"Hokage-sama, may I speak with you?"
Tsunade squinted at the man in her office suspiciously. Why was he acting polite? That bastard was never polite. Was something wrong?
"If you don't have coffee, don't bring me any problems," she warned sternly, jerking her head at the door in an indication for him to shut it behind him. Unease stirred in her gut when Hatake meekly slunk in and waited for her to invite him to speak. That really was odd behavior for him. Normally, he was a swinging pendulum between apathy and sassiness, which was a large part of why he was one of her favorites. Hatake-kun was entertaining. "Is something wrong?" she finally settled.
The man looked a little sheepish. "You know, I'm not entirely certain," he admitted honestly. "It's about Aiko. I don't know what you have her doing, and I know that you probably won't tell me. But I am also relatively certain that if you'd seen her lately you would give her a break."
Thoughtlessly, she opened her mouth to scowl and tell the idiot that Aiko had just had a week off, and- and she froze, considering the repercussions of that line of thought. Hatake was a little overprotective, yes, but he wasn't irrational or blind. If Aiko had been able to relax at all, he wouldn't be bringing his concerns to her.
'But she's also not an idiot. She wouldn't over work herself for no good reason,' Tsunade mused, considering all the options although she was already certain she knew what had happened. If her suspicions were correct, it would also explain one of the petitions on her desk that she'd been frankly baffled by.
'The girl made it into Root already. Danzo knew that I had her on leave, so he knew it would be safe to use her as an operative because there would be no time conflicts. That's why she's worn down.'
The conclusion was carefully hidden behind a veneer of mild concern. "I see. What exactly has been unusual lately?" The expression of concern wasn't entirely a lie. She had given Aiko time off because the girl needed it in preparation for the upcoming stresses. No matter how talented and intelligent she was, Aiko was human—and worse, a teenager in a delicate developmental stage. She needed rest, both physical and mental to perform optimally and continue to grow.
"Well…" Kakashi-kun shifted uncomfortably. "She's constantly sleep-deprived, forgetful and occasionally late to practice, as well as experiencing what seem to a wide array of mood swings."
Pretty standard stress stuff, really. There was probably a story behind the way that Kakashi-kun compulsively shoved his hands into his pockets like the air was lava, but she chose to pursue another line of thought.
'That means Danzo is risking one of my most promising shinobi, and probably on stupid, unimportant crap. That bastard.'
No wonder he'd disagreed with Sarutobi-sensei on everything. There was no damn sense in working your people until they broke. It was both cruel and inefficient. The obvious solution would be to give Aiko time off again. But… 'If I do that, that moron will just take it as leave to send her on his fake missions again. She'll get no rest within village walls.'
The next best thing would be to give her time to relax outside of the village, where Danzo couldn't get to her even if she were to use Hiraishin. That meant posted with a small unit who would keep an eye on her at all times so she could honestly say there had been no way to report in. Finally, in order for the mission to be relaxing at all, it had to be well below what would tax her. Surely she could find something that Aiko could complete easily, that would take at least several days of travel, and give her team orders to complete a side mission or something that would require them to rest in the lap of luxury of a hotel somewhere for a few days.
Irritating about the timing, however. She'd had plans for that team, and Kakashi absolutely could not be spared. Who else could go with Aiko? Certainly not that Sai boy, if the point was to give her a break from the stresses of Root. It would preferably be a group she was already comfortable with.
"Thank you for bringing me your concerns, Kakashi-kun," she praised warmly, knowing that whenever the man in front of her managed to express something in a normal, human way, it was the result of a lot of effort.
Tsunade froze, suddenly making a connection to a small mystery and having to put a hand to her mouth to hide her amusement. "Of course," she added smoothly like the statement had been planned all along, "you don't have to pretend to me that you haven't been snooping around. I bet you found her ANBU assignment, didn't you?" At his sheepish slump, she knew she'd hit paydirt. "And that would be why you attempted to tell her that you were still paying attention to her worklife and that she was free to talk to you about it by hinting you knew her cover identity," she drawled, stifling snickers.
Really, it was adorable that he tried so hard to protect his subordinates, but she couldn't help but giggle at just how clueless and needlessly circumspect he was at times. Of course Aiko hadn't figured out what he'd meant by that damn hair pin that matched her mask. Kakashi was insanely paranoid and forgot that others didn't spend all their time playing silent mind games.
Aiko could hardly be blamed for failing to track his thought patterns and discern what he'd meant by his silent (and anonymous) show of support. The boy was an absolute lunatic. Damn good shinobi, though.
'And apparently a good, concerned leader,' she mused, letting herself smile. "How does giving her a nice, long mission well below her capabilities sound?"
Kakashi frowned at the concession, apparently thinking that she should just give the girl time off. Tsunade didn't blame him for the thought. It did seem a bit stingy without the contextual knowledge she had. Still, he didn't protest, knowing that she was taking him seriously enough to give Aiko a much less stressful assignment. "Thank you, Hokage-sama," he murmured, giving an unusually respectful bow.
"Oh, don't thank me just yet," she sighed, cracking her neck. "You're not going with her."
At that, her soldier looked a bit mutinous.
"I just can't spare you for that long," Tsunade explained gently. "I have something only you can do just right. Still, if it would make you feel better, you can choose Aiko's team leader."
"Tenzou," Kakashi replied without even having to think.
'Good. That was who I hoped for.'
"Very good then," the Hokage allowed. "I'll find them a mission today. Actually," she mused, "I don't think I'll move them around too much. Tenzou will be leading team seven."
He seemed to be just fine with that idea.
After Kakashi-kun left her office, Tsunade began shuffling around missions requests to find something suitable. Whatever it was had to be a real mission, of course, both so that it wasn't a waste of resources and because Danzo might smell a rat if Aiko was given a four day trip to the spa.
'If I send them on something like a tracking mission, Yamato and the boys can take the offensive and let Aiko fall back when it comes to the combat,' Tsunade mused, examining all the missions that would require extensive hunting. Aiko might like going back to her roots.
Luckily, there was no one else in the office to see the Hokage lightly slap her own head in punishment for that unintentional but awful pun.
"Well, I wasn't planning on sending anyone out on this mission just yet…" Tsunade narrowed her eyes at a mission request. It was an unusual one, mainly because it was a request from Suna to hunt down a missing ninja in Wind Country.
"In terms of combat, that would be a good-match up," she thought aloud, cracking the joints in her fingers. "All three of those boys are well-prepared to smash the living hell out of puppets."
The thought was almost nostalgic. She hadn't had the pleasure of seeing a puppet master's face bulge when she casually ripped apart their precious baby like it was made of balsa wood in years. Strangely longing, she gave a heavy sigh and marked the assignment. Sasuke would probably enjoy it, at least, and that would have to be enough.
"Well, that's taken care of," she said to the room at large, tossing the missions roster back down and leafing through her 'in' pile for something else. When she found it, she licked her lips and settled back to re-read it, this time with the hypothesis that Danzo had actually been the one to push this agenda through a puppet or ally to keep his name away from it. "Has to be," she murmured, tapping her index finger against the first page of the document and turning her gaze up to the ceiling to think.
Her knee-jerk reaction was to deny any agenda that Danzo pushed. This move wasn't the pleasing but baffling charity she'd first thought it was when the document landed on her desk. Strangely, she was actually a little disappointed that there was an agenda behind this, because the argument disguising that agenda was one she was very sympathetic to.
'But it does make a lot more sense that someone would suddenly pick up the Uzumaki clan's case because they wanted an ear in the small council to replace the elders,' Tsunade allowed with a hint of bitterness.
It brought up some cogent points. Firstly, though the Uzumaki had never been a clan in Konoha, they had been a clan for so long that it was a bit insulting to treat them as a first generation new-comer. The argument followed the line of thought that Konoha had already recognized the Uzumaki as a clan in the days of its founding, and since that had never been rescinded, the Uzumaki were technically as old as the Uchiha or Senju. The clan had been an ally of their village for so long, the paper argued, that having Aiko on the large council was an insult to a group that Konoha still supposedly valued enough to have memorialized on their flak jackets.
Whatever message putting the Uzumaki head on the large council sent could only be a negative one. 'It's only because your relatives were slaughtered en masse when we didn't get there in time to help that we feel confident treating you like second class citizens,' Tsunade mocked internally, imagining Aiko's face in those boring meetings. 'Don't take it too personally.'
It wasn't as if the Uzumaki had never done anything for Konoha, or were new to Fire Country. Tsunade's grandmother had been an Uzumaki, as had several other scattered in-laws in the Senju family tree.
Tsunade hit herself again, hoping that a mild bit of pain would jar her away from making puns like that. Honestly, the Senju family tree…
She shook her head to clear the thought. "Well, Aiko would definitely not be pleased," Tsunade had to acknowledge in the sake of fairness. But then again, she was a grumpy little thing and the Hokage's office just didn't have the luxury of considering a soldier's comfort in every decision. Politically speaking, she didn't see a good way to reject this proposal without marring either her or Konoha's reputation for impartiality and valuing allies. When this mission was over, she could appoint a representative or something.
Speaking of representatives… "Well, she's only supposed to be in Mist one more time this week," Tsunade sighed. It wasn't perfect, but Aiko was just going to have to Hiraishin to that meeting, because it was too late to send someone else to Mist in time. She'd schedule a stop.
'Why am I here when I could be doing reading about Academy enrollment and graduation?' Aiko groused silently, thinking of the papers in her hip pouch ready to be perused.
Not that she was particularly eager for that scintillating read, of course, but it had to be done. She had already met with her committee yesterday, and the preliminary discussions they'd had there had made her think of something else that she hadn't properly investigated. All she really knew so far was that it seemed there really was a problem in terms of their standing military force. That was a problem she didn't mind looking into, to be frank.
Instead, here she was getting briefed on a mission that would interfere with her long-standing assignment of diplomatic duties to Mist and Nadeshiko. Great joy.
At least her role was small, and the missing nin they were hunting down as a favor to Gaara (who was still ridiculously understaffed) didn't seem to be particularly imposing. The profile hadn't exactly endeared her to the man, but she thought that she could get into his head well enough to track him.
"I don't see why we have to hurry and leave the village in order to spend a night in the first town outside Fire Country," Naruto verbalized, sounding like he was actually half-hoping for an answer.
He didn't get one.
"Too bad, maybe when you're Hokage you'll get to know all the inane details," Tsunade taunted.
Naruto reddened, face instantly contorting into a pout. He stuck his tongue out at her—and then gagged when Sasuke casually crinkled and shoved his copy of the mission report in Naruto's open mouth.
"Show some respect, jackass. If you want to be Hokage so badly, you should respect the office."
"Thank you for defending my honour, fair prince," Tsunade added wryly, ignoring the rude one-handed gesture Sasuke made at her for implying that he was trying to help her out.
'I just can't deal with this shit right now. I'm mentally powering down. Yamato can cope with them or not, I don't care anymore.'
She went directly to the gate to wait. Her packing was all done—tags prepared in advance either tucked in with her weapons or used as bookmarks in one of the notebooks in her little decoy knapsack.
Her teammates were not nearly so prepared, so it was another half an hour until they set off, and after dark when they finally reached their hotel.
"Aiko, you'll be rooming with me. Boys, you're next door." Yamato nodded at the adjacent room, doing a valiant job of pretending not to see them mocking him through hand gestures. A half-second later, Naruto's eyes narrowed into a suspicious glare at the older man. Their temporary captain met his gaze mildly, as if totally unaffected by the hostility.
Naruto broke eye contact first. "Alright then, Captain Yamato. See you in the morning."
'Please tell me he's not going to turn into the over protective brother cliché. That would suck.'
Aiko didn't comment, however. "Goodnight, boys." When the door closed behind them, she gave Yamato a questioning look.
There was excellent rationale behind this arrangement, in terms of combat. Naruto and Sasuke worked very well together. But traditionally, when there were two Jounin and two lower level shinobi on a team, they would split with a Jounin in each group.
It wasn't as though it mattered. In the right circumstances, both Naruto and Sasuke were at least Special Jounin in terms of offensive skill. They could handle about anything that could be thrown at them in the two seconds it would take Yamato and Aiko to come to their side.
Yamato seemed to ignore her nonverbal cues as well. Now that was odd. "Yamato?" she prodded, slightly curious. "May I ask what that was about?"
Her docile tone seemed to throw him for a loop. Those pretty brown eyes blinked at her twice before he dropped his bag onto his bed and turned his face up contemplatively, scratching at his chin. "Well," he began thoughtfully, "Naruto and Sasuke bicker a lot, but they actually make an excellent team. But more importantly, I've been gently threatened by Kakashi-senpai to make sure that you don't get overtaxed on this mission."
"Gently threatened," Aiko repeated dumbly, not quite computing.
Yamato gave a contemplative hum. "Yes, he seems to believe that you've been stressed lately, but found that arranging a relaxing mission and telling me it was my head on the line was easier than walking up to you and asking if something was wrong."
The only sound in the room was her groan, followed by the slap of the flesh of her palm against her forehead.
"Yes," her temporary captain agreed sympathetically, "So get to sleep." He gave a sigh, and in a lower tone confided, "I don't think anyone has ever had to babysit a Jounin before."
Aiko threw a pillow at him.
As soon as she got it back, she went to sleep. First thing in the morning, she was expected in Mist to argue over how many aides each representative should be allowed to bring, and who those representatives should be. Ugh, politics.
She didn't know what lies Yamato had told the boys in order to keep them busy in that border town in Wind Country for so long, but when she came back from her meeting with Mist, it was to Yamato sitting in their hotel room reading another one of those awful looking texts on architecture.
"That was faster than I expected." Gently, the book was shut and tucked away. "Have a nice trip?"
Aiko gave him a mildly disbelieving look. "Yes, it was the vacation I'd dreamed of. The Mizukage and I painted each others' toenails and talked about boys."
He pouted. "I was just being polite," Yamato grumbled, cheeks pink. "There was no call for that. You really are in a bad mood lately."
She let her shoulders slump, feeling a little guilty. "I'm sorry," Aiko apologized. "I shouldn't sass you quite so much. You do need sassed, but not because I'm in a temper. Only when it's really funny or you deserve it."
The look she got in return for that crappy apology was dry. "Charming." He left it at that.
Duty done, she cleared her throat. "So, ah, are we going to leave?"
"The boys are scouting for signs of our target," Yamato informed distractedly, taking out a kunai and beginning to play with it, balancing it on the tip of a finger. She gave him an odd look.
"But neither of them have any idea of what to look for."
'I don't think either one of them has a single qualification as a tracker. What are they doing, going around asking if the locals have seen a missing nin?'
"Hmm… That's right, they don't," her captain said in a very unconvincing tone of realization. "I guess you'll just have to take a nap or run to the spa or something while we wait for them to report."
For the first time out of combat, she looked at Yamato with a bit of admiration. "That's evil," Aiko informed him. "You just don't want to tell them that this isn't a real mission, do you?"
"It is a real mission," Yamato protested, putting away the short blade and turning mournful puppy eyes on her. "It just isn't expected to be particularly difficult or time sensitive. Tsunade-sama wasn't planning on sending anyone for a week." He paused, before adding, "Nor do we actually have any information indicating the target will even be in the area yet. Tsunade-sama thinks that we'll find him heading for a certain ruin in Wind Country, but admits that he might not even be going there yet." The man shrugged, as if it didn't matter to him either way.
"So, you really are babysitting me." She cringed. "I get the message, Kakashi," Aiko grumbled under her breath while Yamato watched with poorly hidden amusement. "I will take a nap and do my best to get my head in order to make this doesn't happen ever again."
As infantile as it made her feel, laying down for a nap and catching up on missed sleep did make her feel immensely better. She woke up twice on her own and merely went back to sleep without checking the time. Someone would wake her if it was actually important.
Apparently, that time when it was important came at about eight in the evening, when her captain meandered back into the room and quietly set a plate of chicken and vegetables on the table by the head of her bed.
The unusually close proximity startled her into alertness, heart thumping and her body already moving to scramble away. Yamato gave her a surprised look at the way she was huddled in the blankets on the opposite side of the bed. "Those are some lethal reflexes, there," he commented a bit mockingly before turning away. "Dinner."
"Yes, thank you," she replied automatically. When he closed the hotel door behind him with a click, she drew her knees up to her chest and squeezed her eyes shut.
'Danzo had his claws in a lot of people at one time or another, didn't he?' Lightheaded, she gave a reproachful glare to her dinner, as if it was to blame for Yamato coming close enough for her to pick up on that chakra she was really beginning to despise.
Learning that Yamato had been one of Root's tools at one point wasn't even shocking, though it was a bit upsetting.
She'd had time to think on how Danzo must have gotten a hold of Kakashi. It had probably been when he was about fourteen, after Minato had died. Kakashi had lacked any sort of support structure, no one was around to display overmuch interest in his comings and goings, and he was definitely vulnerable to manipulation centered around his duty to the village and how to protect the people in it. God only knows the man had a poorly hidden tendency towards self-flagellation.
Kakashi, and others like him including Yamato, had probably been recruited into Root under the impression that it was simply a legitimate expansion of ANBU operations. By the time they realized anything was wrong, they were already sealed and could not admit their illegal activities under Danzo's orders. It would be possible to simply stop reporting to the man. If you were visible like either of them and Danzo didn't see the operative as a threat, he would just let them recede back into the regular corps with their time in his organization as a black mark on their conscience that couldn't ever be assuaged.
It was nastily efficient, and it really shouldn't surprise her to find out that any individual who had been put into black operations at a young age had been recruited. Danzo liked his operatives young and strong.
'But he probably doesn't want them particularly youthful.' Aiko cracked an ironic smile, reaching for her chopsticks and setting her eyes on the broccoli on her plate. 'I suppose I could check on Gai-san and anyone else I know who moved up in the ranks quickly. I only need to be within a few feet to find out for myself.'
That was a little close to be casual, to be honest. But on a busy street or in a restaurant, it could be passed off as coincidence that she brushed nearby.
'I'll just have to keep a mental list. This is one way to pick up on his infrastructure, I guess.'
It could have been worse than finding out that half the people in her life had been used by Danzo. Waking up to the feeling of Danzo's chakra had been a pants-wettingly scary experience. She really didn't want to think of him hanging out by her bedside. It was much better for it to be Yamato.
'Although…' She bit her lower lip and looked down at the tacky floral bedspread. 'I have no idea what kind of consequences having that seal for years could have. Or worse… what consequences there could be for having it after Danzo is dead. Does he have a successor? I doubt it. Having someone set up to take the reins is usually the best way to encourage someone to think about inheriting prematurely, and he's far too controlling to share power when he doesn't have to. On the other hand, he does genuinely think that what he's doing is best for Konoha, and he might not want for it all to be lost. The seals could redirect their loyalty to someone else… or just kill everyone holding it to protect his posthumous reputation.'
A shiver went up her spine.
'It's not like I can walk up to Kakashi and offer to remove his seal. He'd know I was involved with Root. But I have to get those off of anyone I care about before the end.'
At least Naruto and Sasuke were out of Danzo's reach, protected by the Hokage's personal interest. Tsunade would definitely notice anything that happened with them.
Besides, Aiko was watching too, with a much better view of all parties. 'If Danzo is stupid enough to try to recruit the boys, I'll fucking kill him. He should know better than to try to touch Naruto. He'd die screaming if he did.'
Author's Note
Fair warning, everyone. I'm covering movie territory next chapter, though I think in a much more plot relevant way. If you don't think I can make a movie entertaining for you, then don't read the next chapter, and you should probably be prepared to skim the next one. You will be missing character development, but I know that there are people who rabidly despise those texts. No comments about not liking the movies, please. It won't make a difference. That's why this chapter is on the short side, and there is no difference between ff and AO3 for this chapter.
Just a reminder: Aiko knows only what I did at the time that I began writing this story. I have done a considerable amount of catching up and research to continue writing, but none of that is reflected in her perspective. I've been giving hints as to what she knows and that there are holes in what she thinks is fact, but she hasn't yet been confronted with something completely outside of the bounds of what she knows.
She's going to freak the fuck out.
Actually, on another note, I have two additions of interest on my profile. I have gotten some more amazing fanart that you might want to look at. I've also added a more detailed explanation of the difference between AO3 Vapors and this version to try to answer questions.
One more thing—on Kakashi and Yamato being in root, since I keep getting questions: I didn't make that up, actually.
For anyone who is interested, here's a preview into the next chapter. It'll spoil which movie we're looking at, for those who are familiar with them, but I thought it might be nice to offer supplementary material.
"If I were a third-rate puppet master, where would I be," Aiko mused, flicking through the personality profile she'd been given as part of her mission materials. Sasuke lifted his head to give her a doleful stare, then drooped again.
The boys were bored senseless by this sort of mental exercise, but she actually found it invigorating.
'They'll just have to cope until they get a chance to smash Mukade's face in.'
Her lips twitched. It probably wasn't fair to relegate them to the mindless muscle of the operation. Not having training in her specific niche of the shinobi arts didn't make either of them stupid, and tracking this way didn't appeal to everyone.
Almost any shinobi worth their salt could follow a trail once they'd been close to their target, through observation of the terrain. But the cold hard logic and mind games of attempting to access the mindset and goals of a stranger was something that didn't appeal to everyone.
Aiko loved it. It was like a puzzle, only she got to stomp in faces when she was inevitably right.
Mukade was a Chuunin from Sunagakure, one known more for his attempts at innovation than his power. He might have done better in another village, one that relied less heavily on very specific, almost ritualistic habits in order to maintain their bare existence. When all attention was turned to survival, it was hard to care about people with big dreams.
'With ambitions like that, he's probably prideful.' Aiko blew out a puff of air, re-examining the attempted reforms he'd tried to push from a low level political position. 'Probably all burnt up on the inside that he never managed to get enough influence to push his agendas, and never had the sheer power to force the issue.'
It was hard to see what of those two varying goals he would pursue, if it weren't for the fact that he appeared to be a total loner. Once ejected from Sunagakure, he had no chance of legitimately gaining power, and lacked the inclination to make friends.
He would go in search of physical power, likely in the form of some augmentation or tool. Mukade would have to start all over again from scratch if he intended to gain considerable strength through taijutsu, genjutsu, or ninjutsu. He was far too old for that, in his late thirties.
'He's a puppet master.' Aiko slumped at the thought of dealing with another of those asshats. 'He's going to want to control more puppets. He'll want to get raw materials, more chakra, and refine his control.'
There would be no point in building dozens of new puppets before he had the augmented ability to control them. They would just be luggage.
"Yamato, do you know of any items that augment chakra capacity?"
The team captain blinked, scrunching his face contemplatively. "Well, no. Other than a bijuu." He continued over Naruto's muttered, 'A bijuu isn't an item'. "But there a location in the northwest portion of Wind Country famous… Notorious, really," he corrected as an afterthought, "for its position over a subterranean vein of natural chakra."
"Natural chakra?" Naruto perked up, looking interested. "Like what toads use, and you turn to rocks if you do it wrong?"
Yamato gave him a mildly baffled look. "No idea what you're talking about, but yes. Natural chakra. In past years, there used to be a group of women who were capable of interacting with it safely. They used it to power a city on the location, and made it very wealthy." He shrugged. "Supposedly, it was a genetic inheritance, but that could have just been a ploy to keep power in their hands. It seems more likely that the ability was a result of specific training, but it's always possible that they were telling the truth."