DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything from the Naruto universe.
Thinking (+ flashbacks, "Mito speaking to the Kyuubi in her mindscape," etc .)
Emphasis
Bijuu, etc. speaking
Bijuu, etc. thinking
Monkeys were smelly.
Not more smelly than cigarettes, but still smelly nonetheless. Over the six months Asuma had been here, Mito had repeatedly warned him that his longtime (make that near-lifetime) crush, Kurenai, was never going to be interested in him if he smelled like cigarettes. Monkeys on top of it? Uh-NO.
What had he said?
"Kurenai's not around, so don't worry about it, Mito."
As if she HAD been particularly worried about that. Mito was only saying it to manipulate him since he and Kurenai sounded so clearly ga-ga over each other. More immediately concerning was her overly-sensitive nose! And, of course, the fact that Asuma was addicted to a carcinogen: that, more than anything, worried her.
"Pops was old and never got cancer, so don't worry about it, Mito."
Asuma was impossible!
He glanced up at her while putting the finishing touches on his latest report to her father. Throwing his thumb her way, Spiderman jumped into her arms. Mito knew that "Spiderman" could NOT be the spider monkey's real name, but the little guy couldn't talk, so "Spiderman" he was.
"You should ask one of the other monkeys, or even Hideki, what his name is, you know," Mito said, lightly scolding Asuma as she stroked the cute little guy's head and reached for a berry from her haori. Spiderman eagerly gobbled it up before diving into her pocket to see if she had more treats. She smiled down at the little guy when his head popped out of her pocket as he struggled to make himself comfortable inside of it.
"Meh," Asuma said regarding Spiderman's real name, blowing her off. "Don't worry about it, Mito. Hey, you got your report?"
They always sent their reports in together.
"Yeah." Handing him her own information, Asuma glanced at it, then sat back in his chair. "You're not going to send something - I dunno - more personal to your dad?"
"Nah. Don't worry about it, Asuma," she said, taking a page out of his book.
Asuma sighed like an old man and reached for another cigarette. "I've found that it's better to tell the people you love how you feel before they're gone," he said wisely - but rather hypocritically. He and his father had almost always fought when the Sandaime was alive.
"Yeah. I've done that," she chirped easily enough, but Asuma noticed that Mito's pressed lips were much too grim and tight. Suddenly a grin blossomed there. "That means you've told Kurenai you loved her then?"
Asuma chose to ignore that question, figuring that she was just giving him shit. "You want to talk about it?"
"Not at all," Mito said easily despite how much being away from her father and brother hurt, allowing Spiderman to climb all over her even though he was pulling her hair.
She wasn't angry with her father - much. Being at the capital, being both "groomed" into a Fire Temple Miko and maybe even a Priestess or some bullshit (don't get her started on that) and their slimy political society had been eye-opening. Konoha, like every citizen of Fire Country, was at the beck and call of the Fire Daimyo: something Mito had known since she was probably a baby.
What she hadn't realized was how weak the man was, and that the Konoha Elders had so much political pull and love up here. Danzo was respected and feared more than her father, and regardless of whether or not she WAS the Yondaime Hokage's daughter, Mito believed that wasn't right! (It didn't make sense, either.) Danzo had never been strong enough to be Hokage, and supposedly the Yondaime already had evidence of crimes he'd committed…
The Fire Daimyo respected the Hokage as the leader of his military. He seemed to believe that he gave her father full control of military functions but was always getting in the way of the Hokage's plans since he was being swayed by the voices that listened to the Elders. And there were a lot of them!
Danzo even had a couple of undercover kunoichis here that had their own intimate methods of swaying the Daimyo: Mito was nearly positive of it. Thus far, it was difficult to gather concrete proof of it, though.
Old farts! Her father was fairly progressive in that he simply had a younger man's ideas regarding how to help his shinobi, village, (and nation: which could be an issue;) he wanted to move toward peace on the continent and having a healthy shinobi population. But no! Danzo, Koharu, and Homura ALWAYS stood united and in his way.
Even within the Daimyo's guard, there was talk that would normally be treasonous. A few if not more of Asuma's cohorts believed that simply having a Kage in Konoha was somehow disloyal to their Daimyo: which was crazy.
As if the Daimyo wants ANY real responsibilities!
The man clearly wanted to simply enjoy the position and wealth he'd inherited. As soon as anything troublesome came up, the Daimyo would send a missive out to her father, for either his shinobi or police assistance, unless the Guardian 12 could handle it without leaving the palace or temple.
"Alright, Spiderman," Asuma said, taking a drag from his cig, "I guess there's nothing else. You take this to the Hokage only, alright?" The eager little monkey grabbed the carefully sealed report in one hand and an open bag of peanuts Asuma offered him in the other before disappearing. "C'mon, Mito. Let's go train."
Mito jumped up and sprinted out the door ahead of her big brother, eager to pound someone or something, pretending her target to be Danzo. Or maybe her father.
Chiriku was always a good mark: he was strong!
Thanks to Chiriku and Asuma, Mito had been allowed to begin training with the Guardian 12, and in only two months, her skills were rapidly improving. Considering that two members of the guard were actually disguised women, it hadn't been as much of an issue once Chukaku had been forced to retire. The old man was still around, whining about kunoichis (what's the deal with the elderly and their reliance on old-fashioned stupidity?) but now he couldn't stop her from training when she wasn't working in the temple.
"Chiriku-san!"
"Mito-hime," the now bald monk returned her greeting in a much more subdued manner. Mito had shaved his head as a prank, and he had decided he liked the look. "How are you this evening?"
"Fine, I guess. Pissed off about stuff I can't control, but whaddya do?" she asked with a shrug before putting up her fists. "Ready to rumble?"
Chiriku took a deep breath and fell into his stance as Mito, fortunately, allowed him to carefully go through the hand seals for his genjutsu. Mito assured him that one day he would be able to decrease the number of hand seals needed for his grand idea - perhaps even omitting them entirely - but for now, it was helpful that his sparring partner was rather bad at detecting illusions. Taking a deep breath, he smiled serenely, knowing that he'd once again created the vision of the Amida Buddha behind and around him.
With more prayer and the gift he'd inherited (and slaved for) from his master, the chakra of the Hermit, one day Guanyin Bodhisattva herself would come to his aid. Kami forbid he ever need to use the jutsu to kill, but if he did, he wanted to be fully in control of the Thousand Hands technique he had dreamt of.
Little did he know that he'd need that technique in order to survive an attempted coup only a short time later.
Mito had already helped him in applying the Hermit's chakra to a new seal and barrier that protected the Temple and Palace. The Princess of Konoha believed stronger barries were available, but they would have to be continuously powered by chakra (meaning appropriately-skilled chakra users,) and he thought that she might be the only person who had enough chakra to do such a thing alone. It would be impossible for even Mito to power it 24/7, however.
Additionally, it simply felt right to use the Hermit's special chakra to protect his leader and home.
Mito said that the only chakra as powerful as the Hermit's was Sage or potentially demonic chakra if it could be harnessed, the former of which he wasn't terribly familiar with, and the latter he never wanted to experience. The younger woman was struggling to fully master the Hermit's chakra, but he was positive that she would get it. He also believed that she would one day become the greatest combat med-nin of her generation, fulfilling her dream. She worked hard.
They all needed her to achieve that dream: Mito could crush boulders into dust and Kami-forbid she landed a fully-powered hit on you.
Chiriku paled when he realized that Mito had taken out a three-pronged kunai. Bringing out one of her father's more well-known techniques always meant that she wanted to go all out.
Thankfully, Asuma was soon there to back him up. "You might want to extinguish your cigarette, my friend. It seems that Mito-hime is serious!"
"KYA!"
/
Asuma narrowed his eyes at Kazuma from behind the priestess offering quiet words of solace to a young boy who had been brought in to live and train with the monks after his parents had been killed by bandits. Kazuma was cool and all, but he was certainly not concerned with the celibacy vow many or most men took seriously (or pretended to) here. He'd had a partner, had fathered a child somewhere along the way, and although Mito told him he was "being stupid and overprotective," he thought Kazuma definitely had eyes for his little sister.
Kazuma's eyes never left Mito as she performed her duties as an assistant to the priestess, and there was something about his expression that seemed hungry. Asuma saw the same thing in a few of the Elders' eyes, and Mito felt that he was NOT wrong about that, but… He sighed out loud, knowing he should be praying, but Kazuma was creeping him out.
"You're just being silly, Asuma. And anyway, that guy's old and looks too much like Ero-sennin. Do you think he's Jiraiya's illegitimate child? Oh my gosh! You know what? He actually looks like he could be Tsunade-baa and the old perv's kid! Well, not really Tsunade-baa-chan's; it's more like Kazuma looks like Senju Hashirama and Jiraiya's love child. Wow! Wouldn't that be something? I don't mean the Shodaime, of course: that's silly. I KNEW my godparents had something going on! I'm gonna get a blood sample and see…"
Maybe he was just being overprotective of the fast-talking girl. It wasn't like Mito ever dressed provocatively, but when she was performing her duties in the temple, she was in especially bulky, traditional garb.
No one would prefer that!
More than a few men across the Elemental Nations sneezed violently.
It was a living nightmare that the teenager (he was going to be 20 on his next birthday, so he could call her that) with the two-toned hair and horribly pretty, unique eyes was - yech - attractive. His lips curled up in disgust trying not to think how curvy she might appear to the others despite the robes she wore.
Kazuma was still looking at her…
Thinking more of his position as her older brother, he decided he'd tried to find a big rice sack from the kitchen or something to cover her up with when training. He'd allow her hair to stick out since it was weird. Considering that further, he figured it was a bad idea since Mito would undoubtedly prank him in retaliation and ruin his life somehow.
He hadn't looked nearly as good as Chiriku did after she'd first shaved his head. Sadly, he had inherited his Pops' weirdly shaped noggin.
At least his hair grew fast - except for his beard.
He sighed again, knowing he'd been doing that a lot lately. He'd have to think of something else to protect her virtue. Maybe buy her some oversized men's clothing when he went back to the village next month? Or one of those belts that had a lock? He knew he'd heard about something like that, although he had no idea of what it was or how it could help…
"Is there anything I can help you with, Sarutobi-sama?" Mito asked quietly. Asuma couldn't help it: he snorted, making her glare at him.
"You could stop growing up."
Mito pulled back, clearly confused. "Whatever," she whispered, now annoyed; her frame slumping before straightening and going back to her shy, delicate Miko persona.
Asuma snorted again: her act was hilarious considering her real personality. This time he got an annoyed glance from some of the other guards, too, who had been praying earnestly. "Sorry," he whispered, bowing his head. The next time he glanced up, he saw that look on Mito's face. She was either talking to the fox in her gut - something that he found to be a terrible idea - or was reaching out her senses.
It wasn't until the next morning that Mito had an opportunity to speak to her big brother and closest friend here in the capital. Throughout the previous day, she had spied on some weird stuff. "Have either of you guys heard about something called the two kings? And do you know anything about 'the ghost of a spirit?' Like, a real one, 'being captured' or something?"
/
Naruto wasn't stupid.
Sure, some of his pals and big brothers let him act like he was, but a future Hokage had to be observant, and he knew that his Hokage dad had many secrets.
So he had to know how to keep those, too.
As a future Hokage, it wasn't really fair that his dad was keeping secrets from him, though!
Some people didn't like him, no matter how "charming" his dad said he was. It was like there was a village-wide conis? Konishi? No! A conshpra-something about him. He didn't see it much, but a lot of people acted sooooo differently when he escaped from his father and big brothers to run around the village. It wasn't always nice. It was almost like they were scared of him. Maybe they knew how powerful he would one day be?
But his dad was powerful - and people loved his dad!
There was also something missing from his father's desk. Something important, and no matter how hard he tried to remember what it was, he'd always get a headache and feel sad. He tried not to think about it, and whenever he told his dad they needed to look for the missing thing, his dad would promise that they would "one day." His dad would also get really sad, then stare at the picture of his mom. Naruto was pretty sure that missing thing had been really close to the picture of his beautiful mother.
Or maybe he just missed her, too. It was hard not having a mom.
Sometimes he felt like part of him was missing, but that made sense since his mom was gone. He talked to Itachi nii-san about it one time, and his mom had started crying. Itachi-nii and Teme's mom was really nice and had been best friends with his mom. She missed his mom, too.
Sometimes he wished that his dad would marry Mikoto-oba so he could have a new mom. Teme heard him say that, and they ended up fighting. It wasn't his fault that Fu-oji was a butt! Itachi-nii had scolded them, while Kashi-nii just held Naruto up by his collar to stop their awesome battle.
He was pretty sure Kashi-nii thought he was a dog. He said "bad puppy" a lot.
"Can we twain today, Dad? I mean, weawwy twain?" (Naruto didn't whine at all!)
"Have you finished practicing your hiragana?" his father asked as he looked up from his paperwork. Naruto was pretty sure his dad never finished it. The same stacks seemed to be on his desk day after day!
He'd crush that stuff when he got the job.
"Yes," Naru lied nervously - and rather obviously to his father.
Minato smiled and was about to investigate that for a few blessed, happy minutes but a monkey poofed into existence on his desk.
Naruto watched as his dad opened what the monkey had been carrying. If Naruto didn't know better, he would think that his dad got more excited seeing monkeys than toads! Lately, though, the monkeys only ended up making his dad sad. "Shoo, Spidewman! You'we makin' Dad sad!"
Minato chuckled unhappily. Recently, he'd only been receiving official reports from his daughter. "Genma?"
"Hai. C'mon kid: let's do some target practice - with toothpicks," the Tokubetsu Jonin added, escorting the little blonde troublemaker out to further appease his father. Naruto-chan wasn't supposed to handle deadly weapons yet.
"Kakashi," Minato said, calling his apprentice down from the rafters where he'd been guarding him, (i.e., reading one of his sensei's awful books since he didn't exactly need a guard,) once his son was out of the office and he had time to consider the newest reports. "Who do you think is 'The King?'"
Kakashi wanted to say that his sensei was the king, but the Daimyo held a higher position - and he sure as heck wasn't going to admit that awful fact. He just shrugged instead, but noted how concerned his leader was. "Do we have a problem?"
"We just might."