V

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Arc V Chapter V

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"Where do I begin? Where do I begin?" she repeated the phrase using it as her personal filler sentence in order to gain time to think. Think first, act later. Totally unprepared, an interiorly nervous Asami had now to substitute Fumihiko. Which was in retrospective not one of her brightest decisions, not at all. Asami sighed mentally.

Yes, yes, a truly great idea. Instead, she could have simply allowed him to continue his work while standing next to him and nodding approvingly as if everything he had been saying had been her idea. Moment, everything was her idea. The girl added one more reason to her list why she should have done just that. Yes, that would have been likely the optimal choice.

Regretfully, it was too late now as she had manoeuvred herself into an unfavourable position. Their expecting eyes were already glued to her and she couldn't make a tactical retreat anymore, at least not easily and without compromising her position. So much for her "think first and act later", dammit. Although, after the battle, everyone was the best general.

While her audience was ignorant of her grudging thoughts, Asami maintained a neutral smile. And after waiting a few painful seconds, she cleared her throat purposefully for the theatrical effect. Now it was time to improvise," Ahem, as I am an unofficial master of infinite palavering and never getting to the point, or in general renown for talking enemies and allies alike to death with my personal Talk no Jutsu until they prostate themselves in front of me or I win the majority of my debates by default, let us start then with a brief reiteration of what had, hopefully, already been discussed thoroughly by my most faithful assistant Fumihiko."

A good-natured Asami turned to the tactical map behind her. A few coloured unit counters, a series of marked areas and an array of beautiful arrows. Her lips rose upwards and she smiled happily. From her perspective, it almost seemed like some kind of board game, yes, a board game. The only difference was that she didn't have any dices to roll, which was no significant issue though as they could be organised. And that she was playing here with the lives of real people and not imaginary armies. Well, in this game even losing a single counter meant the death of a few hundred shinobi, vanquished, gone forever. But so much was logical and had to be expected. When Konoha called, they answered. Moreover, a good shinobi had to be prepared for this kind of situations anyway, probably, hopefully, wasn't really her problem.

"What a funny game… I like it", Asami murmured inaudibly while staring at the wall in front of her. Standing behind her, Fumihiko mimicked his superior's action curiously. Seriously, what was she staring at? And was she thinking? The Chunin scratched his head. Had she, unlikely as it was but considering that it was Asami everything was possible, discovered the secret meaning of life or what? Or was she really simply nuts, which would honestly explain a lot of things, especially a few of her antics. In the humble opinion of this modest Chunin, the line between genius and insanity was thin, very very thin. And it was sometimes questionable on which side she was currently standing.

Having no idea that the girl was mostly occupied with imagining herself rolling her pair of attack dices successfully, her two sixes and one five against the enemy's two fours, she had won. It seemed luck was on her side today, good to know.

Asami returned to her conscripted audience," Whatever. As you may know, we have, due to unfortunate circumstances I might say, been allotted less resources for this operation than initially expected as well as requested and suggested."

Expressing her dissatisfaction, a fuming Asami continuously wandered from one side to the other to relief her anger. Eventually, she continued with her sleeves behind her back while and her ominously gleaming eyes which kept everyone from moving, or at least dissuaded them strongly from disappearing.

She got herself and her Chakra under control though, mostly. As usual, she probably leaked a few droplets, but these amounts were frankly insignificant," Instead of my desired 8 regular battalions, I have in fact very recently received the news that a variety of very gracious people in the village council whose names I won't mention at this point decided to hand me… Fumihiko, what did these lobotomized armchair generals grant to me instead?"

Asami looked for her assistant who couldn't be that far. Where did he hide from her," So, Fumihiko, what did they give me?"

The Chunin sensed that this was obviously one of her rhetorical questions," Well, technically you got your 8. And two more too, which would make ten in total."

"Yes, yes, that is indeed true. In toto, I have a sizeable force under my command. However, I have no problem in regard to the quantitative aspect of my small army. The crucial issue is the quality." Always the quality, always.

Her furious gaze swept across until she focused on the two Jonin in front of her. And Tsume's wolfdog who cowered on the cold floor. Shrinking together, he pressed his stomach protectively against the ground, intriguing.

Asami rested her black eyes on Tsume's wolfish partner which had an immediate effect. Suddenly, the wolf bared his fangs to her accompanied by a single narrowed eye. What was that? Was that a challenge? Was that supposed to intimidate her or what? She had seen better in her lifetime. And could it be that the little doggy feared her, how cute. Perhaps, it was man's best friend who had the sharpest senses in this room. She kept the eye contact for a few further seconds to assert her dominance over the mongrel. Yes, cower in fear.

A derisive smile appeared on her face when her opponent decided to pull back, but only briefly. Asami had more important things to do than dedicating her attention to this intermezzo.

After this short pause Asami continued, "What we have got are 8 freshly conscripted units from the reserve why are mostly composed of rookie Genin with very dubious quality and fighting power at best. Genin who likely haven't faced a single serious opponent yet in their entire life and whom I wouldn't trust with guarding my morning corn flakes even if my life depended on it. So a big oorah at this point. Oorah", Asami carried on dissatisfied and not the epitome of what would be commonly called motivation.

Standing safely behind her tiny protective figure which based on his assumptions would provide enough cover against a full-fledged Bijudama, Fumihiko rolled his eyes without being seen. She may have an exceptional periphery vision, but even she couldn't have seen that. Provided she didn't have the Byakugan otherwise he was fucked right now.

Yes, she was right, a bunch of Genin and Chunin weren't exactly the dream of every strategist. Nonetheless, weren't her standards maybe a bit to high? To their defence, not everyone could be like her a merciless killer machine at the delicate age of thirteen.

At this moment her assistant decided to speak up," Well, on the bright side, the Hokage has promised us that one of the village elders will send us his best elite shinobi as support. As far as I know, the majority of them are even part of the ANBU or high ranking Jonin."

"Although I never knew and heard that you could have as an elder a few shinobi directly under you command, isn't that something?", the ignorant Chunin stated encouragingly.

"Isn't that something?" Asami's reaction was prompt. The girl turned her, to put it positively, unhappy face towards a clueless Fumihiko as if she had been ready to kill someone right in front of him. Scary, did he do something wrong?

Her voice was audibly strained," Yes, that would be something, as long as these "special reinforcements" wouldn't be all Danzo's men." They were all ex-Root shinobi and associates, every single without exception. Asami knew Root, Asami knew Danzo and it was obvious to anyone graced with a single brain cell that the old goat was planning something specific otherwise he would never have lent her his precious forces so readily. And she didn't like that absolutely.

"Eh? Danzo's men? Is there something wrong with them?"

"Ehm, I heard from a few rumours that Danzo is supposed to be a bit of a shady character. But shouldn't he be nonetheless a fellow leaf shinobi", Fumihiko asked curiously. He noticed how Shibi and Tsune both tensed up when Asami mentioned the name Danzo. Was there something he didn't know?

She sighed tiredly. This was a discussion for another day and another time. "No, no, nothing. Forget it. Danzo is the unquestionable paragon of trustworthiness and camaraderie. I would even trust him my future children if possible. So, don't worry", Asami finished her sarcastic remark and massaged her temples.

Fumihiko had clearly no idea who Danzo or what Root was. How could he as a lowly Chunin. And so did Tsume and her dog, and most likely the silent Aburame too, albeit she wasn't too sure about the latter.

On one side, she had a force of inexperienced Genin pressed into service on whose capabilities she couldn't rely. To be frank, at no point of time she believed that they had the necessary cohesion to really hold the line long enough for her stratagem to succeed. Instead, her more honourable cannon fodder was more likely to flee at the first opportunity should their situation get a bit "rougher", euphemistically spoken. Or do you think these Genin would simply shrug off a casualty rate of 90% and stand their ground without wavering? Certainly not, and certainly not without her placing a blocking detachment and a very suspicious commissar behind their backs. Which sounded like a good idea by the way, some barrier troops and her fight or flight problem would be solved. But where did she get them from?

And on the other side, she had 800 stealthy Root ANBU given to her by the council, or Danzo to be specific. 800 elite shinobi roaming free on the battlefield whose loyalty was dubious at best, not to mention their intentions. Well, they were Danzo's men so it couldn't be anything remotely good for anyone. Nonetheless, she had to use them because she had nothing else available besides them. Even when she only trusted as far as she could throw them.

Confronted with this dilemma, Asami almost despaired and she wanted to bang her head against the nearest wall. A loud banging sound of something very stubborn hitting a wall repeatedly echoed through the room while Shibi, Tsume and her Ninken included were giving the girl who was its source strange looks. Ehm, what was she doing?

Not Fumihiko though who had experienced this kind of situation before. Therefore, it slowly dawned on him that Asami had her head somewhere in the clouds again and had completely forgotten about them here in the earthen realm which tended to happen from time to time. Well, not exactly forgotten, but rather she ignored their existence on a metaphysic level.

Therefore, the Chunin decided to lend his damsel in distress a hand because the clock was running. And mainly because he was starting to get hungry and he didn't know how her state would last, a few seconds, minutes, an hour?

"Ahem, ehm, Asami?"

She needed a solution. Should she place all of her ANBU on the front lines? For example, something like letting them accidentally march into the enemy to get them all killed? You know, things like this happen in the heat of combat. You lose a platoon here, two battalions there.

"Ehm, Asami?"

Yes, she could do that. And they were part of Root anyway, so nobody would really miss them. And furthermore, she would Konoha some kind of favour by getting rid of them, or something similar.

"Asami?"

Sadly, she would probably have to explain afterwards then how she had managed to lose a not insignificant number of Jonin for no apparent reasons at all besides someone deliberately trying to maim them. And she couldn't exactly make the weather or some mysterious communications issues responsible for that, too many witnesses, too much evidence pointing towards her direction. A series of summary executions? No, that would be also way too obvious if she executed a few hundred shinobi for what, desertion? Cowardice? Raping, pillaging and plundering? No, even to her that seemed a bit far-fetched.

"Asami! Do you hear me?" Fumihiko was slowly getting a bit desperate. Should he use a paper bomb next? No, that would be too extreme. But maybe necessary.

And moreover, she indeed needed them as she didn't enjoy a cornucopia of men and material, lucky bastards. Which meant she had to live with them, somehow, and burry her plans, for now at least. Konoha's generalissimo sighed one last time. Why did she do this again? Good question. The Uchiha suppressed her sudden urge to get violent. She felt how boiling blood demanded her to kick, punch or destroy something nearby to let off steam. Obviously, she didn't do that as that wasn't the right decision. Instead she tried to bury her feelings deep down in her heart which didn't diffuse them though. They begged her to be set free. She denied their request however.

"A-s-a-m-i!"

Eventually the oblivious girl noticed this annoying clamour in the background, someone was calling her. And judging by the voice it was most likely Fumihiko. But why was he so loud? Was that really necessary?

The moment she turned away from the wall in front of her, she noticed that her forehead was slightly hurting. Strange, as if she was smashing her head against something hard. "Ouch", a very grumpy Asami murmured while rubbing her aching spot with her tiny hand.

She looked up to her waiting assistant afterwards showing clearly that she was still in a very bad mood. Once again her emotions got the better of her and the short-tempered her knew this. This was definitely not one of her proudest moment.

" What is?" still influenced by her residual anger, or was it desperation, an irascible Uchiha narrowed her eyes subconsciously. If looks could kill, she would have probably succeeded.

Confused, the girl noticed how the poor Chunin appeared to stumble backwards for some reasons. Only slightly, a negligible amount, but nevertheless noticeable.

Fumhiko hesitated at the beginning until he finally gathered his courage," Well, I don't want to say that banging your head against a wall is a rather unproductive mean of passing your time. And I don't want to disturb you, Asami. But…"

"No, no, no, don't play dumb. You mean exactly what you say, Fumihiko", the girl intercepted him.

And that would explain a few things. Why she was suddenly standing in front of a wall. Why her head was still hurting for example. Today was really not her day. It was almost as if she had woken up on the wrong of the bed and some sinister curse had befallen her therefore.

Asami sighed depressed," So, what did you want to say?"

As sudden as it had appeared, her surge of anger dispersed again somewhere into the ether. Was it only her imagination, or was she becoming more and more volatile these days. Nah, nah, probably not. She was always moody to begin with, and most often for the pettiest reasons she could think of. And if for nothing else, then simply for the sake of being moody. Which was really a bad habit and didn't help her to escape this vicious cycle.

The Chunin smiled and pointed out diplomatically, "Like I said, I don't want to disturb you when you are apparently thinking about something very "important". But, ehm, don't you think that it could be advisable to finish this briefing first?"

He was right. Not that she would ever admit that, nevertheless he was completely right. And there was little she could say now, except for…

"Oops", Asami scratched her head guiltily.

She smiled innocently. Maybe they would buy it, who knew," It seems that I got a bit preoccupied with a few minor thoughts I had. In conclusion, nothing important",

"Really? Nothing important?" Tsume and her dog viewed her both sceptically, almost suspiciously. That slightly hurt. Had she given them any reason to doubt her? Wasn't she always a nice person?

Asami continued her fake smile," No, nothing important."

Only how to fight this campaign with the shittiest troops available and prevent herself from potentially getting backstabbed by fucking Danzo, or whatever this meddling old man was planning. But hey, these were details. And not really the object of open debate. Seriously, she couldn't ask them "any ideas how to dispose of a little army of Root ANBU, discreetly in the best case. Opinions are appreciated."

"Whatever", the woman didn't appear to be convinced but she accepted her response nonetheless.

"Excellent. So now that we have settled this, Fumihiko my friend, where did I stop again? Because I have honestly lost the thread", which was the truth. Asami had literally talked or thought herself into a dead end, not good. What she remembered was that she started with some sort of exposition.

The startled boy blinked a few times before he could react, and so did the rest of the room. Strange, as if she had said something totally unreasonable.

He replied disbelievingly," Ehm, yeah, your intention was to present us, or them to be precise, our battle plan."

" Oh, yeeeeeeeessssss. Exactly, now that you say it", the girl laughed self-deprecatingly and focused on the forgotten map behind her.

Her eyes wandered across the hated piece of parchment. Asami rubbed her chin seriously," No, no. You know what."

"It is already late and I think everyone present looks quite tired, or I feel tired at least", completing her pirouette, the girl shifted towards her surprised onlookers.

"Ergo, let us just call it a day then and save us these minor details for later. Okay?" she asked her companions for their opinion albeit the tone of her voice indicated that such question was purely formal and the answer had already been decided. The circumstances had changed and she had to react accordingly by a few modifications to her strategy.

"Any objections? No?" displaying her typical insincere smile she asked once again. The Aburame remained silent as expected, maybe they exist somewhere out there in the known universe but she had never met an Aburame who talked more than the bare minimum necessary. Fumihiko furrowed his eyebrow surprised by her manoeuvre. And Tsume who gave her a cold stare, a classic that never grew old. But why Asami didn't know.

"Excellent, then we see us tomor… No, no, tomorrow I have something else to do", she mused to herself," So let us say Friday, this room at the same time. And this time I am hopefully a bit more punctual, provided the gods of fate have mercy on me."

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After Asami and her unofficial pet had already left the building, Shibi and Tsume wandered together through one of the rarely explored wings the Hokage tower had.

And it was the taciturn Aburame who broke the ice first but not without reasons. The Jonin carefully pondered over his choice of words until he finally spoke in the monotonous voice typical to his clan," So what do you think about her?" It was clear who he meant.

Folding his hands behind his back and continuing his walk, he waited on her reply.

"What I think about her? " her annoyance was clearly written all over her face.

"I don't like her." Yes, so much was pretty obvious a few minutes ago.

"Aren't you a bit quick to judge, Tsume?" his interest piqued and knowing assumingly more than his counterpart, the Aburame continued. Being among Konoha's more prominent clans, or more precisely providing a sizeable number of recruits to the ANBU, had its advantages, especially in moments like this. One of the advantages was that you were always rather well informed about people in general, a certain Kunoichi included. Albeit he wasn't totally sure whether they were truly same person, until her very characteristic behaviour confirmed his suspicions today. Her mannerism, her careless attitude, no doubt, it was definitely her.

"Not really. I still don't get it where the Hogake got this brilliant idea from to put an airhead like her in charge of this entire operation, a spoiled brat who has barely completed her academy years and has god knows how her Jonin rank. And on top, this Asami has the nerve to make us wait almost two bloody hours and then "sorry, let us call it off because of whatever reasons that you don't have to know". No respect, no apology, nothing"

The woman clicked with her tongue," Tsk-tsk, seriously, who does her majesty think she is, the future Hokage?"

Perhaps, the most dangerous Kunoichi Konoha's ANBU had currently to offer, backed by a remarkable kill count longer than the menu in a Akimichi restaurant and able to rip them both apart during her lunchbreak if she ever tried. Obviously, the Aburame didn't share this information and kept silent," I don't know. But her character is surely what I would consider "impressionable"."

"Impressionable my ass, I don't care what you call or how you call it, I still don't like her", she fumed.

Shibi reacted more contemplatively," Tsume, I know you and your clan in general, on one way or another, already since a long time. Isn't is it rather atypical for you to develop such a strong dislike for a person you have never met before?"

She stopped on the spot and her firm eyes stared right into his face without the slightest hint of doubt or regret," Maybe."

Tsume resumed her walk while glancing at her animal companion," But since Kuromaru doesn't seem to like her presence, and he is normally a good judge of character in my experience, I don't see any reason to like her whatsoever too. And I am not that stupid to not notice what she had done to him a few minutes ago, does she think I am blind or what?" Her dog appeared to nod affirmatively.

Well, that actually explained more than everything else put together. Do something to the notoriously thin-skinned Inuzuka and their precious dogs and you will be archenemies with them for the rest of your lifetime.

"And why that?" more than mere curiosity moved him this time as he gave her Ninken a brief look.

"Meh, don't know. We can ask him though."

"Kuromaru, what is your opinion?" finally her mood brightened up again. And she received an answer too.

After a few moments of consideration, Kuromaru explained, "Woof? Woof woof arf ruff. Woof ruff woof arf arf, ruff woof arf ruff ruff woof. Arf arf, woof ruff woof arf ruff woof, arf arf ruff, ruff woof arf ruff woof arf "woof" ruff woof arf arf. Woof! Woof woof arf... ruff ruff woof woof ruff woof arf woof arf ruff ruff, woof."

"I see", Tsume concluded as if the conversation with her dog had been the most normal thing possible, which it surely wasn't. But who was he to talk, he the one with his insects nesting underneath his skin.

Eventually, she turned her attention back to Shibi," What he says is that her eyes are scary."

Scary eyes? Seriously? Nothing else? "And that is everything?" the Aburame furrowed his doubting eyebrow.

Tsume countered lazily, "No, something with her aura being ominous too, whatever that means."

For a brief moment, the other Jonin hesitated. He hesitated to take his next step as his body refused to move on. Fortunately for him, neither the dog nor Tsume noticed it. He acknowledged her reply with a silent nod. So, he wasn't the only one who felt it, who sensed it, this sudden pulse of Chakra, her Chakra.

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"So, any final questions?" finishing her presentation as planned, Asami took a further bite on her chocolate muffin, oh sweet baked sin made out of sugar and cacao. It had certainly payed off to make a slight detour for her muffin, even when she had lost a bit of time on the way. She had definitely to buy more of them, one, two, three, four, a few thousands. Maybe, she would get a discount.

Her audience stared in complete bewilderment and preferred to stay silent. Somehow their stares were the same they had given her a few days ago.

Powered by the magic energy of sweets, Asami displayed her best encouraging smile, "Don't be shy, there are no stupid question… well, there are stupid questions but not in this case. Therefore, don't hesitate and ask anything you want."

Her words had a slight effect on Fumihiko. None on Shibi or on Tsume who still gave her a cold stare. Come on, even the dog didn't seem to be convinced despite all her sincere enthusiasm. Which was rather depressing and caused her mood to rapidly fall down into a bottomless abyss. Getting people to like her was really not her forte, wasn't it. Not matter how much she tried being nice, she never succeeded and always failed miserably instead. how was that possible?

Ignoring the depressed girl who silently accepted that she will for ever remain an unsympathetic character, the Aburame spoke to the nearby Chunin," Fumihiko, is she always so unpunctual?"

The boy sighed heavily," Depending on the day, the weather and I personally think the moon phases too, yes, most of the times. You can basically forget Monday. Tuesday is always a gamble if she shows up unless it is raining. Wednesday is quite reliable in my experience. Thursday too as long as there is nothing before afternoon. Friday…"

Someone suddenly interrupted his monologue by softly tipping him on his shoulders. And he knew it could be only one person. This time he had messed up, or he thought so.

He was greeted by her unexpected smile, a smile that seemed to hide sadness more than anything, "You know, Fumihiko, I don't have any problems with you complaining about my slightly unconventional work ethics. But shouldn't you know that I can hear you?"

Instead his little princess puffed her cheeks indignantly," Furthermore, I don't think you can consider 15 minutes as being late. That is still within the academic quarter."

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