Yo! KG here with more greatness! Sorry, it's late again; I struggled with this one. So, let's try this again, hopefully; I'll update on time. Probably have to make the chapters shorter. Hmm? Anyway, after this is Haku's arc or at least the start. So, get ready for that because some may hate me for what I have planned, but it's my story, and I mean, have you seen my screen name? It's not there for shits and giggles, folks! Chapter 5 is coming out on July 9th. Hopefully, fingers crossed! The Good Demon is Out!
I don't own Naruto, which is a disgrace.
Once I could Kindle Fire; Now, I'm Cold as Ice.
Chapter 4
Three days after the incident
The Wind blew across a freshly cut yard, blowing the light wind chimes into the breeze. Their soft clacking could be heard from the wraparound veranda's deep, rich brown rafters. Morning light peeked its bright, warming rays on and through the Minka structure's large windows and wooden lattice paper doors to raise its inhabitants.
Yet one such inhabitant ignores the warming sun and a cooling breeze to wallow in the darkness of his covers. The Figure lay stretched out like a crime scene outline just lying there. From a small opening in the sliding door, a small shadow moved across the dark beige tatami floor with stealth in mind. Even as the shadow reached the futon cover, slithering up to the central bugle of the figure, did a nay a flinch or jerk happen?
Only when a wet flicking on the figure's nose woke him enough to remove the covers from his head, revealing Kizashi Haruno. His Pink tuft of hair is uncombed and wildly matted everywhere. Dark circles underline his sleepy azure eyes, with a light pink stubble starting to come in along his jaw. His eyes blinky for a second, then another as his eyes refocus on the black thing not two feet from his face. A minute later, half-lidded blue eyes were staring at the reptilian yellow, black-slitted eyes of a Pit Viper, giving him a tongue licking.
"Morning… Nala." Kizashi said as he flopped his head back on his pillow.
"Good morning Kishi-sama." The Short vast body of the all-black snake moved higher on his chest to look down at him with unblinking mirth in those reptilian obs.
"Hmm. So did your mistress summon you to wake me?"
"Yessss and No."
Kizashi blinked before sighing, knowing he would regret asking, but decided to do so anyway, seeing the beginning of one of Anko's pranks a mile away.
"Ok…I'll bite; what's the no part?"
"Thissss!" Nala said as the warm blanket of her chakra spiked and covered him in seconds. Then he felt his surroundings change abruptly as the soft cushion futon he was on was replaced with air for a few seconds before he fell into chilled water.
"Agh! Phah! Augh!" He splashed around, panicking for a minute before his feet could touch the bottom. He quickly stood out of the cool water to hear Anko's snickers.
"Dammit, Anko! Phah! Ugh."
"Come on, Kishi! A little water never hurt anybody! Plus, it's fun watching you flail like a fresh genin. Ahhaha!"
"Ha. Ha. Ha. Ugh. You've had your laugh; now I'm returning to my house arrest before the Anbu panic." He said as he stepped out of the water but stopped when a kunai landed before him.
"Woah there, Kishi! Would I take you from an anbu patrol without a good reason or permission?"
"Yes. Yes, you would."
"Well, for your information, I got special permission to bring you out here."
"Really?" Kizashi looked up at the tree his friend was lounging in, his eyes meeting hers as he wrung out his shirt.
"Really." She said as she jumped down, somersaulted, and stuck a three-point landing with a smiling flourish.
He blinked some water out of his eyes for them to focus on her smiling cute face, then slightly down to the sexy black bra that was visible under her fishnet. Anko grinned, wrapping her arms under her bust while waggling her eyebrows at him.
"Great, aren't they, Kizashi! You're looking at home Konoha grown!"
Half-lidded Blues looked at her face with a deadpan look.
"Ah, uh. So is the back pain you'll get in a few years."
"Pssh! Real Kunoichi don't suffer from them civi problems."
"What about Tsunade Senju?"
"Ehh. Once you go past double D, their problems are your problems."
"So, you don't think you're endangered in that department?"
"Ah. Ah. Ah. If you want to know my size, Kishi, you gotta marry a girl first." Anko said with a grinning smirk.
Kizashi Haruno couldn't help the chuckle that came past his lips as he shook his head. He took a moment to be for a moment before speaking in a more somber tone.
"Why did you bring me out here, Anko?" His Azure eyes locked with her pupilless honey golds to convey the seriousness of his words.
Anko's relaxed body posture stayed the same but dropped her playful expression to a more neutral one.
"Well, for one, and I quote- a quick spike of chakra happened before an exact copy of his voice was heard from her lips: Anko, if you ever need help again, just come get me. No matter what, I don't want you doing this alone." Anko's changed her voice back to normal as she continued.
"As for number two, well, a particular mama boar was concerned when certain someone hadn't been showing up for meals. Which made a little pink blossom very sad; combined that together and, after a bit of discussion with a tall guy in black. Here is yours truly to bring happiness and a kick in the pants if necessary."
Kizashi's mood seemed to drop as she ticked off her reasons, making him puff out a big sigh, now looking at the ground with a frown. The only thing heard between them for a few minutes was the sound of nature around them. Anko opened her mouth for a second, then closed it; her lips thinned into a straight line as she pivoted and turned around.
"There are some dry clothes in a scroll in the bushes to your left. You should get dressed so we can go." Her voice was devoid of her playful attitude before and replaced with a more solemn tone.
Kizashi went to the bush, pulled out the scroll, unsealed towel, and dry clothes, then tossed his soggy wet nightwear. As he started to towel off his form, Anko's voice reached him again.
"You know it's not your fault, right, Kishi?" she asked tentatively.
"I want to believe that, but it would be a lie." Anko stiffed at his words, craning her head and pivoting her right foot.
"What do you mean by that, Kizashi?"
"What I mean is I saw the signs, Anko. The late nights. The heavy perfume I would smell from her clothes. She goes to a book club, of all things. A BOOK Club! Mebuki hated reading with a passion. The signs were there, and I actively ignored them!" Upon hearing his rant, Anko relaxed again, turning entirely away from him, ashamed that she ever thought what she would listen to was anything but that.
She wrapped her arms under her bust and did her best to banish any other traitorous thoughts entering her mind as she tried to think of something to say. Kizashi taking her pause as a confirmation of his guilt continued.
"I failed to put the village first as the creed demanded. Maybe our friends would still be here if I had said something earlier."
Anko had a frown of her own to stop herself from saying HIS friends, not hers, but she stopped before she could utter anything. Bekko and Kohari were just slightly warming up to her when they died in the second Kyuubi attack. She cared about their deaths as any other Konoha nin, but did it weigh on her as it did Kizashi? No, the only reason they were even trying to accept her in the first place was due to Kizashi's efforts, not theirs. Yet, while they barely meant something to her, they meant a lot to him, and she would be damn if she allowed that bimbo wife of his to make him feel that pain.
"Someone once told me I couldn't blame myself for shit I couldn't control. Was that a lie?"
When he heard those words, Kizashi blinked and put his head through his shirt. "Anko… that's different. You were just a girl- "I was a girl who finished the academy two years ahead of time under the new peacetime laws."
"Are you saying I got to be an adult to do the right thing? "No- "So I should blame myself for my teammate's deaths or the hundreds of civilians he killed, huh? Is that it? Do you know how many times I asked myself that same question? You were betrayed by someone who was supposed to have your back. Someone you were supposed to trust with everything so they could help you grow and be better than you were yesterday.
You can't say it's not the same Kizashi. The relationship might differ, but the trust required for both to be happy, and functioning is not. So, stop being an idiot and use your advice. Dumbass!" Kizashi looked at her back for a long minute before a smile grazed his lips, and for the first time since finding out what his wife did, he felt uplifted.
A small chuckle was all she needed to hear, along with his footsteps getting closer. She whipped around before he got too close, giving him a devilish grin.
"And what do we do to those things that make us think life's shit?" She pulled a pouch from a seal in her overcoat before tossing it to him. Kizashi could not keep the grin off his face as he caught it.
"We kill shit."
"You damn right, we kill shit! So, let's stop wasting daylight and move!"
Kizashi shook his head, looking at the blue shirt and black cargo, now complete with a ninja tool pouch on his hip. He wished he had his vest, but he decided it didn't matter; he could kill shit just fine without it. So, they both jumped into the trees running with him right behind Anko.
"Enjoying the view back there?" Anko said, glancing back at him.
His eyes caught hers and replied.
"I think I'll take a picture; they last longer."
"Fuck you! Kizashi!"
"I mean, I would if fucking your shadow clone wasn't considered incest, but hey, if you join, it's a sandwich, and I know how you like sandwiches."
"And here I thought you knew me better than that. I like Dango, not sandwiches!"
"Hmm. I don't know; the stick has four balls, and you like putting them in a particular hole. And I know you got more than one so. Sounds like a party to me. Ha!"
Eleven Days later
Kizashi stood in simple button-up green shirt and brown slacks with his daughter Sakura next to him, wearing her favorite red short-sleeve qipao dress with a yellow skirt. They both stood outside a sizeable off-white building known as Konoha General, waiting on their escort. A lot happened after his near-death experience with Anko she called a mission. He gained a healthier outlook on his situation thanks to Anko giving him the kick in the butt he needed. He could accept that Mebuki betrayed him, and while he felt as if his heart was ripped out, the pain was more a dull ache than a roaring pain.
Seeing as watching his little girl bawl her eyes out because he was sad was not a good feeling. And with the help of Anko, Noriko Yamanaka, who was Ino's mother, and little Ino herself, he told the half-truth to his daughter about her mother. Of course, he knew that when she got older, she would want more than "your mommy did something terrible and will be living somewhere else until she's learned her lesson." It is not a way to describe such events that happened, but for a four-year-old, it would have to be enough.
And he made sure to get her to promise not to ask her mom, at least while she's in the hospital afterward; however, it will have to be something she faces later if she wants Sakura to understand. So, after that drama, they played games, watched movies, just whatever to put it at the back of her mind until the day came to see her mother. Sometimes it was him and her, other times, Anko would join with any of the Yamanaka family in playing or learning new things to pass the time quicker.
He never felt so happy to have such good friends; he didn't know if he would have been able to do it alone. He knew protocol dictated that a subject suspected of a crime would be denied contact with family or friends until proven otherwise. Still, he needed to talk to Mebuki, so he asked Anko for a favor.
While an hour wasn't much, it was something, but apparently, Anko said she could get him two instead, which was why he and his daughter were waiting under the shade of a tree in front of the hospital. They had been there ten minutes already, which made him a little nervous because while he needed to have a heart-to-heart with his wife, he did not want his best friend to do something illegal or owe people she did not want to.
The tell-tell white smoke signifies the arrival of Anko via the body flicker. When she arrived, her tan overcoat flapped open in the breeze, revealing her usual outfit except for the black shirt she now wore under her fishnet body suit. Something he thought would never happen; however, after a long talk with Noriko Yamanaka about the risks of exposing young minds to such graphic things early and a compromise to at least cover up in the presence of minors not yet of age to enter the academy. Thus, Anko wore a shirt under a fishnet, at least when it came to being around Sakura and Ino.
This radical change came when little Ino asked her mother if she could wear a fishnet bodysuit to school.
"Hey Anko." "Hi. Anko-nee-chan."
"Hey! Kishi! What's up! Pinky! Ready to go!"
"We're ready, Anko, but I gotta ask, what did you trade for this extra hour?"
"Don't worry, Kishi. It's nothing too major, just getting two picky Kunoichi to try a date with two no-so-bad shinobi."
"That's good. I'm glad you didn't have to do anything crazy." Kizashi said as they followed Anko to the side of the hospital.
"Crazy, no. Though I did agree to get the dates, never said anything about putting in a good word, so it looks like they gotta get game fast and hard if they wanna play with the big leagues."
"Your too cruel, Anko."
"If you think this is cruel, I will have to up my game on you, Kizashi."
From there, a sort of easy silence came to play as we approached a side door that looked more for staff to go in and out than patients, but I wasn't going to argue since I needed this.
Anko placed a hand on the door and sent a pulse of chakra; then, after a click was heard, she looked at Sakura and me with a neutral mask.
"When you go in, go straight to the door right in front. Then take a left, and she's in x-ray room three. After the first hour, I'll come to get Pinky, and we can eat some Dango."
"Anko-nee! I don't want Dango! I want ice cream!" Said Sakura cutely.
Anko's mask turns horrified before giving a pout.
"Fine Dango and ice cream. Happy?"
I watched as Sakura was about to say something else, more likely prolonging this conversation and wasting more time, so I quickly stopped her with a compromise.
"Sweetie, why don't you give Anko your Dango, and you take her ice cream in exchange."
"Hey! What if I wanted the ice cream." Kizashi raised an eyebrow at her for a second before she looked away.
"Fine. Dangos better anyway."
"No Ice cream is better!"
"GIRLS!"
"Sakura, no arguing with Anko until after you see your mother, ok?"
"ok."
He noticed they entered through what he could only describe as the staff break room. A few tables with chairs around them dotted the room, with a small kitchen area where he could see the basic break room amenities. No one was there, so they moved toward the only other basic brown door that contrasted with the white walls so well. Then he opened the door to the main hallway. And a burst of sterilized air burned his nostrils slightly as he switched to his mouth instead. Then the blinding color of white walls, off-white floors, and pearl white ceiling panels glared in his retinas, making him wonder why white. It wasn't a color that was easy on the eyes, nor did it bring peace to one's mind. More so, it was hard to clean when dirty, and being in a room with the color just made him want to jump out the window rather than not.
He followed Anko's instructions to key and found the room they were looking for, only a little way from their entrance. Two chairs were outside the room, empty courtesy of Anko, reminding him he owed her big time for this.
He grabbed the doorknob and held it suddenly, not knowing if he wanted to see her. Could he keep his cool in front of their daughter? Can he look her in the eye and act like everything is normal? Should he even try? A slight pull on his sleeve woke him from his mental dilemma.
He looked down at his daughter's big green forest eyes and gave a smile that didn't reach his eyes. He would do this for her, and then he'd do what he needed to do for himself. Steeling his resolve, he turned the doorknob, and they entered the room.
As he closed the door, he followed the white walls to the small bed in the middle with small machines around it, and a gasp alerted him that the occupant had noticed them.
"Mommy!"
Sakura shouted before bounding across the space between them and immediately trying to crawl into her bed. As I walked up to see Mebuki helping Sakura get up in bed, I couldn't help the certain emotions that hit me.
I wanted to feel angry at that moment, able to give her the coldest shoulder so she could feel my pain. So she would know the worry, pain, and overall stress she caused me. Yet as I see her in the standard hospital bed with a cast on her right leg hanging in a lifted sling, bandages on her arms and head, I can see her pale, sickly-looking face tinted with black and blue marks. Thin arms encircled our child, and I could see how much relief it brought to her sunken eyes and gout face. I realized then that, unlike many dramas and movies, I couldn't help but feel relieved and a little happy that she wasn't more damaged than she was. The Anger I felt the last two weeks was still there, but this undercurrent of happy/sad /concern was rolled into one that made me almost want to kiss her.
Getting rid of years of feelings for a person I've spent highs and lows with and have had a child with suddenly felt very hard to do what I wanted. I tried to push through as I walked up to the bed, but I couldn't stop myself from reaching out and taking her idol hand that wasn't holding our child.
The moment I did, her green forest eyes looked right at me like our child's. Her gaze held surprise, worry, and fear, but she still tried to give me a small smile. A smile that had my eyebrows furrowing my lips shifted from a full-on frown to a slight upturn back and forth before I just ended up sucking them in, giving a vintage of concentration.
Seeing my conflict, she looked away and tried to pull back, but I took her smaller hand more into mine instead, having a confused look hit me. My Eyes flickered to the mop of pink hair, trying to mold herself to her mother's front. She understood then what I was trying to convey and gave a somewhat pensive look before gripping my hand as if to say thank you.
I then let go of her hand to turn and search the room for a chair which I found and drug over while Sakura asked about Mebuki's injuries and well-being. I soon sat close by as Sakura regaled her mother about all she did and what happened while she was gone. When she touched on my deplorable behavior for those first three days, my wife shot me with a sad and apologetic look.
When I gave a pensive little smile in return, I saw her left eye twitch which I knew was a sign of her masking her real feelings about the situation. A reaction that made me feel a brief bout of elation seeing the all-consuming guilt she should be feeling causing pain. It got even worse when Sakura happily told Mebuki of her adventures with her Anko-nee-chan, and witnessing her child's overjoyed expression about a woman she felt inferior to made me smile inside. When she regarded me with a look that held worry and fear, a fear of being replaced, I retained an uncaring mask so good I was almost surprised I could pull it off, given my emotional state.
From then on, whenever Anko was mentioned and Sakura lit up, I watched Mebuki seem to die just a little more inside each time. Before I knew it, a knock rapped on the door, reminding me to glance at the clock. When I did, I noticed an hour had passed, so I gathered Sakura after a goodbye hug and a promise to be good; then, I gave the nod to Anko, who was now waiting with the two guards.
Once Sakura was gone, I returned to my chair and sat, trying to figure out what to say, but she talked first.
"Thank You. For bringing her, I was scared I wouldn't get to say goodbye." I felt the many stinging remarks I could have easily said to make her feel the stabbing as I do in my heart. But I breathed and gave a nod without looking at her.
Silence reigned for a couple of minutes before he exhaled softly while reaching into his brown slacks and pulling out some folded papers and a pen. Mebuki looked at him, hearing his voice, and he could finally see the emotional damage ravaged across her face with Sakura gone. He could tell she knew; she knew what the papers were and what they entailed.
So, as he handed them to her, the shake in her hands or the sniffle she did to hold back the tears impounded that notion. Once she had them on her lap, pen in hand, he decided to get the much-needed answers he needed.
"Why did you do it, Mebuki?" His eyes met hers as she looked at him once he spoke.
He watched her black and blue tint skin crinkle over her rebuilt nose as she opened and closed her mouth at least a dozen times with no sound coming out. She looked away from him to her bed, her hands tightening on the papers in her hands with the Konoha Divorce court seal at the top.
"I was selfish. He looked so much like that damn fox- "No. That's not what I'm asking. I know why you attacked him, you already explained that in your letter. What I want t to hear now is why you, my wife took the word of some man or woman you barely knew over your husband's words. Someone you vowed to thrust over no matter what over everything. What sales pitch got my wife so sucked in that their words trumped mine?"
Her shoulder slouched pain flashed across a pensive face along with a frustrated frown.
"I trusted you. I still – "Stop! I hoped you wouldn't sit there and lie to me like I'm stupid. If you trusted me, we wouldn't be here." My anger easily bled in my voice as I looked away from her.
"You saw him how he mocked us…."
I glared at her when I heard her low mumbles. "I'm sorry, what did you say? Because I thought for a second I was talking to a child just now, not an adult. You might as well speak clearly if you're going to defend yourself."
Her frown deepened as she looked up at me with some meager fire in her eyes. "I said that yes, I screwed up! And you have every right to be angry. Yes, I ruined our family! I didn't believe you! I fucked up!" Big glops of hot tears fell down her cheeks as the raw pain she felt blended into her voice.
"Back then, I was hurting, and you…y-you…." She choked on her words and looked away from me again, making my anger flare in my chest.
"I what? Did I cut you open with a Kunai? Did I dose you in oil and light you on fire? What could I have done that was so painful to you that you had to take your frustrations out on a child?"
"Y-You held him up on a Pedestal!"
"What?"
"When I laid out my pains to you, you always held that child up like he could do no wrong! Like he was the fourth reborn! It sickened me! You saw how he looked like a fox with those whiskers! How he got into top-secret buildings with ease!" I felt a cold creep go up my spine at her insane babble and swore for a split second that I thought I saw a millisecond flash of black sclera with a blood-red iris instead of those green orbs.
I quickly blinked a few times, confused about what I thought I saw and heard. Mebuki blinked as well, seemingly confused until I spoke.
"So, you kidnapped a child, tortured him along with the only two people he cared for, caused thousands of innocent lives to be lost because he was good at stealth, looked like a fox, and I held him up on some pedestal?"
She blinked at him, confused, before looking away at him again at the documents.
"No…I. Meant…I mean…... There was something more. Something that made you go to back the boy for whatever reason. I know him being a container was…is a big part of it, but I know when you're lying to me. I knew there was just something more, and no, that is not the reason for my actions, but…."
"But what?" I got up from the chair and started pacing. "So, it's my fault. It's my fault that you went into the arms of the fucking Saviors! It's my fault; MY friends died protecting OUR home! It's my fault, plus whatever insane anger revenge high horse trip YOU and YOUR friends were on, huh?" My pacing had me going back and forth in front of her bed, looking at her to stress my words.
"All this, all of it because I was doing MY JOB given to me by my hokage." I stopped pacing to take a breath before rounding on her, getting right up to her to see the spark of fear in her eyes.
"Do you want to know what I kept from you? Hm? Do you want to know? Look. At. Me." Her eyes closed in fear of any pain I might inflict, opened now, looking at me like a scared doe.
"I'm only going to say this once since just to utter it aloud is a death sentence, but hey, you thought nothing of our family when you did your thing, right? And as much as I want to watch my daughter grow and be there for her. Right now, I only want to see your face when you know, not just how you royally fucked me and Sakura. No, but how you and your friends royally fucked this village hell, even the land of fire. I want you to know that because of your misplaced anger and hate, that boy will never think of this place as his home. And it will all be because of you, someone like you, and friends that we will have to live with whatever those repercussions are." I leaned in closer so our breaths could mingle, and our noses were only a hair from touching.
"Naruto Uzumaki is the son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki. He was given his mother's maiden name to hide him from his father's enemies. If you tell a soul about this, you and I will be killed, and Sakura will be just another orphan." Her eyes widened considerably, and the slight color in her face drained as he finished.
Standing up from hovering over her, he looked at the clock, then at her again.
"Now sign the papers. I'm done talking with you." He turned around to hide the slight shake of his hand in anger.
A minute later, he heard the scribble scramble of something being written on before the paper was flipped over. This continued for a few minutes before it stopped, prompting him to turn around. He grabbed the paper and pen without so much as a glance at her face, quickly flipped through to make sure all was in order, then made his way to the door just as a knock was heard.
He grabbed the doorknob but held it as a thought hit him, making him pause.
"You know the funny thing about you blaming me for this is. You had the chance to take the NASA (ninja accordance secrecy act) test right after we got married. A Test that would have allowed you to work in the village's more secretive branches. When I encouraged you to take them, you ignored my advice and followed your so-called friend's advice about being your boss. Had you taken that simple test, you would have had the clearance for me to tell you maybe that secret a long time ago, but once again, someone else's words mattered more than my own." I turned the doorknob as soft crying could be heard behind me, passing the two guards and quickly going to the T and I building.