Despite the hiccup, Kushina still proves to be good company.
It turns out that she's a year above Nao at the Academy, but despite the age difference she doesn't talk down to Nao at all. Instead she tells Nao all about which teachers let you get away with what and which ones to avoid at all costs. She gets fiery when taking about one particular teacher she hates, and Nao laughs as Kushina describes one instance where she accidentally tripped and spilled a bottle of ink all over said teacher. "At least it made his clothes match his heart, you know!"
Apparently clan-specific training starts in second year, and Kushina is surprised that Nao's already made seals.
"I've only made a few," Nao confesses. "They got rid of my storage seals when I got here, though. Say, do you have any chakra ink and paper? It's gettin' annoying carrying everything in my bag."
"Sorry, we're not supposed to give that stuff to first years," Kushina says, throwing a pebble into the river. They're both sitting in the middle of a bridge, legs dangling over the edge. "We learn to read and write it at home, though. I could help you with that!"
"Really?" Nao asks, tossing a pebble in from the pile between them. "I've only been learning for a year, and there's probably a lot more than I've got written in my book."
"You made successful storage scrolls after a year!?" Kushina nudges Nao with her elbow. "Maybe you'll be teaching me, you know!"
"I doubt it," Nao nudges her back. They quickly get into a shoving match that results in Kushina falling over the edge of the bridge. Instead of falling into the water, however, she lands on her feet and climbs back onto the bridge. "Oi! I thought you didn't learn that until year four!"
"You're not the only one that can learn stuff ahead of schedule!" Kushina laughs. "Come on, let's grab some dango! I'm starving."
Nao gets up and kicks the rest of the small pile of pebbles over the side, acting nonchalant. Inside she's freaking out, wondering where the hell she's going to get the money to buy dango. She has no idea if Takeo is following her right now, since she's with Kushina. Surely he has better things to do with his time.
Although... this could be a good time to test that.
"Sure," Nao answers. "I only ate half my lunch, so I'm pretty hungry too."
Kushina asks why and Nao smirks and shrugs, then calls for Kiku. The black bird swoops down from his perch on the edge of a roof after tossing one more nut onto the head of a passerby. The woman shrieks in surprise and nearly drops her bag of groceries.
"I've never seen a Kushiro bird act like him before, you know! He looks familiar, but I can't place where I've seen him before," Kushina muses, watching as Kiku flies from roof to roof to keep pace with them.
"Dunno. Found 'im with that bird guy, Kento I think his name was?"
"Kaito? The Kushiro vet?"
"Yeah, yeah, that was his name. Weird guy, he is." Kushina pointedly looks at Nao, Uroko and Kiku, then back at Nao. Nao ignores her. "Hey, bet I can beat ya to the dango stand," Nao says, spotting said stand at the end of the busy street.
Kushina stares at her incredulously. "Me, lose to a baby like you? Keep dreaming!"
"I'll race you then, loser's got to pay for the other's dango!"
Kushina grins and nods. "Alright, on three. One… Two… " Kushina then starts running, yelling behind her "three!"
Nao groans playfully, but isn't really annoyed. Waiting a few seconds so Kushina can get a slight head start, she then starts running, speeding up when she's next to a man talking to a street vendor.
Knocking into his side, she exclaims "sorry!" as she passes, slipping his wallet from his back pocket into hers. The man just grumbles and shakes his head, none the wiser. She's still got it.
By the time Nao reaches the dango stand Kushina is already there looking supremely smug. "What took you so long? Trip over your own feet?"
"Something like that," Nao replies.
"Come on, then," Kushina says. "You owe me some dango! I'm ordering double."
Nao motions for Kushina to go first, and when she's occupied with the man running the stall she looks around to make sure no one is looking their way. Taking out the wallet, she removes a wad of paper bills and drops the wallet to the ground, kicking it a small distance away.
"What do you want?" Kushina asks, drawing Nao's attention.
Splitting the wad of bills in half, Nao slams one handful on the counter and stuffs the rest into her pocket. "Whatever she ordered, plus as much red bean paste dango this covers, yeah?"
The stall owner and Kushina both look delighted.
—
Tossing the last skewer onto the paper plate, Nao lets out a loud burp.
"I've never been this high up, you know!" Kushina says, legs dangling off the tall roof.
"You've lived here ya whole life an' never climbed a building before?" Nao asks, head resting on her arms and staring up at the darkening sky. Kiku is off having a fly somewhere and Uroko is in his own food coma on her chest. "And here I was thinking you were fun."
"I am fun!" Kushina declares, red hair swaying in the breeze. "I'm just fun on the ground!"
"Or on the water, huh?"
Kushina grins sheepishly, scratching her cheek. "Can you keep a secret?"
"Who can't I tell? The bird that throws nuts at people or the lizard that's so lazy he doesn't do much more than nap all day?"
Kushina ignores the sarcasm. "I only learned to water walk so people would stop making fun of me for not being able to swim," she confesses.
"Wait, you live on an island and you can't swim?"
"I know!" Kushina throws her hands up. "I know! Everyone else can, but no matter what I do I just sink like a rock! It's like I'm cursed."
"Eh," Nao shrugs. "I can't swim either. Hadn't even seen a puddle big enough to swim in 'til over a year ago."
"What, not even a lake?"
"Nope," Nao replies. "There was a river not too far from my village, but I didn't find that until I left."
"Where are you from, anyway?" Kushina asks. "You sound as if all the foreign merchant's accents were put in a barrel and floated down a waterfall."
Nao sniggers at the mental image. "Land of Lightning, but I've been everywhere, yanno? Guess I picked up some stuff by accident."
Kushina bolts upright, staring at Nao in awe. "Everywhere? You mean it?"
"Sure," Nao answers. "Probably couldn't point to somewhere on a map I haven't been, at this point. Though, now that I think about it, we never did get around to seeing the huge forests of the Land of Fire…"
"Thats so cool!" Kushina exclaims, nearly slipping down the roof in her excitement. "I've always wanted to see the Land of Frost! Snow sounds so cool!"
"It's weird. Crunchy and soft and wet but not— I think I'd like it in small amounts, but it made me wear shoes! Jus' for that I hope the lot of it gets shoved in a volcano." Kushina laughs at that, a loud one with snorts that Nao can't help but laugh along with.
They laugh for so long that Kiku swoops down to land on Nao's knee, peering up at her in something almost approaching worry. Opening his beak wide, he lets out several short, loud chirps that cause both girls to wince.
"Geez, okay Kiku, I get it. I'm goin' home! No need to make our ears bleed." Nao shoos the bird off her knee and gets up slowly, feeling lethargic after filling up on dango.
"I should go, too," Kushina says. "I'll grab a copy of my fuunijutsu study guide to give you next time. Lord knows my family has a million of the things."
Nao and Kushina walk together until the road splits and Kushina goes right while Nao goes left. She only gets so far as the end of the street until she gets the feeling of someone behind her, and she doesn't have to look to know who it is.
"Finally decided to show up, huh?" Nao asks Takeo.
"I doubt you wanted me showing up in the middle of your play date," Takeo answers smoothly, nodding and flashing a flirty smile at a lady that looks at them for just a second too long.
Nao snorts. "Like you'd care about privacy."
"Just like you'd care about the law?"
Side-eyeing him, Nao keeps her face carefully blank. "I have no idea what you're talkin' about. I'm a perfectly law abiding citizen."
This time it's Takeo's turn to scoff. "I don't know what kind of village you think you're in, but stealing is definitely not on the law books."
Kiku squawks as if in agreement, and Nao shoots the bird a glare. "Again, I have no idea what you're on about."
"So if I asked…" Takeo takes a wallet out of his pocket and opens it to squint at the ID inside. "Michi Shiro where his wallet is, he'll be able to tell me?"
"Where some old guy's wallet is ain't no concern o' mine," Nao shrugs. "You coulda stolen that to frame me, for all I know."
"And there's no illegally procured cash in your pocket? And that dango you bought was purchased with money you arrived here with?"
"Kushina was awfully generous to buy it for us, wasn't she?"
Rolling his eyes, Takeo waves the wallet in her face. "You need to return this, along with the stolen cash. I've been patient, accepting that your wild nature is probably due to your troubled upbringing, but stealing isn't on—"
"Troubled upbringing? The hell is that supposed to mean?"
"—And you're going to return it, and offer to work for Mr. Shiro to pay off what you owe him."
"Now jus' wait here!" Nao exclaims. "Work for 'im? That's some shady shit right there!"
She thought the trend of working for free would have stopped when she and Eizo stopped traveling, but apparently not.
"Ah, here we are." Takeo comes to a stop, and looking around, Nao doesn't recognise any of the houses around them. She hadn't even realised that Takeo was leading them somewhere. Shoving the wallet into her hands, Takeo gently pushes Nao towards a particularly large looking house. "Go on, a little birdie told me he's home."
Deflating, Nao sighs and resigns herself to her fate. Marching up the stone path, she takes in the perfectly pruned flowerbeds and expensive looking ornaments, privately thinking that the owner could do without a little of his cash.
Knocking on the door, Nao waits, then knocks again. When after five rounds of knocking no one answers, she goes to turn around and give up when the door creaks open a crack.
"Who's there?" A gruff voice asks, a glaring eye peeking through the gap.
"I found ya wallet," Nao says, waving it in front of the gap in the door.
The eye squints, then the door opens the rest of the way revealing a tall man with an unpleasant face that looks like it was hit with a wooden board when he was a baby. "Found it, did you?"
Aware of Takeo staring at the back of her head, Nao rolls her eyes. "Yeah. Found it in your pocket."
The man snatches the wallet from her hand and opens it to check that everything is still inside. "Half my money is gone."
"Well, that's generally what happens when ya get your wallet stolen, isn't it? You should really keep a better eye on it." Takeo coughs loud enough for Nao to hear, and she sags. "I'm supposed to offer to work for ya to pay it off, though."
The man glares at her, then a grin slides onto his face like oil. "I know just the job. You come here tomorrow morning and I'll give you a job, alright." More than a little creeped out, Nao gives him a mock salute and leaves, speed walking back down the stone path.
"Said to go back tomorrow," she tells Takeo. "Dunno what I'm supposed to do about school."
Takeo sends her a weird look. "It's Saturday tomorrow, Nao."
"And?"
"You get Saturday and Sunday off school."
"Oh." Well, at least there's that.
—
As punishment for stealing — because apparently working for an asshole isn't punishment enough — Takeo buys himself dinner on the way and doesn't let Nao have any of it. Jokes on him, because Nao's so full from the dango that she's not hungry. She does worry about Kiku, but the bird seems to be happy enough hunting his own food and after much prodding Takeo reluctantly gives Uroko some of his chicken.
She expects some kind of lecture on the way back to Takeo's house, but he stays silent, apparently done with his attempt at discipline.
The sun is setting by the time they get to the beach, which is probably why she doesn't notice the person on the roof straight away.
It's Kiku that alerts her to their presence, his loud squawking causing her to look up in order to tell him to shut up. The sun is behind the figure, casting a deep shadow across them, so she can't make out any features. They're crouched low, and though she can't see their face she knows they're looking straight at her.
Takeo tenses next to her and Nao squints, because the outline looks so familiar…
Realisation hits her like an ox cart, and Nao starts sprinting towards the house.
"Hey— Nao, get back here!" Takeo calls, but she ignores him. The sand causes enough resistance that she's slowed down significantly, but she continues running full pelt, terrified that the person on the roof will leave before she gets there.
She's running so fast that she nearly trips over the front steps, and she looks frantically for a way up onto the roof. Just as she's about to throw caution to the wind and try climb up the porch struts she spots the flutter of a coat disappearing around the side of the house. Nao doesn't think twice before following.
Not slowing down even as she sees the figure motionless in front of her, she launches herself at Eizo.
"Bastard!" she screams, her voice muffled because her face is buried in his jacket, her arms wrapped around his middle. "You're a fuckin' bastard, how dare you!"
Eizo, the bastard, smiles down at her and tousles her hair. "Not happy to see me?"
"I've never been more disappointed to see your ugly mug in my life!" Nao says, punching him in the arm. "You— you just leave and come back an, what? Expect me to be happy? I haven't seen you in days! I could have been dead in a ditch for all you knew!"
"I didn't leave, I was taken somewhere else, remember? I told you it would happen."
"Oh screw you," Nao scowls. "I've been stuck with some stuck up prissy boy while you were off doing god knows what. What were you doing, anyway?"
"Talking, mostly," Takeo waves her off.
"Oh yeah? About what?" Nao squints at him.
"Grown up stuff, mostly."
"I swear to god—"
"Do you really want to spend our few minutes together arguing?"
Face falling, Nao stares at him. His smile is strained, and there are deep bags under his eyes. Had he always been that pale? "You're not staying?" Nao asks, her voice sounding hollow even to her. That had never been the plan, but she'd hoped…
"I would if I could, you know that."
"Why bother coming at all, then?" Nao asks, her voice sounding small instead of angry like she'd intended.
Eizo glances around as if looking for eavesdroppers, and when he speaks his voice is so low that she can barely hear it. "I wasn't going to tell you, but I think you need to know. You're just a kid, but… so was I."
"What are you talking about?" Nao snaps. "Stop speaking in riddles."
"There have been signs," Eizo continues. "I don't think most people have noticed, or maybe they have and they're ignoring it, I don't know. But it's undeniable, now. And they all but confirmed it, when I was… talking. There's a reason I got you in shinobi school, instead of a civilian one. I hope to never make you use that schooling, but you can never be too careful—"
"Spit it out!" Nao says, his rambling putting her on edge. She's never heard him ramble so much before.
"The major countries are gearing up for war again, Nao."
A second passes. Then another.
"That's not funny." Nao searches his face desperately for any sign of this all being a joke, but his expression is deadly serious. "You can't just say something like that, I mean, what does that even mean? What signs? Is— is that why we're here? Because some douchebags are having a fight? I don't get it. Why would that affect us?"
"I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what? For what?! We were fine, and now you want me to learn to fight? Is that it? You want me in some kind of... of war?"
"Of course not—"
"Then why are we here? We were fine- stop looking at me like that!"
Eizo has always been an unmovable pillar, something she can rely on no matter what. She used to love the slips in his facade, when she'd see him smiling in the morning before he knew she was awake or give her a proud puff of his chest after a particularly gruelling day of work.
Now…. Now she'd do anything if it meant he'd stop looking so utterly defeated.
"No one will track us here, and no shinobi from outside the village will bother you again. You'll be safe here, I promise."
"But will you?" Nao asks, voice barely louder than a whisper.
Eizo doesn't answer her, but that's all the answer she needs.
There's a cough from behind them, and Nao's never hated Takeo more than she does in that moment. It's obvious that Eizo has more he wants to say, and Nao wants nothing more than to sit down and tell him all about everything that's happened in the last few days, about all the new people she's met and about the school and Chairo and Kushina and the annoying desk guy and the prank she's in the middle of. All she wants is for him to tell her she's being childish and help her fix the stupid fence of some rich asshole.
Instead he glances behind her and sets his jaw. Kneeling in front of her, Eizo takes something out of his pocket and presses it into her hands. Looking down, she unfolds the leather to find the wooden carving he's been working on since she met him along with the carving knife he'd used to make it.
The wooden carving is a dog. Sitting on its haunches with its nose proudly in the air and swirling intricate markings covering its fur. Its large ears are pointed forward in attention, and Nao takes a moment to recognise where she'd seen it before. It's the spitting image of the large dog that had protected her and Hina way back when, right down to the scar running down its face.
Looking up at Eizo in puzzlement, her heart lurches when she finds him smiling softly.
"I'm proud of you, Nao. Never forget that. And never, ever let anyone make you ashamed of who you are."
And then he's gone.