Recommended story: 'After the End' by Catherine-PJO, currently my favorite Percy Jackson fanfic
Chapter Forty-three
Neji woke up feeling refreshed but also confused. He had spent most of yesterday with Rin and despite his hesitation, he had not hated it. He couldn't say it was the best day of his life, no that was ridiculous, but he hadn't spent the time wishing that the day would just end already. He had many days like that in the past and yesterday wasn't one of them.
"Good morning Neji. How was your day with her?" Hiashi asked when he saw his nephew in the morning.
"Better than I expected. She says her parents knew mine. Did you know them?"
Hiashi shook his head. "Not as well as my brother. I knew of them, but that was it. I recall being told that they came from a clan of non-combative shinobi but were no longer practicing the work, and I think I lost interest after that."
Neji arched an eyebrow. "Non-combative shinobi?"
Hiashi nodded. "Yeah, I find the idea odd too. Sure, there's tracking and infiltration, but even those ninja need something to fall back on in case of enemy conflict. I didn't care enough to find out what their secret was, and if Hizashi knew he was sworn to secrecy. Perhaps you could find out from your new friend if you wish to know."
"Maybe later. I need to meet with my team today." Neji insisted, to which Hiashi did not object. Breakfast was eaten, Neji grabbed his mission supplies should they be needed later, and then headed out towards his team's usual training ground.
He was somewhat surprised to see Rin there talking to Lee, Tenten, and Gai.
"Ah Neji, welcome." Gai greeted. "We do have a mission today but the client won't be ready to leave for another three hours. We were just taking the opportunity to meet your new friend."
Neji was too uncomfortable to say anything back, be it positive or negative.
"Good morning Neji. Your fiancee was just telling us about what brought her here." Lee greeted.
"She has a name, Lee. You could try calling her that instead." Neji managed to say.
"Do you like her?" Tenten asked.
"Oh it's too soon to know that." Rin interjected before Neji could. "We're more humoring my parents than anything, but so far I don't hate him."
"Don't you think it's kind of stupid for your parents to try and make you get married to someone you don't even know?" Tenten asked.
"Of course I do, who wouldn't? But what am I supposed to do? Kick and scream on the floor like a baby? No wait, let me guess, you think I should just say no and then my parents would just take that without any resistance? Do you think the kind of parents that would arrange a marriage would be the kind that would let me refuse without a legit reason?"
Tenten raised an eyebrow. "So you're going along with this until you can find something you can use to get out of it?"
Rin shrugged. "Do you have a better idea? Or... are you jealous?"
Tenten looked flustered and stepped back. "Wh-what?"
Rin looked amused. "Oh my kami, you are. You wish it was you instead of me."
Neji blushed, but all eyes were on the girls so no one noticed.
Tenten blushed but she also frowned. "Hell no! Unlike you I've spent over a year with him and seen sides of him you've never seen. For years he was a jerkass, treating everyone in sight like they offended him by being in sight. He talked trash to our faces-"
"-And he once tried to kill his own cousin because he blamed her for his father's death." Rin said calmly, surprised Tenten greatly. "What, did you think I didn't know that? I asked Neji what kind of person he was, and he admitted he hasn't been the nicest person in the world. But he also admitted he's not like that anymore. Did you know that?"
Tenten struggled to come up with something to say.
"I guess I was wrong, you're not jealous. You're just vindictive."
Tenten grit her teeth and made a fist.
"Oh, you want to slug me? Go ahead." Rin smirked and spread out her arms. "Seriously, give me your best. I want you to. I'll even pay you to do it."
She lowered her arms and pulled out a wad of ryo before spreading her arms out again.
"What are you doing?" Tenten asked, confused.
"I told you. Hit me, and all this cash is yours. If you can do it that is. Hell, just put a finger on me and you can still have it, if hitting me is too much for you."
Tenten got annoyed by this new girl's smugness and decided to go ahead and give her a little punch, not enough to hurt her but enough to take some of the wind out of her sails. So she reared her arm back and threw a fist, aiming for Rin's shoulder. But then she got throw off course and fell to the ground.
Neji, Lee, and Gai were all surprised to see this.
Tenten looked up, seeing Rin look pleased. She pocketed the money and offered a hand to help her up. Tenten rejected it and got up on her own.
"What did you do?" Tenten asked.
"I may not be a shinobi, but I'm not powerless."
"You're just lucky it was me who tried. Lee's a taijutsu expert, he would have done way more than lay a finger on you if he had tried." Tenten remarked.
Rin looked to Lee with a confident grin. "What do you say Lee? Want to see if you can succeed?"
Lee shook his head. "Oh no, I never hit a lady outside of genuine combat. It wouldn't be gentlemanly."
"What about just getting a single finger on me? Is that acceptable?"
Lee looked conflicted.
"Go ahead Lee." Neji told his teammate. "She wouldn't ask you to if you could actually hurt her. Think of it as showing a new genin how to spar."
Lee nodded with a little grin, then stepped up to Rin. "Alright, one finger. Hope you're ready."
Rin spread her arms. "Do your worst."
Lee came at her much faster than Tenten had, but to his surprise he stopped before he could get to her.
'What? It's like I'm being blocked.' He thought, stepping back for a moment. He tried again, this time moving around, but again he felt resistance. So he moved from another angle and did it again.
"What is this? Why can't I touch you?"
Rin just chuckled. Lee got desperate and sped up, along with hitting whatever resistance he was encountering, but there was nothing changing.
Perplexed, Neji activated his byakugan. Around Rin there was a bit of a haze, not unlike a fog, except it was vibrating. Whatever it was, it was standing in between her and Lee. Even when he went to the opposite side rapidly, this haze kept up and defended the girl.
'What is this? I want to say it's chakra, but there's no jutsu involved. Not to mention it's not behaving normally. And yet... it's defending her perfectly.' Neji thought. 'Is this what a non-combative shinobi is?'
Lee stopped his attack but now he was pacing around her like a cat looking for an opening. 'Okay, she's got some kind of shield I can't see but can touch. Whatever it is, it's vibrating whenever I make contact. But she's not moving at all, except to keep her eyes on me.'
"Hey, what's that?" Lee said, pointing behind her.
'You can't be serious.' Neji, Tenten, and even Gai thought at seeing such a lame attempt to win.
"What? What am I looking at?" Rin asked, turning her back to the taijutsu enthusiast, acting like she was genuinely trying to figure out what he had pointed at.
'It actually worked?' Neji, Tenten, and Gai all thought together.
Lee went in and tried to poke her, but he was repelled and thrown back into a tree.
Rin turned around and laughed. "Like everyone hasn't tried that one."
'Odd, each time it was like I was hitting a shield, but this time her defense felt more like I was being backhanded.' Lee thought. Neji had seen the haze react in such a manner, extending a tendril out to swat his teammate away.
"Ready to call it a loss?" Rin asked, putting her hands in her pockets.
Lee got up and bowed. "I admit defeat. But one day I am certain I will be able to overcome your defense."
"Good luck, no one else has."
Neji deactivated his byakugan. 'My parents had to have known about this if they knew her parents. Is this why they agreed to an arranged marriage? To discover her family's secret?'
"How did you do that? If you don't mind me asking." Gai asked politely.
"Oh I don't mind, but I'm not saying." Rin replied.
"Very well. Since we have more time till we have to leave, how about you join us for a little downtime until then?"
Rin shrugged. "Why not? By the way, how long will this mission take?"
"About four days if nothing goes wrong."
Rin looked to Neji with a wink. "I'll be waiting."
Neji fidgeted while Tenten turned away.
Back with Kushina's group, everyone had gotten some decent rest during the night. Naruto was with Sakura and Hinata of course, both girls refusing to let him go, and everyone else gave them some privacy. Today they were going to start heading back to Konoha, but first there was one more thing to do.
In one of the tents, the captive dark elf was still tied up, looking annoyed more than anything. Any attempts to speak to her had been met with silence or spit, but for some reason Naruto had insisted on speaking to her before they headed off.
"Hi, I'm Naruto Uzumaki. What's your name?" He asked, sitting in front of the dark elf, the two alone in the tent. She was positioned to sit up, but her hands and feet were tied and her unusual weapon had been sealed in a scroll earlier.
The dark elf made it a point to look away.
"I could just give you a name if you won't tell me yours. Hmm... Elfy? Elf-ko? Elfina? Are any of those close?"
She looked at him now, and it was clear she was not amused.
"Hmm... Elfy it is. So Elfy, we're going to try and go back to my home here in this world, and we would really appreciate it if you would be more cooperative instead of throwing this tantrum. Sure, we could just drag you back like a prisoner and hold you in a cell, but you don't want that, do you? Sure, you could escape, but where will you go? If you work with us and stop trying to kill my mom, we can at least make you comfortable where we go."
The dark elf grit her teeth and made a quiet growling noise, something that Naruto had only ever heard from Kiba.
"I'm sorry my mom hurt you in the war, but you were on other sides. Surely you knew that would be a risk. Besides, you hurt people in the war too, so why is what you did okay but what she did isn't?"
"I wasn't in the war." The dark elf said.
"What?" Naruto asked.
"I wasn't a soldier, but my fiancee was. She killed him, and if that wasn't bad enough, I miscarried because of that woman. I lost everything because of Kushina Uzumaki, and here you, her son, are telling me to be nice to her? Piss off."
Naruto was horrified to hear this.
"What? You were the one saying it was a war and people get hurt. Did you think your precious mommy was nice to her enemies in that war?" The dark elf taunted, showing a little mirth for the first time in doing so.
"There has to be more to it than just that." Naruto insisted.
"You're such a hypocrite." The dark elf spat. "You're just like everyone who fights for a living. You think that everyone on 'the other side' is just evil for the sake of evil and causing misery for fun and laughs, but your side, the people you actually know the names of, they're the good guys. What they do is justified and noble and they still have boundaries and morals. Your people can't hurt an innocent person, not even by accident. Because if that's not the truth, then your side is just as evil as the other side."
"Then what about your fiancee? How much evil did he cause in the war that you were okay with?" Naruto asked, little bits of red in his eyes now.
"At least my fiancee never killed an unborn baby and made the mother infertile." The dark elf countered.
"No, he probably just killed other people's kids. But that's okay because you didn't know their names, did you?"
"What, you think you're going to blow my mind by pointing out that I'm a hypocrite too? Newsflash kid, your opinion means very little to me. You're the son of the woman who killed my family, why would I care if you think I'm a good person or not? If someone tried to kill your mother and then told you that killing them in return made you a bad guy too, would you really care what they thought?"
"So an eye for an eye? Will killing my mom really give you what you want?" Naruto responded. "I know someone who used to be like that. His name is Gaara, and for years the only thing he understood was killing people. Said it was the only thing that proved he was alive. It didn't matter who his target was, all that mattered was that they were killable. I was the first person who succeeded in overpowering him, making him the one who was about to die."
Naruto then leaned in a little. "But I didn't kill him. And you know why?"
"Because you don't have the guts to finish the enemy off." The dark elf stated, not even guessing.
Naruto shook his head. "Because I understood him. I didn't agree with him, but I understood what made him become what he was. I saw in him everything I could have become if my life had taken a turn for the worse. I knew how much he must have been hurting, and I also knew what would truly help him. What Gaara needed wasn't another victim, or even a challenge, what he needed was a friend."
"I have friends." The dark elf insisted.
"Good, I'm glad. But the point is I understood his pain, and I think Mom understands your pain too."
The dark elf glared. "Her child lived, there's no way she understands my pain."
"I may have lived, but she was torn from me right after I was born. The only reason she was in that war was because the succubi abducted her to your world and wouldn't let her leave. My mother had her baby and was taken from me, all because someone wanted her to fight for them. Not only that, but her husband was killed too. So yeah, I think she would understand your pain if you just took the time to talk to her."
"And then what? We hug and join a book club? I don't want your mother's friendship kid, I want her to suffer the way I've suffered."
"And how will that make you feel better?" Naruto challenged. "It might make you feel good for a moment, maybe even an hour, but deep down you know that killing her won't bring your fiancee or baby back. You'll still be as miserable as you were yesterday, but now you'll have no one to be mad at but yourself."
The dark elf made an attempt to stand up, only to fumble to the ground on her side.
Naruto got up without a word and left the tent. Naturally Kushina and Tayuya were standing outside in case any trouble arose. The dark elf might have been bound, but magic always made things tricky.
"You better keep her tied up, I don't think she's going to come peacefully."
"I figured that was the case." Kushina admitted.
"Mom, she says you did something that killed her baby before it was born. That isn't true, is it?" Naruto asked, afraid of the answer.
Kushina looked confused. "Hmm... I was in a few fights, but I know I've never gone anywhere near a pregnant woman during one. Alfheim might have different customs, but even they wouldn't be so careless as to send a pregnant woman into battle."
"She said she's not a soldier. Did you ever do anything that endangered civilians?"
Kushina shook her head. "Never, I may have been forced to fight in their war, but I would never participate in any attack that got civilians involved. I should probably go talk to her."
"Not yet, I don't think she's going to listen." Naruto suggested.
"She talked to you didn't she?" Tayuya asked.
"No, he's right. Let's give her time to cool off. For now, let's head back to Konoha." Kushina declared.
Jiraiya called a meeting of Konoha's clan heads and elder advisers, who gathered in their usual meeting chamber. Everyone thought it was rather odd how he seemed rather happy about it.
"Okay everyone, I have good news and bad news. I'll start with the bad news. If any of you are currently unaware, it appears that the civilian council had been replaced by implants for quite some time and now they've disappeared."
"Spies infiltrated us to this level?" Shikaku asked. It was normal to expect some spies in any hidden village, but generally getting into positions of influence were harder for them to get into. Not impossible, but with greater risk of being exposed in the long run.
"From what forensics have gathered, it appeared that every member of the civilian council has disappeared into thin air, leaving behind only pollen. No signs of the originals returning have been accounted for. As the head Anbu puts it, it's as if a bunch of plant-based clones have been impersonating the real individuals for who knows how long and have finally expired."
"But how is that possible?" Chouza asked.
"Yeah, my nose would have noticed something." Tsume added.
"This is why it's the bad news. There are clearly too many missing pieces to this puzzle. But we must assume that an outside force has been tampering with our government for some time now, which means we not only have to restructure the civilian side of village management, but we must comb over every law they've had influence over for the last thirteen years." Jiraiya told everyone.
"Why thirteen?" Shibi asked, finding that to be unsually specific.
"Considering that the civilian council has been rather infamous about their disdain for Naruto, we cannot rule out the possibility that they've been around ever since the Kyuubi incident. Such turmoil and death and would have been a good opportunity for whoever's responsible for this to sneak in their, pun-not-intended, 'plants'."
"It's impossible for a ruse to last that long." Homura insisted.
"Can we really take that chance?" Jiraiya asked.
"As troublesome as it is, he's right." Shikaku sighed. "Please tell me that the good news is worth all this work you're assigning."
Jiraiya got a twinkle in his eye. "Oh yes, I believe it is. Tsunade messaged me telling me she's coming back, now that the primary danger to Naruto is gone. She should be back in three days maximum. And she says she's bringing a surprise with her. One that she says will hopefully give this place the improvement it vastly needs."
"And yet she will not elaborate." Koharu remarked in disapproval.
"She said this must be seen to be believed. Even I don't know what it is, but I'm positive that whatever she found, it's going to live up to the hype."
"Either way, it's better than you keeping the job." Inoichi muttered.
Jiraiya laughed. "Damn right."