A/N: Wow, it has been a forever since I've updated this last. Still not sure what possessed me to write this on one sitting (no kidding, I ate breakfast while writing) but oh well... This chapter has been in my mind for a long time and was almost completely planned through as well. Next chapter will require some more thought though... Anyways, I hope you like this and this at least somewhat was worth the wait.

Chapter 12.

Kairi dashed through the streets and panicking civilians. She planted smoke bombs to incite panic and slid underneath a bridge in order to set it on fire.

Then she stopped on an alley to take a look at the scroll she'd received from Kabuto. But just as she was about to open it, it burst open on its own, some paper tags spreading up her arms. Kairi tried to let go of the scroll and rip herself free from the paper seals but no avail. The tags managed to spread up to her neck, covering part of her upper torso, before they suddenly fell away.

Kairi slumped on her knees, shaking. Slowly, she looked up at the rooftop where the barrier had been set up.

"Damn you, Orochimaru…" She bit out. The bastard had schemed to use her as a sacrifice for Edo Tensei… And had Kabuto set a trap for her. Objectively it made sense. Aside from Baki, Kairi had been the main contact with Kabuto and thus had most knowledge on him and Oto's operating methods. She was the one supplying geographical information and was an important link in the information flow. Getting a revenge on Konoha might've been Orochimaru's goal and he was using Suna to achieve it but… ultimately, ruling Konoha wasn't in the snake's ambitions. Not anymore. And in the case the invasion failed (as it would), keeping Suna from getting revenge on Oto was equally important.

And if he managed to get rid of a living relative of late Yondaime Hokage, all the better, right? Especially through the most ironic way: by using her to summon Yondaime from beyond.

"You failed snake… Minato-jisan is in the stomach of the Shinigami now." Kairi chuckled weakly before gathering herself and getting on her feet. She was late from her schedule.

A couple of more bridges blown up. Brimstone triggered bombs in empty apartment buildings, one more to the civilian library. Fighting Konoha shinobi in between, killing some, incapacitating some, depending on which happened to be quickest way to move on in each situation.

She had summoned Shirin and Shanna to keep an eye on everything and relay reports between troops.

And in the midst of everything, Kairi tried to figure out how to make Soru-to-be-Shunpo even more effective. Fighting was near automatic by now. Terrain had become familiar for her in the past month and week and thus disadvantage she had was minimal in comparison to other Suna shinobi who'd only recently arrived. So she could multitask.

"My wind clones disperse with cutting blades. The same blades can be used to lessen air resistance maybe. So I need to figure out how to get those wind blades around myself while moving… Manipulating air pressure is another thing I need to look into…" Kairi jumped up to avoid an attack on her and… stepped on air where she dodged to the side. But with the speed she was going and the unexpected direction she took instead of just falling, it looked like she'd vanished.

"She'd gone!" The Konoha ninja exclaimed.

"Look for body flicker signs! She can' be far! We need to catch this saboteur!" Another commanded. But Kairi was running on the rooftops already to another direction. Her hand went to her pouch to see what else she had left. Bunch of special kunais to ensure victims bleeding out, some flashbang tags and some regular exploding ones. Civilians were mostly cleared out but… She could make some diversion at the Hokage Tower. It was the main administration center after all and the evacuation caves were behind it as well… Where the future of Konoha was hidden in. It was something that needed to be protected so it was perfect place to attract attention at.

And the best route to strike was from atop of Hokage Mountain.

Kairi landed on Nidaime Hokage's happuri-styled face plate. From there she had the perfect vantage point at the destruction going on. The giant snakes were slithering around, destroying buildings, library was in fire, bridges down, sounds of fighting were everywhere.

The blonde took a deep breath and inhaled the smell of smoke and dust. The iron tang of blood wasn't reaching her this high either. A smiled crossed her face. This was actually quite fun. Wreaking chaos everywhere, slipping through places unseen or at least fast enough not to be caught.

The girl pushed forward into a freefall. Air rushed past her and she pumped with her legs more speed as she aligned her descend angle. Then, close to the ground, she righted herself, created a wind clone that she let disperse immediately, cutting air and debris around her but not harming her. The blades all angled away from her.

From the gap between the mountain and the buildings, Kairi began placing the rest of her tags, using the momentum gained to be done with it quickly. Once everything was set…

"Katsu!" She totally stole Deidara's line but who cared? No one heard it anyways.

The explosions hammered on the walls and only the Academy was truly affected. No matter, the flashbangs and remaining smoke bombs were making it look more impressive.

"My work here is done." Kairi mused as she saw genin and chuunin corps shinobi approaching. She was about to flee when movement of wind attracted her attention and she was forced to somersault forwards in order to dodge the katana bearing down upon her. The blonde got on her feet quickly and twisted around just in time to jump backwards, out of the way of the next attack.

Violet hair, Anbu mask and armor, female. Uzuki Yugao.

"That sword style seems familiar." Kairi drawled, taking Kogonhi from her back and flicking it open. "Here to avenge your comrade."

"Hayate is not dead." Yugao snarled.

"I never intended to kill him. Just to stall and stop."

The response only seemed to infuriate the woman more. Kairi blocked the next strike and once again drew a kunai. Time to see how alike Hayate and Yugao were in a fight.

Stab at the stomach. Yugao retreated back. Kairi swung her tessen.

"Fuuton: Shinkuuha!"
(Wind Release: Vaccuum Wave)

Usually this technique was performed via hand seals and exhaling whilst spinning, but spinning while manipulating wind with Fuukatsu style tessen was equally effective.

The resulting winds split ground and trees around them. Yugao somehow miraculously managed to avoid the worst of it and was gearing towards a new attack.

"Hazy Moon Night…"

"Ghuh!" The sword sunk through Kairi's armor, impaling her neatly. She grimaced at the pain but managed to pull up a grin. "Not bad… But not good enough either."

Then, with a usage of her own legacy technique, she pushed backwards. Away from Yugao, out of the katana, off the rooftop they'd dueled on. Was there shock on the Anbu's face? Kairi didn't know as there was a mask impeding the visual.

Kairi had managed to land on her feet and get away from the administration block. She needed a healer for this wound. Amara preferably. But for that she needed someone better at tracking than herself.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Her fingers conveniently blooded, she summoned Shimon forth. The black fox looked at her in considering manner before gesturing with his head for her to get on his back. "Find Amara or other Suna medic please."

"As you wish, Kairi-san." The vulpine sniffed the air and leaped forwards. He ran through the grumbled districts and now half-empty streets, towards area where was lesser sounds of fighting. Apparently the Konoha ninja hadn't tracked down Suna medics yet.

Amara tutted at Kairi's wound but performed emergency sealing on it. The stab had been neat even if blood loss afterwards was great.

"There, no blood where it doesn't belong and your organs fully intact as well." The woman stated, wrapping a bandage around Kairi's torso in the shadows of an empty market stall. "I'd love to do more for this but time is short as it is."

"Very true." Kairi sighed and swallowed a soldier pill. The fight was far from over…

"Kai-chin!" Shirin appeared at the stall. "There are trees inside the kage barrier! Trees! I've never seen so curly ones!"

"Trees?" Kairi frowned. "Amara-san… Do you think you can get to the barrier? Last I checked, neither of the current Kages knew Mokuton… something might be wrong."

If she could inform rest of her allies and friends about Orochimaru's deception a bit earlier and thus end the fight between the villages prematurely, so be it.

"Can you get anyone else there? I rather not go alone." Amara replied.

"Yes… I'll try to alert Koto-kun at least. Shirin, you stay with Amara-san."

"Hai, Kai-chin!"

"And thank you for this information."

"You're welcome, Kai-chin!"

The two kunoichi parted ways. Kairi sent Shimon to scare and distract other shinobi while she headed towards ninja residential district that had been banned from visitors when arriving to Konoha.

Kairi found Koto and Hayoi… Who were pitted against each other by Yamanaka Inoichi. She wouldn't let that stand.

Koto was lighter, thus it was easier to pull him away when Kairi speeded past and wrapped her arm around the boy's waist. At the same time she sent a burst of her own chakra into Koto's system, purging Inoichi's. Archive's knowledge of the technique was useful even if it was bit of a gamble whether Kairi's attempt at dispelling it would work.

"Kairi-chan?!" Koto gasped out, arm that had been holding the kunai going slack. Behind them, Hayoi had aligned immediately himself toward Inoichi, covering the duo.

"Koto-kun, Hayoi-senpai, I need you to go to the tower where Kages are fighting at. Amara-san is going there too and needs backup." Kairi stated, eyes going to observe Inoichi who was staring at them in calculation. It was technically three against one now even if other members of Ino-Shika-Cho were lurking nearby. Akimichi Choza was hard to miss after all.

"Why?" Hayoi asked, not taking his eyes off from the former head of T&I. "I doubt we'd be of any use to Kazekage-sama. Especially with the barrier on the way."

Kairi glared at her senior from academy and helped Koto back on his feet.

"Because there are trees growing inside that barrier and last I checked, neither Kazekage-sama nor Sandaime Hokage were capable of Mokuton!" She shouted. "So someone should go and see if Kazekage-sama is alright!"

That froze everyone present. Even Inoichi.

"We'll go. Kairi-chan will cover for us, right?" Koto stated resolutely. Hayoi nodded with reluctance.

"Of course." Kairi agreed, dashing forward right when the two boys ran past her.

"Do you really think you can hold against us?" Inoichi asked when Kairi reached him. Let her reach him and they clashed kunai versus kunai.

"If nothing else, I can buy time. Besides… You are worried for your Hokage as well, even if it's just Suna shinobi checking the situation, it's better than nothing." Kairi replied, jumping back and throwing some shuriken. Inoichi crouched to avoid them, not even his long high tail was caught. Ironically, his hair style was basically identical to Kairi's current one. Maybe she should go back to braiding her hair…

No time for distractions!

Kairi dodged to the side the onslaught of kunai. She couldn't let anything touch her and she needed to keep moving so Inoichi wouldn't have chance to use his techniques on her.

What Kairi didn't count for was back-up. One determined huntress who was now being directed towards her by her current opponent.

There was only a split second of warning once again. Kairi heard the slight rustle of clothes from behind her but at the same time she was being pressured by Inoichi before her. She hesitated a moment the direction of her dodge as she was mid-air right then. It cost her but not much…

Swish.

…Just the entire length of her ponytail.

Since Hayate Gekkoo's attack after the preliminary matches, there had been people to keep an eye on the Sand contingent and especially Kairi Fuukatsu who'd been responsible of the attack. The investigation had backtracked her trail since coming to Konoha and had been alarmed at the easy way she'd integrated herself among the Konoha ninja, Special Jounin and Jounin alike. She was bold with her movements yet it had not alerted anyone at first. She was just a Suna genin on her last chuunin exams who wanted to train and had been saddled with Gai for it. Now they could see she had been doing geographical scouting for the invading forces.

The first phase of the exams had been nothing remarkable except for the fact that she'd made contact with Kabuto Yakushi and joked about their dismal records. Now they knew it had been introducing themselves to each other as spies and contacts. Inoichi also knew that Ino had used the Sand kunoichi for mind-body switch and thus gotten answers to the exam questions from her.

The second phase had her killing a Konoha team and talking down One-Tail's host. With Orochimaru attacking genins and confronting Anko, there was nothing else to be found on the girl. Except the fact that Fuukatsu might've gotten the heirs of Hyuuga, Inuzuka and Aburame owe her life debts.

In the preliminaries she defeated her teammate and on the preceding days interacted with genin in the tower. And fished information out of them. But in turn Konoha had gotten information about her. It was in the middle of the match and no one in the Sand contingent seemed to protest what she said so there must've been some truth in there. Fuukatsu had graduated earlier than rest of her class and had gotten top scores. She had already gone through four chuunin exams alive and only forfeited in one of them, never deliberately flunking though, unlike Kabuto had.

Then came the month of training and final preparations. Fuukatsu intercepted Hayate from following Kabuto and almost killed the man. Then she went back to same behavior than before the exams starting. There hadn't even been any signs of injuries so someone (quite possibly Kabuto) had healed her. She kept visiting Rock Lee and eating at Ichiraku's. Some had been worried she'd try to interact with Uzumaki Naruto during the few times their visits coincided but, in the end, that worry had been for nothing. The girl quite possibly knew about surveillance though.

There was also the meeting with Jiraiya the Sannin and later the occasion of talking down the One-Tail host once more.

When the attack begun, Fuukatsu had vanished from the radar. Yugao as a sensor had been assigned to track her down. Not to kill if possible, but to capture. The distraction at Hokage monument had been exactly what the Anbu sword expert needed, even if the girl had disappeared afterwards.

Only to appear before Inoichi and successfully extract her fellow Sand ninja from the place before attacking him herself. There was something familiar though… with her speed attacks and manner of dodging that almost seemed to have her fade away from sight. And she really didn't give Inoichi a chance to capture her with his techniques either.

Directing Yugao to the rooftop in order to pin the girl was easy. Even if the surprise failed some, Fuukatsu herself had hesitated enough for the opening to be used. Yugao's attack might've missed her initially, through the severing ponytail told how close call it had been. Something must've infuriated Yugao if she was going for kill directly rather than to incapacitation.

Fuukatsu half-turned towards the violet-haired Anbu hand reaching for her fan at her back, when she froze. Inoichi looked down at the ground to see her shadow connecting to the side and Shikaku standing there, nonchalantly leaning against the wall.

"Delaying tactics, Inoichi?" The Nara head drawled.

"She favors sneak attacks, getting her cornered and distracted for proper capturer to arrive seemed to be the only suitable option at the moment." Inoichi replied, approaching Fuukatsu and slapping a sleeping seal on her neck. She remained standing due the shadow imitation technique but her head flopped forward. "Good job, Rabbit." Inoichi nodded to Yugao.

"Thank you, Yamanaka-sama. I shall go assist elsewhere in the village now." Yugao nodded, sheathing her sword. And she shushined away.

"Fuukatsu talked about trees growing inside the barrier." Inoichi stated. "She sent two of her comrades to check the situation."

"Yes. Apparently Orochimaru summoned First and Second Hokages near the start of the fight." Shikaku nodded. "Given that Fuukatsu was Sand's spy, she probably kept closer eye on the kages out of self-preservation. Until we question her and interview others about the course of the battle, it's not wise to speculate yet." The Jounin Commander eyed the girl and released his shadow technique. The girl collapsed like puppet with strings cut.

"There are certainly many questions to be asked." Inoichi agreed.

Kairi was transferred to T&I's holding cells once the fighting died down. Hokage was dead. Kazekage missing and Orochimaru had fled. There were numerous casualties but Konoha rose victorious from the attack. Sand surrendered and retreated.

Three days later, after Hokage's funerals and while genin and chuunin were cleaning up the village, Kairi woke up to find herself tied to a hardbacked chair and wearing white jumpsuit and no shoes. There was no table in front of her. Instead, Yamanaka Inoichi was standing before her and behind him was a one-way mirror-window.

"Well, shit…" She rasped through dry throat. "Should I be honored?" She grinned weakly.

"Perhaps. But I rather have you answer a couple of questions, Kairi Namikaze."

Kairi had been in mid-motion of shaking her hair out of her face. With her long ponytail gone, her head felt strangely light and caused the remaining strand stick everwhich way. Not as spikes thankfully but it was messy enough that resemblance between her and Minato was more than obvious. And if they asked Jiraiya about more info…

Well, shit indeed…

A/N: Alright... Probably the most annoying part to write with this chapter was Inoichi's pov since Konoha terminology is different from Suna terminology... Gah!

And for the last time replies to reviews are done here at the bottom notes. In the future logged in users will get their replies via pms. Moreover... I have a discord nowadays... The link can be found at my AO3 account since FFN doesn't allow for links.

-Evani:
Thank you very much! Kairi really wants her promotion, even in the face of invasion. I have some change stuff planned, even if from Shikako's point of view they happen off-screen. But I do have some public changes planned as well. Stay tuned! For when I can be bothered to continue...

-The Real Chys Lattes:
Thank you!

-gonewind321:
Lol. ;D
The name usage was not a mistake. Kairi is in process of redesigning the technique to suit its new name but at the same time she is not used to be calling it by the new name. But glad to hear the fight was well written.
I'll try to cut down the exposition but as Kairi is currently now, she hasn't had many close people around her thus far with whom she'd actually talk. But in the next chapters she sort of has to talk and interract so wait for that.
Mwahahaa! I hope this turnabout with the scroll was a surprise. Kairi's main mission was sabotage, spying and information relay. But then Orochimaru happened and Kairi struck back the only way she could.
I'll try to come up with something. And reread DoS in the meanwhile to scour for any little hints I can.

-CurseDoll:
I hope this satisfied you!

-Fluttershy205912: (chapter 1)
I'm glad you liked the beginning. I hope you also liked the rest of it!

-mk0008:
I updated! Me? Your favourite author possibly? Thank you!

-hbkmzk:
Thank you for all your reviews! I had fun writing Gai and Lee, people don't appreciate them enough. Genma is also nice, one of my favourites, I hope to include him more soon. Hahaa, not Shikako vs. Kairi here. Gotta keep things at least somewhat close to canon. Lee is a bit too young in Kairi's tastes. But they probably would be cute. I'll try my best continuing.

-Mad167:
The reactions will be in next chapter I think. And there will be in depth about the background investigation that Inoichi only skimmed here.

-ThePirateQueen367:
I will try to have a happy ending for Kairi. A lot will depend on how SilverQueen has planned on ending the war but I hope to keep Kairi alive.

-WesternBird:
Thank you very much. I try my best while working with this. I'm really glad you liked Kairi. She is a strange mix of "can't do anything about this" and "I'm gonna change this dammit". Helps that she isn't in Konoha and in constant contact with protagonists.

-ojr20086:
I hope you liked this chapter. Thank you very much!

-SunshineBubbles:
Thank you!

-alia00:
Thanks!

-Dorcha119:
Thank you! I try my best. Poking at plot points is fun and observing butterflies even more so.