When she went down for breakfast the next day, early enough that Naruto and Sasuke were still sleeping, she ran straight into Kakashi descending the stairs. He was already dressed in full uniform and looked like he hadn't slept much. His serious expression made her raise an eyebrow.
"What were you thinking about last night? After we returned?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Because I felt your killing intent even upstairs. It was much stronger than when you thought about killing Kabuto, and I know you want to torture and kill him."
"Kabuto is my enemy. He tried to kill my brother. Of course, I want to destroy him."
"Then who were you thinking about last night?" the jōnin asked quietly, sitting across from her at the table.
"I don't like being manipulated," she replied coldly, likely with a sinister expression.
"...I see."
"What would you have done, if you were Hokage? Would you have manipulated me the same way?"
"No, because I know you'd notice, and it would backfire. Knowing how you are, I know doing that... would have the opposite effect, wouldn't it?" he asked, studying her closely. "You don't feel more integrated but angrier, and knowing how you think, I know you already started planning an exit last night. I could feel your malicious emotions alongside your killing intent."
"You're right. I hope it doesn't happen again—for everyone's sake."
She stood, leaving her half-eaten breakfast on the table, and went to change into her new uniform. It didn't take her long to leave the house and reach the meeting point. She was still filled with rage when she saw the Hokage and the other anbu. She knew it would take time for it to fade.
She didn't mind being one of Konoha's dogs, but she did mind being treated like one. There was a big difference. If Tsunade thought she could keep manipulating her, she was sorely mistaken.
To start, she'd stop all new inventions, potions, genjutsu, and her research—at least the ones that could benefit Konoha. She'd deliver her innovations in small, controlled doses, and only those that couldn't be used against her. She planned to make them beg for more. Sooner or later, knowing how smart they were, especially with Shikaku as an unofficial advisor, they'd suspect she was doing it on purpose. But they'd have no proof. The portrait would be the last major invention she'd give them for a long time, and she planned to modify it to benefit her before handing it over.
She'd continue performing missions with her usual efficiency simply because the pay was the same, whether it took one day or seven. However, any scrolls, weapons, or jutsu she found during missions would stay with her instead of being shared with Konoha. The only areas where she'd actively help would be investigations against Danzo, anything related to Itachi, and training her friends. Everything else? They could forget about it.
She'd start unofficially spying on certain individuals of interest, just in case she needed leverage in the future. Beginning with the identities of Konoha's anbu, including Root. Luckily, she had rough sketches of the base layout and could recreate another Marauder's Map scroll by teleporting to Danzo's secret chamber without anyone knowing.
Oh, and she'd rebuild Uzushiogakure completely. In case she needed a place to live outside the ninja nations. It had to be entirely self-sufficient, with food, medicine, commerce, schools, housing, and more. She might never use it, but she preferred being prepared for any eventuality.
As she stood one step behind the Hokage, listening half-heartedly to her conversation with Commander Ryu—her new commander while in uniform—she opened her mind to sense the surface thoughts of her companions.
"...I can't believe I was so stupid. Shikaku is right," thought Ensui to her right, clearly irritated.
"I forgot how boring waiting is."
"She doesn't seem to have noticed. That's strange," thought the anbu commander. "I'll have to speak with the Nara."
Yamato, beside her, was meditating to pass the time, his mind free of specific thoughts. The Hokage, meanwhile, was pondering what awaited them in Suna with the other Kage. What piqued her curiosity most was the commander's thoughts. He hadn't been actively thinking about it, but something told her he was contemplating her.
Unfortunately, Shikaku wasn't accompanying them to Suna since it wasn't a jōnin exam. Whatever was discussed in Konoha while she was away couldn't be spied upon.
They set out on foot to the village gate, where the teams vying for chunin status were waiting, practically vibrating with excitement to finish the exam. The Hokage moved ahead, ignoring Naruto's expression of annoyance and Sasuke's quieter version of the same.
"Where's Seina-nee? I thought she'd come to see us," Naruto asked.
"She's on a mission," Kakashi said without looking up from his book.
"I don't believe it," her brother retorted immediately. "Last night, she was home. I felt it."
Ironically, both were right. Sasuke silently watched Kakashi's nonchalant expression. Anyone would think nothing was out of the ordinary, but Team 7 had learned to read the jōnin's subtle, almost invisible gestures. Not to mention, he hadn't denied Naruto's last words about her returning home instead of heading out on a mission.
"I felt her too," Sasuke finally said, challenging Kakashi to lie to his face. "And she was furious."
Kakashi lifted his gaze from the pages to meet Sasuke's dark eyes with his grey one. Seina heard him mentally urge Sasuke to drop it because of the Hokage's presence. Tsunade-sama, contrary to appearances, was listening intently. Her anbu escort, hidden among the forest branches, swept the perimeter. Seina noticed the faint crease in her master's brow.
"I told him she wouldn't like it..." Tsunade thought to herself with a tinge of guilt in her mental voice before sighing internally.
Who was she talking about? Seina tried to pick up more, but the Hokage focused on the journey, and Naruto and Sasuke stopped questioning Kakashi aloud. Listening to Kakashi's thoughts, however, revealed that he wasn't paying attention to his reading. He wasn't even focusing on the words in front of him.
"All I can do is protect her however I can and figure out why now," he thought, his mind racing. "Something about this smells off. Tsunade-sama cares about her. She wouldn't do this to Seina without a good reason. But what is it? I need to return to anbu and find out what's going on."
Before giving her team mental privacy, Seina heard Kakashi plotting to ensure he was assigned to her anbu team for every mission. That way, they'd be together, and he could protect her while investigating what was really happening.
The fact that Kakashi was so sure something more was going on—that this wasn't mere manipulation from the Hokage—calmed her. She tried meditating like Yamato while serving as an escort to avoid losing her temper over her anger. Acting while enraged would only lead to mistakes. She knew that from experience.
Although it was hard to control her hormones, Kurama's sinister feelings, and her raw emotions after being manipulated, she resolved to stay calm. During the journey, she didn't speak. Not at routine stops, not to the other anbu, and not to the Hokage. She meditated, relaxed, and fortified her mental barriers.
By the day's end, halfway to Suna, she felt much better. She decided to continue with her plan to rebuild Uzushiogakure and cut off the flow of inventions but resolved to give the manipulators an opportunity to explain themselves.
Once her mind was no longer clouded by anger, even she found the Hokage's actions strange. Something was missing—a piece of the puzzle. Realizing this, the same thing Kakashi had figured out, brought her complete calm.
"I told you it might be a way of protecting you," Kurama reminded her.
"Yes, after stirring the pot."
"Kukuku," Kurama chuckled. "You can't ignore all possibilities just because some of them hurt."
"I know..."
Kurama was right. She needed to consider all possibilities, not just the ones that suited her. Even so, Commander Ryu hadn't acted maliciously toward her, nor had the Hokage. None of them, in fact. That comforted her. Maybe she had judged them too quickly. As Kurama had said, they represented the dark, realistic side.
When they arrived in Suna, everyone was exhausted. They had been running for three days straight, with only short stops to eat and sleep a couple of hours. Truthfully, no one wanted to stop in the middle of the Land of Rivers. The informed feared the dangers, while the genin were annoyed by swarms of insects ready to sting them. The desert, on the other hand, was full of sand. Sand everywhere. Without their provisional spells, they might have succumbed to the heat. It was mid-July, and they were traveling through an exposed area at noon. Not to mention the venomous creatures like snakes, scorpions, and the like.
By the time they reached the village gates, more than one person seemed ready to cry in relief. She vaguely listened as they were granted entry, knowing they were escorting the Hokage, and were directed to lodgings already prepared for her. Seina, who had seen Sunagakure more than once, simply scanned the surroundings. Then she examined the quarters using various spells. Fortunately, everything seemed clean.
"Anything to report?" Tsunade-sama asked.
She nodded the all clear.
"Oh, blessed air conditioning," she sighed in pleasure, sinking into a plush armchair.
Seina used the earth camouflage jutsu to blend into the wall, intent on being alone a bit longer. Another sigh caught her attention, though this one was different—almost guilty. As she observed the village, hidden within the wall of the Hokage's temporary quarters, she opened her mind to stave off boredom. Using an enhanced hearing spell, her modified Revelio, and passive Legilimency, she passed the time alone. No one could approach without her knowing, so since no one called her back inside, she remained there like a sentinel.
"...Everything is set for tonight's feast," someone said softly. "The council is fully informed."
"Perfect. Good work."
Nearby, she smiled at the voices of Konoha's genin discussing their matches the following day. Though she couldn't see them, their voices reached her ears, so she knew they were relatively close.
"Where's your jōnin?" murmured Asuma. "It's odd that she didn't say goodbye to the kids."
"She's on a mission."
"Yeah, sure. Her brother didn't seem very convinced."
"Naruto's a knucklehead. You know that," Kakashi replied in a monotone, trying to dismiss Asuma.
"Whatever you say, Kakashi."
"Have you seen the stadium?" Kurenai asked from a little further away. "It's bigger than Konoha's, but it's all sand and rock."
A whispered conversation piqued her curiosity. She focused her hearing in that direction. It was the Suna jōnin examiners discussing the candidates.
"They haven't arrived yet."
"Still? Maybe something happened to them."
"We haven't been notified of their withdrawal. That means they should be nearing Suna. The leader's letter was dated three days ago."
"We should investigate. It wouldn't be very diplomatic if someone were attacked in our territory."
"Who's the Takigakure team fighting against?"
"Let me check… A Konoha genin and two Suna genin."
"I'll inform the council. We might have to rearrange the matchups."
Seina descended from her position in search of the Hokage. She found her reading a scroll while sipping tea. When Seina dropped from the ceiling to her feet, Tsunade raised an eyebrow.
"It seems the Takigakure team hasn't arrived yet. The Suna jōnin believe they may have been attacked en route. They're planning an alternate line-up just in case and have dispatched a team to investigate the north."
"Anything else?" the Hokage asked, frowning in thought.
"The Takigakure team… One of their genin is the jinchūriki of the Nanabi."
"Are you certain?" her master asked with a stern face.
"I met her during a mission in Takigakure. Based on Naruto and Sasuke's description, it's her. A tan girl with orange eyes and grey-green hair. Her name is Fū."
The Hokage pulled a document from a folder and reviewed it in front of them.
"You're right. Fū Sanada is one of Takigakure's participants. She's set to fight Matsuri tomorrow."
"Do you think something might have happened to her before she reached Suna, Tsunade-sama?" Yamato asked through his mask.
"Perhaps… Return to your posts. If you learn anything else, I want to know."
The Hokage stared into the distance. Seina avoided probing her thoughts but unintentionally overheard her master's intense inner musings due to the Legilimency she had been using to spy on the Suna locals.
"Could Akatsuki…? Jiraiya's recent intel suggests a possible attack on Fū Sanada. But it's so indiscreet. Why not wait until after the exams? No one would have suspected then. What are they plotting now? Why act so hastily?"
Seina stopped listening, her stomach churning from the overwhelming negativity she'd absorbed from so many people. She decided to raise her Occlumency barriers to shut out the thoughts of others. She needed to calm down, so she began meditating.
"Are you too tired to take the first watch?" Yamato asked later, as night fell.
"No."
"All right. Wake me in a couple of hours."
Seina nodded. The others went to sleep while she stayed to guard the Kazekage's guest house, now managed by the council. She placed a few summons throughout the house at every entry point, but nothing happened. She only heard the occasional drunkard passing by and the wind. It was almost therapeutic.
When it was her turn to sleep, sometime after midnight, she realized she wasn't tired. She was too full of conflicting emotions. Her head and stomach felt as if they were spinning. What a first anbu mission. She knew exactly what she needed: to retreat to one of her private spaces, alone, and relax without interacting with anyone. She had to purge her negative emotions. Damn hormones.
Her eyes drifted shut as Ensui replaced Yamato.
At dawn the next day, she awoke feeling slightly better but still tired. She began the day by strengthening her mental barriers to avoid sinking into the same misery of the past days. While meditating over breakfast at the same table as the Hokage, she focused on the good around her rather than the bad. Her mood gradually shifted—not for the better but toward clarity.
What could they do to her? Nothing. That wasn't the issue. The problem was that if Seina acted against Konoha, even in self-defence, she might lose Naruto and Kakashi because of their loyalty to the village. Ironically, Sasuke was the only one she was confident would stay by her side, simply because Konoha had wronged his family, and for Sasuke, family mattered more than the village. Just as it did for her.
The question was, did she want to bow her head and be a puppet just to avoid losing her loved ones? The answer was no. She loved Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, her friends, but she was no longer a 12-year-old praying not to be alone. She was an adult who had been mistreated for years. Her principles came before anything else because, without them, she wouldn't be herself. If she had to stand alone rather than be a puppet, she would accept it with sadness. If she had to lose Naruto and Kakashi, it would break her heart, but it was better than fading under the cruel yoke of someone who used her as a weapon. She had been through that once, and it had killed her. Literally.
When she reached that conclusion, she felt a weight lift off her shoulders. All she could do was remain true to herself and deal with problems as they arose. There was no point worrying about situations that hadn't happened yet. That didn't mean she wasn't still angry with the Hokage and Commander Ryu. There was only one way to fix it… Revenge, the old-fashioned way.
She smiled sinisterly behind her mask as she followed the Hokage down the corridors of the Kazekage's mansion to the meeting place. The participants, she had overheard, were already waiting to fight.
"Are you all right, Tsunade-sama?" Raido asked, noticing her shiver.
"...Yes," she said, uncertain. "Just a bad feeling."
"A bad feeling? Of danger?"
"Not that kind of danger," she muttered to herself before glancing over her shoulder in Seina's direction.
Seina stifled a laugh at her worried expression. She had been the daughter of a Marauder, goddaughter of another, godmother to the son of yet another, and married to George Weasley for decades. It was time to exact justice in her father's style. Want to play games with her? Then they'd play together!
"Is something wrong, Tsunade-sama?" she asked, keeping her tone neutral to avoid giving herself away.
"No."
She noticed the sidelong glances from Yamato and Ensui before disappearing back into the stone. She listened carefully to the exchange of words between the relevant Kages, the council, and the exam organizers. She observed the arena, empty, and knew her siblings must be waiting nearby. Kakashi, of course, was in the instructors' box, standing alongside many other jonin.
She set aside her thoughts of revenge, saving them for their return to Konoha, and focused on protecting the Hokage.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we now begin the final stage of the Chunin Exams," announced one of the council assistants. "We hope you enjoy the matches."
The first match was between a genin from Kirigakure and one from Sunagakure. The Suna ninja won simply due to his resilience to the intense heat. It was only 9 a.m., but the sun already scorched bare skin like a fire jutsu. The second match, surprisingly, was Ino against a ninja from Kusagakure. The fight was evenly matched, but Ino managed to outmanoeuvre him with several body-swapping techniques and an earth concealment jutsu. She ended the match by using her dojutsu to infiltrate his mind, forcing him to knock himself unconscious with a neck pinch.
The third and fourth matches featured unfamiliar ninjas, so she watched with mild disinterest while keeping a vigilant eye on Tsunade-sama. The fifth match was won by Shino, who used his kikaichu and the sand to mine the terrain with traps. He barely exerted himself, guiding his opponent into his traps and finishing the fight with his insects. The sixth match was also won by a Konoha genin—Chouji—using taijutsu.
By the eighth match, Sasuke's, she leaned forward slightly from the beam where she sat, cloaked in invisibility. His opponent, a genin from the Land of Waterfalls, lost miserably. Not only was Sasuke faster, more resilient, and more cunning, but he also had his Sharingan, which he used to ensnare his opponent in a genjutsu. He didn't even need to use a single ninjutsu to win.
The next match, between Temari and Matsuri—the girl who had replaced her—was incredibly brief. A gust of sand blew into Matsuri's eyes, forcing her to cover her face and leaving her defenceless.
"Why didn't they hold preliminary matches?" someone asked the council.
"We considered it, but after five days without water in the desert, it would have been too risky for so many genin."
"Huh. I suppose that makes sense."
Seina quickly realized why they were asking. By the fifteenth match, no other Konoha participants had taken the stage. She grew bored watching unknown fighters compete for the chance to advance to chunin. Then, it was Neji's turn. He swiftly defeated his opponent using his Byakugan, displaying a level of focus that showed he had learned from his previous failures. If he wasn't promoted now, she'd eat her boot.
By the twentieth match, Lee and Kiba had also fought. Both were victorious—Lee through taijutsu and Kiba with the help of Akamaru and his clan's jutsus. Then came a fight she didn't expect: Hinata versus Sakura. Unfortunately for Sakura, Hinata had progressed significantly. The taijutsu battle lasted barely five minutes before Sakura began to falter due to her lack of stamina. Hinata, on the other hand, wasn't even sweating, despite wearing a white jacket. Damn Hyuga and Aburame clans—how did they manage it?
"I give up."
Seina blinked in surprise as Sakura surrendered. Hinata bowed in respect. Why was Sakura giving up? It was obvious she could have continued for a little longer. She could have tried to outsmart Hinata with something other than taijutsu. She might have lacked stamina, but Sakura was intelligent… sometimes. Sakura's somewhat bitter expression as she left the arena confused her.
"Women… impossible to understand."
"Hey!"
Gaara's match against a ninja from Amegakure was quick. He fought using a combination of taijutsu and his sand, something she hadn't seen before, eventually immobilizing his opponent in a sand coffin—but leaving him alive. After that fight, it was Naruto's turn. Ironically, his opponent was Kankuro. The moment Kankuro brought out his puppets, she knew Naruto had the upper hand. Unlike his opponent, her brother was far too versatile to lose. All he had to do was destroy the puppets, and Kankuro would be defenceless.
"Is that poison?"
"It looks like it."
Seina suppressed a laugh as she observed the toxic gas Kankuro used to try and flush Naruto out of his hiding spot among the rocks. What Kankuro hadn't considered were Naruto's clones. Thanks to her aura detection spell, she knew Naruto was concealed within the sand, shielded from the poison, while his clone fought, holding its breath to distract Kankuro. When Kankuro finally hit the clone with a senbon, causing it to dissolve, Naruto acted, burying a surprised Kankuro in the sand within a chakra cocoon. He rendered Kankuro unconscious with a neck pinch before dispersing the gas with a wind jutsu.
The remaining Konoha participants, including Tenten, won their matches without much trouble.
"I like what I've seen," said the Hokage.
"Oh? That's right! This is the first time you've watched the competition from the box, isn't it?"
"Indeed. Fortunately, I think we have several strong candidates for promotion."
"You're right. Last year, from what I heard, wasn't a great year for Konoha."
"No, it wasn't…"
The Hokage's tone turned sharp as she thought of her late master, causing the Suna councillor to wince apologetically. On the surface, relations between the two villages seemed mended, but Seina wondered what role Suna's council had played in the invasion that led to the Third Hokage's death. She glanced at the Hokage and followed her inside when she stood.