Kotori and Tenzo stood outside their apartment building. There was a large hole through the middle and Kotori was a little surprised that it was still standing. Her home had been destroyed before; that was nothing new to her. She'd just save the important stuff. She was fortunate, all of her loved ones had survived the fighting this time. Others were not so fortunate. Almost half of their forces had been killed in the fighting, including the Hokage.
The death of a kage was always a turbulent time for any village. It was when they were at their most vulnerable and other villages might try to attack. Not to mention it was unknown who would take the position next. A new Hokage could bring a great deal of change to the village, good or bad.
"You didn't live close to the middle, did you?" She asked Tenzo for lack of something to say. He let out a deep sigh.
"I did."
They watched as part of the roof caved in on itself.
"That's rough."
Tenzo's shoulders slumped. "What are the chances the landlady will ask me to fix it?"
"Somewhere between definitely and most certainly."
Poor Tenzo, he had a useful jutsu and was always being dragged into building or repairing things with it. Kotori could understand that. She was always being pulled in a million directions, asked to keep an eye on everything at once.
Her side of the building was still in tact, although the building inspector warned her against entering. She waved him off, slipping under the caution tape. She was light on her feet and only needed a few things.
Kotori pulled out a wooden box from the top of her closet, grateful that it had once again survived. Her grandfather had made it, engraving the Sorano mon on the cover. Inside were the few precious items she had recovered from her childhood home after the nine tails attack. The photos from her parent's wedding day. A family photo taken months before her father died. Photos of her and her brothers throughout their childhood. A cracked flute that had once belonged to her father. A kunai that had her and her brothers' birthdates engraved on the handle. A plush hawk that her mother had stitched together for her. Her mother's favourite pendant necklace. Her brothers' forehead protectors. Her parents' wedding rings.
Kotori sat crossed legged on the floor as she sorted through it, reminiscing about happier times as she pulled each item. It had been a long time since she had last looked inside. A few other mementoes had been tucked inside for safekeeping over the years. A copy of the genin photos for both of her teams. Her original forehead protector, tattered and torn from years of use. She picked up the pendant necklace Kakashi had gifted to her for her twentieth birthday. The white-gold gardenia with the pearl centre. She had thrown it in the box after their breakup. It was too pretty to throw away, but too sentimental to wear.
She found an envelope near the bottom, full of photos of her and Kakashi. They both looked so happy. She could see the shining adoration in her eyes as she looked up at him. The quarter of his face that was visible was relaxed and happy, his eye crinkling at the corners and she knew he had been smiling in the photo. She could barely recognize them. Neither had changed much in appearance and yet everything was different. She didn't think Kakashi looked relaxed or happy these days and she certainly never smiled at Aoba like that.
Kotori firmly closed the lid on the box, not wanting to let her mind wander in that direction. It wasn't fair to compare her relationship with Aoba to her one with Kakashi. They were two different people and she was different now. She wasn't the same little girl who had fallen head over heels for the wrong person. She was more cautious these days.
Kotori sighed, pushing those thoughts from her mind. She decided to store the box in her ANBU locker. It was much more secure there. The underground bunker always survived whatever surface damage happened to their village.
She packed her mission pack with the basics to survive the next few weeks and then secured her apartment. The fighting had damaged several of the jonin and chunin apartment complexes. As a result, most of Kotori's friends were in the same situation as her. Aimi had to move back home with her parents, Asuma and Kurenai were staying with his brother's family while Aoba was staying with the Namiashi family. Genma had moved into his sister's house for his niece and nephew's sake. Their father had been killed in the fighting and their mother was still in the hospital. Kotori didn't know the details, but Aimi looked anxious when she had relayed the news.
With few places to go, Kotori went to the one place always available to her.
She gave her most endearing smile as she dropped her mission pack in Ensui's entrance. "Remember that time I moved out and you tearfully said I was always welcome back?"
"You and I remember that day very differently." Ensui crossed his arms. "Your building get blown up?"
"I believe the words used were structurally compromised."
"I'll tell the girls to bunk up. Hope you like princess themed."
"I love princess themed," she retorted.
Kosuke was hugging her tightly. "I'm so glad you're alright. The girls are so excited for you to stay!"
Kotori could hear Rika arguing with her dad down the hall. "I don't want to sleep with Akiko, I want to sleep with Tori-neechan! She can stay in my room!"
She tried to contain her laugh. Rika probably thought this would be like an extended sleepover. Kotori doubted she would be around much, other than crashing the odd night or two until her building was repaired. Konoha was trying to operate its usual mission schedule with only half the force which meant she would be extremely busy. She appreciated the Nara taking her in again.
As expected, the days leading up to and following the funeral were chaotic. It wasn't just the Hokage who had been killed in the fighting. Various other members of the senior leadership team had also been targeted. They had lost the Head of the Barrier Division, the Head of Research and Development and their Chief of Medical Ninjutsu. Masato, the ANBU Commander, had been critically injured in the fighting and was now in the Intensive Care Unit. Hinoki was burning at both ends as she tried to hold together a family that was devastated by the loss of its patriarch and the ANBU who had been decimated by heavy casualties and the loss of their Hokage and Commander.
Kotori turned in her most recent mission report to Hinoki in her office. Hinoki barely glanced up from her paperwork as she received the debriefing. There were dark circles under her eyes, causing her to live up to her codename Panda. They were also red rimmed, whether from tears or lack of sleep, Kotori couldn't tell.
"Thank you Hawk. That will be all."
Kotori hesitated, wanting to offer assistance of some sort, but not knowing what she could do. Before she could speak up, there was a knock on the door. Kotori felt her spine stiffen as she heard the familiar tap of Danzo's cane.
"Hinoki," he said, as if surprised to see her in her own office. "It's late. Shouldn't you be home with your son during a time like this? The poor boy, I know he was close to his grandfather."
"Don't start - " Hinoki slammed the palms of her hands on her desk in frustration. "You know I can't just go home at a time like this."
"Let me help you. I promised Hiruzen I would always look out for his family and I intend on keeping my promise to my old friend."
The vultures were circling, it seemed that Danzo was trying to swoop in and take over ANBU during this chaotic time.
"My husband and father-in-law worked too hard for me to let this village fall to pieces in their absence. My son is strong; he has the Will of Fire. He will be okay." She sounded like she was trying to convince herself of that more than Danzo. Hinoki steeled herself, her deep blue eyes as sharp as daggers as she spoke next. "You think I would turn my ANBU over to you? When we were risking ourselves fighting to protect this village, where were you and you oh-so-precious little group? Scurrying like rats towards the nearest exit."
"Our orders were to guard the evacuation points," Danzo said. "From the Hokage himself."
"No, your orders were to disband your little group and for them to return to the regular forces," Hinoki pointed out. "You think I wasn't aware? Think again."
Danzo's smile turned into a sneer. "Don't work yourself to death, Hinoki dear, your family needs you."
With that, he took his leave. Hinoki's resolve crumbled the moment the door swung shut behind him. She looked defeated, staring at Kotori without really seeing her.
"I'm a terrible mother. His first funeral and I couldn't even - I was tied up in this fucking office and Asuma had to go with him. I've barely been able to - it's always duty first, family second." Hinoki stubbornly blinked back tears.
"Is there something I can do to make things easier?" Kotori offered. "Paperwork or something, I know it always piles up. You could go home a bit earlier."
Hinoki gave her a searching look before she took the files from her desk and shoved them into Kotori's arms. "We're missing half our forces between deaths and injuries. But we still have to provide the same level of protection for the village. I can't spare enough ANBU to man the outposts as well as patrol the village and the Border Security Team was heavily hit as well. Make it work. I don't care how. The village cannot survive another attack."
Kotori stayed up over half the night reading over the files she had been given. Hinoki had given her the all the files for the shinobi that made up their Internal Security Team. The regular forces had their own border patrol around the village and at outposts, however ANBU acted as a second line of defence. They were also part of the detail that protected the Hokage and various buildings around Konoha like the hospital, the academy and Hokage Tower.
Kotori thinned the amount of ANBU they should have on patrol, staggering them between the outposts that were manned by the regular forces. Over the next two days, she carefully set up an elaborate warning system, blending her chakra birds into the environment and creating a thick ring of them in the thick forest around Konoha. The birds were set up to alert the nearest outpost of any suspicious activity so they could dispatch someone to further investigate. She also made use of any existing shinobi with sensory abilities, spacing them evenly so they could provide additional coverage. The few Hyuga that were on the team were placed at the highest outposts for them to scan the surrounding areas. It would allow Konoha to appear as if they had more shinobi watching than they did. Once all ANBU were familiar with her birds and their warning signal, she returned to the village.
Hinoki looked pleased with the report. "This will free up a lot of ANBU even after we're back to full complement."
The budgets and politics behind the scenes had been explained to her over the years, although Kotori didn't like to think about it. ANBU was one of the departments that was very expensive to run. Unlike the regular forces, their missions didn't bring in money from third party clients. Theirs were given directly from the Hokage. However they still needed to be paid for their work at a competitive level as their peers. So there was only so many ANBU positions and there was always more work than ANBU. ANBU were pressured to do more missions with less people and in less time and with fewer injuries or recovery time. All things that used to piss Kakashi off as a captain and he would fight with them on.
Freeing up ANBU from patrol to do more missions meant an easier time overall for the ANBU on missions as they could staff them properly or not have to run them back to back.
"I'm stuck in meetings for the rest of the day. We're meeting with the ambassadors from Suna for 'peace negotiations'. Make your way through this task list," Hinoki said, handing over a mission scroll. "I'm giving you authority to receive and send out B and C Rank missions as they come in. Cover for me. Anything higher can wait until I'm back. If it's urgent, break down the door."
While Hinoki had hidden anything above Kotori's security clearance, she was still able to get a lot done to make things a bit easier on her. She created the patrol schedule for the next month, filed away a dozen B and C Rank reports. She generated a personal report from her chakra birds around the perimeter. There was frequent interruptions as ANBU came and went, picking up mission scrolls and reporting back.
Around noon, a familiar face - well, mask - entered Hinoki's office. Satoshi gave a little wave as he stood with a thick stack of manila folders.
"Hawk, what a pleasant surprise," he warmly greeted her.
He handed her the thin one on top before setting down the thicker stack on her desk. "That's the report from the hospital on all of our injured ANBU. Llama and Weasel were both cleared for duty and will be reporting back tomorrow. Swan, Falcon and Sable should be released tomorrow or the next day, although it may be another week before they're cleared. The doctors are recommending Quail and Turtle retire from active duty and be reassigned. And Eiji-sensei has asked to speak with Captain Panda later this evening regarding the Commander."
The bear mask gave nothing away and Satoshi remained as even and professional as always. Kotori hoped the commander would be okay. She eyed Quail and Turtle's files. Both of them had suffered serious injures. Quail had been blinded in both eyes from poison while Turtle was paralyzed from the waist down. Both would need months if not years of rehabilitation to adjust. Kotori felt for both of them. Sometimes the hardest part was surviving and having to recover.
"That leads me to this pile," Satoshi said. "Captain Panda wanted to have a boot camp in three weeks time for new recruits. She had me pull all the files for the genin teams in the last six years. If you could narrow them down to two dozen or so, I'll have Inoichi-san give a psych evaluation."
"Easy enough," Kotori said. She had been a jonin leader for the last three years and knew all of these kids in some capacity. She immediately tossed Teams Asuma, Kurenai and Kakashi into the rejection pile. She was would not be responsible for accepting preteens into ANBU. Team Gai was the next to be dismissed along with the other teams from their year. The only one she would consider having the skill was Hyuga Neji , but she personally thought ANBU would do him more harm than good at this point in his life. The year before Team Gai gave her more pause as they were only fourteen and fifteen. It was with a great amount of hesitation that she selected two folders for Hinoki to review and added notes about their skillsets and her personal thoughts. Next was her team's age group. These were the students she knew the best. Kotori added two of Yukari's students and one of Aoba's to be considered, making notes on each of their files.
Then she was left staring at the three files of her own students. The registration photos of Ryoku, Kouta and Mimi really needed to be updated. Their pictures were over a year old and made them look much younger than they were. They grew so much from year to year. Especially now that puberty had hit both boys and they shot up in height. She flipped open Kouta's file first, smiling at the genin photo he had taken when he first graduated from the academy.
She could feel Satoshi's sympathetic gaze on her.
"They're so young," she admitted, absentmindedly flipping through Kouta's file. Most of it she had filled out herself and knew as well as her own. "I know it's what they want, but they're just kids."
"You were just as young when you started," Satoshi reminded her. "Most ANBU get recruited around fifteen or sixteen. Yugao and Tenzo were even younger."
"That doesn't make it right. I was nine when I graduated the academy. Now the age limit is twelve."
"They will be fine," Satoshi said. "Besides, they have you to guide them. The most well-adjusted ANBU I've met all had a good mentor who helped them. You did."
Kotori seriously doubted she was well adjusted. She just hid her crazy well. Then again, considering Kakashi had been kicked out of ANBU and Itachi had gone rogue, Satoshi was working with a low bar when it came to mental stability.
She sighed, putting Ryoku's file down and looking at Mimi's file as she dragged her feet on the decision she knew she would be forced to make.
The reality was that they would end up in ANBU one way or another if they were determined. The Nara produced more ANBU than any other clan. Their shadow techniques made them well suited for assassinations. Not only that, but they often scored well in psychological assessments. Similarly, the Yamanaka often ended up in Intelligence or ANBU as ANBU needed their own Interrogators for clearance purposes. Neither of the boys needed her recommendation to get accepted. Mimi was the wild card. She was an excellent tracker, something the ANBU desperately needed since Kakashi left.
Her students were good. She had made sure of it, giving them every opportunity she could to learn and succeed. She hoped it would be enough.
She tossed them into the pile to be considered. On Mimi's she stuck a pale blue post it note pending medical clearance. With the Chief of Medical Ninjutsu killed in the fighting, Mimi's surgery had been put on hold. The hospital was overwhelmed with severe injuries and their best surgeon was no longer there. Hyuga Asahi had been trained by the Lady Tsunade herself before she left Konoha. He was the best they had. To have lost him was a huge blow to their hospital. They had also lost a number of their staff while they tried to heal shinobi on the battlefield. Even with the staff they had left - it was questionable if they would be able to heal Mimi. Kotori tried to remain upbeat for her student's sake, but she worried for her.
Kotori was more comfortable selecting several students from the two years above her team. Most of them were chunin and had been running their own missions for a while now. She knew Inoichi would narrow them down further with a psych evaluation, something that was now considered mandatory for new ANBU recruits after Itachi. Satoshi left, taking the folders to Inoichi before she could change her mind on it.
Shikaku was the next person to come knocking, leaning up against the doorframe in his usual slouch. Kotori tried not to sigh. He never sought her out unless he needed something and she had outgrown the stage of her life when he used to manipulate her into accepting babysitting duties thinly disguised as solo C Ranks. Not to mention Shikamaru might be a little offended at needing a babysitter these days.
"Hinoki dumped her paperwork on you, I see."
"Don't get any ideas." She didn't like the calculating look in his eye. The last thing she wanted was Shikaku thinking he could turn her into his glorified admin assistant.
"Hm," he made a non-committal noise. "I'm here about your friend, Yugao-san. I thought you should hear this from me so there's no misunderstanding. We're not getting Baki. The Kazekage's daughter is one hell of a negotiator. I don't like to call a teenaged girl a bitch, but uh - she's something else. She turned over a list of several ANBU agents their intelligence has caught doing unauthorized, highly political, assassinations in their territory. Ensui's name is on it. Yours too."
The implication was clear. Suna would trade Baki and the other jonin for hostages and Shikaku would never betray his brother.
"If Yugao-san goes for Baki, Konoha can't officially sanction it."
She knew Shikaku-speak well enough to know that wasn't a no, that was a don't get caught along with a little we never had this chat. So business as usual for the Black Ops.
"Duly noted."
By the time she got out of the office, her back ached from sitting hunched over a desk all day. Kotori was not used to being cooped up in an office after years of field work.
Ensui was sitting on the engawa when she got home, staring up at the stars. A shoji board was sitting next to him with the remnants of a past game still on the board.
"Shikaku found you then?" he asked.
She crossed her legs and sat next to him. "Yeah."
"I know it's not what you wanted to hear."
"I'm pretty used to that." Life wasn't fair. A lesson learned over and over again, especially in the shinobi world. Kotori was tired of seeing their people screwed over by politics.
He lit up a cigarette with his fire jutsu. "Fuck, I don't want to see another war."
Kotori couldn't help but feel they were headed for one. Danzo was slowly dividing Konoha from the inside while their enemies circled the outside. Orochimaru was surely licking his wounds somewhere. Not to mention Kumo, Iwa and Kiri might decide to go for Konoha while it was weakened. They may be in peace negotiations with Suna, but everyone was dubious it would last considering their betrayal.
"They've got Jiraiya off on some mission to convince Tsunade to return and be Hokage. Good fucking luck. She abandoned us gone ago."
"And if she won't?"
Ensui let out a bitter laugh. "We're fucked. Jiraiya won't do it. Masato is too injured and Hinoki too divisive. Danzo is working the council hard, trying to convince them to give it to him. Shikaku managed to cast enough doubt to stall their decision. They found Danzo and his little team scurrying out of the village like rats when Oto came knocking. Not exactly a great quality in a Hokage."
"What about Shikaku?"
The Jonin Commander and ANBU Commander were second to the Hokage himself. With Masato in the hospital, Hinoki had stepped up as Acting ANBU Commander while Shikaku had been silently filling the role of Hokage. Kotori thought things were running as smoothly as could be with Shikaku overseeing them. She thought it was an easy decision to ask him to take over permanently.
"If he had to. But we need someone who's name can strike fear into the other villages, someone who keeps them from thinking they could fuck us over. My brother's not much of a fighter. I can kick his arse in hand-to-hand. He's just too clever to take on someone who could beat him. Not without a full team behind him. If it came down to a one on one fight between him and Orochimaru or the Raikage or Mizukage - " Ensui shook his head. "The only person with the strength to take on any of them is Hatake. But that won't happen now."
Kotori knew he wouldn't want the responsibility; being the Hokage was Kakashi's worst nightmare. He hated being responsible for other people's lives and the Hokage was responsible for everyone. However he would do it if the village asked. She personally thought he would be great at it for all the reasons he would never want it. Kakashi wouldn't do it for power or personal glory.
He would do it for the village.
There she went, defending her ex again. Kotori knew she should stay the hell out of this and shut her mouth.
"Why not?" she couldn't help but ask.
"You didn't hear?" Ensui scratched the bridge of his nose, looking like he would rather not be having this conversation anymore. "Fuck, I didn't want to have to - He had a run in with Itachi."
"W-what?!"
She felt faint, if she hadn't been sitting down she was sure she would have fallen over from shock. The thought that Kakashi could - he was so much stronger than anyone in the village. When he fought, it was in an entirely different league. Sure he had had some close calls over the years, but the thought that anyone could defeat him was insane. But this was against Itachi who had always been so much better - Itachi who had slaughtered hundreds in a single night -
"He's in a coma, they're hoping Tsunade could fix him. It's not looking good." Ensui was speaking again, but Kotori wasn't paying attention to him anymore.
"I've got to go." She abruptly jumped up, disappearing towards the hospital as fast as she could.
It didn't take long to find Kakashi's room. Even though visiting hours were long over, Kotori was used to blending into the background and being unnoticed. She hesitated on the threshold of his room. She really shouldn't be here. However the moment she heard he was injured she had reacted on autopilot, her feet taking her to the hospital. She quietly tiptoed to his bedside, her heart in her throat the entire time.
His rest didn't look peaceful. Unlike most coma patients, Kakashi's face was twisted as if he were trapped in a nightmare. She could see his eye moving beneath his eyelid.
"Hey, it's me," she softly said, slipping her hand in his and giving it a light squeeze. "You're going to be alright. I heard you had a run in with our old teammate, but you're safe now."
Some of the tension eased from his face, although he still didn't wake.
Kotori hummed to herself, filling the silence with one-sided conversation. "I don't know if you can even hear me. I know I couldn't."
She read his charts for lack of something to do, but she had never bothered to learn medical ninjutsu and had only a basic understanding of the medical terms. She knew enough to know it wasn't promising. Not if Tsunade was his only hope.
The thought that Kakashi might not recover this time -
"You've got to wake up, Kakashi. Your kids need you. Gai needs you. Pakkun and the rest of the pack. You have so many people who are rooting for you. I'm here." Her voice had never sounded so small as when she said those two little words.
She could feel the growing lump in her throat. She shouldn't still care about him. Not after all these years and all the pain he had put her through. But she did.
"I'll forgive you," she tearfully told him. "I'll forgive you you stupid idiot but you have to wake up first."