Wandering Heathens

Déjà Vu?

"State your business" Ao demanded. Mei was sitting behind his desk, his green eyes taking in the woman before her. Yumi bowed respectfully and keeping her eyes on the floor, addressed Mei, "I have come to pay my respects to the Mizukage." Mei smiled and welcomed her to Kirigakure. Ao activated her byakugan and and scanned Yumi. "Like what you see?" She purred to her and she blushed and stammered, saying it was security protocol. Mei, mistaking the exchange as flirting, assigned Ao to escort Yumi around Kiri.

Shinjo stifled his laughter as he watched Yumi and Ao leave the office after several minutes and almost gave himself away when she scowled in his direction. "This way Lady Yumi" Ao said while gesturing to a hallway that would take them out of the Tower. She nodded, smiled at her and complimented her intelligence.

Shinjo slipped back into the room where he left the guards and began scanning books, maps and scrolls. He was growing frustrated when he wasn't able to find usable intel until he spied a hidden compartment on a table. He knelt down and ran his fingers over the slight indentation in the wood. Pressing it, the piece of wood moved inside and a small cloud of dust blew out at him as the mechanizations whirred and softly clanked. The table opened down the middle and the halves dropped down as a three dimensional topographical map emerged. 

He grabbed a blank scroll and an inked brush and began writing down the troop strengths and where they were posted. He glanced at the pegs that marked potential combat positions and wondered who Kirigakure was planning to either attack or invade. Looking closer at the map he froze: the Land of Rivers. Shit! Should we warn the Akatsuki? Maybe leave them to be invaded? I'll decide that later...

He rolled up the scroll and tucked it into his pants before silently slipping out the window. Yumi was nowhere to be seen and he ran to find her.

"You're so funny Ao-chan!" Yumi giggled as she lightly slapped the woman's arm. She chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of her head. Yumi looked at her from beneath her lashes and smiled. A whisp of black chakra caught her attention and she quickly turned to see Shinjo peeking from behind a building. He motioned that they had to leave as soon as possible.

"Who is it?" Ao asked, sensing the chakra and moving to protect Yumi. "It was nothing!" She protested but Ao remained fixated on where she felt the chakra. When tugging on her robes and pleading with her to leave didn't work, Yumi grabbed Ao's shoulder, spun her around and planted her lips on Ao's. The Kiri woman was silenced and initially hesitated, but soon returned the kiss.

Shinjo facepalmed himself and shook his head but took advantage of the moment of diversion to slip away and out of Kirigakure. He met Itachi as he was sprinting back to where they had made camp. "Their troop strength has increased since Yagura's death. There's too many shinobi to pass it off as a protective force. What did you find?" She asked. "Wait for Ryuu. Hopefully he's learned something from his...investigation." "You mean his dalliance with Mei's bodyguard?" Itachi asked, disdain dripping from her voice. Shinjo ignored her and checked that the scroll was still with him. "Perimeter is clear. No threats detected" Kisame said as she walked into the camp. Itachi nodded to her as Kisame walked over and embraced her. Shinjo put his robe on and sat by the remains of last night's fire and waited.

As the sun dipped behind the mist, the figure of Yumi came out of the mist and walked into camp. Before she could say a word Shinjo grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from the camp. When he was sure they were alone and neither Itachi or Kisame was listening in, he dropped her wrist. "What the hell?!" Yumi said with indignation. "Change back before we talk" Shinjo ordered. With a huff, Yumi jokingly performed a strip tease, moving her hips side to side and making her breasts bounce. Shinjo sighed as he waited for Ryuu to return to his male form which he did.

He slipped on his robe and took the scroll that Shinjo had handed him. He began examine the scroll's contents as Shinjo piled the clothes onto a carrier scroll and sealed them inside. Ryuu frowned as he scanned the troop numbers and where they were placed at the border. "This makes no sense. The Land of Rivers is neutral and not involved in Nation politics so why would they amass there?" "I have no idea. Did you learn anything from your girlfriend?" "Decent kisser I suppose. Hang on," Ryuu said as he fished his map from his pouch.

He spread the map on the ground and looked. "The Land of Fire is allowing troops to be stationed along its borders. Odd given the history between them... Suna won't attack because of the treaty they signed after Orochimaru's attack but...oh you sons of bitches! Shinjo! We need to go NOW!" Ryuu shouted as he shoved the map and intel report into his pouch and began running. "What the-" Shinjo started to say but changed his mind and ran to get Itachi and Kisame.

"What's going on?!" Itachi asked as Shinjo hurriedly explained to them that they had to head back to the hideout. "Ryuu discovered something?" "Yeah. It seems he's found an attack movement. I don't know much more than that. Are you two going to be ok? I need to catch up to him" Shinjo explained as he ran beside the women. "Go. Protect him" Kisame replied through gritted teeth as her and Itachi branched off from him while he put wind chakra into his feet to move faster.

He stopped running and stood bent over with his hands on his knees, panting. A hand reached up and wrapped around his mouth, jerking his head up, while the other hand pinned his sword arm to his waist. "Don't make a sound. They're close. Follow me." Ryuu released Shinjo and dropped to the ground, crawling through the grass. He pointed to the border that separated where they were from Amegakure, the silhouettes of men and women barely visible through the pounding rain.

Shinjo watched for a minute. Then it clicked for him: "Kirigakure is trying to move to the mainland!" he exclaimed, looking at Ryuu who smirked. "Exactly. Just like after the Second Shinobi War. We fought in that as Zuko-sensei's agents" he finished as he slipped into a depression in the earth and sighed. Shinjo slid into the depression and looked at Ryuu, "and Pein controls Amegakure. Does she know?" the redhead asked wearily. "I doubt it. I didn't exactly have a lot of time to tell Itachi or Kisame." "No matter," he replied, laying his head on Shinjo's shoulder, "the troops are still arriving. We have a day or so" he murmured as he fell asleep. Shinjo made himself comfortable and began his watch. Is it déjà vu if you fight the same battle twice but in different eras? I thought we'd escaped Zuko when we left but now I wonder if we'll ever escape our father.