Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Hey, everyone! Been a while. I know I said more content months ago, but yeah... Sorry about that. Can't control my beta's schedule. Anyway, I'm officially introducing a new OC this chapter. She's not super important, but not super unimportant. She'll be showing up from time to time. If you need a refresher on her full appearance, check out the last section of Chapter 51, Water and Leaf. She first shows up there.

Hope you enjoy!


Chapter 54 - Interlude 2: The Kiri Ambassador

~ About six months before Naruto returns to the village from his training with Jiraiya ~

"Thanks, again, Sakura. We really appreciate it," Amaya said, giving the pink-haired girl a smile.

"We really do. It'll be nice to just have a weekend to ourselves," Kakashi said.

They were standing outside Sakura's new apartment in one of the chunin buildings. Chunin apartments tended to be smaller, with only one bedroom and a less-spacious living area, but they worked for most single shinobi. Kaiya, who was in Sakura's arms, was happily trying to tug at the girl's pink hair.

"I'm happy to help. Really," Sakura said. She'd never say it aloud, but she was grateful for an excuse to take a weekend off for once. With Naruto and Sasuke both out of the village, she felt like she never did anything but train.

The adults said their goodbyes, Amaya giving her daughter one last kiss before leaving. Kakashi took her hand and squeezed it as they walked down the stairs. "She'll be okay. Sakura's very responsible. You know that."

Amaya sighed. "I know. This is just the first time we'll be away from her for more than a couple hours. I just...worry, you know?"

The silver-haired man smiled at his wife as they stepped outside onto the busy Saturday morning street. "I know. But with what I have planned today, you'll barely have time to worry."

Amaya opened her mouth to ask what exactly he had planned, but someone yelling her and Kakashi's names interrupted her. They looked around for who was yelling and saw Raido sprinting toward them like he had a squad of enemy shinobi on his tail.

When the scarred Jonin reached them, he bent over, gasping for breath from running halfway across the village. Panic flashed in his eyes. "Need...help. Genma...moved out…. Apartment flooded…. Want her...to move in with me." He lunged forward and gripped Kakashi's arms. "Help me!"

"Woah, woah, hang on, Raido," Kakashi said, trying to disentangle himself from his panicked friend while steering them both to a nearby tea shop. "How about we take a minute, you get your thoughts straight, and start from the beginning"

Amaya followed, a concerned look on her face. They all sat down, were brought tea, and Amaya quietly ordered mystery plates of mochi while Raido gathered his thoughts.

Raido took a long, fortifying sip of tea, put his elbows on the table, and held his head in his hands. "So Genma's been planning to move out for a while now," he said, flapping a hand in a you-know gesture. "I was helping him move into his new place two days ago, but we accidentally damaged some of the pipes going to the apartment next door."

"Do we even want to know?" Amaya asked.

"No," Raido said, running a hand through his hair. He perked up a little as the waitress brought out the mochi. He smiled at Amaya. "You remembered."

"Of course I did," she said, smiling back. She grinned harder when Kakashi all but shunshined a mochi into his mouth, the motion of him pulling his mask up and down fast enough any passersby wouldn't notice.

A moment passed while the couple enjoyed a mochi each before Raido continued his story. Well, Kakashi enjoyed. For her part, Amaya grimaced as she bit into hers. It was full of pickled plum. Not her favorite thing ever.

"Anyway, some pipes got broken and the apartment next door flooded. As luck would have it, I found out this morning that the apartment had been set aside for the envoy from Kiri. Also, Genma was sent on a mission last night, so when questions were asked this morning, I was the one that had to answer them all. As punishment, the Hokage's having the envoy stay with me until the repairs are done. She's supposed to be here around noon today. That's in two hours!"

"Well," Kakashi said, his smile clear under his mask, "sounds to me like the gods have decided to play matchmaker." Raido gave him a flat look, which only widened Kakashi's smile.

"Who is the ambassador anyway?" Amaya asked.

Raido shushed her. "Not an ambassador. Wouldn't want to spook the other great nations."

She rolled her eyes. "Right, right, sorry. Official titles make people jumpy. But really, who is she?"

Kakashi's grin widened. "You remember me telling you about that kunoichi Raido flirted with when Zabuza and the rest of the Kiri delegation came to town?"

"I didn't flirt. I just had a conversation, that's all," Raido muttered.

"You flirted, Rai," the silver-haired man teased.

Raido threw his hands up. "Fine! I flirted. And I'm terrified because she did too!" The scarred nin put his hands back down and angrily shoved a mochi in his mouth. "Happy now?"

"Yes," Kakashi said around another mouthful of mochi.

Amaya couldn't help but grin. "So let me get this straight. You're going to be living with a kunoichi you like, one who probably likes you back?"

Raido gave her a sullen look. "...Yeah."

She quirked an eyebrow. "So what's the problem? Why not let whatever's going to happen between the two of you happen?"

Raido screwed his eyes shut and dragged his hands down his face, voice falling into a pained whisper. "I can't. She's Kiri. I'm Konoha. We can't just turn our backs on our homes like it's nothing."

"But you like her," Amaya said softly, putting a hand on Rai's shoulder. "I don't want to say love conquers all, but it can make transitions easier at least."

"As the protagonist from the original Icha Icha likes to say, love always finds a way. Ow!" Kakashi exclaimed, rubbing the back of his head as he glared at his wife, who'd smacked him. 'What was that for? I was trying to help."

"Hush you," Amaya scolded.

Raido nodded absently, not really noticing the couple's banter. "Yeah, I guess. I just…. I do want to see if we could work. When she looked at me that first time, she didn't even seem to notice my scars. Well, until she complimented them. Said they proved my strength." He smiled self-deprecatingly. "You all know how hard it's been…. Adjusting to the new me. I…. I don't know if I can just let a woman like that go so easily. But I don't think I could leave Konoha and move to Kiri. If I did, I couldn't be a ninja. And if I couldn't be a ninja, I don't know what I'd do with myself."

Kakashi studied his friend, setting aside the urge to tease. Raido was giving this woman he barely knew serious consideration. The Tokujo didn't usually date since the mission that had left him scarred, and when he did, it was casual. For him to be considering a future where he was with a kunoichi from another village, a kunoichi he'd had a ten-minute conversation with months ago, said volumes about the impression this woman had left on him. "How long will she be living with you?" Kakashi asked.

"The Hokage said repairs to the apartment could take at least a month, maybe three," the scarred nin said, slouching in his seat.

"Then you make the most of the time you have and see where things go. If it's meant to be, then things will work out. And if they don't, then at least you can say you tried, right?" Kakashi said. Amaya nodded encouragingly.

Raido looked at Kakashi, sighed, and sat up. "Yeah, you're right. If I don't try, I'll always regret it. I know I will."

Amaya eyed the two men. There was something between them, a trust she'd never noticed before. She felt the same as her husband. She just prayed they wouldn't be picking up the pieces of a broken Raido in a few months. She banished her worries, though, got up, and put an arm around Raido's shoulders. "That's it. We're helping with the move-in. I want to meet this woman who's stolen our sweet Raido's heart."

In response, Raido covered his face and groaned. Kakashi and Amaya beamed.


Amaya couldn't get a read on this woman and it was starting to annoy her. The ambassador's name was Nari Igarashi; she was maybe 23, which would make her only three years Amaya's junior. She and Amaya were currently carrying the last boxes up the stairs to Raido's apartment. It was the middle of summer, so they'd both forgone jacket and haori respectively, in favor of just the undershirts they normally wore: a red, zippered sleeveless half-shirt for Amaya and a tight, light gray sleeveless shirt for Nari. Both had opted for shorts but kept the usual ninja sandals. They were pretty similar build-wise, though Amaya noticed Nari did seem to have slightly larger breasts than she did. Not that it mattered — Kakashi liked her breasts just fine — but still….

The tattooed Jonin shot furtive glances at the woman ever so often, to see if she caught anything from her light green eyes or her body language. Usually, a person's eyes and body, even a ninja's, gave her clues to what they were feeling or thinking. That was how she'd cracked the "enigma" of Kakashi Hatake. Even with his mask, he wasn't good enough to hide everything and she'd spent years perfecting her ability to notice such subtle hints.

Yet this Kiri nin was unlike anyone she'd ever met. Nari was quiet and liked to observe, but she seemed to always be wearing a mask of neutral politeness that Amaya hadn't caught her without once. Not when she'd pretended to almost drop a box labeled "fragile". Not when she'd genuinely complimented the kunoichi on her stormy blue gray hair. Not when she'd outright stolen the gray haori the other woman had taken off so she could examine the whirlpool designs that matched Nari's hair exactly. No, Nari had just taken this all in perfect stride, never breaking that neutrally polite mask.

It was driving Amaya crazy.

Finally making it up to Rai's apartment, the two women entered, only to hear bickering coming from the bedroom that would be Nari's. Amaya set her box down with the small stack of others and went to the open door of the bedroom. She felt Nari behind her like a silent shadow; it made her skin crawl as her shinobi instinct screamed at her to not let this woman get behind her. Amaya shook the feeling off. She had three years' experience on Nari, though without knowing how the other woman fought, Amaya had no way of knowing which one of them would win in a fight. She did know, deep in her bones, that if Nari had the element of surprise, Nari would win. She filed this information away to remind herself to go see what information the village had on the Kiri envoy before stepping into the room.

Before her was the unassembled skeleton of a dresser. Its drawers were scattered about the room. Bolts and screws were in neat piles. A futon was half stuffed into the closet. In the middle of the chaos knelt Raido and Kakashi.

Kakashi clutched the instructions in one hand, gesturing violently at a picture. "It says right here. We need the A screws!"

"And I'm telling you, there aren't any! We've looked through everything five times!" Raido exclaimed.

"There have to be! It says there should be six different lengths of screws and we only have five."

The two squabbling men didn't even notice the women watching them. Amaya glanced at Nari beside her and saw her face twitch before the other woman returned to the living room. Amaya watched Kakashi and Raido compare the lengths of screws to the picture for a moment before she too left, shaking her head. It was like Kaiya's crib all over again. How could they move anything in if the dresser wasn't even done yet?

The tattooed Jonin found Nari crouched next to her boxes, her forehead resting on one as her shoulders shook. Amaya couldn't see her face, but it looked like she was crying. Was she homesick already? Had the travel and the day just been overwhelming for her? She approached carefully, not knowing how Nari took to people attempting to comfort her. "Are you okay, Igarashi-san?"

Nari went still for a moment before standing and wiping her eyes. "I'm fine. I just—" The woman stopped, doubling over as she clutched her stomach. Quiet but hard laughter drifted up to Amaya. The auburn-haired shinobi frowned and waited for Nari to be able to speak. The woman had to wipe her eyes again and pulled out a small plastic bag from her pocket. A large "A" was printed on the bag and long screws were visible.

"You didn't," Amaya said, eyes wide and voice low.

Nari had to fight to talk without laughing again. "I didn't know I took the bag they needed first. I just grabbed one when I saw my chance. I couldn't help myself. They were making such a fuss of having everything in its proper place."

Both kunoichi had to cover their mouths as they laughed. When Amaya put her hand down, a wicked grin spread across her face. "I like your style. Want to mess with them some more?"

Nari shrugged as she slipped back behind that irritating mask, almost as if she hadn't realized she let it drop. "Sure. If I'm going to live with Raido for an unknown amount of time, it'd be useful to know how far I can push him."

"Okay, follow my lead," Amaya said, taking the bag of screws and putting them in her own pocket. She led the way to the bedroom where Kakashi and Raido were discussing what hardware store might have the screws they needed. She stepped into the chaos and patted her husband on the head. "You boys did a good job, but I think us women can handle this. Why don't you two go pick up some lunch for all of us?" She glanced casually at Nari. 'What sounds good to you, Igarashi-san?"

"Ramen works."

Amaya grinned and looked down at Kakashi. "You heard the lady. Go fetch."

Kakashi stood, pulling his wife in close, breathing words in her ear. "You'll pay for that later." He let her go and helped Raido up; the Tokujo's legs had fallen asleep.

Once they were gone, Amaya knelt, pulling out the bag of screws from her pocket. "Okay, we have maybe fifteen minutes to get this built. Think we can do it?"

"Definitely."


Fifteen minutes later, Nari and Amaya were sitting in the living room, chatting about the best clothing stores in Konoha when Kakashi and Raido got back. The men stopped dead as they noticed all the boxes were gone and the couch, armchair, and coffee table were back where they belonged. Setting the bags of to-go ramen on the kitchen table, Kakashi and Raido raced each other to get back to the bedroom. The dresser was built, the futon put away, the boxes unpacked. They went back to the living room and stared at the two kunoichi.

"How'd you do it?" Raido asked.

Amaya and Nari shared a look before Nari turned a dazzling smile onto her new roommate. "A good kunoichi carries her secrets to the grave."