CHAPTER 18

10:11 PM

Whisper Group Auction Hideout

Little Whirlpool

It was a long and quiet night for Naruto.

The male barracks were silent as some of the group members slept. Lights out in the barracks had turned off all of the lights since 9:00 PM, with the night watchers patrolling the hideout in their numbers.

A few torchlights were on in the vast barracks, strapped to the heads of group members who either couldn't sleep or didn't want to sleep yet, allowing them to read books. Lights out was only strictly enforced from 11:30 PM. However, the large entrance door of the barracks was locked shut; no one could enter or leave until 5:00 AM, which was the waking time for group members on this particular assignment.

The only lights coming in pushed through thick curtains hanging on the walls around the barracks, covering the many windows that offered ventilation, alongside the temperature regulation units installed in both barracks, keeping the environment an even temperature that made sleep easily attainable and comfortable.

The barracks were filled with neat rows of bunk beds, with small cabinets assigned to each bunk and locked with keys held by their respective owners, as well as backpacks and duffle bags stuffed under the bunks for their owners, where they kept spare clothes, shoes, underwear, personal weapons, and some snakes like sweets and chocolate bars. Whisper Group provided all of the eating utensils, weapons, soaps and laundry services, food, water, beds and pillows, starched and ironed uniforms, and medical assistance.

This Auction assignment wasn't a prison after all; group members needed to be fully rested and at their best to keep all visitors in line.

There were two Whisper Group barracks for group members to rest and recuperate inside, among some other group personnel-only facilities that prohibited visitors from using, such as the bathroom facilities, the mess hall, the weapons area, and the Rest Area, which was the group's medical facility.

Both barracks were massive and easily contained up to two hundred members each, and were situated across each other. One was for males and the other for females. Inside them, the space was divided into one-thirds, with the smaller portion being for group members between the ages of 15-17, and the larger division being for 18 years and older.

Although not ideal, the younger group members were present because of their noticeable skill and ability, serving as waiters and waitresses while still being fully armed; this was the younger members' chance to prove their worth in their growing organisation. The older members were in charge of most activities that happened, including the guards at the top checking in visitors inside and holding onto dangerous weapons, the auctioneer and the several accountants keeping a close eye on proceedings, laundry services for group members and visitors, the guards in and around the auction area, the people carrying bundles of money to the counting rooms and then out of Little Whirlpool, waiters and waitresses, guides for visitors that got lost in the area, and enforcers that tread unnoticeably.

The work being done to ensure the auction proceeded smoothly was a fair reflection of the large, yet still growing, organisation that was Whisper Group.

Naruto slept on the bottom bunk and the top bunk, Lio's, was empty. She was standing in for Naruto on night duty. Similarly to all the other empty beds, Lio's bed was neatly arranged and the pillow was set squarely at the top of the bed with her blanket folded at the foot.

Lio absolutely refused to sleep in the female barracks; she wasn't going to be separated from Naruto.

Either way, the group members had the sense to not instigate anything with Lio, or anyone of the opposite gender, for that matter. There was zero tolerance for bullying, or any form of friendly fire, in Whisper Group.

The boy was curled inside a blanket from head to toe and willing himself to sleep.

But he couldn't.

That night played behind his eyelids and he helplessly watched.

Flashback

It was the end of the weekday and Sakumo allowed the boys to stay up late to watch their father grill the fish they caught the other day. This privilege of staying awake past their bedtime didn't happen often, as Sakumo was drilling the benefits of a good night's sleep into their head, but today was special.

They were Sakumo was going to send in his retirement notice to the Hokage the next day so he could spend more time with his boys.

The Hatake boys were ecstatic.

In their backyard, they dug a small, shallow ditch and surrounded the hole with sizeable rocks, umping dry sticks, twigs, and leaves into the hole. As a teachable lesson, showed them how to light a fire using a flint and steel, warning the boys to always keep the fire-starting tools on their persons at all times.

The lights at the back of the house were on, though most of the illumination came from the stubborn sparks from the flint and then the campfire that slowly crackled to life.

The boys lugged out an old, unused grill grate from inside the house and scrubbed it down with iron sponges and water, rubbing away the aged rust and dust, since the last time Sakumo had used the grate was when he was a child.

When the fire was blazing hard and hot, Sakumo instructed the boys to keep the fire burning while he prepared the fish they caught. It was a large specimen, as long as Sakumo's wrist to his shoulder and as wide as Kakashi's head. It weighed a lot too.

That evening, in preparation for the barbecue, the boys had rolled the big tree stump they usually used for target practice from its normal spot and closer to the middle of the backyard. Sakumo spread a plastic wrap on the stump and then rolled out tinfoil on top of the plastic, laying the fish on the stump. There wasn't anything fancy about how Sakumo prepared the fish; he made sure the fish was painstakingly descaled with a sharp kunai, cleaned of slime and dirt, and, as the boys watched intently, Sakumo layered grounded salt and pepper onto the fish, rubbing it all over the fish along with a pinch of grounded black pepper. He then began chopping onions, red and green bell peppers, fresh tomatoes and sprinkling curry. The latter ingredients were simply to give the fish some colour, placing the vegetables around the fish.

Lastly, he drizzled some vegetable oil, lifting the fish a little so that the oil got underneath as well.

Sakumo's mother's recipe for grilling the fish involved marinating it for up to four hours, but the man didn't feel like committing that much on fish that would be devoured in one hour between the three of them.

"Put the grate on the fire, boys," Sakumo said with a nod to the blazing campfire., carefully enclosing the fish inside the tinfoil, making sure that the peppers, onions, and tomatoes didn't fall on the ground.

Kakashi and Naruto carried the grate from near the fence, where it was kept to dry from the precious wash, and heaved it to the fire, slamming it down on the rocks. The boys took a moment to quickly position the grate on the rocks. Fire lapped at the grate and hissed, drying the last remnants of water, increasing when Naruto slid a few leaves into the fire and Kakashi used a fan to blow the flames.

"Very good," Sakumo said, smirking. He pointed into the house. "Naruto, bring out some sweet potatoes and yams from the store. Bring enough for the three of us. Kakashi, I need a bucket of water and an empty bucket."

"Yes, sir!" the two five-year-olds saluted as they dashed to complete their tasks.

Naruto dashed into the kitchen store and picked out one large tuber of yam and returned with it, speeding back and coming back with about seven sweet potatoes being carried in a small basket. Kakashi came with two buckets from the kitchen, setting one of the buckets under a tap in the backyard and running to give his father the empty bucket, rushing back to the bucket under the tap before it overflowed and also presenting it to his father.

Sakumo resisted the urge to ruffle their heads, given that his hands were dirty from preparing the fish, and got to work washing the potatoes. Not minding where he was, Sakumo used the water from the bucket to wash the potatoes, dumping them into the empty bucket. He chopped up the yam into three ample sections and washed that as well. He purposely didn't peel either of them.

His mother must be rolling in her grave.

Sakumo chuckled to himself, drying the potatoes and yams with a clean towel.

After that, Sakumo carried the tinfoil-wrapped fish onto the hot grate and stood back with a proud expression. A low sizzle sounded from inside the foil some minutes later, and Sakumo took that as his cue to place the sweet potatoes and yams around the foil-wrapped fish. It was all contained on the grate and carried above the fire by the rocks around the campfire.

Without being told, Kakashi returned the buckets, dumping the dirty water into the drain close to the backyard tap, and Naruto folded the plastic wrap that had been on the stump and tossed it into the dustbin in the kitchen. Both boys came back and rolled the stump back to where it was before.

Meanwhile, Sakumo went to the ground and washed his hands, coming back out with three camp chairs; two kid-sized chairs and one adult-sized chair. He placed them around the fire and unceremoniously slumped into his chair, looking up the starry sky in relief that the night had come so quickly.

Naruto took off his shoes and wriggled his toes near the fire, warming his feet, laughing when he caught Kakashi copying him.

"You're copying me!" Naruto said, leaning over the arm of his chair and pulling out a small tuft of grass, throwing it at his brother.

Kakashi flinched, the grass not coming anywhere near him, and stuck out his tongue, taking a handful of grass and throwing it to Naruto. "Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Easy now, boys," Sakumo chided, motioning to the fire and the food they were grilling, where some blades of grass had gotten on their sweet potatoes. "You'll ruin our food, and all our hard work would've been for nothing."

Kakashi sagged into his camp chair with a pout. "Sorry, Dad."

"Sorry…" Naruto chorused, clapping the dirt from his hands and shrugging apologetically.

"It's alright." Sakumo relaxed with his hands at the back of his head. He hummed, satisfied. "Nice night, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Naruto agreed. Copying his father's laidback posture and wiggling his toes at the fire. "It's a bit cold, though."

"Huh." Sakumo breathed out, tipping forward a little to look at his son. "You want me to make us some tea?"

Naruto snorted. "It's not that cold, dad."

Sakumo grumbled, audibly saying, "I hope you're not getting a fever."

Naruto rolled his pale eyes. "Dad, I'm fine."

"Just in case, we'll stop over at our doctor on the way to the Hokage's office."

"Okay." Naruto sulked, pointlessly kicking his feet. He puffed out of his cheeks and puffed out his cheeks petulantly. "I hate seeing the doctor. He smiles too much."

Kakashi jumped into the conversation, saying with an agreeable nod, "Yeah, Dad. Tell him to stop treating us like we're babies."

Sakumo laughed. "But you are babies, son."

Both boys blushed furiously. "Dad!"

Sakumo relished in their embarrassment, lacing his hands on his stomach and inhaling deeply as if breathing in their mortification.

A moment of comfortable quiet followed, with the fire crackling nicely and the tinfoil hissing silently. Naruto sat forward and fanned the flames, tossing in a few more leaves and increasing the fire before it could dim.

Kakashi sniffed, beginning to smell the aroma of the food on the grill. He asked their father, "Dad…since you're not going to be a ninja again, what are you going to be doing when me and Naruto are in school?"

Sakumo grinned, raising an eyebrow at his son. "Did you just ask me if I have a life away from you boys?"

Not seeing anything wrong with his question, Kakashi glanced at his brother and the two boys shrugged. They nodded. "Yeah."

For all they knew, Sakumo stayed in a state of stasis whenever the two boys were sent off to school, returning to reality when the boys came back home, but only when Sakumo didn't have any missions to perform that day. Naruto and Kakashi were used to Sakumo leaving for prolonged periods, staying over with an uncle and aunt in the Uchiha compound until the man returned.

Basically, Naruto and Kakashi believed that they were the centre of Sakumo Hatake's universe.

True, in a sense, but also wildly false.

"That's adorable." Sakumo chuckled. He slipped his shoes off and kicked his legs forward, crossing his ankles, the heat from the fire tickled the soles of his bare feet. "For your information," he regarded both boys with a lazy sweep of his eyes, "I'm learning how to knit, and I also play shogi with Shikaku."

"That Nara guy?" Naruto wondered aloud.

"That Nara guy, yes." Sakumo nodded. Shikaku Nara was in fact that Nara guy. He was years younger than Sakumo, being in his early teens and Sakumo entering his forties in some months, but he was always willing to sit down and play a game of shogi anytime, anywhere.

"Are you any good?" Kakashi asked, not bothering to phrase his question more politely.

Sakumo sat up proudly. "I am. He's only beaten me twice."

Naruto raised his eyebrows. "Out of?"

Sakumo grinned, rubbing his chin. "Four."

Silence followed this admission, where the boys shared a look, before tumbling back into a giggling fit, kicking their legs and pointing at their father.

The grin never left the man's face. "Shogi isn't as easy as it sounds. It's a game of tactics. Really brainy stuff, y'know."

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto waved flippantly, wiping his teary eyes in the crook of his elbow. "What else are you going to do while we're in school?"

"I could go free mountain climbing with Might Dai. I might even head into town and look for a new mom for you boys." He grinned cheekily.

Kakashi turned green with queasiness and Naruto stuck out his tongue in distaste. Both unanimously stated with firm shakes of their heads, "No."

Some time passed like this, with the father idly conversing with his sons, until the man checked the grilled fish and deemed it ready. He sent the boys into the house to get some plates, forks, a tray, a knife, and drinking water.

It was at that point that the memory started to get…strange.

It no longer felt like Naruto was the driver of his body. Rather, it felt like the boy was a spirit looking down at his body.

While Kakashi went to meet his father with the tray and knife, Naruto was stacking three plates on top of the other with three forks. He made the first trip and left it with Kakashi and his father, jogging back to the kitchen and retrieving three bottles from a cabinet; Sakumo didn't believe in wasting a perfectly good plastic bottle, so he reused them and encouraged his sons to do so as well.

Naruto filled each bottle with tap water, and that was when his vision flickered. His byakugan dimmed and lit up instantaneously, and the boy was watching himself from above, while his body moved by itself. He felt every sensation; the loose drops of water on his hands, the clothes on his body, the hair on his head, the skin on his bones, and even felt the slow, involuntary sensation of his fingernails growing.

However, he couldn't will himself to move.

That ability was out of his grasp.

He removed a tablet from his pocket, the same one that he threw away at the Academy, and dropped it inside one of the bottles of water. He shook the bottle of water and let the pill dissolve, looking into the bottle with a blank, emotionless stare until the pill was out of sight.

Then he took it to his father, and the Hatake family feasted together for the last time…

Flashback End

Naruto's eyes fluttered open at a quiet scuffle.

He peered out from his blanket cocoon and saw that the barracks was alight with subdued activity. The boy blearily realised that senior group members were going from bed to bed, shaking the juniors awake and wordlessly pushing them to prepare for the new day.

The juniors yawned widely and grunted in annoyance at the harsh awakening; normally, an alarm would ring, jarring them out of their sleep. Just vaguely, they heard the alarm in the female barracks sounding at a lower octave than normal.

They rubbed their eyes sleepily, pushing away the person shoving them awake, and immediately sitting up in their beds when they saw that it was a senior group member, shushing them with a finger on their lips and pointing at his wrist, indicating the time.

5:11 AM

The group members, juniors and seniors, slipped off their bunks and pulled out their cabinet keys, unlocking the cabinets and retrieving their toothbrushes, squeezing toothpaste onto them. They lastly grabbed a soap dish and sponge from the cabinet and locked them shut. The group members then found their towels hanging neatly on their bunks and retrieved them. They followed an exit at the back of the barracks to their gender-respective bathrooms.

A few group members who had long since been awake before the morning alarm came back from their showers and started preparing for the day.

About seven seniors tiptoed past Naruto's bunk but none of them touched him.

The boy grumbled, appreciating that they were keeping quiet for his sake.

He covered his eyes again and curled closer into himself, not ready to leave his bed yet.

Thirty minutes of the low shuffling later and the group members were freshened up, filing out in neat uniforms and busily attaching their weapons on their uniforms, where appropriate; guards wore their weapons openly at their hips or strapped to their backs, waiters hid theirs under their tailcoat, the same for the accountants and laundry staff.

Not all members were trained in the martial arts, but basic self-defence proficiency was a standard requirement to be on this particular assignment.

A few minutes later, some of those who had been on night duty trooped in soundlessly and began the process of showering before sleep or immediately slumping onto their beds in some cases. There weren't many people. Similarly, they didn't speak too loudly or walk too noisily as to disturb their voice.

Lio must have told them ahead of time that he wasn't feeling too well, and to keep the noise down.

He hoped they weren't going to the trouble of making him a get-well-soon present; they had done it before for Lio when she got sick with the flu. Naruto didn't want them to bother themselves.

He didn't sleep at all; he wavered between states of consciousness without fully resting. Between One holding a hunger strike for the past week out of sheer stubbornness and finding out that he had been the one to kill his father, Naruto hadn't slept at all. It was bad enough that he heard his blood hammering in his ears and he could taste bile.

The activity in the building began to simmer down as the people rested.

The entrance to the barracks was left wide open for more ventilation to flow through the building, and a steady calm settled inside…

His bloodshot eyes sprang open at the sudden commotion from the entrance. He groaned and plugged his ears, turning around on his bed and moaning in annoyance.

"I demand to see my brother!" One crowed at the entrance, banging a wooden spoon on a pot and yelling. "I know he's in there. I demand to see him!"

Somewhere at the back of his mind, Naruto wondered how his sister got her hands on a cooking pot; did she sneak it out from the kitchen?

Was she eating again?

She scowled and dug his fingers harder into his ears, wincing with each bang of the spoon against the pot.

"Get your hands off me! I want to see my brother!" she huffed and snapped, feinting a kick and brandishing the wooden spoon like a weapon. She swung the spoon and the persons he swung at bent out of the way and backtracked. "Don't touch me. Don't you dare touch me. Touch me and you die!"

In some other timeline, Naruto would have been worried that One would do something truly aggressive, like attacking his people with her Kraken summons or using her unfinished Senjutsu on them, but now and since she had been brought in, Naruto had her chakra sealed until the foreseeable future.

Both barracks were alight with frustrated, sleepy group members who yelled at One to shut up, forgetting the previous order from Lio to keep their voices down.

"Big brother!" One yelped, tackled from behind by a girl older than her, who wrestled the wooden spoon and pot above their heads. One stubbornly held on, even as her thin, round glasses were knocked askew and hanging on the end of her nose. She banged the spoon against the pot a final time before a different group member, a man, snatched them from her hands. "Brother Nine-Nine!" she grunted as she was slammed against the ground and her hands were forced behind her back. "Brother help!"

A gag made from a dirty towel was stuffed in her mouth and she thrashed madly, shouting as hard as she could but it only came out as muffled cries. Her face was pressed into the ground to stop her wriggling, messing up her short orange hair even further.

Lio had also told them not to give One any special treatment; if she stepped out of line, kick her back behind it.

Naruto grumbled and rolled out of his bed, letting his blanket fall messily to the floor. He palmed his face and shuffled tiredly to the large doors, blinking blearily as the massive spotlights embedded in the underground ceilings pricked his weak vision.

He noticed the sudden hush that ran through his people as he stepped to the door, squinting away from the light and glaring at his sister, who was heaved back to her feet. The girl was also lost for words at Naruto's appearance; it looked like all of the blood had drained from his face. His vibrant yellow hair was dull and tangled. His pale, byakugan eyes were bloodshot, worryingly so.

Naruto leaned heavily against the frame of the entrance, looking at his sister with the utmost contempt. He blinked slowly and exhaled roughly from his nose.

He indifferently raised his left hand and waved to his ear. "I'm listening."

One, her glasses hanging off her ear, was lost for words. Her brow creased and her lips flapped, gawking and searching for her previous conviction. Her purple eyes moved from one group member to the other, feeling the hands restraining her slacken.

Naruto's hand flopped to his side and he raised an eyebrow as if to say, "Well?"

She pulled away from the person holding her and the people stepped threateningly toward her, surrounding her at all sides. One snarled and closed her hands into fists, holding them up and daring anyone to come near her. A strong hand fell on her shoulder and a few of them looked like they were going to draw their weapons when she saw One wind up to throw a punch behind her until they heard Naruto snap his fingers.

They all looked at him and he shook his head once.

They stood back from One, clearing a path, and the girl fixed her glasses and ran a hand through her hair with an annoyed huff. "Good doggies," she said scathingly, spitting on the ground and walking to her brother. The scorn for One was palpable. The heated stares of the ominously silent group members followed her as she moved with her chest puffed out and her back straight to Naruto, who waited for her to near him with a bored expression on his face. He held up his hand and jutted his chin to where she was, and she stopped three steps away from him. She cleared her throat and smiled at him, hesitantly small at first before the corners of her lips lifted higher into a pleasantly bright expression. Her hands clasped together. "Nine-Nine…"

He hummed, unimpressed.

"You're looking…alive…?" she said with a flutter of her eyelashes, trying to be cute.

Naruto's response was an unconcerned one-shoulder shrug.

She anxiously cleared her throat again and, not knowing any better way to preface her words without going straight to the point, so she did, saying, "I would like a job in this fine establishment."

A flash of surprise blinked across Naruto's face.

One bobbed her head fervently. "I'm serious. I'd like you to give me a job. Here. As one of your…people. Whisper people." She tucked her hands behind her back, lilting between her heels and the balls of her feet, searching for a collective noun to describe Naruto's people. "Whisper Group people."

His eyebrows lowered and he studied her as if to ask, "Why?"

"Oh, you know…" she shrugged pointlessly and her lips quirked to the side. She said in a casual, dismissive tone, "Since you're holding me hostage, I might as well keep myself busy. Not slave work, mind you," she warned him sternly, only to wilt at the stoic indifference on Naruto's face. "I want a serious job. With a salary, an allowance, and benefits."

The people around them began to mutter incredulously at One's audacity to make any sort of demands of their boss.

Naruto hummed again and eased off the door frame, standing upright. "What happened to your hunger strike?"

One scoffed. "That wasn't going anywhere; you won't budge and I was hungry." Her eyes were still somewhat sunken from her week of not eating or drinking, though she didn't look much worse for wear; CORE had trained to find ways to survive starvation torture. A week of no food was nothing compared to that training. She had scarved down a large breakfast, though, Naruto noticed, seeing the slight swell of her full stomach. She jabbed her thumb at herself and pointed at Naruto, saying, "This new arrangement means that I stay active and you have an additional worker."

"Sister," Naruto signed with a sigh, "what's your plan?"

One rolled her eyes and smirked. "No plans, brother. No ulterior motives either. I'm simply looking for a job." Her brow furrowed and she squinted at Naruto with patronizing curiosity. "What's your plan?" she gestured around them at the dozens of group members keeping an eye on their conversation, at the furnished barracks and other facilities, at the spotlights overhead, at the fact that they were currently miles underground, and even at the auction that was poised to start as they spoke. "What's your plan with all of this?"

Naruto chewed on his tongue, then mouthing as he signed, "To corner Danzo, and kill him if necessary." He idly regarded his people and inhaled wearily. "Every day, it seems like I will definitely kill him. Painfully. With my own hands."

One visibly twitched at the mention of her master's name and of her master being killed, gnashing her teeth.

Naruto spotted this easily and a whisper of a smirk danced on the corner of his lips. "Are you still interested in that job?"

One grinned toothily, her hands rooted at her sides in hard fists. She spoke through grit teeth and a faux smile that didn't reach her eyes, which simmered with suppressed anger, "Of course."

He snapped his fingers, pretending to remember something, "You know, I have the perfect job for you. Lots of benefits, if you work hard enough. You can even gather intel about our "establishment", and take all of that info back to Danzo."

One's eyes flew wide open, realising her unintentional transparency. Naruto had read her as easily as a children's book. He knew her like the back of his hand, but he was bored and sleep-deprived enough to indulge her fantasies of escaping.

"We have a team going to Iron Country in two days; you'll meet them in Kumo this afternoon." He scratched his chin and looked at his lean, geeky sister with a scrutinising stare, making the girl self-consciously wrap her arms around herself. "Yeah…we need to do something about your clothes and your hair, but…we can make you into a passable samurai."

Her eyes lit up at his absentminded signing; she was going to be transformed, at least physically, into a samurai. That meant she was going to have a sword, and her chakra would likely be unsealed…

Naruto saw the dangerous glint in her eyes. "It's a job that demands you to be extremely professional. Discreet. Smart. Can you do that, sister?"

One nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, yes, yes."

Some looks on the faces of the group members around showed that they weren't privy to the job their boss wanted to send his sister on, and although not unusual, as most jobs were on a need-to-know basis, even inside their organisation, it was still risky to send One out of Naruto's sight.

One bit her bottom lip gleefully and clasped her hands together in front of her chest, bubbling with excitement. "So, what's my role in this job?"

"You'll find out from your teammates." He shooed her away, signing, "Take a shower and change into something clean. You'll be following my people back to Kumo."

Gripped in the throes of anxiety and excitement, One thanked her brother and left to prepare herself for this mysterious job.

Her escape was so close she could almost touch it.

Meanwhile, Naruto yawned back into the barracks and slumped into his bed.

He filed away the thoughts of regret of hiring one for the job for later.

He was too tired to care.

Authors note

That's that for this chapter.

I'll see you when I see you.

Foy.