Welcome one and all to chapter 13! *Confetti* That's right, it's Sasuke Retrieval Arc time. What will Raccoon/Miyako do?
Thanks again to all my reviewers, followers, favoriters and readers in general, I lurv you so much.
I keep meaning to not make these long, and then I look up and have like 8,000 words and am only halfway done and I just *insert upside down smiley emoji*
Thoughts are in italics
Memories/flashbacks are in bold italics
Bold if not for emphasis, is for my beginning/endnotes.
Disclaimer: Turns out Kishimoto is making lots of money on Naruto so he won't just sell it to me. So, bummer, he still owns it.
Miyako Maki
"Konoha has requested our assistance in retrieving Uchiha Sasuke."
Raccoon's position didn't fluctuate, though it took a lot of self-control, her stance still rigid as she awaited further instructions from the Council.
"It seems he has decided to defect to Orochimaru." Himura sneered.
"Your mission is simple, you will collect any information about the Sound you can for Suna's use, including covertly locating Uchiha Sasuke and assessing his strength in case of failure of retrieval." Goro grunted. "We need as much information on him in case he becomes an…issue in the future."
"Be a dear and watch that Gaara-san doesn't kill the Uchiha either, they have history if I'm not mistaken?" Asuka looked to other wary nods around the table for confirmation.
"Most importantly, keep an eye out for Maki Miyako." Baki demanded, fists clenched on the table. "She is still suspected of being in league with Orochimaru, so if you see her you are given full reign to use whatever means necessary to bring her in." Raccoon barely suppressed a shudder at the locking of Baki's jaw and only gave a stiff nod in response.
"This is a covert intelligence gathering operation as well as a way for you to further assess Gaara-san's combat skills overall, do you understand the tasks you've been given?"
"Yes." She dipped her head once.
"Very well, meet with the siblings at the entrance and do not under any circumstances divulge your mission parameters to them." Raccoon bowed once in acknowledgement before disappearing in a puff.
G/M
For the first half and hour into the group sprinting across the sand it was quiet, everyone caught up in a pensive silence as they digested the details of the mission.
Raccoon supposed that for the siblings, even after not having any positive interactions with Sasuke, this came as a shock. She could feel the tangling of confusion and frustration and doubt in Gaara's mind as he tried to make sense of it. While she couldn't read Gaara's mind, the furrowing of his forehead gave away that Sasuke defecting from Konoha didn't add up to him, especially after experiencing the "Naruto Effect" as she called it. With what Gaara had learned about from Naruto on strength, he must be thinking that Sasuke was some sort of fool for abandoning that sort of bond—after all if the blond could break through to Gaara, who had been in a deeper pit than even Sasuke, than shouldn't that mean Sasuke could be saved as well?
Raccoon may be biased against Uchiha, and rightfully so, but Sasuke seemed like a stereotypical one to her. The Uchiha thrived off of trauma, hell their doujutsu matured because of it, and Sasuke was on the hunt for it. Happiness, community and love were not sources of strength for Uchiha. When you build your foundation on power and greed you create monsters, monsters who couldn't operate on anything else.
Raccoon held back a sigh as red and black danced in her vision. Sasuke was doomed from the start, and he wouldn't allow himself to move past the traumatized child—because the moment he did he wouldn't have a purpose any longer, so he steeped himself in it instead and used it as an excuse for poor decision making.
Raccoon couldn't help but think of the Council's worries as she looked at Gaara's back. He'd been making fantastic progress throughout the last 3 months, but it was too soon to celebrate. Years of abuse and neglect took years of recovery, and having the new principles he was just introduced to shaken like this didn't help. She would have to do the best she could to show him that he Naruto's beliefs weren't the flaw in the equation, but Sasuke was. She would have to remind him that while he'd at first found commonality with Sasuke, Naruto was who shared his experiences most closely.
She was ripped out of a further spiral of thoughts by Kankuro's attempt to diffuse the tension.
"So…why exactly are you tagging along Raccoon?" He didn't sound as pointed as he would've months ago if he'd asked the same question, and his voice was lilting, leading Raccoon to believe that he was teasing.
"Kankuro-san you are well aware of why I'm, as you call it, "tagging along"." She snorted. Temari turned her head back to survey the ANBU, a clear look of challenge on her face.
"The Council definitely gave you another mission." Temari countered, though she too sounded good-natured. Raccoon popped an eyebrow up behind her mask at their blatant attempt to change the mood despite the situation they were running towards.
She only gave a tilt of her head in answer, to which Kankuro snorted. "I bet we can guess can't we Tem? Since you don't want to implicate yourself."
Raccoon let out a tinkling laugh at Kankuro's attempt to gamify her covert operation. She really didn't have a problem telling them, Council be damned, but she was well aware that Baki's request in particular might be a…touchy subject for them.
"Hmmmm, since Sasuke is running off with Sound, this must have something to do with Orochimaru." He shot the ANBU a sidelong glance that she didn't so much as acknowledge.
"Let's see…"Kankuro made a show of tapping his finger on his chin in his musings, so much so that even Gaara was looking back to give him a 'get on with it' look.
"Ah, it couldn't be that you're mission is to investigate Sound and say…Maki Miyako?"
Raccoon angled her head to Gaara, who had scoffed audibly and sent his brother a reproachful look. Temari sighed to the right of Raccoon, mumbling something under her breath about Kankuro being tactless.
Raccoon wasn't stupid, she knew that the siblings were being very careful with her as far as trust. After all, they'd unwittingly let her last alias in, only for her to disappear without a trace. It didn't help that she left behind some very loose ends that she couldn't really clean up without telling the whole truth. Despite this, Gaara seemed to be more willing to connect with Raccoon than the others, and she couldn't tell if it was because he was taking Naruto's lesson to heart and wanted to open up avenues of friendship with potential comrades, or because he just knew, without really knowing, that she meant him no harm because of who she was.
Not wanting to give anything away, and yet not wanting to pass this chance up, Raccoon played along with Kankuro's game, directing her mask towards the still smirking puppet master.
"Miyako?" She echoed curiously, innocently, though Kankuro's snort was telling her he didn't buy it for a second.
"Surely you must know, Raccoon?" Temari said from her other side, sounding just as skeptical.
"I know of Maki Miyako, but only what I've heard from others." She relented, hand waving dismissively. "But you knew her personally, and she's an enemy of the Sand after all, so you have more insight in case I ever would run into her."
Kankuro gave a bark of laughter. "Raccoon is good, probing us for information on a mission she won't confirm. I feel like I should be taking notes."
Raccoon indulged him, facing her mask to his grinning face. "You couldn't see it, but I stuck my tongue out at you." She answered impishly.
Raccoon could still hear over Kankuro raucous laughter as Gaara answered her previous question, flatly. "There's no need to know something like that."
Temari jerked her head up to look at Gaara now, mouth set in a hard line. "Gaara…" She started, but the boy cut her off.
"There's no concrete evidence to suggest Miyako was working for Orochimaru. I'm not fond of questioning the Council, but if they've sent you here to investigate Miyako they're wasting their time." Gaara stated firmly, shooting the ANBU a quick unimpressed look before re-focusing back on the path ahead.
Temari scoffed from beside her while Kankuro grumbled softly to himself. He then took a breath and called after his brother. "Oi, don't be giving Raccoon ammunition to take to the Council."
Gaara didn't deign his brother with a response and Kankuro turned back to regard Raccoon. "What he means to say is that we don't entirely know what happened, so we can't say for sure if she was working for Orochimaru, but she's still a rouge—" he emphasized to Gaara's back, "so there's merit in discussing her skills."
Temari took over from here, describing Miyako as a lightning user and a skilled spy. Raccoon was slightly pleased at the begrudging admiration the girl seemed to have for her previous tactics, and heavily emphasizing her ability to charm people. Raccoon wanted to snicker so badly, it was hilarious to her that the Council was not only asking her to track herself, but that the siblings were now having to describe her to herself.
Gaara was now filled with mild irritation at the turn of events. Though it was great that he was no longer questioning his newly found morals, Raccoon also didn't want him in a bad mood with his siblings before going into a possible fight.
"Well, if she's as smart as you claim she is, I highly doubt she'll show her face here when she knows both Suna and Konoha are after her, so there shouldn't be anything to worry about." Raccoon dismissed, ensuring her eyes didn't stray too long on Gaara before distracting the siblings with some other form of conversation.
They only stopped once when it got too dark to travel any longer. According to the reports, Sasuke and 4 unknown assailants were heading to the border of Fire Country that would lead them to the Sound Village. She and the siblings had made good time considering how long this journey usually took, as they made camp betwixt trees, but they were obviously exhausted, the short breaks between running not enough to keep sleep at bay. Well, for everyone except Gaara.
Temari and Kankuro had fallen into a restless sleep, and after some quiet bickering, Raccoon had agreed to sleep as well for a few hours. She was in rare form though, waking up only 4 hours later and still feeling refreshed despite every factor against her. It must be the proximity, being so close to Gaara in months was giving her a slight boost—like a shot of espresso to her veins.
She leaned against Gaara's chosen tree to perch on after packing away her things. She really wanted to speak to him, but she wasn't sure if she should breach into such…potentially intimate territory yet. After all, they weren't friends per se, she was around to essentially spy on him for the Council who sought to ruin him. If she were him she wouldn't trust her with her feelings or secrets either. But at the same time, she hoped that he understood that she wasn't a blind follower of their ideas. Maybe she should just say so? Would that work?
Clearly she was thinking too hard, because Gaara's voice floated down to her like a cloud. "It's fine Raccoon."
She started slightly, but hopped up lightly onto his occupied branch, swinging herself to sit carefully so she wouldn't disturb his meditation. Words were sitting heavy on her tongue, but she didn't know how to form them when the sky was slowly lightening around them, casting a bluish tint to everything and making Gaara look oddly serene and…well he was always attractive to her, so what was really new?
"I wanted to kill Uchiha Sasuke at one point." His voice seemed also disembodied, those words not fitting at all with the picture of calm he was presenting.
"I've heard." She whispered.
"Right." He grunted, but he didn't sound angry, just resigned.
"Then I met Uzumaki Naruto." Gaara opened his eyes slowly, but still never looked at her. 'I wonder if he thinks not looking at me will convince him he's talking to someone else? Someone he can trust?' Hurt understanding fluttered in her chest.
"He's Uchiha's teammate. His…friend too I suppose." He smiled sardonically at the admission. "And yet…he has chosen to run away." His forehead furrowed and he finally turned to study Raccoon, just as the sun made a faint line on the horizon.
They didn't say anything for a moment; Gaara trapped in thought, Raccoon choked up on how even the elements were against her as they caressed Gaara's skin in light as if to say "good morning".
She cleared her throat, unsure if she should even say anything at all, but this felt like too important of a moment to leave to chance, so she took advantage of it like she did all others.
"Sometimes, even when people have the best support systems, they still have to experience the worst for them to understand they had the best." The words felt truer than she'd planned, Gaara apparently agreeing if his widened eyes were speaking for him.
"Oi."
The duo whipped their eyes down to the sly looking Kankuro and suspicious Temari, all packed up and poignantly waiting.
Gaara cleared his throat, a passing "thanks" flowing through her ears as he launched himself to the next tree branch. Raccoon waited until the siblings had passed her, not without their lingering looks of question before bringing up the rear, willing her heart to shut up for two seconds.
G/M
The sun was high in the sky by the time they found the first Leaf Shinobi in need of assistance. Raccoon nearly faltered in her steps as she felt the faint scrape of claws and fangs in her head.
'Kiba?' She vaguely heard Kankuro mutter that he would take care of the Dog Nin's enemy, only giving a vague hum in return when he barbed her about her mission once again, too caught up in her thoughts to really offer much else.
'Why would they send genin after Sasuke if he was taken by personal attendants of Orochimaru?' Raccoon was miffed at how little information the Council had given her, but her mission wasn't technically to aid the Leaf Shinobi anyway, so they probably hadn't seen any point in telling her the ranks and names of the shinobi sent after Sasuke.
'If Kiba is here than that means Naruto has to be as well.' There was no way that Naruto would've let Kiba go after Sasuke and not himself as well. She darted her eyes to Gaara at her now right, wondering if he would be reunited so soon with Naruto, and if he would get the chance to aid him in capturing Sasuke. It would depend on the situation on the "battlefield" so to speak.
A sudden wave of panicky fatigue washed over her, it took a moment for her to recognize Shikamaru, but coincidentally it didn't take Temari any at all. Temari smirked to herself and turned to regard Raccoon and Gaara.
"I'll take this one, I have to show the Shadow user up after what happened at the Chuunin Exams after all."
Raccoon barely held back a snort, even though Temari technically won, she was still holding a grudge against the lazy boy for outwitting her. Raccoon murmured that she would see Temari at the gates of Konoha as she took off in Shikamaru's direction.
And then there were two.
Gaara's forehead was furrowed yet again as he scanned ahead, Raccoon at first wasn't sure if they were going to find anyone else. At this point they were closing the distance to the border rapidly, and if Sasuke had managed at that point to get out of the country they were no longer allowed to pursue him. If the genin were taking on the pursuers one by one, then they were missing two people, and while Raccoon didn't know who had gone after Sasuke, teams were usually manned by at least 4 people, so where were the other two?
It was only when warmth crackled in her body that she was suddenly at attention again, and she and Gaara, as if of one mind sped up in sheer disbelief.
They came to a grassy clearing lush with the greenest grass Raccoon had the pleasure to witness, and against that lighter green stood the stark wavering brighter green spandex of Rock Lee. Rock Lee, who just months ago was in the hospital with the diagnosis that he may never be able to fight again because Gaara had nearly ground his bones to dust.
"He's…moving."
She skipped her eyes over to Gaara, who was blinking rapidly in shock. She could also sense a bit of relief flooding through him as he tracked Lee's battle with his eyes, with a sprinkle of guilt on top. Raccoon herself was shaken with it, but her happiness was palpable, so much so that she had to swallow several times past the lump in her throat to be able to speak.
"I assume you've got this?" She murmured, cracking her neck and rolling her shoulders of the sudden tension she felt.
"Yeah." He shot her a brief look, it was measured as if he was trying to find the right words to say, but in the end he shook his head and disappeared in a swirl of sand. Although Raccoon was curious, and hard pressed to leave Gaara and Lee alone to fight—she roved her eyes over the half shirtless man with, are those bones protruding from his body?—she could feel Naruto's aura perfuming the air and rolling through her body.
She reappeared on the other side of the clearing to the tree line, nearly being smacked in the face by an overwhelming barrage of emotions. His aura licked at her cheeks with petals while tearing through the rest of her body with the prickle of thorns. She could taste roses on her tongue as it clogged up her windpipe and every blink was a fight between the darkening forest around her and a field of red blossoms being pelted on by the rain and back dropped by the roar of thunder and streaks of lightning.
'Distraught. Betrayal. Anger.' It was like attempting to walk through walls as she fought through the heavy cloak of his aura pressing on her every nerve ending.
Somehow she made it to the light, the other side spitting her out into a wide bank for a massive waterfall bordered by the statues of what looked to be Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara. She took several paces back when she saw that Naruto and Sasuke were clearly in the middle of a fight, both stood on logs in the middle of the wide lake.
It was too far away to see, but Raccoon could tell that they had been fighting long enough to give each other sustainable damage. Sasuke had also been able to rile Naruto up enough to have his whiskers darkened and his eyes red—the Kyuubi was obviously out to play.
With Naruto's aura still pumping like a heartbeat through her, it was hard to even discern Sasuke's, but she could detect it, faintly—his small flame being stroked by frigid darkness.
She vaguely wondered if she should interfere as she watched them exchange blows, scaling the sides of the rock structures, when Naruto fell into the river, when he rocketed out with nearly hundreds of shadow clones. But with the increasing pressure of his frustration and pure desperation choking her, she knew she couldn't offer any sort of assistance at this level, disregarding the fact that she didn't want to do Sasuke any favors.
Sasuke slammed Naruto into the concrete platform of the Hashirama statue, momentarily cutting off his influence enough for Raccoon to breathe, and for her to whip her head up to the east, eyes narrowing.
'Someone else is here?' It didn't feel like Orochimaru, in fact it didn't feel familiar at all, a cross between the tang of blood and fragrant soil that was gone as quickly as it came. She couldn't pinpoint it again, almost as if they were never there at all, but she swore—
Silently she screamed as her body seized at the sudden influx of chakra from Naruto, her eyes barely able to hazily make out the bubbling orange enveloping Naruto now.
'Go, go we need to go.'
First she had to crawl as Naruto's anguish was still fresh and ringing in her skull, only when she was far enough out of his radius could she stand enough to trudge back the way she came.
Getting back to the green clearing was like taking a breath of fresh air in comparison. Raccoon was left gasping and gulping for air at the tree line as she tried to digest what just occurred. Now in a tree branch, she was just far enough away for Gaara and Lee not to sense her, but she could faintly make out what was happening.
Naruto's emotions were still coating every sense she had, but Gaara's calm was slowly permeating and steadying her heart. It helped that he was winning currently, Lee's little crackles of joy tickling her into relaxing slightly as a pit of sand swallowed the man up.
She huffed, trying to get her energy to wind down from ratcheted high Naruto's negative emotions had put her on, while also trying to beat back lethargy from how much calmer and chakra exhausted Gaara was. She still had to pay attention to this battle, just because Gaara clearly had an advantage didn't mean that Orochimaru's men wouldn't pull something out of their sleeve.
Raccoon held back another groan as she forced herself up, sure that movement would help her in waking herself up more. She had only managed to hop halfway around the perimeter of the forest, now with a full side view of the battle and slightly closer, when bones rapidly erupted from the earth.
She choked back a shriek, primarily because Gaara had lifted he and Lee onto a sand cloud above the bone spikes, but she could still feel a wiggling from underneath the burial site.
She scrambled up onto a branch directly behind Gaara and Lee, her limbs clumsy and heavy from moving too fast, but her mind already searching for the enemy. He had the same film of cold over him like a blanket—an ironic blanket—but underneath was a hollow echoing, cavernous and empty, like without Orochimaru's influence he would be empty.
Since she wasn't connected to others like she was connected to Gaara, it took a little more work to be able to dive into their auras, and to subsequently understand their physical condition. If Jinchuriki felt like they were screaming to Raccoon, than reading "normal" people was like trying to eavesdrop on a conversation spoken at normal level halfway across the room.
Still she picked up on the uneven heartbeats, the deterioration and the rapid sickness. Raccoon couldn't quite tell what was wrong with him, but to say she cared was an understatement—taking on Gaara without a pre-existing disease was a suicide mission, and he'd clearly chosen to speed up his death with all the movement he'd done. Raccoon, in some cases was putting him out of his misery as she probed his body with magic, the image of golden scissors snipping away at Chakra strings, at random because she didn't have time to probe deeper to get a clear look and maintaining this level of concentration and magic at a microscopic level was hard enough.
Still the man was a fighter, Raccoon fought a low growl in her throat as he inched his way out of the Sand prison, not needing to see him to know he was aiming a killing blow at Gaara. His surge of panic pushed her into snipping faster, but he seemed bound and determined to outlast her despite his heart slowly rapidly towards death.
Lee's shout had her chewing her lip in half, Gaara was similiarly shaken, but Raccoon was trembling with relief when finally she could hear nothing more inside their adversary's body.
'It would be,' she sagged into the tree trunk, 'the last chord I guessed.' She blearily opened one eye, the image of a bone drill inches away from Gaara's face imprinting itself into her memory. As much as she would've liked to launch her self out of the trees to comfort her shaken master, it was best not to let him know that she was there at all, she wouldn't want him to have the impression that the Council's mission for her was to spy on him, or give away that she was meant to spy on Sasuke. Plus it wouldn't do for anyone to know that she actually had seen the battle between Naruto and Sasuke and have them asking why she didn't step in to help, not like she thought Gaara would go around accusing of her of such or even tell anyone else, but better safe than sorry.
She jumped down on shaky legs to the forest floor and started trekking back to the Leaf village, wondering what it would look like after months. Had they adequately repaired? She had vaguely heard that they had a new Hokage, and a woman at that, but nothing outside of those facts. It couldn't have been someone she knew, so she was interested to see what this Kage was like.
She was able to pick up the pace after catching her breath. Gaara was totally depleted so she wasn't too worried about he and Lee getting back to the village, and when she passed by Temari and Kankuro's battles, it seems that they had finished with minimal to no damage—as per usual Gaara had gotten stuck with the harder opponent, but Raccoon had to shrug, he could handle them after all.
She hoped Naruto would be okay, and bit her lip in hesitance, frequently finding herself looking back to the way she'd came and wondering if she should go back and at the very least make sure he was still alive. She'd paused too long on a tree branch in thought and almost missed the familiar feeling of melancholic death knolls—'Kakashi'.
She relaxed slightly and continued on her way, sure that Kakashi was more fit to help his students than she was right now. And anyway how was she, a now Suna ANBU, supposed to explain why she'd picked Naruto up when she reported back to the Council when she was explicitly told not to interfere? 'Oh, well I couldn't stand how heart-wrenching he looked so I decided to help out?'
Still despite having these thoughts, she paused to assess the small hole in a tree when she was halfway to the Leaf Village. Upon noticing there were several of these holes, she followed them to an oddly beautiful sight in its morbidity.
Neji was definitely close to dying, his curse mark bared to the world as the sun shone down on him like a beacon, dead spider carcasses littered around him, webs slung over several tree branches and a nasty hole that just barely missed his heart. Raccoon definitely couldn't do Medical Ninjutsu, but she also couldn't justify leaving Neji there potentially to die, who knew when Konoha would send out a team to come get him?
She groaned, hand lighting up purple as she approached his body.
G/M
The guards were totally right to be suspicious when a foreign ANBU came stumbling under the weight of two bodies up to the gate, but their suspicion was quickly quelled when that same ANBU groaned for some help.
"Don't maim me before taking them to the hospital." She grumbled, combing some of Neji's hair out of his face so they could identify him. She didn't even have to show them Choji before they were rapidly approaching, taking one kid each from her.
Now that she wasn't struggling under carrying two growing boys, she could identify these two as the Chuunin that had pranked genin at the last Chuunin exams. She hadn't seen them so serious in her life as the one with bandages over his face took off with Neji and the other barked at her to follow him, yelling at the top of his lungs to the wall for someone to watch the gate.
"What happened?" The brown-haired man threw over his shoulder as they raced through the streets.
"I don't know." Raccoon answered. "I found these two in critical states on my way back to Konoha to meet the Sand team called in to assist you in retrieving Sasuke Uchiha." He grunted and shifted the much slimmer Choji in his arms.
In no time they arrived to Konoha Hospital, with the bandaged man already inside, sans Neji but hassling the staff to hurry and stabilize the genin while he retrieved the Hokage. Raccoon breathed a sigh of relief as the spell she had over Neji snapped, it only doing enough good to keep him from getting any worse while she moved him. Once Choji was out of sight she also released his stabilization spell, fighting back a wave of exhaustion, but glad she'd at least done something.
The headaches of wondering if they would detect anything amiss in either boy's body would remain to be seen, as well as how she was going to explain this to the Council, were for another time. For now she needed to recharge, somehow.
G/M
After ambling around the village, to many stares, and re-discovering all of places she managed to frequent in only a month, she ambled into a tea shop. She half-expected the shop owner to kick her out with the way he was eyeing her up and down, but he'd only grumbled a hello and that was the only invitation Raccoon was going to receive. She picked a table in a corner and when the grumbly man came to take her order, so softly asked for some green tea and dango that he…begrudgingly went off to get? Who knows or has time to dissect the moods of villagers honestly.
Eating with a porcelain mask in a crowded place was difficult. Even though she could take it off and not worry about getting caught, since she still had her additional disguise underneath, ANBU were not encouraged to just take their masks off in public. It defeated the purpose of…you know anonymity.
ANBU also didn't just eat in random establishments in uniform either, but she also couldn't just take it off because who knew when the siblings would be back…
She had to create a little crack at the bottom of her mask where her mouth was and eat quickly before slipping it back down. She wasn't about to scarf down her food like an animal, but it was tempting what with all the eyes laser-focused on her.
'I wonder if this is what Kakashi feels like?'
Almost as if she had summoned him, Kakashi appeared trailed by, lo and behold, her former jounin friends, sans Gai. Somehow they zeroed in on her and without thinking she looked down at herself to figure out what was so noticeable about her?
'Dummy, of course Konoha Jounin would immediately zero right in on you in an ANBU uniform.'
She resisted the urge to look back up as Kakashi loomed over her, instead calmly taking her tea and sipping through the straw she was provided with noisily.
"Maa, maa, you don't see an ANBU milling around another's village every day. Are you lost?" It didn't escape her that Kakashi wasn't asking out of cordial concern.
Raccoon whipped out her passport with her free hand, making Kakashi flinch and twitch at the abrupt motion, but relax minutely upon noticing it wasn't a weapon.
She smacked her lips beneath the mask. "I was sent here on orders of the Suna Jounin Council with the Sand team." She lowered her arm when Kakashi seemed to be more intrigued than hostile at her explanation, taking a seat across from her with the others as she languidly sipped on her tea.
'Kakashi is either a fast runner, or everyone must be back by now.'
"It's strange for Sand to send an ANBU to the aid of a foreign nation, even if we are allies." Asuma mused around an unlit cigarette.
When they all looked at her expectantly she sighed and removed the straw from under her mask.
"It's not so much for you as it is for the Sand team." She explained vaguely. She hummed around in thought for a moment, but decided to hell with it, maybe a small group of people knowing would garner more support for Gaara? "Gaara-san has become an…asset that requires more attention." There, that should be vague enough to excuse that she had told anyone at all, but poignant enough for genius' like Kakashi to figure out her real meaning fairly quickly.
Judging by his suddenly relaxed posture and the gleam in his one eye, Kakashi had taken merely seconds to understand the real meaning. "But you left him alone?" He inquired.
"I am not a babysitter." She countered lightly, twirling her final stick of dango in the syrup left on the plate. "Nor entirely a guard, just an…assessor?" She shrugged.
"Or…" Asuma started as he played with his lighter, grinning around his cigarette. "The council sent you here for a reason outside of Gaara."
Raccoon brought the dango stick to her lips, and with barely a twitch of her hand, had her mask up and was chewing thoughtfully. The others saw barely a chin from quick glance.
When Raccoon refused to answer Asuma's obvious probe, Kakashi took up the mantle.
"Now, now Asuma, you know ANBU aren't allowed to reveal their missions." He scanned the operative across from him with something akin to mirth, and Raccoon held back a snort.
"But, their also not really supposed to be visiting tea shops in other villages either, so perhaps we can get…?" He trailed off in obvious question.
"Raccoon." She supplied, quickly snatching another of her dango off her stick when the others were beaming in victory.
"Raccoon to give us a hint?" Raccoon could tell Kakashi was smirking underneath his mask when she didn't make any protest, honestly she figured she could indulge her former friends, at least so far.
Kakashi sat back and pretended that he was thinking while Kurenai rolled her eyes at her companion's behavior.
"I've heard that Suna has suspicions that Maki Miyako was working for Orochimaru this whole time." Kurenai cocked an eyebrow coolly at the ANBU. "By sending you they're either confirming the suspicion or investigating it."
Raccoon made a show of not answering by putting the last of the dumplings to her lips and dramatically sliding the stick out the other side and chewing slowly.
"I take it you didn't find her then." Kakashi chuckled, overly amused at this conversation considering it was mostly one-sided.
Just as Raccoon finished her tea, the rest had their own orders brought before them.
"Of course she didn't find her, Kakashi." Asuma snorted. "Even you don't fully believe Miyako is working for Orochimaru."
Raccoon twitched her head to the side, debating on getting up from the table or not. She was interested to hear their…theories, even though they'd all be wrong obviously.
"Asuma, not this again." Kurenai groaned, aggressively biting into one of the dango.
'Ooooh, am I the subject of many a lover's spat?' She darted her eyes between the two, as Asuma rubbed the back of his head and Kurenai shot him annoyed looks out the corner of her eye.
"I'm only saying," he protested loudly over the groans of the only other lady at the table, "that it doesn't make sense! I told you, she came and got me during the Chuunin exams to save Shikamaru from Sound ninja, and then she delivered Shino to me in time to counteract the poison. And let's also not forget, Kakashi," the one eyed man in question sagged in his seat when he was mentioned, "that you said she attacked Kabuto. Would anyone who worked for Orochimaru do any of that?"
"We don't know what endgame she was playing Asuma." Kurenai tsked. "Kabuto apparently helped Kakashi's team pass the second exam, he also willingly gave them information on other teams, Miyako was just playing a similar role on the Sand side of things. They're spies!" She threw her hands up in exasperation, "It's what they're trained to do."
"Sure, but what's the point of endearing herself to us and other Leaf Shinobi if her only objective was to spy on the Sand and she and Kabuto had the same end goal? There would be no reason to attack her comrade or even show up to Kakashi and Gai's fight in the first place if she was trying to maintain cover. She would've stuck with the Sand siblings. What you're saying implies that she was infringing on Kabuto's duty, and that doesn't make any sense strategically."
Kurenai faltered minutely, but she didn't get a chance to argue back when Kakashi interrupted, waving his palm lightheartedly to diffuse the situation. "Enough of that." He sing-songed. "All you're doing is giving Raccoon-chan conflicting information from biased sources. She probably already knows all of this, am I right?"
Raccoon, who had been dutifully listening to the arguments, nodded her head once.
"So, it's best we stop debating the topic. Maybe Miyako was working for Orochimaru and was jealous of Kabuto," Raccoon barely held back a snort of derision at the idea, "maybe she was a lone rouge who wanted something out of Sand. Whatever the case, she's not in custody so Raccoon-chan clearly didn't find her."
Kakashi leaned his elbows on the table, his one eye gauging her reaction expectantly. Raccoon didn't know what Kakashi expected to be able to gauge when she had a mask on, but maybe he was more adept at it because he'd been masked in some form all his life? Whatever the case, she slowly shrugged. "I didn't detect any other enemy presences but the 4 detailed in the mission report and an additional man that fought Gaara."
The others nodded sagely, Kurenai mumbling into her teacup that Miyako was a spy, so if she didn't want to be found it would be hard to find her, even for ANBU. Before the couple could break out into another tiff, because she could see in Asuma's eyes that he wanted to talk this through more—though Raccoon wasn't totally sure as to why—Raccoon gracefully rose and let a wad of bills drop onto the table.
"Well, the Council have remained unanswered this long, and we can't really use any resources to go on a man hunt for one person right now. The mystery remains a mystery."
Raccoon stepped around the bench seat, giving a wave of departure to the awed Jounin—except Kakashi, did nothing phase this man?
Said Jounin's voice paused her in her tracks halfway to the open air entrance.
"Maa Raccoon-chan, you never said if you thought she did it or not."
Raccoon chewed on the idea of defending her name, of dropping a hint or breaking character just once to say what was really on her mind. But really, what would that accomplish but chaos?
"I always reserve judgment until the facts line up." She called over her shoulder, throwing another parting wave to the calls of their goodbyes.
G/M
Raccoon caught the siblings on their way up the Hokage mansion stairs, the fluidity in her movements having returned after a good snack and a little rest as she hopped from the red guide railing to join Gaara's side.
"Where have you been?" Kankuro's inquiry came with a tone that suggested he was smirking in triumph even though she couldn't see him.
"I went to get some dango." She teased, laughing when she heard him falter behind her.
"What?" He sputtered.
"I told you I would beat you here. I've been in the village for at least an hour." She turned to shoot him an invisible grin over her shoulder.
"We weren't sure after you didn't meet us at the gates like you claimed you would." Temari huffed, arms crossed at her right.
Raccoon sighed. "I got a little sidetracked."
At this point they'd reached the top of the stairs and were walking through the halls to reach the Hokage's office.
"Sidetracked?" Temari echoed, and they all looked at her pensively, even Gaara appearing a bit…wary of where she could've been.
Raccoon didn't necessarily have to divulge her actions to the siblings, but she didn't want to go two steps back when she'd had to fight to make this progress even happen in the last few months.
They reached the office before she could explain herself, Temari shooting her a look that promised they would speak about this later, before knocking on the wood.
Upon permission to enter, Raccoon was left blinking as she got an eyeful of…well breasts.
'Hmmm, I wonder how that has gone over in their transition?' Surely the 5th had a lot of oglers. Raccoon herself felt a little ashamed of staring at them as long as she did, but they were just…so there.
'I thought I dressed scandalously though the years.' Well, she did…and has, but that's beside the point. Raccoon wasn't being prejudiced against well-endowed women, but she guessed everything just looked that much more…lascivious when you had a fuller figure. She herself, was average, and could get away with wearing a bikini top without it appearing like she was trying to seduce someone.
'That being said, my body is stuck at 16, so who is to say I wouldn't have bigger breasts?' She guessed she'd never know.
"Tsunade-sama." Raccoon bowed in sync with the siblings.
"Ah, so it's true that you brought along an ANBU." Raccoon eyed the blonde carefully as she leaned back in her seat to study her, eyes narrowed just slightly. Just when the ANBU couldn't stand the attention any longer and made to break it with an explanation, the woman waved her hand dismissively.
"Well, I'll let it go considering she saved two of my shinobi's lives."
Raccoon had to fight not to shrink at the sudden gazes of all 3 siblings zeroed in on her. She straightened her back instead and met the hazel-eyed woman's gaze head on.
"This is slightly unprecedented, but I would like to ask your ANBU to make a report to me as well." She folded her hands in front of her mouth, eyes now questioning.
Raccoon hesitated slightly, darting her eyes to look at the siblings who were just as confused as she was, but undoubtedly just as curious as Tsunade to protest.
So, Raccoon took the regular stiff stance ANBU used in front of seniority and began her report. Though she would have to omit…well the real reason she was out in the field in the first place. She vaguely realized that this probably wasn't what the Council had in mind when they sent her out. Oh well.
"Right." She cleared her throat. "ANBU Captain Raccoon, reporting. I followed the Sand Team into the field in order to complete the ongoing surveillance tasked to me by the Council. When I surmised that the individual skirmishes the siblings each engaged in were over and they were appropriately out of danger, I began heading back to the Leaf village. About halfway there I discovered an injured boy of about 14 with a deep puncture wound inches from the heart." She hesitated only slightly here, wondering if they had detected her magic in Neji's system before the spell had time to completely dissipate. She didn't want to have to reveal that she'd done anything at all, but at the same time she didn't want to be questioned in case they had discovered something or they asked why she'd moved Neji at all and hadn't just ran back to the village to get help.
"I used a jutsu to sustain his injuries enough to move him and proceeded along the trail. I then came across the second injured boy of about 13 and used a similar jutsu before moving him and proceeding back onto the route to the village." She paused when the gazes upon her became too intense, especially Gaara's, but there was too many emotions swirling inside him—as there had been this entire time, though these didn't seem necessarily as bad as before—for her to discern what he was thinking.
"I was met at the gate by the sentinels and they proceeded to take the injured boys from me after properly identifying them. I followed after at one's insistence and explained that I'd found them this way."
Raccoon had barely taken a breath before Tsunade leaned forward, her gaze calculating once again. "And why did you not come forward with my Chuunin to explain yourself like this immediately?"
Raccoon steeled herself from fidgeting. "As you said, this is unprecedented. It wasn't in my parameters to lend aid, yet I did. Just as it isn't in my protocol to report my movements to foreign Kage, and yet I am."
Tsunade untensed and sighed, deflating in her seat. "Well, seeing as how you may have been the reason they're still alive despite it not being your responsibility I won't hold anything against you." Tsunade turned her gaze from the ANBU to the siblings, who immediately snapped their attention from Raccoon to the Hokage.
"Your aid," the woman strayed her eyes to Raccoon as well, including her in the sentiment it seemed, "is the reason my shinobi are alive. While we might have failed in bringing back Sasuke, there were no unnecessary deaths because of you." The woman bowed her head in thanks, prompting Raccoon and siblings to respond in kind.
The siblings each described their adversaries while Raccoon got lost in her thoughts.
'Naruto has to be devastated. He's lost Sasuke.' Raccoon chewed her lip, emotions warring between being glad the Uchiha was gone and cursing him to the high heavens for abandoning Naruto. She wasn't an expert on their relationship, but in the month that Raccoon had gotten to know Naruto, every other word out his mouth had either been Sasuke's name or something to do with Sasuke. It would've been annoying if Raccoon hadn't seen the glimmer in Naruto's eyes when he spoke about him.
'The Sun will always be attracted to the Moon.' But the Sun could also survive on its own, so maybe it was a good thing Sasuke was gone? Maybe not to Naruto obviously, but if all their friendship had done for Sasuke was to give him a reason to viciously battle Naruto into near death only to turn his back on him the next second, was it really worth it?
She knew in some part of her brain that this idea was hypocritical. Naruto and Sasuke were kind of like Gaara and Miyako—you know if Naruto was in love with Sasuke romantically instead of in a familial way. Sasuke and Gaara were both severely damaged individuals who had been victims of the trappings of the shinobi world. They'd both also given into their demons, but the difference was that Gaara had done so because he felt alone and could see no other option. Sasuke had ignored a support system and chosen to take an easy way out.
Naruto and Miyako were also damaged individuals who were deprived of love so long that they were determined to keep whatever relationships they managed to cultivate in their lives by any means necessary. For Miyako it meant manipulating from the shadows, it meant lying, it meant using her unwanted power to provide avenues to her loved one's success. For Naruto it meant words, and when words didn't work it meant fists, but everything he did was unflinching and pure and so so good.
So why had Miyako succeeded and Naruto failed? Because she was older? Because Gaara was just better than Sasuke? In that he wanted the idea of love more? In that he wasn't negatively motivated by his past?
Regardless Naruto was going to be negatively affected by this, she could just feel it, and it wasn't right. Naruto didn't deserve to have his pure love thrust back in his face and spat on. If she ever crossed paths with Sasuke again she'd punch that boy in his face.
And then, what about everyone else? Sakura and Kakashi? The other genin? Kakashi had looked pretty well put together at the Teahouse, but he seemed like the type of man who kept his emotions under control at all times. Maybe he was hurting at home, he'd just lost one of his students—someone that felt too similar to him for Raccoon to think he'd just get over this easily.
She'd definitely have to check on Naruto in the hospital, even if she couldn't necessarily comfort him now.
G/M
Two days later saw Gaara at Naruto's bedside, with the blond waking up to a view of the redhead reading a book on—was that ANBU tactics?
His shuffling alerted Gaara to look up from his reading and blink in curiosity as the other jinchuriki tried, but failed to sit up due to stiffness. The redhead surveyed his…friend's from, covered head to toe in bandages, and grunted for him not to bother in his usual gruff way. Naruto grumbled at his tone, but what he didn't realize was Gaara was desperately trying to beat back a blush of embarrassment after failing once again at proper social cues—he was trying to express concern and it was just coming out as annoyance to everyone else.
"You're still here?" The blond called him out of his musings, blue eyes wide and unblinking.
"Yes, your village is short-staffed on teachers right now so we extended our stay to accommodate." He crossed his arms and observed as the other fidgeted in bed, bandaged hands clenching and unclenching at the threadbare hospital sheets. This was only the second time Gaara had been to a hospital, but he concurred that he didn't really want to frequent it—white sheets, pale walls and constant beeping machines he didn't understand how this could be a place of healing with all of this sterility.
Really he was just distracting himself with the scenery because he didn't exactly know how to go about this…cheering up thing. Naruto frowning in something other than concentration or righteous fury was odd even in the short time span he'd known the blond.
'If Miyako were here she'd know exactly what to say.' He scowled at the intrusive thought and forced himself back into the present before he traveled any further down that lane. But it had soured his mood so quickly that he couldn't stop himself from snapping:
"How long do you plan on moping?"
He snapped his teeth together in what was probably a menacing face, although the motion was to get him to shut up. God that was so bad, should he apologize? But how the fuck did he do that?
"Heh. Good question, I can't sit here forever! I have to go back after Sasuke after all, before he gets too far away." Gaara's eyes flitted across that beaming fake smile Naruto plastered on and he felt himself calming a bit, the other doing wonders in distracting him.
"I'm not…the best when it comes to emotions." He grunted. "But it's okay if you feel…sad." He sealed his lips together again, cursing himself when Naruto's terrible lie of a smile twisted into a dead expression.
"Sad? For what? I don't deserve to be sad that he's gone, I failed. So I just have to-I have to try…" He seemed to hesitate as the words weighed on his tongue, desperately looking to Gaara now for answers he didn't think he had.
'Did I look this way when Yashamaru died?' He furrowed his forehead in thought. 'But Sasuke isn't dead…I think, he just left—just like Miyako—'
Though he cut his thoughts off there, he realized he and Naruto had yet another things connecting them together, even though the situations were complex in their own ways.
He breathed in once, and then sighed out, deciding to take his brother's advice for once—because he really had nothing else to go on—and hope for the best.
"When Miyako left." Naruto sucked in a sharp breath and Gaara visibly winced, remembering that Miyako had been just as close to Naruto. But still, he had started this, so he had to finish.
"When Miyako left it was kind of like losing…my pinky toe." He blinked dully as Naruto choked a little, seeing out of the corner of his eye that the boy couldn't decide between gaping and laughing, though he clearly felt it was inappropriate.
"I can live without a pinky toe." He shrugged. "But it's an adjustment, it feels like I lost something important even if I know I can survive without it. But it's like…" He clenched his teeth. "It's frustrating how long it's taking to adjust: how I'm always thinking of her at the most random times, how I'm randomly mourning the loss like—it's not like Miyako was a hand or a foot for God's sake, it was a month and a half, Naruto." He looked to the rapidly blinking boy with a scowl.
"A month and a half, you've known Sasuke for…for years. It isn't the same and yet I get it okay?" He slammed his book onto the bed, a little voice in the back of his head reminding him that this wasn't about Miyako or Gaara it was about trying to be a good friend and comrade by comforting Naruto, fat lot of good that did him.
"For you it probably feels more like your arm is missing or something. It feels like betrayal, right? Like you were just getting started, just getting somewhere and you don't know what suddenly happened. You feel like you missed something, so now you're going over all the conversations you've ever had leading up to this—you're trying to pinpoint all the ways in which you've failed so you can fix something." Gaara turned blazing eyes onto Naruto and faced him fully, who gulped at the intensity but didn't dare look away.
"But the point is Naruto we can't fix anything!" He seethed. "Sasuke and Miyako, they made their choices. They turned their backs on us. It isn't for us to try and save them when they don't want help."
Floating between them was disrupted motes of dust, swirling just as violently as their conjoined emotions as Gaara's harsh breaths hit it. For a few moments Naruto was frozen and gaping at Gaara, unsure that his…friend was as affected by Miyako's disappearance as he was, but—
'They totally love each other.' He thought with finality. There was no way Gaara would get this worked up over someone, anyone, if he didn't at least care about them. But, fuck, he was harboring some sort of grudge against Miyako and Naruto couldn't have that, even though it wasn't technically any of his business and he didn't know much of what was going on either.
Still. "Miyako visited me after the Third's funeral." He blurted out all at once.
Gaara, who had been clearly lost in his own thoughts, face glazed over with a snarl, snapped his attention back to Naruto with a blank look.
"What?" He choked, and then tried to vainly clear his throat several times to cover it up.
"Miyako…she came by my apartment after the Third Hokage's funeral to…to talk." He eyed the redhead warily, but seeing as all he was going to get was a gape, he kept word vomiting.
"Yeah, she told me some…stuff." He rapidly pulled the memories together, wondering how much he should or shouldn't say.
'I would appreciate it if you didn't tell Gaara I was in love with him.' Oh right, he shouldn't say that part. But ugh, it would help so much in convincing Gaara!
"She said," he started to ramble again, not wanting to lose the boy before him. "She said that she planned the fight between us—but, but not for anything bad! It's because she wanted you to understand what love is, from someone who understands you! Because y'know, we've both got monsters and were lonely and shunned—so, so, she said everything she did up until then was to make sure I could empathize with you, even though we were so different." He paused in his rant, finally, to asses if Gaara had even digested any of this words. When all he got back for a solid minute was a solid unseeing gaze, he started to wring his hands and wondered if he should just say "fuck it" and tell him that Miyako was not only in love with him, but also used to be his childhood friend.
"Temari and Kankuro think she's working with Orochimaru. The whole village thinks that she infiltrated Sand while we were preparing for the Infiltration and killed my father for Orochimaru, before proceeding to spy on us." Gaara breathed, still seeming very numb.
"No! No way!" Naruto exclaimed, mumbling "ow, ow, ow"s under his breath as he struggled to sit up.
"Naruto." Gaara sighed, leaning forward to try and force the boy back down, but Naruto grabbed Gaara's wrist with a fierce look on his face.
"No, you have to listen okay?" He only continued when Gaara nodded. "Miyako hates that guy. She told me so, there's no way she was working with Orochimaru. She killed Sound ninja! And saved some of my friends' lives, that's not something someone who worked for Orochimaru would do!"
Gaara sighed in resignation, having heard all of this before. "Naruto—"
Seeing that he was losing him and determined that one of them came out of this believing in their friend. "No! No, okay? Miyako wasn't working with Orochimaru, you have to believe that! I know it not just because of what she did during the Infiltration but because she lo—" he swallowed the word just barely. "She cares about you. Gaara." He said instead, but real intense. "Gaara." He squeezed the shocked redhead's hand. "She cares about you a lot, she would never put you in danger by working for Orochimaru. You have my word on that dattebayo."
Gaara blinked slowly, letting the words swim in his head. Naruto's hopes imbedding into his consciousness in ways he didn't understand. But, somehow, when he looked like that Gaara couldn't not believe him.
The boy tugged his hand from Naruto with an "okay" breathed between them. It was quiet for a beat, but then Gaara decided he should at least attempt this whole comforting thing again, since Naruto had done so for him.
He cleared his throat. "Sasuke may have chosen to leave you behind, but I believe that if anyone can convince him of what's best for him it's you."
Gaara didn't know if Miyako and Sasuke were really comparable. As he'd said before, Sasuke was Naruto's "friend" for years, they knew each other in ways he never discovered about Miyako. But if Naruto was right, it didn't matter that he hadn't known Miyako for years, because she'd cared about him despite who he is—no was. She'd seen past the murderous intent and understood what he needed, and did her best to give that to him. In a twisted way yes, but still it had worked hadn't it?
He didn't know if Miyako and Sasuke were comparable, but looking at Naruto beam a real smile at him after his encouraging words, he decided they didn't have to be. Sasuke was Naruto's best friend; his brother. Miyako was a missed opportunity, and maybe that was or wasn't his fault, but she still felt like the best friend he'd ever had. So he'd believe in her.
G/M
Teaching at the Academy had been strangely…refreshing? Gaara didn't know how he felt about children, but not…all of them annoyed him.
Temari was clearly much better at it, hell even Kankuro was better at it then him and he despised children. But something about their stern demeanor had the Academy students falling in line. Gaara had just felt…awkward. Still, it was a good experience and he'd learned at least that he couldn't really be an Academy teacher.
Raccoon on the other hand…
The first time the ANBU had appeared in the classroom to escort them back to their temporary lodging—some excuse about her duties not ending just because they weren't on Suna soil—the kids had "ooh"ed and "aww"ed and shot their substitute teachers thousands of questions. Not even Temari and Kankuro's demands that they quiet down could get them to settle as it had proven to otherwise.
Seeing that the siblings were getting frustrated at their lack of control, Raccoon had stepped up to the front of the class, hands clasped, and with her normal gentle lilting voice had asked for "quiet please."
The roar of the classroom ceased as if she'd sucked all the sound out of the room. Temari and Kankuro couldn't school their looks fast enough to keep the awe off their faces.
"Now, what would you like to know? I will answer three questions, and then your teachers and I must retire." At the whines from the class, she clapped her hands and raised her voice a little to be heard over the collective mumbling.
"I'm only going to pick the quietest children who have their hands raised to ask questions." Again the class instantly quieted and shot their hands in the air, bodies vibrating with barely contained energy.
"You are to ask one question when I call on you, nod if you understand." Once confirmed, Raccoon gestured to a boy in the middle row. "You there, in the very middle with a blue and white shirt."
Raccoon then proceeded to answer 3 questions in the calmest most efficient manner. Afterwards she bid the class a polite goodbye, watching as they all filed out and said waved eagerly to their "sand senseis and ANBU-chan."
"I didn't know you were good with kids Raccoon." Kankuro mumbled as they made their way to their lodging on a lesser used street. The ANBU Captain gave a shrug and nothing further, ignoring the obvious looks of intrigue from the siblings.
While the siblings weren't too keen on having the ANBU walk around with them in public like this, thanks to her act of bravery her presence had spread like wildfire in the village, so even if she stuck to rooftops like she normally did in Suna it wouldn't matter because she stuck out like a peacock no matter where they went. As such, the ANBU was garnering much attention which didn't seem to ruffle her, but the siblings couldn't understand seeing as ANBU valued being hidden in plain sight. If they didn't know any better, the girl seemed liked she was preening with the attention.
The next few days were like this, with the siblings discovering more about their ANBU than they ever thought possible, until it was the end of that week and time to return to Sand.
Some paces away Raccoon stood awaiting the siblings, they were currently being sent off by Shikamaru who, despite his cool exterior, was trying to tamp down the admiration in his gut as he stared straight at Temari. Raccoon stifled a giggle behind her mask, Shikamaru's aura feeling the least calm it ever had and the most awake it ever had.
The siblings had turned to leave but Shikamaru had caught Raccoon in the corner of his eye and remembering the rumors of the other Chuunin, called out to her:
"Hey, Raccoon!" The ANBU smoothly turned to regard him, as did the others in curiosity.
The formerly playful air the Chuunin was sporting with Temari was gone, instead to be replaced with serious expression, an expression Raccoon hadn't seen on him since the Chuunin exams.
"You saved Choji and Neji." He wasn't asking for her to verify, but she gave a short nod anyhow. He cracked a small grin. "Thank you." Raccoon tilted her head in acknowledgement but said nothing in response, to which Kankuro took the opportunity to tease her.
"Shikamaru you can't tell, but you're making Raccoon blush with all this praise." The ANBU swatted at Kankuro playfully who sped ahead of the group, Temari trailing after him with another short goodbye.
Gaara gave a single nod before beckoning Raccoon with his eyes, who followed after giving Shikamaru a bow that he returned, she guessed because he was still showing gratitude or because he was just as weirdly respectful as Gaara.
They crossed the Land of Rivers with ease and silence before Kankuro decided to speak up, tone still half-teasing as it was previously but still underlined with barely hidden interest.
"So Raccoon…find what you were looking for?"
Irritation that wasn't her own shot through her body quickly, and before she could diffuse the situation, Gaara piped up with an even voice.
"She wouldn't, Miyako doesn't work for Orochimaru."
The ANBU wanted to jolt at the sudden confidence he displayed. Of course, he had believed this before—which, heartwarming—but now he just sounded like no argument could have him believe otherwise.
Temari opened her mouth to retort, but frankly Raccoon was tired of hearing about herself so much, so she interrupted another fight before it started.
"I didn't see or detect any other presences besides those of the reported minions of Orochimaru. Whether this confirms or denies Maki Miyako is working with Orochimaru is none of our concern at present." She ignored that she basically had given away part of her mission, but really who cared at this point, she was so tired.
"Our most pressing initiative is preparing Gaara-san to take on the Kazekage mantle, is it not?" She prodded, and the siblings nodded in surprise.
"Then we have no time to speculate on Maki Miyako. Let that bridge be crossed should it come."
After that no more was spoken of Miyako, the siblings too busy trying to understand that declaration the ANBU had just unconsciously made.
'Did she just…confirm that she's helping us?'
Unbeknownst to the rest, Gaara was sporting a small smile at the front of the pack.
G/M
Doing "service work" in Konoha had won them brownie points by the time they'd been back in Suna for a week. The Council even agreed to look over Temari's plans for improving their education system to set up something like Konoha's Academy, an idea that had been abandoned when their father had surmised that it wasn't churning out enough "manpower" in their time of need.
Of course, they began with a trial class as a "test". If the siblings could teach a group of similarly aged pre-teens how to wield weapons and be ninja the improvement plan would be considered. Temari and Kankuro had taken on the challenge with as much gusto as they had with teaching the Konoha genin, but it was a lot less…structured than they would've liked and Gaara, who was a key component to this plan considering this could improve morale and public opinion was…well too stiff.
Half an hour before their first session of the day, and 5th day teaching, was supposed to start, the siblings were grasping at straws in an attempt to pep talk their brother out of his funk. Not that anyone else could tell he was in a foul mood outside of the siblings and now Raccoon.
Speaking of the ANBU, she stood some feet away casually surveying the siblings as they coached him on how to smile in order to encourage more students to work with him that day, as opposed to the… well zero that had wanted to work with him the other days.
"They'll come around Gaara." Temari tried to promise, although she wasn't really known for her optimism, Gaara appreciated her trying for him.
Kankuro mumbled under his breath about just forcing some of his kids to work with Gaara, but Temari's hiss told him that was a no-go, so he half-heartedly assured Gaara that he just needed to prove his competence in order to win them over.
Raccoon silently sighed, lamenting over her poor master's plight. He certainly wasn't fit to be a teacher, but she could see and feel that he was really trying his best. She also briefly thought about…persuading someone to give Gaara a chance, but she had to let him figure this one out on his own.
Kids started to trickle in, which was Raccoon's cue to hop onto a rooftop to watch the proceedings, ever-vigilant as Kankuro and Temari led the lesson on weapons today. When it was time to break off into groups, the murmuring of the children managed to reach even Raccoon at the top of the building as they all debated on who to choose. Naturally most of the kids chose either Temari or Kankuro, still too wary of Gaara to even try to acknowledge him much less get any closer to him. The redhead had closed his eyes and resigned to his fate.
One girl hesitated though.
She had dark eyes and light brown hair and everything from the top of her head to the tips of her toes screamed timid. Raccoon felt like she was looking at Suna's version of Hinata. Still, despite her timidity, her eyes lingered on Gaara in a curious, gentle way, even if he couldn't see it.
Just when Raccoon believed the girl was going to pass out from indecision, she approached Gaara, to the surprise of everyone there.
Happiness like the sun blazed through her, though Gaara's face still remained impassive as he began speaking to the girl and subsequently teaching her slightly away from all the others once she'd decided on—the right, Raccoon didn't know why the girl had pretended she could wield that giant mace, she was no Tenten—a weapon.
It continued on like this for a couple of days. Once everyone had chosen a weapon and had gotten the hang of it, they'd partnered up under the watchful eye of Temari and Kankuro and sparred with one another. But, seeing as Gaara and the girl—Matsuri she'd learned from her own master's grinning mouth—were the only ones in their group, they'd have to spar together and well… sparring with Gaara was a difficult feat for anyone.
Once the two realized they weren't going to really get anywhere with Gaara's sand getting in the way, they had to think up an alternative. Gaara had just happened to raise his face to the sun when he'd caught Raccoon leaning slightly over the building as she shifted positions.
"Raccoon?" He called to her gently and she forced down a shiver to address him with a typical titled head.
"Could you come down here, please?" He watched as she obliged, floating down like a feather in the wind and landing gracefully before the awed Matsuri and indifferent Gaara.
He then turned to Matsuri who looked inquisitively between them. "You will spar with Raccoon." He said, as if it were that easy.
Matsuri didn't think so.
"What?" She rapidly looked between the stoic masks, one literally, of the two standing before her. "But- she's, an ANBU, I can't—"
"Raccoon will not hurt you." Gaara promised, but Matsuri still didn't look to confident in that regard.
"He is correct, I will not hurt you." Raccoon promised, although she wasn't entirely sure why she was agreeing to this bar the fact that she would do almost anything for Sabaku no Gaara, master or not. If the Council found out an ANBU they had assigned to monitor Gaara was engaging in sparring matches with not-even-genin they'd be pissed and look at it as a conflict of interest. She could be removed from the mission.
But, they were quite a bit away from the others, and Raccoon had pretty much given her word to the siblings in a roundabout way that she would help. Also Gaara = Raccoon can't say no.
So here she was, blade inches away from a panting girl's fearful neck as Gaara flatly gave out pointers on what to do next time. From the dilated look in the girl's eyes, Raccoon guessed she either was too afraid to take in the advice right now, or hung up on Gaara's deep timbre. It could be both, it certainly did things to Raccoon, so other women couldn't be immune.
Seven times Raccoon had knocked Matsuri onto her ass or backed her into a wall, and none of those times had Matsuri actually used the weapon she had chosen, either dropping it as soon as Raccoon lunged in fear, or mishandling it so badly that it flew from her grip.
Whilst the girl was nursing her back once more, Raccoon turned her body to Gaara and addressed him in a low voice.
"It has been 3 days since she chose this weapon, yes?" At his slow nod Raccoon continued. "This isn't merely a learning curve, her ineffective use of this weapon is rooted psychologically." Gaara's silent raised eyebrow prompted her to continue.
"Oh no." She clicked her tongue and shook her head. "She's your student, if you want to know what it is, you'll just have to ask her or discern for yourself." She quelled a trill of laughter that bubbled in her throat at his pout.
"Sorry," the small voice broke them out of their little bubble, forcing their attention back on the timid girl once more. "I'm ready to try again, Gaara-sensei, Raccoon-senpai."
Raccoon gave him a pointed look that he still managed to interpret despite the mask, but he waved her forward. She tossed her blade in between her hands and, at a ¼ of the speed she was capable of, feinted it at the girl's face, who flinched violently and skittered back, only to use the hilt to knock her down by her chest.
Sand broke her fall and pushed her back up. Raccoon stepped back to watch as the girl comprehended what happened and broke out into a bright blush. Gaara had since approached her when she was looking behind her to confirm that it was in fact a wave of sand, at discovering he was beside her, closer than he had been previously, she jumped and her face burned brighter, fists clutched to her chest in a clear sign of nerves.
Nerves and behavior all typically displayed when a girl had…a crush.
Raccoon was gnawing on her lip as she witnessed the two speaking softly to one another. Matsuri looking a little teary-eyed at Gaara, who, for his part, was doing his best to look anything but impassive, which was a lot for him. A lot of effort. Oh, maybe.
A jolt of painful heat scorched through her chest, and it wasn't Gaara's. No, the reason she suddenly had tunnel vision, locked onto the way the stood close, couldn't breathe quite so deeply as her head spun—it was all her, because she was—
"Raccoon?"
She blinked out of her haze, Gaara in front of her now and…away from Matsuri, thank god. She twitched in response, because that was frankly all he was getting from her.
"We've discussed the problem." He continued with no verbal answer. "We'll work on this the coming days, it seems she has an…unfortunate past with weapons." Gaara couldn't see Raccoon grimace beneath her mask, but he could guess as much.
"But we've ended the lesson here today, thank you for your assistance." He gave her a shallow bow that she hollowly returned. And she took advantage of his siblings approaching to hop back onto a nearby rooftop.
She paced the length of building, hand over heart as she willed it to stop beating so damn hard and…and painfully. She grit her teeth against the pressure building in her lungs again as that mental image replayed over her vision of them standing too close, Matsuri with that dopey grin on her face and flushed cheeks that Gaara didn't understand in the slightest because he'd never recognized when someone looked at him like that, the dense-!
She took a sharp breath, and pulled her hair lightly. She didn't have time for this, for…jealousy. Where would that get her except distracted? She couldn't afford to be distracted now that a bunch of—albeit inexperienced—kids with weapons were hanging around Gaara quite frequently, on top of the still brewing dissenters. She couldn't afford to do this.
'It's as they say,' deep breath in, deep breath out, 'jealousy is unbecoming.' And she jumped back down to rejoin the siblings to escort them back home.
Y'all, I have to point out a plot hole in Naruto, I'm just too anal not to do it.
In Shipuuden, unless someone mistranslated, it's stated that it takes approximately 3 days to travel one way from Suna to Konoha, which makes sense because in order to get to Konoha from Suna, you have to travel through the Land of Rivers. The Sasuke Retrieval Arc, as best I can guess, from the time Sasuke left the village in the middle of the night to the time he defeats Naruto at the Valley of the End takes maybe two days. So, realistically, there's no way the siblings should've made it in time to help them if they were coming directly from Suna.
So that's it, that's my gripe, I know it's petty lol. But you have no idea how I was pulling my hair out and asking myself, a grown adult with a whole job and real life problems who is just doing this for fun, "but how did they get there so fast?"
Anyway, see you in the next one lovelies, it's gonna be juicy~
.Acronym