Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

For the second time that day, Haruhi knocked.

Quite cursing from Karin reached Haruhi as she fumbled towards the door. Haruhi smiled, tucking a strand of her kinky hair behind her ear and pushing up her glasses.

She turned when she heard the sound of another person unlocking her front door to see a beautiful but clearly worn down woman. Haruhi smiled at her, noticing her beautifully done makeup. Haruhi also noticed her skimpy clothes under the coat and her smile froze in shock.

The Woman flushed, quickly closing her door behind her before Haruhi could apologize for unintentional gawking.

Haruhi never judged people who had to do sex work for a living. It could be a very cruel world, and people had to eat. It was like the woman who helped Tazuna organize and build the bridge. She used to be a prostitute as well.

Still, it made Haruhi frown, that Naruto, Haku, and Karin were living seconds away from the red light district.

Karin finally made it to the door, covered head to toe in thick fabric. She showed as little skin as possible, hands and even face covered. She quickly tugged Haruhi inside, throwing clothes over her.

“What's with all this?”

“I don’t want anyone to recognize us when we go to the meeting.”

Haruhi thought for a moment.

“Ahhh. Clever. Hey, where’s Naruto and Haku at?”

“Haku spends more time at the hospital than here, and Naruto said he had to do something.” Karin said, voice high with nerves.

Haruhi nodded under the scarf.

“Well, lets jet then.”

Karin locked the apartment and they were on their way, Haruhi casting one last glance at the neighbors door.

As they walked Haruhi noticed how downtrodden the area was, and what is must have been like for Naruto to grow up here. She noticed how thin and gaunt they were, like the people in Wave. She felt a pang of anger at the third Hokage. He could have done better. He could have taken Naruto in with him, or curbed Danzo, but he didn’t. He could have done things to improve the situation here but he didn’t.

Haruhi was a firm believer, that if you had the power to help, and you did nothing with it, that was on you. If you allowed bad things to happen when you could do or say otherwise and didn’t speak up or even do little acts of resistance, then that was on you.

Karin tugged her along by the barest touches of her fingertips, leading Haruhi down alley’s, under tree bridges, across drain pipes, and through the backs of stores and houses.
Haruhi knows this is a big deal, she knew it was, but all this secrecy like in a spy movie really makes it sink in.

It was just like back at Kasumi’s house. How they went through great pains to disguise themselves as harmless airhead women talking about the great and glorious Konoha instead of the borderline rebel information cell that they really were.

But this was just a meeting to talk about trauma, not anything treasonous.

Right?

Haruhi knew that there was stigma against mental health here, even worse than back home in america. There were no real mental health services, and while the tool ideology was prominent here, it wasn’t the extreme level it was in other villages.

But it was still here.

Oh.
Tools weren’t supposed to have feelings, or care how they’re used. By going to these meeting and discussing how the honeypot missions hurt them, it shed Konoha in a very bad light. It made them humans instead of tools, something that couldn’t be tolerated in a ninja village that depended on the compliance of their “tools”.

There was also the rampant sexism in this world. Women were even less safe here than back in america. What If a ninja wanted something from a civilian woman and wouldn’t take no for an answer? She would be helpless! Especially now that the police keeping ninja in line were all killed in a genocide.

Haruhi unconsciously tucks her shoulders in. She throws a look over her shoulder.

When they finally make it to the back of a second hand clothing shop, Named Akria’s clothing store, Karin knocks on the door, a specific pattern to fast for her to pick up on.
It cracked open an inch, the face of a wary man peeking through.

He blinks.

“Oh! You're the ones Anko sent.”

They nodded, and he opened the door just enough for them to sleep through before closing and locking it.

A circular staircase was in front of them, carpeted. The lighting was low, and now that she thought about it, probably intentional.

“Do you want me to go first?” Haruhi asked gently.

Karin gulped, then nodded.

Haruhi ascended the staircase, gloved hand gliding over the worn wooden railing. She stepped into the gently flickering fireplace light, and the soft talking tapered off.
A group of fifteen figures paused, and turned to look at her.

A moment where nobody moves before one of the people stands up and welcomes them.

“Hello! It’s always good to see more people, despite the less than pleasant circumstances.” It's a woman, who speaks to them warmly, kindness and sadness blended into her voice.

Some of them have their hoods down, sitting in the center, while others are scattered in corners or behind chairs, covered up.

Haruhi nods her head in greeting, watching as two others brought out chairs for them. They had cushions on them, obviously put on to make it more comfortable for the sitters.

Haruhi was touched by their thoughtfulness, and they sat down.

The man from before came in, setting down a scented candle and clearing his throat.

“Alright, hello everyone, for those of you who’ve been here before, welcome back, and for our first timers, welcome!”

People murmured their greetings.

“I’d going to give a little refresher here for the new and olds, just so everyone is clear on the purpose of these groups.”

Haruhi nodded. She appreciated the welcome-enough to make them feel wanted, but not enough to overwhelm Karin and scare her off.

“First and foremost, these talks are for us. They are meant for us to vent our frustrations, worries, and troubles, without wondering if someone unsavory could overhear. “
They all shuffled at that. Wouldn’t do good for the upper echelons to hear of this.

“We have a grab bag of people here tonight, from all walks of life. Here today are immigrants. Civilians. Shinobi. Some of you are even descended from samurai in the north. And we are all here today to talk about something that happened to us. Regardless of our position in society. This is something that afflicted us all.”

Heads bowed.

“Sexual abuse. Sexual assault. Rape. That is why we are all here. Terrible things have been done to us, and not much is being done to prevent it from happening again, or to help the victims. That is why we are here. We may not be able to rebuild the police force from the ground up, but we can lend a shoulder to cry on. We are not as helpless as they want you to think.”

Tears trickled down the exposed faces of one of the women, as she nodded in agreement to his words.

“Would anyone like to go first?”

There was a moment of silence, and then the woman with tears on her face spoke;

“I mean...I don’t know. I know why I’m here, but at the same time I’m jumping at any shadow that moves. It doesn't seem like it happened to me. It feels like it happened to someone else. Like a crazy fever dream instead of a memory. Something I saw on a late night horror show. But it did. It happened to me, and I don’t know what to do about it. What can I do?”

The man, Who must be Akira, sympathetically pushed a box of tissues towards her.

“You’re doing something right now, Seiko” He comforted “Unfortunately, what happened to you has happened to too many others as well. But we can help each other. It’s very brave of you to speak your feelings.”

Seiko nodded, looking more confident.

“It was a shinobi.”

The shinobi in the room stiffened. Haruhi’s eyebrows raised. She couldn’t help but think of Mebuki, and how that group attacked her while she was working on plumbing and electricity for one of her customers.

Seiko swallowed.

“It...was a shinobi. At first, I thought he was kidding. He talked about how much he did for the village-especially in comparison to civilians. He talked about how we..h-how we owe’d him. And then he grabbed me. Started touching and wouldn’t take no for an answer. And...there was nothing I could do to shove him off. Ninja.” She spat the last world with understandable vitriol, but one of the ninja still flinched.

“Hey!” She spoke up in protest.

“Oh shut up! You ninja are always so sensitive to any little criticism! You think you're so much better than us civilians. You think that civilians are incapable of knowing what “true suffering” Is because we don’t kill for a living. You eat the food we grew, picked and prepared. You wear the clothes we made, you live in the houses our carpenters built, you drink the water from the plumbing we put in. And you live off the money from missions requested and paid for by civilians! After the mess with the third war, the Uchiha massacre, the depression, and now Orochimaru, our shop owners are the only thing keeping this village going! Yet you think you’re better than all of us because you can slit the most throats!”

“...”

Karin looked around with wide eyes and Haruhi shifted so her bulk was hiding her from view.

“Okay, I think we need to calm down-”

The shinobi started to cry.

Once again the room descended into silence. Shinobi rarely cried.

“...I am not a tool.” The shinobi croaked. She had an accent not from here, almost like Inari.

“Nobody said that-”

“You were implying it!”

She wasn’t wrong. While Seiko’s trauma was valid, her general attack on all shinobi, especially the victims in the room, was incredibly insensitive, and completely disregarded their feelings in a way that reeked of the tool ideology.

“You civilians don’t realize exactly what they have us do on sex missions.”

Oh.

Oh.

“You see, when a civilian is sexually assaulted, it’s pretty much universally agreed on to be wrong, or unfair. But for shinobi, Kunoichi especially, sexual abuse is practically a requirement.”

“B-but I though the fourth hokage got rid of sex missions!” Seiko said, shocked.

The shinobi snorted wetly.

“Yeah, well they’re bringing it back. And when we try to complain about it, we’re threatened with treason. We’re told that's it’s our duty, that we should shut up and take it.”
Haruhi gulped, thinking of that one Chunin and what Anko said at the trial.

The shinobi sighed, tilting her head back, and Haruhi almost gasped. Purple hair, and a face she recognized. It was one of Sakura’s classmates, Ami. She must have been shunted off to the Genin corps and given all the dirty missions.

Seiko cleared her throat, and held out the tissue box towards Ami as an olive branch.

“Well...that's wrong. I’m sorry it's happening to you guys.”

Slowly, Ami took one. Her hesitation showed that not all was well, but that she was willing to reach out.

“God, how old are you?” Another person asked.

Ami shrugged.

“Graduated six months ago.”

There were gasps and muttered around the room, but Ami set her jaw and wiped away her tears.

“That scares me.” Karin said quietly.

Haruhi shifted, making eye contact with Karin. She nodded, and Haruhi shifted again so the rest of the room could see her.

“When I first moved to Konoha, I thought I was safe. I had family here. People who cared. But then...one of my friends was almost forced onto a sex work mission, and got out of it by the skin of her teeth. When the council was confronted on this they doubled down. And now I don’t feel safe here anymore.”

Karin concluded bitterly.

“...It’s wrong.” Ami agreed.

“It is.” Said a few others.

“What can we do about it? The honeypot missions? It’s not like we can refuse them, not without serious consequences.”

That was a tough question, with no real answer. But Haruhi did have another solution.

“I don’t know what to do about the honeypot missions, except to try and get a sympathetic desk ninja on your side, but I do have something else in mind.”

“Do tell.” Encouraged Akira.

“Well, where I’m from, it's called pepper spray. Its very painful when sprayed in the eyes, but mostly not harmful. It can act as an deterrent to an aggressor. A lot of people use it to spray assaulters.”

The room perked up.

“It's not too hard to make. You distill peppers in a water solution to get the caspian. Milk and vegetable oil can negate the effects too. We then put in a pressurized can that could spray it out quickly. Maybe I could…” Haruhi trailed off.

“That sounds like a great idea!” Seiko said.

Haruhi ducked down, smiling sheepishly. It was doable. Haruhi went through a herbal phase when she was in middle school. That combined with Sakura’s, Haku’s, and Ino’s knowledge on herbs and making medicines of them would be enough to get a pepper concoction. And Kasumi’s brother was a engineer right? He built her mini stairs. Maybe he could help design a sprayer.

“Well then,” Akira said, “It there anything else we want to talk about?”

“How do you stop feeling dirty?” Karin asked quietly.

“...Well, it’s different for everyone. I used to take burning hot showers and scrub my skin so hard blood surfaced. But I cannot underestimate the importance of self care, and setting boundaries. You owe no one anything. They do not have to touch you if you do not want them too. You can wear long clothes in order to cover skin too. Get getup for desert walking so you don’t over heat.”

“And also, don’t be hard on yourself. It’s not your fault.”

Karin nodded slowly.

They stood up, saying goodbye, and just as Haruhi was following Karin towards the stairs, Ami stopped her.

“You’re foreign born?”

Haruhi blinked.

“Yes.”

“Well, Me, Inari, and a bunch of others meet every once in a while to talk about our homes and original cultures. I know whats its like, the culture shock and all. Being in a place that's not home. You can come and talk with us if you need to.” Ami handed her a little card and Haruhi blinked rapidly, thoughts of home flickering her mind's eye.

“Thanks.” She croaked.

Ami smiled, and left.

Haruhi thought on how Ami used to be a bully towards Sakura and was in awe of the amazing young lady she turned out to be.

She and Karin left, but to her surprise, they ended up in the kunoichi shop.Haruhi had been here once before, with Kurenai and the rest of the girls, but it had been brief.

Someone emerged from behind the counter.

“Tsubaki!” Haruhi exclaimed. She had just seen her this morning at Kasumi’s.

“Hey Haruhi. I’m manning the store today. You looking around?”

“Do you have makeup?” Karin asked, voice wobbly.

Tsubaki’s face immediately turned friendly, but serious.

“We do. Follow me.”

They walked to the back of the store, Haruhi frowning as she stared at Tsubaki’s back. Just what did they teach girls in Kunoichi classes?

Tsubaki showed Karin the rack of makeup, and demonstrated swatching. She left Karin to pick a shade for herself and walked back to Haruhi.

“You want to talk?”

Haruhi nodded.

“What exactly do you teach girls in Kunoichi classes?”

Before Haruhi’s very eyes, Tsubaki aged ten years.

“Follow me.”

They walked to the back of the store, and Haruhi watched as Tsubaki put away products. Makeup, weapons oil, smaller clothes, sports bras, and deadly looking hairpins.

“I never wanted to teach Kunoichi classes. But I knew I had no choice. So I taught little girls how to seduce grown men. Taught them about sex, and honeypot missions. That it was their duty to Konoha.” She said bitterly.

“...But I also taught them about safe sex, about how to say no. How to Rip a man's balls off he got too close. It’s not as hard as you’d think.”

Haruhi nodded, thinking of what Mebuki said, how she and Kizashi signed Sakura up to protect her from predators. They couldn’t have know the village would try to assign her honeypot missions.

“I don’t like it, but by teaching these classes at least I can prepare them as best as I can. I always tell them to come to this store if they need anything. And If they need it, go to Kiki.”

“Kiki?”

“You know, Nohara Kiki. Her civilian family has deep roots with medicines especially concerning… the female body.”

Haruhi’s mouth formed an O. It really put Rin into a new perspective. Was she training her granddaughter to take up the mantle before she died?

“Here. On the house.”

To Haruhi’s confusion, she handed her two things of nail polish. One was a beautiful matte amber-cider, perfectly matching Haruhi’s skin color and eyes. Another was a matte cinnabar, identical to Karin’s eyes and hair.

“They are nail polish for Kunoichi. It makes your nails as hard as steel, and contains a paralytic that activates when it comes into contact with blood. I’ve noticed how beautiful and long your nails are and thought you could use it. And Karin.” Tsubaki explained.

Haruhi took them, thinking they were fucking amazing.

“Wow. Got anything else like this?”

Tsubaki smirked.

“The lipstick Kurenai wears is poisonous.”

They rang up Karin’s makeup, Haruhi paying, and giving Karin the nail polish with an explanation, and they left.

After Karin locked the apartment door behind them, she made a beeline towards the bathroom. Haruhi sighed and took off the heavy clothes.

She stretched for a bit, freezing when she heard Karin frustrated squeals from the bathroom. Haruhi knocked on the door.

“Is something the matter?”

“...I don’t know how to apply makeup. Could you help?”

Karin opened the door.

She was in a cami, bite marks exposed all over her body. Some vanished down below the lace of her cami and Haruhi had to suppress a growl.

“I can try, but I’m not so good with makeup myself.” haruhi cringed, looking at the various makeup products on the counter.

She did her best, but it obviously wasn’t enough. Karin was looking increasingly distressed.

Haruhi tugged at her hair.

“Karin, I think i know someone who could help. Do you guys know your neighbor lady, two doors down?”

“Yeah. Naruto says she gave him food when he was a little kid, and let him sit by her fireplace if he was quite.”

Haruhi blinked. Somehow, the fact that Naruto was partially raised by a prostitute didn’t surprise her as much as it should have.

“Well, I’m going to see if she could help. Is that okay?”

Karin nodded slowly, and Haruhi left, leaving a quick ‘I’ll be back’ behind her.

She breathed deeply, then knocked on her door. For the fourth tie that day, a wary face peaked through the crack, red lipstick off and chain lock apparent. Haruhi was sensing a theme here.

“Hey, um,s-sorry about earlier um, it was rude of my. But I was wondering, if um, you could help me out, because one of my kids is having makeup trouble-”

Her eye widened and she closed the door. Haruhi heard unlocking and the woman emerged.

“Of course, Haruhi.”

“You know my name?”

“Yes. They never stop talking about you. My name is Fumi.”

Haruhi blushed, nodding.

They walked in, and Haruhi knocked on the bathroom door.

“Karin, can we come in?”

Karin opened the door.

Fumi’s eyes widened in shock and horror when she saw the scars, but she quickly controlled herself.

She immediately took over, showing Karin how to apply the concealer, foundation, and then (with permission) applied it to Karin’s scars.

Haruhi watch in amazement as they disappeared under fumi’s talent with a brush, and watched the hopeful wonder on Karin's face.

Tips, tricks, and advice bubbled past Fumi’s lips as she worked her magic.

When she was done, Karin stared at herself in wonder.

“Thank you.” She said quietly.

Fumi nodded, and made her leave, telling them to let her know if they needed anything else.

“Alright. I think I should be going too.”

Karin said goodbye and Haruhi sighed with relief. It had been a long day.

The skin on the back of her neck prickled and Haruhi spun around, just in time to see Naruto collapse in front of her. Tears streaked his face and Haruhi ran over to him.

“Naruto!?”

He blubbered, crying into her neck, arms reaching up like a child,

“Haruhi-sensei, Its sasuke! He-he, in the Uchiha district-”

“Go get Kakashi!”

Haruhi helped him stand, wiped away his tears, kissed his forehead, and took off in a mad sprint.

Hang on Sasuke, hang on.