Welcome Back
Neji’s eyesight had gotten better once the blood had been rinsed out of his eyes (courtesy of Chae-Seon), but it was still very uncomfortable looking through them for long periods of time. As soon as Chae-Seon had noticed it, she had forced him to cover his eyes for periods of time, relying on his uncle as a guide.
“So let me get this straight.” The man called Suigetsu, who, like Chae-Seon, seemed to have multiple names. “You can mother-hen people all you like, but when you’re hurt I don’t get to do it?”
“I’m also a trained medic.” There was the sound of someone being hit. “JONG-MIN! What the hell was that?”
“Payback’s a bitch, ain’t she?”
Whatever happened between the two next was quiet, but had the girls laughing (and Shikaku, but Neji would like to think the Jounin commander was composed enough not to laugh at the antics of two overly energetic Kiri-nin, even if one of them was his daughter) and Neji wishing he wasn’t blindfolded.
“We’re almost to Konoha, Hyuuga-san. Let me take your blindfold off.”
Chae-Seon looked remarkably like herself. Despite the changes to her face, it was strange to consider her different from Nara Riko in anything but skill and personality. She had disappeared and all the Hokage would tell anyone who asked was that she was on a long-term training assignment. Neji would admit, he had been worried for the last member of Team 7. Naruto and Sasuke had highly-powered shinobi to protect them.
And now he wondered why he was ever worried about Riko to begin with. She was like the other members of her team.
Completely reckless, completely unpredictable, and damn near impossible to kill.
The gates were, indeed, in sight. Suigetsu cuffed Chae-Seon’s head when she sighed, however quietly it may have been. Neji had barely heard it, meaning no one else had. Suigetsu said something to her before she scowled at him. “Yeah, yeah. I know.”
Shikaku glanced back at them, raising an eyebrow. “Everything alright?”
Chae-Seon shrugged. “Sure.”
Tsunade had been waiting at the gate hours. The sun had gone down already, and it was getting late. They were supposed to be here already, and she would be damned if she didn’t make sure Riko was dragged to her office for a full debriefing, still undercover or not.
(And if she was worried about the little runt, she wouldn’t admit it. Not out in the open, in front of Izumo and Kotetsu. She was still bitter about that bet she lost against them two weeks ago. Damned brats.)
“Hokage-sama, don’t you have work to do?” The cheeky grin on Izumo’s face was just one more reason not to say a damn thing about why she decided they needed ‘supervised’ today of all days.
“Yes, I do. And I’m doing it. Now don’t you have work to do?”
“Gate duty is pretty dull, Hokage-sama. You know that.
“Or are you just hoping we trip up after that bet?”
She was going to pound the bastard into the ground if Kakashi and his ‘escort’ team didn’t get here soon.
“Nothing of the sort, Kamizuki-kun. As Hokage, it is merely my job to make sure all of my shinobi are living up to their potential.
“Imagine my surprise when I saw that two of my shinobi have been working the gate day in and day out for months, even years on end. I just wanted to make sure the two of you weren’t suited for something else.”
Kotetsu, shuffling through a few papers, muttered, “You expect us to believe that crap?”
“What was that, Hagane?”
“Ah! Nothing, Hokage-sama!”
“That’s what I thought.” She sensed several chakra signatures coming closer. “Incoming.”
As they got closer, she took a moment to look at the disguise on Riko. Something must have happened, because she looked a lot closer to Nara Riko now than in any of the photographs she had seen. That would be a serious problem, especially since she was going back.
Her partner was familiar, but she couldn’t place the name. She had looked through the reports when she got them, but time to more thoroughly acquaint herself with the information on Riko’s team was slim.
“Hokage-sama.” Most of the group bowed while the Kiri shinobi and Riko argued between them.
“I don’t know the damn protocol! What makes you think I would know it?”
“Because you’re from Kiri? You’re telling me you have no idea how we address foreign Kage?”
“None. Or did you forget I spent most of my free time the last however many years locked up in a tank and experimented on by that snake-loving fuck?”
She filed away the information about a ‘snake-loving fuck’, assuming it was Orochimaru, before focusing on her shinobi. This wasn’t the Nara girl that looked at her like she was a role-model and leader, but it wasn’t the hardened shinobi of her file either.
“Hokage-sama.” She bowed lower than was technically required, elbowing her partner as she did. “It is a pleasure.”
Tsunade scoffed. “Drop the act, Nara. Mei should have told you your cover doesn’t matter within Konoha.”
“Ao did mention something about that…” Little shit was pretending she didn’t know. Tsunade could see it in her eyes, the gleam Naruto got when he found a new prank target.
Kotetsu and Izumo looked between each other before looking back to Riko. “That’s Riko? Little Nara Riko?”
“Well, Deongsaeng, looks like you’re gonna be exposed whether you like it or not.”
“Oppa, shut up.”
Kotetsu’s brow furrowed. “Your name is ‘Oppa’, then?” He reached for a pen and the form for foreign shinobi entry, stiffening when Riko started laughing.
“Hey! What’s so funny?”
“Nothing!” She kept snickering as she spoke. Tsunade looked at Suigetsu, blanching a bit when she saw the slight fear in his eyes. “Nothing, I promise! Just… please, please keep calling him Oppa!”
“No! Don’t keep calling me ‘Oppa’! It’s creepy!”
Tsunade was hesitant to even go near that one, but Izumo beat her to the punch. “So what does ‘oppa’ mean?”
Suigetsu slapped a hand over Riko’s mouth, the hand turning to water as she bit down on it. “It’s the word a chick uses for an older guy friend or her brother! You’re not a chick, so don’t use it!”
Izumo’s eyes gleamed, and Tsunade remembered all too late the pranks that Naruto had pulled by switching genders. Soon enough, Izumo was standing, Henge’d into a (thankfully, fully clothed) woman, batting her eyes at Suigetsu. “Are you sure about that…
“Oppa?”
She was running a madhouse, she was sure of it. Why did she ever think talking to two trouble-making career-chuunin was a good idea in the first place?
“I’m younger than you, asshole!”
Riko was fully laughing now, unable to control herself. She walked up to Izumo, offering a high-five that the Chuunin, already having dropped the Henge, accepted readily. “If I had known it would piss him off that much, I would have blackmailed Dae-Suk into it months ago!”
“What blackmail do you have on Chojuro?” Suigetsu seemed intrigued.
“I’m not handing it over unless you give me something good on Haku.”
“Oh, come on, Deongsaeng-“
Tsunade interrupted befofe this could get too much further out of hand. “Nara Riko, you are to bring your charge and follow me to the Hokage Tower, where I expect a full report on your activities during your mission. We’ll take care of all entry paperwork there.
“Hagane, Kamizuki, you two better straighten up if you ever want to climb higher in the ranks.”
She pretended not to hear Kotetsu mumble about being fine staying a Chuunin. It would be nice to pretend there was some ambition in those two, even if she was glad they were leading lives that made them happy.
Suigetsu had been left outside of the office while her father and sensei were dragged into the Hokage’s office with Chae-Seon.
It reminded him of all the times he and his brother did stupid shit, and his mother would reprimand them one at a time, making them wait while the other one was punished. Jong-Min and Hyun-Seok, completely inseparable. Until Hyun-Seok became Mangetsu, and suddenly he was working for the Mizukage – working for the man that had killed their father, and mission report be damned, there was no way that was an accident – and that was only the beginning.
Their mother died. He was twelve, and because of his brother, Yagura had an interest in him. He had to become a shinobi to support himself, and he was teamed up with ‘Mangetsu’. He had to play nice or be out of a job and on the streets.
Then Orochimaru happened, and as years passed by he didn’t get a shred of news until Chae-Seon and Ao showed up, dragged him back, and the Mizukage filled him in. Mangetsu was dead, his clan had scattered in the aftermath of the last war and the bloodline purges, and he had nowhere to go.
Yeah. This felt a lot like it did back home. And for a second, he could pretend he was a kid again, that all that shit hadn’t happened, and that Hyun-Seok would walk through the door any second now, pretending to feel properly admonished, already planning their next little adventure.
He knew Chae-Seon was probably getting chewed out, and he would do anything to be able to back her up if he could. But he couldn’t, and as much as that sucked, he was going to take this brief moment and appreciate it. He was going to let himself be Jong-Min again for the first time in a long time. Just for a minute.
Tsunade was not pleased. The girl in front of her had been run through the wringer, and from what she could see it hadn’t been too long ago.
“Care to explain that?” The shirt she was wearing was torn across the upper arm, the fabric stained a dirty brown-red from what was undoubtedly blood.
“Park Dong-Il is an asshole. That’s about all I’ve got for you.”
“Park Dong-Il?”
“Kiri native, non-shinobi mercenary, and that’s all I’ve got on him. We don’t collect much more on the mercenaries, since most of them are heading out to find something more profitable than whatever loyalists might still be undercover. Yagura’s dead, and his wealthier supporters have all gone missing, if you catch my drift.”
Tsunade did. They had been assassinated, according to intelligence. Many of them with a ruthless efficiency that left minimal blood, the bodies gone or destroyed beyond recognition before anyone could get to them.
Tsunade decided to leave this Park Dong-Il matter where it stood. Shikaku had taken up residence by the door, Kakashi stood behind Riko.
“So, Akagi Ren, huh?”
“I prefer Choi Chae-Seon, but yeah. That’s what my bingo book entry says. Though the more people you let it slip to, the more likely that’s going to be updated.”
“I’ll take my chances.
“You didn’t seem to mind being called little. I would think someone with your background,” and the guilt when she brought up what she had forced the girl to go through weighed on her chest like rocks, “would take offense at something like that. To be associated with naivete…”
The girl in front of her barked a laugh. “Jong-Min, I mean, Suigetsu’s been calling me a midget since we met.”
Tsunade, for all her attempts, hadn’t gotten a rise out of her. Her temper was certainly more even-keeled than she had anticipated, and she was grateful for that. At least her brat was still composed, if more crass than she remembered.
“You have a genin team?”
“Yeah.”
“What are they like?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“I want an alliance with Kiri. It would be nice to know what their next generation is looking like.” She would play the games she had to. After all, ‘Chae-Seon’ was still undercover, even if she was back in Konoha’s borders. This whole conversation would probably be relayed to the Mizukage; nothing in it was technically classified.
“They’re smart as whips. I’m pretty sure Mi-Na’s notes could compromise most of the people she meets, but she’s got her head on right.
“Jae-Un is the most likely to move to Chuunin within the year. She’s reckless, yeah, but she’s got the drive and the raw power.
“Ji-Su is still getting used to the idea of being a non-wartime shinobi, not to mention shinobi in general. She’s adaptable, so I’m not really worried for her career-wise. Is that what you wanted to know, Hokage-sama?”
“Do any of them speak Japanese?”
“Jae-Un knows a few phrases, but other than that, no. They’re all Kiri natives that originally had no intent to join the shinobi ranks. Besides, even if they had, the Academy only just reopened.”
Tsunade hoped to have Riko back in-village within a year, so she would take what she could get. If she played her cards right, she could get more information from her to use in negotiations with Terumi.
“It would be appreciated, given the emboldened moves made by the Akatsuki as of late, if youyou’re your partner could assist us with the security of our Jinchuuriki while you are in our village. Other than that, you are dismissed.”
Chae-Seon bowed. “Understood. Thank you, Hokage-sama.”
When the door opened, she heard good-natured bickering between her and her teammate for a brief second.
“Kakashi, good luck.”
Shikaku smirked at that. “I’m going to drag them back home with me, if there isn’t anything you need from me, Hokage-sama.”
“Dismissed. Both of you.”
Yoshino smiled. The morning sun was streaming in her house, and for the first time in a long time she had both of her children under her roof.
“Ri.”
“Shika.”
“What the hell was that?”
And already the shoji board was out. “It was my move.”
Shikamaru scoffed. There as a laugh from the doorway. Hoozuki Suigetsu had slept in a guest room, but had been up with Chae-Seon and the sun. “This isn’t going to be like that time you played Ao, right?”
“Of course not. Compared to Shikamaru, Ao’s small fry.” Her face was scrunched in concentration. “And you don’t even qualify as an opponent. Your strategy is move pieces around and hope for the best.”
“But isn’t that every strategy in a nutshell?”
Yoshino chuckled from the kitchen. Chae-Seon may have grown up around shoji, but it seemed her friend had a very different background regarding strategy.
She could hear Shikamaru sigh while she pulled plates out of the cupboard. “Where do you find these people?”
“In swamps and illegal underground research facilities. Why? Where do you meet people?”
“What?”
And there went her peaceful morning.
Chae-Seon and Jong-Min had been quick to leave that morning after Shikamaru got a glint in his eye and his posture became suddenly very straight and stiff. The introductions of Suigetsu and Team 7 had been entertaining to watch, but now they were stuck waiting around for Kakashi to show.
“I thought he made a point of only being an hour late?”
Karin’s brow furrowed. The girl was nice enough, but seemed mildly terrified of speaking to Chae-Seon, like she was going to be attacked if she didn’t make a good impression.
“He’s never been less than two hours late.”
Chae-Seon laughed. “Well, I’m bored. Oppa, any ideas?”
“Yeah. I got a couple.”
Team 7 shuddered at the looks on their faces.
Kakashi arrived to his team’s grounds after his little talk with Tsunade about Riko and her partner and was immediately suspicious. His team was standing, back-to-back, looking around the silent and still area as though they expected an attack from anywhere.
He didn’t understand until he went to walk out and felt someone pull him back. “Play along, yeah? We started just doing some basic training maneuvers, and now we’re basically playing War.”
“What do you mean playing War?”
Chae-Seon glanced at the field, keeping an eye on her targets. “It’s a game in Kiri that ninja teams like to play on their downtime. You basically go at each other with no hesitations, and you keep going until one team forfeits. It was a way to get the non-shinobi up to speed on some tactics and combat situations in a relatively controlled environment
“The other seonsaengnim-dur and I have considered making our Genin run it. There are only a handful of teams anyway, so setting up a couple rounds shouldn’t be too hard.”
“So how do I ‘play along’?”
“You either fight Jong-Min and I, or you side with us. You pick your side in this battle.”
Kakashi sighed. “They need the teamwork training anyway.”
And if Sasuke and Naruto could use a little bit of humbling after their training missions? Well, he never said it.
Iruka felt like he was drowning. It was like Jeong-Hwa and Soo-Jung had taken it upon themselves to make sure that even the people that could have given him a reprieve from the constant onslaught of Korean wouldn’t. Or maybe it was because he was foreign.
He had a feeling that had something to do with it. There were a lot of nasty looks he got. Well, not him so much as the hitai-ite he wore. He had actually made it his personal mission to get his hands on a blank one so he wouldn’t have another barrier in communicating and learning from the people around him. This had been met with no success until Haku showed up, dragging a blue-haired young man behind him who had one with him.
“It’s a Kiri headband, but I scraped as much as I could off.”
Chojuro was kind, and if Haku wasn’t around he would talk quietly to Iruka in Japanese. He had helped him track down a slightly better hitai-ite, one that had a thicker piece of metal on it to fulfill its other purpose – protecting the forehead or neck from projectiles.
Of course, it wasn’t all bad, having to speak Korean. It had been fun trying to teach Chae-Seon’s genin team Japanese with the little Korean he knew. There wasn’t much he could teach them in the beginning, but each day the Korean came a little easier and he was able to teach them a little more. In the evenings he could sometimes even speak Japanese with them and get away with it because he was teaching.
He was staying in Chae-Seon’s room, if the limited décor that had been matched to a number of books (most of which were in Korean, though there was one on sealing and water manipulation that had some diagrams with Japanese on them that he had been working his way ever so slowly through) and side projects.
The one that surprised him most was one that was some kind of condensed water jutsu. The notes were all in Korean, making it hard to read them, but he could follow the handsigns inscribed by the diagrams. Working with different chakra amounts, he had managed to do something close to what he imagined was the intent.
He would have to ask Chae-Seon about it later.
He had known when she had come into his class and managed to maintain a complete alter ego to her genuinely friendly nature that she would make a great shinobi. Her time in his class where she proved a clear academic aptitude only asserted that. These notes were further proof he had been right.
Chojuro knocked on the door as Iruka tried to parse through a text, a notebook out that had a number of words in a column that he didn’t know. “Hey, you hungry?”
“Not really.”
“Have you eaten since breakfast?”
Iruka shrugged. He had his lessons that morning, had trained with Chojuro and Haku (which always made him feel like he knew nothing and was a failure as a shinobi, because these kids were so much younger than him and could kick his ass so thoroughly. He was getting better though, which was encouraging), and had come home to read.
Had he eaten?
“You need to eat, Iruka-shi. Come on.” Chojuro, for his kindness, knew how to guilt someone into doing what he wanted. It was his own brand of caring for someone. Chae-Seon had, from what he had seen, a rough way of caring that combined haphazardly with a genuine mothering instinct. Haku had a natural medics aptitude for bedside manner, but mainly left those he cared about to seek his help if they needed it.
He had no idea about Suigetsu, but he suspected some of Chae-Seon’s own rough attitude had come from being around him so much.
Chojuro took the book out of his hands, glancing at it. “Man, you must be doing really well. Korean is my native language, and I have trouble with this stuff. I have no idea how Chae-Seon does it.”
Well, that would explain a lot.
“What’s it even about?”
Chojuro chuckled. “Nice to know I’m not the only one lost on it.
“It’s a book about sealing and chakra theory in the context of some of Kirigakure’s specialty seals. Uzugakure may have started the art of sealing, but in the absence of access to Uzumaki techniques, Kiri found a way to use it on their own.”
Iruka nodded. “Interesting.”
Haku came into the apartment, Soo-Jung following in and collapsing on the couch like she lived there too, the genin following her and taking up the other spaces around her. Jeong-Hwa took a seat beside Iruka, passing him a book. Now that there were people around, the conversation would undoubtedly switch to Korean.
“This is a textbook we started using in the Academy. The translation department just finished with it. It is fairly basic, but the vocabulary should be helpful.”
“Are you teaching him -----?”
“What’s that mean?”
A Japanese response from Jeong-Hwa. “Slang.”
Iruka nodded, filing it away. “Slang have not… ah… Slang has not me learned?”
Soo-Jung smirked, the girls giggled, and Jeong-Hwa fixed him with a look. “It would be ‘I have not learned slang’.”
Iruka nodded. The grammar was very flexible, but there was a nuance to it that still tripped him up. Particles marked everything, but what specific ones meant was ambiguous.
“We are working on your particles tomorrow. That’s a given.”
Iruka nodded. “That.”
“Say it.” Jeong-Hwa gave him a look. He had never sparred with him, he hadn’t even seen Jeong-Hwa fight, but he had the distinct impression the man worked in translation only because he wanted to.
“I have not learned slang.”
“Good. Now go grab that notebook I know you have and write it down. I’ll check your spelling when you’re done.”
He hadn’t felt this embarrassed about admonishment since he was in the Academy.
Come to think of it, he wasn’t sure he had been admonished like that since he was in the Academy. Not in a way that was so clearly a ‘You can do better.’
He couldn’t say he missed it.