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 swung open a normally average hospital hallway door for her Genins the next afternoon that was full of patients. "Tonight's a full moon, kiddies! It's Baby City time! Woohoo! …Good afternoon, moms-to-be and their terrified partners!"
"Yo, Mito-sensei," or something like it was heard throughout the corridor - less often the kids heard, "Who is that?" or "Should kids really be here?"
"Ah, don't worry about them, kiddies," Mito said in a low voice, turning back toward her team. "You shoulda heard people when I first started at the hospital. I think I was 5?"
Having worked for over 20 hours on missing persons' cases, Mito figured that she needed this as much as her kids did. Her kids had just had their first kills the day before. The Genins didn't seem so sure that her great idea of bringing life INTO the world, instead of extinguishing it, was in fact, a great one.
Good idea or not, to the Genins (and to everyone else,) it looked like babies were going to soon be coming out of the Hashirama-stylized woodwork. Well, after they came out of their mothers, that is. Pregnant women were on stretchers throughout the long hallway and corridors beyond it. The rooms within them were also full.
After checking in with Shizune, Team 8 eventually found themselves in a delivery room - one of the many that were being recycled fast.
"Izumi-san is at 10cm. What happens next? Kiba?"
Kiba looked - REALLY looked this time - behind the privacy curtain of the mom-to-be and balked, feeling dizzy. As Shino helped him get steady on his feet again, he just knew his oftentimes-jerk-turned-rival teammate was going to hold this over his head for the rest of his life.
Kiba had seen lots of births - of pups - but this didn't compare as much as he thought it would when he earlier volunteered to be the first primary to help out. A while back, Mito-sensei had shown them a harrowing film about childbirth (he'd closed his eyes through the worst of it,) plus they'd tended to mothers or newborns under her careful supervision quite a few times as they followed Mito in her rounds here - but he now (in his heart and gut) wanted nothing to do with this! Mito-sensei insisted that helping mothers give birth would be a part of their job out in the field - that they'd inevitably find themselves in the "right place at the right time," so here he was, he guessed.
What else could he do but go along with this, though? Hana and his mom had made some kind of bet with the other clan heads about this going south when sensei picked them up this morning from the restaurant they met up at monthly. Kiba picked himself back up and remembered that he also didn't want to deal with his sensei's scary side. "I'm ready! Don't worry, Izumi-san! You're doing great! It's time to push, right, sensei?"
"That's right!" Izumi was already pushing, though.
Izumi pushed, over and over and OVER again - more than she thought she'd ever have to. "Shisui! I don't think I can do this," she sobbed. She was so tired and all alone… Almost as if reading her thoughts, Shisui - that asshole, she thought in her despair - ruffled her very sweaty hair and gave her a brilliant smile before pushing her bangs back.
"You can do this, girl! And don't forget: you have me and Sasuke - and the clan and…"
"Oh my GOD! You're making it so much worse!" She groaned and pushed - for no other reason than to shut him up - and cried out when she was told that her son's head was out.
"One more biiiiiig push," Mito soon urged with an excited smile. Izumi complied (as if she had a choice) and there he was!
"Congratulations, Izumi-san. You - oh my," this newborn had quite the set of lungs on him. He was not happy! "You have a handsome baby boy." She knew whose kid this was, of course. "Would Shisui-oji like to cut the cord?"
"Oh, man! That's gross," Shisui grinned, mainly to play a part and keep Izumi from sobbing even more. "Can I really?!"
"Shisui," Izumi sniffed, exhausted more than at any time in her life, "can you ever just be normal?"
Shisui was already listening to an Aburame brat's explanation of what he had to do, although his eyes were focused on Mito-hime who was nodding at her Genin approvingly. "Yes! Wait: no, Izumi: I can't be! Why would I want to be normal when I'm so extraordinary?"
Yes, the others snorted at him dismissively. He sighed, wondering where the general respect was.
Then he remembered the position he and his clan were in now within the village and prayed it didn't have anything to do with that.
Shisui cut the cord anyway and watched as the sensei made a clone to tend to Izumi as the original took the baby to a nearby setup that allowed her Genins to weigh and clean up his "nephew." –Well, the tiny one was more like his cousin but that was okay because he'd be the greatest uncle ever no matter what. He was very hopeful that this child's birth would help his brat-cousin Sasuke's psyche and more than anything, bring his best friend back home.
The kids cleaned his nephew up and did some Apgar tests and all before the sensei wrapped the baby up. Izumi had been out cold but was awake again and unhappy. Shisui turned away FAST when he realized that the clone and the Hyuuga girl were dealing with delivering the placenta. Sue me but yuck! How could he have forgotten about that?
"May I? –Can we give her just a few minutes?" he asked, realizing that Izumi had fallen asleep again immediately after the deed was done.
"Definitely," Mito smiled, carefully transferring the newborn into his eager arms. "Make sure to support his head."
"I know, I know. I've been around newborns before - and brought babies into this world, too!" He gazed down at his tiny nephew's face lovingly. It had been quite some time since he'd held a newborn - and he didn't think that any had ever been this special.
He glanced up at the Genins that had done a lot better than he'd expected when they all followed their sensei into the room (at nearly the last second) like scared little ducklings. The Hyuuga girl was weighing the nasty ol' placenta now. A sudden, VIVID memory of what a certain clan did with placentas hit him like a brick and he realized why he was being so cringy.
He was grateful to all of the kids. The whole staff here at the hospital, in fact, had not treated them the way he feared they would. "You're lucky your sensei is having you do this, Genins. The first time I came across a woman giving birth in a rice paddy, I didn't know what I was doing! Fortunately, she had four other kids so she told me what to do."
Shino nodded and took a deep breath for the first time in what felt like hours. That was good to know. "I'll be your primary with the next one, sensei." He smirked at Hinata who looked disappointed. That will teach you to speak up, Hyuuga!
"A nurse will be in shortly, Shisui-san. If you need anything, here's the call button…"
That was the beginning of an all-night marathon. The kids weren't sure why their sensei, Shizune-sensei, and Tsunade-hime were keeping score of how many births they'd supervised but were disappointed when Shizune won after her last deliveries of the night were twins. They watched the women exchanging money over that, how many boys versus girls were born, and a host of other things - and sighed with quiet exasperation. Team 8 wondered how bad their sensei's gambling habit really was. Fortunately, she usually won.
Mito set out to walk the kids home at around 0700 but made a clone to deal with her frequent stalker.
The clone cornered him just as he came out of a new mother's room. "Kabuto-san, am I right?"
"Hai," the teen bowed, looking innocent and awed. "Mito-hime; it's such a pleasure to finally meet you."
"Is that right?" the clone asked as she leaned against the wall as her original liked to do, her arms folded over her chest. "You know, Kabuto-san; I feel like you've been avoiding me." When you haven't been stalking me. "And I also feel like I know you - which is incredibly odd because I never forget a face or chakra signature."
Kabuto blinked slowly and pushed up his glasses with a curious, innocent look plastered on his face. Orochimaru-sama had warned him of how sharp Mito-sensei was and he hadn't been able to avoid her because of the insane number of births that had taken place at the hospital (and at various homes) in the village overnight. His master also believed that she wouldn't recognize him because of all of the drugs he'd injected her with after she showed up following being kidnapped back in Rice Country. He'd given her the injection and fled immediately that day, just as his master had told him to. "I have seen you in the hospital but I only work in the lab. I am a Genin…"
"I am aware."
Kabuto smiled kindly even though his heart rate was picking up. Mito-sensei's stare was almost as unnerving as his master's. "Is there something I can do… Ah!" Mito had grabbed him and Hiraishined him into the basement! Shivering, he vomited - just barely avoiding her. She had stepped aside, her expression never changing.
"Yeah, there's something you can do for me, kid," Mito said, allowing her chakra to roll out like a violent storm. "You can stop watching me." Kabuto began to shakily deny it but Mito only sneered at him. "The next time I feel you close to me when I'm alone, you're going to regret it. –Especially if I'm speaking to my mother at her graveside. Got it?!" She pulled her chakra back but continued to glare at him.
"I - I… Yes. I am… simply a… a great admirer. Please forgive me, sensei. I am truly sorry. I never meant to make you so uncomfortable."
"Right." She glanced toward where he'd barfed. "Clean that up Genin, then report back to Shizune." She dispelled so that her original could further consider the little rat she'd just encountered.
Nothing about him felt right.
.
The next day -
Although his sensei and Kiba seemed to think this was excellent (and "hilarious!") training, Shino wasn't sure that he cared for Shinobi Whack-a-Mole. Further, his kikaichu didn't very much care to attach to his jinchuuriki sensei. (His father had received permission to tell him the S-ranked secret when he questioned why he felt that Mito's chakra was so similar to Naruto's, who obviously held foreign chakra. He had learned about Naruto's status around the same time Naruto did, from what he understood.)
Only once, had Shino convinced his kikaichu to aid him while Mito-sensei was traveling underground, popping up here and there to taunt them - but more often grabbing him by the ankle and yanking him underground. His allies didn't care to move underground without him.
He could see how training this way would increase his awareness and force him to fight without his kikaichu but he wasn't sure he LIKED the idea of doing so. He was getting better at moving underground, seeking out his targets while his kikaichu surveyed the area from above ground, so for now, he would bend to Namikaze Mito's (madness) methods.
His lips trembled and twitched upward as Kiba screamed like a little girl as he was pulled under in her headhunter jutsu, too. "Will you please pull us up now, sensei?" He wanted to shake his head at Akamaru's antics but couldn't move.
Akamaru was licking all over Kiba's face instead of digging his master out.
Mito adjusted her ponytail once she popped up again. "I don't see how it's harder to come up from the ground than it is to go underneath it - or manipulate it at all, really." She gave Kiba's above-ground head the stink-eye when she thought he called her a "freak of nature" again. "I'll get you for that, Kiba."
Kiba turned red in the face.
"Now c'mon. Get up, you two. It's time to help me find Hinata!"
"You KNOW where she is, sensei."
"Yeah, I do," she whispered, "but she's getting much better at hiding her chakra!" She stilled as she felt her kunoichi student closing in. Hinata sunshinned behind her and Mito turned around quickly, hoping to scare her. "Boo!"
"You are in the range of my divination," she was already whispering furiously.
Mito slapped her hands away several times, smiling like a loon, but took the majority of Hinata's hits that she couldn't block without putting up a real fight.
Kiba and Shino winced as their sensei allowed herself - her real self this time, apparently - to get beaten all the way to the "32 palms," which is the farthest Hinata had ever been able to go. The girl was left panting but their sensei was on the ground and obviously in pain.
"Ugh-ood, Hina," Mito groaned brokenly as she lay there with many of her tenketsu closed. The things I do for these kids. "I forfeit. Can you pull your teammates out of the ground for me or better yet… go kick 'em or something. –They need to be able to get themselves out of a position like that."
"Hai," Hinata chirped and moved to stand between the boys. Focusing her chakra into her heel, she raised her leg and smashed her foot down to earth - and then cried out as it felt like it broke. But so had the ground underneath her!
"Is that progress?" Mito asked herself, feeling too helpless from her position on the ground. She'd only meant for Hinata to go nudge the boys' heads with her foot at most since they were being bakas.
Kiba crawled out and got to his teammate as quickly as he could. "Ah, shit! Hina!" He was NOT touching that ankle which was swelling. Bu-ut… "Sensei! Is this one of those times when her sandal will help brace the break or do we need to get the thing off of her?!"
"Well?" Mito asked. After months of her pounding advanced first aid and more into her students, it was time for it to pay off!
Akamaru had gotten serious and helped Shino dig himself out as well. "It looks as if you've broken a bone or torn ligaments."
"Did you hear a pop?" Kiba asked, now all business.
Hinata tried not to cry and she wasn't sure. She really wanted to get her sensei's technique down but wasn't used to putting chakra into her feet to attack. And Mito was (supposedly) unable to help right now - she'd seen to that!
"Roll me over there so I can see it," Mito grunted. Kiba, naturally, did exactly that. She wrinkled her nose and cursed him as she was turned round and round, her face repeatedly pressed into the hard ground as she was painfully rolled toward her student.
"Shit. –Alright, Hinata. We've got to help each other out here, ne? Shino, if I wasn't here but you were here in the village what would you do?"
"Further evaluation at the hospital. This injury seems serious. The foot contains dozens of bones, joints, and over a hundred muscles, tendons, or ligaments…"
"That's right. Very good."
"Yes, sensei," Hinata had whimpered dutifully. She hopped over and bent down on her knees while holding her sore foot up, wincing, but she quickly unblocked Mito-sensei's tenketsu. Maybe she'd gotten carried away with how hard she'd hit her again because sensei was turning green.
Mito let out a long whimper of her own. Henceforward, she would have her clones take Hinata's beatings. She could heal quickly after a gatsuga attack but those "gentle palm" strikes were anything but. "Good job, Hina… Oh, sorry." She'd gagged noisily and almost barfed. Able to get up and move now, however, her first task was ensuring that Hinata was okay. "Torn ligaments, I think," she tsk-ed. "What do we do, guys?"
"Sandal comes off," Kiba almost shouted. He pulled out his kunai but Shino stopped him, feeling it was better to simply take Hinata's sandal off by releasing the straps.
They began to argue.
"OI! Your teammate is hurting here, boys!" Mito's hands lit up in iryo-ninjutsu and the kids were silent. "See, if you all learn the Mystical Palm, you can help your comrades immensely. –And I don't sense a break, Hinata-chan, but I still think it's a good idea to get you scanned, just in case I've missed something." The foot was always a pain.
"Thank goodness!"
Mito led the kids to the hospital again, carrying Hinata.
.
The next day the team reported in for a mission. Hinata's right foot was braced in an orthopedic boot.
Mito sighed when she saw her father sitting there again - probably avoiding his paperwork. Either that or… Oh, God: if he's here that means he's got another Tora-retrieval mission for us, doesn't it?
Team 8 had been training hard this morning, working as one and trying to kill their sensei - Mito knew that she had repeatedly driven them to it - and they had managed to get a lot of hits on her earlier in the day. Just this morning, Shino's bugs had finally decided to steal a good deal of her chakra which they later returned to her: that had been gross, both ways.
Tora despised Akamaru so it always took her team forever to retrieve that damn cat without Mito's help. Hinata not being at full speed would also make this mission longer.
When a VERY small toad appeared just as they were about to report in for a mission, her father looked surprised and alarmed. The little green one handed him a message. Her father paled dramatically as he read it.
"What's wrong?" Mito asked.
"Team 7 has run into some trouble. Kakashi-kun's down."
"Kage Bunshin no jutsu," Mito whispered. Naruto had a Hiraishin marker on him. A clone appeared beside her and she would do what she had to do to ensure her brother was okay. "I'll take care of it."
"Wait," Minato nearly yelled, coming out of his seat. Too late… Mito had flashed away. "Dammit. –She is the right person for the job, though." Although she should've waited for the order! He glared at his daughter's clone who looked infuriatingly innocent.
"Team 8 reporting for a mission, Hokage-sama," Mito's clone chirped with false cheer. "One preferably not involving Tora so their poor sensei doesn't get popped, 'ttebane!"
Minato quietly growled and grabbed Naruto's message, pulling the clone aside to give her the details he had and sending her team home for the day.
Before her clone dispelled, she flashed off to find Anko, hoping that she could meet with her cubs while she was gone, and also threaten Ko and Hiashi with a painful death if they didn't ensure that Hinata rested for the day. She'd probably get written up for doing so but whatever.
The girl had the tiniest hairline fracture that had been healed but Hinata still needed to rest.
.
Mito flashed short distances, (and flashed and flashed,) moving closer to her brother's unique and large chakra signature, hardly able to hold herself back to retrieve information. When the clone she'd left with her students finally popped, it all made sense. From another marker that was closer to Wave, she flashed directly behind him: kunai out and ready to rumble. Instead, she found three kids on their knees, creeping toward their unconscious sensei. They were in a house and Mito didn't sense any KI around. "What are you three doing?"
"H- hOly," Sakura stammered, barely avoiding a kunai her unconscious sensei somehow let fly. Mito easily deflected it, grabbing it midair before it landed back on her sensei - and pocketed it. Normally, Sakura would want to cry over the weapon having cut off some of her beautiful hair but considering what they'd just been through, it didn't seem to matter so much anymore. "Mito-sensei!"
"Yo."
"Nee-chan - I didn't think you'd come," Naruto said, hugging her tightly around the waist and surprising his sister.
Mito turned as a civilian woman came into the room and shrieked, dropping everything she was carrying. She wrapped her chains around Kakashi because his body was obviously still trying to fight. "Yo!"
"Wh- who are you?" Tsunami asked. The tall kunoichi pointed at her headband but she couldn't relax. What if she was here to assassinate her father - or any of these children? Or their defenseless sensei?
"I'm Jonin Namikaze Mito and I'm here to support Team 7. Genin Uzumaki sent a report to Konoha requesting assistance."
"No, I didn't!"
"Shut up, baka! Why do you think I asked you to send a message?!" Sakura hissed. She often wondered how goofy her blonde teammate could really be.
Naruto swooned. "Oh! You're so smart, Sakura-chan." His teammates both groaned. Naruto tilted his head, trying to listen in as Mito bent over and whispered things to Kakashi - who still seemed out cold to him. "It's okay, Tsunami-nee-chan! Mito-an- I mean, SENSEI is an iryo-nin."
His father had told him over and over again that he was not to mention his family relationships to anyone at all - especially outside of the village.
"Are you sure?" Tsunami asked. The new ninja only rolled her eyes at her as she began pulling things out of her many pockets. "Wait. 'Namikaze:' Are you related to the Yondaime Hokage?!"
"That's classified." Mito let out a long, noisy sigh as she carefully observed her Jonin patient. "Chakra exhaustion, I'm guessing," Mito absently said to the kids. "What a baka." This guy definitely needed to replace Obito-asshole's damned Sharingan. If Kakashi swapped it out for a regular eye, he'd last a lot longer in a fight, plus he'd gain the oh-so-magical power of depth perception.
She opened his jacket and winced at his wound: it was long and pretty deep. She pulled off her gloves and vest, drawing blood to open up the seals on her arm. Sasuke sucked in a breath at what she pulled out and she winked at him. He then looked really irritated. Mito debated telling him about his new nephew but figured that it wasn't her place.
"Why haven't you cleaned your sensei's wounds?" Her question was mostly directed at Pinky since she'd been getting trained by Shizune at the hospital. She made three more clones to check the kids for injuries.
"He won't let us get close to him," Naruto insisted.
"Is that what you three were doing when I flashed in? You were trying to calm him down so you could help your sensei?" The three kids flushed at her question. She made them turn around (so that she could pull his mask down,) and then pulled fluid out of Kakashi's lungs through his mouth. It wasn't much but it was there and could've made him sick had it stayed. "Sorry, Kakashi." Mito held him up a bit so that he could better cough, wincing at how that simple task opened his wound even more. She put a surgical mask on him. "What were you three doing then?"
"I wanted to help - and I also wanted to see what was under his mask," Naruto admitted in a sad voice. Mito noted that it looked like he was trying not to cry.
"I stopped him," Sakura lied.
Mito groaned as she began to clean Kakashi up. "Newsflash: Kakashi's got a face under there."
"You've seen his face?" the three asked as one before complaining to each other. "Is that what you just did? –You saw!" Mito shook her head at their antics.
Kakashi's natural eye opened to a slit. "D-don't tell them how… handsome I am," he bit out. Mito threw her head back and laughed; her raspy voice cracking as she did. Wow: that was insulting! The blackness at the edges of most of his vision took over again.
"Nah," Mito said to Kakashi as she began dealing with his larger wound. Naruto was sniffling and she could only imagine how upset he was - so she started rambling as she worked.
"I mean, obviously I HAVE seen his face, kids." She frowned as her patient pinched her in his sleep. "The only thing that's… different, I guess you'd say about Kakashi, is that his mouth? It's a black hole that can suck in anything - which is why I have it covered - so none of us get sucked in and die. That was the result of a jutsu gone wrong, ya see. And his nostrils have to constantly be reinforced. They were reconstructed in the field out of popsicle sticks and straws: an odd but not really unique practice."
"..."
"WHAT?!"
"Would you three clowns do me a favor and let me work?! But stay in the house. Wait: Naruto, did you secure it? And where's the client?"
"He's… asleep," Tsunami half-admitted. Her father had passed out, drunk and guilty beyond belief - having figured that they might all soon die if more ninjas showed up on Gato's behalf.
"I set up traps," Sasuke answered instead.
"I was worried about nii-san," Naruto said, looking miserable.
"Well go with my clone and put up a barrier right now, kiddo. Your sensei will soon be fine. –When I'm done here, I'll have some questions for each of you - and that includes you and the client, Tsunami-san. Sakura, bring me some clean towels and stuff - and check the seals I pulled out for supplies, please. Sasuke, explain your mission and how this happened. NARUTO: go put up a barrier!" He finally nodded with a little salute and left. The civilian left to follow Sakura.
Sasuke began explaining the mission that had started out as a C-rank (and a LIE) before they met up with the Demon Brothers.
Mito's mouth fell open more as he continued. "Did you say Momochi ZABUZA?! –I'm gonna kill him. –Sorry, Sasuke-kun. Go on." After blanching, Sasuke did and as Mito continued working on their baka sensei, she groaned, dropping her head down. Haku's here, too, huh? At least it sounds that way.
"The hunter nin you encountered was a young kid, just a little older or… taller than you lot, with long, straight dark hair, right?" Sasuke nodded with a surprised expression and Mito had to hold back the angry chakra that wanted to roll out of her. "I'll bet you a million ryo that Zabuza's alive. They were always together," she commented, trying to smile reassuringly at Sasuke who looked thunderstruck. "Zabuza's strong as fuck - he's one of the formerly Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. And hunter nins always take the head, Sasuke, leaving the body behind."
"Hn," he said reflexively. "Ah! –I should've known!"
"No," Mito said in irritation, "this idiot should've known!"
The idiot, Kakashi, chose to wake up again and grabbed Mito's wrist. "I think… Zabuza's alive."
"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock." Mito blew out a heavy sigh as he zonked out again. Honestly, she thought Kakashi might be faking although he had to be in tremendous pain. She pulled off his headband, allowing his shaggy silver hair to spring out everywhere (which was very cute actually) before falling over his face, and then reached for the mask around his neck, ready to split it open if she had to so that it wasn't constricting his airways. He clicked his tongue and tried to grab her hand before she got too close. "Faker," she whispered with a grin. "C'mon. We need to get you out of these torn-up, wet clothes, and as soon as you can, I need a report."
"Sensei?" he asked stupidly.
"Oh geez," Mito groaned. She knew that she looked like her father but COME ON! "No, it's Mito, you dork." She put one of her new seals on him that would help him with the pain. The chakra-infused ink transferred and began creeping about cutely in a rhythm over his torso.
She loved her neato, new little seals! They were not only adorable but so useful, too!
Kakashi blinked a few times minutes later as he tried to focus. "Did you just call me a dork?"
"I did! Now listen to orders, sensei. Let's get your clothes off."
"Hn," Sasuke said with a sly smirk. "He's blushing."
"I am not," Kakashi insisted, thankful for the mask. "Where's Naruto and…" He unsuccessfully tried to bob his head in acknowledgment of his kunoichi Genin when she came in with a bucket and towels. "Sakura." Naruto ran in and Kakashi was thankful that Mito was there because the kid looked like he'd throw himself on him, sobbing, otherwise. "I've been thinking. Zabuza is probably alive."
"Oh, I'd wager he is," Mito said, pulling his clothes off. "We've talked about this before…"
Naruto dropped what was in his hands. "WHADDYA MEAN ZABUZA'S ALIVE?!"
"Oh geez."
After Kakashi insisted that he was healed enough (and following a partial sponge bath which Mito complained that he was enjoying way too much,) he was able to put on some comfortable, dry clothes mostly by himself, enjoying having a private nurse-maid. –Not that he'd say that out loud. Mito helped him lay down on fresh bedding and began checking his wounds, running her fingers carefully over his abs and doing her thing. "Pervert."
"I am not," Mito said, surprised. He began fighting her AGAIN, slapping her weakly, so she turned him over just a bit and injected him with a tranquilizer before he could stop her, followed by a tetanus shot. "You'll be a lot less troublesome when you're sedated."
"You… You pulled down my pants, you bitch!"
Mito laughed wickedly. "You have no idea, Hatake. I'll give you a one-time survival hint, though: don't call me that." She tried to keep a straight face as he growled at her. "And puh-lease: I only revealed your pale-ass hip which I've obviously seen before. –You and your love of getting a sword put through you really is concerning, you know?"
Feeling a little delirious - God, he hated med nins - Kakashi tried to bite her.
.
He woke up hours later and realized that chains were wrapped around him and were… feeding him chakra? He also had two seals on his torso that he didn't recognize as they were crawling over his skin. Surprised, (and a little grossed out from how bug-like those seals looked,) he looked beside him and saw Mito trying not to doze off next to him. She let out a little gasp when he moved and asked him how he was feeling.
"Better. The pu- Genins?"
"Sakura's on watch - on the roof. The boys are sleeping. Naruto put up a level 1 barrier and I showed him how to incorporate Sasuke's traps just in case someone is able to overcome it. –I was a little worried that your client or his family would set off a trap and get hurt. The bridge builder has a daughter and little grandson here."
"Ah."
Mito hummed when he whipped his Icha-Icha Paradise out of nowhere and began reading - or tried to, considering that it was upside down. The baka was humming and making her work around it when she tried to listen to his lungs. She turned the book over for him after turning on a little lamp that she'd thrown a scarf over. "What did you think of the last book in the series?" she asked softly.
Kakashi was actually shocked that he felt as good as he did but knew better than to move much. He also supposed that it was shocking that someone - a woman, especially - would ever want to discuss an Icha-Icha book - the latest, quite popular one or not. "Yaoi was interesting; thoughtful even. I enjoyed the ending. –The eventual relationship was certainly unexpected from Jiraiya-sama."
"I thought so, too."
Mito groaned as she tied one of his hands out of the way. She looked up and saw him smirking at her, a strange look in his dark eye as he continued looking from her eyes or maybe her lips down to the chains that were surrounding him. It made her feel… No.
She'd seen men give her that look before - Ensui did that a LOT when they were playing shogi although she guessed that like Kakashi, it didn't mean what she'd at first thought it did.
And anyway, she was not going to in any way lust after this too-lanky, Obito-eye-wearing man as she often did a good deal of ninjas in the village (and elsewhere.)
Her heart had thumped a couple of times but she swallowed that (and another) strange feeling down.
There were SO many other men in the village to be interested in if she wasn't a disaster waiting to happen - and rather irritating to be around, in general. She sighed heavily, thinking how sad it was that if a certain someone wasn't such a giant weirdo and probably taken he'd be just right, in another universe.
Kakashi liked the way she sounded when she sighed that way. Dopey, he was imagining some very erotic scenes from the book he held in his hands. "What are you thinking about?"
Mito looked up and smiled wistfully. "Gai." Kakashi began sputtering and she patted him as she looked over where he'd been hit. "He's nice. Anyway, the follow-up book to Yaoi isn't Jiraiya's best work."
"I beg your pardon?" Kakashi asked, regaining his focus on all things important.
"I'd… Ugh. I need someone who understands Ero-ojii's work and… Well," she continued, biting her lip while looking away. Determined, she looked him in the eye again. "I'd like to get your opinion on the sequel's draft if you promise to never tell anyone no matter what you think of it - but only if you tell me about the whole Zabuza thing."
"Are you kidding? That's a deal!"
.
The next day -
"What do you mean, you're going after Zabuza?!"
"Can you be any louder, Hatake?!" Mito hissed, looking behind her to ensure that the Genins didn't hear. This is what she got for not putting down a silencing seal immediately. "I mean what I said! My clones are already all over the area, scouting for me. I've already learned that Wave's a freaking mess."
"It didn't use to be this way," Tsunami said as she came into the room.
Sneaky civilian.
She proceeded to tell them about her deceased husband who had been killed by Gato's thugs. Gato's men had put a stranglehold on the economy before then and things had only gotten worse since. The whole thing was indeed a mess. Tsunami gasped and called for Inari-kun when she realized that her son had been listening. He ran away and began shouting at the Genins downstairs.
Mito told Kakashi to stay put and that she'd take care of it. Before she got downstairs, Naruto was yelling at the kid and stormed out. She followed him at a distance so he could blow off some steam, leaving a few more clones to keep watch on the rest of Team 7.
Naruto had been doing target practice, using wind chakra, and was beginning to calm down when Mito felt Haku's presence. Her special kunai out, she snuck up on the boys and couldn't believe Naruto didn't recognize Haku as the hunter nin the kids had told him about.
Haku had a very unique chakra signature. It was very cold, fittingly, yet also soothing or maybe... something you know will be soothing. –Kinda like a stethoscope on non-feverish skin!
She listened from high in a tree, holding back a disbelieving smirk when Naruto was gushing all over himself at the "pretty nee-chan." Oh, Naruto. Haku left soon after. Sasuke eventually came out looking for Naruto and Mito took that moment to throw a kunai toward Haku's position. "Gotcha," she said a moment later, holding another kunai at his throat. Her chains wrapped around him.
Haku gasped and then remembered what his master had told him about the chains the purple-haired kunoichi had used in their fight for freedom from Yagura's tyranny. No one else had them, his master had said. "Fox-chan?" he asked in shock.
"That's right. –What the hell is going on, Haku-kun? WHY would you and Zabuza attack Konoha ninjas?"
Haku gasped. "I… they… W- we're on a mission! Those Konoha nins um -had to be poaching or rum-running the people we're looking for."
Mito's chains moved with her as she moved to face him. She put her hands on her hips but didn't let him go. "Explain. I promise you, Haku, Hatake Kakashi's team is NOT involved in trafficking anyone. But I am working on a missing persons investigation, myself. If Kiri is missing people, maybe we can help each other."