A lot of Kiku's and Uzu's history comes from my research. I focused my time working in history trying to tell the stories of oppressed peoples that were often hidden from mainstream sources, the stories of those hurt by the United States and the Imperial Core.
And now the world is watching this happen again, at the hands of Israel with the full support of the Imperial Core. But instead of these atrocities coming out years later, we are watching a people broadcast their genocide in the desperate hope that someone listens to their voices.
Please contact your representatives, follow the BDS movement, and raise your voice for the Palestinian people.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
"Well look who finally decided to show up," Ensui smirks as I walk up to the group. He leans against the security booth and I smile at him as I pull out an orange book.
"Sorry, Ensui-ojisan. I got lost on the path of life."
"Kami help me," Ensui whines and Anko cackles. Sai blinks slowly.
I remove the genjutsu seal from my fuinjutsu book and Ensui almost falls down the side of the booth.
"Thank Kami," Ensui sighs.
"Sorry I'm late, I got a message."
"Uh-huh," Ensui says, like he doesn't believe me.
"I really did!" I can hear Haruto's laughter in the distance and Ensui snorts.
"Come on, let's get going," he says as he leads us out of the gate.
"Yeah, let's blow this dango stand!" Anko says, a pep in her step as she follows him.
Ensui sighs and I raise an eyebrow.
That's the same sigh Shikaku gives Yoshino when she wants to dress him up for something.
Does Ensui like-
"Are you coming?" He cuts off my thought as he turns around and raises an eyebrow.
"Right behind you, old man."
He glares at me for a second before turning around. Now he knows I caught him, so it's going to be harder to get them together.
I take a step forward, watching Anko and him bicker in front of me.
Eh, whatever extra training he throws at me will be worth it. He deserves to find his person.
"He's disgusting," I whisper to Anko. She nods solemnly beside me.
"They normally are. It's even more annoying when they're attractive."
"Enemies to lovers type thing?" I ask as I shift slightly. Sitting in one spot for hours is never fun. Especially when you're chasing someone that could easily kill you. They're normally able to tell when someone is around them.
Which is how Anko and I ended up crouched in the vents of a men's only smoke room.
"It would've been so much easier to use a henge seal," I whisper.
"I know, but you rely too much on your seals," Anko says.
"We haven't even fought before," I whine as the ache in my thighs twinges more than before.
"I trust Ensui," Anko shrugs as she pulls a stick of dango out of nowhere.
How did I end up in this mess?
"Oh thank Kami," I mumble a few hours later. I slowly start to leave the vents the way we climbed into them. After listening to his annoying conversations for hours, I'm ready to be out of these tiny vents.
It takes a few minutes for us to climb out fully and meet Sai and Ensui on the roof.
"So, any ideas on how to handle him?" Ensui asks me as I dust off my leggings.
"Grab him in his sleep?" I ask as I look up at him. "He's drunk enough that it'll work."
"No," Ensui shakes his head. "You have no idea what traps he has set in his room."
"So, we need to lure him out and away from town?"
Ensui nods.
"How?" I ask. Anko snickers as she comes over to mess with my hair. I remember Daiki's drunken ramble about red heads in the smoke room. "What is it with creepy guys and red heads?" I mumble to myself as I bat Anko's hands away. I fix my braid, but leave a couple extra pieces of hair out of it to hang around my face.
It's going to annoy me, but he'll see my hair from any side this way.
"Go hang out around the food stalls?" I ask blandly.
"I can lure him out instead," Ensui says. "You don't have to do this."
"It'll be easier, though."
"It will be," he says. Although it's clear he doesn't like this plan.
"Go set up a fake camp in the clearing we found earlier. I'll meet you in ten."
"That's the spirit!" Anko slaps me on my back, hard. She grins when I don't flinch. "See you soon, kiddo!"
Ensui is the last to body flicker away. His hand rests on my shoulder for a brief moment.
It's good to know someone hates this as much as I do.
It doesn't take long for him to see me. I act like I'm looking for food at the market and stop at a stall to grab a stick of yakitori. I feel him come closer as I start to eat my food and walk towards the outskirts of the small village we're in, with only one thought repeating in my head.
This is way too easy.
"You know, I wasn't expecting to find a sweet thing like you," Daiki says as he enters the small clearing the others set up my fake camp in. I widen my eyes, trying to look like an innocent, travelling chunin.
"I don't want any trouble," I say. "Just passing through, you know?" I say. I double check for Ensui and Anko's chakra signatures in the surrounding trees.
"Oh, you won't be any trouble, sweetheart." I feel bile rise in my throat. I don't like this. It reminds me too much of the Jashinist-
He grabs my arm, pulling me up from the log I'm sitting on. He tries to pull me against him, but I twist my arm, grabbing his wrist and squeezing.
He grunts. I feel Ensui move closer in the trees.
"Feisty, huh?" Daiki asks, as he tries to grab me with his other hand, but I pull my left hand back before pushing it forwards, punching him in the chest, hard. My chakra flares at the reminder of the first Jashinst I fought.
Daiki releases his grip on me as he flies back, hitting a tree on the other side of the clearing. The cracking noise is so loud it echoes around us. Ensui lands beside me.
Huh.
Maybe I should ask Tsunade-obachan to teach me how to punch things like her.
I vaguely feel a twinge of surprise in Sai's chakra as I run forwards, directly at Daiki. I reach for a seal tucked into my haori.
He just starts to stand when I slap it on the center of his chest.
His entire body freezes below his neck and he falls back to the ground.
"Sorry, kiddo," Ensui says as he stands beside me again.
"It's okay," I say as I clench my hands in my pants.
"What the fuck?" Daiki asks. "Who are you?"
"That doesn't matter," I say as I stand up. I look back towards the trees and a second later, Anko stands beside me and Sai stands behind me.
"Should've known it was fucking Konoha," he spits.
"You couldn't tell from my flak jacket?" I ask, but everyone ignores me.
"Now, now. No need to be rude," Anko says as she crouches down beside Daiki. "We just want some information from you."
"I won't give you anything," he grunts.
"You sure about that?" Anko asks, tilting her head to the side. He turns his gaze back to me.
"Tell her to stand down," he nods at me. "Get her to reverse whatever she did to me, and give me half an hour of fun with her, then I'll think about it."
Ensui's chakra flares with his anger.
"If you want to live, stop talking about her and answer our questions," killing intent oozes out of Ensui.
"I mean, can you blame me, man? With tits like that-"
"This is a paralyzing seal, you can't move your body but you can feel everything," I cut him off as I point down at the seal on his chest with a rusty, dull kunai in my hand. I crouch down beside Anko, pulling his leg so he's flat on his back.
"So scary," he says, rolling his head slightly. "You gonna cut my arms? My legs? Who said I'm not into blood play, sweetheart?"
Ensui goes to step forward, but I hold my hand out to stop him.
"We're not going to do any of that, since you're into that," I say easily. He smirks up at me.
"Then what's the point of me bein' able to feel somethin'?" He reminds me so much of the Jashinists I've come across. It takes everything in me to not kill him. I push down my rage and smile back at him sweetly.
I let the silence hang as I hold up the kunai.
His eyes widen.
I don't have to voice my threat, but I do it anyway.
"And well, it'll take a while. You see I don't normally use weapons like this, so it's a little rusty." I move the kunai around in my hand, showing him the blade. Just like Aiya taught me.
"You crazy bitch," he whispers and I continue to smile at him, twirling the kunai on my finger. He opens his mouth, most likely to hurl another insult.
"Talk," I say, the kunai stops, aimed directly at-
"T-they were on the border of Iwa!" He says, his words come fast and his voice is high. "Told me that if I got enough sacrifices I could be immortal!"
"Jashinists?" I ask and he nods his head quickly. "Did they say why they were wanting to recruit you?"
"Spreading the good news of Lord Jashin's rising power!"
"And you believed that?" Anko asks, her voice flat.
"Why would they lie to me? It's a religion right? Religious people don't lie!" He shrieks at the end when I move my hand. I roll my eyes and seal away the rusty kunai. They're going to have to do a mind walk on him to get all the information we need.
He's a complete idiot.
"The only people that don't lie are dead," I say as I stand from my crouched position. "The ones that lie the most are the ones with the pointy metal."
"They said it was for protection! That some crazy bitch was hunting them!"
Ensui turns to me and raises an eyebrow.
"I was just minding my business! It's not my fault the assholes always go after the largest chakra source nearby!"
Ensui pinches the bridge of his nose. It's not like I've killed that many. Only three. The first one was the one that attacked us before we got to Kumo to celebrate with family. The second happened on my very brief trip to visit the Tsuchikage. The third tried to attack Uzu one night while Reiji and Sensei were visiting.
I open my mouth to tell Ensui this, but our prisoner cuts me off.
"You're the Red Death!" He whispers, turning pale. "Oh Kami you were actually going to do it! You were really going to cut me like that guy in-"
"What do you mean by Red Death?" Ensui asks, cutting him off.
"S-she's a demon!" He says, his breaths coming faster. "They showed me her picture in the Bingo book!"
"What Bingo book?"
"Amegakure and Kiri. Front pocket of my jacket," he tells Ensui before looking at me. "Look, I didn't do anything I swear-"
"Torture and Interrogation will be the ones to decide that," I say, trying to remain neutral. Trying not to show my fear of being in a Bingo book when I'm officially only a chunin. Trying not to show I'm terrified of just the thought of Jashinists coming to work together.
Their egos normally keep them separated from each other.
But if they're working together, targeting me…
Daiki opens his mouth to talk again, but Anko slaps him with one of my knockout seals before he gets a chance to beg some more. She grabs two books out of his pocket and tosses one of them to me while she opens the other.
The symbol on the front is for Kiri.
I open the book, flipping through it quickly. Until I see a picture that makes my blood run cold. A picture of me with one of my Calavera masks on. A picture of me sealing away the Jashinist that attacked Uzushiogakure.
I was too happy about Reiji and Sensei being with me again that I didn't even think to open my sensory network wider. How did I not notice-
The mist.
I groan as I think of the misty morning attack.
At least I carried the mask in my hand all the way back to Uzu. I waited until I was just outside of my house to put it in its seal.
"What?" Ensui sighs as he walks over.
"Kiri either followed the Jashinist to see how I fight or they sent one that I killed," I mumble, turning the book to show it to him. The entry is already seared in my mind.
The Red Death.
Uzumaki Kikuko.
Chunin of Konohagakure. Most likely of Anbu level in Uzushiogakure.
Fuinjutsu master.
Expert in wind and water chakra natures.
Calavera.
Flee on sight.
Ensui whistles as he reads the entry. He slips the bingo book into one of the pockets of his flak jacket.
"Tsunade-baachan is going to murder me."
"Not if Shikaku gets to you first," Ensui teases as he takes the Amegakure book from Anko.
"Since when does Amegakure have a Bingo Book? I thought it was just the five hidden villages?" I ask as Sai starts to seal Daiki into a preservation scroll. He'll be knocked out until we get back to the village.
He'll get a fun awakening in T&I.
"I don't know," Ensui says. "But it's not out of the norm for other villages to at least keep tabs on dangerous shinobi. We'll have to look into it."
Sai passes the scroll over to Anko, who slips it into one of her pockets.
"I need a nap," I whine.
"Get in line, miss flee on sight," Ensui teases.
"No shit, from Kiri?" Anko asks, excitement clear in her voice.
"From Kiri," I sigh.
"I get to brag about being a mentor of one of the youngest flee on sight shinobi to come out of Konoha!" Anko squeals.
She squeals.
"I'm team lead, I'm the mentor," Ensui's eye twitches.
"Oh yeah? First to the gate gets to claim her," Anko's smile is predatory as she shunshins away.
"What a drag," Ensui sighs as he follows her.
"They are…" Sai trails off.
"Yeah," I nod before turning to him.
I think they were just flirting in their own weird way, and I have no clue what to think about that. I file that away for later. Right behind the whole getting a flee on sight order thing.
"Last to get to the gate has to buy lunch?"
Sai shunshins away, leaving me in the clearing alone.
It's a shame he's in Root. It would've been fun to use Hiraishin to beat him.
Anko is buzzing by the time we make it to the top floor of the T&I building. Ensui shakes his head at her as he holds the door open for me and Sai.
Ensui and Anko made it to the village at the same time.
I beat Sai by an entire minute. Not like I was counting or anything.
"Oh no," Inoichi says. I look to see him leaning against a desk.
"Inoichi you won't believe it, she's a natural!" Anko gushes, running up to him and pulling on his sleeve.
"What are you doing, Anko?" A man asks as he walks out of one of the offices. He is tall. And huge. He wears a bandana on his head. I twitch when I feel his chakra.
This is Crane.
He was, or is, the current Anbu commander. The commander that I severely pissed off as a child. His head turns to me and raises an eyebrow.
"Uzumaki? Absolutely not."
"But Ibiki!" Anko whines.
I blink at them.
"What did I miss?" I whisper to Sai, but he shakes his head.
"Anko-"
"She was a natural!" Anko yells. "She threatened to cut off his-"
"No!" Inoichi whisper yells and I hide my face in my hands. This is worse than getting to Kumo after my first experience with a Jashinist.
"And she's known for doing it to a Jashinist before, too! As soon as he recognized her he was terrified! It was beautiful!" I look between my fingers just as Anko swoons, falling into Ibiki's chest.
"Kami help me," I whisper to myself.
"You did what?" Inoichi asks, turning to me.
"It was an accident that time, I swear!" I shake my hands in front of me and Inoichi pinches the bridge of his nose, just like Shikaku.
"How do you cut off-"
"I just stabbed him, I meant to stab his thigh 'ttbane!"
There's complete silence in the office.
And then it's filled with Ibiki's booming laughter.
"Okay, go for it," he tells Anko after his laughter dies down. She jumps up and punches the air.
"She's learning tracking with me," Ensui crosses his arms. Ibiki's eye twitches. "You've got plenty of time to get her back for that prank."
"No! Sensei paid him off with sake when I was a genin!"
"I don't get paid enough for this," Inoichi says as he walks towards the doors. "I'll see you tomorrow, Kiku-chan."
Well, that answers the question of when my next therapy appointment will be.
"Same time?"
"Yeah, we're getting a shipment of pots in from Iwa. And stop making that face!" He calls over his shoulder without looking at me. I pout at his back as he leaves.
"Oh, that's right!" Anko says as she pulls out the scroll that seals Daiki away. "Here you go, have fun boss!"
"Mission reports on my desk in twelve hours," Ibiki sighs.
"Got it!" Anko says as she skips over to me and loops her arm with my own. "Now let's go tell Godaime-sama about your Bingo Book debut!" Ibiki chokes behind us as Anko pulls me through the doors Inoichi just walked through.
This is going to suck.
The secretary lets us in without a second look. Sai had already left, off to work on our mission reports. And to report back to Danzo, most likely.
I hate it. Sai has actually become somewhat of a friend. I can tell from the slight twitch of his lips or the continuous use of his notebook that he's happy to be around me, too. I just need to finish this seal. Or beat some sense into him. Whichever works first.
"Hi Hokage-sama!" Anko chirps as she bursts into the room, dragging me beside her. "Oh good, you're here too!" I groan when I look to see who she's looking at.
Shikaku is not going to take this well. He raises an eyebrow.
"What did you do?" He asks as Tsunade pulls sake out from her bottom left drawer. Well. At least she's not angry yet. That's a positive.
"She is a natural at T&I!" Anko gushes. "She threatened to cut off that asshole's-" Shikaku raises a hand to stop her. The other comes up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Inoichi did that too," Anko snickers and Ensui sighs behind me.
"So you reported to Ibiki?" Tsunade cuts in.
"Yup! But we have more information that you probably want to know," Anko rolls back and forth on her feet like an excited academy student.
"Get on with it, Anko," Tsunade waves her hand as she takes a shot of sake.
"He freaked when he realized who she was because he knew she wasn't lying about her threat," Anko smiles with her eyes closed. "She's made two Bingo books!" She holds them out in front of her like they're a prize.
Shikaku groans and flops down in a chair.
There's a stillness in the room that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
"Who's?" Tsunade's voice is neutral. Oh Kami, I really am dead. And here I thought it would be Danzo, but no, it'll be Tsunade just so she can bring me back to life from the dead to kill me again.
"Kiri and Ame-"
"Shit!" Tsunade says as she leans back in her chair. She throws her hands over her face and drags them down slowly, only looking up at the ceiling.
"What-"
Shizune slaps a privacy seal down and I go to look over at it, but Ensui keeps me in my spot with a hand on my shoulder.
"You can geek out on seals later, Kiku-chan," he murmurs.
"I was just going to check to see how secure-"
"It's secure," Shizune cuts me off.
"We just got word from Jiraiya," Tsunade says. A pit begins to form in my stomach. If it's from Jiraiya, that means-
"From what he can tell, the Akatsuki is operating out of Amegakure," Tsunade says. All air seems to leave the room.
"Kiku isn't leaving the village," Shikaku finally says after too long of a silence. I look over at him, expecting for him to be hunched in on himself, to see his arms crossed, his typical Nara pout on his face on display.
But that's not what I see.
His eyes are sharp. Just like when we play a game of shogi.
This really isn't good.
"That's not going to happen," Tsunade says. Shikaku's head moves so fast I'm afraid he's going to give himself whiplash. He goes to open his mouth, but Tsunade shakes her head.
"It's the same as Naruto, I'm a glaring target. I should stay outside of the village."
"You're not turning into Jiraiya," Tsunade deadpans. "Even though you've already picked up some of his habits."
"What habits?" I ask and she gives a smirk I've only seen a few times now. The same smirk she wears when she makes a bet she's sure she's going to win.
"Probably don't want me to answer that in front of your future father-in-law."
There's silence in the room. But it's not thick like it was earlier.
It breaks with Ensui's loud laughter. I blink. And then I feel my cheeks heat up.
"Can't we have one serious conversation?" I ask.
"Sure, when you're out of here," Tsunade laughs. "Go, rest, you'll be treated like any other chunin until you work enough missions to do your jonin exams."
"But-"
"Kikuko," she says, her voice soft. "I know you're not just any other chunin, but allow yourself to feel like one for now, okay?" There's something in her eyes that causes a lump to form in my throat.
I nod slowly.
"Let's go get some food," Ensui says as he pulls me towards the door. Anko follows behind us. I try to ignore the pure anger that thrums through Shikaku's chakra.
I've almost always known on some level how dangerous the world is for me. But it's never hit me until now.
Ensui pulls me closer to him, his arm draped over my shoulders.
I don't want to lose this.
I can't lose this.
I haven't updated in awhile and it'll probably be a little longer before I post again. I was recently diagnosed with OCD with an increase of my symptoms towards the end of last year. Thank you so much for your patience with me and your continued support of my work. This chapter is the last completed chapter I have as of now. I have a few in progress ones that I hope to start working on when I start new medications.