All restrictions, notifications, etc., still apply. BTW, things get a little nasty at the end.
Things were tense in Kiri. Something was definitely off when they reached Mei's office. Mito was asked to wait outside for nearly a quarter-hour before Mangetsu, who had not been in the office previously, came out with Mei's nod of approval and asked her to walk with him. She thought she had felt him enter through Mei's window. That meant their conversation or whatever was happening in Kiri couldn't be THAT serious, right?
"Zabuza-senpai wants me to take you back to our place," the teen said, greatly surprising her (and originally him.) "He also said don't touch anything."
Mito snorted. "Oh, I'm touching stuff, alright - but I won't mess with his 'retro, fantastic, makes everything better' equalizer." Mangetsu laughed in that snarky, snorty way of his. Honestly, she couldn't wait to see where they lived.
"Meh-heh-heh-heh. Senpai loves his stereo. And he WOULD kill you if you messed with that ancient equalizer thing."
Observing the streets of this part of Kiri as they continued their stroll, Mito didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Kiri always had a load of people sneaking around looking sinister and shady but again, that was the norm. There weren't any more guards or ninjas patrolling this part of town than there normally were. She hummed as they approached a neighborhood she hadn't paid particular attention to before. "I hope everything's alright." She glanced at Mangetsu but he looked as laid back as ever. "Is this it? –It's a nice neighborhood, and the location's ideal, ne?"
Mangetsu bobbed his head. "Close to the Tower and surrounded by faithful ninjas."
Mito hummed. That was good to know. She wondered if Mei kept a home here although she knew her friend truly lived (or had been living) in the Tower. When she took over, Mei used a fair portion of her new, formal HQ as a place to sleep, rest, and study, much like how her father's residence was attached to the back of the Hokage Tower. Mei's place wasn't nearly as nice as her father's, although Mito was sure that was because she simply hadn't had as much time there. Perhaps she had a home on the side? Mito had never thought to ask her about it before. Mei had to have lived somewhere else before the war; before everything went to hell. "I didn't know you lived with Zabuza."
"Nah. –Well, we share a duplex. Me and Suiggy live next door to Zabuza and Haku."
"Aww. It's nice that they're together!"
Mangetsu snorted. Zabuza was very territorial with Haku. After the war, an oblivious Haku gained a lot of fans: men and women, boys and girls. Lucky bastard. Thinking about it, he assured himself that he was as in demand as ever. Zabuza was an overprotective parental or uncle type, no matter how much he denied it (or they made fun of him for it.) Mito asked about Chojuro and he explained that Chojuro still lived at his family's place. "Chojuro's father is in the Navy."
"So, he's a pirate?" It seemed funny to say such a thing.
"A ninja pirate." Mangetsu clarified. "I mean… He's a naval officer. –-Same thing, really." He made his way to his unit, moving along the stepstones to the porch. "Ah. Here we are." He pulled out the spare key Haku had given him so that he could water his plants.
"Oh. My. God," Mito breathed, one hand over her heart as she stared at the ground in front of the place. "He's got gnomes."
"We've all got gnomes! Gnomes are COOL."
Mito leaned down and realized that there were even more gnomes than she'd thought in their little, shared, (overgrown) front garden. The gnomes were all over the place and a few were peeking out from under the steps. "Some of them have swords! OH MY GOD: those two are you and Zabuza!" Mito was grinning from ear to ear as she pointed at them. "Did you make them?"
"Hell no," Mangetsu scoffed, hoping he wasn't blushing. "They're special edition figurines! Some big company on one of the eastern islands makes them."
Mito gasped, stars in her eyes. "'Special editions?' Someone could steal them out here."
"You'd better not!"
"Not me," Mito half-lied. She pouted at him, slowly turning her foot this way and that a bit in a desperate effort to look cute. Mangetsu blushed the way he always did (she didn't mind; she blushed all the damn time and knew it was a terrible thing) but rolled his eyes. "Can I have one? Pleeeeease?"
"Go buy one, yourself. Gosh," he huffed, trying not to laugh. "There are action figure things, too." He began to snicker after opening Zabuza's door. He and his brother's place was too much of a mess to bring her there. And the whole deal with the action figures was (somewhat) ridiculous. He'd even heard a toy company was planning to make little ones that kids could play with. "They made one of you, too." He gestured for her to go in but laughed out loud when he saw a slow wave of horror wash over the woman who'd twice saved him. "It's an honor to have one," he told her, unsure if that was true. He did have a Mito figurine, though - not that she needed to know that. "Well. –It's uh... something."
"I need to see it," Mito muttered, dazed and in disbelief. "If my comrades in Konoha find out… Oh, God. Asuma will…" Asuma will never let me live down that there's a mini-me that kids play with! She finally looked around and nearly fell over. "OH SHIT!" Never, EVER had she seen a stereo that big. "It's like the 70s exploded in here!"
"I take that as a compliment," Haku chirped from the kitchen.
"Dude, I didn't know you were back," Mangetsu drawled. "Sorry to barge in." Mito was already rushing forward to accost his junior who was preparing tea. Always so formal. How did Haku even learn that shit?
"Haku, it's so nice to see you, as always!" Mito grinned, pulling him in for a hug. "Are you still pretending to be a Genin?"
Haku's shoulders sagged. "No, sensei. It was decided that more Chunins on the roster would be beneficial to the village."
"As long as they're as qualified and talented as you, I'm sure that's true," she replied genuinely. "And you're home is awesome, 'ttebane! –I should've said that right away." Mito bowed to him. "Thank you very much for having me." Haku said it was his pleasure and led her to their glass and gold kitchen table. It had a wooly white rug underneath: very exciting, although I would think it would get messy and be hard to clean. "Mangey was just telling me about the action figures and gnomes."
"Ohhh?" Haku asked with a teasing lilt in his voice. Mangetsu narrowed his eyes and reached for the sword on his back. Haku rolled his pretty eyes, unimpressed. "Yes. Did he tell you that he has of you?"
"Hey, that one's Suiggy's," Mangetsu lied, then felt bad for throwing his younger brother under the bus. "He has several of 'em. –They came out not too long ago so it's a new thing and you know how kids are." With the way Suigetsu had been forced to grow up, Mangetsu liked to spoil him just a little now. The latest, post-war, action figure series was a new thing and Suigetsu liked to show them off - especially his big brother's figure. The gnomes Mito was going on about were, of course, traditional.
"I know," Haku grinned brightly. "You show her hers and I'll show you mine!" He excused himself to go into his room to retrieve his figurine.
"THAT DOESN'T SOUND RIGHT AT ALL, DUDE," Mangetsu scolded although Mito didn't seem to get how his words could've been construed. Either that or she was faking.
"The tea's nice," Mito said after a beat, smiling at him sweetly.
Mangetsu hated that she made his stomach erupt in butterflies and his heart thud. Choosing to continue playing it cool, he crossed his arms over his chest. "So. Do you want to see yours or what?"
Mito pulled a confused, weird face. "Yes and no? But… yes. If you don't mind. –And then we'll never speak of it again?" Mangetsu left when Haku came back in but the look on the Hozuki's face told her that she was going to be teased. She smiled brilliantly at the figure in Haku's hands. "Wow." He handed it to her gingerly.
The "action figure" was fairly large, around 20 cm in her estimation, and was more of a little statuette, she thought. Haku looked… just like Haku but what was most impressive was the ice that almost seemed to dance up around the figure's feet and shoot out of his hands "This is kinda beautiful."
"'Kinda?!'" Haku parroted with a wide grin. Mito was warmed by how genuine he was; how much better Haku seemed now. "I look great!"
"You do," Mito immediately agreed about him and the figurine. The little Haku was an idealized version of the real boy but it still looked just like him - which made her worry a tad about how her own would look. "The representation of water and ice is wonderful. I guess that's acrylic?" Mito knew very little about art.
"I think so." Haku was a ninja. He pressed flowers and had been told by Lady Mei that he was very artistic, and it was only her saying so that made him go to the library in search of books on the history of (or anything else about) the subject. Acrylic sounded right, though. But isn't acrylic a type of paint? He shook all of that off when Mangetsu came back in, flushing and holding his precious Mito figurine and another one. He forced down a snicker but gave his senior a break. "Ah. You brought her with Captain Jack."
Mito tried to process there being a statuette (or whatever it was) of herself and unable to manage it, forced her eyes to the other one. "'Captain Jack?' –It… looks like the Raikage with black hair." Both boys laughed. "Seriously! I thought you had a Raikage figurine - er, action figure."
"Baka! Nope, that's THE Captain Jack." Mangetsu sighed, seeing Mito look so uncomfortable made him feel bad. "Just… hold it," he sighed, forcing her to take the action figure made in her likeness. "Don't break it."
Mito stared at the thing, weirded out but oddly flustered. It looked like her, she supposed, and was very dynamic(?) - is that the right word? Her figurine's face even had her little scars (but not the whisker marks.) Its feet were all wrong and it was wearing what looked like a black minidress, of all things. The seals on her legs were subtle, represented by whitish, wavy lines here and there and her left arm only held three cat tracks. More importantly, her two-toned hair was depicted as flowing out wildly (beautifully - rather than the "clumpy" texture she always struggled with or felt that she saw in the mirror every day) and was down to her knees. In one hand, the chibi-her held a translucent green scalpel blade, and in the other was a bluish Rasengan. The chains flying out from her back were glorious and more maroon than gold. The whole thing was surrounded by red and blue waves. "Wow. I mean, I wish I looked like this." The boys looked at each other in confusion. "But I love the chains." There were six of them coming out of her (somewhat) likeness' back. She smiled at them although Mito felt… exposed, she guessed. "It really does seem like an honor. –That someone would make this, ya know?"
"That's what I think," Haku said, getting up to put his statuette away.
As he left, Mito noticed that Haku's little guy had words on the bottom of it. She turned hers over and groaned when she saw what hers said:
Kitsune Soul Reaper Namikaze Mito
11/200 Kiri Savior Series
What the hell did that even mean?!
"Yours is the only one I've seen of a ninja from outside of Kiri."
Mito sucked in a breath at that news, softly covering her heart as Mangetsu took his precious back. He cleared his throat. "You should see the one of Lady Mei! –Talk about badass!"
Mito smiled at him, glad for the distraction. She'd been spiraling for some reason. How this action figure "thingy" made her feel like she had so much more to prove was baffling. She'd have to reflect upon it later. "Really? I want to see that one!"
Later -
Mito had been watching Zabuza close all of the blinds, set traps, and pace for several minutes. "So. You gonna tell me what's going on?"
He sighed, supposing all the bullshit pleasantries were over a while ago. "I guess. No one else knows but," here, he sighed even more heavily, "you're in protective custody."
Mito swallowed her reflexive need to kick down (him and) the front door, shouting "Protective Custody My Ass! Now who wants a big, hot piece of Whoop Ass?" She was Konoha's Kiri ambassador and should probably act like one. Plus destroying anything in his lovely, retro home would be super impolite. "Whyyy?"
"We've got a mole."
"Ah," Mito drawled again, scooting forward and resting her elbows on her knees. She rubbed her chin as she considered it. "Does this have anything to do with Samehada and Nuibari?" Seriously, the Seven Swords should be locked up or far better protected. Hopefully, Mei had made some of the improvements to her security that she'd suggested. If Kiri's most treasured swords weren't earlier protected, Mito could only imagine what else was out there in the wrong hands.
"You know I can't talk about that."
"Fair enough," Mito acquiesced, although she still wondered. She had asked Mangetsu about how Hoshigaki Kisame got Samehada back and he'd paled and shuddered so hard she promised herself to never ask him again. The Mangetsu gnome in Zabuza's front garden was holding a representation of the big, sentient sword. That had to be a tough reminder of its loss. She wondered if they left it there for motivation. "What's the plan?"
Zabuza sighed, wondering how he got tasked with babysitting again. It was all the result of bad timing, he guessed. "Considering the ship has to leave by 2100 to meet the trade run - and drop you wherever the hell you're off to - we might require your cooperation or something."
Mito frowned but nodded. "I'm glad to help." Zabuza, as he so often did, looked like he was being forced to suck on a lemon at that. "And I'm glad to be asked to assist." Her lips drew up when that only seemed to irritate him more. He was too easy. "Considering that I'm being provided safe passage - or passage, anyway - to a particular destination, I would be honored to repay the favor."
"Hmm. 'Safe passage,' huh?" Zabuza asked himself. He crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back against his stereo wall. A kernel of an idea formed in his mind that made him chuckle out loud. They didn't have a lot of time and if they wanted to hide what MIGHT be going on (from their ally and/or anyone else) they needed Mito off the ship to deal with saboteurs. "YOSH," he said excitedly - even more so because it made Mito jump - and clapped his hands together, rubbing them evilly. His ingenious plan was quickly coming together. (He also liked to fuck with Foxy.) He first moved to his reel-to-reel and then to each of his amps, turning them on in order, and then set the volume of his preamp to 8 - that way she wouldn't die. "Prepare yourself."
"Oh shit," Mito murmured - then her hair flew back and her eardrums might have burst. "OH SH-SH–SH-IT!" God, she could feel the beat of the bass and drums of some kind of death metal pounding her organs and bones. She held on tight to the couch and prayed it would be over soon. "CA-AN WE-E TU-URN IT D-D-OWN A LI-ITT-TLE?"
- OKay, this shit was bouncing her brain around and that couldn't be good. "GOD-D-DAMMIT Z-Z-ZAB-UZ-ZA!"
Zabuza turned down the stereo and pulled the earplugs out of his ears, reveling in Foxy's outrage. "Now let's try that again - but this time," he grinned, holding up one finger and then a second. "How fast do you think you can go from 'yourself' to henged while you're in pain?" That was a good excuse for lightly torturing her/sharing his grand idea, right? "AND vice versa?"
Mito had to ask him to repeat all of that when she could hear again.
Later, the Jonin would wonder if she'd been rendered Concussed By Bass, because Zabuza's plan would seem far riskier when she was far away, in the middle of the Eastern Sea.
.
Now they were in a vacant workshop practicing the same thing but with a physical blow causing Mito to change appearances purposely. In the exercise of fairness, Mito made Zabuza do the same thing, so that now every time one landed a hit, a stable henge either appeared or disappeared. The only thing that made it hard was ensuring her cat tracks were covered. They were stubborn, just like henging her whisker marks had been when she was a little kid. "I can't believe I'm considering going on board as a spy POSING as Namikaze Mito."
Originally, Ensui had advised her to simply disable and hide a crewman, then go aboard in his or her henge - eventually disappearing into the night when they reached the barrier. –Or get herself forced to walk the plank (if they had a plank: that was Mito's idea.) Something like that.
"It'll be great. We've just gotta convince Mei and Jack."
Mito nodded, her head still softly pounding in time with the death metal Zabuza favored lately. She didn't think it was on right now and yet it still rang in her ears, hours later. "Sounds good."
Mei rubbed her temples, wondering if all of those with elemental Water affinities were naturally bent. Only an hour earlier, her men had quietly apprehended another kunoichi infiltrator from Kumo. Although the spy wasn't talking, they'd been able to confirm that she was there to meet a contact who was already on board the Akkorokamui. Now her people were watching the ship, looking for someone on board who acted fishy - or exited the boat looking for the Kumo kunoichi. The door opened and the kage raised an eyebrow at the genjutsu that subtly went up, wondering what the swashbuckling genjutsu master was up to. "Mito, I'd like you to meet an old friend and comrade of mine, Suzuki Jack."
Mito stood up and turned as an incredibly handsome, tall, bulky man entered the room with a wildly impressive swagger. Holy fuck. She recirculated her chakra and blinked, feeling Kurama stir in the back of her mind. She turned to Mei with a pleasant smile. She knew Mei had it under control, surely. "Mizukage-sama, may I ask why your friend and compatriot has chosen to attack us with a genjutsu today?" Mei and Jack snorted.
"Not bad, girlie," Jack said with an infuriating smirk.
"Uh-huh," Mito went on, frowning when the multi-layered genjutsus just kept getting stronger and stronger. It was distracting because part of her was getting embarrassingly aroused from whatever he was doing with no hand seals. His chakra was pressing down on her in all the right places, and not in a creepy way(?) Fortunately, the part of her that didn't like to be fucked with in front of someone she cared about and wanted to respect her won over. Placing her hands together, she blasted out enough chakra to probably clear the building. It brought Mei's ANBU streaming in, weapons out, and ready to rumble. Mito didn't care since Mei didn't seem to - but the Konoha kunoichi was shocked at what she found when the genjutsus cleared.
Jack was old - God, why hadn't I realized that he would be, given the age of the Sea of Love books? - and he clearly thought what he'd pulled was very funny. He had a deep, charming laugh and was still quite handsome in his old age. He also had an incredible physique. -So incredible that Mito reconsidered how old he could be. Years of sun exposure made his skin look like well-cared for leather but it was the wrinkles around his eyes that gave even a hint of his true age away. It was also in what she sensed that made her come to the conclusion that he was... No wait, his neck: he's had some work done! Huh.
"I didn't know Konoha kunoichis were so into blatant, remorseless eye fucking."
Mito's face burned and she was incredibly grateful that Mei tossed a book at the cheeky man before she could do something more violent. Swallowing her embarrassment down, she gave him a polite, haughty nod. "We are. And Jiraiya sends his regards." She couldn't help but be amused by how much that lit the man up.
"JiRAIya?! I haven't seen that little shit in years!"
"JACK," Mei cried, pointing at a chair, "SIT! We have much to discuss. If we want to out everyone involved, we need to come up with a plan."
2030 hours -
A chakra alteration seal on her back, Mito followed Jack at an appropriate distance as she boarded the Akkorokamui, grinding her teeth at the way things came to a stop; the way people openly stared at her. Glancing around, it seemed she had some weird fanboys on board and also some serious detractors, both of which she'd have to watch out for. Jack yelled at everyone to get back to work and showed her to her quarters, boldly following her in and shutting the door behind him. Her skin crawled when another genjutsu went up.
WHAT is with all the genjutsus? she wondered.
"Relax," he sighed, rolling his nearly black-brown eyes. "My people have expectations of me."
"Huh." That didn't exactly inspire confidence. "People have expectations of me, too." Like me putting a chain through your ass if you meant what I think you did.
"Right," he smirked, waltzing to a chair he sank into. "But you're not really Namikaze Mito right now," he reminded her about their ruse - although he didn't think he needed to. From what he'd seen of her personality profile, he doubted she'd be running to Daddy or anyone else anytime soon. He crossed his arms over his broad, oiled chest and leaned back, allowing the chair to balance on two legs. "What will you do if you're attacked?"
Mito couldn't believe she'd been excited to meet this guy. Captain Jack now oozed sleaze as much as he was supposed to sex appeal. Yuck. "I can handle myself. And I can do it without my chains, well-known techniques, or increased strength." Seeing that he didn't look convinced, she repressed a tick and shifted her stance. "Chakra scalpels are commonly used throughout the continent, for instance. Since my debrief wasn't exactly complete, I think I'd feel more confident keeping any other thoughts I have on the matter to myself."
Jack guessed that was fair enough. He and Mei had planned up until the last minute while Mito was otherwise occupied with somehow putting the Kumo broad's chakra into a seal that she now wore. If one of his subordinates recognized the chica's chakra, that dead man walking might approach her. That was the hope.
Mei - a kunoichi kage: a fact that made Jack SICK - had trusted him to give "Mito" a thorough relay of their plans once the fox was onboard. But he didn't trust the Konoha kunoichi the way Mei did. Yes, the fox had fought in the war but she was still the Yellow Flash's spawn. And the Habanero's: that gave him just as much pause. Jack had never fought the Yondaime Hokage but years ago, he had fought the Red Devil herself. Uzumaki Kushina hated Kiri with a passion - and considering that his was one of the ships that laid siege to her homeland, he understood. She'd killed two of his cousins, herself - not that he was particularly close to them but still. And now her gorgeous daughter's on my turf, all by her lonesome.
…And under Mizukage's and Jiraiya's protection. Tch.
After she instantly dispelled another illusion, Jack abruptly stood, irritated and wishing he'd never agreed to this crap. He handed her a seal, narrowing his eyes at her when she studied it for all of four or five seconds - Kami-damned Uzumakis - before putting it in the pocket of her very small skirt. Like every other broad on his ship or in the entire Navy, she dressed like a fucking whore. Well, if they wanted to dress like whores, he'd treat them like whores. "Push chakra into it to signal me that you've been approached. IF you're approached."
Mito nodded and then glared at the man's back when he turned to leave. Jack's chakra and attitude had done a 180 flip and the way he looked at her just now turned her stomach. She wasn't even showing that much skin, considering the thigh-high boots she'd paired with the short skirt, plus her little jacket. Not that it should matter, as long as she was professional. "Explain the barrier to me." Jack sighed but the suppressed growl in it and the way his fingers twitched set her even more on edge. Mei, what have you gotten me into?!
"Fine. Follow me." Once in the captain's quarters, he showed the Uzumaki maps that indicated the eight known gateways to reach the Western World. He'd like to know the secrets of the barrier, too, (IF that was what she was up to) but supposed that was above his pay grade. Sadly, he was also too old to do anything with information regarding the barrier anyway. He pointed to a spot, explaining that's where he'd like to drop her. Mito The fox chuckled of all things. That, for some reason, pissed him off. Now that she was on HIS ship, all bets were off. "And then let the sharks do with you what they will."
Mito gave him a slow, slanted grin, although it didn't reach anywhere near her eyes. Her words were deathly quiet. "I guess we'll see about that." That fake grin turned into a sneer when he leered at her, his eyes raking up and down her body. Gross! Earlier Jack had apparently used a small henge on his rotten teeth; now he dropped it. What the literal fuck?! "My duties while on board?" If she had to charm - ha! - or seal this guy to get more answers in the coming weeks or months, she would. The vibes he was putting out were all wrong and Mito was feeling worse and worse about this whole situation.
"You're on… secondary guard duty, of course!"
That made sense. Everyone had to work while on a naval vessel unless they were royalty or something; that was common knowledge. Plus, it should allow her to keep an eye on him. "Great. When do I start?"
"Now. –And get the fuck out of my quarters."
Mito snorted, hiding how threatened she felt. "With pleasure," she replied honestly.
