'Hush boy, oh hush boy.
Don't say a word.
Throw on a jersey and no one gets hurt.
Hush girl, oh hush girl.
Just bat your eyes.'
~Little Game
Benny
'How the hell am I gonna get her outta there?' Narumi thought, inspecting the building.
Once Sakura realised her predicament, she used one of the contingency plans she and Narumi came up with. She acted like a lost little orphan girl who was kicked out of the orphanage and forced to fend for herself. The residents in the backyard thankfully bought it and immediately ushered a teary-eyed Sakura into their home.
Ok, so the plan might've worked a little bit too well. Considering the next time Narumi caught a glimpse of Sakura she was dressed in a silk kimono with her hair beautifully braided, seated next to the head of the house's wife.
'Dammit Sakura.' Narumi thought, glaring at her through the window from her perch in a tree. 'Why'd you have to be so lovable?'
What's worse, Narumi couldn't get more than a few feet away from the property line of the mansion without being spotted. The place's security was that good. There were guards stationed at every corner of the property, constant patrols. Hell, even the fricking maids looked intimidating whenever they passed by a window.
The family that lived in the mansion also apparently didn't exist. At least, that's what all the people in the nearby town claim. Narumi questioned nearly the entire population, but none of them even knew about a mansion in the forest.
Whoever these people were, they were damn good at hiding themselves. Narumi had to give them that. Unfortunately for them, they'd never encountered the chakra of an agitated Uzumaki worried about a child.
Sure, they had security guards, but they didn't have any Fūinjutsu specialists to ward their house against Sensors.
Narumi medidated just out of view of the guards and stretched her senses until they completely surrounded the house. She determined that the house had one family of three, consisting of parents and a son, and a shit-ton of maids and guards. The best point of entry would be through the son's window, as his chakra was a lot weaker than the rest of the residents'. Narumi figured he was probably ill.
With a plan in mind, Narumi waited until nightfall before slipping between the guards and onto the property. She then crawled up the wall and quietly climbed through the open window.
"Who the hell are you?"
Narumi turned towards the voice and made eye-contact with a pale young man. He seemed to be the same age that Narumi was physically. He had long curly black hair and dark lavender eyes that were stretched wide as he stared at Narumi. Strangely enough, his eyes showed no fear, only curiosity and... acceptance?
"I asked you a question." He said.
"I could ask you the same thing." Narumi said, unable to resist a sarcastic retort.
The man raised a single brow and opened his mouth to retort when the room's door burst open. Narumi immediately leapt straight up and stuck herself to the ceiling. The man looked up at her, shocked, before addressing the person who entered the room.
"Ami-san." The man said, nodding his head in greeting. "Is there a reason why you very nearly broke down my door? In the middle of the night, no less."
"The guards spotted a figure climbing up the wall towards your room, Ubuyashiki-sama. I merely came to check." Ami reported, scanning the room. Thankfully she didn't have the foresight to look up. Narumi was not in the mood to spill blood tonight.
The man snorted, "Climbed up the wall? Are you sure you've had enough sleep, Ami-san? We both know it's impossible to climb up the estate walls without being spotted or falling."
'He's not ratting me out. Why?' Narumi thought, her calculating gaze roaming over him. He briefly glanced up at her again, winked, and feigned a yawn.
"It's late, Ami-san." He said. "You can go back to bed. I'll still be here in the morning."
Ami looked uncertain, but sighed and moved to leave the room. "As you wish, Ubuyashiki-sama. See you in the morning."
The door shut with a click. The man stared at it for a moment longer before turning on the gas lamp next to his bed and looking back up at Narumi, poorly hidden awe on his face. Well that's understandable, he's probably never seen someone stick to a ceiling before.
"You can come down now, Assassin-san." He said. 'What? Assassin?! Does he think I'm gonna kill him?' Narumi thought, jumping down.
"Sorry to burst your bubble, Ubuyashiki-san," Narumi said, crossing her arms and moving to lean against the wall. "but I ain't here to assassinate anybody. Sure, I've done it before, but that's not tonight's mission."
"Then why are you here, random stranger?" The man asked, minutely relaxing. "You don't look like the kidnapping type. Especially since you've got noodle arms."
Narumi hid an eye-twitch, carefully keeping her face blank. The man didn't seem put out by her lack of reaction. In fact, it seemed to have encouraged him.
"It's also incredibly surprising that you managed to get here without being shot down. Since you've got bright red hair and all. Your yellow kimono also isn't helping you much. I can't decide if you look like a tomato or a banana. Not to mention the hair clip. It clashes with your hair so much it's not even funny. Don't even get me started on-"
The man was cut off by Narumi's bundled up kimono making contact with his face. He pulled the kimono away and came face-to-face with a scowling Narumi, now donned in her Shinobi attire.
"Do you always antagonise people who climb into your room through your window?" She asked.
The man chucked her kimono back to her and replied, "Only those that don't tell me who they are or what they want. And for the record, you're the first person to ever do that, Tomato-san."
Narumi growled and flashed her eyes, satisfaction filling her when the man flinched. She threw the kimono to the floor, to lazy to put it back on. Narumi then looked at the man, sighed and thrust her hand towards him. He looked down at it, confused.
"Uzumaki Narumi." Narumi said, putting her face back into it's blank expression. "I'm here for Sakura. The little girl with pink eyes that showed up a couple of days ago."
The man looked put out by her face changing, but reached forward to shake her hand nonetheless. "Ubuyashiki Muzan." He said. "And sorry, but my parents took her to meet all their rich friends."
Narumi hid her disappointment, instead focusing on how annoyed Muzan looked at the mention of his parents. An expression like that can only point towards a rocky relationship.
"Do you know when they'll be back?" Narumi asked, letting go of Muzan's hand. He pulled a book out from underneath his bed covers and said, "Probably sometime next week. Maybe in 2 weeks. All I can say with certainty is that their trips never last longer than a month."
"Do you know where they went?" Narumi asked. Muzan shrugged. He opened his book and said, "Nope. Not like they tell me much anymore."
Narumi sighed, before leaning back and banging her head against the wall. She slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor. She then hid her face in her hands and groaned.
Muzan looked down at her. "You were banking on the fact that she'd be here when you broke in, weren't you?" He asked.
"Mhmm."
"Do you have anything else to do besides wait for her to come back?"
"Nope." Narumi said, face still in her hands.
"Never done something stupid like this before, have you?"
"Uh-uh."
"... somehow I don't believe you. Willing to share?"
Narumi looked up at Muzan, eyes narrowed. He shrugged, grinning lopsidedly.
"What?" He asked. "It's not like you have anything better to do. I'll even share a story or two about myself. But you first, Tomato-san."
Narumi scowled at him, too tired to keep up a blank face, and said, "You know my name. Use it."
Muzan smirked and said, "We'll see, Tomato-san. Now c'mon! It's story time."
Narumi sighed, angling herself so that she was facing the bedridden man. 'Wait a minute...' She thought, suddenly getting an idea.
She gave Muzan a close-eyed smile, completely missing his reaction, and said, "Sure thing, Princess-san!"
Narumi ignored the shocked sound Muzan made and began her story. After thinking of replacement names for all the places, of course. "I was in a desert with one of my comrades. We were..."
"...and he was stuck with pink hair for at least a week afterwards." Narumi finished, giggling behind one of her hands.
Muzan was no better. He was doubled over and clutching at his stomach, full-on cackling. "W-well it was his own-n st-stupidity that got him there!" He managed to get out.
Narumi smiled behind her still-raised hand. Muzan's company wasn't all that bad, and the two of them had learned quite a bit about the other.
Muzan now knew that Narumi came from across the ocean, used to be part of a team of 10 unique individuals, made and lost a close friend when she came here, lost a shit ton of people earlier in her life, and that Sakura was the only person she had left.
He asked a lot of questions about her walking on the wall, but Narumi didn't feel comfortable sharing that information.
In contrast, Narumi found out that Muzan had a childhood that was nearly as shitty as hers. He was the eldest child of the highly influential Ubuyashiki family. However, he was born with the same illness that took his mother's life when he was just a boy. No one knew what caused the disease, just that it caused purple scale-like rashes to spread all over the victims' bodies. Furthermore, whoever had the disease always died when they reached the age of 20. Muzan's mother was lucky enough to live to 24 before she succumbed to the illness.
Muzan's mother died a mere 6 years after his birth. His father blamed him for her death, but moved on fairly quickly and remarried to a cruel woman. Said woman had a son with him - Muzan's half-brother. He was 7 years younger than Muzan, but he was healthy and thus, next in line to receive the family fortune.
Muzan was 20 years old, and it was a miracle that he wasn't dead yet. He showed all the signs of having the same illness as his mother, bar the rash. The only reason he didn't have the rash was because of this one healer his father found that constantly visited him. Unfortunately one of the medicines he was forced to take had the side-effect of basically turning his internal clock a full 180 degrees. Muzan now slept throughout the day and was wide awake during the night.
Muzan's father saw this as an excuse to force him to isolate in his room and never leave the house. According to his father it was to "keep him safe and help him adjust", but Muzan knew it was only to keep him out of the public eye and preserve the family name.
Narumi, after finding this out, promptly called it a "loud of bullshit" and proceeded to curse out Muzan's father for nearly 10 minutes. Afterwards Muzan just gave her this wide-eyed stare. He kinda looked like Sakura when Narumi gave her her new kimono.
Overall it was an informative and... actually quite fun night.
'Muzan's company isn't all that bad.' Narumi thought, grinning up at the still laughing man.
Muzan's laugh faded away as rays of sunlight streamed into the room. He turned and looked at his window, shocked.
"It's... morning." He said. "I've never had a night pass by that fast before."
Narumi gave a soft smile and said, "Well, time flies when you're having fun."
Muzan turned to look at her, something new shining in his eyes. 'Fun.' He thought. 'When was the last time I had fun?'
Narumi stood up and stretched, groaning as her spine popped.
"Welp. I should probably get going now. Don't wanna get caught by that scary maid of yours."
Muzan, despite his disappointment at Narumi leaving, snorted. "Ami-san isn't that scary." He said.
Narumi gave Muzan a deadpan expression. "Mhmm, yeah. Whatever you say." She said.
Narumi moved towards the window and prepared to jump out, when Muzan suddenly yelled out a "Wait!"
Confused, Narumi turned to look at the flustered man, and he managed to stutter out, "Y-you'll come back again tonight, right?"
When Narumi stayed quiet, Muzan continued, "I-I mean, neither of us have anything better to do and... last night was fun. Wasn't it?"
Narumi froze, mentally going over everything they'd done. It... had been pretty fun to just sit and talk with someone. No expectations, no walls. Just casual conversation. She needed to wait a week for Sakura anyways. And she genuinely didn't have anything better to do besides train. Which was pointless, considering the fact that she and Sakura were most likely the only chakra users in the entire continent. There were no power-hungry villains to prepare for.
Narumi mentally shrugged. 'Ah, what the hell? I got nothing to lose.'
"Sure." Narumi said, ignoring how much her heart hurt at the sight of Muzan's obvious relief.
He grinned before responding, "Maybe you'll even be willing to tell me how you managed to get into my room the next time you show up."
Narumi grinned back, before cheekily leaning out the window and plucking a leaf off of a tree. She put the leaf on her forehead and used chakra to make it stick. Muzan gaped at her and she just kept on grinning.
"Sure thing, Princess-san!" Narumi said, removing the leaf and giving it to Muzan. "Here's today's question for you to solve: How did I make the leaf stick?"
With that, Narumi saluted Muzan and backflipped out of the window. Kimono tucked under one arm while her hands formed a sign.
Tiger.
"Shunshin."
With a small puff of smoke, Narumi vanished from the Ubuyashiki property, reappearing in her temporary cave-home a moment later.
Muzan, who had leaned out of the window shortly after Narumi jumped out of it, was left staring at where she had been a moment before in awe.
"She's so cool." He whispered.
As promised, Narumi crawled into Muzan's room again the next night, only this time she did so with a scroll tucked into her obi.
Muzan, once he noticed her arrival, beamed at her.
"Ohayō!"
Narumi chuckled and said, "Muzan, it's dark out."
"So?" He questioned. "I woke up like 2 hours ago. To me it is morning."
"Fair enough. Is it alright if I join you?" Narumi asked, gesturing to the open spot on the bed.
Muzan shrugged. That was all the confirmation Narumi needed. She neatly flipped over him and landed with a small bounce.
Muzan snorted. "You really like jumping and flipping midair, don't you?"
"I find it exhilarating."
"..."
"...ok and I like showing off."
"Knew it."
Narumi should be scared about how close the two of them had gotten after only one night of conversation. Hell, she didn't even add a suffix when she addressed him anymore! But strangely enough, she didn't care. She and Muzan just... clicked.
"What's that?" Muzan asked, gesturing to the scroll she brought along.
'Oh right!' Narumi thought, grabbing the scroll. "This is for you."
When Narumi made no move to give it to him, Muzan raised a brow. Narumi grinned in reply and asked, "Did you figure out the answer to my question?"
Muzan's expression immediately soured, and Narumi had to try her best to hold in a snort. "I just don't get it." He said, opening his bedside drawer and taking out the leaf. 'He kept it?' Narumi thought, incredulous.
"All you used was an ordinary leaf, but you somehow managed to make it stick to your forehead. There also weren't any indents or scratches on the wall, so there's no way to climbed up it using knives or something. —"
'Damn, he really thought this out thoroughly, didn't he?' Narumi thought, sweatdropping at Muzan's rambling. She had a feeling that she was going to be here a while.
"Oh for the love of- Here!" Narumi said, chucking the scroll at Muzan. He caught it and looked at Narumi, mischief shining in his eyes.
"Arigatō."
Narumi's eye twitched. 'So, he couldn't figure it out and settled for annoying me until I gave him the answer. Not bad. Still...'
"You are insufferable." Narumi said, dragging her hand down the side of her face.
"It still worked." Muzan sang, eagerly opening the scroll. His eyes shone as he read the information.
"You don't mind if I read aloud, do you?" He asked, glancing towards Narumi, his focus never leaving the scroll.
"Go ahead." Narumi replied, shifting info a lotus position. "I'll be meditating."
Muzan grinned and redirected his attention towards the scroll.
"Chakra is the life force found inside of every living being. So that's how you got in! Chakra is also known as a person's spiritual energy. When a person runs out of Chakra, they die. Really?"
"Mhmm." Narumi hummed.
"Good to know. Anyways, every person's chakra is unique, and no two people have the same type. Long ago, people connected their spiritual and physical energies, which enabled them to use chakra physically. However, because chakra takes time and a great deal of training to gradually build up, the key to its use is not actually having large amounts of chakra but instead being able to sufficiently control and conserve it..."
"It says that chakra can be transmitted across long distances. How far would you say that'd be?" Muzan asked, turning towards a meditating Narumi.
Narumi answered without opening her eyes, "Depends on the person's chakra reserves and control really, but I'd say the average distance would be between 2 to 5 kilometres."
"Wow. How far can you transmit yours?"
"Depends on how I feel."
"...the hell's that supposed to mean?"
"Do you have whisker marks because of chakra?"
Narumi hummed, opening her eyes and briefly glancing at Muzan before closing them again. "I'm not really sure." She replied. "I was born with them, and the people who were there for my birth aren't really around anymore."
"Wait, so if everybody's chakra gives off a different signature, wouldn't people be able to like... sense each other?"
"How do you think I got past the guards?"
Muzan gasped. Dramatically. Obviously over the top. "You're a sensor!" He proclaimed, dramatically pointing at her.
Narumi snorted.
"No Muzan, you can't do that." Narumi repeated. For what felt like the fifth time.
"Ok, but theoretically..." Muzan said. Narumi groaned, but Muzan continued, unperturbed.
"...if you're able to sense chakra, and Sakura's in your range, which you still won't tell me how big it is, then couldn't you just lock onto her and teleport yourself. You know, displacement and all that."
Narumi sighed. 'If only it were that easy.'
"No, not without an anchor of some sort, which would need to be drawn or made by me. I didn't give Sakura any type of anchor, so trying to 'teleport' to her would only end up with me dying."
"Ah, well I'm glad that's not a thing. Otherwise I wouldn't have met you." Muzan said, turning back to the scroll.
Narumi remained quiet, ignoring how fuzzy those words made her feel.
"Please?"
"No."
"Please?"
"No, Muzan."
"~Please, Tomato-chan?"
"..."
"Right, that's not going to work. Please Narumi?"
"..."
"..."
"...fine, just stop looking at me like that."
"Woohoo!" Muzan exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. Narumi sighed. Guess she was teaching this idiot how to use chakra.
"Is it always this warm?" Muzan questioned.
"No, not always. I've been told mine is special." Narumi replied.
The two of them were facing each other on the bed, legs crossed and Muzan's hands in Narumi's. She was using her chakra as a guide to help Muzan unlock his.
Muzan hummed. "I like your chakra. It feels nice."
Narumi pursed her lips, taken aback by the compliment. She fought off the slight heat travelling to her face and asked, "Are you flirting with me?"
Muzan sputtered, letting go of Narumi's hands and falling backwards, off of the bed. He landed on the floor with a groan.
Narumi leaned over the edge of the bed and asked, "You alright down there, Princess-san?"
Muzan groaned. "Shut up, Tomato-san."
Narumi giggled before hopping off the bed and helping Muzan up. Rays of sunlight began filtering into the room.
"Looks like my time is up." Narumi commented. She turned to face Muzan and asked, "Same time tonight?"
"…sure." He grumbled, still affected by the 'flirting' comment.
Narumi grinned. She gave Muzan a two-fingered salute and backflipped out of the window.
'That's the exact same way she left last time.' Muzan thought, deadpanning. He faintly heard Narumi yell out something about keeping the scroll, then he heard no more.
He stifled a yawn. 'I should probably get some sleep.' With that, he hid Narumi's scroll underneath his pillow and settled in to get some well needed rest. He absolutely couldn't wait for the next night!
Fūinjutsu = Sealing Techniques
Sensors = Shinobi that can naturally sense the chakra of a person/the environment in both combative and non-combative situations.
Shinobi = Ninja
Shunshin = Body Flicker
Ohayō = Good Morning
Arigatō = Thank You
Muzan x Narumi anybody?
Or just close friends?
Also yaaaay! I finally finished this chapter. You guys have no idea how much research I had to do. I might as well be a Japanese historian at this point.
Anyways, really looking forward to writing the next chapter.