Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

Something moved to her left.

Aya's left hand pressed against her leg, fingers automatically wrapping around the smooth metal of the chain whip holstered there...and then releasing. Just a softfoot fetching wood for his fire from one of the communal stacks distributed around the camp.

The piles were massive, ten to fifteen feet high and wide enough to be stable, with tarps draped casually over them to keep rain or snow off. Some of the components were huge tree limbs, or even ratty-ended cross sections of trunk. They hadn't been cut with an axe, or anything as clean as a wind jutsu, so she was at a bit of a loss as to how they'd been sectioned in the first place.

A massive explosion split the air, sending her leaping back twenty feet, her whips flying into her hands seemingly of their own volition and starting to spin in a protective pattern around herself. Whatever was coming, she wouldn't—

The whips slowed as she saw that everyone, even the softfeet, was staring at her in mild curiosity and not reacting to the explosions—plural, because there went another one—at all.

"Apologies, ma'am," said the young Academy student who had been escorting her. The little brat was grinning, obviously amused at the success of his trick. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She'd let him see how fast she could move, what her default protective reactions were. One more piece of information leaked, one more weakness.

"I should have checked the schedule," he continued. "I didn't realize they were cutting right now."

She frowned, allowing the whips to come to a halt, the chains and blades dropping smoothly into her hands. "Cutting?"

"Yeah, take a look." He turned and wandered off towards the nearest pile of firewood, waving for her to follow.

She dropped the whips into their holsters, making sure that the handles were correctly positioned for rapid retrieval, then wrapped Ichika around herself again and followed after him.

They circled the stack of firewood to find a bizarre sight: Another Academy student, this one perhaps seven, carefully positioning a twenty-foot wrist-thick tree branch and wrapping an explosive tag around it about three feet down from one end.

"Kimmi," her student said, exasperated. "You're not supposed to be using tags on your own."

The girl stuck her tongue out at him. "Kagome-sensei said it was okay."

"No he didn't! You total liar!"

"He did too!"

Aya cleared her throat. "What are you doing?" she asked, hunching her shoulders to seem weaker and angling her body slightly in order to minimize her profile in case of attack.

The girl, Kimmi apparently, seemed to notice Aya for the first time. She braced to attention and saluted. "Ma'am, I'm chopping wood for the fires, ma'am!"

Aya blinked. How would Ichika have handled this situation? She'd never actually seen her old friend deal with children, but...well, when in doubt, stay in character. She'd already leaked enough information to the boy.

"That's very impressive," she said with a gentle smile. "I've never seen anyone chop wood with explosives before." After a moment she remembered to return the salute so that the girl could relax.

Relax she did, and her face promptly split in a massive grin. "I know, right? It's way easier! Kagome-sensei is so smart."

'Kagome-sensei'. Presumably a senior ninja. No, wait, that was the one that Lord Jiraiya had adopted as his cousin. The one who had been tortured until his mind broke.

"In what way is Kagome-sensei so smart?" she asked. If these kids were anything like the Academy students she'd studied beside, they would leak information like a sieve.

"He says that explosives solve everything!" the girl chirped. "He's right, too."

"You're still not supposed to be using tags without a grownup," her guide said, folding his arms and tapping one toe in what he clearly thought was an intimidating fashion.

Apparently it was good enough when directed at younger children; the girl tried to match his stare but gave up after a couple of seconds. Aya mentally gave the girl a nod of approval; submissiveness was a good attitude to take. No one thought submissive girls were a threat, so they were much less likely to try to kill you.

Which didn't rule out other unpleasant options, but at least they wouldn't kill you.

"Fine," the girl grumbled. "I'll go ask Kagome-sensei."

"He's busy," the boy said, a completely expected amount of supercilious disdain in his voice. He had established dominance and was enjoying it. "Captain Atomu is on duty; ask him to assign someone."

The girl glared at him for a moment, completely destroying the value of the persona she had established, and then stomped off.

"Hey! Don't leave your tags sitting in the wet!" the boy shouted.

The girl spun around; her eyes widened and she zipped back to where she had been, scooping a belt pouch off the ground and tying it back to her belt.

"I, um, I didn't...don't tell Kagome-sensei?"

The boy grinned. "Tell him what?" Whatever the words said, the tone suggested that the girl would never hear the end of it.

The girl eyed him for a moment, then turned and jogged away.

"This way, ma'am," the boy said.

Aya followed after, docile and compliant.

"You use explosives to chop firewood?"

"Uh-huh. Way easier than an axe. Faster, too. Kagome-sensei has these nifty ones that you can hold in your hand; those are the best for chopping wood, but he won't let us use them because he's afraid we'll blow our fingers off. Still, the regular ones work just fine."

She nodded, making notes in her head.

"This seems like a very pleasant place," she said, automatically pitching her voice Ichika-quiet and not framing it as a question. "Even the softfeet look well-fed."

"You shouldn't use that word with M'Lord, ma'am. He doesn't like it."

"What word?"

"'Softfoot', ma'am. M'Lord says that everyone is a person and should be treated good and it don't matter how much chakra you have or even if you're a ninja or not."

She considered that. "I see."

He leaned in close and whispered conspiratorially. "I dunno about it, though. Ever since I started going to the Academy, Mum always makes me berry pies when I tell her to, so I think maybe it does matter."

Aya nodded thoughtfully but couldn't think of anything to say in response. Lord Gōketsu sounded very strange, and she couldn't help wondering why he had sent for her. Reflexively, she checked around herself to make sure that she still knew the best routes out of the camp if it became necessary.

The boy glanced up at the sun. "Oops, we should go, ma'am! We'll be late if we don't hurry." He shifted up into a fast jog, aiming for the big stone building on the far side of the camp. She followed along wordlessly, studying the thing as they approached; large, seamless and therefore presumably constructed with jutsu. Most of the windows were a little crooked, not perfect rectangles, and covered over with waxed paper that would have been translucent at best. There must have been a monumental amount of effort put into this, with multiple ninja using whatever the jutsu was over and over for several days. It was squat, square(ish), and loomed like a red-granite monolith to the ego of a teenage Clan Head.

Hm. It could be a monument to ego, or it could be a symbol of fear and defensiveness. Wasn't he a former missing-nin? It would make a difference; if he was egotistical then flattery was the way to go but if he was paranoid then flattery might be seen as an attempt to get close to him, and therefore make him angry.

Her ruminations carried her halfway to the building...which turned out to not be their destination.

"Here you go, ma'am," the boy said, stopping in front of a massive tent and gesturing her to a camp chair in front of its firepit. "Would you like something to eat or drink? Lady Akane left me with a whole stack of seals full of stuff." He reached into a pocket and produced a fistful of paper, then began leafing through it. "Lessee...I've got hot cider, hot lemon tea, hot berry tea, hot black tea, hot milk, bread and cheese, six different kinds of salami—"

"Nothing for me," Aya said quickly. "It's very kind of you, though." She had learned the lesson about accepting drinks from unknown men when she was nine. Granted, Matron's new boyfriend hadn't been exactly unknown, but the principle still applied. "Feel free to have something yourself."

The boy's face lit up. "Oh, thank you ma'am!" He popped a plate of orangish chicken stew out of one of the seals and plopped down before starting to stuff his face.

Aya palmed a chain whip into her left hand and then sat down carefully. The memory of Ichika reminded her to arrange the folds of her jacket just so. Fussing about your clothes made people dismiss you as stupid and vain.

Lord Gōketsu kept her waiting just long enough to establish dominance and then came jogging in from the direction of the city. Her heart sank when she saw him; younger than her but good-looking, with muscled arms and a chiseled jawline that reminded her too much of Fujimori. Worse, the way he moved and the callouses on his hands said that he was a hard-style taijutsu fighter. That usually meant aggressive and dominant.

She came to her feet and bowed deeply as he approached. "Lord Gōketsu."

"Kayano, thank you for coming," he said, smiling and gesturing towards the tent. "Please, won't you come inside?"

She nodded politely, forcing her shoulders not to tense as she followed him into the tent. The tent was large but still didn't have enough room to swing her whips at maximum extension when they tried to capture her. She'd need to choke up a lot, robbing her of range and force.

"Please, take a seat," he said, waving her to a camp chair in front of a beat-up wooden desk piled high with papers. He dropped into one on the other side and pulled a dossier towards himself. Carefully, she sank into the chair. It put her back to the door, which made her skin crawl. Her left hand tightened around the smooth metal of her chain whip's handle until her knuckles were white, but she forced herself to do as she'd been ordered.

"Thanks for coming," he said, flipping the dossier open. "I don't want to waste your time, so I'll get right to the point: The Gōketsu are interested in growing our numbers, so we're looking for ninja who might want to either move onto the property or be adopted into the clan."

He raised a finger in emphasis. "To be clear, we aren't at the stage of making an actual adoption offer to anyone yet. Clan Council rules mean that we can only adopt one ninja this year, although we're trying to get that limit increased or find a way around it. That said, there are only three ninja in Leaf that we're even considering making an offer to, and you're one of them. I wanted to find out if you're open to the possibility. If you are then we can talk more, and if not then you're still welcome to live on the property."

The tension in her shoulders increased. She spread Ichika's most vapid smile across her face and sat up straight. "That's very kind of you, My Lord. If I may ask, where would I be staying?"

He gestured towards where the big granite building was not visible through the wall of the tent. "You can see that we've got quarters going up. They'll be pretty comfortable once they're fully built but you might end up in a tent for a week or so until there's space.

"We've got pretty decent amenities, especially considering how new we are. There's good food and drinks available whenever you want; we have communal kitchens open through the day and whatever's left after that gets put into storage scrolls. You're welcome to take as many as you like whenever you feel nibbly. Some of the civilian women run a maid service which you're welcome to sign up for.

"There's a medical clinic going up, as well as a school. We encourage people to share jutsu and training tips—"

Ah, there it was. They wanted her techniques.

"—although it's obviously not required. We supply explosive tags and storage seals in large numbers, no charge. Whether you decide you want to join the clan or not, you're welcome to stay here as long as you want, no rent."

He paused, looking slightly uncomfortable. "I'm not sure if you've had any reason to investigate the tax code...?"

What kind of idiot didn't know the rules about her money being taken away?

"No, My Lord," she said, eyes wide. "I've never really thought about it. Service is our duty to the Will of Fire and the Hokage and the taxes help make that possible."

For some reason that seemed to discomfit him. He eyed her carefully, saying nothing. Aya found herself getting nervous; could he see through her mask? Was Ichika's ghost not strong enough to keep him from Aya's secrets?

When he continued to say nothing she decided it was time to deploy Ichika's final technique: the attentive bounce. She sat up extra straight, took an excited (and somewhat unnecessarily deep) breath, and made her eyes extra wide and smile extra super duper vapid.

"Could you explain it to me, My Lord? Just...please go slow? It always seemed so complicated."

Gōketsu studied her for a moment longer, then sighed. "The tax system isn't kind to clanless ninja. Clan Heads get paid a stipend each month for each ninja in their clan, which they can choose to pass on to the individual ninja. Also, mission taxes on clan ninja get refunded. Now, if you aren't a member of the Gōketsu then I obviously don't get paid the stipend or get the tax refund for you, so I couldn't help you on that front. Nope. No way could I do anything about this problem."

He paused, just long enough to make for a plausible topic shift. "Out of curiosity, do you play dice? Because every month I play dice with the clanless ninja who live on the estate. Turns out I have terrible luck; I always lose. Each of them walks out with the equivalent of a full month's stipend, sometimes more!" He shook his head. "I really should stop gambling, but I just can't help myself."

So, that was his game. Get the KEI ninja in, pay them regularly so they were dependent. Of course, His Lordship wouldn't offer anything permanent, nothing that could be contested. He could dangle it over them as much as he wanted, get them to do anything. And once the word got around that you were now his retainer the other clans would be reluctant to work with or associate with you, fearing that anything they said in your presence would go straight to the Gōketsu.

"Gosh, it's awful that you have such bad luck, My Lord! I hope it changes." This was it. This was where he would grab her. She kept her eyes on him (it wouldn't do for him to notice that she'd sussed him out) but mentally started reviewing the layout of the area. Her best option was probably to cut through the wall of the tent on her left, then duck behind the next tent to break line of sight. Set a proximity-fused Wind Bomb to cover her escape, then Storm Leap away.

"Uh...right." He considered her for a moment, frowning, then shook it off. "Anyway, I just wanted to lay all that out for you. Why don't you take a day or two to think about it and then get back to me, okay? If you're interested in joining the clan then we can talk about it some more."

Wait, he was letting her go?

"Gosh, thank you, My Lord! That's so nice of you!"

She surged to her feet and jumped in the air, kicking her feet up and clapping her hands.

"Gōketsu is the best! Gōketsu is the best! Thank you, My Lord! Thank you!"

She bowed repeatedly as she backed out of the tent. As soon as the flap was closed she started for the gate of the Gōketsu estate at the fastest speed that would fit into Ichika's skin.