"Why can't I go outside?"
"It's not yet time."
She puffed her cheeks out, aggravated. "Everyone else my age gets to go out and play."
Hard eyes stared down at her from sockets lined with crow's feet, unsympathetic to her childish upset. "You are not like everyone else. It would be best if you stopped thinking you were."
Then he departed, and Fū was left alone with only that sad truth to keep her company.
-l-l-l-
It was one of those rare early mornings where Fū was full of enough jittery energy that she couldn't sleep in. She liked spending time with Naruto – her primary training partner while Han pulled nuggets of information about Boil Release from Utakata, and Gaara learned Magnet Release under Rōshi's scrutiny – but the blond still got called away on short missions that left the green-haired girl shy her usual partner, and those days left her a bit more amped than usual.
She crept out of her room, down the hallway, and exited to the courtyard, jumping to the roof in one easy motion and making her way to where Gaara usually held silent vigil. To her surprise, the redhead's gaze was fixed not on the breaking sunrise, but on his own left wrist, over which an implement in his right hand was poised with purpose. Concerned, Fū let out a cry of his name and rushed to his side.
Gaara looked up at her with his familiar blank expression and blinked. "Yes?"
Now that she was closer, it was obvious the object in his hand was a fine-pointed brush rather than something sharp, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Though it hadn't been even a remote consideration since she and the redhead had saved Naruto's friends, she couldn't say that the thought of ending it all had never crossed her mind, especially back in the Hidden Waterfall, where she'd been alone and friendless. The only thing that had kept her going was the hope that things might change despite all evidence to the contrary.
Gaara hadn't really struck her as someone with suicidal tendences – especially now – but then again, their histories weren't so different that she thought she could discount the possibility.
Still, his chakra was as barren as usual – not as cold as when they'd met, a flicker of the desert sun having warmed his personality to a more comfortable ambivalence – so Fū didn't think she had anything to worry about; surely something so drastic would show up to her senses, even in someone as emotionally stunted as the Sand shinobi. She sat down beside him and nodded toward his arm. "What're you doin'?"
Teal eyes returned to the wrist, brush dropping to it. "We are Jinchūriki," he intoned, apropos of nothing.
Fū winced; she loved Gaara, but he was not what anyone would consider tactful, and getting over her immediate reaction to the word she'd been denigrated with most of her life was still a work-in-progress. "Yeah…?"
"We contain creatures comprised of exorbitant chakra, both in quantity and by its nature. It occurred to me that our bodies are therefore built to store…things."
"Things?"
"Mm." He quieted for a moment, appearing thoughtful, and then continued, "Jiton…is not like other elements. Suiton, Katon, Yōton…I have seen Naruto and Rōshi summon water and fire and lava from nothing but their chakra. Alternatively, you use Fūton, and wind is present everywhere. They are elements that work based on your need.
"Jiton requires…something more. It does not appear to be inherently usable on its own. My…father"—the word seemed lodged in his throat for a moment, and Fū was reminded that the redhead's sordid history with his family was its own sensitive topic—"used gold to restrain Shukaku. And the Sandaime Kazekage used iron granulated like sand. Shukaku remembers him stealing the theory from a former Jinchūriki.
"All my life, I have borne a vessel to carry my sand. I do not wish to do the same for whatever tools I require for Jiton. But we are already vessels of the Bijū, so why not carry something more in the same way?"
"…You want to seal weapons inside your body?"
The incredulity of the idea was clear in her voice, but Fū also had to admit it was fascinating, and certainly had merit. From her position, she could see that the silica covering Gaara's wrist had scattered away to reveal the pale skin hidden beneath his Sand Armor, inky squiggles painted on flesh. She couldn't decipher any of the meanings – if there were any; sealing was such a fascinating, arcane art – before the redhead intoned, "Fūin," and the ink seemed to tattoo itself onto his skin. He switched hands and began to start painting on his right wrist, but blood-colored eyebrows furrowed within a few seconds. He held out the brush to Fū and asked, "Would you mind?"
"Oh, sure. What, um—" Sand rose into the air before them, creating the same series of marks that she'd briefly glimpsed, and Fū began tracing the patterns onto the boy's proffered wrist. "Thanks." Silence reigned between them as the Waterfall kunoichi drew on her friend's skin, and only when she added the final flourish did she ask, "If you're gonna seal a bunch of weapons, why not seal your sand, too?"
"…Ah." He sounded surprised by the question. "That had not occurred to me. Fūin," he added, sealing the new tattoo onto his right wrist.
"You don't find that gourd…burdensome?"
Gaara glanced at her, brow wrinkled with either an unspoken question or internal debate, she couldn't tell. She remembered dropping her own burden when Utakata had extended his hand in freedom – the red cylinder full only of bitter memories and heartache – and couldn't imagine going back for it.
"It has been a part of me for many years now, I had not…" He paused, thinking through his words in the meticulous manner she'd grown used to. "I suppose it is burdensome, but emotionally more than physically. For a long time, it kept Mother…Shukaku…sustained with…victims." His monotone changed at the end, and a brief read of his chakra suggested remorse or shame, similar to the feelings she registered from Utakata sometimes. "Now…if this works, you are correct that it would be unnecessary, nothing more than a reminder of who I was."
He stared at his wrists for a long moment, thinking, and Fū let him juggle those thoughts uninterrupted. "Inoichi says that change requires accepting what happened to me, who I was, and moving forward. I suppose this is part of that." She felt his chakra gather towards the new seals, and simultaneously heard the shifting of silica as his gourd dissolved. The sand split into two thick streams that disappeared into his wrists, the redhead letting out a hard exhale through his nose as the process finished.
"It worked," Fū breathed, awestruck.
"Mm." With a quick application of chakra, sand trickled from the seals and hovered over his palms, swirling through various shapes; another chakra pulse, and it vanished back into his wrists. "That was a good idea." He turned to look at her, stoic as ever, but the green-haired girl could sense his appreciation in the slight warming of his chakra, the sun rising inside him in mirror of how it rose outside. "Thank you."
Her acknowledgment of his gratitude was a little slow, orange eyes busy scrutinizing him. Gaara seemed different without the gourd so characteristic of his person. Taller…older…a little more self-assured. It was a new look for the reserved Jinchūriki, and to Fū, seemed like a physical manifestation of the redhead's changing outlooks.
She wondered if there was anything about her that had changed so noticeably.
Gaara seemed content to let their interaction lapse into silence, and now that the sun was fully risen, Fū thought it was time to begin the day properly. She bade the Suna-nin a cheery good morning and then disappeared back into the compound.
-l-l-l-
Fū returned to her room, stripped out of her clothes, and wrapped a white towel around her body, covering herself from collarbone to thigh. She padded silently out of her room and down the hallway, stopping only when another door opened and Han ducked out, the doorway a hair too short for his massive frame. Surprised to see the older Jinchūriki, and not wanting to be seen as unfriendly, she chirped a greeting and asked, "Hey, where're you goin'?"
"Out," he grunted. "I have an idea for one of Jiraiya's recommended 'guest teachers'."
The last words were said with the sort of casual sarcasm that Fū was used to hearing from the Rock shinobi, though it felt less…aggrieved, maybe, than she'd grown used to. It almost seemed like he agreed with the absent Sannin's methods, albeit unable to do so without taking a potshot in his usual manner. She wasn't sure whether she was more surprised by his seeming acceptance of the situation or what his answer implied. "We can go out?"
He didn't respond to her question, and the green-haired girl watched him go, the echo of his armored feet against the wooden floor unnaturally loud. Even after months together, Fū couldn't say she really understood Han any better now than she had when she'd first felt his chakra. It was true that he'd offered her the closest thing to a warm welcome that either Iwa-nin seemed capable, back when she'd taken a chance on Gaara after their self-ascribed mission together, but that moment of camaraderie was an isolated incident. He didn't hate her, but he didn't seem to like her either; they just…existed in the same space.
Being around him reminded her a little too much of how she'd grown up in the Hidden Waterfall.
Until the age of eight, Takigakure's Elders hadn't let her escape the prison of her 'house' (barring the times she'd snuck out on her own), preferring to keep her under their watchful eyes while honing her sensing abilities. They'd been bland and dispassionate and rigid with her upbringing, and she'd longed for nothing more than to explore and meet someone who saw her for her.
By the time she'd been deemed old enough to become useful, a tool of her village, she'd gotten so used to seeing the same four walls that even having access to only the entire Senju compound she currently inhabited – surrounded by several people who accepted her – was heavenly. It seemed a stark contrast to how Han appeared to see their situation.
She shook the armored shinobi's behavior from her mind and navigated the several corners and hallways that marked the familiar path to the baths. Ducking through the curtain revealed Rōshi, Utakata, and – to her surprise – Naruto soaking in the large open-air pool at the back of the house. "When did you get back?"
"Just before midnight," Naruto groaned, sinking further under the water's surface until only his nose and above were visible. He moaned, bubbles forming around his head, and a brief scan of his chakra showed that his usual boundless energy was low.
Fū nodded sympathetically, walking over to the bath and sitting down to put her feet in. The hot water warmed both her extremities and her spirit, and she let out a satisfied sigh, body relaxing. Thoughts uninhibited, the green-haired girl murmured, "Han said he was going out…"
"That moron," Rōshi grumbled, "runnin' wherever he damn well pleases…"
Utakata's golden eyes shifted to look at the Iwa-nin. "My experience so far would suggest that he's likely to get in trouble if he's this cavalier with the rules."
"Eh, I'm sure Tsunade won't give him too much of a hard time," Naruto said, surfacing to speak, even as Utakata shook his head in solemn disagreement. "Nothin' we can do now, right? Come on in, Fū, the water's great!"
His invitation was enough prompting to join them, but just as she was going to step in, a gravelly call of her name stopped her. Her head swiveled to the onsen's entrance, finding Gaara standing just inside the doorway with arms crossed over his chest. "You have visitors," he intoned.
Fū blinked. "I do?" Outside of the Jinchūriki, the only people she really knew in Konoha were the Hokage and Jiraiya, neither of whom should have any reason to ask for her specifically – the white-haired Sannin wasn't even in the village – unless…
She froze. What if Taki was inquiring about her? The Villages Hidden in Leaves and Waterfalls were nominally allies, and while it had been months since she'd been spirited away, it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that her former home had finally accepted their failure to find her and gone seeking help from someone with more resources. It opened up the opportunity for her to be ripped away from the only people who understood (and even appreciated) her, placed back in the confinement of loneliness, separated from her fellow demon containers, her friends and found-family—
"Hey, what's taking so long?"
A fair-skinned face with baby blue eyes and platinum blonde hair appeared over Gaara's shoulder, the curtain parting at her intrusion. There was a moment of silence in which the collected Jinchūriki stared at the newcomer before the Suna-nin stated, sounding annoyed, "I told you I would let her know—"
The blonde's shriek broke him off. "Ino-pig, what's going on?!" yelled another voice, and then three more heads appeared around Gaara, all of them female and vaguely familiar – Naruto's friends, Fū realized – a crimson glow lit around the cheeks of the white-eyed one she recognized as Hinata.
"N-Naruto-kun…"
"Oh, Hinata, uhh…"
"What are you doing?!" shrieked the first girl. The blonde shoved her way past Gaara and into the bathing area, pointing a finger at Fū. "You can't bathe with them!" she continued, digit moving from the green-haired girl to the three partially submerged males. Fū followed the other girl's accusatory pointing to find Rōshi stone-faced and bored, Utakata's gaze averted away, and Naruto seemingly frozen in place.
Looking between the blonde and the bathing Jinchūriki, Fū thought that the other girl's gaze seemed to flick over and linger on Utakata at random intervals. "I can't?"
A girl with pink hair stepped around Gaara, whose chakra was starting to roil beneath his skin. Fū took a nervous step nearer to the Suna-nin. It seemed like the redhead's aversions to touch and crowds were building, the result of which none of them would want to witness. She was starting to wish she had some idea of what the other girls' names were (barring Hinata) – or that she had a fraction of their apparent confidence (or obliviousness) – so she could warn them to stop testing his limits. "I think what Ino-pig is trying to say is that since all us girls are in town, we wanted to know if you wanted to come to the hot springs with us."
"Sure, that, too—"
The pink-haired girl's hand slapped over the blonde's mouth, ignoring the blue eyes narrowing at her with ire. Friend silenced, she turned back to Fū with a patient smile, bright green eyes warm.
Fū blinked, feeling put on the spot, and managed to say, "Oh. Um…" She looked back at her fellow Jinchūriki, hoping for advice, and probes their chakra with her abilities. Rōshi still seemed bored by the proceedings, and Utakata felt like he was trying to vanish from sight. Only Naruto's attention was on her, blue eyes wide and pleading, his face nakedly begging her to accept.
It felt like he was asking her to bridge the gap between the Jinchūriki and his other friends, she realized with a start.
She supposed it made sense that it was her. Rōshi was sour on any form of camaraderie, even discounting that he was too old to connect with Naruto's peers; Han wasn't all that dissimilar. Gaara's social skills were proven to be nearly nonexistent, and while Utakata was charming, it was generally purposeful to achieving the goal of saving Yagura. Besides, of all the Jinchūriki, she was the one who actually sought friendships, so the presented opportunity seemed kind of like divine providence.
It was just surprising that she was being approached rather than initiating…or rather, that anyone would want to approach her.
A strange mixture of hope and shyness shot through her, and she bashfully acquiesced, "Sure-ssu. I'll, um, meet you outside?"
"Good idea," agreed the brunette still hovering over Gaara. She kept shooting furtive glances at the redhead, as if she was aware of his tendencies and was wary of being around him for too long; given that several of Naruto's friends had seemed to know the Suna-nin (despite him not recognizing them), that was entirely possible. "Come on you guys, the least we can do is let them bathe in peace." Hinata disappeared alongside the brunette, and the pink-haired girl dragged the blonde – whose gaze now seemed fixated on Utakata – past Gaara.
Once they were gone, Fū offered the other Jinchūriki an unsure look. "I guess I'll see you later?"
Rōshi – elbows reclining against the rocks ringing the water, head tilted back to look at the ceiling – grunted, and Utakata nodded, but Naruto's expression drowned out both of their reactions; his face shone with all the brilliance of the sun, as if the green-haired girl had given him his heart's desire. "Have fun!"
As she walked back through the curtain and into the house, Gaara – who had taken up silent post outside the bathing area after the quartet of girls left – fell into step beside her. Now that they were side-by-side, the lack of gourd and his straighter posture was even more apparent than it had been earlier. With the solemnness of one offering their condolences at a funeral, he uttered, "Good luck."
If she didn't know better, she almost might have thought it sarcasm, but that kind of nuance was beyond the One-Tail's jailor. There was a familiar combination of excitement and nerves at the potential lying just ahead. She chirped a quiet, "Thanks," before heading to her room to change into something more appropriate for going out.
-l-l-l-
Fū walked quietly beside Hinata as they followed the bickering blonde and pink-haired girl through Konoha, a distinct air of awkwardness hovering overhead. She was only slightly familiar with Hinata, to say nothing of the other kunoichi, and it was clear that they – or at least two of them – had enough history that she was an obvious outsider.
Practically a recurrence of how she'd started with the Jinchūriki group.
A gentle hand fell on her shoulder, and Fū's head swiveled to find Hinata offering her a soft smile. "Sorry about Sakura-san and Ino-san," she offered, voice demure. "They can be very…insistent."
"That's a generous way of putting it," the brunette just ahead of them said. She turned around to get a better look at the two girls in the back and added, "I'm Tenten, by the way." Pointing at the pink-haired girl and the blonde in turn, she added, "Sakura, Ino. And it seems like you already know Hinata."
"Yeah, we've met," Fū admitted.
"Don't let these two get under your skin," she advised. "Trust me, you'll go insane trying to corral the loudmouths if you can't learn to ignore them." She sounded exasperated, like her advice was borne of far too much personal experience. "But hey, we play the cards we're dealt, right?"
Utakata had said the same thing a couple of times in the past, normally with a bit more sadness tinging his chakra than she was currently sensing from Tenten. Maybe that was just how normal people felt?
"You know we can hear you, right?" Both Ino and Sakura had turned around to glare at them, the blonde watching with fists on her hips. Tenten smiled at them, sharp and knowing, and Ino rolled her eyes in response. "You get that one," she warned, casting the brunette a gimlet eye. "We're here, by the way."
Fū glanced up to find the entrance to the onsen greeting them. There was a second touch at her elbow, and the green-haired girl again found Hinata at her side providing silent comfort.
Even with the little interaction they'd had so far, it was becoming more apparent what Naruto saw in the white-eyed girl. She possessed the same sort of calming presence that Utakata was often capable of instilling, mixed with Naruto's bright optimism that things would turn out okay despite all odds.
With Hinata at her side, it felt like she could maybe make it through this outing.
They stepped into the building and Fū followed the Hyūga's lead through disrobing and grabbing a towel, making their way to the outdoor baths where Ino, Sakura, and Tenten had already settled in. The former two waved at them as they walked through the door, the gesture lethargic; it seemed like the onsen had already soothed whatever quarrelsome energy was among them. Fū sank into the steaming water to her chin, orange eyes scanning the remaining quartet.
It was one of those situations that the Nanabi Jinchūriki wasn't sure whether to call a dream or a nightmare. On the one hand, she'd wanted nothing more than to make friends, to find people who would like her and accept her, and this seemed like an opportunity to expand that long-sought dream beyond the five Jinchūriki (three if she discounted the two aloof Rock shinobi) she'd bonded with. But then, there was also the fact that these Leaf kunoichi were normal people, who didn't know her, who weren't really obligated to her in the same way her fellow demon containers were, and who could very easily reject her.
It was clear the girls already had a history that she wasn't privy to, one that connected them in ways that excluded her. If the way they bickered was any indication (and was in any way similar to how Jiraiya and Tsunade fought), Sakura and Ino seemed to go way back, which just seemed to reaffirm all that the Nanabi Jinchuriki hadn't had growing up in the Hidden Waterfall.
Ino broke her internal quandary with a long, relaxed 'ahhh'. "Isn't this great, Fū? Much better than where we found you. You shouldn't have to bathe with all the guys. It should be like this, just us girls."
"Why were you with them anyway?" Tenten asked, curious.
Fū shrugged, already feeling judged and trying not to show it. "It's just what we do-ssu."
"Every day?" Ino sounded scandalized. "Does no one know how to respect a lady's privacy?"
The green-haired girl didn't know how to respond to that; it had been her idea from the get-go to share the bath, having nothing to hide from her fellow Jinchūriki and wanting to feel more like one of them, and there really hadn't been any protests to the contrary (though Utakata studiously kept his eyes averted upon entrance/exit, and Naruto typically closed his own, red coloring sun-tanned cheeks). Just because she could identify some more obvious social proprieties, as she'd pointed out to Gaara, didn't mean that she considered them applicable to her; maybe that was part of the reason why the redhead was so confused in reading Icha Icha Paradise, in that their internal interactions didn't match what was "normal". Judging from her companions' reactions, it seemed likely this was a greater social faux pas than she'd considered, not to mention one she should've apparently been more aware of.
But how could she tell them that she barely knew how to be a girl, let alone human? Being a Jinchūriki was all she'd ever known, and they were all she had.
"Um, N-Naruto-kun isn't like that…"
Sakura shot the Hyūga a pitying look. "Don't let your love blind you, Hinata."
"Although," Ino interjected, pointer finger on her chin as if pondering deeply on the matter, "I bet that brown-haired guy isn't like that."
"The one who was also in the bath, Ino-pig?" Sakura's skepticism was tinged with sarcasm. "Who do you think you're kidding?"
"Watch what you say, Forehead, I saw how gentlemanly he could be when I healed him in the forest. Hey, Fū, that's what he's really like, right?"
The Jinchūriki startled at the address, having slipped into a familiar, quiet melancholy at all the experiences she'd been deprived of living in the Hidden Waterfall. "Uh, you mean Utakata-nii-ssu? He's, um…driven," she decided, thinking about how he'd successfully pulled together six Jinchūriki from five different countries, all for the sake of saving his best friend. "Charismatic. Very kind…or at least not intentionally cruel." He'd made mistakes, sure, but never anything that he hadn't tried to apologize for immediately upon learning about them.
Ino was nodding as she digested the other girl's descriptions. "But what's he like?" she repeated, a strange gleam in her baby blue eyes and a salacious grin on her lips.
Fū frowned. "I don't—"
"Ugh, keep it in your pants, Pig," Sakura said, sending a small splash in the blonde's direction.
"Hey, hey, you saw him, right? He's hot."
"So I guess that means you're over Sasuke-kun now, huh, Pig?"
"Duh," Ino replied, and her voice was suddenly far more serious. "He almost got Chōji and Shikamaru killed, and now he's in prison."
"House arrest isn't prison."
Ino waved a casual hand through the air, dismissing her friend's correction. "Might as well be. Whatever. The point is, things change. Don't tell me you still like him?" Sakura's embarrassed silence seemed to be its own wordless confession, and the blonde continued, "There're other fish in the sea, Sakura, and I've got my eyes on Utakata-san." She turned to Fū and asked, "You're not interested in him, right? 'Cause I can handle the competition, but—"
"You mean…romantically?" Fū blurted out. She tried to picture her and the Kiri-nin in the context of the characters in Gaara's book and burst out laughing at the image. "No way."
"Perfect. Hands off, ladies, he's mine," Ino warned, glaring at the rest of the group. Tenten held up her hands in mock surrender, as if to indicate that she had no interest in the blonde's stake. Fū mentally debated informing the other girl that Utakata probably wasn't interested – his sole focus was on rescuing Yagura and keeping the rest of them safe from Akatsuki – but decided it wasn't her place to speak up for her brother-figure. Also, from what she'd seen so far, Ino didn't really seem like the type of person inclined to heed the unsolicited opinions of others. "Sooo…if you're not interested in Utakata-san, what about someone else?"
Fū shook her head. "Nope."
"Oh, come on! There's gotta be someone. Hinata's got Naruto, Sakura's got Sasuke, even Tenten's got Neji—"
"Neji and I don't have anything, he's just the only sane person on my team."
"Yeah, sure, that's what they all say," Ino said, rolling her eyes. "Ignoring that, you're the only one left!"
"I…" The ex-Taki-nin again found herself at a loss. It seemed like (yet another) quintessential moment that catalogued the vast difference in how she'd grown up in comparison to the Leaf kunoichi. There was no good way to explain that, by nature of being a Jinchūriki, she'd been locked away for almost a decade (barring her unsupervised escapades), and by the time she'd been officially released, she'd lacked the ability to interact with a world that wanted nothing to do with her. Being put on guard duty, realizing that no one but other Waterfall shinobi ever came and went, had crushed all hopes of being seen as anything more than a pariah…or a tool.
"Is it Gaara?" Ino pressed. "Or Naruto?"
The green-haired girl's protesting "No way!" was immediate. Despite lacking any sort of romantic experience, picturing either of the two boys in that context – slotting them into the pretend image she'd just had to create of Utakata as the male character in Gaara's book – felt innately wrong. There wasn't anything about her fellow Jinchūriki that intimated any sort of "interest" in the vein the blonde was suggesting; Gaara and Naruto were what she had imagined best friends or siblings would be like back in Takigakure, when such a thing was nothing more than a diminishing dream.
People who would love her without judgment and stand by her side as the days passed.
"You could also be a lesbian," Ino mused.
"Ino!"
Sakura sounded scandalized, and Hinata's cheeks were a deep red. Tenten face-palmed, hand meeting forehead in a loud smack. The blonde shrugged. "What? This is a judgment-free zone, I'm just saying it's a possibility."
"Ignore her," Sakura advised, "Ino-pig has been boy-crazy for as long as I've known her and doesn't realize that some people aren't comfortable talking about some things. Or have any semblance of privacy."
"I do, too!" Ino protested, indignant. "It's just…" She gestured towards Fū, as if that would explain her intention, and continued, "I thought it would be a fun way to learn something about each other. Girl talk, right?"
"Girl talk," Tenten huffed, rolling her eyes. "There's better ways to get to know someone than focusing on boys."
Hinata shifted closer and murmured, "S-sorry about that. It was rude to pry…"
The green-haired girl shrugged, unable to explain to a group of normal teenage girls just how abnormal she was. "It's fine-ssu. I've never really had any girl friends to talk with before." Or many friends at all, she added mentally.
Hinata smiled softly at her. "You do now…i-if you want."
The Jinchūriki returned the gesture, hoping it looked as genuine as it was intended; years of having nothing to smile about meant that she wasn't sure how it would come out, though none of her fellow demon containers had ever commented on it. Again, it was easy to see why Naruto enjoyed Hinata's company – the Hyūga was soft-spoken, attentive, and respectful, endearing traits to someone who had been mistreated his entire life, like the blond had.
Like all of them had, really.
In many ways, Naruto and Hinata seemed like polar opposites, and Fū's immediate inclination was that it was strange they got along so well; like, she assumed, attracted like. All the Jinchūriki, for instance.
But when she considered it further, enveloped by the calming warmth of the baths and more casual chatter of the kunoichi in the background, them containing the Bijū wasn't enough to facilitate friendship. After all, Rōshi and Han were still standoffish (to some more than others), and both Gaara and Utakata weren't so different from Hinata (albeit in very specific ways).
Somehow Naruto got along with all of them well enough, so she supposed it was possible that opposites would fill in the attributes that the other was missing, finding a sort of balance that worked for them.
So, still with a tentative smile, she told the dark-haired girl, "I'd like that."
Tenten drifted over to them and offered her own, almost…exasperated, or maybe weary?…half-grin. "I've heard a bit about you guys from Naruto…that boy can talk. Puts Lee to shame sometimes," she muttered. "He says that you're a Fūton-user?"
Fū blinked, caught off-guard by the sudden conversation. "Ah, yeah. And a sensor," she added, the description tacked on almost by force of habit. She'd gone so long with that being her defining trait that it was strange to have someone know of her without that being the reason.
The brunette's nose scrunched, as if she smelled something momentarily distasteful, and then evened out. "Sorry, bad experience with wind. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to spar with you sometime, learn how to overcome my weakness."
Another blink, and the Taki-nin felt that same shyness that had cloaked her back when they'd saved the lives of Naruto's friends. It was so…weird…to have someone actually want to be with her, someone who owed her nothing, seemed to need her, and was appearing to extend a hand in friendship. It was part of her goal, which made the whole experience feel even more surreal, a dream she couldn't process. "Sure, whenever you want!"
"I think Shino-kun would be interested in training with you, too," Hinata piped in. "He has mentioned he is very intrigued by your, um, abilities…especially since you discovered his kikai. Kiba-kun, too…he says he still owes you one."
"I thought we were even after…" the whole fiasco saving Gaara, she didn't say. It wasn't like neither of the other girls didn't know – Hinata had helped save her, after all, and Tenten's chakra was familiar as another roaming the woods that day – but just remembering how close they came to losing one (or more) of their family left a sour taste in her mouth. She wasn't sure if any of these girls knew that Naruto was a Jinchūriki, let alone the rest of them, and how that title carried with it more danger than normal; a debt to any of them, while useful, was probably an unsafe burden.
"Kiba-kun believes a great deal in loyalty, and is very proud," the Hyūga murmured. "He doesn't talk much about the mission to retrieve Sasuke-san, but…if your actions saved both him and Akamaru, he may consider our actions to rescue Gaara-san only half-paid."
Fū was silent in the wake of Hinata's quiet explanation. She understood loyalty – once to the Hidden Waterfall (if only for lack of other options), and now to her fellow demon containers – and she understood owing someone (Utakata primarily, for his initial rescue), but she couldn't fathom being that person for someone else. It felt like she held sway over Kiba that she didn't quite deserve…or want. Friendship was supposed to be a two-way street, not an obligation.
Tenten rolled her eyes and muttered, "Boys," in a way that made the green-haired girl think she was used to how little sense the male thought process made.
"They're not so bad," Fū offered, thinking of how her every day involved working alongside Gaara and Naruto and Utakata, led by the latter and the two Iwa-nin and sometimes Jiraiya.
"They have their moments, but they're also just very annoying."
"Neji-n-nii-san isn't—"
"He's a maniac, too, just in a different way," came the brunette's dry retort. "He's been a little different ever since that mission to get Sasuke back." She shot Fū a curious look. "Do you know what happened out there? Neji doesn't talk about it much either."
"Um, well…" Fū looked between Tenten and Hinata, both of whom seemed to be watching her with eager, expectant looks; even Ino and Sakura seemed to stop their own conversation/bickering to tune in. It was weird to have so much attention focused on her, but also kind of nice to be the center of so much interest. She mentally began to shuffle back through the events of that day, editing out any sort of incriminating personal recollections she and Gaara had shared. "Sure."
She launched into a retelling of the day she officially accepted her role both as and with the Jinchūriki, stumbling through how Gaara had protected her and a stocky, brunet boy from the demonic, orange-haired Oto-nin; recalling how she'd interceded on Neji's behalf against a dark-skinned boy with too many arms; and then recounting how she'd joined forces with Kiba to kill the brothers tag-teaming him and his dog. The other girls seemed enraptured by her tale, and by the time she finished telling them how she and Kiba had managed to maneuver their way to where the rest of the team was fighting a monster who used bones as weapons, nearly an hour had passed. Tenten let out a low whistle and breathed, "Wow…"
"It sounds like you saved everyone out there," Sakura noted.
"You and Gaara," Ino mused. "Who would've thought…"
"…Thank you," Hinata said, and all the girls nodded their own gratitude.
"Oh, no, I don't think—"
"Stop that right now!" Ino rebuked sharply. "You did a really impressive thing, going to save people you didn't know and had no allegiance to, and it sounds like you risked your life multiple times. You're amazing."
Well…Fū didn't know how to respond to that.
Her silence didn't prompt any more responses, and after a long moment, Tenten stood up and said, "I think we've been in here long enough." The other girls silently agreed, filing out behind the brunette, Hinata waiting patiently at the end for Fū – sitting in contemplative quiet – to take notice and begin moving.
She dried and dressed in a bit of a daze, still processing the context that these Leaf kunoichi saw her in. Halfway through, while her mind was caught in a maze trying to align her internal perspective and the external views others seemingly had of her, Ino's voice cut through her meandering thoughts. "I didn't notice before, but your clothes don't…quite look like they fit you?"
Fū looked down, slowly registering the blonde's words, to note the worn, loose-fitting blue kimono lined with white, held together by a light grey sash. "Oh, yeah, Tsunade dug out a lot of her old stuff for me to wear since I didn't bring anything when Utakata-nii rescued me, and my normal uniform has been through a lot-ssu." The blood of friends and enemies alike stained her once-pristine white shinobi outfit with blotches of pink, red, and brown in varying shades, not to mention the beatings it (and she) had endured over the months of training with the Jinchūriki.
"Well that just won't do. Come on, we're going shopping."
"Oh, no, I don't have any money for that—"
Ino waved her concern away, throwing an arm around the Taki-nin's shoulders. "Don't worry about it, I've got you." Leaning close to the wind-user, she whispered so only Fū could hear, "You can think of it as an apology for grilling you earlier."
Put like that, it didn't seem like something she could refuse, even if she wanted to; it would be nice to get some new clothes that were just hers, not to mention trading in the last remnants of her time back in the Hidden Waterfall for something that reflected the new her. "Alright."
"Great!" She felt Ino hook her arm into the crook of her elbow and drag her deeper into Konoha, the other three girls following at a more sedate pace. To her surprise, Ino allowed their journey to be made in relative silence, the blonde humming intermittently to some unknown tune. The normality of the moment felt surreal; Fū could barely fathom that this was what regular people did in their usual lives, when they didn't imprison a Bijū that terrified others or had to deal with existential crises.
Fū didn't catch the name of the store Ino eventually steered her into, but judging by the interior, it was well-stocked and catered to shinobi.
She was positioned in front of a rack of different shinobi outfits, all created for the Hidden Leaf's ninja to express some semblance of individuality beyond the green flak jacket that was trademark of Chūnin and above. Ino's hand pushed through each one in turn, sometimes taking one out and holding it up against Fū's body before slotting it back into place. The Taki-nin silently watched, pupil-less orange eyes flicking past each outfit and wondering if it was her style. Back in the Hidden Waterfall, all her clothes had been picked in the haste of finding something that fit without any real consideration for whether she liked it – the higher-ups in her old home didn't care too much about her personal preferences – and so this seemed like the first opportunity to really try and express herself.
"You know…" Ino's voice cut through the green-haired girl's rumination, and the foreign kunoichi realized that her fingers had stopped flipping through the rack of items. For the first time since they'd met that day, she actually sounded…normal. "I know that I can come off a bit strong. I'm smart and pretty and opinionated, but I don't always think about what I say before I say it, so it can feel like I'm a bit aggressive when I talk. My teammates would definitely agree. But I also care about the people close to me, and I would like to be friends, if I haven't scared you off. And not just to get close to Utakata either, though I'd be lying if I said that wouldn't be a benefit."
She turned to grin at Fū, expression equal parts amused and rueful. The gesture felt familiar, and it took a few seconds for the Taki-nin to realize that Utakata, of all people, often wore the same expression, the little half-smile that said he agreed with you, tinged with the sadness of his (or their) past. Behind them, the Jinchūriki could hear Tenten rattling off weapons specifications to a curious Sakura, while Hinata (presumably) listened politely.
It was funny, she mused, as Ino went back to searching through clothes – waiting for an answer – how her life kept turning on its head. Before coming to Konoha, she would've done anything to be treated like anyone else in the Hidden Waterfall, to feel like she was someone who mattered to the people there as more than just an asset. Until Utakata, she'd only had the vaguest inkling as to why she was treated differently – an unknown term, Jinchūriki – and after, with the promise of people who understood, it felt more important to endear herself to her fellows by accepting the curse she'd discovered they were burdened with, even if it wasn't easy.
And now, after acknowledging her lot in life, making friends with the people who were just like her and finding a group where she was treated like the rest – demon containers, inhuman – despite being the most different of them all (the practically human one, according to Jiraiya), she finally found people who didn't know about the Bijū. They thought she was just another person, another girl, and wanted to be her friend.
Was she wrong to think that she needed to be different to be accepted? Could there be a way for her to be both Jinchūriki and human?
"Being strong-willed isn't a bad thing…" she finally managed. She thought of Utakata's perseverance, Rōshi's stubbornness, Han's indignation…Naruto's resilience. "You just need to find people who're willing and able to see past that to the other parts of you. I can do that."
Ino grinned at her, wide and genuine. Instead of offering a response, she pulled an outfit off the rack and held it out. "I think this's a good one! Try it out."
Fū stared past the other girl, orange eyes acknowledging the proffered clothes and recognizing them as a little too close to her old uniform, to the life she'd led where she wasn't allowed to make her own decisions.
When all the Jinchūriki had been treated as nothing more than pawns of their villages.
She reached past the platinum blonde for the next item on the rack, then cast a speculative eye on one of the uniforms Ino had flipped through, moving aside several items to get a better look at it. "Think we can get something else, for a friend-ssu? I'll find a way to pay you back, I swear."
Ino arched an imperial eyebrow. "Something for the boyfriend you claim to not have?"
Fū laughed in response, suddenly lighthearted in the same way Naruto's storytelling often made her feel. "Something like that, I guess."
-l-l-l-
Fū waved an enthusiastic goodbye to her new friends at the entrance to the Senju complex, cheeks almost pained from smiling too much. In her new outfit, and with the day's success in mind, it felt like another milestone in a journey that was still fairly new.
Noise from deeper within the compound drew her like a moth to flame, and she turned a corner to find Han in combat with a purple-haired woman wearing a brown trenchcoat. The other Jinchūriki were watching – Rōshi indifferently; Gaara dispassionately; Utakata from a seated position, looking scuffed up; Naruto vibrating with excitement – and Fū made her way over to Gaara, who glanced at her with his usual, flat gaze. Teal eyes trailed over her form. "You've changed."
She spread her arms out in a facsimile of a curtsy. Instead of the white apron skirt and midriff top of her old uniform, the green-haired girl wore a deep green, sleeveless, knee-length qipao dress with a collar not unlike Aburame Shino's fringing her neck. It was zipped from navel to collarbone, with one small vee cut out of the collar at her throat, and a second, inverted, larger one starting at her waist and revealing black pants. The dress was trimmed in gold, a weapon pouch strapped to her right thigh. "Whaddya think?"
"It is…" Gaara paused, appearing to consider his next words carefully; Fū wondered if he thought she looked bad and was trying to couch it in an uncharacteristically kind way, "…different. Did something happen that necessitated it, or was it a personal decision?"
"Just thought that we were overdue for a change."
The redhead nodded slowly, as if her logic made total sense to him – even if she was still working through it herself – and then asked, seemingly curious, "We?"
Fū returned his nod with a more vigorous one, passing over the bag she'd been carrying. "For you."
His chakra flickered, momentarily, in a way that suggested he was surprised, and then settled back into a different kind of calm than normal. Even his eyes seemed to relax from their rigid gaze, locking onto the tattoos on his wrists as if searching for an answer. "I see." He took the bag from her and turned to disappear into the building, presumably to change; for as open as Gaara had become with what he thought or did, he was almost as private as Han about being physically vulnerable in front of the other Jinchūriki.
Well, they all had their quirks, she supposed.
Fū watched Han and the unknown purple-haired woman continue to spar, the Leaf shinobi pulling out kunai seemingly from nowhere, twirling around the Iwa-nin and sticking knives into the joints of his armor. Snakes burst from beneath her trenchcoat and wrapped around him in a stranglehold, and steam whistled through his armor like a kettle set to boil. He seemed to grow more aggressive at the attempted binding, blitzing her with a series of blows that she evaded with a litheness Fū was used to seeing from Utakata.
It was hard to restrain the awe she felt watching two high-level shinobi spar. Most of the time, it was a mixture of the more junior Jinchūriki, with oversight provided by Rōshi or Han or sometimes Utakata (depending on who the focus of the training was on), but it was rare to have either of the older two participate in a way that allowed the younger of their group to really appreciate what they were witnessing. Now, outside the thick of battle, it was a rare opportunity to observe how two clearly skilled ninja could fight without distraction.
"Han brought her."
Gaara's droll voice cut through her focus, and Fū turned to spy her friend returning to her side, dressed in the new outfit she'd bought him via Ino. His uniform wasn't too different from her own, with a stiffer, tall collar that almost hid his mouth – even closer to how Shino looked – and colored a chocolate brown (Konoha's clothing manufacturers were apparently big on nature colors when the outfits weren't tailored to a specific person) that contrasted his naturally pale skin. Unlike her zip-up, his knee-length jacket was buckled closed over a pair of blue pants, a two-inch-thick belt wrapped twice around his waist in a stylish appeal Ino had insisted on. Loose, tan-colored shirt sleeves covered his arms up to his wrists, where they'd been rolled back to give easy access to his tattoos.
The outfit looked a little big on him, but since Fū had guessed his size, she didn't think she'd done too bad a job; plus, it gave him time to grow into it. "You look good. How's it feel?"
"Comfortable. You did this…for me?"
She smiled; it was funny – and a little sad – how easy the redhead was to surprise. "Duh! Thought maybe you'd want something for the new you."
"I am grateful. Thank you." He was flipping the garnet Rōshi had gifted him between his fingers in a dexterous series of movements that felt like a subconscious tic. Fū held out her hand palm-up, and with methodical slowness, the Suna-nin deposited the gemstone into it. The Taki-nin examined it with a critical eye, then held it away between thumb and pointer finger. Gathering an iota of chakra, she lined up her other hand, and with a quick flick, sent a small shot of wind through the end of the garnet. A tiny hole appeared, and she pulled out a few long, loose threads from her pants, twined them together, and strung them through the hole.
"You should get something sturdier," she advised, handing back the makeshift necklace, "but it should hold for the moment." Gaara let out a noise of assent, tying the proffered jewelry around his neck and subtly inspecting it. "It suits your new look."
The Suna-nin inclined his head toward the ongoing battle. "They have been at it for over 20 minutes. The longevity is impressive, especially since Han fought Utakata as a warm-up to 'even the odds', according to him."
"Wow…"
Even knowing how powerful Han was in comparison to the younger Jinchūriki, the ongoing spar gave her a little more insight into the debate she'd been having all day about her place among their group. The armored shinobi's endurance was impressive, and it was easy to see that a similar fortitude existed in Naruto, if not the rest of the demon containers; Gaara, at least, seemed to be working himself toward embracing that which made them different.
Something Fū couldn't do because of her seal.
Her life had been spent trying to ascertain where she belonged while society had been determined to label her a pariah, and even in finding a group of similar people, she'd still managed to be on the outskirts. Although she'd worked to ingratiate and better herself, her nonconformity – within society, among the Jinchūriki – seemed like a limiting factor in every direction. It was hard to deny that one of the reasons she'd been willing to train Naruto to use Wind Release ninjutsu without any obvious benefit to herself was that the blond's potential – as a Jinchūriki, as a shinobi – was greater than hers. She hadn't committed to any path, any direction, one way or the other, because she still didn't know where she belonged.
But it was possible she'd been overthinking everything – and underestimating herself – all this time. If nothing else, today had shown that her previous internal opinions were, at least in part, self-imposed. She could be a Jinchūriki, a person, a girl, a friend, strong, thoughtful, all without sacrificing any one piece of herself.
Fū was more human than the other Jinchūriki, less human than those who didn't imprison a Tailed Beast, and greater than she'd ever thought of herself. It was both humbling and motivating.
She could be better than she was, achieve heights she'd previously thought herself incapable.
It was time to prove it.
In a burst of wind, she vanished in a Body Flicker, appearing between the two sparring shinobi with zephyrs swirling around her hands to deliver a double Whirlwind Fist into Han's armored torso. The blow was enough to send him skidding backwards several paces. Fū could sense surprise in the chakra of both the Iwa-nin and the Leaf kunoichi; she couldn't see his expression, but when the steam-user's chakra returned to its previous state, and then pulsed with something akin to amusement, she imagined he was grinning beneath his mask.
Her lips quirked in challenge. "Let's go-ssu."
-l-l-l-
Author's Note: Gaara's tattoos are based on Sasuke's sealing tattoos from his fight against Danzō, where he stores shuriken.