["White Tulip"- There's Sunshine in Your Smile]
"Good work, everyone," Inu said tersely, readjusting the strap for his arm guard. "Let's get back, we're only about an hour away if we keep a steady pace."
"An hour? Fucking hell, man! That'll only happen if we rush the whole way!" Kuma complained, though nonetheless continued to pack up his gear.
"So, we'll rush," Hato shrugged, seeming unbothered by the thought. He was slouching slightly, and kept tapping his hand along his kunai pouch.
Tsuchi recognized that little habit. Just as he recognized the man behind the mask.
Shiranui Genma, Yamashiro Aoba, Hatake Kakashi. All well-known shinobi, and fairly well liked. Strong, too, apart or together, even if their specializations didn't really match up.
Which made Tsuchi all the more suspicious of why he had been put on this team. He didn't leave ROOT headquarters often- he mostly did all the necessary but tedious paperwork that was avoided by everyone else.
Not to say he couldn't handle himself- he was at ANBU level, even if he would much rather prefer to be solely a paperwork ninja. Still, this was suspicious. Especially since the order to go on this mission had come from Danzo himself.
Just what was that old bastard planning...?
"Oi, Hitsuji, you coming?" Yamashiro called out, his intimidating bear mask seeming to glare at him.
"Mm. On my way," Tsuchi replied, checking to make sure his own mask was firmly in place. His partner had been the one to pick his mask for him, and he was sure that Honoka thought that it was funny.
It was, just a little bit. Tsuchi was no stranger to irony, and the fact that he was donning the 'sheep' mask was not lost on him. He couldn't even refute it, not really. He had never been one to lie, not even to himself. Especially then.
"Alright, let's get moving," Hatake barked out, already going ahead. Yamashiro cursed under his breath, but Shiranui only let out a low chuckle before following after him.
Despite the antagonism and teasing jabs being thrown around, it was easy to see that they were friends. Tsuchi found himself a bit jealous. His own companions at ROOT were only tenuous connections at best. Honoka was irreplaceable, of course, but outside of his small group of allies he had very little friendship.
Even with the others in the organization he considered true friends, he sometimes had difficulty spending time with them.
Sai and Shin, though good people, were ultimately quite clueless about ROOT's true machinations. Shin might have been a bit closer to the realization, but he had shut his eyes to the truth. He didn't want to see it, and Sai seemed completely unable to.
Yota and Yūto... they were almost worse, in a way. Yūto had clearly known from the beginning, but he cared for little except his own profit. He couldn't be relied on, in any case. And Yota treated everything like a game. Even for Tsuchi, as soft-spoken as he tended to be, it was infuriating.
Fū and Torune both knew, no doubt, but were too loyal to ROOT for them to really be considered allies. He couldn't trust them not to go running back to Danzo, at least.
Yakumo was the only one he thought was completely genuine. She, too, hated what ROOT was, what it had warped them all into. But she was meek, and didn't have the heart to actually do anything with her knowledge. And her partner, well. Tonbo was a seriously twisted bastard, that's all he had to say on that. Personally, Tsuchi thought that he'd been spending way too much time dicking around with T&I.
Kinoto and Raiden weren't even worth mentioning. He felt a little guilty thinking it, though. There was something undoubtedly good inside them, Kinoto especially. The crane-masked operative was so kind, even if he tried to hide it under a gruff demeanor. It made something ache, deep inside Tsuchi's chest, to know that this sweet, honorable young man had unknowingly pledged his life to an organization that was threatening all he had sworn to protect.
Raiden, though... He was different. Tsuchi wasn't quite sure what to make of him. He was volatile and often emotional, no matter how deep he tried to bury it. And he was almost fanatically loyal, to a degree that made Tsuchi very uneasy.
Subconsciously, he pressed a hand over his chest at the thought. Raiden had almost killed him in training once. If that chakra scalpel had cut any deeper into his armor, he would've been bleeding out on the concrete floor. And he wasn't sure if Raiden had even noticed.
"You alright, over there?" Shiranui called out cheerfully.
Snapped out of his increasingly grim thoughts, Tsuchi nodded an affirmative, biting back his tongue. He knew that he would only say something to embarrass himself.
Not saying anything didn't really seem to help, however. The rest of the run back to Konoha was still spent in awkward silence.
/=\
At the ANBU base, Tsuchi hovered by the door, looking to make a quick getaway. Usually he ducked away before they even got to base, but he'd gotten dragged along by Shiranui, and was now desperately trying to leave the locker room before the man tried to badger him into anything else.
"Hey, we should go drinking! We deserve it, after the complete shitshow this mission ended up being."
Yeah, something like that.
Fortunately, Hatake saved him from being the first to decline.
"Can't, Genma. Promised Obito that I'd help train his team tomorrow. They're still pretty disappointed about not participating in the exams. I'll have to get up early for that."
"Still can't believe that the lazy-ass Uchiha finally learned the meaning of punctuality," Yamashiro snorted, tossing his cloak lazily onto the bench. "And before you ask, Shiranui, that's a no on my part too. I actually like to relax after missions. I know that's a foreign concept for you, unless you've got Raidō up your-"
"Okay, you've made your point," Shiranui interrupted, teeth clenching down harshly on the senbon he'd finally been able to pluck out of his pouch. "What about you, Hitsuji?"
Tsuchi twitched uneasily, not having expected the attention to turn to him. He was a bit glad of it, though. He really didn't need to hear those kinds of things about other people's lives. Bad enough that Tonbo was always ranting about how sexy he thought Shiranui and Namiashi's voices were when he got back from working at T&I. He really didn't need any of the gory details.
"No, thank you," he replied politely, managing to keep those mental images out of his head with sheer force of will. "I have a previous engagement."
And by that, he meant a date. With his bed. God, he could practically hear it calling from here. He couldn't wait to get back to his quarters and just scream into his pillow for a few hours. It didn't actually make him feel any better, but he just needed to scream sometimes. It was either that or train until he was coughing up blood, and that was more Raiden's thing.
Tsuchi made a break for it, rushing out the door and praying that there wouldn't be any more interruptions. Of course, he wasn't allowed that courtesy.
As he tried not to make his retreat too obvious, he slammed right into someone's chest. A firm, green-clad chest.
"Ah! My apologies, youthful comrade! I will do one hundred push-ups in order to make up for this transgression!" The loud exclamation was followed by a gleaming white smile.
Tsuchi was still in a mild state of awe. There was so much green. And what was Maito Gai even doing in the ANBU base?
"Uh, that- I mean, it's okay, I don't, uh," he stumbled over his words, falling back into his old speech patterns in his shock. "T-there's no need! My bad! Uh... Goodbye!"
With that, Tsuchi forwent all grace and simply body-flickered away as fast as he could. Under the mask, his face was flushed red in embarrassment.
Shit, he was a total idiot.
/=\
"Not very subtle, is he?" Genma observed, watching Hitsuji make a hasty retreat. It was largely fond, though. He'd worked with the man on several missions, and it was hard not to like him, even with his shady background. Some people just assumed he was shy, or that he didn't want his ANBU persona to be associated with his regular life (some people were like that, and Genma could sympathize even if he could never do it himself), but Genma knew better.
But still, there was something eminently charming about the man, for all his awkward conduct. Aoba could make as many overprotective mommy jokes as he wanted, but Genma hated to see a fellow Konoha shinobi suffer.
"Not a bit!" Gai agreed cheerfully, which was kind of rich, coming from him. But he quickly sobered, and Genma took notice, straightening up intently. His genin teammate rarely dropped his enthusiasm, so Genma always paid attention when he did.
"Though I apologize for scaring him away," Gai began gravely, a serious expression on his face, "there is something that must be discussed about that man."
"Gai...?" Kakashi raised a brow, taking off his eyepatch and refastening his headband over the sharingan eye he shared with his genin teammate and trusted 'friend'. "What's up? I know he's a weirdo, but you don't have much of an advantage there."
Genma almost winced. Despite all the time he spent with his more mild-mannered teammates, Kakashi had never quite learned tact.
"No, I speak of his origins," Gai said, for once not rising to the bait. "I have heard whispers of other shinobi like him throughout the village, in all different departments. Socially-distant, almost completely unknown. No one remembers going through the academy with them, and if they do recognize them, none are quite sure of why. I am finding myself... concerned. Especially after one of my youthful students came to me, worried after being approached by one such shinobi."
"Who, Rock Lee?" Genma asked sharply, fists clenching at the thought of someone going after those kids. He'd helped supervise often enough to have gotten attached to them, and they were good kids. If some creepy bastard was trying to stalk them...
Gai shook his head. "No, Tenten. She informed that she was visiting some of her civilian friends at the orphanage when she was confronted by a woman wearing a Konoha headband. Apparently, she was told that she had great potential, and that she'd caught the eye of some very powerful people. I find myself uncertain whether it was meant to be a warning of some kind, or a threat. Either way, I'm not encouraged."
Aoba made a sound not dissimilar to a suffocating cat. Though he tried to refute it, he was just as fond of those kids as Genma was. "So what, do we infiltrators or something?"
"I don't think so," Kakashi said firmly, drawing their attention back to him. "At least, not in the sense that you're thinking."
"Then what do you propose?" Aoba grouched.
"I can't quite say for sure," he answered pensively. "My father and Orochimaru... I've heard them discussing this a bit. They think it's one of the council member's private organizations. Apparently, it's suspicious, but largely legal. Father seemed displeased by the whole thing, though. Even without an official position on the council, he has quite a bit of sway, not to mention the trouble Orochimaru could stir up. I think they're planning to do something."
"I hope so," Genma frowned. "This doesn't seem like the kind of thing that should wait for long."
The four of them shared a long glance, before sighing.
"We'll wait to bring it up to Hokage-sama," Genma concluded, though not feeling all too pleased by it. "If something happens - and that includes someone approaching any of the genin again - we'll have to act. But for now, let's keep our peace. God knows that never lasts for long."
Woo! Chapter ten! Getting closer and closer. Somehow, I wasn't sure that I would get this far. I had it all planned out, but it still felt so far away. Well, only 15 chapters left now! Things are really picking up at this point, and the more well-known characters are gonna be popping up out of the woodworks. This is a completely character driven fic, so I'm excited to get more into these interactions and show how much things have changed in this AU world. You get a taste of it with Kakashi in this chapter, but this is just the beginning.
Hey, leave a comment! Let me know what you've liked so far, what characters you're interested in seeing an appearance from. I love to discuss my stories, so don't be shy!
Also, I've got a tumblr: it's under mm-mendell, slightly different username from here. (sorry, ff is still being a huge baby about links) ~~~ I'll be honest, mainly I just look at cool art and rant about comics/manga, but feel free to shoot me a question there if you want! Thanks so much for reading, and willingly going through all of my babbling. See you again next week!