ii.
Chapter Seventeen: Friend (Family)
"Maybe it wasn't about the ending, maybe it was about the story."
"Here's to the nights that turned into morning with the friends that turned into family."
As they traveled, the trio got more than one odd look. Nanami ignored them, paying more attention to the breeze in her hair, and the sun on her skin. Even the colors of the world around her felt new and exhilarating.
Loud Blood was completely oblivious.
Beating Hearts didn't give a shit.
It worked out for everyone.
It didn't become a problem until they crossed paths with the last person she'd ever thought she'd meet in this life. They were somewhere east of River, she knew. But she hadn't really kept track of where exactly. The area they were in now was heavily forested, the kind of area she would have easily called home two years ago.
She guessed they were somewhere near Fire Country, given the presented clues. The trees, the humidity, the leaf-nin, you know. The obvious stuff.
Loud Blood and Beating Hearts had left her at the edge of a large town, they said they wouldn't be gone long and there wasn't really a cause for concern at the time.
She was excellent at hiding her chakra, and she hadn't really wanted to be around that many humans anyways. She could smell the filth from the trees where she waited, she could only imagine actually walking around in there would be like trudging through a sewer. Gross.
She flitted from branch to branch for a while, circling around some before looping back to her waiting spot. She was enjoying her time outside. It was a pleasant warm kind of day, with big chunky clouds and a nice cool breeze. Nanami touched the birds with gentle strokes of chakra, speaking to them in ways she hadn't for two years. She wished there were some deer around but it was too close to humanity for them to come anywhere near here.
And then she'd come back to her tree to find an unlikely pair had posted up at its roots.
It was her own fault really, too distracted with the outside and all the chakra signatures and ambient swirls and she had missed the blazing ball of supernova-like chakra (seriously, how did she manage to miss that?)
She chewed her lip, her own chakra signature fluttering like a birds as she debated the merits of introducing herself.
It couldn't hurt anything right? She would be lying if she said she wasn't curious, he probably wouldn't even remember her later anyways.
"Huum." She made a small noise as she settled on a decision.
And then she dropped from the boughs onto the ground, landing on all fours with the soft grace she'd learned from fighting with Hidan and her time spent living in the wild.
The blond boy and silver haired man startled; staring at her with wide, bright blue and black eyes respectively.
"Uh-" Naruto said intelligently. Jiraiya opened his mouth like a fish and then closed it, making an aborted gesture towards his weapon pouch but stopping once he realized it was only a little girl. (she assumed.)
Nanami sat back on her haunches, tilting her head with the ring of a bell and fluttering feathers as she considered the boy in front of her. He looked young. Maybe fourteen. He wore his orange and black jumper, but still had that overly eager shine to his eyes that she associated with his twelve year old self. (She thought- she wasn't sure anymore. She hadn't really thought about anything from the books other than the Akatsuki in a long time.)
"Hello." She greeted softly. "I like you hair." She added, eyeing the soft yellow spikes. She liked the color. It reminded her of summer.
"Uh, thanks!" Well, he recovered quickly, if the giant grin was anything to go by. He brought his knees up to rest his arms there in a casual gesture. She thought it seemed pretty genuine.
"You're pretty cute too! Do you live around here?" The boy took a wild look around at the surrounding trees as if a magic house might appear.
"Yes, where did you come from little bird?" The sannin asked her, shifting as if he might stand. Nanami absently noted that his shoes were those weird wooden things. That couldn't be comfortable could it?
"Nanami was in the trees." She told him sagely with a toothy grin. His eyes briefly flickered up before landing back on her. His frown said, 'well, yes. I already knew that.'
Nanami bit her lip, eyes sliding back to Naruto who looked like he was barely managing to contain a large amount of words.
"I'm Nanami." She told him, and his smile was like the sun.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I'm going to be the next Hokage- believe it!" He shouted loud enough to startle her. She flinched back a little, not used to anyone shouting except for Loud Blood- she was only used to the sound of his voice.
"What's a Hokage?" She asked for fun, because well- why not. Naruto gaped at her. Jiraiya relaxed a little more but looked very confused in the next moment.
"Hokage is the leader of my village! He's the strongest shinobi and everyone looks up to him and acknowledges him er- or her!" He flipped from excited, to serious, and then added the last part hastily as if afraid he might offend her.
Nanami liked this boy who was a decent amount older than her- he was a never ending ball of emotions.
"Oh." She told him eyes wide. "You must be a very strong shinobi then." and it came out a little more confident than she meant it to, because she knew. She knew the boy sitting before her would one day be a demigod.
Jiraiya gave her a cheeky grin, "He's on his way." and she nodded and returned his grin because she believed him.
Naruto had stars in his eyes when he looked at the white haired man.
Nanami paused on her next question, she was curious, and she did want to ask… she couldn't ever ask Raven Eyes. She fidgeted with her fingertips for a moment, debating. She didn't want to outright ask, but maybe she could nudge the conversation in the right direction?
"You must have a lot of friends," she started, and he brightened even more if that was possible.
"I have a ton of friends back home! There's Konohamaru and all of the rookie nine and Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei and-" he stopped himself, grinding to a sudden halt in the middle of speaking so quickly had she of been a few years younger she wouldn't of been able to follow it. His hands fluttered in the air between them while he spoke, making wild gestures in his excitement. His personality was just as bright as his orange clothing she noted.
His blue eyes darked when he stopped. His posture slumped slightly, and Nanami regretted asking then, because she hadn't meant to hurt his feelings; she was sure his wayward teammate was a sore subject, even if that's what she'd been pining for.
She let go of her curiosity about Sasuke at the sight of the boy before her, she wasn't so curious that she'd hurt someone's feelings over it. This wasn't an interrogation after all.
She tilted her head, her bell giving a soft ring in response.
"Nanami is good friends with Raven Eyes." She offered in return a chance to change the subject. (well, good friends might be a stretch, but they didn't need to know that.) Naruto's head tilted like a dog's mirroring the way hers had a moment before. Jiraiya's narrowed his eyes on her, and she wasn't sure why because it had seemed a pretty vague thing to say to her.
"Who is Raven Eyes?" Naruto asked with a genuine sounding note of perplexity.
Nanami tittered, eyes sliding to look into the canopy in an attempt to hide the humor in her eyes. She had to admit, it was kind of funny talking about Itachi with this boy.
"Raven Eyes is a man." She whispered to him conspiratorially, like it was a big secret. Naruto grinned in response, seemingly eager to play her game.
"What kind of man?" His whispered back eyes shining, and she thought he was very nice to look at.
"He's a good man. He had a family once. He still loves them very much. Nanami likes to think sometimes she is family too." (and she hadn't realized it was true until she'd said it aloud, but she promised herself this would forever be her secret.) Naruto adopted a far away look for a moment. Jiraiya froze, hand fluttering once again towards a weapons pouch, he looked like he was debating with himself over something. Nanami eyed him warily. What kind of conclusions was he drawing from her? Did she seem that suspicious? She wasn't trying to hurt anyone...
"Yea, family would be nice." Naruto said is a whimsical kind of way. Nanami smiled softly at him, because she got it. She had to make her own in this world, she had to earn it, work for it. (she still was.) She didn't miss the flash of hurt and regret in the sannin's eyes as he looked at the boy.
"Nanami was alone before." She told him, and the empathy on his face was very touching. "But now Nanami has many brothers, we live in the clouds together."
He grinned at her then, emotions swinging like a pendulum, bright and joyful feeling happy for her even though he had no family of his own. He had teammates though, and his teachers, she supposed that was a very similar sort of thing to what she had.
He laughed, a bright happy sound that she wasn't used to hearing, usually the laughing around her had a crazy edge, or a blood-lusty quality.
"The clouds huh? Thats cute little sis."
"Who is Raven Eyes." The Sage interjected repeating Naruto's earlier question, but when he said it there was a note of steel to it. She thought he must be a very intelligent man to pick something out of so little information.
Nanami tittered again, because she was a little bit crazy, and she liked this game. Ah, but it appeared her time here was short.
She stood then, coming up off her hands to stand straight like the human she supposedly was. She felt safe knowing they were almost here.
"Nanami is sorry," She had time to say down at the cross legged Naruto, completely ignoring the white haired man. "I hope you and your friends well, maybe Nanami could come and visit once you are a Ho-ka-ge." She said the word slowly, tasting it for the first time on her lips. She felt a little giddy saying it.
Naruto's beamed at her like a one hundred watt bulb, looking every bit like the supernova that his chakra felt like.
"Oi! Seriously little bitch, we leave you for like- a fucking hour-"
"Hidan." Kakuzu told him to shut up without actually saying it as the two men appeared above them on a high branch, their beautiful cloaks fluttering in the breeze.
Naruto was standing in a flash, both him and Jiraiya pushing her smaller body behind them.
Nanami giggled at their strange gesture of kindness.
"Akatsuki! You can't have Naruto!" The sage hissed and spat vehemently, his killing intent began to leak, making her skin crawl in an uncomfortable sensation.
Hidan scoffed, and Kakuzu's gaze rested briefly on Jiraiya before sliding over to the blond in question. "We aren't here for him today." He deep voice broke the air between them.
Naruto's blue eyes flashed back to look at her, and Jiraiya slid further in front of her in response to her Red Cloud's words.
"It's okay little sis, we'll protect you- believe it!" He reassured with confidence.
And then Nanami's giggles became outright laughter. Because this situation was hilarious.
Hidan joined her, because he was always up for a bit of crazy cackling. Naruto and Jiraiya gave her startled, unsure looks.
"C'mon little bitch, quit screwing around." Hidan called down to her.
"Nanami." Kakuzu added, his patience thin. "It's time to go home." (and every inch of her loved the way he said that. Every last inch.)
She crouched just as Naruto was turning towards her, (Jiraiya wasn't dumb enough to put his back to S-class missing-nin) and pushed off with hands and feet full of chakra, curving around the side of the leaf-nin and leaping to a lower branch like a jungle cat, and then another higher one before settling at Hidan's side. His scythe clinked as he shifted it on his shoulder to look down at her. She smiled up at him, and he gave her his usual blood thirsty maniac grin in response.
"It was nice meeting you Naruto, be safe." She called down as Hidan reached for her with a free arm to curl around her middle, lifting her like a sack of rice.
"The nine-tails? Seriously?" He asked her, she saw Beating Hearts green eyes flash down at her too.
She gave an awkward shrug from where she hung at his hip. "Naruto is nice."
Said boy made a choking noise, looking like he was ready to climb up the tree by his fingernails and bring her back down. Jiraiya held him in place with a hand on the boys shoulder and a serious expression.
"Whatever you say brat."
And they were gone just as quickly as they'd come, leaving two very confused Konoha shinobi in their wake.