A/N: Thanks so very much, again, for your reviews!
And now for a chapter that my Naruto/Akki character would class "emotionally weak", i.e. "emo". Is emo the right word? Possibly not, I am not up to date with the slang you young whipper snappers use! ;-) This chapter is also significantly shorter than the previous one.
This chapter is late, again, and for that I apologise profusely. The agents responsible for this are as follows: term-time, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (which I have not completed yet), the start of a replay of Fallout, the borrowing of Shogun: Total War from a cousin, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, various attempts to get Planescape: Torment to work with my widescreen laptop and the anime Blood+. I have no excuse aside from my low attention span and skill at procrastinating.
Poll results so far:
Naruto/Anko: 15
Naruto/Hinata: 1
Naruto/Kurenai: 1
Naruto/Tenten: 2
Please keep in mind that it does not necessarily have to be those three, or even just for Naruto either. Perhaps Kakashi needs some Tender Loving Care? It could be anyone, I am just not putting up those that haven't been mentioned yet. ;-) So... Temari, Sakura, Hinata, Anko, Tenten, Kurenai, zombie-Ino etc..
People really seem to like the idea of Naruto/Anko. Anyone care to explain why? Perhaps there is an aspect of my presentation I have missed? This does not mean I am against the pairing in any way (in fact I quite like the idea), it just does not seem so obvious to me...
Replies to reviews are in my forums!
About Naruto/Akki's mode of speech: as you probably know, up until now he has usually been speaking in an excessively polite and humble way. For those that this would have any meaning for, this includes the fact that he uses no elision whatsoever. That is, he pronounces Sasuke as Sasuke, not as Sasske. This would come across as incredibly old-fashioned, as well as somewhat effeminate, as males in Japan tend, or are expected, to use elision to a greater extent than the female sex.
"Boo" speech
'Boo' thought
"Boo" Bijuu speech
'Boo' Bijuu thought
x
x
x
His footsteps echoed as he slowly walked down the tunnel that linked the tower directly to the Hospital, which served as the main route of travel to and from the tower. 'Kakashi will, hopefully, be too busy training Hinata and Sasuke to bother me, so I will have a good amount of free rein. I will ask him to give me the time from now until the exam off. I will then start stocking up on everything I will need... He really has been getting too close for comfort.'
There was a noise from the tower end of the tunnel. The contenders for the third exam, and their senseis, were just starting their way back to Konoha. He ignored it for the moment. 'Maybe I should go the onsen (hot spring) after training tomorrow? I should have some ramen as well... enjoy my last few weeks here as much as I possibly can... Wait, enjoy what?'
Some fast paced footsteps were getting closer, so he turned to see Kakashi running towards him. 'What is it that he wants now?' "Konichiwa, Kakashi-sensei," he said as he carried on walking.
"Akki-kun, why did you just forfeit? It doesn't seem like you."
'Fuck, I should have thought ahead more. What should I say, and why the fuck does he care? I suppose I will have to be honest...' "The title of Chunin does not mean much to me, sensei. It is for that reason that I have forfeited, since it is not worth an innocent life."
"You mean Lee?"
"Hai. He is supposed to be a Taijutsu specialist, and is better at it than Sasuke. Either I would fail to defeat him, or I would likely kill him due to the nature of my abilities. The first renders turning up useless, and the latter is morally indefensible. The ends, here, do not justify the means, Kakashi-sensei."
"Yes..." Kakashi said, looking behind him, thinking, 'It is a good thing Gai and Lee are not here to hear this... Oh, there's Hinata. She must have heard. I should tell her not to say a word.'
Kakashi smiled at him, causing a look of confusion to play across Naruto's face. He then walked up to him and began ruffling his hair.
Naruto stiffened, and felt very uncomfortable indeed. 'He really is getting too close for comfort.' He grabbed Kakashi's hand and lifted it gently off his head. Kakashi drew it away and let it fall by his side, before Naruto spoke: "Kakashi-sensei, I was wondering if I could have some time off? I am afraid that I have no interest in assisting Sasuke and Hinata in their training; I have goals to meet. I want to train myself in the period until the third exam, as if I hadn't forfeited, to perhaps get to a strength level where I could defeat Lee without necessarily killing him. I also have not used up any of my paid holiday time yet, so..."
"Really? I will speak to Hokage-sama, then, though I expect it will not be a problem. If it is, I will visit you."
"Hai. Doumo arigatou gozaimasu."
They carried on walking down the long tunnel, seemingly with nothing more to say.
Hinata, who was a few tens of metres behind them, had heard everything. 'He does not want to use the Shikotsumyaku against Lee?' She stared at Kakashi's back for a few moments. 'Truly, Kakashi-sensei seems right, Ak... Naruto is not a demon, and it is now clear he does not act like one.' She thought back through all the people she knew, through all the teams and in her family. 'In a way, he seems more human than some of them... He avoided any chance of taking Lee's life, while many would have tried the fight anyway, even if they did not intend a kill...'
Her head ached and her eyes watered, and her heart lurched and her shoulders shuddered, and she thought, 'Though I am a failure as a ninja, weak and worthless, I always consoled myself by saying that I was a kind person...' She lowered her head until her chin touched her neck, allowing the hot tears to slowly flow down her neck and her shaking breast as it shook with her silent sobs. 'And now it seems I am not even that!' She kept unsteadily walking forward, though she could no longer see where she was going. There was a sudden gentle pressure pushing back on her shoulders, and she stopped moving. She looked up to see Kakashi's blurred face ripple in front of her.
She heard him say, "Hinata-chan...? Is there something wrong...? Are you hurt?" She felt the pressure on her left shoulder disappear as he brought his hand up to wipe her eyes. As she saw more clearly, she noticed Naruto by Kakashi's side, staring at her with his normal expression, holding a roll of bandages by his thigh in his right hand, not needed this time. Her sobs intensified at this and became audible. 'That... face... Oh this is even worse. I am crying because I now have nothing to console myself with, a selfish reason... a selfish person, not a kind one...' Naruto's face then seemed strange, suddenly, reminding her of when Orochimaru had said his name. It is was totally dissimilar to that time, except that it was also different to how he normally looked. 'What is that? Pity? Concern? ... Regret? Regret for what?' She looked at Naruto in surprise.
Naruto's eye's widened in confusion, and then in desperation. He quickly swivelled so that no one could see his face. He clutched it in his left hand before running away down the corridor. 'Oh, shit, I can't take it any more,' he thought, 'First I injure her, then my name is revealed, then confirmed, my ability is revealed, Kakashi-sensei gets too close for comfort, I get drawn against Lee, I forfeit, I then explain it, Kakashi-sensei gets too close again, then she starts sobbing like a frustrated maid and then, somehow, I just made things worse, and now I can't even keep control of my face. I am a wreck! Recent events have taken me beyond the limit of my emotional endurance... I want to just disappear... I have lost too much, this week, and the stakes are so high...'
Kakashi turned as the boy ran away from them, in a state of some confusion. He was then startled to see that the roll of bandages Naruto had been holding was lying partially unraveled on the floor a little way away, dropped during the run. It disturbed him. It was sloppy. Naruto was not sloppy. Naruto was calm, quiet and collected. He did not suddenly run away without an obvious reason.
Kakashi turned back to his other student, who was looking past him in shock, and noticed that the other teams were getting close. "Come on, Hinata," he said, "let's talk outside."
x
x
He locked the door behind him and ran along the wall of the kitchen and flung his bag into the middle of the floor, leaving a trail in the dust. He opened the door to his room, entered, and shut it again before leaping onto his bed. He panted for a few minutes, before removing from a drawer in his bedside table a bottle. The bottle contained a milky-white liquid, nigori sake.
'Ah, sake, may your sweet taste usher me into sleeps embrace, calm the fox and redden my face, and make me forget, for a while, my circumstances in a haze of... hell... intoxication... ... Feck... I can't even use language as well normal... gah! As well as is typical for me!'
He tried to open the bottle, but it was shut tight. He tried again, and succeeded to spill sake all over the file he had open on his bedside table. 'Ah, shit, I hadn't finished reading that... Might as well finish it now before it becomes unreadable...'
x
x
"I-I just realised that he was human, Kakashi-sensei, when I overheard your conversation and... I felt so bad for how I viewed him, I suppose."
"I see..."
"And now I feel I am worth nothing, not as ninja and now no longer as a person..."
'Eh, what?' thought Kakashi in surprise, 'Since when has she felt this way? Is it recent, is it old? How come I have not noticed? Have I paid her too little attention?' "What do you mean?"
"I used to think of myself as a kind p-person, but I can't now..."
"No, no... I meant your comment on being worth nothing as a ninja."
She stopped still, as if she regretted blurting out something she hadn't meant to. "A-Ano..."
He rubbed his temples. 'I need a drink...' He looked over the grass of the training area they were sitting in, before sighing. "Anyway, why do you no longer 'think of' yourself 'as a kind person'?"
"A-Ano... It is just because I viewed him so badly for all this time, when he has done nothing to me..."
He leant back on his elbows and looked at the clouds. "Perhaps, rather than lamenting for the fact that you followed the majority view, you should be happy for yourself now, as you no longer do," he said softly, but with a harder edge on the last phrase.
She looked up at him, wide-eyed in almost-happiness, before she looked down again, having caught his veiled, bitter rebuke. "Hai..." she whispered. 'Kakashi-sensei... seems sad. Whenever he looks at Naruto, he seems sad. Whenever he sees his face...'
"A-Ano... Kakashi-sensei, why does Naruto-san's face look like it does?"
"Hmmm? What do you mean? The cheek marks?"
"No, I meant his facial expression. It... well, it makes me feel uncomfortable..."
He turned his head towards her, squinting a little at her. "Ha... I don't know, and I think he is the only one who does. Unfortunately, the record of him is missing an entire year of information."
"A whole year?!" she asked, astonished. "How could that happen?"
"Well..." he started, but stopped. He then started again, "I am afraid that I do not want to go into that at this time, Hinata-chan."
"Oh..."
There were a few seconds of silence before Kakashi stood back up and started walking away, before turning back and saying, "By the way, I do not want you to speak of what happened today: whatever Naruto and I said to each other that you overheard, and of course this conversation, is not to be told to anyone. Understand?"
"Hai."
x
July 5th:
Balancing on the rail, Naruto walked along the edge of the pool outside the onsen building. He looked straight down since otherwise, as he was facing south, he would have been dazzled by the noon sun. He hopped across the gap that accounted for the bridge before continuing. There did not seem to be anyone around, so he used the opportunity to play this childish game without worrying what people would think. He didn't even bother controlling his face.
He was interrupted by a soft chuckling sound from his left. He froze, mid-step, and then turned to the source of the sound. It was a man with long, white hair wearing quite traditional clothing, though in rather eccentric colours. Naruto relaxed. 'He must be an outsider, I would have remembered his appearance otherwise. What is he doing? Peeking into the women's section of the onsen? What a pitiful person...'
He dropped down to the ground and forced his face back into its usual expression. He then quietly walked up to the man. Quietly enough to easily go unnoticed by a civilian, yet loudly enough not to be taken to be a threat by anyone who might be dangerous.
He stopped when he was standing right behind the man, who appeared to be oblivious. 'There does, however, seem to be something familiar about him... as if I have seen him before, but I do not recognise him as being a villager. Did I see a photograph of him somewhere?' He thought hard for a moment. 'Peeks at women at hot springs, carries an overlarge scroll, long white hair... No, it can't be...' He thought back to his short stay at the tower, when he had looked up some information on Orochimaru and the Sannin. There had been a photograph of all three of them. 'It is, it must be. Jiraiya, whose books Kakashi-sensei loves so much. What is he doing here? Isn't he supposed to be out of the country? ... Hmmm... He is famous for being a summoner of frogs, like the Yondaime. It would be very useful if I got my name on that contract... Could I possibly use my status to my advantage here?'
He stepped to the right of the man and looked into a gap between the boards. 'Tch. As expected. How sad.' He turned his head towards the white-haired-one, and said, "Konichiwa, Jiraiya-sama."
The man swiftly turned to him and whispered frantically, "Shhh! I am not here! I am not in Konoha!"
Naruto turned back to the gap and said, "That is a shame. Kakashi-sensei is an avid reader of your books. I had hoped to persuade you to sign a book for him, to show my gratitude to him."
"Hmmm..." replied Jiraiya disinterestedly, turned back to his gap. A few moments later, though, he turned again to Naruto. "Kakashi? Do you mean Hatake Kakashi?"
"Hai."
"You are a student of Kakashi-kun?"
Naruto turned his head back towards him, leaving his cheek no longer obscured by his hair, and said, "Hai."
Jiraiya looked at him for a moment before asking, "Uzumaki Naruto?"
Naruto allowed himself to sigh. 'I might as well give up right now.' "Hai, Jiraiya-sama."
Jiraiya stood up and looked at him for a while. "When would you be giving this copy to Kakashi?"
"September 15th, his birthday, Jiraiya-sama. At least, that is the most likely time." 'I suppose I will leave then, also? I am beginning to like this gift idea... Maybe I will even be able to use it to prevent them chasing me? Gratitude for trying to get to me, acknowledgement of the attempt, apology for causing the attempt to fail and leaving, and explanation, suitably abridged, of course. I suppose that it is only fair. As for that date, it should be fine. I have been progressing at a good speed for the last few months, given the gems of information Kakashi has given me. I am probably near the limit of what Konoha can offer me. There is little point in remaining here for long, especially if I get a summoning contract, which would give me a good chance against almost anything. If it turns out that that is too early... Well, I either would need to scrap that plan or wait an entire extra year...'
In the time that Naruto had been musing, Jiraiya had taken a book out of his pocket and scribbled something inside. He took it from the man's hand when it was offered to him and bowed deeply.
"Stop that," said Jiraiya, "It's embarrassing..."
"Hai, Jiraiya-sama," he replied, straightening up. "What do I owe you?"
Jiraiya made a face that indicated that he was above such matters. "Nothing, I sell plenty more."
"Doumo arigatou gozaimashita."
Jiraiya nodded and then seemed to study his face, as if in thought. He was interrupted by Naruto speaking again: "Ano... I am wondering if it would be possible for you to allow me onto your Frog Contract."
Jiraiya raised his eyebrows and stifled a laugh, before saying, "Really? Any reason why I should do that?"
"You should do that because, out of us, you are the only one that wishes to keep his stay in this village a secret."
"Ohoho, really? What then prevents me from killing you now? Actually, don't answer that question. I know the answer."
Naruto allowed himself to smile. "Good. Is that a yes then? I want to become stronger than the contestants in the third exam."
"Oh? You are going to be participating in the third Chunin Exam?"
"No, and that is why I want to be stronger than them."
"Ah... I see. Hehe... In that case, fine. Meet me here tomorrow, about noon."
"Doumo arigatou gozaimasu."
'Hmmmph...' thought Jiraiya as he watched the boy enter the onsen building, 'He wasn't as forlorn as I had heard. This is probably a good thing; it will be easier to protect him now. ... Could I get him to be like he was in the book, despite what has happened? I wonder...' He then heard conversation from beyond the fence and turned back to his occupation, and desperately kept his giggling at a low volume.
x
x
Kakashi walked up the stairs of the block of flats he lived in, his eyes drooped and tired, and his vision blurred. He was drunk again, though, this time, it was not because of Naruto.
They had just found out that Asuma's team had all been killed during the second exam and their sensei was understandably upset. They had headed to the bar, Kakashi, Asuma, Gai, Kurenai, Anko (who had delivered the news) and a couple of others. Asuma had drunk heavily, and they had followed, with Anko quickly falling into her normal routine of forgetting, totally, what the occasion was. She had even asked Asuma for a dance a few times, forgetting each time why she had been rejected before. Eventually they had had to drag Asuma back to his flat, which was in the same building as Kakashi's, and Kurenai had agreed to put him to bed.
He walked down the corridor until he came to his own door. He unlocked and entered it, leaning against it when he was in his room. He sighed. The funeral was going to be the next day, and he wondered whether he should get his team to attend.
His eyes fell onto his window sill, and the photographs that stood on it. He looked at the one of his current team: Sasuke stood on one side, smirking at the camera. Next to him stood Hinata, smiling meekly next to him. Kakashi himself was standing next to Hinata, but Naruto was not directly next to him. On the day, he had stepped a metre or so away and only half of him could be seen on the picture, and his head was facing out of the picture frame, as if distracted by something else.
'Naruto won't come, and Sasuke will still be in the hospital. That much is obvious. Will Hinata go? Did she know them? It would be good if she did, since I did get Asuma to agree to train her for the third exam so I could focus on Sasuke.'
He sat on his bed and took a notebook out of his pocket. 'Right, so Sasuke will be facing Tenten first, and then either Lee or one of the Sand nin. What should I teach him?'
x
x
He sat on the end of a bed in a room that was unfamiliar to him. The window gave a view of a metropolis the likes of which he had never seen before except in books. It looked western; there was Cyrillic writing everywhere, and the language was Novgorodian. The writing was mainly on the many billboards that could be seen from the window, advertising so many mundane things that he wondered how they ever managed to capture the imagination of the potential consumer.
His muses were interrupted by a sudden pressure around his upper arms and chest. He expected his body to stiffen due to the sudden bodily contact, as he did currently, but his body remained relaxed. Involuntarily, his head turned downwards to see the arms that were around him. They were bare as far as he could see, so the owner was likely wearing either nothing or very little. He also felt a pressure on his back, though it was uneven, concentrating around his shoulders and on two areas lower down on his back. He surmised that these were the other person's shoulder's and breasts, respectively. He also noticed that his body seemed older, somehow, than it did today. He was also naked.
He brought his hands up and gripped the arms that trapped him to his place, enjoying their warmth. As he did this, he felt the other person's hair brush against his own, and then the other's face against his. The embrace tightened, including the facial element, such that their eyelashes touched. He could feel her every blink.
He felt the muscles in her cheek pull up as she smiled, and then he felt her jaw drop open as she spoke, "Aishiteru..."
'Hah, such futile hopes I live for...'
He lifted himself up to a sitting position in the onsen and then inspected his hands. 'I must have been asleep for a while;' he thought, 'my hands have more wrinkles than the Sandaime's!'
He was about to stand up and step out of the onsen when a voice drunkenly drove everything else out of his attention like a barge and a lily on the surface of a canal. Not that there were any canals in the Fire country: they couldn't afford it. "Konichiwa, Ak. Kun..."
He looked up at the barrier to see Anko's head leering at him from over the top of it. He could barely smell the reek of alcohol on her breath, despite their separation and the sulphurous smell of the onsen.
'Eh? What now? What could a drunken snake queen want with me?'
x
Earlier...
Anko stumbled away from the group of jounin that escorted Asuma, shielding her eyes from the daylight that was so much brighter than the light of the bar. She giggled. She had forgotten why they had got plastered, as well as her more daily troubles. Ignorance was bliss.
She staggered along the road towards the springs, clutching a bottle of sake she had swiped from under the counter. The street swayed as she reached the onsen building, so she leant on it for support. After steadying herself, she entered the building.
Immediately inside, there was an intersection: left for male, right for female. She turned right. She came to the sparse women's changing room, which was empty as most people had gone back to work.
As she stepped into the room, she tripped over a raised floorboard and fell forward. She automatically rolled forward in the drop before landing, smacking her palms against the ground to lessen the fall. She landed with her upper back on the floor and with her legs caught on the coat stand in the middle of the room. Her trench coat fell off of her chest and her skirt, such as it was, now covered even less of her than it had before. Jiraiya, who had left just a few minutes earlier to find other data sources once the onsen had emptied, would have been disappointed to miss this if he ever heard of it.
She cackled hysterically for a few minutes before righting herself. She then ripped off her trench coat and her other 'clothes' before running cackling into the females' onsen itself and jumping energetically into the pool, splashing hot water everywhere.
There was a moan from the other side of the onsen, the mens' section. "Hmmm?" she grunted.
She stood back up and leapt lightly to the barrier and, using chakra, pulled her dripping body up it. When she reached the top she saw Naruto wake and inspect his hands. She giggled to herself and then shouted, "Konichiwa, Ak. Kun..."
She leered at him when he stared up at her. His expression betrayed both surprise and apprehensive curiosity. She grinned at him, before assuming a mock-stern expression, and said, "You have upset and disappointed me, Akki-kun. Are you prepared to pay the penalty?" She giggled.
He stood up, staring at her as if she was out of her mind. 'What is she slobbering about, now?' He backed against the wall of the room and assumed a 'ready' stance, and revealing his body completely to her.
She giggled again, and pulled herself over the barrier so that she was now sitting atop of it, facing him. She then drew her face into a mock-sad expression and said, "You showed such promise, such potential to spill enemy blood in the exams, and you gave it up. Why? Why did you deprive me so?" She laughed violently and began falling backwards. She quickly held the barrier with her hand, preventing herself from falling completely off, though her entire torso did drop out of Naruto's view. When she got back up again, she had the stolen sake bottle in her other hand, and she then downed it before continuing. "Demons are supposed to spill blood, no? You are going against your purpose, little Akki-chan. How shall you make amends?"
"I haven't a clue what you're blathering about, old woman!" He shouted, his eyes showing real confusion and annoyance. He was tired and had not yet fully recovered from the previous few days' stress.
"I like this woman..."
'I am sure--'
"Old?!" she shrieked, throwing the bottle over her shoulder, causing it to plop into the water on the other side. "Old?" she asked again, dropping down to the ground in the mens' section. "I am only twenty-four! Tell me, does my body look old to you, brat?!" she shouted at him, spreading out her arms, displaying her chest as she staggered around in the shallows. She then giggled again before launching herself at him. "You are asking for a penalty aren't you? Ahahahaha..."
'What the fuck is going on with this insane lady?'
"Ahahaha... oh the irony of your dream and then this and your reaction! You are pathetic, bratling! Surely you should be seizing this opportunity like any self-respecting male?"
'Shutup! If I want your opinion I will ask for it, dog-breath!'
He dodged Anko's drunken lunge as she tried to grab him and jumped to the other side of the room. He was finding it difficult to concentrate:
"Dog-breath? Who do you think you are, you glorified ape?"
'Shut up!'
"Fox, not dog!"
'Shut u--'
His thoughts were jarred out of comprehension very definitely and very suddenly. He was being squeezed by the naked woman and had been lifted off his feet in the process. Worse, his breathing had been stopped by the intrusion of a long tongue down his throat that seemed to be trying to grope everything at once. He was left in this state as Anko staggered around for a few seconds before she slipped backwards.
They fell into the pool, Anko first, and splashed about for a few moments before Naruto managed to free himself. He stood up and staggered back until his back hit the wall and panted, eager to breathe again, as he stood ready to leap away again if necessary.
The second offensive, however, did not come. The water swirled around as a result of the previous disturbance, but Anko was not visible to him. A few moments later, though, her body floated up to the surface and just drifted there.
'Shit!' He jumped forward into the water and grabbed her around her waist and dragged her out and laid her on her side before checking her breathing. He sighed with relief. 'She's just unconscious. Stupid woman, going to an onsen when pissed up to the eyeballs... She must have hit her head against the rocks.'
He rubbed his temples. 'Gah... My week goes from the pit of hell to the absolutely bizarre... Still, what was that all about? She really wanted me to spill blood? What a weirdo, however ironic it is for me to think that. And why did she attempt to... violate me, anyway? How drunk was she?'
"You really are pathetic..."
'SHUT. UP!'
"Just saying--"
'DON'T!'
He stood up and grabbed her underneath each shoulder and dragged her into the male changing room. 'Uurrgghh... How will I explain this? Will she even remember? Guh... Another reason to leave soon...'
When he reached his stuff, he grabbed the towel that he had brought for him to use and quickly dried her off, before dressing her in his clothes. After tying the towel around himself to reduce somewhat the unwanted attention he would receive, he lifted her up and carried her out of the onsen building and then to the hospital, taking as many side-routes as possible.
The Kyubi was having a field-day.
x
x
She walked down an aisle in the Records Department in the Library, letting her small pale hand touch against all the files as she passed. When she got to the relevant section, that of genin graduated in the last year, she immediately searched for 'Akuma-Gaki Akki'. When she found it, she noticed that it was quite thin. She opened it to see all the essential details that you would expect: exam grades from the academy and so on. It did not, however, contain the information she was interested in: that of Naruto's life before he entered the academy, since the document started with that. There was, however, a note at the top noting that his name had been legally changed to Akuma-Gaki Akki from Uzumaki Naruto on that day, and that earlier details would be found in the relevant section.
She replaced it in its slot before walking across the building until she got to the relevant section. It was quite small and the files there looked comparatively under-handled. She spent a few minutes searching before she found Naruto's file. It was thick, disproportionately so for one that only covered the first seven years of his life. She smiled to herself as she walked towards the tables of the study area, ignoring the curious gazes of the various journalists that were researching things themselves.
She dropped the file onto a table in an alcove away from the other people, hoping that it would prevent her from being disturbed. She then lifted a chair from the stack and carried it over to the table. It was only when she sat down that she noticed something odd about the file she had just found: it had a stamp on it that said:
"D-clearance
"Not to be read by unauthorised persons."
'How on Earth did a D-clearance rank document get here?' she thought. 'I have only ever heard of E-clearance, and that is ANBU entry-level...'
Her hand hesitated above the cover of the file as she contemplated whether she should read the file's contents. Eventually she concluded that, even if she did read it, it was unlikely that anyone would find out that she had, so she opened it.
The documents were rippled, as if they had had liquid spilled over them. The writing was fuzzy and difficult to read; the ink was obviously not totally insoluble to whatever had spilled over it. She was certain that she could detect a faint whiff of alcohol, but could not verify it.
She started reading. 'Uzumaki Naruto was born on the tenth of October and had the Kyuubi no Yoko, which was attacking the village at the time, sealed into him by the Yondaime Hokage hours later. It was not long until the erroneous assumption that he was the monster fox became widespread...' She made an expression of disappointment. 'Is that all, no detail at all? I hope the rest of the document isn't so disappointing...' She then resumed reading: 'For the first five years of his life he lived in the Konoha Orphanage, under constant protection from several ANBU squads, directed by Captain Hanone. The next eight pages detail the eleven known assassination attempts on him, all of which were quickly stopped, never directly threatening the target.' She stopped. 'Eleven assassination attempts on him? But... Wait... The Kyuubi rampage would have been fresher in the memory then, so possibly it should be expected, but still... Eleven attempts?' She looked at the first one. 'Five days after his birth? And the next? Ten days? The next? Thirty days! And the next? Forty days! October the tenth the following year, his birthday. The next, a few days later. Then October the fifth on the next year, October tenth, October ninth, October tenth, October tenth...'
'It says that a few months after the last attempt, he was removed from the orphanage to live on his own in a flat. At the age of five? That's ridiculous! How can a five year old run a house? No significant details, though. Too sensitive or too mundane, I wonder? Probably too mundane; they probably just delivered him take-away meals or something...'
She turned the page to read the rest of the current sentence, but the page ended after just a few words; the rest was blank. The page after that, however, was full, and had its own header and a different formatting style. This page was also in a worse condition that the previous ones, seemingly at the epicentre of the spill. She could just barely make it out:
'Incident report, submitted by Captain Hanone.'
She skimmed down until she saw a readable line, 'After having captured Uchiha Kouta, Fukurou and I rushed to check on the target. When we arrived all we found were the bloody bodies of two more assassins, and prints, which did not last long, of a small child, on all fours, rushing out of the door and then jumping from roof to roof. It is suspected that the Kyuubi may have taken control, if only temporarily (This has been confirmed through questioning of the child since the incident – Ed), which would be the reason why the target managed to kill his attackers and escape us.'
She stopped as she read the last sentence. 'The Kyuubi took over? Is he still dangerous then, or...' An image of Kakashi appeared in her face. 'No, no... He hasn't really acted that way...' She then saw images of his reaction to Tazuna, then to Orochimaru. 'Well... Kakashi-sensei knows about these incidents, and he does not think it... a problem...' She paused, again, before she was able to push the doubt out of the front of her mind.
Her right hand gripped the bottom right of the page, in preparation to turn it over, when, while absentmindedly rubbing it between her thumb and forefinger, she felt the smoothness of graphite. She looked at that area of a the paper to see some pencil scribbling there, which seemed to have smudged, unfortunately. Careful not to smudge it more she read what was left of it: 'Hanone? They mention him with a copy of Icha Icha Paradise. Kakashi? Hanone, fang. Hatake Sakumo, White Fang. Hatake Sakumo --- Hatake Kakashi. He is alxxxx xxxxxxx xx xx xxx-.' The rest was smudged into oblivion.
'That writing... I recognise it from somewhere...' She then remembered back to the first exam. 'That is is Ak—Naruto's writing! And the smell of alcohol... That time...'
"I just like the drink."
"Really? You are officially an adult since you graduated, but… isn't that an odd choice? Many older people find that drink too strong for them to 'like' it, so why do you choose it?"
Akki stared at him, and his voice came out slow and level: "I like its pureness of purpose. It is not there to excite the gourmet, or to have as a light drink. Its purpose is to intoxicate, and do it quickly, to wipe away the memories and all inhibitions, to reduce men to a state where all that matters is to do something, or not depending on the mood, with no concern for anything else. It is a drink for those who want to forget themselves." Akki stood up, looking down at his sensei. "That is why I like and drink it, Kakashi-sensei."
'Yes, it is definitely Naruto who wrote this stuff down, and spilled stuff over this, and recently too... and how did he get this document? Did he take it himself from... wherever it would have been? But that would mean he would be much more skilled than he lets on... If he was so strong, then why did he not do better at defending Sasuke, and why wouldn't he have been able to defeat Lee non-lethally if he was that skilled? Or is he hiding his strength for some purpose? Should I think again about what I should think of him? Hiding his strength, possibly at the expense of someone else's, Sasuke's, life? I don't see how that could possibly be justified...
'If he did steal it, though, why put it back here? Or... Did he borrow the one that was here and switch it for the secret one!? The would be the only logical reason to bring it here and put it in the shelves with the others...
'But... Possibly he found it here like I did? That would be even more mysterious... Should I tell Kakashi-sensei...? Oh, no, of course not! I have just been reading D clearance information without authorisation... There is nothing I can do but find out for myself...'
She read the note again, and this time its content got through to her. 'Wait... Kakashi-sensei was in ANBU? And was Hanone?! But that means that he has known Naruto-kun since he was very very small...' She thought about the conversation with her sensei the day before:
'Kakashi-sensei... seems sad. Whenever he looks at Naruto, he seems sad. Whenever he sees his face...'
"A-Ano... Kakashi-sensei, why does Naruto-san's face look like it does?"
"Hmmm? What do you mean? The cheek marks?"
"No, I meant his facial expression. It... well, it makes me feel uncomfortable..."
He turned his head towards her, squinting a little at her. "Ha... I don't know, and I think he is the only one who does. Unfortunately, the record of him is missing an entire year of information."
"A whole year?!" she asked, astonished. "How could that happen?"
"Well..." he started, but stopped. He then started again, "I am afraid that I do not want to go into that at this time, Hinata-chan."
'That is why he looks at him that way! I wonder what Naruto was like before his absence... I will read that later, though. There is other stuff... Hmmm... the alcohol spillage... I wonder how Naruto felt about finding out, and it must have been very recent... They both know something about each other that they pretend not to know... And the other stuff... Hatake Sakumo, White Fang... It sounds familiar. Is he the father of Kakashi-sensei? Sensei never talks about himself, but Naruto seems to know something... Well, since I am in here anyway, I might as well take the opportunity to find some things out about my sensei. For now, though, I shall continue with THIS document...'
She, finally, turned the page. It was entitled 'The missing year'. She read the few lines there were. 'Information on this period in the subject's life is scant as the Sandaime Hokage granted the subject's wish not to be questioned. However, questions of probability can be asked based on the artifacts he carried with him when he returned: rags and a bottle cap "medallion". From this it can be deduced that he is likely to have been in the vicinity of Fire City, since the brand of drink on the cap, водочка, was only available there at that time.'
'That is it?' she thought. 'It is as Kakashi-sensei said...'
As she read through the pages on what happened after his return, a thought kept occurring to her: 'His responses seem very... 'mature' for a six year old, even though some are stereotypically childish...' As she read further, she came across references to comments by people, including Ibiki, the first examiner, pointing this out as well, and well as suggesting that he may possess some 'autistic' traits, based on casual observation. Hinata recalled that she had thought the same when they were in the Wave, due to not being able to understand his facial expressions well, but had let it be forgotten. 'Might he really be autistic, then? Maybe I should search the clan library...'
She read on to find out that attempts had been made to get Naruto to undertake tests, but he had refused to cooperate, and they were entirely optional. He had objected on the grounds of 'intrusive examinations by Yamanaka clan members', but had even declined tests without such measures, even when Kakashi had tried to persuade him, several times, the last being just a few days before the Chunin Exam started. 'Yes...' she thought, 'This was stolen very recently...'
She had now finished with this document, and she wondered what to do with it. 'I think I will just put it back, for now...'
She folded the file closed and, as she was about to stand up, a voice from behind her said, "I hope that I am an entertaining read, Hinata-sama."
She swiveled around to see Naruto standing behind her previous position. "A-An-no... I was j-just c-curious, Ak-kki-k-kun..."
Naruto seemingly ignored her incomprehensible gibberish and started speaking again: "Kakashi-sensei's file is under Famous Clans, and so is Sasuke's, but for the latter you will be wanting the file on the Uchiha Massacre which is in the Events section. For Hatake Sakumo you want the Suicides section, and for the files on the Yondaime, Obito and Rin, you will be wanting the Killed In Action section."
She stood there in shock at his seeming obliviousness, quiet as a mute. After a moment, he backed away and said, "I have interrupted you. Moushiwake arimasen."
He bowed and left.
She breathed again.
She stepped over to the shelves to replace the file. 'Wait, what did he mention Sasuke and the Yondaime for, and who are Obito and Rin, and how do I find put their family names?'
x
'Shit, shit, shit! What the fuck is she doing reading up on me, with that file as well!'
"I told you your plan was flawed."
'Shut it you... you...'
"I win at last!"
'Now is not the time!'
"Itwill come up later though, I assure you. I have thought up the perfect game."
'I am sure.'
He pushed open the library door and stepped outside, and started his walk home. 'Yet another incentive for me to leave quickly, all in just a few days. I wonder, is there some sort of Fate that has an odd sense of humour, and is trying to give me hints? Rubbish, of course, but I would like someone to blame...'
He leafed through the file he held in his hands. 'Well, at least the day has not been all bad. I finally have a nearly flawless escape method, and I have the medical ninjutsu section to thank, of all places! With this, a kage bunshin and a live animal, I will be able to perform the perfect technique for my circumstances. In fact, this and the training with Jiraiya will make the Chunin Exam Finals the perfect escape opportunity for me. I just need this and a rope.'
x
Naruto sat on his bed, ready for an early night after an exhausting and frustrating day. 'Well, fox, what is the game then?'
"In this game you shall say your words in verse,
Or else in style that is alliterate,
Or rhyme your words in prose or verse,
Anything else I will not tolerate."
'That was abysmal, brain dead animal.'
"One 'a' three times, 'al' twice, 'b' twice, though your rhythm was poor. No matter, all that matters is that you do it. It is simply in your own interest to do it well, since this game applies to spoken conversation only, not the other way around!"
'Out loud? I will seem an absolute moron. I can only do crap stuff!'
"Well, you are not planning to stay here are you? What does it matter? At least this way I can get some cringe-inducing humour, and we test the notion that warrior-poets get laid."
'You bitchy bastard born from a berk's cold cunt!'
"Poor. Berk and cunt are synonyms, you cunt!"
'Shut it, berk! The more common meaning for it is "idiot", not cunt, in common parlance, you precious prat!'
"Hey, I won that game. You cannot resurrect it!"
'Damn. Anyway, must sleep.'
"Dream the iambic pentameter!"
'Shut up...'
x
x
July 6th:
The first light of day hit her face, and Anko moaned. Turning over, she sensed, despite her head-splitting headache, that she was not in her own bed. Hers was a futon, but her arm was hanging down from the bed. She opened her eyes a little, before the agony of the light caused her to firmly shut them again. It was all she needed, though: she knew now that she was in the hospital. 'What happened yesterday? What happened? How much did I drink?'
Keeping her eyes closed she touched the clothes she was wearing. 'What happened to by jacket, and my other clothes? Am I wearing hospital dress? I don't remember it being so uncomfortable, has their funding been reduced?'
She was interrupted by the sound of footsteps pounding into her ears, and of a squeaking wheel that seemed to tear into them. At last the squeaking stopped and the door opened. Someone stepped in. "Are you alright, Anko-san?" asked a woman's voice.
She sat up, shielding her eyes with her hand. She suddenly realised that her stomach, in fact her entire abdomen, ached, and she thought she could almost hear her gastric fluid sloshing about. She burped. She also realised how much she stank, and how dry her mouth felt.
A glass of water was pressed into her other hand. "Drink up, Anko-san," the nurse said, "you need to get yourself rehydrated."
She chugged the drink down, and then did so again several times as the nurse refilled the glass.
After a while, the nurse asked, "Are you alright, now, Anko-san?"
"Yes... yes I'm fine."
"Was it a good night? The boy who brought you in seemed so sweet, if a bit young. It seemed as if you were dressed in his clothes, since all he had was a towel and yours seemed too small for you--"
"What?" Anko butted in. She looked down at her arms to see that she was wearing what seemed to be a black yukata made of some coarse material. Realisation hit her: 'This is Akki's yukata! Why am I wearing this? What happened? I was at some sort of party, or something, I think. Someone had died? Why the party then? Oh, yes! Asuma's team had all died! ... Did I really ask Asuma to dance?' The staring faces of the other jounin flowed into her mind, and she shuddered. Even she would not go that far when sober... but she had not been sober. 'Then I went to the springs and... I can't remember. Akki was there, I think. What the fuck happened?'
By this time, the nurse was looking at her with a bit of concern, and waved her hand in front of Anko's face. Anko looked up and stared at her. 'Something's not quite right here...' "You aren't from around here, are you?"
Puzzled, the nurse answered, "Well, no, I just arrived a few days ago. I am a trainee. Why do you ask?"
Leaning back, Anko chuckled a bit to herself. "New to Konoha, huh? Have you heard the story of the demon-kid? The bakemono?"
"Huh? Oh yes. Outrageous isn't it, suffering such a vile creature to live in the place it damaged so badly...? I wonder what the Hokage is thinking..."
"Well, it seems you just met him."
"What!? Are you saying that boy is the one? The one killed those three clan heirs that we heard of yesterday?"
"Eh, what? He didn't kill them, it was one of the other examinees."
"Oh? How do you know? Everyone else says otherwise."
"Ishould know, I was the examiner!"
"Oh, sumimasen..."
"Forget it."
x
x
"Stop staring at me like that, thicko!" Shinji shouted at him.
He blinked. "What are you talking about, Shinji?" He looked into Shinji's eyes again, trying desperately to discern what had riled his new friend so.
"You are doing it again!"
"Doing what?"
"Looking at me strangely!"
"Looking at you strangely?"
"Stop it!"
"But I'm not doing anything. Stop being silly, it makes you look like an idiot."
A fist flew into his face from his right, accompanied by Kenshin's voice: "Don't call Shinji an idiot, you idiot!"
"I didn't! I just said he looked like one--"
He was interrupted again, this time by the fists of Shinji and Kisuke, and then their kicks. This would have continued, but the others were suddenly picked up by their parents, who did not look thrilled. Kisuke's father passed Kisuke to Shinji's father and knelt down in front of him and pulled him up. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"Hai." Naruto replied. Suddenly, the man's face turned into one of astonishment. "Nani?" Naruto asked.
"Your face... it's already healed..."
The alarm went off. 'Blech...' He smacked the top of the clock, shutting off the sound. 'Why is the alarm on? I have my next month off...' He tried to get back to sleep, but to no avail. 'Damn it,' he thought, looking at the clock, 'It is going to be an age until noon. What am I to do in the meantime?' His eyes fell on a brown bundle on his windowsill. 'Great.'
x
He walked up the corridor of the hospital until he found the right room. He knocked. There was a grunt on the other side, and then of someone hastily spitting out some liquid into a sink. "Come in!" said Anko.
He pushed the door open to see Anko brushing her teeth, not facing him. "Ohayou gozaimasu."
She spun around, dribbling toothpaste onto the yukata, and then choked on it.
"Speak poetically, idiot!"
'What, that was perfectly fine! It rhymed, well, almost.'
"No, it didn't."
"What the hell are you doing here?!" Anko shouted across the room.
Akki pointed to the bundle under his arm and said, "I just brought you your clothes, that is all, Mitarashi-sama."
"Oi!"
'Forget it, the game is too silly. You will have to think of something else.'
"Damn you!"
Anko stared at him for a while. He used the opportunity to dump the bundle onto the bed and was about to turn to go when Anko spoke: "It is Anko, brat."
"Moushiwake arimasen, Anko-sama."
"Why did you have my clothes?"
"You were unconscious."
"I know that. What happened before I fell unconscious?"
'Brilliant, she doesn't remember.' He sighed. "You were drunk--"
"I know that."
Akki told her exactly what happened, over her increasingly loud chuckling, and then waited for her to stop. When she did, he said "Are you satisfied, Anko-sama?"
She grinned at him in the way that really worried her subordinates on the exam board, and said, "So, 'are you prepared to pay the penalty' A-kun?"
"What are you talking about?" 'A-kun? Why so familiar? What is going on here?'
"She's coming on to you--"
'Don't be ridiculous.'
She grinned again and picked a kunai out from her pouch, which was on the bed. She tossed it at his head at what she judged to be a low speed. The boy did not move, and the knife sliced through his face, horrifying Anko, until it came to a rest and he disappeared in a puff of smoke. It had been a clone.
She stared at the place where the kunai had dropped. She was sure that no jutsu was cast, so he had sent a clone along and not come along himself, which was generally considered extremely bad practice, rude in fact. She eventually stopped staring and shook her head and smiled to herself. 'He is a little bit like how I used to be...' She thought for a moment. 'Well, perhaps a very little. Maybe?' She rested her head on her hand and let the smile slip off her face. She briefly felt a pang, as if she was hungry, but it was higher up, in her chest. She sighed. 'Mayhap a very very little...'
Lying against the ceiling of the corridor outside the room, Naruto carefully released his breath. 'That proves it, you are being ridiculous. She is simply a lunatic.'
x
She sat on the ground in front of the fire, next to her sensei. They had been sent together, alone, on a mission for reasons that escaped her. She had finally, after hours of probing, managed to get Kakashi-sensei to open up to her, and he was just now telling her all about his past in full detail, though for some reason she couldn't seem to quite catch it. Eventually she embraced him as he sobbed on her shoulder. She rested her head in his hair, which seemed to smell of... Dogs?
Suddenly, his hair seemed to transform into a blonde shock, but when she blinked it reverted to how it had been before. 'Eh?'
She turned over as she heard a branch-house member knock on her door and tell her to wake up. She had spent hours the night before looking through all those files, and had been very late getting to sleep. When the knock recommenced, she moaned at the man to go away.
x
She looked through the shelves in the west wing of the mansion until she finally found her target: a book entitled 'The Broken Mirror: A Brief Introduction In Understanding The Body Language Of Individuals With Social, Developmental And Other Psychological Disorders.' It was old, from the style of its binding, but in very good condition. She surmised that its primary use must have been for assassinations of people known to have such disorders, which would be rare indeed. After all, most of the time it was unnecessary to understand the target's emotions, and the times when it was necessary was usually for heavily guarded, or personally powerful, people, reducing the incidence even more. It was also rather thick, strangely for a 'Brief Introduction', which tended to barely be above a hundred pages in length.
She opened it and skipped a few pages until she came to the table of contents. 'About the author, preface, acknowledgements, dedication, notes on the text... Introduction, then... a section on overactive or exaggerated expression? I can ignore all those. Active face and inactive body? Ano... Inactive face and active body. I don't think so... Understated or infrequent expression? Autistic spectrum disorders... The file mentioned autism didn't it?'
"Hinata."
She froze. She slowly turned around to face her father, hiding the book behind her back. "H-Hai?"
"What are you doing?"
She paled to a paler pale than previously and seemed to buckle slightly under the pressure of his gaze. "B-Betsuni(nothing)..."
He stepped up to her until she was staring into his abdomen. She looked up at him and said, "N-Nani?"
He grabbed her arm: the one that reached behind her. It seemed to go limp with shock and the book dropped to the floor. He leant over to pick it up, while she stayed stock still. Straightening himself, he scanned the book's title before looking at her enquiringly. "You have a mission?" he asked, staring at her face. Her eyes widened a little before her eyelids settled back to her previous position. "You don't have a mission," he said, and he opened the book.
They stood there for a few minutes as he scrutinised the contents page. It seemed as if he was looking for any small indication he could find, even fingerprints. At last, he looked back at her again. "You have met an autistic individual?" Her eyes widened again, though, this time, the effect was more pronounced and lasted a little longer. He quirked his brow in response and said, "I see... It seems you may possess a mite of talent after all, however insufficient it may be." He was rewarded with a bitten down gasp partly through his sentence.
He turned and walked towards the door, but stopped just before it and turned his head back to his daughter, who had not moved, and said, "I should remind you, however, that one of the duties of a Hyuuga clan heir is not to put itself into unnecessary danger." He then placed the book on a table by the door.
He left. She breathed again.
A few moments later, she slowly made her way to the door and then back to her own room, in order to give herself at least an illusion of privacy in a place where everyone can see through walls.
Having flopped down onto her bed, she realised that she had forgotten the book. She stood back up again and walked back down the corridor towards the library. As she picked the book up from the table she played back to herself the last words Hiashi had said. 'Unnecessary danger? What does he mean by that? Are autistic people inherently more violent, or more likely to be violent, than people without the condition? Or does he mean...? Does he know...? Does he know that Naruto has been suspected of being autistic, or does he suspect that himself? Why would he say that, though, when he was the first person to explicitly tell me that he was not a demon?'
As she walked down the corridor back to her room an idea sifted into her consciousness. 'Possibly he means that those that have been mistreated in the past are in general more violent than average and, since Naruto fits that criterion, I might be in danger from him?' She then thought back to her experience the previous day reading through the files: 'Or... maybe... he means that, even though he is not demonic, he could be influenced by the Kyuubi's presence in some way?'
She closed her door, sat down on the bed and opened the book, and then leafed through until she got to the section on autism and began to read. 'Autism and related disorders not only impair the ability of the sufferers to correctly interpret body language and facial expressions (in the case of the former, its existence is often totally unnoticed), but also causes limited, near absent or simply abnormal expression in both cases, commonly with body language largely unused and facial expression limited. It should be kept in mind that the characteristics of autistics are open to much variation, so how one behaves can be widely at odds to another. With that in mind, this part of the book will deal with examples of deciphering their body language with a view to helping the reader do the same. But first, a few things you will need to know first...'
x
x
x
A/N: Again sorry for the delay. It really does not look much for several months' work, does it? Well, I hope you enjoyed it anyway. Hopefully the next one will arrive soon.
Thank you for the continuing reviews, they really do make it easier to motivate myself.
Jutsu list:
Kuchiyose no jutsu: Summoning technique
Kage bunshin no jutsu: Shadow Clone/Replication technique
Kawarimi no jutsu: Replacement technique
Gikochinai no jutsu: Stiffness technique
Hebi-hyouhi no jutsu: Snake skin technique
Sen'eijashu: Hidden shadow snake hands
Bunshin no jutsu: Clone/Replication technique
Jutsu shou: Technique neutralisation (Sarutobi used this in his fight against Orochimaru, against the third Edo Tensei)
Bunshin daibakuha no jutsu: Clone great explosion technique
Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu: Fire style: Great Fireball technique
Ninpou: Kirigakure no jutsu: Ninja art: Hidden in the mist technique
Fuuton: Daitoppa: Wind style: Great breakthrough
Chikiri no jutsu: Blood mist technique
Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu: Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique
Shunshin no jutsu: Body flicker technique
Shiki Fujin: Dead Demon Consuming Seal, the seal that holds Kyubi within Naruto's body.
Raikiri: Lightning Edge
Hiru Banshou: Bouka no Jutsu: Leech All Creation: Attack Prevention Technique
Translations:
Moushiwake arimasen is a very formal way of apologising.
Doumo arigatou gozaimashita is a very formal way of expressing thanks for a deed that has finished.
Gomen is a very informal way of apologising.
Ohayou gozaimasu is a polite way of saying 'good morning', as opposed to the more informal 'Ohayou'.
Aishiteru: close to 'I love you'.
Onsen: 'hot spring'
Betsuni: 'nothing'