Yamanaka Inoichi was not having the best of days. It started with finding out that Hikaru had taken it upon herself to not only announce Kuroshi's existence to her clan, but also to bring him into their main family through an engagement. Now all of the political red tape that protected members of official ninja clans now extended to that young boy.
He had rushed to the hospital in an attempt to question him before he could be made aware of what rights he had, only to find out that all of the guards had been knocked out and that the boy was missing.
He had been signed out of the hospital by the crazy young woman, Anko, for who knows what reason. Inoichi really wished they had just left that girl in field work. As much as her craziness caused trouble in the outside world, at least they didn't have to clean up the messes she would make when she was running loose in the village.
Eventually he had tracked them all the way back to the Ena residence, which thinking back should have been the first place he should have looked. He had tried to run up through the open front gate when he smacked face first into a powerful barrier that had been placed around the house, causing him to fall on his ass clutching at his face.
"What the hell?" He swore as he got back to his feet, reaching out with one hand and feeling the very physical barrier that had been placed around the house. He didn't remember this being there before. The White Eyed Witch must have upped security after deciding that she was going to move in. It was an incredibly powerful barrier. He tested it with his chakra and found that it was on par with what the Uzumakis used during the war. If someone was to force their way through, they weren't doing it quietly.
Looking around, he saw a flat wooden board hung next to the door with the words 'knock here' carved into it along with a Fuinjutsu formula. Inoichi did as it said and waited.
A few moments later, the door to the house opened and Kuroshi was standing there in a white apron with a bit of cooking flour stuck to his hands.
'Here stands the boy who wields the power of a god.' Inoichi couldn't help but think in wonder. It wasn't exactly the scene people imagined in their mind when they thought of godly power. He had a completely relaxed stance and a gentle and homely look about him. You would never have guessed that he had killed without any sign of hesitation just the day before, or that he had been injured to nearly the point of death.
Kuroshi gave Inoichi a smile as he saw him. "Yamanaka-san, what a surprise. Are you here for Anko again? Would you like to say for lunch? It should be done in around ten minutes." The boy said as he started to whip off his hands on his apron and come down the front steps to the front gate. "No need to stand outside, come on in."
Inoichi hesitated before stepping forward, finding that the force that had stopped him before had seemed to vanish, knowing that it was still there, just allowing him to pass. That White Eyed Witch really was something. Like most people who used the nickname, it was more out of wonder than anything else. He knew that some day the whole world would probably know that name.
"Well, I do need to speak to Anko-san, but I am also here to talk to you." Inoichi said, keeping his tone friendly. He was more likely to get whatever information he wanted acting friendly. He had talked to the boy before about his smithing skills, finding out a great deal about smithing, though never really found out anything about the origin of such skills. Kuroshi had always just seemed surprised that he was supposed to have learned it from someone. Made a bit more sense when he was the wielder of the Path of Asura.
Inoichi went into detective mode as he shook the boy's hand, taking in every dealt about him. Two things immediately jumped out at him after a second look. It made him think of the report about 'Hikaru's Prophecy', or one line in particular. 'My will creates your body.'
His eyes had changed. Where before they had been a golden honey brown, they were now a sharp steel like silver color. There were also a few small strains of white in his hair, hardly visible in the massive of pink, but perhaps a sign of changes to come.
"Well, I'd be glad to help you if I can, but whatever business it is, I hope it can wait until after lunch." Kuroshi said with a smile before leading Inoichi inside.
The ninja watched the boy's steps carefully, expecting to see some kind of hint. There was always a sort of tell with people who practice martial arts to the point of masterly, a bit of their form that had become so second nature that it became part of how they moved without even thinking about it. He wasn't sure whether or not to be surprised that he couldn't seem to find one. Except for the fact that the boy's hands always seemed to be grabbing out for something that wasn't there.
He came inside and went with the boy into the dinning room where he found Anko playing cards with Hinata and Naruto. She looked up to see him as he walked in and gave him a grin. "Hey there Bossman, what brings you around!?" She asked, as if she didn't already know.
Hinata shrank back into her seat at the sight of him. The girl had always been shy, but now there was some fear in her body language that extended beyond simple shyness. The kidnapping had shaken her. Not to mention the battle that she had been smack down in the middle off.
Naruto on the other hand seemed unchanged from usual. Though the boy hadn't been kidnapped, he had still seen a pretty bloody scene. However it seemed to have effected him very little. He just grinned at the sight of Inoichi. "Anko-nee is in trouble again!" He said in a sing song voice.
"Quiet Little Fox. I'm not in trouble. I'm sure he's just here to tell me what a great job I've been doing." Anko said with a proud smile.
"Actually Anko, you've been moved out of Intelligence. Consider yourself fired." Inoichi said in a flat voice.
The response he got as as unpredicted as you would predict the girl's response to be. "Yes! Finally! No more desk work for this girl!" She cried, throwing up her cards into the air and doing a little dance on the spot. The actions might have been stupid, but it seemed to have a calming effect on little Hinata as the girl focused more on the light hearted display than on her own worries.
"Anko-nee, that isn't a good thing. You should try to take more pride in our work." Kuroshi said disapprovingly. It was still strange even after all this time to see the five year old boy scolding the nearly full grown seventeen year old woman.
"Nope. This girl wasn't built for a desk job. Too boring." The girl said with a smile.
"Well then, hopefully you will have more fun in our next assignment. Hokage-sama wishes for you to start as a teacher at the Academy." Inoichi said, keeping his voice flat.
A look of horror went over the girl's face. "What!? No! Why would Oji-sama do such a thing!?" Anko cried out dropping down to her knees.
"He saw how well you handle children and decided it would be a good fit for you." Inoichi informed her, though the real reason was to keep a better eye on Kuroshi and Hikaru as they entered the Academy.
"But the paperwork, and the grading... they might even make me be part of a committee!" Anko whined hopelessly.
"So Anko-nee is going to be our teacher then, is that correct?" Hikaru asked as she entered the kitchen. "We will be in your care, Sensei." She said, giving an all too sweet smile that led only to Anko's continued pouting.
Somewhere down the line, Kuroshi had disappeared into the kitchen to finish making the meal. So Inoichi sat down at the table and started to observe Hikaru instead as the older sibling went on to tease Anko and Naruto for her own and maybe Hinata's amusement.
The White Eyed Witch's voice didn't show any sign of care, but she looked a little worn down. Her movement slightly more sluggish. It was harder to tell with her clan's featureless eyes, but she did show signs of exhaustion. She either hadn't slept, or she had drained herself a good deal in the previous day's fight. Children usually showed exhaustion faster than adults. Developing bodies need their sleep.
In her hand was a book of complex Fuinjutsu, one that Inoichi was fairly sure was supposed to be restricted to Jounin experts. Anko must have lent it to her.
Kuroshi came and went, bringing out plates of hot food that smelt simply amazing. It was a wonder that the Akimichi clan hadn't tried to kidnap the boy in the past.
As much as Inoichi would like to get his work done quickly, he decided that pressing the boy into raising his defenses might not be the best plan. That was Child Psychology 101. Put a child in a bad spot and they will tell you whatever you want to hear, though most of it will be lies. They will be more truthful if they believe they are sharing rather than being forced. Which was why he had a pretense beyond simple questioning with him. If he needed to wait until after they ate lunch, then so be it.
Dammit, why couldn't his wife be this good of a cook?
The food was so good, that he senor ninja didn't even mind having to be sat next to Naruto, listening as the brat kid talked about all of the trouble he was causing people. He wasn't even annoyed when Naruto started claiming that he could have beaten up all the badguys himself if he had been there. This must be why Anko snuck out of the office everyday around lunch time.
"If only you won't engaged. I would have introduced you to my daughter." Inoichi joked, trying to test the water around the subject of the boy's engagement to the strong willed girl.
Kuroshi tensed up a bit, a blush reaching his face as he tried to laugh, a hand rubbing the back of his neck. Hikaru also blushed, though she tried to play it cool and continue to eat.
It was a pretty large reaction, especially for such young children. Perhaps there was more to this marriage idea than just a strategic move on the half of the Hyūga girl.
Inoichi had believed that Hikaru had declared the boy to be her betrothed as a purely political move in order to gain some control of her clan and reduce the threat of another kidnapping. The Hyūga Clan was very superstitious, almost cult like. Making up a prophecy and acting as though she was connected to something like the Path of the Asura by destiny would dismiss any debut over her right to rule her clan, regardless how much she changed them away from their old traditions.
Maybe it was something different. Maybe there had always been something and now that the news of Kuroshi's abilities was out her clan would no longer try to stop her. They were awfully young for that, but it might make sense if she was afraid that she would be married to one of her relatives before she had her chance.
While no true legal marrying age was set up in the village, as they didn't want to discourage any clans that had their own traditions from moving in, it was a general rule that people waited until they were fifteen before getting married. The Hyūga abided by this rule, but they started planning for the marriage years in advance. You could almost be sure that they had started fielding possible husbands for the girl the moment she was born, if not earlier. Her cousin was too closely blood related, but anyone more than twice removed was an option. The boys could be anywhere up to ten years older than her if the clan chose.
Inoichi and his wife would never admit it to their daughter, but they had back up plans incase she found it to difficult to find a good man. Though open arranged marriages were not so command outside of the noble class, such things were just par for the course in the world that they lived in. You're father knows someone who is looking for a match for their child and they work to see that things go smoothly.
"Hey Blonde-san, what's engaged!? Is it the reason why Shirou-san's eyes have gone all funny!?" Naruto asked.
"Naruto-kun... engaged means that... Shirou-nii and Onee-san will someday get married." Hinata tried to explain when she saw Inoichi's displeasure at being called 'Blonde-san'.
"Huh! Really!?" Naruto shouted in surprise.
"That's right, and that means someday they'll even have little baby monsters running around." Anko said as the two in question turned even redder.
"Le...lets not get too far ahead of ourselves, Anko-nee." Hikaru said, seeming to lose her legendary cool.
"Babies huh?" Naruto said, crossing his arms and looking as if he was trying to concentrate on something. He made it look really hard to do. "Anko-nee, how are Shirou-san and Rin-san going to get the babies?"
Anko's face light up as if she had been told that Christmas had just come early.
"Hinata, Ijustremember, Iwasgoingtoshowyousomething!.." "Yamanaka, youwantedtotalkright? Letsgobacktotheforgeandtalkthere!.." Hikaru and Kuroshi said respectively. Hikaru scooped up her little sister and dashed out the door while Inoichi was grabbed by a surprisingly strong arm and physically dragged away.
Well, that was one way to get the boy to talk to him in private.
The forge was completely cluttered. Not to say it was unorganized, it was just filled with things. As well as the straps of metal, raw ores, various tools and the like that were used in his smithing work, there were also an serval other things that filled the room that ranged from books and old watches to a broken down fridge and washing machine. Wires and gears littered a work table in one corner of the room where he seemed to be in the middle of fixing up a radio. On another work bench was a large war hammer set in a heavy brace with some symbols being scrawled into it. They weren't any Fuinjutsu symbols that Inoichi recognized, though that wasn't his specialty. He tried his hardest to memorize the shape to research later while Kuroshi was making room for them to sit by moving some books off of the only chairs in the room.
Though their was evidence that the furnace had been burning that morning, it was still a rather comfortable temperature in the large shake like forge. It must have good ventilation.
"Sorry the place is such a mess. I've been meaning to get rid of a few things, but its hard to tell what could prove to be useful. While I keep the house clean, I'm a bit of a hoarder." The boy said apologetically. "You wanted to talk to me about something?"
Having scanned over the room, Inoichi turned his attention towards the boy. "Yes actually. We picked something up from the field and thought it would be most appropriate for you to have it." He said, pulling out a storage scroll and opening it up in front of the boy.
He waited for a few seconds to see if Kuroshi would act and release the seal himself but the boy just picked up the scroll and looked it over. "A sealing scroll, it says, fragments." The boy read the symbol and looked up. "Can you unseal it for me?"
Inoichi smiled to hide his disappointment. He had wondered if Kuroshi would already know how to release the seal, but if the boy did, he was pretending that he didn't. "Sure, I'd be happy to." He took the scroll back and transfered the chakra needed to open it. "Release."
The scroll gave out a puff of smoke and the broken pieces of the Kumo ninja's sword lay on the parchment where the symbol had been just moments before.
Kuroshi looked at the sword and picked up the hilt, studying it. "I suppose it could be used for scrap metal." He said after a few seconds.
Inoichi was surprised. "You are't going to repair it?"
"Its broken far beyond normal means of being repaired." Kuroshi chuckled with a shake of the head.
"No worse than Hakkō Chakura Tō was." The blond ninja pointed out.
"True, I could use that method. I don't entirely see the point. The sword was made with the user in mind. Its too thick, long and unwieldy for me. The metal was made for endurance and won't hold an edge. It depends on lightning chakra to preform all of its cutting. And even if I did repair it, who would use it? Almost everyone in the village favors shorter blades or alternative weapons. Some of the ANBU and Uchiha have longer swords, but none of this absurd length. No one would have the skills needed to wield it." The boy said, tossing the hilt back down and shaking his head.
"So it isn't that you can't remake it, you just don't see the point." Inoichi said. "How exactly did you reforge Hakkō Chakura Tō? Does it have something to do with the Path of Asura?"
Kuroshi gave Inoichi an apologetic smile. "Sorry, that would be a Hiden secret."
Inoichi inwardly cursed. The boy knew about Hidens, the term referring to a ninja clan's trade secrets that were out of bounds for questioning by rules of the village. Unless it was a kinjutsu, a forbidden technique, the investigator couldn't force the boy to reveal anything.
"You sure do seem to like keeping secrets. No one had a clue that you were able to use chakra at all, let alone what you did yesterday." Inoichi said, hoping to still get something out of this. He might not have been allowed to ask direct questions, but if he could get the boy talking, he might let some things slip.
"I grew up around ninja. They all said how important secrets were, that keeping them could be the difference between life and death." He said, looking up at the ceiling. "Information is more valuable than gold." Then he looked down at Inoichi. "Do you mind if I work while you ask your questions? Akimichi-san asked me to try to make him a weapon he could actually use with his jutsu."
"Feel free." Inoichi said. A boy who group up surrounded by ninja would learn pretty fast the importance of secrets. However, the 'Information is more valuable than gold' line was not one that the blond had heard before. It was a pretty good one.
Kuroshi went to the hammer and picked up the sharpened spike and a small hammer before carefully starting to do itch work on the metal surface. "Normally, with decorative weapons, you would use acid to oxidize the metal in order to erode the shape in, but doing that messes with the flow of energy, damage the core, and can cause cracking in chakra infused metal. So I have to do it the long way."
"You make it sound so simple. Must be nice to be a genius." Inoichi said, not for the first time wondering where the boy learned it all.
Kuroshi shook his head. "I'm no genius, not like Rin."
Inoichi frowned. "While Hikaru-chan is indead a genius, most people would say that you're more talented."
"Most people would be wrong then." The boy replied, blowing a bit of the scrapped metal off of the surface of the hammer. "I'm just a sword. I can cut, I can block, I can pierce. But an earth jutsu master can plow an entire field in second, raise up a wall or even a house from the ground, dig a well, or shape a mountain. The possibilities are endless, and that is with just a single element. With all five elements, yin and yang, Fuinjutsu, and her... more unique skills, Rin can do more than I could ever hope to accomplish. What I can do may be interesting, but its not that useful and its also very limited in its own way." He slowed in his work, a smile forming on his face. "Rin is the amazing one."
'Not very useful...' Did this boy have absolutely zero self-awareness? The senor ninja felt like he had a lump in his throat from the very idea of someone considering one of the godly six powers 'not very useful'.
"The two of you really are close." Inoichi said, wanting the boy to keep talking before he realized he was letting himself get carried away.
"People think that she's manipulative and selfish, but she's really not... ok, she's manipulative, but she's not selfish. People think she takes advantage of me, but the truth is that she has always been looking out for me, ever since the..." Kuroshi's words and hands both stopped, and he shut his mouth. "I know her. That's all."
Inoichi's mouth twitched. He wondered what exactly it was the boy was about to say when he had suddenly snapped shut.
"I'm sorry, this is kind of a bit distracting. What were you asking me about again?" The boy said, getting busy on the war hammer again.
"I believe you were explaining a bit about your work to me." Inoichi said, trying to keep up his friendly tone. He knew there was something the boy had just hidden, so while Kuroshi's back was turned and he was talking about the hammer, the intelligence officer preformed a few hand signed and prepared himself to infiltrate the boy's mind. "Open-doors Mind Transmission."
He closed his eyes, transmitting his mind over to the boy's in order to read his thoughts. It was an advanced technique, one he would never have attempted on a trained mind without the assistance of special equipment. He had figured that a five year old's mind would have been undefended.
How wrong he was.
He barely even got a glimpse before he felt like a hundred blades and pierced his body. His eyes shot open and he swayed a little in his set, trying to steady himself. He could taste blood in his mouth as his body had reacted violently to the mental rebound.
His vision was still spinning when he heard Kuroshi's voice echoing through the fog that was around his mind. "Yamanaka-san, you awake?" The boy was looking over at him with a puzzled expression. "Sorry, I didn't mean to put you to sleep. I guess all this stuff is kind of boring."
The ninja swallowed down the blood, trying to keep it from making him throw up before shaking his head. "No... I'm sorry. To much paper work recently." He said trying to force a smile. "This was actually a refreshing break. Though I real should be getting back to the office. Maybe another time."
After dismissing himself, Inoichi only managed to get out of the immediate area before collapsing in a nearby alley to vomit all over the ground. He had been far to careless, and in his carelessness, he had stepped into a world that he had no place in.
That briefest of glimpses into the boy's mind was burned into his thoughts. The hill covered in swords. So many swords. His brain struggled to even comprehend how so may blades could possibly exist. They had extended out around him in all direction into the horizon. It was a place of wonder, and a sort of palpable sorrow. It was a world where the idea of a human simply didn't belong. A world that rejected his vary existence.
"The Realm of Asura." The Yamanaka ninja mumbled to himself before losing consciousness. A few ANBU who had been stationed to watch the Ena residence picked him up and carried him away to the hospital. The Hokage was informed and they all made a mental note, do not try to mind read Ena Kuroshi.
Some things the human mind was simply not equip to process.
"Damn fool tired to force himself into the Unlimited Blade Works." Shirou could only shake his head. "He should be glad it didn't kill him."
Rin buried her head in her arms, waiting for her cheeks to stop burning.
She had used some of her magecraft to listen in on Shirou's conversation with the spy. She figured that Shirou would be fine but with his tendency to not realize what was and wasn't important, it didn't hurt to make sure he didn't let anything slip.
She had heard him talking about her. About how amazing she was.
"Dammit Shirou, you're so stupid." She mumbled to herself.
She remembered that morning, how embarrassing it had been to explain to him just what she had done to get her clan's protection to extend onto him. He had also been a bit fluttered by the idea, but the thing that got to her was that he thought it was only about getting him out of trouble.
Well, actually it had been only to get him out of trouble. If it hadn't been for the possible threats to him, she wouldn't have made such a move. It only upset her a bit that he didn't consider that she might have actually had feeling for him as well. That maybe she did want to be more than just good friends or have more than a brother-sister like relationship.
Of course, Shirou had been thick even back when he had all the hormones of a full grown adult, so expecting him to understand now was just plan silly. As a magus, he had an understanding of love on a scientific and philosophical level, but like most things were human, the finer details were lost on the boy who had almost only swords in his brain.
It didn't matter. Even if he didn't understand yet, the fact that the engagement was in place would make things easier on her in the future. Sure the engagement could be called off, but what possible competition could she have? No one in this world would be able to understand Shirou the way she did. None of them understood her the way he did. So she put Shirou's stupidity aside. For now she had bigger problems.
The witnesses from Kumo would need to be dealt with. Rin had spent all night working on how to erase their memories of what had really happened and set up false memories in their place. But for her or Shirou to do it in person was not advisable. Not with how much attention they were already getting.
With that in mind, she continued to engrave runes and glyphes into the back of two fake ninja head bands, one with the Kiri symbol and another Kumo's, each with a line scratched through them.
That night, they would tie up the loose ends.
The Ninja Villages are a community, so they do have laws in place that the ninja have to follow, just like the police can't just do whatever they want in the name of the law. I want to make this very clear so people don't keep asking why the ninja don't start torturing Shirou for information. Its because that would be against their own laws. If they go around breaking them, then the community falls apart and the village becomes just a bunch of warring clans again.
Its a federal style of government. The individual clans are supported by the village's counsel, but the village depends on those clans in order to exist. So each of them keeps the other in check.
So when something like Shirou comes along they have to weigh the risk involved in forcefully questioning him with the likely benefits. With so many clan's interested in him as a blacksmith, it was not beneficial enough for them to try to interrogate him.
(All of this is written by someone who is not Buddhist, so it might not be a hundred percent accurate. I hope I don't insult anyone by giving explaining it my best shot. This is meant to inform or perhaps inspire people to learn about your culture, not insult it.)
The Six Paths in Naruto are a reference to the Six Realms of Suffering in Buddhism. The Paths themselves are supposed to be the way in which you balance your bad and good karma and escape from the Realms and into enlightenment. Or that's my understanding of it at least.
Each of the Six Realms deals with a different major Karma, sort of like the seven deadly sins (I think they don't really consider lust to be a karma and if they do its combined with greed under the label 'desire').
The Realm of Asura would be likely linked with Jealousy. Good karma in this realm being admiration that inspires you to improve yourself, bad karma being what you normally consider jealousy which makes you resent the person who is better than you.
The Asura as a race were almost divine, but not really divine. So they lived in constant jealousy of the Devas who were divine beings, and they suffered endlessly because of this jealousy.
Shirou, having admiration of Rin would be considered an example of the Path of the Asura.
If Rin was given a path, it would most likely be Devas.
In Buddhism, the Devas were as I said, divine beings and were filled with pride about it. The problem being that when you are divine, it is hard to find something to do. Everything is so effortless and they live for so long that nothing they do holds any value to them and so they constantly struggle with their own self worth. So to feel like they accomplish things, they must turn to the mortals who live short lives and who have to do things the slow and hard way. Taking pleasure in the changes they make for the mortals that are supposed to make their lives easier.
So the Realm of the Devas would deal with pride. Good Karma is having a strong self worth, bad karma is arrogance or self pity. The Path of the Devas would be find worth in others rather than sole in yourself.
While Rin is definitely prideful in her own skills, she takes her pleasure in helping Hinata and Shirou.