"SHIKAKU!"
Kanoko opened her eyes lazily.
Team 7 had completed their mission in the Land of Waves and had been back of a few weeks now. The first thing Kanoko did when she was dismissed from the Hokage's office was grab her fuinjutsu supplies and run to her spot in the Nara forest.
She spent that evening and the rest of the next day running through calculations and test, trying to understand why her seal acted the way it did. The amount of chakra she absorbed from Naruto should have burned her chakra points. Actually, it did burn them, Kanoko was quite sure of that – the pain was horrific. The bigger question was how or why did the chakra points heal after being burned?
Kanoko's first thought was that she was her seal was more impressive than she first thought. It wouldn't be the first time she created something that turned out to have more benefits than originally designed. Example: The Shadow Clone Jutsu.
After several rounds of testing, she knew this wasn't the case.
That lead to the only one other possible option: The chakra was what burned and healed her simultaneously. Kanoko knew sage chakra had the potential to behave in this way, but there was no way that Naruto was using sage chakra.
However.
There was one close relative to sage chakra: Demonic chakra. Not just any demonic chakra either. The kind that come from a tailed beast.
With this information, Kanoko went back to the only tailed beast she knew of in Konoha: The Nine-Tailed Fox. Plugging in the pieces from there was so easy, that Kanoko wondered why it even was a secret. In Kanoko's opinion, a secret was something only known by a few and was difficult to discover. Thinking back, it was clear that anyone over the age of 13 knew Naruto was contained the tail beast. Even if only a few people knew, it's a tail beast. You can't hide chakra like that forever.
It just comes out.
Point: The Land of Waves mission.
The only reason that Kanoko didn't think about the nine-tails when Naruto lost control was she was busy: Screaming her head off in pain.
It was a reasonable excuse.
.
Back to the seal on her arm.
Kanoko took some time to store some of the left over chakra into a scroll for later use. She wondered if it would burn and heal her again when she pulled it from a scroll…
…Now she's not sure that she wanted to use it.
.
Drifting back to the present…
Kanoko turned towards the side of the bed and started to crawl out.
Tried to crawl out.
Wrapped around her, like an octopus, was her brother.
When she got home, still confused by her seal's mechanics, she was immediately welcomed with a dark aura. She tried to sneak upstairs, thinking her mother was angry at her father or brother again, when she was suddenly attacked from behind.
She fell to the floor with a thud and felt arms clasp around her torso. She turned her head to the side, and saw Shikamaru, completely asleep on her back.
.
He hadn't let go since.
.
Thankfully, by the second day, when Shikamaru followed Kanoko to the training grounds of Team 7, Ino had stomped over and dragged him by the collar back to Team 10's training grounds.
Unfortunately, he still attached himself to Kanoko, like a koala bear does to bamboo, at night.
She really needed her own bed. And room. And house. On the other side of the village.
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Kanoko and Sakura were standing on the bridge, waiting for Kakashi-sensei. They both showed up at the time designated by Kakashi-sensei. They knew he would be late, but they normally trained while he was taking his time.
Mostly, Kanoko wanted Sakura to become more diverse in the ninja arts. She needed some special skills in order to survive on their own in the future.
So Kanoko sat her down and asked her what kind of ninja she would like to be. While her motivation was, shockingly, Sasuke oriented, her intent was easy to conclude. From what Kanoko gathered, she wanted to be on the frontline, fighting alongside powerful ninjas, but focusing on support functions mostly. In Kanoko's mind, that was a noble goal. In Kanoko's experience, the first ninja taken out were always the support ninjas. Even more so if they were good.
Say you are battling three ninjas and you have six ninjas, but one of their ninjas is a healer with notable skill. All six of you can attack those three all day long, but if that healer keeps them going and no one is doing the same on your side, you will eventually lose. It's just a matter of time.
Everyone knew this, which is why the healers, sealers, and other support ninjas were always targeted first.
Understanding Sakura's intent, Kanoko was able to introduce her to a few healing jutsus she knew (*cough* invented *cough*) and told her that she would introduce her to one of Kanoko's clansmen to learn about medicinal herbs.
Kanoko wasn't sure what assault tactics she should teach Sakura. Sakura had shown dismal potential in any weapon Kanoko threw at her and Sakura's chakras levels weren't very developed. Any jutsu Kanoko could teach her would likely drain her right off the bat. Sakura did have amazing chakra control, so perhaps jutsus that required fine chakra control? Maybe genjutsu? Tobirama had a few of those, that Kanoko had yet to train (again) on. She could pass them along.
.
As for Naruto.
Kanoko's eyebrow twitch at the mention of his name.
For weeks, he completely ignored her. He didn't glare at her, didn't yell, didn't try to outdo her – just ignored her. She didn't know how he kept it up. They had gone on a number of missions afterwards. All of them were D-ranked, of course, but he went out of his way to stay as far away from her as possible.
Even why her sensei told her and Naruto to spar, he would just turn around and start sparing with a tree.
That was downright insubordination.
Kanoko thought about confronting Naruto, get him to yell his feelings out to her, but that wasn't how she handled things. She wasn't some pubescent child that needed the attentions of one little boy. She would be just fine without it.
She wasn't going to allow his behavior to put the team at risk, though. Which was another reason Kanoko spent so much time with Sakura – training her to be stronger. Kanoko couldn't rely on Naruto to protect her after all. As much as he said he "loved" Sakura, his behavior was only going to get his whole team killed.
And dammit, Kanoko was not going to apologize for saving Naruto's life.
She did nothing wrong.
.
Kanoko turned to the opening of the bridge to see Naruto running up to Sakura.
"Hey Sakura-chan! What's up?!" Naruto yelled, waving to Sakura, completely ignoring Kanoko.
"Not again! They've been like this since the mission!" Sakura thought annoyed. "Uggg, it's like being stuck with a couple of children."
Eventually, Kakashi did show up, "Hey guys. Sorry I'm late, I got lost on the road of life."
Naruto and Sakura yelled, "Whaaaa?!"
After the yelling, Naruto started crying about wanting another mission – a real mission.
"BELIEVE IT!" Naruto yelled out of nowhere.
"Let us know when you're done fantasizing, Naruto, so we could start the mission?" Kakashi asked.
"Could you just stop being annoying, just for once!" Sakura added on.
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Team 7 was walking back from their last mission. Naruto was limping along, being supported by Sakura. The last mission's objective had been walking dogs and Naruto's dog had pulled him into a land mine field.
Don't worry; the dog came out completely unharmed.
.
"Look at you… You're hopeless Naruto!" Sakura told Naruto.
Kanoko just looked ahead.
"We're not doing so well on the teamwork thing, huh?" Kakashi said with a sigh.
Naruto shook Sakura off of him and took an aggressive stance towards Kanoko. Kanoko, hands still in her pockets, raised an eyebrow at Naruto. What happened to ignoring her?
Naruto stuck his finger out, pointing it at Kanoko and yelled at Kanoko, "That's right! Our teamwork's all messed up and it's because of you!"
Kanoko's eye twitched at Naruto, "How is this possibly my fault?! All you have done is ignore me and treat me like scum! If anyone is to blame, in concern to our teamwork, it's you!"
"You think you're better than everyone else! You think they mean less than you! Like they're tools to use at your disposal!" Naruto screamed back.
Kanoko crossed her arms, "I understand the in Naruto's world, everything is sunshine and rainbows, but in the real world – the ninja world – you do what's required to survive. A true shinobi must suppress their emotions and complete the task before them."
"The world isn't so black and white! There's always another way!" Naruto screamed back.
"Then maybe you shouldn't have stuck your nose where it doesn't belong. Maybe you shouldn't have jumped in front of Sensei's attack. Did you ever think that perhaps Haku would still be alive if you hadn't jump in so impulsively? Maybe that's it: You may be mad at me, but you're angrier with yourself because it was your actions that caused Haku's death." Kanoko finished coldly. Even the atmosphere seemed to drop ten degrees.
"KANOKO!" Sakura exclaimed, "That's going too far!"
Naruto just stared at the ground, his fists tight, and his body shaking in rage.
*drip*
*drip drip*
Kanoko slowly uncrossed her arms, as she watched tear drops fall from Naruto's face. Kanoko's face shifted from a hard look, to a defeated one. She sighed internally and looked up at the sky, "I feel like I'm turning into my father…" Kanoko thought, thinking of Tobirama's father: His cold demeanor and his angry words towards Hashirama.
Kanoko took a step towards Naruto, with an arm extended out, but he bolted away before she could get close.
She watched his back as he ran.
"You're the worst Kanoko." Kanoko told herself.
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Kanoko walked into the Nara residence and sat down at the table with her chin resting in her palm. She looked out the window thinking about the events that have occurred since the beginning of her assignment to Team 7.
So much had happened, but at the same time Kanoko felt as though no progress had been made. She told herself that was ridiculous. She, along with Naruto and Sakura, had completed a number of D-ranked missions and even survived a rather deadly B-ranked mission.
It all goes back to that B-ranked mission though.
Kanoko thought about her actions before and during the mission. Had she really made any progress? She felt as though she was stuck in a story with a predetermined ending and she couldn't deviate from the script. She felt like a pawn or a placeholder, as if she was subbing in for another character.
Kanoko continued to stare outside, wondering why she was even revived, if her presence made so little od an impact.
"Kanoko?"
Kanoko turned her head up and saw her mother. "I thought you would be outside training or on a mission with your team?" Yoshino asked, looking confused at her daughter.
Kanoko just looked away, not really feeling like answering.
"Now that's the kind of response I expect from your brother. Now I know something is up. Kanoko. Tell your Kaa-san what's on your mind." Yoshino said with a firm smile before sitting down across from Kanoko.
Kanoko didn't turn her head, "Do you think I've changed?"
"What do you mean?"
Kanoko clicked her teeth, "I don't know. I guess I don't know where to go from here. Like I'm one of Shikamaru's clouds: floating in the wind, not getting a choice in its destination."
Yoshino stared before chuckling, "You've lost your purpose."
Kanoko turned back to her mother, "I've lost my purpose?" Kanoko shook her head, "No. I…"
Yoshino interrupted, "Think about it. When you came home after being assigned a team, you were determined. Determined to do what, I'm not sure, but after that? You started to just sit back and watch – much like your brother. The both of you are more alike than you like to admit."
Kanoko glared at the table before her, not really wanting to glare at her mother, "Sit back and watch? I've been working day and night to get stronger. I put my life on the line to protect my teammates! How is that sitting back and watching?"
Her mother reached out and grabbed Kanoko's fist with both of her hands, "You're acting like a ninja and that's great Kanoko, but you're more than a ninja. You're Nara Kanoko. Have you ever looked inside and asked yourself that that means?" Yoshino paused before continuing, "I've watched you grow. You were never curious and remained distant from everything and everyone, even your own family. You act as if you are watching a story unfold in front of your eyes, but do nothing to change the storyline."
Kanoko looked at her mother's hands, "That's how I feel, like there's no point in acting because I'm just a pawn in this story." Kanoko's fist tightened.
"The thing is Kanoko. This is your story. You need to start acting like it." Yoshino finished catching Kanoko's eyes and smiling.
Kanoko stared bewildered at Yoshino.
"This is my story?" She stared at her mother before shifted her gaze to a picture behind her. It was a family portrait.
In her head, Kanoko's image in the picture disappeared.
Nothing changed.
Her family was still smiling.
Without her.
As if her presence made no difference.
.
Kanoko stood up suddenly.
Her gaze was fixated to the ground before looking up.
There was a fire behind her eyes.
"I'm done with being a pawn. I'm done following the script. It's time I start acting like who I was before this village even was built: Senju Tobirama – a force to be reckoned with."
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Special Episode:
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Kanoko walked through the door to her home with her hands in her pockets. She placed the bag of food on the counter when Shikamaru came around the corner.
Kanoko immediately grabbed the nearby broom and held it out, preventing her brother from getting close. She narrowed her eyes and said, "Not today."
Shikamaru stared at her like she was crazy before yawning out a "troublesome" and walking away. Kanoko watched him leave up the stairs, broom following him as he walk, before placing the broom against the wall.
Only to get glomped by her mother…
She hated this family…