Answers to reviewers questions or statements:
Marveldcfan: I might do something like that later down the road.
Guest: yes, there might be a chance since I'm going to have Pītā return to Kiri. I just used the internet to see what the Japanese equivalent to Peter was and it came up with several, one of them being Pītā and I thought, yeah that'll do.
DarkLordZay: They might, I do have plans to introduce them at one point in this story.
Fenrir44: No, Pakura was just never sent on that mission, so she never ended up being betrayed, though she still harbors ill feelings for her own village and Kiri.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel or Naruto characters seen, mentioned or used.
Pītā let out a tired sigh as he sat on a rooftop that overlooked the main gate to the village. Already numerous Genin teams from Sunagakure, Takigakure, Amegakure, Kusagakure and Otogakure were arriving to take part in the Chūnin exams and Pītā was having a hard time keeping track of them all and their Jōnin senseis…
"Oh Pītā, can you do me a small favor…" the dark clad man said in a sarcastic tone as he kept his eyes training on the numerous foreign shinobi below him "Oh sure Hokage-sama, anything for the man that told me that I have a choice, either I join his village and fight for them in return for saving me from a life of being a mindless weapon, or have my Biju extracted and by proxy me killed…"
Pītā let out another sigh as he adjusted his position with a grunt before he settled back down and resumed watching the Chūnin hopefuls below as he continued his mock reenactment of his earlier discussion with Hiruzen "Oh good Pītā-kun, I need you to help my ANBU monitor the incoming Genin to see if you can pick out the ones from Uzushiogakure that are slated to arrive at the main gate…"
Pītā shook his head as he rested his chin in his palm and let out a dreary sigh "The things I do for this village… bunch of slave drivers all of them. Makes me wonder if I'd be better off…"
"Better off where?" an amused voice spoke up behind Pītā, causing him to glance over his shoulder to see it was Kakashi Hatake!
"Oh… hey Kakashi" Pītā said as he resumed his watch while the man came to stand next to him, his face buried in the ridiculous Icha-Icha book of his "What brings you here?"
"Just scouting all the competition that my cute little Genin will be up against this year, you know how it is" the man said with a lazy drawl as he turned a page in his smut filled novel.
Pītā hummed at that as he continued to watch more teams arrive, but still no sigh of the one from Uzushiogakure. He glanced to his side to see that while Kakashi seemed to be reading, all of his senses were likely on the passing Genin below them.
This peeked Pītā's interest.
"I take it, that Hokage-sama told you about what's happened" he asked after a few moments of staring at the enigmatic man.
"…Yes, he did" the famed 'Copy Ninja' said with a slow nod as he closed his book and closed his uncovered eye "Still trying to comprehend it… Uzushiogakure, once our greatest ally, the home of the closest thing I had to a mother growing up… now allied with Konoha's second greatest missing-nin"
Pītā nodded at that "Yeah… crazy world we live in, huh? What's next, old friends rising from the dead and trying to bring about the end of the world?"
"With our luck lately, it could happen" Kakashi said with a grim chuckle as they watched the teams below get checked in and their passes approved.
Seconds soon became minutes and not long after, those minutes became hours as the two watched the gate before them. A few ANBU from the other gates of Konoha had reported nothing yet and their gate's registration booths were starting to close down, which meant if Uzushiogakure wanted it's Genin to participate in this exam, they had to come to Pītā and Kakashi's gate.
Kakashi had long sense gone back to reading his book but positioned his body so that he'd still have a clear line of sight on the gate while Pītā made a web hammock and laid in it, his attention half on the gate and half on the area just beyond the gate.
"So Anko tells me your hoping to be a Sensei" Kakashi said after half an hour of silence between the two.
"Yeah…" Pītā said with a nod as he rested his hands behind his head and crossed a leg over the other as his web hammock gently swayed in the wind "Any advice for when I get one?"
Kakashi chuckled a little at that "Have plenty of patience, be flexible in your teaching style as each student you'll have will likely learn at a different pace and most of all… resist the urge to bury them in a ditch somewhere and ask to rejoin ANBU"
Pītā smirked at that "I'll keep that in mind… captain"
At this Kakashi sighed "Not you too… I'm not your superior anymore Pītā"
"Bah you'll always be Captain to me, Captain dull, dark and joyless" Pītā said with amusement before his smile fell a little as memories of his recent encounter with Naruto came to mind "Hey Kakashi, can I ask you something?"
"You just did…" the man with gravity defying hair said.
Pītā's brow twitched a little "Okay, let me ask again, when did you teach Uzumaki the Rasengan? I thought you said you were waiting for him to make Chūnin"
At this, Kakashi's eye widened in surprise before it narrowed as he turned towards his friend "What do you mean when I taught Naruto the Rasengan?"
Pītā shrugged as he turned his attention back to the gate and saw that four people were approaching the gate from down the road "I saw him trying to make one at your team's training ground the other day. Looked like he was in the final stages of mastering it"
Kakashi remained dead silent before he spoke "Are you sure it was the Rasengan?"
"Is there another Jutsu that's a swirling orb of blue chakra that one creates in the palm of their hand that was created by your dead sensei?" Pītā asked as he turned his head towards Kakashi slightly, the setting sun reflecting off his goggles and giving it the appearance that his eyes were glowing like a fire was lit behind them.
Kakashi stared at Pītā for several moments before he shook his head "No… there isn't"
"Well then…" Pītā shrugged "It was the Rasengan. I asked if he was learning it in preparation for the exams, looks like he is"
"Did he say who or where he learned it from?" Kakashi asked with a narrowed eye.
"No, why? Didn't you teach him it?" Pītā asked with surprise only to see Kakashi shake his head "Oh… well aside from you, who else knows the thing?"
"Only one other person, Jiraiya" Kakashi said as he turned to look towards the gate as he watched the four people that Pītā saw earlier at the check in station by the gate "And he hasn't been back to the village in almost three years…"
His eye narrowed as he made out red hair on two of the three Genin, both of who were girls along with their apparent sensei while the third member was a boy. He was shorter than his teammates and had pale-white skin and faint blond colored hair that slicked back and tapered to a point. He couldn't make out what he and his kunoichi teammates were wearing as they were covered with blue high collar cloaks, the same as their sensei.
"Looks like the team from Uzushiogakure is finally here" Pītā said, his eyes also on the last team to arrive.
"So it appears…" Kakashi muttered as the Genin team's sensei signaled for the three to follow her after they were handed their permission slips and directions to their assigned quarters for the duration of their stay.
"Recognize them?" Pītā asked as he slipped out of his hammock while Kakashi pulled up his forehead protector to reveal his Sharingan.
Kakashi studied the faces of the passing Uzushiogakure team below him and Pītā for a few moments before he pulled his forehead protector down and shook his head "No, but I can tell that the two girls and their sensei are Uzumaki"
"How?" Pītā questioned with a raised brow.
"They have red hair and rather large chakra reserves for someone their age…" Kakashi said with a shrug "There's a few other things I noticed too, but those first two are the biggest indicators"
Pītā nodded at that as he pulled out a small pad and pen and began to write down the information "And the boy, what's he?"
"Don't know, but there's something oddly familiar about him" Kakashi said with a hint of intrigue in his voice "His chakra, it's… odd"
"He looks odd" Pītā snorted as he wrote down all the information before he placed the pad in one of his flat jacket's pockets.
At this, Kakashi glanced at Pītā with amusement "Says the man dressed in goggles, a facemask, all black clothing and a faded white spider painted on his front"
"Hey, I look mysteriously stylish!" Pītā scowled at the man before he glanced at the Uzushiogakure Genin "Should we follow them or something?"
"No need, they already have a tail" Kakashi said as he nodded his head ever so slightly ahead of them.
Pītā looked ahead to see that two ANBU were already shadowing the team, one of which had purple hair and was clearly a woman based on her figure.
'There's Yūgao…' Pītā thought as he watched her, and her partner disappear into the village as they trailed the Uzushiogakure team 'Maybe that's what she was meeting the Hokage about earlier, being assigned watch detail'
It was than that Kakashi suddenly stood up and prepared to leave, causing Pītā to raise a brow at the abrupt departure "Going somewhere?"
"I'm going to check in on Naruto and the rest of my team one last time" he said with an eye smile "Make sure their ready for the exams tomorrow"
"You gonna question how it is he knows a 'A' ranked jutsu like the Rasengan of all things while you're at it?" Pītā asked.
Kakashi was silent for a few moments as he mulled over an appropriate answer before he shook his head "No…"
"Why?" Pītā asked with confusion.
"Because it's… complicated" Kakashi said with a sigh.
"How complicated?" Pītā pressed, wanting to know why Naruto's sensei doesn't want to question said student on how he knows Kakashi's late sensei's jutsu and why he doesn't seem too bothered by such a prospect.
Kakashi glanced at Pītā for a moment before he grinned again "It's 'you' levels of complicated"
And with that, the man vanished in with a leaf Shushin, leaving Pītā to ponder on the man's answer.
"Me complicated?" he said as he rubbed the back of his head "The hell is that supposed to mean? I'm the most noncomplicated man there is!"
He received no response as he stood there for another few seconds before he sighed and cut down his web hammock with a single swipe of his Katana before he leaped from the rooftop to another and quickly made his way back to the Hokage's residence to deliver his report to the old man and afterwards, get something to eat unaware that he was being followed by someone with golden almost snake like eyes.
…
Half an hour later, Pītā slowly made his way through the village, the sun having since set. The streets were still bustling with people and on a few occasions, he had to use the rooftops to get by some rather crowded intersections, but for the most part continued to walk.
"Man, I thought that meeting would never end" Pītā sighed as he had since pulled his hood down and left his goggles to hang from his neck "Still, at least may part in this whole investigating why former allies that are supposed to be dead have returned and for some reason joined current enemies is over. Now all I have to do is get home, make some dinner, feed Bū and then slowly coax myself to sleep where I'll be greeted with possible nightmares for my unwillingly profession as a shinobi…"
Pītā would have kept muttering to himself, causing a few people to look at him funny before he saw that several ox drawn carriages were passing by up ahead and he'd have to stand to the side until they passed before he could continue onwards. He grumbled a little as he prepared to take to the rooftops again and stay there until he reached his home before he heard a girl's voice speak up behind him.
"Hello there!"
Pītā paused and looked behind him to see a young girl with an orange clip in her mint green hair. Her bright orange eyes seemed to bore into Pītā's as he turned to meet the girl, he glanced at the forehead protector that was tied to her arm and saw that it had the symbol of Takigakure. Her attire consisted of a short sleeveless white midriff shirt with fishnet armor underneath, long white armlets and fishnet shorts with a short white apron skirt over it while a large red cylinder hung on her back though the use of red wrappings tied around her chest in a 'X'.
"Uhh hi…" Pītā said as he looked around for the young girl's teammates before he refocused his gaze on her "I'm sorry, but who are you?"
"I'm Fū!" she said with a grin before she held out her hand for him to take.
"Uh, hello Fū, nice to meet you" Pītā said as he shook her hand, idly noticing that she had one hell of a grip for a fourteen-year-old "Can I help you with something?"
Fū gave Pītā a sheepish grin as she rubbed the back of her head "I uh, I got separated from my teammates"
"Really?" Pītā said with a raised brow "Do you remember where you last saw them?"
Fū nodded at that "Yeah, we were exploring the village a bit after we got here and settled in and our sensei went to sleep early because he was tired, and we were looking at some nice clothes that they had when suddenly my teammates said that they had to get something…"
It was then that her smile slowly fell into a frown "They told me to stay at the store, but I stood there for over two hours and they never came back!"
Pītā's eyes narrowed at this "They didn't?"
Fū shook her head sadly "No, and I don't remember where the hotel we're staying at is!"
'So much for heading home for a nice meal and make sure that Bū doesn't claw up the carpet again' Pītā thought with a mental sigh before he nodded "Alright, I'll help you find your teammates"
"Really?!" Fū said with a hopeful expression "You will?!"
"Yeah, be rather poor of me to not help out a visiting Shinobi, from an allied village no less" Pītā said with a chuckle before he saw the look on Fū's face "What is it?"
Fū's eyes widened at this "What? Oh it's nothing it's just…"
"Just what?" he asked with a raised brow.
"It's just, I'm not really used to people helping me is all" Fū said as she bowed her head a little and kicked some dirt with her sandal "Back home, whenever I try asking for help, people are usually… not very nice to me"
At this, Pītā's eyes narrowed "Why's that?"
His question was met with silence, causing him to frown as he stared at the girl before him. She didn't seem so bad, a bit naïve maybe, and she seemed a little too friendly but there wasn't anything about her that screamed 'Troublemaker'…
'Hmm, she has rather large chakra reserves now that I notice… hell her reserves seem to be on par with Naruto's if not a little bigger' Pītā thought as he studied Fū for a moment before he heard a faint grumbling noise coming from her stomach, causing her to blush before she gave him a sheepish smile.
"S-Sorry, I haven't eaten yet and… well my teammates-" she started before Pītā interrupted her.
"Let me guess, they have the money?" he said, getting a nod out of her. He stated at her for a moment before he asked another question "And I take it, they usually are the ones with the money, and if not them, your sensei?"
"Yeah…" Fū nodded with a quirked brow "Why? Are they not supposed to?"
"Are you bad with money, like you spend it a lot or lose track of it?" Pītā probed, his mind slowly putting together a possible theory about the girl before him with everything he's learning.
"No, I'm great with money!" Fū huffed in annoyance before she folded her arms across her chest and glared at the ground "But my team never likes it whenever I get the money and always complain when I do, even when it's the clients that give it to me they whine about it and say it's not fair that it's me that gets it!"
Pītā hummed at that before he looked around and saw he wasn't far from where Ichiraku Ramen was. He glanced back at Fū and nodded in the direction of the ramen stand "You like ramen by any chance?"
Fū quirked her head to the side at that "Ramen?"
"Yeah, you know noodles, water and a bunch of other stuff put into it that somehow go together even though they really don't but still work?" Pītā explained ramen to the best of his ability, which in all honesty sucked, he was more familiar with Kiri dishes anyway… this village's Dango had nothing on barbequed spicy squid.
"Oh…" Fū said before she shrugged "I guess I could try some"
"Cool" Pītā said as he gestured for the girl to follow him towards the ramen stand "Trust me, you'll love it"
Fū nodded at that as she followed the man, passing several stalls before they arrived at a ramen stand and Pītā gestured for her to follow him inside.
"Welcome to Ichiraku Ramen!" a young girl behind the counter said with a bright smile before it broadened even more at the sight of Pītā "Hello Pītā-san!"
"Ayame-san" Pītā replied with a small nod towards her and her father who was busy washing several bowls "Teuchi-san, still open for business?"
"Still open for business, we're always open!" Teuchi said with a laugh "I'd have this place open twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week if I could!"
"Daaaaad" Ayame said with exasperation before she noticed the young girl with Pītā "Oh, who's she?"
"Oh this?" Pītā said as he glanced at Fū "This is Fū, she's from Taki and she's heard that your ramen is the best in the country and wants to test it herself!"
"I did?" Fū said with surprise before she rubbed the back of her head "When did I say that again?"
"Five minutes ago" Pītā replied as he and her sat down while Ayame retrieved a pad to write down his and Fū's order.
"Oh…" Fū blinked before she grinned at Ayame as the older girl went to her first and asked her what she would like "Hmm… what do I want?"
Pītā chuckled as he watched the girl ask for a menu and then begin asking Ayame what the various ingredients were for each ramen dish, something the teenager was more than willing to do.
"She a friend of yours?" Teuchi asked in a low voice as he came up to the counter and placed some of the freshly clean bowls down.
"Apparently…" Pītā said with a small sigh "Her teammates ditched her, and she had no money or any idea of where her hotel is, so I decided to get her some food and then help her find her teammates"
"Hmm, that's not right" Teuchi said with a shake of his head "Back in my day, a Genin team always stuck with one another when in another shinobi village, regardless if they were allies or not"
"Welcome to the modern day, old man" Pītā chuckled which in turn caused the man to grin as well as they heard Fū place her order.
"I want… two of everything!" she beamed with sparkling eyes, causing Pītā's eyes to nearly bulge out of his skull as he swore he heard his wallet let out a pained choke as his mind automatically tallied up the price of ordering one of every bowl of ramen Ichiraku had then doubling it, and that was before tax!
"Coming right up!" Ayame said, oblivious to Pītā's plight as she and her father began to fill out Fū's order as she waited with a look of a half-starved beggar on her face.
'Now I know how Asuma feels after he takes his team out to eat' Pītā thought with a sigh as for every bowl of ramen that was made and given to Fū, who in turn scarfed it down faster than a Akimichi, felt a little more of himself shrivel up and die.
'This is the last time I ever go out of my way to help someone I don't know…' Pītā thought as he watched the empty bowls beginning to pile up.
'…Liar' the Robuki hissed in amusement from within his mindscape as the night dragged on with Fū asking for another two of everything until she had over sixty bowls before her, all cleaned of any traces of Ramen.
Ayame and Teuchi both stood there in shock, having never seen anything like it before. Even Naruto could never clear through so many bowls on one setting. Pītā was as pale as a ghost, his soul slowly ebbing out of his mouth and trying to claw its way to the afterlife as he held the bill in his hand while Fū smiled sheepishly at them all.
"Hehehehe… sorry, I haven't eaten all day" the mint haired girl said with a growing blush.
"Wow, she ate more than Naruto-kun and Chōji-san combined" Ayame said with wide eyes as she carefully gathered up several bowls and carried them to the dishwasher while her father collected the money from Pītā.
"N-Never… again…" he whispered out weakly, his wallet sitting before him, every bit as empty as Madara Uchiha was of compassion and mercy.
"There, there, Pītā-san, it could be worse" the elderly man said with a short laugh "She could be asking for desert next… hmm now there's an idea, a desert menu!"
"Ooh is there desert to?!" Fū asked with wide eyes.
"NOOO!" Pītā yelled before he cleared his throat when he saw the looks he was getting "I mean no… you can't because your teammates might not have already, and it wouldn't be right that you got to have desert, but they didn't"
"Oh… that makes sense" Fū before she glanced at Ayame and Teuchi with an embarrassed grin "Maybe next time?"
"Absolutely!" Teuchi said with a vigorous nod before he glanced at Pītā "If she has any friends, bring them with her next time!"
"You bet!" the orange eyed girl yelled in excitement.
And like that, Pītā's wallets already faint pulse flatlined…
…
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for the meal Pītā-san!" Fū yelled as she brought Pītā into a near bone crushing hug half an hour after they left Ichiraku Ramen to search for the hotel that the Genin from Taki would be staying at for the Chūnin exams.
Which they were now standing outside of after Pītā signaled for a passing ANBU for directions…
"Y-Your welcome…" Pītā wheezed out as he tried to free himself from Fū's death grip while several people from both Konoha and a few of the competing villages watched on before going about their evening.
"This was the best night I've had in months!" Fū explained as she finally released Pītā and jumped into the air with excitement "Hey tomorrow can we hang out again?!"
"Uh… we could, but don't you have to take the Chūnin exams?" Pītā asked with a raised brow at the girl's bubbling energy.
At this, Fū's smile dropped as did her mood "Oh… I forgot… oops"
It only lasted a minute before her smile was back, seemingly brighter then before "But that doesn't mean we can't hang out when I'm not taking the exams. I'm sure there's plenty of brake times in between stages, right?"
"Uh, yeah, sure… plenty" Pītā said with a cough 'Here's hoping she forgets about me should she make it to the final stage… I don't think I can survive a month with a girl who's this chalked full of energy… neither will my budget'
"YAAAAY!" Fū yelled as she did a flip in the air before she ran towards the hotel, stopping only for a moment to wave at Pītā "See ya later!"
"Yeah, see ya" Pītā replied with a wave of his own as the girl disappeared into the hotel, leaving him standing in the street for a moment before his shoulders slumped "Kami, if your merciful, please never let her meet Gai… or his student Lee… the world won't survive!"
On the other end of the village, Gai and Lee had the sudden urge to locate a mint haired girl from Taki and befriend her and show her the 'Power of Youth'.
Pītā then turned on his heel and prepared to leave before he suddenly stopped as he felt someone's eyes on him. Pītā carefully examined his surroundings, while a few people were staring at him, they weren't giving off the same feeling as this unknown watcher was. He tried to use his other senses to locate them but the constant talking, walking and various animals around him made it a little difficult trying to pinpoint his watcher. Finally, after a few moments, Pītā stopped and sighed as he continued on his way.
'Well, they're not setting off any real red flags in my head, so I guess they don't mean any real harm… it's probably just a nosy ANBU following me around under Danzō's orders, again' Pītā thought with a shrug as he leaped on to the rooftops and began to make his way back home, he was going to need the energy for tomorrow.
Not too far away from the Robuki Jinchūriki, standing in the shadows of several buildings was a fairly tall man with a light skin tone and shoulder blade length black hair tied into a pony tail. He was clad in a maroon colored body suit that resembled the black body suit worn by Konoha Jōnin and most Chūnin with a black flat jacket and a headband with a musical note on it, signifying they were from Otogakure.
The Jōnin's eyes narrowed in interest as he followed Pītā's movements as the man leaped from rooftop to rooftop before he grinned "Hmm it'd be so tempting to tell Kushina-chan about him… but I'm quite curious to see how far young Pītā-kun has come since I left. It could be… amazing, kukukuku…"
And like a snake, the man slowly slithered back deeper into the shadows, eager to see how things will progress.
…
And done.
Next chapter, Kurenai and Pītā meet up as the first stage of the Chūnin exams begin!