His back was always turned whenever she entered her mindscape, just a bundle of darkened reddish fur with nine tails just about visible as they flickered out behind him. He was ignoring her, and Inner, as per usual. Risa sighed. It wasn't like she'd thought befriending him would be easy. It had taken Naruto a few years and a devastating war to actually become friends with the ball of fluff currently curled up inside the seal. "Today was really awesome, Rama-nii-chan!" she called out, a wide smile on her face. Her happiness had been on the up ever since she and Inner had figured out the goal they needed to work towards. "I managed to sneak a book on basic fuinjutsu out of the library... though I think it's only the stuff that's taught at the academy, so it was in the civilian section."
"Well, it's a step in the right direction..." Inner said. "It only took you two weeks to actually get around to doing..."
"I've been busy with my physical training... it hasn't exactly been easy trying to do it out of sight..." Risa mumbled, pushing the tips of her fingers together. "I don't exactly want to get carted off by Root... well, if they still exist..."
"How did the library infiltration go? It was easy right?"
"Yeah..." she said, trailing off as she remembered exactly how many planks of wood had squeaked under her feet. It was a miracle she hadn't been caught.
"Sure it was." Inner gave her a knowing look. "You seriously need to get better at lying."
"Oh goodie. More to add to the list," she muttered, pouting as she plopped her backside down, ready to begin conversing with the stubborn fox in earnest.
Unsurprisingly, he didn't make a single sound, except, perhaps a sigh of annoyance, but Risa would take what she could get. She didn't have much to work with, except a child-sized body and the voice in her head. Before the latter would've probably garnered some concern, but she was in the Naruto World now, so a secondary personality of sorts wasn't the strangest thing that could happen. Besides... at least she had a bit of a defence against Yamanaka Clan techniques. Not that she'd ever be on the receiving end of them, or so she hoped.
Kurama might eat the intruder if they were stupid enough.
Which would probably end up with her in T&I and she did not want to go there, so she was intent on staying as far away from the mind-walking clan as possible. If there was something she didn't want revealed, it was all of her secrets. She had a lot. She was from another world entirely, and she had knowledge on key and important players inside the Naruto world – not that any of it was actually correct or up to date. She was in a very non-canon world, where the founders were somehow alive, and Uchiha Madara hadn't gone insane in his quest for peace. Risa was fairly sure that was the furthest thing away from canon she could get.
Yawning quietly, she glanced over at Inner. "What time is it now?"
"Just gone half one in the morning," she said. "You might want to get some shut-eye in while you can."
"That's probably a good idea."
Risa opened her eyes, staring at the frame of the bunk bed above her, sighing wistfully as she tried to tune out the little hums all around her.
Sometimes being a natural sensor type sucked.
::
Ink exploded across her faces, the failed seal emitting copious amounts of smoke which made her choke as she sat in the tiny little attic. Her chakra fizzled, disappointment lining her expression as she stared between the template of the most basic seal that there was and her own failed smear of ink. She actually understood fuinjutsu somewhat, perhaps due to her mature way of thinking, and she grasped at the basics of the theory rather easily.
It was the application which was the problem, as well as her calligraphy skills.
The swirls and various shapes all had different meanings when it came to fuinjutsu, and Risa knew what the basic ones stood for. She could figure out which components she needed to make the formula. It was oddly similar to maths in some respects, or perhaps science. She put the base components all together in a specified order to get the desired outcome. Like mixing a recipe, only a hell of a lot more time consuming and a hell of a lot more dangerous. Badly programmed seals could blow up in one's face.
Risa was only thankful it hadn't quite been a full-blown explosion. She'd just got the smoky side of things... probably because it was such a simple seal... such a simple seal that she'd failed to even draw correctly.
The brush in her hand snapped, old lingering fear coming to gnaw at her as she stared at the puddles of ink and ruined paper. How was she supposed to succeed at being a ninja – at staying alive – if she couldn't even master a basic seal?
She didn't have a family to rely on. All she had was her wits and her non-existent fuinjutsu skills.
'And me,' Inner added. 'Don't forget about me.'
Warmth curled up in the pit of her stomach, a small smile appearing on her face as she stared at the mess she'd made. That was right. She wasn't alone. She had Inner... and the fox too... Dimly, she thought she heard a contented growl from the depths of her mind... though it was more likely the growl of whatever rabid animal was said to haunt the lofts. She wouldn't kid herself. Kurama and her had a long way to go before they became friends, but with her talking his ear off every time she went into her mindscape... He'd become friends with her whether he liked it or not. Risa resisted the urge to cackle manically all of a sudden.
She'd been getting that strange urge a lot as of late, and she had no idea why.
Shrugging, she turned her attention back to her seal, silently trying to figure out where she'd gone wrong... and then to possibly practice her calligraphy skills, because whatever gods up there knew she needed them.
::
Her back was braced up against the closest alley wall, hidden behind the nearby trash dumpsters as she tried to calm her pounding heart. Footsteps could be heard, racing all around as the yakuza group she'd just stole from searched for her. "I think the brat went that way!" Shouts could be heard, and Risa was honestly surprised no ninja came to investigate. But then again... She was in one of the seedier parts of Konoha and was most definitely breaking curfew as she hightailed it back towards her home. Well, more like her temporary home. She didn't really have any family there, and one day she'd be forced to move out – likely once she graduated from the Academy and was granted funds from the Council... an orphan stipend.
If she'd graduate at all... though being able to run away from fully-grown civilian adults had to mean something. Either that or she just used spaces too small to creep away, but it was a strategy at least. 'You shouldn't have gotten caught in the first place, idiot,' Inner reminded her as she stumbled through the trees behind the orphanage, climbing up one so she could jump over and into the small garden she was so used to playing in... or running around in at the crack of dawn. From there came to drainpipe crawl, and she'd shimmied herself up it so many times – without chakra – so it was somewhat ingrained in her memories. She made it to the window she'd left slightly open in no time at all, her haul from the night soon safely stowed away underneath her pillow. It was likely she'd transfer it into a storage seal as soon as she could make one, which was looking to be years off at least if her progress in fuinjutsu was anything to go off. After her last disaster, involving her eyebrows and a faceful of soot, she'd decided to focus on theory and improving her calligraphy – because that was what let her down each and every time. Her hands and wrists were too weak, and that was something only time and practice could fix, and if there was one thing Risa could do successfully, it was practice like her life depended on it, because it actually did. She didn't live in a bubble of childish glee and ignorance. She knew what death was, and she knew how fast it could creep up on her. She'd got a second chance, and she wasn't going to waste it. Yawning, she pulled the covers up to her chin, readying to enter her mindscape for a few minutes at least, but then the hairs on the back of her neck rose all of a sudden and the cause soon became obvious.
A loud buzzing made itself known almost instantly, quite unlike the quiet signals of the other kids sleeping around her. It was a powerful chakra – immense, and yet not threatening. That much she could tell with her meagre sensing abilities which she silently swore she'd improve on. Her heart thudded in her chest. What was such a powerful chakra signal doing there? Right outside her window? Ice clawed its way into her chest, shivers wracking her spine. It couldn't be Root, could it? Her eyes cracked open a sliver, her heart thudding almost audibly as she caught sight of a black blur... and then the world shifted around her, moving so quickly she barely had time to register anything before she was dangling from the stranger's grip on the rooftop. A single glance at his face had her relaxing ever so slightly. It was uncovered, no Root or ANBU mask in sight. Instead, he wore a short-sleeved jacket of sorts with a hood. A hood that was pulled up, casting his face in shade. There was also the black cloth mask, so similar to what she knew Kakashi's to look like.
She squirmed in his iron grasp, opening her mouth, ready to cry out for help, but one gloved hand clamped over her mouth. This was it, Risa thought, panic overriding everything else. This was how she died...
"You're a terrible thief."
Shoot... Risa cursed internally. Was he working for those yakuza from before?
"And if you continued in that manner, you'd no doubt get caught... maybe die a painful death..."
She shivered, the cool night air biting at her clothes as she dangled there, too scared to do anything. Too terrified to even breathe, let alone bite the hand keeping her lips captive. The man holding her could kill her in an instant. She was powerless.
"But fortunately for you, I have a certain interest in teaching a cute little redhead the ways of my craft."
Risa clenched her eyes shut. She was dead. So totally dead...
"Oy." A finger poked her cheek. "Stop looking so scared."
Her eyes cracked open, peering into the matching black ones only centimetres away.
"I just said that I wanted to train you, idiot..."
Risa blinked, uncomprehending. Just what the hell was going on? She wasn't supposed to be getting attention – anyone's attention, especially not from a man who she had no clue about. Besides... who saw a random child fail epically at things, and then suddenly wanted to train them? Her gaze narrowed. There had to be an ulterior motive... That was it, it had to be.
A shadow fell over them both, the moonlight blocked, and Risa swallowed. She peered up, heart beating a mile a minute. What did these people want?
Scarlet locks blew on the wind, black eyes narrowed on both her and the man holding her, the glint of a hitai-ate visible. Risa squinted, blinking furiously as she tried to make out the allegiance of the man standing in front of her. Really, if her brain had actually been working, she'd have figured it out in an instant. It was a spiral. A whirlpool.
Uzushio.
Risa trembled. That was impossible. She'd looked up the history of the world she was now in, and just like in canon Naruto, Uzushio had been destroyed. Years ago. Yet the man in front of her couldn't have been older that his late teens.
"What are you doing here?" The newcomer's voice was cold, and it sent a frisson of fear trickling down her spine.
"Ryuichi-nii..."
"You weren't supposed to make contact."
She could feel the man in front of her pout – though suddenly she wasn't so certain it was a man rather a boy instead. "But nii-san, she was going to get herself caught..."
"Tch." He rolled his eyes, scoffing. "Just shut up and put her back where you found her. We need to leave. Our seals will only fool Tobirama for so long."
Dangerous. Risa stiffened. These men... teenagers... they were dangerous... Not that she hadn't already guessed that, her mind added snarkily. But to be able to fool a genius sensor, and likely slip in and out of the village...
"Fine, fine... spoilsport."
She was back inside her room before she could blink, a hooded figure crouching on the window ledge, and somehow she knew... she just knew he was smiling at her, as though he hadn't just terrified her half to death.
"See you soon, Risa-chan!"
He was gone, in the blink of an eye yet again, leaving her with a ball of terror and anxiety pooling in her gut as she sunk to her knees on the cold wood floor.
She'd never told him her name.