Disclaimer: I own nothing but the general plot and OCs
Second disclaimer: I mention stuff below about Kimono and Japanese clothes and what that means. I know zilch that a brief search on google didn't have to say. Huge apologies for any incorrect depictions. and also cut me some slack cause this aint Japan its Konoha - my Konoha (mawahaha). My rules.
I know a few of you have mentioned some scepticism toward Sonaru walking the streets as Sona (in a non prostituty way), but she is doing that for a reason that will contribute toward the plot... when I finally get around to actually including a plot. What's written below as Sona does have a purpose that will be built on.
Tried to set things up for there to be more Gai present next chapter. Unless it gets away from me (because when does that ever happen?) next chapter, it should be split reasonably evenly between Gai teaching, Kakashi teaching, Tenzō teaching, maybe Genma teaching, and Sona.
Having taken your Kakashi relationship concerns into account, I'll let you know now that there will be no Kakashi in a permanent relationship in the works. If things look like he and someone else are going that way, it's a temporary thing that won't last long. If he finds someone to screw, they either won't feature pretty much at all as a character or it will be a super casual thing. Anything will likely happen (if it happens) from someone other than Kakashi's perspective to keep the info limited.
No editing sorry for mistakes. Also English spoken is underlined as always
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 36 - She's A Lady
...The science of combat visualisation
Visualisation of the battlefield requires the use of operational tools which are derived from science, chakra and technology. However, chakra and technology alone cannot provide the commander with a full visualisation of the battlefield. Technology and chakra must be used together with the shinobi/squad leader's judgment, wisdom, experience, and intuitive sense to enhance the visualisation of the battlefield. Technology and chakra enhanced support should be focused in three areas: total mission awareness, mission planning, and execution.
Total mission awareness
Situational awareness provides squad leaders/shinobi with near real-time information on the current situation. Previous to mission deployment human and non human data bases must be exchanged, accessed, and shared among all appropriate agencies involved in the operation.
(1) Friendly forces.
b. The friendly situation is not limited to data elements in the reports. Technology or chakra supported methods, adjusted and tempered by the squad leader's/shinobi's judgment, helps maintain awareness of subordinate/friendly units' state of readiness, to include the state of training, maintenance, and logistical status.
(2) Enemy forces.
b. Technology or chakra supported methods must allow the commander to visualise the disposition of enemy forces. Enemy situational awareness comes from many sources including: aerial platforms, fuuinjutsu and other sensors, reports from units, other human intelligence, and information derived from technology-assisted intelligence analysis. Visualisation of the enemy force must include an awareness of the enemy's speed of advance, tempo of operations, and known vulnerabilities.
(3) Noncombatants.
b. Noncombatants are those individuals in the tactical area of interest who are not engaged in active hostilities. These individuals may include resident civilians, refugees, evacuees, prisoners of war, or members of nonmilitary organisations. Their presence, attitudes, physical activities, and requirements can have a significant effect on the outcome of the mission. Sustaining total mission awareness requires that noncombatants be considered in the squad leader's/shinobi's vision of the battlefield.
(4) Environment.
b. Environmental conditions have a profound effect on shinobi operations. Technologies must provide the squad leader/shinobi information about the environment including geography, hydrology, weather, seasonal conditions, vegetation, illumination data, and particularly terrain. The squad leader/shinobi must rapidly assess the immediate and lingering effects of environmental conditions. Environmental effects must be represented within the data and common relevant visualised picture to ensure squad leader/shinobi consider their potentially dramatic effects during planning, rehearsal. and execution of operations.
(5) Terrain visualisation.
b. The squad leader/shinobi requires the ability to see the field of combat on which their subordinate/friendly units and the enemy will deploy, manoeuvre, and fight. The detail required may include the terrain slope and elevation, human and animal traffic, vegetation, and other natural and man-made features. Technology and chakra supported methods provide the squad leader/shinobi the ability to see a portion of the earth's surface. While this vision may be seen from directly above, it may also be viewed from the oblique. Terrain visualisation includes both natural and man-made features to include impacts of terrain on vehicle, shinobi and summons speed, maintenance, river-crossing operations, cross-country trafficability, and manoeuvrability. Terrain visualisation allows interactive planning and mission rehearsal. Terrain visualisation through whichever means used must reflect real-time updates as features change due to the effects of combat and nature.
The same information gathering and data update systems must be used in training and combat. These systems must operate in the live, and constructive simulation environments to approximate real combat. Technologies, chakra and varied training grounds allow shinobi and squad leaders to duplicate the real world in an environment where risk is minimal.
Shinobi/squad leaders must, however, use these tools judiciously, applying common sense and experience rather than accepting the solution apparent from the data as the best solution.
Mission planning
b. Technology and chakra supported methods to collect and provide data is required to support mission planning. To effectively plan operations, the commander must understand the current state, the intent of senior commanders, and visualise the desired future state of the battlefield. To do this, the squad leader/shinobi requires tools which facilitate that visualisation and enables the squad leader/shinobi to visualise the battlefield, refine their commander's intent, develop realistic simulated combat training, and analyse the potential courses of action.
Execution
b. Technologies and chakra supported methods are needed to keep the squad leader/shinobi informed as the mission unfolds. Once the mission has commenced, the squad leader/shinobi receives prompt updates from subordinate/friendly units, guidance from the superiors, and information on enemy action. This presents the squad leader/shinobi and subordinates/comrades with alternatives for immediate consideration, further enabling the cognitive process of combat visualisation to evolve. The net effect is that the squad leader/shinobi may rapidly and effectively alter the initial plan to adapt to changing situations precipitated by unexpected enemy action or changes in the status of the friendly forces...
With a lot my time freed up, having integrated most of the previously separated training sessions into one Playing Ninja exercise, I found myself wandering the streets more often as Sona. I had familiarised myself with some of the more well used streets and public areas, but I was by no means an expert on Konoha geography.
I always carried a book of some sort on me, and only half intentionally became remembered as the sweet, quiet little girl who always had her head in a book but was polite and well spoken when approached. I had never been a keen socialiser around people I wasn't intimately familiar with, and my default expression when I was uncomfortable was unfortunately a kind and welcoming smile. It had been the case in my last body, and when I walked around without the safety of my mask in the streets, it became the case in this body too.
This generally gave the impression that I was far more friendly than I actually was. If any discerning person paid some serious attention to the conversations I was occasionally a part of in the street, they'd notice I only ever replied to personal questions with enough to not seem brusque in my replies, but not enough to encourage the idea of potential emotional intimacy, they'd notice that I very rarely asked personal questions in response either.
If someone had asked me, they might have been given a hint that I really didn't find most people interesting enough to remember. I didn't want to give people enough of me that I was expected to recall things that they'd told me as one generally begins to do to build closeness. Now that I had far better recall this wasn't so much of an excuse I could give, but it also didn't mean I was any more interested.
Truthfully, some days I found myself tentatively grateful that I had been reborn into a world filled with dysfunctional killers, who had seen so much death and suffering that half of the known social protocols were pointedly ignored by them altogether. For all that they were far better at deceit and lying than almost any civilian, they still somehow managed to be more... themselves, more honest and straightforward in who they were. They were all so much more engaging and fascinating as human beings. They were a large group of completely fucked up human beings that I was glad to be initiated into.
Yes, sometimes buying sweet treats from the market and politely listening to the gentleman who sold wooden toys chat at me about his three daughters was a welcome reprieve from all of the back breaking work I committed myself to otherwise, but it also served to constantly remind me why hurtling toward the uncertain future and path filled with pain and death that I was on was better. Better than what they were doing. Better for me at least.
In my last life I had never been content as a normal civilian, always flirting the edge of danger and moral bankruptcy but never quite willing to commit to it due to my own ethical reservations. I had had no cause, a fractured brotherhood to belong to, nothing I could authentically fight and die for. And deep down that had been what I had really wanted.
Everything had always seemed too petty, too insignificant to satisfy me for long. I didn't think these people were in any way less for being able to find meaning and perhaps even happiness in their civilian lives, but every time I stepped out onto the street as Sona and got a glimpse into what they had built for themselves I was so fucking glad I wasn't one of them.
That wasn't to say I didn't enjoy my time among the crowd of strangers, because I did. There was a sense of comfort I found in being a largely anonymous face but still part of the unstructured comradeship that was 'us' or 'Konoha'. I liked being able to read, while receiving weekly updates about the woman in the corner shop that sold tea and how she was getting along in training her puppy, or the young couple who frequently went for walks in the park and their quiet but determined attempts to forge their arranged marriage into something approaching love, or the progression of grief the entire family who owned the bakery was going through at the death of their matriarch.
I found joy in the continuous invitations I received from boys and girls alike near my own physical age to play ninja, even if I always declined gracefully. I was on passingly familiar terms with the two seven year old boys-Seiichi and Kenji-who were sons of a merchant, their willingness to talk to me chalked up to the deaths of their little sister and mother the year before at the end of a bandit's blade.
I still declined any of their invitations to play, but they had more adventurous lives than most of the other children, and the uncensored mouths that often came with childhood, so I would spend more time with them than usual and listen as they engaged me with boastful and exaggerated tales of their travels with indulgent amusement.
Still, the only being whose approach I welcomed consistently was Tora, who had no trouble discerning my identity and would eagerly twine around my ankles while begging for the ear skritches I was more than willing to provide. Tora's unabashed enthusiasm toward my presence brought some attention to me in public, but it wasn't anything I was averse to - beyond a way with cats there was really nothing that could be read into about me, and it wasn't like Tora was going to go blabbing about me to curious ears.
I took to carrying her favourite treats in my pocket to give to her when she found me. Apparently Tora had a discerning palate when it came to cat treats, because before long other stray cats were meandering by me in the hope of a nibble. Within the space of a few weeks I was in the habit of passing certain spots which I knew the stray cats were waiting for me for skritches and food. Some of the more reserved adults grumbled quietly about me exacerbating a pest problem, but with a judicious application of wide eyes and a shy upturn of my lips at them they largely subsided. Most looked on at my actions with quiet coos and smiles.
I knew exactly what preliminary reputation I was building for myself, but kindness to animals and young children came far easier to me than kindness to the rest of humanity, and so it was no difficulty to keep displaying small gestures that implied a gentle and benevolent image of my inner nature.
Nevertheless, I didn't expect any particular special attention from anybody, and I almost entirely succeeded. I was, as far as I was aware, someone that was mostly forgotten when I wasn't around in public, which was certainly helped by appearing to be a mentally mature toddler who wasn't getting up to anything especially interesting. This was something I was keen to maintain, and so as I made my way home after dropping off the last of my 'baby' books to the orphanage I most definitely noticed that was being carefully scrutinised.
Without letting on that I was aware of the focus directed at me, and keeping the contented expression from wavering at all, I cautiously assessed the person who seemed to find me so interesting. I realised almost immediately that I recognised her. I saw her reasonably regularly when I was near the tea shop, and although I didn't know her name or pretty much anything about her, I did know that she was quite wealthy- or at least she dressed in expensive clothes- and that the young woman who worked behind the counter at the shop was intimidated by her.
From what I had been able to tell thus far, she had a naturally cool and severe cast to her features, for all that they were elegant and refined. Her temperament seemed to match her general expressions, or perhaps its was her temperament that gave her that look, I didn't know. But beyond the most basic politeness required from me two times I'd spoken to her for less than three seconds, I had never been given a reason to interact with her. I knew she'd noticed me enough to give me assessing side glances when I'd been in her vicinity for a little while now, but then again enough people did that thanks to my generally altruistic attitude that I'd barely given it a thought.
She surveyed me blatantly from a distance as I walked, and I found myself quickly irritated by her unabashed impassive staring. It occurred to me then, that she was probably being so obvious because she thought I was a child, and so she didn't need to worry about me confronting her, or perhaps even knowing that she was being unusually conspicuous in her staring.
Fuck it, if she could get away with it, then so could I. After all children always stared when the didn't know they shouldn't. Acting as though I'd just noticed she was looking, I caught her eyes and slowed down but even then she didn't relent. In fact she showed no sign that she even cared I spotted her. I tilted my head curiously, and she finally broke eye contact briefly to coolly scan me from top to toe. Maybe it was in the tilt of her eyebrow or the way she held her cheeks but despite her stern expression and shark like eyes I got the impression something similar to approval.
Taking the opportunity to do some surveying myself, I took in the silk pastel kimono and obi, with the clean white Tabi and her Zori. I knew that there was so much more to know about the subtle things someone's Kimono could tell about their status and wealth than what I had picked up, but I knew enough to realise some things about this woman. Unless it was for special occasions, wearing a Kimono wasn't particular popular in Konoha, with the exception of the more wealthy upper class - particularly the females.
I had previously guessed from the general length of her sleeves, the height of the patterns on her Kimono and the colouring she favoured that she was married, but I'd never looked more carefully than that. Now though, I saw the new silk, the subtle brocade pattern hand stitched onto her Kimono which was only visible where it caught the light, the way the Kimono was made so that the pattern wasn't broken up by the seams. I saw the practiced and neat knot of her pale Obi- the simple looking one without bows- decorated with silk silver thread.
It was all simple, understated, elegant. Before I had lived in Konoha and spent much of my recovery being toted around by a disguised DFB, I'd not have thought much of the relatively plain Kimono, when I was used to pictures of them with bright colours and rich patterns in the Western world. But I knew enough now to see that it was fucking expensive. Then I took in the lack of jewellery, makeup or adornments in her tied hair, and it clicked that she probably worked as part of the tea shop. Maybe even the boss. I took a guess that she'd either just been to a tea ceremony, or was on her way to one. Maybe she was hosting it.
Without giving an indication of what she'd been looking at me for in her body language or expression, she turned and walked away, giving me a view of a small clan symbol on the back of her Kimono, which I realised was identical to the two small symbols on the chest on either side of her Kimono. Well shit, I'd underestimated her wealth.
After a moment of looking at her back in bafflement I continued home, "what was that all about," I muttered myself.
I'd been spending more time out in public since we started Playing Ninja to integrate everything instead of individual lessons. I found it relatively calming to walk, wander, observe, read and listen. I was really fine with spending more of my time just learning the streets and the hidden village that I planned to eventually fight and bleed for. It was peaceful compared to what I had previously been up to. There was no physical struggle, no mental strain.
"Su-chan why are trying to bludgeon your head against the table?" DFB lightly asked, knocking a pillow under my head with his foot a moment before my forehead met the hard surface again. The bastard didn't even make the effort to look up from his book.
"Am boooored," I wailed.
"Is that so."
"Yes! If I have to walk around Konoha with nothing else to do one more time I'm going to murder that old man who hangs around the Hokage building," I hissed.
"You mean the Sandaime."
"Exactly."
"I suppose I should tell you that Tenzō was slightly injured on his last mission."
"Is he going to be okay?"
"He'll be fine, it's nothing too bad, but he's got a few weeks off light exercise only."
"Soo...?"
"He's free to start teaching you about wielding something a bit bigger than a kunai."
My head shot off of the cushion it was smooshed against, "finally!"
"Maa but that doesn't really solve your boredom problem does it?"
"It doesn't?"
"You're bored because you have nothing to do when no one is available."
"I don't like watching television and reading history books gets dull when that's all I have," I grumbled defensively.
"Aa. During the poison incident, you reacted in time to escape the explosive tag," DFB suddenly said, seemingly apropos of nothing.
"Funnily enough, I remember because I was there, and it didn't happen all that long ago," I smirked cheekily, to DFB's lack of amusement if the droop of his eyelid was anything to go by.
"You knew it was about to go off though," he pointedly reminded me.
"The build up to your point is unnecessary, DFB. Innuendo not intended," we simultaneity rolled our eyes (or eye as the case may be) in exasperation at each other.
"My point is; how did you know it was a proximity tag?"
"They have a slightly different design than other explosive tags."
"And who taught you that?" I was pretty sure I could hear an implication that I was being slow in DFB's voice, which had me scowling at him.
"No one. I just picked up on it over time."
DFB sighed, "Subaru, most people with no previous tutelage don't pick up on that. You did it by yourself. I know you've been interested in the past in fuuinjutsu, and I thought you might want to start lessons in it now that we have the time. Considering it's something that you're capable of picking at and experimenting with- under some very specific and unbreakable conditions - on your own-"
He stopped talking when I launched myself at him and caught me against his chest without even a grunt of exertion.
"Yesyesyesyesyesyes," I chanted with a grin as I futilely tried to shake his shoulders back and forth and just ended up yanking his jacket a little bit.
"Come on, then. Get out of your onesie and grab a kunai," DFB eye smiled as he turned toward the bedroom.
"Wait, are we starting now?"
"Nope. Now I think your chakra levels and control have reached high enough that you can learn tree walking," he cheerfully replied, dumping me on the bed, "get changed."
Sitting up in overwhelmed excitement with a gasp, I turned to DFB and was met with a face full of clothes.
I pulled them off my head, calling after his retreating form, "you're a fuckhead."
"Maa, Su-chan you say such kind things to me."
The thing was, so far nothing I'd been taught was anything that I had a comparison for in the anime. They were all things that were learned either before the anime began, or along the way as implied or off screen lessons. Tree walking, however, I definitely had a reference of time for.
While I knew on one level that I couldn't exactly take it as gospel, there was another part of me that was apprehensive about how long it would take me to learn tree walking in comparison to the three characters I knew had taken no time at all.
Especially when I still struggled to make my chakra do what I wanted it to, and especially because I had had far less time to get used to moving my chakra about than the main three of Naruto. I didn't have a full day and night to keep going and going and going until I got it down pat - not in time and not in chakra. My chakra levels weren't very high for a shinobi in training and my control was only average when I did get something right.
Basically, I kind of sucked at it.
"Su-chan get up," DFB's shadow covered the sunlight as I lay on the ground, breathless and bruised from landing on my ass so many times. That wasn't what had me covering my eyes with clenched fists in despondent frustration though. It was that I had been at for four hours, and I was still only a meter up the fucking tree. I couldn't even get above DFB's head. Pretty much every centimetre from the ground up to 100cm was scored with a kunai slash where I had painstakingly climbed the thing.
"No," I miserably replied.
"Are you giving up?" He goaded, which always worked when I wanted to do just that.
"Yes."
There was a surprised pause, before a whiff of something familiar and delicious had my eyes snapping open.
"For every metre you reach, you get a piece of chocolate," he waved the half unwrapped bar at me.
I forced myself to my feet, glaring at him that he knew I was so weak to the temptation of chocolate and used it against me, "fine. Where's the tallest fucking tree in this damn place."
He eye smiled, "that's the spirit."
By the end of the day, I earned one piece. Including the metre I'd already passed.
I was dirty and bruised, and sweaty and there was this deep ache inside me that I'd never experienced before. Somewhere that wasn't quite in my veins, and wasn't quite in my stomach or gut, or abdominal muscles. DFB eyed the one metre sixty five worth of kunai marks with a thoughtful moue somehow expressed through his mask.
"Maybe you need to work on more of a variety of techniques involving chakra," he finally commented.
"No... shit," I panted, my face half squished against the dust where I'd collapsed.
"I have an idea! Gai can help you," he claimed positively, and turned to walk in the direction I assumed Gai was in. Panting for a few more seconds, I allowed myself an unintelligible grumble into the dirt, before pushing myself up on shaky arms. I got unsteadily onto my feet, took one shuffling step forward, and face planted the dirt again.
"Ow," I muffled into the ground.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw DFB's shinobi sandals stop by my head, "on second thought, you look like you could use a break. And a bath."
I felt his hand grasp my sleeveless jacket in the middle of my back, before I was hefted easily into the air parallel to the ground. My limbs and head sagged with a tired groan, as I was carried home by his side.
Tabi definition: dem white socks with the single split between the toes to be worn with Sandal style shoes.
Zori: Sandal style shoes, without the wooden platforms because those are something slightly different.
If you had to guess what would you say the woman wants with Sonaru?
In the long run, what sort of things do you want to see from Sonaru in terms of fuuinjutsu?
Also for those of you asking for some Subaru Lee wonder duo interaction. Don't you worry ;) itsa coming at some point.