She was right to think that Jiraiya wouldn't be much help when he had work to do. The first week passed without much incident. They trained for three days before Thursday, when he left for the nearest village to continue gathering information on something confidential. Luckily for them, he seemed to take their training seriously because he had them doing physical exercises in the mornings, then training exclusively in taijutsu, followed by genjutsu, and finally, he watched over them as they practiced ninjutsu while he wrote under the shade of a tree.
"When are you going to start teaching us fuinjutsu?" Naruto asked on the third day.
"Oh? You already want to start?" Jiraiya asked, playing dumb. "Why don't you begin by perfecting your calligraphy first? Here, take this as an example."
He tossed them a scroll with brush-written calligraphy samples and pointed at them to start practicing. Seina sighed but conjured the necessary materials so each of them could practice. Fuinjutsu was similar to runes—it required a steady hand and perfect calligraphy to make the symbols flawless. Fortunately for her, it was something she had a lot of practice with, so she knew it wouldn't take long to pass Jiraiya's inspection.
The pervert spent the rest of the week away. He didn't even return to sleep.
"And how do we know you didn't just drop dead somewhere?"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, birdbrain, but I've been managing on my own for years," he told Naruto, walking out of the tent and disappearing into the distance.
"Am I the only one who finds this weird?"
"No. You're actually right. If he dies, with the little information he's given us, we might not even realize it for weeks."
"Why don't you make him one of those Portkeys?" Sasuke suggested. "That way, if he's in danger, he can escape easily, and we won't have to worry about him."
"Huh. That's a great idea. When he comes back, I'll ask him where he wants it to take him."
Since they didn't know when he'd return, they stuck to the training schedule they had created on the first day, practicing in the clearing nearby, surrounded by magical barriers. Time passed quickly when you were busy training and exercising for nearly ten hours a day.
"Do you want to try creating a chain, Naru?" Seina asked as she resumed her training with the adamantine chains, trying to fully control another one.
So far, she didn't have perfect control over all of them. She could use three flawlessly to attack, defend, or as a barrier, but when she added a fourth… things got complicated. She could control them for a few minutes, but then they seemed to develop a mind of their own and did anything but what she ordered. Maybe she should master using three chains before adding more, but she wanted to test the maximum number she could summon before her "mother" chain lost control as well.
"Ugh, no… I don't think I have enough chakra control to stop them from turning against me," he said sarcastically, mocking himself.
"The third time in your life you've said something sensible."
"…Tch, Teme!"
Seina rolled her eyes and kept training. She conjured a few dummies to attack and defend against, using only her chains. She could wield them as weapons, as shields, but also to create distance between herself and her opponent. She could even send a spell through them. If she used Kurama's chakra, they caused severe burns, and when used as a shield, they disintegrated anything that struck them.
"I'm exhausted," she said when night had fallen. "We should go have dinner. Looks like he's not coming back tonight either."
"Ugh."
Naruto got up from the ground, completely drenched in sweat, while Sasuke caught his breath. They had been practicing ninjutsu, just like their clones, so she completely understood their exhaustion. The three of them staggered toward the tent in silence, their stomachs growling, and stepped inside. As expected, Jiraiya wasn't there, so they headed to their rooms to take a bath. She sank into the tub with a sigh of pleasure after vigorously showering first.
"Ah, this is the life…"
"Hn. I just hope the pervert doesn't back out once he realizes you've progressed faster than expected…"
"Why do you think he would back out?"
"Call it intuition."
"If that happens, I'll make sure to change his mind…" she thought, already considering the pranks she'd pull until he gave in. Kurama snorted in malicious amusement.
She got out of the bath, remembering her self-imposed rule to write a letter to Kakashi. She knew it hadn't even been a full week, but she wanted to talk to him. With any luck, he'd be there to receive it and reply. A growl from her stomach made her sigh, so she decided to leave the letter for later.
"…I don't want ramen, dobe!"
"But I do!"
"There are three of us eating here!"
"Nee-chan! You do want ramen, right?" Naruto asked the moment he saw her, giving her a pleading look.
"Honestly, I wouldn't mind a bowl, but I don't really feel like making something that elaborate from scratch right now, Naru," she said with an apologetic smile. "Besides, I don't think eating fast food after all that training is a good idea."
Naruto crossed his arms but accepted his loss. They all worked together to prepare dinner, while Sasuke set the table, so they ended up eating relatively early.
"I'm going to write a letter to Kakashi if you two want to write one as well."
"Seriously? I almost forgot about the magic mail tray!"
They ate while discussing their training and speculating about what might be happening in Konoha, then went off to write their letters. Seina, sitting at her conjured desk in her room, chewed on the tip of her conjured pen as she pondered what she wanted to say to Kakashi. It had only been a week. Was it too soon to write a letter? Did it even matter how much time passed before she sent him the first one if she already missed him?
"You're overthinking it," Kurama chided. "Just write whatever you feel like."
She supposed Kurama was right, as always.
"Dear Kakashi,
It's only been a week since we last saw each other, and maybe it's too 'soon' to send you a letter, but I miss you. If I had to stick to writing you only when I miss you, I would have sent one the very first day I left Konoha. To be exact, I'd have to send you one every single day.
We're somewhere in the south, where the pervert has some job or something like that. Not that he's bothered to tell us what the hell he's actually doing. Probably sleeping with women and drinking sake, in addition to his usual peeping.
We've started training with him—well, on the days he's actually been around, that is. The rest of the time, we've been keeping ourselves busy training and studying on our own, as always. The only new thing I've done so far is improve my calligraphy to later study fuinjutsu. I don't know when we'll actually start, but I hope it's soon because I'm already getting bored.
Not like I have much to tell you after just six days. I don't even know if I'll have much to say next week. I assume you might not be able to reply for weeks, but I want you to have these letters—so that even if you read them later, you'll remember that I'm thinking about you constantly, that I miss you, and that, even though I've resigned myself to the fact that it won't be anytime soon, I still hope to see you again. Dreams are free, aren't they?
How are things in Konoha? Have you heard anything about the others? About the decrepit old man? Have you rejoined ANBU? You can tell me anything you want—it's not like I have much else to do. Take care of yourself. Don't forget to eat properly, sleep enough, and rest.
I'll be waiting patiently—or maybe not so patiently—for your reply.
Yours,
Seina.
P.S. Don't forget your promise."
Seina sealed the letter in an envelope, placing it in the mail drawer and watching it disappear. Naruto and Sasuke never showed up with their own letters, so she simply shrugged and went to bed.
The next three weeks flew by. Jiraiya returned the day after she had written that first letter, making them pack up to head farther east. They walked for a day before reaching their new destination. As expected, he quickly disappeared into the crowd while they were left alone in the forest. Funny how each of them was technically in danger, yet Jiraiya had no problem leaving them 'unprotected' whenever he felt like it.
They trained, of course, without easing up. Seina kept practicing her calligraphy, reading books on herbology and other subjects, refining her chains, and honing her other abilities. By the time Jiraiya returned—for real this time—another five days had passed.
"Alright. Let's see how much progress you've made on your own," he said. "Show me your calligraphy sheets."
Jiraiya examined them with a sharp eye, nodding at some while pointing out a few shaky characters Naruto had written so he could fix them.
"Seina, as expected, your calligraphy is perfect," the pervert said. Should she tell him she had over 120 years of practice with a damn quill? "Now, I want you to practice writing at a higher speed."
"So, you want me to maintain my precision while writing faster?"
"Exactly. Many times, you won't have much time to set up fuinjutsu barriers, so you need to train yourself to ensure your calligraphy doesn't suffer under pressure. The most complex barrier has over 200 kanji, and I've known people who could set it up in under a minute."
"Alright," she thought out loud. "I'll train to write that many kanji in the same amount of time."
"As for you, Naruto, keep practicing your calligraphy—not just to improve your handwriting, but because your writing style is too easily recognizable," he pointed out, showing some characters Naruto always wrote rounder than usual. "Sasuke, same goes for you as for Naruto and Seina. Work on your strokes a bit more and also on your speed."
"Hn."
"By the way, ero-sennin, we were thinking of giving you a Portkey so we don't have to worry about you," Naruto said, offering no context whatsoever.
"A what? So you don't have to worry about me?"
"We were thinking of giving you one of my items," Seina said, rolling her eyes. "It'll let you teleport to a specific location with a set voice command. That way, when you go off spying, we won't have to wonder whether you're dead or still working."
"You call that a Portkey? How does it work?" Jiraiya asked, raising an eyebrow in interest.
"I can use any object and, with my powers, link it to a location. When you activate the object with a phrase or word, you'll be teleported there as long as you're touching the Portkey."
"Can you make me a test one?"
Seina and Jiraiya experimented with different objects at various distances. In the end, it didn't take long to convince him to accept an indestructible bracelet that would teleport him near Konoha.
"Thanks, Seina," he said seriously. "I hope I never have to use it, but this could save my life."
"You're welcome."
After that, they picked up their things from the ground and went to shower. Three weeks had passed, and Kakashi still hadn't responded to a single letter, but she didn't let it discourage her. She kept sending a sealed envelope every Sunday, along with occasional letters from Naruto and Sasuke. Both Sasuke and she continued to send their correspondence to Itachi via the messenger pigeon, though only once a week as agreed. She didn't get her hopes up about receiving a reply, but she would keep trying.
November arrived, and with it, an envelope from Kakashi. Seina grabbed her letter, noticing that he had written another one addressed differently so Sasuke and Naruto could read it too.
"Dear Seina,Reading your letters has made me very happy. I've never written a letter for pleasure before, so I don't even know how to begin... I admit I had to think for a while about what to say.
I've fully returned to ANBU. As you can imagine, that means I barely set foot in the village except on rest days between long missions. Today, I just got back from a mission that lasted a little over three weeks. I'll spare you the details, but I'm safe and sound. I haven't had time to find out what your friends or Danzo are up to, but I'll try to get some information before I leave the village again. I'm afraid there's not much else to say in that regard.
See how terrible I am at writing letters? The only thing I can really write about is how much I miss you. Coming home felt like stepping into the past, back before I met you. It felt like getting punched in the chest. I knew I'd miss you—not just you but the other two as well—but I thought I could handle it. We've been apart for less than a month, and I already feel like I'm going insane.
I've had to force myself, as you taught me, to acknowledge my feelings and admit that I'm now more... vulnerable, but also happier. The pain I feel is because of your absence, and it hurts so much because I've learned to live with you, and I love it. And I don't want to lose that. I don't want to be alone, but I know I'm not, even if you're far away. Does that make any sense?
I don't know if I'm ready to dive this deep into my feelings. I just wanted to say that, in short, I miss you. Your letters give me the strength to keep going.
Yours,Kakashi."
She reread Kakashi's rather brief letter, smiling at how chaotic his writing had become when he started talking about his emotions. Still, it made her happy to realize that he had tried for her, so she would know that what she wrote in her letters was reciprocated.
"Why don't you come with me to the village?" Jiraiya asked suddenly the next day. "I'd like to teach you how to gather information."
"Yosh! Finally, some new training! How are we going to do it?"
"Very simple," Jiraiya smirked. "By seducing, dear students."
"WHAT!?"
The horrified and embarrassed expressions on Sasuke and Naruto's faces made her stifle a laugh. In fact, she was surprised they hadn't been taught about seduction missions before. Neither Sasuke nor Naruto were exactly unattractive—though Naruto didn't have a single discreet bone in his body—and she knew she had an appealing physique herself, to be honest.
"There will be times when you can't extract information by force, so you'll have to resort to other methods. A direct way to interrogate someone would be using techniques like the Yamanaka clan's jutsu or Seina's jutsu," he nodded in her direction. "Sasuke might be able to replicate some of these jutsu using his Sharingan if he trained his dōjutsu in that way, but the rest of us mortals have to use a different strategy."
"By seducing people?" her twin brother asked, looking both pale and flustered.
"Exactly. It's a method I've cultivated over the years, and it works wonders because it has an advantage: many times, the person being interrogated doesn't even realize it, so I can leave them alive and question them over and over when I need more information."
"Is that why most of your informants are women?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
"Well observed! You're absolutely right! They're women because it's easier for me to interrogate them without them noticing, but also because I like women," he smirked perversely at the thought, though he quickly turned serious again. "That said, if necessary, I would do the same with men. The village we're heading to is quite large, so you'll be able to practice without anyone noticing."
"And how are we supposed to do that?" Naruto asked, now excited about training since he saw how useful it could be.
"I'll let you have a first attempt on your own, to see how you do."
Jiraiya's smirk was downright malicious. Seina knew that all he really wanted was to laugh at their inexperience. Honestly, the thought of watching Naruto attempt this without any instructions cracked her up. Not to mention Sasuke—she bit her tongue just thinking about it. Still, her brothers seemed willing to learn.
And so, Jiraiya convinced them to accompany him to the next village—or small city—where, for the first time in weeks, they paid for a couple of rooms in a small but decent inn. They left their belongings in one room while the other remained empty, in case Jiraiya, at some point, needed to bring a woman there for... interrogation, or so he claimed, the old pervert.
"Who wants to go first while the rest of us observe?" Jiraiya asked, practically rubbing his hands together.
Sasuke and Naruto exchanged glances before turning to her. She knew, without even needing to read their minds, that they wanted her to go first so they could get an idea of what to do when it was their turn. Seina debated whether to refuse just to watch them suffer—exactly as the old pervert wanted—but in the end, their pleading looks convinced her.
"Fine!" she exclaimed, exasperated. "I'll go first."
"Oh? I wouldn't miss this for the world."
"Who should I seduce, and what should I get out of them?"
"Why don't you try getting someone to invite you to something, buy you something, or try to take you home? If you manage all that, I'll give you a different goal next time we train this way."
"Great," she rolled her eyes and stood up. "I'm going to change."
She went into the private bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Her exasperation faded quickly since, in reality, she actually found what she was about to do quite fun. Besides, she wanted to rub it in Jiraiya's face that she was better at seduction than he was.
She debated, as she undressed and examined herself in the reflection, whether to try seducing a woman just to spite him even more, but she decided that a man would be easier.
She didn't want to look like a ninja or be recognized by her appearance, so the first thing she did was slightly alter her features to appear older. Her height was already acceptable for an adult woman—she had reached 165 cm—and she had enough of a chest for people to see her as a young adult rather than a child. She changed her golden hair to jet black and painted her nails with a spell. She conjured a looser bra than her ninja one, which normally kept her chest from moving, and created a dress that looked expensive yet youthful, reaching her knees with short sleeves, along with camel-coloured heeled sandals. She hid an invisible kunai on her thigh and transformed her black pouch into a salmon-coloured crossbody bag, matching her nail polish.
Using a couple of spells, she applied makeup that looked as natural as possible while enhancing her best facial features. Then, she sprayed on one of the perfumes she had received for her birthday but rarely used for safety reasons.
When she stepped out, Naruto and Sasuke stared at her with their mouths open, blushing as they realized—perhaps for the first time—that she had a chest. Her heart-shaped neckline and silver teardrop pendant certainly didn't help, as they drew attention to her cleavage. Meanwhile, Jiraiya looked utterly stunned by her transformation. She winked at them, now towering over them in her new heels.
"See you later."
"W-wait a minute! You can't go out dressed like that!" Naruto exclaimed, both horrified and flustered.
"What do you mean, Naru?"
"Someone could attack you!"
"Birdbrain, your sister outranks you," Jiraiya said, smacking him on the head. "A bit late for regrets now."
Sasuke said nothing. He seemed torn between agreeing with Naruto, much to his own horror, or siding with Jiraiya. Seina rolled her eyes, stepping out the door. She knew they were following her the moment she felt their gazes on her. Smirking, she stepped onto the street. Oh, she was eager to prove to them that she didn't need Legilimency to get information out of someone.