Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The empty mineshaft was cool and silent as Red rearranged her scrolls and clothing for inconspicuous travel. 

The bathhouse visit had been pleasant as always, and Yuge had a new letter from Shadow for her. A warning about the photo, he really was looking out for her. Too late, this time, but that was on her for not checking more often. 

The signature was new, why was he so personal about this? ‘Here’s to hoping you still remember me’? Red stretched, enjoying the feeling of freshly laundered clothes on scrubbed skin. Shadow was being odd, but he did indeed appear to be loyal to her. Confusingly so. 

Her informant’s strangeness aside, Red had some prepwork to do. ‘Carmine’ might soon be wanted in Sand for leaving a huge hotel bill unpaid, so Red did her best to alter her appearance. 

Kankurou had given her a makeup mirror, and she surveyed her work in its cutely woodcarving-framed surface. Apparently, transformation jutsu should be solid, but she couldn’t do that? Her facial structure stubbornly stayed the same, but texturing it with fake wrinkles and age spots worked just fine. Red made sure every hair was perfectly white, and unsealed a coat to pack it under her robe’s shoulders. There, a fake curved back applied, and with the extra fabric tied over the row of scrolls she appeared to have a bit of a belly. 

Ruby was a village elder from River, travelling to Stone for a late, off-season pilgrimage because she enjoyed the peace and quiet. Her hands weren’t all that old-looking even with wrinkles and spots, too firm and smooth, best to hide them up her sleeves while walking. Small, shuffling steps, getting to Stone would take a whole day at that pace so Red planned to stay the night at Okami’s inn. If the innkeeper recognised her, this disguise was a bust. 

Red spent some time practicing Ruby’s voice, modelled after the bathhouse owner Yuge in River. Creaky, it made her throat a bit rough but coughing added to the realism. 

“Welcome, room fer one?” 

“Ah yes, thank you” Red croaked 

“Feelin’ under tha weather? We got soup, I’ll get ya a bowlful” 

Okay, that was too much creak. Red coughed, and tried again; “Just travel dust. But soup does sound nice. One night, soup, and breakfast. Can I pay up front?” 

“Sure thing”. 

Alright, voice set. Okami was looking sturdy as always, good to see. 

The soup was nice and familiar, Red dropped by sometimes but still ended up missing it after a while. Not all that tasty, really, strongly herbal and kind of thin. Yet… homey? And it always left her feeling refreshed. The fancy hotel food in Sand had been an interesting experience, but Red didn’t think she would ever have a craving for it. 

“Say, ya look familiar” Okami stated, studying her guest. Oh no, was it too obvious? “Wouldn’t happen t’have a granddaughter with red hair, would ya?” 

Red let her transformation fall, earning her a shocked noise. “You got me” 

“Goodness! Ninja magic, again?” 

“Yes, I tried to make a disguise” 

“What’s up wit’ yer back?” 

“Tied a coat, look” Red lifted her robe’s hood part to let Okami peek down her neck. 

“Clever.” 

“Not good enough to fool you” Red sighed, but enjoyed the last spoonfuls of her meal. 

“Mmm, wouldn’t a guessed ‘twas you, just looked related” she said, gathering the bowl and some glasses from the tables. 

“Can I help?” 

“Nono, go rest, always tired when ya stop by right?” 

“Not this time, I’m preparing for a journey so I stopped here for a good night of sleep first.” Red got the sink filled, and they washed up together like they had when she’d lived there for a bit. 

“How’s it goin’, th’ whole livin’ quietly thing?” 

“Good enough?” Red lied, no need to worry her. At least she could honestly add “I got some friends around my age!” 

“That’s good t’hear, alright, shoo. Enough helpin’ out, yer a payin guest t’nite” 

“alright, alright” Red sighed, and fetched ‘her’ key from the pegboard behind the check-in desk. It was still a room anyone could rent, of course, but it had a nice familiarity to it. She always slept well in this bed. 

Morning found Red curled up entirely underneath the covers, blushing heavily. The dream had been confusing, but maybe the way she felt about Kankurou was a little bit different from how she felt about his siblings. 

But no, they were friends! Not- not anything more. Red decided whatever this strange ticklish feeling was, it was best ignored, and got ready for the day as Elder Ruby. She had a lot of slow shuffling to do, best to get an early start. 

Okami sat down with her for breakfast, she assured Red that the transformation looked convincing. Hopefully she was right, because short of using a mask as Kankurou suggested she hadn’t come up with any better ideas. 

“Leftovers gonna get dry by dinnertime, you can have ‘em for the road” the innkeeper said, as if she hadn’t made extra for the sake of packing Red a lunch wrap. 

“Thank you! I will be back” 

“counting on it.” Okami smiled as she walked her ‘elder’ customer to the road “Stay safe” 

“Gonna do my best” Ruby creaked. 

This was probably just from spending so much time around him lately, Red reasoned as she walked, unable to quite put it aside now that she had nothing better to do. Maybe this was just how best friendship felt? She knew best friends were a thing. Thinking of Kankurou’s happy smile made her feel warm inside, yeah, best friendship. Had to be. 

Okay, matter settled! Now, time to make a mental shopping list for things to restock in Stone before heading to Earth Country. Dried berries, definitely, and she could make a few batches of soaps that looked like solid grey and brown rocks. Traders that carried items of ‘national pride’ were more warmly welcomed. 

So she would need a black dye, and she should ask about popular scents for her trade route, and Cloud wares for the disguise she had planned…

By nightfall, Ruby had finally shuffled her way to an inn at the outskirts of the nearest Rock town. Walking that slowly was tiresome in its own way, and getting the humped back off for the night felt like a relief. Physical disguises were a pain! 

Red snuck out in the night to place a ‘hiraishin’, and added its counter-tag to the ones she wore. Connecting that one to her network could come later, what mattered most for now was to not raise suspicions so she snuck back to her room as soon as the wooden tag was carved and inked. She could lacquer it after a nap, it would dry by lunchtime tomorrow and then ‘Ruby’ would shuffle onward to the pilgrimage goal of the area. 

Religious folks spent days in the cave system, Red had heard, nobody would be suspicious of her entering and staying in there. Ruby would be useful for travel in the future, but she’d draw attention buying dye and scented oil in bulk as an old lady far from home. 

Red would exit in a different costume, her local garb and back to a simpler genjutsu of blonde hair and tanned skin, brown eyes. Unremarkable, for Cloud, her home country in this backstory. 

Where Ruby had no luggage but her large lunch box, this one was a trader who’d stopped by the caves quickly to wish for luck in business. She would use a lot of the currently sealed luggage to appear fully packed. Her name could be, let’s see, Scarlett? 

She would walk briskly to the next town over, and buy her wares pretending her usual supplier from Earth Country had never arrived in Cloud and left her short on certain supplies if anyone asked. 

That veteran she had known back in Hot Water would have called it paranoid to go through all these steps, but given that he’d then been killed by the group she worried about the most, Red felt that opinion could be disregarded. If anything, she wasn’t being cautious enough. 

Scarlett had restocked her inventory, and wore her wares proudly with a price list on her back as Cloud traders often did. Red had only seen a few, and being unusual in a way that did not connect to ‘bingo book’s unknown Uzumaki’ meant most people would only remember seeing a rare blonde or buying goods from a foreigner. 

Unlike her former sales methods, Scarlett hawked her wares even on the road, and made frequent stops to sell. It was a flashy and slow way to get anywhere, meaning ninja paid her no heed. Or, in theory, that should have been the case, but… 

“Hey, peasant! You there, you smell good, any food on sale?” An Earth country ninja, wait, two, actually heck make that a full team of thee. The group’s speaker, a confident-looking ravenette around Red’s age, strode over as she stopped. 

“My apologies, honoured ninja, I sell spices and scented products but nothing directly edible”. 

“Well then, make us something!” 

Red blinked. “I… am not a food vendor” she clarified. 

“And I don’t care, ‘cause I’m hungry and my team’s cooking sucks!” the entitled teen yelled. 

“Humor her?” one of her colleagues suggested, looking exhausted. 

“Humor- I am not some CHILD to be ‘humored’! I am Kurotsuchi Kamizuru, granddaughter of the Third, and great-granddaughter of the First Tsuchikage! I order you to to make us a meal!” Her stomach growled loudly in the silence that followed. 

Okay, not somebody Red would have wanted to meet on her journey but such was her luck. “Of course, Kamizuru-sama, please give me a moment”. 

Because pissing off this bratty girl might get her in hot water, Scarlett hurried to build a campfire, and Kurotsuchi’s …teammates? (subordinates? Lackeys?) helped make it quick. 

Red sacrificed a few fancier supplies from a scroll hidden in one of her large bags, roux cubes with a good bagful of dried vegetables and her second pot cooking fast-boiling rice, to make a filling meal for four quickly. She spiced it to create a faux chili, nowhere near as good as her favourite curry place made it, but decent enough. Wasen would have been proud. 

Or, as the Kage descendant so eloquently put it: “Mmfh, sho good! Gimme another portion!” 

Yeah, Red was a bit smug to have her cooking snarfed down this eagerly. 

Once well fed, Kurotsuchi was actually a pleasant enough person. Calm, collected, the aura of a leader. Just, well, the effect was somewhat spoiled by having seen the girl hangry not even an hour earlier. 

“Trader, are you headed for the Village Hidden by the Rocks?” 

“Yes, I have wares to sell and an order for restocking to bring back” and reading to do, they had a public library. And possibly, if she lucked out and found an easy target, maybe Red had some flirting to do as well. She needed ninja techniques. 

“You may walk with us, for safety, and in return your cooking should be adequate payment” 

“Pardon me for saying this, Kamizuru-sama, but I do not believe the path from here to the prestigious village of so many ninja will have a threat of bandits. I will be fine on my own” no heckin’ way she was letting them munch through her supplies for free! 

“Of course there wouldn’t be- o-oh, that makes sense, yeah” the ninja seemed unsure what to say, shuffling her feet. One of her teammates leaned in, and whispered something? “If we pay you, be our cook until we reach the village? We have a leg injury on our team, so your speed should be sufficient”. 

Ah, so they were returning from a mission. She was definitely the one who was wounded, her leg bandage was starting to bleed through, which explained why she had not helped out with gathering wood or fetching water. Hard to tell, some ninja wore bandages as a sort of fashion statement. 

“Of course, it would be an honour. You can call me Scarlett” Red agreed to it easily, because there’d be no better credential for getting into the village than arriving with a team of their ninjas as a travel group. 

Scarlett did not have papers, which wasn’t as critically needed in Earth as it was in Fire and Wind but it still meant more thorough controls. With her sheer number of storage scrolls, Red was sure as hell getting flagged as ‘suspicious’. Most traders had zero, a few had one or two. 

“Thank you” one of the rudely un-introduced ninja mumbled, Red just nodded. 

The two days to reach Stone Village (which was an awkward short-form of the name, with Earth Country bordering on the country of Stone) were mostly spent trudging, Kurotsuchi absolutely refused to be carried by her colleagues so it was even slower than Scarlett would have been on her own. 

It gave Red an uncomfortable amount of free time, and her thoughts kept wandering to Kankurou. Did he miss her, too? He had said he would. She hadn’t cooked for him, would it be weird to lend their kitchen the next time she visited? Friends did cook for each other, right? 

Speaking of cooking, her supplies ran low by the last meal, but the nicer of the two anonymous ninja caught them a rabbit to supplement it and complimented Scarlett on her fast and precise preparation of the creature. Well, yeah, she’d had a lot of practice grilling rabbits on her journeys. 

Kurotsuchi’s mood appeared to be a fuel gauge of sorts. 

First there’d be silent complaints, then there’d be whining about tiredness and pain, and feeding her before she reached ‘bitchy’ became priority number one on the journey. 

It was sort of cute, in a way, how her mood skyrocketed after a few bites. Come to think of it, she was around her age. And a ninja, she would have techniques… hmm. 

Red decided to test the waters, and walked next to Kurotsuchi as they approached the village gates. “I could cook for you again, if we happen to cross paths in the village?” she offered lightly, clearly not to the team but to the girl next to her only. Curious eyes turned to study hers intently, oh, Red had thought Kurotsuchi’s eyes to be pure black but they were actually edged in pink? Very pretty, might have to try giving herself eyes like that with genjutsu later. 

“I am a very busy person, normally,” the ninja said haughtily, “but I suppose, while my injury heals I might have the time”. There was a twitch of a smile at the corner of her mouth, was she… happy? Why hide it, well, Red supposed all good ninja should strive to be unreadable. 

Best skip the ‘so it’s a date’ thing, Icha Icha had been wrong, it was not a ‘surefire strategy’. Hadn’t worked on Kankurou, at least. Scarlett just beamed her brightest smile at Kurotsuchi, and turned to the gate guards to explain the reason for her visit- 

“Oi, skip that, I’ll vouch for her” the girl said with authority, and the guards even bowed their heads as they backed off. 

“I should still be registered as visiting, you can just write ‘Scarlett, trader” Red offered, they looked grateful. 

So doing this was probably against regulation, meaning young Kurotsuchi already had the power to override their commands at a whim. Heck. She was the next Kage, wasn’t she, either being allowed to grow into her role or seizing it herself. Maybe dating her wasn’t the brightest move- 

“Tomorrow, outside the hospital.” It definitely wasn’t a question, yet the kageling looked nervous. 

“When would be best for you, Kamizuru-sama?” 

“I will allow you to call me Kurotsuchi. Sunset? I crave something meaty”. 

Red had to smile at the commanding tone combined with a face she now knew meant ‘thinking about food’. “I’ll look forward to it”. 

They had paid Red well for her time and ingredients, so restocking with higher-quality stuff than usual was fun. Red scouted out a butcher, best buy the meat fresh tomorrow since she had no cold storage- wait, she did have temperature control seals… thoughts for the next crafting session. she’d gotten most of what she needed, so Red wandered to the outskirts of the village in search of a cheap room for rent. There were insects buzzing about, spring noticeable at last. 

Lots of bridges, she noted, some spanning little streams while others connected buildings or crossed chasms in the ground. The local stone made most buildings the same natural tone, getting lost might be an issue here. There were a lot of bees around? Looking closer, there were actually a lot of flowering plants too, but they were tiny creeping things that rarely ventured out of the cracked rocks and crevices. From a distance, it had looked lifeless, but there were birds around as well. 

Ah, she had reached the end of the street, and there was a honey vendor. Beekeepers, that would explain the amount of insects in the air. Red bought a jar to be polite, the old salesman had seen her coming and probably got it out just for her. 

“Thank you. By the way, is there a place nearby for travellers to stay a few nights?” 

“How about, I'll rent you my attic for a bit? My bees don’t seem to mind your presence, just watch out for ‘em when you move and all’s good” 

“If it’s not too much trouble, that would be wonderful.” 

“Alright, one sec- Suzume! C’mere, my lil queen bee” 

“Grandpa! I am not a child” a petulant-looking and rather fashionable teen showed up from behind a large hive. “What?” 

“Be a dear and show our guest the attic?” 

Red got scanned up and down, and Suzume’s eyes narrowed. “The bees say you smell strange” 

“Suzu, that’s rude” 

“Stop using nicknames in front of strangers! My name is Suzumebachi, who are you?” 

“My name is Scarlett. Your bees might be smelling my wares, scented oils and spices and soaps” Red offered. 

“Hmm, got any from Cloud?” 

Red had been prepared for that question when she’d made her new backstory, and hauled out several little pouches. “I am here mainly to buy, since my supplier didn’t show up, but I did bring samples along.” No, she’d had to buy them expensively from an actual Cloud-wares shop in Stone, but it made her persona much more believable. 

“Magnetite is always a fun one, got any iron on you?” 

Suzumebachi nonchalantly flipped a handful of sharp blades out of nowhere into a lazy arch, and caught them between her fingers. Heck, a ninja household, couldn’t she ever luck out in life? Better act convincingly civilian. 

“Oh wow!” Scarlett clapped at the display, and offered the girl a smooth pebble of magnetite. “Those knives aren’t sharp, right?” because to non-ninja, that was concerning. 

“Oh don’t you worry! Ohoho” the grandpa laughed, “she won’t hurt herself”. 

Several large bees were crawling on his face, it reminded Red of how Orochimaru’s younger summon snake hatchlings had always been all over everyone in his den. Red had worn them for fun, too, more than once. 

“Oh cool!” Suzumebachi had somehow gotten hold of the whole pouch of magnetite, and had strung her blades into a deadly chain. 

“The magnetic pull isn’t that strong, so I would not recommend them for combat use. Would you like to buy a few, to experiment with?” 

“Yeah! And, what’s the other stuff?” 

“I brought this along for a restaurant owner I know, but you can have a look. It’s recipes for native dishes-” 

“Yeah no, HARD pass. Next!” 

Demanding, but it was out of excitement not malice. Was that maybe a Stone Village trait? 

“These scents are currently popular in Cloud, I would recommend the bidens?” 

She stretched out a finger, but rather than picking up the bottle she waited for a bee to land and sniff it for her. “She likes it, so I’ll buy that too, but not the other ones” 

the bee was in the pouch now, Red patiently waited for it to climb back out. It looked more like a hornet, they must be keeping several species. “Would she sting, or-” 

“Nah, you can pick her up.” The teen was busy applying her new scent, surrounded by a growing swarm. 

Red let the hornet-like one climb her finger, and closed the pouch. “Other than that, the spices are a bit more fiery than the ones you get here” 

“Mmm, no, I think that’s enough. How much?” 

Red got her money from buying the items back, no profit but a lot of believability gained. 

The bee was a lazy thing, it still hadn’t flown off, so Red held it up to one of the impressive yellow flowers that towered over her in the yard. It slowly crawled on. “I’ve never gotten to see bees up close before, these ones are so big!” 

“Ours are special.” 

That sounded like what every pet owner ever would say, but sure. 

The little raccoon (or was it a fox?) that ‘Carmine’ had carved dangled from its tail as Kankurou held it up to the workshop light. It was amateurish, yet sort of cute? Which must be why he didn’t feel like putting it aside, and stuck it back in his pocket. 

Nobody else than Temari had sat by his bedside while he was ill before, had he ever thanked her for that? 

He’d gotten them dinner once, sure, but she’d kept saving him from the hospital mush by smuggling in street food. She had risked herself for days, a bingo book target in a ninja village, just for a guy she barely knew. Stayed by him even when it must have been boring, kept talking to make him feel less anxious about his siblings. 

He ought to thank her properly, the next time she dropped by. Maybe with dinner, again? She had mentioned liking seafood, he could make rice balls with canned tuna and dried seaweed at least? 

“Hey sis, if ya went on a date with- what’s his name, again?” 

She had been fixing her hair in the mirror set he’d put up to check his doll armor from all angles, now her favourite place in the tower. “Shikamaru, but no, we are so breaking up next time I go to Leaf. He’s lazy and condescending, don’t think he even likes me” 

“Yikes, right, dump his ass. What the hell, sis stop picking up trash. But if you went on a date with a decent guy for a change- stop, auhg!” 

Temari was ruffling his hood, he’d get weird hair for sure. 

“IF he made ya rice balls as a meal, is that a date?” He handed her a hairstring, and she fixed her fourth hair bundle into place. 

“Oh gods, this is still about your not-girlfriend, isn’t it. If you were going to pine for her this hard you should have at least made her yours! ‘What are we’, how lame can you get. Wasn’t your ninja way supposed to be ‘grab opportunities’ or something?” 

“I KNOW! I know, all right? I panicked!” 

“But to answer, yeah no, take her out to a nice restaurant if she ever comes here again. Not a diner. Maybe the pretty one with the outdoors deck and parasols, you know-” 

“Sandstone Salads?” 

“No, the other one, ah I’ll just show you. We both have patrol tomorrow” apparently her hair was finally acceptable. To Kankurou, it looked the same as it had before she’d undone and redone it. 

“and then what?” 

She sent him a flat stare. “You want a step-by-step?” 

“Er,” he was aware how lame he was being, but “Yes, please?” 

“Oh gods, alright” she said, unimpressed. “So, you get a menu, order something, and then you talk” 

“I got that part” he rolled his eyes “but what do I say?” 

“How about ‘sorry I am denser than concrete, if you’re still interested then let’s try being a couple’?” 

Kankurou blinked, confused. “But she’s not…”

Wait, she wasn’t. 

Right? 

“You are serious” Temari said, sounding entirely done with him. “She sat by your side for how many days? And you think she doesn’t- oh my GODS you are frustrating. What the hell did she see in you, seriously” 

“But she said we are friends?” 

“You asked her that in front of the sister she’d never met before AND the frickin’ Kazekage! Yeah, I know, just Gaara to us. But from her point of view, how’s that for pressure?” 

“... oh.” 

“Was there anything else, or would you like to wallow in self-pity while calling yourself an idiot a hundred times in peace” Temari said drily. 

“Think I still have a chance?” 

“Who knows. She might meet somebody else, or she might simply lose that romantic interest since you seemed so happy to just be friends”. 

Yeah, he couldn’t blame her if she did. His sister patted his shoulder gently on her way out, and Kankurou drew a deep breath before sighing a regretful ‘I am an idiot’. 

It was the first of many.