Chapter 29
2 months- December
.
Naruto now understood why Shisui complained about the UPF work a lot. It was boring. She'd take doing paperwork over running around the village sorting out a bunch of pesky kids who thought it would be a good idea to put a trap in the ground outside an elderly couples house.
Granted, the elderly couple were unnecessarily cruel to the orphans but that was still no excuse. They could have pranked them in a way that didn’t lead to bodily harm.
She had been doing this work along with her ANBU missions and her information retrieval for the past three weeks and honestly, she didn't want to do it but knew she had to.
She had been the one to offer her assistance and she'd see it through to the bitter end.
Really, besides the boredom that came with her department, it wasn’t that bad. The Uchihas weren't too grumpy and some seemed pretty likeable. It was a shame that mere rumours had taken down a clan like theirs.
"You look ready to bolt from boredom. Or is it flash? I can’t quite remember." Spoke Shisui and her brightened when she realised she had some form of entertainment in the form her of friend.
'More like addiction not friend.'
'Shut-up Kurama. We all know we were friends well before our addictions came along.' She replied, her face tinting pink both in her mind scape and in real life.
"Did Kurama say something? Your face is pink." He noted, taking a seat next to Naruto who was currently playing secretary.
Of course, she had her blood clones going around the village with the Uchiha to help them out but the original had to stay in place so her multitude of memories wouldn't confuse her.
You don’t want to mix up one murder with another.
It isn't pretty.
"Ah. He's being a pervert as usual. Once he suggested I go into the middle of a town and activate my heat. Intentionally. Just so he could see what would happen." She pouted at the memory.
"Did you?" He asked.
She sighed heavily and replied, "Not intentionally but yes. I didn’t realise it was mating season and I was in the middle of a busy centre. A bunch of Inuzuka had to go the opposite way and worse of all, I ran into Kakashi. Shodai that was embarrassing." She blushed scarlet at the memory. Kakashi had been so confused and flustered over his reaction to her that had she not been embarrassed beyond belief she would have laughed.
Shisui winced at that, "Awkward." He muttered.
She nodded in agreement because it was a much awkward as it was embarrassing. No one wanted to get seen with a boner for their sensei's sister in public. It was bad enough getting one to begin with.
Shisui furrowed his brows in thought, "What happened after that?"
She bore her teeth at Kurama and glared at him, making sure he didn’t say anything as she replied through a cough, “Orochimaru and Jiraiya had to restrain him as Orochimaru took Kakashi a safe distance from me.”
Shisui quirked a brow, “How much is a safe distance?”
She furrowed her brows, “We were in Kawa and he had to take him to Taki before he properly calmed down.”
Both of Shisui’s brows went to his hairline. That was an impressive distance, he had assumed it would be at most the distance between Ishi and Kusa but that was a big distance he had been put through.
“Why such a big distance?”
She played with a lock of her golden hair, “Orochimaru said something about Kakashi knowing my scent or something so he couldn’t get over it.” She shrugged her shoulders, “I didn’t pay too much attention. Whenever I’m due, I tend to go to Mount Myoboku and hide there for a while since anyone can be affected.”
Shisui nodded and chose to drop the subject, naming the different members of the clan who came into the UPF for their shift. Shisui didn’t have many shifts to take due to his job in ANBU and as a member of the hokage’s guard platoon but he did have a certain amount of hours he needed to complete.
The rest of their shift was a dull one, Naruto receiving memories of her blood clones and had shadow-clones write up everything as she reported to Shisui about what was going on.
.
5 months- March
.
Naruto was sitting on a tree high upon the hokage monument a top the shodai's head as she felt the bust life of the village. Shisui was out of the village with Team Ro and as it stood, she had no one to work with since she worked alone which meant she worked in silence.
It wasn’t bad and she wasn’t complaining after all this was a job she had needed and liked in comparison to being where people would notice her every movement.
From what Shisui had told her before he had been dispatched, relations between the Uchiha and the village were the same. Neither changing their positions in the current stand still which caused frustrations to build within her.
If the Uchiha’s didn’t at least try then all effort would be wasted.
Even Satsuki seemed to be being rude to her classmates which quite frankly pissed her off because Narumi and Arashi were in the same class. Well, for now anyway. Once they were allowed admittance into the academy they could choose which class they’d be in.
They had been taught by Minato, Kushina, Kakashi and Shisui whenever he was around and Naruto’s own blood clones had been teaching them as well.
Whilst their chakra control and physical parts of the shinobi job were something they didn’t work on, they both knew the theory of everything and they would be able to easily enough learn things.
Not the bunshin.
They’d never master the bunshin just like herself and their mother.
Ah, the perks and downfall I'd being an Uzumaki with large chakra reserves.
Another reason Naruto was hiding in plain sight was so she could avoid Minato. Honestly she didn’t know what jiji had been thinking when he made that scroll never mind when he lost it.
.
FLASHBACK.
.
"Jiji. Could you run that by me again I don’t think I heard you correctly?" She asked as she sat across the sandaime hokage in the Sartutobi estate.
Her day had been going fine, she took a shift guarding Minato, met with some of her spies, took a shift at the UPF and helped out TI with a tough cookie earlier as well. Overall it had been an ordinary day.
Till the sandaime dropped this bomb on her of course.
The second God of shinobi had the decency to look flushed and embarrassed by himself, "Your memories which you showed me were taken from my memory to be recorded into a scroll which has been under strict supervision since its creation. However late last night, the scroll went missing and we cannot find it."
Naruto paid no mind to the tea cup she just broke by clenching it too tight and instead replied calmly, "And who gave you permission to seal my memories into a scroll, sandaime-sama."
Hiruzen withheld a shiver at her tone. She wasn’t yelling, she was talking quietly which made things, in his opinion, far more intimidating especially when one factored in the person doing such was an Uzumaki and the kyuubi jinchuriki.
“Technically, the memories were not taken from you but from me, so the memories sealed were my own.”
She gave him a chilling smile, “Yes they were yours, but they were the ones I had shown you from my own mind so by default they were my memories you sealed away and let get stolen. I swear, sandaime-sama, if I find out Zetsu or any of his lackies have the scroll, there’s going to be hell to pay.” She left the Sarutobi elder within a golden flash and searched around the village.
The scroll was the same size as the summoning scroll of the Toad summoners contract but that was it. It had no scent and there was no way for her to find it easily so she’d have to get the old fashioned way- kage-bunshin.
It was several hours later one of her clones had found she scroll and after receiving the information form the rest, she made her way over to the other person she never wished to find out about her memories.
Sure, Zetsu getting them was bad, but so was this. The look on his face was confusion and his chakra was distraught as he gazed at her with despondent eyes.
“Why?” was all he asked and she felt her throat dry up at the singular word.
She looked him in the eye, unflinching, “There was no need to dig up the past. You had no part in it so I decided it best to keep you out of it.”
He flinched at her words but she couldn’t find it in herself to want to take them back. She meant them.
Minato Namikaze had not been there so there was no need for him to know what she had been through. He was Konoha’s kage- their protector. If he knew about her life his judgement could be impaired.
“Had you told me, I would have tried harder. I would have-”
“Don’t say words you don’t mean. I can’t stand people who lie, father dearest.” She spoke the words like chocolate dipped in poison, a bittersweet feeling.
Minato’s expression hardened, “You had no right to keep this to yourself.”
She quirked a brow and was proud that she felt nothing from his comment, “I didn’t keep it a secret. I told a person who could make a difference, I told Konoha’s spy master as well as our Sannin. At a later date I told the sandaime. Orochimaru also knows. There’s no need to broadcast this information. The more of the past that changes the less I can predict it and help.”
They carried on arguing calmly at each other, the calm before the storm and Naruto would wait for the storm to fully brew, as would Minato.
Then all hell would break loose.
.
END OF FLASHBACK
.
Their situation was the same. Whenever they were alone together, Minato would try to talk but she’d come up with some excuse to remove herself from his company and would go off on her own business.
The only ease she got was when she met Kushina and nothing was different. She hadn't expected Minato to go blabbing off to his wife but it had been a concern of hers.
"What's got you hiding up here?" Asked Raido who had been walking up the steps, taking a seat at the base of the tree.
"Nothing much. I just wanna be alone for a bit." It wasn't entirely a lie.
Raido nodded in understanding, "Is it hard?" When she didn't answer he carried on, "Integrating back into the village? You've been back for months now but you always seem ready to leave. Are we that bad?" He jokingly asked but she knew he was being serious.
"There's nothing wrong with the village. I grew up here for most of my childhood after all but I've gotten used to travelling. Constantly being in different places. Going wherever I was needed. I think that's what's hard for me. Staying put."
Raido gave a hum of acknowledgement, "Lord Jiraiya is the same. He said whilst he loved the village he couldn't take the confinement that came with staying. I personally don't believe I'd mind either way." He shrugged his shoulders as he threw a kunai at an unsuspecting bystander.
Genma dodged it yelling profanities whilst Naruto whistled appreciatively, "Nice aim. How’d you manage to get it to go to your mark this far up?" She already knew the answer on how she would do it but she didn’t see Raido use any wind.
He raised his kunai and showed her the handle, on it had a small inscription of fuinjutsu and it suddenly made sense. "This seal stores different chakra affinities inside it which allows me to use them in combat without using my own reserves. Currently I can only use lightning and wind with my kunai and blades but Minato-sama is teaching me to control fire, earth and water in my attacks as well." He explained and she furrowed her brows.
"How would you use earth and water in a blade attack? I get fire, you can encase it around the blade but I dont get the others."
Raido gave her a sheepish grin and scratched the back of his head, "To be honest I'm not sure myself. It's still in the testing phase but once i get it, I'll show it to you. As long as you give me a hand with this."
He raised a scroll and Naruto’s interest piqued at the thought I'd teaching Raido some fuinjutsu. Sure, she had helped them with the Formation seal years ago but this was different. This would be something he would not have gotten without her help.
So of course, she jumped down and landed without a sound in a crouch beside him, taking a look at the seal idea he had come up with.
"Sensory suppression theory. You want to be able to hide your chakra even whilst in use? A tough act but not impossible." She muttered to herself and got out her fuinjutsu set, sending out some clones to get them food. She knew they'd be there for a while.
.
.
.
Shisui had just returned to the village and was listening to Kakashi debrief the yondaime about their mission. It had been bloody. Something he didn’t wish to repeat but he knew he had to as a part of the ANBU black ops.
But he had no other option available to him. Naruto was in ANBU and he had to fill in a certain amount of time and missions before he would be allowed to so solo or join Naruto for her missions.
Of course, he could always tell the hokage that his mangekyo could work wonders on controlling whatever bijuu was inside of her. Not that he would control Kurama, but it was the theory of it that counted when one intended to lie to the hokage.
Just imagining Kurama after being controlled by him made him want to hide in the summoning valleys of his snake contract.
Shisui withheld a sigh, he was tired and wanted nothing more than to go home but even then, he didn't want to go to the Uchiha estate.
Shisui had done everything he could to ensure Itachi would be kept out of the Uchiha political issues and he was rewarded with success. The young prodigy had yet to take his chunin exam, something Minato had forbidden till all shinobi were at least 12 for their own sake as they were not at war.
Of course, leaving Itachi out if the politics meant Shisui had the burden of listening to them and having to constantly fend off their ideas. He had entertained the idea of using his genjutsu but that wasn’t possible.
Naruto would immediately know and she'd kill him and then bring him back to life in order to lecture him for damaging his eyes like that.
He also didn’t want her to have to face the fact that all her hard work wasn’t doing much good for the clan. They were stubborn and held onto the past with vice grips.
Once Team Ro had been allowed to leave he let out the sigh he had been holding and rubbed his aching shoulders, making his way through the village with Kakashi who was reading his… literature.
“You know… if memory serves correct, the Uchiha district is the opposite way, isn’t it?” it was worded into a question but it was a statement in the form of sarcasm.
“I know where my district is Kakashi.” His reply was dry and he heard Kakashi’s muffled giggle.
“So why are you coming this way? You don’t have an apartment and I don’t fancy having you stay the night.”
Shisui took no offence by Kakashi’s words, “I’ll see what I end up doing, but I just don’t want to be home tonight.” He knew there was a meeting and he didn’t want to have to go for it. He’d be informed about what happened later anyway.
There were perks to being ANBU, his clansmen couldn’t say anything about his absence since he could be taken away with the drop of a senbon. Especially since he worked directly for the hokage and not just under him like most ANBU.
Kakashi left to go to his apartment via the window and Shisui sat on the roof of the complex, debating before finally making up his mind.
.
.
.
“What is the point of carrying on? It would be better for you to join your pink haired friend in death for that is all the use you can be for the ten tails. And once you’re dead, I’ll be able to bring the ten tails to its full power.” Obito laughed manically, waving his hands to the corpses on the ground, littering where they stood.
It made her furious, the way he waved at their dead bodies with his bloodied left arm. A reminder that it had been him who had killed her friends when she could do nothing.
She couldn’t rely on Kakashi sensei as he was being treated after their last battle and there was no one else capable on her side of the battlefield she could ask to fight.
There was also the issue that no one else had Kamui.
“Our point for carrying on is to give the kings a new and better life. A war free world we lived for twenty years before you came along and ruined that peace. Twenty years! My generation had never known war till you and your merry band of bastards showed up and ruined everything dattebayo!” her growling voice rang through the large terrain that had been their battlefield.
Obito sighed, and massaged his forehead, “That was no more than a stalemate the five nations had come to. The gap between the first and second Great Wars was also twenty years before they all began fighting again, which led to the destructions of your mother’s home.”
As he spoke, he raised his hand and using a fire jutsu and used his kamui to take it somewhere else and Naruto felt a pit in her stomach as she realised where it was going.
She turned around and wished she had her father’s hiraishin so she could have teleported them away but she didn’t and she couldn’t.
All she could do was stare in horror as she heard their screams and felt their chakra die out as they burnt to death. The twenty-sixth company was dead and there was nothing she could do to help them.
All that training and she was still helpless.
Naruto was jolted out of her nightmare when a hand came in contact with her shoulder and before she could change their positions another hand held onto the other hand which reached for her kunai.
Her intruder was wide eyed and impishly at her, “Nightmare again?” he asked as he looked down from her neck and blushed scarlet, eyes immediately going back up to her face.
Naruto personally didn’t get what was wrong with her outfit, it didn’t show any more skin than her usual clothes when she took off her haori… oh. Oh. She didn’t have her chest bindings on.
Then again, this was the guy who had entered the joint onsen with her inside wearing only a towel in order to not be seen by the fairer sex and to be at the receiving end of their… approached.
She went to get herself comfortable again despite his hold on her, “Yeah… the allied war.” She often had flashbacks during her sleep but they had gotten worse since she had bought Obito back from Madara and Zetsu.
She furrowed her brows when she realised something, “What are you doing in my room?” she didn’t really mind, they had shared a tent when they were genin and as they travelled they had shared rooms together.
So it didn’t immediately strike her as odd when she had seen Shisui restraining her as that was also common, Orochimaru had the bad habit of coming in unannounced so Shisui had often restrained her so she wouldn’t accidently kill him or something.
Shisui looked unsettled as he took a seat beside her, leaning against the wall. He closed his eyes as he replied, “I don’t want to go home tonight and get the third degree from dad.” Naruto knew it wasn’t the whole story but she wouldn’t push him for more information. “I was hoping I could stay here? At least for tonight?” he looked hopefully in her direction and she nodded.
“Genma moved out to move in with Raido a while ago so you can stay in his room for as long as you need.” She shrugged, she didn’t really mind the company, in fact, she preferred it. She had gotten used to the bustling life she had with Jiriaya, Orochimaru and team Kushina over the years that her home felt empty without anyone in it.
Kakashi was also no help considering he was too lazy to keep her company even though he lived right under her.
.
.
.