Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Acceleration

[Konohagakure-no-Sato, 1221-Chūō, December 5th, Year 62 of the Shinchu-Jidai]

Shimura Danzō briskly walked through the Hokage Tower, only limited in speed by his façade of being old and infirm. He had only received the news a few minutes ago and had his messenger sent away to receive twenty-five lashes once they finished reporting.

Hiruzen was making alterations to the Chūnin exams, and neither he nor the council were consulted.

Danzō finally made it to the small lounge Hiruzen was taking his lunch in and walked in without knocking.

“Hiruzen.”

Sarutobi Hiruzen was taking a sip of tea when Danzō stormed in, but waved him in and nodded in acknowledgement as he put down his tea.

“Danzō, my old friend, how are you doing today?”

Danzō scowled.

“Don’t give me that Hiruzen, what are you doing to the Chūnin exams?”

Hiruzen smiled.

“Ah, the rumors have spread then. Unfortunate. As for what I’m doing, nothing so dramatic as ‘changing’ them. I was actually thinking about expanding the finals.”

Danzō sat down.

“Expanding them?”

Hiruzen nodded.

“As it stood, the Final Round of the exams were going to be a single elimination tournament with maybe nine or ten fights, likely over before a little in the afternoon. While this was fine before, I felt we could make the event larger.”

“Larger?”

Hiruzen nodded again.

“The coming graduating class is a little heavier on exceptional talent than in a few years past. I would not put it past their Jōnin Senseis to nominate them after only a few months. They potentially would not be serious bids, but we could see some unexpected development, especially with regards to Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto.”

Danzō sneered.

“Putting a lot of faith in that Hatake brat to teach them then? Despite his lack of experience?”

Hiruzen nodded.

“Like I said, I don’t expect spectacular results, but at least some competition to show Konoha’s might to those in attendance.”

Danzō was quiet for a moment, but the old man gave a grin at the prospect.

“This is not that bad of an idea. How large were you planning on expanding the finals?”

“I was thinking about doubling the finals in size; fifteen fights in total. We would open with eight fights running between the late morning and noon. The quarter finals would pick up after that, followed by the semi-finals and a dramatic final fight. Not only would this keep the visitors and contestants in the villagers longer, but we could rake in double the revenue on the betting on the fights.”

“I see. Well, excuse me for my haste in accusing you Hiruzen. This sounds like a splendid decision on your part. I will inform Koharu and Homura about the suggested alterations. To get ahead of the rumors of course.”

“Of course. Have a good day, old friend.”

Danzō stood up from the table and walked out of the room, taking the new information into account. While everything Hiruzen said was true, it would also not develop entirely in his favor.

When everything went as planned, Hiruzen would not live past the Chūnin exams and Danzō will take his rightful place as the Godaime. Orochimaru will attack the village with the support of a foreign threat, and while Hiruzen will die in a blaze of dramatic irony, Danzō will have culled an enemy village, avenged his ‘old friend’ by eliminating his greatest mistake, and righting the village’s path to maintaining its hegemony.

Of course, the greatest variance in this upcoming plan was the Snake Sannin. Danzō’s methods of coercion were not as... refined, as they were now, and so the level of control Danzō could manage over Orochimaru was more tantamount to bribes, psychological as well as material. Kinoe and the development of Danzō’s form of Jūinjutsu had so far been the only benefits of Orochimaru’s recruitment to Konoha, and his continued existence was only becoming more costly.

It had taken years to reach this point, and Danzō was almost as excited as when he first became a shinobi under Senju Tobirama. He may have failed to answer the call in his naïve youth, allowing Hiruzen to take the hat. He would not fail here.

He had everything to gain now, and that fire illuminated his darkness as well as the niceties and lies Hiruzen deluded himself with.

[Amegakure-no-Sato, 1547-Seiyō, January 4th, Year 63 of the Shinchu-Jidai]

Standing at the threshold atop the tallest tower in Amegakure was a blue-haired woman pensive in thought. Only minutes ago, one of her clones retrieved the mail for her organization. Held tightly in her hands was an invitation to a hosted Chūnin Exams in Konoha.

While the news itself was not unusual, Ame receiving and ignoring many over the last several years, this year’s invitation brought her pause. For the first time since the Akatsuki took over Ame and finally took their revenge on Hanzō three years ago, the letter was not addressed to him.

Pein did not announce the change in leadership to the world, and Ame did not open up after they took over for the protection of their own people, so no one should have known Hanzō was dead. Should have, being the operating word.

Either there was a spy in their midst or someone was leaking information.
Spies were a nuisance, especially with something as sensitive as the framework and plans of the Akatsuki. On the other hand... It was entirely possible this was a ploy by Madara. The man’s appearance had been an omen all those years ago, and Konan remained wary of when he would show up and what he would order. While the Akatsuki was by all understandings a means to an end for peace, Konan would always be wary of the man behind the orange mask.

The door opened followed by heavy footfalls. Konan did not turn around, but could assume it was her best friend, traipsing around in her other best friend’s body.

“Konan.”

With a sigh, Konan turned to look at the Deva Path.

“We should talk in private. I will come to you.”

In a whirling wisp of paper, Konan’s body tore apart in small sheets of paper, spreading out across the room before disappearing from view entirely. The Deva Path, unflinching and stoic, simply took position where Konan once stood, watching over the city.

In the lower reaches of the tower, sheets of paper once again coalesced into the form of Konan. On the opposite end of the room, harnessed into an otherworldly mechanical device, was an emaciated red-haired young man with ringed purple eyes.

“Nagato.”

“Konan, why did you need to speak here? Is something so urgent?”

Konan fidgeted little when she crossed the room to come closer to her best friend.

“We received a letter from Konoha for this year’s Invitational Chūnin Exams. It was not addressed to Hanzō.”

Eyebrow raised, the maroon-haired man tilted his head appraisingly.

“Are you worried about a spy?”

“Potentially, but I was more worried about potential leaks or other machinations.”

Nagato was silent for a moment.

“I doubt Madara did this.”

Konan was about to retort but stopped as Nagato looked back at her.

“It would not do to assume we have been discovered so quickly, and I doubt there has been a spy talented enough to breach Ame. It is far more likely Konoha is assuming Hanzō has died or is trying to rile him up by not addressing him. Or perhaps Hidan has been as... indiscreet as usual.”

Nagato pulled one of his arms from his machine and shakily extended it towards Konan. Konan reluctantly held out the letter and let the man take it from her. Nagato read silently for a few minutes before looking back at Konan.

“Sasori reported a while ago that there was reason to believe Sunagakure and Konohagakure were plotting to trap Orochimaru at the coming Chūnin Exams. I believe this would be an excellent opportunity to handle multiple matters at once.”

Konan eyes opened a little in confusion.

“What do you mean, Nagato?”

A rare smile crossed Nagato’s face.

“Konoha is suspicious that Ame has remained guarded as long as it has. Suspicious enough to believe Hanzō might be gone. That dead tyrant would not stand to be believed dead or weak, so he would send genin to compete, if only a few of them.”

“We will take the opportunity to infiltrate Konoha as part of the exams and identify their Jinchūriki, as well as handle the traitor Orochimaru. If Ame conducts itself well enough, Konoha won’t even suspect that we will strike and take the Jinchūriki later.”

Konan nodded. The logic was sound, and the opportunity was too good to pass up.

“Are we leaving it to the village or were you planning on sending one of the pairs to handle the higher order matters?”

Nagato sat in thought for a moment.

“This plan hinges on the success of our genin to get into the finals, since Orochimaru will likely strike then as opposed to earlier in the Exams. He will also likely be going after leadership rather than causing general chaos, so we would need someone there prepared to deal with him the moment he decided to attack.”

“One of the Akatsuki will need to stand in as the leader of Ame, a task only you and I are suitable for.”

Konan looked at Nagato wide-eyed.

“You can’t honestly reveal yourself now!”

“I wasn’t planning to. I would like you to go in my stead and represent the village.”

Konan balked.

“But... why me? I promised to be by your side after... after everything that happened.”

Nagato nodded.

“You are the only person I can trust for this assignment. The fact that Hanzō is dead will come out, but we can control the narrative of who leads the village. Zetsu, Kisame, and I would be too inconspicuous. Sasori, Itachi, Deidara, and Kakuzu are too infamous to not be attacked on sight.”

Making a wide-eyed and shocked face, Nagato continued.

“Hidan is utterly incapable of representing the village or causing chaos.”

Konan could barely suppress her giggle at Nagato’s incredulous face.

“Only you, Konan, have the ability to blend in and bring the power to handle the traitor when the time comes. It will also do you some good to work a little more with our genin.”

Confused, Konan looked up at Nagato.

“What do you mean?”

“I want you to train the genin teams that go to this exam. Along with their senseis of course. I... have made myself unapproachable, these last few years. You can bridge the gap of the next generation. I have faith in you.”

Konan was reluctant, and didn’t want to agree, but the small smile and the look in Nagato’s Rinnegan were insurmountable.

“It will be done.”

Mercenary Work Ethic

[Sunagakure-no-Sato, 1723-Seiyō, February 1st, Year 63 of the Shinchu-Jidai]

“Seiko! Dinner is ready!”

“Give me a second, Kā-san!”

Sitting at a workbench in her room, Nakahara Seiko was slowly adjusting the tension on a set of roller bearings mounted to a glass column wrapped in seal-script. The whole assembly was roughly twenty-three by seventy-six centimeters already, and it would only get wider once she got a large enough roll of seal cloth to go around the central apparatus.

The girl was working on something spectacular; a combination sealing scroll, ink reservoir, and mechanical scroll roller. The inspiration came to her after the last two years of her genin-hood, utilizing and editing her sealing hand-rolls, as well as taking an interest in utilizing larger scrolls, like Jiraiya or Naruto.

So far, she was almost finished with the main internal mechanisms that would hold the ink and the balanced outer-roll that would distribute the weight of the larger cloth around the glass rather than on it. Reinforcing seals, as well as temperature control and preservation of stored fluids, were also present all over the glass, but Seiko wanted to be as careful as possible in building this thing to be strong.

The actual reservoir was open on both ends, where Seiko would install Chakra-activated taps to release ink coded to a particular pair of personal single-handed Mudra. This way, instead of having to unravel the larger scroll, she could just pull the ink with her Suiton, encode it with chakra for a particular stretch of the scroll (such as a particular slot where a puppet was sealed) and throw the summoning matrix away and presto! Seiko could summon any of her puppets without having to either have the handrolls already in hand or reach into her clothes to grab the one she was looking for.

[Yume on point!]

{What, now?!}

With her immediate work finished, Seiko stood up and flashed through her still shaky single-handed Mudra.

Ne / Uma.

I / Mi.

Mi / Inu.

Tori / Saru.

Ne / Mi.

Ushi / Tatsu.

Mi / U.

Ne / Ushi.

Tatsu / Mi.

Mi / Hitsuji.

[Kuchiyose: Tasogare no Kagami, Kūkyo no Aika!]

Seiko walked towards her door as her near-twin sister materialized where she was once standing.

“I gotta go eat dinner before Mom has a cow, so if you could work on the scroll some more, that would be awesome.”

Rolling her eyes, Yume sat down at the workstation.

“Yeah, yeah. Bring me something to drink and some food if there is still some left.”

With Seiko gone to join her parents for dinner, Yume looked over the reservoir mount and noting that it was finished, reached to the side of the workbench and picked up the pieces for the outer assembly. Six curved panels of wood about three centimeters thick would be dovetailed together into a cylinder to run on the bearings attached to the internal mount.

On each end of the roll were the mounting brackets for the outer cylinder, hexagonal in shape and mounted with spring-locks and a torsion spring that would automatically roll back the scroll when they did not need to work on anything inside of it anymore. There was a guide arm that would be attached to one or both sides of the whole assembly once finished to make sure the scroll was tensioned and rolled up correctly, but other than that the work was almost finished and ready for testing with the team.

But, this was all more Seiko’s thing.

Yume stood up once she was finished looking over Seiko’s nearly finished mechanical scroll and walked over to their wardrobe. She had started clamoring for a change to their usual uniform a few months ago. Not that the Garo ensemble was bad, but it did obscure their senses being fully covered all the time, which would be a disaster if there was any shinobi more subtle than any they had already encountered.

The baseline was to be something closer to what they had already been wearing before graduation; a black sleeveless halter-neck with stone-grey shorts. Underneath the halter-neck would be a mesh-armor undershirt that went all the way down to the wrists. Above the torso, replacing their larger Garo poncho, was a beige off-the-shoulder petticoat that wrapped over to the right and zipped together to stay closed.

Ironically enough, Seiko ran into Temari at one of the tailors’ looking at a lavender one just like it and it took the combination of Yume and Temari arguing with Seiko to get the girl to settle with the beige one.

Rather than staying bare legged in their shorts, Yume felt it would be prudent to get mesh armor leggings as well, cut off at the ankles with stirrups to keep them in place while moving. Moving on from her original pair of shinobi sandals, Yume convinced Seiko to buy the boot variants for their next pair. The boots were black and reached up to midcalf, making sure every part of the outfit was snug, but still highly mobile.

The final issue was dealing with their Hitai-ate. Seiko had worn it as a belt for the longest time, since wearing it over her forehead would get complicated with masks. Carving Suna’s symbol into her masks was a no-brainer, so Yume felt tying the Hitai-ate around their arm or thigh would probably be easy enough. This left their neck and collar to be covered by their old shemagh, which would double as easy protection against the elements, aerosols, and fluids in the event Seiko or Yume lost a mask in combat.

Yume was brought out of her outfit setup with Seiko marching back into the room, a tall glass of fruit juice in one hand and a plate of bread and hummus with the other.
“Got your food Imōto. Let’s get this finished so we will be ready for tomorrow.”

Out on a dusty flat in the afternoon sun stood two teenage boys across from one another, bodies rigid, yet relaxed, ready to launch at one another.

The boy closest to the passing road, Koizumi Akio, had grown a little taller and filled out in the last year, only switching out his green sweatshirt for a patterned square poncho that went down to his waist, keeping his arms unencumbered to access his Nagamaki strapped on a harness strapped underneath. The rest of his outfit consisted of armor-mesh leggings and full sleeved undershirt with baggy black shorts, ending with black shinobi sandals.

Akio had just turned sixteen back in December and was beginning to feel the pressure of finding a girlfriend to help take care of his younger sister, Katsumi. The girl was soon to start her third grade at the shinobi academy soon and while Akio was generally less broody than he used to be, he was still deathly serious when it came to his younger sister.

Opposite of Akio, with his back to the trees, was the imposing form of Yamagishi Kentarō. The boy was tall, dark, and well-built from his constant Taijutsu exercises, tight blue shirt doing little to obscure the soon-to-be-sixteen-year old’s musculature. The boy had switched to bundled slate grey pants that were tied off with cloth at the calfs before giving way to his black shinobi sandals. He left his Hitai-ate, ghutrah, yumi, and beige cloak in the shade of a nearby tree, since they were less useful in this kind of spar, despite being part of his typical uniform.

In that same shade stood Seiko and an older woman, the group’s sensei. Yūtori Junko still maintained her traditional risqué outfit of near-transparent mesh-weave bloomers, thin shinobi pumps, and a crossed red halter top over her mesh armor undershirt that did nothing to hide her bright red and white sleeve tattoos. Her antics and tendency to speak in innuendo had done wonders to desensitize the whole team towards the more provocative aspects of their puberty. Seiko, the youngest of the team at almost fourteen, was leaning against the one of the trees in her new outfit, bi-colored strands of hair framing her Keeta mask’s skeletal appearance.

Clearing her throat, Junko called out to the teenagers ready to spar.

“Alright, boys, you know the rules. Be careful with your hits and nothing too lethal, or else I will batter the two of you with my Gumbai.”

Both boys looked at her and nodded.

“Hai, Junko-Sensei.

“Alright, let’s see it! Hajime!”

In a flash, the two teenagers launched themselves at one another, Akio jumping up and flying down with a leading kick while Kentarō ran forward, arms ready to grab at the other boy’s exposed legs. Akio Kawarimi’d with a leaf off to the side, quickly flanking the taller boy as Kentarō spun, feet planted on the ground and kicking up dust. Before Akio could close the distance, blinding light passed through the cloud of dust.

“Raiton: Denkō Noroshi!”

Akio dropped to the ground as the bolt whizzed by his head and into a nearby wall. Junko rolled her eyes.

“Oi, Kentarō, keep it down with blind-firing Ninjutsu in village.”

“Sorry, Junko-Sensei!”

Momentarily distracted, Kentarō turned back to find Akio within his guard, Nagamaki drawn and positioned about ten centimeters from his neck. Akio smirked as he took in Kentarō’s crestfallen face.

“I think I win this one.”

Kentarō closed his eyes and broke a wide smile.

“Man, you' lucky I got yelled at. I was about to be on you like a half-starved Hyena. Good moving on the speed though, I wasn’t expecting you to be up that fast.”

The two formed their respective seals of reconciliation as Junko turned to Seiko.

“Ready for a spar, mask girl?”

Nodding, Seiko pushed herself off of the tree and walked into the field. Kentarō nodded as he walked past her.

“Kick his ass, Seik’.”

Seiko laughed as she gathered her chakra into her right hand. Pressing in the release button for the ink valve, Seiko first closed her hand, leaving her fingers pointing up and her thumb pulled in before moving her hand to the right.

~Ge~.

Moving her hand back to her starting position, she then curled all her fingers into a fist save the index finger, which she then traced down and then up to the right.

~N~.

A set amount of ink squirt from the scroll’s endcap and collected in a tightly controlled bubble just short of Seiko’s hand. The bubbling mass then spread itself out in Seiko’s now stretched out hand, quickly forming a square inlaid with text, lines, and other objects. Through it all, a single phrase became apparent as Junko prepared to start the spar.

Zōkibayashi-no-Genzō.

“Hajime!”

With the flick of Seiko’s wrist, the summoning matrix flew forward and exploded into smoke on contact with the ground. Akio stood still, Nagamaki held firm as the smoke was suddenly bisected by a wide-arced trident, blades shimmering in the sunlight. Standing in front of Seiko was a large black-armored samurai, face covered by the same Keeta mask she herself was wearing. Without delay, the samurai rushed forward, trident swinging as it closed the distance with Akio.

Despite the longer reach with the trident, Akio was holding up well enough with his Nagamaki, steadily dodging the attacks he could and parrying those he could not dodge. Pressing his advantage in speed, Akio ducked under and attack and was about to charge towards Seiko when a smoke bomb exploded in front of him. Whirling around to shake away the smoke, Akio charged at Seiko once he found her again. Coming to a halt with his sword like he did with Kentarō, Akio smirked at his assured victory.

Seiko then grabbed the sword by the blade and threw it out of his hands.

“What?!”

Before he could react, Seiko lunged forward wrapped her arms around his throat as they fell to the ground. Before his eyes, ‘Seiko’s’ form gave way to the Samurai before, as the girl called out from a few meters away.

“You gotta watch out for the Kugutsu-Bunshin, Akio. There was a reason I threw the smoke bomb, you know.”

Akio frowned for a moment before nodding his head.

“Yeah, yeah, I got cocky. You win this time.”

Seiko walked over and quickly formed the Hitsuji seal.

“Gyaku-Kuchiyose!”

Genzō poofed away in a cloud of smoke, relieving Akio of the weight of the heavy puppet. Seiko reached out and grabbed his hand, helping Akio lift himself off the ground.

“Great work you too, but I’d like to see a bit more. We’ve seen good taijutsu and bukijutsu, but Seiko you haven’t brought out any Genjutsu. Akio, I know its powerful and hard, but you will need to work on your Shakuton somewhere, and believe me, in an actual fight is not the best time to learn.”

The group nodded and waited for Junko to keep going but the woman stopped suddenly, twisting her head as her left hear moved a little in the wind. She turned around and started walking to the edge of the training field, genin quickly giving chase when she didn’t immediately respond. Right before the whole group got to the entrance, an ANBU shunshin’d down in front of Junko.

“Yūtori-san, the Kazekage has summoned Shi-Butai; you have a mission.”

Junko appraised the man carefully.

"What kind of mission?"

The Noh-masked ANBU shrugged.

"Wetwork, I would imagine. Something about some inconsistencies regarding some requests coming out of Nami-no-Kuni."

Junko tilted her head.

"Mercenary work, huh?"

The man gestured so-so.

"The Kazekage only gave me so much information. The rest is on a set of mission scrolls at the office. He is expecting you soon though, so don't keep him waiting."

With that, the man jumped away and left Shi-Butai at the side of the road. Junko turned back to the group.

"Alright kiddos, we have work to do. Let's head out."

A drop of water falls in the desert

growing, stretching, the sand reaches

from the waves of destitution to the rich hinterlands

ensnaring the Hawk and Snake in a Snapdragon's bloom

Chapter Text

The Waves

[Sunagakure-no-Sato, 1524-Seiyō, February 2nd, Year 63 of the Shinchu-Jidai]

Rasa’s office was quiet for the first few minutes after Shi-Butai was lead in. The room, darkened by the blinds over the windows, was lit by the shaky incandescence of the lights on a freshly installed ceiling fan, still being assembled by the Kazekage. Once the man was finished, he took a seat behind his desk and motioned for Shi-Butai to follow. Seiko sat in one of the available chairs, mask resting on top of her head as the others took their seats.

“Apologies for the wait, but we just finished our first generating station to provide power for the complex so I was trialing the first of what will likely be many electrical ceiling fans in Suna.”

Pleased with himself, the man continued, bringing out two scrolls in dusty yellow.

“Anyways, I have a very important pair of missions for you all. They are, in essence, oppositional to one another, but will both be in the same place.”

Junko raised an eyebrow.

“You plan on having us perform two missions? For clients in opposition?”

Rasa swayed his head to indicate something a little different.

“The nature of these two missions leads me to believe that there are some stability problems in Nami-no-Kuni. The land is small, a scattering of islands out east of Hi-no-Kuni and south of Kaminari-no-Kuni, former vassals of Uzushio when that village still stood. They have no Daimyō and are not vassals of anyone in the area. The land, as far as our records go, has been something of a peasant republic since Uzushio fell, with not a lot of resources or land to fight over to bother sending armies to seize it. However, that may have changed recently.”

Rasa lifted up the scroll to his right.

“We received this request a few days ago. It had traveled through several couriers taking an indirect path to Suna. It is an urgent request for assistance in dealing with a recent takeover of the land by foreign commercial interests intent on exploiting the peasants.”

He then lifted up the scroll to his left.

“We received this request about two weeks ago, an employment offer from the Gatō Company for security services in Nami-no-Kuni to put down terrorists and criminals plaguing the shipping industry there.”

Placing both scrolls back down, Rasa looked over the team.

“Had we received these missions a year or two ago, I would have ignored them entirely, seeing as they are well out of our area of operations and would require much more meddling than would be agreeable. Now though, I believe there may be some value in pushing our luck on working something out.”

Rasa reached under his desk and retrieved an orange scroll.

“This, is your true mission. You are going to investigate both sides of this potential conflict and bring about a resolution before any of the surrounding lands take interest. This is as much a diplomatic mission as it is an espionage and potential purging operation, so I will stress the need for diligence and discretion.”

“As soon as possible, you will be traveling to Nami-no-Kuni. Since one of the mission providers is anonymous, likely a peasant themselves or someone considered by the Gatō Company to be a ‘terrorist’, you will be infiltrating under the assumption of working for Gatō. One of their ships will pick you up and deliver you to Nami, where you will be officially working under their capacity.”

With a stern look, Rasa continued.

“However, Suna is not to be trifled with and you will do well to maintain a clear power dynamic to remind the company you are not some cheap bandits turned into mercenaries. You will remind them at every opportunity that they sought out the power and experience of Suna-nin over some cutthroats. Onto the other mission...”

“... You will be seeking out any evidence supporting either side and I will leave you the discretion of making a decision on who you will finally support. As far as the village is concerned, this is mercenary work and you will not be representing the village in an official capacity, so be sure to avoid presenting your Hitai-ate while on mission. As for potential escalation, if this spirals into a regional war, backup will not be available, so I urge you to maintain a clear exit wherever possible and to exfiltrate immediately if the situation spirals out of control. Am I understood?”

“Hai!”

“Excellent! Now, most of this mission’s rations and supplies will be provided via Gatō, so the Quartermaster has only approved emergency and travel supplies for the trip over and back. From looking over the missions, I have a feeling the Gatō Company has not been too forthcoming about conditions and expectations, so I would urge you to be wary.”

Akio politely raised his hand until Rasa nodded for him to speak.

“What exactly does this Gatō Company do? Why would they need security in the first place?”

Rasa smiled at the question.

“That is an excellent question. The Gatō Company is a very large maritime shipping company that has grown immensely over the last few years. Kaze-no-Kuni does not have that many ports, so our land has still maintained a much larger focus on trading caravans over the deserts than maritime shipping. If my memory serves me correctly, they were the first to focus on steam powered vessels and have a dominant position on sea trade between Kaminari and Mizu, steadily pushing westward over the last few years. They trade in most commercial goods, but there have also been rumors they have dealt in contraband before, especially in and around Kiri, so I would be looking into those rumors while you are there to validate your decision.”

With no other questions, Rasa moved onto the scroll itself.

“Your mission will consist of these specific tasks and sub-tasks, overall placing it at between a lower and typical B-Rank:

Traveling to Nami-no-Kuni via Gatō transportation; C-Rank due to conditions and distance.

Gathering supplemental information from the Company and the land itself once you arrive; D-Rank.

Investigating both parties for any and all inconsistencies; C-Rank due to the need for discretion and maintaining deniability for involvement with either side.

Making the decision on which side to support and preparing for resolution; B-rank due to multiple unknowns and possible repercussions if caught.

• Purging the opposition and resolving whatever entanglements were taking place; B-rank due to potential combat with foreign nin, nuke-nin, and other potential unknown actors.

Returning to Suna; C-Rank due to conditions and distance, plus possible recovery from possible encounters.

Debrief; E-Rank.

Given your past successes in less than opportune conditions, I have faith you all will succeed and wish you well in your endeavor.”

Before anyone could say another word, the door slightly opened.

“Rasa-Sama, your next appointment is here.”

“Ah yes, send them in. Shi-Butai, you are dismissed. Best of luck on your mission.”

The team turned to leave as Gaara and the rest of the Sand Siblings were led in by Baki. Seiko wasted no time barreling into the red-haired boy and dragging him into a hug.

“Gaara! You’re back!”

Seiko looked over the boys shoulder and locked eyes with Kankurō.

“Pleasure to see you again, Senpai.”

Kankurō waved her off as Seiko took a look back at Gaara, who had now wormed his way out of her hug.

“We are catching up when you are finished here, just find me!”

With a quick nod from Gaara, Seiko detached herself and left the office with the rest of her team.

Hours later, Seiko was sitting in a booth with Temari across from Kankurō and Gaara in a Yakiniku restaurant, flipping a lamb steak next to some roasting vegetables.

“So, how goes the traveling around the desert? A lot of excitement I hope?”

Gaara opened his mouth, but Kankurō beat him to it.

“It has been extremely hot and dull. And I have been having to clean the sand out of my puppet’s joints on a near daily basis.”

Temari frowned at her brother, but Gaara jumped in without a hitch.

“It has been hot, but Bunpaku-San has been helping me a lot with my meditation. We have not been able to find my destination yet, but Shukaku-Sama believes we are getting closer.”

Seiko nodded, turning to Temari.

“What about you Temari? Has the weather been as dreadful as they have been saying?”

Temari shook her head.

“No different than normal, but to be fair, we have never been out of the village this long, so I think it’s just been a matter of acclimatizing.”

Seiko waved her head from side-to-side before looking back at Kankurō.

“Why are you keeping your puppets out in the elements anyways? That’s just asking for trouble.”

Without his facepaint to conceal his features, Kankurō easily transformed into Rasa’s trademark scowl.

“What is that supposed to mean? I need to carry my puppets places and if there is a lot of sand they will get sand in the joints. That’s how annoying sand is!”

Before Seiko could retort, Temari leaned in close and half-whispered into her ear.

“It’s a macho thing, he’s dumb like that.”

Seiko cackled as Kankurō boiled over.

“It is NOT a macho thing!”

An unimpressed Temari crossed her arms.

“It so is. This village has more than enough storage scrolls regularly made and plenty of shinobi, puppeteers no less, using them on a daily basis. You have no excuse unless you are going out of your way to impress someone.”

Kankurō quickly looked over to Gaara.

“Gaara, otōto, you understand right? You were carrying a massive gourd full of sand for the first half of our trip.”

Gaara tilted his head.

“Yeah, but then Baki-Sensei yelled at me about the dangers of stressing my back too much, so I switched to smaller gourds I could wear around my waist. Remember?”

Kankurō’s face went blank.

“Oh yeah he did say that.”

Temari giggled into her hand.

“Dumbass.”

“Oy, don’t you act like your Tessen isn’t also a strain on your back.”

“My Tessen actually has a harness built for it though. You just wrap Karasu in cloth and then tote him around, while your other puppets actually get to stay in sealing scrolls.”

Seiko playfully slapped her hands across her cheeks.

“So he does know how to use them!”

Temari nodded excitedly.

“Exactly! He’s just being weird about Karasu!”

Sulking, Kankurō crossed his arms.

“Or, and get this, I’m not being weird, and instead, I’m thinking ahead tactically by already having a puppet ready to go rather than needing to unseal one during battle!”

Seiko leaned back in her seat, content knowing the meat was almost finished.

“I will say, Senpai does have a point there. However...”

Kankurō rolled her eyes at the possibility of more criticism.

“... You also have enough training to fall back on some other skill in the event you cannot get your puppets ready for battle.”

The table was quiet for a moment before Gaara spoke up.

“Does that apply to all of us?”

Seiko shrugged.

“Yeah, that applies to anyone. Like, if my puppets were rendered unusable I would still have Genjutsu and even Ninjutsu as a last ditch tool to escape or break contact.”

Gaara appraised the idea.

“What about my sand?”

“If it were it to fail, you mean?”

Gaara nodded. Seiko held her head in her hands, closing her eyes to think.

“Well, your fighting style doesn’t lend well to Taijutsu, although you could throw someone off easily by adapting a Taijutsu style if your sand was ever compromised. Honestly, with your Chakra reserves, Ninjutsu would easily be something you could capitalize on since I imagine you are not relying on too much Chakra to just move the sand unless you are doing something sand doesn’t normally do, right?”

“I suppose so. Thank you, Seiko-chan.”

“As for Temari...”

Seiko looked over to her left to find the older girl looking right at her.

“Temari might be a ranged fighter with tool-augmented Ninjutsu, but she could easily pick up Bukijutsu with her strength and mobility if her Tessen was ever made unusable or knocked away.”

Everyone turned to face Kankurō.

“How good is your Genjutsu, Senpai?”

“Average.”

“What about your Chakra, Aneki?”

“Average.”

“Taijutsu, Otōto?”

With gritted teeth, Kankurō answered.

“Average.”

Removing the lamb steak from the grill and the vegetables since moved on top of the meat, Seiko appraised the issue at hand while cutting up the food.

[Yume, do you have any ideas for Mr. Painfully Average?]

{Other than maybe practice? Nah, Ane. I got nothing.}

[Welp, can’t fault you for trying.]

Once she was finished cutting and had split off the food between everyone, Seiko turned her attention back over to Kankurō.

“Senpai.”

The boy sighed mid-chew before finishing, swallowing, and turning his glare back onto Seiko.

“Yes, Kōhai?”

“Tell you what; If you want to improve your flexibility outside of puppets, reach out to one of the three of us and we will start work-shopping ideas as training outside of the normal stuff. Gaara can handle meditation and Ninjutsu, Temari can handle Bukijutsu or regular old Taijutsu, and I can handle Genjutsu or Fūinjutsu.”

Kankurō narrowed his eyes.

“And if I don’t want to?”

Seiko shrugged.

“Then we go on as normal. But, I think it would be a great idea to expand your horizons. And who knows, maybe it will be enough to get that old bat to look at us right?”

The group chuckled and Kankurō broke a grin.

“We’ll see. We will see.”

Later that evening, Seiko prostrated before the Nakahara household shrine, mind twisted away to Limbo in communion with Uraya, Lord of Imagination.

“I have a question.”

The Hengoku-Shin lounged away on a cloud, lazily casting and reeling a fishing rod made of Chakra through the surrounding void.

“Oh ho ho, this should be good. What do you want to know?”

Seiko steadied and reminded herself to not fall into the being’s attempts at trolling.

“You said a few years ago that neither you nor I had the power to alter set events, that they would happen regardless with or without your influence. Does that also extend to events as I know they happened in another place or time or does that concern all things, forever and always?”

The deity stopped for a moment, before turning their attention to Seiko.

“That is quite the question. You claim to know the future and are trying to avert it, then?”

“Yes. That is the gist of it.”

“Hmmmm. Well, I suppose I should ask some questions myself since the answer seems obvious to me.”

Seiko’s projected body rejected the instinct to roll her eyes.

“Don’t give me that look. I may seem a little mean-spirited, but everything seems obvious when you observe the same events over and over again, sped up and down as you will it. I am once again doing you a massive favor by entertaining you, you know?”

“Is there anything I can do to repay a favor to you? Like, physically?”

“Hmm, not really, but we can ignore that. It’s weird enough having a worshipper after all this time.”

Seiko tilted her head in confusion.

“This counts as worship?”

“Not with that attitude. But, like I said, I am being nice, so let me help you out.”

Raising his pointer finger, Uraya asked his first question.

“Were you a party to these events in your understanding? That is to say, the future you imply to be happening?”

Seiko shook her head.

“No, not at all.”

Uraya raised another finger.

“Was anyone you know party to these events?”

“Only people in Konoha...”

Uraya raised another finger.

“Have there been any situational changes that would have potentially affected your knowledge of the events at hand?”

“Potentially, ye...”

“Do you have your answer?”

Seiko’s projection stood there for a moment, fists balled at her sides before she breathed out a sigh.

“... Butterfly Effect?”

Uraya’s smile did not budge.

“What?”

“Chaos Theory stuff? Little alterations in events, despite the same set conditions, ultimately lead to wildly different results?”

Uraya was quiet for a moment.

“... Yeah, that sounds about right. Or you are just fundamentally missing the point I was trying to make.”

Seiko sighed.

“And what was that, oh noble Master of Time?”

Uraya gave her a glare.

“You might be wrong about the knowledge you have. You need to ask yourself, ‘Do I truly know the future, or is this just a convenient series of events that are familiar and lend me an advantage that is not known to me?’. If you see your ‘knowledge of the future’ as definitive, then you might not see issues developing that relate back to that Butterfly Effect you mentioned previously.”

Seiko nodded.

“I will try to keep that in mind. So just to clarify, I can do what I want? Or, more accurately, I can do what I think I need to do, since the events are going to go however they are going to go?”

With a smile, Uraya turned away from Seiko and casted his rod once again.

“Now you are getting it! Sure, you do you. I imagine everything will just go swimmingly.”

A few days later at the port of Higashisuna-shū, Shi-Butai gathered at edge of the docks, packed and ready for their coming voyage. Nami-no-Kuni was on the other side of the continent, so the trip was going to take a week and a half given the steady pace of the steam ship they would be taking.

Most of the group wore their typical clothes, albeit without their Hitai-Ates present. Junko sat cross legged on the stone wall overlooking her team.

“Alright, so here is how this is going to go; None of you, especially you Seiko, will be dealing with Gatō directly. I will handle all interactions with the man and you will follow my orders to the letter. We are going to be playing mercenary and we are going to be acting a little gruffer than usual, since that is what we will need to do to get out of this intact. Everyone understood so far?”

“Hai, Sensei.”

Junko smiled.

“Kentarō, you are our muscle in this situation. I need you to be visible and ready to always act on my orders. They will know we mean business after we make a decent first impression.”

Turning to Akio, Junko continued.

“Akio, you are going to blend in better than Kentarō and or Seiko, so I need you to make the most of that and try to find our contact. They did leave a calling card within their mission specs, so you will familiarize yourself with that during the trip over and then fan out to find them during your ‘patrols’.”

Finally, Junko looked down at Seiko.

“Now, Seiko, I’m going to be very up front about this. You are our exit strategy. I don’t want you doing anything stupid or being too far away from me during this mission, because you are our best chance of making a clean escape if anything goes wrong. While I am certain we could probably take on any of the bandits or thieves probably hired as muscle, if Gatō has any Nuke-nin, I don’t want to take any chances with you guys getting compromised without all of us being able and ready to get the hell out at a moment’s notice. You understand?”

Seiko nodded, before tilting her head to the side.

“So, what do you want me to do then? Just stand around, or..?”

Junko closed her eyes and sighed.

“You and Kentarō will keep your eyes peeled for any goings on within Gatō’s operation. If, and only if absolutely necessary, we need you to do some further looking, I would say sneak around and see if you can’t fūin your way into some locked areas or something. Just be sure to cover your tracks, alright?”

“Hai.”

Just then a mid-level burst of noise came across the water, and with it, their ship came into view over the water, small puffs of black smoke rising with the wind.

“And there is our ride. I hope you guys brought plenty to occupy yourselves with because this is going to take a while.”

Chapter Text

Greed

[Ikari-no-Umi, 0600-Tōbu, February 16th, Year 63 of the Shinchu-Jidai]

Gripping the railing on the ship, Seiko held herself in the heave and sway of the aptly named ‘Sea of Anger’. They were only a few more hours away from Gatō’s harbor in Nami-no-Kuni, but the sudden switch from relatively calm seas to rough seas made what should have been a short journey into a much longer gauntlet.

Ikari-no-Umi was the third largest of the Elemental Nation’s five great bodies of water, though notably its most difficult to traverse by sea. Where the other seas were named after colors for the makeup of the surrounding land or features, Ikari-no-Umi was named for its infamously active tectonic zones, resulting in a number of unique features for which the surrounding lands in the area were affected.

Uzushio-no-Kuni’s submarine network of volcanic caverns that provide the country’s eponymous whirlpools.

Kiri-no-Kuni’s scattering of volcanic islands in the hundreds, if not thousands.

And of course, Nami-no-Kuni’s intense tides and wave patterns, due to the bizarre and choppy splits in the seabed.

With the regular tectonic and volcanic activity, the sea was left constantly churning and changing positions, making navigation and seakeeping a major undertaking for anyone. As Seiko scanned the overcast skies over the sea, she began to understand that one of the few good explanations for why Gatō could have expanded his operations so quickly was the clear skill gap in sailors to regularly traverse this sea for commerce. Without the need for talented sailors with the skills to sail through such rough conditions, Gatō could easily displace local shipping with numbers.

Annoyingly, the travel brought back with it the issue of time-zones. Kaze-no-Kuni, along with the other nations west of Hi and Taki, were in the western time zone, Seiyō. Traveling eastward would bring one from Suna to the center of the continent, where most of the central nations from Hi over to Yu, formed the central zone, Chūō. East of there, broadly covering most of the Island nations as well as Kaminari and Mizu was the eastern time zone, Tōbu. This all sounded fairly simple until you started dealing with people from Tōbu though.

Unlike Seiyō and Chūō, which were primarily landlocked or land-adjacent, Tōbu as a zone was fundamentally tied to the sea, and the region produced most of the sailors shipping cargo around. Every ship, East, West, or otherwise, organized itself under Tōbu, and the time zone did not follow land border conventions, but water border conventions.

From the strait of Yukigakure East, Ao-no-Umi in the north was under Tōbu, despite covering two days’ worth of land travel within Chūō on land. From the strait separating Midori-no-Umi and Kuro-no-Umi East, despite easily covering half of Chūō’s land coverage, Chūō jumped to Tōbu immediately without delay.

Shi-Butai had not dealt with this issue when they last sailed to Hi, but then again, they didn’t cross into a different sea on the way over. Nami, however, was a different story. The land was actually tied into the neighboring time zone of Chūō, but then surrounded on three sides by sizeable parts of Ikari-no-Umi in Tōbu. The whole team was a little rattled by the quick changes to the time zones, their sleeping schedules easily interrupted in their first night on the Jovial Gentleman, its crew two hours ahead of them. Seiko herself was only up now in an attempt to get herself fully ready for the likely draining time she was going to have during this mission.

A wave broke against the bow as the ship’s hull groaned with the churning seas. They were not traveling fast, just barely moving across the water, but the seas were relentless in their assault on the ship. The morning fog and the seafoam misting from the crashing waves could only obscure the approaching landmass.

Nami-no-Kuni.

Once the ship was finally brought into harbor and docked a few hours later, Shi-Butai was led by a small pairing of half-wit thugs to Gatō’s headquarters overlooking the harbor. The two were initially a little more intimidating, but their preoccupation with Junko’s state of dress over their own safety led to both sporting several visible bruises after they tried to get handsy with Seiko’s sensei.

{Morons, all of them.}

From their escorted walk through the harbor, Seiko attempted to get an idea of the overall situation on the island. There were several dockworkers, but they were almost equally matched by the amount of security. The workers seemed unhappy, and the security bored, but that couldn’t be definitive this early in the investigation. Seiko knew she would hate to be longshoring in the morning, and she hadn’t been here long enough to validate the claims of ‘terrorism’ coming from Gatō.

If there was anything she could say, it would be that no one in the dock was starving. The workers may not be happy, but they were strong and clearly capable of handling the cargo Gatō was shipping. Although, that could also explain the security, since the workers could likely take on Gatō if he wasn’t surrounded by hired muscle.

The harbor was mostly quiet outside of the shouting and general movement of workers and materials. The security was serious and keeping on task even if they were bored, which was somewhat unexpected. The further towards the harbor gates they got the more the vibe became a little more relaxed. Shi-Butai was led into a tall three-story building made of grey brick, uncharacteristically modern for what Seiko had experienced back in Konoha.

Once inside, the shinobi were led up to the top of the building, before one of their escorts walked forward and knocked on an ornate office door. A gruff response led to the door being opened by someone else, whispering outwards. The response of Seiko’s escort echoed in the room.

“The Shinobi from the West are here.”

The door closed for a few moments, before opening again, the escorts motioning for Shi-Butai to go forward. The team walked in and assumed their agreed-upon formation standing roughly two and a half meters from the door.

Ahead of them, seated at a large desk covered in various papers, boxes, lamps, and even a telephone, was a spiky haired blond man in a pinstripe suit.

“Did they only send me some wench and some brats? I asked for Shinobi!”

Standing up, the man walked around his desk with an ornate-looking cane, revealing himself to be as tall as Seiko, if not maybe a little shorter.

“Whatever, a job is a job and it’s not like my men are much better. My name is Gatō Pōru, head of the company of the same name, quite possibly the richest man among the nations and... your new employer.”

Before he could continue, Junko cleared her throat.

“Contractor, actually. You sent out a request for Village Shinobi for a specific temporary basis, so we are here on contract, per the mission request that you sent in for approval.”

If Gatō was any more annoyed at being interrupted, it didn’t stick, as he continued with his talking regardless.

“Yes, well, whatever definition of employment you intend on using, I did hire you to come over here to work for me, and I did provide your travel accommodations, so if I may continue?”

With no objection, the man leaned back against his desk.

“I am a businessman, imports and exports by trade, and I am on the crux of turning this backwater into a thriving nexus of international trade. My men are among the best sailors in the world and have uncontested control of these treacherous waters Nami is surrounded by. The only issue I have run into are the people here.”

Smacking his cane on the ground, Gatō’s face morphed into a scowl.

“Despite the increased trade with this land by my will, the villagers are hostile and have sought to destroy my company. My warehouses face incessant threat by thieves and ruffians, and my ships are regularly waylaid by wannabe pirates these fishermen fancy themselves now. My security so far has been respectable, but I feel its time to up the ante on these savages and end this once and for all.”

Junko was quiet as the man finished, thinking of where to begin.

“Have you discussed this with the Daimyō’s court? This does sound like it falls under their jurisdiction if a business is suffering from local violence.”

Gatō laughed a little at that comment.

“Oh yeah, them. I bought them out a few months ago. I don’t see the need for it, but as far as the paperwork is concerned, I am the Daimyō now, not that that means much to these peasants.”

[Oh, so its just straight up a hostile takeover. That makes a lot more sense.]

Gatō continued.

“The peasants here have no sense of vision, no sense of the future, and have refused to join the company willingly, despite the depredation they were living under before. My workers are well fed and have money to spare, unlike the anglers who are barely getting by on the fish they can manage from these dangerous waters.”

Cracking his cane on the floor, Gatō raised his voice.

“It is insanity for them to attack me as they have, even though I have brought international trade to this sorry land! But, I have need of your services since my regular security forces have been unable to handle this so far.”

Gatō turned around and lit a cigar pilfered from one of the boxes on his desk. As the puffs of grey smoke slowly filtered out of the cracked open window in the back, he continued speaking.

“There have been murmurs of continued resistance. An engineer, the only one in the land outside of my own contractors, has started construction on a massive bridge to the West. My supplies have been purchased to undertake such a project, but I don’t want to see it completed, since it will reduce the dependence on my shipping.”

“I have tried to buy him out, but the man has refused each time. His son-in-law has been more of a thorn in my side, but I had him arrested a few days ago on threats of terrorism. The engineer has since fled the country, but work on his bridge has continued. I plan on dealing with son-in-law myself, but I need your team to suppress the rabble-rousing, by whatever means necessary.”

Junko quickly responded.

“I apologize, but I must once again refer back to our contracted obligations per the mission assignment you requested. You asked for protection detail, not an assassination or assassins on command.”

The room was quiet for a moment. Then Gatō stood up and walked over towards the team, eyes filled with rage.

“Listen here, you caravan floozy, I am your client. When I ask you to perform a job, I expect it done. I don’t care if you are a shinobi, a mercenary, or some common whore with a gaggle of children playing mercenary. You will take out this man for me if you want to get paid!”

Junko looked down at the man, then looked over to Kentarō.

“Yamagishi-San, his left leg, if you wouldn’t mind?”

Kentarō nodded and stepped forward. Gatō was momentarily distracted by the taller boy and was unable to say anything before Kentarō dropped to the ground and punched the outer side of Gatō’s left calf, instantly cratering the man into one of his pieces of expensive furniture. Gatō’s guards were slow to react, but quickly found themselves at the edge of Akio’s Nagamaki and Seiko’s kunai. Junko clapped her hands as she took center stage in the room.

“Well, now that I have your more appreciative attention, I am going to communicate some things to you, Gatō-San.”

“YOU BITCH!”

“Nah-ah-ah, no name calling, Gatō-San. I can have Yamagishi-San fix your leg as soon as I am finished, but not a moment before. His leg is fixable, correct, Yamagishi-San?”

“Yeah yeah, nothing but a pair of oblique fractures in the Tibia and Fibula. He will be fixed up good as new, on your word of course, Yūtori-Sensei.”

Junko smiled as she crouched down towards Gatō, eye only barely twitching from her surname being used.

“Thank you, Yamagishi-San. Now, Gatō-San, I want to be very clear on who you hired. We are not some ‘run of the mill’ thugs and we are not desperate for money. We are shinobi. Shinobi you hired to protect your assets from pirates, terrorists, and the like, which we did come to do. However, it appears you expected more and withheld some vital information, so I’m going to make myself very clear.”

“My students and I are here to perform the job you requested as contracted. It seems you, or someone who works for you, may not have read the contract in full, but it does have listed penalties in the event of falsified or incomplete information. Since your ‘protection detail’ is necessitated by the same actions your company has taken on the people we are supposedly protecting you from, my team has the right to secure not only the money you owe us in full, but additional damages for dragging us into a much more complicated situation we were not briefed for.”

“However...”

Junko stood up and began walking around the room.

“I don’t know if you were just being rude to us or were simply caught up in the stress of whatever messes you are dealing with on Nami, so maybe you do have a point. Maybe the people of Nami are being intensely unreasonable and resisting for no reason. So here is the deal.”

“My team and I are going to scout the island and deal with any bandits, pirates, and other ne’er-do-wells we find. Then, we will scout out this bridge you are worried about and remind the people of the ‘good’ you are in the process of doing. After that, we will continue to work as protection detail for our contracted time of... three months. However, you are going to pay up half of our contracted pay up front, as penalty for misleading our mission assignment and trying to get work you did not pay for.”

Gatō sputtered.

“HALF?! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?! YOU ATTACKED ME?!”

Junko faced him and shrugged her shoulders.

“You thought insulting a group of shinobi who could kill you without a second thought was a good idea. We all make mistakes every so often. Half the money and agreement on the contracted provisions. If you forgot them, or if one of your employees misplaced them, I would be happy to go over our copy from the mission scroll. We have time, after all, and we are not leaving without our money, bloodied or not.”

Gatō was stewing, breath still labored with the pain from his broken leg.

“FINE! Fine, just fix my damn leg and we will go over the contract.”

Junko nodded enthusiastically and motioned to Seiko and Akio.

“You may sheathe your weapons now. Yamagishi-San, you are free to heal the Gatō-San’s leg.”

The green glow of Iryo-Ninjutsu took Gatō’s attention for a moment as Kentarō set to re-setting and healing the man’s broken bones. Junko crossed her legs and sat down next to the man as Kentarō focused on his work.

“Alright, so, you hired us to protect and defend your assets from all manner of ne’er-do-wells outside of foreign shinobi, which qualified you for a genin team as a C-Rank mission.”

Gatō nodded in understanding, but was clearly a little out of it from the pain and odd sensation of having his bones and muscles move mend in real time from someone else’s Chakra.

“If the villagers are actively attacking and stealing from you, we will handle that, violently or not. That is part of what you paid for. However...”

Junko fixed her glare on the two guards at the office door, still shaky from being held at point only moments earlier.

“... If you give the... ‘peasants’, reasons to attack you, our protection contract will be void. That shouldn’t be an issue, since you said your company has been helping Nami jump ‘into the future’, but I just want to be clear. We are not in the business of creating our own problems and we are only here on temporary basis. Understood?”

Gatō nodded his head, and Junko clapped.

“Great! Where do you keep your money?”

Flabbergasted for a moment, Gatō shook his head and yelled at his guards.

“Get them their damn money and get them out of my office!”

One of the guards stepped out of the room. A few minutes later, he returned with a briefcase. Placing it on the desk, he opened it and revealed wrapped bundles of Kaminari Ryō bills. The guard looked over to Gatō, who then barked out the amount.

“Each of them gets ten grand, it should be forty total.”

The guard removed the bundles and steadily counted out each before handing them to one of the shinobi. Each bundle was made of fifty hundred-Ryō bills, with each of the shinobi in the room receiving two bundles. When the guard finished handing out the bundles of cash, Junko seized the man and planted a wet kiss on his cheek.

“~Thank you, sir!~”

She then turned to the rest of her team.

“Alright, let’s get to work. We have our orders.”

Junko waltzed past the guards and opened the door to the office, Akio, Seiko, and Kentarō quickly following suit behind them. Once the team was heading down the stairs, the guards rushed forward and helped Gatō to his feet.

“Are you alright, boss?”

Knocking the two away, Gatō shakily tested his healed leg and his grimace turned into a grin once it was clear the leg was fine.

“I will be. How much longer until that group of Kiri-nin show up?”

The two guards looked at one another, gesturing a little, before turning back to Gatō.

“I think they are about three days out now? Maybe less?”

Gatō nodded.

“Good. Now, you, fetch me a catalogue. I need to replace my furniture.”

The guard left, leaving Gatō alone with the other one.

“Let it be known I do not intend to have this insult forgiven, I will get that money back. They won’t be leaving the island in one piece, I assure you that.”

Once outside of the steel and concrete bastion of Gatō’s Headquarters, Nami-no-Kuni’s hive of mangroves asserted themselves, choking off most forms of travel away from the narrow strip of packed dirt kept as a road. While presented as a singular island, Nami was in reality hundreds of small islands bridged together by numerous rivers, mangroves, and rocky crags. The largest of the islands held the primary population center of the island, Ijō Mura, where Gatō's prisoner was said to live with his adopted family somewhere on the northern edge of the settlement.

Seiko’s team walked in silence for the first several minutes after leaving Gatō’s compound, awaiting the return of two of Junko’s summons she summoned to check the surrounding woodland. When the two summons returned, nodding their heads quickly, Junko cleared her throat.

“Alright, we are clear for the next few minutes. Does anyone want to start with their findings so far?”

Akio cleared his throat to get attention.

“Gatō’s guards clearly undertrained or at least very relaxed, they are likely only here for intimidation rather than actual security.”

Junko nodded her head in agreement.

“That is a good observation. Anything else?”

Seiko decided to step in herself.

“The dockworkers appeared to be in good health, but the expanded presence of security made me think their employment is not entirely voluntary. Given Gatō’s position as the de facto head-of-state, this could be related to the recent change in government and any possible changes that followed that.”

“Very good, Seiko-chan. Kentarō, did you find anything about the man himself while you were up close?”

The boy shrugged.

“Other than I broke his leg, not really. He’s not a shinobi and he seems to not care too much for us. Probably a power thing, since he was thinking a lot more highly of himself before you talked him down.”

Junko shrugged.

“Yeah, I figured. Anyways, we still need to cover our bases, so here’s what we are going to do.”

“Since the engineer disappeared, we cannot start with him. However, the son-in-law is still in custody, so if we can find him, we will probably find our other client.”

Akio raised his eyebrow in confusion.

“So, we aren’t just going to throw our weight behind the people of Nami? Despite what we have already seen from Gatō?”

Junko shook her head.

“We are foreigners in a foreign land, and we can’t accomplish our mission until we know the conditions for the whole land. We are likely going to support Nami, given what we have seen so far, but we need to get a better appreciation for the situation developing before we make the decision to act.”

The rest of their walk through the woods was silent, with only the occasional bird calls to fill the void. The clearing of the road began to widen with the occasional field or home to the side, each old and relatively well kept. The people were few, and loose possessions fewer, as each home or farm had very little outside of their defining feature.

The village of Ijō Mura itself was not much better. The buildings were standing, but the lack of people and general village culture made the team uneasy. Gatō’s security was nowhere to be seen, likely back at the harbor, but evidence of their presence was not blatant.

Shattered windows.

Broken stands.

Cuts in the wood.

The only indicator of a line not being crossed was the lack of dried blood or torched buildings. Junko twisted her head side to side as they walked through the largely empty streets.

“The village is full of people, but they seem to be avoiding most contact with foreigners. We probably aren’t going to get directions if we ask, so I’m going to figure out where our target is. Keep your eyes peeled.”

With synchronized nods, the rest of the team followed Junko as the main road curved to run parallel with a river that divided the village into larger and smaller halves. Buildings occasionally forced the road to twist back and forth away and back towards the river, but the sight path was clear enough to make out larger buildings at what was likely the center of the town.

At what was likely the center of the village, there was a large three-story tiered building with a decent crowd gathered outside. Once the crowd became aware of the shinobi walking towards them, they began to quickly flee the scene, the last to leave being a woman forcibly dragging away a child from the foundations of the building. Once the people had disappeared, Junko nodded.

“I found our target.”

The team continued their walk to the large building, clearly a type of courthouse, likely complete with an office, a court...

... and a jail.

Unlike the surrounding buildings, which were entirely wood and ceramic on raised wooden foundations, the courthouse had a stone foundation which contained Ijō Mura’s jail. Junko crouched down to the closest grated vent and looked through.

“Excuse me...”

A tall man’s face appeared before the grate, clearly disappointed at the disappearance of the crowd.

“Are you the thugs who have come to kill the will of this nation?”

Junko frowned, tilting her head as she evaluated the man’s despondent tone.

“Guy, we just got here maybe two hours ago, chill.”

The man simply shook his head and walked away from the grate.

“You wouldn’t understand. Your home isn’t being crushed under the curse of greed.”

Rolling her eyes, Junko clapped her hands.

“Say... you wouldn’t happen to know where the Albatross roosts?”

The man was quiet for a moment, confused at the sudden shift in conversation.

“... In the eyes of man and the hearts of fools?”

Junko clapped her hands in excitement.

“So, you are our client!”

“I’m sorry, what?”

Junko’s face fell.

“You answered with the correct response, so you must be the person who sent the missive to Suna for shinobi!”

The man turned back around and just looked on confused, slowly shaking his head.

“I did no such thing. That is just a common expression around here. My wife is especially fond of it.”

Seiko perked up at the admission.

“Junko-Sensei, maybe she is our contact?”

Junko looked back to the masked girl.

“Maybe... take the boys and... wait, sir, what is your name?”

The man crossed his large arms.

“My name is Kawasaki Kaiza.”

Junko nodded.

“Nice to meet you, Kawasaki-San. Would you mind directing my students to the location of your home so we can talk with your wife?”

The man’s eyes narrowed, but he sighed moments later, resigned in his state of imprisonment.

“It’s not as if I cannot stop you from finding my home from in here. That and my time is coming soon, so if you could just ignore Gatō's orders and help my family...”

“Kawasaki-San, if you could just stop talking for four seconds. Your family will be fine, because you aren’t going to die.”

“... What do you mean?

Junko rolled her eyes.

“If your wife is our client, then we need to talk to her about the mission she put money up to pay for. What are you even in jail for?”

Kaiza closed his eyes.

“I spoke out against Gatō’s takeover of Nami, his dissolution of our laws and subjugation of our people. I swore I would protect the people of this land with these arms when I came here, but I cannot fight injustice itself. Not when it threatens my family or the people who work when they are not trained to fight.”

Junko chewed on her lip.

“How good are you at playing pretend?”

Kaiza tilted his head at the wild woman looking down upon him.

“Pretend?”

Junko nodded enthusiastically.

“Yeah, pretend. Obviously you are very noble and mean well, but dealing with people like Gatō with that mentality will only take you so far. I have a bit of an idea for dealing with your situation, but I will need your compliance.”

Kaize evaluated her words, not expecting the sudden helping hand.

“Well, I cannot refuse or do anything else on my own. What did you have in mind? How did you need me to comply?”

Junko smiled.

“I need you to not cause a ruckus after we stage your death.”

A few days later, Gatō’s head rested only centimeters above his desk, hands vigorously rubbing his temples as he mumbled over what he was just told.

“Let me get this straight, you left to get ‘acquainted with the land’, and arrived to find villagers attempting to break out a prisoner in Ijō Mura?”

Junko nodded, all of Shi-Butai assuming a strict military posture with her.

“Yes sir; we attempted to break up the crowd when we arrived and found they were attempting to bust out someone from the jail in the courthouse. Our arrival scared off most of the crowd, but the remainder attempted to attack us as a few continued to break into the jail cell.”

Gatō closed his eyes before opening them and looking over to one of his guards.

“Zōri, did any of the guards on duty corroborate their story?”

The shorter of Gatō’s guards, a pale-haired man wearing a baggy hoody and beanie, stepped forward, locking position with Junko.

“Yes sir. Several villagers had been paying the prisoner visits outside of the courthouse for the last several days, but they must’ve been planning a breakout that they attempted yesterday.”

Gatō grumbled.

“What happened after you showed up? I figured you were a bit soft when you said not to harass the peasants?”

Junko cringed.

“Yes, well, normally we are a bit more careful with civilians, but the large man they broke out was stronger than we thought and attempted to bash one of my student’s brains in with a chunk of foundation stone.”

Junko closed her eyes, bowing her head forward.

“My student was not able to close the distance safely, so he was forced to immolate the man. There is nothing but ashes left of his remains.”

Gatō shook his head.

“This wasn’t the development I was looking for but... how did the villagers take it?”

Zōri grinned.

“They are devastated and quieter than before. I don't think we are likely to have any more problems unless the engineer returns.”

“Hmmm... good. Unfortunate, but I cannot disagree with the results. Yūtori-San, I know this is a bit early, but I will go ahead and pay your team another quarter of the money you will be owed, since I may not need your services much longer at this rate.”

Junko raised her head.

“Are you sure, Gatō-San?”

“Positive. Besides, you have done me a service. I may have been wrong about you shinobi.”

Junko bowed.

“Well thank you for your hospitality, Gatō-San. We will continue our work to guarantee there are no other issues.”

The team once again left the harbor compound in silence, only speaking once they were alone on the road.

“Alright kids, great job on maintaining cohesion. Is anyone still confused on the plan?”

Seiko cleared her throat.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t tell Kaiza’s wife we didn’t actually kill him?”

With a hefty sigh, Junko looked back to her youngest genin.

“Yes, Seiko. We already discussed what she can do for us a few days ago and she’s ultimately not going to be useful to us beyond preparing the villagers for a mob uprising in the next month or so. Her father on the other hand will be pivotal in distracting Gatō, whenever he gets back from wherever he disappeared to.”

Akio cut in with his own thoughts.

"The villagers might even be more motivated if they think we killed Kaiza-San. You saw how much they looked up to the guy.

Junko turned back towards the road as the group continued their walk to Ijō Mura content, but Seiko was stuck with the knowledge of where the old man probably was. And if the old man was where she thought he was...

Then Zabuza and Haku were not far off themselves from further complicating Junko's hands-off plan.

Chapter Text

Eyes Of The Devil

[Ijō Mura, 0837-Chūō, February 21st, Year 63 of the Shinchu-Jidai]

Genjustu, Seiko found, was a deeply misunderstood art. Not in terms of application, mind you, but in theory. Genjutsu was often treated like its sibling, Ninjutsu; techniques to gain an upper hand in a fight, defeat an enemy, or accomplish a specific set of goals.

The brain is wonderfully complicated and beautiful in its operation, but it often failed in little ways: Little ways that could easily be exploited or relied upon for. In Seiko’s past life in Georgia, she was aware of the issues with eyewitness testimony, the gaps in memory, the way the brain would gladly invent patterns that might not be there. Genjutsu was perfect for attacking these subtle gaps, rather than striking like a shotgun at an opponent’s faculties.

Sure, you could directly disorient, blind, or even fully distort an enemy’s sense of place, but those types of attacks could easily be detected if one was trained to keep track of their environment and sense of self. What Seiko found after some unexplained experiments with her teammates, was that memory did not adjust for Genjutsu if the Genjutsu was not detected and released by the person affected. That is to say, memory would not be able to tell the difference between a weaved illusion from someone else’s Chakra and the brain attempting to fill a gap.

The ramifications for this were as vast as strait between Nami-no-Kuni and the mainland. One didn’t need to brute force mental persuasion on someone to get a point across; they just needed to create a convincing enough moment, and then let the target’s brain do the rest.

A great example was Kaiza’s ‘death’ in the center of Ijō Mura, several days ago. Junko’s plan was overall very simple but had enough moving parts to complicate Seiko’s role. Several villagers would need to be involved in attempting to break Kaiza out and believe what they would see during the attempt, several guards would need to be present to corroborate Shi Butai’s story of the events, as well as a villager’s should they be asked. But most difficult of all would be keeping Kaiza occupied after he was successfully broken out, bleeding heart that he is.

For Seiko, this came in the form of two ‘scene’ illusions, one for the guards who would be funneled in from one direction, and one for the villagers, funneled through the other. The illusions largely overlapped; the villagers would ‘successfully’ break through enough of the stone foundation, conveniently weakened ahead of time by Shi-Butai, to allow ‘Kaiza’ to escape. Before ‘Kaiza’ could be embraced by the villagers though, Shi-Butai and the guards would arrive to scare off the villagers. Here, the scenes would differ.

To avoid hostility towards Shi-Butai, who had been helping in and around the village for a few days by that point, ‘Kaiza’ would be attacked by the guards, pushed back into the jail he was in, where a broken lamp accelerated by spilt oil would quickly burn through the jail, immolating the man. The villagers, witnessing this from a distance, would be convinced the man had died and that it was the guard’s fault.

For the guards though, Shi-Butai would quickly attempt to arrest Kaiza, who would begin striking out at Akio, forcing the boy to use Katon and ‘accidently’ overdo it, killing the man in a bright ball of flame, leaving nothing but ash in its wake.

In both cases, the evidence would present the same conclusion.

A broken-into jail cell, scattered stones, burn marks on the wood, and ashes.

Once the illusions were witnessed, the two groups would eventually leave and burn the ghastly scenes into their memories, allowing Seiko to dismiss the Genjutsus and move on to phase II of Junko’s plan.

Near a small pond in the woods, Junko, the remainder of Shi-Butai, and a somewhat disguised Kaiza sat in a small circle.

“Alright, so now that everything has calmed down a little, we are moving along to the second phase. Kaiza here has managed to trick management down at the docks with his new looks and is now our inside man for when we are out of the area. Gatō is probably going to proceed with his own plans, so our new goal is figuring out where his paperwork is.”

Kaiza, sporting a mustache and beard that presented him as nearly a decade older than he actually was, looked confused.

“Why are we looking for his paperwork? We just want him gone.”

Junko waved her hand.

“I may be on your side, but I believe Nami has been going about this the wrong way. Nami was easily overtaken by a wealthy man in just a few months right? So if you just drive him off the island, or even kill him, his or someone like him’s path to take over Nami would still be there. You lack a functioning government at the moment and Nami is not big enough to warrant foreign interest towards intervention, so there are very few barriers to protect the land from a repeat of this situation in the future.”

Junko looked deep into Kaiza’s eyes.

“The Nami-no-Kuni of the past, the quiet nation of islands and fisherman, undisturbed by their neighbors, is dead. We are not in a position to bring it back. However, we are in a position to take Gatō’s takeover and turn it into a positive starting point for the new Nami-no-Kuni. A Nami-no-Kuni with an impressive anchor in the international economy and potential allies to rely upon if it is brought under threat again.”

Kaiza shook his head.

“I don’t understand, what do you mean?”

Junko closed her eyes.

“Gatō was not wrong when he chose Nami as the anchorage for his operation. It is isolated, politically and geographically, and his company holds a competitive advantage in transport over goods and people in the eastern seas. Like I said, it would be easy to just go and kill Gatō right now. But doing that would not get rid of the infrastructure already established here and it would do nothing towards the mercenaries suddenly without a defined sponsor.”

“The Gatō Company would fragment between its divisions, and likely would either cartelize or go to in-fighting for control over the seas, with Nami as the most obvious warzone if that were to take place. If we can usurp control of the company from within though...”

Junko stopped as her eyes went wide, left ear twitching in the sudden breeze. She quickly stood up and tilted her head back and forth before turning towards the east.

“Kaiza, have you heard anything about Gatō expecting anyone? More shinobi, perhaps?”

Kaiza shook his head.

“The man doesn’t talk much in front of the longshoremen, but I did hear the guards were antsy about Gatō being upset someone was late. Why do you ask?”

Junko turned back to the group, mostly still sitting, though her students had switched to kneeling in the event they needed to move.
“There are four people with large amounts of ambient Chakra inbound to Gatō’s harbor; one Jōnin-level, two low Chūnin-level, and one right at Chūnin-level. Given the heading, they could easily be shinobi from either Kumo or Kiri, but I can’t tell from here. They are relaxed though, so they are probably here to work for Gatō.”

Seiko’s head buzzed in alarm.

[Shit, it’s Zabuza.]

{Zabuza?}

[Nuke-nin from Kiri, one of the Seven Swordsmen. If events go as they did in the story, we probably have only a few days before the engineer shows up with Konoha-nin.]

Sensing Seiko’s change in awareness, Junko quickly turned around.

“Seiko, what’s got you worried?”

Seiko stood up.

“Gatō previously wanted us to do work that was not part of our written parameters, but if he has more shinobi here not held to such parameters, he might be willing to have them attack us for the money he has already given us.”

The clearing was silent for a moment before Junko nodded in agreement.

“You know what, he would do that, especially with how unwilling we were to just leap to his whim. Alright, change in plans.”

Junko directed her attention to Kaiza as Akio and Kentarō quickly stood up to join Seiko.

“Kaiza, I need you to lay low while we get a feeling for the newcomers. I doubt Gatō will try to order them to attack us if we show up suddenly, so we are going to cause a ruckus real quick.”

Junko turned to face the rest of her team as Kaiza ran through the forest to head back to the harbor.

“Seiko, I need you to keep an eye on the harbor and potentially cause a delay if there are any serious developments. Do not engage the incoming shinobi if possible, run if you have to.”

“Akio, Kentarō, you are with me. We are going to stage an incident at one of the storehouses nearby.

With quick nods, the shinobi quickly took to the tress and quickly spread out. Seiko was past Kaiza in a few minutes and found herself overlooking the harbor not much longer afterwards. The harbor was as busy as it was when Seiko’s team arrived about a week ago, security and workers in the same numbers as before. On the horizon, a freighter was slowly wading towards Nami, but Seiko could not make out anything distinct as far out as it was.

The minutes ticked by as the freighter came closer and closer. Kaiza made it into the harbor and started working with no issue from the guards. When the freighter was making its final approach and slowing down, Junko and the boys arrived with an unconscious mercenary over her shoulder. Junko beckoned Seiko to come huddle with the group down on the ground away from potential witnesses.

“Alright, the plan is that we found this mercenary falsifying inventory records and moving crates out of a storehouse and towards a hidden landing with a boat. I need you to cast a Genjutsu to make him believe we found him out and captured him. Once you are done, we will arrive to interrupt the meeting with Gatō to hand this guy over.”

Seiko nodded, thinking of a particular frame of mind to induce on the unconscious man.

Bored, corrupt, greedy.

Awareness of the money not being paid, awareness of the lack of accountability among the mercenaries, an opportunity.

A little smuggling, fudging the numbers...

“Sensei, are we sure there are no other ledgers that could be used to track inventory? In the event of an audit?”

Junko bit her lip as she thought for a moment.

“Ok, instead of altering the ledgers directly, how about marking damage from transit? That way, there would be a justifiable drop between one ledger and another that would be explainable?”

Seiko quickly nodded.

“Yeah, that would make sense. Ok, give me a moment. I need you to wake him up as soon as we are about to enter the compound, since it will be more convincing that way.”

Seiko focused back on her scene as Akio began to steadily alter the ledger they took from the storehouse. Junko laid the man on his back as Seiko went through her Mudra.

Ne.

Ushi.

Tatsu.

Uma.

Saru.

Mi.

Ne.

Hitsuji.

[Kori Shinchū-no-Jutsu]

The man grimaced for a moment, but quickly returned to his state of unconsciousness, the only evidence of Seiko’s work being the shimmering aura around his head where the Genjutsu took hold.

“Alright, its done. The only issue we have to worry about is if our new coworkers decide to try to release the genjutsu on him. But, I do have an idea for that.”

Reaching into her pack, Seiko removed one of her storage seals while pushing the man’s shirt up.

“Kentarō-kun, if you could find me the adrenal glands, that would be much appreciated.”

Kentarō reached over and traced down the man’s abdomen.

“The glands should be… here, right above the kidneys. What are you trying to do?”

Releasing the storage seal on her scroll, Seiko now had a brush and inkwell prepped. Drawing where Kentarō indicated, Seiko began her explanation.

“I don’t know if we will be found out, but in the event we are, our mercenary here will be able to say we attacked him first. I am making a seal that will jumpstart his fight-or-flight response on the introduction of foreign Chakra to his body; naturally, this would be the potential Kai-release.”

“If or when the seal activates, the man will become either exceedingly aggressive or will attempt to escape, solidifying our story. Gatō is cheap enough to probably not demand an autopsy, so the seal will likely not be found unless we have some extremely careful shinobi.”

Junko nodded her head slowly.

“Good work, Seiko! We have... probably four minutes before we need to show up, so let’s get wrapped up and ready. Remember, I lead the conversation. We just found a mercenary stealing and attempting to poach from the company, we do not know if he had accomplices, and we have the ledger showing the numbers being altered.”

Junko looked over each of her students carefully before returning to the unconscious man.

“Alright, time to wake up mister guilty...”

Momochi Zabuza was not very impressed with this new gig. It had been nearly a year since Zabuza and the remnants of his small band escaped Kiri, forced to scrounge away with the dregs of the nations for money as their old village continued to fester and rot under Karatachi’s sudden madness.

The band started to splinter not long after the issue of money came up, several of them not having the stomach to stoop to the dirt for money. But Zabuza had no place for pride or honor. He didn’t get to where he was without blood and bile dirtying the world around him.

Gatō and his shipping company was a potential gold mine for getting Zabuza’s feet back on solid ground to focus on returning to Kiri, even with all the risks. The company was cutthroat up front, and that wasn’t even taking a swipe at their less than legal enterprises, but the fact remained that the money was there. Money that Zabuza needed, regardless of the consequences.

As the ship finally slowed down to its final stop, Zabuza wasted no time in signaling to the rest of his team.

“Haku, Meizu, Gōzu; let’s get this over with.”

Without delay, the four shinobi leapt from the deck of the ship down to the harbor and began walking towards what they believed to be the administrative building. Zabuza led the group, shirtless with only the harness of the great Kubikiribōchō on his back overshadowing the man’s height. His face was wrapped in cloth strips and his Kirigakure Hitai-ate tilted to the side only centimeters over his brow line. His blue pinstripe pants were loose and baggy, terminating to his standard shinobi sandals only slightly covered by his cow-print legwarmers.

Immediately behind and to Zabuza’s right was an androgynous looking teenager in a marsh green haori covering a simple brown pinstripe robe. They were quiet, the only sounds coming from their person being the characteristic click-clacks of their wooden geta sandals. The few guards with enough interest to watch the group of foreign shinobi were left mumbling about whether the teenager was a girl and if she would be up to getting better acquainted after their meeting with Gatō.

They were met with silence, their comments not seeming to register to the teenager as they followed Zabuza.

A little further behind the front pair were two men wearing near-matching outfits. The two were quiet, walking should to shoulder in brown camouflage fits topped with light brown tunics. The brother on the right wore a single horned happuri-style Hitai-ate, a cloak, and a large mechanical gauntlet on his right arm. The brother on the left wore a twin-horned Hitai-ate and the same mechanical gauntlet on his left arm. Both wore gas-mask-like face coverings and walked in steady even steps, though the brother on the left’s eyes were eagerly going over every figure in the dockyard.

The traverse through the dock was quiet compared to the sounds of the surrounding work and ships entering and leaving, but soon enough Zabuza and his small team were escorted into Gatō’s office. All of the preceding silence was thrown out the window by the tiny man behind the desk.

“Where have you been?! I called for you days ago!”

Zabuza was quiet, taking in the opulence of the small office.

“We rode on your ship. It’s not our fault we showed up later than you thought we would.”

Zabuza and his crew filled out the far side of the office as the door closed behind them. Gatō sneered at them, the man’s contempt flying by Zabuza’s head like a gnat.

“I have a job for your team, wet work. There is an engineer threatening my operation and I want his head.”

A civilian? Child’s play.

“And you need four shinobi to do that? I saw plenty of mercenaries outside at the docks.”

Gatō waved his hand.

“The man has fled Nami looking for help. I am pretty sure he is looking to hire shinobi, even though I know he doesn’t have the money to afford any. However, I wouldn’t put it past a desperate man to lie his way to a solution, so he is probably on his way back with some shinobi getting dragged into a situation they weren't fully informed about.”

Given Nami’s location, the most immediate options were Konoha, Yu, Shimo, and potentially Kumo. Yu was closest, but had been in the process of reducing their ranks and pursuing a tourist economy for some time. The village had largely been peaceful for the last several years following a massacre of a large portion of the village’s ranks, including leadership.

Shimo was the second closest, and was a plausible option, but they were a minor village and were not often seen outside of their own land.

Konoha and Kumo were both close to the same distance away, Kumo being probably a day’s travel further than Konoha. The issue with them lied with the fact they were major villages and would demand a higher sum for missions outside of their own borders.

Zabuza figured that if this engineer were to go anywhere, he would probably go to Konoha. Not only was it inland from Nami, the village was infamously soft and would probably pity the man enough to help him if he was to give them a sob story. Zabuza looked back down at Gatō.

“So you want us to kill this engineer and his shinobi escort, assuming he managed to get them to Nami?”

Gatō shook his head.

“No, I would rather the man disappear before he made it back here. I already had an incident a few days ago with the man’s son-in-law and I would prefer if the villagers had fewer reasons for continued hostilities.”

Zabuza nodded.

“We expect half the money up front, and I guarantee that man will be dead.”

Gatō sneered, but then stopped and grinned.

“Actually, I have a better proposition.”

Gatō stood and walked around the desk.

“I will pay you double for killing the engineer after he’s dead, and I will add another set of marks for you afterwards.”

Zabuza narrowed his eyes.

“You will jump to forty-thousand Ryō? Along with another mission?”

Gatō nodded.

“Yes, you see I hired enough team of shinobi, but...”

The sound of yelling outside interrupted the man as the office door burst open, revealing a wild looking woman and a gaggle of assorted brats behind her. The woman was carrying a bound and gagged man, wide-eyed and desperately trying to escape his bonds. Zabuza looked over the group and noted the build and color of their outfits.

Suna-nin? In Nami-no-Kuni? They might not have the village’s iconic hourglass on them, but he knew the usual tells for foreign nin and these were desert folk.

“Hey boss! Sorry to interrupt your meeting, but we found an issue with one of your mercenaries!”

Gatō pinched his nose and let out a sigh.

“What are you talking about?”

The woman continued, digging her nails into the man she was holding’s collarbone.

“This guard you had posted at one of the storehouses on the northern side of Nami was falsifying the ledger and moving product out of the building to smuggle off the island.”

Gatō shook his head.

“What do you mean? We keep documentation of all inventory when it leaves the harbor and when it arrives at warehouses. There should be no difference between the two.”

The woman nodded.

“Yes, we thought the same thing at first, but we found that items were being marked as ‘damaged’ or ‘destroyed’ in transit. Not enough to question the teamsters moving the goods, but just enough to be skimming from your profits.”

The woman beckoned for one of her students and the dark-haired swordsman walked forward and handed her a ledger.

“You can check for yourself, sir.”

Gatō reached forward and snatched the ledger from her hands. He flipped it open and began looking over the numbers slowly and carefully. With a sudden halt, he snapped the book closed and glared at the man.

“Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

The woman removed the gag from the man’s mouth and he immediately began yelling.

“IT WAS THEM. THEY ATTACKED ME AT THE STOREHOUSE AND STARTED STEALING MERCHANDISE. THEY COOKED THE BOOKS, NOT ME!”

The woman rolled her eyes.

“Please, why would we make our own trouble when we are still on contract for another two and a half months? You mercenaries are a dime a dozen, I swear.”

“YOU MIGHT BE AS BORED AS WE ARE, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?!”

The woman quickly gagged the man again.

“Gatō-San, what would you like for us to do with the man?”

Gatō waved the woman off.

“Just put him in an undamaged holding cell in Ijō Mura.”

The woman nodded, looking back around at the Kiri-nin.

“I take it you hired some other shinobi for hunting down that engineer?”

Gatō huffed.

“You. Are. Dismissed.”

The woman tore into a cheshire grin and bowed.

“Of course, sir.”

The Suna-nin quickly left, closing the door behind them. Rubbing his temples, Gatō turned around and walked back around his desk.

“Them. Kill the engineer and his escorts, and then kill them. Eighty-thousand Ryō, no questions asked.”

Zabuza raised his eyebrow.

“I’m assuming there is a story there, but like you said, no questions.”

Zabuza motioned for his group to leave.

“We’ll handle the engineer when we find him.”

With the framed mercenary locked away a few paces from Kaiza’s old cell, Seiko’s team was back to figuring out the latest entanglement to their plans. Junko sighed.

“So, I’m not sure how versed you kids are on the bingo books, but that was Momochi Zabuza, one of the Seven Swordsmen of Kiri, which means our situation has gotten a little more complicated.”

Kentarō was clearly worried about the change.

“What are we going to do?”

Junko leaned against a nearby building, eyes closed in thought.

“More than likely, they are here to kill the engineer. That was the task Gatō tried to foist on us, and assuming the rumors are true, Zabuza broke rank with Kiri sometime ago, so this is likely not a sanctioned mission.

Seiko jumped in.

“So we’re not at any risk of diplomatic entanglements at all?”

Junko nodded.

“Correct, but... they are still wearing their Hitai-ate, so the situation in Kiri might be more complicated than I am aware of.”

Junko shook her head and pushed off of the wall.

“Regardless, we should keep a close eye on them if possible. If they are only here for money, we might be able to convince them not to follow through.”

[Zabuza is not truly committed to killing Tazuna, so that should be doable.]

{And how do you plan on getting them to stop? Asking them nicely?}

Seiko pondered on her courses of action. She could try to let everything happen as it had in ‘canon’, guaranteeing the likely death of all of the Kiri-nin, assuming Kakashi’s gremlins got the mission to Nami. This would be the easiest option, but there was no true guarantee that events would still go down the way they had in the original story.

A direct confrontation would be potentially disastrous. Sure, Seiko was aware of the range of skills the Kiri-nin had, but her team was far less aware. Then came the distinction of knowing what they were capable of versus reacting to it in real time. Seiko might be proficient, but she wasn’t stupid enough to think she could take on Haku or even Zabuza without possibly suffering another visit from the hospital.

Trying to win over Zabuza was the only option that might work out for everyone, but that brought its own issues. Seiko couldn’t remember exactly why Zabuza was working for Gatō in the first place, only that he needed money for something and was desperate enough to work for a scumbag like Gatō. Maybe...

[Do you think we could bribe Zabuza?]

Yume scoffed.

{With our earned money or something else?}

[Maybe with promises related to the company. Key him into Sensei’s plan a little?]

{That’s risky and you know it! He could just get us all killed!}

[Or he could put two and two together and realize he could come out better by working with us!]

Yume sighed.

{Maybe, but do you have a plan to get close without being suspicious? They probably have already been awarded a bonus to kill us by Gatō given what we already did.}

That... that was true. Gatō even tried to kill off Zabuza and Haku the first time once they were beaten by Kakashi’s team. It wouldn’t be too out of place if Gatō tried to have the Kiri-nin take out Seiko’s team, either before or after they were tasked to take down Tazuna.

Sighing, Seiko made her decision and gathered her chakra and moved her hands in subtle motions. It was time to be risky.

“Sensei.”

Junko stopped talking and looked over at Seiko.

“Yes?”

“I wouldn’t put it past Gatō-San to try and put a hit out on us before our contract is completed. It would probably be a good idea to try to rope in Momochi-San to our plans, seeing as he and his team are here to get paid as well.”

Junko closed her eyes.

“Seiko-chan... you want to try bargaining with Kiri-nin? In a bid to convince them to not kill us for money?”

Seiko nodded.

“Our plan will already be more than enough for Nami to get by once Gatō’s mercenaries are removed from the equation. If we promise dividends for Zabuza, maybe they will be willing to work together, especially since fighting all of us would guarantee our plan failing and leaving Zabuza only getting a small amount, assuming Gatō doesn't try to kill them as well later.”

Junko shook her head.

“That’s risky and you know it.”

Seiko nodded.

“Yes, but it needs to be done.”

Junko heaved another hefty sigh.

“Seiko, why are you like this?! Can we not just agree to go with a safer plan that doesn't nearly get us killed?”

The girl didn’t respond, and after a moment of waiting, Junko noticed the girl wasn’t moving. At all.

“Kai!”

Seiko’s body disappeared with the rapid increase in Junko’s blood pressure. Focusing herself, Junko’s senses stretched over the island and found Seiko’s Chakra arriving at one of the jetties where she could feel the four Kiri-nin were at.

"WHY DOES SHE ALWAYS DO THIS?!"

Junko looked to the boys.

"Stay here, I will be right back!"

Junko took off to the trees and steadily jumped from branch to branch, following the path Seiko took minutes earlier.

Zabuza was just finishing his orders to the twins getting ready to leave for the mainland when the youngest of the Suna-nin landed at the outskirt of the small pier they were standing at. Haku tensed for a moment, senbon likely already in hand, but the masked Suna-nin did not push forward.

“Momochi-San, I was hoping to catch you before you left for the mainland.”

Zabuza tsked at the Girl’s slightly obstructed voice. She could be no older than thirteen, but seeing the team she was with... perhaps she was similar to Haku. Young talent.

“Can I help you, brat?”

“I was actually looking to help you. My team and I have been in Nami longer and could assist you in tracking down the engineer.”

“Oh, and how is that?”

Seiko tilted her head.

“The villagers here aren’t stupid, and this engineer isn’t the first person Gatō was going to have killed. The engineer is likely traveling to Kumo to bring back shinobi help.”

Zabuza scoffed.

“Kumo is well out of the way of the engineer, and you know that. He probably went to Konoha.”

“And what? Pay the tree huggers? Konoha is soft and the engineer knows that. He would go north to get better shinobi.”

“With how poor the villagers are, I doubt he could afford Kumo.”

“With how much these mercenaries have been skimming off the top of Gatō, I imagine the villagers could’ve had a hefty enough sum to get Kumo. Plus, the bills are already in Kaminari, so there would be no exchange rate to worry about.”

The girl was making good points, but...

Zabuza could feel the lie coming off of her.

Well, maybe not a direct lie. A deliberately misleading spill of information, intended to take focus off the likely path to Konoha. The girl was likely covering for the engineer, and if that was the case...

The whole team was probably involved as well. Though, she was alone, so maybe not.

Perhaps Gatō was aware of this treachery and that’s why he wanted them dead? Why not just suspend their contract then? Sure, Zabuza was a trained killer, but hiring one team to kill another you already had on payroll just seemed... suspect.

That being said, the girl was now interfering with their mark, which meant she counted as part of the ‘escort’.

Zabuza motioned for the twins to abandon getting ready to leave.

“Let’s say your intel is good. Why are coming over to help us out? Shouldn’t you be going after the engineer?”

The girl shook her head.

“Our contract was limited to risk management and loss prevention. We were hired on for a set time-frame for that purpose, which is what Gatō-San is paying for. We have already been paid some of our bill upfront after some... miscommunication between the boss and our team.”

That, wasn’t a lie.

“Miscommunication, you said?”

The girl nodded.

“We were asked to go after the engineer, as well as some other villagers after we arrived, but our contract was already negotiated and agreed on before we took the voyage out here. Gatō-San was... very rude to us, and needed to be reminded of his situation personally. That being said, sharing information with coworkers isn’t outside of our contract, so I figured I would help you out.”

Zabuza nodded.

“Well, that would be mighty kind of you, but seeing as you are deliberately leading my team away from our mark, I don’t think that will be necessary.

The girl’s bravado faded into shock.

“What?! I’m doing no such thing!”

Tsking, Zabuza crossed his arms.

“I know when someone is lying. I can it smell it on them. The slight fear when telling a lie.  You weren’t lying directly, but you were covering up what you already knew.”

“The engineer went to Konoha, because that is obvious, but you wouldn’t try to push us off the mark unless you were planning on taking him out yourself or if you were helping him. And since you so kindly told us that you weren’t here to kill him, that means it’s the other one.”

The girl seemed to realize her situation as she started backing away, keeping her hands near the large scroll on her lower back. Before Zabuza could issue any orders, the girl’s Sensei burst out of the forest and pinned the girl to a tree.

“SEIKO! WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT RUNNING OFF AND DOING STUPID THINGS?! WHAT DID I SAY?!”

The woman was upset, yelling without rage, but concern. Zabuza was now left with a new conundrum, as it became clearer from the sudden shouting that started after the woman got there that the sensei was unaware the girl ran off to them in the first place.

Zabuza didn't normally have trouble negotiating with the feeling in his gut, but he knew something was off with Gatō. He agrees to a contract with village shinobi, but then tries to squeeze more work into them after they arrive, despite it being outside parameters? Zabuza wasn’t fully up to date, but he knew about the rumors of Suna’s economic decline. These shinobi seemed less desperate than his own group. Perhaps Suna was doing better.

Signalling Haku and the twins to stand down, Zabuza walked over to the still yelling sensei and student.

“Excuse me.”

The shouting stopped, and both women looked at him.

“What is going on? And don’t skip out on anything. Your little one is definitely trying to protect our mark, so I want to know why. You aren’t getting paid by the village and you aren’t bleeding hearts like the tree-huggers, so what gives?”

The two looked back at each other, but the girl spoke up before her sensei could but in.

“Has Gatō-San asked you to kill us before or after you kill the engineer?”

“Seiko!”

Zabuza rolled his eyes.

“After.”

The sensei winced, but the girl continued.

“How much did he offer you?”

“Forty-thousand.”

The girl giggled as the older woman closed her eyes at hit her head on the tree.

“That stupid man...”

Zabuza blinked before narrowing his eyes.

“What are you talking about?”

The sensei reopened her eyes and let go of her student who barely caught herself on the ground.

“Gatō-San is only promising you forty-thousand because that’s the amount he already paid us.”

Zabuza's mind shorted out for a moment.

“You were already paid?”

The woman shook her head.

“No, I demanded half of our payment up front after we arrived after the man tried to add more work for no pay and was being... inconsiderate to myself and my students. I had one of my break and then mend his leg to our half upfront.”

The gears in Zabuza’s head began to roll.

“He’s... he's paying you eighty-thousand to stand around on the island?!”

The woman nodded.

“Yes, but he was intending on having us killed before we left, so it’s really just the promise of eighty-thousand Ryō. I imagine he will try the same with you, given the opportunity.”

She wasn’t wrong, but Zabuza also needed an income stream if he ever wanted to get back to Kiri. Zabuza and his team were originally enticed by the offer of an assassination for twenty-thousand Ryō, and here this team was getting four times that amount for barely anything. Then, another thought hit him.

“If you had his leg broken, why haven’t you killed him yet?”

This time, the girl spoke up.

“Nami will improve given time if we leave the structure of Gatō’s company here. We just need to remove the mercenaries and the leadership and make sure the land has time to adjust. If we kill him now, someone else can just show up and take his place.”

Ah, so there was a bit of bleeding heart there.

Grabbing her younger student’s shoulder, the sensei looked up at Zabuza.

“Tell you what, Momochi-San; Since we are both being screwed over by that short-stack, how about we come to an arrangement?”

This should be good. Zabuza nodded for her to continue.

“We continue playing hired muscle for the next week or so, carrying on as we normally would. Your team gives the engineer and his escorts, since he probably won’t come back without them, a good fight, but leave before things truly get nasty. Then, once my team and I have secured everything we need for a hostile takeover, we deal with the mercenaries and Gatō and I can promise your group dividends from the company for the foreseeable future.”

The women seemed genuine enough, but Zabuza wasn't fool enough to agree to an errand without a set payday.

“How much?”

The woman thought about it for a moment.

“Ten percent, annually.”

Zabuza scoffed.

“Only ten?! For saving these villagers, when they haven't done it themselves?”

The woman sighed.

“The village deserves most of the money and you know that. Plus, Suna needs to be dealt in since we will be sponsoring Nami’s ownership, likely along with Konoha assuming they sent shinobi themselves.”

This was true, but Zabuza could use a more stable income than what trash he had been scrounging through for the last several months.

“Make it twenty.”

The woman gaped at him like a fish.

“Don’t give me that look, I need a lot of money and if I can get it, you can have Kiri on Nami’s side as well as soon as I get back there to put down Karatachi.”

The two Suna-nin looked at one another for a moment, before the sensei reached out her hand.

“Tentatively, I will agree. We can get specifics before we head home after all.”

Zabuza took her hand and firmly grasped it.

“Fine, but keep in mind I will not hold back. If one of them accidentally dies...”

“Then they were gonna die in the field. Sure, that's fair. Besides, they probably need to be reminded they could be killed on poorly checked over missions. What kind of missions office would fall for a civilian trying to lie anyways? Not ours.”

Zabuza nodded and left the women and went back to the pier where Haku and the twins were quietly waiting.

“Alright, new plan; we are faking it for a bigger payout later. Here's the plan...”

Chapter Text

Not Everybody Gets A Good Time

[Ijō Mura, 1016-Chūō, March 13th, Year 63 of the Shinchu-Jidai]

The new collaboration with Zabuza’s group quickly sped up the Junko’s ability to pinpoint the bottlenecks and internal operations of Gatō’s machine. The short businessman was quick to accept that the Demon Brothers were sent to intercept the the engineer before he could return, leaving Zabuza and Haku to deal with them immediately if they arrived unscathed.

The truth was, of course, that the brothers were quickly making their way into places Kaiza could not as a dockhand, and the information they found made future planning that much more concrete.

Gatō was operating a two-tiered logistical empire stretching from the farthest reaches of Mizu-no-Kuni all the way to a small port in Kagi-no-Kuni northwest of the far side of Kaze-no-Kuni.

On the front end, bulk freight was carried across Ikari-no-Umi between major and minor nations alike using Gatō’s fleet of steam ships. More stable and not dependent on larger more experienced crews, Gatō could move more cargo, more reliably, with fewer people to pay, leaving him to keep his prices lower than his competitors, even so much as artificially lowering them to run competitors out if need be.

On the back end, having free reign over most of the bulk freight and taking advantage of people’s susceptibility to corruption, Gatō was also running contraband between the nations, often mixed with the bulk freight that was already taking up too much Custom’s time to look over as is. The twins found extensive record of drug and weapons sales, with some minor planning towards limited expansion down other avenues.

Human trafficking, along with a far more legal front of immigration, were seemingly the next markets to dive into, but Gatō was running into issues regarding both sourcing and end markets. Labor would be the most obvious starting point, but the Shinobi Villages had a significant interest in movements of large numbers of people. The last two wars saw large gatherings of refugees form Trojan Horses for attacking shinobi, so trying to run a largescale immigration operation like Gatō intended would be too much scrutiny for the mogul.

Of course, Gatō did go ahead and make the mistake of making Nami his breadbasket. From the records they were looking into, Gōzu and Meizu found that previously, Gatō’s organization operated more akin to a feud; Gatō would grant authority to some lower operating manager who would owe Gatō and the company some share of their operating profits, while the manager would have more direct day-to-day control. Once Gatō moved his operation to Nami however, that changed.

Nami was the new central hub to Gatō’s trading empire, and with that came a reduction in autonomy from the various spokes as well as a more concentrated vulnerability to the core of the operation. Gatō’s empire was now only as well defended as the quality of the mercenaries he had hired, with no back-up plan or contingency if his hold over Nami was to collapse. If the engineer succeeded in building his bridge, his profits would easily dwindle to half, if not more, just due to the ability for land trade to pick its way through Gatō’s cost of operation, slow as it might be.

But, the people of Nami didn’t need opulence. They just needed opportunity, and the shinobi already present were the catalysts at play.

Zabuza and Junko spent much of their shared public time together in open disagreement and animosity, making it appear as though there was enough friction to catch the whole of the land on fire with enough kindling. Really though, the two were maintaining situational awareness and enough intimidation factor to prevent any attempts at potential infiltration.

Gōzu and Meizu, along with Kaiza to a lesser extent, were still handling the infiltration, identification, and steady replacement of business records where possible. Since the twins were already ‘on assignment’, they were focused on remaining unseen and undetected. This was likely their easiest mission in years, since Gatō was clearly not employing shinobi or any shinobi-grade protection. The hubris of the wealthy, Seiko supposed.

Along with daily reconnaissance, Akio and Kentarō were spending their time warming the villagers up to the shinobi by helping around with odd jobs around Ijō Mura and some of the other outlying villages. There had been no issue with Gatō’s mercenaries since Shi Butai arrived, but that was likely going to change in the near future. From the records found, Gatō had been regularly switching out mercenaries roughly every month to avoid any lasting issues with the villages in Nami. That practice seemed to stop after Seiko’s team arrived nearly a month ago, likely on the belief that the situation in Nami would stabilize.

Seiko and Haku were also performing daily reconnaissance, and it was becoming more and more obvious things were going to escalate with the mercenaries eventually. They were bored, being paid to stand around, and Nami-no-Kuni was no Tanzaku Gai. There were no casinos, bars, or brothels here, and the few local girls that decided to give a mercenary or two the time of day quickly broke off contact not soon after. The villagers already were not fans of the occupation, but the balance of power had not fully shifted away from Gatō yet, so the threat was more apparent.

Seiko only hoped that the line would hold for a few more days.

Haku was... odd, to put it mildly. Seiko was regularly trying to work with the boy, since he was one of the more interesting early characters and a decent inspiration for the outfit Seiko had put together. But, Haku was standoffish, somewhere between aloof and overwound, though handling himself with all the grace of someone with their life put together.

Many of their days scoping out the island were spent in silence, albeit not without a murmur here and there between the two about the day or ‘work’. It was another one of these days, silently waiting for the engineer to show up with a gaggle of Konoha-nin to drive along Gatō’s downfall when Seiko figured she would push up the ante in getting Haku to talk a bit more.

“So what’s Hyōton like?”

Haku stilled on the large branch the two were sitting on, overlooking one of the approaches near the massive incomplete bridge.

“Excuse me?”

Seiko rolled her eyes.

“I have a nature transformation Kekkei Genkai as well, so don’t freak out. I just want to know what yours is like.”

The other boy just narrowed their eyes in confusion and barely concealed suspicion.

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

Sighing, Seiko molded the inky black flames of Meiton in her hands.

“You are the only member of the Yuki clan I am aware of, though, I am fairly certain there are plenty more of your distant family alive. Perhaps further away from Kiri, less clustered together and assuming pseudonyms.”

The flames disappeared and Haku looked back to the water, gentle lapping waves obscuring the hidden rip currents and whirlpools brought forth by the changing tides.

"... Why are you asking about these things anyways. They are irrelevant to the mission.”

Seiko shrugged.

“Partly to pass the time, partly to make the world a nicer place. I still need to figure out how I’m going to get to Kiri and undo the Genjutsu on the Mizukage.”

Haku’s head snapped back to Seiko.

“What did you just say?”

Seiko grinned beneath her mask.

“People don’t usually go off the deep end without some clear break. I haven’t been to Mizu or Kiri, but I do know that your Mizukage was not always as ruthless as they are now. Considering the last war ended... about thirteen years ago, it isn’t out of the question that he could have been put under a subtle Genjutsu that has been causing him to be horrible.”

Haku scoffed.

“And what, you think that reason is Genjutsu? You just said you’ve never been to Kiri. You wouldn’t know what its like.”

Seiko tsked.

“Yeah, yeah. People tend to overlook just how powerful Genjutsu can be in the right applications. My team and I were in Konoha not long ago and I dispelled a Genjutsu that was on their Hokage, so its not as wild an idea as it seems.”

Haku was silent for a few minutes.

“... What kind of Genjutsu was the Hokage under? I haven’t heard of much chaos in Hi since we left Kiri.”

Seiko shook her hand.

“Nothing like the Mizukage, that’s for sure. The Genjutsu placed on the Hokage was exceptionally subtle. Nothing like a compulsion or a blind spot, but a seeming disregard for certain bits of information regarding policy. A willingness to just let things fester and rot as is, seeing as Konoha is still the strongest village on paper.”

Haku and Seiko went back to sitting in silence, though the boy spoke back up again after several more minutes of looking back over the fog covered waters.

“... It’s like a cool mist coursing through your veins. A gentle breeze in the dead night of winter. Crisp and cool.”

Seiko smiled.

“That’s nice. My Meiton... it feels like numbness. That dull tingly feeling when the circulation as been cut off for a bit, but its also dependent on whether or not I’m using or taking Chakra away like...”

“WOW IT’S HUGE!”

Seiko went silent immediately and Haku already had a senbon prepared as a loud voice penetrated the dull silence of the fog. Haku and Seiko’s eyes darted across their surroundings until they finally tracked the exclamation back to a small boat silently making its way through the seemingly safe waters.

It was a little difficult to see through the fog clinging to the water’s surface, but Seiko thought she could make out at least three adults and two or more children or teenagers. The boat was rocking a little since one of the children was now being held down, likely after making the racket.

“Well Haku, I do believe this would be your team’s mark. Do you want to go head back and...”

Seiko looked over her shoulder and found Haku had already disappeared.

“’Well, thank you for accompanying me Seiko. Yes, let’s head back and tell everyone the engineer is here.’”

Seiko stood up and took off across the trees back to the main road towards Ijō Mura. With all luck, Junko-Sensei probably already informed Zabuza that the escort group had arrived, so it would just be a matter of time before he engaged the tree-huggers.

“Hopefully its not a complete bloodbath today.”

Arriving at the shore on a small rowboat, two adults and three young teenagers disembarked and waved towards the quickly departing ferryman. The group was distinct and eclectic compared to the common dress of the locals. The adults both wore muted colors, a brown tunic and pair of pants for the older man and a discreet uniform of dark green and blue for the younger shinobi. The children though were a different story. A bright orange jumpsuit, a brilliant red Qipao, and a navy high collar shirt with white shorts.

The group was laden down with their travel packs and a little nervous, knowing that there mission and irreversibly changed due to their client not being entirely honest with the village.

Kakashi was livid. First, it turns out their client, Tazuna-San, had misrepresented the bandit threat on the way to Nami. This wasn’t the worst thing that could happen, since it made their little escort mission that much easier. However, it was when they caught their transport to Nami that the truth started coming out.

The ferryman told Tazuna that his son-in-law had been killed in an altercation back in Nami, which prompted Kakashi’s realization that they weren’t dealing with bandits on the way to Nami, but a hostile takeover of the land itself.

A mission they were not briefed for, packed for, suited for, and certainly not paid for.

Unfortunately for Kakashi, there was no talking down his naïve genin from completing their mission, each having a different take for why they should keep going.

Naruto, much like his father before him, was something of a bleeding heart and saw this as a substantial upgrade to their original mission.

Sasuke saw this as a direct challenge; nothing more than another step to eventually taking his vengeance on his brother.

Sakura was somewhere in between the two, a bleeding heart like Naruto, but also not wanting to leave Sasuke due to her schoolgirl crush on the boy. Kakashi was hoping something would eventually shake her from this childishness, but he didn’t know how exactly to take the next step.

He never did want to become a sensei, after all.

Naruto’s shout not ten minutes before they made landfall had Kakashi more concerned. If Tazuna and the ferryman were this worried about making noise, then that could only mean two things.

Either they were likely to fight an entire army of bandits, mercenaries, or soldiers; or there were potentially shinobi in the area. Kakashi cursed the Sandaime’s sympathies for pushing his greatest failures back on him as a sensei.

Once the boat landed and everyone disembarked, Kakashi yanked Tazuna over into the woods and placed his most menacing glare on the man.

“Alright, I need you to be more honest than you ever have been in your life. What is the situation? I am not about to lead my genin into a death trap just to save your sorry hide.”

Tazuna withered under the scrutiny, trying to avert his eyes from Kakashi’s black gaze.

“Everything I told you on the boat is true, there are mercenaries and a businessman who have taken over the land. But, Daisuke also told me on the way over that Gatō has recently hired shinobi since I left.”

Fuck.

Kakashi closed his eyes and counted down from ten.

Jyō.

Ku.

Hachi.

Nana.

Roku.

Go.

Yon.

San.

Ni.

Ichi.

Kakashi opened his eyes and punched the nearest tree with a resounding crack.

“How many?!”

Tazuna squirmed.

“There are apparently eight on the island now, two separate teams.”

Kakashi yelled in frustration, pressing an extended finger into Tazuna’s chest, pushing the man back a few paces.

“If anything happens to my team, I am holding you responsible!”

Kakashi stormed back to the road where his genin were patiently waiting for him. Naruto immediately perked up.

“Oy, Kakashi-Sensei, did you have a good talk with Tazuna-San?”

Kakashi tightened a grip on his emotions and gave his team his characteristic eye smile.

“Of course! That being said, we are now in dangerous territory since there are apparently eight shinobi we could potentially encounter, so I need all of you to understand that if I tell you to ‘run’, or ‘abandon the mission’, you need to obey immediately. Understood?”

Naruto scowled.

“No way, Kakashi-Sensei! I will never give up, that’s my Nindō!”

Kakashi didn’t need to wait long before Sakura swung her fist right into the back of Naruto’s head.

“Naruto-Baka! You don’t just get to ignore Kakashi-Sensei’s orders!”

Sasuke scoffed.

“As much as I hate to agree with Naruto, I think we should continue regardless. I won’t get any stronger doing errands around the village with you two.”

Kakashi sighed. Today was going to be a long day.

“Let’s go. If I say run, you run, no arguments. I am not about to go home with body scrolls of genin.”

The small group of five began their trek towards Tazuna’s home, the dirt road slowly succumbing to the surrounding flora from lack of use. While his student’s were relaxed, Kakashi and Tazuna were entirely too wound up due to the ambient danger in being here.

Kakashi wasn’t one to brag outside of his interactions with Gai, but he was one of the better shinobi in Konoha, even if being kicked out of ANBU a few years ago might have him just out of peak condition. Kakashi knew he could handle eight shinobi alone, he had fought and killed more when he was his genins’ age.

But fighting eight shinobi, potentially all chūnin or higher, without losing concentration on watching his client and his genin? There was a reason he told them to abandon the mission and he hoped they would commit when ordered. Kakashi wasn’t that good.

The fog that blanketed the water was still present, though now growing unnaturally quickly, dulling the teams’ footsteps as they walked. It was this fact that clued Kakashi in that something was deeply wrong.

There was only a slight moment where Kakashi heard a distant buffeting of air when he realized what was happening.

“EVERYONE DOWN!”

Sasuke and Sakura quickly tackled Tazuna to the ground, but Naruto turned rather than acted.

“Wha...?”

Kakashi launched himself forward and wrapped a handful of Naruto’s jumpsuit and yanked him to the ground. Just as he pulled, a spinning greatsword flew just over the boy’s head, cutting a few centimeters off the top of his shaggy head. The sword continued to fly until it cut halfway through a tree on the other side of the road. Before the group could stand up, a tall man shunshin’d on top of the hilt of the stuck sword, standing with his back to the group, looking over his shoulder at the group.

“So, this is the man Gatō wants dead.”

Kakashi took a moment to stand up, but he quickly recognized the shinobi that attacked them.

Momochi Zabuza; one of the seven swordsmen of Kiri.

The team needed to leave, immediately.

Crouching down, Zabuza sat down on the hilt of his still stuck sword.

“Alright, listen up Konoha-nin; I have no direct quarrel with you, but you are currently defending a man I am being paid to kill. If you leave now, we can avoid any more confrontation and you can return back to your safe village. However, if you stay, I will take my time making you watch me kill each of your comrades, before I kill your client. I will give you a few minutes to make your decision, but don’t make me wait too long.”

Zabuza was seemingly not taking his team seriously, so Kakashi was preparing to end this fight before it could start.

Naruto ruined his chance before he could even take it.

“Hell no! We aren’t turning back now, we’ve come too far to give up to some cow-print wearing swordsman!”

Fuck.

“Naruto, please shut up, for five minutes.”

Naruto looked back to Kakashi.

“But, Kakashi-sensei!”

Zabuza perked up.

“Oh, do my ears deceive me?!”

The man took a good long look at Kakashi, now more alert than he was before.

“Ah, so they do not. You are Hatake-Kakashi, the Kopī-ninja. This is getting more exciting by the second.”

Kakashi sighed.

“And you are Momochi Zabuza, the Kirigakure-no-Kijin.”

Zabuza’s eyes mimicked Kakashi’s eye smile.

“Oh, so you have heard of me. I am honored. Please tell me you don’t want to run, I could use a good massacre after so long. I’ve been so terribly bored.”

Killing intent flooded the road, bringing everyone but Kakashi to their knees.

“Everyone get up, I need you defending the Tazuna-San. Momochi-San isn’t going to let us leave anymore.”

Wrapping a hand around the hilt of his sword, Zabuza nodded.

“Truest words I’ve heard today, Hatake-San. I hope you are ready.”

In one fluid motion, Zabuza tipped over the back of his sword and fell to the ground, yanking the blade from the tree. Right as he reached the ground, the man pushed his legs against the trunk, launching himself and his sword right at Tazuna.

With a mighty clang, Zabuza’s greatsword was deflected with a kunai by Kakashi.

“EVERYONE MOVE, DO NOT ABANDON THE CLIENT.”

The genin quickly scrambled to assist Tazuna off the ground as Kakashi launched himself at Zabuza. The Kiri-nin laughed at the effort.

“So, you are a sensei now? Last I heard, you were the poster boy of ANBU. How did you get brat duty?”

Kakashi remained silent, slashing at Zabuza in an attempt to buy his team more time.

“Oh, so you are serious then? Not even going to give a fellow shinobi small talk? I see the rumors of your professionalism are true.”

Zabuza quickly backflipped away, planting his sword for a moment as he went through his mudra.

Ushi.

Mi.

Hitsuji.

[Kirigakure-no-Jutsu]

“Time to make sure the lambs can’t leave the slaughterhouse.”

The misty fog that blanketed the road quickly grew thick with chakra as Kakashi quickly backtracked to where his genin had stopped.

“Everyone, Zabuza is a master of silent killing; assume the Manji Formation and make sure Zabuza can’t get to Tazuna-San.”

Before he lost sight of them to the fog, he saw his genin quickly form a triangle around Tazuna, Sakura and Sasuke taking up his forward flanks and Naruto taking his rear.

Once the sound completely disappeared, Zabuza’s dark chuckle reverberated through the fog.

“Eight points; Larynx, Spine, Lungs, Liver, Jugular, Subclavian Artery, Kidneys, Heart. Which will I choose?”

Kakashi was rigid, all senses focusing on anything that could reveal Zabuza’s location. Raising his Hitai-ate over his left eye, Kakashi closed both of his eyes and quickly went through his mudra and waited.

Ushi.

U.

Saru.

Through the deafening silence, there was a slight distortion and Kakashi pounced.

[Chidori]

Just as Zabuza materialized beneath Tazuna, sword angled in front of him, the chirping of thousands of birds broke through the silence. Zabuza stumbled to the ground as his sword struggled to hold after Kakashi appeared and tore a hole through the lower part of the blade with a dense layer of crackling Raiton.

“Well, that was close Hatake. You almost hit my heart.”

Zabuza swung his sword to the right, dragging Kakashi’s still stuck wrist with it. Zabuza kicked at the man, trying to free Kakashi’s wrist from the sword. Kakashi quickly realized his position and tried to hold on.

“Attack him!”

Kakashi’s genin launched themselves at Zabuza, kunai at the ready, while Zabuza was still trying to free his sword of Kakashi. After a few slashes he couldn’t avoid, Zabuza dropped his grip on his sword and quickly disappeared. The sword fell, Kakashi barely keeping the blade from cutting through his leg as he slowly freed his wrist from the torched through hole.

The mist cleared for a moment and the genin tried to help Kakashi back up before he barked back at them.

“Defend the client, focus on him!”

Sakura and Naruto quickly complied, but Sasuke’s vision was locked on Kakashi’s uncovered eye.

His sharingan.

“Where did you get that?!”

Kakashi sighed.

“Sasuke, we don’t have time for this...”

“I deserve to know!”

Zabuza suddenly reappeared, kicking Kakashi in the gut before reaching for his sword. Sasuke reacted on instinct, stabbing his Kunai several centimeters into Zabuza’s thigh. As the blood quickly raced out of his new wound, Zabuza elbowed Sasuke in the face on instinct before disappearing again.

On the ground with his nose bleeding and in severe pain, Sasuke quickly rolled over and stood back up. Kakashi appeared to his left attempting to help him up, but Sasuke rolled his shoulder to lose his grip.

Before either could speak, Sakura’s scream carried through the fog, forcing both to rush forward towards the noise, ignoring their previous altercation. Breaking through to the next isolated clearing, Kakashi found Sakura barely holding her own as Zabuza was struggling to swing his sword effectively with a kunai stuck in his leg and an oblong hole in his sword critically messing with his handling.

“Stop... moving!”

With tears in her eyes, Sakura continued to frantically parry the larger sword with each awkward swing. Squeezing her eyes shut, Sakura screamed as she swung once more with as much force as she could.

“LEAVE ME ALONE!”

The kunai connected with the greatsword, but this time, the sword did not deflect off to the side. Instead, the tip of the kunai peeled through the metal like paper, cutting a line far enough into the broad end of the blade for the heavier end of the sword to snap off, sinking into the nearby ground.

Sakura opened her eyes and blinked, slowly looking between the sword and Zabuza. After a moment of silence, Zabuza walked forward and lifted Sakura with his free arm by the neck, squeezing as he brought her up to his face.

“You broke my sword.”

Sakura was scrambling, legs swinging wildly as she fruitlessly punched and pawed at his arms.

“How did you manage that? What did you do?”

Before Kakashi or Sasuke could rush to help her, an orange blur launched into Zabuza’s back, freeing Sakura from her strangulation and knocking the man back to the ground. Naruto quickly straddled the man, punching the man’s face enunciating his shouts as he went.

“DON’T... YOU... EVER... TOUCH... SAKURA-CHAN!”

One more punch and Naruto’s fist was caught by Zabuza, who quickly grabbed the boy and threw him to the side. The man stood up, taking the hilt of his sword and looking back over to Kakashi.

“This isn’t over Hatake, but I clearly underestimated you, so I will take my leave now.”

Zabuza started running down the road and Naruto quickly started chasing after him.

“Hey, don’t run away you coward!”

Kakashi tried to call the boy back but was interrupted when Naruto seemingly tripped on air. The boy fell to the ground, face dragging through the dirt, but not before the dull thud of metal implanting in the ground brought Kakashi’s adrenaline right back.

Two senbon were stuck in the ground behind Naruto, but given their angle...

They would have hit the boy in the heart had he not tripped and fell.

The fog continued to dissipate, and before long, two figures could be seen arguing on the road ahead of the ambushed group. Both were shinobi, masked as well, but their manners of dress were entirely opposite. Kakashi marked one as Kiri Oinin, if not a little short and a little young to be a formal member. The other was dressed like a Suna-nin on excursion, though oddly masked liked their counterpart. They looked familiar, even if the mask and outfit were completely different from something Kakashi would remember.

With the fog lifted, the two stopped their arguing and looked back towards their group. The Kiri-nin quickly disappeared but the other stood there for a moment.

“You owe me, tree-huggers! And I intend to collect!”

With that, the girl followed suit and disappeared. With Kakashi no longer on edge, he finally relaxed. Of course, he also realized then that he may have overdone it and fell the ground, exhausted of his Chakra.

Naruto marched with Tazuna towards his home and Sakura and Sasuke, both more battered than their loud teammate, dragged their Sensei’s unconscious body down the road.

Sakura’s tears had dried, but angry hand-shaped bruises blemished her normally put together appearance and Sasuke was not much better, nose bloodied and crooked marring his normally ‘flawless’ appearance.

Tazuna’s gaze was empty, knowing fully that his life, the life of his family, and the future of Nami-no-Kuni were in the hands of a trio of brightly colored children. He wasn’t sure if he was going to survive the night at this point.

Arriving at his home, Tazuna sighed.

“Tadaima.”

The genin trudged in not long after him with their sensei as Tazuna’s grandson greeted the older man.

“Okaeri, Ojīchan.”

Tazuna was immediately concerned.

“Inari, where is your mother?”

“Oh, she’s out getting groceries. She should be back soon.”

Looking over the group of Konoha-nin, Inari looked back to his grandfather.

“Who are these people?”

Tazuna sighed.

“The people who will save our land.”

Inari scrunched his face.

“They don’t look like much.”

Tazuna turned back to the confused teenagers.

“There should be some space and a spare futon for your sensei upstairs. We will start getting construction of the bridge back going tomorrow, so I will need at least one of you to help with that.”

The group nodded as they slowly dragged Kakashi’s body upstairs. Once they were able to stop and take a breath, Sasuke looked over the his teammates, assuming he was now in charge.

“I know the girl who saved Naruto.”

Both teammates looked back at him, Naruto scoffing.

“Saved me? She’s an enemy, isn’t she? Why would she do that?”

Sasuke looked at the boy.

“Because you know her too apparently. She was in Konoha while we were still in the academy. She was at my compound.”

Sakura looked back to Sasuke.

“Sasuke-kun, you had a girl over?!”

Sasuke squeezed his nose for half a second before being painfully reminded his nose was broken.

“She was visiting the shrine to Amaterasu Ōmikami. She speaks to Kami, and I witnessed enough to know she wasn’t lying. But she is here now.”

Emotions flew over Naruto’s face as his memory returned to him.

“She knows about my clan...”

Sasuke and Sakura looked back to Naruto.

“You have a clan?!”

Naruto nodded.

“Apparently Shodaime-Sama’s wife was an Uzumaki, from a village full of them. But Jiji never told me...”

Sakura scrunched her face.

“Now that I think about it, our textbooks in the Academy never mentioned where Mito-Sama was from. Only that she was from a powerful clan from a foreign country. So I guess she could be Uzumaki Mito. But...”

Sakura looked at Naruto.

“You don’t have bright red hair. But, maybe your facial features are similar. We could look into it when we get back.”

Naruto’s face brightened.

“Like a study date, Sakura-chan?!”

Naruto quickly backed away as Sakura made to punch him.

“Ok, I’m sorry! Please don’t punch me, you hit hard!”

Remembering what happened earlier with Zabuza, Sasuke looked at Sakura.

“What... did you do to Zabuza’s sword earlier?”

Blushing, Sakura looked away.

“I really don’t know. I was just really scared and put all my energy into one swipe and suddenly his sword was in two pieces. I have no idea how that worked!”

Sakura looked back at Kakashi.

“Do we know what’s wrong with Kakashi-Sensei? I don’t think we can handle those shinobi if they decide to come back and he’s still out.”

Sasuke looked over the man with a sneer.

“He’s chakra exhausted because he has my clan’s Dōjutsu... somehow. I demanded an explanation during the fight, but he passed out before he could give me an answer. Non-Uchiha burn through more Chakra using the Sharingan than we do, because their bodies aren’t built for it.”

Sasuke closed his eyes.

“He will probably be out for at least a few days, a week at most. In the meantime...”

Sasuke reopened his eyes, looking at Sakura and Naruto.

“We are on our own in hostile territory, but I believe that girl might be on our side. I want one of us to be with Tazuna-San, one of us with Kakashi-Sensei, and one of us fanning out to find that girl. There are clearly more shinobi here than that Zabuza guy, so we will need to be careful.”

“Sakura.”

The girl looked at Sasuke.

“You have the least Chakra of the three of us and could potentially blend in better. The only issue would be your hair.”

Sakura sighed.

“You want me to henge and find the girl don’t you?”

Sasuke nodded.

“I’m still the best fighter out of us and Naruto is way too obvious.”

Naruto loudly objected to both claims but Sakura slowly nodded, resigned from the day's events.

“Fine, I’ll do it.”

Chapter Text

Cashing In

[Ijō Mura, 1103-Chūō, March 14th, Year 63 of the Shinchu-Jidai]

Sakura knew this was a bad idea. Kakashi-Sensei, despite all the assurances from Ino (Not that they were still friends or anything!) that he was somehow really good, had not taught her team a thing since they become genin two months ago.

It already hurt enough that Sasuke-Kun kept rejecting her advances only for Naruto to double down on annoying her, but for her Sensei to not bother with anything only made Sakura feel worse about her future prospects.

She already knew she was behind her peers physically, but she also figured that after graduation her sensei would help build her up more. So far, that had not happened.

{I don’t know, Kakashi seems to be a moron. Who doesn’t turn around when it becomes clear that a mission has gone tits up?}

[Well, I did support the boys wanting to stay as well.]

{Bravo on that one, Outer, you have committed us to getting killed or worse. Tell me, do you remember which part of the Konoha Code we violated?}

Sakura sighed.

[... Title Two, Chapter Three, Section Four, Paragraph Two.]

{All those brains and you decided we should risk our life for a boy who won’t even look at us! Do you even have a plan?}

[It would help if you would suggest some things rather than just criticize me for once! We just got here, how am I supposed to know where the foreign shinobi are?!]

Sakura stopped walking and leaned against one of the nearby village buildings. She had changed out of her characteristic Qipao into one of Tsunami’s dresses, tightened up with some straps to make up for the fact that Sakura wasn’t the same size as her. It was a dull and muted blue, the dye washed partially washed out from regular ware, and the sleeves were far longer than a normal child’s dress. This was an advantage though, since Sakura could easily carry her tools within the sleeves without being as easily noticed.

Her characteristic cherry blossom pink had been replaced through the henge with a more typical dark brown, helping Sakura not to stand out in the quiet and depressing village.

Ijō Mura lacked the crowds and amenities Sakura was used to in Konoha, and the silence was not doing much to help her nerves. Worse, was that the villagers seemed to know she wasn’t from around there and were doing their best to avoid dealing with her in the slightest. Sakura stood out, not because she looked out of place, but because she could not blend in the with slow half-dead heart of this village.

It only took a few more minutes before Sakura caught someone’s eye.

“Well hello girlie, I haven’t seen you around here before. Where did you come from?”

Sakura jumped, turning to her right to find two of Gatō’s hired mercenaries leaning under the awning of one of the houses she was just passing. Both seemed bored, but the one further back had his eye locked on Sakura.

[Oh crap, what do I do?!]

{Pretend to be a new girl! Say your dad is working at the docks!}

Stuttering, Sakura collected herself.

“U-uh, Papa works at the docks, we just got in a few days ago, so I’m still getting used to the place.”

The leader of the two men nodded.

“Kid of a new hire then, well you are in luck. My buddy and I were looking for something to do, since this place hasn’t exactly taken off yet, and you might be able to help us.”

{Ok, we are dealing with hostiles then, but we can’t break our cover yet. Let them lead you away and then deal with them Immediately. We can’t have you freeze up here.}

Sakura tilted her head to the side.

“Yeah?”

The man grinned and nodded.

“Yeah, come with us for a bit, we will show you a little playhouse we found not too long ago.”

The lead man leaned off the side of the building and started walking towards the bridge at the center of the village, the other man following only after Sakura started following herself. The trio walked, getting further and further from the village, until they arrived at a small shed on the edge of a meadow.

{Yep, have your kunai ready to gut these bastards if they make a move.}

Sakura was slightly shaking with anticipation. This was the most danger she had ever been in and she had no backup if she could not act fast enough.

The man in front turned around and faced Sakura.

“Looks fun, right? We can be as loud as we want over here, and we shouldn’t bother anyone. Are you ready for some fun?”

Sakura tilted her head, playing along.

“Are we playing a game?”

The man nodded.

“Yeah, we have some toys in the playhouse, so we can play in there.”

Walking backwards, the man opened the door and waved for Sakura to walk inside.

“After you, girlie.”

Sakura nodded and walked slowly, keeping track of any quick movements by the men. They were relaxed, not worried about whether or not Sakura could attack them.

{Alright, get ready to strike them.}

Palming her kunai within her sleeve, Sakura took in the room she was walking into. It was a small workshop, the walls laden with some farming tools, ropes, and spare bits of metal Sakura couldn’t identify immediately. The space was, aside from some dust here and there, fairly clean and spacious.

The men wasted no time filing in after her, the last man closing the door behind him.

Sakura stood there, facing away from them and thinking.

[I think this was a bad idea, what if they overpower me?]

{Oh my kami, you cannot be freezing up on us right now! Stab them!}

[The kunai is still in my sleeve, it might get caught when I try to move!]

{Shut up and stab them, we are running out of time!}

[I don’t think I can kill them!]

{STAB THEM!}

A hand gripped Sakura’s right shoulder and the girl whirled around, striking out with her kunai.

Her wrist was caught before her strike could ring true.

Panicking, Sakura began rapidly shaking in the stranger’s grip, trying to regain her mobility and break contact before she could be held down. The hand let go, and Sakura scrambled to the door, bursting back outside.

Before she could make a break for it, the hand returned and yanked her to the ground by her long hair. Digging her fingers into the ground, Sakura tried to crawl forward to get her knees in a position to launch herself back up into a run, but quickly found her body being dragged back by her legs.

With a roll, Sakura was flipped over onto her back and a weight settled on her stomach. Lashing out with her kunai again, her wrist was once again caught.

Sakura was trapped.

The seconds ticked by in silence as Sakura slowly took in her situation. She was just laying there, her wrists held up and away by...

... The masked girl from the other day.

{... How did you accidently freeze into success?! This never happens?!}

“Oy, Chica, are you back with me yet?”

Sakura shook her head.

“What?”

The masked girl looked up to the sky for a moment, audibly sighing.

“Finally! I have been trying to get your attention for minutes now. What is wrong with you?”

“What is wrong with me?”

The other girl nodded.

“You allowed two grown men to lead you away from town to what, try and interrogate them? Baby Bubblegum, you don’t have enough muscle mass to be toying around with grown men, even if you are trained...”

The girl chuckled.

“... And even that is a stretch. My goodness, you tree-huggers are a mess!”

Sakura’s sense of danger returned and she frantically started looking around.

“The mercenaries! Where are they?!”

The masked girl released Sakura’s arms and held the girl’s face focusing her attention on the cloth wrap mask she was wearing.

“Easy there, Blossom, you are safe now. I knocked out the men before they could tie you up... Mainly because you were just standing there doing nothing.”

{Ok, so you had to be saved. Great.}

“... How long?”

The other girl tilted her head back and forth for a moment.

“... Just under a minute? I thought you had a plan, which is why you went along with everything, but then you just froze, so I had to come in and deal with you before things got too far along. You now owe me twice though.”

Sakura closed her eyes, face hot with embarrassment.

“Ugh, I’m so bad at this.”

The weight on Sakura’s stomach disappeared and the girl found herself being lifted by the masked kunoichi.

“Cheer up, I can’t fault you from being ill prepared, both because you are from Konoha and because Kakashi sucks.”

{You know what, I like her.}

Sakura reopened her eyes and took a hard look at the other girl.

“You know my sensei?”

The girl nodded.

“He knocked me out the last time we met, but he didn’t turn me into T&I, so maybe he’s a better person than I am making him out to be. But...”

“... Let’s get out of here, it’ll only be a matter of time before someone at the docks notices that two of their dimwits are KIA, and I don’t intend for us to be caught.”

Sakura stopped.

“You killed them?!”

Sakura could imagine the girl’s eye roll through her mask.

“Of course I did? You are a child soldier! You should know that two mercenaries leading some teenager off into a shed is bad news! Even if they weren’t about to violate you for the next few hours, they are still on the menu for today!”

Sakura shook her head.

“Menu? Wait, why are you even here? How did you know where I was?”

Seiko was not having a good day. Zabuza’s dramatic fight with Kakashi and the rest of his team was exciting the day before, but the aftermath was far more of a headache. With Shi Butai on the island, Zabuza was able to get medical treatment within hours of his fight, leading him to be back in fighting shape well before Kakashi could recover from his exhaustion.

Worse, was Gatō’s mercenaries were finally chomping at the bit for more free reign over the island, having stood around and done nothing for weeks now. With no places to spend their money, they would do whatever they felt like to waste their time. Since Gatō was not about to give up his own protection, that meant he was going to sell out the people he was technically in obligation to.

The previous night saw a lot of planning between Kaiza, Zabuza, and Junko, and while negotiations about Gatō’s business was put on hold, the agreement to purge the island of mercenaries was unanimous.

Unfortunately, Seiko was given a new assignment, since Junko detected one of Kakashi’s brats leaving the rest behind.

Zabuza, Haku, Gōzu, and Meizu would handle the bulk of the mercenaries in the harbor itself. Junko, Akio, and Kentarō would spread out across Nami and deal with the small groups of mercenaries seen leaving the harbor and going on patrol or loitering in or around the villages. Seiko, of course, was now stuck trying to find the missing Konoha-nin and returning them to the outskirts of Nami. No need in drawing more fighters into the day’s drama after all, especially when the loyalties weren’t obvious.

Stretching in the morning sunlight, Seiko yawned as she kept her balance on one of Ijō Mura’s sloped rooftops. Junko-Sensei said that whoever was moving away from the others was heading towards the main village, but Seiko hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary yet.

{Ane, what about over there? That girl coming down the street?}

Seiko looked down the streets she could see and saw a teenager in a baggy dress slowly walking through town, looking around with wide eyes.

Unfortunately for Seiko, a Henge wasn’t exactly Genjutsu, so she couldn’t see through it like she could an actual illusion, but she was pretty sure she was looking at one Haruno Sakura. The main giveaways were the shinobi sandals and bright green eyes, not broken or damaged by the despair in Nami-no-Kuni.

The girl was walking around, looking for something, but also trying to go unnoticed. Unfortunately for her, Ijō Mura was a lot smaller than Konoha, meaning she was going to get noticed by someone eventually.

Probably not Seiko though.

Seiko kept her distance, jumping rooftop to rooftop as she tracked Sakura’s progress through the village. The villagers immediately recognized her as a stranger and kept their distance, which only made the girl more obvious as she kept walking. It was only when she was stopped by a pair of mercenaries that Seiko realized she was probably out looking for her or her team, given the events of the previous day.

{You know Ane, you probably shouldn’t have revealed yourself. This girl is now very much in danger.}

[Yeah, well, I didn’t volunteer for her to go out alone into hostile territory, so this is partly her fault. We can’t let her get hurt though.]

{Of course not. Are we holding back until we are forced to intervene?}

[Of course. I want to see if she has a plan first.]

The trio talked for a minute or two before the men starting leading Sakura over the river and away from the village. One led and the other followed, keeping Sakura in the center as they walked. The two men were older, maybe mid to late thirties, and sported some visible scars, meaning they weren’t green. Seiko had no doubt what they were planning, since they were already hanging around the village waiting for someone, but she still had no idea what Sakura was doing.

From her memory of the story from her past life, Seiko figured the girl was still naïve and inexperienced, especially without the twins fighting her team before arriving in Nami. But at the same time, Seiko did go through the Kunoichi program in Suna and figured at least some of those lectures were also given in Konoha.

They had to be.

Sakura was led to a shack next to an open meadow, well out of earshot of the village. Sakura walked in, followed by the two men, and unbeknownst to everyone else, Seiko, who slipped in after casting a slight Genjutsu obscuring her coming in right after Sakura.

Sakura walked inside, looking around for a moment, before walking towards a corner and staring into it, clearly palming a kunai or some other blade hidden in her sleeve given her body movement. Then...

... She just stood there.

The men, with grins spread wide across their faces, had already grabbed some rope and some jug of something, but quickly became confused when Sakura didn’t move or react to their voices. Before they could make another move, Seiko sprung into action.

Tora.

[Nehan-Shōja-no-Jutsu]

To the men, it only took two seconds for the small particles of dust falling from the ceiling to bring them both into a deep sleep, falling over one another in the center of the shed.

Not wasting any time, Seiko removed her poisoned kunai from her vial holster and made twin punctures on each of the men’s necks. This cocktail was Suna-Number-Eight, an artificial poison derived from flowers that largely mimicked the bite of a rattlesnake; Edemas, burning pain, swelling, weakness, and of course, heart failure.

Seiko was not fully immunized to it, but she was allowed to carry the stuff without much fuss given she had a medic on standby. The poison wasn’t dangerous externally, so as long as you kept the fluid away from any open wounds or entrances into the body directly, you were fine.

The men were going to be dead within a few hours, so Seiko moved back to focusing on Sakura. The girl still hadn’t moved, which meant she was likely dissociating; always dangerous when dealing with someone with shinobi training. Closing the distance, Seiko carefully took her left hand and grabbed the girl’s right shoulder, keeping her right hand ready to catch an attack if it came.

With contact, Sakura whirled around, striking directly where Seiko would have been if she wasn’t already ready to catch the girl’s wrist. Seiko was well aware of what the girl managed yesterday, and accident or not, she was not about to have a cannon-like exit wound from being stabbed with the power she demonstrated.

Getting a good look at Sakura’s face, Seiko could tell the girl wasn’t all there at the moment. Her eyes were wide, but unresponsive, which was the situation Seiko expected. The girl started trying to twist and roll away and Seiko dropped her hold on Sakura’s arm before she dragged the two of them down to the ground. Now freed, Sakura quickly ran through the door, Seiko swiftly making chase.

The girl was faster than she looked, but Seiko was easily able to grab the ends of Sakura’s waist length hair and pulled down, allowing the girl to trip and fall to the ground. Caught up, Seiko grabbed Sakura’s ankles and dragged her back before she could get back up. Satisfied she couldn’t scamper away, Seiko turned Sakura over and took a seat on her stomach to prevent easy movement. Catching one more strike aimed at her throat, Seiko gave Sakura a few moments to come back to her senses.

...

“Menu? Wait, why are you even here? How did you know where I was?”

Seiko sighed.

“My sensei sent me to check on whichever of you tree-huggers left your base and take you back before you get caught up in today’s plans, so let’s get out of here before anything else happens.”

Seiko started to walk back towards Ijō Mura but was quickly cut off by Sakura.

“Wait! I have questions!”

Seiko attempted to walk around the girl, but Sakura quickly moved in front of her each time she moved.

“Like what?”

Sakura stared blankly ahead for a moment before the life returned to her eyes.

“Why are you not an enemy?”

Seiko scoffed.

“Because I’m not paid to fight you. We were hired for a completely different reason.”

Sakura was quiet.

“... But you are allied with that Nukenin that attacked us yesterday?”

“Calling Momochi-San an ally is a bit much, he was being paid to kill the engineer you were escorting, along with any collateral that gets in the way. But even that isn’t entirely the truth at this point.”

Sakura nodded. She was quiet for a moment, leading Seiko to believe she was done, but when she moved to go around the girl, Sakura once again cut her off.

“Why... Why does Sasuke-kun acknowledge you?”

Seiko pinched the nose bridge on her mask but was cut off by the nearby scream of a mercenary. Groaning, Seiko reached forward and grabbed Sakura’s arm, dragging her further towards the forest on the other side of the clearing.

“If we are going to play Twenty Questions, we should find a nice place to sit and talk, without the screams of the damned cutting us off, ok?”

Junko sat on a rooftop, legs folded, as her boys sat below her on the ground, weapons at the ready. She was limbered up and ready to race across the island. The only thing she had to wait for was Zabuza’s signal.

Junko began today meditating; sensing and memorizing the scent of every mercenary she could. She couldn’t see them or picture an exact location for them to be, but their scents mingled enough due to cohabitation at their barracks and their weapons made them loud enough to be tracked, which was a blessing.

Trying to track targets over such a large area would be impossible under most circumstances, but Gatō’s reign had instilled a de facto segregation between the villagers and the mercenaries. The dockworkers were a different story, but Junko was not assigned to deal with them.

Of Gatō’s two hundred mercenaries (give or take a dozen or more), close to eighty of them were currently on patrol or stationed within the various villages in Nami. Ijō Mura alone had close to a quarter of that number, but the boys would only be hitting the main village once Junko was finished with the outlying villages due to the way Nami’s infrastructure was connected.

Due to the number of islands and the thickness of the various mangroves and other difficult terrain, Nami as a whole was built like an elongated wheel. Ijō Mura was the central hub, tied fairly closely to Gatō’s harbor built on the closest coastline to the main island. The other main islands were linked directly to Ijō Mura or the nearest fishing pier, but did not tend to link directly to one another through the wilderness. There was a road network linking the fishing piers though, readily dashing into and out of the coastal woodlands for ease of relocating in the event one or more piers were too damaged to rely on in the short term.

Junko’s plan to purge the mercenaries took advantage of this distribution. Since no small village could easily communicate with the other without going through Ijō Mura, Junko was going to approach each village around the island through the thickets and eliminate the mercenaries as she found them.

Just then, a foghorn blew, and Junko quickly motioned to her boys. It was time. Akio and Kentarō stood up as Junko unsealed her Baqua Dao.

“I’ll be back soon, boys. Don’t start till I return.”

Swords in hand, Junko went through what to Akio and Kentarō looked like some odd and unreadable mudra utilizing her swords. She finished and her body flashed in an aura of pale turquoise.

And then she disappeared.

To Junko’s perception though, the world around her steadily slowed with each heartbeat until each second was taking its sweet time to pass. With every moment the time slowed, the steady drain on Junko’s chakra built higher and higher. She wasn’t going to have long to deal with Nami, so she needed to get going immediately.

Jumping from rooftop to rooftop and then into the surrounding woodlands, Junko quickly made her way to the village of Seion, normally an hour’s walk from both Ijō Mura and Gatō’s compound. Before any of the mercenaries could feel Junko’s blades slicing through their bodies, they were becoming one with death.

Before the last mercenary’s body could begin to fall to the ground, Junko was already traveling to the next village, Kerubin, another two hour’s walk by the winding roads. With each jump, Junko’s bright form shimmered with the steady loss of her built up Chakra.
Decapitating a slow-moving patrol did little to distract from Junko’s oppressing memory. She knew she needed to use this technique if they had any hope of preventing more problems, but...

... Junko was not happy about it.

Jōnetsu-no-Hashi was a closely guarded technique of the Al-Miraji, a technique on par with the Hachimon and only taught to would-be sages. Junko was a student once, but...

... Things change. Junko was no sage, but she was familiar enough with molding Senjutsu chakra to manage this technique, even if the bitter memories of betrayal made it hard to sleep afterwards.

Well, once the exhaustion lifted enough to leave her capable of nightmares again.

Moments passed, and once again, a village of Nami-no-Kuni was cleared of mercenaries, warm blood still traveling through severed veins as if the conduits were still whole in the slowed time.

Junko raced across the island in the distorted turquoise world of Ardor, time having grounded to a halt around her as she raced across Nami, bloodied and raging lighting. Each mercenary she came across was killed in the still silence of viscous time, unaware and unable to save themselves. Junko felt no sympathy though. Gatō only kept the most expensive and trustworthy mercenaries at the docks, as they could be trusted not to cause issues or attempt to steal from him though.

These creatures though? Nothing more than glorified bandits, looking for the next good pillage since they could do nothing else.

With each attack, the steady drain on Junko’s Chakra continued to build. Twenty men dead had her down to sixty percent.

Forty men, down to forty-five percent.

Sixty men, down to twenty-eight percent.

Once Junko arrived back in Ijō Mura, she was shakily dismissing the effects of Jōnetsu, barely holding onto the last vestiges of her Chakra. As her perception decelerated, Junko collapsed onto a freshly beaten futon only a few steps from where her students were sitting before. Thankfully, she had asked the family in the house a few days ago to go ahead and do their cleaning today, otherwise she was going to have no good place to collapse other than the ground.

Junko listened out for the sound of flying arrows and metal clanging, and once satisfied her students were handling their part just fine, she proceeded to close her eyes and go to sleep. The boys would know to track down Zabuza outside the docks once they were done. Given she could only feel two of Gatō’s cronies, weakened and bleeding out fleeing to the docks, Junko was sure their part of this operation was finished.

...

Zabuza ordered the two Suna boys back to the village once they told him what took place. The man wasn’t sure how she did it, but Yūtori-San apparently disappeared and killed most of the mercenaries on the island outside of the central village.

The thought was baffling, but then again, he was no stranger to legendary feats done by seemingly normal people. The Yondaime Hokage was said to be such a person, but Zabuza did not think some Suna-nin managed to figure out the legendary Hiraishin.

Of course, the rumor could easily make good leverage later in the day.
Zabuza lifted a still broken Kubikiribōchō from where he left it on the ground and nodded to Haku.

It was time.

Haku disappeared in gust of the late winter breeze, focusing on Gatō’s ‘soft’ targets, namely the people who would be the least likely to try and cause problems when this was all over. Zabuza casually walked towards the entrance gate of the dock, a grin pulling across his covered face as the sounds of the regular work quickly gave way to shouts of panic and rage.

The checkpoint guards were already handled by Haku, and the dockworkers knew better than to stick around once guards started falling to the ground. Villagers-turned-longshoremen left and right were rushing past Zabuza, giving him a wide berth as they went.

A few mercenaries seemed to realize what was going on and tried to take hostages, but those who did quickly found their way to the ground in a ninja-induced lobotomy, blood slowly trickling out of their faces as the brightness of life left their eyes.

Zabuza simply kept walking, as no one had been stupid enough to attack him yet. It wasn’t until a group of four mercenaries blocked his path to the building with Gatō’s office, weapons drawn that Zabuza began to chuckle.

“Are you four challenging me?”

The mercenaries were nervous, only the one closest to Zabuza electing to nod his head in confirmation.

“Excellent, I’ve been meaning to get this blade repaired, so I’m glad you all have volunteered.”

Confused, the lead mercenary shook his head.

“You intend on fighting us with a broken sword?”

Zabuza shook his head.

“I intend on having you all fix it.”

Before the lead man could react, Zabuza was already in his guard, swiping upwards with the damaged greatsword. The mercenary’s arms were cleaved away from him, blood spraying and coating Kubikiribōchō in crimson. The blade, as if it were formed of wood, began to audibly groan and creak, steadily stretching and repairing itself from the iron in the blood.

Zabuza swung again, this time taking a step back and away as he brought his sword down diagonally over the disarmed man’s torso, bisecting him. Now the hole from Kakashi’s Raiton Jutsu was nearly fixed, along with the bladed creeping in length and sharpness.

The other mercenaries were still in shock, and by the time the first man’s torso fell to the ground with an audible plop, there were only two of the original four men still alive. Zabuza had taken the momentum of his previous swing and slid to his right, running through the next mercenary with the still blunt side of his sword. Thoroughly coated in viscera, Kubikiribōchō continued to grow and repair itself, now back to its original length and thickness.

As Zabuza pulled the blade back through the meat, cutting downwards as he went, one of the mercenaries finally broke and began sprinting away. The other, in a fit of anger at being abandoned, attempted to cut down Zabuza from behind. Dropping the grip on his greatsword, Zabuza easily dodged around the inexperienced swordsman and broke his feeble grip on his katana. The sword clattered to the ground and the mercenary could only watch as Zabuza picked up the sword in reverse grip.

The man closed his eyes, accepting his death.

But then he heard the surprised last gasp of his coworker several meters away, choking and falling to the ground. Opening his eyes, the mercenary found Zabuza turning away from him and retrieving his greatsword. Looking back to where the other man ran off to, the mercenary only saw a corpse with a blade sticking through his back having fallen to the ground.

Zabuza returned to the man and picked him up by his jaw.

“Do you know why you aren’t dead right now?”

The man was silent before Zabuza gave the man’s jaw a squeeze.

“N’nur S’ur.”

Zabuza dropped the man to the ground and pointed the full length of a completely repaired Kubikiribōchō at him.

“You fought, despite the odds stacked against you. More importantly, you did not run even though your death was imminent, instead embracing your end, like the warrior you claim to be. For that, I will not kill you... today. But, I expect you to improve. Do not waste this life being some lapdog for some ingrate. Improve, or die.”

Point made, if the growing wet patch in the man’s pants was of any indication, Zabuza swung his blade and flung the blood and entrails to the wayside.

He had an employer to terminate.

Walking into the building, he found a mess of knocked out office employees and guards, each with senbon sticking out of a few select points in their bodies. There were a few open file cabinets, but it was clear Haku made quick work of everyone looking to secure paperwork. Making his way upstairs, he found more of the same, though the hesitant yelling of the guards on the third floor told him Haku was waiting for his arrival.

Clearing the last step, Zabuza found Haku at blade’s edge of the two main guards to Gatō, clearly shaken by the sudden attack at the harbor. Zabuza cleared his throat.

“We’re here to see your boss about... severance.”

“Wha... WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! YOU ATTACKED THE COMPANY?!”

Zabuza shrugged as he dragged the blunt edge of his greatsword up the rest of the stairs.

“Semantics. Anyways, you two seem competent. Do you really want to fight us?”

The two men looked incredulous.

“Are you serious? We have your bitch at sword point! Do you really...”

Before the smaller of the two men could continue, Haku ducked down and quickly twisted each of the men’s wrists far enough to force their hand’s open, swords clanging to the ground. As both men yanked their hands back, clutching their wrists, Haku stood back up, now placing their senbon at the men’s throats.

“You misunderstood your position when you thought you could simply point your weapons at me. Also, I am a boy.”

The two men were silent, finding their previously assumed advantage destroyed within the fleeting moment. Shaking his head, Zabuza walked past the now disarmed men and opened the door to Gatō’s office.

The place looked ransacked, a litany of open furniture and blank pages littered the room, some sliding around since the window was wide open. Gatō was nowhere to be seen, but it was obvious the man had been looking for his documents.

Documents the twins already picked up, prior to this intrusion. Zabuza walked across the room and leaned out of the window to look for the short businessman. With a hefty limp and several loud swears, Gatō was frantically hobbling towards the piers, trying to avoid the very dangerous nuke-nin he hired.

Tsk’ing, Zabuza turned back and left the office. Looking both guards in the eyes, Zabuza cleared his throat.

“Do you plan on causing us trouble if we kill your boss?”

Both men shook their heads frantically.

“N’no sir. Not at all!”

Satisfied, Zabuza looked down to Haku.

“Alright Haku, at ease. Let’s go get the prize.”

With a grunt, Haku lowered his senbon and followed Zabuza out of the building. Contrary to some of the action earlier, both walked at a sedate pace as they descended and exited the building back into the early Spring chill. Haku looked unsure of their pace.

“Zabuza-Sama, shouldn’t we run after him, prevent Gatō’s escape?”

Zabuza shook his head.

“That won’t be necessary Haku. I think everyone here knows not to save a dead man.”

The two shinobi walked and turned the corner on to one of the main piers, lines of sight cut off between the various dock areas by shipping crates and barrels. All of the dockworkers were gone now, and the mercenaries not slaughtered wholesale by the Kiri-nin were knocked out and dragged out of the immediate area.

Limping as fast as his little legs could carry him, Gatō was frantically searching left and right for anyone he could order to cover his escape. Each ship he passed had it’s boarding ladder pulled up and into the ship, crew warily watching as their one time employer now cursed them and promised their unlikely demise.

Zabuza and Haku continued to walk, Haku occasionally breaking off to cut off a means of potential retreat, but it was all unnecessary in the end. Gatō managed to lead himself into a pier, surrounded on all sides by water.

The man turned around, fury indistinguishable from the man’s fear.

“Congratulations, shinobi scum! You have doomed the economies across the whole of the seas! By taking me out, you will doom yourself and any hope you have to survive the scores of hunters from that village of yours when word gets out about this!”

Zabuza shrugged.

“Somehow, I doubt it will come to that. Is that all you had to say?”

Gatō stood as tall as he could, alone at the edge of eternity.

“Why the fuck would you do this to me? I promised you plenty of money! Consistent work even, and you throw it all away?! Don’t tell me it was because of that harlot! I thought you shinobi were supposed to be better than common mercenaries!”

Zabuza chuckled.

“It was more of a business decision really. Your empire is not lost right now, it’s just in the midst of coming under new ownership. And since you aren’t exactly loading ships, or sailing ships, or managing manifests...”

Zabuza disappeared and reappeared with a quick flash of Tora, Kubikiribōchō now level with Gatō’s neck.

“... I’m gonna have to let you go.”

With a tug, Gatō’s head, along with the rest of his now separated body, flew into the water. Cleaning his great sword with the handkerchief that fell out of the man’s suit, Zabuza turned back to Haku.

“Let’s go check on the twins. Something tells me they don’t have everything.”

Sakura was somewhere between nervous and terrified. In front of her, sitting on a tree stump, was a masked Suna-nin filing her nails as if she didn’t kill two men earlier. That, and if she wasn’t attacked by Sakura earlier as well. She was just... sitting there.

Waiting.

The masked girl looked up, seemingly tired of the silence between herself and Sakura ever since the girl dragged Sakura over to this small field of flowers.

“Ok, so, I have some questions. Namely, did your village actually cover Shinobi Survival Skills or were you looking to get some early seduction training from some unwashed morons?”

{See, I told you you should have murdered them immediately. But noooooooooooo, you just had to freeze up!}

Sakura shook her head, trying to shut down Inner before she could continue to rail against her.

“I... I had a plan. I’m just...”

“Inexperienced?”

Sakura jumped when she noticed the girl appeared right in front of her face.

“Easy, easy. You froze up again. Your eyes get a little foggy when you get like that, so you must not have seen me walk up to you.”

Cursing her lack of awareness, Sakura nodded her head.

“I come from a predominantly civilian clan, and my parents were both retired from active service before I started at the academy so...”

{You can’t keep using this excuse! At some point, you need to make up for your weakness and just listen to me for once!}

Sakura was about to respond when she felt the other girl’s hand on her head. The sensation was... different.

{Outer... I know we don’t get along... at all, really, but you need to get away from here. Now!}

“Interesting... you feel a bit like me, which I was not expecting.”

Sakura shook her head.

“Excuse me?”

The other girl feigned smacking her own forehead.

“Oh, apologies! I never introduced myself! I am Nakahara Seiko, of Sunagakure-no-Sato.”

The girl gave an odd bow, bending her legs and leaning her body forward, arms waving to the side as if to grapple Sakura. Sakura stood opposed to her.

“I am Haruno Sakura, of Konohagakure-no-Sato.”

She bowed in the traditional manner, legs straight and torso leaned forward, arms to the side. Seemingly satisfied, the other girl took her seat back on the stump.

“What I was saying a moment ago, though, is that you feel a little similar to me. Your chakra is weak and difficult to detect, but behind it is something else. Someone else.”

Sakura flinched at being called weak, but the following comment sunk her heart deep into her chest.

{KILL HER. KILL HER NOW!}

“I would know, I have a similar situation. Though it’s probably not identical, given our different histories.”

Sakura dropped to her knees, quickly remembering she needed to keep her composure as she softened her landing just at the end.

[Did she do anything? How would she know about you?!]

{Why do you never listen to me, this girl is a THREAT!}

“But I also talk to my sister all the time, and I remember when folks always called me out for zoning out too, so you are not alone there.”

Sakura and Inner stopped for a moment.

“S’sister?”

The masked girl nodded, quickly forming mudra but pacing herself slow enough to not make it look like an attack against Sakura. Sakura, for what it’s worth, had an eidetic memory and was filled with joy from her constant reading ahead in the Academy, as she could clearly recognize each of the one-handed signs the other girl was using.

Ne / Uma.

I / Mi.

Mi / Inu.

Tori / Saru.

Ne / Mi.

Ushi / Tatsu.

Mi / U.

Ne / Ushi.

Tatsu / Mi.

Mi / Hitsuji.

Before Sakura’s eyes, a near exact copy of the other girl bled out of the girl’s body, stepping out and away from the sitting girl before immediately falling back onto the stump, pushing the other girl over.

“Hey, watch it!”

“You woke me up from my nap, you watch it! Why am I out here anyways?”

The first masked girl pointed to Sakura.

“Because she is like us. At least I think so.”

The other girl leveled the first one a look, expression lost through the mask.

“Not exactly like us, but similar. I could feel another consciousness through her Chakra and she does a lot of things we used to do. She’s also inexperienced, so I figured we could help her.”

With a sigh the other girl looked at Sakura.

“Has she explained anything at all to you or are you confused?”

Sakura just shook her head, still trying to rationalize what she was seeing.

“... Are you not a clone? You did just perform a Jutsu and appeared.”

The other two girls looked at one another.

“It’s a little like that, but I do exist entirely separate to Aneki over there. It took a while to figure out how to separate our bodies though, but we do overlap. Separate Keirakukei and everything.”

{How useful.}

The other girl sighed.

“It also took us years to develop and stabilize a Jutsu to even make this possible, so this isn’t just some naturally useful ability we were born with. Imōto was very much stuck in body not too long ago.”

“But I could take over.”

“That you could.”

Sakura shuddered at the thought of Inner taking over her body without issue, losing control and contact with the outside.

{Easy there, worrywart, I am not your enemy. I’m not entirely convinced these two aren’t yet.}

Sakura did not often acknowledge Inner. She had been in her mind for a long time, almost as long as Sakura could remember. Whenever Sakura was too meek to say what she wanted to, Inner would often speak something close to what Sakura felt. It wasn’t always accurate, but it was close enough that Inner always felt like the twin sister Sakura never had.

The fact that there was a girl... or girls, if they were to be believed, that were similar to Sakura...

Maybe she wasn’t a lost cause after all!

Gathering her best Ino impression, Sakura jumped into the uncertainty.

“What is your name?”

The two older girls stopped bickering and the newest one, hair seemingly color swapped from the first girl, laughed at her sister before turning to Sakura.

“My name is Nakahara Yume. My sister and I are a little different from one another, but I am the more Yin-attuned of the two of us!”

{Attuned? Does that mean the sisters have different abilities?}

[Do you think we might have two separate Keirakukei?]

{Somehow I doubt it. I think it would have been brought up in the academy if we did.}

[Well, they weren’t exactly focusing on us then.]

{Also a fair point. You should ask them more.}

Sakura was silent for a moment, collecting her thoughts.

“What do you mean Yin-attuned?”

‘Yume’ snapped her fingers before pointing her fingers back at her ‘older’ sister.

“So, she has been out living most of our combined life, and I only showed up during our Chakra Unlocking.”

Sakura’s eyes went wide. Inner had been present since Sakura could first manifest her Chakra. She couldn’t remember much from the day it happened, since it was before Ino came into Sakura’s life and before she joined the Academy. All she could remember was being in the forest for sometime and being guided out by a voice she couldn't find.

Sakura had to dive deeper.

“And you can manifest outside of her body?”

The other girl nodded.

“Yes, although this is only the most recent stable form of our summoning.”

[IT’S A SUMMONING?!]

{That... That makes a lot of sense actually. Probably easier to tweak than a Bunshin Jutsu, even if Naruto has that Kage Bunshin.}

[It’s still so unfair Kakashi won’t teach us that!]

“Can you teach me... us, how to use it? I really don’t have much going on right now and it would be nice to have something to help catch me up to my teammates.”

‘Yume’ was about to speak, but Seiko butted in this time.

“Well, I don’t know exactly how your situation is, but ours is a bit complicated. We had to do a decent amount of stuff on the back end to even make our current arrangement possible.”

Before Sakura could sigh, the girl spoke again.

“Not that it ISN’T impossible, just I wouldn’t lean all in on giving your... second person a body so fast? I actually wanted to talk about something else anyways, something more basic.”

Sakura was confused at the sudden change in topic.

“Wait, do you not want to deal with...”

The older girl once again waved her hands placatingly.

“Eventually, sure. But right now, I want to talk, girl to girl, about what kind of mission you were trying to pull before I showed up.”

[Oh right...]

{Oh great, you get two more of me telling you that you should have killed the men immediately!}

Sakura curled her arms in on herself but was broken out with another sharp call from Seiko.

“Oy, none of that. Just let it out. Thoughts, plans, goals. Let’s start off with what I think and you can tell me if I get it wrong. Does that sound fine with you?”

Sakura hesitantly nodded her head, leading Seiko to continue.

“I believe, you were trying to contact me, since Haku very obviously nearly killed your teammate before I tripped him up.”

Sakura nodded.

“Why?”

Inner wasted no time mocking Sakura as the girl replied.

{Because Sasuke-Kun told me to.}

“Because Sasuke-Kun told me to...”

Yume chuckled.

“It appears boy wonder recognized us, despite changing wardrobe since last time.”

Seiko sighed.

“Of course he did. Since you showed up, I’m assuming Sasuke has appointed himself to Captain-in-Absentia and Hatake-San is out of commission?”

Sakura sat stone still, recalling from the academy every lesson about revealing information to a potential enemy. ‘Yume’ sounded unimpressed.

“One, this isn’t an interrogation. And two, our sensei sent us to find you since the other two members have stayed close to your sensei who hasn’t moved.”

{Oh, so we never stood a chance. Nice going, sis. Sasuke-Kun will have to acknowledge our love now!}

[Please shut up.]

“So.”

Sakura looked back up at Seiko.

“Sasuke entrusted you to find me. You did find me, in a sense. Now what is the plan? What do you do now?”

“I guess... I bring you back? You did save Naruto, so you aren’t an enemy... right?”

{Such conviction. Truly our village’s greatest Kunoichi.}

Seiko shrugged.

“Eh, that won’t be necessary. But, I do want to go back to planning, or really, situational awareness. Your team should have turned around the moment Zabuza showed up, but your sensei pressed on anyways, right?”

“We all did... actually.”

Seiko sighed.

“Konoha, I swear... ALRIGHT, I want to train you a bit so you don’t freeze up like that again! You... seem nice, and it would probably suck for your team to have to recover you from a repeat of a situation like this again, alright? Besides, I need you to promise me something.”

That caught Sakura off guard.

“A promise?”

The masked girl nodded.

“We are doing a little house cleaning and it would be most successful if your brat of a temporary Captain did not butt in. Can you keep our meetings a secret? I’ll see what we can improve skills wise if you do. Maybe even dive a bit into your... sibling situation, ‘kay?”

Sakura was slow to nod, but agreed to the terms.

“Awesome. Now, let’s get your priorities adjusted. Why do you want to be a Kunoichi?”

Hours later, with the bodies of the slain removed from the island and operations running on an improved if temporary basis, three adults met in Gatō’s former office, forming a triangle around the man’s desk. Briefcases and folders were spread across the desk, covering the broad strokes of Gatō’s shipping empire.

Kaiza, finally cleanshaven and in his normal clothes, sat at the head of the table, Junko and Zabuza to his left and right, thankfully unarmed. Junko looked over to Zabuza with a smile.

“I am glad you decided to join us Zabuza. I was worried you might try to skip town before we could meet again.”

Zabuza’s arms were crossed, annoyance evident across his covered face.

“I was, but it turns out your brats stole most of the materials my men took and swapped it out with blank pages, so I couldn’t exactly leave once I found out this was your fault.”

Junko shrugged, cheshire grin not leaving her face.

“Eh, I just wanted to make sure Nami wasn’t going to suffer if you decided to leave without saying goodbye.”

Zabuza closed his eyes.

“Let’s get this over with... Kaiza, you may begin.”

The civilian man looked uneasy, but he relented.

“Right, well, I believe Yūtori-San’s plan of keeping the company based out of Nami with foreign support does make the most sense. Tazuna-San is more than capable of handling the overhead operations here. However, the disruption to the more illicit operations will need to be handled before anyone can retaliate.”

Zabuza placed his hand forward.

“My team and I can easily handle the more unsightly elements of Gatō’s business, but I do expect compensation for it.”

Kaiza was still intimidated by the man, but Junko quickly assented.

“That should be sufficient. It will also go aways to providing you a stable foundation for your eventual return to Kiri.”

Kaiza returned to the books placed ahead of him.

“That being said... Gatō was running a skimpy budget on operations. Gross operating revenue was nearly ten times the expenditure, so naturally that will decrease. This means the monthly operating dividend to reasonably assume for the near future will be about...”

The table was silent as Keiza wide-eyed the figure before him.

“... four-million, five-hundred and eighty-four-thousand, eight-hundred Ryō.”

The table was silent. Junko whistled after a few moments, followed quickly by Zabuza glaring at the woman. Junko winked back to Zabuza.

“I think it goes without saying Nami gets the majority of the monthly income.”

“Obviously. The question is, what is everyone else’s cut?”

Kaiza sat silently, eyes darting between the two shinobi across from him.

“Say, Zabuza; how about everyone else gets five percent?”

Zabuza closed his eyes.

“You mean between Suna and my Kiri?”

Junko shook her head.

“Konoha too.”

Zabuza sneered back at her.

“They didn’t do anything!”

Junko roller her eyes right back at him.

“They were a distraction, enough of one to allow all of this to happen. Plus, they will be vital to keep Kumo from rolling in unannounced, so we need to buy them off. Kaiza, what do you think?”

The two shinobi looked at the civilian man, still quiet at the center of the table.

“... This is more money than I can comprehend. Is there anything else to it all?”

Junko was quiet for a moment, but then grinned and looked back at Zabuza.

“Zabuza, tell you what; you take the five percent we are all taking for our villages, and you and your group can have all of Gatō’s unclaimed property elsewhere.”

The man narrowed his gaze at her.

“What do you mean?”

“Gatō likely has assets outside of Nami, likely from before he tried setting up here. You and your crew can have all of it.”

Zabuza stared at her for a moment before extending his hand.

“Fine. Who is telling the tree-huggers if we all agree to this?”

Junko smiled and looked back to Kaiza, who rubbed his temples.

“Do either of you know where I can get some good flowers?”

...

Kakashi woke up to a pounding headache and a flurry of excited screaming coming from beneath him. Cautiously opening his right eye, he found himself stiff and sore in a futon, Sasuke sitting and watching over him.

“How are you feeling, Sensei?”

Kakashi held off a reply for a series of grunts as he sat up and took stock of his situation.

“I take it no one has died?”

Sasuke shook his head.

“No, but from the sounds of things, something has changed today.”

Kakashi went to stand but quickly found himself a kunai point from Sasuke.

“Where did you get that Sharingan?”

Kakashi let out a sigh. Of course he hadn’t forgotten.

“... My best friend.”

Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

“And I’m just supposed to believe that and be fine with it? That belongs to my family!”

Kakashi closed his eye.

“Believe me, I know. They wouldn’t shut up about it when I came back to the village with it, but it is the truth. My friend...”

Kakashi forced down the memories to keep his nausea at bay. He really needed something to drink and something to distract himself.

“... we weren’t friends then, rivals really, although he never truly shined until his last moments. He was the finest shinobi in Konoha.”

For a moment, Kakashi wasn’t recovering in some woman’s home in a foreign land. He was instead back home, attending the same funeral for an innumerable time, stuck in the same loop of epiphanies he had relived for the last decade.

“Maybe he wasn’t the top of his class, or the most proficient killer in a graduating class of prepubescent soldiers, but he was everything the village stood for and represented.”

Joy.

Laughter.

Safety.

Perseverance.

Unwavering resolve.

“I had to abandon him in some dingy cave in Kusa, when he finally made me look like a fool for my refusal to admit I could be wrong.”

Kakashi wasn’t sure when he started crying, but the sudden squeezing in his throat took away the last of his laid-back persona.

“He gave me his eye, so he could see the future with me, and I couldn’t even honor his last wishes.”

“Sensei.”

Kakashi blinked.

He lost himself again. How embarrassing.

“Yes, Sasuke?”

“... I’m sorry for asking. It sounds like a sore subject.”

Kakashi huffed out a sigh.

“You could say that. Apologies for... losing my place for a moment. But seriously... nothing has gone wrong, has it?”

Sasuke shook his head for a moment before stopping.

“Actually, Sakura is acting weird.”

That caught Kakashi’s attention.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Naruto and I sent her to go find the masked girl that was at the road after Zabuza left. She was the most obvious choice since...”

“You sent her out alone?!”

Sasuke scrunched his face.

“Yes, Naruto and I had to protect Tazuna-San and Tsunami-San, and we are the best fighters.”

Kakashi was beginning to panic, a familiar brunette once again taking over his mind’s vision of Sakura.

“She came back though, right?!”

Sasuke nodded his head.

“Yes, of course. Each evening around the same time. She’s just been... distant. Less annoying than she normally is. It’s honestly a little odd to admit, but it is noticeable now that she stopped.”

Kakashi nodded his head. Sasuke didn’t sound worried and it didn’t sound like she was attacked, but...

His students were also wet-behind-the-ears genin.

Kakashi shakily stood up and stumbled across the room, clinging to the walls once he could get purchase, and made his wall to the kitchen, where the rumbling of excited conversation took precedent over Sasuke’s uncertain calls faded away behind him. When he arrived in the kitchen, Kakashi found a happy family gathered around their kitchen table, excited with a cheer he thought impossible for the state of the land when he last saw it.

“What the hell is going on?”

Chapter Text

Enemies with Benefits

[Outskirts of Ijō Mura, 1044-Chūō, March 19th, Year 63 of the Shinchu-Jidai]

Kakashi leaned against the doorframe, concern marring the visible features on his face. Tazuna and his family... his dead son-in-law included, looked at one another before looking back to him. Tazuna clapped and stood up.

“Kakashi-San, there have been several developments since you lost consciousness. Would you care to take a seat?”

Kakashi waved off the man, who looked back towards Tsunami.

“Tsunami dear, if you could get him some water then, I will explain what I know.”

Tazuna sat back down as Tsunami left the room for the family’s well.

“I will admit I was worried things were going to get bad when I was left with only your students. However, the day after you went unconscious, Gatō’s mercenaries disappeared. I wasn’t sure when it happened, or how, but the patrols, the men standing near villages, even the dock guards were suddenly gone. Killed or sent off.”

Kakashi’s mind was racing with the new information, but quickly ground to a halt with Tazuna’s next words.

“My son-in-law, Kaiza, also returned to us, alive and well, despite our belief that he had been killed weeks ago in the middle of Ijō Mura. Apparently Gatō is gone as well.”

“What about the foreign shinobi? Zabuza?”

Tazuna shrugged as Tsunami reentered the room and handed Kakashi his water, head tilted in thanks.

“I haven’t seen the man. Unfortunately...”

Tazuna glared at the new man at the table.

“... Kaiza has not told me much about what has happened. Only Tsunami seems to know why he is still among us.”

Kakashi appraised the young man. He was healthy, maybe a little paler and smaller than he was in the family photo he passed by in the hall, but not severely injured or anything.

With everyone looking at him, Kaiza shrunk a little in his seat.

“Prior to your return, Tazuna-San, I was imprisoned for expressing my disapproval to Gatō’s reign. I was set to be executed not to long afterwards, but I was broken out by the Suna-nin that arrived in Gatō’s employ last month.”

Suna-nin? In Nami-no-kuni?

“My death was staged to give Gatō a false sense of security, and I have been working at the docks for the last few weeks gathering information. Since Momochi-San arrived to kill Tazuna-San, the Suna-Nin had to move fast on dealing with Gatō.”

Kakashi was confused.

“I thought you said Gatō hired the Suna-nin. Why would they betray him?”

The room was silent for a moment, and then Tsunami spoke up.

“I helped hire the Suna-nin, on the promise of future financial returns for their village if they helped.”

With all eyes directed back on her, Tsunami continued.

“I was contacted a few days ago by the leader of the Suna team. I sent an anonymous request over a month ago to several villages, but Suna accepted it, along with an outstanding offer apparently negotiated by Gatō’s office for dealing with thieves. The woman explained that her team had been looking for whoever sent the request for a while, but wasn’t prepared to put more effort into their search until after Gatō was dead.”

Gatō was dead?!

Kakashi lost his concentration a little and slipped down from his leaning position against the doorframe. Catching himself, Kakashi spoke up.

“So Tazuna-San is no longer under threat? At all?”

Tsunami nodded.

“Yes, although my husband has mentioned there are other changes at play, so Nami hasn’t settled down just yet.”

The room looked back at Kaiza. Scratching his head, he looked back at his father-in-law.

“Tazuna-San... you are technically in charge of the Gatō Company right now... as well as Daimyō of Nami.”

Stillness.

Then chaos.

A while later, Kakashi’s team was overlooking the construction site. Unlike when they arrived, the incomplete bridge was now loud with the labor of Nami. It was as if Gatō’s demise breathe new life into the land along with the slow start of spring. Where the fog lifted, flowers were beginning to bud and bloom with the coming Spring.

Kakashi was uncomfortable with the result. Sure, he should be happy, but missions like this? Where the client lied about the inherent dangers and the team stupidly proceeded anyway?
People died in those situations. That was the truth Kakashi lived for the last twenty years.
Kakashi performed a ‘Kai’, waiting for whatever Genjutsu he was under to lift as he and his students stood beneath the trees on the right side of the future roadway.

Nothing changed.

Kakashi took a deep breath of relief but stopped when a new voice broke the rhythm of the bridge work.

“~Yoohoo~, I have a parcel for some tree huggers!”

Palming his kunai, Kakashi turned around to find eight foreign shinobi. Foremost among them were Zabuza and that unknown protégé of his that nearly killed Naruto. Also with Zabuza were the Oni Kyōdai, suspiciously absent from their first encounter with Zabuza.

The other shinobi, grouped together on the opposite side of the road from Zabuza were clearly the ones from Suna. Kakashi’s heart clinched a little when he saw Yūtori Junko of all people leading them.

The woman was disconcertingly overlooked in the bingo books, a common issue with deadly kunoichi, but the woman had a kill count nearly as high as his, despite him becoming a shinobi at the age of five fighting under the man who would become the Yondaime during the Third War. Her reputation was plagued with rumors and assumptions, unfortunately common with shinobi trained in seduction, but Kakashi could see through the clutter to the underlying skill set.

What kind of infamous assassin can be one of Suna’s foremost entries into the bingo books and still consistently manage to infiltrate and exfiltrate without being caught? An incredibly skilled one that did not need the gimmicks she employed.

But here she was, leading either a Chūnin team or, Kami-forbid, a Genin team like he was.
He had several questions, which were likely to come up since the woman in question was marching right towards him, envelope in hand.
“Hatake Kakashi of Konohagakure-no-Sato; I am giving you this, for your part in this operation.”

... What?

“... I’m sorry, I must have missed something. Our nations were apparently sent separate missions.”

The woman grinned, eerily reminding Kakashi of Anko in her more mischievous moments.

“Yes, that is true, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut, you were a big part of why we were able to succeed when we were, so you are a part of the payout.”

Payout?!

Junko handed Kakashi the mysterious envelope.

“Per the agreement between myself, Momochi-San, and Kaiza-San, acting as the lords-regent of Nami-no-Kuni following the removal of Daimyō Gatō Pōru, Konohagakure-no-Sato is entitled to a dividend of the profits of the soon to be renamed Gatō Company in recognition of the village’s support and commitment to Nami’s prosperity.”

Now Kakashi was even more confused, but Junko continued without pause.

“However, the awarding of this benefit is not without obligation; Konoha has to guarantee and legitimize Nami’s succession and takeover of said company. Sunagakure and the Kirigakure Opposition have already done so.”

Kakashi was silent as he mulled over the woman’s words.

“... You do realize I am in no power to recognize this, right?”

The woman laughed.

“Of course not, that’s why that is a letter and not a treaty for you to sign. Your Hokage will need to sign it, obviously, which he will, because what Kage would refuse getting nearly a quarter of a million Ryō a month for nothing?”

Kakashi’s eyes bulged at the number. Despite his wealth, both earned and inherited, Kakashi knew that that value was deceptively and eye-wateringly high. Actual mission payouts were usually split across the number of shinobi working the mission, the village having already taken a percentage cut of the initial processing and classification before passing the mission scroll onto the team, teams, or individuals taking the mission.

For the village to receive that large a sum without risk, monthly?

That meant a sizeable amount of new potential missions available just outside of Hi-no-Kuni, easily several additional C- and B-Ranks that would be available along with the money offered.

Sandaime-Sama would be unable to refuse.

However...

“... And if the Hokage refuses?”

Junko pulled the envelope back a little.

“Then your mission here will end as expected and the rates will be renegotiated between myself and Zabuza-San.”

An offer that could not be neglected, then.

“Then I will have to tentatively accept. Is there a time the village needs to get this back to Tazuna-San?”

Junko returned the envelope into Kakashi’s now waiting hand.

“As soon as possible, since my compatriot over there is more than willing to take all of our cuts if allowed to. I can trust him to wait a month or two, but not much longer than that.”

Kakashi nodded. Junko, now free of whatever obligation she was holding herself to, turned back to her team.

“Alright, brats! You are free to mingle! Let’s be courteous and show these leaf-huggers how to be proper shinobi, eh?”

The rest of the Junko’s Suna team made their way over to Kakashi’s Genin to start introducing themselves. Kakashi wasn’t too worried about Junko; she was infamous for working alone. If they saddled her with a genin team, Kakashi was pretty sure they were tying her hands as much as the Sandaime tied his when he was kicked out of ANBU.

Kakashi was a lot more wary of Zabuza, since he did fight the man with the intent to kill only a few days ago. There was no way that fight could have been restrained outside of Zabuza’s willingness to ‘play with his food’.

Speaking of Zabuza, Junko had already dashed over to the taller man, clearly trying to drag him over to meet Kakashi.

“Come on! We have nothing else to be doing right now, why don’t you mingle a bit?!”

“Because I have a lot of money on the table my team could go ahead and start getting ahold of, or did you forget that already?”

Junko pouted, but quickly sprung back to jump on her heels.

“Actually, there is something you could do about that! The twins did really well on their intel gathering during the raid and would probably be bored dealing with Hatake’s brats. Why don’t you go ahead and send them off and give your youngest an opportunity to spend time with someone closer to their age.”

Zabuza looked like he was going to refuse, but quickly turned to face the twins.

“Does that sound like a good plan to you two?”

The twins looked at eachother for a fleeting moment and then nodded. The cloaked twin turned back to Zabuza.

“Can we go ahead and claim some of the lesser belongings if we encounter no resistance?”

Zabuza stood still, evaluating the question.

“Sure. I will stay here with Haku and make sure we get our long-term money. Might even claim a room at the docks for our group in the meantime. If you find a better Forward Base closer to Kiri, make your way back and let me know.”

The twins quickly assented and disappeared, likely catching a smaller ship to head to their first ‘target’.

Kakashi grew a little nostalgic watching Zabuza interact with his team. It was eerily similar to his time in ANBU; curt, but with a great sense of responsibility towards his teammates that often obscured how much he actually cared.

Zabuza spoke quietly to his younger counterpart, likely the ‘Haku’ he mentioned. After the teenager looked back up with a question in his person, Zabuza nodded, and the teenager walked over and joined the growing crowd of Genin on the roadside.

Sighing with the relief that the mission turned out far better than it was looking like it would go, Kakashi made his way over to a tree in a nearby clearing, secluded enough to focus, and pulled out some of his favorite literature.’

Icha-Icha was essential for his relaxation. And his mental health, but he wasn’t about to sit down with a Yamanaka to talk about how that said anything about his person.

Kakashi was almost to the point in the story where Tanaka-San would arrive to spy on a noblewoman in the onsen, only to save her from an enemy threat, when the sunlight was suddenly obscured in front of him. It had been maybe only an hour or two since Kakashi started reading, trying to clear his nerves from the morning’s uproar.

“Oy, ~Hatake-San~!”

Taking in the environment around him, Kakashi came to the conclusion that everything was fine and his team was not in danger.

But for some reason, he felt like maybe he was the one in danger.

Taking an eye off the page in front of him, Kakashi hazarded a glance upward to find Junko standing over him; Unexpectedly eager, like a wolf stalking a rabbit.

Where she initially looked fairly wild, not unlike her bingo book entry, Junko seemed to have cleaned up in the last hour or so. She had her wild wine-red hair tied back and kept out of her face by a red headband. Glinting in the noon sunlight were her dark and hungry green eyes accenting her shiny red lips. She had ditched her flak jacket somewhere, and was now down to just her red halter top and her sheer pants.

Kakashi, ironically, finds himself the rabbit in this situation.

“Can I help you, Yūtori-San?”

“Please, call me Junko... And there are many things you can do for me, but there is a particular itch I need to scratch that you would be best suited for.”

Sighing and marking his page, Kakashi put away his salvation and began reviewing is means of escape.

Junko was a very pretty woman, in a lot of the same ways as Anko was back home. Bright, vibrant, eye-catching, like the sheen and color on a toxic frog or a venomous snake. Avoided by those who could see the danger and respond quickly enough.

His nose was also far better than most, and the woman reeked of pheromones. A summoner of something out of the typical repertoire of summoning contracts. Exotic, but atypical. A prey animal. A trap.

“Ah, that is unfortunate. I just remembered I had something I need to talk with my team about.”

Kakashi stood and was about to make a beeline to his students when Junkos hand found its way into his shoulder, brining Kakashi’s casual strut to a halt against the tree.

“Oh, but Hatake-san, I only need you for a few minutes, maybe an hour. I want to spar with you. Really test my stamina up against a man of your caliber. Maybe even fight a bit.”

Nope. He really needed to get out of here. Nothing good ever came of women talking at him like this. Kakashi still had trouble looking at Anko some days. Nothing quite like that disaster that was her sixteenth birthday.

“Apologies, Yūtori-san, I just cannot make the time for such commitments right now.”

With his free hand, Kakashi quickly broke Junko’s hold on his shoulder and dragged her to the ground. The woman was clearly not expecting to be handled in such a way, given Kakashi’s awareness of her skills in combat.

“Perhaps you should speak to your team as well, see what our precious Genin have been sharing among themselves.”

Before Junko could respond, Kakashi let go of her arm and walked over to the outskirts of where the Genin had been sitting around and chatting or training. He was sure they probably learned something, given Sasuke and Naruto hadn’t blown up a tree or threatened to kill each other during his time relaxing.

Returning to the gathering of younger shinobi unmolested, Kakashi was treated to a bizarre sight. Contrary to his own training sessions, his Genin were quietly sitting and watching as one of the Suna Genin, the tall one clearly from Kaminari, explained the basics of tree-walking. The other older boy was demonstrating the skill on a nearby tree as the other one talked, clearly showing a variety of correct and incorrect methods of keeping hold to the tree.

Zabuza’s protégé and the masked girl from Suna were further away, talking to Junko for a few fleeting moments before the woman gave out an excited yell and quickly disappeared further inland. The two looked at each other before shrugged and returning to the larger group.

With a sigh of relief, Kakashi found himself another nice tree to perch from and got back to his chapter.

Maybe the Sandaime could put him back in ANBU when he got back.

Sasuke wasn’t sure what to think about the sudden changes to their situation. He was still reeling a bit from the uncharacteristic honesty from Kakashi-Sensei earlier in the morning, conflicted over the revelations.

Since his nightmare began, Sasuke has seen everything in only two lights; Things that make him weaker and things that make him stronger. There was a need to verify good and bad, because anything that could possibly be both only reminded him of that man. Nostalgia was an enemy, because it obscured the tells on who was and wasn’t an enemy.

Sasuke hadn’t figured it out yet, but he was certain he would be able to confirm eventually that his... that that man was always evil and that everything he ever did that was good was only an act. It had to be, because why else would any of this had happened?

Kakashi had been distant ever since he was assigned as their sensei, which was unfortunate, as Sakura in one of her more useful dalliances discovered he was one of the greatest shinobi in their village.

A skillset that had not transferred into their training. Yet.

This mission though... It seemed to have snapped Kakashi out of whatever aloof act he was carrying on with and he was seemingly more serious now. If also a little more distracted.

There was the promise of additional training and a more serious demeanor about the man, but the sudden appearance of the foreign shinobi forced another change to whatever plans he may have had.

Sasuke was content to ignore the newcomers except for the masked girl, now that they were clearly not hostiles, but Sakura’s sudden outburst broke his focus.

“Good morning, Seiko-senpai!”

...

Senpai?!

The annoying girl had become far more bearable since he sent her on the mission to find the masked girl. She hadn’t reported anything back, and in fact was acting far different than she had been before, so Sasuke was somewhat thankful for the change.

Now though...

“Senpai? I thought you didn’t find anyone?”

Sakura had the decency to blush at the accusation.

“I am sorry, Sasuke-Kun, she swore me to secrecy when they started to attack Gatō’s forces.”

Sasuke blinked.

“Wait, you knew the mercenaries were being dealt with? How long ago was this?”

Sakura grabbed her left arm and looked away.

“The day after you ordered me to go looking for her...”

Sasuke took in a breath and ran his hand through his hair.

“Unbelievable... so we have been guarding the Tazuna-San for nothing?”

Naruto now found the opportunity to but in, as he always did.

“Hey, don’t be mean to Sakura-chan! As far as I see it, this is an even more successful mission than we expected!”

Sasuke sneered.

“And how is that, Dobe? We could have been killed by a significantly stronger opponent!”

His stupid grin wouldn’t leave his face.

“Yeah? Well, we didn’t die! More importantly, we don’t even have enemies on this mission anymore, you know? We have the opportunity to train with these people! Isn’t that exciting?!”

“Wow, that one is loud.”

Sasuke turned to find the Suna-nin and the younger Kiri-nin just a few steps away from their team. Speaking was the oldest boy, bizarrely long sword handle reaching out from behind his back. The masked girl was right next to him, expressionless as usual.

“Yeah, that is Naruto. He has a lot of potential, but his village is very interested in holding back his development apparently.”

Said blonde punched Sasuke in the shoulder.

“See Teme, I have a lot of... Wait, what was that last part?”

The Suna-nin looked around for a moment, clearly looking for something or someone.

Satisfied they looked back to Naruto.

“Well, to start, you dress like you want to be seen, which is absolutely counterproductive for our profession. Really, your whole team does, but that’s also a bit characteristic of you tree-huggers.”

Sasuke looked over the older boy.

“;;; You are wearing a dark green shirt and are from the desert.”

The boy rolled his eyes.

“We have travel cloaks, like Kentarō here wears most of the time. I just usually don’t wear mine as often because it gets in the way of my Nagamaki. Ken though has a bunch of extra pouches in his, so he usually keeps his on hand.”

The tallest boy nodded, generous grin on his face. Naruto looked at him for a moment, before looking over the other two Suna-nin, head tilted in confusion.

“... Why is he so much darker than you two?”

Sakura’s fist came down before anyone else could react.

“NARUTO-baka! You can’t just ask someone why they look different! That’s rude!”

The tall boy laughed.

“Dang, she’s pretty fast! But nah, my family is originally from the eastern plains of Kaminari. Most of the people there are darker, given the long summers and lack of shady forests like you have. Our western neighbors are mountain-folk though, paler than even my teammates. Kumo has a lot of variety given the geography, so I kinda stick out in Suna.”

Naruto stared dumbfounded for a moment before shaking his head.

“Well, regardless it’s nice to meet you! I’m Uzumaki Naruto and my dream is to become the next Hokage!”

The three eldest shinobi froze after Naruto’s typical outburst, though Seiko was clearly unsurprised. The two Suna boys looked at one another for a moment and then back to Naruto. They were evaluating something, but Sasuke wasn’t sure what there was to think over.

It was Naruto, of all people. Everything was up front. Not a lot to really discern.

“... Shouldn’t you have red hair?”

Silence. It was a bizarre comment, but one that doubled down on the implications first explored a few days ago when Kakashi first passed out. Sakura chuckled nervously.

“I guess that does solidify that Mito-Sama was an Uzumaki if the red hair is that big of a deal. Although now I’m confused as to why Naruto is an orphan. There should be more Uzumakis, right?”

Seiko shook her head.

“Really hard to have a large population of powerful red heads when they got hunted down during and after the Second War. Your teammate probably only has relatively distant family, all outside of Konoha. I can think of at least... four that I have met.”

That got everyone else’s attention. Before anyone could say anything, Naruto was in the girl’s face.

“I have family?!”

With a shreak, Seiko fell to the ground, not caught by anyone in time.

“Wooooooooohoohoo, don’t do that. Please. You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

Catching her breath, Seiko stood back up and looked at the boy.

“I’m not sure about your direct family, but as far as distant clan relations, Senju Tsunade is likely the international head of your clan, along with the Senju, since she is the granddaughter of Uzumaki-Mito. She’s also blonde, but hers is a bit paler than yours. The other is a little more farfetched, but I believe you may also be distantly kin to our Kazekage’s children.”

Before Naruto could interrupt, Seiko kept going.

“That being said, I think we have hit the limit on how much we can talk about the Uzumakis here. Sakura and I gotta keep doing our training so it would probably help if you all found something to do to pass the time. That and I’m certain your sensei could easily answer most of your questions.”

With no better counterargument, the group began to break apart into small groups. Seiko, Sakura, and Haku walked away together, Naruto and the taller boy... Kentarō if Sasuke heard his introduction correctly, walked away as well. That left Sasuke with the oldest boy, both silently brooding with the departure of the rest. The older boy sighed.

“So... are you interested in Kenjutsu?”

Sasuke wasn’t sure, but the skillset would likely be useful against his brother.

“I suppose so, though I’ve never trained with swords before.”

The other boy nodded.

“That won’t be an issue, I have some bokken sealed away we can use, so we just need to establish your form and basics.”

The pair set off and went through some basic movements with the wooden swords for several minutes. The quiet words were welcome after having to put up with Naruto after the last several days.

“My name is Akio, by the way.”

“Hn. Uchiha Sasuke.”

The boy laughed a moment.

“Something funny?”

The older boy shook his head.

“The formal introduction is unnecessary. You wear the Uchiha clan crest, so unless you looked like your teammate, you wouldn’t need to introduce yourself. Might be safer as well.”

Sasuke grunted in reply, swinging his Bokken in a mock draw slash. Akio continued after his own draw.

“Speaking of... your teammate has a high degree of control over himself. You wouldn’t expect that from someone like him.”

Sasuke had to pause his practice, because that was just entirely untrue. Naruto had been either depressingly quiet or annoyingly loud his whole life. Those were his two moods.

“Are we talking about the same person? The Dobe is the loudest and most insufferable person I have to put up with... other than Sakura.”

Akio shrugged.

“Someone like him killed my dad, though that situation is a bit more difficult to explain to a foreigner. I’m still... working through it, but Seiko was right to defend him since he has had a rough life so far.”

Sasuke was missing something. The older boy was clearly talking about someone else, but Sasuke couldn’t relate Naruto to anyone else. He was just... too unique.

“What are you talking about?”

Akio seemed to realize something and quickly stopped his training.

“Perhaps I am incorrect and seeing something that isn’t there. You wouldn’t happen to know how to wall walk, would you? It’s something they usually show us in Suna not too long after graduation, but Konoha does look a little behind on some training.”

“Hn, tell me about it. I don’t know if we call it wall walking or not, but Kakashi-Sensei hasn’t had us doing much more than D-Ranks since graduation, so any training is appreciated.”

Akio nodded.

“Great. Let's go get the others and see if we can’t get you guys up to speed.

With no enemies to fear, a fresh rotation of rejuvenated laborers, and limitless access to supplies, Tazuna’s workers escalated their rate of construction. Within a few weeks, the bridge was finished in all facets except decorative elements, which could be managed without Shinobi present. The whole of Nami gathered early into April to commemorate the completion of the bridge.

The whole land was exuberant, as if the Spring thaw seized the hearts of the people themselves and set them to bloom. Only, Naruto could care less about the stupid bridge being completed.

The previous year, that weird, masked girl from the desert turned his world upside down and had him asking himself uncomfortable questions.

If he had a clan, why wasn’t he living with anyone? Why had no one adopted him? Why had no one told him anything about his family?

Why would Jiji knowingly lie to him about it for years? There was no way he couldn’t know, the old geezer knew everything!

Why did everyone hate him?

The last question, of course, became obvious after Mitsuki tried to trick him after failing graduation. But that only brought Naruto back to the other questions.

Why was the Kyūbi sealed in him? If the Kyūbi was sealed away, then why did the villagers still hate him as if he was the stupid fox?

More importantly, Naruto remembered the story of Yondaime-Sama’s defeat of the Kyūbi! It was the only interesting part of their history class, and Naruto remembered in detail that the Iruka-Sensei said that the Kyūbi was killed, not sealed. Which... even Iruka acknowledged was false when he defended Naruto.

... So why was everyone lying? That only made things more confusing!

The team training with the foreign shinobi only made Naruto more aware of his gaps in information. Everyone outside of Konoha seemed to be aware of the Uzumaki clan, but neither Sakura nor Sasuke knew anything about it, and Kakashi was still worthless when it came to learning anything, so Naruto just kept quiet after the first meeting.

Eventually, someone would have to say something, because apparently the Uzumaki were a big deal. A HUGE deal if it took three villages to take down their village.

In front of the bridge stood Tazuna and his family, the various shinobi off to the sides of the road, while several of the elders and currently free adults stood or sat on the road ahead of Tazuna. Naruto and the rest of Dai-Hana-Nan stood off to the right of the bridge, as they were the official escorts to the man for this mission. With Tazuna motioning for the crowd to quiet down, the commencement began. The man was eerily sober for once, and the reek of alcohol had left him like the heat from a quenched blade.

“People of Nami-no-Kumi; I would like to begin by thanking you for not losing faith during the recent unpleasantness. Today, I am proud to speak to you, both as an elder of this land, but also as the future representative of the nation as its Daimyō, informal as I may be with that full title.”

“For the last several months, we were sold out and subjugated by the would-be tyrant Gatō and his greed, to which we responded by reaching out to the mainland for our salvation. As it has transpired, the mainland has reached back, delivering us not only from the clutches of slavery and ruin, but to a new future with legitimacy.”

“Nami will never again be the pawn of some businessman, nor any other nation, for we shall have the support of not one, not two, but three of the great shinobi villages, and by extension, their representatives. While we will not be able to return to the quiet ways of our past, we can embolden ourselves to reach forward and claim our future for ourselves.”

Tazuna turned to face the completed bridge.

“This bridge’s original purpose may no longer be needed, but our completion of it is a showing of our commitment to our independence. Our commitment to our history, and the commitment to those who helped carry our burdens.”

Turning back to the crowd, Tazuna prepared to wrap up his speech, gaze lingering a little longer on Naruto than the boy was comfortable with.

“To honor that legacy, we have decided to name the bridge after our original benefactors; those who sponsored our nation and regularly worked to defend us before their downfall. I hereby commemorate the opening of...”

“The Great Uzumaki Bridge!”

The claps of the people of Nami were drowned out by the bright noise and sinking feeling in Naruto’s chest. Once again, his name... his clan’s name, was being brought up with such admiration when all Naruto ever knew was disgust and vitriol. Naruto’s body burned.

Why?! Why was he left alone when his clan was clearly respected and acknowledged outside of Konoha? Was it just because of the stupid fox?!

Kakashi’s hand momentarily gripped Naruto’s shoulder before the boy rolled it off.

“Don’t touch me!”

Naruto’s voice came out louder than intended, drawing the attention of the surrounding crowd. Initial confusion gave way to discomfort and fear. Kakashi’s breath brushed across Naruto’s collar.

“Rein in your emotions Naruto, this is not the time.”

Kakashi came across as placatingly calm, but Naruto could feel the despair and the fear just beneath it. He was just like the rest. Scared and unwilling to say what they mean.

With a quick Tora, Naruto disappeared from the bridgehead and began running towards the far northern side of the island. He needed to get away from everyone and just have time to himself. Surprisingly, no one was following him, or at least they weren’t immediately on his heels.

It took several minutes, but the boy finally broke the maze of mangroves to the northeastern coast of Nami. The midday waves brushed against the shoreline quietly as Naruto jumped down from the trees and sat at the transition between the dirt and the sand. From what Naruto had found out, just over the horizon was Uzu-no-Kuni, his family’s distant homeland.

Konoha, despite its issues, had always been home to Naruto. But now?

Naruto wasn’t sure.

He desperately wanted to go to Uzu, if only to feel some greater connection than the few strong bonds he had with Konoha. Despite his grades and his mannerisms, Naruto wasn’t stupid.

He knew that had to be true, because he had to rely on himself for so much. If he was truly stupid, he wouldn’t have made it this far. Even Kakashi had to see that at some point.

There was a rustling behind Naruto, but the boy refused to look back. He knew it was impulsive to run off like that, but...

It was so infuriating to be hit again and again by the reality of having an apparently well-known clan after being told for your entire life that you don’t have one.

The person grunted and sat down a little away from Naruto, but only after stabbing their massive sword into the sand in front of them.

“I can’t blame you for running off, kid.”

Naruto took a glance at Zabuza. The man gave off a lot of mixed signals, from brutally hostile to bizarrely hospitable, and each new facet of the nuke-nin made Naruto question why the village was so adamant in condemning foreign-nin as much as they did.

After all, were the people of Konoha not foreigners to everyone else as well?

“And why is that?”

Zabuza wasn’t looking at Naruto, but instead was gazing off at the sea, as if ruminating on what exactly he was doing.

Given, the man wasn’t super chatty before.

“You and I aren’t so different. I was labeled as a monster when I was in the academy. Brutal, relentless. I had something to prove because I had nothing else.”

Naruto found himself drawn in quickly.

“Back in Kiri, we had a graduation exam; When shinobi were finally ready to leave the academy, they would need to fight one another to the death to secure their spot. Obviously, this made our forces smaller overall given the turnover, but the traditional argument is that we easily had one competent soldier for every two an enemy might have.”

Zabuza snorted.

“Absolute dogshit, of course. Kiri’s upper crust was easily able to either avoid the exams or kill their opponents outside of a legitimate match and pass. The Hiu, our noble and esteemed clans and other families, avoided killing one another and allowed the talented but disconnected to die for no other reason than they were lesser by the accident of birth.”

“That sounds awful...”

Zabuza nodded.

“It was. I grew up on the streets, and I already knew, like most of the rest of my gutter litter, that I was going to grow up to be fodder if I didn’t get stronger. So, I did. And before I even enrolled in the academy, I killed a sensei overlooking one of the exams.”

Naruto wasn’t sure what to think about that. Iruka-Sensei immediately came to mind and the boy couldn’t imagine having to fight the man, let alone kill him.

“They ended that practice not too long after, the new Mizukage willing to reform after I shook their whole system, but the thing is, I was feared afterwards. I was a monster, a demon, despite the fact that I did something that allowed more kids to not be killed for no reason.”

Zabuza finally looked at Naruto.

“Konoha put a beast in you to save themselves, but clearly you haven’t been treated like a savior and have instead been treated like shit, am I right?”

Hesitantly, Naruto nodded. It seemed that the 'closely guarded secret' was far more obvious to foreigners as well. Naruto tried not to dwell on the fact that everyone not from his graduating class seemed to know he housed the fox.

“I know you’re angry, and clearly Konoha hasn’t been too honest with you about your past, so I wouldn’t put it past you to abandon them here and now, like I did Kiri. Hell I would even encourage it.”

“But, that’s not why I’m here.”

Zabuza stood up and walked over to Naruto, kneeling down to look at him face-to-face.

“I know your feelings are going to be complicated, but I have a feeling we might feel the same way about some things. I come off as a little harsh, but that is because I give a damn. I assembled my team because they are the results of Kiri’s failures. The twins; asked to kill one another to prove loyalty to a village that gave them nothing when they had to take care of one another. Haku; nearly killed by his own father for possession of a Kekkei Genkai after the man killed his own wife for the exact same reason.”

“If you are like me... you want these things to end. I might be a killer, a damn good one at that, but I don’t see a point in needlessly murdering the weak and powerless. There is no sport in that, and there is no benefit to it. One of these days, my group and I are going back to Kiri and taking over, righting wrongs, trying to fix things.”

“I want you to think about whether or not that is something you want to do with Konoha.”

Naruto blinked.

“What?!”

Zabuza shrugged.

“Well, if you don’t abandon your village for its crimes towards you personally, then the least you could do is try to steer it forward so no one else has to suffer as you did. Everyone here seems convinced you are an Uzumaki, and if that is true, you also have a claim to Uzushio. You aren’t stuck where you are, at least in principle.”

Standing, Zabuza pulled his sword from the sand and shook the sand from the blade before sheathing it on his back.

“No pressure towards making your decision, obviously, but I would like to know eventually. I will have Haku provide you an address to send mail to before we leave in the event you decide you want out of Konoha. Think of it as an apology for our previous position as enemies.”

Zabuza walked away and left Naruto to his stormy thoughts.

Leaving Konoha... that was...

That was a lot to think about.

It was home. But it was also the source of all of his pain. The hatred, and the lies. There were few bonds that kept him to the village, and they were all tenuous at best.

Iruka-Sensei was a given, the man had come around after the Mitsuki Situation after all.

Jiji used to be the main one, but it was clear now the man had lied to him is whole life, potentially about everything.

Even his team was difficult to truly appreciate. Kakashi knew and refused to be serious about training their team. The man cared, that was clear after this mission, but he was utterly unsuited to the role of Sensei.

Naruto had tried to build something with Sakura, even if for shallow reasons, but was refused at every turn.

Sasuke was... something, a rival, someone who understood Naruto beyond words. But that was still antagonistic.

Truly, Zabuza hit all the nails on Naruto’s situation, but the boy wasn’t sure about committing to leaving Konoha. Not after he spent his life so far building up to become the Hokage, after all.

It would be wasteful to abandon his dream now. But...

Naruto stood up, watching the waves cresting over the horizon.

... He did need to learn more about his past, and he wasn’t sure how much it was going to hurt when he found out more.

Chapter Text

Weird Little Birthday Girl

[Sunagakure, 1323-Seiyō, April 14th, Year 63 of the Shinchu-Jidai]

Freshly laden with mission pay, Seiko threw herself into puppet work when her team returned to Suna. Both of Shi-Butai’s missions had been upgraded to A ranks with the presence of Zabuza and Kakashi’s groups, leading the pay to jump from the original predicted fifteen-hundred dinar to over twenty-one-thousand dinar for everyone in the team. Outside of their additional money paid by Gatō himself during the mission, this jumped the total pay of each shinobi to two and half months of daily D-Rank missions for less than two months of actual work.

This of course meant, along with being finally relieved of the blasted humidity, Seiko could finish Hiryū and Yūrei before they got deployed to Konoha again. The puppets were nominally finished but lacked their most important features limited by Seiko’s mission budget.

Now though? Seiko could splurge.

Hiryū’s primary cost concerns were material, since it was such a massive puppet and required so many metal and wooden parts to build. Construction alone made it one of if not Seiko’s most expensive puppet yet. She had already finished the most complicated aspects, namely the Tōei formula, Vulcan flamethrower assembly, and the blades for the teeth and claws of the beast. The mechanical parts and wood for the body could now follow and it would probably only take Seiko a month or two to be finished with the thing.

Yūrei, of course, ran into a more conceptual issue beyond now needing to purchase their swords. The puppet was already built, but the inverted Tōei seal was running into the problem of being somehow more difficult because it was simpler than the regular seal.

Seiko’s Tōei seal was absurdly complicated in practice, replicating a visual model that reacted to light and shade like most other physical objects through its construction. This was based on Seiko’s past life and understanding of light as applied to digital meshes, which was easier to encode for a realistic looking puppet projection than to accurately try to manipulate a genjutsu to pull off the same affect.

The Meisei seal, though, had so far been unable to operate with the Tōei seal active, since obscuring the whole body with a projection of what was behind it actually screwed up the lighting for the mesh and caused the whole camouflage to rapidly alter color rather than stay simply invisible.

Could Seiko put in another switch to actually cause each to alter between the two? Yes, but the latency was not as seamless as Seiko would prefer. It was looking like Seiko was going to create some intermediate seal or other process to make the transition less janky, but so far she had not succeeded.

Standing up from her seat, Seiko padded her way into the foyer looking for some water. As her door opened, the noise of voices immediately quieted, Seiko inadvertently interrupting some private conversation her parents were having. Ayame recovered first.

“Good afternoon, Seiko-chan, how are you doing?!”

Seiko shrugged.

“I’ve been better. The new seal keeps giving me issues and I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to compensate for it.”

Her parents looked at one another for a moment, before Seiko’s father asked another question, seemingly out of left field.

“Say, we were thinking about getting some dōna to bring to the house in three days. Would that be of interest to you?”

Grabbing her water, Seiko smiled and nodded.

“Yeah, it’s been a while since I had any. That would be fantastic, Tō-san.”

“You aren’t going to be out on any missions then, right?”

Seiko shook her head.

“Nothing beyond the daily D-ranks. Why?”

Both parents looked at one another again before snickering.

“Nothing! Kenshirō and I were just thinking about spending time with our daughters. You have been gone a while, after all.”

Seiko smiled.

“Well, that does sound nice. Just a dinner for us then?”

Ayame shrugged.

“Well, we wouldn’t be opposed to eating with your teammates, but we shall see.”

Seiko nodded.

“Ooooook, sure. Anyways, I’m going to get back to work now. Hopefully y’all continue to have a good day.”

Seiko returned to her room, the door closing as Seiko’s parents each let out a quiet sigh of relief. Ayame looked to her husband.

“Alright, so you were right. She clearly has forgotten her birthday is this week.”
Kenshirō shrugged.

“Intuition. Besides, she brought home a bunch of money and threw herself into those new puppets of hers. I would be shocked if she did remember.”

“Wouldn’t Yume have remembered though?”

...

{Maybe you are thinking about this the wrong way.}

[Oh yeah, and what are you thinking? The two seals keep interweaving with each other and don’t seem to allow for anything related.]

{Maybe you shouldn’t bind the Meisei to the puppet itself. Maybe it should be bound to something else. Like a parasol, or maybe a tag-able seal on an enemy.}

[Way too much situational awareness for both of those, not to mention having to actually be within tagging distance to pull off that other type of seal.]

Just then, an idea hit Seiko.

[Wait... maybe we are thinking about this wrong. Tōei projects, why don’t we make Meisei absorb?]

{... Ok you lost me. What are you talking about?}

[Ok, so, you know how Tōei takes an image and broadcasts it across the skeleton laid out over the puppet right? What if, instead of projecting an illusion of nothing, we instead absorb the incoming light and displace it? Like... an anechoic body, but for light!]

{... A WHAT?! What are you talking about?}

Seiko sighed and brought out a sheet of paper and started doodling with a pencil.

[Alright, so sound waves reflect off of bodies which can give an idea of how far away something is dependent on the scale of the impact, the materials being collided and so on. Naturally, shinobi tend to dampen their steps to not create undesired sound by cushioning their impact with precise movements and a little help from Chakra.]

[With a particular pattern of panels, you can negate moving soundwaves entirely, by having them bounce off the physical pattern and interfere with one another, creating a flattening standing wave. I’m thinking, we do something like this for Yūrei, except for light in the visible spectrum to make them invisible.]

Yume was silent.

{... You think light will work like sound?}

Seiko shrugged.

[It does... a little bit. Truly, we want the light to actually pass through without hitting the puppet... or maybe something else.]

Seiko kept writing, drafting out different ideas as she went.

[Maybe we don’t need to abandon the original projection concept, but rework it a bit. Maybe... counter-illumination reacting based on the incoming light? That would at least handle the lighting response from messing up like the first version did.]

...

The next two days passed with a blur as Seiko and Yume poured their brains into figuring out a new way to work the seal. Theoretically, everything would work fine, but there were caveats.

Since the projection was actually having to cancel out the light that would normally hit the puppet rather than just reflect a suitable image of Seiko’s choice, the seal did have an expanded Chakra drain unsuitable to the current Cactus Core powering Yūrei. Without altering the puppets already built dimensions, Seiko was stuck with a somewhat dangerous strategy; an absorption seal.

The new Meisei seal was limited to wavelengths between 300 and 800 nanometers, easily covering the visible spectrum for most shinobi. Rather than altering the already built dimensions of the puppet, Seiko figured that since Yūrei would most likely be deployed during daylight hours against shinobi reliant on their vision, it would be easiest to derive the remaining energy from ultraviolet light from the sun. Altering the exterior to improve the efficiency of the collection would not take that much effort, but it would mean that Yūrei would be at risk for heat damage if kept invisible for extended periods of time. Alternatively, the seal could be maintained via Seiko’s Chakra, which would be an issue in itself if Seiko had to fight for an extended period of time with the puppet being invisible.

Tactically, the benefits outweighed the complications, and strategically, Yūrei was not meant to fight for an extended amount of time, but to swiftly handle enemies via stealth and deception. The logic would hold true if the seal worked.

Back to their typical training grounds, Seiko and Yume quickly applied the seal to several pieces of wood scrap left over from the armor hardening process for Hiryū’s body. If they could make these pieces of wood disappear, then Yūrei could be finished ahead of schedule and ready for the exams.

The two girls looked at one another and nodded. With parallel threads of nigh invisible Chakra, the two girls started from the exterior most pieces of sealed wood and activated the seals with a slight pulse of Chakra.

With the burnt orange of Kaze’s afternoon sky casting shadows throughout the village, one by one, the pieces of wood gave way to burnt-in shadows charring the ground. Visibly, there was a slight sheen and layer of scattering, but nothing that would be noticed without a keen pair of eyes or closing the distance. The girls had succeeded.

With a pair of whoops, the girls jumped from their resting positions and danced with each other alone at the training ground, wood pieces quickly reappearing after the connection was severed.

“We did it! We did it! Let’s go tell the parents.”

Seiko and Yume took off running back to their home, bursting through the door minutes later.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”

Oh... right. It was the Seventeenth of April.

Seiko and Yume stood quietly just within the doorframe, taking in the large gathering of people just inside.

Ayame and Kenshirō, who were expected.

A decently dressed Junko, who was not.

Akio and Kentarō, along with a smaller girl who had to be Akio’s little sister and two older people who were likely Kentarō’s parents.

Seiko and Yume looked at one another before Yume promptly remerged back with Seiko’s body.

“Damn it, Yume, you can’t just run off like that!”

Alone in the doorway, Seiko sighed and closed the door.

“Greetings everyone, I clearly forgot what day it was and was not expecting a party. Apologies for my sister, she is less socially inclined than I am.”

{Can you blame me? I get tired if I am out for longer than four hours!}

[Absolutely, I can absolutely blame you. But I blame the parents more for running this on us without warning.]

Ayame clapped and rushed forward to frame her daughter’s introduction.

“Alright, well everyone, this is Seiko, my lovely daughter! You also just saw my other lovely daughter, Yume, although her existence has been... a little bit of a secret for the last several years, since she and Seiko...”

“Share a body.”

“...Exactly. It’s a bit of an odd situation, one we are still navigating, but we love both of them nonetheless! Yume isn’t exactly as social though, so we do ask you to give her some time and space to express herself.”

Initial explanations of Yume’s existence aside, everyone quickly got into party mode. There was food, a few gifts, and the promise of another set of guests arriving a bit later due to other schedule conflicts.

Kentarō’s parents, Gakuto and Kasuza, were exceptionally friendly, and quickly pulled Seiko into a welcoming hug when her introduction was officially made. The display was a little unorthodox; physical contact in Kaze was usually considered very intimate outside of combat, and the weather patterns made it uncommon for strangers to find themselves so close outside of traveling together in the desert (which, that itself was a sign of trust and intimacy). Hi was very similar, strict unspoken rules about physical contact and proper displays of respect, down to the specific angle one would bow or kowtow and in what situations.

After Seiko’s awkward freezing up at the sudden contact, Kentarō interrupted to apologize for his parents.

“Sorry for not giving you a heads up, but Kaminari’s habits are a bit different.”

Gakuto laughed as he untangled himself from his wife and Seiko.

“That is true; with so much land to split between our countrymen, it is considered polite to close the distance and greet with the body. It also helps to measure the mettle of the person you are meeting.”

Gakuto stood straight and, towering over Seiko’s short form, extended his arm into...

... a gesture for a handshake.

Brain still hardwired to her previous life, Seiko reached back in kind, taking the man’s hand and giving it and appreciative squeeze as the man likewise copied her, pleasantly surprised she already knew what to do.

“Eh, Kentarō, you were right, she is quick!”

Gakuto, tall as he was, was not the bastion of strength in the Yamagishi family. Despite the man being abnormally tall for Suna, clearly standing at over one-hundred and eighty centimeters in his blue and yellow robes, he was still of relatively average build to those around him. His pale blond hair was tied back into neat cornrows and was peppered with specks of black and grey, contrasting his dark skin along with his pale blue eyes.

Instead, Kasuza’s muscular forearms were far closer to Kentarō’s well-maintained physique. Where his father stood tall, Kentarō’s mother was stockier, shorter but brimming with strength in her sleeveless green and beige dress. Where Gakuto’s hair was bound and tightly controlled, Kasuza’s curls flowed freely up and out of her hair, like a tumbleweed of spider’s silk.

Moving along from Kentarō’s family, Seiko set off for Akio and his little sister.

“Seiko, this is my Imōto, Katsumi. She just started on a special medical program through the academy.”

The girl was shy, partially hiding behind her older brother. If Seiko remembered correctly, the girl was likely only seven years old right now. She wore the typical clothes of a child in Suna; a dark short sleeved shirt and pants with a shemagh around the neck. Where Akio’s hair was shaved down on the sides, Katsumi’s hair was pulled back into a series of three branching Ponytails, not dissimilar from Temari’s usual pattern of four. Where they differed though, was the large fringe on the right side of her face, blocking but one orange iris from looking outward.

“Is that so? Well, it is nice to meet you Katsumi-chan. Why is your medical program so special?”

Rather than answering directly, Katsumi just tugged on Akio’s legs and looked to him to answer.

“Katsumi has difficulty externalizing chakra, and that was grounds for her to not be accepted into the Academy. However, given the Kazekage’s changes over the last year, there has been a new program for non-shinobi to move into shinobi-adjacent roles, like medical or administration. In a few years, she will be able to work in any of the clinics around the village, or even the main hospital if she is skilled enough.”

Seiko nodded with a smile.

“Oh, well that is excited. There is never a shortage of medical work to be done.”

The girl remained quiet, but the hint of a smile broke on her face at the recognition of a clear future. Seiko looked back to Akio.

“Does that mean...”

The boy nodded.

“The Kazekage visited not too long after we came back to give a formal apology for our father’s last mission. Our orphan’s stipend was also increased to help cover any potential gaps caused by long term missions.”

Seiko was about to ask about more, but was quickly dragged backwards by her shoulder. Turned around, Seiko came face to face with Junko.

“Hi Sensei.”

“Hey brat, I was just gonna come over to say Happy Birthday before I leave.”

Junko’s hair was tied back into an odd arrangement of ponytails, leaving her face exposed and only lightly decorated with makeup compared to her typical bare look or sharply painted appearance. Where she normally wore her risqué pants and top, Junko today wore a simple pair of dark grey shinobi pants and a salmon-colored Guayabera, sleeves rolled up to her forearms.

“You are leaving already? I’ve only been here for a few minutes!”

“Yeah, well you know how it is. Your mother is mean, and taken, and I am both over- and under-dressed for this party. So! I wanted to go ahead and give you your gift!”

Seiko pouted.

“Sensei, you don’t need to give me a gift, you know that right?”

Junko lightly punched the girl’s shoulder.

“It’s the thought that counts. Besides, your mother will only hate me more if you have this in front of her and I will have a lot harder time controlling myself if she starts yelling at my face.”

Seiko scrunched her face.

“Sensei, can you stop perving on my mom?”

With an exaggerated show of her hand, Junko let out a light gasp.

“Seiko! You wound me! Take your gift, please.”

Seiko reluctantly put out her hand, which Junko quickly dropped a scroll into.

“Mirage: A Desert Maiden’s Guide to Weaponizing the Body Beyond Comba... Sensei, is this what I think it is?”

Junko’s grin widened significantly.

“It might be. But more importantly, this is a teaching tradition for me. My 
Sensei gave this to me for my fourteenth birthday, to prepare me for the possibility and success of potential seduction missions in the years to come. I found it very valuable for becoming Jōnin, and you might as well.”

Seiko paused for a moment. The thought of having to... seduce people, for work even, was so far away from her thought process since she arrived in this world. Sure, she still had stirrings, and could easily evaluate sexual attraction, but for whatever reason, the reality she might have to get entangled with some stranger for work...

“Do you think I will have to go on a seduction mission?”

Junko shrugged.

“Probably not. Rasa-Sama is not a big fan of seduction missions, so they have been pretty sparse for a while since Kaze as a whole isn’t as double dealing as say Tsuchi or Hi when it comes to relationships. I mean, he has sent me on them before, but I am a bit of a special case. But...”

Junko paused as she took a generous look around to make sure Ayame wasn’t about to take her out.

“... It might help you with puppet boy in the near future, so its not like it won’t help in some way.”

Seiko punched the older woman in the arm.

“I suppose you are right. Thank you for the gift, I guess.”

Reflecting on some of the other words, Seiko spoke up before Junko walked off.

“Sensei, why have we never met your Sensei? Surely your team is still around, right?”

Junko’s smile faltered, the light leaving her eyes a little as she took a breath.

“Nope. My team all died on mission a few months after I got that scroll. I wasn’t...”

Junko stared straight ahead for several seconds.

“... I wasn’t good enough, back then. Not like I am now. I was saved by the Al’Miraji when my team died protecting me after an ambush far in the north. I ran away into the desert, trying to lose my would-be captors, which I did. But, I was then alone, well out of parameters from the original mission and without supplies. I still had the mission scroll though, so as long as I made it back home, I would be fine. But I did nearly die in the desert.”

Junko shifted a bit on her heel.

“The only saving grace was that I did get to train under the Sandaime for a little bit before he disappeared. That was after the man made me Chūnin, since I did make it back alive and with the scroll.”

The space between the two women was quiet before Junko clapped and retreated a little further from her student.

“... Anyways, have a good birthday, enjoy yourself. We will back to the drama in no time.”

With that, Junko left for the entrance and opened the door, only to stop in her tracks since someone was in front of her, fist poised to knock on the door. Junko gave a slight bow once her senses caught back up from the surprise.

“Kazekage-Sama.”

The man let out a small chuckle as he moved to the side to let Junko out. With Junko gone, Rasa stood and waited for Ayame to cross the room and greet the man and his family.

“Rasa-Sama, it is great to see you could make it.”

The Kazekage bowed.

“Of course, I just had to wait for my children to return from their mission, so they are likely a little less dressed than expected.”

Ayame shook her head.

“That is no issue, Seiko was unaware of what day it was, so she is in the same situation. Please, do come in.”

Rasa entered, followed quickly by his disheveled but uninjured children. The man walked right up to Seiko and loomed over her before crouching down with prideful glean in his eyes, even if it didn’t reach down to reveal smirk.

“Happy Birthday, and once again, thank you for your service.”

Seiko bowed to the man.

“Thank you, Rasa-Sama. I was not expecting, well, any of this to be honest. But it is nice to be seen for once, I suppose.”

The man nodded in return.

“That is true. Your mother mentioned you had seemingly forgotten about today. Busy with anything I should know about? You aren’t planning on uprooting anything else in Suna, are you?”

Seiko shook her head and raised her hands.

“Nothing of the sort! I’ve just been busy with finishing some new puppets and seals. I had the money to splurge a little thanks to the Nami mission, so I have nearly finished some of my latest projects.”

Before Rasa could respond, Kankurō burst in between the pair.

“You have new puppets?! I want a spar!”

Rasa rolled his eyes but was holding back a grin at the boy’s sudden injection. Before he could respond though, Gaara quietly joined his brother.

“I would like a spar as well. It has been a while since we fought and I think it would help to see how much better I fare since I have become better acquainted with Shukaku-Sama.”

Seiko closed her eyes and sighed.

“Fine, let’s go get this over with. Maybe we’ll be starving by the time we finish.”

Once again at the training field she left earlier, Seiko quietly stretched as Kankurō bombarded her with a long string of questions about new puppets. Seiko only responded that one was finished.

“So wait, you only have one new puppet?”

“Exactly.”

“But you have another that is nearly finished?”

“Exactly.”

“Can we spar with the finished one?”

Seiko sighed.

“It’s a bit unwieldy for me to use alone, also it’s a bit more dangerous than my older ones when it starts moving, so it might be best if I save it for your brother.”

Kankurō scoffed.

“How bad could it be? It isn’t too much like that Samurai puppet you have, is it?”

Seiko shook her head and turned to face the boy.

“If Sanshōuo could fly, then yes.”

The boy faltered for a moment, but then broke into a wide grin.

“Alright, I’m game. Let’s compare them.”

Gaara and Temari stood off to the far side of the field, backs to the street, as Kankurō removed the lowest storage scroll from his new back harness and summoned the largest of his puppets. Seiko prepared the Chakra in her hand and went through her separate Mudra; in this case, the select Yubimoji she had isolated for Hiryū.

Seiko’s right hand closed with her pointer finger extended and pointed upwards. Then, she traced a U-shaped curve with her fingers. Finally, Seiko turned her hand around, palm facing her face, and clicked her thumb and pinky finger one with her other fingers pointing upwards and outwards.

Hi.

Ri.

Yu.

With twin bursts of smoke, a large salamander and a massive dragon appeared, though the dragon struggled to stay aloft only a meter or so from the ground. Kankurō’s smirk dropped fell as his jaw dropped.

“Oh-ho shit, you did make it huge... what’s with the shaking?”

Kankurō took his eyes off of the puppet and looked back to Seiko who was seemingly as confused as he was, clearly struggling to stand comfortably despite not being physically encumbered.

“Ok... so, this is a lot harder to wield by myself than I thought it would be.”

[Imōto, could you help out here?!]

{Hmph, can’t I get some rest? It is our birthday after all, and we can always work on this later.}

Before Seiko could retort, Kankurō appeared in her periphery, taking a closer look at Hiryū’s projected form.

“It doesn’t look that heavy, but you are a crafty one, so this could easily be solid metal or something. What does it do?”

Seiko sighed as she brought the puppet closer to the ground, relaxing her attempts to keep it floating high above the battlefield as designed.

“So, Hiryū is designed as a two-person puppet, at least for genin-skill level users. One user stays on the ground and manages half of the carrying power and the heavier weapons, whereas the other user rides atop and takes advantage of the expanded sight range to direct the puppet’s movements and more basic attacks. Unfortunately, my dearest Imōto has decided to not join us for today, so its just me trying to wield the whole things and, regardless of any praise anyone has given me today, I am only a genin with skills to match.”
Kankurō looked over at Seiko, then looked back to the puppet.

“So you still want to spar? Usual rules?”

Seiko nodded. The boys smirk returned in full force.

“Good.”

A sudden commotion and a cloud of dust behind Kankurō was the only warning they had started, as the boy leapt out and away as Sanshōuo’s tail came flying in from behind where Kankurō stood previously. Seiko was only just fast enough to throw herself backwards out of the way. Scrambling back to her feet, she had Hiryū fly low next to her before she jumped onto the puppet’s back and slowly raised herself to nearly two meters above the ground.

The sensation was nearly equivalent to losing power steering in a car, the full weight of physical resistance magnified by the momentum of the other parts within the puppet. Despite previous usage of mechanical counterbalancing, Seiko forwent using them on this puppet over weight and handling concerns.

Which was, of course, now biting her in the ass.

Sanshōuo was made by Sasori though, so despite its size and weight, it was a lot more nimble. The puppet slid across the sandy ground and swiped upwards with its tail, hitting broad strokes on Hiryū’s reinforced body. Each stroke took a bite out of Seiko’s concentration, as she was trying to handle both the puppet and her chakra as she stuck to its back. Simply taking the hits was steadily taking Seiko out of the fight, which she knew would do nothing for how much the boy annoyed her. With some obscured Mudra, Seiko coiled Hiryū and faced it just ahead of Kankurō’s position. Its jaws opened, and just beyond the visage of a dragon’s maw hid a couple of cannons, accelerating into a spin.

Kankurō got the hint and quickly brought up Sanshōuo’s back shield as flames poured from Hiryū in a high-pitched arc ahead of its opponents. Taking advantage of the sudden distraction, Seiko tried to force Hiryū into a quick flanking maneuver to knock the other puppeteer out of the fight.

Operative word being try.

The puppet moved as ordered, but slower than what Seiko was needing, and before she could complete the maneuver, Kankurō had already recovered his initiative and shook the flames from Sanshōuo, directing the puppets own mouth cannon towards the sky.

Seiko braced herself to be knocked clear off of her puppet, but the explosion of the boy’s cannon was halted just ahead of Hiryū. Sand fell all around in a mockery of rain as Gaara walked over to the pair.

“I think that is enough of a show for you two. Seiko can’t move nearly as fast, so she is at a massive disadvantage to dodge your cannon, Kankurō-nii.”

The other puppeteer pouted for a moment, before his smirk quickly returned.

“Tell you what Gaara; you are exactly right, but Seiko also said this dragon needs two puppeteers. How about we both spar with you?”

Seiko looked between the two boys before Gaara smiled.

“Sure, is that fine with you Seiko?”

The girl nodded, looking back to Kankurō.

“I’m already on Hiryū, but you can go ahead and attach your strings.”

The boys smirk faltered.

“Uh, where do I...”

Seiko barked at the boy.

“Anywhere! I can guide them once you try to attach, let’s just get this done before I end up too tired to walk home!”

The boy quickly complied, and Seiko dragged his strings with her own chakra to the correct anchor points. With both puppeteers now supporting the mechanical beast, Seiko’s control rapidly approved and she brought Hiryū up to three meters off the ground before quickly rounding on Gaara.

Sand rose and quickly diverted the faster moving puppet.

“Kankurō, stay mobile, he can still take you out since we are both fair game!”

The boy didn’t shout back, but he barely had the chance to as tendrils of sand raced towards him and Seiko as Gaara was forced to slowly move about the center of the field, tracking both his brother and Seiko as they kept taking positions opposite one another.

Things quickly changed though, as a sand clone of Gaara emerged from the ground and began to focus solely on Kankurō. Trying to shore up her continued fighting presence, Seiko raced to take out the clone before it could tie up Kankurō and end the spar too quickly.

The clone quickly disappeared though, and Seiko was left to look on in horror as she and Kankurō were suddenly in a perfect cone for one of Gaara’s massive sand tsunamis. With no time to think, Seiko coiled Hiryū to face the jinchūriki as she jumped off the puppet to stand next to Kankurō.

“Feel out for the flamethrower, now!”

As the wave of sand surged ahead, it was met in moments by a wave of solid flame. Sand stopped before diverting off to the side as a glass wall emerged meters ahead of the pair controlling the puppet.

The attack ended, and the two looked at one another for just a moment before they were wrapped up in sand. Gaara walked around the rough glass wall made moments before as he slowly clapped. Kankurō sulked.

“Oh great, we lost.”

Gaara chuckled.

“Don’t be like that, Kankurō. You two are the first to ever deal with a wave of sand with such high temperature. I don’t think I’ve ever made glass before, so that is new.”

Seiko looked at the wall for a moment.

“Can you control any of the glass? It is just reconstituted silicates in this case, amorphous rather than crystalline, so you should be able to still control it via Shukaku’s influence.”

The two boys looked at one another before looking back to Seiko.

“What?”

Seiko sighed.

“Nevermind, I imagine you can break it and maybe mix it with your sand. People are going to ask questions if we just leave it. I am tired and we lost, so I would like to sleep now.”

The boys shrugged as Seiko let Hiryū fall to the ground. Once it was settled down, she laid down on the ground.

“I’m going to take a nap now. Good spar guys.”

A few days later, Seiko found herself relaxing in limbo, explaining her preparations for the coming months to a partially invested Uraya, formerly Urashiki per Momoshiki’s prior explanation. The Kami was... abnormally helpful for once, and not simply pretending every solution or course of action was obvious.

“... So this snake summoner is going to kill the Hokage, because you read it in a story in your previous life?” You are basing your courses of action off of a fictional account of events from another universe?”

Seiko nodded, propped on an Adirondack chair she managed to summon since Limbo was largely imagined and not bound by normal expectations.

“Yep, that’s the only thing that makes sense. Besides, I’ve met enough of the same characters and the same events have happened for the most part. The only major differences seem to be that this version of events is a little less technically advanced that the story’s account... and you are here I guess.”

That caught the Kami’s attention.

“I wasn’t there?”

Seiko nodded, before stopping short.

“Well, to be fair, I don’t actually know for certain. I wasn’t super attached to this story and was busy managing other things in my life. I only remember up to this big reveal and was only getting some secondhand ‘the new arc sucks’ from what I was missing, so yeah.”

Seiko opened her eyes and looked over to Urashiki, lounging in an identical chair casting his Chakra rod out into the void.

“But, we are well before those events, so I am pretty sure of everything else, even if I have changed some things.”

The Kami shrugged his shoulders.

“We shall see how it plays out. Obviously, this is different from one version of events, so you can’t assume everything will play out identically anyways. Have you practiced for the possibility of improving your recognition of Genjutsu?”

Seiko side eyed the Kami.

“I’m immune, remember?”

Urashiki shook his head.

“No such thing. You have a unique situation, but you and your sister are about as resistant as humans can be for no training.”

Seiko faltered.

“But... I can see through illusions! I have been able to since I was first introduced in class!”

“Because your teacher didn’t know how to cast onto your sister, who was in your head and separated from the physical environment enough to be unaffected. If, however, you are both exposed on the outside or are actively relying on one another enough to mix senses, you are about as immune as any other human.”

“That... Ok, that is something I need to work on. But how would I go about that? I’ve never had to deal with that kind of situation.”

The Kami paused in casting his rod for a moment and looked over at Seiko.

“I can teach you. After all, I doubt anyone else has the time to do so.”

Seiko glared at the Kami.

“I hate your jokes; so, so much.”

The Kami simply gave back a wide grin.

“So, the first step is forgetting anything along of the lines of being immune to anything. Even Kami can be affected by mortal Chakra, so believing you are invincible is asking someone to kill you before your time.”

“Which you wouldn’t prevent, but you know I wouldn’t die because I am important, right?”

“Or your death galvanizes someone else to fix things. If you want it to be you, you really need to not think you are invincible so to not have some dramatically ironic death midway through your mission to free your sister from sharing your body, you know?”

Seiko glanced at the Kami.

“You would treat my life like a story? Written with intent?”

Uraya shrugged.

“It isn’t too dissimilar from your approach to living your new life. I would just be careful of assuming too many things, especially when you have already proven things can change.”

Seiko nodded, ruminating over the words. She needed to treat the Narutoverse as if it were her life, with all the seriousness that entailed. Given, she was already doing that in a sense, but she was heavily relying on events she could remember from her own childhood to frame her planning. Her ability to keep doing that was obviously compromised now, but surely the insights would still be somewhat valid.

“You wouldn’t happen to be hiding anything from me, would you? You do tend to know more than you let on, as you have proven before.”

The Kami scoffed.

“Me?! Hiding something? Preposterous! I am simply giving you the best opportunity by not giving you a chance to make a bad anxious decision. But, I will give you a hint.”

The Kami stood up from his chair and walked across the empty space to crouch in front of Seiko.

“I placed a Genjutsu on you five minutes ago and you haven’t noticed yet. The crux of getting around your own partial resistance is mastery of your Meiton. Foreign Chakra should reek to your senses, in such a way you can quickly identify the slightest changes and either root them away as you have, or embrace them with continued control to know what your opponent wants you to do.”

Seiko sat there and swallowed his words, carefully tracing her own senses for what he meant. The longer she felt her own Chakra, the more obvious a slight prick in foreign energy became. Once she found it, a lightly planted thorn of intrusive Chakra, and isolated it, the truth became obvious. Uraya’s form became transparent, as was the immediate box around her chair as the real Uraya was several meters away, mindlessly casting into the void beyond.

While normal senses were not exactly present, the realization Seiko was under Genjutsu brought with it the awareness that there was another thing she missed.

Time.

“Kai.”

The illusions disappeared as Seiko got up and walked over to Uraya. Her back was a little sore, as if she had been just lying on the imaginary wood for hours without moving.

“Uraya... -Sama. How long have I been out?”

The Kami chuckled, reeling in his Chakra rod.

“About... three hours, forty two minutes, and... four seconds. Your best record so far.”

“So far?”

“I have been doing this for the last few visits, which you have forgotten about because you haven’t realized it was Genjutsu until now.”

Seiko stared at the man, unphased by his attempt at being helpful.

“Please tell me it has had some effect if I haven’t recognized it until now.”

The Kami nodded.

“You wouldn’t have broken through if you were not better prepared. I am no slouch after all. But, more importantly, you have acknowledged a weakness that you didn’t realize you had until I have brought it up... four times now. So, you are improving.”

Seiko just grimaced before closing her eyes and sighing.

“I really hope this doesn’t go super poorly.”

Uraya laughed.

“Eh, no worse than your previous escapades, most likely.”

Chapter Text

If You Want Peace... Prepare for War

[Sunagakure, 0900-Seiyō, April 22nd, Year 63 of the Shinchu-Jidai]

“I shall begin; What is spoken in this room is not to be uttered outside of it.”
Seiko and the rest of Team Junko, along with Team Baki and an out-of-place Nakahara Ayame, were standing relaxed in Rasa’s office, the blinds pulled down low as dimmed lights were focused on a map of Hi-no-Kuni stretched over a mobile chalkboard.

“The few of you present are of a privileged group of people in this village aware that there will be a large military operating taking place at Konoha’s Chūnin Exam this Summer. However, this operation is itself a joint operation with Konoha to deal with Orochimaru and their fledgling ‘village’, as the man is very much an internationally wanted nuke-nin likely sheltering others. Otogakure is likely nothing more than an entry name for a collection of hidden bases, but the possibility exists that it may one day grow into a larger threat for Suna and the other nations.”

Rasa pointed to Ayame.

“Thanks to Nakahara-San here, I have been able to bypass most of the traditional channels to coordinate with the Hokage regarding this combined operation without attracting attention. Our plan relies on our exact intentions being unknown to the other parties, which is where you eight come in.”

Both shinobi teams stood at attention.

“Baki, Junko; both of your teams have become skilled, and nearly all of the members have displayed the ability to take the next step forward and become Chūnin. However, I will be entering them to compete in this year’s international exams rather than promoting them now, as the opportunity presents itself to improve the success chances of dealing with Orochimaru.”

Rasa stood and approached the map with a thin stick and began point around.

“As established, Otogakure is not very well known and has no true discernable location, if it is centered out of anywhere. Per Ayame’s information, they are registered to operate out of Ta-no-Kuni, but we cannot leverage the forces to attack there without absolute confirmation he is there, so we will be looking to cut down on forces deployed to Konoha rather than trying to burn out a hideout.”

“As for Suna’s part in this; Orochimaru believes to have us on their side, but through a secret deal. Naturally, we would not truly be trustworthy of them, so they know to assume we will reserve our forces to attack Konoha directly at a future time. Those troop movements will occur slowly throughout the exams until the point of attack.”

A resounding smack against the board.

“The Finals. Konoha’s security will be so wrapped up with the exams from the influx of foreigners they will not be aware of the forces assembled hours away from the walls. Since there are so many contingents from other villages, exams have usually been fairly calm in terms of inter-village tension and conflict. Too much potential for an outbreak of another world war, which is one of the reasons Orochimaru would be wild enough to go through with it. It is here, that our forces will have sealed orders to deal with as many of Oto’s forces as they can manage while we deal with Orochimaru’s shinobi already in the Konoha. The Hokage will be their primary target, but I can see this chaos being a perfect opportunity for them to try to steal as much talent or fodder as possible for their assumed future plots.”

“Baki; You are our acting point man for contact with Oto. Your job is to lead them on towards vague promises and reassurances of Suna’s commitment in my absence, as well as get more concrete ideas of movements from them directly. I will leave the details to your discretion, but I want you to treat Oto as you would mercenaries. Additionally, if you spot any known traitors or enemies of Suna within their ranks, I don’t think it would be out of place for you to detain or deal with them accordingly. Orochimaru doesn’t seem the type to care much, but I would suggest handing yourself with care should you follow through. If there are any breakdowns, do what you can to exfiltrate if necessary and preserve Suna's strength and well-being.”

Rasa looked down at Baki’s team.

“My children. The eyes of the world will be upon you. Rather than hide you away from your own safety, I will thrust you out into the world to be seen. I would like you to go to Konoha and give the impression that Suna is ruthless, that Suna is not like Konoha, that Suna despises Konoha.”

Rasa paused, letting his children soak in his words, before letting his shoulders drop with a light-hearted sigh.

“Not because it is true, but because it will keep the tree-huggers on their toes. The less relaxed they are, the more likely they will notice Oto and the more likely they will readily react when they attack. Once we join them, alongside every other nation in attendance, everything will right itself. Is this acceptable to you three, or is there a better course of action for participants of your pedigree?”

The siblings looked at one another before Gaara stepped forward.

“Do you want us to participate like anyone else. Do you want me to... win?”

Rasa stood still for a moment before he knelt before his youngest and ran his hand through his red hair.

“You do not need to rip apart the competition to prove a point that has been made over and over again since before your seal was altered. I want you to do what you want. Naturally, I would like for all of you to make it to the finals, but the most important thing for this operation’s success will be that you are seen and felt. I have faith you will make it through regardless.”

The boy nodded and Rasa stood back up.

“To reiterate, Ichi-Butai is there to take the attention from Shi-Butai. Junko’s team will participate as well, but their primary mission is to act as the conduit between myself and the Hokage. However, you are not simply couriers.”

“Despite your rather dramatic mission history, your team has largely been able to stay inconspicuous internationally due to your general discretion. In fact, there is only one threat we will need to be mindful of, seeing as your team was in village and in contact with Konoha’s shadows.”

Rasa raised his hand and gestured to Ayame.

“As Nakahara-San was already in the village several times for recent family visits that could be explained away individually, she would have been too obvious a target if she continued to show up prior to her own daughter’s participation in the finals, assuming you make it that far, Seiko. Your team is going to exchange a mission scroll as part of a separate mission to the exams, one that will contain the amended circumstances for exchanging information as security continues to harden throughout the exams.”

“From there, Shi-Butai will function similar to Ichi-Butai, though perhaps less rough around the edges. There shouldn’t be too many eyes on you if everything goes fine, but I would stress caution regardless just to be safe. Is that understood?”

Seiko looked between her teammates before the group nodded as a whole.

“Junko; outside of your team’s mission and their participation, I want you covering Baki whenever he is set to meet with the Oto contact. Make sure no one in Konoha catches on to Orochimaru’s plans too early.”

Junko tilted her head, confused.

“So, we are going to let them build up for the attack and then preempt them as a surprise?”

Rasa shook his head.

“The grand scheme is a little simpler than that. Orochimaru’s profile is that of a masterful shinobi, a genius, a deceiver. What they are not, however, is a bureaucrat nor a tactician. The Hokage and I believe Orochimaru will attempt to strike quickly with overwhelming force and try to take advantage of a disorganized enemy. The Snake will be the head of the spear and the most threatening part of the attack, but without them leading the charge, it is likely the remaining forces will either fall back or surrender immediately.”
“Our forces, coupled with Konoha’s, should be able to deal with the rabble, but to do so we need to guarantee that Orochimaru can be corralled to be contained and dealt with at the correct moment. Otherwise, Oto’s forces will fight for far longer and our casualties will grow higher. Does that make sense?”

Junko nodded her head.

“Perfectly, Sir.”

“Excellent. Are there any other questions?”

When no one spoke up, Rasa reached into his desk and produced five scrolls; two black, two red, and one wrapped with Suna’s official stationery meant for correspondence.

“I plan on being at the finals, so my one request is that at least one of you make it that far. I have no doubts one or more of you will make it, but let that push you to do great despite the additional orders made of you.”

The room was dismissed with a wave, and Yashamaru emerged out from the shadows to raise the blinds as the assembled shinobi walked out of the office in silence.
It was only a matter of time before the fire lit the powder keg, and Suna was not going to be in the blast radius if they could manage.

Their briefing behind them, Ayame and Seiko slowly walked through the streets of Suna. The pair were oddly quiet despite the late morning buzzing of merchants, younger children, and the notable hallmarks of tradesfolk in the haze of their work. After a few minutes, Seiko turned to her mother.

“So, are we telling Tō-san anything? I doubt he hasn’t taken well to you suddenly going active, not that I noticed...”

Ayame snorted, keeping her head facing forward.

“I didn’t exactly tell him I was brought into the fold. Afterall, I’ve only had a few linked courier missions. Nothing like an actual deployment.”

Seiko sighed.

“You might be though.”

“I might. But you don’t need to worry about any of that. I can handle myself. I may be a few years out of practice, but I haven’t been sitting around and wasting away in all that time.”

Seiko shrugged, leaving the issue to rest.

Her new father would likely find no issue with withholding the information. After all, he worked in the administrative sector for the village.

He would know eventually, and he would be blasé about it. Because that was life working in the more mundane part of the machine.

The remainder of the day passed as many of the usual days passed in Suna. Meals shared with family or teammates, puppets worked on, clothes laundered and folded away. Seiko laid down for the evening as she did on any other night.

The dreams, though, took note of the coming changes. Seiko, and many of the villages youngest or least experienced, were leaving tomorrow for Konoha. The beginning of a series of inescapable changes, the threshold of the beginning of the end of the status quo.

Seiko was not scared, not consciously anyway. She knew what was coming, had prepared more than anyone save maybe Rasa himself for the coming events.

The violence.

The betrayals, real and perceived.

The deaths, inevitable with their line of work, but unknowable of their extent.
Seiko went to sleep peacefully, but her mind lurched into the closet of that most elusive feeling.

Trepidation.

As Seiko got ready to leave the next day, a white eagle’s mask resting on top of her head, the loose ends of her night’s rest sprinkled themselves in bits and pieces as she and the rest of her team followed the footsteps of her fellow villagers.

A trio of monkeys, each making themselves ignorant of the blood they bathe in with their hands in one way or another.

A doll abandoned on a swing; polished eyes illuminated by the flames of a house ablaze.

A dark room, only illuminated by the static of a TV; light suffocating yet exposing in the pitch-black void.

An eclipse, saturated red skies echoing with deafening silence. The experience only extrapolated through the knowing inability to look away despite the sense of being surrounded by something else.

The stage was set, but there were externalities. Things beyond Seiko’s periphery and control. As she and the rest of her team traveled through the desert, she remained calm, but continued to prepare herself mentally. Make contingencies. Imagine what might happen.

But lingering in the back of her mind? The slithering prowl of uncertainty. Seiko’s agency in her new life was, without a doubt, massively expanded over her past life. But that came with the caveat of everyone around had equally expanded agency, relative to her old understand of what was possible for humans.

For everything Seiko was aiming to do... to take advantage of the seeming foreknowledge she held for trying to survive and thrive in a hostile world, someone else could easily derail her, either killing her or destroying her means of fixing things, as far as she was able to do so.

The creeping doubt heightened as Shi-Butai crossed back into Tani-no-Kuni, the evidence of the danger of the past year now gone and forgotten by surrounding land. Here, there was no master puppeteer waiting to ambush a group of ignorant Suna-nin transporting stolen goods.

Here there was... nothing.

Nothing but the rivers, the trees, the traveling shinobi and civilians.

Just as the creeping fear mounted, it leveled off among the bubbling banks and bridges of the land of many rivers. The land was at peace.

All was at peace.

...

And that was the problem.

Because war was coming, and Seiko knew generally when it was going to take place.

Shi-Butai crossed into Hi-no-Kuni with no issues. As they continued to Konoha, they occasionally came across other shinobi.

The Suna-nin were ever present, of course. They left the village with and continued to travel with them for most of the journey. Many of Seiko and the boy’s old classmates reconnected every so often, cracking jokes catching up.

And the thing is, without context, the visage of her fellow soldiers, very few older than sixteen or seventeen, reminded Seiko of her past life in middling Georgia. And the comparison struck to the heart of the matter.

Seiko knew some of these kids were going to die. In fact, she has, in part, paved the way for their demise.

She was not all powerful, and she couldn’t be everywhere, all at once. There would be fighting, and there would be casualties, for Suna. For Konoha. Oto. Others.

People were going to die, that was already certain. But, Seiko has only re-contextualized the violence, rather than preventing them outright.

The grim prospect kept the haunting dreams from her last night in village ever present even as Seiko checked in at the village gates. She wasn’t well versed in analyzing dreams, not in this life anyways. She could rationalize that the dreams were just meaningless images and events her brain put together to reset for a new waking period.

But that didn’t change the standing dread of anticipation. The coming violence, planned and unplanned. Orochimaru was going to do as much damage as he could get away with, and Seiko was going to have to place her faith in the man who was going to put her down to do something to stop it all.

But, with their arrival in Konoha, Seiko was shaken from her own thoughts by an odd sight: further down the street from their lodging, Uzumaki Naruto was eating at and talking to a vendor at a food cart, in newer clothes of navy blue with orange trim.

At first, Seiko was confused, as the vendor was not the man who ran Ichiraku, nor his daughter. Surely this wasn’t Naruto, right?

The longer Seiko looked though, the more the truth cemented itself.

Naruto was not being chased off. He was wearing newer clothes. He looked, healthier, mentally and physically.

The dawning realization slowly drew the color away beneath Seiko’s mask into a pallid clay grimace.

There were changes taking place that Seiko was not going to notice, and there was no telling when more would start or what would stir them.

Konoha, one month before the arrival of the visitors

With a few puffs of chakra-laden smoke, the Hokage’s office was once again empty, save for one Sarutobi Hiruzen. It was a little embarrassing for the man to admit, but his original successor’s reliance on the Kage Bunshin for getting regular paperwork done no longer felt like a waste of Chakra.

This was clearly the best way to handle this job, and it was sad that it took him so many decades to finally start doing it this way.

With a nostalgic smile, Hiruzen refilled his pipe and relit it. With a nod and prayer to the ingenuity of youth, the man settled back into his chair and focused on the impending storm.

The knowledge of Orochimaru’s plans for the upcoming exams and Hiruzen’s own restored lucidity made it clear to the old man that succession was going to become an issue soon. Truly, the memories of the last three wars, all wars he lead in some part as the Hokage during different stages of his life, were beginning to plague his day-to-day thoughts. Hiruzen, if he could manage, would not live to see a Fourth War, and if he wanted to actually retire (assuming he survived the coming storm, of course), he would need to find a candidate for Godaime soon.

With that, Hiruzen also needed to address the Naruto situation. The boy was more distant than usual, and Kakashi’s Reports did enough to explain why. Hiruzen’s original plan of protecting the boy through ignorance had predictably failed and it was clear that foreigners may begin connecting the dots if the boy keeps gaining renown, and Hiruzen knew he would. Afterall, the boy, despite the failures of both Hiruzen and the village at large, was still progressing as a shinobi. What mattered now was preserving the boy’s dedication and making up for the mistakes of the past.

But where to start?

Apologies were not... normal, for shinobi. It came with the territory; the treachery, the violence, the falsities woven without regard for feelings or sentiments. The everlasting war of espionage was impersonal and banal, and that only made the twists of the kunai that much worse.

Naruto only made this more complicated; the son of the most beloved Hokage and the village’s greatest weapon, with a pedigree of one of the strongest clans ever to stand among Shinobi and the lingering failure of Konoha to come to their aid in their last stand. Hiruzen made a hefty promise over a decade ago, and had failed nearly every day since he made it.

Beyond the boy’s inheritance, suspiciously diminished since it was set aside to obscure connections to Minato, the years of abuse and substandard amenities and training only spoke of the village’s failure of living up to the wishes of Minato and Kushina.
Hiruzen was a failure, but so too was the village that so readily took out their anguish on an orphan. Hiruzen understood, and even agreed at times, with Danzō’s methods but...

Hiruzen stood from his seat and looked out of the window behind him at the village he served.

... It was clear the methods were not actually paying off. At least to the supposed ideals of the village.

Taking a few more puffs of his pipe, Hiruzen took a deep breath and sighed. Two pulses of Chakra brought forth two ANBU who immediately knelt before the man’s desk.

“Orders, Sir?”

Hiruzen turned to take in the two.

“Eagle, I need you to bring me Uzumaki Naruto. Nothing so urgent to interrupt him and drag him here, but preferably sooner rather than later.”

The first ANBU nodded and disappeared.

“Boar, I need you to go down to the File Vault and collect dossier S-007310-B. Once you have it, just bring it here and leave it with me.”

The second ANBU hesitated for a moment.

“Is there anything confusing about that order?”

The ANBU shook his head.

“No sir... just, now?”

Hiruzen nodded.

“Danger has already presented itself, and ignorance will no longer shield the boy if outsiders are already aware of what he is. I will call for the A-File when the time is right though. Does that answer your question, Boar?”

The ANBU nodded and disappeared.

...

Naruto entered the room several minutes later, quiet as the Eagle masked ANBU gestured and disappeared. Jiji sat at his desk, smoke forming a cloud of smoke framing his head and hat.

“Naruto my boy, it has been some time. I don’t believe we have spoken since the debriefing for your C-Rank mission.”

Naruto nodded, but did not take any further steps towards the Hokage. If the old man was only just now reaching out, it was unlikely to be great news.

“Have you eaten lunch yet?”

“I was actually just about to head over to Ichiraku’s before one of the masks came to get me.”

The old man chuckled and snapped his fingers.

“Well, allow me to address that quickly. I have some things to discuss with you and it will take some time to go through. I would rather get this done now, rather than wait for some time later. Why don’t you have a seat.”

Reluctantly, Naruto dragged his feat forward until he took the right chair in front of the Sandaime’s desk. With Naruto sat down, the Hokage began with a sigh.

“I’ve been giving it a lot of thought these last few weeks, and I believe it is time to come forward with some... information. Your mission was, unfortunately, a confirmation of some failures on the village’s part that must now be rectified for our collective safety.”

Naruto had to hold back a scoff. Some failures? Naruto’s worldview had been steadily broken apart over the last five months.

Mitski, the revelation of the Kyūbi, the mission, Seiko, Zabuza.

Naruto had no sure footing on any truth beyond Sakura and Sasuke now, Kakashi to an extent, and he wasn’t sure Jiji was going to be honest with him, if he ever was at all.

“That might be an understatement, Jiji.”

Silently, the old man nodded.

“It is. But, I believe it is important to approach some topics that I have avoided before.”

Wait. Avoided?

“It has been twelve years now since I promised your parents you would be taken care of. I must say, I have not done my best, and for that, I am sorry.”

The room was silent for a moment, the only sound recognizable being the slight drone of the overhead lights in the office.

“I don’t understand... what?”

With a nervous laugh, Naruto slapped his knees.

“I gotta say Jiji, this isn’t a funny way to start a joke.”

The old man’s face betrayed no cheer or chuckle. Solemnly, he pushed a file forward towards Naruto on his desk.

“Your mother, was Uzumaki Kushina. She was originally of Uzushiogakure, but was brought to Konohagakure to assume her role as the second Jinchūriki of the Kyūbi on request of Mito-Sama, who was reaching the end of her of her exceptionally long life.”

Naruto was silent, the shock of a seemingly genuine answer to a question he had asked for well over a decade now. Was...

...Was this the truth?

Naruto quickly stood and snatched the file from the desk, opening it to...

Naruto shakily took a breath as he looked upon the same face he saw in the mirror every morning. There were obviously differences; more feminine features, violet eyes, paler skin, obnoxiously red hair. But it was still his face. A mirror.

This was his mother, there was no doubt about it.

The file was... edited, altered. Harsh black lines obscured little bits of information, but the truth was there in his hands. Naruto read and read until the lines on the page blurred and spun together.

Naruto wasn’t sure when, but the silence of the room has seemingly been replaced by the high-pitched keening of an animal as the lines continued to blur. Blinking, Naruto shuddered as a hand squeezed his left shoulder.

The sudden stimulus brought him back into the present: he was crying and making the noise in the Hokage’s office and clearly didn’t notice Jiji standing up and coming to stand next to him.

“Jiji... why now? Why not before? Why are you showing me this now?”

Hiruzen gave another squeeze to the boys shoulder before sitting down in the seat next to him, removing his hat and placing it on the desk in front of the two of them.

“I believe I already explained before, but, there is more I would like to say. Your dream is still to be Kage one day, yes?”

Naruto looked at the man for a moment before slowly giving an uncertain nod.

“With the hat, comes regret, as the hat bestows the power and obligation of the lives of so many. I gave up that hat once, for what I thought was going to be a brighter future. And then, the village was attacked, unleashing the village’s greatest weapon against itself and thrusting me back into the office.”

The Sandaime closed his eyes.

“My wife delivered you, that night, and she was one of the first victims of the attacker, an unknown nuke-nin that killed her and several ANBU before fighting your parents. I know I have not done everything conceivable to make your life better in the past, and part of that will always be weighed from the graves I am forced to see each time I am reminded of your past.”

“But, as I have been reminded of lately, time moves on with or without us. The land continues to grow and change, people interact and age. I cannot let our past stunt your growth any longer, for with you, Naruto, lies the future of Konoha.”

Naruto was confused, but brushed aside his tears.

“What are you talking about old man?”

The Hokage sat motionless for a moment, taking in a deep breath. He then turned to face Naruto.

“I intend... to retire. But only once a suitable candidate has arrived in the village and has agreed to take over for me. To this end, I believe you may be my best bet in swaying them. Would you agree to that?”

Naruto looked at the older man. He felt... genuine. The reeking ichor of dishonesty or hostility didn’t follow him. But...

He was scheming. There was some hidden agenda.

“Jiji, can I ask for some conditions?”

The old man smiled and nodded.

“First, I want to know everything about my family. You just admitted to having lied to me my entire life, so I deserve that and then some.”

The Hokage nodded.

“Of course. Although, I do have a condition in return.”

Naruto was not amused.

“Are you serious, old man?”

Placatingly, the man waved his hands.

“This is less about keeping the information away from you and more the moment you learn the full truth, the rest of the village will need to be made aware. I want to make sure you are strong enough to defend yourself before then, which is why I plan on having your sensei put your team through the Chūnin exams.”

Naruto frowned immediately.

“EXAMS?! Jiji! I don’t want to go back to the academy! I am a ninja now!”

“Ah, Naruto, not those types of exams. These are promotional exams for higher ranks. I’m sure they taught about them in the academy.”

The old man gave Naruto a knowing look as the boy squirmed in embarrassment.

“Yeah yeah, make fun of me why don’t you. So, my team is taking these exams?”

The Hokage nodded.

“Yes, and I intend on telling you all about your parents once the exams are over. But first...”

The old man stood and walked back around to the windows behind his desk.

“...I intend on having a hand in your training until your godfather returns to the village. But,  in the meantime, I believe it is time to get your things moved.”

The Hokage turned and gave a slight smile as Naruto struggled to hold down his shifting facial expressions.

“Moved?”

“To the Uzumaki Estate; I am not going to let the village continue to treat you as it has. On that, I will promise you.”

Chapter Text

Ruse

[Konohagakure, 1103-Chūō, June 16th, Year 63 of the Shinchu-Jidai]

Nestled beneath the shade of one of Hashirama’s oak trees, Seiko quietly played with some smaller and more traditionally sized puppet-stand-ins. She was under the watchful eye of a singular ANBU, which was part of the reason she wasn’t doing anything more productive than essentially doing an impromptu actual puppet show in public.

Shi-Butai arrived yesterday, which was two days too early for registration.

Two. Whole. Days.

Something Seiko failed to appreciate during her last visit to Konoha was that, because her team was on assignment, they were able to largely move around the village mostly unbothered due to the village control stipulations. Foreign Shinobi in village on mission were allowed a lot more privilege to move around and use training grounds, supply stores, and other facets of the village like any other Leaf Shinobi.

Right now, though? They arrived for the Chūnin Exams two days prior to registration, leaving the team out to dry following their immediate courier mission to the Hokage for the two days before the seventeenth and the official start of the Exam season. Their approvable options were exceptionally limited and that left Seiko to look for little methods around their admittedly short detention in the allowed parts of the village.

The boys weren’t able to do anything themselves due to their limited skillsets towards espionage. Junko, of course, could sense from inside their accommodation block, but that did little for evaluating who was who if she couldn’t match what she could sense with what people actually looked like.

So here Seiko was, spying in public under the watchful eye of a would-be assassin babysitter. She was stopped momentarily yesterday by the violet-haired woman, but after a short explanation and, likely in recognition of the lack of anything else Seiko could feasibly do to pass the time, was allowed to do her little puppet shows. Seiko didn’t have too many onlookers outside of some interested children, but it was better than nothing.

The show gave her deniability after all.

Seiko was set up around a hundred meters east of the administrative center of the village, far enough away to not cause a fuss, but also close enough to get an idea of overall village security.

The picture was... not the worst. Seiko and the few other foreigners that made the mistake of walking in early were under a tight watch and weren’t getting thrown in prison immediately.

However, Seiko was also being allowed to weave foreign Fūinjutsu in public without too much interruption. If she wanted to be malicious, she could absolutely cause problems if she wanted to. But, then again, the ANBU was there to verify that she wasn’t, and she really wasn’t, so maybe the precautions would be better once more examinees started showing up.

The next day, Seiko and the rest of her team set off to Konoha’s Academy to finally register for the exam. Unlike the previous days, the village’s rooftops now loomed taller with the slight shadows of heightened security. The village was full of new colors; foreign and exotic, neatly queued towards the Academy.

The process was moving quickly, each enlistee joining as a team and getting registered as such. Every minute or two the line would move another three or four meters up the street. Seiko and her fellow Suna-nin were sprinkled throughout the line, having left fairly early to avoid the peak desert heat. Most of the line, though, was filled with middling shinobi from the minor villages.

There seemed to be around nine teams in total from the minor villages, the largest group very clearly stemming from Ame, dressed in their dull beiges and greys and clutching an odd assortment of umbrellas, breathing apparatuses and other more common tools. Curiously, there were a decent amount of either unaffiliated or independent shinobi also mingling in the area. There was also someone else with the large group, not a sensei, but some other higher up from Ame overseeing the group. The woman seemed familiar, but nothing obvious that would make her stick out.

She stood off to the side after visiting each of the teams in line, reassuring each group of their ability and earned position to travel to Konoha. The wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses she wore obscured her face, though the labret piercing was an odd choice for a country so well known for rebreathers. She blended in well with her average height and build, obscured by the same type of beige cloak as most of the other Ame-Nin. Her presence though...

It screamed power.

After a few minutes, a trio seemed to merge forth from the spread-out crowd of shinobi and rushed to the back of the line, having formed an ad hoc team for the exams. Seiko wasn’t sure if their cohesion would meld together enough before the start of the next month, but Seiko couldn’t fault them for trying. The other loners seemed lost in their trepidation though.

Being stuck as an independent Genin had to be rough.

The line continued to move forwards, and soon enough, Junko was chatting with the desk-nin about getting their group registered.

“Team or group?"

“Shi-Butai of Sunagakure.”

“And you are...?”

“The Sensei; Yūtori Junko.”

The man at the desk paused for a moment, frown taking his face as he looked up from the page and took in the woman before him. Unamused, Junko leaned down and into his face.

“Something wrong, desk boy?”

The man pulled back and pointedly looked back to the registration book.

“No ma’am! Shinobi to be registered?”

From there, Seiko, Akio, and Kentarō each gave their relevant information to the clerk.

“Koizumi Akio, Genin; Registration ID, O-Ko-46-12-06-54-010; Age, sixteen; Scroll Missions completed, 290; Highest rank completed, A.”

“Yamagishi Kentarō, Genin; Registration ID, O-Ge-47-03-04-54-011; Age, sixteen; Scoll Missions completed, 290; Highest rank completed, A.”

“Nakahara Seiko, Genin; Registration ID, Jo-Ko-49-04-17-54-012; Age, fourteen; Scroll Missions completed, 290; Highest rank completed, A.”

The missions that ‘counted’ towards the record through off Seiko at first, but ultimately made a lot more sense the longer she worked as a Shinobi. Since mission counts were utilized to evaluate the skills of individuals, there were a few sets of inter-village rules that were agreed upon decades ago to avoid causing undue tension.

Truthfully, Seiko and the rest of the team had completed well over thirteen hundred missions since graduation. However, because those were mostly D-Ranks handed out by the village, they just didn’t count. Any village could inflate their own shinobi’s mission counts with either fake or extremely easy missions to give off some idea of competency over the shinobi of other missions. Like every other form of cooking the books Seiko was familiar with, the tactic got ninja killed and reputations tarnished, so the standard of non-village D-ranks and higher order missions became the standard for reporting.

Which made sense, when looking at the Bingo Books. Hatake Kakashi had been a shinobi since he was five and hadn’t broken twelve hundred missions yet? Impossible.

Stepping away from the line, Junko led Seiko and the boys out and away from the Academy and towards the administrative offices. The woman at the desk immediately straightened up, clearly recognizing Junko as she approached.

“~I’m baaaaaaaaack~. Do you have any open training facilities? The kids are registered now, so you can’t blow me off this time.”

The other woman gave out a sigh.

“Yes ma’am... you will be issued a pass for the Seventeenth Training Ground, please...”

The wooden permission card was ripped out of the woman’s hand before she could continue.

“Oh don’t worry about that, we won’t wreck the place. Come on brats, we need to make up for lost time!”

Junko led the group to the large board with a posted map of the village for immediate navigation. The Seventeenth was just north of the fork for the Naka River, placing it somewhat centrally in the village. Easy to watch and respond to if anything were to happen.

Seiko took a longer look at the map and noticed that only one Ame team had reserved a training ground, despite at least two of their teams already finishing their registration. With Junko leading the group out of the Administrative Center, she was able to see why that was the case.

The other Ame teams, Sensei and unknown Overseer with them, were waiting for the others to finish registration. The plan was probably to have all of their teams train together in preparation, which honestly made a lot of sense for how secretive they were.
With a deep breath, Seiko focused on cycling her Chakra to warm up. Junko was bored, and that mean the next two weeks were going to be hell on their bodies.

Yume was beat. She and her sister had been alternating control over the body as part of their general training and Yume could easily admit she had done more exercise in the last few hours than the entirety of her life so far.

Junko was working the team relentlessly; Training from six-hundred to ten-hundred, followed by a short break and individual practice until lunch. Team coordination and mental exercises from thirteen-hundred to seventeen-hundred, followed by dinner and then a team spar until the sun set.

This morning was no different, as Yume slowly crossed the rooftops of Konoha looking for a place to sit and meditate for a while. Lunch was delicious, but the midday sun was making her a little nauseous to be in. She was about to jump over a major street when she caught sight of orange accents and bright blond hair.

The Uzumaki boy was in his newer outfit, jacket fitting a bit more snuggly on his frame as if it were somehow smaller than his last one. He had filled out a little more, possibly from getting more food? Yume wasn’t exactly sure of the situation.

Naruto was running around, drawing noise and attention as he was followed by three smaller children, two boys and a girl. They looked of academy age, a little too small to be close to graduation, but getting there bit by bit. Reaching back towards their shared mental link, Yume ‘shook’ Seiko awake.

{Seiko-nee, the Uzumaki boy is out and about.}

Her sister sufficiently roused, Yume returned to watching the group until a sudden wave of awareness hit her.

[Hey, are we near an alleyway or something? I think I know where this might be going?]

Yume leaned over the roof.

{There looks like a small side road further down the road. Some fenced-in gardens on both sides.}

[Great. Can you head over there and let me switch with you in a bit?]

{Why would you need to do that?}

Seiko was quiet for a moment.

[... Because those kids are likely about to run into Ichi-Butai.]

A second passed.

{... So you want to see your boyfriend then?}

Yume waited a second. Two. Three.

[Sure. You keep trying to rile me up about this but I am telling you right now, I am IMMUNE to your games. Plus, Gaara is about to meet Naruto. That is important for them as Jinchūriki.]

Clicking her tongue, Yume made her way across the rooftops until she could make a clearer short jump to the garden trees over the side street. Messing with her sister was important, but she also had a point. Dealing with Gaara’s faulty seal had been stressful and while the Uzumaki boy wasn’t a danger to those around him, that wouldn’t always remain the case. Plus she was curious as to why this particular area would be important.

Under the cover of the tree’s canopy, Yume found that her sister was, as had been the case when several of her other statements on the story from her older world, correct. Kankurō and Temari were starting to walk down the side street talking about something or another. A loud voice from the other way brought her attention back to Naruto’s little gaggle of academy students. Sakura was now there, a little off put by Naruto’s little posse, but in good spirits.

With an apparent poor choice of words, the leader of the small group quickly sprinted down the street, an irate pinkette rapidly catching up behind him with fire in her eyes. Kankurō and Temari stopped just as the little boy ran face first into the puppeteer before falling backwards.

“You need something kid?”

Still in shock, the younger kid just sat on the ground in shock, clearly out of his element. Kankurō, remembering his job for the exams, picked up the kid by his long blue scarf.

“So, you forget how to speak when spoken to?”

Remembering who and where they were, Sakura and Naruto rushed forward, though Naruto shouted before Sakura could speak up.

“Let him go!”

Holding the boy up with one hand, Kankurō reached out and extended a thin Chakra Thread to trip Naruto. With Naruto falling to the ground, Sakura turned back and helped the boy stand back up. The puppeteer snickered.

“You’re all leaf Genin, right? What a bunch of wimps.”

Turning back to the Academy Boy, Kankurō was about to mimic a punch when a rock suddenly hit his hand, dropping the child to the ground with a thud.

Yume turned her head to find Sasuke sitting on a branch across the street from her own position.

[Switch with me, he probably already saw us lurking when he arrived.]

{Ugh, fine. Are you going to reveal yourself?}

[Yeah, but not until acknowledged.]

Red and brown steadily swapped places behind the Eagle-masked girl as Seiko once again took in the reins. Sasuke had already jumped down to join the rest of his team.

“It was already bad for foreign shinobi to pick fights in Konoha, but children? That’s just pathetic.”

Kankurō puffed up his chest at the accusation.

“That kid ran into me. Besides, your village needs to be reminded the world doesn’t revolve around them all the time.”

Kankurō and Temari remained standing as they were as the rest of Sasuke’s team took up a formation. The Academy students steadily pulled back and away from the brewing confrontation. Shaking her head, Temari chimed in.

“Oh, are you three going to fight us out here? Three against two?”
Sasuke shook his head.

“You already had someone doing overwatch when I arrived.”

[And there’s my que.]

Jumping from the tree, Seiko landed in between the two groups of shinobi. With a cheshire grin behind her mask, Seiko looked straight at Kankurō.

“~Hi Senpai!~”

With all the subtlety of a thunderclap, Kankurō’s brashness was immediately replaced with annoyance.

“Seiko? What are you doing here?”

Before she could respond, Sakura and Naruto had already recognized, baffled.

“Seiko-Senpai?!”

“Seiko-Chan?!”

“Yes, yes, hello to you two as well. Uchiha-San, nice to see you as well.”

Tension sufficiently suppressed; Seiko turned to face the rookies.

“I trust you lot made it back home alright? You certainly don’t look worse for wear. Although..."

Seiko took in each of the Genin.

Naruto’s entire outfit was slightly altered. Where before the boy was almost consumed by his orange jacket and sweatpants, he now wore a more subdued navy-blue light jacket with orange accents and matching baggy pants that went down to just above his ankles. Now that she was closer, Seiko confirmed that the boy had grown tremendously, filling out his frame and growing a few centimeters since their last encounter a few months ago. Where before the boy was loud and unblinkingly vibrant, this new Naruto was a shade quieter and more subdued. Confidence filled his frame threefold.

To the left, Sakura stood curious but defined, no longer content with being the team’s third member or set dressing for a hypothetical husband. Instead, she had done away with her bright red qipao and replaced it with a similar looking but more practical shirt, a mesh weave undershirt of decent quality, and a leather apron skirt with shinobi pants. Her Hitai-ate was tied around her neck and her hair was still loose, but with its longest strands tied back into a high ponytail.

She was stronger, more shinobi-like, but her confidence was not there just yet.
Sasuke was the least changed of the trio, still wearing the same outfit he wore in Nami, though it was a little thicker in places, possibly some woven-in armor. However, there was an edge to the boy. He was wiser, less cocky and more analytical towards his possible opponents.

He was also preoccupied with Seiko’s appearance here of all places, seemingly distracted from the more present threat of two of the Sand Siblings.

“Kankurō.”

Scratch that, all of the Sand Siblings. Seiko turned back to find Gaara walking from the other major road to meet with his siblings.

“Hey Gaara-San, I was wondering where you were!”

Gaara paid no attention to Seiko’s presence, acting as he should. Turning back to Kankurō, Seiko got down to business.

“Has your sensei already booked a training ground for the exams? If not, you could probably train with us over at Seventeen.”

Naruto promptly burst into their conversation.

“OH! You guys are here for the Chūnin Exams! That makes more sense, welcome to Konoha!”

All four of the Suna-nin looked back to the loud boy.

{Wasn’t he... nevermind.}

[No, no, don’t worry about it. I’m not sure how, but Naruto’s best weapon is somehow friendship. He will worm his way into anyone with enough time.]

Kankurō finally shrugged.

“Yeah... we got registered, but Baki disappeared before we could get any more information, so we were just walking around. Gaara was scouting around for lunch though, so we are probably about to head out for that first.”

Seiko nodded quickly.

“Great, well I can direct you guys after lunch if you save me a seat. Junko-Sensei has been pretty hard on us these days but I don’t think Baki-San would be against you guys joining us.”

The siblings nodded and began talking to one another as they walked back the way they came. Seiko turned to the rest of the Konoha genin.

“Apologies, but this is their first visit to your village and most of our countrymen are a little...”

Sakura puffed up.

“Rude, for one. Who attacks a little kid?”

Seiko scoffed.

“Pfff, you would be surprised at how adept little kids can be at pickpocketing, you gotta watch out for the little ones who can play cute. But, it was nice seeing you guys all in one piece. You look a bit better.”

With a blinding smile, Naruto punched his fists together.

“Oh yeah, we have been training hard since we last met! Jiji has actually helped me a lot since we got back. I even learned about my mom!”

[Oh, a lot has happened! This could be... many things!]

Sasuke scoffed.

“Only you would be enough of a special case to need extra training from the Hokage, dobe.”

“Oy, you wanna say that to my face, Teme?! Hey! Wait a minute, my mom was your mom's best friend! Even you can't argue against that!”

“Guys, chill! It was nice to see you, Seiko-Senpai, but we need to go find Kakashi. He hasn’t surprised us yet with more training. He might be slacking again!”

Face morphing into fury, Naruto howled.

“You are right! We gotta find that lousy, grey-haired, mask-wearing pervert before he claims some lame excuse again!”

The blonde boy immediately sprinted away, Sasuke not wasting time following him. Sakura quickly apologized as she rand after the boys, leaving Seiko alone in the side street.

“Well, time for lunch I guess. I wonder where the others ended up going.”

July’s heat brought with it the beginning of the exams. Dressed loosely and circulating her Chakra to carry away the damp heat away from her body, Seiko led the boys to Konoha’s Shinobi Academy where the first portion of the exam was scheduled to take place. Contrary to Seiko’s memory though, the actual layout was drastically different.

Upon entry to the large building, Seiko’s team was confirmed at a registrar’s desk before being given a specific classroom to report to. In their case, room Two-Six. Past the front desk and within the block framed by the supporting rooms and restrooms were sets of large square classrooms, three rooms to each side of a large connecting hallway between the sides of the building. The building itself had classrooms across three of the four floors, so Seiko and the boys climbed the first set of stairs and made their way to the sixth room marked on the second floor.

The room itself was empty of most furniture, covered in tatami mats with raised wooden platforms and writing utensils for the exam. The lack of desks or workbenches solidified the idea that this academy was primarily more of a dojo than Suna’s more workstation focused schooling.

That also probably explained Konoha’s insistence on spending more time on Taijutsu compared to Suna and the other villages’ keener interest on weapons development.
Shi-Butai was early, and they took a few seats in the center and waited a few minutes before a large commotion in the hallway broke their attention away from their silent preparation. In the hallway, a dazed Sasuke was on the ground as the visage of Maito Gai disappointingly chastising his clone of student.

“Lee! I thought I told you to save the fights for the exam!”

The boy immediately clamored in something Seiko couldn’t quite catch before responding more quickly.

“I apologize, Gai-Sensei! My blood ran too hot it seems, and I indulged on my impulses!”

The scene reminded Seiko of the rest of the boy’s team and their counterparts from her own world, and she immediately took the group in.

Gai and Lee naturally wore forest green jumpsuits that seemed to clash with every other Shinobi she had ever seen. Beneath the surface though, Seiko was aware of the play being made. The gambit of outlandish distraction. In truth, Seiko knew more about Gai than the rest of his team did, seeing as she met him when he was still ANBU the first time she was in Konoha.

The man’s exuberance, while natural per se, obscured the danger beyond the fog; In the same way Naruto could paint the Hokage Monument without being noticed, Gai’s personality established an extreme presence that demanded attention. A presence he could easily shrink and discard if necessary to truly unleash a pristine fighting spirit. The indomitable will so many lacked in the face of the inevitable face of death. Seiko knew he and Lee both had weights under their legwarmers, but Seiko was not expecting to see the twinge of genjutsu around the man’s ankles, knees, waist, elbows, and wrists.

The work was subtle, but nothing more complicated than a suggestion to not focus on the metal bands Seiko could now see around those junctures. There was more seal work, either some sort of scalable weight or something of similar function. Something that would keep Gai consistently training every second of the day.

It took another moment of scanning the small crowd to find Neji and Tenten. The Hyūga boy was stern-faced as expected, but was wearing a layer of thin white robes instead of the thick jacket he wore in the anime. Smart given the heat and humidity of the summer season.

Tenten by comparison, looked exasperated by Lee’s antics. She looked nearly identical to her anime appearance, though with numerous bandages and healing cuts over her exposed arms from the numerous weapons she regularly handled.

With Sasuke back to his feet and Gai’s team corralled together, Seiko finally saw someone she was expecting to see.

Kabuto, under a fetching layered array of genjutsus to subtly not draw attention to his features. He wasn’t hiding, he wasn’t even trying to hide, but he was putting a lot of effort into not being memorable or extractable from a larger crowd.

Smart, but Seiko could see through it.

With prospective genin filtering to their assigned rooms, Seiko quickly looked to find any of the Sand Siblings but to no avail. They were likely put on the first or third floor, meaning she would need to get Gaara to start tracking Kabuto during the Second Phase if at all. It would likely do a lot of good to kill or capacitate the white-haired spy earlier, but doing too much would tip their hand and possibly scare off Orochimaru.

Or maybe not scare off. Perhaps slightly inconvenience the Sannin. Seiko wasn’t exactly sure what she and the others could do against the man if they came head-to-head, but she knew that sufficient numbers would be the only thing in their favor if they were forced to fight.

A loud shout brought Seiko back to her senses. The exams were about to begin. Returning to her seat in between Kentarō and Akio, she took a deep breath and relaxed.

Breathe. Ten.

Breathe. Nine.

Breathe. Eight.

Breathe. Seven.

Breathe. Six.

A man in a grey uniform and a bandanaed Hitai-ate took a standing position at the front of the classroom.

“Alright, I would like to welcome you all to the First Phase of this year’s Konoha’s Invitational Chūnin Selection Exams. Among you are both established and ad hoc teams from seven different villages who have volunteered to pursue potential promotion to Chūnin; a rank representative of some time of field experience, competence, ability, in independent operation and leadership. I am the proctor for this first exercise, which has seen the contestants split across the classrooms in this Academy.”

“Here we will be evaluating you using a written exam. It is a total of ten questions over the course of an hour, nine presented immediately and the tenth presented in the last fifteen minutes of the exam’s time limit. Each question is worth one point, and teams need to score a cumulative score of at least sixteen to pass. However, anyone caught cheating will be punished for each attempt with a deduction of two points for each attempt. If you are caught cheating five times, you will be removed from the exam immediately. Are these rules understood?”

Seiko raised her hand.

“Yes, Suna-genin with the mask.”

“Is there a way to dispute whether we cheated? I don’t think most of us can trust Konoha-nin to evaluate fairly given our profession and the political significance of an invitational like this.”

The man was silent for a moment.

“Alright, if we presume to have caught you cheating, we will verbally indicate to you, the Genin, under what pretense we believe to have caught you cheating. Does that sound fair?”

Seiko and several other students nodded.

“Alright, if there are no other questions, I believe we can start the...”

A boy shot up from his sitting position with his arm raised.

“Proctor-San! May I use the restroom before we start the exam?!”

The man stared the boy down until he shriveled back into his sitting position.

“No. The exam begins now. No cheating!”

With a quick flash of mudra, the paper exams appeared in puffs of smoke across the classroom. Pencil in hand, Seiko quickly marked her name in the required spot along with her Suna Registration before looking at the first question. It was followed eight strings of numbers, book-ended by brackets.

[ 4 5 1 3 2 3 2 5 2 4 1 1 2 3 1 1 4 5 4 2 4 3 1 5 3 5 4 3 3 2 2 ]

[ 5 2 3 2 5 1 5 5 3 4 3 2 5 4 5 1 3 2 5 4 4 4 3 4 5 1 1 3 4 1 3 ]

[ 4 5 1 3 2 5 4 2 2 2 2 5 3 2 2 5 4 2 2 2 4 3 4 3 2 3 1 1 3 2 4 ]

[ 2 3 5 3 2 5 3 1 1 2 5 3 5 2 5 3 2 3 3 1 3 2 5 4 5 1 3 2 5 4 2 ]

[ 2 2 2 5 4 5 1 3 4 2 4 3 4 5 3 5 3 3 4 3 4 4 3 5 4 5 3 5 2 3 3 ]

[ 5 4 4 4 3 5 5 3 5 3 2 3 5 2 3 1 1 2 5 4 2 2 2 2 5 4 2 2 2 2 5 ]

[ 2 3 1 3 3 2 1 2 2 2 2 5 4 2 1 1 4 4 1 3 3 2 1 1 2 5 1 4 1 1 1 ]

[ 1 2 5 5 4 1 1 5 3 3 5 2 3 2 3 3 5 4 3 4 5 1 3 2 5 4 2 2 2 2 5 ]

{‘Decipher the following code and explain how you came to your conclusion?’ How on Earth are we supposed to know how to do ciphers at this stage?!}

[We aren’t. This exam is a ruse. Or it mostly is, we are supposed to cheat, most likely.]

{Past knowledge then. I thought you said to not thoroughly rely on your past knowledge.}

[I did. I also never studied cryptography is my past life, so we need to figure out a method of cheating and fast.]

{Didn’t you just say this was also a ruse?}

[Yes. I also don’t want to find out if we fail for lack of effort.]

Seiko glanced up and around the room. Several Genin were panicking, including the fairly obvious Chūnin under henge.

[Any ideas on how we might cheat, Imōto?]

{Well we aren’t in any particular position to read papers and switching papers is too obvious. The disguised folks in the exam are throwing me off though.}

[I think they are there to allow you to cheat, but like you said, how to go about doing that isn’t super obvious.]

The pair sat in silence as Seiko looked over the rest of the exam. There wasn’t any one topic that was thematic of the entire exam, but the range was enough to make her sweat a little beyond the heat.

Chemistry, physics, critical thinking, as well as the cryptography. It was enough to make a girl...

{Ok, I have an idea.}

[Yeah?]

{Attach some threads to one of the proctors, and I will cast a Genjutsu to convince the proctor to write the answers they know in their correct positions. You, in turn, will allow the strings to guide you in copying them, albeit in your own handwriting.}

[So, letting the manipulated proctor puppet me into writing the answers. That might work. When should we start.]

{Now, probably. We’ve already burned upwards of seven minutes looking over this thing. Time’s ticking!}

Seiko complied as she took her left hand and stretched her invisible threads outward.
Only for a proctor to call her out.

“Er, Nakahara-San, what are you doing with your hand?”

Seiko sighed.

“Stretching it out. Is it cheating to stretch?”

Not liking her attitude, the proctor sighed.

“No, I suppose not. Back to your exam.”

Returning to her work, Seiko curled her hand and began the arduous work of implying the threads across the room. Like with mudra, Chakra Threads more easily followed actual muscle movement and tended to be more difficult to trace when out of the user's vision and without a correlated movement of the physical body.

It took another two minutes, but Seiko finally connected her threads to the proctor’s body as she doodled on the paper with her right hand. A few seconds later, Yume was finished.

{Alright, I got him. Let the threads feed back to you and we should be fine.}

Seiko nodded and felt the foreign movements filter back to her right hand. The first question came quickly, Seiko’s hand drawing out a series of squares with sets of latin characters before quickly circling specific patterns in the numerical strings. The man two rows ahead of her, through her hand, circled a particular set of repeating numbers and wrote a single pair of Kanji that was then underlined.

Teishi. Stop.

Seiko’s hand moved to the next question, a projectile motion math problem involving a Shinobi in a tree attacking someone below them. Seiko’s eyes scanned the room as proctors walked about and accosted students every so often, reasonable suspicion or not. She could hear Naruto mumble a few spaces behind her about the stress of it all.

A few answered questions later, one of the proctors was walking through the space her threads were laced through. Quickly, Seiko halted the Genjutsu and severed the connection to avoid being caught as the woman finished walking across the room without stopping. Focusing back on her exam, Seiko took stock of the situation.

She had managed to copy the first six questions and had just started on the seventh. Before she and Yume could reconnect to the planted Chūnin, one of the proctor’s grabbed them and hoisted them up.

“Thought you could get away with stealing an answer key, huh? You are dismissed!”

The small piece of paper that was crumpled within the plant’s sleave fell out and began to slowly fall towards the ground.

Before Seiko could formulate her own plan to grab the key, several other proctors sprung into action.

“Tani-nin in the back, you are out!”

“Suna-nin in the front row, out!”

“Konoha-nin closest to the rear door, you are out!”

The room was quickly losing occupants and time was beginning to run out.

Question Seven; a riddle.

[My face is often bright and bold, I tell many stories, and I don’t grow old. What am I?]

{This is a bit too open-ended. Like a book or scroll can tell many stories.}

[True, but this is a riddle, so the meaning is meant to be a bit more on the nose.]

Seiko continued to look at the question for several seconds. It was definitely more than meets the eye, as none of the other exam questions were as... vague. Everything else seemed fairly focused by comparison.

My face, is bright and bold. I, tell many stories. I, don’t grow old.

So, it has a face, it tells stories, and it doesn’t age like the living. Clocks don’t age, but they don’t tell stories. Walls can’t tell stories.

Seiko bit her lip as she continued to think. Her last visit to Konoha suddenly came to mind and the answer seemingly came in the same moment. Theater masks. Theater masks told stories and were bright and dramatic to be clear to everyone in attendance.

As Seiko wrote her answer, the lead proctor spoke up.

“Alright, this is your fifteen-minute warning! I am about to reveal the final question, but before I do, I must explain the rules at play.”

“From here forward, this is a pass or fail exam. If you choose to answer the final question, you must answer correctly, or you and your team will be disqualified and removed from the exams. You will never be able to attend one of our examinations ever again as well. However, if you choose to not answer the question, you will automatically fail this portion, but you will be able to retry at a later stage in the future.”

The room filled with noise, some murmurs and some shouts as the examinees took in the rules. A few of the planted shinobi went ahead and withdrew from the room, and a small team voluntarily withdrew behind them. The proctor spoke again.

“Is that all? Are the rest of you ready for the last question, even with the consequences?”

Naruto shouted back at the man.

“I WILL NEVER GIVE UP, EVEN IF YOU MADE THIS TEST HARD AS HELL. JUST GIVE US THE LAST QUESTION, WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME!”

With a hush after the outburst, the classroom calmed down and waited, simmering in silence. After a few moments, the proctor chuckled.

“Very well. Question Ten!”

He turned around and faced the chalkboard at the head of the room, writing quickly. When he finished, the last question was revealed to a silent audience. Naruto spoke for the rest of the attendees.

“Are you ready for the next part of the exam? That’s... THAT’S THE QUESTION?!”

The proctor stared right back at the boy.

“Yes, ANSWER IT!”

Naruto sat still for a moment before giving a big grin.

“Well, yeah! Of course I’m ready. There is nothing about this exam that is helping me become Hokage, you know!”

Silence. Then, a few claps from the proctors.

“Well, I suppose we will collect the exams now and factor in your placements moving forward. You have passed.”

{Oh wow, you were right. Good job, Nee-chan.}

Some confused yells immediately broke out, but Naruto remained the loudest.

“Wait, how the hell did we pass without turning in the exam?”

The lead proctor motioned for the other proctors to start collecting everyone’s tests.

“This portion of the exam was set to evaluate on two separate skills you will need to have before you are ready for promotion. The first is the ability to collect information largely undetected while under scrutiny. Since most of the exam questions were either more difficult than necessary or reliant on uncommon skill sets, the goal was to focus you into copying someone else’s work and not get caught.”

“The second skill, was the ability to keep calm and confident under pressure. If you were unwilling to carry on in moments of stress, you could easily surrender to your enemies or the environment and fail your mission, which is conduct unbefitting the upper ranks of Shinobi.”

The man crossed his arms at the front of the room.

“As for the correct answers, the next part of the exam will involve some other parameters to be set, and the answers you put to paper will be used to determine how that happens. That being said, we are done with you. The next stage will start in a few hours. At the reception desk, there will be instructions on where you will be heading and when the next portion will start. Pack for five days and five nights of travel. You will need it."

Gathering herself, Seiko moved to hand her paper off as soon as she could and moved back to the hallway to track down Gaara. She needed to give Baki some breadcrumbs to work with later, assuming Kabuto was still the contact.

Chapter Text

The Jester

[Konohagakure, 1243-Chūō, July 1st, Year 63 of the Shinchu-Jidai]

Lunch out of the way, Seiko and the rest of the examinees were walking to the far North-Eastern end of Konoha. The village’s streets steadily thinned of people, storefronts and homes and increasingly gave way to the wilder woodland that surrounded the walls. Seiko had not seen the great wall around the village, so they were still inside, but the ambience of the road really strained the memory that they were still inside Konoha.

Suna certainly did not have this much additional space unoccupied, but then again, rain collection is easier when nearly every stretch of a village can act as a large filter for fresh water.

The great trees continued to stretch and claw their way skywards as Seiko walked, but the road’s twists and turns were finally straightening out towards their destination. A large wall of plaster, stone, and wood surrounded an even larger growth of thick woodlands, darker and quieter than the gentle trees she was walking through. Marking the top of the wall at some regular interval was the number Forty-Four.

The Infamous Forest of Death.

It looked... relatively normal. No massive beasts flying out or anything. Just a bigger, darker, and danker forest than she was already walking through. No biggie.

As the crowds of Genin made their way closer and closer, Seiko could make out a few large tents lining the exterior wall of the training ground. Proctors, as with the last part of the exam, were preparing papers and scrolls ahead of the beginning of this next phase. If her notice from the Academy was correct, they still had roughly an hour to go before they started in earnest.

Once the swath of shinobi was close enough, one of the proctor’s jumped on top of a wagon parked nearby.

“WELCOME EXAMINEES! IF YOU WOULD GATHER 'ROUND, I WILL EXPLAIN EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW PRIOR TO THE NEXT PHASE OF THESE EXAMS!”

The proctor was a purple haired woman in a more provocative outfit than her fellow proctors. Where the others largely wore a cross between the greyer traditional looking Ninja-gear and military uniforms for their section, this one traded the full-length pants for some black leggings that cut just above the knees leading into a pair of shin guards and an orange apron skirt rigged with additional storage pouches to her sides. Her shirt was folded and wrapped around her waist, showing off much of her mesh weave-armor, only a beige crop top to preserve her modesty. Around her neck was some sort of darker grey cloth gaiter, and her hair was spiky and wild but worn in a rough bun towards the back, only kept out of her eyes by her black Hitai-ate.

“My name is Mitarashi Anko, and I will be your guide to this next phase. Guide, because this next section is a survival challenge in what we lovingly call ‘The Forest of Death’.” Prior to the start of this next challenge, there will be a series of papers and forms to go through, notably general maps of the environment, a general ruleset for this phase, and a liability waiver.”

The other proctors began distributing papers as she continued.

“What I am about to tell you will also be covered on the paperwork being handed out, but if you still have questions, please ask myself or one of the proctors before Fourteen Hundred. SO! LET’S GET STARTED!”

“I will start with the objective of this exercise; Your teams will be deployed to opposing gates around this training ground to start. Your objective...”

Anko pulled out two scrolls from her apron’s pockets.

“... Will be to collect these two scrolls, one marked ‘Heaven’ and one marked ‘Earth’. They are not to be opened individually, doing so will disqualify the team that did so. Once these scrolls have been collected, each successful team will need to move to the center of the training ground where there is a tower. There, they will receive additional instructions.”

“I did mention this will be a survival exercise. The Forest of Death is home to various types of hostile flora and fauna. Your team will not only need to navigate those threats, but the threats posed by your competitors. For this purpose, the waivers being passed around are there to affirm that you and your village accept responsibility for your injury and/or death if it is to occur during the exam. I will tell you now, that this is to cover accidental deaths from combat. If you intentionally kill each other during this exam, you will be disqualified and dealt with separately, do I make myself clear?”

A few murmurs echoed through the crowd before a lone voice asked about the waiver. It was a young girl, Seiko’s age or maybe a year older, but clearly taking to heart the possibility of dying during the exam.

“If we refuse to waive liability, can we still compete? I mean...”

“No. Are there any other questions?”

The murmuring stopped and silence took hold.

“No? Great! Now, there are only Twenty-Eight scrolls in total, meaning at the very maximum, only fourteen teams can proceed forward to the finals. I doubt that many will make it, but Ibiki’s version of the first phase was clearly too soft when there are still so many of you, so I need to actually bloody your knuckles. Does anyone want to forfeit now?”

The girl from before raised her hand and, despite some initial hostility from her teammates, the whole team followed suit and voluntarily withdrew.

“Only a team from Konoha? My goodness, I'm going to need to talk to the Academy about letting you children graduate with no will. Where’s the risk?! Where’s the danger?! You kids can leave now! Try again when you finally grow up a little more!”

The team quickly left the surrounding fields, judgmental eyes worsening their public exit.

“As for the rest of you, this Challenge also has a time limit. You will have five days and five nights to complete it. An alarm will sound at Fourteen hundred on the Sixth to confirm your failure if you are not finished. In the event of death, your remains will be secured and returned to your village as necessary.”

Anko was quiet for a moment before turning back to her other proctors.

“Oy, Mozuku! How much time do they have?”

A man with glasses standing by the tents looked over a clock before shouting back.

“Thirty-five minutes, Mitarashi-San!”

“You heard the man! Sign your waivers and hand them in with your team, Scrolls will be issued at random and the last team to finish will have none to start with. You will be given a gate to enter in and they will open at Fourteen-hundred sharp. Now, move!”

Seiko and the boys had sequestered themselves close to the tents as they discussed their options. Kentarō looked around before speaking to his teammates.

“Alright, so we are going to wait a bit before turning in our papers, right?”

The other two nodded.

“Okay, so, the way I see it, we should probably pick out some teams to shakedown for scrolls, and then make our way to the tower as soon as possible.”

Akio remained quiet but nodded his head, but Seiko shook hers.

“It might be better to seek out and join up with some other teams. We don’t know what scroll we might get or come across and it might make more sense to join forces.”

The two boys looked at one another.

“You want to team up with a hostile team? During a free-for-all survival challenge?”

Seiko shook her head.

“You heard the lady describe this place. It is a higher tier of training ground than most Genin would be prepared for. Alongside the competition, we will have a rough time trying to accomplish our goal. We could run across teams, check which scrolls the other has, and avoid combat where unnecessary. Maybe even work with a team that needs the same scroll as us?”

Kentarō thought on the idea for a moment.

“What if they run off with the scroll we jointly collected? Then what?”

“Well, it would be more advantageous for the teams to work together and gang up on isolated teams. We can’t guarantee that another team won’t run off immediately but if they stick around, we can better protect ourselves from isolated teams while en route to the tower after the scrolls have been collected.”

Akio coughed.

“I don’t think we should rely on others to help us pass this. Too much can go wrong.”

Sighing, Seiko corrected herself.

“It isn’t about relying on the other team. It is about boosting our odds against a potentially stronger opponent.”

Kentarō laughed.

“Like who, Gaara?”

Seiko was scanning over the various teams, looking for... ah.

Them.

Several meters away was a group of three Kusa-nin, two with straw hats and one with a stone-like mask. The group looked no more outlandish or exotic as the other Genin, but Seiko knew better. The posture of the group’s leader was serpine and confident, coiled in the nonchalance of a wolf among sheep.

“Yeah, or worse. It’s something to think about anyways.”

Akio shrugged, seemingly eying Orochimaru’s form across the field.

“Seiko might have a point. If there are twenty-eight scrolls, only fourteen teams can proceed forward anyway. It won’t be too difficult to argue that point to more reasonable people. That being said, I do have a suggestion.”

Kentarō and Seiko looked back at the boy, who eyed both of them down.

“We only stick with tree-huggers or our own. I don’t think we can trust anyone else not to try something stupid.”

Kentarō looked between the two before closing his eyes and sighing.

“Alright, that’s fair. Give me your forms, I’ll head over to the tent.”

The other two handed their waivers over and watched as the taller boy joined the line to potentially receive a scroll.

“That team is bad news, I know you think so. Anything I should know about?”

Seiko smirked behind her mask before letting out a shaky chuckle.

“As long as we avoid them, we should have no issues. Otherwise... I hope we have backup.”

Akio tilted his head in confusion.

“Are you that uncertain of our success chances or you aware of something more serious?”

“The guy who put me in the hospital is participating, and I’m pretty sure he isn’t alone.”

Akio’s eyes widened for a moment.

“Ah, so that’s why you chased down Gaara immediately. You have a plan for him then?”

Seiko gestured ‘so-so’.

“I’m not worried about him. I’m worried there might be bigger fish that shouldn’t be here.”

“The Kusa-nin?”

Seiko nodded.

“If we encounter the tall one, we are either escaping or going all out. Something about them seems off.”

Akio nodded back after a few moments of silence.

“I definitely feel the same way. What about the rest of their team? They don’t appear to have the same aura about them.”

Seiko looked back over at the team in question. Orochimaru, or the woman she thought Orochimaru stole the body of, definitely evoked a sense of controlled power. The other teammates though? They seemed normal, as if nothing was out of the ordinary. There was also nothing to indicate the men were Genjutsu or Henges.

Her pondering was interrupted by Kentarō’s triumphant return.

“I’m back with the scroll guys, but we gotta move. We start at gate Twenty-Four.”

Seiko looked back at the surrounding fence for the Forest of Death and looked for the closest gate. The proctors had set up the tents away from the starting gates, but there was a sandwich board nearby with two lines of text.

‘Gates One through Sixteen to the Right, Gates Thirty-Two through Seventeen to the Left.’

Each of the other competing teams looked at the board before heading left or right and taking off, leaping to the trees with Chakra-enhanced jumps. Some quick math brought the realization of the actual distance to Seiko.

“Ok, eight-and-a-half clicks in a few minutes, let’s get moving!”

The team jumped into a group of synchronized leaps through the nearby trees as they rounded the Forest of Death, seeking out their gate as the second phase ticked ever closer. Each gate had a Jōnin standing by, likely to approve their gate assignment and open the gate once everything truly started.

The team came to a stop about nine minutes later, landing and receiving the verification of their assignment. Kentarō looked to his teammates.

“We have a direction to focus on or are we heading straight?”

Akio looked to Seiko as she thought about the remaining assignments. The Kusa-Nin had not been assigned a gate yet, meaning they would be further to their left, assuming the later teams were placed on the opposite side of where the tents were placed. Seiko shook her head.

“We start forward, lean right until we get what we need, and then head to the center.”

The other boys nodded and turned to the gate. Kentarō tossed their Earth Scroll to Seiko and let out a gentle bow.

“Mel’kam id’il, guys.”

It was almost showtime.

The Forest of Death promised a lot of danger from what Seiko could remember. Feral creatures, bizarrely massive flora. What it delivered was something entirely otherworldly.

Steps into the walled in training ground saw the hot and humid Konoha summer replaced with a nauseating breeze of cool air. The forest was entirely different from the woods they traveled through to get here, possibly dipping as much as five degrees between the gate and the first giant tree. The air invited more humidity as well, the sweet and sticky air betraying the otherworldly flowers and their pungent nectar steps from the civilization they left behind.

Kentarō smiled in awe at the sudden sensory punch.

Seiko breathed steadily through her mask, filtering out most of the odor but not enough to be nose blind to the new environment.

Akio stumbled immediately and caught himself quickly with the scabbard of his Nagamaki.

“Oh... wow! That is a lot!”

Seiko and Kentarō looked back to their eldest teammate. With Kentarō seemingly fine, Seiko raised the lower portion of her eagle mask to get a stronger dosage of the air.
Squeezing her eyes shut, Seiko took in the surrounding air. The air itself was clear when she shut her eyes, but the swirl of fragrances almost gave it color. Pale blue for the fresh oxygen coming from the massive trees. Rich brown for the smell of wet wood, saturated enough to rot but seemingly unbothered by the climate. Pink for the sickingly sweet tang of the flowers and vines in the air. A dull purple for the hints of heavier metals lingering in the more poisonous plants.

Seiko slid her mask back down and opened her eyes.

“Wow, you aren’t wrong! Do you want to borrow one of my masks?”

Akio hesitated before shaking his head.

“No... I’ll adapt. Everyone else is going through the same I imagine.”

Seiko and Akio looked to Kentarō.

“Oi, don’t look at me like that. I’ve been smellin poison fumes for a few years now. This is tame compared to some of the rancid stuff.”

The group lingered for a few more moments before the team set off into the forest. With a few jumps, the Suna-nin were in the lower canopy scanning the forest floor below. Every five minutes of moderate speed in one direction, the group would slightly adjust their path to the right. Only a few degrees, no more, no less.

It took nearly an hour, but Seiko suddenly signaled for the group to stop on one of the large branches. The team waited.

Out of one of the bushes below, a team emerged and continued walking, looking side to side as they went. In the scant sunlight bleeding through the leaves above the forest floor shined Konoha Hitai-ates.

Akio and Kentarō looked to Seiko and the girl nodded, attaching threads to the branch and slowly dropping towards the ground upside down. She was a few meters above the ground when she announced her presence.

“Good afternoon, tree-huggers!”

The Konoha-nin immediately scattered, unprepared for the voice above their heads. Once they were looking at her, the team prepared weapons.

“Oi, none of that, I’m here to talk.”

One of their trio, a girl with a hoody-like robe and shorts, flung a kunai at Seiko. Seiko dropped to the floor before the blade could hit her.

“There is no reason for us to fight if we don’t have the scroll we need. What scroll do you have?”

Clearly not in the mood for actually talking, one of the boys wearing a simple grey shirt and darker shorts ran straight for Seiko with his fist reared back to punch. Roughly two meters away from Seiko, the boy suddenly flew back from the force of Kentarō’s whirling kick from above. Before the other two could react, Akio appeared, Nagamaki drawn towards the other boy as Seiko remained standing where she was.

“As I was saying, there was no reason to fight and get beaten up if you just tell us what you had. Now we are going to take your scroll regardless of what it is.”

Kentarō butted in.

“If you let us take the scroll without dragging this out, I can look you over for injuries and let you on your merry way. Otherwise we are going to knock you all out and move on to the next team. Y’all gonna play nice or what?”

The two Genin still standing looked between one another and sighed.

“We have an Earth Scroll.”

There was a quiet moment in the clearing where the birds could be heard chirping in the distance. Then, Kentarō took a deep breath through his nose.

“Welp, that doesn’t help much. We also have an Earth Scroll. Let me look over your friend and we are heading out. Akio, take their scroll please.”

Kentarō calmly walked to the body of the boy he knocked out while Akio reach his hand out to the other boy for the Scroll. The boy blanched a little.

“Masao actually had the scroll...”

Akio sighed.

“Kentarō, scroll should be on your guy.”

Seiko continued to watch as the girl looked back to her.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because it’s part of the exam? Why else?”

The girl shook her head.

“No, like why didn’t you want to fight us.”

Seiko sighed.

“I already told you, there was no reason for us to fight unless you had the scroll we needed. Plus, you tree-huggers are technically allies to Suna, so it is beneficial for us not to have bad blood for no reason. Do you understand?”

The girl was about to speak when she was interrupted by a shout from Kentarō.

“I got the scroll! Let’s head out!”

Seiko shrugged.

“Welp, good luck finding the two scrolls you will need. May we see each other later.”

The girl slowly nodded, and with that, Shi-Butai took back to the lower canopy, now with two of the same scrolls as the forest began to steadily darken. A few minutes away from the Konoha team, Seiko spoke up.

“So that went easier than expected.”

Kentarō laughed.

“You know what, I was hesitant when you said we should do diplomacy, but that definitely worked in our favor. Reckon we will run across another team soon?”

Akio shrugged as he readjusted his scabbard.

“There are certainly enough teams in here with us to run across. I doubt it should take too much longer to run across another team.”

A few drops of water were all the warning the team received before the rain finally overcame the treetops and began to pour down.

Two hours into the torrential downpour, Seiko, Kentarō, and Akio huddled together under their impromptu-put-up tent in the canopy. Seiko shivered a little before looking at the boys.

“So... I don’t think the rain is gonna let up tonight.”

Kentarō nodded along.

“I wasn’t expecting the microclimate, but with the way the trees and the wildlife are, I don’t doubt it does stuff like this all the time.”

Akio shook his head.

“I don’t know, are we sure it isn’t one of the Ame teams?”

Seiko frowned.

“We haven’t been attacked yet, so I don’t think its them. It might just be natural... as natural as an unnatural area can be.”

Akio sat still for a moment, ears straining around the weather surrounding them.

“At the very least, it does disrupt our original plan. Where do we go from here?”

“What do you mean, Ak’?”

“Well, the other teams are probably held up like we are right now. Whatever they initially were doing, they might be changing those plans right now.”

Seiko closed her eyes and focused on the sound of the rain.

[Akio unfortunately has a point. Any ideas?]

{Well, if you aren’t too scared of the Kusa team you think is Orochimaru and some of his people, we could head north?}

[Yeah, I’m gonna have to give you a hard no on that. I don’t know whether he would ignore us or not. Plus, he is known to just kill subordinates, so some random Suna Genin would be wiped out like insects.]

Opening her eyes and giving out a deep huff of breath, Seiko shook her head.

“Do we have any idea where we are?”

The two boys look between one another before Akio pulls out the map that was given to the teams before they started the second phase. The green eyed boy looked down at the map and then at his surroundings.

“...”

And again.

“...”

And again.

"...”

And again.

“... I have no idea where we are. How do these people navigate in these conditions?”

Seiko looked at Kentarō, but the boy threw his hands up.

“Don’t look at me, navigation was never my strong suit!”

Seiko sighed and took the map from Akio’s hands. As implied by the wall they encountered before the phase started, the Forest of Death was a large circular training ground of bizarrely wild woodland and rainforest. A river ran from the North-East down through and around the central plain of the facility before leaving through the South-Western end of the area. There were a few ponds, a bog or two, a rockier outcropping further to the North, but not too close to the wall itself.

Tracing back around the exterior, Seiko spotted their gate, Twenty-Four. Tracing her finger around the map, she eventually stopped.

“I can’t say for certain, but I am pretty sure we are in the South-Western quarter of the Forest. The river should exit somewhere nearby, so I think we should listen and look out for the river, get our bearings, and then circle around until we find another team.”

Akio and Kentarō looked at one another.

“Our girl is making sense, you got any problems with it?”

Akio shook his head.

“How do you want to handle watch? I doubt you want to leave right now.”

Seiko nodded her head.

“I think we can ignore watch for now with the weather. I haven’t seen any of the larger creatures since the storm hit and I doubt the other teams are on the prowl right now. I’ll set up some detection seals and we can all get rested up for tomorrow. Does that sound good?”

The two boys nodded and got to unsealing their packs and some rations. Seiko removed one of her scrolls with some sealing materials and set out to write some temporary tags. With the smell of dinner reinvigorating her spirit a little, she finished her work and left the safety of their tent into the heavy rain outdoors.

Tags beneath her cloak, she paced slowly down the huge branch they settled on and slowly walked around to the bottom before removing a kunai and carving out a small rectangle, maybe a half centimeter thick, before placing her tag in the center.

She repeated the action another five times, one for each cardinal direction and one above and one below their tent. Cloak thoroughly soaked and clothes damper than she would have liked, she returned to the tent and began to strip down to her underwear and bindings.

{Wow, you really are doing this.}

[Core Survival Tip; nature doesn’t give a damn about preserving modesty.]

“Seiko!”

“Shut up, I need to dry down and warm up. Is the food ready?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Excellent.”

Seiko unsealed a thick wool blanket and wrapped herself up next to the boys. Their small cooking pot was balanced and counterbalanced by a series of ropes and bundles of cloth to protect the tent’s canvas from the sharper edges of the legs. The thin veneer of smoke drifted up and out towards a ventilation hole in the top, the sharp scent of pepper coloring the lean meat and vegetables in their pot.

“Alright, let’s eat!”

A few hours later, Seiko awoke to nature’s call and grumbled to herself. Crawling out from the pile she and the boys made near the stove, Seiko put her now dried clothes back on, fastened a few of her weapons pouches, and listened out for the rain.

The storm had died down significantly, but the pitter-patter of the rain was still present. Exiting the tent, Seiko took a cursory look around the forest.

Nothing out of place and no animals gawking. Bad news indeed.

Seiko checked her tags, which were still undisturbed, before she descended down to the underbrush to find a place to relieve herself. Eerily still and silent, Seiko disrobed and squatted, keeping track of every second that passed and every sound, or lack thereof in the forest.

Still nothing.

When she finished and cleaned herself up, she carefully removed herself from the bushes and began to make her way back towards one of the tree trunks. A sudden shift to her Chakra hit her and she stopped. Something was in the perimeter, small and unassuming. She slowly panned her head around when a glint of light caught her attention.

She stood still, waiting for her eyes to take in a little more light to understand what she was looking at. A few seconds went by with no changes, so she weaved some Mudra and made herself harder to detect. A few seconds went by with no change.

But then...

Out of the underbrush slithered a snake, scales eggshell white, dark tongue flickering out rapidly, as if confused.

Tip-toeing, Seiko rounded her way around the forest floor until she could grab the snake at the back of its head. The snake immediately started flailing around, but was unable to break from Seiko’s grasp. Seiko whispered at it so as to not wake up the boys.

“Stop squirming and I won’t kill you.”

The snake gave a couple more wiggles before it stopped.

“Can you talk? If not, flick your tongue twice.”

One flick, then another, and then nothing.

“Ok, so you are intelligent. I’m going to release you, attack me and I will kill you.”

Seiko sat down and let go of the white snake, which immediately slithered itself into a relaxed pile in front of her, waiting for her to continue.

“I assume you are doing reconnaissance for your master?”

The snake didn’t move but lazily flicked its tongue.

“My mistake, I should probably set a precedent. Two flicks are yes, one flick is no. Same question.”

The snake just sat there, partly flicking the tongue after a moment, but not committing to an answer.

“Do I have to feed you for you to comply with my questions.”

Two flicks immediately.

“Of course. Do you like seasoned meats or vegetables? I do have some leftovers up in the tent.”

The snake flicked once.

“Live food then?”

Two flicks.

“Well, I don’t have any live food and I don’t know where to get any fast. If I help you find some food quickly, will that be enough?”

The snake stilled for a moment before flicking twice.

“Alright, do you want to wrap around my neck and guide me? I don’t know what you are in the mood for, but your senses will be better than mine.”

For a moment, the snake didn’t move, but then it slowly slithered up to Seiko and began to crawl up her arm. Once it was settled loosely around her neck, the snake flicked its tongue for a few moments, head turning side to side. The snake stopped and leaned forward before pulling back.

Seiko took that as her queue and jumped to the canopy as she followed the snake’s directions. With each tree she passed, she left marks of chakra-infused ink to trace her way back to the camp that began to give off a dull glow a few seconds after she left them. Before long, she was overlooking the small river running through the forest, likely fifteen meters across. Surprisingly, the water here was clear, and the thin moonbeams drifting down through the leaves gave a relatively clear view of Seiko’s face.

“Well, there’s the river. Where to from here?”

The snake pointed its head further up the river. Seiko relented and began crossing the river every few jumps to get more perspective. A few minutes later, Seiko was overlooking a small camp of Konoha-nin. Two were sleeping but one was keeping watch.

The girl was very much aware of Seiko, but didn’t rush to wake up her teammates.

Shrugging, Seiko continued to follow the snake’s direction until it suddenly coiled a little tighter around her neck. She stopped on a branch and took stock of the area.

It was quiet, but the slight scratches on one of the trees brought her attention to a snake-sized millipede chasing some other insect on the trunk.

“You can eat that? That thing is huge!”

The snake simply sat around her neck, waiting.

“You want me to kill it for you?”

Two flicks.

“Fine, fair is fair I suppose.”

Seiko removed a kunai from her pouch and took aim. For a moment, the forest stilled. And then, Seiko took her shot.

~Thwop!~

The millipede stopped in its tracks and the body slowly began to lose grip on the tree, having had its head end bisected by the kunai. Seiko quickly jumped to the tree and removed the Kunai from the tree with a hefty tug. The snake-summon immediately slithered away from her and secured the body before it could fall from the tree.

“Great, should we head back now?”

The snake quietly took in Seiko, millipede in jaws, and slowly slither back up to around her neck. Nodding, Seiko took back off towards her camp, recalling her glowing Chakra seals as she went.

The girl on watch from before was still on watch, keeping track of Seiko as she streaked across the canopy. Seiko waved at the girl and the other girl reluctantly waved back, seemingly confused at what Seiko was doing.

Which, that was fair.

Before she could make it much farther, the girl suddenly appeared before Seiko.

“Stop.”

Seiko complied, the snake around her neck feeling very annoyed that its meal was being delayed.

“Why are you running around, and without a team no less?”

Seiko shrugged.

“I had to feed this snake.”

The girl frowned.

“Are you serious?”

Seiko shook her head, forcing herself to dramatically emote since her mask was left back at the campsite.

“Not at all. If anything, I am clearly here to make jokes. But more importantly, I wasn’t expecting to be forced in a confrontation this late at night.”

The girl continued to stand on her branch, but did not attack.

“I’m not sure what you are capable of, but my team can come to support me in less than twenty seconds.”

Seiko shrugged again.

“And I’m not here to fight you, it’s why I didn’t even go near your camp. But tell you what, I’m feeling nice.”

The other girl looked confused, but Seiko continued.

“I have a spare Scroll we don’t need that we picked up earlier today. I will give it to you if you let me go without issue. No following me, no attacking me, just leaving me alone.”

The girl looked incredulous.

“Just like that? No fighting?”

Seiko shrugged.

“Unless your team has the Scroll we need before we finish, we have no reason to fight you. But if you do end up having the Scroll we need, I will hunt you down and take both back. Does that sound fair?”

The girl nodded and extended her hand out. Seiko pulled their team’s original Earth Scroll and handed it to the other girl. For a moment, the girl’s eyes widened, but she quickly regulated her expression back to normal.

“Great, I will head on back to my camp now.”

Seiko took off and, once she was sure the girl returned to her own camp, she spoke up for the snake.

“Apologies for the delay, but I needed to give myself an excuse to show up at their camp tomorrow.”

With the two returned to Seiko’s campsite, the Snake immediately took to swallowing the millipede in its entirety. Several unnerving minutes spent in silence later, Seiko finally had her chance to ask questions.

“Same rules as before, do I have a limit on the number of questions?”

Two flicks.

“These don’t count mind you, five questions?”

Two flicks.

“Ok, one. Your master is disguised as a Kusa-Nin.”

Two flicks.

“Two, you are doing reconnaissance for them, reporting on the locations of teams.”

Two flicks.

“Three, your master is looking to sow chaos prior to the finals, but not trying to prevent the exams from finishing outright.”

Two flicks.

“Four, only one of the Genin is specifically his target.”

One flick.

“Wait, what? Crap... Ugh... My team and I should be safe since we aren’t being targeted? Right?”

The snake was still for a moment, but then it flicked its tongue once.

~Poof!~

With a cloud of smoke, the snake unsummoned itself, leaving Seiko alone in the clearing. She blinked, took in a deep breath, and sighed.

“Goddamnit.”

The next morning, Seiko and the boys set off towards the river Seiko found the previous night. Hoping to luck out with the Genin team from the night before, Seiko led the boys to where she remembered the campsite being the night before.

To her surprise, the tents were still out, but now heavily damaged and stained with something. A short distance away, the three Genin, Konoha-nin from the looks of it, were bloody and bruised, bound, and had their throats slit. Kentarō rushed forward to double check the bodies. Now in the light of day, Seiko could make out more of their youthful features. The oldest couldn’t have been older than nineteen, whereas the other two were at least sixteen or older.

“Ah, they been dead for a while. At least three hours, from the look of ‘em.”

Seiko looked up at the pale orange sky.

“What time is it? You would have thought we would have heard the commotion from our camp!”

Akio shrugged.

“It’s not noon and not sunrise, but given the timing, this might have been done at first light. As for noise, you know how to make silencing seals.”

Seiko looked back over the bodies. She couldn’t evaluate what happened in the short time she was away since the previous night, but she knew something was off.
“Ken, do you see anything about the bodies that’s off? This doesn’t seem normal.”
Kentarō scanned over the bodies with his hands, lime-green of the Iryō-Ninjutsu brightening up the contorted expressions of the corpses.
“Ok, I got... something. Exterior damage matches visually, so they did get beaten and then had their throats slit. However, their vocal cords are sealed shut with some sort of gel.”

“Just the vocal cords?”

Kentarō nodded.

“The rest of the throat is cleared, but the cords were covered with some sort of mucus or gel that dampened any vibration down to nothing. These tree-huggers wouldn’t have been able to scream or anything.”

Akio cleared his throat.

“So, they likely were ambushed by another team, early enough in the morning to catch their watch off guard and silence them before they could raise an alarm?”

“Looks like it.”

Seiko looked over the tents and the still smoldering fire of the camp. It was a little better concealed than a civilian campsite, but still a rookie mistake to pick this kind of opening without some extensive seal work or physical camouflage.

“Hey guys, I’m going to look over the campsite a bit further, keep watch in case this is a trap. Set a tent on fire if you have to.”

With a pair of nods, Seiko set to looking over the team’s unpacked equipment. Mourning over a team she was unfamiliar with was being put to the wayside for the time being, and there were her years of desensitization in this profession already to make dead bodies as mortifying in her past life.

But, she still needed time to compartmentalize the fact that she waved at and talked with the girl who was now bound and dead, tear tracks staining her face. She didn’t have a full account of what team came through here and killed these Genin, but she could infer that they did not simply kill them when they had the advantage to do so. It was clear, at least to Seiko, that whoever came to this campsite and beaten and killed these shinobi when they were unprepared and killed them while they were aware of what was happening.

The Konoha-Nin’s rations were untouched. Their weapons pouches, those not part of their outfits at least, were untouched.

Their Heaven Scroll was also seemingly untouched, and right next to it... the Earth Scroll Seiko gave the girl only a few hours ago.
Carefully, Seiko checked around the scrolls for any traps or other indications that this was all a setup. But...

There was nothing. Nothing at all.

Seiko left the tent with the scrolls, stowing away the Earth Scroll where she had it on her person the previous night.

“Guys, there is definitely something wrong here.”

The boys looked at her and then at the scroll. Akio’s face darkened.

“They didn’t take the scroll?”

Seiko shook her head.

“Not even close. The rest of their supplies weren’t even searched through! We need to search for whoever did this.

Kentarō stood up and waved his arms across his chest.

“Woah woah woah, we should go ahead and finish the exam! We have the scrolls we need and we can get Konoha to deal with this themselves.”

Akio clicked his tongue.

“No, I agree with Seiko. This is beyond the intent of the exam and compromises our larger mission. If Konoha has a large portion of its examinees killed off we are all going to be put under a lot more surveillance.”

Drawing his Nagamaki, Akio closed his eyes and shook his head.

“We can handle finishing the exam when we are certain whoever did this is dealt with.”

Kentarō frowned, but unsealed his Yumi after a heavy sigh.

“Fine, let’s go deal with these bastards. Any idea of where we should go?”

Seiko brought out their map and began to look over their map. Before she could raise her thoughts, a thin veil of rage fell over her.

It started subtle, like a slight breeze through the forest, but began to rumble through her veins. Adrenaline spiked, Seiko looked around with a slight frenzy.

“What the fuck is that?!”

Kentarō was mumbling to himself, thinking quickly and out loud about where the effects could be coming from.

Akio, on the other hand, was concentrated on listening to the forest.

“Seiko, we need to move to the North-East.”

The boy took off before Seiko could ask why, forcing Kentarō and Seiko to give chase.

“Akio, what the hell is going on?”

As the trio jumped through the forest, the occasional team could be seen moving quickly in the opposite direction Akio was leading them towards.

“Akio!”

The boy finally turned back, eyes dull and dark.

“It feels like Gaara! Like the Ichibi!”

Seiko’s heart fell a bit.

Orochimaru might have already gotten to Team Seven.

Seiko increased her speed to catch up with Akio, Kentarō following suit not long after.

“Are you sure? Not Gaara specifically but something like him?”

Akio nodded quickly.

“It feels different, but its also exceptionally powerful. I’m trying to look beyond my desire to just turn around and leave.”

Seiko chuckled with an angry sneer.

“You don’t say! I hope you have a plan for whatever we find!”

Akio nodded.

“Kill whatever is causing the problem and regroup. As long as we are all still capable, I could care less what we do afterwards.”

Kentarō groaned.

“Leave it Akio to lead us to what feels like certain doom. Mel’kam id’il...”

The feelings of rage and the tightening of the team’s muscles and nerves continued to grow as they grew closer and closer to the source of the emotions. There was noise in the distance now, clashing blades and physical contact between bodies and the environment, but no yelling or screaming.

The team finally blew through into a clearing to find nine bodies. Two people were standing off to the side, disheveled and panting quietly, while a third person straddled the fourth who was now bleeding out. The remaining bodies were clearly beaten and bleeding out, though three matched the same bodies Seiko's team encountered close to the river; bound and executed.

The straddler leaned back and brought their head down on the others with a resounding crack. Slowly the sound of breathing filled the clearing as the third person pushed themselves up and turned around to face the new arrivals, clearly aware of their presence.

Seiko, despite being masked, was reluctant to meet the red leering gaze of Naruto.

“It’s done.”

Chapter Text

Snake Eyes

“Naruto, stop, he’s gone.”

“Shut up, Teme! We almost had him! He’s so fast though!”

Sakura sighed, but it was quickly replaced by a grin. The boys were arguing, but the hostility present from the last few months had been replaced by a grudging respect between the two.

Given, they did lose track of the only team they had managed to come across so far, some slippery Genin from Ame of all places, but so far they weren’t super exhausted nor beat up from the competition.

{We could be doing more though. We definitely need to work on some sensory abilities. How the hell are we supposed to navigate through this nightmare and fight everyone?!}

[Maybe we need to organize our search pattern better. We have just been chasing that one Ame-Nin whenever he shows up.]

{Tell the boys then. They clearly aren’t thinking things through right now.}

Sakura nodded to herself and built up her confidence a little before clearing her throat.

“Hey, guys?”

Sasuke and Naruto stopped their bickering for a moment, Naruto suddenly attentive.

“Yeah, Sakura-Chan?”

“Maybe we should refine our strategy. Chasing any member of that team isn’t helping us out so far.”

Sasuke immediately nodded in agreement.

“I take it you have a plan?”

Sakura paused for a moment, thinking back to her time at the Academy, before nodding.

“Yes. Since yesterday, we have just been choosing a direction and sticking to it until one of those Ame-Nin shows up, and then we just give chase until we lose them. At this point, we are lost. We should head to either the center or the perimeter and start scouting in a set pattern.”

The boys looked at one another and shrugged before Sasuke slightly bowed his head for Sakura to take the lead. Sakura was filled with enthusiasm. In her own mind, Inner quickly punched towards the air as she shouted internally.

{SHANNARO!}

[SHANNARO!]

Removing their map from one of her side pouches, Sakura took a few glances between the map and the surrounding area before sighing and putting it away.

“Alright, so I don’t know where we are on the map, but if we can head East until we hit the wall, we can figure our location and start a basic search pattern to start finding other teams.”

Looking to the upper canopy, Sakura struggled to make out where the light was coming from.

“Naruto, can you climb to the top and see where the sun is?”

With a bright grin, Naruto enthusiastically agreed and started running up one of the trees. Sasuke pushed some air out of his nostrils with a straight face before looking at Sakura.

“You think he will remember which direction East is?”

Sakura scoffed.

“You know he’s not that bad. Give him a minute or two and we will have our destination, no distractions.”

Sure enough, the boy raced down the tree a few seconds later and started running through the forest.

“Sun’s this way, let’s go!”

Sasuke and Sakura quickly shouted and ran after him. The boy wasn’t sprinting, but it did take a few seconds for Sakura to take point in their trio. Minutes went by, as each team member scanned the forest around them for anything out of place. Any noises outside of the general soundscape were tuned out for specific areas of silence or abnormal noises.
A muffled shout and the clang of blades broke the group’s progress towards to perimeter wall as the trio came to a stop. Naruto was about to run towards the sound when Sasuke grabbed his shoulder.

“Wait, we might want to let whoever is fighting finish before we jump in on them. We don’t want to fight two teams at the same time.”

Naruto looked at Sakura, who nodded along with Sasuke’s plan. The trio crouched in silence, quietly counting out the moments.

Five seconds.

Ten seconds.

Fifteen seconds. Nothing but silence.

Sasuke gripped the handle of his Chokuto and nodded. The trio raced towards the empty soundscape the fighting could be heard from and was quickly spotted by six pairs of eyes.
One team, the clear victors of the fight, all wore a mix of different clothing items but all matched on their camouflage pattern grey gaiters, lavender robes, and Hitai-Ates featuring a single eighth note, prominently worn around each of their heads.

Oto-Nin, Two women and a man. The lead woman’s robe was sleeveless and had slits beneath the arms as well as a split from the navel to the collar, revealing a mesh weave shirt. A mask was lowered from her face, revealing a pair of teal sacs about two centimeters beneath her jaw.

The next woman, taller and slenderer than the first, was already contorting her body a little, slowly disappearing behind the body of her captive. Her robe was long-sleeved and much tighter around her body, looking more akin to a jumpsuit than a normal robe. Around each of her arms gleaned the tale-tail signs of ninja-wire, seemingly wrapped around for ease of use.

Finally, the man was slightly shorter than the first woman, but was far larger, forearms easily the width of buckets. Unlike the other two, his entire head was covered with some hood, leaving no obvious features for Sakura to note.

Beneath them, bound and seemingly incapable of making any noise, were some Konoha Genin, some previous graduating class, as Sakura could not recognize any of them. Each of the Oto-Nin already had their kunai out, pressed against the throats of the Genin. The lead woman gave out an exaggerated sigh as she spoke to the clearing.

“And here I thought we were going to have more time to play with these pathetic morsels.”

Before any of Team Seven could react, the trio of Oto-Nin slit the throats of their captives and the two flanking the leader began to charge Sakura and her team. Sakura was still in shock, not expecting the violence despite the encounter with Zabuza and Haku earlier this year.

{ALRIGHT GIRL, WE ARE NOT IN A POSITION TO FREEZE UP RIGHT NOW. GET YOUR ASS IN GEAR!}

Gritting her teeth, Sakura charged forward, fist tightened around her kunai. Before she could say anything else, the leader of the Oto team took a deep breath and brought her hands together. With a single Tori, the woman’s teal sacs suddenly inflated and she blew a thick turquoise mist out into the clearing, engulfing her teammates before the cloud also took over Sakura and the boys.

Fearing poison, Sakura immediately performed a rudimentary toxin scan on her body only to find... nothing.

“...? ...!!!”

Sakura tried to reassure Sasuke and Naruto, but the words wouldn’t come. Her throat felt a little weird, but her breathing was unbothered. Instead, where the sound would normally leave her mouth was oddly tighter than normal.

Not enough to impact her breathing, but enough of a difference to where it felt like she was wearing too tight of a choker or collar on a dress.

Sakura turned to check on the boys and found them in a similar situation. Sasuke, as usual, had seemingly realized the problem and had already adapted to the new handicap they were forced into. Naruto on the other hand...

Naruto was seemingly trying to scream off whatever this jutsu was. He suddenly stopped and his eyes grew wide, gesturing wildly towards Sakura as he started running towards her.

{FOCUS!}

Falling forward into a somersault, Sakura barely dodged the tall woman’s strike as she continued running right past Naruto. In the distance, the sound of blades clashing powered over the sound of footfalls and jumps as Sasuke fended off the woman with the sacs.

Unable to speak, Sakura focused all of her attention to her other senses, keeping track of the tall woman with her eyes and the man by his inability to step softly during his slower attacks.

The fight carried over for a few seconds, more and more information pouring into Sakura’s perception. While these shinobi were strong, certainly stronger than average, they did seem to lack any abilities beyond whatever mist the lead woman pushed out from her body.

The man was slow, but strong, like many of the grown Akimichi men Sakura had seen working in the restaurants around Konoha. The tall woman was careful about her movements. Quick, but lacking agility or dexterity in her attacks, leaving her in a similar range of attack patterns as her male counterpart.

The leader was clearly their best fighter, going toe-to-toe with Sasuke despite his sword’s advantage in length, but Sakura needed to help Naruto with...

A slight distortion in the air and Sakura is forced to throw herself to the ground. The Oto-man flew through the space above her, knocked away by a series of strikes by Naruto and his clones. Said clones were now seemingly all over the clearing, silent and dancing in and out of the trees.

The tall woman was thrashing back and forth, ninja wire flailing around her as she tried to get any strikes on Naruto or his clones. The lack of the usual screaming and yelling made the clones extremely difficult to track. Even Sakura couldn’t be sure about the number of clones brought forth by the boy.

With a rock-hard grip around her ankle, Sakura gave out a silent ‘eep’ as her body was dragged back across the forest floor. With a sudden stop, Sakura was suddenly forced to contort her body as the man brought his kunai down, each dodge bringing his focus on stabbing her sharper and sharper.

Focusing Chakra into her right fist, Sakura wound her body like a spring and spun in the man’s grip, punching the hand holding her ankle with a sickening crack. Hand damaged from the attack and slowly recovering, she scrambled up using her left hand and started to run away while the man wailed in silence. Before she could break three meters, a sharp pain dug into her neck and yanked her backwards.

Ninja wire tightened, drawing blood from beneath the skin as she was dragged towards the tall woman, bruised face smiling with an unnaturally bright grin. Sakura tried to keep calm, but the combination of a blade-like noose and her already iffy throat made breathing an exercise in futility.

Sudden movement brought her attention back to the clearing as Sasuke’s body was launched into a tree, cracking the trunk. Before Sakura could see more, her vision shown bright white.

Followed by red.

Fear and anger swirled through her veins, both present and induced by the burnt orange aura visibly filling her vision. Inner, physically unaffected by the damage Sakura’s body, was running through Sakura’s mind in a futile attempt to escape the sudden pressure of emotion.

{WE NEED TO LEAVE!}

Barely registering the thought, Sakura’s body was suddenly tossed a few meters, length of wire snapping following whatever hit the tall woman. With a deep breath, the once taut line of metal loosened around her neck as Sakura stayed in place for a second or two. Shakily, she gathered her strength and stood up, kunai at the ready just in case.

The large man that attacked her earlier was failing to fend off a team of enraged Narutos, bleeding as the boy’s claws rendered through his skin with every pass.

...

Wait, claws?!

Sakura rubbed her eyes to shake out any moisture or dirt that might’ve fallen in them during the fight.

Nope, definitely claws. Naruto’s explanation about the Kyūbi after the mission to Nami was farfetched, but this definitely validated what little he did tell their team.

Twisting her head, Sakura found the tall woman in a similar position, though now lacking the ninja wire around her arms, claw marks abound on the bindings that were layered on top of before. A blur of blue and red passed Sakura, forcing a reflexive strike from her.

In the intense focus of her adrenaline, Sakura could make out a slight grin as Sasuke, sharingan spinning with a single tomoe, pushed her strike away from his neck as he made a lunging stab with his sword at the man Sakura turned away from. The strike was true, silent gasp relieving the man of his life in the forest’s morning haze.

Following the boy’s lead, Sakura focused her chakra into her foot as she launched herself at the woman’s chest, kunai first in her still recovering right hand.

Her aim, unfortunately, was angled a few degrees off, and instead of a powering piercing attack through the chest, Sakura’s fist caved in through the ribs with a rough tear following the blade off to the side. Fingers cracking against the now shattered ribs, Sakura continued through the pain and tore the rapidly loosening grip on her kunai through the woman’s back before yanking her hand back, unable to keep hold of the blade.

Stepping away, Sakura held her right hand and willed herself to recover a little more while blinking through her tears. Her screams were still silent, but the pain was ever-present. She was still thankful for Kakashi’s insistence on practicing with some of the hospital staff during their self-improvement sessions, but this technique was clearly not intended for self-use or rapid relief in combat.

{We really need to find more excuses to train with Hinata. Taijutsu is still not your forte.}

Sakura quietly nodded, putting together a Genjutsu to help distract herself from her wrecked fingers. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Sakura looked back to the tall woman she had attacked, now on the ground, unmoving.

Her torso was ruined, ribs broken and jutting out like a broken umbrella. A small stretch of forest floor could be seen through the other side of her back, dirty Kunai lying on the ground surrounded by the meat.

Sakura stood still for a moment before she found herself bent over, throwing up her breakfast from the sudden revulsion in her life.

Several hard thuds brought her attention back to the moment, and she turned to find Naruto straddling the group’s leader, now covered in cuts, as he started bringing his head down against hers over and over again.

She had never seen Naruto so... angry before. He was always so... childlike, even when he was ‘serious’. Was it all just an act?

Was Naruto actually closer to Sasuke in attitude and just kept it down?

Sakura mulled over her interactions with the boy over the last few years before he said something and broke her concentration on the memories.

[The Forest of Death, 0828-Chūō, July 2nd, Year 63 of the Shinchu-Jidai]

One last exhale from the dying kunoichi on the ground brought the clearing to complete silence. Naruto continued to look directly at Seiko, drawing Sakura and Sasuke’s awareness to the onlookers. Before they could draw weapons, Naruto spoke.

“Calm down, they aren’t here to fight.”

Sasuke lowered his Chokuto, a new addition Seiko must have missed during the squabble with Lee at the first phase. Naruto, realizing words left his mouth, gave out an excited yell before remembering the situation he was just in and returning to a more somber feeling.

“Are you sure about that, Dobe?”

Naruto nodded, eyes slowly shifting back to their natural blue.

“We can trust them.”

Seiko stepped forward.

“We discovered some bodies a while ago before we felt a sudden spike in anger and ran over here. I’m imagining a similar situation took place over here?”

Naruto nodded, but Sakura spoke up this time, shaky and a little out of it.

“W-we w-were running through the woods, looking for another team. We found two, b-but... the other team was a-already down. The Oto-nin didn’t even take their scroll, they just started... killing them!”

Sakura squeezed her hands and winced, fresh blood mixing with the dried blood already on her arms. Sasuke’s eyes dropped their guard and he closed them, hiding himself away from the onlookers as he sheathed his Chokuto.

“The other shinobi, the ones that were killed... They couldn’t make any noise, some jutsu used by the one Naruto just...”

Sasuke opened his eyes, Sharingan-red bleeding into the morning light with a single tomoe.

“Something is wrong with this exam. I haven’t seen any proctors respond to our fight, despite the fact I am certain everyone felt Naruto just now.”

Before any of the Suna-Nin could respond, another team of shinobi entered the clearing ready for a fight. Despite the quick entrance, the clearing remained silent for a few more moments before the other team began to put away their puppet, fan, and sand.

Gaara’s sclera were black, but were quickly returning to their normal white when he spoke.

“It appears we were late for the tragedy. I assume no one here is fighting one another?”

Team Seven was quickly on their guard, but Seiko nodded.

“You would be correct. Naruto and his team defeated these Oto-Nin who were murdering Konoha-Nin.”

Naruto quickly pulled Seiko’s shoulder to turn her toward him.

“Wait, you mean there were more killed?!”

Seiko nodded her head.

“Just before the wave of adrenaline and anger hit us, we found a separate team from Konoha, bound with their throats slit like the other team you apparently found.”

Naruto’s face was dark, thin wispy curses weighing beneath his tongue. His teammates were equally distraught, but Gaara spoke up again before anything else could be said.

“Otogakure, you say? There is at least one other team of theirs in the exam. Do you think they might also be murdering Konoha Genin?”

Naruto punched his fist.

“If that is the case, then we need to find them and destroy them before they kill anyone else. I won’t let anyone else die if I can prevent it!”

Naruto turned to march away before Seiko stopped him.

“Naruto, aren’t you forgetting something?”

The boy blinked, face blank but expectant. He waited for Seiko to continue.

“... The scrolls? The team you killed wasn’t trying to take scrolls, so you have a decent chance of grabbing the scroll you need off one of these bodies.

Sheepishly, Naruto rubbed his neck.

“Oh yeah... right!”

Naruto turned back to the bodies he was about to abandon, only to find Sakura and Sasuke with two Heaven Scrolls. With a nervous chuckle, Naruto turned back to Seiko.

“We can leave now, right?”

Seiko turned to Gaara.

“You guys have all the scrolls you need right?”

Gaara shook his head.

“We have been traveling a little slow, spending time getting used to the environment a little more. We only have two Heaven Scrolls.”

Seiko smiled brightly.

“Well, we do have two Earth Scrolls if...”

“No, we don’t want it.”

Gaara turned to his older brother, confused. Kankurō huffed and crossed his arms.

“We don’t need their charity! Plus, we can just take another team’s Earth Scroll if needed. We are joining them to hunt the other Oto Team, right?”

Gaara and Kankurō turned to face Temari, who had remained silent so far, but the girl nodded.

“We have nothing better to do, so why not. It’s not like our Genin are faring any better.”

Naruto clapped and yelled out in excitement.

“That’s right! Our Genin are only being hunted because we are so good!”

Sakura sighed and slapped her palm across her face. Before she could speak, Sasuke spoke up for her.

“Dobe... only a little over half of our village’s applicants passed the first phase.”

The confidence and swagger slid into embarrassment.

“Ah... right. Which village is doing best then?”

The clearing was quiet for a moment before Gaara gave out a quiet hum.

“If we ignore the smallest villages, I believe Ame only had one team fail the first phase. Kusa, Taki, and Oto did have all their teams pass though before you killed this team.”

Seiko nodded, looking back at the boy.

“You wouldn’t happen to know where the guy I asked you to track is, would you? His team might be an easy target.”

Gaara closed his eyes, concentrating. Moments later he opened his eyes.

“Unfortunately, he is on the opposite side of the Forest from us. It will take some time to get to him, even if we rush to the North-West.”

Seiko frowned.

“Is anyone here a decent sensor? Can we find another team fairly quickly, or is this going to be back to the basics for us?”

No one said anything, leaving Seiko to sigh.

“Alright, let’s pick a direction and get moving.”

An hour passed as the group of nine jumped from tree to tree scouring the forest for anything. Every so often, evidence of a campsite or a fight would stop the Genin as they looked and listened before ultimately setting back off in the same search pattern.

Sasuke, Akio, and Gaara formed the vanguard of their formation, followed quickly by Sakura, Kankurō, and Seiko in the center, and then Temari, Naruto, and Kentarō taking positions in the rearguard. Another several jumps took place before Sasuke stopped, signaling he saw something. Seiko followed his gaze and quickly prepared to dismiss the Genjutsu she could make out before her ears perked up.

A rushing sound, like a tornado.

Acting on reflex, Temari swung her fan around and mostly deflected the massive wind Jutsu that was falling upon the group's flank. Wind buffeted the entire squad, disrupting the planted Genjutsu and the focus it stole in the process.

“Interesting... I wasn’t expecting Genin to join forces... let alone from foreign nations. How... peculiar.”

The voice, a woman’s, seemed to echo around the group, bouncing off the surrounding trees and preventing Seiko from tracking down a particular origin. Seiko didn’t need to see the speaker, though.

She already knew who this was.

“Akio...”

“I know, I know, give me a minute!”

Bleeding out of the mid-morning shade was the lanky woman Seiko identified the day before as unsettling, complete with straw hat and Kusa Hitai-ate. She was quiet, creeping out and around the trees, slowly approaching the group of Genin, now huddled closer together.

“Hm... no sudden rushing attacks. Caution, or fear? Care, or incompetence?”

Leaning back, the woman smiled and dragged one long finger down below her left eye, distorting the skin.

Seiko’s blood ran cold and the small hairs across her body rose with the discomfort of goosebumps. Vision blurry yet clear, the late morning sky replaced with a sanguine rain. She shuddered instinctively, incapable of picking her feet off the ground as the woman continued to stand there, grin widening by the second.

No one moved as the woman opened her mouth to reveal the hilt of a sword. Before the woman could continue, streams of sand whipped from Gaara’s gourd to form a wall between the Genin and the hostile ninja.

“We need to leave, this is no Genin.”

Broken from their initial freeze, the teams immediately turned to run but came face to face with the other two members of the woman’s team, having flanked the group silently while they were stuck still.

Rather than saying anything, Kentarō immediately knocked his Yumi with an arrow and shot the taller shinobi in the chest. The shot was true, cracking through the ceramic body to the other side. The hole began to reform slowly, earth seemingly filling the whole from inside.

Kentarō clicked his tongue.

“Man, why can’t we fight some regular people?! Seriously!”

With their group surrounded, the teams began to fan out to handle each of the Kusa team members, three-to-one. Seiko unsealed Tokage and immediately launched the larger puppet at the man Kentarō struck. The man shattered like a clay pot, but continued to slowly regenerate. Behind her, Team Seven was running into a similar issue with the other Kusa-nin, easily breaking ceramic limbs that then started to regenerate.

“Akio! Any ideas of how to deal with this guy?”

Akio circled around the shinobi as Seiko continued to have Tokage rip limbs off. With the shinobi ‘neutralized’, as far as combat ability was concerned, Kentarō performed a short medical scan on the body as it regenerated. Brow twisted in confusion, Kentarō stood up quickly.

“It’s a clone...”

Before Seiko could respond, Temari’s body was flung into Kentarō. Seiko turned, but was forced to throw herself to the ground as Temari’s fan spiraled into where she was just standing. Across the stretch of open ground, Gaara’s sand and Kankurō’s Karasu were flanking and failing to nail a direct shot on the Kusa woman, who was laughing at their efforts.

Seiko gritted her teeth and began molding her Chakra.

“Akio, Kentarō; Get the tree-huggers and fight the woman, I’ll absorb the Chakra from the clones and join up as soon as I am finished.”

The two boys looked at one another, but Seiko wasn’t having it.

“GO!”

The boys turned and ran to the other team as Seiko dropped her control of Tokage for a moment.

[Are you ready for this?]

{Ready as you were for this nonsense, Nee-Chan.}

Seiko formed her mudra and shoved her hands into the chest of the clone that was still recovering.

Ne.

Tatsu.

Ushi.

Mi.

Uma.

Saru.

[Meiton: Kunō no Ishi].

Inky black flames engulfed the inside of the clone for a few seconds before the body burst into a cloud of Chakra smoke. Seiko expected a lot of Chakra, but the amount was higher than she was expected, along with something that felt poisonous, burning at her coils like lemon juice on a cut.

She repeated the movements as she crossed the distance to the other clone, still disabled from the attacks by Team Seven but no longer underestimating its opposition. The clone desperately tried to recover faster as it crawled away but was not quick enough to avoid Seiko and her flames. Another cloud of smoke, and Seiko brought her attention to the fight across the way, body slowly adapting the foreign Chakra for her own use.

Darting in between the Genin with great speed and flexibility, the Kusa woman was no longer smiling and laughing. Instead, each movement was now carefully crafted and poised to avoid lingering in any one position as strikes came from all sides.

Karasu from one side. A winding punch from Sakura from the opposite.

Kentarō taking aim from the trees. Sasuke closing in with his Chokuto, prepared to strike and run.

Temari jumping and bringing her closed fan down from above. Akio staying low and dragging his Nagamaki in preparation for a serious of upwards windmill slashes.

Within a second, the Kusa-nin’s arms elongated unnaturally, grabbing Sakura’s leg with one arm and Naruto’s arm with the other as she spun and knocked Sasuke and Akio over with a sweep. Genin released, the woman, barreled around Temari’s strike and kicked her over as Karasu delivered a series of poisoned Senbon directly into the woman’s back. Despite the successful attack, the woman was unaffected and allowed the puppet to continue moving and block the arrow released from the trees.

Unphased, Kentarō continued to release arrow after arrow as the shinobi began to close the distance. Once they were a few paces out, Kentarō dropped his Yumi and began to try to punch the ninja, each striking air over and over again. A few quick jabs and Kentarō was knocked from the tree, landing and barely dodging a landing kick from the Kusa-nin. A wall of sand swept the Shinobi into the air, but they were able to quickly recover, slithering belly first across the wave back to the trees.

“You lot aren’t too bad, better than I was expecting!”

Chakra now mostly balanced with her own, Seiko prepared to throw herself fully into the fight. She was only going to get one chance if this was in fact Orochimaru. Failure would not save Sasuke here.

Ne / Uma.

I / Mi.

Mi / Inu.

Tori / Saru.

Ne / Mi.

Ushi / Tatsu.

Mi / U.

Ne / Ushi.

Tatsu / Mi.

Mi / Hitsuji.

[Kuchiyose: Tasogare no Kagami]

The Kusa-nin landed back on the forest floor to a recovered gathering of fifteen genin. Seiko and her six clones now joined the crowded coalition with another five puppets. The straw-hatted shinobi clapped at the display.

“Bravo! You have raised my interest and dragged this out longer than I expected. That being said, it is time I finish this.”

The ninja jumped forward, releasing another wave of killing intent as they descended to the ground. Unlike the first time, this wave only froze half the Genin as the other charged to meet them. Akio arrived first, Nagamaki drawn from the side swinging. The Kusa-nin dodged the strike as a snake emerged from their sleeve to bite the boy’s wrist. With a shout, Akio’s Nagamaki was dropped as he was kicked away. Kentarō quickly broke away from the attack to address the injured boy.

Naruto and his clones were next, clones easily brushed aside as the ninja quickly deduced who they were fighting. With a quick series of jabs, the ninja had Naruto held upside down as they slammed a series of burning sigils from their fingertips into Naruto’s stomach. The boy shouted before passing out, features beginning to darken as a steady release of Chakra grew more and more noticeable. Gaara’s sand, already slashing at the Kusa woman, quickly pulled off to drag away Naruto as Gaara pulled away to look over the boy.

Karasu was batted away, prepared bomb detonating and launching Kankurō away into the trees. Temari forced her way forward, swinging her fan for a series of wind scythes that were quickly reflected back against her by the shinobi’s straw hat, launched away with a great strike and their own use of Fūton. Seiko's puppets Genzō and Yūrei surged forward and successfully held the shinobi’s attention for a moment before Sasuke appeared below the shinobi and launched them upwards with a grounded kick.

In the air, thin strands of ninja wire pulled by Sakura from the canopy and Sasuke from the ground dragged the shinobi’s limbs outwards as Tokage and Hiryū flanked the trapped ninja on the ground and in the air. Sasuke performed his long-memorized mudra.

Mi.

Hitsuji.

Saru.

I.

Uma.

Tora.

“Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!”

From three angles, a great fireball and sustained flamethrowers consumed the bound Kusa woman, now screaming with a shrill whine that silenced the world. The flames continued to burn for a few moments as a few of the recovered Genin were drawn to the sound of Naruto, now burning with black and orange Chakra in the face of Gaara’s sand trying to keep him down.

Sakura opened her mouth to speak, but the ninja wire she was still holding on to suddenly pulled her down from the canopy. The Kusa-nin, charred black, fell to the ground but landed on their feet, clothes dusting the forest floor with ash, seemingly undamaged though inexplicably different than before. Their skin was melted like wax around something else, facial features vague and blended beyond visibility. Wiping the skin of their hands with their hands, peach color giving way to an eggshell white. Before they could continue removing the melted skin from their head, Seiko’s puppets were brought forward, gnashing teeth and raking claws against the ninja.

But, they were gone.

Instead, a massive snake burst out of the ground, mouth agape, as the shinobi disappeared down its throat just before the attacks could land. Instead of striking true, the snake was struck, drawing blood until it disappeared in a cloud of Chakra-laden smoke.

From the trees, another massive snake struck into Hiryū, knocking one of Seiko’s alters off the puppet and onto the ground as the other guiding the puppet was suddenly fighting with the Snake for control of the puppet’s mass. Another pair of clones brought Kurage into a saw-blade-like spin against the giant snake.

Another being burst from the ground. Sasuke was launched into the air by an uppercut, Orochimaru now plainly visible as they finished their ascent from the earth.

“These Genin you have made allies with. They keep you weak, Uchiha Sasuke.”

Seiko maneuvered Tokage to strike the Sannin, forcing them to focus on her for a moment as they dodged the puppets jaws and claws, realization steadily lighting their features as the details of the puppets, or rather their projections, became more and more distinct.

“... Ah! You are the puppeteer that struck Sasori’s fancy! I have heard many rumors about you. Shame I am here on other business, otherwise I would need to ask you to come to tea.”

Jumping backward, Orochimaru rubbed their arm for a moment before dozens upon dozens of snakes broke through the ground in and around Seiko, forcing her to drop the puppet and switch to close range Katon to burn them away.

Turning back to the fight, Seiko found herself punched across the clearing, flying as the sound of crossing blades came from where she once stood.

“... As I was saying; These Genin cannot give you strength. The strength you need to kill Itachi.”

Sasuke yelled at the mention of the name. Seiko slowly picked herself up, face aching as she felt the outside of the Eagle mask. Mask cracked, external pieces chipped or snapped from the impact with the ground, Seiko removed the mask and discarded it to the forest floor. It was only going to get in the way at this point with how damaged it was.

“I can give you this power, and you would be foolish to refuse.”

Seiko stood up and faced the pair. Sasuke was on the defensive, blocking Orochimaru’s slow but pronounced jabs with his much longer sword. A glint of light from the blade and Orochimaru’s next strike separated Sasuke’s blade from its hilt. In his shock, he froze, allowing Orochimaru to close the distance. Before Orochimaru could kick the boy, Sakura appeared on their right flank, fist ready.

“STAY AWAY FROM SASUKE-KUN!”

Fingers cracking, the punch connected, launching the Sannin through the forest and leaving Sakura’s attention to drift back to her further damaged hand.

Seiko ran to the pair, restringing Tokage along the way.

“Sakura, get Kentarō to fix your hand. Sasuke, with me.”

Neither moved, looking at Sakura’s clearly broken hand. Before Seiko could say anything, a laugh reverberated through the forest. All three heads turned to the noise as Orochimaru slowly walked towards them from where they were launched.

“This, I was not expecting! Who are you, young flower? Who has trained you to use such strength?”

The girl paled, momentarily forgetting about her hand as she started to back away. Orochimaru smiled.

“Surely Tsuna’ didn’t run off and have a secret family with some pink haired menace… You must just be a little more interesting than the other fodder. Perhaps you received some training from some blonde woman? Unnaturally young and wise?”

Orochimaru charged at the group, breaking Sakura’s resolve as she started to run back. Playfully, Orochimaru appeared just ahead of her.

“Where are you going? You haven’t answered my question yet.”

Sakura attempted to turn away but the Sannin grabbed her arm turning her back.

“Who are you?”

The girl couldn’t take it, and in a moment, the forest seemed to shift. Vines ripped through the ground, pulling the Sannin away from her. Eyes darkened, Sakura screamed.

“LEAVE ME ALONE!”

Vines poured through the forest floor, inundating Orochimaru in writhing growth, but Sakura was steadily losing whatever focus and energy she was holding up. Seiko and Sasuke arrived just as Sakura passed out, vines continuing to hold even as the Snake Sannin began to shake off the initial shock.

Akio and Kentarō arrived and quickly grabbed Sakura before Orochimaru could escape the bindings leaving the area as Orochimaru refocused back on the remaining pair. A pair of Seiko’s remaining alters arrived in the canopy overlooking the clearing but did not engage immediately after Seiko motioned to them.

“It appears your class is more interesting than I was led to believe. However, I can get your mock Senju later. She’s clearly not as developed as you, Sasuke.”

Freed from the vines, Orochimaru stalked towards the pair.

“Your family is gone. Your teammates, are weak. Your sensei, is weak. Your village; weak. I have defeated every threat your petty alliance has thrown at me. I can make you stronger.”
Orochimaru stopped and stood several meters from the Sasuke and Seiko.

“And now, a little demonstration to seal your interest. My name... is Orochimaru. Seek me out, if you survive.”

Pressing their hands together, index fingers pointing upwards, Orochimaru’s neck began to stretch vertically towards the trees. Seiko’s brain scrambled for a solution, time seemingly slowing down, if only in her perception, to give her even a moment to react.

[I’m gonna have to Kawarimi!]

{WHAT?! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!}

Ignoring Yume’s internal berating, Seiko formed a Tora and held it as she scoped out the surrounding forest. There was nothing large enough to replace with herself.

At least... nothing that wasn’t a person to curse.

Orochimaru’s neck reached its maximum height and began to surge down towards Sasuke’s neck. Halfway down to their mark, Seiko completed the remaining sequence with her left hand while starting another Tora on her right.

I.

Ushi.

Inu.

Mi.

In under the blink of an eye, Seiko materialized where Sasuke once stood, the boy moved several meters away from the scene. Eyes wide and scanning, Seiko identified one of her alters and completed the second sequence as Orochimaru’s bared fangs continued to close in on her, eyes barely beginning to widen in response to the sudden change in target.

I.

Ushi.

Inu.

Mi.

Another portion of Chakra burned out, and Seiko was left teetering on a massive tree branch, Garo puppet clattering to the ground next to her. Orochimaru bit down, not on Sasuke’s or Seiko’s neck, but on the neck of one of Seiko’s remaining clones, now screaming in anguish.

Orochimaru removed their mouth and for a moment stood there silently as the girl in front of him screamed and collapsed to the ground.

Then, she exploded in a cloud of black smoke and flames, launching the Sannin backwards through the forest.

Threat temporarily abated, Seiko jumped down from the tree and ran to Sasuke, screaming orders to her remaining alters to regroup and prepare to leave. The boy was seemingly alright, a little spacey, but rapidly recovering from the shock of Orochimaru’s attempted attack.

Thinking of the devil, Orochimaru reappeared between the two, now focused on Seiko and forcing her to skid to a stop.

“You...”

Before he could continue, a dense wave of concentrated rage stopped everyone.

Turning, Orochimaru could only open their mouth slightly before something flew into him at high speed, small flecks of sand falling from the sky afterwards. In another moment, a glowing orange beast arrived in the clearing, bushy tail slowly waving back and forth, white eyes large and open scanning the clearing. Seiko gulped.

“Sasuke, don’t do anything stupid.”

“Hn?!”

Before the pair could do anything, ‘Naruto’ screamed and prepared his claws. The next moment, a large purple ball collided into him, launching the Jinchūriki back out of the clearing, ripping through several trees before finally exploding in a bright flash. Gaara limped into the clearing from where Orochimaru was thrown, sand armor slowly reforming around his face but looking more beaten than Seiko had ever seen him.

“The woman... or person, did something to Naruto’s seal. I tried waking him up but the influence of the Kyūbi is a little too strong for him to break though entirely. Apologies for not showing up earlier, but we’ve had our hands full.”

Seiko threw up her hands.

“What about Orochimaru?! Are they gone?!”

Gaara stopped, confused, and looked back from where they came, and then looked around the clearing.

“... I believe they ran. Shukaku and I did land some serious hits after we recovered from Naruto’s attack, but I don’t see them anymore. Let’s go see if you can do anything about Naruto.”

Seiko gasped.

“Me?! Are you insane?!”

Gaara shrugged his shoulders.

“You worked on my seal with more pressing circumstances. You can probably undo whatever Orochimaru did.”

Sighing, Seiko relented and joined Gaara as they walked through the forest, eyes darting as they scanned for any sign of a follow-up attack. The rest of their impromptu team followed in slowly, just as wary as they looked for Naruto.

Everyone back together and alters merged back with Seiko, they reached Naruto’s unconscious body in a crater beneath the remains of a now destroyed tree, roots now reaching to the heavens instead of the Earth. Sakura leaned against another tree, exhausted but otherwise fine. Kentarō checked over the boy’s vitals and nodded, signaling everything was apparently fine. Seiko lifted the bottom of the boy’s shirt and took a breath before a much older voice echoed above them.

“Halt!”

Seiko stilled, not moving as she slowly worked to remember the voice of who was speaking without turning suddenly.

“... Mitarashi-san?”

The area was silent.

“What are you doing, Suna-nin?”

Taking a deep breath, Seiko slowly turned her head to look at the older woman. Anko was standing on a branch, flanked by four other proctors. Several branches above that group, a pair of ANBU silently watched on as well.

“I am looking at the seal placed on Uzumaki-San...”

Anko’s eyes narrowed harshly, and she was about to speak again but Seiko cut her off.

“... by Orochimaru, a some time ago.”

The woman’s eyes immediately widened.

“What?! Report, now!”

Seiko opened her mouth, but Sasuke surprisingly spoke up.

“Our team came across another team, from Oto, who was killing off Kohoha teams without trying to complete the exam. This Suna team, later followed by another of their teams, encountered a similar situation, and we decided to put aside our differences to seek out the other Oto team and check on whether they were also murdering Genin.”

“We were moving without issue when a Kusa team arrived and began to fight us. However, only one member of that Kusa team was actually a shinobi and the others were just some form of incredibly powerful clone. We thought we were doing well, but this one Kusa woman was more powerful than a single Genin should be. We...”

Sasuke faltered for a moment, working his way back through the memory of the past hour.

“... We thought we killed her, but she just came back as someone else, out of the ground.”

“They easily defeated all of us, called themselves Orochimaru, and nearly bit me since I was their target.”

At the mention of the attempted bite, Anko appeared next to Sasuke and grabbed the boy, pulling around his collar to get a clear look at his neck. Satisfied, the woman then looked around the boy’s limbs and pulled up the bottom of his shirt to look underneath.

“Can you stop?! I wasn’t bitten!”

“Shut up, kid! This is no longer a Genin-level situation and we need to report this to the Hokage. Immediately. Was anyone else here bit?”

Akio raised his arm, pointing out the mostly healed fang scars from his earlier bite. Anko checked over the boy in the same way she did Sasuke. Satisfied with her search, she took a deep breath and crossed her arms.

“Do you all have enough scrolls to finish the exam?”

A chorus of ‘Yes ma’ams’.

“Head to the center and finish, now. We might need to end the exam early, and I would hate for you to not get credit for finishing.”

Seiko was sure she meant the phrase as a joke, but the dry order had no one laughing.

The proctors disappeared, leaving only one of the two ANBU looking over the group. Sighing at the sudden babysitter, Seiko turned back to Naruto and looked over what Orochimaru had planted on the boy.

Seiko pulled the boys shirt back up and looked over his stomach. The Eight Trigrams Seal was clearly present, distinctive Uzushio seal in the middle standing out. Surrounding the main lines of seal script were additional features written in a sharper and more angular script, centering on five Kanji equidistantly surrounding the central spiral.

The five traditional elements: Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood.

The choice was obviously meant to imbalance the existing seal, being an odd seal applied to an even seal, but the additional text was confounding. It was, at first look, a Chakra suppression seal. However, it was actually a siphon... to the Eight Trigrams Seal.

Perhaps he was trying to release the Kyūbi during the exam? For chaos?

“It looks like Orochimaru applied an additional seal over Naruto’s base seal that is messing with his Keirakukei and his control. I am going to release said seal and we can carry Naruto towards the tower. Hopefully he will wake up before long, so we don’t have to carry him the whole way.”

Sighing, Seiko unsealed her sealing gear and got to work. On the outer edges of Orochimaru’s work, Seiko alternated the counterpoints to each element before connecting them to Orochimaru’s handy work.

Earth and Water to Fire.

Metal and Wood to Earth.

Water and Fire to Metal.

Wood and Earth to Water.

And Fire and Metal to Wood.

Twisting her hand clockwise, Seiko pulled backwards, and the ink of her and Orochimaru’s seals began to mix on the skin, burning off into a dull red with Chakra-laden steam twisting off Naruto’s skin. Seiko gave off a slight sigh before she noticed something else.
The original seal was damaged; ink faded and sketchy on the edges.

Seiko twitched.

[Ohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohno...]

{Hey hey hey! Don’t spiral on me now, you didn’t do this!}

[But what if I did?! They are going to finally put us in prison...]

A hand gripped Seiko’s shoulder, squeezing a shuddering yelp from Seiko as she spun on her heel.

It was Gaara, now confused.

“Seiko-Chan, are you alright? You started muttering under your breath.”

The red-head looked over Naruto’s seal, raising a murmur when he noted the damage on the seal.

“Ah, I see. We should report this to the village, lest they think we are causing trouble.”

Seiko nodded reluctantly.

“You have to back me up when they start asking questions though.”

Gaara smiled, shaking his head.

“Of course, why would I do anything else?”

Raising his hand, he waved over the ANBU left behind when Anko left. A few moments later, the ANBU materialized next to the group.

“Yes?”

Gaara gestured Naruto’s exposed stomach.

“Uzumaki-San’s seal is a little faded, potentially damaged or weakened. The Hokage should be informed of the matter.”

The ANBU looked at Gaara, then looked at Seiko, taking a sudden double take at her unmasked face. Seiko bristled at the sudden lack of professionalism.

“Don’t look at me like that. Orochimaru used a five-element Chakra suppression and destabilization seal. All I used was a counter to that.”

The ANBU sat silent for a moment before nodding, disappearing in a flash of leaves. Seiko let off a shuddering breath she didn’t realize she was holding. Quickly, she unsealed another mask, Keeta, and placed it over her face. Older folks giving her looks was making her uncomfortable, much like it did in her past life.

Gaara chuckled, sand gently lifting Naruto off the ground.

“We should get going now. We still need to find another scroll.”

Seiko shook her head, confused.

“Didn’t Mitarashi-San tell us to go ahead and go to the tower?”

Gaara shrugged.

“I’m in agreement with Kankurō, it would be a little unsporting if we didn’t try to squeeze a scroll out of another team. Besides, we should be able to find another team on the way to the tower.”

The group set off after waking up Sakura from a light nap, Seiko’s nose in the map as Temari and Kankurō took the lead positions. Gaara with Naruto, Seiko, Sasuke, and Sakura took the middle, followed by Akio and Kentarō at the rear.

Seiko peeked out from behind her map. Everyone was a little worse for wear, but Seiko was still concerned about Sasuke. He didn’t have the curse mark, but she knew they weren’t out of the woods, literally and figuratively, yet.

A scream tore through the forest and the group quickly snapped to attention, rushing to follow the noise before anything else could happen.

Seconds later, the group found another clearing, a Genin team split from each other fighting...

...a bear.

A boy with a shredded arm scrambled around a tree as another boy yelled at him from the lower canopy. The source of the scream, a girl with bright red hair, was on the other side of the clearing with a bear slowly crawling toward her.

Seiko looked towards Kankurō.

“Do you want to try holding the bear down with our threads?”

The boy raised his eyebrow before Seiko continued.

“If they can’t handle a bear, I doubt we will have trouble with them, you know?”

The boy shrugged and the two leapt into action, Chakra threads reaching out and binding the bear before it could stomp closer to the redhead. The bear roared and struggled for a moment before Akio arrived and brushed his hands behind the bears ears, shushing it.

The bear roared again but steadily calmed down. The clearing quieted down to the short breaths of the Genin. With a light Genjutsu, Seiko released her hold on the bear and the animal quietly stood back up and meandered out of the clearing. Silence.

The redheaded girl was silent, still sitting on the ground, before turning her head sharply towards the forest. Seiko followed her line of sight and caught the tell-tale movement of something diving into the bushes. Seiko looked back to the girl.

“Are they a threat or are they going to mind their business?”

The girl ripped her head back towards Seiko’s masked visage, confused.

“I, what?”

Sighing, Seiko rolled her shoulders and yelled towards the bushes.

“Are you guys going to come out or what? We are clearly not fighting.”

A few distant swears were heard before a blonde girl emerged from the shrubbery dragging two boys with her. Sakura immediately perked up.

“Ino?!”

The other girl sighed.

“Yes, forehead, it’s me.”

The blonde looked around at the large group of Genin before Shikamaru piped in.

“So, are we not fighting? At all? What’s with the team-up? Can’t handle the exam alone?”

Sakura crossed her arms before Sasuke stormed over to look over the redheaded girl and her teammates that had begun to descend from the trees above. Sharingan bared, Sasuke traced over each of the team before closing his eyes and returning his irises to their natural onyx. Seiko was about to ask the boy what he had done before she noticed their Hitai-ates.

Kusa-nin.

“Ah, well that does change things, thank you, Sasuke-kun.”

The uninjured boy, seemingly the leader of this team, marched over scowling.

“Who the hell do you think you are? Do you think you can fight us?! Do you think us some pushovers?!”

Seiko sighed.

“Obviously. Now...”

The boy drew the sword from his back, scowling, before realizing he was surrounded by two swords and a kunai. The boy’s teammates shrank back rather than backing the boy’s sudden aggression.

“...As I was saying, the situation has changed. We already reported this to the proctors, but an enemy shinobi, or a team of them, infiltrated the exam and began murdering teams from Konoha. Said shinobi was or were disguised as Kusa-nin.”

The boy was quiet for a moment as the words slowly filtered in.

“...Shiore? Shiore’s team?!”

Seiko nodded.

“Yeah, we were ambushed by them earlier and the team you came into the exam with is either dead or missing, which... I am sorry, but they are likely long dead. That being said, we are looking to round out the rest of our scrolls and have some extras we don’t need. We could trade.”

The redheaded girl perked up.

“Shigeri-kun, they could help us with getting a scroll...”

“Shut up, Karin! We can’t trust them!”

The redhead immediately flinched back, eyes closing swiftly. Seiko grabbed the boy by his shoulder, twirling him around and twisting his other hand back to drop his sword.

“Listen here, twerp; I’ve already had enough of your rude ass being ungrateful we both saved you from a bear and didn’t immediately put some puncture wounds in you for whatever scroll you had. Now, I am more concerned for your teammate, who shows more tact than you, and why she was unable to defend herself while showing more situational awareness than you.”

The boy scowled again, but quickly dropped to a quiet whimper when he noticed the expectant eyes of the other Genin around him.

He was smart enough to realize he was surrounded by potential hostiles, at the very least.

“...”

Seiko rolled her eyes behind her mask.

“We can’t hear you, speak up!”

A pause.

“... We have a Heaven Scroll.”

Seiko grunted and removed one of her small storage scrolls. She hovered a moment over the matrix with the Earth Scroll they retrieved from the dead Konoha team before pulling the team’s original Earth Scroll.

Seiko wasn’t going to take a chance with potentially bad luck stemming from a murdered team.

“Here.”

Seiko tossed the scroll to Karin, who frantically caught it after bouncing it between her hands for a little bit. Kentarō smiled and started to approach the injured boy before Seiko cut him off.

“Ken, don’t fully heal him.”

Confused the boy’s grin dropped.

“Why?”

Seiko smiled behind her mask, slowly resuming the group’s path towards the center.

“Because they were rude, obviously. Come on everyone, the Sun is starting to dip and it will make sense to camp. We will be finished tomorrow.”

Karin stood still for a moment before Seiko grabbed her hand.

“Also, we are taking Karin-chan. If you want to complete the exam with a full team, you are going to have to come with us peacefully.”

Shigeri growled lowly before closing his eyes with a grimace.

“Ugh... Fine!”

Camp made in a circle of tightly knit trees Sakura of all people managed to find, the collection of foreign teams prepared a fire and was tending to their camp work. The injured boy, Daisuke, was pleasantly unbothered by the lack of healing, which rubbed Seiko the wrong way.

What kind of Genin team is sent to a Chūnin exams without the drive to actually compete? Without enough training to actually deal with a basic threat like a bear?

Seiko remembered who Karin was... or, rather, who she would become. The girl was timid, but had a drive when given a little supportive push. Unfortunately, said drive was immediately distracted by Sasuke, to which Sakura and Ino initially took offense to before finding conversation elsewhere.

Everyone was civil, which made the camp feel a little more like an outing than a potential deathmatch.

Naruto finally woke up roughly an hour into their camp, yawning and stretching loudly before taking note of their new additions.

“Oh, hey Shikamaru, Chōji. When did you guys get here?”

Shikamaru, naturally, ignored the boy as he continued napping while Chōji was grilling some fish over the campfire.

“We ran across your massive joint team after they found that Kusa team getting attacked by a bear. You’ve been asleep the entire time, but the Suna-nin told us not to bother you. Also, Sakura gave us one of your extra scrolls, so there’s no point for us to run back off into the woods.”

Aware of the boy’s awareness, Seiko appeared next to the boy, launching him away with a yelp.

“How are you feeling, Naruto-kun? Feverish, irritable, confused? Do you hear voices?”

Naruto was quiet before his face neutralized a bit.

“... You are really concerned. Why are you really concerned?!”

Placatingly shaking her hands, Seiko pushed the boy a little further off from the group.

“Just checking in, you know? How much of the fight from earlier do you remember?”

Squeezing his eyes shut, Naruto sat for a moment, swaying back slowly.

“... We got into a fight with that Kusa-nin? But they weren’t a Kusa-nin? It’s a little blurry.”

Seiko nodded.

“Orochimaru hit you with a seal and we lost you for a bit. You were a little feral and attacked anyone who was around, but Gaara was able to distract you for a little while.”

Naruto nodded.

“I didn’t hurt anyone... right?”

Seiko shook her head.

“Not enough to matter. That being said, I did remove the seal Orochimaru put on you. There is also damage to your seal, but I have no idea whether or not that was already there, whether Orochimaru’s seal did it, or if I did it. I’m sorry.”

Seiko hung her head for a few seconds before arms wrapped around her.

“Hey, it’s no big deal, you did your best, you know?”

Pulling back, Naruto looked around.

“So... what’s the deal with the Kusa team? Shikamaru, Chōji, and Ino I get, but it didn’t sound like the Kusa team was with us out of friendship.”

Seiko shrugged.

“I’m kind’ve holding them hostage, don’t think about it too hard.”

Naruto looked over to the small trio sequestered away from the Suna and Konoha teams. Two boys sat together while a girl sat further away, red hair lit and darkened by the fire meters away.

For a moment, Naruto and the girl made eye contact. Suddenly, the girl turned her head away and looked away towards the main entrance to their small encampment, Gaara already standing up and facing the same way. Nothing happened for a few moments, but the girl’s attention soon drew the other Genin, who silently prepared for whatever was coming.

Footsteps, quiet and relaxed, broke the silence of the camp as three shinobi entered the campsite. Leading the trio, behind the reflection of the small fire on their glasses, Kabuto stopped and took in the sight of what would otherwise look like a group of teens and pre-teens on a camping trip.

“Well, this is interesting. Do you guys’ mind if we camp with you?”

Sasuke’s grip tightened on the hilt of his Chokuto, but Shikamaru spoke up.

“What, without any sort of fight?”

Kabuto shrugged.

“Well, you guys aren’t fighting, and we don’t want or need to fight since we already have enough scrolls.”

Kabuto scanned over the group before the confidence left the glint of his eyes. Gaara was already walking towards the white-haired boy, slight smile on his face.

“You wouldn’t happen to have an Earth Scroll, would you? My team and I unfortunately have been unable to find another team with one.”

The pair was silent, the obvious question lingering between them unasked. Both of them were aware of who the other was. The only real question was whether or not a fight was going to happen now or later.

Kabuto smiled.

“We do, in fact, have an extra Earth Scroll. I take it you want the scroll in exchange for our safe camping with you?”

Gaara nodded, nonchalantly smirking himself.

“Naturally. No reason for any of us to fight if we don’t have to. Not to mention, your group looks a little tired, why not rest before we head to the tower tomorrow morning.”

Kabuto’s teammates looked unphased physically, but the threat seemed to fly right over their heads.

Like the release of a partially filled balloon, the tension left the clearing as Kabuto and his veiled teammates began to set up their own camping area away from the fire. The rest of the Genin went back to chatting or eating except for Ino, who made her way across to stand not too far away from Kabuto’s team. With their camp set up, Kabuto noted her waiting.

“Can I help you?”

“You were the guy bragging about intel during the first part of the exams, right? With the info cards? I feel like I saw you earlier.”

Kabuto nodded.

“Where did you get the information for those? Intel like that isn’t exactly common.”

Kabuto shrugged nonchalantly.

“Intel isn’t overtly secretive. People like to talk, and some records are freely available. I mostly work with open records with our sensei. You can ask him more if you are curious.”

Ino crossed her arms, sceptical.

“Who is your sensei?”

Kabuto shook his head with a smile.

“Tomita Jun, in Section Four.”

Ino blinked. Twice.

“Oh... Records?”

The boy nodded.

“Like I said, believe or not, feel free to bother my Sensei about it if you are so curious.”

Momentarily satisfied, Ino walked back to the camp, but Seiko kept her gaze on the older boy. There were no signs of Genjutsu, either projected or placed upon him that she could see. The other two double agents, Seiko couldn’t remember their names since they were minor characters from her past life, were likewise free of external influence.

With their camp set up, the gathering of Genin took in the rest of the evening, momentarily free of the threat of the exams in their camaraderie. With her own team secured behind a few defensive seals, Seiko settled in and allowed herself to decompress.

Tomorrow, they would finish this portion of the exam and move on, likely committing to preliminary fights before breaking away before the finals. But for tonight, Seiko was going to take a breath and move on.

May the gods have mercy on any snake that makes its way into their camp uninvited.

Chapter Text

Not So Fast

[The Forest of Death, 0659-Chūō, July 3rd, Year 63 of the Shinchu-Jidai]

With a fortuitous lack of issues overnight, the platoon of Genin finally made their way to the center of the Forest of Death. There, at the center of a sandy, thinned-out mangrove, stood a massive red tower of clay, wood, and traditional screen walls closer to the top. With the crossing of the threshold from forest floor to an elevated series of boardwalks, the Genin were washed over with the subtle pressure of a barrier Jutsu as proctors appeared just ahead of the group.

“Separate with your team and enter the gate that matches the gate you entered from.”

Hesitantly, the Genin parted ways, some saying their goodbyes as they made their way towards different parts of the tower’s lowest layer. Seiko, Kentarō, and Akio walked around the base until they found their respective gate, marked by a bright white circle framing the vertical numbers two, ten, and four, arranged vertically in a dull red.

Before the trio could proceed, the door opened, revealing an irritated Junko.

“You three were supposed to be here before nightfall.”

Looking to one another, Seiko sheepishly responded for the team, realizing word must have already spread about Orochimaru’s attack.

“It wasn’t exactly safe for us to just run to the center when we were still worried about a follow-up attack. We did stick with Gaara’s team, so it’s not like we were defenseless.”

Junko sucked in a breath and squeezed her nose.

“Inside, now.”

The team quickly followed Junko inside of the chamber just beyond the gate. The room was bare, the only notable things being a poem written on the far wall beneath the hum of a few electric lights and an already opened hidden door in the wall, revealing a lit hallway deeper into the tower.

The door closed behind them, Junko looked at Seiko expectantly. When Seiko didn’t immediately respond, confused as she was, Junko sighed again, whispering quickly.

“Can you see any Genjutsus placed on this room? I don’t want to try my luck on the rooms upstairs since they are likely bugged or listened in on already.”

Seiko did a cursory glance of the room, finding nothing but the solid walls, poem, and opened passageway.

“I don’t think there is anything unless someone is behind the walls...”

“Great. And there is no one else to worry about for now, the closest person aside from us is thirteen meters away, so we should be fine.”

Walking to the center of the room, Junko spun around and dropped to a sitting position with the silent candor of an overworked parent.

“What happened out there? I was minding my own business with the other Senseis in the Jōnin lounge yesterday when suddenly we all felt weak Bijū rage, not once, but twice! And then the proctors were gone for most of the evening and were talking about having to recover bodies!”

Seiko and the boys steadily recounted their version of events, as well as what they managed to gleam from Team Seven. Junko was quiet for a few moments after they finished.

“... We might need to worry about the plan being compromised.”

The Genin echoed a confused 'what' before Junko shushed them.

“Two Suna teams were seen being friendly towards three Konoha teams and a Kusa team after a separate Kusa team was killed and impersonated. Ninja are horrible gossips and the word has already spread.”

The Genin were silent again before Seiko lightly prodded.

“There were only two Konoha teams.”

The other three members of Shi-Butai looked to her expectantly. Seiko sighed.

“The last team that joined us was led by the same agent that was part of the attack on Suna a year and a half ago. They are also impersonating a Genin, since they were good enough to hold up against Gaara and I by himself back then.”

Junko facepalmed.

“You really do know how to hold on to important information well beyond necessity, don’tcha?”

With another sigh, Junko clapped her hands on her thighs.

“Alright, here’s what we are going to do. We proceed as planned unless Baki says otherwise. Once we get up to the rooms, keep quiet about any plans and focus on any training you can manage in your rooms. There is a dojo on the fourth floor with the rest of the Genin rooms, but it's not reinforced for intense jutsu, so watch it. Got it?”

The Genin nodded quickly, finding no issue with keeping course. Standing, Junko led the team through the hidden hallway, closing the door behind them and beginning the climb up to the fourth floor.

Halfway up, the team was stopped by a proctor, asking for the unopened scrolls. Seiko swiftly unsealed and handed off their scrolls, but the proctor noticed they had not been opened.

“Hey, they were supposed to summon you down!”

Junko stared down the man, waiting for him to shrink back from her scrutiny.

“My Genin survived having to put up with your most infamous Nuke-Nin. I believe they are owed a finish on understanding. Besides, they followed the instructions given at the start and survived several fights. The survival challenge was child’s play for them.”

The proctor nodded, moving out of the way as the team continued up the stairs.

“Tree-huggers and their lack of pragmatism... Anyways, we have another two days before this phase is officially over. Use your time wisely and prepare for any possible changes, since everything is a bit in the air. Got it?”

“Hai!”

...

Dull thuds echoed through the room as Sasuke pummeled his arms and legs against a set of Makiwara. The boy appeared cold and detached, but the glancing blows and huffs of breath betrayed his lack of calm.

Once again, he wasn’t strong enough. Hell, none of them were. The last day had looped for Sasuke time and time again, each detail recorded by his Sharingan in blinding clarity.

Orochimaru toyed with their entire little army of Genin. Each member decisively dealt with without so much as a bead of sweat from the Snake’s head, even if they did grunt and scowl and were forced to deal with taking some attacks.

Even though Seiko pulled off whatever Kawarimi she used to save Sasuke, along with whatever incredulous nonsense Sakura pulled off to try the same, Sasuke was just as vulnerable as he was...

Sasuke blinked.

Had it already nearly been five years? Five years of uncompromising training and a dedication to defeating The Traitor and for what?

Sasuke was weak, and worse, Kakashi was turning out to be more right than he was expecting.

Despite everything, the team had made him stronger. Even Sakura’s improvement was proof of that.

Speaking of the Rosette, Sasuke turned and looked over the training room until he found the girl, sitting on some barrels against the wall and halfway through a second Bento.

“Sakura.”

The girl looked up, mouth full of food as she chewed for a few seconds before swallowing and responding to the boy.

“Y-yes, Sasuke-kun?”

Sasuke took in a deep breath before he approached her, preparing to ruffle feathers.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone you were Senju?”

Predictably, the girl’s face quickly went from pale confusion to blushed anger.

“I am not a Senju! I am Haruno, you know this. My family history is not complicated.”

“Then what was...”

“Don’t. I don’t know what that was, I barely even remember what that was. All I know is that I lost a lot of Chakra and passed out. We will probably no more in a few weeks.”

Sasuke nodded.

“Is that why you ate two bentos?”

Sakura laughed, turning away as her cheeks flared.

“Five, actually. I had to eat three when we first got pulled away to get assessed since I was so drained, but I was still hungry, so I got some more. Oh, speaking of which...”

Sakura reached over to her pile of bags and pulled out another bento, still covered.

“I got you one too since you haven’t eaten since breakfast.”

“Hn.”

Sasuke took the bento with a nod and took a seat next to Sakura. Opening the top, the sudden aroma of tangy sauces and steamed veggies had Sasuke’s stomach growling. He needed to recenter himself; he was clearly losing focus on his well-being if he wasn't keeping track of his hunger.

The pair ate in silence for a few minutes before Sakura finished her bento and began to gather her things to take back to the galley down the hall. She stopped short of standing up and leaving though.

“Naruto is likely going to be a while; the Hokage personally left with him when we were split up to be looked at, so if you want to spar you are going to settle for me of one of the other Genin if they come walking in here.”

Sasuke nodded, but didn’t say anything. Sakura began to walk away with her boxes.

“Sakura.”

The girl turned halfway around to look back at Sasuke.

“Weapons or hand-to-hand?”

The remaining days dragged along but were over fast enough. From Seiko’s observations, most of the contender teams got through fine enough. Naruto was shockingly absent the first day, but his noise was immediately back the following day. Karin’s team was largely absent, though the girl made the effort to be seen around the tower away from her teammates and not held up in their room.

During lunch the day after Seiko’s team arrived, Gai’s Team arrived to the shock of having been beaten to the finish by not one, but two other Konoha teams. Two of the Ame teams arrived a few hours later, clearly working together following some serious fighting given the state of one of their Genin.

The final day of the exam saw the last teams arrive through to mid-afternoon. Hinata, Kiba, and Shino arrived in the morning, followed a few hours later by a Suna team, seemingly the only successful group outside of Seiko and Gaara’s team. Finally, right before dinner was set to start, the last Oto team arrived, their demeanor cold and biting in their rough reception.

The other Oto team’s exploits had already spread in the previous days, leaving no room for their countrymen to excuse the murders that had taken place.
With the last of the successful teams present, half of the proctors departed the tower to collect the losers while a bandana-ed Jōnin took point on a crate to speak to the Genin as they ate.

“Apologies for the change in proctors, but Mitarashi-San was called on a separate case that needed to be addressed. My name is Gekkō Hayate. There have been some *cough* issues, regarding the second phase and it is with a heavy heart that I must announce that there have been several fatalities.”

Removing a sheet of paper from their flak, the man gave out another cough before reading from the listing.

“Of thirteen teams, Konoha has five that completed the second phase and 4 that were killed in their entirety. Of five teams, Suna has three that passed. Of five teams, Ame has two teams that *cough* passed. Of two teams each, Kusa and Oto have only one team each that passed and one team each that were killed. This brings our total number of finishing teams to twelve.”

Putting away the paper, Hayate looked forward, eyes half-lidded and seemingly uncaring for the situation beyond the current moment.

“Tomorrow, each team will be assessed for medical viability by our staff prior to lunch before a determination is made.”

A few confused murmurs were quickly silenced with the raising of Hayate’s right hand.

“As teams, you all have passed the second phase of this year’s Invitational. However, despite adjustments to the size of our *cough* final phase, there are still too many of you. Starting tomorrow afternoon, we will have a preliminary knockout tournament to reduce the thirty-six of you down to sixteen finalists.”

Kiba loudly complained before Hayate snapped at the boy.