“Izumi, I’m heading out.”
“Okay! Don’t forget I start a mission today, and did you grab your lun–” the brown-haired Uchiha was cut off by the sound of the front door slamming shut, and all she could do was sigh to herself.
She might have not let Sasuke grow up completely alone over the past few years, but there were some things she couldn't do much about.
Him growing more withdrawn from being his past happy self was basically inevitable after the massacre. Him throwing his all into training was a combination of him trying to never be powerless like they both were that night and a way to spend more time with her when she could spare it. Him deciding to embrace being a dark, edgy preteen was a choice though.
She had bought him too many clothes that weren’t some combination of black, dark blue, or more black that had gone unworn for it to be something else.
Izumi had a hard time calling him out about it though because, besides the attitude, Sasuke rarely did things for himself that wasn’t going to the Academy or more training on his own.
She sighed again. Hopefully it actually was just a phase and he would grow out of it eventually.
Nothing she could do about it now though.
Pushing those thoughts aside, Izumi finished her own preparations for the day. A few days worth of meals were prepped and stored away, the house was locked up, and Izumi hiked her backpack over one shoulder in preparation for travel.
After the Massacre Izumi’s movements had been fairly restricted. First because of medical concerns, but later because many of the village leaders were suddenly worried about losing the only active Uchiha ninja they had left.
Izumi herself hadn’t minded too much because it gave her plenty of time to dedicate purely on training and improving herself and she had been stabbed through the heart. But after two years of being unable to do anything outside of Konoha despite her technical rank of Tokubetsu Jōnin, the now fifteen year old ninja had gotten fed up with everyone treating her like glass and had been demanding to be able to take on missions again.
Two months ago she had finally convinced the Hokage that being locked up in the village was starting to stunt her growth as a ninja and got him to agree to letting her out on missions again.
They were all restricted to ones inside the Land of Fire, but Izumi would take what she could get. Even her current mission was only to a town a few days' travel from Konoha, but the important thing was that she could visit somewhere new!
-o-
“Welcome, traveler. What can I get ya?” The chef at the little food stand right near the town gate asked as Izumi walked up.
“That obvious, am I? And I’ll have a water and the number three set please.” She said, not surprised in the slightest. She was currently covered in dust from walking the last mile into town, was a new face, and since the main gate was nearby it was an easy assumption to make that she was a new arrival.
“We get new faces coming through here all the time. But I’d remember a pretty girl like you passing through previously.” The man confirmed her thinking. “Are you with one of the trading groups? I heard a bunch of fancy types are gathering here for some kind of shindig.”
“Oh no, I’m doing a food tour around the Land of Fire,” Izumi replied with her cover story. “My parents own a restaurant and thought I should check out the different styles out there before I work there full time.”
“Ah, a budding chef I see! Well, you’ll have to let me know what you think of your meal. I, myself, might be too old to wander around looking for new ideas, but a true chef is always looking to improve.” He laughed, “I’d be happy for your feedback.”
Izumi laughed back and tucked into her food once it was put in front of her.
It wasn’t bad exactly.
In fact, for a walk-up stand that focused more on getting customers their food fast instead of making each dish perfect, it was pretty good! The main problem was that there was really nothing making it stand out from any other stand just like it.
She gave the chef some generic praise for the meal and moved on.
Her mission this time wasn’t exactly on a time limit, but it also wasn’t one that really demanded she push her skills to the limit.
This was expected to be a low level C-rank mission more suited for a fresh Chunin than a Tokubetsu Jōnin – even if her critics would say her rank was artificially inflated.
If possible, Izumi would prefer to finish up her mission quickly and then spend a few days enjoying finally being out of Konoha than pretending the whole thing was more difficult than it was.
So once she found an inn that met her requirements, Izumi simply waited for nightfall and changed into her ninja gear.
At its base was the standard mesh armor, steel wire reinforced cloth that would help protect against minor cutting weapons like knives or shuriken. On top of that were a pair of dark blue pants and sleeveless shirt, with a red sash belt and scarf/mask combo that hid the bottom portion of her face. White footwraps and sandals replaced the standard issue shinobi footwear most ninja preferred with matching wraps around her wrists that hid storage seals for her own shuriken and kunai. Finishing off the look was the Konoha forehead protector that Izumi followed the proud tradition of not actually wearing on her forehead, choosing to keep it tied around her left bicep instead, and the Uchiha crest that marked the back of her shirt.
Not the most unique look compared to what some ninja decided to wear, but unknown to everyone else in this world – Izumi had stolen it like a proper Uchiha.
She looked like a genderbent Strider Hiryu and loved it, even if no one else would get the joke.
After one last check to make sure everything was secure, Izumi jumped out her window and vanished into the night.
-o-
As she expected it wasn’t very hard to sneak into the pharmaceutical research building where her target was supposed to be.
Her mission this time was a bit of corporate espionage. A rival company had hired her to sneak in and steal the manufacturing data for some new drug without any ties back to them. The funny thing – to Izumi at least – was that both sides were being extremely cheap both trying to acquire the data as well as protecting it.
One reason this mission was a C-rank was because the rival company had only paid for her to look through this one building. If the data wasn’t here the mission was over, even if Izumi found out where the data was actually being kept.
The other was that the main company had absolutely no security capable of detecting a half decent ninja from breaking in. Instead it seemed like they kept a token force of security guards and relied on their chairman’s relation to a local noble to keep anyone from stealing from them.
That obviously hadn’t worked and now Izumi was digging around their file room with impunity after she disabled the few alarms she’d found. Again, basic stuff that was no obstacle to any half-decent ninja.
‘Let’s see, employee records… expense forms… lab results, getting closer… supplier information… ah, here we go. Manufacturing references and processes. Perfect.’
Technically, Izumi could just steal the documents directly and call the mission complete. But there was a bonus if the main company had no proof their product had been stolen and she wasn’t in a rush.
Carefully laying out all relevant papers, Izumi began the process of making two copies.
One for the client, and one for Konoha.
Too bad the client forgot to include an exclusivity clause in their mission request. But she already knew they were being cheap, and a clause like that would have automatically bumped the mission price up by two extra zeroes.
Oh well, their loss was Konoha’s gain in this case.
Copies made, Izumi quickly returned all the files to their proper places, reactivated the alarms she disabled, and slipped back out of the building completely unnoticed.
Mission complete.
-o-
“I’m back!” Izumi announced as she walked in the front door of her house, not that she was expecting an answer since Sasuke should still be in the Academy right now.
So she was a little surprised when his spiky head leaned into the hallway and said, “Welcome back. How’d your mission go?”
“Piece of cake, but what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in class?”
Sasuke shrugged. “Naruto set off a glitter bomb in the classroom so we got the afternoon off while that gets cleaned up.”
“I see…” Izumi muttered. “Will he be dropping by for dinner then?”
“Doubt it. Iruka-sensei said he wasn’t letting him go until the room was spotless and we didn’t know you were getting back today. The moron will probably drag his feet until nightfall and then head home.”
“Alright, did you have a plan for dinner or do you just want to do takeout?”
Sasuke frowned. “I was just going to pick up something pre-made from a store on the way back from the training ground. But if you're not busy we could go out to eat, I guess.”
Technically Izumi did have a report she needed to write about the details of her mission… but that could wait until tomorrow.
“Sure, barbeque sound good?”
“Un.”
“Barbeque it is then.”