Karenbana and I stayed in the capital for three days.

Naruto, Hinata, and Choji had all gone to retrieve the merchants they had originally supposed to have been escorting here before their mission had been revealed to be a scam.

Haruna had immediately taken her place as the Daimyo, while Yurinojo stayed close by her side. The villagers here seemed to be much happier with the Janin gone, and the daughter of their sorely missed Daimyo returned.

I asked around town for information on the supposed ferry that left from the Land of Vegetables to the Land of Neck once every two months only to find that it had left only days before. Which meant we had two options, the first was to stay in the capital for just under two months waiting for the ferry to return.

The second was to pass through the Land of the Keys and along the edge of the Land of Demons.

I hadn’t wanted to go through the Land of Demons at all, because I knew that there was a bunch of evil ninjas, a sinister shadow tentacle being, and an immortal statue army there. I was almost certain Naruto hadn’t killed that thing until after Shippuden, which meant it was still there.

I very vaguely remembered something about the Land of Keys as well, it was an anime arc about a hidden village filled with spies. Kakashi, and some ninja lady that banged once or something, and he let her escape? I’m reasonably sure that had already happened, though, because Sasuke had been in that arc, and they were all still kids at the time.

I think we would have to risk going past the spy village and along the end of the Land of Demons because there was no way in hell I was waiting for another two months for my awesome sword. I wanted my god damned Dragonblade dammit.

Naruto and his team eventually returned with the merchants, and with there mission finally completed, they left the capital with some kind of fancy looking scroll to deliver from the newest Daimyo of the Land of Vegetables to the Hokage of the Leaf.

A trade deal? An alliance? No idea.

I made sure to see them off, and then we left for the Land of Keys.

“Are you really going to just keep on ignoring me?” Karenbana said, annoyed.

I was absolutely going to keep on ignoring her, I was still incredibly pissed off for the shuriken ordeal she had put me through, but what really got to me was that she wouldn’t even apologize for it! We had three separate arguments about it back at the capital, and the next time the conversation had turned back to it, I had decided just to ignore her until I finally managed to cool down, but she was making it exceedingly difficult, though.

“Sora?” Karenbana said quietly.

The capital was actually pretty close to the border of the Land of Keys already, so it was actually only a two-day trip, and there was a significant change in the landscape to signify the difference, with the unending forestry abruptly ending. Instead, there were vast, flat plains of tall grass with massive boulders scattered for miles.

“Sora,” Karenbana complained.

I had decided on sticking as close to the coastline as I could get because if I had to walk through the Land of the Demons, it was going to be along with the god damned beach. There was practically no sand as well, which was amazing because I didn’t even want to think about the stuff.

“Sora.” Karenbana huffed. “Stop ignoring me!”

It looked like a lake from here, but in actuality, the water in this area flowed all the way from the ocean, through a long channel between the Land of Fantasy and the Land of Savana, both incredibly silly names, before opening up into this massive body of water.

It was honestly some of the most beautiful scenery I could ever remember seeing in both worlds; if this were back on my world, it would have been an incredibly popular place.

“I’m not sorry.” Karenbana murmured.

I narrowed my eyes and thought about just how lovely the scenery was; I could see the landmass of the Land of Neck curving out into the lake from here, still weeks of walking before we reached it, but there was not an obstruction in sight, just beautiful sparkling water.

The coast of the Land of Demons was also in view far beyond it, and it looked suspiciously peaceful. Which is precisely what they wanted us to think, all the while secretly hiding a demonic shadow beast in there somewhere that was ready to jump out and eat our asses.

“They had to come out so you could fix yourself,” Karenbana said quietly. “I thought you were going to bleed to death.”

After the Land of Neck, we would be cutting straight through the Land of Woods. I didn’t know anything about that place at all other than it was a name on the map, so I planned on getting through as quickly as possible.

Most forest locations in this damn place seemed to have some weird stuff going on, the forest of death had giant animals and leeches, absolutely disgusting. In contrast, the Land of Vegetables had fucking Genin running around in the woods and even a couple of Jounin as well. I didn’t want anything to do with whatever was in the Land of Woods; with my luck, I would run into a lost branch of the god damned Senju clan or something.

“Fine!” Karenbana snarled, “I didn’t want to hurt you, but I’m not sorry that I did it!”

I spun towards her immediately.

“Apologize properly, dammit!” I demanded.

Karenbana studied my face for a long moment.

“I’m sorry,” Karenbana said quietly.

I tackled her to the ground.

“Hey!” Karenbana said, alarmed.

I started trying to get her into a headlock, and I almost managed it before she got her hand under my arm.

“I was so bored!” I said dismayed.

I tangled my legs on her own so she couldn’t sit up and fought hard to keep her trapped.

“There are only so many times I can think about the water!” I cried “or the grass!”

Karenbana grunted as she forced my arm up and broke the hold with a minor effort. I immediately tried to pin her again, but she kneed me mercilessly in the stomach before flipping me over. I wheezed as all the air left me, while still struggling to keep her legs tangled.

I grabbed her by the hair, now just long enough to get a good hold. I tried to pull her head backward, futilely trying to stop her from taking the superior position.

“Ow, you fuck!” Karenbana hissed. “Let go!”

“I even started making up conspiracy theories.” I strained out. “About. The. Fucking. Senju.”

Karenbana twisted my wrist and broke my hold on her hair suddenly, before jabbing me in the gut hard enough that I accidentally let her leg go with another wheezing breath, and she twisted on top of me into a full mount.

I desperately reached for her hair with my other hand, but she pinned both my hands above my head.

“Fuck.” I wheezed out. “I almost got you-that time.”

Karenbana just grinned.

The two weeks we spent on the coast of the Land of the Demons were ironically the most peaceful part of the entire journey.

I had been so worried about this place because it was the first movie I actually remembered watching the demon thing had stuck with me, but absolutely nothing had happened. That priest chick hadn’t arrived to demand our help against the demon, the gang of weird-ass ninja didn’t appear to kick our asses, and we didn’t get dragged into anything weird.

So far, we had passed through two countries without anything weird happening, and it made me incredibly suspicious. It did make it easy to get a decent amount of training in, and I felt like I was finally making some headway.

Karenbana still kicked the shit out of me with ease, but I felt like I could have beaten Yoko solidly now, maybe? It was embarrassing that I hadn’t thought to climb up the wall of the building to get at her, but at the time, I was panicking, in pain, and filled with adrenaline. Karenbana had spent several days just teaching me how to fight on places other than the ground, on the sides of trees, upside down on branches, on top of the water at the beach.

I had gotten my ass kicked everywhere, honestly.

It must have been a ninja thing, but whatever instinct they had to take the fighting up on top of things wasn’t really in me, I much preferred staying on the ground, but at least I had the option now.

So here we were, another week worth of traveling into the Land of Neck, a place that Karenbana had actually been to, although she said she had come by one of the many ferry’s that stopped in the Land of Bean Jam.

These names were terrible, Bean Jam? Honestly.

I had some vague knowledge of this place as well, who could forget that giant chameleon that was pretending to be a castle and had tried to eat Naruto that one time. I couldn’t remember exactly when it had happened though it was definitely while Naruto was a kid, I think it had been after Sasuke had defected. Naruto had to have solved the situation already if he was going back to go on his training trip with Jiraiya when he got back to Konoha.

Karenbana took us past where she remembered the worn-down old castle was supposed to be located right at the heart of the destroyed capital. It was going to be hilarious when we got there, and the castle was just gone.

I was going to give her so much shit.

I saw it long before it was within my sensory range, but even without being able to sense it, I knew that something had gone wrong. Instead of an empty foundation, there was a massive worn-down looking castle sitting exactly where Karenbana said it was.

“That is not supposed to be here,” I said dryly.

Karenbana looked at me strangely.

“I told you it was here ages ago,” Karenbana said bemused. “When we were talking about that time I went to Bean-”

“Do not sully my ears with that silly name.” I cut her off urgently, “I remember the discussion, but I had prior knowledge that it had been taken care of already, and it's clearly not.”

Karenbana tilted her head for a moment.

“What do you mean taken care of?” Karenbana demanded. “And why didn’t you tell me that earlier?”

I nodded thoughtfully at the questions.

“Moving on,” I said cheerfully, “That isn’t actually a castle.”

“It's obviously a castle,” Karenbana said strangely.

“It’s obviously a giant shapeshifting chameleon summon animal,” I said snootily.

“You’re just fucking with me again,” Karenbana said immediately.

“Nope.” I said evenly, “There’s a summon scroll hidden in one of the rooms inside, but the summon will try to kill anyone who goes inside unless their name is on the scroll.”

Karenbana turned back to look at the castle with suspicion; she glanced back at me several times.

“You are definitely messing with me,” Karenbana said incredulously. “That castle has been here for decades!”

“If I remember correctly, the summon will vanish if you get rid of the scroll.” I muttered, “Destroying it worked in the anime, but I wonder what would happen if I put it in my inventory?”

This could be an opportunity to save me some Moon Dollars.

“If that cuts the connection it might de-summon the thing, I could then take the scroll back out, and the summon would be gone, but we would still have the scroll.” I theorized quietly. “If it doesn’t cut the connection, I can just destroy the scroll with Line Spear.”

“What’s your ‘inventory?’” Karenbana said intently.

“What?” I winced.

Karenbana just stared at me.

“Fuck.” I muttered quietly, “She’s on to me, now I’m going to have to fire her.”

“I can still hear you,” Karenbana said, annoyed, “I’m standing right here.”

“She was a hottie too, a real piece of eye candy, what a shame.” I muttered, “I suppose I’ll just have to buy a newer, prettier model, a blonde? I could call her Karenbana-na.”

“If you don’t tell me,” Karenbana said darkly, “I am going to kick the shit out of you.”

“Worst bodyguard ever, honestly.” I muttered, “To think I’m paying her enough for a full team, and this is what I get for my generosity? Terrible, I want a refund.”

“Fine,” Karenbana said resignedly.

I turned to run, but only made it a couple of meters before she caught me.

Fuck.

“This is bullshit,” I complained, with my face smushed into the grass. “You still own me a secret, and you’re already trying to scam me out of another one.”

Karenbana huffed from her position, sitting on my back.

“Is everything a trade with you?” Karenbana murmured.

“Yes, because everything in life is a trade,” I said, annoyed, “That way I know exactly what each of us is getting out of this.”

Karenbana moved slightly on my back, putting her weight back towards my waist, but her hand remained fisted tightly in my hair, and my arm remained painfully twisted up behind my back.

“Why not ask for something useful in exchange then?” Karenbana said quietly, “Like a reduction in my payment or something.”

“I don’t give a shit about the money; I wanted to know more about you, idiot.” I muttered, “I do consider you my friend at this point, you know.”

Karenbana didn’t say anything for a long moment.

“If you see everything as a trade, what are you trying to gain from calling me your friend?” Karenbana said quietly. “What's the trade here? Why would I even be your friend if it's like that?”

Karenbana sounded pretty subdued, but I wasn’t trying to be an asshole. This is just how I was.

“Karenbana, friendships are always transactional; whether people admit to it or not, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get anything of worth out of them.” I said simply, “I get to hang out with somebody I enjoy being around; I have somebody that I actually care about to talk to, somebody I can confide in, someone I can share things with, someone who gives me affection, it gives me access to someone I can trust to want to save me when I'm in danger, and not just because they are getting paid to do it.”

I had never been good at knowing where the line was, and when I did find it, I couldn’t help but push through.

“In return, they get my affection; they get somebody to talk to. They get somebody to confide in, somebody who has their back, somebody who is willing to do whatever they can to keep them alive. I’ll put my trust in them right up until they break it, but no further than that,” I said honestly.

That how I saw most things, everything had an element of give or take to it, most people certainly seemed to prefer being on the take side of things, and tried to minimize giving much in return.

A lot of people were like that, actually. I just wanted to receive exactly what I put in, and if being upfront about it hurt someone's feelings, then that was too bad.

I didn’t care about material things, at least not more than the functionality they provided when I needed them. I didn’t care about my clothing or the katana I had stolen from Renga’s corpse, the pack on my back, or any of the supplies stashed away in my inventory.

None of that had any real value to me.

I didn’t care about some nebulous concept like ‘the world ending,’ I cared about the fact that I was part of that world now, that I had now made connections with people that lived in it and those people might die if I didn’t do anything.

I cared about people, but more specifically, I cared about the people that I chose to care about.

I was fond of a lot of people from this world; I’d watched their struggles, their triumphs, their failures, and their redemptions. Now they were suddenly real, and I didn’t want them to die. I wanted to learn more about them, more than had been shown from a panel in a book or a frame in a video.

So what if I’d developed a one-sided para-social relationship with all of these characters, they were real people now, real people with real lives, real feelings, real desires, and real dreams.

I was fond of Kakeru because he didn’t seem to mind my abrasiveness. I was fond of Yuna because I had spent several weeks close to her, and at one point, she was the only person I could spend time with safely. Kakashi because he was witty, enduring, admirable and could give as good as he got in a battle of words. Naruto because he was an honest to pure god soul who was going to save the world and make it a better place for everyone at the expense of his own life if need be. Lee, because he was the epitome of what hard work could achieve and had a work ethic that made me look like Shikamaru.

“Karenbana, I’m fond of you because you didn’t kill me when you could have. You’ve saved my life, you’ve gone into dangerous situations for me-situations that you probably didn’t have particularly good chances of surviving,” I continued out loud, words still muffled by the grass. “We have spent a lot of time together these last months, we’ve laughed, argued, fought and for whatever reason, I’ve found it remarkably easy to put my trust in you; despite the fact that you’re only in this for the massive amount of money I’m paying you.”

I blew out some of the grass that had managed to make its way into my mouth.

“I told you before that I consider you a friend, but whether you consider me a friend or not, well I suppose the result remains the same in the end,” I said quietly, “and I’ve always been good at pretending.”

Karenbana was quiet for a long time before her tight grip on my hair became softer, and she brushed her fingers through it gently.

“I told you I was born in the Land of Flowers,” Karenbana said quietly, “There were less than fifty people in our town, it didn’t even really have a name, and you wouldn’t be able to spot it on a map.”

I listened quietly.

“When the Uemon Clan came looking to recruit more members,” Karenbana continued, “I was one of three people they chose to take with them when they left.”

I think I already knew where this was going.

“They killed everyone else,” Karenbana said quietly, “Young, old, it didn’t matter.”

Some people were just monsters; waking up in another world seemingly hadn’t changed that.

I couldn’t remember my family’s names or even my very few friends, but I was reasonably sure they were still alive somewhere. I couldn’t imagine how I would have felt if they had all been killed in front of me, and then I’d been dragged against my will into fighting for the people who had done it.

“Say, Sora?” Karenbana said quietly, “Did I ever tell you I had a sister?”

Oh.

“Was she one of the three they took with them?” I asked quietly.

I already knew the answer.

“No,” Karenbana said quietly. “She wasn’t.”