Industrious (OG Naruto) - Chapter 65

The next two weeks were mostly peaceful.

I'd cleared my calendar for the 'birth' of my first child, so the lack of anything to do but spend time with her wasn't unexpected. A few small things happened that needed my attention, but the lion's share of the time was devoted to helping Kokoro adapt to the material world and learn how to interact with people that weren't dream-manifestations working on nonsense logic.

It was... hit or miss.

“What you have to keep in mind,” I explained to Yakumo as I put down a stack of ryo bills in front of the disgruntled glassblower, the sizable gratuity making him much less-so suddenly, “is that, for all intents and purposes, Kokoro is effectively an infant in behavioral terms.”

Yakumo blinked at me, turning the exasperated look from our daughter – who was nibbling on the last bit of a vase she'd eaten – to me. “Kotaro, please. Explain this to me in a way that makes sense.”

I reached down and took her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze as I felt her relax slightly. “You okay?”

Yakumo sighed and nodded, squeezing back. “I'm okay. I'm just a little snappy after running for so many nights on so little sleep. I feel like I'm trapped in mission mode and dealing with stress that I can't stab or set on fire.”

I grinned slightly. “Have you talked to your mother about it? She might have some good coping mechanisms?”

Yakumo glared at me. “She just starts laughing every time I bring it up. I think she's enjoying it, almost as much as she's enjoying having Kokoro around... when she's behaving herself.”

Left unsaid was that Kokoro's mood fluctuated rapidly when she was told 'no' in a way that didn't make sense to her semi-inhuman perspective. Neither Yakumo or myself had been forced to use any of the countermeasures I'd put in place yet, but it had been a near thing at some points.

“I imagine all mothers react with at least some amusement when their daughters have their first child and get a taste of their own medicine,” I commented idly, only to receive a glowering look in reply.

“You're supposed to be on my side, Kota,” Yakumo reminded me primly, then shook her head. “Now what was all that about acting like an infant?”

“Perhaps toddler might be more accurate?” I frowned, watching as Kokoro finished off the piece of glass in her hand. “What's the number one thing you have to keep small children from doing when they get something interesting in their tiny little hands?”

Yakumo cocked her head, then turned back to our daughter and her eyes widened. “Putting it in their mouth!”

“Is something wrong, Mommy?” Kokoro asked, biting down with an especially satisfying and audible crunch.

Yakumo sighed and patted her daughter on the head. “Nothing worth worrying over, baby. Why don't we head to the playground next?”

“Yay!” Kokoro shouted, throwing her hands up.

“I'd imagine most ninja parents have stories about their children reaching for shuriken or kunai simply because they caught the light and looked shiny,” I commented idly. “Young children stick things in their mouths because it's one of the most sensory-rich areas on the human body. Lips, tongue, and gums for feeling alone. Then you've got taste added into the mix. And smelling things with the nose, which is right next to the mouth. It's the easiest and fastest way a child has to investigate the world.”

“That... makes a lot of sense,” Yakumo stated slowly. “So we can expect her to keep doing this for years?”

I chuckled quietly at the whine in her voice. “Probably not that long. Kokoro is clever and is developing faster than normal. I think it's likely part of her... nature that is leading her to act out like this.”

Yakumo frowned. “You mean... she's hungry, but not in a normal way.”

I nodded. “I've been talking with her and I think I've developed a bit of a strategy to help her deal with these cravings. It's likely that, once they go away or become reduced, she'll stop acting out so much.”

“Thank the gods,” Yakumo sighed. “I love her, but I'd really like for her not to try and eat some of the family's heirloom technique scrolls again.”

Knowing that I'd already vented my amusement at my girlfriend to a dangerous degree, I simply hummed and nodded. “That does sound like it would cause some discord in your family.”

“It does, doesn't it?” Yakumo asked dryly as we walked, Kokoro skipping ahead. “So, what are these exercises you're going to teach our daughter?”

“You know how everyone who actively uses chakra bleeds off some degree of energy naturally?” I asked, then clarified. “At least, when they're not actively trying to hide it?”

“Naruko being an especially loud example, I suppose,” Yakumo agreed, then paused. “Most Uzumaki as well, for that matter.”

“True,” I stated contemplatively. “I'll have to consider that as well. But I believe I've come up with a way for her to metabolize the cast-off chakra trained shinobi give off during the course of their daily lives.”

“I thought you called Kokoro a-ah... what was it?” Yakumo asked, glancing at our child as she cheerfully ignored the ongoing conversation with a young child's single-minded focus on anything that caught her attention.

Well, that and the SEP sealing tag I'm burning right now. It's only partially effective against her, but the rest of the village normies don't need to be privy to this conversation.

“Psychophage,” I replied, watching her mouth the foreign word, “which doesn't have a direct translation to the common tongue of the Elemental Nations, but can be summed up as 'an eater of minds and/or souls.'”

Yakumo grimaced, but nodded. “You've told me that before, but... anyway, you think she can subsist off this cast-off energy?”

I waggled a hand. “Truthfully-speaking, Kokoro doesn't need to eat, not really. Her desire to consume is just that, a desire. The reason she's having trouble with it right now is that her own sense of self isn't really developed enough to fend off her own urges. Willpower like that will come with age and experience, though.”

I hope, at least.

I'd given Kokoro a fighting chance and put my thumb on the scale as much as possible. Artificial though it might be, she had the scaffolding for an anthropocentric conscience. That is, I'd given her the building blocks to be able to discern a morally and ethically 'correct' course of action from one that was considered 'incorrect' based on the common beliefs and actions held by those around her. On the one hand, I'd have loved to be able to simply do away with the necessity of such a thing and rely on the power of love, nakama, and heartfelt speeches, but I really didn't want to end up having to take over the village or convince the girls to go into exile with me simply because Kokoro ate one of those asshole kids that had wanted to sexually assault Satsuki and Yakumo or a similar idiot without any sense of self-preservation.

I'd stopped short of 'real' brainwashing, anyway, which was something I could have implemented. All Kokoro had was a complex series of if-then commands that would generate a neurological response should they be triggered. There were gaps in the schema, though, and that was intentional. It wasn't as though I could or even wanted to plan for every contingency. Kokoro needed room to grow just as much as she needed the guiding hand that was present in most human psyches.

“That's reassuring,” Yakumo nodded. “What form will this training take the shape of?”

“I'll be walking her around Konoha and teaching her to meditate at various locations,” I stated. “It'll be part training exercise, part father-daughter bonding, and part lesson in patience.”

“What locations?” Yakumo pressed with a slight frown. “The academies? I'd assume there would be a great deal of shed chakra around them.”

I nodded. “Among other places. I believe Kokoro will key better on chakra that has a negative emotional component. The Leech purportedly being tied to 'human darkness.’”

“I'd say the academies might not be the best place to train her, but...” Yakumo grimaced. “There's a lot of negativity in the schools, isn't there?”

“Jealousy, bitterness, anger and outright hatred sometimes, and crushing disappointment for those who don't make the grade,” I confirmed. “I took a careful look while checking out my students-to-be and there's some real emotional trauma baked into the chakra of the place. Nothing that normal humans would be affected by, really, but a great deal of residual energy.”

“How are you planning on handling them, by the way?” Yakumo asked. “I know you made the promise to help bring Kokoro into the world, but... you don't really want to teach them, do you?”

I hummed and busied myself keeping track of the ANBU still following us around. For some reason, I had the damndest feeling that would continue for a while.

“Admittedly some of my displeasure is performative. As with my disdain for you, Satsuki, Naruko, and Tenten calling me 'sensei,' I generally don't enjoy taking a leadership role in shinobi activities,” I confessed, holding up a hand to forestall Yakumo's impending response. “Not because I'm incapable or don't enjoy teaching, but because children playing shinobi are, by and large, stupid. One or more of the children I – personally – am going to teach, is likely to die in the next ten years.”

“And you get attached,” Yakumo sighed.

“And I get attached,” I stated.

“Promise me you're not going to start a war if one of us doesn't come back one day,” Yakumo suddenly asked. “Satsuki, Tenten, and I all know the risks. Dying on a mission is bad enough. Knowing that it will precipitate an international incident that might lead to another Shinobi War... don't put that on us.”

I stared at her for a long moment. “No.”

Yakumo blinked, taken aback as her gold eyes widened. “Kota?”

“You'll value your lives more if you know what happens should you fail to return to the village,” I stated bluntly, unwilling to be moved on the subject. “Even if I do promise you that I won't start a war to get revenge... I can't promise you that I won't end one instead. Permanently.”

Yakumo shivered and, though I took no pleasure in it, she seemed to understand what I was nearly outright stating. “Kotaro... please. You're not being fair about this. We're ninja. We're meant to serve the village.”

“And I'm not stopping you, but I am informing you that there will be consequences should an enemy shinobi manage to get lucky.” I huffed. “I'm not going to fly off the handle and level Hidden Stone or something if there's an unfortunate accident, but targeted attacks do happen, Kumo-chan, and my response will be very... proportional.”

Even if she didn't know the joke, her eyes narrowed at the emphasis I'd placed on the last word. “Why do I not like the way you just said that?”

“You weren't meant to,” I replied with a smirk. “It was supposed to be ominous and unsettling.”

Yakumo's shoulders slumped. “That's not reassuring.”

“It's not meant to be,” I shook my head.

I was telling the truth, at least. If Yakumo were taken out by a small band of enemy-nin over some pissant little objective in a backwater I'd be angry, but not apocalyptically so. Oh, I'd certainly make a gruesome and horrible example of the guilty parties and make it glaringly obvious to all and sundry exactly what this was in response to...

But I wouldn't resort to wiping a village off the face of the Elemental Nations.

Initially.

But for things to deescalate, the other party would have to take my reply on the chin and walk away. Which is unlikely. What's more likely is that I'll be forced to escalate.

And if that happened?

If someone's response to being warned was to trespass against me and mine again, knowingly and intentionally?

Old Man Sarutobi could go fuck himself.

Shit was going to burn and people were going to die.

“Besides, it's not me you should be worried about,” I quietly informed Yakumo, who was still ruminating on my ultimatum.

Yakumo followed my gaze as Kokoro made her way to the playground with a cry of childish glee. The quick intake of my girlfriend's breath told me she'd understood my point, though, and her scowl told me what she thought of it.

“Either I do it or she does it, and she'll have less restraint than I will,” I informed her in no uncertain terms.

“I suppose I'll need to talk with Tenten and Satsuki about this,” Yakumo sighed tiredly.

“Feel free, or tell them to come to me. Just understand that my answer won't change no matter who asks. I've bent myself over a great deal for this village, for the sake of my relationships with you girls. I've sacrificed things I believe in, ideas that I've held dear to my heart. I don't regret those sacrifices, but they will not be in vain. I deal with the Hokage because he understands the value of giving and taking. He understands that nothing is free, and so do I. To get, I've had to give.”

I turned towards her fully and made eye contact with her. “But the moment someone believes they can take from me without repercussions? That is the moment I am no longer dealing with a reasonable person and will respond accordingly.”

…

“How go the preparations, uh?” The blond young man asked.

“Well, Iwakage-sama. Kumo has properly aligned with our interests in finally humbling the Land of Fire and the Hidden Leaf,” the woman standing next to him stated as they looked out over their village.

“What of our overtures to Suna and Oto, uh?”

“The Kazekage has come around after we offered one of the scrolls we took from Uzu. The greater control over their Jinchuuriki has allowed them to move more forces into position,” Kurotsuchi replied stoically.

“And Orochimaru?” Deidara asked, reaching up to massage his chin thoughtfully.

“Evasive, as usual. Our spies have reported that he is consolidating his troops, though. It is likely he will make the commitment, even if his forces will be substandard compared to a proper Hidden Village.”

“Hmm... has your grandfather offered any pearls of wisdom, uh?” Deidara asked, reaching up to adjust the hat resting on his head.

“Grandfather has taken to muttering to himself while playing with shogi pieces,” Kurotsuchi confessed, a crack in her voice. “He... some of his ramblings seem more paranoid than rational, but he is convinced that Leaf spies know we are coming.”

“There are always spies,” Deidara shook his head. “The question is whether or not they have seen through the changes in our supplies and logistics networks. None of our intelligence shows that they have penetrated so far, uh.”

“As Tsuchikage-sama says,” Kurotsuchi bowed.

Deidara grunted and nodded. “Move forward with the preparations for the chunin exams. We must be ready.”

~~~

Not much to say about this one, other than it fought me. I'm a little rusty writing the Naruto timeline, but maybe I'll be able to direct a little focus towards it, now.

In other news, expect more Mind Games and The Hand We're Dealt this week.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!