Idle Glances - Chapter Five
Title: Onslaught Word Count: 10, 064 words Pairings: Gloriously mixed teen feelings, Kiba x Tamaki, SasuSaku, SasuKarin (discussed) Warnings: There will be blood.
Chapters: (Prologue) (1) (2) (3) (4)
AO3 / FF
A/N: jesus this was a slog and a half. Enjoy the fluff, y’all. narutowhat, got some hella cute Himawari going on in this chapter.
Everything is so damp. It’s weird. People shouldn’t feel this damp. There shouldn’t be so much redness on their clothes, or in their hair. People don’t look like this normally. I look at the sky and it’s red too, that blood-red stain spreading across the sky, as if that blue was a sponge that was trying to suck the entire colour stain from the boy in front me. I reach out for his blonde hair and-
Sarada woke with a start, her eyes flashing around quickly, trying to shake off the throes of her nightmare. She panted, noting the drips of sweat that were beading on her forehead, barely able to contain her fear from the nightmarish landscape. The night air was cool on her skin, the change from the constant rain that had plagued Konoha giving her a feeling of refreshment that she hadn’t felt in quite some time. Across from the ashes of the fire, Boruto lay quietly on the ground, his eyes squinted together tight in the throes of an apparent nightmare. His fitful rest was obviously plagued by those things that he kept tight-lipped about during the day hours, gritting his teeth and mouthing things slowly. She closed her eyes and let her Sharingan activate, and ‘listened’ in to the boy’s silently moving lips.
He was whispering inaudibly his father’s name, his mother’s and sister’s. It seemed that he was watching them be hurt in front of him in some way because every time he’d mouth a name, his face would violently scrunch, as well as his body jerking around like he’d been hurt by whatever was going on. She couldn’t bring herself to watch it anymore and was about to move to his side when he screamed aloud and violently rolled, crunching his head into the root he was lying next to. Sarada winced as he returned to the world of the living, teeth gritted and cursing. His pale amethyst eyes opened and he found himself facing across the dark, eyes being met by the crimson of the Sharingan.
“Man, Sara, do you have to watch me with those things?” he grunted, before rubbing his eyes, “You know they scare the shit out of me.” To be fair, Sarada thought, it’s not really his fault that he’s scared of the Sharingan. When they’d been kids growing up, Sasuke had always pulled pranks using his Sharingan as a killing point when telling ghost stories. As a result, he’d left Boruto traumatised and fearful of the Sharingan, going so far as to fall off the tree branch they were both standing on when Sarada had first activated the dōjutsu. Snapping back to the present, she shrugged, before allowing the blood-red to fade from her eyes, the tomoe spinning into nonexistence.
For a while, the two sat quietly in the evening night, listening to the sounds of the insects chirruping and singing to one another. They'd travelled for three days with only a few hours of rest each day, trying to put as much distance between themselves and Konoha as possible and probable. The two were well known captains, working determinedly for the Shinobi of their city, fighting and defending the civilian populace from threats. They were also tipped to become jōnin with the next selection, but here they were, throwing that in the wind. There was a law that any person who left the village for more than two months was no longer a member of the village, and if they committed crimes against any other nation, they would be placed in a bingo book, thereby classing them as missing shinobi. This ranking meant that any shinobi was allowed to bring them in and collect the reward. She hoped there wouldn’t be any cause for them to join the ranks of that book.
Boruto stayed silent, his faint eyes barely visible in the darkness, the soft rise and fall of his chest as his panting subsided filling the vacuous night. For a while, there was nothing, merely the two teens staring at each other and then Boruto spoke up, his voice a bit shaky.
“Sara, have you ever thought about what would have happened if your dad had been the one to go to the outer nations?” That tremor ran through his voice again and she realised how much it was burning at him. She wondered just how much of his day was spent on hypotheticals, and what ifs. Bitterly, she shook her head, before she got up and moved to his side, pulling his head in against her neck. The teen shuddered under the contact and she found herself wondering how long it had been since he let someone this close outside of sparring or combat. After a while of being caught up in her own thoughts, she realised that her friend had fallen to sleep on her shoulder, his breath light, his face no longer contorted in concentration like it was every other time. His longer, shaggy blonde hair was swaying with the wind and she smiled, before starting to doze off herself, thinking back to when they were kids.
The small boy and girl giggled and swiped their fists back and forth at one another, trying to catch the other off guard while their parents stood to one side with a smile on their face. The dark haired girl swung her fist, only finding air and found the boy standing a step further away than what she thought, laughing loudly. Catching him off guard, she tackled him around his waist and knocked him to the floor with a smirk. As he struggled to catch his breath, she sat on his chest, pinning him to the ground. Her parents smiled broadly and her mother gave her a thumbs-up, whilst her father nodded proudly. The blonde boy was scooped up off the ground by a blonde man who had a huge smile spread across his face and was congratulating him whilst teasing the boy for being beaten by the girl. The two children found each other’s eyes, and both smiled widely before turning back to their parents.
She jerked away from the throes of sleep and found herself lying in the same position as she had previously been, with Boruto lying in her lap. Grasping under his jacket, she got a hold of his nipples and twisted them violently, causing him to wake up, rubbing his chest with scrunched up eyes. When he eventually, managed to open his eyes, he glared at the Uchiha, before walking over and grabbing his pack.
“We better get moving, or we’re never going to make it to the border.” He brusquely shrugged his pack over his shoulder and walked to the edge of the clearing and she nodded, grabbing her own pack. The two shot off at a quick pace, leaving behind barely a trace of their previous night, bar a few coals and soot from the fire.
The blistering pace was painful for Sarada, as she’d twisted her ankle earlier in the week, after slipping on the branch and getting her foot caught between two different branches. After a while, the pair got into a groove and she managed to alleviate a little of the pressure from her ankle. It was at times like this that she wished that she’d had her mother’s gift for the healing jutsu, as it would have made dealing with the injury so much easier. However, for the moment at least, she was forced to match the rough pace set by her friend and the two pounded through the shrubbery.
Suddenly, Boruto slid to a halt and kneeled down, his eyes squinting hard ahead. Sarada, suddenly felt the same chakra surge that she assumed he had as well and rolled to a stop beside him, coming up in a crouch. As she pulled a twig out of her hair, she blinked her Sharingan into activation and found the source of his alarm. After barely a second, she managed to spot the figure of a slender woman who was radiating a weird alien chakra. It made her shiver just detecting the radiating coldness. Throughout her childhood, her parents had introduced her to many members of the many different villages. Different villages tended to have a different aura, but this was a completely different entity, something that sent a chill to her spine. In one arm, the woman had a weird attachment to her hand, something resembling a claw, and made out of some weird black alloy that her Sharingan couldn’t pierce. Even more bizarre was the odd club that the woman had on her back. It wasn’t like any club that she’d ever seen before, with an odd metal tip that had a hole in it and the club end didn’t even look that sturdy.
Grimacing, she looked over at Boruto, only to find that he was no longer sitting in the same position. She panicked, looking over to the woman and noticed Boruto standing behind the girl and her rapidly whirling, claw outstretched. Sarada’s hand slipped into her pocket, whipping a kunai out, spinning it twice around her finger to build up the velocity, before launching it straight out at the claw. For a few moments, her sharingan flittered as it tracked the knife’s progress before it collided perfectly with the claw, knocking it off course, giving Boruto the time to move backwards. The Uchiha cursed as she jumped out to his side, holding up her tanto, preferring its chances against the stubby claw. With a mutter of “I could have handled it,” Boruto stood back and straightened up, looking at the woman.
“You aren’t from the elemental nations, are you?”
The woman looked at him with her head cricked to the side, her eyes looking him up and down. As she responded, the words that came forth were as alien as her chakra, coming across harsh and fumbled compared to their flowing speech. Her brow furrowed before she shook her head and knelt down on the ground, inscribing a small circle on the ground. Whilst she drew, the pair looked at each other quizzically, before looking down at the ground once more. The small dirt drawing was of a smiling face with a question mark alongside it. The two glanced at each other once more before nodding carefully. She smiled and started to babble in her own language once more before realising what she was doing. Her mouth twisted and she sat down before roughly scribbling a drawing of two stick figures holding hands with a small heart drawn around them.
Gesturing wildly between the two of the shinobi, the stranger then pointed down at the drawing, trying to get them to notice the similarity between them and the crudely drawn figures on the ground. A flush spread through Sarada’s cheeks and she shook her head rigorously. Boruto grimaced and softly shook his head, his long hair swinging back and forth, the slightest tinges of pink touching his cheeks. The woman smirked, evidently glad to have created some kind of reaction from these people, before she sat down and smiled, pointing at her chest.
“Mélisande.” The way she enunciated it led Sarada to realise that the woman was telling them her name and she returned the favour.
“Sarada.”
“Boruto,” the boy concluded their introductions with a slight nod of his head.
The woman smiled and slowly mulled the names over, quietly repeating them under her breath till she nodded.
“Boruto. Sarada.” Sarada nodded, finally relinquishing her hold on her Sharingan. As her eyes faded back to their natural colour, the foreign girl raised her delicate eyebrow, pointing her right, steel-clad hand at it, before drawing a question mark in the sand. The Uchiha sighed, before getting her own stick ready. This was going to take some explaining.
. . .
Himawari stood outside the cave, wrapped tightly in the coat she’d stolen from a stand in the little village nearby. She’d make sure to put it back once she was out of the mountain. The wind was freezing cold, and she could barely stand up in the knee deep snow. It’d been a long time since she’d been exposed to this degree of cold and she barely managed to make it inside the cave before collapsing. The howling wind continued to whip around in the background and she started to push onwards into the cave.
For the last couple of weeks since she’d left the village, Himawari had been steadily tracking the most recent locations that Kurama had been seen in. The giant nine-tailed fox had only been seen a few times since he’d blessed her father’s grave, with him being spotted running past the outskirts of Amegakure, heading in the direction of the Land of Iron. That had led her there, where’d she’d been following the trail of heavy paw prints before the filled in with snow. Fortunately, the enormous amount of chakra that followed Kurama wherever he went made it a lot easier to track him down in an area with such sparse population.
So she’d found herself here, in this freezing cold cave, in the middle of a blizzard. There was a soft rumbling coming from deep within the cave and she slowly walked towards it, the rumbling increasing as she got closer. The coldness of the cave intensified, with little trails of water dripping down the walls, stalagmites protruding viciously from the walls. It was so devoid of life that the girl felt completely intimidated. She’d ventured to various villages with her Jōnin-sensei but she’d always had her teammates alongside her. This was her first time venturing solo and she was terrified.
Suddenly, a shockwave ran through the cave knocking Himawari to the side. Quickly, she got to her feet, worried about the potential for a cave-in, but the erratic rocking stopped. Brushing herself off, she cautiously made her way deeper into the cave system. The deeper she got, the less light shone, so she was forced to pull out her flashlight and proceeded through the twining tunnels until finally she came into an enormous cavern which was filled with a light emerald tone from the small crystals filling it. In the centre of the room was a familiar enormous orange ball, his chest rising and falling heavily. With her eyebrows raised, she made her way to his side, noticing that his pelt was dull with dust. In her many times seeing the great fox, she’d never once seen his sleek fur so pale and unkempt.
What could have brought Kurama to this state?
Himawari finally got close enough to reach him and place a hand upon his fur. Upon doing so, she froze with shock at how cold he was. The way she remembered him was a glowing ball of warmth that she’d nuzzle against and sleep alongside, not this cold, matted mess that now occupied the room in front of her. She slowly walked around the giant, following his fur until she met his scruff. The teen made her way to his maw and stood in front of his snout, but the giant fox didn’t even flinch.
“Kurama, why are you ignoring me?” Her voice echoed in the empty cavern and she was relieved to finally see one of the great eyes open.
Child, why are you in this frozen waste?
“Because I couldn’t leave you alone, ‘Rama!”
Hmph. I’m not the all-powerful demon that was once feared by all in the land anymore, am I? Just a little girl’s pet.
“You know that’s not how I think of you. Why are you so dirty? How’d you get here?” The girls bubbly nature started to burble out as the questions surged. “Why did you run away after Papa’s funeral? Why didn’t you tell me where you were going?” Her face fell with the final question. The two of them had always had a special bond, with her first riding upon the great fox at two years old.
Himawari, you are as stubborn as ever. I’m in this mangy state because of an encounter with a terrifying force that I’ve never seen the likes of before, even during the last war. I got here because I ran the miles from the swarm of gnats that surrounded me with their painful weapons. The giant fox looked away and she could swear that he looked ashamed. I ran from Naruto’s funeral because it was the one thing in this world that scares me more than dying, and I’ve done that a few times. And I’m sorry that I didn’t at least tell you where I was going, child. You know that you’re important to me, but I’d just lost the only friend I’d had in millennia.
The blue-haired girl smirked at the fox looking so remorseful but kept her lips tight given the serious nature of the conversation. Instead, she moved closer and stroked her hand up and down the fur just in front of his nose. A soft rumble and exhale of air pushed her hair backwards in a rush. After the rush of air had stopped, she rested her forehead against his muzzle, rubbing her forehead back and forth.
“Kurama, I need your strength.” The giant head tilted and moved around slightly so that one giant eye was looking at the teenage girl, his giant red iris focussing on her small curved face. His lip curled up and he sighed loudly.
I don’t think you need the strength of a beaten down bijū, child. Why would you need someone who got so overwhelmed by those outsider nation gnats?
“Kurama, I need you because you’re my friend! You aren’t just some toss away weapon that is broken!” Her shouts filled the empty cavern and Kurama started at the sudden increase in her volume. “You are just as much a member of my family as Boruto or Mama. I’d follow you anywhere.” A soft rumbling filled the air, the giant fox propping himself up on his elbow. He shook his head gently.
I’ve never had a family, except for maybe the other bijū. When Naruto started to call me his friend I couldn’t believe that this moronic jinchūriki had the guts to call some giant chakra beast his comrade, let alone his friend. The giant furry head shook once more, before he continued on. So when he told me that my whiskers had appeared on his firstborn child, I was overwhelmed with emotion. Is that what family is? I finally felt a true connection to you and your brother, because you were born with my gift, I was stunned, He growled, obviously uncomfortable with being so candid in his emotions. Himawari walked closer and reached up on tip-toes, barely able to reach, and brushed the tips of her fingers along the underside of the fox’s jaw.
The giant mass of fur shifted, as he changed his weight from his left arm to his right, scooping her up and placing her on his head. It was a movement the two had done since she’d been tiny and had always wanted to “Ride the Fox!!”. As she was placed upon his head, she ran her hands down behind his ears, scratching them roughly. Softly the giant groaned before standing up, shaking violently. Himawari gasped loudly, rocking back and forth on the fox’s shoulders, being thrown from side to side and just barely holding on to the tuft of fur on his back.
Slowly, he padded out through the cave, his powerful nose keeping him from going astray, guiding them through the passages and chasm. Finally, they burst out into the freezing cold air. Kurama’s eyes blazed viciously as he let forth a vicious howl and looked around. Himawari didn’t even need to hear his words to know what he meant. The Nine-Tails had returned to the land. When his roar stopped echoing around the valley, he launched himself off the cliff, landing on the side of the mountain in a slide. The huge weight and crushing sound triggered what Himawari could only guess was an avalanche.
“KURAMA YOU IDIOT!” she screamed at the top of her lungs as they slid down the mountain face, struggling to hold onto the fur, her leather gloves starting to slip on the oily fur. As he bounded downwards, she could hear the slight chuckles of the fox as he bounded further and forth down the hill. Whipping her head around, Himawari glanced behind her back and sharply her eyes widened. There was a rapidly approaching wall of snow and debris pounding down the sheer cliff face, hurtling ever closer.
“KURAMA,” she howled, “IF I GET CRUSHED BY A TONNE OF SNOW, I AM SO GOING TO COME BACK AND HAUNT YOU TILL YOU GO INSANE!” As she finished her sentence, Kurama picked up his pace, pounding faster and faster down the face of the mountain, even as the avalanche gained speed. Finally they came to a stop at the base of the mountain and the giant fox spun around, facing the avalanche head on. Himawari screamed, shutting her eyes as the wall of ice and snow came sliding toward them at an alarming rate. Her eyes squeezed tighter as it came closer and closer, before it finally came to a stop, just barely touching Kurama’s nose, Gently, the girl opened her eyes, and balked when she saw the wall of snow right in front of her face, barely able to comprehend how close they’d come to being crushed. “Have I ever told you how much I hate you Kurama?” The fox snorted, before shaking his fur, throwing snow into the sky.
It’s time for a new start. Something is changing in the world. I fear that this end of peace is over for us, child. She sighed, nodding. It was almost like a change in the wind, or a faint change of energy. Ever since her father’s funeral, she’d noticed that people’s faces were not filled with smiles, that people were so much less energetic than they had been previously. For a girl who’d grown up in such an era of peace, to see people’s faces filled with so much anger and spite was scary. Her father had always told stories about the way people used to feel before the war and she’d never thought that she’d see people like that. Whilst she was starting to drift off in thought, Kurama started to move again, bounding towards the exit from the valley.
The pair ran through the valley, trees and snow flying past as Kurama’s huge feet ripped up and threw snow everywhere. In her mind’s eye, she quietly stood in front of Kurama.
“W-where am I?”
We’re in your mind’s eye, Himawari. This is the place where we can talk without talking. It’s far easier to talk this way when I’m on the move than trying to shout over the wind. She nodded, the idea was sound.
“How come we’ve never talked like this before then?” In the 12 years of her life, not once had she ever talked to her friend like this.
I never needed to, but it’s because of the traces of my chakra within your genes. Because of them, I can tap into your mind in the same way that I would if I was sealed into a jinchūriki. So I decided that now was as good a time as any to tap into the skill so that we could strategize for how we’re going to respond to this threat.
Perturbed, Himawari looked at him, before sitting down in the odd pool.
Ah, right. Those gnats that hurt me, the one’s that I mentioned to you earlier. They aren’t the only ones. They aren’t just some missing-nin threat that might be a threat to a village. This is an entire legion of people who want to ruin the nations. They are only seeking to destroy us and I don’t know about you, child, but I like the fact that I’m alive. I would rather not be captured and chained inside of someone again.
“I…” she stuttered, something she hadn’t done since she was a small child. “Why do they want to destroy us? We’ve done nothing wrong!”
Some people seek only to destroy and conquer. At the place where these people are right now, they merely seek to take our lands and control us and our power. Your father set this in motion accidentally, by showing them of our existence. From what I know, they merely thought of this area as uninhabited wastelands. Now they know that there are powerful individuals in this land, they seek to control it.
“Kurama, how do you know all this?”
Amazing what people will say around a tiny fox. Or, rather, what they will say when they don’t even know they’re being observed.
“So you went to their nation?”
I did, but when I was discovered, I was besieged by soldiers who peppered me again, and again with these bizarre weapons. I fled with them hot on my tail and I crawled through that cave to lick my wounds and angst over the loss of my friend in privacy.
“I understand, ‘Rama.” She nodded gently, finally putting the pieces of the puzzle together. “What’s your plan?”
We need to find the other bijū, Himawari. If we have their combined strength on our side, then the threat posed will be reduced. You’ve got your father’s spark Himawari, if anyone can bring the bijū back together, it would be you.
. . .
Inojin swung upside down, his long hair hanging freely as he adjusted his mother’s flower arrangements on the hanging sign. Did he have to hang upside down to do it? Not really. But was it the most fun for him to do? Definitely. So he continued to reorganise the pots, cutting out the dead flowers and spraying the fresh ones with some water from a squirt-gun. Below him, Ino shouted directions on where to put the newest bouquets as she passed them up. Most days, Inojin was expected to handle the day-to-day of the flower shop, both selling and arranging flowers, but when Ino had time off, she’d always make time to come down and help him out, or scold him because his habits had gotten too slack. Gently twisting himself, he clipped off a messy, dead flower and dropped off the rail, landing next to Ino who nodded, impressed by his work.
“You’re getting better, Inojin.” Her praise was well put as usual and he beamed at the compliment, smiling as she put an arm around his shoulder. “Of course, you still need to work on your arrangements, but right now, they’re passable.” She smirked as he sank down a little at her words. “I think your dad wants your help up at the studio, he wants to do an art lesson with you today.” Inojin grimaced. He loved his dad’s lessons; however, sometimes it was just a hectic mess of ink spray. Not to mention that whenever he didn’t get a technique quite right, Sai would dump a bucket of water on him. It wasn’t exactly the most effective punishment, but it would usually get him to shape up enough. He pulled off his gloves, and slid down his hair tie, before pulling his hair back into his typical ponytail. With a quick farewell to Ino, and grabbing a quick drink of water, he jogged off to Sai’s studio, which was situated near the edge of the village.
As he ran through the village, he went past the entrance gate and slowed down, noticing four strangers. They appeared to be having a heated argument with the chūnin captain who was on duty at the gates. The two were shouting loudly, although the man who was visiting didn’t appear to speak their language. His aggressive shouting made it clear that he didn’t want to have a bar of anything that the guard was saying. The chūnin man leant in and shoved him in the chest, forcing him onto the back-foot and then it happened in a flash. The weird weapon strapped to the man’s back was drawn and smashing into his face. The shinobi staggered backwards, blood streaming into his eyes. His hand fumbled for his kunai, but before he could make it to the hilt, the man spun with his stick, revealing that the tip had a sharpened knife attached to it. It happened so quickly that Inojin didn’t even have time to register. Carving a path through the air, the blade sliced straight into the chūnin man’s throat, piercing the man’s jugular and wrenching it open. Blood gurgled out and spattered forth from the man’s throat, dripping all over the well-trodden path. Inojin found that he was barely able to move at the suddenness of the attack, the complete brutality behind it making him unable to move at all.
A piercing scream filled the air as a woman behind him panicked. The sudden noise helped him to unfreeze and he sped across the gap, slamming his boot, hard, into the side of the stranger, knocking him flying in the dust. One of the stranger’s friends already had his weapon out and was point it at him. Inojin had seen how dangerous that blade was so he darted to the side to avoid a direct stab. However, as he moved, he heard a loud click and spun to face the man, watching in horror as a flash of light came forth, followed by a searing pain and warmth that he could only assume was blood rushing. His hand clasped to his cheek and he held it tightly against his face, panicking at the injury. It wasn’t that he hadn’t been injured before, rather that he had never been blindsided so badly before. Blood trickled from the graze and he focussed back in on the fight, where the man was taking advantage of his panic to advance with his weapon, the blade slicing down in a way that would slice his throat. He quickly rotated backwards, flipping on his heel, kicking his foot upwards, deflecting the strike from the blade. Finishing the maneuverer, he balanced on his hands and started to roll backwards into a crouch when the boot from the third of the strangers came belting into the side of his head, knocking him across the ground roughly.
Semi-conscious, he leant in the dust, trying to catch his breath as his head rang with the blood pounding heavily. Struggling, he managed to make it to his feet, staggering from side to side as he looked on at the men who had regrouped and all had their rifles aimed at him, prepping them in the same way that that first man had before he’d fired that weird projectile. He’d barely been able to dodge one of them, there was no way that he’d be able dodge them in the long run, especially with injuries as serious as these ones. Quickly he cycled through the options in his mind and decided that this wasn’t a battle he could win. He wouldn’t be able to use any jutsu with the way this was going, so he was going to be at a huge disadvantage. Inojin dipped his hand into his pocket and found a kunai attacked to an explosive tag. Tightly gripping it within his hand, he hurled it at the other men before launching himself onto the rooftop and pulling out a flare from his belt, arming it quickly before dropping it on the crowd below him. If he could keep the strangers incapacitated, he’d at least be able to rally for help. But he needn’t have worried as a few jōnin dropped in, quickly and brutally apprehending one of the strangers.
However, the other two disappeared in the confusion and smoke, leaving their companion to his certain fate. Inojin felt a rush of relief run through him, before was suddenly overcome with a wave of exhaustion, falling from the roof, colours running and passing out, before his body smacked in the ground with an almighty thump. Unconsciousness was filling the entirety of his core and the light drained from his eyes as he heard the muffle shouts for a medical unit.
When he awoke, he felt pain searing through his face, as well as a bright green light colouring the periphery of his vision. Propping himself up with a hiss, he glanced left and noticed his mother with her hands extended, the glow from the healing jutsu fading away. Before he could say anything, she grabbed him and pulled him into her arms, ignoring his grunts of pain.
“You idiot, how could you rush into a fight with enemies like that, you should have known that you never go into battle against a completely unknown foe like that! Did you learn nothing from our training?” He winced at the onslaught, before nodding apologetically. The older Yamanaka sighed before taking a seat next to him. Gingerly he touched his face, wining at the pain as well as the addition of a new line of scar tissue.
“I’m sorry Inojin, but I couldn’t heal that scar completely. It’ll be there for a few years at least.” She grimaced, obviously disappointed by her failure, “I guess it’ll let you remember not to let up on your training at least. I’m sad that you have this blemish that’ll make you look less beautiful, but I’m sure you’ll find a way around it.” He sighed, as usual Ino had a little bit of focus on appearance. She reached down and smiled, before giving him something he’d never expect from her, “You did so well, Inojin. I’m so proud of you.”
He looked up in shock, Ino wasn’t one to compliment people lightly, especially not in regards to his training. “I mean, you obviously weren’t being responsible charging into a fight with three enemies, none of who you knew the strength or capabilities for, but you were a hero. Because of the amount of noise you made with the fight, me and Temari-san managed to get to you before they could hurt you.” Suddenly, there was a flash of realisation as Inojin remembered the subjugation of the third member of the enemy and he quickly grabbed his mother’s hand.
“Mum, what happened to the guy they captured?”
“He…” She shifted in her chair. “He killed himself with a poison capsule before we could even get him into the interrogation unit.” She smiled quietly, bitterly nodding as if it was something she should have expected. “We did however, manage to get a hold of his weapon so that we can learn something about him,” Ino finished, obviously proud of the fact. Capturing a new weapon to deconstruct it was a common practice, especially given just how powerful this weird weapon was. “We found that it’s used by channelling your chakra in a specific manner, as there’s artificial chakra rods in it which launch a projectile of raw chakra out of the barrel.” She nodded at herself, glad that she’d remembered it all. Inojin wondered over the weapon; a weapon which could launch pure chakra at you as a weapon? It was terrifying to think about and he knew just how painful it was to be on the firing end of it.
“From what we can tell, it takes a large portion of chakra to use, so it takes a fair amount of time between shots, not to mention that they need to do a series of cleaning before being able to fire it again. It’s why they started attacking you with a combination of physical attacks, one after the other, to give each member time to clean and prepare their rifle.” It made sense. Inojin had found it odd how they’d fired only one shot, before going immediately on a physical offensive, rather than holding back with a ranged attack.
“Wait, I found something out myself, mum!” She glanced across at him, her eyebrow raised.
“What is it Inojin? At the moment, you’re our only reliable source for how their weapons and fighting style works.”
“When they fire the weapon, it clicks exceptionally loudly, then there’s a few moments of silence and then it fires. It’s not just a case of the trigger firing immediately. There’s a noticeable delay, not enough for say, a civilian to dodge, but for any shinobi expecting it, it should be doable.” Ino smiled and nodded. He knew that she was always proud when he worked hard at his studies, something he’d prided himself on for a long time, even if he didn’t always have the best practical skills. “Also, when they fire, the projectile moves at about the same speed as a thrown kunai, if not a little bit faster.” His mother nodded again, scribbling down the notes onto a piece of paper, making sure to note all of it. “And then there’s the knife-like thing on the end. As soon as they have that thing pointed at you, they get deadly at fighting with it. The guy who took out the chūnin captain spun his so quickly that he pierced the jugular of the guard before he even processed it. Then again, when they are aiming, they also have it pointed outwards, which means you can’t take the direct route to attacking them, but if you stand back you put yourself at risk of getting shot with it.” He nodded as he finished. “That’s about all I can remember.”
Finishing off her notes, Ino nodded gently and put them in her bag. Giving his shoulder one last squeeze, she stood up and walked to the door, before turning around once more. “I’ll see you for dinner, they’ll discharge you later tonight.” With that, she left with a smile on her face, before three more popped around the corner. Chōchō and Shikadai had a relieved expression on their faces, whilst Takara looked a bit nervous. The dark skinned Akimichi walked in and flopped down on top of the bed, causing Inojin to yelp in pain, dragging a smirk across her face. Shikadai, true to form, stole the chair and kicked his boots up onto the bed, leaning back comfortably in the chair. Contrary to the other two, Takara quietly leant against a wall and gave Inojin a half-hearted smile. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could even get a word out, Shikadai cut across her.
“I can’t believe you got your ass handed to you this badly by a bunch of strangers Inojin.” Inojin flinched at the stab, knowing that it was fully true. “Not only that, but it took two jōnin to bail your sorry ass out. You’re letting down the InoShikaCho brand name!” The Nara’s snarky laughing filled the room, and Chōchō giggled a bit, before turning serious.
“Seriously though, how strong were they? Right now all we know is rumours running wild in the village, and to be honest, the fact that one of them was 9 foot tall and clad in steel armour, well. They’re nooot exactly trustworthy, ya feel?” Inojin snorted, before wincing in pain from the stretching of his recently healed face.
“Well, let me begin by saying there was more blood than any fight we’ve ever been in before…”
. . .
Sasuke pounded through the pouring rain, bitterly spitting out the water that made its way into his mouth. He hated the perpetual rain that infested Amegakure and the surrounding district. It infuriated him to no end, but to find the person he was looking for he absolutely had to visit the country. Last he’d heard, the man had taken up residence in the village a few years after the Shinobi World War and so Sasuke’s first stop on his collection trip was to find him.
He finally came to a stop outside of the village entrance and pulled down his hood, the pouring rain slicking back his long hair, taking it out of his face. Through the storm, he walked through along the thing bridge, waving at one of the guards who slightly bowed. His status as a shinobi hero had a lot of benefits, not to mention the fact that village borders were far easier to get through then they had been in the past. As he walked through the streets, he held up a picture of the man, hoping that someone at least has seen the strange man. Eventually, after showing it to 20 or 30 civilians, the Uchiha found a woman who knew the face and sent him in the direction of the man’s residence. Swiftly, he wound his way through the buildings and streets, twisting in and out of the intricate streets and neon lights. He’d never visited the village before, so he found himself backtracking on several occasions, quickly moving around from place to place and getting directions from the shop owners and pedestrians.
Finally, after hours of misguided wandering, he found himself in front of a rusting green door, its window boarded up, the original glass behind it being completely, and utterly shattered. He thudded three times heavily on the door, before stopping and waiting for an answer. After a few minutes, the door creaked open and Sasuke found himself face to face with someone he hadn’t seen in over a decade. Suigetsu stared at him for a few seconds, before saying two words.
“Fuck off.” The door slammed in his face, dislodging a tonne of water built up on the roof, splashing it down on his head. Sasuke gritted his teeth viciously once more before knocking three more times.
“Let me in Suigetsu!” he shouted, his voiced raised so that it could be heard over the pounding rain.
“What part of ‘Fuck off’ do you not understand?” the other man screamed back, the anger evident in his tone.
“The part where you ignore the guy who saved you from being locked in a box forever in some forgotten laboratory!” Sasuke screamed back, his voice filled with frustration.
“Well, I vaguely remember you already calling in that particular debt to get me to join you on your vengeance quest, which ended up with me nearly become stomp fodder for the jūbi! Not to mention that you revived the one guy who caused me so much shit in the first place!” The pace of Suigetsu’s ranting grew greater, and Sasuke realised that the man was quite obviously drunk. “You kept me around a guy who cycled between being a deranged psychopath and a pacifist that was more at home with birds, and don’t even get me started on Karin!”
“Weren’t you two seeing each other for a while?”
“Yes, that is precisely the probably! We hatefucked each other’s brains out and ending up trying to kill each other multiple times! I didn’t go through that goddamn war to get murdered by some redheaded broad! And worse off, I didn’t even end up getting any of the Seven Swords and I got the one I did have, stolen!” Bitterness ran completely through his tone.
“Suigetsu, you have until I count to three before I belt down your goddamned door.” His frustration had reached a head, he wasn’t about to let some washed up drunk tell him what’s what.
“What’re you gonna do, Chidori me?” Those words were the straw that broke the horse’s back and Sasuke bit back his retort instead taking a deep breath and realigning his chakra flow towards his boot.
“1,” he started, his teeth gritted tightly, “2… Oh fuck you.” He lashed out and smashed the door in, the iron door flying off its frame and spinning down the hall. Sasuke strode into the rundown apartment, glancing around at the rotting wood and mould patches. In one corner, it looked like there was a little group of fungi growing. Eyebrow raised, Sasuke turned to face the man who was slumped on the ground, sake bottle in hand. Grunting, Sasuke kicked out at it, knocking it flying into the far war, shattering. Suigetsu didn’t even look shocked, his stubble ridden face barely moving.
“You owe me a new bottle of sake, Sasake,” he mumbled before giggling to himself, “Heh, Sasake.” The Uchiha sneered at the man’s hiccupping tone.
“Get your drunken ass off this ground, Suigetsu. You are more than this, you idiot.” The sky-blue haired man slowly raised his head up to make eye-contact with the Uchiha. He shook his head before lowering his head once more, the effort obviously too much for the extremely intoxicated man. Running his hand through his hair, Sasuke reached down and grabbed the man by his scruff and dragged him down the hall, before throwing him out into the mud. “What happened to that fired up man who wanted to fight and become the strongest swordsman in the land?” The once great swordsman looked stung at the remark, but simply slumped backwards into the sodden ground, covered in mud. He blinked a few times before smiling bitterly.
“You know Sasuke,” he began, his voice barely audible over the rain and wind, “The time I spent with you and Taka was some of the best times I’ve ever had in my life.” The water washed the dirt and filth from his face and Sasuke watched as years of age washed with them. Just how long had it been since he exposed himself to actual water? From what he knew, Suigetsu was effectively immortal as long as he consistently allowed himself to be kept as a liquid, not a gas, and he had to ingest water or he’d age normally. Getting enough water would let him revert back his age, thus keeping him youthful. Sasuke internally grunted; he wouldn’t mind having some of that youth back. Those creaks in his joints had started small but were slowly becoming more and more noticeable.
“I know why you’re here.” Sasuke’s head tilted to the side, listening to the man properly once more, his thoughts of his loss of youth adding away. “You’re here because you need me to help stop Naruto’s kid from doing the same shit you did. It’s admirable.” Sasuke had well expected the news of the death of Naruto to reach this country, but he hadn’t realised that Suigetsu, even in his drunken fugue state, could put the pieces together. “So you think you can come after, what, just under 20 years and tell this drunken sack of piss that he’s to be expected to run off around the world with you again?” The cutting tone put Sasuke on the back foot. “I hate to tell you Sasuke, just because you conquered your personal demons by being kicked around the Valley of the End by a demi-god and losing your left arm, but guess, what, some of us were left with nowhere to go, and you just dumped us.” Sasuke froze. He’d been so distracted with his own personal quest for redemption, and the confusing mess that was his feelings towards Sakura, that he couldn’t bring himself to deal with anyone around him. He hadn’t even thought about what would happen to Suigetsu, Karin and Jūgo, especially with Orochimaru being back in the realm of the living. Even when he’d briefly seen Karin, he hadn’t even talked to her, opting to completely give her the cold shoulder.
“So, Sasuke-kun,” Suigetsu mumbled sarcastically, the honorific drawling, “Are you really sure that you want to drag me and the old guard back out into the field? Because right now, I can’t even get off this ground, let alone trip through the country like when we were younger. Jūgo is locked in a jail 10 kilometres beneath the surface to avoid his monster side going nuts. Karin is hiding out somewhere in Kirigakure and chances are that she’s already moved on. Do you really have the guts to put this team back together?” Sasuke clinched his jaw, and clenched his fist extremely tightly. He hadn’t copped a lecture this intense from anyone but Sakura in a long time.
“Karin hates your guts for rejecting her. Jūgo feels like you betrayed him by dumping him once you no longer needed him and you had your good ole’ buddies back in Team 7 back. And you know what? I hate you too, because for a moment, I even thought that you might be my friend too, but that was a bit too much to expect, right?” The Uchiha man opened his mouth and held out a hand, before letting it drop down to his side. This temporary intrusion did nothing to slow down the watery man, “You ditched us all and settled down with your cute little bunch of brats and wife and you didn’t even think about it. Showed us really how much you cared for us.” He sighed, finally lifting himself upright off the muddy ground, pulling himself up against a wall. “I mean, it’s not like we were ever the heroes of the story and we never did anything overly heroic, but it doesn’t mean we were emotionless machines.” Suigetsu turned, his purple eyes shimmering in the grey light. “That’s why we followed you away from the darkness of Orochimaru. We all were broken toys that just wanted to be seen as humans, but you didn’t even give us that.”
The two men stared at each other for a long time, Sasuke struggling to find words to retort the man’s long speech. Suddenly, Suigetsu’s fist slammed into his jaw, spinning his head to the side. Growling in anger, Sasuke smashed back hard with a right hook, not even bothering to deal with activating his Sharingan. Back and forth the two men fought, Suigetsu’s fists becoming bloodied from hitting Sasuke again and again. The Uchiha managed to draw blood with a lucky few strikes managing to get in quick enough to avoid Suigetsu shifting his form to water. Grabbing him around the throat, Sasuke hurled the man across the alley, only for him to shift into water, bouncing straight off the wall and coming back with an aggressive uppercut. The men panted as Sasuke lent against the wall, panting.
He launched himself once more, kicking and throwing punch after punch, head-butts chained with powerful shoves. The two were so splattered with blood that they would barely tell who’s blood was who’s. Grimacing, he grabbed the man one last time and smashed him face-first into the pavement, eliciting a huge groan. Rolling off the man, he lay on his back, panting for breath, exhausted from the hour long fight. The two lay alongside each other panting heavily. It had been a while since Sasuke had gone for an all-out taijutsu fight and he found himself smiling a little. “You haven’t let your skills slip much for a drunkard.”
“You’ve gotten sloppy old man, did your kids let you get this fat?”
They smirked and continued to lie next to each other, the rain pouring as it always did, the two barely being able move from the pain and injuries. Sasuke was pretty sure at least two of his ribs were fractured, and his jaw definitely didn’t click like that on a normal basis. He sighed; Sakura would not let him hear the end of that any time soon. Suigetsu eventually rolled over and looked directly at Sasuke. “I missed you, old friend.” Sasuke’s eyebrow slowly moved upwards on his face; it wasn’t like the man to be too sentimental.
“I’m the same.”
“You’re an asshole when you don’t get your way, Uchiha.”
“You’re a living jar of piss.”
. . .
Kiba sat in the inn, slowly drinking his sake, exhausted from the day’s work. He’d been running the family puppy farm, and one of the females had given birth to a huge litter that he’d needed to take care of and name them. It was exhausting, then he’d been dragged into the Hokage’s office along with the former members of his group, where they’d proceeded to get completely informed on the small scuffle that had taken place at the village gate. He could have almost sworn Sai was about to smash some of the office up when he was forced to listen to the details of his son being beaten up by strange people, who were apparently at a strong enough level to take out a hokage. Kiba could see where the man’s anger was coming from; if his daughter was forced to take on three extremely powerful soldiers of unknown abilities, he would be completely pissed if it happened. The fact that Sai was managing to hold it together was a sign that he was still well trained in the control of his emotions. Konohamaru had seemed nervous, evidently not quite settled into his role as hokage just yet, but he’d ordered them to up their guard duty and keep an eye on their trainees, especially new genin.
The meeting over, the group had gone their separate ways, with Kiba making a raw beeline straight for the local inn. After a while, Shino had joined him and the two had sat in silence, drinking steadily, feeling more and more drunk as time passed. Before long, Shino had staggered out, heading home to “feed the bees”. Last Kiba checked, Shino didn’t raise bees, so the fact that he may have been making an innuendo amused him immensely. As he drank, he thought about how broken their former group had been become, with 3 members being outright dead and the rest barely hanging out anymore. Growing up had been hard on the group, more often than not they’d been forced to go their separate ways, and apart from their once a month meeting, they didn’t really get much time together. He leaned back on his stool and sighed a bit, before ordering another bottle of sake.
Suddenly, the back door to the bar exploded open and standing there, in all of her 5 foot five of fury was his daughter, Aiko. “Dad, get your stupid ass out of the bar and home!” He looked over at her and sighed, before turning back to his drink. However, as he went to raise the cup to his lips, he found himself grabbed around the collar and dragged from his chair, smacking into the floor hard. Bloody hell, when did Aiko get this strong? Grunting, he stood up and slung his arm around his daughter, throwing her over his shoulder. Turning to the innkeeper, he gestured to put the cost on his tab before she dragged him out the door.
“Dad, what the hell?” Being screamed at by Aiko wasn’t exactly a rare occurrence, with her usually accosting him for a variety of things, from cleaning the dishes, to forgetting to buy his partner a present for their anniversary. This time it was evident that there was something else on his daughter’s mind, her voice was tense with angst. “The village is writhing with rumours and they need the jōnin to be there keeping them safe and what are you doing? Drinking at a bar?” There were a few tears in her eyes, which she wiped away before bitterly shouting, “You always talk about how you were trying to rival Naruto, but I’m pretty sure that at the first sign of struggle he wouldn’t have been in a bar!”
Kiba was taken aback. Sure, he’d always talked about his wanting for a rivalry with Naruto, but he’d never realised that he’d made such an impact on his daughter with it. Right now she was looking at him with such a look of betrayal that it hurt his heart, so he turned away and took a breath. “I know Aiko. It’s not like I want to run away, it’s just that I have more things to worry about now then myself and Akamaru.” He turned around and looked at her. “It isn’t like when I was a kid, running around shamelessly chasing after whatever nemesis presented itself. These new enemies scare me.” Grimacing, he leant against the wall. “It’s something we know nothing about, and the fact that they effortlessly killed a chūnin, and then beat a leading jōnin candidate into the hospital? That’s even scarier,” he muttered.
For a while, the pair stood silently looking at each other, not meeting each other’s eyes, not knowing what to say. After a while, Kiba sighed and stood up, walking over to Aiko. He smiled, before embracing her in his arms. She shuddered for a bit, before hugging him back, tightly wrapping her arms around him. They gently stood there for a while before Kiba broke the embrace. “I think it’s time we amped up your training, Aiko.” The girl’s face lit up in the moonlight and the two walked side by side back to their house, Kiba quietly joking about how when he was a kid, Akamaru and him used to play pranks on people all the time. Internally, he was planning out a training regime for himself and his daughter.
If his feelings were right on the matter, and it wasn’t often that that they weren’t, then in the next few months, things around the village were going to get extremely heated. He hadn’t felt this degree of forewarning since before the Kage summit, and he could only dread what it meant for his family, his village and his friends. Stopping in his path, he looked up at the night sky. What would Naruto do here? He sighed before continuing down the path. If war came to them again, would the peace filled nation be in any sort of state to fight back against them? If they really had such skilled fighters on their side, one’s that could so easily dispose of chūnin level fighters, how many would have to die to force them back? The Inuzuka closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. He had much preferred the days where he could just run into a battle with no idea of what was happening, and irrationally fight to the bloody end. These days he found himself more sceptical, more logical and most of all, cautious.
Finally, they reached their home, and Aoki was besieged by two flashes of white. Both Yuki and Akamaru pounced on her and started licking her face, whilst she giggled, writhing around under their combined weight. Kiba watched on from the side and smirked a little at his daughter and suddenly it hit him. By not fighting back, he was putting his family at a disadvantage. With a grin, he jumped on top of the pile, eliciting an “oomph” from Aoki, who by this point was giggling so hard that she was struggling to breathe. Sneakily, he reached in and ruffled her hair, starting to genuinely laugh himself. It had been a while since he’d laughed so easily and with a jolt, he realised that maybe he didn’t always need to be super serious as a dad.
For the first time in a while, Kiba found himself laughing and his sudden opening allowed the tide to be turned upon him, with Yuki pouncing on his stomach and Akamaru bounding on top of his head. Giggling wildly, Aoki launched herself across the gap on top of him, softly punching him in his stomach while he chuckled, trying to wriggle out from under the onslaught, his face being covered with thick licks from the two ninken, covered completely in saliva. There was probably worse places to be, and he had a broad smile on his face when Tamaki came out onto the porch, a soft smile on her face as well. She watched the group wrestling before moving in and grabbing the two human participants by the scruff of their clothes and hauled them out of the dogpile. “You two stop acting like your partners and clean up, it’s time for dinner.” Smirking, she twirled, the cat on her shoulder grinning as she re-entered the house, sliding the door shut behind her. Kiba smiled, before cuffing Aoki around the back of the head.
“Race you to get cleaned up.” He bolted inside, his daughter fast on his heel, the two ninken bounding along, barking loudly. Maybe things would only get better from now on.