Hey all! I'm still alive! And I have come bearing (after 2 months) my next chapter, which I decided to post it when I hit a naturally good ending spot, despite wanting to put more. I decided against drowning you guys with another 12k monster. The ending may not be as edited as I liked, I seriously hit the end and went "POST IT!" with minimal re-reading. Let me know if there is something atrocious grammar wise, I'll try to fix it on my own later, but a heads up is always nice. xD
Also I would like to say Thank You, I mean seriously. You all put me to shame. All the nice things you say and the favorites and follows and hits. It's humbling. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the last ones.
Silver Streams
What have I Become, my Sweetest Friend?
※
Ai was already awake for Aoba's arrival in the ungodly hours of the morning, his appearance heralded by the door hitting the wall with a bang. The only conciliation she got was seeing the hinge stopper send the door rebounding back at him, which he sadly stopped before it closed on his face.
"I hope you slept well last night," he happily said in a tone too loud for the hour.
"I didn't." She had a fitful hour of sleep before waking up and not returning to it for the rest of the night. She'd spent her suddenly found time on the couch reading a book comparing the types of kunai and shuriken of the Elemental Nations.
"Excellent to hear," he continued in the same tone. "Let's get going."
Ai groaned, but tossed the book on the coffee table and rolled off the couch. Once upright she followed Aoba out of the apartment, Abel close behind the pair.
They'd made it to the street before Aoba opened his mouth. "Where's your other one?"
Ai blinked slowly, processing his question. He'd probably found out about Tori through the shinobi grapevine and seeing as Abel was with them and Aoba could guess, and would be correct, that Seth was tucked away in her arms, left the odds to be that he was asking after her new companion.
In response, Ai gestured vaguely skyward. "Up there, somewhere."
"What? Not keeping it in your room for protection?"
"There's very little point in a scout, if it's not scouting."
"Surely there isn't much to scout in the village."
"Oh, but just yesterday Old Lady Sumiko bought some ginger root in the market."
"You're making that up."
"Am I?"
"Yes, because Old Lady Sumiko grows her own ginger root."
Ai shrugged her shoulders and hummed a noncommittal tone.
"Has anyone ever told you, you are so full of it?"
"'It' being an amazing personality and stunningly good looks?" Aoba opened his mouth, but Ai cut him off. "No. In fact, it's usually the opposite."
"I can't possibly imagine why."
"Now who's lying?"
It was then that Ai noticed Aoba had been steering her down backroads with far less human traffic and her mood soured. The frown that spread on Aoba's face said he picked up on her emotional shift.
"Look Ai, I get it. This isn't the easiest thing to deal with," he ignored Ai's derisive snort, "and I'm sorry, your uncontrollable mood swings are my fault, but Inoichi will be able to fix it "
"Can he fix the whole village hating me?" Ai groused as a woman literally pulled her child behind her as they passed. She could still feel their eyes on her as they continued down the street. She reached up and itched at pseudo-burning of the scar on the back of her neck.
"That, I'm afraid, you'll have to fix on your own. If you can prove yourself to them, then they'll like you. But if you want my advice, I'd ignore their stupid opinions. Civilians are fickle at the best of times and their wants change as quickly as the breeze."
"Did they avoid you too?"
"When they found out I could read minds and emotions, it didn't matter that I needed physical contact, I was a walking plague."
"They don't seem to care now."
"Oh, they still do a little bit, trust me, but now," he tapped the side-rim of his sunglasses with a finger, "they think lack of eye contact keeps them safe."
"So, you suggest I deceive them?"
"I still normally need physical contact to read the actual thoughts of the mind, however, I am giving them the comfort they think they need in order to believe I'm not reading their petty thoughts about their neighbors every time I lay eyes on them. Which, I should add, would be a waste of my time and talent.
"I just happen to be skilled enough at understanding the human psyche and body language, to make it seem like I'm reading minds. Of course, my heightened sense of empathy helps with that as well, but if I didn't have the mind to understand, that'd all be useless."
Ai zoned out, giving Aoba a dubious side-glance as he continued to chatter away. "At what point did this turn into a bragging session."
He finally paused and sent her a look. "Okay, you can stop projecting your cynicism."
"If I'd known it would have gotten you to shut up, I would have done it earlier."
Aoba huffed. "No respect for your elders." He then muttered something about 'kids these days,' as he turned towards a house, heading for the door.
Ai looked around, glancing up and down the street. She hadn't even realized they'd entered the Yamanaka compound; the whole neighborhood was fairly nondescript. Looking back, she strolled forward, catching up to Aoba, who had just knocked on the door.
It didn't take very long for a pretty blue-eyed, blonde girl to answer the door.
"Good morning," she greeted. "I suppose you're here to see my father?"
"Hello, Ino," he replied. "Yes, we are. He is home, right?"
Ino nodded. "Yeah," she stepped to the side, opening the door further. "Come on in."
Ai followed Aoba, waving at Abel to stay outside. He tilted his head and walked off to the side, entering the Yamanaka's front garden where be began looking at the flowers.
She received varied looks of puzzlement from both Aoba and Ino.
"Don't judge me, he can like flowers and enjoy nature as much as he wants."
The door clacked shut behind them and Aoba said, "That cat is weird."
"All cats are weird," Ai countered. "And where I came from, we didn't have nature anymore."
"No nature?" Ino voice was hushed in her awe as she tried to imagine a place like that.
Ai looked to her fellow blonde. "No. The vast majority of animal and plant life had been eradicated years before I was even made."
"That sounds like an awful place to live."
"It was," Ai agreed.
Though, she'd had nothing to compare it to until she'd come here. That compound had been all she'd known and they'd never actually let them go outside. She'd only seen the world in the images they'd put in her mind. It was from there she'd learned the whole place was near inhabitable, seen the desolation caused by man and their wars. The only time she'd been outside and seen the ecosystem with her own eyes was when she'd been taken from that place, everything had been burning then.
"I'll get some tea started," Ino's voice interrupted Ai's thoughts. "Father's through there." The girl gestured to a nearby door they'd come to as Ino guided them through the house. With a soft smile to Ai, Ino departed, leaving her alone with Aoba. He knocked gently on the closed door, which was answered shortly afterwards.
"Ah, Ai. It's good to see you." Inoichi turned to other man. "Aoba," he greeted.
"I'll, uh, go wait in the front room," he said, retreating back the way they'd come.
"Come on in, Ai," he said, stepping aside for her to enter. As she crossed through, she let her eyes scan the room. Inoichi's office was homey. The back wall was lined with tall bookshelves, filled with not only books, but trinkets and pictures his family, along with what looked like one of his old team. Not far away was his desk, it too was covered with odds and ends, a couple of manila folders were scattered over its top, and there was a small vase with neatly arranged flowers sitting near a corner. Ticking away on the wall across from the desk was a nice-looking pendulum clock. Dotting the same wall, and a few others, were more pictures of family, as well as some artistically painted images of nature. There was even a pair of what looked like a child's drawing, which if Ai had to guess, were done by Ino many years ago.
Inoichi slid the door shut and led Ai to a small, and what was probably meant to be comfortable, sitting area. He gestured at one of the chairs. "I hear Aoba's jutsu didn't work entirely as planned."
"Is that uncommon?" Ai grumbled, sarcasm leaking through as she sat.
Inoichi smiled as he took the other chair which was in easy reach of hers. "He can sometimes get ahead of himself with his desire to protect others. But fixing what happened to you is a simple matter of figuring out where it got stuck. It's most likely a case of you reacting poorly to his pull."
"I suppose that's odd?" Ai asked, curious despite wanting to sulk and pretend to be uninterested.
Inoichi settled back into his chair, crossing one leg over the other. "It's not unheard of. All minds are different. Some are naturally more susceptible and others are more resilient. And that's without getting training involved. Of course, I'm not saying yours is weak, but resistance is something built up over time as the mind grows more used to intrusion."
"What about my chakra? Is that not going to affect this?"
"It may, but it's a risk we'll have to take. Perhaps without threatening intentions nothing will happen."
"And if something does?"
"We'll deal with it when it occurs."
Ai was silent as she thought about what Inoichi said and he seemed content to allow her the time to think. After a moment Ai finally asked, "How is this fixing thing supposed to work?"
"I enter you mind and figure out where the catch is. Basically, when I say Aoba's jutsu got stuck, I mean that somewhere within your mind, it is holding onto his chakra, which was shaped by his will, and this is leaving a lasting effect. Could it eventually wear away? Possibly. However, since it hasn't seemed to weaken yet, there is the very real possibility that it may never fade, or take a very long time, and there is no telling what long-term effects this may have on your brain."
"Will it hurt? You entering my mind?"
"You may experience an uncomfortable or disconcerting sensation, but a willing mind suffers far less than an unwilling one. Additionally, I'll be allowing you to maintain control, which lessens the unpleasant sensation even more."
"Maintain control?"
Inoichi gave a short nod. "That means I'll be unable to delve through your memories without your consent. Which, unless Aoba's chakra has attached to one, I see no reason why we would need to. If you'd like we can begin now, or would you like a moment?"
"Might as well start," Ai said. She knew Inoichi had only offered her a moment to prepare in an attempt to be polite, but Ai saw nothing to prepare for. How could you prepare for another conscious entering your mind?
Hayate had once told her that hesitation only bred doubt and gave time for fear to grow. She figured this was one of those times best not overly thought through.
"Very well," Inoichi agreed, adjusting his position. "I need only to put my hand on your forehead." Ai nodded her consent and he reached forward. She closed her eyes as Inoichi's palm settled on her brow. It was warm and she could feel the callouses that dotted his palm. His hand warmed more as he began to pull on his chakra and the sound of a river flowing filled her mind.
His chakra, a cold river on a hot day, pressed into her mind and, surprisingly, hers parted before his. Not quite willingly, for it hissed like hot metal hitting water, but it still moved aside.
For a moment Ai felt like gravity lost it's hold upon her, before it resumed. Yet it didn't feel exactly as it had before.
Ai opened her eyes and found herself within her own mind.
※※※※※
Inoichi became aware again once his spiritual energy had finished transferring. It took a few blinks for him to decide that no, it wasn't him, Ai's mind was simply poorly lit.
He was in what appeared to be the center of a large library. Six tall bookshelves radiated away from his point, all perfectly spaced from each other and with hanging lanterns attached to their ends. Looking down an aisle, he found it disappeared into darkness, keeping him from seeing how far the shelf traveled, but looking up revealed a number of more levels above him which it too faded away into darkness, with only small specks of light proving it continued further than he could see.
He certainly couldn't say Ai's mind was disorganized. It may have been one of the neatest he'd seen outside his own clan. But that still left him with one question.
"Where am I?" he muttered aloud.
"This is my mind palace." Ai's voice came from behind him and he turned to see her. "It's where I store the information I was given." As she spoke the last part she walked towards a shelf and seemingly grabbed a book at random. She yanked it off and flung in towards him. As it flew through the air it flapped open, coming to a floating stop at his chest height. Inoichi stepped forward to see what was inside, but he paused when he noticed the pages were stark white and completely blank. Before his confusion could fully set in, an image coalesced above the open book.
A somewhat rectangular shape made of many smaller squares, sections of which were shaded different colors and each of them were filled with writing he couldn't read.
"It's a table of elements. My table of elements, anyway," Ai explained. "I know there is one similar here, but," she shrugged.
"We don't have nearly as many," he muttered studying it even though he couldn't read the symbols labeling the small squares.
Ai nodded. "The ones near the bottom are man-made," she added. The new fact only increased Inoichi's awe. As Ai drifted away into another section of shelves, he attempted to pass his hand through the translucent image, however instead his hand hit what felt like a solid surface. The square he touched expanded, the unreadable information growing bigger with it. Beside the first, a new image formed. It was roughly spherical with even smaller ones in a close orbit around it.
"That's the atom itself," Ai said, returning with a few more books in her arms. She smacked the underside of the book and it closed with a snap.
Inoichi hadn't even realized he'd been leaning forward until he straightened, looking around at room he was in once more. It contained so much knowledge. Ai contained so much knowledge.
"We were very wrong," he thought. To her he asked, "Are all these books like this one?"
"I suppose that depends on your definition of 'like.'" She dropped a book into the air before him. "A lot of them might would be considered junk," she stated, physically opening the on before him.
The image that appeared this time was in a language he could understand.
"A cooking recipe?"
Ai nodded, opening another. It was a poem. The third she laid out was a script to a play. "There's hundreds of thousands like these. Oh and," Ai closed her eyes, slowly turning her head like she was hearing something he could not. It didn't take long for him to hear what she was as well. Soft music slowly filled the air, quiet and gentle before gaining strength and volume. "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy," Ai stated, her eyes still closed as she listened to the music. He watched as tension left her face, the tune relaxing her. After a moment she spoke again. "You know, this is kind of enjoyable, sharing this. Why didn't you do this earlier." She opened her eyes to look at him. "Ah, not you specifically, I mean the village, why did they never check my mind?"
"It wasn't deemed necessary," he told her truthfully. "Children often make up fantastical stories. And in relation to your trauma, we simple thought it was a coping mechanism. Though after the invasion and Orochimaru's statements, your previous story gained strength, but since then we've been busy with other matters and this may have been something that would have taken us awhile to get around to."
"Or never bothered to check," Inoichi left unsaid.
"Though, why so much cultural knowledge?" He asked, moving towards a shelf. None of the book's spines bore words to differentiate them from the others. "With the fuss people are making about you, you'd think there would be more weapons of mass destruction."
"Oh, I have those too." Her casual words made Inoichi pause. "But these things were deemed superfluous and were used to stress-test our minds. See if they'd break under the strain of having large amounts of information rapidly transferred. Many did." The way her voice changed, told him that she was bothered by this fact.
"Yours didn't."
Ai snorted. "Not through anything I did. What was it you said? Some minds are more naturally weak, while others are strong?" She turned away, looking at the shelves splayed out before her.
"I found this idea in the information they'd dumped on me." Ai reached forward trailing her fingers across the spines of the books before her. Inoichi looked back at the shelf in front of him, he reached forward and once more he felt his hand come into contact with a hard surface, this one keeping him from touching the books. "It was easy," Ai continued, "child's-play even, to set this up. They'd given me all the steps and laid them out before me. It's probably the only reason I survived those tests." Inoichi pressed his hand harder, but the invisible wall refused to let his hand pass. Ai didn't seem to notice his experimenting.
"My empire of dirt." Ai muttered distastefully before falling silent. The only sound became the softly playing music.
"Survivor's guilt," he concluded.
"You feel bad that you survived while many did not," Inoichi summarized, "because you did nothing to deserve it. You feel it was mere chance." He put chakra into his push, still it refused to give and showed no indication of being about to. "Perhaps it was. Still, you did nothing wrong by living, not after the mental stresses, not after the attack you suffered, and even not after Hayate died." He removed his hand from the shelf and turned towards Ai. "That being said, you are short-changing them by not living. I know for a fact that Hayate would want you to keep living, you should consider living for those that you care about. Do you think they would want you to reject the gift of life given to you?"
"No," Ai whispered, scrubbing her foot on the black tiling beneath her. As she did, Inoichi saw it shimmer, the gleam spreading out from her foot. However, it only travelled through the black tiles, the whites didn't glimmer. He looked down and beneath him was also some of the black tiles, he directed some of his own chakra into it and it glistened like oil, the gleam dying out as he stopped.
"Ai," he called to her and she looked up at him. "Can we go higher?"
She tilted her head at him but still agreed with a, "Uh, yeah."
The transportive pull she used was crude, and the moment it was done Inoichi caught himself on a railing he now stood by, letting the wave of dizziness pass.
He was apparently too used to doing it to other people than having it done to him.
Still, his position offered him a good look at the ground now a couple stories below.
On the ground floor, he couldn't tell if the black alternated with the white in a discernable pattern, but now above it, he could see that the black tiles formed their own shape. It took up all the floor he could see, and most likely extended past it. As his eyes traced the form, Ai walked up to stand beside him.
"Has this always been here Ai?"
"Yeah."
"Do you know what it is?"
"A pretty design?"
Her answer made him smile. "Not quite," he began. "While I'm not an expert, I can tell it bears a few similarities to sealing sigils. Ours aren't so geometric, but the semblance is there."
"I have a seal in my mind?"
"You do." He looked at her. "You said this was information they gave you, how to set up this place?" Ai nodded. "I think they may have been wiser than we thought. The seal keeps anyone but you from interacting with the books on the shelves. Unless you willingly share them, no one else can remove a book from its place." He looked back down to the largest seal he'd ever seen. "With it being in the floor, I imagine that if the seal were broken it would destroy the foundation, and in consequence, this whole room. Quite possibly your mind as well," he added.
"Lovely," Ai grumbled.
"Actually," he looked back up, "it's quite a good thing. If no one else can touch it, it makes you invaluable." He sobered. "This," he gestured out, "it dies with you, but it also spreads with you."
Ai stared out at what she'd dubbed her 'empire of dirt.' Inoichi watched her think. Her jaw clenching, she shook her head. "I'm fine with music and art, but there are a lot of dangerous things in here, and I've seen what they did to my world. That knowledge will die with me."
The firmness of her voice, the set look on her face, the distaste that radiated from her eyes, they all confirmed to Inoichi that Ai wouldn't share that knowledge. That she would choose death first. He nodded and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Now, perhaps we should attend to reason we're here in the first place." Inoichi let his chakra sense flare out, but everything felt calm and nothing felt like Aoba's chakra. "I'm not feeling anything here. I assume there are other rooms?"
Ai nodded. "Yes, the mind palace is segregated." She turned away from him and suddenly what was once an aisle extending into darkness was now a wall with an arched, intricately carved double door. Inoichi gave her an impressed look, to which she shrugged. "You are only limited by your imagination."
He smiled. "I find that is particularly true within the mind."
Ai turned back to the center, looking over the railing, she waved her arm. Following her sight, he saw as the books, which had been left floating in the air, snapped shut and shot off slamming into their section of shelves.
Once she had cleaned up, Ai led the way to the door, which he now noticed was carved with a great tree, its branches spreading wide and its roots a twinned, geometric pattern. Carved around the large tree where hundreds of stars.
As they neared, the two doors cracked down the middle, opening before them. They paused once they passed through the tree. Stretching before the pair was a poorly lit corridor, though not a corridor in the normal standards. This one had no walls or ceiling and the 'floor' was only marked by the rows of doors upon doors lining both sides. From what Inoichi could see, they were all different from each other, not always by much, for some only their color varied, but he could easily tell that they had entered a stretch of her memories.
"Everything that isn't… that," Ai gestured vaguely over her shoulder.
"Let us continue, shall we?" The two stepped forward and Inoichi heard the large doors behind them close with a thud. Moving down the grey pathway, he let his chakra sense keep watch for any sign of something that wasn't Ai. In the darkness beyond, from the corner of his eye, he saw something flicker and move. When he turned his head to search, Ai broke the silence of their walk.
"Ignore it."
"What was it?" He continued to scan the black.
"Tori," she stated, "she's sending an image."
"Of what?"
In response to his question Ai looked up and he copied her. A strong sense of vertigo washed over him as, in greys and whites, a view of the village from above spread through the black sky. The image shivered, focusing on a pair of blue and green shapes that darted over rooftops.
"Two ninja passing by apparently." The imaged blurred and faded to black. "She's been testing the range at which I can receive messages, images, whatever, from her."
"How far is that?"
"Not very, only from the wall of the village."
Inoichi hummed, looking back the way they were walking. It wasn't like the wall of the village was that close and they were only two, but still, if Ai was in the right place at the right time, she might could alert them to something no one had noticed. He glanced at the girl walking in contented silence beside him. She was shaping into someone who could be a very good intel gatherer.
"If we could find a way to get her into our department," Inoichi mused
A tug on his chakra pulled him from his contemplations. "Wait, Ai," he called as he stopped walking. She came to a halt a few paces past him. "What's behind this door?" His chakra felt caught like clothes on a briar.
Ai shrugged, coming to the sterile white door. "Nothing particularly special," she turned her gaze from the door to him, "or enjoyable."
"May we?"
She shrugged again. "No point in any of this if we don't, I suppose." With a shove the pushed the door open and as they stepped through the space around them changed.
Lifeless trees lay broken and crooked across the landscape and each step they took puffed up a cloud of ash. In all directions, the world stretched grey and dead before him. Behind him, the door clicked shut. It was the only sound the desolate landscape.
"Will you tell me about this place, Ai?" He asked as he turned in the direction he felt his chakra gently tugging him. Ai kept pace beside him.
"It is the world I knew," she spoke, sticking her hands into her pockets, "before I came to this one. By the time I was made, it wasn't much, my people had been at war for generations. They were fighting over whatever few resources were left and, in their desperation, they made us, bastions of knowledge.
"The scientists used to call us 'the world's salvation.' They said we'd lead them into a new era." Ai gave a helpless shrug. "Whatever their intentions, it obviously didn't work as planned." She pointed just slightly left of the direction they were headed. "It's not easy to see, but that's were we used to live." Had Ai not pointed it out, Inoichi wasn't sure he would have spotted it until they had gotten closer. What he'd taken as a hill, he now noticed was a bunker, the same grey as the ash-strewn ground around it, one side a little too steep to be natural.
A deep rumble roared through the sky overhead and the ground beneath Inoichi's feet trembled from the noise. The air became humid and stifling as Ai's chakra became agitated. In the far distance a light bloomed, white and orange. It grew rapidly in intensity becoming nearly blinding before it vanished like it had never been there.
"Sorry," Ai said softly. "That was me."
"It's all right," Inoichi reassured. "No harm done, and you obviously controlled it well."
Ai grimaced as she played with the edge of her sleeve.
As they continued their trek, it occurred to Inoichi that this wasn't just a memory of a place, it was quite possibly a mental scar as well. This barren earth was a representation of the pain and helplessness she most likely felt. It reflected her feelings of being unrooted, that she was unable to grow.
It was a somewhat worrisome sign.
His hypothesis gained strength as they finally rounded the bunker and a field of briars spread before them. Caught in the barbs, he could feel Aoba's chakra fluttering like a tattered cloth.
"Well, this shouldn't be hard." Inoichi took a breath and released it.
"Would you mind staying here, Ai?" She shrugged in response, her face saying she didn't care either way. With her consent Inoichi walked the few feet to the briar patch, but as he reached out to touch it, he paused as another sensation washed over him.
Do not touch me, it seemed to say. I will hurt you.
He studied the feeling as it washed over him, raising to choke him.
"Doubt," he concluded. "And… something else." A wave of heat and chills ran across his skin. Disconcerting and physically uncomfortable. Worry rushed up as he figured out what was causing these sensations. It was the subtlest and most artfully placed genjutsu Inoichi had ever seen in his life.
His eyes roved over the patch of twisting thorns. Nearly hidden and partially smothered by the brambles, he spotted a delicate red flower, wilting and curled in on itself. That flower, he realized, was the part of Ai left in this place.
How long had Ai been affected by this jutsu?
Inoichi pushed his chakra out from himself, letting it drift gently across the briars, careful to not get it caught. All the while, he felt the genjutsu nagging at him, trying to plant its fear and doubt.
No, it hadn't been meant to be like this. A small seed planted to fuel Ai's doubt. Aoba's jutsu and chakra had been caught, disrupting the fragile balance, it had inadvertently fed this. Which meant the briars had grown in a matter of days and Inoichi didn't want to consider what would happen if it had more time.
This genjutsu had been designed to avoid detection, placed in an area Ai would be least likely to notice or come across it. It wouldn't be too difficult to break. Especially since it'd already been disturbed.
Careful to avoid the thorns, Inoichi placed his chakra-flooded hand on an outreaching branch.
Behind him Ai gasped.
Turning to look, he found Ai kneeling on the ground, panting out breaths. She had wrapped her arms around her middle and was curled around them like she was in pain.
He almost let go and went to her, but something, within him, he wasn't sure, shouted to not let go and his hand froze in position. "It's okay, Ai," he called to her. "It won't last long." She didn't reply and Inoichi returned back to his work, ready to fix this as quickly as he could.
Heat, as if he stood too close to a fire, began to creep across his back and the air around him became more humid than the worst summer in Konoha.
He reached out touching the genjutsu with his chakra. It shattered under the contact, however he wasn't done.
Ai groaned and the heat ratcheted up a notch, invisible tendrils of flame licking at him. If Inoichi had ever wondered what a steamed and then fried dumpling felt like as it was being cooked, he now believed he had a good idea.
Without hesitation, Inoichi got to work purging both Aoba's and the briar's foreign chakra, which took longer and required more finesse to handle. As he flushed the chakra, he burrowed his down to the withered flower, wrapping his around it protectively, keeping it safe as he eradicated the rest.
The loud inhuman roaring of a machine thundered overhead, shaking the ground and rattling Inoichi's bones. Loud cracks echoed slowly, deliberately, and close by him. Overtop the sound was a continuous wail of children crying and underneath all of it, he could still somehow hear Ai repeating the word 'stop' over and over.
Beneath his hand the briar disintegrated, the reaction cascading down from the branch to the rest of the strangling plant. Once the it was all gone, no more than ash in the wind, the boiling heat and cacophony of noises vanished.
Inoichi released his protective bubble around the flower and he watched as it raised its head skyward, its petals straightening. The dull purple and red of the flower turned vibrant. Beneath him and the flower bright green grass sprouted, spreading out from the flower itself. Overhead the lighting changed and he looked up, lights twinkled to life and color swam in the air, creating a marvelous night sky. He wasn't sure if it was him, Ai, or her mindscape that sighed with the gentle, and welcomed, breeze.
Looking back at the girl, he found Ai, tears running down her cheeks, staring wide-eyed at the landscape that had just formed. It hadn't gone much far beyond her location, but the fact that it had so quickly replaced the broken one said that Ai would be more than able to bounce back.
He made his way over to her and knelt down. "I think it's about time we return to our physical bodies, don't you?"
Ai nodded mutely to his words.
Closing his eyes, he unraveled his connection to her mind, pulling his chakra from her.
When he opened them again, he was sitting in his chair once more, hand still against Ai's forehead. He lowered his hand and leaned back in his chair, to which his body protested greatly. Ai blinked open her eyes.
"How do you feel?" he asked, glancing at the clock on the wall. He was a little surprised to find that a little more than an hour had passed.
"I'm obviously getting old," he thought ruefully.
Instead of answering, Ai stared at her hands as if they were new to her, flexing them a few times before she placed both of them, one on top of the other, over her heart. She then looked up at him, her blue eyes, to Inoichi anyway, seemed clearer than they had before. "Better," she said softly. He eyes drifted down once more. "I feel like… I hadn't realized how much everything seemed to be weighing me down. Thank you." Inoichi nodded to her.
"Of course."
"May I ask a question… ah, Yamanaka-sensei?" He barely stopped himself from raising an eyebrow at her tone. He'd never interacted with her much, but he now felt like this was probably the politest she'd ever been in her life. The Yamanaka-sensei alone had sounded like its own question.
"Go ahead," he replied.
She bit her lip briefly. "I know my issue was an external one, but does you jutsu work with internal ones? Depression? Anxiety? PTS," he titled his head at that "– er, post-traumatic stress?" Her naming it fully clicked with him, though she obviously had a different name.
"Combat neurosis?"
Her eyes flicked briefly up and to her left before she nodded.
"It… can," he hedged. "Our jutsu can help suppress the associated feelings, however, it generally doesn't last long. Having a Yamanaka treat you may help at first, but ultimately, like ignoring it altogether, can do more harm in the long run. We are, sadly, not a miracle cure."
"Ah," she mumbled, still looking to be in thought. "but, there are medicines?"
"Pills," Inoichi confirmed, though he found himself curious as to where this was going. "Do you also have medical knowledge?"
She shook her head slightly. "I only know the ingredients. I don't have the technical knowledge to make them." Inoichi nodded to this, taking her little offer for what it was. He left the silence be, allowing Ai time to talk if she desired it further, and after a moment she looked back to him, shifting in her seat. "I guess… I should go?"
"You can," he agreed, "but if there is ever anything you would like to talk about, I am more than willing to listen and help the best I can." Ai nodded and stood. As she arrived at the door, Inoichi added, "Would you mind sending Aoba in? I'd like to talk to him before you both go." She nodded again and closed the door behind her.
Inoichi leaned his head back in his chair, taking in a deep breath, he slowly released it, loosing the tension he could feel gathered in his body.
"What a mess," he muttered to himself. There was a light knock on his door before it slid back open, revealing Aoba.
Waving his hand, Inoichi gestured Aoba to enter. As the other man closed the door and settled into the spot Ai had vacated, Inoichi rubbed at his neck, massaging the stiffed muscle there.
"That rough?" He asked.
His reply was a huffed laugh and a wry grin. "I can happily inform you that what was wrong with Ai wasn't entirely your fault. And with any luck her chakra control will be drastically improving." Aoba sat back a little bit in his surprise and Inoichi expounded. "Ai has been under a genjutsu for… at least five years." Aoba made a choked sound that Inoichi took for a 'what?' He shrugged. "My best guess, with how exceptional that genjutsu was, is that it was most likely Itachi Uchiha's work."
Aoba finally seemed to rediscover his words and he burst out with a "But why?"
To that Inoichi shrugged again. "All I can be sure of is that when I finished removing the genjutsu and foreign chakra, her mindscape bloomed. I can only conclude that that was its original state. It's my belief that the genjutsu took time in altering certain aspects of Ai, it was so slow acting that no one seemed to notice and even Hayate could reason away the changes as 'a phase,' or 'slacking off,' or some such.
"Despite how well done it was, there's no telling what may have happened in the long run and with your jutsu throwing it off, from what I've heard she became even more unstable and near suicidal at times." Aoba nodded to this. From the reports Asuma had given, Ai hadn't even tried to dodge the killing blow he'd intercepted.
"It will take time for it to fully repair itself, but the fact that it so quickly started to, is a good sign. She's a bit better at bouncing back than we'd thought. Additionally, from the way she responded after, she's unaware of the genjutsu being there at all, which is probably for the best."
With a sigh, Aoba sagged into his seat. "That's good, but still, why the genjutsu? If he wanted to deprive the village of an asset, why not just kill her? The fact that he killed neither her nor Sasuke would suggest emotional attachment to them, but with the reports on how he has sense treated them, suggests that is likely not the case. The best I can come up with is that Ai might have been left as a decade-delayed explosion, so to speak."
"Itachi Uchiha is so full of contradictions I'd have no desire to even try to navigate his labyrinthine mind, should the occasion ever occur."
Aoba shrugged and looked away briefly. "Fair," he conceded. After a few moments he asked, "You really think it was him?"
"As I said, the genjutsu was exceptional. It continued to work by feeding off of Ai's own chakra and was extremely subtle, not that she has much practice at noticing them. Honestly, I think the only one who could match it is Kurenai Yuhi, but I doubt she'd have a reason and they never met until recently. While Itachi had ample access."
"So, what do we do?"
Inoichi tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair in consideration. "Nothing for now," he finally said. "Until we have a new Hokage, I see no reason to muddle the waters of 'what do we do with a problem like Ai,' any further." Aoba hummed at those words. "Needless to say, keep an eye on her," Inoichi instructed. "I don't foresee any issues, but you know what to watch for." The dark-haired man nodded at this. "And maybe teach her how to check for and purge foreign chakra from herself." After Aoba acknowledged his instructions he glanced at the clock and said, "All right then, I have another meeting to get to and I was hoping to catch Shikaku before it starts." He stood and Aoba followed his lead.
"More village security talks?" Aoba cocked his brow questioningly.
"Yes, eventually, but this one isn't about that. This one is for Ai."
Aoba blinked. "Really?"
"Shikaku has excellently maneuvered all clan and village leaders into this meeting."
"All of them?"
Inoichi hummed his affirmative. "Before the Third's death he finalized Ai's adoption into the Gekko family," Aoba bobbed his head, he knew this information, "and as you know, this grants her citizenship in the Leaf Village. And as Shikaku's been arguing with the councilors and Danzo, that affords her the same rights as any other citizen. Which means they can't just throw her into prison because they don't like her and without a Hokage, if they want to take any sort of action, it's going to take a majority of all now involved," he continued, shrugging on his vest. "He has managed to buy her time from the training regimen of Lord Danzo Shimura."
"What if they all side against her?"
"I don't think Shikaku would have pulled this stunt if he thought it wouldn't go his way and I wouldn't be surprised either if he hasn't finagled a way to get the senior jonin involved as well." He pulled on his haori over his vest. "He may not know Ai personally, but he's not going to let anyone run rampant over the laws of our village." He grinned, picturing Shikaku's face set in a fierce scowl when he'd first heard of what the Council was trying to do. "Plus, I think he just doesn't like Danzo."
"I can't blame him," Aoba commented. "He cornered me the last time I was in there." Inoichi's face turned troubled. "He told me that no one would hold it against me if I decided to stop training Ai." Aoba shivered at the memory. "The way he said it, though."
"What did you tell him?"
"That I would be a poor shinobi if I decided to abandon my Hokage's orders just because he had died." Inoichi nodded his approval and thumped the other man on the shoulder.
"If I'm fortunate I won't have to endure many of these meetings before they find Lady Tsunade," he steered both of them towards the door, "and it's unlikely she'll side with the council." He grinned at Aoba. "You aren't getting attached, are you?"
"No," he defended immediately. "She's a pain, but she's smart and I think she'd be more of an asset to the village if we don't mistreat her." Aoba shook his head. "Some of those Anbu guys aren't all there, you know?"
"I agree, so why don't we reunite you with your little student." The face Aoba pulled at the phrase was entertaining.
※※※※※
Ino showed up at Ai's side soon after she'd sent Aoba back to chat with Inoichi.
"Would you like some tea?" she offered with a smile. Ai wasn't sure her stomach could handle anything, it'd been staging a mutiny since soon after she'd been released from Inoichi's jutsu, but she accepted anyway. There was always the chance it'd calm it down.
After her acceptance, Ino waved at Ai to follow. "Sorry, it's not immediately available. Once half an hour passed, I cleaned up." Ai was a little taken aback by that information. She hadn't looked at the clock when he'd left Inoichi's office and hadn't realized so much time had passed. "Sorry," she apologized.
Ino gave her a smile as they entered the kitchen. "It's not a problem, I just hope my father was able to help."
"He was," Ai stated, but was soon distracted by the multiple flower arrangements scattered across whatever surface was available.
"Sorry for the mess," Ino smiled sheepishly. "My mother and I have been trying out new displays for the store."
"They're beautiful," she said softly, which caused Ino to beam and begin chatting away about how they grew the flowers themselves. Ai was distracted, however, as she carefully walked up to the nearest one set on the table, suddenly aware that she couldn't recall the last time she'd enjoyed looking at flowers. She could recall that when she'd been young, she and Abel had loved looking at anything living, but when had she stopped?
She gently reached out and touched the bright red petals of a ladybird. The black spots it bore inside felt hypnotizing and Ai couldn't look away.
Black whirling in red. Holding her in place.
Whatever it takes.
Ai flinched away and her stomach dropped, nausea rising in its place. She knew those eyes.
Ino was suddenly beside her. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"I…" she started and stopped. "I'm not feeling very good."
"That can happen sometimes," Ino tried to comfort her. "The mind-transfer jutsu can cause strange vertigo-like sensations. A lot of people find it disconcerting."
"That's," Ai leaned on the table and closed her eyes as her stomach rolled, "one way to describe it."
"Maybe you should sit down," Ino said as she pulled out a chair.
"No," Ai pleaded, waving Ino off. "I think I… I think I'm…" Ino sidestepped a little closer to a garbage can, obviously thinking Ai was going to need it soon. She swallowed the saliva that was beginning to pool in her mouth and began a breathing exercise. It seemed to help a little and she was able to straighten up. "I think I'd like to go rest. Can you tell Aoba I went back to my place?"
Worry was written all over Ino, in both her face and stance. "Are you sure? You can lay down here if you need."
"Yeah, I'm sure. Will you tell him for me? Please?"
Ino nodded. "Okay. Just, please be careful."
"Sure," Ai agreed readily if just so she could leave sooner. Ino walked with her back to the front door and Ai walked as quickly as she could without running, or throwing up, back to the street outside. Abel joined her, his head lowered and looking at her through the top of his eyes, or he would have been if he had eyes.
Ai looked back to the Yamanaka house, Ino was still in the doorway watching so Ai waved slightly at her, trying to set Ino a bit at ease. She then took off at a semi-fast walk.
She just needed to be out, to breathe. Being inside had felt stuffy and suffocating.
That and she didn't want to be around Ino for what she knew was an incoming breakdown.
Ai had honestly meant to go back to her apartment, she'd even been going in that direction, but as she passed by a path that broke away from the road, she hesitated, staring down the barely-there track. It took only a moment for her to decide to veer down the path.
It didn't take long before she found herself in a clearing surrounded by trees, not far from her a lazy river slowly flowed. It was very picturesque for one of Konoha's many training grounds.
For something that held so many of her memories.
Surrounding her was the field where she and the two Uchiha would go to train. If you could call it that. Itachi had been intent on teaching her chakra control, but Shisui would inevitably start a rousing distraction of some kind, bent on making her laugh.
He'd never had much trouble at it.
They had been her first friends in the village and it hurt her to know one was dead under mysterious and questionable circumstances and the other had felt forced to do something so horrible and abandon his home. Meanwhile, here she was, years older and still none the better.
This had been the place too, where she'd learned what had happened to Shisui, where…
A shadow moved in the tree line and Ai turned as the figure stepped out.
"Itachi?" Ai called questioningly. He was over an hour late and he was never late. It was dark now and Hayate didn't like her staying out after it got too dark. Just because it was a ninja village didn't mean it was safe, as she very well knew, but Itachi and Shisui had said they'd meet her here, so she waited.
The clouds shifted, allowing the quarter moon above to illuminate the darkened figure of Itachi. He'd always been good at keeping a straight face, but Shisui was a pro a digging out smiles, even Itachi's scarcely shared ones. But Ai had never seen him look so lost. He'd never looked more like the thirteen-year old boy he was.
"Itachi? What's wrong?" He walked slowly towards her. As he neared, she could see the darkened smear of dried blood covering his right hand and another running down from his left eye.
Fear bubbled up, washing over everything.
"Where's Shisui?" Itachi's flinched at her question, stopping a short distance from her.
"Shisui died tonight," he told her. Her eyes went wide, filling with tears. Burning.
"What?"
"I thought you deserved to hear it from me first," he said. "I'm sorry."
The burning turned to pressure. Pushing hard at her right eye. She whimpered at the pain, her hand going up to rub at it.
Itachi closed the distance and bent down to her shorter level. "Ai, what's wrong?" His hands made an aborted motion to reach for her shoulders as he remembered one was covered in blood.
"My eye," she moaned, pushing at it, trying to relieve the pain. "It hurts. It…" There was some sort of pop she heard, felt, she didn't know, but she did know one thing. She looked up at Itachi, meeting his dark eyes. "He took it," she whispered. The same pressure began to build in the other one.
Horror swept across his face, followed by fear of his own. This time his hands did catch onto her shoulders.
"Ai," he stated as serious as she'd ever heard him, "Don't ever repeat that again."
She looked away to clutch at the other eye, before her, she could feel Itachi's despair swirling.
A hand cupped her face, lifting it as the other brushed away her hands. Her eyes met Itachi's now red ones. Seeing them before her was mesmerizing, she couldn't help but to keep staring. The world behind him turned black and white.
"Ai, you must avoid Danzo Shimura at all costs. Do what you must to not draw his attention. He will kill you. You must do whatever it takes." His eyes saddened. "You won't see me again after this. I'm sorry," he repeated. His hands fell away, gently like bird feathers.
Ai blinked and he was gone. She turned around, but he wasn't anywhere to be seen. When had he left? How could he just tell her so emotionlessly that Shisui had died and that he'd never see her again? How could he just leave her like that? Tears welled up in her eyes.
"Stupid ninja," her brain hissed. "And their stupid jutsu."
If she could have pulled away from herself, she would have. Had that really been her thoughts? Had she always felt that way?
She must have.
Chin trembling, she made her way into the woods.
Ai's hands clapped over her mouth. To stop the scream of anger or the cry of despair, she couldn't figure out. Tears ran down her face as her body and mind warred about whether she should be furious with how Itachi had treated her, how he hadn't trusted her to keep her mouth shut or somehow, and disturbingly, touched that he'd cared enough to try to do whatever he could to keep her safe.
"Both," her mind decided firmly.
Which only made her more sad and then more furious.
Her hands drifted down to her throat. She felt like she was drowning.
And now her chakra had joined the revolt her stomach had staged. She could feel it boiling in her stomach. It was molten lava inside her, boiling up, building pressure, demanding to erupt.
Distantly she was aware of Abel, bumping into her leg. Calling for her attention.
A white blank page and a swelling rage, rage.
She let out a scream, forcing her building fury, fear, and despair out at the trees in front of her. They groaned and creaked, but as she pushed her chakra-fueled feelings away, she heard them crack and splinter violently, rupturing explosively from the inside.
She let out a shaky breath, the expenditure of emotions and chakra leaving her tired.
"You're doing it wrong," came a voice from behind her.
Ai whipped around at the voice. Standing at what was probably a less than safe distance was Shino, but it wasn't his voice that had spoken. Beside him was a taller, yet similarly faced individual she could only assume was Shino's father.
"Your chakra is unbalanced and lacks harmony. That is the reason for the explosions," he stated, arms crossed before him.
Ai chose to ignore his observations. "I know, you're supposed to schedule time for training grounds. I'm sorry for being in your way." She turned, intent on walking away, Ai only made it a few steps before she was stopped short by the older man's voice.
"You are welcome to train with us, should you like." She could imagine just how well that would go.
She'd just found out the boy she'd once considered a friend had dropped a five-year genjutsu on her for her protection, of all things, she'd been weeping like a small infant, and to make it even better she'd just made a complete fool of herself in front of the two Aburames with her bout of juvenile, and dangerous, rage, but her feet just wouldn't step forward anymore, no matter how much she demanded they follow her orders. So, instead, the three of them stood there in what she felt was the epitome of awkwardness.
"There are only a few outside of the Aburame clan who know that we are capable of speaking with our kikaichu." Where the hell was he going with this? "Not with words, but through our chakra. Minute shifting of chakra can mean different things, impart feelings, words, sounds, or images that mean something to us and create an understanding between host and insect. No others can 'hear' it as we do, even among our own clan, it varies between people. It can be very disorienting and confusing to those first learning, similar to learning a new language, with limited aid."
Ai turned around to see him as he spoke. She could feel something strange and warm spreading in her chest at his words.
"It seems likely, that like us, you possess a high, and unique, sensitivity to chakra, that most cannot relate. It is my impression that you are sensing the remnant of chakra left behind after high emotional periods. For lack of better explanation, you are perhaps feeling the moments that 'make a person who they are.' Picking up on what they love or hate, what they are strongly attached to."
Was that what the voice was? Her mind translating what she felt into the things she heard?
Had Itachi known this? He feared this Danzo Shimura enough that he'd chosen to sabotage what he couldn't control, to take out her choices as a factor? He must have thought she'd hit onto something too dangerous for her to remember, so he'd done what he could to erase it.
Had Hayate known too? Not about Shisui, but just the extreme chakra sensitivity? "But why wouldn't he…?" she whispered to herself, but the older Aburame picked up soon after she trailed off.
"I cannot pretend to know the thoughts of another, but from what I have heard of you, you possess unique talents compared to many in this village. Perhaps he was concerned what the discovery of your skill might bring to you. A progenitor of a new bloodline is put under much scrutiny and stress. It is quite possible he wished to protect you as long as possible from that."
Tears began to form in her eyes again, so she dropped them, studying her shivering hands.
"Learning to control a bloodline talent can be difficult, especially on one's own," his voice was closer and she heard the gentle swish of his steps. His feet stopped just inside her vision and a hand pressed down firmly on her shoulder. "There is nothing wrong with you."
Ai jerked her head up, looking into his covered eyes.
"Let go," he stated, "of all the fear, the anger, and the sorrow. Of everything brewing inside of you. You need to let it all go."
Even though you're scared, you're stronger than you know.
The tears welled over and a breath shuddered in her chest. The Aburame clan head only used a little pressure to pull her to him. She stumbled as she closed the short distance, pressing her face into his jacket and she wept on a complete stranger.
That feeling in her chest, she knew then what it was.
Hope.
She could do this.
"Whatever it takes," a voice that sounded suspiciously like Itachi whispered in her head.
※※※※※
Hurt – Johnny Cash (the 'empire of dirt' line, not gonna lie, stole it)
White Blank Page – Mumford and Sons
Something Wild – Lindsey Stirling ft. Andrew McMahon.
You know I always see 'ft' in songs and I just think Feet, not Featuring. Enjoy this week's insight in to my weird mind.
