"Nothing, there's nothing here!" Naruto reiterated, placing an ancient scroll gently on the table, even though he knew he wanted to throw it in frustration.
"We already knew it wouldn't be easy," she said. Then she looked tiredly at the mountain of scrolls still left to review. "Or quick."
"And on top of that, teme isn't even here to help us."
"Help you with what?"
Seina sensed him at the same moment he began to speak, just like her brother, but she couldn't suppress the jolt in her seat. She shot an irritated glance over her shoulder at Itachi, seeing that he was still wearing his ANBU uniform and mask.
"You could ring the bell or something. A-achoo!" Naruto scolded him, sneezing from the dust.
"I didn't think I needed to ring the bell in my own house."
Seina snorted softly, discarding another scroll. Itachi vanished, probably to shower and change, and reappeared a few minutes later with a plate of food in his hand, dressed in cropped pants and a short-sleeved black shirt. He sat beside her at the dining table, which was covered to the brim with Uzumaki clan scrolls.
"What are you doing?"
"Looking for something about Kaguya and everything else."
"Huh."
"We told our friends everything. We decided to check our secret archives to see if we'd get lucky."
"Doubtful."
"Are you trying to bring us down or encourage us?" Naruto looked up from his book at Itachi with irritation. "You're so pessimistic."
"Realistic, more like."
"Achoo!"
Seina pulled out a handkerchief and wiped her nose. All that dust wasn't good. She set aside what she was doing, exhausted after hours of digging through books, journals, and fragments of ancient scrolls.
"It's been a while since we last saw each other," she smiled at Itachi. "How's ANBU?"
"The same. They keep me away from Danzō, as expected. I suppose they're waiting for me to snap and kill him."
"Hn," Naruto snorted. "If you haven't killed him already…"
"Who knows. I can always change my mind."
Itachi's eyes flashed with malice for a brief moment. He certainly had the urge, but Itachi was patient and calculating. Then, as if pushing the thought aside, he looked at her with an expectant expression.
"And you? How's married life?"
"Great," she smiled, unable to help it. "It's true we see each other less than I'd like, with so many missions, but I know it won't always be like this."
"Yeah… I don't know if I can imagine that."
"Me neither," Naruto said, looking somewhere between disgusted and thoughtful.
"You're young, Naru, and Itachi has always been emotionally unavailable."
"Wow, thanks for the psychoanalysis," Itachi rolled his eyes. "If I wanted to, I could start a relationship with someone."
"That's the point, you don't want to."
"…I guess you're right."
Seina took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze when she saw that part of Itachi was still incapable of giving himself to someone like that for a long time. It didn't surprise her. The life he had lived wasn't normal, not even for a ninja. Still, Seina believed it was only a matter of time. Maybe it wouldn't be for years, but she was sure that sooner or later he would find someone perfect for him.
They studied the scrolls for a while longer, but found nothing useful related to what they were searching for. Itachi, who had the rest of the day off, made them tea and cookies while they continued their research. Seina couldn't help smiling at the sight of Itachi wearing an apron, cooking with a small smile on his face. The only ones missing were Kakashi and Sasuke, both away on a mission.
A few days later, they met again with their friends, who also seemed to have been conducting their own investigations.
"I didn't find anything," Ino growled irritably. "It's like information from the past doesn't exist."
"I didn't find anything either," Kiba said, and Shino also shook his head.
"We did find something, but we believe there must be more information hidden."
Everyone turned to look at Neji and Hinata, who had brought a notebook full of notes. All their friends were present, so they gathered around the Hyūga to listen.
"Curiously, the relevant information was written in documents dating back to the clan's creation. The scrolls speculate that the Hyūga clan is actually a secondary branch of the main clan," Neji said, "called the Ōtsutsuki clan."
"They don't name our ancestor, but it is written that our ancestor had an ancestor from whom another family line emerged, one that eventually developed the Sharingan."
"It's true… There's always been debate about whether the Sharingan came from the Byakugan or vice versa," Sakura murmured aloud, "but this new information suggests their development was more parallel."
"Then possibly Neji, Hinata, and I share a common ancestor…"
"If what Neji and Hinata discovered is true, yes."
"Brat," Kurama cut in mentally. "I just remembered something else. I'm coming out."
"Kurama says he wants to talk to us," she said. All her friends fell silent at once. It was the first time they were going to see the bijū in person, so she understood their sudden nervousness. "Do you mind?"
"…No. The more information, the better," Shikamaru finally replied after exchanging looks with the others.
Kurama leapt out of his seal, taking the size of a cat, invisibly chained to her by an adamantine chain. Those most sensitive to chakra, like Karin, Hinata, and Neji, stared at him as he settled into her lap like a household pet.
"Friends of Seina…" he greeted them curtly. "You've made me remember something else about my father, Hagoromo Otsutsuki. He had two sons: Indra and Ashura. I never met them in person, because when my father created us, his sons were already adults and had long since distanced themselves from him… but now I've remembered the rumors I heard in my first temple."
"Rumors?"
"Yes… I heard that there was a rivalry between the two of them, although I don't know what caused it. Besides, I overlooked something important," he muttered, acknowledging the evidence in front of all his friends. "Hagoromo had an ocular dōjutsu that was always active. His eyes had a violet iris, and his sclerae were gray with a ripple pattern across the eyeball."
"…"
Silence fell as they tried to process everything they knew and had just heard. Then, as she thought about it, her gaze met Sasuke's, and both of them thought the same thing: the Rinnegan.
"It has to be that," he said out loud, drawing everyone's attention. "It has to be the Rinnegan mentioned on the Uchiha stone tablet."
"Let me see if I've got this straight," Kiba cut in, as blunt as ever. "We're talking about a clan called the Otsutsuki, from which at least the Uchiha clan and the Hyūga clan descend. A clan that possesses a dōjutsu called the Rinnegan, which can be used to create a global genjutsu."
"And most likely Kaguya, Hagoromo, Ashura, and Indra were members of the Otsutsuki."
"Supposedly, according to Kurama himself, a clan of non-humans."
"Then what are they?"
They exchanged glances, but no answers came. Shikamaru seemed to be massaging his temple hard, while Sakura stared into the distance with unfocused eyes and a furrowed brow, clearly deep in thought.
"…"
"Good question."
"I have to go," Karin cut in. "My break's over in a few minutes."
"Me too."
Their friends began to say their goodbyes, agreeing to meet again in a couple of days, on Monday, to continue discussing the matter after searching for more information in their archives. Seina watched them leave at an unhurried pace, sitting on the grass. She had a feeling something was slipping away from her, right on the tip of her tongue. Naruto and Sasuke, aware of what was happening, let her think in peace.
"Shikamaru?" Naruto asked when he noticed he had stayed behind. "Is something wrong?"
"I just wanted to talk to Seina for a second…"
"What is it?" she blinked curiously.
"The information we're gathering is vital. We might find something during a mission," her friend said seriously. "It's possible we'll run into Akatsuki, Obito, or one of those… What I mean is, I wouldn't like to discover something important only to take it to the grave."
"You want to know if I'm aware of some way we could communicate over long distances, in case we're in danger. A way to pass on information if… we're about to die."
"Yes. Something like that."
"I know how to do it," she said, smiling as she remembered Hermione's golden galleons. "We'll talk on Monday."
"Great."
They watched Shikamaru leave. Seina gave up thinking about the Rinnegan. She said goodbye to her brothers as well and headed toward the hospital, where she worked three days a week, from Wednesday to Friday. The day passed relatively quickly, especially when she sensed Kakashi's soul approaching the village from his latest mission.
As soon as she walked through the door of her house, he swept her up into his arms, hugging her tightly against him.
"I missed you," Kakashi said, holding her against his torso.
"And I missed you too."
She kissed him eagerly, happy to have him with her again after almost ten days away from the village. He didn't even let her go when she sat down to eat her afternoon meal. Seina sat on his lap, smiling, while she explained everything that had happened during his absence.
"I see you've been busy," her husband smiled, giving her another short kiss on the lips.
"There's always something to do, so…"
"Why don't we do something just the two of us?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow seductively.
Seeing him sent a shiver through her entire body. She wrapped her legs around him, and they fell onto the bed with a spark of magic.
"I like your idea."
She thanked the barriers, because Kakashi didn't hold back in showing how much he had missed her. Seina almost lost consciousness the last time, as he thrust her against the wall, her cries of pleasure filling the room as she felt him nibble at her neck and massage one of her breasts. When she came back to herself, breathing deeply, she saw that he had laid her on the bed on her side, his masculine body pressed against her back. She felt his fingertips tracing her hips, as if he couldn't stop touching her.
"I love you."
"I love you," Kakashi replied, kissing her cheek and burying his face in her hair.
She shifted beneath the sheets, completely comfortable, and relaxed. She didn't want to sleep, even though it would have been easy to lose consciousness, because she wanted to be with Kakashi, even in silence. Still, she knew he was tired, so she didn't say anything when, little by little, the hand caressing her came to a stop as her husband fell asleep behind her. She slowly turned, careful not to wake him, and caressed his jaw.
After a while, since she had nothing else to do and didn't want to leave the bed, she decided to meditate and train her mental barriers. Since her latest concern revolved around the Otsutsuki and the Rinnegan, everything in her mind seemed to circle back to that. She began carefully reviewing all the memories she had related to the mysterious clan. Just as Sakura had thought, rumours and gossip that the Byakugan and the Sharingan were related had circulated through the village long before Itachi killed the Uchiha, so she started exploring her earliest memories, determined not to overlook anything.
She spent a long time combing through memory after memory, looking for a single mention, anything related, or even a clue that might catch her attention, even something seemingly unrelated, but nothing. Her childhood memories offered almost nothing new, nor did her memories from her first years as a ninja in Konoha. The strange things that had caught her attention, like the now-secret Uzumaki mask temple, seemed to have nothing to do with it, and if they did, she had no idea what the connection might be.
She also went through her memories of traveling with Jiraiya and Team 7, without success. Until she reached the moment of the tablet. She reviewed those memories several times, trying to find some thread to pull, but that wasn't the memory that made her wake with a start. No. It had been Jiraiya's face that caught her attention, his expression when he heard the names of the Akatsuki members from Itachi. She opened her eyes abruptly. That was what she had missed.
She carefully placed Kakashi's arm back on the bed and dressed quickly. She could sense her brothers, all of them, training in the training hall she had built within the clan grounds, so she rushed out of her house.
She flung the door open almost violently, drawing everyone's attention as they stopped training.
"Nee-chan? Is something wrong?"
"I think I've discovered something," she said hastily, waving a hand in agitation. "Itachi, did one of the Akatsuki have violet eyes with a ripple pattern in the eyeball?"
"Yes. Pain."
"Seriously?!" Naruto shouted, stunned. "Then why didn't you say so earlier?"
"Say what?"
"Those eyes… they're the Rinnegan mentioned on the Uchiha tablet," she cut in quickly before they could start arguing. Itachi blinked, somewhat surprised, in her direction. "And that's not all. When you named the Akatsuki members, Jiraiya gave himself away. He knows, or knows of, that Pain and Konan. He also said, and I quote, that he 'knew something' about the Rinnegan. Knew, not that he had 'heard' about it."
"Which suggests that Jiraiya-sama might have known Pain and/or Konan before Akatsuki was formed."
"Exactly. I think the old pervert has information about the Rinnegan that could help us. Supposedly, he knows, or knew, someone who has that dōjutsu, so maybe he knows which clan that person comes from."
"Which means we could investigate their ancestors," Sasuke nodded. Then he turned to look at his brother. "How is it that you didn't know one of your Akatsuki partners had a dōjutsu like the Rinnegan?"
"From what I understand, the Rinnegan is always active, so he probably thought they were his own eyes," she replied before Itachi could open his mouth. He closed it with an exasperated look in her direction, but didn't correct her.
"And where is this Pain from?"
"Amegakure. Both he and Konan."
"We definitely need to talk to ero-sennin."
"Are you going to tell Tsunade-sama?" Itachi asked. "She might also have confidential information."
"She has too many fronts open right now. I think it'll be better to wait until Jiraiya tells us everything he knows…"
She left at a brisk pace. She wanted to send the letter to Jiraiya as soon as possible so he could reply quickly. So she went back to her house, to her study, and began writing the coded letter.
The weekend passed fairly quickly, shut away in her study beside Kakashi, who spent his time reading novels or asking her questions about the small silver bracelet, barely half a centimetre thick, that she was preparing to allow quick communication with her friends.
"You're going to revolutionize the ninja world with your inventions eventually," her husband said, watching her engrave runes into the bracelet with minuscule calligraphy. "Fortunately, this technology is only accessible to Konoha…"
She shrugged. Honestly, the ninja dimension was a strange mix between the ancient world and the modern world of her previous dimension, so she doubted her inventions were truly "innovative" when televisions and radios already existed. Still, when she thought about it, it made sense why the world didn't advance further. Why invent a car or other technology when ninjas, and civilians with minimal ninja training, could run faster than a car? Technology advances according to people's needs, and no one is going to invest money in creating something only a few will buy. Money, after all, was what really made the world turn.
Monday arrived at lightning speed. She found herself once again in the training clearing, waiting for her friends to see if they had anything new to share. Only Shikamaru, Neji, Tenten, and Hinata showed up. The others, apparently, were on missions or busy with their duties in the village.
"We haven't found anything new," Neji shook his head, "but we'll keep trying."
"We have a lead. One of the Akatsuki members, named Pain, has the Rinnegan, and apparently Jiraiya knows something about the dōjutsu."
"We've sent a letter to the pervert," Sasuke said, crossing his arms beside her, "so we won't know anything for a few days."
"Then there's no point in meeting so often."
"As soon as we know more, we can meet again. For now, we'll keep investigating."
"Great. Then we're heading off to train," Tenten said.
"Wait. Shikamaru asked me to create something so we could communicate," she cut in when she saw them turning to leave. "Take one each."
Hinata took the ones for her team, as did Shikamaru and Tenten. Sakura's bracelet, as well as Karin's, were handed to Shikamaru so that Ino could give them to them. She explained how they worked and everything they needed to know.
"So… no one can take it off me?"
"No. It also has a jutsu to divert attention, everyone's except ours. I imagine that if, by some chance, someone loses an arm during a team mission, it's better if they can see and touch one of their teammates' bracelets in case they need reinforcements or something similar."
"Can you track us with this?" Shikamaru asked, raising his arm with the new silver bracelet.
"I could, but not for now. I wanted to know what you think about it. After all, if you need reinforcements, you could send your coordinates and still maintain your privacy."
"Yeah, but if we've been kidnapped and don't know where we are, it'd be useless," Neji said.
"Not to mention that unless I modified the bracelets again, only I would know where you are."
"Mmm… we'd better discuss it all together at the next meeting. Either way, for now it's fine," Shikamaru shrugged.
"Great. Then we're heading off too," Naruto yawned, padding his head with his crossed arms behind his neck.
"See you later!"
The small gathering of friends ended in less than twenty minutes. They headed toward their own private training hut. They no longer fought in public. After all, they didn't want to be spied on by Danzō or anyone else who might take an interest in them.
"Done talking with your friends?" Kakashi asked, training his aim with moving targets while dodging traps and unpredictable kunai throws from his enchanted dummies.
"Yes, it was just a moment."
"Well then, shall we train or what?" Naruto said, rubbing his hands together with a grin.
Sasuke and Seina snorted identical laughs, but accepted his challenge. After all, it's not like they could do much else in the meantime…