- Location
- Oceanside
According to the only source I could find which directly uses "Uemon", it actually refers to a fuedal title.
Snapping Turtle [Naruto SI]
- Thread starter Chairtastic
- Start date
According to the only source I could find which directly uses "Uemon", it actually refers to a fuedal title.
QuietlyObserving
The Railgun That Walks Like a Bear
- Location
- Here.
I think the word precede might work better here.
Man, they handed Hiruzen a pretty nice stick with that, too. Danzo's reputation as untrustworthy is a good lever for negotiations.
Chairtastic
Anything's a chair if you're brave enough
- Location
- Breakfast nook
- Pronouns
- He / Him / It
I fixed that back at 5am!
And it will only get worse in war. A known backstabber makes allies think twice before working with you.
Ch 30
Chairtastic
Anything's a chair if you're brave enough
- Location
- Breakfast nook
- Pronouns
- He / Him / It
Ch 30: Nightmare Slain
---
Isobu
Isobu felt an intruder in the midst of his dominion, and woke from his sleep. There, on the hook of his seal, he saw a red-headed figure, distant. Kurama was still asleep, so Isobu had to send his host to meet her and invite her in.
"Well met," he greeted her and shook bubbles free of his massive body. "I am Isobu -- three-tails, spirit of the sea."
He watched the girl -- Kurama's jinchuuriki -- first struggle with the idea of being underwater without need of air, and then with his sheer size. For some reason, humans were a lot more afraid of large aquatic creatures than land or airborne ones.
Isobu waited for her to speak -- he knew she would have something to say to him, and he wanted her to find closure for her emotional injury.
"You… were there," Kushina said, and glanced at Noburu. "I remember seeing you. You rampaged at Uzushio when they destroyed the village."
The waters around Isobu spun with a sudden current of memory. "Yes," he admitted. "A Uzushio seal-master broke that which bound me to my jinchuuriki. I was free."
"You… did a lot of damage to the village when you did. But if you hadn't made those huge waves…." Kushina visibly struggled with the memory, she was too young for such feelings -- but the world was cruel. "If you hadn't made those waves -- the fires would have killed us all."
She had a point she was working towards making. Noburu and Isobu both had the patience to wait for her to reach it.
"So… I guess, thank you. For helping us by smashing our village with a tidal wave." She was so bitter about that, Isobu wanted to offer comfort. But that was not his part to play in the scene. "You're… the spirit of the sea, yeah?" When Isobu nodded, enough to generate a current itself, Kushina continued. "What… happened to them? Are they haunting the village?"
Isobu knew, from Noburu's gaze, that the girl was in no mood for the truth. That he didn't know what happened to them. But a comforting lie would let the girl recover a little bit faster, and could be the difference between a healthy mind and a diseased one.
"...As the steward of the seas, in the absence of the gods, it was my duty to ferry their souls into the ocean. Some may choose to be reborn as ocean currents, fish, whales, other life forms. Or they can move on to the final rest, if that is their preference." Isobu leaned down to look at the girl with his one open eye. "One of them chose to be reborn as a creature so small, it can see in between grains of sand. That's all I recall before they sealed me again."
The girl, at first afraid that Isobu had drawn so close, smiled a little as he humanized the lie a bit. "I… think I know who that was." She looked at Isobu, and it was like she really saw him for the first time. "You're… not as scary as the fox."
"Kurama is angry all the time. They are the spirit of justice," Isobu quickly held a hand up to his spikey jaw as if to hide his lip motions from spies, "but I do not advise you to call them that. Justice requires them to be angry frequently."
Kushina's hand drifted down to her stomach. "Justice…?"
Isobu nodded. "The pursuit of justice will express Kurama through you -- and perhaps calm their anger enough to where they are not made to sleep at all times." He glanced at Noburu. "Speaking of which -- shall I send you off to practice with Mito?"
The turtle spirit watched them drift away into the limbo between the bijuu's domains, and settled down to rest as well. From the movements of Noburu's thoughts, he had an idea of what sort of melancholy music they would teach to Kushina.
The words echoed down to Isobu's domain as he actively listened.
--
"Leaves from the vine, falling so slow
Like fragile, tiny shells -- drifting in the foam.
Little soldier boy, come marching home.
Brave soldier boy, comes marching home."
--
Genin Aburame
"Sensei," Shibi said and bowed to his teacher after their morning exercise. "I have conducted extensive reconnaissance on all the genin in Otogakure. It is my professional belief that most of them are more combat-ready than Konoha's genin, but they are not properly motivated to make use of it." He rose from his bow while Kushina and Hizashi rested from their sparring match. "Does your engagement order stand, or is this intel sufficient?"
Orochimaru-sensei had been Shibi's sparring partner. His lack of chakra didn't stop his skill at martial arts, so he taught them taijutsu. The Sannin relaxed from his fighting stance and considered the genin. "I suppose that is sufficient. It's taken you a lot of work to gather that information without anyone noticing bugs in winter -- I imagine."
Relief flooded Shibi before he got control of it. His insects were already at risk with the cold -- but his teammates had decided to go after the genin which included Orochimaru-sensei's nephew. The one which had remained unchallenged was perfectly suited to leave Shibi with nothing.
He hoped his teammates would understand. He didn't want them to think him a coward.
"Hizashi," Orochimaru-sensei said to break the silence. "Noburu has asked to see you. He said he had the first draft done for you -- whatever the secret project of yours is."
The Hyuga bowed and stood resolute in the face of his sensei's obvious prodding. "I will show it off when I have honed it to perfection, sensei. A totally new taijutsu style, using wind release."
That got Kushina and Shibi's eyebrows to rise.
"I can't wait to see it," Orochimaru-sensei said with a smile.
The Hyuga nodded, and ran off.
"Kushina -- you said you wanted to practice more taijutsu?" Orochimaru-sensei gestured that she and Shibi should move apart when she confirmed it. "We're going to work on kunai forms now. One kunai each, and assume the guard position…."
They trained like that for close to an hour, kunai only. In that time Shibi learned that Kushina preferred to lead with a stab in her rotation, which could be easily exploited. He could catch her kunai in the ring pommel of his own and force her stab to go wide, or he could side-step and get in position for a counter. He tended to favor slashes, which took a lot more windup and more space, so Kushina had several chances to counter when Shibi was the one on the offensive.
"Hmm," Orochimaru said and pinched his chin. "I might need to invest in getting the two of you blunted kunai for training. So that you can go partial contact during these training sessions." He looked at them consideringly. "It's good that the two of you stopped before you hurt each other, though. Training is concluded for now."
The students bowed. Kushina immediately bounded off in the direction of their audience -- Shizune, Tsunade's student. The two girls had hit it off right away despite the age difference. In short order, they'd run off in the direction of the tent city. That left Shibi alone.
"Shibi," Orochimaru-sensei said as he approached his student. "There is going to be a lot of work in the village today with summons -- one group that the Oto ninja are summoning are ant summons."
Shibi tensed, his hair stood on end. His insects grew agitated at the mere mention of the ant summons.
"I understand the Aburame have a bit of a history with the ninja ants, so it might be best if you stay on the ship or stay away from the construction site today." Orochimaru patted Shibi on the head, perhaps to try and calm the boy down as his bugs were bracing for the possible ant attack. "I'll make sure their summoner knows to keep them under control." Orochimaru stopped for a moment, then looked aside with a bead of sweat on his brow. "That… reminds me, I need to warn Kushina and Shizune about the rabbits."
Shibi wandered to the north, after Orochimaru-sensei went off in pursuit of the girls. The mangrove forests of Wave were beautiful, even in the winter. The snowfall never got severe in Wave, as it did in Fire Country -- though there were blizzard concerns with the tent city.
He walked through the forest, until he came to the opening of the sound where he found a clearing that had been made by a meteor possibly years ago. There was a crater with a semi-sphereical rock, dead trees, and relatively few signs of animal life. But the snow had fallen onto everything, and there were tracks of birds left behind. Clearly, it was old enough for them to not feel in danger.
At the edge of the clearing, looking to the west, Shibi saw a short elderly woman dressed in the Kirigakure fashion of pinstriped wool arm and legwarmers with a kimono over the top. She had a scroll that hung from her back and a closed umbrella in her hand.
"Konoha ninja," she said without turning to face him. "Out on a walk?"
"This is a beautiful country," Shibi answered. He looked back to the forest. The cold had taken away the mists which had given the mangroves a haunting look when they first arrived. "In Konoha the pines are too tall for this kind of beauty."
"Good for you, child. Going out and seeing the world." The woman expanded her umbrella and raised it to rest on her shoulder. "I hope you can see what once Water Country, and appreciate its beauty before it's all swept away."
Snow began to fall, as Shibi walked up slightly behind the woman. "Swept away?"
She didn't answer right away, just spun her umbrella as the snow fell. "It wasn't supposed to snow today."
Confused, Shibi arched a brow. "The weather can be tricky to predict."
"Hmm. So much for being coy." She turned slightly to Shibi , her umbrella partially blocked his view. "Do you know what today is?" When Shibi didn't answer, she continued. "Today is the marriage of two daimyo, and the first day of the existence of Soup Country. And snow is white." She extended her hand and caught some of the snow in her palm. It was grey.
"Oh," Shibi said as he realized what that was. "Ashes."
The old woman nodded, and pointed across the sea. Shibi looked, and saw what had appeared to be a distant thundercloud -- but in reality it was smoke. A pillar of smoke so tall that it reached up to where they could see it all the way from Wave. Across the sea, Kirigakure was burning.
"Ashes. Of a home that was awful at times, a prison sometimes, and a place I would never choose to live again," said the old woman. "But home nonetheless. Appreciate your home, child. You may yet live to see it burn."
--
"Ash in the snow, falling so slow.
Like many broken hearts, with no place to go.
Frail soldier boy, taken from home.
Forced to fight a war, which was not his own.
Frail solder boy, cold and alone.
Poor soldier boy, never made it home."
--
Mercenary-nin Kanzaki
There was a lot of tension in the capital of Swamp Country after an entire ninja clan -- hauling goodies and wealth that many noted had passed through the city under different owners before -- entered and asked to purchase a ship.
That tension continued well onto the ship itself and out to sea. The Uemons were a strange people who had bizarre customs from Sayaka's perspective, while her lack of any equivalents seemed to genuinely frighten them. The Uemon would pray silently before a meal, and one member of each family was asked to forgo the meal and strike chimes with small padded mallets. Near as she could tell, they believed that the gods could only hear their prayers if accompanied by music. The chime strikers would eat afterward, where the chimes were struck by another volunteer.
The fact that Sayaka didn't pray at all, with or without accompaniment, made them seem wary of her. Most of the time, Sayaka stayed in her cabin and practiced chakra control by walking along the ceiling on her toes. Literally, on her toes.
Kimiko remained mostly in the same spot -- in the burnt orange wig which had been provided to Sayaka. It was actually quite warm, and matched her coat.
It wasn't until they passed through the islands of Water Country that Sayaka began to go out onto the deck. She watched as Fujioka Castle passed by on the coast of the big island, like a ghost of her past. More than one of the Uemon on the ship noticed her longing for the place, and Kokoro even came by to ask about it.
"Me and my friends helped get that castle up and running. And it's where I made a stupid mistake," Sayaka answered, and indicated she didn't want to talk anymore about it. She didn't know if Noburu would forgive her for the part she played in him being made a missing-ninja. It didn't matter much since Kiri was dissolved, but perhaps he held some grudge over it. And if Noburu didn't, then Raiga-sensei likely did, since she'd undermined him in front of his subordinates.
She imagined that they'd all spent their days talking about how much they were glad she was gone, until Kimiko bit her.
"Don't let your anxiety talk you out of going back to your friends," the chameleon said and promptly bit her again. "Sorry. Humans are tasty."
Sayaka narrowed her eyes at Kimiko. "You're going to just straight up eat people when you finish growing up, huh?"
The chameleon's eyes focused on Sayaka, and she bit her again.
"Knock it off -- you can't eat me, I'm your summoner."
"Right, right, sorry."
The confidence boost from the chameleon saw Sayaka through until the next sight on the big island before they crossed the Kaizoku. Kirigakure.
There was a blockade of former rebel forces in the waters around Kiri. A picket ship approached their glorified cargo freighter and demanded to speak to them. Sayaka was hidden away in her room while that happened, but Kimiko and her looked through the porthole in their room. Ninja training let her hear what was being talked about.
The formerly rebel forces were keeping any new ships from landing in Kiri to deliver food or evacuate residents. The window for them to leave had been closed, and they were doomed to be routed when the daimyo gave the order. Sayaka could only see people gathered at the Kiri docks, waving at the distant ships.
Kimiko was quiet as she looked at them. She ignored Sayaka every time she asked what her better vision saw.
"You don't want to know," Kimiko said, soft. "You don't… want to know."
Sayaka pointed out the landmarks she could make out from so far away -- the Mizukage's tower, the estates of the eyes caste nobles, the Academy, the home guard tower, and where she had lived prior to… everything. It was a somber experience, as with each landmark she recognized, she knew she'd never see it again.
After the picket ship left, the cargo ship started out away from the main island toward Wave. The big island wasn't even out of sight before a cloud of smoke started to rise up to the heavens. When Sayaka looked over the stern to see, there was a line of orange and red just at the horizon to indicate a fire.
Kirigakure was burning.
--
"Leaves on the vine, growing so slow.
Like countless fallen souls, looking for a home.
Clever soldier boy, thought he could soar.
Foolish soldier boy, fallen in the war.
My little soldier boy, I need you home.
Brave soldier boy…"
--
Genin Fujimoto
The summons continued to work while several people passed out masks to keep people and animals alike from inhaling ash. It had mixed in with the snow, and made a slush which had to be swept away or it would endanger their work.
Since he was not part of the summoners or construction crew, Haruki stood on a high hill and watched the pillar of smoke that was Kirigakure across the ocean burn. That was it, then. His family was dead. Many families were dead, most likely. Kiri was dead too.
He stood there, and watched, for a long time before he felt someone stand next to him. When he checked, there was Raiga-sensei. "Hey," he told the boy with his hand on Haruki's shoulder. "It's okay to feel bad about this."
"I don't feel bad," Haruki said, confused even with himself. "I don't… feel anything about this. I'm supposed to feel something, right?"
Raiga examined his face, then squeezed his shoulder a bit. "That's okay too. Maybe it hasn't hit yet. Maybe it never will. Just… don't let people tell you your reaction is invalid for you." He looked at the pillar of smoke, then back to Haruki. "And there's still a chance that Sayaka will show up. She might have had to convince her mother about it, though."
Haruki's expression clearly conveyed his doubt. Sayaka hadn't shown up since Oto was announced. She'd either committed to stay, or she'd gone mercenary.
"...We're planning on a memorial stone, for everyone who died in the war and… that we suspect might have been in Kiri. So that they're not forgotten. Do you want me to add your family's names?"
Haruki shook his head, and looked up at his teacher again. "But… we should add Sayaka's."
They stood like that for a while before a paper airplane soared at them and hit Haruki right in the nose.
While Haruki rubbed his poor nose, the paper airplane poofed and revealed Noburu. "Oi," he said with annoyance. "Clone messenger service. We got a ship approaching from the direction of Soup Country. Big ol' cargo ship."
The clone promptly exploded, and left the two ninja to rush off toward the north. Raiga-sensei grabbed Junko and spread the word while Haruki focused on getting to the coast. He found Noburu and one of the Konoha genin on the shore, surrounded by rocks and trees with visible damage -- had they fought?
He could tell both had their Byakugan active, and aimed at the ship. Haruki joined in, with his sensor abilities -- on the off-chance that their eyes couldn't see far enough.
There were many strong chakra signatures on the boat -- almost none of them familiar.
Then he caught a flash of orange, and it startled him so much he snapped out of his sensor position. "Noburu -- "
"I'm double-checking," Noburu snapped, agitated. "I thought I saw her, but I won't get excited until I can say one hundred percent." The genin grinded his teeth. "Come on, just get a little closer…."
"Haruki, what is he talking about?" Raiga-sensei said as other ninja started to join them on the coast.
"Lots of chakra signatures on the boat," the former noble said and pointed at it. "It's got close to a hundred ninja on it. One of them felt almost exactly like -- "
"Sayaka!" Noburu suddenly shouted. Without waiting, he bolted out onto the water, with such speed that the sea rose up in a spray behind him. "Sayaka!"
Haruki put his boil release to work for physical labor for the first time, as he quickly steamed up and propelled himself off the shore to catch up to Noburu. "Sayaka!"
She'd come! Raiga-sensei was right! He was also right behind them, just a tad slower on acceleration. The three men shouted as loud as they could for their teammate. Junko raced alongside them, just as enthusiastic despite the lack of familiarity.
"Sayaka!" "Sayaka!" "Sayaka!"
An orange figure appeared on the bow of the ship as they raced closer. Once they'd grown close enough to see and hear, it jumped off the side of the ship and landed on the water, then raced at them.
She'd looked different from the last time he'd seen her. She had a lizard on her shoulder which wore a wig like a coat, she had a big scroll across her back, a few new scars on her face and arms.
Haruki didn't realize he'd been crying until he saw Sayaka was too. She was back, they were all together again! Kirigakure hadn't killed her too!
Sayaka spread her arms wide before they met, Haruki and Noburu both flying tackle hugged her while she locked her arms around them like a vice. While they hugged, Raiga-sensei grabbed all three of them and lifted them off the water. Their sensei spun them around once before Junko flying tackle hugged him, and lifted all four of them with frightening ease after she'd knocked them into the water first.
None of them minded the cold -- they were together again. There was a wet lizard on Haruki's face and he didn't mind a bit, he hugged Sayaka tighter.
They stayed that way until Junko had to move them or the ship would run them all over.
--
"...comes marching home."
---
So that's that! Next time, we'll be in three-years-from-now-ville!
Have some credits music for the first part of Snapping Turtle! The lyrics for which I modified in this chapter!
A link!
---
Isobu
Isobu felt an intruder in the midst of his dominion, and woke from his sleep. There, on the hook of his seal, he saw a red-headed figure, distant. Kurama was still asleep, so Isobu had to send his host to meet her and invite her in.
"Well met," he greeted her and shook bubbles free of his massive body. "I am Isobu -- three-tails, spirit of the sea."
He watched the girl -- Kurama's jinchuuriki -- first struggle with the idea of being underwater without need of air, and then with his sheer size. For some reason, humans were a lot more afraid of large aquatic creatures than land or airborne ones.
Isobu waited for her to speak -- he knew she would have something to say to him, and he wanted her to find closure for her emotional injury.
"You… were there," Kushina said, and glanced at Noburu. "I remember seeing you. You rampaged at Uzushio when they destroyed the village."
The waters around Isobu spun with a sudden current of memory. "Yes," he admitted. "A Uzushio seal-master broke that which bound me to my jinchuuriki. I was free."
"You… did a lot of damage to the village when you did. But if you hadn't made those huge waves…." Kushina visibly struggled with the memory, she was too young for such feelings -- but the world was cruel. "If you hadn't made those waves -- the fires would have killed us all."
She had a point she was working towards making. Noburu and Isobu both had the patience to wait for her to reach it.
"So… I guess, thank you. For helping us by smashing our village with a tidal wave." She was so bitter about that, Isobu wanted to offer comfort. But that was not his part to play in the scene. "You're… the spirit of the sea, yeah?" When Isobu nodded, enough to generate a current itself, Kushina continued. "What… happened to them? Are they haunting the village?"
Isobu knew, from Noburu's gaze, that the girl was in no mood for the truth. That he didn't know what happened to them. But a comforting lie would let the girl recover a little bit faster, and could be the difference between a healthy mind and a diseased one.
"...As the steward of the seas, in the absence of the gods, it was my duty to ferry their souls into the ocean. Some may choose to be reborn as ocean currents, fish, whales, other life forms. Or they can move on to the final rest, if that is their preference." Isobu leaned down to look at the girl with his one open eye. "One of them chose to be reborn as a creature so small, it can see in between grains of sand. That's all I recall before they sealed me again."
The girl, at first afraid that Isobu had drawn so close, smiled a little as he humanized the lie a bit. "I… think I know who that was." She looked at Isobu, and it was like she really saw him for the first time. "You're… not as scary as the fox."
"Kurama is angry all the time. They are the spirit of justice," Isobu quickly held a hand up to his spikey jaw as if to hide his lip motions from spies, "but I do not advise you to call them that. Justice requires them to be angry frequently."
Kushina's hand drifted down to her stomach. "Justice…?"
Isobu nodded. "The pursuit of justice will express Kurama through you -- and perhaps calm their anger enough to where they are not made to sleep at all times." He glanced at Noburu. "Speaking of which -- shall I send you off to practice with Mito?"
The turtle spirit watched them drift away into the limbo between the bijuu's domains, and settled down to rest as well. From the movements of Noburu's thoughts, he had an idea of what sort of melancholy music they would teach to Kushina.
The words echoed down to Isobu's domain as he actively listened.
--
"Leaves from the vine, falling so slow
Like fragile, tiny shells -- drifting in the foam.
Little soldier boy, come marching home.
Brave soldier boy, comes marching home."
--
Genin Aburame
"Sensei," Shibi said and bowed to his teacher after their morning exercise. "I have conducted extensive reconnaissance on all the genin in Otogakure. It is my professional belief that most of them are more combat-ready than Konoha's genin, but they are not properly motivated to make use of it." He rose from his bow while Kushina and Hizashi rested from their sparring match. "Does your engagement order stand, or is this intel sufficient?"
Orochimaru-sensei had been Shibi's sparring partner. His lack of chakra didn't stop his skill at martial arts, so he taught them taijutsu. The Sannin relaxed from his fighting stance and considered the genin. "I suppose that is sufficient. It's taken you a lot of work to gather that information without anyone noticing bugs in winter -- I imagine."
Relief flooded Shibi before he got control of it. His insects were already at risk with the cold -- but his teammates had decided to go after the genin which included Orochimaru-sensei's nephew. The one which had remained unchallenged was perfectly suited to leave Shibi with nothing.
He hoped his teammates would understand. He didn't want them to think him a coward.
"Hizashi," Orochimaru-sensei said to break the silence. "Noburu has asked to see you. He said he had the first draft done for you -- whatever the secret project of yours is."
The Hyuga bowed and stood resolute in the face of his sensei's obvious prodding. "I will show it off when I have honed it to perfection, sensei. A totally new taijutsu style, using wind release."
That got Kushina and Shibi's eyebrows to rise.
"I can't wait to see it," Orochimaru-sensei said with a smile.
The Hyuga nodded, and ran off.
"Kushina -- you said you wanted to practice more taijutsu?" Orochimaru-sensei gestured that she and Shibi should move apart when she confirmed it. "We're going to work on kunai forms now. One kunai each, and assume the guard position…."
They trained like that for close to an hour, kunai only. In that time Shibi learned that Kushina preferred to lead with a stab in her rotation, which could be easily exploited. He could catch her kunai in the ring pommel of his own and force her stab to go wide, or he could side-step and get in position for a counter. He tended to favor slashes, which took a lot more windup and more space, so Kushina had several chances to counter when Shibi was the one on the offensive.
"Hmm," Orochimaru said and pinched his chin. "I might need to invest in getting the two of you blunted kunai for training. So that you can go partial contact during these training sessions." He looked at them consideringly. "It's good that the two of you stopped before you hurt each other, though. Training is concluded for now."
The students bowed. Kushina immediately bounded off in the direction of their audience -- Shizune, Tsunade's student. The two girls had hit it off right away despite the age difference. In short order, they'd run off in the direction of the tent city. That left Shibi alone.
"Shibi," Orochimaru-sensei said as he approached his student. "There is going to be a lot of work in the village today with summons -- one group that the Oto ninja are summoning are ant summons."
Shibi tensed, his hair stood on end. His insects grew agitated at the mere mention of the ant summons.
"I understand the Aburame have a bit of a history with the ninja ants, so it might be best if you stay on the ship or stay away from the construction site today." Orochimaru patted Shibi on the head, perhaps to try and calm the boy down as his bugs were bracing for the possible ant attack. "I'll make sure their summoner knows to keep them under control." Orochimaru stopped for a moment, then looked aside with a bead of sweat on his brow. "That… reminds me, I need to warn Kushina and Shizune about the rabbits."
Shibi wandered to the north, after Orochimaru-sensei went off in pursuit of the girls. The mangrove forests of Wave were beautiful, even in the winter. The snowfall never got severe in Wave, as it did in Fire Country -- though there were blizzard concerns with the tent city.
He walked through the forest, until he came to the opening of the sound where he found a clearing that had been made by a meteor possibly years ago. There was a crater with a semi-sphereical rock, dead trees, and relatively few signs of animal life. But the snow had fallen onto everything, and there were tracks of birds left behind. Clearly, it was old enough for them to not feel in danger.
At the edge of the clearing, looking to the west, Shibi saw a short elderly woman dressed in the Kirigakure fashion of pinstriped wool arm and legwarmers with a kimono over the top. She had a scroll that hung from her back and a closed umbrella in her hand.
"Konoha ninja," she said without turning to face him. "Out on a walk?"
"This is a beautiful country," Shibi answered. He looked back to the forest. The cold had taken away the mists which had given the mangroves a haunting look when they first arrived. "In Konoha the pines are too tall for this kind of beauty."
"Good for you, child. Going out and seeing the world." The woman expanded her umbrella and raised it to rest on her shoulder. "I hope you can see what once Water Country, and appreciate its beauty before it's all swept away."
Snow began to fall, as Shibi walked up slightly behind the woman. "Swept away?"
She didn't answer right away, just spun her umbrella as the snow fell. "It wasn't supposed to snow today."
Confused, Shibi arched a brow. "The weather can be tricky to predict."
"Hmm. So much for being coy." She turned slightly to Shibi , her umbrella partially blocked his view. "Do you know what today is?" When Shibi didn't answer, she continued. "Today is the marriage of two daimyo, and the first day of the existence of Soup Country. And snow is white." She extended her hand and caught some of the snow in her palm. It was grey.
"Oh," Shibi said as he realized what that was. "Ashes."
The old woman nodded, and pointed across the sea. Shibi looked, and saw what had appeared to be a distant thundercloud -- but in reality it was smoke. A pillar of smoke so tall that it reached up to where they could see it all the way from Wave. Across the sea, Kirigakure was burning.
"Ashes. Of a home that was awful at times, a prison sometimes, and a place I would never choose to live again," said the old woman. "But home nonetheless. Appreciate your home, child. You may yet live to see it burn."
--
"Ash in the snow, falling so slow.
Like many broken hearts, with no place to go.
Frail soldier boy, taken from home.
Forced to fight a war, which was not his own.
Frail solder boy, cold and alone.
Poor soldier boy, never made it home."
--
Mercenary-nin Kanzaki
There was a lot of tension in the capital of Swamp Country after an entire ninja clan -- hauling goodies and wealth that many noted had passed through the city under different owners before -- entered and asked to purchase a ship.
That tension continued well onto the ship itself and out to sea. The Uemons were a strange people who had bizarre customs from Sayaka's perspective, while her lack of any equivalents seemed to genuinely frighten them. The Uemon would pray silently before a meal, and one member of each family was asked to forgo the meal and strike chimes with small padded mallets. Near as she could tell, they believed that the gods could only hear their prayers if accompanied by music. The chime strikers would eat afterward, where the chimes were struck by another volunteer.
The fact that Sayaka didn't pray at all, with or without accompaniment, made them seem wary of her. Most of the time, Sayaka stayed in her cabin and practiced chakra control by walking along the ceiling on her toes. Literally, on her toes.
Kimiko remained mostly in the same spot -- in the burnt orange wig which had been provided to Sayaka. It was actually quite warm, and matched her coat.
It wasn't until they passed through the islands of Water Country that Sayaka began to go out onto the deck. She watched as Fujioka Castle passed by on the coast of the big island, like a ghost of her past. More than one of the Uemon on the ship noticed her longing for the place, and Kokoro even came by to ask about it.
"Me and my friends helped get that castle up and running. And it's where I made a stupid mistake," Sayaka answered, and indicated she didn't want to talk anymore about it. She didn't know if Noburu would forgive her for the part she played in him being made a missing-ninja. It didn't matter much since Kiri was dissolved, but perhaps he held some grudge over it. And if Noburu didn't, then Raiga-sensei likely did, since she'd undermined him in front of his subordinates.
She imagined that they'd all spent their days talking about how much they were glad she was gone, until Kimiko bit her.
"Don't let your anxiety talk you out of going back to your friends," the chameleon said and promptly bit her again. "Sorry. Humans are tasty."
Sayaka narrowed her eyes at Kimiko. "You're going to just straight up eat people when you finish growing up, huh?"
The chameleon's eyes focused on Sayaka, and she bit her again.
"Knock it off -- you can't eat me, I'm your summoner."
"Right, right, sorry."
The confidence boost from the chameleon saw Sayaka through until the next sight on the big island before they crossed the Kaizoku. Kirigakure.
There was a blockade of former rebel forces in the waters around Kiri. A picket ship approached their glorified cargo freighter and demanded to speak to them. Sayaka was hidden away in her room while that happened, but Kimiko and her looked through the porthole in their room. Ninja training let her hear what was being talked about.
The formerly rebel forces were keeping any new ships from landing in Kiri to deliver food or evacuate residents. The window for them to leave had been closed, and they were doomed to be routed when the daimyo gave the order. Sayaka could only see people gathered at the Kiri docks, waving at the distant ships.
Kimiko was quiet as she looked at them. She ignored Sayaka every time she asked what her better vision saw.
"You don't want to know," Kimiko said, soft. "You don't… want to know."
Sayaka pointed out the landmarks she could make out from so far away -- the Mizukage's tower, the estates of the eyes caste nobles, the Academy, the home guard tower, and where she had lived prior to… everything. It was a somber experience, as with each landmark she recognized, she knew she'd never see it again.
After the picket ship left, the cargo ship started out away from the main island toward Wave. The big island wasn't even out of sight before a cloud of smoke started to rise up to the heavens. When Sayaka looked over the stern to see, there was a line of orange and red just at the horizon to indicate a fire.
Kirigakure was burning.
--
"Leaves on the vine, growing so slow.
Like countless fallen souls, looking for a home.
Clever soldier boy, thought he could soar.
Foolish soldier boy, fallen in the war.
My little soldier boy, I need you home.
Brave soldier boy…"
--
Genin Fujimoto
The summons continued to work while several people passed out masks to keep people and animals alike from inhaling ash. It had mixed in with the snow, and made a slush which had to be swept away or it would endanger their work.
Since he was not part of the summoners or construction crew, Haruki stood on a high hill and watched the pillar of smoke that was Kirigakure across the ocean burn. That was it, then. His family was dead. Many families were dead, most likely. Kiri was dead too.
He stood there, and watched, for a long time before he felt someone stand next to him. When he checked, there was Raiga-sensei. "Hey," he told the boy with his hand on Haruki's shoulder. "It's okay to feel bad about this."
"I don't feel bad," Haruki said, confused even with himself. "I don't… feel anything about this. I'm supposed to feel something, right?"
Raiga examined his face, then squeezed his shoulder a bit. "That's okay too. Maybe it hasn't hit yet. Maybe it never will. Just… don't let people tell you your reaction is invalid for you." He looked at the pillar of smoke, then back to Haruki. "And there's still a chance that Sayaka will show up. She might have had to convince her mother about it, though."
Haruki's expression clearly conveyed his doubt. Sayaka hadn't shown up since Oto was announced. She'd either committed to stay, or she'd gone mercenary.
"...We're planning on a memorial stone, for everyone who died in the war and… that we suspect might have been in Kiri. So that they're not forgotten. Do you want me to add your family's names?"
Haruki shook his head, and looked up at his teacher again. "But… we should add Sayaka's."
They stood like that for a while before a paper airplane soared at them and hit Haruki right in the nose.
While Haruki rubbed his poor nose, the paper airplane poofed and revealed Noburu. "Oi," he said with annoyance. "Clone messenger service. We got a ship approaching from the direction of Soup Country. Big ol' cargo ship."
The clone promptly exploded, and left the two ninja to rush off toward the north. Raiga-sensei grabbed Junko and spread the word while Haruki focused on getting to the coast. He found Noburu and one of the Konoha genin on the shore, surrounded by rocks and trees with visible damage -- had they fought?
He could tell both had their Byakugan active, and aimed at the ship. Haruki joined in, with his sensor abilities -- on the off-chance that their eyes couldn't see far enough.
There were many strong chakra signatures on the boat -- almost none of them familiar.
Then he caught a flash of orange, and it startled him so much he snapped out of his sensor position. "Noburu -- "
"I'm double-checking," Noburu snapped, agitated. "I thought I saw her, but I won't get excited until I can say one hundred percent." The genin grinded his teeth. "Come on, just get a little closer…."
"Haruki, what is he talking about?" Raiga-sensei said as other ninja started to join them on the coast.
"Lots of chakra signatures on the boat," the former noble said and pointed at it. "It's got close to a hundred ninja on it. One of them felt almost exactly like -- "
"Sayaka!" Noburu suddenly shouted. Without waiting, he bolted out onto the water, with such speed that the sea rose up in a spray behind him. "Sayaka!"
Haruki put his boil release to work for physical labor for the first time, as he quickly steamed up and propelled himself off the shore to catch up to Noburu. "Sayaka!"
She'd come! Raiga-sensei was right! He was also right behind them, just a tad slower on acceleration. The three men shouted as loud as they could for their teammate. Junko raced alongside them, just as enthusiastic despite the lack of familiarity.
"Sayaka!" "Sayaka!" "Sayaka!"
An orange figure appeared on the bow of the ship as they raced closer. Once they'd grown close enough to see and hear, it jumped off the side of the ship and landed on the water, then raced at them.
She'd looked different from the last time he'd seen her. She had a lizard on her shoulder which wore a wig like a coat, she had a big scroll across her back, a few new scars on her face and arms.
Haruki didn't realize he'd been crying until he saw Sayaka was too. She was back, they were all together again! Kirigakure hadn't killed her too!
Sayaka spread her arms wide before they met, Haruki and Noburu both flying tackle hugged her while she locked her arms around them like a vice. While they hugged, Raiga-sensei grabbed all three of them and lifted them off the water. Their sensei spun them around once before Junko flying tackle hugged him, and lifted all four of them with frightening ease after she'd knocked them into the water first.
None of them minded the cold -- they were together again. There was a wet lizard on Haruki's face and he didn't mind a bit, he hugged Sayaka tighter.
They stayed that way until Junko had to move them or the ship would run them all over.
--
"...comes marching home."
---
So that's that! Next time, we'll be in three-years-from-now-ville!
Have some credits music for the first part of Snapping Turtle! The lyrics for which I modified in this chapter!
A link!
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
Huh, never seen Brave Soldier Boy with that many lyrics before. Also it's pretty perfect for Sound and Naruto in general.
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
I wonder on how many sides Noburu fought in the Hundred Year War?
Vaalintine
Wild Wondorous Wolfalope
The "humans are tasty" part was funny, didn't expect that. Certainly didn't expect to have such a nice reunion either.
QuietlyObserving
The Railgun That Walks Like a Bear
- Location
- Here.
Lunar New Year celebration.
- Location
- Iowa, United States
- Pronouns
- Him, His, He
Ok, thanks. It's been bugging me since I seen it.
Chairtastic
Anything's a chair if you're brave enough
- Location
- Breakfast nook
- Pronouns
- He / Him / It
Well technically he was from the Korra era, and he mostly just fought the Earth Kingdom who wouldn't get DA HELL OUTTA HIS SWAMP.
In-context it's supposed to be a gift of money, so I guess the reaction is 'throws money at', or something. Happy year of the Ox!
Chameleons inspired mimics as a concept in-fic, they have a tendency to find humans tasty while most others find them to be bland and bony. But for jaws meant to crush exo-skeletons, boney isn't really an issue.
Vaalintine
Wild Wondorous Wolfalope
That they keep biting her does seem like it would turn into an issue eventually. Personally I'd likely just refuse to summon any chameleon that kept doing it. If they ALL kept doing it, I'd probably just bury the scroll somewhere remote.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Alternatively, invest in a steady supply of rolled-up newspapers, to be applied when confronted with poor behavior.
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
"Just develop an adamantine skin technique, lol" - Real Ninja
- Pronouns
- He/Him
This random thing I found on YouTube is now relevant. (It's a clip of a gecko instead of a chameleon, but still.)
Ch 31
Chairtastic
Anything's a chair if you're brave enough
- Location
- Breakfast nook
- Pronouns
- He / Him / It
Ch 31: Three Years Later
---
Mother Jiang
She could hear her son singing along to one of the new tunes they had cooked up in the music hall while she sat on the couch and looked out on the reef. The Turtle House, as it had become known, was the top three floors of Tower Three -- towards the heart of the village. Most of it was to be used by Haruki and Noburu's families when they grew up -- it encompassed twelve apartment units of which they only lived in three. Akami's living room had the best view, in her opinion, it faced out into the sound and had a clear view of the deeper parts of the village and the reef sprawl. It also let her see Yuuko's memorial stone, one of many on the opposite side of the sound.
Carved into the cliffside opposite Oto were hundreds of stone cicadas, grown over with soft corals, which had the name of someone lost to Kirigakure's dying war carved onto their backs. Akami had committed Yuuko's memorial stone placement to memory. A sprawl of pink coral on the left wing, a sea anemone growing below the nameplate. Noburu told her it wasn't the kind that would attract clownfish, but Akami had hope all that more sea life would come to decorate Yuuko's stone. There weren't a lot of water insects in the area -- so sea life was all they had to entertain her ghost.
A reef shark swam past the three massive bubble-windows, each taller than Akami and twice her height across, in hot pursuit of a lanternfish. On a wide, low, shelf set were the Jiang family photos -- which obscured the reef shark's hunt a bit. Akami let her eyes wander over the oldest ones, and linger on the newer ones. Noburu and his teammates flexing their muscles in front of the Oto ninja-gym -- with the girls beating out the boys with muscular displays. Three years had seen the boys grow their hair back mostly. Haruki still hadn't fully grown in his mustache, but he had his silky black hair back, much to the boy's delight. Noburu's drab brown hair was kept back by his Otogakure forehead protector, pulled back over his head as Sayaka's was.
Sayaka and Junko had grown into fast friends, with their mutual love of training. At the time of the photo Junko had admitted she'd done too much and her prominent muscles messed her weight distribution up slightly. Akami hadn't known that ninja needed to control how fast they grew strong and muscley. It certainly hadn't been a problem for Raiga. Raiga was… if Akami were a much younger woman, she would enjoy his company more.
Another new photo was of Akami and her adopted kids in front of the elevator to the Turtle House. At first, the boys and Sayaka had stayed with her -- but Sayaka moved to another apartment when she turned seventeen. It had been a fun couple years having a girl in the apartment.
And the last new photo was relatively the oldest. Noburu as a blur of motion with a wooden spoon in hand, while Orochimaru's teammates cowered in fear.
The sudden acceleration of tempo from the music let her know that it was getting close to serving time -- so Akami rose from the couch. Noburu was hard at work in the kitchen, making use of his eyes and the 'chakra strings' Suzume had taught him to run four whole dishes all on his own.
"They here yet?" The teenager called from the kitchen as he adjusted, stirred, and tossed the food with one hand and moved serving dishes onto the counters with the other.
"Not yet," Akami answered back as she approached the door. The polished stone floor made her steps echo, as it would for anyone in the hall.
"Princess! You told them the time they were supposed to be here, right?!"
"I told 'em!" Haruki shouted from his room, down the hall past the dining room. "Not my fault if they can't read a clock!"
"Do you have your makeup done yet?!"
"I'm working on it, shaddup!"
Akami rolled her eyes and stepped out of the apartment into the hall. She didn't want to get involved when Noburu duplicated himself to go mess with his adopted brother. The Turtle House's interior walls were decorated with images of a city on the back of a turtle, then another for a tortoise, and a third for a sea-turtle. It was a recurring design element. The cities differed in designs at least -- the turtle's city was covered in vegetation, with vines connecting the buildings together, the tortoise's was made from sandstone and featured almost spherical buildings, while the sea-turtle's city looked the most like Oto.
Light-fixtures in the shape of mice holding candles that ended in bulbs lined the hallway walls down to the lobby where a trio of elevators stood side by side -- two for people, one for cargo. Each had stylized murals that depicted three goddesses that Noburu said had told her were named 'Washu, Tsunami, and Tokimi', apparently the names of three of Raiga's ant-summons. Noburu had called it an 'in-joke', but Akami thought it merely flattering art of the summons.
The arboreal-themed 'Tsunami' elevator dinged, and opened up. Akami's face widened in a smile -- their guests had arrived!
"Hello, lords and ladies," she said as she bowed. "Welcome to the Turtle House!"
First out of the elevator was Raiga -- with the new Otogakure flak jacket, black with clasps along the left side and a large pouch on the stomach, under his Seven Swordsman haori and the new Otogakure forehead protector under his long hair. Second was Suzume, dressed the same as Raiga but with a lab coat in place of the haori. Third was a foreign ninja, with a forehead protector of three diagonal lines and a jacket with a fur-lined hood and sleeves. At her side was an elderly woman who leaned on a walking stick, dressed as a noblewoman with absurdly long earrings.
Last out of the elevator was her brother-in-law, Orochimaru, and a fig-hat-wearing gentleman -- one of Wave's village chieftains. They were already in a friendly discussion, talking about their workloads.
Six guests, Akami sighed at the thought. Three of which would not accept less than restaurant-quality food. It was a good thing Noburu had learned from her, then.
The noblewoman squinted at Akami then looked up at her guard. "Is this a restaurant?"
"No ma'am," the guard responded. "It's an apartment complex."
The noblewoman visibly reeled at the news. She pointed at Raiga with an accusatory finger. "You brought us to dinner at an apartment complex?"
"I brought you to dinner," the elite ninja said with a calming tone, "at the personal home of Otogakure's top chef."
"Prepared by my son, my own live-in apprentice," Akami cheerfully added. "Please, come this way."
The downside to having the best view out of the apartment complex was that, for political dinners like these, her apartment was the place to be. Hopefully, Noburu would be pleasant.
--
Sotaicho Kurosuki
Not for the first time, Raiga was glad that Orochimaru had a soft spot for Oto via Noburu. Konoha and Yu had not been the best neighbors to each other which would normally mean Oto couldn't pursue friendly relations with Hot Water Country. But Orochimaru had stepped in to bring Konoha to the negotiating table which in turn lent them legitimacy to bring in Hot Water Country and Yugakure.
If Hot Water and Yugakure could be brought to neutral terms with Fire and Konoha, Wave and Oto, then Lightning Country would have to put in greater effort to make Hot Water their ally. Getting Hot Water as an ally would be the best case scenario, but weakening Lightning by proxy just a bit more could potentially save them when war came.
Raiga and Suzume followed Akami as she led the guests to her massive dining table, next to a window with a spectacular view of the reef.
The Hot Water noblewoman looked over her shoulder through the window as a trio of lionfish swam by. "It's so easy to forget how deep underwater we are here. And you say the village still isn't done?"
"We have more planned," Raiga said with clear pride. "At least some of which will be a more scenic location in shallower waters for honored guests like yourself."
"Bah." She shook her hand. "Seeing a shallow-water reef taken into the depths… that's respectable." The woman watched more fish pass by the window. "No matter how our talks go, I can tell the daimyo to respect what you've done here. Beautiful work."
Haruki and Noburu worked in only slightly tense synchronicity to serve the food for the meal and pour drinks. Meanwhile, Raiga heard a clone of Noburu's in the kitchen at work on dirty dishes. The appetizers were laid on the table in front of their guests.
"Oh man," the village chieftain said as he put his hat aside and examined the dish. "Real lobster? For little old me? You shouldn't have!"
"Your appetizer," Haruki announced with a bow. "Butternut squash and lobster risotto, a rice dish from the southern continent which uses their unique variety of rice, and cheese. Best eaten with the provided spoon. I will be back with the drink menu, one moment." Pleasant as spring, Haruki bowed once again and walked off to the kitchen.
"Oh, there's bits of lobster in the rice, too!" The village chieftain had used his chopsticks to pull the risotto apart and looked inside. He gleefully set them down to grab the spoon and dug in. Raiga didn't blame the man -- lobster was an expensive export item for Wave, the people who caught them rarely got to eat them.
"One whole lobster goes into each serving," Akami said with clear pride. "The butternut squash is native to Honey and Wolf Countries on the sub-continent."
The representatives from Hot Water Country knew this already, but they were guarded enough from the foreign dish to feign interest with the chieftain's genuine excitement.
"So you have… some dealings with Soup Country," the Yugakure ninja started as she took a spoonful of risotto and blew on it to cool down. "That is interesting, given your history." She seemed shocked by the flavor of the appetizer but didn't seem upset by it. This convinced her charge to try it as well.
"Fire Country's markets are vast and well protected," Orochimaru said, from Raiga's left. "Soup Country doesn't care where we sell what is purchased from them. Money talks, as it were."
Raiga mimed a bit of annoyance, to give their guests the impression that he rankled at Orochimaru's truth. An act they had agreed upon before the guests had arrived. "Lord Orochimaru is correct," he said with a faked smile. He ate some of his own risotto to make it clear none of it was poisoned. "Oto keeps their ports safe, and Konoha guards their markets. Trade with us has never been more secure."
The old noblewoman snorted. She clearly enjoyed the risotto -- but would never admit it. "We will see how long that remains so when war breaks out. Nadeshiko is in a better position than Oto to police the sea."
"What makes you say that?"
She narrowed her eyes. "Soup Country is very wealthy. They can afford a lot of ships. Wave… not so much."
"Ships in the Kaizoku are never really safe," Suzume added and adjusted her glasses. "The krakens see to that."
The main dish seemed to drive that home, when everyone had finished their risotto. Squid ink noodles with calamari. Their guests seemed to appreciate a dish they could eat with chopsticks.
"Your son cooked all this?" The Wave village chieftain asked Akami with an arched brow behind his glasses. "Damn," he said when she answered in the affirmative. "This stuff ain't half bad for lookin' all weird."
"It's appearance is… bizarre," the Hot Water noblewoman noted with a nod. "But the taste is impeccable. It drives home the sea's bounty which Oto has access to. For such bounty, I could perhaps, convince the daimyo to… forgive, and forget."
"I'm sure my daimyo would be keen… not to repeat history again," Orochimaru carefully responded, "once he partakes of Hot Water Country's bountiful trade."
Eyes then drifted to the representative of Yugakure. She looked less than convinced, but glanced at the noblewoman and sighed. "Yugakure has always been a good and faithful servant of the daimyo. If he would be willing to forgive and forget… we would follow his example."
The noblewoman patted her on the hand.
Raiga knew that he had just convinced someone to tell their daimyo to overlook genuine, legitimate grievances Yugakure had against Konoha. People who had been tortured and died would never receive justice because of his politicking. But for that price, he was willing to take having a less hostile neighbor.
All the while, he knew that someday he would be asked to do as Yugakure's leadership was -- forgive and forget legitimate grievance for another's politics.
--
Legendary Sannin Orochimaru
After dinner, the representatives were guided back to the diplomatic suites in Tower One. Orochimaru, however, stayed behind to chat with family. With the strangers out of the room, he and Akami greeted each other more warmly than they had prior. A recent discovery Orochimaru had made about himself: He was a hugger.
Akami squeezed him in a hug and patted him on the back. "Good to see you back, I was afraid they'd send that pervert again."
"Jiraiya wanted to come, but his team is entering the chunin exams -- they need extra training to get the best shot." Orochimaru enjoyed the hug a moment longer then broke away. "I'm sorry for springing this on you -- Lady Yagi is a known seafood lover, I thought it would tip the scales."
Akami gave him an understanding look, but shook her head. "I wasn't here, when your message arrived. I was at work at the restaurant." She gestured to the kitchen. "Noburu's the one who did all that."
He glanced over at the kitchen where Noburu and two clones were hard at work with the dishes. Oh. "I… thought you needed his help, with the complexity of the dishes."
Akami shook her head again. "He just got my okay to use the white wine, that was it. He and Haruki did the work to make this possible."
Orochimaru felt a sudden dread from that information and the fierceness with which Noburu cleaned the dishes. He glanced over to his nephew's adopted brother, and was met with a dagger stare.
Haruki kept it up until he turned around the island counter with the guest's glasses in hand. "Wine glasses," he said and held them out to one of Noburu's clones.
"Hmm," Noburu's clone said and took them to be cleaned. "Leftover calamari noodles over there," he jerked his head toward the island counter.
"Thanks." Harkui left them to it and went to make himself a plate. Neither of them spoke to Orochimaru directly.
The Sannin got the impression he'd made a mistake.
Akami nudged him on the shoulder. "Go talk to him, find out what you should be sorry for, and apologize. I'm going to get out of my work clothes now." The chef smiled at him, warm, then left down the hall to her room.
Orochimaru swallowed and approached the kitchen slowly. "Um. Hello, Noburu."
"Hmm," the boy's nearest clone responded and placed a skillet on the rack to dry.
"Thank you for… putting this together so soon. Squid ink noodles aren't something I would have expected, given how… little time you had to work with."
"Hmm." The clone narrowed his eyes at Orochimaru then set aside the serving tongs he'd cleaned. "Princess made it. Squid ink pasta and calamari are a Kiri classic -- he made it while I got the windows cleaned." He used the spoon he had just cleaned to point to the bubble windows -- totally free of algae and polyps. "Because neither of us had things we had to do tonight." The teenager slammed the spoon onto the drying wrack and began to furiously scrub the next dish. "We could just drop everything and whip you up restaurant-quality stuff. No big deal."
Orochimaru felt like perhaps leaving Tsunade behind in Wave was a poor decision in hindsight. Noburu had picked up her talents in passive aggressive behavior. He glanced over and saw Haruki, alone at the table, with a sour look on his face as he ate.
"I… take it you missed something important."
"Ah no no no," Noburu shook his head with a shrug. "In the grand scheme of things, probably not." He pushed his clone aside so that he could start putting dry things away. "I mean, lesser scheme of things, it was something I'd been looking forward to. For." He slammed a counter door closed so that it echoed. "Months. But hey." Noburu looked at Orochimaru with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Fire Country and Wave probably won't have to pay so much for potatoes, huh? That's good, right?!" He made finger-guns at Orochimaru and turned away, his chipper expression melting into a sour mess as he went.
Orochimaru realized how his nephew must feel at that moment. It must have felt just like when Orochimaru and Jiraiya had to shelve their plans because Sarutobi-sensei had volunteered them for a mission. Or when a project had to be put aside at the most interesting part when Sarutobi-sensei had assigned him a task to test him. Sarutobi-sensei's apologies had always rung hollow, and Orochimaru thought his would do the same for Noburu and Haruki.
He immediately began to put his mind to ways to show his sorryness without ringing hollow -- all of which demanded action. Compensation.
"May I ask… what had you missed out on?"
Noburu looked over to Haruki and waited for his adopted brother to nod before he answered. "We each had different things for today planned. Princess was going to see a matchmaker from Fire Country. Get his picture taken, fill out a profile, maybe get approached by a ninja clan who wants to marry into a kekkei genkai in exchange for moving out here. She only had one opening in her schedule for this year. First come, first serve and all that."
Orochimaru flinched. That was going to be a tricky fix. Tricky, but not impossible.
"And I had a date planned. Had to postpone it because we both got missions at different ports -- and wanted to get everything ready to go as soon as we got back home. Now, after all this, I'll be lucky if I don't get the cold shoulder." Noburu's clones had finished and were dispelled.
That… was somehow trickier for him to fix, though he admitted internally that the stakes were a lot lower. One missed date wasn't all that important… except that it was to Noburu.
"I'll pull some strings back home -- get another matchmaker out here specifically for Haruki," Orochimaru said and locked in in his memory as an outstanding commitment. "And… who is this girl you were supposed to see? I can speak to her sensei perhaps, or Oto's mission office, and perhaps a short vacation can be arranged." Orochimaru stopped when Noburu looked at him with confusion. "What? ...It wasn't Kushina was it?"
"Ew, no," Noburu said and shuddered.
"And it's not Shizune, is it?"
"She's twelve! Ew! No!" Noburu shook his head.
"I'm not one to tell the Sannin their business… but maybe you should ask Jiraiya?" Haruki shrugged, and continued to eat his noodles and calamari. "Didn't he talk to you about the conversation he and Noburu had about this sort of stuff?"
Orochimaru's eyebrow rose enough to answer the question itself in the negative. "Did he do something I need to hit him for?"
"Well, that's a matter of perspective -- "
"Yes," Noburu answered with narrowed eyes. "But that's something you and he can talk about. Right now, I'm going to go talk to my hopefully not-ex boyfriend and hope he forgives me." With that said, Noburu removed his chef's apron and set it on a hook next to Akami and Haruki's then left the apartment without a backwards glance.
With Noburu out of the way, Orochimaru locked eyes with Haruki and hoped he would explain.
Haruki sank a little, his confidence lessened without his adopted brother in the room. "Um. Jiraiya gave him a bunch of Icha-Ichas for his birthday."
One thing worth hitting his teammate for was noted by the snake Sannin. "Alright. Was there anything else?"
"He… may have… allegedly… tried to set Noburu up with a lady of the night to 'fix' him? And had to be told by the lady that she doesn't do that sort of stuff?"
A sudden spike of killing intent drove every fish that had gathered in the reef around the Turtle House swimming away in fear -- even the lionfish.
---
Jiraiya, as a person who openly lusted after a woman's form even though he knew the person was a twelve-year-old boy, is not good at accepting 'not interested' responses.
Anyway…
Oto Update:
---
Mother Jiang
She could hear her son singing along to one of the new tunes they had cooked up in the music hall while she sat on the couch and looked out on the reef. The Turtle House, as it had become known, was the top three floors of Tower Three -- towards the heart of the village. Most of it was to be used by Haruki and Noburu's families when they grew up -- it encompassed twelve apartment units of which they only lived in three. Akami's living room had the best view, in her opinion, it faced out into the sound and had a clear view of the deeper parts of the village and the reef sprawl. It also let her see Yuuko's memorial stone, one of many on the opposite side of the sound.
Carved into the cliffside opposite Oto were hundreds of stone cicadas, grown over with soft corals, which had the name of someone lost to Kirigakure's dying war carved onto their backs. Akami had committed Yuuko's memorial stone placement to memory. A sprawl of pink coral on the left wing, a sea anemone growing below the nameplate. Noburu told her it wasn't the kind that would attract clownfish, but Akami had hope all that more sea life would come to decorate Yuuko's stone. There weren't a lot of water insects in the area -- so sea life was all they had to entertain her ghost.
A reef shark swam past the three massive bubble-windows, each taller than Akami and twice her height across, in hot pursuit of a lanternfish. On a wide, low, shelf set were the Jiang family photos -- which obscured the reef shark's hunt a bit. Akami let her eyes wander over the oldest ones, and linger on the newer ones. Noburu and his teammates flexing their muscles in front of the Oto ninja-gym -- with the girls beating out the boys with muscular displays. Three years had seen the boys grow their hair back mostly. Haruki still hadn't fully grown in his mustache, but he had his silky black hair back, much to the boy's delight. Noburu's drab brown hair was kept back by his Otogakure forehead protector, pulled back over his head as Sayaka's was.
Sayaka and Junko had grown into fast friends, with their mutual love of training. At the time of the photo Junko had admitted she'd done too much and her prominent muscles messed her weight distribution up slightly. Akami hadn't known that ninja needed to control how fast they grew strong and muscley. It certainly hadn't been a problem for Raiga. Raiga was… if Akami were a much younger woman, she would enjoy his company more.
Another new photo was of Akami and her adopted kids in front of the elevator to the Turtle House. At first, the boys and Sayaka had stayed with her -- but Sayaka moved to another apartment when she turned seventeen. It had been a fun couple years having a girl in the apartment.
And the last new photo was relatively the oldest. Noburu as a blur of motion with a wooden spoon in hand, while Orochimaru's teammates cowered in fear.
The sudden acceleration of tempo from the music let her know that it was getting close to serving time -- so Akami rose from the couch. Noburu was hard at work in the kitchen, making use of his eyes and the 'chakra strings' Suzume had taught him to run four whole dishes all on his own.
"They here yet?" The teenager called from the kitchen as he adjusted, stirred, and tossed the food with one hand and moved serving dishes onto the counters with the other.
"Not yet," Akami answered back as she approached the door. The polished stone floor made her steps echo, as it would for anyone in the hall.
"Princess! You told them the time they were supposed to be here, right?!"
"I told 'em!" Haruki shouted from his room, down the hall past the dining room. "Not my fault if they can't read a clock!"
"Do you have your makeup done yet?!"
"I'm working on it, shaddup!"
Akami rolled her eyes and stepped out of the apartment into the hall. She didn't want to get involved when Noburu duplicated himself to go mess with his adopted brother. The Turtle House's interior walls were decorated with images of a city on the back of a turtle, then another for a tortoise, and a third for a sea-turtle. It was a recurring design element. The cities differed in designs at least -- the turtle's city was covered in vegetation, with vines connecting the buildings together, the tortoise's was made from sandstone and featured almost spherical buildings, while the sea-turtle's city looked the most like Oto.
Light-fixtures in the shape of mice holding candles that ended in bulbs lined the hallway walls down to the lobby where a trio of elevators stood side by side -- two for people, one for cargo. Each had stylized murals that depicted three goddesses that Noburu said had told her were named 'Washu, Tsunami, and Tokimi', apparently the names of three of Raiga's ant-summons. Noburu had called it an 'in-joke', but Akami thought it merely flattering art of the summons.
The arboreal-themed 'Tsunami' elevator dinged, and opened up. Akami's face widened in a smile -- their guests had arrived!
"Hello, lords and ladies," she said as she bowed. "Welcome to the Turtle House!"
First out of the elevator was Raiga -- with the new Otogakure flak jacket, black with clasps along the left side and a large pouch on the stomach, under his Seven Swordsman haori and the new Otogakure forehead protector under his long hair. Second was Suzume, dressed the same as Raiga but with a lab coat in place of the haori. Third was a foreign ninja, with a forehead protector of three diagonal lines and a jacket with a fur-lined hood and sleeves. At her side was an elderly woman who leaned on a walking stick, dressed as a noblewoman with absurdly long earrings.
Last out of the elevator was her brother-in-law, Orochimaru, and a fig-hat-wearing gentleman -- one of Wave's village chieftains. They were already in a friendly discussion, talking about their workloads.
Six guests, Akami sighed at the thought. Three of which would not accept less than restaurant-quality food. It was a good thing Noburu had learned from her, then.
The noblewoman squinted at Akami then looked up at her guard. "Is this a restaurant?"
"No ma'am," the guard responded. "It's an apartment complex."
The noblewoman visibly reeled at the news. She pointed at Raiga with an accusatory finger. "You brought us to dinner at an apartment complex?"
"I brought you to dinner," the elite ninja said with a calming tone, "at the personal home of Otogakure's top chef."
"Prepared by my son, my own live-in apprentice," Akami cheerfully added. "Please, come this way."
The downside to having the best view out of the apartment complex was that, for political dinners like these, her apartment was the place to be. Hopefully, Noburu would be pleasant.
--
Sotaicho Kurosuki
Not for the first time, Raiga was glad that Orochimaru had a soft spot for Oto via Noburu. Konoha and Yu had not been the best neighbors to each other which would normally mean Oto couldn't pursue friendly relations with Hot Water Country. But Orochimaru had stepped in to bring Konoha to the negotiating table which in turn lent them legitimacy to bring in Hot Water Country and Yugakure.
If Hot Water and Yugakure could be brought to neutral terms with Fire and Konoha, Wave and Oto, then Lightning Country would have to put in greater effort to make Hot Water their ally. Getting Hot Water as an ally would be the best case scenario, but weakening Lightning by proxy just a bit more could potentially save them when war came.
Raiga and Suzume followed Akami as she led the guests to her massive dining table, next to a window with a spectacular view of the reef.
The Hot Water noblewoman looked over her shoulder through the window as a trio of lionfish swam by. "It's so easy to forget how deep underwater we are here. And you say the village still isn't done?"
"We have more planned," Raiga said with clear pride. "At least some of which will be a more scenic location in shallower waters for honored guests like yourself."
"Bah." She shook her hand. "Seeing a shallow-water reef taken into the depths… that's respectable." The woman watched more fish pass by the window. "No matter how our talks go, I can tell the daimyo to respect what you've done here. Beautiful work."
Haruki and Noburu worked in only slightly tense synchronicity to serve the food for the meal and pour drinks. Meanwhile, Raiga heard a clone of Noburu's in the kitchen at work on dirty dishes. The appetizers were laid on the table in front of their guests.
"Oh man," the village chieftain said as he put his hat aside and examined the dish. "Real lobster? For little old me? You shouldn't have!"
"Your appetizer," Haruki announced with a bow. "Butternut squash and lobster risotto, a rice dish from the southern continent which uses their unique variety of rice, and cheese. Best eaten with the provided spoon. I will be back with the drink menu, one moment." Pleasant as spring, Haruki bowed once again and walked off to the kitchen.
"Oh, there's bits of lobster in the rice, too!" The village chieftain had used his chopsticks to pull the risotto apart and looked inside. He gleefully set them down to grab the spoon and dug in. Raiga didn't blame the man -- lobster was an expensive export item for Wave, the people who caught them rarely got to eat them.
"One whole lobster goes into each serving," Akami said with clear pride. "The butternut squash is native to Honey and Wolf Countries on the sub-continent."
The representatives from Hot Water Country knew this already, but they were guarded enough from the foreign dish to feign interest with the chieftain's genuine excitement.
"So you have… some dealings with Soup Country," the Yugakure ninja started as she took a spoonful of risotto and blew on it to cool down. "That is interesting, given your history." She seemed shocked by the flavor of the appetizer but didn't seem upset by it. This convinced her charge to try it as well.
"Fire Country's markets are vast and well protected," Orochimaru said, from Raiga's left. "Soup Country doesn't care where we sell what is purchased from them. Money talks, as it were."
Raiga mimed a bit of annoyance, to give their guests the impression that he rankled at Orochimaru's truth. An act they had agreed upon before the guests had arrived. "Lord Orochimaru is correct," he said with a faked smile. He ate some of his own risotto to make it clear none of it was poisoned. "Oto keeps their ports safe, and Konoha guards their markets. Trade with us has never been more secure."
The old noblewoman snorted. She clearly enjoyed the risotto -- but would never admit it. "We will see how long that remains so when war breaks out. Nadeshiko is in a better position than Oto to police the sea."
"What makes you say that?"
She narrowed her eyes. "Soup Country is very wealthy. They can afford a lot of ships. Wave… not so much."
"Ships in the Kaizoku are never really safe," Suzume added and adjusted her glasses. "The krakens see to that."
The main dish seemed to drive that home, when everyone had finished their risotto. Squid ink noodles with calamari. Their guests seemed to appreciate a dish they could eat with chopsticks.
"Your son cooked all this?" The Wave village chieftain asked Akami with an arched brow behind his glasses. "Damn," he said when she answered in the affirmative. "This stuff ain't half bad for lookin' all weird."
"It's appearance is… bizarre," the Hot Water noblewoman noted with a nod. "But the taste is impeccable. It drives home the sea's bounty which Oto has access to. For such bounty, I could perhaps, convince the daimyo to… forgive, and forget."
"I'm sure my daimyo would be keen… not to repeat history again," Orochimaru carefully responded, "once he partakes of Hot Water Country's bountiful trade."
Eyes then drifted to the representative of Yugakure. She looked less than convinced, but glanced at the noblewoman and sighed. "Yugakure has always been a good and faithful servant of the daimyo. If he would be willing to forgive and forget… we would follow his example."
The noblewoman patted her on the hand.
Raiga knew that he had just convinced someone to tell their daimyo to overlook genuine, legitimate grievances Yugakure had against Konoha. People who had been tortured and died would never receive justice because of his politicking. But for that price, he was willing to take having a less hostile neighbor.
All the while, he knew that someday he would be asked to do as Yugakure's leadership was -- forgive and forget legitimate grievance for another's politics.
--
Legendary Sannin Orochimaru
After dinner, the representatives were guided back to the diplomatic suites in Tower One. Orochimaru, however, stayed behind to chat with family. With the strangers out of the room, he and Akami greeted each other more warmly than they had prior. A recent discovery Orochimaru had made about himself: He was a hugger.
Akami squeezed him in a hug and patted him on the back. "Good to see you back, I was afraid they'd send that pervert again."
"Jiraiya wanted to come, but his team is entering the chunin exams -- they need extra training to get the best shot." Orochimaru enjoyed the hug a moment longer then broke away. "I'm sorry for springing this on you -- Lady Yagi is a known seafood lover, I thought it would tip the scales."
Akami gave him an understanding look, but shook her head. "I wasn't here, when your message arrived. I was at work at the restaurant." She gestured to the kitchen. "Noburu's the one who did all that."
He glanced over at the kitchen where Noburu and two clones were hard at work with the dishes. Oh. "I… thought you needed his help, with the complexity of the dishes."
Akami shook her head again. "He just got my okay to use the white wine, that was it. He and Haruki did the work to make this possible."
Orochimaru felt a sudden dread from that information and the fierceness with which Noburu cleaned the dishes. He glanced over to his nephew's adopted brother, and was met with a dagger stare.
Haruki kept it up until he turned around the island counter with the guest's glasses in hand. "Wine glasses," he said and held them out to one of Noburu's clones.
"Hmm," Noburu's clone said and took them to be cleaned. "Leftover calamari noodles over there," he jerked his head toward the island counter.
"Thanks." Harkui left them to it and went to make himself a plate. Neither of them spoke to Orochimaru directly.
The Sannin got the impression he'd made a mistake.
Akami nudged him on the shoulder. "Go talk to him, find out what you should be sorry for, and apologize. I'm going to get out of my work clothes now." The chef smiled at him, warm, then left down the hall to her room.
Orochimaru swallowed and approached the kitchen slowly. "Um. Hello, Noburu."
"Hmm," the boy's nearest clone responded and placed a skillet on the rack to dry.
"Thank you for… putting this together so soon. Squid ink noodles aren't something I would have expected, given how… little time you had to work with."
"Hmm." The clone narrowed his eyes at Orochimaru then set aside the serving tongs he'd cleaned. "Princess made it. Squid ink pasta and calamari are a Kiri classic -- he made it while I got the windows cleaned." He used the spoon he had just cleaned to point to the bubble windows -- totally free of algae and polyps. "Because neither of us had things we had to do tonight." The teenager slammed the spoon onto the drying wrack and began to furiously scrub the next dish. "We could just drop everything and whip you up restaurant-quality stuff. No big deal."
Orochimaru felt like perhaps leaving Tsunade behind in Wave was a poor decision in hindsight. Noburu had picked up her talents in passive aggressive behavior. He glanced over and saw Haruki, alone at the table, with a sour look on his face as he ate.
"I… take it you missed something important."
"Ah no no no," Noburu shook his head with a shrug. "In the grand scheme of things, probably not." He pushed his clone aside so that he could start putting dry things away. "I mean, lesser scheme of things, it was something I'd been looking forward to. For." He slammed a counter door closed so that it echoed. "Months. But hey." Noburu looked at Orochimaru with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Fire Country and Wave probably won't have to pay so much for potatoes, huh? That's good, right?!" He made finger-guns at Orochimaru and turned away, his chipper expression melting into a sour mess as he went.
Orochimaru realized how his nephew must feel at that moment. It must have felt just like when Orochimaru and Jiraiya had to shelve their plans because Sarutobi-sensei had volunteered them for a mission. Or when a project had to be put aside at the most interesting part when Sarutobi-sensei had assigned him a task to test him. Sarutobi-sensei's apologies had always rung hollow, and Orochimaru thought his would do the same for Noburu and Haruki.
He immediately began to put his mind to ways to show his sorryness without ringing hollow -- all of which demanded action. Compensation.
"May I ask… what had you missed out on?"
Noburu looked over to Haruki and waited for his adopted brother to nod before he answered. "We each had different things for today planned. Princess was going to see a matchmaker from Fire Country. Get his picture taken, fill out a profile, maybe get approached by a ninja clan who wants to marry into a kekkei genkai in exchange for moving out here. She only had one opening in her schedule for this year. First come, first serve and all that."
Orochimaru flinched. That was going to be a tricky fix. Tricky, but not impossible.
"And I had a date planned. Had to postpone it because we both got missions at different ports -- and wanted to get everything ready to go as soon as we got back home. Now, after all this, I'll be lucky if I don't get the cold shoulder." Noburu's clones had finished and were dispelled.
That… was somehow trickier for him to fix, though he admitted internally that the stakes were a lot lower. One missed date wasn't all that important… except that it was to Noburu.
"I'll pull some strings back home -- get another matchmaker out here specifically for Haruki," Orochimaru said and locked in in his memory as an outstanding commitment. "And… who is this girl you were supposed to see? I can speak to her sensei perhaps, or Oto's mission office, and perhaps a short vacation can be arranged." Orochimaru stopped when Noburu looked at him with confusion. "What? ...It wasn't Kushina was it?"
"Ew, no," Noburu said and shuddered.
"And it's not Shizune, is it?"
"She's twelve! Ew! No!" Noburu shook his head.
"I'm not one to tell the Sannin their business… but maybe you should ask Jiraiya?" Haruki shrugged, and continued to eat his noodles and calamari. "Didn't he talk to you about the conversation he and Noburu had about this sort of stuff?"
Orochimaru's eyebrow rose enough to answer the question itself in the negative. "Did he do something I need to hit him for?"
"Well, that's a matter of perspective -- "
"Yes," Noburu answered with narrowed eyes. "But that's something you and he can talk about. Right now, I'm going to go talk to my hopefully not-ex boyfriend and hope he forgives me." With that said, Noburu removed his chef's apron and set it on a hook next to Akami and Haruki's then left the apartment without a backwards glance.
With Noburu out of the way, Orochimaru locked eyes with Haruki and hoped he would explain.
Haruki sank a little, his confidence lessened without his adopted brother in the room. "Um. Jiraiya gave him a bunch of Icha-Ichas for his birthday."
One thing worth hitting his teammate for was noted by the snake Sannin. "Alright. Was there anything else?"
"He… may have… allegedly… tried to set Noburu up with a lady of the night to 'fix' him? And had to be told by the lady that she doesn't do that sort of stuff?"
A sudden spike of killing intent drove every fish that had gathered in the reef around the Turtle House swimming away in fear -- even the lionfish.
---
Jiraiya, as a person who openly lusted after a woman's form even though he knew the person was a twelve-year-old boy, is not good at accepting 'not interested' responses.
Anyway…
Oto Update:
- Presently nineteen of the planned twenty-five towers are completed.
- The dominant clans in the village are the Kaguya, Uemon, Hoshigaki, and Hozuki. Each have a tower set aside for their use.
- Several minor clans have either migrated to Oto, or came with them from Kiri.
- These include the Waru, Yuki, Fujimoto, and Houseki. They are granted suites in several towers, but not whole towers in their own right.
- The village is lead by the Sotaicho, equivalent to the rank of jounin-commander in Konoha.
- The current Sotaicho is Raiga Kurosuki.
- Otogakure is currently the largest city in Wave, as well as the most populated.
- The kraken offshore from Wave's sound is still lurking about.
- Princess Tsunade has taken up semi-permanent residency, as the manager for the Spiteful Turtle casino.
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
-LOL Jiraiya you ass
-RIP Haruki, hopefully your ancient japanese dating profile gets set up right
>Tsunade is running the Casino
Given her luck, that's probably the most fair casino in existence.
-RIP Haruki, hopefully your ancient japanese dating profile gets set up right
>Tsunade is running the Casino
Given her luck, that's probably the most fair casino in existence.
Teiwaz
Beloved of Adorjan.
- Location
- RUNNING AWAY
oof
jiraiya being that tactless makes you question how he can be a spymaster
though he i can see him probably being told/hinted at to take a wife or something to carry on his bloodline depending on the politics of oto but that would be a purely political matching
jiraiya being that tactless makes you question how he can be a spymaster
as it is snarky turtle buddah super gay so him having a romantic bond with any lady is very very unlikely even one as precious as junko is
though he i can see him probably being told/hinted at to take a wife or something to carry on his bloodline depending on the politics of oto but that would be a purely political matching
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- Pronouns
- he/him
Jiraiya's funeral interlude in 3...2...1...
