"The only place in Konoha for me is a prison cell. Even if we convince every single resident of Konoha of my spying on Orochimaru I'd also have to admit everything I've done while being gone. Those acts would far outweigh the good I've done."
"I do not want to lose everyone!" Kakashi shouts and slams his fist into the mattress.
...
"You haven't lost me." I calmly assure him. "I'm just… not as close as I used to be. You could accept letters from Shirokumo. Tsunade never has to know. We don't even have to talk about anything important, just be penpals. A way for both of us to know the other is alright."
"I can't." Kakashi forces out under great strain. "I think she has me under watch to make sure we don't communicate. I cheated when Shirokumo came the last time, I spun it as me luring him into a false sense of security. It won't work again. I'm even under orders to bring you in should we ever meet. She said to use any means necessary."
"I'll be sure to slip away before you have the opportunity to capture me." I assure him. "I can't do much good in a jail cell. Plus Sasuke does need me."
"How is Sasuke?" Kakashi asks, steering the conversation to a new direction.
"Well… his mental state is better than mine." I admit to my former sensei. "Probably due to Orochimaru focusing on me more. It's kinda ironic, lately he's been reining me in instead of me reining him in. He's doing well though, it's good for him to escape from all of his fangirls. Though he did just get one at this new base we're at. Hell I got one too. It's weird, she won't leave me alone."
"You've got a fangirl?" Kakashi asks in bewilderment. "Orochimaru has shinobi like that?"
"Otogakure and the rest of Orochimaru's bases are full of normal shinobi." I supply. "They're actually not all weird. Though some of them have extra parts or strange powers. I've yet to meet someone weirder than me though."
"You're not weird. Just unusual." Kakashi corrects me.
"I meant physically. I'm literally made of threads. That's pretty fucking strange."
"Fair point." Kakashi concedes.
"Yeah." I agree. "So you out of that funk now? Cuz I've still got to give this seal to everyone else."
"I'm good now." He assures me. "Or as good as I'm going to be."
"That's all I ask for." I put away my brush and ink.
"You took a lot longer on the seal than I thought you would." He points out. "Figured someone capable of making thousands would be a quick worker. You've been here for half an hour."
"I can't be amazing at everything." I get up and move to the door. "We can't all be you, Kakashi-sensei."
"Cheeky brat." He fondly says as I shut the door.
I only spent five minutes on the seal.
...
"Oi." I poke my head into Shikamaru and Naruto's cabin. "You two busy?"
Shikamaru is lazing about on his bed while Naruto is pestering him. No doubt Naruto is bored and wants Shikamaru to entertain him. You couldn't find two more different people.
"Alvarcus!" Naruto beams up at me. "No! Come in! Do you want to hang out? Maybe play a game? Or spar? Or anything! Whatever you want to do I'm willing!"
"Are you willing to let me place a seal on you?" I bluntly ask. "If not I've got a tag for you both to carry around."
"A seal?" I've piqued Shikamaru's interest. "What does it do?"
"Potentially stops you from dying in a very painful way." I offer up an innocent shrug.
"What?" Shikamaru dully responds. "I didn't hear you right."
"Okay, long version it is." I've got both of their attention. "I've got this variant of a technique that is pretty indiscriminatory so I made this seal to make it not go off near people or things I'd like to not have ripped into tiny shreds."
"What the hell have you been learning?" Naruto lets slip out in awe.
"A little of this and a lot of that." I shrug again. "Nothing too interesting."
"Way to downplay your skills. Severely downplay." Shikamaru holds out a hand. "I'll take a tag. I don't want a seal on my body."
"I should probably take a tag to." Naruto glances nervously at Shikamaru.
Ah. Right. He's already got a very impressive seal on him. We don't want this one to interfere with that.
"Cool." I pull out two premade tags and hand them out. "Let me know if they get damaged or need to be replaced. You really don't want to get caught up in this technique."
"I wish my Sannin taught me cool stuff like yours." Naruto pouts.
"No." I turn and leave the room. "You don't."
The door closes behind me.
...
"You." Anko hisses at me.
"Me." I wiggle a tag at her. "I've got something for you."
I've gone to her and Ino's room. It's just Anko in this one though.
"I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that's not a detailed plan about Orochimaru and the best spots to set up an ambush on him." Akno glances at the paper. "Is that a seal?"
"Yep. I want you to keep it on you until we part ways again." I wiggle the tag again.
"And why the hell would I do that?" She sneers at the paper. "I'm not a fan of seals."
"It'll make sure that one of my techniques doesn't rip you out of this dimension and into a void of pure darkness for all eternity?"
"Holy shit." Anko regards me in a new light. "You've got a jutsu that will do that?"
"Well… sorta. It's not a jutsu per say, more of a failsafe. A whole bunch of stuff has to happen then the techniques activates and bam! You're in a new dimension."
"Never would have guessed you as a person for a suicide technique." Anko snatches the seal out of my hand. "Alright, I'll hang onto this for a bit."
"Cool." I pause halfway out the door. "Do you know where Ino is? She's the only one who doesn't have one."
"I thought she was with you?" Anko says in confusion. "Speaking of Ino… what do you think of her?"
"She's a nice girl." I honestly reply. "Still a bit too innocent and knows way too much about me, but nice."
"And…" Anko drags the word out, making it stretch for several seconds. "Do you think she's cute?"
"Considering that last night I called her hot to her face, yes. I do think she's cute. Why do you care?"
"No reason!" Anko grins deviously to herself. "No reason at all."
"Right, I'm going to walk away from whatever the hell that was."
...
"Hello Alvarcus." Ino warmly greets me. "Long time no see."
"Hey Ino. It's only been a few hours." Suddenly the boat lurches beneath us. "What do you know, we've finally set sail. About damn time too, I want this mission over with."
"And I want it to take forever. Or at least as long as it takes for me to convince you to come back home." Ino seriously tells me. She means every word of it, she's going to spend as much time possible trying to get me to go back.
"Is there any particular reason you're in my hammock?" I ignore what she just said and ask this instead.
"I got tired of standing around waiting for you to come up here." She runs a hand along the soft material. "So I hopped in. I see why you slept here, this is freakishly nice."
"I know right?" Murasakino your hammocks are amazing. Simply the best. "I rarely sleep on anything else even when on missions, sometimes it's a toss up if I should keep my bed or just switch over to hammocks full time. That being said I have very nice sheets and there's something about a mattress and crawling into a cocoon of blankets that's amazing."
"You'll have to get me a set of those with my clothes then." She runs a hand over the material again. "If they're anything like this then I'll be ecstatic."
"They'll probably be better. The Weavers tend to go overboard when I ask them to do something. There was this one time that I asked for a set of clothes and they came back with twenty five sets of everything. Seriously what the hell am I supposed to do with twenty five different sets of bed sheets?"
"The Weavers?" Ino questions from her reclined position on her back. It's a good thing she has my coat over hers, otherwise I'd be getting quite the eyeful. Gravity would help pull it open to expose even more skin than usual.
Well not like it would change anything, it would just be harder to focus. That was a poor choice of words, maybe Naruto is onto something. Every once in awhile I phrase things strangely.
"They're a group of Spiders that make clothes and stuff for other summon creatures. They also made my entire wardrobe, my bed sheets, and the hammock you're on. They'll also be the ones making your clothes. Fair warning, expect a lot."
"I'm strangely okay with that." Sure Ino. There's nothing strange about that. If anything you're even more excited about it now.
"How're you not cold?" Ino asks out of the blue. "There's a chilly wind up here. At least in the hammock it's a bit sheltered from the wind but standing up like you are? You must be getting a faceful of it. And… I have your coat."
"Meh." I dismissively wave off her concern. "My body temp is higher than average. Not really sure why, but it does come in handy. It takes more to get me cold."
"That explains why your coat was so warm last night." Ino reflects back on that moment. Then she focuses on me again. "Maybe you would make a good personal heater."
"It was part of our deal." I shrug.
"I'll have to keep that in mind." Ino wiggles around in the hammock for a bit, finding a new position. "So… you're not running away right now. Maybe taking over the hammock was a good idea if it forces you to stay here."
...
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The story still hasn't reached the rankings in 8 months, so every single stone really helps.
...
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