tora. tora? tora!
The week leading up to graduation sucked.
He was tired of waiting and the suspense was killing him.
He filled the time as best as he could. Training everyday until his body ached, paying diligent attention in class the best he could, and trying to meditate as an attempt on focusing his chakra better. In fact, the only time he wasn’t training or doing school work was when he slept and ate. And he sometimes still trained while doing the latter.
His chakra reserves got larger. Though the size of which and its equivalent was lost on him still. He didn’t know enough about chakra to know what was good and what wasn’t. He’d thought to try doing some research on the matter, but found that he didn’t know how to dedicate enough time to the subject to do so.
Time management was one of his failings. He was working on it.
All he knew was that there was more of it there than there was before and it took him longer to get tired.
He pretty much pulled away from everything during the week. Locking up parts of himself behind his new mask so he didn’t have to focus too hard on things.
It was easy, being a blank face amongst the crowd of over-eager students. And he would have thought it would make him stick out more, but somehow the opposite seemed true. No one bothered him during class. No one searched him out for training.
Though, Naruto’s reasoning might have been because the kid painted the faces of the Hokage monument and had his own shit going on because of it.
Rei didn’t know and he didn’t ask. He was too busy being surprised that the kid did it so soon before graduation. Granted, he didn't really remember much of the timeline anymore, but he had thought it was like a day or two before graduation. Not nearly a week before it.
It was easy to wear a blank face when nobody could see your grimace. Thank the gods for masks, otherwise he was sure to be looked at funny.
The mask hid the fact that he was always stuck in thought. Trying to figure out how he was going to pass his potential Jounin-sensei’s test and get on a team.
He didn’t feel like he was strong enough to become a shinobi. Sure he could do some tricks, but how much would those tricks help when it came down to life or death. And would he be able to go through with it? The actions he would need to take to survive?
Would he be able to purposely hurt and potentially kill another person? A person who was just like him. Who had thoughts and goals and feelings the same way he did?
He didn’t know. He would like to say he could.That he would be able to muster up the will to do so. But he didn’t know, wouldn’t know until the time came and he needed to make the choice.
If he wasn’t killed before then anyway.
The nerves and anxiety sucked, so he worked his body to the bone just so he could sleep a bit at night. For a few days, he did things rather mindlessly. Going about his days with very little deviation from his rigorous routine.
Until one day, after training most of the night, he trudged through his front door in an exhausted slouch only to freeze the second he stepped through the threshold. There was something off about his apartment. He had trouble putting his finger on what until he heard the sound of purring coming from near his window.
There was a cat on his bed. Curled up in a sprawled lump atop his itchy blanket. The fur was a dark brown. And he could see markings of some kind on its head and a ribbon attached to its ear.
‘Cute.’
He glances around the room in confusion. Wondering just how the cute little thing found its way into his apartment. He had locked his door on his way to class that morning, so unless someone entered while he was gone and locked his door on their way out, he could count the front door out.
Glancing at the window, it becomes obvious that it is the suspect. It’s cracked open a few inches and he had obviously forgotten to close it when he left in the morning.
The clearing was small, but he had seen cats get through smaller openings before. So it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that it snuck in through the opening. Though, he didn’t know how the cat got to the window itself. Seeing as he resided on the third floor and there were no balconies nearby.
With a sigh, he closes the door softly behind him and digs his keys and wallet out of his pants. Tossing them onto the counter, he turned back to see the cat now had its eyes open and was staring at him with an analysing gaze.
“Hey there buddy.” He inches his way over to the bed. The cat looks remarkably unbothered by his presence, but its eyes don’t leave him as he moves.
He liked cats. The perfect predators in cute little bodies. With cute little mittens of murder. He just wanted to hug and squeeze them all the time. Pat them on their chubby little bellies and dodge said murder mittens for his presumptions.
“How’d you get in here?” The cat lets him get to the edge of his bed before its ears flick back into airplane mode. He raises his hands in surrender when a low growl comes from its throat.
With a sigh he glances at his small fridge and tries to remember if he has anything to feed it. But he doesn’t think he does. Looking back at the cat, he wonders who it belongs to. He didn’t recognize it, so it couldn’t be one of his landlady’s cats. And he didn’t know if any of his neighbors had cats or not.
He was tired. Too tired to deal with it tonight. It was late and he still needed to shower and shove something down his throat for sustenance.
He takes off his mask and gives the cat a look, “You can stay for the night, but that’s where I sleep. So you’ll need to move or share once I’m done.”
The cat blinks at him for a long moment before it lowers its head back down and closes its eyes. Taking that as confirmation he was heard, he went about getting ready for bed.
He showered quickly and ate just as fast. When all was said and done, and he stood before the bed in his sleep clothes, the cat was watching him with slitted eyes. He only raised an eyebrow back down at it. “Move over then.”
The cat flicked an ear, blinked up at him slowly, and then by some miracle, actually listened to him. It stood in a lazy stretch and padded over to sit closer to the edge of the bed that was under the window.
With a sigh of relief, he slipped under the covers and settled into a comfortable position. It took him a bit, but he eventually fell asleep with the cat watching over him.
His last thought before sleep took him was something along the lines of, This was how he died. Killed by a cat in his own bed.
The cat was gone in the morning.
He didn’t think too much about it, but he did leave his window the way it was in case the thing came back during the day while he was in class. He had a soft spot for the little demons and wouldn’t mind if it came back and graced him with its presence.
So he was happily surprised that night when he got done with training, to arrive back to it sleeping on the itchy blanket once again.
The damned thing seemed to like that blanket. He would always find it trying to meld with it.
From then on, he came back to the apartment a bit earlier in the evening. The cat would be there when he got back and he would take his time earning its trust. He offered it food and gave it soft pets when it finally let him touch it. Playing with the little thing each night before bed.
It continued for three days until his conscience caught up to him. Someone could be looking for the cat and he wasn’t doing anything to help them find it. It was obviously well cared for, with its ribbon and clean fur.
The few nights of easy rapport was the only thing that allowed him to pick the cat up and carry it. Though it didn’t like being held, preferring to ride around on his shoulders instead. And rode it did, all the way through town and to the missions desk.
He brought it there because out of everywhere else in the village, the missions desk was the most likely place for a notice to be sent. A mission even, to find it and return it home.
The walk through the village was long, seeing as he needed to go slow to keep the cat steady on his shoulder. And he had the oddest feeling of being watched the entire time. Everytime he turned to check out what could be watching him, he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Just civilians and ninja alike passing by.
By the time he made it to the academy and the missions desk that resided within it, he was feeling rather antsy. Like bugs were crawling under his skin.
A shinobi exiting the building stopped in the doorway the second he caught sight of Rei and his precious package. He smiled at the man and thanked him for holding open the door as he made his way inside. Though his mask probably made it look funny to the other shinobi. Any ninja he passed by seemed to move out of his way and he started to get a little paranoid that something was up.
He made it to the desk soon enough. The room was half-full of shinobi of all kinds. Most looked like they were just coming back from their own missions. Packed as it was, he needed to slip in at the back of a line so he could speak with a ninja running the desk to ask questions.
He nodded at the kunoichi in front of him when she turned at his presence behind her. Her eyes went wide before she let out a sigh and turned back around with a word muttered under her breath. He didn’t know what she said, but he wasn’t exactly in the habit of paying too much attention to strangers and their quirks.
While he waited, he took the time to glance around the room and take in its ornate decorations. It was all a bit ostentatious for him, but then again, he lived in a studio apartment. So it didn’t exactly say much for his tastes.
He only needed to calm the cat down twice. Reaching up to give it a scratch under its chin and around its ears. Other than that, it sat rather contently on his shoulder to watch the room move around them. Its tail wrapped around his neck to hold itself steady.
It took a few minutes of waiting before he could get to the front of the line. And when he got there, he stood in front of a shinobi that had his head stuffed in a mission report of some kind. Interest taken by something he was reading.
“Yes?”
Rei sighs and stamps down the mild irritation of being so wholly ignored. “Ano, Shinobi-san? I’ve found myself in a bit of a situation and was wondering if you could help me?”
“On with it.” The man’s head doesn’t move from where it’s bent over the paper. But he does wave a sarcastic hand at him. It’s annoying and demeaning and maybe he should have gone to someone else for help. But it’s too late now. He’s made it this far, he would see it through.
“I’ve found this cat, you see.” He gently grabs the cat from his shoulders and sets it down on the desk before him. Right on top of the paper the man was ignoring him for. He feels a thrum of gleeful satisfaction when the man jerks back in his seat like he’d been stabbed. “I would like some assistance in returning it to the proper owner.”
The man stares at the cat sitting contently on his desk and pales to a drastic color. The cat lifts a paw - the man flinches - and starts to clean it with a few licks, ignoring the man completely. The shinobi snaps his gaze to him and stares at him with wide eyes. “W-where?”
“Where did I find the cutie?” He tilts his head questioningly. The shinobi still looks rather pale and he wonders if the man was feeling okay. Maybe the guy ate something that didn’t agree with him?
The guy nods shakily and he feels bad. He must really not be feeling well. He squints his eyes in an attempt to smile. “Ah, well it was more like it found me.”
For some reason, the guy gets even paler. He didn’t even know that was possible, but the guy managed it. Hopefully he didn’t get thrown up on. That would ruin his day.
He reaches forward and gives the cat a quick scratch behind one ear and smiles when it whirs and leans into the touch. He needed to be close to the cat in case the man lost his lunch. So he could snatch it up and away from the danger zone.
“Tora!” The shinobi yelps and then freezes when the cat turns to look at him. The rest of the room grows quiet at the startled shout, all eyes turning in their direction. And he is thankful for the mask, lest they see the way his cheeks flush at the sudden attention. It was embarrassing, having so many people looking at him.
“I-i m-mean.” The poor shinobi coughs and then clears his throat, eyes flashing over to stare at one of his co-workers. The kunoichi glares at him but makes her way over to them with slow steps. Her shoulders slumping further the closer she gets.
The kunoichi has her lips pursed when she gets up to them, looking like she swallowed a lemon and was regretting her life choices at the same time. He does notice that she keeps a good amount of space between her and the desk the cat sat on. Her eyes flicker between him, the sitting shinobi and the cat before they lock onto his own.
“You found Tora?” She’s peering at him with a calculating gaze and it makes his fingers itch. “How did you catch her?”
“Is that her name, then?” He tilts his head at the cat and feels a nugget of something itch the back of his brain. Why did that name sound so familiar? “Maa, what a distinguished name for a cute little lady. Ehh, Tora-chan?”
He scratches Tora behind the ears again and smiles when she starts to purr. It’s a loud purr, sounding almost like a small engine of some kind. It reminds him of the cats he used to have in his old life. Their loud purrs always seemed to lift his moods and the feel of their little bodies vibrating in happiness was soothing to his soul.
For some reason though, both the ninja in front of him flinch at the sound.
As he watches the kunoichi pale alongside her co-worker, the nugget that had itched before blooms into a full on thought. Wasn’t there a cat that haunted the shinobi of Konoha? He didn’t watch every episode of the show and certainly didn’t remember every little detail of canon, so he couldn’t remember what the cat’s name was. Only that it was the cat of the daimyo’s wi-
“Indeed,” The kunoichi nods like he just forced her to at knife-point. “Madam Shijimi named her herself.”
‘Ah. That’s unfortunate.’
His head tilts of its own accord, staring down at Tora. Searching the cat for any signs of the trouble maker she was supposed to be. But all he saw was a regular cat staring up at him with squinted eyes.
He hums and pets her softly when she bumps his hand. Surely this couldn’t be the same scourge of Konoha? Maybe the media he had consumed was just an exaggeration? She had been nothing but normal the entire time he was around her. Besides the getting into his apartment bit.
He still wasn’t sure how she got to his window on the third floor.
“Like I told the Shinobi-san,” He squints at them with his Kakashi-eyes and smiles under his mask. “She found me.”
They stare at him for his words, eyes wider than before. He scratches his cheek in a subtle attempt to see if he had anything on his face. When he doesn’t feel anything besides his mask, he resists the urge to slouch in on himself. The attention was making him anxious. He didn’t like it.
Slowly, the noise around him starts to pick back up again. People going back about their day. He sighs in relief as the many eyes he felt earlier slide off of him completely. Tora’s fur under his fingers is grounding in its familiarity and he feels himself start to relax a bit.
The two ninja before him turn to each other and begin to confer quietly between the two of them. Their eyes flickering back at him and Tora every few seconds. He’s not sure what they are saying, their voices are in a soft whisper, but by the looks on both faces, they’re in an argument of some kind.
He sighs and glances down at Tora once again. If he had known it would be so much trouble coming here, he would have let Tora sleep on his bed as long as she wished. Even if it ended with a Jounin-sensei knocking on his door in the night on behalf of their skittish team.
“This is above my pay-grade.” Shinobi-san bursts out and the kunoichi gives him a dirty look in response. But when she turns back to look at Rei, he can see the grudging agreement in her eyes. And in the nervous twitching of her lips as she glances at him.
“There seems to be an issue that we need a superior to resolve,” She holds out a hand and gestures towards a door at the end of the room. One with a bored looking shinobi guard playing with a senbon between his teeth. “If you would follow me, we can find someone to get this figured out.”
He sighs and picks Tora up to let her curl around his shoulders. He might as well see where this went. He didn’t have anywhere to be until later and that was only because he had a date with his bokken at the river. He was taking it dancing and was looking forward to twirling it around all night under the beautiful colors in the sky.
He’d bought it a new sheathe just for the occasion.
He follows the woman to the door and is stopped by the shinobi standing guard. The man looks familiar, but he can’t pin down a name at the moment. And the man’s appearance didn’t really help much in the way he would expect it to. It would seem that the people in this world were not, in fact, two dimensional pictures whose features where unblemished by things like the elasticity of skin around bone.
If it weren’t for the distinct features that were staples of many characters' profiles, he would have a hard time knowing who was who.
The guard, who looks familiar and yet not at the same time, blankets him in his chakra in an overt scan that made no sense to him just what it actually did. They stand there for a brief moment before the guard sends him a lazy smirk and steps out of the way to allow them through.
He follows the kunoichi through the door and into a spacious room. Around the walls were various posters with kanji written on them. At the far end of the room, sat a raised platform with four old people sitting upon cushions on the floor. The old people were people that he had no trouble recognizing.
Well, two of them anyway. He didn’t know who the other two were.
‘Why am I standing before the fucking Hokage right now?’
One was the Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen. Red and white Hokage hat on top of wrinkled and liver-spotted features. His frame was much smaller than the other three occupants. Dark eyes staring at the ceiling through a haze of smoke coming from the man’s pipe.
The other was Bandage Man. Wrapped up in his mummy cosplay, one eye glaring out at everything around him. An arm held to his chest by a sling and back straight.
Dango, was it? Donzi. The Don. Hehe, get it? Cause he’s the leader of an organized criminal cult of mind-controlled fanatics that do his every bidding.
He didn’t know. The other two where both the same age as the two men, and he couldn’t come up with a name for either one of them. The man wore glasses and the woman didn’t.
Whatever conversation they had been having abruptly stops when he and the kunoichi make their entrance. Two and a half pairs of eyes alight on them with a stern glance. The Hokage simply sighs and peers down into his pipe.
“Yes?” The woman snaps out.
“Hokage-sama.” The kunoichi takes a few steps forward and bows to the four before them, the Sandaime’s eyes finally flickering up to contemplate them. “Esteemed Elders, I come before you seeking guidance in resolving an…interesting dilemma.”
The Mighty Don-Dango, lets out a gruff sound and narrows his one eye down at the still bowing kunoichi. “What could be so confusing that you felt it prudent to involve the Hokage in such matters?”
He was sure if the man had a sharingan in his one visible eye, it would be spinning wildly at them in intimidation. The other dozen he had on him probably were, and that opened up a confusing question in his mind. Could the man feel the eyes spinning in his arm? Or did they not move at all and were only like…aesthetic?
He shivers and tosses the thought from his head. No need to dwell on it.
The kunoichi straightens and he finds most of his view blocked by her back. She was taller than him and he had followed her into the room, he couldn’t move out from behind her without dragging undue attention to him.
Then, the kunoichi turns and grabs his wrist. Pulling him to stand before her and putting him directly in the line of fire he had hoped to avoid. Seven known eyes - and several more he could only feel - lock on to his masked face and he tenses under their stare.
Tora hisses from her perch on his shoulders.
“Hmm,” The Hokage finally breaks his silence, eyes narrowed down at him. “So, you finally decided to show your face?”
He feels Tora bristle around his neck, but he’s too focused on the blanket of murderous intent that suddenly covers the room. He was getting cold. So cold, and his lungs felt heavy. Like it was getting harder to breathe.
“A-ah?” He croaks but the words don’t get far.
Sarutobi’s eyes hardened, “Did you truly believe that I did not know everything that happens in my village? Your time here, while short, has come to an end.”
He clenches his hands around the fabric of his pants, wondering briefly if he could make a get away before deciding it was a lost cause. He wouldn’t even be able to mold chakra before he got skewered. “I-”
“Your actions while here have caused me a great deal of annoyance as of late, and my esteemed advisors suggested I be rid of you.” Sandaime puffed on his pipe and waved a gentle hand towards Bandage-man. “Danzo here suggested I merely eliminate you and be done with it.”
“Ma-a,” He tried to smile and deflect, eyes squinting up as he tried to come up with a way out of the certain doom he’s found himself in. “Sur-surely there's no need for that?”
Guy with glasses sighs and mutters, “Great.”
The old woman sighs alongside him and rolls her eyes up to the ceiling. “Not another one.”
“But no,” The Sandaime Hokage sighs and shakes his head softly in disappointment. “I fancy myself a benevolent leader. And as such, I will merely send you home with minimal bloodshed.”
He didn’t have a home to return to. He had died, there was no going back. Konoha was his home now and the only other choice was death.
He took a deep breath and darted his eyes around in search of a quick exit. He wouldn’t get far, but maybe he could make the best of it? His eyes alight on Bandage-man and he tenses as a hair-brained idea comes to mind.
Maybe he could sneak attack the man before they could do anything to him. Cut off his sleeve or something and have the other ninja gut the man after his death once they see the sharingan embedded in his arm.
It was risky and would surely result in his death, but if that was all he amounted to in the end, then that was good enough. He wasn’t going to live very long in this world anyway. So why not go out by at least attempting to change things a bit?
“You should be ashamed of yourself, dragging this poor boy into your mischief.” The Hokage scolded the cat on his shoulders. And Tora bristled like the demon it was thought of.
The Hokage scolded the cat. The Hokage scolded the cat. The cat.
“A-ah, what?” He murmurs and glances around the room when the pressure on his lungs lifts and he can breathe once again.
The two other elders look like they are contemplating if a nap was warranted at the moment, Danzo was still glaring but it was directed at the Hokage. And the Hokage? He was having a stare down with the cat on Rei’s shoulders.
“Honestly Tora, have you no empathy in that shriveled cavity you call a heart?”
Tora hisses at the offense and flicks her tail against the side of his head.
‘What. The. Fuck.’
This was all about the cat? The fucking cat? His heart was beating harshly against his ribcage and it felt like any moment it would burst free and start dancing in front of him. The urge to flee made his legs thrum with an intense burning of restrained energy and he needed a nap.
And it was all about the cat.
“Hokage-sama.” The kunoichi steps up next to him and waves a hand at the cat on his shoulders. “As you can see, things have taken a drastic turn, but have been contained.”
Sarutobi breaks his stare with the cat and huffs on his pipe, “And the issue?”
“This…boy,” She glances at him out of the corner of her eye and he’s not sure whether to be offended or not. “Caught Tora-shi and returned her to the missions desk before any other team could achieve it.”
“Get to the point, Chunin-san.” The old woman snaps. And he wonders what her name is. He couldn’t remember it for the life of him.
The kunoichi, whose name he also doesn’t know, stands up straighter at the reprimand. “He’s not a shinobi, Hokage-sama. We were unsure if he was to receive payment or not for completing the mission.”
He didn’t even know there was a mission for it already. He had thought coming here that he would be the one to prompt one.
“Hmm, you were right to bring this to me.” Sarutobi blows some smoke into the air and it takes the shape of a…swirl as it glides through the air. “Interesting.”
Danzo huffs and his glare on the Hokage rises in its incredulousness. “You can’t be serious.”
“Hush. Now, young man.” Sarutobi peers at him with his wizened visage and he feels himself relax a bit at the Grandfather Effect. “Tell me, what do you know about how shinobi get paid?”
“Ah,” He glances at the kunoichi and sees that she isn’t even looking at him. “Per mission? At least, that’s what I overheard the Academy sensei say.”
“A common misconception.” The man hums and spares the man with glasses a shrewd look. “Despite what many think, it is not per mission that shinobi are paid. They would make more money than the Daimyo if that were true. Missions only give out a small completion bonus, the real way shinobi are paid is through salary.”
“O-okay?” What did any of this have to do with him?
“Sure there are extra incentives and variances based upon rank and job title, but shinobi are paid mostly by their salary each month.” Sarutobi puffs on his pipe again and the smoke dances into more vague looking shapes. “Which makes your situation all the more curious. Seeing as you are not yet a shinobi. Are you?”
He shakes his head and barely manages to not dislodge Tora-chan on his shoulders. Though, she does smack him with her tail in retaliation. “No, Hokage-sama.”
“Hmpf.” The woman huffs and Glasses Guy rolls his eyes at her. Danzo is still glaring, but his one eye looks glazed in a way that says he wasn’t paying attention any longer.
“Curious, yes.” The Hokage hums and then nods his head. Hokage hat bouncing with the movement. “But not unsolvable. Seeing as you are not a shinobi yet, you will not earn a salary. But, you can be given money that would go towards the Tora Incentive. The bonus for each team that undertakes the perilous mission of dealing with our feline friend here.”
The kunoichi brightens beside him and looks like the Hokage just solved world hunger or something. “That’s it!”
Sarutobi gives a satisfied nod and shoots a quick smirk at his advisors. But then the woman smirks back at him with an evil little smile that spoke of trouble. “Indeed. However, in order to receive such payment, a mission report is needed to wrap things up. Make things official, you understand?”
He sighs and glances morosely up at the leader of his village. The head honcho. The big Lebowski. The man who has gotten him assigned a punishment he didn’t deserve. “Paperwork?”
Sarutobi sighs and nods down at him with sympathy, “I’m afraid so.”
He slumps in place and wishes he could sink into the wooden floor and disappear. He hated paperwork. “...okay.”
The Hokage smiles at him and he feels himself drooping further. “Congratulations young man, I do believe you will be the first to graduate with a mission already under their belt in a few years.”
“Thank you, Hokage-sama.” He sighs, bows and then follows the Chunin out of the room. The four elderly voices followed him in his wake.
“What was that kid’s name anyway?” The woman asks.
“Beats me.” The Hokage answers her and his shoulders slump in defeat. Wow, just wow.
Two hours later, after a long goodbye with Tora-chan that involved him blinking rapidly to stop the tears from leaking and lots of chin scratches, he left the academy building with about a hundred bucks in his pocket and a cramping hand. His feet took him back to his apartment to retrieve his bokken and a plan formed to train on the river until he couldn’t keep his chakra steady and fell in.
He’d had a long day.