"Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious." —Oscar Wilde

Fourteen

The Third Kazekage allowed her to stay in the hospital with Sasori and the other boy for as long as she felt like, but he had made it quite clear that whenever she was leaving, she was to inform him personally and Bolt from his office only. (Not that she would've risked Bolting from anywhere else.) So as soon as Amori dismissed her and began arranging the needed paperwork for a new treaty with Konoha, Sora made her way to the ninja wing of Suna's hospital.

It seemed that the 'hospital look' was universal, and she stopped several times to find the correct corridor of rooms until she stumbled upon a grumbling Sasori being treated by a nurse with simple bandages and antiseptic. From the lack of sutures, the once-over was really more for appearances than anything else, and she could relate to the amount of times some disgruntled RN or newbie LPN did the superficial job of bandaging cuts that might as well have been paper cuts for all ninja would notice them.

"Hey," she said, knocking on the doorjamb as she perched herself on the threshold to the room. Sasori immediately looked up from the ground and gave her a painfully small smile that was more of a twitch than anything else, but at the least it seemed genuine.

The nurse finished up and gave both of them a tight upward turn of his lips before high-tailing it back to other patients' rooms, and as soon as he was gone, Sora entered the room fully. She wasn't quite sure what to say to Sasori since she hadn't really known him that long, but the most pressing matter was probably the friend with the severed arm.

"Will your, uh, friend be okay?" she asked. She sat down on one of the hospital chairs next to the bed he was only really using for show. The staff probably hadn't even bothered checking him in.

Sasori nodded and his burnt red hair didn't move as he did, plastered to his head as it was. He tried to hide his worry, but Sora could tell from experience the anxiety in his features and the guilt that clenched his fists. She didn't know who his friend was or anything about either of them really, but it didn't take an expert to know they were at least kind of close. Close enough for him to feel responsible.

Neither of them spoke, but she hoped that she was at least some sort of comfort. She'd lost her fair share of teammates, and enough of them had been handicapped while on a mission she was running that she was intimately familiar with the feeling. It was like a twist in your gut that—-for the life of you—-you couldn't shake off or ignore. Guilt like that waited until you were all alone to sweep the forefront of your mind and taunt you. And Sora hadn't even seen half of what people like the ANBU Commander had seen, or the Hokage. She'd been a ninja long enough to feel the weight, but not long enough to get used to it.

As she watched this Suna Chuunin draw into himself, she couldn't help but feel just a little pity. He was obviously extremely talented, and would probably climb high in Suna's ranks. His mastery of chakra strings and puppetry was something she could certainly see going somewhere, and with the Third War probably around the corner, he would inevitably be thrown into action, maybe even leading a squad, and any innocence he could've had would be yanked away like a child without their blanket.

Then again, Suna had rough people. They didn't just lie down and take anything.

Sasori's sudden sigh caused her to break out of her own thoughts. "I…" he began, but only stared at the ground harder.

She knew not to interrupt whatever revelation he'd come to, so she kept her mouth shut. Whatever he wanted to say, it wasn't easily put into words.

"I didn't care," Sasori whispered as clenched his fists. "I saw him get his arm severed by an Iwa ninja and I'm here waiting for him to get out of the hospital, and I realize that I just don't care."

Sora knew he wasn't finished and just leaned back on the ridiculously uncomfortable straight-back chair. She watched as his nails drew blood from his palms and he subconsciously wiped the blood away before it could drip onto the floor.

"He won't be a ninja now—at least not unless they use him as cannon fodder—and I couldn't possibly give a single shit." Sasori worked his jaw and she saw the beginnings of what might possibly have been tears in his eyes, but he was holding them back.

She hated to see this and always had, but it was something everyone who committed themselves to the warrior life, especially ninja, eventually went through unless they were killed first. When a person had finally seen enough mindless killing that even the handicapping or brutal murder of a team member didn't even show up on the emotional radar, usually the realization that you were that far gone was worse than the actual act. When you finally understood what you'd gotten used to, and how unable you were to go back to the droves of civilian society; there wasn't any turning back and you should care about little Haruto, but you just really really didn't.

Sora was fourteen—a Chuunin—and had run her third team as a leader. Her second in command had taken point because of his Byakugan and the third member had taken the back because of her sensory abilities. By the time they'd been close to the Fire/Rain border, they were attacked by Kiri ninjas. Her and the sensor, Yoko, managed to get out alive by the skin of their teeth, but Hideki Hyuuga had been caught by razor wire around the throat and decapitated. Sora and Yoko hadn't had the time to recover his body, and the funeral had been a private affair by the Hyuugas.

Three days after the mission, Sora had met up with her friend Tsuru at the Academy where she worked and Tsuru had asked if she was okay. It was then that she'd come to the realization that she hadn't known Hideki nor had she any conversations with him before that day; she didn't miss him and didn't mourn him.

She'd seen enough death that there was no reason crying over someone that she hadn't even known. People like her had to shield themselves mental pain in any way they could muster.

She understood Sasori well—she did—but the kid had some of these things to figure out on his own. She didn't know what was going on with Chiyō and him, but she got the gist of how it manifested.

From behind her, a Suna ANBU came through the doorway. The ninja had on the tell-tale porcelain mask with red paint in a shape that symbolized a monkey. "The Kazekage has summoned you to a Council meeting that starts in five minutes. I am here to escort you," the ANBU said in monotone. Sasori didn't even look up as she left.

Even though she didn't really want to up-and-leave when Sasori might've benefited from her presence, this wasn't a request and the treaty between Konoha and Suna was vital—-late wasn't an option. On her way to the Kazekage Tower, she garnered a few slanted eyes from the lower-ranked ninjas, but the Jounins were carefully neutral and no one bothered her. Sand flew in her face from every direction, but she ignored it in favor of following her escort.

"Thank you," she said when they arrived. The ANBU gave a brisk nod and vanished, a shunshin leaving a swirl of damp sand in its wake.

The Third Kazekage was waiting in the chambers outside the council room with an ever-slight smirk across his face. When she entered, he held up a scroll marked with a blue band and blood seals, the tell-tale signs of a treaty. She had only ever seen one other, when the Third Hokage had reviewed treaties made after the Second War while she'd been giving a mission scroll.

"I only need you to recount your actions since meeting Sasori," the Kazekage said as he headed for the door to the council room. "I'll take care of the rest."

Sora had been expecting something along the lines of what Konoha's council was like, with clan heads as part of a military sect and merchants and prominent business owners as part of a civilian sect with a small council of advisors that directly served the Kazekage. As soon as she entered the room, however, she realized how stupid an assumption like that was and quickly upped her opinion of Suna.

The council members were introduced to her and she saw that while there were both ninjas and civilians actively sitting, the ninjas weren't clan heads at all but simply elite Jounins. She recognized a majority of them from the most recent Bingo Book she'd gotten her hands on. The civilian portion was comprised of a smarter coalition of people including the Head of Suna's hospital, the Head Matron of the orphanages scattered throughout the village, the Secretary of the Treasury that managed Suna's private business rates and flow of money, the sitting Police Commissioner, and the Director of Infrastructure. The panel of three advisors to the Kazekage was comprised of his ANBU Commander, his Jounin Commander, and an ambassador from the Wind Country Daimyō.

It was highly efficient to construct a council this way, and Sora understood from the get-go how beneficial it was to have relevant members advising the Kazekage instead of a bunch of people with only selfish interests in mind, which is what clan heads and business owners blatantly do.

Once introductions were in order, the Kazekage gestured for her to explain herself.

"I found myself in Suna because of an S-class secret that I have informed Kazekage-sama of already, but am not authorized to disclose to this council." She cracked a shit-eating grin and an exaggerated shrug. "That's above my paygrade." That elicited chuckles from most of the shinobi and a few of the civvies. She continued.

"The first thing I saw was that I wasn't disarmed nor did I seem to be in a hostile situation, but knew I was in Suna because of the sand. Sasori, a Chuunin in the Puppet Brigade, was the one who found me. I was suffering from severe chakra exhaustion and a few minor injuries. After a day or so, I was told that I could leave whenever I wanted to, but that Sasori was leaving on a mission assignment.

"He was distressed that he couldn't find a poison that he'd developed for his puppet, but had to end up leaving without it. Not very long before that, Lady Chiyō had had an arguement with Sasori and I assumed she might have wanted it for whatever purpose, so I headed for the hospital where I was 90% sure that Lady Chiyō would be."

Takeshi Enatsu, a Jounin with a "highly dangerous" tag next to his name in the Bingo Book, spoke up then. "How did you enter the village without detection?"

Sora hadn't personally met Enatsu before, but she had heard rumors of his techniques from other Jounins before. He was famous for his fire affinity which wasn't very common in Suna, and he basically turned sand into glass. Most speculated it was a bloodline, but no one had ever heard of his family or his jutsus so it wasn't confirmed. From seeing him now, with his medium build and cornrowed navy blue hair to his modified Jounin uniform, Sora wasn't necessarily super intimidated, but she'd seen the aftermath of his handiwork while visiting Tsunade before so she wasn't going to base any serious judgement off of impressions.

"That would be the S-class secret," she stated, and the outcry at that was swift.

Enatsu leaned forward in his chair and gripped the conference table. "Kazekage-sama, that leaves the village completely vulnerable. You can't expect to keep us in the dark."

"I agree," the Police Commissioner, Emi Imoto, drawled as she propped her feet up on the table and kicked back her chair legs. She bit at a hangnail on her left thumb. "Doesn't seem smart to me."

Not that she hadn't seen some eccentric people in her life, but Sora was surprised at the nonchalance in which the Commissioner held herself while in a room full of highly trained ninjas. And yet, the woman wouldn't be in her job if she wasn't intelligent, so Sora assumed there must be more to the story than just an ignorant civilian.

The Kazekage let off a short burst of killing intent and everyone quickly shut the hell up. "This isn't up for debate. It was the one stipulation for the agreement Kuramoto-san and I came to. Now be silent and listen."

No one needed to be told twice.

Clearing her throat, Sora finished it up. "Disregarding the way in which I entered the village, I was caught and taken to the hospital because of the ongoing Treaty of Nonaggression this village has with Konoha. I recovered the poison that had been on Lady Chiyō's person and left the village. I used my summons to track down Sasori where I found him and a Genin engaged with ninjas from Iwa. The Genin lost a forearm before I could pull him out of the way. I transported myself straight to the Kazekage to save the Genin's life and now find myself here."

It was silent for a few moments, as if no one was quite willing to believe what she'd told them. Which wasn't unexpected, but it would make it harder if the council didn't want to approve the treaty. The Kazekage had quite a bit of power, but she was under the impression that he couldn't instate martial law until war was declared or a natural disaster had occurred. Emergency power and all that.

The first to break the silence was the Head of the hospital. He sighed and gestured to Sora. "What did you bring us here for, Kazekage-sama?"

"I want to reissue our treaty with Konoha before the Third Shinobi World War starts."

Sora found a lot more nods of approval than she would've expected. Most of the civilians, excepting the Director of Infrastructure, seemed to be in complete agreement. The ninjas weren't as uniform, but there were quite a few either in outright approval or at least neutral. She couldn't read Enatsu because of his stony, emotionless expression, but that didn't matter. The council already had majority.

"Thank you, Kuramoto-san," the Kazekage said. He then addressed the council. "That will be all."

The ninjas used a shunshin to leave immediately and the civilians filtered out one by one, collecting their belongings and jackets. Imoto, however, left first and quickly, but Sora didn't give it much thought.

The Kazekage gestured for her to follow him, so she found herself in his office with the privacy seals she'd erected earlier activated and any windows blacked out with a genjutsu.

She hadn't paid much attention to the Kazekage's office before, but it was furnished very nicely. He seemed to prefer wooden furniture to metal, and the simple flat-top desk looked like white oak with silver handles. It was smooth from years of paperwork and picture frames and scrawled missives written in the middle of the night. From coffee mugs and tea cups and that spilt water that no one had bothered to clean up for a half an hour last week. The enraged shove that dumped everything on top to the floor and the feet because by God civvies couldn't use chakra to get those kunai off the ceiling.

Sora could tell by the high-quality but chipped blinds, the dented and scuffed and burned adobe walls, and the white oak desk what kind of people the Kazekage and Kazekages before Amori were. Suna wasn't much different than Konoha. (Discounting that God-forsaken sand.)

"These are the terms for the treaty." Amori handed the scroll over to her, breaking her reverie, and then glanced at her arrows. "I would imagine it would make the most sense for you to take the scroll to the Hokage via your spacetime seal."

Sora gave a sharp nod and withdrew an arrow. She tapped the shaft, which wrote a seal formula on the surface, and raised her hand in the one-handed rat. She whispered "Fuuinjutsu" and was gone.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had a problem.

A big, messy problem.

He had an Academy student that was about to graduate at the tender age of five, four years before his peers, and it couldn't have been at a worse possible time. How could he possibly send such a young child into what was sure to be a bitter war of attrition? On the other hand, how could he hold such a genius back when Konoha needed every available soldier to pull through this war?

Hiruzen didn't want to ruin a child, but he would. He'd avoid his bedroom for the next few days, but he would do what had to be done. Unfortunately, his original plan for Kakashi Hatake wasn't going to work. This kid was a genius, but he wouldn't be able to work well with a traditional Genin team. The older kids would never work with the young Hatake even if Kakashi was completely willing to, so there wasn't much more that Hiruzen could do about that. He could, however, give Kakashi to a Jounin as an apprentice.

Apprenticeships didn't usually begin until a Genin or Chuunin had worked on at least one squad and figured out their preferred area of expertise. Most would then seek out someone willing to train them more individually and train with said person as long as agreed upon.

The only Jounin that would probably be willing to take such a young apprentice would be Minato Namikaze, Jiraiya's student, but he was shaping up to be a powerful asset of the Leaf that Hiruzen couldn't chain to the village for the next four years until Hatake could be assigned to a Genin team of his own age. So that left finding someone else, but he couldn't think of a single Jounin that would be willing to—in their minds—be saddled with a brat and be ordered on babysitting duty. Not to mention take less pay because they'd have to take fewer missions with such a young apprentice.

I'm too old for this, Hiruzen thought as he sifted through the graduation exam applications. Tsuru Mihara might've been a good idea if she wasn't an Academy teacher about to take the Jounin exam. He couldn't very well apprentice someone to her when, from what he could recall, she hadn't done her own apprenticeship. She hadn't decided her own area of expertise.

His only option was to give the kid to Minato. Anything else wouldn't work, and Hiruzen couldn't afford anything not working right now. He'd just have to push Minato a little harder than he'd like to, but he was sure that it wouldn't be too big of a problem. Minato wasn't one to give anything less than his best for anything.

That left so many other things that Hiruzen felt like lying down on the floor and refusing to get up. Someone else could deal. What he needed was a goddamned successor.

But Danzō was being his warmongering self (when wasn't he, honestly?), and now Hiruzen had to clean it up. Root just had BAD IDEA painted all over it with bright neon letters. It couldn't be ignored and it couldn't be completely disbanded from the outset because Danzō would just pull back and wait until he could reinstate his operatives in the formal ANBU ranks. The aged Hokage knew his former teammate better than most, and Danzō was such a paranoid old codger that he probably had contingency plans for his contingency plans. No, any action against Root would have to be subtle and gradual.

Who was he going to get to do that? Unfortunately almost no one would be willing to go swimming in the proverbial snake pit. As he was reading through his paperwork and mulling over the many steaming piles of shit that had landed in his lap recently, a bright flash of light brought his attention to his favorite wayward Jounin. (If the sarcasm wasn't stifling, he'd give up his hat.)

There was a heavy silence that neither broke for several moments.

"Kuramoto-san."

A deep bow. "Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen laid his pen down slowly, carefully exaggerating the movement as he blatantly ignored the woman in front of him to shuffle through some irrelevant reports from the Academy about team assignments that only passed through for a rubber-stamp out of courtesy. He stamped every single one, re-wetting the wooden block between each and rocking the stamp back and forth to get good coverage. Upon finishing, he picked up a stack of receipts regarding the reassignment of three different Chuunin squads and their differing commission.

He was going to wait her out because he hadn't been this angry in a very long time. Each of his movements were controlled and precise, and it was an exercise in patience not to sweep everything off the top of his desk and give a good old-fashioned dressing down.

As it stood, he was one wrong word from doing so anyway.

Finally, it seemed as though Kuramoto was finished waiting and she cleared her throat. Hiruzen glanced up like he hadn't realized she was still there and—with a quick flick of his wrist—sent his hidden ANBU out of the room. Privacy seals in place, he gestured for her to continue.

"Hokage-sama," she began, and he had to give her credit for not fidgeting or averting her gaze. "I've brought this from the Kazekage." She revealed a blue-banded scroll.

Hiruzen eyed it. "And this is?" He knew very well what it was, but couldn't stop himself from letting the condescension leak out.

She averted her eyes. "A treaty, sir."

"Be more specific, Kuramoto-san. Treaties can be about a great many things."

She didn't respond right away, and Hiruzen found himself gaining momentum, letting his pent up anger, frustration and irritation roll together. He had to be Hokage twenty-four seven, and—as much as Sora Kuramoto was highly skilled—he didn't have the time to deal with this kind of incompetence.

"Is this the treaty you secured by breaking into Suna's hospital, stealing poison, and for God's sake doing it in front of the motherfucking Kazekage himself! Do you have a death wish? Do you realize that your actions could have started the Third Shinobi World War and left Konoha with no allies, no outside supplies, and no trading with a single Hidden Village? You are so beyond lucky that this entire situation didn't go to utter hell or I would have you executed for high treason. Where was the logic in this? Where was the fucking common sense?! How could you possibly—possibly—have missed the sheer, unadulterated stupidity in that plan?"

Hiruzen's chest was heaving by the time he finished and Kuramoto looked as though she'd already shit herself twice over. The killing intent leaking off the Hokage was going unchecked and he didn't give a damn. He'd never thought he'd have to tell a ninja all but ANBU in name not to do what she had just done.

BANG! A fist clenched in anger on the wood. "Explain to me your thought process here, Kuramoto-san. Because I am at a fucking loss."

It was quiet except for his heavy breathing and Kuramoto's uncomfortable, miniscule shifting. There wasn't anything she seemed willing to say and it was a good thing too because he wasn't in the mood to hear it. He just wanted the treaty so he could figure out what he'd be giving up. Kuramoto handed it over at his gesture and he braced himself.

Everything was pretty routine when it came to military and civilian assets and trading, and he'd look through all those details later, but it had one stipulation that Hiruzen really should've seen coming: the Bolting Arrow.

Kuramoto's seal was keyed into only her chakra or her family's. Therefore, Amori was demanding that Kuramoto marry a ninja from Suna to pass on the seal. According to the treaty, it didn't matter who she married, just that she did. It also demanded that she moved to Suna once the war ended and be inducted into Suna's ninja ranks.

She might be getting razed right now for her recklessness, the old Hokage thought, but she's an asset the Leaf can't afford to lose.

He knew, though, that he couldn't pass up a treaty from anyone, especially Suna. Konoha's ninja worked the best with those of Suna, and there wasn't any hard feelings on the whole from the Second War like there was with Kiri or Kumo, or especially Iwa. If Hiruzen was being honest with himself, this situation couldn't have turned out a whole lot better barring the Third War not happening. However, he had Kuramoto until the end of the war, which could be years, and he wasn't about to waste that time.

There were quite a few jobs no one else would want to take, and she'd realize quickly the consequences for her actions. (He'd only take it a slight bit easier since she'd been lucky enough not to fuck everything up.)

Hiruzen cleared his throat and deposited the scroll in a blood-sealed compartment in his desk. "Kuramoto-san, I have a proposition."

She stood stoically and Hiruzen knew that she wouldn't refuse because what he was about to say wasn't a request. She understood this. And he needed to kill two birds with one stone.

"You already know that Sakumo's son is graduating in a couple of months and he's too young to function on a typical Genin team. I want you to take him as your apprentice."

Kuramoto's eyes widened and her shoulders stiffened ever so slightly, but she didn't say a word.

"Furthermore," Hiruzen said, keeping his words clipped and tone cool as he pulled the correct paperwork from the drawers of his desk. Sliding the transfer order around to face her, he set a pen on top and folded his hands. "I need someone inside Root."

She bit her lip just slightly—the only outward sign she was uncomfortable—and Hiruzen would give credit where credit was due. Her hand didn't shake as she signed on the dotted line, even if she was as good as sealing her fate, and she didn't ask a thing. Once finished, Hiruzen tossed her a scroll double-banded with orange and gestured to his door.

"More information will be given to you when necessary. Memorize that scroll and report back in at 0:300 hours a week from tomorrow. Your mentorship won't start for a couple more months and until that time you will find yourself getting comfortable in ANBU." He let a little killing intent leak out to punctuate his point. "You are dismissed."

Sora Kuramoto bowed deeply and snapped off a "Yes, sir" before heading towards the doors to his office when Hiruzen called her name. She looked back expectantly as if he was about to hammer another nail into her coffin.

Hiruzen Sarutobi glanced up at the woman with deadpan features. He didn't smile or frown or smirk or joke around. Giving her a cursory scan, he focused back on his paperwork before saying, "You might want to try and play nice with the ninjas from Suna, Kuramoto-san. They're looking forward to the quality time."

He heard her leave, but didn't bother looking up. He had a meeting with his small council in an hour and needed to plant the seeds for Danzō without drawing suspicion.