Interlude: Barrel-Boy

“It hurts, momma!” the little boy cried, visibly fighting back tears.

“I know, Noburi, I know, but painkillers would be too dangerous,” his mother responded, running her fingers through his hair as soothingly as she could. "We want you to get all better, okay? This is the fastest way. Once this is over you'll be able to run and play with the other kids."

The mednin performing the procedure, a second cousin of Noburi’s, winced in sympathy. “It’ll be over soon, little guy. You’re doing great. Keep being brave for your mom. Can you do that?”

Eyes watering, Noburi hesitated, then nodded resolutely.

Another wave of green medical chakra flowed into Noburi’s flabby body, gently nudging his faulty metabolism back towards a healthy balance, but causing another series of convulsions that set the toddler thrashing against his padded restraints.

-o-​

His mom was by his bedside when he woke up. “Good evening sleepyhead,” she said lightly, patting his cheek affectionately.

“Wh- where’s dad?” asked a still-groggy Noburi. “He promised to be here!”

“Ah... Daichi got back from a mission earlier than expected, and your father went to debrief him.”

Noburi gave a small nod. His older brother came first, as always.

“Aw, cheer up little bear,” his mother said, grabbing his nose and wiggling it as he tried to bat her hand away in a long-established ritual of affection. She reached over to a cloth-wrapped package. “We don't have to worry about you eating too much now, so I brought sashimi and curry for dinner!”

Her little boy’s face lit up the room.

-o-​

Noburi was startled awake by a pair of impacts on his mattress, causing him to lose control of the water in his barrel, which promptly soaked most of his body.

“Nobby-niichaaaaaan!” one of the projectiles shouted at him.

“Wake uuuuuup!” added the other.

“Kami, I’m up, ugh!” His little sisters giggled as he ripped his blanket out from under them, sending them tumbling. They flounced out of the room as he threw his bedclothes and pyjamas up on the drying racks in his room.

The smell eggs eventually pulled Noburi out into the common area of the compound, where his mother was helping to prepare breakfast for the clan. A veritable feast was getting cooked up in honor of Noburi and his cousin’s first day at the Mist Academy. His mom had to place a hand over her mouth to suppress a giggle when she saw his still-damp hair.

“Oh, I’m so sorry dear, I asked the twins to wake you up and didn’t think…. Anyway, here, eat up. You’ll need lots of energy for the big day.” She passed him a heaping plate with a kiss on the cheek and sent him off towards the section of one of the large tables his father and siblings had staked out. Then she turned her attention to someone on the other side of the kitchen calling out “Yuina! We need you over here!”

Noburi winced inwardly at the eyebrow his father raised as he sat down.

“I don’t seem to recall Daichi ever losing control of his barrel, at least not after the first month of training,” the elder Wakahisa stated flatly before turning his attention back to his plate.

“Father, that’s hardly fair, Aya and Saya weren’t around when I was that age! That’s a pretty big handicap, right Nobby?” Daichi winked at his little brother. The girls giggled.

“Shu’ u’,” Noburi responded eloquently, focusing all his attention on scarfing down as much food as possible.

“Be polite, son. No speaking with a full mouth,” their father said automatically.

After breakfast cleanup, a process honed to a fine art by generations of bored water-element specialists, Noburi hurried back to his room to put on his academy uniform, and grabbed his barrel to take it out and refill it.

Diachi caught him as he ran out his door. “Hold on, squirt. You won’t be needing that one anymore.”

Noburi’s eyes widened. In his sour mood, he'd totally forgotten this part! His brother led him out to one of the meditation ponds behind the compound. On the shore the rest of his immediate family, as well as that of his cousin Michi, were waiting beside two beautifully made Wakahisa clan barrels with the names of the new academy students stamped proudly onto them. Michi was already there, and gave Noburi a shy smile and wave as he came near her.

They were made to stand shoulder to shoulder, facing the assembly. Noburi’s father stepped forward carrying the appropriately labeled barrel. “I, Wakahisa Daisuke, duly appointed representative of my clan, speaking also on behalf of my wife Wakahisa Yuina, bestow this gift to our son for his efforts in succeeding not only in the tests for entrance to the ninja academy of our village, but also the tests we as a clan place upon our members.” His face softened from its normal granite-like state. “Well done, Noburi. We’re all proud of you, and know you will do great things for the family name. Remember, success in the world of ninja depends as much on who you know as what you can do, especially for a family like ours.”

Michi’s mother said something similar about her daughter, but Noburi didn’t catch any of it. He was too fixated on the barrel his father had handed him. It was, he decided, the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

-o-​

“That’s the stupidest looking thing I’ve ever seen!” one of the older girls - Noburi guessed she was around ten - said loudly as soon as the parents had all said their goodbyes, pointing at the barrel on Noburi’s back.

“Your face is the stupidest looking thing I’ve ever-” Noburi’s witty comeback was interrupted by a double strike to his diaphragm and nose, and he went down hard.

“Shut up, barrel-boy. Can’t even move right with that thing on,” his assailant spat dismissively. Looking up, Noburi recognized the blue eyes and, more tellingly, the unnatural grace of a Kurosawa. "And you're fat," she added as an afterthought.

“Alright, settle down,” their instructor called as he came out of the nearby lecture building. The older students drifted off to their familiar routine of lessons for the day. “You, Wakahisa, get up, you’re embarrassing yourself. Now, LINE UP NEWBIES. PAY ATTENTION. THIS IS THE KIRIGAKURE NINJA ACADEMY. HERE YOU WILL LEARN DISCIPLINE. HERE YOU WILL LEARN OBEDIENCE. HERE YOU WILL BE FORGED INTO HUMAN WEAPONS. HERE YOU WILL BECOME TOOLS IN THE HANDS OF THE MIZUKAGE TO STRIKE AT THE HEARTS OF ENEMIES OF OUR NATION. AM I UNDERSTOOD?!”

The outburst was met with much scrambling into several disorganized lines and scattered variations of “Yes sir!” and “Yes sensei!”

The man’s eye twitched. “THAT WAS PATHETIC! DROP AND GIVE ME FIFTY PUSHUPS. NOOOOOW!! YOU WILL ADDRESS ME AS NAKAJIMA-SENSEI NEXT TIME OR IT’LL BE A THOUSAND!! DID I TELL YOU TO TAKE YOUR BARREL OFF, BARREL-BOY?” Noburi froze, one arm out of his harness. “ARE YOU PLANNING TO TAKE IT OFF IN COMBAT CONDITIONS?!” A minute, terrified shake of the head. “THEN LEAVE IT ON! AN EXTRA TWENTY PUSHUPS FOR DISOBEYING ORDERS!” A vein in the man's neck was throbbing by the time he’d finished.

...​

It was an exhausted and disheartened Noburi who wandered over to his mother and sisters at the entrance to the academy grounds that evening.

“My goodness Nobby-niichan, what happened to your face?” asked Ayaka, pointing melodramatically with one hand while making a show of pretending to faint with the other

“Some dumb idiot prob’ly hit him, you dumb idiot!” responded Saya.

“Language, Saya,” their mother chastised. “...what did happen, little bear?” she inquired, leaning in to inspect the bruise the Kurosawa girl had given him that morning.

“...taijutsu practice,” he said eventually, pleading with his eyes for her not to dig any deeper.

Her lips tightened. “Hmmm. They’re starting that awfully early this year," she commented skeptically. But, thankfully, she let the subject drop and led them back off toward the clan compound.

...​

“So Noburi, make any friends at school today?”

“No, father,” Noburi answered with poorly concealed bitterness.

Daisuke looked up briefly from the mission report he was writing. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

That simple statement was the last straw piled onto a horrible day. Barely containing himself, Noburi turned on his heel, marched to his room, and collapsed sobbing on his bare mattress. His sheets and blankets had finished drying, but he couldn’t find the motivation to put them back in their place.

-o-​

A week later, resolved to start making friends like his father wanted, Noburi approached the gaggle of clan kids in his year. He selected one at random - well, not entirely, his distinctive Hoshigaki blue skin made him stand out pretty starkly, and he wasn’t talking to anyone else at the moment. What was his name now? Tonami? No, it was…

“G’morning Tonume!”

“Eh? What do you want, barrel-boy?

“Haha, good one. Man, it's been a crazy first week, huh?”

“I… I guess? Not as bad as clan training.”

“Definitely. But a lot more yelling.”

“Heh, you Wakahisa must be pretty soft if you thought that was a lotta yellin'.”

Noburi kept from grinding his teeth. Barely. “Next to you guys? Sure. We’re the support specialists, you guys have to be tough.”

Tunume’s watery eyes had begun to show some interest now. “...what's that actually mean, support specialists?"

“Oh, you know, we give our squadmates extra chakra and stuff,” Noburi answered casually.

“Woah, really? Lemme see!” The other boy's outburst started to draw the attention of the other students who had arrived early.

Noburi carefully filled his canteen partway and handed it to his classmate, who looked confused but chugged it gamely.

“Urk. Huh, that feels weird… woah, that feels great! Hey guys, watch this!” A couple brief handsigns later Tonume was spitting a high-pressure water jet that carved a rut in the dirt of the training yard.

“Ooh, ooh, me next!” an older girl with the claw of the Kani clan crest on her lapel butted in.

“You already show your summons off all the time, Yumiko, let other people have a go,” someone called from the back of the crowd. The crowd! Noburi felt his chest swell at the thought.

That feeling rapidly diminished, along with his stock of chakra. “I’m sorry guys, I need to have some left over for lessons today!” They all started grumbling and turned away towards their original cliques. Even Tonume seemed to have lost interest. “I’ll have more tomorrow though!” Noburi called out. Nobody paid him any mind. Honestly, it had sounded pathetic even to himself.

-o-​

“Well done, Noburi! I’m quite pleased to tell you that this is much better craftsmanship than we usually see in a first attempt. Are you sure you weren’t practicing behind my back?” the old craftsmaster asked with a mischievous grin.

Grandpa Noburu’s words filled his descendant and namesake with pride. Noburi had been uncharacteristically attentive in learning the clan techniques for producing their chakra-preserving barrels, and inordinately careful in putting those lessons to use, hoping to produce something that would finally merit some recognition amongst the flood of successes his older brother continued to pull in.

“A passable first attempt,” was all his father said when presented with the barrel at dinner that night. “You’ll still be using the one your brother made for you, I assume?”

-o-​

“Hey barrel-boy, come over here. I think I’ve almost got this jutsu down, I need a little more chakra to try again.”

Noburi sighed. How does Michi avoid all this crap?, he thought. “Why would I do that, Yaru?”

The older boy blinked slowly. “Because I said to?”

“You’ve been a jerk to me all year! You haven’t said thank you once, even after showing off your doton jutsu finally got Kurosawa to pay attention to you! So why should I keep helping you?”

“I can kick the snot out of you!”

“Maybe, but you’d get hurt too. And Kita-sensei would be mad at you.”

Yaru chewed his tongue at the thought of their quietly terrifying ninjutsu instructor, who everyone knew played favorites towards Noburi. “Alright… you can have one of my dumplings from my lunch today if you help me.”

“And you’ll say thank you,” appended Noburi.

“...and I’ll say thank you,” Yaru agreed.

-o-​

Noburi knocked softly on the door.

“Go ‘way!” Ayaka shrieked hoarsely.

He raised an eyebrow at Saya, standing next to him. She nodded curtly, determination filling her soft brown eyes. “Not gonna,” he called back. “We’re coming in.”

As he gently pushed the door open against the resistance of the laundry basket that had been set against it, the light fell on a sobbing Ayaka face-down on her bed.

“You don’t have to tell me what happened, Aya,” he said as he scooped her up into a cradling hug, “but it might make you feel better.” He saw her lower lip quiver before she buried her head in his arm. She mumbled something. “What was that?" he coaxed.

Aya turned to her twin. “You didn’ tell ‘im?”

Saya shook her head solemnly. “Nope. Promised.” Ayaka nodded just as solemnly. “We got candies, cause momma said it would help cheer you up,” Saya continued.

“...candies? Did you get banana flavored ones?” Ayaka asked hopefully, perking up slightly.

“You bet we did,” answered Noburi, offering her a paper-wrapped sweet.

“...the big kids called you names,” Ayaka admitted as she clutched it. “I told ‘em to stop it and be nice, and they hit me and said all us Wakahisa are stupid.”

“Sounds like an exciting first day. What was Saya doing?”

“Eatin' my lunch inside with some other girls!” Saya interjected excitedly. “They were cool, not like those ugly big kids!”

“They were dumb! That’s why I went outside.” Ayaka stuck her tongue out at her sister.

“Yeah, girls are pretty dumb,” agreed Noburi, ruffling both of their hair.

Ayaka almost nodded in sage agreement before the twins both realized what he’d said.

“Hey!/Are not!” they shouted simultaneously. Saya leapt up so they could jointly tackle him off the bed, which rapidly descended into a tickle fight of legendary proportions.

-o-​

The sun was bright, the fog that normally hung around the village minimal, there were gulls and songbirds everywhere enjoying the coming of the spring.

It was, Noburi decided, a terrible day for a funeral. Having cried himself to sleep for the last several nights, and cried his eyes dry into his mother's skirt that morning, all that was left was to feel the numbness around the jagged hole in his heart left by his brother’s passing.

When the service concluded, he at first couldn’t bring himself to throw down dirt onto the coffin, still not wanting to believe it was really happening. Then he caught a stern look from his father from across the grave site, silently chastising him for appearing weak in front of the assembled clan, and began shoveling.

His father caught up with him soon afterwards. “Noburi,” he began, his voice choked with emotion for the first time Noburi could remember. “From now on the burden of being the firstborn falls on your shoulders. I... have every confidence you will live up to it.”

-o-​

After Daichi died, nothing seemed to go right.

He got chewed out by Kita-sensei for half an hour - quietly, which made it much worse - over an offhanded joke about being Mizukage one day, and the other instructor who he’d been a teacher’s pet to, Ito-sensei, was put back on active duty later that year, after which the older kids could bully Noburi with impunity.

He tried to compensate by making friends with other instructors and asking for personal lessons and pointers, but they all just seemed disappointed in his inability to grasp their lessons the first time around, and most weren’t inclined to give second chances.

In the end the only way he could learn to defend himself was to fight back, which started continually earning him demerits. When he was put on a team with one of the worst bullies from his own year, it was no surprise to Noburi that the other boy ruined pretty much every chance he had to shine during missions.

Still, he tried his best to improve his skills and his standing. Sure, the missions he took the lead on never really worked out that well, but the point of low-ranked missions was the learning experience, right?

Eventually he made the right impression, and got called out from his squad for a special large-scale mission into enemy territory. The only Wakahisa going, a representative of his clan! Finally something was going his way. His dad would be so proud.

-o-​

Their trip to the village had been a disaster, as far as Noburi was concerned. Sure, they'd accomplished a couple of their mission objectives, but they'd been made to look like idiots and the villagers were now probably suspicious of their cover story.

And it was all because of that smug bastard Kurosawa. Even though Shikigami-sensei had made him the nominal head of their squad, Noburi should have been taking the lead in a first contact situation. Putting a socially incompetent weirdo like Kurosawa as their point-man was, frankly, stupid.

If he had been in charge, Noburi was sure they would have come away with better information, more of the goods they needed, and without having made such a poor impression. Why did Shikigami-sensei and Mari-sensei pay so much attention to Kurosawa anyway? The other boy was probably a huge kiss-ass behind the scenes.

And Mori, kami. How do you even make it through the academy being that passive? Though maybe that was fine for someone expecting to go into logistics, and Noburi had to admit that he probably wasn't seeing her at her best. She'd been pretty shaken up by all the gruesome deaths happening, so maybe he could cut her some slack. Plus, she was cute, and when did that not earn you a little leniency?

He glanced over at the object of his musings as she surveyed the death swamp around them, stone-faced. Yeah, she needs a pick-me-up, he thought. An idea came to him, one that would let him get one over on Kurosawa and show off his sense of humor in front of Mori.

...​

“Kurosawa.” He poked his teammate’s dozing form as Mori disappeared to relieve herself.

“Mmh?”

“I have a plan. Mori seems pretty down - I think we should try to help her lighten up. You know, do her a favor as her teammates.”

“Sure. And how’s that going to work?”

“Well, tomorrow when you’re doing your water-walking training…”

-o-​

“Hey, Mr Ninja, where do you come from? Is it cold like it is here? Is it full of trees? Are there giant fish? Are you married? Can you do ninja magic? Would you like some berries? Is that lady your girlfriend? Are any of the ninja villages bigger than our village?”

“Woooah, hang on girls,” Noburi said, holding up his hands to stem the tide of inquisitive village youngsters. “Saya- I mean, Sachiko,” he quickly corrected himself, “you first.” None of them seemed to have caught his slip-up. Including Mori and Kurosawa, who were occupied silently commiserating with each other about their apparent mutual hatred of little girls. He sighed. Marching around and corralling hyperactive munchkins was cutting a little close to home.

-o-​

Kurosawa, Noburi, and Mori sat around the campfire as the sun set - if Inoue-sensei wanted them, she could damn well come find them herself. There was a curious feeling of warmth enveloping them that had little to do with the dancing flames.

Kurosawa broke the comfortable silence. “You know, we’ve been through a lot together. Remember what terrified little newbies we were back at the Swamp of Death? Now look at us.”

Noburi gave him a skeptical look. “Are you saying you’re not terrified anymore?” I mean, we're definitely better, but we almost died multiple times just today. Surely even he's not that overconfident?

Kurosawa shrugged. “More like… I know you guys have my back. All those bizarre chakra monsters we’ve fought? None of us could have faced them alone. I think today just drove that home. And that goes for all the infiltrations as well. I like how I have you to brainstorm plans with, and point out errors, and how you guys can do things I can’t, and the other way round, without me having to feel bad about it. I never really had that with my old team. I was a loner, and that suited both me and them fine.”

Noburi leaned back and looked up at the emerging stars, partly to give himself time to think and partly to hide the emotions on his face. “You know what I like?" he asked somewhat hesitantly. "The two of you have never once treated me as a walking chakra battery, and Inoue-sensei hasn’t either. That’s what I was expecting when I went on that mission. You don’t get to shine as a Wakahisa. No matter who you are or what you can do, everyone just wants you to power them up and then stay in the background while they steal the spotlight. And… you don’t do that. So thanks, I guess.” God that sounded lame... He forced himself not to look down to gauge their reactions.

What felt like an eternity later, Mori spoke up. “I… I do not mind being in the background. It is good that I can contribute, even if it doing so does not look impressive. I would not saying I want to be here, not knowing what will happen next and scared for my life every day, but I am glad I can be helpful to someone, and... I am glad I am not alone.”

“What do you want, Mori?” Kurosawa asked. “We’ve been so focused on running away, we’ve never discussed our plans for the future.”

Mori looked surprised. “Want? I want this to be over. I want things to make sense again. But my desire for normalcy is irrelevant. We cannot reverse becoming missing-nin.”

“Maybe not,” Kurosawa replied. “But I think you can move forwards. We’ve all grown a lot compared to how we started out. Maybe not yet, but sometime soon we can start thinking about where we want to be, and what we want to do. I don’t know about you guys, but I only ever had one thing tying me to Mist, and that was my mum. Now she’s on her own, and… and I want to get her out of there, or at least make sure she’s safe. Then I can move on with no regrets.”

“No regrets, huh?” Noburi repeated thoughtfully. That had been a surprisingly emotional statement from the normally mechanical boy. “I like the sound of that. Let’s face it, we’ve got a really badass jōnin leader, a girl with a brain the size of a planet, and a rising star of ninjutsu. Oh, and Kurosawa, you can be pretty good in a fight too. Sometimes. I don’t like the idea of getting killed any more than the next man – and the next man is Kagome – but I feel like it would be a waste not to do something really big with all that talent sooner or later.”

Mori gave him a weird look. “How can you sit on the edge of a forest full of deadly monsters, in the middle of nowhere, with Mist hunter-nin likely tracking us as we speak, and say something like that?”

“Because, Mori, once Kurosawa and I have a plan, I trust you to figure out how to make it work.”

Her mouth opened and closed soundlessly as she tried to come up with a reply to that, which Noburi was pretty proud of.

“Guys,” Kurosawa said before she could respond, with a slight tremor to his voice, “we’ve saved each other’s lives several times each now, and we’re probably going to be stuck together for the foreseeable future. And I could be wrong, but I feel like... we're becoming friends. Do you think that--” he swallowed “--maybe it’s time we moved to first names?”

An awkward silence filled the clearing. The fire seemed to burn more quietly. Wow, all kinds of unexpected things coming out of Kurosawa tonight. Or, I guess, out of Hazou? That doesn't sound so bad, I guess... thought Noburi.

“I… I mean, if you don’t think that’s…” the other boy continued.

“You’ve really got to chill out… Hazou,” Noburi said, finding it much more difficult to say than it had been to think. “You always have to take everything so seriously. Right, Kei… K… Ke…” Gah! Why?? That could have been so smooth!

“Don’t push yourself,” Hazou teased. “It’s not like we don’t have time to get used to the idea. If you’re both OK with it, I mean.”

Keiko didn’t say anything, but gave a faint nod.

-o-​

Keiko was almost shrieking, on the verge of tears. “There's nothing left, you're the only thing I still lo—"

Realizing what she was saying.

The awful silence as everyone else realized it too.

Noburi had sort of known, if not totally accepted, that she wasn’t attracted to him - might well not be attracted to guys at all - but… was he really nothing to her? Were the rest of the team nothing to her, after all they’d been through, after all they’d done for each other? After the times they'd saved each others' lives?! He started to open his mouth to respond.

“We need to keep moving,” Hazou said loudly. “We’re still being pursued, and we should meet up with Kagome-sensei and get out of Hot Springs as fast as possible. If he’s not at camp, he must be checking the tertiary trap array.”

Noburi looked over to him in shock. How could he possibly be thinking that coherently right now? Did he not care, just as much as Keiko said she didn’t care? She at least had the decency to act horrified by it!

“Keiko, we all care about you and respect your feelings,” Akane said suddenly, “but right now we have to put everything on hold until we’re safe. Now, you’re the least injured, so could you drop back and guard the rear of the formation? I’ll be just ahead of you carrying gear.”

Akane too?? No, no, breathe, he told himself. It dawned on him what they were doing, and he slotted into formation next to Hazou.

...​

“Not now, Hazou, I’m trying to figure out how to not die,” Mari-sensei said darkly.

Noburi caught Hazou’s split-second frown, and then the other boy suddenly sprang into action.

"Kai! Damnit!" he shouted before jumping at a startled Kagome and frantically starting to search through the squirming sealmaster's pack. "Calm down, I just need something! Here's the plan," he said, not looking up. "We head over that way"—he gestured west-northwest—"moving fast and leaving a trail. Hopefully we can pull the Hot Springs and Leaf teams together. Whether they start talking or fighting, it gives us more time to escape. When they're getting close we stage our deaths, Yellow Flash to break trail, then run like hell. Noburi, dole out some water for everyone. Overcharge us, because we need to run fast, and we're probably going to be tossing around a lot of jutsu."

He followed the instructions almost on autopilot, reeling from how fast Hazou had put that strategy together. It had happened a couple times before - in fact, it had happened earlier that night when Joutarou’s voice came through the door. Noburi shook his head as the team took off running again, figuring that was another topic for when they were all safe.

…​

As the light and heat of the fire fell behind them, Akane’s legs gave out under her and she crumpled to the ground.

"Shitshitshit!" Hazou said, sliding to a kneeling stop next to her. "What did you do, you stupid girl?!" He frantically grabbed her hand, and seemed to be feeling for a pulse.

"Move!" Noburi said roughly, recognizing the chakra exhaustion for what it was and shoving Hazou aside. Idiot, getting in the way of the medic! He lifted Akane's head and poured water into her mouth; it dribbled out her lips.

"Do something!" Hazou said, practically shouting.

"This is gonna suck," Noburi muttered. He grabbed Akane's jaw, poured in some more chakra-soaked water, sealed his lips to hers, and blew hard.

Akane’s head slammed into his before he could pull back, and she spat much of the water back up at him. A good deal landed in his mouth.

He watched Akane for a moment as he spat and wiped his face, then noticed her chest start rising again. "Okay," he said. "She'll be fine in a minute. She coughed most of it out before it could help, so I'll give her another dose when she's breathing properly. That was too damn close, though."

As Hazou grabbed his apprentice’s hand again, relief and gratitude clear on his face, Noburi marveled at how it was possible for a guy who was some kind of tactical genius just minutes earlier to have been reduced to hysteria so quickly. Then he shook himself mentally and refilled the cup to give Akane a second dose. They weren’t out of the woods yet. They were all depending on him, and he wasn't about to let his friends down.