Scarlet Justice - ep. 12
"Recognition"

We return to the same field as before. I walk casually towards my position, putting on the icy mask expected of me for my spectators. For Iruka, a brief melting as he looks towards me, trying to gauge my readiness.

"Just say the word," he reminds me. I nod and give him a reassuring smile.

The same rules as before apply for this, my second spar at the Academy. Taijutsu, basic Academy ninjutsu, and modified shinobi tools. Surrender, knockout, and referee discretion will end the fight. The crowd seems slightly bigger today, possibly because this is taking place near the end of the school day.

From what I can hear, their loathing of me is still strong. They back Naruto. Some even whisper that I provoked Sasuke into attacking so that I could make myself look better. Children really can be cruel.

Iruka firmly explains the rules and is ready to step in at the slightest notion of foul play. I see Hinata, who had decided to come after all. Seeing her best friend and her obvious crush fighting might have been too much for her, I assumed. But she's here, nervously watching us both from the front.

"Before you both start...we have some business to take care of, since everyone involved is here. Lilith, a moment," Iruka says to me.

"Yes, of course."

He nods and beckons someone closer. It's Sasuke, who looks none the worse for wear after our skirmish the other day. But given all of the examining done, it would be a crime if he didn't look perfectly fine. The Hidden Leaf's golden child, indeed.

"Sasuke has something he's been working on. Go on," Iruka says, backing away a few steps and taking a fidgeting Naruto with him. Sasuke stops in front of me and lets out a breath.

I'm waiting with the understanding of what is about to happen. Once this is done with, I should be...better. Not yet well, but better. I will settle for that.

"Lilith...I'm sorry for what happened to you during our spar. I may have gone too far, and I apologize for that." He extends his hand with the Seal of Reconciliation towards me.

My head is filled with noise.

"What was...it? You're sorry for...?" I ask slowly.

"I'm sorry for what happened. It was an accident, and it won't happen again."

"Sasuke-"

Iruka is too late.

I extend my hand towards his, and all is quiet.

"Do you remember what you said? About...me looking down on you, Sasuke?"

"..." He stares at me, confused.

And I slap his hand away with my own.

"Here's me looking down on you right now. Just as you wished for. Get out of my face, I have a fight to take care of."

"Lilith-"

"Iruka-sensei." My blood is like ice. I speak with the same authority that I delivered at our meeting. This absolute conviction that if cultivated, will move mountains with but a single command. "You have every right to demand that Sasuke give me an apology. And he has the right to present it in any way that he sees fit. But I am by no means obligated to accept that fake, flimsy, useless apology. Something that would lower the value of any paper it was printed on to less than that of dirt. There is an anger, a loathing in my chest for humanity that cannot be erased. A fury that could have been quenched, if only a little, by a decent apology, by something with some sort of meaning. Sasuke Uchiha, you have apologized for nothing. Leave. Me. Be."

"You...!" Sasuke tries to control himself. "I'm trying to apologize, and you-"

"What's this? Are you feeling humiliated? Breathless? Let me tell you something." I step closer and speak into his ear. "The only way that you will ever pay penance to me now...is by spilling your own blood at my feet."

I withdraw and see his face pale. Iruka doesn't know what to make of my words, and at this point, I don't care if he ever does.

"My name is not bitch, or ice queen, or runt, or girl. My name is Lilith Kobayashi. And you will not forget it. Sensei, get him out of here and start the match."

"R-right. Sasuke, make your way back."

"But-!"

"Sasuke, go," Iruka orders. "We'll talk about it later."

Sasuke's face twists up in frustration. He eventually does turn away from me, complying with orders and heading back into the crowd. Conversation ripples through the air...this is the second time I've humiliated him publicly in as many days.

But he asked for it. It didn't have to be this way. He chose this.

I wanted nothing but to be comrades. To work harmoniously, even if we were sometimes at odds. But he never gave me the chance. None of these pitiful humans did. I am doing the only thing that makes sense. I am protecting myself.

And I will never, ever apologize for that.

"Fighters ready," Iruka says as he returns. Naruto steps in front of me and makes the Seal of Confrontation, which I mirror.

Mirror...

Something like that...I see a reflection. Iruka's words come back to the front of my mind.

A good child, looking for attention. That was this fight, yes. Another chance to be seen. But why? The pranks, the foolish outbursts...

The...other side of the mirror. I dove inward, and he...dove out.

"You're alone, too...aren't you?" I hear him ask me.

And suddenly, I understand. Something to prove. Something to strive for. But on his own terms, for his own reasons. More than chasing Sasuke, he wants to see if he can reach me.

"..."

It seems I didn't judge this boy correctly. Still...I will have to crush that ambition of his. We're still worlds apart. He will have to learn his place today. Painfully.

"You're not like Sasuke," I say, to his surprise. "You understand. But...the result will be the same."

He blinks before responding with a stupid, cocky smirk. "Yeah? We'll see about that."

Iruka makes sure we're both ready.

"Begin!"

Naruto immediately jumps into the air and comes down with a punch as I retreat.

"Come ooooooon!"

More than what's on the surface, then. Fine.

Time to move. First, a sidestep to make him miss. He predictably drops from the air and whiffs, stumbling before whirling around with an awkward looking kick. Naruto quickly recovers and starts throwing punch after punch at me, but...they're all woefully slow and easily dodged.

I...am not sure what to make of any of this. At all. His taijutsu is bad. Disturbingly bad. How is it that he has no form whatsoever?

It goes on like this. He mixes in kicks, presumably trying to catch me off guard, but none of those land either. He only succeeds in throwing himself off balance every few moves, missing as I sway from side to side easily. It's very much light exercise at this point. The others are cheering him on, quite reluctantly.

"Dammit! So...fast!"

"..."

I use a quick body flicker and move to his back, tossing a wave of shuriken at him before he can react. All of them hit him in the back, and as he falls over, I tense for a substitution.

"..."

One that never comes.

"Gaaaaaaah! That hurts! I forgot you could use shuriken!"

"..."

I am currently perplexed.

He gets up and dusts himself off as I look on. "At this rate, I'm not gonna do much better than Sasuke. Alright...it's time to get serious!"

Naruto roots around his tool pouch and pulls out a rather large amount of shinobi tools at once. No. He wouldn't.

"Here it comes!" he yells. "The Uzumaki Ninja Tool Barrage!"

He's really doing it. God, what is wrong with him?

Running towards me, he throws all of the weapons in his hands at me at once. He then comes to a sudden stop, making a seal and focusing. Definitely up to something, but...with his limited repertoire, what could it possibly be?

No sense in waiting for an answer. I'll take him seriously, just like he wanted.

I tense my legs and accelerate, weaving through the wide spaces left by his spread of shinobi tools. He's depressingly inaccurate, as he always is, and so it's easy to go past his so called barrage and race towards him.

Now or never.

"Here it is!"

I take one more bounding step and reach him. My options...I don't know what to expect, so I'll reach out and try to disrupt whatever he might be doing, breaking his concentration, and maybe I can pin or throw him with my momentum.

A cloud of smoke bursts forth as I put my hands on him and-

...

...

...what. What is this.

"..."

My hand is...gripping something that I know is supposed to be soft. But it feels like a water balloon, filled to the point where it might burst. The smoke starts to clear and I...can't believe what my eyes are registering. One of them I can feel twitching as I come to an understanding of my situation.

This is the 'secret' jutsu.

A blonde woman in twintails, completely naked, with smoke still lingering over her most sensitive areas. My hand is gripping one of her breasts, caught in my intended grab from earlier. She looks at me with a nervous smile.

"S-so...um...hi?"

I feel like I should be impressed. Even the voice matches a woman's perfectly.

There are far too many questions. Iruka looks like he's about to lose his mind.

Well.

Seems we've definitely crossed some sort of threshold for nonsense.

"You," I say calmly.

"E-eh?"

I squeeze. Hard. The woman in front of me lets out a yelp, and in the meantime I spin and drive a kick into the side of her head. She flies backwards and slides along the ground before reverting back into Naruto.

I face him and sneer, looking down on him. "Absolutely disgusting," I growl.

"G-geez..." Naruto is slow to get up, wobbling on his feet.

"You're a damned pervert. But more than that...I don't know what the hell you could have been thinking with that pathetic display."

"S-shut up! You don't have to go that far!" he shouts back at me, embarrassed.

"Foolish. Anyone who misses the mark by that much should be shamed."

"You...eh?" He stops.

"It seems you don't understand," I say with a flip of my hair. "A woman's body has nuance to it. The feeling of her soft flesh. The curvature of her healthy frame. And the lovely comfort and bounce of her chest. All of these things and more need to be considered if you're going to imitate it. Otherwise, it's just cheap trash. I suppose you've never even touched a pair of breasts, so I wouldn't expect you to understand."

"But...but-but-but...doesn't that make you a pervert, too?" he whines.

"A pervert? Don't be even more of an idiot. I simply know what I'm talking about as a woman. Your useless imitation is only good for luring in the most egregious perverts from a distance. And leaving all of that aside, doing things of this nature shouldn't be the only thing you know how to do with the transformation technique. If you're that limited, you might as well drop out of school now," I say with a hand on my hip.

"Hm..." Naruto rubs his head before taking a stance. "Alright! Then all I have to do is beat the secrets for the perfect Sexy Jutsu out of you!"

I blink at him. There's a realization, somewhere. Clearly he's a single-minded idiot. A massive pervert. A buffoon. Lazy. Loud. Supremely annoying.

"..."

He is...a lot of things.

And today, he helped me forget about a lot of things. It's depressing that we have an interest in common, but...well, is that so bad? Is that so terrible? Perhaps not. Within this fight, I've forgotten the anger that stung me. I've forgotten how alone I was in the world.

I can see him waiting for me.

"Beat me..."

I give him a smile.

"I suppose you can come and try, Naruto."

"Lili! Make sure you beat up that stupid pervert for women everywhere!" Ino's gotten into it, it seems. One more for my side, then?

"Oi! Shut up!" Naruto yells back.

I glance over at Hinata...who predictably has her blushing face in her hands. It figures.

"Alright, Miss Genius! Let's do this!" Naruto draws a kunai and charges me head on. Another idiotic move, but I expect nothing less at this point. I charge back, abandoning strategy to give him what he craves as I draw my kunai in turn. Our weapons clash and bounce away from each other before we bring them back.

This is a pure, welcome feeling. We're not at the pinnacle of combat, but we're fighting. I think this is what I wanted all along.

Naruto puts effort into his swings, striking out with that boundless energy I would always see. I block his every movement, manually tracking him and reacting at the last moment to test myself. From this point on, it won't be easy. I will have greater tests, greater missions to take on. But these victories have given me some confidence. I've taken on the top of the class, and the very bottom. I've handled myself well with both ends of the spectrum, showing my skill in every situation. I think that will do.

Still.

The boy in front of me is fighting valiantly. His resilience and his courage...both impressive things. He refuses to give up. He is slow...perverted...and supremely stubborn. And he has come up like this alone and isolated. He pulled pranks to gain attention, even for a moment.

Such an energetic child...so why was he so ostracized? What could it be?

Questions for another time and place...hopefully soon.

"Sorry. We'll bring this to an end," I say gently.

"Wha-?"

I jab my kunai into the back of his hand, making him drop his own. He responds quickly and throws a punch with his free hand that hits me...right as I transform into a log. From behind him, I step into an elbow at full speed and hit him in the back, then speed up as he's reeling and kick him in the head from in front. He's stunned for a moment - he has incredible endurance, this boy - and I take the opportunity to make a clone.

As he gains his bearings, he throws a shuriken through my clone and into the air. I quietly sneak up from behind him and take him to the ground, straddling his chest, pinning his hands above his head, and pointing my kunai at his throat.

"That should be enough. It's my win...pervert."

"Tch..."

Iruka approaches and gives me a nod. I nod back and rise to my feet. Naruto follows a moment later, having regained his senses completely. He pouts and rubs the back of his head.

"Sheesh. Thought I had a good shot..."

Iruka grumbles and hits him in the back of the head lightly. "You didn't. At all. Lilith is at the top of the class. You can't even make clones properly."

"He was admirable today," I say sincerely. "Perhaps...if he were to focus on his studies, he would eventually make a fine shinobi one day, sensei." Echoing the same sentiments as Iruka wouldn't hurt, I think.

"Saying that much...well, that's a really nice compliment. Isn't it, Naruto? Naruto?"

"E-even if you say that..."

I blink. Is...is he blushing?

"Don't get the wrong idea!" Naruto yells, pointing at me. "I'm gonna beat you one day, Kobayashi, believe that!"

"Hm." I close my eyes. "Lili is fine."

He's quiet as I open my eyes again. I make the Seal of Reconciliation and extend my hand towards him. "I appreciate your effort, Naruto Uzumaki."

A small bit of kindness...

I watch as he grins at me, and wraps his fingers around my own. The seal complete.

And a moment of peace.

"Yours too, Kobacchi!"

I sigh. "Don't give me weird names. I said that Lili is fine."

"Ehh~!" He puts his hands behind his head. "Hey, make sure you show me how a girl is really supposed to be. One day soon, okay?"

Iruka hits him in the head again and he complains loudly.

I do notice something. There were some scrapes and bruises on Naruto that I know were present during the fight...they're all gone now. Aside from the dirty clothing, it doesn't look like he was in a fight just now. And he's bouncing around like usual, like he hasn't used a drop of energy.

I decide to keep this to myself for now. But yet another curious thing...hm.

Another strange comrade, then. Well. For once, I don't mind it at all.