Toru said nothing.
Hanabi recognized the name, but she had never been particularly close to Sarutobi Naruto anyway.
"And that's the truth." Anko nodded again.
Toru was still silent.
"…Are you okay?" Hanabi asked.
Still no answer.
"Uh. Sorry." Anko muttered. "I guess you guys were close, then?" Naruto had never said too much about the whole living in Konoha thing.
Silence.
"Did I... break him?" Anko asked, waving her hand in front of his face.
"Yes." Hanabi said dryly.
Toru muttered something.
"What was that?"
"…Sasuke and I have been blaming ourselves for his death for years… and it turns out he's alive and hanging out on an island?" Toru gritted out.
"I mean, you framed it in a bad way, but…" Anko tried.
"Yeah. Okay. All right. I think I need to speak with him." Toru finished.
"Sure, we just need to get him out of somewhere — he got into a bit of trouble with Kumo, you see… Shouldn't be long." Orochimaru would go bail him out himself, if Karin's group didn't manage, Anko knew. Whenever he'd come back.
"I see. I can wait there... in Umi." Toru said, very dryly.
'Why do I feel like I should have written a pitch down instead of winging it…?' Anko thought.
"Alright. Take my hands, both of you, then. We're going to the most amazing place in the world." Her sleeve pulled back a bit, revealing a gauntlet. "Hopefully this works here, too." Anko muttered to herself.
"It's not the Howabe Cartoon Conve-" Toru started, before they all disappeared.
Somewhere on the sea, between Lightning and Tornadoes
Once they were sure they were not under immediate scrutiny anymore, Naruto and Ino slipped away to their sleeping quarters.
Well, 'sleeping quarters' was pushing it, kinda. It was a cramped berth with a one person bed.
"Damn, that's pretty rough." Naruto said.
"Well, I'm not intending on sticking around to find out how comfy it really is." Ino replied. "Ready to go?"
"Never been more ready. How do we do this?"
"I think it might be better if I break through mine and take both of us there. Your chakra is too noticeable." She said. "And after days in captivity, your control is probably shot, so…"
"Yeah, that makes sense."
Ino broke through her bindings, letting out a relieved sigh as her chakra started flowing outwards again.
"I'll keep an eye on the door, just in case." Naruto said.
"Sure."
She started channeling chakra, getting a feel for it again, and he took her hand.
A few stressful minutes later, they disappeared with a loud crack of thunder.
Strangely enough, Naruto had never realized just how at ease he felt in Umi before today.
Well, his latest stay in Kumo's fanciest hotel had probably helped. No real food, no drinks, and getting beaten up for fun was not exactly his idea of a great time.
The first thing he did when he arrived into the lake's stone circle was release his bindings, of course.
Chakra pushed through his body at his normal rate again. It was both a relief… and painful at the same time, since his network had gotten used to working with a limited amount. He let out a grunt, feeling the lake's gentle breeze on his skin.
"Let's go, Ino. I need a shower, badly."
"Careful. I don't think your control is back to normal."
Naruto snorted, ready to walk over the water. "True, but I'm sure I can manage that-"
He fell right through the surface of the water.
Ino dove in after him, not minding the fact that she was going to get herself entirely wet as well. It turned out to be unneeded, because he came back to the surface after just a few moments, sputtering and spitting water out.
"I mean, I tried to tell you." Ino chuckled.
He laughed too, sheepishly. "Yeah, my bad."
"Well, let's swim there, then." Ino offered. She definitely wasn't going to carry him.
"Sure."
It turned out to be much slower than walking over the water, of course.
The shower's water poured over him, turning reddish brown at his feet as Naruto scrubbed himself clean. He stayed there for a while, content to let his thoughts run free, without having to bother thinking about the best way to make it out of a dark cell with his life.
He got out then, using the mirror to finally remove the seals still written over his back and hand. Then he shaved, getting rid of the scruff that had started to grow on his face. How many days did he spend there, again…? He felt so tired.
Naruto stared at his reflection.
He looked entirely fine. No bags under his eyes, no scars, nothing.
For some reason, though, he felt like smashing his fist through the mirror.
Neither Karin nor Sakura were around the house.
Naruto helped Ino remove the seal Karin had applied on her, and the one he had written on her hand himself . After that, they were mostly lounging on the couch, in half-dazed exhaustion.
They passed out in a heap before long.
Naruto woke up before dawn, when Ino's foot almost kicked him in the face. He stood up, grumbling, having to remind himself where he was exactly. Ino was still laying down, snoring. He chuckled and went outside.
There he limbered up, stretching, punching, kicking and dashing for over an hour.
His chakra answered him again, just as strong as ever, thrumming, humming and pulsing underneath his skin. Lightning, Wind... were his once more.
"You know, Ino, you don't actually have to keep an eye on me." Naruto said, noticing she had been observing him for a little while, now. He wiped some sweat off his brow.
"Someone has to make sure you're okay, though. Because you definitely won't." She just said in answer.
He grunted something vaguely rude in answer, dodging under the slipper she threw at him.
"Wanna go for breakfast?" She asked, instead of the hundreds of questions running through her mind. "I'll go and buy us something."
That's how they spent the morning, eating, talking, and mostly resting.
Which confirmed what Ino had been thinking, despite how good he was at pretending everything was normal. Something was different about him.
And it was not just about his stay in Kumo, which would have explained a great many things. It was not only about the seals carved into his skin either, Ino realized. Far from it.
She knew him well. He was closer to how he was when planning something. The way he seemed fine one minute, smiling, grinning. And the next instant he was so quiet he seemed barely there at all, lost in something else.
As long as he was talking, he was energetic, awake… There. But when he thought she was not looking, he was entirely still.
And despite that, there was something entirely restless about him.
Some kind of bubbling underneath the skin, that felt like the air did, the moment just before thunder struck.
So whatever it was that he intended to do, Naruto was planning to do something big.
They were sitting on one of the cliffs that overlooked the ocean.
"I'm fine, really, Ino." He said, laughing. It didn't seem to reach his eyes.
She tried to push her worries away, she really did. But this cemented them.
"I know you're not." She said, simply. "And if you don't want to talk about it, I understand completely. You never pushed either, after you rescued me."
The fake smile slipped off his face. He seemed pensive.
"But if you ever want to talk, I'm here. Always." She said, her hand on his shoulder.
He grasped it, saying nothing at first, content to stare at the wide ocean.
"It's not what you think." He ended up saying. "It's not about the torture, or anything like that. The worst thing that did... was giving me too much time alone with my thoughts."
"How can you be so sure?"
"I just know it. Physical pain, I know I heal from quickly. And as for the mental part…" He chuckled, low and unamused. "It's nothing worse than what my dreams usually are, really. And for the mental side as well... I heal faster than normal."
"We still don't know anything about the way the Nine-Tails chakra heals the mind, though." Ino interjected.
"Which can go either way." Naruto stressed.
Ino let out a sigh. She was not about to dive into his mind, never without his permission, but his surface thoughts seemed to confirm what he was saying. The conditions of his stay in Kumo didn't really seem to come up much. Which was very unusual.
"What is it about, then?" She finally asked.
He chuckled darkly. "The same shit as always. I don't want to bore you with it."
"You won't." She insisted.
He looked at her, and for the first time, she realized he really was Orochimaru's student. For good and for bad.
Alhough Ino couldn't read them, there were many thoughts running through Naruto's mind. And the memories he has gained, the visions he has seen of past, present and future only confirmed what he had been thinking. No matter how things were, the villages would always find a new way to fuck each other over.
"The shinobi world is rotten to the core." Is what he ended up saying.
Ino hesitated. The same thoughts had been on her own mind, more than a few times.
"Always has been." He continued.
"It is." She acknowledged.
"There's no saving bastards like Danzō, Ōnoki, A, Yagura… Nagato."
Naruto distantly saw futures where things worked out decently for a while, when everybody else was cowed by a powerful enough individual or organization. No matter how many times he thought about it, that was the only way to ensure peace. Both Indra and Asura knew it, too.
The world-scale equivalent of wrestling your opponent into submission. Because the world was who the opponent was.
"They won't change. They won't budge. They became what they had to become. Remorseless, cold, uncaring."
And Danzō probably was the worst offender, here, according to what Naruto remembered. The others at least could at least say that they were doing their best to help the village grow. Or that they had been hypnotized into it.
Or some of them, at least. Danzō seemed to be ready to actively harm his own village, if it meant gaining more personal power. And he had done so in other possible futures.
Well. He amended himself. The others likely were not much better, if at all. And in all of his lives, Konoha remained the village he tended to grow up in, so it was no wonder that he had seen more of it.
"Because the first thing the shinobi world takes from you is your empathy."
And he knew about it. Just how easy killing was becoming, every time he did so. Ino stayed silent.
"Guilt, regret, empathy for your enemy, they all lead to hesitation. And that will get you killed… or caught… or get the people you care about killed. That's why shinobi kill these feelings first. Or the villages do it for them, if they keep at it long enough."
Because seeing your enemies as humans would make you hesitate.
Ino knew this. "It's true. But how could this change? As long as there are humans, and as long as there's chakra… This is almost guaranteed to happen."
Peaceful Nations never really lasted long. The length of time for which they existed… usually lasted from their birth to the moment their neighbors decided to militarize.
"There's only one thing that would make the villages listen. Power." He shrugged. "Enough power to tear the world down."
"…That's what Akatsuki is doing, isn't it…?" She said, unsure where he was going with that. And afraid, too.
He answered slowly. "They might have started with the right idea."
Ino held her breath, hoping he wasn't-
He continued. "I don't know how they lost it on the way. Inciting wars, causing such bloodshed, controlling people from the shadows, only to have them do their bidding… Building a weapon of mass destruction or whatever it is they are doing… That's not the solution."
Ino breathed out, just now realizing how tense she had been.
"No." He said, looking at her very, very seriously. His purple eyes almost shone. "I'm trying to find a better way."
Ino did not know what to say exactly. She thought, long and hard.
"You can't change the world alone."
"No. But I'm not alone. I have you." He said simply.
Whether he noticed that her heart skipped a beat or not, he didn't show.
And she knew that by 'you', he meant 'all of them'… but just for a moment, she pushed that aside.
"Yes. You do." She said, coming closer to him.
"We'll find a way. I know it." He smiled, pulling her in.
"Which reminds me…" He said, a bit later, after thinking about it some more.
She gave him a questioning look. "Yeah?" It wasn't like him to be so hesitant.
"Of course, you really don't need to feel like you have to… But do you want us to... link?" Naruto finally asked.
Ino looked at him, not saying anything.
"Again, you don't have to." He repeated.
"…I thought you'd never ask." She said with a quiet voice.
"Huh?" He blinked. "Oh. I thought it was asking too much from you, considering… well, everything. And even now, I still don't know what it means exactly, or if it's going to influence you, or me… or anyone."
Maybe the right decision was to not bother with it at all, he thought. There were plenty of ways they could-
"I think I'll be fine." Ino decided. "Let's do it."
"You sure sure?"
"I am." She repeated.
"…Okay, then. Let's do it."
"…Uh." Ino's cheeks turned red. "What do we have to do exactly…?"
She seemed… nervous? Excited?
"Don't worry, it's not much, really." He reassured her. "Hold my hand."
"Oh. That's it…?"
He took her hand.
"Alright, I have you." He whispered.
He was so familiar with Ino that he barely had to try.
Naruto reached out to Ino. Her chakra touched his, and they met midway. Wind-Lightning-Storm and Yin-Earth.
A tendril of chakra formed into a bond.
He saw her and she saw him, wordlessly.
Naruto pulled.
"Um. How do I look?" Probably ridiculous, she felt.
Ino stood, a tengu mask over her face, complete with a flowing white material that looked like hair coming out of its back.
"You'd look good in just about anything." Naruto chuckled.
"…Thanks." She muttered, glad her face was hidden away. "So, what does it do…?"
"Uh… I really have no idea yet."
Anko and Toru were walking through Umi's center.
"…and yeah, I'm sorry for us having such a rough start. Kinda." Anko said, by way of apology. Hanabi had gone away to find some place where she could study the scroll some more, in peace.
"Eh. I like spirited women." Toru shot back, his lone eye taking in the developing village. Yeah. He could get used to this kind of place.
She snorted. "You've got balls for somebody who's… what? Sixteen?"
"What?!" He shouted in outrage. "I'm eighteen, and I look like it."
"Uh huh. I'm not really interested in kids." She said dryly.
"You said really." Toru pointed out.
"I meant to put it at the end of the sentence."
"But you didn't-"
Toru suddenly froze mid-sentence. Anko looked at whatever it was that he had seen.
'Ah, yeah, that would do it.'
Uzumaki Naruto was apparently back in Umi, and he and Ino were currently discussing the merits of mangoes, compared to those of pineapples. Heatedly.
Naruto noticed them. "Anko!" Then he saw Toru and froze too.
Toru looked at him, really looked at him.
"It's really you…" Toru breathed out.
Naruto shot a worried look at Anko, unsure what to make of the situation. 'How did you bring them?' he seemed to mouth.
"I… guess?" Naruto let out, a hand scratching the back of his head.
The expressions, now that he knew about Naruto's actual identity, Toru could recognize.
"You… I thought you were dead." He just said.
"Yeah…" Naruto winced. "Sorry."
"It's…"
Toru stepped forward, holding his arms out, eye shiny. Naruto let him come, feeling a bit emotional himself, opening his arms for a hesitant hug. They walked closer to each other and Anko let out a somewhat fond smile, that she would later swear was just amusement at what she would pretend she had known was coming.
Because Toru punched Naruto in the ear. Hard.
"You fucking…!" Naruto grunted in pain. He was walking around in circles, swearing and moaning. "Why the ear…? Fuck!"
Toru gave a long glance to Ino, but decided she really was not responsible for the shit that had happened, so he settled for a nod that she returned hesitantly. He focused back on Naruto.
"You still owe me a spar, don't you…?" Toru growled. "Let's have it now."
Naruto let out a long suffering sigh, his head still ringing.
"Yeah, okay. Let's do that."