This story is inspired by HUNTERCM26 and his wonderful review! Thank you so much XD. Until I think of something else, the side stories will feature Naruto interacting with his siblings, either casually or during missions. I initially wanted to skip this side story because I ran out of ideas but HUNTERCM26 was gracious enough to help me with his wonderful review.
This side story takes place before the CORE Graduation.
CHAPTER 25.5
Watch Your Step
CORE Temple
Somewhere in the Forest of Death
The Temple was a decayed and long-abandoned monastery from a bygone era. On the outside. It was a building made from marble columns broken from age and neglect, with a wide marble roofing and stone walls. There were four sets of stairs leading up into the Temple. The inside was completely different from its outside appearance; the walls were painted red and the windows were blacked out with thick curtains, with a velvet carpet leading from the entrance to a shrine lit with one hundred candles. Four hundred other candles illuminated the dark Temple, either hanging on the walls, standing near the door or in the chandelier. There was no other furniture inside the Temple.
The Temple was where CORE Operatives went to rest and meditate.
Before dawn, they assembled and prayed to their souls. Before missions, they made solemn affirmations of success. After missions, they brought forward their inefficiencies and prayed for forgiveness. Before bed, they looked within themselves in meditation and searched for mistakes to be corrected the next day.
Gathering at the temple was a compulsory, daily affair that was stated in the Doctrines and Teachings of Danzo Shimura, which raised the man to a position higher than that of a god and brought forward notions that any inadequacies on the part of the believers, the children, stemmed from a weak spirit. Prayers and affirmations strengthened the spirit, thereby strengthening the person.
As of that moment, thirteen CORE siblings knelt before the shrine with their hands pressed onto their ears, blocking out every other sound and focusing intently on the flickering candles. A low mumble ebbed from their lips, whispering affirmations and prayers.
Some other siblings weren't praying. They sat away from the shrine, near the blacked-out windows or wedged into corners of the Temple, speaking quietly so as not to distract their siblings who were praying. They were done with their prayers but they hung around the Temple because it was a good way to avoid ROOT shinobi. ROOT was forbidden from stepping foot inside or around the Temple, at risk of jungle justice from the CORE Operatives who were more than eager to tear them limb from limb for bothering them.
ROOT ninjas might have contributed to CORE training and development but they weren't their superiors. CORE was only answerable to Danzo.
The children praying before the shrine moved their hands from their ears and crossed them, touching their shoulders with both hands. Right hand on left shoulder and left hand on right shoulder, hunching forward a little and bowing to the flickering flames. Their murmured affirmations became a harmonic drone, flowing from their souls and springing energy into their spirits.
Among those who were done with their prayers, Razor and her twin sister, Boomer, were sitting on the ground and wiling away the time.
Razor clicked her tongue. "He's watching me again." She threw a scathing look to the other side of the room, over the children praying and to three of their siblings assembled close to one of the windows. "It's so annoying."
Their baby sister, One, was curled up on her side and napping. The others with One were two boys; a sombre boy that was so pale he was almost transparent, with black-dyed hair and dyed eyebrows with noticeably white eyelashes, wearing black clothes, dark gloves and having a closed umbrella leaned next to him. He could have easily been mistaken for a shadowy smear in the wall if not for the flickering light of the candles, as well as the blonde boy with bright byakugan eyes sitting close to him, legs pulled close and looking on at the shrine, idly mouthing prayers alongside his siblings.
Naruto's left eye was swollen shut and his cheek was bruised purple. He looked moments from falling unconscious, but he didn't, pushing through and pointedly staring at the candle flames.
The other boy didn't look to be in a conversating mood. His expression was plain and pallid. His pale, unblinking stare looking at nothing and no one in particular.
"Morty?" Boomer asked with a wincing, uncomfortable smile, shifting a bit to not look back. She tucked a strand of her curly yellow hair behind her hair and moved her legs underneath her. Morty was what their family called the pale, unblinking boy across the room, and needless to say, his gloominess and sobering attitude got under his family's skin. The boy's speciality unnerved them. It didn't help his reputation that he looked like a manifestation of death. Neither Razor nor Boomer knew how or why Naruto or One were able to be so close to him.
"No," Razor said with an incredulous frown. "Nine-Nine."
Boomer's expression briefly wilted with relief, thankful that it wasn't Morty who was looking at her sister, then her face lit up with a grin, rolling her eyes and clicking her tongue. "I know right? He's so annoying."
She glanced over her shoulder, seeing Naruto nearly fall over but was pulled back by Morty, preventing Naruto from smacking his forehead onto the hard floor. Naruto gratefully patted his brother's hand. A short look of worry flashed over Boomer's eyes, frowning at the battered, helpless state of her brother before she scoffed.
"Perv."
Razor nodded in agreement. "You'd think he'd use those eyes of his for something better, but nope."
Boomer shook her, whispering, "Such a waste." A teasing smirk shot up on her face. She was clearly patronising Razor, but watching her sister get flustered never got boring. "Let's tell him to buzz off."
Razor barely held down an involuntary squawk, grabbing her sister's hand and pulling her down before she could fully stand up. "No!" she whispered hotly. Her face was beet red. "If…if you tell him off, it'll just get worse. Ignore him."
Boomer grinned, stifling her laugh behind her hands. This drew some hard looks from some siblings who had just finished their prayers. She waved her hands, apologising. Boomer was too smart to truly think that Nine-Nine liked her sister. Far too smart. She had a genius-level intellect, like Nine-Nine, but her chaotic nature overrode any subtlety.
Still, that didn't take away from Boomer's efficiency. She could be smart when she wanted to.
Boomer pouted, petulantly playing with her sisters calloused hands. "I don't like seeing how much he's bothering you, Sparky…"
Razor, none the wiser, made a flippant motion with her left hand, returning it to her sister's hold. "He can keep dreaming."
Boomer smirked, something unknown glimmering in her compound eyes. "He can look but he can't touch, right?"
"Let's not go that far." Razor shoved her sister.
"You never know with boys."
"I'm sure he won't do anything stupid," Razor insisted, almost pleading. It was almost as if she, a speedster and a controller of atmospheric ions, doubted she could defend herself if Nine-Nine did anything crazy.
Boomer relished in her sister's rapidly darkening face, and how she hugged her arms around her knees, making herself smaller. She pressed harder, making to stand but wincing when her sister yanked her back down, "Boys are crazy, I tell ya. Won't hurt if we tell him off, just to get it on record, y'know."
They were so in their world that they didn't notice when Tenzo strode purposefully into the Temple and made a beeline for Naruto. Naruto sighed heavily as his brother approached, and Tenzo, to his credit, looked regretful, squatting down and looking at Naruto.
"Master wants you to track down a runaway." Tenzo's lips were in a tight, thin line, looking at Naruto's swollen eye and his bruised cheek, anticipating more injuries under the skin. He wondered why Naruto hadn't yet gone to the Medic Bay for treatment. "Last seen heading due west towards Suna."
"Anything else?" Naruto signed wearily, haggardly getting to his feet. His bones creaked and he groaned, stretching his arms as high as he could. He stood with more weight on his right leg. "Who am I tracking?"
"Some low-level genin that had a mental breakdown before training, or something. Maybe that's why he's going to Suna; cuz he's crazy." Wind relations with Konoha aside, braving the desert without proper preparation and good teammates was not advisable. As an afterthought, Tenzo added, "He cut out his tongue, so we can't track him."
"Great…"
"I'll come with you," someone quietly said.
Tenzo's brow furrowed and he looked around for the person that had spoken. He turned around, hands perched on his hips and face twisted in confusion, until Naruto snapped his fingers, drawing Tenzo's attention to him, where Naruto jerked his head down. Tenzo yelped and backed away a step when he saw a pair of pale, out-of-focus eyes looking up at him from the ground. The hauntingly whitish boy wore an unimpressed, stoic look on his face.
"Sorry, Morty. Didn't see you there," Tenzo stuttered a little. His eyes cautiously looked around again, looking for something. His guard was up, hands tensed at his sides and staring intently at every shadow close to Morty. He hadn't found what, or who, he was looking for and it was putting Tenzo more on edge.
"Asher is outside." Morty's voice was barely above an audible whisper, speaking so tonelessly that his lips scarcely moved. The words coming from his mouth almost seemed to originate in their minds. A figment of their imagination. He stood up, moving with unnatural smoothness and rigidity. He picked out a pair of black, circular sunglasses from his front pocket, sliding them over his unfocused eyes. Standing up, his dark clothing became somewhat more defined; he wore a black, neatly pressed long-sleeved formal shirt that was tucked into a pair of formal pants, with two red suspenders holding his pants up. On his feet were black socks and shinobi black sandals. "This is sacred ground. Even I know not to bring him inside."
"Right." Tenzo nodded, but it didn't look like he believed Morty. The deathly pale boy, without meaning to, scared Tenzo. Not only that Morty moved like a silhouette of the death god but he carried with him a frightening aura of apathy.
The boy possessed a flippant disregard for everyone and everything; blood, lives, livelihood, and even death. It would have been better if Morty was manic and crazed, like some of their other siblings, but he wasn't. It would have been tolerable if Morty wore a cheshire grin and cackled to himself, but he didn't.
Morty was indifferent.
Morty scared everyone, even Naruto, but not One.
Morty saw that Tenzo's guard was still up, though his face didn't crinkle or change. He simply hummed, sullen and dull, and wore a pair of gloves. He picked up his umbrella and walked toward the door. Some children who were praying stiffened as he passed, distracted from their affirmations and subtly moving away, giving Morty a wider berth. He waited at the door, facing Naruto and Tenzo with a plain look. He didn't say anything.
Naruto suppressed a shiver. He rubbed his swollen eye and quickly bowed to the shrine. He then took a step forward but Tenzo caught his wrist, stopping him. Naruto leaned back a little as Tenzo brought his lips close to his ear.
"Watch yourself around him."
Naruto's lips pressed into a terse frown. He glanced at Morty, who waited ever patiently at the door and then looked at Tenzo with strong eyes. Naruto nodded unnoticeably, pulling his wrist out of Tenzo's hold and moving to the door.
Goosebumps rippled over Naruto's right arm as he passed in front of Morty, reaching for the door and opening it. Morty opened his umbrella and stepped out of the Temple with Naruto, walking down the steps.
The Temple was surrounded by tall and tightly packed trees and hard grass, scarcely allowing sunlight to pierce the canopy of leaves, though Morty still tensed as he walked under a thin beam of sunlight, holding his umbrella firmer. His face didn't shift to show his discomfort from being in such close proximity to sunlight, only an invisible twitch of his pale lips.
"Are you alright?"
Morty regarded his brother with a stoic stare. The umbrella cast an unusually heavier shade over the pale boy. The area around them became quieter. More solemn, like a funeral; with the chattering call of birds muted, the faint rustle and sway of leaves overhead coming still, and the low murmur of prayers behind the door of the Temple becoming stifled. The world seemed to treat Morty with the same hesitation and distrust as his siblings, quieting themselves for the time being. It was yet another anomaly that surrounded the boy.
"Should we have woken Sister One?" Morty spoke faintly, moving his body a bit to face his brother, standing rigidly upright.
Naruto's lips quirked to the side. His eyes cautiously darted around. He had to hold down the urge to activate his byakugan. Always when he was with Morty, he felt like he was being watched, and he was.
Asher was watching.
Always.
"Our last mission was difficult." Naruto idly rubbed his eye again. "She needs rest."
Morty's lips were pressed into a neutral line. He said, already turning around and uninterested in his brother's response, "You too."
Naruto swallowed. He stalked after his brother, staying three steps away as Morty pushed into the forest at an even walk. Naruto quickly activated and deactivated his doujutsu, searching for Morty's companion. They strolled into the forest, walking eastwards.
Naruto's trained senses flared madly. His heart leapt into his throat and his eyes widened in horror. Behind me! How?!
He dashed away as Morty's companion loomed over him, racing up a tree and perching on a branch with the skittishness of a cat.
Morty stopped. He looked up at his brother, who was scarcely more than a pair of bright eyes staring down from the dense treetops. From his perch, Naruto got a good look at Asher.
Asher was easily over six feet tall, standing with a slight slouch in his heavy, over-washed overcoat and heavy boots. He should not be able to keep silent with the sort of weighted overcoat and heavy boots he wore. Asher also had on a wide-brimmed hat on his head that obscured his beady black eyes and a noseless face. There were horrible cuts that crisscrossed his visible face, cut so deeply that the skin had to be held together by stitches, however a small piece of his jaw bone could be seen.
His lips were also mottled blue and grotesquely sewn shut with bright red thread.
He was just as pale as Morty, but Asher's pallid complexion was entirely different from his companions; Morty was albino. Asher was dead. He had been dead for three years. Asher was a human puppet with a mechanical core, allowing it to have semi-autonomous action but not independent, mutinous thought. There was a rumour going around in their family that Asher still had half of his brain, the other half being lobotomised. Another rumour was that Morty fed Asher his blood to keep it functioning. And yet another rumour, among the many rumours around Morty, was that Morty kept the rest of Asher's extended family inside a storage seal on his person at all times.
Whatever forbidden technique Morty used to create Asher, it defied the laws of nature.
It defied the laws of morality.
It defied the laws of common decency.
It was ironic how, even for CORE, the epicentre of ROOT, an organisation hellbent on doing whatever to whomever and whenever for the sake of their Master Danzo, they still had a few things they found truly repulsive. Truly terrifying.
More so, Naruto was more alarmed when all he saw was a single chakra thread spooling out from the top of Morty's umbrella. It was so thin and so faint that Naruto had to focus intently to catch so much as a glimmer, spiralling out from the umbrella like a ghostly apparition. There was nothing his byakugan couldn't pick up, and his byakugan could see anything. But now, he was having difficulty seeing the puppet master's strings. Yet another anomaly.
Asher's neck creaked a little as it craned its head up, glowering expressionlessly at Naruto. Its stance and movements were painfully robotic and rigid, wearing a permanent scowl on his mutilated lips and a wide-eyed glare.
Asher might have looked vaguely human, but his humanity died the moment Morty desecrated his body.
"He can't hurt you," Morty said boredly, peering up at his brother. The hand holding his umbrella tightened. "Not unless you hurt me." He then added in a sullen, airy whisper, "Like now."
There was a turgid stillness that followed, heavier than the normal silence that surrounded Morty. Asher craned his head down, and the gears in his neck clicked twice. There was a constant wheeze that emanated from his chest, as if he was breathing but there was no sign of his chest inflating or deflating. Naruto shifted his gaze from his brother to Asher, and another chill ran through his soul; the beady black eyes were vacant. Empty of life and emotion.
Only in Naruto's nightmares did he ever encounter the living dead.
Naruto dropped down in front of his brother, gathering himself upright and levelling Morty with a hard look.
Morty stared back. His black glasses covered the boy's blurred eyes. The corner of his lips flickered a little, twitching down.
Naruto wilted. He rubbed his eye again. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what?" Morty asked, a tinge of insistent emotion wavering his words. His tone was a touch firmer than normal. He took a step forward and Naruto took half a step back. Morty's displeasure showed in a slight frown. "Do I scare you, brother?"
"No," Naruto lied.
Ever so slightly, Naruto's still activated byakugan caught Morty's teeth gnashing. It might not have even been detected without his sharp eyes. Nothing passe the surface though. To the rest of the world, Morty was perfectly emotionless.
Naruto's shoulders sank with guilt. "I've just had a long day." He turned around and flagged for Morty, and Asher, to follow him. "Let's go."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The Sandstone Trail
Fire-Wind Country Border
The Sandstone Trail was a rugged trail made from large sandstones and several rocks that were messily laid out on a wide, uneven landscape. Travellers were always advised to stick to the highway leading from Fire Country to Wind Country because there was always a threat of people walking into sinkholes, quicksand, or sandpits if they moved off the established path, leading to avoidable deaths. The highway was old and deteriorating, since relations between the two countries were at an all-time low, though it was safe from all of the risks of falling into certain doom.
It didn't help that the only vegetation for some miles was random bursts of prickly grass curling out from underneath massive sandstone boulders. There was no shade from the piercing sin, which beamed bright and hot like a relentless inferno, scorching the earth and evaporating any molecule of water in the atmosphere.
Against his instincts, Naruto was in front. Their runaway target took a route off the highway, staggering into the desert. His footprints were faint and nearly obscured by the low winds blowing over the sandstone landscape, but Naruto spotted the unnatural depressions in the sand. He knelt and placed a gentle hand on the subtle footprint, furrowing his brow and frowning.
He looked up, pushing his eyes as far as he could take them and sweeping the desert. He didn't see his target. He didn't see any other human chakra signature outside of some desert dwellers herding camels further north of their locations. The target was somehow out of his range.
He got up and looked around at his brother, holding down a shudder when he found the boy intently staring at him from behind his dark sunglasses. His umbrella was open and propped over his head, casting a dense shade away from the sun above the pale boy. The heavy silence seemed to follow them as well, with the constantly blowing wind not making a sound, despite rustling through the hard grass and pushing sand past their feet. It was like Naruto's ears were blocked.
He didn't like that.
Not one bit.
He tried not to show his displeasure though.
Naruto pointed into the desert in the vague direction of their target. Morty didn't reply, strolling onwards and treading the hot sand with his sandals. He moved with jarring steadiness, walking with even steps and an impeccable posture, while Asher lumbered after him, stomping firmly on the ground. Naruto still wondered how Asher could manage to be so quiet sometimes.
Five minutes into their desert trek, Morty stopped suddenly and Naruto almost bumped into him.
Morty inhaled deeply, his shoulders rising with the breath, and then he exhaled. Naruto was about to tap his brother's shoulder and ask him what was wrong, before the boy said, "Sandpit. Look."
Asher came forward and reached into his overcoat, drawing a large battle fan. One so big Naruto once again wondered about Morty's puppet. Asher wound its arms around, its limbs clicking and creaking, before it unleashed a volley of wind, uncovering a large slanted rock five steps ahead of them that had a gaping, sandy hole underneath. Naruto had to cover his eyes until the wind subsided, marvelling at the power of the single attack, as well as the massive volume of sand that was pushed away and thrown into the wind.
Morty inched forward and Asher sealed the fan away, marching to Morty and keeping the boy back with a strong arm before Morty could get too close to the edge. Naruto peered over it too.
They saw three things.
First, they saw that the pit was deep, with the bottom and sides of the pit made from sharp and jagged pieces of rock. Falling into it would, at best, result in a broken body, and a brutal death at worst.
Second, they saw an earth-coloured lizard no larger than the palm of their hands scrambling at the bottom of the pit. Its beady black eyes blinked emotionlessly as it skittered as hard as it could up the sides but the sandy walls of the pit didn't allow the small creature a firm hold. It licked its eyes and looked up at the two boys and one man staring down at it. Naruto finally saw the chakra string connected to the base of the lizard's neck, just as Morty lifted the creature up and out of the pit using his chakra string.
A look of understanding dawned on Naruto's face.
The lizard was Morty's scout, going ahead and checking for traps. The lizard puppet was dropped onto Asher's hands, allowed to fall off and skitter around the pit, burrowing into the sand moments later. The chakra string was still attached to Morty, sprouted from the top of the boy's umbrella, thin and ghostly, alongside the chakra string that connected to Asher. In the glaring sun, Naruto almost didn't see it.
"Seems like those eyes of yours don't see everything…" Morty said quietly, his words almost lost to the soundless wind.
Naruto's lips pressed together, but he didn't argue; Morty was right. He shouldn't have only been looking forward but also downwards as well.
He then caught a momentary upward flick of Morty's lips, and Naruto's eyebrows shot up his forehead. The look was gone as quickly as it had come, leaving like a mirage, but Naruto had seen it.
Did…Did he just make a joke? Naruto thought incredulously, cracking a smile. Instinctively, Naruto's hand came up and he harmlessly shoved Morty. However, as he did so, he yanked his hand back and turned to Asher, waiting for some sort of retaliation.
The foreboding puppet didn't move.
Morty didn't acknowledge Naruto's teasing push.
"Look at him." He jutted his chin down the pit, reminding his brother of the third thing they noticed on looking into the sand pit.
Their target.
His back was broken against a sharp rock, lying at a grisly angle with his arms and legs splayed. His head was crushed, completely ripped off his neck by something foreign. Something animalistic. His blood was soaked into the sand.
"What could have killed him?" Naruto asked. Morty didn't turn to him, not seeing Naruto's hands move, and yet the boy answered in a faint mumble.
"I don't know." He hummed, hands gripping the handle of his umbrella more securely. "Would you like to investigate?"
"Are you tired?"
Morty exhaled from his nose, something that almost resembled a scoff. He nodded to Asher and the puppet leapt into the pit, his coat flying open like wings as he descended the pit. He came to a stop above the dead ROOT ninja, hovering around him due to Morty's chakra string. Asher reached down and grabbed the corpse by the back of his shirt, heaving him alongside himself out of the pit. Morty hadn't so much as moved or shown any exertion.
Naruto was honestly impressed.
As Asher exited the pit, he unceremoniously dumped the dead body on the ground, clapping his hands and kneeling beside the corpse, patting the body down for traps. When he was satisfied, the puppet wordlessly lumbered backwards and Naruto cautiously moved forward, examining it.
"Brother," Morty whispered. Naruto's ears pricked up and he hummed, nodding as he looked through the ninja's jounin vest. Morty squatted down on the other side of the body, keeping the umbrella over his head with one hand on the handle while the other tentatively ghosted over the headless neck, "This wound is too…clean to have been done by an animal." Asher came forward and ripped off the dead ninja's vest, tearing off his shirt to reveal the chest and his pants to show his bare legs. "No bruises either." He looked at his brother. "His head was crushed. That's how he died."
Naruto's brow furrowed. Never mind the ease at which Morty had made Asher desecrate a comrade's body, Naruto was bothered by the implication of the runaway's death.
They had fled ROOT with no luggage. No food. No water. No supplies. There was nothing personalised on their person. He wandered into the desert on their own feet but was killed by a crushed head with no sign of resistance or bruising.
"You think he was planning on betraying Konoha?"
Morty shrugged, standing up. "Even if that was the case…there aren't many ways of killing someone instantaneously."
"For all we know, his head could have been crushed by rocks as he fell."
"Probably. Or he encountered the wrong person at the wrong time."
"Either way, mission accomplished. We found the target."
Morty didn't respond, standing rigidly under his umbrella.
"What's wrong?" Naruto prepared to carry the corpse, but Asher ambled to it first, lifting it easily onto his shoulder.
"May I…" Morty subtly chewed on his words, pausing shortly, then continuing, "ask you for a favour?"
Naruto's answer was instant. Instinctive. "Of course." Not only because Morty was his brother and Naruto would readily do anything for him, no matter how off-putting said brother was, but also because Morty had gone out of his way and helped with the mission. Morty didn't have to come but the boy offered anyway way.
If his brother wasn't here with him to locate the sand pit, and Naruto was alone, he might have died in the sand pit. He would have been careless and not looked down with his byakugan, totally missing the signs of a treacherous fall.
Morty hesitated, lips tightening and chewing on his tongue. His porcelain pale face crinkled a little at the corners of his lips.
Naruto waited, standing patiently.
"I…have not been able to fully test Asher's complete capabilities." Morty looked over Naruto's shoulder, focusing on nothing in particular in the distance. "I have some other puppets…new ones…that seem too strong for mission targets." He brought his stare back onto his brother, who was slowly smirking, waiting for his introverted, sullen and often elusive brother to voice out what he wanted. "Mission targets get eliminated too quickly for my puppets to be appropriately…evaluated."
Naruto's smirk became teasing. "Why don't you ask One to test them?"
The other boy's temple creased ever so slightly. "I don't want to risk harming her."
"But you can risk harming me?" Naruto grinned, setting his hands on his hips after signing.
Morty mouth dropped open, not saying anything, and Naruto was stunned that his light-hearted jab could cause such a reaction. "I didn't mean it like that."
Naruto waved away Morty's flustered gawking, and the boy clamped his mouth shut, realising that the growing smile on Naruto's face wasn't predatory. "Did One tell you to ask me?"
Morty pursed his lips.
"Of course, I'll help in any way I can to test your puppets. I'm just curious; why me? Tenzo and One are much stronger than me." Naruto shrugged casually, seeing a whole new side of his brother, who looked down and scuffed his heel in the sand. The emotionless mask on Morty's face creased ever so marginally.
"You are…" the hand holding the umbrella's handle clenched tighter. Morty faced away, looking out into the horizon. Asher seemed to be a forgotten ornament in the background. Naruto tucked his hands behind his back and raised an eyebrow, ever smiling and waiting for his little brother to speak his mind. "You are exceptional, brother."
Naruto's surprise showed on his face. He hadn't expected that.
He had thought Morty would just admit that he hoped Naruto to be a training dummy.
"I strive to be like you."
Outwardly, looking at Morty, one wouldn't think the same. The boy kept to himself, either working inside his workshop, going out into the field to collect more puppets, or lingering like a spirit around the dark places in Konoha, reading books with One. He didn't give off any indication that he thought of anyone even a little marginally.
"If I show the others…how cool my puppets are, maybe they will find me more appealing to be around." Morty shrugged helplessly. "I could be popular."
Naruto almost fell back into the sand pit with Morty's use of those words. Cool. Popular. They spat from his lips like foreign objects being ejected from his body. The other boy's pale cheeks tinged light green and his eyes were down. Naruto's eyes softened. He palmed his face.
He realised how badly he and the others had been isolating Morty.
It wasn't his brother's fault he was who he was.
Morty joining on the mission might even have been the boy's way of finally talking to Naruto without the other boy avoiding him. Just looking at Morty, Naruto could see that speaking so much and expressing so much emotion was making Morty somewhat breathless, puffing and deflating his chest ever so noticeably.
"Alright." Naruto agreed. He grinned cheekily. "Don't start crying when I break your toys."
A smirk barely touched Morty's lips. It was there and gone in less than the blink of an eye, leaving the boy's face painfully bland and unimpressed. "We'll see."
He turned and they made their journey back home.
Authors note
Maybe sometime in the future, I'll explore The Doctrines and Teachings of Danzo Shimura. Maybe. It'll be extremely cult-y. It'll be fun to write. Fun read too…
Depends on who wants to read it.
Also, in other news, your boy got his MASTERS! Hurray! Up next…PhD O_O
See you when I see you.
Foy.