sunshineverse | [closed] The shareef don't like it

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[closed] The shareef don't like it

Where: Amegakure
When: September, BGS 9
Notes: After two years and a few odd months, Kushina is finally allowed in to Amegakure to meet with the village leader. ...After a fashion.

Kushina had tried to be patient. She really had. On the first day she and her squad had been turned away at the country border, she had been furious but turned back to return to Konoha. Her first mission since returning to active duty ending in failure had really done a number on her pride. When they finally returned to Konoha to relay their mission report to the Hokage, he told them to keep trying. When Kushina's teammates had left the room, he told her as the team's leader she shouldn't do anything rash. He didn't want anything bad happening to her. If not for the village's sake, then for little Naruto's. So the next morning, she led them back. Again, they were turned away. And again, they went back to file a mission report, then returned the the country border.

This tedious cycle continued for two years and three months. At any time, Kushina could have easily backed out and said she had to retire from active duty again to be a full-time mom. But that wasn't her. Instead, each failure made her more bound and determined to get in. (But not at the cost of starting another war! Of course not, Minato. That would be stupid.) So one day in September, she had had it. She told her teammates that instead of turning back, they'd camp out half a mile from the border and they would distract the border guards while she broke across the border and made a beeline for the village. What could possibly go wrong?

It worked up until she crossed the border. She had only made it a few yards in before she was apprehended. "GO!" she had yelled at her teammates as her hands were tied behind her back. They obeyed and fled, probably to regroup. Surely they wouldn't be so dumb as to return to the village. She didn't have much time to think about it as more of the border patrol appeared. She didn't bother trying to fight her way to freedom, despite it being her first instinct. As it was, she was already in the wrong and may have put her mission in jeopardy. Some of the border patrol formed her guard and escorted her away from the border. But they were heading away from the Fire Country's border. So that would mean they were likely bringing her to Amegakure. The place she had been attempting to get to in the first place. Any trace of excitement that she could possibly get a chance to complete her mission was instantly crushed when she remembered her predicament. Even if she did manage to pass on her message, when would she be able to go home? Would they let her go even after she explained her side?

Kushina wasn't sure how long her captors had taken to drag her to the village. It was hard to tell how many hours because of all the rain.

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"Not back to the border, and that's all you need to be concerned with at the moment, isn't it? You'll get to make your case, even if it is for that village."

He didn't even answer the second question, watching her through another set of eyes from overhead as he swept his way through his village. He knew that his behavior was drawing attention, because the paths never intervened so directly with someone that wasn't clearly on the run from someone or something.

Well. That was a surprise. And since he hadn't seen fit to answer her second question, she continued to carefully tug and try to loosen her bonds. She wasn't even interested in fighting, just having her hands free was a luxury she missed. So she fought to keep quiet as she followed the orange-haired man through the village, wondering exactly where they were going.

He finally ducked into a building, another orange haired figure, the long haired one this time, sweeping in behind them both, closing the door and watching her as he finally got them out of the rain into a fairly well lit area, moving across the echoing hall of the building he'd brought them into on quiet feet. He saw no need to explain anything further than he already had and thus looked to make sure she was still following.

No luck yet in freeing herself. The man's silent manner was starting to annoy her, but at least they weren't getting soaked through anymore. All the water dripping off her hair and body left puddles in her wake.

"I'm still here, y'know. Quiet, but still here. Well, not exactly quiet anymore... But you know what I mean."

"I was looking back as a courtesy to you." After all, he could see her just fine through the eyes on the other side of the room, and he turned forward before starting up a flight of stairs.

It was an impulse, but seeing her under proper light had solidified his decision.

"Oh..."

And that was it from her. ...For now. She kept up as they went up the stairs. Where were they going...

He said nothing more until they reached the top, making sure Konan was elsewhere because he didn't know how she would take him doing this, and for once he was actually... concerned she might not agree.

Usually he didn't pay that as much mind as he perhaps ought to, but he didn't want to deal with that doubt presently. Then he slipped into the room where the First Path, the Path that was once Nagato, was settled, watching the door for their arrival expectantly. He closed it behind her and caught the ropes to pull away from her as he slipped off to the side of the aged looking crimson haired figure.

At the moment, his face was mostly hidden by his bangs, but overall, Nagato was far, far too thin. And he was the one who picked up the earlier thread of conversation. "So you come on behalf of Konoha, hmm? Years of rejections weren't enough hint?"

She barely registered the ropes coming undone, too shocked by the man in front of her. He... He had red hair like hers. But he looked so much older than her. Maybe it was his emaciated state. Was he Ero-sensei's age? ...And how did he know what she had been discussing with the orange-haired man?

Wait, he had asked her questions. This was the closest she and anyone else had gotten in years. But there was one question in particular burning on the tip of her tongue. Though her confidence had never truly left her, there was a new spark of energy as she addressed the man with the impossibly red hair.

"I don't take hints that well. That might be one reason why I was selected for this mission. And a closed door only tells me to come back later to see if someone's home."

He noticed her shock, but he himself had had time to get over his own, to get himself under control as to be the godly figure he wished for her to know he was. He may not be so impressive to look at, like this, but by no means was he without his awareness of everything outside this room.

"I noticed that in your... tactics." He paused a moment, lifting his head enough to peek through a part in his hair. "Do you know why you were allowed to proceed?"

Her eyes kept going back to his hair. Then she realized her own hands were free as one fingered the soggy mess hanging from her own head. She lifted up some of her bangs almost directly in front of her face. Her eyes shifted slowly between her hair and Nagato's. It was worth a guess, but something in her gut told her she was on the right track...

"Are you an Uzumaki too?"

"I have no family." I was a murmur, low, but it wasn't a no... but neither was it a yes. If anything, it was an ambiguous non-answer as he watched her not answer his question either. Hmph.

She frowned at his non-answer, partially out of annoyance and partially out of pity. To her knowledge, her whole family had died when Uzushio fell. Had that been the case with this guy too? The annoyance fell apart after a minute as she got herself collected again.

"If it's not because I suspect we're from the same clan, then why not tell me why you've brought me here after silently pushing everyone away?"

Despite not taking hints, she dropped a pretty loaded one in her question. The insinuation that her question about his heritage had been her answer to his question.

He shifted, carefully freeing his hands, and when he held one out, it was a moment before a coat was brought to him, backless as not to interfere with the spray of black he had connected to him at his back. A larger version of what the orange haired man had all over him, in fact.

Putting that on, he slipped out of the contraption he'd been using to move closer, graceful in spite of his ill health, and lifting his head to meet her eyes through his hair, his rinnegan finally visible.

"Is it only that clan that has such hair then? I've never seen it on another."

The Rinnegan was definitely a surprise. That doujutsu was a legend, thought not to exist since the Sage of the Six Paths himself. Who was this guy? --Focus Kushina, gotta focus. Bit of an odd jacket, missing the back, but whatever floated his boat. ...Focus.

"I... I've only ever known Uzumaki with this red hair. My family. Shodai Hokage's wife, Mito-sama. So many people I remember from Uzushio before I left..."

"It's not a country I ever visited." It had been destroyed before he even knew about it in fact, but he wasn't about to share that detail, instead just watching her, coming to a halt directly in front of her as he studied her, intent.

"And you come here... on behalf of Konoha." There was something dark in his voice as his gaze flicked to the hitai-ate. Bitterness, more, and then he looked back to her face.

The tone he took when referring to Konoha put a little more fire in her voice. Her eyes burned with a dare to insult her village further. Maybe she had wanted to go back to her family in her academy days, but for twenty and some odd years, Konoha had been her home. And no one insulted her home.

"Konoha is my home, y'know. Do you have a problem with that?"

"Konoha." He lifted his chin, straightening as he stared her down. "You can thank Konoha for everything I've had to do to fix this country in the last several years."

"Okay, fine. Yeah, Konoha's done some shitty things in the past, but the world wars involved other countries too, y'know!"

She stared up at him, refusing to break eye contact. He hadn't intimidated her with the orange-haired man and he sure as hell wasn't intimidating her now.

"And how do you expect to move on and fix your village for the better if you keep holding grudges against a village you know nothing about?!"

"The village that sent people into this country who killed civilians in their own homes in front of their children. The country that had people suggest, at another point, that killing said orphans was a better option at another point. Or perhaps you mean the ones that abandon said orphans after giving them hope was the one I should put my faith in? Who never returned I might mention."

His tone was low, furiously cold. It was, after all, very personal.

"Or perhaps it was the village that had a faction help corner a peace faction so their leader killed himself for Hanzo. I, of course, know nothing at all about Konoha."

She bit down on her lower lip, still refusing to back away or break her gaze. Was he talking about his own experiences? She knew the village had its own skeletons in the closet and war brought all sorts of untold horrors. But they weren't in a war time and Konoha was changing.

"If that's what you went through when you grew up, I'm honestly sorry. I can't say I had a worse time, because it's not true and I'm not here to compare who had the worse life. What I will tell you is that every village has its darker side. The higher ups had an evil demon sealed in me when I was eight and still new to the village. I would've been angry and bitter towards them forever if I hadn't been given important advice first. And now, years later, the village is still changing under its new Hokage, snd it's changing for the better. I can tell you without a shred of doubt, Yondaime wouldn't stand for innocent civilians becoming casualties."

He gave her a long, level stare, and the ice didn't waver, didn't thaw. "And you're... who, to give any kind of promises? Are you going to be the one to enforce that the village doesn't fall back on old habits the moment you look away? That seems to be the way Konoha works, after all."

His ice cold stare was still met by blazing fire.

"I can make these promises because I'm the Yondaime Hokage's wife. He's had a few years in office to make changes, and he's made some big ones. And even if my husband retires, I'm gonna be around for a long time."

That... surprised him a little, though he smothered it without ever showing it. Leaning forward, he was almost touching noses with her. "And what would you do about it then?"

"Get out of my face, and I'll tell you."

Because WOW you need to learn personal space, Nagato.

His eyes narrowed, but he straightened, his lean being what had given the illusion he was as close as he was, and without it there was a good couple hand spans between them. "Well?"

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