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electrasev5nwrites · 1 year

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Ninja Daily: Clarity 22

"Take her to the Hokage immediately," Yamato ordered in an undertone. He gently pulled away the arm that Aiko was still clinging to-just for warmth, obviously. "She needs to debrief. She was approached by Tobi less than an hour ago." He gave Aiko a lingering look to promise, "I'll be back as soon as I can."

Tobi? Obito. It was Obito, damnit.

ANBU –what was that, a tiger?- was a cold fish. All the agent did was incline their head slightly, pretty black hair brushing over paper-pale ears. "I see. This way, Uzumaki-san."

Aiko craned her neck to watch Yamato's back disappear into the night, fussing the fingers of her free hand against her skirt.

"Uzumaki-san?"

ANBU whatever was waiting patiently, head cocked like some oversize bird.

'I think that's a man,' Aiko decided for no particular reason. Those uniforms were designed to obscure gender- it wasn't the bodyguard's build that gave it away. The voice was also androgynous, without any unique intonation or emotion.

'So how do I know?' she wondered, letting Tsunade's personal bodyguard lead her into the home. They were immediately intercepted by another ANBU.

REQUEST: IDENTITY. PREROGATIVE.

If Aiko hadn't already had her fill of shocks, she would have jumped in surprise when she realized that the sign language the ANBU were communicating in was not the one Obito had taught her. As it was, she languidly blinked and didn't bother to hide that she flicked her eyes to see ANBU What'sHisFace's response.

AGENT TIGER. EMERGENCY DEBRIEFING.

'I definitely should not understand them,' she noted, only mildly interested in the turn her night had taken. This was small potatoes, in the grand scheme of things.

The second ANBU nodded, purple hair swaying. PROCEED.

Aiko waved with splayed fingers in the moment before the house guard disappeared back into whatever hiding spot they had crept out of. The ANBU was gone in a flicker of motion-or that was probably the intention, at least. Aiko traced the shunshin's path over to what appeared to be a blank stretch of wall. It was probably hiding an alcove of some sort. The trick was oddly familiar.

Whatever. She fought down the temptation to activate her Rinnegan to tear through whatever genjutsu was at work. There would be better times to pursue her curiosity.

'Maybe I'll remember something pertinent soon. There's really only one explanation for why I would know ANBU sign language: I had to have been one of them. What was that like?' Her eyes widened in realization. 'That could explain why there appears to be almost no record of me working with teams. ANBU work would be classified.'

Counter intuitively, her mood brightened. Perhaps she wasn't a friendless loser after all. She'd have to keep an eye out for possible ANBU friends. She chewed the inside of her cheek, watching the male ANBU beckon her into what must be the Hokage's personal quarters. Word had proceeded them- Tsunade was walking in through a rice paper door on the other side of the long room, pulling mussed hair back in a single high ponytail.

'I wonder if she's upset about being disturbed so late.'

Aiko eyed her up. "Nice pajamas."

"I trust you didn't come here to critique my wardrobe," Tsunade said crisply. There was a bit of danger in her tone.

"No." She let her gaze linger on the silk button up that the hokage had apparently worn to bed. It would have been rather classy if it didn't have a grotesquely kawaii kitten lapping out of a sake cup on the lapel. "I wouldn't criticize that."

Mostly because she wanted to keep her bones where they were.

"Hokage-sama." ANBU Tiger knelt fluidly. Aiko watched with eyebrows raised. "Yamato-san wishes you to know that the Akatsuki Tobi approached Uzumaki-san tonight."

She didn't stiffen- but then, she was the hokage. Tsunade wouldn't be roused for anything less than a state of emergency: she'd been anticipating bad news. "I see." Tsunade snapped her fingers, summoning two more ANBU who knelt at Tiger's sides. "You raise the alarm and have our perimeter locked down. You mobilize search patrols with the intention to identify and contain, not confront. You-" she paused for the first time, brow furrowed. The other two ANBU fled without even raising their heads. "Why did Yamato leave?"

Tiger looked at Aiko. Aiko looked at the wall behind Tsunade's head, slightly regretting the promise she'd extracted out of Yamato before agreeing to see Tsunade.

"He's at the women's onsen," she shared. My, that was an interesting wall hanging. It was so fascinating, in fact, that she didn't have any mental energy left to notice that Tsunade purpled at learning where her agent had gone in a time of crisis. "I was intercepted on my way there to meet a friend."

Well, sort of. That was what she'd told Yamato. It would be impolitic to go out of her way to share that she had sought out Obito and not tried to get backup.

"I convinced him to tell my friend what had happened so she didn't think I ditched her." Sheepish, she kicked at the tatami. "I may have refused to see you until he agreed."

She didn't want to admit that, but she didn't want Yamato to get in trouble either.

Tsunade's chest expanded and then shrunk when she gave a long, tired exhalation. "He should have just-" She cut off, something stricken entering her tone. Her eyes widened guiltily, focusing on Aiko's face.

'I am definitely missing something. What was she about to say?'

The Hokage coughed into her fist, angling her face down so that tawny eyelashes hid her expressive eyes. "Very well. Bring me Nara Shikaku and Hatake Kakashi." She gave a strange sort of laugh. "I doubt either of them has quite made it home yet."

'They wouldn't have made it home yet? Is something else going on?'

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Tiger's bow deepened, and then he was gone. In his wake shunshin traces arced down the long hallway, leaving the two kunoichi alone.

"Uzumaki." Bare feet whispered against the matted floor, passing Aiko for a room off the hall. "Describe this encounter. Who initiated contact?"

The Hokage, Aiko reflected grimly, was no fool.

"I was almost in the onsen when he allowed me to sense his chakra." Aiko swallowed. "Presumably, my ANBU guard had just retreated to give me privacy to bathe. I can only assume-"

"That he had already been observing you, yes." Tsunade's mouth was pinched. "So you allowed him to bait you out?"

She couldn't speak. So she nodded confirmation.

"I don't think I have to tell you how stupid that was."

No. Aiko knew it had been reckless even as she'd done it. Obito was dangerous enough when he hadn't picked the field of confrontation. Following him had been unforgivably asinine.

'I'd do the same thing again.'

Amber eyes bored into her, heavy with the full knowledge of exactly what Aiko had been thinking. Tsunade blinked, breaking the trance. "What did he do? Did he attempt to hurt you?"

She could all but physically feel the analytical assessment checking her for signs of damage.

"No." She cleared her throat. "He expressed no desire to harm me, although he did make a point of off-handedly mentioning the damage that I did to his plan." There was absolutely no abashment in her tone. If Obito had hoped to make her feel guilty, he would have to cope with disappointment. "He offered an incoherent apology, gave me two packages that Yamato confiscated, and then said something…" she trailed off, closing her eyes to better remember his exact words.

She could still see the easy sincerity on Obito's face. "He said, 'I apologize for what I'm going to do, but I promise that it'll work out.'" Aiko paused, parroting the rhythm he'd used. "'You'll see,'" she finished tonelessly.

Because that wasn't ominous as fuck.

Tsunade began to pace, fingers locked behind her back. "Aa. Do you have any idea what he could be referring to? How his plans might have changed after you left? If he is still pursuing jinchuuriki?"

Aiko shook her head. She didn't bother to clarify. She'd already told Tsunade everything she knew about Obito's old plan. Anything else he thought of would be news to her- although she seriously doubted his ability to come up with something usable. If he'd had any options, he wouldn't have clung to the same unworkable plan for so long.

Saying those things might have been helpful, but she'd gotten the message by now that no one cared to hear her personal assessments of Obito.

If she hadn't looked at that precise moment, she wouldn't have seen that Tsunade's interlocked fingers were white with tension. Aiko's eyes widened, fixating on the crack in her façade of emotional control.

"Hokage-sama?"

And then the Hokage turned, and the moment was over. Aiko reluctantly tore her eyes away to check the newcomer.

An older man- forties or older, perhaps, with dark hair and attractive scarring- was inclining his head to Tsunade. The instant he was finished, the straight line of his spine relaxed and he seemed to be another person altogether.

Tsunade didn't waste any time on frivolities. "Nara-san. We have had another security breach by the Akatsuki Tobi."

'If I didn't know any better, I'd say that she was completely relaxed,' Aiko marveled, fidgeting.

She paid attention again when Nara heaved a sigh, hands shoved deeply into his pockets. "It's always something." His eyes were much keener than his tone. Aiko repressed a shiver, refusing to look away. "Did he bother Uzumaki-san again?"

"Yes." Tsunade's tone was short. "He made a point of mirroring a previous incident, although this time he approached her before she got in the onsen instead of afterward."

Wait. What? Aiko gaped at the implications of that comment.

'Obito, you filthy fucking perv! I had no idea.'

"That is likely intended to make a point to you, not Uzumaki-san." He nodded politely at her in acknowledgment.

"Yes." The two Jounin followed when Tsunade set off briskly, leaving the hallway behind. "Aiko. I presume the ANBU at the perimeter took the suspicious packages that Yamato-san confiscated?"

"Umm-" it took a moment for her to remember. "Yes, that's right."

As they rounded a corner, no less than three ANBU appeared kneeling in front of them. Tsunade halted, hips swaying. "Have you discovered anything hazardous?" A bowed head shook in denial. "I see. Bring a mission report form to Uzumaki-san and the materials from Tobi to Nara-san for analysis. Aiko, I want you to write down everything you remember."

'That guy is going to analyze my pornography and clothes. What is my life even. What. Why.'

Her tone brooked no dissent, so Aiko just nodded. When a folder and pen were proffered, Aiko took them without complaint.

"You can just sit anywhere." Tsunade gestured distractedly at the room, indicating the kotatsu and cushions. One of the ANBU had already gone, but the others took up posts beside the door.

The cushions were appealing at the moment. Aiko sank down onto one, wiggling just enough to get everything below her hips under the blanket on the kotatsu. Some chivalrous ANBU switched on the heat without being asked. She shot him a grateful look and set pen to paper.

'I'm going to tattle the hell on Obito. Crazypants. I can't believe he said Zetsu was dead. I killed the crap out of Zetsu.'

Aiko frowned thoughtfully, sucking on the end of her pen. 'Maybe I didn't kill him well enough. That would suck. I don't think he liked me even before I smote him.'

Tsunade was still giving orders, talking quickly with her ANBU and Nara-san, when chakra fluttered politely outside the room. "In fact-" She inhaled sharply, and then relaxed. "Oh good, I was wondering what happened to you two. Mitarashi, why are you here?"

Aiko glanced up to see that Yamato had finally returned with Anko at one side and Kakashi on the other.

'Oh god. What is Anko going to think about all this?'

"That's the friend I asked him to get," Aiko spoke up. Who, you know, on second thought, probably shouldn't have been dragged to the Hokage's home at ten thirty at night while her hair was still piled up in a towel. Oops. She flashed Anko a, 'hey, what can you do' sort of smile and then ducked her head back over the report, letting her hair cover her face.

There was a pause and Tsunade gave the two young women a narrow-eyed look, heavy with meaning. "The friend from the bar?"

Something about the tone clearly put Anko on alert. The older woman gave Tsunade a vaguely suspicious look and pressed her back flatter against the wall. She did look a little suspicious wearing her usual mesh but accessorizing it with a towel over her wet hair.

Aiko could all but hear Tsunade's raised eyebrow and the rest of what went unsaid. For instance, the part where Aiko had let Shizune assume that she'd tumbled into bed with some drunk stranger instead of coming home.

Aiko frowned. That was almost exactly what had happened, except it hadn't been as fun as Shizune had likely assumed.

'Shizune is a rotten tattletale.' Aiko filed that away for future notice and became very busy writing her report. It was imperative that Nara-san have it as soon as possible, after all. It was probably going to be more helpful to national security than her spare bras. Which he was probably inspecting at this very moment in this very house. Oh god.

'Surreal. Better to not think about that.'

What had she been thinking about? Oh, right. Shizune's gossip. It was probably too late to learn how to travel back in time and lie to Shizune about where she'd spent her night. And if she learned time travel, there were probably more important things to rectify. She had so many regrets about the past year of her life, and thinking about Obito only made them sharper. For example…

'On a second go, I'd get the pink holster.' Aiko tapped her fingers against the bone normally covered by the red kunai holster she habitually wore on her hip. Index finger, middle finger, ring finger. Then she tapped all of them at once. Tap tap tap. For a novelty item based off a movie adaptation of erotic literature, the leather weapons holster was surprisingly high quality equipment. She could have accessorized more carefully if she'd had the full range of colors.

"Are you almost done?" Tsunade's voice in an adjoining room carried more strain than Aiko thought it really should have. Aiko straightened her back and gave a stretch before settling back down.

"Almost," she called.

When written in cold, black ink, her conversation with Obito was much easier to cope with. He'd attempted to give the impression that he had come to assuage his curiosity about her survival, but that was a lie. That could be why he'd come to Konoha, but that didn't explain why he had stopped to talk to her. He'd obviously had her under observation.

His agenda was harder to pin down, but she kept eliminating possibilities. She flexed her feet under the table, relaxing a bit as heat seeped into her bones. Tsunade's personal rooms were much warmer than the rest of the sprawling traditional home- perhaps she only warmed the areas that she frequented.

Apologizing to her hadn't been his real agenda, and neither had returning her clothes. Those were all surface, weak excuses he could use to justify the trip.

"Aiko, did you hear that?" She jerked to attention, seeing that Tsunade was gesturing to Nara-san. "Do you think Tobi would have left for the moment? Did he get what he wanted?"

That was a harder question than it initially appeared to be. Obito's mind was a twisty place. If he hadn't come for a fight, it was hard to know what he had wanted.

She hesitated to answer, running her tongue along the side of her gums. "I don't know much. He implied that the sole purpose of his trip was the interaction he initiated, but he wouldn't balk at lying to me."

"Do you remember the conversation word for word?" Tsunade stepped fully back into the room, dismissing someone with a hand wave.

She closed her eyes to think, scanning her recollection. "Yes, or very close to it," Aiko said slowly. She pried her eyes open. "He was unstable. Like he was critiquing himself aloud." She cleared her throat. "He claimed that Kakuzu had abandoned him and that his only comrade left was Zetsu. There was one thing that stuck out as alarming to me."

Behind Tsunade, Yamato leaned forward to hear.

She could still see the easy sincerity on Obito's face. "He said, 'I apologize for what I'm going to do, but I promise that it'll work out.'" Aiko paused, still parroting the rhythm he'd used. "'You'll see,'" she finished tonelessly.

No one breathed.

"Sounds like a nice guy," Anko said conversationally, breaking the solemn moment. "Does he have a brother?"

If there was a group reaction to that, Aiko missed it because she had pressed her face into her hands to stifle an inappropriate grin.

She tugged down the presumably stolen white towel from her hair and balled it against her hip. "Who the hell are we talking about? The Akatsuki who kidnapped Aiko?" She shrugged negligently, somehow appearing disinterested despite her prying.

"One of them," Tsunade acknowledged distantly.

Oh right, Anko wouldn't know-

One of them? Meaning other Akatsuki had kidnapped her?

"Wait, what?" Aiko let her face fall into unconcealed bafflement. "What are you talking about?"

'What other Akatsuki could she mean? Surely not Kakuzu-kun.'

Yamato gave her a mildly pitying expression. Anko coughed into her closed fist, looking embarrassed. Tsunade just rolled her eyes and gave the wall a long-suffering stare.

"Seriously, what does that mean?"

"We don't have time to explain all the fatuous situations you get into," Tsunade bit out, sounding as though she wished she didn't know the details. "We need…" She trailed off, mind working at top speed. "We need you under watch," Tsunade decided firmly. "Madara has only approached you when you are alone."

(Anko gave a start at that name, knocking her head against the wall in a way that did not fit with her persona of cool grace).

"I'll take this information under advisement, but I need to consult someone else." Tsunade's harried eyes flickered towards the door a full second before Aiko registered that there had been a subtle chakra pulse on the other side. "Mitarashi, you can lead a search team. Yamato, stay with Aiko. There's something that I'll need to talk to you about when I have time. You can wait in the front rooms or you can return."

Anko gave the window a longing glance, but turned and left the conventional way. Whoever had just signaled the Hokage was nowhere to be seen. Aiko stepped in line behind her, Yamato on her heels. As they filed out, a thought occurred.

"We have free time," she said casually, nodding significantly to the blank stretch of wall that a scent trail lid up to before disappearing. She didn't get anything so gratifying as a surprised curse or chakra flicker in response to her greeting, but hopefully she'd startled some poor bastard in a damn good hiding place. "And you said there was no time for us to get my hot chocolate."

Yamato sighed.

Yamato's breathing had settled into a pointedly slow, calm pattern. Aiko was sure that if she looked over, she would see that he was demonstrating the concept of patience. Ba. By the time she made it to see the Hokage again, two hours had passed and her hot chocolate was sugary dregs slowly crystallizing into mush. Also, she had been accused of melodrama, which was totally fucking ridiculous. Fingers numb, Aiko dug a thumbnail into the Styrofoam cup that she held against her shins, missing the heat of her candied drink.

'I'm going to die here on this tacky chair. I'm going to freeze to death because the Hokage is too cheap to heat her house. She can't be that poor. She's the freaking Hokage. And everything smells like ink.'

Aiko grimaced, wishing that she could plug her nose with cotton. Why did everything in this town have to stink? Shouldn't a place with so many dog-nin be sensitive to how they reeked?

From his seat in an anteroom of the Hokage's home, Yamato shot her a look, a thin line pressed between his brows and an uncertain frown tugging his lips down.

She wiggled her heels against the edge of the chair, noting that her skin was too numb to register the feeling. Somehow her chin had just enough nerve endings left to register the miserable chill of her bare knees.

'It's somehow so much worse when I'm not moving around.'

"It's really not that cold in here."

"Lies," she responded morosely without thinking.

He gave a snort. Despite his words, Yamato leaned over and wrapped his left arm around her shoulders to rub at the space between her shoulder blades. Aiko shivered, unfolding just enough to push back into his hand.

'That feels good. He's really warm. Or maybe I just have poor circulation.'

"Remind me not to take you to Lightning Country." His thumb dug into the taut muscles where her neck and shoulder joined.

It was a dumb joke, but her eyes fluttered shut and she unconsciously leaned towards his low voice. She was just so tired of all this bullshit. It wouldn't hurt to rest her head against his leg for a moment.

"Aiko? Yamato?"

That was someone else entirely. Someone she had not heard enter the room.

'Did I just fall asleep?' Unsettled, Aiko let her brow crease and lifted her head to better pay attention.

Shizune stood in a beam of tired moonlight in the now-open door, eyes haggard and miserable. "Is something else wrong?"

'What's that meant to mean?'

Broad fingers gave one last massaging movement into her shoulder before Yamato stood professionally and gave Shizune a slight bow. "I'm afraid so." His shirt rustled when he straightened. "The Hokage should have received a message about an hour ago about an intruder in the village. She took a written report from Aiko-san and asked us to return at her convenience. I assumed that she would require a more detailed debriefing as soon as she had a moment."

"Oh, that." Shizune snapped her fingers. "Of course. I haven't spoken to her in about two hours, but I noted the search patrols." She stepped further into the room, letting the door to the outer building slide shut behind her. "It's just not our week, I'm afraid." There was something sympathetic in the way her dark eyes slid over to the chair Aiko was still curled up in like a child.

Then she sighed and the moment was gone.

"You two might as well follow me. Tsunade-sama can pass off what she's doing now to me while she receives your report." Dutifully, Shizune made her way to the door where two ANBU had taken Obito's suspicious giftbags off of Yamato's hands and pushed it open. The ANBU didn't bother to materialize to halt her approach.

'Why would they? Shizune has higher clearance than they do.'

When Aiko tried to get up she stumbled, nearly falling before she adjusted to the fact that her legs had fallen asleep. Yamato offered a steadying hand that she ignored. He stood still for a second, which was just enough time for Aiko to muscle past him. With some concentration, she made sure her expression was impassive enough.

"Thank god." Tsunade blurted out, breaking into a thin smile when her older apprentice crested the corner. "I was starting to think you'd left me to this." At some point, the Hokage had changed into her regular clothes, although her jacket was wrinkled and her hair falling loosely over her shoulders.

"Never," Shizune promised seriously. She did glance around the room, holding an arm out to accept a stack of files. "Where did-"

"I sent Sasuke home," Tsunade explained, apparently understanding her apprentice without the full question. "Someone has to be sentient enough to manage the hospital tomorrow, and it's starting to look like both of us are going to be in a right state." She waved her left hand, seeming to indicate either the room or Konoha as a whole. "And…"

Aiko shrugged a shoulder in greeting, not moving the hands she had wrapped around her torso for warmth. Rustling indicated that Yamato had gifted the Hokage with a proper bow.

"Oh, hell," Tsunade said simply. "Forget you were still waiting. I had a question about timing, actually. Aiko didn't give an exact time for the confrontation. How long exactly has it been since your encounter-" she cut herself off, shaking her head. "Doesn't matter," she said in a very quiet tone, presumably to convince herself.

'She really is having an awful night.'

The Hokage ran a hand through her loose hair, rubbing a few strands between a thumb and forefinger. "I had the sweep report in eight minutes ago." She looked at Yamato for a moment, and then settled her gaze on Aiko. "No one reported any sightings of Tobi in Konoha. It is likely that he is gone."

Some tension that Aiko hadn't noticed slipped out.

"Don't thank me yet." Tsunade's expression was regretful, mouth turned down. "I said there wasn't another sighting of him in Konoha tonight. I had a report of Tobi harassing your brother's team in the Land of Iron about forty minutes before you tried to check in."

Electricity sung through her veins, tingling sensation back into twitching fingers.

It couldn't be true. Obito wouldn't-

"I apologize for what I'm about to do," Obito murmured.

That had been what he'd said, hadn't it?

'He meant Naruto. He thinks an apology would make up for taking Naruto away from me. That bastard. That spider-infested floral-fucking-scented cowardly bastard. I'm going to kill him. I'm going to fucking kill him.'

Just like that, all the work that Yamato had done to relax her muscles was undone.

Yamato gaped. "How is that possible, Hokage-sama?" A hand clenched convulsively against his thigh. "I didn't personally see the intruder, but Aiko would know-"

"Kamui, remember?" Tsunade interrupted sourly. "Additionally, Naruto's report had hours of delay. His summons are fast, but they can't Hiraishin just yet." She sat up a little straighter, amber eyes glinting. "Naruto and his team are fine, don't worry. But it's been made clear that he's a target." Grim, the Hokage's eyes slid halfway shut and her jaw tensed. "No harm was done. It seems that something about the situation caused Tobi to reassess. But he'll try again later. He'll have to if he still intends to collect the bijuu."

'That timeline doesn't make sense.' Aiko let her mouth fall slightly open. 'If- if the report came to Tsunade before we did, that means Obito approached Naruto first. But if that'd happened, why apologize in the future tense?'

Well. Other than that he'd failed. He could have been referring to his future plans. But he hadn't seemed like a man who had just come from a failed confrontation.

It just didn't quite work, no matter how she looked at it. She felt an ugly premonition that something she didn't see was about to nip at her heels.

"I don't get it." The older shinobi focused on her with an intensity that would have made a lesser woman quail. "It doesn't quite make sense," Aiko explained, frowning. No matter what they said, she knew Obito. This scenario didn't fit his modus operandi as far as she could tell. Perhaps another shinobi would back down at seeing a full team of Konoha Jounin, the leader of Ame, and the team of Samurai who were her official escorts, but it didn't seem like Obito to walk into that situation without knowing exactly who he was about to confront.

Before Tsunade could speak, she shook her head. "He doesn't do things like that. Whatever happened, he didn't fail, and I doubt that he was put on the run. His chakra levels were normal and I didn't see any evidence of stress or agitation." That, of course, meant that, "Whatever his aim was, he succeeded in it."

'Does that mean he succeeded with the other jinchuuriki? Did I actually save Fuu and the Mist-nin, or did he get what he needed?'

Tsunade's face twisted and she let out a curse that made Yamato turn pink. "I don't need this." The Hokage dug her fingers into her hair and glanced up just enough to glare at Aiko. "You're certain about this?"

She tensed the muscles in her legs, acid and energy building up into the potential for violence. "Yes." Her teeth clipped together sharply. "There's something else that I can't put my finger on, but I know that. He doesn't back down, even when he should. He wouldn't retreat unless physically forced to, and he wouldn't have been in the healthy condition I saw if that was the case."

'I know something. What is it? I'm trying to make a connection, I know it.'

Aiko tasted blood. That was the only reason she realized she was gnawing at the flesh of her cheek. Her right cheek had split open between her teeth, and she still clenched her jaw, worrying at the meat.

"If you know something," Tsunade began, leaning forward. "Anything at all-"

"I know it, it's just not coming to me," Aiko snapped. She licked blood off her teeth and sucked at it, wallowing. It was like sucking on dirty old coins. The idea that she wouldn't share information that could help Naruto and Karin and Hinata was insulting beyond belief. She'd kill to keep them safe. She had.

"That team shouldn't be alone in these circumstances," Shizune said quietly. "They're a good team, but they're young and not that experienced. But we just aren't ready to depart, yet. Not with the political climate this way."

There had to be something.

"Yes. And even if we set out tomorrow they'd be out in the field alone for weeks." Tsunade sounded as if she had already considered every angle of this.

Anything.

'If I had re-mastered the Hiraishin, it wouldn't matter. Travel time wouldn't be an issue and then I could be there to make sure nothing happens. Tsunade and Shizune could go back and forth as needed to keep things under control.'

She wrapped a hand around the end of her braid and pulled, not noticing when her scalp began to ache and stretch from the abuse.

Naruto was in danger. Maybe Obito had already gotten what he needed. Maybe it was like her inkless Hiraishin seals- a danger that couldn't be seen until it was too late.

There had to be something.

But what? Self-loathing tore through her chest. She couldn't just make her head straighten out. And god, what a stupid fucking failure, unable to put together the things in her own head in her own memory she was a moron and-

"Yamanaka." Aiko let go of her hair and looked back to Tsunade. "Yamanaka Inoichi or my therapist or whoever, I don't care. Just get me a Yamanaka. I need all my memories back now. We need Hiraishin so we can go without worrying about the atmosphere here, and I need to know what it is that's wrong about this situation."

Shizune's eyes widened, and she took a step into Aiko's personal space to make a peace-keeping gesture. "No one is asking that. You had a bad reaction to mind jutsu," she reminded.

She said that like Aiko had forgotten or something.

"It's not completely safe," Tsunade warned. "Your therapy was meant to be scheduled over months of appointments. The mind is nearly unpredictable." Her tone was hard. But she wasn't saying no. Shizune shot her mentor a betrayed expression, shock pulling her lips apart. But the Hokage's eyes were cold, utilitarian. "It's not even guaranteed to help," she continued. "You might end up too confused to be of any use regardless. I won't force you."

'That's a laugh. It's my idea.'

"You don't need to." Decisive, Aiko tilted her chin up to look down at the Hokage over her cheekbones. "I'm telling you what I'm going to do. Get me a Yamanaka. I need to know what I know."

Horrified, Shizune stared at the two lighter-haired women. Her mentor was dangerously still, eyes narrowed so that her blonde lashes covered most of her pupils. "You don't give me orders," Tsunade said very, very quietly. Aiko wasn't entirely certain if she was pissed or considering, measuring something only she could see.

Aiko met her gaze and didn't back down, feeling a snarl rising in her throat. She closed her lips against it so that it only roiled and shook the roof of her mouth.

'I'm right. Naruto is in danger and I'm not playing games.'

"Let's just all calm down!" Yamato raised his hands, drawing peripheral attention with just a hint of nervousness in his voice. It was amazing how he could sink into the background. Neither woman broke their staring match. "Hokage-sama, would you like me to fetch Yamanaka-san?"

A slender, fine muscle tensed in Tsunade's neck. She licked her lower lip and opened her mouth with obvious hesitation. "Yes," the older woman allowed. She looked away, back to the only man in the room. "Get me Yamanaka Inoichi. Bring him to my office at the hospital. We'll move there."

Yamato left. Shizune fled a moment later, waving the papers she'd collected from Tsunade's hands like a talisman against evil.

Aiko took a deep breath in through her mouth, intentionally steadying her heartbeat. It was racing out of control.

"Aiko." Tsunade's voice was without inflection or discernible tone. "If this works, we will leave tomorrow."

She nodded, deliberate and slow. Now that they were alone, the older woman seemed much more sorrowful than aggressive.

Yamanaka Inoichi walked into the examination room adjoining Tsunade's hospital office (how many offices did one women really need?) only fifteen minutes after Yamato had ran to fetch him. The situation had settled into sullen silence that he didn't give any indication of noticing.

Tsunade rose gracefully to greet him, sleeves sweeping up. The effect was undermined by the painful-sounding crack that her back gave.

'She's what, seventy years old?' Aiko subtly rubbed at her chest without straightening her posture. 'She shouldn't be doing this anymore. She shouldn't be up all night dealing with external threats and then pacifying internal tensions in the day.'

Aiko was suddenly hyper conscious of her own aching eyes and the crisp burn in her nostrils from harsh chemical cleaners.

"Inoichi-san." The Hokage's voice was level. The Yamanaka took his cue from her and bowed politely.

'Apparently we're going to ignore the facts that she's super old and that he just walked in wearing his pajamas. That's cool too.'

"Hokage-sama," Inoichi murmured.

He did wear them with a surprising amount of dignity, Aiko decided. You know, for a fifty year old man in jammies patterned with atrocious cartoon kawaii kunai. They had smiley faces nestled in the handle loops.

"What do you need of me?"

Tsunade dug a knuckle into the curve between her eye and nose, rubbing at tension. "We need you to do everything you can to restore Aiko-chan's memory, now," she said simply. The wounded pride of earlier was gone. She just looked tired.

And for the first time, Aiko wondered if that anger hadn't been directed at herself, not anger that Aiko had challenged her but anger that the situation had come to this point. But that was nuts. Tsunade couldn't possibly be that masochistic or overly protective.

"Hokage-sama!" Inoichi glanced at Aiko and then back immediately, flustered. His ponytail whipped behind him, just the slightest bit frizzy from sleep. "That is inadvisable."

Aiko uncrossed her arms and straightened her back, no longer feigning nonchalant disregard. Now wasn't the time to look like a grumpy teenage dissident.

Tsunade's shoulders rose a millimeter in defensive tension. "It's necessary,"

"I'm ready." Aiko took a step forward, forcing the Yamanaka to pay attention to her instead of arguing with the Hokage. "I understand there are risks."

When he did look at her, Aiko wasn't sure that he was really seeing her. There was far too much pained fondness in the creases around his eyes.

"Well, you will survive." He exhaled, fluttering the thin material on his chest. "I do know better than to argue with young women." He settled into the doctor's chair, gesturing for Aiko to sit on the bed. "Let's see what we can do, hmm?" He made eye contact. She held her breath and looked into the watery blue iris where there should have been a pupil. Then they spun away into black and white, a dimension that Aiko was quite attached to falling away in the process. What little remained of her stomach twisted.

On that first attempt, Aiko lasted twenty three minutes and seventeen seconds before she threw up. She came back to consciousness with the familiar sounds of Tsunade's cursing ringing in her ears. It took a moment for her to place it- Sasuke. It reminded her of Sasuke. He'd picked up a lot of creative profanities from his apprenticeship, apparently.

"Damnit." Disgusted, the medic strode over to the sink and wet a towel. "Clean up the worst of it," she ordered. "I'll get you a drink." Dazed, it took Aiko a moment to comply. Her breathing was hard, and her chest shaking. There were foamy flecks of old chocolate drink on her skirt. The glass of cold water Tsunade offered sort of helped. Not really.

"I'd get a hospital gown, but there's no point in her changing if this is going to happen again," Tsunade's voice warbled across the room, going up and down and sideways in ways it had no license to be doing. "Yamanaka, progress?"

The hospital tile really was ugly. Aiko took a deep breath, inhaling a sour stench that was somehow competing with antiseptic cleaners, and tried to count the gray flecks on the off white square directly between her toes.

"I need that much time again, and I think I'll be done," he said with a sort of pained sympathy.

Oh god. She'd hoped to be done in one long go and held out as long as she could.

Aiko threw up again, heaving up putrid fluid and tucking her head between her open thighs. Ino's dad pushed his chair back to avoid splatter on those ratty sandals he always wore. God, he hadn't replaced those yet? So cheap.

Their second attempt spanned two minutes of nervously attempting to pretend she was anywhere else. Anywhere other than in claustrophobic pressure while information slotted wildly into place in her head, clanging and chittering and begging for attention that she didn't have time to give it there was just too much at once coming too fast-

She hyperventilated, chest aching from the force her heart was pounding it with.

"Damnit." Tsunade gritted out, a pin-straight figure looming in the sudden onslaught of light and color and sensation. "Calm down. Breathe for a moment." Her voice was soothing, but the intensity of her expression made Aiko's heart race. "Aiko, get your head together. We nee-"

"Hokage-sama. Perhaps it would be better if you would leave," Inoichi said sweetly, turning an expression Aiko couldn't see on the older woman.

'Did he just-'

Yes. Judging by the offended way that Tsunade lifted her head and stalked out, he really had just kicked the Hokage out of her own office. Inoichi turned back to her, pleasant professionalism on every inch of his features. The cartoon kunai on his button-up top wrinkled cheerily. "If it would help for us to take a short break before we resume, I would be amenable," he said. "I do recommend that we attempt to make each session last as long as possible, for your sake."

Despite her best efforts, it took four more attempts to cumulatively match the progress of her first session. By the end of it, Aiko was a shuddering wreck, plastered to the bed by sweat and anchored by the fingers clenched into the plastic mattress covering, joints stiffened past the point of pain. The paper sheet was torn, ruined under her hands.

"Take deep breaths."

She complied. The room slowed a little bit, but it was still spinning in a way it had no right to.

"Can you look at me?" She could. "How many fingers am I holding up? When did you meet the current Hokage? Remind me, who was your Academy teacher?"

She rattled her brains for the last one, taking a moment to remember Iruka-sensei. Which was bizarre. She'd spent a lot of time with him. So did someone else. Naruto? Yeah, Naruto.

Inoichi gave a nod, relief bleeding into his expression. "Excellent, Aiko-chan. What's your identification number?"

Aiko froze at that one, wide-eyed. She had three. She knew that she had three identification numbers before she remembered why or what they were. It took a few seconds to retrieve the information: There was the code she'd gotten assigned as a genin, her ANBU identification, and the false id she'd used in Root for personnel checks.

'Don't be thick. He'll want the first one.'

When she carefully listed it off, Inoichi seemed to decide she was as good as he could expect her to be.

Ino's dad unfolded from his chair, knees creaking. If Ino hadn't pointed it out, she might have missed the facial twitch that betrayed the pain his old wounds gave him. Without thinking, Aiko stood to steady his weak side. He ended up being the one to support her. The look he gave her was wryly knowing.

"I keep telling Ino-chan that I don't need her worry." Still, he gave her hand a paternal squeeze before lifting it off his arm. "Glad to have you back."

"Good to be back," Aiko replied automatically, eking out the polite lie and listing slightly to the side. She widened her stance to improve her balance. She stopped moving, but the room didn't, spinning slow and rebellious.

'This was not my best night.'

He seemed to know what she was thinking, carefully not looking down at the dried vomit plastering her skirt to her legs.

"I'm certain that Tsunade-sama will send in a change for you." He turned the doorknob, giving one last polite nod that stretched out for more time than it was allowed to and was then suddenly over. "I'll go relay the good news."

"And then go to bed." She smiled weakly, indicating his pajamas. "Have a good night, Inoichi-san."

The night passed in bits and pieces, sliding out of focus. Aiko stepped into the shower and then realized that she was pulling on a Jounin uniform while Anko explained something funny that had happened at work the other day. Then Yamato was there, a bruise blooming under his left eye that he didn't quite explain before she noticed that she was in the Hokage's office going over her encounter with Obito and the details of their trip to the Land of Iron.

"Should she be alone like this?" Anko smelled like a milk-based soap, sweet and whole. Oh, right. She'd gone to the hot springs. When had she showed up? Aiko tilted her head back to blink up at the special jounin, eyes focusing on a strand of surprisingly long purple hair.

She'd missed something. People had moved around the room. Oh, hello Kakashi. She waved with her free hand.

Anko carefully pulled her hair out of Aiko's grip, agreeing with whatever the Hokage had just said. "Come on, then. We're having a sleepover with your bummer teetotaler bodyguard." Her tone didn't match her words- like Anko was perhaps not as displeased as she wanted to seem. Aiko shot a curious glance to Yamato and grabbed his arm, linking their limbs before he could lurch away or protest. But that didn't seem fair; Anko was left out of the chain. Aiko held her left elbow out wordlessly and Anko copied the linking motion Aiko had made to trap Yamato with a wry look over Aiko's head at someone Aiko didn't remember. They stumbled to someone's apartment that way. Aiko wasn't sure whose it was.

No matter how invitingly Aiko patted the futon, Yamato shook his head and refused to join her in curling up against Anko.

Wasn't he tired? He was going to be cold if he slept like that, arms crossed defensively over his chest. And his face was pink, probably already fevered.

"Don't worry," Anko drawled, sounding oddly close to laughter as she physically restrained Aiko from wobbling over to pull Yamato to lie down for his own good. "I'm sure that he'll regret that eventually. We'll get him."

"To bed?" Aiko confirmed, obediently curling against the older girl's front.

"Yes." Anko choked, petting the back of Aiko's head, inadvertently pushing her nose further into the mesh over her chest. "We'll get him to bed. That's a verb. That shit holds together, sweet pea."

Aiko hummed, nuzzling in.

She woke up at first light with a choked sob of pain. There was a sudden flurry of movement, but all Aiko could think to do was press her palms down over her eyes.

"Oh." Yamato, she identified the man's voice. "Just a moment." She swallowed hard, registering the sound of blinds being drawn over the pounding in her ears. "Is that better?"

"I…" she trailed off, unsure. "Maybe."

"Aiko." His voice was gentle. "Let's pull your hands off your face and see, alright?"

She really didn't want to. She didn't think she could do it herself, no matter how much it needed to be done. He must have seen that in the set of her mouth, because he knelt by the futon with a deliberate rustle of fabric and gently pried at her hands. She blinked into the dim light, feeling tears cling to her lashes. It hurt, damnit. But she could handle it.

Brow furrowed in concentration, Yamato wiped a droplet away and frowned at her. "There's a lot of redness," he said dubiously.

It took a moment to think that one through. Light sensitivity made sense, but redness?

'I was probably rubbing at them in the night and just irritated them more. All the stress and mind jutsu couldn't have possibly done anything to mitigate whatever's wrong with my Rinnegan.'

Anko cursed, wiggling out of the covers and twisting on the floor to have a look for herself. "There is," she agreed, an unhappy twist to her mouth. "I'll get Shizune."

"Get Sasuke," Yamato corrected, not unkindly. "I think we'd be better off with a medic who slept in the last twenty four hours."

Anko snorted in quiet concession, rotating her shoulders and maneuvering with a little shake in order to re-position the flesh colored fabric that had apparently slipped down under her mesh in a revolt against decency while they slept. "Fair enough, shitface. I'll be right fucking back."

Aiko tore her gaze away from the very interesting movements that Anko had been making just early enough to notice that Yamato had also been watching with wide eyes. She raised an eyebrow at him. He flushed and scooted backwards, skin a brilliant pink.

She carefully waited until the door had closed behind Anko to admit, "She's really sexy. I wish I looked like that."

Wasn't the first time the thought had crossed her mind. She'd wanted to look like Anko the first time she saw her naked in the hot springs-

Aiko flushed, suddenly thankful that there were no mindwalkers in the room.

"Don't. You're not half bad yourself," Yamato replied absently, still staring at his knees. "Different, but still attractive."

She could pinpoint the millisecond that he registered what he'd said by the tightening of his shoulders. Her mouth fell open. One of her first crushes- the man who'd been her best eye candy for years- well. "I thought you were incredibly good looking the first time I met you," Aiko shared, taking pity on his obvious humiliation. Then she paused, because that said something about the consistency of her taste. "Both times, actually," she mused aloud. "Did I really ask you-"

"If I am an underwear model?" he interrupted, strain obvious. "Yes. Please stop asking. It made me think about that time that the kazekage's sister-"

"Tried to get you to do her laundry in your swimsuit!" Aiko remembered, cracking a smile. That… Huh. That didn't seem as funny as it should. Was she jealous? She shouldn't be. Gaara had put a kibosh to the affair when he realized what the stuttering wreck of a Jounin was doing in their suites.

'Good dude, Gaara. Kinda wish I hadn't unleashed three bijuu on his country.' Aiko winced. 'Well. One hardly stayed out at all. So two bijuu, really, and two jinchuuriki.'

That didn't really sound much better, even in her head. How had he handled that? She hadn't the faintest idea.

"I should have been paying a lot more attention to current events," Aiko said ruefully, blinking down the pain and coming to a vertical position.

"You know, I often tell myself that as well," Kakashi mused.

Yamato yelped, falling onto his ass with a surprised expression. "Senpai!" he protested. "Don't do that."

"Don't do what?" He only sounded mildly curious. Aiko craned her neck to see the older man perched on the table, giving Yamato a pleasantly expectant look, like he hadn't just broken into someone else's house and waited for the optimally entertaining moment to reveal himself. "I didn't interrupt something, did I?"

'Of course he's not embarrassed,' Aiko thought with a rush of fondness. 'Shitbird.'

"Aiko-san?" Kakashi was looking at her with what she would have pegged as cool detachment yesterday. Today, it was painfully obvious that he was expectant.

"Shishou," she replied, because that was what he was asking.

The resulting smile was all the more brilliant because it wasn't a cheesy imitation- it was just creases forming around his eyes to match what she couldn't see happening under his mask.

Oh my god.

"I saw under your mask," Aiko blurted, more to herself than Kakashi. "I saw- and I didn't-"

"What?" Yamato yelped, leveling puppy eyes at Kakashi. "That's not fair. Senpai!"

"I was a bit underwhelmed by the initial reaction," Kakashi mused. He seemed disgustingly pleased with himself, almost preening.

She barely remembered what she'd seen. There's been a scar- and he was pale, but of course he was since he was always wearing that damn thing, and-

"I liked your teeth." Contemplatively, she tapped at her own. "Is that-"

"It's a dog-nin thing," he explained, dropping to the floor and ruffling Yamato's hair carelessly. The brunette was still sulking. "If you'd compare with a photo, yours are a little sharper than they were when you were a genin, before you contracted. But since you grew in your adult teeth long before you signed, you missed out on the full effect." He didn't bother to hide his amusement, lifting his pitch slightly to address Yamato. "You're still my favorite kohai, ne?" He kneed the ANBU's side.

Yamato looked up, sullen. "My feelings are still hurt."

"This is fascinating," Sasuke drawled, hip-checking the door open. He did not sound remotely fascinated. "But I think it's time for you two clowns to shut up and you to sit up so I can examine your empty skull." When Aiko didn't immediately move, he gestured impatiently to Yamato's couch. "Now."

"You got bossy in your dotage," Aiko mumbled under her breath, dodging the slap he aimed at the back of her head. "Is that really a good idea right now?"

"Can't hurt," he said blandly, taking her skull between his hands with a gentleness that belied his catastrophic bedside manner. Sasuke grunted in displeasure a moment later, but Aiko was already relaxing into the cooling relief his chakra offered. "Your tenketsu are swollen," he said, sounding personally offended. "What have you been doing?"

Oh, right.

"Is now a bad time to mention I have the Rinnegan?" Aiko murmured, leaning into his grip like an oversized dog. Dog, she needed to talk to her dogs. Would they still want to contract with her? Had they moved on? Gotten other jobs? Her chest ached at the thought, bereft.

"What?" Sasuke's grip tightened painfully for just an instant. Her world went white.

Aiko screamed, trying to wrench back away from the inhuman force digging into the side of her skull.

"Sorry!" He actually sounded flustered, ripping his hands away. "I forget how fragile people- my chakra control isn't as good as it could be," Sasuke changed tracks. His fingers hovered, clenching and unclenching.

"It's- fine. It's fine," Aiko decided, leaning back in. She swallowed, putting a hand on her chest. "It only hurt for a moment."

"Probably because bone was bending," Sasuke informed, apologetic. "I am sorry. My control slips when my temper does."

"And that won't happen again, right Sasuke-kun?" There was more than a hint of censure in Kakashi's tone.

"Right." Sasuke cleared his throat. "Ah. You were saying something about the Rinnegan?"

Instead of answering, Aiko closed her eyes, channeled chakra, and re-opened her eyelids to show off the Rinnegan.

'Would now be a good time to show the two middling stages?'

She bit at her lower lip, not realizing that was a contemplative habit she hadn't regularly indulged in for quite a long time.

It didn't seem fair to keep that information from Sasuke. But he'd always been sensitive about his family. What would that information mean to him? What did it mean in general? She'd taken for granted that these eyes had come from Nagato… But had they come from someone else beforehand? The Sharingan indicated that they could have been stolen from one of Sasuke's ancestors. That was pretty fucked up. But it wasn't really her prerogative to keep the information from him.

"There's this, too," Aiko said before she could change her mind, funneling chakra through her eyes to change to the Mangekyou and then the Sharingan.

'Wait. How did I know it was called Mangekyou?' Stunned, Aiko missed Sasuke's initial reaction. 'That wasn't anything I knew before, with Obito. I don't remember learning about it in my time in Konoha, either.'

Strange. She didn't remember learning it, but she remembered thinking about it? That didn't make any sense at all. How could she think about information that she hadn't acquired?

"At least that's something I am uniquely qualified to deal with," Sasuke was saying, just a bit unsteadily. "I've been working on the damage that airhead did to his Sharingan over twenty years of inexpert use."

Kakashi looked spectacularly uncomfortable, shoulders traveling up level with his ears.

"Down, boys," Aiko warned, reaching out to pinch Sasuke's side. He was too proud to squirm away, and too well-trained to let pain show on his face. "Both of you. Leave each other alone."

"Not Tenzou?" Kakashi asked with a pout, kicking a heel against the table leg.

Yamato wasn't being a brat to anyone else. "He's fine."

Her scumbag former shishou made an exaggerated sound of polite comprehension that prompted Sasuke's eyebrows to shoot up in question.

She wasn't interested in listening to Kakashi's play by play of the conversation he'd overheard between her and Yamato, so the subject needed to be changed. "Is there a problem or not?" Aiko pushed. "I have constant migraines, sometimes I have to lay down and avoid light. But I've been adjusting and making it work."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, placing his index fingers and thumbs against her temples. "I don't think you're about to go blind anytime soon, so that's a good sign. You actually have the chakra reserves to cope, unlike some peop-" his voice broke off in surprise, pitch veering unflatteringly high.

"Is something wrong?" It was Yamato who took a step too close, forehead creased.

"No." Sasuke drew back just enough to give her a baffled examination. "It isn't. I should give Naruto an ocular exam," he mumbled, leaving her confused for a moment before he continued in a louder tone. "You have the secondary chakra feed to your eyes that an Uchiha would," he explained, sounding personally offended by the medical anomaly. "It's not big enough. It's about the third the size of mine or Itachi's, half the size of Fukiko's." He shook his head, indicating a size with his thumb and fingers. "It's defunct from generations of disuse, I would presume. But you have an ancestor with a dojutsu somewhere in your family."

'That makes a lot of sense.'

Her lips twitched into something that definitely wasn't a smile. "I suppose that's why he knew to put them in my head."

Comprehension visibly dawned, darkening his features. "That's why you were taken-so that Akatsuki could have a Rinnegan user again." Sasuke huffed, blowing air out the side of his mouth to ruffle his bangs. "They weren't counting on how contrary you are." He sounded almost proud.

'I don't know if I'm complimented or offended.' She frowned, considering hitting him on principle. But more urgent matters distracted her. Obito. That was why she'd gone to all the confusing trouble- she needed to remember something to do with Obito. But try as she might, she didn't remember anything that would help explain how he could benefit from putting Konoha on guard to a possible attempt on Naruto.

The only people who could conceivably benefit from that were Konoha and her allies with jinchuuriki to protect. Gaara (who could protect himself)-Fuu (whose shithole village didn't seem committed to her well-being)- the two jinchuuriki in Mist, they had a lot of worry about didn't they, that was an interesting train of thought-

"Is something wrong?" Sasuke tapped the side of her head. For the first time, she noticed that her pain had been reduced. "I can't end it. It's going to be a constant, but I can relieve the pressure periodically. That'll have to be good enough."

Aiko nodded, opening her mouth to banish the irritation Sasuke seemed to be directing at himself for failing to solve a problem the first time he'd seen it. "I feel much better, thanks. I just drifted off for a moment there."

"I hear you've been doing a lot of that," Sasuke said, voice dry enough to chap her skin. "I don't know what Tsunade-shishou was thinking. That was an irresponsible decision."

"She was thinking that we don't have a lot of time," Aiko snapped, kicking him so that he backed up. She used the new space to stand. "We still don't. I should start packing."

"Already done." Yamato hooked a thumb over his shoulder at an intimidatingly oversized pack by the door. "I think it's all new equipment, assembled to match Tsunade's specifications."

She fought down a grimace. "Great," Aiko replied sourly. "I love wearing clothes that other people picked out for me. Really makes me feel like an adult."

"So does complaining, I suppose," Kakashi mused. He tapped a book to his chin thoughtfully.

Damnit, he was right. Had he always been obnoxious when he was right? She shot him an offended look that he didn't have the decency to quail from.

And for a moment, that nonchalance was unspeakably bizarre. Because she wasn't just Aiko, his student and comrade who pouted and begged pretty jutsu off of him and had nursed a thoroughly inappropriate crush once upon a time. She was also Aiko who had worn a black and red cloak and established her own niche in the criminal underworld and killed Ame nin with a giggle in her throat and thoughts in her head of the errands she needed to run at home once she was done. Aiko faltered, off-balance.

'Six months ago, I might have seriously hurt him for talking to me like that.'

The worst part of all was knowing that wasn't completely out of her original character. She'd killed Konoha citizens before- shinobi and civilians. Not always for the best of reasons, although admittedly not for anything quite that petty.

'I'm not the person he thinks I am. Maybe I never was.'

By the time she'd gathered herself, everyone had noticed the break in her composure. No one said anything.

"I should change." She pulled at her collar of her dark blue shirt and wondered where she'd put the headband and vest last night when she went to bed.

As if he knew what she was thinking, Yamato gathered and proffered the missing parts of her uniform. "Bathroom is that-"

"I know where it is," Aiko interrupted, giving him a disbelieving look. "This is the same layout as my old apartment."

Although it was obviously not the same building. The walls carried a much fresher wood scent, with the characteristic sweetness of Hashirama wood instead of old pine. It was less familiar and homey.

Yamato scratched the back of his head and looked away. "Right."

#vapors #uzumaki aiko #electrasev5n #ninja daily #fanfiction #naruto fanfiction #clarity

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