"I was on the toilet." Aiko lied baldly. "When I heard your ANBU loudly stumble into my room, by complete accident and stoogish incompetency, I assume, since they are obviously forbidden from invading the privacy of a foreign diplomat, I was so embarrassed that I used a genjutsu to hide. What else was I to do?" She met his eyes, deadpan.
Her interrogator might have sighed- it was hard to be certain. "For 34 minutes?" he asked. His gravelly voice could have dried up the onsen. "You hid under genjutsu from an ANBU team for 34 minutes? On the toilet. That must have been quite the genjutsu." He paused. "That must have been quite the bowel movement."
Aiko nodded. "I have a little skill with genjutsu," she said in a way that was completely honest but would let them think she was underselling herself. "Anyway. Have you ever tried to poop completely silently?" she asked in the most serious tone she could manage. "It takes careful execution."
Ibiki's face was like stone. "I can't say that I have. But you managed?"
Aiko ducked her head to hide her face behind her hair, curling her shoulders in to make herself small and timid. "You ask such embarrassing questions, ne…."
"I think that he would like very much to hit you," Sanbi observed neutrally.
She was glad her hair was covering the smirk she couldn't stop, although there wasn't much point. Ibiki knew she was lying, obviously. 'They can't do anything to me that could be reasonably construed as an attempt to harm me, unless they have evidence that I was engaged in espionage or sabotage. That's really hard to prove. Ha, ha.'
Sanbi huffed. "You are terrible in every way," he approved. "Please, provoke him further. I enjoy watching this human work to restrain his temper."
"I was worried about plopping sounds," Aiko said mournfully. "But the truth was even worse. I had some bad fish, I think. Kirigakure's seafood is much fresher, much better, you just can't tell when something is going to be too old in a backwards, barbaric country. No offense meant, of course, Konoha is so quaint. Anyway, I was experiencing gastrointestinal distress because of the subpar-"
"I am sorry to hear this," Ibiki gritted out.
Sanbi howled. It was probably his version of laughter.
"Do you often have such problems, or are you people accustomed to eating expired products?" Aiko asked, trying her best to sound concerned. "I suppose that Konoha shinobi are notoriously… hardy," she said delicately, implying that the reputation was more along the lines of 'garbage-eating dog-people'. "It's fascinating to see what conditions a person can become accustomed to when there's no other option. Your culture is so interesting." She widened her eyes into a facsimile of innocence.
Ibiki was breathing very carefully.
Aiko leaned forward as much as she could without putting undue pressure on her hands, bound as they were on the table in front of her at an awkward angle. "Are your bowels quite alright?"
"They are as well as can be expected," Ibiki allowed. And god, he was brilliant, he deserved a medal for that poker face. She wanted to promote him. "Thank you for your concern."
She wanted to wave his comment away, but settled for a one-shouldered shrug. "It's no problem. You can talk to me about anything. I won't tell anyone."
"I will keep that in mind." He pushed his chair back with a shriek of metal against the bare floor.
Aiko pretended to be surprised, pushing her eyebrows up theatrically. "Oh no, you aren't feeling well suddenly?" she asked as he turned towards the door. "Remember to wipe from front to-"
The door slammed,
"Back," she finished sweetly. For a moment, she looked down at her bound hands, letting the smile come out. Then slowly, pointedly, she looked towards the stretch of wall like any other that was actually a window hidden under seal-based genjutsu. She widened her smile to a grin exposing teeth that were slightly too sharp.
She couldn't actually do anything to dispel the genjutsu as she was- if her hands were free and she could walk over, she could disable the seal. But as she was, unless she was willing to try the Rinnegan, she had no way of actually knowing who was on the other side.
'There's no reason to let Konoha know that I can't see through it, of course. Letting them think I'm a genjutsu master will give them the explanation they want for how I'm getting around, and keep them from looking in the right direction.'
"You are a terrible person," Sanbi repeated.
Aiko batted her eyelashes, although he couldn't see the gesture. 'You sound just like Utakata. You're both very sweet to me. I'm beginning to be very fond of you.'
"That is not as comforting as you might assume," Sanbi muttered.
She shrugged for response. The conversation petered off without anything to comment on and she waited in silence for Ibiki to return, or someone else to enter. There was no way to track the time. For a while, she managed to keep a dignified, professional demeanor.
It might have been hours- god, she definitely wasn't going to get a chance to sleep. Maybe she should have tracked time by counting heartbeats, but it seemed useless by the time she thought of it. She began to fidget, tapping her foot under the table. They would be able to see that from their angle if they were watching, and someone probably was.
'Oh well. They know I'm an Uzumaki, and I'm portraying an airhead. They're not going to expect me to wait in dignified silence. And actually, it might be better to show them what they expect.'
Aiko let her head fall back, boredom unconcealed. But to be blatant… "Can I get a book or something?" she called.
There was no response.
"How about a movie, or some music?" she tried. "A magazine." Aiko jostled her left leg as best she could with the metal restraints. It was irritatingly silent.
Shockingly, no one leapt to entertain her. Aiko waited until her neck began to ache from the angle- half an hour? Or just fifteen minutes? She pouted, straightening back up as best she could with her legs bound to the chair legs and her hands in front of her. They had not taken the precautions she'd taken with Yamato, she noted. So if she was really in a pickle, she could try that mokuton that Obito swore she should be able to use.
"I would think that slipping your bonds would be less revealing," Sanbi said. "And more practical."
'Not sure that I agree. Mokuton would be shocking to them, but if they know that I can just move from this position, they'll know that they can't keep me captive at all. Then they'll have to wonder why I'm allowing this, and they'll almost certainly make the hiraishin connection. I'm an Uzumaki- seals are implied. If they don't think I'm just exceptionally stealthy or have some kind of bloodline, they're going to have to come to the right conclusion.'
Sanbi took a moment to respond. "All warfare is based on deception," he said dryly.
'You like the classics?' Aiko smiled, because that stratagem wasn't exactly what she was thinking of. 'If they think they know my measure, I'll have more latitude to move in ways they can't anticipate.'
Sanbi let out a long, contemplative sigh. "How unfortunate for them. If only you would be so kind as to reveal the correct self, Konoha might have a chance of seeing the viper at their feet."
The amusement slipped out of her expression, though she didn't let her smile drop instantly. 'Bit harsh.'
"No," Sanbi said thoughtfully. 'I do not think it is.'
'I'm hardly a viper,' Aiko argued, barely managing to keep the words from coming out of her mouth.
He huffed, amused. "Do you know how a viper cares for her children?" Sanbi asked.
"Probably eats them," Aiko said sullenly.
"Careful," Sanbi mocked. Only then did she realize that her last words had been aloud. Konoha would wonder about that. "And no. Not at all."
'What is that supposed to mean?' Aiko forced herself to relax her jaw, to begin fidgeting again. She'd gone still.
Sanbi didn't answer, his presence fading from the forefront of her consciousness.
'Is there a quote about children?' Aiko wondered. 'It seems significant, in the context that he brought it up.'
She'd need to find that book and read the 36 stratagems again. And…. maybe she'd need to read about vipers, so that she knew what point Sanbi had been making.
Ugh. He was making her learn about snakes, really?
Click.
Her attention turned to the door the instant that the handle began to turn. She'd snapped back to readiness, which was the only reason she didn't let her face fall when she saw who was coming in.
'Shit.'
Inoichi Yamanaka gave her a pleasant, ditsy smile. He flipped his hair as he sat down. "Uzumaki-san, right? I'd like to talk."
Her guts were churning for real this time. The smile that she offered him might have been a bit sickly. "I don't feel very talkative," Aiko deferred. She leaned back. "Actually, I was thinking-"
Inoichi's smile slipped away, face becoming harder than she'd ever seen and he was so big, he was too close and he was looming over her. He slapped his hands together. He was in her head.
Aiko reared back.
She was standing on a building, watching the Sanbi rage against the -
under water and someone had a grip on her hair was it Konan who was she fighting now
weightless terror, blue blue sky and the long fall and the tiredness in her limbs
water
sand and she was b u r n i n g her skin wasn't enough to hold it in n o n o no make it make it make make it stop
.
She was leaning over until her forehead brushed the table and her loose hair was hanging over her face.
There was a piercing pain in her head, stretching from the base of her spine to curl needles into her eyes.
She was shuddering. Because she was too dignified to tremble, obviously. So it wasn't that moving her body.
"Uzumaki-san," Inoichi said carefully.
She consciously turned off the Rinnegan, which dimmed some of the painful brightness flooding her vision. Had he seen? Had anyone seen? When had she turned them on?
"Uzumaki-san," he repeated, in perfect calm.
Aiko put her hands flat on the table- she'd managed to twist them in her panic. Her left wrist- was it out of the socket? She thought so. She swallowed. "Yes, Konoha-san?" she managed politely.
He paused. "You have something on your face."
She blinked wet eyelashes. She looked at the red smudges on her hands, blood smeared on her fingers and the table where she'd convulsed. Blood was still trickling down her cheeks like tears. Ah.
'So it turns out that the Rinnegan does not trump a Yamanaka's technique, but it sure tries.'
"Uzumaki-san," he said yet again, with that annoyingly neutral inflection.
"You are losing minutes of time," Sanbi informed. "Is that usual?"
Oh. Maybe. That… that would explain some things.
She had no idea how much time she had sat still and silent, but she responded to Inoichi's statement. "These things happen," Aiko said calmly. The shaking wasn't stopping. Actually, it might be getting worse. "To all of us, I'm certain. Unavoidable."
"They do?" Inoichi might have been a bit freaked out, the slightest bit of surprise or revulsion or something in his tone. She glanced up at him, but couldn't read his face. It was too bright, blurry and pale until his features blended together. He should get that looked at.
'Has he never seen this before? Is my reaction to his jutsu really that unusual?'
Her stomach was really churning. The lights were too bright despite being too dim, Inoichi's breathing far too loud and the people talking behind the window (Ibiki and the Sandaime? One more, but who?) were too loud they needed to stop and god, Inoichi could really use a breathmint and to switch to a less obnoxious shampoo-
She threw up on her hands, gagging and jerking helplessly. She tried to pull her hands away but she couldn't, they were fastened, and she couldn't move her head because her head was pressed against the table, forehead dimly aching from the force with which it had hit.
"You may not be faking that," Inoichi said, sounding a little perplexed.
Aiko groaned, head lolling.
"Oh." She heard him stand. "Are you… back, then?"
What a stupid question. Aiko rolled her head to the side, grimacing at the way her hair pulled at the bile weighing it down. She gave Inoichi her dirtiest glare.
"I think you are," he said dryly.
She rolled her eyes. "I have a team practice scheduled at 5am," Aiko complained. She sat up, and did her best to pretend that she had no idea that vomit was dripping off her face, down her neck and onto her shirt."Are we done here?"
Inoichi took a while to respond, probably communicating with someone else. His breathing was normal now, the volume dialed back down to manageable levels with other stimulus. "Yes," Inoichi said, extremely belatedly. "We apologize for the inconvenience."
"Of wrongly interrogating me?" Aiko tried to wrestle up some indignation.
"For the bad fish that caused all this," Inoichi said glibly. "How embarrassing. This is the first time that stomach problems have been severe enough to cause a diplomatic incident. Perhaps the Mizukage might send a hardier jounin next time. It's unfortunate that you are so delicate, Uzumaki-san."
She gritted her teeth, hard.
"It's 4:20," Inoichi said, sounding mildly surprised. "Oh, dear. I hope that you'll have an opportunity to shower and change before your appointment."
Aiko breathed carefully.
"We have a shower and a change of clothes," he said innocently. "To apologize for the inconvenience presented by the fish. We will look into this, of course. Where was it purchased?"
She closed her eyes. Her eyelashes clumped together with coagulating blood, like it was shitty old mascara. "I'm in a hurry, so please remove my bonds."
Inoichi paused for a moment.
'HA.'
"Of course." He freed her legs first, and opened the vomit-splattered cuffs as gingerly as he could.
Somehow, her wrist hurt worse once it was released- because the angle had changed? Aiko drew it to her side gingerly as she stood, keeping the pain off her face. Inoichi glanced to the limb- swollen and turning purple already- but he refrained from comment. "This gentleman will take you to the shower, and then wait to escort you to your training grounds."
She hadn't noticed the ANBU enter- well. Of course not, she'd been having a seizure or something. Aiko glanced dismissively- slight, unmarked mask- a junior member, probably. She walked past him without a second glance- and jerked when she sensed something she'd nearly forgotten.
Inoichi paused, holding the door open. He seemed to be expecting her to have another episode.
Aiko gathered her wits and kept walking. Sai stepped in behind, that fucking seal pinging against her nerves now that she was within two feet of him. It felt like insects crawling up her neck, like a senbon trailing carefully up and down her back, like a serpent around her ankle.
'This is not a coincidence.'
It was not comfortable to shower, knowing that Sai was on the other side of the door. When she turned the water off, leaving her filthy clothes in a wet pile, he slung plain and ill-fitting clothes over the top of the door without comment. She pulled them on. She rolled up the pants at the ankle. When she came out, she silently accepted all of the equipment that had been confiscated from her when she had been processed- her holsters, her weapons, the necklace she had been wearing. They didn't give back her hairtie, which was a little petty.
'He's only Danzo's.' Aiko took her time to get ready to leave, checking her equipment in a way that must really be irritating to the woman from inventory waiting to go home. 'It's not that he happens to be on this shift- he's here because Danzo slipped him in. There is absolutely no way in which Danzo expressing interest in me is good.'
Sai never quite touched her, but it was obvious that he was steering her out. God…. he was what, 14 now? He was almost exactly her height now.
They didn't leave the way she'd entered the facility- they crossed through back doors, hallways that were somehow empty. It was the dead of the night. She did not like having Sai at her back and stubbornly slipped back time and time again to keep him within her peripheral.
So she saw it when he went to stab her in the back.
He was good, but he wasn't on her level. A half-dozen possibilities ran through her mind, counter-attacks and dodges and blocks- but no, the sound of kunai catching a sword would ring out in this place. No one who came running would take her side of that of an ANBU.
Aiko side-stepped, swinging around to grip his sword arm with her left hand and curl her right around his neck. The movement swung her wet hair to cling against her face and neck and collarbones. He tried to jerk away, to sweep her feet out from underneath.
The moment of surprise when he realized they were standing in an office cost him. Aiko twisted his arm viciously, forcing the sword to drop and keeping going with strength that she didn't know she had to make a clean break in his forearm.
"You don't," Sanbi muttered, sounding a little smug. "You are welcome, for that and your wrist. Were you even going to thank me, rude little girl?"
Sai gave a little cry in his throat, barely anything she could hear even with her heightened senses. She jerked her head to dislodge her stupid hair from her face and transferred her grip to a hand on each upper arm. She crowded him into the wall, using her hips to pin him from any good kicking leverage.
He went still, dark eyes carefully blank.
Aiko leaned in from her very slight height advantage. She bared her teeth. "Hello, root."
At that, he jerked.
Someone knocked. "Mizukage-sama?" the secretary called out, long-suffering. Fuck, she really needed to check on his name.
Sai was too well-trained to inhale sharply, but she was close enough to feel his breath.
"Come in," Aiko called, as pleasantly as she could with the tightness in her throat. Sanbi had mentioned it, but for the first time she actually realized that her wrist was… god, it was fine already. That was amazing. And she wasn't tired at all, despite being kept up all night.
'You're amazing,' she thought to Sanbi. 'I'm not joking. Really, what you can do is marvelous.'
The door swung open. The chuunin appeared completely unimpressed. "Ah." He gave Sai a sullen look. "Another one for the indefinite vacation?"
Aiko clicked her tongue, considering it. "I'm afraid not." She tightened her hold on Sai, because she didn't trust his passivity. "This one is a runner."
Sai tried to jerk away, managing to lever several inches away from the wall. She leveraged her body weight and slammed him back into the wall again. His head banged against a painting of a deer in a forest. God, who had decorated?
"This one will require actual incarceration," Aiko continued, as if nothing had happened. She kept her eyes on Sai's pulse point- he wouldn't let anything show in his face. "We might be able to ransom him to Konoha in time. For the moment, he made an attempt on my life, in what I can only assume was a private decision."
Because if she didn't know about Danzo, that probably would be the conclusion she could come to. Sai relaxed in her grip, apparently relieved.
She knew better. He knew that Konoha would never come for him. This was a terrible outcome for him. Distantly, Aiko knew that he would probably do his best to escape, or to die.
With that in mind, she met his eyes. He betrayed a startle when the Rinnegan flickered on, but he didn't have time to do anything at all before she focused chakra in her eyes – it was the crudest level of genjutsu but it was what she could do- and ordered him to sleep.
He fell like a rock. Aiko let him go, because his dead weight was too heavy for her anyway. She gingerly stepped away and brushed off the wrinkles in her clothes.
The chuunin was giving her a carefully neutral expression, clipboard against his chest. "Will that be all, Mizukage-sama?" He asked.
Aiko sighed, running a hand through her hair. Her fingers caught in a snarl of tangles. She made a face. "Get me a ponytail or a ribbon after he's been taken to a holding cell, have him searched thoroughly," Aiko decided. "Check his mouth- Root has been known to use pill capsules in false teeth. I don't want him dying."
"As you wish." The chuunin looked at Sai, crumpled like a doll. "And when will he be awakening?"
Honestly? With a jutsu like that?
Aiko grimaced. "Maybe the day after tomorrow?" she guessed. "Maybe a week. Who knows. Depends on how resilient he is."
"Longer," Sanbi said absently. 'You should learn your strength."
Her secretary swallowed hard. "Would you like a brush as well?"
She pointed at him, barely remembering to use her whole palm to stay polite. "Yes, good idea. I'm starting to like you." Aiko crossed to sit down at her desk and waved him off. "Get someone to help you carry him out, I'll just work on some correspondence while I'm here."
She opened a letter, but she didn't see the words for the longest time. Even when she did, her mind was elsewhere.
'I need to do something about Danzo. He is going to react, as soon as he realizes that Sai failed and I'm alive.'
Ah. It was something from Mifune-sama. How odd.
'That was his play alone- he didn't agree with the Sandaime's decision to let me go, thought it was too soft.'
Mifune was writing to express his congratulations on her appointment. That was kind of him.
'So if I disappeared, the obvious conclusion is that I was spooked and ran after the interrogation. They know that I can leave when I want, so it would be believable enough. No one would look for me. The blessing, of course, is that no one is going to look for Sai, either. You can't start a search for a ghost agent.'
Mifune-sama had- Aiko blinked, fully focusing on the letter for the first time. He'd sent an inaugural gift- a new seal of office for her, and a sample of newly developed antibiotics for her hospitals. He was… That was remarkably, unusually friendly. Was he looking for a trade agreement? Well, obviously, but did he want a relationship beyond that? Aiko frowned. He was famous for his refusal to interfere militarily in the affairs of the shinobi world, but that didn't preclude other possibilities.
She swiveled back to the depressingly substantial pile on her desk, looking for the seal. The medicine shipment was probably outside her office somewhere being secured, but the seal- Aiko unlatched the bright brass clasp holding shut a plain wooden box. Sure enough, a seal sat inside, cushioned on a light blue pillow. She turned it in her hand, checking the kanji. Uzumaki Aiko, Godaime Mizukage- it had to be rather large to fit all those kanji, but it looked nice.
'I want to use this. I want to use this on everything.'
"Please do not." Sanbi sighed. "It is not subtle. This sort of ostentatious marker of status is better left to civilian pageantry. I promise that your predecessor used no such thing, and nor did the foreign shinobi leaders with whom he corresponded. Not even the Raikage."
Aiko flicked her eyes up to the ceiling and really, truly, tried to recall if she had ever been accused of subtlety. Subterfuge, secrecy, paranoia, but subtlety?
Sanbi seemed incredibly sour. "Your point is fair. You'll do as you wish, you awful, willful child."
Obviously.
She dug a red inkpad out and tried the stamp out on an envelope. Just a couple times. Three, five tops. It was nice and crisp, but she'd never been great at getting a stamp perfectly aligned upri-
A footstep.
Utakata pushed the door open and gave her a curious look.
Aiko blinked innocently up at him and gently shut the desk drawer, as though she hadn't just shoved anything out of sight.
He eyed her for a moment, then clearly decided not to ask. "This is a surprise." He cast the briefest glance at poor Sai, raising an eyebrow. "Will we be seeing you around more soon? I saw the work that you did last night."
'Why are all these people so efficient?' Aiko wondered. 'It's 5 am. He should be in bed. When did he even have a chance to look at that?'
She paused.
'Oh hell, it's 5 am. I should be training the kids. And making an appearance in Konoha.'
Aiko sighed. She stood up. "If I'm going to be around more, it won't be right now," she said grimly. "I had to put out a fire- someone in Konoha wanted me dead, some secondary faction working against the Hokage."
Utakata made an alarmed sound.
"It's fine for now," Aiko dismissed. She looked down at Sai. "I know Konoha well. I'll likely see the next threat coming, as long as it's from the same group." She shook her head, because she'd been glad to see the back of Danzo the first fucking time. "I'll tell you more- hopefully tonight. But I've really got to run." She flexed her fingers.
Utakata closed his eyes. "I will see you for a debriefing, then?" he asked, resigned. "I will take care of… this," he said. He didn't bother to gesture at Sai. "I don't assume he'll be a danger anytime soon?"
Aiko snorted. "Probably not." She only felt a twinge of guilt about that. "I'm letting him think that I plan to ransom him to Konoha- he's a ghost agent, he knows that they'll deny knowing him. I'll figure out what to do with him later, just keep him contained and from doing anything rash." Her tone raised in a question.
Her friend- really, probably her only friend in this world- nodded. "Of course," Utakata acquiesced. He made a wry little smirk. "I live to serve."
She stepped close enough to give a playful, super-slow punch to his shoulder. "You do not," Aiko reprimanded. "I like that about you, you dissident garbage can."
He put a hand over hers, dark eyes sparkling. "You have terrible taste in this, as in all things." He pointedly looked up and down her outfit, ill-fitting and aged black slacks and shirt meant for a chuunin under-uniform.
"Nope. Sloppy and dingy looks going to come back into vogue, and you'll be sorry for second-guessing me." Aiko jabbed him with a finger before drawing her hand back. "I'll see you as soon as I can. I'd like to do more work on that dock, get it finished."
"Safe travels," Utakata murmured. He tucked his hand away inside his kimono.
She nodded in response, and then moved to her reserved training ground. It wasn't optimal, but… well. There wasn't any prudent course of action to take. Going back to where Sai had taken her was a bad idea, and being seen out on the streets without that ANBU wasn't any better. The only thing to do was trust in whatever hole in security that Danzo had arranged, and be ready for the possibility that Konoha would be looking to treat her as a enemy of state if someone had noticed something was odd.
A flicker of excitement was her only hint before her genin launched a surprise attack.
Of course, they were genin, so she stepped to the side and bemusedly watched the net trap slam into place, empty. She'd showed them how to rig that, of course she'd-
drop flat and roll, because they'd followed up with a hail of kunai from two angles, one from a spring-loaded trap but that other one had to be Yuusaku, damn him, he was still pulling to the left on the later releases.
'I told them to be prepared, so I shouldn't be surprised they took initiative,' Aiko acknowledged internally. 'I guess they didn't even realize I was late.' So she didn't feel too guilty about moving to Yuusaku's position to take him out. He saw her coming from above, eyes wide- and released his water clone an instant too early, giving it away for bait. She managed to catch hold of a branch and swing around to change her momentum, avoiding the pit trap filled with-
Aiko just looked for a moment. Because yes, her genin really had taken the time to populate it with trout. They poked around morosely, bumping into each other in the small space.
"You better put those back where you found them," she raised her voice sternly. "They'll die outside of moving water."
There was a rustle in the branches somewhere to her left, from above. Ah, they were using the trees. Finally.
She briefly considered laying out objectives, but there didn't seem to be much point. Her genin had set up to ambush her. And… Well, it was a little fun to see what trouble they had come up with.
~~~
"Some kind of seal," he guessed, rubbing at his temples. "Something analogous to a seal of silence?"
Even as he said it, Inoichi didn't really believe it. Ibiki grunted in response, face stormy.
"I have never heard of someone bleeding from their eyes while under the shintensen," the Sandaime said dryly. "But you say a seizure isn't entirely unheard of?"
"It's rare, but possible. Sometimes people who've had extensive exposure will have an odd reaction," Inoichi tried. "One way or the other- either they become incredibly pliant, or they develop an ineffectual but dangerous form of resistance."
That was a much better theory, if he could think of any reason to believe that Uzumaki-san had been subject to repeated or hasty Yamanaka mind-work.
"You're willfully ignoring the obvious." Ibiki shoved his hands into his pockets, the strong lines of his shoulders tense.
"The bijuu theory?" Inoichi asked dryly. Hells, his head was killing him. "I don't think that's it. I've done quick scans over Naruto-kun and there was no reaction."
"That's a dormant bijuu," Ibiki rejected. He was staring at Uzumaki's processing paperwork again, scowling. "You said you saw her facing it down-"
"I didn't see that it ended up being sealed in her." Inoichi pointed out. "This is all just speculation. For all we know, Yagura is still the jinchuuriki, he was only replaced as Mizukage."
"That seems unlikely," Hiruzen commented. He was leaned back, watching the younger men pace like lions. "If Kirigakure has deposed their Mizukage and suddenly brought an Uzumaki into the fold, it seems highly likely that she has become their jinchuuriki. The only questions that remain are who could have done such a thing, and why she would accept the role."
"But we don't actually know that," Inoichi protested. "That's a large assumption to make. If only I'd been able to dig deeper, we would know."
Hiruzen sighed. "I believe that you made the correct choice to cease your efforts," he said gently. "If you assessed that further investigation could cause permanent damage, I trust your judgment. It would serve no one's end to damage a foreign asset without extremely reasonable backing, not least because I would like to recruit her."
The Yamanaka swallowed. "As you say, Hokage-sama." He didn't sound like he forgave himself for the failure. Inoichi averted his eyes. "If Uzumaki is a jinchuuriki, Kirigakure would offer her more safety and security than being on her own."
"Kiri isn't well-known for their good treatment of jinchuuriki," Ibiki said sourly. He cast a glare back at the chair where the prisoner had sat so recently.
"No, but they're not particularly egregious," Hiruzen acknowledged. And it rankled, but, "And Uzumaki-san has expressed explicit critique of Konohagakure's historical and current treatment of jinchuuriki."
Ibiki hid his surprise better than Inoichi. "That is an oddly specific topic to address with a Konoha shinobi who could report that to you," he said after a silence.
Inoichi let his eyebrows twitch up, but made no other concession towards a smile at how accurate that assessment was.
"In her defense, it was provoked," Hiruzen said. He smiled, bitterly. "And the critique was actually framed as a reference to the treatment of Uzumaki in Konoha. But they amount to much the same thing, I'm afraid. And in light of this possibility, a connection can be drawn."
They let that hang in the air, because there really wasn't much more to say about it.
"It's a reasonable assumption that the new administration is more friendly to jinchuuriki." Inoichi said thoughtfully. "If Utakata's returned, and Uzumaki-san joined them-"
"Not to mention the sudden leniency for political dissidence and bloodline users," Ibiki interrupted. He was scowling. "That doesn't sit right- it's a drastic shift. The bloodline users being accepted- that's good evidence for the theory that this 'Shukujo-sama' is Terumi after all, a bloodline user would have a lighter stance. But she's a hardline loyalist, she stuck it out long after it was obvious that the Yondaime needed to be put down."
Sandaime sighed, eyes darting to Inoichi to wait for his assessment.
The blonde man obliged. "It is very odd that Terumi would be popularly referred to that way, if she is the Godaime," Inoichi agreed. "But it remains the only theory that fits at all- what other female candidates of that caliber did they have?" He pursed his lips, answering his own questions. "One of the seven swordsmen, but she's deceased."
"That could be a cover-up." Ibiki didn't seem to believe it.
Inoichi frowned. "Nothing fits perfectly," he complained. "Terumi is enough of a household name that she would probably not be referred to with that title. But- the Lady?" He tapped his fingers against his kunai holster. "Who else could it be?"
"As a popular title, it implies a gender, dignity, and level of anonymity that are difficult to assign to a personage in Kirigakure of enough strength to serve as kage," the Sandaime finally weighed in. He stood. "Perhaps the Godaime emerged from the Black Operations- someone who we would not know of except by deed, someone who would have enough respect from the upper ranks to be given the highest office despite lacking popular support."
Inoichi and Ibiki picked up their belongings, Inoichi folding the report he had to finish and tucking it into a jacket pocket. They exchanged a look.
"As you say," Ibiki said, finally. He opened the door and bowed as the Hokage shuffled out. "I'll see what I can dig up. We're still working on an extraction for our agents in Kirigakure- I expect they'll have valuable information, if Raidou was caught making an attempt on the Mizukage's office."