#and that Obito would do /anything it took/ to protect him

[itischeese]

yeah, your body moving automatically to save someone is good and all, but have you considered the inherent love required to see what’s about to happen, to know what will happen to you if you save them, and to do it anyway, because even though it might kill you, they’ll survive, and in the end that matters far more, because they’re worth it, in the end?

Yes, this post is about Kakaobi.

[cherubfae]

|| love rival || Akatsuki x reader

They're now realizing what a mistake it was to introduce you to the group, now they have competition with their own teammate.

tags: former ninja!reader, gn! civilian reader, established relationships, threats, violence, protective!akatsuki, slightly suggestive in Sasori's || MDNI

Pain

He knows that Konan is harmless and she's not the sort of disrespectful person to go sniffing about where she doesn't belong, especially where he and his partner are concerned. Pain, however, cannot tolerate the lingering touches Konan gives you as she passes by. Her hand brushing yours, guiding you with an arm around your shoulders, and blushing at you. He feels a warning is warranted.

"You are my dear friend, Konan, I have known you many years, but this simply won't do. You are better than how you are acting. Be respectful and leave them alone, and I won't need to inflict pain upon you."

Konan

Oh, well isn't this troublesome. Konan isn't the type to make idle threats, but Pain is her commander and leader. That would not be a wise decision on her part, but she does trust her long-time friend to be somewhat respectful and not place you in any situation where you would be uncomfortable. She's not above putting her foot down if she really must.

"Sir, with all due respect, my partner isn't interested and we would both appreciate you to mind your manners."

Obito

You are his everything. He would destroy the entire world for you. Level mountains, tame seas, there isn't anything he wouldn't do as long as it's within his power. He's pretty surprised that Zetsu even took a liking to you, as he's not one that's expressed interest in most anything other than his eating habits.

"Surely Zetsu is mistaken. My partner isn't a corpse for you to munch on you, nor are they yours for the taking. Keep your distance and I won't have to bloody you up too much."

Zetsu

As with anything, both sides of him are at a near constant quarrel with each other. His light side trying to reassure his darker side that Tobi is harmless and doesn't mean anything malicious by taking interest in you.

"Tobi is a good boy, he means no harm." "His harm is his unwarranted interest in our beloved partner. Fool! You have no sense, do you?"

Hidan

Honestly he could laugh so hard he may undo the stitches in his neck. That old fucker wants his partner?? Is he actually serious?

"Haha! That's fucking rich! You've gotta be at least one-hundred by now, huh? Fuck off, geezer! They're not yours!"

Kakuzu

Clearly decapitating Hidan over and over doesn't make him talk any less. Neither does stabbing him-- but it sure does take the edge off. Kakuzu would rather not deal with the younger man's insufferable stubbornness. You are his lover, his alone, and Hidan had no chance in whatever the fuck kind of afterlife his mighty lord Jashin provides. None. Fuck off, Hidan.

"As if they'd want someone as lowly as you. You don't even pay for your own shit. Remember your place or I won't hesitate to remove you from this world permanently. One swipe and your head will be freed from your miserable shoulders. I'm sure all sorts of insects would love to burrow inside of that hollow space."

Itachi

For a moment he's reminded of Sasuke's little schoolboy crush on you, except Kisame isn't Sasuke. He is a grown adult capable of getting in the way of Itachi's livelihood. Threatening the sanctity of his relationship. He's unlikely to do much other than step in if he crosses any boundaries or makes you uncomfortable. So until something is said, it's just this weird, heavy atmosphere. Kisame starts to speak but Itachi cuts him off immediately.

"Keep their name out of your mouth, Kisame. I won't warn you again."

Kisame

Oftentimes he wonders how lonely Itachi is. He annihilated his entire clan save for his younger brother in a single night. He took away everything he loved and for what? He can appreciate Itachi's past but Kisame doesn't take too kindly to the eldest Uchiha brother being a bit too welcoming and protective of his partner.

"Itachi, a word of advice. Don't shit where you eat. And keep your nose out of other's relationships. You're a good, respectable man and I appreciate your concern in my partner's well-being. Let me handle it from here."

Sasori

There's still the age-old artistic view difference between the two: eternal art vs shortlived art. One could argue both have their merits, but even after all these years it was a sore subject between the blonde and redhead duo. And now you were thrown into the mix.

"If you truly think you're so superior to me, Deidara, then perhaps you'd be more open to what a waste your art truly is. My partner prefers eternal, long-lasting, but there's nothing long nor lasting about, is there?"

Deidara

This was great. Jusssst great. Sasori had been hanging around his area of the hideout more and for what, Deidara wasn't sure. Until he recalled that you had been given special permission to visit from Pain himself. You'd forsaken your village long ago and clearly had no interest in reporting them, so it was allowed. Sasori had begun skulking about ever since and the blonde could guess why he might be drawn to you.

"If you even think about turning my partner into a fuckin' puppet, I won't hesitate to kill you, Sasori. No matter which way I go about it, you'll end up in splinters. So, I repeat. Stay the fuck away from them, hmm."

|| I DON'T GIVE PERMISSION FOR MY WORKS TO BE REPOSTED, RESHARED, OR EDITED. TUMBLR IS MY ONLY ACCOUNT AND THE ONLY PLACE WHERE I POST MY WRITING. ALL CHARACTERS BELONG TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNERS, THE STORY BELONGS TO ME. || CHERUBFAE © 2024

[suikung]

Yan Obito in a relationship

Obito always kept a close eye on you. He was just so fearful of something happening to you after he experienced the loss of Rin. However his techniques were unbeknownst to you. You weren’t a shinobi, leaving Obito much more assured you wouldn’t be killed in battle, but you didn’t know basics of defending yourself so in reality he couldn’t ever find middle ground.

He would use his burrowing abilities to follow you around when you weren’t spending time together, or so you thought. Poking his head out the ground when you would stop in a place. Observing about the people you would interact with just incase they were a threat. Even if they weren’t, to him they were. Perhaps they would try to take you away from him. And if the conservation with said person, especially a man dragged on for too long, Obito would somehow appear around the corner. Acting surprised his darling was there and begin clinging to you. “I didn’t know you were here (Y/n)! Come on let’s get out of here.” When he managed to pull you away, he’d turn his head back to shot a nasty glare at said fellow.

When it was just the two of you, Obito adored doing sappy couple things. He loved to cook with you, loved going out on spontaneous dates, trying new places. He’s someone who’s down for almost anything as long as it’s with you. He enjoys traveling, his status as shinobi easily allowing him to protect you and it gives a good reason to have you by his side for days on end.

Constantly needing reassurance is one of his biggest flaws. He always reminded you how much he loved and cherished you and he expects the same back. If he feels even something slight off in the relationship, it could sour the whole thing. This is an Obito still learning to distinguish himself from when he took on the personality of Madara.

Obito is not a yandere who will be dark from the beginning, but something happening to you would turn him so. Even now you have no idea of his twisted feelings and actions from you until someone out for Obito attacked you. It sent him spiraling, no longer able to control his desires. Obito murdered your captors in front of you, blood stained his face and hands. You had never seen him like this. From that day he placed you in a cottage he had built to have you both move in freely but that plan was thrown out.

Your freedom cut short on the excuse that “you’d never know when they’d strike again.” That’s at least what he said every time you asked to go outside. But inside Obito felt horrible objecting you to such conditions. He fought with himself, a side wanting to let you be free again and one wanting you to be safe with him. Ultimately Obito is a man with a heart, and he’d find some way to keep himself by your side always when he lets you back out.

Accidentally deleted the request sorry yall.

[sneezemonster15]

I have written a little about how Sakura is written to be irrelevant throughout the narrative by Kishi, and as a result, demeaning her character through the literary tool of subversion. Here's another example of how Kishimoto makes Sakura's character redundant and very intently makes her the laughingstock of the manga. Like I have mentioned before, he gets some kind of perverse pleasure out of showing both Hinata and Sakura down and he would go a painstakingly intricate and at times, long way to do it too.

I will be publishing a longer write up about this subversion that Kishi uses for Sakura as an answer to an ask but I am writing this particular post separately because this bunch of chapters portray a series of incidents where Kishi really does it without any subtlety and is pretty in your face about it too, like you can viscerally feel his disdain towards Sakura's character just wafting over and it has made her a huge target for ridicule, it has become a ubiquitous topic for very popular jokes and memes even outside the fandom, lol.

Okay, so the chapter I am talking about is chapter 675 where Sakura has just been kamui'd out by Obito from his space time dimension to protect her from Madara's attack after she fails to stab his rinnegan eye. But she never had much determination to speak of unless it had to do with showing off to Sasuke and Naruto, mostly Sasuke. What is interesting to notice is that it also pointedly harks back to something else that she did (or didn't do lol) with her kunai which resulted in a frustrated and (greatly) annoyed audience, courtesy Kishi.

Her nervous expression, the trembling kunai just centimetres away from its target but unable to reach it, failure to do it anyway, giving an opening to her opponent that could have easily been avoided had she been a little more resolute (no one really asked her to take on Sasuke though, that was her own decision given her poor sense of judgment, fighting strategy and skills), getting attacked by the opponent and then getting rescued by someone. Mostly Naruto.

#Redundant

Anyway. She couldn't do anything, having failed to stab Obito's eye so she is transported back by Obito and she joins Kakashi and Sasuke who are waiting for Madara to return. She sees Kakashi's condition and starts to heal him. Naruto leaves his clone to hold Madara's shadow captive with his sage of six paths staff and returns to Sasuke's side, his better half of the 'main act' of the war which has already been established at this point.

So seeing Sakura healing Kakashi, he takes over from a resisting Sakura and heals him. The ONE thing that she could do and not feel redundant in the trio is taken away from her, lolol.

He not only heals him, he gives him a brand new eye, something that is beyond the reach of prevailing medical jutsu itself. How can Sakura even hope to compete with this? Lolol. Kishi, you sadistic so and so! You won't even let her catch a break.

Naruto can't explain and doesn't even understand how he did it and it took Sakura years of effort to learn medical jutsu and achieve a stage where she could even use her mitotic regeneration jutsu. Hahahahaha.

#Redundant

Okay, now then, Sasuke tells Naruto to keep his guard up while Sakura is acting like her usual pointlessly high handed self trying to condescend to Naruto who just made her presence utterly pointless, and Kakashi starts to reminisce about team seven dynamic. Kakashi, a man who has a very shallow understanding of his team members (he thinks Sakura's love has changed from what it was and that she is kind and gentle lol) and not at all about Sasuke, which he thankfully admits.

But what's funny to me is that Kishi was totally focusing on showing Sakura down, mercilessly. So Kakashi is seen reminiscing about their first day in team seven.

Sakura squealing like a typical immature fangirl crushing over an entirely disinterested and quite embarrassed boy, while having no other goal or objective. While Naruto announces his goal to surpass the current hokage, Sasuke divulges his ambition of restoring his clan's honour and killing Itachi, Sakura just blushes and squeals.

Kakashi thinks she is kind and gentle (because of course he has never seen Sakura treating Naruto, at times even a badly injured Naruto, like a punching bag and manipulating him and everyone else for her ill conceived plans), she has grown and her love for Sasuke has matured because she still cares about him even though he tried to kill her in kage arc. Oh sure, running after a boy and begging for his attention no matter what the circumstances or timing is totally what a mature woman would do, lol. Thing is, he has got blinders on when it comes to Sakura because he obviously very conveniently forgets that Sakura attacked Sasuke first, in fact, she went there with the sole intention of killing Sasuke, while not knowing the truth but suspecting something, after having orchestrated a plan that included fake confessing to Naruto (#rejected lol), drugging her team mates and armed with a puny poisoned kunai which she didn't have the presence of mind to deduce would be pointless against Sasuke who trained with Orochimaru for years, some medical ninja, lol.

Kakashi treats her with kid gloves and doesn't understand Sasuke's feelings or motivations given his own lack of perception and failure to understand the intricacies of emotions and relationships, he makes a lot of faux pas when it comes to his team seven members. Kishi knows that these are the questions any reader would ask since these elements were given such consistent visibility in the manga and such consistent characterisation to the players, he is not an idiot. So he uses indirect and subtle techniques and narrative elements, and forces the reader to ask questions and then provides the answers. How? By showing, not telling. Okay, a little telling as well.

Kishi has already established, through Kakashi's interactions with Obito, that Kakashi is definitely flawed as he writes him to admit that he tried his best but he made mistakes.

And that it can be contributed to his past, when he lost his father so cruelly along with his team mates. He also admits that giving false hope to Sakura when Sasuke is about to abandon Konoha was wrong. And what this proves is that Kakashi isn't infallible. His hypocrisy is very apparent when the core of his principle is to cherish his comrades and yet couldn't even attempt to understand Sasuke, given Sasuke's excruciatingly disturbing and scarring past. And even at the end, he expects Sasuke to behave and acts like it was all Sasuke's fault, not having understood him at all. The reason Sasuke gave up at the end was due to the revelatory experience he had with Naruto in chapter 698. Kakashi is emotionally stunted, perhaps which is why he is so good at being an ideal shinobi. A shinobi doesn't cry, doesn't emote, doesn't complain, doesn't break orders and protects his village with his life. Anyway, what becomes clear is that Kakashi's emotional perception is quite affected and far from accurate for sure.

Anyway, so Kakashi reminisces about what he perceives as the team seven dynamic after Naruto heals his eye and then reminds Sasuke of the first lesson he taught them when they were rookies. Sasuke remains meaningfully silent and only grunts. He obviously has a very low opinion of Kakashi, justifiably, as was established in kage arc and the succeeding chapters after this one emphasize it even more. Heh.

So what does 'Team Seven' decide on?

TEAMWORK.

Where was this notion of Team seven teamwork emphasized on the last time before this? Here.

Where Sakura is seen nursing her past insecurities and ramping her ego to join Naruto and Sasuke in the fight because she can't tolerate being protected by them anymore like a damsel in distress.

She thought she was a full fledged kunoichi after passing her genin exams, lol.

Anyway, so she doesn't want to gaze at the boys' back, meaning being shielded or protected by them, as they proceed to take on their opponent. And she manages to punch and make a dent while insulting her own sensei, like some badass that she definitely thinks she is, it becomes quite clear from her body language and expression.

Problem is, her feeling so good about herself (I have finally caught up to them) and acting like a badass is very disproportionate with her actual actions and contribution to the battle. Which is why it creates a dissonance in the reader's mind. As she keeps pulling the same shit over and over without changing or improving things, even after having certain realizations, she creates a negative impression of herself in the audience's mind. She doesn't evolve to be better in a manga where characters learn and grow as a rule which then contributes to the main plot, this is a coming of age story as well after all. Same with Hinata.

Btw, Hashirama saying her strength might be greater than Tsunade doesn't mean shit. Because he actually hasn't seen what his grand-daughter is capable of. Her strength is greater than Raikage, as Madara notices after fighting all the kages. Someone as strong as Naruto struggled to fight against Raikage when he tried to stop him from joining the war effort and so Bee had to intervene on his behalf. She couldn't even fight average cloud ninjas Omoi and Karui, lol. Like c'mon, they aren't even portrayed as some super strong, special ninjas, they are a hardly more than comedy fodder. But Kishi won't even let Sakura take some fodder level ninjas, lol, it's embarrassing. And what happens? Naruto comes to her rescue, as always. Heh. No way Sakura is stronger than Raikage, lol.

Why does Kishi do things like these? These obvious contradictions that he knows are very visible to anyone who pays attention? Especially with Sakura, where other characters like Kakashi, Shizune, Hashirama and Jiraiya remark positively about Sakura? To build expectations, make the reader anticipate some awesome action from Sakura, something that would actually justify these positive remarks in the narrative, building the premise of the action, escalating it, but then right at the moment of dramatic and narrative payback, 👎. He makes Sakura fail pathetically (he does the same thing with Hinata) by subverting the narrative development and tropes, by not satisfying the readers' expectations that he so painstakingly develops, by writing the most anti-climactic of actions at the end. No payback whatsoever. What does an actual payback look like? Cue Might Guy's opening all of the eight gates, when he smashes Madara's ribs in as he breaks his own bones in the process. Cue Tsunade grunting like a warrior goddess as she thrashes Madara's clone beyond recognition. Even Sakura when she punches the ground real hard and takes out little juubi soldiers.

He sadistically wastes all that effort that builds up the anticipation.

And what does doing that achieve? Simple. It makes the reader get really annoyed/dissatisfied with the character. And they feel compelled to berate or ridicule her character. And why won't they? They invested in the character and his/her actions in the narrative for a grand payback, watching multiple episodes or reading multiple chapters carefully, and when they don't get it, they would naturally be frustrated. Kishi consistently pulls this shit over and over again with Sakura and Hinata. And why would he go to such lengths to do shit like this? Well, it's not because he wants to make these ladies look credible or worthy. Heheh.

This is exactly why fans who don't see everything through rose coloured glasses, shipping lenses or have a good taste and a good understanding of characters and the human condition, and actually pay attention to what they are watching or reading, are so annoyed by these characters. Notice I am not saying disgusted or hateful (although some of y'all are) but mostly really annoyed and frustrated. Sakura and Hinata, more than anything else (although they are all those things too, like distasteful, boring and cringey lol), are simply annoying. Because of the reason I explained above.

Kishi is fucking relentless about it too. After this sense that he gives the reader of team seven dynamic, he pulls this shit here. No Sakura, no team. Just Naruto and Sasuke being the main act.

After which, we see Naruto and Sasuke fighting together or separately, but not with the team. But after they are given the sage of six paths power by Hagoromo, they fight together, well in sync with each other. Like they are meant to be. Sasuke bosses Naruto around, like usual, Naruto complains nostalgically but you can see he is totally enjoying it to the hilt. And both of them get shit done. Naruto stops Madara's shadow successfully as Sasuke skillfully slashes Madara's physical body in half. But before he can react further, Madara flies to Kakashi, steals his sharingan and just shoves it in his socket, because it really is that simple lol, enters Obito's space time dimension and attacks Sakura. Now Sakura has no idea about Madara's powers, not having fought him at all directly, and definitely not having fought with the juubi jinchuuriki Madara. So where on the one hand, you see Sasuke and Naruto thoughtfully device strategies to fight Madara, Sakura actually is totally clueless. But Kakashi reminds them of 'teamwork'.

So then Madara finally appears and then this happens.

Hahahahaha. Teamwork? What teamwork?Sakura doesn't even know what Madara's strengths or weaknesses are. And just as expected, he stabs her in the chest and stops her punch with his Limbo jutsu. Payback? What payback? Readers who sympathized with Sakura? Disappointed. Readers who wanted returns on their investment, disappointed. But people who understood what she was really like? Vindication. Lol.

She did the same thing here that Hinata does in Pein arc, when she charges at Pein without putting any thought into it. Hinata did it to attract Naruto's attention. And why did Sakura do it?

And what happened in both cases? Long build up resulting in them getting struck with a single hit and then being rescued by someone else. Naruto doesn't even acknowledge Hinata and Sakura droops because Sasuke ain't paying attention to her. So much for team work. Lol.

But what impression does it give to the reader?

1) Sakura's love for Sasuke didn't really evolve did it? It's the same when in part one, she climbs the tree by gathering chakra in her feet to impress Sasuke but Sasuke doesn't pay attention to her and she slumps, highly disappointed. Same as here.

2) She makes it look like she is creating an opening by using a diversionary tactic, but it's quite obvious she is really scared, but is still trying to show off to Naruto and Sasuke because she doesn't wanna stay behind, gazing at their backs again. So she attacks Madara blindly. Her desire to show off and strut around trumps her desire to actually defeat Madara. What a shinobi, lol. This is a freaking war, and she is fighting against a super strong villain who is bent on destroying their world as they know it, but she is more concerned with nursing her own shortcomings. Self centred, yes. And definitely not a badass. Just ass. Hehe.

After getting rescued by Naruto yet again, she wallows in sadness when Sasuke doesn't even glance at her but immediately calls for Naruto, who btw totally gets what he is indicating at without needing to say it out loud. Yay, team seven. Lol. So while Sasuke and Naruto get into form and fight Madara, what does Sakura do?

Precisely nothing. Just sitting there in awe of Sasuke and Naruto. Spellbound at Madara's jutsu and power, that she didn't know zilch about. Kakashi is pretty pointless here as well, but he wasn't the one who just proclaimed they remembered the teamwork lesson and jumped in a fight without any plan. At least, he had the presence of mind to stop Sakura from joining in the fight when Naruto and Sasuke charge at Madara and she again finds herself watching their backs, as he tells her to not do it unless she has a plan. And she does stop, lol. She doesn't have the power or strategy, just ego. All she wants is to impress Sasuke and show off to Naruto and others, who cares there's a war going on? Lol.

3) It becomes pretty clear who the real team is here. And Sakura is very pointedly missing from it. And it stays that way till the end, staying true to the real team seven dynamic. The Main Act.

So after hyping up the team work element, Kishi discards Sakura's inclusion with a ruthless but consistently written treatment and makes her...?

Redundant.

She couldn't heal Kakashi, she couldn't punch Madara. And she didn't mature, like Kakashi believed. Still pretty useless. Lol.

I am aware that her stans only read the most surface level. How else would they justify something they invest so much in? But unfortunately, it's a fact and not a matter of opinion that Kishi never intended to portray her positively and he certainly puts a hell lot of effort to do so in a clever manner. It's not a coincidence that she (along with Hinata) is such a hated character. It's because she has been portrayed that way. Storytelling and visual language are intuitive by nature. All I am doing here is decoding them. I am writing here what you already know. I am just explaining the how of it. Excuse the digressions lol.

[konohamaru-sensei]

wrote more stuff at work for friendoes. (Kakashi x OC| Natsuo x OC | Hawks x OC | Obito x OC | Gray x Juvia | Jellal x Erza)

for @goodnightlover

prompt: "i didn't die." "you were dead to me."

__________

Before he could take one look into the guild hall someone viciously attacked Gray by throwing her whole body onto him. It was not like he hadn’t been ready for this specific ambush, no, Gray had been trained for this for many years and this point and braced his body to take in the impact. Maybe he had even slowed down a little upon getting to the Fairy Tail building, so that all his teammates entered before he did, leaving him outside with only his attacker. Maybe.

“Gray-sama,” Juvia chimed, her head snuggling against his cheek and he murmured defensively something about how she needed to stop, but left his head right there for hers to touch. He was also glad to see her again, it had been at least a month since the last time they had spoken and he had thought a lot about her since then, so he was glad to have her right by his side once more. Not that he would loudly proclaim these feelings, of course.

Juvia grabbed him and pulled him closer, her voice sounding a little like she was sulking: “Gray-sama was gone for so long, Juvia was all alone.”

“Nonsense,” Gray said and got out of her tight grip, “You were with the guild.” Juvia made a face and it told him what he already knew: Juvia liked the guild and the people there a lot, but she liked spending time with nobody as much as with him. He told himself that this was nothing to be proud of, but he still was. Feelings weren’t cooperating with him as much nowadays as they used to.

She finally fully let go off him and jumped back on her feet, the blue top that she was wearing revealed a part of her skin beneath. A shudder went through Gray as he caught a glimpse of the scar that sat on her hip there. He pressed his teeth together.

“Gray-sama isn’t listening, is he?” Juvia said, putting her face closer to his again to gain his attention. “What is he staring at?”

Gray averted his face away from hers, feeling a little heated in his ears with her so close. “When will you finally get rid of that scar?”

“Never,” Juvia didn’t even hesitate before she replied. “This scar reminds me of Gray-sama and the sacrifice we are willing to do for our love.”

“Well, it reminds me of failure.” He shook his head. “It reminds me that I have to get much stronger to be able to make sure such a sacrifice will never be necessary again.”

She clasped her hand together and was already half singing again. “Gray-sama is already so strong. Juvia thinks, he should trust more in his own strength and of course into her ability to protect him.” She blinked with her big, dark blue eyes at him.

Somehow her reply made him angry. He turned around to her directly. “But that is not how it should be!” Gray yelled, a little louder than maybe necessary, because the conversation in the guild hall suddenly came to a halt. He couldn’t stop himself anyway. “I should protect you. That’s how it should have been back then, and it should definitely be now. I don’t- I don’t ever want to see you dead again. That’s why I’m on this laughably long quest. That’s why I need to be stronger. That’s why I hate…” He tapped with his hand to his own, now magically naked, chest and circled the scar, “.. this scar that marks my utter failure.”

“But..,” she reached out her hands to lightly touch the back of his hands, “… Juvia didn’t die.”

“You were dead to me.”

Gray pulled his hand back and took a step away. “You were not moving, not breathing, your blood was not circulating in your body, but mine, keeping me alive while you were slipping away. And I couldn’t do anything, but watch yet again. You don’t understand how often I see this in my nightmares!” Yes, he could have checked the pulse a little longer, stayed by her side just for a few more minutes to watch help arrive. If he had been patient, if he hadn’t lost his cool, he’d known she was alright right away, but too many people had sacrificed themselves for him all through his life and when it was her it was just too much.

Juvia stood still in place, her hand still reached out to his that was now out of her reach. His anger puffed into smoke and his heart sank when he noticed the tears in the corners of her eyes. “I’m sorry-,” she started, but he cut her off by stepping forward: “No, don’t- don’t apologise-“

“Fuck.” He picked up the hand that was still hanging in the air with both of his. “I don’t- don’t hate that scar this much. I don’t mind that you have it, I’m sorry for yelling.” There was very little that he hated more than Juvia crying because of something he had done. It had happened too often and needed to stop. “I’m sorry, okay.” Then, softer. “I – I know that you’ll always look after me and I am very thankful for that.”

She put her head down against his hands holding hers and he couldn’t stop himself from leaning his own head down so he could put his forehead into her hair. They just stood like this for a while until Natsu could be heard through the open doors: “Geesh, do all of ya need to be so damn dramatic?”

[tsukuyomii45]

What animal or creature do you think a jounin!obito could have summoned? Maybe also masked obito.

This ask reallly made me take some time to think. xD

Whether it is Jonin Obito or Masked Obito, I think both personas would summon an animal that resembles their true characteristics... the first thought that came to mind was a wolf. xD

Maybe a wolf that's slightly bigger than the regular size, to the point where Obito could even ride it!

I'd say it would be a black wolf with amber eyes. It would look mysterious and intimidating. Its black color would be perfect for stealthy attacks, especially in the dark.

Wolves are all about loyalty and are very strategic predators (which fits Obito's traits as a ninja loyal to his comrades and village, and as someone who expects full loyalty from the Akatsuki, and also as a tactical shinobi).

The wolf's name would be "Kuroyami", in which Obito would resort to just calling him "Yami" for short.

Yami is a very calm and collected wolf with a very intimidating presence, not just due to his size, but also due to him being rather stoic and reserved. He does not easily show any aggression, rather, he remains focused and observant which enables him to handle any type of challenge in battle and keep things under control. He acts quickly to any threats or attacks that would overcome Obito, and willingly jumps in to protect him.

They both complement each other in battle, especially when it comes to stealthy ambushes and anything that requires strategic coordination.

It took a good while for Obito to prove himself to Yami, but an unspoken bond has formed between them in which the wolf permitted Obito to create a summoning contract between them.

[phinkslave]

Hi, since you said you're down to write some Kakanaru stuff here's my idea and plots. Obviously you can just write the stuff you're comfortable with writing about.

AU: modern (Top possessive Kakashi x bottom golden retriever innocent Naruto). Kakashi-centric/ Kakashi POV

Pairing: Kakashi(35 yrs old)/ Naruto(aged up-20 years old), Shikamaru/ Temari (mentioned), Obito/Rin (mentioned, married and have kids), etc.

Tags (i guess?): smutty, angst with fluff happy ending

Rating: Explicit (D/S undertones. Pet names/Praise kink)

Background: Kakashi is a detective and Naruto is a college student (occupation is mentioned for details). They met at a chess club that Shikamaru dragged Naruto to (they're besties) and Kakashi over heard Naruto complaning about getting rejected by Sakura, but somehow the fact Naruto's bi slips (just to introduce that he likes dudes) during the convo and Kakashi took interests in Naru because he likes how Naru looks, and the fact that he could potentially pursue Naru due to the fact that he likes guys. After that he kept going back to the chess club to stalk on Naru, then eventually pretends to bump into Naruto and the rest is history.

Plot: Kashi gets to know Naru more and meet up outside of chess club, and he started tutoring Naru on some of the subjects Naru gets stuck on at uni, only to discover that Naru is pretty smart but just doesn't care much about his future. He only acts silly because he's a golden retriever but ppl think he stupid. (kakashi also discovers that Naru is rich because he inherited a big company from his dead parents) - Iruka takes care of the company until Naru is good enough to be CEO (which he technically is because he's 20).

On Naru part - Naru gets rejected by Sakura and she's kind of a toxic girl because not only does she take advantage of Naruto but she also leads Naru on whenever she misses her crush (Sasuke- who is Naruto's close friend, they're on good terms in this one). Sasuke is in the friend group (sasuke, neji, choji, ino, Hinata, shikamaru, shino, etc - except Sakura cus she toxic) . And Naru would submit to Sakura's asks like taking her to places and get her stuff to please her. Which Shikamaru would disapprove of and he'd try to protect Naru.

Kakashi has commitment issues and even tho he took interests first in Naruto but he didn't want to commit because he failed multiple relationships in the past due to his nonchalant nature. Which is where the angst comes from because Naru would get mixed signals from Kashi.

Naru desperately wants to date Kashi but to Kashi Naru is just a FWB, but Kashi wants to keep Naru on a hook because he's also obsessed with Naruto and wants to keep Naru to himself. But he's a hypocrite because he's very protective of Naruto and would mock/ uses sarcasm towards Sakura when he smells her taking advantage of Naruto, or anyone who takes interests in Naru.

Naru is a golden retriever and a people pleaser so he kept thinking Kakashi doesn't commit to him because he's not good enough for him. Naru always thinks there's something wrong with him because he's insecure and doesn't think he's good enough.

Also Hinata has a crush on Naruto but only Kakashi notices it and because he's possessive he would get super jealous.

The story goes on about Naru pleasing Kashi by doing whatever Kashi says but never asks anything back. It's angsty until Kashi notices he's been selfish (unintentionally - because Kashi is pretty sweet, just easily jealous/possesive) and he also realized he fell in love with Naruto. Kashi couldn't handle his feelings so he avoided Naru for a while. But eventually Kashi confesses his feelings with Naruto after Shika came to Kashi and confronted him.

In this verse Obito and Rin are Kashi's best friends growing up. His past relationships are described as him just not caring about the other person and a workaholic/nonchalant and unexpressive. Obito is the one who has to keep dragging Kashi out of work. Yamato is Kashi's coworker for more background information.

Physical Description: pretty much like the show where whiskered blondie Naruto is muscular and stronk and Kakashi is also as ripped. Only difference is Naru has slightly longer hair and wears glasses cus he looks hot with it haha.

Explicit stuff: Half a Virgin Naruto (he got a bj at some point by a girl when he was younger but that's it). Kakashi is dommy and he took Naruto's virginity. Naruto has never dated or been with anyone before.

Kakashi discovers that Naruto has a thing for praises and pet names (baby, good boy). Naru calls Kashi "sensei" in the bedroom sometimes when he slips up and Kashi's feral with it. (Basically theme 1,4,5,6,12,14 in your list on how the sex goes)

P/S: I'm sorry it got too long (I got specific cus I never do such a request so I'm just trying to not be vague about it). I don't know if too specific requests/ description bothers writer so if it does I'm sorry :(( Thanks for reading till the end!

The Chess Club Encounter

okay, i’m ngl this was soo fun to write but also so far the hardest thing ever. i genuinely hope you like this cuz it was a lot to take in and i just hope i did it up to your standards or up to at least something you expected. I wasn’t comfortable writing the smut part for kakashi and naruto but i implied it at the end so i hope you enjoy. 💞

Warnings: language, implied smut, talk about oral sex, angst, happy ending

BRO THIS WAS SO HARD???????????? LIKE I KNOW I DIDNT EVEN DO IT RIGHT AND IM SO SORRY I TRULY DIDNT WANNA LET YOU DOWN.

Kakashi Hatake. He was leaning against the doorway of Konoha universities chess club, his sharp eye observing the room. He was watching the chess match, but to be honest to himself, that wasn’t the reason he was there. What had really brought him here was a golden-haired, blue-eyed young man who had caught his interest.

__________________________________________

Naruto didn’t know how he found himself to be in a classroom, playing chess with shikimaru. His fellow college student dragging him to the club. They sat across from each other, having some idle talk. Kakashi strained to listen, catching snippets of the conversation. At some points they were talking about chakra, when all of a sudden Naruto spoke up, and with his next sentence his expression being a little gloomy.

A loud sigh left naruto as he began, “Bro, she really rejected me again,” Naruto looking dejected. “I really thought that maybe this time…it’d be somewhat different ya know.”

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. “Sakura’s not worth it, Naruto. I don’t know why your so stuck on her. She’s genuinely such a drag. I don’t get why you keep trying. Go for a girl with some decency, like hinata for example.”

Naruto’s face flushed. “I know, but it’s hard, you know? I mean, I like girls and guys, so if we talk about it in that sense, i could have anyone….. but…even so. ”

__________________________________________

Kakashi���s interest piqued. Naruto was bi? since when? for how long? Kakashis mind was racing. His hope just grew ten times. Maybe he did have a chance. This information was pretty new to kakashi. Nevertheless he was hopeful. He continued to frequent the chess club, watching from afar. Using his detective skills to always listen in on his conversations without actually having to approach the two boys. Constantly trying to find the right moment to approach Naruto.

__________________________________________

After a few weeks have gone by of kakashi finding out about naruto’s sexuality. He decided it was time to make his move. He would really weird himself out if he continued to just stalk the young man. Using the weeks he calculated naruto as thoroughly as he could using his detective skills. Knowing the little details like how on tuesdays he leaves at 6pm and how thursdays he doesn’t show up. Though, on friday, he planned to exit the same time naruto did. Planning to ‘accidentally’ run into him as they both left the clubs classroom.

__________________________________________

“Sorry about that,” Kakashi said, his tone casual yet calculated, giving the back of his head a scratch with a closed eye smile. “Naruto? I’m surprised to see you out here.”

Naruto blinked up at him, “surprised? i’m not a dumb kid anymore sensei! … Also just because i’m in the chess club, it doesn’t make me smart.” He crossed his arms, gruffly finishing his sentence.

Kakashi chuckled. “Easy Uzumaki. I’m just joking. Though, how have you been, it’s been so long. I like the long hair for a change.”

They started talking, finding common ground easily. Kakashi did used to be his sensei, he knew naruto’s interests. making it easy for him to keep a conversation going. Though it has been a while, kakashi was happy to have learned about his university subjects.

__________________________________________

“Yeah so my chakra control class. Sometimes kurama can be annoying and it’s hard to not flip out ya know. Sauske has been tryna help, but he just can’t explain right sometime.”

Kakashi had to take his chance.

“If you’d like Naruto, i could help you train.” It was risky, as it’s been so long but why would he say no?

“hm? Really kakashi sensei? I don’t wanna be a bot-“

“No no, not at all, really I insist.

“Alright then!”

__________________________________________

Ever since that one interaction, Kakashi and Naruto’s meetings became more frequent, ranging from not only meeting at the chess club, but also universities training grounds, library and even the local ichiraku ramen spots, sometimes not even to study. It would just be a hangout or even just to have dinner together. Kakashi tutored Naruto in various subjects, noticing that Naruto is much smarter then he’s been given credit for. He had the potential of a genius, he just lacked due to laziness.

“You’re actually pretty brilliant, Naruto,” Kakashi said during one of their sessions. “Why don’t you try like this often? If i’m being honest, you dont even need my help.”

Naruto shrugged. “I don’t know…guess I just don’t see the point sometimes. Everyone looks at me, they all expect me to take over the company mom and dad left behind. Though to be completely honest with you sensei…I don’t know if that’s what i want yet.”

Kakashi was intrigued. Sure a company could be a lot of work, but the pay would be great. Not only that, it’s way better compared to any little lousy job the village provides. Naruto was quite wealthy nonetheless, Iruka managing the company until Naruto was ready, constantly making sure Naruto still gets his share of money to be able to stabilize his life. This just made kakashi yearn for naruto’s love more. Showing how great naruto is. He doesn’t care about money or things like that, he just wants himself to be happy with who he ends up being.

__________________________________________

Kakashi is a patient person. Not only that, but it also takes a lot to get under his skin. One simple thing that makes his blood boil….Saukra. Naruto’s interactions with Sakura frustrated Kakashi. Saukra was a toxic girl. It was so clear to everyone as well, so why was Naruto so blinded?? Using Naruto whenever it suited only her. He has never seen someone as selfish as her. Well, sure he has as he’s gone against mainly evil people, but at least they openly admit to their wrong actions. Sakura acts like a little oblivious girl to naruto whenever she is in need. Constantly leading him on, giving him false home, asking for money. Kakashi would catch himself constantly overhearing her making demands, demands that Naruto would always be quick to comply with. Much to Shikamaru’s disapproval.

__________________________________________

Kakashi and Naruto were getting ready to leave a quick study session. They were walking in silence, but it wasn’t an awkward silence. It was somewhat a comforting one. Kakashi couldn’t hold back his thoughts. His mind still stuck on the way Naruto lets sakura treat him. He knows he’s smarter than that, he knows that naruto knows he’s being used. “You know, Naruto, you deserve better than how she treats you.”

Naruto looked down. “What are you talkin about?”

“Why do you constantly feel the need to keep her happy? You know deep down how bad of a person she is.”

Naruto made a frustrated expression, “Kakashi sensei, with all due respect, i want to hit you for what you just said…..but I know. I know what she’s doing, she thinks she’s slick. All I just want is to make sure she’s her happy….if she’s happy, then that’s all that matters.”

Kakashi was taken back just a bit by his sudden threat, but he ignored it. “It’s not your job to please everyone, Naruto,” Kakashi said, his tone softening, giving a light chuckle, “Sure you can write literally save the entire world, but when it comes to happiness, not everyone can be happy. Keep her happy, i’m not saying don’t, but not at the cost of your own happiness.”

naruto squinted his eyes at kakashi, arms resting on the top of his head. “Geez kakashi you really are such a mentor.”

_________________________________________________

Despite kakashi being glad at his growing closeness to naruto, he felt like he struggled with his own issues. Issues like commitment. He generally likes Naruto, more than he cared to admit, but that wouldn’t be fair to all his past relationships. All of them failing due to his nonchalant nature. He couldn’t help but sometimes be so emotionless. Even though he felt different with Naruto, he didn’t want to hurt Naruto. He didn’t want to risk losing any ounce of friendship he’s worked so hard to have made.

__________________________________________

“Kakashi sensei!” Naruto bumped into kakashi at the little convenient store by the training grounds. Kakashi has avoided all last 3 study sessions and without giving naruto anything more of a ‘i’m busy’.

“oh, Naruto. Hello.”

“What’s up! where have you beeen. I need you, my grades gone down 2 percent.”

kakashi gave a light chuckle, “Naruto even during our study sessions, it would mainly be you, you got this.” As he attempted to walk away.

“wait,” naruto grabbed his wrist, clearly causing kakashi to be flustered, “when is our next session?”

“i’m sorry naruto i have to go,” gently pulling his wrist away and rushing out of the shop.

__________________________________________

Even though kakashi was staying distant. He still couldn’t deny the possessive streak that emerged whenever someone else showed interest in him. Even as quiet as Hinata’s crush on Naruto, it only fueled Kakashi’s jealousy, and his protectiveness over Naruto became more apparent. Kakashi was resting in the detective joint apartments with yamato.

“kakashi senpai, i’ve seen the changes that you had when you were with naruto. You were more alive and happy. i worry for your mental health, all you do is just stay in bed now.” Yamato said with his blank expression.

“Yamato. Please i’m fine.” Kakashi said with a sigh.

__________________________________________

Shikamaru confronted Kakashi.

“You’re hurting him, you know. Naruto’s done nothing but try to make you happy, and you keep pushing him away. You love bombed him. and if i’m being honest, thats worst then anything sakura has ever done. You gave naruto genuine hope.” Evident annoyance in shikimarus face.

“stay out of it shikimaru.”

“why should I? your hurting my bestfriend, im not gonna sit back and watch.” he said, lighting a cigarette. “Naruto nonstop talks about you, excited, only thing he has was your guys’ lil sessions and now, you won’t even give him homework help? pathetic.”

Kakashi was forced to face his feelings. Realizing how unfair he’d been, “shikimaru, will you help me.”

__________________________________________

For a little while longer Kakashi avoided Naruto, struggling with his feelings. But eventually, he couldn’t stay away any longer. With shikimarus help, he found his way outside of naruto’s dorm. Knocking on the door.

Naruto opened the door with a blank face, “kakashi? what are you doing here?”

the first thing that popped in kakashis head was to why naruto didn’t call him sensei? “Naruto, that’s kinda disrespectful, you should keep calling me sensei…you gonna let me in?” He said with a closed eye smile and a bead of sweat on his forehead.

“oh i just assumed you weren’t my sensei anymore as we didn’t have anymore study sessions? forgive me sensei! come in i guess….” moving out the way to let the older man in.

“I’m sorry, Naruto,” Kakashi said, his voice sincere. He just approached and said it. He didn’t know how else to do it. He thought it would be better to just let it out. “I’ve been so. so. so. selfish. I do care about you, more than I’ve let on. Shikimaru told me. he told me how you developed feelings for me…it’s just….I just didn’t know how to handle it….if i’m being honest…i just didn’t want to hurt you. For your happiness truly is better than my own.”

Naruto looked at the silver haired man, evident happiness in his face, “Sensei a simple ‘i like you’ would have sufficed ya know,” as he laughed so hard, he gripped his stomach.

Kakashi rolled his eyes. “Hey, i just poured my heart out, do you like me back or not!”

Naruto’s smiled. “Of course I do, you idiot.”

Kakashi pulled him into a hug, looking into his eyes, “…..Can i?…”, his lips inches from naruto’s.

“Please kakashi….i want you..”

“Call me sensei…”.

__________________________________________

[sueske]

I love Naruto but it was out of character for him to be silent and complicit when Itachi wanted to brainwash Sasuke. I know he would never go through with it but it still looks bad. All the writing messed up when Itachi showed up. He's an inconsistent character.

While definitely not agreeing to it, naruto not condemning itachi outright for that is due to the larger overarching problem that took place throughout the majority of shippuden - the shifting of the blame from the shinobi system as a whole to individuals such danzo, obito, madara, zetsu, kaguya so the 'shinobi villages are worth having and protecting' narrative can be maintained. I mean itachi especially spreads bad writing wherever he goes, but it still was ooc for naruto not to say anything given to how he reacted when other character's tried to take away sasuke's agency. (yes I know naruto tried to get sasuke to come back to konoha at the start, but he didn't understand/know everything back then and he was worried about sasuke's safety first and foremost. naruto eventually realised the error of his ways and he stopped.) but also when naruto was talking to itachi, to me I also read a slight element of 'itachi is dead. He can't do anything to sasuke with shisui's eye anymore. he did enough just let him go.' 

[seoheesoo]

Modern AU! Kakashi is Naruto's guardian who meets his child's teacher for the first time and immediately falls in love with him

[Part 4]

The bar that Kakashi chose was quite good. Kakashi glanced at the figure of the man sitting next to him. Guy was dressed in a dark, fitted suit that emphasized his broad shoulders. Hatake bit his lower lip and took a sip of strong whiskey.

“Tell me a little about yourself?” - he asked Guy after the bartender placed their drinks in front of them.

Guy grabbed the glass with his fingertips and smiled at him from the corner of his lips.

“My dad and I moved here, to Yokohama, when I was about five,” - the man slowly began the story. - “After my mother’s death, there was no point in staying in our old city. Dad wanted to start a new life, wanted my childhood to last a little longer. After moving, I went to a local school. The children immediately disliked me. Every day they picked on me for different reasons. You know how cruel children can be.”

Kakashi nodded. He listened carefully to Guy's story.

“They constantly talked about my dad, and I, like the most innocent fool, fell for all their jokes. But I couldn't do anything against them. I wasn’t a good fighter.”

Guy grinned.

“Then, about two months later, I got into the biggest fight ever. Everything could have ended very badly, but suddenly someone stood up for me. A student three grades older than me, whom I had never seen before, and thought that he didn’t notice me either. He protected me and has always been by my side since that day.”

Kakashi looked at the man's figure and couldn't believe that he had ever been bullied at school. But, apparently, this is what prompted him to become so strong.

“His name is Genma,” - Kakashi heard after a short pause.

“Sorry, what?”

“My best friend, who protected me in school,” - Guy explained. - “His name is Genma.”

Hatake frowned and lowered his glass onto the bar counter.

“Shiranui?”

Guy nodded.

“I know you work together,” - Guy continued. - “Genma told me today.”

Kakashi tapped his fingers on the bar counter excitedly. How long had Shiranui known about this? And why didn't he tell him? Kakashi exhaled in annoyance. If Genma was Guy's childhood friend, then Kakashi was afraid to even imagine what he could do to him during their meeting tomorrow. Kakashi had known Genma for eight years and was well aware of what Shiranui was capable of.

“Is that so?” - Kakashi drained his glass and didn’t even wince.

Suddenly he felt Guy's warm hand on his arm. Hatake looked over at the man and saw his reassuring smile.

“Can I hear a story about you?”

Kakashi couldn't refuse Guy. He thought that there was probably no question that Guy could ask him and he would refuse him. Not in this universe.

“As you already know, I work with Shiranui,” - Kakashi began to say, mentally thanking Guy for not removing his hand. - “My father also worked in the Defence Intelligence Office, as I do now. One day he went on a mission and did not return home. I was informed about this by the chief, Hiruzen Sarutobi. After my father's funeral, I was supposed to meet with my uncle, but Jiraiya Ji-san was working somewhere abroad at that time. And it so happened that I ended up with the only person I knew in the city - my uncle’s student, Namikaze Minato. Minato nii-san was only nineteen years old when twelve-year-old me fell on his head. Being still quite young himself, Minato nii-san had no idea how to raise me. I didn't make it easy for him either, I was a terrible kid growing up. I constantly argued with my classmates, and even got into fights several times. The only friends who haven't turned their backs on me in all these years are Obito and Rin. I still keep in touch with them. Time passed, Minato nii-san himself joined the Defence Intelligence Office. When I turned eighteen, I moved out from him and also submitted documents to his department. By that time he had already become captain. A couple of months later, Minato nii-san married Kushina-san. They had a modest wedding and moved into a small house. I often visited them. A year later Naruto was born. Even my uncle was able to come briefly for his birthday. It seemed that everything was going as well as possible. Naruto grew up as a healthy and happy child. After some time, I heard a conversation between Minato nii-san and Kushina-san about how they want to have a second child. Naruto was three years old by then. That same year, Minato nii-san was promoted to major. And a week later, he and Kushina-san were found dead not far from their home.”

Kakashi fell silent. Guy squeezed his hand supportively in his palm.

“According to the official version, they died in a car accident, but all the details of their death are classified. Even after all these years, I still cannot access these documents. That day I picked Naruto up from kindergarten because the teacher couldn't reach Kushina-san on the phone. Naruto seemed to feel that something bad had happened, he was capricious and cried all evening. When I was finally able to put him to bed, I received a call from Shiranui, who was on duty at the department that evening. I couldn't leave Naruto alone and go to the hospital, so I called Obito and told him everything. He and Rin arrived immediately and stayed with Naruto while I went to the hospital. But by the time I got there, Minato nii-san and Kushina-san had already passed away. I stood in the middle of the hospital listening to the doctor's explanations, but I was only thinking about how I could explain all this to Naruto. As soon as I returned home, Obito took me to Minato nii-san's office and handed me a folder with documents. As it turned out, shortly before their death, nii-san and Kushina-san made a will, and indicated me as Naruto's guardian. From that evening I stayed at their house and I was the one who talked to Naruto about everything that happened. Obito and Rin helped me with the funeral preparations. And then at the funeral itself, Hiruzen Sarutobi took me aside and strongly recommended that I relinquish guardianship of Naruto. According to him, this could not end well. His parents have already died, and I work in the same department as his father, it follows that the same fate can await me. But I couldn’t even think about handing Naruto over to someone. I couldn't imagine Naruto among strangers. I was his family and I couldn't give him up. He was my child according to documents. Minato nii-san and Kushina-san wanted me to take care of their son. And I couldn't let them down. I took Naruto, sold their house and bought a spacious apartment. It was difficult in the first months, but after a while Naruto and I were able to get used to our new life. I will not replace his parents, and I do not strive for this. His parents were wonderful people and I want him to remember them and be proud of them. My only goal at the moment is to give Naruto the happy childhood that his father once gave me.”

Guy listened to Kakashi with bated breath. Hatake cleared his throat in embarrassment and renewed his order with the bartender. Turning to the man, Kakashi saw admiration in his eyes.

“You are amazing,” - Guy said enchanted.

Kakashi felt a blush cover his cheeks.

“You are a wonderful person and a great big brother. Naruto is lucky to have you.”

Kakashi smiled at Guy gratefully.

“Hmm, by the way, I’m also a father,” - the man suddenly said.

Kakashi raised one eyebrow questioningly.

“I have children too,” - Guy continued.

"Children?" - Hatake asked without hiding the surprise in his voice.

Guy nodded.

"Three."

"THREE?"

“Do you want to see a photo?”

“Yes, of course.”

Guy pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it to Kakashi. Hatake looked at the photo carefully. The photograph showed three children who appeared to be about ten years old. On the left stood a boy in a green jacket and tousled black hair, who looked in surprise at the girl standing in the middle. The girl was dressed in a red sweater, her big brown eyes were looking somewhere behind the camera, and her lips were stretched into a smile. To the right of the girl stood a boy with long dark hair, dressed in a gray jacket. His unusually light gray eyes also looked at the girl.

“This is Neji, TenTen and Lee,” - Guy named each child in turn.

“Are they all yours?” - Kakashi looked from the photograph to the man, trying to discern similar facial features.

Guy smiled softly.

“Now - yes, I adopted them.”

Hatake opened his mouth slightly in surprise.

“I met them on my first day at school,” - Guy began to say. - “They ended up in my class. Then after class I saw them at the sports club where I worked as a boxing coach. They came there and looked so lost. I couldn't help but pay attention to them. And I also couldn't help but notice the bruises that were almost unsuccessfully hidden under their clothes. There were finger bruises on their arms and necks, as if someone had forcibly held them down and caused them pain. That same day I contacted my friend Kurenai, she is a children's rights ombudsman. As it turned out, all three did not have a very favorable atmosphere in their families. They were subjected to physical and psychological abuse. It was hard for me to stay away after all the information I learned. At first I tried to meet with their families, but this did not yield any results. Days passed, the children continued to come to the sports club, and I began to teach them simple self-defense techniques. At the same time, I did not give up trying to somehow help them. One day, Kurenai approached me with the idea of adoption. I won’t hide that such thoughts came into my head, but I tried not to delve into this topic. I wasn’t sure that I could raise all three children, but at the same time, I never thought about adopting just one. I couldn't separate them, they were always together. And despite the fact that they were not siblings, they became a real family for each other. After some thought, I finally made a decision. The conversation with the children was long and too emotional.”

“How did you manage to adopt three children at once?”

“Kurenai's husband, Asuma, helped me, he works as a policeman. He connected his connections, and in the end all this sped up the matter. The adoption process itself took about six to seven months. And for two years now I have been considered their father.”

Kakashi shook his head in admiration.

“How can you be like this,” - he whispered barely audibly. - “Damn, Guy…”

“Yes?”

Kakashi stopped himself before something stupid could come out of his mouth, like: “Marry me.”

“Is it probably time for you to go home? It’s late,” - Kakashi glanced at his watch. - “I’ll also go to Obito and Rin and pick up Naruto.”

“Yes, you’re right,” - Guy pulled money out of his wallet and put it on the bar counter.

The men left the bar, night had already fallen on the street. Kakashi stared at the man's profile.

“Do you think we can see each other again, maybe next time with the kids?”

Guy looked at him in amazement and smiled broadly. Kakashi couldn't contain himself any longer. He covered the distance and covered his plump lips with his own. Guy stood stunned for a couple of seconds, but then deepened the kiss. Kakashi smiled.

“Thank you for the evening,” - Hatake whispered against the man’s lips and pulled away.

Guy nodded, looking at the man in fascination.

“Text me when you get home,” - Kakashi waved his hand and disappeared around the bend.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 5 Part 6

[supertvngames]

There's something I don't get.

People tend to make Hinata look like a terrible person worse than Danzo, Obito, any villains combined.

Don't get me wrong, I do believe she is not a well-developed character, and NaruHina is poorly developed. But it doesn't mean she's terrible.

Hinata took a dive against Hanabi because she is an older sister, she doesn't want to hurt her little sister. Not to mention that saved Hanabi from being poorly treated from Hiashi, at least, any more than she has to despite being worked to death.

And about the Chunin written test, it's just a writing test. It's not like Hinata is putting Kiba and Shino at risk at being killed just to help Naruto cheat. Because Naruto was STRUGGLING, his expressions were showing how much of a hard time he was having. Hell, Sakura was empathetic about it that she was about to help him by trying to raise her hand to quit so the team could try next year. Naruto risking his team getting the boot by not doing anything or trying to take Hinata's offer to cheat off of her test. The only thing that would happen with Team 8 is that they would have to take the test next year. It's not that big of a deal.

The infamous Hinata gives Naruto the healing ointment pages. It's not like she gave one more to Kiba and Akamaru, and it's not like he's already heading to the hospital for better medical treatment. She gave her teammate and his dog, no matter how you look at it. It shows she loves her teammates as much she loves her crush and sister.

And the whole Main Head enslaving Side Branch. People get on Hinata's case for Neji's enslavement. Uh okay? When Neji gained that seal, who was the one who put it on him? Hinata? Why would a 3 YEAR OLD TODDLER enslave anyone? The one who put on a 6 year old boy is his uncle Hiashi. Do people really believe Hinata of all people would make a slave out of her own cousin? She sees that Neji is suffering a lot, and no she wasn't mocking him. She is sympathizing with him.

Oh and another infamous scene... Neji's death... Why do I have to come back to this? Okay look, I know that "Naruto's hand" line, but people take this WAY out of context. Hinata wasn't "only caring" about holding Naruto's hand, she just felt encouraged and empowered, she also was caring about protecting Neji's body in the same panel she destroyed one of the Ten Tails attacks. She slapped Naruto to bring some sense into him because it isn't the time to mourn in the middle of the war! Hinata was sobbing when Neji was struck, and more so during his burial. ...He still didn't deserve to die.

Oh and this gets better, people Hinata is heir to the Hyuga Clan when really it's Hanabi. Hinata doesn't have the power change her clan to end the slavery of the Side Branch. She's just part of the Main Head, not the heir.

I understand that people have different opinions on Hinata. I know some people aren't gonna like her, or even outright hate her. I just wanted to give my two cents about how some of the people tend to exaggerate and take things out of context to make Hinata a "horrible character worse than Danzo, Obito, and more".

Hiashi enslaved his own 6 year old nephew, neglected both daughters even the winner, the written test is just paper and no deaths. So, seriously, if you're gonna hate Hinata, that's fine. I'm cool with that, but exaggeration and taking things out of context is stupid.

[depressedhatakekakashi]

Do you think Mortal Dai and Sakumo may have had some interesting conversations before Dai passed in GOS?

Like I can almost imagine in the first life time, while Sakumo is around, overseeing the tribe's"advancement" and turning into a proper village, and watching Kakashi play with Gai, Dai looks over too and can see the concern etched into the god's face and is like "I'm sorry in advance for the pain we cause."

And Sakuno is like "What? You didn't well- couldn't hurt us. Why would you say that?"

And Dai just looks at him with such sincerity and says "Because we're mortal. They haven't realized it yet but.. I know you have already lost someone. And I'm sorry we'll leave you and your son in turn."

Just such an interesting and respectful, yet kind dynamic the two could have shared as two concerned fathers, who knew and could forsee certain events while their kids played on oblivious to how short their time together was. But Dai thinking the relationships are worth forstering, and Sakumo dealing with the grief of losing the love of his life and having to carry that pain...but in that grief he had also gained two sons, he didn't want Kakashi to deal that same pain he had to go through but knows that in the end, its inevitable.

Then over a 1000 years later, he sees the ecentric King Dai, and his youthful philosophy! And one of the few rulers who took him on as his patron god! I could see Dai being a very involved king, who despite being a royal, prefered to talk with the common people and attend events/ meetings and talk with the village/kingdom directly, instead of rule above them. I could even see when times got tough, him opening the doors of his palace and inviting the masses in and finding as much space for everyone as he could, rather than keep them out and preserve resources for himself. Even if it put him in danger (which I'm sure it must have occasionally.)

I wonder if they ever talked again while Dai was king. I wonder if Dai prayed to him and asked for guidance when he heard about Gai and his "make believe" friend Kakashi. He's like "I know my son is not delusional. I'm not sure who is talking to my son but I only hope their presence is benevolent. Maybe you can pop in and check on it if you're not too busy? I'm sure this "Kakashi" is related to your girl (he didn't know Kakashi was trans yet) in some way."

Though I thinknl it would be really cool, if they gained a REAL friendship after Dai died. And if Sakumo might be the one who visits him the most as a star. Maybe he gets some fatherly advice to help bond with his sons, or they just talk and gossip about the dynamic between their boys and the reincarnation relationship. They probably consider themselves in laws LONG before the marriage in the mortal life time, and Dai may be the ONLY person Sakumo tells when he finds his son is mortal and where he is.

Sakumo going to dai and telling him all about how he found his son, and crying because he really thought he’d lost Kakashi but his son is just out there living his best life with the mortal he has fallen in love with time and time again 😭😭😭

Dai is such a good dad too so he’s happy to offer advice.

Oh, and i can totally see Sakumo appearing to king dai after he hears that prayer and assuring him that ‘Kakashi’ is perfectly safe and will never do anything to harm Gai. Promising that the friend that the prince will not stop talking about is good and kind.

Dai getting to meet the god of the lost in a second lifetime and immediately connecting with him all over again. Perhaps the reason he instals him as one of the main gods of the village is because in his childhood he always felt lost and lost a lot to war or famine and his response to all of those loses is kindness. Protecting his people in any way that he can.

Sakumo appearing as a mortal during a terrible storm caused by Kakashi having a bad argument with Obito and going to sulk in that old mountaintop cave where he spent so much time with Gai in his past life. Helping to hand out bedding and making sure that if someone is sick or in need of attention they get help right away.

[team7-headquarter]

I was thinking about Rin, Sakura and Karin and oh Sage, Karin really took a chidori to the chest just like Rin, but Sakura was able to heal her. Which it's complex enough, but then —in a twist of irony— Sasuke almost killed Sakura the same way.

The layers of that.

Kakashi killed Rin by accident. He killed her 'cause at the moment they need to stop the three tails from breaking free, and maybe Rin would die anyway, but at least that way they'd stop her from hurting her loved ones. Yet Rin knew, she knew that Kakashi wouldn't do it, didn't want to do it. He was crying, just a kid.

While Sasuke's psychological situation at the moment of his fight with Danzo was precarious, he did what he did because he chose to. Karin and Sakura were (in two different senses) on his way, but he wouldn't stop for them. Their lives weren't the most important thing at the moment.

Rin died at war after being kidnapped. She was the medic nin of her team. Her sensei, the fastest man maybe in the world, didn't arrive on time. And she died knowing she was loved, that her teammate deeply cared about her. She didn't see Obito mourning over her dead body, but there was someone there, they were both there. She was a good kunoichi until the end, the perfect teammate, a beloved friend.

Karin almost died because she wanted to help Sasuke. She went with him willingly. She didn't have a sensei to defend her and Sasuke told her to don't move to trick Danzo. He used her and then used her again to test Sakura. She was the medic nin of her team too. And the person who came to hold together was an enemy. In fact, was her rival in terms of love for Sasuke. The team of the boy that almost killed her. She almost die because she believed in her team. She thought he cared.

Sakura almost died because she was desperate to take the burden and get rid of it— she couldn't stand to see Sasuke losing himself, becoming someone he said he'd never be, or the thought of leaving the hurt to Naruto, because it pained her to see her teammates fighting to death. She went there lying to herself. She failed at being a good kunoichi, she couldn't be that cruel. And Sasuke had no problem with it, he was not naive, seeing her tears wouldn't stop him from completing his mission. But she —of the three of them— and a sensei that arrived always late except when she was in danger. She had a teammate that would anything to protect her. She was the medic nin of her team.

Thinking about it, medic nins do get chidoris to the chest all the time. Rin, Sakura, Karin, Haku. Kakashi's kills were an accident, but Sasuke's wouldn't have that excuse. Kakashi's kills were both kids giving their lives in exchange to protect the people they loved. Sasuke's kills were both girls that loved him, his teammates who had protect him and bring him company, but girls that he'd have no problem sacrificing in exchange of reaching his goals.

This is scratching my brain like crazy.

[electrasev5nwrites]

Ninja Daily: Vapors 77

He hadn't been on watch since there were so many people to share it, so Kakashi was the first one awake and ready to start in the morning that they would reach Rouran and the real mission could begin.

Kakashi didn't like any of these interlopers. This mission should just have been him with Sensei's team. They didn't belong here, and he didn't trust them. The Sandaime had apparently believed that they came from the future, but he was less certain.

He hadn't managed to decide if it would be worse to find out that they were spies or that they were telling the truth. He didn't… he didn't want to know what was going to happen. The older boys didn't seem to have any compunction about giving hints. He disliked them for that. He didn't want to know. The thought that his life was already predetermined was terrifying.

If they were honest and sane, then he was going to get saddled with that blonde moron as a student. It was an unappealing prospect. His other supposed student, the Uchiha, was surprisingly okay for a cat person, and markedly more intelligent than Obito. He'd grant that.

Though his stupid eleven year old teammate was far more irritating than this 'Sasuke', Obito was probably a good match for Naruto. Ugh, Naruto.

'He just really gets on my nerves.' Kakashi clenched his jaw, totally unaware that the expression was an adorable pout on his 9-year old features and Minato-sensei was a champion of distinguishing facial movements through his mask. His teacher coughed to hide a giggle, but Kakashi was too busy moping to catch it.

Naruto thought he was so tough. And he was annoying, too, always grinning and looking at Minato-sensei. It was weird.

Sensei was too nice to say anything, but he could tell that it unnerved him. Sensei seemed strangely fond of and interested in the idiot, though, for some bizarre reason.

'I don't know why. I don't think he's even a real shinobi.' Kakashi took an extra large stride, working twice as hard as everyone else to keep up. 'The Uchiha might not be either. I've never seen him do anything impressive.'

The last one seemed to be the team-leader. That wasn't necessarily prestigious, considering her company. At least she wasn't simpering all the time like Rin, and she didn't seem interested in lording her knowledge of the future over him. He much preferred 'taciturn' to 'chatty'. Bossy, though, and he didn't like the way she looked at any of them.

Sometimes it seemed like she was going to bare her teeth at Minato-sensei if he got too close to her teammates. Funny that she was so protective when she was seemed to be the weakest one there. What little he'd pieced together of the failed mission that brought them here indicated that she was some sort of support type and had been lurking back.

Kakashi scoffed, pushing his lower lip out for a moment before he caught himself and tried to still his face. It was hard, damnit, but he was a real shinobi and they didn't have emotions or weaknesses.

He had finally been trusted with a real mission for once instead of stupid escort missions or watching big dumb Obito fail mundane D class tasks. Sensei had chosen him to accompany his own team. No one was going to mess that up for him.

They entered the city of towers in the cover of darkness, vaulting completely over their precious wall and traveling in a line like ants, one leaping from the wall to a tower with an open window in a room that Shibi's insects had made sure was clear as soon as the person in front was safely inside. The home owners who had left their entrance open lay sleeping, unwitting and restlessly, on the other side of one of the walls.

"We'll set up a base in an empty apartment in this complex," Minato whispered to everyone but Shibi whose plan it was. "There are an unusual amount of unoccupied homes."

'That's probably a clue that something is wrong.'

Despite the unnerving sense that the city was too quiet even for an area at sleep, Aiko didn't breathe anything about her bad feeling. Her intuition was nothing to write home about, so she'd wait until she had concrete evidence and something more than 'where are the criminals, dissident teens, and streetwalkers who should be out at this time of night?'

Perhaps Rouran really was so regulated and clockwork-clean that they didn't have any of those social ills. The thought made her shudder. It would have to be a totalitarian nightmare for there to be no one willing to risk the nightlife.

"Alright team, gather round," Minato began with a silent (and therefore pointless) handclap to gather them together and unnecessary bubbly attitude. Obediently, they formed a seated circle of sorts. "For now, we need to gather information. My team's primary goal will still be to investigate any hints that indicate the human trafficking originates here. You three will be locating and shadowing princess Sara in order to ascertain whether she is willingly complicit in what this 'Anroukuzan' or 'Mukade' is planning. Any questions so far?"

There was apparently a question, but it wasn't directed at Minato.

"Did you say that this Anroukuzan would recognize you?" Shibi asked.

Aiko sucked in a breath through her teeth. That was a harder question than it sounded. "Maybe?" she admitted uncertainly. "For him, it's been six years. If he does, he'd probably recognize just the boys. I don't think he had a good look at me."

"Then perhaps it would be unwise for you to accompany them to shadow this princess," Choza pointed out, crossing his arms across his broad chest. He looked surprisingly like a lucky cat with his eyes squeezed shut like that. "If he sees them, Anroukuzan will know that he brought back the two closest to him when he traveled here. If he sees someone he doesn't recognize…"

Choza trailed off meaningfully, but Minato cut in. "Yes, I see. He would suspect that there were further intruders, and the rest of us are likely to be discovered before we want to be. Our mission is better accomplished if no one knows of our presence until the appropriate moment."

She stared at them, aghast. It turned to sullenness quickly. "You don't think I can hide from a puffed-up Chuunin when it counts?" Aiko asked disbelievingly. None of them looked ashamed. Kakashi even looked a little amused.

'Don't they know I snuck into the Hokage's office? That's not something an amateur- oh. No, he wouldn't have shared that information. Still.'

She actually felt a bit angry. The hell was that about? Had she been imagining a hint of disdain earlier the other day when Naruto had clarified that she had been removed from the initial fight? Was this because they thought she was a support type?

It wasn't the first time that she'd encountered casual prejudice against ninja like medics and infiltration specialists—those who weren't pure combat specialists. But it was the first time it'd been directed at her, even if it was in a mildly patronizing, protective way. Like the stupid little girl needed to be kept out of a risky operation or risk ruining it.

"Of course," she snipped after a long moment, giving the three older men a nasty look. 'You simpering troglodytes.' In unison, Minato and Choza recoiled. "You're right. My delicate constitution isn't suited for the dangerous task of following around a spoiled teenage girl without getting seen by her fat old advisor."

'What the hell just happened,' thought Minato, who had thought he was being perfectly reasonable.

Choza cringed back a little at the unexpected temper, attempting to exchange a desperate plea for help with his eyes while his submissive body language warded off further hostility, but Shibi was impassive and her teammates just stifled snickers.

"In any case," Minato burbled, eager to get back to a conversation he understood, "Shibi has a point. Aiko-san, I think that you should work with Kakashi."

All the unkind amusement fled the boy's face.

"You can watch each others' backs," he gently added, raising an eyebrow at his student as if to ward off protests. "I was going to allow you to do unassisted recon, but I'd feel better knowing a Jounin has your back," he tried for a little flattery of both of in one go to assuage their egos. The attempt failed to affect Aiko's ill mood and made Kakashi's obviously worse.

'I give up. I can't make them all happy.'

"If you're worried about your team, don't be," Minato said with a tone that brooked no argument. He seamlessly untucked a Hiraishin kunai from his thigh pouch and reverently held it out for Naruto to grasp. The boy reflexively took it with a strange expression on his face. "I will be watching out for them, and if anything goes wrong they can call me instantly."

For some strange reason, Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a supremely amused look.

'Supreme,' Minato mused, suddenly distracted. 'What an excellent word. Supreme. I like it.'

He never did get around to questioning Aiko's dry response about how that made her feel exponentially better or her teammates' odd response.

"A Hiraishin you say," Sasuke exclaimed in an unusually positive tone. "How novel. We will treasure it always."

"Yes, well." Minato coughed a little, uncomfortable with the awe. Unfortunately, his next topic might not deflect it. "If your report was accurate, then there was some sort of seal covering the chakra well? We would probably need the princess's help to replicate the feat, but it would help if any of you could describe it."

'Was it put there by me? If I had to seal a large amount of nature chakra in a rush, what would I use?' Worry struggled with intellectual curiosity. 'Obviously, if removing it had the effect of transporting those who came in contact with it to their timeline's past, then I could have done a better job. But is it now crucial that I create the same seal so that they end up traveling back in time? Will it just be sitting there waiting for another disaster like this? It could be so much worse, if someone like Mukade were to try such a thing again. Would it be possible to have the seal altered after those three are safely home?'

"Unfortunately, I didn't get a very good look."

Mildly surprised that the sulky girl had spoken up again, Minato blinked and looked over at her.

"Whatever you used, you must have thought that it could be destabilized from the undulations of the chakra beneath, because you bothered to physically pin it in place with a Hiraishin kunai." Her eyes were distant, almost glazed with thought, but her face was perfectly smooth and unemotional.

The effect was a little creepy, to be honest. Aiko could have been in a trance or séance. Didn't people normally do something with their face when they thought hard? Like squint or frown or something?

"There must be far too much chakra for it to be contained in a normal storage type array, so you substituted a stabilizing agent that occupied a similar frequency to persuade it to straddle the line between the physical and the metaphysical, probably as you physically stilled the energy supply—or Sara did, I suppose—and prevented it from growing or moving. Really, you put it to sleep more than anything, but your other option would have been to steadily siphon it off, and that would have had a transformative effect on the environs that I definitely did not observe." She frowned. "Then again-"

"You're a seal user, I take it?" Minato interjected, for once regarding her with interest. When she remembered her audience, Aiko looked mildly embarrassed.

"I dabble," she deflected.

'That is not dabbling. Is she modest, or is she uncomfortable discussing the extent of her abilities?'

Either way, he was content to let it rest. Naruto wasn't.

The boy let out a rude snort and kicked his feet up to rest on Sasuke's legs. The Uchiha (even without sharing his last name, that was one an easy identification) scowled, but his friend paid him no mind. "Don't be modest, Aiko chyyaaaan. You're way better than I am. I don't think you get to claim you're dabbling after you've been asked to seal a-"

"Naruto."

At the clipped tone and tight expression, the blonde teen's eyes widened and he looked sheepish. "Right. Yes. We're not talking about the future."

'Asked to seal a what?' He sent his team to rest and took first watch, but Minato had to wonder what one instance of sealing was so important that it could qualify as sensitive information.

The ANBU team left first in the morning after Shibi woke everyone else. Naruto and Sasuke made a beeline for the palace soon after while they still had the shadows of early morning to ease their travel, but Kakashi and Aiko waited in awkward silence for daylight to truly come before they ventured out in the guise of civilians.

Their objective was to assess the atmosphere and attitude of the city by subtly interacting with the populace. They would go and do some shopping, perhaps go out for breakfast.

Or at least that was the plan.

'This is spectacularly creepy.'

Her face was probably a bit green under her henge, but at least Kakashi didn't know to mock her for it. 'Even so, it's completely legitimate to be grossed out by human puppets or puppets of humans after having met that nutjob back in Sand,' she argued to herself, justifying her discomfort.

It didn't work, so she turned to dark humor to steady herself and prevent gaining the notice of any of the real people moving with obvious fear through their artificial fellows. There were so few that they might be recognized as outsiders. That had seemed ridiculous in such a large city, but that didn't change the bizarre fact that there appeared to be less than a tenth of as many people as there should be in the streets.

'At least I was right about Mukade,' Aiko remembered blackly. 'More right than I knew. He must have been more than a little pissed about missing his opportunity to have real influence in Sand. He couldn't control the people there. I bet he gets off on creating his own perfect little world. Like his own real Barbie Dreamhouse, if she and her entire world was made by a monster.'

Control freak. He was definitely a control freak, past even the point that qualified as a mental disorder. He was obsessed with asserting his will on his environment.

With that knowledge, his apparent goal of gaining domination over Wind Country (at least, possibly the Elemental Nations as a whole) made sense. Mukade was unsettled by things that were out of his control or that he felt he could better manage. He was proving to himself in an endless circle-jerk that Sand had really fucked up by not allowing him to run his own town. He was so excellent at running a city that he didn't even need people to live in it, for christ's sake. What a prize.

They had immediately returned to their base to wait for the others finish their reconnaissance. Even though they had left hours after the others, it seemed to be an unbearably long time later that the other teams returned.

"Sara is innocent," Naruto concluded, nibbling on a nail.

"She seems completely ignorant," Sasuke added in his usual way of back-handed compliments.

He received a glare from Naruto for that one. "She is a really nice person, I can tell," Naruto asserted. He crossed his legs, apparently unconcerned that the others were treating this as a more formal debriefing. "I think she's sad about something though."

"It might be the city full of demented puppets getting ready to put on a parade," Kakashi interjected unkindly, looking bored.

Everyone else, who had been far from the majority of people, gave him looks that begged clarification.

"He's right," Aiko helped, folding her hands behind her back and straightening as if to formally report. "Perhaps one in every twenty of the apparent civilians doing business on the streets this morning was an actual person. I am not certain, but I think that the others are deceased city residents who had been made into puppets." The expressions she got ranged from revolted to disbelieving. "That's a thing," she informed dryly, not hiding her shudder. "It's really gross. I hate puppet masters."

Naruto made a sound of comprehension. "Oh yeah, that time Sasori kidnapped you."

"We're not talking about that."

Her Uchiha teammate, the traitorous bastard, had the nerve to smirk. "I think we should. Didn't he find you such an unpleasant prisoner that he released you? Perhaps you should be the one to deal with Mukade after all."

"You know perfectly well that I escaped on my own," Aiko replied icily, not appreciating that the amusement that had been interjected into the conversation was at her expense. "No thanks to you."

It was actually a little hurtful that they would tease her about that. It had been one of the worst experiences of her life. 'Then again, how would they know that? They never met the creep in person, and it's not like I talked about it.' Still, it stung.

"Hey, don't blame us," Naruto taunted, giving the watchers a mischievous look. "Blame Kakashi. It was never my job to make sure you didn't get kidnapped from your hospital bed."

Kakashi seemed to disbelieve that would be his problem as well, but Minato was giving the boy a mildly disappointed look. Hell if Aiko knew why.

"This is pointless," she deflected, tightening her clasped fingers in irritation. 'I know that they deal with stress by making light of it. But I do not appreciate it right now.'

Somehow, Minato managed to get them all sent back out. She didn't fail to notice that he hadn't shared what his team had discovered, but he had concluded that it would be acceptable for her to travel with her team now. That had to mean that he had discerned that Mukade was the culprit for his mission as well, and he didn't worry about them getting in a fight over their heads because his team would be around. They were going to have to confront Mukade.

'We're probably the decoy. Minato's team is shadowing us. Mukade is meant to see us but not his team.' Aiko parsed, following Sasuke through the crowds that paid them no mind to have a better view of the princess. She was already walking out onto the balcony to give some speech to a vast courtyard full of puppets, gargled cheers torn from dead throats and generously supplemented by the enthusiasm wrestled from the few real humans there. It was probably enthusiasm not to be murdered for failing to help make the show pretty.

'Mukade must think it's amusing to figuratively puppet Sara into giving pointless speeches to literal puppets.' Aiko's own lips twitched with amusement she hid from her brother. It was pretty funny, in a perverse way. He probably wouldn't appreciate it, though.

That was when the girl on the balcony seemed to suddenly jerk forward and fall. She must have been stunned, or drugged, or under mind control of some sort because it was just plain unnatural for her to plummet from a fatal height without a sound.

'Is he trying to have her killed because he knows we're here?' Guiltily, Aiko glanced down at the redheaded girl in her brother's arms. He'd been the fastest to rescue a damsel. Creepily, none of the puppets had reacted at all to her fall. More tellingly, neither had the figures on the balcony. Either Sara was surrounded by more convincing human puppets, or they were all in on the plot. 'Poor girl. If we weren't here, she would probably have been left alone, if only for a while longer.'

Sara was fourteen- barely younger than Aiko herself. But a civilian fourteen was so much younger than a shinobi fifteen, even if Sara had technically come of age. Sara was probably more naïve than most, pampered and misled by someone who wanted to control her since she was a vulnerable child right after the death of her only living family.

Then Sara opened pretty, jewel-bright purple eyes that had apparently been squeezed shut in fear and shock—and immediately slapped Naruto twice.

'Suddenly, I do not like her at all.'

Aiko didn't remember moving, but she was holding an incredibly delicate wrist between her thumb and forefingers to restrain the brat's movement. When the princess twisted to look at her, fury in her face, something stilled her.

Probably the expression Aiko held, though she had no idea what it was. "Maa," she started with deliberate casualness, "That's not a good way to thank someone who just saved you from falling to your death. I think you owe him an apology along with your thanks." She gave a smile with just a little too much teeth and let go of the younger girl's wrist.

Sara turned an unbecoming pink. "I- I don't have to say anything but put me down!" She elbowed Naruto with all the force a wiry looking civilian girl could muster. As soon as her feet hit the ground, she was dusting herself off and giving an imperious sniff. "Thank you. If you will excuse me, I need to get back up there."

"I," Sasuke breathed into Aiko's ear, "am not impressed."

She didn't think she had to speak to communicate agreement, only direct a dry look at him. "Since she can't be bothered to thank Naruto for her life, maybe she doesn't appreciate it very much. If she really wanted to fall to her death, we could put her back up there," she turned just enough to mutter under her breath. Sasuke gave her a wicked smirk in return.

But Naruto seemed to be about to set Sara off on another snit, judging by the way she was puffing up, so she reluctantly re-entered the conversation.

"Look, Sara, is it?" The other girl turned, probably to say something indignant about her title, but Aiko gave her a look that brooked no shit and pressed forward. "Don't you find anything remotely unusual about the fact that you just nearly fell to your death and no one seems to have noticed? Go and take a closer look at the crowd."

"Why?" Sara frowned. "I had a much better view from the balcony, of all the colors of their clothing and them cheering for me."

Aiko cringed a little. 'It helps our purposes, but someone really failed this girl. She has no self-preservation, and she's unbearably naïve. We're representatives of a foreign military illegally in her city. She should be struggling to get away from us. Someone… Someone needs to help her. She'll never survive ten minutes like this once we get rid of Anroukuzan. She's an easy victim.'

"What, you don't find the idea of meeting your subjects in person interesting?" Sasuke raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow. Sara seemed to notice him for the first time—and instantly flushed. She dipped her chin slightly in what seemed to be shyness but also allowed her to check him out.

'Sasuke, you pretty boy. I think we just about heard her panties drop.'

He looked less amused, and Naruto hadn't even noticed. Ugh, boys. At least Sasuke had thought to play on the girl's apparent sentimentalism for her people. Naruto was looking at them in disquiet that indicated he would have preferred to open by telling her the truth: that her people had been killed and replaced with simulacrums and that her trusted advisor was a criminal from twenty years in the future.

But that just wasn't going to win them any friends. In fact, Sara would probably be in the right to decide they were dangerously crazy and flee post-haste.

The princess looked torn between her curiosity and duty to return to her attempted murderer, but luckily she was just contrary enough to indulge herself. Aiko felt almost bad about how obviously eager Sara was to meet her adoring public. In another circumstance, she might have found amusement at the look on Sara's face when they first got close enough to see the unnaturally altered visage of one of the puppet-civilians.

Aiko was instead sympathetic. "Yeah, they're creepy." Sara was a bit of a brat, but her naivety was intentionally cultivated and not necessarily a personal fault, so she didn't have to steel herself too much to give the younger girl a comforting squeeze with one arm.

Physical reassurance was usually more Naruto's shtick than hers, but after Sara had smacked him for saving her life, Aiko was going to assume that the girl wasn't comfortable being touched by boys. That was fine.

She did feel badly for Sara and a bit melancholy in general. The girl had been used all her life, and her future was bleak. No matter what they did here today, Rouran was destined to fall soon.

Still, she withdrew her arm briskly. No need to push it or wallow. "Do you want to know what those are, and why they're here?"

Sara looked to be on the verge of panic. Her purple eyes were welling with tears, but this was the time to push. If they let her go now, she would run back to her trusted advisor.

Naruto gave her a dirty look that said he knew exactly what she was doing and didn't approve. Still, she was currently the team leader, and he generally trusted that she wouldn't bring the girl to harm. "Princess Sara?" he tried gently. "Don't you think you should know what's going on?"

Sara sniffled, glancing back at the simulacrum stiffly waving up at an empty balcony. Sasuke gave Aiko a mildly panicked look, as if begging her to make the crying stop. She gave a helpless shrug in return, silently communicating, 'What the hell do you want me to do about it?' The look he gave her implied he was willing to accept anything to make it go away.

"Yes," Sara stated softly, but with an undeniable firmness. Aiko's lips pulled into a faint smile, both in relief and approval. Good. The girl wasn't hopeless after all.

'Wait. That scent is a living human.'

The difference between a living person and one of the non-rotting puppets made with human materials was slight, but enough that Aiko had turned and pointed a wary glare on the pretty woman who had slunk up behind them before anyone else.

But the interloper had only eyes for Princess Sara.

"Are you…" She shakingly stopped, and tried again, focused with unnerving intensity on Sara. "Are you really the Princess?" When Sara gave a quivering smile and a nod, the stranger woman cut her off before she could speak. "Did you come to help us?"

The naked hope in that question cut even Aiko's heart. Naruto and the princess didn't stand a chance.

An hour later, she was willing to rescind every kind or even tolerant thought she'd had about Sara. She kept getting in the way, tripping over nothing and talking inappropriately loudly about incredibly dull things. Alternately, she monologued (something about her mother? It wasn't half as interesting as Sara thought it was) and argued with Naruto about the likelihood of Anroukuzan being a puppet-master.

They had somehow ended up on some hare-brained mission to show Sara the depths of depravity that the resident puppet master had descended to by investigating one of the complexes that the people thought was suspicious. Or rather, that one of the few people who hadn't been dragged away on 'Sara's' orders found suspicious. Some of the kidnapped people were later replaced by puppets. Perhaps worse was that some weren't. Women and men who were ill-suited to manual labor tended to return as puppets, while the children and athletic men were simply gone.

Aiko rather suspected that what they would find when they eventually discovered where the civilians were being taken to would not be pleasant. She had never seen humans used for slave labor or turned into weapons, but it couldn't be anything less than a shock to an intentionally pampered child like Sara.

'Speaking of shocking new sights: There they are.'

"Oh for-" Aiko cursed quietly, picking Sara up bodily and leaping backwards out of the line of fire when the next corridor yielded a grotesque looking puppet with a tiny head, arms and legs that had apparently been modeled off of Madonna's cone bra, and hula hoops around their hips for some reason–not a particularly humanoid one, thankfully, but probably a more dangerous one—that gave a hoarse sound of some sort of alert when it spotted their group. No doubt it was summoning allies or backup dancers. She'd seen Beyonce do the same thing in a music video once. Or maybe it was the Lady Gaga?

She shrugged away that pointless line of thought and deposited Sara behind a support column and turned back to their opponents. "Stay here, okay? We'll take care of this. There are probably more."

The creature and those that followed it were a dusty red color, like dirty river clay, and they smelled of something sour and herbal. Perhaps it was the compound that Mukade used to treat the metal weapons contained inside to keep them oiled and rust-free. When Naruto leapt ahead to strike the first blow, the impact's sound implied they were largely hollow.

'That would be strange. Usually a puppet designer is very efficient about balancing weight, space, and variety of weapons. Why wouldn't Mukade want to fill all the available space?'

Naruto and Sasuke had already barreled ahead into the complex and began to test themselves against the puppets for the first time. She'd been right to tuck Sara away: there were a lot of the things.

'Mukade is a busy guy.'

"This is actually pretty fun," Sasuke huffed with a grin, blowing a lock of hair out of his face and twisting around to clock another puppet so hard that it crashed into two more of its fellows, shattering against the wall twenty feet away.

She gave a snort in return, keeping a thin smile on her lips and an eye on the massive pile up of puppets and the way that they moved.

This seemed like an odd ploy. What was the point in constructing so many structurally weak puppets with predictable weaponry and sending them at intruders without any sense of strategy? At this rate, they would have them all destroyed within six minutes, easily.

She probably should have noted that the pieces jerked strangely when they fell on the ground, as if the creatures weren't really defeated. But she was cutting her enemies down with little concern for those that fell, working to eliminate their numbered advantage.

'Wheeee…'

It was even more fun than she'd known the only time she'd used this in a fight before to swirl, dart, and Hiraishin her way through the pileup, getting faster and faster as she tagged seals after seals, all explosive Hiraishin. Speed was definitely her friend—some of those puppets were wielding chakra strings of their own to shoot retractable blades, which was ridiculously extravagant. Enormous amounts of chakra indeed. When she'd fought her way into the opposite end of the area, Aiko turned to view the expanse, gave an anticipatory grin, and yelled "Boom, baby!"

Just for the fuck of it.

The room was positively filled with stupidly surprised looking puppets flying about in bits, but none of the charred smell associated with standard explosions. They were whole and then they were in hundreds of pieces in the air.

There was a strange "Erp" sound from behind her. Aiko swiveled to see chibi Kakashi staring wide-eyed, incomprehensibly shaking his head at the room. Ah, that was right. He was observing today. It was take your student to work day, apparently, and she'd ended up Minato's babysitter.

'Oh well. He seems fine.'

She shrugged and moved on with her life, flipping up onto a puppet's back to avoid the blade it brought down.

"Sara!"

Naruto's panicked shout on the other side of a wall drew her attention, and she realized for the first time that she'd pushed her way further into the complex and in a different direction than the boys had.

Her Hiraishin bounced her off of the enormous thing that had snatched Naruto up and was enclosing him in—were those puppets, fusing together like some sort of goddamn transformer about to fight off bad aliens? Were those the puppets that they had been knocking apart?

In a detached way, her mind surveyed the situation. Her brother was pale-faced and pounding on the closing puppet, fifteen feet off the ground. Sara, that indomitable idiot, was splayed up on the floor with her lower lip trembling in a way that just told her he'd gotten snatched up to save her when she inevitably ran to tell the puppets to stop in the name of love or her mother's spirit or whatever it was she went on about. Sasuke was forcing his way through a crowd of those puppets, pulling them apart as though they were made of tissue paper even as they struggled and warped into a cohesive whole.

But mostly she saw her otouto looking determined but deceptively frail as the new puppet sealed him inside a grotesque, stupid tomb of Mukade's making.

Aiko gave an enraged scream and leapt thoughtlessly at the clay puppet trapping her brother for the sake of that girl who wouldn't pay attention to her surroundings. "Sen Tsurara!"

With sudden, hateful clarity, she realized at least one reason why people shouted out the name of their jutsu, despite it being unprofessional and generally counterproductive for sneaky assassins. When you really despised someone, you wanted them to know how you were going to kill them. She was going to kill Mukade herself, and to hell with the consequences.

Her technique skittered with a cacophony of high pitched shrieks off the hard reddish surface in the instant before it bit in and punched all the way through the unnatural material trapping her brother, leaving her wrist deep in sodden, scraped and shattered material. Her blow had been aimed several feet above him to prevent any chance of harming him with her technique. This should have shattered the damn thing and let him escape.

Instead, the horrid self-regenerating clay bubbled and warped up, already growing back in where she'd collapsed it. Even worse, the hole she'd made had been about a foot and a half in diameter. Certainly not enough for Naruto to escape unless it was positioned perfectly.

'I need more force. A lot more force applied precisely.'

"Sasuke!" she called, fear frantically whining in her head.

"Back up," he roared, cocking and fist and coming at the puppet with a fierce expression. She crouched and pushed off of the puppet in the direction Sasuke had come from, crossing him in the air a half-second before he collided and smashed the whole tacky affair like an antique plate, collapsing the armor inwards. Naruto easily slipped out, hitting the ground in a roll and popping back up to form a shadow clone.

"I'm taking Sara out of here," he called, gathering the girl up like she weighed less than a thought and bounding towards the left corridor and letting his clone cover his back. "They were targeting her."

It was good strategy, though she didn't like him going alone. And it gave her an opportunity to pound on these things without impunity.

"Sasuke, follow him." Aiko cracked her neck and flexed her fingers, giving the reassembling puppets an unimpressed stare. "They're just going to keep regenerating. I'll immobilize them and catch up to you two later."

'It's almost a shame we didn't find any of the missing people here, but this had to have convinced even Sara that something is really wrong. Being attacked on sight has to be unnerving.'

"Understood." He gave a brisk nod and left in a flash of movement.

It wasn't like she was at any risk for being trapped inside a puppet cage, after all. Besides, the constructs that she had detonated still hadn't brought themselves back together. Either that was impossible, or it took much longer. She blinked away thoughts of the potential strain of setting that many seals at once. She'd already set at least a hundred, and that was a good chunk of her reserves.

'I'll tag every other one and make the explosions bigger to conserve chakra,' she decided grimly. It was hardly optimal to do less localized explosions when fighting inside, as it increased the risk of structural damage or friendly fire. But the only ally who was possibly still in the area was Kakashi, who was a sneaky little bastard. He was probably scoffing at her showiness and steadily picking through a confused-looking group of the idiot devices from a distance, insulting them under his breath the whole time.

That was about the time that she jumped and realized one of her Hiraishin seals was definitely not where it should have been. She methodically, efficiently worked to get through her opponents—they didn't seem to regenerate when detonated—so she could go investigate.

When all the puppets laid in broken pieces on the floor, she picked her way through the rubble mindlessly, making certain that the missing workers weren't in the area. Naruto and Sara must have gone the right way, because her path led her outside. Oddly enough, she'd traveled far enough through the complex that she could see one of the city gates, and a single figure standing under it looking lost.

A bit of dust was kicked up by a rather efficient shunshin, and the boy she'd misplaced was standing by her side. "That one of yours?" Kakashi asked long-sufferingly, pointing at the older shinobi who had just now noticed them and gotten a dopey grin.

"Yepp," she sighed, wishing he looked a little more impressive and a little less windswept and silly. Then Aiko frowned. "But he shouldn't be alone." She purposefully left Kakashi behind, striding to meet Yamato in the middle of the block. Before he could open his mouth, she flung her arms around his flak jacket, burying her face into his chest. She could feel him stiffen and knew he was uncomfortable. Didn't even care.

"You're taking over," she informed him, knowing he could understand her muffled tone. Still, for emphasis, she drew one arm back and poked him in the chest repeatedly with two fingers. "This shit is ridiculous and I want to go home and I don't like being captain."

"I- I guess I'll take that as a compliment?" he asked uncertainly, gently pulling her back by her forearms and giving her a slight frown, brows creased. "What's going on? Where are we?"

Aiko tilted her head up just to be sure he could see her roll her eyes at him. "You serious? Look around." She gestured widely, fingers held together so she wasn't rude like Naruto or chibi-Kashi.

Not coincidentally, said boy was in the range she indicated. Yamato's eyes locked on him and widened comically.

In a strange, stifled tone, he asked, "Is that-"

"Yepp," she informed easily.

He seemed to deflate with a puff, before just the slightest hint of boyish amusement crossed his features. Then he was a professional again. "Right, then. Where are the boys?"

"They're playing bodyguards to a princess who is being manipulated by Mukade while an ANBU team lurks in the shadows," she replied professionally. At least, as professional as it was possible to say such a ludicrous thing.

Yamato pinned his hand to his head and slowly shook it. "Start from the beginning."

"Well, to be fair, the princess doesn't seem to really believe that Mukade is the one behind all this. When he unstuck that seal, he ended up getting us all sent back in time." She raised her eyebrows meaningfully. "As you've noticed, we didn't all end up in the same time."

Sweet, clever, socially capable Yamato seemed to read the question she didn't hint at. "As far as I know, Mitsuo is fine," he assured briskly. "He was far enough back that I'm sure he didn't get caught up."

She slumped in relief, taking a deep breath and putting that worry to rest. "Thank kami."

Kakashi had been watching with curiosity, but seemed fed up with waiting now. "You're being rude," he pointed out waspishly. "And we should report."

Yamato stared at him for a moment. He seemed to swallow the first thing that came to mind, and merely gave him a rather sad look. "You've got a lot of growing up to do, kid." Aiko tried not to wince. Yeah. This was pre-Obito Kakashi. He was almost a different person.

Whatever he saw in their expressions unnerved him enough that he didn't say a damn thing, only took the lead and cut the straightest line to the rendezvous point.

[konohadaddies]

💙‽ For Obito and Nagato (:

For Obito:

Sauce:

Over time, Sauce could easily develop feelings for Obito if only because Obito would probably be one of the more understanding people about his traumas and would give him the time and space to sort his own shit out. Also helps that Obito never had an obsession with him like so many of his own peers did. It means he can actually trust Obito to like who he IS rather than an idea of what he COULD BE.

Itachi:

Itachi could probably form some familial attachment to him as he is an Uchiha and that alone would make Itachi try. At the same time, it would be so easy for his mind to cross lines and for his attempt at being family to Obito could lead to his own desires making him want Obito as someone who understands him and the things he's done.

Hakai:

Obito is strong enough he could become the focus of Hakai's craving for a mate, but Hakai would also accept it if Obito felt more familial towards him. He is a demon lord and powerful beyond what anyone would expect of him with how he hides his demon side. But, if Obito found out about his demon form(s) and was willing to keep that secret, then Hakai could easily form an attachment with him. And like his father, he would never force anyone to be his mate, so if Obito didn't return an interest he would only ever be there to support and protect Obito if/when needed.

Hiashi:

Obito is strong enough to be enticing, but Hiashi has reluctance about spending time with Uchiha due to one of his genin teammates being an Uchiha and the way she would mess with him once more sharingan activated. Especially these days when he hides so much from the elders. If given time, he could very easily give into desires he tries to ignore and want Obito, he'd just have to learn to trust him before he could actually admit to such feelings.

For Nagato:

Sauce:

As horrible as this is going to sound, and I as mun don't agree but its accurate to my portrayal of Sauce because of his own self-worth issues, I don't think he'd be able to handle anything beyond platonic connections with Nagato unless he's managed to get more healthy. The reason being that Sauce already rags on himself for needing people to help him at times (its hard to carry large/awkward objects with one arm and things like that) so having a partner that needs assistance regularly (since canonically it seems Nagato didn't move much on his own anymore) would just be too much for him. If Nagato were healthy enough to move around and do things on his own, that would open up possibilities of more between them as Sauce does like partners who are powerful enough that he doesn't feel like he's being fawned over because of how strong he is, if that makes sense?

Itachi:

The biggest thing to manage any kind of relationship to Itachi would be finding a way to get him to trust Nagato and to fully believe he's not a threat to Konoha any longer. Once that trust is built, Itachi could likely go either way, platonic or romantic, as its all about how he vibes with folks really as to what feelings he gains. But he also would never be the first one to admit his feelings as he'd rather keep friends than risk losing them over something as small as a crush.

Hakai:

Demon dog craves strength in his mate, whether it be physical or mental strength. So he could fall for Nagato. Especially if Nagato took the time to learn of his past, to see how power had once corrupted Hakai as well. To have his past accepted, to be accepted for the way he doesn't just keep all of Konoha in a safe little bubble just because he could, to be seen in his demon forms and accepted as he is. The other side is if we wanted to do a dark verse with Hakai demon man could definitely fall for his strength as an ally to him as long as Nagato didn't try to manipulate him. That's the one thing he doesn't handle well.

Hiashi:

I'm not sure that they would be a good match as outside of physical attention in private, Hiashi is not the best at expressing his affection and Nagato seems like the type who would need someone more capable of not hiding everything the way Hiashi has trained himself to do. But I'd be happy to discuss things and see if we could make it work if he interests Nagato.

[thecopynin-kakashi]

Starter for @mythcaels

Minato was up late, hanging over a poorly lit desk as he had many times over. What was his sensei doing, Kakashi wondered, to further along the changes he so desperately hoped for? Obito and Rin had always weighed heavily in his mind and heart, but the pain of keeping to the shadows so deeply seemed to be ripping every wound wide open once again. His place should be at Minato's side, ensuring whatever safety he could offer to him and his family, and yet Danzo had condemned him. Surely a lie had been concocted to label him with treason, anything to allow Danzo to keep a grasp on this power he had somehow obtained.

But Kakashi worried it was believed.

It was this worry that had brought him secretly into the village, lingering out of sight as he watches his sensei finish his final projects for the night. Kakashi was terribly torn with approaching and avoiding him--one side out of his desire to warn and protect, the other out of fear he might be deemed a traitor by his sensei as well.

It took him a long moment to become decisive enough to take the risk and step forward, his figure drifting in and out of meager light as he approached one of the large windows of the Hokage's office. Likely Minato already knew of his presence, but he still moved as silent as death, taking a knee as soon as he entered the room.

"Minato-sensei…" The red of his sharingan glimmered, body tense in case the ROOT caught wind of him here. He lowered his head as his hands curled into fists at his sides. "I…" He found himself freezing, wondering now if he should plea for a moment to speak his side or simply pass a warning before his time was up. "I know what you may have been told, but I would not turn my back on you or Konoha."

[the-letter-horror-lover]

The Shinobi Rules

Silirt

Chapter 17: Bubbles

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Awa no Mura, the traditional name for the village of bubbles, was the perfect place for Kirigakure to foment rebellion against Konoha. With the ruin of the land of whirlpools in sight, it would be easy enough to convince the loyalists there that the leaves could not protect them. They also had long-running family ties to Yu, which might be an ally, but would not be protected first, not before the hidden village. Obito understood all of that perfectly fine, but he was having a hard time wrapping his head around their mission, even as he was being deployed on it.

“I don’t get it,” he said for what felt like the thousandth time. “Why would they betray us?”

“I can only speculate,” Kakashi said. “We’ll find out when we get there.”

His teammates were being patient with him again, which annoyed him a little. He was probably the most outspoken on the team, and quite possibly the most outspoken out of any young shinobi, when he looked at the other kids who had been in the academy with them, but that did not mean people had to treat him like an opinion box. It was worth considering, though, the chance that his teammate was right, and it was better to save his questions for when the answers could be easily determined.

They arrived in the village about two days after they left, which was travelling hard for them. Though there were not that many natural barriers, they were out of chakra quickly and had to sleep to recover, and when they were going into a potentially dangerous setting, it was a good idea not to run themselves out completely. The village was mostly made of bamboo, with some newer wooden houses here and there.

“Are you three the shinobi we requested?” an old man asked.

“Yes,” Kakashi said, bowing slightly. “We are quite capable.”

“I see. Well, I was promised a full refund if I find even one rebellious element alive at the end of this. I expect you three to do your duty thoroughly, and efficiently. There will be no consideration of the fact that you seem to be substantially younger than I expected.”

“Fine,” Obito said. “When did you learn that there were agents of Kiri here?”

“It’s better to talk about this inside. We never know where they are.”

Following the village leader, they came into a small building of bamboo, though it was larger than the houses of the rest of the village. They had assumed the old man was their contact, and his sense of caution more or less confirmed it. The walls were marked with countless seals.

“How did you make all these?”

“There was an old Uzumaki who wandered here. I didn’t have anything against him, but he was always going to wander out the way he came in. While I was letting him stay here, he put seals on my walls and said the place would be more secure.”

Kakashi said nothing and took out a small book, writing things down. No one paid him any mind, not when Rin was looking around the room as if expecting to find something specific.

���Can I help you, young lady?”

“Oh, sorry, don’t worry about me. There are just so many symbols- I get interested in these kinds of things.”

“Anyway, sir, do you have an estimate on how many of your citizens are working for Kiri?”

“They’re not my citizens; it's a community older than I am and I don’t have as much authority as you might think. There are twenty people who live in town and about thirty who live in the surrounding area; cleared land for farms and some of them do their best to live off the land. They only come here if they need something and the rest of the time it’s not worth the trip.”

“That’s how it is where we’re from,” Obito said, deciding he was not giving away privileged information. “It sounds like a much smaller town, though.” It was almost, he would decide, like how the Uchiha had formed their own insular community, only this one was less than deliberate.

“Did you see anyone from Kiri here?”

“There was a letter. It was not meant for other eyes; I know that much. It was a request for specific information. That means they’re moving ahead with something; they can’t wait for the next dossier.”

He nodded, familiar with how spying worked, but not sure how the village leader had picked it up. It was clear enough he was not a ninja himself, but perhaps that old Uzumaki friend of his had told him something. Obito remembered that Minato’s girlfriend Kushina was from the land of whirlpools, but he did not know much else about her.

“Do you know anything else that might help us?”

“Yes. There was a code. It’s in an abandoned building; I’ll let you look at it yourselves. I don’t mind if you sleep there, but most of the locals wouldn’t touch the place because of the ghosts.”

“Thank you,” Kakashi said, closing his book. “We’ll make sure not to disturb anything that does not need to be disturbed.”

“Konohagakure has a reputation for discretion, and if they sent you on this mission, then they trust you to maintain it. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that, though.”

“Reminders are appreciated.”

They left without going over when they would get paid and how; they could feed themselves if they had to, but because of the timing of the mission, and because it would tie them up for three years, the reward would have to be pretty substantial. Rin sighed a little.

“What?” he asked as they walked to the abandoned building. There was really nothing to see on the way there, just a hot springs that was apparently managed by two older ladies.

“I just can’t believe that we’ll be here for so long. I can’t face anyone in the village, so maybe it’s better that we’re away, but... I’ll be nine or ten when we come back.”

“You won’t change much,” Kakashi said. “After those concentration exercises we did back at the academy, it’s really more like we’re that old already.”

Obito only gave him a sidelong glance. People from outside the hidden ninja villages would still have no ability to believe they were so young; the old man they just met probably thought they were just small, or teenagers disguising themselves as kids.

When they arrived at the old bamboo house, it seemed like some old person was using it until he or she croaked, leaving no heirs, and then it fell to the village elder to go through the place, and that was how the letter turned up. Most likely, the older resident had been working for Kiri for a while, and fell to some unexpected cause like a heart attack. Without the body, it could not be determined.

“What if it’s just the one guy?” he asked.

“They wouldn’t trust a single local contact like that,” Kakashi said. “Especially not if they knew how old he was- no, they had backups; it’s better than coming back here to install someone else to replace him.”

“He wouldn’t have left anything lying around,” Obito said, looking at a small furnace that had been moved recently, going by the marks on the floor. There was a square in the soot that had not been touched and he inferred that the letter must have been hidden back there. “The letter wouldn’t have mentioned any other contacts.”

“I think I found the code,” Rin said, pointing up at the ceiling. There was a picture of a well, a picture of a mountain, and a circle with a square cut out of it, which might have been an old coin. He tried sounding out the words, but they made no more sense like that, backwards or forwards.

“Good. Did you notice we seem to be running into a fair few old people?” Kakashi asked. Obito could only shrug at that.

“Yeah,” he said. “Maybe it's just this part of town. We’ll see more of it as we explore more.”

“Actually, I was wondering about that,” Rin said. “We haven’t looked in the surrounding area yet, but even when we just arrived at the town, it seemed like everyone there was over fifty.”

“That’s weird,” he said. “I don’t even know what to say about that.”

“It could be a dying community,” Kakashi speculated. “For some reason or another, they haven’t been having kids, and everyone just aged.”

“That’s terrible. Why wouldn’t they want to have kids?”

“I don’t know,” Obito said. “We’ll find out.” He thought for a moment. The Uchiha had taken measures to ensure that their population would grow, while maintaining the bloodline. There was one family that had expressed concerns about having more kids, apparently because they did not know that there would be missions available, and the clan leaders ensured them that there would be space in the lower ranks. “It could be money, though. If they don’t have jobs here, then...”

“Then there’s no one looking for new workers,” his teammate finished. “The jobs you could get in this village already would not be high-paying; people do almost everything themselves; they cook for themselves; they build their own houses; they even fight criminals themselves rather than calling someone else to take care of it, in this kind of village.”

“Why?” Rin asked. “Wouldn’t people be... not so good at certain things? Wouldn’t they be better at other things?”

“It’s an equilibrium,” Kakashi explained. “It’s a situation that’s hard to overcome. If everyone makes something, it’s hard to sell that thing to them. It’s hard to drop everything else you’re supposed to be doing, invest all your time into one thing, and then see if you can sell it to a bunch of jacks of all trades.” He was looking out the window, but there was nothing they could see from there. They were in the middle of a bamboo forest, after all.

“How does it ever change?” Obito asked. “Do they just trade with someone else?”

“Sometimes it happens like that. Sometimes they just get conquered by another entity. I don’t know; maybe someone eventually sets off the balance like a new thing coming out and one person bringing it back. It doesn’t matter. Even in the middle of the village, job opportunities would always be pretty thin.”

“It wouldn’t matter as long as they could take care of themselves, though,” Rin said. “They could just grow things in a garden and eat it all themselves. They could hunt for their food.”

“That’s what a lot of people do. It just means they’ll probably never get beyond that.”

Rather than explaining further, if he knew anything else, and Obito of the present was not convinced he did, he set about making the place habitable. The former inhabitant had not died that long ago, but it needed to be cleaned or they would get sick, and that was going to be annoying. Speaking for himself, he intended to spend every spare minute training and working on improving his knowledge and skills.

“Who are you?” someone asked. They were somewhat surprised to find a younger man than before, along with his wife and their kids, who were both basically grown. “Are you shinobi?”

“We’re on assignment. Can’t give out any details. Did you know this man?”

“No, not really,” the wife said. “We just knew the house was abandoned, and, well, we had not heard of anyone else claiming it. We thought it would be a good place for one of our sons.”

“I suppose it makes sense to reuse rather than just letting this place go to waste,” Kakashi said. “Unfortunately, we’re here for a while. I can’t say how long. Why wait so long to move in?”

The husband and wife looked at each other.

“You might not be that superstitious, but, well, it felt weird moving into a house right after someone died in it. We don’t hold anything against you for getting here first. It just means that we have to spend some more time building somewhere else, and, who knows, maybe we can convince our sons to stay close.”

“Are your families all really close?” Rin asked. “The old man, then, would have been isolated?”

“I barely remembered his name,” the man said. “When you live out in the bamboo with your family, that’s pretty much it. The boys used to run over to see their friends, when they were overflowing with energy, but they went to a clearing somewhere, not their houses. I don’t know of anyone who knew the old man personally.”

“Did he not have a family?” Obito asked.

“It’s like that sometimes. If you can’t find someone to settle down with you, then things will be hard for you when you’re old. I don’t know what happened, though. I suppose he could have had a family who left, or he left them. For the most part, though, people don’t have that luxury.”

He had never thought about it like that before. If he really made it as a shinobi, then he could earn quite a sum of money, and retirement would be a breeze if he lived that long, and wanted to retire rather than working in a leadership position in the village. It had always seemed to him that congregating and working together was effectively the only way to live; even the farmers around Konohagakure went into the city sometimes. They were not absolute hermits.

“We think the man might have been murdered,” Kakashi lied. “Certain circumstances are just like a string of murders across the country. We don’t know who’s doing it; we’re here to gather evidence and see if he strikes again.”

“We don’t know anyone who might have killed him, if that’s what you want to know,” one of the sons said. “He interacted with this twisted old crone in the north, sometimes, but that was it.”

“Don’t call her that.”

“What’s her name?”

“I don’t remember, but you don’t have to call her a twisted old crone. Come on, I don’t think we can help the ninja with anything; that’s quite enough excitement for one day.” They left, casting glances over their shoulders all the way out.

“How could he live by just talking to one person?” Rin asked. “He had to have been trading the Kiri money for food, if we’re right about what’s been happening here.”

“They would have omitted anything they would see as obvious,” Kakashi said. “I’m betting there’s someone who would sell leftover crops around here, even if everyone makes their own food. If you can grow more than you need, at a low enough cost to yourself, and there’s someone who would buy the excess, even if it’s only because they grow something else...” he trailed off, suddenly becoming interested in a burn mark on the floor.

“The twisted old crone is someone who lives far away. Is it safe to say she has something to do with this?” Obito asked.

“No, but it’s worth checking. If we’re here for long enough, pretty much anything is. We’re taking the time to do this properly. If we don’t find out who the other conspirators are, we can just kill everyone in the village on the last day we have. I doubt this place makes much of a difference to the rest of the country.”

“We’re not killing everyone here,” he said, more annoyed than inflamed with moral outrage. After a little over a year of being teammates, he had grown used to the idea that the now-Chunin obeyed the Shinobi Rules at the expense of obeying any other rule set, but he supposed that was how it always worked. Following any given list of rules, unless exceptionally permissive or easily reinterpreted, precluded him from following any other list of rules. Being good in his own book made him bad in anyone else’s.

“We’ll see about that,” Kakashi said. “I should warn you, though, you might not like the answer.” He looked around. “Why do you think we need so long to get this mission done?”

“Well, it might be hard to know when we’re done,” Rin said. “We don’t know how many people are disloyal and unless we investigate them all, we won’t know when we’ve got them all.”

“It’s to make us take care with it. The only way we complete the mission is to take care and work diligently,” Obito said, only just realizing it himself. “There isn’t a fast way of doing it. There aren’t any shortcuts. It’s also important.”

“It’s paramount,” his teammate added. “It’s absolutely critical that we get this done properly, or we could have a huge disadvantage in a war against the Mizukage. We don’t even want war with Kiri, not when it already looks like we’re going to have one against Iwa.”

The mood of the room darkened as they looked back and forth.

“Even if they don’t have chakra control training, no normal spies could do this,” Rin said to herself quietly. “Somehow, there are shinobi involved. That’s why the village leader didn’t get in touch with the Fire Daimyo. If the spies here have a contact from the Mist-”

“Then we’ll have to kill them without getting caught. If the enemy realizes why we’re here, they’ll pull their men out and probably just deposit them in other villages in Konoha. They already know some of the customs and culture, so it wouldn’t be hard to mix in elsewhere.”

“That’s why you came up with a pretext,” Obito said.

“It was the first thing that came to mind. In such a small village, I didn’t expect to run into the inhabitants so early, but now we have to stick to that story. You’re in charge of investigating any deaths for the next three years. We can never let them think we’re here for anything more significant than that.” He sighed.

“What?”

“I had hoped, well, on the way here I was thinking that we could make ourselves new clothes out of material we could buy off some of the wives around here. If no one even realized that shinobi had come to the village, it would have been exponentially better.”

“How would we explain why we were here?” Obito said. “I don’t know about how things happen outside of Konohagakure, but to be honest, if I saw three totally random children come out of nowhere, and they begged for scraps of clothes-”

“We could say we ran away from an orphanage or something; it doesn’t matter.”

He shook his head, but there was nothing for it. It was just a difference of opinion about which story seemed more notable, and it no longer mattered who was right. They were stuck with the story that they were on assignment looking into a serial killer; what they needed to do now was see how they could make it work.

“What if we made a fake run-in with the killer?” he asked. “We could act like we completed our mission, and people would think we left.”

“We might be able to use that down the road. At the moment we need to focus on information gathering. There’s a lot that we don’t know, and there’s a lot that we need to know to start trying to form plans about how we’re going to respond to the situation.”

He was right, and even if he had not been right, he had effectively appointed himself to take point on the mission. In those days, it had been easier and wiser for Obito and Rin to be taught by him than to try to teach him something, and they probably owed him their lives several times over. It would be difficult not to get complacent on a mission lasting so long, but they still had to have some other way of using their time. As Kakashi had said, they could always kill everyone in the village.

“Hey, I just thought of something,” he said as they cleaned the abandoned house. “Why are people in this village even thinking that they should go over to Kiri?”

“I can only think that they’re taking money. It’s a poor village, and the old man-”

“I know, but wouldn’t he get a pretty good reward for telling someone about a mist ninja coming around looking for spies to recruit? Wouldn’t he also have to hate his own country?”

The question seemed to make his teammates think for a moment. Kakashi was not exactly a misanthrope, even back then, but he was especially cynical and Rin had been hit hard in the court of public opinion, hard enough to make her ready to believe most any negative thing about people in general. With him it was complicated in different ways.

“Traitors get executed,” Kakashi said after a while. “Spies are treated worse than most. The old man would have had to have some reason to believe that Kiri would be kinder to him than Konoha. If he escaped there, would it make a difference?”

“It’s not like that,” Obito said, shaking his head. “I might be the most familiar with old people out of all of us. Over time, you start thinking less about the rest of your life. You start thinking about what you’re going to do with the rest of your life. You start to think about what you’re leaving behind. It’s not just that he should be worried about getting caught by Konoha, he should have some purpose to his actions beyond just personal gain.”

The other two were quiet again. It was true that he had spent more time with old people than either of them, especially after Rin’s uncle was arrested. To the best of his knowledge, the old man was still in custody and no decision about what to do with him had been reached, which had to make things hard on her; just to sit in limbo like that. Because it had not been decided whether or not he would suffer, even though it had also not been decided whether or not he had done anything wrong, people were acting like he was still at large. People were acting like the Nohara family had come under suspicion, and they all just had to clarify that they stood with the village, not one particular family.

“We’ll have to investigate,” Kakashi said after a little while. “It’s too soon to speculate, but you might be right about how he might have some other motive. One angle we’re going to have to check is whether it has to do with the land of whirlpools.”

“Revenge,” Rin said. ”We have to look into people who want revenge for the destruction of Uzushiogakure.” She paused. “There’s still a conflict with that, though. Wasn’t it Kiri that destroyed the Uzumaki clan?”

“Yeah,” Obito said. “Kiri was working with Shimo and Nami, but they were mostly dead weight. They were mostly there to make it look like everyone in the area hated them and it was universally agreed that they were too dangerous to leave alive.”

“So, it’s more complicated than we might suspect. It’s more complicated than any reason we can just ideate by talking about it,” Kakashi said. “Figuring out the reason is essential, though. We can’t progress unless we know what they’re really trying to do and why.”

It was emblematic of all conflict between shinobi. A battle of wits that was over before the first punch was thrown. For the night, all they could do was to secure their position, and come up with a plan for the following morning. They would have to survey things as carefully as possible, because at the moment all they knew was that they had no idea how the enemy was going to react to there being Konoha shinobi in the village, or how much they knew already.

After that, everything would depend on their training, their improvement from where they were currently, and their ability to improvise given the present circumstances. Obito did his best to be only slightly worried.

Notes:

If you have been reading this far and noticed that I am not publishing every day, that is because I can only turn these out so quickly. Originally, I had a backlog and needed to get rid of it. I can keep up a rate of one chapter every two days and never intend to go below that rate, but sometimes I might upload an extra chapter. I mention this only because I know that some people like to refresh stories frequently, so now you know.

The Shinobi Rules

Silirt

Chapter 18: The Middle Leg

Chapter Text

It had been one year since they arrived in Awa no Mura, and in that time Obito did not feel vastly more confident in his abilities, nor did he feel like he had even caught up with Kakashi. He would later look back on that as an idiotic presumption that he could ever catch up with his teammate so quickly, especially considering his teammate was training as well. Most of what they could train was taijutsu, and for the most part they trained at night. To their credit, it felt like they would be able to stand up to even adults at the Genin level, not that it mattered.

The three of them felt like they knew everything about the village, inside and out. They made up fake letters from the Hokage, whom no one else could contact, and they made everyone aware of their mission and never let them forget about it. Playing the part of the gung-ho rookies who really had no idea what they were doing, they endured it when everyone called them cute. Rin seemed the best at that. Looking back on it, she probably enjoyed having everyone around her like her for a change.

Whenever the villagers had a problem, they solved it. There was a wild animal that had injured an old man and they tracked it down and made sure that it would not be bothering anyone. Though at the time they had been doing that entirely for a cover, pretending like they were Genin with nothing better to do than take D-Rank or what would really be below that, and perhaps they actually did have nothing better to do at times, it was quite possibly the most important thing they did in the first year. It would take until the next year to recognize that.

“Hey, Obito.” He turned around from splitting wood. Agzia, an old lady, had no younger relatives to help her with that kind of task and he had trouble turning her down. Kakashi was behind him.

“Yeah?”

“Have you seen Rin?”

“Not since this morning. She was making a map of the area, right?” They had found that when compiling the information they had on the villagers, it helped to be able to chart them based on location. They had already found three or four suspicious persons, depending on which of them was talking at the time. One of them thought there were eight.

“Where was she going?”

“I don’t know. I asked a few days ago how it was going, but she didn’t really say how much she had done and where she was going to go next.”

“This could be bad.”

“Well, yeah, it could be, but it’s probably nothing. We haven’t seen her for a little while, that’s it.”

“We can’t afford to grow complacent. We can’t afford not to take the greatest possible care.”

“Okay, then I’ll stop what I’m doing and we can look for her.”

He went back into the house and told the old lady that he would be back later to finish chopping wood for her. Though he did not appreciate them at the time, he was grateful that Konohagakure seemed to have an endless supply of pointless D-Rank missions; it was believable that three Genin were hanging around in the middle of nowhere investigating a mystery no one expected them to solve.

When they looked around for Rin, it certainly took a longer time than expected, but he remembered that they were all keeping a low profile, so it stood to reason that their teammate would be staying out of sight while making a map, which was not as easy as they initially thought. Basing the distances in the map on the distance from the center of the village to the sea, though, at least allowed her to plot out the buildings in town, which mostly doubled as houses.

“We should go over to the meeting point,” he said after a moment. “She wouldn’t have gotten lost with her map.”

“She could have been attacked.”

“I mean, maybe, but we don’t know anything about that. Let’s at least check.”

They went over to the meeting place and Obito could not have said, not at the time, why Kakashi was annoyed. It was not a realistic reaction for him if they were concerned about their teammate, but he did not pick up on that. Rather than a letter from the village, they found Minato and Rin at the meeting place.

“It’s good to see you two,” their teacher said. “I was almost worried that you forgot.”

A month ago, they had found a letter arranging a meeting far outside of town where they would not be observed. Apparently, one of them remembered, the other one shrugging when he looked. It would be a long time before he realized that only he had forgotten, and that was because it was out of the routine for them.

“Sensei was just saying that he got a break between his contracts. What I don’t understand is why he’s spending it with us instead of Kushina.”

“She’ll be there when I get back,” he said, smiling. “It’s not every day that I get a long enough break to go over and see my team, though. What are you now, seven?”

“I’ll be eight tomorrow,” Rin said. ”The boys aren’t far behind.”

“It still amazes me that you three have achieved so much at your age. I know that this mission probably seems like a punishment, but it’s more important than we initially realized, and Hoshimitsu was actually pretty hesitant about giving it to you three, even before that whole scandal broke, but I assured her that at least one of you would make Chunin.”

In those days and in days long after that, their instructor could convince anyone of anything with a winning smile of his. According to him, his girlfriend initially had a hard time taking him seriously, because it seemed like he never took anything seriously himself, but after a mission with her, she could see that when he truly cared about something, there was nothing he would not do, and one of those things was her.

“Has anything been going on back home?” Obito asked.

“It seems like leaving mostly worked. There are still some people calling you ‘the Delinquent Team’, but they all know that you’re on a long mission taking you far from home. I feel like there’s a good chance that everyone will realize you’re committed to the village.”

There it was. That was the problem that everyone had. Questioning the wisdom of Sandaime and his administration in creating a team of three academy graduates that all had uncertain loyalties, influential voices in the village had lacked trust in them, at first. After it had come out that two of them had falsified some of their academic records, no one was interested in whether it was true or false. Everyone was convinced that the three of them were out for themselves, and had no loyalty to the village. Their instructor, the promising Yellow Flash, was wasted on them.

“What do we do when we get back?” he asked.

“Focus on your mission for now,” Minato said. “After you get back, though, you two will be asked to finish school, and then there’s probably another mission waiting before you can take the Chunin exams again.”

“We’re all going to pass this time,” Obito asserted. Things had mostly not changed for him; the village gave him mostly the same regard as they always had when they realized that he was an Uchiha. At the same time, he could not stand what It was doing to his teammates, even though he kind of resented one in particular. He remembered thinking that perhaps he would always have missions from the clan compound, and perhaps, if Dramada was right, he would always have friends, but his teammates could not say the same. They were stuck with him.”

“I’m sure you three have been training hard.”

“We’ve been training as hard as we can,” Rin said. “Kakashi is still better at most things, and It's like he’d determined not to let us catch up.”

“That’s his responsibility,” Minato said. “I know what you mean, though. Don't worry about it. When you three are adults and you’re all taking A and B-Rank missions, no one will care anymore who was the best in the academy.”

“Are we going to... split up?” she asked.

“It happens to everyone. It’s not a bad thing. It’s just that there are very few missions that require an entire team of Jonin, and when you make it that far, at some point you’ll have a team of graduates assigned to you. I know you’re focused on making Chunin now, and you should be, but that’s how it’s going to be eventually. It’s kind of like how you’re eventually going to grow up.”

“Thank you for the supplies, Sensei,” Kakashi said, taking a package from him while he spoke. “I suspect, though, that you can’t be here long.”

“No one will care if I’m a few minutes late getting back.”

“Don’t you have a date with Kushina?” Rin asked.

“Maybe. How are things going here?”

They gave him a basic rundown of everything that had happened in the last year and he was impressed with their analysis. Ho joked that they might end up getting sent on another such mission until they were twelve if they did too good of a job. Obito found it funny, but the other two were genuinely annoyed, at least as far as he could tell.

“You three will be fine. Here, take these,” Minato said, handing them each a scroll. “It may take you a while to master the material, but when you do, you’ll be a lot stronger. The way I hear it, you have nothing but time on your hands.”

They were all glad for the vote of confidence, as he would later learn. Even though their teacher had gone in to the Chunin exams knowing that there would be complications, to say the least, the fact that he had not let on was probably the only reason they could handle it. He liked to think he could deal with stress, but he genuinely could not have said how he would have performed if he knew that the elders were going to pull a fast one on him. In a way that bothered him more than he could even articulate at that age, he had a tendency to shut down and try to avoid stress rather than meeting it head on, which seemed to prevent him from activating the Sharingan. It was easy for anyone to say that he should just face a life or death situation, but that was precisely what any sane person would want to avoid.

It was something that he would later realize seemed to distinguish him from the rest of his clan. Though it was not as simple as ‘they were insane and he was normal’, but he certainly felt like he could at least understand other perspectives and he would be sympathetic to Kakashi and Rin whenever they would argue with him, rather than insisting on his own passions every time. There were times that he wondered if that was the reason that the dojutsu had remained inaccessible to him. Was he just not like the other Uchiha? Was that, on balance, a bad thing?

“What took you two so long?” Rin asked as soon as Minato left. He had a way of leaving without saying anything, probably because he was never concerned about when he could next meet people; he was probably the fastest ninja in Konoha.

“We were looking for you.”

“Where did you think I was? I was just going north and checking a few things out for the morning. Making a map is painstaking work, and I got stopped along the way by this one old lady who always wants me to use the washboard.”

“Oh, right; I forgot.”

“Did you forget we’d have a meeting?”

“I mean, yeah, Kakashi said something about it, but he was being so casual about it that I didn’t think it was coming up soon.”

“You can’t just listen to tone,” his teammate said. The other agreed. “It doesn’t matter now, though. Minato can’t come to visit us whenever, so we have to make the most of what he gave us.”

That was going to be easier said than done from the sound of it, and his personal preference was to make more progress with their current mission. Perhaps they still had plenty of time, but it was somewhat embarrassing, in a way, that they had not solved the problem already. He had never been on a mission that had lasted an entire year, and though it was a complex and delicate procedure, he wanted to have said he had accomplished more in all the time he had.

“I think we should do another stakeout on Zutshi,” he said. “She was the most suspicious out of anyone, and if we give it another night, we’ll find something. Let’s do the job we were sent out here to do.”

“We’ve given the locals enough of a reason to think that we’re just normal Genin on a boring mission that isn’t important to anyone,” Kakashi said, agreeing. “A year is a good benchmark. They’ve seen our faces, but they haven’t heard of us. They don’t know that we’ve already been through the Chunin exams.”

When night fell, the three of them waited in trees. Training their stealth skills had been a constant over the last several months; they trained against each other and it had the side effect of improving their tracking ability. They could be reasonably confident that if they approached through the trees and carefully moved between them, they would not be observed. Staring down from the branches, Obito counted himself lucky that they were not in the bamboo forest, which made things harder.

As if to validate his reasoning, Zutshi, the old lady who did little other than repair fishing nets and sew clothes, had an unexpected visitor. It was a man in robes of a dark green, a costume, and a camouflage. Even if someone saw him in the dark, he or she would probably assume he was a normal villager. The three young shinobi, however, were not fooled. They knew every single one of the villagers and could even identify them in the dark of midnight.

“Suspect confirmed,” Kakashi muttered. “We’re looking at a traitor to Konoha.”

“We can’t just rush in, though,” Rin muttered back. “We have to see where he goes.”

The chance they were dealing with a mist ninja was high enough that they would have to hang back more than they would with any of the villagers. Though they had never been to Kirigakure, all ninja were trained to know when they were being watched, and they had heard that village in particular had some of the harshest methods to ensure the training stuck, at least under the third Mizukage.

Crawling along the tree branches, Obito was grateful for every single minute of stealth training with his teammates. They would not always be able to take an enemy by surprise, but part of the point of sneaking was to hedge out the chance of being surprised themselves. The quieter they were, the more they were able to hear. It was for that reason, most likely, that he could hear it when the insects fell silent.

“It’s a genjutsu,” Kakashi wagered, noticing it himself. “He wanted to mask the sound of his footsteps and there was a side effect. It’s not perfect, btu it would probably work against those never trained to observe.”

The target they pursued walked to what looked like a small cabin in the forest, perhaps something easily mistaken as a hunting lodge, or perhaps it had been. It was one of the things he had never found out, exactly. They had already decided that if their enemy was apparently alone, then they would wait for him to go to sleep.

“There might be something that could wake him up,” Rin whispered. “I have an idea.” She created a shadow clone to get closer, able to vanish it at any time in case there were more defenses than expected. Her clone landed lightly on the roof of the cabin, lowering down from an overhanging branch. He found himself impressed, he remembered, knowing that the copy could not do anything that was out of reach for the original, and it was demonstrating exceptional flexibility and control as it looked through the window, supporting itself against the wall, upside down by the feet.

Mere moments later, it disappeared.

“Did he see you?” he whispered.

“No, he was asleep. It’s the middle of the night and he was probably tired already. There were a few letters on the table, but I couldn’t read them.”

“They might have been coded even if they were in view,” Kakashi said. “At least we know that if he has any seals to protect the base, they don’t wake him up while he’s sleeping. Was there anything to firmly indicate that he’s from Kiri?”

“There was a sea route map on the wall,” she said. “That’s no guarantee, though. He could just claim that he was some trader. It’s not like no mist ninjas are ever allowed in our country under any circumstances whatsoever.”

That was another question that he had not yet pondered. Was what they were fighting even strictly unlawful? Whose fault was it if the foreign shinobi were able to persuade some villagers to help them by inaction, most likely, against the interests of Konoha? Why had the loyalties of the villagers degraded so much to where it was possible in the first place?

It did not seem likely he would have his questions answered. He sent a clone of his own forward, but this time the point was to steal a few of the scrolls. It was a risky move, perhaps, but the target would not realize that they were gone, not while he was sleeping. The others moved into position to kill him if he woke up, though they had never actually killed anyone before. Perhaps they could have told themselves that it was the same to throw a kunai at a person as it was to throw one at a practice target.

“I got the scrolls,” he obviated at a whisper as soon as his clone returned. They tried to read the material more quickly by creating clones, but the trick required an incredible amount of chakra as well as exceptional control over it. It was also difficult trying to read things out of order, and he thought to himself that it might work for learning a technique when the only real requirement was just practicing it over and over. In his academy days, there had been stretches of time where he and his teammates had created as many clones as possible, but it was draining and they had other uses for their chakra when they grew up.

“It says here that... wait, this is a recipe for sea gull,” Obito said. “What kind of code is this?”

“It’s supposed to look innocuous,” Kakashi whispered. “Just read it so that you remember it. We’ll need to be able to reproduce every character exactly the way it was written. You never know what the code is until you start working on it.”

Even with as much time as they had before the sun rose, though, there was too little time to work on decoding the scrolls, so they kept working on memorizing. There was nothing else to be done. Rin rolled up the one she was reading first and handed it to him, getting a scroll from her pack and starting to write. When he was done reading the scroll about the sea gull, he started to do the same, but then his other teammate gave him a scroll and he turned back to the wood cabin, deciding he could finish his transcription later. It was better that they left no trace they were out there, and they had a long ways to go just cleaning up after themselves.

He returned after placing the scrolls precisely where he left them, seeing that the person of interest was still asleep, not that he had any reason to suspect he would have woken up; it had only been an hour or so. His whole team was going to have a hard time staying awake the following morning, so they were going to have to take it easy to make sure nothing was out of place or noticeable. It would not do to have people think that any of them had nocturnal proclivities.

Perhaps that was where he learned that people had an aversion to the dark even if they were old enough not to believe in monsters, or better yet, old enough to remember what real monsters looked like. Taking advantage of this, shinobi always had a way of striking when it was least expected, which frequently was when it was most effective. There was nothing that could explicitly beat striking when the enemy was out of chakra, but that was hard to gauge.

“That’s it. We’re going back. Obito, you can write the rest down later, “ Kakashi said, putting his own in his pack after finishing his own transcription. He did not argue. It was impossible to say why he would have.

Without another word, they returned to the safe house. In the time since they had moved there, they had worked on the seals on the walls. It was really more of a pet project than an attempt to conceal themselves, but if it worked, then all the better. Fuinjutsu, however, was proving to be as difficult as expected and then some.

Rather than going back to decoding, Obito took a few minutes to write some minor notes about the scroll, doubting he would remember them in the morning. Getting to sleep after that was a challenge, if only for him. Kakashi had seemed worried about Rin, at least in an objective sense, but nothing had happened. There was never any reason to believe anything had happened. What was the concern? It was not as if she had not disappeared to go cartographing on days prior. She did not usually contact them. Had she been speaking to him individually?

Even when looking back on it, he could not be sure how he felt about it exactly. There was unease, but it was not exactly jealousy, nor was it burning compassion, as much as he would have liked for it to have been something like that. Perhaps he was simply not an age where he could have the feelings for her that he would, as advanced as he was in everything else. The fact that he was trained with deadly weapons as soon as he could hold them felt like a matter of course, and he knew from the older kids that they were rarely interested in each other until they were Chunin, though the ages might have been skewed as the village went through better and worse days. That was something he had simply taken as a given and would not question it for years.

For the moment, he had his mission, as he reminded himself, but he had already spent a year away from the village, and he was looking at the longest time he had ever heard of anyone leaving except on war business. Out from under the unblinking gaze of all the watchful eyes, could he not afford to question the village a bit more? Perhaps he would question the system as well. It seemed unlikely that he would ever forget his team’s harsh treatment by the elders, both local and visiting, especially when he remembered the sole purpose was to protect the position of the village.

Was he committed to the village, as his teacher said he was proving? Was he committed to his clan, like Dramada clearly wanted? Was he committed to his team? He shook his head and tried to get some sleep. There would be time for those kinds of questions in the morning.

The Shinobi Rules

Silirt

Chapter 19: Cowed

Chapter Text

“When did Madara get out here again?” Obito asked. He really only knew things in relative terms, and it was odd to think of it happening so recently, when it was so important. Somehow important things needed to happen longer ago.

“That was about two years into the first war. The tailed beast was already sealed within the undisclosed host,” Kakashi said, staring up at the ceiling. That was another problem with shinobi history; so much of it came from secret documents that contained redacted sections, and more than enough times, the people who knew what it said before it was redacted were already dead.

It had been two years since their team had arrived in Awa no Mura. They were reasonably confident that their information source had no idea that they were there; they monitored all his communication both with his agents in the village, and outside. He was not a skilled shinobi himself; most likely he was a Chunin level in his youth, and then he grew rusty in various skills as he adjusted to the monotonous life of a sleeper cell. Every villager who spoke to him called him by a different name, so it was really only because they needed something to call him that they picked the name Gatsuda.

Presently, Obito was working on a history of the village and the surrounding area, with Rin’s map complete. It was of enviable quality out of all maps he had seen so far, and it was a shame that they could not let the villagers know they created it, except possibly when they left. In order to get a better idea of what had caused the treason of some of the residents, Kakashi came up with the idea of talking to them under the pretext of creating a historical resource before they died, and tying that in to the story about the serial killer, but Obito had found that he enjoyed listening to old people’s stories so much that he actually did write the history.

Practically skipping, he went out to Agzia’s house, hoping that he could get her chores done quickly so that he could pick her brain about the Uchiha clan leader and his visit to Yu, back when the village had been a part of the land of hot water. She was one of the sharper elders of the village, with many others having forgotten much of the last fifty years.

“Oh, it’s you,” she said, smiling as soon as she saw him. “As you can see, the serial killer hasn’t gotten to me yet.” She was making reference to the fact that a few months ago, another old person had died and his teammates came up with the idea that they would pretend that it was the serial killer striking again, though in reality everything pointed to natural causes. It was easy to play the part of stupid kids, and it would get Gatsuda further off their trail.

“Do you have anything you need me to do?” he asked.

“Oh, no, that lovely girl came by and took care of most everything yesterday. I’ve learned to live in such a way that I don’t need someone to fuss over everything.” He had seen as much with the elderly frequently; they insisted that they needed no help because fewer chores needed to get done, and it was at least partially true.

“Okay, well... can you tell me about the time Madara was in the area?”

“Oh, that’s right... you’re an Uchiha, aren’t you? I knew that I saw that look of yours somewhere.” He nodded along. Powerful clans were generally insular to Konohagakure to protect their secrets, but nothing could stop the tall tales from spreading like shadows across the continent. His family was among the most notable, and in some circles the most feared. “Yes, I was heading to the capital; it was a complete coincidence- we never would have been informed of this sort of thing. I believe I was buying something to wear for my wedding, which was only about ten or eleven years later.”

He thought it was remarkable forethought, but then, he supposed, the wedding was probably arranged by the parents, not that she seemed bitter about it. If anything, she was nostalgic, though it was easy to be nostalgic for a time when bones did not creak so much.

“So, you just happened to be there when Madara was there?”

“Oh, yes, we were all wondering what he was doing in Yu of all places. My mother thought he was going to pursue an alliance with Shimo, but as it happened, he had only been here for us, and Cha, but that’s another story. I never did learn what the frost did to irk him so.”

After the Shodai’s failed attempt to subjugate the land of earth, he decided that there had to be more competent shinobi loyal to Konoha, but his plans would not be continued by Nidaime, who insisted on developing powerful jutsu, seeing it as a quality over quantity approach. Though the two of them had reached some bargain out of respect for the fallen Hashirama, they still fully expected to have disagreements about the future of the village, though these would be made irrelevant when Madara died at the end of the first war, and the position lapsed automatically. Obito could not help but feel like there were still gaps in the history.

“So, that was when he was there to discuss an alliance with the land of hot water.”

“Yes, going right around the Fire Daimyo at that. It was a controversial move, to be sure, but somehow it paid off.” It looked as if she was still surprised, even after as much time as had passed.

“Somehow?”

“Oh, don’t be too surprised; there was a way of looking at it where an alliance with Konoha was good for Yu, but everyone was worried that your country- our country, now, I suppose, would force us all into war. They thought Madara was gathering bodies to throw at Iwa.”

It was certainly a low opinion to have of the one-time leader of his clan, he supposed, but he could see why they thought that, with what they knew. That was what he was trying to do, anyway, he was trying to improve his understanding of history, and so even if he wanted to challenge something that a resource was saying, he still had to listen to the resource. He had never heard about the land of hot water being reluctant or hesitant to join into an alliance with Konoha. At the time, he could only think that between being allied with a much more powerful country and being enemies, he would think that a small country would rather have the first.

“What made people change their minds?” he asked after a moment, thinking all Shodai would have had to do was to explain to them that it would be advantageous. Would they get targeted by anyone other than Iwa for taking a side? What was the worry about getting targeted by rock ninjas when they were on the other side of the land of fire?

“The elders of Yu thought that it was suspicious that he would seek an alliance with us, and not with Ame or Kusa, both small countries that would have to help them in their war. We thought that it was certain he was planning for a war with Rai.”

Agzia clearly did not have his grandmother’s worry lines from the years after the first war where it felt like everyone was going to attack them after they failed to subjugate the land of earth. The whole village thought, and it only grew worse after Madara died, that they were going to look weak. Learning that other people thought they were gearing up for another dangerous war might have worried him on any other day, but in context he was relieved.

“Did they ever come out with the reason that the alliance was accepted?”

The old lady shook her head. That was to be expected. If the negotiations were held in secret, then even if nothing happened, probably no one would ever hear the words being exchanged. It was customary to hide the details of any negotiation, even if someone other than a ninja was involved. In years to come he would wonder about the need for all the distinction, but he was taking it for granted at the time.

“That’s okay,” he said. ”Did you ever hear about anything else happening?” he asked, thinking that someone else might know more. It was, however, an outrageous coincidence that she happened to be in the capital at the time.

“Well, there was talk of a shipment. I’m not sure what the land of fire was sending us, but there was an elder who was really excited to receive it. At the time I always assumed it was a shipment of food.”

In his past two years of living in Awa no Mura, he had realized that almost all the local food was hunted animals. The rice was being shipped in from the rest of Konoha, and the same was probably true of the land of hot water; there was a reason they called it that; the country was not known for its flavor. Much of the ground was not suitable for planting; the geysers were a tourist attraction, to be sure, but they could not produce enough food to feed an internationally relevant economy. It occurred to him that part of the reason they had agreed to the territory exchange was because it would open the door to getting more usable land.

“Well, thanks,” he started to say, getting up. It was better if the old lady did not stop to wonder why someone from their village was paying for three Genin to investigate a serial killer. They only had it on the word of the young ninja that was what they were doing. The reward, of course, was from the Daimyo.

“Oh, one more thing, Obito,” Agzia said. “Would you say that you are loyal to your clan, or your village?” He answered immediately, having had time to think about it.

“I’m loyal to my friends and my teacher,” he said. “I thought about what all I should be serving, but basically the truth is that no matter what, I’m always going to support my team.”

The old lady smiled, though there was a note of wistfulness to it. She knew that she could tell him that his loyalty to his friends only meant that he would have to adopt their loyalties, and that if they fought, he would have to reevaluate things. Most likely, though, she knew she did not have to tell him that.

When he was done with writing for the day, he wondered what he would do if his teammates ever turned on their teacher, or if all of them turned on the village, or the Uchiha clan. Did having to reevaluate his loyalties mean that he had not chosen correctly in the first place? He supposed rogue ninja never had to worry about that sort of thing; they were loyal only to themselves. Did they never have any internal conflict, though? What if money and some other personal desire were found to be in mutual exclusion?

He arrived at the cabin a moment before his teammates. The informant was there, as expected, and his black eye looked like it was healing. A few months ago, after they had figured out the code and how to produce false intelligence, then spent at least three weeks sending it to Kiri, probably with the codename for the third Mizukage, unless the fourth had taken over already. When the informant realized how many times over he would be tortured to death if it ever came out that he had sent them false information, he realized he had no choice but to work with them.

“Good evening, Master Obito,” he had said as soon as heard a knock on the door, rushing to open it. “How fares the most excellent young Chunin candidate?”

“It’s okay,” he said. He really wished Kakashi had not gotten carried away with beating the man within an inch of his life after he tried to turn the situation around with violence, figuring that if he could at least catch the counterintelligence agents, then perhaps he would be forgiven by his village. His teammate maintained that he had not gotten at all carried away; he had beaten the informant precisely as much as he meant to beat him, and no more.

“Where are the prodigious Kakashi and the lovely Rin?”

“They’re on the way.”

Something that bothered him was that the situation was more or less contained, at least as far as he knew, and yet they had not gone home. He supposed, though, that they were under orders to eliminate all rebellious elements. Was it not good enough to stem the flow of information and then just wait for natural causes to claim them? None of them were long for the world.

“You know why we’re meeting tonight, then?” Kakashi asked as he appeared at the door. It was a simple genjutsu that he used to conceal his approach, but it made the informant shake in his boots. “We need to know if there are any rebellious elements in the village who are not working with you.”

“Kiri sent no one other than myself,” he said, hastily looking around right when Rin appeared. She was a little kid to anyone who saw her, and yet he had trouble meeting her eyes. “I know of no one else from any other.”

“Then perhaps It's time to tell us their objective,” Obito said. “What are they trying to accomplish? What’s the point of spying?” There was no need to say that nothing of particular interest was going on in Awa no Mura.

“They want the land of whirlpools.”

“What?” he asked. It was, quite possibly, the last thing he would have expected. “There’s nothing there.”

“The land of mist needs more land, essentially,” he said. “Even with our admirable ability to use the water between the land that we have, another island, and especially one so close to the continent, would be incredibly beneficial. Perhaps you are too young to remember, but there was a treaty between the great powers that no one would take it.”

That kind of agreement would never last; it was just a matter of finding the right time to break it, or make it look like someone else’s fault. There was certainly no sense in letting a minor power take it, especially not a puppet like Nami. Since Kiri and its allies had been the ones to destroy the hidden village, and had done so explicitly because the Uzumaki were too dangerous to leave alive, taking the island would have allowed everyone else to disregard their stated purpose and insist that they destroyed Uzushiogakure solely for personal gain.

“What are their plans? Do they intend to build a bridge to span the islands?”

“We already have brides between our islands; there are plenty of contractors we could use. It’s not as much of an expense as you might think. The gains from trade could be astronomical.”

“That’s right. Getting the island would put them closer to Yu, and Shimo. The notion that we’re allied with one and enemies with the other purely by proximity would be put to the test,” Kakashi said. ”It’s because of appearances that they haven’t been able to take it. They intend to play the same game that we’ve been playing, insisting to other world powers that they’re the power-hungry maniacs.”

It was the strangest of blame games. At times, it bordered on being absolutely childish. Konoha was clearly the strongest, but no, it could not survive against every other country put together, and that was precisely what its enemies were proposing all the time. There was a way that everyone could be viewed as power-hungry; the only difference between them was that some countries had been more successful in that venture than others.

“How do we stop them?” Rin asked, breaking a short silence. “This is clearly more important than our actual mission.” What was even clearer was how much it pained the informant to give her an answer, but his betrayal was already known to the Hokage; they showed him the letter that they would send back. No matter what, even if several rogue ninja showed up out of nowhere and killed the three young shinobi, the fact that his cover had been blown was irrefutable, and Kiri considered failure unforgiveable.

“I suppose your only chance would be to stop the invasion when it happens. The mist ninjas are waiting for there to be war between Konoha and Iwa, and they need this village to see whether or not you have any counter prepared. Once they get their seals on the island, and once they set up a border like they have on their existing islands, it will no longer matter in the realm of international politics because it will be effectively impossible to take the island back.”

“That’s if anyone can find it,” Kakashi said. Despite the disadvantage presented by not having as much land, that and the fact that it was all surrounded by water made it easy for the experienced mist ninjas to defend. What surrounded Kiri was no ordinary mist; it was a dark cloud brought down to the land; only advanced sensor types could get through it and they chakra they put out made them easy to target from a range. Since the days of Tobirama, a Jonin named Zanryu boasted that he had never once missed when firing arrows at invaders. As advanced in years as he was, according to the scant amount of information coming from the islands, he had maintained his fearsome record.

“Exactly, feared young master,” the informant said.

“Then, it’s obvious,” Obito said. “We just have to keep it from getting out that the Hokage knows that there’s going to be an invasion- after we tell him. Then, the invasion fails because we’ll be ready for it.” He knew there was more to it, and that even if the enemy perceived them to be busy with something else, they would probably still go slowly and carefully, trying to keep anyone from realizing they were there. It would be easy enough to conceal their approach with what looked like a low, rolling fog. Konoha, however, had its own sensor types.

“We can’t go back until we’ve eliminated all the rebellious elements.”

“The point is so that the invasion fails.”

“Kiri will have a use for their spies after that,” Kakashi argued back. He looked over at the informant. They had already discussed how he had persuaded them to turn on their country, and it was basically by insisting that they were really part of Yu, a fellow water release country. Because they had no idea why they were allied with the land of fire, it was simple enough to insist that the alliance was illegitimate.

They had not expected, though, that he would use the same tactic on the three of them.

“I cannot help but wonder, if I may, why the three of you are loyal to Konoha,” he said. “At your age, do you even know what your country has done on the world stage? Perhaps there is another option than ensuring the failure of our invasion.”

When Obito looked back on it, it was probably because he and Rin were hanging their heads that the informant, whose name might still have been Gatsuda, was emboldened enough to continue. Thus far he had not said anything that even suggested they would be disloyal to the Fire Daimyo, but if it was viable for him to obtain mercy as a defector, then the same was at least potentially viable for them. Though there were three of them, they would probably be even more richly rewarded than he would.

“We’re not betraying our teacher,” Rin said, though she spoke for everyone. As much as the three of them disagreed on various things, and as much as they were regarded as the black sheep team, they all wanted to work to please their kind, talented teacher. If it was wrong to prize a personal relationship over their country, then none of them wanted to be right.

“Perhaps you are not aware, then,” their ally of convenience said, sighing. “Konoha is falling off. After your strength was tested against Iwa, no one would believe that you would win this time, even with the help of Yu and Cha. Even with Suna, no one would believe that an invasion against Iwa would be successful, not since Ishi joined with it. Suna might have some powerful Jonin, but they have never demonstrated strength in an invasion. Most countries likely see them as weak, dependent on the desert to conceal them and make invasion more time consuming.”

Obito was about to say that the same went for Kiri, if not more so, but he supposed they had already demonstrated their strength by destroying Uzushiogakure. Everyone knew they did most of the work and that Shimo and Nami participating was mostly just a trick to get everyone thinking that it was a more popular decision, as if that made it better. He was really starting to hate the fact that if something wasn’t secret, then it was an open secret.

“I think history establishes that even if we presented no threat to an alliance of other countries, they would never forgive us for having been strong in the past,” Kakashi said. “The same arguments against the Uzumaki would be applied to families like the Uchiha and the Hyuga. Perhaps some of them would survive, in other lands, but enough of their fancy eyes would be cut out that their secrets would be worthless.”

“I don’t know what you know about us and the village,” Obito said after a moment. “That’s why my clan is allied with it, though,” he said. “We obviously can’t just fight off the whole rest of the world by ourselves. That’s just my clan, though. The three of us have a teacher and he wouldn’t ever betray the village.”

They left in anger and went to scout out the village for the third time in case their informant was lying or mistaken about how there were no other foreign assets in Awa no Mura. Rin decided she would go back early to get supper ready. His other teammate held him up.

“I’m grateful you’re loyal to the village,” he said. “As Minato said, after all, that’s what we were sent here to prove.”

“Spit it out,” he said. “Say I have to kill a bunch of old people.”

“The time will come when we see how loyal you are,” he said. “When the choice that’s presented to you is hard enough, your loyalties will be impossible to fake, even with yourself.”

“What are you trying to say now?” he asked. Kakashi turned back to look with one eye.

“When the time comes, and it will, I hope you make a similarly wise decision.”

The Shinobi Rules

Silirt

Chapter 20: Fear

Chapter Text

Obito would, quite possibly, always remember how he arrived at that impossible choice.

It started differently than the last time- rather than being informed that Rin was missing, he figured it out himself. Kakashi had asked them to maintain their cover by routinely going around to different residents and questioning them while he watched the coast for any unusual activity. Though he was not a sensor type, it would not take one to detect an invasion. He remembered thinking that even if Kiri received no update from the informant, that they might go ahead with the invasion. It was unlikely, but they might have prearranged that if their inside man said anything out of the ordinary, then Konoha had figured out their plans and there was no time like the present.

“Have you seen Rin?” he asked the old man whose door she was supposed to knock. It had been three years since they arrived, and everyone in town knew their names, though not all of them regarded ‘the three Genin’ as positively as they once had. Enough of them were sick of their presence.

“No. Maybe she’s gone home, like the rest of you should have.”

The door slammed as loudly as a bamboo hut door could slam. The villagers had expressed their displeasure over the fact that they were still there after no new leads, and still bothering them, both the guilty and the innocent. Minato had visited once more, this time just to tell them that some of their old friends had graduated from the academy and had been promoted; presumably they would be able to join the next time there was a Chunin exam. Unfortunately, he had not been able to tell them that preventing an invasion would be just as good as eliminating all rebellious elements.

Rather than acknowledging that he was right, Obito looked around for traces in the underbrush. He was long done with his history and Rin was long done with her map, so he had no reason to expect that they would not be able to find each other. Finding a trail, he followed it east, toward the sea, thinking that maybe his teammate had seen something without any idea that he was so closer than he realized to the truth.

“Hey, Rin?” he called out. On his way, he saw that Domon, one of the spies, was missing as he headed east. There was no time to think about that, though; he had to get to his teammate before any of the spies grew desperate. In the time that had passed, they had led the villagers to believe that they were incompetent, even though they had really been training every day, and the scrolls they were studying, or trying to, were no longer totally incomprehensible.

There was no answer, but that was expected. Even when he remembered it, he could not have said what made him so certain that it was serious, other than that they had so little time left. They knew who all the spies were, and could kill them at any moment, and it had been that way for months. It was obvious that a public arrest and extradition to Konohagakure would sacrifice their upper hand, and yet, it was as if he had been hoping that something like that could still happen.

Was he the one who had been holding them up, keeping them from fulfilling their orders and completing the mission? Could they have just killed all the traitors after identifying them? Was the entire point of giving them three years to complete the mission to give him three years to grow up, or just to get over it?

He reached the sea, overlooking the apparently coveted island, bamboo hanging down from the land over the rocky shore at low tide. Kakashi was nowhere to be seen, but his other teammate was front and center; the traitors were gathered and Agzia had a knife to Rin’s throat. It was as if he could see nothing else; even in his memory.

“If you wanted to kill us, you should have done it some time ago,” the old lady said. “Gatsuda might not have wanted us to find out, since his head is on a pike either way, but we knew you were onto us. We just needed to get a message to Kiri without going through him. We sent one, and they told us when they could come and get us.”

“Why?” he asked. “I wasn’t going to-” He shook his head. “Why did you betray us in the first place?” It looked like his teammate was unconscious. “If it was about Uzu-”

“We realized that if you let a place like that go under, it wouldn’t be hard for you to give up on us either. After all, we don’t produce any fancy jutsu, do we?” an old man said. “Did you ever figure out the code in that house?”

“No,” he said. “The well represents depth and the mountain represents height. That’s why they would be contrasted like that. No one ever gave us a hint about the coin, though-”

“No one outside our little group would have known,” Agzia said, laughing mostly to herself. “It’s Gato’s money. What can be as deep as the well and as high as a mountain?” she asked. “Allow for some exaggeration, I suppose-”

“The waves,” he said. “You’re from the land of waves.”

“Many of us are, yes. It no longer matters. Much of the beach on this continent used to belong to Nami, but it was formally taken by Konoha. We thought we would go north to Yu, only to find that even more territory was ceded-”

“A beach by itself is untenable!” he shouted. “The waves could never have held it. We traded land with the land of hot water as a show of good faith, by making both sides of the border more secure!” He looked around at the strip of land that apparently used to belong to an island to the southeast. “I don’t care if there are waves here and that makes people think that this place should belong to the land of waves; borders are decided by treaty and treaties are decided by war.” He shook his head. “Do you really think that the tribes and clans that came before Yu and Nami and everyone else didn’t kill each other all the time?” he asked. “If you do, then you’re the ones who need a history lesson.”

The young Uchiha created as many shadow clones as he could manage, which was decidedly more than he could in the Chunin exams. He knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Rin was in danger, but if he could once more play the part of a stupid kid, then he could still save her. The reservations he had about killing her hostage takers had evaporated; he would consider it an enormous success if one of them survived.

“You wouldn’t kill her!” he and all his clones shouted. “Not when she’s been nothing but nice to you for three years!” It was one of the less pleasant lies he had told.

“You fool!” Whatever lecture the old person was about to start was cut off by the volley of shuriken, real and illusory.

He heard the sound of the clones popping around him when each was struck in some way and he stabbed the one taking Rin hostage, grabbing her and backing up. There was a ship in the distance, but he could not have cared what was going on with that. His teammate seemed to be waking up, and there was a disturbance among the enemy. A glimpse of white hair was all he needed to see as he ran back into it, ducking under a thrown knife of some description.

The situation was under control in seconds. A shaky kunoichi joined them in moving the bodies, some unconscious, others not so fortunate. It seemed one had even been so frightened that he had a heart attack. At that point he was still too focused on the task at hand to really think about what had happened, but that would come soon, and with it there would be pain.

“What do we do about that ship?”

“Report it getting into our waters; that’s all there is to it,” Kakashi said. “They’ll deny it, but they’ll have to leave for the moment. They wouldn’t know that we’re the only shinobi here.” He was not in the best of moods on a daily basis, but at the moment he seemed particularly disappointed.

“We can send some of them back if we act like the serial killer got rid of them,” he said.

“We’ll use one body,” Rin said. “We say that one of them died, and we put the whole village under quarantine for thirty days.” She sighed. “When that’s over, they’ll look around and see some of their neighbors are gone. Did the serial killer get them? Did they run off before that could happen? They won’t be able to answer these questions and we won’t be around for it. We’ll leave a note saying that we tracked the killer leaving town.”

“That’s all we can do,” Obito said. “We can’t have them panicking over the deaths of a few of the other villagers.” He looked down at the once-kindly face of Agzia, her last expression frozen on her face. Her nose was wrinkled and her eyes were unfocused, and he needed none of the lectures on microexpressions to tell what she had been feeling. All of a sudden, he had a flood of what was not exactly guilt, or remorse, but betrayal. In all the time that he had been investigating the villagers, he had never thought that she was one of the traitors.

Once the still-living enemies were tied up in the house, and the dead were buried, he had a moment to hang his head while Rin was putting the gag order on everyone. He was mentally reliving the last few hours, wondering if he could have noticed that his teammate was gone sooner, though he really had neglected to worry about where Kakashi had been. That train of thought, however, made him wonder how the White Fang’s son suddenly showed up in the middle of the action.

“Don’t worry about it, Obito,” his teammate said, perhaps seeing his expression. “It’s no worse than traitors deserve.”

“Yeah- traitors like you.”

Rising to his feet, he produced quite possibly the most resolute expression he had ever worn.

“You did this, didn’t you? You knew you’d have to force my hand, so you helped them kidnap Rin. You weren’t stupid enough to be the one holding a knife to her neck, not when you knew I’d focus on getting her out of there-”

“I counted on you only figuring it out now,” Kakashi said. “I needed a genuine response. Sadly, it wasn’t the one I wanted.”

“The kekkei genkai,” he growled. “You knew I’d react if one of us-”

“Hey, guys, stop arguing about something; I need your help.” Rin had rejoined them; some unexpected difficulty precluded her from convincing all the villagers to stay in their homes.

“This isn’t over,” Obito said. “We’ll finish this mission, but this isn’t over.”

He had thought that seeing his teammate in danger had been the angriest he would ever be in his life, but when he learned that someone she trusted had put her in that danger, it was a million times worse. They split up to warn the villagers, and his severe expression must have frightened a few of them. It must have made the story more convincing.

No matter. There were more important things to get done.

After telling the village elder what had really happened and receiving from him a note certifying their completion of the mission, they started off back to Konoha, bringing one of the tied-up traitors with them. After going around and giving the innocent villagers updates on the situation, he would make sure the other bound traitors did not escape or make any noise.

They ran into Asuma, Kurenai, and Raidou, who had taken to carrying a sword in a town between Awa no Mura and Konohagakure. Asking if they were already on a mission and confirming that they were free for the moment, they agreed to help out for a share of the reward, and the last few steps went quickly. When everything was over, it had had somehow been agreed that Kakashi would explain things to the Hokage, or the elders, however, that worked out. He ended up going back to the village to make sure things were working, and he found Rin there.

“Thanks for saving me,” she said, smiling sweetly at him. He forgot his anger. Looking back on it, it seemed like that moment was where he forgot a fair bit.

“It was... it was just what I felt like I should do, as a teammate,” he said. He had never saved her before that point, and after that, it was really only in the middle of battle. It was somewhat unusual, at least when he looked at his whole career up to his first Chunin mission, that he would come to her rescue so unilaterally.

“I know,” she said, looking down a moment. “I was just so scared I didn’t think about it.”

They hugged, and perhaps it was not when he knew that he liked her, but he knew he had some feelings for her, whatever they were. The genuine happiness in her voice melted through the ice in his heart and he decided not to tell her, since she clearly did not realize, that she had been used as bait to awaken his Sharingan.

“How are you doing now?” he asked.

“The situation at the village... well, it’s not perfect, but it’s under control.”

“I asked how you were doing.”

“How I’m doing is just how the mission is doing,” she said, a hint of sadness in her smile. “There were a lot of times I wanted to quit, but I couldn’t let down my team.”

“That was how I felt after the Chunin exam,” he said, smiling back. “That doesn’t matter, now, though. We’re done with our mission. Let’s go back.”

They still had some things to sort out at the academy, so that they could officially qualify for the next exams, whenever those would be. There was still plenty to do to make sure that the mist would not take the land of whirlpools, or what was left of it. At the moment, though, they just had to go back, and Obito could still remember it. He sometimes wondered if he had been more decisive at the time, would she have loved him? Would she have realized he was committed to her? What would there have been to lose, though?

It would take a while longer for his feelings to develop. There were times he wondered if he had asked her out then- or at all, if things would have been better. It was not as if Kakashi jumped in front of him and made his attachment known first; it was the opposite. More than anything else, the interest that Rin would seem to have for him would baffle him; it was so transparent that he was living according to the Shinobi Rules, and that meant killing his emotions. All three of them had learned the rules in the academy, but there was no punishment for breaking them, just for going against orders.

They returned to the hidden village and decided to split up so they could seek out their other friends and catch up with them. Despite how different they were, Kurenai got along with his teammate easily, and he was content to let them do girl stuff together. He had not considered it before, but it was probably a nightmare to spend that much time with two guys, even if they were nice to her. He tried to imagine being on a team with two girls and no matter how he looked at it, it always turned out weird.

“Obito.”

He turned around to see Fugaku, the Uchiha who reached out to him on the day of the Chunin exams. With him was Mikoto, and she was visibly pregnant. He supposed a lot could happen in three years.

“It’s nice to see you,” she said. “I heard you were sent on a long mission, and we were worried.”

“Yeah, sometime tomorrow I have to-”

“Don’t worry about the academy. It’s just a formality. If you sign a form, they’ll give you your certification,” Fugaku said. “Dramada went there and made sure that nothing would get in your way. Apparently, it’s the same for your teammate.”

“Great. I could do without some more pointless complications,” he said, deciding after the fact that he should sound more grateful. “Where is he?” he asked. “I should thank him.”

“At the moment he’s absent from the village. It’s no serious concern; he just has some clan business to attend,” Mikoto said, waving off the concern as if with one of her steel fans. “We mentioned to Sagara that you did well in the last Chunin exams and she wants to see you.”

“Well, sure but- the last?” he asked. “It’s been three years.”

“Cha and Yu only hold exams when we hold them,” Fugaku said after a moment. “We haven’t been able to send that many Genin to exams, though, and they both said they didn’t want a repeat of last time, where only two teams made it into the final round.” He sighed. “The village elders agreed, and they made a public decision to delay the next set of exams until the deal with Oto goes through.”

“Sound?”

“Yes, they want to be allies with us, though they’ve been quiet for the last few years- quieter than normal for countries with shinobi- so as you might expect, we have to be careful that this isn’t some kind of trap. If it’s not, we’d look rude for not inviting them to be part of the exams, but if it is, we’ll be at a disadvantage in a time where everyone is on edge.”

“Why is everyone on edge?” he asked. It would be about two years before Minato would explain to him about how everyone seemed to see war on the horizon.

“It’s a difficult diplomatic situation,” he said. “I’m sure you already know part of it.” He shook his head. “I hate to make this case with you when it’s not your fault, but we can’t allow our strength to wane, and we really can’t even allow other countries to think our strength is waning. We're all hoping that the alliance at least gives us time to prepare.”

“That’s not why came over to see you, though. Sagara wanted to see you, and she’s at the eastern training ground. With her temperament, it might be better to not keep her waiting,” Mikoto explained. “I’m sure you’ll find it’s an excursion worth your time.”

“I’d have gone anyway,” he said, omitting that he was just interested in what they had to say. He ran over to the training ground, making short work of the trip by jumping on rooftops, which he could now do silently and without breaking the tiling. The training field was a simple clearing with some practice dummies.

“You look taller,” the kunoichi said, sizing him up. “You also might have put on muscle.”

“You’re- not much different,” he said. Her eyes narrowed. “I mean from when I last saw you.”

“That only makes it worse. I’m ten now.” She huffed, tossing a lock of hair to the back. It was said that every Uchiha had hair that was either perfectly straight, or spiky, there was no in-between, but for Sagara it was both; her hair was short for a girl on the top, but in the back it went down into a ponytail. “Have you awakened the Sharingan yet?”

“No,” he said. “Have you?”

“I was hoping you would know something about it. It’s never been used by someone our age before.” She looked to the left as if expecting to find someone. “They say you have to have strong emotional bonds.”

“Do you want some?” he asked after a moment of not picking up on the implication, or at least not in the way it was desired.

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. I’ve been foolish to isolate myself when there are other people in my clan who could be working with me. I’ve been promoted to Genin under Hyuga Hizashi.”

“He doesn’t have anything better to do?”

“He’s not the clan leader. Apparently, someone spoke to him about getting more active in the community. Anyway, my teammates don’t have kekkei genkai like I do. They don’t understand the problem.”

“It’s not a problem,” he said. “It’ll activate sooner or later.”

“Is that what you tell yourself? I wonder how you even count yourself as loyal to the village with that attitude, let alone the clan. We need strength. What have you been doing, if you haven’t been trying to awaken the Sharingan?”

“I can tell you what won’t work,” he said, sighing. “Faking it definitely won’t. If you have any idea that things are going to be fine, even in the back of your mind, then it won’t work.” He did not want to get into his suspicions that his teammate had tried to manipulate him into getting him to use his dojutsu. More than most anything else, he wanted to get stronger, but he already had enough stress and hardship and he knew more was down the road.

“I see,” she said. “They say that the kekkei genkai is most likely to awaken when the user is stressed and concentrating. If you were in a position where you could act quickly, perhaps there was no need to concentrate. I suppose you felt no genuine fear if you knew there was no danger, or if you knew how to approach the problem.”

“Fear is the unknown,” he said in speculation. “Anyway, I think that you’ll get it soon enough, but if you want to get it sooner, then maybe you have to put yourself in danger. It doesn’t sound like you care all that much about your teammates.”

He dodged a telegraphed punch to the head. Really, even if she had not wound up for it, he would have known she would hit him because she was that kind of girl. In the academy, she insisted that boys and girls should be allowed to spar against each other, most likely because she had never been beaten up that badly. Perhaps she had been hard at work with her team, but she had not trained against Kakashi in taijutsu. Dodging another punch almost without trying, he grabbed her and flipped her on her back.

“So, you haven’t been doing nothing this whole time.”

“You’re like one of those little annoying dog breeds,” he said, ignoring her feigned compliment. “You bark and nip at people’s heels, because you think you’re in charge, and no one ever corrects this behavior because you’re weak. You can be as violent and mean as you want, and you get your way because no one is allowed to hit back.”

Somehow the fear was not registering for her. She was still not taking him seriously. If anything, she looked ready to laugh. It was a defense mechanism that was getting in the way of her ability to develop actual defenses.

“Is that all?”

“No.”

Moving his chakra down his arm, he punched her in the stomach where the bruises would not be visible. Sagara convulsed, but because he was pinning her down with his knees and his other arm, she could not go anywhere. He hit her twice more and her eyes might have gone red for the briefest of moments, or he might have imagined it. Releasing her, he allowed her to curl up into a ball.

“You’re not invincible,” he said. “This is what genuine fear is like, and this is why you never want to experience it. I bet you can take a hit during a training exercise just fine, but can you take a hit when it’s real?” he asked. “If you ever do activate the Sharingan, let me know.”

He left without saying anything else.

The Shinobi Rules

Silirt

Chapter 21: The Joint Mission

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“Hey, Obito, we have another mission.” It was Rin; he knew before he turned around. He was sitting on the top of the Hokage monument; it gave him some time to think about things.

“Oh, you’re ten today, right?” he asked. She nodded as they went to the academy to hear the mission details. “Getting our certification really was easy.”

“I know; it was practically waiting for us to pick it up. It made me happy a few days ago when it was that simple, but the fact that we didn’t have to do anything extra means that we deserved it the whole time.”

“I don’t know; they’d probably say that because of that three year mission, they were willing to overlook the problems with our education. At least this means that we’re done with it and the next time we go to a Chunin exam, they won’t have an excuse.”

“We’ll have to fight a lot harder,” she said. “I already just know the next exam is going to be a nightmare.”

They reached the academy and went to the missions desk after waving to Guy’s team, which he guessed had a mission as well. Sandaime was sitting at the desk, which most likely meant it was important.

“Five,” one of the elders said. “Where’s the White Fang’s son?”

“We can give him the contract,” Genma said. “I wouldn’t worry about it; he’ll catch up.”

“Should we go get him, sir?” Obito asked.

“No, no, I suppose it’s all the same, as long as he’s told everything,” the Hokage said. “Both of your teams were just on missions that took you close to the reality of our difficult diplomatic situation. Everyone is hoping that we can maintain the peace, and this mission might be the most important out of all the C-Ranks.”

“That’s why we need all six of us,” Rin said.

“I hope there are no hard feelings between your teams after the Chunin exams-”

“No, pretty much all the hard feelings we had were directed at you,” Genma said, shrugging.

“How dare you?” Ebisu asked, seeming legitimately confused. Obito quietly inferred that the elders must have pulled the same trick to save the reputation of the village and its education on them. He also decided that letting the argument heat up was a bad idea.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“It’s in Rai. We have to track down a dangerous rogue ninja and kill him, or bring him back alive. As you might expect, I would prefer that you bring him back alive, but that may not be possible.”

“The lightning ninjas can’t handle him?” Genma asked.

“They should not have to,” Rin said. “If he escaped from our ninja, then it’s on us.”

“Well, sure, but why would they wait around to see if we can find him?”

“They don’t know he’s there,” Obito guessed. “If we move quickly and quietly, they won’t find out.”

“There was a report out of Shimo that the frost ninjas were annoyed that someone was interfering with their barriers. It was a massive heat signature, moving quickly,” the Sandaime said. “It matches the profile of a man who just escaped from a lone Jonin in a small town northeast of Tanzaku. We don’t know what he wants, only that he’s an expert in chakra control, and terrible at self-control.”

“He doesn’t sound like the type to stay quiet for long,” Rin said. “I don’t know if we can really go there to bring him back before anyone notices. I mean, maybe, if he went all that way just to escape from us, then it would make sense for him to hide, but...”

“I can only ask the six of you to do the best you can and handle the situation with care. You’ll be in disguise for this mission, and you’ll have to keep a low profile.”

“This is my first time being out of the country,” Obito said. ”I don’t know how to disguise myself as a kid from the land of lightning. Aren’t they supposed to be darker?”

“On average, yes, but It's not important what you choose to pretend to be, as long as they do not suspect that you are ninja from Konoha.”

He nodded along. If they wanted to claim credit for taking out the rogue ninja later, they could reveal that, but Konoha could not go back to it being a secret if they went without disguising themselves.” Guy looked annoyed, but he was no less excited to be on a mission.

“We’ll get some equipment,” Genma said, looking over the contract as they left the academy together. “You two can go pick up Kakashi and explain it to him on the way. We won’t have gone further than Kabu no Machi by tonight, so that’s how you’ll catch up to us.”

“Isn’t there a festival going on there?” Obito asked, having seen a poster somewhere.

“Yeah, who said we can’t have a little fun before we turn in for the night?”

“Our youth is like springtime,” Guy said. “We should appreciate it while it lasts.”

“The mission has a time limit, though,” Rin said. “If the land of lightning finds out that a rogue ninja from Konoha is there-”

“Then we’ll be the ones to catch him before they can string up their boots,” Genma said. “You said it yourself; there’s really no way we get there before they find out. Besides, we can pick up some wooden masks at the festival or something. No one will think twice about us.”

“Fine,” Obito said after a moment. “We’ll have to be quick the following morning. If you guys get there first, get some disguises for us, okay?”

“Sure, no problem.”

It was not that the other three were not taking the mission seriously, as he would learn. They mainly just had a different approach and were not trying to follow the directives to the letter. They could have gone faster and not taken advantage of a stop along the way, but they did not know how long it was going to take to find Kakashi. The obvious place to look was his house.

“Oh, just a moment,” a woman’s voice called out from inside when they knocked. It was strangely easy to forget that their teammate had a mother. Perhaps it was just that they wondered sometimes if he had ever been hugged.

“We’re looking for-”

“He’s in a trap that he’s designed for himself,” she said. “I really have no concept of what he’s doing at this point, but his dedication has always impressed me. Every day he makes the trap more complicated and dangerous and he still finds a way to escape it.”

They were both silent for a moment, but they dismissed it not long after that. It was unlikely that Kakashi’s mother could really do anything about the fact that he was training himself so hard, no more than she could do anything about his desire to be a shinobi. If he wanted to run away and take care of himself, he could, and at the slightest sign of opposition, he probably would.

“Does he... not like you?” Obito asked as they went out to the back yard.

“Well, I wouldn’t put it like that. He has nothing against me except for the fact that I married his father and never regretted it.”

Almost instantly their hearts broke for the lady of the house as she produced a longsuffering smile. The two teammates looked at each other and back to her. It was unspeakably cruel that the village had turned against the small Hatake family and then she lost her husband, and then her son turned against her as well.

“What does he want you to do?” Rin asked. “Get married again?”

“I probably still could,” she said. “I never thought about it, though. He had never said anything about that, though, so to be honest I don’t know what he wants. He acknowledges me as his mother and I know he loves me.”

“You do?” Obito asked.

“Perhaps when you have children, you’ll understand. There was a drunk who came by the house and started shouting at me, and Kakashi came out and attacked him. He was still in the academy.”

“So, he wants to protect you, but...”

“Have you ever seen his face?”

“No,” he said. It was not a terribly odd thing for shinobi to cover their faces. He had not particularly thought about it.

“Perhaps when you see it, you’ll understand.”

“We should go outside,” Rin said. “I feel bad, prying like this. We’re on a tight schedule.”

“That’s right; you always are,” Kakashi’s mother said. Right as she opened the back door, though, the Chunin was climbing out of a hole that he had dug in the rear garden. Obito blinked. From the chains in the koi pond, he had literally turned it into another trap for himself. There were flowers growing in between these bear traps with seals on them.

Both of them wanted to launch into another discussion about how the poor lady was being treated by her own son, but they really were in a hurry and he picked up on that almost instantly. They were lucky that he had been in the self-designed trap, he supposed, because otherwise he might have started to feel guilty about standing around and talking to Lady Hatake.

“Where are we going?” he asked, grabbing his things.

“Well, once we grab our stuff, we need to get to the festival at Kabu no Machi. That’s the first stop, anyway.”

“You should have grabbed your gear while I was in the hole,” he said as they left the house together.

“Well, I really wish I’d known, because it hadn’t occurred to me that you’d dig a hole in the middle of your mother’s garden and turn the place into a bunch of deathtraps for yourself-”

“Don’t talk to me about my mother,” Kakashi said, glaring. ”Pack up and let’s get going.”

They parted ways and did just that. Explaining the mission on the way was what they were going to have to do, because they were already probably about an hour behind Guy’s team, officially Team Chouza. When they met up again, however, they said nothing, probably because they were all thinking about what had only just happened.

Leaving the village and running to the northeast, Obito decided that he did not envy the exact nature of his teammate’s family, but he would have liked to have a mother of his own. His grandmother spent a lot of time sleeping and was only active in his life when he was younger. It was probably unfair, though, for him to cast judgment on the Hatake family; all families worked differently and had different dynamics in effect. Both of his parents had been killed on a mission, so he supposed that he could hardly advise anyone.

With Rin’s family, things were even more complicated. The way he understood it, her sister had a wedding in a matter of months, and that would at least somewhat improve their standings. It would not be with the young Uchiha, because among other things he insisted on marrying the girl he actually liked, and things had gradually become more strained between the two houses.

“Are you not going to be able to go to your sister’s wedding?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she said, practicing her hand signs on the tree branches to improve her speed and accuracy. It was a habit they all picked up on the long mission. “We have to find this guy, right?”

“Well, yeah, but you could’ve turned down the mission-”

“I don’t know that I could have, but I don’t want to get into it.”

She would, later. Obito would learn that her parents had lent a fair amount of money to the public treasury as a way of rebuilding their reputation, and as such, the expectation was that she would accept every mission, unless she passed up one opportunity for a more lucrative one. With a relatively hard C-Rank mission, that involved a rogue ninja with a bounty on his head, she stood a chance at paying off the entire debt.

After explaining the mission details to their teammate, Kakashi insisted that they speed up. He took the decision that Guy’s team made with silence, when they expected criticism or agreement. There was nothing to do but go along with what he suggested, because he went ahead and did it himself

It was in this way, in those days, that he asserted himself as their leader. Obito was looking back at a time more recent than the Chunin exams by a fair measure, but it felt like as long as he made mistakes, and as long as there were things that he would have done differently, maturity would ever be something he had only just started, and the childish things were ever being put away. It was a reminder, he supposed, that he was still their leader, effectively.

“We’re here,” he obviated when they saw the fireworks. “As I thought, it’s almost over.”

“We asked the others to get us disguises in case we got there late. We should be able to find their packs and get everything set up for the night.” Technically, they were authorized to take a break at an inn if they felt like it, and they could deduct it out of the budget, but they knew no one in town and it was easy to stick with their old habits.

As they took care of those duties, he thought to himself that it might be hard for Rin to go back to being the only girl after only a short break of returning to the village, her family, and other friends. He could ask her how she wanted to handle things, but would that make things better or worse? When he looked back on it, he really need not have worried, because they were still at an age where his friend preferred to be around other kunoichi only because she had more in common with them, not because of the changes that would start soon enough.

When the others returned to the packs they left just outside of town, Kakashi dropped from a tree behind Guy and put a blade to his throat.

“Never leave a trail for the enemy to follow,” he said. “We may not be out of the country yet, but there are plenty of people who would kill you here, and you’re in their element. The trees are the friends of all ninja from Konoha.”

“My old rival,” the other young ninja said. “I hope you’ve grown stronger since the last time we fought, Kakashi. I wouldn’t want to win too easily.”

“What have you been doing, then?” he asked.

“We were just in Suna,” Genma said. “The Kazekage wanted us to take care of this pretext against Ame.”

“Ame? Why?” Obito asked.

“It’s nothing personal. They’ve just been picking up some contracts that the sand ninjas want for themselves. We figured out a good bit more than what we were supposed to figure out.”

“Can you elaborate?” Rin asked.

“Yeah, we’ll tell you on the way tomorrow morning.”

His teammate was probably correct in sensing that it was more important than his casual attitude communicated, but one way or another they were going to have to cross a great distance, and they might as well save discussions until then. It was already dark, so the sooner they went to bed, the sooner they could wake up. The fireworks stopped right after Ebisu and Kakashi finished what looked like a private conversation.

“Well, that worked out better than expected,” he muttered under his breath as they got to sleep, with him taking the middle watch. Genma was either really lucky, or he had known that if they tried to sleep earlier outside Kabu no Machi, their sleep would have been made more difficult by the fireworks.

The following morning went precisely as expected. They waved to the border officials at Yu and were allowed past with no more than that. Whenever they reached Shimo, they would probably just put their disguises on top of their regular clothes. Most importantly, the last mission was explained to them.

“Basically, the way it was sold to us was that these criminals named Ryusui and Yudachi were spotted killing a few important people in Suna. It didn’t seem too believable to us from the start. They said they had evidence of everything, but they needed someone from another village to do a formal investigation.”

They were running through a clearing when Kakashi waved for him to continue. It seemed like Genma was the voice of the group, though that had not always been the case. Obito thought there was a reasonable chance he was also the brains of the group.

“Anyway, because the sand and the leaf aren’t really allies, and we’re just trying to build relations with them- there's been a lot of back and forth for years, no thanks to your father- no offense- they thought we’d be the perfect candidates to look into it. It was pretty clear from the beginning that they’d already picked out the suspects for us.”

“Did you ever figure out who actually killed those people?”

“Yeah, but we agreed not to make the information public. It was really a state execution, disguised as a random attack by criminals. The Wind Daimyo doesn’t have much of a choice but to go along with everything the Kazekage says. The dude’s totally spineless.”

Quietly, Obito supposed that Konohagakure could take over the office of the fire lord without much trouble, but taking over the country would be an entirely different matter. If the village declared itself to be in charge of the country, they would have to get people to accept their authority, and that would be challenging because they had accepted the authority of the noble house. Doing everything under the table, though, was actually conceivable. No one would have any idea if a feudal lord received orders from the Hokage; there were some people who had no idea that he existed.

“So, when it was investigated by the authorities, they ignored the evidence that the sand ninjas were behind it," Kakashi reasoned.

“No, the investigators told the wind lord and his office everything they knew, and basically the public court decided that there was no way that the suspect could have done it. That was this dude named Rasa. Don‘t mess with him if you ever end up in Suna. He’s bad news.”

“They decided it was a frame job, and he labeled the rain ninjas as the most likely suspects,” Rin guessed, thinking about it. “He would have had some basis to name them as personal enemies of his.”

“Yeah. The whole thing was ridiculous. They didn’t want us looking into the court records; they wanted us to look at the physical evidence that they had selected for us before we arrived. It’s probably why they made it a low C-Rank; they wanted a handful of stupid Genin. We’re still Genin, but we’re not stupid.”

“No one has ever accused you of being stupid, just lazy,” Guy said, barking an unnatural laugh right after.

“Hey, there’s such a thing as time efficiency. If the court already looked at the evidence, then it made sense to go over what they said about it. You wouldn’t believe this. They literally said that Rasa couldn’t have done it because he would have had to be in two places at once, and it was a crime that could only have been committed by two people. Really? Did they not know he was a ninja or something?”

“They were just looking for a way to dismiss it as a frame job, so they could have a cause of war against Ame. They probably don’t know the specifics about shadow clones or sand clones or whatever he would have been using.” Obito was not sure why he was defending the wind lord’s people, if it could be called that, but that was not the point.

“More or less, yeah,” Genma said. “They must’ve had some of those rain guys’ things from some other time. We sent them a letter with the Hokage’s seal saying that we already knew that they were trying to false flag Amegakure. Even if they killed us, it would all still be in Konoha’s records.”

“You said you ended up agreeing not to say anything,” Kakashi said after a moment. “Are we to assume that you meant you would not report it outside of those loyal to Konohagakure?”

“Yeah. Sandaime wasn’t thrilled about what they were doing, but he knows why they’re doing it. They agreed to renounce their denunciation of us as a village if we didn’t reveal that they were trying to use us as a way of pointing a finger at Ame. The whole war between them and Suna probably won’t happen, come to think of it.”

“They were going to take that whole country?” Rin asked. “I thought the bigger countries liked the border countries being there so that they didn’t have to have battles in their own territory.

“Yeah, but it gets on the Kazekage’s nerves that he doesn’t have any good farm land under his control. That’s the main thing that the hidden village needs from the rest of the country. I think what happened at one point a few years ago was that the Daimyo tried to get him to admit that he was running everything from behind the scenes by pretending to misplace a bunch of crops for several months.”

“However does that work?” Guy asked. Even years later, the complexities of political games would continue to escape him.

“Well, the wind lord can’t really go against the kage, and he knows that. I don’t know whether he’s got family members held captive in Sunagakure or what, but he’s not capable of any deliberate action of his against him. If he makes it look like an idiotic move, though, maybe the ninjas don’t think he’s turning on them, or maybe they just don’t have enough evidence to move it through the ranks.”

“I see,” Rin said. “Even if Suna has some farmland somewhere, the food situation would still be pretty tight overall, and there might be an opportunity to force their hand. I don’t know what the Daimyo was hoping he would have done, but…”

“The Kazakage’s not looking to let it happen again,” Genma said. “The plan wasn’t an open war of country against country where they take over the borders, it was just to replace the ninja in charge over there. If they can get regular shipments of food from Ame, then no one has any control over Sunagakure. The feudal lords would still appear to be in charge of both countries, but really they would both be receiving orders from the desert.”

“Why did the Hokage agree to cover all this up?” Obito asked. “Why not go public with it?”

He remembered thinking that even if it were not the right thing to do, it would at least take some of the international heat off Konoha.

“Friends are in short supply. I don’t like it either, but when push comes to shove, both Iwa and Kiri are going to come against us, and with Rai and Suna teetering one way or another, we can’t afford to take any chances.” He sighed loudly. “It all depends on the smaller countries, really. Oto. Taki. Riwa. No, they’ve pretty much sworn off any foreign interaction for the next decade; you can count them out.”

“Then we know why we’re here,” Kakashi said. Everyone knew what he meant. The two teams had been picked because both of their past missions had presented difficult situations that tested their loyalties to the village, and both teams rose to the challenge. Both teams ultimately handled the situation well. With all their paperwork out of the way, this mission might well be what qualified them all for the Chunin exams.

Notes:

I saw a post about 'fanfiction is supposed to be different because the canon just sucks' and I thought I would add my two cents on it. I should go ahead and note that this has nothing to do with the story, and it's long, so don't feel any obligation to read it. It only exists because I felt like doing something a little different with this story in adding author notes, and I felt like writing it at the time.

Sometimes, it can be hard to realize that you hate something. When I was in college, the sole reason I played Magic the Gathering with my friends was because it was something I could do with them. The games always went long, past midnight frequently, because whenever we did a free-for-all, there was no incentive to contribute toward ending the game, and whenever a player was winning, he or she wanted to drag it out even more. There was a time I had to shout at my friends to just attack and finish the damn game.

At some point we came up with a game mode that was different from free-for-all, and on average it worked much better; the games were over more quickly and the player always had an objective, but not only did not everyone like this game mode, people still wanted to drag out their victories as much as possible, because, as I understand it, that's the only way to enjoy playing the game and I was basically insisting that the winner would not have the sadistic fun that he or she had earned by playing well. When games were over, decisively, to where there was no coming back whatsoever, I would surrender, and this would be met with an understandable note of complaint- 'No, Silirt, I can't go several turns winning unless you go several turns losing'.

I realized, at some point, that this was basically the way the game worked, and I hated it. I stopped playing and I found better uses of my time. I have no wish to reform it, and no one who likes it wants to hear my opinion on the subject; any reform I would make would just kill it.

Much of the criticism of the source material for any given fandom is pointless hate and should be disregarded. If you liked Harry Potter when you were a kid, then thought the main character should have been more selfish and violent, congratulations on being a teenager. If you liked Naruto at some point and then found it was too edgy or too dark, congratulations on no longer being a teenager. The fact of the matter is, fanfiction is written by fans, and hater fiction is written by haters. If you don't know which one you are, try to think if you'd still like it if it weren't for nostalgia or other fans. It's not a bad thing to hate a work of fiction. There are more works of fiction than there are stars in the sky and you don't have to piss everyone off complaining that Superman is overpowered. This is not to say that every original work is perfect just the way it is, but if you want to make a massive overhaul to it to make it more like some other work instead of just writing for that other work, you're wasting your time and you'll never find an audience, if that concerns you. If you want to make a massive overhaul to where it's unlike anything else you've ever seen before, just change the names of the characters and make it an original work and send me a link to it.

The Shinobi Rules

Silirt

Chapter 22: Rai

Chapter Text

Crossing Shimo in disguise had not been easy, but the adventure brought with it no new information about the missing ninja they were targeting. Obito was a little resentful of the clothes he was wearing; it was a long traditional robe and a red demon mask, while Kakashi ended up with a simpler white robe and a wolf mask. Rin had a pink kimono with a layer of white makeup; with her tattoos obscured, she looked like an entirely different person.

“Doesn’t this make her stand out more?” he had asked when they first changed. “If even a blind man can see that she’s-“

“I’m fine with it,” she said. “I actually wish I had gone to the festival, dressed like this,” she said. “Do you get that?”

“No.”

“Oh, well, that’s fine,” she said. “We’re all different.”

That was the last thing they said before crossing into Rai, which had been challenging, since they had no choice but to do it in secret, but they found a time at night where the guard changed according to Ebisu, and went for it, surprised that they were never caught at the end of it. From what they understood, having a border with Shimo, a small country pretending to be neutral while really going along with Kiri whenever possible, was something of a boon for the way the Raikage ran things. Basically, they were less worried about how it made them look, and their games focused on making other countries weaker. If there was any cleverness to it, it was in how they would selectively report on certain events, both at home and abroad.

“Last year, they came out with this statement that the mist is obligated to protect the frost,” Genma had said. “The Kazekage seemed to think it was a good move, and I think it’s because now everyone knows that Fumogakure could ruin them whenever by just invading Shimogakure.”

“They might have some trouble finding it,” Obito said.

“Yeah, they might, but if they can’t find it, they’ll just invade some other town. The point is, we need to be on the lookout for clouds. They might be trying to sneak across their own border to bash some skulls in.”

“Would that really make Shimo give up on Kiri?” he asked.

“I don’t know about give up, but it’d at least make them think twice about it. If the hidden mist can’t protect them, then what choice do they have but to work with someone closer? It’s complicated because they use a variant of the water release, and I’m not sure why, but that seems to unite them.”

“It’s a sect of Ninshu, basically,” Rin said. “That was what I heard, anyway.”

“They assign a religious meaning to the water release,” Kakashi continued. “The frost ninjas have a different take on it, as you might expect. It’s like the will of fire.”

It seemed no one had expected that comparison to be drawn. Perhaps at their age, it was just a given that shinobi from Konoha had to embody the will of fire. They never really thought of it as a religious thing, though it was possible that the tradition had just grown so embedded that it went without saying, and originally it very much had been part of the faith.

“Why are so many different countries obsessed with water release?” Obito asked. “There’s three on either side of us, and there used to be four- well, six if you count Cha and Yu, but they seem to be splitting their time between fire and water.“

“I don’t know or care,” his teammate said. “I can tell you that they believe it, but I have no idea why. There has never been any evidence that it matters what elemental release you use.”

It was a strange feeling, to hear him basically deny the importance of the will of fire. From the look on Rin’s face, she was feeling the same thing; she was not sure that she was offended, but she looked like she was supposed to be offended, or something. It was not as if it was unexpected, though. He had said on multiple occasions that he did not believe in superstitious things, and he had said, only once, but that was plenty, that importance was relative.

Setting up camp in Rai, they resolved to split up and look around. They would be less suspect as a group, but there was fundamentally no way of finding the rogue ninja without looking for him; they had no leads other than that he had been moving in the general direction of the country where they were. Obito found nothing on his own, but when they joined up again, it seemed that Ebisu had managed to get something out of the authorities, while disguised.

“What did you even ask him?”

“I only started a conversation about the sensor types on the border. It seems he mistook me for one of his countrymen without thinking about it.”

“Don’t tell me everyone in this country dresses like this,” Obito said. He had gone to what he thought was a bar to ask if there had been any suspicious characters passing through, and it turned out to be a setting where kids were forcibly removed, rather than just questioned about why they were there.

“It’s not unheard of, I guess,” Rin said, seeming to think about it. “ I went to a restaurant where these ladies of a few different houses were having a meeting, and it looked like something that might have happened back home, to be honest. Everyone was dressed the same, anyway.”

They were learning that the main differences in the cultures of different countries were expressed in the lower classes. No matter where they were, high society went for the same fashion, the same food, and the same careers, if they had them. There were always those with enough income that no work was required, as long as they did not increase their expenses beyond what they could manage. He would not be surprised to find even the wealthy Uchiha associating with other moneyed individuals, though marrying them was another matter.

“What did you learn from the sensor type?” Kakashi asked, getting them back on track.

“He recently made the distinguished rank of Tokubetsu Jonin, and seemed appropriately proud of that.” Obito remembered discerning that he probably went on about it for hours. “There was a disturbance in between the changing of the guards about four nights ago, and they noticed that some trees were burned.”

It seemed that the man they were chasing had been sensible enough to cross quickly, and must have had some idea when the land of lightning’s defenses would be the lowest. Ebisu had not asked whether or not the reason there were ninja patrolling the border was because they were planning an invasion in Shimo, because he was not an absolute moron. As he understood it, both then and in the present, the country was many mountain ranges, and lush, fertile valleys in between them, making it easily defended, but hard to monitor. It was hard for an army to get through the mountains without being noticed, but an individual could do it with no problem. The section of the border that was being guarded, however, was a forested valley, making crossing it quick, but dangerous.