Published: 7/3/2020

Previously: Suzu and Akihiko share a brief reunion; Minato fails to face Obito alone; Suzu, with mixed feelings, finds herself pushed into retirement.

"Miss Misuzu!"

Startled, I looked up from my seat on the swing and saw none other than Gai Maito. He was standing nearby with a large grin on his face, and though he wasn't holding a bouquet of hideous orange and purple flowers this time, he did have an impressive fistful of daisies and clovers behind his back.

I blinked for a moment before finding that a small smile had begun to form on my face without my realizing. It had been a while since I'd last seen Gai. A lot had happened since then.

"Misuzu-san, it's a pleasure to see you," he greeted eagerly.

"Hello, Gai-san," I replied warmly. "It's a pleasure to see you, too."

Normally at this time of day I'd be down in the market district helping Itsuki-sensei, but today he had closed the shop to take his ailing aunt to the doctor. Apparently after his parents had died she'd taken great care of him.

"Misuzu-san, I was wondering—" Gai began. Then he hesitated a bit and I found myself growing wary. It had become obvious to most of the Academy staff that I was no longer working as a ninja—I'd stopped wearing my uniform and springy sundresses were hardly training appropriate—so of course the rumors were flying thick and fast. I had no idea what to expect from Gai, who had initially become interested in me while I'd been doing demeanor training for I&E, but if he was anywhere onboard with the others it wasn't going to be pleasant.

But Gai, as always, surprised me again. He took a deep breath, put on a face of pure determination, and held out his wildflowers.

"Misuzu-san, you are as lovely as a lily on the sweetest of summer mornings. Will you accompany me on a date?" he asked.

I had the presence of mind not to let my jaw drop, but I did spend a good long minute staring dumbfounded. From the look of him he hadn't planned on seeing me today; his proffered flowers were clearly handpicked from the nearby field and his clothes were already grubby with detritus from morning training. But here he was again, making his effort.

I paused, considering. Then I held out my hands to accept the bouquet. I took a daisy and tucked it behind my ear.

"I'd be delighted, Gai-san," I told him, and his face lit up like a firework. "Would you like to eat lunch with me?"

I held up my bento. I'd originally come to the Academy to catch my younger cousins and eat with them during their recess, but I hadn't told them I was coming so it wouldn't be a problem if I changed my plans and went elsewhere.

"Please, by all means!" Gai agreed enthusiastically. A few minutes later found us relocated to a nearby park and seated under the shade of a great cherry tree. The flowers had begun to scatter by now, but even though the canopy was more green than pink the sunlight was beautiful as it filtered through the leaves and cast bright spots on a ground carpeted in petals. Gai, who had dashed off briefly towards the market, returned in mere minutes with a store-bought lunch box and a picnic blanket.

We settled down and began our lunch. Gai listened attentively as I replied to his query after my family's health, and he sat with sincere interest as I spoke at a length about my cousins and my aunt. In turn I asked him about his recent affairs, and he proudly declared to me that he had been promoted from a volunteer taijutsu tutor into a proper Academy instructor, on roster as actual staff for a full two rotations. I was mildly shocked to hear this; in my mind Academy instructors were all to a member full-grown ninja—but that, of course, meant only that at some point of my Academy life I had conflated "shinobi" with "adult." I suppose it made sense; I had been young in the Academy as any student, and even though right now Gai was only fourteen, fourteen was quite a lot of years to, say, a six-year-old.

Upon reflection it made copious amounts of sense that Gai, who would go on to become a splendid jounin instructor, was spending the middling years of his career as an Academy teacher. It would be here that he honed both his teaching ability and his expertise in his special field, taijutsu. Furthermore, as a specific subject instructor rather than a general homeroom teacher, he still had the flexibility to schedule leave and serve as a substitute member on missions with vacant spots. So the benefits of his position were twofold: not only was he accumulating great goodwill and credibility as a true bearer of the Will of Fire, he was learning specialized skills without totally removing himself from general fieldwork. Under the new promotion criteria—which Minato had set to thoroughly reforming within his first few months as Hokage—this would be essential to promote into the office of a jounin. Skills acquisition alone would pigeonhole him into a tokujou promotion, but the experience of a General Forces mission load would round out his profile, thus allowing him to claim the more generalist jounin status.

This struck me as a very good and wonderful thing. I had no doubt at all that all students who passed under Gai's guidance would flourish both in their taijutsu and as Konoha-nin on the whole. He was an incredibly wholesome individual. And good for him: the world needed more of his earnest, unjaded positivity in it.

After lunch ended I began to weave my gifted flowers into crowns. Gai was positively glowing when I made us a pair of matching garlands, and he was completely unabashed to wear it. Some passersby whispered and pointed to see a girl wearing matching daisy wreaths with the infamous Gai Maito, but I couldn't even bring myself to care. Right now, exiled from all good regard by my brother on one side and the folk of the Academy on the other, I was glad enough to count him among my friends. Gai, I found myself thinking a touch bitterly, was clearly too good to betray me like they had.

We spent nearly thirty more minutes chatting, and Gai thanked me profusely for my time when we both finally agreed that it was time to part ways for the day. I thanked him for his, and when he suggested we go out again sometime I couldn't find it in me to refuse. If truth be told I had no kind of romantic interest in Gai, and perhaps it was cruel to string him along by agreeing to meet with him again; but Gai, I had concluded, was a wonderful person. I liked his company. He was quirky, but he was kind and he had all the charity and honor a person could want in a companion, romantic or no.

But then again, I considered as I gathered my lunchbox and began making my way home, even that might not put Gai off. And who knew? Perhaps he would win me over in time. He had enough goodness, and life was already wending its way down unexpected paths.

I stopped by Hisame-jii's stop to pick up the clothes I'd agreed to alter—working with Itsuki-sensei, while good, was not nearly enough to match a chuunin's income, so the clan seamster had been letting me help out with his sewing for a pittance or two—before arriving back at the House. Auntie was in the yard hanging laundry; I set my lunchbox and my basket of clothes down inside before hopping lightly down from the veranda to join her.

Auntie caught sight of me and smiled. We'd fallen into a very companionable routine since my suspension began and we chattered amiably as we finished the clotheslines together. When that was over, I suggested Auntie go take the time to meet with Sasa-obaa, the previous House caretaker. According to Auntie, Sasa had been an indispensable mentor in the early days, and Auntie had been wishing to visit her for a while now for advice—and with everything that was happening at the House lately, I thought guiltily, I couldn't blame her for seeking counsel.

Auntie's face brightened at my suggestion. Usually after this the kids would come home from the Academy and she'd be too busy minding them to leave the House, but since I wasn't working at Itsuki-sensei's today I could watch them in her place.

"Would you do that for me, Suzu?" Auntie asked hopefully.

"Of course," I replied. "I'll get started on dinner, too, if you're still out by then. Take your time."

"Thank you, Suzu." Auntie reached over and kissed me on the forehead. "If I'm not back in time have the others help you. I'll buy donuts from Auntie Akari on the way back."

The hour of dinner prep came and went without the return of my aunt, so I was in the kitchen peeling carrots when something very wrong pricked at my awareness. I paused in my work and listened carefully to the sounds of my cousins. They were gathered in the sitting room over their homework, but somehow their sound was incomplete, as if they were an orchestra missing a section. A moment later I realized the steady beat of Haruka's drum was missing. At first I thought she was out making mud pies again, but then I sharply turned my sense outdoors. In a moment I had abandoned the food altogether and was outside in the grass.

The first time Akihiko had tried this move he'd injured himself badly. He very rarely made mistakes, so that day had left an impression with me, and I was doubly sure to reinforce my ankle with chakra as I brought my heel down on the masked man's head. There was a loud crunch as his face slammed into his knee. The knife in his hand fell into the grass.

"What are you doing to my little sister?" I asked quietly. Haruka ran sobbing into my legs the second her captor's grip loosened. I pushed her behind me.

The stranger looked up. His nose was very badly broken and began to gush blood furiously, but all I could see was the sword on his back. In fact, that sword worried me very much; I had seen straight-bladed ninjatos like those on the backs of ANBU. Of course, ANBU weren't the only ones who carried ninjatos like that, and he wasn't in a uniform, but why would he be? He didn't need to be, and I was overwhelmed with a clear sense that this was not a man I could beat. Alone and properly equipped, maybe I'd have a solid chance, but unarmed in a sundress with Haruka hanging from the hem of my skirt in hysteric tears?

The assassin's eyes widened the moment he realized what was about to happen. With one hand still clutching his nose, he lunged, but it was too late for that.

"Ojisan!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. Then I pulled Haruka up into my arms and shot across the yard in a shunshin, heart racing. The assassin's blade missed us by mere inches.

My uncle seemed to fall out of the sky, though in reality he'd probably only jumped from the second floor. I ducked again as the masked shinobi slashed at us, whirling and sliding my foot back to prepare for a strike, but Uncle Souhei was slugging the man across the yard before I had a chance to lift my leg. Then he grabbed the assassin's extended wrist, disarmed him, and yanked with merciless force. The masked ninja let out a choking noise as his shoulder dislocated.

"Who are you?" Uncle demanded frigidly as he swung around, threw the man to the ground, and jammed his foot into the attacker's back. As he did this he jerked his chin silently towards the house, and I scrambled onto the engawa with Haruka in tow before flying into the sitting room and grabbing the rest of the children. They were stiff, silent, and they followed my urgent gestures to hide in the secret alcove behind the bookshelf with preternatural speed.

"Who are you?" Uncle repeated, shifting so the force of his weight was on his forward foot. "Identify yourself. Now."

The pinned assassin snarled something invective. Uncle's lip curled.

"I don't think you understand the situation you're in," Uncle commented with dark amusement. "But if you keep that up you will. Now—talk."

The kids gripped at my skirt as I tucked the last of them into their hiding place before slowly sliding back out to assess the situation. Then I winced, because the intruder said something else and Uncle Souhei responded by taking the man's ring finger and snapping it. There was a sharp gasp.

For a moment I was taken out of the moment and back in time to the battlefield, to the hostile stare of enemy ninja, to fierce determination and inescapable bloodshed, and abruptly, I was cold. Uncle Souhei leaned forward as he spoke again, cool in his quiet violence, and Haruka's attacker lowered his gory nose towards the grass. I stared at it with a heavy swallow, because that had been me—I'd done that—I'd done it cleanly, well, without hesitating, without error, because I knew I'd had to.

But the sound of Haruka's life beating behind me was big and bright. And as I listened to that pulse I realized it had been no crime nor sin to break that nose, not to defend life. Not to defend good things.

Then suddenly I found myself leaping across the sitting room and out toward the yard. Uncle Souhei turned almost in unison because he'd heard it too: the hidden sound of another ninja's chakra sliding into movement, aiming for his eye. I inhaled sharply as my foot contacted the second attacker's armor—without protective padding I felt every bone in my bare foot shift—but the kick was enough to knock the man off course and send him flying into the trees at the edge of the yard. I landed with a stagger.

"Suzu!" My uncle's voice came sharply and offered just enough warning for me to instinctively drop to the ground. A blade sailed over my head, alarmingly silent, and I realized with a jolt that the one hidden attacker had really been two. There was a whole trio of masked assassins converging upon our garden.

"Uncle!" I cried back, feeling suddenly terrified, as I saw Broken Nose's eyes flash. Uncle's feet immediately left the ground. He was just in time to leap over the slash of a sword meant to cut off his ankles.

"Move!" Uncle Souhei barked at me. I dove out of the way as his high jump brought him crashing down on the third assailant's head. With quick and merciless movements, Uncle rammed his elbow into the man's throat and then brought the rest of his body around for a blisteringly fast roundhouse kick, the kind from the ninth tier of Hurricane Gale that not even Akihiko had been good enough to do. The masked man dropped, katana and all, and his neck was certainly broken as he collapsed into the grass.

"Uncle!" I shrieked again as an arm seized my shoulder. I kicked at my attacker while reaching instinctively for the dagger I did not have strapped to my thigh, and I let out a frustrated yell.

Uncle Souhei was a tide of fury as he surged forward. "Unhand my daughter!" he bellowed, advancing.

And then there was yet another chime of chakra, different again from that of the party in the yard's. I let out a noise of disbelief. Were there even more?

But then Reiko Namikaze appeared with a flying kick of her own, eyes sharp and face shadowed. She had a plastic bag dangling from her wrist—Auntie Akari's donuts, no doubt—as she landed on one leg. Her heeled sandal sank firmly into the soil beneath us, and she stamped lightly to free her foot.

"Souhei?" she asked with the cutting, laser-like authority that only commanders in the field had mastered. Her husband came to a stop at her eight o' clock position, just behind and to her left.

"From the letter, no doubt," my uncle replied as he produced an ominously black scroll. It was not unlike to the kind used to store bodies, and when I saw it I found my mind flying all the way back to the day Kakashi and I had left for Earth Country for the Sakuya mission. Then I remembered: my aunt and uncle, sitting together at the table as I came down the stairs, holding a strategy meeting with that black scroll laid out between them.

"Someone's been sending death threats?" I gasped, reeling, as I ran forward. My uncle did not protest as I grabbed it from his fingers.

"Ever since Minato became Hokage," Auntie replied as she eyed the two remaining invaders critically. Broken Nose was stumbling, but still on his feet, and the one that I'd originally kicked—the one who had been aiming at Uncle with a bow—sank into a deeper stance. "Suzu, take that scroll and run to the Uchiha, please. Head to the police headquarters and have them summon the MP. If you tell them it's about the Namikaze affair, they'll know."

Evidently Bow and Broken Nose were not pleased to hear this suggestion, and as soon as she said it I found myself standing in crosshairs. Auntie and Uncle immediately moved to intercept, so I wasted no time in flipping away with the trust that my parents would cover my departure.

I sprinted across rooftops all the way across the village until I arrived in the Uchiha compound. Once in another world this place had been destroyed by the Nine-tails and rebuilt on the outskirts of the village, but the original was located in the heart of Konoha beside the sprawling Akimichi clan grounds. I dropped into the road in front of the police headquarters, gasping and feeling a horrid stabbing pain in my injured foot.

The two sentries standing outside the building started at my sudden appearance, which made me realize I'd been unconsciously cloaking the whole entire time. But when they took in my appearance and saw that I was barefoot in a gravel street, hair disheveled and pleated skirt in disarray, they seemed to conclude I was not a threat and quickly strode forward to meet me instead.

"Please," I gasped, hunching over and bracing one arm on my knee, "please send a patrol. It's the Namikaze affair." I thrust out the black scroll with my other arm.

The guard on the left took it and went inside; the man on the right squatted in front of me and asked if I was hurt. He was a young-looking man who might have been Itsuki-sensei's age, and though his countenance was more stern than kindly, I could see genuine concern in his eyes as he asked. I offered a weak smile and denied that it was anything major.

A second later there was a large commotion. The guard was too professional to startle but he did stand up and turn with swift alarm. The doors burst open and five uniformed police officers streamed into the street.

"What has happened?" the man in charge turned, saw a blond in a sea of black-haired clansfolk, and addressed me.

"Three men, they're attacking the clan foster home," I reported breathlessly. "When I left the children were all safe, but the caretakers are still fighting. My uncle—he killed one—but there are still two. The caretakers stopped them so I could leave and get help."

Even with a badly sprained foot I was still fast enough to lead the patrol back to the Namikaze compound, so I ran in front while the Uchiha followed behind me. They spoke with low voices to one another about tactics—who would go to fight the intruders, who would confirm the safety of the children and stand guard, who would secure the perimeter to prevent any more attackers from approaching—but when we arrived, well…

My cousins were all clustered by the kitchen window, staring out into the yard, while Auntie and Uncle bickered over the form of Broken Nose, who had been hogtied. Bow was dead in the grass by the trees.

"—overkill," Auntie was arguing. "We could have apprehended both of them."

"Did we really have the leisure to be taking that risk?" Uncle objected. "The children were right there!"

"And they were out here! With the two of us we could have easily—"

"This one's still alive—!"

"Only because I—!"

"Suzu-nee," Kouji said when he saw me through the other window. The Uchiha behind me were staring blankly at the scene.

"What happened?" I inquired as I examined Broken Nose's profile from afar. The cloth mask he had been using to conceal his identity had been ripped off by the House guardians, leaving his face plain for the world to see.

"Auntie said save the last one at least so they could get information," Masami reported. "She wanted the other one, too, but Uncle accidentally killed him."

There was rather more to that story, I thought as I looked over the yard. Broken Nose's forehead was pouring blood and the deceased Bow was bleeding from his right eye.

I ran up to my foster parents as the Uchiha shook themselves out of their stupor and began swarming over the scene. Their calling and shouting brought the gazes of our neighbors, but Auntie and Uncle both turned to me with unaffected gazes. Neither of them looked particularly ruffled, though some hair had come loose from Auntie's ponytail, and Uncle—

Uncle, I realized with a start, had lost his glasses. His clothes were totally untouched, but he looked strangely naked without them. He regarded my shocked gaze with a sour look.

"What? I paid him back for it," he grumbled petulantly.

"You killed him for that?" I asked, disturbed by the pettiness with which a life could be taken. The remains of my uncle's glasses were clutched in his hand; the right lens was cut clean in two.

"No. Killing him really was an accident," Uncle sighed then. "It's been a long time since I was in the field. I only meant to say—" Uncle pursed his lips before shrugging. "An eye for an eye. He went for mine, so I took his. It was the maneuver that happened after that went awry."

The Uchiha came over then and interrupted any further questions I might have had. But it was just as well, because when Uncle dropped the remains of his glasses in my hands and turned away to speak with them, I found suspicion beginning to unfurl in my mind; and as I ducked into the house, I held the unbroken lens up to my eye and found that it was made of perfectly plain glass.

A/N: A little late and a little short, but still pretty meaty, I think.

Cheers,

Eiruiel