The Beginning of a Partnership

Pakura woke to the morning sunlight streaming through the window onto her face.

Her mind was blurry for a moment before her ninja training kicked in and she snapped into full wakefulness.

Flushing her lax muscles with her chakra, causing them to contract and relax minutely for a swift warm up, she sat up and took in her situation.

She was in a medical ward with all sorts of instruments surrounding her.

She grew doubtful for a moment. When had she been injured?

As the last vestiges of the soporific drug were flushed out of her system, the memories of the previous night hit her like a ton of bricks and she gasped.

She had been sold off to the man who had redesigned Suna with a sweep of his hand and the monster had been treating her like a lab rat.

Immediately, she went to check on the state of her body. She was currently clad in a plain white hospital gown and the straps holding her down were gone.

Hastily checking another part of her, she was relieved. At least she hadn't been encroached upon in that manner.

Although, recalling the way he had looked at her, she didn't know whether it was a good thing.

She sighed as the weight of the betrayal of the Suna council weighted down on her. All her life's work… gone in an instant. She didn't even feel like escaping. Forget about whether she would be able to successfully avoid that godlike man… even if she did manage it, then what?

She would become a missing nin. Was she to spend the rest of her life in hiding in some remote village?

With the ongoing war, nowhere was safe and sooner or later she would be drawn into the vortex, most probably in a side opposite to the sand.

Even though the Suna high-level had betrayed her, she could never bring herself to lift a hand against the floor ninja who had no idea about it. They had been her comrades and subordinates for so long that she would rather leave her fate in the hands of a heartless monster than fight them.

She thought briefly of suicide now that she was free… but decided against it as she harboured a lucky psychology.

Despite her cheesy spiel last night, her tongue was still intact and she had been freed too… maybe she had managed to influence him with her words? She could only hope.

Suddenly, she could sense a presence approaching the door. She frowned. This wasn't chakra sensation. As an experienced sensory ninja, she could easily distinguish between a chakra imprint and a fake one like illusory clones. But what she was sensing from the presence was something different. It was emotions.

Self-satisfaction, mischief, anticipation.

All the emotions one would expect someone getting ready to pull a prank to feel. Pakura was utterly confused about what it could mean but in her dejected state, she couldn't bring herself to be curious enough to investigate.

The presence was approaching anyway… she would know soon enough.

The door to the ward swung open revealing the figure of the monster carrying a tray laden with a huge pile of food.

He walked in with his pearly whites on full display and set the tray down on a table by the bed she was sitting on before pulling up a chair, reversing it so the back faced her way and sitting down with his arms crossed on top of the backrest and his chin resting on his arms.

She felt quite bewildered at his shift in attitude towards her.

"So, how are we this morning? I know weren't exactly in the most social of situations last time… but I have something that might cheer you up."

He tossed a scroll at her.

She caught the scroll on reflex and began reading it. Her brows furrowed more the further she read and her anger began bubbling within her, displacing the apathy.

When she heard him saying, "Congratulations. You have been promoted from the status of my experimental subject to my secretary." She couldn't hold on to her ire any longer and threw the scroll at his face.

Immediately, sand welled up to block it.

She yelled, "What nonsense is this? Am I to just ignore what happened last night? They send me on a mission to Kiri and leak my route to you so you can capture me and now, they send a revised mission order, giving me a S ranked mission to be your secretary and I'm just supposed to follow their orders? Do they have no culpability for their abuse of the mission syste…"

She suddenly began choking as tendrils of sand suddenly appeared and bound her tight and one wrapped around her neck.

"Silence, girl. Your words last night revealed to me that I wasn't behaving in a proper manner and I decided to change the way I worked towards my goals. So, instead of forcibly experimenting on you, I decided to get you formally under my employ.

"This way, not only do you get paid for coordinating with me for my research, you also get to maintain your membership in the sand village. With me as your backing, you can go about bringing in all those reforms you have been advocating. Even I agree that a council which can abandon its people so easily is rotten to the core.

"Instead of thinking through the matter and finding out the advantages, you scatter your emotions at me and start yelling. I thought you were a promising young lady when I decided to give you the position. I am beginning to think that I was mistaken.

"You have two choices. When I release you from the bindings of my sand, you will drop your blood on the scroll to agree to my conditions otherwise, I will bind you back to that table and we can go back to what we were doing yesterday.

"Refusing a compulsory mission will make you a missing nin and I have no qualms against experimenting on criminals."

The sand fell away and she began coughing and gasping for breath. Taking in deep shuddering breaths to steady herself, her mind began churning as she ran through what he said.

As incredible as it might seem, it was her impassioned speech last night which had affected him. What he was proposing basically boiled down to his willingness to care about the people of Suna enough to take an interest in the quality of their governance.

Wasn't this what she had been hoping to achieve? Either get him on Suna's side or eliminate him.

She stood up and gave him a respectful bow before biting her thumb and smearing her blood onto the scroll, sealing the deal.

Taking back the scroll, his stern countenance dissolved and he broke into a chuckle. "You should have seen your face. Haha. No need to be so formal now.

"I'm actually quite amiable… I know that you must be feeling pretty horrible with how you have been treated by the council… but instead of just getting emotional you need to think of what you can do to remedy the situation… I just wanted to shock you into thinking along those lines. I hope we have no hard feelings."

The monster… no her employer extended his hand to her with a smile. She could somehow feel good intentions radiating off him.

She managed a reluctant smile as she shook his hand, wondering about how she could feel his emotions. Was it a genjutsu? It didn't seem like it since her yin chakra was undisturbed. Maybe a special capability… she decided to ask to probe what kind of boundaries he wanted. Would he share his information with her or would she be something more like a retainer on call?

"Could you please turn off your genjutsu?" She rasped through her sore throat.

He looked at her in surprise. "Oh? You can feel it too?"

He devolved into muttering. "Hmm… so it goes both ways. She doesn't have a condensed soul… does this mean it isn't a soul bond but something else? Is it only the emotions or can thoughts and memories be shared too? How interesting…"

*rmble*

The sound her stomach grumbling snapped him out of his daze and she blushed in embarrassment.

He smiled and said, "Why don't you eat as we talk? I'm sure you must be hungry after remaining without food since last night. After all you ninja have enhanced appetites."

He waved towards the tray piled with food and she washed her hands and brushed her teeth at a sink in the ward and came back to dig into the food with her usual gusto.

Feeling his amused vision on her, she couldn't help but slow down a bit.

"Well, to answer your question, we seem to have been bonded somehow… after your speech last night, I realized that my behaviour was quite obnoxious… and this realization might have triggered something and bonded us.

"As far as I can tell, within a range of ten metres, we can sense each other's emotions… if it has any other functions, they remain hidden, waiting for us to unearth… it is the main reason I chose you as my secretary. Compared to my research on kekkei genkai, I want to clarify this bond urgently… and the best way would be to obtain your cooperation."

He stopped talking and they both sat in silence as she finished her meal and wiped her hands and face.

When she came back from putting the tray and the dishes into the sink, he spoke: "The very reason I wanted to dominate Suna was for its information network. Jinchuuriki are like the final trump cards of nations. Finding them on my own would be very difficult without an established information source. If there is great unrest due to my rule, the network wont function properly and I might even get false information. That is why I need your help to be accepted as the leader so everyone can give their loyalty to me. Why don't we introduce ourselves? You go first."

She nodded and said, "Pakura of the Sand. Jonin. Possessor of the Scorch style kekkei genkai. I like fans. I dislike spicy food. My hobbies are collecting folding fans and cooking. My dream was to get acknowledged by the villagers… but now? I'm not so sure."

"You people have introductions down to a science. Ok. I am Lin Feng, former hegemon of the Grand Architectural Sect. I like architecture, runic studies, alchemy and forging. I dislike the colour orange. My hobbies… creating blueprints for my future works. My dream is to travel the multiverse, leaving my trace on all the worlds I visit in the form of my buildings."

Then, he went on to explain all about the multiverse and that he came from a different world. Pakura listened dumbfounded as her world view was shattered and rebuilt. He provided proof in the form of his lacking a chakra system and yet being capable of jutsu.

Since this was an unprecedented cultivation method in this world, she felt her disbelief erode away slightly. When he demonstrated void force, her faith in the world she knew vacillated even more.

But, in the end, it was the fact that lying to her was completely unnecessary for him and by gauging the emotions through their bond that she decided to trust him.

Lin Feng grinned as he said, "So I have my first task for you. Go around the city, talking to the populace and using your clone and transformation jutsu to have it disguise as me. Apologise to everyone for the inconvenience… and collect the names of the heroes on the Monument of Martyrs.

"I have decided to build a much nicer monument as an apology."

Pakura stared at him incredulously, "Shouldn't you go personally if you want to apologise?"

He sighed, "Look girl. I might be feeling guilty… but I can't be bothered to go door to door. It's too troublesome. It's a great chance for you to drum up support for yourself by flaunting your relation with me… you can even make it out that you were the one who convinced me to apologize… which is technically true.

"So, you get your influence, I get a makeover for my reputation and seem more human. It will prevent further unrest as the leader of the progressive faction, you, will be seen to have me under control. Finally, I get to have fun designing a new project.

"It's a win-win for everyone."

Pakura grew pensive for a moment before asking a few questions to clarify her orders and then nodded in acknowledgement.

It was the beginning of a long partnership.