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News of the Nara Clan Head adopting a distant cousin into his immediate family makes its way through Konoha's gossip tree — but in a way that suggests someone is trying to make a scandal of it, more than it really being a scandal.
"If the Uchiha did that," Shisui says to Tokimi-baa, who is really the only one interested in the bits and pieces Shisui picks up about the rest of Konoha. Uzume-ba will just scoff and tell him he's wasting his time, but Shisui likes knowing what's going on outside the Uchiha. "It would be because someone awoke their Magenkyo and it turned out to be Amaterasu."
His grandfather had done basically just that — been a no name orphan and then awoken Kotoamatsukami… propelling himself and his descendants into a proper lineage.
"I don't know if the Nara have anything like that," Tokimi-baa says, still filling out her paperwork. "Well. Actually. They have something. If you work with one long enough you'll get a strange warning that copying the shadow jutsu could be dangerous."
"Like… chakra exhaustion?"
"No one has been foolish enough to try," Tokimi-baa says dryly. "Recently, anyway. Our clan histories definitely regard fighting them as risking pyrrhic victories — the assumption at the time was poison, but that doesn't seem to be a clan standard."
Huh. Shisui has never really worked closely with any Nara — with any of a lot of Konoha's clans, and it's a little odd to think there's common knowledge that he doesn't have.
Or, well. Tokimi-baa knows everything. It's probably not common knowledge.
"The Jounin Commander isn't worried about scandal, anyway," Tokimi-baa says.
"Well, he is the Jounin Commander," Shisui says. "I guess he doesn't have to."
She shakes her head. "That too, I suppose. But he's always been a bit of a wild one. He was disinherited at one point, I think. Nearly disowned. If he got through that, a little bit of gossip won't phase him."
Shisui gapes at her. He tries to square that information with his own impression of the Jounin Commander — stern, intimidating, a little boring.
That intrigues him enough that he keeps an ear out for more gossip, where the topic might have otherwise slipped from his attention.
The next time it comes up Shisui is doing kunai maintenance on Tokimi-baa's living room floor — there's space to spread everything out, which there certainly isn't in his apartment — when Amano arrives. Uzume-ba is already here, cursing as she tries to find something in the back of the storage cupboard without having to take everything else out, so it's not weird or anything. They'd all been expecting Amano to show up.
But Amano says, "do any of you know if there's something happening with the Nara?" and he sounds kinda hesitant about it.
That makes Uzume abandon the storage cupboard. "The Nara?" she asks, eyes narrowing. "No, why? Have they done something?"
"That's what I'm asking," Amano says, way too used to Uzume's suspicions to be exasperated by it. "The Clan Head called us all together and told us we were, in no uncertain terms, to have absolutely no contact whatsoever with Shikako Nara."
"The… Jounin Commander?" Uzume says, brow wrinkling with more confusion than suspicion. "That's… going to be difficult for you to avoid."
Shisui is pretty sure Amano does more ANBU work than General Forces, these days, so he probably could avoid the Jounin Commander, but there are plenty of other Hyuuga in the General Forces.
"Ko," Amano repeats. "Like 'girl'. I assume. I didn't see it written down."
"Tch. They do this on purpose," Uzume says, collapsing down onto the couch. "Just to be confusing bastards. But if you don't already know her, it's probably not a problem, right?"
"Probably not," Amano agrees. "I just wondered if anyone knew why I was just told to not associate with someone I don't associate with."
"Oh, her," Shisui says, in recognition. "I know."
"Do you now," Uzume says, suspicious.
Shisui rolls his eyes at her. "If you don't want me to tell you, I won't," he says, even though he probably will. Uzume-ba doesn't usually care about village gossip, so it would kind of kill him to stay quiet now.
"Go on, then," Amano says, joining Uzume on the couch.
Shisui picks up one of his kunai and spins it though his fingers. The balance feels off. He probably needs new ones. "She works in the Tower Research and Development Department," he says. "She's a Special Jounin."
"That's no big deal," Uzume says, brow wrinkling. "There's dozens of Special Jounin in the tower. Most of 'em can't even fight."
"Special Jounin of what?" Amano says, because Uzume is right but it's not a rank granted for combat most of the time, anyway.
"She's a seal master," Shisui says.
"That would do it," Amano says, like following the Hyuuga's instructions isn't suddenly a hundred times more difficult.
"No one knows where she came from," Shisui says. "The Jounin Commander just brought her back to Konoha and adopted her. Even her name is apparently new."
"Of course it is," Tokimi-baa says, appearing in the kitchen doorway. She seems unsurprised, like she can see something he can't. "Wherever she came from has enough resources to train a seal master. You can bet Shikaku wants to keep it quiet."
"And other people want to find out," Shisui guesses. It sounds like clan business, which means technically no one else has any need to know, but the Uchiha of all people know how thin that excuse can be.
"She probably couldn't help you, anyway," Uzume says, like she's trying to kill any seed of hope before it starts to sprout. "Even if we could make her try. Seal Masters don't usually go around unravelling seals out of the goodness of their hearts."
"Probably not," Amano agrees, but softly. Then again, would the Hyuuga go so far as to ban talking to her if they weren't a little bit worried about it?
Shisui… well, he probably won't have much of a chance to find out. But if he does, he'll try.
It's only a handful of weeks after Shikako joins this Konoha, before she gets invited to one of the Special Jounin Bingo Book parties.
She goes, because she's trying to be sociable and normal, trying to integrate herself and establish connections because even the Jounin Commander vouching for her will only take her so far.
It isn't the same as it was. Nothing is, really, because this isn't the Konoha she grew up in. The people that look up and greet her when she arrives at the bar aren't the ones that she knew then — though they're here, crowded together and joking with each other — but her new colleagues from Research and Development.
They're nice people, really. Most of them are too concerned with their own projects to question her backstory — or lack thereof — in the way that other departments might, except to regret that she hadn't been around to help with their studies earlier.
The field shinobi barely glance her way. To them, she's nothing more than a paperwork ninja, promoted to Special Jounin solely on a non-combat skill, someone who has never even been on a single mission.
To them, she's no more dangerous than Shiho. Even having received her rank for her Sealing skills this time doesn't amount to much, when she's nothing more than a glorified printing press. A useful resource, but not a threat and not a peer.
It's kind of odd and melancholy, but— its fine. It's the path that she and this Shikaku worked out, and it's working fine. She's a respected member of Konoha and in a few years she can start dropping hints of combat abilities and she'll probably make Jounin for real before Shikamaru even graduates the Academy.
But — just secretly, just a little — she misses the respectful intimidation that she'd had, then. Not the worlds where she'd shown her full skills and they'd been afraid of her, not that, just the way she'd been listened to.
“Can I get you a drink, Shikako-chan?” Daichi asks, a glass of probably-chuhai sloshing and nearly spilling as he gesticulates. He's fifteen, which is technically the same age as her, though she really can't tell if she feels old or he seems too young. “They don't ask for your ID here!”
No, he's definitely young. Or maybe just... untempered. The kind of non-field shinobi she can only pretend to be on the surface.
“No thank you, Sato-san,” Shikako says, polite but not really receptive. If he was just being friendly, maybe, but it's more than that and it's awkward. So awkward.
She ducks around him and perches on the chair playing host to Asuka-senpai's coat and handbag. It puts her back to the field shinobi but maybe that's for the best. It removes the temptation to keep looking at them.
It also puts her right next to the wall, so no one can sidle in and sit beside her.
“You should put the boy out of his misery,” Asuka-senpai says, though thankfully not until after Daichi has been drawn into another conversation.
Shikako flicks through the bingo book on the table like she's actually paying attention to it and doing work like the dedicated little research ninja she is. “He hasn't done anything worth that,” she says dryly. “And I'd still have to work with him, after.”
Asuka-senpai chuckles, taking a sip of something that looks incredibly brightly coloured and highly alcoholic. “You could consider laying a challenge, then. Control the approach and get something out of it.”
"Laying a challenge?" Shikako repeats, tilting her head to the side in curiosity. She can think of many preferable conversational topics to this, but Asuka-senpai likes to 'dispense wisdom' and is always more amenable when she's listened to. "What do you mean?"
"You know," Asuka-senpai says, with an elegant spin of her wrist. She affects a haughty tone that isn't particularly distinguishable from her regular tones. "My suitor must bring me a cherry with no stone, a goose with no bone, a blanket with no thread and a book that can't be read."
Shikako blinks. The idea is familiar from fairy tales but she's not sure if this is a difference between worlds, or if she simply hadn't... existed in the portion of Konoha that had thought these kinds of things. Sakura or Ino might have known.
"People do that?" she asks. “Really?” She pours herself a glass of water from the decanter on the table, just so she has something to hold onto.
"Usually less impossible," Asuka-senpai concedes. "I've heard there's a whole village of kunoichi who won't marry anyone who can't beat them in a fight. I always got pretty good milage out of 'a spirit made of neither rice nor barley.'"
Shikako squints at her. “So like... imojōchū or umeshu?”
Asuka-senpai shrugs. “I wasn't doing it to dissuade them,” she says. “And it meant they came with a nice drink.”
Shikako drags her fingers through the condensation on the outside of her glass. "Well," she says, slowly. It's kind of a terrible idea. It really won't make her life easier. "I suppose if they can bring me a seal I can't unravel, then I'll consider it."
The consideration will still be no, of course, but there's no need to mention it.
There's a burst of laughter from the table of the field shinobi behind her. Anko Mitarashi leans backwards over her chair, tipping it back on two legs. "Now that's a hell of a challenge to lay down," she says, grin a touch too wide and sharp for comfort. "Now I have to consider if clan life would suit me."
Shikako has never forgotten for a moment that they're in public and that people are listening. "Only if you're certain I can't unravel your seal, kunoichi-san," she says placidly.
"It's a win for me, either way," Anko says, like she probably wouldn't give an arm and a leg to have her seal removed. "So, let's see if you're as good as you think you are."
"Then perhaps we should talk somewhere more privately," Shikako suggests. She has been wondering how she would get her hands on some of the more… classified seals around Konoha. She isn't even supposed to know about Anko's seal, let alone be able to offer to fix it.
Well. She couldn't have planned this better herself, frankly.
This isn't really how he meant to investigate, Shisui thinks as he awkwardly approaches the picnic bench where the Special Jounin is reading a novel. There's a paper takeout coffee cup and a half eaten donburi on the table beside her, so she's clearly having lunch. He feels a little bad for disturbing her, even though she's in a public space and really should be fair game.
“Hi,” he says cheerfully, anyway, sliding into the seat across from her. “You're Shikako Nara, right? The sealing master?”
She blinks up at him, but not like she's particularly surprised. Maybe she is used to people stopping and talking to her out of nowhere. “Ah, well,” she says. “'Master' is kind of an arbitrary term... I'm a Special Jounin and my specialisation is sealing, though. So... uh. Yes, I suppose.”
“Oh, I didn't think about that,” Shisui says. “You're right. It's just what people call anyone who is good at sealing, isn't it?” But debating nomenclature totally isn't why he's here. “I heard um. That you challenged people to bring you unbreakable seals.”
If she actually means it— well. It's always good to try and test things out, before he does something that might get them in a lot of trouble with the Hyuuga.
And it's not like he doesn't actually need her help, too.
She flips her book closed, leaving her index finger between the pages to hold her place. There isn't anything less polite about her expression, but it feels scrupulously neutral all of a sudden. Stiffer. “Less unbreakable and more un-understandable, but... sure. Did you have a seal you want to show me?”
“Honestly, I am hoping you can break it. Or- at least explain it?” Shisui says, putting the scroll that he'd copied the seal out on. He doesn't want her to get the wrong impression and think he's here seriously, though he feels a little bad about that too. He's sure she's nice. “I tried to submit it for evaluation with my mission report but- well. I guess it just goes a lot slower when you use the official channels.”
“Hm, I'll have to check for it,” she says, moving her hands to take and unroll the scroll across the table and in the process letting her book fall fully closed. Shisui automatically checks the height of the pages she had been bookmarking and is pretty sure he could find her place again for her – give or take a few pages.
“I usually grab all the ones with seal requests as soon as I can,” she goes on. “But maybe it's just caught up somewhere. So this came from a mission?”
Uchiha paperwork tends to get caught up a lot. Especially in cases like this where Shisui is trying to justify a failed mission – he'd pulled back instead of trying to cross a seal he didn't understand and that every instinct screamed was bad news.
Returning empty handed had not gone over well.
“Yeah, it was across a door,” Shisui says.
“Treasure vault? Or some kind of fallout shelter,” Shikako says, almost absently. She reaches down into the satchel beside her and pulls out a sheet of paper and a pen. The paper has the familiar markings of tower paperwork – something to be attached to a mission report. “Do you have your mission number?”
Shisui gives it to her, along with his name and rank and watches as she fills it out in neat, clear handwriting. Is that a paperwork ninja skill? To write quickly and neatly? It would probably be useful.
“It's a good thing you didn't disrupt it,” Shikako says, filling out the report.
“How do you know I didn't?” Shisui asks, curious.
“You're here and alive,” Shikako says dryly. “The design is actually pretty neat. Because it goes over a moveable part – the door – if you disrupt the lines by opening it without the correct... key or password, it's just going to explode. Give it the wrong key... explode. Introduce outside chakra to it by trying to jutsu through it... I mean, you get the picture.”
Shisui thinks to the very narrow corridor, deep underground that he'd had significant trouble getting to. An explosion there...
“Narrow escape then,” he says, even more pleased with his own decisions.
“Was this all of it?” She asks. “Or do you remember any markings on the walls around it?”
Shisui doesn't even have to think back. He'd scanned the room with his sharingan down to the inch before exfiltrating, just in case there was anything else he could do. “There were black lines along the same wall,” he says. “Not any of the others, just that one.”
She nods. “High probability the seal was woven around the entire vault, then,” she says. “To protect it from ingress via the walls. Or ceiling or floor, if they're clever.”
“They seem pretty clever,” Shisui says, because it does sting to have been defeated by what is effectively a very good lock.
She flashes a quick smile at him, barely taking her attention from her work for a second. “I'm cleverer,” she says. “I can make a counter. Mission desk will have to requisition it from my department, so it should just be included in the mission scroll, but if they try and send you out again without it... you can come get it from me directly,” she says.
"That won't… cause trouble or anything?" Shisui asks, cautiously. She's been really helpful and she hasn't had to be. He doesn't want to pay that back by causing problems, which is what associating with the Uchiha has been causing lately.
Shikako blows out a breath, dramatically. "If anyone has a problem with it, they can fight me," she declares.
Shisui laughs, surprised more than anything at the bold declaration. It seems at odds with her humble dismissal of the title of 'sealing master' — something more like what Uzume would say when she was fed up with people.
"I mean," Shikako adds, hastily. "I could take those mission desk guys, probably. Except maybe Iruka-sensei. He works at the academy and anyone who wrangles thirty pre-ninja everyday has got to be feared."
"I bet!" Shisui says, just as hasty. "That wasn't— I didn't mean to laugh at you. It was just funny."
Her shoulders relax and her smile comes back. "Oh, okay. But like, seriously though. You're in the General Forces though, right? I can just keep kicking it up the chain. The Jounin Commander is pretty reasonable about listening to experts when they say something is too dangerous to touch."
Shisui would generally shudder in dread with the idea of any of his missions going badly enough to be personally reviewed by the Jounin Commander but it's a solid reminder that the Jounin Commander is her father.
There probably aren't that many people in the tower willing to argue that Shikako wasn't a reliable expert on sealing when he'd up and adopted her for those skills.
She finishes the report and signs it with an exaggerated swirl, then dives into her bag and comes back out with something else, filling it in quickly.
"Here," she says. "It's a pass to the RnD department. If you need that counter-seal. Or if you see any other cool seals on your missions. Not going to lie— it's really nice to have someone copy it exactly instead of just what they might have seen in three seconds of combat or people who tried to remember the bits they thought looked important and not just 'like some squiggles'."
The cadence of her voice trips a little faster, like she's nervous.
"I can do that better than most people," Shisui says as he takes the pass. She's filled in his name and her office number and under the expected appointment time put 'at liberty'.
"I usually work day or afternoon shift," she tacks on. "You can come by at any time, really."
"If you're sure," Shisui says, unable to not grin at her. Yeah, sure, there's nothing to say that she would help Amano-ji remove the Caged Bird Seal, even if he was ever able to ask…
But she's nice and he hopes they can be friends.