"So I'm going to be interrogated?" Shay asked curiously as she walked beside Sakura. The pinkette gave her a forced smile in response to her question and Shay sighed and asked. "Wouldn't it be easier to simply sit down and ask me what you want to know?"
"It would be. If we were trusting and gulible people, but with so many lives at stake we can't afford to have an enemy agent among us." Tsunade said after a moment or so fo silence. Shay turned her head and looked at the woman over one of her shoulders and then nodded her head to show that she understood.
"I understand that shinobi live their lives cloaked in shadow, blood and deceit...however the rest of the world isn't like that. Many of the people around you aren't like that. I myself hate lying." Shay said solemly as she stopped in her tracks and turned to face Tsunade.
The Sanin didn't even blink. To be honest she was still having trouble hiding her shock. It wasn't normal for a civilian to have such a grasp of how shinobi or military powers worked. Which only served to make Tsunade even more suspicious of the girl.
"Even if it could save your life?" Tsunade asked curiously as she studied the girl. She had heard Mizu, Gaara and Sakura speak of the girl almost non stop for the past few days and could honestly say at this moment that she wasn't terribly impressed with the girl.
Which begged the question, how had this girl won over two of the Kages and her own apprentice in such a short amount of time? Did she possess some strange power that was like Naruto's?
Or was it something else? Something more sinister maybe?
Shay crossed her arms over her chest and stared at her with a stubborn look on her pretty face. "Let me repeat myself just one more time for your benefit, my lady. I. Hate. Lying. For any reason. If you want to know something, then all you have to do is ask."
"You have a great deal of knowledge about how shinobi and military functions work. Why is that?" Tsunade asked, seeking to discover if Shay was really as honest as she said she was.
Shay gave her a calculating look then shrugged her shoulders and said. "My dad and older brothers were all military trained. They taught me some basic combat moves for self defense. They taught me stratagies, survival training. Battle plans. You name it, I know it."
Tsunade blinked and sucked in a breath as her mind reeled with the information that she had just been given. Good god if Circe was telling the truth about what she knew and how she knew it then it was no wonder she was so understanding about their safety protocols and such.
Living with people who fought in wars and killed, tended to open up even the most innocent of eyes and show them the horrors, pain and sorrows that came with being a soldier.
No wonder Shay seemed so patient with them. She probably understood them in ways that even they, as shinobi, weren't aware of.
"What happened to your father and brothers?" Sakura asked curiously.
"They died-" Tsunade opened her mouth to ask how, feeling that the information was valuble some how but Shay it seemed was one step ahead of her and continued with her explanation. "My dad suffered a phychotic break after a particularly bad mission and killed my entire family before killing himself. I was the only person that he spared, though I'm not sure why."
Tsunade didn't say anything for the longest time before sighing and asking, "How old were you when it happened?" It was stupid to ask the girl such a painful thing since it was dredging up old wounds, but Tsunade needed to know.
Because if Shay had been too young to be on her own then knowing would help her determine whether the girl was truely an enemy or simply another person just trying to survive.
"I was nine."
"Who took care of you? Did you have any relatives left?"
"I had relatives, but they didn't want anything to do with me. So I was placed in several foster homes, but ran away from several of the families because they were abusive. I got several jobs. Worked my way through school, bought myself a nice apartment-"
"So no one helped you?"
"No. My relatives more or less cut all ties with me after what my dad did. They were afraid that I'd go crazy and kill them in their sleep like my dad had."
Tsunade sighed and curled her hands into fists and bit back the urge to snarl. Dammit. If Shay had really grown up as she said she had then her pattern of behavior was understandable. Knowing what the girl did, she must have grown up pretty damn fast while trying to find a safe place for herself in the world.
Tsunade had seen what living on the streets did to kids.
It turned them mercenary. They did whatever they felt they had too in order to survive. They stole, lied, cheated, and even killed. Because food was scarce. And the winters in different regions of the world were so very harsh.
Tsunade had even seen children as young as six or seven turn themselves into prostitutes just to get money for a decent meal or a nice soft bed for the night. Tsunade got quiet after that and started walking again, figuring that it would be easy to know if Shay was telling the truth once she put the girl in Inoichi's hands.
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Naruto and Gaara were sitting down side by side, their shoulders just barely touching, nursing bruised knuckles and talking in low tones when they felt the chakra signiture of a Kage level nin approaching them. The two went eerily still and silent as they both got to their feet. "Who is it?" Naruto asked curiously, his azure eyes darkening to a deep vivid sapphire to show his displeasure.
Gaara tilted his head one way then another as the chakra signiture got closer. "Mizu? I think."
"Mizu? Who the hell is Mizu?"
Gaara gave Naruto a funny look then shook his head and said. "Mizu is short for the Mizukage's name."
"The Mizukage. Hn, well what would he-"
"She. Naruto. Mizu is a woman."
"Oh alright then. What would she be doing out here?"
"Well either she is out for a stroll-"
Naruto snorted. He doubted that the Mizukage was out in the woods just walking around. She didn't have her personal Anbu with her.
"Or something has happened and she's coming to inform me of something." Gaara said as a woman dressed in the Leaf village's Anbu uniform dropped out of the trees and landed in front of them with a panicked look on her pretty face.