The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

109: Up In The Clouds

[OP: "Passerine"--The Oh Hellos]

Meanwhile, many miles away, in Cloud Village, Lord Ay had called his faithful assistant to his office early that morning.

Mabui had plenty of work to do already that day, but Ay's personal requests always took priority.

"Yes, sir?" she said, when she came in.

"Shut the door," Ay said. "I don't want everyone to hear this."

Mabui shut the door.

"This goes no farther than this room," Ay said. "Only Darui knows about it already, and my brother, and now you."

Mabui had an idea what this was about.

"Is it the Kazekage's party, sir?" she asked.

"You guessed it." Ay nodded gruffly. "I'm guessing you didn't find anything new on them since we last talked."

"Since last week, no, sir." Mabui shook her head. "I have tried every avenue I could think of. Nothing. They covered their tracks well. Before the war, no one had heard of them."

"And of the Kazekage himself?" Ay asked.

"No sign of any ulterior motives in his other visits," Mabui said. "But, there's only so much I have been cleared to know."

"I've gotten nowhere with asking the Hokage directly." Ay shuffled his papers, just out of frustration--they weren't relevant ones to the case.

"So...what is the news?" Mabui asked, after it seemed he wasn't going to speak again.

Ay had been lost in thought. "Oh? I didn't say it, did I...?"

Ay didn't like others to know he tended to have an absent-minded side, but for his trusted officials it was common knowledge, and Mabui knew better than to act at all surprised by it.

"I've just had this report from an unexpected source," Ay said. "Tsunade of Leaf. Former Hokage, but she's retired now, you know that?"

"Yes, sir." Mabui had known it for months, as had everyone else on staff, but Ay wasn't asking her because he really cared.

"She's been in Stone with the Kasakage's party," Ay said. "Some sickness laid out the Tsuchikage, and she says she figured he wouldn't be up to writing us a report, so she and his little granddaughter are writing it for him."

"They're trusting her to write a report?"

"She said it's because she was dealing with the sickness, so she knows the details," Ay brushed it aside.

Mabui wasn't quite sure it was that simple. It didn't sound right.

But Ay didn't think Tsunade was up to anything. He didn't think she was that cunning. [He's right, too.]

"And the seal of the Village is on it." He showed Mabui a small message. "So it's reliable. The point is, the report is strange. It says they've done well in Stone, but Stone is not capable at this time of entering the alliance as a full member, and they will revisit it in the future when they've had more time to recover. Why go to Stone at all if it wasn't interested?"

"I don't know." Mabui knew he didn't care what she said--he just wanted to know she was listening.

"Yes, but they say that the Kazekage has been nothing but helpful to them, and they hope to revisit Stone in the future," Ay said. "Which sounds strange enough, but they also stated that the Kazekage has also been to Rain Village..."

Mabui lost her composure for the first time.

"Rain Village?" she repeated, forgetting to address him formally. "Impossible."