Hey there, another chapter for you. It seems my muse is cooperating for a change.
This chapter is most filler but it needed to be written, though I'm still not sure if I like it or not. Anyway, tell me what you think of it.
If anyone wants to offer ideas for the punishment in the Secrecy Contract, I'm open to them.
Also, anyone interested in making a fanart for this story? I would be eternally grateful.
Anyway, thanks to everyone who reviewed, followed and favourite'd, you're the best.
On with the show.
Chapter 13 – Through wicked smirks and soothed tears
''Behind every crazy bitch, there's a sweet girl who just got tired of all the bullshit.'' - Unknown
''Sometimes tears are a sign of unspoken happiness and a smile a sign of silent pain.'' - Unknown
Thankfully to Kakashi's and Gai's continued good health, Naruto and Ichigo were not roughed up too much when Tsubaki arrived home. Sure, the kids were panting and exhausted but their beaming smiles showed that they were happy about their accomplishments with the physical tasks the Green Beast of Konoha had given them, which was good enough for the young woman.
A quick healing charm easily healed any stray bruise or scratch on both of them and Tsubaki took the chance to give a thorough check up on Naruto while she was at it, before sending the kids up to shower and change clothes. (Naruto had been given relatively new clothes to wear, which weren't eye-searing orange, that morning. They were, of course, some of Ichigo's transfigured clothes, but they did the job better than Naruto's actual jumpsuit. As soon as she had the time and opportunity, Tsubaki was buying the boy a whole new wardrobe in more sensible clothes. The time delay was because the shopping would not be occurring in Konoha.)
The concerned woman was glad to find that, besides some signs of malnutrition, the blond boy was healthy. From what she had been able to uncover since she met her nephew, Tsubaki was sure that the Kyuubi had to, at least, work overtime in a few instances to correct some wrongs happening to Naruto's body. That was confirmed when the young witch asked about his inoculations and such and was told that, at least in the last few years, Naruto hadn't received any and he hadn't stepped a foot inside the hospital. This was due both to the boy's apparent fear of needles and medical facilities in general and the far from professional and concerned attitude of some of the hospital staff, neglecting to make sure that Naruto's shots were up to date as it was their duty.
Naturally, this information wasn't taken too well by the overprotective aunt and Kakashi and Gai – who was still at the house, waiting to offer his humble services as a coach to stoke Tsubaki's flames of youth – had to almost restrain her physically to prevent her from storming up to the hospital in a whirlwind of righteous fury and plain Uzumaki temper. The two Elite Shinobi didn't look forward to explain to their Hokage why the hospital had been damaged in any way if that had happened. The simple thought made them internally shudder in dread, both because of Tsubaki's brutal temper and the Sandaime's upset reaction to that kind of news, which somehow would be pointed out that was their fault from being unable to avoid the situation altogether.
Ichigo saved them all the likely future troubles by unleashing the full power of his 'puppy-eyes no jutsu' on his mother, pleading to go eat ramen at the stand Naruto had been boasting about of having the best ramen in the world (never mind that Naruto had only ever tasted Ichiraku's Ramen in all his life), wanting to know if what his cousin had told him was true. His precious onigiri as his favourite food demanded it of him to find out.
As was almost always the case, Tsubaki stood no chance against such an overpowering technique and yielded to her son's cuteness. Ichigo didn't lose time in celebrate his victory but was stopped from cheering further when she compromised that they would go there for dinner instead of lunch, as she had many things to do that afternoon and she didn't want to rush the kids to eat their meal to come back to the house.
The atmosphere calmed after that, and Tsubaki graciously accepted Gai's offer, though she made it clear that the Jounin had to go easy on her until she went back to her past training rhythm – which, obviously, was nowhere near the kind of training that a full-fledged ninja did, let alone Gai's idea of everyday exercise. Needless to say, 'easy' was a very subjective word on Gai's dictionary and the man had almost accomplished the rather impossible feat of killing young Tsubaki with his hellish training. Further training sessions with Gai would be put to consideration to a later date, the Mistress of Death firmly decided an hour and half later, as she dragged her own sweaty, sore and exhausted body upstairs to shower.
After a delicious lunch and animated conversation all around (well, except for Kakashi, but Tsubaki had already learnt that was his standard behaviour outside of shinobi matters), Gai left with his flowery 'youthful' greetings and the kids went back outside and enjoyed the afternoon sun while Tsubaki started to browse through the several folders she had acquired at the Konoha Real State Agency.
She had made a quick detour on the way back home that morning and was able to gather information on all the commercial places for sale around the village under a basic glamour to hide her features from everyone. Kakashi didn't ask where she got this and she didn't offer the answer either – what he didn't know, wouldn't hurt him and simultaneously save Tsubaki from another tirade about he being there for her protection and 'how could he protect her, when she went out on her own'? She had received a similar rant that morning when she said that she would go see the Hokage alone, before she had shot the ninja down without further argument from the man.
The reason why she was looking to buy a place for business was fairly straightforward.
By Konoha Clans' Bylaws, every Ninja Clan was bound by duty to contribute in some way to the betterment of the Shinobi Forces and/or the village as a whole.
For example, the Yamanaka Clan contributed by supplying most of the plants needed to produce poisons and their counters used by the Ninja Divisions, i.e. T&I, in their official collective duties (any ninja wanting to purchase any for personal use had to go through the usual channels and prices, obviously). Likewise, many of their own grown and harvested plants were used by the chemists in charge of preparing any and all medical ointments, pills and such for the hospital. That didn't mean that was cost-free, the people doing that job needed to be paid for their services, after all, however the price was significantly lower than other plants and flowers sold at the Yamanaka Flower Shop – the front business managed by the Clan Head and his immediate family since the foundation of the village.
That bit of information was general knowledge; however, the prices and anything else agreed upon were exclusively known by the Clan Head (and anyone within the clan he deemed trusted) and the Hokage. No one else, not even the Council had knowledge of it, to avoid any kind of disputes or protests of one Clan being more valued, have better deals, etc., than others. That information could not be forced to be shared with the other fellow Heads, for any reason; it was classified a Clan Matter, one of the highest rankest secrets incidentally, and even the mention of those deals in any perceived disparaging way by another was deemed beyond rude and not taken lightly by the injured party. There was only a recorded case of it ever happening, between the Hyuuga and Kurama Clans in fact, a bit after the founding of Konoha. The then Kurama Clan Head had made an unfortunate and poor comment about the Hyuuga's deal with the Hokage and the Hyuuga Clan Head had been quick to demand retribution for that. The situation had finally been solved by a match to the death between both men, of which the Hyuuga had been the victor. After that, all Clans stayed clearly away from that dangerous issue regardless of any grievance they had with another Clan.
Tsubaki planned to follow a similar route with the Uzumaki and Kurosawa Clans' contribution, by capitalizing on what each clan was best known for. In the Kurosawa's instance, she had already some proposals to present to the Hokage on their meeting the next morning, which included her offer of working at the Hospital for a certain fixed time every week and taking on medical cases of ninja that had been, up until now, unachievable to heal back to full health – growing back limbs or cases like Hayate's, for example – with her unparalleled healing powers. She highly doubted the old man would be a fool to refuse such a boon in a silver platter. They really only needed to negotiate the amount of time considered acceptable to fulfil the Kurosawa Clan's part of deal.
From the Uzumaki's side, Tsubaki would offer her knowledge of seals. Despite the fact that she, in fact, couldn't make a traditional chakra seal, no matter how much she tried (for obvious reasons), she was perfectly able to use runes and spells in a similar enough manner to disguise them as such, even though, visually they would be completely foreign. And, after all, if no one else knew how to break them or alter them in anyway, the objective was already achieved. In her humble opinion, those were even better.
As these tasks would be paid far below the standard price usually given, Tsubaki would need to have an official business to help bring in profit to be able to raise her son and her nephew and live comfortably even if only for the sake of appearances. (Not that she really needed it, though, with her insurmountable fortune, but she wanted to keep that fact hidden, for now at least, and she really needed to have something to occupy her days or she would soon turn insane with boredom as there was only so much one could do inside a ninja village before raising too much suspicions. She was aware that subtlety was not one of her fortes but she wanted to try at least. It's the intention that counts, right?)
Thus, Tsubaki had decided to open a shop that would cater exclusively to ninja, which would sell a varied range of exclusive and never seen before seals (read: charms and ancient runes expertly disguised as seals) and various simple medicinal potions such as blood replenishment, general antidotes, salves and other diverse treatments for prompt and fast-acting use to be administered in the heat of a battle and/or on-going missions when there was lack of certified medical aide and with the bare knowledge of medicine required.
The prospective places were either too far away from the centre of the village (she wanted someplace near the Hokage Tower), or were too small for her tastes. As she couldn't just alter the insides (much) with magic (not wanting to raise much suspicion, remember?), she was severely short on choices. She needed a spacious front room to attending the costumers with as much as natural light as possible. She planned on having little displayed on that room, besides the more basic goods. There were simply some things that shouldn't be shown to young easily-impressed Genin, regardless of the fact they were considered adults by law – it was just trouble waiting to happen. These items would naturally need some security and only people over some age or ninja status would be allowed to purchase them.
Tsubaki internally shuddered at the thought of some cocky Genin using some of her more devastatingly explosive 'Seals' – like a version of Bombarda Maxima. It was more likely that they would level a village and kill themselves and their team altogether with their enemies.
No, she would be selling dangerous items that would more than likely kill others and she had come to terms with it, however, that didn't mean that she would be irresponsible and freely allow kids (no matter what other say) hurt themselves when they didn't know better.
Anyway, the necessity for a large and bright front room was due to ninja issues.
Tsubaki had noticed that no shinobi felt comfortable in small and poorly lit rooms, which all things considered was not surprising at all, and as she intended on cater only to them, she had to adapt if she wanted to have costumers, naturally. She was sure that once word broke out and the reputation and results of her wares spoke for themselves, she wouldn't lack costumers any way, however there were always those that put Moody's paranoia to shame.
Then, Tsubaki wanted to have at least four rooms in the back. The essentials would be a kitchenette/kitchen and a small restroom, of course. Then there would be a workroom where she could work undisturbed if necessary and the last would be the stockroom where everything for selling would be properly stored and secured.
Not that she would brew her potions there in the shop anyway, there was simply not enough privacy for it (she wasn't showing anyone anytime soon how she created her potions, some ingredients alone would be beyond inexplicable). Her brewing room would be the large and well-lit with natural light attic – no way in hell, she would brew any potion in a dark and chilly underground room if she could help it – she had discovered when touring the house. A quick flick of fingers and there were no more dust bunnies and spider webs and any unused things stored up there had been shrunk and stowed away. Another slight move and her brewing station and material and potion ingredients cupboard arranged themselves neatly at her liking.
Finally, after what felt like every build for sale she had brought home and she had read through, Tsubaki found the perfect one. It met all her perquisite requirements for the future shop and, even better, it was right on the main street, facing the Ninja Academy and the Hokage Tower. The reason that such a place was still vacant was apparently due to the exorbitant price stipulated compared to other shops of the same size or even bigger, which was not really a problem for Tsubaki. The building had two floors: the shop and a small apartment upstairs that previously had been used by the owners themselves. She would think later what she would do with the second floor as it wasn't important right now.
The young woman decided to go the Konoha Real State Agency the next morning before her meeting with the Hokage, which was at ten, so she had enough time. There was no way she would allow that such promising place slipped through her fingers now that she found it.
Next, she considered what kind of protections she would put up on her shop.
Unlike her home, the Uzumaki and Kurosawa Clan Head could not put deadly defences around her business, the only exception being on war's time, so many of the wards she had cast on this house were completely out. She would put up the same ones that stopped anyone from entering besides through the front door and making every other inch of the building nigh impossible to trespass or destroy by most hostile means, adding fire-proof and water-proof wards for good measure.
As it was a business, Tsubaki could not – supposedly, she added loosely, as she had knowledge that spoke otherwise, again there were double-standards at work – directly bar entry to anyone considered a prospective client without reason, so she had to go about it the Slytherin way. In other words, if she or a shopkeeper could not forbid entry and refuse to sell her wares to a would-be client, then she had to make it as such that the undesirable people wouldn't enter the shop in the first place.
There was where the intent-based wards came in. The first layer would pick on the potential malicious intent, if there was one, against any member of her family – yes, she was including Naruto on this, she was looking forward to see how many narrow-minded and prejudiced ninja there were in the village. The second would stop their advancement towards the shop and the last would insert in their mind a suggestion of some random urgent chore they had to do. This kind of ward was heavily based on the Muggle Repelling ones, in fact, the only thing that technically differed were the malicious intentions in place of lack of magic.
Tsubaki was confident that that would stop most hostiles from her shop, though she could admit that this defence was not infallible. After all, someone ordered to attack her family, who didn't know them at all, could waltz in right through without any problem.
That's why she would put another defence inside the building that would detect any attempt at violence. To be on the safe side and to save future headaches, she planned on putting up a written warning on the front door explaining such, as accidents could happen and it was fairly impossible to avoid any kind of violence where ninja were concerned for one reason or other, even if they weren't trying to seriously attack someone else . This way, they couldn't claim ignorance when they were literally shocked and unceremoniously thrown out by the building wards. Tsubaki wouldn't take any risks where her family was concerned and if there was someone unhappy with it, well, though luck, she wouldn't change her mind.
There would be as well an identifying ward on the door between the front room and the rest of the shop, so only Tsubaki and her family and her shopkeeper could access the backrooms. Any attempts to forcibly step through by unauthorized people would not be pretty and pain-free for the intruder. Thinking over it a bit more, Tsubaki decided to put that ward over every door on the shop to be on the safe side, specially the storeroom, not even Ichigo and Naruto could enter there, though they would be able to go into all the others.
Finally, she had to decide what kind of punishment anyone attempting to sneak inside the building would get. Excluding the deadly ones, there were many that could be chosen. For the sake of consistency, she resolved on casting the Cruciatus downgraded ward, which could go indefinitely (if enough time passed, they could go insane, but they would still be alive, so Tsubaki wouldn't be breaking the law. Oh, how she loved loopholes), though she doubted that the intruder would remain inconspicuous for long, that curse tended to make their victims invariably scream, sooner or later, regardless that this one was a milder version. Though, before that, for fifteen seconds, there would be some mild shocking pulses to warn and ward off anyone who was only there because they were cocky children or because of a dare or something – Tsubaki had seen enough idiocy to be surprised if that happened, she had lived in the Gryffindor Tower for six years, after all. Stupidity didn't deserve death, no matter what some more harsh and cruel adults would say, though maybe the eye-opener would be good for them.
Anyway, the decisions were made and Tsubaki felt proud of her productive afternoon. She stood up and looked through the window outside, noticing the lack of childish laugher for the first time.
Ichigo and Naruto were lain down under the shade of a tree, sleeping and drooling away, using Mamoru as a pillow, the dog snoring obnoxiously. How the kids could sleep through all that noise was one of the mysteries of life. After smiling lovingly and melting at the fairly cute picture, behaving like the doting and passionate mother figure she was, Tsubaki was quick to summon her Muggle camera and click away a dozen of pictures to remember this peaceful moment by. And for blackmailing purposes when the kids are older, she mentally added with a smirk.
She decided to work out on the draft for the Secrecy Contract while the peace remained. With every line she wrote, the Death's Mistress' smirk became more and more bloodthirsty and she fought down the urge to cackle away.
(Lounging on his soon-to-be usual tree branch, Kakashi abruptly stopped reading as an ominous feeling ran down his spine. His dark eye instinctively turned in the young witch's way and the sensation somehow increased to highly foreboding levels.
Doing what he did best, the Copy Ninja ruthlessly ignored it and returned to his book.
Whatever it is, I really don't want to know.)
That day being a Sunday, Naruto informed his new-found aunt in his chipper tone, when they were walking to Ichiraku's Ramen, that he had to go home that night because he had school the next day and all his Academy supplies were at his apartment.
Tsubaki was instantaneously suspicious of the boy's excited behaviour. She had thought that she would have to convince him to go to the Academy came next morning. She had noticed that her nephew had practically glued himself to his cousin all day and she was expecting to have a hard time separating them both later. Additionally, the boy hadn't directly come out and said it, but she suspected that Naruto was a bit of a slacker when it came to school and she wouldn't be surprised if the boy skipped classes frequently. After all, there was no one at home or any adult figure, really, to force him to go when he didn't feel like it and if the treatment he received at the Academy was any similar to the one he got from the villagers in general, there surely wouldn't be much motivation anyway. Though, she had been happy to find out that there was at least a teacher who seemed to be kind to Naruto and tried to make the blond behave and learn, and treated him like any other student on the classroom.
''Oh?'', Tsubaki simply queried instead, before she added a little too innocently. ''Eager to go to school?''
Not innocently enough for her son, apparently, as Ichigo looked at his mum in curiosity but said nothing, as was usually his modus operandi. Whenever there was something going on that the boy didn't understand, he'd try to work it out first before he asked his questions on the issue. Moreover, Ichigo knew that tone, his mother had used it enough on him any time he was being an 'infuriating brat' and she wanted to make a point.
That tone, unsurprisingly, had been completely believed by the oblivious Naruto.
''Yeah, the other kids are always saying bad things about me, you know? But tomorrow I'll show them all that they're wrong,'' the kid explained, unaware that he was telling more than he knew.
Tsubaki forcefully retained her smile and light tone and shove away a few dark thoughts.
''And what's that they are saying?''
''That their parents are right and that I'm nuisance and only know how to make trouble. That's why everyone hates me and I'm all alone… and my parents didn't care about me at all so they... abandoned me.'' The boy's answer had started in an even tone but quickly derailed into an upset whisper. Naruto quickly turned his face away from her to hide his moist eyes.
Regardless of universe, children are really cruel everywhere, Tsubaki thought saddened; though in this case the fault is mostly on their parents.
Not being able to stand such a sad expression on her usual sunny nephew, she snaked her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly against her body. After a slight flinch, which she stoically ignored, Naruto returned the loving gesture. Not to be outdone, Ichigo followed suite, as he somewhat understood what was happening to his cousin.
Throughout all this, Tsubaki happened to glance at Kakashi, who had been silently following the family of three, for once his faithful book not in sight. Hidden from the kids, she shot him a condemning glare that, despite being completely silent, somehow managed to transmit the many questions and accusations she had been harbouring since meeting her nephew and finding the lack of any kind of relationship between Naruto and Kakashi.
The silver-haired Jounin bowed his head after a moment and turned away from them, in admitted guilt, regret or something else entirely Tsubaki didn't know. What she did know was that the Elite Jounin was somewhat accepting his quota part of the blame and that was enough to her at the moment.
Naruto's suffering and loneliness growing up was due to several people's bad decisions, but Tsubaki knew that the most important thing right now was providing the love and care that the boy had been lacking all his life.
In a way, Tsubaki was surprised that her nephew never once asked a question about his parents' identity beyond the confirmation that they both had died the day he was born. Was he perhaps afraid that he would find something that he wouldn't like? All in all, it was rather likely, she mused. Being hated by mostly everyone and not knowing the reason why, Naruto had probably assumed that it had been because one of his parents had done something bad, like turn traitor to Konoha or something equally horrible, and the boy had been left to pay for their parents' sins. Which, as far as possible theories for reasons of being hated since the day he was born went, it was a logical deduction, if even an erroneous one. After all, no one, the least of all a kid, would ever suspect that they were carrying a sealed tailed beast inside their body. The same monster who had attacked their own village and killed countless people as if they had been no more than ants; the same one that was hated so brutally and blindly that people always looked beyond the boy and only saw the destroyer of their homes and families that was housed inside his tiny body.
''You'll show them all, Naruto,'' Tsubaki assured her nephew, after a long silence, as no one broke their collective hug. Her voice burned with conviction, though she, herself, didn't know if she was still talking about his classmates or the village in general. Thankfully, they still hadn't reached the more travelled paths of the village, so one bore witness to that moment of familial bonding. ''One day, they'll all see what a great person you are. Ichigo and I will be with you every step of the way, always loving and supporting you.''
Naruto's shoulders shook with unrestrained sobs, tears escaping his closed cerulean eyes at a steady pace.
''Yeah, and then you'll be Hokage and the greatest ninja ever!'', Ichigo added, his young face utterly serious and voice strong. ''Believe it!''
The last words made Naruto half-laugh, half-choke, before he loosened the embrace a bit and looked at his new-found but already deeply loved family.
''Yeah, believe it!'', he agreed in a more uplifting mood, his tears and sobs tapering off eventually.