When their birthday arrived on October 10, a Wednesday, Seina and Naruto had regained their usual cheerful state, laughing to tears at the thought of the karaoke night ahead.
"You're lucky we haven't told Ino and Lee anything!" Naruto teased Sasuke.
"Hn."
Sasuke, on the other hand, looked like a man sentenced to death. It was clear he didn't want to sing in public, especially not in front of them, who were already cracking up just thinking about it. Kakashi seemed to flee every time karaoke was mentioned—even though he was the one who had suggested doing something together in the first place!
"Honestly… I don't know what I was thinking when I suggested it, but this wasn't what I had in mind," he admitted while having breakfast, unable to escape. "At least no one else is going to find out."
"It's just one time!" she smiled innocently. Kakashi sighed, accepting his defeat.
Sasuke clicked his tongue at the jonin, looking at him with pity. She didn't need their bond to know that her brother found it pathetic that Kakashi would give in so easily just to avoid singing. In fact, she was sure Sasuke found it pitiful that someone as powerful and distinguished as Kakashi would let himself be steamrolled by her just because he wanted to. Seina hid a smile, realizing that Sasuke still didn't understand the things people did for love.
Seina touched Kakashi's foot under the table, caressing his ankle affectionately. Kakashi, though he didn't seem any more amused, pressed his foot against hers in peaceful surrender.
"Are we training today?" Naruto asked.
"If you want to," Kakashi shrugged.
"Great! I wanted to practice more with my ninjatō!"
They spent the rest of the day training and laughing, surprisingly. When the evening came, they went to shower. Seina was drenched in sweat, so she spent a long time in the shower, using the scented products she only used in the village from time to time. When she stepped out, feeling refreshed, she took her time putting her hair up in a braided bun and picked out weather-appropriate clothes, as it was starting to cool down. Her hip pouch, which always accompanied her, underwent a few aesthetic changes, but Seina wasn't about to leave the house without being armed to the teeth and with her clothes temporarily enchanted.
"Do you want your presents now or later?" Kakashi asked.
"At the karaoke, right?"
"Sure."
They headed to the agreed-upon restaurant, realizing they were among the last to arrive. They didn't live far on foot, but it seemed the others were excited to celebrate another birthday. Like Naruto. Sasuke, as always, couldn't care less about gathering with everyone. Seina nudged him.
"Cheer up."
"How am I supposed to cheer up when later- ugh."
Seina bit her tongue to keep from laughing too loudly. Sasuke, stepping through the door, seemed to acknowledge his defeat with an exhausted sigh. They sat at a rectangular table, with Naruto at one end and her at the other. To her left was Sasuke, and to her right was Shikamaru.
"Here's your table and the menus."
The waitress left, giving them time to decide what to order. Seina examined the menu until she found something new she hadn't tried before.
"Looks good," Sasuke admitted, looking at the small picture on the menu. "But I also want to try this."
"Why don't you get the other one, and we share both?"
"Sounds good," he said, snapping the menu shut.
"Why do we never share a dish at restaurants?" Shikamaru suddenly asked his teammate.
"Don't look at me, Shikamaru," Chouji quickly replied from his right.
"Yeah, yeah. I already know you're going to finish the whole plate."
Naruto, on the other side of the table, was sitting with the extroverts—Ino, Lee, Kiba, Karin, and Tenten. Just a couple of them were making more noise than their entire side of the table, the introverts' side.
"It feels weird not seeing you with Kakashi-sensei," Neji commented, sitting to Sasuke's left. "Last time, he invited all of us."
"He was on a mission, so we didn't know if he'd make it, but we're going to see him later, so it's fine."
"Are you all doing something together?"
"Yeah, we're going to—"
Sasuke covered her mouth so fast no one even saw his hand move. Seina started laughing.
"I was just going to say we're going for a walk."
"Now I'm curious about what you're really doing," Shino admitted in his serious tone.
"It's probably something ridiculous," Shikamaru scoffed. "This can only be your idea… or Naruto's."
"Naruto's."
"See?"
They spent some time chatting and laughing. The others tried to guess what they were planning to do later, without much success. Clearly, none of them even considered that karaoke was something Sasuke—or Kakashi—would be willing to do. Seina had to bite her tongue several times to keep from laughing while Sasuke occasionally shot her deadly glares, as if he could read her thoughts. At this point, she wouldn't be surprised if he could. Oh, what she wouldn't give to see Sasuke sing—and she was about to see it for free.
"…-on the trial period is ending," she heard Karin say.
"Really? And what are you going to do?"
"Ino's father found me a job on the barrier team."
"Seriously!? I want to work there too!" Ino exclaimed. "We'll be teammates!"
"Awesome!"
"…-ut 10 kilos more than when we graduated," Kiba, talking about Akamaru.
"…-s very strict, but maybe I can convince him with Hanabi's help," Hinata mused aloud, speaking with Shino.
Seina smiled, surrounded by her friends, listening to their carefree conversations. She blinked when she noticed a strange sensation. It was similar to when someone tried to put her under a genjutsu, but not quite the same. She saw that the others didn't seem to have felt anything, so she shrugged after quickly checking that none of them were under a genjutsu.
When dessert arrived, someone remembered to give them their gifts.
"I hope I don't mix them up!" said Lee, looking at his gifts wrapped in identical paper.
They started handing out presents along the table. Her brother and she ended up with a small mountain of gifts. Seina opened the first gift she grabbed. It turned out to be a handmade scarf from Hinata, along with a matching hat, turquoise in colour with silver embroidery.
"Wow, Hina. I didn't know you had improved so much. Thank you very much."
"You're welcome," she smiled, blushing slightly.
The next gift was from Kiba, who, interestingly, gave her bath products from the store she frequently visited, but in different scents. Apparently, he had located the store thanks to his exceptional sense of smell. Ino, Tenten, and Karin joined forces to buy her a new winter dress, purple in colour and made of soft fabric, along with tall black winter boots. Chouji gave her books on cooking and baking, while Shino had given her copies of some family medicine books that hadn't been seen in years. She had to laugh when she saw the metallic nunchaku Lee had gifted her.
"But what kind of gift is that?" Kiba laughed along with Ino and Karin.
"Hey! I know Seina likes training in different styles!" he defended himself.
"Lee is right. Thanks for the gift. I promise I'll use them."
The last gifts came from Neji, who gave her seeds of various exotic plants, and Shikamaru, who gifted her small titanium hoop earrings.
"This is actually a gift for both of us," Shikamaru told her. "Do you know about our custom of wearing earrings?"
"Do you mean the earrings you, Ino, and Chouji wear?"
"Yes. It's a tradition in our clan. They are passed from parents to children until they reach the rank of chunin," Shikamaru explained to everyone. Ino and Chouji nodded, smiling. "Then they are returned to the clan, where they are kept until the next generation is born. We've already returned our earrings, so I'd like to start another tradition… if you want."
Shikamaru's slightly awkward, blushing, but determined face avoided the gazes of the others, who were watching them attentively, some biting their lips to keep from shouting. Seina smiled in his direction, seeing the effort Shikamaru was making to publicly show that his words of friendship were genuine.
"By both of us wearing these earrings?"
"Yes. It's a recognition from the Nara clan to the Uzumaki clan for your contributions in protecting our clan and for gifting us that genjutsu."
"Alright."
She took one of the earrings, making another piercing in her own ear for her third earring, as the other earrings were enchanted to allow for long-distance hearing and poison detection. It took her less than a minute to pierce her earlobe, put on the earring, and heal the new hole. Shikamaru simply placed his earring in his existing hole. Both earrings were small silver hoops with a removable ball closure. On hers, the ball bore the Nara clan symbol, while on Shikamaru's, the tiny engraving displayed the Uzumaki clan symbol.
"Wow. I never thought I'd witness what looks like the beginning of an alliance in a restaurant," Tenten whispered to Ino.
Shikamaru clicked his tongue, rolling his eyes at his friends, who briefly congratulated them when they saw that the Nara didn't want a big celebration. Seina just smiled. Sasuke, beside her, seemed both amused and irritated.
"You're going to laugh," he told her, handing her his personal gift.
Seina opened the package, revealing a medium-sized jewellery box. She raised an eyebrow when she saw the white gold bracelet with the Uchiha clan symbol in the centre. The others, curious, leaned in to see what it was while Sasuke spoke to her mentally.
"I told you… you were my sister, didn't I? That means you're an Uchiha like me."
She nodded. She put the bracelet on her right arm, fitting snugly in the middle of her forearm, closer to her elbow than her wrist. She watched as Sasuke tossed another similar package to Naruto, who gazed at the bracelet with bright eyes and a smile. Their relationship was strange. They seemed more like best friends and rivals than siblings, but both felt she was their older sister. Even so, Seina knew Sasuke would do anything for Naruto, and vice versa.
Naruto, the last to give her a gift, gave her various minerals and materials for her multiple research projects. For his part, Naruto had received clothes, bath products, prank items, weapons, movie tickets, and even a kit to start learning wood carving. Clearly, someone thought her brother needed a hobby besides training. They weren't wrong.
A little later, they finished dinner and celebrating their birthday. It was late, so they left the restaurant and said goodbye at the door. They had arranged to meet Kakashi at the karaoke once they sent him a note via summoning. So, the first thing she did upon leaving was send him a message.
"See you on Monday!"
"Goodbye!"
They walked down the street, noticing that it was already night and starting to get a bit cold. Nothing a ninja couldn't handle in a short-sleeved shirt. The civilians, on the other hand, seemed eager to get inside and grab a jacket—or not go out at all. Whatever the case, the fresh, quiet air of Konoha felt very relaxing as they walked through the semi-deserted outskirts.
"Do you feel that?" Sasuke suddenly asked, discreetly pulling his hands out of his pockets.
"Feel what?"
Seina, instead of asking, used their bond to enter Sasuke's perception. Suddenly, she felt what he was sensing. Someone was watching them from behind. No. Someone was watching Sasuke from behind. She had no time to react before they were ambushed from all sides by several ninjas wearing the headbands of Otogakure. What the hell!? She drew her wakizashi to defend her team, seeing how they were trying to capture Sasuke more than Naruto or her. Naruto, realizing the same thing, positioned himself back-to-back with Sasuke, leaving him between them.
She had no choice but to use her powers to conjure and transform what she found into animals, knowing she couldn't move away from Sasuke's side. She jumped to avoid having her legs slashed by a katana when a hand suddenly appeared, grabbing her adoptive brother by the arm. Seina, her heart in her throat, cast a curse at the same time that Sasuke's vibrant eyes knocked the enemy out with a genjutsu. The ninja died instantly, unable to avoid her attack.
Seeing through Naruto's eyes allowed her to spot the tranquilizer darts being shot at them from multiple directions, so they retreated while he raised a wall of earth.
"Doton: Doryūheki."
The earth barrier rose around them, preventing them from being hit. Someone tried to attack them from above when a lightning-fast arm pierced their heart, killing them instantly. It was Kakashi. The corpse hit the ground at the same time another unknown figure grabbed the first dead body, which had been killed with an explosive curse. A second unknown enemy tried to take the next corpse and flee, but Seina launched an adamantine chain, blazing with Kurama's chakra, and pierced them through the neck. The head fell to the ground, severed. No one else attempted to retrieve the new bodies; instead, they fled in a hurry without looking back.
"Let's go," the other jonin ordered in an authoritative voice.
He picked up one body, and Naruto took the other. Sasuke, looking irritated, grabbed the severed head. They ran toward the Hokage's tower, using the rooftops to get there in less than two minutes. She wasn't present, so they sent someone to find her. Whatever was written in the note Kakashi had just written was enough to grant them access to her private residence.
"I've already called the others," said Tsunade-sama, surprisingly dressed in black leggings and a grey cotton tank top. "Come in. Sit down."
Tsunade-sama's hand on her forehead, checking whether she was injured or not, brought her back to reality. Fortunately, none of them were hurt, under genjutsu, poisoned, or drugged. Jiraiya appeared a minute later, still dressed in his usual clothes. The others arrived within five minutes. They examined the two corpses they had managed to retrieve, the blood on Kakashi's arm, and the splatters on their faces.
"Are you all okay?"
"Yes."
"Are they from Oto?" Inoichi asked, nudging one with his foot.
Commander Ryu was inspecting them alongside Jiraiya.
"I'm afraid not…" the pervert said seriously. "They don't bear Orochimaru's seal."
"Why don't you tell us what happened?" Shikaku asked.
"We left the restaurant and said goodbye to the others. We had plans with Kakashi, so I sent him a note to let him know we were on our way to karaoke. A few minutes later, Sasuke started noticing we were being watched, and right after that, we were ambushed from all sides. They seemed to be after him. They sent some darts with an unidentified substance, but Naruto managed to block them with an earth barrier. Then they attacked again, and that's when Kakashi arrived, killing the one with the hole in his heart," she said, pointing at one of them.
"After that, they tried to recover all the bodies. They managed to take one, but Seina decapitated another ninja when he tried to retrieve the one I had killed," Kakashi finished. "As for me, I received the note and headed toward the karaoke. When I got there and didn't see them, I had a bad feeling, so I went toward the restaurant I knew they had gone to. I quickly encountered a barrier covering the entire street and smelled blood. When I arrived, I saw five visible ninjas. One was dead a few meters from the earth barrier, two were injured, and two were trying to attack them again. One of them jumped from a rooftop to strike from above, so I appeared behind him and eliminated him with the Chidori."
"It's clear they were waiting for you," Commander Ryu confirmed. "This reeks of Danzo."
"Could they be recruits unmarked by Danzo's seal to avoid detection?"
"That would explain how they got in unnoticed, if they really are Orochimaru's lackeys."
"Shikaku?"
"Jiraiya-sama is right. I'd say they're Danzo's men wearing Oto bands to mislead and cover their tracks. Even if they were Orochimaru's ninjas, someone must have let them in secretly."
Everyone turned to look at the Hokage, who sat in her chair with a deeply furrowed brow.
"This can't go on," she sighed. "Shikaku?"
The mentioned man also sighed heavily but nodded. Tsunade-sama turned to look at them—Naruto, Sasuke, and her. The bad feeling she had been having for weeks reached its peak in that moment, silently, when she heard her master's words.
"You're not safe inside or outside the village, but now it's obvious that the village itself poses an even greater danger to you. A danger even greater than Akatsuki."
For once in his life, Naruto had no words to question the Hokage. Sasuke only blinked, while she, her face blank, felt Kakashi's hand gripping her shoulder almost painfully, as if he didn't want to hear it.
"I'm afraid you're going to have to leave the village for a while."
"…How long are we talking about?" Kakashi asked, his voice dark and sorrowful.
Tsunade-sama looked at Jiraiya, then at Shikaku, and finally at Commander Ryu.
"This won't be fixed in a year," Shikaku shook his head with a guilty grimace. "We simply don't have enough personnel if you want to handle this as peacefully as possible."
"Two years?"
"Or almost three. Remember, there's also the matter of Orochimaru and his obsession with Sasuke's body. If these dead men really were given to Danzo by Orochimaru… the situation might be even more complicated than we thought."
Seina's heart skipped a beat at hearing that. She realized she had stopped breathing upon understanding that they intended to send them away from the village, away from Kakashi, for two or three years. It was obvious that Tsunade-sama couldn't afford to send him with them, as he was one of the few trustworthy ninjas she had left in the village. That meant they would be separated for years. For a second, she considered offering to kill Danzo and all his henchmen, but she remembered how they had refused to use her that way before.
A part of her understood. She couldn't keep fixing all the village's problems by herself because she wasn't the Hokage, she wasn't someone of high rank, she was only thirteen, and, moreover, they couldn't get used to relying on her since one day she would die, just like everyone else. She knew that, but God, how it hurt. It would be so easy to stay, pretend to leave with her brothers, fix everything, and come back to continue their lives… but what would happen when she was sent away? Sasuke, Naruto, and she had plenty of enemies, and she was only one person. She couldn't be everywhere, especially when their professions required them to constantly expose themselves to danger.
She wanted to cry when she realized that, despite all her abilities, she wasn't enough. The worst part was that she understood why they wanted to send them away. Without them there, Danzo wouldn't be able to keep attacking them continuously, and Tsunade-sama would have much more time to dismantle Ne from within without anyone getting hurt and, most importantly, without anyone noticing the covert war taking place in Konoha. If it became public that they were in the middle of a sort of civil war between ninjas in the Land of Fire, she could already imagine what the other countries would do. They would take advantage of the moment to attack them. It was a very common tactic.
"Where are we going to go?" Naruto asked seriously. "What are we supposed to do for… years?"
"You'll come with me," Jiraiya said suddenly. "My work is outside the village, so you can accompany me, and in the meantime, I'll train you. Especially you two, Seina and Naruto. Outside the village, we can finally train you to use the power of—of Kurama."
Seina felt Kakashi's arm wrap around her shoulders, pulling her close to his side. She blinked, realizing she had been staring into nothing with wide eyes for a while. She had to use her considerable mental barriers to keep herself from crying, because right now, she wasn't just feeling her own sorrow—she was feeling Naruto's and Sasuke's as well.
"When do we leave?" she asked.
"As soon as possible, so in about… five or six days."
"You can go home now, kids. Get some rest."
Seina grabbed her teammates' arms and disappeared. She reappeared in the front yard, trembling with rage and pain.