Chapter Three

The Mementos of Awesome People

"You sure this is the place?"

Akamaru growled in irritation.

Kiba cast him a scathing glance with a black-and-blue eye. Naruto replied with the same. "Yes, Idiot. I'm sure."

"…It's a lake."

Kiba pinched the bridge of his nose. "Naruto, look at that mountain. You see it? To your right."

"Obviously I see the mountain! It's a freakin' mountain!"

Kiba smirked. "Goood boy. Now. The scent stops here, which means…?"

"…Their hideout is in the lake!?"

"IDIOT!" Kiba roared. "It means that the entrance to the hideout, which is in the mountain, can only be reached from underwater, where my sense of smell can't go! Which means that we could spend HOURS looking for the tunnel, and not find it! And- What?!"

Neji cleared his throat rather pointedly. "Please keep your voice down, Kiba," he said coolly. "And you, Akamaru and Naruto should step off of the beach. That orange jumper will attract attention." He himself was speaking from the safety of the tree branches.

Seeing that they had been coming nearer and nearer to the hideout, Capitan Yamato had sent him, Naruto, Kiba and Akamaru to scout ahead while the rest of the team waited a mile into the forest.

Rather hastily Naruto, Akamaru and Kiba scurried back into the tree cover and Neji leapt down to meet them. He didn't even make a sound in the drop. "Now," he said, straightening up, "have you forgotten my Byakugan, Inuzuka Kiba? It would be most carless of you, seeing as my own cousin is on your team."

Kiba swallowed. Neji was a Jounin. Only a year older than Kiba and Naruto, he was still a veritable genius and a member of the elite Hyūga Clan. Through the long black hair that fell around him like a veil two milky eyes, inherent in the clan bloodline, pierced out at them. His very presence commanded authority.

Yeah, but when you come down to it you're no better than Kiba. I kicked both your asses back in the Chuunin Exam. Naruto smirked, scratching the back of his head.

Almost as if he had read his mind, Neji fixed his eyes on Naruto. "Report back to Capitan Yamato about what we have learned. Kiba and I shall remain here while I pinpoint the exact location of the underwater enterence." With that he formed a hand-seal and activated his greater sight.

Asshole, ordering me off like that. Fuming, Naruto took off back into the forest.

"Hey, guys," he said, leaping through the window of Yamato's new camping-house a few minutes later and landing on the table in the middle of the room and in the midst of his comrades. "We found where the scent leads, but it's a little iffy. It's-"

"Naruto, you're stepping on the documents."

"Huh?" Naruto looked down to see he had landed on a pile of very important looking documents, in front of which stood a very irritated looking Kakashi.

"AH! Kakashi-sensei! You're back!" he careened backwards in surprise, toppling off the table and onto the floor with a loudthwack.

"Naruto! Are you alright?" Hotaru was right there by his side, helping him to his feet.

"Fine," he wheezed. "Just fine."

"Don't worry so much Lady Hotaru, there's nothing in there to damage, eh, Naruto?" Tenten quipped humorously. Tenten was a girl, but she was more like the ultimate tomboy, and that was in a culture of ninjas.

"Wha…what is all this stuff?" Naruto asked, shuffling forward and bracing his arms against the table as Kakashi very gingerly picked up a footprint imprinted document and brushed as much dirt off as he could.

"Didn't you have a report to make, Naruto?" Naruto looked at Capitan Yamato who was standing next to Kakashi.

He grinned sheepishly. "Oh yeah," he pointed back in the direction from which he'd come. "There's a lake south-west of here. That's where Utakata's scent stops. Kiba reckons the entrance to the cave is underwater somewhere. There's a mountain next to the lake that probably holds the actual hideout. Neji's trying to pinpoint the location now with his Byakugan while Kiba keeps a nose out for any enemies," Naruto breathed a deep sigh, exhaled, blowing out his cheeks, and grinned. "I think that covers everything."

"Sounds like you were totally useless in the search," Kakashi said testily. He then looked at Yamato. "What on earth did you send him for?"

Yamato laughed. "Brute strength, and as the messenger, in case something just like this happened. Via Shadow Clone if it got too bad at that end."

"Ah."

"Oy, oy, oy! Who's the messenger?!"

"Anyway, back on topic," Kakashi said, overriding Naruto. "Sakura, these are the files on the Extraction Method," he said, handing her a thick packet of papers.

"Thank you K- Kakashi-sensei! Your hand!" In handing her the pile of papers it became very clear that Kakashi's right hand was trembling violently.

"Hahaha. Put it down to too much copying," he said with that cheery voice that could break china. "And here," he said, holding up two lonely sheets, "is what we know about Utakata and his master."

"EH?!" Naruto blurted out, squinting at the papers. "That's it?!"

"Yes. That's it." Kakashi answered curtly, as if what he was really silently saying was 'Thank God.' "Now, I shall begin." He cleared his throat and read from one of the two papers, "Utakata's master's name was Harusame. He was in his mid fifties when he died. In life he had imperfect vision and wore spectacles. This was due to his constant research, which he conducted alone and without any aids in, and I quote, 'the most unacceptable of research centers, in pursuit of the most unorthodox practices.' It also makes a note here that Harusame's 'eccentricity' was confirmed when he voluntarily took as his apprentice," Kakashi swallowed, "the Six-Tailed Slug Jinchuuriki."

Naruto shifted in place. "Slug?" he wrinkled his nose. "That doesn't really suit Utakata."

Tenten snorted. "Ya well, with that brain of yours you've never really been one to out-fox anyo-OW!" Sakura had crunched her heal down on Tenten's foot with a warning glance towards Hotaru. Anything to do with Jinchuuriki, and information about them, was classified. Naruto knew that, and as much for Hotaru's safety as for the village's it was best she was kept in the dark about his own true identity.

"It is clear that he was also a very skilled Fūinjutsu user, as he was the one to seal the Bijuu inside his student to begin with."

Naruto swallowed. "His master was the one who made him a Jinchuuriki?" He remembered Old Lady Chyo, and the complicated emotions she had had towards Gaara. But this seemed different from even that. To be the guy who ruined Utakata's life…and then to be the one to teach him how to protect himself… to become his master… and to live every day with the guilt of what he'd done to his student… Naruto couldn't imagine it.

"So," Kakashi said pointedly, "Not only was Harusame frowned upon because of his research, but also because he passed his findings down to Utakata. It would appear that he actually taught Utakata how to contain the beast and not allow it to control him. Or have some sort of connection with it so that when he did release it, Utakata could do so minimally, so that he, Utakata, might remain in control."

Naruto quirked an eyebrow. A connection between Bijuu and Jinchuuriki? A level of control? The only other host he'd ever met had been Gaara, and neither of the two of them had been able to have any sort of connection with their inner beasts. How was it that Utakata-

"What's the problem with that?" Tenten's voice pooled up onto the table, interrupting Naruto's thoughts. She herself had plopped down on the floor to rub her injured foot.

"The problem with that is that Jinchuuriki have never been trusted," Yamato said gravely. "The reason Gaara was originally appointed Kazekage was not just because of his skill, but because he had become more passive and the Council of the Hidden Sand believed he would become easier to control."

There was a moment of silence at this. Wind rustled through the trees, in through the window, and gently moved the papers in Kakashi's hands. No one looked directly at Naruto. And he just smirked down at the table top. "Yeah well, he showed them, didn't he. He won the villagers' support, he saved the village. And he came home alive." He looked up at Kakashi again. "What about Utakata?"

Kakashi cleared his throat and flipped sheets. "Not much."

"Eh!?" Naruto said again.

"He's seventeen years old, worth 50 million ryo in the Mist's Bing Book, and has been a rogue ninja for a little over a year. His father actually offered him as a vessel for the Bijuu at his birth, and has never looked back. Neither he nor his wife was available questioning and, given that they hadn't actually seen Utakata since his infancy, I didn't really see what they could do to help me. Or would. There appears to have been a situation of… infidelity."

"InfiWho'sAWhat?"

"Infidelity, Naruto!" Sakura said in exasperation. "I means-"

"-It means that Utakata's father, who was the inheritor of the Bubble Bloodline, slept with a Terumii woman, related somehow or other to the current Mizukage, Terumii Mei. One that wasn't the man's wife. And thus begot Utakata. Utakata was then handed over to Harusame, who was his father's brother, and Utakata's uncle. I'm sure that no one cared enough about the boy's upbringing to mind that he was being taken in by the black sheep of the family. This also explains why Utakata is such a master of his jutsu, despite being ostracized by the greater part of his bloodline-clan."

Naruto swallowed. "So to save his marriage… he offered his son as a vessel for a Tailed Beast."

"Correct."

There was a crack that resonated through the whole room, and Sakura, Hotaru, Tenten, Lee and Yamato jumped back a step.

Naruto looked down and saw that his grip had cracked the tabletop. "S-Sorry," he muttered, unclenching his fists and shaking them out. "Hehehe. Nervous tick. Happens all the time."

Hotaru laid a hand on his shoulder. "…Naruto?"

"Hehehehe," Naruto didn't meet her eyes, bust just continued to stare blankly at the table. Sakura looked away from him, and swallowed the knot in her throat as discreetly as possible.

…He wasn't really surprised. He, Gaara, Utakata. Being a Jinchuuriki meant growing up in pain. Still… despite all that… it still pissed him off.

"What else?" he said curtly, pocketing his hands. Everyone slowly levitated back to the table. Tenten was on her feet again.

"Actually, that's the lot of it," Kakashi threw the two sheets of paper on the cracked table between them. "Now we wait to see what Neji and Sakura come up with."

Sakura sighed. "I'll get right down on this," she said, shaking the formidable packet. With that she turned on her heels and left to seek quiet in another of the many rooms in Yamato's camping-house.

"…'Wait'…" Naruto mumbled, his fists still trembling in his pockets. "I hate 'Wait.'"

He felt her grip tighten on his shoulder, and looked around at Hotaru. She smiled at him. It was a smile that mirrored his own. He wasn't alone.

…

Something that resembled the top of a Venus flytrap was poking out of the upper-part of a trunk, just outside the window. It smirked. Or rather, the white and black face at the heart of the Venus flytrap smirked.

"Geez. But I got really scared when that Jinchuuriki guy came bounding out of nowhere. I thought he'd seen us for sure," sighed the white half.

"He's an idiot, like you," murmured the black half.

"Oy now!" the white half harrumphed. "…But what do you make of all of this?"

"Very interesting."

"Really?" mused the white half. "I find it all kinda pathetic."

"Let's go and report to Pain."

"Aww, but we just got here. And I wanna hear the rest of this soap-opera."

Ignoring its counterpart, the black half slid its – their – entire body back into the tree and out of sight.

…

"Any luck yet?" Kiba growled testily.

"Be quiet and keep your nose to the ground," Neji shot back. He was more than a little furious with himself. This was taking an age. The entire lake was one great wet mess of genjutsu. It was impossible to scan. He knew that they were in the mountain. But how to get inside? Every time he tried to focus on a specific area within the lake it would distort and he would have to look away quickly before he was caught within the genjutsu. Kiba, apart from sniffing out any potential threats, was also on standby to clout him over the head incase Neji did get snared.

He was not going to get snared. He was not going to let his little cousin's team-mate clout him over the head!

He bit the inside of his cheek. Damn!

…

"Oh?" Pain turned around to look at the cave wall out of which the Venus flytrap was now poking out. "What brings you here, Zetsu?"

"Will you look at that," complained the white half. "Not even a 'Hi, how're you doing?' Jeez you've got your screws in too tight." He chuckled. "Get it, screws in too tight?" He broke into a fully flushed giggle.

Pain was a tall man with unruly bright orange hair, special eyes, and with very many piercings. His nose alone had some three crowbars through it.

"Shut up, idiot," the black half growled, before he – both of them, the two halves – turned his, their, attention back onto their leader, Pain. "We've found a bushel of Konoha ninjas camped on our front doorstep. They seem to want the Slug Jinchuuriki back."

"…Is Uzumaki Naruto among them again?"

"He is."

Pain nodded curtly at Zetsu. "I will call you back when the other five of me have returned to their resting place."

"Eh? But shouldn't we be here just in case-"

"Do you underestimate Pain?" A cold female voice cut through the darkness of the cave in which they were now located. "Now go!"

With a whimper and a scowl and an "…but I wanted to watch…" Zetsu vanished into the wall. Silence reigned in the dark cavern of their hideout. Silence, save for the occasional dripping of water and the shallow breathing of a broken boy.

A woman's hand reached out and brushed a dark brown lock of hair out of his sweating, wrecked face. So young. "He won't last long unless we do something soon," her voice said matter-of-factly through the darkness.

"I cannot focus all of my energy on an extraction while I am controlling all six paths. My other five bodies will return to their resting places within the hour." Having activated all the bodies about two weeks ago to face an old face from his past he had felt that this would be as good a time as any to capture the Jinchuuriki he had been allotted – the Six-Tailed Slug. "Then I shall summon the other Akatsuki members, and we shall begin." His eyes could see through the darkness. His violet eyes with their sixth paths. The Rinnegan. "Why are you touching him like that?"

"Jealous, Nagato?" her voice echoed back across the cave in a monotone.

He turned away from her, "I knew a little jealousy once. Of Yahiko. Now I know only Pain."

The darkness of the cave was both stifling and unbearably hollow, with only that shallow, pitiful breathing to contrast it, and make it just that much more absolute, stifling, and empty.

…

A bead of sweat trickled down past Sakura's temple. "This… this is impossible," she murmured.

…

Hotaru sat in silence next to Naruto, listening to first one conversation around the room, then another. "…I don't suppose this would be a safe place to blow bubbles, would it?"

Naruto ruffled his hair a little. "I don't suppose so, no."

Hotaru smiled and reached into her pocket.

"Hm?" Naruto looked up at what she had pulled out and was showing him in the palm of her hand.

"That's a…"

"Yeah," she smiled, now twirling the little mini-Bubble Blower between her fingers. It didn't have the joints or twists that Utakata's had had. In fact, lengthwise, it could probably fit between middle finger and thumb. "After I first met Sir Utakata I resolved to get myself one. But he wouldn't have any part in it. He said it was childish and useless of me."

"Yeah… he always does have a way with words."

Hotaru's heart leapt into her mouth. Naruto… Naruto could still talk about him in the present tense… and not look as if he was exerting any effort. She had seen it in the others: how they would make the conscious effort to say "is" rather than "was." But with Naruto… he…

"Something wrong?" he said, cocking his head and snapping her back into reality.

"N-no," she gasped, smiling. "Anyway," she giggled a little. "I left a note that I had gone out shopping, and I snuck out of the mansion. I knew where all of the booby traps were, so there was no problem. Then, for an entire day, I walked around the countryside, visiting neighboring towns, buying little children's bubble blowers." She was positively pink in the face with excitement. "I'd never done anything like that before – sneak out of the mansion I mean – and I had so much fun." She turned the mini-Bubble Blower over between her fingers, thinking back… "I was on my way home when I heard him calling across the field. I looked up and saw Sir Utakata, looking flustered as anything, running towards me."

…

"Hotaru!" She looked up to see a light blue blur of kimono scrambling towards her across the field.

She smiled, and then gasped. "Sir Utakata! Don't come any closer! Right in front of you-" one of the many kunai traps that lay in the field around the estate was set off by Sir Utakata's next step. The kunai flew, and bounced off the bubble into which he had stepped with the same breath.

She stared, and then slumped to the ground, her heart beating madly. That… watching that… had been terrifying… She swallowed hard.

"Tish. And you want to be a ninja," said a familiar derisive voice above her. She looked up and, by the rainbow glow of the bubble, could just make him out. "Come on," a hand reached out through the bubble, grabbed her upper arm, and hauled her into the bubble none too gently. His hand was a little slippery from the soap. It was cold in the night air and made her shiver. "Did I hurt you?" he asked through the darkness. It was so curious how he could sound so cold in one moment and so… fearful… in the next.

"N-No," she mumbled. "Of course not."

They sat in silence as the bubble drifted them back to the estate, the only sound coming from the wind rustling through the trees below them. She wished it wasn't so dark and she could see around her. Hotaru wondered why being at such a great height didn't bother her. It wasn't like being at the estate, where there was solid ground beneath here. Here there was nothing but air. …and Sir Utakata's bubble. She smiled a little.

"Where the hell were you?" he growled. She snapped her attention back onto him. And swallowed. They were awfully close in the bubble, and since she couldn't see him she couldn't make certain that she wouldn't touch him. "Well?!"

"I was…" she spluttered. She had been expecting to confront Tonbee. He was easy to deal with. She would have laughed childishly, given him a peck on the cheek and a hug and would have made certain to behave awfully well for the next few months. …She didn't suppose the same process would work on Sir Utakata… though she almost wished she had the courage to try it… As it was, Hotaru felt that to tell him the true… she would feel like an idiot. "…bubl…blo...res…."

"What?"

"I was out getting bubble blowers!" she blurted out, before bighting her lower lip and looking away again into the inky blackness below.

"…Tonbee has been frantic."

She flinched.

"He's been worried out of his mind, looking for you everywhere, not daring to ask anyone where you were because it might set off an alarm that the old man's granddaughter was missing. He's been beside himself," Utakata hissed.

Hotaru curled up. And now she felt awful. I really am a little spoiled girl. …Following Sir Utakata around. …Causing so much distress for everyone… I mean… Tonbee… She bit her lip even harder, hoping it would bleed. I will… not cry…

"Did you hear what I said?! I said-"

"I 'eard!" She could have kicked herself. Her voice had cracked.

"…Are you crying?" there was a touch of alarm to his voice now.

"Of course not!" she hissed back across the bubble. "I'm just…" she tried to swallow the terrible knot that had lodged itself in her throat… "I'm just…." she had to spit it out before her voice caved completely, "…s-s-sorry…" Another crack.

Another silence. She composed herself a little, and whispered again, "I'm very, very so-"

"I heard too," he wrapped back testily.

She nodded jerkily and rested her head against the side of the bubble.

"…You'll be confined to your room, I expect," he said at last in a monotone.

She shrugged. She had known as much when she had first snuck out. Except that had been before she had caused all the trouble, and when she had still thought it all worth it. "…I thought you didn't care for Tonbee," she rasped.

"Hm?"

"Why are you suddenly so concerned with how scared he was? And why were you looking for me anyway?" She knew it was wrong and irrational, but she was a little angry with him. Angry… because he had spoiled a perfectly decadent day, and made everything rotten and in perspective. She just wanted to bite back at him, even though she knew he'd snap back immediately with something cutting and very commonsensical.

He didn't. And Hotaru suddenly became terribly aware that he was shifting uncomfortably in the confined space of the small bubble because for a moment his leg brushed up against hers. "When we get back," he finally said in the same monotone, "…I want you to show me these bubble blowers you've purchased. If I can't stop you fan-girling over everything I do, I can at least make sure you do it with descent equipment."

"I'm not fan-girling over anyone!" Hotaru squeaked. "I just want to be a ninja!"

"Ninjas don't leave notes telling their caretakers they'll be back for supper, and 'could we please have Orange Kanten Jelly for dessert today!'"

"But if I hadn't left a note you and Tonbee would have been even more worried!"

"That's beside the point! And who said I was worried!?"

Hotaru snorted, pinched her nose and, in a very haughty and uncanny mimic of Sir Utakata's voice, began to chant, "Where the hell were you? …Tonbee has been frantic. He's been worried out of his mind, looking for you everywhere. He's been beside himself. Well what shall I say? I'm sorry Sir Tonbee, I won't - do it - again!" And with that she stuck out her tongue and leaned sulkily back into the wall of the bubble.

"…"

Silence.

"Release!" The bubble popped without warning and while Utakata landed gracefully on his feet he left Hotaru to thump onto her backside with a yelp. "Come," he said, sweeping up the mansion steps.

Hotaru, muttering many unladylike unsults, picked herself up, rubbing her smarting tailbone, and followed her master into the house.

Two hours later, very tired and very grounded, she lay stretched across her floor, five different bubble blowers carefully laid out in a row before her. She had lit a few candles perched on different shelves in her room, coating everything in flickering honey-colored light. She loved candlelight. Which one shall I choose… She lifted one delicate hand, ringing her fingers through the air, and then reached out for the rather cute pink one on the far left.

"Definitely not."

A hand covered her mouth before she could scream. "A noisy, catty, dessert-loving, would-be ninja, eh? Tish. Taking you on would be like welcoming a lifelong splinter into my side." Hotaru swallowed and tried not to think about how one of Sir Utakata's fingers was pressing right into the depression between her lips, or how, being this close to him, she could just pick up his scent. He smelled of water and cleanliness and soap. But not of any soap that she'd ever known in the estate or anywhere else. A purely Sir Utakata soap. She smiled, and he felt it, and pulled his hand away.

"Anyway, why are you so surprised? I said I'd come."

"I thought you were mad at me."

"Tish," Utakata shrugged, looking away. "Who could be mad at such a childish outburst?"

"Like popping a bubble out from under a girl and making her fall?"

"…Anyway, don't pick the pink one."

"Why?"

Utakata took in a deep, pained breath. "Well, first of all, it's pink and-" he continued before Hotaru could object to his reasoning, "-it's made out of plastic."

"And that's…bad?"

Utakata shrugged and, after a moment's hesitation, smiled a little. "This is a crazy theory, but I somehow feel that the bubbles react to the weapon through which you're using them. If they feel some crappy carnival plastic toy… they just won't take you seriously."

Hotaru looked at him smiling down at her five pathetic little bubble blowers, and giggled.

"Eh?" he looked up at her. "Oh. Yeah. I expect that sounds really dumb," he said. It was amazing how quickly that cool, indifferent mask could slip into nervousness and uncertainty.

"No," Hotaru said. "No, I think it's lovely. I think the fact that you have a bond with your bubbles… make you that much more powerful."

Utakata swallowed. "Alright, what else do you have?"

"This one?" Hotaru gently touched the bubble blower next to the pink one.

"It's wood. And not good wood either. It'll blister and crack. Good for a short period of time, but totally unreliable. Next."

"This one then? It's silver, and it's very pretty!"

"…Hotaru. That's an elaborate straw. The only bubbles you'll be blowing with that will be in your tea."

"Eh?!"

"Then this-"

"No."

"But I didn't even explain-"

"Trust me, you don't have to. No. Show me the last one."

"Okay. You had better like this one or-"

"Or what?"

"…I'll hit you with it!"

"…"

With slight desperation Hotaru brought the final bubble blower between them. It was wholly unremarkable, and nothing like Sir Utakata's. It was small and undecorated and perfectly straight with the widening at one end, and it had been worth very little. She had brought it from an old vender who had been pressing her to leave his stall with something at least.

Sir Utakata plucked it from her fingers. "…Bronze. Strong. Not as strong as my steal one, but still." With a sharp flick of the wrist he had opened his bamboo container of soap solution. Then, the mouthpiece of the mini-Bubble Blower hooked between his pointer and middle finger, he dipped the thing into the solution, brought it back out again, took in a short breath, and pressed it to his lips.

Hotaru swallowed.

Bubbles. Beautiful, wonderful bubbles, dappled in rainbows, began to, one after another, slip out of the end of the bubble blower, as if only just emerging from a long tunnel and into the candlelight of her room. They were… "Beautiful…"

Utakata pulled the bubble blower away from his lips, and looked at her. "S-sorry?"

"Oh! Nothing." She bit her lip, and they both fell silent.

"Well then," he said offering her the little bubble blower. She took it. "That's the one you should use. Though for what, I have no idea, seeing as-"

"I know," she cut him off, and smiled sadly at him. She had had such a wonderful time today. Such an absolutely wonderful time! She didn't want to hear it from him today. She didn't want to hear him say that he would never have her for his student. That he would never be her master. Just tonight, she wanted him to humor her. She nodded at him. "Goodnight, Master."

He opened his mouth, and then closed it again, and swallowed. His amber eyes seemed to glow in this firelight. He sighed. "You're hopeless," he said, getting up.

She just smirked up at him, holding onto her bubble blower. "Right back at you."

He shook his head and turned to leave as quietly as he could so that Tonbee wouldn't know Hotaru was breaking her grounded state.

"Leave the bottle of soap solution for tonight… please?" She knew that it was greedy of her. She knew that Sir Utakata liked nothing better than to sit under the great tree on the grounds, in the moonlight, and blow bubbles.

Without turning around he reached his hand up to his sash, unclasped the bottle and set it down on the ground. Then he climbed out of her window.

The next morning, when Tonbee went to wake Lady Hotaru, he saw on her bedside table Sir Utakata's bottle of soap solution – Sir Utakata's empty bottle of soap solution – and in her hand, the mouthpiece gently pressed against her lips, as if in a kiss, was a mini-Bubble Blower.

…

Neither said anything for a few moments after she finished her story. The elation with which Hotaru had begun was gone. She gently turned the little bubble blower between her fingers. "I have a confession."

"Shoot."

"I… Maybe it's because I was brought up as an heiress, or maybe it's just because I'm a brat by nature, but-"

"Shoot."

"…I'm so spoiled. When you said…when you and Capitan Kakashi were discussing Sir Utakata's past a moment ago, about how he was born…" Hotaru swallowed, "…The first thing that came to my mind was that his was a Bloodline Limit, and that I would never be able to learn how to use it."

Naruto winced. "You know about Bloodline Limits then?"

"Yes. A Bloodline Limit is when only a certain clan can use a certain ability by combining element chakra in a certain way. …I suppose something in his blood allowed Sir Utakata to mix soap into water-natured chakra. …I suppose I should have guessed as much by the Three Bubble Crest on the back of his kimono."

Again, silence.

"…I thought… I thought about how he helped me pick my Bubble Blower, and how he said 'That's the one you should use. Though for what, I have no idea, seeing as-' and how I cut him off, saying 'I know.'"She bit her lower lip, and her voice came out a little shakily now. "It's so stupid. I didn't know. I don't know anything. And all this time he was just pampering me and indulging in my silly little whims and…and…" she swallowed again, "…and my first thought upon hearing about his past, was about me."

"Stop it," Naruto snapped, looking straight ahead into the opposite wall. The room hummed with whispered conversations. They were free of eavesdroppers. "Don't tear yourself apart. You'll be of no use to him that way."

"But-"

"If he played along with your dreams, it was because he didn't want to see them crushed." Naruto now turned to look at her again, and she was transfixed by those eyes. They were crystal blue like clear water. Yet they seemed to burn. "And if he decided to become your master and train you, then he must have decided that he could train you tobe an excellent ninja despite his Bloodline Limit. He must have seen something else in you."

Hotaru swallowed. "But I'm not anything special. I'm not worth that kind of attent-"

"I know."

That answer shocked her, and stung her pride, even if it was true.

And then he clarified. "I know exactly how you feel. Weak, whiny and obnoxious," no one except Sir Utakata had ever spoken to her like that, "and suddenly, out of the blue, he turned around and said, 'I want to fight you too.'"

Hotaru blinked, confused. "What?" Naruto smirked.

"I know exactly what it's like to be acknowledged by someone completely…awesome. I know exactly what it's like to be scared out of your brain that it's all just a twisted dream and that you'll wake up and he would never have been there. I would be alone again. I know exactly how that thrill charged up the spine when I finally beat the shit out of him in some of his own stupid moves. I know." The smirk had spread into a smile. The two of them sat there, on the floor, their heads tilted back against the wall, never breaking eye contact.

"And there came a time when I did wake up. I was alone again."

Hotaru flinched.

"But I have his forehead protector." Hotaru's eyes flickered up to his Konoha headband, emblazoned as it was with the Leaf symbol. Naruto was talking again. "I have his old forehead protector. It was by my side when I woke up. It saved me because," his smile waivered, "…because when I woke up, it was after the worst fight of my life, when I tried to bring him back, and failed."

Hotaru swallowed. Failed. Naruto failed?

"My head was dizzy and I wasn't thinking very clearly and if I hadn't had that forehead protector and had woken up just knowing he was gone, like a dream, I… I would probably have put a kunai to myself right there and then. He wanted to leave Leaf behind. And so he left his forehead protector behind as well. But along with that…" Naruto swallowed lazily, his throat dry. "..he knew the state I'd be in when I woke up."

Hotaru blinked.

Naruto nodded, still smiling a little. "He knew that. That was why he didn't bother taking it with him."

Another stretch of silence. Hotaru's fingers tightened around her mini-Bubble Blower. So, just as her memento of Sir Utakata was this Bubble Blower, Naruto's was…

"I was only able to scratch it," Naruto mused. "He knocked me unconscious and freakin' hospitalized me, but I was only able to scratch that stupid forehead protector … A final farewell, and reminder that he was still just oh-so-fucking-awesome. Tish." The smile again flipped to smirk and the fire in his eyes rekindled. "But not a dream…" He swallowed, and rasped again, "…not a twisted dream…" Pausing. Clearing the throat. Continuing. "The fact that I have his forehead protector is my proof that he lived – is still alive – and the fact that I scratched it is my proof that once, a really long time ago, he wore it when we fought: he acknowledged me an equal Konoha shinobi. …And for that, I must always acknowledge him as the same…no matter what…"

"…Who was- is he?"

Naruto started, as if a little surprised that she didn't know. Hotaru could, strangely enough, understand that. From the way he was talking it was as if he and this other person had been joined at the hip – as if one might just as easily have asked the arm what the shoulder was. Then he smiled.

"My teammate, my best friend, and my brother. Uchiha Sasuke."

A volt went up and down her spine. Uchina? That name was a black smear on all of the Fire Country. Even she knew it, though she didn't live in a Ninja Village. The traitor who had left his own village to join Orochimaru, the fallen-sannin who had killed the Third Hokage. The avenger who wished to kill his older brother, who in his turn had massacred his entire clan. A stained clan, the Uchiha. Uchiha Sasuke. A criminal of the most dreadful caliber.

"But…" Naruto had seen how she tensed at the name. Hell, he had grown used to it. He was an expert. A flare of the nostrils, a twitch of the eye, a stillness of the breath: he had seen them all, all at the drop of that one name. "But, I'm sure you understand," he said, willing her to understand, "that once you've made a bond like that. A bond… that awesome… you just can't let it go, no matter what he turns into because…" Naruto swallowed, "because, Hotaru, no matter what, that bond'll be the cord that helps you haul him back to you, thought anything and everything."

A criminal. 'He's seventeen years old, worth 50 million ryo in the Mist's Bing Book.' Like Sir Utakata.

Hotaru relaxed. Naruto noticed. And was grateful.

She licked her lips and, in a hoarse voice, whispered back with a smile, "And when you yourself have sunk in blood it'll be the lifeline that keeps you from drowning and the string that guides you back onto your Ninja Way?" The way she said it was almost flirtatious – Utakata wouldn't have liked it. She could remember how Naruto had talked to her about his Ninja Way during their last adventure. Remembered the confidence it had inspired in her. Naruto Uzumaki's Ninja Way: No matter the odds, to never give up!

Naruto smiled and his eyes were like shards of light. He nodded and, in the same hoarse voice, whispered back, "Exactly." Another silence. A lovely one, while they just smiled at one another. "So, don't go saying how, when you heard about how badly off he was, you immediately thought about yourself 'cause-"

"Because when you heard that you could have a mission where you could save Utakata and make me happy, you really thought about Sasuke, and about Sakura-san." Hotaru swallowed. "And that's…perfectly fine."

Naruto just smiled at her, that knowing look blazing in his eyes.

In that moment they completely understood each other. In that moment they were able to help each other and fill the gaps that Sasuke and Utakata had gorged with their absence.

"A life-preserving extraction is completely out of the question." Sakura's voice cut the mellow atmosphere to shreds. She was standing in the doorway, papers rumpled in her grip, her face pale.

...

[C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only] drew a lovely illustration of the scene where Utakata helps Hotaru pick a Bubble Blower. It can be found on my Profile Picture. Thank you so much.