Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

Silence fell across the group as everyone digested the implications of ninja from a foreign nation stalking and murdering Leaf ninja so soon after the end of the latest World War.

"Now what?" Canvass asked.

The question hung in the air like a swinging corpse. One by one, the ninja in the group turned to Hazō, the leader. In the nighttime forest, they could only see by the harsh light of the Daybright Lanterns and the jet-black holes in the landscape left by the terrain. Canvass's question threw just as many shadows.

Hazō breathed deeply. The trail ended here. The enemy team wasn't carrying bodies with them. Even if they set down in another country, pursuing them wouldn't find Akane, because Akane would be…

"Dispel!" Hazō said, flaring his chakra.

Nothing changed. Around him, people's expressions varied from curiosity to pity. He met Mari's eyes. She shook her head fractionally.

Hazō closed his eyes. Akane could be dead.

Or maybe she could be alive. Akane had skywalkers, she would have had plenty to share with the team, and when ambushed, they would have had every reason to use them. Split four ways, they might not have had enough to make it back to Leaf.

They could have camped out on a skytower, injured and resting, or unable to get down for lack of skywalkers. Or, if only Akane made it away, she couldn't set up a skytower alone, so she could have ended up in a nearby patch of forest or civilian village.

Akane could still be alive. Sage grant that she's still alive, somewhere.

The Sage had never helped Hazō, of course. Nor had the ancestors, nor the Will of Fire, nor even the ancient nature kami. But Jashin had. Never in a way that didn't have some other explanation, but Hidan had recognized Jashin's favor in opening the afterlife portal and saving the citizens of Bakuchioka. Jashin had maybe even moved at Hazō's request before, guiding his dice towards the Otter Scroll and letting Hazō see Jiraiya. Desperately, Hazō started to plead.

Lord Jashin, Hazō thought, please, let Akane and her team be safe. I… And what could Hazō offer to Jashin in exchange? The god cared for nothing but murder, to the point where Hidan had accepted Uplift only as a way to make more bodies to slaughter in service of the dark god. Well, there was one clear answer.

She is a good killer. She has killed thousands. Hazō was speaking in his mind, but could still feel the words turning to poison in his gut. Would Akane have wanted this? She served you well. Please, if there's anything you can do to make her and her team safe, do it. If she comes home alive, I'll-

A hand brushed against his, interrupting his thoughts. Soft fingers curled around his palm. Hazō opened his eyes to see Ino looking at him with concern. She tilted her head slightly and Hazō understood what she meant. She thought he'd gotten lost in that altered mental state he felt after sealing research or encountering the Dragons. How could he even explain what he'd really been thinking about?

"Hazō," Mari said. She kept her voice quiet, but it cut through the silent winter night. "We're in the field. We have a mission. What is our current objective, and what do we do about it?"

Hazō inhaled. "We… need information. What do we know? The attackers found Akane's trail and followed her to camp."

"That means that they're a tracker team," Inuzuka said. "Unless they literally hid in the bushes to watch our guys pass by, only an expert could follow the tracks at enough speed to keep up with their targets. That's a rare skill."

"Right," Hazō said. "And that means that they left a trail where they came from. We can double back and find out more about the attackers. They fought Akane at the clearing, spilling blood, probably from the genin, and burning some flesh. Afterwards, they overturned the earth and submerged some damaged trees underground."

"That demonstrates unambiguous evidence of Earth ninjutsu use," Kei said. "I aided in the selection of Akane's genin team. None of them had Earth Element, or any other techniques that could have produced that effect."

"Gai-sensei used the Flame Aura technique as well, but warned us about its potential dangers," Neji said. "If Akane lost control in the middle of a fight, the ninjutsu's backlash could have lethally burned her."

"So one of the attackers had a fairly strong Earth Element ninjutsu," Hazō said, ignoring Neji's words. "The attackers didn't stay for long. They moved out, breaking trail to foil even a competent pursuit."

"Assuming they used skywalkers to break trail, they didn't have that many skywalkers to go around," Mari said. "Someone with a large supply of skywalkers would just run straight for the border on air."

"The movement matches Hidden Rock exfiltration patterns," Shikamaru said. "Hidden Rock has a substantially smaller skywalker supply than Hidden Leaf, and its operatives generally refrain from traveling far from the ground due to their advantage in Earth ninjutsu."

"Fuck, I didn't want say it first, but it's obvious, right?" Inuzuka said. "They used Earth ninjutsu to clean up the site, and everyone knows the two Gōketsu stuck it to the Tsuchikage by killing the bitch's damned husband. Sage's balls, we're within spitting distance of the Swamp of Death, and skywalking over that into Rock-occupied territory is gonna be a hell of a way to deter pursuers."

"I thought we'd cleared out all Rock's spies in Leaf," Ino said quietly. "Or all the important ones, at least. But Akane's mission wasn't a secret. Anyone could have seen her leaving through the Sunset Gate."

"After that," Hazō said, "the attackers ran for the border with some items from the team, but without any bodies in hand."

"I would'a smelled if they were carrying someone," Canvas said. "Humans drop hair and sweat everywhere."

"They made it right up to Fire's border, then skywalked away. Whatever they used to break trail before, small skywalker bursts or some jutsu, this is different. We'll grab their scent posts in a storage seal for later, but right here, there's no scent to follow."

"You saw me go round and round in spirals," Canvass said. "They didn't leave a mark for at least two miles, and at this point, even figuring out where they popped up again's gonna be a whole day's effort, I'm thinkin'."

"Okay," Hazō said. "So the genin are probably dead, but we don't know that Akane's dead."

"Hazō…" Ino said, rubbing the back of Hazō's palm with her thumb.

"No!" Hazō said, pulling his hand away. "There's a chance, damn it! She could have made it away on skywalkers and holed up in a skytower, or hidden away in a corner of the forest. We're going to look for her."

"Not right now, we're not," Mari said. "Focus, Hazō. It's dead dark and frigid, and we jogged for ten hours today. What are we doing right now?"

Hazō winced slightly. "You're right. Let's get away from the borders in case more enemies show up and double back to the clearing. We'll camp in skytowers overnight and search for her tomorrow."

Mari shook her head. "Another three hours run from here? Not a chance. We can get maybe ten miles deeper into Fire and get into skytowers until morning."

"Fine," Hazō said. "Let's go."


"Hazō," Asuma said as Hazō appeared in a puff of greyish smoke. "Ruri has already briefed me on the situation as of noon today. What have you found?"

Hazō shook off the lurching disorientation of reverse summoning and looked around him. Canodo had brought him into a small, empty Pangolin-style dome with Asuma, Enma, and a smaller monkey that Hazō couldn't remember the name of.

"It wasn't a chakra beast attack," Hazō said. "It was foreign action. Akane was attacked by ninja."

Asuma's face darkened. "Enma. Take Saruine and Canodo and go watch the perimeter."

Enma raised an eyebrow. "Kid, I get you got Hokage business and all, but that's not really how this works. I don't just 'watch the perimeter' for you."

Asuma looked at Enma. "This concerns a matter of extreme importance to Leaf and to the entire Human Path, Enma. Depending on how things turn out, perhaps I can read you in later. However, right now, I need you to trust me, make sure that no one can listen in on us, and don't eavesdrop yourself. Please."

Enma stared at Asuma for long enough to make Hazō shift uncomfortably in his stance. Eventually, Enma sighed. "Sure, I'll keep watch. Not like I've seen matters of incredible importance to clans and villages and Paths before." He continued to gripe as he exited the dome with the tiny monkey and Canodo in tow. "Nope, this Monkey King doesn't have a drop of wisdom worth extracting. Never provided counsel to human rulers making tough decisions about the fate of their people, or even kept secrets worth more than kingdoms, much less…"

He trailed off as the heavy leather flap covering the dome's exit slapped shut.

"Speak carefully, Hazō," Asuma said. "Enma can deter most eavesdroppers, but we're still under Pangolin skies. Was Akane captured?"

Hazō paused. "We don't know for certain, sir, but we suspect not."

"How sure are you?" Asuma asked. "I don't need to explain why a miscall could cause catastrophe."

"I don't know," Hazō said. "Canvass is maybe the best tracker on the Seventh Path and definitely better than any human, and she's pretty sure that they didn't carry a body away."

"Pretty sure?" Asuma said.

"I'm…" Hazō considered. "I'm confident, sir. These attackers didn't carry her away, at least."

"Okay," Asuma said. "The timing makes me suspicious. Tsunade, Orochimaru, and half our jōnin leave Leaf, then almost immediately foreign agents make overt moves in Fire. Is there an impending invasion?"

"I don't know, sir," Hazō said. "We haven't seen any evidence for it. The invaders just attacked Akane's team and left Fire immediately."

Asuma relaxed by a hair. The Hokage was still tense, but no longer immediately ready to act.

"Okay," Asuma said. "Explain what you've found."


Asuma sighed and rubbed his forehead.

"Foreign agents in Fire, perhaps at random but probably informed, found Akane's trail, followed her, engaged her, probably killed her, and fled Fire. They tried to cover up and make sure no one could track them, but they couldn't account for your summons' capabilities. Now we know where they went."

"She might not be dead, sir," Hazō said.

"She might not be," Asuma said, slowly. "But Canvass made it sound like a botched capture mission. No blood from Akane because they wanted to take her out non-lethally, but her Flame Aura backlash killed her when she lost consciousness. We can't know for certain, but that's what it sounds like to me."

Hazō's mind strained. He couldn't accept that Akane was dead. Not now.

"Why would someone try to capture her?" Hazō asked, trying to deflect. "No one should know about… Akane's jutsu."

Asuma nodded. "Only a small and loyal set of people in Leaf know. We used all reasonable precautions against other foreign nations finding out, and Isan doesn't have the capacity for covert ops like this. But that's not the only reason why people would want to capture Akane."

As Asuma spoke, he tapped a storage seal to release papers and an inkbrush.

"First, she knows Shadow Clone, which I know she hasn't kept secret well. Second, she's your known girlfriend and clanmate, and you're a fairly famous sealmaster. People might target her to get your seals, which they would reasonably assume that you'd give to her, especially if they think you've invented more game-changing seals like the skywalker."

A nausea joined the despair in Hazō's stomach. The Multiple Activation Relay Seal, which let him activate any number of other seals in an instant, had the potential to be just as game-changing as skywalkers with the right set of base seals backing it. Now, MARS could have fallen into enemy hands, along with directional explosives and rocket boots and chakdar and banshee slayers and…

"Third, for Rock specifically, she and Yuno are extremely high value targets after capturing the Tsuchikage's consort. I can imagine the extents I'd go to if I knew someone in Rock captured Kurenai and doomed her to torture and execution."

Asuma finished writing a message. He inked a stamp and applied it. "I need to yell at Naruto and Shikamaru for not immediately taking drastic action when you told them Akane was late. Yes, the most likely outcome when a ninja disappears on a chakra beast mission is that the ninja died to the beasts, but they need to consider edge cases. Naruto's power depends on other villages not studying Shadow Clone to find its weaknesses, and Shikamaru especially knows enough that he should have responded to even a small possibility that she'd been captured or gone missing.

"I assume you're going into Rice or Iron next?" Asuma said. "Both will be pretty hostile, but in different ways. In Rice, leverage your skywalkers and infiltrators to keep a low profile. In Iron, your party is a big enough show of force that it should hopefully deter opportunistic missing-nin and foreign hunter-nin."

Hazō shook his head. "No, sir. We're… We're going to focus on the chance that she's alive. If she's somewhere in the Land of Fire, we'll find her and bring her home. If we can't find her…"

"You're not going to find where the attacker's trail sets down with your summon, possibly the best tracker in all the Paths?" Asuma asked again.

"No, sir," Hazō said as the despair steadily sank deeper into his gut.

Asuma considered Hazō for several seconds. Eventually, Asuma nodded. "Very well, Hazō. Even if Canvass doesn't think Akane got captured, we need someone to follow that trail and verify. I'll send orders through Ruri to authorize missions into Rice and Iron, and I'll coerce Waterfall's representatives into allowing a Leaf investigative team within their borders. Send Inuzuka Yamato back to Leaf in the morning with any information you have. His skills will be needed."

"Yes, sir," Hazō said. "This is an AMITY violation, isn't it?"

"Yes," Asuma said, "and a particularly brazen one. Shikamaru can confirm that enemy nations are still running their most important and lowest risk espionage and scouting operations inside our borders, and that we suspect that sometimes patrols disappear because they run into enemy ninja by accident. AMITY can't convince a spotted infiltrator jōnin to let a genin team leave with their lives. Still, an attack this brazen is as yet unprecedented, I think. If you're going to be searching the area near the fight, I need you to find incontrovertible evidence of who did it. Informally, I strongly suspect Rock. Formally, I can't make an accusation without solid proof."

"What am I looking for, sir?" Hazō asked.

"More signs of ninjutsu use. The more techniques we can identify, the greater the odds of positively tying it to someone specific. Any discarded seals or personal effects, especially ones whose sources we could track. Any more information about their operating procedures. We don't exactly have Rock's field manuals, but enough small pieces of evidence can build up into a convincing case."

Asuma stamped a second scroll, then handed them over to Hazō, one at a time. "Orders for Inuzuka Yamato," he said, "and a retroactive mission approval for Kagome. Ruri said he sprinted right out of Leaf as soon as he heard the news. I'm not going to fault him, given the circumstances, but you need to check in with him in Arachnid and get him under control. Loop him into the search for evidence too. He's sharp enough that he could find something others would miss."

"Understood," Hazō said. "If we find anything, I'll inform you immediately."

"One more thing, Hazō," Asuma said. "Ruri explained what happened between you and the Hagoromo clerk."

Rage flared inside Hazō.

"She did?" Hazō asked, incensed. "Did she explain how Hagoromo might have intentionally 'forgotten' Akane's mission check-in, or even sent her on a deadly mission in the-"

Hazō paused as the realization hit him. Mari had said that the Tower bureaucrats would push the new sensei to take missions, and Akane had never been able to say 'no' to authority. Akane shouldn't have been sent on a mission, not so soon after getting her genin team. Hazō had promised blood because Hagoromo hadn't reported Akane's late return, but if she had forced Akane onto the mission…

The fireplace crackled in the silence of Hazō's unfinished sentence.

"I understand the situation at a very high level," Asuma said. "She didn't do her job and you gave an ultimatum, with the threat of clan war if Hagoromo failed to satisfy you. There will not be a clan war in Leaf."

"The fucking Hagoromo were supposed to stop screwing with us at your orders, Asuma!" Hazō said, half yelling. "Then they made an unprovoked attack and fucking killed Akane! If Hagoromo doesn't get on the ground and beg, we're going to defend ourselves until they're no longer a threat."

The crackling in the fireplace grew louder as the silence dragged on.

"There will not be a clan war in Leaf, Hazō," Asuma said. "Hagoromo Ruka's actions will be investigated. If the Hagoromo made an act of war, I will punish them. Not you. Is that clear?"

"This is why the Hagoromo did this!" Hazō yelled. "They know they can do whatever they want and get away with a slap on the wrist because the Hokage won't punish the clans. If even the threat of annihilation won't get them to stand in line, then they fucking deserve to be annihilated!"

The crackling of the fire crescendoed and wrapped around Hazō, and suddenly Asuma grew to fill the room.

"There will not be a clan war in Leaf," Asuma said. "If the Hagoromo spilled the blood of another Leaf ninja, they will pay in blood. The Hokage will ensure the clans of Leaf have peace between them, as Hashirama himself did. If the Hagoromo have become so consumed by hatred that they can no longer accept the possibility of peace, I will excise the rot and cauterize the wound so that they can be whole again. You must accept the possibility of peace, Hazō. You will not start a clan war with the Hagoromo."

The fire retreated, letting Hazō draw breath again, leaving him weakened, unsteady. He waited, letting the crackling slowly subside.

"And why would you punish them?" Hazō asked, bitterly. "They haven't hurt you the way they've hurt me."

Asuma stayed silent for almost a minute as the crackling of his aura slowly wound back into his soul.

"Hazō. My father and mother both died in combat. I was one of five children. I have written all four of my siblings' names on Leaf's Memorial Stone. I saw some of their corpses. Others simply disappeared. Soon, Kurenai and I will have children. Most likely, I will either live to see them die violently, or they will live to see me die violently.

"I have lost people to the incompetence of others. I have felt anger and pain and despair. However, I know that I have a duty to my clan and to all of Leaf. You cannot discharge that duty through clan war, Hazō. Leaf ninja have raised arms against their allies out of malice before. In every such case, the punishment has been exceedingly harsh. We live in a dangerous world, and we cannot afford to kill each other when so many enemies want us divided and dead. Hagoromo Ruka acted with even a hint of malice, then she will be punished. If she acted according to orders within the Hagoromo, then I will punish them too. We cannot lose Leaf ninja in this manner. But I will not allow you to kill a Hagoromo any more than I would allow a Hagoromo to kill one of your own. There will not be a clan war in Leaf."

The silence stretched out. "I'm sorry, Lord Asuma," Hazō said finally, through gritted teeth. "I lost control. I remain furious, but I trust Leaf justice to settle this matter."

Asuma nodded. "You may feel however you choose. I've already spoken to Ritsuo, and he disclaimed any part in this affair. We'll need to do a deeper investigation into Ruka's actions to determine what exactly transpired. What I need you to do, Hazō, is stand down. When you return to Leaf, you will make a public statement recanting your threats made in the heat of the moment, and assuring everyone that you will not pursue a war of annihilation against the Hagoromo."

"Sir, I-"

"That's an order, Hazō," Asuma said. "You can make many threats against the Hagoromo, but an open clan war is not one of them."

Hazō clenched his fists and hung his head for a second. "Fine," he said eventually. "I will do so, Lord Hokage."

"Good," Asuma said. "Continue your investigation and stay in touch through the Seventh Path. Return to Leaf when you're ready. Ruri is waiting closer to the heart of the Conclave. Once we're done here, tell Ruri all the factual information about your investigation so far, and Naruto will order the appropriate missions. Is that clear?"

Hazō nodded stiffly. "Yes, sir."

"Good." After a second, Asuma said, "Hazō. I have had this experience before. Losing someone that I loved. I know you have Mari to guide you, but I… I can also listen. I can't console you, but I can tell you the things that I did to make the pain better. Almost anyone in Leaf would be willing to support you. You're not alone."

"Yes, sir."

Asuma gazed at Hazō for a moment longer. "Very well, Hazō. I need to get back to the delegation to see if they have any insight about this affair that I've missed. Dismissed."

And with that, Asuma disappeared in a puff of gray summon-smoke.


Kagome-sensei was crying.

Hazō had explained what had happened, and Kagome-sensei had fallen into tears. Hazō felt that same welling up behind his eyes, that tightness in his face and chest, but he held it there. He wouldn't cry. Not yet.

Hazō waited and watched as Kagome wept. The older man cried quietly, making only rough inhales and stuttering exhales instead of any kind of wailing.

Eventually, Kagome spoke. "They killed her. The stupid Leaf-stinkers sent her on missions until some other stinkers got in the right place, then they killed her."

Hazō couldn't deny it, not to Kagome-sensei.

Suddenly, Kagome jumped to his feet, stabbing a finger into Hazō's chest. "Akane's dead, but she's not dead dead. She's only dead dead once her soul fully disintegrates in Naraka. We have to move fast, but we can do it. We can get her back."

"Sensei…"

"We can! We have to. It's like when you got us kicked out of Leaf by threatening Jiraiya to his stupid face. Akane was trapped in enemy territory and we had to research a seal to get her back."

"Kagome-sensei, opening the rift is on a whole different level of difficulty than making skywalkers."

Kagome's eyes and face were still red and wet. He batted a hand dismissively. "Invent flight, get Akane back. Invent rift-travel, get Akane back. Same deal. I don't know how long we have, but Akane had a lot of friends. Not as many people'll know her as Jiraiya, but maybe there's enough to keep her together. We can't wait, Hazō. She's already dead. We can't let her become dead dead."

"Sensei, I'll try, but-"

"Will you!?" Kagome asked, raising his voice. "No more stinking Conclave, no more stupid Leaf. We need to actually try!"

"I want to, sensei!" Hazō yelled back, standing up to face Kagome. "I can't let the Dragons eat the Seventh Path, but I'm not going to let Akane fade away without doing something about it!"

They breathed heavily, inches away from each other's faces.

"Fine," Kagome said. "Let's search for her. If we can't find her, we do everything we can to make sure people remember her, then start making the rift seals. No more waiting around."


The party had lost Inuzuka Yamato and Shikamaru but gained Kagome-sensei. They regrouped at the clearing and split into teams. Yuno, Noburi, Kei, Tenten, and Kagome-sensei searched the area around the clearing for any hints of escaping members of Team Akane. Hazō, Mari, Neji, Rock Lee, and Ino followed Canvass backwards along the foreigners' trail, retracing the enemy's movements before they'd started stalking Team Akane.

The trail was confusing. It roved north and south, crossing itself and doubling back three times over before finally wending its way to the north. They found a few sites of interest, including one where the enemy had picked vegetation from the trees to make camouflage, and another where the enemy had relieved themselves, letting Canvass identify them as an older female and two younger barely-adults, male and female.

The enemy had entered the Land of Fire barely a half-dozen miles east from their exfiltration point, still within spitting distance of Waterfall, Iron, Rice, or even the Swamp of Death. If the enemy had responded to an infiltrator reporting Akane's location, they would have been camping right on Fire's border. Canvass huffed in frustration at finding another dead end that she couldn't follow.

As they went, they took careful notes of every piece of evidence they could. Canvass could follow impossibly subtle scents, but for the humans, signs were sparse. A week after the enemy had passed through, they could only note the occasional branch where too-strong chakra adhesion had torn bark.

The search team found nothing.


Hagoromo Ruka opened her front door. She gasped in delight, then bowed deeply.

"Lord Uzumaki! I am ever so glad to see you. Please, come in and take a seat. I'll fetch you something to eat or drink. Oh, what do you like?"

Naruto looked down at the middle-aged woman coolly, then raised his hands. "Apologies, Hagoromo. This isn't a social visit."

"Oh?" Hagoromo said. "Is this about the clan war that that wretched Gōketsu is trying to start? Good, I'm glad someone is finally taking action about it. But regardless of what needs to be done to Lord Gōketsu, you'll get uncomfortable out there in the snow. Please, come in."

Naruto frowned, then shook his head. "It's about the clan war, in a way. We're here to ask about how you do your job, and why it took you a week to flag a mission late."

Only then did Hagoromo take in the two people standing behind Naruto. Lord Nara and the Condor Summoner flanked the jinchūriki.

Hagoromo Ruka smiled widely and gestured again to invite the party inside. "Please, come in. I would love to be your host, rather than let you freeze out there, and I am quite a chef myself. I'm sure I can find something to your tastes."

"Why did it take you a week to flag Gōketsu Akane's mission late?"

Hagoromo laughed uncomfortably, batting the question away with a manicured hand. "Ah, just a simple mistake. We had such a rush to get all the new teams assigned their missions, but we managed to get it done in time. It was part two that was a real killer – keeping track of all these missions and their completions, along with, you know, all the other missions happening in Leaf. So many sensei make their genin write the mission reports, you know? Cute, but completely illegible. I guess in all the mess, I forgot to check in on a few, and one of them was actually delayed. So what?"

Naruto stared for a moment. "A Leaf ninja may have died because you 'forgot' to mark an incomplete mission, and you're asking 'so what'?"

Hagoromo looked nervously between the three ninja at her door, then shrugged with a forced casualness. "Like it would have mattered. If she died to a beastie, she'd be long dead before anyone realized. Besides, the Gōketsu think they're so great, but if she couldn't hack it against the baby chakra beasts in Wanaka Woods or whatever, maybe she wasn't fit to lead a team at all, even a team of clanless."

Naruto glanced at Lord Nara, who shook his head.

"I'm afraid that's not enough," Naruto said. "We have more questions to ask. You said we could come in, right?"

The trio of ninja stepped in, but Hagoromo's initial cheer had faded.

"Is this okay?" she asked, nervously. "Lord Ritsuo…"

She trailed off as the Condor Summoner offered her a scroll, stamped with Lord Hagoromo's personal seal.

"Delivered through the Seventh Path," the woman said, her lips forming a bitter smile. "By Lord Hokage himself."

"The Hokage has already approved your interrogation," Naruto said. "And your clan head has countersigned, under the conditions that you may refuse to answer any questions and terminate it at any time."

"Is that what this is?" Hagoromo asked. "An interrogation?"

"Yes," Naruto said, pointing at one of Hagoromo's own chairs. "Now, sit down. This may take a while."


The tracking team regrouped with the search party. Together, they spent another day searching, splitting their time between high-altitude scans for skytowers and on-the-ground searches for trails, villages, or any hints of Akane's presence. They broke up the hours with periodic bursts of banshee seals in the hope that Akane would hear them and respond.

They found nothing.


That night, on a skytower far above the clouds, Ino was crying. She'd cried last night too, and the night before that. She kept herself together during the day, putting on a calm, collected face, but she broke down at night. Hazō wanted to cry too, but he couldn't let himself do that. Not yet.

Hazō held her as they rested. The winter nights were bitingly cold, especially this far in the air. Skytower camping left few ways to insulate a tent or break the wind, so they cuddled close to a small, steel firepit that left them with one side cold and the other side hot.

"I miss the summers," Ino said.

"I miss when Sakura and I would spend the whole day playing in the flower fields, or when we climbed that big tree at the Yamanaka compound and Dad came out and yelled at us and I got grounded and Dad made me run the flower shop for a whole week. I miss sitting in that flower shop, sweating because the only window was too high and too small and Mom wouldn't let me prop the door open because it let the dust in and all I did was sit behind the counter bored out of my mind. I miss chatting with the kids or the elders when they came by and even putting up with the occasional real customer and especially when Sakura would come by in the evenings and we'd talk until Mom made me come for dinner.

"I miss the summers when we'd run around the village trying to find stuff to do and stay out of the way of Naruto's pranks, and when Sakura and Shion and Akane and I would sneak into the Uchiha compound to try to see what Sasuke was doing even though we knew we'd get caught, even if Akane was always more interested in seeing what Rock Lee was doing instead. I miss running around in the forests and climbing the trees and having my friends around me.

"I miss when people didn't die. I miss when I could be a kid and my parents were there to protect me and my friends came back from their missions and I had a team and a sensei and everything was okay. Everything's broken now. I feel like I'm trying to fix a broken mirror, but every time I try to pick up a piece it only cuts my hands. Like I'm trying to put together a pot from broken pieces, knowing that I've already lost something irreplaceable that means it'll just never hold water.

"Broken, broken, broken. Why bother putting it back together when it'll only break again?"


"Well, would ya look at that," Canvass said, gazing up into the sky.

Hazō looked up but saw nothing special. The clouds overhead had darkened and started to snow, but there were no signs of anything important, even the strange double-funnel of the Elemental Mastery technique.

Canvass flicked her tongue out and grabbed a few snowflakes out of the air. "Weird," she said. "Really is solid, cold water, huh? Wonder why it's white."

Hazō looked around at the falling snow. Over a week had passed since the last real snow, meaning they'd likely see at least a foot before nightfall.

"The purity of the heavens," Hazō said, absentmindedly. "In the cities, it soaks up all the human sin and mud and gets brown or black. We should finish out this radius before the snow piles any higher."

Canvass sighed telepathically. "Sure, you got it." She set her nose back to the ground and continued searching for the trail that Hazō knew she wouldn't find.


"It's been two and a half days," Mari said. "We searched twenty miles in every direction from the clearing. Is there any injury that Akane could have taken that would let her run more than twenty miles, but that would still keep her from coming home?

"Not that I can think of," said Yuno.

"Then we're not going to find her here," Mari said, turning to Hazō.

He couldn't bring himself to be angry any more.

"Is there any more reason for us to stay out here?" he asked Yuno.

She shook her head. "I think we've done all we can from here, especially now that the snow is killing Canvass's scenting ability. Neji made sketches of the underground at the clearing, and we mapped out the enemy tracks and their detailed positions as best we could. We have their scent traces and the portacabin splinters and the few burned leaves we found. If there's more to find out here, we're not the ones to find it."

"Fine," Hazō said, as his heart finally broke. "Let's go home."

---

Asuma has ordered over a dozen missions to find out what happened to Akane, including sending Inuzuka Yamato with Canvass-approved scent markers to Iron, a special AMITY-approved investigative team into Waterfall, and a top secret, aerial-only, Aburame-telescope-supplied team over Rock territory. Results of those missions are pending.

XP Award: 6 + 3 (brevity) XP
GM-fun Award: 1 XP

Vote time! What to do now?

Voting ends on Apr 29, 2023 at 1:00 PM