Disclaimer: Naruto is copyrighted by their respective owners, of which I am not one.
Warnings: Language, Spoilers up to anime episode 141. Unbeta-ed. AR, slight character OOC
Summary: I watched him, the little boy turned grown-up shinobi who couldn't understand why anyone would willingly betray their home. In a way, I was glad he couldn't understand. It was proof that his own loyalty would never be broken.
"Why did you do it?"
I glanced up, alerted by the question even as I carefully hid my wince. Of course it was Konohamaru asking. Or perhaps demanding was a better term. The expression on his face was a mixture of anger and disbelief. As if he had been personally wronged and was now seeking answers.
The snappish question was directed to our prisoner, positioned slightly away from the fire we had made when we decided to camp for the night. She was seated with her legs tucked underneath her body, the flames reflecting a sullen expression and dull brown eyes. Her clothes were smudged with dirt and splatters of blood, torn at the elbows, and reeked like dirty socks that had been boiled in a vat of vinegar before being air-dried. Her hands were clasped together in the front, cuffed with a chakra absorbing jutsu; if she even so much as activated her chakra, the metal bracelet would automatically activate and suck the energy from her. The cuffs were chained to the tree she was leaning against so she couldn't run. A handy gift given to us before we left on this mission.
The mission itself wasn't too difficult: retrieve a missing-nin of Konoha and the registration forms of the most current batch of Academy graduates she had taken. Those forms held all the information on the newest genins, categorizing their weakness and strengths, listing the jutsus they learned, and rating them based on their statistics of strength, dexterity, chakra level, and chakra control. It also ranked them on their genjutsu, ninjutsu, and taijutsu abilities. If the forms were delivered to our enemies, they would be able to use the information against the future generation of Konoha shinobi in the years to come.
Apparently, she had been heading towards Rain when we caught up to her. She was a low-level chuunin who had worked at the Academy so this was classified as a B-level. Konohamaru, having recently been promoted from genin, demanded to take this mission as he had known the kunoichi from the Academy.
One Nakasaka Emiko, once a bright flame for the future of Konoha, now a missing-nin.
It was sad.
Beside me, Hyuuga Hanabi stirred and shot a glare at Konohamaru. "Why are you asking her such ridiculous questions? What does it matter why so long as she did it and will be punished for it?"
Konohamaru returned the glare, apparently unfazed by the famed Hyuuga look. Brave (or foolish?) of him. "Why do you care what I ask so long as she is caught and punished?" he sniped back.
I had to stifle a sigh as they geared up for argument number nine. The old hag had done this to me on purpose, I just knew it. Not only did she assign me (only available jounin at the moment my foot! I know I saw Kakashi lounging on the bookstore roof giggling over his stupid porn novels) to watch over the two chuunin for their very first mission together, but she had to assign Konohamaru and a Hyuuga. Yes, I said that right. Konohamaru and Hanabi. Yin and Yang. Oil and Water. Honey and Toast.
Actually, I heard honey and toast went well together. Never mind.
Anyway! The whole point was it just wasn't done! Everyone knew that! Even Iruka-sensei had given me a pitying look (!) when I bumped into him outside the Ichiraku stand for one final meal before I left. In all his years of him watching over me, even when I was a pesky Academy student in his class, he had never pitied me before. It horrified me to no end – after all, if Iruka-sensei, the embodiment of patience, felt sorry for me, it had to be bad. I even thought I saw sympathy reflecting off Shino's dark glasses when I passed by him on the way to the front gate to meet my team. It just wasn't done.
But it had been and now I had to bear the consequence of it all. The start of the mission hadn't been so bad; we were almost a full day behind Emiko and had to race to catch up with her before she reached Rain Country. The speed which we employed wasn't really conducive to talking except in brief, short bursts to communicate new information to one another. Believe me, I know. I've tried it.
Yes, even the great Uzumaki Naruto has his limitations. There aren't many, but they were there.
In any case, I had to cut in before this conversation turned out to be a full-blown battle complete with shuriken (without the desire to miss the target) and jutsus (without the unspoken agreement not to overdo it).
Plus, we were being watched. Someone obviously wanted those registration forms badly.
Of course, I didn't tell the chuunin this. I was merely along to watch and see how they performed in their first mission together. And should anything untoward happen, step in and rescue their arses. And tease Konohamaru about it later. For the rest of his life. In front of his kids, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Hey, he'd do the same to me. Honest. I rubbed off on the kid in more ways than one.
In any case, I raised my hand to garner their attention. They saw the gesture and fell into a silent glaring contest. I dropped my arm, pleased to see they were so obedient. One point for their respective jounin sensei.
I went back to staring at the fire, the hairs on my neck prickling even further as I sensed another two pairs of eyes watching us from the trees. There were now six of them, which still shouldn't be too much of a problem for two chuunin and one exceptionally trained and handsome jounin. I waited for my team – either of them – to notice we had visitors.
It didn't happen. Konohamaru finished the staring contest with Hanabi (I don't know who won and I'd rather be licked by Orochimaru than ask since it would probably start another argument on who triumphed over the other) and swung his attention back to our prisoner, who had ignored our conversation throughout her capture. He glared at her but Emiko ignored him. He glared harder. Hanabi would probably have rolled her eyes if she had eyeballs to roll.
I lifted my head slightly, watching the flames capture Konohamaru's dark hair and eyes, lighting up his features. The years had been good to the kid judged the second-loudest ninja in Konoha. He was now almost as tall as I was, hair cropped short and close to his head. The sensible style only revealed the strong, full features of his face. Sometimes it was painful to look at him because I could absolutely see Old Man Hokage in him. He had the same facial structure and pronounced jaw, the same lilted smile and twinkling eyes. The intelligence and strength were also there, though still not fully developed.
I had to smile to myself; in a few years, Konohamaru might give me a good race for the title of Rokudaime.
Hanabi wordlessly offered another food bar to Emiko who refused with a disdainful sniff. Konohamaru had suggested we not bother to give her food at all (though forcing her to eat one could also be considered a punishment; those ration bars tasted rather nasty) but the Hyuuga pointed out logically that she would need to keep her strength up on the journey home. We were only a day and a half away from Konoha, but we were all eager to return as quickly as possible.
Well, everyone except Emiko, that is.
I kept waiting for someone to mention the six people surrounding us, but they didn't. Hanabi hadn't activated her Byakugan since we had caught up with the missing-nin and Konohamaru was too busy trying to get a word out from our prisoner. I sighed, wondering if I should say anything at all. But really, weren't chuunin supposed to notice these things?
At any rate, I quietly formed a few hand seals without their notice (minus one point – sheesh, what were shinobi taught these days?) as a backup. Just in case.
"So why did you betray us?" Konohamaru demanded yet again. "How could you turn your back against your own people and home?"
Emiko, predictably, didn't answer. I winced at the question again. No one noticed.
Well, this was ridiculous. I reminded myself to pull pranks on Hanabi and Konohamaru until they began to be aware of their surroundings. That would force them to pay attention if they didn't want to be egged, creamed, trapped, or otherwise embarrassed.
Okay, maybe not on Hanabi. The Hyuugas would have my head. Neji would have my head. I'm mischievous, not suicidal.
But Konohamaru was still fair game. Hehehe.
"Stop asking that question," Hanabi snapped, her voice edgy. "It's a ridiculous one and she won't answer. Just go to sle-" She stopped suddenly and glanced around swiftly, Byakugan activating smoothly. I had to restrain the urge to jump up and dance for joy. Finally!
Well, I had to move a moment later anyway. A shower of senbon rained down upon us, courtesy of the rain nin. While Hanabi leapt away and pulled out a kunai, I dove towards Konohamaru. Hitting him hard, we both fell on the ground and I rolled us out of the way.
"Ow! Get off, Nii-chan, you're heavy!" was the first thing I heard Konohamaru say. Rolling my eyes, I hopped up to my feet and glanced at Hanabi. She was already crouched in front of Emiko, weapon ready to protect the prisoner. She scanned the area briefly before calling out.
"Show yourself! You can't hide from me."
After a long stretch of silence, a single nin dropped down in front of her, hands spread to show he had no weapons. He was surprisingly short but stocky, dressed in standard shinobi uniform. A dirty bandage was wrapped around his head like a makeshift turban so that only a few tendrils of dark hair peeped from under the cloth. Over the cloth and on his forehead was a slanted hitai-ate that was probably supposed to make him look cool or something. "A bloodline limit. How lucky for us," he drawled. I tensed slightly, alert at his confident appearance and the strong flow of chakra I sensed. He was definitely a jounin.
Konohamaru cursed and climbed up to his feet, rubbing his shoulder. "How many are there?" he asked his partner tersely. I remained silent to see what the chuunin would do next.
"There are six of us," the Rain nin said for Hanabi. "All we want is the girl and registration forms. Care to trade? You'll live in exchange for what we want. It seems fair, don't you think?"
"Sorry, we don't bargain," Konohamaru said. "I suggest you leave before you regret it."
The Rain nin snorted in derision. "We've been watching you for the past hour and just now you noticed – after one of us shook a branch apart. With that sort of incompetence, it's amazing you're not dead yet."
That caught Hanabi and Konohamaru off guard. They turned and glared at me. I blinked at the sheer venom in their eyes and spread my hands apart in placation. "What? I'm just here to watch you two, not do your job." I then folded my arms across my chest and gave them a pointed look. "He's right, you know," I said, jerking my head in the direction of the Rain nin. "You two should have noticed his little groupie a while ago. Didn't your sensei teach you to look underneath the underneath?"
Turban Head glanced at me appraisingly. "You're babysitting, too?"
I nodded and heaved a long-suffering sigh. "Were we ever so young and inexperienced?"
"Perhaps a long time ago," the Rain nin conceded. "But I would think by now they would be better prepared in the ways of the world. Just yesterday, one of my charges fell into a trap – that she set herself!"
I heard a faint groan and someone from the trees hiss, "Sensei! You promised you'd never mention that again!"
I grinned and gestured at Konohamaru. "He thought that since he's now a chuunin, they would be allowed to sleep at inns when he's out on a mission."
"Naruto Nii-chan!" said chuunin half shrieked.
Turban Head and I just laughed and shook our heads at their foolishness. Kids these days.
"Hayashi-san, if you're done making nice with the enemy, maybe you can get me out of these chains?" a dry voice asked. We turned our heads and looked at Emiko, who had managed to struggle to her feet. She was still bound to the tree and gave a half-hearted attempt at breaking loose from the chakra-absorbing cuffs to emphasize her point.
"Ah, right, Nakasaka-san." Hayashi turned and bowed at me. "Forgive me, but we have a mission to do."
I nodded. "As do we." Understanding passed between us in one of those bizarre moments of connection. We both readied ourselves for a battle.
A split second later, another hail of senbon came raining down on us. As close as we were to one another, we had to dive out of the way. All except Hanabi, who stood her ground and blocked most of them with her kunai. The few that made it past her guard lodged in her right arm and upper thigh.
"Baka! What are you doing?" Konohamaru called from the safety of his position a few feet away. "They're not going to kill their own ally!"
"If any of them get near her, they can find a way to release the cuffs, stupid," Hanabi snarled back. Two nins dropped in front of her as she spoke and she grinned ferally at them. I could tell she was all too willing to introduce them to her jyuken technique. As I suspected, Hanabi threw the kunai to free her hands in preparation for the attack. The weapon sped past me and struck a moving target that was behind me just as I began battling the Rain jounin.
Of course I knew he was there. I was just waiting until he got closer. Really.
"Stay alert, everyone, the girl has a bloodline limit," my opponent called out even as he dodged my scissor kick to the head.
We were both keeping one eye out for our charges and not really paying much attention to our own fight. It was more like a 'our-team-is-fighting-so-I-guess-we-should-too' type battle. Plus, it made sure we were too busy with each other to help the chuunins running amok. Though they outnumbered us two to one, I was quite confident in my teams' abilities to take care of themselves.
Of course, no sooner did I convince myself with that thought did Konohamaru prove me wrong. He leapt into the air in a high jump and dropped into the middle of the battleground with that toothy, cocky grin of his. "Don't worry, Hyuuga, I've got your back," he said breezily, engaging in a fight with the two remaining nin.
"Konohamaru! Don't be so reckless!" I called out, obligingly dodging a water jutsu thrown in my direction. I almost froze when I realized what I had just said.
Wait a minute. Did I actually warn someone not to be reckless?
If Kakashi-sensei or Iruka-sensei – hell, if Sakura-chan ever found out, I'd never be able to live it down.
Resolving to swear Konohamaru to secrecy later, I glanced briefly at Hanabi. Despite the senbon needles still stuck in her body, she seemed to be handling herself well. She was using the famed Gentle Fist technique and pretty much kicking butt with her opponents. Somehow, Konohamaru had maneuvered himself to stand near Hanabi and he wasn't doing so bad himself. But as I blocked a punch-kick-punch-elbow combination, I noticed that he had been forced back unusually close to Emiko, still chained to the tree.
Far too close.
But before I could call out a warning to him, Emiko lunged forward. Sliding a hand into his weapons holster, she managed to grab a kunai and immediately yanked it out of the pouch to snap under Konohamaru's chin.
"Don't move or the dimwit gets a new food hole," she snarled.
Everyone froze for a long moment as the situation was assessed. I slowly lowered my fists and straightened up, watching Emiko intently. Hanabi, who was much closer than I, turned to watch them with her blank eyes, also giving up the fight without protest.
I could see Konohamaru's expression of anger and guilt at himself. "I'm sorry, Naruto-nii-chan," he said. He avoided looking at his partner before mumbling, "I'm sorry, Hanabi-chan."
"It's all right, Konohamaru," I said while Hayashi walked over to the still couple.
"Good job, Nakasaka-san. We'll get you out in a minute."
The grip on the kunai tightened as Emiko dug the blade in a little deeper into the skin as if it was a reflex to Turban Head's nearness. I could see a trail of crimson slivering down Konohamaru's throat. "The girl put the cuff on me. She can take it off with her chakra," she informed the Rain jounin tersely.
Hayashi nodded and looked over at Hanabi. "Take it off of her, please. And don't try to rescue your friend, you won't succeed. We'll be watching you."
Hanabi glanced at me and I nodded. She stepped forward and put a hand on the metal bracelets on Emiko's wrist, concentrating her chakra on it. A few seconds later, there was a clicking noise and the cuffs fell to the ground, releasing our prisoner from her bonds.
Emiko made a satisfied noise. "Finally. If I had to listen to this dimwit whine anymore I was ready to slit my own throat."
"A pity you didn't," I thought I heard Hanabi murmur as she moved back a step. But no one else reacted so maybe I imagined it.
"So, what now?" I asked the Rain jounin. I was still too far away to help Konohamaru and the five shinobi were arranged around us. Emiko was too experienced to let her guard down and the kunai against the throat had never wavered even as she was released from her bindings. There was nothing I could do but wait for an opportunity to strike.
Hayashi shrugged. "We'll kill you and get the registration forms. We go home."
The words were so nonchalant it should have bothered me, but I had been a ninja too long to be affected by them. Besides, the situation could have easily been reversed.
However, Konohamaru had no intention of acquiescing to his fate. "What? Are you going to take her with you?" he demanded, jerking his head back slightly to indicate Emiko. The movement caused the kunai to press in deeper and more crimson trails race down to disappear into his shirt.
"Stay still, idiot," I snapped, relieved Emiko wasn't so jumpy she would have slit his throat at the careless motion.
Konohamaru ignored me, staring at the Rain jounin intently instead. "Well?" he said. "Do you realize that she betrayed Konoha, her home? What's to keep her from betraying you in the end, too?"
Hayashi considered the chuunin for a long moment before shrugging. "I don't know. But she would know better than that. Don't you, Nakasaka-san?"
"Of course, Hayashi-san. I only want what was promised to me," she said smoothly.
I could tell Konohamaru wanted to stomp his feet in frustration. Growing up with the kid dogging after my every step had taught me how to read him like a book. "But what did that bastard promise you that you'd break your loyalty to your own home and people?" he demanded. "What could possibly be better than those things?"
Emiko smirked though Konohamaru could hardly see it from his position. "Wouldn't you like to know, dimwit?" she said silkily.
"Enough of this. Ochika, get the registration forms. Probably among the jounin's things there," Hayashi ordered. "Toro and Furo, tie him and the girl of them up." He glanced at me, a brief look of apology crossing his eyes. "Please cooperate and we'll make your deaths as painless as we can make it."
I caught Hanabi's eye and shook my head slightly to indicate she shouldn't try any heroics. With Konohamaru still under Emiko's control, it was safer to play it out.
Of course, waiting any longer would kill us, too, but I would be damned before I'd let Konohamaru die. At least not without me going first.
Once the registration forms were secured by the Rain kunoichi, Hanabi and I were relieved of our weapons (believe me, being searched by inexperienced shinobi was not fun – they were poking in places I didn't even know existed) before being tied back to back with one another. I tested the rope gingerly with my chakra and winced as it squeezed around us. I felt Hanabi flinch and realized it was imbued with a ninjutsu that cinched the rope tighter in response to any chakra used on it. There was a smirk on one of the Rain shinobi's face (it was either Toro or Furo, I couldn't tell) as he saw my reaction to it. With no other option left, we were forced to sit near our abandoned campfire as Hayashi turned to Emiko and Konohamaru.
"You did well, Nakasaka-san," Turban Head said approvingly. "However …" He lunged forward in a movement so quick I could barely follow it with my eyes. "The dimwit, as you so fondly called him, is right. There is no way we could trust you. After all, we shinobi are rather paranoid when it comes to loyalty."
There was a choked gasp and I craned my neck, realizing Emiko had been stabbed on the right side of her stomach with a kunai. Hayashi calmly lifted her hand away from Konohamaru's neck and kicked the chuunin aside, causing him to stumble away. Twisting Emiko's wrist until she dropped the weapon, he stepped back and studied her for a long moment before shaking his head. "And besides, Nakasaka-san, you are too, too weak. Konoha was right in denying you a higher rank. What would Rain do with such a pitiful kunoichi?"
Emiko glared at Hayashi's betrayal, collapsing to her knees as her hands went around the weapon poking from her stomach. "Bastard," she rasped out. "You never intended to take me with you, did you?"
Turban Head shrugged, unconcerned. "Those were my orders." For a brief moment, I almost felt pity for Emiko.
Almost. After all, the Rain-nin was right. Betray once and you'll betray again. They couldn't be trusted anymore. I had learned that lesson myself, the hard way.
Konohamaru, I noticed, had frozen the moment he was freed, uncertain of what was going on. When he finally turned and noticed what happened to Emiko, he hissed and turned his murderous gaze upon the Rain jounin.
"Konohamaru, no!" I said sharply. I had to stop the idiot before he decided to be brave and rescue everyone, thereby ensuring his death. "Stand still – and that is an order!"
He glanced at me and I glared to show how serious I was. The rest of the Rain shinobi weren't shy in showing him their weapons and he reluctantly stood down.
"Very nice," Hayashi said approvingly. "He has hope yet. Well, Naruto, was it? It was a pleasure but my team and I will be going now. Thank you kindly for the registration forms. Because our mission indicated only retrieving the papers, I will let you three live. After all, your team seems to be strong." He smiled at the Konoha chuunin, as if they should be pleased by the compliment. "As for Nakasaka-san, she'll die within a few hours without prompt medical attention so I suggest you make her comfortable instead of trying to save her life." He studied me for a moment. "I'd be interested in fighting you for real some day. Perhaps we'll meet again."
"Perhaps," I said noncommittally.
After one last bow, Hayashi ordered two of his shinobi to pick up their dead comrade, courtesy of Hanabi; gathering the remaining nin, they vanished into the trees as silently as they had appeared.
The instant they left, Konohamaru leapt forward and freed us from the rope.
No, actually, he leapt forward towards Emiko and inspected her wound. The brat. I made a mental note to teach him about priorities the moment we returned to Konoha.
"He's right, the wound is fatal," Konohamaru said. "And it must hurt."
"It does. Would you like me to show you?" Emiko rasped.
The chuunin glared at her. "Hey, I'm trying to help, it's not my fault you went all crazy and left Konoha. This all happened because of you!"
"Shut up, dimwit. The last thing I want to hear before I die is your nasally voice whining," the kunoichi snapped.
"What you could do is free us from this rope, stupid," Hanabi added, tugging uselessly at the tight bonds.
Konohamaru glared at his partner but stood up, heading over to us. Pulling a kunai from his weapons holster, he set about to saw the rope apart. "Ungrateful women," I heard him mutter.
If Sakura-chan had heard that, he would be soooo dead.
While Hanabi and Konohamaru were busy glaring at each other, I looked over at Emiko. Her hand was inching forward to the kunai she had been forced to drop earlier. "Konohamaru!" I shouted.
He snapped his head around just as Emiko grasped the weapon and hefted it in her hand. "Dammit," he growled, turning his body to protect us in case she felt the need to hurl the kunai in our direction.
"You asked me a question, dimwit," Emiko said, her voice catching as her wound bubbled and bled around the entry point. "You asked me why I betrayed Konoha. Do you want to know the reason? The real reason?"
Konohamaru was staring at the kunai but he nodded his head. "Yeah, I do."
Emiko tried to smirk but it was hard when a sharp metal object was poking out from you and causing who knows how much pain. "I did it, dimwit, because no one appreciated what I did for them. I worked hard all my life to give the Hokage my everything. I gave up my time and strength and money – yes, even my money! – to do her bidding. But after six years of loyal service, what am I told? I'm not qualified to be a jounin. I still need to work on my skills and try harder." I noticed her grip on the kunai tightening until her knuckles turned white. "Harder! After I've given my all, they told me I wasn't good enough?" Despite the weakning voice, it was still obvious she was feeling pissed about the whole situation.
I knew how she felt. I had been there, at one time.
"Not … good … enough! Do you know what it feels like to be told I'm not good enough?"
"Yes," Konohamaru said bluntly.
That answer apparently surprised Emiko but she quickly recovered. "How would you know, dimwit?" she sneered. "You're Sandaime's grandson. You've got it easy."
"Wrong," the chuunin said flatly. "I didn't get it easy at all. In fact, I had to try harder than everyone because I had to live up to the legendary Third. Every time I failed, people always asked 'But how could you get it wrong? The Sandaime must have been very disappointed in you.' They never saw me. They saw my grandfather."
I noticed Hanabi was staring at Konohamaru, looking as startled as a Hyuuga could look without losing their cool poise. It was obviously something she hadn't considered before. I wondered if that would change her mind about her partner.
Emiko, too, was rather surprised at his vehement response. But after a moment she shook her head. "You still don't get it. But then again, I don't expect a moron like you to."
"I get it all right. You've betrayed your friends, your family, your comrades, your home just because you didn't make jounin level," Konohamaru said quietly. "That makes you even more pitiful."
A flare of hate lit Emiko's eyes for a moment. "You'll know what I'm talking about someday, dimwit," she hissed. "And when you do, know that I'll be laughing at you in hell." And before we could even blink, she plunged the kunai into her throat.
Konohamaru started as Emiko gurgled in pain, hands scrabbling at the knife as if suddenly regretting her action. But it was too late. A moment later, she fell over on one side, dead.
Silence fell for a long moment. Konohamaru stared at the body for what seemed like forever until I softly called his name to get his attention. He blinked twice to fight back the haze clouding his mind and I could see the pained, confused expression in his eyes.
"Dammit, the mission was a complete failure," Hanabi fumed as her partner finally turned away and resumed sawing at the rope.
I sighed. "Not quite. After all, we're still alive and we have the registration forms back. All in all, it could have been worse."
As the ropes fell away, both chuunin stared at me as if I had told them I was the god of death in disguise. "Um, Uzumaki-san, the Rain nin took the papers, remember?" Hanabi said bluntly. No doubt she was wondering if I had finally lost it.
I smiled wryly. "Actually, they took a bunch of my field notes. I switched them with the registration forms before they attacked." I stood up and took a quick inventory on my team while they stared at me, open-mouthed. Except for Hanabi's senbon wounds (which were still in her – damn, was the girl a masochist or something?), we were all in pretty good shape. Good enough to make excellent time back home.
"But … how … when?" Hanabi stuttered. "I didn't see you cast a jutsu at all!"
I smiled lazily at her as I removed the registration forms from inside my shirt. "That's why, my dear, you're still a chuunin and I am a jounin."
Konohamaru got over his amazement fast enough. Dismissing the matter entirely (he could have at least acted impressed!), he glanced over his shoulder at the dead body. "What do we do about her, Naruto Nii-chan?" he asked quietly.
I sighed, knowing I'd have to talk to him about what happened today. "We'll inform the ANBU who will get a hunter-nin and take care of it all. Don't worry about it, Konohamaru. Let's just go home and get these papers back where the belong."
- - - - -
"I still don't understand."
I strode up next to Konohamaru who was staring at the Hero's Stone so intently I was half afraid it was going to crack under the pressure. His hand traced over the same name again and again, displaying his agitation. "Don't understand what?" I asked although I had a sneaking suspicion I knew exactly what.
Konohamaru heaved a sigh as his hand finally dropped away from the worn stone. "I don't understand why anyone would be willing to betray their home and people just because they were passed over for a promotion. Doesn't it just mean they need to work harder so next time they won't be denied?"
"Most people, Konohamaru, don't have the same idea as you. People like Emiko, they don't understand the true meaning of hard work. We worked hard to get where we're at but there are those who think that they deserve it just because. And when they don't get what they want, they become bitter and angry. That'll lead them to do things like betray their home."
Konohamaru glanced at me, obviously surprised at my words. "I've ... never heard of you speak like that before."
I nodded and looked over all the names etched on the polished marble. "Yeah. It's been on my mind for a long time. Even before I was in the Academy." But more so after Sasuke, I added silently to myself.
The chuunin continued watching me though I didn't look at him. "It's cause the villagers treated you badly, isn't it?" he said finally. "That's why you worked so hard."
I shrugged, feeling distinctly uncomfortable about talking like this to Konohamaru. "I wanted to prove that they can't keep me down. Any kind of rejection will just make me work harder. But Emiko didn't have such drive. She wanted the easy way."
Konohamaru turned his attention back to his grandfather's name. "Just like I did, back when I was just a kid, I guess." He then shook his head. "But I still don't understand how someone could just take back their loyalty from one place and give it to another so easily," he murmured.
I put a hand on his head, just like I used to when he was younger. Surprisingly, he didn't push me aside like he would have done when years ago. "You know, Konohamaru, you may never understand it. But it's okay. We both love Konoha and we'll do our best to keep it safe." I ruffled his hair and this time, he did shove my hand away, slicking his mussed head back to its normal style. "I guess that's all we need to know."
Konohamaru glanced at me again, dark eyes still mirroring his confusion but willing to accept the situation for what it was. "Naruto Nii-chan, when did you get to be so smart?"
I gave him my fox grin, relieved he was willing to change the subject. "I've always been this smart. You were just too stupid to realize it. And stop calling me 'Nii-chan' you should practice calling me 'Hokage-sama'."
"Hah! In your dreams! I'm going to be the Rokudaime and nothing will stop me!" the chuunin exclaimed loudly. Good humor restored, he dashed away, calling, "Come on, Nii-chan, you can buy me some ramen while we talk about why I'd be the better Hokage!"
I watched him scamper off, the little boy turned grown-up shinobi who couldn't understand why anyone would willingly betray their home. My lips curved into a small smile. He may have to go through more training (okay, a lot more) but Konohamaru embodied the very spirit of this village. In a way, I was glad to know he couldn't understand Emiko's actions. It was proof that his own loyalty would never be broken.
AN: I think my one-shots are getting longer and wordier. Ah, well, if you muddled through this one, you deserve a lollypop. See my profile for future updates on my stories.