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It hurt, a little, but she understood. Naruto wasn't like other ninja. He didn't understand yet that not everyone could shine so hard it hurt the eyes.
Her otouto hadn't so much as looked at her since she had slit Haku's throat (she didn't have to, but it was kinder than risking him waking up on fire) and hacked off Zabuza's head for storage in one of her scrolls. He'd impassively accepted a fourth of the extra weapons she had to unseal to make room and pretended not to smell the smoke from their impromptu cremation.
Sakura hadn't looked at the disposal either, but she'd gone about her business with efficient impassivity (or what passed for it in that girl, anyways).
Sasuke had been the surprise. He had watched the two bodies burn with something heavy behind his gaze, maintaining an almost respectful silence until the ash began to curl away on the breeze. If she hadn't had her foreknowledge, never once would Aiko have considered that the serious little boy in front of her would ever leave his village for power. He seemed the picture-perfect baby genin. His attitude was a little gruff and he had a decided anti-social bent, but those were hardly debilitating flaws in a shinobi.
'Maybe Orochimaru fucks him up more than I thought.'
When Kakashi had returned, he had gathered up the genin like wayward ducklings and shooed the entire train to Tazuna's house, the old man sullenly silent and shying away from the children he appeared to be unnerved by. His daughter had clucked when she saw him filthy and bedraggled, stubbornly clinging to the long-empty flask. He endured her fluttering about with a reluctantly tender expression that actually made Aiko recant some of her nastier thoughts about the old man so far.
While the old man settled in, Kakashi took the three genin on a walk around the town. Aiko killed time exploring the house and setting up traps on the perimeter while Tsunami's moon-faced idiot child glared at her out his window.
While she was the only ninja present, he had treated her to a long and boring monologue about how Gato was too powerful to fight, abandon ye all hope, yadda yadda yadda. Before he had finally burst into a fit of melodramatic tears and stormed away she was on the verge of scaring him into leaving her alone. After all, no one who had met the little shit would ever blame her.
Except perhaps her sensei, she reminded herself when she saw his stern mien upon return. For all that he could seem to turn his humanity off like a light switch when it suited him, he wouldn't tolerate her pinning the whiner to the wall with senbon.
From what the kids mentioned when they got back, Kakashi had used the trip as an exercise to test their situational awareness and ability to gauge a location. Even three thick-headed genin could apparently tell that Wave was desperately poor, painfully soggy, and filled with nervous people. To hear Sakura tell it, doors practically slammed in a chorus line as the group walked down trash-heaped street dotted with dull eyed beggars with distended bellies and gnarled, broken hands.
It was a familiar tactic. Yakuza and their ilk often mutilated dissenters instead of killing them. Eliminating enemies was scary, but leaving them around tends to leave a lingering reminder of dominance.
The familiarity was a bit soothing. It reinforced the theory that Gato had connections to organized crime. Predictability in enemies was good.
The girls had been given a room together and the three males were packed like sardines into the other room. The size of the house made it clear that Wave or at least Tazuna's family had not always been so poor—five bedroom homes were not common, even if the room that the girls were squeezed into was pitifully small. Naruto drew the best straw and ended up getting left off the watch schedule for the night, along with their amused and unsympathetic sensei.
Sakura had the first shift, trudging reluctantly out into the chill night air. Aiko managed to sleep well for almost three hours until the pink-haired girl crawled into bed and started her insufferable rustling.
Sharing a room wasn't new for Aiko, but sharing it with anyone other than her brother or her teacher was. She was more than used to the soft snuffling noises Naruto made in his sleep, and Kakashi's occasional grunts didn't bother her anymore. As it turned out, Sakura was a fidgety, restless sleeper, prone to sighing heavily, giving little whines into her pillow and burrowing around under the blankets. At one point Aiko caught the girl bent nearly in half backwards, pawing at her pillow with her toes curled nearly to her back. It was simultaneously adorable and annoying as all hell.
Irritated and unable to get more than a few hours of sleep, the lone chuunin went for a run around the perimeter instead, at one point alarming Sasuke who was on watch duty. "Can't sleep," she offered a little sheepishly, handing back the shuriken that he'd launched in surprise. "Sakura-san moves around a lot in her sleep."
"Hn." The boy tucked his weapon away. "When is your watch?"
"I'll just take over now." She sighed, giving a stretch. "One of us may as well get some sleep."
He raised one eyebrow in lieu of saying 'That's not likely.' Instead, he said shortly that "I can't sleep either."
She nodded in understanding. "As hypocritical as this is, you'll get used to it. I used to hate sharing a room with Sensei." She made a face. "It's best to let him wake up first. If you have to wake him up, do it from another room and prepared to dodge."
"That knowledge will make sleeping with him so much easier," came the dry reply.
Aiko fought down both a smile and the automatic innuendo that came to mind.
'He's more talkative when he's sleep-deprived.'
She didn't want to provoke him by making it clear she had noticed his more open behavior. When he wasn't doing his best to look the part of the hardened stoic, it was easy to see why Sakura and her giggly, dreamy ilk were drawn to him like butterflies to flowers. Even at twelve, he had a dark beauty that would mature into the category of 'total hunk' in a few years. Coupled with his obvious intelligence and talent, the boy had serious appeal. Poor thing. It was obvious he didn't want the attention.
"Did you sleep at all," she asked instead. He nodded tersely and turned his head slightly in a way that told he was visually scanning the area for threats, even though his eyes blended into the darkness so that she couldn't see where he was looking.
'Apparently conversation time is over.'
"It's almost dawn." She gave a stretch, fingers linked together. "Think it would be rude to poke around in search of breakfast?"
The look she got in reply was positively disdainful. She held her hands up. "Okay, fine. I'll stay out of Tsunami-san's kitchen."
"Barbarian." His lips tugged into a lopsided smirk. She made a theatrical hurt expression that he could probably spot even under her black half mask and flitted away.
When everyone was up and had been fed (and that annoying little shit whose name she hadn't bothered to remember had scurried away to sulk) the civilians cleared out of the room to get ready for the day while the nin talked. Looking indolent and bored, Kakashi gave out his orders. "Sasuke, you're in charge while I'm gone. I want you three to accompany Tazuna to the bridge. Aiko and I will be investigating and possibly visiting this 'Gato' person. If all goes well, there won't be a threat to Tazuna-san's person by the end of the day. I don't anticipate an attack at the bridge, since we'll be going to the source. Keep an eye open and run a perimeter. If you don't see us before dark, get Tazuna home."
"Hai." Sasuke seemed to be studying his new subordinates. The blonde was giving him a decidedly unfriendly stare, and Sakura had a dopey grin planted on her features.
Aiko couldn't blame him for whatever doubts he was probably having, no matter how much she loved her otouto.
Their teacher chuckled. "You three will do fine. Stick together and use your heads. A genin team is more than a match for anything a civilian can throw at you." Naruto stopped looking irritated with Sasuke long enough to beam proudly. He wasn't the dead-last her foreknowledge had painted him as, but Naruto was still pretty starved for genuine praise.
After the groups separated, Aiko looked wordlessly to her teacher for further orders from her perch on a rooftop. He didn't disappoint. "Two options. Investigate under henge by asking civilians, or remain unseen to address the problem directly. What's best for this situation and why."
"No point in trying the henge. The civilians are scared," she said immediately, not even looking at the pitiful display below. "We are likely to either get inaccurate information or risk someone telling Gato that people are asking about him the day after a group of ninja roll into town. Granted, he almost certainly doesn't know that Zabuza and his team have failed, but he will be nervous by now and will be listening to gossip. He'll have someone report that Tazuna is working on the bridge. Our best option is to locate him ourselves and take him out quietly, if that is our directive."
Her teacher hmm'd noncommittally. "Why do you think we're going to take him out?"
"It's within the parameters of our mission to ensure Tazuna's protection while he completes the construction project. If the source of the conflict is gone, he's in no danger." She frowned and added, "Assuming, of course, that no one is waiting to pick up the reins of the operation where he let off. If Gato is really involved in drug-running and a yakuza-like group of thugs, we might have to eliminate more than just the leadership."
"You're forgetting something."
Aiko felt her forehead crease. 'What… Oh.' "To the victor go the spoils," she added a little sheepishly. "He'll have shipping contracts. We should bring those back to Konoha and let administration figure out what to do with them. If we have them, no one else can step in and do the same thing to Wave until they've sorted through all the mess we're going to leave."
"The council can send someone to clean up anyone who might cause trouble in future. Good girl. You don't have any subtle assassination jutsu, do you?"
She shook her head and he frowned. "Remind me to teach you how to stop a heart. I'll be going in alone, then, and you can take the back as a scout."
It was pitifully easy to locate Gato's headquarters. It was isolated outside of the town and ostentatious to a degree that was laughable. He seemed to have tried to construct a traditional home like the Hyuuga had, but failed to capture the minimalistic beauty someone raised as nobility would prefer. He clearly had more money than sense.
Gato did have a fair few mercenaries posted outside, though. For a civilian they probably seemed like good protection. No wonder the townspeople were frightened. Her teacher frowned when he saw just how many there were and nonverbally signaled her.
'Change of plans. Surround base with rain. No one leaves.'
After the embarrassingly long moment before she realized he wanted her to use her paralytic, she nodded in agreement. It made sense. This many thugs could wreak havoc on the nearby town if they realized their source of pay was dead.
Her teacher settled down to wait- he'd head in a few minutes after the shower started; before people started collapsing, but late enough that no panic in the home would cause the patrolling thugs to go inside and discover the trick. Not that he would ever be sloppy enough to let anyone inside make a fuss.
Aiko unstoppered her favored poison and made a displeased face at what was left. She was going to have to mix up more when she got home—she hated doing that. It stank up the whole apartment. She started the drizzle very lightly, spreading it out as far as she could to obscure the fact that it was a suspiciously localized rain. The hired help cursed and talked amongst themselves when it started, but no one seemed to find it too strange.
And why would they? The sky was grey and the land of Wave was perpetually damp, as far as she could tell. It was almost criminally easy to pull moisture out of the low-hanging fog in order to supplement her water supply, siphoning the last of her poison out slowly and mixing it into the liquid.
Her teacher gently touched her shoulder to let her know he was leaving and then flickered away, inside the gaudy building within a second of exiting the treeline. She settled down to wait, focusing on sensing presence through her raindrops instead of abandoning the jutsu to pay attention normally. It was difficult for her to divide her attention and still maintain the right conditions, so she didn't even try.
When the first man slumped over, his companion tried to give a cry. Doubtlessly he discovered that the numbing in his limbs wasn't the result of the cold rain when he tried to check for enemies. Very quickly, the yard was full of still figures.
Aiko felt her lips pull into a strange smile at the altogether eerie sight. 'It's like Medusa's garden of stone.'
The thought was perhaps overly morbid- none of these men would die from this. They would, however, be completely out of commission for at least a day. Civilians didn't have the sturdy constitution or chakra-enhanced ability to speed up bodily processes like shinobi did.
'Rain, rain, go away. Please come back another day.'
She hummed the rhyme quietly, swinging her legs on her perch. With her eyes closed to help her focus on her rain-enhanced chakra sensing, Aiko leaned back against the tree trunk.
Her teacher's chakra signature pinged on her crude radar well before she heard him, the instant he stepped outside- she opened her eyes and immediately spotted him. One dark gray eye surveyed the lawn, scattered with fallen mercenaries as if they were abandoned dolls. He hmm'd. "I don't think we should leave them. There's too many."
Aiko nodded. "I take it there's no one left inside then?"
With quiet efficiency, she and her teacher flitted about and gently, painlessly spilled blood all over the grass in front of the mansion.
~~~
"And you should have seen us! Me and the bastard were like wham!" Naruto illustrated this critical point by slamming a fist into his flat palm, knocking the spoon out of his soup and sending it winging towards Sakura. He didn't even notice her snatch it out of the air or scowl at the liquid on her dress.
Sasuke rolled his eyes, looking a little pleased with himself but less willing to brag openly. "It was just a few civilian thugs," he said calmly. "We handed them over to the local authorities."
Aiko carefully didn't allow her face to let on to the fact that those authorities had probably lynched the prisoners. It didn't seem like the kind of thing a boy whose family had managed a police force would like to hear.
"They didn't stand a chance!" The blonde crowed. "And Sakura-chan knocked the last one out with a bento." The girl flushed, but Naruto seemed to think the last point was both crucial and impressive. Aiko did her best to keep a straight face while Tsunami cracked up and Sasuke smirked. At the head of the table, their client beamed.
"I had my doubts, but you Konoha ninja are all right." He slurped down a frightening amount of alcohol and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. Tsunami cringed visibly. The whiny child whose name she still didn't remember barely seemed to notice his grandfather at all. Instead, he was staring stupidly at Naruto with his jaw hanging open. It was either hero worship or a stroke. "I've decided to name my great bridge for your team! When it becomes incredibly famous, everyone will know about the Great … What's your team called, anyway?"
"Team seven," Sasuke said immediately at the same time Sakura said "Team Kakashi." They exchanged glances, but neither of them managed to speak again before Naruto banged a fist on the table and shouted "Team Kick-ass!"
There was a moment of silence, punctuated by the sound of a page flipping. "I like Naruto's suggestion," Kakashi said absentmindedly. Sakura groaned into her soup, but a corner of her mouth twitched up.
"Can you name a bridge that?" Tsunami asked dubiously.
They left the next morning—before the excrement really hit the fan over the slayings outside of town. It was very plausible that no one even knew yet, actually. At (genin) ninja speeds, team Kick-ass made it to the front gates of Konoha within two days. On the way, Naruto had managed to spill the fact that Sasuke had activated his Sharingan in their brawl against the thugs they'd f ought at the bridge and was giving serious thought to calling him "Pink-eye" instead of "Bastard". The sheer irritation of listening to the blonde re-hash the benefits and drawbacks of each name actually caused poor Sasuke to involuntarily activate his eyes again- three tomoe total, one in his right eye and two in his left.
They stood around while their team leader idly scrawled the last scintillating entry into the mission report he'd been writing (from what she could read over his shoulder, it looked to be 'met and eliminated targets. My minions eliminated civilian targets. Returned home. Will get barbeque tonight.') and then followed him to hand it in.
Team Kick-ass didn't quite manage to escape the building before the chuunin who had accepted the report groaned audibly and told them to wait in an adjoining room. Apparently missions that increased in difficulty while in-field had to be verbally debriefed on the same day.
The Hokage had been properly proud and horrified in turn, listening to Naruto's theatrical rendition interspersed with bland corrections from Kakashi and Sasuke. Aiko merely stood quietly at attention, trying not to look too bored. The Hokage doubtlessly knew she didn't like him. Sakura was uncharacteristically cowed by the presence of the current military dictator. As always, Naruto completely bulldozed over the obvious hints that his companions were uncomfortable or uninterested in favor of extending the conversation as long as possible.
By the time they finally escaped, three genin had six D-class and one A-class mission on their record. It was ridiculous enough that Aiko had to force down giggles, but on the bright side the pass he gave them ensured they didn't have to do any more D-ranks to complete the requirements to qualify for the Chuunin exams. They could devote the rest of the time to training, if they wanted.
The Hokage had put Kakashi on the spot- pulling Aiko away from the team temporarily for a semi-long term project and telling him that his genin wouldn't be taking any more missions until the exams.
The silver-haired man had all but groaned.
'That was shitty,' Aiko noted. 'Now Sensei can't motivate them with the promise that they won't get more crappy missions if they work hard.' A large part of how Kakashi interacted with his team was subtle manipulation and mindfucks. By undermining his authority in front of his team, the Hokage had damaged his ability to lead them and make decisions at his own discretion. Granted, he was in fact Kakashi's superior as well, but why the hell would you put trainees under a supervisor and then undermine that authority? It was counterproductive. The genin should at least be under the illusion that their sensei had control over their education.
Sometimes she wondered if the Hokage was an asshole or just a total fucking moron.
The next morning, she reported to her new supervisor, Mitarashi Anko. The flames were almost six feet tall when she made it to the meeting place.