Shinobi Leaves: What Lies Beneath
Ami Inuzuka isn't quite sure how she feels about her first Genin team. Her fellow Jounin make it seem easy, but dealing with three twelve-year-olds fresh from the Academy is driving her crazy! One of her students is color blind, another one uses hand puppets to communicate and the third is deathly afraid of dogs, including Ami's pet, Ryu. After a close call with the children, Ami's feeling the pressure of past mistakes. Ready to give up, she gives the kids one last, simple mission. Unbeknownst to the Inuzuka, there's someone out there who desperately wants to get their hands on one of her kids. And they're willing to do anything. Will Team 6 manage to pull themselves together in time to prevent disaster? Find out in the first of the Shinobi Leaves series, What Lies Beneath, updating every Tuesday and Thursday!
Rating: PG-13 (Some Violence and Sexually-Themed Humor)
Pairings: Vary
Shinobi Leaves, Characters © wolfram18, angeloflight123
Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto
Prologue
5
The slow drizzle of the night's rain stopped just as the sun settled in the sky on the horizon, shining in through the thin curtain of Ami's apartment window. The young woman lay wrapped in her sheets in bed, ignoring the light dancing on her eyes. She stared at the picture on her bedside table, willing time to go back to the happy memory.
Ami sighed and rolled onto her back, her arms sprawled across the width of the bed, and found herself zoning out. The roof wasn't much better to look at. No matter if she shut her eyes or what was before her when she opened them, there was only one face that she saw. His straw-blonde hair was wild except for the tamed braid that draped down his back. His grey eyes were always laughing. And then in a flash his hair was stained with blood and his eyes begged for her to save him.
A knock at the door broke the spell and Ami sat up.
"Who is it?" She asked, not bothering to do much more.
"It's me," Tenzō announced. Ami's throat tightened in a pinch. He'd spent the first few nights with her after Kai's death before she kicked him out, wanting "alone" time. She hadn't wanted to be alone. She just wanted it to feel like something had changed. With Tenzō around, she was happy and things seemed like normal. Things weren't normal. Kai lay dead in the morgue being prepped for his funeral. She should be mourning. The whole village should have been in mourning, but it seemed like most of the people hadn't even heard of his untimely end.
Was that how it would be when she died?
"Ami?" Tenzō called for her, worried.
"I'm coming," she said softly. Probably too quiet for him to hear, she realized and cleared her throat. "Coming." She said louder. It felt good to sound confident again. Strong.
Ami took the first step out of bed and felt butterflies erupt in her stomach. Why was she nervous to see her boyfriend of two years? He would make her laugh, make her forget. Forgetting sounded good. Ami felt the familiar tug of a smile on the corners of her mouth. She went to the door, a new spring in her step.
"Are you okay?" Tenzō wanted to know the moment she opened the door. Ami stepped close to him on the tips of her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck. She inhaled the sweet scent of his body wash, sweat, and under that—wood. It was uniquely Tenzō. He wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her tight.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made you go." She told him.
"That's okay. You needed your time." He let her slip out of his arms. He noticed her pajamas as she stepped into her apartment. "You're not ready?"
"Ready?" Ami turned to him, brows knitted together in confusion.
"Kai's funeral…" Tenzō was cautious mentioning her recently deceased best friend. He watched as a light bulb flickered on behind Ami's eyes.
"It's Friday?" She looked to the wall where her calendar had been hung since she'd moved into the apartment. It was gone. She vaguely recalled tearing it down. That didn't matter right now. She would not be late for Kai's funeral! Ami went to her closet and dug through her wardrobe. The ANBU uniform didn't seem appropriate… she'd have to find a civilian outfit. Finally, she found what she was looking for—the black wrap-dress that she had worn to her father's funeral a few years prior. Hopefully it would still fit. "Give me ten minutes!" She told Tenzō and disappeared into the small bathroom.
"Are you sure that outfit is appropriate?" Tenzō asked nervously. He'd asked the same question three times now. His gaze lingered on the large portion of her breasts that showed where a button had once been. The mesh armor didn't help as much as she had hoped. The collar stood tall where it was supposed to be and the length fit nicely, but Ami had forgotten that her bosom had blossomed since the last time she'd worn the dress.
"As appropriate as it gets. I'm lucky that button wasn't any farther down. Doesn't the mesh help?" She adjusted herself as they walked down the shop street of Konohagakure toward Hokage Rock. Ami looked up at him expectantly.
"Uh, yeah." Tenzō scratched the back of his head as he lied. "It looks better now," he looked away.
"Good," Ami wrapped herself around one of his arms. Now that they were getting close, she could see more people dressed in black. She found herself looking for Kai in the crowd before she could remind herself that he was gone. An awkward smile teased her lips. She'd just been looking for Kai at his own funeral.
"Ami," Anko Mitarashi, the third member of Ami's team as a Genin, slipped an arm around her waist and hugged her. Ami fell into the hug easily. She didn't want to let go. Somehow it reminded her of when Anko had returned from Orochimaru's grasp. If only they were crying because of that. Finally the girls separated. Anko quickly wiped her tears away. Ami, on the other hand, was surprised that the most she had wept was a single tear.
"I tried to come over," Anko sniffed.
"I'm sorry. I was in my own little world." Ami rubbed her friend's arm comfortingly.
"Hey Tenzō," Anko acknowledged his presence. He nodded back. Ami took Anko's hand.
"It'll be starting soon, we should go." She smiled. Anko smiled back weakly and followed Ami's lead.
Ami found herself naming off the shinobi that filed into the platform just below Hokage Rock. The crowd was a sea of black. Many of the faces she couldn't recall names for until she realized they were civilians; strangers that she may have met once or twice when walking with Kai. Of all their comrades, he was one of the only men who spent the most time among the civilians. Where the majority of their friends jumped at the opportunity for out-of-town missions, Kai was always the first to volunteer when it came to Konoha's citizens. He'd often help out Genin teams that weren't his.
Ami felt the corners of her mouth twitch. She wasn't the only one who would miss his smile. The same smile that now stared out at the gathered mass via the strangely lifeless picture that stood next to an ugly urn on a table at the front.
Tenzō led the girls through the crowd until they were in the first line of people. He left Ami's side once to hug Akina and Fusa, Kai's mother and twelve-year-old sister before returning and urging her to do the same. Ami stole a glance at the grief-stricken family. Fusa's grey eyes, so much like Kai's, caught her gaze. The abandonment she found there was too much to bear and she went to the little girl, stealing her from her mother's arms. Fusa held on tightly to the older girl, tears rolling freely down her cheeks.
"I'm so sorry Fusa." Ami whispered against the girl's brown hair. Akina, a once renowned gentle healer suddenly snatched back her child. Her eyes bore holes into Ami's, full of anger and betrayal.
"How could you let him die?" She hissed. "I should have kept him away from you when you tried to kill him the first time."
"I tried to help—", Ami stuttered, shocked and shamed.
"Oh but you've never been very helpful have you!" Akina was relentless.
"I don't know what you mean. Akina, I tried to save him. There was nothing I could do. I tried!" Ami raised her voice in a hopeless cry. The rows of people next to her grew quiet. Tenzō rushed forward and took her by the arm, stepping between the two women. He apologized as he pushed Ami back to their original places.
"Are you okay?" He asked her, a hand on her cheek. She pushed it away.
"What a great idea, Tenzō." She turned and fled down the middle aisle that had been left vacant.
"Ami!" Tenzō called after her. Anko held him back.
"I'll go after her." She told him and disappeared after her friend. Tenzō looked after them, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot. Before he could follow them, the Third Hokage had stepped forward and called for the crowd's attention.
At the back of the crowd, Ami was taking the steps leading away from the platform in two's in her rush to distance herself from Kai's mother's accusations. She had done what she could. She hadn't asked for Kai to save her from the villages' flames. She hadn't told him to go back in. It was his own fault that he had died. The sooner she forgot his smiles and laughter, the sooner she would see the mistakes he had made and the evidence that she was innocent would become visible.
"Ami!" She heard Anko call from the top of the steps. Her head turned automatically at the sound and she picked up speed.
"Am I late?" Another voice made her stop abruptly. Kakashi stood on the steps just below her. She felt the anger she had been trying to cool suddenly rise in her throat. She opened her mouth to say something rude but thought better of it.
"They just started," she told him and moved passed him.
"You're not attending?" He asked her. She stopped and looked back.
"It's better if I don't." She felt her temper rise to the point that she could taste blood when she bit down.
"Ami, come back!" Anko was almost to them. Kakashi glanced at the purple-haired Kunoichi and then back to the flustered Inuzuka.
"What happened?" He asked. She shook her head.
"Nothing. I just remembered I had more important things to do." She forced a smile.
"Ami." He pushed.
"I'm fine, Kakashi." She told him more sternly. She turned to leave, but Kakashi grabbed her arm.
"You don't have to pretend like everything's alright", he told her. Ami looked back at him and smiled brightly.
"I don't know what you mean, senpai."
"Ami." He said, frustrated.
"Kakashi, people die. The quicker we forget about them the better it gets. And I'm pretty anxious for the better part." She shrugged out of his grasp. Underneath his mask, Kakashi's mouth opened. He stepped back from her, disgusted.
"I know grief does a lot to people but—"
"Grief is something that happens when you're sorrowful, Kakashi." She cut him off.
"Who are you anymore? You are not the woman I chose for my squad two years ago." He raised his voice. Ami held out a hand to him as Anko reached them.
"Oh, really? Ami Inuzuka, nice to meet you."