Forgive my immaturity, but; hehe, nice.
"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."
― Helen Keller
0
The day starts out nice enough— she is sleep-deprived from her activities the night before, but spending time with Hana is always a treat. Despite the incredibly different paths in life they took, the two of them still get along as well as ever. However, the fact that Tsume wants to meet with Ren, definitely over the ROOT operation, looms like a black cloud over an otherwise nice day. Shibi could've been the one to call for Ren to meet up with her again, but he's probably trying to make sure nobody expects that he and Ren are plotting something. Tsume is the perfect person to discuss it with Ren—a family friend, although slightly awkward and distant now that Ren isn't a child anymore, and a fellow clan head, but they've always had an amicable relationship, and Ren is Hana's best friend. It's not odd for her to visit Tsume for tea every once in a blue moon.
She's actually hoping to ask Tsume to keep an eye on the kids. She'll also ask Genma, of course, but Genma has a full-time job and Deidara to look after. With them planning to smack the hornet's nest that is Danzō, he can't be expected to keep that close of an eye on the kids. Chances are, he'll be called in to help subjugate ROOT. Tsume will be too, most likely, but Tsume lives in a clan compound filled to the brim with her clan members. Sasuke and Naruto will be significantly safer there than on their own.
But that's a problem for the imminent future. Right now Ren is sipping on bubble milk tea and stuffing her face with mochi in a small corner café next to Hana, just enjoying the brief moment of slow, lazy peacefulness.
"Don't fall asleep on me," Hana chuckles, shoving at her shoulder. Ren snorts.
"Don't you have night shift?"
"…I'm not sure I want to know even though I know exactly what you're insinuating."
"Hibiki has pretty damn good stamina. I was honestly surprised."
"I really do not need to know a thing about your sex life, or Hibiki's," Hana says, rolling her eyes, and punches Ren in the shoulder. Ren just cackles. She's more playfully annoyed for the sake of it though. As a medic, she's probably seen a lot of crazy and weird things, so sex talk doesn't faze her. Frankly, it shouldn't faze any shinobi above the age of fifteen.
The job comes with its own emotional baggage that forces people to mature significantly faster, and surprises could kill them. One learns to control their responses at the very least.
"That actually reminds me, though. I'm not your doctor, but is your testosterone treatment done? You had your surgery some three years ago, it should be either done or close to done?" Hana asks, and Ren blinks at her, considering.
"I'm only taking supplements now," Ren says. "Also, it surprised me that my voice matured in a way a woman's voice would. I thought it would totally drop?"
"It's what you tend to call 'ninja magic'," Hana chuckles. "You got slapped with a different type of testosterone than a biological woman set to undergo gender reassignment surgery. Yours was mostly to balance out the estrogen you would no longer be producing with your ovaries, since, you know, you made the decision pretty on the spot and younger than most. Threw the doctors for a bit of a loop, I heard, but since you labelled them as a 'liability in the line of work', nobody really knew how to argue with you."
Ren cackles. "If someone ever says that spite doesn't count as a motivator, you can call bullshit on them and tell them this story," she says. "Because trust me, were it not for spite I would have probably waited until I was eighteen to get them out."
"But then the council pissed you off and you had to make a statement."
"What better than to completely rid myself of the ability to bear children in order to shove a middle finger in the faces of people who wanted me to be a broodmare? And I got free increased body and muscle mass from it to make me an even better killing machine!"
"But your voice didn't drop. Also why are you asking me this? Didn't you ask your doctor?"
"It, uhh, um," Ren turns away, embarrassed blush creeping up her cheeks, "I meant to ask but I never managed to in the end. I'd walk out of the office and be like 'oh fuck I forgot again'."
"Oh Ren, you doofus," Hana chuckles, patting her friend on the head. "You can pass off as a handsome, if a tad androgynous, guy now, if that helps."
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure half the people who saw us yesterday thinks that Hibiki is gay, and the other half is just confused," Ren snorts, and Hana chuckles too. "But alas, can't blame people for being confused. Even some shinobi we passed did a double-take before recognizing us."
"That's… normally shinobi can tell with ease?"
"Ahahah, I might or might not have worn men's perfume."
"…you totally did that on purpose, didn't you."
"Hibiki was really into it?"
"Well, you're not terrible at reading people, so I suppose you'd know."
"Sooo… How's your dating life been Hana?" Ren asks instead. "Any headway at figuring out what you want and don't want from that?"
"Hmmm… I'm starting to think I don't want anything at all," she sighs, shaking her head. "Dating people of either gender has been disappointing so I gave up, at least for now. I may be asexual, or I may be tired from work, or I may be both."
"Well, we can't all be raging pansexuals," Ren shrugs.
"No, only you."
"I'm fairly certain it's not just me, but still. Dating is supposed to be fun, so if it does nothing for you or, worse, stresses you out, you shouldn't be doing it."
"Hmm, I guess you're right. I just can't understand people who all they want in life is find someone, anyone, and just settle down. Like, I understand dedicating your life to other people, it's what I'm doing, but—I mean, they are probably fulfilled like this—"
"Not all," Ren interjects. "Some do that because it's what society expects of them. Their parents, their surroundings. Women are often treated as lesser just because they weren't born with a dick. Do you know what kind of patriarchal hell the Uchiha Clan was? Almost no female shinobi above the age of sixteen, and we had more women than men in the clan. But it was a 'man's job'. Look, I don't got a dick and I can murder people for money just fine, thank you very much!"
"Why do I get the feeling that you would've pulled an Itachi if he hadn't?" Hana sighs.
"Well, I wouldn't murder everyone. Just the elders. And Fugaku. And my parents."
"You're not even joking, are you?"
"You've never met those fuckers. I lived with them for twelve years. A girl gets tired of constantly being told that this and that is a woman's job and that she's not feminine enough, and that she should forget being a shinobi and focus on marrying some cousin instead. Sage and Jashin and anything that listens, a year longer and I'd have gone fucking insane."
"Morbid," Hana says, "but understandable. My father was the same. Told mom to step down from clan head position, because she was a woman, and he could do the leading himself."
"I know he's not around anymore, but the details are never clear."
"Officially," Hana says with an amused chuckle, "he got drunk and wandered into the Forest of Death."
"Officially."
"He was ripped apart by wild wolves."
"Yes, I'm certain they were very… wild."
"And very wolfish."
"Absolutely."
They look at one another and burst out laughing.
(Although admittedly, Kuromaru does look like a wolf.)
Tsume is the same Ren remembers, a fierce, frightening woman that people can't really ignore. And a fellow clan head that Ren has an excuse to meet with under the guise of coming over to her friend's place for a bit.
But now, sitting at a kitchen table right across from the woman, in the same kitchen where she had told Naruto she wanted to adopt him three years ago, Ren feels a tad cowed, and uneasy. Tsume is really fucking frightening when she gets serious, and she is serious now. It's odd to see the normally wild and unapologetic woman serious like this.
Hana looks between her oddly serious mother and her oddly cowed friend, and takes a seat in the middle. Nobody tells her to not to listen, so she stays there.
"So," Tsume starts. "A certain bug has told me that we're having a root problem."
"We do," Ren answers, and her voice doesn't shake. "In fact, I have a question—a request, really, before we get to it."
"You want me to keep brats in?" Tsume guesses. She's right, of course.
"Yeah. Until this mess is sorted out. I'll ask Genma, too, but he's undoubtedly going to be part of the hit squad if it comes down to that, and I don't trust that old fucker to not go after Sasuke and Naruto. Sharingan and the Kyuubi? If he's desperate enough, he will try doing something stupid."
"Which old fucker?" Hana inquiries. Tsume looks at her, and then at Ren. They both nod at one another.
"Shimura Danzō," Ren says, "has been operating a shadow, illegal organization in Konoha for years. He's been kidnapping and brainwashing children, he's even experimented on some. And, on my last mission, he finally broke and tried to kill me by sending an assassin disguised as a mission partner with me."
"What the fuck Ren?" Hana hisses.
"Well, that's more information than Shibi gave me on that particular case," Tsume muses.
"The guy he sent was easily Jounin level—fucker outclassed me fairly easily, I almost died. I only survived the initial strike because I'd been expecting it."
"Good Sage, how are you still alive?" Hana asks, horrified. Ren smiles wryly.
"Well, I guess this world ain't fucking done with me yet," she snorts. "We ran into a pretty damn powerful bounty hunter. S-Rank, easy. He killed the assassin, and I managed to talk him into not killing me."
Tsume barks out a laughter.
"Only you, Ren," Hana sighs, hiding her face in her hands. "Only you."
"What? Dude liked money, I literally bought my life, it wasn't even that hard!"
"And then you annoyed him into friendship?" Hana asks. Ren looks away.
"I, uh. I might have done that, too."
"What interests me is how you knew to suspect Danzō all this time," Tsume asks, serious once more. Ren looks at her.
"You're honestly going to want me to believe that the Uchiha Massacre was fully and completely orchestrated and carried out by a twelve-year-old, not that particularly smart, child?" Ren asks.
"Itachi was a genius," Tsume challenges.
"Itachi was twelve, in a clan filled with hundreds of people, many with years of experience over him, and many with abilities just like his, and therefore able to nullify it. He was perfectly capable of slaughtering the civilians, I don't doubt that—but all the shinobi? Not to brag, but the Uchiha weren't weak. Those who became shinobi usually reached respectably high positions."
"So you think it was staged," Hana says. "I—You know what? That makes an awful lot of sense."
"It does," Tsume says, considering. "There was always something off about the Massacre. But Danzō? How did you come to that conclusion?"
"Because he's a power-hungry fool with a very indecent interest in the Uchiha. In the Uchiha eyes, namely."
Tsume's eyes go wide, and so do Hana's.
"You—You don't think—That he—The eyes?!"
Even Tsume can't force the words through her throat. Bloodline Limit theft, especially in such a way, is particularly horrifying and repulsive. Stealing one's eye in combat was borderline acceptable, but orchestrating a massacre of hundreds of people to harvest their eyes?
Hana looks very ill.
"I don't know for sure," a lie, she is a lying liar and that fucker has Sharingan eyes all the way up his plaster-encased arm, "but it's entirely too plausible for my liking. Tsume-san, I implore you, when you go after Danzō, be careful. He may be old and senile, but he's powerful and crafty. His insanity is an immeasurable threat, and he most likely does have the Sharingan implanted somewhere on his body."
Not his covered eye, though. He's unlikely to use Kotamatsukami, should he be cornered by so many people, as its effects are individual. He's unlikely to even have it charged yet. He is still a threat however.
"Gods," Tsume whispers, propping her elbow on the table, and pressing her forehead to the palm of her hand. "This is not what I expected to learn today. Fuck."
Fuck indeed. But Ren can't have them going after Danzō completely unprepared. They're all strong, yes, but additional knowledge is always good to have. And she can bend reality and facts a bit without raising suspicion to let them know things.
It's not like she can up and say 'hey I'm from another world and I know exactly what crap Danzō gets up to'. She could do that with Kisame, who can literally smell lies, and Kurama, who's a millennia-old demon made of chakra and spite. Everyone else would probably think she's crazy.
Well, she could let Inoichi rummage around in her brain to confirm everything she says, but they really do not have time for that right now. And she doesn't want to out herself to so many people.
Half-truths, misdirection, and small lies it is, then. She doesn't feel good about it, but she is not above doing that to increase their chances of survival. She is a shinobi. Underhanded methods are in the job description.
She clenches her fists. In three days, she'll be off to Jōren Falls, and the more she thinks about it, the more unhappy she is about leaving the conflict. But everyone has decided that it is for the better—the other clan heads, that is—since Ren isn't strong enough to face that old coot, and he would undoubtedly target her. He would undoubtedly target the brats, too, but Ren has no way of protecting them this time, other than removing herself from the situation. She hates it.
"We'll take care of the kids," Tsume says in a reassuring tone, and Ren takes a deep breath.
"Look after Haruno Sakura, too," Ren says. "Chances are Danzō might target her as well."
"I will," Tsume promises. There's a pause. "Ren, I know you would prefer to stay and fight, but on such short notice, there really isn't any other way."
"I know."
"We'll protect the kids for you."
"But it's not right? I was the one who started this mess, I should be the one taking care of it!"
And why the fuck is she breaking down now? Not when she came up with her half-assed plan, not when she revised it with Shibi-sensei, but now. She shouldn't be.
"Ren, you don't have to carry the world on your shoulders," Hana tells her, placing a hand on Ren's hand. "You have people who want to help you."
But that's weird, Ren thinks but doesn't say. It's not how the world works. If you don't do it yourself, it will not be done.
But that's not necessarily true for her anymore, is it? She isn't alone anymore. She's not Renee who came home every day to an empty flat. She's Ren who has people she can actually depend on.
"Yeah," she says quietly. "Yeah, I know. Thank you."
She can't fight Danzō. She can't even protect the kids. But maybe that's okay. Maybe she doesn't have to do everything by herself.
