End of an Era (Naruto AU)

[The Laurent]

Act 4, Scene 26 (Fin)

She spent another day resting and trying to gather herself like one of the women in town might have gathered their skirts to themselves in preparation for going across dusty ground. Then she opened her room up again to other people.

And her teammates came, came and did all of the usual things that they tended to do. They laughed and joked and played pranks, they listened to music and played cards with each other and filled out the training roster.

Things, in other words, were going back to normal. But Shizue wanted to explore a little more about her teammates: they were working together better now, she decided, but they could do more, and beyond that, she knew that some people, like Yuichi-kun, were still something of strangers to her.

Junko-chan too was behaving somewhat oddly, and there were rifts between the three teammates that anyone could see.

Akachi and Ichiman were hanging out more, and Saya was flouncing around talking about going into town to spend some of her hard-earned money, though at the moment it was just talk.

Genta, though. Genta was most noticeable in his complete absence. It wasn't a topic of conversation yet, but every time Shizue stared at Genta's neat handwriting on the roster sheets still being filled out, or thought for a moment 'hey, this'd be nice to share with Genta' it all came back.

And she knew that pressing would be bad. But she did wonder what he was up to. But in the meantime, she could just worry and think it through.

She listened to music, she tried to relax, and she hoped that soon enough Genta would return to the common room she'd created, to the home she was trying to push through.

That was all she could do.

[End Credits]


Act 4, Scene 27 : The Making of Bonds?

"Yuichi-kun, how have things been going with Junko-chan?" Shizue asked, sitting on the couch with the other boy.

"I think well," Yuichi admitted. "But… she and Seiichiro are arguing sometimes. It's about how she steals stuff. It's weird, because Seiichiro isn't actually all that concerned with morality, usually? Or at least, rules." Yuichi shook his head, glancing over at Shizue. "I don't know how much I'm supposed to say."

He glanced over at the radio, as if asking her to see if she could turn it on to find something to distract them. But Shizue had her target, and she wasn't going to get distracted just because she'd begun to transcribe the songs. It'd taken a little work, but by the second listen to a song, she was able to begin noting down its music in Suzuhisa style. Each note, each element of sound, blended and put down in paper, so that she or anyone who knew the right notation, could read it. It was a way of making sound solid, a way a lot simpler than the new jutsu she'd just finally figured out.

Simpler, though less fascinating. She honestly wanted to try it out all the time, because she could picture all sorts of ways she could use that, especially if she was going to exploring it further.

Finally, driven by her careful silence, he admitted, "I don't know. But Junko-chan is fun to be around."

"Even if she sometimes does things that make you wonder," Shizue added.

"Exactly. Maybe even sometimes because of it. But we're still sort of a team. Seiichiro mentioned practicing together, actually, if we're going to be sent off as a team sometime," Yuichi said.

"Practicing combat?" Shizue asked, thoughtful. "Could I join in? Watch, see what I can do?"

"Of course. We had some plans, and we're going to do it Friday morning, if that works for you?"

"It does. What have you been working on Yuichi-kun, by the way? With your training?"

"I've been filling in some gaps," he admitted, shaking his head. "And trying to figure out a more solid Taijutsu style. Emiko-sensei says I need to find a way to integrate my style. But she says it can be done, though."

"I've seen you fight before," Shizue said. "It impresses me, at least." He was calm and controlled, flexible and steady in a way that made it hard to find and exploit any vulnerabilities, and yet seemed to set up his victory. Saya of course just blasted through all of that with her stylistic mastery, but she knew that there was something to be said there for his way of fighting.

"I'm also working on a sort of technique, a trick," Yuichi said. "Junko-chan says it's working already, but I want to make it better. Have you ever seen Lightning Release: Shocking Grasp?"

"No, but the name does explain itself rather well," Shizue admitted with a smile.

"It does, doesn't it? But there are techniques based on it that allow you to paralyze someone with electricity. But I don't know those yet. But if I can use genjutsu, I can fake it, or something like it, and use genjutsu to actually paralyze and trap them. And because they think it's the jutsu…"

Shizue nodded, getting it at once. "They assume that it's not something they can break out of. And if you create the technique based on understanding of the jutsu, then it'd be rather hard to notice." Shizue shook her head, rather impressed.

"It's one way I'm doing it. Genjutsu and taijutsu. I'm also trying to work on some techniques involving pain receptors, but it's all rather theoretical and complicated right now. But you joining in, both as an enemy to fight an and ally, could really help. And then maybe Junko-chan and Seiichiro-kun could stop their bickering." Yuichi frowned. "Sometimes it feels like I'm just there to take one side or another."

He flushed, which went strange on his rather rough exterior. It wasn't that he was ugly, but he did look like he wouldn't be out of place as the son of a dockyard tough, with his knuckles and his bone structure.

"And you don't like that? I guess not," Shizue said, aware of what that felt like. She had too many friends not to be the one in the middle sometimes.

"And Seiichiro-kun's so frustrating sometimes too. He's such a dork," Yuichi said, but the fondness in his voice and his creeping blush spoke to something a little more complicated, Shizue thought. Then she realized what she was guessing: could it be? If so, that was something she wished she'd known earlier.

"Well, maybe I can help make peace with them?"

"That'd be nice," Seiichiro admitted.

[Opening Credits]

Suna-style involved a lot of instruments and singers. It involved groups, but they could be broken down for more or less parts through some very simple principles. And ultimately, she didn't know four other girls, or four other people at all, who would really be great singers.

But she did, out of curiosity if nothing else, try to get people to sing along with it. And the results weren't that surprising. Emiko had a surprisingly competent voice, though no more than that, and when she was singing you could remember that she wasn't actually that old, because most of the people singing on the radio weren't thirteen, that was for certain. Chuichi had a lovely voice, but one without even the rudiments of training. Saya had a nice voice, but a tin ear and seemed to treat singing as a joke, more than anything else. The rest fell into the various pitfalls of novice singers.

Nothing that couldn't be fixed, but it'd take time to do so. Seiichiro was a perfect example: enthusiastic, passionate, but with a voice that kept on going up and down, despite having a rather solid voice overall. It was something that could be worked on, and Junko-chan had even more promise, if she wanted to try.

The more Shizue listened to music like this, the more she was able to almost imitate its stylings, for all that she thought there were elements of it that seemed a little repetitive or simple by her standards. But simplicity had its own beauty as far as music went, and Shizue had plenty of time to play and listen to music when she was clearing out more rooms. The idea, she decided, was to have event space for other things.

She'd cleared out a few rooms to serve as backup rooms, places for her to nap if she needed to, if only she had some more furniture, though there were a few spare futon that she could put here and there. Plus, once she got to clearing out and trapping up a room, she thought about all of the other uses she could find for such a room.

She was surprised that nobody else had thought about rooms for dancing, or specific types of training or work. Maybe she should start opening up rooms and asking anyone if they could use them: no doubt Saya could use her own poison room, rather than using Emiko's.

That's the way Shizue saw it, at least. Junko-chan was an exception, as far as voices went. She had a sweet voice, and one that could be really useful if she only trained a little more. Though Shizue didn't know how to raise it as a point. Of course, when you had an entire room as a lounge, there were always quiet moments. Eventually, after a day or two, she found one.

*******

"Hey, Shizue-chan. All of those songs you have, they're pretty interesting. And you're writing some too?" Junko asked, as she rooted through the music, though it was also quite obvious that she was mostly just looking at the words, since the notation itself would be difficult to understand.

"Yes. Just some simple stuff to mimic the style," Shizue said, "But I think they've really missed some potential here for lyrical storytelling."

"How, exactly? This song sounds kinda good," Junko said. "The words at least." She was holding up 'Empty Hands.' It was a ballad with three (male) singers--which was the first problem--about a man whose lady loves didn't love him, leaving him alone and empty-handed. Yes, it was that simple: Shizue might have wanted verses from each of the women, and reduce the number of men to one, or at least something less cliched than the whining that was his mode of expressing emotions.

"Really?"

"I dunno. Feels real to me," Junko said. "He's kinda complaining, but it does suck to not have anyone. I kinda envy you and Okiie-kun."

"You'll find someone," Shizue said, more out of politeness than certainty. "And the song is alright, but could be better. With multiple singers, what you want to do is have verses each that are separate, and then give them the same chorus, you see? Like the man wants love, and the women do too, and then they all sing about 'Empty Hands' while not realizing that everyone else is just as love-lorn as them."

"Aww," Junko said with a pout. "That sounds sad."

"So, have you tried looking?" Shizue asked.

"Uh, Shizue-chan. Yeah. But I like cool girls. Really, really cool girls." Junko flushed. "Those aren't exactly common. Especially that like other girls. And um, before you ask, no, Rika-chan is cool and all, but--"

"Not cool enough?" Shizue asked, teasingly.

"No! I mean… yes? Anyways, uh, Saya-chan's kinda like that, but that's going nowhere, and Emiko-sensei is… and." Junko shrugged, and of course it was true that at a certain point someone just ran out of people. And if she went to town, then what?

Shinobi were a lot more understanding about this than any normal civilian would be. So the pool was even smaller. "And civilians aren't cool?"

"They can be!" Junko said. "I guess I could go into town and try to find someone to… hug? Or kiss? Or whatever else couples do. But I wouldn't know how." Junko said it so innocently, and Shizue had to keep from flushing, because while in a technical sense all she and Okiie did was kiss, it certainly felt as if it crossed a few borders there. But she didn't have an answer for Junko-chan either.

"Huh. Well, why not try? At least look around, and the worst that can happen is that you need to burn that appearance and go in Transformation," Shizue said, encouragingly.

"Oh. That's a good point," Junko said brightly.

"When did you talk about this?" Shizue asked.

"With Rika-chan, back during the heist. I kinda opened up to her, and she talked about what she liked, which was so boring. Well, not that boring, but kinda normal? Bubbly, happy, pretty…" Junko made a gesture as if she were flouncing around. "She didn't even mention important details, like how many jutsu they'd know or what their fighting style was, because I think maybe she wants civilians?" Junko shrugged.

Shizue tried not to giggle at the idea that fighting style would matter. With the exception of forever-kisses because Okiie knew wind jutsu. "Who knows. If you ever wanted to practice your singing, Junko-chan, I could help you with that. It's the least I could do, if you're going to be training with me and the rest of your team. It's really easy, singing. Or… I guess it's a lot of work, but it's fun work."

Junko couldn't help but giggle, apparently, as she looked at Shizue and said. "Oh? Just like how I find sneaking easy and fun? It's all about what you're good at. Speaking of good at, do you need any help cleaning out those rooms? I mean, the ones you're prepping?"

"I guess," Shizue said.

"And you could use one of them for a date with Okiie-kun!"

Shizue frowned. "I could, couldn't I?"

"You're going to find plenty of rooms to do stuff like that. And I know you haven't been seeing much of Okiie-kun outside of your room."

Which was a lot, really, but it was just hanging out. Looking at his chart, he seemed to be trying to work on mastering and improving his basics, as well as getting a better grasp of the jutsu he did know, rather than moving onto more powerful jutsu. "True," Shizue said, frowning. She was kinda missing private time with him, or time to ask about what he'd been up to.

"See! There you go. You have to plan something!"

"I'll try," Shizue said.

She didn't know a solution for anyone's relationship woes, really. Rika-chan at least had more realistic standards, but… well. Things were rough for thirteen year old missing-nin. If she didn't have Okiie-kun, she'd have basically no chance to find someone else.

Not that she was settling with Okiie, just that if you didn't date in the group, then you got in hot water. Like Genta had, for that matter.

That was just how it was, and how it was going to be for quite some time, probably.

*******

"Some more about the wilderness?" Chuichi asked. "I can do that, actually. I had some thoughts about a camping trip into the desert. It'd have to be at the end of the month, but if you wanted to find a few other friends to go with, then you could do that." He smiled, looking at Shizue with appreciation. "That's a very good idea."

Shizue had just presented the idea that maybe learning more about surviving out in the wilderness would have been better, when it came to dangerous situations. After all, Shizue had had to wander the desert. So had all of them. Knowing what to do in the future could be very valuable.

"I could also teach you a little more about water jutsu. Here, that's as useful as hours of practice," Chuichi said. "There's a jutsu I could teach, or at least, I've seen it done, and it's just about the only way to stand a chance in a fight out here as a water jutsu user, so maybe." Chuichi shrugged. "You'd have to find two people willing to learn it along with you, just because going out just the two of us into the wilderness is not safe, and perhaps not worth it. But we could camp out for a few days and nights. I could teach anyone who hasn't learned about star navigation, check to see if you've been keeping up with it, that sort of thing."

"Sounds good," Shizue said. Glad when some conversations were simple and straightforward. So there was the end of her month planned out.

Now if only everything were so easily decided.

[Commercial Break]

Okiie Date! (What do?)

[] Dancing, dinner, and music. Classic and simple, and hopefully out of the way of anyone who might interrupt things.
[] Training date! Maybe practice fighting and working together, and then go make lunch afterwards.
[] Go to the town, just to find somewhere to hang out, and be public and dating!
[] Write-in an idea. I have veto!

******

A/N: Alright, so, Shizue's life goes on! And will Junko-chan be Shizue's first backup singer??! Find out next time! Hope you enjoyed, thanks to @lk as always.

 

[The Laurent]

Act 4, Scene 27 (Fin)

Shizue found Okiie that afternoon, when she went to ask him about the date she had planned, and if he'd accept--and it seemed almost a habit, that she was the one asking, that she was taking charge in that way at least--training.

With Saya, actually.

"You have to do better than that!" Saya yelled. "That was both uncouth and ineffective."

The young woman was surging forward, lashing out with tendrils of water that surrounded her body, and Okiie was slicing them with a wave of his hand, backing up slowly.

He was looking intent as he raced back, running through a short set of handseals and then hurtling a glowing ball of crackling lightning at Saya, who was forced to leap out of the way, ending her attack as he continued to back up, his fingers flying once again to run all the way through a short set of handseals, and then he had a double, who ran at Saya.

Saya ignored it, charging forward, as thorns shot up from the ground, almost going right through her feet as she had to leap, halfway out of the way, to dodge it.

She leapt right into a sealless breakthrough that sent her slamming into a wall. But that only seemed to slow her slightly as she moved forward again, dodging a large shuriken made of water, which splashed hopelessly behind her as she went in for the punch.

Shizue winced as her fist slammed into Okiie's side, and it was his turn to retreat, as Saya tried to follow up on it, moving so fast she was almost a blur, though she was forced to back up slightly when he spat fire from his lips right onto the ground, which glowed with the heat of it. Shizue was surprised that the floor wasn't worse marked as Saya went around, only to just barely dodge an attack Shizue had never seen before.

It was like Wind Arrow, but larger, and faster, the wind so violent that she had a suspicion that anyone it hit would be severely cut up. But Saya ducked under it, the sleeves of her kimono torn apart by the winds, but otherwise unharmed as she closed the distance… and there was nothing else that Okiie could do.

Her fist met Okiie's stomach, and he held up a hand, panting. "I… give."

"Huh. You need to get better with that ace," Saya said. "And you need some clones, Okiie-kun, to take your hits for you. Pretty fast, though." She whistled and patted his cheek so fondly that Shizue felt her blood boil.

"Thanks… I… whew," Okiie said, wiping his brow. "You're fast."

"It helps," Saya said. "But the way you kept on pushing me back or spiking the floor is exactly what you need to do. At least, I bet Emiko-sensei would be proud."

Okiie nodded. "Yeah. But more importantly, I'm kinda glad that it's starting to come together, and--"

Okiie saw Shizue, and his eyes lit up. "Shizue-chan!"

"Yes, Shizue-chan," Saya said. "You didn't notice? I guess you were too focused on me." Saya smirked and oozed over towards Shizue, faster than Okiie could move. "Ah, hello Shizue-chan. Just seeing what Okiie-kun looks like hot, and sweaty. He's cute when you look at him the right way and have the right mindset, I suppose."

Shizue knew that it was a trick, a trap, and yet she bristled despite that. "Really, Saya-chan?" She felt oddly insecure, even though she knew that Okiie wasn't someone who would stray, and that whatever charms Saya had, that didn't mean she was going to just sweep him away. But she still bristled and almost arched her back on the attack. "You're just…"

"Training with someone else?" Saya asked, with a smirk. "Yes I am. Don't worry, settle down, I'm just playing with you."

"I know," Shizue admitted.

"It's nice that you credit me with so much power. Maybe I should go and talk to Genta-kun. Since you seem to believe I have the power to seduce someone with punches, perhaps I could cheer him up five fingers at a time?" Saya shook her head. "It'd be uncouth, but then, that's how it goes."

"Genta-kun needs…" Shizue began. "Time."

"Oh? I think I'm going to go and see him anyways, and there's nothing you can do to stop me. In the meantime, you should see to your boyfriend. Now that I've--"

"Please," Shizue said, with a sigh.

"Fine, you're no fun," Saya said. "But enjoy."

Leaving Shizue to flush as Saya sauntered off. Okiie reached her before she even had time to think of a good comeback. "Shizue-chan, what are you doing here? Things going alright?"

"Want to go on a date tonight?" Shizue asked.

"Sure! Where?"

"Stargazing. We can bring blankets and hot chocolate. And a lantern to see by, if we need it," Shizue said. "I can tell you about some of the stars. Maybe I could borrow a book from Chuichi-sama."

"Oh, right. So, what did you think?"

"You used a lot of jutsu," Shizue said. "I hope you aren't too worn out."

"All five elements. I'm still working on that finisher. I need to make it better, but… it's a work in progress. Anyways, I need to get toweled off and…"

"And?" Shizue asked.

"...and take a shower and change my clothes, too?"

Shizue nodded, pleased that he'd gotten it right without her having to say any more. He was dressed in a flak vest, shirt and pants, and perhaps he'd want to change into something nicer. She knew that she was going to be wearing the scarves, veils, and nice clothes in general. Show off a little bit.

"Right! Will do!"

******

Shizue dressed up, making sure to carefully apply the makeup for being seem better by lantern-light, and wishing for a moment she had a little perfume. Not that she smelled, but she wanted this to be… magical. That's what had driven her to consider the idea. The potential that something special could happen, something close and intimate and strange.

Then she made a thermos of hot chocolate and grabbed, from the stock that Emiko seemed to have built up sometime in the last week, a lantern holding a candle, which she lit. If it went out, Okiie could fix that.

Then, carrying lantern in one hand, blankets on her back, and hot chocolate in the other, she made her way towards Okiie's room.

He stepped out just in time, with more blankets and a well-fitted kimono. His hair had been carefully wetted down, and there was a slight wood-like smell to him. Just a faint… perfume? No. Or maybe not. "So, Shizue-chan. The sun should be setting. So, um, you want to watch it together?"

*******

It was peaceful and quiet, the wind even seeming to settle down across the vast expanse of the wasteland that was a desert. A crowded wasteland, though. "Today was a good day," Okiie said.

"I'm glad," Shizue said. "So you were working about using your jutsu together?"

"And figuring out how to use them together," Okiie said. "Emiko-sensei has mentioned the possibility of a training trip to work on elemental jutsu and fighting styles."

Shizue nodded. "Interesting. I've also been making some sketches of puppets. And trying to think about it. I think I figured out where my nets went wrong, and I think if I tried to use it again, it would really work better. But at the same time, using nets to trap someone doesn't fit with Stinger's fighting style. But I could imagine thread or wire with Ryuko. She could snare someone up, and then I could run lighting through it, or… but more than that, the first puppet. He was big and strong, like a bear, and I think that there were some interesting aspects of his joints and the strength of his attacks that I could learn from." She shook her head. "Small details, but I think that Stinger could benefit from them. Importantly, the way she would have used them convinces me that I need to tell more people about what they can do?"

"So that they can work with your puppets like team members?" Okiie asked, glancing over at the sun as it passed just below a hill, shrouding the world in growing darkness. He began to lay his blankets down, creating a sort of picnic space, though they hadn't brought any food. Shizue had eaten before she went to talk to Okiie, and she hoped that he'd done the same at some point.

"Yes, actually!" Shizue said. "That's exactly it. I've been trying to do that in general. Tomorrow I want to train with Junko-chan, Seiichiro-kun, and Yuichi-kun, on team exercises."

"That's good. What will you do?"

"I think go against them, but also fight with them. See if I can mix things up," Shizue admitted.

"Ah, right," Okiie said with a smile. "I think that's a great idea. Seichiro-kun's a bit unfocused, but he has time. Uh, let's see. Junko-chan's good at sneaking behind people and stabbing them…"

"Have you trained with them?" Shizue asked, frowning thoughtfully as they settled down on the blanket and looked up at the sky. It'd take time before the stars were out.

"I've tried to train with everyone, because we're a team, and teams are supposed to stick together," Okiie said, with a nod. "But I haven't been able to talk to Genta-kun at all. I saw him in the hall, but I kinda worry about him?"

"I can't say you're wrong to."

It was slightly chilly, and Shizue, rather than pull the blanket closer, instead pulled another source of warmth closer, leaning into Okiie. Okiie was blushing as he glanced over at the lantern and then out into the desert. "I know you're old friends."

"Our friendship sort of came and went. And came again," Shizue admitted, quietly. "I want to help him, but I don't know what that'd involve."

"And he doesn't want to talk about some things, does he? It's… it happens. But he's not a bad person. He helped us stop the traitors back in the Archipelago, and, I just can't believe that you can't reach him. You're amazing, Shizue-chan, I'm sure you can do it."

Shizue smiled. "Thanks."

********

They chatted about the weather and her work in putting together more of the base, but mostly they were waiting, the thermos still warm, for the stars to begin to come out. "There is the wandering bear," Shizue said quietly, when at last she could see the vast expanse of the stars, which stretched in every direction, hundreds and hundreds of them, untouched by clouds or anything at all.

They were vast and dizzying, and she felt like she was spinning around. She'd brought her flute, beneath her dress, and she pulled it out, curiously, staring up at the stars.

What sort of sound would they make? What did the stars sound like. Lonely, and yet not alone at all. Surrounded by other stars, that made up groups, that created formations. Perhaps they were just the product of human imagination.

But Shizue didn't want to think that was true. She wanted to think that the stars at least were there for a reason. "That one, that's the bear. And next to it is the rat."

Okiie frowned, looking up at them. "You know what it looks like? It looks like a snake biting a goat."

"What?"

"Well, it does. Look," he said, tracing the long 'tail' of the rat with his finger, and then the way that the stars around where she imagined the rat's ears could almost look like an open mouth. And if she squinted she could almost see the goat, cutting off some stars, adding others, all together changing the night sky.

"I guess it does. Do you want hot chocolate?"

"Definitely!" Okiie said, snuggling closer to her. She opened the thermos, and then realized with a start that she hadn't brought glasses. But she passed it to him and he took a sip, and then gave it to her. It was sweet, and no doubt expensive. Shizue savored the warmth as it slid down her throat.

"Ahh. And that, then? That's the Monk."

"Looks more like a merchant. Rika-chan's father, maybe. Look at the way…" Okiie began.

*******

Shizue was almost giggling by this point, forseeing what would happen after every pointed out constellation up in the sky. It was never going to be what it looked like. "And there's the ram. What does that look like?"

"You know? Honestly, a ram," Okiie said.

"What?" Shizue asked.

"It really does. What else would it look like. You know, Seiichiro-kun reads these stories about battles and wars up amid the stars. That each star is another planet or something. But Rika-chan said that she'd looked it up and they were just the sun but far away, or something like that. But if that was so, Seiichiro-kun said, then that's just proof that there's something up there, some weird world where strange things happen. Not like the normal stuff we have here, like ninja and monks and chakra."

Shizue opened her mouth and said, "I guess you don't agree?"

"Chakra's special enough. Still, Seiichiro-kun's comics aren't that bad," Okiie admitted, sticking out his tongue. "He wanted to start a club. Maybe I will! We could share our comics with other members that can't afford it… or dont' want to buy?"

"I'm sure it'd go well," Shizue said. "Though we're not a large… group?"

"Large enough to be a superhero team," Okiie said, softly. "But it's like, why isn't there enough to explore and learn down here? Or maybe there is and it's just for fun. Maybe I'm getting old." Okiie shook his head. "They're good stories. Space Wars, and Tales of Laser-Dromo are both solid… but it's like, I don't know. It's like why in all the world below is it the stars above, that…"

Okiie shook his head. "I'm not all… wordy like you. Wordy? Uh. Good with words, I mean." He bit his lip. "And I'm not as--"

"Stop. Okiie-kun. Don't worry about anything like that."

He nodded, a little uncertainly, and then brightened a little. He pointed up in the sky. "Look at that." He was pointing right at two clumps of stars.

"Huh, I don't know what those are," Shizue admitted, quietly. She hadn't memorized all of them, and that was just how it was.

"The lovers," Okiie said, playfully. "Don't they kinda look like two pairs of puckered lips?"

"Really?" Shizue asked. "You don't need to look up at the stars to find a pair of lips." She smiled, and without further prompting he leaned in and kissed her, mouth open slightly, his warm hand wrapping around her shoulder, fingers pushing aside the veil, aside everything in the way, to meet in the middle.

*******

The lantern blazed out into the darkness of the quiet night, the wind merely a background instrument, the moon rising eventually to occupy the sky, glowing just enough to cast light and shadows down upon two young adults. Two shinobi, though what they were doing had very little to do with ninja: other than the occasional use of a jutsu to light the lantern after a breeze blew it out, or a few other minor tricks of that sort.

What they did had everything to do with who they were, and where they were going. Kisses, tongues, strokes of the arms, hugs and embraces, and drinks of hot chocolate, and laughing jokes about mustaches, and vague and joking references to the stars.

The lantern burned long that night, out into an emptiness in which man could only fill with difficulty, out into a sky that man could define and define, remake and reshape, and yet still miss a few stars, here and there, still leave room for invention.

Of course, invention was sometimes overrated. Brilliance, sometimes overestimated. There was nothing new and much old in that night, which passed by stages undefined by time, subject to the whims of body, the coldness of skin, a clock in which it wasn't seconds that were measured, but enjoyment.

When the hot chocolate ran out, and the blankets started to feel itchy, when Shizue needed more and more time to breathe after each kiss, when the night finally began to get cold and the winds began to sweep on, when the process of drinking led to its bodily inevitabilities, that's what brought them in at last: nothing so quotidian and simple as a clock, or a time, though if they had looked, they would have seen it was well past midnight when they finally stumbled back in.

They separated, unembarrassed at the time or anything else, and went to their beds to dream of dark and secret things that only they shared.

*******

The day had started slowly enough. She'd washed some clothes, since she'd used one of her good outfits, and she stretched, ran through her exercises, changed her sheets, turned on her radio and prepared for the deluge of people.

She'd greeted Junko with a smile, and then frowned when the girl seemed to be pouting. "You ready for training, Junko-chan?"

"Eh, I guess."

"What is it?"

Junko shrugged. "It's just, I asked Saya-chan if she wanted to hang out today, but she said she was going to hang out with Genta-kun in his room." She stuck out her tongue.

"Well, as long as she's not harassing him, it's a good thing," Shizue said. "Are you ready for training?"

"I guess. I should sneak into the room and spy on them, I--"

"Would not advise that," Emiko said, leaning over Junko's shoulder.

"Gah! Emiko-sensei!" Junko said, throwing up her hands defensively.

"Yes. I am Emiko." The jonin looked at both of them. "You were saying?"

"Uh, well, training," Shizue said.

"Good, good. But after you have that training session, I do need to talk to you. You need to choose a team for a mission I've decided you're going to be doing. Some outreach to several small communities. Well-digging, mail services, guarding caravans. Easy stuff. Actually, the well-digging could be very easy, but I'm not going along."

Shizue blinked. "Oh?"

"I'm too overqualified to use my powers over the very earth itself to dig wells. At least right now," Emiko said. "But I hope it'll be a learning experience, Shizue-chan."

"Ah, okay then," Shizue said.

When Emiko asked, you obeyed.

******

It would take more than one training session to get the kinks out. But Shizue could realize some important things. For instance, she was out of shape and out of practice, though in a taijutsu fight, that really only made her worse than Yuichi and Seiichiro.

What she also realized was that team synergy took time. Yuichi and Seiichiro worked together decently, as did Junko and Yuichi, but Junko and Seiichiro were still finding their groove. What she also learned was that even with puppets, handling three targets took some doing, and that Junko's genjutsu was potent enough that she could throw Shizue for a loop. And stab her in the back.

In the right circumstances, it might take Junko alone to kill Shizue, she realized. A clever illusion, the use of a Chunin-level invisibility ninjutsu, especially for a twelve year old… and in that way, Seiichiro should be a good teammate.

The three of them together managed it. The obvious threat, the semi-obvious threat, and the hidden threat.

She and Junko had the same chemistry, and so did she and Seiichiro, because the boy was actually surprisingly keen on working together with her and her puppets, though his fighting style was rough and could use more than a little polish.

It seemed like he had a lot of potential, but he was still searching for his own style. He had ninjutsu, he had taiijutsu, but neither was something that could be focused on. It was something he was working on.

Shizue did have a thought, though. Chakra Flow and a few more offensive jutsu could help his style.

For Shizue herself, she knew she needed more agility in order to fight with her puppets and not be caught out, and she needed to be more aware of the dangers of Junko's attacks in general. Genjutsu wasn't that great of a weakness for her, but it was definitely a case where she could be stronger against it.

For Junko? She needed to focus on what she was good at. She needed more and more potent attacks so that her first blow could be her last, because every time that the fight lasted more than a handful of seconds, Junko was forced to run, hide, and try to turn it into an ambush again.

Yuichi? Honestly: he just needed to keep doing what he was doing, but more, because the more she saw of him and his fighting style, the more it was clear that he was well on his way to becoming a chunin level fighter. He knew what he wanted to know, he knew what he needed to know, and all it'd take was work to get there.

She left the training ground, tired and sweaty and ready to see what she had to do with the mission.

[End Credits]

Who are her other teammates? (Pick 2, Genta is a .5 vote weight)

[] Pick two.

******

A/N: Yep, there we go. There will be more with the training later, but I didn't know if I wanted a long training/fight scene right before going off on a mission. This mission, unlike others, happens early on in the month, so once you get back (provided things go well) you'll still have plenty of month left.

 

[The Laurent]

Act 4, Scene 28: People of the Desert! The Chump Jobs?

The night before a mission was always a time of preparation and consideration. She was going to be gone for at least a decent portion of a week, and perhaps longer, and it meant that if she was missing something, she'd be missing it.

So she took bandages, and books, scrolls and carefully wrapped packages of food, and while she was at it she tried to stuff in more kunai and other weapons, because if she ran out, if there was some sort of crisis, she would want the extra protection. Plus, considering that the mission was to go out among the desert tribes, this would be exactly the wrong time to underestimate the threats she might face.

Not that she suspected the Ancikar of being a threat, she'd met enough of them to know if anything the real threats were the people who kept on saying that they were threats that needed to be dealt with. The ranchers who had been so suspicious of the Naiporo family had in fact been the exact group of ones that were actually behind the thefts.

But that didn't mean that there couldn't be problems.

On top of that, she brought just in case things. More underwear, for obvious reasons. Extra bras, an emergency set of rations and some water. Emergency hot chocolate provisions. More pads, since if her math was right, she was actually due to need them before too long, and wouldn't that be inconvenient.

So all in all, it was a long time packing… in less than ideal conditions.

The music that had been a comfort before was now a slight annoyance as people hung out and started to play cards. They were very noisy and active, Okiie especially, watching her as she prepared and trying their best to distract her, or so it seemed.

Seiichiro blushed slightly when he saw her stuffing padding into her bag, and Okiie seemed like he was trying to play it cool, but Saya sniggered and took a pose of supine arrogance upon the couch which she didn't give up even when Ichiman had come and left, even when Junko had been driven off by Seiichiro deciding to talk about whether they should bring his comic books with him.

And there was Saya.

Shizue took a breath, trying to calm herself, because she did have a thought, something she needed to deal with. "Saya-chan."

"Yes?" Saya asked, looking up, smiling a little as she looked at Shizue. It wasn't the kind of smile Shizue could trust to stay that way, but she knew that she was at least in a good mood. That'd work well for this.

"Can you run this… room while I'm gone?" Shizue asked. "I'm going to be gone, but people should be able to play around here if they want. Have fun, mingle. Work on training, too." Shizue tried to make it sound obvious and simple, when in truth she'd wondered about it.

After all, Saya did have a talent for making enemies and a skill at being high-handed, but there needed to be someone who managed things, and while Rika-chan might be able to manage it, and manage it fairly… the feud between her and Saya was one where Shizue almost trusted Saya to not push it more than she did Rika.

Saya wouldn't push it out of the same arrogant disregard that had made Rika hate her, sure, but it came down to the same thing in the end.

Saya's face broken into a surprised gape, "Really? Me?"

"You seem to be doing well enough, lately. Junko-chan, the way you're talking to Genta-kun, the way you led the mission," Shizue said. "I believe in you, Saya-chan. I think that you can talk to people and try to hold this together. You were the ring-leader of an entire group of people before, and you just have to make sure that everyone is having fun… and not going through my stuff. You can do this."

If Shizue had stepped on Saya's instep and then kneed her as hard as she could in the stomach, she couldn't have produced that stricken, startled look that seemed almost, for a moment, panicked.

"Why, of course I can, Shizue-chan. I'm surprised you have been able to stand up to the pressure for so long. Perhaps this vacation out into the sticks will allow you to relax from having to live up to my standards."

Shizue tried not to smile at the words, but it was a losing battle. "Right, right, of course."

"Sarcasm does not fit you, Shizue-chan. It does not fit you at all," Saya said. She sniffed and said. "But I shall do my best not to make you look too shabby and incompetent in comparison to my skill at managing and befriending them and getting them to 'hang out' together." Saya smirked.

"And… another question: how is Genta-kun doing?"

"Ah," Saya said, frowning. "Better and worse? I don't know. I think I can help Genta-kun. Or… something." Saya waved a hand vaguely and said. "I think it was a good idea that you didn't get involved, Shizue-chan. You really don't have the right mindset for these things. You'd be too… something. I'm not sure what." Saya frowned thoughtfully, not quite tilting her head, but clearly trying to find the right word for it. "However, I think that you shouldn't worry as much as you are. Genta-kun's a clever person. He can cope."

"Being smart and being happy aren't the same thing," Shizue said. "I want him to be happy."

Saya frowned, "You do, don't you? A part of me wants to think it's some sort of group thing, but you really do care. It's the kind of mindset that's charming in a rustic way, but sometimes you must deploy your vices. But I'm sure that Genta-kun'll find a way to be happy, one way or another. Or unhappy." Saya shook her head, as if the two weren't that different. "He'll find a way, is what I'm saying, and honestly just trust Emiko-sensei. It's all most of us can do. She's the Daimyo and we are her vassals."

"...make sure the Daimyo relaxes," Shizue orders. "Try to get her to unwind at least a little instead of merely training. Talk to Emiko-sensei. If she's here, she could pop up to say 'aye aye' or something like that." Shizue almost giggled at the absurdity of the idea of ordering Emiko around, but if the shinobi was, then she wasn't saying anything.

Which, to be fair, would be a very, very clever trick. She'd managed to make it so that they all assumed she was everywhere and doing everything, and no matter how much she unwound in front of them, no matter how casual and relaxed she was, it was almost impossible not to understand her in that way, see her like that.

"This is a tall task. I will have to employ all of the powers I have. But I do have a few ideas," Saya said. "Oddly enough, they involve Genta-kun." Saya smirked and said, "Now, get to packing."

"I'm done packing."

"Then pack some more."

[Opening Credits]

They left before dawn, Okiie the least loaded down, Seiichiro the most, with Chuichi and Shizue somewhere in the middle. Of course, she had bulkier clothes, so she had no idea how Seiichiro had so much.

She continued to have no idea until comic books began to fall out of his pouch from a hole that ripped open when there was a stiff breeze.

"Aw man!" he said, frowning, and scrambling to pick them up.

"Seiichiro-kun, why do you have all these comics?"

"Well, I know these people live out away from the cities, so they might not have the latest comics. So I decided I'd share. As long as they gave them back," Seiichiro said, with a nod. "But my bag had a hole in it, and I tried to sew it up… but it kinda was canvas."

Seiichiro was pouting, and it was adorable. Shizue stepped forward, looking at the hole. There was indeed a decent stitch, not great but the kind of thing Shizue had learned to do in the years after her mother died, since she could hardly have afforded to get a tailor to do them. She'd lived lean years with nobody to provide for her.

… and she knew little enough about Seiichiro, except that some point he'd become a decent, but not great, mender of clothing, and that he was also goofy enough to think that the same talent and stitches would apply to a thicker, heavier backpack which had a lot more weight put on the seams.

"Huh," Okiie said. "That's kinda nice."

"Thanks," Seiichiro replied, as he tried to pick up all of the colorful, beautiful looking comics, their artwork a little childish, but with a sense of motion and immediacy, before the fierce winds blew them away.

As they well might. And then, despite the wind and the cold of the desert before the sunrise, they stopped and Shizue began to sew up the bag.

"You should probably learn this too, Seiichiro-kun. You have to do a lot more to keep a backpack closed. A lot thicker, and a lot stronger. You should get a new backpack too. I know you can afford it," she said, humming a little and glancing up at Okiie, in case he wanted to learn how to do this.

He seemed interested, but not enough to step closer, and Chuichi was huddling up against the rock outcropping as she worked. He'd no doubt be interested… except he already knew. She tried to remember what she knew of his independence. Certainly, Okiie was a good cook. But… hopefully he didn't wear his clothes patchy. She'd happily, well somewhat happily, take the short time it'd really be to fix that up.

After that, they continued on their way a lot faster, and by the time the sun rose they were halfway there, the terrain starting to grow rockier and harder, but also less sandy, the desert growing flater, and even sloping downward as if they were at the edge of a great valley.

The sun beat down, and Shizue pulled out the veil and hood and decided to see if she could wear that just… so.

Okiie smiled, no doubt remembering the last time she wore it, and they continued onward. Seiichiro could have used a hat, but the veil itself did seem to protect her from the worst of the sun's glare, its relentless attempt to beat everyone down.

It took some time to travel, but at last she saw it at a distance. It was a series of outbuildings that seemed to have been made of… adobe? She wasn't sure, but around and with them were dozens and dozens of tall, broad looking tents, each of which, even from a vast distance, drew her eyes.

Even before she'd seen the watering hole, the streams, and the caves etched into the side of the cliff-face that the whole area was leaning against, she knew that this was a community, because it had the same… no, not the same, merely similar, patterns.

It probably meant the same thing: this is mine, that is not yours.

There was a herd of cattle, a small herd, congregating around the watering hole, and the whole area was grassy. The hard rock gave way to grass, though it itself seemed very thing, and Shizue couldn't imagine the animals as all that happy. The cattle were joined by horses, which only made the straing greater, she bet.

But she also saw veiled children playing amid the water, laughing and being chided by their mother, if her wagging finger was any indication.

Shizue could imagine the words, and she could also imagine the way they'd whine. It made her smile as they began to slow down and just walk the rest of the way.

"This is just one of many watering holes. When they're done with it, they'll move on to greener pastures, and we'll probably be following them through at least one move."

"Wait, why do they have buildings, then?" Okiie asked.

"Some of the older people, and some of the people who like it here, might stay for a while," Chuichi explained. "Make sure nobody attacks the water supply, or steals the spot for when they'll next show up."

Shizue, counting tents, stopped at well over a hundred tents. If each was a family, then that wasn't a small group at all. "Are these the only Ancikar in the area?"

"No. There's about two other groups, but this is the largest. And of course, there are outlaws and other nomads that don't play along, and they've been…" Chuichi shook his head. "They used to have even better watering holes, but they've been forced back by the numbers of the ranchers."

"Ah," Shizue said. Seiichiro looked frustrated, and as if he were about to declare it unfair.

But Shizue just tried to look at how they lived as they made their way down, drawing close enough that she could hear their words.

And she blinked, startled by something. She couldn't understand them. "What are they speaking?" Shizue said.

"Another language," Chuichi replied, easily. "They're their own people, even if most of them also speak… what do you even call a language everyone speaks? Everything's been weeded out into dialects by interaction and time, mostly, but here? Here it's a language, an entirely different way of speaking that at most shares some words and ideas."

Shizue gaped at the idea of that: it'd been hard enough trying to learn the dialects, the extra words and the accents that were a normal part of going from one country to the next, without adding in a new language.

Okiie seemed even more stunned, though also curious. "So, we'll be able to talk with them, right?"

Shizue listened the the babble of sounds, and even, as she got closer, the sound of what seemed like an older woman singing a song that she didn't understand. She listened, trying to capture the sounds if not the meaning, the woman's voice high and clear as she sang from one of the tents.

Shizue stepped forward, trying to ignore it as people turned and looked at her, but then went about their day, clearly far too busy to spend too much attention on what was clearly a team of ninja there to help.

"Alright, then, we need to head in the direction of the permanent buildings. That's where we'll find the board."

"The board?" Shizue asked.

"When they heard we were coming for a while, they set up a board of missions," Chuichi said. "We'll pick a few easy ones and then see if we can build up trust, then do bigger deals."

"Ah, right!" Seiichiro said, hurrying ahead.

"...I didn't tell him which of the buildings," Chuich said, drily, and then followed.

*******

So, what missions taken? (Choose three and indicate order)

[] [Easy] Weeding is a simple task, and one that the people here take seriously. Helping out could free others from the chore.
[] [Easy] Some of the cattle are cows, and some of the cows have milk. Milking cows… and churning butter is… wait. Horses too?
[] [Easy] Running messages across the tribe does sometimes feel like an exercise in helping the lazy not get out of their tents, admittedly.
[] [Easy] An extra hand is needed for sewing. Or two.
[] [Medium] Passing a message on to another nearby tribe shouldn't be too dangerous, but it does involve going out into the desert, and it's at least a decent amount of hard work.
[] [Medium] When it comes time to move, they could use someone to help them carry things.
[] [???] Babysitter… wanted?
[] [Medium/Hard] Digging a well is definitely not something done casually, and even with a team, it'll be… at least hours and hours of work.
[] [Hard] Digging through sheer rock is even harder, but there are apparently parts of the cliff-face, and areas of it down below, that could use some exploring.
[] Write-in.

******

A/N: Okay. There. Bluh. This is unedited because reasons, so if you see any errors, please point them out.

 

[The Laurent]

Act 4, Scene 28 (Cont)

The board was rather large, stuck to the wall of the small room, looking a little ridiculous just by its size and the amount of color there was on the bit of wood. Dozens and dozens of requests, and all of them written on colored paper or highlighted with a little bit of ribbon.

"I believe," Chuichi said thoughtfully, "that they're trying to impress us."

"Really?" Okiie said, frowning up at all of them, and then snatching one up. "Hey, this is blue! Neat." He looked at it closer, and then flushed at Shizue's gaze.

"It seems to have worked," Shizue said, amused. "What's that one?"

"Digging a well. I think I'm going to do that! It'll be fun. And build character," Okiie said. "I think? That's what I'm supposed to say, right? For missions like these?"

"Yeah. It's what they always say in the books," Seiichiro said, eyes wide, excitement brimming over as he looked around. "Weeding, yeah! That's a good one that I can go complain about!"

Shizue stared at the two of them, trying to figure out what was wrong with them. Sure, she'd always heard that D-ranks were small tasks you complained about and did anyways, but it's not like neither of them didn't have a few of those already.

...so these shouldn't be the ones to complain about. Shizue frowned, glancing over at the old woman in the chair watching all of them with a slight smile.

Then she took to looking at them, and found one herself. "This one seems easy, right, Chuichi-sensei?"

Easy so that she'd help build trust, she thought. She wasn't in charge of this team, really, or at least not technically, but she did want to be responsible and help out.

"It should. I think I'll come and help you. Get around the village, see what the rumors are." Chuichi smiled a little, leaning back as he glanced down at the prices.

Of course, for Shizue, it'd take a lot more than anything she'd ever get to make it worth it: but the actual amount of money she was getting for this mission was basically nothing. It was 'show up at this place and then pass messages for tips.'

There were worse ways to make money, but few enough: however, there weren't many better ways to travel across the whole camp, and it wasn't as if it were a bad day out. So why not get a little sun and exercise?

********

"Alright," the man said, his robes thick and heavy as he glanced down from the letters up to his two workers. He was thickset, clearly old and tired. "So, here are all the letters everyone's got in. No peeking at them, and if they ask you to come back when they have a reply ready, just check in again in a few minutes. That usually does it. I'm Nitai-san. Got it? I'm the mailman around here, but my leg's been aching me something bad, and sometimes they go off into the caves, and wander out into nothing, and then I spend my whole day doing this, and not something important."

"You're the mailman. What do you do with the rest of your time?" Chuichi asked. "If you don't mind me asking, Nitai-san?"

"Well, fine then. I read books and then do some work on making paper. I get some pulp shipped in, but I also use it making cloth. It's very popular, and it sells a lot more than just the tips and sinecure from being a mailman. In my youth, I traveled across half of Wind, but there's no place like your home."

Nitai frowned and said, "Less likely to be called a savage, too."

His words were clear and crisp, without but a hint of the accent she associated with Anchikar. "Oh," Shizue said. "I'm sorry."

"Not bitter over it, girl. Just the way of the world. Anyways, take these letters, and I'll get back to that novel. I'll pay you when you get back."

The pay wasn't much at all, and the tips were where the money was… which was to say, Shizue suspected, that it wasn't worth much. But Nitai clearly knew that new shinobi would want to get a little more practice and knowledge of the area, and he seemed perfectly happy to take advantage of that.

So she set out.

******

"Give letter!" the tired looking woman said, her clothes a little less constricting in the confines of the tent, which had a central cooking fire and a series of lightweight containers, with only two bedrolls there. She didn't look to be more than perhaps forty, her face drawn and long, her eyes watery, but these watery eyes were enthusiastic.

The letter that Shizue handed over smelled of… what? It honestly smelled horrible, though as far as she could tell the scent wasn't a perfume. But it was a something.

"Alright then, ma'am. Here you go," Shizue said.

The woman snatched it out of Shizue's hands and waved her off dismissively.

Shizue nodded and stepped out.

*******

She moved tent by tent, carefully gauging the tents by size and what was in there. Few tents only had two bedrolls, and she learned that the woman was the older sister of a widower, and herself a widow, and that she was…

Well, the story got complicated from there, but apparently she had taken up to corresponding with a widower of her own, and they were talking about getting married, though of course what was the point if they weren't going to--

The truth was, Shizue didn't even care, but she learned it anyways. What she did care about was watching how the people lived.

Age seemed to have something to do with garb. The older they were, the more layers there seemed to be. Children ran free in simple garments that were only a little different for boys and girls, while older girls wore long skirts and veils, and older boys wore long pants and hoods, and men and women were only more covered.

What they weren't was unfashionable. The layers were in different colors, the veils not just black or tan, but golden, or the color of moonlight, hair captured and kept caged beneath careful pins, implying a self that wasn't quite seen.

It was all a sort of strange game, to watch these people as they wrote the letters or waved her off. They talked to themselves in a babble that she couldn't understand, though there was a slight, airy sliding to the sounds that made her think of the Wind accent. She supposed it made sense that their language would take after the Wind-country dialect and accent. It made sense that this would happen.

Some of them sat near the fireplace, while others lay as far away as possible, fanning themselves or taking food from the small containers which seemed to be half-buried in the ground. These were apparently filled with food that wouldn't spoil, or at least wouldn't spoil easily.

She got few tips, though one young boy, perhaps fifteen at most, blushed when he saw her and offered her some fresh mares' milk.

"Go. Try it. It's good," he said, encouragingly, his accent heavy and his words slow and clumsy, as if he was struggling through molasses to say them.

She sipped it, frowning a little as she did, her lips twisting.It tasted thick, and slightly… stronger than she was used to from milk? It was a subtle thing, and the fact that it was from a horse was really the strangest thing. "It's… good," she said, trying to be positive. It unnerved her, thinking about it, but then again, were cows really that much more pleasant to think of?

Not that she'd ever met a cow before face to face. She figured that they'd get along, if it came down to it, and it would very soon, she realized. She liked to get along with people, and smiling and drinking weird things was part of it.

The boy smiled back, and she made her excuses to leave.

******

This continued for some time: no respect, but plenty of things to listen to and think about. The tribe as a whole seemed oddly docile, or at least in a good enough mood that they were willing to gossip with anyone, to take their time. There was no sense of urgency or worry, except the desire to get their letters on time, as she wound up jogging out to the horses and cows.

First impression of cows: they were big and they smelled, but so did plenty of people. The cows grazed, thin and yet still large by any standard, and she had to wind her way through them, stepping around… pies as she finally delivered her letter to a young man in his twenties, who nodded at her and then slipped the letter under his hood.

Which, admittedly, was a pretty decent place to store such a thing.

******

Her final mission took her down into the deep stores, into the caves, deeper and deeper. At each intersection, she found a person and asked where this letter went, and then was directed deeper.

It was a damp store-room down there, cold enough that she almost wished she had on the thick robes that most of the people down here had. And slowly, moving downward, it got slightly damper, but she also began to see what looked like tunnels going left and right, the walls hacked out, and she could see slight glimmers in them.

In fact, the more she looked, the more she realized that the walls were faintly shining. Onward she went, until she found, near the end of a passageway, an old man holding what looked like a stick of explosives and resolutely trying to wedge it into the wall. "Yeh-heh," the man muttered to himself, his words not understandable.

Then he turned, seeing her at the last moment, and yelled, "Irankarapte!"

Shizue blinked, and held out the letter. The man sighed, and gestured to his gloves. "Dusty. Hold letter. Gonna just put this in."

"Uh," Shizue said, staring at the dynamite. It was rather too much for such a small space, and the other problem was that the walls already looked very, very, very weak. She stared in dismay as he began to push the dynamite into a hole he'd drilled. "Don't!"

She grabbed his arm, looking up. "The walls won't hold, and not just here. Look!" She pointed up. Overhead, shrouded in darkness, were cracks and fissures. A blast might well send the entire passage into collapse.

He blinked, slowly, this old man, his face barely visible beneath the mask, and then nodded. "Right. Right. Thanks. Give letter."

He shuffled out, and then took off a glove to hold out a clean hand and take it. Shizue handed it to him, and said, "Please don't do that again, sir."

"You smart girl," he said, shaking his head. "Will be careful. There gems in there. Somewhere."

"Oh? But are you going to stay here, or leave with the tribe when they move?"

"Stay. Not up to travel."

Ah, and there was the answer… she hoped that he didn't do something stupid.

*******

They made camp at the edge of the tribe, Chuichi, Seiichiro, and herself. Seiichiro was sweating and wishing for a bath, nagging Shizue to help find a tub for it. It was a small tent, small enough that they'd be pressed pretty close together at night. No room for any privacy at all. Shizue tried to ignore that and focus on what really mattered, which was trying to cook the rice and get the food ready. Chuichi-sensei was helping, but he was also still busy going around the camp as the sun began to set.

It was only then that Okiie came back, and against all expectations, he wasn't soaked in sweat. Instead, there he was, smiling that wide grin, his eyes bright, strolling up. "Hey, Shizue-chan! I'm finally back. Sorry I'm late. It was hot and heavy work, digging that well. And I wanted to take a bath before I got back."

He smiled, and Shizue smiled back at him, stepping closer and saying, "Good. I hope you did well, Okiie-kun." She leaned down slightly and pulled him in for a brief kiss. "Now, do you want to help me with dinner? It could be fun."

"What do we have?"

"Rice. Beef. Horse… meat," Shizue said, dubiously. "Root vegetables."

"Can do!"

******

It was a sort of gravy stew, with milk to thicken it up and make it creamy. That itself was a little odd, and then it was slumped all over the rice, and then mixed into it until it took on a very grainy sort of texture. The vegetables were all mixed in with the beef, as well as the horse meat, and a carrot that Shizue managed to borrow from a woman the next tent over, who had a few left over after mashing some for a baby, and whose husband was away doing business in a distant town, and wasn't it nice that someone came to visit when she was caring for a young baby, and what a nice girl, that boy, was she dating him?--

It was remarkable what a smile and a willingness to sit through and listen to anything could get a person.

Such as a delicious meal.

[Commercial Break]

"Shizue-chan," Seiichiro whined as he frowned and tried to work through a back-stitch. "They're staring at me."

It was true. Shizue, Seiichiro, and about a dozen girls were all spread out on a huge blanket in one of the larger tents, working on sewing practice. Sewing practice and work, because Shizue had a huge pile of clothes with rips in them that she had to mend, before she could even work on weaving on a loom, or anything like that.

The youngest of the girls was seven, the oldest close to being an adult, and Seiichiro was the only boy. So those nearer to Shizue's age, and a little older, were staring at him as if they were housewives and he were a vegetable they weren't sure was ripe, while the younger girls stared at him as if they didn't believe that a boy could possibly back-stitch without hurting himself.

The girls were all dressed appropriately to her age, but the leader of them seemed to be a beautiful, curvaceous girl with dark skin and a long skirt, her head completely uncovered. She spoke only slightly-accented… language, though unless addressing Shizue, she didn't seem to deign to not speak in Anchikari, as Shizue had finally settled on calling it.

But the girl, Opere was happy to talk to her. "Hey," she said. "Nice stitch."

"Thanks," Shizue said. She didn't have a lot of skill, but when it was just clothes she was sewing, it wasn't hard. Her fingers felt nimble enough for the job, and she continued at a steady pace, even as she talked. "You too."

The girl was sewing a pattern of thread onto a hood, a symbol of some sort, her hands moving without having to consult her eyes at all. "Is that boy your boyfriend?"

She pointed over at Seiichiro, who looked stunned at the idea.

"No, no. Just a teammate," Shizue admitted, aware that the other girls were listening in, even the younger ones who probably could't understand her that well. "I did… bring a boyfriend along, though. My other teammate."

"The one with the nose?" Opere asked, thoughtfully.

"...Yes," Shizue said, biting back defenses of him, and how really when you thought about it, his nose was just fine. "And the one with the lovely smile."

"Aww," the girl said, shifting in her seat. "Is this love that is… young-love?"

"I suppose so. I'm only thirteen. I'm sorry if I've interrupted anything," Shizue said.

"It is no problem," Opere said, her accent getting slightly thicker before she started talking to some of the other girls in another language. The girls giggled, smiling wide. "I'm telling them gossip. What is it like, being a shinobi?"

"Hard work," Shizue said, gesturing over to the pile of clothing.

A girl about Shizue's age, with dark, braided hair and a thin veil, muttered something. The other girls giggled.

"Ayai says that, if so, she's a shinobi, because she sews her brother's pants all the time," Opere said.

"Oh, I guess there are bigger missions." Shizue obviously couldn't talk about the undercover mention, but she did say. "For instance, we were trying to find some lost cattle that someone had stolen, with shinobi techniques…"

One of the girls half-leapt up into the air and pointed at Shizue, babbling loudly and waving her arms.

"Really?" Opere said, and then spoke fast and quickly, a back and forth that Shizue couldn't listen to, as others joined in and the girls all clustered around. "You're the one Upash was talking about?"

Upash? Where was the san? Shizue tried not to react, though she had noticed that they left off honorifics far more often than she was used to, even when speaking. "Maybe?"

"He said you helped clear our kind, and that you helped stop one of the ranchers."

"Yeah," Shizue said, thinking of the dark and bloody conclusion. "But the baron's men got away."

"The baron?" Opere said, "Tell me who that is as I translate?"

"He's a cattle baron, powerful and rich, who has been expanding up north from here, eating ranchers alive."

"And he has a bunch of ninja working for him!" Seiichiro chimed in.

Opere had to speak fast to translate all of that, and the girls babbled what Shizue realized were questions.

"So, you fought a bunch of other ninja? How are you alive? That's Aiasking. She says that you're a girl, so surely something would break."

"It's true that I don't fight directly," Shizue admitted. "I prefer to keep a distance, dance out of the way of attacks… but that's not true of some girls I've known before. It's all just what you train for."

Shizue thought about Genta, for instance. A guy less likely to want to be up close and personal Shizue couldn't imagine. People were people, and that's just how it was.

"Oh, really?" Opere said. "Huh, so tell me more about…"

A girl said something that sounded chiding.

"Oh, sorry," Opere said. "Maybe we should instead talk about something more fun."

"Like?" Shizue asked.

"Boys!" Opere said. "Have you kissed this boy yet?"

"Okiie-kun."

Opere turned and repeated Shizue's words.

"What's he like?"

"Enthusiastic. Nice. He cares about me, and he's a good kisser," Shizue admitted, words that when translated sent the girls tittering… at least the older ones, while the younger ones looked confused or even made gagging gestures. "I've been dating him for a few months."

Opere said words in rapid fire, and Shizue tried to pick out at least sounds: "Okiie purrkeh cur, set perka okkay. Sik purka" and then a pucker of her lips, and more sounds that Shizue couldn't interpret.

Seiichiro tried to focus on his sewing, but he was listening more and more as Shizue changed the subject. Opere didn't have a suitor, or a boyfriend, but Ayai apparently did, or at least a boy who was a friend, and of course--or she presented it as 'of course'--he was an idiot who didn't see anything even if it was right in front of him.

Seiichiro listened in, and then held up a hand as if he were in class. "Yes, Seiichiro-kun?" Shizue asked.

"No, I wanted to ask!" Seiichiro paused, and took a breath. "Is there any way I can learn more about your language, Opere-san?"

"San? Isn't chan used for girls?" Opere said, sounding baffled. She'd been using kun and chan when talking to Shizue, and maybe that's all that's needed.

"Well, you see," Shizue began.

"Respect! Since I just met you," Seiichiro said, flinging a pair of pants behind him and grabbing another. "I'm still just learning. I'd like to know more about sewing, yes, but I also kinda wanna learn more." Then he muttered, "Akachi-kun'd be so jealous."

It was true that Akachi seemed to like travelling. Shizue smiled a little as Seiichiro finally got into the talking, and Shizue was able to focus on her work while watching Seiichiro make a little bit of a fool out of himself. He certainly was fumble-tongued, but they seemed to forgive him that, and in exchange they taught him a few words and phrases. No more than that, before time ran out.

********

That night, things changed a little bit. In with the dust and a storm came a young looking shinobi, or Chuichi said.

"I've seen him, though only from a distance. He's nobody I recognize. Masato-kun, he called himself. I… don't know if I trust him, but I think, no matter what, he's at least competition. So be careful."

The next day, she had to babysit.

[End Credits]

First off, how if at all to interact with Masato?

[] Don't talk to him.
[] Try to check around, see what missions he takes.
[] Confront him.
[] Write-in.

As a babysitter…! You are looking after a young boy and girl, the girl five, the boy nine, please outline a strategy for survival

[] Write-in.

******

A/N: So!

 

[The Laurent]

Act 4, Scene 29: People of the Desert! The Future?

At night, the lamps came out, here and there. It wasn't enough to navigate by, if you were a civilian… well. Shizue saw a girl scamper out of a tent half-dressed as she thought this and corrected herself. It was not enough to navigate by unless you knew where you were going and where you were, but for a shinobi it might as well be day for how hard it was for her to make it to the rather large tent. She knocked on it, quietly as she could.

A veiled, heavily robed woman stepped out. "You are the baby-sitter?" She spoke in a thick accent, but fast, as if she were trying to get a running start at the words.

"Yes, I am. I wanted to ask a little about them."

"Yes, you can ask," the woman said. She gestured slightly, and pulled the tent open.

The husband was packing, a huge, swarthy man with a beard curling down his face, far thicker than she'd seen most people able to grow, his arms like thick tree trunks. He was far from the largest man Shizue had ever seen, of course, but it was impressive.

Over in a corner of the tent, which was laid up with dozens of rugs, there were two bundles. Sleeping children, she realized, in soft red blankets, on blue-brown mats, with fluffy white pillows. The boy was older, the girl younger, both of them with long hair and undeveloped features.

"Isonash is nine. He tries to be his dad's son, but he's more like my father," the woman said. "Bright, and quick, but maybe he'll grow up to be big and strong."

"What does he like and not like?"

"He's always curious about the world, and he likes dancing and studying. He doesn't like most vegetables, though. Hates them. We have an ice-box, there's some beef, he likes beef. Someone told him that eating a lot of beef will make him grow up big and strong."

The woman sounded so fond that Shizue's heart ached at it, and she nodded. "And the girl?"

She looked familiar.

"Katkemat, you can call her. She's smart, and good with words. She's only six, but she already knows your tongue. She's very quiet and shy, and good at sewing and cooking."

Shizue frowned, and looked at the girl. She wondered if she'd seen the girl before. "What does she like to eat?"

"Rice with vegetables. And milk. She loves milk. We have a little for her stashed away. Don't let her drink all of it."

"I won't," Shizue said.

"We'll just be gone from about an hour or two after sunrise to about now. So we'll be back by the time you tuck them in. Do you know how to sing a lullabye? My voice is itself not one of best voices. It bad voice, but…"

The woman looked like she was getting choked up, her eyes watering, for whatever reason.

"There there, it's okay."

"I usually leave them with a relative," the woman said, biting her lip and nervously playing with her hands. "But I can't. Does it make me a bad…"

"You love them, you care for them, and you're willing to pay to take care of them. I'm sure the kids will be fine, and I'm sure they'll have fun."

"...yeah. Thank you… what was your name?"

"Call me Shizue."

"Shizue-chan." The woman smiled, pulling back her veil for a moment, and nodding as she wiped her eyes. "Is there anything you need?"

"Do you have pots and spoons?"

[Opening Credits]

Early in the morning, the ninja moves. The ninja works… or the ninja watches a young, rather handsome man step out of his tent and move with purposeful stride right towards the building that had the missions. He was in his early twenties, that was for sure, and his boots crunched on the ground in a way very different than Shizue's sandals. In all honesty, they were probably more reassuringly loud, and the ninja didn't seem to care. He wore a green shirt, rather tight, and long, flowing pants that had plenty of pockets for kunai, though from the lack of any large scrolls, she could guess his specialty at least a little.

Shizue hesitated, watching him, holding her own scrolls and the bag of things she'd brought with her for just this purpose. She had made the snacks at four o'clock, dragging Okiie out of bed with the promise of kisses, which were more than enough incentive to help him make small rice buns, as well as a few candied dates that she thought the children would like. And finally she dipped into her snack pouch, including some of the chocolate that she'd brought on the off-chance that she was hungry.

Despite the monthlies, today seemed to be looking up as she made her way to the tent and stood outside it, waiting.

After a minute, the tent opened, and the big man stepped through, almost running her over, and then stopping. "Oh, sorry. You babysat?"

"I'm the babysitter," Shizue confirmed.

"Very good. Give ten minutes, please."

"Okay," Shizue said, with a nod.

She stood and waited. It was a fine day, the sun rising up in the sky, but veiled by a thin layer of clouds that helped take a few degrees off of what would no doubt still be a very oppressive heat. Shizue had decided to dress in a way that'd fit in, which meant her veil and the skirts. So she was viewing the world through a slight layer, everything at a remove just great enough to make her wonder what it was like to wear it all the time.

She was very good at waiting, or at least she was getting better, and she pulled out the scroll that held her musical instruments. She was going to give them a show, and she had several ways to do it, including one she remembered her mother always doing.

Finally, the couple stepped out, their backs loaded with supplies, and waved at Shizue. "May I go in?"

"Yes. See you later," the woman said, nodding at them.

Shizue opened the flap of the tent and stepped inside to see the two children lined up, ramrod straight. The girl was young enough that she was simply wearing a bright green skirt and a blue shirt, the corner of the neckline already stained with what looked to be a bit of sauce. Shizue had seen the girl before, when she was sewing, and from the way the girl was looking at Shizue, she remembered her.

The boy was similarly ramrod, in a far less colorful brown ensemble, his hair slicked down and so thick that she imagined it was a hassle to keep all together like that.

Both of them seemed pensive and uncertain.

"Hello, I'm Shizue. You may call me Shizue-chan. It's good to meet you Isonash-kun and Katkemat-chan."

"You got our names right," the boy said, eyes wide, as if he hadn't expected that.

"They're nice names," Shizue said, glad that at the last moment she'd not called them pretty. "I'm trying to learn what I can. My friend's trying to learn your language, but I doubt he'll get too far. It's not that easy."

"No, it isn't," Isonash said, sulking a little, just for a moment. Then he brightened. "So, you're a shinobi? What kind of shinobi? Um… do you mind if I ask you some questions?"

"I'm… all sorts of kinds of shinobi, but I'm not really that much of a fighter."

"That's fine, that's fine," Isonash said, waving a hand, "Though if you have fought then that's cool, but I… uh. Wanted to know about what you do?"

"I've fought before, it's usually very scary," Shizue admitted. Katkemat seemed to loosen up a bit at that acknowledgment, stepping forward as Shizue knelt down a little.

"You're really tall," Katkemat said.

"My Dad was tall," Shizue said with a soft smile, seeing the recognition and connection in Isonash's eyes. She wasn't going to talk about how there were two possible candidates. "My mom was pretty short, though. But I took after him. Just sprouted up, and I've been growing since."

"Ah, really?" Isonah asked. "Uh, what's your specialty?"

"I can do a lot of things, but I'm very good at ninjutsu. That's… say." Shizue held out a hand, "Please take a step back."

Both of them stepped back, and in a puff of smoke she made another clone. "It's not a big jutsu, but I felt like I should show you something safe."

"Oh, that," Isonash said, dismissively, "I've seen that."

Katkemat, on the other hand, reached out to touch the clone. Her eyes went wide when her hand went through. "It's… like a mirage!" she said. "Nash, look!"

Isonash flushed at the nickname and said, "I see. Is that all you do?"

"No. As far as fights go, they've been tough, and I can't show you everything… but I use puppets."

"Oh," Isonash said, his eyes wide, as he nodded. He knew exactly what she meant, and he held up a hand and raced away, towards the children's area of the large, square tent, digging through what looked like a pile of toys.

"What do you like to do?" Katkemat asked. "Besides ninja-ing."

"I also like singing, and dancing too," Shizue said, thinking of a dance she could show them, actually. Though probably they'd rather prefer to jump and run around, and flail their bodies. The Eri dance was probably a little beyond them. Or at least, their attention spans.

"Oh, really? And… sewing? And Okiie-kun?" the girl asked, her eyes wide.

Shizue tried not to flush too much at the words, glad that the veil hid her face a little bit. "Those too. There's a lot of things to like. What about you?"

"Words!"

"Ah, too bad I didn't bring any novels," Shizue said, frowning. "I could go and find… no, no." She was only six, after all. "But if you want, later I could tell stories."

Katkemat nodded, her big, brown eyes looking very somber and thoughtful, as if she were storing away this promise forever. There were even odds as to whether she'd remember it: when she was Katkemat's age she remembered sometimes remembering the littlest promises but also forgetting the biggest things.

She wondered how she was as a child, how her mother felt about raising her: not her, she was not that insecure, and never had been, to think that her mother hadn't loved her. But there was a difference between that and being an easy to care for child.

Isonash raced back, holding a doll. "I got it from… a friend of a friend." The way he was biting his lip made her think that this wasn't so, but more than that, she was staring at the doll in astonishment.

"This… looks familiar." It was a puppet, an actual puppet. He had brown hair, and three eyes, and was wearing a dark set of rags that seemed a lot like Stinger. He was obviously a puppet, and the four arms only stood out even more. It was all articulated rather well, with a grinning set of teeth and legs with joints. Enough joints that she could actually control it, she bet.

Though she also guessed that anything with arms and legs she could at least move around by attaching to it with chakra strings.

"It's Karasu! It's part of a big, um, toy collection or something? For the 100th anniversary thing. My Dad, um, got it from that friend when he went into the city on a big business mission and we stayed with nana and Mom."

"Ohh," Katkemat said, nodding again in recognition.

Shizue now realized that she had found yet another thing that she needed. This was… Karasu. That's where she'd heard the name. He was one of Sasori's puppets, but he'd also been controlled by the famous Kankuro. She'd be no puppeteer at all if she hadn't heard of Kankuro. "Wow, this is really cool!"

"It is!" Isonash said. "Could you, um, make it move?" He sounded as if he were testing Shizue.

"I can. Are there any other dolls or toys you want me to move? I can't move too many at once, actually." Shizue knew that honestly, it would be easier to create a wooden cross to hold the strings on, rather than using actual chakra strings.

But she also suspected that it wouldn't be seen as being quite as cool. So she was fine with trying something, and seeing just what turned up.

"You can't?" Isonash said. "Why not? I mean, aren't these simpler than your puppets?"

"That's just it. The puppet has a control area, of sorts. It's designed to be moved by it. It could take five fingers to control a doll because it has no…"

Well, no center. No area that connects into everything else. "But I'll try."

"This one's supposed to be special or something," Isonash said, pouting.

Katkemat frowned, "Can you make my cloth dolly walk?"

"Of course."

*******

Shizue was startled to find that the miniature puppet...was actually a miniature puppet. It even had the areas to control it with a single chakra string, though they were gritted up with sand that the designer clearly hadn't planned on. But… this was high quality work, and more than that, it was so very unnecessary. Would most kids buying it actually be able to use chakra strings? Even if it was meant for shinobi children.

It was one of those details that seemed almost odd, but she brushed it off.

"Good day, Ms. Patches," Shizue said in a deep voice as she maneuvered Karasu towards a yarn-headed girl whose body was indeed made of what seemed like regular cloth, her robes carefully sewn, though she didn't wear a veil.

Karasu gestured broadly and asked, his head flapping slightly, "Having a good day?"

"I am," Shizue said, in a lighter, airier voice. "I was dancing! Wanna dance?"

Patches began to do a vague jig, taking all five of Shizue's fingers to work as the kids watched, eyes wide at the movement.

"Not so fast! I, Dr. Hat, deserve the first dance." He was a cowboy in a hot, a wooden doll that was not as carefully made, but could be controlled, just barely, with the other four fingers of the hand that was controlling Karasu.

"Oh yeah, do you?" Karasu asked.

"Nuh-uh," Isonash said. "Dr. Hat's just a dirty cowboy, he's not a ninja."

"Ninja can be cowboys too," Shizue pointed out.

Isonash subsided, blinking. "They… can?"

"I've met a ninja cowboy before. He was pretty cool," Shizue said, sticking out her tongue. Isonash seemed drawn in, but also willing to debate it, while Katkemat just accepted it as one of the cooler things she'd seen.

"Really?" Isonash blinked. "That's not cool."

"It isn't?"

"It's super-cool," Isonash insisted, glancing over at Katkemat.

"Super-duper-mega-cool," Katkemat said, after a long moment of silent prompting by her brother.

******

So they watched a play of sort, as she threw in different 'actors' though she could only keep track of three at a time. They seemed fascinated, though eventually even that started to pall a little. But she got a full hour out of it, and the kids seemed ready for something a little more exciting.

"So, do you have any songs you like?" Shizue asked, as she went to the kitchen area, which was apparently based around the fire in the center of the tents, and grabbed the pots, pans and spoons.

"Of course! Mom has a lullabye we always listen to," Katkemat said, humming it inexpertly.

Shizue hummed it back, "Like that?"

"Yes, but there's words with it, about going to sleep."

"She makes up the words," Isonash said, "They're different each time."

Shizue nodded, keeping that in mind. "Well, have you ever sung at all? Or played the drums? I have some actual drums, and I'd like to give you a challenge. Keeping up, and then, I'll be rewarding pieces of chocolate to anyone who does well."

Of course, unless they didn't try, she was going to award it to both of them, but making it a competition should help, she thought.

Certainly, the kids perked up as she took out the summoning scroll and unsealed the flutes, drums, and other instruments.

"Woooow," Katkemat said, "What was that?"

"Oh, just a sealing scroll," Shizue admitted. "Nothing much."

"...how much can fit in there?" Isanash asked.

"Honestly, as much as you want, though if it gets torn, that's bad."

Isanash frowned, thoughtfully. "But you could place it in the middle of a stack of other goods, or even sell scroll paper, except some of it is in use, and then on the paper…"

The boy trailed off, and Shizue had to admit that that'd be a clever way to smuggle things, or hide them in general. "Well, here are some pots, and here are the drums. So, let's see how you do!"

******

They did get slightly bored of it at points, but whenever they did, she added more challenges, or more rewards. Soon she got them singing and stamping their feet in time with the music. Kids could get bored easily, she remembered that, so she tried to do as many different songs as she could, and then when it was done, she gave each of them half of a chocolate bar.

"You'll get the rest after lunch," Shizue said. "For doing so well."

Neither of them were musicians in the making, but she'd managed to teach them a little about rhythm, the kind of thing that she'd learned about when she was two or three, and while she hadn't gotten into notes and beat, she was well on her way to teaching them that as well.

To her, it was almost too simple, but she kept on having to pull herself up short and make it simple. Isonash was the better at the things involving dexterity, but Katkemat had a surprisingly good memory for learning things, whereas he seemed to go over the same details several times before understanding.

Both of them had lovely singing voices, though, and by the time she was done with that and put all of her instruments away, she was both in a good mood and just two or so hours until lunch. That meant that she was passing the time pretty well.

"So, what next?" Isonash asked.

"I was thinking you could read for a little. I could tell stories, if you really wanted, but reading, playing with dolls…" Shizue gestured around the area. "If you need any help with anything, I'd be happy to help."

"Ahh," Katkemat said. "What about stories? What do your puppets look like? Or, or! How did you learn to sing so beautifully?" She stumbled slightly on the last word, but said it all. "It was like you were…"

"I first listened to music just after I was born. My Mom hummed music to me all the time, and by the time I was three, I'd learned how to do the beats I was showing you, and the melody," Shizue said it all fondly, thinking of the long and difficult lessons on the nature of sound that had eventually come too.

Those had been less fun then playing drums or clapping her hands, or listening to a bar of music and then humming it back, which was a talent that she'd had to learn, and which built on more and more complicated things. Music should be natural, it should be like breathing, and she found herself missing her Mom fiercely when she thought about it.

"That young?" Isonash asked, blinking.

"I practice every day," Shizue said. It was true: music was not something you picked up and then put down, like some sort of toy. It was something you lived, and something that lived inside of you, and she had really felt it, at least when the kids were getting very good at it. That moment when they were starting to care and understand music. "It's hard work, but…" Shizue smiled and leaned in. "You wanna know a secret?"

Katkemat nodded and leaned closer, and after a moment of pretending not to be interested, so did Isonash.

"I can use sound to do ninjutsu. Like whispering to someone from across the room. Or knocking people back with sound." Shizue smiled. "Or nails on a chalkboard, just for them."

"Really! Do it now?" Katkemat said, running over to the other side of the room.

Shizue took a breath and whispered, "Can you hear me now?"

"Yes, I can!" Katkemat yelped.

"...wow," Isonash said. "I bet that'd be really useful if you were trying to communicate to someone, if nobody else can hear it."

Shizue opened her mouth, about to explain the exact specifics of how the sound waves worked, and how it didn't, but she realized that they'd find it boring. It wasn't. In fact, it was one of the most fun things a person could do with their time, learning about sound, but…

"It is," Shizue said. "I've used it for that before. I could show you my puppets, but I think I'll let that wait."

"Ahh, okay," Isonash said, nodding a little bit, clearly buying what she was saying.

Shizue was glad she didn't have to take out her puppets, because her leading lady and handsome gentleman would no doubt scare them. Even though both of them meant well and were very good puppets indeed, there was just no way that Stinger wouldn't look scary as it loomed, and her dragon was not the most pleasant looking lady.

Shizue moved off to the side and watched them play, already thinking about what she'd make them for lunch. She could have a little cup with milk, for Katkemat, and she could make rice, with a sort of beef gruel on top? And plenty of vegetables. The dates could be a side dish, added to the main course… though would they like them?

Shizue frowned, trying to scale back her plans.

They were playing, that much was obvious, but they were sticking inside. Isonash was actually reading a book, while Katkemat was messing around with her dolls, and looking through what seemed to be her sewing kit. She grabbed some thread and a needle and began to sew something on one of her dolls. Not Mrs. Patches, but instead a smaller one, and not dressed in any miniature versions of the clothes.

Shizue just watched to make sure she didn't prick herself as she sewed something on the front. Time passed, and Shizue was glad they weren't too wiley, or loud, though they were eating their chocolate a little bit at a time, so maybe they were building up to a sugar high.

As it was, Shizue began to make the food, taking it from the ice-box and cool-box and setting up the food… but she needed some more water. So she said, "Please, kids, be calm. I'll be right back with water."

She hurried to the well, visions of them getting into some sort of trouble dancing through her head. It wouldn't even really be all that hard to imagine it all going wrong.

But nothing seemed on fire as she came back with the bucket of water and saw that Masato was making his way into the tent after knocking briefly.

Shizue, visions of attack and danger dancing in her head, hurried after him, opening the door just as she heard him say: "So, make sure to hand this to your Dad when you see him, please."

Which is when she realized he was wearing a tote bag, and upon a second look she could see what looked like the corner of a letter.

Oh. He was delivering the mail.

"Ah, hello miss," Masato said, turning around. The two children were tense, though that could just be a matter of strangers. "I'm sorry if I came in without your permission. I just wanted to drop off this letter. Are you the babysitter today?"

"I am. And you're doing the mail job?" Shizue asked, just to confirm it.

"Yeah, I am. I'm Masato."

"You may call me Shizue, Masato-san," Shizue said.

"So, these tykes parents' are out? I shouldn't bother you for too long," Masato said. "I have to be fast with what I'm doing, the old man'd skin me otherwise."

"He didn't seem that mean to me," Shizue said.

"Well, maybe I'm just assuming facts not in evidence, but I think that whether or not he's mean doesn't matter. You do what the client wants, as fast as he wants it done. How he wants it done, too. And cheap." Masato nodded. "I'd work for a little of that rice you were cooking if it'd mean that next time I'd be able to work for a little of that rice and a little of that meat." He said it so casually, and Shizue couldn't help but smile, understanding what he meant.

There were ways to do it: ways to slip a note into the silence so that a person began to expect a song, even though they'd crossed their arms and were in no mood for music. Of course, Shizue was confused by people who weren't in the mood for music, but she supposed it was like anything else: there were people who disliked children too, or hated sweet things, and it came from the same variance in taste… between good taste and bad taste, obviously, dear, Shizue thought in her mind's impression of Saya.

That's what he was doing.

Insinuating himself. Just like she'd done. She smiled and said, "I wish you good luck, though you can understand why I might not have."

"I do, of course. Have a nice day," Masato said, waving as he exited the tent.

[Commercial Break]

Feeding children was hard. They made a mess, they complained about the rice being too sticky (Isonash) or not sticky enough (Katkemat), they had to be cleaned up afterwards, with water and a towel because they'd managed to get some on their skirt…

It was honestly the most frustrated she'd been this whole time, and it was odd because she was almost certain that they weren't doing it on purpose. But they were very, very clumsy, even clumsier than shinobi children, who often had to deal with chakra while not really being able to control it.

Still, they ate all the food, and got some chocolate for their efforts, allowing Shizue to relax while they vegetated and digested their food. But by about the time an hour passed, she decided, "Hey, you should at least go out a little bit, maybe see if there are any other kids you wanna play with."

Isonash frowned, but nodded after a moment, "Okay, can do."

Katkemat was a little more enthusiastic, and it got them out of the tent, at least.

******

Watching children play was nice, but if you were close enough to hear what they said, it made you feel a little uneasy. Or it made Shizue a little uncertain, at least. It wasn't helped by the fact that she couldn't actually understand the words, just the tone. And some of the tone was mocking, one of the boys telling some sort of joke.

Isonash growled, and another boy had to hold him back, but then he said something back and the first boy laughed, and suddenly they were hitting each other… but not hard enough to actually warrant stepping on.

Compared to that, of course, Katkemat was far more understandable. She played dolls, using the one that she'd sewed something on most of all. Shizue couldn't see what was on the front, but she gestured wildly with the dolls and talked fast and fluidly, in a far different mood than Shizue had seen earlier.

The other girls seemed in awe of her, though also apparently afraid of Shizue, if the way they glanced at her every so often was any indication. She tried to ignore it.

It wasn't worth worrying about.

*******

"Did you have fun playing outside?" Shizue asked, as she knelt at the small table and dished out some more of the food. It was more of the same, for the most part, but with more vegetables piled up in a center dish. They seemed to divide their food up, or at least when asked to help out, they put each of the vegetables on different places, same with the beef stew and the rice, and then on an old looking plate they assembled it all, carefully and delicately, not caring much that they were using their hands.

"Yes," Isonash said. "Katkemat had fun too. Telling her friends about you, I think."

Shizue blinked, "Really?"

"Bragging--"

"Was not," Katkemat said, quietly, though she sounded like she really would rather raise her voice, but wasn't quite sure of it. "I just… was telling. Do you have any other stories?"

"Well, what about the time I acted in a play… with puppets."

"Really? When?" Isonash said.

"Not that long ago," Shizue said, dishing out her own serving. They used their hands, but Shizue used the chopsticks, a little less sure about the wisdom of touching all of the vegetables that others had touched as well.

They had spoons that they also used even while eating with chopsticks to scoop up some of the sauce and then stuff it into their mouths at the same time as the rest of the food.

She watched them as she began the tale, so baffled that she didn't really get into telling it until a minute or two in.

"And so then I had to fill in, and…"

She continued her story.

In fact, she continued stories in general, lighting the fire in the center and casting shadows onto the wall. Shadows that she shaped with her hands. She was no Nara. But shadows and sounds went together, in a way. They were both echoes of sorts, echoes of something that was and would be and always would be so.

Shizue told one story and then the next. She started close, but then pushed it back, and talked about the Archipelago. About a place surrounded by and filled with water. About the way they lived there, and the way they didn't. She didn't talk about the oppressed civilians, or the shinobi wars. The worst thing she mentioned were the bad weather and a slight complaint about the other kids, slipped in carefully to let them know that she understood if they had… no, no? Good.

She realized, eventually, that time was passing, and that more than that, the parents were late. But she just pulled out more of the dates and passed them treats as she talked about sailing and voyages, stories that were perfect for both of them. She was trying to lull them off into sleep, into tiredness.

Her team was doing its own work, but she hoped they didn't come and search for her, not now.

"Hey, kids. You should go to sleep. I'll wake you up when your parents come," Shizue lied. "Get dressed and ready for bed."

Isonash squirmed and resisted, even though he was yawning and tired, and she had to all but force him into his pajamas, but Katkemat dressed easily and slipped into bed. Soon both of them were lying down, swaddled up as they had been before, and yet Katkemat said, "Sing us a lullabye."

Shizue smiled and nodded, "Go to sleep/ Precious Children/ Night is falling/ sleep is calling…"

There was a time for complexity, but sometimes an old, simple tune was the best. "Tomorrow you'll play/ Laugh and run all day/ But for now sleep/ slumber now, long and deep…" she sung words that just came into her head, the lyrics simple and somewhat repetitive, but her voice high and clear, caught in the emotions of songs like these. Her mom had sung like that too, despite being a better musician than Shizue was, and might ever be. Because children liked something simple, comforting, and familiar.

Finally, they slept, and it was just thirty minutes later that the mother came in, frowning, her veil pinned back. "Oh, Shizue-san. I thought you'd be gone."

"No," Shizue said, quietly, looking up. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"We're… alive. But my husband's horse suddenly took a fright out of nowhere, and he fell off. We lost some of our goods in the winds, and Shiromainu broke his leg. He's going to have to take it easy for a while."

"Ah," Shizue said. "They're sleeping. You shouldn't wake them with news. In the morning, it'll all look better."

"I hope so. Thanks for this. And… you should get extra," the woman said.

"No, no, I shouldn't. It was what you hired me for, and you need the money if his leg is broken," Shizue said, patting the woman on the shoulder. "They're good kids."

"They are…" the woman blinked back tears. "Thank you again!"

Shizue smiled, not sure what to say, and soon enough she departed in the night, back to her own tent.

[End Credits]

Pick a mission/job as/when the tribe moves:

[] Carrying things.
[] Leading the way as a guide/watching out for danger.
[] Looking after the animals.
[] Cooking food, doing odd jobs.
[] Write-in.

*******

A/N: I bet you didn't think *this* would be the long one.

 

[The Laurent]

Act 4, Scene 30: The People of the Desert, Uncommon Ground

When people moved, it wasn't easily, and it wasn't simply. Hundreds and hundreds of people, and even more cows than that, meant that it took all day to come together. There was just no way to truly understand the sheer logistical impossibility of it all until you had a chance to watch it.

Shizue's home town was bigger than this, but it had never had to move together like this, and so she watched, slightly baffled, as tents were pulled up, and men and women went this way and that, yelling in a language she couldn't understand. They were like ants, swarming from one problem to the next, and Chuichi was among them, trying to help things be put together.

Okiie was somewhere there, too, with Seiichiro, trying to control the stubborn horses and the even more stubborn cattle.

They didn't like to be denied the food they'd been eating, Shizue assumed, frowning a little and pacing at the outside edge of the temporary village as it packed itself up. Some of the supplies were put on the horses, but there were also a lot of women and men carrying things on their backs.

"Huh," Shizue said ,pacing one way and the next, peering out at the edge of the rising sun, at the stage where it promised to come up, but didn't quite. They'd woken up at an hour so early that even Chuichi had been startled and wide-eyed, staring out into the darkness of a few hours after midnight and saying, "Can't they… sleep? Or at least leave in the night if they're going to do this?"

But Shizue didn't need to think for more than a few seconds to figure out why they didn't go in the night.

Think, and look up. The moon was almost fully dark, and there were wispy clouds, here and there. The light would be uncertain, and looking at the absolute chaos that was going on here, she tried to imagine how much worse it'd be at night, how easy it'd be for cattle to wander off or someone to be forgotten in the chaos and sleeplessness of such a night.

A village of shinobi might be able to move by night, but a village of civilians needed time and effort.

They were a fragile thing, in a certain way. That many people together? If an attack came, it'd be chaos, and Shizue felt like she needed to make sure it didn't come.

Who knew what you could find out there? After all, Emiko-sensei was out there. She could imagine a group of chakra-powered bandits out there in the same way, hidden in the dunes, waiting to attack one group or another.

She needed to be very, very wary. And very careful as well.

[Opening Song/Etc]

Despite her very justified and not at all typical paranoia, nothing bad happened when everyone got together. It was a huge mass of people and animals, smells and sounds strong enough to knock a girl out, and chaotic enough that just getting them to go in the same direction involved many, many dozens of men on horses… and that was just for the cattle.

The people themselves trudged forward generally, but when those ahead of them turned, so did they, and many of them had their own cattle or horses that they held separately from the larger herd which was no doubt branded, though Shizue couldn't make out an obvious mark on most of the cattle. But that just meant she wasn't looking at the right places.

As they finally got to moving, Shizue allowed herself to circle around. She wasn't very fast by the standards of many of the shinobi she knew, but she was fast enough to walk rings around the mass of people, at least, though the cattle were somewhat ahead of the pack, trampling their way through the dust, dirt, and sand as they made their way onwards.

It was an impressive sight, all of those cattle going in the same direction, moving together in one huge mass, penned in on all sides by men on horses, who carefully managed them despite being so much smaller and so much weaker than the cows, especially the bulls, whose very presence reminded Shizue of someone she hadn't seen in a long time.

She hadn't even really known the girl before they'd fought, but the memory was enough that she got lost in it, pacing around and around the traveling village.

She didn't know how long it'd take to reach the next spot over. But she did know that this kind of movement had to be taxing on a person. Especially the children, who were going to have to walk just the same as the adults.

The only relief from this were the carts, but there were only so many carts, and the people who got on them were the old, pregnant women, very young children, and of course some of the food supplies. Especially salt. When she circled around the area to check it for any signs of theft, she saw that there were bags and bags of the stuff, which made her wonder about it.

She assumed that they were salting things to make them keep, considering how fast things might otherwise go bad, but at the same time, cart after cart filled with salt seemed almost excessive.

When she stopped during their mid-morning breakfast, she asked Chuichi.

The chunin frowned and shaked his shaggy head. "Some of that's for them, but there are also cattle ranchers they'll sell that to. Salt-mining makes plenty of money, from what I've heard, and if they have many cattle, then the ranchers? They have even more."

Shizue glanced over in the direction of the cattle, and wondered just how many. Hundreds? Thousands? Not likely quite that many. Either way, there were enough of them that it was no wonder that they couldn't stay in one place for too long. Though even by that standard, the lands seemed to be worse.

"Oh?"

"And so that's something to sell."

"The grass barely seems enough to keep this many cattle," Shizue said, though she had also noticed that despite all of that, the cattle didn't seem… malnourished? Most of them, at least.

"They do move farther south, and there's better lands there, but." Chuichi frowned. "Well, politics is politics, and these sets of tribes are at the end of a long stick."

"The end of a long stick?" Shizue asked.

"There are deeper tribes, but they're far more safe from the Daimyo then people like this," Chuichi said. "So they have to be careful."

"About what?"

"Being run over," Chuichi said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

And perhaps it was.

Shizue frowned, thinking about how the small islands were treated by the bigger islands. And while these were a lot of people, they were no match for the Daimyo's armies, let alone Suna. Even if every single one of the people in this little moving tribe were an experienced shinobi, they'd not stand a chance against something as powerful and experienced as Suna.

So they didn't try, and they lived… carefully?

In balance, but the sort of balance you reached when you had only just enough to get by and no more.

It made her wonder at the puppet toy, actually: Isonash and Katkemat's parents must have been pretty well off to have such a toy at all. These were thoughts to help pass the time, veil pulled down, as she ate a quick bite, barely tasting it at all, and then resumed her patrols. She had a feeling that by the time she reached their destination, she'd want to find somewhere and lay down and think of not moving for a few hours.

It was the heat, it got into you, even with the veil. She'd faced it before, but now there was the noise and the stress, the slight worries that ate into themselves about whether or not she was in danger. She wanted to do her job, and that meant that she watched and waited, and others kept out of her way, well aware that as a shinobi she was not someone you kept close to.

That, at least, was something Shizue was used to, as she squinted out into the haze of a hot day.

It was almost another hour of pacing and checking in to make sure that everyone was okay when the incident happened.

*******

It began with a sound like a bird cawing, loud and long, and then from behind a rise in the hills they came.

There were almost two dozen figures approaching, all of them mounted. The horses were big, scary looking beasts, and they were going straight for the cattle. Some of them had batons, while others were nocking arrows even as they were riding.

Shizue hesitated for only a single moment, the span of a heartbeat as she tried to figure out what she should do. It was clear that they were trying to… steal the cattle. That's what made sense.

As she ran, she formed the hand seals, trying to get between them and the herd.

They wanted to make the cattle stampede and run away, and then they'd chase them down and take them away.

She tried not to choke on her own dust as she rean, fingers quickly forming into a seal as she shaped the chakra carefully.

Damage wasn't needed, not when they were riding horses. What was needed as making sure to get the entire group, which was starting to spread out even as they moved… and then knocking them as far back as possible.

In the span of that heartbeat, she stepped in front of them, and for a moment she almost panicked. It was the horses. It made them look huge and threatening, and she understood now how people could be scared of the things. Each of the young men, and they all looked young, was clad in thick robes to block out the sun, though she assumed that it wasn't armor.

She hoped she didn't kill anyone.

'Ninja art: Wall of Sound' she thought, focusing and concentrating as she roared.

Suzuhisa Shizue had never truly seen what her own jutsu could do until that moment. She'd used it against a single target, or to generally destroy an area, she'd practiced it again and again until she started learning how to weaken the punch of the wall, but diffuse the force in a way that made it carry further, on both sides.

She'd gained true understanding of the wall of sound, and the ways that it differed from a breakthrough.

Now she saw what she could do.

Horse stumbled and then toppled, thrown back along with their riders as people who had been standing up in the saddle flew off, hitting the ground and rolling, desperately borne back just in time to keep from getting crushed by their own mounts as they too toppled.

The sound was horrific, and the sight itself made her freeze, for another moment of hesitation that she almost couldn't afford.

Horses screams were loud, and some of their legs broke, not so much from the force of the jutsu, as from the falling around and flailing. A man was kicked in the arm, and a crack of breaking bones was added to the din. In a single instant, she was back in a brothel, watching what happened to civilians when they crossed paths with shinobi.

Only this was a thousand times worse. Her hand almost hesitated too long, but she managed to push herself back into action as she pulled out the first scroll and slid her thumb across its surface.

There was Stinger, her dapper gentlemen, dark and robed, as she bring him standing up with a single hand, fists coming out. If she used a knife, she'd be a murderer. After all, these were just a bunch of desert hooligans of some type. Not worth killing, even if she wasn't opposed to so openly and easily slaughtering others.

He lurched forward, as some of the people got up. It was only about half of them, a dozen people in all, but they were drawing their bows and trying to fight back despite the devastating blow.

It really didn't make sense: usually when you knocked civilians about that hard, they backed down, at least for a little bit, to figure out what to do.

This was hard-earned experience. The civilians had never rioted in the streets, but anytime a group of civilians had stood up against more than a single ninja, it'd ended badly. You bided your time, you complained about them.

You didn't advance, you didn't fight back.

Shizue was pulling out the other scroll and pushing chakra into it as she swiped her fingers across it when the first arrow went for her. She half-dodged around it, trying not to move her fingers even as the arrow, poorly aimed, whizzed by her shoulder, at roughly where she'd been a moment before.

Her feet slipped for a second, and then Ryuko, her fancy lady, appeared.

Most of all, Ryuko was a wall. Shizue pushed herself behind her dragon and turned her girl's head on them.

She didn't even need to see them to spray an oil-slick in their general direction, the black oil pouring out of its mouth and spraying everywhere.

Hopefully they'd slip and fall, and if they didn't, Ryuko's tail was still there.

...if rather more lethal than she wanted.

She still hoped that seeing two different puppets under her control would mean that they gave up, but when she peeked around the bulk of the puppet to control Stinger, she saw that they were moving forward, all of them, stepping around horses and men.

The men armed with clubs split in two, some of them headed for Stinger, while others went after Ryuko, and thus Shizue.

What were they thinking? No ordinary civilian without chakra stood a chance against a ninja.

She took a deep breath, trying to understand the situation. Help was on the way, and behind her she could hear the cattle panicking and scattering, but now the cowboys were on the ball, trying to keep them together while staying, she hoped, out of range of any arrows.

As she watched them move, she started to guess that they weren't ordinary civilians. They moved only a little faster than any running men, but when one of them brought down their club, it wasn't as slow and easy to dodge as Shizue thought. Still, her Stinger was a fast gentleman, and he couldn't seem to understand why he missed, as an arrow and then another tried to find their way into Stinger.

But as her gentleman dodged, three men who had went straight for Ryuko slipped on the oil, stumbling and falling in a heap.

He dodged, striking out at the first man to attack him, dodging attacks by the narrowest margins, as three different archers and three men all whacked away with their clubs at Stinger, who managed to dodge as much by sheer gall as anything.

Shizue's mind was as nimble as Stinger, having the puppet leap out of the way when an arrow came from the fourth man to fire, a careful looking young man whose arrow, when it missed, buried itself in the dusty ground with a crack, as if the very earth was about to split.

That decided it, Shizue thought, trying to keep her head down as Ryuko advanced, giving a roar that turned into a wall of sound that sent the three men hurtling back.

They were all shinobi, or at least civilians trained in chakra exercises enough to make them strong enough that if they could only get a good hit on Stinger, no doubt they'd tear him to bits.

But they couldn't, and an arrow glanced off of Ryuko's armor.

Shizue felt a sort of smug satisfaction at that, because she'd made that armor. And she'd made Stinger, she thought as she hummed out a note of pure satisfaction, and let the note turn into something more powerful.

She let it turn into a melody, and the song she was humming was one that she knew they wouldn't appreciate, stumbling and almost falling over suddenly as their balance was disjointed.

This wasn't a fair fight at all, she thought, triumph in her blood as Ryuko roared again and knocked the enemies back once more, though an arrow stabbed at her throat, and actually lodged itself in.

Her heart was racing, and she knew that as unfair as the fight was, if she made a mistake now, she could still be hurt. Hurt in a stupid, one-sided fight. There were a dozen people devoted to harming her, stumbling past the body of hurting horses and their own downed allies, some of whom had gotten up and were now fleeing on foot, or helping their horses up to escape that way.

And yet she hadn't even been touched, for all that she was burning a little of her chakra on this fight.

In the distance, she heard shouts, and as Stinger continued to batter the enemy, dodging and pecking at them, not even close to taking them all out yet, but almost done with one of them, she knew that this fight was already all but over.

If only all fights were like this, instead of miserable, bloody, and desperate affairs in which death seemed like it could at any moment.

The fight almost seemed too easy… and then Okiie barelled in, blowing gusts of wind left and right, and just like that the fight was all but over, and within a handful of seconds the rest of the ones up and about had raised their hands in terrified surrender.

And, Shizue thought hopefully, at least nobody was dead… other than maybe one of the horses.

[Commercial Break]

The man who was, more or less, the village headman wasn't a very prepossessing man. He had a thick, bushy mustache, and a rather thinner curling beard, all of which stood out against his bald dome, which certainly needed the layer after layer of cloth and material he covered it with. Wrapped up that tightly, and as small and thin as he was, he seemed almost like a thin mannequin trying to model plus-sized clothes, but his eyes were fierce and far more alive than that.

His name, or at least the one he gave was Itakshir and he clearly couldn't stand still as he paced back and forth, before the five shinobi.

"I know these kids. They're with the Yanamo Clan."

"Yanamo?" Chuichi asked.

"A nearby tribe. I thought we had good relations with them, but I suppose not. I suppose in these days all men are jackals," Itakshir said viciously. "They could have killed people. That they didn't was because of your work." He nodded in Shizue's direction especially, and she flushed a little and tried to think of how to play it down. "What you did was very impressive, fighting all of them on your own, and with luck we'll be able to round up the last few stray cattle."

He cleared his throat. His voice sounded slightly musical and whistling, an accent he couldn't quite shake, no matter what he tried.

"So, no harm done," Masato said. "We let them off with a warning? Don't do it again, young man, with your chakra and your near-shinobi level skills?" Masato asked it with a frown, as if he actually thought that's what should be done, but the way he framed it only left one answer.

"No, we have to get revenge. I'm willing to hire y'all for a little raid. We're better than them. We're not monsters. We're not traitorous, sand-sucking scum. Just steal a few dozen of their cattle, cause some chaos and commotion, you know how to do that, right? I don't have to tell ninja how to make trouble, do I? Just nothing fatal. Don't hurt anyone unless they get in the way."

The raiders were all unconscious, or tied up and not talking, and Shizue wondered why they'd suddenly attacked like that. But if they were identified as that many young men… that wasn't something that could happen by accident. This wasn't a few bandits who might just be outcast, these were men in good standing with their tribe.

At the same time, something felt off.

What to do?

[] Agree to the mission. Steal a few dozen cows, sow chaos, escape.
[] Argue that they should send an armed delegation to confront the tribe. If it goes in with shinobi support, then surely they'll get the message?
[] Argue that they should ignore it. Or rather… keep the young men as hostages and continue on as if nothing happened. If someone comes to ask for the young men back, then… and if they don't, that's a dozen less people the other tribe has to try the same thing again.
[] Write-in.

*******

A/N: So, here you go.

 

[The Laurent]

Act 4, Scene 30 Cont

Shizue knelt by a young man stripped down to long pants and a shirt. He couldn't be beyond his teens yet, and she knew that the only chance she had to stop all of this was to talk to him. He looked… he didn't look like a monster, but then who did? They were people.

Shizue took a breath and glanced over at where she'd prepared some food. She'd feed him, and she'd give music, if that'd help set his mind at ease. She'd give anything to know what was going on. The better to act against them if need be, the better to argue against acting in such a way if needs much. It was that simple. Shizue wanted what was best for the tribe, and she wasn't sure what the right choice was.

And when you didn't know, she thought, wasn't the solution to learn more? Certainly, she had a feeling if she asked Emiko for advice, this is what her teacher would have approved of. So she tried to compose herself as she leaned in and waited for him to wake up.

His eyes fluttered after a full two minutes, and then slowly opened. He looked almost like a child, that's what she thought at his wide-eyed, stricken look.

"Huh," he said, wincing.

His arms were behind his back, but even if it wasn't for that, he'd surely know he was being questioned. They were in a tent, a very small one, and with nothing else in the tent except for the two of them it wasn't very hard to figure it out.

"Are you okay? If you're hungry, I can help with that. I brought some food."

The man glared for a moment, and then blinked as he took her in. "Miss?" he asked, and then he got a soft look. There was something sly about those eyes, though, the way he said, sweet as honey, "I need to use the… could you just untie me for a moment?"

"Untie you?" Shizue asked, in a neutral voice, intentionally made to sound a little naive.

"You see, this is all a big misunderstanding, but I can't talk so well all tied up like this." He didn't seem to suspect who she was, and that probably meant he'd been felled during the first big attack, when the horses had gone down.

"Really?" Shizue asked quietly. "I hope it is, but I can't let you go… sir."

"Oh, well, it was worth a try. I ain't gonna tell you nothing, not even if y'all go, little missy, and get that shinobi that done in for us."

He spoke with a thick accent, but he was surprisingly understandable. Probably educated, Shizue figured, or at least, he saw enough of outsiders to learn the language well.

"What's your name? I can feed you for now."

"Fine, it's… you probably know it already. Shiratekka."

"A pleasure to meet you, Shiratekka-san, I am Shizue-chan."

"Wait... " the man said, slowly piecing it together, as she picked up a rice ball and leaned in. "You're… not from around here, are you?"

"What makes you think that?" Shizue asked.

"You got a weird accent, like you can't…" he paused, and Shizue realized he was about to insult her. "Sorry, but then… are you a shinobi?"

"Yes," she said, holding out the rice ball. "Do you want to eat?"

"The Gods can shave their heads if you think I'm gonna eat from the hands of a filthy… maybe you weren't… nothing."

Shiratekka shook his head and moved his mouth forward, opening it wide.

"I wasn't anything. I've only been here for the last few days. No time at all, really," Shizue said, softly. "So I don't know why you're angry, Shiratekka-san."

"Shir-ah-te-kah," he corrected, quietly.

"Ah, right," Shizue said.

"So what are you?"

"Security," Shizue said. "I was also doing odd jobs."

"Security… so, your sensei or whatever, he's the one who beat us all?"

"No, that was me," Shizue said, just as he took a big bite of the rice ball and had to swallow fast.

"Wait… how?!"

"Jutsu. Training," Shizue said, leaning in. "That's all it is. You've been trained too."

"Not enough," Shiratekka said, quietly, shaking his head back and forth.

"Why don't you just eat for now? Do you want to listen to music?" Shizue asked.

"You trying to soften me up?" he asked.

"And if I am… you won't eat?" Shizue looked at him, waiting for his response.

"Fine."

********

He ate slowly and carefully, but clearly ravenously, and talked about his horse, who was…

Probably dead. She couldn't say anything to make that okay, at least in his eyes, as he looked at her like she was a murderer, even when she told him that she'd not killed any of the people. He just glared at her and ate, and then she reached over and took up her flute and waited for him to say something.

"What's that?"

"Oh, I sometimes like to play a little music," Shizue said. "Not much."

"Ah, huh. What was it you did to us?" he asked, frowning.

"Breakthrough," Shizue lied, "It's pretty basic, it--"

"I know what a breakthrough does."

Shizue tried not to smile. She'd been hoping that he'd know, or that when explained he'd react… just about like that. "Fine, fine, sorry, sorry. But I'm not part of this, you know? I just stepped in and tried to help people out. I was watching people's kids the other day, two of them. Cute kids who have as little to do with this as I do, really. Do you have any brothers, or sisters?"

"A younger sister, but--" he began, before Shizue kept on talking, slowly driving out answers.

"I hope that she's okay. Are you poor, are you desperate? Do you need food? Is that it, are you starving? Because I could help you. I've made a little money from helping this tribe, I could buy food if it's that bad." Shizue said it quietly, allowing her concern to slip out. She usually didn't think that much about others: after all, it was her own that mattered more, but she really would use some of her money if she had to.

"We don't have a lot of money, but we don't need your pity," he said.

"Maybe you don't. I've been poor before, and I had my own sort of pride," Shizue said, with a slight, wistful smile. "I know what it's like. Or maybe I don't. If I don't, tell me." She stood up, tapping a rhythm with her foot as she got closer. "I don't know a lot of things. I'm just a young girl, but I'm trying to understand here. You attacked the cattle, and I assume the problem was the men, not the cattle."

"You're pushy just like my sister," Shiratekka groused.

Shizue laughed and plopped herself down, trying to channel a little more Saya, but nicer, as she tilted her head and said, "If you just tell me what's going on, I can try to do something. You know that. That's all I want, to understand. And I don't want to do anything, except listen."

"Do anything? Are you threatening me?"

"No, dear," Shizue said, her smile soft, arranging her face to be pleasant. "The other thing I could do is talk. I could talk about how important it is to know. I could talk about how I want to know what to do, and you can help me."

Shizue shrugged, and then looked away, "But Shiratekka-kuuun, I thought that if I just asked nicely…"

"You… little brat," he said, with a laugh. "You're teasing."

Shizue turned back, her smile now a little more sly, "I'm a kunoichi. We're very sneaky, but I'm not lying here."

He frowned, considering her words. "What about the others?"

"They're up, and they're probably talking by now," Shizue said. "I have this nice friend of mine. He talks a lot and he's really charming, I'm sure he's figured something out." It was true that Okiie was talking to someone else, and to Shizue, he was definitely charming.

Maybe not to a random raider, though.

"Fine… fine. Whatever. They poisoned the well."

"Who? This tribe? Which well?"

He held his head higher. "A week and a half ago, we got to one of their locations just as they left. There was one of them, Turushno, at the well. We didn't think much of it, because he said he'd slept in late, and he hurried after them. Then our cattle started getting sick, and so did some of the small children. Three cattle died: no children, thanks to the shinobi we had there, before we were finally able to find out. Someone had poisoned the well, and from the…"

"From the time the poison was put in?" Shizue asked.

"Yeah, it took time to steep, cause it was this rare desert poison. It had to be Turushno. And that bastard is a screwup… pardon the language. But he's loyal to his tribe. That's just how he is, so if he was doing it…"

"Do you have any other evidence that he was behind it?"

"Well, there's the fact that it's the exact sort of poison their tribe excels at. So high and mighty, just cause they have a sealer."

"A… what?" Shizue asked.

"Nothing, nevermind. But we were training warriors, so we thought: those all, those people are jerks, but we're good guys. So we'll just do an eye for an eye. Steal a few dozen cattle, and that'll show them."

Shizue blinked, a little stunned by how similar that thinking was to the chief's here. Measured, proportional responses, to actual slights.

"Oh. And you ran into me."

"You beat… all of them?"

"With help," Shizue said. "And I don't want to raid your tribe back. They're confused… or they say they're confused, and want to do a response that fits the attack, stealing a dozen or two dozen of your cattle."

"Really?"

"Do you want to talk to him?"

"No!"

Shizue nodded. "Very well, I'm going to sit here a while, in case you change your mind."

She took up the flute and began to practice with it, her eyes closed most of the time, looking at him only when she could hear him make a noise. He was just looking at her, as she played her music, a frown on her face.

"You're… really, really good."

"My mother was better," Shizue said, though now that phrase didn't have all of the pain she felt like it could have had.

Once it would have been the end of a conversation. Now it was the start. "But I'm trying to improve. More than that, I'm trying to use what I know. I like people listening to my music."

"What song is that?"

"A song I made."

"Oh," Shiratekka said, frowning. "So, you want me to talk to this chief Itakshir, and you think things will be okay? It's naive. It's nonsense…"

"Please," Shizue said.

"Fine. Fine."

********

Itakshir listened, there was that. Frowning a little as he heard it. "This sounds like nonsense, but I'll call him in."

Turushno was a short, slightly fat young man, in his mid-twenties, and wearing thick clothing that left his eyes almost unseen as he gave a short bow. "Uh, um. That day? A week and a half ago? I did sleep in late, uh, sorta. I was late to go with you all, but I didn't… I didn't go to the well. I, uh."

"Yes?" Shizue asked.

"I had the shits. Y'see. I was in the toilet all the way until the last moment, and I had to run off to catch up with you."

"Yeah, right," Shiratekka said. "You're following Shizue-chan here, but not me."

"We don't know about this… why would we poison you?" Itakshir.

"Because you're jealous we have better warriors," Shiratekka said.

"So… wait," Shizue said, holding up a hand. "Your tribe has poisoners and… sealers? So, someone who does seals?"

Itakshir frowned and nodded, "Yes. We're not a martial tribe, but we do have a few people with talents that are often…"

"Associated with being a shinobi. I understand," Shizue said, wondering at who else might be involved. "So, you have poison. Would the poison you're talking about work that way?"

"Well… yes," the chief admitted, "But we didn't use any on the well. They're our friends and allies. And we learn the poisons because they're the first step to creating antidotes. We sell them, actually."

"Sell them?"

"To the locals. And to Suna, too, sometimes," Itakshir admitted, though he looked reluctant.

Of course he was: wouldn't someone who could make poison like that someone who should be a shinobi instead? Even if that's the only talent, it was still… notable. And a sealer, that spoke to the fact that Suna had to be ignoring quite a lot. "Is it common knowledge?"

"Well, yes," Itaksihr. "What, you think we've been framed?"

"I'd believe it as a shinobi," Shizue admitted.

Shiratekka stared at them. "Is this a trick?"

"Yes. But I'm not sure if either of our tribes are the ones playing it," Shizue said, glancing over at the hapless Turushno.

Hmm.

What to do?

[] Continue on your way, but examine the poisoner's logs and talk to them, to try to get to the bottom or find any proof or evidence that this might be a frame-up.
[] If the well really was poisoned, perhaps there is some evidence at the stopping ground that could be found, though it'd be quite a trek.
[] Perhaps it's time for that meeting in force… with the captive, Shiratekka, as evidence of their opinion and goodwill… hopefully.

******

A/N: I know this was short, but. You're the one who made the decision!

 

[The Laurent]

Act 4, Scene 30 (Fin)

They left as soon as they could. Shizue, and her teacher, Chuichi. Who was also going to serve as a bodyguard.

Before she left, she needed to learn more about the poison, and so she slipped into the tent of the head poisoner and healer, who had slipped off out of the way, the better not to be there.

If he was a liar, or involved in this, he wouldn't want to be caught in the act: and if he was innocent, as was the tribe, then it was the wrong move to look as if he were trying to direct the investigation.

So either way, it was just Shizue and a quick glance at the notes on the poisons.

And a rummage through a rather well-maintained poison box. That's what she called it, the little box of antidotes and specific poisons that she'd seen Emiko with at times, actually. Emiko had a poison case, too, a small little box she could open up in one hand, for use in the field.

Shizue had never seen either of the two in action, but from the notes, she knew exactly what to look up.

There was a greenish-blue compound called Horinoke's elixir that could discover the poison, in the right circumstances, but that was the only real way find it, short of simply guessing the symptoms.

The poison was called I'shingbard, and was the subject of a number of songs and stories about the properties of the main two ingredients, which seemed to be some sort of strange… compound found in the dung of a certain animal that ate a certain rare desert flower, and a more artificial substance that seemed to involve the mixing of a slight amount of rubbing alcohol with a chemical that had to be bought from peddlers selling Suna compounds.

Apparently even a single vial of this substance, just one of the ingredients in the poison, could cost a thousand ryo. Add it all together, and it was hard work, but detecting it?

The elixir itself was cheaper than the actual poison was, when you put it all together and sold it. That was to say that the elixir, a mix of strange chemicals that Shizue couldn't decipher, could be bought for only seven or eight thousand ryo per dose, whereas even a single dose of I'shingbard would cost fifteen thousand ryo if they sold it. It was a very good poison, though, especially for its ability to be used in any amount. That was to say, among poisons that weren't entirely toxic, if the amount of poison was low enough, nothing happened, in essence.

The body's immune system and the weakness of the poison meant that it didn't do anything. Obviously there were fatal poisons, some very quick to act, that were fatal no matter how little you had.

But I'shingbard was still quite special. You could mix it in with a hundred gallons of water, and while its potency would be somewhat less, apparently what it did was create a chain reaction in the body. So that even if it was cured immediately, it'd still cause a long-term sickness, a sickness that would take precious time and energy to deal with. Unless, of course, you had a trained medic-nin.

Poison an enemy with it in the middle of a mission, and unless there was a medic-nin in the team, they were going to be suffering the effects for a while. Cramps, bowel trouble, pains in the chest, stiffness of movement… and in a large enough dose, a quick descent into death within all of a day or two. Even without that, it was pretty debilitating… especially in a desert.

Because, of course, all of that bodily movement meant likely dehydration, and in a desert that could kill just as fast as anything else.

And if it didn't kill, Shizue realized, with growing awe for the choice and a sort of impressed realization of how carefully it must have been chosen, it forced people to use their valuable water trying to help someone else.

It was a weapon not just against a single individual--there were lethal poisons you'd want to use anyways, if that was the only goal--but against an entire people, against a group or movement, or even just a team, it was a brilliant move. And because it could be calibrated, but would always cause sickness, that meant that you could avoid death or bring it on faster, but that you'd never underestimate amounts and do nothing.

Shizue wondered if she would ever be able to express thoughts like that to a non-shinobi and not be thought of as some sort of monster.

The elixir worked when you poured it into water or liquid. If there was any of I'shingbard in the liquid, it congealed a bit and turned purple: the deeper the purple, the more heavily dosed the liquid. She grabbed several small doses of the elixir, and then left some ryo and a note. She owed more than that, but she could pay it off later.

After that, she set off with Chuichi, while the sun was still high in the sky.

[End Credits]


Act 4, Scene 31: The People of the Desert: Questions and Answers?

After a certain point, the desert began to feel familiar.

"That's the first step," Chuichi told her. "First it becomes familiar, and then you see something that reminds you that it's an alien place. It's part of learning: first it feels alien, then you assume you know everything about it."

Shizue just nodded and hurried onward, wondering at how Chuichi knew exactly where to go. It was hot out, and she was sweating already, but they were rushing fast enough that she knew they could probably slacken the pace.

But instead, they hurried onwards, not even stopping to clear sand from their feet.

Up a dune, and down a rocky embankment, on and on until at last the grass started to be more plentiful, and for a moment Shizue had thought they'd reached it.

"No, not here," Chuichi said. "It's past this. This land's half-owned by ranchers, though they do use it some seasons."

"Ah, why?" Shizue asked.

"Ownership. And threats. We're actually pretty close to the Baron's land. It's just a mile or two north," Chuichi said, thoughtfully, shaking his head. "And we're a half-mile west of where the watering hole is."

Shizue tried to remember all of these details, feeling as if she were stepping towards something big.

"Do you think this is a bad idea? We're splitting up," Shizue pointed out.

"We are. But it's necessary for this mission. And Okiie-kun can take care of himself. And Seiichiro-kun can keep out of trouble."

Shizue didn't know what to say. "Did you suspect that the tribes were holding something back like that?"

"Yes. But what I want to know, is: how can Suna not know? Or is it that Suna knows but is allowing it to continue… why? Why would they do that?" Chuichi asked, tapping his chin a little. "It's something to get a guy a little curious. Emiko-sama'd be crawling all over the mystery trying to figure it out."

"She would," Shizue said. There were many words for her sensei, but one of the most prominent was: nosy. She was the kind of woman who always got into everything, and the fact that she could become invisible, sneak everywhere, and--

One wondered, sometimes, which came first. Was she a curious person, and so she learned to sneak and skulk, or was she good at being stealthy and that meant she had an opportunity to exercise her curiosity. And everyone knew what happened to a muscle when it was exercised enough.

"Yeah. My best bet is that they think it's harmless, or even think they're getting something out of it. But what? The various tribes, both here and deeper on, they're all scattered and disorganized… but powerful enough to annoy the Daimyo of Wind. Is that it? But it can't just be that. Plus, Suna has no reason to be that petty. It's not a grand gesture, all of the tribes together, both the marginal ones here, and the more settled ones deeper in the desert, don't add up to a large threat even if they all worked together…"

He mused, but Shizue was focused on the task at hand. She had a lot to consider, and she wondered at what would be done.

When they finally came upon the well, Shizue stared for a moment. There was short-grass nearby, yes, but it was very clear that this area had been almost picked clean, and it had to be the well, more than anything else, that drew people here.

"Well, well, well," Chuichi said, with a frown. "Here we are."

[Opening Credits]

The well was square, a brown thing, with a rather heavy looking cover on it that probably took multiple men to lift. Chuichi lifted it off himself and then stumbled back slightly.

"Huh, this really probably does need chakra to get off," Chuichi said, thoughtfully. "Or ingenuity."

He set it aside, and Shizue peered inside. It was a dark well, and there was a bucket there. It was a metal bucket, actually, and she found what looked like a small crank. The bucket itself and the rope all hung from a metal bar that ran along the base of the well, which probably meant it was hard to fall in, at least if you were an adult. It'd take some hard work to die like that.

Shizue slowly lowered the bucket down. "Chuichi-sensei, please watch my back."

"Alright. I should scout the area after you're done looking. There might be signs of whatever went down here. There should be trash, at least, over the rise, or… somewhere around here. I can't believe that an entire tribe survives like this. The well's the only feature worth visiting."

"Perhaps it's a very deep well," Shizue said, and indeed she had to pump it for a little while before she heard a slight splash. She moved it down a little, and then when she was sure it had the water in it, she began pumping it back up, shifting from one foot to the other, the vials of the elixir waiting to be used.

It was relatively useless, in the sense that it could only detect that one poison, but… hopefully it'd be what she needed.

Shizue finally pulled the bucket up and set it at the edge of the well, taking out the little bottle and shaking it delicately, concentrating on her task as she pulled out a cork stopped and poured it in.

The liquid spread out a little as she shook a bucket, but the water, clear and pure looking, didn't change colors at all. Or rather, the only change in coloration was from the elixir spreading out. "Oh," Shizue said, frowning.

"Did you not find anything?" Chuichi asked. "I guess it must have been a lie. Or… did someone purify it?"

"There are ways to purify the drugs, mostly with jutsu… but then when would just… how would they even--"

Shizue frowned, and turned away from the well for a moment. "I'll be fine, can you check the area to see if anyone is watching, I need to think."

"I can do that. This is your show, I couldn't figure out this poison stuff," Chuichi admitted.

Shizue sat on the well and thought. And then she thought some more, considering every angle. The poison was only dangerous if ingested. And it did have a shelf-life, of sorts. If the water had been in the well for a few months, she'd expect it to be mostly gone, enough that it'd be basically non-fatal.

It reacted, the notes had said, somewhat more strongly to heat, so the water at the top was more likely to be thin in the poison than the water deep down, but that wouldn't explain anything at all.

Or rather, it wouldn't explain it being entirely without poison. Unless there wasn't poison there at all.

Or, unless…

Shizue's mind threw up so many scenarios she was stunned for a moment at how inventively she could imagine trickery.

Scenario one: there was a shinobi waiting in the well. Whenever they drew water up, the person slipped poison into the bucket, leaving the actual well completely clean. Why? Shizue couldn't know what that was important.

Second, a shinobi could have poisoned it, having some way to get rid of the poisons? How? First and most obviously, there might be some substance that wasn't know that could eliminate it. After that there was the possibility that someone had pulled up the buckets bit by bit, and purified it by a more direct means. If you boiled water, and then used… certain water jutsu techniques, you might get it?

Shizue wasn't sure, but she knew there were ways to get rid of it at an individual level, and that if you just upscaled them all the way, you could get the whole well, though… how deep was the well?

The elixir was supposed to detect it no matter how faint it was, no matter how… she frowned, considering her options. She could try to pump the bucket all the way down to the bottom. But was the bucket itself with enough rope for that? She thought it'd be so, but who would need…

Thoughts whirred this way and that, possibilities. She could just get it as far down as it went, and drag it up again. Or… or what, Shizue, she told herself.

Think like a shinobi!

Chuichi. Chuichi could probably do something with the water. So could she, in theory: in the theory that if she crawled down there, she might be able to figure something out. Certainly, unless there were shinobi down there, water held no direct fear. But if she got some of the poison in her mouth… still, for a moment she could see it so clearly that it seemed almost tempting: a dive into clear, dark waters, to…

But there was where fantasy met reality, and she paced a little more.

When Chuichi came back, he found a frowning girl. "Chuichi-san, can you please use your jutsu. How great is your range?"

"Pretty great, why?"

"I need to get water from all the way down, as deep as I can get. Or at least, as deep as you can get."

"I can do that, then. Maybe. Let me get down there with a bucket and see what I can do. I can stick myself to the wall," Chuichi said.

"Alright," Shizue responded, dumping out the bucket, and with it thousands of ryo worth of product onto the hungry ground. Then she handed it to him.

She waited, in the sun, afraid at every moment that she'd see someone on the horizon while he was down there. But nobody came, at least not them.

And she heard a splash down there, and the sound of moving water, and almost two minutes later he climbed back up, his legs and one arm sticking to the walls of the well, as he pulled up the bucket and sat it down on the edge of the well before crawling out the other way, only moderately damp. "And there you go, Shizue-chan. I did want to say, I've found a few signs…"

"Of?" Shizue asked.

"Shinobi presence. Sandal prints… but individual ones, as if the user was choosing and then not choosing to leave a path. There's a discarded kunai pouch that's been buried that seems to have a tear in it." Chuichi frowned. "And there's enough signs of habitation that I can tell someone was here within the last week. Maybe even in the last few days."

Shizue nodded, "Do we know how to follow them?"

"I think we have tracks, of sorts. Or at least, it all points in a direction, and that direction is...north."

Oh. Shizue bit her lip. "Do you think?"

"It depends on what we see here."

Shizue took out the elixir, and then dumped it in the water, and then shook it up a little.

The water began to turn purple. Not very purple, but definitely so, the kind of purple that looked as if it had been--as if it was, in fact--watered down, but… that didn't matter. There was poison, and someone had tried to hide it. The surface had faded faster, and the stuff deep down? Who would even check.

Shizue looked at the bucket and then tried to think about how exactly she was going to save the water. It wouldn't even mean anything, would it? After all, they could poison any bucket of water and say it was from the well… and it wouldn't mean anything. Not on its own.

She needed to--

"Shizue-chan, look up."

On the horizon, there was a cloud of dust, and Shizue tensed a little as she saw the cloud of dust moving closer, and closer, to reveal itself as a full caravan, men on horseback in the front, well-armed and protecting the rest of the group.

It was a tribe, but was it--

"Not the same tribe as the one that attacked us," Chuichi said. "Look at the markings."

Shizue blinked and looked closer, listening as they approached. But she did see what he meant, their wagons had different markings on them, as they wheeled along. And there were a lot more wagons, too.

Shizue frowned, "What are they doing here?"

"Migrating? But then why the armed forces up front," Chuichi said, with a frown. "What's going on?"

[Commercial Break]

What to do?

[] Approach and talk to this new tribe, and see why they are doing what they're doing? There has to be a reason, right?
[] Follow the potential trail the shinobi seem to have left and see if you can catch them out.

*******

A/N: Another short update, but plot did happen!

 

[The Laurent]

Act 4, Scene 31 (Cont)

They walked forward slowly as the tribe rolled closer, and then closer still. Shizue wasn't afraid, or at least…

She didn't want that to be seen. She needed to walk and sound as if she were completely unconcerned, because she didn't want to be seen as a target, as someone weak. If she knew anything about the desert, it was that the people who lived in it were hardy people, and they were willing to do violence. So was everyone, of course: Shizue had never seen a place yet that didn't seem quick to do violence if it felt the need to, but she knew that surrounded as she was, as the horses whinnied and began to circle.

The dust they kicked up was like smoke, filling the air so much that she couldn't even see past them, and after a moment or two she realized that was the point. Chuichi didn't seem worried, and so she tried to relax.

And she closed her eyes. Beneath the sound of the hooves, beneath the dust, and the whoops of the riders on the horses, there were other sounds.

The groan of the wagon wheels, which no doubt were surrounding them on all sides, just in case. It was obvious that she and Chuichi were both shinobi, so of course they were being watched carefully.

But beneath that, she heard something more. The tapping of wood, rhythmic and careful, and a voice saying, "I'm not--"

A loud whoop from one of the men covered the rest of the sound, and she didn't want to waste chakra now, not when she'd need it for a real fight. She'd already drained herself a little today, in the previous fight. She knew that she'd need every edge she could get if she was going to fight an entire tribe… without killing someone. Yet again.

"It's a trick," Shizue said, quietly.

"You see the headman?" Chuichi asked. Then he turned and said, "Or hear, rather?"

"I do. But how's he going to get through the horses?" Shizue asked, imagining it. They whirled around, and they didn't sound as if they were slowing down even a little. The horses would tire eventually, and probably not too long from now. It was a show, a game as much as anything, but if so it was an impressive one.

She opened her eyes. There wasn't much more to be gained by listening, at least not the kind of close listening she'd been doing.

The horses were going to stop, and the old man--

Or they wouldn't, Shizue thought, staring a little as the man jumped through. He was shorter than Shizue, but of about average height… if he wasn't slightly stooped. The cane he had, though was…

Interesting.

It looked far too thick and hard, both wood and metal seeming to almost blend together. It ended in a hard knob of sorts at the bottom, and the handle had a slight curve that Shizue vaguely realized might itself be a hook. Or a… stabbing end? Either way, it looked surprisingly sharp, as the old man stepped closer.

He was wrapped thick cloth, but Shizue thought she saw glints of… something.

It was then that she realized just how amazing such clothing was for concealing weapons… or anything and everything.

His hood concealed most of his face, but wisps of pure white pair stuck out, drooping down a little. She imagined that he had long hair, even if it was perhaps balding.

"So, shinobi," the old man said, his voice a slightly wheezy huff of air.

"Would you believe that we're traveling salesmen?" Chuichi asked.

The old man snorted, "And I'm the Kazekage.":

"It's an honor to meet you, ma'am. I've heard much of your great deeds," Chuichi said, quirking a slight smile before adding, more seriously. "We're shinobi hiring out for D-ranks with the Ipetamo tribe."

"Oh? I'm Shitekka," he said. "And what are you doing here?"

"I was wondering what you were doing, actually," Chuichi said. "We came here to check something involving the well."

"Then…" Shitekka said, "What's that?"

"We're checking it for poison. After the Ipetamo were accused of poisoning it."

"Imagine that, so are we," Shitekka said, and then he turned slightly. "Quiet it! You're gonna wear out the horses!"

The whirling horses slowed down, and Shizue could make out the figures. Mostly men, but against her expectation, there were a few men here and there as the horses panted, clearly exhausted from the effort.

Their riders dismounted, hands close to their weapons, as if this was a moment of weakness that Shizue wouldn't be able to resist.

Which was interesting: they were looking at her almost like shinobi would, though their movements were a little too stiff. If they had chakra, they weren't using it the right way to enhance their movements.

Shizue tried not to stiffen, though. She didn't want to look as if she saw what they were doing. Because then it became this game: and there was no winning, really.

If they could notice things, then they'd see through the fakery, but she tried not give on hints of how ready she was for a sudden fight.

"Ah, that's better," Shitekka said. "So, you know why we're here? The Kinaki tribe, those brave warriors and braver fools, accused your hosts of poisoning the water. If they have, then we're going to have an angry word or three with them. It's one thing to get into a spat, but water is precious."

Shizue frowned, but from the look on Chuichi's face, he'd realized the deeper significance quite a while ago. Of course he had.

If you were trying to design a conflict, what better possible cause could you pick then water?

"Who sent you?" Chuichi asked.

"No one. They requested it," Shitekka said. "At the advisement of their allies. And a shinobi. But it's basic logic: nobody could trust them to be entirely honestly, and it's possible they were lying. That it wasn't poisoned."

"Are they the sort to lie about that?" Shizue asked.

"No… but they are very violent, they don't know the higher arts of the desert… there are many things I could say about them. I'm old, we talk a lot. It's better than acting, that's for the young."

Chuichi smiled wider, and he said, "I know a lot about old hands and talking, but… the truth is that we came here to test the water. We did. You can find the bucket there. It could be faked, but it isn't." Chuichi gestured. "The truth is… there was poison, but not at the right places."

"What does that mean, sonny?" Shitekka asked.

"I tested the water at first, and I saw no poison. There should be, unless someone specifically took a lot of time and energy to purify it… but they couldn't get further down," Shizue said, stepping forward. She tried to speak carefully and respectfully, because there was something about this old man.

She wasn't sure what it was, but she trusted her instincts.

"Further down?"

"Further down, there was the poison. There's no way for it to naturally go away that quickly," Shizue said, tugging down her veil a little. She needed to come off as harmless as she could manage. She wasn't the enemy, and that meant she needed to not seem like an outsider. "Deep in the well, where they couldn't get."

"They?" Shitekka asked, leaning forward.

"My suspicion is that a cattle baron and his pet shinobi are trying to start a war. Where is the shinobi that advised you to come here? I bet he wanted you to find nothing, and then assume…"

Shitekka turned back, "Eh, go get 'er!"

"Alright, sir," one of the women said, dismounting her horse and handing the reins to another man. She, at least, was moving a little like a shinobi, though not a very good one. More like a genin than anything else.

Shizue waited as the wind howled, trying to figure out whether she was making a mistake. She was very sure that this could go badly, and also quite sure that she could at least trust this chief to deal straight with her. It wasn't that she thought him incapable of lying, but he had no reason to play games.

"What are your names?" the chief asked, stepping a little closer.

"I'm… Shi," Shizue said.

"Choei," Chuichi said.

"Your real names, I'm sure," Shitekka said, drily. He shook his head. "If this is so, then we must stage a meeting between our three tribes, and perhaps the others not yet drawn into this conflict. We cannot allow ourselves to be manipulated. What is the purpose of these games?"

"He's a cattle baron," Chuichi said. "You have cattle. And you are a part of the market. People like him, they want control, they want power. They want suffering if it gets them even a little bit of wealth." He shook his head.

"Ah, so he is one from outside the tribe," Shitekka said, his voice a bitter whisper. "He's a cheater and a liar trying to drive us apart like every Daimyo we have ever seen. I will not give him the satisfaction, if--"

"Sir, she's gone!" the woman shouted, racing towards him.

"Ah," he said, shaking his head. "Then we'll believe you. We need to meet up with the Ipetamo. Come with us. There is little time."

******

Shizue was a curiosity again. In her experience, that's what being a shinobi meant. Especially if you were a girl. Even though people understood that kunoichi were as deadly as shinobi, there was still this moment of confusion among so many people.

Girls looked at Shizue and saw someone who wasn't like their playmates. Women saw someone who could have been their daughter… but could do superhuman things.

There was a little bit of difference, though.

Here the children asked questions about chakra. One of them even asked, "What's your nature?"

And a question like that wasn't very revealing, so she said it was earth, and frowned slightly as she tried to figure out how they knew things like that. They weren't asking the right questions to reveal everything about her, though.

Elemental nature wasn't very predictive of anything, and considering she was earth, if someone wanted to guess that she came from up north… they were welcome to do so.

She didn't mention details, but their curiosity about elemental jutsu, as well as chakra and its uses in general--boys and girls alike--spoke to something a lot deeper than she expected.

But she tried to ignore it as much as she could, and focus on what she'd do next. They'd have to talk to the Kinaki and then the Ipetamo and work out some sort of agreement. It'd be a lot of work, and Shizue wasn't sure to what end.

Rather, Shizue knew that as many shinobi as seemed to be working with Ken, it might not be quite so easy as being united. After all, so was Ken and his little team of psychopaths.

But she hoped things would turn out alright.

Then they rounded the hill to where the Ipetamo had been planning on staying.

[Commercial Break]

Shizue stared down at the swirling mass, at the battle beneath her. She could see banners to represent the two tribes, and there were screams filling the air. It was clear to her what this was, and it was something…

Here and there she could see some of the captured shinobi from the raid up and about, running wild through the collection of horses, cattle, and wagons.

And they were joined by their fellows.

There was a line of sort, but most of all what there was was complete chaos.

Death and destruction… and would either side, she realized, glancing over at Shitekka, even care if it was started because of a lie, after enough people had died?

...Masato. It had to be Masato. Shizue realized that if this was so, then he could have released all of the prisoners, and would have been behind the attack. And no doubt he'd had other plans. He'd… she didn't know if she could explain the certainty she felt, but everything seemed to slot together.

Advice. All three tribes had at least one shinobi among them, one missing-nin who had wrongly advised them, and then disappeared.

"Masato-san has to be behind this," Shizue said.

"Of course. I suspected as much," Chuichi said, heavily.

People were dying down there.

They were too late.

What to do?

[] Try to find the chiefs. Go into the chaos, and stop this fighting.
[] Where are Okiie and Seiichiro?! Find them first!
[] As long as Ken's little shinobi are there, this fight will keep on going. They have to be nearby to be watching all of this. Perhaps it's time to confront them. With any backup that Shitekka can provide.

*******

A/N: I really do apologize for it being so short.

 

[The Laurent]

Act 4, Scene 31 (Fin)

Shizue looked down at the chaos and the destruction. People were dying… but most importantly, her teammates were down there. She knew that this probably said something about her. That her heart raced not at the dozens who might now be dying, but that Okiie could be one of them.

Her whole body was stiff, tight as a bow, ready to explode in action as she felt her puppetry scroll, made sure it was where she thought it was. She knew that this could be dangerous, but she couldn't help but want what she wanted.

Her teammates mattered more than people she barely knew: Okiie's death would destroy her. Even the premonition of it was like the cold of a rainy night seeping through the roof of her soul. "We have to gather our teammates," Shizue said, speaking first, aware that her voice sounded hasty, worried. She knew how it sounded, as if she were panicking. "If we do, then we'll be better able to stop this.

Shiratekka said, in a moment of decision that seemed to hang in the air like a single perfect note, his eyes telling her he saw through her justification, "You heard the girl. You're to stick back. If it spills out, try to stop it. But let's not fight if we don't have to. However, sonny, I'm going with you." He tapped his cane for a moment and looked up at Chuichi. "If that's what you're doing."

"I have a duty to my team," Chuichi said, with a formality that seemed odd on him. It was less striking than Emiko's own focus and attention, because it felt less like it could be a weapon, less like it was…

There was less expectation, more simple duty.

"Of course you do, son. If you didn't, then what sort of jonin would you be?" Shiratekka said. "So, we find them, and then what?"

"I… we see where we are, and see what the right choice is. Finding Okiie-kun will take time, and I hope that--"

Shizue blinked.

In the distance, a handful of people went flying through the air, and hit the ground rolling.

"There he is," Chuichi said, with a helpful voice that didn't sound at all amused at her having been proven wrong so quickly. "We should go, then."

They raced downwards, as the sounds of battle picked up. The cattle were all circled by wagons, though it wouldn't hold them if it came down to it, because they were panicked. Their moos were howls of fury and confusion, and it was very clear that if anyone pushed through the wagons, that there would be blood. A lot of it.

But the Kinaki were being held off, inch by bloody inch, and as Shizue raced down, she noticed that Okiie was at the front, hands formed into a seal.

Shiratekka was fast for someone so old, and she hurried faster than she could keep up, her chest hurting, her lungs burning as she raced towards him. "Okiie-kun!"

Okiie backed up as a few more people cautiously stepped forward. The rest of the fight was going on, still, but here there was some small peace, compared to the back and forth around some of the old houses, and the tents that had been set up. There was where people were dying: this was just holding the line, and hoping that it mattered.

"Shizue-chan," Okiie said, panting and running through the jutsu once more. The people were all scuffed up, as he let out a breath and the wind threw them back again.

Shizue realized it wasn't actually doing that much damage. It was just knocking people around, going a long way, and a very wide breakthrough indeed. He was clearly just trying to hold them off. It was all on purpose. Okiie wasn't a murderer. He wouldn't kill someone, not if he couldn't help it, even if he was knocking people this way and that as if they were just dolls.

"Okiie-kun, where is Seiichiro-kun?" Shizue asked, panting. She had to double over, the veil falling over her face, Chuichi wiping his brow as he drew a kunai and gestured in the direction of the tribal warriors who had been attempting to break through so hard. They all looked warily at the assembled shinobi.

She could see their eyes, could see the way they took in the threat and clearly decided against facing it.

"He… he left. He said he was going to stop the fight."

"How, exactly?" Chuichi asked, raising an eyebrow. He stretched to his full height.

"I dunno. He just said he'd make them say reason or he'd punch them until they figured out that fighting was wrong," Okiie said.

There were some things about Okiie that were endearing in their own strange way, like the fact that he seemed to only belatedly realize how absurd that was. He blinked, his eyes widened, his nose snorting. "Oh."

"Yes, oh. You didn't stop him?" Shizue asked, trying to be frustrated and angry. It was a mistake he'd made.

"He just said he was doing it. And then the people started coming. I tried to tell him to go back, but if I went after him, these people…"

"We need to get him," Shizue said. "Where's Masato-kun?"

"I haven't seen him," Okiie said, bug-eyed. It didn't surprise Shizue at all. She knew exactly what was going on now.

"We all have to go. They'll just have to defend themselves," Chuichi said. "Seiichiro-kun is walking into his death, otherwise."

Okiie nodded, and they raced off. They moved through the fighting like a knife through the air. Except that wasn't true, really. It was more that the world itself parted before the knife. They were four trained people, all of them as skilled as shinobi, and so people leapt out of the way, shouting in shock and preparing for a fight that didn't come. It was a chaotic melee that was going on, and there were already a few people down and bleeding.

Were they dead?

Shizue didn't know. She didn't have time to know. It wasn't even her job to know, if you thought about it that way. Instead she was just watching as people slashed clumsily with knives, as they dodged and ran. Women screamed, mostly, their voices piercingly loud as they ran away. Children were hiding in tents.

Shizue could hear their sobs, and she didn't have time to soothe them. There was no time for anything but movement right towards a tent at the back of the fight, one guarded by a small cordon of warriors.

Or it had been. They were knocked down, groaning, as Shizue passed, taking the lead despite being the least athletic of the ones here, other than maybe Okiie.

No. She was on a mission. She had people to save, and so she burst into the tent first, barely looking around, even though it was bad form.

Chuichi was right behind her, though, a dust clone actually forming, and going through first, to confuse anyone who thought it was the real him and attacked it. That was the point, after all. She put her hands on her knees and looked around the broad, high-topped tent, which was like an arrow pointed at the sky, of sorts.

Inside there was a firepit. On one side of the pit were two men.

One of them was older, stooped and almost as thoroughly covered as anyone she'd seen. A filmy eye was visible, and from the way he was hunched over, he probably wasn't much of a fighter. He wasn't Shiratekka, who had gone along with his cane, seemingly able to do what nobody his age… and certainly no civilian… should be able to manage.

The other was a tall, strapping young man with an uncovered head, wielding a knife with some skill. Not a whole lot, but enough to mark them as… better than most genin, at least at knowing how to hold a knife as if he meant to murder someone with it. His eyes were flashing, his skin so dark it was burnt, and his jawline was strong, his clothes just a continued expression of a lean, brutal sort of athleticism that made it seem as if he were the sort of person who came to strength far more through physical activity than chakra.

And then on the other side, there was Seiichiro.

The older one asked a question that Shizue, of course, couldn't understand.The younger one said, more understandably "Boy, you think you can stop us?"

"Me? I am not alone! I have my friends with me!" Seiichiro said, gesturing to the ground that had assembled.

"He can't see quite as well now as usual, Resak can't," the younger one said. "I'm the war chief, and we're not going to surrender our honor and be enslaved by the Ipetamo…"

He seemed to see Shiratekka. "Or the Yamke! We're outnumbered, but we have allies. We've hired shinobi too, you traitors."

"Traitors? We have discovered a plot," Shiratekka said. "Calm down, Akihi-bo. I changed your diapers, you don't need to prove to me that you were a child once. Surely you know that in the desert, sometimes assurances are a mirage." He smirked the whole time.

Akihi bristled, "I'm stronger now! And we're done with talking. Maho, where are you?"

"Here," a voice said, and a woman leapt past the group, Shiratekka turning to swing his staff, only for him to miss as she seemed to almost flap past him, landing in the firepit.

She was standing on hot coals, and didn't even react, as she kicked her sandals a little bit, playfully. Far more playfully than when Shizue had last seen her. She was stout, big-boned, with a frame heavy and solid with muscle and fat, and dark hair, dark eyes, wearing black that was no doubt incredibly hot in the desert, though she had a hat on this time, that she tossed aside with a simple flourish, as if she were her master, Ken. "I am sorry, truly I am," she said.

"Sorry?" Akihi said.

She danced a little more on the coals, and they shifted a little.

"Yes."

"I don't care about sorry! Take care of them! Or at least drive them off," Ahiki said, sounding frustrated. His eyes were hot with fury, looking at this shinobi as she stepped back, moving towards him at an angle, as if she were skittering backwards. More crab than woman, dark haired, steady.

"I came here far too late," she said. "They'd already killed both of you, but I managed to defeat them, with my teammates."

"You wh--"

He was leaping back as the knife went into his throat. So he didn't die instantly, the way she clearly intended.

Instead he gurgled as she took another step back and slammed the knife into the chest of the elder.

And twisted it.

Shizue tensed, ready to attack, but in front of her, the coals were crumbling away, and a man was rising from them, dressed in thick robes that covered his form, hid what he truly looked like. A shinobi… hiding there the whole time. He pushed away the cloak, slightly, and a rough, scarred face was seen.

Daichi and Maho, the Raven Woman.

"Where's Ken, then?" Chuichi asked, nervously, raising his kunai as the raven woman turned, wiping her blade on the edge of the tent.

"Not here," a voice said, behind them. Shizue turned to see a short, thin man. He had brown hair, a weak chin, and yet clear, dark eyes. He was dressed in a brown flak vest, the pockets filled with kunai and shuriken, an undershirt, and shorts, which revealed pale, thin legs. There was muscle, there, but it was an athlete's muscle.

He bowed--almost politely--and said. "He was indisposed, shinobi-sama. So I shall be your opponent today."

Then he straightened up, and slipped into a square-legged stance.

...so. It was a fight.

So be it.

[End Credits]

Battle! Strategy?

[] Write-in the strats/plans you have for this triple threat.

******

A/N: Another short one! But a brawl is surely brewing!

...this is unedited. I'm sorry for this. If you see any errors, please tell me.