SUMMARY: I've finally regained some motivation! And I'm sorry.
Neither Ra, Re nor Ru are coping.
Re doesn't want to go anywhere.
She doesn't want to do anything.
She just wants to lie there and cry and scream and shout.
Re is fractured, splintered, broken.
She feels numb, empty.
But Re still cares about the seal with what little emotion she can procure.
So she forces herself up.
Forces herself to her feet, just like all the other times.
She has to.
Neji keeps a little distance between them but he looks hurt.
But she just cannot bring herself to move closer.
She is already out of her comfort zone and now she is going to the one place she has always avoided.
The Hyuuga clan compound.
She looks too much like a Hyuuga.
Even if they can't see her Byakugan.
Re doesn't want to be separated from her teammates.
She doesn't want to be trapped in those walls and never be let out.
But she will walk into the lions' den anyway.
The seal is more important.
Much more important than her.
It is worth being eaten.
If she is going to be trapped, it doesn't matter.
At least she can be content in the knowledge that she is abolishing slavery.
Because that is what the seal does.
And people have died for much less.
Re doesn't want to be 'people'.
But she knows she must help, knows it and wears it.
Her duty.
What will she be if she ignore their suffering, if she too turns a blind eye?
It will work.
It has to work.
Re'll make it work.
So she hauls herself to her feet, instead of curling up into a ball.
She pushes aside her fear, her shock, her anger.
She will have no use for it where she must go.
Ru detaches himself from her reluctantly but he understands.
He would do the same.
But she aches for him and Ra and Anko and Yurenai.
But he must go too.
He has his own problem to deal with.
Ra knows she made a mistake.
She was stupid, too overconfident.
Was she not warned?
Was she not told to never underestimate her opponents?
She has spent too long being safe, her instincts are not what they were.
Ra does not scream.
The hands latch on to her but she cannot.
Maybe she is not meant to be free.
Not meant to run like Ru or escape elsewhere like Re with a book.
Ra is not meant to be free so she does not try to struggle.
She never struggles.
She knows better than that.
What is the use of struggling?
It'll make them angry.
Ra does not fight back.
Why should she?
"Naruto." the Hokage calls.
Ru looks at him, boldly.
Naruto is bold, Naruto is brash.
Naruto loves the Hokage, calls him Jiji.
Naruto is loyal.
"Yes, Jiji!" Naruto calls brightly, loudly.
Naruto is glittering and loud, the perfect distraction.
"This is Jiraiya."
Sure enough, the white-haired pervert stands there.
The nin looks at him with poorly-disguised longing, like he wants something.
Ru manages not to grit his teeth.
He manages not to attack him.
Naruto calls out a greeting then, blunt.
Blunter than a century old kunai.
"The pervert!"
"Naruto!" Jiji calls scoldingly.
But Ru is rising under the surface, enraged.
This is the man.
It is too kind a word.
This, this... Jiraiya is the one who - who spied on his sister.
Jiraiya would be a death he wouldn't regret.
Naruto doesn't respond.
The pervert looks hurt.
Good.
He deserves it.
Re's glassy eyes and frozen face flash across him mind.
Ru forces himself to breathe.
Naruto huffs and crosses his arms.
"Why is he here?" he asks like a child throwing a tantrum.
It's probably all he can get away with.
"Naruto..." it's half a platitude, half a warning.
Mostly, Ru finds it condescending.
"Jiraya is here to help me."
The emphasis on Jiraiya is not lost on Ru.
It is, however, lost on Naruto.
Ru will not deny the vindictive pleasure it gives him.
Jiraiya deserves it, deserves much worse.
Frosty smiles and angry childishness is the best Ru can do.
But Jiraiya flinches.
It's worth something so Ru does not relent.
Jiji, seeming to sense that Naruto refuses to listen continues.
"Look, Naruto, I'm getting old and..."
"No offence, old man, but I know that." Naruto replies, impatient as always.
He wishes Jiji would get on with it.
Ru's brain is already whirling.
Ra might be the brains but he's no slouch.
She probably rubbed off on him.
Jiraiya, Hokage: Retirement or death?
Retirement probably so he wants Jiraiya to track someone down.
But who?!
It couldn't be, could it?
But the village has just suffered a war so it would make sense - and continue the tradition.
Hokage to student.
Not Orochimaru (even if he'd be better than Jiraiya, at least he owns that he's a creepy evil genius).
Not Jiraiya: he's already in a supporting role.
It has to be Tsunade.
Tsunade who all three of them admire.
Tsunade who- the Hokage tuts at Naruto.
"I need your help with finding my successor."
Ru's brain comes to an abrupt halt.
Naruto gapes at the Hokage, shocked he can do something for his Jiji.
Ru tries not to think, to reach the unfavourable conclusion.
It doesn't work very well.
Jiraiya looks at him again wistfully.
Ru feels like throwing up.
He sees where this is going.
But Naruto doesn't so he taps his foot impatiently.
"And old man?" he finally asks, "Why is the pervert here?"
The Hokage fixes him with a stern glare.
But Naruto doesn't care, having been taught no manners.
Why should he be nice?
And why would Ru be nice?
Why would Ru be nice when he's seen everything he wants to see of Jiraiya?
He doesn't want to be in the same town as him.
He probably doesn't have a choice.
"You are going to work together to find Senju Tsunade."
"But Jiji!" Naruto whines.
"You want to help me, don't you Naruto?" the Hokage asks and Ru bottles it quickly.
"You leave now."