Mist wasn't happy to see her go. But there was very little comment, given that they were generally under the impression that she would only be gone for the time it took to escort the genin to the exams.
Mei and Utakata knew a little better, given that they would be the ones updating her on progress whenever she checked back in with Hiraishin to give new orders.
Aiko had generally little guilt. They wouldn't miss her presence too much, now that Mist was still working on getting caught up with emergency measures and evaluating their resources and situation. Mist was a terribly lean beast these days- genin and even chuunin were spending much more time working with civilians to catch fish and gather seaweed, while jounin were caught up escorting merchant ships and containing anyone who left the boats to very strictly regulated areas that obscured the situation.
In terms of policy and government action, she couldn't do much more at the moment except monitor the declining monetary resources, build food stores, and try to get people off the streets despite lacking in adequate facilities or the raw material to supplement them. They were hemorrhaging money with every day that they didn't take more than the bare minimum of outside missions, but sending a team to the exams did save them some face internationally. There wasn't much more they could do until they had some measure of stability and food security.
Anyway, she didn't need to be in Kirigakure all day at the moment. Her inner circle was perfectly capable:
Utakata could use the time alone to mope about how he'd fallen in with disreputable company that had first made him a weapon against his home village, and then, far worse, committed the sin of forcing him back into gainful employment there.
Mei would find it was a prime opportunity to work on whatever seditious power-mongering she was undoubtedly working on for her inevitable attempt at a coup.
They'd be alright. She trusted they would entertain themselves well enough in her absence, even if work didn't keep them busy.
If for no reason but her pride in the homeland she'd never be able to claim, Aiko was quietly pleased to confirm that Konoha was rather efficient. Her papers had been accepted at the first outpost on the border of Fire Country, official declarations and identifications studied and returned in short order. And why not- they were all legitimate, marked with the Mizukage's seal of office and in perfect compliance with regulations.
At least, in compliance aside from the bit where she was a kage illegally operating within an ally's borders. Whatever. Let's not be petty about it.
The border guard had commented on the fact that the jounin escort for the team had been changed since the last communication, but he'd let her pass. She'd breathed a sigh of relief, but been mildly disappointed.
It was the second outpost that detained her team. Politely, of course- they were invited inside and separated. Aiko splayed her fingers in a lazy wave at her genin and followed the interrogator into a private room.
She had the distinct impression that she hadn't been deemed top-priority just yet.
The room was plain- four walls bereft of privacy seals, one moderately reinforced window, and three wizened chairs whose cushions had seen much better days forty years ago. And the other woman was no one she recognized, despite wracking her brains for names in the appropriate age range . Sandy, light-brown hair threw her speculations off until the older woman pushed up her sunglasses to reveal familiar blue.
'A Yamanaka. How uncomfortable.'
It figured. Well. At least she knew not to make eye contact.
"Uzumaki-san, is it? We just have a few questions for you, since the personnel change was so last-minute." The Yamanaka pretended to consult Aiko`s papers, as if she might possibly be stupid enough not to realize Konoha had recognized her name and detained her on someone`s orders. "Is there a first name to go with that?"
She didn't want to answer that, so she smiled pleasantly and went through the motions of an introduction that pointedly left out the information. The Yamanaka woman paused a moment before folding her hands and bowing in return, introducing herself as Honon. Just Honon- no family name.
Aiko was deeply, deeply tempted to show off what she knew by using the woman's clan name. She somehow resisted.
"I have some questions, if you wouldn't mind." Honon moved further into the room and incidentally away from the window. She sank into a chair- and therefore, into shadow. To Aiko's eyes, the older woman all but disappeared.
'She's letting me look down on her to control the way my eyes point and to make me feel more powerful,' she decided, leaning against the wall. 'At least for now, they want me to underestimate Konoha, or feel at ease.'
She didn't think that would work. The psychological effect of that sort of maneuver was a bit hampered when the observer was half-blind.
In the end, they let her go after a few hours of polite questioning that she stonewalled with her impeccably manufactured credentials and artful misunderstandings of questions. By the end, Konoha seemed to be certain that she was legitimate- which she was, aside from the thing where she was actually committing a pretty big crime. But what Konoha didn't know wouldn't hurt them. Or her, more relevantly.
Konoha was probably too annoyed by her declaration as an asset of Kirigakure to wonder if she maybe was a secret kage. If the Sandaime had Uzumaki-snatching ambitions, they would be complicated by an existing affiliation to another great nation. But that wasn't necessarily a death knell to the idea: countries did occasionally poach nin. You couldn't do that to your closest allies, but if your countries were hostile enough that your obligations were reduced, really the only consequence would be the nin's guaranteed spot on several bounty lists.
"Mi-Sensei?" Keisuke's gaze darted nervously between her and the looming forest. Maybe he sensed their observers. She'd have to ask later. "Is everything alright?"
She considered reaching out and ruffling his hair, but it would have been suspicious if he'd involuntarily flinched. She was portraying his teacher, but they didn't really have that kind of relationship yet.
"I'm walking on sunshine." She winked at her students and gestured for them to walk ahead of her. "We've lost some time, let's see if we can make our reservation. It'd be troublesome to have to explain to the Mizukage that we spent too much time admiring the beauties of Fire Country's flora to get our deposit back."
One of the boys made an uncomfortable, high-pitched giggle. They ran a little faster than she'd seen before.
'Did that sound like a threat?' Aiko wondered as she hung back, watching her pack. 'It was a joke. It was obviously a joke. It's ironic, isn't it? And it'll give the wrong impression to Creeper McLurkface over there.'
If she wasn't mistaken, their observer was a senior ANBU from one of the home-guard teams. Jackal, maybe? No one she'd worked with in a team, but she knew the man's chakra well enough from time spent trading shifts on patrol and Hokage watch.
'Did they have to reassign shifts for the chuunin exams?' Aiko wondered. 'It could be that he was on long patrols and got transferred to the short patrols about the time I entered the department. But it would make some sense that they had to pull back from international operations and stiffen up security within borders for this. They don't know about Sand and Sound, but inviting hundreds of foreign nin into the country would put anyone on edge.'
By the beginning of sundown, her genin were breathing rapidly enough that it probably didn't seem strange that she ordered a halt to set up camp as she became nearly blind. It took a little longer than it should have- she would have split the team on tasks, but there was no way to know who else was around. Perhaps Jackal would interfere if one of Mist's enemies stumbled on a chance to reduce the competition; but perhaps he wouldn't.
So she took them to the nearest of Konoha's little rivers to fill up on water, and then trekked uphill to find a campsite clearing. The going was painfully slow- ostensibly for her weary genin's benefit, but more because she couldn't see the ground more than a foot or two in front of her feet. Her genin had unwound enough, or were tired enough, to forget to be intimidated.
"Sensei, we're Mist-nin." Ryuusei clicked his fingernails against his breathing apparatus pointedly, as if he thought the foreigner kage might have forgotten the august company she was honored by. "I'm not worried about camping near a river in Konoha."
She considered educating him in the degree to which living on an island had not prepared him for flashfloods, but it would be a shame to shut them down too harshly when they were starting to relax around her. She settled for, "Humor me."
They grumbled at that, but did what they were told. She stood back and squinted through her headache as they assembled camp- putting up tents, scratching out boundaries and traps, digging a latrine and firepit.
Considering that they would need to do this by themselves in a few days in hostile conditions, she wasn't impressed with their performance. Honestly… "You're way too slow," Aiko critiqued. She put her hands on her hips. "Stop, this is disgraceful. Take those tents down and throw dirt over that pit. We're trying again. Look alive this time. I want to eat eventually." She paused, because the sun was nearly set, and it would be difficult to critique something she couldn't see . "Leave the fire."
There was just enough light for her to see that Yuusaku's glare bordered on mutinous. He began shoveling dirt over the latrine with jerky movements that implied he might like to be burying her.
'Aww. It's hard to be a baby genin. They're so grumpy. Was I ever that grumpy?'
They did move faster the second time. It wasn't an inspiring performance, but it made her a little less worried about the likelihood of them being ambushed in the ten whole minutes they were distracted setting up camp in the Forest of Death.
She opened her mouth to remind them of that- and then pretended to yawn instead.
'Right. I'm not supposed to know about that, and neither are they.'
With ANBU Jackal within hearing distance, it would be particularly foolish to give into the worry that made her want to triple-check that they remembered all her advice. Aiko drifted away in thoughts, tracing and re-tracing tired plans.
She felt absolutely no guilt about helping them cheat on this test. Her team wasn't there to take a test, they had a more important mission that required that pass the exam. They needed to succeed not to prove themselves, but to give her legitimate reason to linger until the tournament. If they didn't make it through the Forest of Death…. What would she even do? Escort them home, then hiraishin back to Konoha, steal an ANBU uniform, and try to go unnoticed?
Well.
Actually, she'd done unlikelier missions for pettier reasons.
Still.
It wasn't the worst plan she'd ever come up with, but it would just be much better if they completed the exam.
To that end, she'd told them to stick it out through the paper exam and not risk cheating more than twice even if they had no answers correct-
"So I could just draw birds on my paper?" Yuusaku asked, bemused.
"No, you have to pretend to try." Aiko rolled her eyes. "Otherwise they'll know that you know the grades don't matter. Answers first, birds second. Possibly cheat sometime in between if you have a good strategy."
-and avoid the hell out of the Konoha teams, as well as Sand. She wanted them to do well, but it wasn't worth tangling with Sand or- god forbid- Orochimaru. Sand was supposed to break the record in this examination, and she was fine with that. It had been a flashy move that had turned all eyes on them. She wouldn't mind if her team was second, however.
The last thing she'd told them had been cautionary.
"Spark chakra against this seal if you need me," Aiko had explained. She'd painted one onto different items in each genin's equipment so that the pattern was less obvious. "That's last resort, do you understand me? If I'm caught interfering, you'll be disqualified. Don't do this unless it looks like you're about to die or be eliminated. If you call me, I'll probably have to kill any witnesses, and it could cause trouble for my alibi depending on what I'm doing at the time. Besides, there are some areas under live camera observation."
…Hopefully they wouldn't need her. She didn't like knowing that she was going to abandon Sakura to Orochimaru's mercies. The thought of actually killing genin didn't sit well with her.
~~~
Agent Rabbit peeled away from his post once the woman and her genin were checked into the hotel, trusting that the short patrol would have the situation under control. The Hokage's waiting room wasn't empty, but he only had to wait for two teams before he was called in.
He knelt in the habitual position, not bothering to rehearse what he would say.
Sandaime-sama glanced at him once, and then pushed away from his desk. "Report."
"Hokage-sama. Uzumaki does not appear to be especially suspicious at this time, but I recommend maintaining observation."
"Oh?" The Sandaime tapped his pipe. "How did the questioning go? What kind of person is she?"
"Questioning was inconclusive," Rabbit admitted. "Yamanaka-san believes she was recognized. The target refused eye contact and denied an opportunity for covert interrogation. Uzumaki appears amiable, but seems to be secretive and demanding upon further observation. She is also highly familiar with the local weather patterns. For example, she expressed concern about the possibility of a flash-flood and forced them to march further than necessary before setting up camp to her specifications. She sets high standards for her genin team. The genin are nervous and unhappy around her in a way that is inconsistent with exam trepidation."
If he'd looked up, he might have seen the Sandaime's eyebrows raise. "Well now, that's not encouraging. Is it simply that she is an unforgiving teacher, or is there something more sinister there?"
Rabbit's jaw worked under his mask. "Unknown at this time," he had to admit.
"Hmm." He took a long puff, exhaling a cloud that drifted toward the open window. "That will be all for now." He glanced toward the window. "You're dismissed. I believe my next appointment is here."
Rabbit thought about the six teams sitting in the waiting room, but inclined his head without comment. It must be good to be so important.
~~~
When he climbed in the window a minute later, that wasn't exactly what was going through Kakashi's mind.
"I knew she was suspicious," he said mildly before the Hokage had an opportunity to say anything. "This is me, being correct. The suspicious person is now a mist-nin, about whom 'suspicious' is so readily apparent that it doesn't need to be specified."
The Sandaime gave him a withering look. It was all bluff. He was really very fond, Kakashi was certain. "I believe that you actually said that she appeared to be telling the truth about not being beholden to a village."
He spread his hands palms-up. "I was wrong? Or that changed very recently." He slouched, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "It's not implausible, actually. She mentioned being on the outs with Mist, but then she went and killed Zabuza."
"Yagura doesn't seem like the kind of man who appreciates someone getting rid of his missing-nin for him," Sandaime commented ambivalently.
Kakashi shrugged. "But is he the kind of man who would pass up the chance to recruit a nin strong enough to do it, if she dropped into his lap?"
Hiruzen sighed. That was all the answer he offered.
After a moment, Kakashi shifted his weight, trying to figure out what his Hokage was waiting for him to say. It took a minute. "You still want to try to recruit her," he said flatly.
The Hokage offered him a smile. "Now, I didn't say that."
He gave his liege-lord an unimpressed look. "Of course you didn't. I suppose I'll be watching her for unrelated reasons that require exposing her to Naruto and trying to figure if it was family loyalty that brought her for this exam."
"I'm sure she is as invested in the welfare and performance of her students as would be any teacher who has worked with them for such a considerable length of time," the Hokage dismissed.
"Two months at most?" Kakashi huffed. "You're right. She probably doesn't care if they drown in the bath."
"Well, that's not exactly what I hear." Hiruzen took another drag. "But I'm sure it's close enough to the truth. Which makes it all the stranger that all of team 7's reports indicate signs of immediate attachment and investment, wouldn't you say?"
Kakashi's nose twitched. The tobacco was offensively strong, even though the mild filtering of his mask. "She's a good actor," he tried.
The old man hummed noncommittally.
"Or she's desperate for family and latched onto us, as the best example of familial affection she's ever seen," he suggested drolly. "She looked beneath Sasuke-kun's thorny exterior and saw a caring heart. Perhaps I am the father figure she's never had."
The Sandaime snorted, amused despite himself. "I'm not certain that Uzumaki-san would be your child, in this surrogate family scenario. If her appearance reflects her age, she is your peer. If she is displaying the famed youthfulness of the Uzumaki, she might be old enough to be your grandmother."
Kakashi wrinkled his nose. He couldn't see it. But then, that was the point, wasn't it?
"Test it," the Sandaime suggested helpfully. "Work different methods of address into conversation. Try 'Obaasan' the next time you meet and see if her head turns. If she attacks you, you'll know that you were either correct, or that you have offended her." He stroked his beard. "Yes, this could be most useful and amusing for me."
He leveled his leader with a hard look. "I refuse."
'I don't want to fight her unless I have to. She already seemed too familiar with my fighting style. And she outran Gai- this woman is too dangerous to have in the city.'
"Boy, this is your Hokage's order!" The Sandaime faked offense, scowling ferociously. "You'll do as I say."
"Never." He glanced toward the window. "Is there anything else, sir?"
Hiruzen paused. "There is one more thing. I'll be having someone with more than one social skill working on turning Uzumaki herself to Konoha, but there is something I would like for you to do with Gai-kun."
Kakashi groaned.
~~~
She didn't see anyone she knew until the second day in Konoha. She'd signed her boys up for one of the few training fields available to the visitors for several consecutive hours. Aiko was leaning against the fence and not really paying much attention to the maneuver her team was practicing when she smelled- old blood. Dust- no, sand. Unwashed clothes.
Without turning, she sighed. "Hello, Suna nin. I'm afraid I have the field reserved for my team for another-" she glanced at the sun -"hour."
There was a nervous chuckle. "Lady, it's really a better idea if you move."
At Kankurou's voice, she turned around and made eye contact. "It's really not." She flicked her gaze over the three- Gaara was standing furthest back, arms crossed, but Temari and Kankurou were conspicuously not standing in between his path to her. "I hope you're not insinuating I should be intimidated by you. Or that it would be at all beneficial to instigate a fight while we're here on Konoha's good graces."
'On the other hand, shit. I probably should just have moved,' Aiko realized. 'Is Gaara the type to hunt down my genin because I told him no?' A glance at him wasn't enough to tell either way. 'Either way, too late to pacify. If he's that kind of guy, he's seen my headband and he'll already know there's only one Mist team.'
"You clearly don't know who you're talking to." Temari's voice was firm. Aiko didn't believe the lie of confidence, however. She knew Temari well enough to see this was bluster.
It might be better to scare the team off. Gaara didn't listen to his siblings, exactly, but they weren't without some influence over his behavior.
Aiko heard her genin stop in the distance, quiet curses and the sound of running water cutting off. "Did I give you permission to call it a day?" she called a little louder, putting irritation into her tone. Aiko looked back at the Sand genin as her team resumed practice.
Well. Calling them genin was a bit of a farce. Temari was jounin-level, or perhaps tokubetsu jounin. Kankurou could easily be a chuunin. And Gaara… on his own, he was chuunin level with a nearly impermeable defense. With the Ichibi, he was a powerful, if incredibly imbalanced, jounin.
She was a lot stronger than any of them.
Aiko yawned, letting her eyelids fall to half-mast. "The Kazekage's kids, Temari, Kankurou, Gaara. Youngest one's the itty bitty ichibi jinchuuriki. You know, I recently spent some time in Suna. I think you could stand to be a little nicer to jinchuuriki, don't you think? You have some funny ways of treating people who could eat you for breakfast." She looked at Temari- who was most likely to have heard that they had captured a jinchuuriki who had then proceeded to escape.
If a Konoha-nin was watching- likely, although whether or not they were close enough to hear was debatable – they wouldn't come to the right conclusion from that.
But the girl from Suna paled. Message received. Temari took a step back. "G-Gaara, why don't we eat before we train? Like she said, it's only an hour. I could use a drink."
He was giving his older sister a strange look, eyes narrowed. Gaara… he was bright, for sure, but he lacked the information to understand the situation.
It was a long, tense moment. But he turned on his heel with a scrape against the sand.
'I'll have to watch the exam,' Aiko concluded with a sigh. 'I can't have Gaara throwing a fit and pulling the heads off my tickets to the finals.'
She recognized that thought was incredibly callous a moment too late and winced. It wasn't that she didn't care if the team died, of course. She just… wasn't that invested in them as people. She cared in the sense that it was her responsibility to take care of Mist nin, a category that included them.
'What am I going to do about them, anyway?'
It had been a total goddamn fluke that team 7 had gone up against Gaara, and she wasn't going to let it happen. Sakura's death had been two months before the tournament- the grace period for grief decommission was over. Team 7 very well could have been out on mission with a replacement, earning some of the money Konoha was losing while tied up with the tournament. The only reason they hadn't been doing something useful, in all likelihood, was that Kakashi had gone off the fucking rails and disappeared into ANBU.
Unacceptable. She might not be able to prevent that, but she could leave Konoha and convince someone to request the team specifically for a mission. Someone they'd met before would be met with less suspicion and more likely to be catered to- Tazuna, perhaps? With his bridge completed, he would be a wealthy, influential client who Konoha would cater to. And after giving up the team for so long to see it made, Konoha would want to protect that investment.
Team 7 -or what remained of it- would be safely away from the trouble. That left a rather large hole in the events of the invasion. The Hokage and Jiraiya-sama had been caught up with Orochimaru, and others were caught between invaders and the snake summons. The threat presented by an ostensible genin would be overlooked until too late.
Which, conveniently enough, would be an adequately conspicuous way for her to prove her loyalty was with Konoha and not the treacherous Suna-Sound-Grass alliance.
What to do with him, though, she hadn't exactly decided. She could truss him up in chakra chains and bang him around until he fell unconscious- but that would allow Shukaku to take over his body, right? Not really worth it. The chakra chains would still be an acceptable plan, but it would be tedious to hold him indefinitely. And then what- say she kept him from doing any damage throughout the invasion- he'd just be going back to Suna, without the perspective-changing conversation with Naruto that had led to his eventual rise to Kazekage and -much more importantly- actualization as a human being who was treated with basic respect.
But Konoha couldn't and wouldn't keep him in custody forever. Absolutely no one would support her if she claimed he should be kept in protective custody due to the incredibly inappropriate way he was treated in Suna. At best, it'd seem like an obvious ploy to gain control of a jinchuuriki. At worst, it would rally other countries against the notion that their poor treatment of state assets was anyone's business and side with Suna to cover their own asses.
'I want to take him home with me, actually.'
That would be… would it be irresponsible? She knew he wasn't beyond hope of redemption. But he could still do a lot of damage with his bijuu, even if he wanted to come. And she couldn't just kidnap him for his own good. That wasn't much better than what Suna did.
'Ugh. Caring about people's human rights is difficult. It would be so much easier to just put him in a sack.'
Her vision whited out. Her gut churned. She was staring at the three-tailed bijuu.
His tails flailed unhappily.
Aiko swallowed. "I was joking?" she tried weakly. "Also, wow, how did you do this?" She turned around. "Is this – what is this?"
"I am merely demanding your attention for the moment," the Sanbi dismissed. His gaze was hard. "Am I understanding correctly that my brother, the Ichibi, is nearby?"
Oh. Right. Of course that was what he cared about, not an off-color joke about child abduction.
"I am not a fan of that either," Sanbi observed dryly. "Focus. My brother?"
"He's sealed inside the little one I saw a moment ago," Aiko explained.
"I did not see," Sanbi snapped. "Your seal does not allow me that privilege. Tell me about this jinchuuriki. What manner of person has imprisoned my brother?"
Um. "Gaara is twelve," Aiko pointed out. "His jinchuuriki status was non-consensual. If I remember correctly, it was an experiment performed while he was still in the womb. It killed his mother, which led to him being treated very badly. The seal is terrible and he's very confused."
"Confused?" Sanbi asked sharply.
Aiko grimaced. "He should be dead," she admitted frankly. "His seal malfunctions whenever he loses control over it. That means he can't sleep. He literally does not sleep, which would kill him except that the Ichiba won't let him die. But it-" she stumbled. "I mean, she? He?" At the nod, she continued. "he doesn't heal Gaara, so his condition is poor, and he's irrational in addition to being poorly socialized. He's operating under the assumption that the Ichibi is his mother. Actually."
Sanbi closed his eye for a long moment. "That is… I see." He seemed pained. "My youngest brother has never been the most…." He trailed off, apparently lost for words.
"Not that most maternal, I gather," Aiko offered gingerly.
Sanbi winced. "That's true, but somewhat of an understatement. It is always unacceptable to enslave a sentient being, but in my youngest brother's case, I am a little sympathetic to a human's plight in coexisting with him."
"Yeah." Aiko slumped. "I mean. You, the eight-tailed, definitely the seven-tailed, she's very reasonable and I quite like her-"
"Please make your point," Sanbi said, long-suffering.
She glowered. "Right. I was saying that many of you could and should be released to essentially function as person-states of your own right, able to travel and ally with shinobi nations as you will. I don't disagree with you- jinchuuriki are symptomatic of deeply fucked up cultural shit. It's wrong. It's wrong to do to bijuu, and it's wrong to do to bijuu. But I still wouldn't feel comfortable setting the Ichiba free." She slumped. "Especially without someone who was willing to supervise him and make sure he won't hurt anyone." Aiko made eye contact- and noticed for the first time that her vision was perfect again here- and licked her lips. "He's hurt a lot of people in Sand," she explained. "As far as anyone can tell, for the fun of it."
Sanbi sighed. "That… sounds about right." He curled a tail around to rub at his temple. "What a mess."
"Yepp," Aiko agreed. She sighed, too. "I'd probably make the same decision I did with you." She cast him a sideways look. "I acknowledge that it is and was morally wrong, and I don't want to." Aiko swallowed. "But I won't prioritize one person's freedom when it comes at the cost of many lives."
There was silence for a moment. Then the Sanbi snorted. "You lie," he countered. "You absolutely would, for yourself, or the blonde boy who you miss, or perhaps even the jinchuuriki with whom you associate."
Aiko mulled that over. "I'm a hypocrite," she admitted with a laugh. "Yes. Fine. In those rare circumstances, I absolutely would damn the world for one person."
His laugh was ugly, and perhaps bitter. "You are not a nice person, little one. Be gone."