I do not own Naruto
"—I mean, they were fanatical, Kagami! Completely devoted, and I had never met a single one of them before in my whole goddamned life. It's fucking ridiculous. The brothel mother, Misaki, she literally got down on her knees when we met. I'm not sure, but I think they had a shrine somewhere too. The whole time I was there it was 'Ryuu-hime this' and 'Ryuu-hime that'. Mind numbing, and terrifying. Did I already mention they fucking watched me sleep?" Ryuishi rants, pacing the hard wooden floors of the grand Okiya.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the evergreen forest of Kumo creaks in the howling winds; the grey, overcast skies threatening rain. She is tempted to go out on the deck there and see if the fresh air would help, or maybe the amazing view from the towering heights, but she knows that what she really needs is Orochimaru's correspondence and Kagami's explanation.
She whirls, her dark eyes narrowed and accusing. "Why didn't you tell me it had gotten like this?" she spits. "The Mumei have made me out to be sort of divine being, and I don't fucking care for it at all."
The aging woman laughs, her steely eyes closed with mirth. It is a dry sound, one that comes from women who have spent many years inhaling smoke in crowded bars and sultry back rooms. The matron looks every one of her fifty-some years of life, her weathered face mirthful and lined.
"I did tell you, girl," she says hoarsely. "I said they called you Rakki Ryuu and hailed you as the burner and scourge of Kiri, and I said they loved you more than anything else. That blonde woman, Hanako, has been spreading your word. These are not the deeds of a normal civilian or kunoichi. They do not have followings of nomads, or the devotion of almost every low born orphan and whore. They do not have the trust of the merchant and farmer alike, nor the ears of the politicians."
"Shrines, Kagami! Shrines!" Ryuishi exclaims, planting her hands flat on the teak wood table where Kagami sits comfortable in her seiza.
"Yes, and tithes. Money that goes there ends up with the greedy and needful alike. Every time you or your followers are seen rebuilding ramshackle Okiya or driving off assaulters and bandits, they build another. River country is littered with them after you helped with the flooding."
Ryuishi groans out loud and flops boneless to the floor, smacking her head on the table. She's not religious, per se, but this sounds like she's asking for trouble. Not only is there the possibility that an actual God might get offended, which her mother always assured her would happen, but humanity tends to have a thing about killing their gods. Though strangely enough, they always indulge their demons.
Religion is a weird concept here, practiced but also not. There are Shinto shrines and Buddhist monks that stand hand in hand with Taoist temples, not to mention the weird cults that pop up here and there. Adding another one is dangerous, even if its only problem is that it's aggressively kind and idealistic. Wars have been started over this sort of shit, and she definitely doesn't want that.
"I can't be a god. I can barely even be a human being. What the fuck am I supposed to do, Kagami-okaasan?" she groans, her words spoken through smashed lips pressed into glossed wood.
Kagami clicks her teeth and hums low in the back of her throat, emitting a grave, thoughtful sound. "They love you even more for being like them," she says. "The daughter of a whore, forced into the life of a soldier. They empathize because you too have starved and struggled against the harshness of the world. It means that much more that you make mistakes and form attachments. To them, you are the absolute embodiment of an idea, but human all the same."
"That sounds awful."
"It must be such a heavy burden, to have the adoration of so many," Kagami remarks sarcastically.
"It is! If I fuck up, the whole thing turns sour! If I die in one country, the others will turn on it and tear it to pieces, no matter what actually happened. They'll do things in my name that I don't approve of and then people will get the wrong idea and everybody will turn on them. They'll start doing crazy shit. Why is the world giving me even more responsibility? Didn't it see what happened last time? I lost my fucking mind and became besties with a goddamn literal psychopath, and then I hid in his fucking evil lair for like, four goddamn years!"
"You also established the world's greatest information network, set up a health care system for your people, and began to build places of education for the everyday civilian. All while being the figurehead of a slow-burning revolution," Kagami reminds her.
"I didn't do any of that on purpose! I was following fucking whims!" Ryuishi cries out.
Kagami doesn't dignify that with an answer, instead just settling for pursed lips and a dead stare. The teenager has no idea what she's getting at with that sort of bitchface, but it isn't helping anything. Time to move on.
"Also, what is this I hear about people rooting for romantic involvement with my teammates?"
Kagami has the good grace to look a little embarrassed, pulling away from her stoic visage to glance out the window behind Ryuishi.
"Well, Hanako came here a few times and wanted to know about what happened when you were in the Academy, and then the front lines. We might have been discussing some ideas about your unit, and how close you all were…"
"Oh. My. God. You didn't."
"I honestly thought you were dating one of them already!" defends the woman.
"I was eleven!"
"A very mature eleven!" she counters, "Don't tell me it wasn't strange the way you all slept in a pile—"
"Kiri is fucking cold!"
"—or constantly scanned over each other for injuries—"
"That's what teammates do!"
"—or the way the both of them always looked at you!" she breathes, "You three were inseparable! Even we heard it, all the way outside in the Akasen. The Chigiri no Kaijuu were the best frontal assault unit in history, and they all were obsessive about each other—that's what everyone said. If you found one, you had better look out for the other two. There were bets on who would end up with who!"
"Please tell me there are no more bets," Ryuishi deadpans.
The Okiya mother doesn't say a word, and the bronze-skinned youth wants to pull out her fucking hair. How many shit ball, dick sucking, ass punching, chicken kicking, fart sniffing more ridiculous things did her life need? What was next? Actual healthy, totally random acts of kindness? What mad world does she live in?
(Somewhere far away, in the windswept plains of the desert, Temari stares at the sweet chestnuts her youngest brother just procured. One second he was there, terrifying and hated. The next, he pulled her favorite snack from his pockets, dropped it on her lap, and then just left.
No words, nothing.
Cautiously, she picks the bag up, and gladly notices it is from one of the newer merchants that come through, the candy woman. He must have gotten Yashamaru to buy them, but still. What the hell?)
"Entropy and disorder reign in the universe. My life is one big fucking joke. Call off the bets, they both hate me," Ryuishi whines.
"Oh, stop being such a pessimist. You gave them both the clues, right? One day, they're going to come back, and—"
"OH MY GOD, JUST STOP," she shouts.
Kagami narrows her eyes at the command, measuring the emotions behind it. Ryuishi is mildly irritated because that wound still bleeds inside of her, the gaping holes the boys left. She still aches over the hope that maybe, just maybe, that fairy tale might come true, and it hurts more than a katon to the face. The fact that other people are treating it as a game, that they even think they know what happened—it's stupid. She left them, she betrayed them, and she burnt their home to the ground. Really, it's as simple as that. She would hate her too.
"Just stop, Kagami. Never speak of this to me again, and warn the others about it as well," Ryuishi sighs tiredly.
Kagami nods her head stiffly, the teasing air gone from the room. Outside, the wind howls and the glass panes rattle inside their frames.
"What's going on in the Land of Rice Paddies?" Ryuishi asks, desperate for a change of subject.
Kagami shifts back to look at her, her manicured nails tapping a pattern on the wood. Ryuishi honestly tries to ignore it, but the little things are beginning to add up, one by one. The stress of constantly being on the run, the ever-present need to hide, the loneliness of having no actual social structure to support her other than Orochimaru. No one to connect to or hang out with.
It's an empty existence, she thinks, constantly traveling from place to place with no one to talk to. She goes days without saying anything, just passing through wilderness. To the Mumei, she is a figurehead, always being measured and fawned over. To Kagami, she is the leader, the cash cow that keeps her safe and plans out changes. Even with Naruto and Gaara, she has to be something of a mature adult, helping them, teaching them.
She is Rakki Ryuu, the scourge of Kiri, Missing nin, Aneue and Nee-san. She only gets to be Watanabe Ryuishi when she is alone.
"The people are already seeing improvement in crop production and livestock health with your recommendations. They are also thankful for the schoolhouses and educational equipment," Kagami tells her, drawing her away from her morose teenage thoughts. Damn puberty, damn it all to hell.
This is good news, though. The people will welcome her with open arms, and that will make plans for future development all the easier.
"How about the progress in the Land of Grass and the Land of Rivers?" she questions, settling down into a cross-legged position.
"The refugees there have a firm hold on the darker sides of life. As discussed before, The Land of Rivers is a hive of activity for the Mumei and most are waiting for your divine intervention, if not willing to give a hand. Grass is a little bit harder. There is competition among the whores with refugees from Rain, and something stinks in Ame. I haven't gotten a single report from inside of it yet," Kagami rattles off.
Ryuishi sighs and pulls the pin out of her hair, letting it down for a second before spinning it back up, careful to avoid the barbed wire woven in it.
"Stop trying to figure it out. I know what's happening in Ame, and I want my people to have nothing to do with it. I won't say to spread the word to avoid it all together, because trade is always welcome, but I will say to watch it carefully from afar. If any word comes from it, I want to be the first that hears it, Kagami."
"Is it so dangerous?" the matron asks.
"Yes. It's volatile now, and in the future will be even more so. Everybody needs to remain under the radar around them."
"Is that why you're setting up so many plants inside of Grass?"
"That, and I want a net around the larger nations. If we can claim these as loyal, we will have three separate surrounding countries around Fire Country, and the main traffic ways between Lightning, Wind, Fire and Earth," the anxious teen admits.
"If one can control the civilian roads and the most commonly traveled shinobi paths, one can control the trade and the spread of information. Not to mention the food produced in Rice and Grass. You're aiming to control their stomachs," Kagami says with dawning realization.
"River also controls the transport from Water Country onto the continent. Not to mention various other textiles, medicines and technology from the three."
"Clever," Kagami comments.
"Maybe. I'm not even counting the other hot spots for the nameless or the Mistresses and Gentlemen you have contact with. All these logistics are giving me a headache," she answers, rubbing her temples. The amount of numbers in all of it is something she doesn't deal with though, having delegated it to Kagami herself. The woman is a powerhouse at accounting, and usually Ryuishi just goes where she's told she's needed.
The steely matron claps her hands, loudly, and the sliding door opens. A young, fit man comes inside with a tea set and Ryuishi flashes him a thankful smile. For a second, the blond looks starstruck, but one glance from Kagami sends him on his way.
Ryuishi takes the time Kagami uses to make them both tea to cram a few bites of raw fish salad in her mouth, savoring the savory slide of it against her tongue. She has no clue who makes it, or how they found out it was her favorite food, but she suspects it might come from the fact that she made it regularly as a child in Kiri. The couple of times she's been here, she saw ceviche alongside the poke, and she has no fucking idea how they figured that recipe out. Citrus is hard to get in Kumo.
Kagami finishes pouring them both a fragrant cup of jasmine green tea and takes a sip of her own, her movements practiced and delicate. Ryuishi continues eating with one hand, and slurping up her tea with the other.
"The Sannin sent another missive the other day. As usual, the scroll refuses to open, so you're probably going to have to pump chakra through it again," the older woman tells her.
Ryuishi groans around a mouthful of food as Kagami digs said message out of her obi. It's probably just another note reminding her to take her medication and eat healthy. The man is such a nag.
Placing her teacup on the table, she takes the scroll and pushes her chakra into the waxy-looking seal. As it unfurls, she hears a hiss, and a tiny viper drops onto her lap. Another backup, the paranoid bastard. If the summon hadn't recognized her, she'd be dead.
"Hey, little cutie. Did mean old Orochimaru tie your summoning to the opening of this? Poor baby. You deserve a snack."
The thick-scaled purple snake flicks out his tongue at her, looking like a cold-eyed beggar who just might murder you. Somehow, over the years, Ryuishi had gotten into the habit of spoiling the overgrown noodles, and they all knew it. She suspects that the snake summons community is regularly reminded of what to expect when dealing with their master's wayward partner.
Ryuishi rifles through her bag in the corner, eventually procuring a small egg. She has no idea where or when she got it. Thinking about it, it's probably when she raided that quail nest a while back. Her offering is deemed worthy by the animal, who snaps it up before disappearing. No doubt Orochimaru's next letter will be a reprimand for giving his summons un-approved food, but whatever.
Her eyes skim over the letter, and she palms the bottle of her medication that came with it. Regularly take once a week with a meal, blahblahblah, maintain progress in physical and ninjutsu training, blahblahblah, make sure to sleep. Seriously, what a mother hen.
She sticks the scroll inside the fireplace behind Kagami, and continues on collecting the information she missed from her last visit.
Traveling the Land of Lightning is always a very enchanting experience, if you ask Ryuishi.
Jutting stones crop out of the mountainous earth, and the views from the heights never fail to be scenic. The beaches are really great too, the sort of overcast skies and dark waters that come hand in hand with more northern terrains. Really, it's kind of hard to beat the stormy and bleak of this part of the continent, and journeying through it is a treasure.
Or, it would be a treasure if she didn't have to be so damn sneaky all the time. Honestly, she gets that she is a missing-nin who burned down her village and all that shit, but having to hide so much is a pain in the ass. The sooner they bumped up her rank, the better, because then she wouldn't have to deal with so many happy-go-lucky bounty hunters who were in way over their heads. Bandits already knew better than to start shit with Mist-nin on principle, but greedy ass money grabbers? They always thought they could get the drop on her.
Admittedly, that didn't happen so much anymore. Flitting around for so long had added to her already impressive arsenal of tricks. Her leaving behind any sort of trace at this point was almost laughable because she was so neurotic in her tendency to clean up her trails. Still, corpses are kind of hard to hide.
She wipes off her blood soaked foot on some dead—was that Iwa? It might be Iwa. They had used doton jutsu, right?— some dead Iwa nin's tunic. She had managed to actually kick her way through somebody's torso, and believe her, no one was more surprised than herself. The action had left her foot filthy though, and thus, his now dead friend got to be used as a cleaning rag.
She looks around at the shoreline and feels a little guilty for not feeling guilty. These guys looked like they were only a few years older than her, so young and fresh faced. If only they had chosen a better attack pattern, or minded her range limitations… but they didn't. They tried to kill her, and now they were dead.
She honestly almost couldn't care less. She says almost because now her foot is dirty, and she has to hide these fuckers.
Ryuishi casts her eyes toward the rough looking surface. She honestly doesn't know jack about the currents here, but she does know that the water is as cold as ice. She was just swimming in it, after all. Why these two-bit bounty hunters tried to take her out so close to her greatest strength, she would never know.
Theoretically, if she takes the remains out far enough, they'll get eaten before they can bloat and come back up. If there isn't some crazy riptide that stretches out forever, or a lack of local fauna to assist in that. If she just left them, it would be a gigantic sign pointing to her whereabouts. Okay, so, if she cuts them up it will help out with hiding them, only that's gross and dirty and she doesn't feel like it. Hot damn, she wishes Kisame was here right now. His summons were always so helpful with shit like this.
She considers various other options, like a makeshift sky burial, or a incredibly hot pyre, or actually burying them. But no matter what crops up, she always comes back to dumping them in the ocean. She'll call it a sacrificial tribute and be done with it.
She threads her chain through all ten of them like some terribly gruesome needle and thread and coats her feet with chakra. The waves make it harder to pull for a bit, tossing her dead weight—hah, dead weight, she's hilarious—to and fro in an attempt to take them back to shore. Once she muscles through it though, they drag behind her in the water, still barely buoyant because they were bludgeoned or stabbed instead of drowned. She isn't sure how far she goes, but in the end, she is only satisfied when land cannot be seen on the horizon.
She yanks her meteor hammer free with one exaggerated tug, and the now-waterlogged cadavers listlessly float into the darkness, the hungry waters stealing them from sight.
Done with her chore, she falls back into the liquid's embrace herself.
There is something to be said about being surrounded on all sides by ocean, with no land in sight. It's like the world has become something so incredibly large and empty when there are no trees and stones and earth in the way. Even though the water is numbingly cold, she feels like she is floating, suspended in the thin line between brackish sea and grey sky. Here, she is not really a thing infected by death, no, she is the Void itself. She is one with the wind and the waves, and her consciousness can spread as far and forever as the elements themselves. Or, whatever. It's just pretty awesome, to look out and see nothing but the ocean and the sky stretching on forever. Like some sort of crazy world where only she exists.
Life isn't like that though, she supposes, kicking her legs towards land again. Whatever poetic rambling she had going on in her head comes to a halt as she dives underneath the surface and unpins her hair, letting it billow around her, barbed wire and all. It takes her a while to do it this way, swimming through the numbing waters with only chakra to heat her up, but it feels more natural this way, too. It's like, she was meant to be imitating an eel or some shit. She doesn't know how to explain it, it just feels right.
Ryuishi reaches shore after what feels like hours later, soaked to the bone and a little bit worn out. She decides to rest halfway up on a jutting rock covered in molluscs, her torso resting against their protruding and uncomfortable hard-shelled bodies. Letting her lower body drift in the water, she shuts her eyes for just a moment. It is because of this, she will say later, that she never realises the other person is there until they are talking to her. Call her unaware, but she never fucking said she was a sensor type.
"Yo, I never thought I would see no mermaid
While chasing down the trail of renegades," a deep voice intones.
Ryuishi nearly shits her fucking pants as she attempts to plop back in the water, hastily dropping from the rock like a guard abandoning post. She hears splashes, chakra-heavy footsteps on water, behind her.
"What would the Ningyo no Chigiri
Be doing hanging out in the northern sea?" it asks again.
She knows exactly who is behind her, and wow, she is so not ready for this. She will never be ready for this. What the fuck is she supposed to do?
"I was on the run and heard there was a punk who thought he was a rapper
So I came to see if he was any good, or was just another actor
Didn't mean to step on any toes by crossing the border
I was chased here by my life's disorder," she blurts out.
Huh. Apparently she is going to solve being cornered by instigating rap battle. She has no idea how this is going to go. There's a reason she never sought out adult jinchuuriki. Their loyalties are solidified, their grasp on reality too unyielding for her subtle manipulations. They're already devoted to their village, willing to take out any threat, and even with her skill level, she would lose in a fight against a person wielding a bijuu. If they wanted they could seek her out, but she is not going to risk being smashed into the ground for pawns that she can go without.
Turning around, she takes in the shellshocked image of a grown man gaping at her as she floats in the water. His white-blond hair billows softly in the wind, and she wonder if he might have actually passed out standing up. Good, now, if she can just throw more ridiculous nonsense his way—
"So there, mist-born fish maid
Came all the way here to see how the game is played?
Well alright little minnow
Go ahead, try and give it a go," he spits, and man, did he just call her a fucking minnow? Fuck him. He wants it, he's sure and the hell gonna get it.
"For a guy who thinks he's a fucking giant
I think his little rhymes are rather reliant
On a weak ass rhythm that is a little bit slow
What kind of wise ass are you, tellin me to 'give it a go?'
I came from the cold, bloodied streets of Kiri
Born in raised in the embrace of the southern sea
I came all the way here to the great land of lightning
To find someone I thought would be worth fighting
Only to find
That he ain't the kind
Of man who rules his rhyme
He's just out of his damned mind," she delivers, her dark eyes narrow, arms crossed as she leans against the rock. There, let him deal with that.
Only he looks like he's seen the face of god. She can't see his eyes, but his sunglasses are sparkling shoujo-style, and that frightens her to an extent. What the ever living fuck is she doing? How does she get into situations like this? She just slaughtered, like, ten people for Christ's sake! What is this crazy world? She doesn't break character, remaining stone faced as he continues, but inside she is a bewildered mess.
"I think me and you maybe started off wrong
'cause I ain't ever heard nobody else singin my song
I been stuck out here in these hills
Trying to make money, tryin to pay bills
And maybe I made a mistake when I said you were a minnow
But you gotta forgive me cause I just didn't know
That this here mermaid had a tongue like a blade
and I would be dismayed if I didn't persuade
her that the words she just laid, the rhymes she displayed
could start a crusade and cause a parade," and holy fucking shit, that last part was incredible. He can probably tell, because he's smiling like a huge dweeb, and man, she can't help it if she's a little impressed. He made that shit up on the spot, and that's intense.
"Uhhh…" Ryuishi comments.
"That being said, you're a wanted nin
And Kumo can't be seen letting those kinds in
So I'll ask you again what you're doing here
And if your words ain't right imma have to make you disappear," Killer Bee finishes, and his aura shifts. Something awful fills the air, and the tingling burn of oppressive chakra fills the space around them.
This is the first time she's felt it, a bijuu's chakra, and it slithers across in the exact opposite way of her own tainted energy. It shoves itself into the forefront of her mind, invading her thought process and stirring up something inside of her. It's heavy and hot like burning oil, slipping across the air like crackling lightning, primordial and primitive. It is power, pure and tangible, burdened with killer intent, and it feels like life. There is so much going on, so much filling it up. Not a bit of it is wasted or empty, and the hungry spaces inside her soul cry out to be filled by it. The hatred, pure and simple, makes that roaring, angry piece inside of her howl out for more. Her body oozes adrenaline and she has never felt more alive.
Scared, intimidated, and terrified, but alive.
"Woah," Ryuishi breathes out, staring up at him.
His glasses covered eyes bore into hers and she remembers how to breathe again, her brain stuttering back to life.
"I was near the border, appreciating life's wonders
When I got ambushed by a group of Iwa bounty hunters
Tried to bail and get them off my tail to no avail
Ended up having to impale those pesky male's
Must have crossed the border
Tryin' to restore my life's order
But now those fools are deep in the ocean
No way they can start another commotion
Now the world famous Killer Bee
Is standing here right in front of me
And I can promise that I don't want any trouble
Because I'm pretty sure he can smash me into rubble
I can leave as soon as you need
It's your words that I will heed," she tells him, and man, this shit is tricky. Her rapping game is getting weaker as time goes on. She was having trouble mixing truth and lie in that statement. More than likely, the jinchuriki was here to deal with the bounty hunters as well, and they could have been crossing the border back and forth going after her trail, for all he knows. It's a plausible story, if not a truthful one. She just feels there's no need to mention why she is actually here when a golden opportunity is being handed to her on a silver platter. She has the one tails and the nine tails, why not add the eight tails?
The man above looks contemplative, staring down at her, and she waits in the silence, feeling the energizing wash of his chakra against her, fidgeting in the water. She doesn't know what the twenty-two year old sees when he looks at her, but when he reaches down a hand she holds her breath praying that he's not about to murder her.
She grabs his hand, and he helps pull her out of the water.
AN: AH! Still on traveling, but I have found some time to upload. So yah! Killer B! Sorta rap battle! More important word building! All of the things happening! Sorta odd, I know, but still, I said it was a weird arc. That being said, a lot of you are shipping Ryuishi, and I tried to make that a parody here. I'm still uncertain if I want to do romance, and there's no plans for it right now. Fluff? Yes. Sexuality? Yes. Other relationships? Yes. Romance? me why I should and I might give it a shot.
I apologize to those who reviewed my work without reply, but I'm hella busy right now. I will attempt to get to them later.
A BIG thank you to my readers, reviewers, favoriters, and followers. I love you. Marry me.
THE BIGGEST THANK YOU to my beta enbi. They're the best.
Chapter question: If Ryuishi was reborn into another fandom what would it be and what would she do?