Volatile
Renri searched the village, frustration building at her continued failure to find her target.
With zero possibility of graduating this year, she decided she needed to use this time to construct a more concrete plan of how to accomplish her goal. Or, rather, the goal she should have been focused on and prioritizing. After all, she caused a giant setback in delaying her advancement to genin when that rank meant the least. Increased rank meant increased usefulness. The tasks assigned would grow from simple errands to meaningful missions that served the village. To be trusted with those important tasks… To simply be trusted, she wanted that.
She wanted to be trusted to protect the village. Maybe it'd protect her too, then.
She needed to be useful first.
Yet her plan fell apart there. Anything beyond genin rank would require more power than she could feasibly obtain on her own at present. She couldn't even begin to practice earnestly; therefore, she, again, fell behind on this imaginary timeline demanding she rush along. Most of her classmates wouldn't graduate for a few years.
Needed to be useful now. Useless things were discarded.
In any case, she found herself in a predicament.
The stern elderly man the head librarian was, he did well to keep anything deemed above her skill level under proverbial lock and key. Skill level, when used by him, was certainly substituted with grade level. She would have to graduate before he reluctantly considered allowing her what she needed. Mostly because her lacking charm and his none-too-fond perception of her.
She had briefly considered pestering his assistant, but… That would place Mokume-san in a difficult position should-and he would- the head librarian find out. Renri couldn't bring herself to involve Mokume after all the help she had already provided. (All the questions when learning to read more difficult texts, the woman may as well be a saint to Renri. She still asked her questions!)
She also couldn't risk being banned from the library should she potentially be caught sneaking around. If she learned anything from Takuma-sensei, it was that she didn't know who was watching close enough to see through her.
Without the library she had few other options.
Unlike her peers, she didn't have parents or relatives sharing their knowledge with her. Not anymore. Elder brother had been rather upset to learn Mother had begun teaching her about chakra. Aside from one innocuous jutsu, he had banned Mother from teaching her more, while offering her no further training from himself. Even Renki, once in the Kiri academy, had been told to stop after they left the hidden village.
Few? She had exactly one option.
Now was one of the dwindling opportunities she would have between now and graduation. She needed to act.
Anko had made a reappearance at their favorite bakery after months of back-to-back missions. The other girl had no problem carrying a conversation as Renri listened. While bragging about all the amazing things she had been doing, all the fascinating places she had been lately, Anko let it slip. Though her next Konohagakure-supplied mission wouldn't be for a while, Orochimaru said he wanted her to help with something in the meantime. So, she came home. Meaning he was probably back in the village too.
Renri looked over her shoulder again, paranoid. Anko would kill her if she found out Renri ditched her to find him. Again. She almost had to use a substitution jutsu to escape- though Renri knew she wouldn't get away with that, Anko would notice, hunt her down, and beat her senseless no problem. Flimsy excuse of studying for a test couldn't have actually worked.
But his returns to the village had become increasingly infrequent and short. The moment the sun disappeared, so did her chance to ask. She had no idea where he went when he wasn't at the lab- and that place seemed rather abandoned considering she was its only full-time occupant.
She wouldn't pretend to fully understand the situation, but she did understand that respected and liked were different. Neither the village nor he seemed partial to each other.
Yet, they still allowed him to do as he pleased, so he couldn't be doing anything too horrible, right?
She bit the inside of her cheek. That was even flimsier excuse... Or an outright lie.
Finally, on the edge of the village, she found him, unmistakable with long black hair and concerningly pale skin. Walking somewhere, probably, but also in no obvious hurry, she couldn't make the excuse that he appeared too busy for her to dare ask. Still, she followed at a distance, dreading the interaction. Another moment, she promised, and she would swallow her nerves.
That hardly made the discomfort settle.
Absently pulling at a loose bandage near her wrist, the last time she had troubled him for something… She had asked for his help entering the academy, much to his amusement. Now-
He stopped. Slit pupils set in gold eyes pinned her in place as he lazily glanced over his shoulder. "Renri-chan," he beckoned, "why don't you come here?"
His tone added another millisecond of hesitance in her next step. How long? Long enough to be amused. Bad. Did he know?
She knew better than to falter further. Instead, she walked to his side to greet him politely.
His scrutinizing gaze always made her fidget more helplessly than words. Silence became drowning in record speed. So, she blurted, "I would like to ask a question," tacking on "if you aren't too busy?"
"Not at all, Renri-chan," he said, mocking affection sealing her fate. He knew.
She allowed herself to bite at her lip before stumbling over her words. "You… You know a lot of different jutsu from many places, and I haven't been able to find what I want in my own studies, so I was wondering…" Wondering why she always managed to ramble under pressure. Glancing around, her harmless question felt entirely weighted when asked of him. Too many people. She never liked talking around people. And, now, she most certainly didn't want an audience to what would be a reprimand.
"Why don't we go somewhere quieter?" he suggested, final nail in her coffin.
She nodded stiffly before following him as he turned to a path leading into the trees. Silence quickly ate away at her nerves as intended. She pulled at her sleeve. The only consolation to be had was that she got to trail behind him, unseen.
"Your graduation should be soon." The comment instantly ground salt in an open wound. She tried not to flinch. "How are your studies?"
Chastisement disguised as small talk, she hated this.
"Unremarkable," she answered, honest that, "I am neither the best nor worst in my class." Perfectly average, although the last few tests had begun to sway her away from that mediocrity. Teacher was impressed.
"Oh?" How he managed to get that level of disappointment into a single utterance made her hands ball into fists. At least he spared her from a glance over his shoulder. No, he seemed more interested in scanning the trees, and that upset her more. "And if you worked to your potential instead of pretending to be average?"
Average held a trace of disgust.
A whisper through almost clenched teeth, "In my age group, discounting Uchiha, I would be third or fourth." She could have graduated with Itachi, maybe, if she hadn't been stupid. She'd had enough of this conversation. "I won't be graduating this year," she said outright to end it, bite of stubbornness in her tone. She wanted to go to the academy. She should be free to screw it up if she wanted.
"A shame," he said, disappointment certainly mocking, glance over his shoulder scolding. Narrowed eyes made her shrink into herself. It didn't matter what she wanted. Her lie had always been transparent. "You should have listened to me. You have nothing to gain in attempting to placate others." He was the only one she needed to impress. The academy would have been a good opportunity, if she had prioritized it over fun and games. "After all, you would be dead if anyone considered you an actual threat, now wouldn't you?" And by his protection, she continued to breathe.
She swallowed down the weak defense that wanted to squeak out of her mouth. Pulling at her sleeve, she worried if her expression would irritate him further. He didn't care to look, focus somewhere in the trees.
She wasn't good for much of anything. Failing out of the academy in a single semester…
"I'm sorry," she whispered. Quiver in her voice had her biting her lip, eyes afraid to leave the ground. As much as Orochimaru scared her, the unknown scared her more.
The unknown being Danzo and his division of the Konoha ANBU. He made it clear he preferred her dead, presently a threat or not, a thing of Orochimaru's or not, because these things were best dealt with swiftly and severely. She didn't know much more about him and them beyond that they had the power and influence to act, Hokage's word dissuasion at best. Orochimaru had once been a part of that group. They had to be important if he played a role.
His disappointment stung. "I should have listened to you." She should have disregarded everyone else's opinion. She should have seen graduating early as a challenge to prove herself useful. She should have appreciated that he humored her request at all despite seeing the obvious lie in her intentions. Instead, she made herself look stupid for the sake of avoiding a faction of the scorn Itachi provoked. She couldn't even uphold her lie of 'it would look stranger if she, little adopted stray, didn't go to the academy like all the other kids her age.'
Hesitantly looking up from the ground, she must have really annoyed…
He still found more interest in the trees despite purposefully dredging up her trifling emotions.
They stopped walking. The trees closed in, light scattered and dimmed through layers of leaves. They would be obscured from anyone not specifically searching.
She tried to shove away her emotions to deal with later. Had to redirect to her goal. He'd be more disappointed if she ran from a little prodding. Something to recapture his attention… Fiddling with her hands, mindlessly weaving the signs on repeat until she found her voice, "I'm struggling to reproduce it here in Konoha."
Snake eyes narrowed as his attention returned to her. She froze. Malicious amusement.
He repeated the signs.
Explosion of mist. She lost sight. Skin crawling, wrong thing to say, she tried to dart forward. She had no chance. Constricting, snakes appeared to coil around her, her arms squeezed tight to her sides. Heart pounding through her eardrums, the mist didn't clear. Tighter, she coughed. The mist refused to dissipate, instead shifting just enough that he reappeared in front of her, amusement wiped from his expression.
He really hadn't appreciated the lie. Got his attention, though. Needed to be worth it.
"Behave," he warned. "You know better than to waste my time with something you've already mastered. Unless you do mean to say you can't manage a simple hidden mist jutsu." His brows rose, one of the snakes swinging its head around to hiss in her face. Twitch in her lip, she bit her tongue. "I would be severely disappointed to hear that, Renri-chan." Almost as disappointed as hearing she would have failed out of the academy for the sake of making friends.
Rows of little fangs lingered near her skin as the snake threatened to bite.
"I'm sorry," she forced out with the remaining air in her lungs. She didn't mean it. The snakes squeezed harder. Choking, then coughing, she hit the ground when they suddenly vanished. She knew better than to stay in the dirt looking pathetic. Not after deliberately annoying him to gain attention- and he seemed to be in a sour mood. Childish. Still, she pouted a bit. Persisting pain, she had to be covered in bruises.
Barely stumbled to her feet, a blast of wind almost sent her right back into the dirt. Mist cleared, the pout she wore morphed to marvel. Dead leaves fluttered to the ground. The trees immediately surrounding them, the leaves had shriveled to dried husks, water ripped mercilessly from them.
Never mind. Truly terrible lie to use.
An unnecessary show, but it drove the point home. Even if not coated in a permanent layer of mist, dew, rain, all the moisture that soaked the Land of Water, Konoha still had plenty to offer. She had no excuse. Pulling it from sources aside from a body of water took more effort, yes, but not enough for her to struggle to the degree she would have to bother him with it. She knew better than to do that.
"My patience is growing thin."
The reminder shook her gaze from spidery bare branches. "Sorry," she repeated, this time with a bow that flared pain across her torso. "Water clones."
"Can you manage a basic clone?"
The small amount of pride she felt at catching onto the technique died violently. It was hardly an accomplishment. Average. Average gained her nothing. Average would have been her death. She wasn't allowed average.
She demonstrated. The illusionary her faded a second later when he had no response beyond unimpressed.
She almost apologized for annoying him, but that, too, wasn't what he wanted. Probably.
"And what do you think is involved in creating a water clone?"
Biting her lip, she collected her words. If he didn't think she could pull it off, he wouldn't teach it to her. A pointless waste of time, presently, he would say, just like he had after her first attempt at medical ninjutsu ended in rabbit innards covering them both.
His expectant look pushed her gaze to the ground.
"Basic clones are illusions, while water clones are tangible," she mumbled. "Something like a transformation jutsu, but the role of the base is filled by the water instead of a body or an object. Chakra needs to control the shape, movement, and appearance." Eyes daring to lift from the dirt, relief. Amusement again aimed at her, the hint of approval encouraged her to keep talking. "Knowing the seals would help offset some of the difficulty in managing that." It's why they existed. Not that anything above a basic clone was simple even with the signs. "I understand that with my limited chakra reserves it's a risk, but as a well-placed diversion, it'd give me time prepare something else. Probably."
Like a genjutsu.
Takuma-sensei had reconfirmed her strongest skill as her chakra control; genjutsu should come naturally with that. And, opposite, her weakest skills revolved around taijutsu and physical strength. Her classmates were still wiping the floor with her despite her best efforts.
Nothing a paper bomb couldn't-
Movement snapped her full attention back to him. Hands raising, she leaned forward. A single seal required infuriated her. Her punishment for her terrible lie, he lowered his hands, offering no demonstration or advice beyond that. "You could have obtained this knowledge yourself," he said, knowing all along, "that doddering old librarian would hardly be able to stop you."
At that, she finally puffed out her cheek to pout. "And if I were caught, you would get me out of trouble?"
Maybe his slight smile would be called fond on anyone else. "If you were caught, you wouldn't be worth my time."
She crossed her arms over her chest, openly glaring to the side. His double-sided praise struck a nerve. This is why she didn't want to ask him. As much as she could annoy him, he effortlessly got under her skin.
A heavy hand landing on her head startled her still. Her eyes darted back to his face. "Your delayed graduation is a disappointment," he sighed, a pat on the head softening the blow. Had he known she would botch her chance at graduating in under a year? Or had it been impossible for her from the start? "I will be in the village for while before taking Anko-chan on a mission."
Mention of his favorite when she finally had his attention pressed her lips thin. "I'm hardly a good student," she mumbled, delight at the possibility of him teaching her tinged with her spot in second place being shoved in her face. On purpose.
A slight chuckle at her expense made her nails sink deeper into her palm. "Dear child, your jealousy never ceases to amuse me. Wanting to monopolize my attention…" Another pat on the head before he pulled his hand away returned the pout to her face. "Perhaps I should tell Anko-chan to share?"
"No!" Renri squeaked. She wanted to disappear. The best she could do was stare at the ground as she suffered through another chuckle very much at her expense. Anko may actually kill her if he said that…
Shift in his voice shifted the mood so immediately it froze her in place again. Serious, he said, "If you can produce a water clone, I will consider teaching you more."
Attention pulled from the ground, she nodded as calmly as she could despite the excitement trying to bubble up. Being given a hint had been encouraging enough, but this? She absolutely couldn't mess this chance up. She had to get the water clone jutsu figured out as soon as possible.
Another polite, if stiff as dull pain spread over her torso, bow, and she inched a step away. "Thank you for the help, Orochimaru-sama." A place along the river… Where would be a nice, quiet spot to practice? "I apologize for wasting your time with my foolishness," she added for good measure, even if sincere. He had no obligation to even keep her alive let alone teach her anything. Especially with her recent behavior.
She made it two steps before her name forced her to reconsider. "Renri, I have some materials I'd like you to organize while I attend to other matters," he said, no room to opt out of the chore. There would be no practicing today. "You know how Anko-chan is when she's given the task."
Her shoulders slumped. He'd tell Anko it was her fault the task had been pushed onto her instead. Then Anko would complain to her instead of him. She wanted to go practice now, not organize all the papers, scrolls, books, and, occasionally, test tubes and vials of who-knows-what, that he had dragged back yet couldn't be bothered with as he messed with other things in his lab. The only upside was she'd get a small snake summons to keep her company and decipher the coded labels on things she had no business knowing the contents of.
"Can I practice making storage scrolls again?" She wanted to practice something at least…
His eyes narrowed. "Will you cause another explosion?"
"No." She huffed, blowing hair from her face. It had been just one tiny line out of place. "I've been practicing my calligraphy." Kunoichi class sometimes taught her interesting things. (She wouldn't dare mention she hadn't been trying to make a storage scroll but a paper bomb, though she suspected he knew that. He always knew. Had she destroyed more than a table, he would have killed her himself.)
He studied her for a moment, debating, dragging the silence on longer than necessary to make her fidget. "You are to do so in your room," he finally said. "Perhaps that will motivate you to be more careful."
"I was being careful," she mumbled, falling into step with him as he began walking off without her. She made a point to ignore the little scoff at her adamancy.
A pausing moment, lowered voice reigniting nerves, "You should hone your senses to avoid being followed."
Followed?
Eyes scanning the trees, leaves stripped away, light flooding through spidery branches, few hiding places remained. She saw no sign of anyone.
For how long? The duration of the conversation? Longer? She had never seen or heard anyone, but her focus had been on Orochimaru. Yet, his attention had been divided. He knew someone had followed. He had played with them in destroying their cover. Assuming he hadn't done more than play. The mist had obscured her sight, the snakes keeping her in place. Talking with her also probably took zero percent of his concentration. He could have easily killed someone in that time.
But why point it out?
Something was different enough that he bothered to reiterate the point. Something more interesting than the typical ANBU lurking in the shadows, because she was decidedly not interested in them. After all, if her welcome had waned, she didn't want to see it coming. She wouldn't be able to retaliate. Only watch in dread as death approached.
Well… Whatever. She didn't want to think about it, so she wouldn't.