Standard Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or Naruto. So, a rather large author's note at the end, nothing important really, just some musings on some of the logistics of the Naruto-verse, please feel free to read it or ignore it at your leisure.
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xXx-Chapter 21-xXx
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"Who are you?" Quinn asks, as she gets to her feet. If they wanted to talk she would talk then. It wasn't like she had much of a choice in the matter. She was completely outclassed, but she still instinctively took a defensive stance, not that it would do her any good now that she could fully sense this woman's power.
They pull down their hood and remove their mask, long, luxurious purple hair cascading down, framing the face of a very beautiful woman. "My name is Yugao Uzuki and I'm your new sensei."
Quinn is startled by the revelation. "M-my sensei?"
"Yes." The other woman says with a pleasant smile.
"Oh crap." Quinn says quietly to herself, "I- I am so sorry ma'am. I-"
"No, don't apologize, please-"
"You must think I'm a complete idiot, leading an unknown assailant into the middle of nowhere, engaging them in combat. I- this… this is not the first impression I wanted to make on you and-"
"Rin. It's okay, really. Here." Yugao says, reaching into her pack and pulling out plain grey shirt. "Put this on, we'll get some lunch and we'll just talk. Alright?"
"Yes ma'am, right away." She says quickly putting the shirt on.
"And you can cut it out with the whole ma'am thing, I am not nearly old enough to be a ma'am." Yugao says with a pleasant laugh, "Why don't you call me Yugao-sensei or just sensei as you prefer and I'll call you Rin. Would that be acceptable?"
"Yes ma'am-I mean Yugao-sensei."
"Perfect, so is there anywhere in particular you'd like to eat? My treat." Yugao says.
"Um…" Quinn's mind goes blank for a moment and so she blurts out the first place that comes to mind. "Have you ever been to Ichiraku's?"
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xXx-Scene Break-xXx
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"Huh, I didn't take you to be the kind of person who liked ramen." As the older woman takes a look at the ramen stand they had just reached.
Quinn lets out a little laugh, "Yeah, you can't hang out with Naruto and not come to have an appreciation for the stuff and this stand makes the best ramen in the entire village."
Yugao gives her an amused look, "The entire village huh, so you've tried them all have you?"
"Me, no. Naruto, definitely. And I choose to take his word for it. Besides there are other reasons to come here." The father daughter duo who ran the place were friendly and the daughter, Ayame, was really cute. Quinn had allowed herself to have bit of a crush on her which was nice since she was an adult Quinn didn't have to feel too guilty about it.
"Well then, shall we."
The two of them enter the stand and take their seats, where they are greeted by Teuchi the owner of the establishment. He takes their orders and brings them both a water while they wait for their food to be done.
"So, I guess I should get this ball rolling." Yugao says, "My name is Yugao Uzuki and I am to be your new sensei. I like moon gazing, the color yellow, plain steamed rice with soy sauce, and of course my boyfriend, and not in that particular order." She says with a light laugh and Quinn smiles back politely. "I dislike most sweet foods and can't stand arrogant people, though I do admire confidence, and learning the difference can be difficult. My goal for the future and in being your sensei… well we'll get to that a little later."
"I guess I should go now, then… um… let me think" Quinn says nervously, "…wow this is kind of hard."
"No it's not, you're just worried that this is some kind of test, it isn't. Just tell the truth, what do you like, what do you dislike, and what are your goals for the future?" Yugao says kindly.
Quinn nods her head, "Alright, first and foremost I love my family and my friends and any time I can spend with them is something I enjoy. It doesn't really matter to me what we do as long as it's together. My favorite food is gyudon, though I don't eat it often. I dislike laziness and… if you're going to be my sensei then full disclosure. I don't really want to be a ninja, I hate the very concept itself and I have no ambition in it either. I don't wish to be Hokage one day, I don't care if I ever even make jōnin, there's no department I wish to head. The only thing I care about is that I am strong enough to protect my family and friends.
I will admit that there are things that I like about ninja training, I enjoy the athleticism of it, growing stronger and learning new techniques can be fun, and I find learning about chakra and how to use it to be very fascinating. But if I didn't have to protect those I love, I would quit this life and never look back. I'm twelve years old and I am already responsible for the death of another human being, and in the future I may be responsible for the deaths of many more. I'm not okay with that and I will never be okay with that, but I recognize it's the world I live in and it's the life I've chosen and that those who are most important to me have chosen it as well."
"Fair enough." Yugao says, "Actually this makes it a little easier on me. If you have no ambition in the shinobi world then let me offer you one."
Yugao stops at that moment, her eyes flickering over to Ayame who brings them their dishes. The two women thank her, and Ayame gives Quinn a playful wink. "Will Naruto or any of the others be showing up later, Sakura, your sister, I'd like to know if we should start prepping for them now?" Ayame says with a smile.
"Knowing him, probably. Not sure about the others though." Quinn laughs, "But I'm not expecting any of them."
"And who is this?" Ayame asks, pleasantly.
"Oh, forgive me, Ayame this is my new sensei Yugao Uzuki. Yugao-sensei this is Ayame."
"It's a pleasure to meet you." Yugao says.
"Likewise, Rin and her friends are regulars here, so I hope we'll be seeing a lot more of you."
"Well if the food is as delicious as Rin has told me then I'm sure you will."
"Fantastic, well then, if you all will please excuse me, I've got to get back to work. Enjoy your meal."
"It's a friendly staff, I can see why you like it here." Yugao says as Ayame leaves, noting how Rin's eyes followed the older girl's retreating form.
"Like I said, there are other reasons to come here besides good food."
"The girl is cute." Yugao says conversationally, but her voice is just a little too casual.
But Quinn can only manage a sad smile in return. She may look twelve, but she wasn't. And honestly, with her secret, Quinn had just accepted the fact that she wouldn't be able to have a real relationship. How could it survive if the person she was with didn't know the truth, it would all be based on a lie. A lie about who and what she was. She didn't want to have a relationship based on a lie, she'd done that before and it had hurt everyone involved. No, a one sided crush that nothing would ever come of was the best that she could hope for. "Yeah… she is." Quinn says softly.
They eat their meal in silence after that and when they finish Yugao pays and then motions for Quinn to follow her. She leaps high into the air and Quinn follows after her, the two of them jumping from rooftop to rooftop, throughout the city until coming to a stop on top of a building across from Shinobi Headquarters. From up there Quinn could see all of the various clients and shinobi coming and going from the building.
"You told me that you have no ambition in your career as a shinobi other than to protect your family and friends, what if I could offer you just that? Would you take it?"
"I'm here aren't I?" Quinn responds.
"True. Take a look around you, tell me what you see."
"I see Konoha. I see people, going about their lives, shinobi and civilian alike."
"You're a sensor type, tell me, where are your sister and your friends?"
Quinn closes her eyes and in a matter of seconds locates each of them. Quinn gives a small laugh. "Ino is at a grocery store six blocks south from here with her team, Naruto and Sakura are… in the West Park. None of them seem particularly happy right now, although the jōnin with them are very amused."
"D-Rank missions. Little more than chores if you just look at them at face value. Picking up groceries, walking dogs, picking up trash. Cheap community work and good PR. Civilians see ninja's doing good work around the village and it helps to humanize us to them. We seem more approachable. It's all very innocent wouldn't you agree."
"It would seem so, yes."
"But even D-Rank missions serve their purpose in training young shinobi. But they don't get it, they see things like picking up groceries as a waste of their skills. They view it as an insult to all their work in the academy. They don't realize that the only difference between a D-Rank mission where they have to bring someone their groceries and an A-Rank mission where you're running supplies behind enemy lines is the number of people trying to kill you. Still, I think it's nice. It's nice that they have the option of doing something that is seemingly so menial and so safe, so innocent. They won't appreciate it now, but give it time and a couple more dangerous missions and by the time they reach jōnin they'll miss the days when carrying groceries is all they had to do."
Quinn isn't sure what to say to this so she says nothing, instead just waiting for her sensei to continue with wherever this was going.
"Tell me Rin, how long do you think it will be before your friends are in active combat, fighting, killing, possibly dying? Most jōnin-sensei like to give it a few months, you know. Three to four months of easy D-Rank missions and team training before they'll even consider doing a C-Rank mission. But you're sister and friends are talented, at least according to their records. Time will tell if that's truly the case, but if it is, how long do you think they'll stay like this, picking up groceries and cleaning up trash? It won't be long. You say that you aren't okay with being responsible for the death of another, tell me, how okay will you be with it when it's your sister's turn?"
Quinn bows her head at that because of just how hard that hits home for her. "She… I… I never wanted this life for her. I tried to get her to be something else, but she didn't want that. She wanted to be a ninja, so I became one too, so that I could protect her. So that I could help her have as safe and normal a life as possible."
"You can't protect her from this, someday soon, within the next year she'll either be in a position where she'll have to take another life or she'll be dead and your innocent sister will be gone either way, and in her place will be either a corpse or a killer, just like you. Just like me. Just like every other ninja in this village."
Quinn flinches at that.
"You can't be with her 24/7, you can't be with any of them all of the time and that would be the only way to actually protect them. And even then, it wouldn't be a sure thing. Once you become a ninja it is only a matter of time before you take a life. And no matter how justified it is, it changes you."
"So all of this is pointless then, all of it, my becoming a ninja, my getting as strong as I can, you're telling me it was for nothing!" Quinn cries, "I don't believe that, if people truly care for one another then they can find a way to be there for one another… they can protect each other… I can protect them… I can."
"Yes, you can." Yugao says.
Quinn looks up at her after she says that, "I thought you said I couldn't protect them. That's what you said, that within the next year that Ino will go through what I am."
"And she will, you can't protect her from that, not the way that you want to anyway. But you can still be there for her, you can protect her from the worst of what this life has to offer. And not just her, but all of your friends, your family, this entire village. You can protect them."
"What are you talking about?"
"When I became a genin, when I first graduated, we were in the middle of a war. Do you think that I had the opportunity to go on any D-Rank missions? No. Like you I was given the opportunity to graduate early, unlike you, I went through with it. By the time I was your age I had already taken on six assassination missions, that's six premeditated deaths that I was responsible for and that's not counting the people I had to go through to complete the mission and take out my targets, nor does it count the people I'd killed as a result of combat. You can't save them from the shadows, when your sister and friends decided to become ninja their paths were set, but you can save them from the darkness. You can help maintain and protect this world that allows your sister and your friends to do D-Rank missions, where they have the chance to hold onto their innocence for as long as possible. Where there is no war for them to fight and they can grow up in relative peace."
"How?"
"By sacrificing yourself. This peace you live in is maintained by a select few who sacrifice everything, who turn themselves over to the darkness itself, so that those they love can at the very least spend some time in the light. Tell me, Rin Yamanaka, would you kill so that your sister didn't have to? Would you sacrifice your mind, your body, your happiness so that your sister and your friends could keep theirs?"
Quinn's voice is shaky and she hates herself for hesitating but she manages to choke out a broken, "Yes."
"There was hesitation there, good. It means you actually understand everything that I am telling you. Any fool can say they'll sacrifice everything for those they love, but it's a rare few who understand what that can truly mean. You want to protect those you love, good, and you can. But it will cost you everything. Will you pay that price, will you give everything for them, for your sister, for Naruto, for Sakura? Will you pay the price necessary to protect them, with no chance of even a thank you, without them ever even knowing what it is you will do for them?"
Quinn hates that there are tears in her eyes, but she can't help it. This was all too real for her, she knew that Yugao wanted something from her and was playing on every fear and anxiety she had. But it was working because Quinn was here and was willing to listen. "What do you want from me?"
"I'm here because you are the most talented ninja to pass through the academy in years. You've caught the eye of many major players in this village, not the least of which is the Hokage himself. What do I want from you? I want you to listen to the offer I'm about to make and I want you to seriously consider it. I want you to know fully what it is I am asking of you, what it is the village wants from you, I want you to know and understand what you will be asked to sacrifice, and then I want you to remember who it is done for… and then I want you to accept."
"You haven't made an offer yet." Quinn's voice quivers.
"Then I'll make it here and now. I'm here to offer you a place in the ANBU black-ops forces."
"I… I'm sorry, I must have misheard you, I thought you just offered me a spot in ANBU?"
Yugao gives her a sad smile, "I did. And I'm sorry to say that I think you would thrive there. I wasn't sure about this when I was first asked to teach you. But after our fight, after hearing you talk about being a ninja and why you became one in the first place, I don't know that there is any other place for you."
"This is a joke right, I mean, I'm just a genin. How could I even qualify, don't you have to be at least a chūnin or special jōnin to join?"
"Not entirely inaccurate. You do need to at least hold the rank of chūnin to be accepted into ANBU. Though it's a common misconception that you just join. You don't join ANBU, you're recruited. Rank is all but irrelevant, it's skill that matters and after our fight, there's no way you can look me in the eye and say you're just a genin."
"You still won though, I mean you beat me in the end and…"
"And I have a lot more experience than you, but experience is something that you can only gain with time. That's why I agreed to be your sensei, to help you gain the experience needed to survive in the ANBU ranks. You and I will go on missions together, I'll help train you in areas where you are lacking and then you will take the chūnin exams. Once you've completed the exams a spot will officially be offered to you within the ANBU ranks. It's called being fast tracked. When a ninja, such as yourself, shows the kind of talent that you do they are rushed through the ranks so that they can go where the village needs them most. In your case, that happens to be in ANBU. With my own sensor abilities I was the best tracker that ANBU had and yet without the experience or even the amount of training that I have had, your gift puts mine to shame. I wasn't half-assing it when I was stalking you. I treated you like I would any target that I was trying to hide from and you still picked me out. There are ninja out there who would literally kill to be able to do to me what you did, who died because they couldn't."
"What if I decide to turn down the spot? What if I don't want to join ANBU?" Quinn asks softly.
Yugao gives her a sympathetic smile. "Then I'll still train you through the chūnin exams and once you're made chūnin, I'll return to ANBU once more and you'll join the regular shinobi forces. And who knows, maybe you'll make a difference there, maybe not. Just know this, in ANBU you will make a difference."
Quinn is silent after that, her mind racing at the offer she had just been made and what taking it would mean. But it was such a shock to her, ANBU, there had to be some kind of mistake. It wasn't something she was suited for, she knew that. And yet, if it offered her the chance to protect Ino and those she loved… how could she turn it down?
"I… I-"
"Why don't you head home for the day." Yugao interrupts. "It's a lot to take in, speak to your father and your mother. Consider everything that I've said, what I haven't said, and your own feelings on the matter. We'll meet at training ground 14 at 0800 tomorrow. For real this time, and we'll officially start your training."
Quinn nods her head distractedly, her mind still racing a mile a minute, "Yes sensei."
And with that Yugao takes off, disappearing from the roof. Quinn follows her with her abilities for a few moments before suppressing them again, allowing the other woman to disappear. She then takes a seat next to a water tower that was on the roof, leaning against it, and then does her best to make sense of today.
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xXx-Scene Break-xXx
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Quinn ended up staying on that rooftop for the rest of the day. The fight with Mizuki playing over in her head, followed by her encounter with Yugao. In fact, everything that she had ever been through was playing itself over and over in her head. From the car crash that led to her being here, to the kyuubi attack, and the Uchiha massacre. Her decision to become a ninja in the first place and all of the training that had followed. The training she had done with the Third and wondering if this had been his plan for her from day one, all of these things and more were playing over and over again in her mind, trying to connect the dots that had led her to this moment.
"Hi daddy." She says softly, as she senses him land on the roof beside her. Quinn doesn't look up at him, instead keeping her gaze fixed on the village and the setting sun.
"I'm sorry I couldn't come to you sooner, I take it the offer has been made." He says, his voice gentle.
Quinn nods her head.
Her father takes a seat beside her and places an arm around her and she leans into him. "I'm sorry, I didn't find out about this until today. I don't know that I could have stopped it, but I would have tried. You don't deserve to have this kind of decision placed on you and certainly not this early, no one does."
"We talked about me finding my own shinobi way… maybe this is it?" Quinn says softly, "Maybe this is the only path open to me."
"I don't believe that for a second. Your path is whatever you choose it to be."
"Yugao-sensei said that she doesn't think there's any other place for me, I wonder if she's right. I don't… I mean I'm not like Naruto, I don't have any grand dream of being Hokage one day. I'm not like Ino or Sakura either, I don't care about being a ninja, not like they do. Being a ninja was just a means to an end."
"If you could be anything in the world, what would it be?" Inoichi asks, he had spent so much time worried about Rin not wanting to be a ninja he hadn't really stopped to think about what she would want to be instead.
"It's really stupid but… an actress." Before she had died she had wanted to study drama at Yale. Act for a few years, maybe direct or write. She wasn't the performer that Rachel, Kurt, and even Santana had been but she thought that it would be something she would like and be good at and the more time she spent considering it the more she had fallen in love with the idea.
"I didn't know that. And it's not stupid at all." Inoichi says.
"I've only ever told one other person." Quinn says with a shrug, referring to when she had told Rachel she had gotten into Yale.
"So why don't you?" Inoichi offers, "I think you'd be great at it."
Quinn smiles the first smile she's had since the offer was made. "You think so? I could make movies, maybe star in plays. See the world, entertain millions of people. It's not a bad way to live, is it?"
"I wouldn't think so."
Quinn shakes her head. "No… that won't ever be me."
"It could if you wanted it to be."
"No, it may sound stupid, considering how long you've been doing this and how much you've seen comparatively, but for me I've seen too much to ever go back."
"It doesn't sound stupid at all. You would likely face this decision one day anyway but it shouldn't be now, it shouldn't be right after you've graduated or right after you've had your first kill. It's too much at once, you deserve time to find your ground."
"Daddy, do you… do you think I'd be good at it though? Do you think that if I do this that I'll make a difference? If I do this… would I really be protecting Ino and the others?"
Inoichi sighs, "In a way… yes. ANBU take on the missions that no other shinobi can or will. They sacrifice everything for the village and they do, they truly do make a difference. To serve in the ANBU forces, to even be offered a spot is a real honor. But Rin, this isn't the only path open to you. You don't have to sacrifice yourself to save everyone, you don't. And believe me joining ANBU is a sacrifice. I would caution any shinobi who is offered a spot to think carefully before joining, even if they had the years of experience that you don't under their belt. It's… it's not for everyone, no matter how skilled they may be."
"That's the problem… I don't know if it is right for me, but in that same breath, I don't know that it's not right for me. Other than protecting the other's I don't know what I want out of this life… maybe ANBU is the right choice, if it gives me the opportunity to do that…"
"There are other ways to help Rin. If you want to protect others you could always join the Medical Corp. or you could even join Intelligence. I happen to know for a fact the head of that department is always looking for skilled shinobi." Her father says with a playful grin.
"Hmm… I think we want to avoid blatant nepotism for now at least," Quinn says with a small giggle, "and… I don't have the control necessary to excel at medical Ninjutsu. I can do them, but… not very well, not well enough to make it a focus or ever be truly good at it, I don't have a passion for it."
The two of them sit together in silence and continue to watch the sunset together. The golden rays reflecting on them. Finally it's Inoichi who breaks the silence. "All I want for you Rin is your happiness. That's all I have ever wanted for you."
"Daddy, if… if you weren't my father, if I wasn't your daughter and I were just some random kunoichi, what advice would you give me?"
"You're not though." Inoichi says softly, "You are my daughter, and you will always be my daughter. It's not possible for me to view you otherwise. I was there when you were born, I was there for your first steps, your first words. I taught you how to control your gift, I was there the first time you climbed a tree with just chakra. I taught you how to throw a kunai and shuriken, I showed you your elemental affinity. I watched you as you laughed, I held you as you cried. I am your father, now and for always. I can't look at you as anything other than my daughter."
"Please?"
Inoichi doesn't say anything for a moment as he carefully weighs the words he wants to say in his mind. When he does finally speak his voice is even and gentle. "The Hokage stopped by my office today and he allowed me to view your fight with Uzuki. You are an incredibly gifted kunoichi. Everything you did, every move you made had a purpose. You can't just teach that. It's something instinctual or gained through years of experience. Watching you, I couldn't believe that my daughter was already so far along. I always knew you were strong Rin but to see it in action was… something else entirely."
"I don't know what I should do." Quinn says, her voice slightly cracking.
"You don't have to decide anything today." Inoichi says before placing a kiss to Rin's forehead. "Sleep on it, keep talking with me about this as you need, follow your instincts, and more than anything else, know that I love you no matter what."
"I love you too." Quinn whispers.
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xXx—xXx
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Author's Note: So the offer has been made and now Rin/Quinn has a huge decision to make. In regards to ANBU, I don't think most shinobi ever spend any time in there. Like, every military personnel faces dangers in their jobs, but only a small fraction of them serve time in the Special Forces. And that's what ANBU is for ninja, it's their version of Special Forces, and I don't think it's something you just join. I mean, I guess a shinobi could put in an application and it could be reviewed, but I think for the most part you have to be recruited, kind of a don't call us, we'll call you kind of thing.
A stab in the dark guess from me, I think that maybe 5% of the shinobi forces are in ANBU or have served in ANBU. Going into the logistics of the hidden villages is a pain in the ass lol. Because we never really get a sense of how many ninja there really are. Konoha for example seems to fluctuate between a handful of shinobi to an approximate 13,500 shinobi that they contributed to the shinobi alliance, assuming that the 80,000 total was an equal contribution from Fire, Water, Lightning, Wind, Earth, and Iron.
What that means for this story is that while Ninja forces are the most revered and usually the most influential aspect of a nation's military might, they only make up anywhere between 15% to 35% of that nation's military power. The other 85% to 65% is made up of soldiers and Samurai that the various Lords of the land can call to arms. Which to me means that there has to be other Shinobi bases and possibly even sub-hidden villages throughout each country, not just Konoha, Kumo, Suna, etc., each of them providing their own ninja, and the sub-villages themselves subservient to and answering to the main village and it's Kage.
Larger villages, such as Lightning, which is the largest of the hidden villages, contribute around 35% of their land's military power. A smaller village such as Grass contributes about 15% of its land's military forces. Konoha and its various holdings produce about 25%. The logistics are crazy evil to figure out but I'm trying to reconcile the handful of shinobi trying to find Naruto and the forbidden scroll at the beginning of the series to the near countless shinobi of the shinobi alliance at the end of the series. Like I said, their numbers seem to drastically fluctuate. Of course this is all conjecture and we don't really know because Naruto as a story was more character driven not world driven, so I guess it doesn't really matter. Kind of fun and interesting to think about though, in my opinion.
And finally I got the 13,500 Konoha ninja by dividing 80,000 by 6, one for each of the main villages and the land of iron and then rounding that answer up to 13,500. This means that Konoha currently has around 675 ANBU. Not sure how accurate this is, but that's what I've worked out. If any of you think differently, or even better, know differently, please let me know, I love this kind of stuff and I think it helps me write a better story.
