A strange new life

7.2

“I… see.” That was all the new Hokage said.

I scowled. Pushed Karin away or tried to. She had a death grip on my waist and hand.

Those were some ludicrous claims. I did bite her arm and kept biting even when she asked me to stop that one time when I first met her. Yes, that left marks on her arm, both arms. I also, yes, paraded naked in front of her. I had no clothes then; what was I supposed to do? Kill all the prisoners because they’d seen me naked? Execute them for the crime of having eyes? And we did sleep together. At first, because it was cold, then because the badgers only provided a single fur pile, and then while traveling to stave off the chill in the night.

My scowl deepened. Karin hadn’t lied. But did she need to phrase it that way?

The weeks of peaceful cohabitation and talk had lulled me with a false sense of normalcy.

I had assumed that Karin’s most prominent traits from the original story were learned behaviors resulting from her exposure to Orochimaru, but wasn’t she saying some outrageous things here?

I didn’t believe for a second she was interested in me in a romantic way. Like I said before, there was no spark, so why this? She’d done something similar in the original show, pretending to be mentally ill to keep something that let her escape later. Was this a setup for some other plan or something? No, that was silly. I don’t think it was anything complicated. Maybe she was just afraid and didn’t want to be alone. I could understand that.

Shisui cleared his throat. “Well, if that’s the case.”

I erased the words on my board. Scribbled others. “It wasn’t like that.” I defended myself, but even as I wrote it, I knew it would read bad.

Shisui shook his head. “It’s fine, you don’t need to explain yourself.”

That only made things worse. I… wanted to punch him. Karin must have noticed. She snickered, still resting her head on my shoulder, looking every bit like a smug, satisfied fox. Was this payback for all those times I teased her? It wouldn’t be, would it?

Any response on my part was cut short when the door to the Hokage’s office opened without the visitors being announced. I had sensed the chakra bundle approaching, but I didn’t think their destination was the Hokage’s office. I looked back. Two old people walked inside. An old lady with squinting eyes and an old dude with a pointy goatee and glasses.

Under the newcomer’s judgemental stare, Karin finally let go of me. She sat straight, with her hands resting on her lap. All prim and proper.

There was this moment of silence or a standoff between Shisui and the two old geezers. Shisui was the first to talk.

“Homura, Koharu.” He didn’t get up from his chair; he just dipped his head in greetings. “Our meeting isn’t for a few hours yet.”

The guy cast a glance at me before addressing Shisui again. “Circumstances changed,” the old man said.

The old lady was the one who spoke next.

“We’ve explained why,” her squinting gaze flickered to me before returning to Shisui. “Other shinobi agree with us.”

Were they talking about me? Are these two old codgers part of the council? I never understood what the council had against me. Up until now, I always thought it was remnants of Danzo’s influence that pushed people to mistrust me.

No one outright treated me badly, nor was I discriminated against like Naruto. It was more subtle than that. A few stares, some pitying, others suspicious. The lack of resources, training, and instruction.

It was never something I could point my finger at and blame one thing or another. For example, most other shinobi have their clans and families as a support network, and from them, they learn jutsu, techniques, and other clan-related knowledge. I hadn’t, much like Naruto, I was on my own since I came here.

That shaped how I saw and did things. I knew I had a bad habit of trying to do everything alone. But that was how I learned. Aside from basic instructions at the academy, I had no one else to ask things from. Even the Third skimped on the knowledge about seals. I never got the chance to ask him why before I failed to save him and let him die. If Kakashi-sensei wasn’t lying and the old man really was on my side, why hold back knowledge from me? Why not — selfish as it was to wish — give me a hand and some nice jutsu?

“I’ve read your reasoning,” said Shisui. His eyes hadn’t left the two old people.

If those two were part of the council, it would pay for me to learn more about them, wouldn’t it? I focused my chakra perception on the two. More often than not, while inside Konoha, I pushed my perception to the background of my mind. Too many people with chakra walking about. It was easy to get distracted or even overwhelmed. Ever since entering Konoha again, I had done the same, even without noticing.

The two… weren’t that different from other people. Their reserves were on the average size. Lower than an active jonin, bigger than a newly promoted chunin. I knew that wasn’t an indication of their combat capabilities, but I had the impression that if push came to shove, I’d win. If it came down to pure brawling and reaction time, I was confident I could take them. I’d need to hit them hard before they could pull whatever bullshit jutsu they learned over their long life, but I was somewhat confident of my chances.

It was strange that, now that I was focusing more on their chakra, I did notice other things. Like a flavor or texture. The old woman’s chakra was stale, like old, but not in a bad way, while the guy was acrid, like a bad smell. Was my perception being influenced by my dislike? Had my perception gotten more refined as well?

Their conversation hadn’t ended. The two, somehow, never said it openly, but I had the impression they wanted me locked and isolated.

A new bundle of chakra popped into my perception. Then another.

I forgot about the two geezers and Shisui. I got up, the chair scrapped back with a loud screech, cutting off the conversation. For the second time that day, the door busted open again.

In rushed a ginormous blaze of chakra contained in a small-sized pack wrapped in orange jumpers.

“Hinata-chan!” Sunshine brat hollered, face already full of tears.

“Hi,” I said back, eyes misting again.

Naruto grabbed me and hugged me like he was afraid I would disappear again. A few moments later, the second bundle of chakra entered the room, cool, calm, and placid. Kakashi-sensei leaned against the door and gave me one of his eye-crescent smiles.

I might have started to cry even harder. I wasn’t sure. Maybe it was just Naruto crying, not me.