"She can't have been a shinobi." Sasuke-teme crossed his arms. "Naruto and I saw her nearly faint after walking two miles with a moderately heavy basket. That's not a kunoichi." He sounded almost offended by the suggestion.
Naruto raised his hand and gripped his hair, feeling lost.
'Teme's got a point. But Kakashi-sensei seems sure.'
"She faked it," Kakashi-sensei said bluntly. "Or something else was going on. This isn't up for debate. I knew she was a shinobi the instant I saw her. Besides, she admitted it."
Teme closed his mouth. That was hard to argue with. Sakura-chan looked down at her hands, a line creased between her brows.
'Hikari-san didn't seem like a bad person.'
Sakura-chan twisted her hands and made a small, confused kind of grunty sound. Her eyes were wide. "Eh, sensei? But she- Hikari-san helped a lot. She took care of you, and-"
"Yes, thank you," Kakashi-sensei interrupted hastily. His shoulders jerked up towards his ears. "I have taken that into consideration. Sakura, I am not saying that Hikari-san is a bad person. That doesn't mean we can trust her. If she comes around again, I expect you all to act accordingly."
Naruto huffed, crossing his arms. Then he uncrossed them and stuck his hands in his pockets because he didn't want to slouch like Sasuke-teme about this. "Hey sensei, why'd she lie?" he demanded. "Did she think we wouldn't like her if we knew she was a ninja? I wouldn't care."
"Idiot," Sasuke-teme said. "You should care. She's not a Konoha ninja. She's not our friend."
"Yes, she is," Naruto rejected. "Sakura-chan agrees with me, right?"
Their teammate took a step back and held up her palms, eyes darting between the two of them. "I-uh-"
"You don't think she's a bad ninja!" Naruto pushed, victorious. "I know you don't. You like Hikari-san because she told you to yell at us and-"
"Baka!" Sakura-chan yelled, making a fist. Red rose in her cheeks at an alarming rate. "I don't yell at you." She lunged across the clearing and jammed her fist against his skull.
Kakashi-sensei's eyebrows shot up, but he didn't stop his female student.
Naruto whined and rubbed at the spot, but he was grinning. Sakura-chan was so playful.
Sasuke-teme had taken a prudent step back and to the side, putting sensei in between him and Sakura-chan.
"Right." Kakashi-sensei put a hand on his face, muffling his next words. "Sakura, stop tormenting your teammates. Naruto, don't antagonize Sakura. It's not good for your health."
Looking belligerent, Sakura-chan crossed her hands behind her back. But she didn't say anything.
"I don't antagonize anything," Naruto protested, giving his teacher his full attention. "Ne, sensei-"
"We're done with this," Kakashi-sensei interrupted flatly like the jerk he was. His hand fell to his hip, twitching towards his pervert book.
He could just feel Sasuke-teme smirking. Bastard. Naruto bristled.
'He thinks he's so smart. Well, he didn't know that Hikari-san was infiltrating us either. I don't know what he's so damn smug about.'
"I want to know what you three remember about counter-infiltration," Kakashi-sensei said. He looked at Sakura-chan.
Sakura-chan opened her mouth to answer, but Sasuke-teme beat her to it.
"Enough to know that this isn't infiltration." He lifted his chin. "Infiltration is an attempt to destabilize an opposing force from the inside. But Hikari-san isn't exactly behind our lines. We're not even in Fire Country. If she's infiltrating Wave Country, that's not our problem," teme dismissed scathingly.
"Unless you think she's working for Gato?" Sakura-chan sounded shocked. "She's not infiltrating Konoha, but she could be infiltrating us."
"Good thought. But if she was, I'd be dead." Kakashi-sensei paused. "Probably. I don't see why she would allow me to live, but I don't know her objectives." He scratched at his jawline.
"Then why are we letting her come back?" Naruto demanded. "Either she's nice or she's not. I don't see why you have to make this so complicated."
"Maa…" Kakashi-sensei stuffed his hands in his pockets. "She claims that she grew up in Wave Country. If that's true, then she probably isn't our enemy. We're going to investigate those claims before we say anything and risk frightening our clients." He sighed. "Sakura?"
"We'll have to go into town," Sakura-chan answered promptly. "Tsunami-san could be lying for Hikari-san for some reason. But she wouldn't be able to convince everyone. If we can find people who knew her when she was little, she's probably telling the truth."
"We should find her house, too!" Naruto bounced on his heels. "It's probably not too far away."
"That's a stupid idea. How would we recognize it?" Sasuke-teme sneered. "Will she have her name on the front door?"
"No!" Idiot. Naruto scowled, because it was so obvious, duh. "It'll be the one with a broken washer." At the uncomprehending stares, he added, "She had Tsunami-san do her laundry, remember? If she's really all sneaky and stuff she probably wouldn't do something that weird for no reason. I bet her washer really is broken. If it was the dryer, she'd just hang everything up. So it has to be the washer."
"Wait, what?" Kakashi-sensei gave him an odd look. "Are you suggesting we just break into houses and try to run laundry until we find one-"
"Yepp!" Naruto said, at the same time that Sakura-chan mumbled, "It's not the worst idea." He beamed at her. She looked away.
Sasuke-teme rolled his eyes.
Buoyed by his teammate's approval, Naruto put his hands on his hips. "What are we waiting for? Let's go counter infiltrate Hikari-san!"
Kakashi-sensei sighed, very quietly and very sadly. But Sasuke-teme started walking. Sakura-chan bit her lip and glanced between the two of them, but she decided on Sasuke-teme.
"Hey, wait up!" She hurried after the bastard's heels.
"Why am I getting left behind?" Naruto scowled, and started running. "Oy, it was my idea! Teme! Teme!"
~~~
The clearing overlooking a lake was quiet, until all traces of an injured Jounin and his soggy genin were gone. A voice rose before anyone was visible.
"Hatake-san is not as observant as I had feared." From her vantage point, Aiko could see that Utakata's face was impassive, but his eyes were hard.
'Kakashi probably knew. My genjutsu isn't that great without using the Rinnegan. But he'd expect me to watch him anyway.'
Aiko tried not to shrug or look particularly knowledgeable about the abilities of specific Konoha nin. "He might have been pretending not to notice us," she warned mildly. She let go of the genjutsu hiding them and inhaled deeply, enjoying one last reprieve from the muggier air below tree level. Then she tensed her muscles and leapt out from under the boughs.
The thirty feet to the ground passed in a moment. She landed on a rock, flexing her toes. Sure, she was Konoha raised, but that didn't mean she really enjoyed clinging precariously to the parts of trees thin enough to move in the wind.
Utakata followed a moment later, touching down on the pond surface instead. "Hmm." Utakata crossed his arms, but still his sleeves pulled in the wind.
Down on the ground level, it was unpleasantly apparent that a hot, wet breeze was pulling off the sea. It was like standing in someone's salty breath.
"Perhaps. Do you intend to let Zabuza deal with the Konoha team?"
Aiko shot him a dry look, but she didn't respond verbally.
That question was a trap, wasn't it? If she said no, then the implication was that she didn't mind letting children die. If she said yes, then she was interfering with the operations of a shinobi with whom Utakata had already negotiated a cessation of hostilities.
'I can't win with this guy.'
He fell in step when she gave an insolently indulgent stretch and began to saunter towards the bridge site. Utakata glanced in the direction that team seven had gone.
"It wasn't the best cover," he commented. "Perhaps it is for the better to leave Hatake-san to his own devices."
What? Oh. He thought she'd given up on it because she wasn't following team 7.
'Ha. Funny. If Kakashi hadn't noticed us before, he would notice us following his team around and trying to interfere with their information gathering. I'm not about those kinds of shenanigans. That's more Naruto's bag.'
Aiko waved that off. "They won't find anything that contradicts my story."
Her companion gave her an interested look from under his lashes. That angle was particularly flattering to his softly curved cheekbones.
She pretended not to notice that a very interested sort of heat was pooling in her lower abdomen. "I was thinking that we should protect our own interests, since Sharingan no Kakashi is wasting his time on a goose chase." Her tone came out harsher than expected, almost argumentative.
Utakata scoffed softly. "Surely he'll stay with the client."
'No way. He'll have the genin go together for the experience, but he'll shadow them as best as he can. Normally, I'd say that he'd do it personally, and put a clone on the client. But physically weak as he is… He'll have Pakkun with the kids, a shadow clone with Tazuna-san, and attempt to supervise all at once even though he's slowed down. He doesn't deal well with worry or feeling limitations.'
But all that was much too personal and detailed an analysis to share with Utakata. He didn't need to know she knew that much. And no one outside of Konoha's power sphere needed to know what made Kakashi tick, anyway.
"Is that how Mist would do it?" she asked idly, not letting anything other than boredom cross her face.
Utakata made an offended sound from the back of his throat, which might as well have been conceding the point. Different groups had different priorities and protocols. Konoha was known for their emphasis on the importance of team bonds and cohesion. Aiko didn't actually need to know the Konoha nin in particular. There was always a good chance that they would choose to prioritize the safety of vulnerable subordinates over that of a client.
Wave wasn't terribly large. They only traveled a few minutes before they paused just out of visual range from the construction site's furthest stretches. That meant that Aiko hadn't quite figured out how to tell Utakata that she wanted him to go watch Tsunami-chan. Well. She didn't really care if he went with Tsunami-chan or if she did. The important thing was that they cover all the ground that needed to be covered while team 7 was weakened and out.
Well. No time like the present.
"So." Aiko clapped her hands cheerily. "Do you want to watch the bridge builder or his family?"
His body language shut her down immediately. "No," Utakata rejected. He turned to fully face her, leveling the full belligerence of a teenaged criminal on her being. "I realize that you are new to survival as a lone agent," he scathed. "But I, personally, would prefer to avoid all unnecessary death-"
"Alright!" Aiko held her hands up. "Calm down, you're getting stuffier by the second." She kicked the ground. "God." She glared at the ground. That, right there, was a particularly stupid rock. She kicked at it again.
They coexisted in sullen silence for a long minute. Aiko sighed heavily, lifted her head, and glared up at the sky instead. Utakata upended a bit of foliage with his heel and then ground it back into the dirt until the leaves frayed to threads.
"So, you really won't be convinced-"
"No," Utakata said sharply. "I will not."
Aiko scowled at a cloud that kind of looked like a lumpy turtle. "Fine then." She forced her body to relax.
'I don't like this. I'd feel better if all of them had a watch. If I were trying to subvert Tazuna-san's work, I would at least consider using his family as leverage. It's a smart move. Easy, likely to be effective, and might not require bloodshed at all.'
She wrestled with the situation, aching over the call she had to make since her teammate refused to divide their team and hope to conquer a unified force. She liked Tsunami-chan, but her health simply wasn't critical to their paycheck.
'I could argue that Kakashi almost certainly has some kind of watch on Tazuna-san, making him a lower priority. I'm sure he does. But why would Utakata care? We're not getting paid to make sure Tsunami-chan lives.'
Well. There was really only one answer.
"Do you really think Zabuza is going to haul his aching carcass out to finish his job soon?" Aiko kind of hoped for a no.
'Tsunami-chan probably won't die.'
Her teammate gave her a wry look, mouth pulled slightly wide. "If Hatake-san is on his feet, so will Zabuza-san. He is not known for his gentle restraint. Have you heard much about Mist jounin in general or the seven swordsmen in particular?"
Aiko blinked innocently. "Mist jounin? Mist nin come in ranks higher than genin?"
Utakata dropped his more mature-than-thou attitude long enough to jab his elbow into her rib. Aiko wheezed in surprise, seeing white sparks. Her teammate gave her an insufferably smug look and cut off her response. "I believe that you were about to impart some tenuously planned and dangerous slipshod plan of action?" He lifted a brow meaningfully.
She opened her mouth to retort but- "Yes," Aiko admitted. It was a rude assessment, but not divorced from reality. "Surveillance of Tazuna-san is really our only option. That's not a problem in itself, obviously. Kakashi-san is going to be the problem."
Man, that felt weird. She'd almost forgotten to use an honorific at all and she probably should have used his last name or something but anyway
"Although I doubt that he is personally watching Tazuna-san, he won't have left the client alone." Aiko worried her lower lip. "I suppose he could still be there. I could be missing something."
Utakata caught on to her trail of thought. "We must determine what type of surveillance he has left in such a way that leaves all unaware as to our presence," he concluded.
She nodded miserably. "Yeah. Any ideas?"
He tilted his head ever-so-slightly to the side, mouth curling up into something coy. Instead of answering, he held up a hand. In it was-
"A flute?" Aiko asked, despite knowing very well that it was… was…
Well, it was definitely something used for ninja things. Probably not really a flute. Although that one girl from Sound had used a flute, hadn't she, so a flute could be ninja equipment…
"A pipe," Utakata corrected loftily. He tapped the end against his palm. "Sharingan no Kakashi is known for his assassination techniques, eye, and dogs. I do not believe he is likely to be utilizing the Sharingan for routine surveillance. The rest of his dossier does not lead me to believe that he is especially likely to notice a single orb hidden in leaves."
Aiko dropped the pretense of ignorance, because she had definitely not heard about this. "You can use your bubbles like-" she stumbled, because she wanted to say something about the sand eyes that the Kazekage used, but that would certainly make less than zero sense to Utakata- "like an eye? Across distance?"
His eyes narrowed fractionally, but there was no other indication that he'd found her wording and pause odd. "I can perceive the image conveyed by one of my orbs from a distance of slightly less than two kilometers away. The orb itself has a much smaller ranger of vision." Utakata faltered, seeming almost unsure.
'He's a missing nin. He doesn't feel comfortable divulging the exact details of techniques that keep him, you know, alive.'
Aiko didn't take it personally. "So you'll do the hard work, send out your recon bubble," she summed. "I suppose that my job will be to keep you safe while you're distracted?"
Utakata paused oddly. "Yes."
She considered asking. She didn't ask.
"Sounds good."
Utakata nodded, clearly far away in important thoughts.
Uncomfortable for some reason she couldn't articulate, Aiko forced teasing brightness into her tone. "And when you get us spotted by some half-blind ninken, you can use your flute to play getaway music." She laced her hands behind her head and bounced.
He turned to look at her. "Uzumaki-chan?" Utakata asked as dryly as was humanly possible.
'Wait, chan? I'm moving up in the world. I've always been Uzumaki-san before. Sweet.'
"Yeah?" Aiko fluttered her lashes up at him in the most sickeningly sweet manner possible.
"I do not like you."
She made a kissy face. "I don't like you either." Aiko winked.
Utakata made a small, disgusted sound, but he went to work instead of arguing with her. The bubble that he breathed into existence was about twice the size of a human eyeball, and perfectly clear.
Not camouflaged? Or tinted by whatever special chakra imbued it with the ability to see? That was a little underwhelming.
"I thought it might be colored," Aiko admitted in an undertone, a little too intent on her companions work. The question hung in the air, unspoken.
'I guess clearness does make some sense. That could conceivably help clarity of sight.'
Instead of answering, Utakata made a polite little, 'is that so' kind of sound and did a strange little thing where he kind of popped his lips? The bubble jerked upwards, level with Utakata's face, and drifted so close that it was almost touching his nose. He closed his left eye deliberately and inhaled.
Aiko glanced away from the particulars, because even she knew it was poor manners to gawp at the handsigns for someone else's technique. She wouldn't be able to replicate it anyway, so there would be no purpose to snooping. She looked back involuntarily at the scent of fresh, hot blood, and then glanced away again despite her burning curiosity when she saw it was only a token offering portion from the pads of his fingers.
'It looked like he used a knife for that. Why not bite? I thought that was the standard thing to do.'
Aiko amused herself by trying to recollect if she'd ever seen a shinobi who wasn't a Konoha nin collect the blood for a summoning with their teeth. She didn't think she had. So maybe that was a local preference originating from one of Konoha's early clans?
The next hour or so was painfully still, tense waiting. Utakata's face became drawn and tight. A line of frustration settled firmly between his eyebrows. When he finally tried to speak, he had to clear his throat with a little cough. "I believe I might have narrowed Hatake-san's surveillance down to two possibilities."
"Yeah?" Aiko put her hands on her hips and stretched without letting her head rise above the bushes concealing them.
"Un." He swallowed. Without thinking, Aiko unclipped her water bottle and passed it over. Then she took it back, demonstrated that it was fine by drinking some herself, and passed it back again. That time, Utakata took a long drink. "Thank you."
"It was nothing…"
'Utakata gives a lot of those assessing looks,' Aiko mused. 'Is he really that perpetually suspicious, or does he just not have a terribly expressive range of facial movement?'
"There is a worker who I believe tendered his resignation to Tazuna-san yesterday after the work day was completed." Utakata shared softly. "There is also an ugly little animal present, concealed in a bag. It is small, wrinkly-"
"Like a pug?" Aiko asked, feeling strangely offended on Pakkun's behalf.
'The worker will be Kakashi's shadow clone. And it's definitely a shadow clone, he'll want it to be able to alert him if something is wrong. So that's two eyes on the bridge. Solid, considering the circumstances. But that does mean I initially guessed his strategy wrong. He's probably actually with the kids himself.'
"Pug?" Utakata repeated, unsure. He shook himself. "I have little knowledge of canine breeds. However, I suspect that this animal could indeed be some stunted variety of ninken. It is rather large to conceivably be a pest in hiding from the workers. However, it is not dissimilar to rodents that-"
Aiko held up a hand to stop the barrage of unflattering words, and- was that amusement on Utakata's face?
'He's teasing me,' Aiko realized, actually surprised. 'I didn't know that he had it in him. Or that he'd know I had a soft spot for dogs. I definitely haven't told him I was a summoner… has he figured that out?'
She leaned down to her sitting teammate and slung her arm around his shoulder companionably, ignoring the way that Utakata grunted disapproval.
"You are too sharp," Aiko said. She managed to reach around and poke the tip of his nose before he turned away. "One of these days, I really should kill you, before you figure out my life story."
"I will keep that in mind," Utakata said, in a tone that was heavy with sarcasm.
"See that you do." Aiko ruffled his hair.
'Oh, how cute. He thinks I'm joking. Like I wouldn't kill someone just because I liked them, honestly. I mean. If we go by my personal history…'
She worried her lower lip.
'It almost seems more likely than not that I'm going to end up breaking his flute, stealing his bijuu, and then giving it back a month later with no explanation. That's just how things seem to go. Life is funny sometimes.'
Speaking of funny, she couldn't decide what she thought Kakashi might have planned for his clone and Pakkun. The two obvious functions that they should somehow mutually fulfill would be to get Kakashi in case of trouble, and to stall Zabuza should he appear.
She'd thought earlier that the shadow clone was intended to dissipate at the first sign of trouble and instantaneously alert Kakashi as to the exact nature of the situation. But leaving Pakkun as a stalling tactic didn't make sense. He was small, quiet, and intelligent, but had almost no combat ability.
'If he'd wanted a combat oriented ninken to keep Tazuna-san alive for even a few minutes, he'd have called Bisuke or one of the other large ninken. A few of them, really. But that'd be a lot of chakra to summon and maintain. He's compromised on that plan with Pakkun instead to save energy. Did he reverse strategy too? Pakkun could end the summon and then immediately get Kakashi's attention from the summon realm if Zabuza shows up. Kakashi wouldn't know the exact nature of the situation, but that would leave a shadow clone capable of stalling. If that were to be destroyed before he reached the location or it dispelled itself, he would lose out on re-integrating that chakra. But it might keep Tazuna-san alive.'
"Uzumaki-chan, do you intend to settle down in that bush?" Utakata asked. He was standing a few feet away and regarding her curiously. "Perhaps you might start a family. Live off the land. Found a neighborhood association-"
"I'm coming." Her joints creaked when she stood, which, ow, that hurt right in the ego. No matter what Utakata said, she wasn't old.
He edged away from the look she was giving him. Aiko consciously cleared her face and strode to take the lead. It was her turn again, wasn't it? "Set up a visual perimeter, genjutsu cover?" she confirmed, just to be certain they were on the same page.
Utakata nodded.
'Sunglasses would be nice. I could use the Rinnegan that way without risking anyone seeing. A sensor might pick up on the spike in chakra, but other than that, I'd be home free.'
Never mind that sunglasses would look absolutely ridiculous with her yukata. But it was really hot out. She couldn't be held responsible for dressing in a weather appropriate manner.
'Not sure that made sense.'
Aiko frowned, wavering. If she really didn't want to be seen by Kakashi, then should she risk using the Rinnegan? It was a chakra drain and it was distinctive, even if the Rinnegan was so rare that pretty much no one would recognize it. But Kakashi was hella good. Did she absolutely need to artificially up her game to be certain that she was outmaneuvering him?
She was leaning towards yes.
'Damn. Do I absolutely have to go below Kakashi's radar? Will he be less threatened if he thinks he knows what I am doing? Or will he flip out once I approach Tazuna-san and assume I'm a hostile? He certainly couldn't let that slide.'
"I didn't realize genjutsu required quite so much contemplation," Utakata commented.
Aiko ignored him, feeling her stress levels rise at the increasing likelihood that Rinnegan-directed genjutsu really was her best option. If only she didn't suck so damn hard without it…
'Why am I so lame? I studied genjutsu theory for like, ever, when I was trying to help Fukiko. And I got personal tutoring from Obito in blanket techniques. I feel like such an idiot. I should be able to do it. I should be able to just pick up all the pieces I have and run with them. Naruto can do that with jutsu. Kakashi's made his own jutsu, which is even harder. I bet he can do it with genjutsu too. Probably lots of people I know are like that.'
Depressing.
The fact that she often failed to master complicated jutsu didn't exactly make her feel any better about her genjutsu. She'd never managed to turn the Rasengan into something usable- shadow clone crutches weren't available as an option for her, on account of how shaky her shadow clone technique was.
'I could probably learn them properly and use them with the Rinnegan.'
Which brought her back to the same problem.
'Well', Aiko consoled herself. 'My weapons and taijutsu are pretty solid. And I'm not half bad at fuinjutsu. I can't be great at everything.'
"Hold on," Aiko snapped. Only belatedly, she realized that Utakata had been talking again. What had he been saying? It must have been annoying. Still, that was no excuse for being rude to him. She sighed. "Sorry. I was having a pity party. I'm going to have to resort to something I didn't want to use. I don't want to risk Kakashi noticing that we're here halfway through. It's preferable if he believes that we can't actually hide from him, you know?"
Utakata gave a sort of loose half-shrug without stopping the fidgeting motion of his left hand. He was spinning some kind of small pendant on a chain.
'Tmi, probably. Utakata doesn't actually care about my problems.'
Aiko rubbed at her temples and pressed her eyes shut. When she opened the Rinnegan, it was pointedly off to the side, because she wasn't interested in any comments. "Stand close. I'm going to anchor the illusion to myself. I'm doing visual, auditory, and olfactory. That doesn't mean you should make any loud smells. I'm not infallible."
He started to repeat something in a questioning tone, but Aiko wasn't paying attention. Instead, she was funneling out a truly atrocious amount of her life's energy into a three-dimensional illusion, tapping into the principles of the hell viewing technique that Kakashi himself had taught her. Hopefully, that would show any observers what they expected to perceive. She augmented that with a manipulation of a victim's color perception that should make both Aiko and Utakata blend in better with the foliage so that the main technique didn't need to confuse any observers more than necessary. The cherry on top was a blanket technique with a mild sedative effect for anyone who got within range. That should calm most paranoid minds.
Halfway through, her head was pounding. When she secured the last spider webs of manipulation, she was seeing floating spots in her peripheral and there was a distinct possibility that she was going to lose her lunch.
'Nope. Can't,' Aiko told herself in determination. She wrapped her arms around her gut. 'The smell would ruin all my hard work. Gotta keep it together.'
"Hmm." Utakata leaned back, catching the chain he'd been playing with. There was a nearly imperceptible eye twitch. He narrowed his gaze at her work, catching near invisible slivers of chakra thread. His mouth twisted. "Decent work."
Aiko very sincerely considered killing him. She could reach right into his chest, pull out his heart, and let it squish out between her fingers. He'd be sorry for being a flippant little shit then.
'Oh my god, I'm lying to myself. He would not be sorry. He would think it was hilarious that I got so upset about it. That's the same reason he pretended not to be impressed. He wants a reaction.'
So she smiled sweetly through her teeth. "Thank you." At his offended sniff, she knew she'd guessed correctly. Aiko tossed her hair, smug victory easing the pain a bit. Some hair hung down in her face, so she brushed it away. And brushed again, frowning when the shadowy lines across her vision didn't fade. But her fingertips only touched skin.
'Oh. This is new.' Aiko paused. 'And terrible.'
But it was the kind of terrible thing that she wasn't interested in sharing. Her vision wasn't truly that obstructed. She could deal with it. Maybe, if she ignored it long enough, it would just go away.
Utakata frowned, tapping a long index finger against his crossed arms. "Why are you crossing your fingers?"
Aiko shrugged. "Helps me direct chakra," she lied blandly. "Now hush. We're going to move closer."
The banter quit as they approached the construction site. Aiko stopped the forward creep with a hand held up before they could break the treeline. When Utakata looked at her, she cocked her head at him and laid her palm against a nearby tree meaningfully.
It took a moment for comprehension to flash across his face –having the high ground would improve their visibility and take them out of general line-of-sight, but Kakashi was too skilled and they were too close to stupidly risk channeling active chakra to climb normally. Her partner obligingly enough held out laced hands for her to step on, boosting her up without using any chakra. Utakata lifted easily, putting her within arm's reach of the lowest branch worth standing on. Once she was up, Aiko hooked her knees around the branch and swung down, letting the force of motion bend her body nearly against the underside of the branch before she jerked her fingers meaningfully on the verge of swinging the other direction. Utakata gave her a bland look that implied he had not planned on her assistance, but he took her hands and let her pull.
The slight widening of his eyes when she jerked up with her abdomen and pulled his body entirely off the ground told her that Utakata hadn't actually believed she could lift him. Despite his surprise, he expertly caught onto the tree and pulled his hands away from her, retreating towards the bole of the tree sulkily. Aiko huffed, rolling her eyes as she clambered to a standing position.
'It's called momentum, idiot. I don't have to be built like freaking Obito to move one skinny teenager. I just have to be slightly smarter.'
Her companion gave off a distinct air of wounded pride, but he didn't complain about working together to reach a decent height. Aiko led the way, carefully winding up and across close branches to cross trees. Eventually, leaves thinned and branches parted.
The construction site spread out before her invitingly. Aiko held her hand up for scale, noting that the closest worker visually appeared to be about the height of her pinky finger. It took a minute of silent calculation to work out their exact distance, using that for scale.
And then Utakata leaned over her shoulder and disrupted her attention. His body was curled taut like that of some horrible bird. He didn't seem particularly stable in his distracted state. She considered putting a hand to his chest and pushing him off to the ground. It would be really stupid, but it'd also be funny.
'Another time, perhaps. Today, I am serious.'
From her vantage point, it was apparent that the bridge was coming along nicely. The great pillars looming out of the water were entirely complete, connected with a skeletal metal rigging. The seven closest supports were floored with enormous sheets of something that resembled concrete. It was actually difficult to see the far edges of the bridge that were currently being worked on, due more to rising mist than the distance.
'They've got a long way to go. The coast is almost a kilometer out.'
Tazuna-san didn't dream small, though. She'd gladly give him that credit. The bridge was almost unnecessarily wide. Surely it would have been much easier and cheaper, as well as faster, to make a simple two-lane bridge. Tazuna-san's bridge was wide enough for more than four wagons to pass alongside at once.
In afterthought, it was embarrassing that Kakashi's clone dropped its henge and shouted for the civilians to hit the ground before Aiko even realized that Zabuza-san was present.
'The mist. Duh. It shouldn't have been that high. Big clue.'
At her side, Utakata all but vibrated with tension. Aiko reached out blindly and patted at his knee to calm him down.
He looked at her, wild-eyed.
'He probably doesn't want to renege on his gentleman's agreement with Zabuza. I suppose it might be an unnecessary risk, from his perspective.'
Well. It wasn't like she relished the idea that she might have to step in. It would be optimal if Kakashi handled things. He might get testy about a foreign nin interfering in his mission, even if it was to help him. Her goal wasn't to piss him off. So Aiko tried to radiate calm thoughts at her partner, tilting her head slightly and blinking slowly. Utakata did not seem reassured, but he did stare at her much longer than usual.
'Oh. Right. Creepy peepers.'
Aiko felt a little guilty- they were unnerving and that was clearly not what a jumpy nuke-nin needed- but the genjutsu had to stay. She could control it much better with the eyes powered up. If she was going to interfere in this fight, it was going to be once and from a position of absolute anonymity. She was not interested in getting into a dick measuring contest with Zabuza or Kakashi when the option of being, you know, sneaky, was available.
The civilians were howling and screaming and running for cover or just plain running in the incredibly impractical way that frightened people did when a situation was utterly beyond their ken. Zabuza and Kakashi darted around them, flickering in and out of visibility with metal clangs. At each one, Aiko winced.
A shadow clone really wasn't that sturdy. If Zabuza figured it out, or wore it down, it'd be toast.
She couldn't hear what Zabuza was saying, but it preceded him leaping backwards dramatically and working through a long series of handsigns. Like, a really long series. Aiko rolled her eyes- and then realized that Kakashi was copying them. Judging by the redness in his face, Zabuza was not amused by the copycat.
Aiko projected as much negativity as was humanly possible at Kakashi's shadow clone.
'Oh my god, this is stupid. Hit him! Hit him while his hands are busy!'
It probably didn't sense her bad thoughts…?
Zabuza's water dragon roared up, darted towards Kakashi's- and then broke course at the last second to attempt to run Tazuna-san down because Zabuza was a man after her own heart, more interested in the mission than posturing. The old man shrieked in fright and threw his flask at it. Pointlessly, of course- Kakashi's water dragon twisted around to ram Zabuza's dragon. It connected at the neck, charging through. There was a horrible, entirely audible crash like the collision of two scaled bodies, and then both chakra constructs collapsed in a wave. Zabuza landed easily on top of the resulting eddies. Kakashi's clone flickered, weakened from that draining jutsu and a series of impacts.
Aiko straightened her back.
'Game's up. Zabuza will know it's not the real Kakashi. He'll stop the dramatics and finish the job fast, before Kakashi can get here.'
Surely enough, Kakashi's shadow clone dissolved in the next series of vicious taijutsu, ultimately felled by an ankle sweep. Aiko snorted into her fist. How ignominious. Then she gave Utakata a vaguely apologetic look, shrugging in a 'what can you do' kind of way. She would have to step in before Tazuna ended up dead. It was annoying, but she didn't fancy having to find another architect of his par to complete the project.
'It would be nice to take care of Haku first, but I don't see him at all.'
Utakata was green, but he nodded.
Aiko took that as permission to pull out a single kunai. She leaned in.
Zabuza was still talking even with his opponent gone. Holy cow, that man was chatty for a master of an art of silent killing. Aiko frowned and cocked her head, listening for just a second.
"….points to hit. Heart. Larynx."
'Whatever you say, buddy.'
Aiko repressed a snort and tuned out of Zabuza's monologue to frightened civilians, pulling her hand back. Her aim was pure whimsy- a clear, merciless strike from complete silence.
Zabuza's voice cut off. It was hard to tell from the distance, but the expression on his face might have been a quiet confusion. He lifted one hand to the cheap, standard-issue kunai embedded in his larynx. Then he fell to his knees, gargling blood.
Aiko watched dispassionately, not letting the genjutsu flutter. There was fresh screaming from the closest construction workers, but there was a distinct quirk of befuddlement to the shouts that she didn't bother to decipher.
"Zabuza-sama!"
Ah. There was Haku, pushing up his hunter-nin mask to display pretty features contorted in fear and horror. Aiko crossed her arms and waited, letting time to do the work for her. Two seconds. Four. At six, Haku fluttered miserably over the prospect of removing the kunai. Zabuza was twitching. The teenager had to know that the metal was the only thing stoppering up blood, but it was also blocking his air and drowning him. Eight seconds. Haku took the risk, driven by panic instead of reason.
Utakata shifted his weight uncomfortably. Aiko shook her head.
'Haku's not a medic. Zabuza doesn't have a chance.'
Death was quicker with the projectile removed, although not really cleaner. Maybe it was more merciful. Who could say? Aiko assumed that Zabuza's heart had stopped when Haku collapsed onto his mentor's chest and wailed, tugging at fistfuls of bandages. Chunky blood bubbled up out of the sopping hole and frothed at Zabuza's lips when Haku began pounding his fists against the still chest. He screamed nonsense for a while, and then sort of gradually loosened into a slump that might have been a hug, of sorts.
Utakata tapped her arm and gave an inquisitive expression.
Aiko shrugged, telegraphing the motion. If she'd shared a hand language with him, she would have expressed that she'd prefer to let Haku tire himself out. Utakata seemed to get the gist that she didn't plan to interfere with the kid's grief, at least.
'Nice. He'll cry himself down, and I won't have to kill him. That's just kind of depressing. Team seven is a bunch of bleeding hearts without me. They'll probably let Haku live.' Aiko rolled her neck, relaxing in the breeze. The heat of the worst part of the day was finally passing. 'Once they're gone, maybe I'll revive Zabuza, tell him I'm suuuuuper sorry for not holding to our gentleman's deal on account of being a shitty person, and then offer to split Gato's cash with him.'
She did still have daydreams about Zabuza as the Mizukage, after all. That'd be interesting. Sure, Kakashi would be fucking baffled if Zabuza popped up later, but, you know. That sounded like someone else's problem.
Haku's sobbing faded. Aiko eyed him up, wondering if it was a ploy. He couldn't have forgotten that someone had attacked Zabuza. Maybe he didn't care. Maybe he was hoping she'd just kill him too.
"No such luck, kitten," Aiko murmured, rubbing at the back of her neck.
Of course, that was when Kakashi darted into sight and stopped abruptly. He gave Zabuza's corpse a short, bewildered look.
Tazuna-san poked his head out from behind a crate and raised his hands in a 'hell if I know' gesture. Whatever Kakashi said in response was too quiet for her to pick up on, but he kept Haku in his peripheral as he scanned the vicinity.
Aiko pressed her lips together and definitely did not snicker at his obvious confusion at how the situation had changed in the minute or so that he'd had no surveillance on the situation. After a while, he ventured to prod at Haku. The teenager didn't respond, so he cautiously toed away the discarded kunai that Haku'd flung to the concrete edge of the bridge. He wouldn't find anything terribly interesting, Aiko was afraid. Kakashi picked it up and sniffed at it, but come on. All he'd get off that was blood. Aiko scoffed. What a ridiculous man. He looked back over at Zabuza.
And then he lifted his head and unerringly focused his one eye on her position. Aiko nearly choked on her heart, which had relocated to her throat.
'Holy shit! He can see me?'
But no. His expression was tight, but there was no recognition. A second to calm down, and Aiko pieced it together- he'd figured out what direction Zabuza had been facing before he fell and tracked back the trajectory of the projectile. In like, a minute.
'Damn, that's sexy.'
She reached out and hooked her fingers in Utakata's collar. He was so used to the manhandling that he didn't even attempt to jerk away. He did let out a sigh in the instant before she used Hiraishin to pull them far away, before Kakashi could come over and confirm her identity.
There was no way that conversation wouldn't be at least mildly awkward. Better to not be there.