fourteen.
Ikaru was asked to remove her mask as soon as she entered. Danzo was seated on a cushion at a chabudai-style desk, he waved away the women who brought her there. She clipped the ceramic Finch mask onto her belt and sat in seiza before the low desk. Her mind was empty. Two days after the Hyuuga Incident, she had no expectations, good or bad, for the report.
“Why do you think I gave you this mission? Speak freely.”
“My skill set and lack of notoriety applied to the situation well.” And to test my aptitude for future missions. She did not say that in case that was something she wasn’t supposed to notice.
“A surface level assessment. Notoriety would have no bearing in taking a mission like this, do not attempt to hide your thoughts from me, child.”
“I apologize, I thought the mission would also serve to asses my aptitude for similar missions in the future.” She accepted the reprimand without flinching. A low-level ringing started in her ears.
Danzo-sama hummed low in his throat in response and said nothing else. A heavy silence fell over the room as he parsed through the documents that sat on his desk. Her ankles began to ache from supporting all her weight and nervous thoughts invaded her mind.
She managed to keep her face blank, but truthfully she wanted to break into anxious tears. She and half the base knew that the mission was to observe only, she didn’t regret stopping that man but she worried what would happen next. Maybe twenty minutes had passed in silence before she felt approaching familiar signatures. Yuu-san, Hidari, and Yui all entered the room within a couple of seconds of each other, each of them bowing and assuming the seiza before the desk like her. They all removed their masks without prompt. She cursed herself lightly for not bowing when she entered. She would remember their mannerisms for future reports.
Danzo-sama stamped a scroll with his seal and laid the scroll to the side. He folded his hands into his sleeves and finally raised his eyes to the gathered shinobi with an unreadable expression. His chakra was hidden from her, and her teammates beside her were blank.
“Ikaru.” His cold gaze lands on her, first in the line-up. His gaze sends invisible tremors up her spine and she tightens her fists in an effort to keep her face steady. She’s afraid. She’s very afraid of this man. She hasn’t had sleep- real sleep- in days, her body aches, every out-of-place hair on her head makes her want to rip it all out, her uniform has dirt on it- and she’s scared.
“Relay your full report to me.”
She swallows and speaks, mercifully her voice stays even. She had plenty of time to organize her report. The report left nothing out. An ache was beginning to climb up her throat, she hadn’t talked for so long in a long time, and the urge to cry was building.
He didn't say anything about the mission, and his face remained unchanged. “Explain your failures to me.”
She swallows again, hoping that the others can’t hear it. She is being singled out and she deserves it, this she knows.
“I was to observe only and wait for orders. I followed the target despite being told to remain at my post.” To her horror, she had a slight tremor in her voice as she spoke, her eyes widening without her permission.
“Was raising the alarms not a failure as well?” He asks. Ikaru desperately wants to tear her eyes away from his face, but his gaze commands her to Look, Speak, Obey.
Forcing herself to remain calm, she answers with no small amount of fear. “No, Sir. The Head-nin of Kumo was attempting bloodline theft. I assessed the situation and sought to prevent an event that would bring another war to Konohagakure.” She bowed her head low, her hair shifting and leaving her neck bare. “I saw error in my superior’s judgment and took action accordingly. I will accept any punishment for my action-”
Fire.
The bright searing fire spread across her body, her spine lit up like lightning. It poured from her mouth, eyes, and ears, every pore was overflowing and screaming at the white-hot pain pouring from her head. Something tore.
I’m dying.
Her head hit the floor with a crack and she was aware of the others, their chakra screaming and writhing within their bodies. The Seal glowing red as a brand in her vision, four times over. Liquid sun flowing from her tongue in waves crumpled on the floor. Slowly the waves became cold, then back to hot, and they came slower and quieter.
A blink and a voice washed over her through the waters.
“Get up.” The voice barked.
She wriggled a hand pinned under her, getting enough leverage to rise. Her arm jerked and she fell again.
“Get. Up.” Danzo-sama was commanding her. Obey.
Rising like a puppet with cut strings, she shuffled without standing back to the spot she had been seated. Ikaru looked to her left side in a daze, Yui was curled into herself and twitching, seal still blazing red. As she wiped the trail of drool off her chin with uncooperative numb fingers, Yuu and Hidari returned to their perfect seiza. Both of them bore the pain silently and looked composed, they hadn’t crumpled as Ikaru had.
Ikaru blinked, long and slow, her eyelids making a snik sound as she tried to grab back onto the thread of focus. Yui eventually straightened too, her chest heaving and eyes wild on her ashen face.
Oh, Ikaru thought. So that’s what the seal does.
“You are correct, Ikaru.” Danzo-sama’s gaze had remained steady throughout, though his expression was now tinted with contempt. His chakra was unreadable as ever. Once again locked in his gaze, Danzo-sama continued as if she wasn’t seizing on the floor just a few seconds ago.
“Your actions prevented a war. As expected of a Root shinobi, you protected the village. I approve of your foresight, and I’m sure the Hyuuga clan would thank you for protecting their bloodline.” A hint of sarcasm towards the end, as if the thought of the Hyuuga thanking anyone was unlikely.
A muscle in her calf jumped, so why-
“However,” His eyes narrowed slightly, and she felt like a bug under his gaze. Suddenly she was miles away, no longer being scolded by the most powerful man in Konoha, but three years old again, being scolded by the Matron for talking. “While your actions may have been in Konoha’s favor this time, do not assume that it will be that way again. You defied your orders. Do not make that mistake again.”
“Understood.” A muscle under her eye jumped as she let her head fall forward in a nod. She straightened and looked forward unfocused as Danzo called out each shinobi for their failures. Yuu should have taken action as team leader, not wait for the agents under him to act out. Hidari should have eliminated the civilian who interacted with the Kumo jonin as a traitor.
Yui trembled under Danzo-sama’s glare.
“You failed your mission.” His tone was blunt and final. The kunoichi beside her froze.
Ikaru was too wrung-out to do anything more than stare ahead with a dull horror as The Seal glowed cherry-red in her senses and snuffed out Yui’s chakra. Yui’s face fell slack, her head bobbed forward and she slumped sideways. She was dead in less than two seconds.
She chances a glance over at her captain, without the mask he is pale-skinned and has deep scowl lines on his face. He didn’t so much as glance over. With a straight back and controlled breaths he resolutely stared forward. Hidari’s face was hidden behind Yuu’s form and his chakra was blank. She matched their mannerisms, straightening her back and forcing her heart to beat in rhythm. Except for the occasional twitch under her eye, she stared ahead with a perfect mask.
Danzo-sama scoffed derisively at the body. “Yuu, give me your assessment of your remaining subordinates.”
“The bastard got released,” She said conversationally, pretending to look at the inventory sheet with great interest and leaning against the wall like she just happened to meet her fellow shinobi on a break. Having just arrived for the shift change and looking somewhat ruffled from the run through the forest marred the illusion.
The chunin manning the southeast safehouse on the border to grass straightened, quickly dropping the appearance of a straight-laced shinobi that was very interested in his job of staring at trees for 8 hours and taking the bait dangling in front of his nose. Gossip.
“Which one?”
“Kumo.”
“How? Thought they would have killed him.” He leaned in with interest, fully ignoring the senior chunin on guard glaring at him in favor of leaning toward the kunoichi.
‘They,’ being T&I. Because people didn’t just leave T&I.
“Apparently,” She uncrossed her arms and shrugged, “The Sandaime didn’t want another war. No one does. It’s not like he actually did anything, he only barely got past the boundary when Anbu sounded the alarm.”
“Really?” The chunin leaned back with a tsk, “The Hyuuga actually let that scum go? Not even a little maiming?”
“Maybe a little maiming.” She chuckled darkly, “I saw the team that escorted the bastard back to the border. All Anbu, they looked pissed.”
Finally, the chunin in charge looked over in exasperation, “Are you taking your shift or not, Susuki.”
“Loud and clear, taichou.”
Ikaru stumbled to her room, fell into her bed, and slept for two days. Once she woke, she took a shower, cut her hair again, and threw herself into work.
Despite her previous failure, it wasn’t long before she got another assignment. This time she had to run to the Takayama Weavers guild to retrieve an information drop. A small brown package inside a seal the size of her thumbnail hidden under a porch.
During her previous ‘assessment’ period she had no missions, but now that she was mid-chunin level it seemed like the missions never stopped. Running out to a Hanamachi district to gather reports, observing people of note, joining a tracking squad to hunt down an anbu who went rogue, eliminating a monk who knew too much, and “cleaning up” experiments that survived when Orochimaru left his labs behind. Between missions, she would get called back for specific training like torture resistance, which she hated, and infiltration, which she failed.
Between missions all over Fire and random calls to go back to base and train, time passed. She sparred, turned in her comrades for the same mistakes she made only a week before, joined the network of gossip, and became a good shinobi. Yui was not the first person who would die in front of her, and she wasn’t the last.
Ikaru did not like or dislike her missions. They are missions, all had to be done.
However, she did feel more comfortable working in the village because she could go shopping while observing.
Definitely shopping.
That’s what she was doing right now, keeping watch on a potential recruit for the foundation, making sure the recruit didn’t notice that she was watching, and shopping. She hit a growth spurt recently and was now utilizing the small chakra boost that came with it to watch her target without having to be within fifty meters of him.
She had been planning this single interaction for months, perfect behavior, flawless missions, collecting coupons, not talking for weeks on end, it all led to this. Perfect, she thought as the warm stall came into view, and orange-glow-brother approached her location. 14 months of mostly successful missions and gained trust. No one would suspect the stick-up Ikaru to be indulging in feelings while on the clock! Not that Root was ever off the clock.
Anbu probably wouldn’t flay her alive if she just went to a restaurant and happened to be there when the Jinchuriki showed up. As long as she didn’t look like the chunin she really was, she wouldn’t draw any attention from them.
Ikaru was tall enough now that she had to push the curtain aside a bit to get to the tall stools lining the counter. “Tonkotsu please.” She said with all the seriousness of a war declaration. Perfect. She thought as seated herself, It’s all going to plan. She even bought a pair of leggings to create a more civilian appearance. They were soft. Much nicer than the almost canvas-like material of uniform trousers.
Teuchu-san gave her a friendly wave and greeted her as she sat down, already heaving another giant pot onto the gas heater.
As she waited for her brother to wander his way to his favorite restaurant (she suspected Ichiraku was the only place that still gave him an orphans discount) she brushed her hands up and down her calves in a self-soothing gesture, taking in the atmosphere. It was almost too easy to fall back into being “normal”. With soft clothes and brushed hair, seated at a bench in the afternoon Konoha heat with clouds of steam and the smell of good food, Ei could almost pretend she was just another kid.
“Careful, it’s hot.”
Teuchi-san carefully placed a bowl in front of her, already turning to greet another customer when she thanked him. She took a pair of chopsticks from the cup further down the bench, stopping to blink at the calluses on her hands. Thin white scars from handling ninja wires and rough patches juxtapose the soft cotton shirt and leggings. In the back of her mind, Naruto turned a street corner and she snapped out of it. Act normal, Ikaru. scolded herself as she dipped her spoon into the broth to taste it, normal kids don’t stare at their hands.
“Teuchi-ji!” A young voice called out.
“There’s our best customer!” Teuchi greeted the small boy cheerfully.
Only due to her training was Ikaru able to avoid choking on her mouthful of food. Even so she put down her utensils, to look at the small boy talking a mile a minute climbing up onto the barstool. He looked skinny, the kind someone got by not eating three meals everyday, one shared by most kids at the orphanage. She closed her eyes to look closer, his chakra network looked to be developing normally, as normal as it could be that he was an Uzumaki Jinchurriki. It was fast, bright, and definitely wind-natured. Just a glance at it looked like a sea storm, something she had seen for herself only a week ago, swirling winds and warm rains.
“Look what I got Teuchi-ji!” The boy smacked down a slip of paper on the counter with a tiny hand. A coupon.
Ei smiled, forcing herself to look away. Clever boy. She was doing the same after all, having searched the market floors each time she had an in-village mission.
On Fridays, orphans got a discount at most food stalls, and plus the coupon, he could eat two bowls free.
She hadn’t needed to use a coupon but to add to the civilian appearance, and maybe a small bit of nostalgia, she found one. The target’s passive chakra output increased. A brief check concluded he was likely training.
Naruto kept up a stream of talk while he waited for his order, telling Ayame and Teuchi all about the bugs he saw and the cool ninja that walked on his roof and the adventures he had playing in the woods. Ei soaked it all in, she wanted to hear it all. Everything she had missed. She ached when he talked about the people who were rude to him that day and glowed when he stumbled around big words. She ordered more food just for an excuse to stay longer.
He finished his meal, happily patting his belly. “Thanks, Teuchi-ji! Thanks, Ayame-nee!” A wide grin stretched on his whiskered cheeks, he slid off the stool.
She would wait a bit longer and leave after him. Ei closed her eyes and focused more on the target, he was displaying a chakra pattern unknown to her. She frowned slightly, momentarily distracted by the satisfied glow around her and focusing more on the shift. Ikaru may have to report that.
“Huh.” Ayame’s soft voice interrupted her, she cracked her eyes back open to look at the older girl.
“Ah, wait up Naruto! This is expired!” Ayame called after him just as he walked under the curtains. He patted his shorts, dug through his pockets and came up with two coins and a marble. With a sheepish laugh, he reached up to the counter and dropped the two coins.
“Put it on my tab?” He asked hopefully. His forehead just barely cleared the height of the counter when reaching up on tiptoe.
“That’s not how tabs work Naruto,” Ayame said with a shake of her head.
This was just too pathetic to watch, really. How does the boy sponsored by the Hokage himself not have enough money? Were Ei a braver or stupider person she would march to his office right now! But she wouldn’t. Instead, she carefully coughed into her fist calling their attention.
“He can use my coupon.”
Ayame and Naruto turned towards her at the same time, ending their silent stare-down. From the corner of her eye, she saw Teuchi-san give her an appraising look.
“Are you sure nee-san?” He looked nervous and pointed to himself, probably unused to being addressed by other patrons.
Too cute! Her heart panged, for the first time that night she looked Naruto in the eyes. Great big blue eyes and adorable whiskered cheeks, fluffy hair, and the cutest button nose! That’s her little brother! Definitely could use a couple more square meals, but he looked happy enough.
Her target was nearing the end of her range now, she needed to move. Realizing she had been silent for a socially unacceptable amount of time, and that she probably needed lessons in subtlety, she coughed again. “Y-yeah.”
“Really, ‘ttbayo?” He checked again.
Where did he pick that up? “Sure. I can pay for mine.” Ei pulled the slip of paper from the pouch on her thigh and shoved it into his hands. They were kinda sweaty.
“Thanks!” He beamed up at her and passed it to Ayame and ran off. Small shifts in the field around her let her know the ever-present Anbu had left with him. Ei watched him leave for a second, then got out enough money to pay for herself.
“That was kind of you,” Ayame said when she hopped off the stool, “Most kids our age aren’t very nice to him.”
“Can’t imagine why,” Ei said honestly. Ayame scowled at her and she left quickly, seeing that she had made some sort of social faux-pas. No reason to shed her civies yet, so she took a wandering path around the stalls until her target was safely within her range again.
A slight frown appeared on her face again. Maybe it was just a mistake, bloodline users often had strange twists in chakra. Seemed like it was centered around the tenketsu in the head.
She stepped out of a passerby’s way and stopped when she came to a bench. A glance at one of the police, chatting with patrons in an izakaya entrance. Older than her target, likely in possession of the Sharingan. She kicked a pebble, Ikaru’s thoughts racing.
Twist wasn’t the word. Stutter? wasn’t it either. Flicker? That seemed right.
Her problem wasn’t the word.
To include it in her report or not, was the problem. She didn’t really want to. Uchiha Shisui was an exceptional shinobi, a war hero, a Jonin at 12, and the pride of the Uchiha. In her personal opinion, she did not think he was fit for the foundation. From her observations, he was likely a natural sensor type. His chakra reached out to its surroundings, bright and burning. She was meant to monitor his actions and look for anything notable. The mission requirements were extremely vague, Ikaru assumed that if Danzo-sama saw worth in the Uchiha boy’s report then he would be joining the ranks, one way or another.
Ikaru did her job, and she did her job well. She didn’t like it, but she would complete the mission requirements. Uchiha Shisui had created a new variant of the body flicker. That was pretty notable. And he hadn’t submitted it to the office of jutsu creation. Also notable, bloodline-specific justu fell under clan secrets and didn’t have to be made public.
She kicked a pebble at her feet. Shisui was already known for his proficiency, and there was rumor in the ranks that Konoha would put him in the bingo book. Shunshin no Shisui. The name alone meant he was proficient anyway, even if she didn’t report it someone else would catch it.
It worried her. There were no Uchiha in root. Why now?
Danzo-sama assigned this task in person. Whatever seal that muffled his chakra, also muffled his intent. But his face was in plain sight. Ikaru wasn’t the best at reading people but, there was something there, a sharpness in his expression when he spoke of the Uchiha clan. It wasn’t really a secret that he disliked them, so why recruit their shining example?
It doesn’t matter. Ikaru steeled herself, Danzo-sama has Konoha’s best interests in mind, and all of Root was an extension of his will. Her task is monitor and report, there was no room for questioning. She rose from the bench and started towards one of the concealed tunnel entrances.
“Hey, Ji-ji.” Naruto said suddenly.
“What is it?”
Naruto pointed to The Picture on the shelf. There was only one shelf in the apartment, and it mostly had small books with writing on them. There was a frame on the top shelf that he had been told before was him as a baby, and that the girl was someone he used to know. Ji-ji had just sighed and said something about her helping at the orphanage and that he’d tell Naruto once he was older.
“Who is that girl? Didn’cha you say I knew her?”
Normally he didn’t think about the weird picture, it was too high up on the shelf anyway. But something looked familiar. Old-man Hokage sighed and rubbed at his chin the same way he did when Naruto asked why Shinobi didn’t like him. He scowled, thinking that he was gonna get a dumb answer again.
“Come one, Ji-ji,” He poked the man’s knee, trying to get the old man to talk faster. “I’m a big kid now,” He pouted, as if a week was all it took to be all grown up.
“She used to care for you.” He said finally.
“Well, where’d she go then?” And why am I alone here then, was the unsaid thought.
“She died a while ago, Naruto.” He sighed another big old-man sigh.
He stood on his toes to look at the picture again. A brown-haired girl with an awkward smile holding a baby version of him. The super nice nee-san who gave him her coupon looked pretty similar. Naruto scrunched his face up in thought.
“You sure bout that, old man?”