Chapter 3
Tsunade should have been more careful. Should have paid more attention. Maybe then she wouldn’t have let a major date pass without so much as occasion. But Orochimaru planned his capture of Konoha shinobi just perfectly to conflict with her diplomatic schedule.
Three years and she lost who had been one of her most promising recruits from that year-group to Kirigakure. She was grateful for the budding alliance between the two villages, but she could have done without losing a clan child to a fledgling regime and no guarantee the alliance would even stick. Even though Riko was adopted, there was still the fact she had been a Nara – there would be backlash.
She would just have to hope, and to discuss it with Mei it would seem. The most innocuous piece of paper on her desk was the one with the most weight.
How had she missed this?
*
Ren took the files from the Mizukage. “You all are going to meet in three hours. I suggest you get reading.”
Ren nodded. She didn’t get up right away. “You’re giving me genin. I take it I’m not going back.”
Mei sighed. “No. The contract between myself and Tsunade expired two months ago. I notified the Hokage one month beforehand, but it looks like you’re going to be here longer than you were originally hoping.”
It stung, but that was life. There had been an agreement – she wasn’t about to risk triggering a war by running back to Konoha and damning the consequences. She had precious people here and she wouldn’t risk putting Mei’s regime on a potential chopping block. It was too new to risk.
“Thank you for the trust, Mizukage-sama.” She gestured with the files. “I’ll do my best with them.”
“I know you will.”
Ren had never given anything less. She had taken her training and given it and Kirigakure her all. She would do the same with these genin.
“And, Ren? I want you to stop using the seal. Gradually reduce the chakra to it, so that within the end of two weeks or so you’re no longer disguised.” Mei was looking at Zabuza, and Ren caught him nodding in her peripheral vision. “We’re going to put a quiet announcement out after I leave for the negotiations. Chuunin and above will be made aware of the situation to the extent the treaty allows, and you will be allowed to choose which name you go by within Kirigakure bounds.”
“Mizukage-sama?”
“It’s better we announce it than you get forcibly revealed by a stray shot in a mission. It’s a miracle the seal’s lasted this long.”
Ren nodded. “Then I’d rather my name on official records remain Akagi Ren. If I switch back, there will be questions of loyalty. Working with other jounin will be a lot easier if they’re assured of my loyalties.”
Mei nodded. “You have until I come back to change your mind, Akagi-san.”
They both knew she would be a fool to do it. The option of changing back to Nara Riko was a formality anyway, and taking it would have been a surefire way to signal that she was still loyal to Konoha. Even if she was, even if deep in her heart she knew she would never be able to truly go all-out on a Konoha shinobi, she wasn’t about to admit it in such a public manner. In a country that valued individual loyalty over loyalty to abstract ideas, that would have painted a target on her back that would never be done with, no matter what she did to prove herself beyond that.
*
Suzume scowled, glaring a hole into the tree nearby. There was no reason to give them a jonin supervisor. They had proven themselves thrice over during the last few months of the war – Suzume had even been up for a promotion. That didn’t mean anything when the Mizukage managed to come into power and settle the last of the major disputes, though, so she was stuck at genin.
“You could, ya know, chill.”
Suzume rolled her eyes. At least Takeshi was keeping his mouth shut. She had worked with him before, and the two of them bickered more than they helped one another. “Hush up, Kimiko. It’s not like you or Masuyo were up for promotion at the end of the war anyway.”
Takeshi had been closer than even she was, but she wasn’t about to admit it out loud.
Masuyo kicked a stone towards Suzume. “Who knows. Maybe we at least get a cool sensei.”
“How does that make up for being screwed out of a promotion?”
Masuyo sighed. “Or you can keep moping about your ‘promotion’. Not like that ever gets old.”
It was completely childish, but if she was going to be stuck a genin it was worth it to indulge herself by sticking her tongue out at Masuyo. They had been close-ish during the war, but afterward the two of them hadn’t spoken.
“Glad to know you four are all so capable.”
The woman standing in front of her was, honestly, not who she expected out of a jonin sensei. One of the lower profile ones? Sure. Akagi Ren?
That certainly made things interesting.
“You four were in the war. You should be fairly capable to begin with, meaning this is somewhat refresher, somewhat formality. Of course, you can get mad if you want to, but that wastes everyone’s time.” Akagi walked to the center of the training ground. There were four senbon with ribbon tied in such a way to loop them together, and she attached them to one of the loops on her pants. “You have three hours to pull these off me. If you fail today, we will run the same exercise tomorrow. We will keep running the exercise until you figure out how to get them from me, and we won’t be taking missions until that point.”
Suzume groaned. This couldn’t get any worse.
*
They failed the test, but Ren couldn’t say she was surprised. She had used thirty minutes to surveil them while she carried on mild conversation with Hiroshi. While Masuyo and Kimiko were fairly calm, they clashed when it mattered (as evidenced by the scuffles throughout their mission record). Suzume was another beast entirely. She barely scraped up to Chunin, and while she was up for a wartime promotion when the war ended it was definitely wise of Mei to put her on the genin roster. There was a lot she had to learn, least of which was how to work with people. Takeshi seemed to be barely holding in the desire to snark every time Suzume opened her mouth, which wouldn’t lead to much in the way of teamwork until they learned to channel that banter into a more productive type of sparring. With luck, she could get them to egg each other into becoming better.
“You owe me 20 ryo, Hiroshi.”
“Ah, I guess I do. I was hoping they would catch on quicker.”
“Want to set bets for how long it takes them?”
Hiroshi considered it. “No. I don’t want to bet on them being stuck genin longer than necessary.
“It’s an interesting tactic, though, that you’ve chosen. You make them work together, but so long as they work solo you instruct them as they fight you. Ingenious.”
“I ripped it off my sensei and then adapted it. We aren’t failing genin that fought the war – only the ones that come out of the academy next year. And besides, it might help them long run if they know what mistakes they’re making now.”
Hiroshi nodded. “I was considering teaching part time at the academy – what do you think?”
Ren quirked a brow as they walked toward a small fish stall. “Sounds like something you have to figure out. Would you be a good teacher?”
“Depends what I taught. I don’t know that I could teach history or the like, but maybe chakra theory or mathematics?”
Ren nodded. “Sounds like a solid choice. Bet the extra pay would be nice, too.”
Hiroshi beamed. “I hadn’t even thought of that! Maybe I could finally move out of the dorms!”
Ren laughed. “I can’t believe that was the temporary solution. It’s not like most of us are going to pass up free housing – and even if we would, we can barely afford rent right now. What made anyone think we would ever move out?”
“I hear some teams are moving into apartments together to cover the rent issue – too many shinobi in a small space almost leading to some homicides and all.”
Ren shrugged. “We talked about it, but for right now it’s kinda nice having each other at our backs when we’re asleep. We know we’ve got someone looking out for us, and we all sleep better, ya know?”
Hiroshi nodded. “Makes sense.”
Ren took her order and scarfed it down. “Ugh, I don’t want to be stuck here longer, but those genin are going to take forever to train up. I’m going crazy in-village as is.”
“Did the Mizukage say you have to stay in village with them full term? Maybe you’ll still be able to take some missions and pad your income until they’re ready for the D-ranks. And hey, most genin teams are being assigned to satellites and rebuild missions. Jounin are talking about taking their own missions while the genin handle the rebuilding.”
Ren nodded. That was something she could live with. She got a stipend for teaching, but it would barely cover her quarter of bills. Two or three missions a month would go a long way to making up the difference.
Supervision of genin – the system more often used in Kirigakure – meant she could substitute out which Jonin was actually training her genin or watching out for them if the mission would take longer than a few hours or a couple days. Then again, if she was merely a supervisor and they would be in the satellites for missions she could pick up her own work then, while they were on their off-hours.
“I’ll talk to Mei about the specifics.”
*
Zabuza looked at the notice. “Who’s on your security detail?”
Mei sighed. “I want to take Ren, because she has insider knowledge of the village. But that puts her in a bad place at minimum, and in a far too convenient place to defect at worst.”
Zabuza scoffed. “If I know that brat, then I can tell you one thing – she isn’t defecting. No way in hell.”
“She would be right there, her family and old teammates nearby. I can’t take the risk.”
Zabuza nods. He gets it. He can tell her Ren won’t defect, but it means shit if they let her go and enable it to happen. “Take me. I’m convincing enough as a guard, and I know a couple Konoha shinobi. Don’t take Ao – the Hyuga will have a conniption. Take Chojuro. He’s diplomatic and level-headed, even if he is a bit of a pussy.
“That’s two people. The other one for your entourage… That Hiroshi kid is supposed to be good. We can grab him, and we can call it a day. She says they can accommodate up to four of us.”
Mei writes it down. “I’m going to look at some other potential members for the three-man squad I’ll be taking. You’ll definitely have a place, and I think you’re right about Ao. He would keep it as private as he could, but it’s not a risk we can afford.
“I’ll tell you by the end of the week who else to pull together and inform. We leave beginning of next week.”
Zabuza nodded. “Alright.”
There was silence and then something occurred to her. “Is it true Suigetsu picked the four most volatile genin he could find?”
“He seems to think she’ll turn them into absolute monsters by the time she has them tested for the chunin exams.” Mei’s brow furrowed, and she looked up. “And it’s not the volatility I’m worried about. Yes, she has the Suzume girl, and she’s known for less than stellar emotional control, but the whole group is a bit mismatched. I’m not sure if they’ll even work out or if we’ll have to reassign.”
Zabuza laughed. “He may have told you it was to make some powerhouses, but I’m pretty sure this is just some convoluted revenge for her shooting him into a lake at the end of the war.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised.”