Disclaimer: I own nothing but the general plot and OCs
So I've received a lot of mixed messages regarding the reveal. I was a little concerned about disappointing anyone, but if it was me i genuinely wouldn't be happy keeping this to myself for long. Nevertheless the risk of the secrets getting out is a genuine concern.
This is just a short one, since I'm on a weekend holiday break with family at the mo. Also, I want Sonaru to be basically profficient in some shinobi shit which will be the next part of the story. However, after that, since I'm getting a little bored of the slow pace myself, I'm gonna yank it off the rails and see where it goes.
Thank you everyone for the suggestions of fics to read and anime to watch for research about blood limits and shinobi politics! I'll be sure to check some of those out and make some notes!
As always, no editing, and English spoken is underlined
Thank you so much for awesome reviews, as well as favs and follows! Let me know what works, or what doesn't work for you, as well as any prompts for scenes you'd like to see.
Chapter 26 - I'm Gonna Give All My Secrets Away
"So I have another shitty secret that I didn't plan to tell you at first but I changed my mind please don't be mad because I don't entirely think I deserve anger for this one but it's still really bothering me because I don't like having secrets from you," Sona wheezed as she impressively blurted that all out in one breath.
Gai and Kakashi blinked at her nonplussed for a moment, where they were sitting on opposite sides on a shogi board. Kakashi, who was sitting on Sona's side, since technically she was the one playing, and he was just trying to mitigate the damage a little so she wasn't trounced too badly, was the first one to decipher the rushed sentence.
He deflated in exasperation, "another one? Tell me this one won't be as life altering as the last one."
Sona grinned innocently at him and gave a nervous laugh, "you know what? On second thoughts never mind."
Kakashi feigned a casual light hearted demeanour, "no, no, go on. Do tell. I can't wait to question everything I thought I knew about my life again."
"Tell us your most Youthful secret beautiful blossom! Sharing a heavy burden between such close companions will lighten the load, and breath life in your flames! There are no true secrets between us, proven by how comfortably I shed light on the pain in my rectum caused by-"
Both of them quickly slammed palms over their ears.
"No! No, there's really no need to repeat that... charming piece of very personal information with us. Thank you, Gai," Sona interrupted.
He gave a gleaming grin and a thumbs up, which she weakly returned. Kakashi cleared his throat pointedly, and gave her a meaningful look.
"So, you decided to share what I hope is your last relevant secret with us."
She nodded her head frantically in reply, "I swear this is the last one that had anything to do with either of you."
He gave a sigh and waved his hand at her, "go on, then. Let's get this over with."
She bit the inside of her lip, and fiddled with her toes, looking distinctly uncomfortable. Kakashi saw her barely suppressing the fear and anxiety that he knew was causing her pulse to pick up, and he wanted to comfort her, but resisted in case he gave her false hope and became angry the moment she told him what she had hidden.
"Right... in my old world there was fictional entertainment, like there is here."
Well that certainly wasn't where Kakashi expected things to start.
"You should probably know that there was a lot more fiction in my old world than this one. Movies, shorter episodes that showed every week following a plot, comic books, books, theatre and cartoons.
"As I've explained before, there was a place which I'm fairly certain spoke either the same language as is spoken here, or at least something very similar to it. They created some very well known stories. This place bore the most resemblance to the Elemental Nations culturally... I think. I don't know, I never went."
He honestly had no idea where she was going with this, and couldn't even begin to imagine how this was relevant. Somehow he knew this was going to be absurd. She fidgeted restlessly, and he knew Sona well enough to spot the urge to flee she always got during situations she was anxious in.
She paused, looking vaguely lost, as her body language got increasingly agitated, scraping her fingers through her hair and tugging at the fluffy tufts.
"Agh, I don't know how to say this. I don't even know if I... should."
She frowned to herself, and bit the inside of her lip as she thought, before she glanced up at both Gai and Kakashi with an alarmingly piercing, serious look. She took a deep breath and let it go and then continued in a slow, measured tone.
"Through slightly unbelievable and unlikely circumstances in my last life, knowledge about the Elemental Nations became very publicly well known- with a particular focus on Konoha. This information was believed to be fantastical and part of an enjoyable tale. There are... things... I know about the Elemental Nations and Konoha as a result which could potentially hold a lot of truth."
Kakashi's brain halted for a moment in complete shock. He struggled to fully understand the deeper implications of her words, so stuck on the basic idea of important information about Konoha being leaked from an uncontrolled source into another world.
For less than a second Kakashi entertained the idea that Sona was sent into this knew life on purpose to collect more knowledge, but quickly dismissed it, the moment he had a look at any of her behaviour.
Before he or Gai could say anything, she put her hand up to stop them.
"Just let me get everything out into the open first before you decide you want to know what I know. First of all, I think it's become fairly apparent that I have no expertise in shinobi matters. I don't know shit about what's going on currently out there in the world. So I couldn't tell you how much of what I knew in my old life is the same as what's here now. What I know could just bear a superficial resemblance, or it could almost be exactly the same.
"I didn't tell you before now, mostly because I was terrified of you confirming a lot of what I was telling you, and believing me. Only to find out too late that something's different here and getting yourself hurt or killed. But also because if what I know is true... to put it this way; considering it was a fictional tale written by someone who wanted their story to sell well, what sort of people and situations do you think it took a good long look at?"
She gave a grim smile at the dawning realisations on both Gai and Kakashi's faces.
"Yeah, some very dangerous people with some very dangerous secrets and pasts that they would not want anyone knowing. People with plots and plans. The typical cast of good guys and bad guys. Traitors, and spies, and liars, and very very high stakes. As long as I kept this to myself, if it all turned out to be accurate to this world, there was less chance of someone who had an annoying ability to get into other people's heads dragging the information out of anyone.
So, knowing that what I know could be almost entirely incorrect, or only partially correct, or almost all correct, and I won't know which of these for many years to come, if ever. Considering that what I know, in some people's hands, could spell the end of not only Konoha, but the Elemental Nations. Understanding that if you have this knowledge yourself, you need to recognise that it's not about the hidden village you're both entirely loyal to, but about all the hidden villages- if you choose to act on it, it may well have to be for the benefit of a village other than Konoha, it may be actions perceived traitorous to Konoha. Do you really want me to tell you?"
Kakashi watched the elevated pulse underneath Sona's neck, and knew better than to dismiss her. He wasn't sure if he entirely believed her, but he was willing to at least give her the benefit of the doubt. No, deep down he did believe her, he just didn't want to. His little family was already at enough risk without this.
As a shinobi he wouldn't throw away this source of potential information, and was already noting the fortuitous circumstances of Sona being in Konoha, and loyal to Kakashi. However, the parent in him just wanted this to happen someone other than Su-chan. He didn't want his most precious person to have kept something so big from him for so long again. He didn't want to feel disappointed. He didn't want to feel so at the mercy of forces outside of his control.
He pushed all this aside for the moment, and before Gai could jump in with both feet, dragging Kakashi down with him, he asked her, "I want to know how immediately crucial you would guess this information to be."
She hesitated and slowly answered, "I don't really know. If you want to do anything about what I know, more time would be better, but in terms of immediate urgency, not for some years probably."
"You're certain that no one in your world was aware of the reality of Konoha and the Elemental Nations?" He checked, still concerned with information breaches.
"Well yeah, as certain as I can be. The original story idea and plot came from one man as far as I know."
"Perhaps this most Youthful writer was once a shinobi of Konoha, as our most beautiful blossom was once a civilian of that world!" Gai enthusiastically claimed.
She visibly pondered over idea, looking dubious, "I guess it's possible. I have a hard time believing a shinobi would become a manga writer once they were reborn but... I suppose shinobi have all sorts of quirks they could indulge more in during a second life. But still... there were a fair few plot holes in the original story. If someone had actually lived it I don't see why they would include those, unless he was trying to brush over circumstances he didn't actually know all that much about because he wasn't around during them. I don't know. I can't confirm or deny that."
Despite Sona's reluctance to believe in that theory, it made more sense to Kakashi than this all being one giant coincidence that someone who happened to be in a world in which Konoha was fiction was reborn into a world where it was all real.
"Unless this was the work of greater powers," - the likes of which Kakashi had never particularly paid much thought to, and he knew that Sona didn't exactly believe in.
Predictably, she looked sceptical as she commented, "What, and that I'm here for a reason? Bullshit. There were far more qualified men and women to be reborn into a world of killers and chakra and war. There were less mentally fragile people. There were people who were more knowledgeable about the tale. There was nothing about me that made me a more suitable choice to be reborn here from a world that knew about the story. I had done nothing wonderfully special in my last life to be here, and currently I have just as much chance of accidentally helping to bring this place burning to the ground than to help prevent that.
"Shit, I didn't even know the whole story before I died! I had it playing on a computer in the background while I intensively studied. I can promise you there are probably really important bits that I missed or forgot entirely."
It was Sona's expression that Kakashi noticed the most- it radiated irritation with herself, looking upset and worried and above all weary. She looked so burdened with all the possibilities that her knowledge had. It was finally understanding the weight that she had carried in her with this, that made him realise why she had told them despite her admittance at the start that she initially had no intentions of doing so.
"You didn't make this decision entirely rationally, did you?" He asked gently. She prided herself on being mostly logical in her choices, only resorting to emotional reasoning when the rational choice was making her feel too overwhelmed and stressed.
She huffed, looking slightly rueful, "not at all. Like I said, I don't like keeping secrets from you guys and this felt like a huge one. It was eating at me. Also... I'm not a shinobi. It became really obvious to me listening to you both plan together that there's so much I don't know. You're both far more practiced and learned than me at this. It felt almost arrogant keeping this to myself when you could probably do so much more with it than I could.
"It would be ignorant of me to think I was the only one who could keep this safe from others. Three heads are better than one and at the end of the day there's no one I trust more than you two. Maybe this will turn out to be a mistake even saying shit out loud, and it will get out to the wrong people... but I don't think I could make myself regret trusting you. It feels too good."
"Don't tell us," he immediately commanded, before she could let anything more slip. He could see her falter, clearly not having expected that from him. Out the corner of his eye, he could see Gai also look surprised.
"Whether it turns out to be completely false or not, obviously you think what you know to be of utmost importance. I'd guess SS ranked. I would love to be able to support you in this Su-chan, but if it's true, the sanctity of those details are far more important. I'm not saying I don't want to know eventually, but I think a way needs to be devised to prevent unscrupulous individuals from stealing this knowledge under unexpected circumstances. Until then, I'll have to ask that you keep it to yourself."
She looked understandably disappointed, before her brow furrowed in confusion, "but... I'm just a civilian. You're both really highly qualified Jōnin. And... I've hidden this for years now."
"You may be a civilian still, beautiful blossom. But we trust you as you trust us. My Eternal Rival is correct. Keep this safe in your mind."
"Make no mistake, Sona, I'm not pleased. But I'm far from unfamiliar with withholding information from trusted people due to its sensitive nature. Whatever the contents of what you know, or think you know, I'm not angry at that. I'm more unhappy with the existence of a secret such as this at all. Your safety is already at risk, and I'm frustrated that there's more out there than even my cautious estimates had planned for.
As for ensuring continued secrecy, I could create a seal based off of one I'm already familiar with. Perhaps reverse engineer it so the new one isn't quite so restrictive or harsh. It would take some time though. Until then you'll have to keep it to yourself, and tell us only if anything is urgent."
They watched with some regret at she seemed to sag back under the weight of the secrets she carried, but didn't amend what they had told her. They trusted Sona to give them an accurate idea of how important what she knew was, and they trusted her to be the holder of the knowledge until a later date.
There was a lost veil over her eyes, and he felt some guilt over the burden she had clearly hoped to be rid of. But at the end of the day, she wasn't a child, as much as she fit well- for an adult- into that role. He knew she was strong enough to be solely responsible for some time longer.
Despite not knowing the details himself, he could practically feel the blade hanging even closer to his neck than before. It was like a timer that was counting down and it had an even lower number on it than he had thought. He didn't know what was coming for them, but more than ever he remembered what Sona had said to him - the main goal was for their family to stick together, and anything more than that was an even greater gain than intended.
"You know what this means my beautiful blossom!" Gai boomed with a manic glint to his eyes, "your extremely Youthful training shall have to be filled with even more Flaming Youth and Hard Work than before!"
Kakashi wasn't too annoyed at Sona for keeping this secret from them, honestly. But deep down, a part of him couldn't help but find a little satisfaction at the pale, daunted look on her face, before she drooped in resignation.
"Fine. I'm going to be so exhausted from this won't I?" She sighed.
When she made eye contact with him, mildly beseeching, and received nothing but an unrepentant eye smile in reply, she mustered her energy with a begrudging groan and a hair yank, and then laughed ruefully, "fuck it. Go for it, assholes."
I hope this satisfies you wonderful buttmunches, for those who wanted the secret out and those who didn't.
What do you think about the compromise? Do you think Kakashi approached this correctly?