seven.
“Do you think I would be able to sense with seals to see further? Like how Mito-sama did?”
“I don’t know at all dear. Seals are tricky business, I couldn’t use them myself.” Suzuki pinched her face, “It’s a lot of work, Mito-sama never recorded her seals for public records, or if she did it would be locked in the old Senju compound. If I were to do that method, I would have to create a new seal for myself entirely. Even then, it still wouldn’t be helpful at all for me.” Susuki broke off a cube of curry roux and used her ladle to melt it into her broth.
After a stir and quick taste test, Susuki hmm’d appreciatively. “It’s like this curry,” She holds out her big wooden spoon for Ei to taste as well.
“When you taste this, you think ‘curry’, if I were to meet a patrol on the Suna border I would think, ‘Suna’. I could focus myself and smell the individual components of the curry; coriander, turmeric, onion, tomato, likewise I could focus on a Suna border patrol and see three chunin, all wind natured, a jonin with earth and wind nature, maybe even tell what their ages are.”
“My range is useful for large groups because the general taste or the scent of a group can give me good estimates. ‘Zooming in’ as you like to say, It becomes overwhelming. Like walking into a perfume store and trying to find the most subtle hint of cotton.”
Susuki pushes the chakra to the surface of her skin, “Theoretically, I could train myself and safely expand my range to a good half of the land of Fire. But smelling an entire nation, every living plant, animal, and person would overwhelm me, and the chakra loss would make the experience awful.”
“Oh.” Ei has a thought that sensing the entire city would be a bit like staring directly at a lightbulb.
“That’s not to say you couldn’t do what Mito did Ei, just something to consider.” Suzuki winked at Ei, “A desk nin with fuuin knowledge and able to sense the entire continent? You’d be the Niidaime’s second coming!”
Ei giggled, “I don’t need to be that cool Susuki-san.”
“You want to expand your ranges to the whole of Konoha Ei? You’ll have to learn how to handle so much information at once, because from what you’ve told me, you can sense on a much more detailed scale than me.” Susuki leaves the curry on the stove to thicken and reduce, the rice cooker hisses some steam out to side. She sits at the table with Ei, comfortably slouched in her chair with her chin resting on one hand.
“Why bring it up love? You’ve got good range for your age already, by the time you make genin you’ll have to fight off scouts from Tracking trying to use your skill set.” She says with a wink.
Susuki is worried for the girl. Ei is not a prodigy. Theres no war, no clan expectations to meet, Ei herself has said she doesn’t care about being top of the class. It’s like Ei can’t get enough.
“Hisako-san said I should always strive to better myself beyond my current level.” Ei says after a long pause.
Susuki keeps her face from souring, she doesn’t like that witch of a woman. Ei seems to worship the ground she walks on so Susuki tries to refrain from badmouthing the girl’s mother-figure but she really does want to kick Hisako sometimes.. That hag is always doing something.
“I don’t think you need to worry about trying to see the whole village just yet dear.” Susuki assures. “If you only want to do your required five years of service like you said, then you won’t have to be so skilled as that.”
The small girl tugs on a lock of hair behind her ear.
“Ei-kun?” Susuki prompts.
“Mh?”
“Why did you join the academy? If you really only wanted to be a paperwork pusher than you could have gone through the civilian academies and worked your way up from there.” Susuki has been curious about it for a while actually, most kids her age would answer something along the lines of ‘cool’ or just did it because thats what kids in their clan did. Susuki waits for the girl to reply. “Not to say paper nin aren’t important, they are practically the backbone of the village, but you don’t need to particularly skilled to do that.”
“Money.” Ei answers. An interesting gleam has entered her eyes, Susuki feels like she is about to get an impassioned lecture on the importance of separating lights and darks for laundry from her mother.
Just to make the child huffy Susuki replies, “Ahh, I didn’t take you for the greedy type Ei, you after that A rank pay huh?” A wide shit-eating grin appears on her face at Ei’s affronted look.
“Joking dear! But really, why the shinobi route?” Susuki presses further.
“Shinobi get discounts! And shinobi are quiet! Orphanage genin get free housing! My apartment came fully furnished! With- With everything!” Ei waits two seconds and when Susuki doesn’t say anything, silent with a grin a mix between mischief and indulgence, Ei forges on ahead.
“And! Shinobi get retirement!”
“And what would that entail?” Susuki loves how serious the girl is, sitting in her big chair with a too-big shirt and stumbling over her words in her excitement to regale the epicness of discounts. Susuki knew Ei would have done research beforehand, having already seen the amount of thought Ei puts into her decisions. Even something as simple as choosing a cafe to sit in was carefully deliberated over.
“Free money for old people!” Ei huffs triumphantly, smacking her little hand on the table top to emphasize her words.
Susuki chuckles at the simple description, but does not correct her. Susuki does not want to spend the rest of evening explaining how taxes work. The rice cooker beeps, so Mika rises to pop the lid open and fluff the rice. With the rice done the curry stock should be finished so Mika serves them both a bowl of rice with a simple vegetable curry. Susuki Mika was not ashamed to say she enjoyed the company of the serious little girl before her, nor was she ashamed to say that she was friends with a 6 year old girl. Ei had become something like the cute little-sister Mika had dreamed of, albeit a decade late. Her creativity and way of looking at the world in wonder was such a refreshing outlook compared to the usual shinobi crowd.
“So what would you do after that? You’d be around seventeen or eighteen wouldn’t you?”
Two taps. “I like the family run stalls at the market.” Ei says.
Susuki waves her spoon to motion her to continue.
“I like seeing the parents and the kids work together to make money for their family, and doing things that help other people. They don’t make a lot of money and they are ok with that, they do just enough to keep themselves happy. Those family stores, they always feel so happy inside. They really love each other. Me and Naruto could stay inside the village and run some sort of business.”
“I also want to walk on walls.” Ei said seriously after a bit.
“Thats a plus right there!” Susuki chortles. “Avoiding crowded marketplaces is definitely a benefit. You know, there’s a couple places around the shinobi district that sell on the rooftops.”
Ei makes a curious hm through her mouthful of curry.
“In that real tall section of the village there's a few balconies and precarious walkways that sell quick bentos and protein bars and essentials. Like a rooftop shinobi konbini.” Susuki says thoughtfully, “There was this one kid a couple years down from my graduating class, he would challenge random people to race on their hands to this one place on the higher buildings that sold croquettes. He was a weird one.”
They continue to eat their lunch in pleasant silence.
Ei licked her lips again, and tried to really focus on the flock of birds nesting on the edge of her senses. They were small, and had the colorless chakra that most animals had. Birds had a very bland signature, colorless, and no definite emotions. There had to be twenty six, twenty nine, forty- a lot, a lot of them. The signature kinda matched the starlings that liked to perch on the powerlines, so it was probably that. No point in trying to count every bird in the whole flock.
Ei was sitting in a meditation pose, crossed legs, straight back, hands facing palm up and open like Susuki had taught. She said no sensor training without supervision, but Inu and Beetle were there so that counted as supervision. Susuki knew they were there anyway, but she never said anything about them, so it must be fine. Renji-sensei said that shinobi were supposed to find loopholes. It was kind of breaking the rules but Ei was being super careful!
Chakra is energy, but it can be trained like a muscle. So all Ei has to do is stretch her senses like she would stretch her muscles. When her chakra is used up it tells her body to make more, so exhausting chakra pools will tell the body to make extra, and if you keep on doing that eventually you’ll hit the limit for expanding chakra. That’s why civilians have so little chakra reserves, because they never stretch them out. Shinobi can stretch out their reserves and teach their bodies to use it in ways that conserves energy. Hisako-san had said to try pulses of chakra, sending quick pulses away from her body in a big circle to practice stretching her chakra and reading her surroundings.
So Ei had made a little training routine to add to her monthly schedule. Once a week, go sit in a big place with not a lot of people and send waves of chakra out until she felt tired. Then go eat a big meal and go to sleep. First a little wave of chakra sent in all directions, count all the bugs in a small circle around her, then a bigger one and count the small animals, then a bigger pulse and count all the medium creatures, and so on. Then try to see the entire root system of a tree, from the tiny root hairs to the tips of the youngest leaves. Ei had gotten very good at sorting what she saw, and had gotten even better at filtering out her vision. Ei didn’t know how Hisako knew all this practice stuff, but it was really working! Every week she tried it she could go a little further. Now if she really tried, she could see the apartment from the orphanage and the orphanage from the apartment.
Naruto doesn’t have to be picked up yet, and she isn't quite tired yet so she will keep going. From her position on the edge of the forest, she’ll be able to see the nara deer that live much deeper in and if she really pushes she will be able to sense the orphanage.
Ei pools her chakra into her stomach, letting it follow the natural curl of her coils then pushes it out in three quick bursts. Information rushes back to her, chakra racing out creating a map of the area around her; a deer fourteen squirrels, six chipmunks, unnumbered bugs, the starling flock has taken flight, an older boy plays with a little girl playing in the courtyard, a snake, moles burrowing in the dirt, a hawk takes flight, someone is practicing shuriken, a stray cat, owls sleeping, and her head hurts.
“My cousin is being presented with their first hive, so I may not see you this weekend.”
The two girls lay sprawled watching dragonflies lazily flit on the tops of the tall grass. Ei reaches out one finger in hopes of it becoming a perch for one of the colorful insects.
Having never been a part of one or observing one for herself Ei asks, “Does that take all day?”
“The actual presentation no, but the first hive being presented to a host is an event. It's a private thing, but since he is my first cousin I will be there. We are also the closest in age with him being the youngest in my clan.” Kaho admits. “The first hive introduction is a very special thing, so non clan members cannot observe.”
A green dragonfly lands on her outstretched finger, finally. Beautiful shimmering wings slow and come to a stand still.
No luck there.
“I probably won’t be free for a while Ei.” Susuki smiles with cherry red lips apologetically, “I’ve got to report to Tracking this afternoon.”
Ei had met Susuki in the market and asked if there would be any time to have another lesson. With Susuki refusing to let Ei progress and potentially harm herself, and Ei not wanting the fun meet-ups to stop, their “lessons” had mostly become cafe visits and home cooking sessions.
“Just got word through the grapevine, they’ll be needing some people with my kind of skills for a big mission. We will see each other again, don’t you worry dear.” She offers a quick smile and brushes by with her basket, full of ingredients for homemade shinobi ration bars.
Ei is out of excuses. A deep sigh of despair wrings its way out of her throat. Unconcerned, Naruto is occupied with the colorful baby puzzle block on the floor by her feet not quite under the table.
Kaho-kun is going to be busy, Susuki-san will be busy. Ei has already finished all her homework, cleaned the bathroom, washed all the sheets and blankets in the house, done the laundry, every possible kind of busy work has been completed. Anything else she could do would be dancing the line between ‘busy work’ and just lying about being busy.
Ei lets her forehead thump onto the wooden table. She actually has to go to the parent viewing. A low whine escapes her throat, rising in pitch until her voice disappears and her throat feels funny. She hates the parent viewing. If Naruto is chosen then she’ll be in this apartment all alone.
Naruto’s clammy hand slaps her knee and a confused “Eh?” sound comes from out of her at the sight. Naruto is cute, happy, kind, and babies always get adopted first. He still has a chance. Ei can’t take that from him, even if that chance is gone for her. Parents don’t always adopt at the first meeting. It’ll be fine.
“Eh!” More little baby slaps on her knee and swirling orange announces his displeasure. Ei digs her fingers into her hair to rub her scalp. She quickly realizes what she's doing and yanks her hands away, Hisako says fidgeting is looked down on. Ei looks under the table at her brother to see his big blue eyes looking back at her. The viewing starts at 10:00.
“That's me. Ei.” She says miserably.
“Eh!!”
“Alright!” Ei straightens her slumped posture and claps her hands in front of her. Naruto looks to her hands at the sound and crawls towards Ei. She gets up and scoops Naruto into her arms, eyeing the wrinkled sleep clothes they both wear. These will not do. She did recently get Naruto a pair of nice pants. Those would do.
“Let's get you ready!” She announces.
Naruto babbles to Ei the whole time during the get ready process, a mix of garbled baby talk and actual words, mainly ‘Ei’ and ‘Gama.’ Ei scrubs them both in the bath until she is sure they are both clean, finds Naruto’s best fancy shirt (a blue short sleeve with buttons sewn on to look like a button up) and puts on her nice red pinafore dress over a perfectly white undershirt. A baby tote-bag packed with all the necessary items. (diapers, wipes, Naruto’s favorite gama-stuffy, Ei’s kitty-cat wallet, and snacks.) Naruto is seated comfortably in a carrier wrap on Ei’s back that lets him look around while seated and cling to Ei’s neck. Everything is packed and ready, Ei steps out of her apartment and locks the door behind her.
“No more excuses.” Ei breathes. Hisako is right, she is avoiding it. She starts the walk towards the stairwell.
“Yah.” Naruto pipes up from her back, already snuggled into her neck. Ei’s hair is getting long, so she has it in a neat ponytail with an occasion-appropriate bow to keep it out of Naruto’s face. He has started to say actual words, and mimics Ei’s pauses before replying. You can tell when Naruto is talking to someone or to himself because he waits when talking to someone else. Ei had been slightly worried about that, but Hisako had approved of this, saying that Naruto would not have to be trained out of babbling like Ei did in her toddler years.
It’s only eight o’clock in the morning, so Ei quietly explains the parent viewing to Naruto while she walks at a leisurely pace to the Orphanage. The viewing is today and Ei hasn’t gone to one in almost a year. She stopped going to the viewing around the time she started taking care of Naruto. There wasn’t a specific reason she just… stopped going.
The markets are being set up now, the food stalls preparing for the breakfast rush and storefronts opening. Konoha is awake now, bright signatures of genin rushing around and the blur of chakra that is the Market beginning to settle. The main Market was in the middle of the Village, family-owned stores lining the sides, permanent and temporary food stalls scattered throughout. Women with toddlers, and parents setting up stalls while their children organize their products. Teenage siblings dragging around their young charges trying to find breakfast. The market is a wonderful mix; happiness, disappointment, contentment, satisfaction, anger, excitement, joy, disgust, and everything all at once.
The markets become overwhelming in the busy hours with all that emotion and energy, but in the mornings the civilian signatures are small. It's like watching a moving painting, a picture of Peace. Ei used to love the markets, just sitting on a bench and absorbing the feel of the crowd. Then the markets had turned sour against her, because of the boy she held with her. It became sour, it stank of fear and sadness. It became better after the damaged sector was fixed and the memory of that night faded. But it still wasn’t the same.
It wasn’t the same without the calm police building, which used to be close to the markets and village center. The building had been like warm stone and glowed gently like the charcoal in grills all over the market, now it was a memorial for the Kyuubi attack. People shied away from the trusted Uchiha police now, mutters and chakra tinted with fear and resentment following the steps of the Uchiha.
Ei tried to always be kind to the Uchiha, because the Uchiha police broke up fights and made sure the orphans were safe.
“There will be a festival soon, Naruto.”
People talked about it, and she had seen a flyer for it in the apartment’s laundry room. It was supposed to celebrate the defeat of the Kyuubi, and honor the lives lost. She had heard two genin talking about it (she was eavesdropping) as well, that there would be a memorial sort of service at the shrine. There was much excitement about it, because while there would be sadness for the people no longer here, it was still a celebration. The Yondaime had become Hokage right after the end of the 3rd war. Ei had only been a baby during that, but the war had scarred Konoha, they hadn’t truly celebrated anything in a while. This Festival was a triumphant declaration. Konoha had not been crippled by its tragedies.
“It will be my first festival, and yours too.”
“Ah!”
Ei was coming up on the Orphanage now, she could have taken the short path through the woods straight to the building, but she wanted to walk through the markets. It was a bad attempt at putting off the parent viewing. The night shift guard switched with the day shift somewhere behind her, a greeting pulsing quietly.
It was 9:30 now. From the gates she could sense the kids moving into the courtyard, along with the nervous anticipation hanging over the young ones, and calmness boarding on apathy over the older ones. Such a fragile hope.
She sighs and walks forward.
This is why she didn’t like the viewing.
She trudges up the stairs to check in to the list. The list helps the matrons keep track of all the kids, as well as giving them an accurate record of the kids for potential parents to look over. She checks in with her name and takes a slip of paper for her and Naruto. The paper also helps matrons keep track of younger children, and helps the small ones remember important information.
She fills in the slots for name, Kanji and Hiragana, age, and birthday (if known) for herself then pauses when it comes to filling out Naruto’s.
October 10th is not a day remembered fondly by most. She could… change it. A glance at the helper by the desk shows she isn’t paying attention, focused on helping a small girl pin the paper to her shirt. I could make him younger, She thinks, maybe a day before the 10th? Even if they check the records and see she filled it incorrectly then they would just assume she didn’t know the correct date.
I have to give him the best chance I can. She bites her lip and presses the pen to the paper.
“I see you decided to attend Ei. I’m proud of you for making that wise decision.”
Ei jumps, she didn’t even notice Hisako’s chakra! She clicks the pen closed and turns to the woman. Hisako has the fancy green kimono with the yagasuri pattern and the deep pink obi she always wears during the viewing, and her hair is pinned neatly at the base of her neck.
“Uhm. Yes. I did.” Naruto is babbling behind her, and Ei is suddenly aware of the dust on her sandals.
Hisako stands beside her to look at the forms, one finger pointing to Naruto’s unfinished form.
“You have left this blank. Uzumaki-kun’s birthday is in the records, shall we check them now?” She gestures towards the metal filing cabinets behind the desk, one eyebrow raised. Ei knows that Hisako-san is really asking why it was left blank, because both of them know what day Naruto was born on.
Ei waits the appropriate two seconds, fidgeting with her fingers. “I know what day it is.” She mumbles.
“Speak clearly please. You don’t have to whisper, our conversation is private enough. Why have you decided to falsify Uzumaki-kun’s birthdate?” Hisako cuts right to the chase.
“October 10th is not,” Ei looks for a way to say it without sounding sneaky, “a happy day. I thought that the parents would not want to be reminded of a bad day, then think badly of Naruto-chan. So I was going to put the date as the 9th.” She finishes and looks to the side, embarrassed at being caught.
“While I admire your forethought, it would be best not to lie about this.” She says in approval. “You may correct in assuming that the 9th would leave a better impression, however a lie would be discovered eventually.”
Ei nods and adds the correct date, then pins the slips to both their shirts. Hisako casts an eye over them both, adjusting the strap of Ei’s dress and the bow in her hair.
Ei wants to ask, why? Why does it matter if he was born on the 10th? Why should that change who Naruto is? He was born on a terrible night, yes, but he is so sweet, and happy. He is clever too, he can already understand what Ei says, even if he can’t use words to respond. He is so strong, the hand that grips hers is so strong. He gives so freely, sharing any snacks or toys given to him with Ei. He is so gentle, so careful with the kaichu Kaho lets him see. He is adorable, bright blue eyes and whiskered cheeks, chubby little legs and giggles. Ei does not say any of this, instead she nods to Hisako-san politely and goes to the courtyard.
_________
Ei has grown into her role perfectly.
Hisako likens her mission to bonsai gardening. She nudges saplings, trims them, bends them, breaks them, and nurtures them into the perfect shape. A cut branch can become even more beautiful than its wild counterpart under her guiding hands, and that is her role.
Konoha’s roots are cared more by Danzo-sama, its branches cared for by the Sandaime. Hisako trims a bit, grafts on new branches, strips some bark here, supports a twig there, and creates the perfect bonsai trees, perfect replicas of Konoha’s Will of Fire.
Ei will be perfect.
Hisako had originally planned to keep her alone and let her be quietly swallowed up by the village. Ei had shown noteworthy signs of becoming a sensor at a young age, but the babbling, crying fits, and clinginess had to be trained out of her before she could be of any use. However when given a task to care for the container, Ei stepped into the role of caregiver forsaking her own desires as she did today. Academy reports showed a lack of “emotional understanding” but seeing as Ei could easily read the state of her peers Hisako didn’t see this as an issue. The Kyuubi attack was an unexpected variable, but gaining control over the jinchuuriki was a pleasant outcome. The Yondaime’s death was also a change, but a profitable one. Without that boy loitering around her orphanage, and Hiruzen back in the Hokage seat, Hisako could work freely.
Ei no longer hoped for a family that much was clear, but Ei would still provide opportunities she no longer had to the jinchuuriki. Already Ei would put the mission over her own emotions, a trait Hisako had intended to cultivate in the child later.
From her place in the center of the courtyard Hisako could observe Ei from her peripheral, watching the scene she planned play out over and over. Some would approach, be put off by the glaring child and the demon fox, then retreat, and Ei would be reminded that no one would ever want her.
It was almost too perfect. Hisako thinks as she watches Ei speak to a couple. Goro and Haya Aoki stand over Ei grinning and speaking softly. They coo over the child she holds, compliment her dress, ask her about school and promise to return to speak with her again. Aoki Goro and Aoki Haya approach Hisako to simper, looking ever so pleased that they clicked with one of the children. They will return before the next viewing, and oh would Hisako be so kind as to allow them to speak with that darling girl once again? Yes of course! Why, all they have to do is speak to the volunteer at the lobby desk!
Ei sits holding the Jinchuuriki, with a glazed look.
Yes, Hisako’s eyes crinkle and her lips lift in a perfect motherly smile to the couple as she ushers the happy couple out now that the viewing for the young age group is over. Ei will do wonderful.