Chapter Eleven
"Accountability"
One of the Kumo shinobi – the one who convinced their captain to trust Fū – was a medic. The older man jumped down beside the jinchuriki (who Fū was reminded was named Yugito) and set to work healing her wounds as soon as Fū's seal work stabilized the congruence between Yugito and Matatabi's chakra.
While he was working diligently to heal the jinchuriki, Fū stepped out of the way. She clasped her hands behind her back and, ensuring nobody was too close, walked right up to the two tails.
Matatabi's heterochromatic eyes were unsettling, and unyielding as Fū stood before her. But Fū didn't tremble.
Instead, she fell to her knees.
"I'm sorry I restrained you like this," Fū apologized, eyes on the ground and head low. Ashamed of her actions. "I was acting in defense of the village, but that's not an excuse to rob you of your freedom."
It was the first time she'd ever manifested the chakra chains. Fū hadn't even known she could do it, or she might've tried using them in training. If only to shock the mask off of Obito. Fū didn't know exactly what she was doing when she'd stood up and shouted at Matatabi – but in that exact moment an almost excruciating heat had sprung from her body and the chains came with it.
She hadn't even had any control over what the chains were doing, but she tried not to panic because they were stopping the raging cat, which was the goal.
A small, whirling burst of blue chakra formed right in front of Fū and a tiny house cat sized version of the great beast was standing before her. Fū lifted her head, staring in the cat's eyes as she lifted a tiny paw, hovered it in the air for a moment, and then batted at Fū's nose without extended claws.
Fū's jaw dropped and she rocked back to sit on her legs, wide eyed.
But chibi-Matatabi just chuckled. It was warm and throaty – like a grandmother's laugh. "Thank you for saving Yugito, child."
Fū blinked, barely comprehending what was happening. But Matatabi wasn't finished.
"You knew my name," she continued… her warm voice still pleasant. Questioning, not accusing.
"I know all of your names," Fū confessed, scratching the back of her head and looking off towards where the Iwa shinobi were being marched into a seal that Kiyoi had laid out on the ground nearby. "It's a complicated reason, though."
She'd memorized the tailed beasts' names because she'd been fascinated by them (and the Sage of Six Paths, she loved the whole Kaguya arch) in the story.
That was the reason. Super dull and not at all complicated.
Explaining the 'story' thing would be, though, so she kept silent.
"I see," Matatabi purred, tails flicking, "perhaps one day you will explain this reason to us." Fū raised a brow at that. Did Matatabi think she was going to reunite the tailed beasts? Fū's brain nearly short circuited. How would she even go about that? "You could have sealed me within yourself."
Caught off guard, Fū gasped and immediately began waving her hands as if to banish the thought by force.
"I'd only do something like that if it was a–a last ditch effort! If both of you were going to die and I couldn't help–"
"I believe you." Matatabi said simply, sitting back on her haunches. "I shall tell my brother of you. He will be interested to learn of a child who knows our names, does not wish to take our power for her own, and rushes into danger to save the innocent."
"Oh–" Fū blushed, looking back at the ground and unsure what to say about the praise. She didn't feel she deserved it, she'd only done what she could. There was likely a large death toll, regardless of her actions today. Nothing to celebrate. "Well, I hope Gyūki is well."
This amused Matatabi, and she chuckled again. "As I hope my cantankerous brother is as well."
Fū's eyes widened again and her head snapped up. The Nibi must somehow be able to feel some of Kurama's chakra on her… Fū didn't realize that maybe there was a leaching effect due to proximity or something.
"He is… angry to be bound to a toddler. That much I can say," Fū informed her, a slight self-deprecating frown on her face as she realized she hadn't even tried to speak to Kurama. Not that he would hear her, she was sure. To Matatabi she said; "I haven't spoken with Kurama."
She needed to look at Naruto's seal, too. The reason she hadn't done so yet was because she was worried she might mess it up somehow. She wanted to do more research before ever touching it, lest she run the risk of harming Naruto. That wasn't a chance she'd ever take lightly.
As she opened her mouth to say something, not entirely sure what it was she wanted to say, the small chakra cat was beginning to fade.
"We will meet again, child. Of this I am sure."
Someone called her attention from the left where Sasori was shuffling over toward her just as Matatabi, the large version, started to fade as well.
'Yugito must be on her way to a full recovery,' Fū thought as she watched Matatabi fade out of existence.
Fū stood up, legs a little shaky, and dusted her knees as Sasori stepped up beside her and stilled. "There are shinobi converging from the North."
"Should we wait on them or get out of here?" Fū asked, looking up at him. He was inside Hiruko, still, and watching the smoking buildings all around them. She wasn't sure where the fire had come from, but a large portion of the village had been burned during the onslaught.
"You tell me. Evidently this is your mission and I am merely a subordinate." Sasori quipped, tone sharp.
He was angry with her.
She wasn't surprised. He had every right to be. She'd disobeyed his directives, dodged his attempts to corral her, and involved them in a foreign conflict.
"Let's hang back," Fū told him, ignoring his comment for now and stepping into the role regardless of how he felt, "running off now might trigger their instinct to pursue us and consider us enemies. I'd rather deal with whatever it is head on. Besides," she added, eyeing the civilians who were starting to accumulate in the roads, the same forlorn shadow in their gazes that reminded Fū of what the people of Afghanistan had looked like after each raid. More often than not she'd been first on the scene to report and their haunted, rage-filled expressions when they laid their eyes on her… they haunted her even in this new life. "This village needs some help."
"This is far more damage than what we have the time to manage, we have our own mission." Sasori grumbled as they walked down the street – stopping just out of the way but close enough to listen in another group of Kumo shinobi surrounded the Kiyoi's team.
"It's not about what we can do for them," Fū stated, watching the Kumo nin interact.
It wasn't going well. There was shouting. Kiyoi hung his head in shame, and gestured over towards where Fū and Sasori were standing. The man, who was clearly a superior officer, swiveled his head and met eyes with her. Not Sasori. He gestured her over with two fingers, the demand clear in his stance.
He wasn't going to take a firm 'no, thanks' for an answer. So Fū sighed and started walking towards the Kumo ninja.
"We can take them if they attack us, right?" Fū asked Sasori quietly.
Sasori huffed, glancing over at her with a scathing glare. "Now you're concerned? Need I remind you that not an hour ago you rushed a raging bijuu, alone, and managed to bring it to the ground in seconds?"
"Well when you say it like that…" Fū trailed off just as they made it close enough to the Kumo nin to justify stopping – keeping their distance just in case.
"My subordinates tell me Kumo has you to thank for saving our Jinchuriki," the young man, perhaps in his early twenties, said. He was dark-skinned and fair haired. His face was gaunt, half covered by his hitai ate like Kakashi wore his – sans mask. He folded his arms over his armor-clad chest, one dark eye watching them both intently before it cut to Sasori. "And you to thank for capturing the treacherous fiends who tried to kill her and steal our bijuu."
"I don't think the goal was to steal the bijuu – I believe their intent was to kill it." Fū said, frowning as Kiyoi turned and crouched over the prone Yugito. She was stirring.
"What makes you think that, Uzumaki-san?" The ninja asked, his stance did not falter. There was nothing that gave away how he felt about her proclamation. But his use of her name gave away that Kiyoi had told him who she claimed to be.
Fū felt Sasori wrap a single chakra string around her wrist in warning.
She wasn't sure what he was warning her about. Probably not to give them too much information about the seal – but she'd already ousted herself as an Uzumaki. It wasn't like she'd make it worse.
Well, actually, she could definitely make it worse. But she'd try not to.
"Whoever placed the tag on the kunai they jabbed her with, they have a half-decent grasp on rudimentary fūinjustsu. I haven't examined the seal that was on the weapon, but I saw what it did to the seal on Yugito-san. Their intent was to maintain a far weakened connection between bijuu and jinchuuriki, have them separate and cause mass hysteria so no one would notice Yguito-san was dying and taking the Nibi with her."
The people in the streets were paying attention, now, and slowly drifting closer to the shinobi. Weary, but intrigued.
"Sounds as if they would have succeeded without your interference," the shinobi said, head lowering a fraction, "for that, we thank you. Kumo owes you a debt. Both of you. With these prisoners, Iwa can be held accountable for the loss of life here today, and you can be assured that the Raikage will see justice served."
Fū pursed her lips, making her thoughts known on her face right before she spoke them. "As far as Iwagakure is concerned – they should be responsible for the financial burden of rebuilding, and they should pay restitution to the people for their lost loved ones today. Aid this village's recovery and Kumo can consider its debt paid."
She watched the shinobi's jaw tick, and behind him Kiyoi was helping Yugito to her feet.
"I'll take your words to the Raikage myself," the blond girl declared, her voice weak and she stumbled against Kiyoi's hold with grit teeth. "And Kumo will do what it can to aid this village – please," she looked out imploringly to the gathered crowd, "allow us to help right the wrong."
Fū was happy to step back and watch, a small smile on her face, when a single man hobbled forward carefully, nursing an injury to his right leg, and introduced himself as the village leader. The medic from the Kumo team set to work after a brief conversation, and the injured began to come forward as a few Kumo shinobi set off to start searching the rubble for survivors.
She did not see how Sasori eyed her thoughtfully.
"You're not too bad at diplomacy, for a brat."
One side of Fū's lips twitched into a rueful smile before she could help it.
That had been half the reason she'd been a field report correspondent for the United Nations in her last life… she was good with people. Holding corrupt administrations accountable by keeping them to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (and in wartime–the Geneva Convention) had been a speciality. She'd enjoyed it.
That was why she'd been sent out to report back to the people from the war zone. For all the good it did.
That was also why she was going to do everything she could to try and help this world.
Even though, as before, it would probably be the death of her.
Nagato didn't have to send his Deva path far to find Jiraiya. His former sensei had set up a pop-up bar for reconnaissance just inside the village walls.
Just weeks ago, Nagato's first response to this invasion would have been to engage in combat with Jiraiya and kill him for trespassing, for attempting to stop him – now, he considered an alternative route.
Nagato walked the Deva path into the pop up bar and sat down, eyeing the man standing behind the bar that Jiraiya was pretending to be with boredom that bordered on irritation.
"If you wish to speak with me, please do away with these false pretenses. Jiraiya-sensei." Nagato said patiently, folding his hands on his lap. The man before him twitched his mustache, but realized he was caught and dropped his henge.
"I didn't expect you to walk in here like this – Nagato," Jirayia huffed as the clouds dissipated, he paused a moment, seeming to take in the man before him and his voice was soft as he asked; "What happened to Yahiko? Konan?"
"Yahiko has died, as you can see. Konan is well." Nagato ignored the way his sorrow ripped through him as he thought of Yahiko. He didn't like to dwell on those feelings but they were a constant undercurrent. Unavoidable when someone said his friend's name.
That was why Konan and Nagato didn't speak of him anymore.
"How did it happen?"
Nagato grit his teeth in his dark room, fighting against the grief that still felt fresh, even two years later. "He impaled himself on a kunai when Hanzō forced us into making an impossible decision."
"I see," Jiraiya lowered his head, spreading his hands on the bar and leaning against it as if this news had rocked him more than he'd thought it would. "I'm sorry, Nagato."
Nagato had no more to say on the matter of Konan and Yahiko, it was too painful to recollect and the scars were still fresh, so he changed the conversation.
"What do you want?"
Jirayia's brow arched and he shifted, pushing back from the bar to grab a bottle of sake and two cups,
"You know what I want," he said as he popped the cork and poured the alcohol. "What happened almost two years ago can't be ignored, and those kids belong in Konoha. You're playing a dangerous game, and it's not going to lead anywhere good."
"I am not playing any games," Nagato said, staring down at the cup as if it were the offensive party here, not Jiraiya, "I had nothing to do with the situation in Kohona. The children, however, I will be keeping regardless, as is my right."
Jiraiya knew he was lying about his involvement in the Kyuubi attack of course, he was there – he simply did not raise a hand to aid either party. He would have, had it come to it, but it hadn't. Still, he couldn't own his part and still hope to avoid battle with his former sensei right here in the city.
Thus, he would maintain that he did not participate.
"What makes you think you have a right to them?" This seemed to outrage the elder shinobi more than Nagato's potential involvement in the loss of Namikaze Minato, and Jiryiah's hair spiked with his irritation.
Nagato remained serene as he raised a hand to fiddle with his cup of cold sake. He couldn't drink it in this body, nor would he drink it with his own, but the aroma was pleasing.
"They are Uzumaki. Taifū is my clan head, making Naruto next in line. As their elder – possibly the only elder of the clan – and in the interest of preserving my nearly extinct clan, it is my duty to see them protected. Even by Konoha's laws, this cannot be denied."
He'd thought long and hard about making this claim before he decided on this course. He assessed the child weekly, battled her wit, and tested her mental fortitude. He took a keen interest in her training, and had asked Konan to work with her. Nagato had, inevitably, decided that Uzumaki Fū and her brother were worth the risk of outing himself as an Uzumaki.
He may have to show his true face to the public after this. He didn't want to, but for those kids he would do it.
He couldn't pinpoint a single moment when those children had nestled their way into his heart and mind, but Nagato had come to believe in Fū. Almost as much as he had believed in Yahiko. She, too, wished for peace and agreed the empathy was how it could be established – though she criticized his method.
But she never simply stopped at criticism. She proposed alternatives, and Nagato was employing such an alternative right now; speaking with his adversary instead of attacking outright.
So far it seemed to be getting him somewhere a battle wouldn't have.
"You can't be serious?" Jiraiya was looking at him as if he'd spontaneously grown a second head. "Employing that ancient bylaw to cover for kidnapping the progeny of the Fourth Hokage. Do you know what you're doing, Nagato?"
"Your government has long held its stance that it would not interfere with clan affairs, has it not?" Nagato reminded the other man serenely, feeling as if he'd been the winner in this conversation. "Besides, you and I both know that Konoha, as it stands today, is no place for children without protection. Naruto would have been fine, if neglected. Taifū, on the other hand – she would've been open to kidnapping either way."
Jiraiya's face pinched and he went still.
So, his old sensei did know about Danzō, then? Interesting.
"Clean your own house, then perhaps we could negotiate a future custodial agreement." Nagato continued cheekily, driving the proverbial kunai deeper, feeling a little proud that he'd managed to flummox his former sensei when Jiraiya didn't speak.
"I didn't introduce myself before. I'm Arui, Jonin of Kumogakure." The shadow of the captain who'd come after the battle fell over her, backlit by the raging fire in the town square that had been stoked to deal with the worst of the wood that had been decimated by the Nibi's rampage. "They tell me you're Uzumaki Fū. From Uzushio, of all places."
Sasori had declared that they would move on in the morning. He didn't trust these people to leave them be so they could sleep in the woods, nor did he believe they wouldn't be pursued if they left to continue their mission. So she decided she'd help for a while before getting out her bedroll and sleeping in the woods outside of the village. Sasori was busy helping the more experienced shinobi track down buried survivors – he wouldn't let her join him in that endeavor.
She conceded because she didn't want to argue with him, he was already angry enough and she knew she was in for the scolding of a lifetime whenever they were alone again.
"Well I haven't been to Uzushio, actually," Fū mumbled, exhausted and far too weary to keep up a stupid lie she'd given in the heat of the moment under stress, "but I'm going to. So I said I was from Uzushio because that's where I intend to be. I'm actually kind of a nomad. I've been to a lot of places. Don't call any of them 'home.'"
Technically not a lie, because she had been to a lot of places and she didn't consider any of them her home. And recently she'd been kind of nomadic.
But not really. She still had a home to go back to, after all.
She was going to give herself this one, though, because the truth was too complicated to explain to a random Kumo ninja without discussing some important details – like who her parents were and where they were from.
"Huh, so you plan to 'plant some roots' in your ancestral homeland then?" Arui asked, crouching down beside her and helping her sort through the rubble.
Fū watched him for a second, looking for any indication that he had an ulterior motive to this question and, ultimately, decided that if he did then it wasn't likely to come to anything and decided to go ahead and talk to him like a person, not a suspect.
Arui reminded her of Kakashi, not just because of the way he wore his forehead protector but because of his easy way and mannerisms. That thought caused her chest to squeeze so she looked away from him.
"I want to. We'll see how it goes when I get there."
"Brave of you, I heard that the island is haunted."
Fū raised a skeptical brow as he rose with an armful of shattered wood and began walking it over to the massive fire.
Shinobi were a superstitious sort, she knew. But Uzushio being haunted? Come on.
Still, she gathered up her own armful of wood to burn and raced after him.
"Wait, what do you mean haunted?"
Fū saw his lip twitch but he looked ahead as he tossed his armful of wood into the blaze.
She went to do the same but he stopped her.
"Woah, you're too close. You'll get burned by the cinders." Arui gently pushed her back a few feet and began taking handfuls at a time from her to toss in. "Uzushio is said to be haunted by the spirits of the dead Uzumaki. Everyone who's ever gone to the island can't get past the gate to the ruined city, first of all. But those who stay on the outskirts overnight to try end up hearing some really creepy things. As far as I know, nobody has stayed more than a single night. The locals, the salt farmers who live on the coast, say the spirits were there long before the Uzumaki inhabited the island, though. Hard to say what's true and what's not."
"That's interesting, I'll keep it in mind." Fū mumbled as she brushed the debris from the wood off her arms and chest while Arui took the last of it and tossed it into the fire.
"Anyway," Arui brushed the dirt off his hands and turned, "I wanted to ask if there was any way you and your… shishou…" he said that word like he didn't believe that's who Sasori was to her, "would come with us to Kumo. We think the Raikage would want to speak with you both."
'There it is,' Fū thought. That was what Arui wanted. He'd come over and made polite chatter to butter her up but his goal was to get her to agree to go to Kumogakure with them.
Kumo had been the ones to kidnap her mother, back when she was young. They would also try to take Hinata within the next couple years. She wasn't sure of the timeline.
Right now, she was almost certain that if she said no Arui's jovial and friendly demeanor would drop and they'd try to take her, too.
"Let me talk to him and see," she beamed up at him, like he was her new best friend and she'd love to go anywhere with him. Her best impression of a trusting little kid accepting candy from a guy in a windowless van.
An hour later, she and Sasori carefully – and quietly – disappeared into the night while the Kumo shinobi were busy with the villagers.
Obito could kill Nagato for this.
The Uchiha hid in the rafters, barely managing to control the tightening in his stomach and shoulders that usually indicated he was going to lash out violently with the Mokuton that his White Zetsu parts gave him access to. The fact that he was staring down at Pain's desk, seeing Jiraiya the fucking Toad Sannin sitting there, was enough to drive him to the brink of his personal control.
Three times he'd stopped himself from blasting the man into another dimension.
Three times in the past five minutes.
"I just want to see them, and then I'll leave them here and take the long way back to Konoha –" Jiraiya had been repeating the same circular argument for the better half of an hour.
"-that is not possible." Pain responded, once again explaining himself; "Uzumaki Taifū is out of the city on her first mission and will not be returning for at least a month. She would not agree to allow her brother to meet anyone without her presence, therefore I am inclined to deny you."
'Damn right,' Obito thought.
He'd never spoken with Fū about how she felt about anyone from Konoha. An oversight, he realized now. Especially now that he knew all he did – he should've asked.
He would rectify that mistake when she returned. For now, he was with Pain. Neither of them were going to let Jiraiya get close to Naruto.
Finally, Jiraiya sighed and folded his arms over his chest. "Fine, then let me leave a note for Fū-chan and I'll be on my way to Konoha with your statement."
'What statement?' Obito wondered, hands gripping the beam he was held onto as he bit his cheeks in frustration.
He hadn't known Nagato had sent Pain to confront Jiraiya in town until they were already back at Akatsuki headquarters. By then an entire conversation had happened that he hadn't been privy to.
Obito and Nagato were going to have words over this.
Not Nagato going to bat for the kids and for his clan! I'm proud of him. I'm gonna start calling him Nagato-ojisan. Ol' Uncle Nagato.