"Shinobi-san, I don't have anything to tell you." The woman's green eyes were flat, but she couldn't quite control the hardness in the set of her mouth. Her sandaled feet were spread to shoulder-width from where they poked out from under her long tan kimono. "The only problem we had was with bandits, and that was a long time ago. You're not going to find your criminals here."
Kurenai let her brow wrinkle slightly in concern, looking friendly and relatable. But the civilian wasn't buying it.
"Am I free to go?"
Kakashi might have slumped slightly, as the fifth consecutive interview completely failed. The blonde civilian readjusted the green bag over her shoulder as she left, fingers white. She completely failed at subtly craning her head to see if the shinobi she'd just left were still watching. Naruto gave a wave. She jerked around and clattered away a little faster.
The staring was rude, but in her defense, many of the people out and about on the cobblestone street were glancing nervously in their direction.
'Coming in as a group was a mistake.' He repressed the urge to sigh—or worse, pinch his nose shut. Signaling that he thought this town was malodorous wouldn't help the negative impression that anyone here had of shinobi.
"Well, I for one am convinced," Naruto lied brightly, rubbing his fingers on the side of his pants. "None of this is remotely suspicious."
Kiba managed to give him a condescending look, despite being roughly the shade of the inside of papaya. His tan had gained a strangely yellow undertone, with hints of green.
Kakashi was wholly sympathetic. No one was enjoying the atmosphere, but it was hardest for those with dog-like senses but wholly human sensibilities. (He definitely did not turn to glare at Akamaru's obnoxious doggy grin and wagging tail. Being jealous of a dog was a little pathetic.)
Hinata nodded, frowning. Her voice was barely audible over the ebbing clamor of a moderately busy street in a small town. "She was lying. But she didn't seem frightened. I can't think of any other reason that so many people would want to protect Akatsuki members, unless they think they're being watched. Maybe Akatsuki weren't here, and the secret the townspeople are keeping is unrelated?"
A breeze of stiff, hot air buffeted the group, tugging on hair and loose clothes. Kurenai seemed to deflate with a sigh, her mouth twisting. She knew as well as he did that this method of approach was not working.
"Hinata."
No further explanation was needed.
The girl nodded, pale eyes searching out a promising target. "I will meet you outside of the boundaries. Shino, may I have a kikai insect to lead me back to you?"
A tiny black dot was already attaching itself to her back, crawling up her neck into her hair. Hinata was totally unfazed, apparently not even noticing that Naruto's jaw had dropped in disgust. Shino certainly noticed, judging by his stiff neck.
Kakashi approved of the tactic. Civilians often found shinobi to be intimidating, especially foreign ones. Where the official avenues met with resistance, a pretty and soft-spoken girl might soothe egos and nerves. It was certainly preferable to their other option—harsher interrogation tactics.
"We're going to leave her alone?" Sasuke asked in an undertone, disapproval turning his words sharp. Kiba gave him a look that was both approving and pitying.
It was Shino who clued in him. "There is no need for concern," he assured tonelessly. "If she requires assistance, Hinata will alert us with a subtle signal."
"He means that we'll hear the townspeople screaming and fleeing town to escape the snakes," Kiba explained more bluntly. The Hyuuga blushed slightly, a hand over her mouth bashfully.
Naruto and Sasuke had spent enough time with Karin to take that answer at face value. Yamato closed his eyes slightly, mouth twisted ever so slightly in memory of past trauma.
They couldn't really be blamed for inching away, although it was unfair to assume that Hinata-chan would use her summons with as much glee and lack of prejudice as Karin did. For all he knew, Karin's partner could be a completely reasonable young lady with a strong sense of restraint and fair play.
Before she turned to leave, the white-eyed girl gave team seven an angelic smile that sent a prickle of 'danger' crawling up Kakashi's spine.
Then again, she'd also trained with Anko. The boys might be onto something.
While Hinata hopefully gathered information, the group split and eventually pinpointed what had to be the site of the fight their contact had sensed. They could tell, using subtle cues and careful attention to detail earned in their vigorous training. There were faint foot-trails that ran through it from east to west: civilian judging by the faltering gaits and heavy foot-falls that hadn't avoiding breaking twigs and flipping rocks like a shinobi's would have.
Yamato let out a low whistle. "This does look like a clue."
"It's been razed," Sasuke noted, disgusted. "That's it, then. Someone destroyed whatever evidence was here."
And of course there was the fact that whatever bodies had resulted from the fight had been incinerated, along with a good portion of the immediate area. Whoever did it had been conscientious enough to put out the blaze before it spread, but clearly hadn't cared about hiding the fact that there had been a fight. Just the results.
The shinobi present with any experience at all in tracking—team eight and Kakashi—valiantly avoided rolling their eyes in what would have been a spectacular bit of unintentional choreography at Sasuke's expense. There was plenty of information to be found here. It had been long enough that scent was gone, but there were other signs about.
"Before we get to that," Kurenai deflected dryly. "Kiba, follow the tracks that head toward town, please." The dog-nin grinned and took off a lope, eager to do something. Kakashi shoved his hands in his pockets and trailed to the other edge of the scorched area, glancing at the faint, days-old tracks in the direction that civilians had been running from.
"Sasuke, Naruto. You don't have to be a tracker to gain information from this. Whoever did this didn't care if anyone knew there was a fight," Yamato lectured in the distance, spinning around the crispy landscape. His sandals crunched and kicked up soot that quickly turned his toes and ankles grey. "Look at what they destroyed—the bodies, and the plant matter. There was something distinctive about this fight that would have put one or more of the participants in danger or at least inconvenienced them. Most likely, the problem is distinctive weapon that would lead us back to the person who destroyed the evidence. So we're looking for hints of a weapon that can be traced to one person or one group."
"So someone with a kekkai genkai?" Naruto guessed uncertainly.
Sasuke snorted. "Of course, but more importantly, they either needed to hide that they were here or the identities of their victims. So the person who wanted the evidence destroyed is probably not allowed to be in the area. Either a missing nin or someone who doesn't have a cooperative treaty here."
"Or the victims were the ones who had to be hidden!" Naruto suggested, perking up a bit at having a contribution. "Maybe they were expected in town, or someone knew they would be operating in the area."
Kakashi felt a little bit of a smile pull at his mask as he stood from examining tracks. "Whoever these people were, they were running scared before they got to the burnt area," he remarked, tilting his head.
A snort from Kiba drew attention as he walked up. "With reason." Akamaru shot past him to beg Yamato for petting, who had proven himself to be weak for doggy eyes. "They didn't make it very far," Kiba shared with a slight grimace and a hand ruffling his hair. "The tracks just stop like someone scooped them up. It could be that I just can't see the footprints from the people who nabbed them. It has been a few days since… whatever this is," he deferred, wiggling a hand.
'Tobi? If he has a variation on Kamui, he could easily have ended tracks like that. But… No,' Kakashi dismissed. 'What would he want with civilians? The tracks are likely just gone.'
"You have often found evidence of the travels of even high-leveled shinobi days after the fact," Shino cut in, covering Kiba's modest deflection.
It was good that he appreciated his teammates' skills, Kakashi noted. Of course, Shino had some understanding of tracking. Naruto, Sasuke, and Yamato, who had no experience with the specialization, were feigning polite attention without understanding how impressive that feat was.
"Yeah, well…" Kiba looked away, rubbing at his neck. He was embarrassed, but faintly pleased.
The Aburame was very interested in a point in the far distance instead of on his teammate. "Hinata is on her way to intercept us."
Kurenai's lips were pressed together tightly, but the light shining in her eyes gave away her fondness for her boys and the way they awkwardly avoided admitting their bromance with deflections and apparent shyness.
Still, Shino hadn't just been making an excuse to change topics. The missing kunoichi arrived in a gentle whisper of air less than thirty seconds later, settling in between Kurenai and Shino.
The Jounin exchanged glances. Kakashi met Kurenai's quirked eyebrow with the bored, heavy-lidded look that always riled Gai up. Kurenai knew him well enough to take that as deference for the moment. She should be the one to manage her subordinates, after all. She spoke a moment later as if the pause had never happened.
"Hinata? Did you find anything?"
The girl nodded, digging a toe into the dirt. Her voice was confident enough when she spoke up. "Hai. The person I spoke to didn't want to be identified." Hinata frowned slightly. "Akatsuki was here, months ago. Two members, a man and a woman."
On the other side of the little cluster of shinobi, Kurenai's eyebrows shot up. As far as official intelligence knew, Konan-san had been the only female member of Akatsuki.
The only other woman he knew of 'associated' with Akatsuki was Aiko. But that was ridiculous. They wouldn't take her on missions. Then again, a civilian might not be able to tell if the couple were actually partners or if the woman was being coerced into behaving.
Yamato was subtler than Sasuke when they glanced at Naruto, but that didn't mean much while standing in a group of observant shinobi. Kiba caught the secretive motion and seemed irritated.
By the point, Hinata was clearly eager to be done with her report and her soft voice picked up speed. "The woman I spoke to couldn't offer a description, she didn't remember. She did want me to know that she was sure this must be a misunderstanding. Apparently, the Akatsuki showed up for a relatively standard mission dealing with bandits who had been bothering the town."
Dead silence, other than the sound of wind through the grass.
"That doesn't sound much like Akatsuki," Naruto said, tone curiously light.
Hinata shook her head. "I didn't think so either, but my informant stressed that they were very nice. Well," she amended, "the woman was nice, anyway. They showed up and spoke to whoever had officially arranged the mission. Unfortunately, no one was willing to identify who that was." A hint of a scowl slipped across her pretty features. "The woman came back into town later the same day to collect their payment and drop off the stolen wagon that the bandits had been using to cart away the villager's belongings. Someone found the corpses about ten miles out of the village. That was the last time anyone saw Akatsuki cloaks around here."
Downright bizarre.
"Thank you, Hinata," Kurenai allowed, despite her mystification.
"Fun," Kiba droned, clearly bored out of his gourd. "Why don't we get to work while Team Seven winks meaningfully and tries to communicate secrets through interpretive dance?"
'I like that kid.'
Only Yamato had the grace to look embarrassed. Naruto and Sasuke lurked grumpily as everyone else went to work, shuffling a ways behind.
'Kiba called this correctly,' Kakashi observed. 'The constant tracks are from two civilians running scared. Probably male, judging by the stride lengths. They at least thought they were targets, judging by the way they were weaving. That indicates either fear or an attempt to dodge attacks.'
The very occasional hints of footprints that had survived the weather were definitely from shinobi, however. Kurenai lined her sandals up against one partial print and raised an eyebrow. She didn't have to share her conclusion that at least one of the fighters had been a female. Her Chuunin and Kakashi had already made that connection.
"At least two males for certain," Shino observed. "Why? Because although the sandals appear to be of the same size, weight distribution and stride length appears to be different. I would posit that one is a taller man of approximately 160 pounds."
"Agreed," Hinata noted quietly. "Making the other about 5'5" and light. Probably the ninjutsu specialist of the team. Kiba-kun, can you tell if there was one or two kunoichi? Some of the tracks are… odd."
Not to mention that those tracks were more inconsistent and nearly gone. Unsurprising, as lower weight left less impact and fainter tracks from the start.
"Two kunoichi, on different sides of the altercation," Kiba said easily. Kurenai practically radiated pride for her puppies, giving Kakashi a meaningful look out of their eyesight. He nodded indulgently. She was right, they were good.
"I thought one." Shino didn't exactly sound miffed, but his insects were buzzing a bit more loudly than they had been before.
The Inuzuka rejected that theory with a low noise from his throat and a shake of the head, albeit without a hint of superiority. "Nah. The sandals are the same size, but one of the kunoichi is wearing a size or two too big." Kiba jogged back a ways and pointed out a scrape mark halfway up a tree trunk where someone had apparently leapt in a running fight. "They slip when she lands wrong, see? She's overcompensating with chakra to keep steady."
"And?" Kakashi interjected, wondering if he knew what that information implied for the physical profile that Kiba should have been constructing for that kunoichi.
Kiba hesitated, eyes darting around the chakra-deepened scrape he was staring at. Pity. The answer was in his face.
"The excess chakra will throw off your calculations for weight," Shino completed. His male teammate scowled, smacking the tree.
"That's a rookie mistake," Hinata said in an undertone. "Only an absolutely inexperienced shinobi or someone with no access to bulk resources would wear the wrong size. That must be our missing nin. Anyone from a village would buy the right ones."
"She could be borrowing a teammate's after something happened to hers," Kurenai interjected in the interest of fairness. "We can't assume that we're looking at any missing nin at all. This could have been conflict between two legally sanctioned missions. Grass has border agreements with multiple shinobi nations."
"This is fascinating and all," Naruto yawned, drawing attention to where he and most of team 7 stood in a bored clump. "But I can't help but wonder if that might be relevant." Seven sets of eyes followed the finger he outstretched and pointed to the faint outline visible in the distance. "That's the road," he clarified unnecessarily. "I bet they came from there when they got attacked and chased this way. That cart up there is probably from whoever was being assaulted."
There was a spike of irritation from the shinobi who had been too busy staring at the immediate area to scan the horizon and note what Naruto noticed in his boredom. The blond had already started walking, and everyone else followed with varying levels of enthusiasm. Yamato and Sasuke took a bee-line for the road, but Kakashi and team ten took the time they needed to ensure they weren't missing anything else. They worked in silence, trying to move quickly now that there was something interesting to work towards.
Kurenai sighed a few minutes later. They were close enough to the road now to be breathing in dusty air, and hadn't found anything that added much to their information. "Kakashi? Kiba? Any thoughts on what played out here?"
"It was either a three on one fight, a three-way fight, or we missed tracks from anyone else present. The civilians seem to have survived the fight, since their tracks leave the area of the fight. They wouldn't have out-paced the shinobi fight or outran someone who wanted them dead for that distance." Kakashi theorized, rubbing the nape of his neck. "That's odd. That could mean that the winner was the person defending them, assuming that one of the two groups was helping them."
The Inuzuka dissented with a grunt. "No, that's not necessarily true. I would buy that, except for the not at all suspicious way that they disappear. Their escort could have picked them up, but so could their enemy. Besides, if they had survived they would have either showed up in town with a story about being attacked, or gone back for their cargo," he pointed out practically. "Judging by the tracks, I'd say we're looking at a lone female fighting off three shinobi," Kiba summarized with a frown, continuing on his task while Yamato and the boys wandered off toward the road. His theory wasn't bad: the two males' tracks stuck together, but neither kunoichi had appeared to be engaged in group tactics. They could have each been a party of their own. "What, do we really think Akatsuki was involved in this? It seems like small time stuff."
"I don't think so," Kurenai opined gently. "The numbers just don't make sense. Akatsuki travel in groups of two, and the vast majority of squads consist of three to four people. Kakashi? What do you think?"
Kakashi shrugged, posture deceptively languid. "It doesn't fit their MO, but I wouldn't rule out Akatsuki just yet. They have a known presence in the area involved in fighting bandits, of all the things. There's something we're not seeing." There just wasn't enough data to extrapolate from.
Everyone came to attention at the sound of a muffled laugh in the distance, thirty feet away where the boys had reached the road. Yamato looked up guiltily, the dingy green cloth that concealed whatever cargo the wagon contained fluttering back down.
"It looks like a mixed shipment of vegetables, drugs, and one copy of Icha Icha in good condition," he listed, sounding surprisingly professional considering the ludicrous content of his sentence.
There was a moment while everyone present tried to wrap their heads around that. If Akatsuki had been involved in this altercation, they had been on the side that stopped it and not those attacked. That pretty well clinched it: whoever these poor bastards smuggling drugs and vegetables were, they were dead. If they'd been able, they would have come back for their things. So either the assailants hadn't been bandits of any sort, or had expected better loot for their effort.
"This is serving a niche market," Shino noted.
Yamato snorted, a hand flying up to his face.
"Not Akatsuki," Sasuke said dryly, rubbing at his face. "Clearly. This is a bit petty for them."
"I don't know, that's a lot of drugs," Yamato wheedled, prodding at a packet.
'Whatever Akatsuki is up to, I don't understand it.' Kakashi quizzically took the book and flipped through it. "Oh," he said, dismayed.
The others crowded around.
"Whoever had this didn't even get to finish their book," he explained sympathetically, waving the bookmark in the first third of the novel. An experimental sniff showed that it still smelled like the bookstore. Shame. He clucked his tongue and tucked the book away in his hip pouch. It never hurt to have extras.
That was when he realized he needed to talk quickly, before Sasuke and Naruto started lecturing about perverts and how he was going to end up like Jiraiya-sama.
Kakashi cleared his throat. "It could come in handy," he defended. "Ah, anyway. Tobi does have a history of ingratiating himself with a populace in order to gain influence." The reminder had been a hurried excuse, but just saying it aloud brought his mood down. Damn, he hated that man. "We need to make sure that nothing is going on with the local authorities. That's the best reason I can imagine for why Akatsuki would involve itself in stopping petty crime."
Kurenai sighed, stress crinkling her brow. "Let's split up to cover more ground. The way I see it, we need to cover two different angles. If it's alright with you, Kakashi, my team and I will go investigate the local lord and see if his people think he's been acting suspiciously."
"And we get to investigate… Ando Toki," Sasuke read dryly off the ride of the cart, unimpressed by the shakily painted logo.
Kakashi gave a very fake smile. "Don't forget that we're not in Fire Country, Sasuke. We're not going to mention the drugs. It's not our business. We'll just be concerned citizens bringing her the unfortunate news that her crew ran afoul of bandits, and tell her where her merchandise is."
Of course it would be rotten before long, but that wasn't their problem. Perhaps identifying the apparently dead civilians who had never been able to finish their route would lead to some clue as to why they had been targeted, if it wasn't a crime of opportunity.
~~~
"Thank god she's dead." There was real relief in the older woman's strident voice—and a small smile as she stirred sugar into her coffee. "No offense, of course, but who wants missing nin around?"
The only sound was the quiet clink of her spoon against the porcelain. Sasuke's expression turned to ice. As a whole, team Seven was a bit shocked by Ando-san's cold-hearted reaction to being told that her hireling was dead. Some more so than others, of course. Yamato's smile merely looked a bit strained. Naruto, on the other hand, seemed to be considering crushing his teacup or storming outside to wait on the porch. Pity. He had such high hopes for the civility of this interaction when she invited them in out of the rain upon hearing they had news for her.
Kakashi didn't let his pasted-on smile move. That statement was telling. Aside from her cruel dismissal of an employee's death, she was unintimidated by shinobi. She could just be giving lip service to the opinion that their status as loyal operatives made them superior to a nukenin—but either way, she wasn't overly nervous in their presence. That meant she had experience with them—probably with more than with this mysterious kunoichi.
'That's suspicious. Taking the drugs into context, she's probably in contact with criminals. She'll have access to bingo books and information.'
The fact that she didn't blink at four foreign shinobi on her doorstep implied that she had iron nerves, or that she had something to back up her tactlessness.
"Don't get me wrong, she did her job." The older woman waved a hand dismissively. Kakashi actually felt a little angry about how little she valued that human life. "But the pay she demanded was outrageous—the full sum of the eight men she replaced!" Ando-san scowled. "And she's- was," she amended callously, "so childishly picky. She didn't want to sleep outside, and she didn't want to go on all the missions, or follow my rules. Would you believe that she used my routes as an opportunity to transport-"
"I think we've heard enough," Kakashi interrupted icily. Judging by Naruto's aborted movement, Sasuke was gripping his knee under the table as a reminder not to start yelling. He had no desire to linger here, but he did need to finish this interview. He was leaning towards the theory that one of the many enemies Ando-san's personality made had led them to try to ruin her business. However, despite how unpleasant Ando-san was, there was a possibility that the kunoichi had been the target. The only way to investigate that was to figure out who she was.
Small lines formed around Ando Toki's eyes when they widened at his displeasure. For the first time, she seemed somewhat wary of her guests, though not fearful.
"Tell me about your employee," he commanded, ignoring the sounds of Naruto shifting in his seat. "Name, physical description, where she came from. Anything can help."
He added 'quick-thinking' to his catalogue of Ando-san's personality, as her eyes jumped over the group and thin lips twisted into a moue of unkind amusement. She knew that the assembled men's opinions had turned against her, and she didn't care. Actually- that wasn't true. She was upset about it, and had reclassified them from tentative allies to something else.
"The name she gave me was false—a man's name, as a matter of face. And I have no idea where the girl came from. As for looks…" Her predatory gaze rested on Naruto. "I'd say she looked a lot like that young man right there, though with orange hair and a pointier face."
She was describing Aiko.
Kakashi's thoughts at the moment were not suitable for vocalization. Had he been untrained, his hand might have been shaking with rage. After a lifetime of shinobi work, adrenaline had instead heightened his bodily control to a preternatural degree. That was the only reason he caught Sasuke before the lithe teen reached for a weapon.
She clearly couldn't see the motion at all as it happened. When she blinked and registered that the two youngest shinobi were suddenly standing and the air had gone from chilly to openly hostile, Ando Toki seemed to realize she had gone too far and paled.
"That's not possible," Naruto denied hoarsely, leaning over the table.
Kakashi latched onto the thought—and realized Naruto was correct. That claim couldn't be true. Ando-san's employees were dead, as shown by the way they'd abandoned their personal belongings along with the cargo and contraband. Therefore, if Ando-san's words were true, it would mean that Aiko was dead. His Hiraishin kunai was still active. She had to be alive.
That made this woman a liar and a waste of his time.
The middle-aged woman sniffed. "Ridiculous. I think I would know. Why would I lie?"
'Because you are a singularly unpleasant human being.'
That wasn't a hard question to answer less facetiously. Somehow, Ando Toki knew about the reward Konoha had put out for information about Aiko—probably through criminal and missing nin connections. That made this woman either opportunistically cruel and ready to leap at the chance to hurt someone with a physical resemblance to the girl she'd seen in a picture somewhere, or she was hoping to get money for her lies. Greed seemed more likely.
If they were in Fire Country, he might have taken her into custody and let Intelligence get the truth out of her. Of course, as a foreign citizen, she was safe from that possibility. That pared down his options. He sure as hell wasn't going to pay her for honesty, and she wouldn't be talked around with reason.
"We're leaving." Kakashi didn't stop his team from giving their hostess truly poisonous glares before they turned to leave. She sputtered and tried to come to terms with how she had lost control of the situation, but didn't manage any real words before the door slammed shut.
Sasuke took a shuddering breath, pale face angry. "If she was the target, I would have advocated a more direct approach."
He couldn't verbally agree with the violent sentiment, but the Uchiha was right. If he had a grudge against Ando Toki, he would have taken that out on her directly and not on her staff.
Kakashi unclenched his jaw enough to speak. "I think we've been looking at this the wrong way."
Ando-san had been more inconvenienced than hurt by the assault, so she wasn't the probable target. The claim that the poor missing-nin the hag had hired had been capable of doing eight men's work was almost certainly an exaggerated story. Anyone of that caliber would be reasonably well-known and able to accept choicer assignments than drudgery for a woman who obviously disliked shinobi. If that kunoichi had been targeted on personal merits from someone holding a grudge, it would have been by someone incapable of the type of destruction that they had seen.
"Those poor bastards were in the wrong place at the wrong time." Naruto's neck muscles were visibly tense, and his voice lacked its characteristic warmth. "Or someone hired a team to stop Ando-san's criminal activity, and they just got caught in the middle."
No one could disagree with his assessment. Somehow, the mood didn't return to its previous calm, even with that established.
"Let's go meet with Kurenai's team." When Kakashi bent to take off at a leap to the top of the buildings, the others mimicked him instantly. No one wanted to spend more time near that hateful woman than they had to.
~~~
As it turned out in the course of Kurenai's brisk investigation, the local lord of that area in Grass country had been dealing under the table with foreign powers.
Unfortunately, he was not, as team eight thought, under Akatsuki's control.
About a week later, Iwa was very confused and suspicious that their free travel throughout the region had been suspended such a short time after a team had gone missing in the vicinity. If anything, that encouraged the Tsuchikage to send more troops in.
~~~
(1.5 months later)
"I really think that you should stop."
Aiko frowned, ignoring Obito's words and increasingly harried tone. "It's possible," she argued. "I just need to get it right, refine my control. What I've been doing is-crude." She scowled at her red-eyed reflection.
'I think I spent more time looking in a mirror this month than I have in my life to date.'
"If you mess this up, you'll end up blind," Obito snapped, fisting a hand in his hair. "You're being stupid. You're not a medic nin or a Hyuuga. Trying to manually stop off the chakra flow to your eyes is dangerous."
"But you can do it!" She ducked her head and rubbed at her forehead with the first three fingers of both hands. "I don't see why this is different. This red-eye deal looks a lot like yours. Why wouldn't it follow the same rules?
He hesitated, as he had the last time she'd brought up that point. He didn't know. He was just convinced that it was different.
'It might be the fact that this is so hard for me,' she acknowledged reluctantly. From what he implied, he could turn the Sharingan 'off' and 'on' without a thought, after the initial learning experience of turning it on.
And alright, he was sitting on something that rang with truth, what with his whole 'if you cut off all the chakra the organ will cease to function' thing. She knew very little about medicine, but it sounded like a theory she shouldn't test. Chakra ran and sang through every part of the human body (as well as outside of it, she had to note. And there were some doozies out there, spots of humming chakra that she couldn't stop noting no matter where she was).
Anyway, since she didn't know what she was doing and apparently couldn't tell the difference between 'almost no' chakra and 'no' chakra, it was a phenomenally bad idea to mess around with it.
But the idea was less than appealing. Even the less chakra costly eye form was a constant drain on her resources. Sure, it made casting genjutsu a dozen times easier, but she wanted her eyes back.
'Fine. I'll stop for now and see what my options are. I can try again later.'
"Headache again?" Obito tapped his fingers against the doorway, dark eyes solemn.
Aiko kept her face straight, since he could probably see her reflection. "A bit."
'He's starting to seem weirdly overconcerned. Bordering on the line between mushily sympathetic and… what, guilty?'
If it was the first, yuck. She wasn't a child or helpless. She could appreciate concern and sympathy, but there came a point when his fluttering grated.
That point had been a while ago.
For the dozenth time, Aiko reminded herself that he meant well. Snapping at him for being full of feelings (ew) wouldn't help anything.
"I'll leave it alone." She puffed her lips out at her reflection, watching the grumpy red-eyed girl in the mirror sass her back, and then rolled her eyes and turned them back to purple with a bit of concentration.
As ugly as they were, the purple eyes made both genjutsu and jutsu spectacularly easy. The hideousness might be outweighed by their apparent utility, as well as the fact that Obito was awfully accommodating about teaching her how to use them. He'd been sharing little tricks for water, earth, and wind chakra natures and wasn't surprised in the slightest by how easily she picked them all up.
Maybe he just liked to teach, or training was just the best way he knew to bond. Either way, it was an improvement on being fussed over by the (now absent) doctor, but not quite as good as occasionally getting to do something new. What was the point of accumulating skills that she never used? Because she was itching to use ninjutsu other than chakra chains in a fight. It'd be a first for her.
"Is there any work? I need to get out of the house." She strode out to the front room, pulling her hair back in a low pony as she went. Besides, her offensive capabilities were drastically improved from what they had been the last time she'd been in a fight. It might be nice to try some of the basic ninjutsu moves out in a real fight.
She could hear the disapproval in Obito's tone.
"I don't think you're ready."
And there went her resolution to be reasonable. Aiko wheeled around and jabbed a finger into his chest, ignoring the vaguely started expression on his face.
"Obito, with kami as my witness, if I don't get out of this house for something other than training, I'm going to start drawing naked comics of you on the walls as various Icha Icha heroes." She took a step closer, right into his personal space, and darkly emphasized, "With lipstick."
Obito's jaw dropped in disgust. Yes. Perfect. When he could only resort to squealing and flailing, she'd already won the non-argument. He would turn pink, flee, and she could go do whatever she wanted without sad puppy eyes getting in the way.
"Will I be wearing lipstick, or is the artistic medium-"
Damn him.
"Both!" she snapped, her hands flying to her hips.
And damn him, he was laughing at her. It was silent, but she could tell by the way his shoulders shook. Aiko huffed and turned away, stalking to the kitchen. By the time she was pouring a glass of water, he had followed her in. Aiko became very interested in her drink.
"Aw, don't be like that. You can tag along on my next mission, okay? We can go right now. I recieved an odd report today that I should look into." When she still didn't grace him with a response, he sighed and sweetened the deal. "And then after that, you can go on a similar one alone. Deal?"
'That's all I wanted.'
"It'll have to do." Aiko sniffed, despite feeling a slight smile pulling at one side of her mouth.
"I'm glad that I can please you in this small way," Obito drawled. "Anyway, business talk now. We're doing reconnaissance and possibly taking corrective action." He frowned, a severe line forming on his forehead. "I think that the Hokage might have finally become senile."
Aiko stared blankly, feeling her grip loosen on her empty glass. She set it down, hoping to avoid breaking anything, and cleared her throat uncertainly. "What is that supposed to mean?"
'And why is he bringing up the Hokage?'
He wasn't going to suggest that they go to Konoha, right? Because that would be crazy. He never had her go too close to their borders, it was too dangerous. Sure, Konoha would take her in for a trial instead of killing her, but she much preferred even Iwa to Konoha due to the increased likelihood that a Konoha nin would recognize her face.
He shrugged, struggling for words. "As far as I can tell, they accused a local lord in Grass of being affiliated with us and his second cousin agreed and took his place after he was disposed."
"That seems pretty reasonable," Aiko said slowly. It sucked, but undermining an enemy's allies made good sense.
Obito made a weighing motion with his palms, mouth wide open in an expression she couldn't interpret. When it came, his voice was confused. "I would agree, except for one thing. We had nothing like that going on in Grass. So I think that technically, Konoha helped depose a rightful authority figure in a foreign country and put a corrupt relative in his place, possibly on accident. In that respect, their choice was a little strange."
Well. 'Strange' was one way to summarize that situation. Aiko almost didn't believe it, but changed into weather appropriate mission gear and wrapped an arm about Obito's bicep. Kamui was much faster than travel by foot, but ugh. She closed her eyes and grimaced against the awful sensation of his preferred method of travel.
'And we're going to have to do that on way back,' she mourned, a hand on her stomach in a weak attempt to soothe the feeling of upset. It was probably psychosomatic—the first few times she had traveled that way, the only difference had been that her head was a lot quieter (and she still regretted sharing that revelation with Obito, he'd looked at her like he was concerned about head injuries). But by now, her trepidation probably made the experience worse than it should have been otherwise.
Ah, well.
As sad as it seemed, Obito's baffling information was corroborated by the gossip that they heard around Grass.
"It almost makes me consider actually compromising the new lord, just for the irony," Obito mused quietly.
Aiko giggled at that for far too long.
They did eventually decide to leave Grass alone, not seeing any real benefit to setting up a puppet government. There wasn't a shinobi force for him to take command of, their economy was struggling to right itself, and Grass had little international sway. It would be a waste of effort, really, to add such a large task to take care of.
"Is this what your missions are usually like?" Aiko asked, shaking off the boring henge she'd worn like a dog would shake water from its coat as soon as they were safely alone. "Sneaking around, listening to gossip, and occasionally making life harder for someone else?"
Obito opened his mouth consideringly, and then had to shrug one shoulder. "Something like that."
She therefore wasn't too surprised a few weeks later when he told her over breakfast that they were almost out of milk and rice and that he had two missions to get done that week. "Pick one," Obito suggested generously, stabbing his chopsticks into his rice (and she cringed, even she knew that was incredibly rude). "I'll drop you off to do one and meet you at a rendezvous point when I'm done with mine. We'll still have time to go visit your grabby friend, if you still insist by the time we're done." He made a face, clearly hoping that she would change her mind. "We can hit the market by her house before we come home after we're all done."
"Alright." With a faint smile, Aiko ignored his exaggerated scowl at the prospect of visiting Fuji and rested a forearm on the table as she leaned over for a better look at the papers he'd been scanning. She glanced over at the open maps he had out, pilfered from god-knows-where. "What's going on here?" Aiko pointed at a map of a lower region of Lightning Country.
"Ah, the Raikage has been making it harder for Ame to function." He smiled boyishly, light shining in his dark eyes. At that moment, Aiko thought he looked very handsome. "Good man, the Raikage. Someone needs to meet an informant, so I know how best to act. You'd be passing along his reward, ascertaining that we're getting the truth, and surveying the situation in this town right here before you're done. They've been getting a lot of shinobi passing through there, and I want to know why."
Oh. That sounded okay, but…
"And the other mission is sabotage," Obito added, tone clearly indicated that he was on to her and knew she wasn't that thrilled about option number one. Aiko perked up immediately. "Konoha is trying to position themselves as Konan's ally, since she turned traitor."
"And, that's bad?" Aiko guessed.
He nodded solemnly. "Just know that she is irritating and working against us. Moving on. Konan will be back in Amegakure within a week or two unless the Raikage has his way, so now is really the only time to act. You definitely don't want to fight her," Obito cautioned, a little sternness creeping into his expression and tone at whatever he saw on her face. "If you hear that she's around, I want you to run. She's formidable."
"Yes, yes," Aiko waved him off, propping her chin on her palms and blinking up at him prettily. "I understand that I shouldn't pick fights with kages unless you're around to hold my hand."
He didn't buy the innocent act, but at least he let the topic drop.
"Right." Obito rolled his eyes. "Ame is suspicious of Konoha's admittedly selfish motives, but beggars can't be choosers. If nothing changes, they might align themselves with Fire Country, which would tie the Mizukage's and Kazekage's hands in terms of dealing with Amegakure."
So, she was going to sabotage Konoha and Ame?
Fun.
"Oh, and they might have been involved with Iron and Tea Country," Obito added absently, getting out of his chair. "Kotaka swears he's seen a lot of product moving. Check that if you can. I'll be back in a moment with the information you'll need."
Aiko gave his back a skeptical look. Wasn't Kotaka the guy who'd failed to notice that his regular contact had failed to report for a week?
Yeah, that information was sketch.