"Think there are more mist nin around?" Aiko broached. Immediately, she thought of Mei. That hadn't been what she'd meant. She wrapped the over-long sleeves of the borrowed robe around her waist and shivered. Funny. It was broad daylight, but she was getting chills.
"I do not know." Utakata's steps were steady and untroubled, disguising the pain he had to be in. She'd broken his ribs with her chains, hadn't she? "I never worked with the hunter-nin. Perhaps they would not have taken the chance of losing the entire team."
Aiko hummed through gritted teeth. She pressed on, ignoring the throbbing in her arm. It felt like it was swelling up around the band keeping it from bleeding all over.
They had walked two miles before Utakata spoke up again, prompted by the outlines of building on the horizon.
"Uzumaki-san. It might benefit us both to travel together for a time."
She lifted her gaze to the small of his back. What was he playing at? He hardly seemed the social type. Was he thinking about stabbing her in the back later, so that no one could report on his activities?
"It might," Aiko agreed neutrally. "Kiri would like to see us both dead." Her shoulder ached in agreement.
He didn't react to her suspicion or dry tone. "Any Kiri-nin who held back would be unaware that their comrades found the opportunity to push their targets against each other."
Oh.
"They'll be looking for you, not a young man and woman traveling together."
Aiko felt her tired lips pull into a smile. She could get something out of this. "I see. Well, as long as you're the considerate type of boyfriend." She went to move her aching shoulder for emphasis, then thought better of it.
Utakata pushed his hair back. His pale, long-fingered hand was a sharp contrast against his dark locks. She kept looking even after his hand had moved back down to his hips. "In such a small town? It would be scandalous for anyone short of wedded to travel together."
Aiko snorted, shaking off the strange moment. "Is that a proposal?"
He sounded a little amused. "More of a proposition."
She rolled her neck. The left side was beginning to strain and twinge, stiff from the abuse that twinged up her muscles from her injured shoulder. "Sousuke, it's shameful to let your wife walk alone when she is tired."
Utakata stopped to let her catch up, standing at her right side. He snaked an arm around her waist. His grip was surprisingly firm. She leaned into it, using his arm for support.
"You would feel better if you hadn't stayed up so late with your sister," he scolded, but she could hear the smile in his voice.
Aiko went along with the conversation, establishing characters and history through conversation. "Aa, but you know Satoko. She has so much energy, even for a teenager."
"You're not nineteen anymore," Utakata teased solemnly. "You should act your age." Aiko scowled up at him, but took the opportunity to slip on a henge that made her look a little older. The trees were thinning out and town would be visible soon. It would be foolish to be spotted as herself if they were intending to elude suspicion.
Utakata snorted quietly when she covered the red in her hair with a powder blue shade. The guise she chose was inspired by a Kumo-nin she had seen once. Aiko concealed her injury, turning Utakata's loose robe to a coat gallantly placed over her shoulders. Underneath, her already civilian outfit lost wrinkles and rips. She didn't bother to change more.
The muscles in his forearm moved against her back when he made the handsigns for his own henge. He probably felt her shiver.
Aiko stared forward at the road, just fascinated with the point where the street began. She didn't turn to look at the disguise he had chosen. It didn't matter.
The town was busy, full of people who appeared to be rice farmers. They smiled and waved as soon as the shinobi walked into town. It was too small to have a proper inn. She stared at the handwritten sign outside the traveler's restaurant, willing it to change through sheer force of will.
'There has to be a real hotel somewhere. A spa. An onsen.'
"Rooms for rent." Utakata jostled her side. "Isn't that wonderful, Ami-chan?"
"Yes," Aiko agreed grimly. She squeezed his arm until the skin turned white under her grip. "You should get us a room." He winced under her grip and implication. She relaxed her hand, but didn't let go. "Wouldn't a rest be wonderful, love?"
"Of course." Utakata led her in. An older lady walked to them almost immediately, round face stretched in a wrinkled smile.
"Welcome to Setoumachi! Please, may I get you lunch?"
'Oh kami, it's not even three,' Aiko remembered. She was way too drained for it to be this early.
"Actually, we were hoping to rent your room." Utakata sounded sheepish, friendliness softening the voice that was usually sharpened with genteel superiority. "Ano, it is so early I do not wish to trouble you, but…" his voice trailed off and he looked down at Aiko. She noted that his hair was now brown, and much less glossy than his usual shade. He looked closer to 25 than 17. "My wife is three months pregnant and finds travel more difficult than we expected."
'What a turd.'
It was a good story, though.
The proprietress melted immediately, giving a not-quite-subtle glance down at Aiko's midsection, looking for a baby bump. Of course there wasn't one. Aiko managed a tight smile and held Utakata's robe shut.
"Of course!" The lady bowed quickly, all smiles and sharp movements. "Poor girl. You must be exhausted, Miss. Please, follow me. Your husband can pay later."
'Pregnant. Ridiculous. I don't look pregnant at all,' Aiko thought sullenly.
Outwardly, she smiled and offered a bow of her own. "You are very kind. Ano, I have a question. Is there a shop nearby?" When the woman nodded, Aiko turned doe eyes to Utakata. She didn't even have a chance to get a question out.
"Hai, hai." He patted her hand. "I will go as soon as you are lying down."
She didn't know what kind of story he'd come up with to explain why he needed so many bandages, but that wasn't her problem.
When they were inside their room and the door had closed, Aiko raised an eyebrow in challenge at her companion. She was already peeling off Utakata's ripped, bloody robe to have a better look at her arm. It was swollen. Oh, hell, that band needed to come off. She worked the elastic down to fall on the floor.
Utakata shook out his hair, shedding the affable act. "She did ask less questions," he pointed out.
Aiko had to concede that. She balled up Utakata's robe and tossed it at him.
When he caught the fabric, there was an audible crunch of dried blood moving under his fingers. That elicited a reaction. His face was caught between disgust and disbelief.
'Hope I don't have any bloodborn pathogens.'
"You wouldn't make a pregnant woman do your laundry," Aiko said, blinking soulfully.
He let the robe hit the floor. "I'll get a new one."
He had almost made it to the door when Aiko felt a little guilty. "I'll replace it." She pushed open the bathroom door, intent on washing up. "I have funds."
Funds that were intended to sit safely out of circulation in case of emergency, but, you know. She could make more money. It wasn't like she was giving a village a cut of her profits. She made bank nowadays.
Utakata didn't say anything else before the door slid shut behind him. Aiko grimaced her way through a bath, working soap into her scrapes and the one ugly, dirty gash. At least the soap was gentle. Smelled like hyssop, though. Interesting choice. Her body was a mash of bruises- the worst of it was on her torso directly between her ribs, where a black and purple mottle showed what had to be the outline of Mei's knee. But she also had purple spotted with red scrapes and bits of upraised flesh along her arms, right shoulder, and hip where she must have rolled along rock at some point. Oh, no, that was that coral outcropping, wasn't it?
It was not the most pleasant bath she had ever experienced, even after she had finished emptying buckets over her head.
Utakata returned before she was done washing up. Aiko walked into the bedroom to see him laying out a futon. She stood back and watched, hair coiled up in a towel and clad in a spare set of civilian clothes.
He glanced up at her, and didn't speak for a moment. He finished setting up the bedding.
'He's moving really well for someone whose ribs I broke this morning.'
Her arm throbbed. "If you treat my injuries, I'll look at yours," Aiko offered.
At that, he gave her a wry, sideways smile. "I think you know better than that, Uzumaki-san." He straightened. "I will bandage your arm."
She nodded and pretended she knew what he was talking about.
'Oh wait, I think I do. He's a jinchuuriki. It probably already healed.'
Would a jinchuuriki have much reason to pick up first aid?
Must have. He did a thoroughly decent job at patching her up. He didn't even stick his finger inside the gash once. When he was done, Aiko rolled her arm to check the range of movement. "Thank you. I need to sleep. Will you take first watch?"
Utakata shrugged, listless. "And the second watch. I do not require much sleep." He was staring at her, dark eyes narrowed. She didn't know what he was getting at. She turned away.
"All right."
Aiko crawled under the covers and almost immediately went to sleep. She woke, once, when she tried to shift on her side in her sleep. But she winced and rolled to her back again. When she woke again, she kept her eyes shut. Maybe if she was very still and quiet, she could fall back to sleep.
"It's been seven hours." Utakata sounded bored.
Aiko sighed and peeled off the covers. It was dark outside- probably not quite midnight. She leaned against the window. "It would probably be least conspicuous to wait until morning to head on."
Unspoken was that she would prefer to put some distance between her and any possible Mist-nin nearby.
Utakata took a few moments to gather his thoughts. "Do you believe we should travel together?" He seemed completely uninterested, but he wouldn't have raised the topic if that were true.
Aiko bit her lower lip. Yes. No. She was lonely. They'd never got on well. He could watch her back. He could stab her in it.
"Am I not what you expected?" Utakata tilted his head to the side, eyelashes covering most of his gaze. "I admit trepidation upon realizing that you forced my bijuu to recede. It seems convenient. However, I cannot ignore the potential value of such a skill."
Oh. That's why he cared.
Relief washed over her as soon as she understood that Utakata had an angle. That made sense. She smiled at him, eyes crinkling. He wasn't friends with his bijuu yet, or at least had to acknowledge that Saiken could be used against him. He thought he could use Aiko's abilities to counteract that weakness.
Utakata sniffed and turned away, preoccupied with fixing the futon so that he could get in. But when they left in the morning, they left together.
"Utakata-san. How do you feel about onsen?"
For the first time, he looked remotely approving. "I believe we could be at one by this time tomorrow."
Aiko hefted her little pink bag full of storage seals and stolen clothes, thinking about a long soak in mineral water. "I think we deserve that."
"After that, we deserve a spa."
"And then beef for dinner," Aiko agreed fervently. She'd even pay for that. Maybe.
"Mochi for dessert and then breakfast."
She and Utakata shared a look.
"This partnership might work better than I had anticipated," Utakata said thoughtfully.
~~~
Team Onsen took two weeks off for well-deserved pampering, and then another week for some gratuitous spoiling in a wealthy coastal town. They didn't see another hunter-nin, but they spent more than either of them was truly comfortable with. Living the high life necessitated a lot of cold, hard, cash.
"I feel funny about not paying the massage therapists," Aiko explained guiltily. "Sleeping in empty hotel rooms and sneaking into onsen doesn't hurt anyone or take up too much of their time. But when it's something else-"
"I understand," agreed Utakata, who took the route of actually paying whenever he was the one taking charge. "Even your amorality has to have limits."
"Does it?" Aiko asked wistfully. She closed her (stolen) wallet. "I guess I know where I could procure some funds."
It only took a few days to find a supplier. Utakata took one look at the place, gave her an expression that implied, 'No', and said he'd wait at the hotel.
"Okay, hime," Aiko muttered at his back. He stiffened, but kept walking.
It was fine. At least she knew he was going to be queasy about those kinds of things. When Aiko returned without any visible baggage, Utakata seemed somewhere between confused and warily proud.
She did not tell him that the goods were in storage seals, since it seemed a shame to disturb whatever growing faith he might have in her moral character.
"May I suggest an alternate methodology for improving our fiscal state?"
She stood back and let Utakata pick a nice, boring businessman. He helped him come to the conclusion that losing a rival would be worth paying a nice lump sum.
"Because that was soooo much better than what I picked?" Aiko asked doubtfully.
Her temporary partner gave her a dirty look. "Your selection catered to vice."
'What a crotchety old person.'
"Catered to vice?" Aiko shook her head in disbelief. "We just killed a guy. Your priorities are weird."
Utakata made a show of counting out his money. "Hmm."
She rolled her eyes and did not tell him that she had actually passed on product while he was sweet-talking their client. Her methodologies worked too.
Their next client was acquired through an information broker. Utakata scowled, but Aiko felt a sort of stubborn pride.
"Doing business this way has always worked for me," she said under her breath while the paperwork was being retrieved.
Utakata gave her a dry look. "When was that, grandmother? I assure you that things have changed since your heyday."
'Grandmother?'
Aiko couldn't respond.
Okay, so he was seventeen in this timeline and she was actually a little older than he was. But grandmother?
A scratchy, erping sound crawled up her throat.
"In all seriousness, I am curious. What are you, thirty five?" Utakata asked, sounding polite as anything.
At that, she lost her cool. Aiko whirled around and jammed her finger into his chest. "You've got to be kidding-"
"Should I come back?" The broker leaned over the counter, twirling her ponytail around her fingers. She seemed distinctly unimpressed. The brilliant orange and scarlet tattoos up her arms rippled with the fidgeting motion.
Aiko put her hand down. "No. We're good, sorry."
When they left, Utakata picked up their original conversation. "These people are risky to deal with," he reminded. "They will choose the route that will be most financially beneficial. Without the protection of a state government, we are disposable."
She gritted her teeth.
He wasn't wrong. But real missing nin did this kind of thing all the time, and got by. Well. Most of them died doing it, but state shinobi died on official missions too. She didn't need somebody else to arrange things for her all the time. He wasn't her babysitter.
"It's not a bad mission," Aiko said, after a very long pause. "We're just retrieving an item."
"We're crossing an international border." Utakata sounded strangely nervous about that.
She shot him a look, a bit baffled by that. "What? It's just Fire Country-"
Aiko fell silent. Right. She wasn't a Fire Country citizen anymore. That would be a problem if they were apprehended.
Utakata was watching her face, she realized. But she didn't know what was so interesting. She cleared her expression. He looked away.
"Is it strange that we are required to return to the broker to collect payment?" Utakata asked, uncomfortable. "I would think that the client-" he stopped when she shook her head.
"No, that's normal." Aiko laced her fingers behind her back. "When the subject is particularly sensitive, you often don't meet the client or their representative directly. It provides more protection and deniability."
The open, thoughtful expression Utakata gave her made him look young and inexperienced. Aiko scowled, looking away to the path ahead.
'Thirty five. Honestly.'
They managed to let the topic drop. It didn't come back up for the next couple of days, when the looming border crossing had their nerves stretched tight.
Her companion tilted his head up towards the sky, letting leaf-dappled light move over his features. Despite his running commentary, he seemed at peace out in the middle of nowhere. "I fear that this is a foolish mission. The possibility of gaining outside attention is too high."
Aiko rolled her eyes. "You said the last one I tried to pick was below your abilities," she pointed out tiredly. "And… what the other thing?"
"Dignity." He paused. "And it was below both for me," Utakata acknowledged calmly. "I cannot speak for you." His eyes weren't even open. "But any mission that involves unnecessary and unidentified parties is nonsense. We should forget this mission."
Her eye twitched.
"Sleeping in nice hotels is not nonsense," Aiko rejected. "Just because you want to commune with nature-" here she fluttered her hands mockingly "-doesn't mean that I should suffer."
"You think I enjoy living rough any more than you do?"
When he was angry, he spoke differently, Aiko noted. How funny.
"Are you even listening?"
"No," Aiko said honestly.
Utakata glowered in silence for most of the tragically nature-marred walk to the edge of Fire Country's borders. They slipped over the border undisturbed.
Some level of Aiko was annoyed by that. Come on, what the hell was going on with border security? Two reasonably powerful and unaffiliated nin just walked into the country without so much as a, 'Can I see your papers aaggh stop killing me I'm just doing my job?'
'The country is too big for entire border to be properly patrolled,' Aiko reminded herself. 'It's not like the perimeter outside of Konoha.'
That still wasn't quite an excuse for the shoddy job that the Sandaime was doing of information dealing. The fact that team seven went out with no intelligence on Wave's climate could only be the result of gross incompetency or blind negligence.
'At least it's not a big deal. Zabuza and Haku really aren't a match for Kakashi. Most missing nin aren't.'
She did not look at Utakata. She didn't want to consider that matchup in too much detail.
In a pinch, she'd prefer to turn on Utakata. But really, it would be nice if he survived. Utakata was a jinchuuriki. Now that she was on team 'Anyone But Obito, That Jerk,' it made sense to protect all the jinchuuriki she could. Right?
'Ew, I'm not getting soft. Am I?'
"I can't figure it out." Utakata's voice was soft, but frustration tainted his words. "You know that I am a Kirigakure defector. Where are you from?"
Aiko blinked, caught off-kilter by the topic change. "I'm not a missing nin." She regretted that honesty when Utakata gave her a shocked look. She shrugged, breaking eye contact.
He was clearly chewing over what he'd learned. But he didn't ask.
They completed the mission with surprisingly little trouble. They got in and out, moving back over the border four days later with their gains. They took a hard pace on that first day, but slowed to a relaxing stroll once they were out of sight.
"You are strangely familiar with that household's architecture," Utakata insinuated.
Aiko sighed, wishing she knew a little less about Fire Country's nobility. They were constantly engaged in petty fuckery. "If you've seen one Fire Country mansion, you've seen them all. They're in competition to see who can have the stiffest, most old fashioned place. It's some kind of status thing, antiquity." She irritably waved away the thought. "Anyway,-"
A tree cracked.
"Missing nin!"
She hit the ground on reflex. She had to get up, because ANBU Tortoise was going to-
Wait. What?
"Dynamic entry!" Lee crowed, bouncing on his heels. Neji and Tenten were at his side, expressions somewhere between belligerent and embarrassed to be there.
Gai set his hands on his hips and beamed, a thumb up. "Dishonorable renegades! I am here to bring you to justice!"
"What," Utakata said faintly. It wasn't a question, because there was no question that should have Gai as an answer. Tenten looked away in what had to be sympathy.
Aiko patted the air in his general direction, as she got to her feet again. "It's alright."
"Alright?" This time, the bewildered expression he leveled was at her.
Light pinged off paper-white teeth. "Foul miscreants! You will return the stolen property and face trial for your misdeeds!"
"What," Utakata repeated, voice small and bewildered.
"Shhh," Aiko soothed. She took a step over to pat his hand. "I have this under control." She passed over the little pink bag that held their ill-gotten gains and general supplies. Utakata took it numbly.
Then she struck her own pose, arms akimbo. "Shinobi of Konoha!" Aiko bellowed, a stupid grin pulling at her face. She faintly heard Tenten say, 'Oh god'. "I reject your assessment of my moral character. You, sir, are the scoundrel!"
'I've always wanted to do this.'
She had never actually seen Gai look so happy. Lee's eyes were wide.
"I challenge you to a competition, to prove who is in the right!" Aiko pointed at Gai with her whole hand, making a chopping motion. He was frozen, all but quivering with excitement.
"We will prove the righteousness of our cause through strength of arms!" Gai bellowed. Something sparkled.
"No, a race!" Aiko countered. She could feel the instant that Utakata caught on.
'Finally. He's been traveling with me long enough that he should know I don't do things I can't win.'
"A-ha!" Gai fist-pumped. Lee mimicked the motion off to the side. "An unwise proposal, my fiendish friend. So you think you are fast? I have a most excellent speed-training regimen." He flexed. "I never boast, but I run one thousand laps of Konoha in the morning, and 5oo at night. I carry lumber on my back in the morning, and pull sleds full of children up hill in the winter!"
That was actually impressive.
Then he pointed at her. "And you, missing-nin-san?"
"Oh, me?" Aiko pointed at her chest and blinked, lips pouting innocently. "What do I do? How do I practice my speed?"
Gai and Lee leaned into the theatricality of it all. Seemingly unconscious of her own attention, Tenten held her breath. Neji was glaring at the ground, with strangely pink cheeks.
"I run from Mist hunter-nin." Aiko fanned her face with her hand.
Team nine collapsed in disappointment.
"You run from Mist hunter-nin?" Lee repeated, sounding doubtful.
Aiko nodded agreement. "Yeah." She scowled, the emotion genuine this time, because hunter-nin were annoyingly persistent. She did expect to be seeing them again soon. "They just show up all the time: I impersonate Mist nobility, there's Mist hunter nin. I find myself in cahoots with a Mist missing nin, there's Mist hunter-nin." She made a fist for emphasis, smacking it against her palm. "I take three hours to select candy from the machine- there's Mist hunter nin."
"Okay," Gai said uncertainly. He exchanged a look with Lee. "Why?"
She shrugged. "The stupid Mizukage may be under the stupid impression that I attempted to assassinate him." At that news, Utakata made a choked sound behind her. That did sound kind of bad. Aiko hastened to explain, "I didn't, of course, I didn't know the guy. I don't care if he pissed or went
fishing."
Well. That wasn't true anymore.
Aiko corrected herself. "Well. I didn't care then, but now he can go fuck a whole-"
"I of course believe the lady. Back to our race, missing-nin-san!" Gai suggested, smile a bit cracked.
~~~
"You cheated," Utakata accused sullenly.
"Ninja," Aiko reminded, sing-song. "Besides, I didn't cheat. Not technically anyway. Neither of us said it was solely a footrace. If he didn't want me to use ninjutsu, he should have said so."
"You are a bad woman."
'Aww, he was just starting to think I wasn't irredeemable. How cute.'
She grinned over at the sulking teenager and threw an arm over his shoulder. "I went back for you, didn't I?"
There was a long silence.
"So, you attempted to assassinate the Mizukage?" Utakata sounded very tired, and perhaps a bit depressed.
"Not really," Aiko stalled. She rubbed at the back of her neck. "I was experimenting with a fuinjutsu piece, and one thing led to another, and then I realized I had accidentally pierced past all the feeble security that the incompetents-"
Utakata cleared his throat.
"highly competent professionals that Mist produces presented, through my great capability and not their lack thereof," Aiko completed seamlessly. "And stumbled into the Mizukage." She frowned. "Neither of us came out of that looking good. Maybe he's embarrassed."
Her companion groaned.