"Humans who would dare to play God must pay a steep price for their arrogance, that is Truth."~ Father, FMA:Brotherhood

.41

In the end. Tsunade did what I wanted. She made the smart choice. The right one. She listened to me. Shimaru Danzo would no longer be a threat to me or my brother. He would cease to be the pariah he once was. However, my freedom was the cost this time.

They had decided that I was a threat to the village. That I would need close monitoring, counseling, several psych evaluations, constant supervision. And on top of that I was being forced to interact with more people my own age. Tsunade had taken away my freedom, my independence and tied me to the village.

I had no more freedom than Kurama bound inside me. A steep price I had to pay to get what I wanted. I guess that I shouldn't complain, it's not like I hadn't anticipated this to happen. But I couldn't help the annoyance that I felt over the entire matter.

"Mitomi-san are you alright?" Hinata's soft voice draws me from my musing, I nod carelessly. I hadn't truly been paying attention to what was going on around me, truthfully distracted by my own thoughts and the fact that I was petting the softest good boy ever.

Akumaru seemed to be enjoying himself, his furry head rested in my lap. His tail wagging up and down. The smallest of my summons also seemed to be enjoying herself as she kept pouncing at Akumaru's tail. It was rather funny to watch. Kei and Ra being ever so slightly more dignified than La were curled around each other taking a nap next to me, they too were receiving pets.

I had always had a softer spot for animals. They were so much better than people. Now if only the deer were here then it would be complete. Although, I'd probably need a clone to pet all of them.

"So are you just going to sit there the entire time, we need to train. Why are you here anyway?" Kiba's rash tone sparked some life out of the very content nikkun and my foxes; they all turned to look at him. I just shrugged.

"I'm on probation and being forced to interact with all of you, so I don't really care what happens. Besides it's so nice to just sit and relax." I wouldn't shy away from what was going on with me. The truth was the truth and that was that.

Kiba groaned obnoxiously, throwing himself down on the ground next to Akumaru. Akumaru licked my hand and then stood slowly bouncing over to engulf Kiba's entire lap. I sighed as La came and settled herself in the spot the dog had once occupied.

"Yes. But that doesn't really tell us why." Shino speaks from behind me, I'd forgotten about him. He'd been so quiet up until now.

"Why I'm being forced to interact, why it's your team, or why I'm on probation? You'll need to be a little more specific with your intentions. I'm not a target you need to track and extract information out of." Silence rings out, it's answer enough for me. I sigh.

"I'm on probation because I said things that upset the Godaime. I'm being forced to interact with people my own age because apparently I lack social graces and it's added punishment for my words and actions. Today it's your team because your sensei is busy with other duties and I am a jonin who doesn't have other duties to attend to." Carefully I stood despite the noise of protest from the sisters. I raised my brow at Kei as she nipped my hand. La jumped up to sit on my shoulder like the good little fox parrot she was and Ra just hit her fluffy tail against my calf.

I can't help but to sigh at their antics. I petted the top of La's head before picking her up and setting her back at my feet. Quite frankly I wasn't a pirate, I did not need a shoulder pet.

"I assume I met to train with you guys or something. But I actually have a seal to work on so…. Instead the three of you are going to prove to me just how good of a tracking and retrieval team you are. How about a game of hide and seek instead, Kei, Ra, and La will hide and you will seek them. If you can find them before midday I will buy you lunch." Kiba groans, but Shino and Hinata look ever so slightly intrigued.

"That sounds agreeable." Shino speaks calmly, I liked how reasonable he was. It made it easier to not have to try.

"Hide and Seek? Really that's the best you got." I ignore his complaints looking down at my summons. With a slight nod the three of them vanish.

"You have three hours to find them, the clock starts now." Team eight looks at me for a moment just as I make a shoeing motion with my hand. "If you want to find them in the time limit I suggest you get a move on it."

Just like that I was alone again.. Except not I was without soft animals to pet. A tragedy. At least I could in fact work on some seals. It was very unlikely that they would be able to find the sisters in the time frame allowed. Especially since I'd specified zero rules for them.

La seemed to take advantage of that fact because she was still sitting at my feet invisible. "Are you going to help me work on seals?" I couldn't help but to ask. Mirth filling my tone, she glanced up with a rather sly expression.

No, she wasn't going to help. As soon as I settled back on the ground she'd curl up in my lap. Lazy bum.

…

Ino watched with great amusement as Mitomi appeared out of literally nowhere to collapse next to Shikamaru. She watched as Choji wordlessly offered her a chip because she apparently looked like she needed it. Watched as Mitomi accepted the chip with a silent nod before sticking it in her mouth. The funny thing about this all was that Mitomi had to have been looking for them specifically since she'd never ventured into the Yamanaka compound before now.

"Hey Ino can I braid your hair?" Ino actually startled. Had Mitomi just willingly engaged her in conversation.

"Uhh.. sure." And Ino was so surprised by the action she couldn't even formulate words.

"You're in a good mood." Shikamaru points out, there's a hint of a question in his tone that neither one of his teammates missed. Mitomi smirks at him over her shoulder as she stands to walk over to where Ino is sitting.

"So what made you so chipper this evening?" It's Choji who asks.

"Oh I got to ruin team eights dreams earlier it was fun." She sounds entirely too happy about it too. Ino looks up at Mitomi who has curated a brush out of seemingly nowhere. Of course she even looked happy about it, although smug might have been a better description if they were being honest.

"I thought you were okay with Hinata." Ino asks, because after their failed spa day it had been Hinata who now continued to go and get Mitomi to accompany them on girly days. When the onsen wasn't involved that was. Hinata could get Mitomi to come with her about half of the time.

It was interesting to see just how lenient with Hinata Mitomi was. Ino suspected it had a lot to do with the Hyuga girl's not so secret feeling for Naruto. If there was one thing for certain that anyone could say they knew about the sole Uzumaki girl was that she loved her brother more than anything else. So it would make sense that Mitomi would be soft on anyone who cared for him. They'd seen it with the odd relationship Mitomi had with the Third and the sheer respect she had for Iruka-sensei anytime he was brought up or the rarer occasion when she'd see the academy instructor.

Mitomo paused in the rhythmic brushing strokes. "Oh yeah, Hinata's cool but unfortunately for her she has egotistical team mates. I also didn't really do anything horrible to them, just made them play hide and seek with the sisters. Team eight lost mainly because they didn't think to actually ask if they needed to know anything about their targets. They assume too much. As is the problem with most tracking squads, they're given a task and a description but don't usually think to ask for anything more because the majority of tracking squads are made of Inuzuka's, Hyuga's, and Aburame's who rely too strongly on their clan traits. They lack actual common sense. So if there targets end up becoming something they don't expect or posses powers they aren't prepared for the mission becomes a cluster fuck. It's why very rarely do ANBU take members from those clans to become hunter nin or ANBU trackers. Shishou told me about it when I was younger, I wanted to see if he was right." Ah yes Mitomi's mysterious teacher that none of them had ever seen or met.

"That's an interesting observation." They all turn to look in the direction of her dad's voice, Ino smiles at him and he smiles back before he settles his pupiless eyes on Mitomi. Ino can feel Mitomi shrug and she starts braiding a section of Ino's hair.

"It's not really interesting as it is a concerning oversight in training." She says, sounding a bit annoyed.

Ino was starting to wonder if Mitomi actually cared about any of them. This behavior wasn't typically like her. But a lot had been going on with Mitomi for the last six months. Stuff no one wanted to talk about but all the high ops seemed to be somewhat aware of. It had made for an interesting shift in character for the red head. She couldn't lie, Ino was slightly concerned.

"Did you explain that to them?" Inoichi actually questions. Ino raises a brow at him. He sounded so interested in this. She wondered what he was thinking. Mitomi's hands are still in their work.

She hadn't.

Her actions spoke louder than any words she could give.

"I see. I'll run it by Kurenie for you. See what she thinks and if she's noticed it at all. That way they can train through their own oversights together. Thank you for bringing this to my attention Mitomi." Inoichi turns walking away from the collection of teens.

"So why didn't you say anything?" Mitomi shrugs at the question, resuming the braid in Ino's hair.

"Because they wouldn't have believed her." Shikamaru says without any consideration flopping backwards to stare up at the sky. Mitomi remains silent behind Ino.

With how far Mitomi had come in the last few months Ino had almost forgotten.

There were a lot of people their age and older who were silvery wary of Mitomi and didn't trust her.

XOXOX

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this update!

Sincerely, La'Rae