Chapter 47


"Dealing with people is hard. Sometimes, I wonder why I even try, I've always been more of an introvert. But when I think of running away from it all and living on my own, it feels just a bit lonely."


"Okay, the final check is good," Jiraiya announced grandly. "Seal's still insane and impossible to understand, but it's stable so we'll just have to assume that it's good. You're good to go kid." Gaara just nodded mutely, pulling on his shirt, while Baki glared at the sage grimly.

"Your assessment hardly inspires confidence," he remarked dryly, and Jiraiya chuckled, flashing him a sly grin.

"In my defense, I'm pretty sure even Mito wouldn't understand it," he countered as he started packing his supplies, rolling his eyes. After three days of travel they'd reached the border of Fire Country and River, where the Suna delegation would continue onwards to Wind alone, and naturally he'd wanted to give Gaara's seal a final examination. The hotel room hardly fit his criteria for an ideal examination room, but he could at least do a cursory inspection. At this point he had absolutely given up on understanding how the thing stayed stable and just chalked it up to magic.

He paused in his packing, his mouth quirking into a smile. "Ah, right, one last thing," he said, walking to the door. When he yanked it open it a certain blond nearly fell into the hotel room, yelping as he stumbled forward to regain his balance. The Sannin couldn't help but smirk at the new arrival, crossing his arms. "You know, gaki, it's rude to eavesdrop," he teased, and Naruto shot him an annoyed glare.

"Oh, can it already, Pervy Sage!" he grumbled. Jiraiya's eye twitched as he heard Baki quietly snort in amusement at the moniker, making him grind his teeth in irritation.

"That little nickname better not become a regular thing," he growled.

"But it fits," Naruto retorted blandly, folding his arms over his chest with a defiant glare. "Even Sakura-chan says so!" While Jiraiya sputtered in indignation Naruto turned his attention to Gaara, his expression quickly sobering.

"Hey," he greeted quietly, offering a small smile. "So... did it go okay?" Concern visibly flickered in his bright blue eyes as he spoke, his voice unusually quiet, and Gaara seemed taken aback by it. Jiraiya felt a pang of sympathy for the boy, figuring he'd had minimal exposure to any sort of kindness.

"I am... fine," the redhead replied, haltingly. "Apparently." Relief flooded Naruto's face and his shoulders sagged tiredly as he sighed.

"Oh, good. I was really worried." Once again Gaara looked mildly stunned, and Jiraiya couldn't help but smirk fondly.

"Hey, Naruto, why don't you and Gaara go grab breakfast real fast?" he suggested. "I need to talk to Baki here about some boring stuff, and there's a place just across the street so you might as well go grab something." Naruto lit up instantly, breaking into a giant grin as he bobbed his head.

"Alright! Come on Gaara, let's go!" He reached for Gaara to grab his arm only for the sand to block him. Startled, he pouted at the sand but quickly recovered his cheery demeanor as he gestured wildly to the door. "C'mon, I saw some people eating these really fluffy things there this morning! I don't know what they're called but they smell awesome! Well, not as awesome as ramen, but..."

Still startled by his blindingly bright enthusiasm, Gaara shot Baki an almost helpless look as if asking for help. The Sand jounin's lips quirked in a small smile as he made a shooing motion with his hand, and with some mild hesitation Gaara trailed out the door to follow the still-rambling Naruto. Once the door closed the two jounin quickly grew serious again, the atmosphere in the room changing almost instantly.

"Do you really think it's wise to leave them unsupervised?" Baki asked.

"Honestly? I'm not sure," Jiraiya admitted. "I'm still not sure how Gaara will act once the shock wears off, it's hard to say how much of that bloodlust came from the tanuki. On that note, you need to do something about how he's treated there," he added with a frown. "Gaara's seal is precarious and I'm not sure what could set it off. You know Tailed Beasts will look for any weaknesses in a host's emotional state, so it would be best to create a stable environment for him before the shock wears off."

"The new Kazekage has already taken measures in that regard," Baki replied primly. "She sent a list of some of her planned changes in her last communication so that we can be ready." He didn't elaborate on what those planned changes included, and Jiraiya didn't see a need to ask. In the end the specifics weren't any of his business.

"Just remember, he's your responsibility now," he reminded Baki with a careful look. "I've done everything I can. If that seal breaks, it's on Suna, not us." The other man just nodded, his mouth a grim line.

"We know."


Sasuke was brooding.

He had been brooding since coming back the previous night.

He had been brooding all through his stiff report on his findings.

He had been brooding all through breakfast.

He was brooding all the way up to locating the local bandit group and prepping an assault on them.

Masaru wanted to groan as he crouched alongside his ever-emo cousin and their lazy mission lead near a small grove of trees outside the town's borders. A large, crudely drawn map was spread on the dirt between them and held open with large stones on each corner. Its accuracy was debatable, since Shikamaru had designed it based on the smaller and equally crude map Sasuke had drawn up after talking to locals and some anecdotes about the local landscape, but it would serve their purposes.

"The most logical locations for the bandits' base would probably be around here," he stated, placing a polished-looking white stone on a circled area a brief distance away from the town with some rough sketches of rocks. "Based on what the locals told me, there's a cave around there that would be an ideal location for a hidden base."

"Wouldn't that be obvious?" Masaru questioned with a mild frown. "This area doesn't really seem like the kind of terrain to have a lot of caves. It'd be the first place they'd think to look."

"Not as much as you'd think," Shikamaru dismissed. "The area the cave's in is pretty far off the main road, and from what I'm told the entrance is mostly concealed by a thick bush. Most of the locals don't have any reason to leave the town, and travelers obviously have even less reasons to go exploring the forest. Only a handful of people know about it."

"What's the plan?" Sasuke asked. "Torch the place?" His brooding had started to taper off in favor of deep irritation with the world, which manifested when he spoke to give his inflectionless voice an undercurrent of low-key blood lust. Masaru shuddered slightly, feeling a slight ping of pity for the bandits and a small modicum of worry for his cousin's mental state. Next to him Shikamaru's eyes narrowed.

"Have you killed anyone yet?" he asked critically, and Sasuke's jaw set in a tight line in answer. "Thought not. In any case, we're not going for lethal methods. We want this group alive to answer questions, and beside that, I don't think the Hokage would be happy if we burned up all the stolen goods while apprehending them."

Sasuke's lips pressed together tightly but he gave a single nod, and Masaru frowned slightly, able to figure out his cousin's thoughts. In this situation Sakura would have been invaluable with her collection of paralytics. Emotional objections to murder notwithstanding, nonlethal captures tended to require more effort than simply killing, since they could still fight back. Bandits probably wouldn't pose too much of a problem, but this still would have been much faster and easier with Sakura.

"So strict taijutsu with a ban on fire ninjutsu?" he asked, trying to distract Sasuke from his brooding. Shikamaru grunted, closing his eyes in thought.

"You can use Foxfire if we get overwhelmed and you think you can control it," he decided. "But no throwing around giant fireballs. Taijutsu first, and then flashy jutsu."

In the end, they didn't need it.

True to Shikamaru's prediction they found the bandits hiding exactly where he'd thought it would be. It took some stumbling to find it since the map hadn't been perfectly accurate, but once they found it they just had to toss a kunai with an exploding tag tied to the handle at a nearby tree, and soon enough men swarmed out of the cave to investigate the sudden explosion. From there the fight had been so easy it bore no value recounting.

"That was a waste of time," Sasuke grumbled as they left the police station not even an hour later, having turned in their prisoners.

"You're not the one who has to file the extra paperwork," Shikamaru sighed, scratching the back of his neck. "Tch, this is so annoying." Masaru resisted the urge to roll his eyes and make some sort of sarcastic quip. After learning the true purpose behind the mission he'd been surprised that Shikamaru had still insisted on investigating the leads Sasuke found. Hunting an extra group of bandits seemed like more effort than he'd like after all, given his usual lazy demeanor.

Then again, he supposed investigating bandits was technically part of their cover with the locals, so it would be weird if they didn't investigate it. Besides, some results would probably be better than none.

Alternatively, they might just be making excuses to not have to tell Sasuke the truth.

So far neither of them had seen fit to inform Sasuke of the mission's actual reasoning. They hadn't discussed it so Masaru couldn't speak for Shikamaru's motives, but in his case just didn't see it as a good idea. Ever since Sakura ran off to follow Tsunade, Sasuke had been in an increasingly volatile mood. Finding out their mission's secondary "objective" was a sham after spending an entire day on it probably wouldn't go over well. As in, he might actually kill something in frustration.

Although, Masaru didn't really need to think on it much now. He had more urgent priorities, namely... "Does anyone else notice that?" he whispered, and Shikamaru snorted softly.

"You mean the girl hiding behind the lamppost?" he asked rhetorically, pitching his voice low so she couldn't hear. "Hard not to." The redheaded girl from the hotel—Yuzu, right?—had been following them since shortly after they returned to town, and it was starting to sort of creep Masaru out.

Sasuke's posture screamed annoyance. "She followed me yesterday," he informed them bluntly. "She's ridiculously hard to lose for a civilian." The others paused to consider the new information.

"So basically, a fan girl," Shikamaru declared flatly, and Sasuke winced and growled under his breath in irritation.

"She better not be," he grumbled, and Masaru offered him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder before glancing at Shikamaru. A faint mischievous gleam appeared in the other boy's eye, his mouth twitching into a lazy smirk, and it took only a few seconds for Masaru to catch onto what he was thinking.

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Shikamaru offered nonchalantly, and with that both he and Masaru fled the scene in a blur of movement, leaving Sasuke to fend for himself. Masaru snickered as he bounced across rooftops and landed a couple streets over, strolling along at a sedate pace. Abandoning Sasuke to the whims of a potential fan girl felt a bit cruel, but he didn't feel particularly inclined to deal with his cousin's broody and surly mood for too long. Yuzu could have him all to herself.


Day four of the mission started with breakfast at the usual location, and Sasuke ate in noticeably tense silence. By this point it had probably become obvious to him that their supposed quarry wasn't in the vicinity, but Masaru saw no reason to confirm it aloud. After breakfast they dispersed in silence, and Masaru decided to do some shopping with his share of the reward for the bandits.

"Kinda low though," he mumbled to himself as he turned his attention to the small wad of ryo he'd received. The bandit group had yet to acquire enough notoriety to merit a formal bounty, but the police had given them a light reward for their work anyway. After splitting it the payout barely amounted to little more than a D-rank. Taking down the bandits had been laughably easy though so he supposed it evened out. Seriously, the guys who attacked Fu had been more of a challenge.

Speaking of Fu, he wondered if he should get her something. Shibuki would have likely arrived back at Taki by now, and with him so would his letter to Fu. Earlier he'd asked Shikamaru how long it would take for a letter to arrive from Taki and after getting a blank had been told about two weeks if delivered by foot, so her reply would probably be waiting in Konoha by the time they returned.

But if he was going to get Fu something, then maybe he should get something for Naruto too? He'd already be disappointed at being left out of the mission, and if he found out Masaru got something for a girl he'd only met once

Nope. He didn't want to think about it.

He hummed in thought in as he looked into the window of a toy store, eying a trio of stuffed kittens in a basket that reminded him of his mom's summons. While debating on whether or not it would be too childish for Naruto (he got the feeling Fu would probably leap for joy), he noticed a door to another business open in his peripheral vision and gave a small start when he saw Tsunade stalk outside.

The female Sannin looked even more intimidating than he remembered. She walked with her head held high, the dark-haired woman trailing behind her with a slightly resigned and downfallen look. Then behind her came Sakura, holding—

"Is that a pig?" The question slipped out before he could realize it, and the trio turned to face him with varying degrees of surprise. Tsunade scowled almost instantly upon seeing him while her companion winced, but Sakura gave a small start before beaming at him.

"Masaru! Hey! Meet Tonton!" She lifted the pig up higher, and it gave a small oink while he stared at it.

"Um, hi Tonton," he greeted awkwardly. Tonton oinked at him again, wiggling in Sakura's arms. He almost asked "Is that pig wearing a pearl necklace?" but managed to quash it before it could slip out because the answer was obviously yes. He considered revising it to start with "why," but after glancing at the two older woman and seeing Tsunade's continued glower he decided not to.

Tonton oinked at him cheerfully, either oblivious or choosing to ignore the way the blonde woman glowered at Masaru. "Um, Lady Tsunade and I will head on to the restaurant," the dark-haired woman said quickly, offering a placating smile. "You can catch up with your friend and meet us there in a few minutes, Sakura-chan."

"Alright, Shizune-san," Sakura agreed with a nod. "If the waiter arrives before I do, just order me the chicken teriyaki stir fry."

"Will do! Bye!" The dark haired woman—newly dubbed Shizune—quickly pushed Tsunade away, leaving them behind.

"...I don't think Tsunade likes me," Masaru said after a moment, and Sakura laughed awkwardly.

"No, no, don't think like that. She's just... gruff." Tonton oinked and bobbed her head in apparent agreement, though Masaru still had reservations. Between the scowls and constant glowering, he felt pretty sure his suspicion didn't just stem from his usual social anxiety.

"What are you doing, anyway?" he asked, trying to change the subject. "Any, uh, progress convincing her so far?"

"Not really," Sakura replied with a sheepish look. "So far I've mostly been just following them while they shop and carry stuff for them, or watch after Tonton. Tsunade-sama isn't really... happy to have me around, but she's putting up with me for now." She looked a bit downfallen at that, but quickly plastered on a smile as she continued, "Shizune-san agreed to answer questions I have about medical ninjutsu though, and she got Tsunade-sama to offer a couple tips too, so at least I'm learning something. Oh, and I also got a chance to show off my chakra punches to them!"

"Chakra punches?" Masaru looked at her blankly, and Sakura's grin grew a touch more feral.

"Some pervert decided to try to cup a feel on me yesterday," she confided, and her eyes glinted with malicious satisfaction as she added, "Shizune-san had to heal his ribs so he could be moved into custody without puncturing a lung." Masaru winced in mild sympathy for the hapless pervert. He hadn't actually seen her power in action, but he vaguely recalled Sasuke mentioning Sakura punching Temari into a wall during the invasion. Apparently that hadn't been a fluke.

"...Okay then." Hard to respond to that. Searching for something else to say, he glanced at the store she just exited and blinked. "What kind of shop is that?" Dark blue curtains with a starry pattern hung in the window of the store to block its interior from view, while a large golden maneki-neko sat in front with its right paw raised in a beckoning gesture. The left paw rested on a circular sign proclaiming "MADAM MIRAI'S CHARMS" in bold lettering.

"Ah, Shizune-san thought it might be nice to get some lucky charms for the tournament tonight," Sakura explained with a sheepish smile. "The store's actually really cheap, though, and the owner mostly kept pushing us to have our fortunes told so we didn't get anything."

"...Interesting." Fortune tellers weren't exactly common in Konoha, or at least Masaru didn't see any in the districts where shinobi usually shopped. Fortunes could be fun for civilians, but for shinobi who could potentially die any time they left the village... well. It just wasn't something people wanted to know. He pushed the thought away and asked, "Speaking of the tournament...?"

He trailed off, but Sakura seemed to get the message. Frowning, she glanced around for anyone was nearby before stepping closer and lowering her voice. "I'm going to stick with them until then and try to convince her to come back. I spoke to Shizune-san last night, and she agrees that it's a good idea for Tsunade-sama to go back to Konoha so she'll try to help too. But no matter what, I'll go straight back to the inn by the time the tournament starts, to help with the... other mission."

Masaru nodded slowly, and Sakura stepped back. "Anyways, I should go before they get impatient. I'll catch up with you later, okay?"

"Alright, later," Masaru agreed, and sighed as he watched Sakura quickly run off in the direction the other two women had headed. Well, at least someone was getting something out of this mission... maybe. He shrugged it off as he turned back to the toy store.

Yeah, maybe he would get the stuffed kittens. If he got an eyepatch, that one would look just like Masahige... As he pondered it, he felt someone pass behind him and suddenly tensed, a familiar sensation abruptly washing over him.

"Why do you like peaches?"

"I dunno. They taste good?"

"But they're all mushy." Akari made a face as she dragged a chair in front of the fridge. "I don't like mushy stuff. It's like baby food!"

"Well, better than taking a bite and losing a tooth," Masaru grumbled as he stood behind her, and Akari rolled her eyes as she climbed onto the chair to reach the freezer. At six, neither of the twins were tall enough to reach the handle on their own.

"You're just jealous I lost a tooth before you," she sniffed. Rising on her toes, she rooted around the freezer and pulled out an ice cube tray. "Here, take this!" Masaru dutifully took the tray from her and carried it to the kitchen counter while she hopped down from the chair. Toothpicks stuck out of each cube, the frozen liquid ranging in color from pink to orange to dark brown.

"The chocolate milk ones look kinda weird," Masaru noted, his nose wrinkling as Akari snatched the tray from him.

"It'll be fine!" she declared, bending the tray to loosen the frozen treats. She yanked out one of the brown ones and popped it into her mouth, using the toothpick as a handle. Her expression shifted slightly though, her eyes squinting a bit as her face pinched. "Huh, the texture's kinda weird."

"I told you it looked weird," Masaru replied, freeing one of the pinkish ones. Icy coolness filled his mouth as he ate it, the familiar flavor of peach juice washing over his taste buds. Akari huffed and stuck the chocolate milk one back into the tray, freeing an orange one instead.

"Well, at least the orange juice ones taste fine." Masaru paused, pulling the peach pop out of his mouth.

"Hey, aren't oranges really mushy too?" Akari's face flared, shaking her head.

"Th-that's different!"

In the present Masaru snapped out of the reverie with a gasp, staggering as if struck. He spun around wide-eyed, looking around the street, but he saw no one. He frowned, slowly forcing himself to relax even as the tension refused to leave his body.

For some reason, he felt very lonely now...


Sakura sighed as she walked down the street with her bag in hand. Three days had passed since her first fateful encounter with her childhood idol Tsunade, and she had spent nearly every hour of those three days trying to convince her to return to Konoha. These had easily been among the most stressful days of her life.

No matter what she did Tsunade never eased up on her harsh scowl and cold glare, seeming to tolerate Sakura's presence as opposed to actually accepting her. Every time she spoke she seemed determined to crush down Sakura's confidence, peppering her with cruel taunts and cold insults. The few times the woman smiled it was cold and grim, accompanied by harsh, spiteful words and bitter laughs.

Each time Tsunade opened her mouth to criticize her, Sakura took it with as much grace as she could, even as her nerves whittled away bit by bit with each harsh word. No one could really just brush off being insulted by their childhood idol; every word stung painfully and made her want to scream more and more. Only Shizune, who treated her with such kindness and reigned in her mentor's worse behaviors, gave Sakura the strength to persevere and endure the insults.

In the end, though, it had all been for nothing. Sakura had reached her self-imposed deadline and Tsunade had headed off to the stupid poker tournament, and after that she would ditch town and Sakura would probably never see her again. Knowing she failed weighed down on her, and she sighed loudly as she massaged her forehead, her eyes squeezing shut.

When she'd spied Sasuke that first day with Tsunade, he'd looked so mad... He hadn't even tried to approach her, just jumped onto the roof to get away. He'd been so angry at her for trying to go after Tsunade, and now that she'd failed, she couldn't even begin to imagine how he'd react.

As she gloomily reflected over the possibilities she felt a man's shoulder bump against hers, prompting her to quickly open her eyes. "Ah, sorry about that," the man murmured, giving her a brief nod. She absently returned the nod with a quiet "no problem" and continued on her way only to abruptly freeze. Blinking, she glanced over her shoulder with a small frown but the man had already disappeared, blending into the late evening crowd.

Sakura's eyebrows knit together as she gazed into the crowd for a moment, falling into thought. That man... He'd been wearing sunglasses and a dark red bandana over his hair, common enough in the late summer. But his voice... It was friendly and familiar, almost like...

Slowly the pink-haired girl shook her head, forcing herself to turn forward. "It couldn't be," she murmured under her breath as she resumed walking. "He wouldn't... Showing up here now, he has no reason." Still, her voice came out uncertain even to her own ears, and after a few steps she came to a halt.

"Screw it," she hissed, and spun around to race in the direction the mystery man had headed.

Taking to the rooftops to avoid the crowds, she scanned the streets below even as she jumped from roof to roof, mentally running through all the buildings in that direction. This town didn't have many notable landmarks, just a bunch of stores and restaurants. She recalled a relatively high-class inn in that direction, the kind affordable only to wealthier traders and nobles, so if he wanted to find someone for ransom

But why would he want that?

Sakura's teeth ground in frustration, her steps coming to a screeching halt as she clawed at her hair. Stupid, this was such a stretch. Sakura was going off a voice alone, a quiet mumbling voice, and that—that wasn't enough to establish any sort of link. "Nerves," she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut. "It's—it's just nerves, that's all." She turned around and headed back the original way she'd come, dropping into an alleyway nearby to finish her trek to the hotel.

The second her feet touched the ground, a bulky arm wrapped around her and yanked her deeper into the shadows. A gloved hand slapped over her mouth before she could scream, muffling her voice as she froze. "Sorry to cut in, but I'm gonna need to borrow you for a few hours," a voice breathed into her ear, and then the streets vanished as the world flickered away.


Author's Note: Hooray cliffhangers! Just a heads up: The Kiri SI/OC story is now up! It's called "The Bloody Oracle of Kiri", and so far it's getting pretty good reception? Actually I'm kinda stunned, I'm two chapters in with 20 comments while it took EoL until Chapter 4 to get even one comment. At this pace I'll even reach 100 followers on it after I post Chapter 3... Which, awesome, but also kinda sad since reception on this one is so quiet. Anyways, you might want to check it out. It's a pretty different change of pace from EoL, it's going to be a crazy ride.

Before I go, one important question that will determine a detail about a certain upcoming OC: Red or purple?