in the now-clean windows as they bounced past. No matter how fast someone was moving, bedsheets washing themselves was going to make them stop for a second look.
Laurel realised getting that history book might turn out to be more useful than first expected. Knowing more about why everyone hated Naruto would be exceedingly useful.
The boy in question drew her back outside of her head when he tried to leave the table and somehow made the chair tip back, crashing on the floor with a loud bang.
She jumped off the bench, and was kneeling next to him on the floor in less than a second. Laurel examined his ankle with the trained eye of a healer, "You've twisted it, squishy. Let me get some ice, and don't try walking on it."
The witch turned so anyone looking in the window and Naruto couldn't see what she was doing as she poked in the freezer and conjured some water before freezing it. She hadn't yet gotten around to actually making any normally, otherwise she wouldn't have bothered.
When she turned back, the 12-year-old was sitting in his now-upright chair, face blank and generally unbothered. She cupped the ice in her hand, ignoring how her fingers went numb. Once the redhead thought her hand was cold enough, she switched which one was holding the ice, and placed her makeshift icepack over where the swelling would form. "That alright?"
Naruto looked a little confused, but indicated his agreement. "Nee-chan, why're you doing that?"
"Ice stops it from swelling up as bad, which makes it heal faster," She explained, switching the ice once more and placing her other hand on his ankle.
He scratched his head, still frowning, "But why bother when it'll be fine in another minute?"
Laurel forced herself not to react, "What do you mean?"
"It usually only takes, like, three minutes for something like this to heal. It's longer if it's broken, that can sometimes take an hour." He shrugged, unknowing of what he'd just confessed to.
The witch drew her hand back slowly, and pretended it was nothing big that he could heal a broken bone in an hour or less. "Well, if you say so," she acquiesced, "I guess you can just sit there until it's better, and I'll start on the dishes."
He wasn't lying, either. Not that she thought he would without a good reason, but he was actually able to walk perfectly fine in time to dry the dishes again. She had to ask, "Is that a normal ninja thing? Healing a twisted ankle in a couple minutes?"
"I guess?" Naruto shrugged, "I've never really noticed if anyone else can do it, but a lot of the girls complain during taijutsu practice about dirt and bruises and stuff. I think it's a girl thing, because the guys never do."
We'll see, "Well, tell me if you notice anything like that today, too? That's not something anyone else I know can do, is all." She finished the last of the plates, and rummaged through her bags for a change of clothes. "Naruto? I'm going to have a quick shower."
She shut the door behind her, put her head in her hands for a mild freak-out to get it out of her system before she had to resort to the mental arena, and then turned on the water so it could warm up. Laurel was unpleasantly surprised to discover the reason for the lack of mold on the ceiling was because there was no hot water, and therefore no steam.
After letting out a strangled scream, and hearing a sadistic male chuckle, she hurried through her shower and getting dressed, towel-drying her hair and pulling it up into a high ponytail to avoid getting a wet shirt.
Ordinarily she would've spell dried it, even if it apparently made hair break easier - 'Convenience rules all', she mentally quoted Ron - but if that laugh wasn't confirmation that there was someone other than Naruto here with her, she didn't know what would be. That was not in any way Naruto's laugh, and she knew it.
Him having and ninja fairy godmother was a joke, damn it all! If it was possible for either of the beings she'd brought with her to have orchestrated this, Laurel would have had no hesitation in pranking them in return, older than time or her own creation completely notwithstanding.
She'd have to fix that water problem later, probably when she went through and fixed up the rest of the building.
That meant she needed to sort out her room as soon as she could, so Laurel wouldn't have to live out of her bigger-on-the-inside bag. And the less magic she performed visibly, the better. Ugh, not again.
With a shudder to shake off memories of forcefully magicless summers, she returned to the main part of the living space.
Naruto was in his bedroom probably getting changed into his clothes, and the witch was pleased to see the dishes had been put away as well. She pretended to be busy in the corner of the room, and pulled her wand from the holster on her right arm so she could cast a notice-me-not on the area she was in.
The green-eyed woman summoned an old summer cloak, her shrunken bed frame and mattress, her rune-embroidered 'sweet dreams' blanket, a closet, and her sleeping clothes. The cloak was transfigured into a partitioning curtain, the bed assembled - Laurel had to summon her pillow, which she'd forgotten - and the closet was for the sleeping clothes and bag.
With a bit of clever wandwork Laurel managed to set the notice-me-not to gradually fade over time, and presumably by the time the day was over it would have faded completely. That way any watchers would notice it subconsciously first, and by the time they could actively acknowledge it, it would be considered normal.
That was the theory anyway.
And since she had sneaky things like following Naruto to school to do, combined with confirmed observers, Laurel needed a distraction - some way of keeping them thinking that she was still here. Changeling is made for this, the witch reminded herself. And it was a very good thing her body double had a large pranking streak, because this would keep her entertained in a non-destructive way.
If let loose, Changeling tended towards bamboozling people into believing the truth was lies and every lie she spoke was gospel. It was hilarious to watch, but horrendous to clean up afterwards, which Laurel was usually in charge of after the golem went back to sleep or returned to her spell practice.
She hadn't dared to unleash Changeling for exactly that reason, because here there wasn't any Hermione or Neville to keep her entertained while Laurel herself was busy. Added to that, her double was as well-trained as the witch, since they had to be able to switch out with no noticeable differences.
The witch had been working on a golem, an earthen elemental which was traditionally constructed and then used as a guardian for some kind of treasure. They were created through some rather intensive magical rituals combining clay with blood, and controlled through magically imbued jewels. It was extremely complex, draining and dangerous. The only complete copy of the ritual Laurel had ever found was in the Black Library and marked as 'hazardous'. For the Blacks who considered bone-breaking and blood-boiling curses just a party favour, she figured it'd have to be pretty bad to be labelled as outright hazardous.
Admittedly, she hadn't been trying to make a golem at first, just a simple illusion convincing enough at a distance.
But then there was all the negative attention (kidnapping, revenge, and so on), positive attention (fans, not that Laurel ever actually thought that was positive) and her general inability to be alone without someone trying to get something from her. Of course, this was all before she'd figured out the runes for anonymity, because nothing ever came easy. Or in the right order. Other examples of this were the chocolate frog card and Nicholas Flamel, or Hermione getting petrified with the page in her hand, or Sirius' letters after the Dementors saying stay where she was. Yeah, that worked out well.
That eventually combined with one of Laurel's lifelong dreams of having family. Having a sister would be ideal, and the witch had spent her time in the cupboard trying to figure out what having a twin might be like. It was a more extreme version of an imaginary friend.
On top of that, she wanted someone to teach. Like an apprentice but more personal, like a child but without the time span, like younger sibling but without the rivalry.
As usual, it was Hermione who helped her go from a spark of an idea and a dream into something much more physical.
She had suggested a book on animation of inanimate objects, like the statues protecting Hogwarts and the suit of armour so she could enchant something to walk around her house, pick up things or whatever while having a complex glamour so it looked like her, for the kidnapping issues.
Laurel had run with it, but probably a lot further than her bookworm friend had expected. There was a reason Luna and Laurel had gotten along so well during school, even if they couldn't be in the same room by that point in their lives.
First step was to find an appropriate shell to build it out of. To exactly no one's surprise, there were all kinds of issues with that since Laurel didn't want just a visual double. It needed to be something that could accurately pass as a person and react to situations as if it was a person. Well, in actual fact she'd wanted it have its own personality, but she figured she could work up to that.
And with most of the people that needed to be fooled by this construct being magical, they instinctively knew when someone (or something) had no magical core. Objects felt different from people, and muggles felt different from squibs, which felt different from a witch.
That wasn't to say that most wizards and witches could tell the difference between one of them and a magical creature. It was simply the presence of a contained magical source that registered within most people's sensory capabilities. Those with specific talent might be able to tell through experience, but Laurel had never met anyone to ask about that, so it was only ever an unproved theory.
Laurel had experimented with lots of different materials and none seemed to do what she wanted. Wood gained and lost magic too quickly like heat in sand. Some spells made it grow while others overloaded it until it caught on fire and the witch could say goodbye to any progress made up to that point.
Stone didn't conduct magic well enough, and was too strong and heavy to accurately pass as a person.
A set of metal armour channeled magic just fine, but under certain types of magical resonance it melted, shattered, or even straight out exploded. It had only taken one time for Laurel to get sick of metal shards trying to separate her head from her body, but it had happened another two anyway.
Any combination of the three tended towards awkward and misshapen, especially since what one thing reacted to, the other two didn't. For example, in one case the wood grew, the metal warped and the stone wasn't affected by it at all.
She'd gotten quite desperate before coming across the blood-infused clay recipe for a proper golem, and it was definitely for the better that she didn't reach the stage of carrying out any of those half-baked plans.
So after deciphering and remaking the ritual, exchanging the plain jewels for rune-inscribed ones and bonding a heart-sized bloodstone to her so it would give her golem the correct form, Laurel finally managed to carry it out.
It had drained her of magic for a week and nearly killed her with that alone, not even touching on the magical burn scars like ferns striping her torso from the oversaturation of her own power, or the blood loss because all of the runic markings had to be made with freshly spilled blood and she wasn't going to kill someone. Changeling was still learning the finer points on social interaction as her own person, rather than just mimicking Laurel's, but the magical construct looked like her, acted like her, and was solid enough to do things herself.
Laurel had used her to help around the house, ignoring the fact it would negate the surprise factor of her if anyone came in to kidnap her again. She'd needed to learn how to be a person in practice as well as theory. They prepared as well as they could for the times someone tried to kill them again, things like tactics, spell warfare, and even using gymnastics combined with martial training to evade and escape.
She might have excellent wards, but they were not in any definition 'fool-proof'. Idiots still came up with stuff the witch had never even dreamed of.
The redhead had nicknamed her Changeling after the old fairy-stories about changelings being swapped with babies, and the real children stolen away. Ginny had grinned, admiring the irony of it all, but Hermione had just gotten this pained look and buried herself further in her book while the pair cackled madly around the coffee table in Laurel's lounge. Luna would've enjoyed it too, if she'd been there to hear about it.
No watchers would have noticed anything with the the big 'stay-away' of a notice-me-not, so Laurel openly summoned her stolen book copies and one of Ginny's, and shoved them in the pocket of her jacket.
Lastly, she detached Changeling from her shrunken and sleeping state on the redhead's necklace, and cast the correct spells to disable them. "Augeo, eviglio aetus." Changeling blinked and rubbed her right eye tiredly, but looked around nonetheless to examine where the threat was. "I need you to stay in the bathroom until I come back and get you, I'll explain more then because I don't have much time, okay?" Laurel waited for a nod of agreement, and her double to go toward the indicated door before double checking the layout of the room, and finalising any last touches.
In an effort not to stand out any more than necessary, the witch had worn a short high-collared dress over a pair of warm leggings with simple lace-up leather shoes. She'd picked her favourite brown wool jumper, one gifted from Neville and charmed with windproofing and water-repellant charms on the inside layer. It might look like she was getting cold to everyone else, but she wouldn't have to feel it and the sleeves were long enough to hide her wrist and most of her hands.
Naruto tried to walk out the door without a scarf or gloves, and so she forced some of her extras on him, and pulled a hat down over his eyes before running off. He caught up quickly, and grinned at her, delighted to have someone to play with even in the frosty morning. The redheaded witch was pleasantly surprised that it was nowhere near as cold as she was used to winter being. Maybe he wouldn't need more than the scarf?
She walked with Naruto until she could see the school gate, and hugged him goodbye. "I'll see you afterwards, okay sunbeam? Remember, I want to hear all about it." She ruffled his hair, and waited for him to leave her sight before she wandered back to his apartment.
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Laurel tromped loudly up the stairs, hummed as she puttered around for a couple minutes and walked into the bathroom. She changed into appropriate clothes, and gave the discarded ones to Changeling while she informed the magical construct of her plans. The witch also mentioned what had been going on, and any other information she might need in order to stay under the radar as much as possible since Laurel had already blown it. Death had thoughtfully dropped by to mess with Changeling's mind, so that was one less thing to worry about. She transfigured back into her masculine persona, ignoring how she'd be invisible all day anyway, and cast the 'going sneaking' spell chain.
Once both women were ready, and Changeling had informed her of her ambitious plans - reading books all day and drinking tea - Laurel escaped with the magical construct helpfully opening the doors for her invisible self.
It was only as she left that she realised that the night before she had been a lot less subtle. Too late to worry about that now.
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Kakashi had a quiet night, despite all expectations to the contrary.
Since no one ever really retired from ANBU unless they were dead, he wore his old uniform and Dog mask, and took over for Owl's shift, while she had the night off with her fiance.
There was always one ANBU watching Naruto 24/7, except during school hours when the Hokage's Guard would keep an eye out for any threats anyway. Support was found in the patrolling ninja, who were only a chakra flare away. Life had been easier when the Police had been active, but the Hokage had compensated with career-chuunin for the shinobi areas (jounin-level for high risk, normal chuunin for low risk) while some members of the Genin Corps patrolled the civilian areas.
But honestly, having even one ANBU guarding a single target was probably overkill if it hadn't been for those missing nin.
The woman slept on a pile of blankets in the lounge and barely shifted for the first half of the night, only to wake up around 3am, chest heaving and body trembling.
She was silent, but he wondered what nightmares plagued her. Most civilians either didn't live through the events that traumatised them, or never experienced them enough to be properly traumatised and have recurring nightmares.
She started running through a series of stretches that looked like something a shinobi created, and rolled the blankets up into one of the corners, like that would make a difference to the overall look of the room.
It was for a different purpose, as the redhead demonstrated by going through a series of controlled flips and twists, bouncing off one wall back onto the floor in a handspring. After spinning on one palm and collapsing into a split, she swung up into a cartwheel and bounced off the wall again.
Kakashi had seen something similar practiced by other females before, but this one was interesting because she was a civilian.
No chakra enhancing her strength, or warming her muscles beforehand - suddenly the logic of stretches struck him - or to stick to the wall or floor.
She just manipulated her centre of gravity with elegant twists, used her momentum to climb a wall, calculated the timing of her bounces to conserve her energy of movement.
It reminded him of his fighting style actually, of attacking from every possible angle in what seemed like a random series of movements.
Well... when he wasn't reduced to a jutsu competition. Those were more common and both more and less draining. Kakashi was not made to be a heavy-hitter. Combat focused, definitely, but his stamina was not anywhere close to better-than-average, and he had never been interested in the intensive training needed for true medical jutsu. His chakra control was better than average, but nowhere near that level. He could heal cuts and bruises, and was efficient enough for said jutsu competitions to come out in his favour.
She slowed down and eventually came to a halt. It must have only been the most basic kind of routine for her since she hadn't even worked up a sweat, and was breathing smoother than when she'd first woken. As she repeated half of the stretches once more, Kakashi picked up her humming a song, one that timed perfectly with her economic switches from one stance to another.
Another question that needs answering, the jounin noted while the redhead started on breakfast. This woman raised far too many and answered exactly none.
Breakfast only became interesting when Naruto started talking about how the teachers treated him, since he both got insight into Naruto and what other things he might have had to face because of what happened on his birthday. Also because her face was extremely expressive, and he liked seeing her shocked. It quickly transformed into outrage, and she demanded a recount of his day once it was over.
The next interesting thing was when Kakashi managed to make Naruto's chair fall over with a piece of wire and minor wind jutsu, and the boy twisted his ankle - which was not what he was aiming for, but it proved entertainment enough in any case.
Jinii seemed to have some experience as a medic, and the masked ninja was very interested in how she managed to contain herself when offered irrefutable proof of something weird being up with Naruto.
It looked like genuine hidden shock, covered by concern and wry amusement, which Kakashi wasn't inclined to believe. If she knew he was the Nine-tails Jinchuuriki, she would expect the healing boost, since she 'didn't', that meant she must be aware of the watchers and wanted to fool them into thinking she genuinely cared for Naruto.
Hm. Two can play at that game.
She disappeared into the bathroom, saying she was going for a shower, and he listened at the window to her whining at the back of her throat, running a hand through her vividly-coloured hair a couple times.
After that he heard the start of running water, and that same song floating around in a wordless melody. That was clothes landing on the floor, those were footsteps into the bath, and then a choked-down scream of surprise at the reason for the lack of steam.
He thought it was a perfect opportunity for some psychological warfare and laughed aloud, enough so that she would hear it. Kakashi was nowhere near loud enough for Naruto to pick up on it through the water, the door and over whatever it was he was doing.
After, Kakashi whiled away the time alternating between watching Naruto trip over things in an effort to find clean clothes, and whatever the woman was doing in the lounge. He could remember watching her, and it being nothing that strange, but when trying to pinpoint what she had been doing specifically there was only vague snippets.
Something with the kettle, some unfamiliar books and whatever it was that was in the corner. Kakashi got a headache when he tried to think about it too hard, and so he mostly watched Naruto until they left.
His lips twitched at the way the civilian started a small game of chase, and followed them to the Academy and back with no issues. His headache also vanished, which was a bit strange but he could think about that later.
She returned to the apartment and went back into the bathroom for about 10 minutes, emerging looking mildly tired and slightly bored. She opened the door to the hallway, seemingly examining the graffiti-free walls out there for no particular reason. Possibly checking on her handiwork. It was unlikely to be replaced anytime soon after the new kind of traps Naruto had been putting down by the building entrance.
Then the redhead returned and sat on the bench with a book in one hand while she waited for the water to boil, absorbing herself into the words on the pages. It wasn't a book he recognised but with a half naked man on the front and a scantily clad lady on the back, Kakashi could take a guess at what was inside.
This is my chance.
Civilians were vulnerable to genjutsu of any kind, not having the training to recognise when something was wrong, and if they did, unable to control their chakra enough to flex it in the right way to dispel one. A couple knew about the pain method, but generally speaking it was the easiest way to get into an already occupied house. After all, in order to necessitate dispelling a genjutsu, she had to suspect one was already there.
He would be properly cautious and make sure she was under the genjutsu before entering through the window, but it shouldn't take more than a minute to get in. Then Kakashi could figure out what it was about the corner that was bothering him so much, and get out. He knew there was nothing interesting, but he wanted proof.
The ex-ANBU cast an auditory genjutsu with a clatter of a rock against the window, which made her jerk her head up as if to locate it. Once she'd returned to reading her book, he flicked another stone, which she shouldn't hear in the middle of his 'everything is normal' influence.
In spite of this, her head jerked up, just as it had before, and it took her a little longer to settle back into her story.
Kakashi tried this one more time with exactly the same result, but after the fourth stone, she left her book open on the bench and hopped down in order to investigate.
He considered things while he ducked back up onto the roof. Like maybe she'd been properly trained to dispel them somehow, without an obvious tell like injuring herself or the chakra flex he would have sensed.
Maybe it was a kekkei genkai, and he was right in thinking she might look like an Uzumaki, but she couldn't actually be one. At least not a full-blooded one.
Kushina had been terrible with genjutsu, since with her large reserves it made it nigh on impossible to dispel them without an obvious wound. This Jinii had nowhere near the reserves of Kushina, but it was clearly more than normal for someone untrained in its use.
He would contemplate it later, since she had gone back to the bathroom. The silver-haired man chose to sneak in anyway, taking advantage of what openings he was given.
Kakashi needed to find out what it was about that corner that so confused him.
He got in and out without a problem, but once he was outside again, he couldn't remember what he'd discovered. There was nothing specific at all, just the vague notion that it wasn't important. The more he thought about it, the more aggravated he felt. Normal is never an acceptable descriptor.
Suppressing the emotion, the shinobi repeated the act but even though he lingered longer inside, the silver-haired ninja couldn't recall anything once outside again. He tried one more time: nothing.
But this time when he peered in, the woman was back on her cushion in the middle of the lounge, where she would've been completely unable to ignore him. Yet she read as if nothing had caught her interest, nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.
There's something going on here, and I'm going to figure out what it is.
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