Author's Note: The first few paragraphs contains a reference to Arabella Cauwell's fanfic Tsunade's Secret Weapon - Chapter 7. The rest of the chapter is what Chino was doing while Team 17 was travelling to the Hyuga Estate.
Canon characters featured: Hinata, Tsunade, Shizune, and near the end Sai.
Half-way through the chapter the story turns more serious as set up for the next few chapters which will be more dramatic than the previous ones.
Chapter 24: Housing Team 17
Apparently Hinata had come to the Hokage Tower at her family's request to drop some things off. Hinata had heard from someone in the Hyuga household that more Amazon kunoichi had recently arrived in Konoha. Most likely whoever person was must have found out from Misaki who is probably cowering in fear in some hidden place on the estate. Hinata assumed that because of their unannounced visit these newcomers might need a place to stay for a week or two since there wasn't really anywhere for them to stay. With how much construction and renovations were well underway throughout the village Chino found it reasonable to assume this was true. To remedy the situation, Hinata hoped Team 17 would be willing to stay in one of the guests rooms in the main house of the Hyuga family for the time being.
'So she was coming here to personally deliver something from her family to Lady Tsunade, hears about Team 17's arrival on her way out, and ends up deciding to offer to turn part of her house into a pseudo-hotel for them on the walk over. That Hinata, always so generous. Assuming her father is on board with this plan, which considering it is a request from Hinata, he most likely will be if he isn't already, I wonder if Raiku goes along with this plan.'
Chino contemplated the odds of Hinata's offer being accepted. Eventually, she came to the conclusion that her aunt would most likely force Raiku into compliance due to lack of other acceptable arrangements. At least it would be one less thing for the Hokage to deal with. All there was to do now was see if Team 17 left with Hinata or if the Hyuga heiress headed home alone. She lingered nearby, keeping a lookout for her friends' departure from the office of the Hokage. Taka was starting to complain to his partner, but the Kusannagi ANBU operative wasn't listening and this agitated the bird of prey further.
Just fifteen minutes after Chino had started her stakeout, she saw four familiar kunoichi walking in the direction of the Hyuga compound.
'Looks like Hinata and Lady Tsunade won this round.'
Chino smiled to herself as she watched Hinata lead the way with Raiku trudging along behind. Miku quietly followed and Rinku strutted along near the back of the group. Not everyone looked all too happy with the chosen destination as Chino had predicted. Once enough distance between the group of young women and the building had been established, the Amazonian ANBU determined it was safe to proceed to the Hokage's office.
[**End of reference to the Tsunade's Secret Weapon story – all else is entirely original**]
The young female shinobi scaled the adjacent building while Taka flew up to the window he knew his human partner was aiming to wind up. Chino promptly jumped over to the ledge and perched on the windowsill behind the Hokage's desk.
"I'm back," she announced, startling the elder Senju and her assistant.
"For kami's sake stop doing that. Can't you just use a door?" Tsunade scolded.
"Door?" Chino asked in a confused manner.
"Don't act like you don't know what those are," Tsunade spoke unamused.
"But that wouldn't be a very Kusannagi thing to do."
"Do Kusannagi's have an aversion to doors?" Shizune questioned.
"Sorta," was all Chino offered in response.
"Great," Tsunade mumbled under her breath.
"Well now that you are here," the Hokage said, this time out loud in such a manner that was meant to be heard.
"I'm sure you noticed Team 17 has arrived in Konoha," she continued.
"Kinda hard to miss, with all the commotion they caused today," Chino stated.
"Yes my nieces sure do know how to make an entrance, …. Unfortunately. Now they are here and Team 17 will be with us for an extended time period, I don't know exactly how long, they will need accommodations. For now, Hinata has brought them to her house but I can't see Raiku being happy with this arrangement long term. Not that I don't believe the Hyugas wouldn't allow the Team to stay as long as was needed as boarders. We both know it will not work out. Raiku will want out as soon as possible just because she always insists on staying with family or no one at all."
'Ain't that the truth,' Chino thought to herself, almost mouthing the words as she did so.
"I feel a request coming, right?" Chino asked the shinobi leader.
"Yes. Since you know Team 17 well, I expect you to find more permanent living arrangements that will suit their needs, meet my eldest niece's requirements, and be to their liking. Or at least as close to these requests as possible will do. And this will need to be finalized soon, preferably within the week."
"As you command Hokage-sama. The building I'm staying in just finished up some renovations and started renting out the completed units. I should be able to find rooms which should work and make the necessary arrangements. I'll talk to the manager today if he's available. Most likely he'll make the time if you permit me to say it's a request from the Hokage."
"Permission granted," Tsunade said almost dismissively before continuing.
"Just see to it that it gets done. I have enough to deal with. I don't need my nieces housing problems added to the list."
Tsunade expected Chino to leave right away and wondered why she was still lingering by the window.
"What are you waiting for? Dismissed."
She then waved her hand as if to shoo the shinobi out the window the girl had come in from.
Chino shifted nervously from foot to foot.
"Uhm … well … the thing is …."
"Out with it already Kusannagi. I don't have all day. Shizune has a mountain of paperwork she wants me to get through."
"It wouldn't be a mountain full, my Lady, if you didn't let it pile up," Shizune chastised.
"Yeah, yeah. Look, I get to it when I get to it," Tsunade directed toward her assistant.
Then her attention was drawn to Chino with an "Anyway, what do you want?"
Just then Taka came down from his spot on the adjacent building and landed on the windowsill by his partner. He had grown tired of waiting for her and complained to Chino.
"I'm getting to it Taka. Calm down. Don't get your feathers in a bunch."
Shizune and Tsunade exchanged glances. Neither one knew what the sounds coming out of the hawk's beak meant. They also weren't sure if the Amazonian ANBU understood as much as she claimed to. Now the elder Senju was getting as impatient as the feathered creature occupying her window. Tsunade's foot tapped loudly on the wooden floor gaining Chino's attention.
"Oh, sorry my Lady," the Kusannagi apologized quickly.
Then Chino spoke quietly and concentrated on a spot on the floor.
"I kind of led Raiku-hime to believe I was out of the Village on missions."
"And this applies to me how?" the Hokage demanded in harsh tones.
"Is there a mission I could leave on, like maybe tomorrow?"
"Are you trying to avoid finding Team 17 lodgings? That is your priority."
"Oh no. I'll get on that today, but then for tomorrow ….." her voice trailed off not sure how to continue in an appropriate manner.
"Not ready to face the Princess yet?" Shizune suggested as calmly as she could manage.
"Pretty much," Chino admitted.
"You know how she'll get. First thing she'll start with a list of demands and trying to micro-manage everything, including me."
Then she paused before pleading, "Please Lady Tsunade. There must be something I can do for Konoha out there somewhere."
"Assuming you can complete your original task handled today … I might have a mission you can take on. Shizune."
Tsunade gestured toward some scrolls.
"Yes mam?" the assistant answered and walked over to the indicated pile.
She began looking through the scrolls at the top.
"This one appears to be a mission request. It would take you out of the Village for about four days, give or take."
Shizune then passed the scroll over to Chino who read over the information. It looked doable. All she would have to do would be to go to a small country shrine to pick up a relic. The relic had to be delivered to its sister shrine in another area not far from there. Under the description of the mission were listed the names of the contacts for each shrine. Down at the very bottom was a notation about where each shrine was located and the appropriate roads and lands to travel through to reach them.
Chino stared at the first location with disbelief and let out a soft "Ohh!"
Taka picked up on her agitation and moved closer in order to see what was written on the scroll. (Not that he could really read the words anyway.) The hawk tried to reach out to his human with the link they shared through the kekkei genkai.
'What is it?' Taka probed lightly.
'It's the first shrine. …. It's … It's there …. We would have to travel along the highroad which would lead us to pass just east of the Crossroad of the Four Sorrowful Maidens.'
'Then refuse. Going by that place will only cause you more pain. Take another mission or just accept we will have to see Raiku-hime come tomorrow.'
'No. I'm an Amazon Village ANBU. I can handle it.'
'Are you sure of this?'
'I think so ….. maybe …. Yes?'
"Something wrong?" Tsunade questioned, interrupting Chino and Taka's internal conversation.
Chino broke off the link and answered, "Not exactly. It's nothing. I just recognize I have been to the area before, that's all."
"Good. Then you won't have a problem navigating."
"Right," Chino muttered back weakly.
"Well then it's settled. Get Team 17 somewhere to stay and you can leave tomorrow. If your plan for housing doesn't work out, then return here in the morning and give back the mission scroll so I can assign someone else. Dismissed."
Chino thanked the Hokage, turned around and left out the window with Taka in tow.
First thing Chino did was go to the office of the manager of her apartment building. After hearing all about Team 17's housing dilemma, he was more than willing to be accommodating. The man considered it an honor to have relations of the Hokage staying in his building. Quickly he pulled up the list of apartments which would soon be available. Next the building manager gathered some keys he took out of a drawer and had Chino follow him out of the office.
They went and looked at a few units on each floor so Chino could evaluate them. From what the young kunoichi could figure out, because of the renovations only about half the rooms were currently occupied as the rest of the apartments were for the time being unusable. Eventually the Kusannagi had found at least three rooms she believed would fit Team 17's needs, but kept a list six rooms long. It was better to leave a few extra options to guarantee Raiku would be satisfied.
With that out of the way, Chino thanked the manager and went back to her own room. Taka was waiting for her. Sometime early on in the building tour the hawk had flown off as he was uninterested in such human things. Hearing his human partner enter the room, Taka directed his gaze toward the door. From his spot inside his nest Taka stared harshly at Chino.
"What did I do now?" Chino questioned her avian friend.
"I think you are making a mistake in taking this mission. We are not allowed by that place and you are well aware of it," Taka squawked sternly.
"That isn't 100% true and you realize that," Chino spat back.
"Then why haven't we been given a mission anywhere near there in years?" the hawk accused.
"Because the Council thought it best. There was never an official mandate banning me from the region. A few years from now it will change. It's just an unspoken policy for how they deal with situations like what happened," Chino explained defensively.
"And are you trying to trigger another situation? You are deliberately disobeying the Council's decision. Unspoken policy or not, we could get in trouble if the Amazon Village discovers this. You need to tell the Hokage to assign you to something else. Anything else."
Taka warned his partner as calmly as he could muster. He hoped she would listen to reason. But the hawk knew the probability of Chino backing down was next to nothing. This assumption was soon confirmed.
Once Chino started supplying her answer, her tone became harsher and angrier with each sentence.
"In case you haven't noticed we aren't in the Amazon Village right now. We are in Konoha. Here the rule is follow the Hokage's orders. And she hasn't given me any orders of where I can't go. Miku and Misaki are the only ones here who know what happened at that place and they don't know about this mission. Even Raiku wasn't informed on most of the situation and she is going to the next leader of our village. I am going on this mission, whether you come with me or not. And you will NOT stop me."
Taka was silent as Chino stopped talking. He didn't know how to answer. It wasn't the feathered friend's intention to anger or upset his kunoichi partner. In fact it was the opposite of what he intended to accomplish.
The hawk recognized this mission would be trouble for Chino and reopen old emotional wounds. As he was thinking of this Chino had started speaking again, but much quieter and without the harsh anger she had displayed earlier.
"Maybe it's about time I tried to put that day behind me. I have a feeling we are going to be in this Village for a while. This could be a new start. We both know it wasn't always so great for me back at the Amazon Village. For a whole list of reasons, not all of which I understand, many people avoid me. Now the only shinobi from the Amazon Village I have to see are ones who stuck with me. I don't need the past holding me back."
"I will go with you. I only wanted to make sure you understood what could happen from undergoing this mission."
"Everything will be fine Taka," Chino said as she approached Taka's nest.
"I have you to back me up after all, and I can always count on you to have my back."
The young ANBU spoke and reached out toward the bird of prey before adding, "Isn't that right?"
"Of course," Taka responded as Chino ruffled his feathers and scratched the side of his head.
"That's enough depressing talk. Let's get some sleep. Tomorrow we report to Tsunade-sama with our progress on Team 17's future housing prospects. Then we depart for this mission."
The next day, Chino trekked to the Hokage's office. She presented Tsunade some documents confirming the reservation of rooms in the apartment building. Along with those documents were ones containing information projecting on when Team 17 would be able to move in. Satisfied with the result, the elder Senju acknowledged Chino's permission to leave on the mission.
Anticipating the approval, the Kusannagi had stashed her pack on the roof of the building next to the Hokage Tower for a swift departure. Only thing left to do now was head to the gate and make her getaway before Raiku could locate her and prevent the kunoichi from exiting.
Last thing she wanted right now was to be delayed and lose her resolve. This time there was nothing preventing her from going to the place which held so many painful memories. Finally Chino would do the one thing she couldn't do previously: Say Goodbye.
Seemingly out of nowhere, someone did come to delay her, but it was the last person Chino expected.
"Kusannagi-san please wait."
"What do you want ROOT boy? Can't you see I'm busy leaving for a mission?"
Sai hesitated before answering. He had been nervous since yesterday. More kunoichi from the Village of Amazons had arrived and he was concerned they would be as belligerent toward him as the first Amazon kunoichi he had encountered.
"I can see you are leaving so this may be my last chance to ask you this."
"Go on."
"Your fellow kunoichi who arrived, will they be targeting me as well?"
"At least now I know you have a self-preservation instinct at least. To answer your question – Not exactly. Miku is from the same ANBU unit as me so she has had the same anti-ROOT training I have."
She watched as Sai twitched reflexively upon hearing the statement.
"Difference is she won't attack you without a direct order from Raiku-hime or Tsunade-sama. Our ninja princess would only go after you if she knows of a time you recently took action against her aunt."
Sai began to relax hearing Chino's words.
"And Rinku …. Rinku … well let's just say she would have a different form of attack in mind. Mostly the in-the-bedroom kind. If she can wait long enough to get that far."
Sai decided he may need more clarification of what kind of 'attacks' were restricted to the bedroom but that could wait for another time. He had a more question in mind.
"So then you have something personally against ROOT, I take it?"
"Damn right I do!" Chino practically screamed in Sai's face.
Then in more subdued tones she added, "I requested to be transferred in to the anti-ROOT unit because of it."
"May I ask why?" the ROOT operative inquired sheepishly, nervous of the reaction this might incite.
Chino thought about it for a moment. Maybe she owed it to him to provide Sai with an explanation. Right before she left for Konohagakure, the Amazon Council had told the Kusannagi ANBU to strive for amicable relations with the Leaf Village shinobi. Mainly this was for the purpose of minimizing problems for Sunako's cousin, the Hokage with Amazonians were in Tsunade's jurisdiction. Plus it might make her feel better telling someone unconnected to the situation her feelings, a sort of getting it off her chest so to speak.
"If you really must know, I'll tell you, but you probably won't like it."
Author's Note: In the next chapter Chino will tell Sai a very personal story of a tragic event that cemented her hatred of ROOT. As a result the story will be far more emotional and dramatic then any of the previous ones. The next 3 or so chapters will all be connected as a mini-arc with a serious tone, all revolving around this mission.