Ninjas and technology do not often mix. Mei's got her hands full.
So does Mito! -Boy does she, ever.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything from the Naruto universe. This is my Mito, though.

Thinking (+ flashbacks, "Mito speaking to Kurama in her mindscape," etc.)

Emphasis

Bijuu, etc. speaking

Bijuu, etc. thinking

Mito shook with excitement. Before theatrically dying from chakra exhaustion, her clone had flashed back to Kiri and handed her - with the Jonin Commander's permission - an unlocked smartphone. To keep: for her very own! "Lookie here," she smiled giddily, turning to Utakata and Zabuza's team of kawaii minions. "Everyone get together and smile… Uh… As soon as I figure out where the camera is."

"Baaaka," Zabuza scolded but helped her find the app - which was one of the four little buttons/tabs or whatever they were called on the front of her unfairly big, new phone. Foxy began bouncing on her toes.

"Neat!" Surely Mito's great-aunt Momo had dealt with this kind of phone before. She could better teach Mito to use it, right? Goodness knows, after Momo told her about her life in the West, she had pined for the internet and all of her cool devices often enough. "Everyone say 'cheese!'"

"Cheese."

"Ha! Look!" The kids in the picture she'd just taken (and could already see!) were smiling: Suigetsu's fangy grin; Chojuro and Haku's shy ones. Zabuza: I bet that baka tries to never smile. "Utakata, get in there: I want a picture of you, too."

Utakata tried not to show how much that pleased him but took his place behind the kids, avoiding their swords, and setting his face in what was hopefully a scowl. Perhaps he should've asked to be put in charge of a Genin team instead of taking the ambassadorship job, considering the number of meetings. As if Ao would allow that.

And as if I don't normally loathe children.

"Say chee-eese!" Mito became less excited and more aggravated when no one smiled this time. They were all trying to look stoic and tough. Boys, she tsk-ed. "Oi! Smile, dammit!"

Zabuza rolled his eyes at Foxy's excitement but he had acted in much the same way (minus the outward goofiness) when he had taken a smartphone, power supply, and a lot of accessories (that included a computer and an awesome stereo) from the stockpile he and his team found on one of the ships they were searching for their countrymen on. Fucking Gato. "Now about those codes."

"Not here," Mito quietly replied. Zabuza nodded and dismissed his team for the afternoon, telling them to go practice chakra control exercises - which made Suigetsu whine and Chojuro pout. Zabuza was earlier allowed to take the laptop Chojuro had been using (much to the boy's chagrin.) She and Utakata followed him back into the Mizukage's office, which was much more of an underground labyrinth than a tower. Above ground, it was only two stories tall and Mei's office was on the top floor with a large window, much like her father had. The Mizukage could look out on her village (and the ocean in the distance) but Mei said that she thought Yagura "and his turtle," as she put it, had felt safer underground than high in the sky.

Mei wanted to build a new tower in the future, closer to the water, but that was something for Kiri to do after they were back up and running, at full speed: when all of their citizens were prospering.

Kiri did still have a few buildings that were over 10 stories tall and many others that were being built. Mito may have burned a few old ones on the other side of the city to the ground when she was fighting Obito: yikes. When she asked about it, she was told that no one was displaced but Mito found that hard to believe. She felt terribly guilty about it - although she hadn't seen anyone who was homeless or anything...

Regardless, one of the tallest buildings in the city looked like an old-timey stone fortress and was on the northern side: it was apparently the first Mizukage's place: both his office and his home. Mei planned to turn it into the Shinobi Academy.

It's awfully big to only be that, though.

When they were three stories underground, Zabuza set the laptop back up and uneasily brought up the file. Mito looked around, unimpressed but curious. Unlike in the other offices she'd been in, this one had a simple folding table and chairs in it, and that was it. For some reason, it was giving her chills. Mito wasn't what anyone would call a fancy person, so she wasn't sure what the problem was. The room was functional enough…

Zabuza, fortunately, regained her full attention. "So what do you think this is?"

"Invoices maybe," Mito hoped about the partial code. She turned to Utakata. "Konoha's Jonin Commander has given me permission to share relevant intelligence with you, provided - once again - that our own people or those from other places in Hi no Kuni are returned to us. Additionally, Konoha wants in on any shipments we're able to take if what I can provide you with will lead to profits or um… loot." That's a good word for "stuff," right?

"Now, wait just a minute," Zabuza insisted. Ambassador or not, he did NOT like the way his kohai, Utakata, moved forward as if he shouldn't speak but held the majority of his temper for now. "It's OUR data."

"PARTIAL data. That you don't know what to do with," Mito said reasonably. "And I may have the other half or at least part of it. You've said that what you have is definitely not a full cipher and… There's nothing wrong with us wanting our people back!" Zabuza looked away but seemed to agree. He was a good man: faithful and loyal, she'd learned. He was also an asshole, of course, but some of her best friends were, too. Hell, Mito was a bit (or more) of an asshole! "Plus, Konoha just can't be giving you stuff and not being rewarded for it! The sooner we cement this alliance, the safer we'll be."

"Say that to anyone else and Kiri could take that to mean that Konoha's weak," Utakata said slyly.

Mito huffed at him. "I'll speak freely no matter what, probably - but if you want my boot making its way up your ass so it can meet my fist, I'm right here to give you an example of just how 'weak' Konoha is, Uta-kun."

"You're a fucking terrible ambassador," Zabuza chuckled.

"Well, you're a fucking terrible… something," Mito fumed, trying to think of a reply and getting nowhere.

"Ooo. Nice burn," Utakata snarked.

Mito grumbled. "Shuddup! –Sorry, Zabby. I really didn't mean that: you just pissed me off. You and your people have been nothing but welcoming. –Except for the assholes, of course."

Utakata sweatdropped but he and Zabuza agreed with what she said. Kiri did have some giant assholes who, in certain hushed circles, were trying to question Lady Mei's leadership and felt that the alliance with Konoha made them weaker, not stronger. Some even thought that having a kunoichi in charge was wrong: morons. Have they not seen Lady Mei fight?! Jinchuuriki or not, Utakata did not want to ever be on the other side of her.

Most of even those people were being appeased by simply not fighting and losing kin at the moment - but Mei worried that wouldn't last forever.

Kiri's history of violence and bloodlust was long and intense. Utakata sometimes wondered how he and his master had been born here. How often, growing up, had he thought of going rogue? Now that there was a chance for peace, though, he wanted to grab it for as long as it would last. "I think Lady Mei will agree to your request."

"I need it on paper." Utakata and Zabuza both groaned loudly, falling forward to grasp the table like the drama queens they each could be; Utakata only on occasion. Zabuza then complained about how useless and flammable paper was. "C'mon, man! Work with a girl that's gotta make a living and appease the brass!"

Utakata turned to go back upstairs, grumbling curses at virtually anything under his breath: mainly Mito, and hoping that he could avoid Ao and see his Mizukage directly.

"What do you want?"

"I want to follow up and be in on any leads we get, of course. And where did you get this tech?" Mito had gestured to the laptop but Kiri had a fancy, modern projector and some other stuff she'd seen that Konoha didn't have.

"A raid," Zabuza said mostly unhelpfully, pulling a small coffee machine from the hallway. Mito carefully watched as he plugged it in and then put the dry coffee grinds in a filter: she didn't know how to make coffee this way. She had a percolator but was positive it was possessed (and in cahoots with her evil stove) and rarely ever tried to use it.

Mito had been considering taking out her gas stove and putting a seal down that held a small campfire to cook on. Her next-door neighbor, Yugao, had been appalled.

Either way, at least she could make tea now; Aunt Momo bought her a tea kettle that was supposed to be flame-resistant and guaranteed not to melt. "I've got a code but it's on paper."

"Paper? You've gotta be shitting me!"

"I'm not. Is there a way to scan it in so that… I don't know! –So it will work to put our numbers in for us?" Mito wrinkled her nose. "Or are we going to have to do it by hand?"

Zabuza stared at the coffee pot for a while before admitting the truth. "Hell if I know! I feel like a stupid old man when it comes to this techno crap! It pisses me off." He pulled out his phone and showed Mito a blackjack game that he was really into. –Not that he'd let her play with him: hell no. Mito's luck was insanely good (plus he didn't know if it could be made into a 2-player game. He couldn't figure out where the settings were.)

"Hey, you're not raiding Wave, are you?" she asked after watching Zabuza play for a while.

"Of course we are - and so is Konoha. - Directly or indirectly."

"Those poor people! How are they ever going to get on their feet?" Weren't lawyers dealing with the Wave Island stuff?

"Please," Zabuza groaned before stretching and slouching more into his folding chair. "They're raking it in over there! Wave's got first dibs - to a certain extent - and Konoha and Kiri arranged something regarding what we can get, how much we can each take; all of that. Wave's being protected by both villages now so that Gato Transports can continue flourishing - minus the human trafficking and drugs, of course. Probably. –You didn't know that?"

"I guess I should have," Mito sighed. "I mean, I know that we hoped to work something out with Wave."

"You're the fucking ambassador: you should have known."

Mito grumbled and pouted. Getting a wild hair, she typed "Wave" in on her new phone, and sure enough, more than a hundred files popped up. I do not want to read all of this! What else was on this little phone? Going to the documents folder, she found one at the top that had her name on it. "Hm." She had to use her fingerprint to open it, which seemed super exciting: her overly dramatic clone had done the same when she got the phone in the first place, and then after she put in a code, then another code, and a password that had to be verified, the file opened. It was all of the data she had on paper in that report, Mito was almost sure of it!

Thank you, Shikaku!

Mito definitely owed that guy a bottle of sake.

Now how do I get the file out of the phone?!

"You're so lucky to have all of this cool new stuff," Mito said, pocketing her phone again after closing the files.

"Believe it or not, all of this shit is used," Zabuza explained with a huff. "Someone - some dumb ass within Gato's organization left a shitload of data behind and we were just lucky that Chojuro-kun was the one picked to help Mizukage-sama with her presentation. I don't know how that kid knew what he did. Polite little dork."

Mito scowled at him; Chojuro was sweet but wouldn't argue with him about his students. "The laptop and stuff look new."

"It's new to us. You should check out what was still in boxes, though: very nice; very… streamlined," he eventually decided was the right word for all the crap they'd found.

"Where was all of this headed to?"

"Taiwan."

Mito frowned. "That can't be right. –Or it doesn't sound right. Maybe it was coming from Taiwan?"

"Maybe."

Mito grumbled. That was, again, unhelpful. "I'd love to see all the new stuff, though."

"I bet you would!"

"You said I should check it out!"

"Mmmmm. I'm not sure I said that."

Mito pursed her lips, knowing exactly what Zabuza said, and finally decided to pull out her book, Sea of Love: Tides of Change since he was playing his little blackjack game. She'd read the Wave stuff later.

Zabuza looked over to see what she was reading this time and did a double-take. "You've gotta be shitting me! You're still reading that pirate crap?"

"It's not crap! It's good: you should check it out!" And I only read it sometimes.

"I KNOW pirates, Foxy," Zabuza replied, shaking his head. He looked back at the Konoha kunoichi whose unique eyes were sparkling so hard, he thought he'd just been attacked with a genjutsu. Fortunately, Utakata came back and saved him. They trudged upstairs since Mei was available.

.

Hideki was worried. Whatever Mito had done now was probably none of his business, but damn he was worried.

Sarutobi Hideki, aka ANBU Monkey, didn't like to "do" worried. If anything, people worried about him: of meeting him and being on the wrong side of him; of pissing him off. Except for his wife and kids, of course. Hideki knew that he was a strong, extremely talented ninja but he was in no way a monster. He adored his family. That family included his wife, his adorable brat kids; his lost parents, sisters; Asuma, and their littlest "sidekick sibling," as they used to call her when she was a baby and toddler, Mito-chan.

"Covered with hickeys and smelled like booze for a second," huh?
That was not good. No bueno.

He needed to talk to Asuma. Together, they'd speak with Mito - as soon as she was back.

.

"I think that's a lovely idea," Mei chirped. "While Ao writes up the beginning of the agreement, why don't we come up with a list of wants and needs: of requirements and perhaps little things that you'd like to have for Konoha or even simply for yourself, Mito!"

Zabuza coughed to cover up his laughter. "Foxy wants a pirate," he murmured - not quite under his breath.

"Shut up, Zabuza!" How humiliating, Mito thought. See if she'd ever offer to lend him one of her awesome books again!

"Really?" Mei asked. "Mito, have you ever spent… time with a pirate?"

"No, but I would like to! But not… not like that."

- Okay, truthfully? Maybe "like that" - if Mito decided to be interested in men or sex again after what went down with Chiriku. The more she remembered what she'd earlier blacked out (or nearly blacked out,) the less impressed she was by the whole thing. How much did that suck?

A lot! It sucked a lot!

Maybe she just wasn't remembering it right?

"A pirate would be a terribly unsuitable husband," Mei remarked, pulling out some more files that she handed to the younger kunoichi. She arched her brow at Zabuza's snickering and shook her head: Utakata looked like he was trying to leave via her window again. "Stay; this is important. And stop using the window; that's an order."

"I can assure you that I'm not looking for a husband," Mito said firmly.

"That's too bad," Mei said honestly. She tilted her head and glanced up as she looked for her post-its, wondering why Mito felt that way - although Mito was years younger than her. Perhaps Mito would change her mind later. "I think marriage would be marvelous. On the pirate front, perhaps a joint mission?"

"Wait. Really?" Mito asked - although she guessed that her father would have to approve that, too. Bummer. Or maybe she could take a "secret" short mission while she was over here next time? "Do you deal with pirates often?"

"The ninja pirates fought for our side of the war, Mito," Utakata said after yawning. He groaned and pushed Mito back into her chair, away from him, when she bounced up like an excited puppy. She had way too much energy.

"Really?! Who?!"

"Almost all of the late arrivals to our side were pirates," Mei replied, trying to remember if one might have stood out to the younger kunoichi. Other than healing them, it seemed like Mito had attempted to avoid most of them but then again, Mei had been extremely busy. She still was extremely busy and would be for years to come. Pity. It would be lovely to take a break with her Konoha partner now, though: and they'd still be getting work done!

Mito's tongue rolled against the inside of her cheek as she recalled the later arrivals to the Rebellion side of Kiri's Civil War: all of those men (and a few women) were batshit insane and full of bloodlust. They openly wanted to murder and "plunder," something Mito supposed could be considered pirate-like. Mito's books hadn't really portrayed them that way.

Mei had kept everyone in line: the latecomers to the war, especially, were terrified of Mei for some reason. Still, if Mito had known they were ninja pirates, she might have talked to them more. She took a stack of post-its and a pen from Mei, guessing that they were going to do some brainstorming.

Mei used a dry-erase marker to draw a line on a whiteboard: one side for the things Kiri would like, and the other for what Konoha might be interested in. As soon as both villages' names were written, Zabuza slapped a post-it on it that said "Pirate for Mito."

"Small fish for Zabuza; same purpose" Mito slapped up on the board in retaliation.

Mei continued writing with her marker, a growing smile on her face as the two continued although she might have to stop their antics. Zabuza and Mito always riled each other up and seemed terribly drawn to each other, in her opinion. "Return citizens or their descendants to each country; Share all intelligence regarding the missing."

…

"Surfboard" was the twelfth post-it Mito put up for the hell of it - right after Mei had requested assistance with seals and Mito had added weapons (i.e. sword) training and information on the terrifying-looking bombs she'd caught a glimpse of upon arriving that were being loaded on a boat. The surfboard idea changed the conversation to one that was even more serious and took a lot more thought.

"That reminds me, we should include Suna's possible needs." Mei drew another line and moved over a few of the post-its. She labeled that smaller section of the whiteboard "Suna."

"What Suna needs more than anything now is security," Mito said rather obviously.

Mei huffed and crossed her arms under her bust, agreeing completely. The last thing they needed was someone like Hanzo or the Onoki going in and taking over Suna, killing the reportedly awful Wind Daimyo, or worse. "Because of the war, Kiri is low on manpower." Looking at Mito again, she began jotting down more of Kiri's most pressing needs. Utakata had already put up a post-it that said "Revised Academy Curriculum and all the crap that involves" so she added "Special Tourism" and "Joint Missions" but more importantly, "Medical Ninja Training." Hopefully, if Kiri got that, it meant that Mito would be staying in Kiri longer. Double benefits! "From Mito" Mei added, making the blonde and red-haired Konoha kunoichi snort. "The Land of Wind does have a small coastline. I suppose we could offer to patrol it."

Kiri - or Water Country - was hoping to trade with Suna or Wind anyway and the easiest way to do that would be to navigate through the relatively small port and canals there.

Mito blew out her cheeks. "The only problem with that is that we've been discussing Suna as only a trading partner for Kiri. If other nations see you patrolling Wind's shores, they'll think the three villages have officially allied and freak out." It was such bullshit. It's not like Mito wanted to ally with Fucking Kumo or Iwa (where her father was literally the Boogie Man children were taught to fear and hate) but she also didn't want another war. Damned kage ninja bullshit and paranoia.

Mei shrugged. "They're pirates, Mito. They'll put up any flag they feel like putting up: or none at all. But rest assured, those pirates can defend themselves and others."

"Will they listen to your orders?" Mito winced at the fierce glares Utakata and Zabuza threw at her, ducking when they threw shurikens and a damn screwdriver at her, too. "I didn't mean any offense! I only really know about pirates from movies and my books."

Fortunately for Mito, Mei only laughed and smiled at her coyly before pulling the screwdriver out of the wall and hurling it back at Zabuza. "If they don't want to be melted, they will listen and heed orders."

"Ah! That's a pretty good reason to obey." –At least when you're close to them, it is.

"They're loyal to Kiri." Mei hoped the pirates really were. During the very early beginnings of the rebellion - when it was only whispers between those with a Kekkei-Genkai who were in disbelief that Yagura's sudden focus on and hate for bloodlines was real more than anything - Mei had heard about the election of a "Pirate King." Damn pirates. They did show up to aid the Rebellion in the end, though, didn't they?

Mei would trust them for now but needed to put more of her infiltrators on those ships.

"I don't like that Gato Transports' name hasn't changed," Mito said out of nowhere. This had been bugging her for some time. Gato was a scumbag of the worst kind. "We should rename it Ki-Ko or maybe Ko-Ki for Konoha and Kiri plus Wave. Like… KoKi Wave or Wave KiKo Transports! –Something like that."

"Those are fucking terrible names," Zabuza groused.

"You're a fucking terrible name!" Mito quickly covered the fist she'd almost shaken at him with her other hand. With her occasional fits of/nasty temper, she was really not meant to be an ambassador.

Zabuza only laughed at her. "Think about it, baka! We're trying to AVOID any additional worldwide attention on Gato Transports. If we change names? –That's gonna draw attention."

Mei shrugged. "I agree with Mito, though: personally. Let's talk to Minato-kun about it."

"Minato-kun?" the other three shinobis silently mouthed.

It took a day for Mei to approve the latest agreement, another day for Konoha and the Hokage to put his signature on it, and another day for her clone to get back and die dramatically on the floor again, (hand held up over her hitai-ate like she was some storybook princess that had been poisoned: something was terribly wrong with the shadow clone jutsu) before they could get to work on putting the data together.

Weird shit was afoot in Konoha: of that Mito was certain. Her clone had experienced some… oddities in the behavior of certain people that were important to her until they learned she/it was a clone.

Hours after the clone came back, Chojuro, bless his gifted little heart, was the one to download the file from Mito's phone that had the code in it. It took days to interpret the compiled data and when it was done, Mito's head was pounding. She had felt the need to stay for and observe the whole process since she was the only Konoha nin here: what a pain in the ass. And now, she didn't know what to think. Yes, they had a lot of alarming information that explained where dangerous and other things were going BUT…

Mito dispelled what, thankfully, ended up being her lazy clone that was supposed to be flashing back to Konoha to deliver the whole cipher to her father but had stopped to enjoy the sunset in Uzushio. Making another, she ordered the clone to behave herself and take the cipher and Kiri's interpretation of it to the Jonin Commander instead of her Hokage.

Utakata gave the Konoha ambassador a dirty look. "The more I look at this, the more I think that Konoha took our people."

Mito bit her lips, licking them, and tried to think rationally about this. "Years ago, a man named Shimura Danzo was charged and put to death for kidnapping children from orphanages and even clans." And for attempting to stage a coup.

"Clans, too?" Utakata asked, frowning even more.

Mito nodded and tried to blow her anxiety out with her exhaled breath. It didn't work. "I guess he either kidnapped the kids or threatened the Clan Heads and forced them to give kids up –something like that. The thing is, all of those in his secret army were traced back to where they came from. The kids taken from orphanages had been put there as babies or toddlers by citizens or deceased citizens of Hi no Kuni, and the clan kids went back to their clans."

The whole ROOT thing with ALL the kids' or ninjas' stories isn't completely true or known, Mito realized, feeling her heartbeat slowly speed up. Fuck, fuck, fuck. That was only the story that was told to those supposedly "in the know" about ROOT.

Danzo had had a HUGE force that he used to attack the palace and temple when he hoped to take over as Hokage - and possibly replace the Daimyo.

She and the loyal members of the Guardian 12 had killed… Shit. She had killed hundreds of them.

Could any of those ninjas originate from - or have been taken from Kiri?

Shit shit shit!

The Daimyo - through others - had ordered those who rebelled buried in a mass grave as a warning of what could happen to those who went against him: something she'd thought was abominable. When Mito first heard rumors of it, she'd been recovering from her kidnapping ordeal; the orders went down when she was missing, she guessed. The kunoichi sighed, feeling exhausted and terribly guilty. "Utakata, we're looking for missing people, too. I think there's more to this - and who's to say that this data wasn't left to falsely implicate Konoha?"

Asuma thought that the kids were still in the Elemental Nations - and he mentioned searching for them in Konoha, though.

Shit!

Utakata could admit that this information could be false. Their part of this cipher, after all, had fallen into Kiri's hands particularly easily. "We need to speak with Lady Mei about this."

"I need to talk to Konoha, too." Surely her father had nothing to do with this, right? No. He was not that kind of man.

Just to make sure, though, she'd go back to the Jonin Commander who'd given her this mission in the first place.

That was probably the proper way to handle things when one wasn't the Hokage's daughter, anyway.