Chapter 1
There wasn’t really a point to checking the calendar again. Mei had marked this date in her mind years ago, when the girl had first joined her war. The contracts that had been signed, as was typical with this situation, marked the third year since her arrival as the day her allegiance was legally transferred to Kirigakure.
She had sent the appropriate warning but hadn’t heard back from Tsunade. It was more a formality at this point – no hidden village worth their salt would take back a soldier that had been serving elsewhere for more than two years. To do so made you look desperate or incompetent at best, both at worst. At three years, loyalties would be called into question by virtue of time alone. That wasn’t even considering that Ren had fought and bled for this country.
So, instead, Mei had to find a way to tie her down more effectively. The most dangerous part of these transitions was right after a shinobi found out. They weren’t warned, only sent back if necessary. The cutting of ties from a village they had invariably grown up in could lead them to leave their new village and become a missing nin – a shinobi with no village instead of a shinobi betrayed.
“So why did you call me here? Why not Haku, or better yet, Zabuza? He trained her, right?”
“Because Haku will give me the humane path and Zabuza will give me the military path. You’ve worked with her – you know what balance of both will work best.”
Suigetsu slouched in the chair he had taken in front of her desk. “Look, lady –“
“I’m still the Mizukage, Suigetsu. This is official business. Cheek will get you put on D-Ranks for the rest of the year.”
Suigetsu groaned. He had respect for her, and they both knew it. No one in Kiri really knew how to be formal anymore. Like any skill, the lack of practice had made them rusty. For diplomacy’s sake, though, she would have to encourage it within the shinobi ranks from now on. “Mizukage-sama.
“You have to tie her here. Both militarily, and with people. You’ve got a good start – I’m pretty sure our whole team would kill and maim for each other, almost no questions asked – but that’s now. If she’s going to be here longer, she has to be in a longer-term type of commitment.”
“Are you talking about arranging a marriage or are you talking about a genin team?”
Suigetsu laughed. “That first option would be hilarious, and I pity whoever marries her, but no. I’m talking about genin. At least that way we probably get some powerhouses out of the deal.”
“You say that like if she married someone they wouldn’t drive each other mad in rivalry and become powerhouses in their own right.”
Suigetsu barked another laugh. He and Mei might not be outwardly demonstrative, but there was a definite affection there. Most of the higher-up shinobi in the newly reformed Kiri ranks had some kind of affectionate or friendly banter with their Kage – she had fought right there with them on the battlefield and she had led the rebellion with little to no hope it could actually work. It was admirable for the younger shinobi and it was enough to garner intense loyalty from the more weathered soldiers.
“Here are some genins’ files.” Mei gave him a dark smile, and it occurred to him she had probably had the same plan and was just seeing how he would handle the question. “Pick four and then report back to me.”
Suigetsu groaned as he left her office, well aware he had walked right into that one. He paused. “Wait, we didn’t talk about tying her to the military here. Your note said you wanted to tie her to the people, and to the military. Setting her up with genin – that’s just people.”
Mei smiled, something almost taunting. “I’ve already got some plans for the military part.”
That night, he received another short note. Thank you for returning them.
*
Suzume and Kimiko had worked together. Occasionally. Why they chose to live together in one of the genin dorms they hadn’t really figured out, but it was definitely nice, especially since Kimiko made sure Suzume got at least as far as the small lounge that the landlord had put in so young shinobi weren’t always holing up in their rooms.
It went largely unused and collected a lot of dust, but the thought was nice. It was small, with a couch and a small table for card games and small communal meals.
“You’re pacing again.”
Kimiko was laying on the couch with her feet propped on the wall and her head hanging off the end. In a word, she was upside down and reversed from how she should have been sitting on it.
“You’re not seriously…”
“Hush up. It feels good.”
“That ‘good’ feeling, that spinny-feeling? That’s blood. Rushing to your head.” Suzume sat in front of Kimiko’s face, leaning back on her hands and staring down Kimiko. “And that’s not healthy. At all. I think.”
Kimiko rolled her eyes, adjusting so she was sitting on it right.
“Do you think the dorm-supervisor would be upset if we sold this and got a kotatsu?”
“Yeah, since it’s not ours. Where did this idea come from?” Suzume watched as Kimiko, ever focused on being either as small as possible or as spread-out as possible, curled into the corner of the couch.
“Warmth.”
“I swear you’re like one of those stray cats outside.” Suzume stood up before falling right next to Kimiko, the two of them laughing.
“You’re happier since the war ended.”
“Happier is a stretch.” Suzume stretched before pushing the side of her foot against Kimiko’s. “It’s nice not to be almost dying every five minutes.”
“Every five minutes was a stretch. Just every day.”
Suzume huffed a laugh. “You’re way too nonchalant about the shit that happened during the war.”
“I can let it bother me or I can ignore it. If I ignore it I don’t have to deal with it until later.”
That was too accurate. Suzume got up to find some cards. “Well if we’re ignoring our problems, we might as well enjoy ourselves.”
*
Ren scowled at the book in her lap. She was trying to get better at sealing, now that there was even the slightest bit of time to rest between missions. Given the noise that came from having four people in a small dorm room, she had found herself ensconcing herself in the library every free moment for the quiet anyway – might as well get some skills out of it.
“What’re you reading?”
She had run into this boy several times. He couldn’t be much older than she was, if he was older than her at all, and he wore a forehead protector, but he was a massive klutz half the time, and the other half didn’t seem to have volume control. The running commentary was that it was a good thing he was kept largely in-village as the head of Research and Development.
Even if she hadn’t liked him, she would have at least admitted he reminded her of Naruto. It just so happened he quickly befriended her – much like the knuckle-headed blonde she left back in Konoha.
“Sealing book. There isn’t much here, though, and this is focused on storage seals. I’d like to think I’ve gotten decent at those.”
The man flicked a red braid of hair over his shoulder, pulling the book closer to take a look. “That’s ‘cause this is for, like, everyday people. Even the shinobi section here has a lot of weaker stuff. Swing by R and D with me, I can show you some stuff we’ve pulled together!”
Ren smirked. “Maybe when I’m not busy.”
“You wound me, Akagi-san.”
Ren rolled her eyes, standing to put the book back. She wasn’t going to get much from this, so she might as well direct her attentions elsewhere. “Merely a secondary benefit, Hiroshi-san.”
Hiroshi smirked. “Well, if you won’t be able to visit R and D soon, maybe we can spar?”
That was something that Ren could absolutely agree to.
*
Takeshi had met Masuyo on the battlefield, shared some tea with her, and then never saw her again.
So running into her while she was watching Akagi Ren and the Hiroshi that never gave out his last name (there was a chunin named Shinzo Hiroshi that Takeshi had also met during the war, but he hadn’t been quite as interesting) was surprising.
“What are you doing?”
“She did some incredible stuff in the war.”
Takeshi sat next to her between the thin, scraggly trees and brush so common to Kirigakure to watch. “She did some terrifying stuff during the war.”
“Do you think we’d have to do that?”
“If the war kept up, yeah.” Takeshi shrugged. “But that’s what shinobi do.”
Masuyo sighed. “But do they have to? Do we have to start people so little? I was ten when I had my first kill – I got out of the Slums three weeks before that.”
“And you’re?”
“Twelve now.”
Takeshi nodded. “I was eleven. I was supposed to be trained on medic work because of my chakra control, but no one had the time so I was just doing stitches and stuff. When the med tent got infiltrated by some enemies pretending to be injured allies, I had to use some of the surgical equipment to kill them. The medics had already nearly passed out from chakra exhaustion, and no one in there was ready or able to fight.
“I was taken out of medicine and put in the field. Quick-thinking, and all that.”