The water was quiet as the oarsmen slipped through to the Land of Waves. Kakashi could feel himself on edge as well as the genin under his command. Chizu Uchiha was rarely wrong when it came to intuition.
"Kakashi-sensei, do you think we should have abandoned the mission?" Sakura whispered.
"I don't think it much matters now that we've chosen to go ahead with it." He put a hand on the girl's shoulder and she settled herself on the seat.
Sasuke crossed his hands over his chest. He just couldn't help shake the unsettling feeling that something was wrong. It wasn't even their current situation that felt that wrong. When he closed his eyes he thought of his elder sister. Lately, she had been acting a little strange. Secretive, even. It was very unlike her and more similar to Itachi than anything.
She'd sit in the living room and knit quietly, that was normal. What wasn't normal were the hidden papers that she put underneath her thigh when he entered. What wasn't normal were her shouting matches with Hana-chan that were steadily becoming more frequent. Usually, he rather liked the Inuzuka, but she'd been upsetting his sister. And that could not stand. Especially when his sister became sicker the more stressed that she was.
Two years ago had been stressful on the clan in general. One of the former elders had attempted to steal Shisui-nii's eye. The clan went into lockdown and had only calmed down after Minato swiftly executed the man responsible and disbanded ROOT. That was about the same time Chizu had started acting oddly. Like she knew something. It didn't make sense because civilians aren't supposed to know anything.
But she was there that day. She refused to leave Shisui's side when he met with the elder. Chizu was the one that alerted the clan and the Hokage. Though, Sasuke never found out just how that happened. Chizu was the one who dragged Shisui's half-dead body to the clan clinic-almost dying herself in the process. Shisui was many things, but lightweight, he was not and Chizu maxed out at forty pounds, normally. Dragging a grown man that weighed one hundred and fifty-two pounds through the Mokuton woods was beyond her ability. She was hospitalized for two weeks after that!
Then there was the creepy genin that hung around her shop some days. The one that was way too interested in her lung disease. She kept telling him that Rin-sensei was her physician but he wasn't having any of it. He'd just lurk. Sasuke was grateful that Hana-chan had left Hai with Chizu for protection. He was easily the biggest of the triplets.
At least some things about her had stayed the same. She still made him and his team bentos every day when his mother couldn't. He still got a handknit sweater set for New Years'. And she was the one that took him shopping when he graduated. Apparently, the small knitting shop was doing quite well. Even Itachi was happy about his investment.
Whenever Sasuke thought of his sister he could picture her long dark hair, usually singing, if her lungs were up to it that day. She loved to sing. He could sing every classical song by heart because of her. Her fingers were always intertwined in wool or cotton yarn. When their grandmother was alive, they would sit and knit or crochet for hours on end. It's not like they ever ran out of things to knit, either. There was always someone in the clan that was having a baby and needing layette sets. Shinobi were also hard on their gear, sweaters, scarves, and gloves included. That was what Chizu made the most of-shinobi-grade gloves. Every winter there were at least two hundred pairs of hand-knit gloves in a huge box, waiting to be given to the Uchiha shinobi. They were made with fire-proof yarn and always had Uchiha steel wire embedded in it. Chizu had to wear special gloves herself just to make them so she didn't cut her fingers with the tension.
Sasuke could think back to the last tea festival. She went absolutely insane, dragging him from stall to stall. She bought so much tea that she made him put it in a storage scroll and run back home to get another storage scroll! That's what she always smelled like. Fresh wool and green tea. That always smelled like home.
"Sensei, may I ask you a question?"
"You can ask," Kakashi replied with that annoying eye smile of his.
"Is my sister acting… oddly to you?"
"Chizu-san? I can't say I know her well enough to spot the difference. You might try asking Hana-chan when we get back to the village."
"I can't ask Hana-chan, Sensei. I think they're breaking up."
That caught Kakashi's attention. When Chizu had threatened him she had smelled like she had just been intimate with Hana. There was no way that they were breaking up. Well. Unless it was breakup sex, his mind unhelpfully brought attention to the latest edition of 'Icha Icha'.
'I wonder if that's where he got the inspiration from? The story is remarkably similar, a kunoichi falling in love with a civilian woman.'
"I haven't noticed her acting any differently," Naruto piped up.
"You haven't really seen her in the last six months," Sasuke argued back.
"Have to! She helped me with some reading assignments before the graduation tests. Looked perfectly normal to me. Ma didn't say anything either. Although, I did notice her handing some papers over to ma."
"Wait what? You don't think that's noteworthy! You're such a dobe!"
"Quiet," Kakashi reminded them.
"Why would that be so important? It's probably just recipes or knitting patterns."
Kakashi smacked his forehead. There was no way that someone who graduated third from the top of the class could still be this oblivious. Kushina was Konoha's sealing mistress, which meant she was also in command of Konoha's protective barrier seals. If Chizu was gathering intelligence that would affect the seals… then that would mean this sickly little civilian woman was an agent of the Hokage. It was perfect, really. No one would suspect someone with a chronic illness as serious as hers to be capable of being an internal spy.
AN: Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment. What do you guys want to see with this fic? Any specific scene ideas? How does it make you feel so far? What'd you like? Also, emojis are perfectly acceptable comments. ;)
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