A Shard Among Leaves: A Mission

[A Mission]

Hirari rubbed a piece of bark between her fingers, watching as the dead carcasses of several dozen of her minuscule Kikaichu came off on her skin. She frowned, glancing up the blackened bark of the tree that served as her first colony's home.

Several subjects display a mineral deficiency that is not representative of their rather abundant surroundings, she noted with a curious tilt of her head. Perhaps a mutation or a negative result of continued inbreeding within the colony.

Hirari reached up and pushed her goggles further up her face, the yellow lenses resting against her forehead as she squinted at the bark. Her internal colony remained calm in the low light even as her ultra-sensitive eyes picked up what they could not before. Her Kikaichu crawled up and down the bark of the tree and she could see discoloration in an alarming amount of their number. The deficiency was spreading. She would need to cull the infected and bolster the gene pool or she was liable to lose more.

Pulling her goggles back down, Hirari reached back and slid open a panel on the box on her back. Her Kikaichu rolled from their confines in a wave, blackened tendrils of writhing insects streaming through the air to surround the tree.

These Kikaichu were some of her more dangerous stock—bred over generations as she cherry-picked the traits she preferred and culled the ones that would be detrimental to the hive. She could not house the majority of them in her body, hence the need for an external container.

They poured over the tree, spreading across the bark and disappearing into the crevices and hollows that served as the colony's home. In time they would integrate with the larger colony and cull the weakness that had infested it. It would take several generations for the deficiency to be bred out entirely, but the introduction of fresh genetic material would accelerate the process considerably.

In the meantime, it would take perhaps a full day for her personal colony to regain the numbers she'd just expended. It was an acceptable trade, for she had no plans to partake in any strenuous activity today.

She closed the box and secured it, adjusting the straps across her shoulders. Just as it settled into its usual position, she paused, then turned, raising an eyebrow at the figure that had appeared behind her.

They were tall, and wrapped in a heavy cloak that covered them from head to toe, apart from the pale lion mask obscuring their face.

Hirari tilted her head, noting the strange buzz around him, as well as the distinct lack of chakra feeding into the air. It was a technique she recognized, for she employed it herself. Chakra suppression achieved by utilizing a thin layer of kikaichu to feed on one's ambient chakra as it was produced. No other clan could do it, and even fewer within could manage it so thoroughly.

“I suppose a member of our clan would make wonderful clandestine operatives,” Hirari mused aloud. “How are you, Haru? It has been quite a while since I've seen you around the compound. I was beginning to think you were not coming back.”

The Anbu twitched but refused to answer her question, moving past it like he hadn't even heard it, though she knew he had.

“The Hokage requires your presence,” Haru said, his voice rough and strained as he tried his best to make it come out deeper.

“May I ask why?” She tilted her head. “Also, would you mind if I took a look at your colony? I've recently had to repurpose a great deal of my own and since you're busy with your operations, I think I might be able to put it to better—”

Haru disappeared in a swirl of leaves before she could finish her sentence. She felt him breach the Aburame compound and then flee into the greater village where she soon lost him. Hirari stared at his last position, a small frown creasing her lips.

“Rude.”

She wondered what the Hokage could possibly want with her. She was fulfilling his orders to the letter. She had stopped creating new colonies and focused on expanding the ones she already had. Moreover, she had not caused any notable incidents in the last several weeks barring that one blip on her otherwise perfect record.

Well, apart from a single incident with a Genin who wandered into her colony, but that was an outlier. That training ground was expressly for Chunin only, so any injuries were his fault, and aside from that, he made a full recovery, even if his quality of life would be vastly reduced with the loss of the majority of his fingers.

She maintained that it was not her fault. He should have been following regulations. Stupidity was entirely outside of her control.

Her otherwise spotless record left only one conclusion. She'd been selected for a mission. Perhaps one that would see her out of the village, in dangerous territory, whilst she had just repurposed a great deal of her most effective units.

How suboptimal. She'd have to pay a visit to her other colonies. Hopefully, it would be an easy mission.

“You're being assigned an A-Rank reinforcement mission in the Land of Waves. The information is in this packet. Read it on the way there.”

Hirari took the packet from the Hokage's outstretched hand, her expression betraying nothing as she flipped it open and scanned the first page. It was painted black with sparsely spaced text that was even sparser on the details. From what she could glean, the team she was to reinforce was a Genin squad headed by Kakashi Hatake. A rather important name. It did not bode well that he was the one asking for reinforcements.

Which begged the question...

“Why am I being deployed alone for an A-Rank reinforcement mission? Would it not be a better idea to send one or, better yet, a full squad of Anbu operatives to see this situation is fairly dealt with?”

“Anbu units are currently occupied with other matters. All available operatives are deployed on missions of equal or greater priority,” Hiruzen responded plainly.

Hirari tilted her head. “All of them?”

“All of them.”

“The entire Black Ops division of one of the five great shinobi villages is busy. Simultaneously.”

“That is what I said, yes.”

She stared at him. He stared back, his expression completely blank.

“I see.” Hirari tucked the packet into the folds of her clothing. “I will depart immediately. Is there anything else I should know?”

“Just what's in the packet. Good luck, Hirari.”

She turned and walked toward the door. As she reached for the handle, she paused, glancing at a space to the right, before turning back.

“Hokage-sama.”

His eye gave a concerning twitch. “Yes?”

“Perhaps the Anbu division should consider improving its resource allocation strategies. If the entire operative roster of a village's elite black ops unit can be simultaneously occupied, then maybe it would be best to weed out the unnecessary bloat and replace it with something that would better serve the village's interests as opposed to... standing around.”

Hiruzen twitched again but didn't respond. Hirari took that as her cue to leave.

As the door shut behind her, the Hokage slumped in his seat, a haggard expression slipping onto his face as he reached for his pipe. “That girl...”

To the right of the door, exactly where the young Aburame had glanced, the air wavered. Layers of chakra pulled back to reveal a woman with violet hair clad in a uniform and a Cat mask. She stared at the door, then slowly looked back at her leader.

“Did she...?”

“It's entirely possible, yes.” Hiruzen puffed on his pipe.

The Cat-masked operative shifted her weight, glancing back at the door with clear concern, before shaking her head. “Hokage-sama... with respect, is one Chunin going to make a difference where Hound is concerned?”

Hiruzen stared out the window, puffing on his pipe several more times until it seemed like he was making a candid effort to fill the entire room by his lonesome. After a long moment, he spoke. “Kakashi didn't ask for reinforcements. From the way his letter read, he has things well in hand, or at least he thinks he does.”

Cat seemed confused. “I'm afraid I don't follow. Why send her if everything's fine?”

Hiruzen shook his head with a chuckle. “That girl has been a thorn in my side since the day she graduated from the Academy. Her combat records are immaculate, every mission ends with success in some form. Why, if she were born just a decade ago, I might have taken her on as my own student, for all the good it would do her.”

He tapped the pipe against the edge of his desk, spilling ash onto the floor.

“She is, without a doubt, one of the finest kunoichi this village has produced in a generation,” he said. “And I would sooner eat my own pipe than spend another week with her in my village while she finds new and creative ways to make my life a living hell. I have enough paperwork without a hand-signed letter crossing my desk every three days, asking for permission to do this or that in an effort to serve the village.”

Cat stared at him. “...You sent her away because she's annoying?”

Hiruzen chuckled. “Seems like I might be going crazy in my old age, doesn't it? You'll understand eventually, I'm sure.”

Cat glanced at the door again, then back to her leader who seemed entirely too satisfied with himself.

“I'm not sure I want to understand, Hokage-sama.”

A knock at the front door made Tsunami perk up. From her spot in the kitchen, she glanced around the table and into the open hall where it was situated, wondering if she’d been imagining it. The knock came again, and she put the dirty dishes back into the sink, before heading over to unlock it.

She pulled the door open, a polite greeting already on her lips as she expected to see either Naruto's loud, beaming face or perhaps Sakura stopping by after training to check on her.

Instead, she found herself staring at open air, until her gaze was slowly pulled down.

A little girl stood on her doorstep. She couldn't have been more than five feet tall, wrapped head to toe in heavy grey and black clothing that swallowed her small frame entirely. A thick scarf covered everything below her nose, and a pair of opaque yellow goggles stared up at Tsunami from underneath a shock of wild black hair. A large wooden box was strapped to her back, somehow the least absurd thing about her.

“Do not be alarmed.” Tsunami twitched at the tiny, prepubescent voice. “I am an ally. I have been sent from Konohagakure to regroup with and assist Team Seven in their mission.”

Tsunami just stared at her.

The girl tilted her head, the lenses of her goggles catching the light. “Additionally, it is a bad idea for a civilian to open a door in a hostile situation. Please refrain from doing that in the future.”

Tsunami continued to stare.

“Maa... I didn't request reinforcements.”

Tsunami jumped, spinning to find Kakashi leaning against the hallway wall behind her, his single visible eye curved in that perpetually lazy, half-lidded expression he always seemed to wear. “What's Hokage-sama doing sending a cute little Genin all the way out here?”

His tone was pleasant, but there was something underneath it that made Tsunami's skin crawl. He hobbled forward on his crutches, staring the girl down. She didn't seem to notice or care and reached into the folds of her clothing and produced a sealed envelope, holding it out to him between two tiny fingers.

“I am a Chunin, not a Genin. Here is the mission packet from the Hokage.”

Kakashi took the envelope and pulled out the papers inside, his eye scanning the pages with a speed that belied his casual posture. Tsunami watched as something shifted in his expression, a barely perceptible tightening around his eye that came and went in an instant.

He sighed.

“Well, alright then.” He tucked the papers away and gestured vaguely toward the interior of the house. “Welcome to Wave, uhh...”

“Hirari Aburame,” the girl supplied.

“Right, right.” Kakashi stepped aside, his crutches shifting against the wooden floor. “I guess I should have expected that given the...” He gestured vaguely at her general person.

“Yes,” Hirari agreed, stepping past Tsunami and into the house. She paused in the genkan, turning back to the older woman. “I apologize for the intrusion. I will make it up to you by eliminating your pest problem.”

Tsunami blinked, distantly noticing Kakashi's chuckle behind her. “Pest problem?”

Bugs. Everywhere. All at once.

A tide of black poured from every single opening in the girl's clothes, emerging as a writhing mass that quickly spread outward from her body.

Every single drop of blood drained from Tsunami's face as millions of insects flooded across the wooden boards of her home, splitting into rivulets that streamed along the baseboards and disappeared into the walls. They crawled up the doorframe and slipped into the cracks between the wood, vanishing into the structure of the house like they weren't even there.

Tsunami lurched backward, nearly tripping over her own feet as she pressed herself against the hallway wall. Her hands came up to her mouth, eyes wide as the last of the swarm disappeared into her walls. “W-w-what!? What are you doing!?”

“Please remain calm. They will not harm you or your property,” Hirari said as she removed her shoes and lined them up neatly by the door. “It will only take a few minutes to completely eradicate the pests in the perimeter of your home. Though you will have to make the necessary precautions to prevent them from returning in the future as I am unable to do so.”

Tsunami's mouth opened but no sound came out as horror choked her lungs. So many bugs, she thought distantly. Where did they all go?

Kakashi watched the whole display with a slight smile. “Well, she's not wrong about the pests. I noticed you've got quite the beetle problem the other day.”

Tsunami slowly turned to look at him, the horror in her eyes not fading a bit. Hirari walked past her and into the house as though she owned the place, her small form disappearing around the corner into the main room. Kakashi followed after her, whistling a merry tune, leaving Tsunami standing on her own.

Steps from above had her glance up to find her son, Inari, standing at the top of the stairs. He gave her a weird look, noting the open door.

“You're gonna let bugs in.”