Reborn in the Mist

It was a relief on its own to be back home even if Mabui never truly made it into Kirigakure itself, Kirigakure may as well have come to her. Meeting any Kage in a battle agitated state was not advisable action she or any one of her frailty should undertake and she swore from this moment on she wouldn’t let Ay or anyone else convince her otherwise. However…

It’s mission accomplished. On another A-rank mission!

Killer Bee mumbled nonsensical raps ahead of her. His nose was stuck in that little pad and his pencil scribbled back and forth. He’d been writing disjointed lyrics that never seemed to make it to the final rap throughout their entire return.

The Jounin and Chuunin escorts bore with it well enough, some gritted their teeth in silence and others couldn’t resist Lord Bee’s lyrical draw— one already seemed a fan. Mabui didn’t mind it either, the sweet taste of her upcoming Jounin rank smothered every other negative emotion.

Her heart skipped a beat again, like a hiccup but better. She restrained a silly grin as they approached the Raikage’s office. She was only three years out of the academy and a new year into her rank as Chuunin. If she received a promotion for the completion of twenty A-rank missions— and moreover, many involving Lord Bee— she would become one of the youngest kunoichi ever to receive the rank.

And not too far behind Lady Yugito.

“Grn, grn, grnn!” Ay’s grunts sounded well through the chamber-obsidian walls. “Grnnn…!”

A sudden crash startled an— “Eep!” out of Mabui.

The walls shuddered, the unmistakable sound of rubble and glass raining underlined Ay’s wrathful bark. “Where is Bee damn it!”

Killer Bee kicked the doors open just then, not waiting a respectable second to be announced or any of the formalities— another unmistakable behaviour Mabui was becoming accustomed to in service.

“You asked, you receive. Never let any one say the Bee doesn’t see. See, ya fool?”

“Idiot!” Muscle memory saved her once again, her knees bent just in time to duck as Lord Ay’s fist sent Bee flying right out the way they came. A blitz of wind came next and Mabui didn’t bother looking back in the office for Ay.

Fingers crossed protectively over her head, she stands upright, gulps and starts a hesitant walk towards the pair. Ay straddled over his brother, his voice an ocean deep made the walls reverberate when he yelled.

“I told you to stay out of this and what did you do? Defy me! Your Big Brother.” Mabui stood at an unlikely safe distance, trapped between the reinforced glass panes that cast a cloudy overview of the village and its heights. And the giant that protects it.

Ay’s knuckles cracked as he clenched. Bee chuckled beneath him, his chin barely seemed grazed and his fingers wiggled around for his pencil and notepad. “You’re welcome, Big Brother.”

She couldn’t see it through his sunglasses and Ay likely couldn’t either but Lord Bee’s taunting wink was evident to anyone familiar.

“BEEEE!”

The air fizzled with chakra, raising all hairs on all bodies as the Raikage’s furious growls intensified. Once again, against reason Mabui approached an agitated Kage. “Lord Raikage, my debrief of Lord Bee’s rescue and return is ready. I have taken action under the imperative you authorized me and there is news.”

She blurted out everything before the Raikage’s nigh demonic scowl could fully cower her to shut up. As the words left her lips and through his ears his eyes narrowed and the analytical political mind that was the Fourth Raikage came to bear.

“Grrn…” He said, shoving his foot in Killer Bee’s gut before walking away. “Come here you damned idiot!”

Lord Bee picked himself out of the crater, dusted off his pad and went back to writing like nothing happened. Mabui sighed and followed back into the offices where once the doors shut, the Raikage pressed his attention on her.

Ignoring the gaping concrete hole in the office decor, Mabui delved into her report. She was quick and sweet with it, knowing Lord Ay’s thin patience she gave the most important highlights first.

“We arrived in the nick of time to halt both Lord Bee and the Mizukage from escalating their battle any further. From here the Mizukage gave reasonable ear to our plea for peace and soon agreed to discuss a security deal between our villages in order to rebuild trust with forgiveness.” Mabui said strictly.

Lord Ay snorted once she was done, his eyes rolled especially at the last part. He was no fool to the leverage they’d sacrificed or the dangers that still presented themselves. “And what about Jay?”

Mabui swallowed thick. “The Mizukage insisted that since no official ransom was paid then his demands were still unmet.”

Ay’s knuckles cracked as he clenched, “Even with the hoard this fool raised from the depths?”

Mabui shook her head. “He twisted my words, sir. I’d distanced Bee’s aggressive manner from your administration's approach and he capitalized on that to have his cake and eat it too.” She took a deep bow for this failing. “Forgive me, Lord Ay.”

Ay barely noted it as he growled, clearly displeased. “His demands still stand and we’ve just embarrassed ourselves…Bee!”

“My Brotha!” Bee jolted, hiding the notepad and pencil all too late as he attempted to look like he’d been listening or even cared about the consequences of his actions.

Mabui waited for the Raikage to send the Jinchuriki flying again for his insolence and air-headedness but instead the man merely narrowed his eyes at his brother and asked. “Was he strong?”

Bee brightened up like a child nearing a candy store. “Short boy Mizukage, commands water like bender, never letting me get the end of— see, ya fool. Three Tails Jinchuriki, nah nah, nah, Kraken summoning master, Fuinjutsu, chakra sealing bastard! Yagura Karatachi, rematch the Octopop’s gonna win, wooo weeee! Yeah!”

Mabui took a breath and prepared to translate Bee’s rap best as she could— she couldn’t believe it but for the sake of keeping up with the Ay and Bee brother’s she’d begun to pick up and learn their strange behaviours.

“Fuinjutsu, is that so…” Ay said, stroking his growing goatee in consideration.

Mabui’s jaw fell open before she quickly shut it. She’d never seen the Raikage bother to understand any of Bee’s raps or think them anything more than a nuisance but this, he didn’t even look her way for a translation.

I suppose he’s just been....stubborn all this time. She sighed, realizing their brotherhood was just a strong back and forth of stubbornness. Another thing I’ll have to get used to.

The Raikage strolled off to his rack of weights and lifted the one that weighed at least three times her body weight with one arm. He gave it a couple of curls before setting it back down with a grunt, “Fuinjutsu, the Repulse-nin…this never made it to any reports about him. How did he suddenly become so proficient?”

Mabui could only stare, she had no answer for the Mizukage’s capabilities and was as much in the dark about it as he was. Killer Bee set his pad and pencil aside, his expression matched his brothers in a rare showcase of seriousness.

“Yagura’s seal was effective but brittle, it didn’t take much or long for me to disarm it. But he’s sly, made sure to place a trap within the seal to ensure I remained where he left me.” Killer Bee speaking without raps wasn’t rare but speaking without enthusiasm in his voice was. His voice was deep and clinical as he analysed his encounter with the Mizukage. “He was holding back the entire time, though how much I’m not sure but…he didn’t fight me like a perfect Jinchuriki.”

Ay nodded along as he went prone on the bench press. “Perfect Jinchuriki…huh. Jay’s reports could be more inaccurate than we thought.” He strained, grunting through his words as he started the first set. The barbells alone weighed more than Mabui cared to imagine but Bee eagerly made himself available to spot. “Just because the Three-Tails chakra was contained before it could be released disastrously doesn’t mean he’s a Perfect Jinchuriki.”

Bee shook his head. “It won’t matter, I sensed he held back and after our brief encounter I’m sure he knows I was too. He won’t allow himself to be outclassed, he’ll become stronger by the next time I see him.”

“Next time?” Ay asked incredulously, his elbows buckled slightly as he contended with Bee’s probable disobedience. He hefted the bar back on and quickly rose to bark at Bee, “There better not be a next time! And if there is, I’ll be the one to put him in the ground. You remain here like you were supposed to, I won’t tolerate disobedience next time Bee!”

Bee made a grumbling sound but didn’t challenge his brother, he knew he was serious this time— there wasn’t a spike of chakra, just a general energy that Mabui sensed and Killer Bee was all too familiar with.

Ay turned his gaze to her next, startling her heart into palpitations with a mere scowl. “Mabui, well done. I am assigning you a new mission.”

“Yes sir!” She straightened up, ready to receive her new assignment.

“We’ll give into his useless demands, write the damned apology letter and arrange for the ransom and reparation money.”

Oh… Mabui deflated a bit at the low stakes, it wasn’t even much of a mission as it was secretary work.

But the Raikage wasn’t done. He leaned back on the bench press and lifted. “Prepare yourself as well, you’re promoted to Tokubetsu Jounin henceforth, granted full data privileges. Revise all the information we’ve gathered on Kirigakure and its military uses of Fuinjutsu. You’ll need it for when you return to monitor the Mizukage.”

Mabui’s eyes were wide as saucers, her eyelids straining to open any further as she processed her instant promotion as well as her insane mission. “Uh…monitor the Mizukage?”

Ay grunted through the end of his set of twenty, hefting the bar back on its stand with a heavy thud. “Indeed, Mabui, find a way to ensure your stay is extended as long as you will need to determine any new strengths or weaknesses not within our databanks. Information is power and should the Mizukage ever become an issue, it is power we will use against him.”

Mabui gulped but saluted, “I won’t disappoint you, sir.”

Ay didn’t say anything else, just laid back and pumped out another set.

***

“What does the Raikage think of mercenary shinobi groups? Like the one in Amegakure.” The Mizukage stared at her expectantly, his eyes were an intense, dull purple that made her feel hot in her seat.

When the Raikage sent her out on this mission, her very first with her shiny new rank as Tokubetsu Jounin, she was dead focused on crafting the perfect opportunity to ensure her stay in the Hidden Mist was as lengthy as possible. Through the odd ingots and the forged letter from Ay, she’d succeeded in that at least.

But while she found success in her mission parameters, she found she didn’t prepare to be on the other side of things. The Mizukage’s inquisitive gaze promised more complex questions would follow the one he’d just asked and that one she could barely find an answer to.

Raikage-sama doesn’t care about the Hidden Rain and mercenaries…well…

She hid her rising anxiety behind a smile and answered the Mizukage’s expectant gaze as vaguely as she could afford. “Mercenaries are not unusual or unorthodox, I—”

“Oh no, these mercenaries are quite special. I’m sure their name must’ve come across his office once or perhaps thrice. Maybe more.” He shrugged, crossed his fingers and leaned forward. “They call themselves the Akatsuki, ring a bell, yes?”

It does…but can I answer any of these questions? This feels like a trap. Things were already tense between their villages and their reparations were still being measured downstairs and would still be for at least another two days. She just needed to squirm a way out of this conversation.

“Ah…perhaps we can discuss them at a later date, when Lord Raikage is present perhaps.” Mabui said, her heart instantly skipping a beat when the Mizukage’s eyes narrowed even further, suspicion about. She doubled down before he could speak and stood. “Now, please I’m quite exhausted from the trip back and forth and would much appreciate a night's rest…?”

The tension in his brows disappeared like it was never there, a bright, accommodating smile replaced it as he stood and gestured at the door. “Of course, there’ll be someone out there to guide you and yours to accommodations, let's talk some more soon.”

Mabui afforded a chuckle as she escaped the interrogation. “Yes, soon.”