Obito-Sensei Chapter 41
Here's Your First and Final Test
About a month after Obito returned from Mount Myoboku, Naruto was sitting in a sterilized room with a dead fish in his hands. He looked up at Kabuto Yakushi with a frown, and the older boy shrugged.
"That one happens a lot," he said, his tone nothing but kind, and Naruto couldn't help but grimace. "Clots are always tricky."
"I hate that," he said, looking down at the fish. It was a large trout caught right out of Kakō Lake, the huge lake that surrounded Amegakure, and it had a long, clean cut running the length of its stomach. Some of its blood had stained his hands. "Everything else I've ever worked on, if I messed up I'd just be tired, or a little beat up." He grit his teeth. "I hate that if I mess up the fish dies."
"Don't worry about it too much," Kabuto said as he took the fish from him. "These are loaned out anyway. They go straight to the market one way or another; it's just a matter of whether they get eaten today or tomorrow in the end."
That didn't make Naruto feel better at all. He had been working with Kabuto and his mother Nonō for months now, trying to wrap his head around medical jutsu, and it felt like for every step he took forward he got pushed back another. Kabuto had trained him how to control his chakra to a finer degree than he'd imagined, even after learning the Rasengan; he could separate milk and water down to the last molecule now, and had taken to probing other people's bodies with enough skill that even Nonō had been surprised. She'd told him he was a natural in combining different chakras, which was apparently a rare skill.
Naruto was good at receiving compliments (actually, he loved receiving compliments) so that hadn't bothered him. He'd always taken his own skills for granted. He didn't know or care if it was natural talent or having two parents who were so far beyond normal he hadn't understood the concept until a ways into the academy, but he'd always been able to master something when he put his mind to it. Even a secret A-Rank jutsu. That had only taken him like, what, four months?
But it had been almost as long as that now and he still felt no closer to really understanding Iryojutsu. Naruto didn't think he had any illusions; all his previous accomplishments had been just from bettering himself. If it was just learning another Ninjutsu, he was sure he would be done months ago.
But with medical jutsu, it wasn't just about knowing yourself, you had to know what you were working with. Naruto had read more in the last two months than he had in his whole life prior, which wasn't saying a lot but was definitely part of the difficulty. Kabuto had explained to him back during the Chunin Exam that you needed to know everything about the natural healing process or else things could go really wrong, and he hadn't been exaggerating. A couple of the fish Naruto had worked on were proof of that.
His head was always swimming with medical and physiological terminology; he went to bed muttering about tendons and woke up stuck on the chakra system that twined through his whole body like a mirror to every organ. He couldn't even brush his teeth anymore without thinking about the complexity of his tongue, how ridiculously developed and delicate everything about his mouth was. Rain had opened up a bunch of new worlds to him, and how crazy the body was was just one more to try and understand.
But it was frustrating. It didn't come to him naturally, and that bothered him. So did the fact that it bothered him at all. Was he that spoiled? He slumped forward, head resting on his crossed arms, and groaned.
"How long did it take you?" he asked, and Kabuto shrugged. "To start saving the fish?"
"A couple months," the older boy said, and Naruto groaned again. "Trust me, I get it."
"I don't wanna take a couple months," he said, standing up and glancing at the fish. He'd given it an embolism when he'd tried to seal the laceration in its stomach: he'd known right away when he'd messed up, the blood clotting too quickly and continuing to circulate through the system. Kabuto had told him before that it wasn't that simple to hurt shinobi with Iryojutsu, not that he ever would, since their bodies were well trained to fight off foreign chakra. Being a ninja was like a lifelong series of vaccinations in that respect.
But for a dumb flopping fish, or a civilian with an untrained chakra system? Bloop, blood in the brain, dead. It made Naruto feel a little sick. Dying was one thing, but dying in such an innocuous way made him uncomfortable.
"Can we get something to eat?" he asked, before amending the thought. "Not fish. I wanna give it another shot after a break, if that's alright."
"No problem," Kabuto said, standing up. They'd stayed late at the hospital, one of the many scattered throughout Rain. This one was called the Ward of Our Immaculate Lady, which was apparently some local goddess: Naruto had never really cared about that sort of stuff, but the name was cool. It was apparently the only one run by actual natives of Rain, the people who'd lived here before the Land of Rain had been founded by people from up north. So far as Naruto could tell, they were pretty much the same as everyone else in the Five Nations.
Six. Six Nations, he internally reminded himself. It was hard to change your habits, but rain was good at erosion. He was getting better at it.
"We'll come back after," Kabuto said. "So what're you thinking? Noodles? Karin knows a great ramen place."
"That'd work!" Naruto brightened up a little, trying to forget the dead fish. "I wanted to talk with her anyway, maybe we can all go."
"Oh?" Kabuto said, a mischievous glint in his eye. "About that fuinjutsu you guys were discussing?"
"Yeah." Naruto shrugged. "I mean, if she's like my mom… I mean, I don't know if she is, but that'd be cool, right?"
"Very cool," Kabuto said with a smile. "We'll drop by her place then."
They left the sterile room and the fish behind, but Naruto couldn't forget its flat, dead eyes.
###
Thirty-seven days after that, in the very same room, Naruto saved the fish. It flopped in his hands, struggling to breathe, and he tried to show off by oxygenating its blood as soon as the laceration on its stomach was healed. He immediately realized it wasn't a good idea, and to his relief the fish's heart only missed a beat before it kept gasping and flapping, searching for water that wasn't there. He gave Kabuto a grin that might have been a little too smug for its own good, and the boy smiled back, still all sincerity.
"Very good!" he said, sweeping the fish off the table and into a little bucket. He gave it a moment to swim about and orient itself before running his hand across its back, sparkling green chakra running through the water like an aurora borealis. "Actually… very good, Naruto. Heart rate is great, and it won't even scar." He grinned, a little meaner. "You didn't cheat, did you?"
"As if!" Naruto said. He was sweating a bit; even if it had just been a fish, he'd still been putting in his best. "How the hell am I gonna help anyone if I cheated on my medical exams?"
"It's a good point," Kabuto said with a laugh, "but you'd be surprised. Some people are just desperate to succeed, not to do good." He leaned against the table. "But you're different. You always have been, I guess. That's why you came here."
"I guess so," Naruto said. He shifted, his hands feeling empty. Keep busy, get stronger. That's the only way home. "Well, I don't wanna sound like a weirdo, but what's next?"
"For that, we'll want to talk to my mother," Kabuto said. He scratched his chin, looking uncertain for the first time in a while. "I moved on to working with humans at this point, but I was unusual in that respect."
"Why unusual?" Naruto asked, stepping up and out from behind the stainless steel desk. Kabuto started moving towards the door, and he shrugged and followed: apparently they were just gonna leave the fish here to the mercy of the Ward. "I mean, why were you unusual?"
"Cause I didn't have much regard for myself or others," Kabuto said. He shrugged and flashed a grin. "To me, there wasn't really a difference between working on a fish and a person, or myself. I don't think you'd be the same way."
Naruto frowned as they worked their way through the corridors of the hospital, saying their goodbyes to the staff. He smiled and waved at the receptionist at the front door, a girl with auburn hair and bright blue eyes, and she blushed. "No difference?" he asked. "I don't really get it."
"I don't really get it either," Kabuto said as they stepped outside. It was late and cold, but the weather was mild and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Still, Ame's light pollution hid all but the brightest of stars through the gaps in the buildings, turning the sky pure black. "Or more than that, I don't really understand how you, how most people see other people, Naruto."
"Huh?" Naruto asked intelligently, and Kabuto continued.
"As like, more than meat." He looked around at the street, gesturing at the people who were still out this late as they made their way down Ame's. "Okay, that's a little repulsive to say, putting it like that. But that's what we all are, Naruto. Meat machines being driven around by a brain and a soul. Mother told me that level of dissociation helped me succeed with Iryojutsu." He smiled. "I'm not like you. I don't have your natural talent, you know. I don't think I could ever learn something like the Rasengan so easily. But medical jutsu was simple for me because of that. Even on myself, like at the Exam. All you're doing is fixing a machine."
"I… think that's a little over my head," Naruto said, trying not to overthink what his friend had just said. Kabuto said strange stuff sometimes, but 'meat machine' hadn't been a part of his vocabulary before, or Naruto's for that matter. "And if that's the way you think, how come you don't like hurting people? Wouldn't that just be, you know, beating up the meat?"
Kabuto tilted his head. "Well, because people don't like getting hurt. And it's their body, after all, so they should get a say in it. And with medical jutsu…" He pursed his lips. "It's like killing someone with a shovel, I guess. It's the wrong tool for the job. If you're going to dig a hole, grab a shovel, if you're going to kill someone, use a weapon. The same would go for Ninjutsu and Iryojutsu."
"Doesn't really make sense to me," Naruto admitted. Kabuto laughed.
"Don't worry, it doesn't make sense to most people." He hesitated as they waited at a crosswalk for a cart covered in banners and vegetables to rumble past. "I guess that's why I didn't tell you till now. I was worried you'd think I was strange."
"Well, I do," Naruto cheerfully admitted, and Kabuto raised an eyebrow. "But I don't really care, so it doesn't matter. If it helps you with your medical jutsu, that's great. Maybe it'll help me too."
"Maybe," Kabuto said, stepping into the street. "I wouldn't try to adopt a mindset you don't understand. It could cause issues."
Naruto paused, feeling something percolating in his overwhelmed brain. "I think that's the whole point," he muttered, and Kabuto looked back at him in confusion.
"Pardon?" he asked. Naruto shook his head.
"Nothing!" he said, pretty sure he was being honest. "Let's go find your mom then. I wanna get on this while I remember how to do it."
###
Fortyish days after Naruto saved his first fish and two days after he'd brought his first back to life from a brief death, he, Sasuke, and Sakura had another one of their illicit-feeling but probably perfectly innocent meetings. They did it in a popular coffee shop off of one of the six main streets that ran to Amegakure's center like the spokes of a huge metal wheel, which felt appropriately mature and covert but was really sort of stifling and uncomfortably close quarters.
And expensive. Naruto was getting enough missions that he didn't have to worry about money, but eighty Ryo for vanilla milk with little tapioca balls in it seemed a little crazy. Sakura and Sasuke didn't say anything, so he didn't either.
"I heard you moved on from fish, Naruto!" Sakura told him quite cheerfully, and Naruto blinked. It was jarring to move from smalltalk to something real and he didn't know why. Sakura looked happy, happier than she had in a long time. Her hair had grown out even farther, long and pink past her shoulder blades, and right now she was just a tiny, tiny bit taller than him. His mom had told him once that girls grew faster than boys; he hadn't been sure if she had been messing with him or not at the time, but Sakura was definitely proof of it.
Even if the proof was only an inch, for now.
"I did!" he confirmed, trying to match her cheer. "Who told you?"
"Master Zabuza," she explained, "but I'm sure he heard it from Kabuto's mom. That's exciting, right?" She grew sly. "I guess you were right about whining helping you out, huh?"
Naruto laughed, leaning back and folding his hands behind his head. "Well, it still took longer than I'd have liked. But I actually brought one back to life the other day! That's what made them decide I was ready to move on." He felt his mood sink a little, and he was sure Sakura noticed it. "Nonō didn't want me moving on to people until I was more advanced. Something about my, I dunno, mentality was what she called it."
"You brought a fish back to life?" Naruto would have paid a lot of money, a hundred boba milks easy, to have Sakura look at him with the same kind of impressed astonishment she was now. Weird thought: he tried to shake it off and answer the question. "How the heck did you do that?"
"Well, it wasn't dead for too long," Naruto explained, leaning forward with a grin. "Only four minutes. It wasn't in pieces or anything: I just had to restart its heart and keep the brain from getting damaged. So I just had to oxygenate the blood supply and manually feed the brain while I repaired the heart and jolted it back up."
Sakura stared at him, and Naruto shifted. "What?"
"She's wondering if you're the real Naruto," Sasuke said, and Naruto turned to him with mock alarm. His friend had been quiet for a while. "Can you imagine saying something like that a year ago?"
"I wouldn't have known what to say," Naruto admitted, and Sasuke chuckled. "But it makes sense, right? Like, the process."
"It makes sense." Sasuke took a sip of his water; he'd never liked sweet things. "I'm impressed."
"Ooh, he's impressed!" Naruto said, rolling his eyes. Sakura giggled. "And what're you so busy with, bigshot? We haven't seen you in like a week." He leaned in. "C'mon Sasuke, I wanna know~"
To Naruto's surprise, Sasuke looked a little uncomfortable. "I got approached," he said, "for a sponsorship."
"A sponsorship?" Naruto took a sip of his milk, and Sakura picked up the question.
"Do you mean for a business?" she asked, and Sasuke gave a slow nod. He'd turned fourteen the month before and made Chunin the month before that, and both occasions had passed without much ceremony: Sasuke had never been a big birthday guy, especially after what had happened to his family. But it had felt even more subdued than usual with just the three of them. They hadn't brought together any of their new friends, and they'd all felt the weight of time passing in a foreign country more than ever.
Sakura had turned fourteen the day before they'd left; Sasuke had four months later. If this kept up, Naruto would be next in another three. It made everything that much more concrete and inescapable. Amegakure would always be a part of them now, no matter what.
Naruto hadn't thought that fourteen was that big a jump, but sitting there in the crowded coffee shop and seeing Sasuke talk about something like a sponsorship, he felt like both his friends were definitively older than him now. Bringing a fish back to life didn't feel as impressive as it should have.
"It was for an independent academy," he said, his teammates nodding along. Ame had an official academy run by the Nation's government just like Konoha, but it also had many schools that had sprung up in the wake of so many foreign ninja immigrating to the country that taught independent specializations. Naruto figured it made sense; getting an apprenticeship in a place like Amegakure had to be chaotic, especially when new people (like him) were coming in all the time. They'd gotten privileged treatment from the Amekage for sure. "They wanted me to teach. Older shinobi. And to put my name on the place, I guess."
He shifted, looking even more uncomfortable. Maybe a little angry. "They wanted an Uchiha to advertise for it."
"Teach older shinobi?" Naruto asked with a blink, and Sakura gave him a meaningful glance. "Seriously? That's crazy. Who'd the heck you impress?"
"I dunno, but I wish I hadn't." Sasuke narrowed his eyes, giving Sakura the same kind of look she'd given Naruto. "I didn't think it'd be appropriate. That's not what I'm here to do, you know?"
Sakura took the shift in stride like a professional. Naruto guessed that she basically was now. She was most at home in Rain among them. That was probably why she'd been picked for the mission in the first place, right?
"I've been asking about the Akatsuki, but Haku keeps telling me I'm not ready," she said with a frown. "And I don't want to seem too eager, or else they'll just keep me out longer. They want us here as long as possible so we'll be as good as permanent." She mulled over her words as Naruto felt a bizarre mix of disappointment and joy at the notion of staying. "But Sasuke, I did hear you're already being considered for Jonin."
"And my brother?" he sneered. Sakura shook her head, and Naruto was surprised his friend could have just ignored news like that. His brother must have really been on his mind, more so than usual.
"It's always the same story. No one has seen Fuu, Itachi, or Kakuzu the Immortal. Neither of them ever worked for Rain either." Sakura shifted. "I think there's really only one way I'll be able to prove that though."
"How?" Sasuke bit out.
"How?" Naruto asked at the same time, much more innocently, and Sakura smirked. She waited for the noise of the shop to intensify as some new people came through the door and set off the bell before leaning in just slightly, everyone at the table mirroring her.
"There's only one person in Rain who can prove if something's true or not beyond a shadow of a doubt, and that's Nagato Uzumaki," she said, and Naruto found himself nodding along. Sakura had a way of speaking now that was confident and enthralling: sometimes he could barely remember the hesitance that had defined their time together before her match with Gaara.
"That jutsu he used to interrogate me makes you tell the truth, and it's a two way street," Sakura continued. "That's why it…" she paused, her face twisting. "Right, you guys couldn't see it, right?" When they shook their heads, she grimaced. "It created this giant face, like a demon, and grabbed my tongue. Well, not my tongue: I think it was my chakra, or my soul, or something. But it grabbed my tongue so I couldn't talk and ask him questions right back."
"You want to convince him to leave your tongue free," Sasuke said, finishing Sakura's thought before she could, and she sat back with a serious nod. He pursed his lips. "That would work, if you pulled it off. But how would you convince one of the Amekage to let you ask any question you wanted, let alone about something like that? If Rain really did use my brother…"
"Maybe one of us could do it?" Naruto asked. He forged ahead even as Sakura frowned. "I mean, they know we were just following you, so maybe they'd be less, you know, suspicious isn't the right word but like, hesitant."
"They'd treat us all the same," Sakura said. "They are right now, anyway." Naruto had to concede that with a nod. "I think that and joining the Akatsuki could happen at the same time," she said, tapping a finger against the wooden table. Naruto noticed that, for the first time he could remember, her nails were painted. They were the same shade as her hair, bright on her slender fingers.
"I think at that point, I'd be trusted enough that I could reveal the full mission, and use that as leverage," Sakura continued. Now, Sasuke was nodding too. "I could tell them that I could inform the Hokage that I had the highest proof that Rain didn't have the Nanabi, and that a Yamanaka could confirm it. Then, suspicion would move from Rain to Itachi, like it should, and they would be in less danger. It could even become a joint venture to hunt him down, to prove their sincerity."
"Unless they want people to think they have the Nanabi no matter what. Or they do have Fuu. And what if they just said no?" Naruto asked, and Sakura smiled sadly.
"Anything like that would prove that they did, or that they wanted us to think that badly enough that it didn't matter either way," she said. "Either way, the mission would be accomplished. I think it's our best bet. What do you guys think?"
"It's simple, which is good," Sasuke said. "And they trust you, Sakura, which will help." He crossed his arms. "But it still relies on you getting into the Akatsuki. And right away might be too fast. You may have to wait longer."
"I will," Sakura said, mirroring him. "I'll do whatever it takes. And if I had to wait, if we had to wait, we could." She smiled. "We already have plenty of practice."
###
On a sunny day in early October, just a week before his birthday, Naruto was told he'd be going to the border with the Land of Earth.
"Why're you telling me?" he asked, feeling the urge to pace and suppressing it. The room wasn't too large, with a couch dominating one end of it, and he felt a little trapped with only two doors, one on either side. "Nonō usually gives me my missions."
"And she'll be leading you on this one." Konan had been waiting when he'd arrived, wearing what he could only describe as a suit. It had been months since Naruto had seen any of the Amekage, but they always greeted him like it had just been yesterday. The woman was always kind, but particularly to him, Naruto thought. Even if Sakura was the reason he was here, the compliment she'd given him on that night they'd defected had been heartfelt. "You and Kabuto. More people shouldn't be necessary."
"Okay, that's cool, but why isn't she the one telling me?" Naruto asked, giving in and standing up. He wondered why three medics were being sent: he and Kabuto sometimes went on the same missions, but never the both of them and Nonō. Konan smiled.
"Because Yahiko and Nagato wanted me to check in with you," she said, and Naruto frowned. "Sakura and Sasuke have all been making incredible progress, and you have as well. Nonō has reported that your medical jutsu has become incredibly impressive."
He didn't buy it. "But I'm still having trouble with people," he said. Konan conceded with a graceful nod.
"You're still having trouble with people," she acknowledged. "Have you thought about why that is?"
"Yeah," Naruto said, looking at his hand, seeing its anatomy laid out in his mind. "No. I don't know. It's not the chakra. And I've never had a problem with responsibility. With hurting people…" He remembered the rogue ninja in Waterfall, the way he'd slammed the Rasengan into her hand and destroyed her arm, bones exploding out of her jacket as her entire body twisted, ribs and spine probably snapping beneath the skin. "I don't get it. I can visualize everything, but as soon as I try, I just lose focus." He let out a frustrated breath. "I was doing good until I wasn't. I dunno what's stopping me. I'm sorry."
"You're not a natural medic," Konan said, and Naruto felt his heart sink. "You have cooperative chakra, just like your personality, but that's only part of the equation when it comes to Iryojutsu." She held up a hand, clenched it into a fist. "Medical jutsu is about forcing the other person's chakra, their body itself, to follow your commands."
Her smile faded. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I believe it's the same reason you're still a Genin while Sakura and Sasuke have both already been promoted. You're not good at asserting yourself, Naruto."
"Well that's a bunch of bullshit," Naruto groused. Konan laughed. "I used to bust in on my dad all the time. Obito was always complaining about me putting my nose where it didn't belong-"
"You were asserting your privilege," the woman said patiently. "You were the son of the Hokage, and acted with surety. But you never pushed beyond the pale. I bet the most you ever went against anyone's wishes was coming here, and that was because you didn't want Sakura to be alone. And here, you're just another shinobi." She crossed her arms. "You can heal yourself, right?"
"Of course," Naruto said. That had been the first thing he'd tried when he'd started having trouble months ago, and it had only made his frustration more acute.
"Because it's your own body. But when it comes to others, you don't like forcing them to do what you want. You prefer to convince them. You've got the charisma for it." Now, Konan's smile was a little fierce. "But you're a shinobi. You're the son of the Fourth. That's a bad habit to have in your position. Break it."
"You're saying I can hurt people but can't heal them," Naruto said. "It doesn't make any sense."
"It doesn't," Konan said, sweeping around the couch and pinning him with her golden eyes. "People like to pretend chakra is a science, and it can be seen that way." She let part of her hand morph into a butterfly, flapping once before it returned to its normal form. "But at its core, it's an expression of our bodies and souls. Even if it can be studied and replicated countless times, there will always be an individual element that cannot be accounted for." Her gaze grew heavy. "That was what Ninshu was; that individuality. Ninjutsu is its replication. Iryojutsu stands on the line between the two. Even if its principles can be taught, no one will heal the same way."
Naruto shifted, uncomfortable with Konan's intensity, and the woman broke eye contact. "You'll figure it out," she said, quiet and confident. "For now, be ready for your mission in two days."
"Yeah," Naruto said, turning to leave. "I'll be ready."
###
Four days later, Naruto Namikaze was stalking a woman who was probably only a little older than him.
The woman didn't look like a thief, Naruto thought as he sidled through the crowds congregating around the bright pinstripe tables. She had none of the nervous energy that he associated with people who stole, even habitually. She was just slouched over at a colored table on the other side of the room, looking bored and smoking a cigarette held between her slender fingers.
"Sure that's her?" he muttered, trying not to stick out even though that was impossible. He was a kid in a literal casino; even if he was wearing casual clothes, black shorts and an orange tee-shirt, he was still getting weird looks from some of the adults around, trying to figure out if he was going to be a problem or just someone looking for his parents. Someone laughed and gestured at him, and he tried to melt into the background, keeping the woman in his peripheral vision. The floor was long and wide, and there was a sweeping balcony made of dark wood overlooking it from the second floor.
"Absolutely." Nonō's voice was quiet in his ear. The radio-piece he'd been given was smaller than anything he'd seen in Konoha, but its battery apparently ran out quickly. He'd only switched it on five minutes ago and the woman's voice was already getting tinny. "She's got the scars." She did: Naruto could see the mottled tissue twisting in a curve from below the woman's ear to the edge of her lip, and another on the side of her neck.
"I thought the Kaguya clan had rapid regeneration capabilities." Kabuto's voice was clearer than his mother's, probably because he was closer. Naruto didn't glance his way, but he knew his teammate was just across the floor on the other side of the building.
"That's a gift reserved for those who've awakened the bloodline," Nonō said, "like Kimimaro. The rest scar like anyone else."
Naruto hadn't known that, and judging by his silence Kabuto hadn't either. They and Nonō had been sent out here in search of the woman with a scar, and Nonō had only told them more about the VIP when they'd arrived in the city of Ishima. The city was small and new, and sat right on the border with the Land of Earth. Everywhere Naruto had looked there was new construction: he got the feeling this place had been knocked down a lot in the past, and now Rain had the money to put it back together. Right now, it seemed to be a tourist town with lots of hotels, restaurants, and casinos, with a lot of them advertising tours of the nearby mountains.
The city was set in a valley surrounded by towering mountains, like sharp stone teeth, and that was pretty cool. It did make Naruto think of being inside the mouth of a giant monster though, which was less cool. When Kabuto had started asking around about a woman with obvious scars, they'd been directed to this casino. Naruto hadn't caught the name, but Kabuto had laughed at it.
The woman was Kagami Kaguya, apparently a part of the same clan that Commander Kimimaro was. As Naruto had been told, most of them were dead now, but there were still some left and she was one of them. The fact that Konan had given them this mission herself meant that the Akatsuki were interested in her; since she was related to the commander, Naruto felt that was a no-brainer.
But if bringing Kagami back was their goal, they were definitely going about it in a really suspicious way. Naruto had the feeling Nonō was worried the woman would run for it the second she knew she was being followed.
There were other shinobi here, Naruto was sure. He'd seen one young girl with dark hair and a Hidden Stone headband loitering near the door, but she hadn't seen him. He felt like he was getting better at not sticking out ever since he'd come to Rain, or maybe that was just because it had always been impossible back home. He was taller now: he was less than a week from turning fourteen. Maybe even people back home wouldn't recognize him right away now.
Had it already been that long?
"Naruto." He straightened up at Nonō's tone; she was somewhere on the second floor, keeping watch over him. "Make the approach. Kabuto will back you up. We don't know if Kagami will want to return with us or not, so just get a feel for her."
"So what, just say hi?" he muttered, and he heard Nonō laugh.
"Charm her," the woman suggested coyly. Naruto shrugged and started moving in, picking his way through the crowd. He tried to approach from an angle that would let the woman see him coming, but if she did see him coming she didn't react. She just kept smoking her cigarette and said something to the man in a suit manning her table. He pulled a contraption on the side and a ball began spinning around the colored wheel in the center. It stopped after a second, settling into a depression.
Whatever the result was, it wasn't good for Kagami: she grimaced and pushed a large pile of her chips towards the dealer. There were others at the table, mostly older men, and one of them let out a hearty laugh. Naruto drew closer from the side and the woman finally turned to acknowledge him, her cigarette drooping from her lips.
"Jeez," she said, clicking her tongue. He wondered how she did that without dropping the cigarette. Now that she was facing him head-on, he could see the scar on the side of her face wasn't the only one: there were other smaller ones dotting her cheeks, and more gathered around her clavicle, all thin and pale. She wore a deeply cut dress that revealed them without shame.
"Not having a good day?" Naruto asked, and Kagami laughed.
"Even worse now. Are you even old enough to be allowed in here?" she asked. Naruto shrugged.
"No one stopped me from coming in," he said, peering over the table. Everyone else there was regarding him carefully. He had the Nation of Rain's hitai-ate tied around his right bicep, and he saw one of the men recognize it, his eyes flickering with vague concern. "What kind of game is this?"
"It's a roulette wheel," Kagami said. "It's pretty simple. You make a bet on where you think the ball will land."
"What, that's it?" Naruto cocked his head. The woman wasn't surprised by him approaching: she'd might have noticed him a while ago, which meant if she hadn't run then, she wouldn't run now. He wondered how old she was; it could have been anywhere between twenty and thirty. "What kind of bets?"
"You know, colors, numbers, evens, odds, that sort of thing." Kagami put out her cigarette in a nearby ashtray, shifting to glance at him. She had short white hair, and it made her look older than she was. "Why are you here? You're a shinobi with Rain, right?"
"I dunno," Naruto said, standing beside her. The table had turned away and back to the wheel, apparently losing interest in their conversation. Two ninja muttering to one another wasn't worth worrying about "Apparently to talk to you. I didn't get much else."
"Talk to me about what?" The wheel spun again: the ball fell into a double-zero, and the whole table groaned.
"About coming back to Rain with us, I think," Naruto said. "You're a Kaguya, right? Someone from your clan is already big news there. I bet they'd be happy to see you."
The woman stared at him, her pale eyes unreadable.
"Do you believe in luck?" she said, the question sudden and nonsensical, and Naruto cocked his head.
"Well, yeah, doesn't everyone?" he said. She snorted.
"There's people who believe in luck and there's people who believe in random chance. In other words, there are people who understand how things work and there are people who are fools." She glanced at the table. "Make a bet, why don't you?"
"I don't have a lot of money," Naruto said, and the woman scoffed. He grinned. "How about… if I win, you've gotta keep talking to me?"
"That's not worth much," the woman noted sourly, and Naruto didn't let his smile falter. He examined the wheel. Part of him was looking it over with an eye for how it tilted, where it was most likely in terms of the speed of the rotation for the ball to end up given where it was inserted.
But Sasuke had always been better at that sort of stuff, so Naruto ended up going with his gut.
"Red twenty-eight," he declared. It was a lucky number and a lucky color, after all. The dealer shrugged; the wheel spun, and the ball clattered.
It landed right on the red twenty-eight, and Naruto blinked. He turned back to Kagami, not even trying to hide his surprise, and found her just as shocked as him.
"Jeez," she muttered again. She scooted back, making more room for Naruto to sit besides her. "Now I'd be stupid not to."
"Just cause I got lucky?" Naruto asked, plopping down on a stool and stretching his arms, and the woman gave him a wry look.
"I've been unlucky my whole life, so maybe you'll cancel it out," she said. Naruto couldn't tell if she was joking or not.
"Is that why you're here?" he asked. "And if you're unlucky, I don't think you should be gambling," he continued with a frown.
Kagami laughed, a rough sound. "Gambling isn't about luck." She glanced at the table. "Usually," she amended. "It's about playing the odds. As for why I'm here, they really didn't tell you jack, huh?" She cupped her chin in one palm. "Or maybe Rain just heard a rumor and sent you off?"
"That might be it," Naruto admitted with a shrug. He could see Kabuto checking on him from across the room, and smiled at both Kagami and his teammate. "But we did hear that you stole something from the Hidden Stone."
"Stole something?" the woman said with amusement. "If that's what you heard, it's backward. They're the ones who stole from me."
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked. Kagami shook her head.
"It doesn't really matter," she said, nodding up towards one of the raised galleries. "They're probably just going to drag me back anyway. I was lucky to make it this side of the border."
Naruto followed her line of sight and found who she was looking at: it was the girl from Stone, the one with dark hair and darker eyes. She was watching the both of them, he realized, leaning against the railing and taking in the whole casino.
"She's from Stone," Kagami said, looking back at the table. "I'm sure you can tell. She's been following me for a while; her and some others, but she's the only one I've seen. They didn't stop me from leaving the country, but now that you guys are here, they're probably going to make their move."
"Why wouldn't they stop you?" Naruto asked, his face screwing up. The woman shrugged.
"Most likely they were worried about me getting hurt. But now they won't have a choice." She sighed. "Morons."
"Do you know who she is?" Naruto asked after a second. He could see Kabuto starting to make his way over to him from across the room, apparently drawn by the revelation of the Stone shinobi. He was sure he and Nonō could hear the whole conversation.
"No," Kagami said, looking irritated. "Some kid. Does it matter?"
"I guess not," Naruto admitted. "But we might have to talk to her. A name might have helped, you know?"
Kagami gave him a strange look, and Naruto cocked his head and smiled uncertainly. Her pale eyes narrowed.
"You said there was another Kaguya in Rain," she said, and Naruto nodded. He could tell the Stone girl was watching him. He hoped Nonō was doing something about it. "What's their name?"
"Kimimaro," he said. Kagami laughed.
"Figures." She noticed his confused look. "That guy was the first in a generation to fully awaken the Shikotsumyaku. He was the reason the clan got themselves killed; they were so excited for him." She reached for the cigarette she'd left in the ashtray, and then thought better of it. "Bunch of morons."
"But you were okay?" Naruto asked, and Kagami cocked her head. "If your clan had something happen to them…"
"I was defective," the woman sneered. "I wasn't around for that shitshow."
"Okay…" Naruto said slowly, realizing he'd stepped into something way beyond what he was ready to talk about. "Well… I guess that was kinda lucky, huh?"
Kagami froze. Naruto realized he'd said the wrong thing. Everyone else at the table drew back a little, sensing the tension and trying to distract themselves with louder conversations with one another. The dealer was starting to look irritated, probably getting ready to push them somewhere else.
"You really don't understand," the woman eventually said with a sneer. "I bet you're the kind of kid who grew up with a silver spoon shoved down your throat, huh?"
"Hey." Naruto held up his hands. "That's not what I-"
"The Kaguya were a pack of lunatics," the woman said, slowly turning on him with smoldering grey eyes. "They were convinced they were the sole inheritors of the world, and that it was every other ninja's duty to die. They made the women bear countless children in the hopes that one would manifest the Bloodline, and the ones that failed were treated like scum for not getting lucky." Her hand shot out, grabbing Naruto by the collar, and he frowned back at her snarling face. "Or worse, the ones like me-!"
"Let go of me," Naruto declared, trying not to bare his teeth, and he knocked Kagami's hands from his shirt with a single quick strike. Her hands were delicate, he felt from just a touch, the bones thin. If he'd hit too hard, he might even have broken them. She withdrew in obvious pain, and he felt an immediate stab of guilt. "Sorry! I didn't mean to-!"
"You acted without thinking, like all ninja," Kagami hissed, curling back in her chair. She was obviously afraid of him now, and the guilt in Naruto's chest threatened to choke him. "I saw you making yourself obvious, trying to act friendly, but this was always how it was going to be. You came here to drag me back to more people who want to use me. Just like my clan, just like Stone. Rain is exactly the same as the rest."
Naruto was forced to step back, as if the woman's words were a physical blow, but before he could say anything Kabuto was there, gently taking hold of Kagami's shoulder. The woman flinched away. Now, everyone else at the table was studiously ignoring them. Ninja business, Naruto was sure they were thinking. No reason to get involved; better to stay a bystander. He felt nauseous.
"Ma'am," Kabuto said respectfully, and Kagami snorted at the appellation. "Please don't misunderstand the situation. If you wish to return to Stone instead, we'll be happy to let them take you."
To that, Kagami didn't say a thing. Kabuto looked over her shoulder at Naruto. "Naruto, mother is keeping an eye out for the other Stone shinobi. While she's doing that, she wants you to approach the other. I'll stay with Kagami." He ran his hand lightly over her wrist, chakra flaring for an instant, and the woman blinked, her bruised wrist healed in an instant. "Find out if we can negotiate. The village has given us as much credit as necessary to resolve any situations like this."
So Konan had known this was a possibility. Naruto didn't know what Kagami had been up to in the Land of Earth, but the Amekage clearly had. He nodded, once, curtly, trying to quell his nausea, and turned and walked away, searching for a way to the second floor. There were several winding spiral staircases of beautiful red wood that twined their way up various pillars to the balconies above, and he went up the nearest one, brushing past people and eliciting a rude remark from an older woman.
The girl from the Hidden Stone didn't move as he approached. She glanced at him, and then looked back to Kagami, keeping her face blank. Naruto stopped alongside her and leaned onto the balcony, his arms crossed and his chin resting on them. To anyone else, they would have looked like two kids just hanging out. She was a little younger than him though, maybe twelve or even eleven.
He wondered if Stone was graduating kids earlier than Konoha was.
"Hey," he asked. She still didn't move. "What's your name?"
The girl looked over at him, and Naruto smiled. Her facade broke. Even if she tried to hide it, her lip twitched a little, a return smile ending before it could begin.
"Tamako," she said flatly, regaining her cool. "And I probably shouldn't be talking to you."
"Why?" Naruto asked. "Just cause I'm from Rain?"
"Just cause you're from Rain," she confirmed. "We were told not to talk to you guys."
"Well, we can be pretty persuasive," Naruto said with a grin. Tamako rolled her eyes, and Naruto snorted. "You guys are after Kagami too, right? My… teacher's hoping we can figure something out. We don't wanna fight or anything like that." He tripped over Nonō's title: he'd never really called her that before, even if it was accurate.
"She belongs to the Hidden Stone," Tamako said, trying to sound much older than she was. "She can't leave just because she doesn't like it anymore."
Naruto frowned. "Well, I don't think someone can belong to a village," he said, a little offended on Kagami's behalf. "If she doesn't want to stay there, why should she?"
"Because she agreed to," Tamako said, and Naruto was all of the sudden very aware of the difference two or three years could be. "But you're from Rain. You guys don't understand loyalty."
"You shouldn't assume things like that," Naruto said with a frown. "First off, it's kinda rude, second off, we can totally grab her and run if we want. It's just you here." He smiled, trying to look smug and stupid.
It worked. The girl rolled her eyes again. "Yui-sensei would catch you guys in a second," she said, before she blinked, realizing her mistake.
"Yui-sensei?" Naruto asked innocently. "Who's she? She sounds cool."
"None of your business," the girl grumbled, turning back to look over the balcony. Naruto laughed.
"Well I mean, how much do you think your village would want for Kagami?" he asked, trying not to think about bartering over a person. Tamako blew a raspberry in response. "C'mon, be serious. 100,000 Ryo?"
The girl looked over at him in obvious disbelief, and he raised his eyebrows. "What, too low? What about 200,000 then?"
"She's worth more than money," Tamako said slowly, like she was talking to a toddler, and Naruto felt a faint flush of anger creep up his neck. "Is that really how Rain ninja think? That you can just buy someone?" She gave him a pitying look, obviously stolen from an adult. "Is that how they got you? Or were you born there, too dumb to see what was around you?"
"Nah," Naruto said, trying to defuse his own anger. "I just liked the weather."
Again, Tamako barely managed to control her smile. "Forget it then," she said, sinking into her folded arms. "If you wanna take Kagami, feel free to try. We'll stop you." She sighed. "She's not even a real ninja, so don't imagine she's going to help you or anything."
"I don't really wanna fight you," Naruto said, mirroring her posture. "You're just a kid."
"You're just a kid," Tamako shot back. "What're you, twelve?"
"What're you, ten?" Naruto jabbed, and the girl went red.
"I'm eleven!" she declared, obviously proud of the fact, and Naruto laughed.
"Well, imma be fourteen next week, so you're a kid and I'm a teenager," he said, enunciating the word. "So I still don't want to fight you."
"You'll only be a teenager next week," Tamako sulked, and Naruto shook his head.
"Thirteen," he enunciated again, and Tamako sighed.
"Who cares," she said in the tone of someone who didn't want to acknowledge they'd lost a dumb argument. "We're both shinobi. Shouldn't that be what matters?"
"Why should shinobi be more willing to fight than anyone else?" Naruto asked. The casino was still bustling, and it looked like Kabuto had calmed down Kagami somehow. They had retreated from the table and were quietly talking near a large potted plant that looked like someone had stolen a whole tree and plopped it down in the middle of the floor.
"Cause it's our job," Tamako said, giving him a look that clearly said he was stupid, and Naruto stuck out his tongue.
"It's our job to follow orders," he said. "Complete missions. No one told me to fight anyone when I came here. Just to come back with Kagami."
"Well, I got told the same thing," Tamaki said quietly. "And we can't split her in half."
"Gross," Naruto said with a smirk, and he finally got a laugh out of the smaller girl. "But I guess you're right about that. If we can't resolve it another way… we might have to fight."
"Yeah. We might." Tamako seemed more withdrawn now; maybe he'd actually said something that had gotten through to her. Naruto hoped so: he didn't want to spend the week before his birthday beating up a younger girl. She pushed herself off the bannister, and he caught a glimpse of something in her ear. An earpiece? If it was, it was the same size as his, and so similarly short ranged.
"I didn't get your name," she said, still a little sad, still withdrawn and young, and Naruto spoke without thinking.
"Naruto," he said. He spoke without thinking, and instantly regretted it.
Tamako did not do anything very obvious, but any shinobi could see the way her entire body tensed and then forcibly relaxed. She blinked, subconsciously shifting just an inch away from Naruto, and glanced over at him. He mutely watched as she scanned his hair, his face, his eyes.
'You look just like him.' The distant words, delivered with such hatred almost a year ago, made Naruto's entire body squirm. It wasn't true. He looked like his mom. But he did have his dad's hair and eyes, and he could see in an instant that Tamako had seen it.
"I have to go," she said. She sounded scared. As she turned, Naruto reached out.
"Wait-" he started to say, but it was far too late. Tamako practically ran from him, bowling over a younger guy in a suit who was making his way along the balcony. He snatched after her as well, hopelessly slow, and scowled in her wake.
"Nonō," Naruto said, pressing his finger to his ear with a grimace. "I fucked up."
"I heard," Nonō's voice came through even quieter. "Kabuto is securing Kagami. Meet up with him. We should leave. I'll keep watch on you two." He looked around the casino, not seeing her. Nonō had a way of melting into the background that was outright supernatural.
Naruto made his way back downstairs. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He couldn't stop thinking it the whole time. You remember what happened last time you met people from Stone, right? Kabuto and Kagami were still by the tree, both subdued.
"We're leaving," he told them, and Kabuto nodded. Kagami just stared at him, mute. "I messed up."
"Let's hurry then," Kabuto noted, and he and Naruto began pushing towards the exit. In the crush of the crowd, Naruto felt a bit more secure. Kagami walked between the two of them; he could tell she was taking long, deep breaths, and shot her a questioning look.
"You alright?" he asked, and she rolled her eyes.
"I'm being kidnapped," she said. Kabuto chuckled.
"Yes, but very politely," he said, steering them between a row of garish slot machines covered in mostly nude women. Naruto tried not to stare. "Hopefully that takes some of the sting away."
"It really doesn't," Kagami said. Naruto could feel her clenching and unclenching her hand rhythmically, like she was trying to keep her arm under control, the same as her breathing. "You don't understand what you're doing. I'm not worth taking."
"Stone has a team watching you," Kabuto said, still all smiling sincerity. "So I doubt that's completely true."
"She's following," Nonō noted over their headset. "Naruto, stay calm. I'm on her. Keep an eye out for the other one, you two."
Naruto nodded, and Kabuto gave him a concerned look. "You didn't know her, right?" he said, speaking over Kagami's shoulder. "That shinobi?"
"No way." His throat was dry. "It's my dad. I've met… it's just like that team in the Exam. Remember them?" He laughed, trying to relax but keenly aware that he might have started a stone rolling that he couldn't stop. "Shouldn't have told her my name."
"Your father?" Kagami asked. They were close to the exit now, and she looked him over more carefully now, her eyes growing just a little wider. "Who's your father?"
"Does it matter?" Naruto muttered, pushing them all out into the sunlight. It was barely past two and the sun was only just heading for the horizon, casting short shadows through the city streets. Ishima was covered in towering traditionally constructed buildings and gleaming new concrete and glass structures standing side by side with empty lots and half-built piles of concrete and rebar, and Naruto glanced around, trying to figure out the best way to go. The street was mostly empty. Right now, that was actually really bad.
"I didn't see the other," Kabuto noted. "Mom will be fine; we should start running." He released Kagami's sleeve, turning to her. "Are you going to try and escape?"
"How far would I get?" the woman asked bitterly, and Kabuto shrugged.
"That depends on how fast you are," he said guilelessly, and the woman let out a choked laugh.
"Maybe they'll chase you," she told Naruto, "If they care about your father that much. Give your friend here a better chance to carry me off."
"That'd be a bad idea," Naruto grunted. "And I don't talk to my dad anymore."
"Ha!" The same choked laugh, but it was filled with genuine amusement. "Maybe tell them that." Kagami's tone grew a little colder. "But I think you know that sometimes people only care about who you're related to, don't you Naruto?" He looked back at her, and she crossed her arms. "After all, you dragged me out of there without a second thought."
He winced, trying not to think about the full implications of that, and as he did Nonō emerged from the building.
"Wherever that girl's sensei is, she's well concealed." She came to Naruto and Kabuto's side, giving Kagami a brief nod. The other woman didn't return the greeting. "We'll have to stick together."
Because he was a VIP to the Stone ninja now too, Naruto knew. That meant Nonō had two people to keep an eye on. He felt dumber than ever.
"Any law enforcement we can inform?" Kabuto asked, and Nonō shook her head.
"None that could stop shinobi, and Ame doesn't have any other teams in this area." She pursed her lips. "Our best chance is to just run for it, and hope they're not dumb enough to chase us. The closer we are to the village, the safer we'll be. It's only a day from here."
"But once we leave the city…" Naruto said, trailing off.
"Precisely. They won't have any reason not to engage us," Nonō confirmed. "So let's go, now, before they have time to think about it."
"We've had plenty of time."
Nonō stiffened and turned, and Naruto turned with her, looking across the nearly empty street. There was a building under construction across from the casino, probably yet another future hotel: a concrete and steel skeleton more than ten stories tall, with nothing but floors put in yet. Standing on the third story, staring down at them with her arms at her sides, was a woman with deep purple hair held in a long ponytail. She wore a dark red hoodie and black pants, and had a Stone hitai-ate wrapped around her left bicep.
She was staring down at all of them with her face twisted in obvious hatred. No, Naruto realized, not at all of them.
Just at him. A chill ran from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head.
Kabuto looked around, his face placid, and Naruto followed his gaze. There were three more shinobi, he saw, each at an exit to the intersection. Tamako, the girl he'd talked to, and two more boys, one tall and grim with a shock of red hair and the other short and unremarkable. They all looked younger than Naruto, but the way they'd set themselves up around them without attracting any attention showed some skill.
"Take some more then," Nonō called up. Naruto watched as a couple of the people who'd staggered out of the casino with them decided that literally anywhere else would be a better place to be. They didn't seem surprised, just in a hurry. Was this how the borders were in Rain? Did shinobi from Stone do this sort of thing often?
Or just for him?
"Rain and Stone have no quarrel," she continued, and the woman on the building, who Naruto had no doubt was the Yui-sensei that Tamako had mentioned, laughed.
"You're right!" she said. "But you're trying to take something that belongs to us, so we're about to have one." Her face twisted. "And even worse, you brought him to do it. The Amekage must be even bigger idiots than we thought."
Naruto moved to speak and Nonō shut him up with a single curt wave of her hand. "Kagami has the freedom to leave the Land of Earth," she said. Naruto was sure he could hear Yui's teeth grinding. "You have no business stopping her. You don't want to cause an international incident, do you?"
"We're not going to stop her," Yui said. She smiled, her dark eyes crinkling up. "We're going to kill Naruto Namikaze, and we're going to politely convince her to return with us before something that ugly happens to the rest of her new friends." She squatted, hands hanging over the edge of the building. "Isn't that right, Kagami Kaguya?"
Naruto narrowed his eyes, his heart speeding up. Yui had kunai hanging from each finger, eight in total that had suddenly appeared as if by magic, but the knives alone didn't interest him. Each was covered in a thick whorling script, ink worked into the very metal of the blades. Jutsu formula, and complicated enough that it would take a day's worth of work for just a single knife, he was sure. He couldn't make out their designs from this distance, but they all swirled with a uniform spiral, converging on a single point at the tip of the blade.
Kagami lowered her head, her breathing speeding up. She looked like she was on the edge of a panic attack. Nonō sighed, turning to Naruto while keeping her eye on Yui.
"Naruto," she said, and he looked up at her. She gave him a cheerful smile. Behind her, Kabuto was slowly rotating, watching the other Stone ninja. He gave Naruto a half-grin as he completed his spin, pulling a kunai and some ninja wire from his pocket.
Nonō's smile faded. "Get ready to run, okay?"
And then everyone moved at once.
###
AN: In the spirit of trying to get back in author's notes and actually engage with the audience more directly, one of serial fiction's greatest strengths, I thought I'd pick up an old habit of talking about how a chapter developed and what about it worried me. I've always found medical jutsu pretty fascinating, particularly right now while I'm recovering from surgery and wishing I could just hit up a teenager with magic hands, so this chapter was pretty exciting for me, and I was glad to see that the Boruto anime has expanded at least a little on the mechanics of how exactly it works: very neat stuff.
But on the flip side, OC heavy chapters always make me nervous. A lot of people read fanfics for familiar characters, especially fics like Obito-Sensei that are all about seeing where people have ended up in dramatically different circumstances. So when you start bringing in new names like Kagami, Tamako, Yui, it's gotta be a delicate balancing act. They have to feel real, at home in the universe: if they stick out, it breaks SOD immediately, and that's just about my worst nightmare. Hopefully they fit in here, and hopefully you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks for reading!