"I know you're awake."
Aiko grudgingly cracked an eye open. The speaker had his back to her, but appeared to be a well-built young man. He turned just enough for her to catch his face in profile. If she had to guess, she'd say he was a medic. She might have guessed nurse, since they tended to be the pretty ones according to her personal bible (Icha Icha), but the grouchy tone just didn't fit the stereotype.
That was more because of the fact that she appeared to be a hospital room than any of her honed deductive skills.
'This is a surprise.' With some effort, she hauled herself to a seated position against the flimsy headboard and suspiciously catalogued her surroundings. 'Last thing I remember, I was… Oh. Right.'
Icha Icha, how long had she been out? This wasn't some backwater clinic. The equipment she saw was as gleaming as it was mysterious in function. That was the kind of funding that Hidden villages had and almost nobody else could afford. Wherever she was, she was in deep shit.
She could only conclude that the team that had been bothering Obito had dragged her away with them- so, what, did they want her to tattle on Akatsuki? She was in enemy hands? That would explain their motivation for taking her to get medical treatment-a dead informant was no use.
Aiko should have been intimidated, but she was more put-out than anything. It might be drug-induced malaise, but her most prominent feeling was indignation. They hadn't even restrained her or put her in a cell or whatever.
'I know I don't exactly give off an aura of danger—' (Zetsu had pointed that out more than once) 'but being so underestimated is just insulting.'
"How are you feeling?" A pen scratched against paper.
Feeling uncharitable and difficult, Aiko pressed her lips shut and looked away. That was a stupid question anyway. He was writing on her chart. He knew her condition: surprisingly good, all things considered. Still feeling the persistent weakness of recovery from chakra deprivation that occurred while strained cells replicated and her reserves stuttered and stretched, but that was the worst of it. Maybe she was a little dizzy. Her toes were cold. All in all, it was a laughable list.
'I thought I was done for. I know Konoha's supposed to be the best at sappy shit like healing, but still. That's stupidly convenient. I was dying, wasn't I?'
And she had no idea how to sort out the churning feelings and thoughts about that. She'd… well, she'd been resigned to it. Dying did sort of mean that she didn't have to confront a lot of unpleasant things, like the fact that Obito had confirmed her worst suspicions, or that she now officially had no friends, contacts, or life goals. She was directionless.
A put-out sigh marked the air for a moment, then brisk steps crossed the distance to her side. Aiko jerked her head around to watch the medic- and he was surprisingly young, she must not be terribly high priority- give her a fed-up look at and gently whap her over the head with his clipboard.
That was just so very baffling that she didn't even resist. There was no malice in the movement. Stunned and off-kilter, her mouth hung open. She took the moment to notice his hitai-ite: she was in Konoha, then. Huh. Her supposed home village. So maybe Konoha had decided that she'd just been in need of a rescue from Big Bad Obito? They were misinformed about her damsel in distress qualifications, of course, but at least that would indicate that she wasn't in danger from them.
'I'm so confused. This isn't how you treat enemy nin. I've been out of this village for a really long time. They should be at least a little suspicious of me. It's only sensible.'
"Pay attention, Aiko. Tsunade-shishou wanted to meet with you once you woke up. I've already sent notice. I'm sure you're confused, but please remain calm. She'll explain everything."
She twitched at his carefully neutral tone. There was a lot there that he wasn't saying.
'Technically, I never defected, and they never listed me on their bingo books. That probably means they'll want to re-assimilate me into their military. Assuming I pass whatever criteria they have, I suppose. And if this isn't just meant to put me off my guard because they know that I aided Akatsuki willingly. It could easily be a trap.'
Well. Maybe that last bit could have been a threat, now that she thought about it. His shishou would be a medical nin. And she had a bloodline ability- two, actually, though the stupid eyes were someone else's bloodline ability. Maybe she had to behave or she would end up a guinea pig?
'He could give me a little more to go off of.'
She licked her lips, too cautious to open her mouth and risk incriminating herself when she didn't know what Konoha was thinking. It'd be a damn shame to accidentally undermine their theories if they were beneficial to her.
No matter how her eyes pled for answers, the bastard of a medic didn't seem to notice. Dark eyes wandered over her face, and then - "Tch." He turned away, shaking his head slightly.
Maybe he had noticed. The moment stretched out into awkwardness. Aiko felt the distinct impression that he didn't know what to say any more than she did.
"Just stay here and at least try not to get kidnapped or in a fight for an hour or so. There's a nurse at the station and I'll be in my office." He paused for a moment, and gave the ceiling an irritated glance as if he was considering saying something else. "I'm one floor up from you by the central hall. If you need anything, press the call button and ask for me." Then he stalked off, shoulders stiff.
'…Try not to get kidnapped? That was oddly specific advice. I could see that working towards both theories. He definitely knows that I was a Konoha nin out of contact. He could just be genuinely concerned for my well-being. On the other extreme …Maybe he was telling me I can't run away?' Aiko theorized, sliding off the bed. He needn't have bothered. Assuming she was surrounded by any moderately capable nin paying attention, that was a last resort strategy. She was strategically flexible, not stupid.
Gingerly, she gave a few experimental stretches to gauge her condition, and tried to ignore the fact that she was barefoot and in an open-backed gown. That would make a daring escape slightly more scandalous. She made a note to find something a little more flattering, but she wasn't even entirely certain that a daring escape was called for. That medic hadn't seemed hostile at all. Granted, he'd told her not to get into a fight- that implied that he thought she might be hostile.
This didn't make sense. They weren't following any script that she could recognize.
'The conventional answer is that I should gain information.' Aiko pulled an arm over her head and gently tested it, grimacing when her left arm proved to be stiff and her fingers numb. Well. It was still better than a broken arm.
But how to gain information? What she needed to gauge was their reactions to her doing something unexpected. If they were immediately hostile and suspicious, she could be reasonably certain that the medic's calm had been an affectation and that desperation tactics like making a break for it made sense.
'I don't want a fight,' Aiko decided first off, ruling the possibility out altogether. 'I'm trapped somewhere in one of the largest Hidden Villages and not at my physical peak. That's a failing strategy. The Rinnegan tricks I have are my only trump card that they definitely won't know to expect. I'd never fight my way out, and then they would have actual evidence that I'm a threat. I don't want to do anything that will be interpreted as aggressive. Just undesired and out of whatever script they have for me so I can see what they do when they reassert themselves.'
So. Testing boundaries, was it? She waited ten minutes until she was absolutely certain that her medic was long-gone, hiked her backless gown up to be as decent as possible, (and then gave up on trying to cover her ass because that project was going nowhere), and strode out into the hallway confidently on silent feet.
Aiko looked to the left. Judging by the cheery signs posted on the walls, that was the way to the nurse's station. Mm, not very promising. Aiko walked to the right, dodging an open-mouthed teenager with a bear-sized dog. He turned around, presumably to stare at her uncovered ass when she passed. She hadn't intended to have witnesses, but it didn't really matter either way.
Then she saw it.
'Oh, that's perfect.'
~~~
"and then she just turned around and gave me this shit-eating grin, winked, and pulled the fire alarm," Kiba expounded, waving his hands emphatically. "I was kind of stunned, right, so I took a minute to get with the program. She just kept walking like nothing happened and got mixed in the crowd evacuating." He didn't even seem to realize that he was still grinning himself, one sharp tooth glinting in the light of the Hokage's office. Akamaru's tail thumped against the floor twice.
Jiraiya made a sound suspiciously like air leaving a balloon, face red.
"Thank you," Tsunade said tiredly, waving the Chuunin out of her office. She didn't even have the strength to pity herself for being surrounded by such utter boys. "Please keep this information to yourself." Kiba made a face, but nodded agreeably before he left.
The door barely closed before the toad sage started laughing.
The Hokage gave him a dirty look, but didn't do anything to stop him. She couldn't resent his mood. He was still riding high on relief after he replied to Naruto's toad message that yes, he was in Konoha, why did you ask— and then found himself nearly squashed by the enormous amphibian that Naruto had convinced to reverse summon himself, Kakashi, two confused Suna nin, and the long-missing Aiko.
'If she'd stayed lost, there would have been less trouble,' Tsunade groused, not really meaning that. But, still. Uzumaki were good for elevating the heart rate. Her apprentice had confirmed that she didn't recognize him upon waking via Katsuya. That news wasn't surprising, but it was a disappointment that complicated their situation.
That had been when the alarms went off- of course Sasuke had immediately assumed the worst when he darted from his office to her room and found it empty- it wouldn't have been the first time Aiko was kidnapped from a hospital. Or the second…
Thankfully, that wasn't the problem this time. Still, they should get the twit out of hospital as soon as possible so that they weren't courting her obnoxious luck. Or her general obnoxiousness as a person, actually. Someone might snap and wring her skinny neck.
'What had she been thinking when she pulled the fire alarm?' Tsunade frowned. Assuming Aiko's baseline personality hadn't been totally rehauled, there had to have been a reason that made internal sense. Aiko was a little … unorthodox, but she had never been noted as particularly impulsive. The decision must have been made quickly, but Aiko had certainly made some kind of decision as opposed to have acted on a whim.
What that decision was, Tsunade hadn't the damndest idea.
Sasuke had been quietly steaming when he related finding Aiko on the hospital lawn. Tsunade had actually sympathized with him- he hadn't known that Hatake had been watching her. No wonder he'd panicked. If she'd been the one to find the little shit dressed up in a stolen doctor's coat and directing evacuees back inside after having caused the trouble in the first place, she… she…
Well, she would have been just as frustrated, because it was hospital policy not to sabotage your own work by beating patients senseless. Even if the first thing they said to you was, "Not now, I'm working," followed by a particularly smug critique of how long it took you to find them when you forced them to stop impersonating hospital personnel.
'If he doesn't end up marrying one, Sasuke might actually kill an Uzumaki one day,' Tsunade mused, unaware that she was making a fist while she waited impatiently for her teammate to calm himself. It could only go one of two ways, she was certain. No court in the world would convict him- not while she was Hokage.
'Although that might not be much longer, depending on how insistent that Sabaku girl remains,' she mused. The Suna ambassador had not been happy about finding Aiko in the company of Akatsuki. At least she seemed to have come to the conclusion that Konoha hadn't precisely lied to her. Just misrepresented the danger Aiko was in to avoid having to open Konoha up to international scrutiny.
It could have been much worse. Temari could have wondered if Aiko really had defected to Akatsuki. Tsunade might have wondered that herself; if it wasn't for the hack job someone had done on her face with those dangerously parasitic eyes. That seemed like a pretty good reason to try to leave the organization.
Not that she was going to share that with Temari. Lucky that Temari hadn't spent enough time staring soulfully into Aiko's eyes to remember their original color. Tsunade hadn't noticed anything was different until she noted the chakra drain mid-way through the medical examination. When she had pried open Aiko's eyes, there had been a palpable 'what the actual fuck' moment in the surgery shared with Sasuke.
'That might not be the first topic to bring up, but we definitely need to have a conversation about that. If I didn't know better, I'd say those were Sharingan eyes. But a non-Uchiha shouldn't be able to deactivate them, judging by Kakashi's failure to do so after twenty years of attempts.'
"Send her in," Tsunade ordered, when it became clear that Jiraiya wasn't going to control himself of his own volition. That did the trick- he perked up like a particularly pathetic dog, wiping his ugly mug into something a little more dignified to make a good 'first' impression on his goddaughter.
Her blood pressure spiked in irritation before she knew what was wrong. At the quick rap of knuckles on glass, she turned ever so slowly to see…
"No," Tsunade snapped, glowering at what appeared to be Kakashi, Naruto, and his grumpy cousin. "Absolutely not. Get the hell out of here. We're not trying to overwhelm her. You've seen her. If you lunatics all come at her, we'd be lucky to drag her out from whatever hole she'll find to hide in."
Hatake-kun twisted his head slightly to the side, dark eye soulful. He remained firmly in place.
"He's not going to leave, is he," Tsunade said flatly, without looking at Jiraiya.
Her old teammate hummed. "Kakashi-kun, just make sure Aiko-chan doesn't notice anything," he warned idly. "Naruto, no shrieking or flickering your chakra."
That'd have to do.
Tsunade moved a plant in front of the window and suppressed her rising urge to hit someone. Probably Hatake. He'd been told not to be seen, yes, but he could have exercised good judgment and stepped in instead of silently watching Aiko raise hell. Bastard had probably been giggling at the pandemonium.
"Uh, Tsunade-hime?" Jiraiya shuffled his feet, still grinning stupidly. "Would you like me to have Shizune-chan bring her in now?" He glanced back at the window, where Team Kakashi could not be seen.
She finished moving plants and nodded, heading back to her desk.
Honestly, the situation was a little disorienting. Personally, Tsunade was suspicious of the level of involvement Aiko seemed to have been engaging in with Akatsuki. It wasn't her fault, of course, but that didn't mean she could risk the chance that Aiko had done anything that Konoha would have to take legal liability for later. She at least had to know what she had to start hiding. But there was no possibility that Naruto or Jiraiya were going to allow more than cursory suspicion. That made her first priority assessing Aiko's current personality, motives, and allegiance.
No matter what her old teammate would like to be true, Tsunade's first duty had to be towards her people in general. If Aiko was a threat, she'd have to be neutralized in a nice, gentle manner.
Of course, that would leave Konoha shit out of luck in the upcoming trial, so far as their supposed star witness was concerned. So, you know, she was hoping for good news.
~~~
"It was nice seeing you again," Aiko lied awkwardly. Chatty Nurse's smile looked equally strained as she bobbed and nodded. "I should, um. I should go now." She jerked her head towards the door that was slowly swinging shut.
"Of course!" The older girl chirped, relief flashing. "You don't want to keep the Hokage waiting. It's nice to have you back in Konoha."
Aiko offered one last grimace before fleeing into the doubtlessly tacky office. Whatever awaited her couldn't possibly be more uncomfortable than that discussion. At least Cha- Shizune, she corrected internally. At least Shizune had found her real clothes. Granted, it appeared to be from her own closet, but the social faux pas of standing next to someone in the same outfit was comparatively minor to stalking around pantsless.
Not that pantlessness had the power to stop Aiko, of course, but she did appreciate the thought. Shizune seemed like a generally inoffensive person, aside from all the apologizing for failing in her duties or whatever.
'And that's a laugh. Like she ever had a chance of stopping Obito.'
Aiko had barely been tactful enough to keep from reassuring Shizune that she'd never had a chance of doing her job due to her ineptitude. It was true, but, um. It didn't seem very politic. If Obito decided he wanted to contact her again to take her with him or just to shut her up, Shizune wasn't going to get anything done.
She chose to push away those fatalistic thoughts for another time.
'It could have been worse with Shizune,' she reassured herself. 'That was weird, but it was a professional interaction. I think.'
As far as she could tell from the way she'd been treated, Konoha was willing to accept her back with open arms. That was an opportunity that she should be grateful for, but the thought also made her feel sick to her stomach. She didn't know if she could do what they wanted from her on a professional or personal basis, or if she even wanted to. Was she up to par with her old self in the field? And what about friends- the idea of being approached by people who claimed to know her was… kind of scary. She didn't remember the people here. There was no way she could live up to whatever they wanted from her.
She barely made it three feet into the office before her pace faltered. Aiko recovered quickly, but there was no chance that the older shinobi in the room had missed the motion. They were probably busy ascribing all sorts of ominous theories to her stumble from dramatically sudden recollection to fear, but the reason for her shock had actually been quite innocent.
'Oh my god, I wish I had my Icha Icha with me. I bet Jiraiya-sama gives autographs.'
She'd seen that crisp white hair and carefully makeup-ed face so many times on the back of book jackets that she couldn't misidentify him. A little bit of a blush made its way to her cheeks. She could have gotten an autograph at that premiere if Obito hadn't been so damn insistent that they find their seats early and then kept distracting her.
In retrospect, that had been slightly suspicious.
'Eeeee my favorite author is looking at me. Play it cool, don't stare. Be cool, dude. I don't want him to think I'm totally weird.' With that pep talk in mind, Aiko let her expression fall into heavy-lidded boredom and tilted her jaw up to meet the Hokage's gaze.
Who was a total hottie, by the by. Goddamn, there was no safe place to look in this office. She determinedly fixed her point of view on the Godaime's perfect, slightly upturned nose.
"Uzumaki," the woman internationally known for her temper and surgical precision drawled, "You are a pain in my ass."
Jiraiya-sama choked a little.
She felt her brow furrow and blinked twice. "Ah. Sorry?" Aiko ventured insincerely.
"I'm sure," Godaime-hottie replied sourly. "I hear I have you to thank for that test of our hospital's evacuation procedures. How did we fare?"
Aiko heroically swallowed the words, 'You mad?' Instead she inclined her head slightly and pretended she thought that bit of poisonous sarcasm was a real question. "It could use some work."
The older woman's left eye twitched, just once. "Thank you," she allowed stiffly. "Let's move on from that. I'm sure you have many questions. I do as well."
She seemed to really expect to have a heart-to-heart in her office with a silent observer. The situation was just surreal. And- and what, why was there was only one chair in the office? Was Fire Country going through some kind of fucking seating shortage? She'd walked past a couch and fluffy chair when she walked in, but they were pretty far back from the Hokage's chair. Certainly she wasn't intended to walk back there while they spoke.
'Am I just going to stand here the whole time?' Aiko frowned. 'That's rude. Obito would never make me-' Her thoughts faltered at that. Right. It didn't matter that Obito had ran things differently. She wasn't with him anymore.
Leaving Obito- that was her choice and she had to deal with it. But she certainly hadn't chosen to be here.
Feeling sullen, Aiko backed up and flopped down on the couch, letting her legs hang over the edge. Maybe it was childish, but whatever. She hadn't agreed to make these people's lives easy or follow their rules.
The two older shinobi in the room had carefully neutral expressions when she looked back up. That pretty much set the tone for what followed:
"Do you consider yourself a member of the terrorist group Akatsuki?"
'What a genius,' Aiko had thought, severely unimpressed. So she opened her mouth and let sarcasm fall out.
"Yeah, getting thrown on piles of sharp rocks is something we do for team bonding as a trust exercise. It builds character."
The Hokage had twitched and tried again.
"You were admitted on this date (she'd pointed to a paper) with symptoms including confusion and retrograde amnesia. Have you recovered any memories in the time that you were out of the village in enemy hands?"
Aiko had been bristling at the description of her life as time spent in enemy hands. That was a gross oversimplification of a very complicated situation. Godaime-Hottie didn't fucking know Obito. He was sick in the head, but calling him an 'enemy' was facile. They had a lot of issues and he needed to answer to her for using her, but that was between Aiko and Obito. She would handle that herself. Who was this woman to make judgments like that? That was why her tone had been just a little too waspish when she detailed a few banal points about an orphanage (Jiraiya-sama had winced for some reason) and bullying some poor Academy teacher.
Godaime-Hottie's expression faltered slightly. "Nothing else?" she prodded, leaning forward. "There aren't any other details that stick out as pertinent? People, perhaps?"
'I don't know what she's digging for.' Aiko tried not to frown. 'She thinks I should remember something important.'
Well… it was hard to know what was a memory and what was her imagination. There were a lot of thoughts that she couldn't explain or oddments that could have just been flights of fancy. Sometimes she had little flashes that didn't seem to make sense—like looking at Obito during a spar and thinking she would see a completely different man. So she said so.
Oddly, conversation had been quickly steered away from that topic after that statement, and the older shinobi had looked a bit disturbed.
Bizarrely, they didn't ask a single thing about Obito while they went through what she knew about Akatsuki. Aiko felt a bit odd talking about Kakuzu, but they already knew about him. Suigetsu, on the other hand, could piss or go fishing for all she cared. She sang like a bird about him, though what little she knew took only a few minutes. They didn't seem that interested in Suigetsu, but they didn't steer the conversation away from him. Jiraiya-sama might have been politely horrified by Zetsu, but the Godaime Hokage kept a good poker face.
Her throat was dry when they started prodding her about jinchuuriki. They were interested in how Utakata had been taken, and then that had transitioned to how Fuu had been extracted from Waterfall.
It was only after she'd gotten half-way through that story that Aiko realized it might be a really stupid idea to bring up her wiggly-eye trump card. And there wasn't really a way to explain how Fuu was still alive without mentioning the seriously cool things that her eyeballs could help her do. Well, shit.
'Imma wing it.'
"And you say that her bijuu was extracted," Godaime-Hottie repeated, features very stiff.
Aiko nodded, keeping a pleasantly dopey look on her face.
Jiraiya-sama scratched at his neck. "That would kill her."
Aiko shrugged. "It did. She got better." On the inside, she was all but cackling.
Slowly, Jiraiya-sama and Godaime-Hokage exchanged a meaningful glance. Aiko buried her chin in her chest and tried not to let her lips twitch.
'They think I'm nuts.'
"Thank you, Aiko. You seem tired. I think we'll pick this back up at another time. Do you have any questions?" Godaime-Hottie asked.
Her good mood receded a bit. Aiko sucked in a deep breath and glanced down at her legs. They'd fallen asleep. This was a stupid thing to do, but it was going to come out eventually. It'd also gauge how serious Godaime-hottie was about keeping Aiko in Konoha.
"No questions, more of a confession," Aiko shared, twirling a bit of hair around her finger. "I may have maybe sort of murdered a Konoha nin a while back." She shrugged. "Some brown-haired man with a scar like this," she traced her cheek and nose. If she'd been standing, she would have held her hand out to indicate his height as part of the description.
The room was very still. Maybe she was anthropomorphizing, but she got the sense of someone being generally appalled from the crisp-smelling cluster of potted plants. Had they hidden a watcher there? Konoha was the village hidden in the leaves. Oddly, that made her feel vindicated. They hadn't trusted her from the start. She couldn't disappoint people who hadn't expected much from her. This was just how the world worked- people lied and tricked each other.
'I guess they're not that serious,' Aiko thought. She felt oddly smug. She'd known they didn't really want her. It didn't make sense.
"I wondered when she was going to mention that," Jiraiya's very deep voice rumbled out. Aiko blinked and dragged her face up, mildly surprised that he sounded congenial instead of disturbed. Against all sense, the two old Konoha nin looked pleased.
What.
'These people are so far beyond weird that it isn't even funny. They're all insane. No wonder Obito warned me away from Konoha nin.'
After a few moments of stunned silence, Jiraiya-sama took pity on her stunned expression. "Raidō survived. I'm sorry to say that you're a sub-par murderer." He paused. "Please don't try again to improve your performance. Learn to live with inadequacy. We like Raidō alright."
If anything, that made her feel more confused. How? She'd- she'd- this didn't make any sense. Aiko tried to say that, but her lips were numb. Instead her jaw worked futilely for a few moments, face twisted in utter bafflement.
'Was this some bizarre kind of test? They wanted to see if I would say anything?'
If so, that was short-sighted. 'What, do they think that proved I feel guilty? I don't,' Aiko reassured herself. 'I don't feel guilty. Then again… maybe I shouldn't tell them that. I don't actually want to get left in their prison indefinitely.'
"Right, that's it." The Hokage stood up abruptly. "I think I've heard enough from you. You'll be meeting with the fine gentlemen and ladies in interrogation next," she explained over the odd little sound that Jiraiya-sama made. "It's procedure, and it's common sense," the Godaime stressed sternly. She kept looking at Aiko, but she got the feeling that the conversation wasn't for her benefit. "You were out of the village with hostile parties and completely out of contact for a considerable period of time. Your loyalties need to be assessed, as does your mental state."
'That can only be described as redundant,' Aiko thought, bemused. 'I'm pretty sure I already made clear that I don't feel any loyalty to her club.'
She didn't bother to complain. This was the Hokage's party. Bitching wasn't going to get her anything but a notation on her file that she was uncooperative.
~~~
The click of the window being opened was unusually loud in the silence. Naruto swallowed. His eyes felt hot. Karin gave him a hopeless look before climbing in after Kakashi.
For a moment, he considered letting go of the building and dropping to the ground to be alone for a while. He couldn't think of a reason why not, but he followed the others in.
"I'm sorry, kid," Jiraiya said awkwardly, not looking at anyone in particular.
'My sister doesn't remember me.'
That didn't even make sense. How could she forget? He- he wasn't an idiot, he understood what amnesia meant, but…
'I guess I thought I'd be an exception.'
It made no sense at all and he knew that, but it felt like a betrayal. It felt like if she really cared she wouldn't have been able to forget her little brother.
'If that guy hadn't taken her away from us, she'd be better by now. Sasuke-teme said she'd need triggers.'
"How long will she be in T and I?" Karin twisted her hands in her skirt, oddly girlish and unassertive body language for her. Then she scowled- that was more like it. "You're treating her like a criminal."
Tsunade-baa-chan sighed. "Processing is a few hours," she admitted. "She'll be seeing Inoichi-san. Don't worry," she added with a twist of her lips. "I wasn't about to hand her over to just anyone. My intention isn't to punish her for being victimized. But we do need information. She was in enemy hands for a long time." Tsunade shrugged, palms up. "It's procedure for a reason. We're analyzing her mental health as well as making sure that she's as loyal as can be expected, given the circumstances. I won't endanger the village for one girl, no matter who she is. We don't know what she did with Akatsuki. There's repercussions for that kind of thing."
"She's not a danger," Karin said sharply. Her hands flew to her hips. "That's absurd. Obviously she wasn't loyal to Akatsuki. Madara wouldn't have hurt her and left her if she was."
He'd been trying not to think about that.
Aiko was his big sister. She wasn't supposed to be vulnerable. He knew that she had hard missions and that she got hurt a lot more easily than he did, but that wasn't the same as seeing her battered past the point that she couldn't even focus her eyes.
If Kakashi hadn't caught on right away and grabbed him, Naruto might actually have killed Kankuro for shoving a senbon in Aiko's chest. Apparently that was a thing that would help her not drown in blood by letting it drain? It hadn't looked much like helping at the time.
At least she hadn't died.
"That doesn't mean she's ready to fit back in Konoha," Jiraiya pointed out quietly, arms crossed over his chest. "You heard her- she's already attacked a Konoha nin once. I didn't get the impression that she regretted it. What if she doesn't change that attitude? Raidō would resent the hell out of us for bringing her back into the fold, and rightly so. We have a responsibility to Konoha as a whole, not just the people we care about."
"I don't think she's that removed," Karin argued. "She only attacked one Konoha nin, but she remembered him well enough to give a physical description. If the incident hadn't made an impression at all, she wouldn't be able to give a description so long after the fact."
Tsunade made an agreeable sound, looking at Karin with interest.
Naruto felt his jaw clench. "I can't believe this crap," he said quietly. "You're acting like she's an enemy. She's not."
Thankfully, Jiraiya spoke up then, because Naruto's throat had closed up. "At worst, she considers herself a neutral party, and she's pretty reasonable. Not cooperative," he added, because that was undeniable at this point, "But we haven't seen any indication of a shift in her personality towards cruelty. She doesn't remember us now, but she might in future. Even if she never does, we'll get close to her again, and then she'll be one of us in every way that counts."
He swallowed, hands clenching into fists. Making friends with his twin… that was a weird concept. Would she even like him, now that she didn't feel obligated to a sibling? He knew their personalities weren't actually that similar.
The hand that reached out and squeezed his shoulder was Kakashi's. Naruto mustered up a flicker of gratitude. Kakashi was so emotionally stunted that the gesture had probably taken concentrated effort. Especially since he'd been so despondent after seeing under Madara's mask.