Kurenai directed the genin to meet her at the gates in two hours. Naruto went to her apartment and packed for the mission. She was grateful that she knew sealing techniques. Her specialized storage seals made packing and unpacking easy. They also allowed her to categorize and segregate her supplies so that they were not all sealed into one large "bin."
She summoned and dismissed a Shadow Clone so that the long-term clone that was playing her "original self" would know what was happening. The clone had been active for three weeks. The final version of the seal her mother had made allowed for memories to be exchanged while sleeping. That way she would not get hammered by the memories all at once and she could keep updated on what her clone was doing. The clone usually posed as "Naruto" during the day except for when he trained with Kakashi's team. The clone would have to "be sick" on Wednesday.
She arrived at the meeting place 15 minutes early. Hinata was already there. Sakura arrived 5 minutes later and Kurenai 5 minutes after that. Kurenai quizzed them on supplies while they waited. It was more a formality than anything, since Kurenai had already drilled them on appropriate supplies extensively.
At the appointed time, a coach pulled up to next to them. Akira stepped out of the coach and introduced the Daimyo of Taki's daughter, Masami, and her governess, Rika. The driver of the coach was named Hideo.
Masami requested that Hinata ride with her. Kurenai nodded her approval and Hinata climbed into the coach.
Sakura complained lightly that Hinata got to ride.
"You would have been asked to ride if you were the heiress of a noble clan too, Sakura-chan," Tsunami snapped. She then paused as she realized that she herself qualified, even if nobody knew. She shook her head and said, "I don't really envy Hinata-chan her spot on this mission."
"Why?" Sakura asked with a sneer, "Too much of a tomboy?"
Tsunami laughed. "That too. No, I was referring to the discomfort of riding in that deathtrap. Look at the wheels bounce in the ruts. Even with cushions, I don't imagine the coach ride is pleasant."
After they had gotten through the outer sensing barrier that surrounded Konoha, Kurenai had Tsunami send Shadow Clones out ahead of them to scout the way. She also had her leave some to travel behind them as a rearguard.
When they camped for the evening, they were all subjected to Masami's incessant chatter. Her favorite topic was noble families. She had made a hobby of memorizing the characteristics of many of them.
"Noble shinobi clans are the easiest to identify, since they tend to marry within their clans they all look pretty similar," she said. "I immediately identified Hyuuga-san, of course. Their clan's eyes are quite distinctive.
"Konoha has four official noble clans: the Hyuuga, the Uchiha, the Akimichi, and the Aburame. They are all quite distinctive in appearance. There's also the Senju, who while not an official noble clan, is treated as such due to the prominence of the First and Second Hokage and their role in founding Konoha along with the Uchiha. They also intermarried quite regularly with the Uzumaki of Uzu no Kuni who were another noble clan."
She turned to Tsunami. "You could actually pass for an Uzumaki with your red hair. I understand that they had quite a few connections to Konoha before Uzu was destroyed."
Tsunami laughed. She hoped her nervousness did not show. "I'm actually blonde. I just dye my hair so people don't mistake me for my twin brother. Do you know how annoying it is to be mistaken for a boy?" It was almost the truth.
"Are you a Yamanaka then?" she asked before answering herself. "No, your eyes are the wrong shade of blue. Actually, your eyes look a lot like the Fourth Hokage's eyes. He also had blond hair."
Akira started at that. Actually, the whole camp began to stare at her, as if imagining her with blonde hair. Being known as the Fourth's daughter would be worse than being known as an Uzumaki.
She laughed again. "My brother and I were made orphans by the Kyuubi attack. No one's ever managed to figure out who our parents were, but if we were related to the Fourth, I don't think we would have ended up in an orphanage like we did."
With that, Masami dismissed her as unimportant. Her gaze passed to Sakura. "There aren't any notable clans with pink hair."
If Naruto knew Sakura, she was about to go into full-on I-will-marry-Sasuke-kun mode. She looked over and saw Sakura open her mouth, but a look from Kurenai, stifled her. Their sensei really hated Sakura's fangirl rants and doing it in front of a client? That would earn her a nasty genjutsu for sure.
Masami arched an eyebrow at Sakura, daring her to say something. Instead of what Tsunami knew from experience she was going to say, Sakura cleared her throat and said, "The Fourth Hokage was not from a notable clan."
Masami smiled condescendingly. "Occasionally, someone without a noble background gains power or influence, but it is rare."
Tsunami snorted. "I don't know about you, but I want to succeed on my own. Being given everything on a silver platter means you don't have your own worth." That was one reason why it did not bother her most of the time that she could not tell people her own heritage. She thought warmly of Konohamaru and his struggle to step out of his grandpa's shadow.
Masami sneered at her, but before she could say anything, Kurenai asked, "If you don't mind satisfying my curiosity, why did you hire Konoha shinobi instead of Taki shinobi?"
Akira jumped in to answer the question. "We did hire shinobi from Takigakure, but they were all male and Masami-sama felt that she would be more comfortable with a kunoichi to protect her, so we released them. It is our good fortune that Hokage-dono supplied us with an all-kunoichi team."
"We're actually the first all-kunoichi team that Konoha has fielded for quite a while," Kurenai said. "I'm confident that my girls and I will meet and exceed your expectations."
With that, Kurenai made assignments for watches during the night. Hinata was assigned first watch, and the other two were sent to bed.
The following days were more of the same. Masami would make snotty remarks toward Tsunami or Sakura whenever she was around them. Luckily, she always requested Hinata to be her personal guard. That suited Sakura and Tsunami just fine.
The day after they entered Taki no Kuni, Tsunami was jolted into awareness by the memory of a Shadow Clone dismissing itself.
She dropped over to where Kurenai was jogging at the rear of the coach. "Kurenai-sensei, one of my Shadow Clones ran into a team of three Iwa shinobi!"
"Did they attack your clone?" Kurenai asked with a touch of worry.
She shook her head. "No, they didn't attack, but their leader asked for a meeting with my leader in a neutral location."
"Did they give their name?" Kurenai asked.
"She's a chuunin named Kurotsuchi," Tsunami responded.
Kurenai tapped her chin. "I've heard of her. She's the Tsuchikage's granddaughter and pretty strong for a chuunin."
"Are you going to meet with her?" Tsunami asked. "What if it's a trap?"
"I'll meet with her and I'll be careful," Kurenai said. "Genjutsu are actually very useful for this type of meeting. However, I will take one of your Shadow Clones with me for communication."
Kurenai sped up and called for Hideo to stop the coach. She explained to everyone, what was going on.
Akira was very dissatisfied with Kurenai's plans. "What if there's a second team of shinobi that attack while you're gone?" he asked.
"It's highly unlikely that there will be anymore shinobi," Kurenai said. "Iwa would be crazy to start a war with Taki no Kuni and Hi no Kuni over a fourth daughter of a minor country's daimyo."
Masami looked very disgruntled at Kurenai's description of her. Sakura and Tsunami flashed each other brief smiles. Tsunami felt that Kurenai had made the slight intentionally, due to Masami's behavior.
"My genin are fully prepared to handle any other disturbance while I'm gone and I will be able to communicate with my team through Tsunami-san's Shadow Clones." She turned to Hinata. "Hinata-san, before I leave, find a secure location for you to wait for me. An open area with lots of visibility would be best."
Kurenai had discussed this type of scenario with them before. The benefit from being secure from sneak attacks outweighed the benefit from any shelter—at least until Hinata had enough chakra to keep her Byakugan constantly activated.
Hinata activated her Byakugan and searched. "There's a large meadow about 200 meters farther along the road."
Kurenai nodded and lead them to the meadow. "I shouldn't be gone more than two hours. I'll send word through the Shadow Clone if that changes. I don't expect any problems, but if there are any, I want you to race back to the border with Hi no Kuni, okay? The guards at the border station will help you."
After Kurenai and Tsunami's Shadow Clone left, Rika pulled cushions out of the coach. She and Masami sat on them in the shade of the coach. Hinata stood beside them. Hideo sat alertly in the driver's seat. Akira paced nervously a short distance from the coach. Tsunami and Sakura stood apart from the coach on either side so that they could see past the coach and so that between the three genin, who were arranged in a shallow triangle, they could see all the approaches. Every ten minutes, Hinata activated her Byakugan briefly to make sure that everything was as it should be.
After Kurenai had been gone for 40 minutes, Akira grabbed Sakura from behind as he paced by her and put a knife to her throat.
"Akira-san, what are you doing?" Masami demanded before Tsunami or Hinata could say anything.
"I think I know what Iwa nin are doing in Taki no Kuni," he said, "and I'm not going to wait for the Konoha jounin to hand me over to them."
"What?!" Tsunami exclaimed.
"They're after me," Akira said, "but they won't get me."
"How do you think that holding Sakura-chan hostage will help you?" Tsunami demanded. "You'll end up with Konoha after you too!"
"You'll tie up everyone else, and then I'll make a rock clone to tie up you and the pink one," Akira said. "My rock clone will check your knots and then I'll leave."
"How can we trust you?" Hinata said. "If the Iwa nin are after you, you're probably a missing nin."
"What choice do you have?" Akira said with a smirk. "The only one who could stop me isn't here."
"Oh, we can stop you," Tsunami said.
"Not without the pink one's pretty little throat being opened," Akira said snidely.
Everyone stared at Akira. Sakura was sweating and trying not to whimper.
Tsunami had a plan. It was dangerous—but she thought she was only really putting herself at risk, so she decided to try it.
She did a quick, seal-less Replacement with Sakura and thrust her chains out her back. The fact that she was shorter than Sakura meant that the knife was out of position. She reached up to grab the arm that held it, but the sudden jerk from her chains impacting Akira, meant that she missed. A sharp pain enveloped her right hand as she heard a gurgling sound behind her. She clutched her hand and fell to the ground. She looked over her shoulder and saw that her chains had punched through Akira's abdomen. She retracted them as she felt her own stomach try to and succeed in discharging its contents.
"Tsunami-chan!" she heard both her teammates yell.
"Make sure he can't hurt us," she managed to get out. "Stomach wounds don't kill immediately.
She saw Sakura move over and then say mechanically after a few moments, "I made sure he's dead."
Hinata knelt beside her. "Can you let me see your hand, Tsunami-chan?"
She gently took Tsuanmi's hand and examined it. Tsunami could not look.
"Sakura-chan," Hinata said, "can you get some bandages from our gear?"
"How bad is it, Hinata-chan?" Tsunami asked.
"I'm afraid that you lost most of your pinky finger, Tsunami-chan," she said.
Tsunami grimaced.
Sakura returned with bandages and a healing ointment that Hinata had made for everyone. Hinata wrapped the wounds.
"You've gone into shock, Tsunami-chan," she said. "You should lay down and rest until Kurenai-sensei returns."
"I'm so sorry, Tsunami-chan," Sakura said. "I should have been more alert."
Masami and Rika huddled near the coach, facing away from Tsunami.
Ten mintues later, Kurenai returned with the leader of the Iwa nin.
"Tsunami-chan!" Kurenai exclaimed. "What happned?"
"Akira caught me by surprise," Sakura admitted embarrassedly. "Tsunami-chan lost a finger rescuing me. She managed to incapacitate him in the process and I made sure that he was stopped, permanently."
"How come you she didn't let me know?" Kurenai asked.
"It happened too quickly and then she went into shock," Hinata explained.
"Yes, this is definitely Hidetsuchi, one of our chuunin-level missing nins," the Iwa kunoichi, Kurotsuchi, said.
She severed the head and burned the body. "I'll have his bounty sent for your genin. It's the least I can do for her getting maimed taking care of one of our problems."
With that, the Iwa kunoichi left.
"I know a limited amount of medical techniques," Kurenai said. "Let me make sure it heals cleanly."
Her hand glowed green as she held it near the bandages. The ache in Tsunami's hand damped down and the hot flashes she had experienced since the injury subsided.
They spent the rest of the day camped at the location.
As everyone was going to sleep, the thought of how the injury would affect her double life occurred to her. If Naruto had the same injury as Tsunami, it would be very suspicious. She waited until everyone except Kurenai, who was taking first watch, was asleep and then used her Disguise Technique to shift into her birth form.
Usually, this took relatively little chakra. This time it took quite a lot—as much as twenty Shadow Clones. Naruto looked at his hand. The wound was gone and he had his pinky back. He shifted back to Tsunami—which took the normal amount of chakra. Her hand remained healed!
She heaved a sigh of relief. Now she only had to think of an explanation!