"What is your obsession with Zabuza about?"
Aiko flipped the bingo book shut and aimed a scowl at her companion.
Utakata was perched on the table, lounged back indolently on his elbows. He was doing that strange thing where he posed so that his robes fell open at the collar.
She looked away. "I don't have an obsession."
He made a polite, 'Ah,' sound of comprehension.
'I have a good reason to keep an eye on him. That's not an obsession.'
Bingo books really weren't enough current information, though. She was starting to get nervous about timing. She didn't want to be absent for Team seven's mission to Wave. What if she missed them?
She wasn't certain what she wanted to do, but she did want to see them. Just to be sure everyone was alright and things were going to be fine.
'Maybe I should pick Sakura up like a suitcase and take her with me. If she doesn't show up for the exams, Orochimaru can't kill her.'
Aiko winced and put the book away, zipping her bag with a harsh motion.
Utakata followed her with his eyes, apparently content to wait her out.
'That would probably make me an actual criminal. Konoha would not be pleased. Plus she would probably want to go home and that just sounds like a bummer.'
"I have been contemplating procuring our next task." Utakata swung one foot off the table. "There are some large financial institutions in the area. It would not be too difficult to locate a wealthy person who could think of a use for skills like ours."
"Yeah?" Aiko leaned over the table, resting her forearms. "Anything that could take us to Wave Country?"
Utakata raised an eyebrow, but settled back to think. "Perhaps. I see… As a country without a shinobi village, it would be comparatively safe to operate within those borders. However, there is little opportunity to be found in Wave."
He paused. "And even less in the way of comfort and stylish accommodation."
She batted that thought away. "Yes, they're destitute." She wrinkled her nose. "There's gotta be someone off-shore who has an interest in the country. Someone who could stand to profit from, say, increased contact with Wave."
Her companion frowned. "Increased contact? That depends on what resources Wave has." He kicked the table with his heel. "It's an island nation, so they're probably a fishing culture. There is little profit to be had from those exports."
That was true. Aiko screwed up her face to think. "Since it's cut off from the mainland, it's likely old-fashioned. I bet someone could make a lot of money off of them, if it were easy for them to spend money on modern conveniences."
It was a neat solution, actually. If she was hired for that purpose, making sure that the bridge went up would be her job as well. It wouldn't seem at all strange that she was hanging around Wave, and she could lend a hand to team 7 if needed.
Utakata blew out air slowly. "Who could say no to a washer-dryer combo?"
Aiko grinned and slapped the table of their suite. "Exactly. So, the client we're looking for is someone who already deals in technological exports for civilian production cities."
Saying that was easier than finding someone who met their criteria. Aiko and Utakata split up. The first thing that Aiko did was change into a kimono so that she looked more respectable. After that, she made appointments at various offices. Two of her potential clients were willing to see her that first day. Neither of them was interested in a potential business opportunity, so she met Utakata at the hotel.
He seemed more disgruntled than usual. "I begin to suspect that Wave has been deemed off-limits to civilian merchants for some reason. You had little luck as well?"
'Makes sense. Gato couldn't maintain strict control over the economy without exerting pressure over possible competition. He has them scared off.'
Aiko sighed, and let that be her reply. She rubbed at her temples. "I have another three appointments tomorrow."
Utakata eyed her sideways. "I have two," he admitted stiffly.
'Ha. I win.'
The next morning, she tried a little harder on her appearance. Utakata watched, bemused, as she neglected her usual braid in favor of twisting her hair up.
She frowned, anticipating the question. "I think I look a little older and more serious with my hair up."
That impression was not shared by her first appointment, who apparently mistook her for a prospective secretary. She left in disgust. The second appointment of the day was with a petite lady who had a head crowned with steel grey hair and a hard look. She invited Aiko to leave a resume, but had no interest in an expansion of her business dealings.
Aiko walked into her last appointment with the Rinnegan blazing and more or less informed a hapless middle-aged man that he would be delighted to hire her and an associate to ensure that the land of Wave was made accessible as an audience for product. She picked up a brochure on the way out to see what it was she was eager to sell to Wave. Ah. She had a passion for small kitchen appliances, apparently.
'I can get behind that. Rice cookers are great. They save a lot of time and the food is always perfect.'
"This rate is surprisingly generous." Utakata tilted his head at the contract she had returned with.
Aiko preened, pretending to examine her fingernails. "I can be persuasive."
He gave her a doubtful look, eyes tracking all the way over her body, but he withheld comment.
'What, like I can't be good at something?'
She glowered. "Pack up. We're leaving." Aiko untied her obi with more viciousness than was strictly necessary and tossed it aside. She was tempted to wear the hunter-nin outfit. Even though it was short in the shins, it was the only actual shinobi gear she owned.
But it wasn't even the standard Special Ops gear. It was the weird optional kimono + turtleneck combination that Mei's older bodyguard liked so damn much.
It was just really dorky looking.
Aiko cringed away from it for the moment, but she unsealed the outfit and actually folded it into her backpack. It'd be a little easier to access that way. She dropped the kimono and shimmied her way into a skirt, long socks, and loose top.
"You could leave the room!" Utakata snapped. She glanced over in surprise to see that his face was bright pink. He was glaring at the wall.
"No chance, assbutt. I was here first." She flipped her hair out, feeling a smirk work its way out. Ha. Still got it. When she sauntered out the door, he grudgingly followed on her heels. Utakata fell slightly behind a few minutes later, however, so Aiko gave him a questioning look.
The teenage was lending one last wistful look to the bright lights of the metropolis they were leaving behind.
"Aa," Aiko murmured, nodding agreement. "Much nicer. We'll bring our own food and then treat ourselves after we leave Wave."
Utakata wavered, and then nodded decisively. "It will have to do."
Reaching Wave through water-walking was somewhat of a conspicuous giveaway that they were shinobi, so Aiko and Utakata waited to make the crossing until the sun had gone down. The day they arrived was unfortunately timed- the moon was a waning sliver. They had little light to use as they picked their way across the surface.
That, combined with the fact that neither of them was truly familiar with the area, led to a bit of unplanned excitement when Aiko fell to her ankle in a sudden shock of tide, grabbed Utakata's sleeve for balance, and then pulled him down too.
The whirlpool tucked them down, down, down. Aiko struggled, attempting to manipulate the water around her and failing because the natural chakra moving in the current was already gripping all the material and she kicked but she couldn't get out of the funnel and she couldn't see the light what way was up-
Bijuu's chakra tik-tik-tik'd into the water and thrust outward, forcing everything away. In the waterless space, Aiko blinked.
'So this is what it's like inside one of those bubbles.'
Something unpleasant happened in her ears when Utakata's bubble shot straight up, breaking the surface of the ocean. They splashed out of the water and into cold air.
Aiko caught herself before she fell in again, balancing on the turbulent surface. She shivered. She glanced over at her companion.
The Mist nuke-nin pursed his lips to spit out saltwater, wringing his hair with his free hands. "Uzumaki-san," he said.
Aiko cringed, feeling the weight of her sodden backpack like a stone on her spine. "Hai?"
Utakata looked at her, expression perfectly blank. "There may be dangerous whirlpools in the vicinity."
She put her hands over her face and giggled.
Aiko wasn't laughing an hour later when she slogged onto shore. The sea air was fast-moving and cold. On the bright side, it dried her clothes out after only twenty minutes on shore. But those clothes wrinkled and smelled of salt and she kept finding sand in her hair and once there was a biting insect on her eyelid.
She stopped, clenched her fist, and made a sound like a tea kettle boiling over. Utakata took a step back.
"There are no hotels on this island, are there?"
He sounded just as miserable as she felt.
"No," Aiko noted bitterly. "There aren't."
'If I was alone, I would be using Hiraishin. I wouldn't have to do any of this walking everywhere bullshit. I could do missions out here and still sleep on an adjustable featherbed.'
She pushed the thought away. That was immature. She'd been trained to be better than that. She would work with Utakata to set up a base of operations, sleep in shifts, and hunt local wildlife in order to supplement their supplies. She knew what to do and how to do it.
Every fiber of her being rose up and rebelled.
"No," Aiko said, shaking her head decisively. "No." She ignored Utakata's 'No, what?' and held out a hand expectantly. When he didn't leap to hold it, she glared him down. "I decided no," Aiko explained, feeling determined. "I was hiding this from you, but that was before we came to mosquito island. I am going to touch that tree-" here she pointed "-and then we will check into the nicest hotel I've been in for the night. We can come back to continue working in the morning."
Utakata was still looking at the tree. His mouth opened, but he didn't say anything.
She stomped over and touched the tree. She left a seal on it.
Utakata was still looking at the tree. He appeared mildly concerned.
She stomped back to him and took his hand.
"I do not understand your plan, Uzumaki-san," Utakata said slowly. He did not try to take his hand away. "You have indeed touched the tree. However, I-"
His voice cut off in surprise. He let his mouth hang open. Aiko dropped his hand and pushed past him, intent on the reception desk.
It was an oasis. It was one shining spot of happiness and civilization in the dark night of nature and discomfort. The young man sitting at it seemed alarmed at her approach. He shrank back, holding up a sheet of paper like a talisman against evil.
At another time, she might have wondered what that distressed mien said about her appearance.
"Luxury suite," Aiko hissed. The clerk soundlessly reached beneath his desk, opened a drawer, and dropped a numbered key into her open hand. The sensation of a 'kai' from Utakata rippled across the room, pulling at her attention. He made a small, offended sound when the scenery did not change, but Aiko didn't turn to look. "Thank you." Her teeth clipped when she bit out the words. She caught a glimpse of Utakata standing still by the door.
She swiveled over to him. "Are you coming?" Aiko jingled the keys. "Because I get the bathroom first, but I presume that you don't want to sleep outside-"
Utakata was already at her side, trotting up the stairs to their room. When the door shut behind them, he drifted over to pick up the hotel advertisements left on the desk. Aiko didn't take the time to see what he was examining.
She was working on pulling out her contents of her bad and working to empty all the storage seals she'd had clothes stored in. The fabric ended up tossed in a pile to the left, while the ruined, bleeding stationary ended up crumpled into the trash can.
'I can't believe it all got wet. Where am I going to get more paper? This is bullshit.'
A high, confused kind of giggle worked its way out of Utakata's mouth. She glanced over to see that his face was buried in his hands.
He'd be fine. She went to take a shower.
When she came out, Utakata was staring out the window. Aiko stopped, still sponging off her hair. Some long-dormant instinct for caution was waking up to blink at him.
"The blinds are closed," Aiko said cautiously. "What are you looking at?"
Aiko blinked. Utakata had crossed the room. His hands were around her upper arms. He leaned down.
"What the hell was that." He shook her once. "Who the hell are you." Utakata's fingers tightened. "And as a tertiary question, why do you masquerade as a moron?"
'I may have underestimated the effect this would have on him.'
She leaned back and carefully refrained from peeling his fingers off. Utakata seemed like he might need a physical grip to the real world. Aiko bent her arms to touch his forearms gently and made sure her breathing was slow.
"It's a special fuinjutsu technique," Aiko explained in an even tone. "It allows me to place a marker at locations that I touch. I use them to re-orient myself in space and time."
Utakata blinked down at her. His eyelashes were prettily curved. "In space and time?" His voice was small. His grip loosened.
Aiko laced her fingers through his and tried to be sensitive to his distress. Even though he was being, like, a total drama queen about the whole thing.
"Yes."
That probably wasn't good enough. She tried again.
"I should have told you beforehand."
Utakata groaned and threw his head back, tearing his hands away. He –honest to god- put the back of his palm to his forehead. "The other question, please?"
Aiko had to think back on that a moment. "My-" she faltered. "I never told you my name?" Oh. Wow. "Aiko." She paused. "Uzumaki Aiko." How awkward. Her mind was racing, trying to remember because she had to have, sure she'd- "Did I ask your name?"
Her gut sunk when he shook his head.
Oh, hell.
"You just knew it." Utakata broke away and sank down onto the bed, facing away from her. "I assumed that you had heard of me."
'No, I just knew you in an alternate timeline. All that I know about you is that you end up banging the Mizukage and we never got along.'
Aiko nodded and lied prettily. "I read the bingo book."
He grunted in response.
She looked down at her hands and fidgeted.
"You didn't so much as blink when I called you Uzumaki-san," Utakata said dully. "From that I could only conclude that you expected me to recognize you, or are otherwise used to being recognized on sight."
'Holy shit. I didn't think about that.'
Aiko cringed.
"From this, I can only conclude that this information proves you are somehow from a village where your family traits would be easily discerned. You say you are not a missing nin."
'I need dumber friends.'
"Therefore, it must somehow be true that you are or were once a legitimate shinobi, but your exit from your home village did not involve rebellion or excommunication. In any case, you were not trained outside of a village system."
'I treated him like he would already know these things.'
"One of two impossible things must be true." They made eye contact. Aiko felt apprehensive, Utakata just looked weary. "You are indisputably a shinobi of Uzushiogakure, yet you appear approximately twenty. Either you are older than you appear, or you have somehow skipped the intervening years between the fall of Uzushiogakure."
'Close, but no dice.'
"Initially, the idea that you were disguising your age was much more plausible. By my math, you could be as young as 35 and still plausibly consider Uzushiogakure your home. As Uzumaki are noted for their longevity and youthfulness, your appearance could be natural. Additionally, I have heard of at least one Uzumaki descendant who utilizes a powerful jutsu to remain young."
"Tsunade?" Aiko asked, feeling the urge to contribute somehow.
Utakata merely nodded. "Just so. However, your reliance on information gathering methodologies that are clearly out of date was notable. That is compounded by your queer statement about accidentally attacking the Mizukage and the fuinjutsu that you used to transport us here. I can only conclude that you were telling the truth." He gave a sideways little frown. "You were conducting a fuinjutsu experiment that involved space-time manipulation. You made a mistake, and found yourself removed from your own time period and in a hostile situation."
The theory about where she'd come from was off, but holy hell.
Aiko sank down onto the bed and tangled her hands in her hair. "Wow," she said softly. "Wow." She looked up at him. "I'm sorry I ever thought you were just a pretty face."
Utakata shrugged and ran a hand over his hair. "I can't decide if you're the best shinobi I ever met or the most fantastically inept woman alive."
Well… Aiko struggled to work up indignation. He wasn't wrong.
"Why choose?" Aiko nudged him with her shoulder.
'He knows a lot. Too much, really.'
The teenager made a huffing sound and nudged her back.
'I should kill him.'
"I won't tell." Utakata sounded more like he was granting her a favor than pleading for his life. He didn't even know that he should be concerned. He was smirking at her, enamored with his own cleverness.
Aiko felt her lips quirk up.
'I don't want to kill him. He's funny.'
She slung an arm around his shoulders, ignoring the prissy sniff he let out. "It's not like anyone would believe that, ne?" She squeezed, giving the closest thing to a hug she could manage casually.
"You'd better come up with another backstory," Utakata commented stiffly. He raised an eyebrow and leaned away. "Or at least a cover identity. Unless of course you have plans? I assumed that there is no one you can contact."
Her cringe was real. "No…" Aiko thought of the suspicious bastards that she had associated with. Who on earth wouldn't be suspicious if she contacted them? The truth would seem like a contrived cover story. "I- I tried to contact Hoseki and Mitsuo, but…" she trailed off, too morose to finish the statement. It was definitely not framed to give the impression that her team was dead.
'Dead is more believable than 'not born yet' anyway'.
Utakata came to the obvious conclusion and didn't push. "I see." He very awkwardly put a sympathetic hand on her leg to sort of pat. He immediately withdrew the limb, clearly thinking better of the motion.
"Yeah, no." Aiko scooted away and flopped backwards onto the bed. Utakata let her go with unhidden relief.
Neither of them was terribly suited to mouthing platitudes.
"So." Aiko toed Utakata's side, smirking when he squirmed and glared. "A cover identity. Do I strike you are more of a Hikari or a Hironori? Maybe Keiko?"
"Aina," Utakata said flatly.
What.
She stared. "Love vegetable," Aiko repeated. "You want to call me the Vegetable of Love. That's- well first of all, that's too close to my real name. And that's awful. No. Just no." She pushed her foot against him again, hard enough that her foot flattened and molded against his flank. It was almost a kick, really, not a playful nudge.
"Nothing for it. You are indisputably a vegetable." Utakata grabbed her foot to stop her from digging her toes into his backside.
"That's ridiculo-"
"Cabbage."
Aiko puffed her cheeks up in indignation. "No, st-"
"Daikon."
"You'rebeingstupid!" Aiko rushed out before Utakata could cut in. Their eyes met in a stare-off.
He looked away first, rolling his eyes upward. "I can't believe you suggested naming yourself 'Respectful Child.' It's positively absurd. And 'Hironori' is a male name." Utakata released her foot.
She bent her leg to pull it away from his grasp. "Yeah, but I like the sound of it." At the unimpressed expression he leveled, Aiko pouted. "Fine. Hikari it is." She gave him a challenging look, but he kept his mouth shut about that one.
"About Wave… We will try again in the morning?" Utakata asked.
Aiko felt her shoulders slump. "We'd better."
"How do you want to approach?" Aiko made a kissy face at her expression in the mirror, idly massaging lotion into her cheeks. She looked wan, but not nearly as tired as she felt.
Utakata leaned against the bathroom door, immaculate and bored. "Wave has no shinobi. We could go undisguised."
She uncapped mascara and shrugged one shoulder, almost ready to take an early start to the day. Her plush bathrobe slipped down dangerously far past her collarbone with the motion. "We could. I doubt anyone would share information with us. They'd probably be terrified."
He gave her a sideways expression, but one side of his mouth was tugging upwards. "But of course, we could instead use the ready-made explanation for two young people traveling together and be perceived as harmless."
"Well, if you insist." Aiko held her eyes still and parted her lips just a little, concentrating on slicking the dark paint on her lashes. As soon as she was done, she gave her partner a mischievous look. "Since you're so set on it and all."
Utakata looked at his nails.
Aiko capped her mascara and curled her hand into a fist around the plastic tube. "But if you tell them I'm pregnant this time, I will shove my foot so far up your ass that your dentist-"
"I get the point, Uzumaki," Utakata cut her off. The flustered pink tint to his cheeks belied the lie in his superior tone. "In any case, we will begin with reconnaissance. I trust that you can conceal yourself from civilians to gather information about the island in order to assess what trade impediments exist."
'Oo, I ace this test. The answer is Gato. He's fending off any competition. Don't know how, though.'
She considered pushing aside the change of subject and rubbing her point in, just to make Utakata squirm.
'He's kind of naïve. It's cute how he covers his embarrassment by trying to provoke me. Not very subtle, is it?'
She let it be. Aiko packed up her vanity bag and stalked over to frown at the enormous pile of civilian clothes left in the hotel room. Utakata watched her through heavily lidded eyes, and re-posed so that the excellent line of his neck and jaw was highlighted.
"I kind of want to leave this here." Aiko heaved a sigh, not happy about the thought of going through and putting away the wardrobe she'd accumulated over months of aggressive consumerism.
Utakata didn't offer comment. He just watched.
She wilted. "Can you, like, get me some hotel stationary?" Aiko waved her hand in the vague direction of the lobby. "I think the front desk will remember my description, after how we checked in." And arrest me.
Utakata made a sound of dim recollection. "I find myself surprised that they did not contact any authorities," he admitted. But he pushed himself to a vertical position and glided to the door. "I will locate enough paper."
While he was gone, Aiko sorted her treasures. Kimono, dresses, skirts, pants, a truly stunning array of (generally pilfered) jewelry and tops-
'I might have a problem.'
She stared. She picked up a kanzashi and slid it into her hair, as if she could make a dent in the trove by putting on some jewelry.
"It didn't seem like so much when I just bought two or three things at a time," Aiko defended. The empty room did not respond.
'How am I going to get all this crap to Wave?'
Somehow, she sealed away all of her treasures. As soon as that was finished, Aiko took Utakata to the point they had stopped at last night and stopped to get her bearings. Finding the town that the bridge was being built out of wouldn't be difficult. But…
'I'm not sure how I'll know when I am. Or how I will tell Utakata not to take care of the problem right away, assuming Gato is active but Zabuza isn't hired yet.'
The logistics were… bad, frankly.
She stole a glance at her partner. Utakata was running his fingers down the bole of the tree she'd tapped yesterday. A faint line was pressed into his forehead.
'I'll make it work. Somehow.'
"You're not going to find it unless you're a sensor." Aiko bent to leap up into a branch, out of casual eyesight. Utakata followed a moment later.
"Is the settlement large enough that we should split to cover more ground?" Utakata glanced over, eyes shadowed by bangs.
She strained to remember. "Not sure," Aiko admitted. "Not as far as I remember. But things like that can change. We'll have to play it by ear."
They stopped talking altogether at the first signs of civilization, falling into grim professionalism. There was a point where forest and animal trails bled into a road, and the brush was scarred and fought away with fire and blades. They passed one abandoned house, but there was movement not too far away. It wasn't exactly bustling, but there were enough people around that they had to use caution.
She led the jinchuuriki to the edge of town, exchanged a significant glance, and then dashed through the open to spring back up, onto a roof this time. It creaked. Aiko froze, muscles tense, trying to let the shoddily-built construction settle. She held her breath. It didn't creak again.
'I can't even see him from here.'
Instead of gesturing, Aiko licked her lips and gave the subtlest of chakra pulses.
'We need to develop a system. We can't communicate if he only knows Mist's tap code and I only know Konoha's. If either of us was a team player, we'd already have thought of that.'
Aiko tabled the idea for later.
She did catch Utakata's dash across the open. A grandmother jerked her head when he passed her, but the head-shake she gave indicated that she dismissed whatever she'd noticed. Aiko was still watching the civilian continue on her walk when Utakata shifted on the next roof over. He tilted his head to get her attention, eyebrow raised.
Aiko mimed a shrug and brought her hands together in order to take them apart, miming splitting up. She tapped her chest with her right and then indicated one side of town- the side she knew had the bridge. Besides, the other side of town smelt worse, befouled by something hot and chemical oozing on the wind.
Utakata scowled. But he nodded and took off in the stinky direction.
She was left to blink in mild confusion.
'What did I say?'
Weird. Aiko shook off the oddity in favor of exploration. She hid in the shadows of buildings and moved only when unobserved, relying on old-fashioned stealth instead of genjutsu. Anything more sophisticated seemed unnecessary. She didn't think there were shinobi around yet, but ninjutsu could attract them.
'It's…' Aiko hesitated, crouched on an overhang. 'Worse than I remember, somehow. Did I really leave these people like this?'
She strained her memory. But no, she didn't think so. The civilian inhabitants were thinner, their clothes stained and worn, and she didn't see a building that was anything other than shabby. The market was pitiful- but still every item sold, and there were lines full of people who didn't receive any groceries.
'Pathetic.'
Her stomach lurched, as if reminded that she'd treated herself to a pre-made bento that morning. She put a hand over it.
The bridge wasn't started, as far as she could tell. But there were indications that something was going on: significant foot traffic towards the outskirts of town with the bridge-site and less general hopelessness than she remembered.
'The whole town is in on it, I bet. They'd have to be. There are a lot more one-handed beggars than there were a few months ago, though. I doubt it's going well.'
A worker would probably know what was going on. She didn't remember any one-handed men working with Tazuna's crew, so they weren't her suspects.
Aiko waited patiently for a more likely candidate to walk by and then followed the man. He went nowhere interesting, so she tracked back out and tried to guess what preparations for construction would look like. Once she knew what she was looking for, she could confirm her suspicions that the locals should already be stock-piling and starting preparations.
'They… need some kind of material, right?'
Aiko strained to remember what the bridge had been made of, but she frankly hadn't paid much attention at the time. Construction seemed kind of boring. It… it could be done with wood. She knew that for sure. Yamato did that all the time. But wood didn't seem like the best choice for a bridge that was supposed to last for the ages.
'So, what, large rocks? Metal? That doesn't seem right.'
She slumped.
'This is embarrassing. This seems like a thing that most people would readily know. At least I can ask Utakata. He won't realize I'm inattentive, because he already thinks I'm some kind of stone age throwback.'
The thought was not that reassuring, but it was what she had. So she went back to the place where they had started and waited.
"Cement," Utakata answered, as soon as she posed the question. "A sort of glue mixed with rock that can be mixed on site and molded in large shapes. They would need large quantities of wood or metal for support, however." He pulled a leaf out of his hair and frowned disapprovingly at it before he let it drift to the ground. "Why do you ask?"
'How can they do that kind of work if they're starving?'
She shrugged off the question. "It's what I would do, if I was that near to the mainland," Aiko evaded. "Someone has to have considered the possibility of connecting instead of risking the currents. It would make our jobs easier if someone was already contemplating a construction project, ne?"
Slowly, deliberately, Utakata turned to face her dead-on. He raised one eyebrow. He didn't look like he was buying it.
'Oh, come on. I'm right, aren't I? That's not how I know, but I'm still right.'
"I do not believe the currents are the impediment to communication and trade," Utakata said, after a long silence. "All but one of the harbors have been burnt. The ship docked is a commercial shipping vessel, patrolled and guarded by civilian hirelings. I am more interested in the party responsible for these oddities than the possibility of a land crossing."
Aiko waited for him to say anything else, or to mention the name 'Gato'.
When he didn't say anything else, she forced a flippant smile onto her face. "Aa. Either way, this place is pretty sad, isn't it?"
Her teammate sort of shrugged and shifted away. "Destitute." He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, mouth twisting in revulsion. "You aren't contemplating doing anything charitable, are you?'
"No, no," Aiko denied hastily. "But the macro view of the situation hasn't yielded much information so far. We could befriend someone and get their perspective."
Utakata hmmd, unimpressed. "The community is smaller than I expected. They will recognize you as an outsider, and then wonder how you arrived." He relaxed, leaning against a tree. "In any case, I would prefer to focus our attentions on apparent aggressor, rather than speculate about possible resistance from the locals."
She frowned. He crossed his arms.
They stood at an impasse for a few minutes, watching the sun move directly overhead.
"We should part ways to approach the problem."
Aiko nodded agreement. "You try your plan, I'll try mine."
"Don't break our cover," Utakata said shortly. She shot a scowl at his back, but he was gone a moment later.
"What a brat," Aiko grumbled. She straightened her posture, checked her hair, and closed her eyes for just a moment to try to remember where Tazuna lived.
The builder had a family home outside of the town, not far from what would be the construction site. He probably had a half hour walk to work every day. And… it had been near a heavily wooded area, hadn't it?
With that in mind, it didn't actually take Aiko that long to track down the building. She settled in a treetop to watch the perimeter. Tsunami-san worked out in a garden behind the home for about two hours. She left, and returned forty minutes later holding Inari-chan by the hand. The boy's other arm was occupied by a thin workbook. After that, Tsunami-san painstakingly pumped water up from a well to do washing. Inari-chan was out of sight, likely moping inside. Aiko watched the little family until the sky began to darken, but she didn't see Tazuna-san at all. He didn't come trudging along the path home.
Aiko ventured close enough to see that Tsunami-san didn't even set a third place at dinner.
Her stomach hurt.
Surprised, Aiko put a hand to her gut and looked down.
'I must be hungry if that's looking good even after I saw the market where she got her food.'
She hesitated for a moment, but sprang away to find Utakata. He was already waiting for her, nearly invisible among the shadows of evening. When she held out her arm, he took it.
"Anywhere you'd like to go for dinner?" Aiko asked. She pushed down the uncomfortable feeling of domesticity that statement implied.
Utakata's arm was tense against hers. "No. Though I would advocate selecting another hotel for the night."
She took him to a port city that stretched nearly up to Lightning Country. Utakata looked vaguely ill and wobbly, but he set off towards the bright lights unprompted.
In the next morning, they parted ways in Wave Country again. This time, Aiko went directly to Tazuna-san's home and waited. About five minutes after sunrise, Tsunami-san walked Inari-chan out to town. A few minutes after they were out of sight, Aiko leapt out of her hiding spot and let herself into the house. She did a fast run-through, flipping it over for signs of Team seven or work plans for the bridge.
Tazuna-san had been cautious. There was nothing visibly connecting his family to any rebellious attempt to undermine Gato's chokehold on the island.
At least, not until Aiko pulled apart Tsunami-san's cake pans. She cracked a smile, unfolding creased designs.
'He'd trusted them to his daughter to hide.'
Tsunami-san had done a good job of it too, so Aiko put the blueprints back where she'd found them. It was just in time- it had been nearly half an hour since the family had left. Aiko hid upstairs until she heard the door open downstairs and then left by a window on the opposite side of the house.
She didn't strictly need to talk to Tsunami-san now. Aiko had a solid theory: Tazuna-san had left for Konoha to get bodyguards. He had probably been carried out under darkness by a local boatman. In his absence, his compatriots were attempting to maintain the pretense of normalcy. They were likely gathering the materials in secret as well, or concealing them near the site.
'But that's a lot to tell Utakata I just magically know,' Aiko told herself. 'Besides, Tsunami-san wouldn't be a bad in to have. She must know everything.'
So Aiko slipped around. She ran a hand over her hair and clothes to be certain that she still looked respectable. Then she slipped on her Rinnegan and knocked on the front door. She was waiting when Tsunami-san steeled herself enough to unlock and open it with trembling fingers.
"Hello," she said pleasantly. She was smiling. "I'm your childhood friend Hikari-chan. Invite me in and tell me all about what's been going on."
Tsunami-san's whole body relaxed, thrumming with endorphins and a powerful suggestion. "Hikari-chan! Please, come in. I'm doing some cleaning to prepare for guests."
Hikari-chan smiled, just like she had as a dutiful little girl with braided pigtails and a pocket full of meadow flowers. "I'd love to help, Tsunami-chan." She closed the door behind her.
"The situation has escalated," Aiko reported as soon as she had confirmed they were alone. Tsunami-chan hadn't recognized that yet, but Aiko could read between the lines. Gato knew that his biggest detractor had disappeared and that the town was covering for him. "I was right- there is attempt to subvert the forced moratorium on trade." She scowled. "The export company-"
"Gato-san," Utakata interrupted.
Aiko nodded. "Right, Gato was maintaining a stranglehold with mercenaries. But someone's upset that by seeking shinobi help. He's hired his own man in response."
That made a lot of sense in retrospect as an explanation for Zabuza's presence, and why Gato would have hired him if he was so unwilling to pay the price for a nukenin.
"Another shinobi- And we are certain this does not refer to us?" Utakata asked. His dark eyes were wide and with a start she remembered that he was really just a kid, not long out of his home village. His breathing was picking up in fast gasps. "It could. Someone is mistaken." He shook his head. "Our employer has sold us out. We should leave, before hunters-"
"Utakata!" Aiko held up her hands. "That's not possible." When he tried to interrupt, she made a warning 'ch-ch-ch' kind of sound. "Our employer can't have sold us out, because he's under the kind of genjutsu that he is just not getting out of. No one knows about us." Aiko reached out and gripped his shoulder to anchor him to the real world. "We're okay. And even if someone comes, we can kill them all. We're pretty great." The teen shuddered in her grip, but didn't pull away.
She could deal with revealing her tactics better than the fear of imminent capture. Fear makes shinobi stupid. He wouldn't hurt her with the information. Probably.
He seemed to collect himself. "Right." Utakata inhaled deeply, tilting his chin up. "You are not entirely incorrect. We shall remain as long as the situation does not become too dangerous. At that point, you will use your fuinjutsu to extract us."
"That seems fair," Aiko agreed, who had no intention of leaving to flee anything short of hunter-nin or Akatsuki. "The village will hire a Chuunin team, probably."
They would want to, anyway.
She continued. "We can let them do the work if we hang back and observe. Why endanger ourselves if another team will be working towards the same goal? Lazy and safe."
Utakata actually laughed. The sound was short and high and she'd never heard it before.
She froze warily.
"You are a terrible person," Utakata said. But it sounded more like an endearment than anything.