Nita had reached Takugakure within 3 days. Pain had tried to ask where he was heading off to but Nita simply said that it was none of anyone's business where he tried to go.
It was easy to locate the jinchuuriki within the big village. The seal was sloppy and since Fuu was 'friends' with the bijuu the seal had become even more sloppy due to the continuous connection between the two.
It was stupid to do that according to him.
The village was hardly strong enough to withstand any planned and proper attack and with such a big target easy to locate. It was almost laughable how easily he could snap Fuu's neck.
--- --- --- --- ---
She went out into the surrounding forest, her hands already forming signs as she got ready to cut down some more trees. She felt a bit bad as she had destroyed a lot of the forest and there wasn't Hashirama to grow back the trees for her.
'I guess I could lure Tenzo here to grow this forest back.'
She nodded thoughtfully at that and made some clones to carry the trees back to the temple with her. Within just a week of staying there, it had already began to look like it was made yesterday.
Dragging the trees back with her hadn't been too hard of a task as it was the first time she did so. Now, it was as though she was exercising whereas the first time she had to put some chakra in her muscles to help her out. She guessed it was due to her training becoming more wilder these days.
Placing them carefully on the ground, she got started on the repairs of the dome like area in which Matatabi would be staying in around the part of the temple they'd be staying in. She would have to pour in Matatabi's and her chakra in the wood and stones she would be using for it to be durable and not crumble under a tailed beasts pressure. It was easy enough to master however, with how much chakra she had spent on the whole temple it got tiring soon enough.
Seeing Matatabi's clone come to her with a henge of her true form, Veronica raised a brow in question. Veronica's body posture made her seem like she was a noble or someone from the old times in the ninja world. Tobirama had instilled it into her before but she chose to hide it as some people would question where she suddenly got it from.
Taku and the 4 year old, who she couldn't bear to call 'Oni' and it seemed as though Taku didn't know what an Oni was and would look at her with a frown when she wouldn't use his name, had actually started to copy her posture a bit. Shisui thought it was a bit funny when she had 'adopted' more children, and these kids even copied her style.
[You're quite relaxed.]-Matatabi
'It's a nice atmosphere.'
Matatabi hummed in agreement as she sat down near the two children and watched Veronica's clones and the animals work. The four-year-old seemed to have been fascinated by Matatabi and while the other was more cautious of her, although he didn't seem to be adjusting badly to her appearance.
Matatabi was surprised by the accepting attitude shown by the kids, but she was absolutely shocked when Shisui also accepted her easily. The boy had to have been old enough to witness what Kurama had done to his village yet he still chose to converse with her from time to time.
She looked towards where the real Veronica was and couldn't help but crack a little smile at her.
Cutting up the wood into smaller and manageable pieces, Veronica quickly planned out where she was going to need to put them first. The dome was ginormous in size and she wanted to do a good job at making it. She was no builder but she at least wanted to make it look nice for Matatabi.
'I can't believe this is my life now.'
Night fell and she lightly massaged her shoulders as she walked back to where the kids and Shisui were. He had taken to teaching Taku how to throw kunai and shuriken, and sometimes he would teach him how to make makeshift weapons for emergencies. Veronica usually taught him taijutsu as she had learned a lot of moves from Kakashi, who had his own distinct style, and moves from the Senju style which was further developed by Tobirama.
Shisui had been shocked when he realized that she had just been using the academy moves so that nobody would suspect her, and felt as though there was someone, perhaps a traitor, who was helping her. He had first thought that perhaps it was Senju Tsunade who had helped her but she had her own style of fighting which, although stemmed from the original Senju taijutsu style, was vastly different from what he'd heard.
She called on the two children, giving the little one some fruits to eat while teaching Taku some more moves to practice.
There was a time when the Senju style she was practicing had slightly mixed with the taijutsu taught in the academy and Tobirama had been quite angry with her for doing so. Both of the styles were different and sometimes she would freeze up in the middle of a spar because in some situations she would find her body instinctively would want to do both of those styles. In the end, her fighting style on the field had ended up a slight mixture of the Senju taijutsu style and the Hatake taijutsu style.
[You shouldn't have him lean towards your style of fighting too much.]-Matatabi
Matatabi advised and Veronica slightly frowned before realizing that she had accidently started to get Taku to copy her own style instead of observing and seeing what type of moves he would do well with. Tobirama had only gotten her to learn the Senju taijutsu style because her instinct and brain were developed enough so that she understood she didn't have to copy everything in a fight. He had guided her and changed several things to suit her needs and body. She could tell when a move didn't feel right but Taku could not.
Taku was still just a child. If something gets ingrained in his mind from such a young age it will be there until he dies.
She slightly wondered if that was one of the reasons genin teams were made of only 3 members.
[Don't worry, you weren't doing anything bad. Training and dealing with children is hard.]-Matatabi
Sighing, she stopped Taku and got him to do a small spar with Karasu.
Taku frowned a bit at that.
"So all this time was wasted?"-Taku
"It wasn't wasted. You now have an idea of other types of moves you could use, and while they don't suit you they could still come in handy. You've already started to train your body in the basic katas so you won't need to work as hard."-Shisui
He nodded at Shisui's words and apologized to Veronica for being rude who only poked him on the forehead, like Sasuke had once done to her, and waved him off. She honestly didn't care if he thought his time was wasted.
Taku went in his room with his brother to eat dinner while Shisui looked at her and asked her the questions she had been waiting for.
"What are those scars you have?"-Shisui
Oh.
It seemed as though she had underestimated just how much he cared for her. She didn't even understand why he cared for her.
[He's already figured out you were the one to save him.]-Matatabi
She blinked once at the information before calming herself again. She took in a breath as she thought of what she should say as a response to his question. There weren't many options as she knew that Matatabi would have given him at least some sort of idea as to what happened with her, if she had talked with him enough to tell Shisui that she was the one who had saved him.
--- --- --- --- ---
"How my sensing works? Well it's kind of hard to explain but there's just this certain range of which I can just... Feel? chakra. The emotions just pop up in there you know! Dad says that his sensing is like-" -Naruto
Naruto paused for a second trying to remember how his father explained how his sensing works.
Sakura blinked at him, having not understood how the whole sensory thing worked at all. She'd tried asking Kakashi-sensei but even he'd had trouble explaining the concept to her and since his chakra was very different than hers he couldn't very well make her understand the thing. He did say that he'll get her someone who will probably explain it better than him but she was getting tired of waiting.
"What he means."-Sasuke
Sasuke began with a drawl as he thought about just how he'll have to explain what his brother, although he won't be admitting that Naruto was his brother easily, meant to say.
"Is that due to the 'Mind's eye of Kagura' Naruto can sense people and emotions instinctively within a certain range. Although it does cost him chakra, the amount of it will be less than what normal people will need. And by emotions, you should know that it's not guessing the emotions based on the way the chakra fluctuates and fidgets. He can sense what you feel."-Sasuke
Sakura once again blinked at the boys as she realized that she had heard Sasuke speak more than he had spoken in a week within a minute or two. It seems Naruto was also surprised at that as he checked whether Sasuke had a fever or not.