Consciousness returned in stages. Pain was the first, but that was so familiar that it seemed like a constant state of being. The blissful feeling that she had some chakra back was the next thing Aiko knew. She wasn't awake enough to know why that was a good sign, but it was such a marked improvement from the last thing she knew that it seemed Aiko would never take it for granted again. She'd heard of chakra deprivation being used as torture before, but now it made sense.
Her vision still wasn't back. At least she had colors again, though, instead of just red. "That's a bad sign," she mumbled to herself, sitting up.
There was a curse.
"Sit down, stupid," a vaguely familiar voice snapped. A warm hand pressed her back down into the sheets. "You've been out for days. We got you a civvie doctor and she said the swelling should be going down, but…"
"We thought you were dead," another female voice said bluntly. "I'm glad you're waking up, because we aren't really that far from Ame and they're bound to be looking for us. We weren't exactly inconspicuous stumbling into town with you sobbing over Nii's shoulder."
"Yes, I hardly wish to linger here either," the lower voice confirmed dryly. "Uzumaki, are you following me?"
"I don't know what's going on," she mumbled, doing her level best to sink into the warm sheets around her body. The weight was comforting.
"Oh, shit," the first voice cursed lowly before becoming something softer and strangely maternal. "I'm Nii Yugito. Remember me? And this is Fuu, from Waterfall. You owe her a fight. Don't you fucking dare die on us now after we risked our lives to get you medical attention," the first voice warned.
Realization was unpleasant. "I remember," Aiko croaked out, reaching up to rub at her throat. "So, you say my head is better?"
"Yes and no," Fuu answered. "The swelling has gone down, but the original problem still remains. Civilian medicine doesn't have a fast solution, and we can't afford to stay here. You need to go home. Do you understand that?"
Fast solution or not, thank god that they'd gotten her a doctor. The pain in her head was much more analogous to what it had been when Itachi had first diagnosed her than what it had been even half a day later. She almost wished she'd been awake to thank the person who'd probably saved her life.
"What about you two?" Aiko sat up, letting her blankets fall down. "I mean, since you both stayed, can I assume you see the lack of sense in splitting apart right now to let them pick us off? I can take us back to Konoha. I promise you'll be safe."
"Can you really promise that?" Yugito was transparently skeptical.
"Yes," she guaranteed sincerely, turning to stare at the tannish blur that she was relatively certain was Yugito. "The Hokage is honorable enough not to capture two soldiers who came to her for assistance, and she's pragmatic enough to know that detaining you would mean war. If she tries, I'll fight her on it."
"It would mean war… If it hasn't already been declared," Yugito sighed tiredly. "The Raikage is furious, I am sure."
"Yeah," Aiko murmured, staring down at her legs. "I bet. I wish we could have just given you back C, opened up talk, and started to defuse all this crap."
There was a rather heavy silence, before Yugito pointed out with slowly dawning horror. "Uzumaki… we sent the message with the Hokage's reply as soon as we had it. The Raikage had already pre-approved a messenger to take a missive to Konoha so that his reply would be waiting when the Hokage got back. C was probably sent out days before any news from Kumo could have reached your country after this all happened. The Raikage… he's probably already declared war, but your escort team would have already left days before that news reach Konoha."
"He'll kill them," Fuu pointed out clinically. "Konoha won't know that the relationship isn't salvageable until its far too late to catch up, so it's highly unlikely that anyone would be able to stop them in time to save them. And then when it comes out that Konoha was uninvolved…"
"We'll already be committed, because Lightning will have made an unprovoked attack on a diplomatic team," Aiko summed hollowly. Well. That fucking blows. "Maybe it's not too late. Do you have any idea when that meeting was set for, where, and what day it is now?"
"Probably tomorrow," Yugito informed. "It's a long trip from Konoha to the border of Lightning. The timing was intended to force Tsunade to immediately send a team to avoid being late so that it was impossible to get there early and set up an ambush. They won't be dead yet. Konoha will know and have decided if they would rather risk sending a fast team in hopes of catching them or not, however."
Aiko paused for a long moment. "Do you guys ever feel like it's really exhausting to be a totally badass bitch all the time? I guess we should get moving. Konoha first."
"You just don't learn, do you," Fuu commented dryly, but she put a steadying hand on Aiko's shoulders nonetheless while she crawled out of bed.
"I most certainly do not," she lied briskly, crinkling her nose up at the teal-haired girl. She was a much more colorful blob than Yugito and thusly easy to identify. "Come on, you sissy. Don't tell me you're going to turn down another fabulous Hiraishin trip?"
"I could easily die happy with never experiencing that again." Someone flicked the back of her head. "But come on; that would be exponentially less likely to end with us getting snatched back up. We're barely past the border to Rain. I would be shocked if they weren't close."
"Alright, alright," Aiko sighed, blindly reaching out to grab at what she assumed was Yugito's arm. "Am I touching both of you? Yes?" She tugged.
The silence that followed was unexpected. "Ah, Tsunade-sama?" she tried, turning in a circle. There was no response from her Hokage.
"The office is empty," Yugito breathed. The sound of quick footfalls gave her the impression that she was walking to the window. "But we're definitely in Konoha," she pronounced grimly. "There's an enormous crowd around the other side of the building."
"Oh, she's making some sort of announcement," Aiko theorized vaguely. With much more effort than she'd like, she sought out Kakashi's Hiraishin, thinking she would just go to him rather than let two foreign nin guide her blindly through their administration building.
'Well, fuck. He appears to be passing through Bear country. With Yamato, and princess C. I probably should have noticed that before.'
That sucked big time.
"Maybe we should walk from here," Fuu said dryly, appearing to correctly interpret where Aiko's mind had gone. "It's just around the building. You use that as a crutch too often, and it's been hurting you. I don't fancy being trapped here while everyone dances around asking why our Konoha escort is unconscious and drooling on the floor."
Aiko reluctantly agreed despite her reservations. That would be a pretty awful situation to put Fuu and Yugito in after promising them safety. She let them lead her through the winding tower, planning to come up behind Tsunade on the balcony to check what was going on.
What she heard was not encouraging.
"Konoha can pull together. It is the strength in every one of us here, no matter who we are. We do not wish for war, but when it is come to our doorstep, will we cower?"
'No', came the answering reply from hundreds of voices below.
"Oh, this is awkward…" Aiko mumbled, feeling her face flush pink. There was a feminine gasp. A moment later, she was wrapped up in what felt like a running hug.
"Kami, Aiko!" Shizune sobbed into her shoulder, digging her fingers into the smaller girl's back. "I thought you were-we all thought you were…" She trailed off as her head raised from Aiko's neck. "Um… Would these ladies by any chance be-"
"Nii Yugito and Fuu?" Yugito asked dryly. "Yes. We just made an exciting escape. Can we go home now?"
Shizune was silent and still for a moment. "We should probably stop the war rally then, huh? Ah… Would you three ladies wait here?" She padded off a moment, and Tsunade's voice trailed off. She made a quiet, 'what?' and then there was covert whispering away from the sound system.
"I can't believe you people," Yugito whispered incredulously. "Isn't that going to be awkward?"
"Very," Aiko agreed. "But you know, whatever." She shrugged. "Would it be any better to call everyone back for another announcement tomorrow?"
The response was a disgruntled, "Ugh."
"Belay that!" Tsunade roared. A panicked whisper rustled through the crowd below. Despite their worry, her voice was downright chipper. "Men, women, and all manner of fabulous people of Konoha! I have just received badly timed but excellent news!" She paused, and in a faux-confidential tone into whatever was projecting her voice, "That means you can cheer again." An obliging roar of confused approval went up from the crowd. Fuu seemed to choke. "If you will recall I mentioned earlier that the Raikage thinks to lay blame for his recent misfortune at our feet."
Someone who sounded suspiciously like Karin yelled something rude, but most of the crowd was silent.
"He and others conclude that Konoha has begun hunting jinchuuriki. The declaration of war he has sent is a reflection of his desire to protect his own people, not proof that the Raikage wishes our destruction, and the sole evidence for his case rests upon the murky circumstances under which one of our own was kidnapped along with kunoichi from Cloud and Waterfall."
Fuu groaned. "She doesn't have to say it like that," she mumbled rebelliously. "It sounds like we're babies or something."
"Were you or were you not rolled up in a blanket and carried out of the hotel by a plant-man?" Yugito asked dryly. There was no response.
"Well, isn't he going to be embarrassed when we send back Nii Yugito, who is waiting in the tower behind me with Fuu of Waterfall and our own Uzumaki Aiko?"
There was a shocked silence. Then the street seemed to erupt with a deafening wave of sound.
"She lives for this theatrical crap, doesn't she?" Aiko sighed, curling her hands around the hem of her oversized shirt. "We should probably go out there."
"You first," Fuu replied mulishly.
Aiko raised a hand and pointedly waved it on front of her face. Then she stopped, because that was disorienting.
"Point taken." One of her companions wrapped a steadying arm around her waist again and the other hovered by her opposite shoulder, guiding her into the light and heat of day. The crowd was still going strong. She walked straight forward until the arm guiding her squeezed in warning and abruptly stopped.
"I feel like we should be waving or something," Yugito murmured, sounding so far out of her element that it wasn't even funny.
"Why the hell not." Aiko shrugged and lifted her right hand into a jaunty little wave above her head twice, and immediately jerked it back down when the volume only picked up. "I'm ready for this to be over now."
~~~
"I'm putting you on light duty for the next week," Sasuke briskly informed, briskly rubbing his thumbs into her temples. She tried not to wince. "That means no spars and try your best not to get kidnapped by international criminals. Stop wiggling, I need to be certain I got everything."
"Your bedside manner could use some work," Aiko critiqued sullenly.
There was a pause while he seemed to fight the urge to slap her upside the head and valiantly resisted on the grounds that he had just finished taking down the swelling and repairing the original damage from Konan-inflicted head trauma that had caused the trouble in the first place. "Shut up, idiot. There doesn't appear to be anything more than usual wrong with your head. Try following my finger."
Aiko pouted but obediently tracked the digit back and forth with her now perfect vision. "I could swear that you used to respect me," she sighed.
Sasuke gave her a thoroughly unimpressed look. "That was before I found out just how ridiculous you are."
'He's talking to me like I'm Naruto,' she noted with some bafflement.
"Be tsundere on your own time," Tsunade drawled, bopping her apprentice over the head with a clipboard as she sauntered in and tossed Aiko her headband, which had been left in Water Country since Aiko didn't wear it to bed. "Step aside. Lady with a hat coming through to check your work." At Sasuke's grunt, she placatingly added, "I trust you, but you've never seen anything like that before. Normally people either have the sense to die or are treated within a few hours with an injury like that," she grunted, nudging him aside and running a diagnostic. "Pretty good, Sasuke," she complimented. "Did you intentionally-"
"I thought it was better than the alternative," he replied immediately, tapping the clipboard Tsunade had handed over briskly.
She snorted. "Well, it's not conventional, but if the kunai cuts…" Tsunade straightened and pulled a sucker out of her pocket. Uncertainly, Aiko reached out to take it. "Well, unwrap it, little idiot." She petted Aiko's head.
'Everyone is weird. I swear these people used to be sane.'
Still, she obediently removed the cellophane and popped the candy into her mouth, letting the stick hang out the side of her lips. With her legs dangling over the edge of the examination table and swathed in her ridiculously oversized clothing, Aiko was starting to feel the creeping suspicion that Tsunade thought of her as a little kid.
"I'm an adult, you know," she pointed out a little rebelliously, narrowing her eyes at her Hokage. She didn't remove the candy, however. It was watermelon.
"Of course you are," Tsunade replied patronizingly. She turned to the door. "Which is why I don't need your legal guardian present for debriefing before I send you out again." She sighed. "I hate to push you, but I don't see another way to get Yugito back to Cloud's custody before Kakashi and Yamato get C there."
"I'll be fine," Aiko reassured, sliding off the table and following her out. Sasuke shoved his hands in his pockets and slouched out, hovering at her side the entire walk to the office as if he thought Konan was going to drop from the ceiling and snatch her again.
'Who knew he was such a worrywart?' She shot him an unimpressed look. Slowly, he turned his head to stare her down.
Aiko had to shiver and look away. Okay, so he had an amazing bitchface.
A Chuunin runner arrived in the office about the same time they did, with a fascinated expression and a set of boots that replaced Aiko's lost ones. That was her first big hint that Tsunade would be letting her go out again. She ended up having to stuff her oversized pants into the small amount of open space between her skin and boots.
'I definitely need to get out of these clothes. They don't really work for me at all.'
It didn't seem like there would be an opportunity for that any time soon, however.
Debriefing was a mess, in no small part because it was a little hard to pick apart what of her perceptions had been overly affected by her less than ideal state of mind at the time. She sort of suspected that Tsunade didn't need to know that Uchiha Itachi smelled of off-brand pine soap but that his towels were luxurious, even though it had seemed important to note at the time.
She gave descriptions of all the Akatsuki she had seen—including that Hidan was apparently not deceased—and confirmed that their base had been in Rain. Aiko took the opportunity to subtly drop hints about Uchiha Madara. She couldn't very well come out and say that he'd shared his secret plots with her, but she could plant seeds.
"Wait, are you certain that Itachi deferred to this person?" Sasuke frowned. "I thought that this 'Pein' was supposedly the leader."
"That's why it seemed so weird," Aiko sighed cluelessly. "It was subtle, like it wasn't supposed to be talked about, but he was definitely wary and more deferential to 'Tobi' than he was to 'Pein.' Actually…" She frowned, and let uncertainty cross her expression before she shook her head. "No, it's stupid, and it doesn't make any sense. But at the time, I thought there was some sort of… I don't know, a similarity between the two? Something hard to put my finger on, but maybe it was the way they moved when Tobi wasn't pretending to be an idiot. Like they had similar training or something." She heaved a helpless little shrug, palms up.
That seemed to set off all sorts of alarm bells for Tsunade, but she kept whatever reservations she had locked up tight. "You said that Itachi's behavior seemed inconsistent? How so?"
"Ah…" She bit her lip, searching for the best way to phrase this. Did Tsunade know that Itachi wasn't behind the massacre? It wasn't like he would have come out and told her that over tea and cookies, but she could definitely hint, "It was very strange. He went out of his way to give away when the extraction would be taking place. Like he was helping me or something. If I hadn't known how desperate the time situation really was, I probably would have been locked up and been unable to do anything until it was too late."
Tsunade and Sasuke exchanged a significant look. Aiko tried not to roll her eyes. Perhaps they did know, then.
"Tsunade-baa-chan!" Naruto shrieked, flinging the door open. "The stupid receptionist said that Aiko wasn-"
"That's because she wasn't there," Tsunade confirmed placidly, letting a hint of fondness creep into her expression while the blond stared wide-mouthed at his sister for a moment. Then he leapt at her even as his lower lip wobbled.
'I hate these kinds of hugs,' Aiko thought tiredly as her feet dangled and her brother talked at a speed she couldn't decipher, doing his level best to deprive her of oxygen. 'I'm not a doll. My feet are meant to be on the ground unless I move them.' He seemed a mite upset, though, so she soothingly patted his back.
"There, there. It's fine."
He adjusted his grip to dangle her in the air across from his face, jaw dropped incredulously. "Are you seriously trying to soothe me?" Naruto demanded, sounding strangely irritated.
Her brow crinkled. "Well, yes. You seem upset," Aiko admitted honestly. She understood why he was, of course, and felt guilty about it. If their situation had been reversed... Well, she didn't know what she would do, but it probably would have involved sneaking out after him regardless of what Tsunade said and smashing in a lot of faces whilst screeching insults like a crazy person. But all the hugging and crying just made her uncomfortable. She'd endure it for him, but left to her own devices... Probably not happening. Too many feelings were wiggling unapologetically all over the place.
Naruto stared for just a moment. Then he rolled his eyes and crushed her back to his chest. "You're an idiot, nee-chan," he informed her thickly, face buried in her hair.
She pled for help silently, appealing to Sasuke and Tsunade with her eyes. They were wearing an unpleasant mirror of each others' smirking expressions and clearly enjoying her discomfort.
"You need to stop being kidnapped," Naruto informed her seriously, setting her back down on the ground with unusual gentleness. She subconsciously straightened at the hard, mature look in his eyes. "You're reckless with your life, nee-chan."
Aiko gaped at that hypocrisy.
He continued without the slightest hint of irony. "You know you're not immortal, right? I mean, I'm glad you're a hero and all, but you can't fight Akatsuki on your own." She furrowed her brow and started to say that she knew that, she didn't intend to, but he plowed right over her objections. "I know you. You get this stupid idea that you're going to do everything on your own. Well, I'm not a kid anymore, and you don't have to protect me from Akatsuki." He all but glared her down. "Work with me. I want that. But I won't allow you to act like you're the only person who can get things done."
She whimpered a little bit, but seemed to receive no sympathy whatsoever. "Well said," Tsunade crisply cut in. "Naruto, I'll take that as a promise from you to not do anything reckless yourself, since you can see why it's a bad idea."
From his puzzled expression, Naruto didn't seem to have considered that his lecture could apply to himself as well.
Tsunade was far too amused for Aiko's comfort. "That said, I need you to grab Nii and take her to Kakashi. Hopefully, you can head off whatever Kumo has planned. Surely, if they see her there…" She cringed a little, raising a shoulder in a shrug. "It's the best we've got."
"Can do," Aiko blandly shot off, relaxing into a slouch. "Is she still in the hospital?"
"She's being escorted here after she's checked over," Tsunade reassured her. "She wasn't in bad shape, though. It should be soon." Then she heaved a sigh. "I'm so glad you're back, Aiko. I still expect Jiraiya to come swooping in here and rip me a new one for letting you get snatched," she groused with a tone that implied she thought she deserved it. "No doubt he's heard by now."
"I'm sure the pervert will be reasonable," Sasuke grunted disinterestedly.
Naruto just about choked, wide-eyed. "It's like you've never met him. He's the biggest drama queen I've ever met. Do you or do you not remember that he's composed a song and choreography for whenever he has an opportunity to introduce himself to a new person?"
The Uchiha cringed. "I was trying to forget."
"If we can't, I don't see why you should be able to," Tsunade replied with brutal honesty.
There was a knock on the door and Shizune led Yugito inside.
"Oh thank god," Aiko mumbled quietly to herself. "Are you as ready as I am to get you home?"
"Have a safe trip," Tsunade said blandly. "I would suggest that you come back the conventional way. This is important enough to risk the Hiraishin on the way there, but I don't understand it well enough that I want you abusing it right now."
Aiko bit down gently on the hard candy in her mouth in an attempt to avoid informing Tsunade that she sucked. The glare probably expressed the same thing. She dislodged the sucker just enough to mumble, "I'll see you guys in a week or so, then."
"I feel like a child being dragged around," Yugito sighed, looking distastefully at the hand Aiko offered. Still, she took it.
To save at least a little of the older woman's dignity, Aiko dropped the limb as soon as she had re-oriented them.
And blinked at the backs of three startled men who split apart in various directions at high speed. She snatched Yugito's hand right back up to drag her down into the dirt with a yelp to avoid the shuriken that came swinging through the air.
"I can't believe I missed you people!" she snarled, pulling her chin out of the dirt with a mulish expression.
She couldn't see Kakashi's face, but Yamato appeared to be broken, jaw hanging stupidly open. C seemed oddly relieved, until she remembered Yugito was one of his comrades. That was probably who he was glad to see.
Yugito yanked her hand away and shot up with a spine like a steel rod even as Aiko pushed herself up to a standing position as well.
"I guess this means you aren't dead," Yamato finally vocalized, pitch a little higher than usual. He put a fist to his chin and coughed twice, and it was normal the next time he spoke. "I'm glad to see you. Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." Aiko gave him a tired smile, half noting that Yugito and C were communicating in what appeared to be one of their villages hand sign languages with occasional significant glances at one of them. "Have had better weeks, though," she admitted. Yamato made a small, strained sound, and his head turned towards Kakashi. She followed the motion reflexively.
His expression was completely indecipherable, but definitely intense. Standing under that gaze made her feel a little uncomfortable. Aiko shifted her weight from one foot to another, but in the seconds that followed, Kakashi made no move to say anything or look away.
"Hi?" Aiko tried faintly. When he made no move to reply, she concentrated on looking at the bridge of his nose because there was something she couldn't quite identify in his visible eye right now.
'You think you know a guy… Still waters run deep and all that. He's nothing like Naruto, but maybe…'
"If, um…" she cleared her throat and started again with a decent impression of her usual flippancy. "If you need a hug, I know a guy." Aiko jerked her head towards Yamato, and then took her sucker out of her mouth and twirled it just to have something to do with her hands.
Kakashi seemed a little amused, and his face lightened. He closed the distance between them without saying a thing, and for one bizarre moment, she thought he really was going to hug her. Not that he couldn't hug, of course, but he was just such an intensely private person that it seemed out of place with two strangers present. Instead, the hand in his pocket came up and brushed through her hair. It withdrew almost immediately, but there was a familiar weight against her scalp when it did.
"Try not to lose this the next time you get kidnapped?" he drawled, crinkling his eye up into a cute imitation of a smile. "Tsunade gave it back to me for lack of anything else to do with it, but I'm afraid it doesn't look as good on me."
For some reason she couldn't quite identify, Aiko flushed what had to be an ugly shade of red and averted her eyes down to his sandals.
~~~
As it turned out, the Raikage didn't believe in delegation. Despite Kakashi and Yamato's reservations, Yugito had taken the group's lead to make it easily visible that the situation had changed. Aiko was grateful for that when the Raikage met them dead-on and four Jounin flanked them. She forced her body language to hide her discomfort and painted a pleasant smile onto her face. This wasn't someone she wanted to display aggressiveness around.
"What is this?" he demanded. The Raikage was an enormous bear of a man: not as tall as Kisame, no, but even wider built with obscenely bulging muscles.
And the weirdest fashion sense she'd ever seen. He was bare-chested despite the cold, but had apparently thrown on a scarf on his way out the door. What the hell? Was he planning on going to Laputa or something? In combination with the gigantic gold belt he was wearing… Well, she didn't know what to think.
"Greetings, Raikage-sama, from Lady Tsunade," Kakashi cut in silkily. "I believe these are yours?" He nodded congenially towards Yugito and a sheepish looking C.
"Is this some kind of trick?" He narrowed his eyes at the group, giving Yugito a suspicious once-over. "Are you trying to trick me with a fake? Or are you just admitting your complicity?"
"Neither, Raikage-sama," Aiko tilted her chin up to make eye contact. "I apologize for the delay, but Yugito-san and I only escaped Akatsuki's hospitality recently."
He seemed unconvinced. A plodded towards her, coming far too close for Aiko's comfort, and then bent just enough to make eye contact. "Are you trying to pull one over my eyes, girl?" he breathed. "Don't underestimate the Raikage. Is this an ambush? Konoha said they were sending two Jounin, and here I see three marked Konoha shinobi. If those two aren't really mine, then it sure looks like you just wanted a fight." He grinned unpleasantly into her face.
Aiko resisted the urge to step back. "Of course I don't want to fight you," she said practically. "You'd kick my ass. I like my bones the way they are, thank you, unbroken and in place."
There was a small, frustrated groan from either Yugito or Yamato, but she didn't turn in time to see who had made it. A slowly exhaled and raised one brow. He looked a bit pleased, though, by the calm acknowledgement of his physical superiority. "Darui. You would know C anywhere. Is this him?"
One of the Jounin stepped forward and made a detailed examination of the sulky-looking blonde, tugging his hair, asking him quiet questions, and then stepped back with a content smile. "Yes it is, Raikage-sama. And I would wager that's Yugito-san as well."
"I can confirm Konoha's account," Yugito stepped in professionally, now that all the attention was on her. "We were held in custody of a group of missing nin who expressed the intent to unseal the bijuu held in Fuu-san and myself."
"And Konoha couldn't have tricked you and sent this girl to rescue you to gain your allegiance?" A asked skeptically, pointing rudely at Aiko with one of his sausage-sized fingers. She scowled at it.
Yugito was calmer. "No, Raikage-sama. That doesn't fit. I suspect that her stay in Akatsuki custody was rather more unpleasant than mine. If Konoha had meant to gain our trust, they would have had us bond in captivity and not risked losing their operative."
Aiko cringed, and determinedly did not meet eye contact with anyone. That hadn't been her best moment.
"I see, I see." Aiko just about jumped out of her skin—the Raikage was about two inches from her nose, peering at her contemplatively. He didn't look that impressed. "Is this really the Fourth Hokage's child?"
Kakashi jerked unpleasantly. That, Aiko found interesting. He clearly didn't like or expect that to be public knowledge. That implied…
'Did dad have history with the Raikage?'
Despite her trepidation, there was nothing for Aiko to do but to acknowledge it. Tsunade had already let that particular cat out of the bag. "I am." She tilted her head up slightly, unconsciously challenging him.
His eyes narrowed, tracing the contours of her face—her cheekbones, jawline, nose, and settled on her eyes. "You do look something like him," A acknowledged, straightening up to peer at her from a distance. "Especially the eyes, and that dopey look on your face."
'Dopey? Seriously?'
Offended, she scowled at him.
He laughed.
That wasn't the reaction she was going for at all.
"Konoha did pull one over on us," A declaimed, looking at her with a serious expression but amusement in his eyes. "Or two, the way I hear it."
She said nothing in response to that, but her 'adorable little girl' act had been thoroughly abandoned in exchange for what she might have termed 'an expression of anger' but Yamato clearly thought was a pout, judging by his poorly hidden amusement.
"Bah," A dismissed. "Did you bring the kid for any reason other than to show me how bloodlines weaken in Konoha over just a generation?"
'I'm going to smash his face open like a grape.'
"Yes, she was meant to remove the seal placed on C." Kakashi shoved his hands in his pockets as if he was bored. Sullenly, Aiko nodded in agreement.
"Well, then do it." A gave her a skeptical look.
She turned her face away with a huff and jutted her chin out, turning away. Aiko didn't trust herself to say anything without resorting to informing the Raikage that he was a big old dummy, so she gritted her jaw shut and turned away. C looked a bit uneasy to see her stomping towards him, but gave a sideways glance at an amused looking Yugito that implied he would consider edging away if he didn't risk getting mocked for it.
'Not in the mood for your shit, or anyone else's for that matter.'
The expression on her face must have been truly hideous, because C looked about ready to roll over and show his belly. In the back of her mind, she noted that she really might have unnerved him when they'd fought and it wasn't entirely fair to take her anger out on him.
Aiko did not care. She walked right up to him and jerked C's shirt right up, slamming her palm into his gut.
Kakashi made a strange choking sound behind her.
She wasn't paying attention. With more vindictiveness than usual, she gathered up the seal and yanked it off his stomach. Irritably, she shook her fingers and forcibly dissolved it, and yanked the shirt back down forcibly. "Don't be such a baby," Aiko huffed, giving him an unpleasant look.
Then she tossed her hair over her shoulder and stalked away, back to where Kakashi and Yamato were still standing. Aiko did her level best to communicate, 'Can we go home now?' through her expression, but they didn't seem to be registering it.
"Hmm." A shot her one last look, before turning to stare down Kakashi. He appeared to be asserting his dominance, but Kakashi deflected the potential dick-waving competition by appearing not to notice.
'I take back what I said earlier. The Raikage sucks. I bet Kakashi could kick his ass.' Aiko narrowed her eyes at him. 'And he could do it with his shirt on.'
"This is a little off-putting, you know," A pointed out to the group at large. "I was planning on killing you for your treachery after C was released into my custody, and I do hate changing plans."
There was a sudden, noticeable heightening in tension.
"But I can see that I was mistaken. It isn't Konoha I need to destroy."
'First half intelligent thing he's said since I met him,' Aiko thought mulishly.
"I promised to treat with Konoha," A sighed, scratching at his chin. "But that Senju woman—I've always thought she was so weak. Did she ever get over her fear of blood? Ha!" He shook his head. "You're Konoha, kid. You look like a damn idiot, but I respected your father. Do you have anything intelligent to say? Make your case."
Well, that was awkward and not entirely conventional. Was he going to be offended if she refused to talk to him? She could deal with Tsunade later.
"I don't like you," Aiko said bluntly.
She could almost hear Kakashi's hopes for this encounter to go well flushing down the drain.
"But I think that we should work together. You have as much reason to hate Akatsuki as I do- maybe more. I can't blame you for turning against Konoha when you thought we were responsible. If I thought Kumo had killed my otouto, I would burn it to the fucking ground and then turn it into a swamp."
"I can't believe Tsunade made you a diplomat," Kakashi muttered sullenly behind her. She ignored that. Now wasn't the time for his negativity.
Aiko fixed A with a dead serious expression. His gaze was evaluative. Contrary to what her companions seemed to think, her strategy had been tailored for him and seemed to be working acceptably. He didn't look like he was about to dismiss her: A seemed blunt and like he valued it when people didn't tell polite lies. He respected strength and was proud of his own. She didn't want to seem weak in any way around him. Encouraging him to think that her position was similar to his by stressing that they both had jinchuuriki for little brothers couldn't hurt, either.
"That's what you should want to do to Akatsuki. Put them all twenty feet under in B's name. I'll do anything in my power to ensure you get the eight-tailed bijuu back if you help me rip every one of those irritating idiots from limb to limb. I'm sure you don't want morons trying to rule the world any more than I do."
He paused, and tilted his head slightly to the side before he asked, "Morons?"
Aiko nodded gravely. "They're really dumb."
A's lips twitched. "Well, we can't have that," he allowed gravely. His hands shot to his hips in a heroic pose and he squared his shoulders. "Alright! You've convinced me, shrimp." (He seemed to ignore the sudden spike in killing intent from Aiko. Possibly because Yamato had laid a desperate hand on her dangerously still shoulder to prevent her from leaping at the Raikage to throttle him.) "The Raikage agrees to ally with Konoha and their flimsy allies to hunt the organization known as Akatsuki!"
"I'm so grateful I could cry," Aiko gritted out through her teeth.
Seriously, shrimp? Shrimp?! She wasn't small, he was oversized and his face was stupid. And besides, shrimp were so gross.
~~~
"I think he likes you," Kakashi said blandly as they traveled through Bear Country towards home. A lesser man might have quailed under the look Aiko shot him, but the bastard probably found it funny.
"I don't like him," she huffed, sticking out her lower lip. "He's rude."
Yamato snorted. "Coming from you?" he started dryly. "That sounds a bit hypocritical. You really have that redhead temper sometimes."
"I'm constantly impressed by your dignified handle on diplomacy," Kakashi added, insufferably amused.
"And the way you never tell foreign heads of state that you dislike them." Yamato smiled.
'Are they seriously teasing me? I got the job done, didn't i?'
Aiko glowered. "You guys suck. You just suck."
They continued to suck when they set up camp for the night.
"I'll run the perimeter."
"No, I think I've got it." Yamato bounded off before she could move. Aiko was left blinking as he cleared the area.
"O-kay," she drawled uncertainly. That was weird. "Alright." Kakashi gave her a strangely pleased look, but offered no comment. Something similar happened after they'd eaten the rations for the night.
"I'll take first watch. Tenzou, you're second."
Aiko raised an eyebrow, wondering why he hadn't bothered to complete the obvious corollary that she would be on the third shift, but obligingly settled down to rest.
"Aiko, what are you doing?"
She dug her face out of her arms to give him a quizzical look. "Going to sleep?" Aiko tried delicately.
Kakashi shook his head disapprovingly. "You didn't bring your gear?"
Aiko gave him a deadpan expression. "No, I think I left it with Itachi. Do you think I should go back and ask for my stuff back? He seems like such a nice guy. And his friend Tobi was great too. We played Go Fish and talked about boys."
They hadn't really talked about boys, but the addition had just felt right.
Kakashi didn't seem terribly pleased by the reminder. His lips seemed to thin under the mask he was wearing. "Is that why you're wearing men's clothes? Where did those come from?"
"Er-" Involuntarily, Aiko glanced down. It was pretty obvious that they weren't hers. "Yeah, mine pretty much got ruined. These belonged to that one blond Akatsuki."
If it was possible, he seemed even less thrilled. "I see." Without a word, he stalked over to his bag and unzipped it
"Um…"
"Here."
Aiko automatically caught the fabric that came winging her way.
"It's been worn, but it's better than wearing something you got from the Akatsuki," Kakashi muttered darkly. "For all you know, it's been trapped or they can track you with it."
That seemed excessively paranoid, but whatever. She blinked at him expectantly, but he didn't seem to get the hint. Eventually, she raised an eyebrow. "Well, are you going to turn around so I can change?"
The mildly surprised look he gave her implied that he had forgotten there was a necessary transitional stage between 'wearing Deidara's clothes' and 'wearing other clothes'. He did turn around, back stiff. As soon as she was done, he scanned the area again as if he thought the forces of evil had been gathering in the last thirty seconds.
She noted somewhat grudgingly that his clothes fit her even worse than Deidara's. Kakashi might have caught the slightly longing look she gave the items she'd just removed, because his eye narrowed and he took them out of her hands- and threw them directly on the fire.
'Okay,' Aiko thought slowly. 'Let's slowly back away from the crazy person.'
"You can have my kit for the night," he called dismissively over his shoulder. It didn't seem like a good time to question him, so she just crawled into his bedroll and tried not to contemplate how bizarre everyone else had suddenly become.
They never did wake her up to take a shift on watch.