'I'm seeing two possibilities. Either this is another test to see if I unquestioningly follow orders, or it's a sign that Kakashi is going to mercilessly mock me for the rest of my life and Konoha supports his decision.'
Either way, pouting was the wrong response, so she sullenly took the proffered mask and gave a polite bow to the bulky man who'd brought her to the armory.
Granted, it was a bit abstract. But she was pretty sure that the animal depicted on her mask was a butterfly. It looked… it looked… it looked like the rear end of a pride parade had exploded all over it, smearing green, blues, and purple on the white porcelain. It was only missing glitter to be truly fabulous.
She had the sinking feeling that it hadn't just come out of storage, either. It would be incredibly dangerous to leave ANBU masks lying around. That thought and the fact that the vivid blue ink of the bones of the drawing matched her wig gave her the impression that it had been from Tsunade. It was probably her idea of a joke.
Aiko wasn't amused in the least. A butterfly? What the hell was that supposed to mean?
With her disappointing mask tucked under her arm she paced the rows, collecting ANBU gear in her own sizes. Most of it was standard stuff that she could get in bulk on her own, like the black shirt, pants, and bandages, but the lavender ceramic plate armor and distinctive hip pouches were only available from this armory. The gloves could probably be found elsewhere but she didn't know where, so she just got a few extras. She was going to be charged for all her equipment anyway, so she didn't have to feel guilty about getting more than she was meant to.
She had to be nearing the end of her training, although Aiko didn't actually know the date. Genjutsu-sensei had sought her out twice more with his unique blend of 'creeptastic' and 'informative' help. (She had figured out that it was safer to dispel multiple times in a row just in case he'd layered multiple levels of what just looked like a hallway or something). Taijutsu hadn't made her throw up from exertion in at least a week, and she had strong muscles corded along her arms and legs that hadn't been there before. The men who had been in front of her in training had finished, and she was now in the strange position of being the senior to three junior recruits, seeing them struggle as she had not so long ago. Her free time was now ten hours, which left her plenty of time to sleep after she was done studying regulations and being taught how she was expected to behave in various circumstances. All in all, she felt like a different person than she'd been when she entered.
'No. That's not right. I feel like a better version of me.'
At least, she felt better as a shinobi, if not a person. Despite knowing it was what she was supposed to feel (and hating doing what they wanted), being able to call herself ANBU made pride well up in her chest. They were the elite… well, sort of.
ANBU were like Konoha's secret services division. Not every member was extraordinarily strong: she knew that ANBU recruited plenty of Chuunin. Rank wasn't as relevant as a shinobi's skill in certain specialized areas. But still, there was a tinge of prestige associated with the ranking.
And hey, she wasn't perfect. Pride was a bit of a vice, but denying the tendency wouldn't have been any better.
Wearing the uniform for the first time felt good. She'd worked to be able to deserve it, even if it was a little lumpy and unflattering. For the first time, she had the girlish desire for a long mirror so that she could spin and twist and admire herself from multiple angles.
'Don't be ridiculous,' she chided herself, pulling her hair up and pinning it in a braid that circled her skull like a headband. (It was the only way to prevent it from slipping out from under the wig when she moved around a lot). She bit her lip in concentration as she worked the blue strands on over her head, securing it with a few hairpins. When loose, it fell in a cute asymmetrical bob around her jaw… but it did look really weird with her coloring, she felt. Her skin had warm pink undertones, so the cool blue was her opposite in a way. It didn't look bad, but it looked very strange. She hurriedly secured the mask and turned away from her little mirror, securing the straps of her short sword (her own blade was close enough to standard issue that they'd let her use it) and hip pouch as she walked out of her room.
Her arms burnt every time she moved them, but for once it wasn't muscle discomfort. The stop immediately before the armory had been a little office full of (what she thought was) bizarre equipment that turned out to belong to a tattooist. If they weren't bandaged, Aiko probably wouldn't have been able to keep her eyes off the Konoha swirls on her upper arms. She'd never thought of herself as a 'tattoo' person, but they were actually pretty cool… even if it was Konoha branding its ownership of her flesh.
She would be assigned to a temporary team today and led through procedures. ANBU specific hand-signs had been included in the endless rounds of copying from earlier to help prepare her to work with the captain who should be training her in team work. If it hadn't been taught before, working with a group would have been all but impossible. ANBU weren't meant to talk on the job, although she was willing to bet that experienced units bent that rule. No one had bothered to teach much about ANBU standard procedure, but that was probably because it was much like the regular units.
'No matter. I'm sure that my team will show me the ropes.'
It only took a few hours for her to curse her own naivety.
'Kakashi spoiled me,' she sighed, feeling the heat of her own breath wash over her cheeks where it was trapped by the porcelain. 'He's a much better team leader than Fish. He never just ran around and assumed I'd figure things out and catch up.'
At least she felt slightly better about her own ANBU designation after meeting the team. It could have been much worse than a silly butterfly. Someone somewhere in this town had a paintbrush and not enough healthy outlets for their sadism.
Sai would have hummed if he were capable of having the thought, swirling red ink around the mask that would belong to ANBU squid. Large cats and forest dwelling mammals were all well and good, but it was so strange that no one had thought to branch out to all the other varieties of animals for these masks. He had acquired a zoology text from the civilian library and learned all about sea animals, insects, and all sorts of fascinating things. For example, there were living creatures in the ocean that in fact resembled plants. Was that not most intriguing?
'I suppose I'll never know.' She cracked her neck and tried to focus on the drills they were running. Not a single one of her new comrades had uttered a word to her since she had reported. Aiko couldn't help but hope that this wasn't her permanent placement. Fish, Donkey, and Boar were ridiculous enough as a group on their own. (And she couldn't help but wonder where the glamour of ANBU was. Shouldn't there be 'Lions' and 'Bears' and 'Dragons' with fierce teeth and scary eyes? No, all she saw were huge noses, puffy cheeks, and ridiculous porcelain ears. She'd never admit it to his face, but apparently Yamato had gotten off lightly with his kitty mask.)
For a group of isolated loners, ANBU seemed to put a lot of stock in team drills. It made sense that they would need to be able to fight together in close quarters. She was seeing some frightfully powerful attacks from her current teammates. Being in the wrong place could end with taking a fatal hit from friendly fire.
That would be an enormous waste and a stupid way to die, so she paid attention and tried to pick up on the patterns they were showing her on bunshin for different tactical situations that would be dealt with as a group. They probably figured that everyone present was already capable of individual combat. ANBU didn't take protection missions except under bizarre circumstances—they were shock and awe troops. So they didn't have to do much in the way of pretending to protect a client or target. Those defensive types of formation were easier and safer because a team wasn't facing each other. They might all have their backs together or have one at the rear watching backs. But ANBU apparently didn't put much stock in that. If you missed an attack from the rear, no one was about to pick up your slack because they were concerned with their own targets. That danger was very real, but so was the possibility of getting hit with your teammate's attacks.
That first practice was not pretty. It might have been better if she had been familiar with everyone's repertoire. She took mental notes as the day passed, hoping that paying close attention would help her improve quickly.
Fish seemed to rely heavily on his short sword, wires, and fire ninjutsu. She could easily stay out of range of his blade, but the sharp wires were easy to miss and she didn't much fancy the idea of being burnt alive. She'd seen that happen before, and it was an ugly thing.
Boar, on the other hand, was a hulking mass of a man with hands the size of her forearm who favored brute force taijutsu interspersed with shurikenjutsu and minor misdirective genjutsu. She didn't mind fighting him—he couldn't possibly hit harder than Gai, and he wasn't as fast. She was pretty numb to having the stuffing beat out of her. Granted, he was fast enough to score hits on her, but never rapid enough that she was unable to block or mitigate the force of the blow. Plus, he didn't seem to be intentionally trying to hurt her to prove his superiority like the last member of the crew did.
Donkey was a much better genjutsu user than Boar. He apparently favored flashy illusions and terrifying explosions. The thought of what he would have done if that bunshin had been a real human had managed to make her turn a little green under her mask.
She kept her distance from him.
'and isn't that bizarre? Here I thought I was so numb to gore.'
There was really no purpose to what he did. If it had just been about killing a target, Donkey wouldn't utilize such flamboyant attacks. No, he was a showman. And probably a bit of a sadist. Aiko killed a lot of people, but she didn't enjoy it and she didn't intentionally cause more pain than necessary. Her ANBU teammates seemed not to share her compunctions, though Fish displayed a similarly minimalist sensibility in a fight.
'At least village patrols are easy. Even if I am stuck with this team, it's not going to be for weeks at a time outside the village.'
Sure, there were a lot of search patterns to memorize, but after that it was just a matter of moving around and paying attention to anything potentially hazardous or suspicious. In the four days that she had been running patrols, she'd only had to make her presence known once. That had been in order to break up a bar fight.
Bar fights were always sort of stupid and sad, as far as Aiko was concerned. But if it was between civilians or even Samurai, they weren't a big deal. After all, they usually weren't armed when they went to go get smashed, and even a trained Samurai wasn't likely to actually kill someone in a drunken fistfight. Ninja were different because they couldn't be disarmed. Aside from having been specifically trained in hand-to-hand unlike Samurai who were weapon masters, ninja always had chakra; and alcohol didn't make those abilities less dangerous. Sometimes they were actually worse. When inebriated, chakra-based attacks became erratic. Even an experienced user might cause significant bystander damage or fuck up entirely and lose control of the technique.
It had still been a bit annoying to have to grab two Chuunin who were significantly older and larger than she was and shake them like naughty kittens. Boar had helpfully taken it upon himself to relieve her of one of them when her group came back around, but the others didn't offer assistance and so she'd painstakingly dragged her nearly unconscious cargo across town to the temporary holding facilities. She very nearly snapped and killed her cargo when he drunkenly felt her up, but somehow maintained professionalism.
However dull and repetitive patrols seemed to be, at least they didn't take very long. She was left plenty of time for personal development in between morning workouts and night patrols, which meant training. After the restrictions of the last weeks, it was a fucking comfortable routine. It was broken when an enormous bear of a man with horrible scarring introduced himself as Morino Ibiki and collected her from the group training fields. Even if she hadn't recognized him by reputation as a big name in Interrogations, she would have known he wasn't ANBU from the simple fact that he didn't seem to begrudge every word. She didn't dare ask as she trotted to keep up with his larger strides, but he matter-of-factly informed her that he was taking her to perform her exit evaluations.
That was a bit of a surprise, despite the fact that she hadn't had a full evaluation done since she had become a Chuunin. Her stats were probably out of date before she'd come in to ANBU, so it was a logical move. But…
'Exit evaluations? I had no idea I was done.'
There was apparently no need to test taijutsu and strength—ANBU Turtle had already provided his evaluation.
Genjutsu testing was much like every time the creep came to find her: she just tried to identify when she was in an illusion, break it, and had to explain how she knew.
The stamina portion was actually just part of a quick medical check up to see how her childishly growing chakra core was changing. It shouldn't have been surprising, since she was a growing (hopefully growing, anyway) girl, but it had shot up a full point in capacity since her last official testing prior to signing up for ANBU.
Handseals were easy as always to test in—she identified her repertoire and ran through various nonsense combinations that the examiner gave her at top speed. Dexterity, a bit of reading, and fingers that were as speedy as the user's mind made it pretty simple to prop that rating up. It was one of the easiest categories to gain high proficiency in.
The last two categories were the only ones she was worried about. Her examiner seemed to notice her unease. "Don't worry." She looked directly at him, trying to judge if he was just being comforting or if he was actually saying she could use techniques that Tsunade had still classified for the general public. He gave her a wry smile. "We don't make physical records of your techniques. I will merely assess your level and record your new statistics."
Well… they did need accurate information. She bit her lower lip, but conceded with a nod. "May I fetch something from my room?"
He seemed a bit baffled by that, but rolled his eyes long sufferingly. "You have two minutes."
It didn't take anywhere near that long. Her room was empty enough that the one kunai she had brought with her (the last pre-made Hiraishin in her possession) was easy to grab and get out. Morino-san looked outright irritated when he saw that she'd wasted his time to get a single kunai, but didn't say anything.
"Speed or ninjutsu first?"
Hiraishin was sort of the middle ground between the two. It counted towards both skill sets, so she'd want to do it last out of whichever category was first.
"Ninjutsu."
'Okay then.'
She pulsed a quick check of her reserves out of unthinking habit, and then whipped through her water-based repertoire. Mist, bunshin, hard bullets, a wave that completely knocked over a wooden target, and then… "Sen Tsurara!"
Normally she didn't say the names of techniques, but this one deserved a bit of theatricality. She aimed it at the 'chest' to make a more accurate illustration of just how deep it could cut. It shredded her wooden target, flinging chips and splinters out ten feet, and she ended with her fingers poking out the back of the target.
She'd never killed anyone with this, but it would probably be pretty easy.
Morino-san didn't look particularly impressed while he brushed splinters off his coat, but then, this was ANBU. He'd probably seen similar techniques. Sen Tsurara wasn't unique for its destructive power. In fact, it was a little weaker than its lightning-based predecessor.
She wasn't hung up on that at all, though. Chidori could cut pretty literally anything, so being less efficient than Chidori wasn't a big black mark. It still possessed enough force to seriously fuck some shit up. Since she was show boating, Aiko tilted her head to the right as she extended her left arm and wound increasingly thin chakra chains around it in a high-speed shot that collided with the hard target and left a spiderweb of cracks and small impact crater.
That time, he really did curse. But that may have been because cement chunks were sharper than the wood. If she hadn't been wearing a mask she would have given an apologetic smile. Since her features were hidden and she really wasn't sorry in the least, Aiko grinned. This was actually pretty fun. She didn't know the last time she'd actually gotten to show off like this. Kakashi was the only other one who knew her full repertoire, and since he'd taught her most of it… well. This was just a new experience, that was all.
"Are you quite done throwing things at me?"
'Ooo, someone is crabby today.'
She was sorely tempted to fling her kunai at him to be a smartass, but somehow refrained and threw it straight up without looking, flashed to it, threw it again to the target, and then tugged again to catch the ring on the knife's end around her finger. Aiko turned to face Morino-san, twirling it idly around her finger and blandly stated, "Hiraishin."
He was doing a remarkable impression of a fish for just an instant. "No shit, kid." Ibiki slowly shook his head, eyes locked on her. "Well, not much point in doing a speed assessment now," he said wryly. "Instantaneous travel is a 5."
'That is correct, bitches.'
Aiko didn't say that, of course. But she thought it really loudly.
Being out in the village proper again was really weird. The crowds were everywhere, and it was so much louder than either night patrols or the ANBU facility. The feeling that she didn't quite fit in the way she had before was about literal: the quarter sleeves on the green tunic she'd worn in stretched and pulled at her shoulders and upper arms. She somewhat miserably noted that she'd have to go shopping again. The sleeves on her old clothes were just a little too tight now to allow full freedom of movement. As soon as she got to the house, she stripped out of her old outfit and changed into black stretchy shorts and a belly-baring purple tanktop for comfort. A quick survey of her closet revealed that some of her wardrobe was going to fit better than other parts.
She didn't exactly regret getting a bit more muscle mass, but it was an inconvenience when she liked to buy her clothes in the snuggest size instead of buying baggy fabrics and securing the ends with bandages like her boys did.
It was probably a good thing that she had replicas of this outfit, even if she normally slept in it. She was perfectly decent, at least. All the important bits were covered. She could wander around in shorts and a tanktop with her boots and gloves for a while until she had a chance to go shopping.
"Hey."
"Hi, Karin," she absently replied, turning her head to see the girl leaning against her doorway. "How's working with your temp team going?"
Karin rolled her eyes. "Things change when you leave the village for a few weeks," she pointed out dully, rubbing her fingernails compulsively against her hip bone. "The first and second stages are over. It was seriously bad."
"What?" Aiko furrowed her brow, genuinely confused. "What do you mean? You're definitely Chuunin level by now."
"That's what I meant," Karin explained, coming in to flop down on Aiko's bed like a starfish. "Since so many of our age group weren't allowed to go to the last foreign exams, we outnumbered the competition like eight to one. I don't think there was a single Konoha team that didn't make it past the first exam. The second got rid of a few rookie teams, but the final line-up pretty much entirely Konoha. It's not really fair to the younger group. Like, that Neji guy is combat-Jounin level already, so it's a pretty big farce to have him fighting against twelve year olds."
Aiko took a moment to visualize that, and had to start giggling helplessly. Karin was smiling like a Cheshire cat, but regally tilted her head up to avoid eye contact. "It was every bit as hilarious as you're probably imagining," she confided.
"I can't stop picturing his grumpy little face," Aiko wheezed, leaning over slightly. Ow. Laughing hurt.
Karin sat up suddenly and swiveled to face the window—and then shrieked and fell off the bed onto her ass with a thump.
To be fair, some of those ANBU masks were seriously creepy. Seeing one pressed up against the glass was a bit surprising. Aiko pushed the frame up and stuck her head out. "I need to report?" Karin seemed baffled at how casually she reacted, but did an admirable job of recovering from her earlier startle. "To the Hokage? Do I need to change?"
Karin snorted at that, but Aiko took the shaken head as indication that she didn't have to go in ANBU gear. She couldn't very well ask more directly with Karin right there.
As the ANBU left the property, Aiko got up on her toes to pull down a clean pair of open toed boots off the top shelf of her closet and ran a mental checklist. 'Should I grab my gear in case this is a mission assignment?'
Just to be safe, she strapped on a single pre-packed hip pouch and a kunai holster, shoving her marked knife in almost as an afterthought.
"Don't forget to come to the finals tomorrow," Karin called out from behind her while she pulled the door shut. Aiko stopped just long enough to yell a confirmation back in the door and then took off.
Shizune was notably absent from the office, but Sasuke managed to give her a semi-friendly nod when she walked up and directed her in. Tsunade looked up dully. Then she slowly raised an eyebrow and pinned Aiko with an unimpressed look. "My people wear these things called clothes," she drawled pointedly. "Perhaps you've heard of them?"
Unashamed, Aiko shrugged and closed the door behind her with a bang. When your abs were this good, who cared if they were showing?
"In any case, have a seat. I suppose that the first thing I should do is congratulate you for passing the basic training. I'll inform you when it's time for you to return for more specialized training"
She didn't particularly like the sound of that. "Specialized training?" she repeated in as normal a voice as possible.
Tsunade glanced up, mildly interested. "Silly girl. Of course there's specialized training; both role and gender specific. You'll need to pick at least one specialty eventually, like infiltration or heavy combat. And besides." She gave Aiko a rather saucy expression. "Unless I miss my guess, Hatake never got around to teaching you all about the feminine wiles he's so good with."
Point taken.
"I have definitely noticed his feminine wiles and am envious beyond words," she agreed dryly.
"In any case." The blonde woman pushed her chair back and leaned forward with her elbows on the table. "If you're ever going to sing for me, little bird, you're going to have to find your way into Root." Aiko cringed. Honestly, she was sort of hoping that she didn't succeed in that part of her mission. It would be one thing to note oddities in behaviors and such, and quite another to try to get Danzo's attention.
But she couldn't outright tell the Hokage no. At best, she could quietly sabotage her own efforts, but it would have to be subtle enough that she didn't even get reprimanded for incompetence.
Unaware of the ironically subversive thoughts that the girl she'd intended to sniff out traitors was having, Tsunade continued. "You will have to present yourself as a neutral party. From now on, our interactions will be limited to when you are on ANBU guard duty, and at a distance in public. With your connections to important figures like Hatake and Naruto, it's a coin toss as to whether Danzo will see an unrivaled opportunity or unnecessary risk. He does have his own forces, but you're going to have to be a more attractive option despite your unorthodox training."
'Unorthodox? Does she mean from Danzo's perspective?'
"In order to make this work, we will need to give several impressions about your possible worth as an ANBU recruit. Good job on your recent evaluation. I'm certain that Danzo still has eyes in the processing department and will pick up on promising potential recruits. When I keep Sai at a distance from anyone Danzo is interested in, he'll have to go looking for a new source of information." Tsunade cracked her neck, and wryly added, "And believe me, he'll be interested in reassessing Naruto after a two year absence with someone he considers dangerously liberal."
It took a moment to remember whether or not she was supposed to already know that Sai was one of Danzo's goons.
'She told me that last time,' Aiko reassured herself, thankful that her lack of reaction hadn't given anything away. The point was moot, of course, because Tsunade wasn't paying attention while she talked through the problem. However accidentally, Tsunade had brought up one point that resonated with Aiko. She didn't want Danzo messing around with Naruto. Who knew what he might try?
Ceasing to pay her full attention didn't make Tsunade stop talking. Aiko half-heartedly tuned in with one ear, wondering what kind of resources Danzo really had. He didn't have influence on the council anymore, but he did have a private militia and the respect of the general populace. What did he have for material resources? She had no idea, but it might be something to look into.
"I may put you in repeated close contact with Sai or other suspected Root agents to give Danzo a chance to recruit you, but you'll obviously still have to be close to your regular team for the potential information to seem worth the risk. Luckily," she paused to level Aiko with an unimpressed look, "Your childhood dislike of the Sandaime was such a source of distress to him that I can guarantee Danzo knew about it. We can give the impression that you think he and I by extension are too soft and that Konoha needs to toughen up. He'll lap that shit up. You're not going to convince him that you don't care about Naruto, but he might believe that you think you know what's best for him and are willing to go above his head to act in his interests. People are often tempted to believe others are like them."
'Is she implying that an elementary aged kid was responsible for the happiness of a full-grown man? Aiko had to resist the urge to snort and barely managed to keep her expression impassive. That was stupid. No, if the Sandaime had been miserable, it was his own sense of guilt or other sources of sorrow to blame. No one really cared that much about what a child thought. Children were notorious for their poor memory and misperceptions, after all.
Her 'talk' with Tsunade continued much in that fashion. Tsunade worked her way through various contingencies and gave advice and orders for whatever possible situations she could think of.
When Aiko trotted down the stairs, Sasuke poked his head into the office. "I didn't hear excited shrieking," he pointed out disinterestedly.
Tsunade's eyes widened innocently. "Oh, right. That's because I forgot to tell her we're expecting Naruto tomorrow."
If it were possible to activate the Sharingan by rolling one's eyes too hard, Sasuke might have gotten a nice photographic reference of the inside of his skull. 'Of course you did. Or… you're just pretending to have forgotten because you think it'll be amusing to see everyone surprised tomorrow.' He eyed her suspiciously, waiting for a clue as to whether this was another bizarrely circuitous plot of genuine absentmindedness. His mentor just held his gaze and sloowwwly let her mouth curl into a parody of a smile.
'The world will never know.' He sighed and pretended to dismiss her in boredom, sauntering out the door with an intentional bit of swagger. Tsunade always got twitchy when he appeared to find her dull.
Shizune had made him promise to keep Tsunade focused on her work while she was in Sand overseeing their medical program, and Sasuke would nobly follow through. The sacrifice of playing mind games that annoyed and kept her working angrily was a heavy burden to bear, but he felt himself capable of the task.
Besides, it kept him away from that blonde sand kunoichi who'd escorted Suna's genin teams to the exams. He was relatively certain that Sabaku no Temari looked at him with impure thoughts. It was a little uncomfortable. Sure, he'd had female admirers, but most of them weren't people he had to work with diplomatically. It was impossible to run away and ill-advised to kill her, so he was at a bit of a loss as to an appropriately measured reaction.
'At least she should be leaving after tomorrow's finals,' he reminded himself. He only had one more day of her inappropriate attempts to hold eye contact across the negotiation table. Just one.