Diclaimer: I do not own Naruto
The rest of the time in Suna was spent quite leisurely, I awoke in a small ward built into the stadium for the recovery of injured participants such as myself. When I woke up Shikaku and Minato admonished and praised me in turn for the sangfroid I displayed in simply catching Hayate's sword, they seemed split on whether it was ingenious or the height of stupidity. I only remained there for the afternoon though and after playing a game of shogi with Shikaku - in which we drew - and after a visit from the Hokage who congratulated me on my win before he had to depart back for Konoha himself, I was duly judged to be in well enough shape and ejected from the facility.
The remains of that day I spent with Jiraiya where we discussed my match, some of the niceties of sealing and just generally catching up, though Jiraiya himself wasn't able to tell me much about his activities of late. He also impressed upon me the importance that I continue my training with the toads, "The earlier you start the better." was the way he conveyed it to me from which I took the meaning that it was not simply going to be a few days away.
In the evening Kakashi and I packed what little we had and settled in after promising Minato that any surprise teleportations back to Konoha would have swift retribution from both of us, he laughed off the threat but seemed happy enough to make the trip the old fashioned way in the end.
The trip back was marred by the sole complication of a group of nomads, seemingly on the warpath. Shikaku spotted them first and we hid behind a dune as we watched their dust cross the horizon. According to him they were the same tribe that owned the water hole we had used on the way to Suna, judging by how riled up they were I think they had some way of telling whether someone had used one of their wells. Once they were gone from sight though we carried on and after a few days we found our way back to Konoha.
"OK my little genin," Minato began, turning to us at the gate, "You all have the rest of today free. I have a report to hand in to the Hokage. I imagine it won't be too long before he calls on us to report so keep your schedules open."
Kakashi and I nodded, before Minato smiled and disappeared in a flash. At least he had waited until he had gotten back and not brought either of us for the ride.
Shikaku yawned before giving a lazy wave and disappearing in the direction of the nara compound.
"What do you plan to do?" Kakashi asked, turning to me.
I leaned back on the balls of my feet considering for a moment, "I think I have some errands to run before I head back home. See you tomorrow morning for training as usual?" I said.
Kakashi nodded before waving and disappearing in a shunshin. I was going to have to learn how to do that at some point. For myself I pointed my feet in the direction of the Konoha bank and began making my way into the village.
Every Shinobi was given a bank account, I had never had much reason to use it since shinobi were given a certain amount of the base equipment needed for missions and you could make that last quite a while if you took care of it, added to that Minato and Kushina spoiling me, kushina even sneaking some spending money into my bag before I went to Suna, and I had never had cause to even check my balance since arriving in the village. That said I did have a rough idea of how much money was worth so I was shocked to find I had almost 150,000 Ryo in my account. I could probably purchase all the materials to build the house I lived in all over again with that amount of money. Shinobi sure got paid well. I withdrew 55,000 ryo, placing the cash in a scroll I had in my backpack before heading to my next destination.
The blacksmith that I had delivered metal to, what seemed like so long ago now, had expanded its wares since I was last there. The Smith himself I could hear was in the back where I assumed his workshop was, his hammer rang in the distance. I had come for two things. The first was a sword, I felt guilty breaking Hayate's sword even though we had been in a tournament. I spent some time looking among the swords before eventually finding a sword that was of a similar length and style to the one I broke. This one however was plainly made by a master, there was no guard, instead the polished black guard almost melted into the blade itself. I swung it a few times myself judging the weight, trying to decide if it felt similar to the one Hayate had held before nodding to myself. It was close enough. I picked up the sheaf and put away the sword before checking the price and balking, it was fully half of what I had withdrawn from the bank. Sighing I hung the sword at my side before going deeper into the shop and seeing if they had anything for me.
Since I was either leaving Minato's team a chunin or leaving it to join another mentor I decided it was time to expand my skill base. Learning to use a weapon considering what had happened in the tournament then seemed ideal. I was having the same issue I had last time I had entered this store though, nothing seemed quite right in my hands. I passed through swords, daggers, smaller bladed weapons, bows, even a few crossbows, spears, shields, halberds. By the time I had almost reached the end of the shop I had spent over an hour looking through the wares. All that were left were staffs and none of these seemed right either.
They had staffs of iron that were too heavy, wooden Bo staffs that I knew would splinter too easily for my uses, cudgels, clubs, at this point I was just running my hands along the rack hoping for something to stick out, when a dark wooden staff rolled from my hand and struck the edge of the box holding it with an almost metallic noise I paused. That didn't sound right.
I pulled the offending staff out, it was heavier than a wooden staff but not unwieldly, I tossed it from hand to hand experimentally, it felt incredibly dense.
"It's Ironwood." A voice barked from behind me.
I turned, masking my initial surprise, "Ironwood?" I asked.
The smith looked down at my hands before barking a laugh, "Mute eh? You might turn into one of my best customers, aye lad, Ironwood. Used to grow in the land of iron but they guard their supply carefully now so what supply I can get of it usually comes from the deserts of Suna, it's one of the few plants hardy enough to grow there."
I nodded considering, "I haven't seen a staff like this before."
"That you won't, usually the pieces I receive are too small to make into a staff, their usual use is whatfor dagger handles and suchlike, rare that I receive a piece large enough to make into a bo staff, rarer still that I put the effort into making one from the blasted stuff. It absorbs oil like no one's business. Not to mention it takes me days just to get it into the right shape." He replied gruffly, "You probably won't find it's like elsewhere in the village. It's useful though, there's not many swords that'll make even a mark on that."
I smiled, "I think I'll take it." I said.
The smith grunted again, glancing down at the sword that already hung at my side, "That and the sword is it? Bring them up front and I'll ring you up, the staff is 30,000 ryo, but let's call it 50,000 total, first time customer discount." He finished looking back with a grin.
And I thought for a moment I was going to need to make a return visit to the bank. I was beginning to like this old smith, his face was cooked in soot and his dark beard hid what was left of his face but his eyes had a spark to them that I had come to associate with a roguish camaraderie.
"I'm guessing the sword isn't for you lad, am I right?" The smith asked when we had returned to the counter.
"No, it's more of a gift."
"Indeed? Didn't think you had the makings of a swordsman, you've not the build for it. But if it's to be a gift then it'll need to be lookin' like one." The smith pulled a box from beneath the counter, roughly the length of the sword, pulling back the lid he placed the sword inside carefully among some already present wood shavings and replaced the lid.
"Thank you..." I hovered for a moment realising I didn't have his name.
"The name is Kaji" he said with barely a glance as he fished a cloth bag for my staff up from below the counter.
I nodded as I unsealed the money onto the counter, "Keiko."
Kaji smiled as he scraped the cash from the counter, "Well Keiko, if you do somehow manage to break that staff don't be coming back here, I'd sooner put my head to the coals than make that thing again."
I thanked him again as I picked up the sword and staff and left.
"Ko! I had thought I would have to chase you down for a checkup."
"I wasn't really on a mission so do I need to have one?" I tried.
Tsunade wasn't taking no for an answer though and she practically dragged me to an examination room. In truth I had come to the hospital for another reason entirely but I did need to speak to Tsunade so I wasn't too resistant.
Once sat down and with Tsunade running her glowing green hands over me I decided now was as good a time as any.
"Could you check my voice chords to see if they've improved at all, or if there is anything you can do?" I asked. I had come to the hospital because with the possibility of moving teams or becoming a chunin I had come to the conclusion that it wasn't ideal that I remain mute, there were some situations where the immediacy of being able to speak could save lives. If I became chunin I definitely couldn't lead a team with that kind of handicap.
Tsunade hmmed before moving her hands to my throat, "I have been doing my own research in this area, throats are all too sensitive unfortunately and conditions like your own aren't unheard of. That being said," she sighed, "From what I can tell there has been little change, not even the risky ideas I've been thinking about would be worth trying, if there's a solution to your issue I don't think you'll find it in a hospital."
I nodded, it was only a faint hope, as she marked off the rest of my medical exam and kicked me out of the hospital I left resolute in my last remaining area of hope, fuinjutsu.
Fuinjutsu might be able to solve a lot of problems but it always seemed like you had to meet it halfway for anything there wasn't a tried and tested method of creating. I knew how the voice worked, air passing through the throat causing vibrations, I decided it would probably be best to keep the air out of this one, at least the air inside me. Storing my air away even temporarily seemed like a surefire way to suffocate myself by accident. So I would need to perhaps draw air from outside rather than from within myself. That was the first problem more or less solved, the issue of actually having it produce the sounds that I wanted wouldn't actually be much of an obstacle since much of a seals use was dependent on what the intention of the creator was, in this case though, just to be certain I decided to make it a two part seal, one part to go on my tongue and convey what shape it was into the main seal to have it modulate the sound in the desired way.
The final problem was the real sticker and the reasons why I was surrounded by mounds of scrolls in my living room, I had even pulled out the notes I had on Minato's hiraishin seal since that had so many models for physics interactions I was sure one of them would use sound. Unfortunately there just seemed to be no measurement for the pitch of the sound and as a result the few prototypes I had created produced a sound that jumped to different frequencies unpredictably, I decided this must be due to how much air it was actually able to take in at that moment and the others I made either did nothing or produced a sound beyond beyond human hearing.
It seemed I was left with two choices, either create the seal in an incredibly convoluted way so that the amount of air it took in and expelled was made regular and at intervals or I was going to need to develop a new rune in my fuinjutsu repertoire for sound, something Kushina's scrolls had only hinted at the possibility of.
Speaking of Kushina, she chose that moment to come running through my door, "Kei!" she exclaimed, "I heard about your matches, I'm so happy for you, why didn't you tell me you were… what's this?" She trailed off at seeing the amount of paper between myself and her, lucky for me I think it had saved me from a patented Kushina bone crushing hug.
"I've been trying to find a way of fixing my speaking issue." I replied, "Tsunade says my throat is still too damaged and it's unlikely to get better at this point so I'm looking at alternatives."
Kushina nodded seriously before sidling over to the table and taking a look at what I had so far which wasn't a lot.
"Ah… you want to create another character?" She said at length.
"That's the long and short of it, the problem is I don't really have a way of measuring the output and it comes out all garbled if I don't."
"Instead of just measuring the sound output why don't you just take someone else's?" Kushina asked, "If you had some apparatus to measure sound in the way it looks like you're trying to, this would still be difficult since creating a new character for fuinjutsu is an incredibly involved process. But we have plenty of seals that record sound, why not simply record someone's voice and have it output to a similar level."
I wondered sometimes how Kushina acted so naive most of the time and yet had such a sharp mind, she was right, I merely needed to choose someone to use as a sample. That did present its own problem though - who was I to sound like?
I leaned back with a sigh, "I should have just left this up to the real fuinjutsu master." I signed with a laugh, "Would you like some tea."
It was approaching evening when I received a polite knock at the door, I got up from where I had been talking with Kushina to answer it and found myself face to face with a masked anbu.
"Chunin exam participants are to report to the Hokage." the Anbu said, I nodded accepting his message and he quickly disappeared.
I turned back to Kushina, "I'm going to have to go Kushina, hopefully I'll be back later with good news." She nodded in response and I picked up my new acquisitions from the blacksmith and set off for the Hokage tower.
On my way Kakashi, jumping over the rooftops Kakashi sprinted by leaving a faint smell of ozone, he slowed down as I caught up, "What's the rush Kakashi, think they'll start without us?" I joked.
Kakashi laughed, "I just like to arrive on time."
The tower itself seemed fairly busy with a few faces I didn't recognise hanging around, when we got to the room outside the Hokage's office we found most of the participants in the exam waiting around edgily though I did notice some were missing.
"Where do you think Ibiki's teammate is?" I asked Kakashi.
Ibiki must have seen my signing across the room though and responded, "He's already inside, seems like they're calling us in one by one."
I nodded gratefully to him, it could be some time before they got around to us then, Kakashi and I took a seat next to Hayate to whom I slid the wooden box I was carrying.
Hayate glanced at me in surprise before sliding the lid back to expose the hilt of the blade among the wooden shavings.
"I figured you needed a replacement for your old sword." I told him, "and I did feel a little guilty about destroying it."
Hayate shook his head as he pulled the blade part way from the sheaf, gazing at the blade carefully, eventually he slid it back and slid the lid back on, "You didn't need to do this Ko… but it's perfect."
"I was a little worried, I tried to get to be as close to the weight of your old blade as possible..." I began to explain.
He held up a hand to stop my babbling, "It's perfect Ko." He repeated
Ibiki's teammate left without a promotion, Ibiki left wearing a flack jacket and being led by the same Yamanaka that had read my mind. Hayate went in after them and emerged with his own flack jacket before Kakashi and I were called in.
"Ah Kakashi, Ko," The Hokage greeted, nodding to each of us in turn, "A moment, we are just awaiting the arrival of -" The Hokage was cut off as Minato appeared in a flash of light, "Minato." he finished.
"You sent for me Hokage?" Minato enquired before seeing Kakashi and I behind him.
"Yes Minato, this is a somewhat unusual case so I wanted to brief your team as a whole. I have read the report of what happened in the chunin exams, added to that what I witnessed myself from the Kage box and we have a few points to go through in this meeting." The Hokage began.
"To begin with Ko, this is yours, as of this moment you are to be promoted to Chunin and I will add it is very well deserved, I look forward to watching your career in the future." The Hokage slid a flak jacket forward on the table which I donned immediately finding it actually comfortably held my newly purchased staff, "Now onto less pleasant news, after discussing your actions in the tournament with your Jonin sensei and my advisors Kakashi I can not offer you a promotion. I also cannot in good conscience allow this team to continue together as it stands." Looking at Kakashi it looked like he had steeled himself for this moment but I could still see the frustration in his eyes.
"Having said that," the Hokage continued, "The next batch of graduates will not be for 4 months and there are no other partial teams at the moment. So my advisors and I have decided that for the moment you will stay together until they do graduate. In the meantime, and this is the final part of this briefing, there is a mission I have for you. Originally this mission was for Minato and a few other Shinobi I felt were suited for the mission but Minato feels you are both capable of this mission and has asked if you could be part of the team so I will trust in his judgement. You will be joined by Shibi of the Aburame clan, your mission will be to investigate and if necessary destroy a weapons factory we have received intel about located within Suna."
I raised my eyebrows, this was no C rank.
"Within Suna Hokage? Did we not just sign a treaty with them?" I asked.
The Hokage nodded, "We did indeed, this particular city is not affiliated with the rest of Suna and we know very little about it other than that it appears to be amassing a great deal of weaponry." The Hokage took a puff of his pipe as he considered where to begin for a moment, "Tell me, have you ever heard of the city of Loran…"
The briefing lasted some time and left me somewhat cautious of the mission itself. We were told we were to leave in two days giving us enough time to rest from our return from Suna and time to prepare equipment for the mission. Minato seemed to sense how overwrought we were and swung both his arms around our shoulders.
"Well having my first student get promoted to the rank of Chunin is cause enough for celebration in my book, let's head out, I know a place." Minato said, guiding us down the street.
The place he knew as it turned out seemed to be a regular haunt for the shinobi population of the village as there was hardly a patron there that didn't wear a headband, we found when we got there that Minato was not entirely unprepared for the occasion.
"Over here Minato." Jiraiaya called from across the bar, he was surrounded by Kushina, Tsunade, Sakumo, Shikaku, Yoshino, even Orichimaru and the Hokage who had beaten us there from his office. The bar was packed to the rafters but it seemed like we had gotten our own space with a booth at one end of the bar.
Minato waved as Kakashi and I felt a little under pressure being among so many of the village's best, "Sorry we are late," He apologised, "Got held up with a briefing."
Jiraiaya nodded, easily accepting our excuse.
Shikaku slapped my shoulder as I approached the table, "congratulations on the promotion Ko."
I smiled back saying, "I don't think I would have gotten past my first fight without your training."
"This is no time for talk," Tsunade announced, pushing a round of drinks towards us, "Now is the time to celebrate." She finished as we picked up our drinks.
The Hokage stepped forward then raising his glass, "To Keiko, our new Chunin!" He announced with a laugh. I did a double glance at the hokage as I raised my glass to my lips, we had only walked to the bar but it couldn't have taken more than 20 minutes, even so the hokage already had a red flush to his face, he must have used shunshin to get here the moment we left the office.
My drink looked like water and after a taste for a moment I thought it was but then I was hit by a fruity punch and it stung the back of my throat as it went down, I gagged a little at the unexpected sting but Kakashi beside me wretched as everyone laughed.
"You gave us alcohol?" I asked, looking to Tsunade.
"What's the matter kid, don't think you can take a few drinks?" She jibed with a sharp smile.
"No, no," I shook my head, "I just thought there was a law against serving minors."
"Kukuku, so there is, that law however is waived in the case of ranked shinobi." Orochimaru said, he was hemmed into the booth with Jiraiya and tsunade boxing him in.
"Hang on Orochimaru, it sounded for a moment there like the brat said he could take some drinks." Tsunade cut in
"Now Tsunade, it probably isn't fair to bring Ko into a drinking contest." Sakumo said
'A drinking contest?' I thought, 'I've only just arrived, I've only just found out I can drink. This is escalating pretty quickly'
"Yeah Tsunade, that wouldn't be fair," said Jiraiya.
'Well at least reason is asserting itself' I thought.
"Not unless we can all join in." Jiraiya finished.
God help us all.
"You can drink I'll give yer that." Tsunade said, slurring her words.
Kakashi had to be carted home hours ago by Sakumo, apparently he didn't take at all well to alcohol. The Hokage had excused himself muttering something about divine retribution from Biwako if he didn't return by midnight, Kushina had gone with him since she was the only person who had abstained from drinking and was concerned about the old Hokage making it home. Jiraiaya had moments ago finally succumbed and was carried away by Orochimaru who had some kind of technique for flushing the 'poison' as he called it from his body. Shikaku and Yoshino left before even Kakashi, both supporting each other and surprisingly singing songs on their way.
Which left me sitting across from an incredibly inebriated Tsunade, I had somehow kept up for reasons I attributed to my unusual biology. I assumed that my rapidly growing body also processed whatever I drank incredibly quickly. Even then though when I had risen for a bathroom break earlier I had slumped back down into my seat, somehow all of the effects of the alcohol had focussed themselves below the waist leaving me unable to walk, I had tried to play it off as a stretch but I could see I was fooling no one and Tsunade quickly pushed another drink towards me like a shark smelling blood.
Minato had told me he was taking a nap about half an hour ago and he slept softly at my side in the booth his head in his folded arms, I was surprised he had stayed up so long, it was now around 3am so almost all of the customers had left excepting a few that slept in corners, the barman focussed himself on some work better known to himself at the far end of the bar and returned only to refill our bottle of sake.
Luckily with it now being so quiet I no longer needed to sign and could make do with whispering, it was a good thing too since at this point the sake had discombobulated what finer motor control skills I had had of my hands, I was still surprised I could still lift my glass without spillage.
"I think you are about at the end of your rope." I said grinning, what tsunade hadn't noticed was that there were brief moments I saw her eyes glaze over, she was fighting an alcohol induced stupor all the time and over the last 15 or so minutes those moments had become more extended and regular, I knew it wouldn't be long before she gave in. Or at least I hoped so or I may need to visit the hospital tomorrow to have the alcohol pumped from my body.
"Hah, you've never even seen a rope." Tsunade responded intelligently, her head wobbled dangerously as she lowered her latest drink.
I hiccuped and my grin slipped as the room wobbled around me, "We'll see about that." I poured us both another drink, lifting mine to my lips.
As I placed my glass back down on the table I noticed Tsunade had not lifted her glass. Her eyes were glazed over, I leaned over the table and waved my hand in front of her eyes but she didn't respond except for her head to fall back into the cushion of the chair. She began snoring a short moment later.
"And then there was one." I whispered to myself, as I poured myself another drink. I had begun to see over the course of the evening that drinking actually made me rather morose. For much of the remainder of the evening I had forced a grin to stay on my face, I didn't like to bring the atmosphere down for a celebration, but I doubt it reached my eyes. As I sat there now I felt myself overcome with an overwhelming amount of ennui as my thoughts went unwillingly to my last life. I had tried to put such thoughts behind me, it was a life reborn - how many were given the opportunity. Still though the family I could remember that I left behind was brought unwillingly to mind and some part of me wondered how they were doing now, what they were doing now.
I poured myself another drink as I looked other to Minato who was still breathing the easy sighs of sleep, "What would you think Minato," I whispered, "If I were to tell you I had a life before, that I died and was reincarnated in this world. What if I told you that was where all my taijutsu knowledge came from. Maybe I should have told you long ago." I scoffed to myself, "Right. Who would believe that?"
After finishing the bottle of alcohol that remained I sat for around half an hour before I felt comfortable to stand. Then I placed Minato over one shoulder and Tsunade over another, hopefully neither would remember how I carried them from the bar.
From there I headed to the hospital. I had no idea where Tsunade lived but she did say it sometimes felt like the hospital was her second home. I wearily placed her in a hospital bed in her own clinic ward. Turning around I found a child with black hair, she placed a finger over her lips as she held up a blanket to which I nodded my thanks before placing it over Tsunade.
Minato I brought back to his house and was surprised to find a sleepy looking Kushina opening the door, "I'll take it from here." She whispered as I passed Minato to her.
I wonder when Kushina had moved into Minato's house, as far as I knew still lived on the other side of my house, a next door neighbour but one to where Minato lived. Perhaps at some point over the course of the chunin exams.
It was a good thing the Hokage had given us 2 days until the mission because it took me the entirety of the following day to recover, Kakashi didn't show up for our early morning training either.
Soon enough it was time to meet up at the gate, we were to wear masks during the mission, it would not do for Suna to find that the village it had just formed a treaty with had been sending shinobi into its borders on business. Then there was the city itself, we really did know very little about it, it had apparently been around for many years and was ruled by a queen who built the city on a leyline that provided chakra for the city. There though the information ran dry. The information seemed to suggest that the weapons were not being manufactured by the queen herself so Minato suggested we should try and protect the queen from the fallout wherever possible, souring relations with a sovereign in our first excursion into their realm was to be avoided.
With the urgency and relative secrecy of the mission we had agreed that we would leave as soon as possible that day so Kakashi, Minato, Shibi and I had met up at the front gate almost an hour before sunrise ready to travel through the day and night, it had been decided that if we kept up a good pace we could enter Suna during the night time and avoid being sighted. Minato already seemed well acquainted with Shibi but he introduced himself to us, I got the impression that he was a man of few words, it didn't help that the masks we had been given were annoying to talk in. Kakashi had his in the fashion of a wolf, Minato of a fox, Shibi in the style of a cat and I had the mask of an owl.
Running through the day was business as usual but during the night it was a novel experience though somewhat tiring considering, by the time we stopped with the sunrise, we had been awake for 24 hours.
The journey otherwise passed uneventfully, Shibi navigated, Minato led and Kakashi and I watched for any attacks from behind which happily never came.
It wasn't until we were travelling across the lands of Suna, traversing a large sunbaked mesa that we first saw Loran.
AN: Well I'm still sick. but trapped in a bed with nothing to do but lay about I may as well get something done. I feel like I got through a lot in this chapter though it isn't particularly long, hopefully you enjoy it. I'll see if I can't write another chapter whilst I still have this illness as my gaoler. Please review and I'll see you in the next chapter.