Chapter 2: Tsunade's choice
Tsunade had thought of who would be the most suitable choice as she wandered like a sleepwalker around the building during the whole night. There weren't many girls capable of handling the task. In fact, she could count them on the fingers of just one hand. In the end, after using the elimination method, she reached a conclusion. Only one particular kunoichi could do the job without causing unnecessary doubt in most people. The girl, more accurately 'the young woman', was most suitable as she didn't have a clan to be compliant with. So, basically, no one, apart from her, was in need to know about her eventual engagement and marriage. It was polite for her team to be informed, but not really needed. The Hokage had also decided which jounin should be notified from a strategic point of view, so they could all hide together "what's going on" from the world around them. She couldn't afford the enemy finding out what was happening, since Konoha most certainly would be attacked in her absence. Anyway, if that happened, she would never forgive herself. Her main job was to defend this village, and if there was a possibility of not fulfilling that, in case of going to Suna, she wouldn't go at all. Even if that meant the death sentence for Temari.
A knock on the door got her out of her dark thoughts, and she shook her head.
"Come in!" she shouted.
The door opened, leaving Shizune and another young woman, around 19-20 years old , in the room. The latter had her brown hair tied up in 2 buns on either side of her head.
"You have called for me, Tsunade-sama," she said, looking at the older woman with a stiff body posture, wide eyes and slightly trembling lips in eager anticipation.
"Yes, I have." She nodded. "I am sure every team leader has done well in making announcements about the most recent events in Suna…?"
"Yes?" The girl frowned slightly and got the odd feeling of something cold crawling over her back. The Godaime was direct. The fact she was trying to weasel, was making things worse. The young woman was somehow sure, whatever she was about to hear, she wouldn't like at all.
"It is not like I have any doubts about Neji sparing information or something like that…" she waved her hand dismissively, trying unsuccessfully to make a delicate introduction to the problem.
"Tsunade-sama, what is going on?" the young woman was tense, her tone sounded seriously worried. She had to know what was happening. Tsunade's kind behaviour was the most scary thing she could imagine.
"A mission appeared that only you could take part in, it seems," she began abruptly.
The girl's hazel eyes narrowed in disbelief. She suppressed the jubilation that there was a mission "only she can take." Instead, she crossed her arms in front of her chest. Taking a deep breath, she invitingly tilted her head to the side.
Tsunade sighed: "Ok, the situation is as follows: Sand's ninjas have been attacked by those strange subjects you fought against together with Kakashi's team last week. The difference comes in that from their team only Temari has survived, and she is in a highly critical condition. The Kazekage received an offer to cut out the connection with us and to enter into an union with the Hidden Mist village."
"But… why?" the girl didn't understand. She couldn't imagine what she could possibly do in this situation. The ninjas they fought against were really tough. If Kakashi's team hadn't been there to support them, they would have probably ended up the same way as Temari's team..
"The union inviting Suna states our villages don't have any real connection, or crossing points of interest, if you'd like. So they offer really brutal politics about it. I didn't budge on that a month ago. And because they bite the dust with us, they try to force all of that on the young Kazekage."
Crossing points of interest, force, brutal politics — the kunoichi was horrified to notice that Godaime used political jargon instead of her usual direct speech expressions. Using these kinds of words wasn't typical when speaking to her subordinates. It showed the young woman that the hokage was trying to fidget, and she didn't like it at all — she felt alarmed all of a sudden.
"Gaara shared that he holds Konoha in high regard as an ally, and he wouldn't like to cut out our connections in any way. So he sought my advice and my help." Tsunade placed her hands over the desk, and leaned in slightly. "I should try to check on Temari… and I should try to help her if possible…"
"But you cannot go out of the village," the young woman blurted at once, and her hazel eyes narrowed.
"That's correct. I can't leave the village without a solid reason." The woman closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again, a flame flickered — it could be either a determined or a destructive one. "We need to strengthen our connection with Suna using something, well… strong. So, we decided to use a traditional method; in this case, a legitimate marriage between shinobi from both sides."
While Hokage-sama was speaking, the kunoichi's eyes became wider and wider. She foresaw what her part in this problem's solution would be. The taste of the realisation was awfully bitter.
"The shinobi from our side should be you."
There was only the sound of silence in the room. In general, the silence couldn't be heard, but particularly that silence, sounded like a spool that winds, and winds, and winds… And the rope on it was so tense, that it made the spool quietly creak just before it gave up. However, the question, Tsunade expected, came briefly afterwards.
"But why me? Why not Sakura or Ino for instance? Why not Hinata?" the kunoichi asked desperately, and her eyes watered with incoming tears, as honestly, she was very disappointed.
Godaime bit her lip. "I knew you would ask." She took a breath and looked up. "Shizune, please…"
Startled, her assistant flinched, but quickly gathered herself and spoke, "Each of you is very special in their own way." She paused briefly and continued, "Let's start with Ino. She is regularly seen with Sai. It would be highly suspicious to announce her engagement with a man, who had rarely appeared here – about two-three times some years ago. Also, she had never dated him in public."
The young woman got the feeling they didn't tell her everything. Even so, after a moment of thought, she was terrified to admit to herself that...Shizune was actually right.
"Let's continue with Hinata – as the first in line heir of the Hyuga clan's main house, her father would never let her join this mission, no matter what. They have a really strict system for arranging marriage, which is held in such high regard that it is sickening."
The kunoichi knew Shizune was right yet again. She bowed her head unhappily. She was trying to hide the heaviness, pressing upon her chest – from herself and from the surrounding world.
Shizune pursed her lips. "And about Sakura–"
"I spoke with her," Tsunade intervened. "She is certain she could handle it if I picked her, but… there are a few reasons I think she is not as suitable as you. First of all, Temari is in a coma. I would prefer to go personally for a bit while the wedding is up, and Sakura will be needed here while I am gone. I can't send her there, because she doesn't have enough experience with such heavy cases. The work here is mostly routine, so she will handle it for sure. And Shizune,"– the woman sighed heavily –"she is the only one that can manage the organisation of all of the documentaries here while still giving shifts in the Hospital.
"Second, Sakura may not have really hard clan traditions, but she has parents, which would be involved if she was about to take part in marriage. We can't play this as the Sand shinobi and her falling madly in love and him just asking for her parent's blessing. It is a well known fact that she is still waiting for Sasuke to come back.
"Also lastly, you are the only one currently not involved in any romantic relationship," Shizune said with a sigh and smiled, embarrassed.
The young woman looked at her with eyebrows raised high, mouth agape, and a pale face. Showing those signs of pure surprise and a bitter realisation, caused Shizune's smile to fade. Tenten felt guilty of not being in love, of not being in a relationship, of not even thinking about making a family. They were right, unfortunately for her, again. Well, if that was a moment she had to be completely honest with herself, there was a time she fell for Neji, but that was years ago. At this very moment, she couldn't possibly use him as a justification for something going on between them. It wasn't as if he actually returned her feelings in any way back then. It wasn't like she said anything in the first place, but… that was in the far past — nothing she could do about right now. She might just be the right pick for the task after all. Hell, no one had ever said all missions would be pleasant. No one had ever said there would be pleasant missions at all. That had never stopped her from pursuing the best outcome. It wouldn't stop her this time either.
Tsunade's voice got her out of the spiral of her thoughts, "What do you think about it?"
"I think…" the young woman's voice trailed off, but she clenched her fists in an attempt to gather herself together, "...that it seems I am the right choice."
"I am glad you see my point, then."
"What am I expected to do?" she asked, hoping her voice stayed at least even, if not confident.
"The idea is, you will have to deceive all the people around you, that don't know the truth," the Hokage paused, waiting for a nod. "I have chosen a few jounin to help you out as much as possible. Though your sensei is not amongst them…"
The young woman smiled slightly. Yes, the idea of revealing that kind of secret to her overprotective sensei sounded like a bad — well, a really bad idea.
Tsunade continued, "The story is that I had approved of an engagement between you two when I first stepped in the Hokage position. Up until now you have been communicating with occasional letters and you had been on a few dates, which were held in inns on the road between Suna and Konoha, and were under the supervision of an elder by ours and their side. Then—"
"I am sorry, Hokage-sama, but how come my sensei wouldn't know if I would need supervision for a date with an engagement to be expected?" she interrupted smoothly.
"Well, that is a good question." Tsunade grinned. "I will go straight with the arguments of him being overprotective and actually not your legal guardian. So, don't try to deal with him, just leave him to me, ok?"
"Alright." She chuckled. "It isn't something I'm really prone to deal with, anyway."
"Right. So where was I, ah, yes." The Hokage tangled her fingers over the desk. "So, his family is pushing for an official engagement, and he's coming here with that purpose. You have to look as if you know each other enough to be comfortable together. There will be a prenup signing in my office. Then we all go to Sunagakure for your public service there. The marriage will last about a year if everything goes as planned."
"That's it?" she asked.
"Pretty much, that is the essence, yes."
"All right, I accept," the young woman sighed, and Tsunade's face relaxed with relief. Then the cogs in the young kunoichi's head started to turn faster. She pursed her lips, frowning. "You are talking about public signing of a prenup here and a public service there. This is not needed, unless we talk about a big clan with a lot of annoying traditions."
Tsunade and her assistant exchanged knowing gazes and slightly coy smiles.
The young woman tilted her head, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "So, who do I have a mission with?" she asked yet again.
"Do you remember who Kankuro is?" Tsunade raised her eyebrows.
The girl tried to remember. Kankuro, Kankuro, she repeated in her mind, trying to recall an image, matching that name. She couldn't. She couldn't remember if he even sounded familiar to her at the moment. Though, she was sure he had to be a known man, if Tsunade-sama directly called him by name. Just maybe, her mind might have been too shaken still, to be responsive enough.
Since she kept silent, Tsunade gestured to her assistant to give her some more information.
"Well, he is Gaara's and Temari's brother," explained Shizune, certain the information should be enough. Surely the kunoichi would remember the Kazekage. And she was not wrong – the young woman remembered Gaara. She remembered Lee had fought with Gaara, and had to stay at the Hospital for a long time afterwards.
She remembered Temari as well. There was no way she would have forgotten about her, as they fought against each other on the very first chuunin exam. And ever since that unfortunate mission with the purpose of bringing Sasuke back, Temari has been a part of their little female gathering group. The sand kunoichi was only an occasional participant when she happened to be in Konoha and had free time to kill.
Along with those vivid images, a hazy image of a boy in a black suit with a strange hat came to her mind. He also was wearing makeup and paint all over his face. Something odd, large and bandaged was strapped on his back instead of a backpack. The realisation fell upon her with the force of crumbling rocks.
The kunoichi slowly focused her eyes on Tsunade's face and stared. "The… Puppeteer?" she asked hoarsely as cold waves were washing over her body, causing her skin to prickle unpleasantly.
Tsunade nodded, and the young woman felt she was getting was an experienced kunoichi and this kind of reaction was simply inappropriate, unexpected and really bothersome. It had never happened before, but she felt how the blood went away from her face and arms. She tried to justify it as the mission became quite real when she learned the name of her… future significant one. He became a vivid part of her close future, to the image of which, her brain was going to explode.
"He is Temari's younger brother, if we must be correct," Shizune added in a failed attempt to distract her.
"Oh, dear," the young woman had whispered, just before she collapsed on the ground like some ordinary weak woman.
Both older women rushed to her with concerned faces. Tsunade and Shizune found themselves kneeling to her sides. "Tenten!" They called at the same time.
To avoid all the unnecessary fuss around his arrival, Kankuro was met in the forest outside of the village by Kakashi. The older jounin was supposed to take care of all the additional documentation and eventual questions from the gate guards.
While they walked towards Konoha, the older man sized Kankuro up. Concern sparkled in his visible eye. He stuck his hands in his pockets. "You don't look very well, Kankuro," he said nonchalantly.
"I don't feel very well either," he replied without looking at him.
"I see. Well, you will get some decent rest when we get to the village. I know they have prepared a place for you to stay until you fulfil the mission," Kakashi assured, his voice slightly muffled by his mask. "I can only guess, but you may have to stay for over a month." He glanced at Kankuro and smiled at him. "I know, don't worry."
"I can't help being worried, Kakashi. My sister is on the verge of death."
"Once Tsunade-sama reaches Temari-san, I am sure she will be fine." The older man shrugged. "I hope you are a good performer," he added shortly after.
"I can be good," Kankuro sighed. "I just hope my partner in this will be good at pretending."
"Lead her well and she will perform well." Kakashi smiled again and turned his head forward.
Both men continued to walk in comfortable silence until they reached their destination. The Konoha shinobi led Kankuro through the gates safely. After that, he took care of the Sand shinobi escort towards the Hokage's tower. Since that was all he had to do, Kakashi just left him at the tower's entrance and disappeared after a wave.
Kankuro felt acute weakness in his whole body — his feet were heavy as if they were made of clay. His clothes were dirty, wet by sweat, and he was certain he didn't smell like a flower garden. He needed rest, food and a shower.
Once in the building, he easily found the Godaime's office. Shortly after that, he knocked on the door and entered after getting permission to do so.
"Welcome," the Hokage greeted and he nodded grimly, even though he wasn't in a particularly bad mood. "You arrived quickly, I suppose you have moved really fast." Tsunade pursed her lips and added, "It was a good idea to notify Kakashi earlier, then. He presumed you will be here a lot earlier. Apparently, he was right." All of that was mumbled more like she was thinking aloud, than actually talking to him, "You must be tired?"
The young man nodded shortly. He was indeed too tired for formalities, so he thought he would be just polite enough. He was not in a position to be rude anyway, nor he wanted to be.
Tsunade-sama, as the medic she was, didn't need to see more than his expression. It was enough for her to precisely define his condition as highly exhausted. So, what she did was to call her assistant, instruct her, and turned to the man, "Well, alright! Shizune will show you to the flat you would be staying in," she announced with a smile.
"Thank you, Hokage-sama," he whispered, but there was something he needed to know right away. He left Suna before he knew if there was a kunoichi chosen for this mission. "Where is she?" he asked with a worried expression, skipping all the formalities, going straight to the most important question for him at the moment. He knew that the faster they started their performance, the faster his sister would get the needed help.
"She is in a training session. You will meet her later on."
He nodded. "Alright." Of course she would be training. No matter who she was, he wouldn't expect her to ruin her routine. For her, that was yet another mission, just like Gaara had said. But anyhow, his ego was suffering somewhat – as the prince he was, he was used to being honoured properly. Of course he would die before admitting it, because most times that was pure pain in the ass. Anyway, she could have at least greeted him, then she could have gone back to training.
Following protocol, the young man bowed respectfully. Before he followed Shizune outside, he needed to know a few more things.
"What's her name? What rank is she?" he asked tiredly. Those were kind of the most basic things one needed to know about another shinobi, close or not.
"Her name's Tenten," was Tsunade's answer. She narrowed her eyes before she spoke again, "She is a special jounin, a weapon expert, and one of my finest, to be precise." Kankuro sensed her semi-hidden warning but didn't react negatively or positively. He simply accepted the information the way it was.
Tsunade slightly tilted her head and tapped a few times on her desk with a firm, red nail. "There is one more thing you would most probably want to know right now." The man raised his eyebrow in a silent question. "She's clanless."
Kankuro wasn't prepared for such a statement. His first thought was that clanless kunoichi might be seen as something too low for his social rank. On the other hand, a clanless kunoichi would come with much less complications. He decided he will think about this more at a later time.
The young man mechanically bowed again, and then followed Shizune outside. They were walking through the village for some time, while he was trying hard to ignore all the noises around him. It was rare for him to be so exhausted that even the ordinary village noises annoyed him. Obviously that was the case now. And as he tried to isolate himself in his little soundproof bubble, he didn't pay any attention to the direction, nor the paths. Which also was quite out of character for the sand shinobi.
Shizune took him to a small flat near a small park, but far enough from the most busy area. He liked that. This meant he would be able to take enough rest and resting properly was really important for a shinobi. One couldn't possibly fight well if one didn't rest well.
"That's it," Shizune smiled. "It is nothing spectacular, but it is peaceful."
"Yes, it looks like it is."
"But it is not bad."
"No, it sure is not."
"She will be coming back soon enough. She has been notified that she is expected to be at home earlier," Shizune explained with a slightly nervous smile, which seemed to be a tic of hers.
Kankuro fully missed the information presented to him as 'she will be coming back'. It was really easy to draw a conclusion that since she was 'coming back', but she won't be 'coming along', or 'coming here', so it was about a repeatable event. Therefore, this was her flat. It was obvious, though in his state he did not realise it.
"Thank you," he replied and looked around the small room he was in. Even at first glance, he could tell this flat was larger than what he had back home. There was still something bugging him, like an itch he couldn't reach. Then his eyes focused on beautifully inlaid kunai, hanging on the wall.
Kankuro's slow mind snapped, and he turned to Shizune: "Wait," he said, "is this her flat?"
"It is," she nodded. "You will be living together for practical reasons."
Kankuro shook his head. Right now he couldn't think of one practical side of living together with that kunoichi. Flatly, thinking was difficult for him right now.
"There should be food in the fridge etc,"she continued, but stopped talking right away when she saw Kankuro's deadly tired gaze. "Ok, I will leave you to rest," she offered diplomatically while retreating backwards towards the door.
"Yes, that would be great."
Shizune wished him to have a good rest and disappeared, almost instantly.
Kankuro sighed and took off his hat. His spiky, dishevelled, brown hair was all wet and stuck to his head and the sides of his face. He was indeed pushing himself almost over the limits, and he sweated more than usual as well.
The very first thing he did was to look for the bathroom. To reach it, he had to pass through the only bedroom, but this didn't make him feel uncomfortable at the moment. He left his puppets' scrolls on the short hall's table, threw his backpack beside the bed, and attempted to peel off his sweaty, and apparently stinky, gear. Then he finally entered the bathroom. Suspicion creeped in his mind at the sight of the decorative glass bowl, filled with hairpins. Curious as he was, he opened all the drawers. To his horror, he came across one, filled with "woman's stuff".
"Exactly like Temari's drawer at home," he mumbled quietly to himself, blushing while closing it. He had neither strength, nor desire to look at this drawer's content in detail. All drawers, like this one, had the very same content — things he could use for nothing.
He kept looking around. There were shampoos, soaps, and body cream, which he opened in order to smell. Its scent was delicious. A dizzy thought appeared in his head, that this flat had an owner, and wasn't given to him for personal use. He would eventually be able to make a connection and see that the flat was owned by a woman. Most probably the woman was exactly the kunoichi, assigned for the mission with him. Again, logical thoughts were something out of his ability at the moment. In the end, he just shrugged and placed it back.
When he was done snooping around, he took a long shower.
Standing in front of the mirror, he started rubbing his head with a towel. His hair had become longer and it was already touching his shoulders — a very unusual hairstyle for him. It was annoying to have such long hair; he felt warmer with it, and as a rule, he failed to keep it intact. There was always something going wrong with it like his hair was even set on fire several times during battles. So, growing long hair wasn't something that he could actually do. Not that he ever wanted to… That longer hair right now was a result of lack of care more than anything else.
Kankuro went back to the bedroom, took his stuff out of the backpack, took what he needed, and stuffed the rest back inside. He brought his makeup and paints into the bathroom, and arranged them there. Then he put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt he used for sleep. The next thing he did was to throw himself on the bed, flat on his stomach. He took a few deep breaths. The man was so exhausted, he didn't even get a blanket or a sheet. He couldn't even turn. The only thing he succeeded to do was reaching out for one of the pillows.
It smells just like spring flowers, was the very last thought in his head before he fell into a deep slumber.
Special thanks:
to my alfa and beta readers:
to Pink Shirt, of course ^^
to Vicar Amelia for the punctuation check;
to Ellen, who pointed out quite a few things I should consider;
to mfw_no_gf, my current beta-reader, who polished it up (aside from the more errors corrected).