You Shouldn't Have Had to Fight
Mei looked at the missive in her hand.
Nara Riko has gone out of communications pending a long-term mission assigned by Jounin Commander Momochi Zabuza. Her current whereabouts are unknown.
My deepest apologies, Hokage-san.
-Mizukage Terumi Mei
She glanced at Ao. “Are you sure we can’t just say she got a Genin team?”
He nodded. “You don’t accidentally get a Genin team. It requires the trust of the Kage. If we trust her enough to give her Genin, it could raise suspicions in Konoha about if she’s actually loyal or not. This would give us enough cover to come up with something better. Something like she took in three brats and started training them.
“Until then, this keeps her here without starting a war.”
Mei sighed. “I don’t like it. Tsunade might see through it, she might accuse us of killing one of their own. There are too many variables with this approach." She glanced at her other impromptu (and reluctant) adviser. “Zabuza, you’ve been oddly quiet.”
The man glared at the letter. “You know my opinion. She’s more and more a Kiri shinobi everyday. Just tell them we’re keeping her for a Genin team and be done with it. Otherwise, they find out we lied and we get accused of subterfuge or espionage or something and she gets executed for aiding espionage, we get wrapped into another war, and everyone loses. I think this approach is the dumbest thing I’ve seen in a while.”
Ao scoffed. “If we keep her for a Genin team we risk pissing Konoha off, and we could really use an ally right about now! Or did you forget the massive civil war we just fought? The one that has every shinobi village we used to be affiliated with turning their backs?”
“We trained their brat for them, free of charge! For two years!” Zabuza tore the paper out of Mei’s hands, “We’ve done enough for this alliance. Now it’s their turn. We’re asking to keep one of theirs because we don’t have too many jounin left, much less ones that can handle and protect a Genin team. And even some of those, the teacher would just as soon throw them to the wolves and let them die young instead of train them. At least, with Ren, we know she'll do her damnedest to get those girls ready for life on the front lines.
“If they have a problem with it, we can hold negotiations or mediated talks, or some shit like that. We can’t take back a deception!”
“We’re ninja! We deceive each other!” Ao’s fist slammed against the wall. “If they think otherwise what kind of shit are they on?”
“Boys! Enough!” Mei stood abruptly, causing Ao and Zabuza to collapse into seats without a word. “Good.
“I agree with Zabuza. Draft a different letter, tell them we assigned her a Genin team, and that they passed her exam, and we can’t relinquish her yet because we don’t have enough Jounin strong enough to protect three runts while we rebuild and deal with the end of this war. I want you to include the basic civilian-access file on her team, as well as her own civilian-access file.” Mei took out paper and a pen, quickly writing out a note for her fellow Kage. “Stick this on her file, and don’t edit any of it.”
Ao sighed, moving to do as she said. “I think you’re making a mistake.”
“If shit hits the fan, you can say 'I told you so'. Until then, you take orders from me, and I just gave you one.”
“You’re getting that fucking ‘I told you so’.”
Zabuza barked a laugh. “Yeah, I’m sure we are, Ao.”
Ren walked to the river, watching her Genin. The three girls were very different people, that much was obvious right from the start. There was the one who seemed to lead them, at least socially. She was on the taller side, hair dark and mud-colored. The other two seemed to be equal to her, the rose-haired and innocent looking one playing with a tag on her kunai while the one with deep green hair read a thin notebook, bringing up questions about battles from throughout the civil war, debating tactics with the other two.
“Okay, you three. Introduced yourselves.”
“Jeong Ji-Su.” Brunette. Clearly their leader, as she moved to stand in front of them, gesturing for them to stand with her.
“Kim Jae-Un!” The rose-haired one. She seemed excitable, but the sharp look about her screamed 'SHINOBI' to any who were looking.
“Mi-Na, seonsaengnim.” Green-hair. Her notebook was sticking out of a pocket now, kept in place between her belt and her pants. She seemed to appraise Ren as much as Ren was appraising the girls in front of her.
“I’m Akagi Ren, but my Korean name is Choi Chae-Seon. I'll answer to either, unless I give you instructions to use one.”
“You took your partner, Choi Chojuro's surname, didn’t you?”
Riko nodded, noting Mi-Na’s quickness to guessing where she, a foreigner, had gotten her Korean name. “Haku and I didn’t have a Korean name, or not one we remembered at the very least, so our teammates let us borrow theirs.”
Jae-Un perks up. “But if you use a Korean name, and you know our culture and our language, why don't you switch completely? Why still list yourself as Akagi Ren?”
“There's a good chance I still have extended family on the mainland. If I ever get the chance I would like to meet them, and it'll be easier to find them if I keep my name.” Not a lie, at all, but certainly not the entirety of the truth.
Jae-Un nodded, accepting her answer before changing the subject. “Will we have to take Japanese names?” If her tone was anything to go by, that was going to be an interesting discussion for the future.
“Possibly, when we start doing mainland missions. The former Mizukage wanted to keep Korean as secret from other villages as possible However, with the civil war, it’s entirely possible other nations have already learned about it from some of the civilian refugees. We’ll wait and see.”
Jae-Un seemed perturbed, but Ren wasn’t going to give it much thought. “Well, since you’ve dug around my life, I’m going to ask you to tell me about yourselves.”
Ji-Su straightens, taking the lead, as Ren expected. “My family died in the war, and I was sent to the Slums to be tested to be a shinobi. I became a Genin eight weeks ago. I have fought in two battles, one in the Slums and one after making Genin. I know standard shinobi jutsu, as well as the basics for using senbon needles in combat. My chakra nature is water.”
She was a Kiri native, according to her file, so her chakra nature was no surprise, but Ren made a note about her no-nonsense attitude. Kiri shinobi were tested for their chakra nature before being assigned Genin or Genin-Chuunin (another popular grouping, due to the shortage of available Jounin teachers) teams, so it was more than likely Mei had given her a balanced out team. She stood ramrod straight, and spoke carefully, like she had been trained. Given what information Ren could get from the file, that was entirely likely, as was the chance Ji-Su had been put through a higher-end civilian education.
Jae-Un followed suit, though her posture was slumped in slightly, at a natural angle. “My family is alive, but they fled the war zone. We got separated when we were close to the border, and some of the rebels found me and put me in the training camp. I became a Genin three weeks ago. I haven’t fought in any battles, but I’ve been trained in basic medical care, and would like to learn medical jutsu, if possible. My chakra nature is earth.”
An earth chakra type wasn't uncommon in Kiri either, though water was prevalent. Jae-Un, for all her hidden sharpness, was doing her best to conceal her abilities as a shinobi. Ji-Su had the looks for undercover work, being rather plain, but Jae-Un seemed to have the potential for it skill-wise.
“Mi-Na, and I have no family. I don’t know my surname, because I was left at an orphanage just before the war started. I ran away several years ago, stopped using the surname I was assigned, and snuck into a rebel encampment at the start of the war. I was trained in the basics between battles, have fought in three, and was officially listed as a Genin five weeks ago. My chakra nature is wind.”
Ren was right; Mei had given her a balanced out team, in terms of chakra nature. This team, and perhaps it was another of the cultural differences she had encountered during her life here, hadn’t spoken of likes, dislikes, or dreams like her own had. It was personal history – just enough for their teacher to be aware of any relevant background, as well as the teammates. All three were keeping things back, but none of them had withheld the background information one could find in a civilian file.
Just another reason this team was going to be interesting, she guessed. Who knew? Maybe, one day, she could ask them what their dreams were. Right now, though, something told her there wasn't much for them to dream about besides making it through until tomorrow.
“Well I’m not going to sugar coat things. None of you should have had to fight, but you have, so I’m going to assume you’ve all seen the value of teamwork, right?” The three of them nodded. “Good. So you’re going to try to fight me. The only caveat is you can’t leave the river.” She may have said she wouldn’t test their teamwork, but she was interested to see how they worked through this newest challenge if they didn’t think they had to worry about passing a Jounin’s test. Not that Kiri had ever really done that before, or could afford to do it now.
Ren was also interested to see if they had some prior association with each other. Shunshining to the shore, Ren watched the reactions of her students.
“What?” Jae-Un rocket up. “But how are we supposed to fight soaking wet?”
“Don’t get wet.”
Jae-Un opened her mouth to start shouting again. It was nice to know they still had some childish innocence in them. Ji-Su poked Jae-Un’s shoulder and whispered about water-walking in her ear.
“Oh! You got it, Seonsaengnim! We’ll win this fight!” So much bravado in such a tiny body. It reminded her of home.
Ren was excited to see how this turned out.
Her students were skilled, there was no doubt. They may be Genin, but in a peaceful nation Ji-Su and Mi-Na would probably be on the cusp of becoming a Chuunin. Jae-Un was the newest to shinobi life, and arguably the weaker for it, but, even for her, the second skin of a shinobi fit like a glove. She had gone from looking like a fun-loving, doe-eyed child to looking every bit the ruthless fighter Ren knew she would be training her to become.
The three of them were soaking wet, as controlling one’s chakra to water-walk while fighting took some time to get used to, but they definitely had a sense of each other’s skills.
Ren was currently hiding in a tree from the three of them. Mi-Na had a very tactical mind, and Ren was planning on nurturing that to the fullest extent she could, hence the change from full-front battle to hiding in the shadows and letting the girl learn to find her teacher and plan a strike.
Jae-Un had the potential to be a decent sensor, if she could focus for more than a few seconds at a time outside the immediacy of battle. She was young, though, and she hadn’t had a chance to be taught the other side of a shinobi lifestyle – being able to stay still and quiet for a long enough period of time you can fool your enemy into a sense of security. She was a quick-thinker, though, and she didn't stay still too long, and she refused to stay down if she got taken down.
Ji-Su, however, was watching the battlefield closely. She had done her research, and had seen that Ren had developed a reputation for stealth and cunning on the battlefield.
Ji-Su tapped Mi-Na’s shoulder, gesturing to the trees. Mi-Na nodded, making a few hand signs. The girl fell in the river. Again. The three of them were soaked, breaking concentration as they tried to fight while also staying on top of the river, but she accounted for that as she did the signs and adjusted as she needed so the attack hit a cluster of trees. It was a decently powered wind jutsu that knocked a few branches around enough that their teacher moved before coming in and advancing at the three. Ren was pulling her punches, and she was fairly certain at least one of her Genin had caught on, but she refused to go at them as though she was going to kill them.
Kakashi-sensei hadn't done that with her team, and regardless of a war zone, this was just to get a feel for their abilities. Harder fighting could come later.
Mi-Na threw ninja wire to Jae-Un, who launched herself into the air and over their teacher, unspooling it and throwing it to Ji-Su, who channeled enough chakra into it to make it painful for her and her teammates to hold, but also for Ren to move too far, as she was standing between the two lines. The three girls looked at each other, ready to cheer when suddenly their teacher dropped into the river, appearing behind Jae-Un and holding a kunai to her neck.
“Let this be your first lesson. You always, always, finish off your opponent. If you hesitate to do that for even a second, you’ll lose a comrade, and that is unacceptable.
“People who break the rules are scum, but those who leave behind their teammates are worse than scum. The only thing below them are the people who could have stopped a comrade’s death and didn’t.
“You’re not going to save everyone, but if I hear one of you had the opportunity to do something to save a comrade and didn’t, the next time we meet is going to be painful.
“You three did well. I expect you three to wash up, and then we’ll meet in an hour and get our assignment for tomorrow. Understood?”
The three of them nodded, racing off. The first day with their sensei had definitely been interesting.
“Why’d she make us do all that on the water? Now my clothes are soaking wet!”
“They’ll dry out, Jae-Un. I’d be more worried about that rat’s nest in your hair.” Mi-Na laughed as she pulled a finger through Jae-Un’s hair. The other girl cried out as Mi-Na yanked into a mass of tangles, before launching an ‘attack’ on her teammate.
All three of them had hair that had been tangled almost beyond repair from the variety of wind and water jutsu, as well as from the currents of the river whenever they fell in. Ji-Su pulled at one of the tangled strands. Even if she had the time, this would be a bitch to get out. And it definitely would take more than an hour if she didn’t want to damage it.
“Hey guys,” Ji-Su glanced at her teammates before palming a kunai and pulling the strand up. “How do you think I’d look with short hair?”
Ren loved her team already.
Maybe love was a strong word, since she had just met them. But even so, she knew those three would become something incredible if she trained them right.
Their chakra control wasn’t the best it could be, but time and more training would help that. Once they could perform jutsu and balance on the river, she planned on teaching them the Water Whip. The three had been better than she had hoped, however, and were able to water walk.
The three of them had come in at the end of the war, which had spared them some of the horrors, but the Slums weren’t to be underestimated. Those girls had undoubtedly seen things they never wanted to see. They had likely been on the receiving end of a litany of dangers, given the ruthlessness of the Slums.
Slipping into the room she had rented with the rest of her team, she changed into something better for the more battle-oriented for the assumed-to-be ruthless training she’d be doing with her team later that evening. No one else was present, and as such, there was very little she could do but think about the team.
Mi-Na looked like one of the women she had fought with before. She had been slaughtered in battle, but she had been kind.
Her family had been hunted down to a few members for their bloodline, though Ren never really learned what it was. Too many of the bloodline clans had gone extinct for anyone with a bloodline to be exceedingly public about it. Ren had heard about it after the woman got drunk with her once, and she had to slip a privacy seal up just in case.
It had been the anniversary of the death of most of her clan. The others were likely scattered around the Elemental Nations, refugees from a war most of the clan hadn't had interest in, as only a few of them in any generation ever became shinobi in the first place.
That was the last interaction the two of them had.
Mi-Na was a budding tactician, though. That was certain. The girl was perceptive in ways Shikamaru was at that age, though she lacked the hesitancy Ren and her Academy compatriots (her brother included) had. She commanded the other girls in battle effectively. While Ji-Su may be the leader of the team in a diplomatic sense, it was clear which of these girls was going to lead them in battle.
Her file gave little information aside from what she herself had given in regards to her living situation prior to joining. There was a fire recorded at that orphanage, with casualties. It had occurred a few days after Mi-Na ran away, raising the question if the girl was connected in any way. Seeing as there was no concrete way of knowing, Ren was going to make a point of watching the girl’s behavior and interactions. If she had a budding psychopath on her hands, she wanted to be prepared. As far as she had seen, though, the girl was just a quick-thinker and fairly aware regarding the positions of her teammates in a fight and their skills.
Jae-Un had been a small powerhouse in the making. According to her records she had been trained in some first aide, and someone had given her the basics of training in medical jutsu, but the girl had also picked up some basic wind jutsu along the way and was skilled (if only moderately, at the moment) in a variety of weapons. If she could refine her control enough she could balance on the water and do jutsu, the girl would not only become an excellent fighter, it would also mean her potential as a medi-nin would be much more potent.
Ji-Su was once an heiress according to the file Ren had received. The girl had made the jump to shinobi, as she said, after the presumed death of her family. She had been fought over by cousins and extended family in other countries, but had avowed herself to some other cause. Whether it was vengeance or merely an ability to protect others, Ren had yet to see, and if she wasn’t careful the girl could quickly deteriorate as she got higher in the ranks, throwing herself into a deadly revenge fantasy that would destroy her and those close to her.
Or Ren was projecting her team and past too much onto these girls, and Ji-Su was just becoming a shinobi because she had seen the horrors of war and wanted to be able to protect herself.
Ji-Su certainly had diplomatic skill. It was likely learned from her father, who had been a merchant for several years. Her grasp of the mixing of Japanese and Korean also sounded like the mainland markets closest to Kirigakure, where the languages mixed a lot more, and differently, as shinobi tended to mix terms from the two, while the merchants often merged grammars together, as well as merging some of the words.
It would make her useful for information gathering in that region, and perhaps in other missions. If she could communicate well with merchants and market workers it would improve their information gathering. Moreover, if Ji-Su was as adaptable as she seemed – and a fairly average appearance was an advantage in that department, certainly – then she could follow Ren’s specialty. Infiltration and Assassination wasn’t pretty, and she wouldn’t encourage the girl into it, but it made sense, given the advantage she had with a plain face and her slight and long build that she would be good at it. There was always a chance she would be pushed into it regardless of whether or not she wanted to be.
Ren was… she was certainly excited to work with this team, to teach and build these girls up instead of taking life. But she was apprehensive. She didn’t want her students to become as messed up and destructive as she had become.
Ren looked down at her hands. It had been so long since she was a teacher, and now she had three students who seemed as dedicated as could be.
The door opened, and she felt someone’s hand smack against her temple. Grabbing Suigetsu’s wrist, she pulled him down and knelt on his back, one leg up and ready to move if he decided to continue this mini-fight.
He laughed and tried to buck her off, knowing full well she had probably stuck her knee to his clothing with chakra. “Alright, Doengsaeng, let’s go. We’ve got team training in like, what, five minutes?”
“Is it that late?” She didn’t help him up. It had been drilled into her after coming here (not that Konoha hadn’t insisted on similar, it was just more emphasized when one could die at any moment, and bad habits could make the difference in how long you lived) that you shouldn’t help your sparring partner up. After all, if you got in the habit, you might help an enemy up, and that could spell your own death.
“Yeah, dumbass. What, you spend the whole afternoon wailing to yourself about past mistakes?”
“When the hell have I ever done that?” They both knew when, but they weren’t going to bring it up. “No, you son of a bitch, I was reading my Genin’s files.”
“Oh, nice. Anything interesting?”
Ren shrugged. She wasn’t giving that information out free. If any of her teammates wanted it she was going to make them work for it, damn it.
“Come on, Doengsaeng! Tell me!”
“No.” Ren moved the files into a seal on her belt, knowing they would get distracted. “I’m not going to be late to team training, again.”
“You already are, idiot.”
“Well then I’m not going to go so low as to be later than you.”
Jumping through the window, she laughed at Suigetsu’s outraged cry. That was undoubtedly going to come out in their training, and it would be hilarious to see. She made a path to their current meeting-grounds.
The Kiri training grounds weren’t official, marked-off segments of land like they were in Konoha. Instead, teams found areas that they felt were secluded enough to make for a decent training ground and worked there. Most Jounin teams circulated which grounds they worked on with decent regularity, aiming to protect team tactics and individual abilities. Mei had decided to keep Jounin groups that worked well as official teams, both due to the shortage of shinobi available and the strong bonds many of the Jounin groups – Ren’s team included – had formed during the civil war that bordered on commanding more loyalty than village loyalty for a number of higher-ranked shinobi.
Ren met with her team on the outskirts of the village, by a small ravine. It wasn’t too far from where she had met her Genin, but had the added benefit of rapids, which made their team training significantly more fun. Four water users playing with rapids meant their techniques either splashed to the ground or became wild and hard to control if they weren't careful, leading to great fights between them.
The second Ren’s foot set down into the training ground her sword was in her hand and meeting Haku’s larger blade, pushing against it and allowing her to slip down and shunshin across the field to be behind him, throwing a senbon needle towards him. Chojuro swept up behind her, and Suigetsu closed in, seeming ready to chop him in half.
“What is this? Gang Up On Ren Day?”
Suigetsu huffed a laugh. “Something like that.”
Haku swept towards her feet, making Ren jump to avoid it. Not one to miss an opportunity, Ren sent a kick flying into Chojuro’s face, and things finally slid into place.
Whenever she sparred with her team, she entered an in-between space where she was both Riko and Ren, and it was a comfortable reminder of who she was, on both sides of the Land of Water border.
Chojuro leaned back, but not enough to keep his glasses. Ren’s foot connected and knocked the frames to the ground, sending Chojuro down to find them before jumping back in the fight.
“You should really hold those on with chakra or seals or something.”
“You broke my last pair with seals on them, Suigetsu.”
“Yeah, Suigetsu.” Ren smirked as she ducked a blade and sent hers flying towards Suigetsu’s stomach. “Shut the fuck up.”
“You little bitch!” It was nice, having a teammate that could put themselves back together.
The three of them kept up the elaborate dance they had going, but before long Ren found herself being backed into a corner.
Shingi to Giri found its way back into its sheath as she began the handsigns for a Water Whip, dodging attacks before launching her own.
Her opponents, her teammates, kept going regardless. Haku used the Water Whip on them enough that it didn’t phase them to see it in battle. Instead, Suigetsu and Haku backed away while Chojuro used his own chakra to grab the whip, yanking Ren off balance and towards them. Turning slightly to accommodate the slight spin on her fall, she let herself fall into a forward roll, landing on her side, her hand up over her face and launching a kick into the back of someone’s knee. While they fell, she twisted enough she was on her back. Ren tried getting up, only to find the end of Haku’s sword at her throat.
“Good job.”
Ren scowled at Haku, knowing full well she could have done better. Kiri had taught her that your performance in fight isn’t perfect unless you come out alive. That’s all that matters in the end. In this one, she had come out below the three of them, nevermind they were using ridiculously powered swords and knew her fighting style from so many spars, it still frustrated her to have been overwhelmed so quickly.
“Come on, Deongsaeng,” Chojuro lent her his hand, “We have some cool stuff to do today.”
Tsunade can’t believe the words on the page in front of her. She has to explain this shit to Riko’s teammates, to her family, and to any of her friends that may start asking questions, and didn’t that absolute brat realize that?
Of course, a Genin team wasn’t something someone could just ask for. It had to be earned, at least in most villages. It was assumed the jounin would be willing (to varying degrees of course) to take on Genin and teach them the ways of the village and the shinobi lifestyle in a more practical and hands-on style.
For a region just coming out of war, it said something the Mizukage was willing to entrust three impressionable minds to a known foreign nin with outside allegiances. And what the full message of that was, Tsunade wasn’t sure. She also wasn't sure how she felt about Riko's actiosn in Kiri, or the fact the girl was not only already a Jounin, but an accomplished one at that.
Tsunade had been provided three files, names inscribed across the top she had never seen before.
Jeong Ji-Su. Kim Jae-Un. Mi-Na.
The names were written in Katakana, with a second set of writing in a strange set of letters Tsunade couldn’t recall having seen in her life, except for maybe in some of the coastal markets, and even then, it hadn’t occurred to her it was more than just some sort of market abbreviation style.
The files were minimal. There was also a stack of mission reports, a note on them apologizing for the brevity and the missing sets. Some, the Mizukage insisted in the note, were forced to remain classified, even between villages she hoped were allies.
Tsunade sighed at the stack of reading material. Just more for her to wade through.
“Shizune! I need you to halt all other paperwork for…” she looked at the stack. It wasn’t much. Not really, when one considered a chunk of it was encapsulating two years of one of her shinobi’s life, and even then that some of it had been left out. “Stop it for two hours. And tell Nara Shikaku I want to see him here in one.”
“Yes, Shishou!” Shizune ducked into the office, taking some of the paperwork off Tsunade’s desk and using the opportunity to sneak a peek at whatever it was that had her teacher looking so dour. Carefully keeping her surprise hidden, Shizune left the office, aware that whatever discussion was coming between the Hokage and her Jounin commander, it wasn’t going to be pretty.
Nara Shikaku hadn’t seen his daughter in two years. He didn’t know if she was alive, though he hoped she was. He didn’t even know if she would be the same when she came back. Two years away, in a war zone…
He didn’t want that for her, but he recognized the necessity.
So when he came home, heart heavy after a long argument with the Hokage and bearing the information she had received about Riko, he avoided his wife and son. He couldn’t shift any of this onto them, any of this worry mixed with pride, anger mixed with a heart-stopping and gut-wrenching agony that his daughter wasn’t just not coming back on time, but she had become someone entirely unrecognizable, that there was every chance she wouldn't come back for years longer.
Her reports had basic information about the mission, but as the war went on and she fought more and more battles she never should have seen – that he never should have put her in, no matter how indirectly – he had to wonder if he made the right choice.
His gaze caught the tree outside his office, and while he pondered what he had done to his own daughter, he felt the files slip from under his hand. Yoshino stood in front of him, skimming them before looking at him. “You did what you thought was right.”
“I sent her into a war-zone. Some of these reports weren’t even written by her because she was unconscious or nearly dying at the time.” He pulled one out from the stack. “This was written by her partner, some guy named Chojuro. He says she was hallucinating from fever and infection in a cave, and he had to wait days to even be able to move her!
“And this one!” Another paper coming out of the stack. “Hoozuki Suigetsu wrote it. He detailed exactly what she suffered while being held in captivity, as far as he could see.
“I thought it was the right thing to do at the time, but Kami. How can I think that now, looking at this?
“She’s in Bingo Books, Yoshino. She’s a killer!”
Yoshino took the papers from him. “So is every other shinobi you know.” She gestured for him to follow her, laying out the third-party reports chronologically on the table. “Look at this. I want you to look at the language.
“See this?” She pointed to a set of lines from one of the reports about sixteen months into her Kiri career. It was written by a another shinobi Shikaku had seen in Bingo Books, Ao. “It’s acknowledging her skills. It isn’t respect, but it is a nod in that direction.
“And this one.” Another set of lines, this one in a careful hand by someone named Haku that Shikaku remembered Riko mentioning before, after she and her team bailed out Shikamaru and his team on their mission to Wave. “This is respect. This is eighteen months – a year and a half – after she left. She had the respect of her comrades in under two years, Shikaku.
“I don’t think the girl that will one day come back to us is going to be the same. We may have to call her something else, even, because the name ‘Riko’ may feel to foreign to her. But what I can tell you here and now is that our daughter is an accomplished shinobi. She’s learned and she’s fought, and she’s been safer in Kiri than she would have been here, even with the war.
“We can’t fix it now, but we can certainly keep our eyes and ears open now that we have a name, and we can make sure we’re ready for her when she comes home, no matter what state she's in.”
They did have a name, and that was the worst part. Some of the battles his daughter was most well-known for weren’t even included in the packet.
Akagi Ren.
The Bloody Flower of the Mist was his daughter, and he didn’t know whether to be proud or sick.
He didn’t know whether or not to tell Shikamaru, either. As he went to pick up the papers, his wife batted his hand away, taking the remaining files and setting them on the table. She dragged him to their room with a quiet order to sleep.
It looked like she made his choice for him.