"That was a very dangerous stunt you pulled," the princess told me, painting my nails.

It was just the two of us. We were in one of the palace rooms, overlooking the courtyard. Birds chirped.

I shrugged.

"They were plastic."

"You could have just asked to see me."

"How," I deadpanned.

I couldn't even get into the government building for housing laws, much less the Fire Palace.

"Fair," the princess said.

In our years apart, both of us had grown a lot. The princess had gotten taller, narrower, her eyes more mature. Her make up had changed. It was a lot less bright and colorful. Her hair ornaments were no longer bursting with beads and flowers.

She wasn't as bratty or fussy.

… as bad as it was to admit, I kind of miss it.

The princess as a teenager was honestly kind of depressing, like all that bitter tea finally soaked into her personality.

"How is Itachi?" she asked, straight to the point.

At least that hadn't changed.

"He has stopped writing to me the past month," she continued.

"Wait what?"

"I know," she said with a frustrated sigh. "It makes me nervous. I do not like being nervous."

"He's been writing to you?"

"Once a week," she said without a blink. "Delayed if he is called to an extended mission, but I have not been briefed of such."

"He's been writing to you WEEKLY?"

The princess misunderstood my upset. "Only in the past year or so."

I closed my mouth.

"You know he's engaged, right?" I demanded.

"Of course," she said, dipping the brush back for more polish. "I heard you fumbled that quite badly. Tragic. All my efforts in building a connection with you, and now I have to restart with the other girl."

The princess glanced down at the courtyard, where Tomoe's kunoichi stood watching us in a temporary ceasefire.

"I hate playing against other smart women." She shook her head and returned to painting my nails. "You are so much better. Simple. Honest. You cannot backstab me even if you wanted to."

It was a compliment. It didn't sound like one.

I pouted.

"Anyway, Itachi," the princess pressed. "If he is upset with me about the decision, tell him that was not my fault. My father spoke in his favor. It is the Kohona council who struck it down."

I was lost.

"Decision?"

"For Fifth Hokage."

I blinked.

"WHAT?!"

I was dumb. I didn't know why I assumed people magically became Hokage once they became the strongest ninja in the village.

The Hokage was chosen. The daimyo had a say in who, as part of their control over the military.

And the person who was chosen was not the strongest, or smartest, or even the most popular. They were just whoever had the favor of the people in power, whoever obeyed the people who got them their position.

"He has no need to be so cold towards me," complained the princess. "He was not rejected. And they were not so ridiculous as to choose an alternative candidate. It is not my fault if the Third does not wish to retire."

I couldn't say anything, letting the princess rant away. The more she did, the dumber I felt.

Itachi really intended to be Hokage.

Sasuke hadn't just been bragging about his brother. This wasn't just some joke that every semi-decent shinobi heard from their friends.

This had been Itachi's goal for as long as we had known each other. Maybe even before we had met each other. This was why he trained. This was why he could not refuse any mission, no matter how dangerous or long or cruel.

So that he could represent the military that my mom wanted nothing more than to bring down.

I stared at the princess.

Itachi and the princess were never friends. They never liked each other.

It was business. It had always been business.

And given her panic right now, their partnership was… over?

"Why?" I finally asked, interrupting her.

"Why what?"

"Why does Itachi want to be Hokage?"

The princess scoffed. "Is that not the mystery of the century. You would think he avoided the naivety of the Fourth or the megalomania of the First. I believe he would be perfectly suited as a royal guard, but, well…"

The princess turned her nose, displeased.

"I suppose your clan always had higher ambitions."

"When was the decision?" I asked.

A week before my friends' letters.

Well, that was not good.

"So little sister, you will talk to him, yes? Tell him to write back. Our families have built such a strong connection over the years, it would be tragic to lose it all over one small miscommunication."

It turned out I didn't even need to ask. The princess was more than eager to send me back to Konoha. She would have her own shinobi escort me.

"Asuma," the princess called.

A masked shinobi flickered into the room. He rose.

"Prepare your squad. See Ayae has a safe return home."

When he hesitated, her eyes sharpened. "Do it, or you can tell the Sarutobi their services are no longer needed."

The shinobi held out his hands to show he wasn't arguing.

He left.

I watched the princess untense.

She screwed tight her bottle of nail polish.

My nails did come out very nice. I lowered my hands.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You don't look well," I pointed out.

The princess did look awfully stressed.

She did not answer.

"I am hungry," she said instead. "Join me for dinner."

I didn't really get a say on that. Before I knew it, I was dragged along to dinner.

It was a fancy meal at a table that was way big for just the two of us. The room was both lonely and suffocating at the same time. I could sense we were watched from all directions, presumably by more of her guards.

We waited as our food got poison tested by one of the palace servants. I watched uneasily as a little boy, maybe Sasuke's age, drank our tea and our soups.

Well, there went the rest of my appetite.

"How often is your food poisoned?" I mumbled, watching the little boy go.

The answer was enough times that the princess didn't bother keeping track.

My mind went back to the ambush the princess and I experienced all those years ago. The supposed bad guys that my relatives had caught.

I tried to remember their faces.

I desperately tried to remember anything about them at all.

"Do you, uh, happen to know who?" I asked.

"Who is trying to kill me?" the princess asked.

"Yeah." I laughed nervously.

Apparently, the better question was who wasn't.

Akatsuki didn't even make the top ten.

Just like how the Hokage was chosen, so was the daimyo. They were only around so long as the military and other lords willed it.

If the current Hokage was spineless moderate, then the current Fire Daimyo was a clueless dumbass. The princess had spent her whole life trying to keep her and her father from being disposable. She had been playing coy, pretending to be agreeable to all sides while committing to none of them, trying to not get beheaded like her granduncle or great-granduncle before her.

It was a violent, miserable life.

As the princess opened up, I began to understand why she wanted Itachi's protection so badly.

"What good is it to hire a ninja if your enemy can always hire a stronger one, " the princess said. "That is why I need the strongest. I knew as soon as I saw him. He is the best. It will no longer matter who they throw at me, there is none who can defeat him."

I didn't know how I felt about that.

I preferred thinking the princess chose Itachi because he was cute, because they had good times shopping and eating together. I preferred thinking they were friends.

I wasn't very happy with the way she talked about him, like some shiny shield she had to own.

I was still thinking about the little boy who drank our tea, tea that could have been poisoned.

"If you don't feel safe here, have you thought about… walking away?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know… fake a death, start a new identity?" I thought about the Makkuro papers in my apartment. Sure, they were made for me, but the princess and I didn't look that different, even now. If the princess wanted, I was sure there was a way to make it work. For both her and her dad.

The princess just stared at me.

Then, she broke out in a musical giggle.

"As what, a commoner?"

I frowned.

"And what's wrong with that?"

"I am nervous, not desperate," she said. "I would rather die than live in poverty."

I closed my mouth.

"You know about poverty," I said.

The princess blinked at me, waiting for my point.

"You knew this whole time how bad it is. How bad it is that you'd rather die than face what people have to face every day. The people in your own city?"

I tried and failed to keep my anger in check.

The princess's expression slowly changed.

"What has gotten into you, little sister?"

I breathed.

"If you want me to talk to Itachi for you, fine. But you'll need to return the favor."

The princess had forgotten all about that.

"Of course, little sister," she said. "What would you like? Money? Jewels?"

"Free housing..."

"Done—"

"For everyone."

The princess stared at me.

"If you want me to talk to Itachi, then you make all houses free. Everyone in the city gets housing."

The princess looked at me like I was crazy.

She recovered. She calmly set down her tea.

"As… cute… as that is, I cannot do that," she said carefully. "I am only…"

"The most powerful person in the country?"

She had said it herself. Her dad was an idiot. She was the one in control. Always had been.

She forced a polite smile.

"The landlords will never support such a law."

"Then I guess you'll have to choose who's more valuable to you: my clan or your landlords."

"Little sister, be reasonable."

"If you find me unreasonable, then go talk to Itachi yourself. Or if you want, his fiancée. Tomoe loves contracts, I'm sure you two will have fun."

I got up from the table. I was done. I couldn't eat anyway, not after seeing the little boy.

If anyone had beef with me, then they better come after me and me alone. How evil would I have to be, to let someone else hurt in my place.

The princess couldn't even keep track of how many other servants there had been.

She probably didn't even remember Itachi being one of the people who tested her food. Who took the poison for her.

"Be careful, little sister," she warned. "I may not be able to guarantee who becomes Hokage, but I can certainly guarantee who doesn't."

I stopped at the door.

"What makes you think I want Itachi to be Hokage?"

The princess had nothing on me. The realization was sinking in for her.

"It is going to cause a riot," she tried again. "They will kill us before the pen even touches the paper."

"Then die."

She did say that's what she'd rather.

I stomped out.