When they arrived, the old woman had prepared another horrendous dish of curry. Seina sighed as she made it disappear into her mouth to avoid a stomach ulcer, and perhaps an esophageal one. She watched Karashi reunite with his mother, accepting his punishment by eating a curry even worse than hers, sweating profusely and crying from the spiciness. The boy, on the other hand, was still sleeping under her spell.
"Ugh, how can you eat the curry without fainting?" Tenten asked. "I think I'm going to lie down for a while to calm my stomach."
Seina stifled a laugh, leaving the restaurant. She moved far enough away, sitting on a branch, so that neither Karashi nor his mother could see her eating. She heard Neji's footsteps approaching.
"Now I understand everything," Neji laughed, climbing up to sit beside her.
"Want some?" she asked, showing him another pair of chopsticks.
"If you don't mind..."
"Not at all." A comforting silence fell as they ate normal food.
"He wasn't dead, was he?" Neji asked suddenly, glancing at her sideways.
"No. I saw the boy's smile and his red eyes. I knew he could confuse your dojutsu, so I wondered if it was his residual powers confusing you again. I was right."
"You killed him," Neji stated, calm but not accusatory.
She nodded. Neji hadn't seen her kill with the killing curse like Shikamaru and Kiba, but he was present when they discussed it. He wasn't stupid, so he could put two and two together like Shikamaru.
"Were you the one who put the boy to sleep?"
"Yes. I didn't want him to know what I was going to do."
"Why?" Neji raised an eyebrow, looking at her directly.
"Because I want to see if the boy is a problem..."
"You're going to let him think Raiga is alive to see what he does next. Wow. Quite twisted. I would never have thought of that," Neji frowned, "but it's the most intelligent and efficient thing to do given the circumstances."
"Not just him. Karashi is easily manipulated. They've twisted his mind twice in a row. I want to see what happens."
"You expect him to use Karashi to get to Raiga. Makes sense. Do you think he will?"
"No one else will," she replied. "The boy is smart. If he plans to sneak out, he'll eventually think the same."
"And what do we do if that happens?"
"Raiga is dead. We'll let him accept his death as final. What he does next is not our concern. From what I've heard, the old lady plans to keep the boy. Maybe that's what he needs: to know for himself that Raiga isn't coming back. As for Karashi, I think we'll have to have a serious talk with him. Lee's words seem to go in one ear and out the other."
"You've surprised me," Neji said after a few minutes. "Knowing how your brother is, I would never have imagined how different you are in comparison. Naruto wouldn't have thought of any of this."
"Naruto is too good, much more than I am. Perhaps too good to be a ninja."
"We are the dark side, Seina. We always have been and always will be," Kurama reminded her.
"I didn't mean it as a flaw," Neji looked at her seriously. "It was a compliment."
Seina sighed. She wasn't sure if it was truly a compliment, despite what Neji might believe. These machinations would have gone over her head at Naruto's age in her previous life. In fact, they had, costing her much pain, blood, and tears. That was why she wanted to avoid making the same mistakes, using her experience to do so.
That night, when they returned inside the restaurant, she kept an eye on things thanks to her summons. She saw the boy convincing Karashi to take him to Raiga's body. She opened her eyes at the same time as Neji.
"What's happening?" Tenten asked, half-asleep.
"The boy has escaped with Karashi."
"WHAT!?" Lee shouted. Tenten covered his mouth to silence him. "We have to go after them!"
Seina exited through the window and started running, keeping a prudent distance. As expected, they found them by the body. They watched from a distance as the boy cried, hugging one of Raiga's cold arms.
"Do you think I'm a bad person for not feeling guilty?" she asked Kurama while watching impassively as Lee and Tenten went to comfort the boy and then proceeded to scold Karashi.
"Why would you feel guilty? That kid and the lightning guy were your enemies. Could it be that you feel guilty for not feeling guilty, midget?"
"Maybe you're right..."
"I'm always right. Besides, just because he's so young doesn't mean he's any less dangerous than an adult. Your own sensei is proof of that. Wasn't he a genin at just 5 years old and killed many people shortly after?"
Kurama's words finally calmed her. Realizing that, in reality, the boy would be fine in the care of someone normal, growing up without being a weapon in Raiga's hands. Any way she looked at it, they came out ahead. They returned to the village the next day, dragging Lee away from another curry dish and leaving behind Karashi, the old woman, and the boy.
When she returned to the village, she found out everything that had happened thanks to the ninja and civilian gossip. She smiled upon hearing that her brother and Sasuke's mission had been a complete success.
"Finally, you're back!" Tsunade-sama said as soon as she saw them. "How did the mission go?"
Seina proceeded to explain in detail everything that had happened. She handed over the Kiri weapons, seeing the Hokage's interested expression, and accepted the congratulations. They collected their pay and left, not without Tsunade-sama telling her that the next day she would have to help at the hospital due to the injuries from the prison break.
"Ugh. Finally free," Tenten sighed. "I can't wait to take a good bath."
"You and me both... I'll head this way. See you later," she said, waving.
She arrived home yawning. When she opened the door, she saw Naruto and Kakashi-sensei preparing food while Sasuke set the table.
"Nee-chan!" Naruto called, abandoning the kitchen to throw himself on her. "You're back!"
He bombarded her with questions without giving her time to answer. Sasuke gave him a light smack while rolling his eyes. She saw Kakashi-sensei smile in her direction, moving something in a pan. She explained everything that had happened once again, to Naruto and Sasuke's excitement and interest, sitting at the table.
"It seems like it was a relatively easy mission," the jonin said, placing the food on the plates. "You almost could have done it alone."
"Nah. Without Lee and the others, someone would have a few broken bones. You can't imagine how exhausting Karashi was, not to mention one of the clients."
"Yeah. It would have been bad if you killed your client for being an idiot," Sasuke smirked as the jonin and Naruto laughed.
They ate and laughed, talking about their respective missions. They cleared the table and washed the dishes. Just when she thought they had some time to chat and laze around, Kakashi-sensei stood up.
"Well, guys. I have another mission, so I have to go," Kakashi-sensei told them.
"Another one?" she asked in surprise.
"Yes. The village is swamped with missions, apparently," he sighed. "Tsunade-sama keeps pushing us hard. In fact, I know she has something special planned for these knuckleheads this afternoon."
"What!? What is it?" Naruto exclaimed, very interested.
"You'll see. See you later!"
That "special" thing Kakashi-sensei mentioned turned out to be a rather odd mission for the Konoha genins. Luckily for Shikamaru and her, they managed to avoid looking after three academy students for a day and a half. Shikamaru was forced to help organize the event since he wasn't a genin, and she had to work at the hospital. Seina had to mentally tune out Sasuke and Naruto's complaints when they realized they would be spending the night outdoors with kids aged seven or younger.
The next morning, she went straight to the hospital after having breakfast alone at home. Kakashi-sensei was still on a mission, while Sasuke and Naruto wouldn't be back until the afternoon. When she arrived at the hospital, she saw general chaos in the less severe shinobi wards.
"But what's happening here?" she asked as soon as she saw it.
There were patients everywhere, most with moderate injuries, while the medical ninjas hurried up and down. It was the first time she had seen such chaos in the hospital.
"We don't have enough medical staff in the village," a nurse told her, "and we civilians can't treat ninjas, so there are many patients left to treat since the prison break."
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. You know what to do," she avoided rolling her eyes at the surprised and ridiculously relieved expressions of some doctors and medical staff present.
She spent the next four hours treating one patient after another. She disinfected wounds, healed them, administered antibiotics, set bones, administered potions, put some patients to sleep... When her shift ended, she saw her clones vanish at her command and received all the information they had gathered. She realized that in the civilian wards, some of her clones even had time to check the inventory and help with other doctors' paperwork. The only patients left to treat were the severe cases she hadn't dared to touch without Tsunade-sama's consent.
"Thank you so much, Seina-san," said someone who seemed to be the head of the hospital's east wing, bowing. "Without your help, it would have taken us days to get back to normal."
"That's why Tsunade-sama asked me to come," she said, downplaying the matter.
She went home with her stomach growling from hunger. Since there was no one around to train with, she created a few clones to advance her medical studies and others to continue working on inventions, anticipating the Hokage's requests to save time. Meanwhile, she took out her diary to see what tasks she had pending or investigations she had forgotten.
"Mmm... The summoning task is already completed successfully," she muttered to herself, crossing the item off the list. "Same with the contract review, and my clones are reading the books."
Then she saw the next item and froze. Naruto's gift. She had completely forgotten that their birthdays were in October. There were only seven days left, and she still had no idea what to buy or make for him.
Hours later, Naruto and Sasuke returned home, dragging their feet from exhaustion.
"Never again..." Sasuke murmured, burying his face in a couch cushion.
"What happened?" she asked curiously.
"Hn."
"I will never be an academy teacher, nee-chan," Naruto sighed, collapsing into an armchair. "We got lost, and it rained on us! Good thing I had one of your bentos because we spent the night in a cave!"
Seina suppressed a laugh at her brother's adventures. Luckily, despite getting lost like a fool and having to sleep outdoors, nothing had happened. Except that those kids had drained all of Sasuke's energy.
"And one of the girls kept screaming and blushing every time she looked at me. Ugh. Kill me, please."
Naruto and Seina laughed at him. She didn't know why he expected compassion when neither of them was one of his lunatic fans.
"Why don't you take a bath while I make dinner?" she offered, standing up.
They ate in silence, each lost in their thoughts or recovering energy. She couldn't stop thinking about her latest worry. Clothes? Weapons? An invention? She couldn't give him anything related to ramen since Kakashi-sensei had already taken care of that, and she didn't even know what Sasuke had bought him.
"Sasuke," she called mentally, seeing him look up from his dessert. "What did you buy for Naruto's birthday?"
"A yukata. We couldn't go to the summer festival due to the chunin exams, but I remember he said he would have liked to. I've never seen him in traditional clothing, so I thought he could use one. I talked to Kakashi-sensei, so I couldn't buy anything ramen-related, which would have been the easiest."
Seina avoided sighing, realizing it was a good gift. Why hadn't she thought of that? They went to bed shortly after. Just when she got into bed, she sensed the magical barriers allowing Kakashi-sensei to pass, so she went to sleep with a smile, knowing everyone was safe.
The next morning, Naruto had regained his usual energy, much to Sasuke's exasperation as he lazed on the couch, not wanting to train with him.
"Fine! I'll go by myself!" Naruto exclaimed, leaving the house when she refused to train.
She would have liked to go, but she needed to think about what to buy him before time ran out. That's how Kakashi-sensei found her, lying despondently next to Sasuke on the couch.
"You two look full of energy," he joked, going to have breakfast.
"I still don't know what to get Naruto," she said without lifting her head from the cushion.
"Still stuck on that?" Kakashi-sensei asked, grabbing his bowl of cut fruit and toast, and sitting in an armchair instead of at the table. "You know what? We could go for a walk around the village, see if something comes to mind."
"I guess it's better than nothing," she sighed, accepting the offer. "Want to come, Sasuke?"
"No... Let me recover from yesterday," he whispered, almost asleep.
A while later, after Kakashi-sensei finished breakfast and got dressed, they walked around the village. It felt strange to have free time to do absolutely nothing, especially after weeks of only seeing her teacher for a few hours. They walked in a comforting silence until they reached the bustling parts of Konoha.
"A tea set?" Kakashi-sensei asked, looking at a shop window. "Or maybe bedding?"
"Ugh. No. Too impersonal. Besides, Naruto hardly drinks tea."
"A book?" Seina turned to give him a side-eye. "Right. Better not. He already has weapons. Sasuke bought him clothes... How about something personalized? For example, brushes and pens and stuff like that."
"Mmm... It could work. At worst, I can buy him that."
"It surprises me that you're not making something personalized," Kakashi-sensei commented, glancing at her sideways.
"I thought about it, but what I wanted to make was too much for the time I have. Now I have even less time."
"Don't worry, you'll come up with something. Naruto is a clown at heart. Even if you gave him a joke kunai, he'd be thrilled," Kakashi-sensei consoled her, putting an arm around her shoulders casually.
She was stunned when she heard him. Of course! How had she not thought of it before? Naruto loved playing pranks, and she had been the co-owner, along with George, of the best chain of joke shops in Europe and later in America and Asia.
"Kakashi-sensei… you're a genius," she assured him fervently.
She didn't know what he saw in her eyes, perhaps the mischievous and amused glint as she recalled George's old pranks, but he shivered. Then she shrugged, pretending nothing had happened.
"I know," he said with a slightly arrogant tone. She gave him a weak punch in the side that he didn't even try to dodge. "Ow."
"I need to buy candies and a few other things," she said, full of energy. She grabbed his hand and dragged him to the nearest store. "You'll see his face when he sees it! Hahaha."
"…Maybe I should have kept quiet," the jonin muttered to himself, letting her lead him.
They arrived at the store without any problems. As soon as she saw it was full of people, more than half being kids under ten, she knew Kakashi-sensei wouldn't want to go in if he could avoid it.
"You can wait here if you want," she assured him outside the store. "I won't be long."
"Take your time," he smiled, taking out his porn book to wait alone on the street.
Seina pushed through the crowd. She grabbed a bunch of the same type of candies to turn into canary creams, then different kinds of candies to mix and transform into Every Flavor Beans. She practically bought a kilo of candies, to the astonishment of the customers and the delight of the shop assistant.
When she came out, putting the huge package in her pouch, she saw Kakashi-sensei staring intently at what seemed to be Guy-sensei and Lee a few meters away. Saying "seemed to be" was a good choice of words because, obviously, they weren't their favorite thick-browed friends. Unless Lee had gained 30 kilos in a couple of days since she last saw him on their last mission.
"Who are they?" she asked, standing next to her teacher.
"Let's find out," he replied, silently walking to the backs of both impostors, who seemed to be pointing at the Hokage's mansion. "Hey! Guy, Lee. What's up with the Hokage's mansion?"
"W-w-we're not looking for confidential info on Kono-" began the one dressed as Lee.
"Idiot!" exclaimed the other, punching him and making him shut up immediately. "Don't listen to him. Hahaha."
Seina watched the worst impostors and spies in ninja history incredulously. Did they really think they were fooling anyone?
"Umm…" mused Kakashi-sensei.
"Act naturally," the Guy-impostor whispered, as if they couldn't hear him. Then he turned around with a bright smile. "I'm Guy!"
"And I'm Lee!"
"Guy and Lee, huh? You seem a bit different," Kakashi-sensei replied. Seina glanced at him sideways, seeing him observing them with a blank face, obviously not believing a word.
"It's your imagination!"
"Didn't you say you were going to do 5 laps around the village on your hands, Guy-sensei?" she asked with a slightly devilish smile.
Both impostors turned to look at her, as if they hadn't realized she was there from the beginning. She shivered at the somewhat lecherous expressions of both spies. Ew. Kakashi-sensei almost blatantly stood in front of her, covering her with half his body, as he discreetly shifted his weight from one leg to the other.
"I don't know… Something's off."
"AAH!" pointed one of them behind Kakashi-sensei. "There's a kite flying and eating breaded pork!"
Seina couldn't suppress a silent mocking laugh. Kakashi-sensei stared at them for a few seconds without moving, perhaps because the excuse was so pathetic it was impossible to believe. Finally, he pretended to be fooled and turned around.
"Where?!" the impostors ran away. "Huh?! I don't see it!"
When they were alone, Seina turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Pathetic."
"Indeed. Let's see what they're up to."
Kakashi-sensei and her followed their trail over the rooftops to a more residential area of the village. They descended to a tree branch, leaving the impostors within sight. They watched as the impostors caught their breath and laughed about having "fooled" them. Minutes later, when they resumed their path somewhere, Kakashi-sensei and she descended from the tree.
"Mmm… We should tell Tsunade-sama."
"Who's going to believe they're Guy-sensei and Lee?" she rolled her eyes.
"I've seen more ridiculous things," he confessed as they walked to the Hokage's tower.
"Well. It's been a productive morning. I know what to get Naruto, and we've discovered a couple of spies. What more could you ask for?"
Kakashi-sensei laughed. Seina couldn't help but smile at how… content Kakashi-sensei felt around her. As they reached the tower, Seina thought about her almost platonic relationship with the jonin. While she didn't want to make any, let's say, physical mistakes, that didn't mean she could only be with him during the moments alone that happened by chance. They couldn't have a normal date, but maybe they could do something else. Especially since the little contact they had alone was becoming less satisfying. She simply needed more.
"Ah, Kakashi. What's up?"
"There are a couple of guys in the village pretending to be Lee and Guy. I thought you should know."
"Should we kick them out, Tsunade-sama?" asked Shizune.
"No, leave them," the Hokage started smiling maliciously. "This is going to be fun."
Seina laughed maliciously, understanding what the Hokage planned to do with the pair of dumb bastards wandering around the village. For a moment, she thought about joining the Hokage's chaos, but seeing that Kakashi-sensei had the day off, she preferred to spend it with him as much as possible.
"Do you want to eat out?" Kakashi-sensei asked as soon as they left the tower, getting ahead of her. "We could try a new restaurant."
"I'd love to," she smiled.
They walked through the village, chatting about what they felt like eating and talking about everything and nothing. A while later, they saw a sushi restaurant they hadn't visited before, so they went in. The interior surprised her since the rounded sofas with high backs gave a pleasant sense of privacy, and the light from the wall lamp above the table made the restaurant more intimate.
"Not bad," she said, looking at the Japanese-themed decor.
"What are you going to order?"
They read the menu, exchanging opinions about some dishes. Minutes later, the waiter took their order. As soon as he left, she cast a spell so they could talk privately. Kakashi-sensei raised an eyebrow, and she nodded.
"That spell of yours is very useful."
"It's not actually mine. I stole it from one of my most hated professors, and my father and godfather's arch-enemy," she smiled.
"One of the most hated? Tell me more," Kakashi-sensei asked, intrigued.
"It's a long story. In short, this man was my former mother's best friend, but in school, he was brainwashed to join a terrorist cult whose leader was very similar to Orochimaru. Maybe even worse. Both this man and my father were in love with my mother. For my father, it was love at first sight at eleven. For years he tried to date her, without much success, until one day at sixteen, my father humiliated this other man with his friends. My mother wanted to help him, but… Snape didn't want her help. He reacted badly and took it out on my mother."
"He rejected her out of shame?" Kakashi-sensei deduced.
"That's right. He called her a mudblood in front of a bunch of students, so my mother cut ties with him. Shortly after that, my paternal grandparents were killed by this terrorist, and my father was forced to grow up. In the end, he won my mother over, and the rest is history."
"…What's a mudblood?"
"A witch or wizard whose parents aren't magical," she explained briefly. "Years later, my best friend proved there's no such thing. Apparently, magical families with non-magical children, also called squibs, gave them up for adoption to non-magical families. What they didn't realize was that a squib with another squib or a witch or wizard could have magical offspring. It revives the kekkei genkai, so to speak…"
"So, some ancestor of your mother was a squib from a magical family. What about your father?"
"My father, unlike my mother, descended from a family with a lineage of over 1000 years. People like him were called purebloods. Same with my godfather. In fact, my father and godfather were related. My godfather's great-aunt was my grandmother. Both my former father and I resembled my godfather's family more than my father's. I don't know if it's a great compliment, considering the Blacks were all crazy to some degree."
Kakashi-sensei couldn't help but laugh at that.
"Now I understand a lot," he joked.
"You laugh. Maybe it doesn't seem like it, but over the years, I've realized I have the same character as them. Unfortunately. My godfather was killed by his cousin, and I almost killed my second cousin."
"Really?"
"Yes. They had a townhouse with a wall full of the heads of their servants," she explained, seeing his eyebrows raised in surprise. "It was full of dark creatures, poisoned and cursed weapons. Even the magical protections of the house were... malicious. That's why they talked about the 'madness of the Blacks.' I even once found a piece of a soul in a locket. Of all the places he could have hidden it..."
"What?" asked Kakashi-sensei, almost not believing her. "Seriously?"
"Yes. My own godfather, despite loving me and sacrificing himself for me, manipulated Snape to get him eaten by a werewolf. He was only 15. Luckily, my father found out in time and saved him."
"I'm not surprised that Snape guy was resentful."
"Neither am I, but that doesn't mean he had to take it out on me," she rolled her eyes. "And yet, he died in my arms, poisoned by the leader he had followed throughout his adolescence."
Seina momentarily lifted the spell as she saw the waiter approaching with their food. He placed it on the table and left. She reactivated the spell while looking at the food.
"I can hardly believe you lived in a completely different world. To think that your paternal family was over 1,000 years old when here the ninja villages are less than a century old..."
"Sometimes it doesn't seem like there's that much difference between the two worlds, but then I remember what I saw. I saw wonderful things you could never imagine, but also terrible things. Much worse than what I've read, heard, or seen here."
"...I don't know if I want to imagine it."
They talked about her work as an Auror and what she had seen. Although they had talked about her life that night, they hadn't gone into much detail about her tumultuous adolescence. So, due to his interest, she took the opportunity to explain how she spent the first 17 years of her life on the brink of death. The more she talked about the hardships she went through until she got rid of Voldemort, the more furrowed Kakashi-sensei's brow became, full of disgust.
"I don't even know where to start... I can't wrap my head around the level of incompetence, of negligence..."
"I know. It took me many years of therapy to assimilate all the manipulations that led me to my first death," she confessed, "but I couldn't change the past. Well, that's actually debatable, but you know what I mean."
Kakashi-sensei snorted a laugh, shaking his head.
"In the end, I understood that I could go on with my life and really live it, or I could keep carrying my past and let the resentment ruin the years I had left to live. It took me a long time to get rid of those emotions. You can't imagine how much. Until one day, George told me what he knew his late twin brother would say if he could speak to him from the grave: that we had won despite many people trying to bring us down, and that I should look to the future and live fully or I would end up destroying myself, making those who had killed him win the last battle despite giving his life to prevent that."
A silence fell as they finished their meal. Kakashi-sensei seemed lost in thought, looking at the table as if it held the answers to the mysteries of the cosmos.
"Isn't living like that clinging to life out of spite?" he finally asked.
"Sometimes, to survive, we do things that aren't very healthy," she said. "One can live out of spite until they find another reason to live, as long as they survive long enough. It's hard to find different reasons to live when you're dead."
"If I had any doubts about your age, I think you've just dispelled them," Kakashi-sensei joked.
"One isn't wise just because they're old," she smiled.
"No. I suppose not."
They paid and left the restaurant, seeing that it was still quite early. She mentally connected with Sasuke and Naruto to see what they were doing. She couldn't help but laugh out loud when she saw that Naruto was with the impostors from earlier, messing with them in the outskirts by the rice fields.
"What's happening?"
"Guess who's with the impostors right now?"
"...No. Naruto?"
"Yes. From a distance, he thought it was them," she laughed as she explained, "until he saw the supposed Lee up close."
"..."
"Sasuke is on a mission with Hinata and Kiba. I don't think he'll come tonight for dinner or to sleep."
Kakashi-sensei shook his head. They headed home, laughing about the spies' misadventures and chatting about Naruto's gift. When they walked through the door, a hand grabbed her arm. She turned around, somewhat surprised. She saw the jonin seemed to be finding the right words for what he wanted to say.
"I don't intend to be so arrogant as to say I know what you went through in your previous life. I know you're strong, more than I imagined, and that you accepted what you had to in that life... but I want you to know that in this life, you have us. You have me, and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure you don't go through even a tenth of what you went through."
"I know," she smiled, moved by his words.
She hugged him tightly, unable to resist, and let herself be held for a few minutes. When she pulled away, as she barely reached below his chest, she grabbed the collar of his vest and pulled him down. She saw Kakashi-sensei's surprised face as she lowered his mask just enough to give him a kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you."
She turned around, going up the stairs to her study. She had to leave, or she might do something she would perhaps regret. She could hear him standing there for a long time, perhaps startled by her boldness.