Praise the Log

The next few days sucked. 

If only for the fact that nothing of interest happens during them. In fact, the most interesting part of his days is his adventures in stealing coffee in the morning. Adventures that get almost pathetically easier as the days go by. 

He’s almost tempted to steal Suzume-sensei’s cup again just to see her confront Iruka about it. Terrifying women activate his monkey brain for some reason. 

Anyway, he suffers through the days of long classes and loud students with minimal complaints. He needs to be there in order to graduate, doesn't mean he needs to get invested in any of the characters right then. Even if it would be smart to get on their good sides before they become ninja. 

‘They’re Clan Kids™, it might come in handy to know a few of them.’

He’s got a whole ass month to try to make new friendships or whatever. He’s allowed a few days to get used to this new routine. And it’s only been a few days too. Since he woke up in this new world with a lifetime of memories crammed into a preteen body. 

He’s lucky if he even manages to take a shower most days, let alone try to build a new life for himself. 

Luckily, he’s found an outlet for his frustrations and other annoying feelings. Everyday after class, he spends an inordinate amount of time training. Burning off energy as much as he can. It’s gotten to the point that he can do a lot of things with only a thought and some molding of chakra. 

Tree-walking is second nature, due partly in fact that he spends the first half of his time training, doing everything on the sides of trees. It’s honestly quite nauseating, standing sideways while gravity tries to pull him down to the earth, but he powers through it. 

First time he did a Kawarimi on the side of the tree he nearly fell out of the damn thing, only his quick actions of landing stomach first on a lower branch saved his ass. 

Kawarimi also became nothing more than a thought before he could switch positions with things. He’d toss his chakra out to sort of feel things around him and he could make the switch happen with only a thought of doing so. He practiced it enough that he could switch half a dozen times before he needed to stop and take stock of things again. 

Speaking of feeling things. He’d found that he could use his chakra as a sort of probing sense. He could, for lack of a better term, reach out and poke things with it. Brush his chakra against something and feel it in the back of his mind. 

“It’s trippy as all hell.’ 

He could feel things and switch places with them even if he couldn’t see them. Just as long as they were within a certain vicinity. The first time he did it to a bird, the bird tried to kill him with its beak. So, he assumed it must be unpleasant for other people too and never tried it on anyone.

He’d only use it if he needed to switch places with someone for whatever reason. 

No need to brush his chakra against people on the regular. The whole thing felt rather intimate, and he didn’t need that kind of scrutiny. 

He didn’t do a lot of walking on water though, which was something he planned on doing more of soon. He simply didn’t have enough time to go to the river once he was done training. 

Rei spent all his free time training or sleeping, there was no inbetween. Hours of simply re-learning his body to the point that he didn’t feel so awkward in it. 

He spent way too much time re-learning how to throw kunai. That first time he’d grabbed a kunai from his pouch and tried to throw it was embarrassing in its failure. Years of not knowing how to throw knives of any kind besides just sort of chucking them mixed rather pathetically with this body’s years of training and muscle memory.

It took him a few tries before he could hit the target and then another few before he hit the target with the pointy end instead of the handle. Needless to say, he spent a whole freaking day just throwing kunai and trying to get used to how it felt. 

Which brought up the sudden conundrum that he found himself in. Weren’t shinobi supposed to have kunai and shuriken? You know, the spinning ninja stars?

Rei only had kunai. 

‘This kid was a disaster.’ 

He didn’t have enough money at the moment to do any shopping for shinobi equipment and he didn’t know if the academy had any free bins he could find some at. All he knew for sure, was that the academy provided students with a set of equipment at the start of their second year and they were expected to take care of them until they graduated or bought their own things. 

He distinctly remembers the gear he got came with a set of shuriken. 

‘And this dumbass kid lost them a year ago.’ 

He’d been relying on the sets the academy had for training during any field exercises. The ones they had out for practice use only. He didn’t know how he’d survived this long honestly. 

Luck seemed to favor him though, seeing as he was due his allowance from the orphan fund and he could do some shopping then. All he had to do was go pick it up. 

From the Hokage Tower.

The one place in the village that is sure to give him a giant fucking headache with its bullshit. Government buildings seem to have that effect on him. The amount of bureaucratic bullshit and endless paperwork that resides within those buildings had a way of driving him insane. 

‘Last time I went into a government building it took three hours before I could leave again.’

He had better hopes for this life, seeing as it’s shinobi he’s dealing with, but those hopes don’t count for much these days. 

Which is why, on Friday afternoon after class was over, he found himself trudging his way towards the Hokage Tower at a snail’s pace. The distance between the two buildings wasn’t far, a five minute walk in between the two at most. But somehow, he managed to stretch it into a fifteen minute trek. 

What can he say, it’s a talent.

It was the last day before the weekend that he could get the damn stipend before he’d have to wait until next week. And he was running low on food and other things that he needed. 

Plus, he’d gotten a note slipped under his door in the night - which holy fuck that was a security breach, what if it had been an explosive note? - saying that his rent was due next Tuesday. And he’d rather make the payment over the weekend and then figure out how to budget the rest until he can start taking D-ranks or something. 

And he was going to need a few days to get that shit figured out. He wasn't the greatest at math, okay? It just took him a little longer is all.

Anyway, despite his reluctance, the Hokage Tower loomed in front of him like a beacon of despair. His feet dragged, like he was a zombie raised from the dead at the will of some nefarious evil-doer. 

He had to step around some old ladies that exited, chatting like they just came from a book club or something, and then he stepped into the void. Back straight as he could get it in the face of certain doom. 

The lobby was…quiet. So quiet that he felt rather foolish for a moment. Maybe he had been worried about nothing? 

He searched his memories, trying to get an understanding on if it was normal behavior and came to the conclusion that his evidence was inconclusive. He’d never been in the building on a Friday afternoon before, maybe it was normal?

His shoulders slump and he’s sure his posture is going to be permanently slouched by the time he’s eighteen, but he walks up to the front desk. 

There’s a woman behind the desk, and she’s a cute thing. Definitely would be talking her up, if he did that sort of thing. No, his flirting is sending glances across the room and hoping she’ll notice and come speak to him. She’s got blond hair that seems familiar and features that seem effortlessly beautiful. He can’t see her eyes, seeing as she’s looking down at her desk, so he can’t tell what they look like. But the blond hair is rather identifying in itself.

He steps forward and green, pupil-less eyes flash up to scan him at the door. And yep, that’s got to be a Yamanaka.

‘A mind-reader for a receptionist? Kind of overkill don’t you think?’

This is a shinobi village after all. He was sure she probably worked in Torture and Interrogation as well. She must be a strong shinobi if she was the first line of defense for the Tower.

Hmm. 

Or an average one, because any shinobi worth their salt isn’t going to attack through the front door.

‘Light bulb.’

Note to self: Attack through the front door and surprise everyone involved with his sheer gall. 

He blinks and the woman is still staring at him, but her eyes seemed to be narrowed at him in consideration. With a sigh, he steps forward to stand at her desk. Dredging up the memory of the last time he was here.  “Ano, Student Rei here to pick up my stipend for the orphan fund?” 

“ID?” Her eyebrows are raised in a way that does funny things to his insides. 

Curse you puberty. Why must it haunt him so?

“Ah.” He pats his pockets until he finds his wallet in his front pocket. The place he put it when he left his apartment that morning. The place it hasn’t left all day long. And then pulls out his ID card. Specially designed for orphans like himself who did not have any birth certificates or other equally easy forms of identification. Like parents to vouch for him. “Here you go.”

‘Don’t look at the picture, please. I look like a child in it and it’ll ruin any cred I’ve got going for me.’ 

She looks at the picture. He can tell by the way her eyes light up and her lips purse in order to stop the coo from escaping. He stamps down the sigh that wants to come out. He’ll admit, tiny Rei was a cute little bugger. All wide-eyed and fluffy hair. He has various memories of older women trying to pinch his cheeks when he was just a lad. 

Memories that seem to continue on well into his age in the double digits. 

Now though, it only makes him tired. It’s exhausting being this cute, thank you very much. 

He was a man. Grown and rugged. He had a beard!

A breeze slides off his bare chin and he just barely stops the groan from leaving his throat. 

She glances back up at him and he offers a lazy grin that feels more sarcastic than anything else. She looks back down at his ID before she reaches for some papers at the end of her desk. Once she hands back the ID, she shuffles through the papers before finding one that she is looking for. 

“Everything looks good,” She hands him the paper and points down the hall. “Third door on the right.” 

He nods, and lets a small smile slip onto his lips. “Thank you, nee-chan.” 

Was that right? He didn’t know. Isn’t that what Japanese children call older women who help them? Fuck if he knew. He didn’t exactly deep dive into the culture, you know?

The woman turns an alarming shade of red in the face, but he turns away before she can reply. No need to get murdered or something. 

He’s not fleeing. Just following directions. 

He’s down the hall in a blink and knocking on the third door to the right before he has a chance to hesitate. Getting a muffled call from inside, he cracks open the door and slips inside the room. 

It’s not much of a room really. Basically a small office with papers and filing cabinets piled high to the ceiling. Behind the desk is an old man, grey haired, glasses and pocket marked cheeks. He’s peering at Rei over the rims of his glasses, as if he was personally offended by the intrusion. 

“Ah, Rei-kun.” The man sets down the papers in his hand and waves Rei forwards. His other hand went into a drawer in his desk to pull out a slip of paper. The man’s eyes dart around the room before they settle on Rei. “I trust you have it?”

‘What?’ 

“What?” 

The man - Oku Yoshimoto his brain provides -  lets out a sigh like Rei just told him the world was ending. “The paper Toku-chan gave you?” 

Was that her name then? Odd. 

He shows the man the paper and hands it over when he makes grabby hands at it. The old man looks like he’s seconds away from sniffing the damn thing in order to find the residue of the pretty woman who had held it earlier. Or maybe that’s just his imagination. 

“Oku-san?” He questions and the man huffs before shoving the paper he’d grabbed from his desk at Rei and expecting him to catch it when it falls. 

“You know what to do with it, find the treasurer and get your pay.” The man starts to giggle and Rei decides it’s best to make a break for it while he can. 

He’s out the door so fast he might have been the second coming of the Yellow Flash. Once the door closes behind him, and the inane giggling muffles mercifully, he stares down at the writ in his hands. It’s a money order, basically. That he has to cash in with the treasurer to get his money. Ryo, it's Ryo. 

With a sigh, he digs deep within his mind to figure out what the hell he’s supposed to do now. This was a whole lot more complicated than he’d thought it would be. He should have expected something like this. 

A few ninja walk past him as he stands there, but he ignores the odd looks they send him. It’s none of their business if he’s completely lost. 

The Treasurer's office is on the second floor. Which means he needs to find his way through the swirling mess that is the Hokage Tower and make his way up a floor to find his destination. 

He sighs and heads further into the building. He should have waited until Monday.

Two hours later, he manages to stumble his way home with a raging headache and new hatred for all things paperwork. 

Maybe he should just become a civilian. Then he wouldn’t have to deal with all the paperwork involved in shinobi life. 

No, no. He’s too invested already. 

Good news, he has money now. 

Bad news, more than a quarter of it is going to disappear into the pocket of his landlord come tomorrow afternoon. He’s wiped out from the experience of getting said money. And he didn’t know if he was going to get a chance to train at all that night. 

He checks the clock - the only clock he has and it’s a small alarm clock near his bed - and sees that it’s quarter after five and lets out a sigh he can feel all the way to his toes. 

Sitting down on his bed, he curls up on the cushion and sorts through his newfound riches. Taking the moment of calm to count how much money he actually has. It’s not much. After setting aside the month’s rent, he divides the remaining Ryo in half and feels disappointed in what remains. 

The next month’s rent and the half of the rest are both set aside. The half for food later on and the rent is self-explanatory. The rest, he stuffs into his wallet with the leftover Ryo from last month’s stipend, to use as spending money. 

There is still a lot of stuff he needs to get and it seems he’s going to have to neglect some other things to do so. He still needs a set of shuriken. Needs some better shinobi clothing that is made from sturdier material, possibly some new sandals. He also needed a few house supplies. Like dish soap. And toilet paper. 

But those things don’t hold the same gravitas as the pointy objects he needs the most.

‘Why couldn’t I have a convenient house of some kind left to me by my dead parents?’ 

Ugh, that felt wrong to think.

With a sigh, he glances morosely around the studio apartment and decides he’s going to try to get some training in before the night falls. It’s better than staying there right then. 

He just needs to put the money somewhere safe until he can transfer it the next day. His eyes flicker around the room until a faint memory tickles the back of his brain. He rolls off the bed and half-climbs under the bed. There’s a loose floorboard under it that he can remember using to stash stuff before. 

When he pries it up, there are a few things inside that were once very important to him. And still are but like, differently than before. There’s some ninjutsu scrolls, the academy three that all students are given. A book that looks suspiciously like a scrapbook. Some kunai in mint condition and a dark blue piece of fabric. 

Grabbing the fabric, he slides out from under the bed and unravels what he has in his hands. It’s a blanket. A baby blanket. The one he showed up at the orphanage swaddled in.

‘Oh.’ Sadness seeps into his bones, startling in how much it drowns everything else out.

There’s so much baggage inside him. Two lives filled with pain and loneliness that have no outlet. He doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do with it all. His nights are filled with blood and pain and his days are achingly lonely. 

Maybe he should try to make some friends? 

Put aside the fact that they are little brats and try to be friends with them? So he’d have people to talk to and fill up the silence in his life. They wouldn’t always be little brats and he would need friends his own age. Ugh. 

Two steps forward, four steps back. 

The blanket in his hands is heavy. A weight that is more burdensome than he cares for. He’d stolen this life. And whether or not the kid would have done something with it, he still took the chance from him. Even if he didn’t have much choice in the end. 

And that makes him feel like shit. 

He didn’t account for much in his last life, but he still had morals. And taking a kid’s chance of a good life away from him went against them. 

With another sigh, he folds the small blanket back up and just holds it in his hands for a moment. While it is heavy and burdensome, his heart feels a bit fuzzy while he holds it. Because it’s proof. 

Proof that someone, somewhere, had loved him. Even if it was only for a moment. 

After a few minutes, he grabs the money from the bed and crawls back under it to stash it away. He ignores the scrapbook for now, and when he slides back out, he leaves the blanket on his bed. Just for the night, then he’ll put it back. 

Glancing at the clock, six ten glares back at him in harsh red lines. Damn, where did the time go? He’s got maybe an hour and a half until it’s dark out and if he’s going to do any training, he needs to leave within the next five minutes. 

But, glancing back at the blanket he just set down on the bed, maybe training can wait until tomorrow. He was rather tired, and…he just wanted to relax for one night. Was that such a bad thing? 

With a sigh, he set about getting ready for bed. He probably should eat first, but he can’t find the energy to make anything. Changing into his sleep clothes, some shorts and an old t-shirt, he made his way over to the bed and sat down. His hand reached out to grab the baby blanket next to him. 

He curls his fingers into the fabric and lifts it up to shove his face into it. Taking a long moment to just exist with it so close to him. To feel some of the love he imagines is radiating from the blanket. Leftover from his parents before he lost them. 

Which is wishful thinking. If anything, his parents were probably the ones to dump him at the orphanage steps because they didn’t want him. Just like everyone else. 

‘I need to get some therapy or something, damn.’

Both his selves needed some therapy, and if that wasn’t just the worst. 

The rest of the night was spent in a daze. His hands wrapped around the baby blanket like it was a lifeline he couldn’t bear to lose. 

It was all rather sad and pathetic of him, but hey, that was his new life. 

The next day he barely manages to peel himself out of bed. If it weren’t for the damn itchy blanket that he was forced to sleep with every night, he probably would have stayed in bed most of the morning. 

As it was, he didn’t truly wake up until around ten in the morning. A bit late compared to what has become normal in the last week, but still in the morning. 

He went through his morning routine and tried to think about what he all had to do that day. It was Saturday, so he had all day to himself. No responsibilities of any kind to drag him down. 

He needed to do a bit of shopping. He needed things, like a set of shuriken and some new clothes. And home things. The home things he could probably get at the convenience store down the road, but the shinobi gear needed a specialty shop. 

And so brought up the first problem of the day. He had no idea where he could find such a shop, nor what one would be the best one to go to. 

He’s never been to one before. Everything he has gear-wise is from the academy. 

He sighs into his toothbrush and stares at the child in the mirror. He looks tired. There are bags under his eyes that look awful and his eyes themselves look dull and bland. The night of relaxation did little to stem the flow of nightmares. 

They weren’t bad really. It’s just that he shoots awake feeling like he’s on fire and his arms are covered in blood he can’t wash away. 

His hair looks rather greasy and unkept too. Which means he needs to buy some shampoo as well if he’s going to have any chance of saving it. There doesn’t seem to be many split ends, so thank the gods for that. But the midnight locks hang down to his chin in a limp way that itches when he least expects it. So he needed to do something about it or cut it off completely and he didn’t really want to cut it. 

Rei had worn his hair long for the last few months and cutting it off seemed like a disservice. He wanted long hair. 

After a sigh, he spits out the toothpaste and quickly washes his face. Then he leaves the bathroom to make something to eat. His plans of making some eggs are dashed when he realizes he doesn’t even have a pan to cook them in, nor the eggs themselves to be cooked. So he settles for some toast and decides to get some takeout or something for lunch. 

He’s got to remember to eat more. He burns through the calories so fast because of training that if he doesn’t start watching it, he’s going to be short forever. 

The next thirty minutes are just kind of spent…staring…into space while he mindlessly putters around his apartment. Cleaning up a bit where he can, but otherwise just sort of wandering while he comes out of his slumber. Mornings have always sucked for him and letting himself sleep in wasn’t helping much. 

Finally, he eventually dresses himself in something presentable and grabs the rent money from under his bed to give to his landlord. Then he leaves the apartment - through the door this time you savage - and makes his way down to where he knows the landlord lives. 

Akira-san is an older woman, at the tail end of middle-aged, with brown hair and brown eyes and remarkably plain in a way that would make her deadly as an assassin. But instead of using her appearance to blend in with any crowd, she instead uses it to run an apartment building like a tight ship. Granted, there’s not much correlation there but it’s not his fault. 

He doesn’t know much about her besides the fact that she lives alone and has two cats to keep her company. That, and she always treated him with stern kindness during their interactions. 

After dropping off the money and speaking with the woman for a few minutes, he makes his way out into Konoha in search of a weapons store of some kind. He had all day to find it, but he wanted to get some training down at the river later. He still needed to learn to walk on water without needing time to prepare himself for it. 

And the only way to do that was through exposure therapy. Do it so much he could do it in his sleep if he had to.

It took him a while to find a shop that looked vaguely like it sold shinobi gear. It took so long in fact, that he had considered multiple times if flagging down a passing shinobi and asking for directions was something he should do. 

The shop was in one of the nicer districts of the Konoha market. The outside of the building looked clean and inviting in a way that hinted at money. Hinted in a way that made him hesitant to enter the building in fear of what kind of stuck-up snob would be behind the counter. 

Shaking his head, he let out one last sigh before forcing himself to enter the shop. Once inside, he let his eyes glance around the room and he was pleasantly surprised. It looked like a weapons shop. Racks on racks of swords and other edged weapons of all kinds lined neatly around the store. He could even see some blunt weapons in the far corner. 

There is a man behind the counter to the left of the door. Dressed in a fine kimono that looks like it cost more than his allowance and a narrow-eyed look that said he was being judged and had been found wanting. The rest of the man’s appearance meant nothing the second he caught sight of the look. 

Ignoring the man as best he could, he made his way further into the store. Wandering the makeshift isles of weaponry that towered over his tiny body. All the weapons looked like they were crafted by the best blacksmith money could buy and the first price tag he looked at had him freezing in surprise. 

Everything in the shop was expensive. Absurdly so. 

And the products told him why. Many of them had tags on them that read things like Chakra Conducting and Elemental Infused. And other things that meant nothing to him at the moment. All way beyond his current skill level. 

With a sigh, he wandered some more just trying to find some regular ass kunai and shuriken. And even those were freaking expensive man what the fuck? A set of two dozen kunai alone would take out a huge chunk of his current spending money. The sets of shuriken weren’t much better. 

Closing his eyes, he turns around and heads for the door. He can’t afford this stuff right now and would need to take a few missions before he could comfortably make such purchases. Hopefully nobody would notice his equipment was subpar before he could get new stuff. 

He could just-

‘Oomph.’

He bounces off a hard - but also surprisingly soft - body and nearly falls over. He would have anyway, if it weren’t for the strong, slender hands that grabbed him by the shoulders to prevent him from falling. The hands are warm, and he can feel that warmth through the thin fabric of his shirt. 

Hesitantly opening his eyes, he’s met with a chest full of mesh armor that is covered by a long tan coat. A rather naked chest. With soft looking large swells that try to enticingly draw him in. 

“Usually I wait until the second date to get so close, brat.” 

‘A test of will so soon? It’s not even noon yet.’ 

His eyes wander up to a smirking face that is topped off with dark purple hair. Oh my god is it her? He stares up into her narrowed eyes and feels disappointment rise within him. 

It’s not her. 

He’s not sure how he knows, but he can tell this is not Purple-sama. There is an aura about her that feels way different than what the ANBU made him feel. Or maybe it’s the hair? It looks more black in appearance than anything else.The purple had been a trick of thee light. Plus he recognizes this woman. And he doesn’t remember her being anything other than an interrogator and eventual…sensei?

“Ah,” He looks away and relaxes a bit when her hands leave his shoulders. Though they leave behind a scorching feeling. Like her hands were made of molten lava and she just left some on his body. She didn’t even touch his skin, but the phantom feeling lingers. “I wasn’t watching where I was going.” 

‘Man, this body is just as touch-starved as the last one.’ 

Mitarashi Anko makes a sound in her throat that sounds like a laugh and leans forward to tower over him. Things…jiggle in front of his face with her momentum. His eyes flash down for a millisecond, he swears and he knows instantly he’s fallen into her trap. 

“I could see that.” She’s close. Too close. He can see the dark flecks that rim the edges of her brown, pupil-less eyes. “You weren’t watching at all with those peepers of yours closed shut.”

She’s smirking down at him - holy shit why is he so small - and it would do things to him if he wasn’t stomping them harshly under a metaphorical boot. With spikes on it. Very harshly.

Don’t blush. Don’t blush. Don’t. Blush. 

He doesn’t blush. Merely stares up into her eyes like he’s a dead fish. It’s easier to ignore it all that way. 

“What’s a brat like you doing here anyway?” She asks when he takes too long to answer. Her eyebrows raised in interest. 

“Trying to shop.” He sighs, glancing around past her generous….assets to spare the incredulously priced kunai a baleful look. 

She follows his gaze and lets out a chuckle. Then, she stands up straight and claps a hand on his shoulder in companionship. “Expensive place, isn’t it?”

He nods. The place is too expensive and he’s going to have to find another shop. He just doesn’t even know where to look. You’d think a ninja village would have more weapon smiths or something. On nearly every street even. But no, they don’t. 

“I pay less for food every month than what I’d pay for some of this stuff.” He sighs and shoves his hands into his pockets. It might be an exaggeration, but it didn’t feel like one. And that turned him off of this store better than anything else ever could. 

“Yep.” Anko nods and smirks down at him. “This place usually only suckers the desperate, the foolishly optimistic and the clan folk who can afford to spend.” 

He raises an eyebrow back at her, “Oh? Then what are you doing here?”

It’s only after he says it that he realizes his words might have offended her. He’s not supposed to know anything about her. And he doesn’t really, but still. She could be part of a clan or something, he didn’t know. He didn’t know much about her at all. 

“I mean,” He winces and grabs the fabric of his pants to calm his sudden nerves. “Not that you’re-” 

She barks out a laugh and stops him from apologizing further with a waved hand. “Cute. But no, you got me. I only come here to check out the new weapons that come in every month. Nobari-dono is a master craftsman and his work is always excellent.”

“Oh.” He had seen the name stamped into the hilts of various weapons. He didn’t realize they were made by someone who was so well known. Or that was what the kanji meant. Plus, reading kanji is hard on his westerner brain. Even if it isn’t his brain anymore. Ugh. 

“Question is,” She taps a finger to her lips and crinkles her eyes down at him, “what brings you here?” 

He sighs and gestures towards where the sets of shuriken sit prominently on display. “I need some shuriken, I ran out.” 

‘More like I never had any to begin with.’ 

“Academy then?” She asks and hums when he nods up at her. Which is whack. He was tall in his last life. She’s barely five nine at the most. “Did nobody tell you brats where to get your equipment from?” 

He sighs. They might have, but he’s only been here a week now. But he can’t tell her that, he’d be in T&I before the end of the day. “Half of my class is Clan Kids™.” 

She snorts and he can feel the wave of sympathy that comes from her. “Ah, that makes sense. The capitalization on those words is well earned.”

He nods and lets out a long sigh in agreement. They made him tired just thinking about them. Didn’t he say he was going to give them a chance last night? Ugh. 

She hums and puts her hands on her hips, “Tell you what, I’ll tell you where to go for some cheap gear but you gotta do something for me in return.” 

He lifts an eyebrow in response, weary but ultimately curious. “What kind of something?”

She smirks and leans forward, shoving her chest into his face. Don’t look. Don’t look. And tilts her head to the side in a very dangerous way. 

‘Why do dangerous, attractive women keep looking at me like that? Like I’m prey or something?’ 

“Will you do it?” She asks, her lips tilting wickedly at him. And he notices she didn’t answer his question. Which means she could ask him to do anything and the knowledge of such things was completely at her mercy. 

He weighs the pros and cons and finds it completely useless. All he knows for sure is that this could go badly for him. Bad enough to end with bodily injury or worse, embarrassment. 

But she’s looking at him with those glinting eyes of hers and finds he is a complete push-over when it comes to women. 

He sighs. “Okay.” 

She lights up like a christmas tree and then proceeds to try to squeeze him to death in her excitement. What has he gotten himself into? He doesn’t know this person. 

‘Stranger danger is a thing for a reason, dumbass.’

He sighs again, but it’s muffled by her breasts in his face. Not that it’s very comfortable, the mesh slash chainmail shirt kind of ruins the moment for him. 

‘What does she want from me anyway?’

The answer is dango. 

That’s it. Literally just dango. 

Once they left the weapons shop together, she grabbed a hold of him and did a Shunshin across the village. Which was trippy, thanks. Once he got his bearings, she pointed down to a sweets shop across the road and tossed him some Ryo with instructions to get as much as he could for her.

“Why couldn’t you do that yourself?” He questions and gets a rather large pout pointed in his direction. 

“I’ve been prohibited from entering for a certain period of time.” 

He raises an eyebrow and she glances away sheepishly, a hand rubbing at the back of her head. “Why?” 

She squints her eyes across the street and scowls. It makes her look young in a way he’s uncertain about. And then he’s suddenly reminded, violently in fact, that he is technically older than her. By a few years and change. 

‘Ugh. This is so weird.’ 

“Some people got handsy and needed to be taught a lesson. Never interrupt Dango Time.” 

He nods slowly and figures that lesson involved copious amounts of property damage alongside it. 

“Okay.” He sighs and hops down from the roof. He makes his way inside and waits in the small line to the counter. The room is spacious, with chairs and tables nearby for a seating area. He can see other sweets behind the glass counter, so it’s not just a dango shop like he feared. It seems like a regular old bakery, if he’s honest. There’s not much to it. 

Though, he can see a few cracks in the flooring tiles and some of the tables look like they had been freshly sanded and restained to their current dark brown. So it must have been a rather messy ass kicking she’d dished out. 

When he gets to the counter and orders as much dango as the money can provide, he gets a shrewd look from the baker behind the counter. The woman’s eyes narrowing down at him before they dart to look out the window. When no sign of her assumptions shows itself, she reluctantly goes about getting him the dango. 

It’s…a lot of dango. Two bags full. 

He smiles up at the lady. Is everyone taller than him around here? And makes a quick exit. He walks across the street and into an alley besides the building he left Anko on, before he leaps up with a chakra enhanced jump that takes him half-way up. Sticking to the side of the building - which is awkward as shit with bags in his hands - he quickly makes his way up the building to the roof. 

When he gets there, Anko is perched on the edge of the roof staring down at him with raised eyebrows. Shit, right. Academy kids didn’t know how to walk up things yet. That was usually reserved for later on, when they are serious about ninja life. 

‘Whatever. Roll with it.’

“Two bags of dango, as requested.” He says, holding the bags out for her to take once he gets settled on the roof. 

Whatever questions she might have about his abilities seem to vanish in a blink, just like the way the bags do from his hands. He can only sigh and lament the fact that he didn’t even see her move. He was so outclassed that it wasn’t even funny. And if he remembered correctly, Anko wasn’t even a full Jounin yet.

What has he gotten himself into?

He watches her shove a stick of dango into her mouth and strip it clean in a few seconds. It’s honestly rather cool how she does it. It must be a talent of some kind, for her to do it so effortlessly. 

His brain itches to go somewhere else with it and he kills it with fire before it becomes a full thought. 

He respects women in this house, thank you very much. 

Anyway, she tosses the empty dango stick away and he watches it soar through the air and nearly hit a passing bird. When he glances at her for it, she’s pouting about it. Clearly annoyed she missed. 

He clears his throat when she goes to grab another stick of dango and her eyes lock on to him with laser-like focus. Right, Dango Time. But she only sighs and doesn’t merc him for the presumption. 

“Alright brat, I’m going to let you in on the greatest secret in Konoha.” She pats around at her pockets - in a show he assumes - before she reaches into her coat - that goes dangerously close to revealing things - and pulls out a slip of paper and waves him forward. 

Her hand reaches out and the slip of paper is resting in her palm, awaiting him to grab it. He looks at it for a moment before he sighs and reaches out to grab it. Just as his fingers touch the slip, her hand snatches a hold of his. Trapping the paper between their hands. 

He startles and looks up at her in askance. There’s an intense look in her eyes as she stares directly into his own. He wonders what she sees in his dark green eyes. What she is searching for. 

“Kid, you should be more careful with who you interact with.” Her eyes are hard and while he’s not the greatest at emotions and conversations, he thinks he sees something close to vulnerability inside her chocolate eyes. 

He shrugs, but doesn’t break her stare. “I trust you.” 

She scoffs and if anything, her eyes harden further. “I could be a traitor. I could follow you home and gut you while you sleep.” 

“But you won’t.” He squeezes her hand to try to reassure her. All at once remembering a part of her history that was rather prominent. Was this about Orochimaru? The traitor bit seemed centered around the man anyway. Maybe she had her own insecurities to deal with? “I trust you not to.”

Who knows how long she has felt isolated in the village. Just because of who her teacher had once been and the mark that blights her neck. 

She tilts her head at him and something lightens inside her eyes. “Why?”

He shrugs and squeezes her hand again, wondering if she needed a hug or something. He doesn’t know how he’s supposed to tell her that he knows she is not a traitor. That in a previous life he watched her fight a man she once looked up to in proof of such a thing.

So he goes with something truthful instead. “You didn’t have to help me, but you are. And that makes you the first person to do something kind for me in a long time.” 

“Kid.” The ice in her eyes disappears completely. She sighs and gives his hand a light squeeze before she lets go. His fingers curl around the paper before it can fall. 

She looks vulnerable at that moment. Like he had said something that resonated with her for some reason. Her eyes seem to be looking right through him in a way that tells him she isn’t seeing him at all at that moment. She’s somewhere else. Trapped in a memory that probably haunts her. 

Damn tragic backstories. Always ruining the good times. 

“What’s written on here anyway?” He prompts. Hoping to break her out of whatever is haunting her. And lets out a little sigh when her eyes focus on his own. 

He’d like to say it’s an address written down, but it’s really only a set of directions pointing him to a location somewhere in Konoha based on a series of landmarks. And the landmarks don’t even start anywhere nearby. 

“That, my cute little friend.” She points at the note and cocks her hip. “Is how you find the best weapons shop this side of the Land of Fire.” 

He hums and scans the note another time. Alley next to the red fern? What? “They cheap?”

She nods and reaches into her bag for another stick of dango. “As dirt. And good quality to boot.” 

“How’d you find it?” He asks and tucks the paper away in his pocket for safe keeping. 

She shrugs, eyeing the dango in her hand with a hunger. “Knew the guy before he retired to open up his shop and raise his kid.” 

“Oh.” Which meant he could be anybody, but his money was leaning on the guy being someone from T&I. Great. “How good of quality?” 

“Top of the line. Everyone goes to him for things they need.” The dango is gone in a blink and the skewer is once again flying off into the distance. This time, he sees it bounce off the headband of a passing kunoichi. The kunoichi takes one look at Anko, her bag and the third stick of dango already in her hand and flees across the rooftops with an increased speed.

He hums in admiration and shoves his hands in his pockets while she eats. Their deal is completed and there is nothing keeping him there. But leaving right then seems wrong for some reason. 

He should probably thank her, right? That was something that was done in such situations? Hmm, being an adult is hard. And conversations are harder. 

“Thanks,” He glances away when she peers at him over her dango. “For helping me.” 

She huffs and flings the skewer away with barely a flick of her hand. A squawk follows in the direction it went and he doesn’t turn to see if she got that bird or not. 

“No problem kid, I needed your help too anyway.” She grins at him and he doesn’t blink this time but she’s just suddenly there, in front of him. Her hand reaching up to ruffle his midnight locks. 

“Still.” He doesn’t pout or dodge her hand. It feels kind of good, okay? “And my name is Rei. What’s yours?” 

He might as well ask her so he has an excuse to call her by her name. No need to give away his hand of cards by saying it prematurely. 

“Rei-chan,” She coos and he wants to slump. She sees him as a child, great. Then she puts her hands to her hips and snaps a pose. “Anko. Mitarashi Anko.” 

He grins up at her and very slowly slides into her personal space. Wrapping his arms around her in a quick - but slow, remember slow, this is a snake after all - hug. She tenses up in his arms despite him choreographing the thing a mile away. 

“What’re you doing?” She croaks. And he feels like he’s won a small victory in getting her off balance. The hug wasn’t even planned. He just kind of had the urge to hug her and so he did it. 

He didn’t show much affection in his last life and in this one he rarely had the chance to. He had a new lease on life. No need to make it suck worse by not doing the things he wants to. 

He steps away and smiles up at her again. Throwing his chakra out to feel everything around him. “Thank you, Anko-chan.” 

She sputters and her face tints pink. “Why so familiar?” 

He just lets out a small laugh. Grins. And then switches places with a rock on the road a ways down the street. 

People around him stop and look up at the rooftops at the squawk that follows. The grin doesn’t leave his face for a while after that.