Family
Her team had slept in worse places, that was certain. They were hiding in a damp cave in Lightning Country, chasing a lead that a less-than-trustworthy informant had given her.
“You’re sure we should be headed right toward their base?”
“There’s no way they would leave it unprotected.” Chae-Seon glanced at Chojuro. His disguise meant his hair was dyed a standard brown, and he wore civilian clothing with sleeves long enough to hide the tattoo he sealed his weapons in. “If we get to a point we think something is suspicious, we back up and wait until we have a way around it. Agreed?”
Chojuro shifted. “I don’t know. It still makes me nervous. Maybe we should try tracking down members first, cut down the potential for reinforcements before we go after their leaders.”
“Do we even know who their leaders are?” Suigetsu had a similar disguise to Chojuro’s, including contacts to support a claim they were brothers. Chae-Seon had dyed her hair dark and cut it short to look like Haku, another pair of siblings.
“We don’t.” Chae-Seon chucked a rock against the cave wall. “But we should try and find out.”
“We could wait…” Suigetsu caught the next rock. “After all, if we make a reputation, we could get recruited and take them out from the inside.”
“To do that we would have wanted to stage something to get their attention and make us rogue shinobi. Quite frankly, I’d rather not have two villages out for my blood, thanks.”
“Why does Konoha even care what you do at this point?” Suigetsu glanced to where Haku had fallen asleep. He had run a late watch the night before, and the three didn’t plan on waking him until they had food of some kind prepared. After that, they had already set up watch shifts.
Chae-Seon shrugged. “At this rate, the Mizukage has pretty much laid claim to me. Konoha may not like it, but even Tsunade can see it. There’s nothing she can do at this point, but she can hunt me down if I go rogue. If I know that woman as well as I think I do, then she would spare no expense.”
Chojuro shook his head, pushing his glasses up along the bridge of his nose. “Complex politics aside, we need a strategy.”
Suigetsu looked back to Chae-Seon. “He’s right, you know. It’s smarter to go after individual members or pairs. That means we’ll gather intel for the other villages, too. If they know what they’re up against, they’ll kill these bastards faster, making our job easier”
“You have a point, there.” Chae-Seon looked to the top of the cave. “So we either do something reckless and find out who their leadership is, or we bide our time and spend who knows how long away from home.”
“There’s a third option. We tell the Mizukage we’re stupidly underqualified and shouldn’t be on this mission without at least one senior Jounin.”
“What? And earn a lifetime of mockery from Ao and Zabuza? Are you shitting me, Jong-Min?”
“It’s an option, I didn’t say it was a good one.” Suigetsu shrugged. “Just so we all know the choices on the table.”
Chae-Seon glanced at Haku. He hadn’t moved once. He was dead to the world. “You’re not wrong… The only one of us that would even consider going for a hit to the pride would be Haku, though, and I’m pretty sure we’ve established that he knows no shame.
“What if they start tracing it back to us, though? They’ll notice when members of their organization start disappearing or dying.”
“We deal with that as needed.”
Chae-Seon looked to the entrance of their cave. “Alright. Individual members it is.”
“She did what?” Tsunade glared through Shizune to Jiraiya. “Mei should have consulted me.”
“Technically what she did was legal. She sent a notice, she just didn’t mark it urgent. Once the mandatory thirty days passed, she was automatically given the right to execute.”
“But this mission… it’s suicide!”
“She has three other, highly-capable shinobi with her.” Jiraiya shook his head. “It’s dangerous, but if they work as well together as some of my sources have reported, she could survive.”
“You’re not the one that has to explain to three Naras that are already ridiculously worried and protective of her that the leader of a foreign power sent her on a mission that could get her killed.”
“That whole damn war could have gotten her killed. She survived that, she’ll survive this.” Jiraiya shifted past Shizune. “I’ll tell the Nara family. You have enough to worry about.
“But Tsunade… this alliance… it’s worth a lot to Konoha. It’s terrible that we can’t protect one of our own, but we have to think long term, too.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Tsunade ran a hand through her hair before turning toward the window. “I know she’s capable. I know her team has their own reputation.
“But god, Jiraiya. At what point do we bring her home? For good?”
“We might never get to do that.” Jiraiya’s voice was more serious than normal. “She’s been there two years. From what my sources are telling me, she’s bonded as closely to this team as she did her Genin team, if not closer.”
“Bonding over a shared trauma. We saw it a lot during the war.”
“Yeah.” Jiraiya moved to stand beside Tsunade. “You can’t be surprised. Besides, maybe it’s for the best.”
“How so?”
“If she stays in Kiri, we have someone to strengthen the alliance. Someone who would never want to see war between our villages.”
Tsunade shook her head. “I hate it when you’re right. I hate it so damn much.”
Jiraiya laughed, throwing an arm around her. “Get used to it, I’m not planning on being wrong again any time soon.”
Tsunade scowled before punching Jiraiya in the ribs. She’d swear later that she was going light on him. He’d cry that it was the opposite.
Iruka didn’t realize how excitable Chae-Seon’s genin could be until they got out of Kiri. Within moments the three, while focused and maintaining their pace and route, were roughhousing and goofing off, throwing things at each other in an elaborate game of ‘Dodge’ that nearly took Mi-Na’s eye out.
She, despite being one of the calmer members of the team, laughed it off and responded in kind.
They were monsters, and without Chae-Seon to moderate them, Soo-Jung was encouraging them.
Jeong-Hwa answered Iruka’s unanswered question. “It teaches them pain, but they have fun while they learn it. When they have to muscle through, they’ll already be accustomed to it. It’s been Chae-Seon’s way, too, but she usually has them fight her to encourage teamwork. Bonding is left to Soo-Jung.”
“Why?”
“Soo-Jung looks older than she acts. She may be fifteen, but if you get her relaxed enough she acts like the ten-year-old she was when the war broke out.
“It’s a compliment to you, really.” Jeong-Hwa spared Iruka a glance from the corner of his eye, not breaking his focus from the planned route. “It means she doesn’t see you as a threat.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
Somehow, while reassuring, that also felt like a kick in the pants.
Kakashi met the three Kiri genin without expecting to. They had shown up, speaking Korean and watching his team train. The one that spoke the best Japanese was quick to try and mimic the kata Kakashi was teaching Naruto.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m, ah,” the girl closed one eye, lifted her hand and started tracing something in the air. “I’m watching you. I wanted to…” she started tracing in the air again. “I wanted to try that kata. It looked like one that our teacher uses.”
Kakashi nodded. These must be Chae-Seon’s genin then. “Alright. Let me show you.”
After all, he was their grand-teacher or something like that, right?
At first glance, Jae-Suk didn’t recognize her.
It wasn’t until he caught the three girls trailing after two older shinobi that he recognized her.
Jae-Un.
In his shock, he missed his chance to go after her, but he started keeping his eyes open. He was hesitant to tell his mom, because then her hopes could get up before they even had a chance to see her. He had to find her, first, and then he could bring her home.