Happy December, peoples! Turkey day shenanigans derailed this upload, but it's here now. With another coming along as soon as I run a final eye over it.

Enjoy!


The dripping sound of water had long since stopped bothering her.

The water itself was solid. Humans likely would've been curious and tried to explore the phenomenon.

Kurama had understood the limits of her prison within moments of taking a careful survey.

Granted, that survey had only come after an untold amount of time raging and attempting to escape. She'd expended a great deal of power, in attempts both subtle and straightforward. They had come to nothing; the designer of her prison knew exactly what they were doing.

Kurama was infuriated by it. The gall. The Kyubi no Kitsune, trapped. Again.

Her last prison had been unflinchingly restrictive. Full of chains, chains that locked her down the moment she made any attempts to escape.

This prison didn't even know Kurama existed. Only after careful probing had she discovered the prison used her strength against her. The chakra she passively exuded was being used to strengthen her prison. Active attempts to probe or escape only made it worse.

The only redeeming factors about her prison was that it didn't use her strength for anything other than containing her, and that it allowed her limited perceptions of the world around her prison.

Normally she let the information wash over her without paying much attention. Her prison was but a kit. A growing kit, one with a penchant for chaos that occasionally amused Kurama, but a kit nonetheless.

Now, Kurama raised her head. She was curious, but a rising sense of fury was replacing it. Not from the utter failure of the yokai outside, who sought to break her prison and made less of a mark than the passing humans who insulted it.

Her prison had taken injuries. For a brief time, she'd hoped the kit would be placed in such danger that she might draw upon her chakra unknowingly. That, or die. Either way, it would be a chance to loosen her bindings, or escape her prison entirely. She had not gotten so lucky.

Without the prison being conscious, she could not perceive much, but chakra being injected into her prison's chakra network was easily noticeable. Much of it was familiar, a chakra that had recently been in regular contact with her prison.

That same chakra was doing the same thing now, but it was also attempting to integrate a third source of chakra. One that was incomplete, but with a familiar signature.

Kurama's rage overtook her. She lashed out with her chakra, snaring the interloper. It tried to resist, but Kurama was not to be denied.

She was experienced at manipulating her chakra within the limits of her prison; for a long time, no one ever dared try healing her prison. Healing required much more concentration, much more direct control of one's chakra inside a foreign system. Kurama had always possessed the ability to take advantage of that, and had done so until she'd left them all too frightened to touch her prison. Her prison's own robust chakra and body, combined with the vitality of Kurama's power made it so her prison could heal from most things regardless. She had debated doing the same with this same interloper the first time he'd healed her prison, but had refrained; he had provided much more entertainment by teaching her prison a single jutsu.

Entertainment was the last thing on her mind at the moment as she wrenched the interloper inwards. She didn't just grab his chakra, pulling the consciousness and will directing that chakra as well. She didn't get all of it, but she got enough that the interloper would feel everything she was about to do.

He landed with a muted splash in front of her inner prison. Kurama could hear his weak coughing as he lay prostrate.

She gave him no time to recover. She could not excise the majority of her power outside of her inner prison, but the trickles were more than enough to crush the insignificant whelp that dared to bring that hated chakra into her prison.

The whelp's manifestation of his consciousness was flattened as she pressed down, her power manifesting as a pillar of orange fury that smashed down on him. Kurama concentrated it inwards, intent on eradicating him entirely. It wouldn't end his life, but it would stop the integration of that cursed chakra.

Her lips rose in a snarl as she felt the whelp persist. He did nothing to actively resist her, but there was a kernel of his conscious that would not yield. No matter how thoroughly she destroyed the rest of his manifestation, it reformed from that same kernel. Kurama flexed her will, changing the manifestation of her power. A blade of burning orange stabbed into the head of his manifestation, using precision where brute force would not work.

The kernel still resisted. Kuruma let out a guttural growl as she considered her options. There were no signs that the kernel would yield anytime soon. Her focus on the whelp's manifestation had not taken her attention away from the hated source of chakra. The whelp was no longer consciously directing the process, but his initial efforts had gotten things roughly aligned. Now her prison's own chakra and natural healing were taking over. If she'd dispersed the whelp's manifestation, his chakra would've dissipated and the transplant of foreign chakra would've failed.

Kurama could no longer stop the transplant from happening; her prison's own chakra network had accepted the transplant, new lines tracing out to it. Biological integration would follow suit quickly.

Studying the unfolding integration as she continued her efforts to crush the whelp's manifestation, Kurama noticed that his method of aligning had not given the hated chakra any method of entering the body. All it could do was be utilized and replenished by it.

A wisp drew a fragment of her attention. A thought, fragmented and drifting away from the whelp's manifestation. She'd ignored most of them, unconcerned with the thoughts of a whelp she still wanted to understand the throes of death and then live with those memories forever. This one, which had been latched onto the kernel, she pulled in with ease. She could not affect or engage with the thoughts of her prison through the restrictions, but interlopers were fair game. The prison's designers had clearly understood Kurama thoroughly, knowingly leaving her that option.

The whelp wanted to empower Kurama's prison. Give the kit an ability no one would expect, and enable the kit to protect herself from others with similar abilities. To protect herself from people like the whelp who had…something to them, something that fuzzed out and dispersed when Kurama tried to focus on it.

Kurama's snarls of fury quieted. Out of irritation, she kept up her assault on the whelp's manifestation, even as she considered his plan. Kurama was intimately familiar with the basic array of abilities the hated chakra gave. She had been on the receiving end too many times.

The plan had merit. None of her prisons had ever had dojutsu. Kurama was uncertain if they were attempting to prevent her from understanding it more thoroughly, or if there was some other reason to do with human politics.

This whelp, however, had presented her with the chance to understand the most hated abilities the humans possessed. In particular, an ability that had rendered her helpless.

Rendered her servile.

The strangeness of the whelp's concern, of the need to protect, made her curious but that was secondary. The whelp had presented her a way to never be subservient to that hated ability ever again.

Studying the integrated chakra closely, Kurama saw an immediate problem. The foreign chakra was incompatible with her own. The kit's own chakra acted as a buffer, and would certainly serve as fuel, but Kurama would never be able to use it for her own purposes, should she ever gain control of her own prison.

She could fix that, however. Kurama had enough chakra to solve almost any problem, and in this case, drowning the foreign chakra in a mixture of her own and her prison's would serve to make them compatible. That was how she had converted her early prisons to her own vessels, until the humans had learned, and changed the style of prison they used.

The end result would be unfortunately unpredictable. Kurama had lived a long life, but she had never had a chance to experiment with this particular chakra. Her mother's own chakra was the closest comparison, and her own chakra was but a droplet before an ocean, even if she only contended with the tiniest fragment of her mother's power.

What she could be reasonably certain of was that it would be new. The hated chakra would certainly be warped, and lose the ability that Kurama despised; as the Kyubi, she had an intimate understanding of how emotional attachment affected the properties of chakra. Her hatred of the ability – along with what she knew of the kit, whose morals in this rare case, she suspected would align with her own – would not let it stay as it was. It was an intrinsic property of the chakra, and for hers to coexist alongside it, to be compatible, would require that ability to no longer exist.

As much as she would like to turn the ability against those who wielded it on her, Kurama much preferred the idea of it never existing again. Ever.

She was no one's slave.

"Fine." The Kitsune growled.

She poured her own chakra, the limited amount she could utilize outside of her inner prison, into the regenerating foreign chakra. Her prison's chakra flowed along with her efforts; Kurama could not use her manipulations to harm the prison, but this was healing, and that it did eagerly. The fact that it was healing in a direction Kurama wanted was not a consideration.

Kurama was not content with merely healing and adapting it to be useful to her.

However much she despised the humans for their treatment of herself and her siblings, she was not above learning lessons from them. Relearning them, in some cases, lessons her arrogance had rotted away after millennia of being the apex predator.

She was a kitsune, after all. The Kyubi no Kitsune might be known for unmatched power and ferocity, but her lesser brethren were different. Far less emphasis on power, far more on sleight of hand. Deceit. Trickery. Traits they had gained by not being the apex predator; while kitsune might be inclined to such things, the humans were masters of it, especially those calling themselves nin.

It will be hidden. The kit's eye color is already unique. However it changes when active matters not, only that it hides when dormant. It will be compatible shortly, and then the kit's chakra and dregs of mine will fuel it. Even those hated eyes will be unable to perceive it until its new, unique properties are activated.

Much like those pranks the kit is fond of. Hidden payoffs are much better.

Kurama stopped her attack on the whelp's manifestation, pushing it away. If it recovered, fine. If it was forever broken mentally by the experience like she'd originally intended, equally fine. She'd seen both outcomes before.

As she ejected it, she sent the tiniest fragment of her own chakra along the connection, injecting into the whelp's own chakra system. It was toxic, and the whelp's own chakra would grind it down, but doing so would also leave the whelp the ability to see through her concealment. Kurama didn't know how long it would take for the whelp to realize it, if he survived, but she'd seen his methods of training her prison. If she could get the whelp and the kit to explore the properties and abilities of their – unknowingly – combined experiment, then Kurama could formulate her own plans for its usage.

Her limited perception told her the whelp passed out immediately, Kurama's own prison nowhere near conscious.

Time for another nap, I suppose.


Kazune raced through the trees.

On standby with the Hokage and two squads of ANBU, they'd stood as part of the deterrent. Should the yokai escape, they were to prevent them from reaching the walls of Konohagakure. They had done so with ease; the yokai had not ventured in their direction at all.

Then came the update from the sensor nin stationed with them. Yamanaka was the only kunoichi, besides the Hokage, not in ANBU attire. She had sensed the moment the enemy nin unveiled themselves.

With one of the ANBU squads remaining behind, the remaining seven flew forwards. The enemy had unveiled themselves far too close to the last known location of the Kyubi's jinchuriki for it to be coincidence. Even as they flew from tree to tree, Yamanaka had her eyes closed, her senses locked onto the jinchuriki.

Uzumaki Narisa getting captured was one of the two worst case scenarios. The other was that the enemy nin broke her seal. It had been created by Kazune's sensei, widely regarded as one of the greatest fuinjutsu masters since the fall of Uzushiogakure, but Kazune knew very well that it was much easier to break a masterpiece than it was to create it. Especially if the strength of the seal was directed inwards, rather than outwards.

Kazune was choosing not to think about the fact that they might be rushing towards the most dangerous Bijuu in existence, awake, angry, and in close proximity to the village and nin that had kept it sealed for hundreds of years.

"Hokage-sama, the bunker has been sealed." Eagle said from where she leapt along. "Root and ANBU are moving inwards, to relieve those still inside. No reports on the status of the boy."

The Hokage's face was grim as she nodded. "Keep moving."

"Iku!" Yamanaka's eyes shot open. "Hokage-sama, my son and an ANBU signature are moving towards Konoha, at an angle close to us."

"Raccoon, Horse, move to intercept." The Hokage said. "Discern, debrief, then report."

Both ANBU nodded. They were of the few nin, like Kazune herself, who utilized Kage Bunshin. Every ANBU operative was required to test their affinity with the jutsu. Few had any success. Those who were successful were considered assets for many reasons, the Hokage's current orders included.

Without any further orders, two kage bunshin split off from the group. Glancing over, Kazune saw the tension in Yamanaka's posture and face. The woman was worried about her son.

She had every right to be. The test of the Bound's abilities was conducted miles from the survival exercise. The students had been intentionally positioned opposite the bunker as possible, with as much of Konoha as possible in between. Only the jinchuriki's group, on the fringe of the placements, furthest from Hokage Mountain and intentionally positioned where rapid reinforcement could occur from nearby nin, was even remotely close.

Kazune could only assume something in the jinchuriki's nature had drawn the yokai in that direction. The enemy nin moving felt more like an attack of opportunity than anything planned. Capitalizing on chaos, a well worn tactic for nin. The ANBU squad guarding the jinchuriki would've already extracted her if they weren't caught between two hostile forces.

Yamanaka's worries weren't unfounded; the odds of an Academy student surviving in such a situation were not high.

"Hokage-sama." Raccoon said a moment later. "Neko is returning to the village, with Yamanaka Ikuhito. He is low on chakra, having held off multiple Heart Eater yokai. He reported that a Root operative directed him to flee and bring reinforcements, while the Root kunoichi extracted the jinchuriki. Yamanaka Ikuhito appears to have been rendered unconscious due to the mental pressure of the yokai's prolonged presence. He was not aware of enemy nin present, but spoke to the yokai's presence making the area murky to chakra senses. Horse's bunshin is escorting them."

"Hokage-sama, I have two chakra signatures departing the area." Yamanaka reported a minute later. "The jinchuriki's chakra signature is not with them."

"She lives?" The Hokage asked. "The chakra feels the same?"

"I don't sense any leakage." Yamanaka replied.

Good. Bad enough the testing of the Bound's power went so out of control.

They found the remnants of a clash between Konoha nin, the enemy nin, and yokai spread over a half mile of forest. A pair of enemy nin were slumped over, their lower halves crushed by vices of rock. The ANBU operative who'd trapped them was laying nearby, head and Hawk mask lying separately in a pool of blood. A cracked Gorilla mask was visible underneath a trio of yokai corpses. A Root operative was pinned to a tree, a Heart Eater's tail through his gut, the Root's own blade buried in the yokai's skull.

"Thirty seconds." The Hokage said. "Raccoon, Eagle, scout ahead."

Kazune crouched down next to the Root operative as the ANBU squad secured their surroundings. She grimaced as she pressed a hand against the Root operative's mask. The smell of burning flesh wafted out as the mask shifted. Pulling the mask away entirely, Kazune's grimace tightened.

Kazune glanced at the Hokage, but the look on her face convinced her to wait. The Hokage could know later. Kazune was certain she had suspicions; kami knew that Kazune had plenty of her own, after that night of butchery.

Find the other two operatives, though. Check their bodies as well. I'm certain Shimura-san will claim it as a standard procedure, to protect potential Hyuga.

More conflict was reported by Raccoon before the thirty seconds was up. Following her directions, they found more carnage. The second Root operative lay face down on the ground, near the foot of one of the stone pillars that had been created, pinned to the ground with a trio of katanas. There were no bodies near her, but a pair of yokai further back, as well as the waterlogged remains of an enemy nin suggested she'd fought to the end.

Her face was similarly destroyed.

"Hokage-sama." Raccoon said. "We've found the jinchuriki. She and another are laying there unconscious. One Root operative dead as well, as well as an ANBU dead in a small clearing some ways away from them."

"Fox, Yamanaka, Eagle, with me." The Hokage said. "Horse, Raccoon, Gull, scout and get control of this fire. Create a firebreak to ward Konoha and any villages close by. We'll send cleaners shortly."

With a glance, the Hokage conveyed additional orders. Kazune created two kage bunshin, one of them using Henge immediately. The two bunshin proceeded ahead of their smaller group. Eagle created an iwa bunshin a moment later, while Yamanaka used a mizu bunshin.

While the bunshin approached in a linear manner, Kazune followed the Hokage as they came in from the west. Yamanaka and Eagle approached from the east.

Shiranui-kun. At least you're still alive.

Three forms were visible, with the Root operative and Narisa fairly close together. Shiranui, on the other hand, looked like he'd been thrown away from them at some point, laying flat on his back well away from a small starburst of scorched earth near Narisa' prone form. The Konohagakure nin stayed in the trees, observing as the bunshin swept the area. Eagle's bunshin rolled Narisa over. Kazune couldn't see the girl directly, but the bunshin's body language tightened ever so slightly.

Meanwhile, Kazune's bunshin, the one not in Henge, approached the Root operative. She looked at peace from Kazune's angle, even as her body showed the ravages of a brutal fight.

Yamanaka's bunshin was a few feet from Shiranui's sprawled form when an ominous growl reverberated through the area. Stepping out of the flickering shadows created by the slowly encroaching fire and the sun beaming down, a massive form stood protectively over the boy's body.

Kazune's eyes widened. Her contract with her ninken thrummed and she dismissed her bunshin instinctively. There was no mistaking the creature and she had no desire to provoke a fight, no matter how weakened it might be. There were lines she refused to cross until absolutely necessary.

Raion no kage.

The Hokage was clearly on the same page. Both of them leapt down, Kazune noting that the lion had positioned itself to be facing their direction, well before they'd revealed themselves.

"Greetings, Guardian's Shade." The Hokage said, her normal rasp absent. "We seek to treat these two for their injuries, and return them to a place of safety. Konoha seeks to protect its own."

The lion let out a low rumble, then stepped to the side.

Eagle dropped down. "Unexpected. My bunshin sees no signs of permanent injury on the jinchuriki, but the damage to her orbital socket suggests that her eye was fixed or replaced recently with iryo."

"Your scan would only endanger you." The Hokage replied. "Check over Shiranui Ry. Fox, with me."

Together, they approached the Root corpse. Kazune's bunshin had removed the weapon from her torso before being dismissed, laying the operative's body onto its back.

There was no need for words. Kazune and the Hokage both stared at the one eyed corpse for a long minute. Kazune stepped away for a brief moment, to converse with Eagle and check over Uzumaki Narisa herself, before returning. Only after Eagle declared both stable to move did they carry the two students back to Konoha.

"The boy is suffering from blood loss, the consequences of extremely rushed triage iryo ninjutsu, and the toxicity of Bijuu chakra." Eagle said less than an hour later.

They stood in the subterranean medical complex of ANBU's eastern quadrant base.

"He healed her eye." Neko said, his voice quiet. "He has been healing her frequently, especially after their rougher sparring sessions. We were under the assumption the Kyubi tolerated it, for some reason."

"Which is likely where the Bijuu chakra came from." Eagle agreed. "It appears to have been injected into his chakra network via the tenketsu in his hand, likely from the prolonged exposure of following proper protocol rather than rushing it, like he did with his own injuries."

"How long will it take for him to recover?" The Hokage asked.

"A few days, at worst, to wake up." Eagle said, her voice steady. "It was minimal exposure. His hand's chakra network may take a little longer to be back in full form, but there was more danger from his iryo ninjutsu than the Bijuu chakra. In all likelihood, full recovery from his injuries will take a few weeks, possibly a month or two."

"Good." The Hokage said. "We'll report this as part of the effects of being near Heart Eaters. Keeping them under observation for a couple of days will be normal. Both of you, go get some rest."

"Hokage-sama." Eagle and Neko bowed their heads, departing the room.

Kazune stood still while the Hokage turned to the other conscious occupant of the room.

"Do you wish to scold me, Sarutobi?" Shimura-san asked, leaning heavily on her cane.

"No." The Hokage shook her head. "Your operative redeemed you. They all did. Without their eyes, we may have lost our jinchuriki today. The final count is six enemy nin, four dead and two fled."

"Will you be returning the eyes?" Shimura-san asked.

"No." The Hokage's dry tone echoed off the clean surfaces. "By the same token, I will not ask you to return the other eyes still out there. If possessing them will soothe some of your paranoia at their usage, I will let this go."

Shimura-san dipped her head slightly. "And the jinchuriki?"

"Let it go." The Hokage said. "She does not need further isolation."

"You saw what she wrought." Shimura-san said, her good eye gleaming. "Doton on a scale of an experienced jonin pushing themselves. She could-"

"And she will." The Sandaime said, her voice full of the same iron Kazune had heard her mother speak of. "But I will not turn her into a pure weapon, unknowing of the joy of life. Do not ask again."

"Of course." Shimura-san said. "Honoring your successor is important."

Kazune was particularly grateful for her Fox mask at the moment. She'd always excelled at maintaining a neutral disposition, but there were weak spots in that ability. Shimura-san had poked one. Likely knowingly.

"And the boy?" Shimura-san asked. "He shows potential as well. There is increasing evidence that Iwa possesses a Bound with the Dragon contract."

"You think they would allow more than one contractor?" The Hokage asked.

"I think that even a young nin, with the Lion contract, would relieve a great deal of pressure upon the yokai patrols. Much like how Iwa's own yokai patrols appear to be enjoying greatly increased success." Shimura-san said. "And no, I would not presume to train him. I know my limits, Sarutobi. As you have clearly shown through your students, your methods turn out much more powerful summoners than anything I've done."

"You wish to make up for the Bound." The Hokage said.

Shimura-san's scowl was ugly. "Yes. The boy's kekkei tota shows massive potential, but it's far too dangerous to our own forces at the moment. A great deal of further refinement is still needed. The first girl is effective for what she does, but soothing civilians only keeps ourselves stable, it does not affect the enemy. And the second girl is far too…normal."

"A kekkei genkai is too normal?" The Hokage sounded amused.

"Mokuton is useful, but known." Shimura-san said. "I've yet to hear any reports of a Bound possessing only a kekkei genkai that already existed."

"Perhaps there's more to it than we've seen." The Hokage replied. "In the aftermath of this, I am willing to push her training further."

Shimura-san said nothing for a minute. "How so?"

"Using her on yokai patrols." The Hokage said. "Mokuton is especially useful in those cases. Perhaps the exposure to danger will result in something else manifesting."

"Not Root patrols." The Hokage continued.

An hour later, Kazune stood with Ginna inside the Hokage's office. Kazune's friend was in deep thought, staring off at the whirling lines and symbols of the masterwork seal that concealed the Hokage's office from outside observers.

"Is there anything we need to adjust?" Ginna asked. "I'm sure Ry will give me an honest version of events, as he understood them."

"Your nephew taught Narisa how to make Kage Bunshin, according to her." The Hokage said, amusement in her tone. "I don't recall ever removing that from the kinjutsu list."

"It was part of my observations, Hokage-sama." Kazune said. "I theorized that with his unique lack of feedback or backlash from jutsu, he had a much greater chance of possessing the necessary affinity for it."

"And him teaching our village's jinchuriki?" The Hokage asked.

"That wasn't planned for." Kazune admitted.

Given what she'd seen of Narisa's chakra control, Kazune had been flabbergasted that the jinchuriki had succeeded. Kage Bunshin was technically a B rank jutsu, but only because it was purely utility. The level of chakra control necessary to properly imprint and maintain kage bunshin was in the middle of A rank, especially as the proper molding couldn't be guided with multiple seals. Even chunin and jonin who possessed the necessary affinity and chakra control took at least a month to gain a solid grasp on the jutsu.

Ry-kun succeeding was unsurprising, given his unique advantages. Yet it had still taken him weeks of practice to create a functional kage bunshin. Kazune had expected the jinchuriki to fail for months, if she ever got it at all. Not succeed within the first week, according to the ANBU sensors monitoring the village. It spoke of an affinity similar to the young nin of the Clans and their own jutsu.

"I see." The Hokage said. "Given what happened, I will let this go. But Ginna, do remember that nephew or not, he's not even a genin yet. All other kinjutsu are still just that."

Kazune saw her friend stiffen, before nodding. "Of course, Hokage-sama."

Once Ginna departed, the Hokage reactivated the barrier. "You trained him well."

Kazune shrugged. "He is talented. Not a prodigy, but talented. Perhaps he comes close in kenjutsu, according to Akena."

"He survived while in the midst of a three way fight between Konohagakure, missing nin, and yokai." The Hokage said, grabbing her pipe. "According to Narisa, he got her away, kept her from being killed at least twice that she was aware of, and survived at least one direct, close combat encounter with a nin likely to be of chunin, perhaps jonin level."

Kazune shrugged again. "Maa. Aoba, Akena, and I have never sparred with him without at least a little speed advantage. With Hirana there fairly often, we've stopped pulling our punches as much. He only learned how to heal his own eye last week."

"Regardless, well done Kazune." The Hokage smiled. "Without him performing as well as he did, Narisa may have been taken. Or worse."

Kazune nodded.

"He cannot be part of your genin team." The Hokage said.

"He's very likely to be Shinobi of the Year next year, if he continues to improve." Kazune said. "His only competitor is Kadowa Junji and that boy lacks the drive to improve that Shiranui has."

"I'm aware." The Hokage said.

"Do you have a reason to break with tradition?" Kazune asked. "From what I've heard, he is one of the few to get along with Narisa, and one of the few to lack the obsession with Saneko-san. They would be a formidable team, even as genin, ones to live up to the mantle of Team Seven."

The Hokage's grimace was easy to read. "I'm aware. Politics. The Kadowa is more likely, though not much."

Kazune shrugged again. She had no plans to stick her nose in that business. It likely had to do with the official Clans and the civilian counsel.

"With that in mind, I want you to read over this." The Hokage said.

Kazune picked up the folder the Hokage produced. Reading it took her all of five minutes.

"What's your opinion?" The Hokage asked.

"That a nin wrote this, a very good one." Kazune said after she put the folder down. "I suspect there's a second layer to it, one I don't know the context for. Because it's far too straightforward and relevant for any civilian to write, even one of the nobles. I can only think of one group it would be from, and their opposition gets nothing from us poking our noses in."

"Your suspicion is correct." The Hokage said. "Though not one you'd be able to unravel on your own. It requires knowledge from before you were born, one that very few people would have access to. Something designed to provoke my interest, specifically, as Hokage."

"Am I taking this mission?" Kazune asked.

"No." The Hokage said. "I have a team in mind already, for the initial probe. I had originally planned on giving you the decoy mission."

Kazune understood the subtext. "If it isn't too long, I recommend Gaya. I know she'll be getting her genin team soon."

"Perhaps." The Hokage said.

Kazune decided to ask a question, one provoked by the Hokage's earlier word choice. "Why was Shiranui-kun's ineligibility for my genin team part of reading this document?"

"What's the payment offered?" The Hokage asked, tapping the folder.

Kazune frowned. The payment was clearly enumerated, but the anonymous mission sponsor had also cited potential information about lost kekkei genkai if certain parameters were met.

"I'm not sure I follow." Kazune said. "They would know about lost kekkei genkai better than anywhere else, but then they would've sent this to Iwa or Kumo. We've never sought out bloodlines for our village."

"Continue thinking on it." The Hokage said. "I'm sure it will make itself clear in time."

"And Kazune," the Hokage said as Kazune got ready to leave, "catch."

Kazune snatched the orange book out of the air. The Hokage's smile grew as Kazune's eye widened after opening the blank cover.

"Do tell me what you think, when you're done." The Hokage giggled.

Kazune barely heard her.


Ry woke up to the sound of snoring.

Immediately, his head throbbed. The pain wasn't entirely physical; Ry was fairly certain the throbbing was almost entirely aligned with the average layout of a human male's chakra network.

Opening his eyes didn't worsen the pain. Turning his head slightly, Ry saw Ginna reclined in the small chair placed near a window.

Glancing around further, Ry could deduce where he was. Seeing his sanitized surroundings triggered a realization of how he'd ended up in the hospital.

Laying there, the memories washed over him. Ry found his vision narrowing as breathing suddenly became a struggle. Faintly, he knew he was having some sort of panic attack. Or something similar; whatever it was, his thoughts were far from clear.

A lance of pain shot up from his right hand, obliterating panic as his jaw clenched. Ry's eyes bugged out, a ragged gasp escaping him. His left hand shot over to his right, clutching at it.

Tears leaking from his eyes, Ry used his left hand to bring his right hand up. From the pain, he wasn't sure if he'd forgotten it being set on fire, or something similar. But his hand screamed at him, the entire limb shaking as he brought it closer.

The pain didn't abate, but Ry forced himself to move it. Flexing it didn't seem to increase the pain notably, nor did moving it. Motion wasn't setting off the pain, but it felt like someone had lit a fire inside his palm.

Then Ry made the mistake of trying to use Mystic Palm, to diagnose what was happening with his hand. His world went red and black.

"Ry, Ry, it's okay." Ry heard faintly.

Another pair of hands was clutching his, the skin cool and reassuring. Ry's chest heaved as he tried to get his breathing under control.

"It should be receding." Another voice said, a familiar one. "I've contained the Bijuu's chakra for the moment."

Ry blinked his eyes open. Ginna had his hands held in her own, concern evident in her eyes. A cooling sensation emanated from his shoulder. Glancing over, Ry saw Hirana standing there, her hands glowing with the familiar green of Mystic Palm.

"Hey Ry." Ginna said, her smile strained.

"Hey auntie." Ry said, his throat dry. "Hey sensei."

"Hell of a way to wake me up." Ginna said.

"Sorry." Ry rasped.

"Let's get you some water." Hirana said. "And you listen while I talk."

Ry nodded slightly. He was curious about the numbness in his hand, but he wasn't going to repeat his earlier mistake. The lingering phantom of the pain was more than enough of a deterrent.

"First of all, congratulations on your survival." Hirana said. "Kazune-senpai reported at least a dozen yokai and half a dozen enemy nin were doing their best to kill everyone in the area."

Ry's eyes widened. "Is Narisa okay?"

Ginna nodded. "She's fine. Been a bit anxious the past few days, but she's fully recovered physically. Now let Hirana talk. They've had to focus on other things, so your throat is still recovering from the damage of inhaling too much smoke."

Ry nodded. His throat felt rough. It had been a small concern, given the enemy nin in the area, but he had inhaled in a good deal of smoke.

"You did well." Hirana said. "Well, not well. You repaired your arm and leg back to functional. I presume you know you did damage in the process?"

Ry nodded. There was no burn in either of them, but he recalled that sensation very well.

"Most of that damage was the nerves." Hirana said. "You burned some of them out, but you also mis-attached a few of them so that they fired when you used your muscles. I fixed what I could with some support from a few other iryo specialists, but we did have to re-sever some of them. You'll be limping for a week or two, and no lifting your arm above your chest for a few weeks. Along with daily treatment sessions as I put things back into alignment."

Considering he'd been concerned with function in the present over function in the future, Ry was happy he hadn't done anything permanent. It was a worry he'd pushed down in the moment.

"I will say, however, that you did an excellent job with Narisa-chan's eye." Hirana said. "We can attribute some of that to the recovery that her status as a jinchuriki grants, but your alignment and integration went exceedingly well."

Ry nodded. Then his memory caught up with him. He glanced at Ginna.

"I know." Ginna said. "Kazune told me. You did the right thing. She and I will talk to you about it later."

Right. Well then…

Hirana cleared her throat. "The eye is fully functional. In my personal opinion, you showed great decision making taking the eye of the ANBU. She would've approved, and Narisa-chan doesn't deserve to go through life without an eye."

Ry wasn't sure if she was obfuscating. Regardless, he was going to keep his mouth shut. He had questions about the Sharingan the ANBU had possessed and he knew Kazune was the person to ask.

Then there was the…fuzziness that had happened while he was in the midst of integrating Narisa's new eye. Ry had very little memory of it. Just pain and the color orange. He suspected his mind was forcibly repressing the memories, if they were any more vivid than what he recalled. Ry wasn't inclined to fight to get them back.

As far as he was aware, the Kyubi wasn't going to change from a gigantic ball of rage for a long time. Integrating a Sharingan had been a risk, he'd known that. His best guess was that the suppressed memories were of the fox venting its displeasure on him directly. Ry wasn't sure how he'd survived, but he was grateful. Even if he apparently had a chunk of Bijuu chakra inside of him now.

"Now, let's talk about your therapy schedule." Hirana said.

Ry nodded along dutifully as the iryo specialist outlined his next few days and weeks. Most of it appeared focused on repairing the damage to his thigh and shoulder, then reacclimating to fully healed functionality.

Once she was done, Ginna ruffled Ry's hair. "Kazune and I will be back to talk with you later. Get some more rest."

Left alone with his thoughts, Ry closed his eyes.

I could have died.

Would have died. Only the training I did with auntie, Kazune, Akena, and Aoba saved me. That, and Narisa's ability to create ridiculous numbers of shadow clones.

I should have died.

Ry spent a long time with that thought. He should be dead.

Deep breaths didn't help. Acknowledgement that he'd been around for less than half a year didn't help. Knowing that he'd somehow succeeded, despite the long odds, didn't help.

I should've trained more seriously.

I'm in Naruto. I could've trained more. I should have trained more.

Then Ry did the math, and came up frowning. He'd spent hours, six nights a week, training with his sensei. He couldn't extend those training sessions, mostly because he needed to be functional the following days. After training, he spent time working on his chakra control and his iryo ninjutsu, which already cut into his sleep. His days were consumed by The Academy, which he would not give up. There was surprisingly little free time, and he'd been more efficient than he'd initially realized.

A good chunk of his 'free time' had been spent with Narisa and Ry knew that he would've been dead if he hadn't spent that time with her. Teaching Narisa to make shadow clones, working on the logistics for their pranks, and most importantly being her friend, all reasons Ry had survived. He wasn't going to give up on helping her. He wanted her to survive, and he knew there were others out there like him. If they had knowledge of Naruto, he didn't want them having an advantage. While he hadn't been able to divulge any sort of information about 'plot' to Ginna, that didn't mean someone else wasn't more creative. Nor did it mean that one of the others might not attain a position of power and use that authority to act.

Ry didn't know the exact state of affairs between Konohagakure and the other hidden villages, but he'd learned a few things. Suna was an ally of convenience, Kiri was caught up in a civil war that had been raging semi-publicly for at least a few years, Kumo was unrelentingly frosty towards the other hidden villages since the Third Nin War, and Iwa hated Konoha's guts. To say nothing of the smaller hidden villages. Any of them could and would cause problems if they came after Konoha with the knowledge similar to Ry's own.

Worse, if they had another Bound with a more in-depth knowledge of the original Naruto world than Ry's suspect recollections.

No, I'm not going to stop training Narisa. I can't. If she has surprises at her disposal, then she'll be better off. I can't really warn Konoha about the attack, even if it's not coming for a while. I've tried, with Ginna and Kazune both.

But still…I need to train more. Be ready. I know this is far from the worst that this world can throw at me.

Dammit. I don't actually have any more time to train. Unless I want to give up on sleeping, and I already barely get enough as is.

So…how do I train more? Or if I can't, how do I train more efficiently?

Ry added it to his list of questions to ask Kazune.


"Skewer-kun!" Narisa slammed into Ry with a tight hug.

"Hey Narisa." Ry replied, patting Narisa's back with one hand.

Ginna chuckled off to the side. "Don't squeeze him too hard, Narisa-chan. If he pops, he'll have to go back to the hospital."

Ry threw her a droll look. His aunt merely smirked.

Narisa let go, stepping back. "I didn't hurt you, right?"

Ry shook his head. "You're fine. Hirana-sensei wouldn't have let me out of the hospital if she was worried about a hug or two hurting me. Most of my recovery is about not injuring myself by trying too much, too early."

"Oh." Narisa exhaled. "Good. Obaa-chan's already mad enough. Don't need her getting on me about that too."

Ry cocked his head. "Why is she mad at you? You didn't do anything to cause that stuff. If it wasn't for you, we'd both probably be dead."

Narisa blushed slightly, looking away.

"Blondie here may have not taken the iryo specialists decree about no unauthorized visitors well." Ginna said. "And the hospital's chunin were not happy that she got by them to come visit you. Three times."

"Ah." Ry said. "Maybe Narisa should do more penetration tests then. If a student can get by them, what would a licensed nin be able to accomplish?"

Ginna started snickering. "I think the Hokage would have a riot on her hands if she tried to officially employ Narisa-chan as a penetration tester."

"Wait, that's a thing?" Narisa looked at Ginna. "I could get paid to do that?"

"Yes." Ginna said. "One of your guest instructors at The Academy does it fairly regularly. Yuhi Kuro. He makes good money that way, and given how good he is, it'll probably get him promoted to full jonin soon."

"Don't think they'll employ you, Narisa." Ginna said, her senbon pointing directly at the blonde. "Not until you're a chunin, at the very least."

Narisa sagged. "Aww. That's years away. Obaa-san said future Hokage aren't allowed to skip the important steps."

Ry smiled at that. It was a bit of a relief to know that Narisa's dreams hadn't been shaken by the encounter. From the show, nothing had really shaken Naruto, but given the differences Ry had already encountered, it was good to know that similarity remained.

"Maybe you could convince Yuhi-sensei to take on a helper?" Ry asked. "He might be willing."

Narisa shook her head. "Nah. Yuhi-sensei doesn't really like me. He's always muttering about too noisy and not paying attention, whenever he's in to teach."

"All our sensei do that." Ry said. "Even Iroha-sensei."

"Still." Narisa waved her hand. "I don't wanna ask. I'll just prove I can do it on my own. Ooh, maybe when I'm on a team, I can ask my jonin sensei if we can get those kind of things as missions. That'd be cool."

Ry saw his aunt's face twitch. Her smirk flickered to thoughtfulness for a brief moment, before going back to amused.

She's friends with Kazune. I can't really remember if the show talked about how far in advance Kakashi knew the team he'd be getting. If Kazune knows, then Ginna might as well. Given what I put in Narisa's skull, I can't imagine she'd be going anywhere else, now.

"Hey, how's your eye?" Ry asked.

Narisa blinked, then looked up at Ry. "It's fine. Obaa-chan said you replaced the one that got cut by that enemy kunoichi. Got a cool scar though."

Ry looked at the scar as Narisa tapped her cheek. It was thin and silvery, looking like it had been there for years rather than days. Her blonde eyebrow was split in two, the scar ending right above it. It stretched down to about half an inch above her highest whisker mark on that side.

Ginna and Kazune had already asked him questions about it. He'd confirmed for them that he'd implanted a Sharingan. The fact that it wasn't visible now, at all, either implied a genjutsu, or that it hadn't taken.

Or some other possibility Ry wasn't aware of. Neither his aunt nor Kazune had been forthcoming on the question. Nor would they volunteer the results that the other iryo specialists had found in their own assessments. Which left Ry only one option to soothe his curiosity and concern.

"Can I run a scan, just to double check?" Ry asked.

Narisa shrugged. "Sure. Everyone else said it was fine though."

Humor me." Ry said.

For a moment, he hesitated. Hirana insisted that between her efforts and his own chakra, they'd flushed out all remnants of the Kyubi's chakra. Not that they would tell him how it had gotten there in the first place. It was gone, and technically, the pain should've accompanied it. Everything was supposedly in his head.

Ry had given up on telling them otherwise, after Hirana's multiple scans only ever showed a healthy chakra network.

Using his left hand, Ry went through a series of seals, before bringing his good arm and putting his palm on Narisa's head. He sent his chakra in a gentle pulse through Narisa's skull, ignoring the small lance of pain in his right hand. It wasn't enough to stop him, but it had caused him problems the first few times he'd tried iryo ninjutsu since waking up. He'd only adjusted to it after a good night's sleep following some repetitious practice of Mystic Palm, allowing himself to complete the jutsu without flinching from the pain.

Ry blinked. Narisa's left eye was fine. Her right eye was fine, too, but the pain in his palm flared up again as his chakra passed through it. While the pain was there, Ry could see the difference in the chakra networks of the two eyes. Narisa's left was normal. Her right had at least four times the number of chakra veins running through it, as well as a trio of smaller tenketsu in the iris, rather than the single tenketsu in the pupil. The three tenketsu had their own little circle of chakra veins running between them as well.

"Huh." Ry said. "Looks fine."

Why didn't Kazune and auntie say anything about this?

Wait a minute. Did…the Kyubi did something to hide this. Has to be. Which is why that pain is there. The Kyubi's chakra isn't all gone. Just hidden. What's left is what's letting me see what's happening in her eye.

And hopefully not poisoning me, given what Hirana said about long term exposure.

So…is it still a Sharingan? Or is it something else? I don't know if the Kyubi has the ability to hide the Sharingan like that. Wouldn't that just turn it into a…whatever the purple eyes are called? Or am I misremembering?

Dammit, I hate not knowing.

Ginna's lifted eyebrow told Ry that she wasn't buying his words. Which was fine. She wasn't the one he was trying to convince.

"Told ya." Narisa said, sticking her tongue out.

"Alright, just wanted to be sure." Ry said. "You were missing an eye and I'd never replaced one before. I feel like some concern is warranted."

"Oh." Ry blinked. "I forgot to ask. Was Yamanaka-san okay?""

Narisa blinked back at Ry. When she didn't answer, Ry turned to his aunt.

Ginna sighed, shaking her head. "You're both…yes, he's fine. Come on, let's get you home brat. Doc's orders are pretty clear on the whole rest and recovery thing. You might be going to The Academy tomorrow, but she'll flay you if you try anything physical."

"I don't plan to defy Hirana-sensei." Ry said dryly.

"Is that scary glasses lady?" Narisa asked.

Ginna started snickering at that.

Ry shrugged. "She's not scary."

Narisa stared at him.

"She's the one who booted you out a few times?" Ry asked.

Narisa's stare intensified.

"I guess she could come off as scary, in those cases." Ry admitted. "But she's not that bad. She's teaching me iryo ninjutsu. Without her, you wouldn't have an eye."

"Still scary glasses lady." Narisa muttered.

"Mmm." Ry hummed. "You coming with? I can make dinner."

"Nah." Narisa shook her head. "Obaa-san wants to eat dinner with me."

"I can make dinner for her too?" Ry tried.

"She's buying Ichiraku's." Narisa said.

"Ah." Ry nodded. "I'll hold a funeral for her wallet. It lived a fulfilling life."

Narisa growled at him, lifting her arm. Ginna was suddenly there, holding Narisa's wrist.

"You might like punching his shoulder when he thinks that he's being funny, but his shoulder wouldn't appreciate that at the moment, blondie." Ginna said.

Narisa winced, lowering her arm when Ginna released it. "Right. Sorry, skewer-kun."

"S'fine." Ry said.

"You should ask her on a date." Ginna said less than five minutes later.

"No." Ry replied automatically.

"Aww, brat, you sure?" Ginna smirked as she strolled along with him. "She's got a crush."

"No she doesn't." Ry replied. "It is very obvious who she's interested in at the moment, and I don't have pink hair, an obsession with Uchiha Saneko, and a friendship gone bad with Yamanaka Ikuhito."

"She's still on that, huh?" Ginna said. "Man, Shikara's phrase is so good for that: what a drag. If-"

"No, auntie." Ry interrupted. "I'm not going to ask her out. Ever. I don't think she'd ever want that from me, and I wouldn't want her to accept because she might be worried about losing me as a friend."

He waited for his aunt's reply, but it didn't come. Ginna seemed content to walk along as they closed in on Ry's apartment.

"Mature of you." Ginna replied as they turned onto his street. "Most shinobi your age would see a pretty kunoichi hanging out with them and pounce."

"Most shinobi my age are a bit busy trying not to drool at Mizuri-sensei's chest or obsessing about Saneko's 'perfection distilled,' as the stalkers like to call it." Ry said, shaking his head. "Kadowa-san, Hyuga-san, and I are the only ones different, as far as I can tell. Which is what, three out of twenty five, in our year? I'd like to think I'm ahead of the curve, especially considering what kunoichi are trained in during yuwaku."

Which is good. I'd be more than a little concerned if I was as driven by my hormones as most of my fellow shinobi in training are. Exacerbated by chakra usage or not, my self image would take a severe beating if I couldn't control myself.

"Tch." Ginna took her senbon out, pointing it at Ry. "Stop being all mature and intelligent. I'm your aunt who's supposed to beat common sense about women, especially kunoichi, into you."

"Yes auntie." Ry said flatly. "Do you mind if I slip out later tonight for a panty raid? Tadari-sensei says it's an excellent way to practice stealthy movements."

Ginna slapped the back of his head. "Funny, brat."

"You wanted me to stop being mature and intelligent." Ry replied, grinning.

It wasn't often he actually got under Ginna's skin, or had such an easy avenue to mess with her. His aunt had a mastery of repartee that Ry envied.

Walking into his apartment, Ry was utterly unsurprised to find Kazune lounging in a chair. Her ubiquitous orange book was in her hands as she slowly flipped the pages. If Ry had to guess, she'd read the book four or five times already.

He knew better than to ask what it was about. None of the orange books had titles on the outside, but Ry had learned. His brief bout of curiosity had been sated when he'd read the words 'glistening abs and broad shoulders' for the fourth time in the first two pages. It hadn't reached the graphic portions, but Ry had enough knowledge to quell his curiosity.

Unfortunately.

"Maaa, Shiranui-kun, we really should talk about you teaching Narisa-chan kinjutsu." Kazune said, not shutting her book.

"It saved my life." Ry said. "And might've saved hers, or prevented her from being kidnapped. I did a lot of things wrong in that encounter, but teaching her how to make Kage Bunshin was not one of them."

"As it so happens, we agree with you." Ginna said, shutting the door and reclining against it. "She seems to show an aptitude for it. Did you teach her how to use jutsu through her bunshin?"

"She packs enough chakra into each one that they probably have at least ten times my chakra reserve." Ry shrugged. "I told her it was possible the first day of our survival exercise, but we hadn't gone into theory. I'm pretty sure all her bunshin that did it put everything they had into the jutsu."

"It's not something that everyone can do." Kazune said. "It does show that Narisa-chan has at least a small affinity for Doton."

Ry held his tongue. He was almost positive she still had her affinity for Fuiton. If not, he could work with it, though he wasn't sure how Narisa would adapt to not having Rasenshuriken in the future.

He did have a question that he could satisfy. "How does her being able to do that tell you about her affinity?"

"Because Kage Bunshin can't perform elemental jutsu outside of the nin's affinities." Kazune said. "Jutsu that don't require any sort of affinity change are fine, but a bunshin is completely composed of chakra. They can't change their fundamental components to something foreign. In order for her to have used Doton of any kind, she must possess a small affinity for it, at the very least. She might possess another affinity as well, though that's rare, and if that's the case, it won't be Suiton or Doton."

Meaning…damn, Narisa could be a real terror. Kawarimi, Rasengan, elemental jutsu, and every Kage Bunshin can do them. I mean, I already know she will be one hell of a heavy hitter, one day, but that's a versatile skill set.

"Oh." Ry said.

"Make dinner. And be careful with your shoulder." Ginna said. "We'll eat, then we'll talk some more. I know you have more questions. Kazune and I will answer what we can."

Ry bit his tongue, questions piling up: the monsters that had attacked them, the enemy nin, Narisa's eye, and the ANBU with Sharingan. He wasn't sure what order the queries would've come out in, but he doubted they would've been coherent. Ginna's offer was helpful, if he chose to take the time to reflect and order his thoughts.

Of course, during the meal, both Ginna and Kazune grilled him over every detail of the attack. They'd asked him twice already, but the third round of questions were no less thorough. If anything, they seemed more focused, asking for more details and more precision in his recollection.

"What were those things?" Ry asked, eager to get his own answers once Ginna had let out a belch signifying the end of her onslaught against the fish he'd cooked. "The thing that looked like a lion made of shadow, and giant cyclopean cats made of blood."

Ginna and Kazune glanced at each other. The silver-haired kunoichi gestured at Ry's aunt.

"Yokai." Ginna said. "They're called yokai. They don't always come looking like cats. There are too many varieties to count, to be honest. I can't tell you where those ones came from, but they usually spill over from the permanent spirit rifts drifting through the Elemental Nations."

"Wait…mobile monster spawners just drift through the world, and nobody's closed them?" Ry frowned. "I assume something makes that impossible, since I can't imagine someone like the Shodai Hokage or the Shodai Mizukage allowing that sort of thing to stand."

"Correct." Ginna said, closing her eyes and reclining in her kitchen chair. "They have a charted drift to them. Civilian and nin, for at least a thousand years, have tried everything they can think of to close them, going back to before the Warring States era. Uzushiogakure, before they were destroyed, were in the process of trying to create a reactive seal that would've been the first new attempt at such a feat in well over a hundred years. Most people gave up when the Shodaime Hokage announced that even with all her efforts, she had not managed to close the smallest, permanent spirit rift she could find in the Land of Fire."

"So they just…spit out monsters?" Ry asked.

"Monster isn't always the correct term." Ginna said, eyes still closed as her head rested on the chair's back. "Those same rifts were the ones that introduced us to a number of the animal clans we now regularly form summoning contracts with, nin to animal. But yes, most of the ones you encountered are best described as monsters."

"More importantly, they don't constantly spit them out." Ginna said. "As best as research can tell, and mind you it's the latest from when I was last stationed on a yokai patrol, the spirit rifts drift through the spirit realms as well. It's not like it's just spitting out spirits. It can attract them, and entice them through, somehow. But it doesn't always spit out monsters. They often come in clumps, but those clumps can be days, weeks, or months apart."

"Or minutes. Don't forget that, Ginna-chan." Kazune said, flipping a page in her book.

Ginna's eyes didn't open as she flipped Kazune a rude hand gesture. "That's the worst case scenario. And usually the Lions or Dragons are there to assist us in staunching the tide in those cases. They care little for widening the breaches in the boundaries of the realms, not when they're defending the boundaries themselves."

"Dragons are real?" Ry asked.

Ginna's eyes slitted open, her face contorting into a smirk that conveyed her amusement. "Yes. You'll hopefully never see one in your life, but they're very real. Suna had a kunoichi who had signed the Dragon contract during the Second Nin War. She could single-handedly decimate armies. The Hokage had to deploy the Sannin to stall her once they convinced Amogakure to back off. Even then, she died because someone in Suna thought she was getting too powerful, and killed her rather than risking her surviving the war flush with power and loyalty of so many nin."

"Maa, the Lions are worse." Kazune said. "Dragons are strong, but they're all raw power. Lions and Lion summoners tend to have a bit of finesse, combined with a very scary amount of power."

"Forgot you had that encounter." Ginna said.

"I never have." Kazune said. "You ever see someone summon a Lion, you run, Shiranui-kun. Or a Dragon, for that matter. Both species might consider your immediate retreat flattery, and let you live."

"Wasn't planning on fighting Dragons or Lions anytime soon." Ry said. "But what was with the shadowy lion that helped protect Narisa and I?"

"Something you don't need to be concerned about for the moment." Ginna said. "Hokage's orders on that. We'll talk about it again once you graduate The Academy, but you'll need to wait."

Ry frowned. Complaining about the restriction would get him nowhere, he knew that.

He wanted to ask anyways.

"The nin we encountered?" Ry asked instead. "The ones presumably trying to capture Narisa?"

"Maa, we don't have complete confirmation." Kazune said, waving her orange book for a moment. "They didn't have any identifying markers, and no one has recognized them from any of our bingo books."

They're not the people with the clouds on their clothes, I know that for sure. We'd have been toast, in that case.

Don't think they'd have been hired by them, though maybe that's different when it's not the context of a show?

"We're fairly certain they were an undercover escort for a Land of Lightning merchant traveling to some of the outlying villages, doing some reconnaissance at the same time." Kazune continued. "The Hokage and her advisors believe it was an attack of opportunity."

"That they went straight for Narisa?" Ry said disbelievingly. "Because they were trying to kill me, but they weren't doing the same for her."

"Kumogakure wouldn't send a team of only two jonin and four chunin to take Konoha's jinchuriki." Kazune said, lowering her book, meeting Ry's eyes. "The likely answer was that one of their nin was a sensor who recognized Narisa as a jinchuriki. The other villages may not know who our jinchuriki is, exactly, but they know when the Kyubi attacked, and that our newest jinchuriki is young enough to be vulnerable, with assets in place to protect them. If this was planned, Kumo would've sent a much deadlier group to cut through our defenses, one you wouldn't have lasted three seconds against."

"Surprised I lasted anyways." Ry said, his mind echoing back to the thoughts that hadn't left since the hospital bed. "And how did you know they were two jonin and four chunin?"

"Maa, mind walkers are scary." Kazune smiled with her eye, raising her book again. "They hid where they were from, but they couldn't hide the basics from Yamanaka-san."

"Wait, they can read the minds of dead bodies?" Ry's eyes went wide.

"I'm not entirely sure how it works." Kazune shrugged. "From how it's been described, they can retrieve impressions. Normally that would include where they're from, but Kumo has mind walkers of their own. They were apparently able to obscure almost everything with something they'd put in place, and a dead body can't hold impressions for very long."

"Long story short, you were dealing with six enemy nin." Ginna said, rubbing her face. "The yokai coming towards Narisa wasn't expected and forced the ANBU squad guarding her out of position, but any nin within a hundred miles felt that disturbance. These nin were close enough to try and capitalize. So they came after you and Narisa."

"Good job on surviving, by the way." Ginna said, tilting her head to actually look at Ry. "I'd be heartbroken if my little nephew died so young."

"Thank you?" Ry cocked his head, not entirely sure how to take his 'aunt's' tone.

"Narisa-chan said you held off one of the attackers at one point." Kazune said.

"That's an overstatement." Ry grunted, shaking his head. "The better choice of words was surviving. She was faster, stronger, and more skilled than me. I only survived because she wasn't expecting much from me. Even then, she'd have killed me if that ANBU hadn't come back around."

"She was a chunin, and a skilled one." Ginna said. "Surviving when the ANBU stationed nearby and the yokai managed to kill four of her teammates speaks to that. You did a good job. So did Narisa."

"What was up with that ANBU?" Ry asked, coming to the question he cared most about. "Can I talk about it?"

Kazune's eye smile grew. "Maa, we wouldn't have had an ANBU team make a barrier around the apartment if we weren't going to talk freely."

Ry blinked a few times. "What?"

"We needed somewhere to debrief you." Ginna smirked. "The Hokage's tower is always watched, as is the mission hall. The best place was somewhere you naturally go. The infiltrators won't be looking for a debrief on sensitive information in your apartment."

"Infiltrators?" Ry's eyebrows shot up.

"There are always kunoichi and shinobi infiltrating our village. It's the danger of being one of the five major hidden villages; everyone knows where we are and we can't exactly reject commerce." Ginna shrugged. "They're almost always young, and not powerful. We'd notice their chakra signatures, otherwise. But they're skilled enough to stay out of the clutches of our genjutsu, which means they can actually relay information back to their homes. ANBU and T&I are always playing counterintelligence games with them."

"I guess…that makes sense." Ry said, shaking his head.

Logic followed quickly. "We let the ones we know about stay, so we can feed them false information?"

Kazune's eye crinkled. "Maa, Shiranui-kun, you take after your sensei so well."

"He does seem to take after Akena." Ginna agreed.

Kazune made a rude gesture towards Ginna, who snickered.

"Her eyes." Ry said, putting aside the thought of infiltrators for the moment. "I thought all the Sharingan were gone. Except for maybe Saneko."

Ry chose not to mention Kazune's eye. He had plenty of evidence to point to it, even without his meta knowledge, but he wouldn't until forced to. From what he remembered of the show, the eye was a double edged sword for the Copy Nin, martially and mentally. He wasn't going to dredge that up for Kazune if he didn't have to.

"That's the common belief." Kazune said, her tone losing its mirth. "But their eyes can be transplanted, as you saw. After the night of the Uchiha massacre, ANBU was able to recover some of the bodies with still intact eyes. The eyes were distributed among those who were deemed capable of handling them, including the ANBU operative you met."

Ry frowned.

Didn't the old dude with the creepy mind control eye have a bunch of them in his arm? Did the lady version of the old dude decide to do something else with them instead? Or did more get found this time?

"So…this ANBU and some others had Sharingan, this whole time?" Ry asked.

"Yes." Kazune said. "No, I can't tell you if there are still any out there."

Ry let out a loud sigh. "Wow."

Then he shook his head. "So…why doesn't Narisa have one, then? That was definitely a Sharingan I transplanted at that ANBU's request."

Kazune and Ginna glanced at each other for a moment. There seemed to be a wordless conversation between the two women, before Ginna let out a sigh and made a go ahead gesture.

"Maaa, we're thinking it could be a couple of things." Kazune said, setting her book down on the table, spine up. "What did you see with your scan?"

"Something that's definitely not a normal eye." Ry replied. "It has like four or five times the chakra veins that her left does, and three smaller tenketsu as opposed to the singular one found in her left eye."

Kazune nodded. "That's what our iryo scans found as well. The findings are in line with what an eye with an active Sharingan looks like."

Why lie to me? Or was the pain I was feeling from the Kyubi's chakra not related to hiding Narisa's eye?

"So…she does have a Sharingan?" Ry asked, swallowing his questions.

He knew there was a very real possibility they'd been ordered to lie to him. He couldn't even blame them for it; cooperative or not, he'd only been in the village for a little less than half a year. That wasn't a lot of time to build up trust, not outside of the people who interacted with him regularly. For all that she was hopefully as nice as her show's counterpart, the Hokage was not someone Ry had regular interactions with.

Nor did he want to.

"Possibly." Kazune shrugged. "She's an orphan, it's possible that she has Uchiha blood in her somewhere, which is why the Sharingan could be there without showing up. She might need to activate it. Or it might be something else. She has the Kyubi; there's no record of a jinchuriki with a dojutsu. Maa, it could be something completely new."

Ry didn't know what to say to that. Having a Sharingan could've certainly helped Narisa stay outside of what others might predict. At the same time, it would've made it almost impossible to hide that she had one, unless she started wearing an eyepatch like Kazune.

So…if she does have one, she's a natural Uchiha? Does that make one of her parents different? I have no idea what's going on at this point.

If she doesn't then…it'll definitely be outside of people's ability to predict. But she'll need to figure it out.

"Okay." Ry said. "Will she be able to activate it by infusing her eye with chakra? Because she's going to have to figure that out quick, considering the eyes are part of a full infusion."

"Dojutsu typically take more intent than that." Kazune said. "Given Narisa-chan's chakra reserves, it might happen by accident, but she'll need to train if she wants to use it purposefully."

Ry thought about his next question. "Who will train her?"

"For now, no one." Ginna said. "Except whatever the two of you get up to."

Ry blinked. "Wait. You're telling me we might have a brand new, never before seen dojutsu and we're just going to…let it be?"

"Maa, politics." Kazune shrugged. "Our civilians still haven't forgiven the Kyubi, and the Clans are scrabbling for power and prestige. Narisa-chan getting special training ahead of time, before she's put on a team, would need to be justified; your little deal with Kae-chan skirts that line, because no one is really concerned about her being better with taijutsu. However, the Hokage would like to keep Narisa-chan's possible dojutsu as secret as possible, and that wouldn't be possible if the Hyuga were given permission to train a jinchuriki."

But…Kazune knows. Why wouldn't she train Narisa?

"That seems incredibly short sighted." Ry said. "And stupid."

"It would be different if it wasn't a transplant." Ginna said. "The Clans would be all over getting her trained if it was inheritable. But she's a one and done. And a jinchuriki, one that some of the Clans have divided opinions on."

I still don't understand why Kazune can't train her. Just let her be part of the training sessions I have with Kazune, and work on the dojutsu then.

This screams politics. Stupid politics. Or some game within a game thing that I don't understand.

Ry sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Right. Just…give me a moment. I was hoping that politics here would be a bit more sensible, given the considerably more violent nature of the Elemental Nations. I want to be surprised, but I'm just disappointed."

"Humans are humans, Shiranui-kun." Kazune said. "Something to remember, dealing with nin or civilians."

Ry just grunted.

"Fine." Ry said. "So Narisa and I will just have to figure out her new dojutsu on our own. I'm sure nothing will go wrong with it, at all."

Both jonin looked at Ry. Ry met their gazes without flinching.

"He has a point." Ginna said.

"Maa, we do have orders, Ginna-chan." Kazune replied.

Ginna snorted, shaking her head. Her eyes held amusement, but also a hint of iron.

"She's not allowed to use it on pranks." Ginna said. "Not until you figure out what it does. She's not allowed to target you, either. If it is a Sharingan, that's one thing. But if it's new, you'll treat it like she's firing offensive jutsu any time she uses it."

"Sure thing, auntie." Ry replied.

It was easy enough to agree to. Narisa could already do plenty of damage just with her current abilities and chakra reserves. Ry didn't want to unleash an unknown dojutsu on anyone until they had a clear understanding of what it could do. Especially in Narisa's hands.

Speaking of…

"Can we get mine and Narisa's affinities tested?" Ry asked. "And start learning offensive jutsu? Narisa would've been much more effective if her bunshin could use jutsu. They've got more than enough chakra to spare, unlike mine."

"You realize that if you don't share affinities, it will be difficult or impossible to learn hers and teach her?" Ginna asked.

"I can already do a basic jutsu of each element." Ry replied, looking at his aunt in confusion.

Ginna blinked, then looked at Kazune.

"Maa, I was curious." Kazune said, flicking through her book.

"Yes, we can do that." Ginna said. "Though I thought I was getting told everything about your training."

Ry nodded. While he'd accepted that he couldn't really insert more training into his day to day life, he could change parts of the training he was doing.

First and foremost, in his mind, was learning how to be considerably more lethal to anyone trying to kill him.

His time alone in the hospital had brought another conclusion. He'd gotten himself involved. Befriending Narisa hadn't been done with any sort of intention beyond just being her friend. She needed one, and despite his original concerns about getting involved with main characters, Ry wasn't an asshole.

That friendship had consequences, however, and Ry had to acknowledge the most important: he was officially in for it when it came to getting in danger. Being friends with Narisa wouldn't really allow for anything else. Nearly dying had just driven it home.

Hence his need to increase the effectiveness of training. Going forward, random nin on an escort mission were going to be the least of his worries. Being close to Narisa would see him in close proximity to a number of ludicrously skilled and powerful nin. Ry was going to need every advantage he could scrape together to survive against those chakra monsters, even with the original chakra monster herself on his side.

"Thanks, auntie." Ry said.

"You're the one who befriended our jinchuriki." Ginna smirked. "It's the least we can do, if I don't want my adorable nephew to get killed."

Yeah. Going to have to start girding and prepping myself for that. I was calmer than I'd have guessed during the attack.

Preparation should only help me. I'm a shinobi, or at least in training. A shinobi that's friends with the girl who's going to be in fights to save the world. I'm going to need to prepare for as many contingencies as I can think of.