The first time Kakashi saw her, his mind flashed with lightning, his heart fluttered about in his chest. Small tremors shook him, imperceptible to the naked eye from years of practice bullshitting the ANBU mental health exams. Not that it was difficult anyways. It was a pretend-you-care-but-don't-actually-care thing.
Calm.
"What brings Kiri-nin to the forests of Konoha?" He relaxed the breath he'd been holding inside. Not shaking, good.
The child looked up, ink-black eyes piercing him almost as if they could strike directly into his soul. Kakashi froze. Rin?
Fuck, Hatake! Snap out of it!
"A retrieval mission." A thin voice, far too young to be on field missions already.
He ran his eye over the disabled nuke-nin and across the complicated array of Uzumaki chain-seals, buying himself time to ease the shaking in his throat.
One, two, three. Breathe. Four, five, six. Release.
"Maa, maa. Next time please settle Kirigakure disputes away from Konoha. Your little spar put our village on Code Red high alert." Fake it 'til you make it.
He felt rather than heard Itachi's polite snort, the other members of Team Ro turning away to hide their amusement at his little fib.
One eye crinkled in a false smile and he pretended to relax himself, all the while senses racing on high alert. Four chakra signatures, coming from the right.
Kirigakure ANBU, if the relief in the child's body was to be trusted. Only four? Where were the other two?
ANBU usually ran in teams of six. Did that mean the other two were dead? Narrowing his eyes contemplatively at the bound shinobi before him, his mind raced to piece together the various clues the Kiri-nin had given them.
White hair, probably Houzuki. Chakra chains, Uzumaki. Houzuki Eri, then. Jinchuuriki of the Sanbi. Then… Utakata of the Rokubi?
This was a Bad SituationTM.
He straightened, signaling Team Ro to fall back. Houzuki Eri was a lauded genius, having been able to perfectly fuse her bijuu's chakra with her own within five years of becoming a jinchuuriki—a feat that not even Kumo's two resident jinchuuriki could boast of. He wasn't curious enough about her power to test it now. He could win the battle, but the amount of mass destruction such a fight would cause was not acceptable.
He tuned out the Kiri ANBU nin loudly declaring her boredom, slipping into the shadows along with the rest of Team Ro.
Remain. Observe. He signaled.
Kirigakure may be an ally, but the only piece that held Konoha and Kiri's tenuous relationship together was Uzushio. Kiri didn't trust Konoha enough to share intel, so this was probably all that they were going to get before the start of the war. Maa, better make the most of it, then, considering that they were so kind to deliver it on a platter.
He listened to the conversation going on below with narrowed interest. The amount of S-class information the two jinchuuriki were spewing was enough to raise eyebrows. There was no way Kiri ANBU, with its efficiency, wouldn't know that Konoha nin were still on the scene. Unless, that means that this was intel they wanted to share? He snorted. Give it up for Kiri to deliver such intel in such an obscure way.
He signaled, again. Crow, Squirrel, follow. Scorpion, Deer, Locust. Report.
That should do it. Half of Team Ro would follow the six Kiri nin until they left the Land of Fire while the other half would report to the Sandaime. With Itachi's crows, information relay would be relatively quick.
Maa, if Kiri was going to give free intel, then he would be insane to not receive, wouldn't he?
One year later
Kiba flared, roaring blue-white electricity as Hiramekarei's twin swords swept towards her. Dodge.
She flashed away, barely evading Mangetsu's attack before it sliced through the replacement wooden log she'd substituted with. Huffing out a sigh of relief, Eri allowed herself a small smile. Ani-ue's gotten better.
Slam.
Shit. She'd lost concentration.
Eri blinked up, blearily opening and closing her eyes, the figure of Mangetsu blurring in and out of focus. Hiramekarei's twin swords both dug at her neck while Kiba had been flung through the air, landing a good five meters away from her. She huffed. "I surrender."
The corner of Mangetsu's lips turned up, and, sheathing his great-sword, he held out a hand towards Eri.
"You've improved, Eri."
She frowned testily in reply. She'd improved, but not at the rate of her elder brother.
Mangetsu gave a soft laugh, as if he understood exactly what was passing through her mind. "Being able to do what you're doing with the twin lightning blades within a year isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world, Eri. Especially for a six year old. Be proud of yourself."
This time, she had to force the frown to stay on her face, struggling to hold back her burgeoning smile—Mangetsu always made her feel nice, unlike that stupid Suigetsu. She grasped his offered hand, hauled herself up, then stepped away to gather Kiba before sheathing them in her seals, double orbs inked along the sides of her stomach.
Seeing Mangetsu in action was a reality check to Eri. For a fifteen-year-old to be able to master six swords out of seven within two years, then be so adept at using the seventh within just two months of practice (when she herself was still struggling to control Kiba after a year of sparring with ANBU) was pure genius at work.
Compared to Mangetsu, she had had much more opportunity. The Houzuki Clan may be one of Kiri's most prestigious noble clans, but even a noble clan would find it difficult to offer as much in training as the Mizukage himself.
Eri directed her attention to the blisters on her hands, sighing internally. She'd had more resources than Mangetsu could imagine, but still, her improvement in bukijutsu was lacking in comparison to him.
A hand ruffled her hair, distracting her from wayward thoughts. "Eri. Stop stressing."
She directed a soft smile up at her older brother. "Let's go get dango."
"Hai, hai. Dango it is. But let's bandage your hands—." He was interrupted by a sharp, piercing blare.
Eri's head shot up, eyes locking in on the alarm placed within the Houzuki Clan's private training field. What?
"Code Blue alert. Code Blue alert. Repeat. Code Blue alert. Code Blue alert."
Doors to the compound slammed open, clan members dashing out in various states of dress. A seven-year-old Suigetsu locked eyes with Mangetsu, then shunshin'ed up to them.
"Nii-san. What's going on?"
He looked about with worried eyes, watching as hordes of Houzuki leapt over the clan walls, taking to the roofs.
Mangetsu placed a hand on his head. "We should go."
The three siblings shared a final look of worry before dashing off in a cloud of dirt.
Code Blue in Kirigakure was signal for major emergencies. All shinobi, active and inactive, as well as academy students were required to immediately report to the Mizukage tower while civilians were to gather, then flee to emergency exits where ANBU would then escort them out of the village.
Code Blue had never been used in the history of Kirigakure, not even when the Rokubi went insane.
Eri raced through the streets alongside Mangetsu and Suigetsu, popping a soldier pill to replenish her depleted chakra stores, stopping only when she reached the Mizukage tower, where thousands of shinobi had already gathered. Other than the blaring emergency warnings, Kirigakure was silent, no one daring to make a single noise.
The Sandaime was already on the balcony, quietly addressing his ANBU guard, one of which, ANBU Hawk, was furiously scribbling out messages. Eri watched as two hawks were summoned into being before taking off into the skies in the directions of Uzu and Konoha.
She craned her neck to look around for Karatachi-sensei, and wondered if he knew what was going on.
Was it really this serious?
Beads swinging in his hair, the Sandaime turned to face the masses of shinobi and held up a hand to signal the end of the alarm.
Kiri was dead silent.
"A navy of fifty ships, possibly carrying around four hundred thousand Iwagakure shinobi led by the Tsuchikage himself as well as the jinchuuriki Roshi and Han just rounded the coast of Kumo. Within ten hours, Kiri will be faced with an attack from the ocean." The Mizukage paused, allowing his words to sink in.
Oftentimes, those unacquainted with Kirigakure shinobi would imagine the Bloody Mist as somewhere where intelligence lacked and brute force prevailed. Any of those dead who had once died to a Bloody Mist shinobi's blade would be able to refute that assumption. In a place where blood ran like water, where the scent of it coated the mist, in a home that served as nothing more than a cage for a slaughterhouse, perception and intelligence were key to survival.
So when the Sandaime announced a naval attack led by two jinchuuriki and a Kage, every shinobi stiffened, then lowered their heads.
Kirigakure would fall. There was no way around it.
"Kiri may fall today, but Kiri will not go down fighting.
"Academy students and genin. Your task is to destroy crops and fertile fields. Chuunin and jounin. Your task is to categorically seal all of Kiri's archives.
"Within five hours, by noon, all of Kiri's active shinobi forces as well as academy students will gather by the exit gates by rank. You will be led by Karatachi Yagura, my appointed successor, into a full-out retreat towards Konoha. Go!"
The thousands of shinobi gathered before to tower leapt into action at the imperious wave of the Mizukage's hand. Within minutes, Kiri was burning.
The day in Konoha was like any other—birds happily chirped away on their perches, basking in comfortable breezes, the sun casting a warm glow that washed the world with light.
Aoba was sat on a tree stump, absentmindedly chewing on a senbon while finishing up the latest Icha Icha Jiraiya-sama had written. The Nara shinobi in his team were already passed out on the job and Genma wasn't doing any better, having picked up cloud-watching as his newfound hobby—not that it really mattered. Messenger duty gave no need to be on guard. Aoba smirked, then moved his body into a lazy stretch, spitting his senbon with accurate precision towards Genma's forehead protector.
"Yo."
Genma stared back, half-lidded eyes glazed with lazy accusation. Noting the look on Aoba's face, one that promised pranks, retribution, mischief, and fun, he sighed, crawling into an upwards position.
"What."
"Eyyyyyyy, you hear?"
Genma groaned in response. Gossip. Gee, thanks.
But, then again, Aoba was fast friends with Anko and Anko was somehow in the know-how with every little thing that went on in Konoha. Asuma and Kurenai? Well, that had been obvious, but she wasn't even acquainted with them yet when she started spreading the gossip.
Inwardly, Genma cackled. Messenger duty was starting to get interesting.
"Ensui's getting back in-field."
Shit.
Genma whistled, then repeated just that. Shit.
Nara Ensui was as legendary as they came, at least, in the Shinobi world. Most civilians would have no idea who Ensui was, but the man of shadow was a downright terror in all other shinobi nations around the continent. He'd made a name for himself in ANBU, something that was rarely done, and had become so good at his missions that other nations had taken notice. He was perhaps the first S-Ranked ninja on the bingo-book who was relatively unknown except to those shinobi populations who'd spent time in ANBU. Nara Ensui, Shadow of Death. The Nara Clan's first attack-based fighter.
Genma whistled again. Shit. "So the war's probably gonna be serious, huh? If they're bringing Ensui back, that is."
Last he knew, the man had retired to some corner of the Nara forest, spending his time tending to the deer and offering inputs to the Nara's medicinal research branch. When ANBU retired from active duty, they retired from active duty. Even in times of war. The village needs more shinobi in its ranks? The village is calling old, veteran shinobi to fill up those ranks? Leave retired ANBU out of it.
If the village had been willing to spend such an amount of effort convincing Nara Ensui to re-join active service, then the war must be heading to some shit-storm.
Aoba nodded, eyes cast over. All good mood that had once filled the two shinobi had fled.
"You know, we should probably wake them up." Aoba stood, nudging one of the passed-out Naras with his feet. "Our shift is—"
A sudden caw burst through the skies, and all four ANBU shed any remains of relaxation, slipping into positions of defense.
The hawk landed, definitely a summons. "Message from Kirigakure. Emergency. Immediate reply necessary." It stuck a foot out, then dropped a scroll daintily on the ground. Shrinking in size, it flew towards one of the Hashirama trees, hopping a few times around a branch before nestling in a comfortable perch.
Narrowing beady eyes at the four shinobi, it repeated, "Emergency. Immediate reply." Then proceeded to rustle its feathers and settled into comfortable silence.
Genma broke it. "Well, fuck."