Now Playing - Daylight of Konoha
I sighed. The illusion of peace, of safety, had been completely shattered. Even as I watched civilians and shinobi alike mill about with little care as they basked in the protection of the village...
Well, the village would well enough protect them- protect me, perhaps, from outside threats.
But who would protect me from Konoha?
My shoulder itched, the phantom sensation of the tattoo that was no longer there.
Technically speaking, I was unmarred and unmarked once more.
Fuma Tomo, Assassin
And yet not.
How much time would pass, before I was tracked down and rebranded? Only a select few individuals knew I was alive in the first place- and for everyone else who could see me, I was an average, green-haired kid in a sundress. I wagered there wasn't really protocol to deal with the fact that someone just reapparated after dying.
Yagura Karatachi... he was cruel. He'd been stronger than all of us combined, and I was only capable of closing the distance. I'd maybehad half of a shot at killing him, since HP wasn't the end-all be-all of fighting and he was preoccupied with everyone else, but...
He was a kid. An older teenager, but a kid all the same, at least in my eyes. I don't know if it was good or bad that I still hesitated to strike against younger people, but clearly, that bit of hesitation cost me. He capitalized on it, and then... he took his sweet time.
There was a reason my Pain Resistance had been so high. It would have dragged on for longer, had I not remembered about One-Way Transition.
That, in turn, had been an even more peculiar sensation. Much less pain, but...
I stopped. It was probably not healthy to think about how I'd committed metaphysical suicide. And right now, I needed to be functional.
"Tomo-san." I was snapped out of my reverie by my stalker (Itachi) having caught up to me. My stomach rumbled quietly as I remembered him eating dango just a few minutes ago.
He looked... normal. Also the slightest bit older, but it was easy to track that in a 6 year old, as he'd grown by a few inches. But the fact that he looked so normal, still an overly polite child in formal dress made something within me shift uncomfortably.
For him, it'd truly been just little more than half a year.
Uchiha Itachi, Uchiha Clan Prodigy, Lv.18
Not that he'd been idle.
But as I finally finished my analysis in the few moments I stared at him, I decided to do what came natural.
A moment later, I had my tanto unsheathed to stab him in the shoulder, and he'd drawn two kunai that held my blade at bay through superior strength.
After a moment, he broke the stalemate by knocking me back, and I sheathed my tanto again.
"You've gotten better at that, Tomo-san, but must you insist on this every time we meet?" He said, straight faced. The people surrounding us, both the civilians we spooked and the shinobi we did not spook but made curious slowly returned to their business.
"Not good enough to hit you, clearly." I huffed.
"Was that why you have disappeared? To train in private for the bet you made with tou-san?" He tilted his head in askance.
I huffed. "Sure, let's go with that." If impromptu virtual (?) reincarnation hadn't killed my social skills, the last eight months definitely had.
As we stared at each other, neither speaking a word, our tense impasse was broken by a sudden gurgle of my stomach. I felt my face heat up at that, but after a moment I whirled around and kept walking down the street. "If you're going to follow me, you might as well come while I go and pick up Izumi. And offer me food. You're the son of the Uchiha clan head, I bet you're loaded."
"Meh, Tomo-chan! If all you wanted was food, I'm sure you could've just asked me! I'm a shinobi with my own pay, after all!" As a hand pressed own on my head in what I was sure was some form of chakra enhancement and my elbow was caught with similar strength, and the leg I'd reared up for a stomp or a push was snaked around by another leg.
My heart seized in my chest as I was effectively immobilized in the span of less than a half second-
[Menu]
[Jutsu]
Pure World Technique: One Way Transition
This Jutsu requires confirmation to be used. Please think or say aloud the following cypher. 7xT41qw
Before I took a moment to realize that I was still in Konoha, in broad daylight. And the voice that had just spoken to me was...
Uchiha Shisui, Konohagakure Chunin, Lv.?
And then was back in control of my actions, and as my muscles slackened slightly, I was caught in the most awkward half hug, half chokehold of the taller boy. And I was being given a noogie... which, admittedly, I barely felt, given the level of my Pain Resistance skill.
Prior to raising my INT, I didn't even know who this boy was. I still only had vague ideas, but now I knew that he was actually plot related.
"What is with you Uchihas and not respecting my personal space?" Mentally filing away how trigger happy I'd become with that particular jutsu, if we could call it that. I could break down later.
"Aw, come on Tomo-chan! We missed you! There was no small kunai goblin to follow us around for a whole 8 months!"
"Get off me, Uchiha. I don't want people to start associating me with your stupid clan."
Itachi blinked. "Tomo-san, I don't think you even know people *outside* of your family that aren't Uchiha."
A series of masks, both featureless and animal themed. Cruel, cold, unforgiving. But companions in survival, cold lights in the darkness.
...not for that long, if Yagura had his way with them like he did with me.
I knew masks. Not people. None of them had been people for a while.
And then I blinked, and they were still waiting for an answer. I rolled my eyes, still unable to move. "Not out of my own volition, I'll tell you that much." Then, as I was still trapped from moving, I turned to face Itachi again. "Itachi-san, rein in your clan mate."
"As a chuunin, Shisui is my superior, Tomo-san."
"You'll hear from me in a court of law, then." I sniffed. My stomach growled again. "I might have mercy if you buy me food."
"Oh?" As Shisui shifted me around to carry me underarm (why), his tone acquired a teasing lilt. "Is that all it takes to buy you?"
"I'm a man of simple tastes."
Itachi, falling in step at Shisui's side and effectively flanking me, glanced quizzically at me. "You're neither old enough, nor the right sex to make that statement."
Internally, I winced. But given how good I'd become at Deception, that's all it was- internal. I gave Itachi finger guns. "Exactly. Double negative means a positive." And at that, while Shisui snorted at our antics, Itachi rolled his eyes.
I sighed. At least ANBU did not care (or know, most likely, an armored toddler doesn't have much in the way of distinguishing appearance) about my body's sex. Gonna have to get used to people addressing me like this again.
Thankfully, I was not marched back inside the gates of the Uchiha clan. Instead, we went to eat (and by that I meant I ate while they stared at me, since both of them had already eaten) at a place called Yakiniku Q, which sold- you guessed it- Yakiniku, otherwise known as barbecued meat.
Having not been able to stomach anything when I reappeared yesterday night, and after this morning's incident, I was more than glad to eat to my heart's content. Though initially I ate my food unhurriedly, trying to savor each bite, after a while I began just shoving the dishes down my gullet.
After a while of nothing but them watching me eat in increasingly astonished silence (and amusement, probably) Shisui piped up with a question.
"So, I'm guessing mission food is not all that it's cracked up to be, eh?"
That startled a laugh out of me. "Bold of you to assume I ate at all." Inwardly, I lamented the fact that I'd even felt the pangs of hunger at all. Apparently, the training to resist it had vanished with the rest of my body.
Wait.
I begrudgingly turned my attention away from my food to squint at them. Itachi, his face more blank than usual. Shisui, looking... smug, but at the same time with an undertone of concern.
"Kami fucking damn it." I sighed. For a moment, I stared at them, weighing my options, before turning back to my food. The cat was out of the bag now, might as well enjoy my food. "How did you know?"
"Well-" he paused, before slipping a hand under the table. After my moment, my ears popped as I felt a vacuum form around us. "The standard issue ANBU tanto being like a you-sized katana was a big giveaway."
I felt my lips thin. So he thought I was just a regular, miniature ANBU. I guess that made more sense- and yet, somehow, I felt more alone.
"There was also the fact that we checked in with your uncle, and you were not there, but also Hazuki-san not reporting your being missing. Izumi also saw you get taken away by ANBU." Itachi added.
"That too, yeah." Shisui nodded. "No offense, Tomo-chan, but you're barely genin material, if that. What would ANBU want with you?"
I thought about my answer. "I'm a actually an immortal assassin stuck in a child's body with the ability to mystically learn information about people." I said, straight faced and with no inflection in my tone.
The two of them stared at me for a moment. I rolled my eyes. "I've got a kekkei genkai that makes me good at recon, and the rest is classified. Don't take everything people say to you seriously, guys." After a moment, I added "It's hard to keep warm in Kiri this time of the year." I couldn't tell them the exact details of the mission, but this was likely fine. And if it wasn't what could they do, kill me?
Shisui's eyes widened. "What business would you have in Kiri? We're at peace with them!" I glared at him, and after a moment, he sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Right. Classified. But I thought they ran children through the Academy for at least a year before getting them anywhere?"
"...not special cases." And that meant whoever was vulnerable and easy to grab enough that Danzo can get his hands on them.
"Shisui, you're being insensitive." Suddenly, Itachi admonished him, and that was sudden enough to startle a laugh out of me, that went ignored as Itachi turned towards me. "Are you alright, Tomo-san? You've seen what it's like outside Konoha's walls too. Are you still afraid?" he asked, staring piercingly at me.
Still afraid? What did he mean-
Oh.
"I guess I just... want to become independent. I want to be strong enough that no one else can do things to me that I don't want them to, or take away what is mine. I'm sorry if you expected better, Itachi-san. I guess I'm a bit selfish."
"You fight because you're afraid."
"Everyone does. Almost no one likes fighting, but the only way to win is when your enemy loses."
As I opened my mouth to reply, I suddenly felt a presence behind me, though if Shisui and Itachi still looking at me was any indicator, I was the only one that felt it. My heart seizing, I decided not to turn around, and instead spiked my chakra silently. Apparently, the system did not cover ANBU code as a skill, so I actually had to dig around my mind to remember what to say.
-2CP!
Acknowledged.
As I strained to "feel" a reply, as I had not picked the Chakra Sensor perk, I noted that he was still outside of the range of the privacy seal. I… I could talk to them. Whoever that ANBU was could not hear me.
Report. Base.
"Do not reply to what I'm saying." I suddenly replied. Itachi's eyes widened for a moment, but Shisui's simply turned steely. "I… think you'll find, Itachi-san. That I find what lies inside Konohagakure's walls to be so much scarier than what is outside." I nodded to them, and stood up. "Thank you for the food."
As I turned around and stepped out of the privacy bubble, not willing to look at what their expressions were, I was faced with, apparently,
ANBU Boar, Lv.?
"Well, last thing I expected was for you to be one of Danzo's kids, but I guess that makes sense."
My eyes widened. "Boar, sir? What am I asked to report about, then?"
"One of our Uchiha shinobi spotted one of ours walking in your guardian's home with a body scroll. I was sent to pick you up to talk to the Hokage."
"…understood." Many thoughts were flashing through my mind, but not was not the time to voice any of them. "I'm ready- and have not learned how to perform a Shunshin."
He nodded, and a moment later, we disappeared from Yakiniku Q in a burst of leaves.
"Tomo-chan, come in!" Sarutobi Hiruzen, no longer grieving his loss of peace and no longer in the warlike presentation of the Hokage as he'd been the first time I'd spoken to him, looked much more like an elderly grandfather. "I was informed of yet another unfortunate development regarding your kekkei genkai, though not as to how it happened. If it isn't too hard to recall, could you…"
I stared at him. I stared at him from far away, because if I approached the Hokage desk I wouldn't be able to maintain eye contact- it was too tall.
I was five. I was five, and I was level 11, and the man in front of me had grey hairs and a beard and- and-
Hiruzen Sarutobi, God of Shinobi, Lv ?
HP: ?/?
CP: ?/?
STR: ?
VIT: ?
DEX: ?
INT: ?
WIS: ?
CHA: ?
CC: ?%
LUK: ?
And his everything was in the three digits- this man could break me like I was a wet tissue. And I now had my confirmation. I did not remember much about Naruto, but apparently the Hokage truly had let one of his underling just run rampant with his entire fucking organization.
…he was stronger than Yagura. I'd bled and killed and lived and died on this man's orders, and he didn't know me or how I'd died, and he didn't even know I was part of his forces, and- and-
And I couldn't afford to break down now. In a moment, as I raised my arm and wiped my eyes in the crook of my arm, numbness washed over me, the feeling of the fabric of my dress grounding me. I spoke up, then.
"Hokage-sama, where's my hitai-ate?" I asked, tilting my head. Tears were already forming again in my eyes, and they were not fake, but I could use them to my advantage.
I wasn't really going to lie.
The one thing I could thank my brief stint in the dark place for was that no one would dare question my eloquence anymore. I'd already been branded a "genius", so to speak.
The Hokage reeled back for a moment, confusion washing over his face. "What do you mean, Tomo-chan?"
"I've- I've killed people-" I took a deep breath, steadying myself. "Konoha citiziens even," The fact that it was almost only Konoha citiziens, I'd kept out. "for defying your orders. I've bled and battled and was slain deep in enemy territory after being caught with my team while spying on an enemy village. The only reason you don't see the scars on my body I should have accrued is because I've only got this body yesterday.
"So where's my hitai-ate?"
His look went from shock, to contemplation, to that of a leader very rapidly. "I'm sure if you've lost your hitai-ate in the middle of enemy territory-" I rapidly shook my head, before raising my hand.
"I've never had one, Hokage-sama. There was nothing to lose. My ANBU-issued mask, Yagura cracked between his fingers like so much porcelain. Like he did soon after to my face." After a moment, I realized that I'd raised my voice to a near-shouting level, and was breathing hard. I took another deep breath. "So I know where that went. But I never had a hitai-ate."
We both were silent, for the moment after. The Hokage, considering his next move- most likely, how to salvage the situation. Me, still breathing and trying to keep the panic down.
I couldn't feel it in me to feel pity for the man. But I could hope he would feel pity for me.
"The Third Shinobi War is over, Hokage-sama. The admission age for the academy is six. The standard age to graduate is ten." Not yet twelve, apparently. That would change soon. When I'd found out about that, I nearly burst into helpless, bitter laughter. If you could have a Pokémon, you could go out and kill for your country. "I'm five. I've killed, and bled, and died for your authority, Hokage-sama. But I am not one of your soldiers, and so I cannot put in a resignation. I know how valuable my power is, so I can only ask to not have to…" A shudder ran through my body. I was going to say "Not have to be forced to do so before my time", but I couldn't even bring myself to finish the sentence as tears streamed down my face.
I really did not want to be here right now.
D̸o̸n̸'̷t̵ ̴b̸r̶e̴a̴k̸ ̴d̵o̴w̴n̷ ̸n̵o̵w̴.̴ ̵Y̷o̸u̶'̶r̴e̵ ̵s̶t̴r̵o̴n̶g̷e̶r̵ ̷t̵h̷a̵n̸ ̴t̶h̷i̴s̴.̴ ̴J̶u̸s̷t̶ ̵t̶u̸c̸k̷ ̶i̴t̸ ̴i̶n̵ ̶c̸l̴o̶s̶e̵ ̸t̶o̵ ̵t̸h̵e̶ ̸h̸e̵a̴r̴t̸.̵ ̵A̷n̷d̷ ̶n̴e̶v̸e̷r̴ ̸l̸e̷t̸ ̴i̶t̸ ̶o̸u̴t̴.̴ ̸T̴h̶i̶s̷ ̴i̷s̵ ̷a̶ ̴d̶a̴r̷k̶ ̵p̴l̷a̶c̷e̷;̷ ̵d̸o̸n̸'̵t̶ ̸l̵e̸t̵ ̶i̵t̵ ̸s̶w̶a̶l̴l̴o̶w̵ ̸y̵o̶u̵r̵ ̸l̸i̴g̴h̸t̶.̷
"Demonic Illusion: Adrenaline Crash." A female voice sounded behind me.
Another wave of calm and the spike of adrenaline I'd felt just disappearing swept over me suddenly, this time foreign and confusing. The Hokage nodded behind me, where I slowly turned to look at a… duck faced ANBU.
ANBU Duck, Lv. ?
"Ground yourself, soldier." The Hokage told me, and I nodded, nails digging into my palms as I took deep breaths. There was a moment where I nearly spiraled back out of control when the genjutsu ended, but the pain helped a little, even as I felt wetness in my palms, so tight I was clenching my fists.
"I apologize, Hokage-sama." I droned, before dropping down to the ground, kneeling with my fist down.
The man sighed, but returned his grave gaze to me once more. "Your request has been noted, Tomo-chan. As protocol, you are hereby removed from the active ANBU roster until your psychic evaluation shows that you are fit for duty. Until then, you are discharged from the ANBU forces and are not to don their mask or participate in their missions without my say-so. You are dismissed."
"Hai." I shivered. That… was better than I hoped. But it wasn't a full on don't-come-back-at-all order. "Ah- one last thing, Hokage-sama."
"Hmm?"
"I have here a report on… Yagura Karatachi." I'd written it last night, before drinking Hazuki's… poison. "I, um, would leave it off with my superior officer, but I'm… pretty sure he died…" I pulled the scroll concealed in my dress.
The Hokage's face was carefully blank as I placed the report on his table, staining it with my bloodied hands, before nodding. "Good work. Have someone see to your hands after you leave."
[Quest Complete!]
Spying on Yagura Karatachi
As the new Mizukage, the young Yagura is an unknown and dangerous quantity to █ █ █ █'s plans. Thus, finding and possibly exploiting weaknesses within his bloody regime and the reason behind the bloodline purge is tantamount. File an extensive report about Yagura Karatachi after spending at least two weeks observing him.
Rewards: 2500Exp
[Your level has increased to Level 12!]
[Your level has increased to Level 13!]
Hidden Objective: Discover the extent of Yagura's abilities as a Jinchuriki!
I'd… definitely done that. With my face. And the rest of my body. And the lives of the remainder of Squad 13, most likely.
Rewards: 500Exp, +5 Kenjutsu Skill Levels, Superior Grade Anbu Katana [CLAIM]
I was not going to claim a Katana out of thin air with people looking at me. Even assuming they didn't notice me pulling a blade out of thin air, pulling out a sword in front of the Hokage is liable to get me killed.
"Could I… be brought back to Yakiniku Q? I kind of left my friends there…"
The Hokage nodded, a weary smile blooming on his face. "Of course. Be on your way now, Tomo-chan. Duck, assist her."
And with my hands bandaged in quick order, I was once more fast-travelled out of the Hokage Tower and back to the restaurant, 20 Skill points heavier and half an emotional breakdown lighter.
Hey nerds! Here we have another chapter where perceptive children stick their noses where they don't belong, and then Tomo reports in like a good little ANBU soldiers. Also, Hiruzen learns that one of his soldiers is a 5 year old- someone he'd supposedly been keeping an eye out on, and whose abilities were confidential.
I wonder what he and Danzo will talk about next ^^'
As always, you can check me out on the place of patrons where I post three chapters ahead, if you wish to support my work.
And still as always, especially now that it's summer, remember to drink water and stay awesome.
Nick of Name, out. :)