Chapter 43

Rumors traveled fast in small villages, especially when it came to outsiders. Whether due to suspicion or simple boredom, remote villages were full of gossip-mongers that could put shinobi to shame with how fast they spread information. And a young traveler clearly related to one of the most mysterious locals?

Well, there was plenty to talk and speculate about.

Sute knew that by the time Rei came down from his mountain hut, everyone would be talking about the girl with eyes just like his staying at the inn. She herself had heard plenty about him just from overhearing people gossiping after seeing her eyes. So she wasn't surprised when he showed up the next morning with a look of disdain and wariness already plastered on his face, joining the small crowd of adults lingering on the sidelines as she sat among a horde of children weaving a net.

"So you arrange the rocks in the river along the edges so there's only one gap between them, right?" she explained to the wide-eyed children. "So then the fish have no choice but to swim between them, and then go right into the net and get trapped!"

Her young audience made appreciative noises. "That sounds way better than just waiting around with a rod all day!" one boy exclaimed cheerfully. Tadashi, he'd introduced himself. A very plain name for a boy with a very rambunctious and brash personality. The kind of kid who could get annoying at times with how much he whined about wanting to do more "fun" stuff and likely landing in trouble because of it. Honestly refreshing after how grim and serious Kiri had become in those final months.

"It is," Sute agreed with a smile. "You can just leave it there and check back later, and do other stuff... Or you can scare fish so they swim right into the trap!" That had the kids all perking up, even the originally timid little Mayu looking excited as they began chattering about possible ways to scare fish. Tadashi was the most eager, and Sute just listened to their prattle with appropriate appreciative noises as she finished off the final few knots.

"The kids have been all over her since breakfast," she heard a woman named Yuri confide to Rei over the kids' voices. "It's rare to get travelers who don't mind their questions, and Kanade-chan is just so patient with them!"

"I see," he replied dryly. He didn't sound too pleased, though he masked it well behind an impassive expression. Sute could see the children casting curious glances his way, but she ignored him as she tied off the final knot and lifted the net.

"And it's done! Think you're ready to give making one a shot?"

The kids immediately made their enthusiasm known, scrambling to the pile of ropes Sute had waiting beside her. "Looks like we'll be getting plenty of fish in the next few days," one of the observing adults chuckled.

"With hands like that, she'd probably be good at weaving baskets, too," she heard someone else muse.

Sute's second day in the village had her doing exactly that, and more.

"You're so good at splitting the bamboo, Kanade-chan!" Hiroko gushed. "You cut like you've been doing this for years!"

"Thank you, Hiroko-san, but I don't deserve such praise." Sute smiled at the elderly woman as she held a half-stalk with one hand so she could position the angle of the blade they'd provided her. The first cut caused the bamboo to split as the thicker part of the blade caught on the side, the stalk making a series of clicking noises as she dragged the knife towards herself. It left her with two neat, clean halves, and she dropped one to the side and positioned the other to repeat the process. "I'm not nearly as fast or smooth as you."

"You're underselling your skills, dear," Hiroko tittered. "Your splits are so smooth and confident, and they're already so straight. They might not be perfectly even, but I was expecting a lot more crooked cuts we'd have to scrap or salvage. At this rate it looks like we can actually use most of these strips when they're done."

"I just have a lot of practice with knives, is all," Sute replied, ever humble as she finished splitting another half. "My father gave me some shinobi training as a child since we were on the road so much. And we also had to be pretty handy since we could go a while without seeing an inn."

Hiroko nodded in understanding. "I see, I suppose that explains it. Most people's mistakes at the start come from being afraid of cutting themselves. That hesitation makes them shaky, and a steady hand is one of the most important things in cutting bamboo. But even Rei-kun struggled a bit at first, though to be fair, he was a bit younger than you the first time he tried."

"If you're good with knives, then maybe you can help me a bit, too," a man named Saburo called lightly from a nearby workbench. "I'm trying to make a ladder, and it'd be great if you could cut out some holes for the rungs. I also have to work on a new fence today, hopefully strong enough to keep that damn boar from taking it down this time. So if you could take care of the ladder I can get started on that."

"Sure, I can at least try," Sute agreed, handing over the strips she'd finished cutting to Hiroko to join Saburo. He'd outlined the spots for the rungs with charcoal, and handed her a metal tool with a sharp but curved end that vaguely reminded her of a shovel. As she used it to carve along the outline, she could already hear people expressing awe at how precise she was.

She got further compliments when she helped Saburo carry the materials for the fence to the house in question. Since she made no secret of her shinobi training, she had no reason to hide her physical strength. Carrying the bamboo stalks, cumbersome as they were, was trivial compared to some of the lifting she'd done for simple training.

Then on day three, she put that shinobi training to use by slaying the wild boar that had broken the fence in the first place. Which also involved saving Tadashi, who turned out to be just as much of a troublemaker as she'd predicted.

"Seriously, don't go hunting boars on your own," she told the brat as she knelt near the edge of the village, skinning the boar in front of an audience of curious adults. Some had been part of the search party for Tadashi, while others had come out because they'd heard about the massive boar carcass. Emphasis on massive. "This thing is almost as tall as me! I didn't even know wild boars could get this big! Kid, do you want to survive to puberty?"

"Rei fought a bear though," Tadashi argued.

"I am an adult and a trained shinobi," Rei deadpanned from nearby, having been part of the search party for the very reason he just mentioned. "You are not."

"Yeah, Rei and I aren't good examples," Sute agreed with a nod. "Now be quiet, I need to focus to get this cut just right if I want to cleanly remove the skin."

"I don't think it'll be too bad if you mess up there," someone joked from the sidelines. "We'll still have plenty of meat." He wasn't wrong. People were already chatting about having a giant feast that night sharing the boar with all the villagers. No one had asked Sute, but given the thing's massive size she wouldn't be able to eat it all herself anyway.

And besides, the whole point of all this was to get the village to like her. Because if Rei wouldn't talk to her of his own volition, she'd just have to force his hand by swaying the rest of the villagers in her favor. Rumors traveled fast in small villages after all, and he couldn't ignore her forever without people noticing and talking.

Later that evening as the obligatory feast wound down, he appeared at Sute's side as she lingered at the fringes of the dwindling celebration. "Let's talk," he said flatly, and she brightened as she followed him to his house.


The interior of Rei's house was pretty nice compared to some of the houses she'd seen in Bamboo so far. Tatami mats and proper wooden flooring, a cubby for shoes by the entrance and a table with four chairs for meals, and a sitting space with a couch and bookshelf. It even had a proper kitchen, not quite as modern as the one she had in Kiri but still pretty well equipped with a stove and standing pantry.

Rei went to said kitchen to open the cupboards and pulled out two cups. "I'm making tea," he announced, tone making it clear it wasn't really an offer.

"Thank you," Sute replied politely anyway, trotting over to the table to sit down as she let her transformation fade. He just grunted as he went to the stove where a kettle already waited and turned on the burner, suggesting he'd been preparing it before searching for Tadashi. It only took a few minutes before he joined Sute on the opposite side of the table with two steaming cups.

She accepted hers with another polite thanks and took a small sip. Rei took a gulp of his tea like it was alcohol, all but slamming the cup on the table as he met Sute's curious gaze. He didn't look stern like she'd expected, but more tired and resigned, if a bit disgruntled by her presence. "Let's just get this over with. You're that girl from Kiri, right? The one... what's her name—Shiromi, mentioned?"

"Do you really think there might be anyone else?" Sute asked, genuinely curious. "From what Shiromi told me, you seemed to be pretty sure no one else is running around."

His shoulders slumped with a sigh, posture still wary but somehow looking even more tired now. "No, I don't," he admitted sullenly. "I was hoping you'd be another new one, since you're probably a missing-nin. I'd rather not have Kiri's hunter-nin come searching for you."

"Actually, as far as they know, I'm dead," Sute informed him. That had him pausing, squinting at her in apparent disbelief, to which she just smiled. "I'm a medic and fuinjutsu master. Leaving a disguised corpse that can fool people isn't that hard." At least not with her level of expertise and practice.

Rei seemed lost at how to respond, a common enough reaction to Sute, but finally just shook his head. "You know what, just... fine, whatever. You faked your death and ran away from Kiri. Why are you here, though?" He emphasized the here, making it clear he wanted an actual answer.

Sute hummed as she sipped her tea, glancing at the window overlooking the left of the house. "I saw you have a garden," she remarked lightly, ignoring his annoyed scoff at the apparent redirection. "Seems to be mostly medicinal herbs. Even the flowers have medicinal properties."

"So what, you want to use them?" he asked, sounding unimpressed. "I'm not too keen on sharing them. They're not that easy to grow."

The comment had Sute snorting. "I know. I already have most of those, and it was a pain to just get some to survive for a week, let alone long enough I could harvest them. I think I actually gave up on one of those varieties entirely. You might have an even greener thumb than me." Given she had mokuton, that was saying something.

"Is there a point to this?" Rei asked impatiently, and she smiled.

"How would you feel about a greenhouse full of herbs and plants from various countries?" There was a long moment of silence as Rei stared at her. He still looked wary, but she'd clearly caught his interest judging by the glint in his eye.

"A greenhouse?" he repeated, and she dipped her head with a cheerful smile.

"Yeah. I had one for years, and I had plants from as far away as Suna."

Rei didn't look particularly impressed. "Suna's not that far."

"It is when you live in Kiri," she countered, and saw him briefly tense at the reminder of her origin before his shoulders sagged with another sigh.

"Right, fine. What is a greenhouse, anyway?" She raised her eyebrows, surprised he'd never heard of them. Then again, this village was pretty rural and remote.

"They're basically glass buildings used to grow plants. The glass lets in sunlight, and you can better control temperatures and environmental conditions since it's an enclosed space. So you can grow plants out of season or even from other climates. I already mentioned I had some from Suna, I imagine you know how different that and Kiri are."

"Suna's a desert, and Kiri's... basically swampland, right?" Rei asked, and she nodded.

"Pretty much. Other Mist ninja would bring back plants from other countries for me as souvenirs, so I have plants and herbs from all over the world. By the time I left, I had the greenhouse mostly able to sustain itself thanks to fuinjutsu. But greenhouses still need regular maintenance and attention, and they're also not mobile."

"So you need a place to build a new one," Rei summarized and Sute nodded, more serious now.

"Exactly. That's honestly the main reason I took so long to defect, I needed a location for a new one first. I've put in too much effort to abandon it completely, and I use those plants for my poisons and medicines." She also needed it as a stable environment for her beloved mamushis, but she'd work her way up to revealing the box of venomous snakes. "From looking at your garden, you're already interested in growing medicinal herbs and such. So if you help me establish a greenhouse here and maintain it, I'll let you use the plants there too. I'll even teach you some of the recipes I know."

Rei's eyes were sharp now, posture straight and gaze calculating as he regarded her. "You don't plan to stay here full-time?"

"I'm planning to travel occasionally, earn some money and find new plants. I figure I can use this area as a base of sorts. In exchange, I can offer my services as a medic to the village. Maybe even teach you how to use medical ninjutsu, if you don't already know it," she added lightly.

Her last offer clearly sparked his interest judging by the way he sat a bit straighter, though he still seemed guarded and conflicted. While Rei was older than her, he clearly lacked experience in schooling his expression and body language, his thoughts clear as day to Sute's keen eye. His mouth pulled into a frown, eyebrows furrowing as he slowly shook his head.

"I... don't know," he muttered. "I really didn't expect some long-lost relative to show up and talk about moving in. Especially one that's a missing-nin."

The last line carried a bit more wariness. "If you're worried about me attracting attention, I already plan to keep this place secret," Sute assured him. "I already mentioned I faked my death so there won't be any hunter-nin after me, and I'll be removed from the bingo books once word spreads outside Kiri. I want to lay low for the most part, so I'll be keeping missions and such to a minimum outside what I need for funding. Like I said, I figure I can live here as a medic, maybe do some experiments when inspiration strikes."

"You mean fuinjutsu?" he asked dryly, and she nodded with a smile.

"Yeah, it's fun! Do you want to learn? I can teach you some of the basics if you don't know them."

"I'm good," he declined with a head shake. "My aunt tried to teach me some when I was young. I got some of the basics down and can make explosive tags and storage scrolls, and maintain the ones she made, but... I don't really have a talent for it. It all went over my head a bit." He sounded a bit sheepish, and Sute hummed, eying him more speculatively now.

An aunt, huh. Shiromi had briefly referenced that he'd been raised by non-Yorozuyo relatives, but Sute hadn't given much thought to what happened to them. Judging by the fact Rei lived alone and clearly had for a while, they must be dead.

Part of her wanted to ask about what happened to the Yorozuyo clan. Why he'd been so certain no one else had survived, and what exactly it was that made Shiromi say he looked disturbed when he mentioned that. It was clear something had happened during the fall of Uzushio beyond the clan simply being massacred by invaders, and that he knew what it was despite being a baby at the time.

But right now, he seemed tense and rigid, and, more importantly, still highly cautious of her. They were still strangers, still building the most basic trust. Asking simply to satisfy her curiosity might do more harm than good at this stage.

So Sute pushed aside her curiosity for the time being, and took another sip of her tea before speaking again. "I guess being from Uzushio doesn't automatically give you a natural knack for it like people believe," she mused, and noticed him stiffen briefly before giving a tight nod.

"Yeah, guess so," he said, his tone a bit more bitter now. She sipped her tea some more and he picked up his cup to do the same, once again gulping it down like a shot. Maybe to soothe his nerves. If so, she hoped it worked, since she still had one more point to make in this negotiation.

"There is one more detail," she said as she set down her cup, and saw him tense in recognition of her serious tone. "I am aware I am asking a lot, and for that reason I can't hide this in good faith."

Before arriving Sute had already determined that for this arrangement to work, she'd have to be completely upfront and honest about as much as possible. Shinobi operated on deceit and deception, keeping secrets to maintain advantages over their enemies. However, she couldn't have that sort of relationship here. If she wanted to be able to trust Rei with her greenhouse, she needed to be able to communicate openly with him. Give him proof she herself could be trusted.

To that end, she pulled a dandelion seed from her pocket. Rei briefly jolted in his seat and became more alert when she reached for it, only losing some of his tension when he saw the seed in the center of her palm. Even then he remained on edge, eying the seed with open confusion.

Then, his jaw dropped as it bloomed.

The tip of the seed's dark shell split open as bright green broke through, quickly growing outwards and forming into two leaves as the stems grew. More stems and leaves extended from the crack in the shell, shaking as they joined the other leaves in stretching and reaching upwards. The whole time Sute kept her gaze locked firmly on Rei, watching his wide-eyed shock as the dandelion continued to grow.

"I have the mokuton," she said bluntly. "That's the entire reason I left Kiri. Any kekkei genkai can get serious flak there these days, but mokuton..."

She trailed off, but for once, it wasn't for dramatic effect.

It was because Rei was crying.

Tears silently slid down his cheeks as he gaped at the still-growing dandelion, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. He didn't audibly cry, or show any particularly strong emotion. If not for the tears, he'd just look stunned.

Sute just stared at him, the flow of chakra to the seed cutting out. As the growth halted that seemed to snap him from his stupor, eyes flicking upwards to meet her own wide-eyed stare. The watery shine made the green even brighter than usual. "Um," she said eloquently, because she had prepared for many responses, but not this.

He sucked in a breath and rubbed his face with his sleeve. "Sorry," he said softly. "I, I don't know why..." He trailed off and shook his head, taking another deep breath. "The mokuton was used by the First Hokage. Doesn't that mean you could just, go to Konoha? Wouldn't they welcome you?"

"Uh, my time in Kiri eliminated it as an option," Sute replied, though not quite as wryly as she would if she hadn't still been slightly alarmed by the tears. Turns out unexpected crying was a good way to throw her off her game, who knew? She quickly gathered herself as she continued, "I fought in the war, and based on the last time I met a Leaf ninja, I think I'm some kind of boogeyman there?"

That seemed to help stir him from his own stupor a little more. "A... boogeyman?"

"It's really surreal to have a kid basically greet you by asking if 'this is the part where I torture him,'" she confided blandly. "I didn't plan to do that by the way, but that kinda says a lot about how I'm seen there. Pretty sure he resigned himself to death the second he realized who I was."

Rei was silent for a moment as he processed that. "Is he, is he dead?"

"No, he's alive." For now. Poor boy was doomed as an Uchiha, but she couldn't do much to change that. "Long story, but he was captured by someone else and I was basically playing along so a temporary ally could show up to save him. And on that note, I think I traumatized him a bit when I used a seal to disrupt his chakra a little so he wouldn't use his Sharingan while I healed him."

To her surprise Rei actually lurched in his seat, something akin to fear briefly flashing across his features. "Sh-Sharingan?" he sputtered. "Y-you can disrupt it?" Her eyebrows rose again at his reaction as she nodded.

"Yeah, if you use a seal to mess with their chakra coils. I made a fairly simple and weak one that disrupts it just enough to stop people from using chakra without really focusing on it. You just gotta keep them distracted enough not to try." That had been half the reason Sute had rambled so much while healing Shisui. While she'd told him that he could still use ninjutsu, she had no doubts that he could also use the Sharingan if he focused enough. Though she was working on more advanced versions to block chakra entirely, that one was still good for a quick pinch.

She leaned forward, studying Rei with interest. "Are you interested in learning to make it? I can teach you, if you agree to help with the greenhouse." Earlier he had claimed to be not suited for fuinjutsu but his reaction had been fairly strong, and she wouldn't waste a potential opening. Besides, the chakra disrupting seal was actually fairly simple to create.

Rei held her gaze for a moment before averting it to the table, swallowing thickly. "I... hah, yes," he groaned, shoulders slumping in defeat. "Just... yes, please. I'll manage the greenhouse or whatever. I feel like you'd try to kill me if I said no anyway with how much you've revealed," he added under his breath.

Sute perked up and chose to ignore the last statement, clapping her hands in delight. "Thank you so much, Rei-san!" she chirped. "I'll make sure to repay you for this! On that note, how do you feel about snakes?"

His deadpan expression made it clear he lacked her own enthusiasm. "I already regret this so much," he groaned, but they both knew it was too late to back out.


So it's been a long time, and I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to go nearly a whole year without a new chapter, time just flew by last year. Then last August... Well, let's just say something happened and writing got put on the back-burner. I don't want to get into details because I'm not looking for sympathy and I've already made my peace with it, and honestly kinda squirm at all the attention and well-meaning platitudes.

That aside, I still can't guarantee a regular update schedule. But screw it, I'll aim for at least once a month now! I need to get some routine in my life again, and an update schedule is as good a starting point as any. And I've come to realize that Naruto is probably the closest to "home" of any fandom. I don't think I'll ever lose my soft spot for it, even if my interest wanes periodically.

As a final note, there's a lesson I learned long ago that I want impart to you all: if you love someone, make sure you always tell them that when you say goodbye because you never know what will be your true last words. Goodbye, good night, I love you. I am just so glad I learned that lesson without having to learn it the hard way through a major loss.