The blustering of Gato's angry shouting recedes from the elevated tiered hideout in the trees, towards the spiral ramp staircase attached to the hut's base. In a treetop close by, a shadow curls into a tight crouch; chakra enhanced ears perk at any and all movement below. Almost show time. The mumbles of rogue shinobi coming from wide cut slots in the wooden pinecone shaped hut is the only sound left once Gato departs. No other chakra signature could be felt in the area, guess Gato didn't want to waste people on a ninja. Typical. Man hated shinobi and never cared beyond the status of having them as muscle, seeing them like dogs. She feels a feral smirk grow on tanned skin and she pulls the enthusiasm back a couple levels, no good to put new acquaintances off. That could come later.
Muscles bunch and release as jagged leather boots lightly land on the gazebo-like open window structure of the room. Ao feels sharp metal bite against skin before she can observe more of the inside of the odd hut, pouting a little at the interruption. She would like to incorporate more treehouses in her own safehouse system but she wouldn't digress in attention if that made her host so hostile. Meeting cold maple has her own red eyes turn icy, long canines escaping curved lips and a grumble rumbling in her chest. Haku pushes the kunai further into her neck column before a harsh voice interrupts the staring match, making them stand straight to attention. Ao would take the height advantage, however fake, of her boots; only giving her two inches over a literal teenager, but, pride and all.
"What do I owe the pleasure of meeting the Specter?"
That has Ao cackling, Haku almost attacking her for the abrupt noise but keeping still at the tone Zabuza used for the stranger. Yeah, Zabuza didn't remember people unless it meant something to him. Usually a fight or a possible enemy. Far and inbetween for the Demon of the Mist to be challenged by no names. Not like he tried advertising who he was antsy about Either.
"What pleasantries, Zabuza. The pleasure is all mine, to be meeting the both of you," Ao steps delicately around Haku, meeting the injured man's eyes but keeping her ears on the younger man shadowing her as she walks closer to his bedridden mentor. "How do you know my Bingo Book title if I never allowed a picture?"
"Kinda'a give away, people gossip and all. Describing a woman with blue hair, a green mask of scales and red slit pupils," dark beady eyes stare unabashed at what he described, the evening sun glinting dully off crocodile green framing glowing red.
Only distinct thing she wore was the dull opalescent mass of translucent leathers hanging off her shoulders, split into wide fringe all around and another open skirt of the same material over tighter underclothing and fishnets. The girl walked like a shinobi despite the odd dress, silent and braced for any outcome with every shift.
"Again. Why are you here?"
"Watch it with the demands, Zabuza and call off your baby pupil. I'm not here to antagonize but to give you a warning," what she says only makes Haku draw closer to which she rolls her eyes and pointedly looks back at Zabuza. Her statement was true, she wasn't trying to pick a fight. Another staring match happens and if Ao didn't know already that shinobi didn't Do normal greetings like civilians, she would have left ages ago as the seconds draw longer with all this grandstanding. Shinobi didn't listen unless their pride let them. Pride didn't listen unless you presented jutsu, so, whatever. She'd do the staring contest for the incapacitated shinobi as was the next best thing. She was polite like that.
Zabuza must be tired if he lets his slumped shoulders show, breaking eye contact with the strange nin as he closes them to settle further in his pillow. After his last fuck up on a serious mission and now facing Copy-Cat Hatake on this run-of-the-mill assassination job, it might help to listen to a warning from another title rearing its head: Roaming Specter. At least she survived long enough to outlast the bounty she amassed fucking with other villages, being a mercenary rounin did that. Feeling the love, Ao drops to the unoccupied chair, eyes smiling up at Haku but keeping her lips stiff over peaking fangs.
"You shouldn't trust Gato," the blunt statement ripping a laugh so strong from the exhausted man he cringes in pain, winded from the sudden joy. She scowls down at the hacking man, crossing her arms in front of her at the disregard of her words. Haku closes in to offer the older man support, water, only to be pushed away for the boy's effort.
"Yuck it up, Momochi, but you think being the Demon of the Mist shields you from Gato. You're wrong. There's a lot of pages in that book you'd think it was a phone book for lonely sketchy men with deep pockets, not a bounty hunter's best friend," Ao warns, wagging a finger at the rumpled man who squints challenging back at her. "Gato won't think of paying you if you're seen as slipping in the goal he gave you, fancy name be damned."
"I can finish this shit job and gut Gato in the same strike, is the Specter looking to line up for that queue?" Zabuza's hackles rise further as he mockingly questions her, energy coming back the more he listens to this drivel.
Guess even mildly talking 'down' to the man made him snippy. Bitch. Ao meekly raises both hands, surrendering sarcastically. She knew it would be tricky to dissuade Zabuza further as he was fresh off his fight with Kakashi, but she'd let the discussion settle if he actually listened to her words. Even a sliver of doubt would be enough for her plan to work. Zabuza would see reason, Haku would follow if the united front continued. She dusts off imaginary lint from her lap and cants away from the seat, from the wary pair of Mist missing-nin. Haku wouldn't dare tail her and Zabuza wouldn't care to order him to, the message was received. Ao had another appointment to keep anyway.
Her contacts keep her busy most of the day but Ao was able to use the hectic time to figure out where Tsunami's house was situated in Wave. The Gato Shipyard, nauseating that he named it after himself, was spread out on Wave's coast and her people needed a hand off for the next step in the coming days. A simple layered plan where she'd draw all the violent attention away while draining everything of value from Gato's shipping company from the shadows. Being rich didn't allow you omniscient power and for that she could only thank overinflated egos for that, not seeing much of the strays living around their high end compounds.
'All for one, none for the rest' mentality at its most horrendous. More information for her and her Cackle to gather from the unhappy masses, so no skin off her nose.
The moon is high when she glides in front of it, form briefly obscuring the light alongside the clouds but the easy movement is halted with a chakra signature echoing up at her in a torrent, breaking her concentration mid-flight. Having encountered this in specific circumstances has her heart speed up not in anxiety, but anticipation. Taking a quick detour from the shore she tilts a wing toward the more grounded treeline, their trunks thicker and taller than the wispy entangled boughs that grew from the water directly. Wings fold, retreating and wicking away into skin and dull shed skin.
Ao weaves closer in between imposing trees on the forest floor, the energy signature she was tracking fluttering in strength like it was resting. Boots clod soundlessly, striding up to the passed out form of a blond boy dressed all in orange and she can't help but gape at the sight all alone in the dark. It had been decades since she had come to the realization she had been reborn but seeing the namesake of the world you had been mysteriously deposited in had her heart in her throat, choking any sound she could have made in surprise. She had felt like this at the oddest times living her life and surviving in this Place, that the sensation occurring in front of Naruto Fucking Uzumaki made the explanation for it ring oddly in her bones like thunder. She was proud.
24 years of being on the outskirts of society out of necessity and in her best interests when she was younger. Couldn't say she spent her full 26 years doing that, as odd a distinction that it was, it was apt, as it took two years for her new body to settle enough for Ao's reborn consciousness to realize what was going on. Not fully of course but the gist of reincarnation isn't too difficult to grasp when the deja vu feeling wears off and you have the gut feeling your name isn't what your family calls you. The sudden isekai had been an odd relief to her physical born family as baby Ao had been on autopilot before the full soul merging and that skeeved people out to see such an empty child. The running around was more typical and Ao used the relaxed attitude of her 'family' to come to grips with remembering another mid 20's self DYING in a more modern world than what she was seeing, living with this charcoal farming family.
Ao didn't stay with them long, but not for a lack of trying. On her many solo excursions toddling around her family house to figure out the area and exercise her child limbs she had stumbled on an imposing giant of a shinobi. She couldn't help but stare at the kata's the man went through at breakneck speeds, the thrilling affirmation that chakra could push a human this far in comparison to her past. At the time she didn't know who he was, but she had figured out earlier she lived in Lightning Country on an outing to the village with her only brother selling their wares. It had only been confirmed after hours of her dissociating out their living room window after returning from the trip, thinking about what Ao saw going down the mountain and back up again.
Conversations surrounding 'shinobi' and their terrible 'jutsu' destroying the hard work of rice farmers in a nearby area had the dull eyed child perking forward on the elder twin's shoulders, making Kei hum in annoyance at her tight grip. Ao had figured rebirth on an Asian continent with how her brain translated larger words that felt differently than the English she was used to, also helped when her family addressed her more formally as the name 'Ao Sakakibara'. Being naughty one day to hear the eldest twin sister Choujo yell this did not fill her with fear, shut up.
Shinobi could be any old title but JUTSU, hinted at something more to her reborn brain. Shed a new light on her surroundings. With mountain ranges from decently sized hills to skyscraper heights Ao was used to in her past, dotted with imposing pines and brush. Craggy stretches of land made use of the rich soil that gathered around the mountain's bases from large downpours of rain, farmers of various materials taking full advantage and creating livelihoods there. Having experienced such a sudden storm for herself, even jumping at the severity. Rikou, the second eldest daughter, found it funny enough to needle Ao the entire storm so she figured they were common.
Testing out the new syllables of the shinobi country on awkward tongue absently on the windowpane had Ao stopping at 'Kumo' of 'Kumogakure'. It was more of a grunt that she stubbornly repeated to better pronounce the first two syllables. It had been enough for her mother, Ume, who had been watching Ao's attempts like she was a puppy. Springing on the child and twirling around with joy, boasting about how much her youngest loved her country.
The attitude of Kumogakure being a place of pride had her chilled to the bone, Ao had no idea how far in the story she was in but knowing her luck she was smack in the middle of a war, far from when 'canon' starts. Chakra was an interesting concept in theory but as a no clan nobody she had some hope she wouldn't be killed so young like she had previously, allowed to live a peaceful life in the mountains. Not being recruited into a war where children had no voice in the violence of their world. That growing hope died after she spent two hours in the shadows of a clearing watching the tall shinobi train. Idle curiosity led her there and idle curiosity brought the man back to find the child who was able to sneak up on the third Raikage.
Ao's father, Ken, had no hope of staving off the Raikage when he approached him separately on a village visit at their mountains base some months later from her stumbling on the shinobi. She had hoped to never see him again, having been scolded severely by her parents for being out so late for her curiosity. Her spying graciously gifting her their punishment and now this unsavory surprise springing on her saying he was the Goddamn Raikage of Kumogakure… A Sr. already explained the grand opportunity of how their youngest of four children might need some help creating a livelihood. Hearing her father whisper above her head to the broader man about the honor of the Raikage personally seeing something in his daughter, especially in these tumultuous times had her wishing for a pit to open beneath her. She didn't do anything Special and here she was being carted off to the Village Hidden in the Lightning practically gift wrapped by her family because the war loomed.
The run to Kumogakure had been silent, A Sr. doing nothing but observing Ao before dropping her off with another shinobi. That began a long web of faceless shinobi who seemed to only have one task concerning her before another took their place, all situating her in an orphanage with strangers she kept at arm's length. The monotony of school did a lot to elevate Ao's mood that year away from what she was trying to come to grips with as her own world, the fact she was being taught shinobi tactics did damper some parts of the curriculum. Focusing on reading and writing was her main focus but the exercise drills weren't something Ao shied away from knowing she needed to be more coordinated as she was nearing a year in Kumo. A year to better See what was going on in the wider world outside her mountain ranges. She didn't like what she saw.
Ao might have been O.K with becoming a shinobi in a time of peace, learning chakra couldn't be terrible in itself, but her anxieties had been right that she had landed further back in canon than what she was used to reading as a third party observer. Not being familiar with A Sr. wasn't too out there as she wasn't memorizing every character in the series and being in the world had the reality of what she knew as only drawings to have more depth? Not drastically but it had her hands itch wanting to draw what her hazy memories could remember to compare while she could. Meeting a baby Yugito Nii in the middle of classroom cross fighting really slapped the second war into Ao like a dead fish, unpleasant and alarming.
Seeing a prospective jinchuriki amongst the children learning under the faceless shinobi A Sr. dropped Ao into almost had her visibly panic as the anxiety of knowledge bubbled fully to her mind's eye. Their school groups didn't mingle often and only now some months into her stay in Kumogakure had her meeting the grimmer parts of the Narutoverse, brain whirring on overdrive at the darker reasons to being chosen by a Kage out of nowhere. She had to steal some time away in a secluded part of the orphanage, missing out on dinner, but needing space if she wasn't going to do anything drastic the next day. Why the Raikage believed a kid from the mountains could live to withstand a being Made of towering chakra had her knees knocking together but she packed away the fright tight away for another day. She could use the anxious energy but she wouldn't let it choke her before she was able to.
Ao spent the rest of her time after that 'learning' the in's and out's of Kumogakure while at the academy as subtly as she could for a way out. Yugito had the jinchuriki thing covered and didn't need Ao's corpse underlining that issue to A Sr. He could shove his 'honor' or whatever he saw in her up his ass, she was done with the village and hoped to leave before becoming an official Genin. Even Genin could be marked as missing-nin and what a title to earn at three years-old. Ken couldn't have known what he was signing his youngest up for but his mistake was allowing it to happen at all, it was her family's only saving grace since she doubted the Raikage would have been upfront about sealing a bijuu in their kid. Not many signed their kids over when you were honest like that.
It was anticlimactic, finally slipping away but that was what happened when Ao spent most of her thought process outside of the few hours in the academy rehearsing the steps she would take. The orphanage hadn't been monitored overly, besides the matrons/volunteers residing inside at whatever hour feeding and checking on them, the kids weren't finished with their schooling and weren't seen as a flight risk. That would change after today, but Ao was lucky that no one kept a close eye on the Kage's potential jinchuriki in the same manner as one wouldn't worry about a domesticated pet venturing into the wild. It would be stupid to attempt it.
A flash of wings has the pair soaring, the teenager close to the rounin's chest to keep Naruto from moving too severely. Kid was tanked of chakra but that didn't mean Ao wanted to throw him around like a sack of potatoes for this quick flight. She had been surprised he hadn't moved when she picked him up, sleep only doing so much to keep the body lax when she knew his bijuu Saw her at the skin contact. Keeping her thoughts peaceful while handling the younger, excitement thrummed through her once more as Tsunami's house entered her line of sight. Diving silently was a thrill and she had one eye on the blonde as she spiraled to the ground assuring her he was still out as leaves passed them on her descent.
'Kurama if this is you giving me approval or something I'd like you to at least be wary that a stranger stole your container while he slept…' Ao thought worriedly, shifting the boy to her non-dominant shoulder now that it was free of obstruction, allowing her other hand freedom as she walked out of the treeline near the shipbuilders house. As she approached the nondescript house by the shore she tucked the louder parts of her chakra signature away that even non-sensors were able to feel to not impose a silent threat on the Jounin. Knocking on the larger lower level of the house didn't leave her much time to prepare a speech as the silver haired man filled the doorway like the single knock summoned him into existence.
"Yo!" Ao chirped, raising her right hand in greeting with Hatake's student slumped over her shoulder, not a care in the world.
If you asked Kakashi what he was expecting when he felt a disturbance close in on Tsunami's residence he couldn't give you a straight answer with how muddled he felt ripping himself from the meditative state he was settled in in Team Seven's shared room. Being away from Konohagakure after their day of fighting and training had him tired, not counting the chakra exhaustion weighing him down since Zabuza. A foreign location and having to reassure his students that their brush with death wasn't bearing down on them at that very moment meant he had to sacrifice sleep to monitor that possibility. ANBU taught him how to accomplish this and it gave him cursory sensor knowledge in this state, not enough to monitor specifics but enough. Pushing a relaxed constant state of chakra to his ears kept him attuned to sounds out of the ordinary and his body ready to wake at the slightest provocation.
Counting off the sleeping heads in the room made Kakashi stop and count again, sighing dejectedly at the absent blond hair near the other childrens futons. He knew Naruto had been out training but had hoped the boy would come to sleep in their gracious host's house and not pass out on the forest floor. Leaving the room with a trickle of suspense creeping up his spine at the moon's light filtering past thin curtained windows. The knock at the door seized him bodily forward, wrenching the door open without a noise. Seeing the orphaned boy's drooling face in the arms of a strange woman had his face shuttering and Kakashi experiencing the stages of grief in rampant cycles.
"Yo!" The blue haired stranger says with a wave, red eyes crinkling behind dark green markings, no weapon in hand but the simple phrase and gesture jabs Kakashi in the gut. The familiarity of it makes him pause before he closes the door behind him, looming over the shorter individual. Threat clear.
"Haha ha, I was kinda hoping the Copy-Cat's memory was as good as rumor had it…" the interloper mutters under her breath after halting laughter.
The silver haired man raises the only eyebrow visible to Ao and she blows a raspberry in the Jounin's face, shoving Naruto into his arms. "Here, since Pack Alpha can't listen without knowing his pup isn't in harm's way."
The warm weight has the tired man fumbling with his crutches, something Ao would feel bad about if he didn't regularly shirk recovery like he was allergic to it. She grabs them before they fall as Hatake shuffles awkwardly with his sleeping student in front of an unknown. Looking at her with more awake eyes has Kakashi running through his memories of her features, the shinier sharingan memories popping out vividly. Ah.
"I don't think I caught your name, in all honesty?"
It had been a quick meeting at age 19, consisting of them fighting over a target in a club under different identities and sponsors. The only reason he remembered was due to the abrupt aesthetic shift: soft to sharp, coiffed to messy. The naive cheerful stripper persona dropped when she had wrapped her blunt spade tail around their target's neck, morphing into jagged scorpion as tensions rose. His own henge was opposite to his Hatake features but the woman didn't bat an eye twice as much as he had when they were alone, only nodding as if his presence was to be expected.
"Didn't exchange them that night, no," Ao smiles at the puzzled shift in Kakashi's stature. Couldn't be nonchalant with a teenager in your arms and he wasn't too subtle staring at her back trying to figure out where the tail went. "The tail retracts if you need to know."
The taller man slides back as if to suggest the very opposite of what he had been doing.
"Not that I was never curious about a follow up chat, but why are you Here?" Hatake growls out, a shade of intimidation rising in his voice as he had no bite to back up his bark at the moment. He never was threatened during that mission alongside the strange shinobi, but the lack of information around her wasn't reassuring at this moment. Shinobi dealt in information, and lack of it led to dead bodies wracking up.
"I'd love to discuss it further but I'd rather have this interrogation inside. Both for my back and that kid in your arms," Ao never once drops the pleasant smile. It would be all worth it once she finalized her plans alongside the canon timeline. She would not be ignored in her strides to ensure the worse wouldn't come to pass.
Kakashi feels his eye twitch in annoyance at the strangers pressing, but a stir of movement in his arms has him rethinking his stubbornness. The chances Gato was able to hire several shinobi wasn't out of probability but a memory of this shinobi years ago rings in his mind. She had taken delight in the mission but had been paid in pocket change for her efforts, something he noticed when she had begged cash off him.
'That's what mercenaries get paid outside Shinobi villages?' Kakashi had asked petulantly, dangling paper notes over the shorter shinobi's head.
'HAH! No, my payment varies on who asks or for what. The civilian women working in the towns that monster frequented asked when they noticed I was a rounin shinobi. I wouldn't turn down a noble cause when they asked so sweetly,' the disheveled girl snarls at the smirking teenager, whipping her translucent tear away skirt in Kakashi's face. It distracts him enough for the girl to nab the cash before bolting, a ripple of laughter bursting from his adrenaline doused body. The shinobi was gone before he could blink and he was poorer for it.
Moving Naruto more firmly in one arm, Kakashi throws a casual hand in front of himself making the other shinobi's eyes bug out. "Kakashi Hatake, you may have heard of me but I like hearing my own voice and name."
Snorting to the side at the fake earnestness in addition to the classic eye smile before turning back and grabbing the offered hand, showing the masked man a more genuine smile this entire conversation, "Ao Sakakibara."