Author's Note: Fun facts! I twisted the canon a bit. Akatsuki and Madara are dead and Sasuke returned back to Konoha. Madara never told Sasuke the 'truth' and ignorance is bliss sooo Sasuke lives in Konoha and his lovin' on Naruto. So the War is over but that means Danzo is still alive and batshit, power-crazy as ever… So duh, the other villages want him dead. Enjoy! ~KK
Pairings: Sai/Kagome, Naruto/Sasuke (yaoi), Bee/Kagome (slight)
Nebulous
Send me your position
It's getting lonely down here
Things I've been up to lately
Have kept me from seeing clear
Why do you keep on running?
—Storm
Simply put, Shimura Danzo had to die.
In the immediate future, preferably, and the only way to accomplish such a task was to get close, really close, to the corrupt Rokudaime Hokage.
But, therein in laid one problem…
"I am not touching that saggy old—"
Higurashi Kagome would sooner seduce a cockroach than lay one finger on the man.
The Raikage growled and it was not unlike thunder rumbling from the back of his throat. He settled down into his holding and looked down at the small kunoichi – a small willowy thing with a spill of jet black hair and skin as pale and translucent as the vapors that obscured his village.
A remembered her when she was younger. She was far less gaunt in the face and had been as gawky in the knees as a newborn foal. Her eyes had been bright, baked sapphires back then, instead of the current jaded haze that clouded over her indigo irises. She had also been painfully flat-chested as opposed to her… current assets.
Now, perched at the footsteps of his holding and a sheet of glass as her backdrop, the pale light of Kumo's iridescent mists caught her skin in an eerie light and her robes were impossibly dark, melding with the inky sheen of her hair. She was alluring in an ethereal sense and as imposing as mouse along with a gossamer touch and a honey-velvet voice…
She made the perfect seductress and spy.
"There must be another way, Raikage-sama," Kagome griped as she began to slink her way up to him. "Send Darui to assassinate him or something."
"We need intel before an assassination can be launched. Danzo's powers are too uncharted to engage." A's face twisted into a foul expression. Kagome may have been one of Kumo's elite but her attitude was at times… taxing. "There will be no arguments!" he roared and the wooden armrests of his holding split under the pressure of his grip.
Kagome wilted but then blossomed into a flower of fury. "But he's old. He probably can't even get it up—"
"No discussion!" The Raikage leapt and slammed a fist into concrete floor beside Kagome's stooped form. A star of fissured cracks bloomed from A's knuckles just a few scant inches away from Kagome's left heel.
The kunoich blinked her smoky indigo eyes, utterly unaffected. "I'm telling Bee."
The Raikage stood and dusted the stone-dust from his robes. "Like that insolent brat brother of mine would ever help—"
"I'll cry," Kagome quipped viciously and was standing in an unseen movement. She was fast. Her Raikage had taught her to be swift as lightning and just as quiet—only thunder made sound. "I swear I will…" she threatened and added a dramatic sniffle. "And you know what happens when I do."
A grit his teeth and found his whole body grow tense. His muscles drew taut under dark skin and his brow grew impossibly knotted.
The last time Kagome cried had been the Akatsuki had taken Yugito.
Bee had become so distraught over her tears that the Hachibi had almost gone yet another rampage.
Jinchuuriki, or rather, their demons specifically had a tendency to get attached to Kagome. It was unexplainable, really, but Kagome had been acquired into his personal entourage due to her knack for subterfuge and affinity for taming Jinchuuriki's temper tantrums. Which she could stem just as easily as invoke.
Kagome always had an odd aura about her, one that had an unnatural affinity in her powers of persuasion.
A promptly stomped his foot in defeat; which resulted in a small crater forming before his toes. "Fine!"
Kagome perked up and scuttled up to her Raikage as eager as a puppy. "Really? I don't have to?"
"No, you'll just have to figure something else while you're there," A grumbled roughly, pushing off the pawing kunoichi irritably.
"He better have a cute subordinate then."
A growled. There was no way he was repeating this to his brother.
Bee was sort of in love with girl.
…
Sai rested the tip of his inked brush upon the parchment. A long downward stroke elicited a feathery black trail to slip down the page. He paused and tilted his head at the single brushstroke.
For the first time in his life, Sai was at complete loss.
"Whatcha' painting?" Sakura chirped as she materialized out of nothingness.
The fact that he might be suffering from the horrid artist's block sobered the Root member.
Sai swiveled on his butt and turned his back to the pink-haired medic-nin. Sakura promptly leaned over his shoulder and owlishly peered at his work. "Hm," she hummed. "Didn't get very far."
"Excellent observation, hag." Sai tossed a blank stare to the cherry blossom cradled in canopy of glistening leaves and fractured sunlight. Root had silenced emotions within him to a placid void where his heart should have resided. Team Seven had roused something deeper than that and surely had disturbed his soul.
Sai personally blamed Team Seven for doing this to him.
Sakura's face flushed. "Don't be so touchy just because you're having a dry spell."
"I must be repressing something within my subconscious, so much so that it manifests in my inability to paint." Sai tapped the tip of the wooden shaft against his pale lips. "Maybe I am on the precipice of a killing spree? Or perhaps I have unresolved childhood trauma that may come to light in a realistic flashback. Or maybe I have multiple personalities and one is starting resurface…"
Sakura blinked. That was last time she let him have his hands on a psychology book. "I think I know what you're problem is, Sai," Sakura informed him and gingerly took away his sketchpad and brush.
Said raised a single brow and stared into Sakura's bright as spring grass, green eyes.
"You just need to get laid."
…
Slipping into Konoha was easy enough. Getting out of Kumo? Now that was a tricky one.
"Bee, let me down!"
Especially when you were pinned against a mossy mountainside by a Jinchuuriki's tentacle.
"I ain't lettin' you down! You'll make me look like a clown!" Bee's voice echoed against the misty crags. "You think I'm gonna let you get goin'? Without tellin' me nothin' and me not knowin'?"
Kagome squirmed and felt her skin ache from Bee's noxious chakra. "I wasn't going to tell you because…"
"No excuses, cuz," Bee hummed and let his demonic ki dissipate. He watched as the lithe kunoichi slumped to the earth with hands fisted with dirt and nascent shrubs. "It'll all be just fudge."
Kagome looked up with smoky eyes and her jet-black bangs tousling in the wind. "I'm going to be back so quick – you won't even notice I'm gone."
Bee's face remained stolid and she could feel his eyes shifting suspiciously beneath those dark shades of his. "This is my first admission, but I hate such a mission."
Kagome stood and dusted herself off. Bee loomed over her still with his dark, broad and imposing stature. "I know… not many in my line of work do either."
"I'll be sitting here and waitin' , so hurry up and get shakin'."
Kagome re-shifted her pack and giggled. "I will." She leaned forward with a peck to his rough cheek.
Hachibi purred and Kagome whirled on her heel, her dark robes billowing as she set out on the long mountain path.
And Bee watched as the mist swallowed her up with no promise of return.
…
Three solid taps resonated within the stateroom.
Sai remained knelt, facedown and with palms splayed in an upside-down V in submission. His nose was buried in convoluted embroidery but he could still detect the faint musk of his master.
Sword oil, wood smoke, dried blood…
Nothing quite pleasant or distinguishable enough to place but enough to cover up the natural aroma.
The gnarled pummel of Danzo's walking stick remained lodged within his vise-like hold. "A new batch of 'transfers' will be coming into Konoha today. Though necessary to maintain the treaty between the newly allied Shinobi Nations…" Danzo's tongue scraped over allied like a bitter salt. "It provides a perfect opportunity for infiltration and artifice. You will screen the new transfers, Sai and report any suspicious activity."
Sai glanced up, his eyes dark as inkwells. "No immediate action is to be taken?"
"No," Danzo mandated and let his walking rap upon the floor for thematic effect. "As far as the rest of the Kage know, I am within Konoha and a ripe target to usurp. They have made it clear they do not approve of my sovereignty and are most certainly plotting my demise."
"Then my main goal is to monitor, is that correct, Hokage-sama?" Sai's eyes burned from the plush fabrics and silks that bedecked Danzo's chamber.
"That is correct," Danzo said tersely. "Keep also an eye on your fellow citizens as well. A few have made their opinions of me quite clear."
"You suspect sedition?" Sai pressed and flashing image of obnoxious blond came to mind, spewing expletives at the Godaime's funeral and having a bestial fury in his eyes.
Danzo did not answer for a long moment. He turned away from his trusted subordinate and seated himself wearily onto his throne-like holding. "I do not suspect, Sai. I know."
Sai bowed once more in acquiescence. "Of course, Hokage-sama."
"You are dismissed," Danzo waved off his subordinate with a rigid movement.
Sai slipped out of the cabin and onto the ship's oiled deck, summoning an inked avian and taking flight over the vast, endless oceans.
Even among the clouds, inspiration still evaded him.
…
A shadow loomed overhead and Kagome felt herself pinned not only by the very oppressing cloudless sky but by the constant harping of Konoha's security.
Name?
Higurashi Kagome
Village?
Kumogakure no Sato, Kaminari no Kuni
Occupation?
Diplomat
Good luck with that – papers?
"Most certainly," Kagome chirped as she fished for her passports in her saffron yellow backpack. The ANBU monitoring the new transfers sighed impatiently at her momentary quest and tapped his clipboard impatiently. "He we are… and when can I meet with the Hokage?"
The aardvark masked ANBU looked over her passports wordlessly, jostled down a comment on the very official looking clipboard and proceeded to stamp the documents. He handed them back. "As I said, good luck with that."
Kagome's lips pouted and her dusky eyes lowered to a sultry gaze. "And why would say such a thing?"
The ANBU stilled and the world seemed to blur around the small ethereal beauty. "He is…very busy, as of late."
"Then can you point me in the right direction?" she pried with the tips of her fingers gently traipsing along the ANBU's grey armor.
The ANBU grew incredibly rigid in his posture. "Not my department. It's Root that has authority in this village and has a direct audience with the Hokage."
"And where can I find such a Root member?" Kagome squinted and the sunlight was near painful on her ashen skin.
The ANBU shrugged with no care for the foreigner and drifted back into the haze of sun-baked earth and the cacophony of accents of the other transfers.
Kagome plopped down on her butt in cloudlet of dirt and sheathed her arms into her dark robes. The darkness of her form sipped at the sunlight greedily and soon she found herself completely drawn and caked in a sticky sheen of sweat.
She missed Kumo already…
The cool thin-aired mornings, those mist-spindled mountains with their secluded moss-fletched caves and ancient tarns, the drifting columns of clouds that were as much guardians as ever-changing cathedrals…
"If you're going to sit then you must move for the other transfers to get by," a disembodied voice pitched.
Kagome's eyes fluttered open and with a piercing sunlit halo and the Konoha Gates his backdrop stood a ghost of a boy before her. "Ah, sorry," she murmured and gathered her belongings with a sluggish, near painful motion. She fumbled with her canteen—
A paper-white palm cupped it midair.
Kagome glanced up, her thick jet-black tresses parted before her eyes. Her pupils adjusted to the light and when they were no longer pained—
Sai smiled.
And whether it was from heat stroke or Mountain Sickness, Kagome reciprocated by vomiting onto the Root member's boots.
Sai simply blinked. "It seems you had corn recently."
It was a start of a rather tumultuous love story, to say the least.
Author's Note: Ah, the summary does not lie. Kagome fails miserably a lot especially when suffering from (reverse) Acute Mountain Sickness. Anyways, this is my submission for Flawless Addiction's Sai/Kagome contest and will be a couple chapters long, no more, no less:) ~KK