Do I own it? Is it opposite day? Then no, no i do not.


Plucking Strings

"I set about seeking a thread, a theme, a style, in the realm of legend." - Leni Reifenstahl


Naruto leaned back on the comfortable cushions that surrounded the low, gilded table made of deep mahogany. It alone probably cost as much as he would make on an A-ranked mission, and Ayumi was currently using it to perform her little show on. He had to admit, she had gotten quite good with the little marionettes, able to make the finely-crafted figures move with a fluid graces. She, of course, wasn't using Chakra threads to move them, but more conventional strings attached to a rather complex paddle.

Instead of just moving the control bar around on its various axes, certain strings were threaded through the paddle and attached to little loops that were set at different lengths on her fingers. It allowed her a finer degree of control over the little puppets; a young geisha-painted lady and a kabuki-disguised prince, enacting a famous courtly love-story. When Ayumi set her mind to something, she certainly went all out.

It was almost a shame she didn't have Chakra, but there was a definite stigma about that sort of thing in noble spheres. Besides, she was beyond the age where a civilian could safely awaken her Chakra, so it was a moot point. Although, if the rumours about her parentage turned out to be true, it might be a different story. Still, she would be fearsome enough even without it in a few years, if she could apply this single-minded determination to everything she did.

"So, nothing unusual over the last few months or weeks?" He asked, absently casting out some invisible strings and forcing one of her other figures to leap to life – a rather cliché ninja, complete with baggy black pants and a cowl-facemask combination. It took a running leap from its shelf, landing in a textbook roll next to the princely puppet and placing a little wooden kunai to his neck. Ayumi grinned at the sight; to her eyes it simply looked like the little figure had come alive.

"Define unusual, sensei."

"I've told you before, I'm not your sensei. My actual student takes offence to it, as I'm sure you can imagine."

She waved him off airily, eyes scrunching up in concentration as the little princess puppet fell to her knees, pleading silently with the ninja. "An affectation, as we both know. I call all my tutors sensei."

"Only to their faces, as we both know," he shot back, earning a smirk.

"But you will have to be more specific, my days are filled with tedium and anything that you might call unusual, I simply see as… interesting." The princely puppet abruptly twirled away from the ninja, shedding his disguise as a ruse to escape.

"New faces, any particularly disturbing court gossip, people acting out of character."

"Well," she snorted, still managing to make it sound dignified somehow, "If you can discount my father. I had hoped his little pity-party after that horrible beast of a woman finally passed would clear up months ago. As it is, I'm waiting for him to catch sight of his latest beau any day now. I must have underestimated how infatuated he was with that blubbery conniver, heavens only knew why." She gave him a sidelong glance as the ninja crouched low to the ground, passing his little kunai back and forth between hands that should have been incapable of such fine movement.

"But you need not worry about my father. The reason for the enmity between Konoha and the Twelve Guardians escapes me, but they do have his protection firmly in mind. No Fire Country Daimyo has been successfully assassinated since the founding of your village."

"And the Guardians themselves?" Naruto asked.

She rolled her eyes at his obvious suspicion, but humoured him nevertheless as she directed her little prince to draw a katana from his side. "Mikaku is as stately as ever, you know how those monks are. Tayuya is surly, but capable, we don't have cause to talk much, and Hanryō is their most recent addition, by all accounts an affable man who gets along with the servants quite well."

"How recent?"

Ayumi shrugged delicately as the prince moved to engage, finding no openings in the wooden ninja's guard despite his weapon's superior length. Amusingly, it looked much how a fight would go if a noble were to challenge a shinobi.

"Four months, if I recall correctly. Tadeshii-san handles liaisons between the Guardians and the staff, or failing that, my father himself."

Naruto called that one a lost cause as his ninja ducked under a swipe of the katana. The Daimyo, if he was blowing off meetings to dedicate a new Hokage, certainly wouldn't make time for him. His puppet reversed his footing abruptly, stepping back only to skirt around with little clacking steps. A little application of Chakra through his strings and the wooden kunai suddenly became as sharp as the real thing, slicing the prince's head right off.

"Oh!" Ayumi bemoaned softly, picking up the two severed pieces of her doll with a pout. "Must you always break them?"

He shrugged with a lazy smile, the first relaxed expression he had worn since stepping foot in the palace.

"I'm a ninja. It's what we do."


"How was your chat with the Princess?" Tayuya asked as he stepped out of Ayumi's chambers wearing a thoughtful expression. He made no indication of being surprised to see her there, casually leaning against a pillar, a stick of pocky protruding from her lips.

"Animated," He replied after a moment's thought, smirking at the little joke. "If this is about your rules, I can assure you I was invited in."

"Nah, we know all about your little playdates with the Princess. Mikaku just thought you might want a little help with whatever investigation you're running." She shrugged, drawing out another stick of pocki. "To be honest, I don't really get this whole hostility shit between us and other ninja. You guys are just doing your job, same as us."

"I'm afraid some of your predecessors didn't hold the same irreverent values, so a bad precedent was set. Although, I'm all for letting by-gones be by-gones if you're offering your help."

The redhead rolled her eyes, snapping the chocolate-coated stick of biscuit with a loud snap of her teeth.

"Damn, you talk just like Mikaku, as if I didn't have to deal with that enough."

"A bit more fucking blunt then? How's that?"

She gave him a toothy grin, twirling another stick in hand. "Better, but laying it on a bit thick."

The blond just shrugged. "I've found being crass situationally less useful than… other ways of talking." Except in a fight of course; then it was a great way of riling your opponent up.

"We'll have to disagree on that," she shot back, sliding the pack of sweets away for now. "So, what do you need for your little Orochimaru-themed hunt?"

Naruto's fingers, previously tapping against his thigh absently, paused, although he didn't miss a step.

"My apologies, I don't recall telling the Guardians precisely why we were here."

Tayuya shrugged, unconcerned, and lifted her hands to rest on the back of her head. "Not hard to work out from the bloody context clues, shit-head. What, you take us for idiots? Maybe I am starting to get where the grudge comes from." She grinned, her canine poking out above her lip slightly. "Besides, your 'Buddy-buddy' and the little girl aren't nearly as secretive as you clearly are."

Naruto said nothing to that, but his fingers started up their nonsensical beat again.

"Appreciate the offer, but we don't need help. Our business should be wrapped up pretty soon."

Tayuya shrugged. "No skin off my back; I was more than content to leave you lot alone. It's Mikaku who insists on being friendly."

"And keeping an eye on us, right?"

She slipped out another piece of pocky and slipped it into her mouth in a smooth, practised motion. The way she deftly manoeuvred it around her lips reminded him of the coin exercises he still occasionally indulged in to keep his dexterity up.

"We are the guards for the Daimyo, a little paranoia's in the job description. How about for company's sake then?"

"Well, you're certainly better than my other two options, I have to admit." She didn't seem all impressed by the flattery, so he shifted gears. "What's your story then? I always find the most interesting circumstances bring people to fringe organisations like the Twelve Guardians." She certainly wasn't a Konoha-nin, and there was no way she was Fire Temple. There was a chance she was one of those special cases singled out from the samurai, but the callouses on her hands were in the wrong places for a sword.

"Not much to say," she admitted with a shrug, hands once again snaking up to rest on the back of her head. "Orphan, didn't know my parents, showed potential at a young age, caught the eye of one of the old Guardians, Kazuma. He trained me on the side, probably as a secret weapon or some stupid shit like that, and when he got himself killed during that bloody coup of his, I couldn't think of anywhere else to go."

Naruto clicked his tongue and nodded. "So, what was so special that you caught a Guardian's eye?" His head lolled to the right as he glanced around with an airy smile. "No offense."

"Much taken," she replied easily, "but I admit, I wasn't much. I was a skinny little shit living off the streets, but I had this old wooden flute that I'd had for as long as I remember. Used to play it for whatever scraps I could get, and drew a much bigger crowd than I ever deserved. Turned out, I was unconsciously using Chakra to enhance the sound. Kazuma passed by one day and realised what I was doing, and the rest is fuckin' history."

"I'm guessing that's why I don't see any obvious weaponry on you then, genjutsu user?"

Her smirk grew. "Obvious, being the keyword there." She surprised him by reaching into her cleavage and withdrawing a long metal flute, elegantly engraved with tiny twisting patterns of thorns. Long enough, curiously, that it shouldn't have comfortably fit flush against her stomach.

"Not the most accessible storage," he pointed out, not too ruffled by the obvious attempt to fluster him.

She chuckled, spinning the instrument between nimble fingers. "I haven't been interrupted yet."

"Can't imagine why," he drawled.

"So, care to hear a tune?" She asked, spinning the flute for effect. "I've been told there's nothing quite like one of my melodies."

His lips quirked in amusement, but he shrugged all the same. "Can't exactly say I'm one for music, but sure, why not?"

Tayuya had already checked the instrument for wear and had it up to her lips by the time he was done talking. Her first note was sharp and clear, as if clearing away all the unnecessary background noise so the rest of the song could go on, pure and untainted. It started slow, a meandering melody that seemed to wax between wistful and sad, peaking on high, sharp notes only to drift back into lower registers that seemed to draw the listener along as if a merely a passenger on a river.

As it progressed, Naruto's head nodded forward, eyes growing heavy as he began to sway in place. By the time Tayuya held the long, warbling note that faded off into silence, he was asleep on his feet. She rolled her eyes and drew a kunai hidden in her kimono sleeve, twirling it with the same deft proficiency as her flute. With a single, economical slash, she severed Naruto's carotid… or would have, if that was Naruto.

Dami lashed out, catching the wrist she held the kunai in and brutally kicking her in the stomach, strong enough to launch her across the ornate hallway. She landed in a tight roll, springing back to her feet with a snarl on her lips.

"For the record," Naruto said, voice projected as if coming from Dami itself, "from what I heard, that was quite beautiful." He had listened long enough at least to work out what the intended effect of the genjutsu was.

"That's impossible," Tayuya growled, eyes searching every inch of the hall. "Even if you blocked your ears, my genjutsu work directly on the inner-ear bones."

"Yeah, realised that myself," he replied as Dami was abruptly replaced by Inari, the fox-puppet unfurling as if from a long nap. "Had to block off the tenketsu in my ear manually." She could feel the mirth in his slightly too-loud voice. "Good thing I'm so good at reading lips, huh?"

Tayuya eyed the puppet warily, but knew not to let herself get too distracted by it. It was the puppeteer she wanted.

"I never was all that good at this infiltration shit, but what gave me away?" She needed to keep him talking. The longer he was deaf, the more difficulty he would have modulating his voice and the more likely he would be to let his location slip by accident.

"Well, your story was very good," he admitted, having Inari pace slowly towards the flute-user, forcing her to step back. "Probably mostly true too, but I'm guessing you've never so much as met this Kazuma guy, have you? Still, word of advice. Drop the silencing barrier after the offer to listen to something you've already admitted to manipulating with Chakra."

"You can't be that paranoid," she grouched, eyes narrowed.

"Oh, I am, but that's not what gave you away. If you're going to use make-up to conceal your curse mark, you should probably also wear it on your face." It was the same stuff he used to cover his whiskers on certain infiltration missions, and it had been bugging him why he could smell it all this time.

"Fuck, and here I was giving shit to those prissy bint kunoichi that care so much about their looks." She darted forward suddenly, hoping to catch the puppeteer off-balance mid-banter. No such luck, and it was quickly apparent that in a contest of taijutsu, Tayuya did not have the advantage. She treated Inari like an ordinary opponent, and paid for it when her tails came around and struck at odd angles with the force of sledgehammers.

She was quickly driven back, growling lowly in her throat as her eyes still sought out the hidden puppeteer. He had to be close, to be able to read her lips. Under normal circumstances, she would have been right. Had she noticed Inari's blank white eyes however, she might have known better. They weren't just for aesthetics.

Naruto had learned the hard way, the first time he installed his prosthetic Byakugan into a puppet, that a doujutsu was more than just in the eyes. Hanabi's transplant had been such an astounding success because her brain as already both wired, and used to dealing with that second sight. The first time he tried to activate it through the shared-vision technique he used to see through his puppets' eyes, he had nearly blacked out.

The sudden sensory overload had been way too much. There was a reason a Hyuuga's range developed over time, and Naruto had done the equivalent of dropping an adult's extended vision into a child's mind. His brain needed time to process everything it was suddenly seeing. From there, very careful testing had allowed him to work out how to restrict his proxy byakugan's vision and slowly work up. It was still in the early stages, so his range – through Inari – was only about a hundred-foot radius.

Not that even that much wasn't an incredible advantage.

Currently he was one floor up, observing the entire exchange from a currently unoccupied room that seemed to store nothing but row upon row of ornate, cloth-covered mirrors. Bloody nobles. He saw in intimate detail as Tayuya feinted around Inari and abruptly filled the rest of the corridor with a hail of kunai. Enough that they had to be coming from some kind of storage seal – she wasn't wearing nearly enough clothes to conceal that kind of armoury.

Narrowing his eyes had Inari's vision shift, turning Tayuya's clothes translucent and… oh… well, there was an application of the Byakugan he hadn't considered. It was strange being able to see your own face twist up into a smirk from the third person. Sure enough, he could spot a row of bangles along Tayuya's arms, hidden by her sleeves and inscribed with storage seals. If she had a limit to how many kunai she could produce, she wasn't running into it any time soon.

Kami, it never ceased to amaze him how incredible the Byakugan's sight was. He could literally see the twitch of Tayuya's muscles as she gave up on trying to skewer somebody she couldn't see and turned back to deal with his puppet. Before she had even finished twisting her foot Inari was already in her guard and scratching up with paralytic-laced claws. Instinct saved the redhead more than skill as she stumbled back in surprise, the last kunai to drop into her palm coming up to take the vicious slash.

Before Naruto could capitalise, she forced Chakra through the sole of her foot – and how amazing was it that he could see that now – and forced herself back. Naruto had to force himself to stop marvelling at every little detail that came up in his newfound visual prowess and focus. How ironic was it that having the Byakugan was probably slowing him down? It certainly gave Tayuya time to turn on a heel and sprint down the corridor.

Naruto cursed softly, moving along with Inari to pursue. She had likely figured out, through a flawed presumption, that however he was observing her, he would have to move to keep up. If he was a full-blooded Hyuuga, she would have been completely wrong, as he could have conducted this fight from halfway across the city. As it was, his second sight was still limited enough that she could easily escape his field of view by simply moving further into the palace. Not that she knew that; she was probably just hoping to ambush him once he revealed his location.

Luckily, he was more than used to being able to focus on two separate figures moving in tandem, so both his actual body, and Inari, were able to keep up as she fled through the corridors. Also fortunately, Inari was faster than her. She found this out when the fox-based puppet literally sprinted along the wall to overtake her, stopping her from going any further and making this fight public. He wasn't going to fall for that trick.

He was under no illusions as to what all of this would look like if anybody else caught on they were fighting. She was the credible one here, and as far as anybody else was concerned, he was attacking a member of the Daimyo's personal guard. She tried peppering Inari with another barrage of kunai, this time glowing with the tell-tale crackle of raiton Chakra, but Naruto simply connected her fuuton tail and batted them away with the wind-sheathed appendage. Each of them could extend to cover just about her entire form, and she had nine of them.

A flexible defence was always better than a solid one.

It was clear the manoeuvre was more a hopeful distraction though, as Tayuya used Inari's brief immobilisation to slam her hand on the floor. He didn't need to read her lips to know she was summoning something; although what exactly was not readily apparent. Inari tried to cut her off with a hail of rapid-fire senbon, but in the time it took her tails to switch the redhead had pulled her flute back up to her lips.

Even with the Byakugan, Naruto was surprised when a set of oversized samurai armour – old and decorative, but no-less well-made – leaped out of its alcove in the wall to intercept. Surprised, because he saw no Chakra in the armour itself. Though, if he strained his eyes, he could see Tayuya's begin to fill the corridor, emerging from her flute in irregular ripples that likely coincided with the notes she played. Naruto was both deaf, and a floor above her, so he couldn't tell.

The hollow samurai drew its long nodachi and set itself in a picture-perfect Kenjutsu stance. It wasn't alone, as two other sets of armour hopped out from where they had been on display. One them was actually forced to smash its way out of a protective glass case, which told the blond that this was an ambush of opportunity and not planning.

"How do you like my Doki?" Tayuya called out, still uncertain of where Naruto was hiding. "They can possess anything I command to become my perfect, unkillable soldiers."

Naruto felt a shudder pass down his spine at the knowledge he was effectively fighting ghost-possessed suits of armour. Damn childish phobia cropping up now of all times. He thought he had gotten passed that. Still, unkillable or not, if these Doki had nothing to possess then they should be effectively impotent. That in mind, he forced Inari to crouch low and brace herself as the trio of Doki moved to encircle her.

It turned out that her summons were much faster than Tayuya herself. Inari didn't even had time to finish the hand seals for the fuuton jutsu she was preparing before the three faux-samurai lurched forward, crossing the distance in a flash. If they thought numbers would overwhelm her though, they were sorely mistaken. Three swords met three equally tough tails, locking them in place just as her fingers locked on the ryu seal.

"Fuuton: Atsugai," he muttered to himself as a compact dome of wind burst out from Inari's body. He had seen how dangerous that one could be after fighting Kakuzu, and it didn't disappoint here. In the cramped environment of the hallway, it threw the suits of armour back like a slap from Kami. One was immediately dashed against the wall, the entirely ceremonial chest plate caving in. The other two were sent flying down the hallway in either direction.

Something was ejected from the destroyed suit of armour… something that even the Byakugan couldn't see. Or, perhaps he couldn't see it because of the Byakugan. Knowing that it functioned as a sort of sonar, it was possible he couldn't see Tayuya's Doki because they were essentially intangible. They certainly didn't have any Chakra, which was disconcerting all on its own. As it was, all he could make out was a slight shimmer to the air.

He was so focused on trying to make out any details, he almost missed the suit of armour sneaking up on him. He sank through the floor of the room, dropping down into the corridor below, just as its blade impaled the space he had been occupying. Tayuya smirked at him as he landed next to Inari, still keeping her flute up in case he tried anything.

"It's amazing what you can do with sound, isn't it?" She said, or rather, Naruto read from her lips. Some type of sonar to flush him out then. Must not have thought he could operate from so far away if she had waited this long to use it. Speaking of, he unlinked his sight from Inari's to confirm his hypothesis about the Doki, only to regret it. The thing looked like a hazy, insubstantial cloud with gruesomely large, blue-lipped, salivating mouths randomly dotted around it.

Where did people come up with these techniques?

"Well," he muttered, cracking his neck and pretending that thing wasn't the most disturbing sight he had seen since Hidan's living autopsy. "I think we can just about call that the warm up."

Then he exploded, because of course that wasn't him.

Once again, the blast was maximised by the limited space, funnelled straight down the hall at the redhead. When the smoke cleared, Inari was revealed to have wrapped herself up in her tails like a furry cocoon. Tayuya on the other hand had simply tanked the blast – impressive, considering it had obliterated the two adjoining walls completely – and it quickly became obvious how. When experimenting with the enzyme extracted from Anko's seal, he had been morbidly curious how it would react with a human.

The result, apparently, was darkened skin and sclera, black, tattoo-like markings under the eyes, golden irises and… of all the things… horns. Six impressive growths around and atop her head, like no animal he had ever seen before; more like short, twisted elephant tusks really. What it did for her beyond the aesthetic became apparent when she blew a sharp note of her flute… that he actually heard. He had to check to make sure the tenketsu around his ears were still blocked.

That was genuinely impressive.

It was more than just music though, as evidenced when one of her still-armoured Doki suddenly launched itself at his new hiding spot, camouflaged against the skirting where the wall met the ceiling. It was a lot faster now, but Inari was still quicker. She moved so fast it almost looked like she body flickered between them, tail up in preparation. The suit of armour made a good try of trying to slice the jet of water with its sword, but steel that was never meant to see action was no match for Chakra-enhanced, pressurised water that could cleave thick metal walls.

More concerning – after Inari contemptuously slapped the suit of armour into the ground with her tails, crushing it irreparably – was the angry ghost snaking through the air towards him. Already somehow knowing it wouldn't work, he angled the jet of waters up at it, only for it to pass through harmlessly. He quickly vacated his hiding spot, not wanting to find out what happened when one of those mouths got a hold of him.

Instead, he put to use the tactics so many had tried to use on him before. Go for the puppeteer, not the puppet. Easier said than done when he was forced to dodge the Doki while Inari beelined for Tayuya. He couldn't even use the Byakugan, because then he couldn't even see the damn things. It also turned out that the curse-seal transformation did wonders for not just Tayuya's musical ability. Inari attempted to finish things from afar with a quick volley of heavily-poisoned senbon, that promptly skittered off of Tayuya's skin like she was made of steel.

The sight nearly made him trip over. He had seen those senbon imbed a few inches into solid rock.

The girl grinned at the sight herself and met Inari's charge head on. She wasn't just tougher in this form, but faster, stronger, and had better reflexes. This time, she was able to essentially match Inari in taijutsu, if not overpower the puppet. It really didn't help that Naruto's attention was further divided by the appearance of her third armoured Doki, which of course went straight for him. It should be repeated that Naruto, while fit as a Jounin, was not a very physical ninja.

What he was, was somebody who played to their strengths. Namely, unpredictability.

Tayuya was not expecting when Inari was suddenly replaced by Naruto, the two of them substituting seamlessly. She had been aiming a kick for somebody much taller than he was, and might have been able to compensate if he didn't already have his arm up. As it was, she was caught completely unprepared when his wrist sprayed out a jet of white-hot fire… right at her face.

He held the stream for a good three seconds before cutting off the fuel and leaping back at the same time, wary for potential retaliation. It never came though, and it was apparent why when he saw that – aside from a slight char to the neckline of her kimono – she was entirely unharmed. The bold smirk she wore told him she already knew this would happen, and was clearly why she hadn't pressed the advantage of surprise. It seemed she was the type to taunt her opponent with her apparent invulnerability.

Shame he hadn't been aiming for her face at all.

She immediately launched into a rapid melody with her flute, only to pause, blinking in confusion. Behind Naruto – except for the one in armour that Inari had stuck to a wall with Arakune's old webbing – Tayuya's Doki were listlessly floating in place, completely unaffected by her music. The blond didn't even need to be able to hear it to know why.

He hadn't been aiming to roast her, being familiar with the durability-enhancing effects of senjutsu from what little he had been able to get out of Jiraiya on the subject. Instead, he had aimed for her flute. It was clearly made of something special, as a normal metal flute would have simply melted under that kind of heat. Still, the thin instrument was now extremely hot, as was any air inside of it. Apparently not enough to destroy it, but certainly enough to warp any sound it might have made.

In the exact moment the redhead figured out what had happened, Inari switched places with Naruto again, a swirling orb of energy held above her palm. Tayuya practically curled around the rasengan as it was slammed into her stomach. Inari lifted her arm – girl and all – making sure the jutsu continued to grind into her senjutsu-enhanced skin, before slamming her back into the floor. Curse seal or not, cracking solid marble like that would knock the wind out of anybody, and Naruto didn't waste the opportunity.

Inari pounced forward, sinking her elongated canines into Tayuya's neck. Just to be safe, Naruto didn't stop pumping in the sedative until the reserves in the puppet's neck were completely depleted. If that wasn't enough to keep her down, there was no amount of drug that would. It was, thankfully, and soon enough her horns retreated and her skin had returned to its naturally pale hue.

Just in time for Mikuru and Hanryō to come barrelling around the corner.

Naruto took one look at the unconscious girl at his feet, as well as at the destruction around him, before cursing in his head.

"I can explain?"