Chapter 12 – How Jonin Smile
Kakashi looked down at the pink-haired kid as she carefully told him what he'd missed. Despite her evident fear, she never stuttered once. When she was finished, the sinking feeling multiplied.
"A-Anbu-san?" She asked. "Are you going to … rescue them? I know that shinobi's face, I can point her out."
"Follow me." That was all the command he gave her before taking off, and Sakura struggled to match his already-lessened speed. It was a blur. She didn't know if following the person wearing the dog-like mask was safe. But it was her only choice and he could save Ino and if it wasn't safe, she'd know that soon.
They travelled a kilometer away, at the shinobi apartment compounds behind the hokage's tower. She'd never been in the area before. The apartments were three stories high and the space between was filled with training grounds prepared with dummies and logs of wood that were scratched to hell. They stopped at an apartment door on the first level, a rather large place with no other doors on either side in sight. It was bigger than the others. The anbu with the dog mask rapped twice on the door.
"Um," Sakura tried hesitantly. "Where are we?"
"Some of the jonin have been gathering the children who were outside the district at the time of the coup's beginning," the man replied. His voice was calm again. "The ones that can't return to their families. You're going to stay here with them because I can't risk losing you. You're the only one that saw who took them."
Slight hope overtook her, "you are going to save Ino and Naruto?"
"Yes. When I figure out how. And you're going to help."
She nodded. That was ok. She would quell her fear to save Ino just like Ino had done for her. Bravery didn't look too hard, thought it was too often laced with stupidity. Although it was harder for her to be brave than the others, because the others didn't seem to have the sort of sharp consciousness that she'd been cursed with. But she could try.
The door opened, and a taller man stood in the entrance. He sobered when he saw the anbu member. Then he looked down to see Sakura and smiled. "Ah, you brought another one. Though I thought we'd found them all..."
The anbu member looked down at her questioningly. "If he says he's found them all, then he has. Where were you?"
She stiffened, and then turned to the other man in the doorway. "Ino and I escaped from the area, oji-san." There were sounds of small footsteps running about inside the apartment, probably belonging to the children he said he'd found.
"Ah, really?" He leaned down until he was on level with her. "Brave little kid. What's your name?"
His breath smelled like smoke. It was horrible. Sakura backed away and hid behind the anbu dog's pant lag, curling her hands into the cloth at the back of his knees. She preferred to stay with the anbu oji-san, because he was her only chance of saving Ino. And the man with the bandanna looked weird. The anbu member stiffened visibly and the man in the doorway frowned dejectedly.
"See, Asuma?" Another voice rang out from inside the apartment. "I told you, I'm the only one who'll ever stand your silly habit."
Sakura peered out to see a woman approaching behind, with a hitai-ite that indicated she was a shinobi too. She was startling beautiful, with curled dark hair and eyes red to rival an Uchiha's. She came up to the doorway and pushed the man aside. Then she turned to Sakura, and Sakura couldn't help but step forward, like an invisible thread had pulled her.
The woman smiled gently. "I'm Yuuhi Kurenai-sensei."
"Not until next year," Asuma grumbled from behind her.
"Shut up," she threw a backwards glance. "I'll be a jonin-sensei soon, just wait." Then she turned back to Sakura, and her voice was soft once again. "So you escaped? Well, you can't go back there until the political tension has settled down. Stay here, all right? We'll take care of you."
"Be sure to," the anbu member told her sharply. "This girl is important, I'll be coming back for her later on. She's witnessed something."
Asuma frowned, but he knew better than to question anbu information. "She'll be safe here. They'll call us on duty, but one of us will stay behind to supervise at all times. Many of these children are shinobi children, after all. They'll be after them."
At that, Sakura peered into the door and saw a small group of children sitting by the kotatsu inside, talking in hushed tones. They looked at her curiously. She looked back out to the anbu member, who was turning to leave. "Wait!"
"I have to go," He told her. "I'll return later."
"Go where?" Sakura exclaimed. Ino and Naruto were in trouble! He couldn't just leave!
"Maa … I have to see someone. To get information. And other things."
She frowned, "but we have to save Ino and Naruto!"
He sighed. "We can't do something like that all at once. If I try to infiltrate the Uchiha compound right now, we'll both end up dying. I have to learn exactly where he is, first. And then I have to strike when they're weakened, but before they decide to use Naruto."
With that, he was gone, and Sakura only vaguely felt a large, kind hand pulling her into the apartment.
Suikazura was a large post town, and it was relatively well populated. Tourists lingered down the busy streets and looked into the stalls on either side. They'd travelled for hours through the forests, stopping only to consume a quick, efficient lunch of ration bars, before entering the almost unguarded place. Now they walked through the lazy street while avoiding the civilians milling around. Sasuke scratched at the ears of his henge, sweltering in the summer afternoon.
"Our best chance is to look for a bounty collector's shop," Itachi told him quietly. "They usually have information about many things. They tend to be the lead to the information market."
"I'm telling you, nii-san, we should just visit the nearest gambling place. They'll know all about her," Sasuke grumbled sourly. He eyed every questionable-looking establishment they passed, wondering if it had once housed Orochimaru's obsession.
"Did you know her?" His brother asked. "In the future, that is?" He kept his voice low, for only Sasuke to hear.
"No, but I knew Orochimaru, and with Orochimaru that's almost the same. She was like some kind of goddess to him, really. Kabuto – his assistant – would ask him things about his old teammates, and he would spend a few seconds insulting Jiraiya before moving on to her."
Itachi frowned. "You knew Orochimaru, the sannin traitor?"
"I was his student," Sasuke explained. "He was the person who offered me power to take my revenge."
His brother remained silent as they walked, and the frown lines on his face were startling evident. Sasuke spoke up before he could burst into apology again. "You don't need to feel bad about it, nii-san. I respected Orochimaru, in a way. I would have killed him without a second thought, but he was one of the most intelligent people I'd ever met. Admirable, in a twisted way."
But that still didn't sound healthy, and Itachi didn't reply.
They'd long left the respectable parts of the town and now walked through something that was looking more and more like a red light district. Sasuke was not slightly worried that Itachi seemed completely at ease. How many assassinations had his brother done in places like these?
The buildings on either side of them became more questionable-looking, and a few times Sasuke had an older woman wink at his henge. He ignored them at first, but some started to look like they were going to approach him, and he'd resorted to swallowing his pride and discreetly rubbing his fingers and shaking his head in the universal 'no money' sign, because he was not going to have that conversation in front of Itachi-nii. He'd learned some interesting things in Sound. Orochimaru hadn't really cared much for raising him as the child he'd been at first. Even Kakashi – pervert that he was – had tried to preserve his 'cute student's' innocence, but the snake sannin had waved his hand and pretended not to notice when he snuck out to the post towns in Sound.
Finally, they arrived at a small door between two buildings, almost hidden in the shadow of the bar beside it. Itachi pushed in the wooden door, and gestured for Sasuke to follow though wearing his older henge.
Inside was a small room, with a conveyor down one side. A middle-aged man stood behind it, and his hands seemed permanently reddened from the blood of bounty-heads. Sitting across on the benches to other side were a two younger women arguing about pay. They had no hitai-ites but Sasuke was willing to bet that they were kunoichi. Not all shinobi seen without hitai-ite were necessarily dangerous, after all. If a civilian left a village, they were on vacation. If a shinobi left, they became a missing-nin.
"Calm down," the bounty shop owner barked out to them. "You can split it, it doesn't matter which one of you fought more. There's only one head here and the pay is enough to buy lots of sake for two."
The shop quieted and the kunoichi reluctantly accepted that and settled to shooting each other dangerous looks. Then they turned to peer curiously at the two young men who had just entered. Sasuke wondered about the quality of a henge made with his seven-year-old chakra pathways, but they didn't seem to see anything different.
Itachi walked over to the conveyor-counter. "We're here to inquire about a person we want to find," he said simply. "And we thought you might know, since the one we're looking for has the largest capture-or-kill bounty Sunagakure has ever offered." His polite words seemed completely out of place in the establishment, and the two kunoichi watching snickered.
Sasuke started at that. He hadn't known about her bounty. All the Sannin had bounties – every powerful shinobi who could boast a-rank jonin skills had one – but he'd only ever heard the figure for Orochimaru's. Konoha offered one-hundred-million ryo for him.
The man raised an eyebrow. "Just to confirm, who is this we're talking about?" For some reason, there was a small smile playing at his lips, like he was about to laugh.
Itachi frowned. "Senju Tsunade-sama. We wish to know where she is."
At that, the man really did burst into laughter. The two listening in began to chuckle as well, and Sasuke sighed.
"You … you came to the information market to ask about the Legendary Sucker?!" The bounty-collector heaved. "You must be real wet around the ears! That's like coming here asking where the Hokage is!"
Sasuke declined to point out that at this time that would indeed be a valid question.
Itachi didn't show any difference in his expression. "Will you tell us where she is?"
He wiped tears from his eyes. "You passed at least twenty establishments on your way here who would've given you that info in a heartbeat. Well, Senju Tsunade – who my profession usually calls 'three-hundred-million' – was here in Suikazura around two weeks ago. Since then, I've heard she's moved west to escape a few debt-collectors."
"'West' is a rather vague description," Sasuke pointed out, lowering his voice from its seven-year-old pitch. "Can you give us any details?"
The man raised an eyebrow. With a slight sigh, Itachi handed over the few coins that had been in the bag Fukurou had left them.
"There's a small place, Sugi no Sato, near the western borders of the country," the bounty-collector told them, dropping the coins into a drawer behind the conveyor. "It's known for its woodworking. I would suggest heading there, you can make it by tomorrow evening if you travel at that speed you shinobi always use for missions."
Behind them, the two kunoichi went back to counting out the money, seeing that their entertainment was finished. Sasuke looked across at his brother, who nodded. They said their thanks and left the small building, emerging into the red-light district outside in the afternoon air.
"We'll head to Sugi in the morning, after Fukurou arrives. She won't be able to keep running between us and Konoha at such a distance, so it will be the last time we see her until we return," Itachi told him. "We won't have any information lines for a while, then. I only hope Konoha will remain standing until Tsunade-sama returns."
They set out the tents in a small clearing outside Suizakura like they'd said, and Fukurou arrived just as the sun began to fall. Itachi had sent out a single black crow to fly circles above them, and she'd appeared in the small clearing within seconds.
"I have news," she called, pushing out from between the trees. "And it's not good."
"Well, come have a ration bar, then," Sasuke said dryly. "Make yourself comfortable. It's not like your bad news is any worse than ours." His mood was sour, and it showed. But at this point she was useful and he had to keep reminding himself that he hated her. Fukurou came to sit across from them near the tent and looked momentarily amused at seeing such emotion on a seven-year-old face.
"Our news isn't so bad," Itachi told him with a frown. "We simply need to travel more quickly. What did you learn, Fukurou-san?"
She sighed. "It's messed up, that's what I learned. They took the Jinchuuriki and the daughter of Konoha's head of Intelligence."
Sasuke started. "Naruto was kidnapped?" Maybe those were slight pangs of guilt he felt. After all, they'd left him by himself in an apartment any shinobi could break into. But Sandaime-sama was supposed to have protected him, it was his fault.
There was silence in the darkening clearing as Itachi considered that with a frown. Sasuke could tell that he blamed himself, like he'd always done. Finally, he ran a hand through his long hair and spoke in a weary tone. "They are alive, though, aren't they?"
She shrugged. "They should be. No sane person would risk killing him, and the Yamanaka girl could be useful as a bargaining piece. Hound-taichou says that he's planning on rescuing them, though. But the fact remains that the Uchiha now have a slight upper hand, and the anbu aren't nearly as well coordinated. We've planned this for years, after all. If one of the other clans decides to join them, it will be equal on all fronts. And they're aiming for the Hyuga, clearly. Pass me another," she held her hand out for a ration bar.
Itachi pulled one out from the side of the bag and handed it to her. "Then we have another thing to worry about…" he sighed. "This … is going worse than I assumed."
The stupid guilt was there again. But the dobe was … resilient. Somehow, Sasuke couldn't ever see him dying. Naruto would most probably live a long life and infect the world with his orange-ness like he'd done before. He gritted his teeth. "Leave it to your taichou," he said. If Kakashi put his mind to something like this, he would do it. Sasuke knew his strength better than most.
Itachi gave him a long, measured look. In the slightly darkening sky, his face was pale and the lines under his eyes were prominent. "You knew him?" He asked softly. "You knew Hound?"
Sasuke nodded, "he was my jonin-sensei." He wasn't sure why his brother looked vaguely guilty.
Fukurou smirked. "Taichou will never be a jonin-sensei," she said matter-of-factly. "He hates children."
"I know. He failed many teams before us. This is probably the year he left anbu," he went on thoughtfully. "Yes, if he leaves anbu at this time, he would fail all five genin teams before mine. Sometime this year."
Her fingers dug into the dark grass of the clearing. "Taichou will never leave anbu. He said he'd stay until he died."
There was something in the way she said it, something that made him pause. Her clay mask was on her hip, revealing her usually expressionless face. No mere subordinate would look like that upon hearing that her superior was leaving. Why were her hands digging into the ground like that, as if he'd just announced her funeral date?
Wolf is like her
Did Hound-taicho send you?
She still sees Wolf whenever the clan doesn't require her home.
…he has a few names, but you can call him Hound.
It didn't take him long to understand, but he kept quiet because he knew why Itachi-nii had kept it from him.
Sensing the tension that permeated the area, Itachi stood up and looked around the dark clearing, and the two tents that had been set up. "It's getting cold. Maybe we should heat the area a little."
"Yes, we should," Fukurou made no move to stand.
"You … didn't bring a lighter, Fukurou-san?"
"We'll do it the old-fashioned way," she shrugged. "Go collect some twigs, and katon-jutsu it is."
He nodded and left, leaping easily back into the trees. When he was gone, Sasuke turned to her. She was still sitting with her back to the tent pole, absently examining her nails with a blank look.
"You sleep with Hound, don't you?" He asked plainly. "He's the one you betrayed aniki for. He's called 'Wolf', too."
The blankness faded into a wry smile. "How old are you?"
"Older than you."
"Then yes," she sighed when she saw the slight anger on his face. "Stop looking at me like that. Taichou's just a good lay. And he's not stupidly complicated like your brother. I don't have to walk on eggshells around him."
"If this is how you walk on eggshells, then I'd hate to see you when you don't," Sasuke told her. Now that it was confirmed, he didn't know what to think. But the clan was doomed, and there was no more reason for her to marry aniki, so he let the anger quell slightly. No, it was the thought of Kakashi doing it that made it strange. Kakashi was a well-known closet-pervert, but for some reason, Sasuke couldn't see him sleeping with a girl so much younger.
He sighed mentally when he remembered that Kakashi was so much younger.
"Why him?" He asked. "He was my jonin-sensei in the future. He was the most confirmed bachelor in the village."
She crossed her arms. "Taichou still is. It's not like you think. That's not possible in anbu, unless you're very specialized like Yuugao-san and have that much free time."
Sasuke wondered why she was answering. She seemed like the type who didn't answer, who'd leave people hanging. But when he asked about Kakashi, she was open. He settled back against the pole of the other tent, looking into the trees and waiting for Itachi's return. "You don't need to keep calling him 'taichou' around me," he muttered. "It's disorienting." Kakashi had never been 'sensei', let alone 'taichou'.
Fukurou didn't say anything.
That was enough as a hint. "You don't know his name?" Sasuke asked incredulously, sitting up. How could a person possibly sleep with someone whose name they didn't know? Even he had slightly-awkwardly managed to ask the Sound girls he'd been with what he should call them. He suspected that they'd lied to him, since their names had always been ridiculously flowery-sounding and they'd probably done those things for a living, but that was Sound. Sound had been questionable, ever since Orochimaru had taken over. Sound was different from Konoha; people didn't do these things in Konoha.
Fukurou had the sense to look slightly peeved. "Well, names don't matter in anbu," she said. "I've only ever known him as Hound."
"You must be a silent one," Sasuke told her dryly, rather crudely.
She seemed slightly amused to hear that from a seven-year-old. "I'm not. I'm loud as hell. But I don't say any names, so it's fine." She paused. "Tell me," she said quietly. "I want to know."
"What happened to 'names don't matter in anbu'?"
"They don't," Fukurou hissed. "Only taichou's name matters. Tell me."
Sasuke didn't know why he said it. Maybe it was because the previous anger was fading away, and it was replaced with a sort of indignation for someone who slept with a nameless person, and was liked in return by a person who thought her nameless. Or maybe it was because it didn't matter, because Owl seemed to be as much her name as Fukurou. But he told her sensei's name, and she nodded and looked back out into the night.
Slowly, steadily, Hinata put together what she saw; what the burning in her eyes was telling her. The story that managed to weave frightened her more than anything. She remained under her blankets, small form shaking with fear. She refused to see the medic.
Hiashi came to her room that evening. She heard the door slide open, and the firm footsteps left no doubt of his identity. She'd long memorized the sound of otou-san's footsteps. He stopped near the futon.
"Hinata. Take that blanket off. If there is a problem, see the medic. Or everyone will think you are frightened to fight Neji. This is disgraceful."
There were tinges of worry in his voice, but she couldn't detect them. All she understood was that otou-san was angry with her again, and that the pictures she'd just seen with her eyes would be the demise of their clan.
In one smooth tug, the blanket was pulled away. Hinata reached up to cover her eyes with her hands.
"Is there something wrong with your eyes?" Hiashi could see the threads of veins at her temples. "If there is, you must see a medic. Remove your hands."
With a sense of dread, she let her hands fall.
There was silence in the room as her father leaned in to peer at her face. His own veined eyes spotted the extra pathways almost immediately, and his breath hitched. Slowly, he brought up one hand to inspect the side of her face.
"When did this start happening?" He breathed.
Hinata stayed still, allowing him to see her Byakugan. There was no use lying to otou-san. "When t-they took m-me to Lightning."
Hiashi nodded absently, still engrossed. "Yes, that would make sense. An experience like that …" Then he paused and gave her a searching look. "Why did you stay in your room all day? What did you see?"
"Otou-san, w-what is this?" She mumbled the question.
It was a long time before he answered and when he did, it was reluctant. "This is the Enkaku Byakugan that we have only ever read of. Things like these are pulled out only by trauma, but I'm sure your younger self would have been thoroughly traumatized by that experience. It is like the Mangekyou the Uchiha once had, but it sees more. What did you see?" He asked again.
Hinata looked at him, and the questions swirled around in her head. 'How do I make it go away?' was at the front of her mind. But she ignored them, because the relief that it wasn't actually real evaded any doubts. Now she had to answer otou-san. It took a while to summon the courage to say it.
"They t-took me," she stuttered. "To h-hold against the clan. I w-was held in a cell." The moment the words were out, the pain in her eyes began to fade and her Byakugan deactivated itself.
There was silence again, before Hiashi's characteristically calm eyes became shaded over with hints of anger. He let go of her chin and stood. "I see. That is startling indeed. It is good that you have remained safe, here." His voice grew lower, "it seems that Konoha's discordance runs deeper than we once thought."
He looked back at her, and Hinata stumbled to her feet, confused that he didn't seem angry with her any longer. No, now he looked almost pensive. Appraising. It was a different look from any she'd gotten from him before.
He was looking at her like he usually looked at Hanabi-chan.
"K-Kakashi..."
The moment the moan escaped, she knew she was in trouble. She hadn't meant to say it, but it had come out and now she didn't know what to do. He pulled swiftly away from her, standing there quietly and watched her from behind masked eyes.
They were near the west entrance of the village, a mostly hidden place that led in to the anbu headquarters. Her chest was pressed to a tree in the forest outside. It was dark outside and she could barely see her hands in front of her. In a few hours, it would be morning. The lack of those cold hands sweeping across her was painful. Fukurou turned over quickly to face him, feeling like a fish out of water, not knowing what to say.
"Where did you hear that?" Kakashi asked in a low voice.
The cold expression came back over her face in a type of self-protection. "It doesn't matter, does it? I don't know much else anyway, not that I've had any time or opportunity to look into it."
He said nothing.
"My name is Uchiha Fukurou," she said quickly. "I'm the only daughter of Uchiha Teyaki and Uchiha Haruki. You can know that." Fukurou knew that people liked to have upper hands over others. If taichou wanted an upper hand over her, that was fine. Because he cared about those things and she didn't care at all. She was Owl more than she had ever been Fukurou anyway.
"Where did you hear that?" He asked again. "Did Crow tell you?"
It was close enough. She nodded.
Kakashi frowned. "How did he know?"
"His name is Uchiha Itachi," she said quietly. "You've already heard of him. That should tell you enough." Simply saying the name of the Uchiha prodigy was enough. Taichou would make up the rest by himself. "Are you going, now?" It felt strange to leave so suddenly, but she wouldn't be the one left behind. She liked him – and not just in the naked way. But she figured she could survive.
But he was beside her again, pressing her back to the tree. His mouth pressed onto hers and she almost sunk to her knees in relief. Kakashi drew away. "You're not allowed to call me that," he said, lips moving against the shell of her ear. "Everyone who says it like that dies. I'm Hound and you're Owl. So don't say that again."
The Enkaku Byakugan allows her to see the future as it could be. The idea belongs to pheonixyfriend, who has kindly given me permission to use it.
Some of you asked how I write so quickly. Well, I write continuously in the gaps (on the bus, on the train, during a boring class). It helps that I do write for a living and therefore know how to follow a schedule. And by 'for a living' I mean 'for tuition money', because studying is my life. Student problems.
Feedback? Fill your niceness-quota for the day by cheering up an overworked student...