The last Monday of May arrived inexorably. It felt as if nothing had changed. In the morning, she trained with the other academy companions—or the "rookie 12," as some called them—while in the afternoon, after their group meal, she focused on reviewing the Uzumaki documents she hadn't yet read.
"What's all this?" Naruto asked, eyeing the numerous stacks into which she had sorted the documents. He picked one up at random. "A census from 1920?"
"Yeah, could be. There're all kinds of stuff here. It'll take us ages to figure out what it all says."
"I'm not sure I should be reading this stuff," Sasuke said. "These are confidential documents from your clan."
Naruto and Seina exchanged glances.
"Stay," she said. "The clan's jutsus are locked away in the trunk." She pointed over her shoulder with her thumb. "This is all just administrative stuff that's practically useless for Naruto, Karin, and me."
"No kidding. It's like contracts from 100 years ago."
And so Sasuke agreed to help them sift through the scrolls. Realizing the chaos in front of her, Seina decided to create another journal with infinite pages to transfer the information from the scrolls. While it wouldn't be the original document, it would be much more accessible. Among the papers strewn across the floor were expired contracts, censuses, taxes, land registries—every sort of administrative document, which she archived in the journal for posterity, more out of sentimentality than utility.
The most important recoveries were the clan's jutsus and books on learning fuinjutsu. She planned to read them someday, once she organized them by difficulty, but for now, she didn't have the time to learn something new from scratch.
"By the way… Itachi hasn't sent any letters, has he?" Sasuke asked as he carefully examined a scroll in his hands.
"No. It was obvious he wasn't going to respond," she said. "But I wouldn't give up hope."
"I'd keep sending him letters!" Naruto chimed in.
"Exactly. You can send short ones, just tell him what's going on with you—little things. If you keep at it consistently, you'll see, Itachi will give in and answer eventually."
Sasuke nodded. That same night, Sasuke gave her another letter to send to Itachi. Seina didn't write another one herself—she'd already said everything she needed to for now. Maybe she'd send one occasionally, just to get him used to her. Still, she remembered the pendants with the patronus charm. She'd planned to give the other two pendants to Naruto and Sasuke as a promotion gift, but… who would need one of those more than Itachi? In the end, she decided to send a short note and the opal pendant along with Sasuke's letter.
"Dear Itachi,
It's Seina again. I'm just writing to let you know the pendant is a gift for you. Try it. You might be surprised.
S."
She crafted a jewellery box and placed the pendant inside. Then, summoning a dove, she sent it flying into the night. What she hadn't told Itachi, of course, was that in addition to being a pendant, it was also a locator. She hoped he'd at least try it on once. The moment he did, she'd know where he was.
The next day, instead of training with the anbu, she was summoned to Shikaku's office. She felt a spark of excitement at her first mission as a jonin, but she soon realized little had changed. She was the first to arrive, followed shortly by someone who looked like Shino's father, Shibi, as well as Tokuma and Yamato.
"Welcome, everyone. Your mission is near the Valley of the End. Our informants have reported a new band of mercenary ninjas gathering there. Your objective is to eliminate them all. Shibi, you'll lead the team."
Seina listened as Shikaku provided the last details before dismissing them from the office. Shibi gave them 20 minutes to gather their gear, but since Seina and Yamato had their magical pouches with them, they went straight to the northern gate to wait for the others.
"Congratulations, Seina. How do you feel now that you're a jonin?" Yamato smiled as they walked.
"Sometimes it doesn't feel real, but then I realize my life hasn't changed much."
"That makes sense. As a tokubetsu jonin, you were already doing most of the same missions as a jonin. For you, I doubt there's much difference. Still, you should be proud of your promotion."
"I am."
She turned to see Tokuma and Shibi approaching, both carrying backpacks. They had no set time limit, and it was unclear how long the mission would take, but it was obvious they'd spend at least one night outside the village. If Shibi found it odd that Seina and Yamato carried only their pouches, he didn't comment. Tokuma, already used to seeing her pull improbable items from it, simply nodded in her direction.
They set off at a brisk pace, leaping through the trees toward the north. A mercenary band had apparently formed recently and had been extorting small villages in hopes of avoiding Konoha's notice. Seina didn't understand how they thought they could go unnoticed when Konoha had military bases, spies, and informants spread throughout the Land of Fire—and beyond, for that matter.
The rogue ninjas they were hunting were a mix of chunin and jonin defectors, some retired, who had avoided detection by their respective villages by living in exile for years. Why they had suddenly allied and begun causing trouble was unclear. Konoha wanted that information, which was likely why she was on the team, in addition to her role as a medical ninja. Otherwise, Shikaku would have ordered them to bring the leader back to the village alive, in addition to eliminating the group.
"Muta mentioned you can locate someone or something without having a physical trace," Shibi said, almost rhetorically. "Is that true?"
"Yes."
"Then lead us to them. It'll save us time."
Seina cast her tracking spell, running at the front of the team, with Shibi and Yamato a step behind her and Tokuma covering the rear. They ran for several hours, stopping for lunch at midday.
"When we find them, Tokuma will assess the number of enemies. Meanwhile, Yamato and I will surround the perimeter with traps. Seina, do you have a jutsu to confine them and prevent their escape?" She nodded. "Then you'll handle trapping them inside. Once they're contained, we'll eliminate them."
They resumed their march. At the pace they were going, they reached the area where the mercenaries had supposedly been seen in no time.
"We're farther west than expected," Tokuma said, peering into the distance with his Byakugan.
"But we're in the right place," Seina affirmed.
"Could they have moved their base?"
"Or maybe it's a trap…" Shibi muttered. "Let's get a bit closer. Tokuma, can you see them from here?"
"Not yet."
As night began to fall, they found the mercenaries' "base." It was a wooden cabin in the middle of nowhere, fairly large. It resembled the ranger cabins she'd seen before. It sat atop a tower of wooden beams, elevated for visibility, blending into the tree canopy but not sticking out above it to avoid detection.
"I see 16 people," Tokuma whispered, staring intently at the house ahead. "A few of them seem pretty strong."
"Seina, go with Yamato to set up the barrier. Tokuma and I will circle the base from the other side, laying traps. I'll leave one of my kikaichu with you in case of trouble."
Yamato and Seina slipped away to the other side. She pondered which barriers to set up without drawing attention. Eventually, she decided on a simple barrier infused with the stupefy spell around the house. She buried the carved stones along the perimeter, just a meter beyond Yamato's mokuton traps.
"And what exactly does this barrier do?" he asked in a low voice.
"If they touch it, they'll be knocked unconscious. Same goes for us, so we need to be careful."
He nodded at her warning. Though they were far enough away not to be heard, it was better to work silently. They finished encircling the perimeter, crossing paths with Shibi and Tokuma, before hiding in the branches of a tree with a clear view of the cabin.
"Is everything ready?" Then, glancing at her through his tinted lenses, Shibi added, "You're our medic, so avoid close combat."
Everyone nodded. Shibi raised both arms, releasing hundreds of kikaichu. Thanks to the cover of night, the insects went unnoticed, buzzing silently as they spread across the wooden beams. She wasn't sure how many minutes passed as they waited, but the terrified and painful screams of some enemies alerted them that the attack had begun. As expected, some of them fled in panic, pursued by the kikaichu, while one bright soul decided to use a katon jutsu inside the cabin to burn the insects.
"Stop it, you idiot!" shouted another, but it was already too late.
They all jumped from the burning cabin, leaping into the void. Shibi's insects drove them straight into the barriers. The ninjas attempted to escape by leaping through the air away from the kikaichu, but to their misfortune, they fell to the ground unconscious, like flies. Seeing this, the remaining ninjas avoided the barriers as if they were infected.
"They've got an Aburame! They're from Konoha!"
"Shut up, fool," another hissed.
She understood why some were terrified. It was both grotesque and fascinating to watch how Shibi's kikaichu drained unconscious ninjas of chakra, killing them within minutes. It was one of the least tragic deaths possible, considering she had seen Shino kill someone by sending his insects into their body to devour their flesh. She didn't even want to imagine what that person had felt before dying.
"Where are they?"
Yamato used mokuton at that moment, impaling three ninjas, further reducing the group of sixteen to eleven. Tokuma and Shibi jumped to the ground to fight alongside Yamato, revealing their positions, while Seina turned invisible, ready to intervene if necessary. Between Tokuma's byakugan, Yamato's defence and attack abilities, and Shibi's insects, the ninjas were no match for the three experienced jonin from Konoha. She descended to the ground when she saw that almost all the enemies were dead, except for a couple.
"We're not going to tell you a thing, Konoha scum!" spat one of the unknown ninjas. "Even if you kill us, you haven't finished us, not even close!"
She raised an eyebrow at his words. At that very moment, her enchanted ears caught the sound of a branch breaking almost 25 meters away. Immediately after, she detected the nearly imperceptible breathing of a ninja spying on them. Tokuma, with his byakugan active, seemed to see him at the same time she heard him. Seina exchanged a glance with him.
"Permission to check the status of the enemies?" she asked the leader.
Shibi and Yamato turned to look at her without saying anything. They all knew the enemies were dead, so her question was unnecessary. Even so, Shibi nodded in her direction, and Seina approached the nearest corpse out of the enemy spy's sight. She enchanted herself with invisibility using her bracelet, activated her modified revelio, and disappeared.
The ninja didn't see it coming. He collapsed on the branch, completely unconscious. She carried him over her shoulder and reappeared next to her team.
Shibi and Yamato gave her a slightly surprised look before turning back to the mid-ranked ninja they were interrogating. This one, upon seeing the unconscious spy, seemed to undergo a radical change in attitude. Nervous and worried, he started shouting about how it was "impossible." Perhaps he was referring to how Seina had detected him despite the genjutsu in which he was hidden? Or maybe he was too foolish to notice Tokuma's eyes, which had been intermittently activated the entire time?
"We can do this the easy way or the painful way," Shibi said with an eerily calm, monotone, and severe tone. "Your choice."
"Alright! I'll talk!"
The ninja began to tell them a story about how Mezu—yes, that Mezu—had contacted them months ago to form a mercenary group. Apparently, Mezu's idea was to kill two birds with one stone: with the mercenary band, he could grow rich while indulging his bloodlust by selling their services to the highest bidder. Unfortunately for the recruits he had convinced, Mezu disappeared days before the date they were supposed to meet here. Even without him, the group was determined to follow through with his plans, mainly because they all wanted more money than they had as fugitives, exiles, or retired ninjas who were overlooked by everyone.
"Hmm... The story doesn't seem false," Shibi said after they had rendered the ninja unconscious again. "Still, I'm interested in questioning the one Seina captured. I want to know if he's a new recruit or if there are more of them out there."
She bound him with her unbreakable conjured chains and then revived him. The ninja opened his eyes the moment the stupefy spell wore off. He tried to struggle against his restraints, but unfortunately for him, they were of magical calibre. They listened to a similar story from him, almost too similar.
"Why do I feel like you're lying?" Shibi asked the ninja while letting his kikaichu begin to crawl over him.
Seina silently caught Shibi's attention. The jonin nodded in her direction, giving her permission to speak.
"Permission to attempt an interrogation?"
"Go ahead."
"Imperio," she intoned mentally, placing a finger on the ninja's temple. "Tell me everything you know about your mercenary group. Don't leave out a single detail."
Under her Unforgivable Curse, the ninja spoke and spoke and spoke. It took them an hour to listen to all the plans, the conversations he remembered, the names of those who had formed the group, the missions they had completed and the ones they had pending, Mezu and his recruitment methods, his motives, etc. Fortunately for them, there were no additional mercenaries waiting outside their barriers. The spy shouldn't have been outside the cabin that night either, but apparently, he had gone out to… relieve himself at just the wrong time.
"Interesting technique of yours," Shibi said in his usual unflappable tone as the last enemy howled, being devoured by his insects.
They disposed of the bodies, demolished the cabin, removed the traps and barriers, and returned everything to normal. No one would ever know what had happened there. By the time they finished, her stomach was growling with hunger. If it were up to her, she would have used hiraishin to return instantly, but she wasn't the mission leader. Instead of resting there for the night, they ran the rest of the way at high speed, taking advantage of the empty terrain and darkness.
They arrived in Konoha just as the sun was rising. She collected her mission payment and headed home. One advantage of not being the leader was that she didn't have to stay and report on the mission while her teammates went home to sleep. When she got home, she noticed some people were awake in their rooms. She showered and went to bed.
When she woke up about five hours later, it was a couple of hours before noon. She went to her study, seeing the house was empty, and began preparing gifts for her friends. She planned to create unique backpacks for each of them, tailored to their personal styles. The real charm, of course, was that they were bottomless backpacks, allowing them to carry as much as they wanted—most importantly, water.
"We're back!" Naruto shouted as he entered through the main door. "Seina-nee? Are you awake?"
"If she wasn't awake, she is now with you yelling like that, dobe."
"I'm in the study."
Sasuke and Naruto appeared at the door, pausing to curiously examine the backpacks she was preparing for their friends.
"Is this the useful thing you mentioned for the exams?"
"We already have backpacks. What are you giving us?" Naruto asked with the curiosity of a small child.
"I was thinking of something like these," she said, briefly removing her necklace to show it to her brothers. "It helps calm the mind, prevents suicidal thoughts, and gives clarity and motivation. In fact… I sent one to Itachi along with your letter."
"Really?"
"Yes. With some luck, he'll wear the necklace, which also acts as a tracker."
Sasuke and Naruto snorted at this revelation. Seina let them try the latest prototype necklace she had made so they could feel its positive effects. Naruto kept the blue one, while Sasuke chose another opal for her to make a new necklace. Minutes later, after engraving the runes and casting the spell, Sasuke put on the necklace with a faint smile. Did he pick it because he liked the colour or because she mentioned Itachi's necklace was made of the same material?
That afternoon, after the three of them had lunch together, Kakashi arrived—or rather, Kakashi-sensei. It was so strange to call him by anything other than "sensei" that she kept forgetting they now held the same rank. The moment he entered the house, they smelled the characteristic stench of blood.
"Damn it, Kaka-sensei," Naruto exclaimed. "Did you roll around in a pile of corpses or what?"
"Or what…" Kakashi replied with a monotonous sigh. "I'm going to shower."
He disappeared upstairs in a blur before she could even assess his condition to see if he was injured. He came back down half an hour later, dressed in a clean uniform, except for his vest.
"Can you heal a rib for me?" he asked, not even bothering to hide his injuries. "I think I also inhaled some toxic gas."
Seina nodded. She wondered what he could have done to break a rib, given that all his clothes were enchanted and reinforced with runes. Along with the broken rib, he had contusions all over his torso and back. Luckily, healing that was nothing for her.
"May I use the diagnostic spell?"
At his nod, she cast the spell. He had been right—it wasn't an especially deadly poison, fortunately. She spent a while mending the damage to his lungs and tissues caused by whatever he had inhaled. When she was done, no trace of his injuries remained.
"What happened?"
"We're closing in on one of Akatsuki's hideouts near the border between the Land of Rivers and the Land of Rain. It was deserted but full of traps," Kakashi explained, frowning. "One of my teammates had to be hospitalized after falling into one."
"Really?"
"Akatsuki doesn't accept just anyone, Sasuke. They're all S-rank ninjas."
"But nee-chan killed one of them," Naruto said in confusion.
"Because, fortunately, he was alone, your sister caught him off guard with her powers, and he underestimated her."
Seina nodded. Without her powers, she would likely have died or been gravely injured before managing to kill him. Though, without her magic, she simply would have escaped with hiraishin. She probably wouldn't have been able to eliminate him, but she would have lived to see another sunrise.
When June 1st arrived, a couple of days later, there was an air of excitement. Perhaps it was because she lived with Sasuke and Naruto, who were eager to take the chunin exams, or perhaps it was because it was already full summer in Konoha. More than once, Seina silently thanked the runes she had sewn into her clothes and the spells she kept active. Otherwise, she'd be sweating buckets.
The week passed uneventfully. She worked at the hospital on Friday, trained with her team on Saturday and Sunday, and spent her free time exploring the scrolls of the Uzumaki clan they had recovered. As promised, Kakashi began teaching her the basics of fuinjutsu. She found it surprisingly similar to runes, which didn't shock her much. It was like another language, with slightly different vocabulary and grammatical structures, but still a language.
Karin, despite being an Uzumaki and having more physical traits of the clan than Naruto or herself, knew nothing about fuinjutsu. Her mother had specialized in healing and wasn't even a ninja. Speaking of her distant cousin, the next week, when Seina visited her one afternoon, Karin explained the theory of adamantine chains.
"There isn't much to say about the 'theory,'" Karin said as they drank tea at her house. "My mom told me each user has a different number of chains. Their colour, thickness, shape… even their function can vary."
"Really?"
"Totally! My chains are more offensive. I've only managed to summon four, and only when I really need them. I still have a lot of training ahead."
Seina thought of her mother. According to people who had known Kushina, like Genma or Raido, her mother had been able to summon eight chains. She wasn't sure if the number of chains was related to the user's power or their training. Either way, her mother's chains had been so powerful they restrained Kurama within her barrier and prevented other ninjas from passing through. Furthermore, she could use them both offensively and defensively. The more Seina thought about it, the more she realized just how incredible her mother had been.