"Sasuke-kun, I never knew you're so good with disguise." Kakashi lightly commented as they were passing through a nearby town, undetected of course. Nine hummed lightly and smiled while she followed his previously prepared route. "Of course, Sensei. I never do things half-heartedly." The town was quiet, not many people walking outside at this hour, which made it easier for them to sneak into Gato's estate.

They finally arrived at the designated area, Kakashi once again confirmed her plan. "It's alright Sensei. I'll be careful and don't make unnecessary trouble, the faster it is done the faster we can go back." She already told him her plan before we set off here, her plan which involves fake seals and some genjutsus. "No need to rush, just don't create a commotion before you successfully remove yourself from the vicinity."

"Alright, Sensei." Nine then disappeared in a puff of smoke. She masked her chakra and sneaked into the place where she could find a bunch of women carefully dressed, brightly and beautifully. "This person really fancies himself as a harem master, huh?" Nine thought absentmindedly as she watched various types of beauty bustling around inside, most of them came from the pleasure house as an entertainer. Though, she didn't doubt that at least some of them were sent by their families, hoping for better quality of life. Poverty made people desperate.

Nine quietly sat in the corner, away from prying eyes. The madam who coordinated the selection entered the room and ushered them towards the main living area. She followed them inconspicuously with a lowered head, pretending to be nervous and shy, which she was not. In the moderately large hall, a middle aged man sat on a fancy chair and examined them. Nine slowly released her chakra in the room and found out that he didn't bring his bodyguard. Probably thought that they're his women and not allowed to be seen by other people. This makes her job easier, she only needed to be selected and her job was done. As long as he was not blind or had questionable taste, she would be picked. She refused to admit that her carefully carved appearance was worse than these women. This body was objectively beautiful according to his world's standard.

The madam called them one by one, from the left to right. There were about twenty of them, not much but certainly not so little either. Then her turn arrived, she stepped forward slowly and nervously, and finally remembered that she didn't have a name yet. "Hey, give me a name!" She urged the forever silent Sasuke to name this body. "You don't have it yet?" Sasuke originally assumed that she had already prepared all the necessities needed, but in the end she forgot about the most basic things. "Hurry!" She tried to mask her impatience as a nervousness and shyness by shuffling her legs then slowly looked up, her eyes teared up a little, she looked pitiful. From this alone, she should have been selected, this pitiful and easily bullied young woman. Nine thought that the man looked unpleasant in her eyes and slightly regretted her decision to come here.

"Kumi." Sasuke perfunctorily answered while she was in the middle of her tumultuous thoughts. Nine beauties? So basic… But here comes nothing. "Um, my name is -..." She was then cut off by the man. "She is the one tonight." He didn't even know her supposed name yet, but it's good, this proved that her sense of aesthetic was right, at least in this area. She felt various pairs of eyes on her, some in relief, some in envy. The madam then guided her to the master bedroom; she didn't notice any ninja inside this building. When she arrived in front of the door, the madam said, "You're new, serve him well and you'll be rewarded." Then she left her.

Nine entered the room and thought that this was very easy, her soon-to-be victim was very accomodating by personally removing his bodyguards. "What do you expect? He looks downright arrogant. He probably thinks that he's safe in the middle of his estate." Sasuke answered her statement while she was checking his room. "Nothing important here." She found no important documents or valuable materials in this room.

"Then check the study next door." The door opened and she quickly sat down on top of the bed. The man entered, he strode forward while complimenting her. He said some other unimportant things and started to get touchy feely with her. She was unwilling to bear it anymore and knocked him out cold with a chop on the back of his neck. "Let's make this crime of passion!" This typical murder was very unusual for a ninja, most of theem assasinated their target quickly and leave little to no evidence.

Nine quickly chopped off his limbs and made it looked like an unprofessional murder in which the murderer didn't actually have enough strenght to cut the limbs cleanly, most of the limbs were still attached to the main bodies while the head was already separated harshly from the body, from the neck wound, it could be concluded that the supposed murderer twist it for enough times to achieved the result. She purposely made the murder scene as messy as possible, blood trail on the floor, a pool of blood on the bed, and a splash of blood on the walls. It could be seen that the murderer was very enthusiastic!

"You done?" Sasuke asked her after she was done rearranging the furniture in the room. "Almost, I need to get out of this body and leave it here." Sasuke then retreated deeply into her mind, she guessed that he didn't particularly like the merging process that he previously experienced and assumed that the separation process was likely the same. Nine crawled out of this body from the mouth; she then examined the undisturbed body. Not broken then. The body still looked normal, as if she had still occupied it. "You can come out." Nine called Sasuke out, she once again felt Sasuke's presence within her mind but he didn't give her a response. She let him go and proceeded to 'kill' this body by multiple stabs to the chest area, Nine then placed the body a few meters from the man.

Finished with her jobs, she walked out of the room to find the study. It was right beside the bedroom. She examined the accounting books and discovered that he already paid most of them, not fully though. Nine found that he had sizable assets in this residence, Kakashi said that she needed to find out about his current wealth that was within reach to negotiate with his ninjas. She forged several IOUs and took them with her. She then stealthily moved out of the estate and evaded several ninjas patrolling outside the house.

~o0o~

"Sasuke-san, you're already back!" The kunoichi looked surprised when she saw her come into the house. She nodded lightly and went upstairs, the previously unconscious ninjas were already awake. Both Naruto and Sakura were inside too, Kakashi was still outside. She already transferred her acquired information and IOUs into his hands. Now, she could relax, she didn't care a slightest bit about the negotiation.

"Ah Sasuke! You're back on your normal body!" Naruto, being the first who saw her enter the room, announced her arrival loudly. All of the other occupants finally drew their gaze towards her inquisitively, they should have already been briefed. "Right, you want to see it Naruto?" Nine teased him and sure enough, he went red real fast.

"Sasuke-kun, it went smoothly?" Sakura asked her a relevant question, leave it to her to ask the right thing. "Easy." She nodded and asked about tonight's dinner, she was hungry. "Tsunami-san already went to bed, so we left some leftovers for you in the kitchen." Alright, as long as she has food, she's not a picky eater.

Come the morning Kakashi informed them that Gato was killed the previous night, Sakura was looking at her, she seemed to think about something. Kakashi previously only informed them that she needed to collect information and not even a whiff about any assasination details. Nine smiled at Sakura as if urging her to say something, she finally averted her eyes and closed her mouth shut. The one with the most fierce reaction was Naruto. "What! Sensei, we haven't done anything yet. How come he is already dead? Didn't Sasuke sneak into his house the previous night?" Naruto asked Kakashi with a barrage of questions and finally turned his head towards her. "Sasuke, you didn't see anything yesterday?"

"Nope, I went into his study to steal something and retreat." She answered his question while smiling cheerfully, even if they were suspicious of her, as long as she had permission from the team leader, which was Kakashi, they couldn't say anything. Naruto seemed to genuinely believe the cover up story, only Sakura, who was somewhat suspicious. But in the end, she didn't do anything wrong, she only followed her leader's orders.

"The murder scene is very messy, unlikely to be ninja. The murderer has a lot of grudge towards the victim." Kakashi concluded, hinting at them not to ask or say anything unnecessary. "Most of the ninja were already gone when they found out about his death. The ones that still remained were Zabuza and an ice user. They probably won't approach us, if they do however, just calmly handle the situation." Kakashi finished his news with a smile. Oh, the IOUs would be used if this Zabuza came.

Nine stayed inside the house today, while Kakashi, Naruto, and Sakura accompanied Tazuna to build the bridge. Bored, she wandered outside, into the woods. This is better than the cramped house. She climbed on top of a tree and summoned her portable pillow to make herself comfortable. Nine already shrouded the entire area with her mist, it perfectly blended with a naturally formed mist. It would wake her if there's an intruder around.

Kakashi lied to her, they stayed here for about a week and waited until the bridge was finally done before we went back to Konoha. There was a swordsman that approached them a few days after Gato's death. She didn't know and wasn't interested enough to find out what Kakashi said to him. Finally, they went back. The journey took the same amount of time as when they were going. Tedious, that was her impression. This was not her typical favourite leisure activity.

They rested for two days before Kakashi told them about the chunin exam. She knew about it but didn't think that Kakashi would make them participate. Tomorrow, yes the exam was tomorrow, very good Kakashi. She decided to go directly home, but before that she needed to restock her food. While she was looking around the food selection, she felt a very familiar chakra surged inside the village. It was not Naruto's, there was someone outside, with the same demon-like chakra. Nine left the store and investigated the matter, she found three Suna ninjas with Naruto, Sakura, and one child deadlocked in a confrontation. Hm, interesting show ahead?

She carefully examined the foreign ninja, the most eye-catching one was the red head, he felt murderous and looked like someone with not enough sleep. Understandable, she would be murderous too if she didn't have enough rest. The blonde kunoichi and the ninja with makeup were less noticeable if she compared them with their redhead compatriots. Sadly, they looked as if they were on a tightrope with their remaining team members. Curious. The blonde kunoichi urged the makeup guy to let it go lest they angered the redhead - Gaara, she said.

She had enough and decided that they were not foolish enough to attack other ninja outside their village in the middle of the chunin exam. Nine went back to her shopping spree and bought a lot of food, just in case, she sealed most of them away inside her pocket dimension. Back at home, she relaxed and fed her fishes. "Tomorrow's exam, is there anything special that I need to prepare?" She asked Sasuke about this then remembered that he didn't have a memory. Was this loss of memory caused by her? Two people in the same head, perhaps the body compensated for it by sealing most of Sasuke's memories away. But even if that was the case, why did he still have a complete memory regarding his skills? Those were questions for the future her.

"About that body, can you really do it?" He finally asked about it. She thought he would need other stimulations to finally relented and ask her about it. She finished her fish feeding and went back inside the house. Nine walked upstairs towards her painting studio and put a blank canvas on the easel. She then prepared some paints and mixed them up on the palette. Satisfied with her result, she sat down in front of the empty canvas and smiled. She would prepare some food later after she was finished with her painting and unhurriedly didn't say anything to answer Sasuke.

The object of her painting, her previously sculpted body. It was sad that she just left it there to be buried and forgotten. Not to mention… Her precious kimono was ruined, she was very irritated. Perhaps she would buy some cheap clothes and dresses in case she needs them urgently. She nodded her head and continued to paint. The sky was dark when she finished. Nine let the paint dry and went into the kitchen to cook ramen noodles. Very easy, she just poured in the hot water and seasoning then was done. Sasuke didn't urge her to answer so she slowly ate her food. While she was eating, she felt an intruder near the house and went to check it out.

Ah, a chunin was caught in some of her traps. This was awkward, she decided to help him and asked if he needed something or if he had important news to deliver. Turned out, he was one one of the people tasked to test the chunin exam candidates. "Ah, is that so..?" She let him go to check his injuries by himself and cleaned up her food. She didn't have an appetite after she was interrupted. Lied on the bed, she finally answered Sasuke's question.

"Of course, but you need to know that the previous body that I sculpted won't last very long, only a month." Nine answered honestly, after all, she didn't want to swindle her partner at work. Sasuke was silent for quite a while then asked a relevant question, "What do you need me to do?" Oh, he knew her very well and didn't beat around the bush, she would never make a losing offer. Nine liked this type of customer the most!

"Make a contract with me, I'll fulfill my part then you'll fulfill yours. I'll give you a body but you need to pay me." She didn't directly reveal what she wanted, Sasuke really didn't disappoint, he asked her with no hesitation. "Soul, I want your soul." Nine gave her answer and waited for Sasuke's response. Sadly, he didn't outright give her an answer and instead asked about the previous matter. "Was that person that appeared when you created that body was one of your previous contractors?" She sighed, why must he ask an irrelevant question?

She jogged back her memories and found that she didn't know. Of course she didn't know, she never exactly paid careful attention when she ate people up. Most of them were results of the world's collapse and very few of them were one of her contractors. "I don't know. I never paid attention to them." She paused then continued, "Anyway! You don't even know what your next life has in store for you. It would be better if you follow me, with no uncertainty after death." Though she never checked what exactly happened inside her own realm, he didn't need to know about this particular detail. "After the exam." Oh, she got an agreement, exciting [1].

~o0o~

Nine arrived in front of the academy and saw Sakura and Naruto were waiting for her. They looked at her arrival and sighed in relief, they thought she would be late like what she did on the bell test. In front of them she smiled lightly and asked, "Hm? Why did you sigh just now?" Nine saw them make an interesting expression, Sakura looked embarrassed, perhaps she felt guilty to assume that would be late. Naruto looked… Hm, what should she call it, he looked constipated as if holding something. "You want to go to the toilet before the exam, Naruto?" Now, his face was dyed red, embarrassed. "You are always the last to arrive everytime we meet up." Nine only answered with an even brighter smile because he wasn't wrong, she was indeed always the one that last to arrive.

"Let's go! Sensei said the exam will begin at three in the afternoon." Sakura broke the stalemate and entered the academy, room 301, Kakashi said that they needed to find room 301. They directly went upstairs and found a room labelled as room 301. This floor was coated with genjutsu, she wanted to pull both Sakura and Naruto upstairs when they were spotted by one of the team. A team with a unique dress code, well only one of them. They were previously arguing with someone that guarded the entrance of the so-called room 301.

"Let's go upstairs, this is genjutsu." She really didn't want to spend unnecessary time arguing with strangers about unimportant matters. Naruto and Sakura looked at her and pointed at the room's label. "I know, but this is the second floor. I want to go upstairs, if you guys want to stay here then be my guest." Nine turned left and went towards the stairs. Sadly, before she managed to leave she was blocked by the weirdly dressed person.

"Excuse me, but I need to go upstairs." She went past him but he didn't relent, he even challenged her to spar, right here, right now. "Sasuke-san, I want to challenge you!" Both Sakura and Naruto looked confused and both of this strangely dressed person's teammate let out an exasperated sigh. Yeah, no. "Why should I? Excuse me but I don't even know your name." Nine didn't wait for his answer and directly bypassed him by the virtue of being faster. She was in the middle of the way when she called Naruto and Sakura, "Both of you, unless you want to be late, you better move your body quickly." Then, she continued her way upstairs and found the room, she saw Kakashi near the door.

"Where's Naruto and Sakura?" He asked even though he already knew that both of them were in this building. She didn't give him an answer and only waited for Naruto and Sakura to arrive a few seconds later. "Good, all of you come. All of you will be disqualified if you miss even one of your team members." Kakashi said lightly, he was still holding his orange book. "I wish you goodluck!" Then he disappeared.

~o0o~

Interlude:

...

...

"Kakashi, you decided to enter your team?" The Hokage asked Kakashi after he confirmed his decision. They had a small meeting about the participation of the newest genin teams in this year's chunin exam. The other jounin sensei were already being dismissed, leaving Kakashi alone with the third Hokage inside the room. The Hokage held his tobacco pipe and walked towards the window. "Do you think they're good enough?"

"I think they're good enough, especially since this chunin exam is held by us. Even if they're not good enough to pass, the danger is rather minimum." This was a fact, this year's teams were filled with clan heirs. To avoid unnecessary danger and avoid a political nightmare in case of an accident, it was ideal for their participation in this year's exam.

"Hm," The Hokage hummed lightly and inhaled the tobacco. "What about Uchiha Sasuke?" He finally asked about it. Correct, the Hokage called Kakashi to ask about one of his students. "He's the strongest of his year's mates. I think he would be fine, his taijutsu is nothing but perfect, his shurikenjutsu though not perfect, he has a very small margin of error. About his genjutsu, from what I've personally experienced, he's very adept. I never saw him using other elemental ninjutsu aside from the basic ones that was mandatory for an Uchiha but I know his chakra control is close to perfect especially when you consider his overall chakra capacity. I know that he has already created a few personal jutsus [2]."

The Hokage placed his pipe on the desk, "With that achievement, don't you think he seems almost the same as his brother. A genius. Even I know that Itachi never created any special jutsus at this age, though I would argue that he was very busy." The Hokage sat down on his seat and shuffled through some documents. "Another thing to add, Kakashi-kun?" The Hokage moved his gaze towards Kakashi after he found the documents he needed."

"Though Sasuke sometimes seems very callous, he's not an unreasonable person. He can work together with other people." The Hokage agreed with this statement but he said, "Kakashi-kun, I know that you want to defend your student but you need to understand the extent of his callousness." The Hokage gave Kakashi the documents that he previously selected and let him read it thoroughly.

"This is…" Kakashi trailed off as he read the entire documents. "As you can see, this is our observation on Uchiha Sasuke spanning from the night of the Uchiha massacre up until the final year of academy." He said slowly, and continued. "As you know, he still lives in the compound even though we persuade him to live outside. You can argue and say that he missed the normalcy and decided to live the memory of his clan. But…" The Hokage paused, "The ANBU that were tasked to observe him never even once saw him grieve, he doesn't even seem to be in a bad mood. The only thing that brought a bad mood for him were noises and people, this was concluded from the countless observations. We know that he never remembered people's names and sometimes called them with person A, B, C. What does this indicate? He doesn't even care enough about other people to remember their names. I know that he likes to watch other people struggle, he often has an excursion every week and watches other people conflicts, even if he witness a murder, he probably wouldn't even budge an inch and merely thought it as an entertainment. If he doesn't even care about his family's death, his classmates, or other people, how can we trust him?" The Hokage stopped and watched Kakashi furrowed his brows. He knew that some of them were right and personally witnessed it, but about the other thing…

"Does he have a high flight risk?" Kakashi asked the most important matter. "No, he doesn't. But with his lack of attachment to other people and his whimsical personality, it is very hard to emotionally bind him to Konoha. Perhaps one day he would think that this ninja life was boring and decide to quit and deserted Konoha, you never know. The most important thing is that his previous personality was not like this."

"Previous…?"

"Hm, you don't know about his previous personality. But ever since the night of the massacre, his personality shifted one hundred eighty degrees. He changed the way he addressed himself [3], his life styles greatly changed, even his hobbies are not the same anymore, even he doesn't have the same body gestures anymore. It may be small, but if you compile them as one, this indicates one thing: he dissociates himself ever since he woke from a coma. His judgment can not be fully believed as he sometimes tunes off his surroundings. We need to examine his mind with a Yamanaka to have a clear understanding regarding his state of mind."

"He never had a session with Yamanaka after the Uchiha massacre?" Kakashi asked sceptically.

"Once, but he never had a routine check up because he seemed to be very well adjusted. Thinking back, this should have been a red flag. How can an eight years old child be so very well adjusted after the death of his entire family. Just pay attention to him, he may cooperate with the team but it doesn't mean that he cares about their physical or mental wellbeing. You're dismissed."

~o0o~

1. I think Sasuke would agree especially if the effect was set after his death, which means it's still kinda far away. If you compare his agreement to join Orochimaru knowing that he wants his body, Sasuke is the type to live at the moment. He would think of the solution later.

2. The genjutsu and that body changing jutsu in wave. Kakashi knew that she left her body in the estate and made it looked like a murder scene. So he obviously knew that it's not a simple henge that he previously thought of.

3. It's not obvious in English, but I make 'Sasuke' refer to himself with Boku, while the canon Sasuke obviously uses Ore when he refers to himself.