Chapter 10
Morning coffee was a jonin-only routine, and the first time she tried it, Masuyo understood why. The stuff was nasty, even if Senpai added milk and cardamom to hers, or Haku-nii-san added sugar to it. It just didn’t taste good. Period. Full stop. And that they could drink it and enjoy it suggested to Masuyo that the mandatory Jonin-promotion Torture and Interrogation Resistance training was truly something to be feared.
There was no rule against the genin having it, though, just a couple of very grumpy-in-the-morning jonin that drained the coffee before the genin could get any.
So when she was woken up at three in the morning by her senpai who hadn’t had any coffee before they left she was reasonably concerned. They had an urgent C-Rank, which sounded like some kind of bullshit Suigetsu-nii-san would say. C-Ranks by definition weren’t really urgent – even delivering supplies to one of the outposts would be made a lower-end B-Rank mission if it was urgent.
“Believe me, I’m suspicious, too.”
Except her shoulders were relaxed, and there was a bright glint in her eye. She knew more than she was letting on.
“Senpai?”
“Just get ready, Masu. I’ll tell you more when we get out the door.”
*
With Kirigakure finally stabilized, it had been a need to assert her legitimacy that made Mei put her village’s name in the lot to host the Chuunin Exams. It was pure and unadulterated luck, and a statement to the faith other Kage were willing to place in her leadership, that the other villages agreed. Kirigakure had lasted hosted the exams twenty years ago, and there had been such a gross amount of violence that it went unsaid that Kiri was never to host again.
“Get Haruka, as well as Suigetsu and Akane. Tell each of them to pick a partner and to start designing tests for the Exams as soon as you can.”
The messenger bird was preening its feathers while Mei prepared her statement to the villages. She would have to put on a hell of a show with these exams.
“And you’re going to demand Akagi’s team into the Exams, as well as Kuromatsu’s team. Any other genin squads are going to be permitted choice, but they were close enough to chuunin before to give a solid show of strength.”
“How will we handle accommodations?” Ao glanced through the missive that Mei had lightly tossed to him. “We will have quite a few foreign shinobi around – we don’t have much in the way of hotels in the village. Didn’t before, and definitely don’t now.”
“We have some spaces. Enough shinobi are stationed at outposts that we have empty apartments We can put as many as possible into the open ones, and then we can ask our other shinobi to room with contingents from other villages.”
“You don’t think that will end badly?”
“We will have to pick the ones that can pretend to be diplomatic long enough not to kill some genin.”
Ao groaned. “This was a horrible idea. It’s a clusterfuck. A clusterfuck of massive proportions. A clusterfuck waiting to happen.”
“We need to assert power somehow.”
It was only his eternal dedication to being respectful that kept him from delivering a particularly biting comment in response, and Mei had to laugh at that.
Ever the gentleman, even if it pissed him off.
*
It was a weird escort mission, but the ‘urgent’ part of it came from the fact that the man, the shinobi they were all pretending was a civilian, was in some kind of classified danger. As such, Senpai was walking with them while the man stayed in front of her. She refused to say his name, but there was a clear mix of emotions on their Senpai’s face.
“He’s got some dirt on some people we hate, so don’t ask any questions and just get the mission done.”
Those had been her exact words. And she had refused to answer any questions. She was tense and she was keeping a close, distrustful eye on the man they were escorting.
Suzume and Kimiko were tired, barely awake, meanwhile Takeshi was up and moving with ease. He was going to be a medic, she mused, it made sense he was used to waking up early.
Suzume and Kimiku were tired, barely awake, but still aware. And Masuyo could see why – you didn’t necessarily need to be thinking too deeply if you were in the field as kunai fodder. Now that they were valued, they didn’t suddenly lose that mentality that they were just needed to take down as many people as they could in the war.
Masuyo sighed.
“You okay?”
Senpai had always been kind. They had been a team for almost six months, and between the myriad of missions and training they were doing she found ways to get each of them to talk to her and to discuss things. They were close.
“Yeah.” Senpai knew that she was lying. But Masuyo was sure the only reason she was let be was the foreign man in front of them. The man whose accent was that of a mainlander from deep inland. A man that didn’t interact with traders or the layman often, because his cadence was even and calm, almost monotone, and his accent was lofty, high-class. Her mother had told her, when she was still alive, before the war, that the prettier their voice and accent the more dangerous they were for business.
It was hard to become upper-class in Kirigakure, because life there was hard. But people were bonded together. They were tight-knit. It was what the people who remembered Kiri’s past talked about. Yes, there had been a brutal graduation exam (replaced now with something that kept you alive but still required proving yourself in combat), but once you were with a genin team, chances were you found your family within the shinobi world.
“We weren’t always what we are now. When we first started families kicked you out. You needed someone, so the Shodai kept teams together and had them rise through ranks together.”
History told late in the evenings by older jonin and chuunin warmed up a bit by alcohol tended to be her favorite kind. Books were cold and separated, and when they were sober they were harsher. The alcohol and a calm night, though, put many of them in a good mood. A good enough mood to share.
“Shinobi history here is a pretty new thing. Kunoichi history – that’s the one that we gotta remember.”
Mei had told her that. That kunoichi had built Kirigakure and then someone had tried to shove it into the mold of Konohagakure – a mold that didn’t work well, but that the Shodai, a great man to some and a curse to the legacy of the village to others, had worked so hard for.
And then things had changed under the Nidaime. Things went downhill with the Sandaime, and they burned under Yagura.
“Masuyo, focus.”
“Yes, Senpai.”
It went without saying that with a kunoichi at the helm again, things would be changing.
*
She was going to have some serious questions about what Mei was thinking. They just finished a war, and she was pulling some bullshit that could start another one. Sure, he was selling information for safety and it wasn’t unheard of. Konoha had taken in Kiri traitors in the past. That didn’t mean she had to like it.
As it was, he was staying at a much closer, busier outpost than she would like. Even with a full ANBU guard, she was skeptical that would be enough to hold him back. Add that to some of his conditions, and Ren was incredibly skeptical of why he would sell himself out so easily (selling out his comrades… after the stuff he had done she wasn’t really surprised).
They dropped him off, she took the information he was willing to give at that moment, and they left. The less time her genin spent near him the better. She made her genin run as fast as they possibly could to the village, too, to put distance between them.
That he was in her country was going to bother her endlessly. That he would only speak to “the Bloody Flower”, as he had even fucking phrased it when he talked to Mei rankled her even further.
As soon as their debrief was over, she dismissed her genin.
“Senpai? What’s-“
“Just go home, guys.”
They bowed to Mei before leaving, tossing her puzzled looks as they passed.
“Ren.”
“Mei, I have and would lay my life down for this village. For this country. But I can’t do so unquestioningly, and this latest mission – are you absolutely sure this was a good idea?”
Mei nodded, sighing as she placed her hands on the desk. “Ren, do you think I would willingly endanger my people or my soldiers?”
“No.”
“Do you think I make many rash decisions?”
Ren raised an eyebrow. “Other than throwing a coup?”
Mei’s face hardened. “I’m being serious, Akagi.”
“Of course, Mizukage-sama.” Ren bowed. “I apologize. I do not believe you are prone to rash decision making.”
“Then what are you really asking when you question my judgement in this matter?”
Ren straightened up. “He killed over two-hundred people, Mizukage-sama. He did it without even blinking – he did it and left almost no survivors.”
“Your numbers at Sapphire Lake may not be nearly as impressive, but I doubt I need to remind you that cumulatively, your recorded kills and his amount to about the same.”
Ren knew. Kami, she knew. “Mizukage-sama, he was a traitor.”
“He’s an asylum-seeker now, and he is giving us valuable information. Information that could save the lives of some of your fellow shinobi one day. Whatever he’s done in the past, as despicable as it is, can’t outweigh just how vital this is to our intelligence network.
“You are a good solider, Akagi-san. You have been loyal beyond what was required and you have remained loyal after what would send many shinobi running. You have placed an incredible amount of trust in me as your leader, and I ask you to remember that trust and to allow this to happen.
“Why do you think I agreed to his conditions?”
“To have me be his contact?”
Mei nodded. “Why would I let you two come in contact?”
Ren thought it over. They had sealed his chakra, they had taken his weapons, all for his safety as well as those around him – but that didn’t mean anything. Someone with his skill could turn anything into a lethal weapon. “Because I would put him down if I thought it was necessary.”
“And because you, with a much better understanding of the scope and nature of his crimes as well as his person might be able to see it quicker and save our shinobi a very bloody fight.”
Ren inhaled, taking a moment to consider the Mizukage’s words. “I’m not going to like it.”
“But you’re going to do your job, and you’ve done plenty of jobs you didn’t like before.”
Ren nodded, bowing. “I apologize for any indecency, Mizukage-sama.”
It was Mei’s turn to laugh, a much lighter look crossing her face. “That’s the most polite you’ve been in years. Scram – it’s not a good look for you. And tell Hiroshi that I expect his report on the feasibility of an Academy Fuuinjutsu curriculum by tomorrow!”
“What-?”
“I’m your Kage. It’s my job to know – and besides, the two of you are around one another enough, it’s a lucky guess to assume you would be going to talk to him. This conversation is a need-to-know, one, though, so I better not hear much about it from my other jonin.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
*
The flat expression, the half-hearted fall to the seat beside him told him it was one person, and one person only. She had probably looked for him in the R and D office but didn’t find him. The library was a good second guess.
“I take it your early morning mission didn’t go well?”
She passed him a cup – hot coffee and from the sweet taste she put in a perfect amount of sugar. “Thank you, by the way.”
She fell back a bit. “It went fine.”
“Run for the hills everyone! Nothing went wrong!”
She smirked and threw a senbon to land by his arm, while they both pretended he didn’t flinch a bit. “Screw off.”
He laughed again. “In all seriousness, if you want to talk about it, I’m here.”
“I can’t, but I appreciate it.”
He passed her a book out of his bag. “You asked about how to combine and alter matrices. This book explains it well.”
She nodded, leaning back on the arm of her chair, letting her legs drop over the arm so she was fully facing him. “How do we reconcile ourselves with what we do, when we condemn others for doing the same thing?”
“What do you mean?”
“We all kill, and so many. How do we justify it?”
“What happened on your mission?”
She shook her head.
Hiroshi considered the question. He couldn’t give her any special answer without context, but he would be lying if he said it didn’t keep him up at night that he had taken as many lives as he had tried to save with some of his research.
“Shinobi in general?”
Ren shrugged. “Kiri. How do we, in Kiri, justify that we killed our own during a war?”
“Because they weren’t our own. Because we were loyal to each other, and to the idea of a better future. They were as loyal to Yagura and a bloody legacy…”
Ren shook her head. “Loyalty? That’s all we have?”
Hiroshi leaned forward in his chair, moving to look at her more directly. “Well, missing-nin don’t have people to trust, do they?”