The Sooner It Will
Act 2-1: Take the Bull by the Horns
.o0o.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.
WARNING: KakaNaru, ie. YAOI, ie. Male/Male. Also, Naruto is 10.5~10.75 years old. DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT LIKE.
AN: gen, pretty much. Dubious flirting?
Acknowledgements: Thanks to Vanillasauce, Grey-shadow-horse, and bellefleur29 for prompts that helped write this chapter. Also thanks to Wingwyrm and romantiscue for audiencing and hand-holding.
...previously...
Because Kakashi finds himself looking at his armful of boy, at tanned skin and pretty eyes and sunlit hair, and finds himself thinking not only that he is beautiful, which is only the truth, but that Naruto is remarkable and wonderful and hot.
I'm so fucked. Kakashi thinks, wide-eyed.
[...]
He's going to take a bunch of missions, he thinks, deeply disgusted at himself. He's going to get back to Konoha, turn in his mask, and immediately take whatever S or A rank they have on hand.
Maybe a long one.
Naruto plops into his seat near the back of the class with a satisfied sigh. It's nice to get back into his routine after skipping the entire last week for the attack on Orochimaru's base. Even though all his teachers are probably pissed off at him for disappearing, he thinks, catching the chuunin's stinkeye. But it's not like he hadn't been sleeping through class the entire month anyway, since a whole four weeks was dedicated to tactics and battlefield awareness, so he doesn't really see what the big deal is. Some people, Naruto knows, because most of the Academy teachers are living proof, have no sense of proportion, 'cause if someone really wants to learn then they will, and if you force it on them it'd just dribble out of their ears the moment the teacher's head is turned.
He leans back and does his usual complete survey of the room whenever he's left for more than a couple days; no change in the non-clan members, nor with the Aburame (though it's hard to tell with that one), the Hyuuga looks a bit more cowed (there must have been a recent practical), the Nara, Akimichi, and Inuzuka look somewhat more bored than before and really frustrated (odd), and the Yamanka seems to be kinda not as warm to that civilian girl she'd been mentoring. Huh. Naruto frowns.
It's no accident that there were so many clan heirs from major clans their year; and it was almost solely the fault of the Ino-Shika-Cho triad who's wanted their children born close together. The other clan heads realized once they'd news of the pregnancies that it would mean not only a semi-formal, semi-permanent clan alliance of three powerful clans should the team reform, but also that the Ino-Shika-Cho children would be the eldest, and thus most experienced, heirs of their generation. If there were no other clan heirs of comparable age and experience to those three, then leadership of their age group would default to them. And given the three clan's alliance, fighting strength, and collective prestige, they'd take leadership of at least five years worth of graduating classes above them as well as of all those below.
Within two months of an overhead conversation at the Akimichi's BBQ restaurant, the Inuzuka, Aburame, and Hyuuga announced pregnancies as well. Within a third, after what appeared to be some sort of internal clan struggle, the Uchiha followed.
Or at least, that's what Naruto understands from the briefing he'd been given four years ago. None of the clans were particularly surprised that, of the three concurrent classes at the Academy, that their heirs were all placed in the same one. The Hokage's sure they'd warned their children to be especially careful about revealing too much of themselves and their abilities to their teachers, and any adults who'd appeared to be observing their classes. Naruto thinks its a lucky break for Jii-san that he ended up just about the right age to be assigned to watch them too, 'cause he's a little more than half a year older than everyone else, but it's not like he looks it. Its classified as a C-rank mission because of it's importance to the Hokage, and because it was so long-term, and 'cause it'd be difficult or annoying for the average nin. But the mission's fairly easy for Naruto since, hey, he actually was an Academy student for about half its subjects and its not like he'd have to hold a de-age henge for half a day, every day.
About every two weeks or so, as Uwan, he reports any observations he has of the heirs, be it about personality, ability, or general trends he's sensing regarding their immediate family or their clans. He's sure his reports are cross-referenced with those of the teachers because sometimes he senses them watching too, but the teachers can't be everywhere, and some things you just hide from those in charge.
And some things those in charge don't seem to care about, despite how they should.
The fact that the pink-haired girl with the full civilian background is apparently in the process of a falling out with the Yamanaka is a matter of deep concern, and, Naruto eyes the teachers, apparently only he thinks so. He's frankly amazed that his classmate has lasted so long despite having no shinobi relatives in Konoha, 'cause it meant not having any genetic predisposition towards combat or anyone to train with. If she did have any shinobi blood, it was from before her family moved to the village; he knows 'cause he'd looked her up, out of curiosity.
So pretty much all her ability as a shinobi is hers. Every twist that she'd pushed her chakra coils into to increase capacity was hard fought; none of it were patterns passed on from being in her mother's womb. None of her strength was lent to her from her father's genes.
Naruto's impressed by her, 'cause while even with all her work she was still a very weak Academy student, physically, she was a really, really strong civilian. And she understands things the fastest of anyone in the class, clan or non-clan, if it was something they were all learning at the same time instead of something the clans taught beforehand. And Naruto sees this.
He's not sure anyone else does, though, 'cause if you were to look at the class as a whole, she's somewhere near the very bottom whenever they spar or train or do anything physical. And not many people expect more from her, certainly not her parents who probably already think she's freakishly strong, and not from the teachers who have her background checks and know exactly how civilian she is. The Yamanaka had worked with her before, on the physical part, and had encouraged her to try her best despite not being from a clan and the pink-haired girl pretty much bloomed under the praise.
But now Naruto watches as she whips out a single flawless bushin on her first try, turn to the Yamanaka who didn't smile at her, and then look away disappointed. He thinks it would be a damn shame if the girl didn't end up being shinobi.
Sakura, Naruto thinks, that's her name. I should figure out how to help her, he decides. 'Cause she's awesome and the village always needs more awesome, and more female nin.
Or, well, the village always needs more strong shinobi, and female nin always give birth to strong shinobi. The medic-nins that Naruto overhears sometimes during his followups to the growth plate operation seem to bicker every other visit or so about whether it was the being borne by a female nin that was important, or if it was the fact that one shinobi parent has survived long enough and was good enough at their job to be able to consider going off-duty for a couple months to bear a child. They'd be arguing for at least almost four years now, Naruto thinks, mentally snorting.
He lets his eye rove over the class during the lecture on ambushes, a version of which Hibagon already gave him and that he'd already put into practice several times during the past week alone. It's kinda neat that he could sorta tell who the other kids are and where they were going just by how interested they were. Those wanting to be shinobi from clans look mildly interested but mostly bored. The civilians and those who either didn't want to be shinobi or knew they would fail the shinobi tests look just about uniformly bored as well, though some (mostly boys) paid attention to the stories of old battles. Only the clanless wanting to be shinobi look fully interested, and depending on the person, almost feverish at the anecdotes and explanations.
Naruto wonders how long it would take them realize that they would most likely never get past genin rank, if that. At least half the class knew already, judging from the glazed looks, but then their parents probably already told them their expectations of their children 'failing'.
'Failed' Academy students, and some genin depending on their skill set and physical capabilities, instead of returning to a completely civilian job such as in the food service are usually funneled into being a part of Konoha's auxiliary civilian support. This includes jobs such as non-combat medics, information processing (either pure paperwork or chakra-based and aiding the intel branches at ANBU), chakra sensoring with the barrier squads, seal-work, chakra-blade smithing, or any other such infrastructure duties that require the knowledge and ability to mold chakra. That they had some self-defense abilities and a bit of physical conditioning, in a sensitive military environment, was also a perk. For all that they 'fail' out of the Academy and are never considered other than civilian, this work was still somewhat better paid and far more highly respected than purely civilian duties, as well as being safer than aiming to be shinobi. Thus most families try to enter their children into the Academy whether or not they actually wanted them to end up in combat.
Some, like Sakura, get caught up in the 'coolness' of being a nin, so they end up trying hard to be shinobi anyways. There's usually some surprises graduating every year, but not many, and at first when Naruto noticed the fail rate he'd gone to Jii-san and complained about the unfairness of studying so hard only to get nowhere. But then the Hokage explained about 'failing', and then how they wouldn't want someone unprepared in the field. It made him feel a bit better until he realized that even with that, most genin tend to quit early. Or die.
Naruto buries his face into his crossed arms and clenches his jaw. He needs to figure out a better way around that, too, when he becomes Hokage. Its such a waste.
"Finally back," the Inuzuka, Kiba his mind reminds him, whispers. "Where'd you go off to anyways? The teachers couldn't find you and were pretty pissed."
"Oh, I was around. I hide well." They were probably more pissed that they couldn't find him, Naruto grins mentally. The teachers tend to like to lord their shinobi skills over him in particular, and Naruto's pretty sure its because of the Nine Tails. From everything he's heard, meeting the demon's kinda like a metaphorical kick in the nuts and pretty much left everyone feeling helpless, so they try to take it out on him, and Naruto understands this. He doesn't have to like it though, and it's not like he wasn't on assignment from the Hokage himself, this time, either.
"'Sides," Naruto adds confidently, "I'm awesome, and I don't need to learn this anyways." He doesn't, literally, 'cause he already knows it, but its part of his cover to act more stupid than he actually is. Mujina told him it would help get the other kids' guard's down so that he could observe them better, and being the class delinquent would help cover for his absences.
"Wait until I kick your ass during spars before you say that," Kiba smirks. "Anyway, my clan already went over this and I was bored as hell last week. You're so lucky you can ditch."
"Eeeh, it's not that hard." Naruto mutters out of the corner of his mouth. Their teacher was glancing their way.
Kiba snorts, "Says you. I don't know how you do it, but I swear when I try to cut class it's like they have my mom's nose."
Naruto thinks here in his class are his generation's leaders, the ones who will probably end up as jounin and probably even Jounin Commander, end up as captains and as ANBU captains. So he smiles wide and asks, just barely loud enough to be heard several seats away, "Wanna come with me next time?" He can teach a thing or two to Kiba about stealth along the way.
"Hell yeah."
The Akimichi pauses mid-chew, just a little, and the Nara moves his head towards them in a somewhat listening tilt. They don't answer like Kiba did, but he could tell they heard him and were thinking about it.
Score, Naruto grins.
"Ikiryou-sensei?" Uwan half-ran up the tree, then pushed off to grab a branch and haul himself up to the one Ikiryou was sitting on. The boy must still be having difficulty with the tree-walking exercise, he thought. He made a mental note to inform Hibagon.
"Uwan, I'm not your sensei anymore."
"What?"
He was always amazed at how loud the boy could be, and yet still be able to turn around and hide so well. "There's nothing else I can teach you. That's not what I called you here for."
"Mm, but sensei doesn't mean just 'teacher'. You're still a master at stealth an' I can't take that away from you, so I'll still call you sensei, like I still call Mujina-san sensei!"
"If you'd like." Ikiryou can sense the grin even from behind that mask, and it made his lips tug upwards despite himself. It's true that, despite not directly being his teacher for years now, the boy still called the infiltrations expert 'sensei' even though he might be considered her peer. He'd not thought that he deserved the same fondness and courtesy, though granted that was tied into how he was still feeling at sending Uwan into Yatomaru's bed. However if it made Uwan happy to refer to him as sensei he would not refuse the boy.
"Why did you call me here, sensei?" Uwan chirruped happily in response.
"Watch." Ikiryou tilted his head towards the training grounds. They observed the ANBU slipping around the shadows for a bit.
"Eeh? Are they," the tiny shoulders leaned forward on the branch, and he prepared to catch the boy just in case, "Are they trying to be stealthy?"
Ikiryou nodded and sighed. "Training exercise, I'd been assigned to improve the Combat teams' abilities in my area of expertise." He'd been attempting to phase out of the assassination branch of ANBU for several years now, had been ever since he'd gotten a taste of teaching, via Uwan, and realized that he could be of service to his Hokage with more than just killing. But attempting to teach this new group has been discouraging and he'd invited Uwan over for a fresh perspective and to try to remember how he'd taught the boy.
"And are they trying to catch that one over there?"
"Yes. The debriefings from the attacks on Orochimaru's bases indicated a need for stealth-work during capture and containment maneuvers." Several capture attempts had actually fouled up enough to alert the compound to their presence ahead of schedule, a situation which happened at both of the bases. Many of those marked for capture had to be exterminated instead. "The Hokage assigned me to oversee their training."
"Um, isn't trying to capture someone without letting them or other people know they're being hunted kinda basic?"
Ikiryou shrugged, "Not really. You've mostly seen Infiltrations work so you can't have known, but staying low key and silent is more Assassinations than Combat."
"Right, and Assassinations don't 'capture' by definition," Uwan tilted his head in a nod. "And I'm guessing Combat rarely bother with studying up on stealth?"
"They're not incompetent," he felt the need to point out, due to the boy's dismissive tone.
"But they could be better."
Ikiryou stayed silent. They both watched the shinobi's movements some more.
"They're overconfident." Uwan said at length.
"Yes."
"And they've worked together too much, they can anticipate each other."
It was a good point, Ikiryou frowned. While it was good for teamwork, and not surprising due to the nature of the Combat and Tactics branch, it made the exercise considerably less effective. He'd previously only gave tips and lessons to his own branch, who'd seemed to pick up the concepts easily after an explanation or two.
"I think they need something like a live exercise," said Uwan thoughtfully.
"I can requisition a trip out." It would probably be well worth it, these ANBU were much too stilted in the familiar training grounds.
Uwan's blink was audible. "But, there's a village right here."
"You are thinking of—"
"And I can help out! I'm pretty sure I've never met those guys down there so they wouldn't be able to anticipate me."
Ikiryou gently coughed instead of snorting, most nin wouldn't be able to anticipate Uwan anyway. But his idea had merit. "You'd be willing to be the one they'd attempt to catch?"
"It'd be good practice!"
"And if I'm understanding you right, you wish to hold a stealth exercise focusing on capture and detainment in Konoha proper?" He worked out the logistics in his head, "As close to a live simulation as possible? Perhaps with you as a 'spy'."
"Nah, that's too obvious, and doesn't get people fired up enough like they would be when it really mattered." There were wheels turning in that blond head from the tone of his voice, and while Ikiryou understood what the boy was getting at (stealth was much harder when one was emotionally keyed up) he was a bit nervous. That was the same tone of voice Uwan had before he worked out his variant of the Kakuremino, and made Ikiryou fall off a tree.
Keeping a careful grip on the branch he prompted, "How do you propose to get ANBU 'fired up'?"
The boy hummed innocently, "You know, there's been these pranks I've been meaning to try."
"Pranks." Ikiryou repeated.
"Yeah. But not with property damage. Well, much, anyways, and nothing permanent!"
Uwan's results spoke for themselves, and while he would bet that this new idea will give his village stronger shinobi, and in fact would bet so strongly as to already start figuring out the paperwork he'd have to file-
Ikiryou mentally apologized to Konoha.
Pranks.
He resisted the urge to put his palm to his face. (It was covered by the ceramic mask anyway.)
Kakashi stood there and did not know what to say.
Not that he ever really said anything out loud, there, but. But.
The wind was blowing and the grass was beneath his feet and in the air and he didn't know-
He stared at the memorial stone.
He has the sense that Obito was waiting for him, and what he usually would have done was to go over whatever happened during the days inbetween when he could not make it to the stone. Obito had given his life for Kakashi, so Kakashi felt the need to give of his life in return.
But as Kakashi recalled blue eyes looking up at him, and all the different ways that they looked, he didn't think that Obito wanted to be given that. (He doesn't know that he wants to give, Obito, that.)
"Kakashi?"
He blinks, and realizes that the shadows have moved. How long had he been there?
"Aa?" He stares at the sun, "It's 4pm." He states this blankly.
"Yeah," Naruto peers at him, curiousity making his head tilt, mostly hidden in the tree-line. Sunlight peeking through the leaves strokes the tanned cheeks and tangles itself in the blond's hair. It makes his fingers itch.
"I'm needed at a meeting," Kakashi murmurs, "An hour ago."
"'kay." Softly. "Catch you later?"
He lifts up a hand in farewell even as he goes, and tries to not let his mind linger on the faint disappointment in the boy's face. Its the third time he's dodged the blond.
It is not precisely springtime but it still feels like it; Gai is glad that Kakashi has finally left ANBU. Normally shinobi assigned to the Assassination division serve for a term of only three or four years, due to the mental stress. Because whereas branches such as Interrogations and Combat have inherent safeguards, Interrogations because one is constantly working among peers trained and on the look-out for psychological irregularities and Combat because there's usually more guard duty than battle involved, Assassinations are more often than not solo and consistently immersed the nin in death.
Kakashi had been with ANBU under the Assasination division for almost nine years now and while he'd often worked with Combat and Tactics, the incidences were always battle-related. Gai should know, he'd been involved in most of the major assaults in question and asked around after he'd noticed his yearmate (and his distinctive hair) appearing more than once. He'd left ANBU himself only a year ago, despite being in the Combat branch for only five years, because he'd kept getting tapped for duties that involved ending life rather than protecting it.
Gai had originally become a shinobi to protect life.
It had all made him feel distinctly unyouthful and more aged with every trip out. And while he'd still felt a strong sense of duty to Konoha, he'd realized that should he stay longer with the Black Ops it wouldn't be him anymore serving his village. And it seemed wrong to let someone else protect the things he loved.
Gai is not quite sure what Kakashi fights for, other than duty. He didn't even seem to like much of anything let alone care for it.
Fifteen years ago, Gai was an Academy student and stared at this silver-haired boy who was the same age as him, but already chuunin. There was a driven light in his yearmate's eyes then, that Gai had found inspiring and he'd resolved to match the other boy, despite being at the tail end of their class.
But then years passed, people passed, and the drive that had been there in his youth seemed to fall away from Kakashi's eyes, to leave apathy and boredom. Gai had become stronger than many people ever thought possible, because he's set himself against the best nin of their year, and then one day he'd realized that maybe Kakashi needs a goal too.
That was the first day Gai Challenged his Rival, to a taijutsu match, which Gai won handily because Kakashi hadn't been trying. He shouted his disapproval and then ceaselessly rubbed it in, loudly and in very public places, to encourage Kakashi to participate better in their next challenge. And it worked.
Gai thinks he should celebrate Kakashi leaving ANBU with a Challenge, something perhaps psychological, like rock-paper-scissors. He likes throwing rock, but Kakashi knows that he likes throwing rock, but he knows that Kakashi knows, and also that, even if Kakashi knows that he knows, that Kakashi has a fondness for scissors. But the Copy Nin may throw rock if he was feeling juvenile.
Hmmm. Tricky.
Gai catches his Eternal Rival in the afternoon, as he's heading into the missions office. The silver-haired man stares down at the finger pointing at his nose, which on anyone else would make them cross-eyed (since Sharingan no Kakashi doesn't have another uncovered eye to cross it with, he isn't), and replies, "Mmm something fast. Rock paper scissors?"
"Aha! You read my mind!" Gai proclaims, already processing. Kakashi isn't one to suggest challenges usually, and normally it takes anywhere from eight to fifteen minutes to even convince him to agree to one. And the man looks.
Strange, he looks hunted. Eye roving over the exits in a way that may seem disinterested had Gai not been with him during several missions that went south and so now recognizes the set of his shoulders.
On a hunch, on their count of three, Gai throws scissors.
Kakashi throws paper. Looks the faintest bit surprised, but nods in acceptance and walks away with a wave.
Gai frowns even as he shouts his victory. Kakashi never threw paper unless they'd lost someone on a mission.
"Iwa." Kakashi states, "You want to send me on a 'diplomatic mission' to Iwa."
Sarutobi nodded.
"You recall, I hope, that I was trained by the Yellow Flash?" the Copy Nin asked lazily.
"Yes," he grimaced at his pipe and moved to refill it.
"So you mean I breathe down their necks and look dangerous and make sure negotiations go our way, while staying alive and making it look easy?"
"I'm glad you understand." The boy was always quick on the uptake, Sarutobi thought, and what'd just been described was a skill he'd wanted Kakashi to hone because he'd too often honed making himself look haphazard instead.
Orochimaru taps a question onto his mental 'shoulder' and wonders if that meant he'd been training the snake sennin for the Hokage seat too, back then, with those assignments.
Yes, Hiruzen replied. It makes his student go very still.
Kakashi nodded and left.
Sarutobi sat, and frowned down at the missive he'd just received from the Toad Sage. Apparently this 'Akatsuki' had an interest in the Tailed Beasts, though for what purpose was yet to be determined. When he probed Orochimaru, his student just ignores him and there's actually a feeling of deep unease and discomfort before his student again burrows his way into the library of the Professors' mind.
Hiruzen let him, the process of learning had always seemed to soothe the boy when he was young and there was time enough to ask him again. Though for something to make his student so disconcerted, well...
Sarutobi knew that the snake sennin feared little but death and stillness. So the unease must be connected to something that had a chance of killing his student. However, Orochimaru was strong, and Hiruzen has enough honesty to know that had it been a fair fight, the outcome of their battle would have been chancy. Which meant, in the end, that this 'Akatsuki' must have had at least one other Kage-level nin besides Orochimaru, if not more; strong enough to make the snake sennin fear for his life.
And that was a matter for concern.
He wondered if it tied in at all with the rumblings from Kiri and the unrest in Kusa that Tsunade had mentioned last time she made contact more than a half year ago.
She'd originally left because of two pointless deaths. When her lover passed, and still not recovered from her brother's death, she'd screamed of her loss and denial against him, and of the uselessness of the war, challenge all up and down her spine, and he'd thought that perhaps she'd been ready. He'd then offered her his hat and the chance to make changes but she stilled, and pressed her hand to her necklace.
"I won't be responsible for more of this," she'd said, mostly to herself, expressionless. She'd ended up staying until the wars ended (as the Second and Third wars more like a single war with a brief ceasefire), watched Konoha get settled under Minato's leadership, and then left with Dan's niece in tow before the girl could get sucked into ANBU. He didn't have the heart to make her stay and if he'd used force there would be no chance of convincing her to return to the village thereafter. She'd been on the edge of turning missing-nin.
Nevertheless, her loyalty was still to Konoha, and every year or so he'd get a message from her with some bit of knowledge that would have otherwise hurt the village.
And when Orochimaru defected, Jiraiya had left as well, to track him, under the cover of a disaffected training trip and general debauchery.
Which made two Kage-level Konoha nin, infamous and powerful by any standard, traipsing around the elemental countries appearing for all intents and purposes to be fooling around and squandering resources. Shinobi who didn't know better scoffed at Konoha, and thought their village weak and underestimated their soldiers. Shinobi who saw underneath, wondered. That Konoha could spare two nin of this power in the field made those outsiders wonder what sort of power they've kept close to home. It also made them suspect that it could be just a cover and that Konoha had an ulterior motive for sending their Kage-level shinobi so far abroad for so many years.
In the end, it both gave their nin an advantage in the field and kept the other countries on their toes, which suited Sarutobi just fine.
Jiraiya settled back on the divan, a girl on each arm. He was relaxed insomuch as he could be while being not-stared-at by the pitch black eyes that had been following him for past couple months.
It'd been only the early afternoon when they'd wrapped up the siege at Orochimaru's other base; apparently his teammate had stripped the place of it's best fighters for his travel retinue. Jiraiya had been off a-ways from the cleanup, filling up his nose with air that smelled clean instead of bloody, when he'd noticed movement from the west. A pale-haired nin strode into his clearing about ten minutes later, making noise, calm, confident.
"Yakushi Kabuto," the teenager had introduced himself, bowing. "I have information you may need."
"Oh?" Jiraiya had looked at him, and let exactly how unimpressed he was spread across his face. The bespeckled youth considered him thoughtfully, stripping his gaze slowly down.
"I hear Konoha has defeated Orochimaru? And more specifically, that you were involved in his defeat." it had been said in a deferential way.
"Yes." It was not quite a lie.
"Ah." His eyes had been lowered. Then Kabuto stepped into Jiraiya's shadow in the early afternoon sun, settling it around himself like a cloak, "Then take me."
"Wha—!"
"As your apprentice or as your nin, as your servant or as—," and here those bottomlessly black eyes had stared up at him, "as whatever you wish me as."
There was calmness in those eyes, the sort of calm that came from near madness and Jiraiya saw flickers of a look, of a certain kind of fear that grabbed the soul and twisted it. He remembers the same look from his teammate.
"You must be Orochimaru's equal, or better," the teenager said inexorably, a slide in his voice, a deep hum, "and I had been on a mission for him. I'd attended Kumo's chuunin exams, gathered intel, to prove myself worthy of being," and here the words moved like Kabuto was tasting them as they'd left his mouth, "held safe, by him."
Jiraiya would have liked to retreat a step back but his shinobi instincts told him that he'd needed Kabuto's respect, because the teenager was truly afraid of something on a level the Toad Sage had rarely seen before and Konoha needed to know if it was something they could afford to ignore. Jiraiya's Sage instincts told him that what Kabuto knew could shake the world.
And Jiraiya's writer instincts told him that this scene had promise, beautiful dangerious creature invading the personal space of a great master shinobi with intense eyes and a plea on their lips, leaning in, but did not touch. Why the only thing better would—
"There are people I fear, Jiraiya-sama." Kabuto had murmured, eyes shrieking. And then he'd fallen to his knees like his strings were cut. "Do you know Sasori of the Red Sand?"
Jiraiya had not breathed when the teen kneeled before him, so he could not have answered even if he'd wanted to.
"He is a master of puppets." Kabuto had said, looking up and up, the full length of him, "A master of getting people to do whatever he wants." And the be-speckled youth breathed heavily, shaky, face at crotch level and not even seeming to notice, a smile on his face, slightly feral, and a pleasant easy lilt to his voice, "Do you know what it's like to not be able to control your own body? To fight and have it all be useless?"
He may have some idea, Jiraiya had thought, twitching. God, his mouth is so close.
"He is powerful, and he's working with powerful allies. And he wants me to spy for him."
"And you don't wish to." He was faintly surprised his voice was so steady.
"He does not let you 'wish'. He does not let you choose." Kabuto had said, and swayed closer.
Jiraiya slammed a hand down and pressed it against that pale forehead before it could reach him. It was, Jiraiya's novellist mind noted, like a benediction. Like he'd already agreed.
"Rise. I will not have you like this."
And Kabuto stood up smoothly, a slither that threatened to lean against him, "And will you have me at all?"
It was a test, he knew, but he didn't know what answer the silver-haired teen sought. He was reminded of mirrors, cracked, of pitcher plants and daggers in silk. Jiraiya had looked down at him, "Tell me of these allies of Sasori."
"Is that a yes?"
"Do you actually even know of them?" he'd challenged.
And Kabuto had laughed and stepped away from him and started speaking of a group called Akatsuki, rolling the words and vowels around his mouth like he was tonguing something long and hard.
Jiraiya had mostly, almost, sorta been able to ignore it.
And then here they were. They've been traveling for a couple months now, corroborating Kabuto's statements regarding the Akatsuki's intentions and movements, and the teen was no less troubling. Jiraiya regaled the girls at either arm with tales of his adventures while trying to ignore the feeling of the medic-nin's eyes; Kabuto was off towards the front of the House smiling and being all helpful and pleasant.
His soft voice carried as he offered to give the girls checkups for diseases they might've... picked up.
Jiraiya was almost entirely sure that the teen was doing it on purpose.
Sasori thought, with ice and with steel, that they have ruined art.
Orochimaru had believed in permanence, like him, and had also crafted his body into something deadly and beautiful.
Sasori had thought that when everything fell, when the earth was seared and the sun burned red and dying, when nothing skittered across the ground but bugs, that even then Sasori's art will last. And that then he might turn toward that other man who understood survival as much as he did, and compare their art side-by-side.
But, if the reports he has are to be believed, then, that will never happen now.
The only part of him still alive pounded out it's rage in torrents of chakra. He took it and began to craft. Konoha needed a lesson in permanence.
All in all it'd been a busy three months. Between the Academy, making friends with the clan heirs, planning and carrying out the stealth training runs, and the occasional weekend infiltration missions, he'd barely even managed to fit in the four meetings with Hibagon to actually start working on his taijutsu, one of which was entirely dedicated to getting completely checked over by the medics to finally give him the go-ahead on strength training. And while it doesn't really surprise him that it was difficult to get a glimpse of Kakashi, between their schedules, he would have thought that by the fourth or fifth time Naruto caught him that they'd at least get a decent conversation in.
And then he realizes that Kakashi's been avoiding him.
Troublesome, Shikamaru thinks, as he follows the three out into the field, for a chance for them to be bored outside in the sun rather than bored inside a stuffy room. At least here there were clouds to watch.
He thinks there's something strange about the Uzumaki; the way that the teachers dislike him could be attributed to how he barely does his homework and frequently skips class, but the patterns and severity of it doesn't quite mesh into something that makes sense. Also, the blond had actually kept up just enough work to not completely drop out of the Academy, and was mediocre during the spars instead of poor, despite the eye-raising number of lectures that the blond skipped or slept through.
Shikamaru had about fifty-six theories that had the blond as some variant of genius or idiot savant, with or without some type of learning disability such as auditory dyslexia. Forty-nine theories had some clan member silently being the boy's guardian and tutoring him outside of class; another thirty theories covered situations that didn't include the clans, a good half of which considered the matter of the guy's parentage. The last sixteen theories had the blond as a spy planted by the Hokage to observe the clan heirs; but Shikamaru dismisses that group almost immediately. For one thing, the boy's too loud to be a spy.
For another, Naruto isn't all that observant.
...end chapter 6...
AN: If you're making a face right now let me know! ::grins:: I would love to know what kind of face it is!
...I think, when I wrote that there was "Dubious flirting?" that pretty much no one expected the Jiraiya/Kabuto. HELL, I know *I* didn't, I kinda screamed into my pillow for a couple minutes when my brain smacked me with the idea, 'cause Kabuto's kinda too powerful to be fade-to-blacked without being addressed and then he just made himself at home in Jiraiya's... business. D= I DON'T KNOW HOW IT HAPPENED. I'm sorry?
As for Sasori and Orochimaru, that's just a friendship, sorta kinda; I think he's kinda too emotionally stunted even for that. Also, he doesn't have the proper bits... though now my brain's trying to work that out logically and- ARGH SOMEONE STOP ME. ::facepalm::
And, y'know, not much KakaNaru interaction here. But look! Setup! Worldbuilding! Angst!
...yeah I know, not much excuse. ^^; Um. There's smut in the future? Or there's always the Foxwife fic? aheh.
Timeline - This chapter occurs from May to July.
Academy Dates and Numbers - In this fic the Academy meets during two terms, for 5 month each.
Spring break: February
Term 1: March, April, May, June, July
Summer break: August
Term 2: Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec., January.
Graduation tests happens at beginning of Feb to take advantage of the Spring/Summer months.
9 teams were graduated by their jounin sensei at a 66% failure rate, which means 27 teams, or 81 graduating students. Class sizes vary depending on the year and hover around 35 students per class, for a total of roughly 105 students for three classes. Ratio of Academy students to genin team members is about 4:1. Most genin retire, within 2~3 chuunin exams.
Konoha Numbers Breakdown - Since there had been a long period of peace before the series starts, I'm assuming that Konoha is pushing the upper ends of these rough numbers at the start of the fic. The following numbers are what I worked out for this fic, and most probably does not reflect canon.
Total Konoha pop: ~10,000
Total Konoha nin: ~500 (which doesn't include secret ROOT nin, but does include ANBU)
The Hokage's personal forces (ANBU): ~60, roughly half chuunin, half jounin
Rough numbers of total active genin to active chuunin to active jounin (includes ANBU): 40:400:60
(ie. about 14 genin squads usually, somewhat more currently due to peacetime)
Ratio of active nin = 1:8:2
There's about 10 special jounin floating about at any particular time, and they're evaluated with other chuunin when jounin promotions come out. They're similar to Warrant Officers irl.
ratio of promoted genin to promoted chuunin = 100:1
(ie. out of 100 average genin graduates, one of them will eventually make chuunin. The rest will retire/die/stay genin)
I'm taking the invasion of Konoha and Shikamaru's subsequent promotion as a normal pass rate of 1~2 new chuunin per every exam.
ratio of promoted chuunin to promoted jounin = 10:1
The differences between promotion rate and actual numbers are due to the fact that the better the nin, the longer they stay on active duty; either because they stay alive, they don't get maimed, or decide not to retire.
Since the Chuunin Exams are effectively bi-yearly ritualized warfare with a ridiculously high turnover rate for genins (due to death/maiming/retirement), I'm assuming for this fic that there's actually a fairly stable and high number of active chuunin, due to a considerably lower death/casualty/retirement rate. This is partially due to increased skill levels and partially due to the nature of the assignments (ie. a lot of guard duty and protection C-ranks and spying/assassination B-ranks, and they're rarely expected to hunt high-class enemy nin). Which, incidentally, makes them excellent red shirts during Invasions and Bijiu and Akatsuki.
Only about 5% of the pop. (~500) had never had anyone in their family or extended family be nin, and are considered more purely civilian than any other group; this is a fairly stable number due to the influx of merchants settling in Konoha balanced by the perks and difficulties of marrying a nin or failed nin. It's difficult due to the culture shock, but somewhat tantamount to marrying a doctor/lawyer. Naruto's assuming Sakura comes from this 5%.
About 65% of the total pop. (~6,500) have at least a cousin somewhere in their family tree who'd reached at least genin, which includes clan members. About 30% of the total pop. (~3,000) is in a clan, which makes somewhat less than half of the nin-related population, post-Uchiha-massacre. Nin tend to have children with nin so it takes awhile for nin-related blood to mingle with total civilian blood enough for it to have an appreciable effect on the children.
The rest 30% (~3,000) that have some relation to a nin, only have weak blood ties. The 5% usually marry into this group rather than into purer shinobi blood, mostly again due to culture shock. There's only a smidgen of difference of shinobi ability between this and the 5%.
A little more than 40% of the total population (~4,000) works in some aspect of Konoha's auxiliary civilian support. The rest are either retired nin, clan leadership, or civilians who work in something completely non-chakra-based.
...next time...
"Seriously. Spill."
"You don't wanna know."
"Yes I do."
"No, you really don't." Naruto peered at him, then just stared out the window and sighed again.
"Argh, stop that, you sound like a girl with a crush," Hotei tested and was gratified to see the kid twitch. "Ah HA. So it's a girl!"
The large man is relieved. This was something normal and he quite knew how to deal with it; namely with some teasing.