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kingdaddydaichi · 2 years

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⪼ title: the disciplinarian

⪼ pairing: daichi sawamura x f!reader

⪼ wc: 6k

⪼ warnings: nsfw, mdni, Hard Dom/bratty sub dynamic, Daddy/babygirl dynamic, lots of hard spanking, hair pulling, thigh fucking, orgasm denial/edging, oral (m/f receiving), facial, (mild) snowballing, Dom/sub drop, impeccable aftercare

⪼ notes: ever thought about backtalking daichi just to make him mean and feral? i know i sure have. 🪦rip, pussy🪦

⪼ tagging: @briokayama @lanaxians-2 @citrustsuki

You’d been living with Daichi for a few months and while you’d had a couple of minor disagreements, you’d both always handled it in a mature way and communicated like adults who respected and loved each other.

It was easily the healthiest relationship you’d ever been in and your appreciation and gratitude for Daichi’s patience and conflict resolution skills knew no bounds. You were thoroughly in love with him, but lately it felt like he’d been riding your ass about little things.

Your job had been stressful for the past couple of weeks and Daichi’s shifts kept getting moved around, which had fucked up his circadian rhythm and left him sleep deprived and grouchy.

You had two consecutive days off at the same time - a rare occurrence these days. You’d spent the weekend in bed together, except for the times you got up long enough to get food then become one with the couch together. Going back to work today had been rough on both of you, but at least you had that evening together.

“Hey, babe!” Daichi called out before appearing in the kitchen looking good enough to eat. He was fresh out of the shower, hair still damp and messy, wearing only a pair of sweats with a very visible dick print. “Where is my ju-jutsu kanji shirt?”

“I wore it this weekend, remember?”

“So it's dirty?” he said, putting his hands on his hips while shifting to the other foot.

Without moving your head you looked to the side thinking is he seriously gonna do this right now?

“No, Daichi, I haven’t washed it yet. It’s probably fine for you to wear. I didn’t exactly break a sweat while laying around the house with you.”

“It’s the principle, babe.”

“Ohmygod, you’re acting like I'm never gonna wash it! It’s only Monday, Dad. Damn!” you said, rolling your eyes.

“Did you just roll your fucking eyes at me?” he kept his voice low, but his eyes darkened.

“Yeah, because you’re being worrisome and treating me like a child,” you smarted, marching off to gather the shirt in question so you could throw it in the washer to avoid World War III with your bitchy boyfriend.

You heard him call out from the kitchen, “Yeah, because you’re acting like one!”

You came back through, carrying a single t-shirt in your fist before turning on the water in the washing machine and throwing the piece of clothing inside.

“You’re not gonna run the washer for one shirt,” he said, unmoving. It wasn’t a question.

You ignored him and watched the water start filling the tub.

“Did you hear me?” His voice was a little louder this time.

You whipped around and said “So you want me to go ahead and wash all your shit for you, is that it? Hm? I already do most of the cooking anymore; you want me to be your little maid while I’m at it?”

“Watch it, (y/n),” Daichi warned. “You know damn well that’s not what I meant.” He waited a beat to see what you would do. When you let the water keep running he broke the silence. “I said you’re not gonna run the washer for one shirt. Turn it off.”

You crossed your arms and pursed your lips. “You’re not my daddy. You can’t tell me what to do.”

With his big, buff arms folded across his broad chest, he leaned forward, trying to make sure he heard you correctly. “Excuse me? I’m not your what now?”

You looked right at him, your face calm and unfazed. “You’re. Not. My. Daddy.”

He raised his eyebrows at you. “Oh, I’m not?”

You stuck your tongue in your cheek and shook your head, still giving him the stink eye. “Nope.”

He pushed off of the wall and started towards you, his movements slow and controlled.

“What are you doing?” you said. You tried to back up, but you were only able to take a couple of steps in the small laundry room before there was nowhere else to go. Your visibly frustrated boyfriend closed in on you, shutting off the washing machine. “Daichi. What are y-”

Before you could finish, he had you slung over his shoulder, ignoring your protests as he calmly stalked his way back to your shared bedroom.

“TH’FUCK - PUT ME DOWN NOW, DAICHI!”

He relented, setting you down on your feet but only long enough for him to sit down on the edge of the bed and bend you over his strong thighs.

“DAICHI! STOP! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!”

“Showing you who your fucking daddy is,” he answered with a deep, frustrated growl.

“Daichi. You better fucking not!” You both knew the word and unless one of you uttered it, you knew this was going to continue.

He yanked your shorts down over the curve of your wiggling ass, taking your panties with them and ripping a few threads in the process. You gasped when he used the same hand to grab a heaping handful of your thick butt, your flesh dimpling under his strong fingertips as he squeezed hard enough to leave bruises. You whined in discomfort until he let up and started gently rolling your ass cheek under his old spiking hand.

His pinky fingertip came dangerously close to your dampening pussy before he lifted his open hand and brought it down hard across your ass with a loud crack. Your senses sharpened and every muscle in your body tensed as the stinging pain crept across your skin.

“Owww! Damn it, Daichi, that fucking hurt!”

“Good,” he growled just before he slapped your bare ass again, making you cry out and sympathize with all the volleyballs he’d ever spiked.

“D-Dai-” His name died on your lips when his mean, heavy hand slapped across the fat of your ass again. “Fuck, Dai…” you hadn’t meant to moan, but your mouth and body betrayed you. Your panties were beginning to stick to you where they still touched your folds, which were becoming puffier with every strike of Daichi’s firm hand.

Your boyfriend started massaging your raw asscheek again, pulling your crack open to slip his middle and ring fingers down between your slit.

“Fuck, look at you, babygirl. Getting your panties all wet when I spank you like the little smart-mouthed brat you are. Now…” His cock jumped beneath you; you could feel it pressing against your stomach through the thick fabric of his sweatpants. “...tell me I’m not your daddy.”

You whined a little, still trying to squirm away from him, albeit with much less effort than before. Fuck him for trying to make you submit. As if.

You turned your head to look up at him, your hair falling across your reddened face. The fierce look in his eyes made you cream your thighs, but damned if you’d announce it.

Narrowing your eyes, you gritted, “You’re definitely not my daddy,” knowing full well you were poking the beast. But maybe you wanted to. Maybe you wanted to see how far you could push Daichi Sawamura before he snapped. He was always so cool and collected, always keeping everything under control. But you wanted him to lose it. You wanted him to go feral with you. Just a little, at least.

He easily manhandled you until you were face down on your king size bed. You struggled to get out from under him, but your strength was no match for Daichi’s. He was thick with muscle and professionally trained in the art of restraint. With his heavy weight pressing you into the mattress below, he wrapped your hair around his fist, the heat of his breath fanning across your ear.

Yes, he’s almost there.

Tightening his grip on your hair he pulled your head back, your mouth hanging open.

“Say it again,” he groaned, rolling his hips and biting back a moan when his thick cockhead caught on the waistband of his sweats. His hard shaft was splitting your buttcheeks apart as he dragged it between them, but you wanted him to split your pussy open instead. You were panting and whimpering, but he knew you hadn’t yet submitted when you looked over your shoulder at his handsome face, his once warm brown eyes now stern and dark.

“You’re not my fucking daddy, Daichi…” you hazarded with a smirk, adding a little venom to his name. You’d never pushed him this far before. “My actual daddy doesn't tell me what to do so you certainly don’t,” you sassed.

You opened your watering eyes to look at him again with a glint of mischief in them and a daring grin telling him to keep going. It was a conscious effort on your part at this point. Your pussy was sopping wet and you were purposely riling him up, silently begging him to own you already. To fuck you like you needed to be fucked by him. Like you deserved to be fucked by him.

“Alright, that’s enough.” His tone was unfamiliar, a dark blend and balance of cold and commanding.

He reached between your bodies and pushed the elastic waistband of his sweatpants down to the middle of his thighs. His chubby cock popped out with a heavy slap against his lower abdomen, a string of precum glistening in his black happy trail. As he stroked his length in his fist, his knuckles grazed the sensitive skin of your butt. Poking the thick head of his cock between your legs, he sank his shaft between the apex of your thighs, dragging it up and down your weeping slit.

“So I guess you don’t want daddy’s cock to stretch your pretty little cunt open then, hm?” You could hear how much you’d provoked him by the way he exhaled a long, ragged breath behind your ear.

He knew you loved it when he talked to you like that, and you knew he was smart enough to use it as a tactic to gain your submission. Having no intention of letting him manipulate you and win so easily you struggled, trying to press yourself down around him, but he was just too bulky and strong. He fucked the space between the fat of your tightly closed thighs, the tip of his hard cock grazing your clit with every slow pump of his hips.

“D-Daichi…”

Daichi furrowed his brow, a deep ache lodging at the base of his spine. Your juices were coating his twitching shaft and he had to fight the urge to bury his cock inside your wet, yielding heat.

“What is it, baby? Hm?” he groaned, his hot length throbbing between your fleshy thighs. “Use your words, pretty girl. Tell Daddy all about it.”

“You think you’re slick, trying to trick me like that.” You gasped and sighed when he shifted to one side long enough to whip his hand across your asscheek. “You’re not my fucking daddy,” you slurred. But he heard the way you choked on your whimper when he slapped your bare ass again.

Daichi was done talking. He got to his knees and hooked his hands above your hips before jerking your sore ass up into the air. You started to push yourself up onto the palms of your hands in protest, but he quickly shoved your upper body back down to the mattress.

“Your bratty little attitude is old and tired.” You could feel him shifting his weight behind you as he worked his legs out of his pants before dropping them next to the towel he’d used earlier. “You will submit to me. Do you fucking understand me?” You made a pitiful, unintelligible sound. “Answer me!”

Finally. You had him right where you wanted him.

The pain and pleasure of his fist tugging on your hair shot straight down to your painfully empty core. “Fuck you, Daichi,” you croaked.

The next few seconds were a blur as Daichi yanked and tore your clothes off. Fuck. Yes.

He had you up on your knees with your back pressed against his heaving chest, still gripping your hair with one hand while the other gripped your jaw and squeezed your cheeks in. “No, babygirl…” He shoved your top half back down onto the mattress, “Fuck you.”

His cock filled you up so swiftly and completely that it took your breath away. Daichi made no waste of time and began pounding into you mercilessly.

Slam!

His hips slowly pulled away, nice and languid, willing you to feel every vein in his massive cock.

Slam!

You cried out at the way his cock head pressed through the opening of your cervix with every clap of skin that echoed off the walls of your shared bedroom.

Slam!

“Daichi! Please!”

He ignored your pleas, selfishly driving himself balls deep inside you with every fierce thrust of his hips. No regard for your comfort. No regard for your pleasure or your pain. Whether he was making tender love to you or slamming his hips against you, Daichi had always been a thoughtful, attentive lover. But as much as he liked to be in control in all other areas of life, you knew there was a latent urge to do the same in the bedroom. You’d finally managed to bring out the deeper layer of it tonight and fucking hell, was it hot.

You reached back, putting a hand out in a futile attempt to make him ease up, but it backfired. He grabbed that wrist then the other, forcing your torso off the bed as he fucked into you harder than before, using your arms to pull you back into his rough thrusts.

“Oh fuck, Daichi! Oh god yes!”

Your titties swinging, your eyes rolled back as his unforgiving cock stretched out your tight cunt. A pool of heat had gathered in your womb and your snug pussy began to clench down on him. With every stroke he fucked you closer to your end and when you needed only one or two more drags of his cock, he pulled out and let you fall back down to the mattress.

You whipped your head around to see him sitting back on his heels, his eyes still full of that dark fury that turned you on to no end.

“D-Daichi? Wh-“

He flipped you over and spun you around. The feeling of his large hands grabbing and squeezing and pulling on your body made you moan. You crawled to him, lifting yourself and holding onto his huge shoulder with one hand and grabbing his face with the other before smashing your lips against his.

He grabbed you by the back of your neck as he shoved his tongue inside your mouth, quickly dominating yours. You raked your teeth along his tongue, knowing that would drive him up the fucking wall. He growled into your mouth before biting your lip and pulling it between his teeth. You growled back and grabbed a handful of his short, black hair, pulling on it. He easily forced you off him before pushing your head down between his legs.

“Suck it!” your boyfriend demanded, his voice so gravelly you almost didn’t recognize it.

You rolled your eyes up to look at him and pressed your lips closed in defiance.

“I said…” he pulled your face closer to his angry cock, using one hand to squeeze your cheeks until your mouth opened. “…suck my dick!”

Truth was you’d always loved sucking Daichi’s cock. Fuck, it was huge and you’d never manage to take all of him but the sounds you could pull from him while trying were nothing short of magical. You wrapped your relatively small hand around his hot girth and licked the vein that ran along the underside of his length before swirling your tongue around his meaty cockhead. You relished the low hum that echoed in his chest above you.

Daichi’s cock seemed to become ten times more sensitive during blowjobs. He was the only man you’d ever been with whose legs would shake when you got him close to orgasm with your mouth.

You let him slip between your lips; your flavor mixed with his fresh pre made your mouth water. Daichi moaned, his head falling back as you slowly took his length until the tip touched the back of your throat. Over time, giving your boyfriend head had desensitized your gag reflex. You did your best to swallow around the tip before pulling off him long enough to tease his weeping slit with the tip of your tongue.

“Oh shit, babygirl! That’s it. You love Daddy’s flavor, don’t you? Lap it up sweeth-fffffuuuuck!” he groaned.

You’d popped off him and with a hand on each of his majestic ass thighs you pushed yourself up. “I told you. You’re not my daddy,” you rasped, licking your lips.

Daichi pulled you up to your knees and swung his arm behind you to slap your ass. You cried out, sinking your nails into the musculature of his thighs. Holding onto a handful of your ass with one hand, the other slid between your legs. He slipped two thick fingers inside your aching pussy, cupped his palm against your clit, and finger fucked you. Instantly your slick was running down his fingers, coating his palm and making wet slapping sounds every time it hit your clit.

Your cries and moans all ran together as he growled into your ear, “You’re gonna suck my cock when I tell you to, brat. You got that?”

Between his menacing tone and the way he reminded you how much control he really had over you, how easily he could turn you to putty in his hand, you dumbly nodded. “Use your words, baby. Need to hear you say it.”

“Yes,” you breathed, nearly teetering on the edge again as he bullied your needy cunt with his hand.

“Yes what?”

You whimpered. “Y-yes, s-sir mmm-please Daichi. Baby?”

“I don’t fucking answer to that. You will call me Daddy before I’m finished with you tonight. Now…” Just as your gummy walls began to squeeze around his fingers he abruptly pulled them out and forced you down between his legs again. “…be a good girl and suck my fucking dick!”

You were so turned on, loving this little game you were playing with your man, you eagerly wrapped your lips around Daichi’s girth again. He pulled your hair back and held it in place with his hand as a show of dominance but also so he could watch his wet shaft disappear between your lips. You did as you were told, sucking and slurping and choking on Daichi’s cock like it was your last fucking meal.

“Good fucking girl. That’s it, baby, just like that. Fuck.”

He couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore. The pressure behind his heavy balls was too much. You pulled off his cock, and with your hand still tugging on his length you started flicking the tip of your tongue along the line in his ballsac.

Daichi’s head fell back, his lust-blown brown eyes sliding shut again, groaning at the new pleasure shooting up from the base of his spine. You dragged your tongue up and applied pressure to the point where his sac met the base of his shaft, your hand still busy rubbing his throbbing cockhead.

Daichi’s legs began to tremble and you knew he was about to cum. You took his cock in your mouth again, hollowing your cheeks and sucking him hard and fast. He tightened his grip in your hair, swearing, thighs shaking, fucking the head of his cock into your throat - all the signs that he was too far gone.

“Fuckgonnacumbaby,” he breathed, pulling you off his cock and jerking himself the rest of the way off.

With your eyes still closed you wondered why he would deny his own orgasm. That was until you felt the first release of his warm, creamy semen land on your face, then another, and he just kept cumming. Daichi had always blown the biggest, thickest loads. When the last of his cum dripped into your open mouth, he smeared the head of his spent cock around your lips as you tried to lick it clean.

“Damn, sweetheart,” his fist still in your hair, “you look cute as hell with my seed all over your face.” He watched as it dripped down to your naked breasts, your eyes closed tight to keep the cum out. “Fucking beautiful,” he said, panting. He reached over and grabbed the towel he’d dried off with after his shower and began to carefully wipe the mess he’d made, starting with your eyelids. “There you go, got most of it,” he said, tossing the towel somewhere behind him.

A giggle bubbled out of your lips as you slowly opened your eyes. “Damn, baby, you give one hell of a facial.”

Daichi smirked, scooping up a dollop of his cum with his thumb and pushing it inside your mouth. “I told you I don’t answer to that,” he said, kissing you before you had a chance to swallow, a small reward for being such a good sport.

He knew how much it turned you on to swirl your cum-coated tongue around his and he didn’t mind. He’d be lying if he said tasting himself on your tongue wasn’t hot as fuck.

He laid you down on your back, slotting himself between your soft, creamy thighs. You could only briefly enjoy the friction of his soft cock against your clit before his kisses descended along your neck - stopping for a moment to suck a bruise next to your jugular, making you rub your open legs along his sides.

He slid lower down your body, tufts of his black hair sticking out between your fingers as you breathed his name. He kissed your nipples before taking turns sucking on them and squishing the fatty tissue of your breasts between his fingers. Occasionally he dragged one of your taut nipples between his teeth, peppering the soft tenderness of his lips and tongue with little nips and harmless bites.

Down, down he went until you could finally feel the heat of his breath on your clit. Daichi ate pussy like no one else could. You were practically lifting your hips off the bed in anticipation. The pressure of his wet lips on your desperate clit nearly pushed you over the edge. You squirmed beneath him, willing him to devour you already; to make you cum in his mouth like he’d done countless times before. Your boyfriend licked and sucked at your labia, intentionally avoiding your clit. He slipped his fingers inside you, slowly dragging them along your sticky walls and right away could feel how close you were to cumming.

He chuckled, knowing he had you precisely where he wanted you: on the razor’s edge. He’d only been eating you out for about 2 minutes when your walls closed in around his fingers, sucking them in as if trying to prevent their escape. But once again, Daichi withdrew, leaving you clenching around nothing. You wanted to pull your fucking hair out.

“Daiiichiiii! Damn iiiiit!” Tears pricked at the outer corners of your eyes. You’d lost count of how many times he’d brought you right to the precipice only to yank you back to solid ground.

“Something wrong, sweetheart?” he teased, pushing himself onto his knees, his cock half hard again.

You were starting to get mad; genuinely angry at your man for torturing you like this. You knew his fucking game from the start and you had no intention of letting him win.

However, as the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

You were nearly in physical pain from the need to cum. Primal instinct was beginning to win out over false pride. Your urge had gone beyond desire and had crossed the line into agonizing need. You didn’t want Daichi’s fat cock buried deep inside you - you desperately needed it. You needed to feel the drag of his hard shaft along your swollen walls, the friction of his pelvis against your throbbing, puffy clit. Hell, at this point he could probably blow on it and make you cum.

“Daichi, stop,” you said pitifully.

“I did stop.”

“You know what I mean. I need…” you trailed off, your ego in the throes of death.

“What is it, baby? Hm?” He caressed your naked leg, the warmth of his touch driving you wild. “Tell me what you need.”

The first tear streaked across your temple. “Need you. Make m’cum, Dai,” you whimpered.

You would never know the amount of willpower it took for him to not plow into you right then and there. He leaned down, pushing your hair back from your forehead and kissing it before kissing the tear away from your face.

“Shh…it’s okay, babygirl. I’ve got you. All you have to do is accept that I’m your daddy and I’ll give you everything you ever wanted.”

You huffed and crossed your arms over your breasts. “No.”

You were flipped onto your belly again with Daichi’s powerful thighs straddling your plushy ones. His heavy hand, calloused from years of ball spiking, came from the side and slapped your ass like he was trying to hit it over a net. You wailed. That was the worst one yet. Your ass was raw from the earlier spankings, but the numbness had worn off.

“Daiiii! Fuuuck that fucking hurts!” you sobbed.

Behind you, your lover’s eyes widened with worry. “Color?”

“Green.” You were crying, but you’d spoken clearly.

“You sure are obstinate for a little girl that needs to cum so badly.” Daichi’s hand landed on the curve of your ass with a crack, making you scream out for him. “Only good girls who beg for their daddy’s cock get to cum.”

He kneaded your flesh with his big, strong hands, assuaging some of the stinging pain. He reached down and lined his full erection up with your winking pussy. Jesus Christ, he was so fucking turned on that even though he’d just cum a few minutes ago he knew he wasn’t going to last long seeing you like this, your poor little pussy trying to suck him in as you cried for him to let you cum.

He pushed himself through your ring of flesh, both of you moaning in unison, but he only got a couple of inches in before pulling back out.

“Daichi, no! Please!” You squealed in frustration.

“What did I just say, bratty girl? Beg for your daddy’s cock and I’ll let you cum all over it.”

Shit, he was fucking ruthless. He pushed the fat head of his cock right up to your entrance, holding himself there with just the right amount of pressure against your cunt.

“Damn it, Daichi! Fuck, you’re so mean!”

He leaned down on top of you, his hard barrel of a chest pressing against you, the small patch of hair above his pecs tickling your back.

“You haven’t seen mean, babygirl. I fucking promise.” He was so hard, his length grinding along your buttcrack as his breath dusted your ear. “I love you more than anything and I’m willing to give my babygirl the whole fucking world. All I need from you is to call. me. Daddy.”

“Oh god…” you felt the last thread of your dignity snap. “I- I need to cum so fucking bad,” you cried. “Please? Please let me cum on your cock, Daddy?”

Daichi was up, forcing you onto your back and shoving his cock all the way inside you in the blink of an eye.

“Anything for my babygirl,” he promised, pressing your thighs back until your knees almost touched your ears. You were caged between his arms, begging him nonstop as he pounded into you from above.

“Yes, Daddy, fuck me! I’ve been such a bad girl n m’so sorry!”

Daichi felt your walls closing in hard and fast. “Fuck, babygirl, you’re crushing Daddy’s cock. You’re gonna cum for me when I tell you to.”

The pressure that was rising inside you was unlike anything you’d ever felt. “God yes, Daddy! Gonna cum all over your fat cock!” you said through gritted teeth.

Daichi watched as his cock pistoned in and out of your creamy pussy, your knees hooked around his elbows as his wet hips clapped against your butt. He was dangerously close to busting his nut.

“That’s my girl. Let go, baby. Cum for Daddy…NOW!”

You threw your head back, back arching, eyelids fluttering as the massively tight coil inside you finally snapped. It felt like you were peeing but you’d been tossed over the edge so hard and deep you didn’t give a single fuck as your liquid splattered across Daichi’s flexing abs.

“Ohshitbabygirl! So fucking hot, I can’t- I’m gonna-!” Daichi’s hips stuttered. “-nnfffuck!” He buried himself balls deep, still rutting into you when a pang of searing heat shot from the base of his spine and through a singular point of exit. His thick, white cream spilled inside you and began to leak from the snug rim of your used cunt. He lowered your weakened legs back down beside him and slotted his lips with yours, kissing you with a gentle passion.

“Are you okay, baby?” he asked quietly.

You weren’t expecting the tears that seemed to well up from nowhere. You quickly covered your eyes and nodded.

“Whoa, hey…”

Daichi’s deep voice softened as he rolled off of you before pulling you on top of him where you curled into the safety and security of his strong arms. He rubbed your back and talked you through the rush of emotions that inevitably hit after such intense play. You’d never cried after a scene before, but this was the most immersive one you’d experienced so far.

“Baby, listen to me. You’re safe. I love you with my whole heart and I’ll never let anything bad happen to you.”

Your Dom’s aftercare was exquisite and you needed it now more than ever before. Guilt loomed on the fringes of his heart knowing he’d done this to you. It was just as reassuring to Daichi to say these things out loud as it was for you to hear them.

“You are a beautiful, intelligent woman who has all my respect and adoration. I will always protect you no matter what, okay?”

You sniffled and nodded against his chest. He held you like that until you stopped shaking. You’d stopped crying, but your arm was still fastened around Daichi’s neck, not wanting to let go.

Daichi kissed the top of your head and murmured, “Baby, I need to get us both some water. If you wanna stay here, let me know; otherwise, I’m gonna need to lay you down for a few seconds so I can pick you up and carry you.”

You answered with a meek “k” before Daichi gently let you go long enough to slip his sweats back on and wrap you up in a blanket. He hoisted you up bridal style, your arms urgently wrapping around his neck again. Your hold on him was tight, afraid to let go even though he kept assuring you he would never let you fall. He grabbed a glass and pushed it against the water dispenser in the freezer door. Once filled, he had to sit you down on the countertop so he could hand it to you. But he stayed right in front of you, rubbing your legs while you guzzled half the water down.

“Thirsty, hm?”

“Yeah,” you said, passing the glass to him.

He downed the other half in 3 swallows then shoved it back under the dispenser for more. You both finished that glass and he got some more before asking you to carry it so he could carry you back to your ensuite master bathroom.

Daichi set you down on the edge of the tub with the glass of cool water in your hands while he drew a warm bath.

“Listen, baby, it might sting when you first get in, but only for a few seconds, alright?”

You nodded and when the bath was ready, Daichi helped you stand up and made sure you were steady on your feet as you let the blanket fall away.

“Oh fuck, baby,” Daichi buried his face in his hands when he saw your bottom. “I’m so sorry. Shit.”

You reached out and ran your fingers through his hair before pulling his head against your belly. “It’s okay, baby. I’m okay. I wanted this. You didn’t do anything wrong, Daichi.”

He dragged his hands down his face and wrapped his strong arms around your waist, hugging your body close.

“I think I underestimated my own strength though. I didn’t mean to leave such nasty marks on you, babe.”

Still stroking his hair, you smirked down at him. “At least we both know you could still spike the fuck out of a volleyball.”

He shook his head. “Don’t even joke about that right now. I feel awful about this.”

“Daichi, look at me.”

“You haven’t seen what I did to you.”

“I don’t have to see it, Dai. You didn’t do anything to me I didn’t want you to do. I still trust you with my life, baby.”

Daichi wordlessly stood up and guided you to the mirror, turning you around so you could see your butt. It did look worse than you thought it would, but it was still fresh and you knew you’d heal from it quickly.

“Well, damn.” You took a deep breath and exhaled, watching Daichi’s shoulders slump in the reflection as he held the bridge of his nose. “Guess you’ll just have to kiss my ass for the next few days until it gets better.”

Daichi’s shoulders began to shake, which you knew all too well meant he was laughing. Sure enough, he dropped his hand from his face to reveal his huge smile.

“I fucking love you, (y/n), you know that?”

“I fucking love you too, Daichi. I think I always will.” You pulled him down into a kiss.

“Maybe next time you should do it in uniform,” you said, biting your lip.

He quirked an eyebrow at you. “Yeah? You think you’d like that?”

You gave him a slow nod as your fingers walked their way up from his abs to his chest. “Don’t forget your handcuffs…”

His half-lidded eyes darkened a little again as a crooked, mischievous grin formed on his handsome face. “Careful what you wish for, babe…”

Your conversation continued as you bathed each other, occasionally kissing and checking in with one another.

When you were done, Daichi got out of the bath and quickly dried off before helping you out. He dried you off before sweeping you off your feet and carrying you to bed.

He laid you down before sliding in next to you and gently applying lotion to your bottom. You were almost asleep when he laid down behind you, pulling you close with his chest against your back and his arm wrapped around you.

“I love you more than anything, baby,” he whispered, his lips pressing a sweet kiss behind your ear as your legs tangled with his.

“Mmm…” you smiled and intertwined your smaller fingers with his. “I love you endlessly…Daddy.”

“Careful,” he warned.

With a smile and a sigh you melted into his warm, protective embrace.

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yuesya · 9 months

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Twins au drives me insane because i’m simultaneously driven by the need to have spooky eldritch Shiki shenanigans which is facilitated and driven by how only really three people know of the cohabitation status of Sato-Shiki. Thus give rise to the two great secrets of Ju jutsu high and all that entails and the great hilaritys. But I also just Need To See Sato-Shiki Stomp Some Fools. I want to See Them Flex. I want more people to know about Shiki and for her to have friends and shit v.v. But there really isn’t a pressing situation that they can really flex and do so in other than the Plot which is [Redacted]… sighhhh.

Hard the same anon, except it's made worse by the fact I already have a scene in mind for the eventual reveal + action + people losing their minds over Satoru-Shiki and it's full of [REDACTED][REDACTED].

On a completely unrelated note, I am going to have so much fun once we inch closer to the canon timeline in zenith of stars.

#QA #zenith of stars au #twins au #the spoilers aaaa #zenith already makes me happy to write #but there's also a lot of fun things awaiting us later on in the timeline #:D

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roanniom · 1 year

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LOL what would Eddie do if his girl has a "fight" reflex when she gets scared? One of my bf's once tried to scare me in the shower (he didn't know that I had trained ju-jutsu when I was younger) and when he pulled away the shower curtain and came at me I threw a punch 😅 can just see Eddie falling on his ass "that ... wasn't what I expected - hot though!"

That’s 100% what I was talking about with this post.

Eddie wants to scare you because you lash out. He finds it so hot that your immediate instinct is to defend yourself.

In this context I think it’s also important to note that Eddie also loves to play wrestle with you. Because you don’t take any of his shit. You’ll flip him, you’ll roll him over or pin him down. Whatever it takes. Eddie Munson likes it a little rough and he’s still coming to terms with it, so for now he gets his fix in these ways.

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson discourse #Eddie munson thots

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the-tomato-soup · 8 months

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In between the Jujutsu Kaisen show and the movie, we are shown two different POVs of Geto leaving; Geto's POV, and Gojo's. In Gojo's POV, everything is dark and blurry, the only things in focus are Geto and himself. All he remembers is Geto and himself. In Geto's POV, everything is brighter and more detailed; as you can see the location being in front of a KFC, and you can make out features in the faces of passers-by. Gojo is clearly heavily distraught and heartbroken by Geto leaving, but Geto seems emotionally unaffected and he keeps his composure.

The reason that Gojo's POV of the moment is so dark and lacks detail because it is a defining trauma to him, a moment of great loss. This is something that would change the course of his life completely; changing how he wants to treat others and what he ends up choosing to do with his life, that is becoming a teacher. Realizing that he had missed so many warning signs, too, helped him to learn how to read others better, despite his isolation in childhood preventing him from easily gaining those skills. This was the loss of his best friend and the love of his life, and because of how traumatic that is, he has a very fuzzy memory of it.

Geto, on the other hand, has a very bright and detailed memory of it. While it might, at first, come off that he simply didn't care about leaving Gojo, that is simply and completely untrue, as he finally expresses his regrets only once, as he is dying. But the reason behind his POV being so bright and detailed is because it simply was not traumatic to him, as he did not view this moment as leaving, or at least, not in the same way. He thought this was a necessary step in achieving what he wanted, and what he wanted was a world that was perfect, where they would no longer have to fight, so that Gojo and everyone else he cared about would have been able to be happy and peaceful. He never intended to be so deeply in the wrong, he never intended to leave forever; he simply wanted to create a better world.

There are also shown a strange shift in the way they interact, further down the line. While in the past, Gojo was often more cheery and energetic in their interactions, while Geto took a more watchful role, watching on as Gojo interacted with the world. Now, we see that Geto is often the one shown smiling and laughing in these recent interactions, while Gojo is left unhappy in the background.

The reason for this shift in dynamic is because when they were younger, Gojo had a more careless outlook on the people around him with only an exception for Geto. He didn't have particular care for the people he was trying to help and save, he only cared about getting the job done, so that he could go have a good time. After the trauma of losing Geto, the one person he did care for, he's quickly sobered to the reality of the world, that he was a responsibility to help people, and needs to take that responsibility seriously. This is where he makes the decision to become a teacher, to teach the next generation of sorcerers this idea of responsibility, to prevent a loss like that happening to someone new.

Geto's shift in behavior, however, is caused by the fact that his moral compass is completely switched after the incident with Toji. We see him fall into this spiral of questioning his reason, his purpose, and his belief system. When he eventually comes back from this deeply influential time in his life, he has morally changed almost completely, retaining very little of his old beliefs. After this change in morals, he feels like he is less weighed down, and this becomes especially true when he defects from Ju Jutsu High. This weight off of his shoulders finally allows him to feel like he can breathe, and he finally feels like he's able to very simply be happy, as Gojo once was (Of course, if the reason this is bad escapes you, please look back at the previous paragraph).

In conclusion, while Geto doesn't seem as affected by this split, he very intensely is. While Gojo views this one singular moment as something that will make this relationship irreparable, Geto sees it as a moment where they will walk away now, but be able to meet again at a time when the world is better for them, and he will be forgiven.

#satosugu #jjk #jjk spoilers #jujutsu kaisen #jjk geto #jjk gojo #gojo satoru #geto suguru

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swordduels · 2 months

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I might rewatch Ju Jutsu Kaisen to get a better grasp at how the power structure around curses works so I can somewhat do headcanons about Clarimonde's abilities. I still need to figure out things for the Demon Slayer verse too. The pro of having different verses from fandoms: There is often a lot of source material to draw inspiration from. It can make the process faster when figuring out a background or figuring out powers the character may have. The con of having different verses from fandoms: One has to be aware of the lore and laws around magic systems to make sense in the world building of said fandom. It's especially taxing when the OC has very time period specific lore to consider, not to mention if said character has a specific ethnicity with a different culture from the fandom. I especially have a hard time figuring out how natural it would be if Sigfrid or Clarimonde were born and raised in Japan or if it's better to give them immigrant stories. It's especially hard in fandoms such as Inuyasha since Japan have a long history of isolation from most of Europe until the Victorian era. Soo, either I make up some bullshit story without any historic relevans or I try to adapt from what is possible or I have to reshape characters to fit into another cultural setting. It's somewhat easier in fantasy/semi fantasy settings that arent set in our world. It might be a reason why I find it easier to roleplay re:zero, One Piece or Soul Eater besides all the folklore stuff.

#mun talks #ooc #Ju Jutsu Kaisen #roleplaying #rambling

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electrasev5nwrites · 8 months

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Ninja Daily: AIC 23

A tile broke underfoot with a loud crack. His knee jarred.

Ahead, Orochimaru made a great leap.

Shrew copied, assuming the Sannin was dodging something. He collided with something invisible midair and screamed. Boar dropped off pursuit to catch Shrew before he could fall.

Hound didn't allow himself to falter. Rabbit and Jackal were still with him.

He pushed harder, muscles screaming to get him, to stop him. Orochimaru had to be stopped. He had tried to kill the Hokage. He had brought ruin to Konoha. He had defiled the dead. He had to be stopped.

He was gaining.

Orochimaru changed course, avoiding the north-east main district area. Or heading towards the mountainous training areas?

He was gaining.

Even Orochimaru's monstrous chakra reserves could be drained. Was that why he was not attacking?

He hadn't managed to desecrate Minato-sensei's corpse. He would have planned to have enough chakra for that. Orochimaru was a genius. Another man might have run out of chakra by mistake. But Orochimaru?

Hound didn't trust it. He caught Rabbit's eye and made a signal. He pulled out wire. Jackal made the feint- He went for Orochimaru's back with shuriken. Rabbit caught the other end of the wire and ripped off the weight. Orochimaru dodged the shuriken to the left. Rabbit was using her shunshin and she was there, she went past his point and Orochimaru's own speed should have had him cutting himself open on the wire.

He hit it, but skin didn't break open. Hound's gloves shrieked as metal bit through wire but he didn't let go because he needed to be touching it to send electricity down the wire. Rabbit shunshin'd again, trying to catch Orochimaru, to wrap around.

The Sannin fell into the ground. Earth jutsu. He wasn't out of chakra, then.

Hound dropped the wire. He shuddered chakra through his veins, forcing it to change from the lightning to earth nature and dove in after.

Orochimaru leapt out of hiding, back into the air. He'd rather fight above ground. Had he been hoping for a chance to do something unseen? Had he managed it.

The Sannin's mouth was red and wide, and his body undulated far too much as he avoided Jackal's sword. His shoulders moved before his lungs did- a deep breath, a-

Hound barked, a sound that Jackal reacted to on instinct and leapt away before the sword came out of Orochimaru's throat.

"Kusunagi," Orochimaru hissed. "Come, then, if you want to play."

They circled him. Hound took the lead position and when he was behind Orochimaru it was Rabbit who went in for the strike first. She went high, Hound low, Jackal for the liver. Orochimaru met Rabbit's blade with Kusunagi and Jackal's with a shuriken in his left, and he danced away from Hound's blade with a kick that connected and broke a tooth. But Hound had scored a blow, a gash up the back of Orochimaru's calf and nearly into the delicate tendons behind the knee.

Hound's head shot back and he loosened his body to use the momentum instead of holding firm and incurring damage. Jackal was twisting his blade past the kunai and into the deadwood that Orochimaru substituted with.

Where.

The snake burst out of a tree trunk, twisting and snarling for Hound. He bared his teeth in reply. His sword was ready to take off the snake's head, the only way to put a snake down was to-

Hound flinched. The genjutsu shuddered off. He dodged instead of attacking. He pulsed his chakra violently to shred the chakra hanging in the air.

Boar stopped attacking Hound- when had he arrived. Boar let his sword drop. Rabbit went careening past, unable to halt her jutsu but managing to change her trajectory to keep from running her comrade through.

Jackal was on the ground, still.

Orochimaru was gone.

Kakashi came back. Of course he did. He'd failed. That was much more Kakashi's style than Hound's. He swallowed, hard, and summoned his pack. Boar hefted up Jackal and took him for medical treatment. Rabbit followed Kakashi without comment, ready to track Orochimaru down even if it was just the two of them. But there was nothing- he'd shed his skin and scent.

They went back to the city center with cold and empty hands. Everywhere he looked, fallen buildings, spattered blood, abandoned weapons, bodies of summons and attackers and defenders. He walked past a man pretending to be a corpse and Rabbit hauled the enemy off to custody.

The arena was a bloodbath. It was dripping down the stairs. He could hear it under the quiet conversations of restoring order.

"Kakashi-san." Gai clasped his arm. "I have news."

Dully, he met Gai's eyes. They were serious. "Your students are well," Gai said, and Kakashi remembered he had students. Right. He'd sent them after Sasuke and Sasuke had gone after the Ichibi and the Ichibi had been captured by Uzumaki-san and stolen by Orochimaru.

"Uzumaki." He cleared his throat. "Didn't damage the genin when she attacked the Ichibi jinchuuriki?"

Gai shook his head. "I do not believe any of your students, save Uchiha-kun, even encountered young Gaara-san. No body has been found yet. There is a curiosity- she entrusted her students to me. They remained under my team's eye, until they were summoned to the Tower."

That was… either she did not care about the Kiri genin in the slightest, or she was allied with Konohagakure, then. He didn't feel an emotional response, but he noted it. The Sandaime had been more correct, then. She wanted Konoha's good grace.

"My Rival." Gai hadn't let go of Kakashi's arm. He held it a little tighter. His voice was rough. "There is… something else. Something important that you should know."

He waited. He couldn't muster the effort to prompt Gai.

Gai cleared his throat. "After Orochimaru left, the Nidaime and Ichidaime fell."

That made sense.

"The-" Gai paused. "The being that Uzumaki-san summoned spoke. Presumably. Uzumaki-san reacted as though there was a voice she could hear." He hesitated. "Under what appeared to be orders, she opened the Fourth's coffin." His hand shook. "She touched the Yondaime, Kakashi. She touched him. And he woke."

Kakashi jerked away from the horror of that.

Gai was still holding his stare. "He is with the Sandaime now, under close supervision." He took a deep breath. "His mind appears to be his own. He… He has asked for you."

"But they're bleeding." The older woman indicated the biohazard trash can before picking up her clipboard.

Aiko leveled her with a hard look that was probably actually fairly creepy. She ignored the trash can. Instead, she folded the hand towel and stuck it in her pocket, ignoring the outraged look that action earned her. "It happens. And they're done bleeding for now, anyway."

Apparently the medic had seen far worse, because she was unimpressed. "Can you deactivate them?" the woman tried. "Your entrance documents indicate you have black eyes, so I can only assume you can use your eyes in a less stressful way."

She chose not to hear that, because she wasn't interested in responding to it.

"She is not mistaken," Sanbi spat. "It is damaging. Your arrogance is astounding. If I would choose to rescind my generous chakra gift, you would die."

'Are you going to?' Aiko asked. She couldn't work up the energy to make the question a challenge.

He was silent.

'I didn't think so.' She had a headache she ached to rub away, but the pain beneath her eyes was gone. Had been gone since the death god had used her to revive…. Had put that stress on her body.

Sanbi didn't make a sound, but there was a quality to his silence now that indicated he had come to the same conclusion she had.

She swallowed. There wasn't time to deal with that. This wasn't a place to be more vulnerable than she already was.

"Don't stress your leg," the medic decided, grudgingly. "Keep your weight off of it for a week, or you'll delay your recovery and risk undoing the work I did today. You'll need a physical therapy regimen, but I don't imagine you plan to continue your treatment in Konohagakure?"

"Not likely," Aiko said shortly. She took the proffered crutch and tried to stand. Mm, not fun, and not dignified. Lovely. But… she cast a guilty look back at the medical ninja filling out paperwork with a hard set to her mouth. "Thank you," she said, without looking back. "for your time and care. I'll keep your advice in mind."

The older woman was silent for a moment. "I'll have the relevant information sent to the general hospital in Kirigakure."

'Good fucking luck. I seriously doubt they've prioritized emergency generator power to non-essential functions like the fax machine.'

Sanbi snorted, but it really wasn't funny at all.

Inoichi was waiting outside the hospital door, because of course he was.

"Puppies," Aiko said shortly. She glanced down to watch the crutch's placement, trying to find a rhythm. At least the rubber-tipped aid was quiet on the tile floor.

He gave her a perturbed look. "Your students have been located in good health, but they must go through some questioning before we can release them into your custody. I regret to say that it might take some time to compile a timeline on their actions and conduct interviews on the events of the day."

'They do have the right to secure foreigners involved in combat in their city. They can't do much to a foreign head of state without litigation, but the rank and file don't have that kind of protection.'

"A power play?" Sanbi questioned. "Retaliation for the Konoha ninja who you have in custody?"

Probably. But they would also genuinely take the opportunity to try to gather information about the new state of affairs in Kirigakure, and genin were easy targets. If three genin who had spent an extended amount of time in close contact with the new, unknown Mizukage fell in their lap? Yes. Konoha was not going to pass on their right to keep them in custody for a time.

"I still need to see them."

"Of course." Inoichi sounded businesslike. "It will have to come after your meeting with Hokage-sama, I'm afraid."

She gave in and rubbed at her temple. She should have stopped walking, because she lost her rhythm with the crutch and put way too much weight on the bad hip. Two hairline fractures- it wasn't exactly debilitating, but the Nidaime had a good kick.

'He was actually pretty cool. 9/10, dreamiest Hokage to date.'

"Oh?" Sanbi asked, sounding as if he was just indulging her. "Why is that statement so deliberately open?"

'Tsunade is still out there somewhere,' Aiko pointed out. 'She might never become Hokage if dad takes the job back, but you can't forget her. She's there. Somewhere. And she's so crush-worthy. You'll see.'

There was a shocked silence in response, which was the kind of thought that really made her wonder about how insane her life had become. It used to be that a lack of conversation was normal in her head.

"Dad." Sanbi said. "Dad?" His voice raised in question. "You cannot possibly mean."

'I do mean.'

He took a moment to consider this. "Your life is very odd."

It was hard to disagree with that. She couldn't even work up indignation. She mostly felt resigned to it.

And on that topic, she needed to figure out a working strategy for Minato, and now. And that was kinda hard to do without knowing what he would know about her and how that would affect his response to her. Three options came to mind-

Option one- He was the Minato from this timeline, and he had miraculously identified her despite having only seen her on the day of her birth.

This theory was interesting, if only because it would prove that she had been born, but that somehow no one knew about her or what had happened to her. Except that would require him to have still somehow encountered another version of her in Rouran, because she didn't know what other encounter he could have been referencing when he'd accused her of treating him unfairly.

So this premise would be contingent on a timeline existing where she had been born, disappeared from public Konoha in unknown circumstances, and then still had a time-traveling incident that would have allowed him to meet her as a teenager and have a disagreement. And was either dead now or in an undisclosed location, being very quiet and pretending she did not exist.

"Unlikely," Sanbi agreed. "Your demonstrated skills are not heavily weighted towards quietly sitting out of sight. Assuming that we use the premise that you are not mad and have actually originated in another timeline, it seems most likely that you are the only version of yourself in this world."

'I'm fairly attached to that premise.'

Option two- He was the Minato from her timeline, and he remembered her only from the context of their meeting in Rouran, as well as who she was in relation to him.

"Your life is strange," Sanbi repeated sullenly. "What is Rouran? Were you of a comparable age, such that his instant recognition would be likely?"

She'd been … fifteen? He'd probably make that connection, yeah. But if that was how he recognized her, it was odd that he hadn't expressed the slightest surprise at her eyes. That was why she was leaning towards…

Option three- He was the Minato from her timeline, he must still remember their encounter in Rouran, but he also had knowledge of her beyond that. Because at this point, she was not ruling out the possibility that he would have been able to somehow watch over her life from death.

'It's possible that he was either overwhelmed and genuinely didn't notice the Rinnegan, or that he concealed any reaction,' Aiko admitted in the interest of fairness. 'But…'

"This final theory would introduce the most uncertainty." Sanbi hummed. "You have no way of supposing what knowledge he might have of your motivations and history, or how sympathetic he may be."

'The scenario that makes my life hardest is probably the right one. So he's probably been watching me from the afterlife, but, like, only at the times that I make the worst decisions. Because fuck me, that's why.'

Sanbi didn't disagree, which was as good as agreeing, really.

Inoichi cleared his throat. She tore her attention back to the outside world enough to realize that he was giving her a hard look, and that they were standing outside the correct meeting room.

"You forgot to let him lead you," Sanbi guessed.

'At this point, I don't give a shit.' She ignored the byplay and slid the door open. Ugh, she was the first one there. She hobbled to a chair and sat as gracefully as possible. The crutch clacked when she leaned it against the table. She eyed it resentfully.

"It will make your life easier," Sanbi said, in an entirely reasonable tone. "It will take me several hours to repair the damage to your leg, unless you stop using my energy for your eyes. In the meantime, it is good for you to use this tool."

'I'm going to use it for evil,' she thought back impulsively. And then she considered the idea. Huh. There was potential, there.

Sanbi seemed more baffled than anything. He chose not to offer a response.

"Can I offer you a drink while you wait?" Inoichi asked.

Aiko grimaced through the pounding of her head. "Coffee, please, if there is a god."

He raised his eyebrows. "I'll see what can be done." He leaned out the door, and must have signaled someone. She tuned out of whatever conversation was going on.

It turned out that the breakroom coffee machine was a casualty of the invasion, because Orochimaru was the actual fucking worst. But someone managed to procure a cup of truly vile instant coffee. It was brought in a white mug with designs of fish and black cats. She suspected that it had been stolen off someone's desk. She finished it in approximately two minutes and watched it be taken away sorrowfully.

The next person to come by was the Hokage's actual assistant, a bit ruffled, but carrying an actual tea set. She set it down and whisked out the door as Minato and the Sandaime entered.

From their faces, she might not have known that this was anything more interesting than a meeting with accounting.

"Let's make this quick." Aiko wrapped her hands around her tea. Her fingertips were numb. "I've got cake to order, and you just can't get anything after 4. Isn't that outrageous? How am I supposed to feed my family if I can't get cake after working normal office hours?"

She received a long-suffering look in response from her dad, but no one took the bait of the distraction. Which was fair, but it was also true that bakeries had shit hours of operation.

Minato sat down across from her, which was clearly closer than the Sandaime would have liked. The acting Hokage remained standing, arms crossed.

"Aiko-san," Minato tried. His nose wrinkled, as though he didn't like the way the honorific tasted. "It seems fairly clear that you and your team offered your assistance to Konohagakure today, so the first order is to extend my official thanks."

"Yours," Aiko said, which was rude but she was feeling cranky. She looked at the Sandaime. "Not the Hokage's?"

Minato's mouth opened and then he looked befuddled. Perhaps he'd forgotten the awkward situation.

The old man gave a wry smile, as if he couldn't quite help it. "Until such a time as Minato-san crumbles into dust or reveals himself to be a tool of Orochimaru, you may assume he speaks with the weight of our shared office."

Okay, then. If that worry was on the table, then Kakashi hadn't killed Orochimaru. Not that she'd expected he would. He needed to get stronger here to be able to keep up with the type of shit that was coming.

"I take it that Orochimaru got away, then?" Aiko snorted. "It'd be hard to imagine how Orochimaru could be controlling Minato-san, unless he's playing a really long game." She paused. "One I would almost have to be in on. Do you think there's a chance that we're cooperating?"

'Fat chance. Neither of us would have engineered a conflict that embarrassing.'

The Sandaime's expression didn't say anything in particular.

She gave a humorless laugh. "I suppose it's plausible enough, if you assume he would be willing to endure the humiliations of deliberately failing in his invasion, and of turning tail to run from a fight. I'd also have to be dedicated enough to this ploy to let the Nidaime take something dear to me." Her expression flattened.

Minato didn't look confused, which was a good sign that he had been briefed already on what had happened before his resurrection. Well. Of course he had.

"A pity." The Sandaime gave her a friendly smile that she didn't believe in the slightest. "It's conceivable that in the case of such a plot, you might have contrived with Orochimaru in order to retain possession of the Ichibi."

The Sanbi made a horrific scraping sound that might have been his version of a chuckle.

She didn't know what the Sandaime would make of the smile on her lips, but there was no point in hiding it. She leaned forward and lowered her tone. "I assure you, that's not the case." She shrugged with one shoulder. "I have a novel idea." Her voice was dry. "How about I help you bring your rogue to justice. That should demonstrate that I have no desire to take advantage of your weakened state."

"Wholly selfless," the Sandaime agreed in just as dry a tone. "After all, why would anyone think you had a cause to turn on Orochimaru?"

Aside from the very public and scary marching orders from the god of death, yeah, yeah.

Minato coughed, and drew her attention back to him. He looked sheepish. "Well, I can see how it would benefit both of our interests to form a task force to apprehend Orochimaru, and I thank you for opening the process. But Sunagakure is, of course, interested in reacquiring the Ichibi. It is difficult to promise that anything recovered from Orochimaru might be able to go with Kirigakure."

'Can't help but notice you didn't actually say you had intention of getting the Ichibi back to Suna. Subtle.'

She gave him an unimpressed look. "Oh wow, it's almost like it would help my public image to disclaim any right to the contents of the scroll that was stolen from me."

"It would remove the tinge of implication that your actions were out of self-interest," the Sandaime said, as if he'd just thought of it.

"You can't expect me to agree to that." Aiko crossed her arms. "I've already told you that the contents of that scroll are of great value to me, and it was, as I said, very publicly witnessed that it was stolen from my possession. What claim could Konoha have?"

"Uzumaki." Sanbi sounded pained. "They will destroy you once your treachery is discovered."

"This isn't about Konohagakure," Sandaime said, reasonably. "But come now, the contents of that scroll are valuable to more interested parties." He paused. "For obvious and varied reasons."

'Maybe,' she allowed. 'But until then, what else can I do? Tell them I've got Gaara? I need to buy time.'

"My interest in that scroll is purely sentimental," Aiko said primly. "I can't speak for anyone else and what base concerns might motivate them to chase it."

It was highly selective enough to be entirely accurate, but also sound like she was accusing them of being power-hungry. There was an awkward silence.

"I'm certain we will all laugh about this one day," Sanbi sighed.

"I think that terms of our cooperation might be resolved at a later date." The Sandaime's tone was final. "We will also have discussion regarding the other issues at hand facing our countries' relations. Congratulations must be extended, Mizukage-sama. And I am interested to hear how the amusing coincidence of your presence in Konoha came about." He gave her a thin smile. "But for now, I think we are finished. You will be taken to meet your students, although I regret to inform you that they must remain for a time. From there, I have prepared an escort to take you back to your country, as a courtesy. I have no intention of rudeness, of course, but you may observe that Konohagakure is in no state to host such a prestigious guest." His body language indicated the discussion was over.

"I'd hate to inconvenience you," she answered just as coldly. Aiko managed a smile and let go of the tea. She hadn't drank anything. "Let's agree to a discussion at a later date. I can return at any time- a week?"

"Surely that is not enough time for you to deal with affairs at home." He raised a hand, and four ANBU entered the room. One of them turned his mask towards her expectantly. "It must be very difficult to go such a time without being in your office. Kirigakure will need your presence."

"Oh, we're fine." She used the crutch to lever her weight up, which made her feel approximately one million years old and cranky about it. "You'll be amused, I'm sure, to know that I have technology that makes the trip less onerous." Aiko glanced at Minato. "Free information, because we are such good friends." And because he would definitely know about her hiraishin, even in the most conservative estimate of his knowledge.

"The 18th will be fine," Minato cut them off. "I would like to address the issue of Orochimaru as soon as possible. Please have your proposal of resources prepared when you return."

"The 17th," Aiko disagreed. She gave her dad a thin smile. "Konohagakure's policy is that foreigner military personnel may be held in custody for 8 days without criminal charges, so I will save you the inconvenience of providing separate housing for my changes and I for that day."

"That would be the 18th," Minato disagreed with a smile.

"I left them in custody of a jounin in good standing of Konohagakure before noon," Aiko said, just as pleasantly. "It remains Accounting policy that six or more business hours is counted as a day, does it not?"

Minato's face twitched. "We'll confirm that and get back to you."

"Maito Gai," Aiko provided, as though he'd asked what jounin she'd trusted. "You're welcome." She followed the ANBU out. "It's been a pleasure."

"The pleasure was mine, I'm certain. Have a safe trip home." His tone was bland irritation, but she thought she caught a flash of amusement in his eyes. He was probably looking forward to a more private conversation as much as she was.

She resisted the impulse to stick her tongue out as a parting gesture. The ANBU ringed her in a diamond as they began walking, so it would have been impossible to keep at least one of them from seeing it.

"Thank you."

'I didn't do that because you'd want me to,' Aiko thought defensively. 'I make mature decisions on my own, you know.'

"Like surprise adoptions?" Sanbi asked archly.

She grimaced. 'I've almost gotten away with that. And I've wrangled a meeting with the Hokage- a Hokage who might be even more amiable to working with me than I could have hoped, assuming dad doesn't drop dead in the next week. I haven't done that badly.'

"None of your children died, even a little," Sanbi agreed. "And there are many witnesses to your actions today. Actions that might, from Konohagakure's perspective, even be considered heroic." His tone was grudging approval. "Once they have compiled reports and ascertained what you have done today, you are likely to receive the aid you have hoped for."

'Wildcard,' she rejected glumly. 'Sunagakure- will Konoha try to placate them, or take a hard line? Helping Gaara desert has probably changed their likelihood of aggression. They'll be demoralized.'

Sanbi took a moment to consider that one. "I would think that they would be less aggressive, with one of their most powerful shinobi missing."

'Yes.' She frowned. 'That's the problem. They're more likely to beg, and have an even better argument that they were tricked and that this fiasco didn't benefit them. Some elements in Konoha will want to kidnap the Ichibi, but my dad and the Sandaime are more likely to think about returning the balance of power to the predictable stasis, as well as ensuring a better relationship with the nation at their longest border. There's no need to fear Sunagakure, so it's more likely that they'll take pity.'

"Pity which we deserve."

Her nose wrinkled.

Pity wasn't it, exactly. She had other irons on the fire- diplomatic relations with Nadeshiko and Iron that were keeping them afloat while Kirigakure patched up the holes in the hull.

"Your metaphors need work."

'Your face needs work.'

"It's true," Sanbi agreed placidly. "I am not known for my beauty."

Well. Now she felt kinda bad.

She shrugged away from responding to that, which made putting the crutch down awkward. Actually- "Can we slow down?" Aiko balanced on her good foot long enough to jab at the ANBU on her right with her crutch. She was actually a step in front of him, so it was basically like a clothesline at shin-height.

ANBU Hawk dodged masterfully, which in this case meant flinging his left leg over in a goosestep and hopping mightily on his right. Good job, Hawk.

"Uzumaki." Sanbi seemed too weary to continue scolding her.

She dismissed it. 'They already know I'm an asshole.'

"I mean," she continued, "Unless one of you hunks wants to carry me. That would also be okay." She made an experimental jab at the ANBU directly in front of her, a sideswipe at her ankles. Gecko, maybe? Gecko got her right leg out of the way, but she didn't manage to move fast enough to keep Aiko from bringing the crutch to smack against her left leg.

"I'm an invalid," Aiko continued. She'd stopped using the crutch to walk completely- she was just hopping on her good leg. When they stopped walking, she cheerfully raised the crutch up over her head and cast a speculative eye over her escort. The three ANBU she could see tensed.

No one made a move to gallantly pick Aiko up.

She gave a disgusted sigh. "I'm a delicate flower. Wilting."

"You have been keeping pace," Tiger observed in a monotone from behind. Probably because he thought he was safe. "Perhaps you might make it the remainder of the trip unassisted, though you are weary."

Aiko rolled her eyes. "I'm silently enduring because I'm that kind of person. But actually, I'm suffering because of your callous actions." She used her body weight to spin around and jab at Tiger- who was suddenly four feet further back. "Nice shunshin," she commented. "No residual movement in your hair or anything. Very neat." She lunged forward unexpectedly and nearly pinned his left foot. It was hard to tell with his mask, but she thought that he was making eye contact. "But your reaction speed needs work."

Someone said, "Oh, god," very quietly. It was a familiar voice that she wasn't interested in hearing.

Aiko glanced up- "Oh." Her nose wrinkled. "It's you." She straightened her back with a quiet dignity.

Genma gave the scene a slow, pointed once-over as she retracted her crutch.

Hawk ducked his head.

Genma's lip curled up in obvious amusement. He made a "zipping my mouth" motion and walked past.

Aiko felt her eyes narrow, because she really hated that guy. She tripped him with her crutch at the last moment.

There was a horrified silence.

She leaned on her crutch as he got back to his feet- gracefully, he actually did get back up well. "Oh dear," she lied very badly. When she jabbed at him, he ducked away in time. "Oops, I'm so clumsy." He caught the crutch as she swung at him from the side. Their eyes met. He looked slightly confounded but as if he was enjoying himself. Aiko smiled back at him and prepared to rip the crutch away and bring it down on his head.

That was the point at which ANBU Gecko wheeled around and swept Aiko off her feet. Surprised, she let go and her hands clasped around the other woman's neck. "Thank you," Aiko said, as imperiously as she could manage. "I was struggling."

"So we saw." Horse took the crutch from Genma. There might have been something smug in his posture at seeing Genma brought down a peg. "You endured well, but perhaps for expediency's sake…"

"Carry on," Tiger said, toneless.

Aiko stretched against the arm pressing into her back, which, wow, she didn't have to see it to know that was all muscle. "Your biceps are amazing," she told Gecko. She extended her toes into a graceful point. "I feel like a princess."

Gecko didn't comment, which was fair enough.

The going was, indeed, a lot faster when she wasn't walking. Aiko was perfectly happy to take a minute to rest, after the hellish day she'd had. The ache in her hip was a little more manageable at this angle. She began to flag a bit- the adrenaline was cutting out. Aiko was aware enough to peer up when she heard a door open.

'It would be for the best if the genin don't realize I'm significantly impaired.'

She sat up. Gecko took the cue and let Aiko down. When she reached out, someone pressed the crutch back into Aiko's hand.

Horse led the way, but when Aiko stepped through the door with Gecko on her heels, Keisuke leapt to his feet so fast that he banged into the table. The other two remained seated, but they were tense as hell.

"Easy," Aiko said mildly. She managed a smile. "How did you like the examinations?"

Yuusaku looked like he was struggling for words, getting them stuck on his split lip.

Ryuusei didn't look up from the tabletop. "I'm not looking forward to retaking it next year."

She snorted. "Let's hope that Gai-san has something nice to say about your performance, then. Perhaps you've earned a field promotion."

Her last student finally lifted his head. There was dried blood along Ryuusei's hairline, and ugly purple swelling around his left eye, a clearly broken nose, and a gash that ran nearly down to his jawline from his brow. The bruising pattern… that came from multiple blows.

Aiko didn't feel the cold settle in her stomach and ache its way up to her heart. She was only aware of the numbing anger as a fact assessed.

She watched strained muscles move at Ryuusei swallowed. His voice struggled out of his throat rough and thin. "I doubt it, sensei."

Her fingers weren't white around the crutch handle, because that was the counterproductive reaction of blind fury. She was holding it like a sword- firm grip, a strong but flexible wrist, and sinews ready all the way to her strong back muscles. "Is whoever did that dead?"

Keisuke glanced at his teammate and then away just as quickly. "No." He sat down.

"They're going to be," Yuusaku promised.

"Good," Aiko said, keeping her tone as light as she could. "Maybe that'll be what I promote you for." She lifted her chin and made eye contact with her students one-by-one. "I'm afraid you'll have to stay as guests in Konoha for seven more days, as they attempt to reconstruct what happened. I'll be back on the 17th and take you all home. Do you understand?"

"Of course," Keisuke said, as Yuusaku murmured a yes. Ryuusei remained silent.

"I'll be back," Aiko repeated. She gave the ANBU a dismissive glance, signaling to everyone in the room that she found them toothless. "As we are in a state of peace, Konohagakure will be very friendly. I know Keisuke, at least, will remember your rights." She tilted her head, because that might not be explicit enough to be comforting. "I'm not asking you to endure anything. Konoha will be the perfect hosts, or I'll be back a lot sooner than the 17th."

"Masterfully subtle. The threat was nearly stated."

Tiger straightened. He was probably at least slightly concerned about her sudden upshot in hostility.

She looked at him from under her eyelashes, lids low and disinterested over the Rinnegan. Then she turned her attention back to her students. There was a whole fucking country under her protection, and Minato should know her well enough not to be fucking with what was hers. He had no excuses for mistaking the lengths to which she would go, if he knew half as much as she thought he did.

'These kids are mine. If Konoha tries to strong arm me with them, it won't be me bleeding out.'

Yuusaku met her ringed stare, more trusting than the others. He looked like he might believe her promise to drop everything and cut a bloody hole through Konoha to get them out- but he did, didn't he? He was the only one who had thought to call her for help in the exams.

Sanbi didn't answer. She didn't care.

'But Konoha is not going to let them keep their equipment- they won't have seals to contact me.'

So she held out her hand, palm up, and made deliberate eye contact with her boldest student. It took a moment for Yuusaku to reach out. She clasped his hand and felt some of the hardness on her face gentle.

"You can count on us." Yuusaku's voice came out lower than usual.

That interaction was apparently just innocuous enough in the situation for Tiger to relax and dismiss her statements as protective bravado. The ANBU stiffened right back up when she straightened her index and middle fingers along Yuusaku's wrist and tapped out a familiar seal, but it was too late to do anything about it. The genin gave her a shit-faced smirk that implied he'd known what was coming and enjoyed blind-siding the Konoha nin.

"That's enough," Horse barked. "Time to go."

"Call me," Aiko said mildly, not outwardly returning any of her student's attitude. He'd know what was left unsaid. She withdrew her hand and started for the door before the ANBU could try to physically remove her. She tossed a lazy smile over her shoulder before she stepped out, leaning heavily on her crutch. "Make Mizukage-sensei proud, ne?"

The door closed on any response they might have made. But it was good to make sure they knew what they did and didn't have to protect as secret information.

She walked in painful silence for seven seconds in the middle of her escort. The air was heavy. "ANBU-san?" Aiko asked mildly.

Light glinted off Tiger's mask when he turned his face slightly in her direction.

She bared her teeth at him in what only a total fool might mistake for a smile. "I want to be Konohagakure's friend, you know."

Somehow, he got even tenser.

"Your Hokage knows what I'm capable of." She rolled her neck. "I hope he keeps it in mind, as well as the comfort of my precious students. Thanks for the escort. I'm going to use a more expedient method from here."

Before they could try to restrain her, Aiko pulled herself back to Kirigakure. Her office was still littered with boxes- half-emptied, with supply manifests scattered, both in-going and outgoing correspondence piled according to recipient and what needed to be done with it. The box with her personal seal was quietly waiting in front of her chair.

She looked at it all, for a moment. "Sakurai-san!"

A chair scraped. Moments later, one of her chuunin assistants pushed the door open. "Sakurai-san compiled the reports on that land you asked for, but he's out of the office at the moment."

"Fine." Aiko walked past her, remembered hat this was the woman who usually ended up sorting the mail, and then finally asked- "Your name?"

The woman's jaw tensed. "Mira, Mizukage-sama."

"Where were you working before?" Aiko crossed her arms. "And the other chuunin assigned to my office- Nishigawa, right?"

"I was in ciphers for a time, before my transfer to general administration. Nishikawa-san was liaison to the city council and involved in trade oversight, until-" Mira was struggling to find either the information or a way to phrase it, so Aiko waved the topic away.

"Alright, that's fine. You've been receiving all international mail, yes?" Aiko's tone might have been harder than she'd meant.

Mira looked a bit pale. "Yes, Mizukage-sama."

"I met someone interesting in Konohagakure," Aiko said conversationally. "He claimed he had been sending letters to this office. It might have been a joke, of course. I certainly haven't been getting those letters." She let her mouth move into what approximated a smile. "I hope you recall to whom you report, Mira-san."

The older woman might not have been breathing, brown eyes huge in her face. "Yes, Mizukage-sama."

"Keep that in mind." Aiko unfolded her arms. "I'll take my correspondence at home tonight, I have a guest. Please make the necessary arrangements." When she began walking down the corridor, her assistant clattered to keep up. "I'll want to see Utakata, Terumi, and Tazuna, in that order. Send the first two to me and let me know where the bridge builder will be when I need him. Oh- I'll want Sakurai-san there as well. Is he with Tazuna?"

"I will find out," Mira promised stiffly. "Will that be all?"

Aiko gave her a nod. "For now." She left the office by the conventional way, head high and apparently oblivious to the way that people stopped working to watch her. She'd been out of her city too long, too often.

Her lips thinned. She scanned the streets for an appropriate venue- okonomiyaki couldn't be transported, no, no, same problem with yakiniku- she veered into a hole in the wall that advertised udon.

"Good afternoon."

The receptionist dropped his menu.

Aiko pretended not to notice. "I'd like to place an order for takeout. Is that-"

"Of course!" He scrambled for his notepad. The conversations of diners in booths went on, out of sight. "What can I get for you?"

When her order was placed, she leaned against the entrance to wait. It didn't take long for her bags to be brought out, light blue plastic steaming from the bowls within. The server gave her crutch an alarmed look but didn't try to protest when she hefted the bags in her free arm. She took a brisk walk down the street to the home she had requisitioned from her unfortunate predecessor. "Tadaima!"

There was a long pause before Gaara said "Okaeri," from somewhere inside the house. The tone might have been sullen, or just uncertain.

"I picked up dinner," Aiko said flippantly, and put the bags on the kitchen table. The genin didn't venture into the room, but she knew he was listening to her move about. "I got you a soda, but I'll put tea on as well. I'll be working from home tonight- you're welcome to sit with me in the parlour, or I can have someone show you around town, or you may simply amuse yourself anywhere in the house. You find anything you like in the library?"

He edged into the room with already crossed arms sometime while she was filling the kettle. When she turned around to put it on the heater, he watched silently.

That was fine. "Dinner is soup, not particularly nutritious, I'm afraid." She pulled down nicer bowls from the cabinet, because she was not eating her first dinner with Gaara out of styrofoam. "Please pull out three spoons from that drawer over there?"

"Three."

It wasn't a question, but she answered it anyway. "Utakata, my friend and adviser." Aiko looked at the food again, and then looked into the fridge. That was a lot more difficult than it sounded- leaning down when using a crutch as balance was an interesting test. There wasn't enough variety in the fridge for a decent salad, really, but… She pulled out one of the good, sweet onions, a plastic bag with half of a red pepper, and a quarter of a cabbage wrapped in paper. "Pull out the cutting board while I rinse this, please. The yellow one- the pink one is only for meat."

Gaara seemed frankly baffled, but he did as he was told. He looked on, deeply suspicious, as she sliced vegetables and arranged them onto three plates. But when she went back to the fridge to see if there was any dressing, she saw he had set out chopsticks while her back had been turned. She gave him a smile. He looked away.

"I found goma and ceasar." She put them both on the table- and then the doorbell rang. Gaara tensed- and his shoulders went up even further when the hot water in the kettle began whistling. "Put tea on, please."

She turned away, as though she was absolutely certain he would do as she asked. The strategy seemed to work- she heard the cupboard open and close as she opened the door.

Mira was there with a box of papers in her left arm, a clipboard on her right, and a genin assistant holding a larger box behind her. Aiko stepped to the side to let them in.

"Put that all in the side room there, thank you." She watched them set it down. "Thank you, that's fine. Mira-san, I imagine you have work to do, but may I borrow-"

"Hirai Noa," the genin said, a bit too hastily. She had the biggest puppy eyes Aiko had ever seen on a human before.

"Right. Hirai-san, I'd like an order placed and brought here during my meeting with Utakata-san." She made eye contact with the genin and then with Mira- both seemed perfectly accepting. "Gaara," Aiko called. "Cake preferences?"

Mira professionally concealed any reaction, but the younger shinobi was fascinated when Gaara's sullen mug came into view.

"No."

"Right." Aiko dug out her wallet. "Let's get two cakes for here, then- something chocolate, and then why don't you pick something that looks interesting, Hirai-san? Two cakes here, and then- how many people are in the office today- the full thirty?" At Mira's nod, Aiko flicked her gaze up and did some quick estimates. "If you can get sheet cakes, two will do for the office, if not go on the bakery's serving recommendation. I think we all need a treat at this point." She handed the genin two large bills and didn't say anything about the slightly sick expression the child had at holding that much money. "For the change- put half into the office coffee fund. Hirai-san, restoring that can be your responsibility. Keep the last portion as the seed for a discretionary fund."

"Right." The girl seemed a bit overwhelmed. "I- of course, Mizukage-sama." she recovered with a bow. "At once. Will that be all?"

Aiko raised a eyebrow. "I think that will keep you busy until 6, but if not, of course report back to Mira-san. Thank you." Utakata came to the door as she was ushering her staff out. He waited politely for the entry hall to clear before stepping in.

His face did freeze when he saw Gaara lurking in the hall.

"Mizukage-sama."

Aiko pretended not to notice that there was both censure and question in that tone. "Utakata, meet Gaara. Gaara, Utakata."

Utakata recovered well and gave a bow. "A pleasure."

Gaara gave him a black look. He didn't say anything.

She almost felt a smile well up, but her mood was too black. "Dinner is on the table, come on. I want to hear about our Konoha guests, the progress on getting people back to work although I have to say it looks good, and then to hear your thoughts about the situation in Konohagakure."

Utakata let her bully him into sitting down, but he gave Gaara a perturbed expression. "Mizukage-sama," he began.

"Eat your vegetables, they're good for you." Aiko dashed on some goma dressing and passed it to Gaara. He took a moment before reaching out to accept it, and then examined the bottle with a line between his brow. Utakata watched this interaction with a long-suffering expression.

Aiko saw the exact moment when her friend gave up on finding a way to interfere on either Gaara or the salad's behalf. She gave him a smirk and then busied herself with pouring tea.

Utakata sighed. "I'd like that dressing once you're done, Gaara-san."

"Don't be so distant," Aiko said. "That's my kid, you should be friendlier. Right, Gaara?"

He looked alarmed. But he didn't deny it, so.

"Did you steal that child?" Utakata's pitch shot up. "Aiko-"

"Don't be ridiculous." She scowled at him. "A person can't be stolen. It's kidnapping if you take a person against their will."

Utakata did not seem to appreciate the correction.

"But Gaara chose to come with me. He can choose to go elsewhere, of course, but he's here now." She nodded at the genin, acknowledging that they were talking about him while he was in the room. "And he's going to use that dressing quickly, because someone else is waiting for it." She let a warning tone edge into her voice.

Gaara upended the bottle over his sad little salad, let far too much plop out on the center of the vegetables, and mechanically passed it to Utakata. The lines on his forehead were as deep as Aiko had ever seen them.

"Thank you," Aiko stressed.

"Thank you," Utakata obediently parroted. He very pointedly poured his salad dressing in a normal, restrained manner, because he was finally catching on.

"Is this how human adults model behavior for their young?" Sanbi sounded curious, for once. "None of my hosts have had eggs."

'It's how I taught Naruto. It'll be good enough for Gaara. I mean, I'm being a bit heavy-handed, but Gaara has clearly not been well-socialized before now.' She finished her tea and began picking at her salad.

"So." Utakata put his chopsticks down to speak. "Gaara-kun. How do you know Aiko?"

Aiko raised an eyebrow and met Gaara's black stare.

He didn't say anything.

She pointedly tugged at her own red hair as a cue.

His expression didn't change.

So she rescued him. "He's my son, of course." Aiko said airily. "You were just saying that I must be secretly very old, yes?"

Utakata made an insultingly genuine sound of contemplation. "Ah, of course. But what if you are in fact 19, as you have previously stated?"

She raised some cabbage in a toast. "Then he's my brother."

"You have to pick one," Utakata argued. "You cannot argue that you are simultaneously 19 and 42."

Aiko didn't dignify that idiocy with a rebuke, because clearly, she didn't have to do anything she didn't want to. She ate the cabbage in one huge mouthful.

Utakata seemed to decide it was best to ignore her. "Gaara-kun, how old are you?"

He was met with the same black stare as before.

Utakata narrowed his eyes back. They remained in silence for a solid ten seconds.

Aiko finished her salad and started in on her soup.

"Do you like dogs?" Utakata tried.

Gaara's expression finally changed, although it wasn't to anything more flattering than his 'you are below me and I shan't respond' bleakness. It was a bit disbelieving, actually.

Aiko agreed. "Of course he does, he's my ambiguously defined relative, after all. We all like dogs." She stacked her empty bowl on her salad plate and pushed back her chair. "I'm putting coffee on- I'm afraid you're not old enough to drink that, Gaara, but there's still some juice and there's always tea. Hurry up and finish, both of you." She put a filter in the machine and looked at the coffee, as though it might remind her how much was meant to go in the machine.

The coffee said nothing, so she just dumped a bunch in and flipped the machine on.

When she turned around, Gaara's food was gone and he was giving Utakata a look that might have been slightest bit smug. Utakata was sneering slightly, nose up.

'Right….'

"I'm going to start sorting through my correspondence, please feel free to join me in the other room when you're done." Aiko put her dishes in the sink and washed her hands. "I'm a day behind, since I got busy in Konohagakure."

Nadeshiko was requesting an extra escort next week for a rice shipment due to troubles on the road.

Mifune wanted a private meeting.

Nadeshiko- again? Ah, it was regarding the implementation of diplomats in residence, that was why it was sent separately. They wanted to send someone by the name of Fumiko, and requested someone to be assigned to Nadeshiko with authority to speak on minor matters. That was sensible, but god, who would she trust with that? She'd have to puzzle that out later.

A report about the proposed tax rates on mission payments- Aiko grimaced. It would hurt to lower the rates- they desperately needed the money for social projects and infrastructure. But the prohibitively high costs that had been grinding down Kirigakure's workers had to be ended as soon as possible if people were to have any trust in her at all.

'We'll have to make the money by getting more and better-paying missions. For which we need international cache, and wealthy clients, and …'

She stamped her approval and set it aside.

Utakata settled into the chair across from her at the small table, setting down a collection of folders. He kept a clipboard in his hands. "Scintillating?"

"Of course." She put the clip back on the master in-pile and set everything off to the side to give him her full attention. "Is there something you'd like to begin with?"

Utakata pursed his lips and ran a finger down his paper. "Tazuna-san has been directing the completion of the harbor lock in person, but a 3-man crew from his workers succeeded today in repairing the pedestrian bridge in the southern sector. It is now safe, and the area has been opened to the public. I believe that they are now taking a survey of the damage at the fallen bridge and will consult with Tazuna-san as to drafting a replacement. I thought to pull three or four genin teams to work under Sakurai-san's supervision and Tazuna-san's direction to assist in clearing the ruined materials so that the replacement may begin in a timely manner." He glanced up at her for approval.

Aiko leaned back and crossed her legs at the knee. "That sounds thorough. I'll be meeting with Sakurai-san later- what comments do you have about his performance?"

His sleeve slipped enough to show shoulder when Utakata shrugged gracefully. "He has acquitted himself with professionalism and tact in managing such a volatile personality as Tazuna-san and coordinating several groups of contracted workers. Why do you ask?"

She gave him a wry smile. "I think it's past time to try to untangle the mixed chains of command, isn't it? I'll be taking some projects away from you and Mei and promoting a few people to take more responsibilities. What we're doing now is not sustainable."

"It is not." Utakata stood. "We left the coffee in the other room. Please excuse me for a moment."

Aiko craned her neck to watch him walk off. "Does that bother you?" She raised her volume slightly to be sure he could hear her from the other room.

"It does not." She heard the fridge opening. "It will be a relief to have some more permanent arrangements designed." Metal clinked. After a few moments, he came back into sight with a tray- milk, sugar, coffee, spoons, and cups.

"You're my favorite." Aiko uncrossed her legs to lean forward and make herself a cup. When she looked up, she caught Utakata watching her with a fond expression. He quickly straightened his features.

She hid her own face behind her coffee.

There just wasn't… there wasn't the time or distance for that. She couldn't afford to compromise her working relationship with her only friend in the world.

"What, exactly, did you have in mind for Sakurai-san?" Utakata sounded aloof. He was a professional like that.

"I'll talk to him first, but as you've noted, he's very organized, efficient, and good at managing even difficult personalities." Aiko toasted the absent tokubetsu jounin. "He's ambitious- he's clearly very interested in acquiring the skills he needs to do whatever I want him to do. But he's picked up quite a bit from this recent project. I'm thinking about giving him the opportunity to accept an appointment as a sort of Trade Minister- projects like the docks and warehouses in that area would be under his purview, as well as collecting information to help set policy for outgoing and ingoing trade with international partners. What do you think?"

Utakata mulled it over. "That would take Tazuna's projects going forward out of Sakurai-san's jurisdiction. Who would be overseeing the rest of the infrastructure work?"

She took a fortifying sip before answering. "For now, you," Aiko answered honestly. "I'm thinking of positioning you as a sort of public welfare minister- you'll be the absolute top of the Education system, any Social Welfare programs we might institute, and Public works and infrastructure. Essentially, you'll be the upmost management of three areas, to Sakurai-san's one. But that's still lessening your workload. I'll be rearranging our staff to separate our resources along those lines- currently, we've got far too many people who report to both you and Mei, or me and Mei, or some combination thereof."

"Why, pray tell, have I been given these particular roles?" He arched a brow.

"I'm not totally certain that infrastructure needs to be under your purview," Aiko admitted. "Mei has an interest in that, I think. But giving that to you would give you more power to institute some of the social organizations that I think would help with developing our international soft power and raising our standard of living. Mei has… indicated that this is an area in which we have a philosophical break. I'm giving you the areas which will shape and direct our future influence."

"And allow Terumi-san to direct her energies to current events and safeguarding our present," Utakata finished. "I see. There does seem to be lesser likelihood of insurmountable philosophical difference in those regards that would impede a working relationship."

"Does that mean you'll take it?" Aiko tilted her head.

He looked to the side. "Do not be foolish. Of course I shall. I do notice that this breakdown might seem to conveniently give me the power to wield- soft power, as you said, in order to cultivate even international relationships and programs?"

She gave him a smile. "Fancy that."

"Indeed." Utakata made a sharp mark with a pen on his clipboard. "Gaara-kun, please feel free to take a seat."

The genin didn't look up, uncross his arms, or stop leaning against the back wall at the far end of the room.

"As long as you know you're welcome any time," Aiko said mildly. "But it's just fine if you prefer to stand. Utakata, in regards to the education aspect-"

"I believe we have full enrollment now, of the children from ages 4 to 10. A s suggested, I have found several recently retired teachers to help with the basic curriculum." Utakata switched papers and handed her a copy.

Aiko found herself looking at a list of names with headshots. She flipped a few pages- ah, after the personnel, the students were listed. "I'd like to start setting up meetings with the people who had been working at the Academy before, under Yagura, and see if any of them might be useful going forward. Start tracking them down and submit the list to Saito-san: she'll make my appointments and have them summoned in."

"Of course." Utakata let his eyes slide nearly closed. "I have made some inquiries, of course. I'm afraid that the principal has not been seen since before our arrival. No body has been found, but it must be assumed that he has either gone rogue or is a fatality of the incident."

"The Academy's old location was near the administrative center, wasn't it?" It was barely a question.

Utakata eyed her sideways. "Indeed."

Depressing.

"People die," Sanbi said flatly. "Often, when you are around. Let us move along with what you can affect?"

'You are a mean turtle.'

But he did have a good point, and there was something she could do for the living.

"This won't be under your purview going forward, but-" Aiko caught herself. "Actually, I'll take that project myself. I apologize."

"What are you thinking about?" Utakata ran a hand down his hair.

"The hospitals and general medical system." Aiko watched Utakata's hand move for a moment, mesmerized by how the light from above caught his hair. "Mifune-sama has indicated that there might be an opportunity for some sort of exchange- definitely trade, but possibly workforce and education. I need to know what resources we have, what we need, and to start doing something about our abominable preventative care." She made a face. "I'm glad that we've got a good handle on trauma care, don't get me wrong, but we need systemic immunizations, and treatment for on-going conditions, and dental, and-"

"Very well then," Utakata cut her off. "I see that you are indeed interested in this issue. I will gracefully cede the work."

She stuck her tongue out at him.

He rolled his eyes at her. "Speaking of medical care, I begin to wonder if you shall be reducing the chakra flow to your poor eyes at any time."

Her good mood fled. "No," Aiko said shortly. "Do not ask again." She crossed her legs at the ankle. "Let's move on, shall we? How has Chojuro-san been doing?"

Utakata took a moment to respond. "He is competent, but clearly eager to move from organizing introductory education towards implementing a more systemic mentorship program for post-Academy swordsmanship education."

"So later on, that might be a good project to give to him, but for now it would be foolish to promote him. Got it." Aiko finished reading through the names she'd been presented with. She didn't know any of them, of course. Actually - "Do you remember when the jounin confirmed my appointment?" Aiko didn't wait for a response. "There was a young man who stepped forward to protest. Do you know who he is?"

Utakata let his eyebrows raise. "By coincidence of our shared age group, but not well. He was a year ahead of me in the Academy. Is there something you would like to address with him?"

"Well." Aiko paused. "Not in the vengeful way that you're probably thinking, so you can stop thinking about places to leave bodies. I actually remember noting that I was impressed with his candor and poise at the time. I'd like to find out more about him, see his service record, and consider if there's a way he could be utilized."

He relaxed just enough for Aiko to know that yes, he had been wondering if he was going to be filing reports regarding a disappearance. "I will file a request for Saito-san to pull that information, then."

Aiko pursed her lips. "Actually, that would be Mira-san's department."

He gave her a wry look. "I suppose it would be, if you say it is."

"Saito-san is going to retain management of general office staff, mission reports and assignments, and flagging irregularities and recommending promotions and mental health alerts." Aiko bit at her lower lip. "But I think it's better to separate those functions from the high-security archives. I'm not completely certain of how much I trust Mira-san or her assistant yet, but they've been vetted and have the security clearance to manage it. But not everyone working in missions needs that level of clearance- it's best to keep those departments from mixing, don't you think? So I'm taking Mira-san out of Saito-san's management and having her refer directly to me."

"It may work well," he said, which was as good as agreeing. "I suppose that these records may need to go to Mira-san, then, but I was planning on having you check them before sending them to archives in any case." He indicated the reports he had been compiling on his projects. With your permission, then, I will start considering my recommendations for re-staffing the Academy, once we have a physical location once again set aside. Ah- the recent graduates have been doing fairly well in the teams that you selected, but I have two incidents to report. One is property damage related to a mission, the other disciplinary action given for insubordination."

"Thank you, I'll look it over." Aiko took the files without opening them yet. "Would you say that this requires my immediate attention?"

He shook his head. "Within the week should be acceptable."

"I can do that." Aiko put it on the bottom of the slightly depressing pile of matters she needed to sort through. "Would you say that there's any reason we should consider moving the recent graduates away from full-time assignment to the reconstructive efforts?"

"Not yet, but within the month, it would help to reduce burnout. Perhaps arranging periodic missions that would help build experience and skill as breaks from the less stimulating labor," Utakata suggested.

"Un." Aiko nodded. "I also want to commission several public works projects- I''ll talk to you about it later in more detail, but we need to address how bleak the city is. If we use genin to produce the water to fill any lakes, or help to surface public parks and training grounds, for example, it would do double-duty as public works to increase our cultural capital and standard of living while providing opportunity for high-level, sustained elemental jutsu practice. Float the idea, see if anyone jumps?"

He nodded acceptance. "Very well. I can see some merit." He paused. "As well as why this was delegated away from Terumi-san," Utakata said dryly.

Aiko hummed. "I think she's not as opposed to that as you might think," she disagreed, thinking of what she'd seen in another Kirigakure so long ago. Mei did understand the value of soft power, even if she didn't agree with the extent and implementation that Aiko was leaning towards. "But in any case." She shook the thought off. "Thank you for your work. I'm glad to close these projects." She tapped the relevant folders. "It might take some time for me to get through more than the summaries, unfortunately, but I trust your work. Do you have any concerns for me?"

"None that have not been voiced." Utakata looked at Gaara under his eyelashes. The genin was still lurking without comment. "I will be content, however, if we do not encounter any more of your long-lost children or siblings for the month," he said.

Aiko thought about Karin, and how she'd told the younger girl to go to Kirigakure with the claim of being her sister if she needed shelter. "No promises."

Utakata laughed.

She chose not to rock that boat.

The doorbell rang.

Utakata stood. "I will get that."

Aiko gave him an incredulous look and gathered up the crutch. She stood solely on her good leg at first before she could balance her weight on the tool. "It's my house. I answer the door."

His lips thinned. He followed her as she went to the entrance and opened it up. She heard a deep sigh from behind, but Aiko didn't break eye contact with a terrified looking young man holding two white boxes and wearing an apron.

"I have a delivery," he said, but it came out more like a question.

"So you do. Thank you." She reached out. The delivery man gave Utakata a concerned look over her shoulder. She pretended not to see him wavering over whether to give her the boxes or to hand them to Utakata, as her assistant was almost certainly indicating behind her back.

Apparently he feared her displeasure more than he feared she might drop the cakes, since he handed them to her. Aiko balanced the boxes against her hip with her good hand. "It's been paid for, yes?" she checked.

He nodded, turned red, and then bowed deeply. "Yes, Mizukage-sama."

"Right." she gave him a perturbed look. "Is there… anything else?"

He bowed again, nearly bending in half. "No, Mizukage-sama."

'I really need to be seen out around Kirigakure more, so people are less aggressively weird about dealing with me. I am not nearly as mean as they seem to think.'

Aiko stood awkwardly for a moment. "Right, then. Thank you." She stepped back and let the door fall shut.

Utakata sighed again.

She gave him the cake. "Set that down on the table, please. I'll get plating."

"No, you should sit down and get back to reading." Utakata raised his pitch. "Gaara-kun, would you fetch three plates, a knife, and some forks?"

Oh… right. She conceded with a nod. It would get Gaara to actually sit down with them instead of watching from a corner. It was best to get him involved.

That strategy, worked, to an extent. At least Gaara consented to sit. He still didn't speak, but he might have gradually looked less tense as the conversation became more pleasant. The three of them did a downright shocking amount of damage to the two cakes.

As Aiko had noted from her walk through the business district, a lot more shops were opening and civilians returning to the regular work of commerce. She had Nadeshiko to thank for that in large part- people who were not worrying about scrounging and rationing could return to regular restaurant and small business work. The bulk of the clearing and reconstruction of the high priority areas had been done- thank god for Yamato. Undamaged ships were able to use the harbor, despite the finishing touches being completed in the next few days, which meant that they would be able to meet some deadlines for shipping contracts with the outer islands in coming days.

Raidou had been a suspiciously compliant prisoner, but he was a set of strong arms that hadn't done anything subversive yet. That didn't mean he would be moved to any projects of significance. They'd need to find something to do with him after rubble had been fully cleared. Sai wasn't awake yet.

And when the conversation turned to Konoha and recent events there, Utakata was… He was…

"Why?" he asked, sounding plaintive. "Why have you done this?"

Aiko looked up at the ceiling. "It wasn't really my fault."

"Did someone else revive the Yondaime-Hokage?" he asked pointedly. "Perhaps it was Ryuusei-kun. That is most typical."

She wrinkled her nose. "I''m kicking the blame for that to Orochimaru, because I don't feel quite confident enough in just blaming the death god. Who is the one who actually did it, by the way." She gritted her teeth. "Konohagakure wants us to commit to a cooperative effort in hunting down Orochimaru, as a show of goodwill." She kept her tone level. "He's run off with the Ichibi, after all."

Gaara raised what would have been an eyebrow on another person.

It took a moment, but Utakata followed her stare and saw the amused expression on her new ward. A tortured comprehension dawned. "Oh, no," he said, very quietly. "No."

She snickered.

"Aiko, no," he said, a little louder.

"Aiko, yes," she countered. "What else can we do?" She shrugged. "I never said that the sealing scroll Orochimaru stole from me had the Ichibi in it, of course. That would be a lie," she said piously.

He gave her an incredibly shitty look.

Aiko took a second slice of the Mont Blanc that had apparently been Noa-san's recommendation. "At least the cake is pretty good, isn't it?"

Gaara grunted agreement.

The meeting had been uncomfortable enough before Jiraiya pushed the door open over a secretary's protestations. Genma clenched his jaw just that much tighter.

"I came when I heard about Orochimaru." Jiraiya swallowed. His voice was lower than usual. "I…"

Kakashi managed to look up long enough to give Jiraiya a commiserating look. Gai shifted just that bit closer to Kakashi.

'I don't know about Asuma, but the rest of them are acting as though it's resolved that this really is the Yondaime and he'll be sticking around. It seems like him, but we're going to need more than my gut feeling to put him back in power.'

Minato-sama managed a weak smile. "I'm glad you came, sensei."

The older man choked. "You—you idiot!" He lurched across the room and grabbed his student's shoulders. Minato let him. Jiraiya grimaced a moment, eyes red. "I can't believe…" His voice trailed off. "Damnit, kid." He hesitated just a moment longer before folding the Yondaime into a hug.

Uncomfortable, Genma averted his eyes. Gai was focused on Kakashi. Asuma remained stone-faced.

It was a painfully long moment until Jiraiya let go. He painted on a smile and ruffled Minato's hair. The Yondaime seemed relieved to duck it with a complaining sound.

"It's getting late," Genma observed. And he would need to report to the Sandaime before long.

Minato cleared his throat.

"Right, right, of course." Jiraiya ran a hand through his hair, and then settled it on his hip. He leaned against the wall. "Sorry it took me a while. You know, the border patrols are passing some odd information." He glanced back at Minato. "I don't know what I would prefer to be accurate. The Sandaime seems to have concluded that you're not being controlled by Orochimaru, so…?" His tone lilted up.

'Orochimaru, yes. Uzumaki? That's less clear.'

Hatake's gritted jaw was obvious even through his mask, but he was the only one of them who'd been witness to this part.

Genma repressed a sigh.

It was like Hatake was trying to get it all out in one breath. "Orochimaru tried and attempted to revive Yondaime-sama when he successfully revived the Nidaime and-"

"What, really?" Jiraiya exclaimed.

Hatake gave the older man a dull, resentful stare. Yondaime-sama was not as subtle with his sidelong glance as he might have been.

'This is ugly.' Genma purposefully yawned. "The Mizukage revived Yondaime-sama, right?"

"The… Mizukage?" Jiraiya seemed more lost. "The Mizukage was in Konoha-" his voice broke off. "Oh, no."

"Oh, yes," Yondaime-sama said grimly.

Jiraiya gave his student a startled look. "Why are you 'oh yes'-ing? I was expressing dismay at the prospect that this Mizukage might be a person of interest I've heard about through one of my contacts." He frowned. "And she was hiding under our noses. Why would you know her?"

The Yondaime gave a tight smile. Conspicuously, he did not give an answer.

"The Uzumaki?" Genma asked, because no one else was keeping this on track. "Female, about 155cm,-"

"Light red hair, flighty, with incredibly suspicious eyes?" the Sannin finished. He rubbed at his face, looking a decade older. "This does lend an interesting new interpretation to what I've been hearing out of Kirigakure. I thought it was propaganda. Definitely didn't see those eyes in person."

Genma eyed the other man. "And you've heard about her in regards to the incident with Gai-san?"

"What?" Jiraiya's glance shifted to the other jounin. "No, I don't know anything about that." He scowled. "What happened?"

"We've already discussed that in detail before you got here." The Yondaime seemed exhausted. "I'll fill you in later. I'm sure you know that people have concerns about the situation."

"Like who this woman is, and what her motivations might be." Genma couldn't quite look at his Hokage dead-on as he said it. But it did need to be said, didn't it? They'd known each other, no one knew how, and they'd tried to hide it.

The Yondaime was his Hokage, and Genma would follow him into death. But he couldn't fail to notice that something stank.

The Sannin, somehow, didn't seem to notice that the Yondaime went too still. He still looked tired. "I knew of someone with eyes like that, once."

"A parent?" Asuma asked.

Jiraiya grimaced. "If so… She could be between 17 and… 20, maybe?" He shook his head. "But I don't think he'd have kept it a secret from me. So assuming that theory is true, she'd be on the younger side and he never had a chance to tell me."

Hatake spoke up, which had to be a goddamn miracle. "There are sometimes good reasons to keep that kind of thing quiet." His eyes tracked to-

'No.' Genma felt cold wash over his back. 'He can't mean what I think he means.'

Hatake didn't—no. He hadn't meant that after all. His tone was dull resentment at worst. But now that the thought had crossed his mind…

'Yondaime-sama and Kushina-sama kept Naruto a secret, right up until the end. That was bold. It shouldn't have worked, but they knew it would. Had they…' A shiver went up his spine and prickled down his legs.

The probable timing that would match the age in her profile would have had her being born in the war. Born in a desperate time. That was familiar, wasn't it?

'Any child of Kushina's would have been hunted, even if no one had known to connect her to a Hokage. Even if the father wasn't Hokage yet, we were in a war over bloodline theft. If Kushina fell pregnant during that war…'

There was nothing especially ominous in that, except in implication. Them having a secret child made sense- that child disappearing for at least a decade and resurfacing as Uzumaki-san was….

Healthy childhoods did not result in shinobi like that. People who didn't trust, people who lacked the capacity to deal with their emotional relationships in healthy ways, people who were always playing a role- that couldn't be what Minato wanted for his child.

And the Yondaime looked at Uzumaki-san like she was an open wound. Uzumaki-san looked at the Yondaime like she didn't know if she wanted to dismiss him as an acquaintance or spit on him.

'And she's a perfect blend of the two.' The pieces fell in his stomach like a rock. How hadn't he noticed? She had Kushina's pale skin, Minato's nose and lips, a facial structure and hair coloring dead in the center of the two. The only thing that didn't fit was the eyes, and there were ways to explain that away.

But Hatake didn't know?

"She's probably really old," Jiraiya said, in a tone so bright it had to be false.

Genma blinked.

"Like Tsunade-sama, you know. They're related." He gave an overly dramatic shrug, palms out. "It might just be an Uzumaki trend to disguise yourself as a hot young babe." The lasciviousness in his voice was probably unfeigned. It was… Genma was man enough to admit that it was merited, but in this theoretical context, it was creepy.

The Yondaime's expression moved to something so close to disgust that Genma couldn't doubt it anymore. Could no one else see this?

As subtly as possible, he looked around the room. Hatake was drowning in his own misery, and Gai was tight-lipped but undoubtedly focused on his friend. The Yondaime- well, he didn't need to follow the clues, and Jiraiya was clearly caught up in something else.

If anyone else knew, it would be Asuma. And that bastard was unreadable.

"Sensei," Yondaime said. His tone wasn't more than stern disapproval, but…

Jiraiya heaved a dramatic sigh. "Fiiiine," he whined. He threw his hands up. "She's a time-traveler! That's it, mystery solved, I'm going to bed." He waited dramatically for a rebuttal that didn't come.

Yondaime-sama looked like he was on the verge of hysterical laughter, eyes too bright. His whole body twitched.

Genma tried not to let his eyebrows crawl too far up his brow. Well. The man had had a rough day. Allowances should be made.

The Yondaime walked over to the nearest desk, sat down, and cradled his head in his hands. He didn't speak.

The Sannin eyed his student a moment. "You're only getting weirder, kid," he remarked. He clapped Yondaime-sama on the back. "I guess I'd better stay, to make sure you don't devolve further."

The Yondaime clearly needed the subject changed, so Genma fished for an alternate theory. "The professional opinion is that her personality profile doesn't support her being above 30 at the absolute most," he drawled.

Hatake pulled his head out of his ass just far enough to give Genma a judgmental look, because the little prick was coming to the obvious conclusion. Genma winked back.

"Uzumaki-san is a formidable foe," Gai spoke up. "One who did not emerge from the universe, fully-formed of dew and the hopes of children."

A…..alright, then.

The Yondaime gave a laugh. It sounded mirthless, but it was a laugh, at least. "No, of course not. People don't just trip and fall in their pajamas into a world with no ties or history. The fact that we cannot pin any history to Uzumaki-san indicates, if anything, that it has been deliberately buried." He managed to lift his face. "She moves like a black ops operative. She's been hiding in Kirigakure that way." He pushed back his chair with a scrape. "Or maybe the story she told about coming from Wave was true." He sounded resigned. "She lived there as a child, probably because her parents were hiding. That would also explain her mysterious background. It's hard to argue against the testimony of so many of the people in the village of her long-standing residence."

"It doesn't fit," Hatake said, voice tight. He didn't bother to back that up.

The Yondaime just looked tired. "Then sit here and think of conspiracy theories. Time travel, that's a good one, but maybe she appears to have come from nowhere because she did. Orochimaru grew her in a test tube for all you know." He rubbed at the back of his neck, wincing. "I'm… I'm calling it a night. I'm not as young as you all, you know."

Hatake winced, which couldn't have been the Yondaime's intention.

The joke was an old one. But now?

'I'm older than the Yondaime,' Genma marveled. 'Fuck.'

That made the fact that Uzumaki-san was probably the man's daughter even harder to wrap his head around. Genma was older than his Hokage, who was old enough to have an adult daughter in Genma's age range.

….That fib, he couldn't completely justify, even in his head. Uzumaki-san mathematically had to be at the very very least 14, but couldn't possibly be older than 24.

'And I'm 30, looking at my 28 year old Hokage, who probably has a 24-year-old daughter. My head hurts. I blame math.'

Jiraiya grinned. "Ancient and decrepit, kid. Speaking of which, I thought you wanted any and all theories exhausted?" He scratched at the small of his back. "She's secretly Uzumaki Mito's spawn. Or Tsunade-hime's, I could see that making an excellent story."

"Kirigakure seems half-convinced she's a divinity," Azuma observed. He smiled with absolutely no amusement. "Hell, I'm not ready to dismiss it. She came out of nowhere with abilities most legends don't have." He huffed. "Probably the offshoot of some long-lost bloodline, of course, but it's hard to imagine she was sitting around in quiet obscurity before this point."

Hatake made an encouraging sound. "Must have been sealed away like a bijuu."

Genma felt his brow wrinkle. The delivery had been flat, but he was fairly certain that was what passed for Hatake's humor?

"A bijuu might be that bizarre," Azuma snarked. He shook his head. "She is slightly off, isn't she? What with the way the… death god…" He glanced at Minato. "..was giving her orders, she might be something from that realm." He grimaced. "That's not really something I feel prepared to deal with."

'She seems human enough to me.'

Jiraiya tilted his head to the side. "I feel like I need a more extensive report," he said neutrally. "Which is it, that she used some unholy technique to do the nearly impossible, or that she's some kind of death spirit? It's a lot easier to track down actual humans, but I suppose there would be something soothing in knowing that we don't have to worry about anyone replicating her stunt with someone like, say, Hanzo the Salamander."

Gai gave everyone present a disappointed look. "Or perhaps she is a shinobi, much like any other, who prefers that her past remain private. My experience has lead me to believe she is competent, dedicated to her comrades, and more noble in action than her flippant words would imply." He crossed his arms.

"Enough."

Genma felt his spine straighten.

"We can't know anything more yet." The Yondaime's eyes were hard blue mirrors. "Go home, all of you."

#vapors #uzumaki aiko #electrasev5n #ninja daily #fanfiction #naruto fanfiction #clarity #AIC #Aiko in Canon

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jossujb · 6 months

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I guess I am on a roll on my October, another really cool day at the karate class.

First of all, I did all my fitness, stamina and strength exercises so well that everybody around m said that you are doing great today. Sensei approved me to do helping around other classes next Sunday - you need a certain amount of approved checks on teaching before you can think about getting permit to belt testing. And there were other people in need of checks and sensei gave it to me first. I feel like I have to work twice as hard now.

We also did some really hard ju jutsu styled rolling - if I haven't mentioned, my style of karate is Wado-Ryu, which is style developed in mainland Japan and has a lit of ju jutsu influence. Which I think is a good thing, you know as a person who passes as a woman and is quite lightweigh it's actually really useful to know what to do if you're held down.

After all that rolling my gi was like fully open and a man at the class said to me that you're dressed really provocative today and I was like no shit my boobs are out xDDDD Don't worry about it, I humiliated him at the end of the class by making him run and jump and crawl and he said thank you Jossu, you went so hard.

#jossu's random rambling

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dartlekey · 1 year

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15 Questions

was tagged by @flashbcaks, thanks bud!

Are you named after anyone? Deadname, yeah, after a StarTrek Captain because my parents are nerds. Chosen names are random, just thought they sounded nice

When was the last time you cried? Uhhh last week? Was just so exhausted from work (again), I genuinely gotta quit before the year is out or this goddamn workplace is gonna kill me

Do you have kids? Christ, no. People my age who do weird me tf out, like fam we are still children ourselves. Who gave you permission

Do you use sarcasm a lot? Almost never. I have difficulties with tone and like clear and direct communication, even with humor, so people who are very sarcastic by nature often end up annoying the shit out of me

What's the first thing you notice about people? Style. And not just because I work in fashion. It just says a lot, personality-wise

What's your eye color? Blue! Which is kind of a shame because brown is hands down the sexiest, most beautiful eye color, but what can ya do

Scary movies or happy endings? Both have their time and place, though I'd usually go for the latter over the former

Any special talents? I'm great on a stage, and surprisingly good with people for someone who hates socializing

Where were you born? Oh jesus. This always sounds like made up weeb shit when I say it, but despite being a white toast european/american hybrid, I am unfortunately not lying when I say that I was born in Japan. My parents met abroad while travelling, it's mostly just a hassle when I need official paperwork

What are your hobbies? My ADHD ass makes me pick new ones each month, but the permanent sticklers seem to be writing, drawing, sewing, and singing. Also got into bookbinding last year, and that one keeps returning, so crossing my fingers that it sticks

Do you have any pets? Not unless you count the many spiders in my apartment. We cool though, we have an understanding - I just do my own thing, and they do theirs

What sports do you play/have you played? Growing up I did Ju-Jutsu and Ballet, then Hip-Hop in my teens. I still dance to this day, in a mixed-style group, but god I'd love to learn vogueing some day, and free-running always sounded sick as shit

How tall are you? 5"4, and people need to stop calling me short for it. I think I'm perfectly average sized, although I do like being called a short king, because it matches my energy

Favorite subject in school? Languages, for sure. German, English, Latin, even the bit of French I took. Language teachers are just collectively unhinged, I've always vibed with that

Dream job? Make cool shit in a big group with other creatives. Not fussy on the details, seeing as it seems impossible anyways; artists are usually too broke for anything but solo work

I tag @heartrenderharrington @corrodedcoughin and @starryeyedjanai to keep the game going :)

#ask meme #ask game #a day in the life

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andyguettner · 1 year

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Warum du unbedingt Selbstverteidigung lernen solltest |2|

Du wirst selbstbewusster. Wenn du dich für einen Selbstverteidigungskurs entscheidest, wirst du nicht nur lernen, wie du dich in Gefahrensituationen verteidigen kannst. Du wirst auch eine Menge über dich selbst und deine Fähigkeiten erfahren. Das kann dein Selbstbewusstsein enorm stärken. Viele Menschen haben Angst davor, Opfer von Gewalt zu werden. Wenn du jedoch weißt, dass du in der Lage…

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#Ju-Jutsu-Do #Kali Kuntao #RoninZ Kampfkunstschule #Selbstbewusstsein #Selbstverteidigung

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al-stuffy · 2 years

Note

For the character asks - Ino, maybe?

Favorite thing about them: Her looks. I know this sounds very superficial, to just focus on her physique, but I really like her design.

Her outfits, her hair, her personality are my favorite things about her (and her va in my original language is 👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼)

Something good that Kishimoto did is character design and I especially LOVE the design of his female characters, I can't choose a favorite.

Least favorite thing about them:

1.- Her Sasuke obsession

2.- This scene

Why

Just why Kishimoto thought this was a good idea? It doesn't even make sense!

Ino barely interacted with Sasuke during the whole series, I understand that she had a crush on him when she was 12 but it's been 4 years since then and her reaction is to cry? Really? That reaction is more appropriate for Sakura and/or Naruto because they were on his team, they interacted with him almost daily, they were friends.

Ino and Sasuke didn't even speak to each other in fillers! I completely understand that his reaction wasn't indifferent, after all discovering that your classmate from when you were a child, that boy who was the best in the class, who was cute and his skills were quite impressive, the one who graduated with honors, the one you had a crush on is now officially a criminal and must be killed if seen. That really must be something.

But crying?

The only good thing about this is that all her friends are there to support her and i think that's so cute 🥺❤️🤲🏼

I live for the Konoha12+Sai being friends

Favorite line: Tbh I don't remember much about what she says, but 2 of her lines that I like is that time when they show us in a flashback how she became friends with Sakura telling so bluntly her that they bully her because she has a big forehead.

Lmaooo It was so funny, but I really like how she turned something Sakura was insecure about (her forehead) into something she should show and not care what others thought about it. That was very sweet.

Another line I really like is that time after their chunin exam fight when Ino told Sakura that she had blossomed into a beautiful flower.

🥺❤️🤲🏼

brOTP: InoShikaCho

OTP: Sakura x Ino. Although I don't actively seek content of them, it's the ship with Ino that I like the most (although Sai x Ino is not far behind)

nOTP: I don't really have any ships that I dislike, the closest thing to a nOTP would be Ino x any of her teammates (is just that I can't see them with any other relationship but a sibling relationship)

Fun fact: When I first started watching Naruto, I thought Ino and Shikamaru ended up together.

And when I said this to my cousins (who are the ones that got me into Naruto) they were like: No????

Me: But they look so good together

They: No????

(and they were right lol I don't understand how my past self could think that)

Random headcanon: The only headcanon I have for her is that she liked Sakura as kids and when she (Sakura) said that she liked Sasuke, Ino got jealous and started to “like” Sasuke and compete with Sakura for her attention (all of this unconsciously).

Unpopular opinion: She is very powerful.

I need to remind you of all the things she did in the fourth ninja war? Just to name a few

She entered the mind of a pseudo jinchuriki allowing them to seal him (and by doing this he saved Shikamaru's life btw)

She combined her sensory abilities with her mind transfer jutsu which allowed her to share her sensory abilities with a non-sensor (Shikamaru)

She entered Obito's mind to deflect a Juubi's attack

Twice

And I want to emphasize the part where she controlled the mind of a war criminal in his 30, who has the most broken Mangekyo ability in one eye and the rinnegan in the other, who has Hashirama cells in his body which enhance his abilities and who was currently controlling the juubi, a beast that is the combination of all the tailed beasts and is said that has the power of swallow oceans, split the land and carry mountains. The strongest creature on Earth.

That's just awesome.

You know who couldn't control Obito even before he had the Juubi at his disposal? Fu Yamanaka

One of Danzo's bodyguards and a member of ROOT

She connected to the minds of the WHOLE shinobi alliance twice

Once to coordinate an attack and the second to deliver a message from Hashirama

And sorry but her dad didn't need a machine to be able to do that?

And she was just 16.

In conclusion, if the mind could throw fists she would kick adult Naruto and Sasuke's asses.

Song I associate with them: I can't think of any sorry :p

Favorite picture of them:

I may have a few

I really like punches 👀👉🏽👈🏽

Anyway, she may not be the strongest physically and we have to be honest, after everything I said I know that most of her generation would beat her in a fight, but she is a GREAT support ninja.

In fact, I can safely say that she is the second best sensory ninja in the entire series, only after Karin and sharing a place with Tobirama or being third place and Tobirama in second, I'm still not sure🤔

Here and here are the links from where I got information about Ino's moments in the war, they explain them in more detail and add more contributions from her throughout the series in general.

Thanks for asking and sorry for taking so long

@psychokillersneedlovetoo

#psychokillersneedlovetoo #My asks #long post #ino yamanaka #yamanaka ino

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sodomyordeath · 1 year

Text

FAQ

//What do you look like?

//What’s your name?

Stage/DJ Name: Doc

Drag Name: Helela aka Helela Hveðrungrssdóttir

//What…are you?

Homo sapiens sapiens (rev 1.1b?)

Member of the Goth / Metal / Psychobilly Tribes

I’m queer ( more specifically GenderQueer / Pansexual / Polyamorous )

Pronouns: they/them but I don’t terribly mind he/him

she/her is acceptable when I’m in Drag

I’m a carnivor

I’m a Nontheistic Satanist (aka Atheist with an attitude)

I’m a Misanthrope

I’m a proud slut

I don’t believe. I know or I know not.

I love my reclaimed slurs for all the blood & tears we had to spill to make ‘em our own.

I love the Night

//Where do you live?

Mostly in Hotel rooms but my homebase is in Bavaria, Germany

//How old are you?

I’m born in ‘77 Ancient

//What do you do for money?

Day: Network Security Consultant

Night: Nightlife Personality/ DJ, Performance Artist

Retired

//What did you do for money?

Tattoo & Body Mod Artist

Music Journalist & Critic

A & R

Project Leader Software Development

Troubleshooter

//What was your oddest job(s)?

Worked at a Abattoir

Worked as a Mortician’s Assistent

//What do/did you do for fun?

Writing and performing music

Acting

Modeling

Fun Time is over

//What’s your bad habbits?

Blood & Glitter

Sex, Drugs & Rock’n’Roll

//Can you cook?

My guests say so, yes.

//Can you sew?

My sewing skills are on pair with my soldering iron skills.

It gets the job done but is nothing to write home about.

//Can you dance?

I practiced Rock and Roll dance in my younger years and have my ballroom basics down.

When it comes to anything else I’m a blank.

//Have you ever practiced martial arts?

Yea I started with Greco-Roman wrestling when I was a little kid.

Practiced judo for a year.

Tried boxing but switched to Muay Thai and droped it after 2 years.

Got into Taekwondo when I started playing American Football as a counterbalance and practiced it for about 3 years.

Nowadays I keep on practicing german ju-jutsu but not as regularly as I should.

//Can you handle a gun?

Yep and a Bow and also a Crossbow.

//Any other unusual skills?

I only need 4 hours of sleep to be fully rested

I’m a trained lifeguard & rescue diver (Wasserwacht),

I have all skills one would need for Modern Pentathlon but I hate cross-country running and shooting toy guns.

I’d also prefer a Sabre (well a real one not a sports toy)

I can handle a bullwhip.

I love picking up new skills.

There are plenty more but who want’s to be a tell all?

//Fishing or Hunting?

Both

//Do you like camping?

It’s a necessary evil.

//Do you meditate?

No, not really.

I can get into a fully relaxed state by just closing my eyes and breathing for 10 seconds.

//Do you believe in reincarnation?

As I sayed I don’t believe.

//Jedi or Sith?

Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken.

Sounds pretty “path of the left hand” to me so Sith.

//Movie or Book?

Both if they are good.

//Favourite colour?

Black, silver, red in that order

//Lucky Number?

φ, 69, 13 in that order

//Top or Bottom?

Dominant Top

//Got any more?

Just Ask

Here are the rules:

No Children. This is not for you.

No Porn Blogs[1]

No RP Blogs[1]

No PR Blogs. Try to look legit somewhere else.

No bots.

For the "Good Christians” and right wing Knuckleheads. You’re not gonna like it here so move along.

Consider this blog NSFW

Use your common sense and stay away from stuff that will upset you. That’s your trigger warning.

If you think I agree with your ideology, you’re wrong.

All non original content is property of the respective owners.

All my original content belongs to me no rights are granted to 3ed parties outside the context of this site.

[1] Don’t start whining make a fucking sideblog.

#about #me #faq #repost

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snowdust64 · 1 month

Text

Ouma Great War Chronicles - Episode 1: Unless It's This Trio

This translation begins around the 2-minute mark of the episode. For the opening narration and additional background, please refer to this older Tumblr post.

I will note sound effects (abbreviated ‘sfx’) and scene changes to help readers stay lined up with the audio. Because of grammar differences, question marks may not be in the same places, so please don’t rely on those. (Also, my use of punctuation is less dramatic than the original captions, but I trust y’all can listen for a character’s tone of voice. Right? Good.)

Additional translation notes at the end.

==========

??? : Aah… What a great feeling… So this is what People are… heh heh heh… hahahahahahahaha!

Narrator: In the Ouma Empire, a new disaster was brought into being.

title screen

sfx: footsteps

Genzuki: Haru-kun, it’s going that way!

Kaida: Got it! Under my family name “Kaida,” call forth demon-drowning jutsu * Sui (water), sei (stillness), ryu (flow), sen (piercing through) ─ ka (vortex) !

sfx: spell activating

Genzuki: Alright! At this rate my talismans will be able to seal its movements! Now, Kei-kun!

Nagao: Yeah I got it!

sfx: slash; shatter

Nagao: Wha–? Haru’s jutsu and Toujirou’s talismans were both broken through?

Genzuki: Those talismans were granted by the gods! Why would it be, by a typical demon…

Kaida: There was no mistake with my invocation either. The demon’s power surpassed both my jutsu and the gods’ talismans…?

Nagao: Figure out why later! Here it comes!

sfx: roaring; slashing

Nagao: Well well, calm down there. Nothing good will come out of going wild like that, ya know?

Genzuki: Kei-kun is holding out for now, but this is just a matter of time. From your perspective as a demon researcher, doesn’t that type of demon have any weaknesses?

Kaida: We talked about all that before the battle, didn’t we?

Genzuki: I mean other than that!

Kaida: Unfortunately not. Oh, but…

Nagao: Oi! If you’ve thought of something then hurry up and say it!

Kaida: That demon, since it’s gone so violently mad, I suspect the intelligence it originally had must have diminished. Earlier we were trying to bind it facing it head-on, but we should be able to finish it off by setting a trap and hitting with consecutive attacks!

Nagao: Okay then, leaving the trap to you!

Kaida: Understood! Genzuki, if the demon gets caught in the trap, release your talismans.

Genzuki: Got it!

Kaida: Nagao! When I give the signal, run to the roots of that tree and then jump!

Nagao: Understood!

Kaida: Sui (water), ju (soft), shin (submerge), man (full), ka (vortex) !

sfx: spell activating

Genzuki: At the roots of the tree, the soil has transformed into a swamp…

Kaida: Nagao, run!

Nagao: Yeah! Hey, follow me, you crazy wild brute… no, you crazy foxy brute! **

sfx: demon roars

Nagao: Around here… hup!

Kaida: Alright, the demon got caught! Genzuki!

Genzuki: Nn! Oh talisman granted by the gods…

Nagao: With this, it’s over!

sfx: slashing; demon roars, disappears

Nagao: Whew, one more done and behind us!

Genzuki: Haru-kun’s strategy went smoothly. As expected of our researcher of demons.

Kaida: Heh heh, well, the title of Demon Research Authority isn’t just for show. But I must say, it was a plan that couldn’t succeed unless it was this trio. Genzuki’s talismans were a great help too.

Genzuki: You’re calling this my power, but it’s more so the power of the gods in the talismans granted to me.

Nagao: No, no. Being granted talismans by the gods isn’t something that ordinarily just happens. Besides, there aren’t so many humans in this word who can converse with gods in the first place. No mistaking it, that’s your power.

Genzuki: Is that so… thanks. But, whatever you may say, it always comes down to Kei-kun’s strength.

Kaida: Nn. Cleanly cutting down a demon of that class, Nagao’s about the only one who can do that.

Nagao: Oh, my turn now? Well, I’m not Captain of the Exorcism Bureau just for show!

Genzuki: Haha, bashful, bashful.

Nagao: I’m not being bashful!

Kaida: … But about that demon just now, something seemed strange.

Nagao: Yeah, it had really gone quite mad. Maybe it ate something weird?

Kaida: Something demons eat that causes madness… It seems plausible, but…

Genzuki: Rather than thoroughly exorcising it, we should have collected it just in case.

Nagao: Well, can’t help that we exorcised it. If something similar to today’s appears again, we’ll deal with it in a way so we can collect it.

Kaida: Nn, please do.

Nagao: A’right then! We’ve finished a day’s work so let’s go back! I’m heading straight home, how about you guys?

Genzuki: I think I can also go straight home.

Kaida: I guess there’s no need for me to return to the research department either.

Nagao: ’N that case, how about grabbing something to eat?

Kaida: Agreed! Of course, it’ll be Nagao’s treat!

Genzuki: Thank you for the meal ~

Nagao: Why!?

Narrator: A few days later ─

scene change: Nagao’s workroom

Nagao’s subordinate: Captain Nagao! May I?

Nagao: Yeah, come in.

Nagao’s subordinate: Pardon the intrusion! Just earlier, this notice arrived from the higher levels… here.

Nagao: Let’s see now… Haah, seems like troublesome things are happening again…

==========

Translation Notes

* The word ‘jutsu’ plainly means ‘skill/ability,’ but usually implies that a lot of special training is required to master such skill/ability. Kaida’s jutsu is in spellcasting.

** ‘jaja-uma’ refers to wild horses, but as an idiom it is also used to describe people/things that act wildly and can’t be restrained. Nagao changes it to ‘jaja-gitsune,’ replacing ‘horse’ with ‘fox,’ I assume because the demon they’re fighting resembles a fox more than a horse.

I decided to keep Kaida's spell incantations the way they were spoken because all the elegance comes from each word being a single syllable. The approximate meaning of each kanji character is shown in parentheses.

Thanks for reading! Please let me know if you find any mistakes.

#vδlz #ouma taisen tan #kaida haru #genzuki tojiro #nagao kei #english translation #nijisanji #ouma great war chronicles

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saintclay · 2 months

Text

15 questions for 15 friends

tagged by @canadiankazz

Are you named after anyone? afaik, no. and the name I picked wasn't after anyone either

When was the last time you cried? properly crying? over five years ago. Single Manly Tear™? like two days ago

Do you have kids? nope! maybe one day I'll change my mind, but right now, no

What sports do you play/have you played? Ju Jutsu, skiing, swimming, gymnastics (very briefly), field hockey, volleyball. I don't really do organized sports anymore though ):

What is the first thing you notice about people? Height, voice, distinguishing clothing/features

What's your eye colour? brown

Scary movies or happy endings? depends on my mood. tragic horror always will be my beloved tho. but happy endings are nice too

Any talents? I pick up the basics of instruments fairly easily. and I can read super fast (around 600 wpm) when I have the spoons for it

Where where you born? Vancouver, BC. I don't live there anymore tho.

What are your hobbies? Poetry, TTRPGS, reading

Do you have any pets? My roommates and I have a shared cat that they named Vermin

How tall are you? I plead the fifth thank you your honour (5'2)

Favourite subject in school? University? Psychology (I'm a psych major). High school? English

Dream job? I've wanted to be a therapist since the age of 9 lmfao tagging: @party-p0150n @dark-nimbus @gothellewoods @kittyplayz1 @nightmareeadin @blitzendoggo and anyone else who wants to do this (:

#tagging game

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electrasev5nwrites · 10 months

Text

Ninja Daily: Vapors 87

"Itachi. Kisame. Report back to the base immediately."

Unimpressed, the two nuke-nin barely bothered to look at the flickering apparition of their leader.

"We were told to report back in four days time," Itachi observed dispassionately. "We will not have time to complete our errand."

"I don't care."

The audible strain in Pein's voice was enough to stiffen Kisame's spine in wariness. Their leader wasn't usually emotive.

"You will report immediately. Itachi, you are the closest to a medic that our organization has. Your skills are required."

The Mist nukenin tried to keep a straight face. Itachi was not a medic by any means. Having copied several medical jutsu did not make him a practitioner of any sort, and although he was competent at the very few jutsu he had bothered to learn, he would probably end up savaging a patient with a problem of any complexity at all.

With that, Pein faded from visibility. Kisame heaved a sigh and stood, slinging Samehada over his shoulder as he went. "Well, that doesn't sound good," he commented sardonically, before turning a toothy grin that lacked joy on his partner. "Think Konan messed up her extraction of her target? That'd be ironic, after Pein got so high and mighty about how incompetent we all supposedly are."

Itachi stood silently. "I do not care to speculate. We shall find out soon enough."

Kisame rolled his eyes, but obligingly set off beside his taciturn partner. "Fair enough. We can find out in person in less than a day if we hurry."

"Well, this doesn't look suspicious in the slightest," Mei groaned, slumping forwards onto her desk. Her day had been absolute hell. After several rounds of accusations and impassioned speeches, most of the guests at her conference had gone home two days early.

It had been damn lucky that she had met with Tokiwa in the dead of the night to get their modified trade agreements ratified, because it didn't look like anything else mildly productive was going to happen.

"Four," she hissed into the warm wood, giving real consideration to banging her head against the surface to see if it would wake her up from this administrative nightmare. "Four kunoichi are just fucking missing from my backyard."

Even if she doubted Tsunade and Temari's version of events about the Ame representative assaulting and kidnapping Aiko, that hardly explained what the hell had happened to Nii Yugito and Fuu.

Temari and Tsunade had seemed as surprised as anyone else, including Samui, who had been found unconscious on the floor of the suite she shared with Yugito (with no idea how she had gotten there except the ridiculous claim that she had been drugged by Mei's people). Konoha's version of events was the official one she was endorsing (how could she not, they were allies?) but by no means the only one bandied about. Mei did not envy Konoha: the Raikage was going to throw an absolute hysterical fit. If this really had been an Akatsuki plot to create dissent, it had done the job nicely.

The only thing that everyone seemed to agree on was that the two jinchuuriki were victims. Whose victims they were varied. Some thought Konoha, some blamed both Konoha and Sand, some thought Mist was taking advantage of having them in her borders, and of course, Konoha was pointing fingers at Akatsuki. That claim was persuasive to Mei, but it couldn't be investigated until they heard back from Rain to see if they would disown their agent or take responsibility. It was a damn mess.

Mei herself wasn't certain if Rain had ordered Konan to make a move against Aiko or if Konan had been acting as an independent agent- or even for a third party like Akatsuki, but she did believe that Konan had been the one to take Aiko. Not everyone was willing to believe that without proof, of course, especially Iwa. Kurotsuchi had been in her temporary office just hours before pointing out that Konan was one woman and Sabaku no Temari had rather suspiciously cleared her quarters of her vulnerable aide just hours before the fight happened.

To be fair, she could see the point in that suspicion, but she had seen red when it was insinuated that Konoha had sacrificed the Uzumaki girl to make the scene convincing. The Slug Queen was a lot of things, but she wouldn't do that to one of her own people, especially not a resource like Aiko. Even if she wouldn't treat the girl well out of kindness, she would do so out of sense. Mei had mostly given up on having an adorable little seal master of her very own, but it wasn't like there wouldn't be takers if things with Konoha didn't work out.

Not that it mattered now. She had the bitter feeling that Aiko was dead, or wished she was. It was still possible that whoever had her would try to ransom her back, of course, but that would mean taking culpability for a short-term gain when they could easily push the blame around.

If Sabaku no Temari was to be believed, Aiko wasn't even the original target. So there was little hope that Akatsuki or Rain would judge her valuable enough to keep alive. Unless they really were stupid enough to think that Tsunade would allow a trade for her brother, of course, was the caveat. The Kazekage might well have given himself up for his sister, but Tsunade was removed enough from the situation to make that call properly. No matter how unpleasant it was.

Oddly enough, no one had even seemed to consider that the two incidents might not even be directly related, which was Mei's gut feeling. How could Konan have gotten two jinchuuriki out of the village when she was already occupied with her failed assault on Sabaku no Temari? She had either had at least one accomplice, or there was another party entirely. Someone who hadn't so much as blinked at the prospect of sneaking two formidable kunoichi out of an area secured against Jiraiya, for the kami's sake.

'That's about the only thing that did go right about this mess. We didn't see hide nor hair of that disreputable mutt.'

Mei's eye twitched. What a pathetically low bar to reach, after all her hard work. Ironic as well. They might have been better off with the hentai in the village, spymaster and all-around nosy twerp that he was. Moodily, she spat a mid-sized glob of lava onto her desk and watched it sizzle through the second draft of her apology to the international community at large. At least she had a couple days before the shit really hit the fan: the last of her guests had left a few hours ago. The remaining Jounin from Lightning would probably be the first to make it home, but her allies in Leaf and Sand wouldn't be home for several days yet to begin demanding that she provide assistance smashing the living hell out of Rain.

There was no way to see what was going to happen exactly, but it didn't take a genius to see that it was going to end in bloodshed. Two jinchuuriki had been kidnapped from her protection, as well as an ally's young rising star of a Jounin. The major villages would be baying for blood before the week was out.

As if the Raikage hadn't been bad enough before.

Two days after original altercation.

"Do you want me to kill her?" Nagato took Konan's cold hand in his own, solemnly watching the strain in her clenching hand as she tried and failed to rebuild her right hip. The wound was unnatural—it resisted her unique abilities in a way that made no sense. The paper she plastered over the gaping maw only curled up and scorched and had to be excised. Had she been anyone else, she would have bled out of her external iliac artery.

"That will not be necessary." A serene smile turned her face into a vision of beauty. Tenderly transfixed, he raised his grip to press a clammy kiss against her knuckles. He tried not to notice her flinch at the feeling of cold flesh against her hand. "If she dies, then my errand was for naught. I'm afraid I have failed you."

He remained silent. She had, but Konan would not be punished for that. She was only human, after all.

She tilted her face up on her pillow, breathing slowly and evenly. "I did have the opportunity to witness her reputed abilities," Konan murmured peacefully. "She does not lack promise. I may have been too forceful when I disabled her, but I feared that she might create more problems once not hindered by the protection of her comrade."

Nagato didn't much care right now, but she wouldn't have brought the topic up without cause. "Oh?" he intoned matter-of-factly.

Her eyes fluttered shut. "I admit that I covet her chains of chakra. Even a flighty child such as that one found no difficulty restraining an enraged jinchuuriki. Were you to persuade her to take up our noble cause, we would find the remaining captures much expedited."

"Unlikely," he mumbled, brushing her bangs off her forehead and carefully pulling the flower off her hair to rest at bedside. "She is close to the Kyuubi jinchuuriki."

Konan seemed to find just enough strength to look up at him with fond amusement. "You have had no trouble convincing less likely converts in past, Pein-sama. Whether it be the promise of her freedom, a peaceful death for her brother, or more direct means, I know that your modesty hides your ability to convince the girl to join us. She is young and in need of experience, but the raw materials are there to become something beautiful. A part of something greater." She smiled faintly.

He didn't reciprocate, but only because he could not. "Your unwavering faith warms my heart, Konan." He brushed a thumb over the back of her hand in silent reward. "If you have seen that the rumors are based in fact, then your confidence in me is great indeed."

She hummed peacefully under his ministrations. "I do not believe that she has the Hiraishin."

The motion of his hand stopped for a moment. "Oh?"

"Yes. Tsunade of the Densetsu no Sannin claims that the girl is the Fourth Hokage's beget, and that rings true. It is also undeniable that she is able to traverse great distances in the space of thought. Yet what I have seen…" Konan laboriously shook her head, hair rustling with the movement. "That is not the technique of ill-fame. Impressive, yes, but not the Flying God of Thunder. I might have believed that she was hearkening back to the method of the Second Hokage, who used it by placing his technique formula on many locations, because she certainly does not use it in the manner of her father."

"But?" A shiver of curiosity actually crept into his tone.

His old friend heard it and seemed content. "I believe that she was attempting to convince me of this ability when she forcibly transported me many miles from the place where we had been. If she had taken me to the land of waves from Water Country, I would have believed. But she did not succeed. Her technique failed her over the water. There was nothing floating there that could have held a technique formula and disguised her mistake."

"Do you believe that she wields some sort of improved body flicker?" he suggested ponderously, pulling his hand back.

"Yes. A remarkable innovation, to be certain, unconstrained by the usual requirement for line-of-sight. But it is not without limit in regards to distance. From my observations, she is highly accomplished in utilizing this technique in close combat. It was merely ill luck and overestimation of her abilities that revealed the lie."

At the word 'lie', Pein almost managed a frown. "A shame that one so young hides behind deception," he stated disapprovingly.

Blue lips twitched upwards. "Yes," Konan agreed quietly. "Though not entirely. From what I have seen, she is impulsive, immature, but clever enough to mix her falsehoods with truth. I no longer doubt that she was the seal master to seal the bijuu of three-tails. I suspect that reputation helped hide the lie."

"I no longer wish to discuss the character of your prisoner." She flinched into her sheets, but serenely lowered her eyes in respect. "If the girl uses a body flicker, she can be kept. I will allow you to decide how to treat her."

"You are kind." She paused thoughtfully. "I am in no condition to attend to my duties, however."

"I will assign someone to the task." Pein rose to tower over the graceful form draped over an exotic chaise, considering the conversation over. "Rest, so that you will be ready to participate in the sealing ritual."

"Yes," she agreed softly, and closed her eyes.

He gave one last look to his most dedicated servant before striding out to inform Zetsu that he could adjust the cocktail of drugs he was giving the prisoner to a lower concentration. She would be in no condition to make any foolish attempts to defy his will even after Kisame and Itachi returned, and it would be unwise to inadvertently rob himself of a possible instrument for his will through something like an overdose.

Zetsu was lurking outside the base when they arrived, which always set Kisame's hackles up. He didn't let that show, dismissively passing his gaze over his nominal comrade. He'd always hated plants, ever since he was a kid. Didn't help that the damn thing was coated in dirt. That wasn't unusual—it was how the fucker skulked around instead of walking. Zetsu was habitually filthy, and stank of weeks old blood.

It was considerably more unusual to run into his illustrious leader with loose soil in his hair. Apparently, he'd been in enough of a hurry to subject himself to the indignity of traveling with Zetsu. It was hundreds of times faster than anything else, but he would never be caught dead pretending to be a particularly vigorous root vegetable. Sure, he could travel under the earth when he needed to, but he had the sense not to roll around in it.

"Itachi, you will first tend to Konan."

If he didn't know his partner incredibly well, it would be impossible to tell that he was annoyed at apparently being signed up to play nurse for more than one idiot. Kisame ran his tongue along his lower teeth and idly sliced it open, then sucked on the cuts that resulted just to give himself something to do other than to snigger at the way Itachi curtly nodded and stalked off to obey Pein.

"Kisame, you will be feeding Samehada. Come."

He didn't bother to hide his grin as he silently loped off behind Pein. "Am I stocking up for two extractions then?" Samehada shivered on his back, scraping through the thick fabric of his Akatsuki house coat (no matter what Konan said, it still looked like an ugly house coat to him). It wasn't an implausible theory that Pein would treat him beforehand. He knew he would be shouldering even more of the burden this time around, seeing as how Sasori and the blonde brat had come down with a serious case of dead.

"No."

A brow raised, he waited for clarification. It didn't come until Pein gestured distastefully towards a shut door and began to step away. "Drain the prisoner inside of all but the chakra needed to maintain regular organ function. After that, wait until I return."

Bizarre, but he wasn't about to argue about a free meal. He half-expected to see a jinchuuriki when he shouldered his way into the storage room that had until recently contained extra chairs. At first, he didn't see anything at all.

He let out a snort of amusement when his eyes did land over the bedraggled figure he'd missed on his first pass of the room. Apparently, his new friend had curled up into a ball. A sharp kick fixed that, and he nudged the prisoner over with his foot to see just what bijuu had Pein so worried that he needed it further weakened before they extracted it.

"Not a jinchuuriki at all," Kisame marveled under his breath. It was a little thing. Probably a kunoichi, but a rather scrawny one, albeit rather generously smeared with blood and dirt. Konan really needed to stop dragging hopeless cases home. Zetsu had eaten the damn cat, so you'd think she'd have learned.

He shook his head briskly. What the hell went through his boss's head, he'd never know. Samehada gave a violent jerk, clearly impatient now that she knew the shivering flesh nearby was hers.

"Easy, girl," he soothed, lovingly drawing the blade over his shoulder and beginning to unwrap it. She convulsed eagerly, rippling and growing slightly in her excitement. His heartbeat picked up, keeping pace with her own thrill-seeking. As the last of the wrappings curled on the floor, he took Samehada by the handle again and pointed her downwards to let her guide his hand.

It didn't really matter where she touched her food, but she had preferences sometimes. One of those being that her food didn't stink like Zetsu or have a fine coating of mud, saltwater (what the hell?) or day-old blood. He found himself flipping the girl over and shoving Samehada's tip under the edge of her shirt just to find a clean spot to feed. With a 'shuck' and a blossoming movement like a rose, his beautiful baby opened up and dug her scales into the available flesh, hooking in and sucking eagerly.

Judging by the dirt all over her, fuckin' Zetsu had apparently gotten his thorns into this one too. He let his lip curl into a snarl, but couldn't even feel the normal irritation at the thought. At least the savage had left enough for his blade to feed on. Satiation flooded his veins, hot and heavy and Samehada's contentment was his own. He barely remembered to warn her to leave enough for the girl to live, numb with purring satisfaction by the time Samehada reluctantly pulled back, dripping hot blood over what had been white fabric in a former life.

"Not bad, kid," he conceded easily, feeling generous enough to kick the unconscious girl back over face-up with his foot to give her a little dignity. Samehada'd liked her chakra. It was hot and tumultuous and very definitely water-natured.

Maybe the boss'd keep her around long enough that there would be another feeding for his baby and not just for Zetsu. The thought kept an easy grin on his face, even as the prone body on the floor began shuddering violently. Probably a little too much blood loss and poor circulation, he judged. If she was moving around, that meant she had passed from unconsciousness to sleep of a sort, so he wasn't remotely surprised when the prisoner began to give signs of waking. He kept one eye on her and one on the door, tapping his heel against the floor in a content stupor. Making sure she didn't run off was both grunt work and pointless, but it wouldn't be much longer.

Eyes that had just a little too much green to match the tides back home fluttered open once, and then closed again.

"Are we awake?" he drawled, leaning over his temporary pet with a fond sort of possessiveness.

The eyes opened again, for longer this time. "We're not sure," an alto that didn't entirely match her appearance rasped out guardedly. "Are we… blue?"

Kisame snorted and bared his teeth. "We are," he agreed with fierce humor.

He half-expected her to cringe away or start crying or something else that would betray fear, but the girl just closed her eyes for a moment before attempting to lever up to a seated position. "Then we're awake, but very puzzled."

Feeling generous, he wrapped his hands around both shoulders to pull her up bodily and then let her slump forward. He didn't have all day to watch a teenager try to re-learn how to sit. "Wouldn't move too fast if I were you," Kisame warned good-naturedly, giving her a bracing pat on the upper back that sent her folding over nearly to her knees, wavering. "Just lost a lot of chakra, and you already looked like something the cat dragged in."

A distinctly unladylike snort was his response. "Hardly. I can take a cat. Any cat. Just point me at him."

Privately, he thought she was full of shit. At least as she was, anyway. Maybe he'd give her credit against a housecat on a better day.

The door opened silently, but she was already looking when Pein strode inside testily, Itachi on his heels. He was opening his mouth to demand something-

"Are you the rebellious one, then?" his pet mused a little drunkenly, surprisingly lucid gaze thoughtfully directed at Pein. When he didn't jump to respond, she leaned forward (and nearly fell) to clarify, "I'm starting to think I've been kidnapped by a boy band."

Pein did look a bit like he belonged in a boy band.

Kisame hooted, exchanging a glance with his partner. Itachi didn't seem to enjoy the jibe, though. Kid needed to lighten up. He looked like he'd just heard that his pet bunny died, for Kami's sake.

In the second that Kisame'd looked away, Pein had shot forward and lifted the girl bodily to dangle across from his eyes with his hand wrapped around her neck. "I do not play games, kunoichi," he intoned sternly, tilting his chin up slightly so that light reflected off the metal in his face. "You will earn yourself a painless death by explaining what it is that you have done to my associate."

The Mist nuke-nin took a moment to regret that there would only be one meal.

At her confused blink, Itachi lazily clarified, "Konan-san's wounds resist medical jutsu."

That seemed to clear things up for the kunoichi, but oddly enough, she didn't look concerned. Her face was turning pink and her toes were reaching for the floor rather desperately, but those were the only tells. Her expression was locked into- hell, that was cockiness if he'd ever seen it painted on a face before. What an ornery little shit, he noted fondly. No wonder Samehada had liked her. Eating prey, well that was fine, but Samehada liked other meat-eaters best.

"Oh, that." She wheezed out her answer in the most dignified murmur possible. "That's a stupid question. You should be asking where else I touched her, and if I'm willing to disarm the seals." And then the little bitch actually smiled. Granted, she looked like she was high, but it was a smile.

Pein's fingers tightened, forcing her flesh to bulge around his fingers. His expression was like iron.

That was stupid of him. If he crushed her windpipe, of course she couldn't explain the problem. Kisame half-expected to see Pein break her head open on the wall like an egg in his uncharacteristic agitation (he must really be attached to his partner) but he did seem to have the sense to restrain himself.

Pein let go completely without even looking down, calm as you please once again.

Little red crumpled at his feet like a discarded sweater. Apparently all she had was mental energy and sass. He valiantly pushed down the amusement that wanted to surface. Not even Hidan was stupid enough to backtalk Pein, to his face or otherwise. Kisame didn't believe the man was a god, but hell if he wasn't close.

"Itachi, ensure that she won't die." With that, Pein pivoted and walked straight back out, probably to worry at Konan's bedside.

He was actually a little curious about that. "What the hell did you do, red?" Kisame bent his knees and reached out to pull her up like a cloth doll so he could see her face. Amused, he grabbed her chin with a thumb and forefinger to stop her head from lolling on her neck. The faint scent of blood clued in him that she'd bitten her tongue when Pein had dropped her.

If the few minutes he'd known her were any indication, that was probably the first time she'd had the sense to bite her tongue.

"I didn't do anything," she slurred. It was a bad lie made worse by the lopsided little smile that accompanied it. "Sometimes old people just have their hips go out. Could happen to anyone."

Kisame tossed his head back and laughed, slapping Itachi's back companionably as he stood. "Have fun with this one, Itachi." The Uchiha gave him one of those impassive looks that all but screamed he was displeased, but he didn't even try to reprimand him.

'Well, I could be in deep shit,' Aiko thought philosophically. She knew that, but it didn't seem quite real. The situation was so absurd that it just couldn't register. 'I think when I get home, I'll write up my own ransom note in advance to cut out the middleman and just pin it to my shirt so that we all know where we stand the next some Akatsuki hits me over the head with a brick. Where did Konan get a brick?'

Her situation was probably slightly worse than being kidnapped by a boy band, but only slightly. What were they going to do, kill her? If Pein had placed no value at all on her life, he would have done so then. He needed or wanted her for something, and if it had just been for information about Konan's injuries he would have been more persistent.

'There's a big gap between 'they aren't going to immediately kill me' and I am safe to go skipping through bunny forest,' she tried to remind herself. But for some reason, she just couldn't seem to stop and focus on the worst that could happen. She felt… flighty and distracted.

Which was dumb, because if anything, her aching head and the oozing scratches and gouges all over her hands and arms should be grounding her to the real world.

Oddly, it was only after Kisame left that the ominous 'ba-dum' of Jaws music began thudding in her ribcage. She didn't want to be alone with Itachi.

"I don't want to be alone with you."

Aiko blinked, mildly surprised and covered her mouth with a palm. That wasn't supposed to come out. She licked compulsively at the blood in her mouth. It wouldn't help, but she was so very thirsty.

Uchiha Itachi seemed to be pitying himself. Both of him were. But he left the room wordlessly, and for a moment she thought she had won that battle of wits. She celebrated by gingerly lowering herself to the floor and closing her eyes.

"Noooo," she grunted, trying to bat away the creepiest boy band member when he told her to sit up. Itachi seemed to give absolutely zero fucks, however. He demonstrated that irritating lack of regard by briskly propping her up and placing a cup of something hot in her hands.

"Drink."

"Is it the blood of my enemies?" she asked tiredly, hoping that would put him off. Also, slightly hoping that he hadn't really given her a cup of hot blood, because now she was committed to drinking it.

(Outside of her line of sight, Itachi cringed. That was truly abhorrent).

Suspiciously, she cracked one eye open. Green tea?

"You must hydrate, so that you can stand long enough to clean yourself. I refuse to wash you, yet your wounds are filthy. If you do not wish to die, drink."

That was blunt. But it did make sense.

"I don't want you to wash me either," she admitted honestly, stiffening her elbows at her side and tipping the mug up to her mouth obediently. Dehydration bad, makes blood worse. No. She frowned. Makes blood loss worse.

Yes. Aiko smiled faintly, breathing in the fumes from an exceptionally good cup of tea. For all that he scared the absolute fucking crap out of her; Itachi probably wasn't going to poison her. Akatsuki had probably already done that, and judging by the stiffness in her limbs and the ugly yellow crusting on the wounds she could see on her arms, they hadn't treated her first.

That had been her first hint that her survival was hanging on a thin thread. They had captured her and brought her to some kind of headquarters, but they hadn't busted their asses to get her medical attention in the course of at least a day. They would have made more of an effort if it had been decided that her life was actually important, rather than just possibly convenient at some point in the future.

Another girl might have hunkered down and tried not to piss them off. But that was rabbit talk. With no idea as to what would please them, she wouldn't lower herself to pretending to cower. If there was an obvious, immediate benefit, then hell yes, pride at cost of life and limb was for dead suckers. But otherwise? No. She hadn't been killed in her sleep, so unless Deidara's zombie corpse leapt out from behind the curtains to get revenge she would take her chances with Akatsuki's dubious hospitality.

'Still, threatening Pein was risky.'

Despite her attempt to scold herself, she felt a stupid smile creep across her face. Damn, she was having an oddly difficult time restraining her emotions. It had been a mitigated risk, as well as a thrill. She had set the groundwork to convince Pein that she couldn't be killed. Not if he valued Konan, anyways.

It was even a partial truth. She wouldn't risk trying to transport herself in this state. Aiko liked her own skin, thank you very much. She had failed to reach a destination in a much better condition in this, and she was on the heady sort of state where she could lose consciousness at any moment. Oddly enough, she might be safer here than in the wilderness while passed out.

But that self-interest hardly extended to Konan, and she honestly didn't see a way that she could fuck up blowing the woman's head off. Cutting off her connection to the seal would be easier than moving herself to another seal.

If she were to move to another seal, though, she had two very interesting candidates. One of them about a mile away seemed to be Nii Yugito's. The one nearby was probably Fuu's, by virtue of elimination. She couldn't think of who else Akatsuki would have kidnapped that she had tagged so recently that she hadn't learned their chakra signature.

That meant that she had at least two nuisances to take care of before she made her own grand escape. Leaving them here would be shooting herself in the foot and enabling Akatsuki. Plus, she'd already marked them and they were now hers. Akatsuki could get their own damn jinchuuriki if they could beat her to them or pry them out of her cold dead hands. And, you know, stop her from stealing them, as she completely intended to do.

Aiko stifled a snort, rolling her head into the space between her arms with the cup held aloft.

'Eh. Later. I won't be any better off dragging someone else off with me on my adventure to the wilderness than I would be alone if I can't trust them, and that's assuming I don't end up leaving someone's leg behind. Yugito-chan might take the chance to smother me, assuming she's in any better condition than I am.'

And that seemed spectacularly unlikely, seeing as Akatsuki was probably planning to murder her and Fuu by ripping the concentration of demonic energy inextricably intertwined with their own life forces out.

Really, there was absolutely no way that she could leave this situation without those two jinchuuriki, with at least one of them alive to corroborate her story. It would be better for their bodies to be found in the same place than for her to break free and leave the other two. Konoha would be razed to the ground within a week—no one would be able to take that as anything less than an admittance of either guilt or criminal negligence, since Konoha had been the ones arguing that Akatsuki was incredibly dangerous.

A giggle surprised her, and the force of it shook her body and the hands curled around her cup. The tea inside sloshed up against the side for a moment.

Odd. That hadn't been funny at all, even by her admittedly macabre standards.

Then her tea was gone, and she found herself accepting a cold glass of water and three small pills of varying colors. She tried to give Uchiha an inquisitive glance, but got a face-full of 'I'm not taking your shit today' and Aiko meekly swallowed them. He was both bigger and badder than she was and had demonstrated a worrying carelessness in regards to stomping her in past.

Ew. Iron pills, maybe? Whatever they were, they wouldn't be chakra pills, judging by how unbearably drained she felt. Chakra levels that low had to be purposeful.

And that, she suddenly realized, was downright bizarre. Enough so to make her suspicious. They had to know that she was a Hiraishin user: Konan had seen her use it, for crying out loud. This wasn't some random sap like Sasori who had been blind-sided by her ability. If she was awake, that either meant that Akatsuki was run by incompetent lunatics or that they had something else to keep her from leaving. A trap that she didn't yet see, in other words.

Did that have anything to do with why she had been drained of chakra? Granted, that was a sensible precaution in any type of prisoner situation. It made the victim physically weak and prevented them from using jutsu or genjutsu at the risk of dipping into their own life force to do it. Aiko valued her own life enough that she wouldn't be trying to do anything that involved more chakra expenditure than the finger-spark jutsu unless they left her alone long enough for her reserves to fill up a bit.

'I know something totally awesome that requires less chakra than the finger-spark,' she wheedled. Aiko could set hundreds of Hiraishin without dipping into the bulk of her reserves. Even as she was now, she could probably lay down at least a couple of explosives after her head stopped pounding.

"Are you deaf, kunoichi? I have no intention of carrying you."

Oh. So apparently he was talking to her again. Wobblingly, Aiko forced herself to her feet, feeling distinctly less like a predator than she usually did. This lack of coordination was like, Bambi learning to prance kind of bad.

She ended up using the wall as a brace while she followed Uchiha out. Well, followed wasn't exactly the right word, since he was apparently too thorough to allow her behind him even in her current state, but he didn't seem to want to walk behind her either.

"Wash the contagions from your sores as best as you are able. I will have to sterilize them afterwards regardless."

For someone who seemed to speak almost exclusively in monotone, Uchiha Itachi could do a good job of sharing his disgruntlement.

But hey, at least he was enabling her to clean up. A shower would do her some good at this point.

"Motherfucker!"

Aiko actually bit her lip, hard, and turned her face down away from the spray of water. Okay, so not so relaxing when she was covered in open cuts on her shoulders and head. Her excellent constitution was probably the only factor she had to thank for not being a fevered mess right now—whatever was wrong with her, it wasn't a fever—and it had apparently done nothing for Konan's Death-By-Paperwork jutsu. That jackass.

'It's unhealthy, how much I'm beginning to dislike that woman,' Aiko noted thoughtfully. 'Am I just being petty because she kicked my ass?'

That would be an unhealthy attitude to take and one that could lead her to compromise her ability to function around an opponent who had already proved to be the superior combatant. It really wasn't a good idea to let things like that bother you if you wanted to live very long.

A few moments' contemplation and self-evaluation was all she needed to vindicate her feelings. Nah, it wasn't that. Konan just really rubbed her the wrong way.

Thus satisfied, she gritted her teeth and gently scrubbed at her body until the green washcloth turned an ugly brown, almost black color that matched the foul buildup around the drain. Apparently, Itachi or whoever had stocked this bathroom didn't give one single fuck if she smelled like flowers and sunshine as was her due, so she rubbed the bland soap over her hair as best as she could and resolved to sneak back into the house in Konoha to steal some of Karin's fancy shampoo in apology to her poor hair.

"Oh shit, Karin," she realized belatedly, dropping the bar of soap with a clatter. Aiko squeezed her eyes shut and tilted her face up to catch falling water on her tongue, letting the hot water warm her insides when it trailed in.

Depending on how long it had been, Karin and Naruto might already know what had happened. Fuck, they were going to freak out about her impromptu vacation to Chez Akatsuki.

'Probably my whole team will magically know that I really am freaking princess peach ten minutes after Tsunade gets back to Konoha, gossips that they are.' Aiko leaned forward and pressed her forehead against the cheap ceramic wall piteously, suddenly consumed by a bit of shame. Here she was, impassively checking through what she wanted to do before she brute-forced her way out of this hellhole (assuming that she could) without even thinking that her family and team would probably be upset. She had no idea how Sai or Sasuke would respond, to be honest, but it probably wouldn't be a shrug. Yamato and Kakashi… were they going to be disappointed with her? This was definitely a situation where they would say she was being reckless.

Would they? She frowned confusedly. They weren't unreasonable. If she explained her reasoning, they would be able to understand her situational assessment even if they didn't like it. But it wasn't like worry for a comrade was an entirely logical experience.

So, yepp. There would probably be a scolding. If she'd had Mitsuo's ears, she would have flattened them against her head.

'Am suddenly both depressed and grateful that I do not have adorable yet overtly expressive dog ears.'

She shut the water off and gave a disdainful look to her filthy clothes on the floor. Since Itachi had apparently become secretary of her bodily functions, he could be her maid too and clean them up.

"Is he expecting me to put those back on?" Aiko pursed her lips, and toed her tanktop over her bra in a half-assed concession to dignity. Well, tough shit for him. The towels in this joint were apparently sized for Kisame's scaly ass, so she felt perfectly comfortable winding one around her body and stepping out into the hall.

It seemed that Itachi had gotten bored with waiting for her to finish showering. What a crap maid. With a shrug, she picked a direction and started exploring. He would find her eventually.

But the man she found in the kitchen wasn't Itachi, Kisame, or even Pein. His back was to her, but she saw short, dark hair and one of the emblematic cloaks, so she felt free to assume this was one of her captors.

"Yo," Aiko greeted. "Your maid is pretty bad, could I trouble you for help? Am like, super naked over here."

"Tobi would love to help! He is a good boy." The man, comparable in height to Itachi or Kakashi, turned around with a smile in his childishly high voice and an orange mask on his face.

'Oh dear. That's not good.'

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

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