Of course, summoning contracts work both ways. The first time I tried it I accidentally triggered the wrong contract and got Hinata’s disembodied soul, which was a bit embarrassing. But that was easy to fix, and in a few hours I could summon her from miles away with a gesture and a few drops of blood. We were both looking forward to springing that one on the next enemy who thought he’d caught one of us alone.
I was starting to wonder what paper-san was waiting for, so not long after that I sent Anko back to Konoha with instructions to pretend she’d simply given up on influencing me. Unless Jiraiya checked up on her personally there was no way for them to tell that her seal was gone, and I doubted the old men would seriously consider the idea that I might have subverted her rather than vice versa.
“Aw, but hanging with you two is a lot better than the missions they’re going to send me on,” she complained. “I offered to join you to get away from all that.”
I winced. “I know, Anko. But I’m trying to get contacted by someone who’s probably never going to make a move while you’re here, and if you don’t go back the hunters will be after you soon too. It shouldn’t be for more than a few weeks.”
“Promise me you’ll let me come back as soon as you can?” She asked seriously. “I… don’t like living like that.”
“It won’t be forever, Anko,” I said. “I promise.”
I kissed her goodbye, and copied her memories.
Hinata eyes me speculatively as our traveling companion left, and I realized with her vision she’d probably seen what I’d done. She confirmed it once Anko was safely out of sight.
“What are you up to?” She asked. “I like Anko, but I think Naruto is plenty for both of us.”
“Tell me about it,” I chuckled. “No, I’m not trying to set up a harem, silly. But she’s a good friend, and I hate the way her life has turned out. I’d like to be able to have her around sometimes, and I think having us as friends is good for her. Maybe we could offer her a place as a retainer when we get out of the loop, so she can quit that crappy ANBU job.”
“I like that idea,” Hinata allowed. “Although it will be Naruto’s decision, since I assume we’ll be joining his clan.”
“Yeah, that’s definitely the best way to do it,” I agreed. “He claims the Namikaze name, we both marry into his clan, and that makes him our clan head so we don’t have to worry about interference from your clan. But the marriage itself could be tricky. There’s no way your father’s going to agree to let you leave the Hyuuga clan, so we’d have to get the daimyo to overrule him.”
“There might be other ways,” she said slyly. “But paper-chan is almost in range again.”
“Right,” I sighed, and changed the subject.
Another week passed before I finally got fed up, and stopped in the middle of a deserted stretch of forest to confront a strip of paper caught in the branches of a tree.
“Can I help you with something?” I asked with a bit of annoyance. “Because this is really getting old. It was bad enough when you hung back and I just had to listen to Hinata’s comments, but at this range even I can see you. Are you planning to follow us around forever, or what?”
Nothing happened for a moment. Then more strips of paper blew in on the wind, swirling around the one I’d addressed and rapidly coalescing into a humanoid shape. Then the paper took on color, and suddenly she looked like a real person.
“Clones at a distance, huh? Nice technique,” I observed. “So what’s the story?”
“Your partner’s Byakugan must be very strong, to see through my disguise,” she replied. “But you are a greater mystery. Your family is civilian for three generations back, and your instructors laud you as an academic genius while lamenting your lack of practical skills. Even your jounin instructor, the famous Copy Ninja, failed to note anything unusual about you. Yet in your time as a missing nin you’ve demonstrated skills few jounin could match, and I believe you are telling the truth about seeing me. How is this possible?”
“Do you really expect me to explain it to a complete stranger?” I asked. “I see that you’re a member of Akatsuki, but you people are so secretive I have no idea what you’re after.”
“Humor me, and perhaps you’ll find out,” she offered.
I raised an eyebrow. “Recruiting, are we? Hmm. Alright, I’ll tell you this much. I have a recessive bloodline that’s unique as far as I know. I’m a chakra sensor with perfect control and a natural talent for seals, and that combination lets me invent new techniques almost as easily as an Uchiha can copy them. I was just coasting in the academy because I didn’t have to exert myself to ace my classes, but I woke up in a hurry when I got a look at the real world.”
“A plausible story, but one that no one can test,” she noted. “It also seems that you have a true regeneration technique?”
I nodded. “Konoha’s security really does suck, doesn’t it? I take it that was in Kakashi’s report?”
“Yes.” She hesitated, then went on. “Let me ask you one more question. What do you think of Konoha?”
Now it was my turn to hesitate. I had only a vague suspicion about what kind of answer she wanted, and she was probably as good at detecting falsehood as I was at lying. I doubted I could bluff my way through this one, so I decided to go with the truth.
“Konoha is a tragedy,” I said. “A city of noble ideals built on a foundation of lies. Men like Sarutobi and Jiraiya talk proudly about the will of fire and the true king and their dreams of peace, and the sad thing is they actually mean it. But the peace they’re so proud of is built on the backs of broken heroes, and there is no crime they won’t commit to preserve it. The Hyuuga enslave their own kin, the Hokage lets Danzo’s brainwashed death squad do his dirty work, the whole village hates Naruto for being the one who protects them from the Kyuubi… it just goes on and on.”
“But the saddest thing is, as bad as they are all the other major powers are even worse. Konoha’s leaders sleep soundly at night because they can tell themselves that, hey, at least they don’t use captured civilians for medical experiments, or require academy students to murder their friends to graduate, or a thousand other things like that. Never mind that if they were half as pure as they pretend the Third Ninja War wouldn’t even have happened.”
“The whole world is like that,” my interrogator said sadly. “Endless strife and bloodshed and suffering, perpetuating itself from one generation to the next forever. Do you have a solution?”
“Not one I’m happy with,” I admitted. “The wars will go on until someone manages to unite all the elemental countries under one rule, but no one has the power to do that. Besides, the peace would only last a few generations. Then you’d start having succession wars and rebellions, and eventually an inept ruler would let things fall apart again.”
I paused, as I suddenly saw where this was going. “Do you have a better idea?”
“I am only an assistant,” she said. “But there is a man who does, and he could use someone like you. Come with me, if you wish to learn more.”
The number of security measures Konan guided us through was amazing. Even after walking through it all I doubted we could get back out without tripping something, which was probably the point. In Pein’s mind Hinata and I were essentially prisoners since the time we entered Amegakure, since we’d never be able to escape unless he let us go. It must be nice to be so powerful you never seriously worry about whether you can defeat a strange ninja.
Amegakure itself was a bit of a shock. The place looked like it was built by a mad god, all giant pipes and towers of chakra-forged steel. The inhabitants were like squatters hiding out in some vast structure they didn’t understand and could never have built, and by the time we reached Pein’s tower I was convinced that impression was accurate. There was more steel in that complex than all the nations of men have forged since the beginning of recorded history, and the seal work sleeping within was done in a complete different style than any human work I’d seen. It must be some remnant left over from the days when kami walked the world, and I wondered if perhaps it held the secret to Pein’s fantastic strength.