nine.
The Hokage had stayed just a bit longer to explain the financial situation. Ei’s student tuition would also be paid for by him as would the apartment. Once she was out of the academy she would have to survive on her own paycheck, but that was a good enough grace period for her. That gave her six years to get a stable income, and that amount of time seemed so far ahead of her that it felt like it would never come. The Hokage left her apartment after showing her how to put money aside in savings accounts and promised to return. He wanted to see Naruto ‘every once in a while’ which was such a vague and terrifying promise Ei vowed to keep the apartment perfectly clean just in case he would show up.
Goro-san and Haya-san (because they asked her to be familiar with them instead of using Aoki) had booked an outing with Ei, which she was informed by the Matron would take place during her school day. She had gone anyway just before school started to tell Kaho she couldn’t go to the festival and hurried back to make herself and Naruto presentable. Goro and Haya had shown up just an hour after Ei scrubbed both of them red and dressed them up in nice clothes. They had spent the morning just at a park, strolling along and talking hand-in-hand.
Ei felt a pleasant humm, her insides were all golden and overflowing with happy feelings. Naruto was happy, he had two new friends to hold and cuddle and spoil him, and no sadness from not going to a festival.
Ei wanted it to work out, this whole ‘adopted’ thing, if not for her than for Naruto. So she kept her sensing field to the small area around herself so she could hyperfocus on their chakra every time they met. She told herself that as soon as she felt any cruelty or malice towards her brother then she could leave, but as they sat together for the second time since the parent viewing she found herself relaxing further and further near their chakra signatures.
It lacked the shifting pattern that the living Hashirama forests all around Konoha lent to the people living in the village, but still, both of them kept the warm tone of fire-natured chakra. Similar to Teuchi-san, (a kind stall owner and her only reference for middle-aged civilian men with fire-natured chakra) Goro-san had the subdued warmth of fire, more like the heat that came from a lightbulb that had been on too long. Haya-san felt like the lingering smoke from incense sticks. Their coils weren't quite so shriveled as a civilian, which told Ei they did a lot of manual labor or traveling.
When it was brought up by Ei (along with a brief explanation of what chakra was and exclamations of what a smart little academy student she was) the couple confirmed that they often traveled for their work. They analyzed trends in purchases, books, fashion, color pallets, and whatever was favored by popular and rich people, then brought that back to their business in their hometown to create the most fashionable and pleasing silks to be made into kimono. According to them, their hometown made the finest silk outside of the capital. Their own business focused on painted and printed silks, which would be made into beautiful kimonos, kosode, furisode, tomesode, and especially houmongi.
Haya had delightedly pointed out to Ei a woman they caught a glimpse of in a high-end teahouse. The painted scene of branches with birds perched and taking flight had been designed by herself, and the embroidery embellishing its sleeves was done by one of her childhood friends. They looked so happy talking about their work, but it didn’t show in their chakra.
It stayed stagnant, with no flashes or flares, it was so similar to Hisako-san’s chakra. Why did they feel so similar? It wasn’t cold like hers but it felt… empty? Why would she think that, they smiled and laughed like normal people. Naruto began to feel his nee-chan’s unease and wriggled in his carrier.
“Ei!” He shouted, tugging on a lock of hair and knocking Ei out of her thoughts.
“Thinking hard about that menu aren’t you Ei?” Haya chuckled and petted her hair. “We’ll buy you anything you want, don’t worry about prices!”
Right. They were at a stall right now.
What was she thinking about?
“Can I get the seafood bento?”
Once they had found a nice bench with enough space for the four of them, Ei regaled the tale of her epic journey in trying to find a lined kimono under the price of 10,000 ryo to rent for the festival and her purchase of the silly ubugi for Naruto. That had brought up the topic of the festival and how she would not be able to attend. She left out the part that said the Hokage himself was the one barring the siblings from the Kyuubi festival and just said she was babysitting instead.
“It’s sad that you can’t go to the festival. I was looking forward to seeing you two at the festival.” Goro bent down to Naruto’s level and tapped a finger on his nose, “Especially to see this one’s manly warrior silks.”
Kaho had been disappointed too, Ei hadn’t been sure if she was allowed to tell her the reason why she couldn’t go, but assured her friend that she would explain why once they saw each other. Kaho was understanding though, and politely excited for Ei when she said she was skipping school to meet possible parents. She pushed the obi cords into Ei’s hands to borrow even though she wasn’t going to wear them for the festival, insisting that Ei needed something pretty to have with her at the special meeting. They sat in Ei’s pocket now, and she savored the lingering touches of Kaho’s calm chakra.
“Oh! Here’s an idea, what if we came to hang out with you two?” Haya smiled at Ei, a perfectly motherly smile that crinkled her eyes and highlighted her slight smile lines. “It’ll be our own little festival! That way you can still wear those adorable kimono you bought!”
“What a good idea my wife! I’ll get some stall food and bring the festival to you so you’ll get the whole matsuri experience. Whadda say to that Ei?” He grins widely. Their twin grins aimed at her were slightly off-putting, Ei had never met anyone who smiled so much around her.
That felt a little like a loophole to her, but Hokage-dono never said she couldn’t invite people. Renji-sensei’s wise words come to her unbidden, “If you can prove that it’s a loophole then you didn’t actually break the law.” He was talking about the laws on concealed weapons but it was implied that it could be applied in other places.
“Sure!”
“Permission to speak freely?” A voice broke the shroud of silence that hung over the room.
“Granted.” The warning reply came without pause.
“This may be impudent of me to say but, I believe her talents would be put to use better elsewhere.”
“Your impertinence remains to yet be seen. What is your suggestion for 0203’s placement.”
“The need for capture is gone, Orochimaru has left and taken his experiments with him. My suggestion for candidate 0203 would be to continue training them as a sensor. Her chakra control is good, but once the emotional aspect of her sight is cut off she will be invaluable as a sensor. “
“Your council is noted,” The man’s sardonic voice was final, leaving no room for defiance. “Orochimaru may have left, but he served his purpose by recreating the Shodaime’s kekkei genkai. I have other assets to continue his work. If your candidate can survive training then she will be put to use in the same position as Finch was. I still have need yet of another sensor outside the village, and her skillset looks to be more suited to subterfuge than our late finches.”
“She will have just started taijutsu in the academy. Her sensor training has been taken as far as it can without formal lessons, though it is beyond genin level already.” The woman’s voice contained a note of pride, her words fell from her mouth like the soft clicks of shogi tiles on a game board.
“Be careful of that pride, Hisako, your candidate still has to measure up against the others.”
“I only wish to serve Konoha to the best of my ability, Danzo-sama.”
“HE BROKE MY NOSE! SENSEI!!” Tomoko reeled back clutching her face and fell onto her bottom in the dirt.
“I didn’t! I swear Renji-sensei I only punched her!” Taki broke his stance immediately and waved his hands around in a panic. Tomoko scooted back more in the dirt when he stepped forward to make the kumite to end the match quickly. Renji stepped forward to stop the two with a resigned sigh. This pair’s matches usually ended up in some strange end, the two had great form when just doing katas but they both froze up and flailed around when they actually had to spar.
“Let’s see here,” Renji felt Tomoko’s nose gently, “Yep, you’re alright Tomoko. He didn’t break your nose. Here, tilt your head back down, and see? You aren’t bleeding, you’ll be fine, come on, stand up now.”
Tomoko sniffed wetly and quickly got to her feet to finish the kumite sign Taki extended to her then fled to her spot in the line against the fence. Nana gently patted her back consolingly. “It was a good start Tomo-chan.”
Not really the class thought as a whole.
“Can anyone tell me why Tomoko lost?” Renji-sensei asked the class. “I’d like to take this match as a learning moment for us all. Taki?”
“Well, she was standing weird.” Taki offered sheepishly. He scratched the knuckles on his hand with the other awkwardly.
Renji-sensei liked to use mistakes and impromptu fights as teaching moments for the whole class, which was embarrassing when it was you who messed up, but very educational for everyone as a whole.
“Exactly! Tomoko was standing weirdly, she had her knees pointing inwards so her stance wasn’t firm enough to keep her upright when she took the hit. What else?” He prompted.
“She was looking at his fist?” Shota offered from beside Ei.
“That was the main issue with this match, yes. Tomoko looked at his fist instead of Taki’s chest, and she couldn’t read his movements. Come back here you two.” Renji beckoned the two forth with a wave of his hand.
Tomoko shuffled forward miserably amongst giggles like she was being dragged and Taki walked back to the marked-out square and settled reluctantly back into the ready stance he was in. Tomoko sunk down and copied his stance, and with a little guidance from Renji she was standing correctly.
“OK, Taki throw that same punch, but slowly .”
He did, extending his arm and twisting his body in slow motion.
“Everyone saw that?” Renji prompted him to repeat the action, and for Tomoko to step forward.
“If you just follow his fist it doesn’t give you enough time to move, instead watch his chest and his shoulders. Tomoko watch his chest here, when he twists forward into a punch you’ll see it and be able to better predict his movement.” Taki repeated the punch one more time, this time quickly, and Tomoko was able to block it with her raised forearm, making a muffed thud. Polite claps for both of them rose and they both walked back to their spots shaking out stinging hands.
“Next! Hyuuga Hirahito and Ei.” Renji smiled kindly but he was a dirty liar cause his chakra was laughing at Ei. Hisako-san said she kept on getting paired up with Hirahito for taijutsu because they were supposed to ‘push each other’ in the subject. It mostly felt like getting beat up. It was fun though.
Ei got a sympathetic elbow shove from Shota. “Go show that clan jerk Ei!” He had a competitive spirit behind his big round glasses. Normally Shota and her shared a silent comradery in class as they were both civilian-born students with middling ranks, except in taijutsu where Shota absolutely sucked and Ei actually liked the subject.
Ei wasn’t really interested in ‘showing that clan jerk’ as much as she was interested in a good spar, but she walked into the marked area easily enough. Kaho and Shota gave her supportive thumbs up from the sidelines which she returned with a grateful smile.
Hirahito and Ei both held up a kumite sign without prompting from Renji and sank into their respective stances. Ei just stood in a ready stance and tried to stay in a looser version of Hirahito’s.
“Alright remember, no jutsu or chakra.” Renji-sensei reminds them.
Really, Renji-sensei should be more specific. You can’t fight without chakra.
Without her knowing, a grin stretches on Ei’s face.
Renji-sensei raises his hand, “Sta-”
Without waiting for sensei to finish Hirahito lunges forward into a low kick toward Ei’s shins. True to Sensei’s implied request his limbs aren’t coated with extra chakra, forgoing the chakra-intensive Hyuuga style and mainly sticking to the standard Konoha form the class had been learning for the past couple of weeks. The entire class has been eager to try out the forms they have been practicing for so long, and it shows on both Hirahito's and Ei’s faces.
Ei isn’t cheating per-say by using chakra to make her jump above Hirahito’s low, sweeping kick, higher than normal, at least not by her book. It’s not cheating either to keep her chakra flowing through her coils evenly to keep her body in sync with her mind, as Hirahito is undoubtedly doing as well.
Ei lands on the balls of her feet, quickly ducking under the follow-up high kick aimed for her neck to strike his jaw with an open palm. Hirahito’s eyes glint as he recognizes the form stolen from his clan style. Her strike is paid back with three fast bruising blows on her ribs, forcing her to dance backward. Hirahito now has a matching grin on his face as he advances back into her space, which Ei evades by using chakra to brace her hands on his shoulder as she flips over him. His long ponytail slaps them both in the face when he whips around to jab his knuckle into her shoulder. He dodges Ei’s fist meant for his diaphragm by pinning it with his arm, and easily grapples her to the ground with his heavier body.
He plants a knee into Ei’s stomach making her wheeze a little. They both give dusty grins to each other. Cheers and a smattering of clapping come from the sidelines, the shouts are an even mix of supporting cheers and jeering boos. Ei had unashamedly performed a showy flip while fighting, just cause she knew it was higher than Hirahito could jump.
“Very nice. Please wait until I finish speaking to start beating each other up.” Sensei deadpans, hand still held in the air.
Hirahito moves off her and offers a hand up. Ei takes it and they form the shinobi Kumite to end the match. He doesn’t apologize for starting the match before Sensei said so, and neither does Ei.
“You’ve improved, clanless, but not enough to beat me yet.” Hirahito sneers at her, but despite his rude words, his chakra is pleased with no trace of malice so Ei bows slightly with a smile. She enjoyed the fight too. Hirahito is a very rude boy, but he is an interesting partner because he doesn’t ever feel mean when he’s fighting. Some people feel disappointment, anger, or jealousy when they fight, but Hirahito has a pure competitive spirit when he spars in taijutsu, the same pure energy that Ei senses from exercising or watching kids race each other in the streets.
When she stands up her shoulder aches from where she hit the ground, and Ei knows that all the precise jabs will hurt tomorrow.
“That was a quick match, but what did we learn from watching them?” Renji-sensei asks the class after the scattered cheers pitter off. Hirahito was top in the class for Taijutsu and was shaping up to be rookie of the year, Ei was definitely middling in taijutsu skills but because of her small size, she was a good example for unbalanced fights.
“Ei wasn’t using just the academy katas.” Tokuko raises her hand near the end of the line. “She was doing the jabby move Hirahito did.”
“Can you explain that for us, Ei?” Sensei looks at her expectantly.
“...”
Someone coughs. Ei taps her foot twice while keeping eye contact with the girl. Tokuko keeps eye contact but not without shuffling awkwardly.
“Yes, sensei. I get a lot more bruises when Hirahito jabs me so I figured I’d do the same.” Ei demonstrated the hand position, “I still used the academy style because I’m smaller than Hirahito. I just used open-palm strikes and jabs instead of a punch. ”
Renji chuckled and agreed. “Once you get down those basic katas, then you can add parts of other styles to suit your needs. This goes for all of you, get down the basics of the academy style first, because it was created to give an advantage to you against bigger enemies. Then you can add in parts of your clan styles and adapt to your eventual genin team strategies. Keep this in mind though, don’t try out new things in real combat .”
He made his ‘that’ll get you killed’ face he made whenever he thought the class had done something dumb.
‘Teaching Moment’ over, the two returned to their spots in the line against the fence. Kaho congratulated Ei quietly, she didn’t win but Kaho knew Ei was happy with her match. Kaho had been her willing sparring partner since they started taijutsu, both girls were happy to see each other improve and get stronger.
“You lasted a whole 10 seconds longer this time Ei-kun,” Kaho whispered with a secret smile and an accompanying buzz. Coming from anyone else it would be insulting, but lasting at least a minute against a Hyuuga in taijutsu was an accomplishment for any academy student. Renji called out the next match and the next and the next until everyone had a 1v1 match then lead the class in some cool-down stretches. Ei took the opportunity to practice soothing sore muscles with chakra because her sensei being present counted as supervision. Take that Susuki-san! Once finished he released them to go grab their bags and ‘go home and take showers you bunch of stinky urchins.’
Somewhere in the rainforests of Taki, Susuki Mika had a distinct impression that her careful warnings were being deliberately misinterpreted.
Ei waved to Kaho and Shota as she left to pick Naruto up, happily humming at the thought of a new friend. Ei thinks that she might have come off as haughty to Shota at first, but this year he seemed to have warmed up to her and they shared tips and tricks as civilian shinobi.
Taijutsu lessons had started about a month ago and Ei enjoyed them. She hadn’t really understood the competitive spirit that others had in shinobi classes until she saw a genin team standing on the water and sparring while on a stroll with Naruto and Kaho. They had such bright chakra and they looked like they were dancing, twirling and kicking and ducking and perfectly in sync. Even when their team’s kunoichi broke through the water and emerged soaked, they were all so happy and bright . They were beautiful.
It lit a fire in Ei, and she found herself looking forward to the coming introduction of taijutsu classes. The determined blaze hadn’t faded when they did a week straight of just katas, and it only grew when she saw how far ahead the clan kids were. The distance between Kaho and her alone, it was amazing. Kaho didn’t even like taijutsu but the extra instruction she got just from living with shinobi was crazy to Ei. It made her excited and happy to spar, because it was just raw in a way that the other shinobi skills weren’t. It felt honest in a way that codebreaking and chakra weren’t. Ei learned academy basic katas, memorized them, and watched shinobi train from the tree line and she felt beautiful. And you only got better! There was no cap on taijutsu, no perfect defense, you could always learn something, always be surprised by something. It made Ei think that she might be ok with being a shinobi past the required five years. Taijutsu still wasn’t Kaho’s favorite subject (her favorite was actually the kunoichi class, she really liked all the tricks the sensei gave them on how to hide weapons and messages in normal things) but she willingly helped Ei improve and she grew to better like the subject as Ei and her friend trained together.
Ei had a scheduled life and a routine she stuck to zealously. Chakra wasn’t like that, it was always changing and growing. But it was honest, you can’t lie to the colors of your very lifeforce. Someone can hide their chakra, drawing it in close and pretending it isn’t steeped in sorrow, but they can’t make it something it’s not. If you look really closely, the intent and true meaning in chakra can always be found. To Ei, taijutsu was like that. It was a growing and changing skill. Taijustu was like watching the flow of chakra, it was random and flowing and beautiful to her.
They are in a park, the same as last time. Ei sat on the same bench they planned their in-house festival sitting between her (potential) parents after school, and she was quite happy. Similar to Kaho, spending time with the Aokis was wonderfully floaty. More so than Kaho even, who had more movement in her chakra as the kaichu ran about her chakra network, the Aokis were a haze. Almost like when she sat in the bath for too long and got dizzy but it was good dizzy.
Speaking of the bath, she really should clean up her bathroom, Just in case Hokage-dono came over again.
“You remember that our hometown is up north of Konoha right? There’s a really cool event coming up in a month or so, and we will have to go back around that time.”
What was she thinking about?
Haya-san chimed in immediately, “You could come with us! It’ll be fun! You can travel with us to see the silk displays…
“what a fun time…”
“…your brother”
“…trading…”
Their talk washed over Ei. The hand holding hers squeezed her fingers firmly. “Doesn’t that sound nice?” Haya asks her, Ei squinted up at the woman, it felt like the sun was in her eyes and Haya’s calm incense-like chakra moved in slow whorls of smoke around her.
That did sound nice, didn’t it. Yes, that sounded wonderful.
“It would be a bit of trip, that’s for sure. We’ll have to travel civie style, so I hope that won’t bother our little miss Kunoichi here” Goro winked at her, “Little Naruto will have to stay home for the trip, I’m not so sure we can take a young one like him out of the village...”
No, Naruto-chan couldn’t go out of… the village. The village. Ei felt an alarm course through her and she shook off the chakra settling around her.
Ei snapped to attention and asked Goro-san, “It's out of the village? Who will watch Naruto while I’m gone? How long will we be gone?” She shot off rapid-fire questions at Goro, concerned that she missed something in what they said. She wasn’t allowed out of the village and neither was Naruto, they couldn’t go outside! Goro-san only smiled at her, Haya-san took Ei’s hands which had found themselves twisted in the hem of her skirt. Her long callused fingers stroked Ei’s hands and brought her attention back to the woman.
“Don't you worry about that Ei, we can plan everything out! Naruto can stay with Ms. Hisako and we can go on our trip! It’ll only be a week long and we can fit it into your school schedule.” Aoki Haya looked into Ei’s eyes and smiled perfectly.
Right. There was no reason to worry. Ei’s shoulders sank back down from where they had risen up to her ears and she relaxed against Haya-san’s sides. Her own chakra settled as Haya-san’s whisps and Goro-san’s warmth surrounded her once more.
“We can show you around our home like you showed us your apartment.”
Ei remembered that. Yeah, she showed them around her apartment and they talked and played and ate the best-fried food she’d ever had in her life.
“Yeah. That does sound nice.”
“What… what are you doing here.” Susuki stared at Ei who was standing on her doorstep with the Jinchuuriki strapped to her chest plain as day. The child blinked up at her as she rubbed at the impressive eye-bags she had gained on her two-week-long tracking mission.
“You look very…” EI searched for a word that was true but not rude. She settled for, “grown-up.”
Ei’s thought process was, Susuki-san looks very tired and old for her age currently. Saying that someone looks old is rude, but mature is a positive word. Saying someone is tired is also bad, but saying that they are very adult is positive in her mind. People tended to use the word ‘grown-up’ when they complimented the older girls who helped care for the babies at the orphanage even though they were tired. Susuki looked like one of those girls right now.
Susuki wasn’t offended but she was confused about how she looked ‘adult’. Ei’s earnest expression let Susuki Mika know that the kid at least thought it was a compliment so she nodded gracefully as she could, having woken up an hour ago after a 2 week long mission.
“I had a long mission.” She says in a way of explanation.
Ei blinks up at her still.
Susuki stares back for what felt like a whole minute. “Ei.” She starts and then drags a hand across her face in an attempt to make the confusing scene go away. “Why are you here?” She asks in what she hopes is a kind and elegant manner.
Ei’s gaze had drifted to the roots of her hair which were definitely brown now, a stark contrast to the almost neon red that she dyed it. Ei tapped her foot on the doorstep twice.
“I saw you come into the village. Your chakra.”
“You saw me. From your apartment, walk into the village.”
Ei pauses in what was definitely guilt, not politeness. “Yeah. I uh. I was waiting by the gates. Your chakra looked sad so I came to cheer you up!” She held aloft her bulging tote bag as an explanation, and an attempt to direct Susuki’s attention away from the fact that she had totally been training without her.
Susuki looked at the child, at the demon container, and then at the bag. Susuki Mika was a grown woman and did not put stock into rumors. She mentally shrugged and tucked her chakra away so she could ignore the Jinchuuriki and the anbu 50ft away stuck to her neighbor's wall like a frog. “Come on in then.” She opened her door wider and let in her strange visitors like she did this every day.
Ei softly pushed Susuki to sit on her own couch and puttered about her kitchen looking for cups. Susuki was locked in an intense staring contest with the happiest looking baby she’d ever seen for about 3 minutes before Ei came back to the low table in Susuki’s living room with two cups Susuki hadn’t even known she owned and poured tea into them. Ei sat down next to, what was probably the elusive brother she had never seen in the almost year she’d been tutoring the kid and handed the child a little cup of puffed rice crackers.
Yeah sure, the Jinchurriki was Ei’s ever so adorable baby brother whatever sure. Thats fine. Susuki chanted these thoughts to herself because she knew that eventually, she would come across the poor bastard, she just didn’t think it would be a baby , that would replace the old Jinchurriki because chakra can’t die it recycles, stupid SS gag order, stupid chakra stupid stupid.
“Do you want strawberry cookies or chocolate cookies?” Ei asked.
Because Susuki Mika was an adult and a chunin of Konoha she outwardly showed no indication of wanting to cry in confusion. “Strawberry.” She said, like a completely calm adult.
Ei pushes the plate of pretty little butter cookies toward her. “You were gone for a while.” It had been 2 weeks in fact. “But you are back now Susuki-san.” She grins at Susuki and kicks her feet back and forth.
“That’s true.” Susuki agrees freely with a smile of her own. “I am back home.” And home she was. It was… nice. Sure the jinchuriki was here and he smelled like burnt ass and rage but if she ignored that she could focus on the fact that her favorite (only) kind of student had brought her favorite tea because she was sad.
“So why did you, bring your brother with you? You don’t normally bring him with you.” Susuki asked in a strained voice.
“Well he makes me happy, and he’s pretty cute.” Ei poked his puffy little whiskered devil checks, and after a glance back at her and two taps on the table, Ei said, “Should I not have brought him? I can drop Naruto off at the orphanage if he is too bright. He is very orange.” She said cautiously, and Susuki was not gonna send her away just cause the kid’s chakra grated on her nerves. It was an obvious leap of trust, Susuki knew now that she had never seen Naruto because Ei was protecting him from whatever prejudice she could, and Ei clearly trusted Susuki enough to bring her brother here. It raised all sorts of questions about whether or not Ei knew that there were anbu tailing her currently, and why the hell she lived by herself but those could all be answered in time.
“No, no, it’s fine. I’m, well I’m surprised to meet him but, it's alright. Let’s talk about you though! You sensed me entering the gates all the way from your apartment! That’s pretty cool!” If Susuki was more awake was more awake she would be giving Ei a stern lecture on not burning your chakra network before she even hit 10 but she figured she’d give the kid some slack.
Ei told her about her new taijutsu classes between bites of cookies, which were admittedly quite good, and sips of green tea from a giant plastic bottle. Susuki dodged questions about her mission and asked Ei if she enjoyed her time at the festival.
Ei pretended that she did go to the festival, and acted like she hadn’t forgotten what happened that night entirely. It was a complete blank in her mind except for a vague sense of happiness, along with other holes in her memory, so she instead focused on her big news.
“You’re getting adopted? Oh Ei that’s wonderful!” Susuki reached over and squeezed Ei into a tight hug. Then remembering that the- child- the child was there too she asked, “Your brother too? The both of you?” She asked in uncertainty.
At this Ei wilted a little. She stayed in Susuki’s embrace and counted two seconds. “I don’t know. Naruto-chan isn’t very.” The two looked to the small boy who had now finished his rice crackers and was gumming on a plastic ring toy from Ei’s bag. “He isn’t very popular.” She finished lamely.
That was an understatement, Susuki can’t imagine that the Hokage wouldn’t just let the Jinchurriki get adopted by some random civilian couple. Or that a random civilian couple would even want to adopt him.
“I think it will work out though Susuki-san. Hisako-san says that he might have a chance.” Ei says hopefully after a long pause. Susuki can’t bring herself to say anything so she squeezes Ei one more time before returning to her spot at the table.
“Tell me about them.” She says instead.
This brings Ei’s smile back to her face and she tells Susuki all about the Aoki’s.
“They are gonna take me to a festival in their hometown so I can meet some of their family. Haya-san said it was going to be a surprise, but Goro-san wanted to tell me right away.”
“That sounds fun! When will that happen? And you said they would move into the village with you?”
“Yeah! They are gonna take their business back here and move into the old dye district. I think,” here Ei paused and looked down into her lap with a rare blush. “I think they really like me. The festival they are taking me to is in a couple of months.”
“Well, what do you think of them?”
“They’re wonderful Susuki-san.”
Three months later, Ei has an official Hidden Leaf civilian passport and is on track to be adopted into the Aoki family. They will live in the village, and Ei can continue to train as a ninja and see her brother every day.
She hugs Kaho-kun goodbye at the gates and waves to Hisako-san holding Naruto from the small laden cart led by Goro-san in the front. Haya-san sits beside her in the cart and waves with her. Ei pulses a goodbye to the constant presences that were around her for over a year and actually gets a response from the ever-shy Inu-san. Susuki-san couldn’t make it to the send-off, but they had said goodbye already beforehand.
Once the wonder of being outside the Hidden Leaf’s walls wears off, Ei talks to Haya-san about what souvenirs she should get, with suggestions from Goro-san. Their hired chunin guard is silent and stern, so Ei doesn’t distract him from his job watching them. Once it gets dark Goro-san leads their horse to drive the cart off the road and they stay the night in the woods. The skies are darker out here in the wilds, but it makes the stars look all the brighter.
On the second day of travel, Ei keeps silent. Haya strokes her hair and hums, the incense-like chakra fogs her head and she falls asleep to the rhythm of the hoof beats on the road.
When she wakes two days later the soft warmth is gone and she lies on the cool hard ground.
“Haya-san?” She rises groggily from the cold ground and her stiff limbs crack in protest of moving. The incense and lamplight is gone, along with the firm sense of packed dirt from the chunin man, instead replaced by cold moonlight. She calls out again after a minute of silence broken only by her own harsh breathing.
“Haya-san?” Ei sends a searching pulse out from her hand still planted on the ground and the illusion shatters. They aren’t civilians, she doesn’t know where she is , Goro isn’t fire natured, She doesn’t remember a single meeting they had, where, why did Hisako-san let them take her , where-
Her breath comes in ragged pants and finally the information rushes back to her. The Aokis and the chunin are gathered somewhere ahead. There’s not another person besides them in the two-mile range she checked, and she doesn’t want to be in this forest without chakra so she doesn’t look further. Ei blinks to clear the mist in her eyes and the ringing in her head increases. Goro’s light grey back pops in the dark spaces between the trees.
Ei doesn’t have time to think about her next course of action before a hand settles on the back of her neck and pulls her up by her shirt.
“Don’t waste chakra.” The chunin, he’s wearing a blank white mask and a different uniform but Ei knows it’s him. “You’ll need it for the rest of the journey.”
“Y-yes sir.” Ei is set on her feet and follows the man to Goro-san and Haya-san. It’s so dark out here that she can’t see the silhouettes of the adults, she can only follow their chakra trails. The chunin man emerges from the woods with Ei on his heels onto the beaten dirt road. Immediately the hair on the back of her neck raises, her green chakra begins to simmer under her skin.
Goro has his back to her as he unseals something from a scroll with a dull thud. It squelches when it falls and Goro kicks it further across the road.
Something is horribly wrong.
She knows this. She so wanted to believe, to believe that she could have been wanted by someone. That someone would see her. It wasn’t real .
Her chakra shakes off the last of whatever was clinging to her signature.
“Goro-san. Where are we?” Ei asks boldly, “I’d like to go home now.” Her quiet voice shakes and her heart beats at a staccato jackrabbit pace but her voice is still clear in the silence of the night. It’s fear, not like that night when the Kyuubi tore Konoha with it’s claws. This fear grips its cold fingers into her chest as she realizes what's on the ground and that all three of the adults are completely cold in her senses.
“It’s done,” Goro says without looking at Ei, like she isn’t even there.
“Goro-san I-” Ei’s voice hitches and stops when Haya steps forward, clothed in the same black uniform as the chunin man. She blasts a quick flash of fire toward the middle of the road illuminating the scene for a brief moment before it hits the wagon and bursts into flame.
The flames reflect off of discarded kunai and make the dark puddles gleam in the night. Ei sees three bodies lying on the dirt road, bloodied and trodden. The image burns itself into her brain. There’s something wrong about how they lay, she knows that she is here but her body is on the ground right there .
The taste of ash lingers even as the wagon fire burns out into glowing embers and her limbs tingle like ants crawling over her skin. Genjutsu. It’s a genjutsu. That’s why she can see her body and it’ll break and she’ll be in Konoha and it never happened at all.
“Kai.” Comes the whisper. Ei raises her hands into the ram seal to perform the chakra pulse she only saw Susuki-san do once. It's a ball of chakra focused on the tenketsu on her brain, then pushed out to disturb the layers on her, just like Susuki-san did. She becomes aware of the wetness on her face as the image doesn’t waver.
“Kai!” Desperately she prepares to send a wave out, trying to break, searching for something.
“Stop wasting chakra.” The man smacks her upside the head and she drops her hands to her sides as she stumbles forward. Her gaze doesn’t leave the strange angle of her body’s neck. Why isn’t it leaving? Her own breathing begins to outpace her heartbeat and it becomes louder than the roar of the wagon burning and more powerful than the scent of flesh burning. The ringing in her ears pitches itself higher when Haya places a finger on her temple.
I don’t want to die!
Ei’s eyes don't leave the puddle that reflects the firelight as she starts rambling without pause.
“Who is that?”
“Where are we?”
“What is that?”
“Haya-san!”
The adults are ignoring her shrill voice, moving stuff around and shuffling the dirt around her. Smoke from the wagon climbs higher into the sky, the smell of burning increasing with it.
“Why are you wearing masks?”
There is no sunlight dancing in the corner of the eye, nor is there laughter. It was cold enough in the night for her breath to be seen in quick puffs, and the air was thick with chakra. It’s disgusting. She hates it. More than ever before, she hates her sight, because its only confirming how alone she is.
“Goro-san!”
Cold and cruel, it's like an animal, no emotion or infliction, just intent pressing her in on all sides.
“Shinobi-san?”
Her questions become whimpers and hiccups. She is whisked away into the night and there is none to know the wiser.
Ei’s death is witnessed by none, traveling merchants flocking to the biggest display of silk crafting skills since the third war come across the burnt scene and crumpled bodies and shake their heads at the bandits' audacity to kill so brutally only days away from the biggest hidden village in the elemental nations. It takes a week for the message to come to town that the Aoki’s are dead, and another week for Ei’s few relations to be notified of her untimely death at the hands of rouge genin level bandits.