Missing-nin

Naruto tore into two turkey drumsticks, wielding one in each hand and switching between them. Plates were scattered in front of him piled with bones. Some were stacked three plates high, and there were at least ten plates total on his side of the table. Kurotsuchi had just two plates on her side. She watched him with a look bordering on disgust.

"Dish ish great!" Naruto said.

"Mouth closed, please," Kurotsuchi said.

In the aftermath of the fight she'd treated him respectfully— almost fearfully. The longer she was around him the more that faded. She watched Naruto wolf down three people's worth of food like a starving beggar, grease and bits of turkey skin sticking to his cheeks.

Naruto swallowed, forcing down everything in his mouth.

"Man, I haven't eaten like this in so long," he said. "The food here's pretty good, too! It's just a village restaurant, but this is the best thing I've ever tasted!"

For the next week, until you say the same thing about something new, Kyu said.

What can I say, Kyu? Naruto thought. I'm a lover of a lotta things!

Kurotsuchi shifted her chair closer to the table as locals walked behind her in increasing numbers. She and Naruto had taken a corner table in Tamari Village's inn. As was the case in smaller towns, the inn doubled as a restaurant and an event hall for the whole village. There were a few other missing-nin around the room, but most of the people in tonight were locals preparing for something. Naruto saw young people from the age of ten up to Kurotsuchi's age gathering. The boys had elaborate beaked masks pushed up onto their foreheads. The girls were wearing flowing kimonos with bright colors. They were talking excitedly while adults pulled in what looked like a pedestal, covered by a cloth veil.

"So noisy," Kurotsuchi snapped.

She'd lost the cloak she'd been wearing during the fight, leaving her in the maroon dress that had been underneath.

"They're just havin' fun," Naruto said.

Kurotsuchi didn't say anything, stewing in silence.

Naruto stuck a smaller turkey leg into his mouth, squeezed his lips around it, and pulled just the bone out stripped of meat. When he was done chewing, he said, "I feel like you're kinda mad."

Kurotsuchi glared at him. Her look softened seconds later as she reminded herself who she was glaring at.

"Why wouldn't I be?" she said. "I snuck out of the village to see the world and accomplish something great. Instead, I was nearly killed. By missing-nin!"

"Does that make it worse?"

"Of course it does!" The plates in front of Kurotsuchi rattled as she threw her hands down. "They're just village rejects!"

Her voice was loud enough that a few local kids looked over. Kurotsuchi scanned her surroundings from the corner of her eye and fixed her posture, lowering her voice.

"No offense intended," she muttered to Naruto.

"None taken! I am a reject! But it's not 'cause I'm not strong," Naruto said. "I just didn't like Konoha. Instead of following orders my whole life, protecting people I didn't even like, I decided I'd rather leave!"

His expression got a little more serious.

"That's how it is for most of us. It's not that missing-nin couldn't keep up with regular ninja, they just wanted to change their lives. So yeah, we're rejects. But that doesn't mean we're weak."

"...I'll remember that," Kurotsuchi said.

He could see she didn't like the idea, but she was forcing herself to think about it. She'd seen enough today to know that he was right. She didn't seem dumb, so he figured she'd come around.

"You're surprisingly insightful when you're not goofing off," Kurotsuchi said. "How old are you?"

"Nineteen!" Naruto said proudly.

"You're just a kid!"

"Hey! You barely look older than me!"

"I'm twenty-two," Kurotsuchi said. "That's almost middle-aged for a shinobi. I'm already a Jounin."

"Makes sense. You're the Tsuchikage's granddaughter, after all," Naruto said. "But if twenty-two's supposed to be old, you can't call nineteen young!"

Naruto expected Kurotsuchi to say something back. He was enjoying bickering with her— she felt like a different person when she wasn't acting broody, and he liked her much better that way. Instead, although he couldn't understand why, she got quiet, her lips squeezing into a line.

"You've been in our Bingo Books as long as I can remember," Kurotsuchi said. "How long ago did you leave your village?"

"It's been just over ten years!"

"Then you were just nine when—!" 

"Well, I had some help, heh heh."

Naruto patted his stomach where his seal was.

Some help? Kyu said. I suppose that's one way to put it. You wouldn't have lasted a night without me!

I know, I know. You're absolutely amazing, Kyu-chan. The best.

As long as you remember it, Kyu said.

"You must have seen a lot of the world."

Naruto's attention was pulled back to Kurotsuchi. She was talking to him, but she said it while looking straight at the table. For a second, she looked deeply sad.

"FwwweeeeEEEEEEE!"

A few of the missing-nin in the room grabbed their weapons, startled by the deafening noise. Kurotsuchi almost fell out of her seat twisting around. But the shinobi who had been in the area longer didn't bat an eye, and the locals in attendance were visibly excited. The boys Naruto noticed before pulled their masks into place and got into formation with the girls. A big space had been cleared for them in the middle of the inn.

The loud noise had come from a wooden whistle, blown by an adult standing next to the covered pedestal. He grabbed the canvas and dragged it away. Underneath was a fancy cage with a perch inside. A red-plumed bird blinked, looking around.

"What is this?" Kurotsuchi said, surprise quickly turning to irritation.

"It's a Tori no Kuni tradition," Naruto said. "I've seen it a couple of times. Pretty cool, honestly."

The bird in the cage was waking up. It opened its slightly-curved beak and released a shrill, symphonic cry not dissimilar to the man's whistle.

As soon as the bird began, the youths on the floor held out a fist. They threw something up— small white feathers, one for each of them, which flitted toward the ground in erratic paths, shining in the light.

The kids moved. Each of them did something different, hurling out limbs and jerking around. As the feathers slowly fell, they threw themselves about, the bird's song cutting under it all.

"I don't understand. Is this a humiliation ritual?" Kurotsuchi asked.

"Of course not," Naruto said. "They're dancing."

"They call that dancing?"

"Sure! Just not to human music. You ever heard the story of how Tori no Kuni was formed?"

Kurotsuchi leaned back to avoid a flailing limb from one of the girls. The locals did the same, but with massive grins, as if proximity to the dancers was the greatest honor in the world.

"No," Kurotsuchi said, her lips curved downward.

Naruto gnawed at one of his last turkey legs before setting it down. "It's more of a myth than anything. They say that decades ago, back when countries were first forming, this place was awful. The land was totally different back then. Nothing could grow. So the only ones who lived here were people with nowhere else to go, who'd gotten chased out of other places."

Kurotsuchi's body was still oriented toward the dancers, but her head was turned just enough to look at Naruto.

"They had it rough! At least that's what the old lady who told me this said. Families went hungry every year, kids died, nasty stuff. Everyone was ready to leave, because dying quickly somewhere else was better than dying slowly here. But that's when it happened. This huge bird with shiny silver wings flew over! And as it did, a feather fell off. When that feather touched the ground, the whole place changed. Crops could grow, people could farm, and they didn't have to leave. Boom! That's where Tori no Kuni comes from."

"No bird like that exists," Kurotsuchi said.

"You're a walking volcano. I'm part demon," Naruto said. "Who says it can't?"

"Then you believe in it?"

"Well, I don't know if it exists." Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "But wouldn't it be cool if it did? So I think that it could."

"Hmph," Kurotsuchi said. She turned fully toward the dancers, no longer looking at Naruto.

"Even if it isn't real, don't tell them that!" Naruto said. "People from this place think bird feathers are the prettiest thing ever. They kinda worship 'em! To people like us it looks like they're flailing around, but to them, they're imitating the thing they love most."

One of the masked boys joined elbows with one of the girls, spinning around each other as their feathers crossed over. The audience clapped. Anytime a feather hit the floor, the dancer would throw it up again. No two performances were ever alike even from the same person.

"This is stupid," Kurotsuchi said.

"Really?" Naruto picked up his chair, bringing it to her side of the table, and sat down next to her. "I thought you said that ya wanted to see the world."

"I wanted to see great things!" Kurotsuchi said, turning to him heatedly. "I've been stuck in Iwa my whole life. Grandfather's so scared something will happen to me. I can't go on missions that are too dangerous. I can't leave the village without a whole team of Jounin. Even when I went to the Chunin exams, the other shinobi took it easy on me, scared that they'd kill me and start a war. What I wanted was to see battles, or climb Suna's tallest dunes, or look off the tallest peaks in Kumo. Experiences that can make others go, 'I wish that was me.' Not sit in a village inn watching civilians mimic feathers!"

Naruto observed her. Kurotsuchi was staring at him, all but daring him to argue with her.

"Y'know, it's like you said earlier. I've seen a lot of the world," Naruto said. He laughed. "Being a missing-nin can do that. Stay one place too long, and you'll get nabbed! But if you ask me, after all I've seen, small things like this are the best things out there."

"You're taking me for a fool," Kurotsuchi said.

"People's lives… the ways different people make themselves happy… If it wasn't for that, I would've turned sad a long time ago!" Naruto's smile turned into a shiteating grin. "Of course, I'm just memorizing the best parts for when I'm rich. I like this dancing! I think I'll hire a troupe and pay them to dance like this on the lawn of my favorite mansion!"

The dancers were moving so frenetically that they were working up a sweat. The other foreign ninja had left already, complaining of headaches and holding hands to their head. Only Naruto and Kurotsuchi were left along with the locals.

"What do you see in this silly dance?" Kurotsuchi asked. "If you like it so much."

"Good question. It's the freedom, I think. Or the unpredictability? Heh, maybe it just reminds me of how I fight."

Unpredictable and feral, Kyu said.

Kurotsuchi didn't answer. The younger dancers were getting tired and retiring, leaving only the fittest ones. When a dancer stopped, they left their feather where it landed and joined the crowd. There were a dozen feathers left like this now, and only a small group of active dancers that was dwindling rapidly.

"Answer me truthfully, Naruto Uzumaki," Kurotsuchi said. "You weren't lying about your opinion, were you?"

"Never," Naruto swore.

Kurotsuchi stood up.

The last of the dancers retired at the same time, but the bird was still singing. Before the floor could stay empty, Kurotsuchi stepped out and stood in the middle.

Her face was impassive. The locals looked confused. The man with the whistle even held a protective hand in front of the bird, worried that an irritable nukenin was about to stop its singing permanently.

Kurotsuchi lifted her leg, sliding it out the slit of her dress. She formed one hand seal— and stomped.

Every feather left on the floor shot to the ceiling, lifted by Kurotsuchi's stomp and a surge of wind chakra. When they started to fall, Kurotsuchi started to move.

She crossed the room faster than the civilians could see, but Naruto watched everything. She stopped with her head tilted back and her arms extended down, her chest jutting toward the feather she was watching. A moment later she was in a different place, this time lilting sideways standing on one leg, following the feather next to it. 

When she spun to mimic the descent of another feather, her dress fanned out. She stomped a moment later as a feather dropped sharply, then rose onto her toes as another turned vertically. The bird in the cage sang through it all. The man who lifted his hand to protect the bird slowly lowered it, mesmerized by the way Kurotsuchi was moving.

At first, she looked rigid. The civilians might have missed it, but Naruto could see that she was hesitating. Compared to when her legs felled an entire group of ninja, she was moving sluggishly. Move by move, she got closer to the erratic freedom of the dancers. Her steps were powerful enough to shake the floor of the inn yet the principles were no different from the kids who went before. Naruto spotted one of the youngest girls watching in awe, covering her mouth with both hands.

One by one the feathers touched the ground. They didn't land at the same time. Each trajectory was different, just as each dance had been different. Soon, only one feather was left, right in the center of the room. Kurotsuchi arrived next to it, landing on the balls of her feet.

The feather happened to turn so that its spine was pointing toward the floor. Kurotsuchi bent back. Her left leg stuck straight straight up while her right remained planted on the ground. Both were at perfect right angles to her torso. The feather turned again, touching down on its side. Kurotsuchi brought her leg down. The force rattled the floorboards under their collective feet as she finished. The bird finally went quiet, drifting to sleep inside its cage.

Someone clapped. It was Naruto— but within moments, he wasn't alone. The dancers joined in, followed by the rest of the locals. Kurotsuchi stood there, coming to terms with the situation, frozen in the position where she ended her dance.

She grinned.

Kurotsuchi gave everyone a bow which only made the applause intensify.

Yet another human gives into foolishness, Kyu said. You and your mysterious customs will never cease to baffle me.

"Eh. I'm okay with being a fool. It's pretty fun!" Naruto said.

Girls from the performance mobbed Kurotsuchi with compliments. Each kind word made Kurotsuchi's eyes gleam. It wasn't long ago that she'd been calling them foolish civilians, but Naruto wasn't judging her. He could tell this was what she really wanted.

It didn't matter who was saying that she did great. All that Kurotsuchi cared about was that the compliments were for her, not the Tsuchikage's granddaughter. As much as she talked about wanting to see the world, when Naruto listened to her, he'd gotten the feeling that what she really wanted was for the world to see her.

You think about useless things.

"Love you too, Kyu-chan."

He wondered if he could get a free room for the night as Kurotsuchi's friend. If not, he could probably get her to pay for one like dinner. Being Iwa royalty meant she must've been loaded. But looking at the way Kurotsuchi just became a local celebrity, he was a little bit worried that freeloading off her would get him run out of town.

Kurotsuchi broke away from her admirers, finally returning to the table.

"How was that?" she asked.

Naruto gave her two thumbs up.

"I suppose I judged them a little too harshly," Kurotsuchi said. "That was almost… fun. As something different. I wouldn't want to do it every week."

"Damn," Naruto cursed. "I guess that means my offer to be captain of my dance troupe is off the table."

"I'm a Jounin of Iwagakure!"

"Hey, you never know when someone's looking for a career change."

Kurotsuchi wasn't very convincing as she acted offended. Her smile had something to do with that. She and Naruto looked across the room as an enormous barrel was rolled out and deposited with a heavy thunk! in the middle of the floor.

"What's that?" Kurotsuchi asked.

"Right. I forgot about this part," Naruto said. "Hey, Kurotsuchi?"

"Yes?"

"I hope you can handle your alcohol."

The inn owner pried off the lid of the barrel. The entire thing was full of potent sake— Tori no Kuni's second favorite treat behind bird meat.

"Get ready to drink, guest of honor!" Naruto said.

"Wait—!"

Kurotsuchi was mobbed by the dancers she'd been chatting to earlier, all of them working together to drag her toward the sake. Men on the other side of the room got out instruments, including whistles like the one that kicked off the event. People left their tables to mingle on the floor. The festivities had reached their second part—

An all-out party.

"Fun!" Naruto said.

Please. Kyu's voice was pained. Just don't do anything too embarrassing.