Naruto

Coming up with a disguise is easy, it's a role I am very familiar with play, and takes minimal effort on my part. It does mean ruining some of the only halfway decent clothing I own, but maybe I can ask Sensei to help me replace them money from the mission should more than cover it.

But for now, I'm content to just relax into the first warm bath I've had in months. With how much work goes into heating up enough water to bathe, it's just not worth the effort. So I'm going to savor this rare opportunity for all it's worth. The unwanted conversations with my team slip from the forefront of my mind and I drift for a while.

I startle at the knock on the door,not realizing I had nearly fallen asleep.

"Naruto? Are you alright in there?" Kakashi-sensei asks.

"Ah- yeah sorry!" I scramble out of the tub and hastily dry off, pulling on my clothes over still damp skin. I give one last look at the bath, before opening the door.

"I was thinking you had fallen asleep in there." He lightly teases.

I feel the blood rush to my cheeks and look huffs in amusement moving past me into the bathroom.

"Go get some rest. Dinner should be ready soon."

Both my teammates are deep in thought when I return to the room. They keep giving me these weird looks I can't make out the reason for. But they leave me alone, so I don't give it much thought. I spend the rest of the time half finalizing details, and half drifting off, only rousing when Sensei and Sasuke come back.

"Dinner's ready!" Tsunami calls.

The atmosphere at the table is extremely awkward. But it's not actually my fault this time. Inari, Tsunami's son has been glaring at us the whole time. Kakashi and I ignore it easily enough, I have ample experience in doing so and I really doubt Sensei gives two shits about some civilian brat.

With all the restraint of an 8 year old, Inari finally snaps, slamming his hands down on the table so hard he nearly knocks a cup over.

"Why are you even trying!" He screams at us. "There's no way you can beat Gato! You're just going to die!"

Memories of the villagers force their way to the front of my thoughts. All those times they told me to die, to do the world a favor and off myself. And the bitter cold rage that always follows when I die, how it makes me just want to scream and scream and scream at the world, until I don't have a voice left to scream with.

I draw a shaky breath in and focus on pulling myself back to the present. Thankfully, only Sensei has noticed me slipping into my mind, the others too distracted by the ongoing tantrum.

"Okay?" He covertly signs. And give him a slight nod.

Now- fully back in the present, I'm just irritated.

"Shut up." It comes out a little rougher than I wanted, causing Inari to cut off mid rant and stare at me in shocked terror.

"Naruto. Reign yourself in." Sensei warns.

I look at the others in the room and they all have a similar terrified look. Opps. I pulled back my irritation, I hadn't noticed I was using my killing intent.

"Sorry." I stare at my hands in shame. "But whether we die isn't your problem. To us this is just a job. And Gato is just a greedy asshole who's too used to power. Even if we weren't here, he'd eventually end up pissing off the wrong person and ending up in a ditch. It's just a matter of time."

"While true, it's rude to say it."

I stand and head to the door. "Well I'm not going to sit here and listen to some brat complain about how unfair the world is. I have better things to do than wallow in self pity. Like get the info we need so we don't die." The words come out scathing and intending to hurt. I hear the start of the kid crying and Sensei sighing before I slam the door shut behind me.

I angrily stalk to our room and dig through my bag to find what I need for my disguise. It leaves a dull ache in my chest that I'll have to ruin some of my few good clothes, but better do it now while I'm still irritated.

The plan I came up with to gather info was rather simple. The best plans usually are, once you try and bog yourself down with details, the moment something goes wrong you end up having to flounder to try and salvage it. And something will inevitably go wrong. By the time I'm done, I look only a little better than after one of my encounters.

With mud smeared across my face, hair and clothes hiding the whiskers in particular, ripped clothing that's slightly singed and a splinted leg, I'm the picture of a distressed orphan who escaped a fire that killed the rest of my family except for the older brother who was away at the time. In the event a shinobi approaches, Kakashi posing as the brother will extract me.

"You can't keep antagonizing the client." I jumped at sensei's voice, I hadn't heard him come in. He closes the door, and leans with arms crossed against the wall. "I'm pretty sure the only times you've spoken to them is to tell one of them off."

"Sorry."

"No you're not." He shakes his head. "You can say whatever you want about the client when you're alone, most are real pieces of work, but keep your opinions to yourself it'll get you in trouble otherwise. That's not to say you should let them walk all over you either. There's a fine line that takes many a long time to find."

"I understand."

"Now," he opens the door and Sakura and Sasuke nearly tumble through. "Let's hear your plan, your disguise is good, I have some hair dye you can use, your hair is too recognizable."

I give them a run down of what I had in mind, Sensei nodding in approval with what I came up with.

"Isn't that too vague?" Sakura asks.

"No, this is a short term infiltration, it's better to work with a framework. That way you can improvise as necessary. You would need more details if this was going to be long term, but even then you want to leave yourself room to move."

"I see."

"Have you thought of names?"

"Sora and Takeshi. I don't care which I am."

"Good, nice common names. You take Sora."

"Alright." I shrug.

The next morning after dying my hair a light brown, and reapplying my disguise, I sneak into the village and take a position under an open window in the alley by the bar. I blankly stare at the wall in front of me letting the idle chatter of a few people passing by. There's no one in the bar yet, it's way too early. So I sit there without moving for hours, not even moving when my stomach starts to become uncomfortably empty.

It's late afternoon when men who are clearly Gato's minions walk into the bar like they own the place and demand liquor. I feel bad for the owner, who is rightfully terrified by them. Most of it's just gloating, of the rather disgusting kind. I killed a lot of people, I raped so and so and they just keep going on and on like there's some kind of prize for how many lives they can ruin.

It's sickening.

They don't say anything of use for the rest of the night and stagger out completely wasted. I curl up on my side the best I can when I can no longer hear them and wait. Sensei silently appears next to me a good while later.

"Anything?"

I scrunch my face up in disgust, "Nothing of use, but just when I thought people couldn't be any more vile, they just keep proving me wrong."

"Well, I can't deny that, even now I come across things that shock me with how horrible people can be to each other." I shift uncomfortably, certain he is talking about me. "Here, ration bar." He places it in my hand. "They taste awful, but you must be starving by now."

"Thanks."

"Get some sleep, I'll keep watch until you wake up."

The next two days are more of the same. The fourth day on my stakeout I finally get what I'm looking for.

"Did you hear?" One thug slurs, drunk off his ass "That Zabuza guy got his ass handed to him by a bunch of kids."

"What a wuss. I don't know why Gato-sama keeps the guy, it can't be that hard to find a better shinobi."

"Maybe he's trying to get a taste of that girl he's got with him."

"I know I would."

"You talkin about that sword guy?" A third voice cuts in. "Gato-sama was pissed when he found out he lost, was sayin' he might as well just kill 'im off and save himself the money if he's weak 'nough to lose to a bunch of brats."

"Ha! Serves the bastard right for keeping the bitch all to himself."

"He hirin' someone to off the guy?"

"Nah, why pay someone when you can do it for free? He's gonna send him and the girl to attack the bridge. Those other shinobi are still in town so we'll let'em wear each other down and BAM, we'll swoop in an' kill the lot of them!"

"Think we'll be able to go a few rounds with the bitch?"

"Here's to hoping!" One of the laughs and it delves right back into the same old gloating. I let out a sigh of relief, finally, I've got what I need. Tonight is the last time I'll have to listen to them.

"Anything?"

"Yeah, finally. There's just the two of them. Zabuza and the apprentice. The really interesting part bit is Gato isn't planning on paying them. He's going to let us wear each other down and send his thugs to kill whoever's left."

"Not surprising."

"No, but we may be able to use it."

"We'll see how things play out. Tomorrow, I want you to wander around the village, I'll come find you, that way we'll tie up loose ends."

Early next morning as people are just starting to head to work, I do just that. Slowly hobbling along the street with my gaze firmly on the ground. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of a woman who feels… familiar. Deciding to take a risk, I intentionally stumble and fall to the ground. I pretend to struggle getting up.

"Are you alright?" The woman asks worriedly.

I flinch back at the hand she offers and nod fearfully, trying and failing once again to get up. This is the apprentice I realize. The hair and body type match, and they have the same feel to them.

"Sora!" I hear Kakashi-sensei call running up to me. He sweeps me up in a crushing hug uncaring of how dirty I am and I have to make myself forcefully relax into it.

"Take-ni-chan?" I whisper.

"I saw the house burnt down when I came home, I thought you died in the fire."

I clutch on to his shirt "I-I" I stutter, sounding on the verge of tears.

"Shush, it's alright. I'm here." He shifts to look at the apprentice. "Thank you for trying to help my brother."

"It's not a problem." She assures us. "I'm Haku."

"Takeshi. And this is Sora." I squeak in surprise when he picks me up.

"Put me down Nii-san!"

He raises his eyebrow at me. "Can you even put weight on that leg?"

I blush and hide my face in his shoulder.

"That's what I thought."

Haku chuckles. "I'm glad you found each other again. If you'll excuse me I have to go, my friend is sick and I'm taking care of him."

"I hope he gets better."

"Thank you."

"Wait Ne-san!" I stop her when she goes to leave.

"Sora?" Sensei asks.

"There's somethin' I gotta tell her."

"Oh?"

"Come closer."

She does so with an amused smile on her face, thinking she's just humoring me. I lean in to whisper in her ear.

"You should get your friend outta here. I heard a bunch of scary men talkin' at the bar 'bout how they're gonna kill that swordsman, his apprentice after they fight those other shinobi to wear them down. Things are going to get really bad soon, I don't want you or your friend to get hurt after you tried to help me."

When I pull back Haku isn't smiling anymore, and is letting off a small amount of killing intent. I bury my head back into Kakashi-sensei's chest.

"Thank you for the warning." And leaves with a sense of urgency.

"Well that was convenient. She was the apprentice?" He starts back to Tazuna's house

"Yea. They felt the same."

"Well done getting her attention and passing that on. You were very believable. Hopefully this means we won't have to fight them again."

"Maybe they'll take care of the Gato problem too."

"Mmm. Shinobi never were kind to people who double cross them."

"You can put me down." I tell him when we enter the woods. I set about freeing my bound leg and stretching it out. "It's so stiff." I complain.

You haven't moved it in 4 days. I'm not surprised."

I walk behind him, with a slight limp that'll disappear by the time we get back to the house. The chill from the fog sinks in as we walk, I hadn't noticed it while Sensei was carrying me.

I run my hand over the reisudle warmth that's rapidly fading.

I didn't know other people could be so warm.