AIC 41 WIP

Suna was the obvious answer. Konoha  would turn to their longest ally for support in this. Kiri also had a decent hand in relations with Sunagakure for the time, given that she had custody of Gaara, but they would be wary about the possibility that she was a warmonger. 

She considered it for a while. Would the Hokage have turned to the smaller villages for this? 

She decided that yes, probably, he had. Konoha had solid relationships with a fair few of the less powerful countries, and it would have legitimized his claims of international consensus. She noted it and tabled it for later thought. Any one of the minor countries wasn’t a huge issue. As a group it could become a problem, but some kind of holistic solution could address multiple problems in one stroke.

That left Iwa and Lightning. Would either of have possibly agreed to cooperate with Konoha to censure her? 

She twisted her lips, not liking the conclusion she came to. She didn’t have to worry about Iwa. Iwa hated Konoha far more than they cared about Kiri, and they were too far away to do more than laugh about chaos on the eastern side of the continent. Lightning, on the other hand, was fairly close. 

Lightning wasn’t as insular as Iwa. Lightning had always been involved in the affairs of other countries. 

Aiko sighed and put her chin on her palm. 

Lightning was probably willing to sign a notice advising Kiri to cease expansionist policies or face military consequences. They probably wouldn’t initiate it on their own— sabotage would be much more their speed— but they would probably lend their weight to Konoha’s protests.

The obvious solution, of course, was to get Lightning so pissed off at Konoha that any cooperation would go straight out the window. Aiko frowned at her window, turning over the possibilities. Konoha wouldn’t do anything to endanger a deal they wanted to propose, so she’d have to frame them. Frame... impersonate? 

She chewed it over along with a pastry and coffee. She knew Konoha and she knew their codes, she knew their paperwork specifications and communication habits. She could falsify incriminating documents. It would be convincing. It would require her to think up terrible things for Konoha to supposedly be doing, things that would leave a paper trail... and then she’d need a way for them to fall into Lightning’s hands that wouldn’t look obviously contrived.

It was a tall order. 

And then she had an idea. 

“Oh,” Aiko marveled, “that would be bad.” 

Sanbi stirred, a silent question. 

“I could just impersonate Konoha ninja,” Aiko said. She leaned back in her chair. “I know a lot of them and their habits well, and I know distinctive Konoha techniques and jutsu. If I wander around where Konoha shouldn’t be, start a distinctive fight, and escape, I can let Lightning come up with their own guesses as to what Konoha was doing.” 

Sanbi let out a laugh. “That is terrible,” he said approvingly. “Who could you impersonate convincingly?” 

She hummed, considering it. “It’s only worth considering jounin, I think,” she mused. “People who would be recognized. Kakashi for sure. Sen Tsurara is going to look exactly like his signature murder technique, as like as I siphon up the water afterward. Kurenai... I can do genjutsu on that level and I know her habits. Genma... he’s a basic bitch and I’m mad at him, so I’ve gotta frame him for something... oh, Yamato.” She giggled. “The world doesn’t know about him, but if they see Mokuton, everyone will look at Konoha.” 

“That is a fairly conclusive list,” Sanbi said. “However, it would constitute two teams at best. If you wish to spread havoc, perhaps more fake missions would be preferable. How about the turtle man?”

Aiko opened her mouth and then closed it. “No,” she demurred. “I’m not going to mess with Gai. But..” she thought about her creepy, creepy eyes. “I have a perfectly good Sharingan. I could make it look like there’s an extant Uchiha running around. And...” she trailed off and leaned back in her seat.

The Byakugan and Sharingan were supposedly related. Her Rinnegan allowed her to use any type of chakra, so they were clearly flexible... Given that her Rinnegan came with a Sharingan, was there a chance of using a Byakugan or something similar to imitate a genetic Hyuuga?

“Do I get a vote?” Sanbi asked, interested. “There’s someone in Konoha that I hate.”

She blinked, distracted. “You do?” She shrugged. “Yeah, sure. Who is it?” 

“The frog man,” Sanbi hissed.

“Frog... Toads?” Aiko checked. “Do you mean Jiraiya?” 

The answer was a blank silence. 

“The man with messy white hair who dances when he introduces himself?” She corrected.

“Yes, that’s the one,” Sanbi confirmed. “He has an extremely displeasing aura and crass mannerisms. We should punish him.” 

“You know what, that’s fair,” Aiko agreed. “He’s my godfather.” 

“He is my enemy for life,” Sanbi said. “And I will live forever, so good luck to the frog man.” 

“...did something specific prompt this?” Aiko asked. 

“I find the way he giggles extremely distasteful,” Sanbi said darkly. “He is a rude little man who puts his dirty feet on furniture. He must be made to face consequences.”

...she had forgotten about that. 

“Okay,” Aiko hummed. She thought about how to do it. The toads were the most distinctive and damning identifier for Jiraiya. Sealing was fairly distinctive as well, but harder to have a reason to show off. “I don’t have access to his summons contract, but I have his speeches and some of the dances memorized. I can just go be a loud idiot in front of a beautiful woman and it’ll get back to Lightning somehow.” 

“He is a national disgrace,” Sanbi murmured. 

“No, he’s an international disgrace,” Aiko corrected. “He makes us all look bad, in one way or another.” 

...she had a sudden recollection. “I left him with Tsunade before I went off to fight Orochimaru last week,” Aiko remembered. “They probably think I’m dead, huh?” 

“All the more reason he will not understand it is you who has imitated his shameful mannerisms.” Sanbi let out a pleased hiss, curling his tails in. 

That wasn’t what she meant, but it was probably true to some extent. 

“I should go check on that.” She made a mental note. Given that she had kind of exploded information all over Tsunade, she was pretty optimistic that there was a non-zero chance the princess was going to storm home and throw Danzo off a tower. 

With that decided, she sent off a note requisitioning any authentic weaponry and armor confiscated from fire country in the last few years. When it was laid out on her desk, she picked through it for the bits that were authentic and fit at least one of her characters. There weren’t any senbon in the pile, but Genma wasn’t likely to let one of those drop for an enemy to find anyway. She could use any generic one, she decided.

Because she hated his stupid ass, Aiko decided to impersonate him first. She split off into a clone, which she disguised as Kurenai. She made her true body into an imitation of the assassin, and pushed past her cringe to hold a needle in her teeth.

“interesting,“ said her secretary, who was still standing there. “Are you going out on errands?”

“Yes,” Aiko agreed. “You can expect me back in a couple of hours. I’m going to go ruin someone’s life.“ 

Nishikawa grimaced just a bit. “ have a safe trip.” He bowed.