Obligatory Disclaimer: The series Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto; I only own my OCs, picture, and this story.
Chapter 35: Of Unforeseen Resonance
I spent most of the day moping, as embarrassing as that is to admit. When I returned to my room, I found a pair of scrolls waiting on my desk, and in the rebellious spirit that had taken over me in my mood, I ignored them in favor of faceplanting into my bedsheets.
Where I stayed for the rest of the morning.
Riku, my ever-loyal companion, tried his best to get me out of my mood. There were wet kisses galore, but I was quick to hide from them, burying myself beneath my blankets. He nudged and nudged me but I would not budge and eventually he gave up, instead resting at the side of my bed.
The house fell into silence quickly after that. Unable to stop myself, I tracked Father's chakra with my alternate sight. His aura moved through the house before disappearing with a shushin, leaving to go visit his teammates, and effectively leaving me without any human contact.
It wasn't the best move to stew in my bad mood all day, especially not knowing what tomorrow would bring, but I was so sick of the constant secrecy and their seemingly blissful ignorance of its effect on me. I wasn't stupid- I expected such a thing, living in a ninja society, but they were my parents. If they had any misgivings about Orochimaru, particularly those I was unaware of, they could at least give me a hint or something. Or try to put a stop to the mentor-ship entirely.
If I was expected to take on this burden, born into it and given no alternative, the very least they could do was help me before I died at the tender age of six.
The day crawled by and I rarely moved from my self-imposed prison until Mother returned home to prepare dinner. Locking myself in my room had done nothing to qualm my mood, it only worsening when I had to sit at the table to eat with her and Father who came home just as we were setting the table. It was awkward to say the least and I said only the barest platitudes, my stubbornness not waning in the slightest.
Not even a night's rest could shake off my mood and then it was doomsday.
I woke up as I usually did, any residue anxiety with meeting my new 'sensei' overpowered by an overstated sense of 'fuck it', for lack of a more proper term. There was nothing else I could do about it, and with my faded past memory as my only help, I would have to keep my wits about me. I would just have to take things as they came and pray that my connections within the village would stop me from becoming the snake man's next experiment.
If this pretense of a team wasn't an experiment in and of itself.
After a few brief stretches I donned my battle-ready attire, my short-sleeved yukata and bracers filled with senbon on tight, and durable cotton pants to pull it together. I walked silently to my desk, a large shadow lumbering behind me as I looked over my assemblage of weapons and I gave Riku a chin rub in greeting. My kunai were all sharpened, ninja wire restocked, blank scrolls in case I needed to make an extra storage or barrier seal, and other enmities of the ninja trade. I put them all in their places, taking extra care not to forget anything.
You know, just in case.
With a deep sigh, I pulled my waist long hair over my shoulder, grabbing handfuls of the strands to begin tugging them into a braid. After that was done, I wrapped the braid around itself, forming a bun at the back of my head and pinned it down. It would never be perfect like when Mother did it, but she wouldn't be able to do it for me forever. And I was still mad at her, so there was that.
Shaking myself as my nerves started to pile up again, Riku and I walked out of the safety of my room and I closed the door before the urge to hide in my bed made itself known. Mother and Father were already in the kitchen, as usual. The table was set with food and I took my place as my canine companion went to his food dish with a light bark in greeting.
"Morning, tou-chan, kaa-chan," I greeted quietly.
The remnants of my sour mood still present, I couldn't help but find the greeting Mother gave in return slightly condescending and Father's dismissive.
"Good morning Junko-chan," Mother chirped, turning from the stove and to sit next to Father.
"Do you have everything packed?" Father asked.
Inwardly, I rolled my eyes, why wouldn't I?
I nodded at him, meeting his eye as per respectful protocol before giving thanks for the food and beginning to eat. I didn't taste the food as I chewed and I couldn't distract myself with the chatter of my parents either because they were silent as well. Soon I found myself pondering and overthinking and that was never good when I was stressed.
What could Orochimaru possibly have me do today? If I were to hazard a guess, it might be normal team stuff, meeting the other genin on his team. Although the snake sanin was unpredictable, he would need to follow the rules of Konoha as every other sensei with their varied quirks- especially if he wanted to portray himself as loyal while doing his own things on the sly.
I would have to be very, very careful. While others were simply impressed by my intelligence and skill, the snake man would be hyper focused on me. Dissection wasn't off the table for someone like him, and if he could get unrestrained time with me… I shudder to think what would happen.
I sighed under my breath quietly, pushing my food away, appetite thoroughly dashed.
"Is there something wrong Junko-chan?" Mother asked from across the table.
I shook my head lightly. "Nothing's wrong. May I be excused?"
There was nothing like the present. It was better than just sitting and ruminating in my thoughts. A quote came to mind, 'if we die, we die like men', and although I was nowhere near that, it had the same effect. A bit over exaggerated, possibly too close to the truth, but apt all the same.
Mother frowned at me and Father was his stoic self, if not a touch stonier. Her lips parted for a moment before a sigh escaped. They exchanged some sort of nonverbal conversation with their eyes before she turned back to me with a little smile that was lightly coated with sadness.
"You may go."
I slipped from my seat, thanking her for the food once again before escaping down the hallway, Riku trailing after. I reached the genkan in record time and as I sat down to slip on my sandals, there was a soft cough behind me. Hiding another sigh, I stood and turned around to address my mother who had silently followed me.
"Yes kaa-chan?"
She seemed to squirm a bit on the spot, and I couldn't help but think it was all a show considering the more stoic version of her I had just seen yesterday, which only annoyed me more. But I kept my face perfectly neutral as she began to speak.
"Just be careful today, okay Junko-chan?"
I shot her a level look, eyes wide and searching.
"I'm only going to meet my new sensei kaa-chan. Orochimaru-sensei-" I had to bite down a bit of bile on that one, "-was taught by the Sandaime. Wouldn't it be a great opportunity to learn from him?"
She had a good poker face as well I had to admit, though the fingers of her hand twitched minutely from where they were clasped in front of her, signaling her emotional distress. But of course, she wouldn't spill the beans. And a part of me realized that it must've been something very serious if she couldn't hide her emotions completely.
"Of course," she said, again with that mild smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Have a good day Junko-chan."
Giving a counterfeit smile in return, I nodded, turning away to leave and face my fate.
The journey to my new training grounds was simultaneously too long and too short. I couldn't help but notice how far out Orochimaru's designated space was from the others, nearer to the forests that lined the walls of Konoha and an unreasonable distance from the rest of civilization. As I set foot onto the entrance, the well-worn path signaling my arrival, my senses were immediately on high alert.
My skin tingled as I walked deeper into the clearing and it wasn't residual nerves this time. There was a layer of chakra over the area, circulating beneath the ground at my feet in a cyclical pattern my byakugan distinguished instantly. It had to be using seals- there was no way it was natural by any stretch of the imagination, but I could tell it was trying to emulate the natural flows of chakra.
But it was too perfect; the natural world was made up of variables and random happenstances and more often than not things were never repeated in the same way- similar, but never the same.
Why would someone need a complex system like that to train genin?
What was it even for?
Riku growled lightly and I concurred the sentiment, mutely channeling chakra to the tips of my fingertips just in case. There was no adverse effect I could sense at the moment, but with chakra, those effects could be delayed. Things that involved chakra were more intimate to the body, closer in a sense than physical wounds though much more subtle.
There was no one present at first glance and my byakugan couldn't see anything immediately with the interference, but something twitched at the back of my skull. There was someone here. I closed my eyes, falling deeper into my chakra sense and the world became brighter and darker all at once.
The physical world faded away, and I was nearly blinded by the charka that surrounded me, stronger and going deeper into the earth than I first realized. Riku's chakra was familiar and constant, stabilizing my sight as it mixed and meshed with mine by his closeness. The natural chakra in the air was another comfort, more peaceful and random than the structured mess of chakra that buzzed at my feet.
There was something in the trees.
I frowned lightly as I pinpointed the person, their chakra not unfamiliar. It definitely wasn't Orochimaru; personally, I don't think he could hide the stench of his vileness even if he hopped into another vessel, though I certainly didn't want to be close enough to find out if that was true.
Where had I come into contact with this chakra before…? There was a tinge of danger to the playful nature I could sense, and the familiarity was like an itch I couldn't scratch, a forgotten something on the tip of my brain.
Until my brain finally clicked. Who else had I met with ties to Orochimaru?
Anko.
I returned to the physical world, my alternate sight and its otherworldly light dimming to the normal morning sun. I relaxed only minutely as I turned fully, leveling an even stare at the hidden purple haired girl.
"Is that any way to greet a new teammate?" I said blandly into the trees.
The silence persisted, for one second then another, until, with the rustling of the leaves, the girl appeared before me sporting a wide smile. She was rather plainly, or practically dressed; a muted maroon shirt over light grey shorts and white wristbands, along with dark fishnet leggings that disappeared into a pair of standard sandals in black.
"So it is you. Hyūga Junko," she beamed. "I knew Orochimaru-sensei was going to get you on the team."
I took a wary step back at her exuberance, Riku relaxing somewhat as well at the familiarity of the other girl, though not completely.
"I take it something happened to Shun-san?" I said, lightly dispersing the chakra gathered at my fingertips.
"You don't know?" She crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, you guys didn't seem to be on good terms the last time saw you."
That was putting it lightly.
She continued. "Yeah, he was injured real bad during our last mission. He'll be back but it's gonna take a while."
And he was replaced, just like that; though it wasn't the worst fate he could've had. Snake man didn't mess around. Neither did his protégé, if the nonchalant way she was spoke about it was any indication.
Her pupil-less light brown eyes lit up again and she stepped closer, causing me to shift slightly away.
"Hey, why don't we spar until sensei and Chirou-chan come?"
"Won't we already be doing that when they arrive?" I asked, stowing my other teammate's name into memory. "It seems unwise to waste our energy before then."
Besides, I was 99.9 percent sure that Orochimaru was already here and watching us, and I just couldn't sense him with all the inference.
"Oh come on, live a little," she chuckled, hopping from foot to foot. "I want to go toe-to-toe with the youngest genin to graduate from the academy. Don't tell me with all that talent, you're just as stick in the mud as Shu."
I would not rise to her bait, though she had, in a very unexpected way, calmed my nerves about the whole affair, if only slightly; or more accurately, had completely blindsided me that I had forgotten about my anxiety in the bizarre encounter.
I was about to refute her claims when the sound of clumsy feet caught my attention. The owner of those ungraceful feet soon appeared out of the treeline, huffing and puffing as he came to a stop near Anko and I. He was a rather nondescript looking boy; he had short sandy brown hair that was a bit untamed- though had nothing on Shisui- and dark eyes behind rounded glasses. He was wearing a dark blue yukata style shirt and black pants taped with bandages, and arms bracers.
"It's about time you showed up Chirou-chan," Anko grinned, and the boy shot her an exasperated look as he caught his breath.
"I thought I told you to stop calling me that," he grumbled before finally noticing me.
As expected, the dark eyes behind the glasses widened as they met mine, and I turned on my most pleasant smile as Riku peered at him from above my head.
"Y-you're the new genin?" The all too familiar surprise in his voice made my lips quirk the slightest bit.
"I am Hyūga Junko, and this is my partner Riku," I introduced and Riku barked in greeting.
His surprise sustained for a few seconds longer before he straightened sharply, looking down at me with a critical eye, more ninja-like than the clumsy fellow just moments prior.
"I'm Abe Shichirou," he replied, blinking down at me. "It's nice to meet you."
I gave a professional smile and bow. "I look forward to working with you."
"Hey, hey!" Anko interjected, coming to stand between the both of us, causing me to take a step back. "Don't you look forward to working with me?"
"I would've spared you the same, if you had introduced yourself properly," I said blankly.
The purple haired girl visibly faltered at my note of her social faux pas, taking a few unnecessary seconds before smiling widely.
"I'm Mitarashi Anko!" She beamed, not at all discouraged. "Happy to be working with ya!"
For what reason she was so happy, I was not sure. I wasn't all convinced that she just wanted to go against the youngest graduate from the academy, but I had no other reasons to disbelieve her apparent willingness for comradery. Maybe I was just being too pessimistic, too paranoid- but rightly so.
There was a subtle shift in the air, in the very atmosphere, and goosebumps rose on my arms. My new teammates became tensed as well, and Riku growled lowly.
He's here.
My new 'sensei' appeared with the blowing of the leaves, virtually soundless, a few feet away from us. I sighed briefly under my breath before making eye contact, because of course he was staring at me first and foremost.
Even though my skin was crawling underneath my clothes, I was proud to note that I wasn't close to hyperventilating or trying to make an escape. And so this time, I was able to take a better look at the snake man. Beyond the gold eyes ringed with purple and other unnaturalness he possessed, he seemed as athletic as any other jōnin, if a bit more slender under the pale yukata he wore.
"Hi sensei!" The others chorused, Anko fearlessly bounding up to the man, who only spared her a glance, before returning to me where I stood still by Abe and Riku.
"I take it that you've become acquainted with our new teammate."
I fought the urge to squirm at the slithery quality of his voice, standing firm as I met his eyes with a lite nod. There seemed to be something smug and self-satisfied in his face as he smirked down at me. Anko partially blocked his view of me, resuming her jumping back and forth from earlier.
"What are we going to do today?" She chirped with too much enthusiasm. The purple haired genin eyed me before looking up at her sensei expectantly. "Can we spar?"
Orochimaru didn't seem to be the type of person to be moved by the pleads of a child- I don't think it was a farfetched thought that he would probably enjoy it- but he nodded causing the girl to cheer.
"It would be in everyone's best interest if we know each other's skills before we go an any missions-" what a load of- "Wouldn't you agree Hyūga-san?"
"Yes, sensei," I intoned dully as Anko continued to cheer and Shichirou shot the both of us with a wary glance.
If there was a bright side to this, at least Orochimaru didn't drag it out. He was quick to issue orders to his remaining genin, sending Shichirou to stand over to the sidelines with him and Anko to face me a few feet away. Reminding myself that it would be -probably- impossible for him to kidnap me considering my status, and even though his gaze made me feel like the child I undoubtably was, I sent a reluctant Riku over to the trees as well.
I tried, and partially succeeded in putting the deceptive sanin out of my mind as I faced the other girl. Her chakra would be what I could discern as electric; not in the elemental sense but in quality. The energy surged sporadically, manifesting physically in the way she hopped from foot to foot. My chakra at the ready, I was only slightly surprised when Orochimaru raised his hand as a signal and Anko's chakra smoothed instantly and disappeared.
Let's go.
She was fast, I'll give her that, but with my byakugan flaring I was quick to dodge the offending shin that tried to come for my forehead. My retaliation, a strike to her tenketsu was easily dodged, and Anko leapt a good distance away from me. The resulting stare down revealed two things to me; one, I hadn't spared against someone closer to my age for a while now and two:
I was getting excited- just from the starting clash.
I saw the glint of a kunai before hearing it, the metal slicing through air, and I simply flowed into a crouch, hands coming together only briefly before rising to stop another foot from connecting with my face, anchoring my feet to the ground with chakra so she couldn't push me back.
What was with this girl and my head?
Our eyes connected for a moment, gravity suspended as she grinned predatorially at me. But I grinned back, causing the girl's face to immediately drop. The chakra that had concentrated in my stomach flowed to my throat, and I released the liquid bullets through pursed lips. The girl was too close to dodge them all, but she was no push-over, using the momentum of the attack to move away from me.
But I wasn't willing to let her recover, chasing after her as my chakra settled back into its normal flow, ready for my next attack. More kunai came my way, but I lithely dodged them, keeping a byakugan-enhanced eye on Anko as she landed several feet away, staring me down with excitement in her light brown eyes.
There was a brief pause in the battle, an adrenaline packed heartbeat going once, and twice before the girl was coming at me again.
Stray thoughts crossed my mind as I dodged another barrage of kunai. What would it take for this to end? What was Orochimaru's goal for having us fight? What exactly did he want to see?
Would I be so bold as to follow that whim?
But there was no time to focus on him as my opponent for the moment came back more ferocious than before, the wild grin on her face becoming even more so as her attacks got quicker and quicker.
But then it was time to show her, them, what I was made of. It would disgrace the Hyūga name if I was anything but excellent.
As she came back into striking distance, still careful of my moving hands, my chakra, thin and string-like flowed from my fingers, dancing in the air around us. It brushed against her, becoming more and more tangled around her body as we went blow for blow, dodge for dodge. I let them coil around her, ducking underneath another strike that came for my neck as she brandished a kunai-heavy fist, which I blocked with my bracers and leapt backwards again so that there was a comfortable distance between us.
Anko wasn't willing to let the peace last for long; soon as my feet touched the ground, she was coming towards me, the distance I had put between us getting shorter and shorter. And that was when my plan came to fruition.
I had theorized the mechanics of the move more than I had been able to practice it, so seeing it come to fruition was a treat. Anko was not as hard to dodge was she came closer, which I was banking on, the invisible threads doing their job, subtly, silently controlling her movements; brief, untraceable touches that moved her arms and legs millimeters forward and back, left or right.
By the time she noticed, as I thought she would- she wasn't also a prodigy for nothing- there was nothing she could do. I allowed a brief spark of joy at the widening of her eyes as I darted forward, palm at the ready.
The air stood still as Anko's tenketsu were stilled and her breath was momentarily stopped as they were forcibly closed. She staggered back, chakra stilted but spirit alight as she moved a brandished kunai, something to take back control but my threads were secure around her. My chakra stilling her own flows, made her much easier to control, and thus stopping her in her tracks. A shiver of delight trailed down my spine.
Totally under my control.
Anko's eyes widened briefly as she struggled minutely underneath my control, a shifting of feet here and there, a twitching of fingers that would not submit to her will because they were under my own. Her ocher colored eyes met mine and with realization of what I had done.
Realizing just how easy for her to fall under my control.
How easy it would be for me to turn the kunai in her hand against her.
It seemed like the winds itself had gone quiet as well, making the bark Riku sounded into the air that more startling, calling me back to myself.
What was I even doing?
Something's wrong.
Abruptly I let go of the connection, one that was foreign to both mine and her chakra flow, maybe perhaps made in the collision between us, flushing out my system with a surge of chakra as Anko dropped the kunai in her hand and staggered a few steps forward as she was released, like puppet with its strings cut.
A fog that I didn't realize was over me cleared and I was more aware than ever of the silence of the forest around us and the almost oppressive buzzing of chakra around us clashing my enhanced senses.
What happened?
It was like ice dancing down the line of my spine as an amused chuckle rang in the silence of our fight, and like lightening to metal, my eyes went to the sideline.
It was him. He'd done something.
His steps were silent as he stalked over to us along with Shichirou, and Riku bounded over to me before he could get too close, even though Anko stopped the Sanin in his path by turning to him excitedly.
"Let us go again!" She beamed up at him which made my stomach turn. "This is the most fun I've had in forever!"
Could she not feel the change? Had she even experienced a change, or had it affected me only? To test me?
I fortified my mental walls as Orochimaru's eyes returned to me. Riku's tail wrapped around my ankles and his chakra buzzed in my ear as an extra pillar of support.
"We wouldn't want to exhaust our new teammate, now would we?" He told the rambunctious genin patronizingly.
The false sincerity in his voice pressed against the numbness of my revelations and I fought the urge to scoff. He most likely wanted to explore the extent of my abilities, but he was too smart to press his luck, especially on my first day in his care. Orochimaru was one for the long game. Even as Anko pouted, his serpentine eyes continued to scan over me and I stared back blankly.
"I suppose your record speaks for itself," he said, mostly to himself. "Although someone of your pedigree, it is to be expected."
Pedigree, like I was some sort of dog. Though I was to be the projected heiress, I was considered a mutt if my clansmen had anything to say about it. Still, if he was trying to get a rise out of me, he wasn't going to get anything else than he had already.
"The Hyūga clan only aims for the exceptional in their shinobi," I said demurely. "I am especially fortunate to be trained by the best."
The Sanin gave another amused hummed before calling us all to stand before him, finally taking on the mantle of sensei.
"Now that we have our replacement." That certainly didn't sit well with me. "We will begin our preparations for our next mission in two weeks' time."
The reactions of the others were expected from the little I know of them; Anko hooted in glee and Shichirou seemed nervous yet resigned. I would be lying if I said I didn't share similar sentiment, if not even more resigned- with a tinge of deeply buried fear.
As the snake man went on about the itinerary of our last weeks within the village, I couldn't help but feel as though I was falling, being pushed, pulled and dragged down a road without a certain end.
I think I may be way over my head.
Author's Notes
Posted: February 21st, 2020
I want to thank everyone for their patience- my 2019 wasn't the best but hey, I'm still alive so at least I have that going for me.
I don't have much to say other than I can't believe FACAH is almost 4 years old. One of my resolutions is to get to the time skip this year, which should happen after this arc is completed (hopefully). I just need to get back into the flow, and since the next chapter has some of my favorite Uchihas in it, that should be a good enough motivator.
I want this arc to explore and deeply establish Junko's relationship with the other characters before the end of the pre-Naruto era, so let me know if there are any particular character interactions you'd liked to see.
See you all next time.