Genma's

Training exercises (with Shikamaru)
Thoughts
Haru’s thoughts (you’ll understand more later, why these are different)

Genma slept lightly listening for Raido as well as keeping an ear on Yuki. Yuki had dropped off to sleep shortly after he’d lain down, the pyjama pants hanging off of him. Genma had taken longer to fall asleep, he couldn’t help but feeling sorry for the kid, but at the same time feeling sorry for the kid wasn’t making him feel any less lustful. He wanted to treat the boy with kindness, but with his history to the chances of ever sleeping with Yuki was zero, Genma thought to himself, If that was me and I had been raped and abused I’d never let anyone within arms length of me. Just after he dropped off he heard the main door open, and quietly got up to speak with Raido, talk about the future could wait for a few days but at least make sure that he was briefed on the situation.
Genma looked over at Yuki, whose breathing pattern had changed after Genma stood up, he could see the glow from the toxic green eyes, opening to tiny slits watching him, so much for a private conversation with Raido.
“Hungry? I was going to get a little snack.” Genma lied.
Yuki shrugged and sat up, the sheet falling around his waist, he stood up and followed Genma out into the kitchen were Raido was eating the plate that Genma had made up for him earlier out of long habit. Raido tracked their progress across the room, not jet speaking, unwilling to make the first move in an unknown situation. Raido raised an eyebrow, before glancing at the boy’s attire and then back to Genma’s face.
Genma’s face carefully blank he gave his head a tiny shake. “How was your mission?”
“Not too bad, made it out with only a minor scuffle,” Raido nodded at his arm where there was a length of cloth tied. His vest was draped over the back of a chair, “Couldn’t you at least learn where things go if you make a random attempt at shopping? Hello Yuki-san, were you release from the hospital today? You look much better now. Only mostly starved, would you some thing to eat?”
Genma could see that Raido hadn’t gone to the main office after his mission he must have sent his partner there with the paperwork. However he was playing it nicely cool, not cold, not invasive, maintaining good distance for future manoeuvring. Genma applauded him…silently.
“Ah yes please do make Yuki a large plate of food, as for the groceries, they are a gift from Hokage-sama. We’ll be looking after Yuki while he’s recovering until it’s deemed safe for him to live on his own.” Genma said it with as much subtly as he could it didn’t help that he could see Yuki measuring his words carefully.
Raido broke out in a grin, a genuine one. “That’s great, I’d much rather have you living here with us than some of our other Jounin’s. So that’s why you were sleeping in Genma’s room, it does have that spare couch, I’ll have to give Manaya’s room a good cleaning and pick up some bedding for it in the morning.” Raido said warmly. He handed Yuki a giant bowl of rice topped with eggplant and green beans, putting the rest of the food in a separate dish, and scooped a small portion of rice out of the rice cooker for Genma and sprinkled dried seaweed on top.
“Looks like you’ll need to go shopping in the morning. If I know Genma he probably took care of the outerwear and forgot that some people wear clothing under it, or too bed for that matter.” Raido followed up dryly, perfectly comfortable carrying the entire conversation as Genma played with his rice and Yuki’s food disappeared off his plate. Raido made him another bowl off rice and poured the left over eggplant sauce over the top, Yuki dug into the bowl with his chopsticks holding them awkwardly as if he just learned. He didn’t comment, saved it for later when he was alone with Genma.
Raido finished off the last few dumplings and poured tea for everyone, Genma looked like he would object but made no more to stop Yuki as he took it and sipped it happily, visually savouring the taste.
Genma wore an expression of masked confusion, he watched Yuki drink the same kind of green tea that had caused him to vomit earlier, if it wasn’t the tea then what was it. Everyone finished the plates were added to the pile already in the sink, Yuki and Genma went back to Genma’s room, Yuki bid Raido a quiet good-night, Raido messed-up his hair and went into the bathroom for a shower.
Genma fell into a deep sleep knowing that Raido would keep an ear open for anything untoward happening, Genma was just too tired to stick to light sleep that night.

Raido watched from the corner of his eye as he saw Yuki slip out of Genma’s room, and to the kitchen. He then hear water and clinking noises and decided to investigate.
“Ohaiyo, Yuki-san.” Raido watched as Yuki carefully rinsed a dish and set it to dry on the rack.
“Ohaiyo, Raido-sama,” Yuki greeted him with a reserved expression.
“Let me help,” Raido took a towel and dried off the dishes as Yuki washed and rinsed them, it was quickly finished. “What would you like for breakfast?” Raido asked Yuki without giving him a direct look, going to check on the rice cooker, another five minutes.
“Whatever won’t put you out Raido-sama I don’t want to make more work for you. I understand that Genma-sama doesn’t cook.” Yuki said diffidently, Raido had a feeling that Yuki wasn’t naturally diffident, rather he should be bold and self assured, not hesitant.
“Well then I guess it’ll be rice, vegetables and eggs,” Raido declared, before going to get the ingredients out of the fridge. Raido put the carton of eggs next to a bowl that was on the counter, and the vegetables next to a chopping board and strainer. First, he rinsed the vegetables and set them on the chopping board to dry a bit and cracked eggs into the bowl and beat them adding water. Then he began chopping the vegetables, after a moment he went to add the eggs to the pan. Yuki slipped from the stool and began chopping the vegetables, copying what Raido had done, taking out the centre of the peppers and copying how Raido had sliced or chopped them, doing a fair imitation.
Raido thanked him and tossed them into a pan of heated sesame oil cooking them to crispy-tender, then adding soya and a pinch of pepperflakes. Raido loaded up a bowl and a plate with rice then topped them with egg chunks and sizzling vegetables. He handed the plate heaped with food to Yuki and carried his own to the table where he produced both a fork and chopsticks for Yuki, he could use either. Yuki choose the chopsticks to eat with, Raido put away the fork and put extra soya and sesame seeds on the table. Then he began to eat his way down to the rice. Leaving a comfortable silence between the two, Yuki ate as though he were starving, after Raido finished his bowl he made a second bowl of plain rice for himself as well as a bowl of chunked fruits and brought it to the table with two small bowls for the fruit.
About the same time as Raido finished his second bowl of rice Yuki finished his plate of food, Raido dished them both up bowls of fruit, producing new chopsticks. Raido bit into the juicy nectarine chunk and savoured the flavour before standing up to get one more item, in the fridge he grabbed the almond tofu that he had made earlier and sticking a spoon into it brought it over to the table. When he finished his fruit he scooped some tofu into the bowl and ate that, he made sure that Yuki ate the rest of the fruit and then gave him some of the tofu as well before Yuki looked overfull.
Yuki stared at the empty plate and bowls covering his mouth as a burp escaped, coloured embarrassed when Raido laughed.
“Full? Don’t mind that, it’s a good sign it means you like the food, I’ll take it as a compliment.” Raido said good naturedly.
“Very full,” Yuki said, not exaggerating at all like he had in the past. It was all that he could do to stay seated up right, he slowly gave into the urge to put his head on the table, Raido sent him off to bed with a few shooing motions, and cleaned up after the meal. With an apologetic look over his shoulder he slipped back into Genma’s room and laid down, Yuki smiled drowsily to himself as he felt the food energy turn into chakra, it was such a nice feeling not to be starving, not to be hungry at all. He glanced at Genma, and thought at him: thank you. As he slipped off to sleep, he wasn’t disturbed by so much as a single memory from his past.

Raido washed the dishes then chopped some vegetables, which he tossed into a pot on the stove he added liquid and curry powder to the broth, then started the rice maker as he left with the list he’d made the night before. After turning the soup down to low and leaving the lid on to simmer, the shops were just opening, he’d have plenty of time before the soup would be done or his roommates would wake up.
He left with a smile, he could get used to living with someone who appreciated good food, he had a filling it wasn’t going to be so bad, not at all, nevertheless first stop was Hokage-sama’s office.


Genma woke feeling rested and relaxed. He heard little ‘chu’ noises as Yuki slept, Genma rolled out of bed silently and grabbed a set of clothing an a senbon, stopping to look down at Yuki he could see that he was in a deep sleep, He looks healthy, the piercings have almost entirely disappeared except for a pink mark, that is fast. Genma gave him one last look and headed for the shower, he could hear Raido in the kitchen so he didn’t think he needed to worry over Yuki.
“Wow, what’s all this?” Genma asked in surprise every single pot, plate, bowl or utensil seemed to be on the table or counter: rice, soup, salad, pasta, fruit, cake, rolls, fried tofu, fresh tofu, muffins, bread, ramen, fried rice, fish, along with things that Genma couldn’t identify without a menu.
“Just thought I’d take advantage of Yuki’s living here and make everything that I wanted to make but had no one to appreciate. Besides a bit of variety will show us what he likes and doesn’t that which there is nothing more of should be repeated, no sense in feeding him things he doesn’t particularly like just because he’d to well mannered to say better.” Raido pointed out reasonably.
Genma nodded and headed to the shower room, Though I have the feeling that it’s less manners and more the likelihood of dying if he displeased his former masters, or having something happen which made him wish for death.
“Ah right. I stopped by the Hokage tower and there will be no missions for the foreseeable future,” Raido commented dryly, “We’re to make sure that Yuki gets into good enough shape that doing simple healing with not set back his recovery. As well as to fill in knowledge gaps, and take him in every other day for a brief report and to see if there are new questions to be answered about Lightning country. So he’ll also be our student briefly.”
Genma nodded and then went into the bathroom and showered, not taking extra time, just wanting it to be done. Hayate why did you have to die? Is it bad that I feel something more than lust for this kid? I think you ruined me if I’m attracted to someone so young, before you I only liked older women. Shit. Genma rinsed, dried perfunctorily and dressed. He sat on a stool at the counter and sipped the tea that Raido placed before him. He read the Konoha Shinobi Daily the preferred newspaper of Ninjas in Konoha, it was less like a newspaper and more of an update, it held the current information on other countries missing-nin. The status of all non-critical information in the village along with information about Weapons dealers, new research with Jutsu and things to know about other countries was laid out in these pages. In general it was the Shinobi way of being mission ready.
Genma read and sipped his tea, eventually eating the tofu, eggs and rice that Raido put in front of him. About halfway through he heard Yuki get up and surreptitiously peeked around the newspaper to see him come out of the room looking like a tired little boy, looking even younger in his pyjamas and messy hair. A big yawn cracking his face, his frosted green eyes sleepy and heavy lidded.
“Ohaiyo Raido-sama, Genma-sama. Should I get dressed for the day?”
“Only if you think after eating that you won’t get tired,” Raido said then gestured to the table making Yuki’s eyes bulge, “Kotetsu brought a few items over along with some of the other Shinobi that you know.” Raido added the finishing touches to the strawberry cream torte, “Start where you will everything that’s supposed to be hot will stay hot and all that’s cold will stay cold until you’re ready for it,” Raido laughed at Yuki’s dumbfounded expression. Raido made up gigantic plates to set on the only clear part of the table, one with the sweets including the torte that was just finished, a big bowl of soup and rice, another with rice, vegetables, tofu and eggs, and strips of thinly sliced beef in garlic sauce.
Yuki sat at the table with his fork in hand and just hovered above the plates, not sure what to eat in what order, his stomach growled, impatiently.
“Start with this,” Raido said pointing down at the strawberry torte, “I think that you’ll like it.”
Yuki dug his fork into the fluffy white cream, thinly sliced strawberries, and flaky crust, his eyes crossing as he forked it into his mouth. Raido laughed as Yuki speedily ate his way through all the desserts drank his tea and ate the soup and everything else that was put in front of him for half-an-hour before slowing down and looking sleepy.
“Tired?” Genma asked as it looked like he might nod off into his rice.
Yuki nodded, his head heavy, “Then go back to bed, sleep is important for your recovery.” Yuki started to stumble back to the bedroom only to be brought up short by Raido’s voice.
“Yuki-san, when I went by the Hokage tower earlier they gave me this scroll it was in the clothing that was cut off of you, they said that I could return it to you.”
Raido wasn’t prepared for the speed at which Yuki reclaimed the scroll jumping over the table and snatching it from his out stretched hand, murmuring “Banchou-sama”. Which is indeed what was written on the scroll it seemed to be a history of a woman named Seiryoku Banchou, who had died two centuries ago.
Yuki unrolled the scroll and looked at the image painted in the scroll, ignoring the words altogether. “Shishou-sama,” Yuki places his hands on the scroll and it warps to show a summoning pattern, Genma and Raido make to stop Yuki but are brought up short when an old woman floats over the scroll, decorated in old old style robes like the picture in the scroll.
“Yuki-chan, it has been a long time. I have waited for you. You’ve managed to leave cloud country I take it. Who are these Shinobi? Friends or …?” She left the question unfinished.
“They are my care-takers in Konoha village of Fire country.” Yuki used the form, which indicated extremely formal politeness to the woman.
“Yuki-san, please tell us who this is?!” Genma ground out a kunai in hand. His attention shifting between the woman and the boy.
“Allow me to introduce myself, I am Yuki-chan’s great-grandmother. Seiryoku Banchou, former head of the Seiryoku clan,” Seiryoku bowed low to the two ninjas and then turned back to her great-grand son, “So what brings you to release me? My cute little…grandson?” Banchou looked at Yuki curiously, seeming to see something that she hadn’t before, “I see that you managed to learn ‘Seiryokai no Jutsu’ on your own, but you must know that it’s not healthy.”
Yuki shrugged, “It was unavoidable, it allowed me to survive, both of us to survive.”
“How long?” Banchou asked abruptly.
“Nine years.” Yuki replied meekly.
“How old are you?”
“Seventeen or there about,” Yuki answered.
“That makes it the longest that it’s been held, that speaks well of your potential, but when you end it you must never do it with that person again.”
“Aasou. As you say Obaa-sama, so it shall be.”
“Mmm you’re not stupid that speaks well of your potential, no wonder you were given my scroll,” Banchou’s image swirled in a combination of water, sparks, flame. “I’ll teach you, come back later for lessons.”
With that said, she disappeared in a cascade of sparks onto the paper.
Genma and Raido looked nonplus and suspicious, “What precisely is she?” Genma asked.
“She’s my ancestor, it was told to me when I was much younger, that we sealed then into the paper for a few generations after death to act as mentors to the younger generations. This is so that the traditions continued on and the past was not forgotten, depending on the individual talents and heritage an ancestor is passed on to an infant. It’s the one tradition that we’ve been able to keep despite our slavery, ironically it’s the only one that endangered the Cloud country, when we were slaves, because while we couldn’t summon the ancestor while we were bound the moment that the binding is removed we have access to all the jutsu that are passed down through our clan.
“She has found me a worthy pupil and has agreed to teach me, the ways of our bloodline,” Yuki finished the answer it was both informative and short enough for all parties.
“We must tell the Hokage, I hope that you won’t mind demonstration the technique for her, until such time I ask that you do not do it again,” Raido said grimly. That could have been bad, very bad.
“As you wish, Raido-sama,” Yuki with a last squeeze of the scroll against his chest reluctantly offered it to Raido-sama, “if it makes you feel better about the situation would you like to hold the scroll?”
“Yes please. If it pleases you, we can show Hokage-sama this afternoon and get this approved, as soon as possible<” Genma added kindly. “What did she mean by ‘Seiryokai no Jutsu’?” Genma asked
“Ah, it was a jutsu that I had to learn to save my life a few years ago, it allowed me to gather energy enough to survive, it’s rather complicated to explain, only Seiryoku can perform this jutsu without dying or going crazy,” Yuki answered truthfully but not completely. “I have to release the energy that I gathered at that time or both the received and the receiver will be scared, there is only so long a foreign chakra can be held without the chakra coils being damaged, even by a Seiryoku clan member.”
How do I explain that I have a second person in my body?
With great care? Haru answered back ironically.
Oh yeah that’s helpful.
Well it might be easiest to wait until you have the two of us untangled before explaining you don’t know if they are entirely trustworthy, confiding that just now may be a problem later when you want to get a surprise attack in just in case things aren’t quite so up and up as they appear.
True enough, how do you feel? Do you think that the merge is too far gone?
No way of telling until the moment, it would be best if we didn’t tempt fate and make to many plans for that without considering the eventuality that we maybe joined forever and a day.
There is another option…but only if you chose it.
I think I’ll wait to contemplate that option until all other options are exhausted.
Yuki remembered to grin at the two weakly, “It’s rather complicated to explain you’d have to know more about the clan, which I just can’t tell you, or they’d kill me when they were freed then raze this village to the ground to make sure that the information didn’t spread. You’ll just have to trust me when I say it’s a life preserving jutsu that I was left without the option of using.”
“Well what do you say about some training you don’t look so tired, rather you actually look rather healthy, relatively speaking since the first time that I met you,” Genma said before adding, “Besides I have to meet with Shikamaru for our daily exercise period otherwise he’ll just use the chance to nap.”
Yuki nodded and with a last glance at the scroll, headed into the bedroom where the bags of clothing had been left, he dressed as similarly to Genma and Raido as the selection offered, pulling on the sandal-boots and fastening them. He flexed his toes into the soft soles, he made little shifts as he twisted and turned, altering the fastening, then going out to join the two Jounins.
Genma eyed him over, he looked every inch the ninja, his posture, quiet presence, the only thing out of place was the hair, Genma went back into his room and searched through his desk before finding what he was looking for.
“Here,” Genma said as he handed something to Yuki.
“Ah.” Yuki scrapped his hair back into a tight high ponytail, getting all the hair out of his face. “Thank you, Genma-sama.”
Genma greeted Shikamaru and then saw that Yuki had climbed a tree and was leaning against the branch, it came as a shocking but pleasant surprise when Raido had jumped out of the balcony window without thinking, and Yuki had followed, making to the next building easily. Genma locked the door and joined them. He used the trip as an opportunity for assessments.
“Not going to exercise Yuki-san?”
“Er, I suppose I will,” Yuki jumped out of the tree and after stretching began a series of unfamiliar katas each ending in a jump-kick combination, once he had run through them he did them in reverse, then again at twice the speed. Before moving over to the base of the tree and napping.
Yuki could feel the earth humming with extra chakra, it seemed that this was a major training ground, he sat under a tree and began pulling the chakra into his body, there was enough residual chakra that he could do that everyday for a week. At this rate he would soon be filled to capacity or at least capacity as long as the major seal was in place. Having found a comfortable patch of moss, he soon fell asleep.
Genma told Shikamaru that if he was going to be lazy he could watch over Yuki while he and Raido trained.
Yuki woke feeling energized it was a short nap, he could tell that not much time had passed, he looked over at his watcher who was watching the sky instead.
“Ah you’re awake, che’ Genma said that we should spar,” Shikamaru told him.
“Okay,” Yuki sat up and stretched, before standing up all the way. It was much easier to absorb the elemental chakra, since it translated directly into energy, unlike food, which had to be digested and processed. He could tell that there were… Yuki jumped out of the way of the shadows zooming at him, with a couple of flips he was on the other side of Raido and Genma, watching Shikamaru. He left a fire clone and disappeared, hidden in the background, Yuki almost felt like they were playing a game as he manoeuvred to stay out of range, he set a trap and watched as Shikamaru used his shadows to control the Bunshin.
Hm, he’s not bad. Plotting ahead every move it seems, I think that it’ll be necessary to take him out with a single exchange. Haru commented a few minutes later.
Mmm, yes I single thrust of power to disrupt his chakra so that I can get close then knock him unconscious, Yuki watched as Shikamaru made to trap his Bunshin in his shadow bind, but since it was less a clone and more a puppet, as Shikamaru got close he had the clone explode into a raging fire. When Shikamaru jumped back Yuki dropped behind him, with an open palm thrust to the neck he blocked all of the chakra pathways, sending a flood of fire down the passage-ways.
All of Shikamaru’s nerve receptors were shouting pain at him, the only reason that he knew that he wasn’t on fire was because his eyes told him so, the next instant he blacked out.
Yuki slung the unconscious body over his shoulder, he repaired the damage to the chakra system and nerves so that they could function normally and drained off all of Shikamaru’s chakra, so he only had enough to stay functional and not enough to fight. Yuki healed the superficial burns and propped him against a tree and resumed his nap, knowing that Genma and Raido had substituted clones for the real thing and had hidden during his fight with Shikamaru, well it doesn’t tell them much about my abilities.
At least Chuunin, with a skill level like that to take out Shikamaru so quickly and efficiently, not much effort was wasted at all. Although why hasn’t Shikamaru woken up yet? Genma asked himself as he mentally assessed the fight. I think if he’s going to be a Konoha ninja then things in the future look up, he’ll have to take the Chuunin exam. Genma dropped out of the tree to fall into a crouch next to Yuki, “Nicely done.”
“Thanks.”
“So are you going to let Shikamaru wake up any time soon?” Raido asked mildly from where he crouched on a branch nearby.
Yuki shrugged and pulled up the chakra that he’d taken from Shikamaru and let it slowly infuse Shikamaru’s body so that it didn’t overwhelm his system.
After a moment he twitched and opened his eyes, “That had to have been fighting dirty,” Shikamaru commented with a troublesome muttered under his breath.
“Indeed it was,” Yuki smiled politely back, “after all when someone is trying to map all my movements to predict what I’ll do next I have few other options other than knocking him unconscious as efficiently as possible.”
“Figures,” Shikamaru rolled his eyes and then smiled at Yuki.
“Besides most of my other techniques are for killing people or at least severely injuring them and you don’t want one of those trust me, they have a decidedly fatal tendency.” Yuki smiled to take the sting out the comment.
I i, I think that he’d much much to strong to be under just Genma and my control, I hope that he proves an ally and not an enemy because otherwise we’d be hard pressed to stop him, Raido smiled weakly at Yuki.
Raido made to hand Shikamaru the Konoha Shinobi Daily, only to have him say he’d already read it, Raido shrugged and handed it to Yuki. Who looked it then handed it back, to Raido with a shrug.
“I can’t read it,” Yuki told him, bluntly.
“Why not?” Genma asked.
“Because I can’t read,” Yuki said with a face carved out of stone.
Genma winced internally, he’d forgotten that fact, Raido either had forgotten or hadn’t known.
“I’ll teach you,” Shikamaru said surprising everyone himself included. “I mean reading is a tool that every Shinobi must know if you’re going to be a Konoha Shinobi that you must be able to read and write reports.”
Shikamaru pulled a blank scroll out of his vest and an ink pot and pen, spreading in it in the grass he began with the alphabet, a, e, i, u, o, ka, ke, ki, ku, ko until all of the hiragana was there, “No time like the present,” Shikamaru said uncharacteristically.
Genma gave him a weird look since his habits could be summed up as any time but the present, and even the future if he didn’t have to do it then.
Yuki parroted Shikamaru and after Shikamaru rolled up the scroll and Raido produced another blank one, rewrote the symbols with the same brush strokes. Shikamaru then challenged him to read the combined symbols on the page, Yuki, Shikamaru, Hokage, Konoha, watashi, neko.
Shikamaru caught on quickly, this would be no ordinary pupil, he wrote down the katakana symbols and explained that they were for emphasis, and threw in some kanji for Yuki to memorize. It wasn’t difficult for a genius to recognize genius, Shikamaru found an ordinary scroll and gave it to Yuki to read aloud, having him skip the kanji that he didn’t know which would be almost all of them. He explained the prepositions to Yuki as he came across them since they were the same symbols as made other sounds when part of a word, or made the same sound, but changed the sentence meaning, as he had Genma and Raido help him with that, Shikamaru thought about the most efficient way to finish teaching Yuki to read. By the time he’d read aloud half of the scroll he had a plan, it was at this time that he realized that Yuki was starting to read the Kanji as well. He made Yuki go back to the beginning and pointed at the Kanji and gave their definition.
When they made it back to the same part of the scroll as where Yuki’d been when he stopped him, Shikamaru took the scroll back.
“In two days, you’ll be as literate as most 10 year olds, in a week you’ll know as many Kanji as any adult in 15 days you’ll be able to read any document no matter the difficulty. Writing maybe trail a few days behind, depending on how quickly you absorb the grammatically rules. I have to meet Asuma-sensei now, but I’ll stop by with some learning materials tomorrow when I meet with Genma and we can pick up then, where we left of. Genma let him look through your dictionary if you have one, it’ll speed up his acquisition rate and prepare him for tomorrow.”
Genma assented and waved Shikamaru off setting a time for the meeting at Genma’s apartment. He watched Yuki laying on his belly writing with an intense expression as he described the training fields. Genma pointed out where he left out the prepositions and showed him the kanji for words that popped up frequently. What is he? I’ve never seen anyone accumulate information this quickly in my life, if Shikamaru is a genius then Yuki must be a super-genius. Between my level of intelligence and his there are several levels and no one’s ever called me stupid. Genma watched impressed, until he realized how much time had passed between the match, the impromptu lesson and Yuki’s writing practice of writing.
“Time to go back to the apartment and eat. Aren’t you starving, Yuki-san? You should have said something,” Genma reprimanded gently.
“Only a little, there is a lot of chakra in this area that I can easily absorb so I preferred to learn the words,” Yuki said with a shy smile.
“That’s the second time that you’ve said that, what do you mean that you ‘absorb’ the chakra from the area,” Genma asked as he stood and brushed off his pants. He rolled the scrolls up while Yuki brushed off his own clothing.
“Ah, hmmm, everything has energy, and as time passes something collect more energy, people obviously but also plants, rocks collect passing peoples energy, the ground collects animals energy and so on. When I come in contact with these reserves I can add them directly to my own supply of chakra they are readily absorbable, in fact more so than energy from food because that has to converted,” Yuki answered reaching to take back the scroll only to be given the newspaper instead. His voice trailed off as he read the sentences off the page silently his lips moving soundlessly, forming the words.
“Genma could you pick up some take-out? I’m going to take Yuki back to the apartment and start cleaning out the spare room for his use. No need to hurry,” Raido added. “Genma is very bad at cleaning. You should have seen what he did to the living room the last time there was a party, he knows better but is simply too lazy to actually do it himself, he had his clones do it and they swept the dirt under the rug, hid the alcohol under the sink, and so forth. I was finding silverware for a weak, in potted plants, the part of the toilet that holds the water. Since then I just send him away and do the cleaning,” Raido said as he headed back to the apartment with just Yuki in tow. All of what he said was the truth, but he knew that before Genma actually went to get the take-out he’d stop by the office to make a report of how strong Yuki was and just how intelligent. He had a feeling that being anything other than straightforward in dealing with the boy would be a disaster. But I’m lying at the same time damn, this is going to be complicated in the future. Further if what I learned this afternoon is all true then he knows that I’m not telling the truth. Perhaps I should just be bloody honest and take it from there Genma can kill me later. Raido nodded to himself decision made, he leapt from the neighbour’s roof to his own balcony. He waved Yuki through his room and into the main room where he put the serving bowls of food around Yuki and served himself up from them.
Yuki shrugged and began to make himself a plate, he wasn’t hungry not in terms of having been starving for years, plus he’d need the spar energy for when the Hokage required him to do healing or hopefully did some healing of her own on him.
“Yuki-san,” Raido began.
“You don’t have to use –san with me Raido-sama,” Yuki told him, it had been nice at first but with his apparent age it would only make him stand out.”
“Thank you, and instead of using-sama you should use me sempai or sensei, although sempai is probably closer to the truth. I wanted to be honest with you Yuki, I can tell from this afternoon that you’re not just intelligent you’re a genius, you know that there is something going one underneath the underneath when Genma and I talk to each other. I’m sure you know that Genma went to do more than just pick up food after he left us,” Raido paused.
“He went to report all the information that he learned about me to Hokage-sama. And probably get advice about how to proceed with my training. I believe I’m stronger than you thought that I was,” Yuki said calmly with eyes that watched.
“Exactly while I have a feeling that the Hokage would rather that you didn’t know as much about Konoha as possible I doubt that anything short of blinding you would do that,” Raido said dryly, his breath caught in his throat when he looked into the virulent green eyes. “Not that that’s something we’d ever do here in Konoha, we’re not like Lightning country at all.”
“Right,” Yuki said in an even tone, Raido read relief and determination in that tone, if someone tried to bind Yuki again they would end up worse than dead. I somehow think that he’d not going to go under for the surgery tomorrow, once that comes off he’ll be immeasurably strong in my estimate, and he has the brains to use that strength.
“As I was saying before I made that unfortunate remark, I’m going to be honest. You’re much stronger than I thought you would be, you’re probably stronger than I am in terms of pure strength, and you’re gaining more chakra by the day. What reassurances does Konoha have that once you’re free you’ll not try to destroy us?” Raido asked the question that everyone had wanted to ask.
“Because I need you help, Konoha’s help to rescue my clan,” Yuki said in the same even tone that Raido had used. “They are in the same situation as I was in, am in until the box is removed at least. Once that is removed I’ll be able to negate the other’s controls, the problem will be in their being entirely too weak at that time and myself not strong enough to kill every last ninja who moves to stop me, there are too many young children who would die that night. Not that they aren’t dying and suffering now,” Yuki said bitterly with some self-disgust. “So to do that I’ll need help,” Yuki looked directly into Raido’s eyes “Do you think that I’d risk my chances of that for a little self pleasure?”
“No I think that you’re too smart to let yourself be take for a fools game you know what’s truly important in this world,” Raido answered in the same serious tone. “That settled lets get you’re room cleaned, I bought new sheets and some under clothing for you as well as pyjamas, unless you would rather keep using Genma’s?” Raido asked with a touch of humour.
“No thanks, I think I could do with a pair that fits,” Yuki answered back the undercurrent was serious but the topic was light.
“Later we’ll discuss Lightning country more if you don’t mind, we need to know more about you as well as your…handler.” Raido said diplomatically.
“We can indeed discuss that, later,” Yuki agreed.

“Wow, this place looks great,” Genma said as he staggered in carrying a bunch of sacks full of cartons, “We have some company for dinner tonight, I told them that they could only come if they contributed to the meal,” Genma said dryly, “Unfortunately that didn’t deter them.”
After Genma there was Shikamaru and Sarutobi Asuma, Hyuuga Neji, Mozuko, Kotetsu, Akame, Kurenai, and Izumo, all of whom called out a variety of hellos and set their food out on the table, Raido counted the big bags of take-out, there had to be eight different types of food, no two of the offering would be alike. Raido just grinned, they were curious huh? Well why not, he had a feeling that in the end Yuki for all that he was much younger than some of them was more likely to on their level that those who were around Yuki’s age. The exception being Uzimaki Naruto, he had high expectations for the kid, he saw him the other day having returned from his trip with Jiraiya-sama, he heard that Naruto was already off on a trip to Suna.
“Er, we’ll be eating on the floor,” Raido pointed at the traditional table in the living room and went to get the kneeling cushions, it was the only way that they’d all fit, or even most of them, “Yuki help me, please.” Raido handed the cushions to him and got the small table that was stored in the closet for occasions just like this and carried it out to the other room.
Soon everyone was eating and pestering Yuki to try what they brought, Shikamaru instead of bringing food had come to drop off some books for Yuki, including a dictionary, with both kanji and hiragana, when he tried to leave he was forced by Asuma to sit down.
Yuki after a moment of hesitation sat next to Shikamaru and across from Neji, Yuki smiled at everyone and thanked them as he ate their contributions. Something isn’t right with his chakra passageways, he should have access to more of it then he does, he’s still powerful, but it doesn’t seem like a training technique for more stamina or to refine control, it looks permanent.
It feels the same as our piercings, some sort of control device mayhap?
But if they do that to their clans here…
You’re right that’s not something that we can let escape up before we decide to join this village.
We have to choices ask Neji and perhaps offend him or ask the Hokage and put her on the spot the way that she answers will tell us more than if we ask a single clan member, in the eventuality that he doesn’t know by whose order the seal is there.
The Jounins asked all about his sparring match with Shikamaru, which Yuki tried to down play as being not so great a mismatched. Shikamaru confirmed that he was totally defeated in a short time, and that he hadn’t decided what he would do in a rematch, that Yuki had revealed little information about his style.
Asuma suitably impressed praised Yuki, who turned pink and stammered, everyone else seeing the effect of praise on Yuki gave him further compliments. Just when everyone else left Kurenai said that she’d fix his hair.
She waved aside his protests and escorted him to the bathroom, shutting the door firmly in Genma’s face, Asuma wandered over to their balcony and chain-smoked talking with Raido. Genma under the close supervision of Raido cleaned up the meal, most of it was empty containers, some he closed and stuck in the fridge and plied the plates in the sink.
“Ta da,” Kurenai said as she forced Yuki ahead of her into the room. After a careful consultation with Yuki on what his preferences were she’d trimmed the ends and cut some layers into the body, before turning it into a mass of complicated braids. Practical but very nice, Kurenai assured him that it only had to be done every few days to stay looking nice that he wouldn’t have to do it everyday.
“Very nice,” Genma said, it was sort of girly in it’s elaborateness but if Yuki decided to keep the style it would be balanced by the muscular build he was already starting to show. After a bit more praising of Yuki’s new hair style and a stammered thanks to Kurenai-sempai, it was decided that it was a very long day and after a few short showers everyone went to bed, Yuki to his new room, which was clean and organized with his new stuff.

AN: I know it seems weird that the Shinobi would dote on this foreign born ninja, but Yuki’s intolerably cute, and has suffered a lot in his life (visibly, the un-regenerated scars)
Genma also seems out of character, but that’s because in the Anime/Manga we get a one dimensional perspective of his character, also because Genma is in an unusual situation, he doesn’t know a better way to act around Yuki because he’s usually so caustic and that would be a bad way to act around Yuki. So he was iC for a few chapters and now that we’re going deep he’ll be OC until I can bring Yuki’s and Genma’s personalities in alignment.
Er, having taken a break in writing before restarting and lost all my outlines I had to start over from scratch, so Yuki’s character undergoes an abrupt character change, but when I go back and edit I’ll see about smoothing the transition, I’ll see what that means later when I actually have to do it.