A/N: I don't know what to say... Other than enjoy?
As the sea calls 4
Tortoise and Hare (no, Fox)
The four of them made their way back to the hotel in silence. Once there, they met up with Baki and Natsuhiko who led them to one of the rooms.
"Natsuhiko-sensei, Baki-sensei, what is going on? Why…" Kairi began but cut herself short. She had questions but she wasn't sure what security measures had been implemented in this room, if any yet. After all for all intents and purposes they all were in an enemy territory now.
"You got a mission, Kairi." Natsuhiko said.
"Yes?"
"You have a job to scout Konoha's environment and find any and all geographical information you can." Baki spoke up. "Once the day is here, you will be delivering messages between troops so you'll need good knowledge on the terrain and routes. You four will be working closely together."
Temari and Kankuro straightened at that. Well, that certainly explained why Kairi was rooming with the other girl.
"I was chosen because of my speed, wasn't I?" Kairi looked at her team leader who suddenly looked sheepish.
"I might've mentioned your desert crossing record to other jounins." Natsuhiko grimaced apologetically. "This is also why I let you show off when we were coming here. You are the fastest genin we have and even if you won't make it to the finals, your presence won't raise suspicions until the… start." The jounin glanced at Gaara but looked away then.
"Gaara." Baki turned to address the jinchuuriki. "You will not kill Kairi-san at any point during the exams or between the first phases and finals. Am I understood?"
"Yes…" The red head said. Kairi glanced at the boy and couldn't help but sigh internally in relief. While there was no guarantee that Gaara would follow the order, it still… It was still a relief of sorts to hear the order and the boy's affirmative reply.
"You are one of our best, Kairi-san. Do not disappoint us." Baki said, snapping the girl back to attention.
"I understand, Baki-sensei." She nodded. While dangerous assignment, it also meant that she was not required to fight unless necessary. No one would fault her if she went hiding instead of attacking head first Konoha forces. "Am I dismissed? I need to start planning how to go on about my mission."
"Yes. You may go."
Kairi turned on her heels and marched out of the room. She had an idea how to find out more about Konoha's terrain and also how to increase her speed. And in the end she only needed to stick to her routine.
At five-fifteen next morning, a slim figure slipped out of the hotel housing the Suna shinobi and made her way towards the local Administration center. Like in Suna, it housed Mission desk, Jounin Stand-by Station, Chuunin Lounge and Check-in Desk for shinobi – ninja, she was in Konoha now so they were commonly called ninja here – coming back from sick-leave or holiday.
And as she had assumed, the place was already bustling with activity. Or rather, it continued throughout the night. Considering the irregular and unpredictable times when ninja came back from missions, the desks were always manned. And at least in Suna Jounin Stand-by station about always had at least couple of people either playing board or card games, reading or gossiping. Not everyone appreciated the quietness of their own apartments during night.
"Ah, excuse me…" Kairi bowed slightly at the waist when peeking in. "I'm used to running in the mornings but since I'm from Suna, I don't know the possibilities here… Could you please tell me which training ground has the longest circumference?"
Some of the ninja at the Mission Desk flicked their eyes at her hitai-ate, now tied around her bicep rather than forehead, before returning to their jobs. By the staircase a pair of Tokubetsu-jounin exchanged a glance before one of them approached her nonchalantly.
"You're here for the chuunin exams, right?" The man asked. Kairi recognized him. Bandana-style hitai-ate, chin-length brown hair, senbon in his mouth, lopsided smile and disinterested eyes… Shiranui Genma.
"Yes, Shinobi-san. But there is still a couple of days before they start so I want to train the best I can before it." The girl smiled. There was one other reason why Kairi had been chosen to her mission. While fast, she also had the best chances in acquiring information boldly but without rousing suspicion. She was perfect infiltrator because she was so genuine and kind.
Creepily enough, those qualities accompanied with her exam record, reminded her of Kabuto.
"Hmm… A friend of mine likes to train early too. Goes on long runs." Genma began and Kairi… had an inkling as to whom he was speaking about. And with the glint in TokuJo's eyes, she assumed it was to 'mess with the foreigner's head'. "He likes to run along the wall surrounding Konoha. As you are from another village I can't let you do that alone but as he is a jounin…"
"If a jounin is accompanying me, he can keep an eye on me so I don't stray to restricted areas." Kairi nodded. "I understand. Am I to assume that some of the clan compounds are close to the wall then?"
"Ah, ah… Don't try fishing information from me…" Genma narrowed his eyes but his mouth quirked a smile. The girl laughed.
"Shinobi are sly and have to get any information they can, whenever they can." She grinned. "My apologies though. Next time I won't be so sloppy in my questioning."
Genma returns the grin, intrigued. If Kairi were to guess, there probably wasn't much foreign shinobi to engage in banter like this so easily. A genin even less so.
"You are a strange girl. But come along, if I remember correctly, Gai should be by his usual training ground by now. It's his starting point." He waved her to follow him, much to the amusement of the other ninja assembled. No one commented on it though. They'd wait for the news of her reaction later. For gossip.
The training ground was a flat ground with occasional speck of grass and surrounded by trees. Wooden posts meant for hitting and kicking were in the tree line and the area opened to the direction of the wall. When Genma and Kairi arrived, Maito Gai was already there, doing warm-ups.
"Genma! My youthful friend! What brings you here this morning?" The spandex-clad man greeted his former genin teammate. "Are you going to join me with my morning practice?"
"Ah no thank you, Gai. I need to get back to Stand-by Station. Last minute preparations, you know." Genma declined the offer. "But I have someone with me who'd like to run the longest track Konoha has to offer…"
Kairi took that as a sign to step forward. She carefully kept her face polite. Gai was… an experience. The green spandex alone was strange, let alone his mannerisms. But he was a good guy and Kairi didn't want to offend or insult the man. After all he was a jounin and Kairi was a stranger. And future enemy.
"My name is Kairi, and I'm from Suna for the exams. Umm… Genma-san told me that you also go on the morning runs so…" The girl floundered. "I'd be grateful if…"
"If you'd keep an eye on her while showing the route." Genma concluded, clapping a hand on her shoulder.
"Of course! I'd be honored to show the way to such a youthful young woman who has come here all the way from the Village Hidden in Sand!" Gai beamed. "We just wait for my youthful student Lee and then we can get going!"
The jounin returned to his warm-ups and Kairi glanced up, bewildered, at Genma who grinned at her.
"Well?" The TokuJo asked.
"I… I knew that shinobi are strange and jounin even more so and that Konohagakure no Sato's shinobi are by reputation the strangest of them all but…" Kairi began but shut her mouth then. The man chuckled.
"You are not wrong."
At five-thirty another spandex-clad figure bounded to the training ground. Rock Lee was only slightly shorter than Kairi and two years younger. And the girl was thankful that she hadn't been left alone with Gai while waiting. But once Lee was there, Genma patted her shoulder and wished her luck before leaving.
The girl took a deep breath, listened as Gai boisterously introduced her and Lee to each other, and prepared to her run. While waiting she'd been doing her warm ups and stretches while talking with Genma about anything and everything menial. The gap made by their different villages hindered the conversation a bit but was otherwise amicable. The TokuJo was waiting for her to express more of a reaction to Gai than slight weirded-outness. He didn't get the satisfaction of seeing it.
"How much is the circumference of the wall?" Kairi asked the two taijutsu experts. "I'm timing myself and comparing my time on later tries."
"Almost 200 kilometers! Right, Gai-sensei?" Lee answered.
"That's right, Lee! Most youthful distance for morning runs!" Gai announced.
"Gai-sensei!"
"Lee!"
"Gai-sensei!"
"Lee!"
"Right…" Kairi sweat-dropped before clearing her throat. "Umm… Gai-san, Lee-kun, shall we go?"
Two-hundred kilometers was nothing. Longer than Kairi's usual runs but this wasn't on desert. No gripping coldness of night nor scorching hotness of day. She could do this. Especially when she didn't need to use chakra to stay steady on the sand. With her current speed she could probably fit the run into an hour.
"One round on moderate pace since we have Kairi-san here with us." Gai announced. "She doesn't know this route yet."
That was… nice.
Kairi dug her pouch for her stop watch and reset it.
"Ready?" Gai asked. All three of them prepared along an invisible line.
"Set." Kairi pressed her finger ready on the stopwatch's button.
"Go!" The trio shot off, Lee taking lead and Gai adjusting his speed with Kairi. The girl put her watch back to the pouch and kept running. Solid ground was always a novel experience after spending time in Suna and running in desert. And while Suna had solid training grounds alongside sand ones, it was the scenery outside Kaze no Kuni that made the difference. Reason why Kairi asked Natsuhiko-sensei to request out-of-country missions as much as possible eve if they were guarding merchants and some such.
And now, with the green and brown and so many other colors of Konoha, Kairi was greatly enjoying herself. Running was a mindless task that allowed her to sink into her own thoughts, into her own inner world. Here in Konoha, she couldn't do that. Because of her mission and because there was just so much to see.
"Do you usually go on runs this early, Kairi-san?" Gai asked her after a while. "Not many that I know even wake up before dawn."
"It's a sort of necessity in Suna. While the nights are very cold in desert, the days' hotness compensate for it more than enough. Mornings and evenings are the times when I got for my runs because the temperature is ideal then." Kairi replied. "There is not that many people that I know either to go running regularly like I do but they might be using some different route too." She shrugged and glanced up. They were going clockwise along the wall, currently headed towards the Hokage Mountain. But since Hokage Tower was right by the mountain did that mean they'd go over the mountain then? Maybe there was a path that they'd use. A break from monotony.
"Ah, I see. Are these your first chuunin exams then?" The jounin asked then. In front of them, Lee turned around and kept backwards.
"Gai-sensei nominated our team for the exams this year! I'm very excited for them." The genin smiled and Kairi couldn't help but smiling back.
"Ah, no… These are my fifth ones actually. I've had some bad luck on my previous exams."
"Well maybe this time you will be luckier then!" Gai gave her thumbs up. Incredible how he – and Lee – was just so supportive despite her being from another village.
"Maybe." Kairi nodded. "Or maybe not…"
They ran over the Hokage Mountain and behind clan compounds. Through forests closer to wall and towards the training ground they used as starting point. Now it was a finish line. The trio speeded up and even Kairi pushed herself to go faster and faster.
They skidded to stop and Kairi quickly stops the time from her watch. An hour and seven minutes. Not bad in an unfamiliar terrain while taking it easy but… She could do much better. She wrote her time down on a small notebook she had in her pouch and drank a bit of water from the small bottle she had with her.
"Second round?" She asked the two males and received two eager grins.
It became another part of her routine. In the morning she'd meet with Gai and Lee at the training ground and they'd warm up, stretch and then run around Konoha. First taking it easy. Second as fast as they could (though Gai made sure that he didn't lose Kairi from his field of vision). And the third time a mid-ground between the two. Kairi kept getting better times after every run as she got more familiar with the terrain and environment. She still avoided showing her true speed to the two Konoha-nin.
After the runs Hyuuga Neji and Tenten usually arrived and began their routine training. At that point Kairi usually left. After all she'd face the team in the exams but didn't feel like it was right to spy on their fighting styles. And she didn't want them to see her style either.
On Tuesday, Kairi accidentally found training ground three and its Memorial Stone. Thankfully it looked like Kakashi wasn't there so she got a chance to get a look at the names on the stone. If not for any other reason than to get a back-up for the names she added to the Family Book.
And there… Right below Namikaze Minato, was Uzumaki Kushina's name written on.
"Kushina-basan… You never knew about Minato-jisan's family… but I wish I could've met you too. At least once."
The Suna-girl's eyes strayed on the other names. Some she recognized. Some she didn't. Some had tragedies behind them. Some were killed with the butterfly effect that were Kairi and Reika both.
Like Uchiha Obito.
In the original Naruto world Obito survived, thanks to Madara and Zetsu. In this world…
"I might not be as mad as my little brother but I went through war. And that had plenty of crazy to share everyone." Reika had told Kairi when they met bit after her previous chuunin exams in Iwa. Kairi had failed in the second phase but stayed with her uncle and cousin to watch the finals.
"I was ten. Newly promoted chuunin and part of explosion corps. They decided not to send me to the front lines were tou-chan was but in the middle of Kusa to guard this supply bridge."
"Kannabi?" Kairi had asked, remembering Kakashi Gaiden.
"Exactly. I was placed in a squad with Mahiru, Kakkoo and Taiseki. They were all jounin-level shinobi if I remember correctly. Either way we squatted there for weeks, a bit over month actually, occasionally scouting. Then one day Mahiru didn't come back. Kakkoo and Taiseki went to investigate and came back to the base with a prisoner. A medical ninja only a few years older than I. Her name was Rin…"
"She was put into genjutsu."
"Yeah. But she spoke nothing. Then we heard a sound like someone slapping something. Taiseki went to investigate… and didn't come back." Reika had sighed and blown bit of her hair away from her face. "My orders were simple really. While guarding the bridge was the primary mission, I needed to stay alive. My bloodline was valuable for Iwagakure after all and I was young so I could do a lot in future. So when Taiseki didn't return I went underground. There was a tunnelsystem in place for my escape. I'm a sensor so I knew when Kakkoo was first taken down and then making the base collapse on the Konoha-nin. It was just like in Gaiden."
Reika was a reincarnate too. But she didn't know the entire story. She had only read until a bit after Hidan and Kakuzu were killed but died in a car crash then. She knew nothing about fillers and finer details. Heck, she hadn't even known that Yondaime Hokage was Naruto's father until Kairi told her.
"The reinforcements arrived and I made my way away from the base. And they began dying. One by one, faster than I could detect. I was scared so I did the only logical thing I could. I blew up my tunnels. It destabilized the ground and made the… Yellow Flash to retreat with his students. And I felt how the collapsing tunnels caved in under that Uchiha boy and let the stones crush him even more… Until his chakra flickered and died."
It was Reika's first kill. It had shaken her and she had hidden underground for a long time until her father had come to get her like it had been agreed beforehand. Kairi pitied her cousin. She was glad that she hadn't needed to fight a war like Reika had. And while Kairi had killed people, a lot of people thus far, she had been older by then and none of her targets had been children.
On Wednesday, Kairi found Ichiraku Ramen. She ate shoyu-ramen at Teuchi-san's recommendation and promised to come again some other day. She also managed to avoid Naruto whilst visiting.
For her evening run, the girl asked Gai if it was okay to take her two summons with her. She had signed a contract around last new year's and was still working with finding the correct pace with her summons.
"Sure!" The man had answered. Kairi bit the skin of her little fingers broken and smeared blood on both of her palms before going through the hand seals.
Boar – Dog –Bird – Monkey – Ram
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" The girl slammed both of her palms to the ground. In twin puffs of smoke, two desert foxes sat in front of her. They looked quite similar but had a bit differently shaded fur. And one had Sunagakure hitai-ate around her neck while other had it wrapped around her waist.
"Kai-chin!" The first one bounced on her summoner, pushing the girl to the ground.
"Kairi-chan!" The second one followed the first one, bouncing on the girl's stomach.
"Uuf… Shirin, Shanna." Kairi greeted the two. "You've both grown again."
"That we have!" The two vixen said in unison before starting to bicker with each other. With a sigh, Kairi pushed them off her stomach, landing them in a heap. The two of them had been just small kits when she'd signed the contract but they'd grown fast. Now they were about the same size than normal foxes were.
"Ah, Gai-san, here are my two main summons Shirin and Shanna. They usually join on my runs. I thought a change of scenery would do them as much good as it has done to me." Kairi got on her feet and gestured the two wrestling foxes. She didn't mention that she wanted the two used to the smells and places already in the case she needed to summon them during the invasion. While they'd accompanied Kairi on some of ther missions on the past two months, big scale battle was much different and Kairi didn't want the pair distracted by weird smells or overwhelmed by the change.
"Nice to meet you, Shinobi-san!" Shirin, the one with hitai-ate around neck and lighter sand-colored fur chirped when untangling herself from her sister.
"Yes, nice to meet you. Don't mind the idiot." Shanna, with more reddish tint in her fur and a bit more melodic voice, added.
"Hey, I'm not the idiot here!" Shirin growled and prepared to wrestle her sister to the ground again. Kairi sighed.
"Alright you two, we are running now. No fighting here please. If you behave I'll get you amedama candy."
"Really?!" The two vixen asked, neatly sitting down next to each other. Oh yes, bribing always worked with the two.
"Cactus flavored." Kairi added and they were sold.
On Thursday, Kairi met up with Genma again. It was purely accidental to come across him in the market with Namiashi Raidou and Yamashiro Aoba. They were at a food stall to get some… was that gyoza?
"Ah, Kairi-san!" The TokuJo greeted the girl. She waved back and made her way to the trio.
"Genma-san. Nice to see you again." She greeted the man.
"This is the girl from Hidden Sand who has been joining Gai on his runs?" Raidou asked with a hint of skepticism in his voice.
"And she hasn't faltered yet." Genma grinned at his friend.
"You tried to scare her away, didn't you?" Aoba remarked.
"'She' is right here." Kairi spoke up. "And it has been fun once I tune out the… most extreme behavior out. Change in surroundings have been nice too. Konoha is a beautiful place."
"Konoha is the best." Aoba nodded. "Good to hear that foreigners agree too."
"Each of the villages have their own merits. I should know, having visited so many." While there was two chuunin exams each year, only every other of them was in a one of the five major villages. And those exams were the ones that Kairi had been attending. Which was why the current ones were her fifth ones and not ninth or tenth ones. "But Suna is… home."
"Naturally." Raidou nodded, agreeing.
"You waiting eagerly for the exams to start then?" Genma asked.
"Yes. With my current team it's going to be a bit hit-and-miss but… We'll see how it goes. I really wish that I'd get my promotion finally."
"Oh, exam veteran then?"
"Who's fishing for information now?"
And they all laughed. Then Raidou happened to check the sun's position.
"Genma, you can flirt foreign girls some other time. We need to get going back. The lunch break is almost over."
"Oi, I wasn't-…."
"You do realize that I'm barely sixteen and Genma-san is…" Kairi gave an assessing glance at the senbon user. "In his late twenties?" She got the age in her archive but couldn't be bothered to dig it up and really, it wouldn't have done any good for her in this situation.
"Sixteen? You look younger." Aoba remarked. Kairi blinked. It was… somewhat true. At least as she was now. With her hitai-ate not shadowing her face and her hair styled on a braid rather than a bun, she did look younger. Not to mention that she had exchanged her armor to a light blue sleeveless hoodie. Little tricks and no need for henge. Smiling also helped to look younger.
Kairi was a kind and positive person generally. It was just that right before and after chuunin exams her mood soured and during the past months she'd been forced to train with Hara and Souseki so she had been frowning rather than smiling.
"My birthday is the twentieth of May. Big day too since the finals are then too." Big day indeed. And if Kairi's smile was a bit strained now, no one commented it.
"Ah, what a better birthday present than getting a promotion then." Genma smiled. "But we should go now. Nice seeing you again, Kairi-san."
"The same to you, Genma-san, shinobi-san, shinobi-san."
"They're Aoba and Raidou."
"I'll keep that in mind." She waved at the retreating backs and before turning around and eyeing the food stalls and restaurants in the area. The gyoza did look good but… "Tempura. I want tempura today."
Yakiniku and yakitori were common in Suna along with insects and scorpions and what other desert creatures that could be caught and fried and grilled. The rest were usually imported. So whenever Kairi was out of village, she tried to find as many different dishes to taste as possible. In Iwa they had Chinese inspired food. In Kumo it was closer to American mixed culture though with a healthy dose of Asian cuisine. In Kiri it was Thai food while in Konoha it was Japanese.
It was another quirk and interest of hers other than poker, running and architecture.
On Friday Kairi noted with satisfaction that she'd gotten the tiniest bit faster during the week. She had also managed to craft an approximate map of the area and distances with the help of the 'tourist map' and her own observation and exploring. While not fan of math, the girl could quite well calculate distances and areas in her head based on her speed. She passed the map to Temari who gave it to Baki who then send it back to Suna somehow.
And Kairi… She didn't feel bad exactly. Yes, she didn't like deceiving her acquaintances she'd made in Konoha but she still had to play her part. Besides… being the offenders or not, many of the shinobi going to participate to the invasion were her friends. Natsuhiko-sensei, Koto and Yomi… Hayoi-san from a year above her in the academy. Kanata-san from Puppet Corps. Amara-san the poison expert from the hospital.
They were all her friends and she wanted to ensure that they all survived. At least somehow.
"Otou-san… What would you do?"
On Saturday, Kairi went on her last run. Back at the hotel she took a long shower and packed her gear. She wasn't sure if the second phase would be directly after the first one of the day after but she didn't want to take the risk of going unprepared. She donned her usual mission outfit and braided her hair once again but this time twisted it on a bun and stuck her hair sticks into it. Her side locks swayed slightly this time let out of the bun by her own choice. Kairi tied her hitai-ate on her forehead once again and looked in the mirror. She looked older. More prepared. And while the invasion was a month away, didn't the Hokage say in his speech that the chuunin exams were equivalent of war?
"I'm ready." She told her mirror-image and left the hotel room. She had her application form in her pocket, given to her by Natsuhiko on the previous day. It practically burned in her pocket and she itched to give it out already.
Fuukatsu Kairi, read in the form. It was her mother's family name. While not uncommon in Suna to have no last names, they were still a village composed of originally nomadic shinobi families. Names mattered even if they didn't have as much weight as clans of Konoha and Iwa and Kiri had. And until Kairi was a chuunin, she went officially by her mother's name.
It was ironic really. And funny coincidence.
All three cousins went by the names of their mothers. All for the sake of secrecy.
Fuukatsu. Shiroishi. Uzumaki.
Even when the third link was concealed and unaware, the three of them were going to be great.
Everyone was causing ripples after all.
A/N: More stuff about Kairi's family. And since Silver Queen said the in DoS Obito is dead and Madara is the main villain, I decided to run with the idea and incorporate that into the story. Reika was/is an enemy of Konoha after all.
What do you think about Kairi's inflitration/information gathering? Were the scenes displayed properly and in a way it makes sense? Were canon characters in character? Please tell me. :)
The chapter name references the fable written by Aesopos where a tortoise outsmarts the hare in running competition. I just swapped the hare for fox so the title would refer to Gai's and Kairi's summons. And the fact that now the fox is deceiving the tortoise and taking advantage of the situation.
I'm leaning towards getting Kairi to the finals even if it's still up in the air... I randomly decided her birthday but then I looked at the DoS calendar and noticed that the finals are on the same day. Funny coincidence. :)
Replies to Reviews:
-thewriterman91:
Thank you. I checked out your fic too and reviewed it. Looking good. :)
-The Real Chys Lattes:
Thank you :D
-10th Squad 3rd Seat:
I see. Kairi does gamble occasionally but she is not addicted to it.