Nohara Arisu stood at the edge of the rocky cliff. She took a deep breath, the wind whipping around her as she did.

It was midsummer, the hottest, warmest time of the year, but she knew the water would seem shockingly cold.

She was prepared.

She'd done this many times before.

One, two, three steps and she was flying through the air, her chest rising as she continued to breathe in.

And then she stopped.

She was underwater.

In a moment she was back on the surface, putting on her mask in one smooth motion, and then she was diving, diving, diving.

Her mask fit tightly against her face, and Arisu took the time to make sure to do the hand signs right (as with most Nohara, she was fire-natured, but fire wasn't really what she wanted). A few seconds later the water was rushing by her just as the wind had at the top of the cliff.

It took only a minute to descend to the reef below.

It was teeming with life, with fish and coral and even sharks. Plenty of seaweed too, which she had to remember to bring home for her mother.

The Noharas had not purchased any land in Uzu; they could not afford any. But a good deal of them had moved to Kaiso anyway—it was, after all, the land of opportunity.

Arisu's parents had moved here to teach at the Academy, and she was currently a junior teacher too, but that wasn't—

She didn't care about that.

The academic portions of school had never really troubled her, but she was reasonably sure that was just because of her parents.

The rest of it… she passed. That was enough.

She was unlikely to be promoted past genin, and that would be fine.

It hadn't seemed fine, back in Konoha. She'd felt adrift, then, lost as to where to go or what to do. She'd followed her parents because she couldn't think of any reason not to, and then—

And then she'd begun swimming.

Uzu was surrounded by whirlpools, by storms and riptides and rocks.

But it was also surrounded by reefs.

And the Nohara's single bloodline was this: they could hold their breath longer than anyone else.

Useful during fires, of course.

But also, Arisu discovered, useful for going deeper underwater. Further.

She collected things, now.

Collected seaweed and fish for her family, because the professionals were far too efficient to compete with, but also—

Also there were mollusks, here.

Pearl oysters.

She'd brought some back, near the beginning of spring, and found a shiny ball inside. One of their Yuki neighbors—Fuyuki—had been around at the time, borrowing some caffeinated tea before going to work (teething was, apparently, exhausting for everybody involved, and his daughter was doing her best to prove it), and he'd said it was a pearl.

And Arisu's mother had gasped.

More Nohara were moving to Kaiso, now, were practicing swimming and diving. Their clan had never been rich, had always struggled to stay afloat, but Uzu—Uzu was an opportunity.

The pearls were hidden across multiple homes, in niches and safes and under floor boards.

None had yet been sold; her clan head had wanted to 'make a statement'. No one yet knew what he meant by that.

In the meantime, though, the Nohara would continue to collect. Continue to seek out whatever oysters they could find.

And Arisu—she was more than fine with that.

But sometimes, sometimes she wished she still had the reef to herself.

The dawn light grew stronger, and Arisu turned upward, kicked and allowed the water jutsu she'd learn propel her to the surface. She had to go slow or else she'd feel sick, but she'd prepared—she still had plenty of breath left.

Finally, she was breaking through the water, refilling her lungs in a few massive gasps.

There, above her, she saw two other Nohara preparing to dive in themselves. The cliff was the quickest way to reach her favorite reef, after all, and then they only had to swim to the beach on the way back.

Her peace had been, for the day, disrupted.

Arisu sighed, took another breath, and dove again.

Best not to forget the seaweed.

.

Below the window at the front of Kaede's apartment there was a little bench seat. It was supposed to be for reading, or that's what his mother said, anyway.

Nobody actually read on it.

There were more comfortable places to do that.

In the past year, Kaede was reasonably certain he was the only one who had sat on it at all.

His knees poked out just a little above the window's edge, but that was okay. He lay back against the hard wooden bench, letting himself relax a little, then sat up just enough to peak above the sill.

Below people streamed by in their hustle and bustle, and Kaede watched.

He didn't know when he'd started doing this half-exercise, but something about the mixed concentration—the focus not only on the people but also on his core—made it something interesting, something new.

His mom had added a pillow once, to make his people watching easier.

He stashed it between his knees.

Two brothers were passing the window, now, wrestling back and forth as they rushed somewhere, and Kaede wished, not for the first time, that he could have a brother.

(He'd said that, once. To his parents. His mom had looked like she was going to cry, and his father had said he had plenty of family, and he should go play with his cousins.)

Today, however, he wasn't thinking of imaginary brothers.

He was thinking of something much more important: vengeance.

He let himself lie back, stare at the ceiling.

The first and most obvious hurdle was that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing.

He'd never even left Konoha before—or, not past the farms, anyway—and he didn't even know where Itoku's dad lived.

And then there was his lack of plan, but that was okay. In class they'd learned that any kind of complicated plan that was formed before variables were known was doomed to failure, and Kaede was (unfortunately) not on any kind of clock; he could wait until he knew more.

But what to do…

He sat up.

The ice cream seller was on the street again.

Kaede really liked him. It was a smart idea—mobile ice cream—and if he had any spare change he'd be running down right now, but unfortunately he'd done that too much this summer already.

Actually, most plans for revenge would probably require money.

…Which meant no ice cream.

Sacrifices, unfortunately, must be made.

What else could he do?

He was pretty sure he could figure out Itoku's father's name and location pretty easily, so there was that, but he was kind of at a loss for what to do after that.

What he really needed was more ideas.

…That was a good idea.

If he couldn't come up with enough ideas, invite others along.

Not Itoku—he didn't like it when Kaede complained about nobility and their stupid rules.

But maybe Kosei?

.

Yahiko tried not to grit his teeth. When Ibiki had mentioned introducing him to a friend, he'd hoped—expected—that he would meet Sarutobi Asuma, youngest son to the retired Hokage.

They were headed in almost the opposite direction to the Sarutobi compound.

It wasn't—

He didn't think he 'deserved it' or anything, and Konan really needed to shut up about that, it was just—

He had plans, okay? And only a limited time to get there. And now he was meeting some no-name who lived in an apartment building for no-names and—

"Deidara?"

"Sorry, sorry—coming! I promise I didn't forget you were visiting!"

"Did you forget I was bringing a guest?"

The door swung open.

The boy was blond, really western looking. He had a western accent, too—Earth-sounding, so maybe from one of the minor nations between Earth and Wind? He was wearing some sort of apron smeared with gunk and (unusually for youth public housing, where minimal cleaning tended to be paramount) he was barefoot; Yahiko would have to remember to take off his shoes.

"Of course not! I just got—I had this idea and—come in, come in!"

Yahiko stepped in after Ibiki and noticed with frank wonder that the blond boy had even purchased slippers for visitors, for all that he wasn't wearing any himself.

Shit, he had his life together, and he was probably only ten to Yahiko's thirteen.

(And yeah, the three of them had been delaying graduation, wanting to eke out as much information from Konoha as possible first, but—still. They hadn't bothered to get slippers.)

"Hi!" the blond said. "I'm Deidara." He wiped his hand on his apron, held it out. Yahiko cast a quick glance around—paint, drawings, clay—and decided he was probably safe. He shook it.

"I wanted you two to meet," Ibiki said, grinning between them. "Deidara's from Iwa—" What. "—so I thought he might be able to provide some perspective for you that I can't. Not that I'm saying no more questions, of course! You're interesting."

Yahiko's mind felt like it was pulled in a hundred directions. Ibiki liked him—good. Deidara's from Iwa—so unexpected it felt fake. Deidara's apparent origins apparently not being hidden—

"You're—from Iwa?"

Deidara snorted. "You don't have to act so surprised, you know. There's thousands of us!"

Yahiko's eyes widened. "Here?!"

"No, of course not." Deidara said. "In Iwa. Here I think I'm the only one; everybody else is back home, now that everybody's friends. I mean, I was part of the explosives corps so they had a big reason to flip me instead of just sending me back, and all that happened before the alliance anyway."

"You don't seem too put out about it. The alliance."

He shrugged. "I dunno. I don't really care, to be honest. I only like two things: explosions, and art."

"And he's not really sure where either begin or end," Ibiki interjected. Deidara grinned in acknowledgement, then turned back to Yahiko.

"Iwa wasn't particularly interested in letting me do art, and they were only interested in some kinds of explosions. Konoha lets me do all the art I want, and I'm going straight into an internship with the Construction Bureau's new demolitions office! I get to blow things up all over the continent!"

"You're… not doing combat work?"

"Oh, I want to do that too. But—isn't there something beautiful? About a bomb that does just what it is meant to do? The Construction Bureau—they figured out this seal, right, and it minimizes aftershocks outside the area the seal is placed in! It's a limited area—only good for small ordinances—but—can you—I mean—the possibilities!"

Deidara leapt, barefoot, onto his table.

Yahiko went to glance at Ibiki, assure himself he wasn't going crazy, only to find the T&I member smiling at a clay rattle.

"You're trying new techniques?"

Deidara, apparently hearing Ibiki over his own mad cackling, jumped down. "Oh, yeah. I was talking to this guy over in Utilities—he'd just finished this study on pipes—and he was telling me all about the benefits and costs of ceramic pipes, and, um, I got interested. But! I wanted to understand how clay with stuff inside worked, so I've been making a whole lot of stuff in different shapes and sizes to better understand how not-clay and clay interact. Want to see the rainstick I made?"

Was introducing him to Deidara a gift?

A curse?

Yahiko didn't know, and he doubted he'd find out any time soon.

Ibiki was right about one thing, though: Deidara would certainly provide his own perspective.

.

Ibiki left the apartment almost five minutes late, but it couldn't be helped; Yahiko and Deidara had started on an absolutely fascinating conversation about plumbing systems and Ibiki had lost track of time.

…Somehow he doubted his supervisor would see it that way.

…Or believe him at all, to be honest. Plumbing systems weren't supposed to be fascinating.

Still, he was sure he could spin this one way or another. He was spending time with two of his targets, after all.

…It was weird, to be friends with people you were also watching for your Hokage. Ibiki was at least sure that Deidara wouldn't willingly betray Konoha now, was solidly loyal and too entrenched to change, but Yahiko—well, everybody knew that boy and his friends would be missing-nin. They wouldn't have been allowed in at all if not for the Sannin Jiraiya's say-so. And then Yahiko had approached him, and with his aunt already tutoring Konan—well. It had been too good an opportunity to pass up.

The three would still leave Konoha, but if they were to contest Hanzo the Salamander—or, even less likely, do so successfully—then knowing as much as possible about them was very important (especially because, per Ibiki's supervisor, the three of them weren't actually on the same page.)

So Ibiki would continue hanging around Yahiko, answering the boy's questions as honestly as he could (he certainly was powerful, and all three of them had been becoming progressively less anti-Konoha since they'd arrived) and monitoring him for signs of treason, for signs that they were planning to do anything other than cut and run.

And today, at least, he had some news to report in about: Yahiko wanted his hidden village to have plumbing.

…Now it was just a question of how to word the report so it sounded less meaningless.

"Morino!" Yamanaka Fuyuki shouted. Ibiki winced.

"Sir, sorry I'm—"

"Meeting Room Green with Ketsueki, now!"

Ibiki made a sharp left turn and ran.

"A bit late today," Ketsueki said as soon as he opened the door.

The Yamanaka was already seated at the opposite end of the conference table, the entire room in between them. Several papers were laid out, and he did not look up as Ibiki awkwardly bowed and took his seat in the only other chair—the one closest to the door.

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir." Ketsueki would not care for his reasons; that would be for Fuyuki to investigate and take it up the chain if necessary.

"You're thirteen now, aren't you?"

"Yes, sir. Since March, sir."

"And you've requested to be tested for promotion?"

Ibiki's heart leapt in his chest. "Yes, sir. I believe I have proven myself capable of becoming an official T—" not T&I anymore—"Intelligence Bureau member, sir, and while my promotion did not occur during the exam because I did not make the age cut-off I did prove myself well during that test."

"This is true, but we've modified standards somewhat since then…"

Always modified standards.

So completely unfair.

Ibiki did not say this.

"Yes, sir."

"Well, I talked to Fuyuki, and he had quite a few good things to say about your work ethic and follow-through."

Ibiki's jaw snapped shut.

Ketsueki glanced up. "You will be taking five tests next week. Two of those will be pass/fail, the others will be there to see how you adapt to tests even without knowing the content. You will not know which is which. Do you think you can handle that?"

"Yes, sir!"

Ketsueki smirked, his pupil-less Yamanaka eyes boring straight through Ibiki. "That's not the only prerequisite, however." Ibiki swallowed. "We must also test your ability to lead. How do you feel about teaching?"