Heeey, so... it's been a while huh? Aaaanyways, moving on.
To the lovely anon that said my timeline is all fucked: I assure you, it's not, I know. I'm certain of it. I stressed over it for almost a whole month before even starting to publish this story so I would know. Also thank you for the words 'freshly minted chum', I will cherish them and keep them in my heart forever. It was probably an autocorrect thing but it still made me laugh so kudos to you.
Also, there was supposed to be some hindsight about Shikaku's train of thought on the matter of the test and Reishi's loyalty, but sadly I ended up not being able to fit it into the chapter :/
The lights of the apartment are off and Reishi stands around for a while, slightly put off. It's not like she expected him to be awake at this hour, but she had been harbouring some hope that he would be watching TV until late today.
Her hand hovers over the window, suddenly unsure. It's true that Obito is her best friend (though she still hesitates to call him that, given that he is only nine and she might be as old as time itself. Her mind is still a little foggy on the matter), but they had never woken each other up in the middle of the night. Was this over-stepping their boundaries?
And what would she do if he opened the window and let her in? Vent to him? She can't just dump her anger on a child. Even if she did, what would it solve?
"If I didn't knew any better, I would think that you're a particularly ugly statue." Bear's voice comes from somewhere behind her, startling her. She takes a deep breath, hoping he didn't realize her reaction. She's not in the mood for his teasing.
"Fuck off, Bear," she says without turning to look at him, though it lacks any heat, instead sounding tired.
"Wow, that bad huh? Did you not pass the test or what?" It's this comment that finally earns him her full attention; Reishi turns around to glare at him, she is silent but he can see the cogs whirring inside. "Usually everyone is aware of the day the jōnin test their genin teams, not everyone knows who's in what team, but it does make for a lot of gossiping," he answers her silent question.
Reishi snorts, her face contorted in anger looks terribly wrong in a small child. "So tomorrow all the village is going to know, great. Just wonderful."
"Know what?"
She stares at Bear, craning her neck to look up at his perch on a nearby lamppost, she hates how the light prevents her from seeing more than his silhouette. Knowing him, he probably did it on purpose. Drama queen.
If he doesn't know yet, she decides, he will hear it tomorrow from all the gossip going around. Everyone is probably very interested in her even after a year of 'child prodigy' and all that bullshit, so her performance in the test will probably spread like wildfire. She tries not to think about how will Fugaku and Mikoto react.
"Forget it," she says after a while. "I'm going to sleep."
She jumps down from the small balcony and starts walking towards Fugaku's house – not 'home', never hers, she bitterly reminds herself. It had been so easy to forget after all this time staying there – and hears the soft noise Bear makes when he lands beside her and starts walking by her side. If she hadn't been listening for it she wouldn't have heard a thing.
"So, uh," he says awkwardly. It occurs to her that if he had looked for her tonight right after her test it's because he wants something. He had never sought her out on purpose outside his shift before. She stops walking and looks up at him, frowning. "Here," he says while tossing a package of some sort in her direction; he seems to have decided against giving an explanation.
The package is almost as long as her arm – which, true, isn't very long on account on her being seven –, thin and wrapped like a present in a silver paper, it even has an orange bow in one of it's extremes.
She looks back at Bear, rising an eyebrow. He huffs, a sound between amused and exasperated. "Just open it already, it's not a bomb okay?"
"What's the occasion?" she asks, hoping that she sounds nonchalant despite the burning curiosity she is feeling. She starts tearing the silver paper carefully.
"What do you mean 'what's the occasion'? You passed your test, right?" Reishi shrugs. Despite everything, she guesses she did pass the test. "You're a full-fledged ninja now, people celebrate that shit!" he continues.
"Awwwww," she coos teasingly, "you caaare."
"Shut up and finish unwrapping, who takes this long tearing paper anyways?"
The last of the silver wrapping comes off and she distractingly sticks the orange bow to Bear's ANBU uniform while inspecting the wooden box inside. He snorts but otherwise makes no attempt at getting rid of the ridiculous thing, rather than that, he picks it and sticks it to the upper side of his mask.
He watches as Reishi finally opens the box and stops walking, eyes fixed on what's inside. She makes no discerning expression to let him know if she likes it or not, so he waits patiently for her to examine her present.
Inside the box sits a sheathed sword of some kind; she can't tell if it's a tantō or a wakizashi, it seems to have been crafted with Reishi's stature in mind rather than just bought in a store. The sheath and handle are both black, though she can see the Ikotsu clan crest, metallic purple against iron, on the pommel. There is no guard to be seen, and the blade inside seems to be straight rather than curved.
She picks it up carefully, handing the box to Bear so she can twirl it in her hands with ease. She draws the blade out, watching it glint with awe. It's a beautiful thing, perfectly straight with a lone edge. The point, unlike most blades she has seen up until now, isn't thinner than the rest of the blade. If it wasn't for the obviously sharpened edge on the point, it would look like the blade of a normal katana had been cut diagonally clean halfway.
It's as if someone took all the soft curves from a katana and somehow this reminds Reishi of herself, of how the process of coming back from death left her with only sharpness and cutting, jagged edges.
It's not uncommon for shinobi to order personalized weapons, so it might not be as expensive as it was in her past life, but it is a thoughtful present nonetheless. She doesn't know what she did to earn it, surely passing a stupid test isn't worth it.
"Do you like it?" Bear asks in the silence that follows.
She opens her mouth and closes it, like a fish trying to breathe out of the water. What exactly is she supposed to say? She still barely understands the reason behind this gift; she had come to consider him a close acquaintance, true, but the thought that he might consider her a friend in turn never crossed her mind until now.
She looks up at him, unconsciously glaring and making him flinch.
This asshole. This absolute idiot.
Not only did he give her a thoughtful, useful and beautiful gift, oh no, on top of that and as cheesy as it sounds, he gave her a friend.
And the best part is that he has no idea, does he?
It must be so nice and simple to just- decide that somebody is important to you. Just like that. Without worrying that the other person is secretly just putting up with you for ulterior motives, not needing the certainty and reassurance of hearing it out loud, constantly wondering when will they leave.
This amazing, wonderful, marvellous imbecile.
How does one put all this into words? The feeling of suddenly discovering a friend you didn't knew you had.
"You are an idiot," she states, and immediately resists the urge to kick herself. Of course that's the first thing that comes tumbling out of her mouth. Of course.
Bear lets out a hearty laugh. "I'm glad you like it. After all that silence I thought I broke you."
She lets out a shaky breath, glad that he knows her well enough to not be offended by her utter inability to express feelings out loud. "Thanks," she mutters.
Bear claps her in the shoulder with his massive hand, almost making her lose her balance. "So how about I teach you a few things, hmm?"
"What, right now?" It's true that probably nobody is expecting her until tomorrow morning, and that now that she feels the weight of her new weapon in her hand she can't wait to learn how to use it. They never taught more than the basics at the academy and the Uchiha style she has been learning with Fugaku doesn't include swords or anything simmilar (even though there must be a special Uchiha kenjutsu or something like that).
"Well?"
"Fuck it, let's go," she says, making him laugh.
They start walking towards the training grounds, and Reishi lets him lead the way, feeling way happier. She wonders when will Bear ask her about the test and her obvious bad humour from before; he's not one to let things slide so he's probably waiting to ask while sparring, if only to tip her off balance or distract her.
They have been walking for a while when the question assaults her: why now?
"Hey, Bear."
"What?"
"How did you know that I had finished the test? You found me awfully fast, suspiciously fast, some would say..." She stops walking and crosses her arms when he turns to her. They have some sort of staring match that he loses despite wearing a mask, and his shoulders slump in defeat.
"Your jōnin-sensei might or might not be aware of us being close and he also might or might not have suggested that I go find you right away instead of waiting until tomorrow to congratulate you when we crossed paths earlier tonight," he says in one breath. "I think he was worried about whatever it is that riled you up and wanted me to take care of it, but I'm not sure. I just found him in the Hokage tower with another three Nara, and he said that it might be a good idea to go looking for you."
"And you just did what he told you without asking anything else? How does he know about you anyways?"
"The fuck if I know. He's a Nara, alright? They're creepy like that. They always know shit."
Being Shikaku the person involved, she doubts that it was a mere coincidence that he found Bear, as ridiculous as him having planned it is. She has no time to ponder this though, because as soon as they arrive at the training ground, Bear reveals his true self as an evil sadistic teacher.
Shikaku knows that somehow he has fucked up. He doesn't know well how or why, because he followed logic and logic hardly goes wrong, if never at all. All he knows is that he did. He must have, because nobody gets that angry when all is well and good, and oh boy was his new student angry.
Had the girl known how, she would have been spilling killing intent all over the place.
He sighs, what a drag.
It's fortunate that Chōza and Inoichi insisted in going to the bar after his test was finally over – they had taken care of their own tests in the morning but were eager to chat about it – because they made for very good sound boards, not to mention that it is common knowledge that Inoichi's clan has a certain expertise in psychology. They will probably know what the hell went wrong, or at the very least help him figure it out.
It won't do to have one of your students hate you from the very first day, those things tend to be counterproductive.
The bar, of course, belongs to the Akimichi (why would they go to one that doesn't when the future head of the clan is going to be with them?) and it's full to the brim. It's one of the most popular places in Konoha, tied with other one called the temple or the shrine or whatnot, he doesn't know, he has never been there.
His friends are waiting for him already, sitting on a more private area where they can talk without being heard. It's one of the perks of coming here with the 'owner', Shikaku guesses. Shinobi can be very nosy sometimes.
"Hey."
They both turn to look at him when he plops down on the unoccupied chair and Chōza greets him by patting Shikaku's shoulder. Which wouldn't hurt if his hands weren't as big as they are. Love hurts sometimes.
"Glad you could join us, we were starting to think that your new students had killed you," Inoichi says, and Shikaku can't help but grimace at that.
"Yeah well, one of them almost did."
"What? What happened? I thought your test didn't involve fighting?" asks Chōza, sounding alarmed.
Inoichi is frowning, probably already trying to guess what happened by reading his face. "Did they get angry at not passing?"
"Nah, they all passed without a hitch. The girl got angry at the test itself, I think. Or something. I'm still not sure what was the problem. She is aware of her status and hasn't shown any hostility towards the ANBU following her so I don't think it's related to that," he muses, talking to himself.
"Okay, woah, wait a second. I think," Chōza looks between Shikaku and Inoichi, hoping that the Yamanaka is also not understanding a thing. "I think we're going to need you to start from the beginning."
Inoichi nods his agreement and Shikaku takes a deep breath, thinking about the best way to start. "Alright, so: my students. The boys are normal but the girl is one of those geniuses, you know, like the Hatake kid, but different."
"Different," echoes Inoichi, prompting him to go on.
"Yeah. She is... less than what I thought but also more," at his friend's blank faces, Shikaku tries to put his thoughts into order. He always has a hard time slowing his train of thought to explain it to everyone else, it's much easier if people just accepts his conclusions. Inoichi and Chōza are always very patient though, he appreciates that. "Physically speaking she isn't very special, she is better than the average on account of the strict training she has been undergoing with the Uchiha-"
"Oh, that girl!" interrupts Chōza. "Yeah I remember hearing about her last year. Sorry, go on, I just couldn't put a face together with her, that's all."
"The thing is, that I expected her to be some sort of pocket sized perfect soldier or something, but she has nowhere near the physical abilities that the other so-called child prodigies usually have. And well, the thing that's relevant to what happened, and you can't tell a soul about this," he debates whether or not to tell them, but to be honest, the Hokage must know by now that to tell one of them something is to tell the three. "Is that she apparently has been on the list of risk of missing nin since she was five, which is one of the reasons she was assigned someone so important as a tutor."
"I always wondered why would they put a kid from a nearly extinct clan with the head of the Uchiha..." muses Inoichi, Chōza nods his agreement.
"Because of that, I decided to take advantage of the test and make it into a loyalty test. The kids were supposed to follow a noble suspected of being a mole for a whole day, so that they would think that I was testing their stealth abilities, and then that same night the fake noble would try to coerce them into betraying the village-"
Inoichi, who has that gleam in his eyes that means he has finally understood something Shikaku is missing, interrupts him. "And how, exactly, did you plan on baiting them?"
"Well, I wrote a full report on their personal fears and desires and gave it to their intended target for study," Shikaku replies confidently. He is very proud of having finished those reports with only a day of notice. Chōza facepalms. "What? What is it?"
"Shikaku," Inoichi says with a patient tone. "What did they use to get to her?"
"Well," Shikaku starts, unsure of where Inoichi wants to go with this question but trusting in his friend's people skills. "She is staying with the Uchiha; because there were problems with her biological mother and she refused to house her any longer, and they had a kid recently, so I told my agent to play on her fear of being rejected again and substituted for the Uchiha baby."
"Shikaku she's a kid-" Inoichi protests.
"She's as smart as an adult-"
"-you can't just have someone prod at her insecurities like that! You invaded her privacy-"
"-and shinobi on the list of missing nin risk aren't supposed to have privacy."
"-and reminded her of the trauma of rejection by her own mother, what did you thought that would happen?" Inoichi finishes, and looks at Chōza for help.
"Okay," says the man in question, heaving a sigh and dragging a hand down his face. "Shikaku I have to side with Inoichi on this."
Shikaku frowns but otherwise doesn't say anything else, he understands that dealing with people isn't his strongest skill and he respects his friend's advice in the matter. He motions for them to elaborate.
"Shikaku, we know of the protocol of missing nin risk, we know that the adults are supposed to be supervised and that they must expect and endure whatever tests their supervisors deem necessary to earn their trust. This, however, is a kid we're talking about, and as smart as she is, kids are still developing their minds and they are very delicate," Inoichi explains. "At such a young age it's easy for them to be traumatised-"
"Which is why teachers usually ease them into their role as shinobi," points out Chōza.
Inoichi nods at Chōza and continues. "What we mean is that you are her sensei first, and her superior second. Even if she is under suspicion, you are supposed to look after her. That is what they are told at the academy. The kids are supposed to feel safe with you."
Shikaku bites his thumb, he thinks he knows where this is going. "So what you're saying... is that she felt that I betrayed her trust...? So she was mad because she was hurt..." he trails off, uncertain.
Inoichi makes a so-so gesture with his hand, but neither him nor Chōza elaborate further so it seems like he has reached a good enough conclusion.
Ugh, feelings, what a drag.
"So what now?" he asks. "It's not like I can just apologize, that would undermine my authority as her sensei."
Chōza snorts. "Man, authority doesn't mean shit if they don't trust you."
"I mean," says Inoichi. "Shikaku has a point." He raises a hand in a placative manner when Chōza goes to protest. "Just hear me out. What if you talk with Uchiha Fugaku? He's part of the problem right? If her insecurity has been festering since the birth of his firstborn about a year ago it must be because he doesn't know about it. Inform him and let him sort things out with his ward, then she will see that even though you were the one to open the wound you also helped to close it. That would make you trustworthy again because she will see the incident in a positive light now that the problem is solved."
Shikaku scratches his chin, there's a bit of stubble growing again, he should shave. "Huh, that's sneaky... and worth a try."
Chōza huffs. "I still think that this warrants an apology," he says unconvinced.
Reishi arrives at the Uchiha manor at four in the morning and tries to sneak in without waking anyone despite her sore muscles working against her.
It turns out that she didn't need to though, because Fugaku is sitting in the kitchen, sipping from a steaming cup and reading the same crime novel as yesterday. He has almost finished it, which tells her that he has been here reading for a while, because he had started it barely two days ago. The kitchen is also not his usual reading spot, though it is a great place to keep an ear both on the front door and the back door. Has he been here waiting for her to return?
Fugaku rises his gaze from the book and stares at her, unimpressed. Reishi feels like she has disappointed him greatly.
"So?" asks Fugaku after a tense pause.
Reishi is at a loss for a few seconds, thinking that he was for some reason asking about her training with Bear, before realising that he must mean the test. "I passed," she says simply. Fugaku nods.
"Of course."
Another tense pause that stretches for an eternity. "Were you waiting for me?" she asks, hoping that he wasn't, because that means that he has been waiting for hours on that kitchen. Fugaku merely rises an eyebrow, as if saying 'what do you think?' and something inside her snaps. "You didn't have to," she says, bitter, biting.
Fugaku's eyes widen for a moment, barely a second. "I wanted to," he replies calmly, as if he's afraid to upset her. "I wanted to know how things went."
"Well, you trained me well and I passed. Congratulations." She doesn't know why she is saying all this, why is she so angry at Fugaku all of a sudden. It's not his fault that she has fooled herself into thinking that the Uchiha were her family for the last year.
Fugaku frowns. "It's not about that."
'I know', she wants to say. 'I know that and this isn't your fault'. But frustration and hurt keep her mouth shut tight and her eyes glare at Fugaku, who slumps his shoulders. He seems to be grasping for words.
"I'm proud of you," he says, finally. It sounds somehow like a plea.
"I'm not your daughter," she spits out.
Fugaku looks like an invisible force slapped him across the face and Reishi wants to take it back. She wants to physically grab the words as they leave her mouth and cut her palms open as she shatters them, never to be heard. But none of that happens, there's just her, Fugaku and the look of hurt in his eyes. 'It's a feat to make him emote at all,' says a cruel part of her mind, 'now this is something to be proud about'. She wills that part to shut up and tries to say something, anything, but instead she turns around and leaves the house in a hurry.
She feels her eyes burn as she runs, the cold air of the night drying them and making her blink furiously.
What is she supposed to do now? How is she supposed to show her face again? She can't go back to the Uchiha manor after this. Does she have enough money to rent a small apartment by now? She will be scrapping by each month but at least she won't be living in the streets, and now that she finally has a team she should start to get better paid missions like C-ranks instead of the stupid D-ranks she has been doing.
Her train of thought collapses quite literally as she crashes against something.
"Woah, you okay there?" asks the unknown obstacle, alerting her of its very alive and sentient status.
Reishi gets up – thankfully she didn't land on her recently acquired sword – and looks up, and up, until she finally sees who she crashed into. It's a big man, more on the round side of things, if you ask her. His hair is wild and furiously red. Two purple marks, looking like tentacles, start under his jaw and work up until they reach his cheeks. She recognizes Akimichi Chōza almost instantly.
Panicked, she looks behind him and, sure enough, she sees a very surprised Shikaku. Beside him stands Yamanaka Inoichi, and the moment she makes eye-contact with him she knows she's fucked.
"I'm fine," she says detachedly, schooling her face to look as blank as possible and hoping that her voice was devoid of emotion. She might have gotten good enough to lie to Hisoka, but is she good enough for Inoichi?
Se sees Shikaku take a step forward in her periphery, though she does not dare to break eye contact with Inoichi yet. "Shouldn't you be home by now, Reishi?" the Nara asks. The word 'home' sends a pang through her chest.
"I don't remember us being on first name basis, Shikaku-sensei," she retorts instead of an explanation. She isn't in the mood to be treated as a child right now.
Inoichi rises his eyebrows, the same way people do when she lets out a particularly crude word when she's frustrated, but otherwise says nothing. He turns to look at Shikaku, never changing his expression.
Relieved at not having Inoichi's keen eyes on her, Reishi turns her attention towards her sensei. Shikaku is frowning and looking at Inoichi, who is very pointedly telling him to do something about the tiny angry child with his eyes alone. Shikaku's frown deepens, though this time he's looking at Reishi, as if planning a course of action.
"Did you run away from home?" he asks after a tense silence. A slapping sound comes from where Chōza is standing.
"...No," she says, ignoring the part of her that itches to ask 'what do you care?'.
"You did."
"If I say I didn't it's because I didn't," she insists, practically snarling.
Shikaku presses his lips in a thin line. "There was a pause before that 'no', you're lying."
Well, he does have a point, but she hadn't been expecting him to catch on so quickly. She should probably get used to that, now that he's her – she feels ill just by thinking of the word – sensei. Reishi crosses her arms and starts unconsciously shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Is there any point in lying about it though? What is she going to give him as an excuse anyways? She can't say that she's taking a stroll at four in the morning, he won't buy it.
"I was just coming back home after spending some time with my friend. You know him right? Bear? Rings any bells?" she attempts. She might not be able to run from this conversation but she sure as hell can shift it to different territory.
Shikaku runs a hand down his face and mutters something under his breath that sounds suspiciously like 'troublesome'. Inoichi shoots him a look that says that they will be talking about this later, and Chōza has his arms crossed and is looking up at the night sky. Reishi suspects he might be dissociating.
Shikaku sighs. "You were running the opposite direction. Listen, just- I'm going to walk you back home," he says with an air of finality. Before she can protest he turns around to say goodbye to his teammates, who have been suspiciously silent until now. They furiously whisper something to him, sometimes talking over each other. Before leaving, Chōza roughly ruffles her hair with an enormous hand and gives her a bag of candies that she is too stunned to reject.
Once alone, they both look awkwardly at each other for a moment, unsure of how to interact without someone else's presence acting as a buffer between them. She is pretty sure that he half expects her to jump on him and try to tear him limb from limb.
She would have tried, before, now she is just very tired. She just wants to go to sleep somewhere dark and not wake up in a while.
Shikaku clears his throat and looks like he is going to say something, but then he thinks better of it and merely turns to walk in the direction of the Uchiha manor. Reishi internally winces, she doesn't want to go back there after lashing out at Fugaku but she knows that she can't outrun a jōnin like Shikaku. Her only option is to follow and hope for the best.
By the time they are at the manor she feels the telltale heat behind her eyes that tells her she is about to cry and she wills the tears back out of spite. She isn't going to let Shikaku see more of her if it kills her. If he can tear through her walls then she will just have to build them higher and stronger and surround them with barbed wire. Fuck him.
Even though Reishi has keys, Shikaku insists in knocking on the door, even though it's four am. He also insists that he wants to talk with Fugaku and the pit of dread in her stomach becomes deeper and threatens to swallow her.
Fugaku frowns when he opens the door, probably not having been expecting a fellow jōnin to come knocking this late at night. He looks tense and the bags under his eyes are more pronounced, he's already starting to look like his future self. His shoulders sag when he spots Reishi behind Shikaku. She avoids his eyes.
"May I come in?" asks Shikaku politely. "I am aware of the hour but-"
"It's fine," cuts in Fugaku.
They follow him inside as he heads towards the living room and offers a seat to Shikaku, who accepts it graciously. Reishi is also going to sit but is stopped by Fugaku.
"Go to bed, you shouldn't be up this late."
"But-"
Fugaku places a warm hand on top of her head, usually this would help her relax, but today it only makes her flinch. Fugaku must have noticed it, because he takes a step back and she instantly misses the warmth on top of her head. "Go, have some rest."
Reishi presses her lips in a thin line, but doesn't argue any further and walks back to her room without saying goodbye to Shikaku.
She doesn't get any sleep that night.
So I heard some of you liked her relationship with Fugaku.