Shatterpoint II. When It Rains, It Pours
Asagami Shiratama smiled as he waved Kakashi goodbye, only for it to drop into a frown as he turned back to his cubicle.
“Hey Shiratama! What was that about?” Only to put a smile on his face as he turned to the black haired chubby shinobi that was hailing him from across the room.
“Nothing much, Chouzo-san.” He replied politely to his coworker, who loved nothing more than a good gossip, small wonder he could not become a Jounin despite his ability as one of the Akimichi clan. “Kakashi-san just so happened to be my daughter’s sensei, so he came by to tell me about her.”
“Yeah,” Chouzo whistled in admiration, “still, couldn’t believe that you struck gold like that, getting the Kakashi to become your kid’s sensei. I mean-”
“Yeah, I’m happy for myself and her as well.” Shiratama interrupted before the Akimichi could get out of hand with his fanboyish adulation for one the strongest shinobi of their generation. “But we should get back to work.” He advised as he gestured at the paperwork on his desk for emphasis.
“Right, sorry.” The Akimichi bobbed his head in agreement before returning to his desk to continue his work, completely unoffended by how he had been dismissed by his colleague, just like most Akimichis were. It was their one strength, as the Hokage would like to call it, and their one weakness, as Shiratama came to learn over his time spent here. So easy to take advantage of, he noted with humor.
However, as Shiratama returned to his work, his amusement at the Akimichi quickly devolved to a throbbing headache at a more pressing issue. Unlike what Chozo had assumed, Shiratama had been less than thrilled when he found out that Hatake Kakashi of all people was mentoring Kyoku, especially with his ‘real’ job being as hard as it already was.
Now with Kyoku under the tutelage of Kakashi, Shiratama had to force himself to not look over his shoulder every so often, especially now that various people that Shiratama had no wish to interact with were coming to find him.
Shikaku, Inoichi, Tsume and Chouza, to name but a few. Then there were those few Chunins and Genins that had been deployed to his building that he was almost certain had contained a few ANBU personnel to check on him, mostly because of Kyoku’s proximity and relation with the Kyuubi child.
Any other shinobi would have been elated to have the opportunity to connect to these prestigious clans, and if Shiratama was a normal shinobi of Konoha, he had no doubts that he would too. Except that he wasn’t, and having connections with these high profile personnel, by shinobi standards, was actually putting him in a very difficult position to continue with his job.
In fact, it did not escape Shiratama’s notice that most of these people came to find him after Kyoku had been transferred under his command by the orders of his overseer.
Kyoku… that child had done nothing but creating a huge slew of problems for Shiratama ever since she arrived. Sure, playing ‘family’ with her for a while had been quite fun for a while, a nice distraction from all the espionage and information theft that Shiratama had been committing under their true master’s name, and Kyoku had been a helpful assistant in that regard too.
It was for those qualities that Shiratama had allowed her to do as she pleased, he had not even reprimanded her for establishing such high profile contacts within the village since she had believed that it would be beneficial to them in the long run. Now though, it would appear that the amount of freedom that he had allowed her was coming back to bite them in the back.
It would seem that he would need to get her to fall back in line before things get worse…
“Shiratama-san!” Looking up, Shiratama noticed a brown headed girl poking her head through the office’s door.
“Good afternoon, Mei-san.” He greeted her as she walked over, holding something behind her. “Do you have something for me today?”
The receptionist smiled as she produced a stack of papers and placed it on the top of his desk. “New reports from the mission desk! I think you might want to have a look at the report I placed on top.” She whispered conspiratorially. “You must be so proud!”
What? Shiratama stared at her as she turned and left the room before quickly snatching the top report from the stack.
And stared…
The rest of the day went by in a blur for him as Shiratama found himself consumed by a burning desire to return home and talk to his ward. The report that he had read had left him with rather complicated emotions that he had never thought existed inside of him. Emotions that he had not felt even when the rest of the village had scrutinized him and his teammates for his sensei’s departure from the village.
Shiratama had only one plan in life, to serve his sensei and eventually stand by his side when Konoha fell, and now that plan was in jeopardy.
The sun was setting when Shiratama set foot into his compound, looking at the pair of neatly placed, but dirty, sandals at the front door, it was clear that Kyoku was home.
Good.
“Welcome back, dad!” A cheerful voice rang out as he pushed open the door. Looks like she had been practicing her acting, he noted. That sentence had felt almost genuine to him.
He did not greet her when she turned to look at him from the kitchen where she was preparing the dinner, though he did give a glance to the cups that were displayed on one of their shelves.
Important information. Seal the house. Was the message this time. He raised an eyebrow, putting aside his ire at her for the time being. What could be so important that she would ask for such a measure?
Perhaps he should find out. Maybe the information that she held would be able to help alleviate a bit of… frustration that he was feeling right now.
Moving over to the kitchen counter that separated him from his ward, Shiratama brushed the wall beside him casually, stealthily activating the seal that was hidden on the other side of the planks. It was a simple seal, one that would prevent sound from escaping the compound for as long as it was active.
He had only had to use it once during his tenure in Konoha, not counting this time.
“You may speak.” He finally said.
Kyoku’s demeanor sombered almost immediately. Dropping to a knee, she bowed her head, adopting the typical shinobi’s gesture of deference to a superior. “I have a report that I wish to submit verbally alongside the usual one, father.”
Father. Shiratama’s eye twitched when he heard that, but he pushed his concerns aside. “What is it?”
“During the last day of my mission in the Land of the Waves, I had observed a boy by the name of Haku exchanging words with my sensei, Hatake Kakashi. From what I had managed to glean, I had a suspicion that this person was a member of the Revolution in the Mist, and was attempting to establish a connection with the authorities in Konoha.”
The Revolution in the Mist? Shiratama’s eyes widened as he contemplated what she had just said. It was a group that his master and overseer both had been very interested in, from what he had noticed the last time he had met them face to face. Unfortunately, the group was extremely elusive and hard to pin down, with even many unrelated sources stressing that it did not even exist.
And Kyoku had said that she had a…
“You said you have a suspicion?” Shiratama asked.
“Yes, father.”
Father, she said it again. Shiratama frowned. “You mean to say that you do not have concrete proof?”
“Ummm, yes father.”
The sound of flesh striking flesh rang throughout the house, and Shiratama shook his hand as he stared down at his ward, who was lying on the floor, a hand clutching a cheek and her eyes wide, as though she could not believe what just happened.
“Did you know what you have done?” He hissed at her. Not giving her a chance to interject, he continued, pouring out his frustration at her. “Do you even know what espionage means?”
“It means that we have to gather as much information as possible without drawing attention to us!” Shiratama spat. “Yet that was- is what you had been doing! Drawing endless attention to our little ‘family’ as though we were truly a couple of Konoha shinobis!”
She stared up at him with frightful eyes as he ranted, sometimes glancing down at his trembling hands. Good, she should fear him, that way she would learn what she had done wrong. “Killing Zabuza would have been considered an achievement for anyone else. But for us? It was the worst thing that you could have done! Now so many eyes are on you, and by extension, me. Do you know how much jeopardy you have placed us in?”
“I…”
“Be quiet!” Shiratama growled, causing her to fall silent almost immediately. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Shiratama looked disappointedly at his subordinate. “Because of what you have done, we now need to lay low, setting back our contributions to him.” Kyoku’s eyes widened, as though she had finally realised how much damage that she had caused to their, no, his operation.
“Use this time to reflect and learn from this. Remember, he would not care for us unless we could give him something useful.” Shiratama said as he turned from her. “Two months, we’re stopping all operations for two months. Use this time to lay low and not gather any unwanted attention to yourself.” He neglected to mention that the Chunin Exam was in a month’s time, but…
If she truly learned from this, she would use it as an opportunity to push the attention off of her to her teammates… if she did not… Shiratama smiled grimly.
“You may continue to talk to your… high-profile ‘friends’, seeing as you have already established a number of routines with them, breaking those routines would cast suspicion on you.” He continued as he walked towards the wall with the seal. “But do not gather any more attention to yourself than necessary. Also, Your sensei had come to find me today.” Shiratama felt a small hint of approval when she looked up in panic, at least, it meant that she had understood the severity of the situation. “He doesn’t know anything about us yet, but he has taken an interest in us. I trust that you would know not to help develop his interest in us for the next two months…”
“Ten years of work. Do not ruin this.”
And with that said, he brushed his hands against the hidden seal again, deactivating the jutsu within it. Now… Shiratama took a deep breath before turning around.
“Don’t keep any dinner for me, Kyoku.” He said warmly, acting the part of the father that he had been playing for the past two years. “I have a prior appointment with a friend. Oh, and good job with the last mission! Keep it up!”
Exiting the apartment, Shiratama sighed. Now that that is over, here comes the hard part.
Now… where is Kabuto at this hour?
What have I done? I wondered as I stared at the door where Shiratama had exited from.
As I stood up shakily, for the briefest moment, I entertained the thought of going straight to Kakashi-Sensei and telling him everything, but threw it aside due to how unfeasible it was. I would be lucky if I wasn’t killed the moment I told him everything.
Such was the life of a spy. Still, I could not help but wonder if this would all be worth it. A secretive lifestyle and the danger it had presented to me did not seem all that appealing now.
Two years had passed since I was personally assigned by Orochimaru-sama to infiltrate this village. While I was still grateful to the man for saving my life, I had had plenty of time to think things through.
Unfortunately, each time my thoughts ended in the same two contradicting lines of reasoning. On one hand, Orochimaru-sama was my saviour, the singular person who had done much more for me than anyone else I had ever recalled. But on the other hand, I had never even heard about him from Shiratama. It was as he hardly even cared about what I was doing.
I sighed, this line of thinking was getting me nowhere. Besides it was not as though he had actually left us here and forgotten about us. If he did, Shiratama would definitely know.
I sighed as I walked to my room, one hand on my cheek. I’d probably need some ointment for the swelling, just so that it would not become too obvious.
As I walked into the room, I absentmindedly reached out with my magic, pulling my diary out of the dimensional pocket I had stored it in. I looked at it for a while, still unsure what I should do with it.
Why did I even take the damn thing out?
I growled in irritation as I finally gave up trying to sort myself out, flipping it open. Only to freeze at the contents.
Those same three words from the thrice damned Celestia were still there. Except that they were no longer the only words on the page. I froze, did Celestia write back at long last? Calming myself, I looked at them.
Hello!
This is Princess Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia. From the looks of my studies (and my own research), this is one of the fabled two-way communication diaries! First off, I would like to apologize for reading and using this without permission, but I had deduced that this was a communication device shared by Princess Celestia and one Sunset Shimmer.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but from the looks of the previous entries, the owner of the other diary, Sunset Shimmer was either a student of Princess Celestia like myself or at the very least, a trusted and missing correspondent. Hence, I will very much appreciate it if I could at the very least speak (or write) to her. So, if the one reading this is Sunset Shimmer, please write back as soon as possible! I promise you that this will not be a waste of your time!
Sincerely,
Twilight Sparkle
Princess of Friendship
I looked at the entry, stunned. No words could describe how I felt right now as I read and re-read that phrase student of Princess Celestia. I stared at those words dumbly, almost as if I were unable to comprehend them.
Then I began giggling. My eyes felt wet as I did so, tears falling to the top of the diary as I laughed even though I had no idea what was so hilarious. Nevermind this heart-wrenching feeling within me, something about this situation just seemed so absurd, so stupid that I felt that I just had to laugh.
What was I, an idiot? Was I seriously expecting Celestia to keep my post as her student vacant? I giggled at my own idiocy. Of course she had replaced me. I was a defective product, a unicorn who refused to be molded in her image.
An indescribable urge rose within me, and I swiftly left the apartment I was living in. I wandered, unthinking and uncaring, following only where my instinct led me, and somehow, I found myself in the clearing of Training Ground five.
It was dark. I gestured, muttering an incantation, and a patch of grass lit up in a small bonfire, solving that problem for me. I looked around mindlessly, until my eyes locked onto one of the training dummies in the dimly lit clearing.
An indescribable urge to punch, to destroy something rose within me and I marched over to the stupid immovable object and lashed out. There was no technique, no proper fighting style that I used, just me constantly beating the stupid little thing without any regards to my own body.
I punched and kicked until bruises filled my limbs, but still I did not stop. And when I did, it was because I was too tired to move myself anymore. I glared at the training dummy, still in a single piece, barely a dent in it.
The sight of it just infuriates me. Unmoving despite my efforts, uncaring as if to spite what I had done.
I growled and an image of that damned Celestia flashed into my mind.
A spike of anger rose within me, and something inside of me broke.
And I screamed.
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Something is going to happen
Whelp, we got confirmation of exactly how far did the "father" role went for Sunset handler (not far at all).
Sunset is really hurting right now, and given how emotional she is I am certain that she is going to lash out, and hard. Her time as a spy is going to end soon, one way or the other.
I have to say, Shiratama is a really BAD handler. Sunset ambition is quite obvious, so him lashing out at her right now because she didnt keep a low profile is like buying a lamp and complaining that it makes light.
I kinda hope Sunset switches sides and helps her team rather than her "master".
Just when she was thinking of doing 'good', everything go to Tartarus
Oh, she's going to go apeshit...and then she's going to get Narutoed.
Ooohhhhh......... yyyyeeeessssss!!!!! I can’t wait to see what happens next! This is going to be EPIC~!
Have a great day!!!!!
I think this chapter turned out rather well. The break was certainly believable. But good luck with her interactions with her team now. Now way can she be the same now that she can give f all about anything.
For a guy who says that they can’t draw attention to themselves, he sure didn’t practice what he preaches in that conversation. I’m pretty sure people would notice a swelled up bruse would draw attention. He should have the discipline to not lash out in anger.