.

We develop new principles for the world out of the

world's own principles. We do not say to

the world: Cease your struggles, they are foolish; we will give

you the true slogan of struggle. We merely

show the world what it is really fighting for, and

consciousness is something that it

has to acquire, even if it does not want to.

"Hey, tree fuckers!"

Her voice echoes around the mountain range, and the Konoha ninja turn towards Akari. There's two of them, a couple of kunoichi huddled behind a boulder. The looks on their faces when they hear Akari's voice is like kids with their hands caught in the cookie jar.

As they well should be. This is a fair way from the usual battlefields—seems like they're trying to find a way to circumvent the front and get behind the Kumo forces. How deliciously underhanded for a couple of Konoha ninja.

"I like your hair," Akari shouts to one of them. "Bright red! Very in the spirit!"

"Kushina, you don't think—"

The red haired one—Kushina, then—her eyes still locked on Akari, puts her hand over the black haired kunoichi's mouth. Black-haired girl's equally black eyes widen, but she doesn't try and move the hand away.

"Kush—"

"Mikoto, shh," Kushina hisses. "I want to hear this."

"You know, the last girl I talked to said she doesn't rub her Arby's #1 on trees but I'm not sure if I'm sold yet."

Kushina furrows her brow. "What's an… Arby's?"

"Your vagina."

Now, Mikoto shoves the hand away. "It is her. We need to go! I did not get dragged away from my son, against clan regulations,to put up with—"

"If you think I'm listening to that dumbass flee-on-sight call, you're out of your mind. She's not dangerous, she's just a nuisance."

"She might not be dangerous to you, but she is to me," Mikoto whispers. Akari might not normally be able to hear, but the surrounding topography carries the sound. "And besides, you know she's not getting it because of her alone—eighty percent of the time she's been spotted, it's been with two of Kumogakure's strongest." Her eyes flicker red with little black flecks in them, and she surveys the area.

"Both of you are reppin' the good colours!" Akari says. "Wonderful. Brings a tear to my eye, seeing you Konoha nin already embracing the colour scheme."

Kushina shoves her freshly freed hands over Mikoto's eyes, instead. "Put those things away!"

Mikoto swats her away again.

"You're going to hang around?" Akari calls.

There's a canyon between them, further than any sane person would try and jump, even with chakra. Which is part of why there's not been any fighting in this area; it's nothing but rocks and crevasses, unideal for combat. But ninja aren't sane. So, it doesn't surprise her to see them here, probably contemplating trying to clear it.

"No—"

Before she can finish, Kushina says, "Yes!"

Mikoto's eyes widen.

"Great," Akari says. "Then I can get into my speech."

"Oh, no…"

"I'm going to introduce the two of you to this terrible thing known as capitalism."

"Hey, wait, I know that word," Kushina says. "Minato talked about it before."

Akari freezes. "He did?"

"Yeah. Said some dude named, uh. Granshi?"

"Gramsci?"

"Yeah, him."

A delighted gasp leaves Akari's lips. "Wonderful! Oh, the pretty boy is learning!"

Akari digs into her bag and pulls out something she'd written specifically with Minato in mind, knowing she'd run into him eventually. Kushina and Mikoto tense up. She rolls her eyes and says, "Relax, tree fuckers. I just have something for Namikaze."

"You… do?"

"I've got an in with Gramsci," she says. "And I got ahold of their latest work. I knew I'd come across Namikaze eventually, and I figured he'd be interested in some further readings, courtesy of good ol' Akari the Commie."

Kushina's expression goes pinched, and Mikoto shoves her shoulder, hard.

"Kushina, don't do it."

"You won't have to deal with the moping if I don't."

"This is a terrible idea! She might be weird, and seem kind of harmless, but she's a Kumogakure ninja and I know you've heard about what she did in Kirigakure."

Akari raises an eyebrow. "That's spread, has it?"

Mikoto frowns. "Yes."

"What's wrong?" Akari asks. "Scared the Big, Bad Commie is gonna hide under your bed and tickle your toes in the middle of the night?" She freezes. "Oh, man, do you guys have feet fetishes, too? That's like two ridiculous birds with one grenade. Please tell me you guys aren't double dipping in the kink juice."

"What's wrong with me?" Mikoto asks. "No, what's with you? People died in that rebellion. A lot of people. And it wasn't all corrupt, cruel ninja who died."

Akari tilts her head, one hand planted on her hip. She shrugs a shoulder. "You're right."

Mikoto stops, eyes wide and mouth agape. "... what?"

"Skepticism is good. Doubt the man, don't take everything at face value, all of that." When Mikoto continues to look confused, Akari sighs. "You're right—a lot of people died during the Kirigakure rebellion, and there's no clean-cut way to categorize the casualties. It's not my place to deny that, or tell you how to react to it."

And something weird happens on Mikoto's face, a mix of things that Akari can't read, and then her expression settles into one of neutrality. "What's the thing you wanted to give to Minato?"

Akari holds up the essay, which is honestly better described as a novella at a hundred and fifty-seven pages long. "Child soldiers in ninja villages," she says. "We argued about this the first time we ran into each other. Figured he'd be interested."

"Alright," Mikoto says. "Throw it over."

Akari hefts it like a frisbee and tosses the thing over the crevasse. Kushina plucks it out of the air.

Kushina flips through a few of the pages. She sighs. "Guess I know what he's doing, tonight."

"Not you?" Akari asks.

At that, Kushina's face goes as red as her hair. "Mind your own business!"

"Gladly. Because my business is spreading the good, the wonderful, the immaculate word of Marx Gramsci, who, in this particular instance, took great influence from Karl Marx—no relation—with a dash of Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin. The other two less so because, well, anarchism has its own weird appeal but it's not the way to go, guys, gals, and other pals. Government is a necessary thing."

She holds up her hand, her index finger raised. She wags it at Kushina and Mikoto. "But not everything they say is wrong, you know. And right here, right now, I'm going to tell you today how capitalism in the hidden villages has turned ninja—specifically genin and chunin—into wage slaves who get strung along with meagre pay and little to no chance at ever reaching jonin rank, which causes…"

.

.

"How long has she been going?" Kushina whispers.

Mikoto glances up at the sun. "Like, twenty minutes."

"Should I… attack her now?"

"I don't think Ay or B are going to be coming, so… maybe?"

Tentatively, Kushina throws out a chakra chain at the rocks beneath Akari's feet. The cliffside crumbles, and Kushina can hear the whistle of the rocks as they fall down. An elephant-sized dust cloud puffs out. But as it settles, she sees that Akari danced out of the way.

"That's the spirit!" Akari shouts, pumping one of her fists. "Turn your chains into weapons of your own use!"

Kushina slides behind the safety of the boulder as Akari launches back into her speech like she'd never been interrupted in the first place. Mikoto crouches beside her.

"I should have listened to you, I think," Kushina says.

"When have I heard that before?"

"Yeah, whatever. Let's get going, I've had enough of this."

"Finally."

.

.

Minato freezes, staring uncomprehendingly at the thing Kushina holds in her hands. "But it… how did you…"

"I ran into What's-Her-Face from Kumo when Mikoto and I were sent out," Kushina says. "She told me to give this to you. Said she got an early crack on the newest Gramsci thing, on child soldiers, and she thought you'd want to read it."

His eyes grow wide. He takes the book from her hands like the paper will crumble if he holds it too tightly, and Kushina rolls her eyes.

"This is awesome," he mumbles.

Kushina huffs. "You're such a nerd."

.

.

"You were gone for a long ass time."

Akari doesn't bother to look at Ay, who she knows is standing in the door of her tent, with his arms crossed over his chest and his mouth pursed into a line so thin she could floss his ass with it.

"Policing me, bougie scum?" she asks, sharpening her kunai.

"Checking up on you. Who'd you terrorize?"

"Some Konoha chicks trying to flank us. One was named Mikoto, the other Kushina. Second one was dating Namikaze, by the sounds of it."

There's a stretch of silence. Intrigued, Akari looks over her shoulder to find exactly what she expects, though Ay's stiffer than she thought he'd be, if that was even possible.

"Kushina?" he asks.

"Yeah," she says. "Bright ass red hair. Used these like, chain things." Akari takes a second to wiggle her finger like it's a worm, then goes back to her kunai.

Ay pinches the bridge of his nose and lets out a slow breath. "You came into contact with Uzumaki Kushina? And didn't mention it?"

"Didn't realize she was somebody important."

He squints at her, but she's telling the truth on this one. She doesn't tend to pay much attention to the heavy hitters from Konoha. Namikaze is the only one she cares about, because he's the only one thus far who has been amenable to her discourse. Or, at least, is willing to engage with her. The rest of them can choke, for all she cares.

"Well, she is," Ay says, voice and expression flat. "She's suspected to be the village's jinchuuriki."

Akari drops her kunai. "What?"

He grows smug. "This is why—"

"A jinchuuriki?" she says. "Ah, fuck! If I'd known that, I could have hit her with the fucking unionization speech, really dug into that. I've been bouncing the idea of a jinchuuriki union off of B and Yugito, and I got Utakata's input when he visited—"

He narrows his eyes, annoyed both at her disregard for the gravity of the situation and the fact that he's listened to her long enough to pick up the contradiction. "What happened to jinchuuriki being flawed? Didn't you used to say that we should just free all of the tailed beasts and let the vessels die, B included?"

Akari stops. She blinks. If Ay didn't know better, he'd say she was stunned into silence. But he does know better, and he can see the gears in her head turning as she evaluates him, an almost clinical air to her.

Ay can't even begin to describe how much easier—and more sane he'd be—if she had an empty head. She doesn't; he's more inclined to think at any given time, her mind moves fast enough that she could play three separate games of shogi at once and still hold down a conversation. Too many people mistake her for a moron. Which is her own fault because she markets herself as one, the way she behaves.

Ignorance is bliss, as they say.

She shrugs. "That's still the ideal. Freedom for the tailed beasts. But I guess it's a bit too utopian, for right now, so I've adjusted. Unionize now as a temporary measure, and when the current vessels die naturally, we don't reseal the beasts. Win-win."

Ay takes this in, nodding.

He turns and walks away without another word.

"No?"

"No."

Hiruzen leans back in his chair, curious. A trail of smoke leaks out of his pipe. "I must say, Minato, this is not what I expected from you," he says. "For what reason do you decline this mission?"

Minato smiles wryly. "Just some food for thought I've come across recently."

"Oh?"

"Somebody who made me think about the Konoha I want to see. And what I can do to help shape the village into that idea. And… having my team out on the frontlines isn't a part of that vision. If there's anything I can do to keep children from fighting in wars, I'm going to do it."

A minute of tense silence passes.

Minato feels the barest hint of nervousness flutter in his stomach, but he shoves it away. He knows what Lord Third wants for him, in the future. He knows that he's shortlisted to take over as Hokage once the war ends. Taking a stand on what he believes in is the right thing to do. But that doesn't make it any easier to look his leader in the face and deny a direct order.

"Very well. What do you suggest as an alternative, then?" Hiruzen asks.

"Is there not another team who can take it?"

"Not that I trust to see it to its completion. This mission is vital—we must remove the bridge if we want to have any hope at defeating Iwagakure."

Minato mulls it over. This is his choice, and his burden to bear. "I'll do it."

"And if you are doing that, who will serve as the distraction?"

"Me," Minato says firmly. "I'll do both. If I go ahead of time and plant a Hiraishin kunai, I'll be able to bounce between the two."

"You believe you can do this?"

"I do."

Hiruzen nods. "Then, go."

A heavy breath blows out of Minato. He bows, low and deep. "Thank you, Lord Hokage."

Hiruzen pulls the pipe from out of his mouth and a dribble of smoke slithers out. "No," he says, like it's an afterthought. "Thank you."

.

.

Ay sits down on the log beside them, a missive held in his hands. His face is drawn and tired.

B chomps down on his ration bar. "What's up with you? Looks like your ass's full of bamboo."

"You kidding? After how bad he got fucked by that group of Konoha nin yesterday, his ass is so loose you could fit a whole damn forest in there."

B snorts. He holds his hand out for a high-five, and Akari claps her hand against it without looking up from her book.

"Literal children," he mutters. He sighs. "Report just came in that Namikaze blew up Kannabi Bridge. Without their main supply route, Iwagakure's gonna be crippled—dead in the water, even."

Akari lets out a low whistle. "Look at the pretty boy go."

All Ay can do is shake his head at this point.

With Iwa starting to lose their ground, Kumo sends troops over to help.

A mistake is made, in this: Akari is sent over unchaperoned.

.

.

The first jinchuuriki she runs into a week after being sent over is Roshi.

She approaches him one evening, when the fire is high and the bowls are full. He sits alone on a tree stump, glaring down anybody who gets too close.

He also has bright red hair and Akari takes this as a good sign.

"Hello, my good jinchuuriki," she says. "Might I interest you in this wonderful new thing called unioniz—"

"If you don't fuck off right now I'm going to rip out your throat, you pint-sized piece of shit."

Akari stares at him. Slowly, she nods.

Plan adjustment.

She turns and walks away.

.

.

"Ah, hello. Who are you?"

A grin settles over Akari's lips.

Yes, she made a good choice, adjusting her approach. Because despite the bulky and intimidating—and red—armour he has on, his voice is light and pleasant. He sounds like an elementary school teacher, almost.

"My name's Akari," she says. "You're Han, right?"

He nods. He pulls down the mask from where it covers the bottom half of his face and lets it sit around his throat, and then lowers the white cloth, as well. The smile on his face is open and sweet, a perfect match for his voice. "You're one of the Kumo ninja sent to help us, I guess?" he asks. "I heard there's a fair few of you."

"I was. Kumo's doing what it can to help its ally."

"Good to have you. Was there something you wanted from me?"

"Actually, I wanted to tell you what I can do for you."

He raises an eyebrow. She feels a bit like a child being humoured, but if that's what it takes to get this plan off the ground, then so be it.

"Is that so?" he asks.

"You bet. Tell me—have you ever heard of the term unionization?"

"I haven't, no."

She pulls a pamphlet out of her hip pouch and hands it to him. "Then, buckle up, buckaroo. I'm about to take you on a ride."

.

.

"You weak ass piece of shit."

Han sighs. "Roshi, please."

"Don't 'Roshi, please' me on this one. I can't believe you." Roshi scowls at them from his cot, his eyes narrowed to slits. "Tell me you didn't."

"Did you even hear her out?"

"Of course I didn't! What could a little shit like her have to say?"

"There's no need to be so crass."

"Yes, there is! I would rather die than do some kinda dumb shit like whatever she's spewing out."

"Please, Roshi. I think this will benefit everybody."

Roshi blows air out of his nose like a bull preparing to charge. "Stop doing that."

Han knits his brows together. "Doing what?"

"That voice."

"What voice?"

"Your bitch voice. You know I hate that."

"Can you please just be reasonable? We're trying to have a civil conversation about this."

"There's nothing civil about that brat and whatever she has to say!"

"How would you know? You didn't listen."

"I don't need to! I know her face. I know that kinda look. And if you weren't such a god damn doormat, you could have told her to fuck off like I did."

"Except that I'm glad I didn't because I genuinely liked what she had to say, as did Kukuo."

Roshi tosses the sword in his hand down onto the bed and marches over to Akari. He towers over her, and in the background, she can see Han place his face in his hands and shake his head.

"The fuck did you say to him?" Roshi asks.

"I told him about a plan I have to unionize all of the jinchuuriki so you can each loosen the leash around your throat and fight for better treatment from your fellow villagers. Jinchuuriki have consistently seen less rights than their average ninja counterparts, and it's not fair." Akari leans forward, putting herself almost nose to nose with him. If he thinks he can cow her by trying to be some kind of Snape ass bitch, looming his greasy ass face over her, he's got the wrong one.

"And I'm arguing that the tailed beasts deserve to be released after jinchuuriki die naturally," she says. "A total break from the system, as a whole. Let it die out rather than perpetuate."

Roshi doesn't move, and neither does Akari.

In the background she hears Han murmur, "Completely ridiculous…"

Roshi's head snaps around. "What was that?"

Han stares at him, deadpan. "You're being completely ridiculous."

"She started this!" Roshi says, jabbing a finger at Akari.

She snaps her teeth at him as if to bite it and he yanks his hand away with a disgusted look.

"I'm more inclined to think that you did," Han says.

"What?"

Han squares his shoulders and says, "She approached you in good faith and you turned on her like an untrained mutt with anger issues."

Roshi takes a step back. He regards Han, posture tight and his mouth twisted up like he sucked on a sour lemon. "Holy shit. You actually do like what she had to say, don't you? You agree with it?"

"Yes," Han says, throwing up his hands. "That's what I've been trying to tell you."

Roshi glares at the two of them. "Fine. I'll join this stupid—whatever fucking—group thingy."

Akari grins at him. "Welcome to—"

"Ah-ah!" Roshi says. "Not because I give a shit about any of that." He points at Han. "But just because he's gotten himself neck deep in this, by the sounds of it. And where he goes, I go."

And when Han smiles at Roshi, a soft thing full of gentle exasperation, Akari sees the first crack in Roshi's mask when the corner of his lips flick upwards on response.

Her jaw almost drops. Almost. It's a near thing, and she taps her finger against her chin, as if to make sure it's in place.

Neither of them notice her epiphany, with how wrapped up they are staring at each other.

Of all the things she expected to come from this interaction? This wasn't one of them.

As she and Han slip out of the tent, she hands him a new pet project of hers, something she's let sit on the backburner next to her gender equality essay while she focuses her attention on the jinchuuriki unionization project and labour rights.

A cute little pamphlet with a cartoon rainbow and the words "So I Hear You're Gay" printed along the top of it.

He makes a thoughtful noise as she hands it to him, and when he reads it, a laugh bubbles out of him, light and small. He ruffles her hair.

Akari rolls her eyes. She raises a hand to smooth out her hair, fiddling with her part a bit to get it back to its usual messy-but-intentionally-so-it's-kind-of-cute form. "So, I'm right?"

She gets a nod in response. "What tipped you off?" he asks.

"You two look make goo-goo eyes at each other. It's kind of gross, honestly," she says. "How long?"

He hums. "Seven or eight years, now."

"Have you ever thought of marrying him?"

Han blinks, and his feet stop in their tracks as the question works its way through his thoughts. Finally, he says, "I… not really, no."

"Would you like to?"

And the look that crosses his face melts Akari's cold, dead heart. A painful mix of melancholic and wistful. "It's a nice idea," he says quietly. "Maybe one day."

She nods. Her finger taps against the rainbow on the pamphlet. "Hold onto that."

He dutifully slips it into his kimono, though she feels like it's more for her benefit than his.

She turns to face him fully. "You guys deserve as many rights and avenues for your relationship as anybody else," she says. "Everybody deserves that, regardless of how 'unconventional' other people might see their relationship as. And I'm going to make that happen."

Han smiles at her, and he says, "I believe you."

"Good. Now, let's talk union communication."