Chapter Thirty-Seven: Girl Talks
It was amazing how difficult it was to find the right second to talk or hang out with his friends. Yet with enough patience, the fact that he barely needed to sleep, and a desire to at least spend time with his best friends, Tobio found the right occasion to make it work. Even if it did feel like it still took an eternity to find the right time when their schedules work out.
"Any actual injuries with the family?" He asked, walking side by side with Ami as they went through the slowly opening businesses that were coming back to life in the wake of the Konoha Crush.
People were still skittish, but life had to go on. That included all of the businesses that needed to get money flowing again, especially the ones that maintained all their employees and infrastructure. There were even a few restaurants and food stalls, which was where the two of them managed to get the dango they were nibbling on. Not everyone was so lucky to have made it out so intact, though, with the surplus of funerals and lost homes, businesses, or stranger things besides.
Still, they only had an hour or two to hang out before they were both off to other responsibilities. That didn't mean it wasn't nice all the same to catch up with Ami and see how her family had made it through everything. Not that bad, seeing as he suspected he'd have read genuinely bad news in her emotions before she ever said it.
"Just some bruises," the purple-haired girl informed him. "My dad shielded my mom from some falling rubble; that's the extent of it."
"Good for him."
The girl shot him a sidelong look, filled with scorn. "Not a good thing!" Scrunching up her features, she gagged in disgust. "He's been insufferable about it; both of them have been. I might have another sibling soon…" Ami gave a shudder, traumatized by whatever she'd been hearing. In her shoes, he might have genuinely been just as taken aback by it.
"Is it so bad that your parents love each other?" Tobio asked, trying not to laugh at her disgusted expression.
"It is when they make it my problem, being so sickeningly sweet with each other."
He nodded sagely. "Ah, yes, I forgot who you were. Ami, Enemy of Love and Stable Marriages."
The look she fixed him with and the raised fist in warning were enough to genuinely make him laugh this time. "HA, okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
"Damn right you are…" She grumbled. "Almost got clobbered with that sass…"
"You're gonna end up a spinster if that's how you handle conflict," Tobio pointed out. "Woe is Ami, clobbering her poor future husband whenever he screws up. Easy way to make him run off."
Ami sniffed imperiously. "Honestly? Better than ending up with a smelly boy."
The audacity of this girl. "I take regular showers and use deodorant."
"Sure…"
"YOU-" He clenched his fists, even if he wasn't actually that angry with her. Just this normal back-and-forth banter was a balm to his soul in other respects. August had been busy, with Tobio barely able to eke out much in the way of time for training.
However, it did feel like as they edged closer to September, he'd have the time to dive back into improving himself. Having the month to just get settled into his new capabilities wasn't all that bad, though. It gave him room to let all of his crazy, silly powers breathe, rather than diving headfirst into a new powers.
And he'd been doing some very, very light experimentation with the Key of Kings. Getting in the right mood to activate it and some of the other capabilities was another thing entirely, but he'd probably steadily unlock a lot of them as time went on.
"What have they even had you working on?" Tobio prodded, interested in at least some of what she'd been up to. Everyone in his social circle had been engaged in something or another, it seemed.
"A lot of guard duty," she sighed. "Then again, I'm not a living piece of construction equipment like you, so that makes sense."
Grinning broadly, he lifted up an arm and flexed no small amount of muscle on the limb, to which Ami could only turn away, the faintest flush on her face. "Stupid brute."
"I am, indeed, a brute," he fully agreed. "But calling me stupid is slander."
"Whatever," she continued, recovering from the flash of muscle. "I've been thinking..."
"Dangerous words coming from you."
Clicking her tongue at his words, she continued. "Thinking about the types of things we should specialize in as a team whenever you get promoted to Chunin or something."
"There's no guarantee I'm going to be promoted," Tobio swiftly responded, even if his voice made it entirely clear that he didn't think it was likely he wouldn't be.
In canon, Naruto didn't get promoted because he was a bit of a dumbass, and they needed a reason to keep him under the radar until he could come into his own. Tobio was a lot different than Naruto, though, in that he was considerably more lethal than the boy at the same age. And from his own observations, just flat out more mature.
Ami seemed to find the notion just as incredulous as she shot him a glare. "When you're promoted," she reiterated, eyes half-lidded as if daring him to gainsay her. "We might want to specialize our team in something."
"What, like infiltration missions or something?" That was what Ami had wanted to specialize in before, hadn't it been?
She shook her head to the negative. "No. I mean, I think it'd be good for sub-specialties in each member of the team, but I think we'd actually be best as hunter-nin."
The boy frowned, eyebrows furrowing together in thought. "I thought that was a Kirigakure-only thing."
"Sort of," she admitted, tilting her hand from side to side. "The specific arts and jutsu they use, yes. Every Hidden Village has some variation of it, to track down not just missing-nin, but also criminals with bounties on them, and specific hard targets villages need destroyed."
"Huh," Tobio boggled, scratching at his chin. "Must have missed that lesson from Tekuno-sensei."
"I asked him about it during one of your naptimes. Oh, I'm sorry, meditation sessions."
"Meditation is a real thing," Tobio defended, trying not to let her get a rise out of him. And failing judging by the smirk that was coming over her face. "I swear it is!"
"Uh huh," she nodded, though the expression on her face made it hard to tell if she'd believed him or was just having fun messing with him. It could be both at once, knowing her. "What do you think about the hunter-nin idea?"
"I think…"
Well, it made a degree of sense. It wasn't as if Konoha was new to creating teams for a singular purpose. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio was explicitly designed for each Clan to take advantage of their capabilities, to operate as a singular unit. Presumably there were other designed schemas that would fit as well, and the concept as a whole would take advantage of their capabilities better.
Because when you were hunting a target, Tobio couldn't see why every possible avenue they normally took wouldn't work somehow. He was a blunt weapon, someone who the team could throw against hard targets with wild abandon or use as backup. Hibachi was a very median fighter who preferred to be more cautious, and Ami preferred to attack from oblique angles.
If they could cover the angles that the other didn't, or couldn't, there could be a very neat and tidy profit to be made. "I think it's genuinely a good idea. What did Tekuno-sensei say when you told him about it?"
"I haven't yet," she admitted. "I was a little nervous that he'd say it was a bad idea."
A scoff came from the boy. "If he were going to naysay it, he'd do it in a kinder way." Tekuno-sensei was a lot of things. Being mean and harsh with his opinions wasn't one of them, most of the time.
Ami huffed. "Yeah, I know that, doesn't make it easier to just out and out bring up the subject! It also feels like a bad time, what with everything going on."
"There's no such thing as the perfect time," Tobio pointed out. "Certainly more opportune moments than other things, but if I'm going to be promoted like you think-"
"You are."
"IF, that means that I'll at least be able to maybe push through that idea of yours." He paused, giving it a little more thought. "I think the Hokage also wanted me to properly finish the Clan paperwork before he passed, too, so that would also give me another avenue to push for the notion."
A lot of Konoha's shinobi might be more leery of allowing a new unit or specialized team to be developed if it weren't for a few factors like that. Having an up-and-coming young prodigy helming it, like himself, and the fact that they could throw it at their enemies and rogues. Otogakure, and the various bases where it was probably located, would definitely be an acceptable target as far as most people were concerned. It was the type of use-case for his abilities he'd genuinely enjoy, over the more traditional forms of skulduggery and murkier behaviors shinobi usually got up to.
"It sounds like a plan then." She paused as the two of them walked along, hands wringing together as something else seemed to be on her mind. "Also."
"Also…?"
"I, I mean, my mother, was wondering if you wanted to come for dinner again sometime soon?" She offered, looking a weird mixture of hopeful and resentful at the same time. It was almost impressive how rapidly someone could oscillate between the two extremes.
And it also made his stomach grumble at the thought of a big, homecooked meal from Ami's mother. Food that he didn't have to cook was always appreciated. "Is she going to make something delicious again?"
"My mother's cooking is always good, but yes. I think she wants you to see about helping out in the kitchen too."
"Then I agree." Not that Tobio would have said no to free food anyway, but sometimes you had to keep people on their toes.
"Good," Ami decisively nodded. "Anyway, with your horns and everything, your outfit is going to need an update. So we'll do that while some things are cooking."
That…actually sounded like a very good idea. The biggest thing with Tobio was the fact that he needed to properly get some custom forehead protector made, given the fact that his horns and Key of Kings precluded anything standard. Neither did a lot of his clothes fit anymore, either.
"Sounds good to me then." Tobio nodded. "I'll try not to flex too hard to save your poor, maidenly heart from my oni wiles."
"You—" she choked, beginning to chase after him as Tobio began to jog forward. "Get back here and accept your thrashing!"
"You won't be able to get to me if you're that slow!" He chuckled, running forward as she raced after him.
The more things changed, he was soothed to know that the more they stayed the same. The sky was blue, he wanted a stiff drink, and Ami could be easily ragebaited into action. All was right with the world.
If Tobio had to name a quality about Fū that he liked the most, it was the fact that the girl was the easiest of his confidants to get along with. She had her own baggage and damage in life, but the difference between her and everyone else he knew was that at no point did it ever really get her down. Despite what he knew of her poor upbringing.
In spite of all possible outcomes for the green-haired girl, she'd somehow managed to turn out to be a friend, an outgoing, if a little bit troublemaking, girl. That spoke well to the inner seed of her character in Tobio's eyes, because out of the bunch of the Brotherhood that he'd found, she also felt like the only real person he could open up to in truth.
"It feels like everything's gonna change in the aftermath of the invasion. Is that weird to feel?"
"I don't think you're weird for feeling that at all," Fū admitted, smiling nervously at Tobio. "Not that it's a bad thing. Change can be good, y'know? Before I came to Konohagakure, I used to think Takigakure as a big village, was the be-all, end-all of the world. But what I saw here…" She trailed off, eyes flashing with some faint memories before she came back to herself.
"The Crush was a bit much, yeah."
A thoughtful hum escaped her at the name. "Is that what they're calling it now?"
"I mean, I'm calling it that," Tobio admitted, sheepishly smiling at her. "Hoping that it'll catch on."
"It's catchy if nothing else," the greenette agreed, shooting him a smile.
The two of them were on perimeter patrol duty, picking up the slack for other shinobi who were already overworked and overdrawn in every sense of the word. Running through the trees at the outskirts of Konoha, as he engaged his recovered Energy Sense carefully. Being a sensor who could actively move and use his abilities was a valuable talent, and Fū's capacity to keep up with his own ludicrous speeds with the help of her flight was another reason they were together.
Besides the unspoken fact that if she tried to run off, Tobio was pretty sure they expected him to nab her. Did he quite agree with that unstated goal? Probably, yeah. It wasn't as if her home village could protect her, not if they had to deal with some serious threats like the Akatsuki that had come looking for her.
It wasn't perfect village, but short of Pein showing up, they'd probably be able to rebuff almost anyone from attacking them. Even weakened from the invasion as they were. He could count on probably blitzing one with his hellish flames, though whether or not that news got out to the greater shinobi world was likely a matter of time.
Ugh. Well, if he had to lose the element of surprise on it, better to do so for a good cause.
"It is a little corny, though, isn't it?" Fū teased, smirking his way. "Like someone too full of themselves came up with it."
He gasped in fake outrage, clutching his chest as they hopped from tree to tree. "I'm just enough full of myself. Lemme have a little bit of pride, will ya'?"
"No, no, it's a the job of your friends to bring you down to earth." She smugly stated. "You've gotta get a reality check before you think you're the next coming of the Yellow Flash."
Oh, if only she knew.
A low, darkly amused chuckle escaped him. "Gimme a couple of years and I might be able to do a pretty good impression of him." Traumatizing another generation of Iwagakure shinobi with the Key of Kings sounded like a good time, even. It felt like the sort of thing his sword spirit should be chiming in over, though she'd been rather sedate of late.
She gave him a gauging look then, something passing in her eyes briefly, before the girl sharply nodded. "I believe you. You're kind of scary when you go all out, but then...then you say goofy things, and I remember it's just Tobio."
It was a relief she felt that way, really, as he gestured up at his head. "You don't mind the horns?"
She nervously laughed, coming to a stop on a particularly sturdy branch of a tree. "Ehehe." Glancing over at him with a sheepish expression, the girl rubbed the back of her head. "I know a little something about being scary, at least in my own way."
"How so?" He came to a stop as well, standing on the same branch as her.
Whatever she was holding inside, and he had a suspicion of what it was, there was a resolution coming over her face. Determination that glinted in her eyes as she balled up her hands into fists. "Can…can you keep a secret, Tobio?"
"More than you'd think."
"This is a big secret. It's something I'm…not really supposed to tell anyone, but I trust you with it."
"Then I promise whatever it is, no matter how crazy or insane, I'll be sure to keep it quiet," he reassured her gently. "There's nothing you could tell me that would make me think any less of you."
"We haven't been friends for all that long, really, but I'd like to think it's been long enough to at least get the true nature of your character." And that true nature was that she was kind, caring, and probably the type of person he'd at least want to keep in his life. No matter how anything else in the future turned out, some people just deserved to have someone in their corner. And if they didn't, Tobio would like to believe he'd always be the sort of person to reach a hand down to those truly downtrodden or forgotten. Maybe that sort of specific altruism was his nindō?
Fū seemed genuinely curious about something. "And what's my true nature?"
"You've got the soul of someone who cares," Tobio bluntly stated. "You care a lot, as much as some people who don't care at all. And frankly, that's a downright miraculous thing in a world like ours."
"Having a big heart is that impressive?" She asked, a dubious tone in her voice, as if she couldn't believe it.
"You'd be surprised," he reaffirmed, frowning softly. "Sometimes, being kind, caring, and friendly takes a strength all of its own. It can be terrifying to make that first step, especially when you don't know whether or not it'll be reciprocated."
She smiled, and it was a sad thing. The sadness radiating from her was one that was accompanied by a sense of resignation too and determination in equal measures. "…Do you know what a tailed beast is?"
It felt wrong to lie to her when I objectively already knew all of her secrets. "I'm aware, yeah. Senju Hashirama gave them away for peace, which was…" Well, it didn't work, but the guy had the best of intentions. "It was in idea that had a good heart behind it, even if it didn't turn out the best for everyone involved. Why?"
"Because I have one sealed inside of me," Fū admitted, placing a hand on her abdomen. "When I was a baby, I was given the seven-tails, Chōmei. It's…it's why I'm here, because Konoha didn't believe my village would be strong enough to protect it."
"You know its name?" Tobio genuinely hadn't expected that level of progress. How well did Fū and her tailed beast even get along? The girl didn't get that much spotlight, so he wasn't sure. "That's actually extremely cool."
"According to her, Takigakure doesn't have particularly good sealing masters, which is why we can talk. The seal between us is a bit weak, which might have been a problem if she were genuinely out to hurt me," the green-haired girl explained, with some level of incredulity in her features. "You're not…disgusted, or afraid of me? Or think I'm a demon?"
He gave a small laugh and ran a hand back through his hair, tilting his head to the side to emphasize his horns. "I'm the last person to throw stones about looking like a demon, or being one. All I know is that you're Fū, kind of goofy, with a bottomless pit of a stomach, and the kind of personality that can apparently manage to befriend even a tailed beast."
"Whatever strange powers you've got, or whatever's sealed inside of you, literally has never mattered to me," Tobio bluntly stated. "You're my friend. There's nothing else about the situation that matters."
In the past, Tobio had always wondered why Naruto could do what he did for Sasuke. To go to such lengths for someone he'd considered one of his very first real friends. Now though, it was a lot easier to really wrap his mind around being single-minded and dedicated to saving and protecting someone you considered one of your precious people. That sort of selflessness genuinely took a kind of strength all of its own.
Fū stared at him, shocked, before her eyes immediately began to water. In a moment, her arms were wrapping around his torso. Whatever she'd been holding back came out in hearty sobs, thick, heart-wrenching crying, as if he was going to reject her. Maybe he might have, if he was an idiot like some of the people in the world.
So as his friend came undone, he held her back and let whatever emotions or fear get out of her. It wasn't quite what he'd been expecting to sidetrack their patrol, but that didn't mean he wasn't willing to lend that shoulder to cry on. This had been weighing on her obviously enough to cause this much internal turmoil.
When she was down, there was snot on her face and her eyes were puffy as she pulled back. "Oh man…" She sniffled, giving him a watery smile. "I…I'm a mess, aren't I?"
"A little," he admitted, which drew a soft, choked giggle from her. "But it's fine. I can tell you've been carrying this for a long time."
"I don't think until I came to Konoha I knew what a real friend was. Hanging out with people, chatting with them, eating good food and…and being cared about." Her face turned down as she sniffled again. "…It's not what Shibuki warned me it might be."
He laughed. "What, that we'd try to brainwash you or something?" Well, they might have been doing that, but in the softest way possible. It turned out that being nice to living weapons is probably the easiest way to keep them on your side. This hidden technique was so bizarre and unorthodox to the rest of the Hidden Villages, that they couldn't wrap their mind around it.
She raised her hands quickly. "N-No! He's always been good to me; he just warned me that things might not match up to the reality. And to keep being a jinchūriki under wraps." Another awkward smile drifted across her features. "Kinda failed that last order, huh?"
"A little. But what does that mean for you, realistically?"
"It means one day I'll have to go back home…"
He paused, and then made a decision that he wasn't sure was a good one or not. "Unless, uh. You don't want to?"
She blinked, as if the idea didn't even compute to her. "Huh?"
"I mean, you've got the seven-tails inside of you. Each one is by an order of magnitude, significantly stronger than the last. If you get strong enough, you can dictate terms to whoever you want in your life, about how you want your life to go." That was just the simple fact of their world. If you weren't strong enough people would walk all over you.
Because what other choice would you have but to obey?
"So…just get strong enough. It's that simple?"
"It's worked for me," Tobio shrugged, grinning toothily her way.
For a long moment, Fū looked his way, lips opening and closing a few times as she tried to figure out what to say. "…I wanna be strong. I wanna be so strong that no one can ever take me away from my friends again, or…or treat me the way I used to be treated."
"Can you teach me how?"
Something broad and eager spread across Tobio's face at those words, as he beamed at her. There were a lot of things the Oni boy didn't know how to do. No knowledge of how to sew, how to smith, how to manipulate global politics or change cultures by himself.
But how to get strong?
That was something he could help her with.
He was all teeth, as something eager glinted in his eyes. "It would be my privilege. By the time we're done with you, you'll be a one-woman army. That's my promise. Just make sure you won't cry by the end of it."
She laughed, wiping at her eyes. "No more tears. Not until they're for something that matters."
"I'll hold ya' to that," Tobio smiled. "Let's talk about a proper training plan while we finish this patrol up."
If she wanted his help training, well, she was gonna get it. But there'd be no take-backs, not when he knew there were people after her. The idea of one of his precious friends being too weak to fight back, when they had all the tools they needed to reach the pinnacle of strength, was almost offensive to him.
She had the seven tails and utterly no excuse to not blow most of the major characters out of the water in a few years. So Tobio would do his civic duty to the Elemental Nations and ensure she reached it. Whether or not anyone else thanked him for doing so, when she was running around as a terrifying kage-class shinobi...
Well, that wasn't his problem.
Hefting up a large sack of rice on each shoulder, he kept a decent clip alongside Karin as the two of them carried out their duties. It wasn't unusual for him to be paired up with all sorts of people in the aftermath of the invasion, but that didn't mean it wasn't nice to be with his friends. Even if the circumstances that had led to it could have been better.
Did the existing village leadership, as they were now completely trust the poached Uzumaki? Probably not, though that was the smart move, all things considered. However, Konoha was short-staffed across the board, and ensuring that she was at least with a minder and helping was better than letting her languish in an apartment, unproductive.
"So how's your first month in Konohagakure been so far?"
She had the good grace to not entirely whack him with the sack of rice she was carrying, though he suspected it was a near thing by the incredulous look she shot him. "...A bit loud."
"Yeah, well, hopefully things will calm down a little after all of the recent excitement." At least, compared to the other excitement that they'd just survive. If the events of the world followed any of the movie events, then things were bound to be hectic in other ways.
Softly snorting at the understatement, Karin shook her head softly. "All that said, I still think I like it."
"Really?" He beamed, shooting her a smile.
Karin rolled her eyes at his antics, shaking her head softly. "I've only got Kusa as a real point of comparison, but you've got to understand that Konohagakure is…it's different. The way you guys treat each other, your shinobi, your families, or those with bloodlines makes you fundamentally a cut above the rest of the Hidden Villages."
Then she paused. "Which is weird, considering how often you guys get demonized by the other villages. In hindsight most of it just seems like bitter seething from villages that can't put together institutions as sturdy as you can."
"Well, we were the first," Tobio smugly stated, preening at the praise to Konoha. "It goes to show that we'd do it the best too." Not that Konoha was faultless, just that he was happy to have been reborn here and not somewhere like…Kirigakure.
Ugh. He'd have to murder his way to the top of the hierarchy so he could reform it into something better and then keep everyone in line through fear. That sounded like so much goddamn work.
"Don't let it get to your head," she shot back, even as there was a smile on her face. "I'm sure I'll find something to dislike about Konoha eventually."
"I wouldn't dream of it."
"Liar."
He gasped. "Slander and calumny!"
"Tobio, I don't even know what calumny even means."
"It's basically making malicious lies to ruin someone's reputation."
"Oh." Walking along, she turned the thought over in her head before giving a decisive nod. "Then yeah, I'll find something to complain about in due time. Gotta tarnish this shine off your village somehow."
The two of them continued for a bit like that, talking about absolutely nothing of substance as they continued their food relief efforts across the village. It wasn't silence, but it was a different kind of companionship than what he might have experienced with the rest of his friend group. Karin could be high-strung in her own ways and maybe have a desire to move on from her past weakness a little too much. Tobio was the last person to scorn someone for seeking strength, though, provided it wasn't at the cost of someone else.
Eventually, the conversation did shift to a different topic.
"Do you know what you're going to try to shoot for, sticking around in the village?" He asked, arching a brow her way. "I mean, you're probably going to be considered a genin in terms of your ranking and laying low for the next few years. But that doesn't mean you can't have a goal in the village."
"It's not something I've given too much thought to, honestly," Karin admitted with a wince. "I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop for so long that the idea I could nudge myself one way or another feels…like a luxury that I've never had before."
"Fair," Tobio conceded. "There's no small amount of, uh, different disciplines to go into. I'm kind of a generalist in a lot of respects, but that's what you have to be to reach the heights of power." To be sure, most people who reached Kage class or higher had one big thing they were known for, but they also were capable of a bunch of other things at high levels.
She quieted for a few moments, eyebrows furrowing together as they dumped off the sacks of rice as per their assignment, beginning to cycle back to do it again. "...I think if I had to do anything, it'd be the arts of a medic-nin."
That made him blink in surprise. Considering her backstory, being in a hospital was the last thing he would have expected. "Really?"
"It was never healing people that I hated," Karin explained, puffing herself up. "It was the fact that it was taken as an obligation, that my life was ultimately a resource to expend as the leadership of Kusagakure saw fit. Never a person, more a…a thing to be owned and guarded."
Swallowing thickly, he saw her ball her hands up into tight fists. "At the end of the day, I do actually like taking care of people, and learning the medical arts without my bloodline as a stopgap measure just seems like a smart thing to do."
"Besides, being a medic-nin does not mean you have to be defenseless." Sakura's future potential spoke to that, and so did Tsunade and Kabuto as characters. "Do you think you'll ever have the chakra control for that sort of that?"
"Maybe not," she admitted. "But I won't know until I try. If a Senju can be a good medic, then a Uzumaki probably has a decent chance." That was true. They had supposedly applicable chakra reserves as bloodline traits, so it wasn't out of the field of possibility for something like that to happen.
Her emotions bled off no small amount of resolve at that statement. He didn't think that she'd entirely gotten over what had happened to her, or her life. Maybe she never would. That didn't mean Karin wasn't taking the steps to move forward with her life all the same.
It made him happy to see.
"I'm glad," he nodded, giving her a broad smile. "Next time I get seriously messed up, I'll have to put myself in your care."
For reasons he chose to ignore, a nuclear blush spread across her face at those words. "S-Shut up!" Shoving his shoulder, or at least trying to, she stomped ahead further. "S'not something you gotta ask for. You saved me. So one of these days, I'll have to save you."
Before he could stop it, a laugh rolled out of him as he followed behind Karin. "You know what? I believe it."
Whatever the future might hold for one of the last Uzumaki, he had no small amount of faith that she'd at least have the strength to see it through. Compared to the skittish, nervous girl that he'd met in the Forest of Death a month ago, that was tremendous improvement in a short amount of time. If she could climb that far so fast, how high could she go?
He was looking forward to finding out.