Disclaimer: Do I look like I own Naruto?
Edited by Skelethin.
"Operator"
Chapter 8
"The non-stop path"
"Stealth depends on many things."
Haku circled the younger blonde slowly, her calm eyes taking in every detail of the sweat-drenched, dirty body.
"It is dependent on grace of your step," The brunette slid away, smooth and flowing like water. "On the control of your body," Her hand made an oddly slow foray towards Ino's collarbone, that none the less got through, leaving a small but painful bruise. "And on the strength."
Ino swayed, her breath coming in loud heaves.
"I am sad to say... You have none of those qualities." The medic stopped in front of the girl, her abrupt pause, like her steps, not even making a slightest bit of a circle on the water. Ino tried not to be envious - it was easy when all of jealousy was turned into a nice, even flow of resentment that was slowly boiling up with each passing second.
"But then it is not unexpected. I do not blame you for it." Haku said calmly. "Your lack of ability to cultivate those skills in your most recent training, however..." She leaned forward, studying the face covered with a strange mix of dirt, perspiration and moisture from the morning dew, "That... I do."
Ino gritted her teeth, steeling herself for the strike that never came.
"Ino-san, I am not here to hurt you." The elegant girl said calmly. "I am not here to harm you. I am here to teach you the necessary skills expected of ANBU operator. How to remain unseen, how to perform your mission and how to come back alive."
The blonde said nothing, her stare between a defiant glare and deflated resignation.
"However, if you will persist in this childish behavior..." Ino blinked, when the space before her was empty, only to stiffen as Haku's breath caressed her neck. "I will be... very cross."
The medic leaned forward, her lips on the level of Ino's ear.
"Your failure means Team's 4 failure. In ANBU, failure ends in death. I will not allow that, Ino-san."
"...don't patronize me..." The Yamanaka gritted out.
"Patronize you?" Haku cocked her head to the side curiously. "I am not... 'patronizing' you. I am simply explaining your situation."
"I know what you're doing." The genin muttered, her voice slurring slightly from exhaustion. "Trying to scare me... tryin' to... to make me work like you say... I'm Yamanaka, dammit... I know all that shit." She spat.
Haku looked at the blonde thoughtfully for a minute, before taking a step, her hands clasped before her.
Ino didn't know if to scowl or to wince. Or laugh, maybe.
The ANBU medic looked like a picture of a demure girl from a good family, in a fine, though unexpensive kimono, gifted with poise and grace. Like some blushing yamato nadeshiko waiting for her omiai and willing to play the nice, good housewife to a husband she never met. All softness, sugar, and 'ara' in that perfectly pitched, kind manner, with warm eyes and hands that looked too soft, too delicate to be real.
Ino was sick to her stomach just seeing this.
It was all a lie, it was all a fucking hypocrisy and impossibility and a cruel joke that left an acidic aftertaste that was just disgusting. Those hands couldn't be soft, those eyes couldn't be warm and that smile just sent chills down her spine. Or it might have been the ice mirrors circling them, Ino wasn't sure.
"Ino-san, do you know what Naruto-sama told me?" Haku said, her voice thoughtful, kind and with that odd, reverent note whenever that name was mentioned.
Ino, if it was possible, felt even more sick. Another brick to that house holding the sweetness of the gentle woman. That light, happy, love-struck tone that was just. so. wrong.
"He told me that you are a trooper. A survivor. He told me Yamanaka Ino is tough, but she isn't stupid. That she can take it," The ice mistress turned to Ino, her face marred by no grimace, but the disappointment and a chiding note of disapproval were there, plain as day. "But you are acting like a stubborn child."
"Well sorry for disappointing your highness," The blonde said sweetly. "I guess that chain smoking bastard isn't so perfect after all."
One black eyebrow rose.
"You are an... interesting girl, Yamanaka Ino-san." The medic said after a long moment, her tone thoughtful. "And I admit, there is potential here but..." Ino didn't even have a chance to stiffen when the medic was suddenly there, right in front of her face.
It wasn't shunshin, it wasn't some kind of transportation technique - Ino barely felt any chakra used. As impossible as it seemed, it was just... speed. Speed Ino couldn't even begin to track, even after two weeks of daily hell.
It was humiliating on a level she didn't want to think about for a kunoichi who had the best physical scores in her year. But as Ino found out quickly, such petty things like the Academy rankings didn't matter here in the slightest.
"However, I would ask you not to talk about Naruto-sama like that." The inflection and tone didn't change but there was a deceptively soft, chilly quality in the older woman's tone now and Ino could resist the slight shudder that went through her.
She thought she had her pegged after a day - a kind woman, if a stern taskmaster.
She thought she had her pegged after a week - ANBU, medic and apparently an excellent cook.
In the end, Ino knew less than she had at the beginning of those sessions, aside from the fact that insulting the blond blockhead was ill advised. And the 'hows' or 'whys' of it all were something she preferred not to contemplate, given the math. Because one plus one plus one equaled three the last time she did the counting.
That Inuzuka gal was bad enough, being open and shameless, but in her own, seemingly demure way... Haku was far worse.
She was a Yamanaka, they learned to read the basic behavioral patterns early - after all, the infiltration was more than just 'hello, I'll hijack your body now, thank you' kind of deal. Sure, she wasn't the best, she was still green but...
Haku was smooth, graceful, cultured and kind to almost everyone. And yet when you caught them together, whenever one on one, or all together, then it was all so... close.
So innocent, so natural, so smooth and flowing and...
And almost disturbingly erotic, to Ino's never ending shame, as her heart started to beat a little faster and cheeks tinged with pink.
Hana's open, cheerful affection she could deal with. The subtle... thing, for she had no name for it, that Haku was almost emanating around Naruto... Oh, that was a far tougher nut to crack. Tougher, but almost disturbingly exciting to watch, with all of the guilty pleasure of becoming a voyeur into that little space of forbidden.
So she dealt with it. Dealt with it like Ino - she rushed straight into the wall, and she did her damn best to break it, crush it. Drown it in the deluge of exhaustion, sweat, dirt and painful afternoons filled with endless stream of exercises and blooming injuries as her flesh turned into a map of carefully applied pain that it learned to both take and deal out.
Apparently, it wasn't working nearly as well as she had hoped.
"Very well," Haku nodded slowly, as if to herself. "I see words will mean little."
The mirrors of ice that floated around them suddenly just... rose. Straight out of the water, no wires, nothing. Ino blinked as the icy mirrors floated - goddamn floated! - over the surface, circling them in their chilly elegance.
The four mirrors flowed... and then there were eight.
And they spun, the sun reflecting on them merrily, with a promise that made her wary.
"Combat is an important part of your ANBU ability but you rush into it. Confidence is good. Skill is even better. However, there is an old adage that rings true. Especially for us, shinobi."
Ino froze as Haku vanished, the medic's form suddenly appearing in one mirror. Then another. Then another. Then another.
The blonde's eyes scanned the frozen surfaces madly, spinning, trying to follow the rapid movement that was again beyond her, only to stiffen as something cold, smooth and oh-so-sharp touched her neck, drawing a tiny droplet of blood.
"See..." Haku's breath caressed the genin's ear gently, almost a mockery in its own way "There is always someone better."
Without even a chance to scream, Ino's world turned into a blur of frozen pain.
Naruto blinked, staring at the drenched, prone body for a long moment.
"Wow. Doesn't she look like a drowned rat." He said finally, poking the blonde a few times, but getting no response. "What happened?"
"She fainted." Haku said calmly, dusting her hands off the minute icy specks that fell to the floor like some cheap imitation of snow, melting almost at once as they left her body.
"Fainted." Naruto said blankly.
"Fainted." Haku nodded, walking to the kitchen, before stopping and looking at her partner thoughtfully. "Has she ever washed any clothes"
The blond blinked at the odd question.
"I have no idea." He said with a shrug. "Why?"
"Ah. Then she'll have to learn, I think." The brunette said calmly.
"What do you mean?" The boy looked at the ice mistress curiously.
"Naruto-sama, please." Haku frowned. "Do you know how hard it is to get dust, grime and sweat off that couch?"
"Ah." The the blond nodded slowly as the young woman vanished in the corridor. He looked at the unconscious girl on the couch thoughtfully for a minute before sighing and crafting several simple fuuton type seals he slapped on her clothes - it wasn't much, but at least she'd be dry pretty fast.
"Your life just reached a whole new level of suck, you know that?"
Bruised and sweaty, Ino kept on slumbering, not even stirring from the comfortable couch.
"Sleep tight." Naruto threw a blanket over the prone form. "For tomorrow is a whole new day for you. Unfortunately."
Ino's teeth chattered, and she took a deep breath, vigorously rubbing her arms for warmth.
She was cold, she was wet, she was miserable - and she was covered in frozen leaves.
"This is really disappointing. I mean, this is disappointing on a level that surpasses just disappointing." The bland, emotionless voice was circling her, shifting and changing pitch, becoming a scream and a whisper at a moment's notice. "I am not even all that good of a genjutsu user."
Ino's teeth chattered.
Kai was a wonderful technique - mold some chakra, snap a single seal and send the pulse that jarred your senses just enough for the whole illusory shebang to waver, your brain decide that 'yes, it is fishy, not real, I want my reality back, thank you!' and welcome you back to the sunny glade of the real, warm sun and chippering birds.
"Come on, girl." The emotionless facade dropped, leaving mockery in its wake. "Make some effort. Show me!"
"S-S-Shut... UP!" Ino snarled, rubbing her arms constantly now. Sitting in the snow, ice and rain for half an hour had that curious effect on the body.
"Seesh." The sigh reverberated through the clearing, "Remind me to push you on to Kurenai when we get the chance."
The snow swirled, before vanishing, the glade melting into the rich green and oh-so-wonderful yellow, with only two dots of mocking and hateful white in front of her, the fishnet gone for once, leaving shorts that looked to be rather tight cutoffs of the ANBU armor undermesh and a tube top that ended somewhere around the breasts, barely covering them and leaving whole midriff bare, displaying the twin dragoon tattoo in its indecent glory almost in entirety.
"Kurenai-san has her own genin team to train, Yashiro." Haku said from her perch on the tree.
"She has a spineless main-house princess, an Inuzuka mutt whose grasp of tactics comes down to 'charge!' and an Aburame." The ex-Hyuuga snorted derisively. "Like she has one illusionist in her crew. Yeah. Riiiight."
"Hey, hey, hey... That mutt's my younger brother." Hana threw a small pebble in Yashiro's general direction, which Hyuuga deflected on automatic. "Though he is kinda dim."
"And I wouldn't put down that girl either." Naruto said lazily, not bothering to open his eyes, his head propped on Hana's knee. "Kurenai said she's got one of the highest scores in general arts and pretty good chakra control."
"Then you obviously don't know Hinata, blondie." The ex-Hyuuga sighed. "Don't get me wrong - while her Byakugan isn't some kind of a super-miracle like that old bastard Hiashi would have wished for, the gal is her mother's daughter - she has loads of potential. Problem is, she won't ever use it right. She lacks the mentality - she should never have been a shinobi in the first place."
Hana raised an eyebrow curiously, and even Naruto opened his eyes.
"Hyuuga are forced into a... mold, of sorts." Yashiro explained. "Byakugan is cool and shit, but it needs specific conditions and trianing to be used to its fullest potential. Problem with that is that the old Main House bastards don't notice that Jyuuken isn't the solution to everything. Hyuuga must be a taijutsu master, must learn to utilize Byakugan and master the forms of Jyuuken - that's their definition of a good Hyuuga ninja. She doesn't fit it."
"Not to blow holes, but I've seen you in action, princess." Kyo said lazily. "Jyuuken is powerful. Close up, it kicks ass - you can even use it at a medium distance, disrupt enemy jutsu, incapacitate, kill, detect falsehood, read opponents..."
"And you can get your eyes burned out by overwhelming chakra shadow or a simple flash of intense light when you are looking too close." The ex-Hyuuga said calmly. "Or you can burn your fucking hands when you strike a freak of nature who has more chakra than a whole squad combined and when it is fucking toxic."
Naruto chuckled, and Yashiro shot him a mildly annoyed glare.
"Not my fault!" The blond protested. "How was I supposed to know that that stuff would react like that! What am I, jinchuuriki research bureau with a crew of one, or something?"
"You could have fucking warned me you know." The taijutsu mistress grumbled. "If I knew you're the container for that fox I'd never dream of attacking your chakra system directly, you shithead."
"Feh. You're annoyed I kicked your ass." The boy snickered.
"Feel lucky I'm too lazy right now to get up and show how you 'kicked my ass' again."
"Excuses, excuses," Sing-songed the blond.
"Fuck you, midget." She flipped him a bird.
"Sorry, that's my job." Hana grinned, throwing her arm around the blond's neck lazily. "You don't get to touch that, glass-eyes."
"I tend to like the fully grown specimens." The ex-Hyuuga sniffed, patting the True Sniper's head on her lap.
"Yeah, I feel so loved." The scruffy-looking man rolled his eyes, the coin dancing over his knuckles as if on its own. "We should post an official protest, or something. They are using us like vibrators, or some unfeeling sex toys, Lt."
"Better that than the couch." Yashiro tapped his forehead, letting a small burst of chakra dance between her fingers before sliding down the sniper's head, leaving a cool, pleasant wave.
"Well, there is that." The man sighed, before peering up at the impressive cleavage. "And the view is great. Mountains wherever you look... I always loved climbing."
"Perv." Yashiro giggled, before kissing her partner.
"Get a room, you two." Hana grumbled at the couple. "Seesh, will you give it a rest? You've been fucking like rabbits ever since we got the leave."
The duo broke the kiss, blinking at the Inuzuka, before shrugging.
"So?"
It was incredible how they could seem like a one person in those moments, given their radically different personalities. Though it might have been because they just filled out what the other lacked, Naruto supposed. It was almost too weird how they were yin to each other's yang and vice versa. Even their fighting styles - Kyo's long-range sniping arts and Yashiro's close-combat taijutsu mastery seemed to both contradict and complete each other.
Hana rolled her eyes wordlessly while Naruto just chuckled.
"So." The ex-Hyuuga leaned forward, looking at Ino who finally stopped looking blue around the edges and ceased shivering. "What have we learned today?"
"Beyond the fact you are a bunch of fucking maniacal sadists?" The Yamanaka glared at the team.
"We're ANBU, honey." The taijutsu expert shrugged. "We are paid to be a bunch of maniacal sadists."
"We are paid to be a bunch of professional maniacal sadists." Tenrou, who as like was her wont, drinking some freshly brewed tea and was silent until now, said pleasantly.
"Thank you." Yashiro nodded. "So, what have we learned, besides that?"
Ino glared, refusing to so much as budge even under the unnerving stare of the lavender orbs.
"I can't hear you, rookie." The ex-Hyuuga's velvety voice turned into sharp steel for a briefest of moments and Ino flinched inwardly, finally lowering her eyes.
"...I can't break genjutsu." She muttered.
"'Can't break genjutsu'?" Yashiro's inky eyebrow rose. "That's it? No, girl. I'll tell you what we learned today. We learned that your control over your mind is decent, but it sucks when it comes to body. We learned you can't lie effectively, that your pain threshold is too low and that you are impatient. We learned that your chakra reserves suck and you don't know nearly enough about genjutsu to learn that it has more than simply one layer and isn't just skin deep. We learned that any mildly capable ninja would gut you like a fish with just a bit of illusion and some patience." Yashiro's voice was chilly. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
Ino just gritted her teeth, refusing to look up. Challenging the taijutsu mistress to the contest of will or something like a stare down was just ridiculous - Ino had enough bruises and humiliation as it was.
"Team 4 has an unofficial specialization in genjutsu-intensive cases. It might be unofficial, but we do get those cases, rookie. Breaking like that under a low class area genjutsu isn't an option." Hana said calmly. "You will learn to get through this, by sheer willpower if needed." She looked at Ino with half-lidded eyes. "I promise you that."
"Give her a break, bitch." Kyo said lazily, shuffling a deck of cards "She's learning. She's still green, you know."
"She can't afford to be." The captain said bluntly, looking at Ino. "Shape up, girl. This isn't a game anymore. Wake up and smell the java - reality's knocking. If you want to be a part of this team, you need to contribute, we need to know you're good enough to keep both yourself and others alive."
The blonde snorted softly, looking away.
"No one asked me if I want to be the part of this outfit." She muttered.
"Oh?" Naruto sat up, popping a cigarette into his mouth. "That's bothering you, eh?"
"And it shouldn't?" The blonde scowled, looking at her lieutenant. "I'm picked form my genin team, from my friends, from my home and thrown into... into this," she waved her hand at the general vicinity. "You kick my ass day after day, you don't explain things worth shit, you just push and push and fucking push without saying a goddamn word!" She exploded, her frayed nerves finally crumbling and letting loose, "Does it bother me? You sure as fucking hell can BET it bothers me, you fucker!" She snarled. "I don't know why I am here, I don't know what I'm doing and don't get explanations worth SHIT! I just get orders, pushing, and that... that... little mockery of a fucking homemaker with a psychotic complex that stabs me in the mornings and gives me dinner in the afternoons, all with the same bland smile that I am fucking starting to hate!" She pointed at Haku. "You just sit back, smoke and go the 'wise master' shtick on me while that glass-eyed maniac rapes my senses for fun and profit daily! All that and my father says nothing, my mother throws a fit, masked fuckers fly all around without even noticing me save to give me orders I don't even UNDERSTAND and I don't know jack shit! Now tell me, am I fucking BOTHERED?!" She heaved, her hands shaking. "FUCK YES I am bothered!"
Naruto took a long drag off his cigarette, staring at the trembling blonde, who in the middle of the tirade somehow found herself standing and gesticulating wildly, her arms shaking, hands clenched into fists teeth clenched so hard that she could swear they were grinding loud enough for all of the ANBU to hear.
Finally, he let out a deluge of smoke, cracking a grin that looked both amused and oddly... skewed at the same time.
"Welcome to the wonderful world of black operations. Enjoy your stay, 'cause we charge by the day." He said flippantly.
"I have no idea why did the Hokage order you to be here, but you don't have a choice." Hana shrugged. "You need to learn to live with it, or you won't get far."
"Three months is a short time, Ino-san. Especially considering you lack much of the training chuunin assigned to ANBU units usually already have." Haku explained calmly. "Because of that, we will push you that much more. Neither you, nor we, have any choice in the matter."
"See, thing is..." Naruto let out a cloud of smoke "You've got your orders, and we've got ours."
"Ours is not to question." Tenrou said stoically, her face devoid of all emotion save almost inhuman serenity. "Ours is to obey and accomplish by any means necessary."
"See, ANBU is a little bit like a magic lamp." Kyo explained, propping his elbow on Yashiro's bare thigh "The Hokage gets the lamp, rubs it and says his wish - and lo and behold, he gets it!" He looked at Ino, snapping his fingers. "Hows and whys don't interest him. He says a wish, and he gets it - that's all that matters to him. He gave the order, and we must accomplish it. And so have you."
Ino sat on the ground heavily.
"I get it, I get it!" She muttered, dragging her hand through the golden hair in a tired gesture. "It is just... no one talks to me, you know? No one explains anything, and it is all so... so damn unsure. I don't know anything!"
"This is how ANBU live." Tenrou took a sip from her bowl.
"Yeah? Then I don't know if I want to be one." The Yamanaka girl grumbled. "But... it's not like I have a choice, right?"
Hana shrugged.
"Damned if you do, damned if you don't and no one tells me jack...Fucking shit." The blonde chuckled, rubbing her forehead. "This job sucks, you know that?"
Yashiro nodded solemnly.
"You are approaching wisdom, grasshopper." She said sagely.
"Ah screw you." Ino threw a handful of grass at the Hyuuga, before slapping herself and stretching her stiff body a few times. "Hit me."
The snow swirled again.
Ino gritted her teeth, glaring at the white nemesis.
'This time you're going down, bitch!'
The morning, as always, came too fucking early. Adhering to the long-held ritual, the cigarette was in his mouth before he left the bed. It was good Haku was out in the hospital, or she'd give him that soulful, disappointed stare about smoking in the sheets. Oddly enough, she didn't seem to mind that in the middle of the night - just hated it when he did that in the mornings.
"What's the damn difference...?" He muttered, sliding off the bed and migrating to the furo, throwing a look at the to-do list for the day.
'...D-ranks with the bastard again. Oh joy.' The blond thought sourly, taking a drag off his cigarette.
It was nice that the mission was easy, since they didn't leave the village and all, but still... D-ranks? It was kinda insulting. Good for reading time but not much else - if not for the seal manuals he'd be bored out of his mind. Hell, he'd prolly pick up the Icha Icha reading habit from the bastard, it was that mind-numbingly boring.
'Probably why he's doing it,' The blond decided, sinking into the bathtub with a sigh. The cigarette was, amazingly, untouched - it was an art he learned early on, considering how much of those he had to smoke.
Well, not had to had to, but it was always better safe then sorry - bijuu influencing his chakra system was not something he wanted to deal with more than he already did. The burn was bad enough as it was.
He leaned back in the furo, only to curse as he heard a familiar, metallic sound. The young ANBU closed his eyes, sighing heavily, and slid his hand to the left.
Short. Massive. Ugly. Sharp. Looked more like a meat cleaver, if not for the unmistakable combat shape and the quality of the steel.
Naruto frowned, looking at it curiously.
"Okay, where and when the hell did I get you?" He muttered curiously, looking the cleaver over for a few seconds, before sighing and throwing it to the side. "Whatever. Who the fuck cares this early."
The weapon vanished before it hit the wooden floor.
Naruto reached for another cigarette.
He seriously had to learn not to summon anything when he was drunk. He always forgot to summon them back. If there was another chopped furo incident because of that, Haku would get... irritated.
Naruto hated sleeping on the couch.
Naruto had a very curious and rather annoyingly complicated relationship with the color orange.
He loved it, he adored it and thought it was the single coolest color ever since he was four. His first action when he left the orphanage (or was kindly thrown out of, rather) was to buy a blindingly orange shirt and wearing it until he outgrew it. He wore an orange jumpsuit when he made genin, and he bought an even better one with a payoff from his first mission. In fact, he still had three separate, deliciously orange jumpsuits in his closet.
There was, however, a small problem with wearing them.
As much as he loved the vibrancy, vitality and just sheer coolness that was orange, he had found that he couldn't wear it anymore to his eternal despair. At all. It wasn't even that ANBU had a dress code (which they had) but the Ops usually didn't use uniforms, per se. It was just his ANBU-trained instincts, helped by seven separate incidents when he got tagged by a jutsu or outright stabbed by a weapon drove the point home. As awesome as orange was, wearing it in the field was beyond stupid and reached into the realms of suicidal by a fair margin.
That, and Yashiro threatened to burn every little bit of orange she could find if he didn't stop wearing it - with her eyes she tended to get headaches of epic proportions just by looking at him.
Three years of paranoia-enhanced non-orangeness served to shift him towards more utilitarian shades. Considering he spent a lot of time in the field, it became more than just a habit.
Now, to his eternal chargrin, Naruto found he couldn't wear orange. Not in the village, not in his home, not in training. Nada. Nowhere. Because the very moment he put something - anything - orange on, the little gears in his mind started turning in a most uncomfortable manner, cranking that nice little spiral of happy paranoia that was every shinobi's best friend, and kept turning, spinning, itching and pissing him off until he shed any orange he had on his person.
A tragedy. Truly. It could drive the man to drink.
Not that Naruto didn't try, of course.
The blond glared at the deliciously vibrant awesomeness of the orange jacket with determination for a long moment, before cursing and stashing it back in his closet.
"Some day... One day, you and me, bitch!" He pointed at the closet. "Just you see!"
He stalked away angrily, grabbing a far more subdued brown jacket off the rack and shrugged it on, only to halt, hearing a tell-tale metallic sound.
"...what the...?"
Naruto turned, only to blink at the several swords laying on the floor, neatly grouped together.
"What's going on...?" He muttered, grabbing one of the blades, and inspecting it. As always, it gave off a faint, almost unnoticeable surge of chakra.
It was an oddity, one he had found only after using the Mugen no Ken over a period of time - the weapons, even when they were not chakra blades, held a 'charge' in them, something that felt more like an extension of himself than a weapon. Each time he held one of his blades, he could feel it - pulsing slightly under his fingers, carrying over to his whole body. Hana thought he was crazy, since she couldn't detect anything but bare steel, but after some extensive study via Byakugan, Yashiro confirmed it. The chakra was odd for a weapon, the ex-Hyuuga said. Not external, like when one channeled it over a chakra blade to activate it, but more.. internal. Interwoven within the form and shape of the sword from the inside out, becoming the integral part of a weapon. Breath of steel, Yashiro called it. Like a living being, or even a summon. Well, it was a summon, but it wasn't exactly alive. It was just steel, wood - weapons. Countless weapons, but just weapons none the less.
Though sometimes, Naruto wondered. Each time he picked a new weapon, each time he grabbed something and absorbed into the contract he felt... familiarity. Oh, he trained with most of them - Kage Bunshin was useful like that. But it went beyond that. Each weapon he absorbed, he picked up with almost ridiculous ease. Not exactly the way to fight with it, but what it was. Every curve, every shift of steel, every shape down to the smallest detail. Things even the best of blacksmiths had trouble divining, he knew them all. And in some odd, unexplainable way, he felt as it they knew him as well, down to the very bones, to the smallest particle of his being.
They couldn't hurt him - he had found that early on, after some overeager blunder on his part left an enemy with one of his released zanbatou in his hands. The sword descended, striking him square on and it just... stopped. It didn't cut him. Hell, the side swing didn't even leave a bruise, save for kicking him back some!
Then the guy started screaming, blood flowing from his hands, the hilt of the zanbatou suddenly erupting with edges, spikes and bits and pieces of various weapons Naruto was sure he didn't summon.
The enemy chuunin ended as mincemeat, the countless blades ripping his hands off, until he fell at the almost absurdly fortuitously placed edge of the large sword he tried to take. It was is if the sword fell, and fell just right enough to bury its hilt into the ground to be steady for those precious seconds to catch the guy falling and skewer him through.
He became rather paranoid of his own summon for weeks afterwards, until Tenrou stubbornly nagged him to not only unseal it, but delve 'deeper' than just summoning a weapon or two.
He was scared, he wasn't afraid to admit it. He was scared shitless of that thing, and for a very good reason. For one, it was an accident, involving Kyuubi's chakra and who the fuck knew what it could do? He was so delirious and cut up then he didn't really know what happened. Only thing he knew was that Mugen no Ken was unique. No one ever had done anything like it, no one ever heard of anything like it before him. By extension, no one understood how and even why it worked the way it did. At first, it was just awesome - sure, everybody could seal a weapon in a scroll, but who could summon them just out of thin air? In that kind of quantity, no less? He could make it rain steel if he wanted to, how cool was that?
It stopped being so 'cool' when Kanna, who wasn't just the ANBU Commander and all around grumpy goth loli from hell, but also one of the best summoners and seal specialist out there, sat him down and explained the dangers. Naruto was fairly spooked when she calmly explained the many potential dangers of Mugen no Ken, which was then nameless still. After a fairly graphic description of what happened if one day he, say, summoned the weapons inside himself, rather than outside, he was a rather sickly shade of green for hours. That was before he learned that none of 'his' weapons could hurt him, of course.
But Tenrou nagged, in that spooky, silently forceful manner of hers.
"It trusts you to hold it. Trust the steel, it will trust you in turn." She said time and time again.
Eventually, he caved in. He quickly found that as weird and flat out insane the swordmistress could be at times, she was right. It was a beginning of an odd and beautiful friendship between the boy and his arsenal, one that took the tinges of a rather steamy love affair fairly quickly.
Of course, as useful and flat out awesome his Mugen no Ken was, it had its... quirks, and sometimes they raised their heads.
Like now.
"Hey, you wanna tell me something?" Naruto peered at the sword in his hand curiously.
The steel, as was its wont, didn't answer. Not that Naurto expected it to, but it never hurt to ask, right? After all, people said that talking to plants helped them, right? Steel didn't grow, but, hey - it was alive in a sense, right? The same principle applied. Somewhat.
"Not going to answer, huh?" The blond grinned. "Probably bored, ain't ya? Don't worry, we'll cut loose afterwards. For now just... calm down, eh?"
The cold steel vanished, as Naruto stretched, recalling the wayward weapons back.
"Yeah. Just calm down for now. For now." He muttered, walking out of the door.
"Tora, Tora, Tora..." Naruto tsked, holding the cat by the scruff of its fur. "How many genin teams do you have to drive to the brink of madness, buddy?"
The cat meowed before purring as it rubbed Naruto's hand shamelessly.
While the furball ran from almost anyone, ninja included (really damn amazing feat, when you thought about it) it rarely gave Naruto trouble in his own genin days, when he was still a kitten. Afterwards, he became somewhat more skittish. Not that Naruto didn't sympathize considering the keg of overly affectionate lard on legs that was his 'mistress', but Tora liked Naruto. Not that it was something all that odd - cats tended to like him. He didn't know why exactly it was so, but they did. Be it the softest, laziest Persian, the haughty Balinese, the noble Siamese or the meanest street stray - they all flocked to him.
In fact, cats were among his first friends when he was a kid and lived alone in his ratty apartment. He couldn't really afford to feed them then, but they still came about, friendly as you please. Hell, he learned his first sneaking paths and backdoor alleys to run through after a prank from those very strays. After he went to ANBU and got the better pay, he made a point of discreetly feeding the hungry cats, something Haku picked up on rather quickly and learned to appreciate and emulate. Though given that she was once a 'stray' like that herself and actually far worse off that those cats...
Naruto shook his head, trying to chase those images of the past. If he didn't find her then... They really owed Tsunade more than they could ever repay. He still had nightmares of that chain, and that dirty alley full of blood. He really didn't want to think about it.
'Guess strays and runaways flock together, huh?' He smiled at the cat, scratching Tora under the chin.
It was bizarre, considering he slept with an Inuzuka, but his house and land had at least one or two affectionate furballs on it at any given time, usually more - far more in winter months.
Still, Naruto had a really soft spot for Tora - the cat was a sneaky, willy little ball of fur and a natural-born rebel. No matter how many times that tub of lard closed off seemingly every escape avenue, Tora the Rebel managed to somehow slink away and have the dubious honor of the first cat to have a record of sixty seven D-class two C-class (when he ran out of the village) and one A (which involved enemy nin, of all things) recovery mission.
In Naruto's eyes, Tora was just damn impressive, not to mention they were old friends from way back. Bad luck for Team 7 to pick up this particular assignment.
"I really should get you back, you know." He muttered to the cat, before grinning. "But just between the two of us, old pal..." He performed a quick Kage Bunshin, handing the madly purring cat to it. The bunshin smirked, before vanishing with the animal.
"Heh. Try to find him now, suckers. Run Tora, run! Make me proud, man!" He snickered, sitting on a tree and opening his seal manual.
The chances that they'd find the cat were very slim now, and they weren't all that good to begin with. After all, pinky and the Uchiha were insistent on looking in the village proper. Tora was way too smart for that, something that Naruto knew very well.
The animal quickly discovered that the northern side of Konoha, off the side of the Hokage monument, had a number of nice clearings and caves that you could hide in very effectively. Tora was a veteran escape artist, after all - he knew his stuff. Kakashi could track the cat, but the one-eyed waste of space decided to 'look' for Tora with Icha Icha in hand. Which meant he wasn't going to be seen for next hour or so, given his habits.
'Fucker didn't change at all.' Naruto thought with a scowl.
If not for the fact that he had different subordinates now, Naruto would have sworn it was a verbatim flashback to his genin days. Complete with the bastard 'letting them gain experience' by 'coordinating' and 'evaluating' their missions from distance.
'Like there is anything to evaluate!' He snorted. 'Well, aside from teamwork, I guess. What a waste of time...'
Still, he couldn't complain. So far each and every mission was in the village, or on the outskirts. Kakashi's habits were a blessing in disguise - the guy wasn't going to take a C-lass. Not now anyhow.
Given his past experience, Naruto knew that until Team 7 finally worked guts enough to flat out disobey him and demand a real mission, and do it collectively as a unit, then he'd not take C-class for the foreseeable future. Kakashi was weird like that. Though Naruto genuinely didn't know if it was because he was simply lazy, or because he preferred the hands off approach.
'Probably a little bit of both.' He admitted grudgingly.
He had a problem with Kakashi, Naruto knew that well. He was unreasonable towards the jounin, even he could see it, even admit it. Self delusion didn't work all that well in ANBU as far as survival was concerned. That and he ahd countless sessions with shrinks and Inoichi - he knew more about himself than he ever really wanted to.
But the hard truth was Kakashi sucked as a teacher. He was a great shinobi, that much was true - Naruto weathered enough hardship in ANBU to have respect for the older man's power. Kakashi, unlike many of his peers, was nearly as good as his legend, in many respects. That was admirable, and he had to give credit where credit was due - Hatake was an awesomely powerful ninja when he cut loose, a first class technician when it came to jutsu. Not just because of his Sharingan as well.
All that said, the man was a waste as a human being and a piss-poor teacher. Epicly bad, even, and far too used to being right to realize that. Problem was, that cost lives. Or at least one life, and one teammate too many. This Naruto would never forgive him. Team 13 wasn't some miracle team, it wasn't full of geniuses and they clashed at times, but they were his friends. They were like family to him, the first he had ever known, the first that accepted him, the first that cared. Now, Kazuya was dead and Saya...
Naruto leaned back on the tree, staring into his book blankly, letters nothing more than some meaningless symbols containing nothing but gibberish.
It... hurt. Time dulled the edge a little, time and hectic pace of ANBU missions, as well as his friends and lovers but... It still hurt. He once thought that not being acknowledged by villagers hurt the most, but he knew better now. Acknowledgment from that faceless mass he could live without - it didn't bother him anymore. He had the acknowledgment and love of those who mattered and that was enough.
The ANBU shook his head, scowling. He hated going introspective like that. He knew it wasn't exactly his fault, considering what rattled inside of his skull but it still annoyed him, even after all those sessions with Inoichi and Sanae. The world used to be so much simpler then - just try and try and try until you got it right and if it didn't hold, bash its head until it caved in!
Then the one, little seal changed his world forever.
"Nao... You bitch." He muttered, though without the heat, closing his eyes.
After all, even after all this time, the jury was still out on this one and the older he got, the less certain of anything he was becoming. Though for that at least he could blame her.
"...Gah." He scowled. 'Fuck but I'm turning broody...! Emo! Another thing to blame that Hatake bastard for. Stupid, one-eyed shithead.'
In the end, it was paranoia that saved him.
Years in the field, combat, black operations and living with danger on constant basis honed Naruto's senses and his body to the point he reacted before consciously recognizing the threat. No thought, no doubt slowed him down - his body just moved, bypassing any reasoning altogether, instead falling back on pure, animalistic instinct and training all but beat into it.
Even as Naruto's body moved, it was not a moment too soon, as the branch he had been sitting exploded, pulverized into splinters. His hands moving even as his body twisted on its own accord, the blond barely found himself able to block a vicious backhand, followed by a palm strike that sent him skidding back as he and his assailant hit the ground.
'What the f-!'
It was like fighting a blindingly white blur of stabs, punches, kicks and strikes that were something in between, starting with one, ending with another. Speed and raw force rained upon his forearms and torso, knocking the wind form him and young ANBU instantly regretted not wearing his armor.
The strike was from the mid-distance, by all rights it shouldn't be that hard, and yet it was like being hit with a battering ram. His momentary loss of breath left him at a mercy of a vicious uppercut, followed by the elbow that sent him crashing into the tree. Naruto could swear he heard his ribs cracking. Or maybe it was the wood breaking? He wasn't quite sure.
He was no taijutsu buff - in fact, until after he made genin, his hand to hand combat skills didn't exist, and resembled some aimless, enthusiastic if sloppy brawling than any proper combat style. His genin days, though, gave him a solid base, after he saw what a good taijutsu practitioner can do. ANBU honed those skills and developed them further. The blond was no master, as weapons and ninjutsu were his specialties, but sometimes taijutsu was just a priceless survival skill and Naruto learned what he could from the resident taijutsu nut in his team. And yet this person, whoever it was, was pushing him and slapping him around the clearing with almost ridiculous ease and absurd amount of sheer power.
Naruto gritted his teeth, meeting the palm strike with a hard, offensive block, only to wince in pain.
"...the fuck... You're made... of?" He blinked, sliding back.
His opponent grinned, coming one hand through her silky tresses. Her very nice, very well kept silky tresses. As nice as her simple, but expensive looking clothes that were quite flattering on the lithe, slim figure.
Naruto just stood there, staring.
THIS was the person who was pushing him back? Not that he didn't respect kunoichi - he had three of them, all stone cold killers, in his team and he knew very well just what kind of power they packed. Still... The woman looked just... just girly, as stupid as it sounded.
The perfectly unblemished face more befitting a court lady, hairpins that cost more than his first ANBU armor, he'd bet. Not to mention clothes like that, simple or not, were clearly tailored and didn't look cheap by any stretch of imagination. She was young, but it was the kind of youth that could be a mature teenager or a woman in her twenties - the kind of timeless complexion that most women would kill to have and spent fortunes to emulate, but not a face Naruto knew.
Still... There was something about that woman... Something that scraped at the edge of his consciousness in a worst way...
"Who are you? Why did you attack me?" His eyes narrowed. "Who sent you?"
The woman's smirk only widened a fraction and she was upon him in the less time it took to blink.
Naruto cursed inwardly, swaying to the left and using knife-hand to stab at her torso, before twisting and trying to plant his fist in the solar plexus and nearly getting his arm broken for it.
'Idiot! You should have summoned the weaponry at once!' He scolded himself even as she entered his guard, almost planting her knee in his ribcage somehow.
'Too fancy.' Naruto thought with a smirk. 'That's going to cost you-'
He sailed up and the world seemed to stand still for a briefest of moments.
'...she... twisted upside down...' He thought dumbly. 'She fucking hit. Me. Upside. Down.'
It was an absurd waste of energy, stupidly risky and breached the realms of utter stupidity. By all rights, he should have stopped her mid-somersault and break her to pieces by striking her spine and yet she just did it. Just like that, and he didn't even see it coming. It was crazy, it was absurd,it was suicidical it was...
...it was exactly what he needed.
The young ANBU let himself be carried by the strike, rolling with it even further until he was upside down, and kicked back, using the much-abused tree as a springboard, before slamming his elbow down her thigh. This time he was ready and the feeling of corded muscle, as hard as steel, didn't surprise him. He just let himself flow with it, sacrificing power for mobility until he had the firm step on the ground. The long range taijutsu was a waste of time for him - he might have grown quite a bit since his midget days, especially considering how much Kyuubi's raging pushed his growth cycle to handle the power more efficiently, but he was still shorter than most fully grown adults. That meant he had to compensate with something nasty, vicious and kept in close range to rob his opponents of the leverage and power, turning their size against them.
And he had just the thing for that. It required plenty of power, but physical strength and raw stamina was something he had quite enough of. Abundantly so.
Naruto stomped down, his fist unclenching, fingers curling slightly even as his hands turned into a rake that struck in a rapid, forward move viciously...
...only to meet a perfectly timed counter.
The woman looked at him, grinning over their clenched hands, before laughing out loud.
"Now that's the stuff!" She said, her voice lower and rougher than one would expect of her frame "Feeling it? Just..." She forced him back, grin growing even wider. "CUT LOOSE!"
Naruto's eyes widened, only to bug out as a vicious elbow, with all the girl's mass behind it that somehow just.. flowed around his own block and through it, met his lower ribcage.
"Aaaah." The young woman sighed in disappointment, looking down at the young ANBU as the blond tried to catch his breath through sudden feeling of suffocation her strike introduced. "Now look what you made me do... And we were having such a nice spot of fun, too...!" She sighed forlornly "Pay attention next time, mmmkay? You need to watch your opponent and have no mercy." She grinned. "Even if it is such a pretty girl like me!"
Naruto coughed, trying to focus his eyes on the... impossibility before him.
"S... S...!" he tried to cough out.
"Yes, yes YES!" The woman in white raised her fist upwards. "Give it to me, Naruto-kun! Give it to the world, so they know the winner of this, admittedly pathetic - but neechan will help you get back to shape, don't worry - bout!"
"...Saya...!" The blond finally said, his breath hitching in his throat. "What. The. FUCK?!"
"Oi!" The girl scowled, looming over him. "Is that the way to treat your bestest, most awesome, kickass friend in the whole wide world, who is also a pretty girl? EH?!" Tears appeared in her eyes. "Neechan's angry, dammit! Neechan's SAD! Neechan needs a hug!" She grabbed the blond tightly and Naruto's eyes bugged out. While Saya, despite her lithe form and had a figure of a woman with all the curves in the right places, her body was also one big cord of steely muscle under the deceptively soft skin. Especially when she put her prodigal, absurd strength into it.
"...Can't... Breathe...!" The blond wheezed out.
Saya blinked, before letting him go.
"Oh. Right." She said, chuckling, rubbing her neck sheepishly. "Sorry, Naruchin."
"...God! You're still... so stupidly strong...!" The blond coughed out, the bluish tinge vanishing from his face, before he looked at her, and blinked
The young ANBU stared at the sheepish looking woman for a long moment.
"YOU!" he said finally, pointing his finger accusingly. "Where the fuck were you for the last three years?! I've been looking for you all over, you stupid psycho chick!"
"Huh?" The taijutsu mistress blinked. "But I wrote letters-"
"What letters?!" Naruto snarled. "You vanished without a trace you goddamn stupid-"
"But I wrote you tons! You never answered, too." She loomed over him, a dark expression on her face, followed swiftly by tears. "Saya-chan thought you didn't love her anymore!"
"...Dammit, what LETTERS?!" Naruto screamed."I never got so much as a scrap of damn paper from you!"
"But I sent them! Every month, to the same address! How could you not have gotten them!" She scowled. "I even got one I wanted to send you, before I came back" She rummaged through her pockets for a moment, before withdrawing a rather abused looking envelope. "Here! See?"
Naruto grabbed the envelope with a scowl, only to pause, and stare at it. Then to stare at fuming Saya.
"Saya?" He said, eyebrow twitching. "You do know I haven't been living there for past three years, right?"
The girl blinked.
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Oh." She said finally, after a moment of silence. "You didn't tell me!" She pointed at him accusingly. "You midget bastard! You made Saya-chan SAD! And to think I cared, I sent you all those awesome snacks and presents and wrote to your ungrateful ass every month...! How could you do that to me?!"
Naruto stared at the girl incredulously.
"...And what color is the sky in your world?" He deadpanned.
"Shut up!" The girl snapped, shaking her fist. "Saya-chan is sad! Hug!" Naruto blanched, jumping back.
"No way!" He protested. "You wanna kill me or something, you freak?!"
The girl leaned over the blond, cracking her knuckles and Naruto paled even further.
"Hugyesofcourserightawaymaa'am!"
Her face turned sunny once again, the scary visage of fury vanishing as if it was never there.
Naruto froze, staring without so much as moving a muscle for a long moment, before looking down, and up and down at her legs again.
"Found something you like, Naruto-kun?" The girl grinned, posing in a way that would make most pin up girls green with envy.
"Saya..."
"Yessss?" The girl preened.
"...You're standing." He said dumbly.
"Well, yes." She nodded. "People kind of do that when they are not walking."
"And you're walking... Normally." The blond said, a blank, vacant look on his face.
"Well, people kind of do that too." The young woman said patiently. "I can even run, jump, swim, do splits, poledance and kick your ass." She grinned. "I'm very talented like that."
"Gods... Saya..." Naruto said slowly, sheer disbelief in his eyes. "You're... walking. Walking like your leg is... How is that...?"
The girl sighed, taking a step forward and grabbing him in a warm, close hug that broke all rules of propriety or good manners. They just didn't care at that point. It held the familiar softness, smell of grass, feel of soft silks and fragrance of the jasmine perfume she favored that Naruto had burned into his mind so long ago and that was enough.
He felt like he was a kid again, when everything was cool, fresh and so much simpler and vibrant orange was the color of the day. Like when he could grimace and push away the hug and scream with indignation at the aloof bastard of a swordsman or whine for a jutsu from his ever-late teacher. It was all jasmine, and grass, and silk and the familiar, faint aura of free flowing power of her Celestial Gates that lingered even when she didn't use them...
"...S-Saya... I..." he tried. He really tried but in the end, it felt like his throat constricted no matter what he did and the strangely small, pitiful sound was something he couldn't recognize as his own voice. " I thought you were... gone. I..."
The girl squeezed him tighter, he could pretend his voice chocked and his eyes felt oddly wet because of the tight grip.
Saya was good like that.
"I'm home, Naruto." She whispered, holding him close and refusing to let go no matter what. "I'm home."
TBC...
