"It's not that I won't train Naruto, but I'm not in position to do it properly. I can teach a lesson here and there, but training him for the Chunin Exams isn't something I'm equipped for. He deserves better. And you do know who he is, right? This is Minato-sensei's kid we're talking about."—Kanata Fujibayashi
Stalker/The Enemy Lurking in the Back Hills.
I spent most of my afternoon chasing the carnage left behind Naruto and Jiraiya, hoping to eventually catch up with the latter and have a civil talk with him. However, it seemed as though everywhere I went, I had missed them both by just a few minutes. Every street, every shop—when I walked up to a person nearby to ask, they said, "A loud-mouthed kid chasing after a white-haired sage? They went that way."
And once again, I was one step behind.
If you weren't such an idiot, we wouldn't have this problem, would we, Naruto?
Eventually, by the time I was beginning to lose my motivation, I came upon the lively and decorative flower shop.
And what did I find but Jiraiya following some pretty girl out of said flower shop like a lost puppy. It was clear that the girl wasn't interested. In fact, it was clear that she was nothing short of creeped out by the man trying to flirt with her. Not only was Jiraiya a complete and utter pervert, but he must have been about twice her age. That never stopped the sage from trying, though.
With a sigh, I went after him. "Master Jiraiya! Wait up!"
Reluctantly, he turned his head to regard me. "Kanata? What do you want? That brat isn't with you, is he?" He asked, looking around suspiciously. Noticing her opportunity, the girl he'd been bothering promptly turned on heel and made a break for it.
I ignored it and shook my head. "No, it's just me. Actually, I've been chasing after the both of you for a while, now. I wanted to have a talk with you." Somehow, I didn't get the feeling that he would agree so easily with what I had to say.
Jiraiya's face lit up. "Really? You want to talk? Sure, I'm glad to. Why don't we find somewhere to sit down? But just so you know, if that kid shows up, I'm taking off."
"Fair enough," I admitted, following after him. He had such a large stride that I almost had to jog to keep up with him.
Together, Jiraiya and I walked into a small restaurant, while I nervously glanced around in hopes that Naruto wouldn't pop up and scare Jiraiya off. For at least the next half-hour, I needed this guy to myself, and I didn't want that little troublemaker to ruin it. He'd better hope he doesn't find us. I'm doing this for him, after all.
Jiraiya and I sat down across from one another at a table. He insisted that I order something to eat, so I ordered something light that would satisfy my not-so-hungry appetite. Jiraiya, on the other hand, ordered two side-dishes, an entree, and a dessert. And as soon as they came, he started wolfing them down immediately.
"I gotta say, Kanata," Jiraiya said between bites of octopus. "After all these years, you've turned into a real fine woman. I mean, you were beautiful back then, but damn! Still as short as you've ever been, but that does have its own charm, you know!"
Smiling through gritted teeth, I said, "Thanks, Master Jiraiya." I'll try to take that as a compliment.
"We have more important things to talk about, though," I reminded him. Actually, I was fine with anything as long as we got the topic off of my physical appearance.
"Yeah?" Jiraiya asked. "So what is it?"
I supposed I might as well not waste time, so I just came out and spoke my mind. "I want you to train Naruto."
He set down his chopsticks. "No way."
"What?!" I exclaimed. "You haven't even heard me out, yet!"
"Nothing you say is going to make me change my mind!" he growled. "I don't do that anymore. Why are you trying to dump your student on me, anyway?"
"That's not what I'm trying to do!" I defended. "And in any case, he isn't mine. He's Kakashi Hatake's."
"Kakashi's, huh?" Jiraiya stroked his chin. "Watching over Kakashi's students? You guys are still pretty close, are you?"
"Well, I don't know-"
"Ha! I remember back when Minato was in charge of you. He always said you two made the best team out of everybody in the group. Well, once you got passed those first couple months, anyway. You guys made such a cute couple too! Poor Kakashi! That guy had such a thing for you!"
Don't remind me...
"Anyway," I stressed, suddenly irritated as Jiraiya started laughing. "My relationship with Kakashi is not the topic of discussion. About Naruto-"
"Forget it, I'm not training that kid, no matter whose student he is," Jiraiya insisted.
"But he doesn't want me," I argued. "He wants you."
"Yeah, he made that clear."
"Please? Look, Master Jiraiya. I'm no sensei. I have no experience training Genin. It's not that I won't train Naruto, but I'm not in position to do it properly. I can teach a lesson here and there, but training him for the Chunin Exams isn't something I'm equipped for. He deserves better. And you do know who he is, right? This is Minato-sensei's kid we're talking about."
"So, what?" Jiraiya said with a frown. "You think I should just give this kid special treatment because he's my former student's son? What do you take me for?"
"Someone who loved Minato Namikaze and cares about his legacy."
He scoffed. "You sound pretty confident for someone who hasn't seen me in years."
"But I'm right, aren't I?" I raised eyebrows.
Jiraiya slowly inhaled and folded his arms across his chest. For a few seconds, he closed his eyes to think. Then, he let out all that air he had sucked in and said, "All right, all right. Here's the deal. If Naruto can catch up with me and prove that he has some actual talent, I'll consider it."
Consider it?
Although I wasn't entirely sure that I could count on this working in Naruto's favor, I had a feeling that it was the best I was going to get. So with a sigh, I nodded. "Okay... it's a deal."
At that very moment, a wildly frustrated Naruto Uzumaki burst through the restaurant doors. "PERVY SAGE!" he snarled, charging at Jiraiya like a crazed bull.
To avoid confrontation, I pushed myself up and moved away from the table. "Guess that's my cue," Jiraiya said. He winked at me playfully while pulling some money out of his pocket. And after setting it gently on the table, he instantly disappeared into a cloud of smoke.
Naruto skidded to a stop and slammed his arms down on the table top. "Ugh, where'd he go?!" Suddenly, his head snapped in my direction. "Kanata, tell me where he went!"
I shrugged. "My guess is as good as yours."
"Man!" he huffed. "What were you doing with him, anyway? Conspiring against me?"
Irritated, I pushed my bangs out of my eyes. "How about instead of making wild accusations about me, you quit wasting time and go after the person you're actually looking for? You're not getting anywhere interrogating me."
"Geez," Naruto said sourly, turning around. "Fine, then." Then, making his dramatic exit, "Pervy Sage, get back here!"
"Excuse me," the waitress said as she approached me uncomfortably. "Are you ready to pay?"
"Uh, yeah," I replied quickly, snatching Jiraiya's money off the table. As I counted, I realized that there was enough here to pay for the both of us. And I hadn't even gotten a chance to thank him. I had neither expected nor asked him to pay for me, but I appreciated his kind gesture and handed the money to the waitress, who was still clearly a bit baffled by the scene Naruto had made a moment ago.
I would have to remember to thank Jiraiya later for the meal.
Feeling as though I had, at the very least, done my part on Naruto's behalf, I decided to leave him and Jiraiya to themselves for the rest of the day and let the chips fall.
As I exited the restaurant and strolled down the dirt road, however, I couldn't help but feel that I had lost my only source of entertainment for the next few weeks. Although he was a pain, I had been grateful for Naruto's presence; it had given me something to focus on and put my mind at ease. And now, I was left with nothing once again. On the other hand, what about Sakura? Come to think of it, I hadn't seen her at all today. Had Kakashi assigned her care to someone else while he was away?
But I thought it through for a minute – as incompetent a sensei as I was to begin with, I wasn't so sure that I would have luck teaching a student like Sakura much of anything. In general, Sakura seemed to be more of a Genjutsu type, and Genjutsu was not exactly my specialty. I had never excelled in that area when I was younger apart from the basics. Ninjutsu was where I had the most talent and experience, and aside from that, the type of jutsu that I specialized in couldn't be learned by anyone else I knew.
The village was fairly busy today, with lots of people bustling about, whether it was to run errands, go shopping, have lunch, or just enjoy the fresh air. The sky was blue with not a cloud to be seen, and all seemed right with the universe.
Except that I couldn't help but feel like there was a strange presence lurking somewhere in the shadows. Over the last couple months since I'd been here I had come to expect that I would be watched wherever I went, but this was different. My eyes scanned my surroundings, searching for suspicious activity. I kept both my ears and my intuition on alert, even turning my head slightly to check behind me every once in a while. No one else around me seemed to be in any kind of distress—but there were often times that I noticed things when other people didn't. And my spine was tingling.
Calmly, I made my way to a more secluded area with less people, and climbed up onto the roof of a building. I would have hated to make myself look suspicious to passersby and other ninja, but I couldn't shake this strange feeling. I glanced over my view of the village from where I stood, refusing to let my eyes miss a single detail... when I saw him.
Down the street, behind a building in one of the alleyways, was a figure. But what got my attention was not the figure itself, but the glare from his glasses as he tilted his head and glared at me. He was no Anbu soldier. And when I took a tiny step forward, he vanished.
Immediately, I sprang into action. Sliding off of the roof and landing on my feet on the ground, I took of running in the direction I had seen him. When I reached the spot, I searched wildly for traces of his existence. All of the sudden, a dark shadow loomed down from one of the roofs, and as soon as I looked up, he disappeared again. I made my way back up to the rooftops as quickly as I could, only to see him with his back to me in the distance, darting across the tops of the buildings. So naturally, I followed. However, as I began catching up to him and we neared the edge, the boy dropped to the ground and made for the back hills.
My pace began to slow as I came to the edge of the last roof before the drop-off. I launched myself off of the roof and plunged into the thickness of trees after the strange boy with glasses. From the start, I couldn't tell if he was truly lacking speed or if he simply wasn't making an effort. I supposed that his speed was about level with my own, and mine was not all that impressive. Once, he glanced over his shoulder at me, but I was able to read his expression. I couldn't tell if he was caught by surprise, or if he was doing this purposely to lure me into some sort of trap, or...
But I wasn't about to fall for any tricks, today.
Keeping myself at a steady pace, I materialized a frozen blade in my hand and lined myself up with his position. It was difficult to hit a moving target, especially when trees and bushes were constantly getting in the way. But somehow, when I released the blade, it shot forward, and just barely grazed him. I hadn't really meant to hurt him, not knowing his true motives. I only wanted to slow him down. Luckily for me, boy lost his footing as my weapon zipped past him, and almost fell to his doom before catching himself on a tree branch and swinging himself onto it.
I came to a halt on the tree branch across from him. "Finally caught you," I said in a breathy tone. "Why were you following me?"
It was then that I got a good look at his face, and I realized that I'd seen him before. Those round glasses and his tied back gray hair gave him away. He'd been one of the Genin in the Chunin Exams with Naruto and Sakura and Sasuke. One of the ones who opted out of the Preliminaries. What was the kid's name? Ka- Kabuki? Kabuto? That's the one.
"Okay," I said, glaring at him intensely. "You'd better have a good explanation. Why were you following me? Speak up, or you're going to be in a lot of trouble."
The look Kabuto gave me was a smug one. "Nothing personal, I was just given orders to keep an eye on you." He pushed his glasses up on his nose.
My eyes narrowed. "Orders? Orders from whom?"
No answer.
I didn't have the patience for this. Another frozen blade appeared in between my fingers. "Orders from whom?"
Kabuto started to laugh, but before I had a chance to ask him what was so funny, he spoke. "You were right, Lord Orochimaru. She is a feisty one."
Orochimaru?
Out from behind Kabuto then appeared the pale-faced monster that plagued my nightmares. "Good afternoon, my little lamb," he purred. "It seems Kabuto gave you quite a scare."
"My apologies," Kabuto said, bowing slightly in Orochimaru's direction. "I underestimated her. I didn't realize that she would discover my presence so easily."
"Yes," the snake replied. "Well, she has always been a rather unusual one. If it weren't for that unshakably gentle nature, she would have made an excellent vessel."
I decided to ignore that comment, and instead I demanded, "What is the meaning of this? What do you want with me?" I put up my defenses in case either of them made a move.
"Nothing, really," Orochimaru said. "I simply asked Kabuto here to keep an eye on you, in case you decided to interfere with my plans."
I smiled dryly. "So you're worried about me, after all, Orochimaru?"
"One can never be too careful," he said. I gasped and jumped backward when he suddenly appeared in front of me. "And you know how much I admire your abilities. I only asked Kabuto to dispose of you if you became a nuisance."
"I'm confused," I said darkly. "Are you trying to compliment me or insult me?" With a gesture to Kabuto, I added, "Do you really think I'd allow someone like him to kill me?"
But then I realized that Kabuto was no longer in the spot he had been a few seconds ago. In mild panic, I clutched my frozen blade in hand and jerked backward. My heart fluttered, realizing that my prediction had been correct as my blade went through Kabuto's stomach.
Kabuto grunted in pain. "Smooth one," he said. "But not quite smooth enough." Suddenly, I felt Kabuto grab onto my wrist, and the frozen blade in my hand melted as the chakra began to seep into him.
"Bastard," I snarled at Orochimaru, struggling to break free of Kabuto's grip as my chakra was stolen away from me.
"You see," Orochimaru chuckled, reaching toward me and tilting my chin up. "As I know better than to underestimate you, you should know better than to underestimate Kabuto. If I wanted to, I could order him to drain you completely of chakra right now—and you would be defenseless."
I swallowed nervously. I'd really screwed up this time. A kid who could drain the chakra out of people? I had never in my wildest dreams expected anything like this. I couldn't move with Kabuto gripping my arms, and now that my chakra was being forced out, could I still use subzero?
Could I freeze my chakra as it was flowing into him, and use it as a weapon?
It was a dangerous idea, but it was worth a shot.
"Maybe you're underestimating me after all," I murmured.
During the time that it took for Orochimaru to figure out what I meant, I exhaled and began lowering my body temperature. I could feel both my blood and my chakra slowing as they swam through me. My fingertips tingled as I concentrated the cooling point at the place where Kabuto held his grip. The cold was painful, even for me, so I knew Kabuto would never be able to take it.
"What the hell?" he whispered. His hands suddenly began to shake. "Oh, god... it's cold!"
Damn right, it's cold.
And it was cold enough that he couldn't keep his grip. By the time he was safely out of reach, he had already taken in a lot of cold chakra. As he cradled his hand in pain, I figured it would probably be paralyzed for at least a week.
Nevertheless, I took my opportunity to bound out of Orochimaru's reach. I had already lost quite a bit of chakra from that stunt and was feeling weaker than usual.
"Splendid," Orochimaru said, continuing to move toward me. "Even Kabuto is not immune to your kekkei genkai. Absolutely splendid. I had my suspicions, but I had to see it for myself."
As usual, using comrades as lab rats.
I clenched my fists, trying to warm them up. My teeth were chattering. "It doesn't... matter who does or doesn't get in your way," I breathed. "Sasuke Uchiha will never go with you."
"So confident," Orochimaru said. "But you don't know a vengeful human heart like I do."
"I know what pain feels like... and I know it's possible to get past it without all the hatred."
He stepped close enough to loom over me and gripped my arms, by my sleeves so that I couldn't hurt him. Subzero usually worked for me through clothing when I had the ability to use my hands because that's where I had the most control. But it was too difficult to conjuer that much power into my arms safely. "Foolish," he hissed. "Kanata... I made a mistake believing that I could use you, but I assure you that you are one of a kind. Few others could last under my influence as long as you did."
I struggled against him, unable to break free and afraid of his piercing gaze. I flinched when I felt his hand touch my shoulder. With a dark grin on his face, he slowly pulled the collar of my shirt away from my neck.
"Stop," I snapped. I grimaced; my neck throbbed and burned with him so close to me.
Orochimaru ignored my struggles and my warnings, and leaned closer. "It seems you did quite a number on my curse mark. I can barely feel its power, anymore. Were you really so desperate to get rid of me? You hurt my feelings."
"Let me go," I threatened, pushing back against him.
"I could always... fix that for you if you'd like," he whispered, bringing his face close to my neck.
My adrenaline spiked. "Stop it... please, don't..." I begged, turning my head away from him.
With a sigh, Orochimaru grazed his lips against my ear, allowing them to trail over my jaw bone and the hollow of my throat, to the spot where my curse mark rested. It burned. Oh, it burned. And just the thought of of his teeth penetrating my skin... the pain... it was enough to make my heart feel as though it would pop out of my chest. My muscles tensed and trembled. And when I felt the sensation of his long, snake-like tongue brushing my skin...
I screamed.
Every thought and emotion in that moment was completely overwritten by sheer terror. I wouldn't have known if it was my own strength or his surprise that freed me from his grasp, as there was nothing on my mind in that instant but the desire to escape from this monster.
In that temporary period of single-minded determination, I lost perception of where my body was in relation to the tree branch I stood on and lost my footing. The world rushed past me as both Orochimaru and Kabuto disappeared from my view and I tumbled down toward the dark forest floor.
