Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over. ~Gloria Naylor
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I was released from hospital in time for the inauguration of the Fifth Hokage. The streets were packed as we watched Tsunade, standing tall and strong with the vibrant red of the Hokage's hat on her head, being sworn in.
"And from this day on, I shall protect the Hidden Leaf Village as the Fifth Hokage!" She finished, sweeping the hat from her head dramatically.
We cheered.
There was very much a sense of moving on, of starting anew and beginning again in the air.
Tsunade is a legend in Konoha, more so than either of her team mates. Oh, the Sanin were considered the peak of combat ability and strength as a shinobi but we had a lot of them - the White Fang, the Yellow Flash, the First Hokage - heck, the Third's father, Sasuke Sarutobi was a legend from before ninja villages existed.
Tsunade, though. She changed things.
Konoha is the only village with an entire medical sector and it is entirely due to her. She was possibly the first person to ever be worried about the safety and well being of both ninja and civilians; the first person to treat them like people and not tools. She championed the inclusion of medics on ninja teams, not just in the hospital for when - and if - they returned. Although it wasn't implemented during the Second Great Shinobi War when she proposed it, it was during the Third, and some people regard it as the sole reason we survived. Her system for detecting and countering poisons is considered to be the reason that we were victorious in the Second Great Shinobi War.
The Konoha we know today… is almost entirely her creation.
She was the people's champion, if there was such a thing.
But for all that, from the point of view of a Kunoichi, there is one technique that we practically revere her for. A contraceptive and hormone suppressant. Using progesterone and estrogen, the technique prevents follicles in the ovum from developing. It goes further than that, and more effectively than any contraceptive I remember from Before, completely removes menstrual cycles. Not only did she invent it, but instead of calling it a day and keeping it to herself, she refined it until every single Academy aged Kunoichi could use it. It was constant; we learnt to apply it in the Academy and it would last until we decided to remove it to start a family. It made field missions easier and safer. When there are enemy ninja that can smell a drop of blood from a kilometre away, menstruation was one of the most dangerous things that could happen to a kunoichi. Not only that, but no cramps, no headaches, no need for specialised supplies. No risk of unwanted pregnancy.
Her lineage was only half the reason we called Tsunade 'Princess'.
No one protested her promotion to Hokage. Didn't mention that she'd left the village, that she was a renowned gambler and drunk.
Not that things like that mattered, in the end. This was a ninja village.
It seemed a little weird to me, to put someone in charge who had such obvious, unrepentant flaws, but at the same time it was straightforward and reassuring.
It was interesting how we'd all grouped into our teams as we stood here, and no one seemed to notice. It was just so natural.
"Now, that's a historic event," I murmured.
"The start of a new era," Kakashi-sensei agreed. His voice was a little subdued though, and out of all of us, Kakashi-sensei was the only one who would have seen the coronation of a Hokage before.
"We should celebrate," I suggested. Not just about the Fifth Hokage, but the fact that we were all together again.
"Ichiraku?" Naruto perked up.
And it was just so Naruto that I laughed.
The next few days, Sensei and I were still officially on 'medical leave' to give us time to retrain. The boys came and went, apparently being slotted into other teams for missions. To hear him tell it, none of Naruto's missions ever went smoothly.
I fully intended on training, as well as a whole other list of things, but first there was something I needed to do.
I went to the Archives and signed into the Registry.
The Archive Library is built into the Hokage Mountain. They say that there's files on every ninja in the village in here, past and present, as well as pretty much every piece of secret information ever gathered. I wouldn't know, as a Genin my clearance level is too low to access any of that stuff.
But I only needed low clearance, anyway.
Because we're a ninja village, Konoha keeps a pretty strict eye on who lives inside the village. That does translate to a pretty unholy amount of paper work and census taking and so forth, but it also means there's a complete list of Konoha citizens. Birth certificates, death certificates… they're filed and kept because that's how you prove your identity.
Which meant they were in the Archives.
I made a beeline for the death certificates. Funnily enough, I didn't know the exact date of the massacre, only the year and maybe the month. That didn't matter, though, because all I had to look for was the huge stack of Uchiha names.
I pulled out the stack of certificates, carried them to one of the worktables at the side of room, and began arranging them in an unholy jigsaw.
Now, who died first?
The quality of the certificates varied. They all had names and dates of birth and death of course. Some had occupations. Some, mostly the ninja, had photos attached.
The causes of death didn't help as much as they should have. Some were the same as what Itachi had shown me and some… weren't. That meant two things, either he'd shown me the wrong things on purpose because a) it made him look better or more terrifying b) it made a bigger impact on Sasuke that way c) there was something there he was hiding d) the details were fuzzy after so long or … he hadn't done it on purpose. He'd done it because he hadn't known.
Which made sense. There had been many gifted shinobi in the Uchiha clan, and at the end of the day, Itachi had been one man. One thirteen year old boy.
Regardless, that really wasn't why I was here. Memories from a genjutsu attack was no proof at all.
It took a long time and a lot of guess work. I was only maybe half done when someone interrupted me.
"New hobby?" Dad asked, sliding into the seat across the table.
I blinked at him, jolted from my working trance. "Huh?"
He gestured at the papers spread out over the table.
I ran a hand through my hair, distracted. "What are you doing here?"
Dad gave me an amused look. "You've been in here all afternoon. I got a message from one of the overseers asking if I knew what you were doing."
I blinked again, this time in actual confusion. On the surface it sounded fine but why would anyone be bothered about what a mere Genin was doing in the low level Archives? Even to either find out who I was and who my parents were, or worse, bother the Jounin Commander?
Then it clicked. I had just had a run in with Uchiha Itachi. I was now looking at files about the Uchiha Massacre. There were secrets here that people wanted kept. Dad had either been informed, or intercepted a message.
I was really, ridiculously lucky that my Dad was who he was.
And also. I was really stupid.
I swallowed. "I just… I felt like I should know their names," I said distantly. "He was aiming for Sasuke, to show him…" I gestured at the files. "To show him how his family died."
I hadn't told anyone what I'd seen. No one had asked. Unless they had some way of telling what a genjutsu was showing, they couldn't have known.
"Even though they're already dead, it was still like… still like I was there. Seeing it. I thought, maybe, if I knew their names it would be…" I struggled for a word. "Better."
Not better. Nothing would really make it better. Easier to deal with maybe. Easier to compartmentalise. To mourn or something…
"I just… I feel like I should know their names." I shrugged. It felt inadequate.
Dad's face was carefully calm. I couldn't tell what he was thinking. It was very rare when I could.
"I see," he said, humming. "Do you need help?"
My shoulders sagged, tension escaping. No judgement or recrimination or even questions about what had happened. Just… do you need help?
"I only know what they look like," I admitted. "But not all these have photos."
Dad considered, finger tapping his chin for a second, before rising and fetching what looked like a heavy leather-bound book. "This might help," he said, opening it to the back.
I took it gingerly. It looked rather like a yearbook, with grids of small photos. It was pretty much exactly what I needed. "Yeah," I said. "Thank you."
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There were a lot of things I wanted to do. Practice my jutsu. Make sure my taijutsu was up to scratch. Research the Akatsuki. Get the set time on my explosive seal down so it was actually combat applicable. Possibly name the damn thing, since names helped with focusing.
I managed some. Naruto and Sasuke were more than willing to spar - when they were around - and Shikamaru would with only half the usual amount of prodding. Dad started up my clan training again and I found I was leaps and bounds behind Shikamaru, who was nearly capable of using Shadow Stitching Jutsu.
Not that I was going to rush to catch up. Been there. Learnt that lesson.
It made me feel a little left behind, particularly when Naruto showed off his Rasengan and Sasuke proved that a month of frantic, don't-care-if-I-hurt-myself training could move you along tremendously - as long as there was someone around to make sure you didn't actually hurt yourself.
A month was both a very short time and a very long time. I felt a little out of step, trying to catch up with everything that had happened while I had been out of it.
I wanted to research Akatsuki, but in order of priority making sure I was fit to fight was much more important. I did crack out the books every night though.
I could have just started with the bingo book. I was pretty sure I knew who was involved. But explaining how I knew that, proving it… I couldn't do it. But I had another avenue to pursue.
Akatsuki had been around before it became an organisation of megalomaniacs. I was a little fuzzy on the details, but I knew that. Jiraiya's trio of orphans had formed it during the war, until they had been betrayed by Danzo and Hanzo.
So. An organisation of ninja, during the war. Important or visible enough to bother Hanzo the Salamander himself. There had to be a mention of them. All I needed was a single throwaway line. The name. That was it. That would link them to the Land of Rain.
Easier said than done, of course. But I was hopeful.
Our leave didn't last for very long. All too soon Team 7 was arrayed before the Mission Assignment Desk.
"If I could give you more time off, I would," Tsunade said, looking at us. "Unfortunately, we're pushed for ninja at the moment. You're all physically healthy so you should have no problems." She paused for a second, as if seeing if we would protest. "That said, I can ease you back into things. Here's a C-rank. Search and Rescue. Should be an easy mission."
"Easy mission?" Naruto almost shouted in protest. "Ah, come on! I can totally -" he paused. Looked at me. Looked at Sensei. Then nodded solemnly and tucked his hands behind his head. "Oh. I get it. Sure. No problem."
Tsunade's lips twitched. "I'm glad," she said.
Considering she had basically explained her reasoning…
"You can count on us, Baa-chan," he continued.
"Don't call me that!" she snapped, mood turning irritated in a heartbeat. She biffed the mission scroll at his head. "Go on, get out of here!"
Kakashi-sensei grabbed the scroll with one hand and Naruto's collar with the other, effectively dragging him out of the room before he could make things worse. Sasuke and I exchanged amused looks and followed.
"Alright," Kakashi-sensei said, unrolling the scroll once we were outside. "Go grab your mission gear and meet me at the gate ASAP. This one is time critical."
Which made sense, if it was a search and rescue. The longer you took, the less chance of finding them alive.
"Yes, Sensei," we chorused, darting off to do just that.
We met up at the gate in due haste and were well on our way when Kakashi-sensei started the briefing. It wasn't uncommon to do this on the run, since tree hopping was close to second nature for us.
"We're looking for a missing person," Kakashi-sensei started, flicking a photo over to us. "Genmai of Inaho Village. He vanished into the hills around the village yesterday morning. When he didn't come back overnight, they sent a messenger bird to us."
That was a much faster way of contacting Konoha than sending a civilian to the village. There was probably a ninja outpost nearby somewhere that had birds, or the village was a reasonably large and well connected one.
"There have been reports of bandits in the area," Kakashi-sensei continued. "So it might even be an abduction, though if that's the case there hasn't been any ransom demands made yet."
"Are there any more details on him?" I asked curiously. "Is he an important figure? And why was he in the hills?"
"Mm. He's the manager of the lumber mill, apparently," Kakashi-sensei said. "He was looking for a new location for wood, or something like that. Presumably, he's familiar with the area, which is why his disappearance is suspicious, but if it is bandits, it's more likely to be a crime of opportunity than a selected target."
There was little more detail than that. We stopped by the village, a small but reasonably wealthy looking place, and met Genmai's family. We ran through the usual missing person questions; when did you last see him, where was he, where did he intend to go, did he say when he'd be back, was he acting oddly, and so forth. It didn't garner us any more information than we already had, apart from the location of the lumber mill.
That was our next destination, and we took in the bustling building and rushing river.
Dangerous hazard, I mentally noted. It wouldn't have taken much for someone to slip in and be swept away by it.
The mill workers didn't have much more information than anyone else, though the site overseer did know the general location that Genmai was supposed to be scouting.
"Alright," Kakashi-sensei said, tapping the local map. "We'll start with this area then spiral out from there. It's well away from the river, but if we cover the entire area and don't turn up anything we'll start searching downstream. Let's go. Keep your eyes open as we travel."
We shouldered our packs and took off through the trees. This close to the mill, there was too much activity for any sort of track to stand out. Well. Kakashi-sensei might have been able to but I couldn't.
"Okay, we'll make this our reconnaissance point," Kakashi-sensei said as we all landed in a clearing. "First we'll-" he cut himself off, head snapping up.
I cast my chakra sense out, but I felt nothing. But there were more signs that something was wrong than just chakra.
"Stay here," Kakashi-sensei ordered tersely, jumping up into the branches.
"What was that?" Naruto wondered.
I shook my head. "No idea. But we best do as he says." Kakashi-sensei's chakra was moving fast, and before long he was out of my range. It did make me a little uneasy though.
"We should be alert," Sasuke said quietly, dark eyes regarding the surrounding forest.
I could see his reasoning. Whatever had caught Kakashi-sensei's attention might not be the only danger in the forest.
Minutes later, he was proven grimly correct. A huge chakra flare went off somewhere nearby, with bright light and loud sound. Birds scattered into the sky. And…
"Three incoming. North-east. Chunin or Jounin level," I said, readying my kunai.
"Enemies?" Sasuke asked.
I didn't have time to answer, because one shot forward with extreme speed and we barely had time to move before the ground was destroyed where we had been standing.
"Hey!" Naruto shouted at the man now standing in the middle of the clearing. He was reasonably tall, dressed in pale blues with a hood designed to resemble a sharks head. Tentatively, I tagged him as a water type since anybody who dressed that obviously to theme tended to do so to their specialisations. "What was that for?"
Two others joined him, a portly male with a fuuma shuriken strapped to his back, and a woman dressed in purple.
"Are these the ones, Kajika-sama?" the portly one asked.
Sharkhead - Kajika - nodded. "I would say so," he said, flicking his chin at us. "You're the ones with Kakashi, aren't you?"
"So what if we are?" Sasuke demanded.
Kajika grinned. "We were wondering if you'd like to play."
They launched forward. I had time to see the lady unsheathe two short handled sickles, before she was on me. Naruto engaged the fat one, barely managing to dodge his surprising speed, while the leader went for Sasuke.
I dodged, wove, deflected attacks. She was fast. I dropped my Resistance Seal and surprised her with an increase in speed, slamming a rapid two kick combo into her stomach and nearly scoring her across the neck with my kunai. It didn't last, though, because she amped up her speed to match.
They're toying with us, I realised.
"Ten Thousand Fists!" I called up my chakra, blurring the air around me with overlapping images. She couldn't know if it was real or fake, or which attack to block, so she did the sensible thing and got clear.
I back flipped down to the ground, where Naruto had been thrown a second earlier. Sasuke, seeing us, managed to disengage and regroup.
"Hmm," Kajika mused. "You're better than I expected."
"Little bitch," Lady cursed.
"Now, now. If we finish too soon, we'll be disobeying orders."
That, coupled with the mention of Kakashi-sensei, did not sound good. Were they trying to distract us or something? Then again, we had been outmatched in that little fight. Without us stepping up to bigger techniques, they could have taken us out.
"You're starting to piss me off!" Naruto declared. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
More Naruto's shimmered into existence. They coiled, like they were about to leap.
Kajika chuckled, and then faded out of view. He hadn't moved…
"They vanished?" Naruto said, confused.
"No," Sasuke said, eyes darting back and forth. "They're still around."
I could still sense them. That didn't mean my team mates could. If we didn't do something, they'd just pick us off.
"Naruto," I hissed. "Please tell me you learnt how to sense in your Mist…"
"Yeah, kinda," he said back. "Oh. Oh!" His hand fumbled for his water canteen.
"Sasuke?" I questioned.
He grimaced. "I haven't really…" he said. "But we can't see them anyway, so I'll deal."
I nodded. There wasn't much I could do about it now. And having two of us being mostly able to spot them beat having just me.
"Running and hiding already?" Kajika's voice echoed through the chakra charged mist. "How …typical of a Leaf shinobi."
The three of us angled so that we were facing the same opponents as before. Kajika's taunts enabling Sasuke to find him.
On cue, we hurled kunai towards them, disappointed to hear the clinking of deflection, before moving.
"Water Release: Cold Sky Water Attack!" Kajika shouted, before rapid fire bullets slammed into the ground where we had just been. Ice, my mind catalogued quickly.
"The fat guy is in the mist," Naruto murmured. "Should we?"
"Pick them off, one by one," Sasuke finished grimly.
"I'll snare him, you two take him out?" I suggested.
They nodded.
I darted away, circling around the spot where I knew he was. He was still using whatever invisibility technique they had - and wasn't that cool? I so wanted to learn that - but I could sense him.
I harnessed my shadow and lashed out. He never even noticed it. "Shadow Possession Complete," I murmured.
Sasuke flickered away, appearing where my shadow ended and lashing out with a knife hand strike at the height where a neck should be. He apparently struck successfully, because the jutsu faded and the man sagged in my hold.
A quick twist of ninja wire to tie him up and we were fading away back into the mist.
"The other two are staying out of the mist," Naruto said quietly, sounding put out.
"Can we draw them in?" Sasuke asked.
"If they're clever enough to get distance, they're probably clever enough to stay there," I said.
"So what are we going to do?" Sasuke asked, frustrated. "I can't see them, and Naruto can't sense them outside the Mist…"
I bit my lip. "I'll take the lady. If I give you a general location… you use area of effect jutsu? They haven't been attacking, so I assume they can't hold that invisibility and fight at the same time. Radiating Shockwave, Great Fireball… that'll give you enough chances to hit him and disrupt the jutsu."
Naruto grinned. "I'm on it."
"You'll be okay by yourself?" Sasuke asked.
I nodded. "Of course." I'd have to be. I took out a kunai and wrapped an explosive tag around the handle. "On my signal."
We crept forward. There was something eerie about the way the forest was completely silent. I crouched, located the two chakra signals and sorted plans in my mind. I placed on hand on the ground, ink blooming under my fingers.
Countdown, start.
With an explosive burst of chakra I leapt, crossing the distance to the first person in the blink of an eye. At the apex of my jump, I twisted, hurling the kunai with full force to the second. I kept turning, using the momentum of my spin to bring my leg around, for a kick with my full weight and power behind it. It struck something that didn't budge, and the invisibility jutsu faded to reveal Lady's arms crossed in a block. I used them as leverage to leap up, somersaulting over her head to land on the branch beside her, kunai out to block her sickles.
I could see the flares of light, feel the chakra surges, as the boys attacked, but I was more focused on my own opponent. They would be fine. The mist was fading as Naruto ceased the jutsu, water falling to dampen the ground. It would make footing more treacherous on the lower branches, but these two had stayed well out of range.
I blocked and twisted, deflecting her blades, but she was brutal, hammering blow after blow down on me. I tried to retreat, but she pursued me ruthlessly.
I swung down and she was there. I jumped backwards and she was there.
"Not so cocky now, are we?" she smirked.
That's it, I thought. Just a little more.
I inched backwards along the branch, like a tightrope. She stalked forward, so convinced I was trapped and harmless. She lashed out and I rolled sideways, hitting the ground in a crouch. She followed, sandals squelching in the mud.
Three…
"Shadow Possession Complete," I said with a sign, hands folded into the rat seal.
Two…
"Why you-" she struggled, unable to move. "I'm going to kill you."
One…
And then, right beneath her feet, the ink seal I had placed before went off.
I panted a bit, at the sudden end to the fight, but I was hardly exhausted. Naruto and Sasuke had been drawn quite a distance away. I recognised it as the direction that the river was in. If Kajika was a water type, then we hardly wanted him getting near a huge source of it. That boded ill for us.
I dashed off, dampening my chakra to circle around the fight. Naruto and Sasuke were doing quite well, working in tandem against Kajika. They weren't unscathed but they weren't injured enough to hamper them. Kajika was fighting back with impressive taijutsu and a range of water release ninjutsu. It was clearly taxing him, though, to use it so much when there wasn't a ready source of water about.
I picked an ambush position and sat in wait. As expected, he was trying to make a break for the river. Naruto and Sasuke were hardly letting him though.
With so many trees about, it was easy enough to extend my shadow through them and wait until he crossed it's path.
"Shadow Possession Complete," I announced.
"Ha!" Naruto said, a glint in his eye. "Take this! Rasengan!" A clone helped him form it and he shoved it forward, straight into Kajika's stomach.
I stumbled backwards at the sheer force of the jutsu, releasing my Shadow Possession. One of the downsides of the jutsu was that when the victim was moved by outside forces, that tended to reverberate back to the user. The Rasengan clearly wasn't just a drill, it had tremendous pushing power.
Kajika flew backwards, smacking into a tree.
I sighed, standing up straight, feeling like a heavy weight was settling on my shoulders.
"We should find Sensei," Sasuke started, then cut himself off.
Because Kajika stood back up.
I couldn't help the small sound of surprise I made, almost in unison with Naruto's "what the?"
He stood and he was radiating foul, rancid, purple chakra that was vaguely familiar to me. It was the same chakra Sasuke had had after Orochimaru had marked him.
Not good.
"You fight well, Sasuke," he rasped, stepping forward in such a way that it was clear there was something wrong. His eyes, when he looked up, were slitted yellow.
"Who are you?" Sasuke asked warily. "What do you want?"
"That creepy chakra," Naruto muttered. "It's not even the same guy…"
"I would commend you on beating a stronger foe," he said, ignoring Sasuke questions. "But if you need friends to help you… you can forget about beating Itachi."
Sasuke stiffened. "You know of Itachi?" he demanded.
"He is strong. Much stronger than you'll ever be," the-thing-that-was-Kajika continued.
"What's your point?" Sasuke growled.
"How can you be content with this?"
"I'll take my revenge on him one way or another," Sasuke barked, hands clenching into fists. Naruto looked apprehensive.
"That's the spirit," Kajika said and chuckled. I shivered. Oh yes, that was Orochimaru's laugh.
Then I felt the chakra surge. "Get back!" I shouted, leaping backwards, as the body exploded, toppling forwards.
There was a moment of silence.
"Just what the hell was that?" Naruto shouted. "With the - then he-!" His arms flailed about.
"I don't know," Sasuke said, eyes trained on the charred body.
"That chakra…" I said. "It felt like… your curse mark."
His eyes lifted to me. "Orochimaru?"
I shrugged, helplessly.
Naruto scoffed. "That stupid snake freak. I should have figured. He was wrong, anyway," he said blithely. "If all three of us can take down his stupid puppet, then the three of us can totally take down Itachi. You better believe it!"
Sasuke was silent for a second. "We better find Kakashi-sensei," was all he said.
Kakashi-sensei wasn't hard to find, but what we saw when we did find him made us pause in the trees.
"That doesn't look good," Naruto said, stating the obvious.
"Don't touch it," I said, taking in the seal that lit up the entire pathway. It spiralled out around the body of a man that looked an awful lot like it might be Genmai. Kakashi-sensei was kneeling next to him, writing something on the ground and gave absolutely no indication that he could hear us.
"What is it?" Sasuke asked.
"A seal trap," I squinted at it. "Activated by contact… I guess when he touched Genmai? It seems to be centred on him. Containment… chakra…" I tried to read what the specifications were, but it was difficult. I wasn't a master at this. Studying was one thing, actually applying it was another. "He can't leave the circle, I think."
"Should we help?" Naruto asked anxiously.
"Sensei looks like he knows what he's doing," Sasuke answered. "Look. He must know how to get out."
I nodded. "Maybe if we keep a perimeter? In case anyone else is around?"
It didn't take Kakashi-sensei much longer to diffuse the trap, and when it faded away, he blinked up at us, taking in our scruffy, semi-exhausted appearance.
"Sensei," Naruto said, very seriously. "You're late."
Sasuke snorted.
"Mah, sorry," Kakashi-sensei said, eye curving into a smile. "Something came up."
The man lying on the dirt groaned, waking up. "What… what's going on?"
"Ah, let's get you back to the village, Genmai-san," Kakashi-sensei said, offering him a hand.
Well, I thought. At least the mission was a success.