Pantsu sits back on his butt when the unsealing is finished. The seal turning into a bird and flying away was a pretty legit thing to go down. But the thing that really gets Pantsu is how that Umino kid found a way to remove the seal after all. He and Naruto barely helped, except by providing ways to not remove the seal. That horrible thing is gone from the little Hyuuga, and now Pantsu is beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, he might be forgiven. Now that there is a way to remove the caged bird seal, perhaps Pantsu could be forgiven for making a way for it to be invented in the first place. And perhaps, just perhaps, it is about time Pantsu lifted the partial ban on members of the Order of Steve learning fuuinjutsu. Currently only those who already know it when they join are allowed to learn fuuinjutsu, and the Leader (Pantsu). Burifu is learning fuuinjutsu because she will be the leader when he dies.
But that is enough thinking. Thinking is for people who care about stuff. Stuff like books and not-cool learning and scholarly things, anyways.
Pantsu takes a deep puff on his pipe and watches as Neji opens his eyes.
"Is it over?" Neji asks, covering his beautifully clean forehead with his hand.
"Yes," says Naruto, and pulling a mirror out of a storage seal, hands it to Neji with a grin.
With an excited expression on his face, Neji takes the small mirror and looks into it. "It's gone!" he laughs. But he sounds nervous, as if he doesn't quite believe the seal is gone, or like he is afraid of something worse.
"Yep," says Naruto, pointing at the bird the Caged Bird Seal turned into. "It turned into a bird and flew away. That's it over there."
Neji looks up at the eagle and says, "I hope that bird is happy." Then he turns to Pantsu. "Grandfather," he asks. "Will you put the Hidden Bird Seal on me?"
And in that beautiful moment before the rest of the Leaf dudes start freaking out, Pantsu feels like a choir is singing around him. (Of course, that could be a side effect of the burning plants he is smoking.)
"Wait!" Naruto shouts, pointing at Neji. "Wasn't the whole point of taking the Caged Bird Seal off you so that you wouldn't have a seal anymore? Why do you want the Hidden Bird Seal, 'tebayo?"
"Neji, have you given this enough thought?" asks Iruka, a serious frown on his scarred face.
Arashi just stands there making unintelligible noises, a flabbergasted expression on his face.
Noticing that Shisui has not said anything, Pantsu puffs on his pipe and asks, "What are you thinking, Shisui mah dude?"
"I'm thinking that I want the Hidden Bird Seal too," says Shisui.
Pantsu drops his pipe.
"WHY?!" yells Naruto.
"Explain." Iruka frowns and crosses his arms.
"Ever since I made a name for myself as Shisui of the Shunshin I've been a target," says Shisui. "But enemies don't just want to kill me: they want my sharingan. And it's not just enemies, either. There are people in the Hidden Leaf who would take my eyes for power if they could. If someone got their hands on my eyes, they would have access to a tremendous amount of power. I want to keep that power out of the wrong hands, but I am afraid that someday I will meet someone who can defeat me and take my eyes. When that day comes, I would like to be able to look that person in the eye and tell them they will never get my eyes because my eyes will be destroyed when I die."
"I feel the same way," says Neji. "Part of the reason for me getting the Caged Bird Seal was so that enemies would not be able to take my eyes. That part of the seal never bothered me. In fact, I think it is a good idea to have a seal that will destroy my eyes when I die."
Pantsu has a brief flashback to when the Uchiha clan asked Pantsu to create the seal in the first place. Word-for-word, they said what Shisui said.
"Pantsu," says Iruka. "What do you think about this?"
"These two dudes get it," says Pantsu, picking up his pipe. "I invented the seal to destroy kekkei genkai: not just doujutsu. Even if your eyes were removed, if ya had the seal, dude, they would turn to ash as soon as you died."
"Please, give me the Hidden Bird Seal," says Shisui, walking over and kneeling down beside Neji.
Pantsu looks at the two young whippersnappers kneeling in front of him and feels unreasonably touched. "Very well," he says. "If the two of you are sure?"
"I am," says Shisui.
"I am am too," says Neji.
Pantsu takes a brush in each hand and draws the Hidden Bird Seal on each kid's forehead. "Fuuin: Hidden Bird Seal!" the two identical seals shine for a moment before vanishing. "There," he says. "It's done. The seal is invisible unless you mold, gather or use chakra."
"Thank you, Grandfather," says Neji.
"Yeah, thanks Gramps," grins Shisui.
Shisui and Neji turn to face each other and start gathering chakra. The seals appear on their foreheads in the same inc black Pantsu drew them in.
"Hey, it is the same as the Caged Bird seal," says Neji in surprise. "Except that there is a swirl instead of an X in the middle!"
"So, um, now that you've finished with the Caged Bird seal are you going back to the Order of Steve, Gramps?" asks Shisui.
"Nah, dude," says Pantsu. "I'm here for the adventure too, you know."
"Is that it?" says Iruka, looking confused. "That seems awfully simple for something created by an Uzumaki."
"Eh, well," says Pantsu. "I needed to make it simple for the Uchiha brains to understand. They aren't so great at fuuinjutsu. They prefer their swords and genjutsus."
"I can confirm," says Shisui, grinning.
"Great," says Arashi, turning and heading back to the temple. "Now I can get my research finished. Come on everyone! Let's study some history! And cat pictures!"
"I'm going to write a letter to Gaara!" says Naruto. "I'll help when I'm done. Then we can go and visit Inari!" He pulls out a pen and writing paper, and sits down on the steps to write his letter. Sparky flies down from the roof of the Temple to sit on Naruto's shoulder.
Gaara is brushing his teeth ready to stay up all night when a messenger bird flies through the bathroom window. It is no ordinary messenger bird, either: it is entirely made of fuuinjutsu. Gaara puts down his toothbrush and takes the letter the messenger bird is carrying. The bird flies away, presumably to return to its owner.
"I've never gotten a letter before," Gaara says, staring at the orange envelope in his hands. Gaara is not sure what to do with it. Maybe he should just read it. The envelope is addressed "TO GAARA. IN THE HIDDEN SAND." Gaara turns the envelope over and sees "(From Naruto)" written in the top left corner. "It's from Naruto!" Gaara grins, happy that his friend wrote him a letter.
Gaara sits down on the bathroom floor and tears open the envelope. He pulls out his letter and unfolds it, his heart hammering at his chest.
"Dere Gaara," he reads. "It's Naruto here. I just had a nice long chat with Mr. Nine Tails and lerned lots of things from him. Firstly, his name is Kurama, and he's Shukaku's brother. They are from a big famly. They're the Sage of Six Paths's kidz and so are the other tailed beasts. Kurama told me lots of things and I'll tell you about them next time we see eech utha. But rite now i'll tell you all about Shukaku. He likes making sand casles and he is a winy little wimp. Shukaku hates sleeping because he got nite mares when he was a babie. May be he wood sleep if you read him a bed time story or sing him a lullaby. That's what my Grandma does when I can't sleep. And also gives me cuddles. Shukaku likes cuddles (that's what Mr. Kurama says). Maybe Shukaku just needs a cuddle.
XXOO Naruto.
PS: Kurama says it's XOXO, but whatever. It still mean hugs and stuff.
PPS: Kurama says hi to you and Shukaku.
PPPS: Neji says hi too.
PPPPS: I'm sending this letter with Iruka-niisan's messanger-bird-seal-thing, cause Sparky keeps trying to fly off some where, so I can't send him with it."
Gaara laughs. Naruto's spelling is terrible, and so are his grammar and punctuation.
"None of that's true!" wines Shukaku. "I don't get nightmares, and I'm not a wimp! Don't listen to them!"
"Well then prove it," says Gaara. "Let's both sleep tonight, and if you wake me up because you have nightmares, then I'll know that Kurama was telling the truth."
"Fine," says Shukaku. "You've got a deal."
"Now," says Gaara, getting up off the bathroom floor. "I need to rinse the toothpaste out of my mouth." Gaara does so, puts away his toothbrush and heads off to find a story book. When he has found one, all about an ugly duckling, Gaara goes looking for his Dad.
Gaara finds his Dad sitting in the dining room talking to Baki about something or other. "What do you want Gaara?" asks Gaara's Dad when he sees Gaara.
Gaara holds out the story book and says, "Will you read Shukaku and me a bedtime story? We can't go to sleep without one."
An expression of horror crosses Gaara's Dad's face. "Are you crazy? You shouldn't be sleeping!"
Gaara is sad. He turns to Baki sensei. "Sensei, will you read us a story?"
"No, Gaara," says Baki, shaking his head sadly. "We can't risk you sleeping."
"Oh," says Gaara, and leaves sadly. He wanders in the general direction of his bedroom, which doesn't even have a bed in it because he does not need one.
"Gaara?" Temari sticks her head out of her bedroom. "What's the matter?"
Gaara turns to his big sister hopefully. "Will you read me a story?" he asks, holding up the book. "Shukaku can't sleep without one."
Temari laughs. "Shukaku is the one who can't sleep?"
"He gets nightmares," says Gaara. "That's why he hates sleep. Maybe a bedtime story will help."
"Alright," giggles Temari. "I'll read you and Shukaku a story."
"Can I listen?" says Kankuro, sticking his head out of his bedroom.
Rasa is concerned about Gaara's request for a story, and decides to go and talk some sense into the boy. As he passes Temari's room, Rasa sees the door is wide open and glances inside. Temari is sitting on the edge of her bed with Kankuro sitting beside her and Gaara tucked up all snugly in Temari's bed. Temari herself is reading the story book Gaara wanted Rasa to read to him. Both boys are listening with rapt attention. Rasa sighs and heads back to the dining room to tell Baki to prepare for possible combat with Shukaku.
Gaara wakes up in the middle of the night with the feeling something is wrong. He is still tucked up with Temari in his sister's bed. Gaara closes his eyes and goes into his seal. "Shukaku?" he says, tip toeing up to the bijuu.
"Kurama is right," says Shukaku, shaking as he looks down at Gaara. "I do get nightmares."
Gaara creeps up to Shukaku and pats his leg. "It will be alright," he says. "Dreams can't hurt you. And I bet you're stronger than anything in your nightmares."
"No I'm not," whines Shukaku. "I have bad dreams about things that really happened! Like Dad leaving…"
Gaara hugs Shukaku's leg. "It's okay, I'm here now. And I have trouble sleeping too, so I understand."
Shukaku curls up around Gaara and closes his eyes. Gaara lays his head on Shukaku's fur and starts to sing a lullaby. "Natsuhiboshi, why are you so red? Because I had a sad dream last night…"