Gonna plug my twt here: ammillefleur I'll be posting about fanfiction and what not! Please come talk to me I'm lonely :(
Asagao was threading her fingers through her hair, a stream of compliments barely breaking through the haze of sleep. Her mind was somewhere else though, cast beyond the walls of the room, already mapping out the day ahead. On the other hand, she was going through the motions of breakfast, chopsticks steadily carrying pieces of food from the plate to her mouth.
"Do you know what Hanabi is doing?" Ajisai asked from across the table. It took her a moment to realise that he was speaking in English - it had been so long since she'd heard his British accent.
She informed him of Naruto's visit. "Although, I haven't asked her what she's doin every morn." The fingers in her hair twisted slightly, her head tugged different directions every second. Asagao's fingers were trailing around her skull, and she'd already brushed it this morning. Maybe she was braiding it?
"Crown braid with the fringe out." her friend provided.
"Neat. Wanna come meet Naruto today?" Before Ajisai could reply, his caretaker slapped Oniyuri's upper arm lightly.
"Come on," she laughed, turning the conversation back to the local Japanese. "Speak the common language!" An apologetic word slipped out of her mouth, but she was too focused on Ajisai's thunderous expression to really care. She was really attempted to speak in the thickest Hakata-ben dialect - or maybe Okinawa. Kansai would be really good!
Rather than continue, Oniyuri chose to sit in silence until Asagao was done. After staring at her fringe and minutely adjusting it, she declared Oniyuri ready for the day. She quickly evacuated the room, giving a light tough to Ajisai's shoulder in encouragement.
She found Naruto in the area where the tourist area melded with Inari's Hemisphere, Konoha's centre for trade and money. He was leaning nonchalantly against a nondescript cream building, tattered playing cards endlessly shuffling in his hands. His blond hair stood out from the swarm of black-haired civilians, as did his plain white T-shirt and black cargo shorts. It almost full swing summer - which is why she didn't complain Asagao braiding her hair off her neck - so the adults and Oniyuri switched over to yukatas while the rest of the children chose thinner, simplistic, Western-style clothes.
From the distance Oniyuri was at, she could observe her new friend without fearing he would see her. Tens of people walked between them, but she could see him easily. His shirt was getting a little filthy; the pants were already a lost cause and his fingernails were as cracked and dirty as his hands. Careful Oniyuri, Hanabi whispered in her head, his situation doesn't match Konoha's. Watch closely.
Five minutes later she stepped out from the crowd, clutching two pieces of curry and tonkatsu bread. Naruto spotted her far quicker than she expected, cards vanishing into his pant's pockets immediately. Thank god she'd taken a long way around to Inari's Hemisphere food shops.
"For you," she greeted, thrusting the wrapped bread towards him. Naruto opened his mouth and she simply looked at him, channelling the slightest fire in her eyes and a slight drop of her eyebrows. The scruffy boy bit into the food gratefully.
They wondered towards Inari's Hemisphere as Naruto ate. The Hemisphere was the lifeblood of Konoha; clustered up against the West and East roads where they met at the Central Square, nearly every shop was located here. From food stalls, restaurants, grocery stalls, textiles, wood and metal work, services and more, the streetways were constantly alive with foot traffic. Towards the mountain and the Hokage's Faces - north - the stores turned to the more tourist-orientated style. From hotels to omiyage trinkets, this was where the Suiei clan would stay for three months.
On the other side of the East and West roads was were the majority of forests and the less well off civilians. The South half was split into two thanks to the South road. To the South-West was all the training grounds for ninjas, their destination for today.
Oniyuri enjoyed the hustle of Inari, the shouts and colourful displays. There was always something new for sale, and Naruto was a wonderful companion to have.
"Thanks for the bread Oniyuri!" Naruto grinned as he stretched his hands above. "They from Angry Grandpa Hiroya? He's always so grouchy when I come by! I won't have rascals at my shop! He'd scream, and then kick me out. So, for the next week, I made sure to put salt into any ice cream he ate. And let me tell you, that was every night."
She chuckled light-heartedly at his story, encouraging him on with a few words. Worrying how when she visited Hiroya was kind and even offered her a free melon bun, but wasn't that just the story of her friendship with Naruto.
After half an hour of walking, they breached the first boundary for the training grounds. The ones closest to the road were for academy students; keep the skilled ninjas hidden and allow for adults to keep an eye on their child. And nobody had a problem with Oniyuri, a civilian not even from Konoha, entering.
It didn't look any different from the other grounds they'd snuck in to play tag, but there were a few young kids clustered in groups. The two of them had found a small clearing between the great trunks of the local saplings; it was small enough that the canopy nearly covers the small bare earth. Oniyuri chose the place because of the shade and how remote it felt from the other groups.
Despite no visual beyond a few metres, between Naruto's chattering and loud laughter she could vaguely hear the chattering of nearby groups. Picnicking was a popular pastime here, and Oniyuri could see the benefits. Between the cool shade and tiring workouts, just sitting at the foot of a tree was tempting.
"Did you see that cool backflip?" Naruto thrust his hands into the air, planting his feet wide as he leaned over where she was sitting in a patch of grass. "Taijutsu is what I'm good at!"
"That was very good," she clapped, bringing up the exhibition in her mind. It was very good for his age and his less than stellar training; with some minor refinement, Naruto could almost be on par with Magu, the Georgian dance lover.
She cocked her head and recalled the rest of the demonstration. Naruto invited her out here to show her the basic academy taijutsu, and for the most part, it was pretty damning. For Naruto's teachers, not him.
"Can you do the first kata again?" Naruto moved without thinking, presumably assuming that Oniyuri was now involving herself. Well, she was certainly involving herself - maybe one day she could learn something from Naruto. Today was probably not that day.
The kata Naruto was holding was so awkward and wrong that an untrained civilian like her could spot. Thanks to several martial arts and fighting media she'd consumed in her past life, she could see that Naruto had the wrong footing.
Naruto had one foot back, balancing his weight on that foot. However, for a fighting stance, his feet were too parallel with each other. Force could easily knock him off from the side, she reasoned. It wasn't like all his enemies would attack him front on, not if they were above your average academy student.
His chest was probably too straight, facing the invisible ninja before him. Here Oniyuri was a little less certain; there were plenty of drawings of martial masters both tilting their chests slightly away from where they attacked and straight on.
Her eyes caught on Naruto's fist, his fingers clenching his thumb like security guards dogpiling a streaker. Even when she was young - the first time - she instinctively knew that your thumb should be at least out from the other fingers. Trying to protect your thumb didn't make sense and it always felt awkward to her.
Oniyuri released a tough sigh. Who the heck were these teachers? Don't they ever get peer reviewed? What happened to cross marking? Surely there would be a teacher who didn't hold this incomprehensible vendetta somewhere in the academy.
"Oniyuri?" a hand touched her shoulder, and she looked up to Naruto. She didn't really know what to say. Sorry, you're shit. It's not you though, it's your teachers. Hey, sorry I don't want to learn from taijutsu from you, the only subject you get decent grades in, but it's too flawed. Instead, she exhaled grandly through her nose.
She walks through what she noticed, and the end result already showed a much steadier stance.
"Oh thanks," her friend said but she was already thinking; identifying the problem (Naruto needed taijutsu training), the potential risks of the absence of action (cause of death in the future, 100% positive), and any possible outcomes (Who could they talk to?).
She almost ran her hand through her hair but was fooled by the crown braid. Even now Asagao was proving to be a pest.
"Look, the only thing I can think of is asking for help," She admitted, finger now winder her loose fringe around it. "But we can't ask the academy teachers because we know they're untrustworthy."
Ain't that a cinch? The only ninjas that could possibly help Naruto and they weren't even doing their job correctly. She turned away from Naruto, unable to face him, and found herself looking at a nearby group of fellow academy students, trampling through the growth with a picnic basket. She was about to bring up the idea of asking them - because hey, they might be inexperienced but at this point, they had more skills than Oniyuri and Naruto - when Naruto beat her.
"How about we go to the mission room and ask some of the ninjas there?" She stared at him, thinking it through. He shifted under her stare, head dropping and hands vanishing behind his back. "Ya know? Some of them are pretty nice to me."
She smiled. "No, that's a wonderful idea Naruto. If you think they'll help then let's go!"
They returned to the South Road, retracing their steps to the Centre Square and Inari's Hemisphere. The South Road vanished, dividing endlessly into the many streets filled with shops. The North Road didn't exist in Konoha, or rather, it did exist, but it didn't lead straight to the Hokage Faces, which was considered True North for the Village. Instead, it went North-West, leading right up to the Hokage Tower's doorstep, and thus was called Fire Shadow Way.
Along Fire Shadow Way, the shops from Inari's Hemisphere continued to line the street. She knew, from exploring the Village with Naruto, that behind these shops were regular residential areas. Between the Hokage Tower and the West Gate were the normal civilians, and before the Hokage Faces was the wealthy residential. Expensive, because you're both near the Hokage Tower and the Faces.
The shops on Fire Shadow Way liked to reflect that; on the West side was nice but decently priced shops and the Northside housed all the stupidly expensive goods. The average price for a fist-sized item there was equivalent to $100AUD.
The more overpriced it was, the less the owners liked Oniyuri and Naruto walking by, so every time they came down this way, they stuck to the Westside. Not that some of the owners on this side were any less welcoming.
"Why do they dislike you so much?" she asked, as they moved to the centre of the road to avoid a shop on the Westside with an owner so rabid he refused to allow them (Naruto) to walk in front. "It can't be your pranks. You haven't pranked the whole village so hard that it birthed a village-wide disgust of you."
"Well," Naruto stopped in the middle of the road. "To be honest, I don't know. Maybe everyone is just an idiot!" He laughed and continued on, Oniyuri not a step behind. Naruto easily shrugged it off - he was only six years old; his mind had not developed the awareness of the outside world so everything still had a two-dimensional feel to it. It hadn't occurred to him yet that other people had needs, wants and feelings, and were absolutely prone to making actions and huge decisions from them.
But Oniyuri wasn't so child-like. One of the tricks to the Suiei Ritual (plus evolution born from centuries of generations) was that their brains were wired to be developed as an adult brain as soon as the ritual was complete. Something things were still blocked, like puberty switch and sexual drive, until the time was natural. This allowed for all clan members to access their adult brain from the get-go, and without the problems that normal children deal with, i.e. infantile amnesia and as Naruto just exemplified, the limited worldview.
This was stemmed from the fact that his internal monologue hadn't connected to his sense of self and was barely developed. This would happen in a few years of course, but for now, Oniyuri was practically dealing with a beta version of Naruto. An impressionable, blank slate.
But it wasn't like she was currently walking with a robot only capable of a few commands. Naruto had a dream and the drive to accomplish it. He recognised that Oniyuri was a friend, he'd made the tiny die for her, and put effort into his studies, even if his teachers were constantly sabotaging him.
This Naruto was unpolished, but she couldn't wait to see his face in the mountain.
The mission room was an open space. Paper nins sat in rows behind a long desk, lines of typical ninjas branching from them, long enough so that the last few ninjas were out on the balcony. The two of them had parked themselves just left of the bridge that connected the mission room with a building Naruto called "boring ninja stuff." The bridge was large enough for a semi-trailer to sit comfortably on the entire length. And judging by the mass of cables, was probably capable.
"Are you sure we're allowed here?" She murmured as she got comfortable, squatting on her feet. Naruto had no qualms, planting his behind right onto the wooden beams.
"Well, nobody has said anything yet." He argued, and Oniyuri could see his point. People had seen them; Naruto's loud voice and bright hair was eye-catching, to say the least, and Oniyuri was, by far, the youngest person in the room. Mentally she was also the oldest, but nobody here knew that and she'd like it to stay that way.
"Watcha looking for?"
"First, tell me who has and hasn't been nice or mean." They needed a general idea of who to avoid and who to predominantly favour over, and seeing as this was also about teaching Naruto, they needed someone who wouldn't undermine them.
"See the one with the huge shuriken on his back, with silver hair? He's an academy teacher, and the one who gave me extra lessons for taijutsu."
Oniyuri winced. Alright, he was starting off with the hard-hitting ones. She followed his train of thought, eyes flickering from ninja to ninja. He remembered the nasty ones first and in greater detail, then the ones that were just plain annoyances. Finally, he began to pick out the kind ones finishing with "Iruka-sensei!" A chunin in charge of the jounin missions, he was a very new teacher, so Naruto hadn't had him yet, but when one of the other teachers tried to give detention to Naruto for something he didn't do, Iruka listened to Naruto's protests and found the real culprit.
"I always thought he was just a meanie. But now I guess he's just strict." He admitted, and then fell silent, waiting for Oniyuri to speak. He had already picked up that she wasn't exactly mentally three years old, she realised.
"Hmm." She simply said. Now that they had a general idea of who to avoid (the majority of genin and chunin, it seems) they needed to set up a way so they could interact with the more likeable ones. She glanced at Naruto, whose leg was bouncing furiously against the floor. And something to keep him occupied.
Ninjas were paranoid, yes? What would make them break from ignoring them and help Naruto's borderline ADHD focused?
"For now, let's play a game. I spy with my little eye, something beginning with は."
"Hitai-ate!" Naruto yelled, beaming when Oniyuri nodded. "I spy with my little eye something beginning with に!" Naruto could quickly pick up a thread, it seemed.
"Ninja."
"WRONG."
"Nin-inu."
"YES!"
Now it was Oniyuri's turn, and time to begin the real game.
"It begins with つ."
Desk, wife, walking stick, pot. No matter what Naruto guessed, she answered no. An ordinary kid of his age would no doubt give up after a few minutes, but thanks to Naruto's laser focus, and his personality, he refused to give up.
After fifteen minutes, she began to give hunts when the object had left the room. That was the only hint he allowed. After another ten minutes, Naruto began to deploy tactics that any child his age would believe would help them, namely a lot of staring and no blinking. This is what Oniyuri was aiming for. She grinned, taking in the audience before them. Before the mission room was loud, chatter echoing from every corner. Now, it was slightly dampened.
It wasn't until a silver-haired man strolled up, twenty minutes after Naruto had begun his staring. Jounin, going by the jacket. He dressed rather plainly for one of the strongest ninjas in Konoha's force. She'd say he only dressed in the standard jounin attire - black pants, dark blue sandals, long-sleeved black shirt, green jounin vest wrapping spaced across his body to tie down loose and baggy clothing - if it wasn't for the mask attached to his shirt and his fingerless gloves. And his ninja headband was tilted slightly to cover his left eye.
Yes. This was exactly who she was gunning for.
"Sir?" She said instead, tilting her head right back so she could take all of him in as he stepped closer.
"What are you doing?" He said, but his tone didn't match his words. It was said at a drawl, a slightly tired one, as if he wanted to be anywhere else but here, talking to them.
"Playin' a game of I Spy!" She replied, standing up because crabbing her neck wasn't enjoyable. But with how young she was, it didn't really matter. "The word begins with つ. Naruto's been stuck for ages and won't let me tell him what the word is."
"I will never give up!" He bellowed, right on time. She gave the room a sweep.
"Also it's no longer in the room."
" So it moves?" The ninja hmmed but made no move to check the room. "Living, then."
"Come on, sir, give it a shot! Two minds are better than one."
And so they wasted a few more minutes. With the silver man added to the mix, Naruto fed off the energy he created when the ninja guessed and Oniyuri pretended to consider before saying no, which lead him to be noisy and excitable. The mission room seemed to relax now that the silver nin had checked them out, and for the most part, the three of them were happily ignored. Occasionally a newcomer would give the older man a look, but nothing was directed to them, mere children.
The mission room dwindled, more people leaving for lunch than arriving. Some of the paper nins also closed their stations, and some new nins arrived to take over the remaining queues. Naruto, of course, was still at it. The ninja, however, was starting to get bored. There had been a while since the item had left the building, and she was sure one wasn't to come back for a while, so she spun around to view Konoha from between the balcony rails.
"Alright," the ninja finally realised a sign. "I give in. What is it?"
"NO!" Naruto howled, just as she was counting on. "I won't! DON'T tell me!"
She grinned at Naruto. "Don't worry! Hey ninja-san, if I tell you the word, promise me that you'll do anything I want. Just once! But you have to commit to it." Please please please please please please please work! She hadn't made extra care to act like a child for the past two or three hours just for the lazy ninja to throw it all away!
"Alright, whatever. I'm sure I can get you whatever lolly or pet you want."
"Promise? What's your name, nin-san?"
"Kakashi." He leaned down at Oniyuri's waving arms. She cupped her hands around his ears and whispered the answer slowly. When he stood up, he simply exhaled through his nose. "You're a piece of work." He informed her.
"Of course! Anyway, Naruto and I need a little guidance for taijutsu! We're not asking about some secret technique, just for the standard academy style, that's all. Can you help us?"
Kakashi didn't say anything for a while. Then - "I was wrong. You're just a little shit."
And then he vanished in a plume of smoke.
Sorry i didn't upload on Saturday; my beta was still reading through and I was waiting for them to finish swinging the bat at it (jks they're amazing and kind)
also can you guess the word? I'll make it appear in future chapters, with extra hints! Don't go through a Japanese dictionary at random though, that's cheating! つ is 'tsu'