[closed] Well she's never in the way, always something nice to say

[pursuitoftruth]

Who: Sasuke and Nanako
When: The month of July, Year 64 (BGS 4)
What: Kiri and Konoha exchange newly-minted Chuunin for a month. Nanako agrees to foster the Uchiha clan's second-in-line.
Where: Kirigakure
Note: Spans several weeks, and will probably contain multiple threads for multiple time periods.

[The day of Sasuke's arrival]

Nanako had been given the option to wait for her charge inside the village while a squad was sent out, but had brushed it aside with barely a second thought. If Yagura wasn't so... so very like himself, she thought that he might have rolled his eyes at her, but her leader hadn't stopped her from leaving to meet her charge. She had a bad feeling about leaving him to reach the rendezvous point on his own It would be trite and demeaning to call it 'women's intuition'; her position left her with a finger on the village's information pulse, and that meant she was privy to certain highly-classified information.

Such as the projected paths of arrival of one Uchiha Sasuke.

There were always little bubbles and bursts of still-fading prejudices, and one of the quickest routes from Konoha to Kiri cut through a 'red zone'. Konoha had surely explained the delicate social climate in Water Country, but she was willing to bet that a child cosseted and held up as a point of pride by a village founded primarily by two bloodline clans couldn't truly comprehend the visceral disgust and disdain his very existence could elicit in some of her countrymen.

It was why she had unsealed her Darling early on, strapping it across her back as she darted forth.

It was a good plan, on her part; it made it easy to hamstring two bigots with one sweeping slash and knock out a third with a hilt-strike to the temple, all before her feet fully touched the ground. Her eyes were hooded, and her smile was unfaltering—but without any of its usual warmth. Nanako hated anybody who would think to harm a child outside of an unavoidable mission. Almost more than she hated liars, and that was saying something.

Comments

[not_thedragon]

The shinobi who had attacked him had been a ragtag group, some still sporting slashed-through Kiri symbols and some seemingly having cast off village affiliations altogether. Sasuke had read the briefing -- it was his first major task as a Chuunin; he'd read the briefing front to back several times -- and he'd been aware of the existence of bloodline-racists. The reports had even indicated that shinobi visibly belonging to a bloodline had been attacked before, and he'd been advised to find clothing without the Uchiha crest on it, a task that had proved surprisingly difficult in the compound.

It seemed he'd been anticipated, however. He'd drawn a kunai when the misty wood around him had grown silent, but it hadn't been enough. He hadn't been enough, new-minted Chuunin or not, when the attack had come from all directions.

And he hadn't been ready for the expressions of unadulterated hatred on the faces of the shinobi around him. That had been what had thrown him off-guard in the end, enough time for him to be wounded one arm, and then there had been multiple attacks coming at his face --

His eyes --

His hands scrabbling for a weapon, and then the men holding him down were crumpling with howls of agony, the woman closest to him collapsing as if her strings had been cut. For a second he couldn't understand how it had happened, but then he'd seen the newcomer. He was still staring when one of the smaller ninja who had been hanging back on a tree branch was dropping down at the woman's seemingly-unprotected back.

"Watch out -- !"

[pursuitoftruth]

His warning was appreciated, for the sentiment if nothing else, but the smaller ninja found herself off by a good foot an a half. Low-key genjutsu were indispensable, even in a taijutsu fight. Especially in a taijutsu fight. It was one of the earliest tricks Nanako had learned, back when she was still getting gently knocked around by her grandmother and aunts in the clan training fields.

She used the space between them to slam the butt of her naginata into the girl's solar plexus, kicking her feet out from under her so she hit the ground hard. She followed through on the motion, spinning her weapon and driving the blade down. She stopped on a dime and twisted, earning a sickly, wet popping noise as she neatly severed the downed enemy's vertebrae.

Alive, but paralyzed. Most shinobi would prefer death. It was unfortunate for all of them that Nanako was not feeling particularly charitable; her future charge was bleeding and scared. These naughty children needed to be punished for such a transgression.

She took down the rest of the group with that same fluid grace, crippling most in some way or another. She flicked blood off her blade and rested the massive weapon against her shoulder, daintily stepping over a prone body to get to Sasuke. "I'm sorry we had to meet like this," she said, sighing and shaking her head. She tucked one long dark lock behind her ear and smiled at him, kindly and gently. "My name is Shishito Nanako, Jounin of Kirigakure. I'll be your host, once we get to the village."

[not_thedragon]

It was an astonishingly elegant trick -- the Sharingan picked it up not a second too soon, the shift in perception that meant the attacker landed off, and then his stomach was recoiling instinctively from the sound of cartilage and bone separating. Even without medical training, he could tell that type of damage was permanent even if the kunoichi survived, a crippling strike aimed to do just that.

He startled to attention when his rescuer turned her attention to him, tensing just in case one set of attacks led into another, but the village affiliation made it clear what was going on.

Sort of. He'd been expecting to meet his host in the village, and not in this fashion.

Still, many years of Mikoto's training found him bowing formally after a moment's hesitation. He didn't incline his head quite low enough to expose the back of his neck, but it was a respectful distance all the same. Hopefully.

"Uchiha Sasuke of Konoha," he said, though she likely already knew who he was, given that she was expecting him. "It's my fault for having been caught off guard. My apologies for inconveniencing you."

[pursuitoftruth]

"Think nothing of it, my dear." She bowed back and cradled her cheek once she had straightened up, expression falling glumly. "If anything, I should apologize on behalf of our village. We're still cleaning house so to speak, but there's just so much trash cluttering our homeland... And some of our naughty children have even taken to playing with such scum! It's such a terrible shame for us all, to still be tied with them."

Konoha hadn't had a civil war—if anything, it was the opposite of Kiri, having been founded to tie off a blood-feud and hopefully usher in an era of peace. "Either way, it's nothing that a new chuunin should have been left to deal with; especially one of your background. If we continue the program after this year, then we'll have to make certain you and yours have at least a token guard on the way over."

Goodness knows that she was going to have some... strong words with whoever had arranged for him to arrive alone.

"The hunternin will see to this lot," she said, as smooth masks morphed out of the shadows in the trees. "Shall we continue on to Kirigakure, or are you in need of immediate medical attention?"

[not_thedragon]

It was difficult not to be thrown a little off-centre by the way Nanako morphed in one moment from a precision-killer to a concerned administrator, the look on her face more suited for someone walking into a messy room than standing in a field of blood. Sasuke kept his gaze trained studiously away from the bodies, trying instead to focus on what she was saying.

And how she was saying it, he reminded himself, because there was something about her phrasing ... an absolute authority, or something like it. This was someone not accustomed to being defied.

"I was made aware that there was the possibility of those who did not like bloodlines," he said, enunciation a little crisper than usual, choosing his words. "I should have taken more care."

He caught sight of the hunter-nin as they materialized, white masks like the faces of ghosts. He'd heard about the group as a child, and was even aware that Konoha likely had its own equivalents. But he'd never seen Kirigakure's famed hunter-nin corps before, and there was still some lingering, childish sense of cool that made him pause, looking around.

It wasn't until he realised that he'd been asked a question that he startled back to attention, glancing down to check on his arm in embarrassment. Barring poison, it didn't seem serious. "Ah -- no, I'll be fine."

[pursuitoftruth]

"Well, just in case, take this." She dropped her hand to her hip, pulling out a small bottle and shaking out two white tablets. "Put these under your tongue and let them dissolve; they should combat any infections and keep any poison from spreading for a while. We can run without taking chances with your health."

She held out the medicine, smiling warmly. They were a stopgap measure, like a chakra pill for the immune system. Hardly a cure-all, but they would get the job done long enough for her to get him back to the village. Nanako might have an excellent grasp of the human body and how it worked, but a second opinion never hurt.

Especially with politics involved.

The hunter-inn moved like dark water, flowing down from the trees and surrounding their targets. They moved nodded to Nanako, as much a show of respect as submission, unintentionally shoring up what Sasuke had picked up on so far.

[not_thedragon]

Taking unmarked pills from an effective stranger was probably one of the first things not to do in a strange land, even if the stranger had saved him and was evidently recognized by what were undoubtedly hunter-nin. Hunter-nin who moved with a fluidity Sasuke found himself envying, even after years of training for agility; even when he was fully aware of their presence, it was difficult to detect the sounds of their movement.

The sounds of their work were another story. He watched a moment longer, distracted, before tearing his attention back to Nanako, glancing down at the pills he'd accepted into his hand.

It was probably rude, but --

"My apologies for any offense," he said, trying to imitate his mother's most polite tones as much as he could. "Before I take these, do you have credentials to show me?

"I can, of course, show you mine in return if you would like."

I'm so sorry I forgot about this completely

[pursuitoftruth]

For a brief moment, she looked at him, amusement flickering through her eyes. "Smart," she praised him. "It's never a good idea to take drugs from strangers." She wanted to reach out and ruffle his hair, but that was probably too forward, and he was most likely going to be twitchy about people going near his head—face and eyes, specifically—for at least a few days.

She pulled a small scroll from her vest pocket, unsealing it with a bit of her own blood, and sifting through the messages—most of which were sealed even more strenuously—before selecting one and releasing the security measures, with a few more drops of blood and a surge of chakra.

It was a cordial sort of how-do-you-do from the Hokage, acting in his capacity of sensei and addressing the woman who would be looking after one of his students and relatives.

"Will this do, dear?"