Woo, plot idea just came to mind, and it's a doozy considering what i can do about it. Once more, there are no fillers in this one, everything will definitely serve a purpose in the end. And any opinions on Utakata's characterisation would be much appreciated, I did make a big deal out of it in part 1. Also, it seems some of you are having trouble imagining the new Naruto, Gaara and Eko. So if there are any Deviant Art guys out there who are interested in drawing up the designs for these new looks, please contact me.
Disclaimer: Man I'm nervous about Utakata. He's a vital character, so I hope I make him likeable.
Friends, or just allies?
It was as busy a day as ever in Nami no Kuni, with commerce at an all time high and the streets filled with vendors selling goods from all over the land. Footsteps and voices could be heard from every direction as people got their fill of whatever they needed, or just wanted to buy. With the warm sun shining down, and scarcely a wind to the air, it really did seem like a perfect day.
Outside one of the many shops of the bustling island, Naruto, Kisame and Gaara stood waiting for Yagura and Utakata. It had been Kisame's idea that Utakata get a change of clothing, since running around in an ANBU uniform was hardly a good way of remaining inconspicuous. And so they stopped here, at a specialist store to collect the order both boys had made earlier.
"Man, what's keeping them?" Naruto muttered, with a bored expression. He leant on Eko's hilt, the tip of the blade embedded in the ground like a post. He ignored the wary looks people were giving them; he had grown accustomed long ago. He perked up suddenly as the door opened and Yagura stepped out. He hadn't changed much, but he had replaced the cowl Naruto had destroyed and now had a sedge hat hanging loosely behind him like everyone else, "Hey, what's keeping him?"
"He's just checking it out now." Yagura replied, as he took his place beside Gaara and joined them in waiting. From a brief glance between the two of them, Naruto mused that Gaara and Yagura were remarkably similar. It came to a surprise, but Gaara was actually taller than Yagura. However, they both wore the same, blank expression, like someone waiting patiently for something they knew was going to arrive. Fortunately, their wait wasn't much longer. Only a few moments later, the door opened and Utakata stepped out.
"Oh for the love of…" Kisame muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance.
Utakata was dressed in a long and very baggy sky blue kimono, with a plain blue hem running down the middle. It was loosely tied with a pale orange sash, leaving most of his chest bare and revealing a green wooden flash held within the folds. The kimono reached down past his feet, dragging across the ground as he walked. And the sleeves were about as wide as the ones on Naruto's haori, though they reached all the way down his arm. It really was a turnaround from the uniform he had been wearing not ten minutes ago.
"What?" he asked, looking between the only ones who reacted. Kisame was muttering something to himself with his hand still obscuring his face, while Naruto was grinning broadly.
"Heh heh, I like your style!" the blond said, stepping around and patting Utakata on the back. It was there that he noticed a small insignia just between the shoulder blades, three bubbles rising to the surface. He suddenly made a connection between those, the container, and that thing in his hand that looked like a trumpet bent out of shape, "What's with the bubble thing?"
"What about it?" Utakata asked, looking at Naruto blankly. Before Naruto could elaborate however, Kisame cleared his throat pointedly. All heads turned to look at the eldest Shinobi, who had a tired look on his face.
"We'll gather supplies while we're here." he said, reaching into his cloak. He pulled out a couple of small pouches, tossing one to Gaara and the other to Naruto, "Gaara and Yagura-san will collect food, while Naruto and Utakata-san re-supplies our equipment. I gotta go check some stuff out, so Ill catch you at the bridge at noon, got it?"
After brief mutters of confirmation, the group split up in several directions. Naruto and Utakata turned their backs on the other three and looked at each other. The pairings seemed a little odd, but it wasn't a big deal. They just shrugged before heading off.
They made their way through the busy crowds, fairly absent minded in spite of their task. Utakata slipped his hands behind his head, looking unseasonably relaxed for someone apparently in the middle of something.
"So I guess we're comrades huh?" he mused, looking at Naruto with a friendly smile, "You up for talking?"
"What about?" Naruto asked, once again confused by the strange mannerisms of the taller boy. However, strange though he may be, Naruto found it hard not to like this guy, though he couldn't work out the reason for it.
"I just figure if we're gonna be travelling together, we might as well learn something, y'know?" Utakata replied with a shrug. He then lowered his hand to point to himself with his thumb, grinning broadly, "My name's Utakata, I come from Kirigakure and I've got the Rokubi sealed inside of me."
"I already knew all that." Naruto muttered, giving Utakata a tired look.
"Well, you still have the advantage." Utakata countered, with an impertinent look in his eyes. Naruto sighed, catching the older nin's drift.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." he said, yawning as he rubbed his head. It was then that he managed to find something he didn't like about Utakata. The guy was so relaxed, just looking at him made Naruto feel like taking a nap, "Well, I'm Uzumaki Naruto, I'm from Konohagakure and I've got the Kyubi."
"Kyubi?" Utakata replied, with a raised brow. It was hard to tell if he was impressed, or just surprised. Maybe it was a mixture of both. In either case, he soon let it go and raised the other point of interest, "So what was it like in Konoha?"
"You mean the village, or the people?" Naruto asked, giving his partner-for-the-time-being a knowing look.
"Ha ha, point taken." Utakata admitted, with a smile. He then cast his eyes to the right, spotting something of interest, "Hey, I think there's some stuff here."
Naruto looked over in the direction Utakata was referring to. It looked like a sort of cosmetics stall, selling fragrances for men and women, among other things. Naruto looked from the stall to the person beside him, his expression growing steadily more incredulous as he saw the look of deep concentration on Utakata's face.
"Uh… I don't think this is the kind of stuff we're looking for." Naruto said, his opinion of Utakata steadily changing. His words attracted the dark haired boy's attention; he looked to the blond and smiled reassuringly.
"Don't get the wrong idea." he said, reaching into his kimono. He lifted it open and showed Naruto a long row of small glass vials sitting in a thin leather strap attached to his clothes. He then picked up one of the perfumes, raising it to the light to study it, "If they're in liquid form, I can change the chemical composition and make use of them."
Naruto looked at the vials in surprise, before lifting his eyes to the bottle of perfume. He finally rested his eyes on Utakata's, his brows not lowering a centimetre as he gave the older boy an impressed look, "You can do that?"
"Yeah, thanks to some help from a certain someone." Utakata replied, as he placed the perfume back down, "Problem is none of this stuff is labelled."
"Oh I can help you there." said the stall vendor, as he finished assisting another customer. He was an old man with a thick moustache and a face creased with smile lines. He readjusted his red bandana as he looked up at his two potential customers, he wasn't the tallest of men either, "I keep a list of the ingredients used, don't want my customers having allergic reactions do I?"
"Then I'd be very grateful if you let me see it, Oji-san." Utakata replied, with a warm smile.
The stall keeper returned the gesture before stooping beneath the table holding his wares. He fidgeted about briefly before coming back to the surface with a thick clipboard held in both his hands. Utakata stepped around the stall and gratefully accepted the clipboard, before he began looking through it with a crease in his brow that suggested he wouldn't notice if a thunderstorm suddenly hit.
Naruto stood idly by as Utakata studied the list, suddenly feeling very aware of himself and the place he was. It seemed to be mostly women in the area, which made him all the more self conscious. Give him a fight with a dozen armed Shinobi any day, but it had been a long time since he had seen so many females in one place.
"Man, I swear everyone's looking at us." he muttered under his breath. It was these words that proved that Utakata wasn't as dead to the world as he seemed. He glanced up at Naruto as he licked his fingers and turned a page on the clipboard.
"If it makes you feel better, you can tell them you're the seme one." he said, smirking to himself at his own joke. But Naruto didn't understand the terminology, and was left frowning at Utakata. But before he could ask, he heard a loud gasp coming somewhere to his left. He looked down, spotting a little girl with brown hair tied in pig tails. To her chest she clutched a paperback book, though from this position Naruto couldn't tell what it was. The girl gave him an affronted look, her green eyes magnified through her thick rimmed glasses.
"PERVERT!" she yelled out, taking Naruto by surprise. Beside her, the girl's mother looked at her daughter reproachfully, before taking her hand and marching her away. Naruto was just left watching the girl with an exasperated look. He suddenly got the feeling he didn't want to know what Utakata had been referring to.
* * * * *
Meanwhile, a few streets away, Gaara and Yagura stood inside a shop selling preserved food. The red haired boy studied the packages before him, giving them consideration most didn't usually offer to such a task. That was Yagura's opinion anyway, he thought Gaara was taking this a bit too seriously.
"You take your time with these things?" Yagura asked, his feeling of boredom rising. This wasn't exactly what he was expecting his first task to be after escaping from Kiri.
"Leave it to Kisame-sensei and Naruto to decide our meals and we'd have died a long time ago." Gaara replied, taking a package containing an assortment of green vegetables, "That's why it usually falls to me to make sure that doesn't happen."
"I see…" Yagura muttered, his already low opinion on the blond boy degrading further. He waited indolently for Gaara to make his decision, wishing he could be doing something at least mildly interesting.
"So how does it feel?" Gaara asked, as he placed the package back down again. He glanced over as Yagura gave him a blank look, before elaborating further, "Not many are in a situation like yours. What's it like to not have any memories?"
Yagura cocked a brow at Gaara, surprised at being asked such an in-depth question. Now that he thought about it, this was the first time the two of them had actually spoken to one another, despite Naruto's general chatty nature.
"There's not much to say." he replied, leaning on the wall of the shop. Gaara glanced at him again, before returning his attention to the task at hand, "It's not like I don't have any memories. It's like I just went to sleep and woke up a hell of a lot later than usual."
Gaara grunted, acknowledging Yagura's words with the least amount of effort possible. It didn't really bother Yagura though, he was hardly opening his heart up to Gaara after all. However, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. There was something Yagura was curious about too.
"You don't sleep, do you?" he asked, crossing his arms passively. This time Gaara didn't give any sign of acknowledgement, seemingly acting as though he hadn't heard anything, "You were either tending the fire or watching the waves."
"Insomnia is a by product of the Ichibi." Gaara explained, turning around and looking into the aisle behind him, "I rest, but I don't sleep. By now, I'm not sure I could if I tried."
Yagura looked at the back of Gaara's head, personally wondering what it would be like to never sleep. It seemed maddening to him, but then again, the Sanbi had strange sleeping patterns too. He could go days without sleep, and then drop like a rock. But that wasn't really the same in the end.
"Hmm…" he murmured, bowing his head.
* * * * *
In another corner of the small island village, Kisame stood at the bottom of a staircase leading down into an underground room. He glanced up to the street just a couple of feet above him; there were very few people around to disturb his work. He was glad of that, a commotion wasn't really what he needed right now.
He looked down at the person in front of him, whose back was pressed against the wall. He was a weasel of a man, cowering at the sight of the giant Shinobi. His thick woollen hat and purple hooded jacket were unseasonable for this place. That mixed with his long white hair, black spike markings under his eyes and the katana held at his waist were giveaways to the fact that he didn't really belong here. Kisame pressed his hand against the wall the man occupied, leaning over him with a malevolent grin, "So then I hear Gato is dead. Any clue as to why that is?"
"W-well, you see-" the man stammered, obviously uncomfortable with his situation. He shuffled and fidgeted under the threatening gaze of Kisame, suddenly wishing he hadn't gotten up that morning, "He- he was killed y-years ago. We tried taking this village, but-but then a team of Konoha nin showed up and started guarding old man Tazuna."
"Is that so?" Kisame asked, his grin widening. He loosened up on the quivering man, resting his back against the wall and crossing his arms, "Interesting though that may be, what I'm more curious about are the people they hired to stop that."
He was met with a creased brow as the little man tried to comprehend his meaning. It took him several moments of sweat filled concentration, but eventually he came to realise what Kisame was asking "You mean-"
* * * * *
Naruto and Utakata began making their way to the meeting point, their task now definitely complete. Utakata carried a bag on his back filled with the items they had purchased. After the embarrassing visit to that cosmetics shop, they had moved on to getting proper equipment, like shuriken. Naruto's stores had been running down, he had a bad habit of overdoing it when it came to his smaller weapons. They had also stopped in a chemist though, Utakata claimed there were more things he needed there. By the time they were out, the pouch Kisame had given them was considerably lighter.
"Think we got enough?" Utakata asked, shrugging his light load back into place. It hadn't taken them too long to gather the equipment, they just needed to head into a couple more stores on their wander around.
"We don't need that much stuff, since we carry our main weapons with us all the time." Naruto replied, gesturing to Eko behind him. His expression then became dry as his eyes narrowed, "I get the feeling Kisame-sensei is just trying to keep me out of the way with this sorta thing."
Utakata let out a light laugh, feeling empathy for the boy next to him. Far be it for him to say he didn't know what that sort of thing was like, in the past Yagura would often give of the vibe that he was just humouring Utakata.
They reached the entrance to the village, a long bridge carrying over from the island to the Land of Fire on the other side of the vast stretch of water. Naruto glanced up at the plague placed on an arch above the bridge, only noticing it just now.
"The Great Lee Bridge." he read aloud, in a quiet voice, "I wonder who this Lee guy is?"
"You say something?" Utakata asked, glancing back at Naruto. But the blonde just shook his head, before pointing over to a bench on the side of the road.
"Let's wait for the others over there." he said, as he changed direction slightly. Utakata followed him wordlessly, and the two walked towards the green painted wooden seat. Naruto removed Eko and rested him against the side of the bench while Utakata lowered his bag onto the ground before the two lowered themselves down, watching the passers-by aimlessly.
A cool breeze fluttered by, mixed with the salty scent of the sea. From overhead, the gulls gave their calls to one another as they floated through the sky. It was a warm day, and so the birds had a simple time riding the thermals, even they had a peaceful time in this weather. Naruto looked to Utakata, who was dozing off with his eyes half closed. Though after a quick nudge, the dark haired boy jolted back up.
"Let's see what you can do then." Naruto said, nodding down at the bag on the ground. Utakata raised a brow as he glanced at his supplies, before smirking up at the blond.
"You first." he said, challengingly. Naruto returned the expression, understanding that fair was fair. He cast a glance around for something to show off with, and came to find a wooden signpost not too far off Utakata's left. He pointed towards it, before forming a few quick hand signs. Then, raising his fingers to his mouth, he pursed his lips before letting out a short, sharp exhale.
Crack.
Utakata raised his brow in surprise as a small hole broke through the wooden post, clearing straight through to the other side. He gave an impressed look; it must have taken quite some training to make such a tiny and precise hole like that. But it seemed Naruto wasn't quite finished, as another few hand signs later, he made the same motion, but this time inhaled.
The calm air was suddenly disturbed by a high pitched whistle as air rushed through the hole in the post towards Naruto. It rose in pitch and volume until people started to turn and look at the post bewilderedly. To them, it must have seemed as though the post was making the noise of its own accord, as there was no breeze to justify such a sound. A few moments later it disappeared, leaving everyone with a ringing noise in their ears. Though they continued to stare for several moments after, they soon came to realise it wasn't going to happen again. So they continued on their way, thinking of how they'd tell their friends about the strange whistling post.
"Not bad." Utakata mused, looking at the crowds with sorry amusement. He could already imagine a legend forming here. He shook it off though, deciding it was his turn to show off.
Reaching down into his back, he pulled out a small clay bowl, some specific bottles of liquid and a dropper. Placing the bowl on the ground, he began tipping out small amounts of the contents of the three bottles, two from the chemist and one from the fragrance stall.
Once the mixture had set in, forming a dark gold mixture, he raised his hands and began forming seals, the hare, the rat, the boar and finally the tiger. Naruto watched as Utakata, while maintaining the tiger seal, lowered the tips of his forefingers into the solution before him. Then, to the blonde's surprise, vapour began rising from the liquid and into the air, leaving the sweet smell of valerians lingering around. Once he was done, the mixture had become both colourless and odourless, looking just like water.
"Careful not to take any deep breaths." Utakata warned, as he took the dropper and used it to take the liquid out of the bowl and into the tube. He then took one of the vials from his kimono and emptied the contents into it, fixing the cork firmly in place afterwards. There was still a little of the new solution in the dropper however, it seemed it was that which he was going to make use of. He took his flask and opened the lid, letting the tiny amount of liquid drop into it, "Watch this."
Carefully, he raised the small trumpet-like object he'd been carrying all day and delicately dipped the broad end into the flask. He then lifted it back out and replaced the lid, before looking around for a target. His eyes fell upon a seagull resting on a bench on the other side of the road, and a smile spread across his lips. Making sure Naruto kept his eyes on the bird, he placed the other end of the instrument into his mouth and gently blew air into it.
A bubble formed at the end of the device, growing in size until it was about as big as a saucer. It lifted in the air and gently floated along towards the unsuspecting gull, the light shining off the floating bulb and giving it a strange colour.
But then, all of a sudden the bubble shifted violently in an unforeseen breeze, lifting high into the air. Instead of its designated target, it struck the face of a man in a woollen hat and purple hooded jacket. The man blinked in surprise, taking a sharp inhale from the unexpected burst on his face. Then, after a few short seconds, his eyes drooped as he tilted in the air. But a few moments later, he collapsed on the ground, snoring loudly as his katana noisily struck the earth. Naruto and Utakata were left watching the sudden dozer, before turning their gaze to each other. Unable to restrain themselves, they both broke out in a fit of laughter.
* * * * *
Later, as the sky began to darken, Gaara and Yagura left the street with the latter carrying a bag full of herbs, spices and other such flavourings. They looked across to the bridge they'd agreed as their meeting point, spotting Naruto and Utakata lazing around.
"Glad to see they've had a fulfilling time." Yagura muttered, shouldering his weighty bag with light hearted contempt for them both.
"Like I said, it keeps Naruto out of the way." Gaara replied, as they made their way to join them, "The only thing he's really good for outside of missions is killing pigs."
Yagura glanced at Gaara, feeling a little queasy as he came to realise what their main diet would be from now on. Living in Kiri, he had been used to fresh fish, but mammals were a different case altogether.
"You get the stuff?"
Yagura glanced behind him in surprise; he hadn't noticed Kisame appear behind them. Yet there he was, a giant shadow with his sedge hat keeping the sunlight from his face. Yagura turned his gaze forward again, the question clearly wasn't directed at him.
"As much as was on offer." Gaara replied, without looking back. He had never quite been sure when he was assigned the role of the cook, but he had taken it on without complaint. He had been getting sick of dried meat anyways.
"Good to hear." Kisame said, looking up at the other two dozing on the bench. He then spotted on the opposite side the man he'd interrogated earlier unconscious on a second bench. Judging from the smiles on the two boys' faces, that had been their doing, "Looks like we've got another idiot in our midst."
"I could have told you that myself." Yagura sighed, having reached the same conclusion himself. Though this was rather high level compared to the other stuff he had seen his friend do in the past.
They reached the other two, who appeared to be in such a relaxed state that they didn't notice the arrival of the others. It would seem despite their best efforts, even Utakata had inhaled just a smidgen too much of the solution.
"Hey, wake up!" Kisame barked, immediately earning the full attention of both Naruto and Utakata. The blond staggered to his feet as he realised they were no longer alone, still slightly disoriented from the effects of the drug.
"Wha- hey, uh, Kishame-sensei." he said, with a very slight slur. He frowned in confusion as he realised his tongue felt rather numb. But after a few moments, he managed to regain some of his composure, looking up at his sensei with a raised brow, "So where now?"
"I got a lead on something." Kisame replied, as a grin appeared on his face, "Call it a… graduation test."
