Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest (STORY ONLY)

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Chapter 571, part 5: Threading the Needle
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    • "Before I propose with any ideas, sir," Hazō said, "I would like to involve Kei, Mari, and Akane in this conversation. They all bring different and valuable perspectives, and they'd be better able to troubleshoot potential ideas and propose new ones than I would alone."

    Asuma nodded. "I can understand that. That said, you understand the OPSEC considerations, correct? I don't think it's likely that any of them leak our plans, of course, but accidental words and implied assumptions have torn down other villages. Kei, I can understand the value she brings in her expertise and her bloodline. Mari, I would strongly encourage – I was going to loop her in on my own, but having her here saves me the trouble. But why Akane?"

    "It's like you said," Hazō said. "She is just as much a part of this situation as any of us. She shouldn't be excluded from having the chance to decide her fate here."

    "Perhaps, Hazō," Asuma said. "However, consider the possibilities. If we end up finding a plan that does not require deploying Elemental Mastery against Isan, Akane's knowledge of our plans could represent an OPSEC leak, and her ability to prevent information leakage through the implications of her actions is… suboptimal. On the other hand, imagine that, after our deliberation, we decide we must use Elemental Mastery against Isan. I've spoken with Akane a few times personally about her feelings regarding the Will of Fire and her place in it. I don't think she would be able to contribute much to our deliberation, because the situation would be incredibly stressful to her and she would default to passivity, and it may even be damaging to her long-term recovery to be forced to watch the discussion, powerless to do anything to stop Isan from being destroyed."

    "Would she not resent more being refused the chance to influence the decision, sir?" Hazō asked.

    Asuma sighed. "You know her better than I do, of course. I'm merely saying what I've noticed in a few hours of conversation with a talented young woman who has far, far too much weight on her shoulders. She's struggling with her place in the world already, and you can imagine just how much that struggle might be complicated by an order to use the weapon she resents against the very teachers that taught her how to use it. If we must, I fully intend to work with Mari to find a way to present this to her that's as gentle and sensitive as possible, or at least as much as we can afford with whatever timelines we need to act on. Having it all unfold in the cold and neutral evaluations we need to do right now is not conducive to the effort of rebuilding her self-esteem as a ninja."

    "So, that's a no?" Hazō asked.

    Asuma stared at Hazō for a moment, before slumping slightly. "It's a strong recommendation, Hazō. Hopefully it won't matter that she's not present, because we'll simply find a route forward that doesn't require the use of Elemental Mastery – in which case, you can simply tell her that we've found and are enacting a more peaceful solution than the fears that have been ruling her nightmares. If you insist, add her to your list of clanmates to collect and go."

    o-o-o​

    In the end, it took nearly an hour for Hazō to round up the three women he went looking for. Kei was easy to find, of course, but finding Mari required putting together a remarkably complex trail of clues and puzzles, something that Hazō realized only belatedly was meant to be a challenge for her genin squad. He eventually tracked her to one of Leaf's distant training grounds, accompanied by a set of three genin he barely had time to notice.

    Akane elected not to join. Hazō couldn't explain the details too thoroughly outside of well-secured rooms, but a brief description of the OPSEC concerns and the Hokage's preference for her absence made Akane choose to sit the meeting out.

    Hazō returned to the Tower with Mari in tow, and the staff directed him to a slightly different, larger conference room. He could see Shikamaru and Kei in a quiet discussion over a couple pieces of paper, though they were faintly obscured by a thin haze of cigarette smoke. The Hokage had no cigarette in hand, so he must have smoked one to relax while Hazō was out.

    Once everyone was seated, Asuma stepped aside for a moment, presumably to activate whatever privacy techniques or seals were associated with the room. When he returned, he said, "Welcome Gōketsu Mari and Nara Kei. You are already aware of the rough strokes of the situation, but let me explicitly state the core details. In combination with some other important features, the Elemental Mastery technique can create a weapon with an area-of-effect that easily engulfs cities. It can be readily evaded by ninja with forewarning and skywalkers, but is likely deadly to anyone that has neither.

    "The requirements to turn it into a weapon are unlikely enough that Isan has not yet discovered it. Once Elemental Mastery spreads, which it surely will as Isan opens up, we believe it will be only a matter of time until it is rediscovered elsewhere. The precise requirements for the weapon to be created are not so rare that no one in the Elemental Nations would ever find it. It will possibly be rediscovered in a way that doesn't kill the discoverer, and then it is only a matter of time until one or more well-equipped ninja use the weapon to destroy civilization as we know it."

    "Lord Asuma," Mari said. "What is our timeline to prevent the spread of the Elemental Mastery technique?"

    "We may already be too late," Asuma replied. "Isan has two missing-nin that may or may not know the technique. I've already assigned people to hunt them down, but if they've already sold the technique, it may become very hard to stamp out. Of course, Sage forbid that Isan has shared it with Tea or another country. That said, I think it is most likely that Isan has stuck to its xenophobic culture and refused contact with outsiders. The risk will come in December, when the next AMITY meeting starts and Isan may tentatively dip their toes into the ninjutsu trade."

    "So, we have around a month to tie them up somehow so that they won't share it with anyone," Mari said, musing. "And we can't do it in a way that would draw their or anyone else's attention to the technique itself."

    "That's right," Asuma said. "Our last resort option to do so is to deploy Elemental Mastery on Isan. I have no desire to betray our military allies, nor to deprive Leaf of the resources of trade, but it is something we must do if it is necessary. AMITY may destroy us for it if they discover our actions, but I have faith, if not in my own ability to deceive and mislead them, then in Ami's ability to do so and avoid Akatsuki's wrath. Still, we have a few alternatives that may work. Shikamaru?"

    "Sir. We have no real solutions, merely components that may fit together. We could try to commission chakra beasts from Orochimaru to target Elemental Mastery users. We could try to initiate a conflict between Isan and another polity that would give us more opportunities to pick off their Elemental Mastery users. We could capture their patrols or leaders to interrogate them about who knows the technique and where their technique caches are kept if they exist.

    "Our most prominent measure so far is this," Shikamaru said, gesturing at the papers he and Kei had been looking over. After looking for a nod of confirmation, Hazō picked them up to read with Mari skimming over his shoulder. "In short," Shikamaru continued, "Leaf enters into a trade with Isan, where one of the terms is Isan's promise of exclusivity, preventing them from trading Elemental Mastery with anyone else."

    Hazō's eyebrows raised as he looked over the deal. "The terms here…"

    "Are not particularly important, correct," Shikamaru said, nodding. "We must propose an exploitative deal at first and haggle down to something reasonable, of course, but what we offer cannot really compare in value to restricting the spread of Elemental Mastery."

    "I maintain my proposal," Kei said. "Restricting proliferation of Elemental Mastery is dubious in a way that only invites inquiry, and Isan will scarcely let themselves be bound to refuse any ninjutsu trade at all when Elder Takahashi will have dedicated immense political capital to sell Isan at large on the promises of globalism. It is blatantly obvious what our motivations will be in demanding that they maintain exclusivity with us on Fire Element ninjutsu alone, and yet it achieves our primary goal. Elder Takahashi is a sufficiently diligent custodian of future generations not to make a promise that will bind Isan forever, but if our permanent solutions to the Elemental Mastery problem cannot be enacted on a ten-year timeframe, then we are doomed regardless."

    "That seems reasonable, Kei," Asuma said, nodding. "Can you and Shikamaru bring me a haggling flowchart of how we can secure the trade deal we want with Isan? Remember that we have limited time to do so. Back to the point. Hazō, do you have any additional proposals?"

    "Yes, sir," Hazō said. "First, a note. I know not everything I say will be viable. I'm saying them because I think there may be a component of them that may be useful, or perhaps because it will spark additional useful ideas."

    Asuma laughed. "I get it, Hazō. Do you think our best ideas are any good right now? Asking Orochimaru to make a chakra beast that targets Fire Element users is like the old fable with the farmer who starts ranching chakra sheep to deal with the wolf problem. We might just replace our old problem with a new, entirely worse set of problems. Say what you need to. We're in a desperate situation and need any traction we can get."

    "Sir," Hazō said, nodding. "First proposal: Can we create a superior version of Elemental Mastery that outcompetes the existing one that Isan uses? Longer duration, cheaper chakra cost, better temperature control… there are many ways in which a technique could exceed the performance of Elemental Mastery as-is, never mind if it were a seal! So long as our 'superior' version doesn't have the unusual edge-case behavior that Elemental Mastery does."

    Asuma shook his head. "A seal can't replace a ninjutsu. But a better version of the ninjutsu? Perhaps…" Asuma trailed off, stroking his goatee. "I could imagine some ways it could be improved. Even changing the name to something less cheeky should give it a little more juice to work with. The chakra manipulations need to be kept simple, of course. It won't spread if it's harder to learn than the original, and people just stick with their old-fashioned room-heater."

    "Actually, one complication," Hazō said. "Elemental Mastery has a secondary area-control utility when it makes areas too hot for an enemy to stand in."

    Asuma nodded. "So we need to ensure the replacement does that too, so it outcompetes Elemental Mastery on every ground."

    "Perhaps not, sir," Shikamaru said. "Adding extra features to this ninjutsu may invite others in Isan to go poking around in Elemental Mastery to see if there are other features that they missed in the original technique."

    Asuma shook his head. "I'll need to remake the technique from scratch, of course, to prevent any connection between the two ninjutsu. Ninjutsu don't just have extra features though, Shikamaru. A skilled technique hacker would be able to tell if there were latent features lying fallow in a given ninjutsu, and Elemental Mastery doesn't have that. As best as I can tell, it's not the ninjutsu, but chakra itself that changes when it's used under the right conditions."

    Asuma smiled at Hazō. "Excellent idea. I'll start making the Elemental Mastery replacement right away. By spreading it broadly in Leaf, we can ensure that even if Isan trades us Elemental Mastery, no one in Leaf would learn it. This could credibly remove Elemental Mastery from Isan after a couple generations, even. Do you have more ideas?"

    "Yes, sir. Second suggestion: Isan reveres summoners, almost to the point of worship. Could we use that, somehow? Perhaps declare a group of ninjutsu verboten, or make up an excuse about how Elemental Mastery is producing toxic chakra?"

    "I don't think that'll work as well as you hope, Hazō," Mari said. "Takahashi kicked out Kei almost specifically because he wanted to prevent her from having religious authority in Isan. The man works fast when he wants to, and with an alliance with Leaf coming, he must have known that he'd be encountering summoners soon. If I were him, I would have done my level best to break any religious reverence of summoners that would give a foreign village leverage over me."

    "Furthermore, consider the consequences of Lord Orochimaru's sojourn there," Kei said darkly. "I know not what acts Orochimaru committed to ensure that Isan came so readily to the aid of an ally they had never laid eyes upon, but it does not escape reasonable possibility that his actions tarnished the reputation of summoners better than anything Elder Takahashi could manage himself."

    "Exactly. Worse, actually," Mari said. "Even if Orochimaru was completely aboveboard, seeing his undue influence as a summoner would have redoubled Takahashi's efforts to break their control over Isan."

    "The entire idea isn't terrible, though," Asuma said. "If I were to go to Isan to negotiate, I could speak in my capacity as a ninjutsu designer myself to say that Elemental Mastery was corrupting the local chakra and causing omens or fractures. As for proof, that's always easy to manufacture. Everyone always thinks they've had a hard winter with too many chakra beasts, so I can just point to that. Otherwise, it's easy enough to convince the elders that the youth are lazy and weak, and the youth that their elders are stubborn and stupid. Blaming that on a malformed approach to ninjutsu design seems… doable. It could be part of the play to replace Elemental Mastery with the superior version I create, though lining up all the excuses could be tricky. I suppose it's easy enough to hand them a basic technique hacking manual and a set of 'simple utility techniques' to show the value of Leaf's traditions.

    "Anyway, it's something I can workshop. Another good one. Any more, Hazō?"

    "Of course, sir. Could we vassalize Isan? You said that we may be able to control the spread through subjugating Isan. We could try to manufacture an outside threat that makes them agree to become a protectorate of Leaf. Not only would that empower us eventually as they became fully integrated into our village, but it would give you the leverage you need to actually root out Elemental Mastery. If the stick is insufficient, we could make carrots instead – either through trade goods that I'm sure you've already considered, or maybe even through a Summon Scroll. My clan continues to have leads we could pursue."

    Asuma nodded, considering. "It seems unlikely to me that Isan would accept vassalization."

    "I agree, sir," Mari said. "Everything I have experienced about their culture emphasizes their superiority to the outsider 'barbarian' culture. They'd rather leave their tapirs behind and move to the deserts of Wind than bend the knee to the barbarians, especially to the degree they'd need to bend in order for the Yamanaka to really, really make sure that there's no Elemental Mastery left."

    "Would they truly not give it due consideration were the alternative annihilation?" Kei asked quietly.

    "Exactly," Hazō said. "That's another approach. We could inform them about the existence of the Elemental Mastery weapon and explain that we're choosing not to alpha-strike them so long as they agree to play along and not defect. They'll see our good faith intentions. Kei and Shikamaru, I'm sure you could figure out a treaty that binds them tightly enough that they won't defect."

    "I cannot imagine what you mean, unless you mean to move them to within the area-of-effect of the weapon were it to be cast on Leaf," Shikamaru said.

    "Takahashi has no particular reason to play fair with us," Asuma said.

    "He has every reason," Kei said, fitting her words clumsily into a gap that Asuma clearly intended to fill. "How can he not play along when the extermination of his home is at risk? Every plan we have discussed thus far increases in efficacy if Elder Takahashi supports it. This is not merely due to his position as the leader of Isan. The Takahashi are Isan's ninjutsu clan. If the Takahashi head says that this new technique is superior to the old one, that may be the crucial element required in order to ensure that the replacement may overcome Isan's default paranoia towards the new and foreign. If the Takahashi head says that this technique is causing subtle poisoning of the environment, that may be the leverage required to ensure that people actually do what is best for them and stop using the technique."

    "Granted," Shikamaru said. "However, Takahashi's goals won't be that simple. Once he knows about the power of Elemental Mastery, he will aim to secure it for himself and his heirs to ensure that Isan doesn't spend eternity under Leaf's boot, unable to get out for the fear of extermination. He will voluntarily proliferate Elemental Mastery, either training it himself or ensuring that his trusted allies and heirs will have access to it. I cannot see a motivation that would prevent him from taking such basic actions to avoid perpetual foreign tyranny."

    "We also cannot watch him constantly to make sure that he doesn't spread the knowledge," Asuma said. "He could have any number of secret codes we don't know, keeping an eye on him constantly is infeasible, and Shikamaru points out how he would likely act once left to his devices. We would need to keep him under custody constantly, and that kills most of the value we would get from informing him."

    "Then ensure he does not defect," Kei said. "Inform him, explain the consequences, and insist that he submit to Yamanaka mindscans every month – or more frequently if you think the conditions for Elemental Mastery could be met in a shorter time period. Make abundantly clear that if he acts to spread EM, his village will be destroyed, and that he cannot escape the Yamanaka's grasp. He would not defect under those conditions."

    Asuma nodded slowly. "Perhaps if we still had Inoichi. Takahashi is old and wily, and I don't trust that he wouldn't learn how to slip the Yamanaka's gaze after a few times under it. Even that leaves aside the problem of secret codes. If he communicates his intention in a way the Yamanaka can't tell, it's quite possible that we miss it altogether. I think cutting him in is altogether too risky."

    "If he appears, in any way, to be conspiring to evade our requirements, then we may force him to suffer the consequences. If intentionally identifying ways to subvert a mindscan is a dealbreaker, then we may inform him of this and let him make his choices. Faced with annihilation and our full explanation of the various conditions that would cause it, I cannot imagine he will defect," Kei said.

    "He could simply inform an ally, then kill himself," Shikamaru said.

    "Make his death a condition for Isan's destruction," Kei said.

    "Then Isan dies inevitably, and his only hope to slip the noose is to kill the captor," Shikamaru said.

    "I swore I would protect Isan in the new era that I ushered in!" Kei said.

    "Holding on to unworkable ideas and unworkable ideals of your sensei is not how you can do that," Shikamaru said.

    Kei fumed for a moment before stilling her face as best she could and turning back to the center of the table.

    Asuma smiled cautiously. "I think we can avoid the worst case situation for now and revisit this later, hopefully after AMITY is concluded. I believe we have the outline of a plan – secure a ninjutsu trade with exclusivity, seed them with ninjutsu to start of a complete replacement of Elemental Mastery, and capture and interrogate some of their straggling patrols in order to gather more information about their relations with the world at large and other vectors of spread we need to contain."

    "Well, if there's one part of this equation that's easy, it's capturing their patrols," Mari said. "Even when we were missing-nin, wearing them down through attrition was always on the table. Their average patrol squad should be quite easy to take down."

    "I'm not altogether satisfied with this plan," Asuma said, "but I think this is the best we have right now. It gives us the best chance at preventing proliferation without doing anything too abhorrent. Hazō, I may need you to research some seals for different operations – I'll be in touch. Mari, I'll bring you in at some point to discuss capturing patrols. Kei, Shikamaru, get me your draft trade deals immediately. It'll be tricky to get the framing exactly right between wanting them to use the superior ninjutsu and cautiously giving away valuable secrets in order to entice them to give us a more favorable trade. Unless, Shikamaru, you think this is unacceptably risky?"

    After a moment's consideration, Shikamaru shook his head. "I agree that we should be able to keep Elemental Mastery contained for a couple months through these methods, sensei. Unless, of course, it is already so far spread as to render the situation unrecoverable."

    "In that case, we'll all need to hope that our kindness is repaid by the warmth of the Will of Fire," Asuma said grimly. "Because we won't be finding any warmth in death."



    Hazō didn't end up proposing the Thinker idea to Kei and Shikamaru. Asuma had already picked up the core of it, and Hazō's impression of Yuno was not particularly fearful. Also, because it was likely to become a separate scene and that's a lot of writing.

    Part 2 coming shortly.
     
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    • Chapter 573: Distant Departures
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    • Chapter 573: Distant Departures​

    Hazō hugged Akane tight. She hugged him back, but only for a moment. Hazō let go reluctantly as she stepped back and continued to check over her gear and equipment. Thankfully, Hazō had finished the improved version of chakdar before Akane's departure, expanding the range at which the seals would detect active chakra shaping. Hopefully, that would slightly improve her odds of spotting ambushes.

    "Who are they sending with you?" Hazō asked as Akane double checked her various MARS chains. The multi-seal relays would set off dozens of seals instantly and make Akane a monster in combat, as the fights in Neck had shown. Hopefully, it would be enough.

    Akane shrugged. "A trio of genin that didn't make the cut to get assigned a sensei. An Inuzuka, then a pair of KEI genin, Miyata and Tagoshi."

    Asuma had explained that part too – that Akane couldn't be assigned a genin team because of her unstable circumstances, but that it would be useful for her to have a position of leadership and agency while doing work that didn't conflict with her morals. Hazō understood Asuma's point. Even without considering the mess of Akane's emotional state after Hazō accidentally turned her into a civilization-destroying weapon, Akane had always had a penchant for teaching and mentoring others, and having some younger genin to guide would be good for her. Depending on how much research they did into their team leader, they might even look up to Akane-the-war-hero… Though, considering Akane's feelings on her actions during the war, perhaps that wasn't for the best.

    "You said the route was around Yamakoshi?" Hazō asked.

    "That's right," Akane said, now checking that the Banshee seals on her thigh holsters were padded well enough away from her skin that the vibrations wouldn't harm her, yet attached firmly enough to not come loose during high speed travel. "It's just a couple hours away, near the southern end of that mountain range. We're just roaming around killing beasts. I don't think it'll be anything special."

    There wouldn't be any trouble from chakra beasts. At Kei's insistence, Hazō had asked Akane about her strange behavior after the Elemental Mastery incident, and Akane and Mari had explained the situation – that Kei believed that Asuma would order Akane's death… the same way that Jiraiya had, if Kei was to be believed, ordered Minami Nikkō's. If the pattern held, then just as Minami had died on her first mission after Jiraiya knew that she'd learned of Noburi's mist drain, then this mission would be where Asuma decided to quietly kill Akane.

    Hazō had been cut in on Mari's Operation "Shave the Priest" barely a week ago, and he'd been too busy with sealwork and keeping the clan from imploding to think up any real ways to reduce the odds of Akane's assassination. He'd asked Mari if Akane's mission could be postponed or made safer, but they'd come up with nothing. Neither Mari nor Yuno could safely sneak out to follow Akane on her mission with their various responsibilities, and the other Gōketsu would either be noticed while following her, or simply didn't have the skill to deter ANBU assassins. No, in the end, Mari had decided in the other direction. If indeed Asuma was considering assassinating Akane, doing the mission normally would signal the loyalty that Asuma wanted to see. He'd be unlikely to let other Leaf ninja get caught in the area-of-effect as well, so Akane was probably safe unless she was assigned a solo mission – something rarely given outside of the ranks of jōnin.

    So, instead, Hazō did his level best to equip Akane with all he had and steeled his heart to let her walk off into the unknown.

    "Be careful. You can handle any chakra beasts, I know that, but there could still be ninja out there. Missing-nin. Don't let your guard down."

    Akane smiled, and Hazō couldn't help but notice how agonizingly fake it was. "Funny you mention that, Hazō. Mari was disappointed when I said I'd finally got another mission because she was planning a 'Bingo Book Party' for Yuno and me. Apparently, Leaf's agents finally got their hands on Rock's latest copies. While you and Noburi and Kei have been in there for a couple years since the Chūnin Exam finals, Mari wanted to congratulate the two of us for finally making it in."

    Hazō grimaced. "Were the briefings any good?"

    Akane shook her head, laughing slightly. "No, they had nothing, not even sketches. Names, ranks, and that we were both specialized in CQC. Their descriptions were awful – they even said that I had black hair! Yours was much more thorough."

    Hazō smiled weakly. "At least I'm not at risk from books like that. No hunter-nin on the Seventh Path."

    Akane nodded, then stepped fully over to face Hazō. She looked him in the eye. After a second, she stepped closer and pulled him fully into a tight, nearly bone-crushing hug. Hazō relaxed into it for a moment, then hugged her back. It was a real Akane-hug, after what felt like months.

    They held each other for barely half a minute. "I love you," Akane said, whispering into his ear as they separated. "Stay safe, Hazō, and get those Dogs to the Conclave safely," she said, this time at full volume.

    "You too. You, your team, Yamakoshi, keep them all safe," Hazō said.

    With one last smile, Akane turned and started jogging out to the rendezvous point with her team at Leaf's southern gate.

    o-o-o​

    "Hey!" Hazō said, coming to a stop abruptly as he speedwalked across the Yamanaka estate. His escort, a Yamanaka genin, also ground herself to a stop and bowed to her clan head.

    "Hey you!" Ino said, smiling. "I was just going out to find you!"

    "Well, here I am," Hazō said, holding his arms wide. Ino stepped closer with a quick gesture of dismissal towards the genin escort and looped her arm through his. She started to lead him towards the gardens.

    "Just in time, too," Ino said. "Hazō, would you like to come on a mission with me?"

    Hazō raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

    "Well, Sasuke talked me into joining him on a mission of some sort. He hasn't told me all the details, except that it won't take more than a couple weeks and that he's willing to pay me A-rank rates. Normally, that wouldn't be enough to entice me, but apparently Naruto and Sakura are coming along, and it's been too long since Sakura and I caught up. I figure since you and Naruto are so buddy-buddy now, you wouldn't mind joining up, and Sasuke agreed that you'd make a good fit. Oh, he was all dismissive about how you weren't a core part of 'the plan', but he eventually agreed that having the full-Gōketsu seal perimeters would be an asset.

    "How do you know Naruto and I are buddy-buddy now?" Hazō asked.

    "Well," Ino said lightly, "Naruto came to me asking for a character reference a couple months back, and he's gone over to your estate, what, twice in the past week? He wears orange, Hazō. He's not subtle. I'm assuming that whatever beef you had with each other has now been squashed, right?"

    "Well, not quite," Hazō said, chuckling. "It's a work in progress, but I'd like to think we're getting there."

    "Good enough. So, what do you say?"

    Hazō rubbed her arm gently as they continued their walk through the garden. "Sadly, I can't. I just got called on a mission for the Dogs, and it's a really important one. I'll be escorting a bunch of Dogs through maybe-hostile territory to take them to the Conclave, a meeting of all sorts of different Seventh Path Clans. I'll need to convince them to take the threat of the Dragons seriously. Unless they form an alliance and all work together to destroy the Dragons, I'm afraid the Dragons might destroy the entire Seventh Path. Apparently, they've been getting restless again. I'm not sure how much more time we have until they go on another rampage."

    Ino paused her walk halfway through Hazō's explanation to look him fully in the eyes. Her expression was unreadable as he finished speaking.

    After a second, she turned, grabbing his hand again to lace her fingers through his.

    "That sounds right out of a storybook, you know," Ino said. "One of the standard novels you can pick up at any of the little bookshops downtown these days. Dragons are a classic enemy for the hero to conquer, of course, and the blatantly obvious Hashirama metaphor of needing to unite a bunch of disparate clans is not exactly lost on me. Having that unity come from a personal journey requiring that the hero protect those in his care is not really original either – the Will of Fire is the will to protect, and that theme has definitely been played out by now."

    "Are you giving my life a literary analysis?" Hazō asked, bemused.

    "I would have called it a mild critique at most. You do know that your life reads more like a story than like a normal person's world, right? Not that I mind getting the chance to date the hero," she purred, confidently pulling on Hazō's collar to drag him down into a kiss.

    After a few seconds, Ino pulled away fractionally, still keeping her body pressed close to Hazō's side. "The elders will probably make me pay for that," she sighed. Hazō glanced around the empty garden courtyard. He didn't see any Yamanaka ninja watching. "Screw them," Ino continued. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"

    Hazō shrugged. "I came here to ask you to forgive me for not being around much for a couple weeks, but it looks like you have that handled. There'll be some complicated diplomacy at the Conclave of Clans. I'll probably need to convince representatives one-on-one to go back to their Bosses and get them to attend in person."

    Ino nodded, pressing a finger to her lip for a second. "Well, one-on-one work is what I do best. Still, it'll be hard to work up profiles and get you angles of attack when the targets are in another dimension and there's nothing I can really do to gather intel. Maybe when the time comes, we'll see what I can manage."

    Hazō smiled, and leaned over to kiss her on the top of the head. "Thank you, Ino. I know you'll be safe on your mission with Naruto and Sasuke there, but take care, alright?"

    Ino leaned into the kiss on her head, then looked up at him with a smile. "You too. I'll be looking forward to hearing your next chapter."

    o-o-o​

    Hazō shook his head to clear the disorientation of reverse summoning. The silver-blue sky of Dog territory gazed down above him, though the strange mustard yellow of Hyena's territory was close on the horizon.

    "Thank you, Canzon. Cannai," Hazō said, acknowledging the Dog Alpha.

    "Greetings, Summoner," said Cannai as Canzon bowed her head before the Alpha. "As you can tell, negotiations with the Leopards failed."

    Hazō groaned. "What happened?"

    Cannai plopped himself down on the grass, and Canzon sat. Cannai said "I cannot tell you the insides of their minds, of course. The only thing they would tell me is that travel through their territory would be forbidden. Perhaps they are merely bitter that their scouts have been all swiftly removed from our territory of late. Given the risk of a potential encounter with a clan boss, I thought the Hyenas would be a wiser and safer choice."

    "Would they refuse our passage only because of the scouts?" Hazō asked. "I thought they were allies with the Pangolins."

    "Yes," Cannai said. "And they understand their possession of former Hyena territory is bought by their alliance with the Pangolins, an alliance that few others would make out of distaste for the Pangolins' methods. You can understand that they may wish to avoid other clans bonding with the Pangolins, which would then dilute their influence further. And, of course, they certainly do not want to see Dog ally with the Pangolins as the Pangolins ditch the Leopards for no longer being useful through whatever Pango-metrics that clan uses, for that would leave them surrounded. I doubt you will see Hornets at the Conclave for the same reason."

    "I see. So what did… Haiwari say for the Hyena?"

    "She said that she would not forbid your passage, but nor would she forbid her clanmates from tearing apart your flesh if you misstepped."

    "Ruthless scat-eaters," Canzon said. The highly energetic new packleader of the Horizon Chasers was a large beagle that reached nearly to Hazō's waist. She was apparently a bard by trade, though she'd never reached the levels of fame that Canaria and Canting had. "They gotta be exaggerating, right Alpha?"

    Cannai snorted. "I doubt they would eat you, but Haiwari has always preferred colorful threats."

    "Did she clarify what a misstep would be?" Hazō asked.

    "Well, certainly initiating violence would qualify," Cannai said. "However, the Hyenas can be territorial, so I imagine stepping on the heartland territory of one of the Hyena packs, or perhaps even their hunting grounds, could be cause for retaliation."

    "I see. Did she, by any chance, provide a map of these territories so that I can avoid them?"

    "No," Cannai said, tongue lolling out.

    "Incredible. I appreciate Haiwari's willingness to help," Hazō said deadpan.

    "Quite. Haiwari and I have never been friends, Summoner, but we have at least been cordial at points in the past. That changed when the Pangolins invaded Hyena, and she came to me requesting aid. I weighed the factors in my mind and chose to refuse, thinking that best for my people, but she does not forgive me for my choice. I do not blame her. The Pangolins are cruel conquerors.

    "Speaking of which, your largest difficulty in getting to Pangolin land will likely be crossing the mountain range that divides Pangolin and Hyena. Just as the Leopards took the inland side of Hyena territory, I imagine the Pangolins chose to flank the Hyenas by attacking along the ocean-facing side of their territory. If you wish to evade the mountains, that is likely your best option. Bend towards the ocean on your travels and look for the change of skies. I do not believe the fighting is hot on any fronts right now. The Pangolins are merely trying to hold ground against the Hyena, now that you no longer supply them with seals. Of course, this is still a risky path.

    "If you wish, you may instead try to brave the mountains directly. The Hyenas will fare better in such terrain than my people, and there are creatures there, all soulless of course, that will also be well suited to hunting in mountainous terrain. It would be dangerous, though a different sort of dangerous than walking blithely at what will likely be the Pangolin and Hyena Clans' best warriors.

    "Lastly, you may try to cut inland to avoid the mountains through what I suspect will be Leopard territory. If you do so, you must be swift about it. An incursion of eleven dogs and a summoner will be noticed, and you must leave before it can be responded to."

    Hazō nodded. "Is it even safe for us to travel through Hyena territory at all?"

    Canzon stood, bounding to Hazō's side. "Don't worry about it, we know all about dealing with those nasty scat-eaters. They're easy to scare and greedy too. With your fancy seals, we can probably give 'em all offerings of meat that they'll gladly take. Most of 'em'll not want to fight with a big group like us, and I can probably talk down or scare off any of 'em that breaks the mold with my ninjutsu," Canzon said, darting side to side as if playing out a fight in her mind.

    "I concur with the general idea, Canzon. The Hyenas are a tired people, Summoner, and most of them will not want a fight to the death. They will be skittish and scared, and that will lead some of them to attack too hastily. Once you make it clear that you are not looking for bloodshed, many of them will accept peace offerings and let you pass, so long as you do nothing offensive. They are disinclined to our people, but I believe they will see reason. Most of them, at least.

    "With that, I leave the choice of how to lead the pack to you two," Cannai said, finally setting his head down between his paws.

    Canzon turned around, darting to Cannai before bouncing back and forth with her tail wagging. "Well, Alpha, I ain't gonna just let you lie down and ignore us like that. What do you think we should do?"

    Cannai raised his head fractionally. "It is not my place to lead your pack, Canzon."

    "Sure, sure, I'll make the choice in the end. You gotta know more than me about the Hyenas though. What do you think we oughtta do?"

    Cannai extended his neck to lick Canzon firmly, half-pinning the smaller beagle to the ground. "Sit still. Your jumping around is irritating my old bones."

    Canzon reluctantly sat in front of Cannai and used her rear leg to scratch her ear where Cannai's lick had twisted it. "Fine. What's your best shot?"

    Cannai set his head back on his paws and waited there, almost for long enough that Hazō thought he wouldn't answer. Eventually, Cannai said, "Were I leading a pack of random dogs, I would likely take them over the mountains. The Hyenas can mostly be dealt with diplomatically, and the Summoner's experiences on the Human Path will likely best mirror handling swathes of the mountain wildlife rather than fighting skilled warriors from any of the summon clans. Moreover, I would accept the slower pace that mountain travel would bring. Of course, I cannot speak to your pack, nor to abilities the Summoner may choose to reveal."

    "Huh, gotcha," Canzon said, turning around to face Hazō before sitting again. "Well, sounds like you got some pieces that might change how this plays out. What do you think?"


    This update covers two days. Hazō has successfully handed off most of the clan's operation to Noburi, Mari, and Gaku. He will be visiting them very briefly in the evenings to get reports, but will need to spend most of his time on the Seventh Path guarding the Horizon Chasers. If you have specific preparations beyond "handing off clan affairs" and "printing weeks worth of seal loadouts", you may Declare it.

    The Horizon Chasers contain:
    • Canzon, a bard and ninjutsu grandmaster (if she is to be believed (Hazō thinks she isn't))
    • Three hunters
    • Two fighters, who have skirmished with the Leopards and Hyenas before
    • Two trackers/foragers
    • A den-maker
    • And two puppies

    Hazō won't be able to use SC training with Noburi for as long as he is escorting the Horizon Chasers. If you vote it in, he may use SCs to read notes while the dogs are resting or to train for up to two training blocks. If an attack happens at night, this will dramatically lower Hazō's combat potential, so he will not do it by default.

    As a reminder, we do have background rolls for the survival of various characters (as Yūdai sadly found out), with different levels of fidelity depending on the character's importance. Sadly, it is the case that Ino or Akane could die on these missions. The mission rotation that many of your chuunin clanmates (and now Akane) do is fairly standardized. Most out-of-village missions are 1-3 days, and after that, ninja are given around a week of break. Some missions are longer, and those warrant around two weeks of break. Peacetime missions generally aren't firmly assigned, but suggested – most ninja stick to the Tower's suggestions for their specialization, but may elect to choose their own missions from a publicly available mission board instead. Refusing enough missions invites questions.

    XP Award: 10 + 2 (brevity) XP
    GM-fun Award: 0 XP

    Vote time! What to do now?

    Voting ends on
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 574: The Doomsday Manipulation Club
  • Threadmarks

    • On the west side of the Gōketsu main building, in the room marked "Cleaning Supplies Overflow" on the blueprints, Hazō, Kei, and Ami sat in comfortable armchairs and stared at each other as they sipped hot chocolate (the room marked "High-Security Meeting Space" was on the east side, heavily trapped, and most recently used to discuss proposed layouts for Akane's new garden).

    Hazō stared at Ami as one would at a mystery box that could equally turn out to contain an early birthday present or an unexploded bomb (or, if the box was from Kagome-sensei, probably both). Ami stared at Hazō as one would at a mystery box that definitely contained both an early birthday present and an unexploded bomb, and was clearly already pondering what to blow up. Kei stared at Ami with innocent adoration that, Hazō suspected, would be deadlier than any bomb if successfully weaponised.

    "To recapitulate…" Hazō said. "It is definitely a project you'd find interesting, and we could really do with your help on it. We'll share everything we have with you if you commit to not use that information in any way that would disadvantage us compared to the counterfactual world where you weren't involved. That condition lasts until whenever you'd naturally find out about it otherwise—say, if we go public. Also, you commit to not doing anything to artificially hasten that moment, such as by suggesting strategies that will unnecessarily make the project visible to your counterfactual uninformed self. If in doubt, you'll check with me before doing anything significant, and accept a veto if necessary."

    Ami beamed.

    "You see? This kind of thing is why I'm happy to be engaged to you."

    Hazō's danger sense flared a second too late.

    "I beg your pardon?"

    "Oh, Hazō and I are engaged to be married," Ami said casually.

    Kei gave Hazō a look that could melt barrier-grade granite.

    "Again?"

    "Oh, sure," Ami said. "He tricked me into accepting his proposal, then tricked himself into committing to it."

    Kei facepalmed.

    "Ami, please confirm that you do not in fact intend to marry this lunatic."

    Hazō opened his mouth to object to this unfair description, but on reflection, anyone who even jokingly put himself in a position to marry Ami was unquestionably insane.

    Ami put a finger to her lips, looking thoughtful.

    "I don't know, Kei. He can dance, he knows how to get away with treason, and he does put together a mighty fine contract. Besides, I never wanted to marry into another clan because one clan head's authority is bad enough—and at least Lady Biwako was smart enough to dump dealing with me on Grandpa Ryūgamine, who knew what he was doing. Now that I'm my own clan head, the world's my summonable giant clam."

    Kei stared at her in utter horror.

    "I can confirm that I do not in fact intend to marry this lunatic," Hazō said.

    "Then why did you propose to her?" Kei asked. "Was it your intention to merely toy with her heart?"

    "No," Hazō said. "You know I wouldn't do that."

    "He confessed to me via triple double Isanese braid," Ami said, "then left me to wander the world in ignorance of my destiny until by sheer chance I encountered Isan ninja while wearing it."

    Kei gave her a blank look. "He informed you that he wished to borrow your largest goat for ecclesiastical purposes?"

    "No," Ami said, "that's a double triple Isanese braid. I got Yuno to give me a quick rundown afterwards."

    "I am not going to marry you, Ami," Hazō said. "That would…"

    Inspiration struck, oh so long overdue. Thank you, Kei.

    "That would be toying with your heart, since I am not in fact in love with you, and I wouldn't do that to someone I care about."

    "Darn," Ami pouted. "I figured I'd have at least another couple of months before you found a way to weasel out of it.

    "On a less disappointing note," she said as Kei breathed a silent sigh of relief, "I accept your conditions. You tell me about your project, and I'll act in a non-Gōketsu-disadvantaging, non-revelation-accelerating way until the point when I'd find out anyway."

    "Deal," Hazō said. "I believe I can resurrect the dead—"

    "By reopening the dimensional rift at O'Uzu in a controlled fashion in order to bring people out of the afterlife back onto the Human Path," Ami finished.

    Hazō's shoulders slumped. "Dammit, Ami, do you have to keep doing that?"

    "I'm afraid it's mandatory," Ami said. "But this time it isn't traditional Ami-brand genius. The first thing I did when I got Leaf jōnin clearance was head to the archives and memorise everything I could get my hands on. I had a lot to catch up on since I had to hit the ground running, and also my Mori blood demanded it."

    Kei nodded with understanding.

    "Your report from the O'Uzu mission," Ami went on, "which memorably made me burn a ton of capital to save your life, and which offered precious intel on Akatsuki right when I was about to head to Grass to negotiate with them? On the shortlist right alongside the latest patrol passcodes."

    "Fine," Hazō said. "Kei did warn me that the O'Uzu report would come back to haunt me. But the existence of the rift isn't proof that I'm doing research to raise the dead."

    "Yes, it is," Ami said. "There was exactly zero possibility that Gōketsu Hazō would lay hands on a way to defeat death forever that happened to ideally fit his personal skill set and then not ruthlessly exploit it. In a counterfactual world where you just shrugged and went on your way after discovering the gate to the afterlife, you'd already be dead because Kagome decided you were lupchanzed or Kei threw you in a caldera."

    That reaction might be a little extreme (if in no way implausible), but if Hazō did ignore an opportunity like that, he'd certainly want his loved ones to grab him by the shoulders and shake him out of it. Even in a world as bizarrely overflowing with unseized opportunities for power as this one, being able to tell the Shinigami to shut up and sit down was in a class of its own.

    "Well, at least you get me."

    "I do," Ami agreed. "There are some very specific ways in which you're sane and the rest of the world is not—or possibly, you're insane in the same way as me, and the rest of the world is not. You should pray it's not the latter. More importantly, your condition is waived because I know about your project without you telling me, and we can move on to the fun stuff."

    Hazō paused for a second to scream internally over the fact that he was now dealing with an unchained Ami, then a few seconds more to acknowledge that having an unchained Ami cooperating with him was still a huge improvement over an unchained Ami causing trouble with no regard for his opinion, and finally began to adjust towards his original intention of borrowing Ami's powers to help him not end the world in the process of saving it.

    "Right," Hazō said. "The fun stuff. You've read the report, but in terms of what happened after that…"

    -o-​

    "So to sum up," Ami said, "you've been hard at work deciphering the Fourth's terrible poetry and turning it into ways to scan and eventually open the rift, with occasional detours to murder unkillable eldritch abominations, drag humanity kicking and screaming a few centimetres closer to a basic standard of civilisation, and sit in your room playing with rocks."

    "That's one way of putting it," Hazō said, "though I should mention that playing with rocks is an essential part of fixing the Great Seal and thus saving multiple Paths."

    "You have the most interesting life," Ami lamented. "I spend my time running around the continent wrestling with intractable leaders who can't see past the end of their noses for the sake of marginal gains, while you get to blow up a tenth of Fire by accident in the process of inventing ways to turn the natural order upside down."

    "A hundredth of Fire," Hazō muttered.

    "It's more than I've ever blown up," Ami countered, "and I've been at this a lot longer than you. But what I'm not hearing is your plan for dealing with Akatsuki."

    "I don't have one yet," Hazō said. "To be honest, I hadn't thought about the issue until Kei raised it recently."

    Ami put down her hot chocolate. "You don't have one? Hazō, they're the biggest, potentially the only thing you need to worry about. Right now, you're in a race to see whether you can find a way to open the rift before they can. There's a D-Day on the horizon—'D' for 'Doom'—when Akatsuki bring Pain back from the afterlife, together with anyone he recruits on his way out because he's a man charismatic enough to hold Akatsuki together, and they take over a world that isn't strong enough for another Battle of Nagi Island. Your main objective right now is to find a way either to prevent D-Day or to make sure you're on the winning team if you can't."

    "That bad?" Hazō asked.

    "That bad," the sisters echoed in unison.

    "First up," Ami went on, "would you be able to tell if they've already opened the rift?"

    "I think so," Hazō said after a second's thought. "The readings we've been able to get are incredibly weak. Any meaningful change would be obvious. So assuming they're researching the rift—"

    "They are," the sisters interrupted, also in unison.

    "—the race is still on," Hazō finished.

    "Next," Ami said, "did you leave behind evidence of your research?"

    Hazō quickly thought back through his field trips.

    "We didn't put up any big signs saying, 'the Gōketsu were here'", he said, "but we did have multiple people camping out there for a week or more at a time, and it hadn't occurred to me when we were packing up that somebody else might be interested in closely examining that random patch of wilderness on an island that Mist probably doesn't have the manpower to regularly patrol."

    "So they know," Ami concluded, "because as you say, you're the only other candidate, and you're a world-famous sealmaster."

    "I am?" Hazō preened a little.

    "Sure," Ami said. "I can name a dozen people off the top of my head who'd pay all the gold in Arashi's sunken chest to have your itinerary the next time you leave Leaf."

    Hazō stopped preening.

    "The good news for you," Ami said, "is that now all your adoring fans need rock-solid plausible deniability, which cuts the list of candidates down to the skilled and the reckless. Pre-AMITY, anyone might have felt kidnapping the man who could invent the next skywalkers was worth risking a little war or two—either to get your inventions for themselves or just to stop Leaf getting the next paradigm-shifting weapon. There are people who still break out in a cold sweat at night imagining if Leaf had kept exclusive control of the power that swung the balance at Nagi Island.

    "But forget your potential doom. Let's get back to your probable doom. Akatsuki know you're researching the rift. They may want their competition out of the way, or they may not care who finishes first because they can just take the rift from you. Could you move it somewhere they can't track?"

    "A sealmaster never uses the word 'impossible'," Hazō said, "but unlike opening it, I have no idea where to start. Assuming they visit the rift regularly, I suspect they'd discover an open rift before I had a chance to finish the research. But if I leave it unopened until I figure it out, then they might open it themselves during that gap."

    "It is in any case an unpromising suggestion," Kei noted. "If the rift disappears in a way that leaves any room for suspicion whatsoever—and their powers of detection and/or rift lore may well be superior to ours—Hazō will be the only suspect. I cannot say if Akatsuki would be willing to burn Leaf to the ground for the sake of rescuing Pain, but I find it difficult to imagine that there is no way for them, with their vast military power and unknown social and political resources, to obtain your person or at least the opportunity to question you with whatever truth-extracting powers may be at their disposal. They may be reluctant to violate AMITY while it represents this world's best hope of true peace, but will that commitment last if a world order governed by Pain presents itself as a realistic alternative?"

    "Fair," Ami said. "Now I think of it, their sealmasters can get their hands on you anytime just by offering to work together on the Great Seal. It's not like you can turn them down.

    "OK, next thought. Can you close the rift permanently?"

    "It should be a lot easier than opening it," Hazō said. "I'd just have to accelerate what it's already doing. But it's an absolute last resort. Reopening an existing rift to the afterlife is realistic. Opening one from scratch would be a nightmare. There's no handy map of the multiverse, Ami. Even if I invent a reliable rift-opening seal, I can't just tell it to open to the coordinates of the Pure Land. On the other hand, opening rifts randomly in hope that I hit the right place is suicide. I already opened one once which might have led to the world being overrun by scissor monsters if it stayed open long enough."

    Ami nodded. "I'm not saying to throw away your amazing new trick that might bring more chaos to the world than I've ever imagined. But we need to have the option in our pocket. So. Seal the rift. Hide the rift and hope they won't come calling. Open the rift and risk that they'll take it over—Leaf can't realistically fight them all the way out in O'Uzu, and ownership of the rift is murky enough that I doubt we'll be able to call it an AMITY violation. O'Uzu isn't part of the Water Country, but Mist probably has the strongest claim by right of suzerainty, followed by Akatsuki by right of power, with you coming in a distant third by right of squatting. Or don't open the rift at all, and then D-Day is guaranteed."

    "We could go with the original plan," Hazō said. "Go in, get Jiraiya and, now Akatsuki's in the picture, however many S-rankers we need to hold them off. Whoever holds the rift only gets stronger over time."

    "If you want to fight Akatsuki head-on, that's your only option," Ami agreed. "Leaf doesn't currently have the firepower, and calling on the other nations to defend the rift is a no-go unless you want a new world war over it. So the question becomes: can you rescue enough S-rankers to outweigh Akatsuki before Akatsuki rescue a single Pain? It's not exactly promising, especially since Leaf's history isn't that long. You've got five dead Kage worth mentioning, assuming they're all still there and the afterlife hasn't shaved away too much of their power, two living heroes and Orochimaru (who is probably technically alive), and I guess a few other heavy hitters like Maito Gai who could help break a tie. If the dice are on your side, you could win that fight, but getting there in time would be like winning a race with an Akimichi tied to each leg."

    "Strictly speaking," Kei said, "Akatsuki do not need to rescue Pain to win the race. They merely need to hold the rift and deny your rescuees the ability to leave. Assuming Akatsuki have full access to their chakra and the rescuees do not, defeating the latter would be a trivial matter, as would dealing enough permanent damage to render future attempts unrealistic, even after the majority of Akatsuki depart to seek Pain. That is, of course, assuming that dead souls can endure a second death at all."

    "Good point," Ami said. "I hope you're enjoying the two-for-one Mori experience here, Hazō. You have no idea how much most men would pay for this sort of thing."

    "Ami!" Kei exclaimed.

    Hazō decided to urgently head off that train of thought. He had only just escaped one engagement with his life.

    "That's one set of options," he said. "You mentioned another, which is probably going to be even worse, but I think I need to hear it."

    "Join the winning team," Ami said. "It's not actually as bad as it sounds. Assuming Pain is on the level, he's probably going to be easier to convince of Uplift than most of the people in charge right now—and if you can pull that off, a benevolent universal dictator who can throw the world's resources at you and shut down anybody who disagrees with a plausible threat of total annihilation is realistically the best we're going to get, at least during the transition to a sane civilisation that can be trusted to run itself while the adults are out of the room. Now, ideally, that dictator would be me, or failing that, Kei, or failing that, you, but sometimes you take what you can get."

    "I do not wish to be a universal dictator, Ami," Kei said. "I would be perfectly content as the sensible second-in-command, and that only because either of you would desperately require one. Should the world ever cease to be an atrocious, self-destructive mess, I would gladly retire to immerse myself in harmless intellectual pursuits with my husband and 1d8 girlfriends."

    "You're OK with Pain ruling the world?" Hazō asked.

    "I think Pain ruling the world, assuming he's as much of a pacifist as he claims, is open to Uplift or something like it, and doesn't have some critical flaw that would make him a terrible dictator, would be a massive improvement on the current status quo," Ami said.

    "Now, obviously," she went on after a second to let that soak in, "this is an incredibly treasonous thing to say, so bear in mind that I am speaking completely hypothetically and merely exploring alternatives in the event that it is tragically impossible to place the Hokage or his valid representative on the throne."

    "Of course," Kei said.

    "Goes without saying," Hazō agreed.

    "In this completely hypothetical scenario which no loyal Leaf ninja like me could possibly ever want and would never take steps to promote," Ami said, "we would want to negotiate with Akatsuki ahead of time. Can you see the Hokage going for that?"

    "Hell no," Hazō said immediately. "It's as good as offering to make the Fire Country a vassal state of Rain, or whatever Akatsuki claim as their territory."

    "Rain," Ami confirmed. "I've visited it as part of my AMITY work. There's a monument to Pain, who was apparently born there, that made me completely rethink what I thought I knew about Akatsuki's finances."

    "The implication," Kei said, "is that we, which is to say the people in this room and our trusted allies, would need to bypass the Hokage to negotiate with Akatsuki directly. In other words, treason for which Hazō has set the helpful precedent of a death sentence."

    "If by 'we' you mean 'me'," Ami said. "After the repeated obliteration of Leaf's jōnin, there are exactly three people in Leaf with the competence to negotiate with Akatsuki, leaving out the Hokage himself. One is the Hokage's beloved wife and eventual mother of his heir, one is ideal material for revenge on the man who mortally insulted Uchiha Itachi, and one is the beautiful genius you see before you. Among my many arguments for needing the Shadow Clone Technique is that the Hokage wants me in that job instead of Mari, who'll die, or Kurenai, whom he doesn't want to risk, and that means he wants me to survive the first time I unpredictably piss one of them off.

    "But you're right in that this scenario sucks in its own ways. Big-time treason in the near future is one. Me being anywhere near Akatsuki is another. The fact that we'd have to actually betray Leaf, in practical terms, when Akatsuki come knocking is a third. Your home won't be your home anymore, and the bonds you treasure will snap just like that, and as the cherry on the cake, you'll have to live with the knowledge that you gave up and let the bad guys win, and the counterfactual future that you maybe could have seized with your own hands will be hanging over you until the day you die."

    Hazō felt cold inside. From the look in Kei's eyes, so did she.

    "There are no good options, are there?" he asked.

    Ami sat very, very still for an out-of-character moment.

    "There are always options," she snapped abruptly. Hazō could feel the ice coming off her in waves, numbing him from the outside even as cold anxiety ate away at him from the inside. "I am not handing over control of my fate to anyone. Not Leaf's heroic demigods to save me and rule me. Not Akatsuki's villainous demigods to adopt me and rule me. Hazō, I have had enough of trembling in fear before the mediocre and the mad. Now be quiet and let me work."

    Ami closed her eyes, pulled up her feet, and settled into a cross-legged position in the armchair. Hazō opened his mouth to respond, but Kei waved him into silence.

    -o-​

    Ami opened her eyes slowly. Her mouth stretched into an alarming grin.

    "Children, when in doubt, what does your beloved Ami think a situation needs more of?"

    Hazō and Kei looked each other again.

    "Chaos," all three intoned without hesitation.

    "It's time to play our own game," Ami said. "We're replacing D-Day with A-Day. Let the rift open; Akatsuki will be too busy to take advantage. They have two weaknesses. One is the exclusivity of their little club. Their minions have no agency, and that means there's only a handful of people we actually need to care about. The other is that they're idiots, even geniuses like Uchiha Itachi. They either don't understand things outside their personal spheres of interest or they don't care. They can be manipulated; it's just that it's suicide if you fail.

    "So we cause chaos. Sasori's their lead sealmaster. Throw him some tidbits that'll make him drool. I know you've got a bunch of stuff saved up that you don't have time for because of the Great Seal and the rift and blowing up a hundredth of Fire on your lunch break. Kakuzu's their finances guy; he's the one behind the Pain monument, I reckon because he wouldn't let any of the others handle the funds. We create a big income opportunity for him, or go the other way and hit his business interests. Hoshigaki Kisame talked my ear off about how sharks are more trustworthy than people at the AMITY meeting. If the Shark Clan's in trouble, he'll be there to sort it out. You'd know better than me if that would work with Itachi and the Crows. Draw Hidan in with a massacre or an orgy, or maybe build a church of Jashin without being executed by the Hokage. You get the idea."

    Hazō nodded uneasily. "That is definitely a thing somebody could theoretically try. But we distract them, and then what?"

    "Then you jump in the rift like Jin the ANBU captain leaping out of the castle window wearing the Mizukage's unmentionables."

    Hazō stared at her blankly while Kei dissolved into a sudden coughing fit.

    "Know your Icha Icha, man," Ami admonished him. "To think you're supposed to be his heir."

    "And the unmentionables?"

    "Supposed to be worn on her wedding night to seal the alliance between Mist and Hot Springs in an oddly prescient tale of politics and lust," Ami said. "Jin's raw masculinity overwhelmed the love kami dwelling inside, creating a pair of silk panties that made the wearer irresistible to women—but only when worn by a man who met certain… physical criteria, which few men but Jiraiya, I mean Jin, could."

    "Moving swiftly on," Kei said, "you are proposing that Hazō obtain a solid lead over Akatsuki in his exploration of the rift. This is not yet an improvement on the final battle scenario you presented earlier."

    "No," Ami said. "Not enough chaos. Obviously, I wouldn't suggest something as predictable as rescuing Jiraiya."

    "Obviously," Kei agreed.

    "Instead, you rescue Pain."

    Understanding dawned. "Meaning he owes me a life debt," Hazō concluded, "and I can convert him to Uplift as an equal rather than a subordinate two steps down. If I can get him to leave the rift as a Leaf ally, as my ally, the word 'treason' will no longer exist in Asuma's vocabulary as far as I'm concerned."

    "Yup," Ami said. "We all do the things we're best at. I cause chaos and manipulate people and events to my advantage. You give inspirational speeches and appeal to people's better natures while bypassing legitimate authority and gambling with the future of the world. Kei…"

    "I protect Leaf, our loved ones, and the people in my care from the consequences of your actions while preparing contingencies in the unlikely event that the plan succeeds."

    "Perfect," Ami concluded.

    On the one hand, it seemed like a massive gamble which relied enormously on Ami's skills and trustworthiness. On the other hand, it didn't involve any world wars, and the worst-case scenario was the same as the default scenario of D-Day, only with him and Ami dead.

    Actually, no, the worst-case scenario was Ami somehow taking advantage of opportunities he couldn't even see to topple the entire existing power structure and leave the crater as the unquestioned Omnikage.

    Actually, no, he took it back. Ami as Omnikage would still be preferable to an indifferent Pain as Omnikage. Ami was, if not an Uplift devotee herself, at least pro-Uplift as long as it didn't interfere with her plans, and he doubted it would at the point when she was already in charge. Also, she'd at least want to keep Kei happy, and Kei was sane (in the ways that mattered), whereas Pain's best friends were a bunch of psychotic madmen, unrepentant mass murderers, and the allies who enabled them.

    "The important part is for Akatsuki not to realise the rift is open for as long as possible," Hazō said, "which means moving it is back on the menu. It also means getting Asuma involved early so we can have an expedition team ready and waiting—and there's no way he'll approve of me rescuing Pain over a Leaf ninja, so we'll need hand-picked members willing to follow questionable instructions once we're on the other side."

    Ami nodded. "Kei, could you make Shikamaru go along with this plan?"

    "It is not impossible," Kei said after some consideration. "Certainly, I can present him with your logic on the weakness of a conventional Jiraiya rescue as a strategy, together with those of my own conclusions which he has not yet reached himself, and observe his receptiveness to further argument. Snowflake, too, will be able to assist."

    "If he goes along with Operation A-Day," Ami said, "that'll make it a lot easier to assign you the backup members we want. I'd kill for the kind of trust the Hokage shows Shikamaru."

    "I suspect that is one of the reasons you do not possess said trust," Kei said. "Also, I do not recall ratifying that name."

    "No problem," Ami said. "We will also need to lay extensive groundwork for the distraction element of Operation K-Day. That includes extensive research on Akatsuki, especially the saner members, such as Konan, whose weaknesses are less obvious. I have a horrible feeling a lot of that is going to fall to me, so I'd appreciate you splitting the burden as much as you can.

    "I'm definitely thinking Sasori for you, Hazō. I haven't met him, but the little I've heard gives me Orochimaru vibes: his only interest is in inventing toys that make your cutting-edge seals look like cave paintings, and my glowing charm won't work on someone who'll decapitate me for wasting his time the second I set foot in his workshop. Don't get me wrong, I am omnipotent given enough chaos, but the Mori in me takes one look at this project and screams 'division of labour'.

    "So Sasori's priority number one, but it's not like he can't just hand one of the others a chakrascope and tell them to go check things out if he's busy. Konan and Deidara can fly there in the blink of an eye. I don't know if Itachi has any riding crows, or crows that can be taught to use chakrascopes, but it certainly costs him nothing to send one to see if there's a visible open rift. The rift being near the shore, that goes for Kisame and sharks too. Even Hidan's a problem, because he has his Oracle gig at O'Uzu, meaning he could be there at any time, or be ready to make the trip."

    Hazō nodded. "I might have some ideas on Hidan. Long story; don't ask."

    Kei and Ami both gave him curious looks.

    "What about minions?" Hazō quickly deflected. "It would be much more efficient to just station some mook in the nearest village and have him keep an eye on the site day-to-day."

    "It would," Ami agreed. "But you have to trust that person not to draw attention to themselves or the rift over an extended period, and I'd bet Hagoromo Ritsuo's sparkling beard that Akatsuki don't have that much faith in their minions—especially with Pain's life at stake and with Team Bloodrage's incompetence being one of the reasons he got killed to begin with."

    "I hesitate to raise this possibility since it is a bitter poison that blackens my lips even as it passes them," Kei said, "but Orochimaru is a rich source of first-hand evidence on Akatsuki in their natural environment, and Hazō has enjoyed remarkable success in socialising with him without being murdered, vivisected, or left a hollow, mindless shell of his former self. He is thus a resource Operation A-Day cannot discount."

    Hazō shuddered.

    "Mostly, it's involved me bribing him or engaging in mutually beneficial exchange of some sort. I doubt he'd give me a second of his time out of sociability."

    "Just slay another Dragon," Ami said lightly. "Really, do I have to think of everything around here?"

    Hazō sighed.

    "So," he said, "we need to complete the research before Akatsuki can, with some extra means of keeping the rift away from them, or them from the rift, if possible. We need to make sure we have a team ready with Asuma's blessing and whatever resources we think we'll require. We need to learn as much as possible about Akatsuki and lay groundwork for distracting them by hitting them where they're weakest."

    "And speaking of groundwork," Ami said, "this isn't going to work without the person who periodically gets sent on missions that include talking to Akatsuki, and that person is going to need all the help she can get not getting killed when she goes off-script. You know what I'm talking about."

    Hazō knew what she was talking about, and he could only put off dealing with it for so long. In fact, he strongly suspected that if he didn't take the initiative himself, then sooner or later—by the sound of it, sooner—Ami would lose patience and force his hand when he was least prepared. Still, he didn't have the energy to deal with it right now.

    "We can talk about it after you get the Shadow Clone Technique," Hazō said.

    Kei gave him a piercing look, but didn't say anything.

    "I'm going to have to accelerate my timetable on that," Ami said. "If you know any way to make the Hokage more likely to cough it up, let me know. I wouldn't have joined Leaf if I didn't expect to be able to get it from him, but I also didn't expect to be setting myself on a collision course with the world's worst collection of mass murderers quite so soon."

    "What else do we need to be on top of?" Hazō asked. "Kei brought it home to me only recently just how many things I've been overlooking."

    "Sounds like it," Ami said. "First off, we need to salvage some kind of OPSEC on this. The rift thing was shot the second the Hokage decided to circulate the O'Uzu report for Akatsuki awareness, but the number of people who know you're researching it and take it seriously is still small and we need to keep it that way. Anybody who joins that list will want a piece of the pie, and that interferes with the Pain Rescue Arc—"

    "I'm sorry, the what?"

    Ami shook her head. "Read more Icha Icha, seriously. There's this whole thing in Icha Icha 4: The Loincloth of the Shinigami, early in Jiraiya's career when he was establishing what are now genre clichés, where Captain Jin's ambiguously-platonic best friend is kidnapped by angels from the Deva Path and he has to lead an elite team through a rift to rescue her—you can tell it was written by a sealmaster—in the Natsu Rescue Arc. Then I'm guessing the publisher demanded a sequel before Jiraiya had any new ideas, because we got Icha Icha 5: In the Shinigami's Hollow, where Jin's other best friend is kidnapped by demons from the Naraka Path and, guess what, he has to lead an elite team through a rift to rescue her in the Maruchi Rescue Arc.

    "Clearly, Jiraiya was afraid he'd be forced to make it a trilogy, because he had Jin retire to a life of celibacy at the end, and ruined one of his best, sexiest villains so fans wouldn't ask for her back either. Spoiler alert: didn't work."

    Hazō gave Ami a sideways look. "Just how much Icha Icha do you read, Ami?"

    "Me? I wouldn't touch that brain-rotting drivel with a poleaxe. This is all second-hand gathered from Icha Icha fans in my circle of acquaintance, which I will remind you is as enormous as Jin's physical criteria."

    "Thank you for that image," Hazō said with a pained wince. "So you were saying about the Pain Rescue Arc?"

    "Everybody who wants somebody brought back from the dead, which is everybody, is going to angle for a representative on the team if they think it'll make it more likely, to say nothing of generally putting pressure on the Hokage to give the appropriate orders. Any of those people will laugh in your face and/or report you for treason if you so much as mention Pain's name to them. At least assuming they don't think you mean pain pain, because what kind of weirdo names himself after a word instead of naming words after himself?

    "Then there's Orochimaru, who will take over the research, probably vivisect you for good measure, and then get trounced by Akatsuki and circle us back to the original D-Day scenario, only with you dead. In short, everybody who is not fully trusted or absolutely necessary for the research needs to think you've either forgotten about the rift or given up because it was impossible. You can lean on the Hokage for help with that, because the second he even starts to suspect the kind of shitstorm this could cause, he's going to fall deeply, passionately in love with rift OPSEC. At the same time, you can't lean on him too much, because if he takes the project half as seriously as it deserves, there's no way he'll leave it in your hands.

    "We both need to start thinking about team composition in case we need time to sound out or brainwash candidates. We need people who can navigate unfamiliar, arbitrarily dangerous terrain, people with combat abilities that don't rely on chakra, at least one social expert because you'll definitely run into strange social encounters you can't talk your way out of with uncut charisma, somebody with metaphysical scholarship for the weird stuff… Oh, do you think you'll be able to summon in and out of the Pure Land? Because that would make a lot of things massively easier."

    "I don't know," Hazō said. "Summoning contracts get revoked when you die, so it's not like anyone could find out until now. Also, there's the chakra thing."

    "We should make sure there's at least one trustworthy summoner left on this side for you to communicate with just in case you figure it out," Ami said. "Let's see, we've been over Akatsuki. You're taking Sasori and Hidan, maybe the summoners if you can find an angle. You also need to be a good boy as far as the Hokage is concerned, because this whole thing falls apart if he decides he doesn't trust you enough to lead the team and just sends you home once the rift is open.

    "Ugh, now I really want to go myself. Maybe I should see if I can get my homework done early and get a spot on the team, but on the other hand, my homework is also what's going to stop the team getting murdered by Akatsuki, so I can't exactly cut corners."

    "Well need to loop Mari in as well," Hazō said. "You're right that she can't draw Itachi's interest—"

    "Or the interest of anyone who might want to bring him her head on a plate as a favour," Ami added helpfully.

    "But that doesn't mean she can't help set things up in Leaf or the Fire Country," Hazō finished.

    "Duh," Ami said. "She's your strongest card. Goes without saying, like a whole lot of things. Noburi has Tsunade's ear, which is another resource for dealing with Orochimaru. Kagome knows how chakrascopes work, so he can come up with a seal that saturates the area with bullshit readings to make life harder for Akatsuki, assuming you can stop it interfering with your own research. Et cetera et cetera."

    Et cetera. He supposed the faith in him and his power to generate ideas was satisfying, especially coming from the likes of her.

    "Thanks, Ami," Hazō said. "I'm glad—no, frankly, relieved that you're involved with this now. I know things have been more than a little complicated between you and the Gōketsu, but I do value our amiable relationship."

    "Yeah," Ami said with a smile. "I'm glad you brought me in too. Besides, it's not like I don't have my own stakes in this. If you go up against Akatsuki without a plan, you'll die. Then Kei will be sad. The world will be ruled by Pain, manipulating Akatsuki, instead of us, manipulating Pain. I won't get any more shaved ice, and all my efforts to look for a cookie recipe that won't kill you will be a waste of time."

    She took one final sip of what must have been ice-cold chocolate at this point.

    "You know, if a reliable source had told me when we first met that it would result in me being in a race against time and diabolical villains to rescue a mysterious demigod from beyond the gates of death itself in order to turn the global order upside down and engineer a world peace with myself as the Omnikage's trusted lieutenant… maybe I really would have married you."

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    • Chapter 575: Addressing Ami's A-Day Assistance: Assumptions and Alternatives
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    • "You know, if a reliable source had told me when we first met that it would result in me being in a race against time and diabolical villains to rescue a mysterious demigod from beyond the gates of death itself in order to turn the global order upside down and engineer a world peace with myself as the Omnikage's trusted lieutenant… maybe I really would have married you."

    "Then it's probably for the best that no one did," Hazō said. "You and Kei were still estranged at the time, so you wouldn't have come to persuade her not to murder me ahead of the wedding."

    He didn't add that a better reason would be that the idea of Ami having accurate knowledge of the future available to her was terrifying.

    "I would never have murdered you, Hazō," Kei objected.

    Hazō gave her the most sceptical of sceptical looks that ever was sceptical in the Elemental Nations. A love confession from Orochimaru would have received more benefit of the doubt.

    "Us being in the middle of the Chūnin Exams," Kei clarified, "I would have sabotaged you in a way that led to a completely natural death at the hands of a Mist opponent, thereby advantaging the rest of the Leaf cohort by causing a dangerous competitor to be banned from the Exams, as well as providing Jiraiya with additional leverage against Mist in his negotiations. In the highly unlikely hypothetical scenario where I raised a hand against my own brother, of course."

    "Also," Ami said, "your admission that there would have been a wedding is noted."

    Hazō groaned.

    "At the time," he said after a second to discard the most obvious replies which could only get him into more trouble with Ami and/or Kei, "Jiraiya thought there would be pros and cons to you marrying into the Gōketsu, completely independent of how I might feel about you. He was acting on inaccurate assumptions anyway, so it's not indicative of absolutely anything whatsoever.

    "Going back to a much more interesting and nearly as ominous topic," Hazō said, "we should think about the deadline for A-Day. I know it's hard for you to evaluate what I'm doing without context, but the fact is, I'm probably around Sasori's level as a sealmaster by now—in terms of theory, at least. I don't like to admit it, but my calligraphy skills are lagging behind."

    "You mean the only thing standing between you and mastery of the universe is that you can't draw the right squiggles on a piece of paper."

    "Exactly," Hazō said. "I'm glad you understand. But even with that limitation, I think I could comfortably request special jōnin rank if you think it would help."

    "I don't see why not," Ami said. "Your threat level is already sky-high anyway. You don't especially need the perks, being a clan head and all, and you're a summoner, so you should already be getting sent on stupidly dangerous missions and I have all sorts of interesting theories as to why you're not. On the other hand, the rep bonus from being a spec jōnin is nice. Having a clan led by a young chūnin may be the in thing these days, but everybody else has clan training to earn them respect by default. People look at you differently when you outrank them, whether it makes sense or not."

    "Still," Hazō said, "rift research is hard even for me, and I have Kagome-sensei's expertise and random collection of lore on my side, plus the Fourth's notes. Sasori probably has more lore than us, being close to Pain and all, but he doesn't have the notes or other skilled sealmasters by his side. I don't see him overtaking us by any meaningful margin."

    Ami raised an eyebrow.

    "Setting aside the fact that 'I'm as good as the demigod whose very name strikes fear into the heart of seasoned ninja' should really have been a badass boast, how can you possibly know how good Sasori is? The only samples of his work we have are the fact that his seals are good enough to fight Kage and that his collaboration with Pain involved a global-scale ritual that ate Tailed Beasts for fuel. If you've got sealing of that scale in your pocket, you've really been holding out on me."

    "No comment," Hazō said, because it was safest. He doubted he could fight Kage with his seals (even if MARS was potentially the most gloriously overpowered seal he'd heard of that didn't take up half a mountain), and the Elemental Mastery storm was technically a ninjutsu rather than a seal (and equally technically not his), but he'd been busy. Give him a few months without the world falling apart around him and/or depending on him to save it, and who knew what wonders he could bring forth?

    "Your other assumptions are on the optimistic side too," Ami said, "which is not what you want when dealing with that bunch of lunatics. You have the Fourth's notes. Sasori has Pain's, which among other things have to cover whatever part of the ritual Sasori wasn't responsible for. He's also about twice your age—if Sasori of the Red Sand, the puppeteer who went missing from Hidden Sand about twenty years back, is the same person—and I'd be very surprised if he hasn't spent some of that time murdering skilled sealmasters so he could steal their notes. Killing famous ninja to steal their techniques is a time-honoured tradition for jōnin wanting to take the next step up. I'm sure Jiraiya told you stories.

    "You're probably right about Sasori not having subordinate sealmasters, but only probably. He could outsource the secondary stuff the way you outsource making explosive tags—he doesn't seem like the type to care if his minions die in sealing failures because the task he set them turns out to have been too hard. Also, no disrespect to Kagome, but didn't he spend half his adult life hiding in a forest in Iron? Just how much secret lore did he manage to pick up there?"

    "Kagome-sensei refuses point-blank to tell me his sources for most things," Hazō admitted. "But that doesn't mean he doesn't know what he's talking about. I direct you to sky squid."

    "Kei told me," Ami said. "I fully expect you to tame a couple for riding before the decade is over."

    "I'll get on that after I'm done saving the Human Path from Akatsuki, the Seventh Path from Dragons, and humanity from death," Hazō agreed. "Assuming nothing important comes up.

    "All right," he said. "Forget Sasori. Even if Akatsuki beat us to opening the rift, they're still going to have a hell of a time finding Pain. Maybe Hidan will have his blood, and maybe that connection will last through Pain's death, but that's not much if the Pure Land is Path-sized, or even Elemental Nations-sized."

    "Why would Hidan have Pain's blood?" Kei interrupted.

    "Because he seems to have weird blood-based powers?" Hazō said. "It's just a random guess. At any rate, they're unlikely to have anything better than Pain's blood with which to track him."

    "Not that any of them possess known blood-based tracking abilities," Kei added.

    "They could kidnap a Kotsuzui," Hazō said impatiently. "The point is that it's going to take them time to find him, time in which we can act. A-Day isn't happening the minute the rift is open.

    "On the other hand, the same thing applies to us. We've got Jiraiya's bloodstained clothes, a summoning scroll with his signature, seals with his chakra infused into them, and an idea of what his location looks like. We don't even have Pain's blood. We're not going to find him in a month of Akatsuki being distracted. Besides, do you really think you can keep all of them distracted for that long?"

    "Not on my own," Ami said. "I'm good, but I'm pretty sure shadow clones have a range limit. But with Mari, whatever resources we can get out of the Hokage, my AMITY influence, and your ability to cause chaos which is frankly second only to mine, versus seven people? I've had worse missions.

    "More to the point, this isn't a step-by-step 'I'm going to do this' plan. Those suck. It's a course of action that's going to generate opportunities, which we then take advantage of with new plans, and lots of delicious chaos, which is going to generate types of opportunity we can't even imagine right now. If you're not confident enough in your ability to improvise so you reject a plan just because it's full of holes, you'd never beat Grandpa Ryūgamine at three-dimensional speed shogi."

    "Nor have you," Kei said.

    "That's only because he kept winning," Ami said off-handedly. "I still made him frown more than anyone else. As soon as the other player's carefully-crafted strategy hits moves that are truly random and make no sense, and are equally likely to be ingenious counters or self-destructive stupidity, it turns into a game of who can adapt faster to the chaos you're creating. The answer's still him, but I could at least give him a good workout.

    "But that's by the by. I have no idea how anyone is going to find anyone in the afterlife. I don't know any ninjutsu that can track people across long distances with their blood or their chakra, and I don't know what the Inuzuka or the Kotsuzui's limits are, but if the afterlife is even the size of the Fire Country, I suspect you're going to be out of luck. Have you invented any tracking seals that could do the job?"

    "Not yet," Hazō said. "Like everything else, this is a work in progress."

    "Realistically," Ami said, "you're going to have to use people power. Lots of people die every day, so I doubt the afterlife's going to be empty. There'll be settlements, and people grouping together for safety, and company, and domination, and all the other reasons people form societies, and there'll be tribal warfare between ex-ninja from different villages who haven't stopped hating each other, and civilians wanting to use the power of numbers to get their own back on their suddenly chakra-less oppressors, and charismatic ninja who are accustomed to rule gathering their own factions, and so on and so forth, and a man like Pain is going to hit that environment like a sky squid crash-landing in Hagoromo Ritsuo's shaving bowl. Now, that's all total speculation, but so is the idea that Pain is standing out in the middle of nowhere like a tree quietly waiting to fade out of existence."

    "That had never occurred to me," Hazō said honestly. "In that case, it's hard to say who's going to have the advantage between us and Akatsuki."

    Ami nodded. "Don't let your guard down. Akatsuki are going to have an easier time predicting Pain's actions, and at least some of them have people skills—Kisame's actually quite affable if you avoid certain topics—and they're certainly going to find it a lot easier to get their way through force than your team is. On the other hand, they're still a bunch of psychos and not even trying to hide it, and you can be weirdly convincing once you get going. Play your cards right, and you can even use that month or whatever to make life a lot harder for Akatsuki when they arrive. There have to be a lot of recent arrivals in there who have a personal grudge against them."

    "All right," Hazō said. "Suppose we find Pain first. We're being very optimistic about his attitude—and you're completely right about optimism being a bad idea with Akatsuki. He sounded like someone we could work with in the report, but that was one conversation taking place under very strange circumstances. Suppose it turns out he's not interested in Uplift. Or maybe he doesn't believe in life debts. Or maybe having his memories drain away leaves him dangerously unstable. How do we avoid being subjugated?"

    "No idea," Ami said. "There are only three ways this can realistically end. Pain walks out with you, he walks out with Akatsuki, or he doesn't walk out at all. If you can't make the first or third happen, it's game over. But hey, maybe him being out of chakra means you can kill him if he turns out to be evil. You'll certainly have to try."

    She paused.

    "Hazō, do you believe in life debts?"

    Did Hazō believe in life debts? He hadn't really had cause to think about it. Everyone in Team Uplift had saved each other's lives so many times they'd never bothered keeping count. Saving lives was just what you did. It was one of the pillars of Uplift, and the whole rift business was as clear an expression of it as you could get. What was he supposed to—

    Oh.

    Well, this was awkward.

    By any reasonable definition, Hazō owed Ami a life debt. She had taken action, at cost to herself, to prevent him from being executed by Asuma.

    There were arguments against that Hazō could muster. Maybe Asuma never intended to kill him and was just making a point. Maybe Kei could have rallied the KEI to his rescue even without Ami's influence. Maybe Asuma would have folded even if she hadn't. Maybe it didn't count because Ami had no choice but to do it for Kei's sake, or to benefit herself somehow. Maybe ninja from the same village couldn't owe each other life debts, or it would happen every other mission (though, then again, Ami wasn't a Leaf ninja at the time). He didn't find any of them terribly convincing, and more to the point, he doubted Ami would either.

    If Hazō said yes here, he'd be admitting a life debt to Ami. He had a pretty strong inkling what she'd call it in for if she had to, and that would make his life considerably harder when it came to the final negotiations. On the other hand, if he rejected the life debt, not only would he be acting dishonourably (arguably in his own eyes, but certainly in those of Ami, Kei, and potentially a lot of Leaf), but he strongly suspected it would tank their amiable cooperation there and then, after he'd told her everything about the rift research and after they'd established that the stakes were high enough that he needed her help.

    More impactfully, if he could foresee that a life debt was potential leverage for getting WHOOSH, then Ami could foresee that he'd foresee it and that he'd be tempted to reject it on those pragmatic grounds. A transparent "I reject the debt I owe you so that I can demand that you place yourself in my debt instead" went beyond the transactional and into the mercenary. It wasn't something you did to a business partner you wanted to keep, much less someone you wanted to one day see you as family.

    "…Yes, I do."

    Ami nodded, and said nothing more.

    "To be fair," Hazō said before she could change her mind, "finding ways to kill legendary demigods has been on my agenda since the time Jiraiya threw us around like ragdolls on our first meeting. If my first S-rank fight happens to be against the most powerful ninja since the Sage, that's not ideal, but it's also the kind of handicap I'm used to by now."

    "Much better," Ami said. "If you're going to openly put yourself on the same level as Akatsuki, you've got to own it; none of this 'I'm maybe sort of on the level of one of the greatest living sealmasters, except for my calligraphy' nonsense."

    "It also smoothly brings me to my next point," Hazō said. "Keeping all seven Akatsuki members distracted for even a month is a high-risk play that I'm not entirely comfortable with."

    "Mmm."

    "Wouldn't it be nice," Hazō asked, "if there were fewer of them?"

    "Keep talking," Ami purred.

    "No Sasori, no rift-opening," Hazō said. "No Hidan, no risk of blood weirdness. No... whoever their diplomat is, no easy negotiations with afterlife denizens. No fliers, no speed advantage. You get the idea.

    "Of course, there's the tiny issue that if they lose Sasori, their next best move is to kidnap me and make me open the rift for them, and Leaf without its dead heroes isn't strong enough to protect me. I could maybe hide out on the Seventh Path and count on Cannai to keep Akatsuki away, but permanent exile in an alien world isn't something I want as my go-to option. Also, I think a clan boss is probably about as strong as an S-ranker—if they were much stronger, the Nagi Island summoners would all have summoned them instead of fighting directly. Even with Cannai's home ground advantage, I have no way of knowing if he'd reliably beat two at once. That's to say nothing of compatibility. Remember how Akatsuki one-shotted Naruto, no fight necessary? It would be really bad if Hoshigaki or Itachi lucked into a hard counter to Cannai's powers."

    "They could also not bother with a direct confrontation and set bits of Dog on fire until Cannai decided giving you up would save enough lives," Ami said.

    Hazō shook his head. "I strongly suspect that if they set foot on his territory, he'll know in five seconds and be there in ten. That's part of the home ground advantage I was talking about.

    "That's probably not classified," he added after a second, "the same way a lot of summon clans and their summoners know that Conjura is a ninjutsu mistress or that Enma fights with a magic staff, but just in case, don't go spreading it around."

    "Sure," Ami said. "I'll also remember to wash my face in the morning, keep my perfume subtle, and make sure there are at least three lovestruck fools ready to lay down their lives to protect me at any given time. Hazō, what would leaking Cannai's powers get me? He's got nothing I want right now, I'm in no position to blackmail him, it's obscure information nobody will buy, and in the very unlikely event that somebody uses it to kill him, I've just weakened a friendly summoner and advantaged an enemy of yours who priors say will also be an enemy of mine.

    "I'll be generous and pretend you didn't just insult my abilities over an OPSEC risk in the process of taking a much bigger OPSEC risk to consult my abilities. My first concern, and you can judge how likely it is and I can't, is that Cannai may draw a distinction between a bunch of ninja threatening the life of one of his pack and a bunch of ninja demanding a favour which entails no risk to you or your loved ones, which Pain would repay sevenfold once they rescued him, and which you're refusing for Human Path political reasons Cannai has no reason to care about. If Akatsuki start setting fire to other bits of the Seventh Path, then sooner or later either Cannai will ask himself whether all those deaths are worth you refusing to negotiate with Akatsuki or the other clan bosses will force him to. The Conclave means they can get organised fast if someone starts killing their people right in front of them."

    "I don't know," Hazō said. "I can't see the Cannai I know turning me in for anything, but I've also never seen how he acts under pressure, and I have no idea how much pressure Akatsuki could put him under if it was their number one priority in life.

    "All this only furthers my point, though. No Hoshigaki and Itachi, no problem."

    "We are now proposing the destruction of three out of seven Akatsuki," Kei noted. "We lack the resources to reliably eliminate them in a simultaneous strike, and as soon as they learn of the death of one, they will unite into a single invincible whole as they did against Naruto and Yagura. That whole will, I imagine, will promptly declare AMITY violation and then raze Leaf without waiting for other members' responses. There are not so many S-rankers in the world that a determined investigation cannot confirm which was responsible for the assassination. All of this, of course, assumes that the Hokage is willing to risk the loss of a third or more of Leaf's military deterrent on your word in the first place."

    "For once," Hazō said, "I'm actually ahead of your pessimism. We let Sasori live and open the rift, then ambush whoever stays behind and close it after them. I strongly suspect that somebody from our faction, whether it's you, Mari, or Shikamaru if we can get him on board, will be able to persuade Asuma to try to kill two or three Akatsuki if it means getting rid of the entire organisation forever. At worst, we could deal in Naruto, who I think won't hesitate to risk his life for the sake of wiping them out."

    "It would necessitate briefing Orochimaru on the rift situation," Kei said. "I trust no elaboration is necessary."

    "As per the wisdom of Ami, we can detonate that bridge when we come to it," Hazō said. "Maybe we'll even get lucky and Akatsuki will take him out for us."

    "If there are any casualties," Kei said coldly, "they are more likely to be my friend and colleague, or the world leader in medical advancement, than the notorious immortal who already survived one such encounter."

    "You're right," Hazō said. "Sorry, I didn't think that one through. It would definitely be better to get through this whole thing without risking anyone if we can help it.

    "Is that an option? Could we just... dissuade Akatsuki from going down this road? Hidan's obsessed with his religion. He'll destroy or at least turn his back on anything he thinks Jashin would hate. You said Kakuzu was their treasurer, so maybe we can find some argument that opening the rift and getting Pain would cripple his income. We've established that I have other fascinating research to bait Sasori with. For a start, figuring out how the Great Seal works could mean learning how to make our own 3D seals, and that would be a whole new sealing paradigm. I don't mind confessing that it makes me drool, so what about a sealmaster twice my age who probably thinks he's seen it all? Your plan is to identify Akatsuki's weaknesses anyway, so why not leverage them into something more permanent?"

    "See?" Ami said. "This is why I say every plan is just a way to generate opportunities. Now, this isn't a bad one to come back to once we have more intel, but a priori... Kei?"

    "Pain was able to extract, through promises, inspirational speeches, incontrovertible logic, and other means which are frankly beyond my imagination given the difficulty of the task, loyalty and commitment to a pacifist cause from a handful of hardened killers whose names make Kage shiver. For some, he must have already successfully appealed to their self-interest or ideology. Others, like Uchiha Itachi, possess a deep and abiding attachment that even Ami is unlikely to threaten, at least in the limited time available before A-Day. Furthermore, in the event of a partial success on our part, the loyalist core could in turn bribe, persuade, or threaten dissenters into continuing to assist with the project. We cannot match Akatsuki in wealth or in ability to obtain material goods, except perhaps from the Seventh Path, nor, I suspect, in untapped lore, and even the most distracted Sasori might grudgingly consent to delay Great Seal research until his current project is complete."

    Hazō winced. "In other words, it would be a dangerous, uphill struggle, like all the other options."

    "Yup," Ami said, "and a dangerous uphill struggle where I'd get most of the struggling and the danger. Remind me why I'm doing any of this again?"

    Hazō knew Ami well enough now to parry that one with the speed and smoothness of a Kurosawa swordmaster (whose training and sparring he'd observed throughout his entire childhood).

    "Because if you're not involved, you lose control of your future, if an unfriendly Pain comes to power, you lose your freedom, and because unique challenges you think nobody else could possibly beat are fun."

    Ami's eyes narrowed. "Hazō, it's bad form to attempt to seduce a lady right after breaking off an engagement with her."

    Kei glared daggers at completely the wrong person.

    "Of course," Hazō went on, "we do have one more option if you think it's too much for you. We open the rift, gather as much dimensional data as possible, then close it again and use the data to triangulate Naraka, I mean the Pure Land, and open another rift in a much more secure location later. It'll take longer, which means whoever we rescue will have suffered from more mental degradation, and there's that risk that Akatsuki will correctly conclude who's responsible and come for me, but if it works, it'll stop them from taking over the world with Pain without having to rely on your social skills at all."

    "Always good to have a backup plan in case of the physically impossible," Ami acknowledged, "which is what a thing is if it's too difficult for me to do given enough time. Your provocation game needs work, but I'll overlook it because I can't think of the last time someone was so brazen in provoking me, and I respect brazenness.

    "Dimensional triangulation sounds like a completely different thing from opening a rift, so maybe that's something you could get Kagome to look into while you're working, with his alleged amazing skills and accurate forbidden lore. In the meantime, let's lay groundwork for as many plans as possible. That means gathering intel on Akatsuki, researching all your various options, because I'm guessing some of them will be a lot more realistic than others, seducing Shikamaru—"

    "Ami!"

    Ami waved her away. "Like 30% of seduction is sexual, Kei, I've told you that. If you can't seduce your own husband with the remaining 70, I'm going to have to start questioning whether we're really blood siblings."

    "Missionaccepted."

    "Buttering up the Hokage," Ami continued, "and figuring out how far you can push your luck with him, and then also all the other stuff I mentioned before, because if you lay all your eggs in one basket, it'll turn out to be an Isanese holy basket made by somebody with insufficient underwater basketweaving skill, and then you'd better pray to Ui for your life. Obscure Isanese lore is amazing."

    "As it happens," Hazō said, "I know how to make those. Ritual prayer and everything."

    All of Ami's aid, and all of her acknowledgement of his ability and ambition, weren't half as satisfying as the seconds she spent just staring at him.

    -o-​

    You have received 4 + 1 (Brevity) = 5 XP.

    -o-​

    The missing victorious training plans will be implemented.

    -o-​

    What do you do?

    Voting closes on
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 576: Sealing Lore
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 576: Sealing Lore​

    "Hazō." Kagome's voice was calmer than usual. All the decisions were made and there was no more uncertainty, no more need to worry about possible branchings.

    "Hi Sensei," Hazō said, smiling. "What's up?"

    "Come with me." Kagome turned and walked off towards the high-security meeting room that wasn't actually storage for cleaning supplies.

    "Uh, Sensei, I kinda need to get back..." Hazō said, trailing along behind his teacher despite the urgency. "I'm supposed to be guarding the dogs."

    "They'll wait," Kagome said over his shoulder.

    Hazō took a deep breath and let it out slowly but he followed along.

    They took seats in the meeting room; Hazō poured himself a cup of tea from the steaming pot that waited on the table, then watched as Kagome secured the room. The new layers of protections made the process a bit slower, but Hazō remained patient. Leftover habits based on years of being Kagome's student...have to wonder how much longer those habits would stick now that he didn't need his teacher anymore.

    Eventually, Kagome finished his checks and took a seat in the armchair opposite his student and Clan Lord. He poured himself some tea and sat, legs curled up beside him as he leaned one arm on the armrest and blew across his tea to cool it. His eyes were distant, focused somewhere other than the present. Somewhere that was simpler and he didn't need to have conversations like this one.

    Silence dragged for nearly a minute until Hazō opened his mouth to speak.

    "Do you know the first rule of teaching?" Kagome asked, his voice intent. This was where things got dicey.

    "Of teaching? No."

    "Never tell your student to do something you know they won't do. Do it even once and it erodes their respect for you, makes it more likely that they'll ignore you about other things."

    "Okay..."

    "So, I'm not going to tell you to kill that Mori witch, or even to cut all ties with her."

    Hazō blinked. "...Thank you?"

    Kagome tossed the thanks away dismissively. "I'm also not going to kill her myself. At least, not unless she threatens one of us again. If she does, it's open season."

    "Sensei...I don't think...I mean, she's a jōnin. Not a heavy combat specialist, but still. With respect, I don't think either you or I could...well..."

    Kagome laughed. It felt good to laugh. It felt good to have decided on his course and to be able to proceed without concern. "Hazō, I'm a sealmaster. Until recently, I was the best sealmaster in Leaf." He thought about that, then made a tossing-away gesture. "Maybe. Not sure if Snakeface does regular seals or just freaky bio- and brainseal stuff. Anyway, best or second best sealmaster in Leaf. Do you honestly believe that I couldn't assassinate some random kid if I put my mind to it? Especially one who has spent as much time here as she has lately?"

    Suddenly, Hazō looked nervous. Good.

    "Oh." Hazō thought about that. "How would you do it?"

    "Lots of possibilities," Kagome said with a shrug. "Some are straightforward. I've already put explosives on the underside of all the chairs in the main house and the meeting house, with a false bottom so that they can't be discovered without actually tearing the chair apart. Wait until the next time she's visiting, then use one of your ARS seals to detonate whichever chair she's sitting in." He thought about that for a moment. "Needs a little more refinement. She could probably read my intentions if she saw me, so I'd need to be watching through a peephole. Or through the window with a telescope." He thought some more, then nodded in satisfaction.

    "Anyway, that's a straightforward method, and I know that it would raise political issues if she died on the estate. I could probably come up with something better if I had to. Maybe track which training fields she uses and leave explosives or an implosion bomb in some of the equipment. Pressure activated, or more of the ARS triggers, or simply a proximity trigger. How likely do you think it is that she could survive the warp wall detonating just as she touches it?"

    "Sensei, that's crazy. What if a Hyūga spotted the seals before Ami got there? They might be able to identify them, trace them back to you. Or maybe there'd be some evidence left that someone else picked up on. The Inuzuka and the Aburame both track by scent. Sasuke and his Sharingan..." Hazō shrugged. "I don't even know what that's capable of."

    Kagome nodded. "Good points, I'll have to account for that." He thought for a moment. "Most ninja don't like to train around Hyūga-stinkers, and as far as I know those stuck-up cheaters mostly train on their estate and not on the public fields, so they're likely not an issue. I'll include a macerator loaded with perfume in the ordinance so as to mask any scent traces. If I make sure to be in a public place with lots of witnesses when she goes to train then I can probably get away with it. Even if they suspect me, Mari could probably save me as long as the investigators have no incontrovertible evidence. If not, oh well. I would be the one at fault and you could just hand me over. The rest of you wouldn't suffer anything, and you'd be safe from her."

    Hazō didn't seem to know what to say to that. Fortunately, he recognized that further arguing on that track wasn't going to go anywhere, so he tried something new. "Sensei, I would be very unhappy if you did this, and Kei would be devastated."

    Kagome shrugged again. "It's true," he admitted. "And I would be sad because you two were sad. Still, you'd be safe."

    "We're safer with her in the world then without her, since she's the one managing AMITY and keeping another war from breaking out."

    "I'm sure that you believe that, and that's the reason you're playing footsie with her after she threatened to kill Mari. Mari seems to have gotten over it, and she says that Mori apologized and promised not to do it again." He snorted. "Which is about as reliable as a wet seal blank, but what can you do? Mari says that killing her now would cause more problems than it would fix. So, okay. For now, I'll stand down."

    "She's not a threat to us anymore, Sensei. Kei told her to stand down, and you know she'd do anything for Kei. Besides, she promised not to threaten any of us again, and I really do think she meant it."

    "Oh, she promised? Well, I guess everything's fine then." He stared intently at his student's ears. Was there any blood showing? Didn't look like it, and there were no stretch marks around the ear canals. Okay, probably not lupchanzed.

    "She's crazy as a bag of wet cats, Hazō. If I can see that then I'm not sure what's wrong with the rest of you. My first thought was that somehow the lupchanzen got all of you, but I'm pretty sure that's not it. You're all just soft." He grimaced. "Or you're focusing on that politics and social stuff. Never understood all that, so I'll have to take Mari's word for it that killing Mori wouldn't be smart. Still, if she—Mori, not Mari—threatens any Gōketsu ever again then she dies and all that stinking politics stuff can go fuck itself."

    Hazō blinked.

    "She doesn't care about you, Hazō," Kagome said calmly. He sipped his tea, watching his student to see if the words had landed. He was pretty sure they hadn't, because Hazō was opening his mouth to protest. "She doesn't," he said, preempting the objection. "She cares about Kei and she cares about her own fun. That's it. She wants freedom and power because it lets her have fun. That's why she constantly puts everyone else down and brags about how awesome she is—it's fun for her to hurt other people and make them feel less than her. She doesn't care about other people, and I'm not even sure we're real to her. Well, except for Kei. Her word?" He snorted. "She cares about that only to the extent that being known as trustworthy is useful. If Kei was in danger, or if her own freedom or safety were threatened, she'd break her word in an instant."

    "Sensei...it's possible that she was like that once, but I really do think she's changed."

    "Keep telling yourself that. Anyway, I'm assuming that you talked to her about opening the rift and bringing people back? And she probably came up with fifty problems with the idea and all kinds of long-range prognostications about what might happen as a result and some elaborate scheme to get around all that and make it work. Right?"

    "...Right. Well, Kei talked about the political stuff. Ami only talked about issues with Akatsuki."

    Kagome took another sip of his tea, thinking. He wasn't sure that his plan was going to work. Hazō was trying to focus but he was impatient. Would he be able to absorb the lesson? Drat. Kagome should have found another time, a better time, to engage on this. He might have tried, if Hazō wasn't going off on this trip and going to be mostly out of touch. Well, nowhere to go but forward.

    "Hazō, even with Mori backing you up, the rift stuff is dangerous. Not just because it requires lots of research that might blow up in our faces—that's the least of the problems. If we open it again, we have no idea what will be on the other side. Could be that a float of gaki have been attracted to it and are waiting to flood through and eat our souls. Could be that the exit point has shifted to be underneath that sea of acid you mentioned, so the second it opens we're going to have a huge jet of liquid death spraying it our faces. Plus, that doesn't even start to touch on how other people are going to react.

    "People understand Summoning, Hazō. They aren't bothered by it because it's a jutsu and that means it's constrained. You need a Scroll to summon. There's a finite number of Scrolls and it's not possible to make more. Only one person can hold a given Scroll at a time. Entities can only come here when summoned. Summoning costs lots of chakra. Summoned entities are fragile chakra envelopes that will disperse on their own after a while. It's safe.

    "Now compare that to your work with rifts. Rifts that, for now, are only opened by seal failures. Rifts that lead to other worlds where the rules are different. Rifts where entities can go both ways and they are really here, solid and permanent. Did Mori talk to you about the political consequences of resurrection?"

    Hazō nodded slowly. "Yes. They were...alarming."

    "I suppose. The problem is that she doesn't know seal theory. She thinks about how nations will react when two or three dead heroes get brought back. Maybe she thinks in terms of problems with inheritance, or what happens when a person comes back to find their spouse is married to someone else, or how food supplies would handle a sudden influx of millions of newly-resurrected people, if we ever get this working at scale. She doesn't think about how people will react when Leaf has the ability to summon and control legions of bladehorrors, or even simply release them in enemy territory so that they deniably murder all of Leaf's enemies. She doesn't think in terms of what the rifts will do to reality"—he hesitated and decided not to mention the possibility of increased rates of things falling Out—"of what impact the rifts will have on seals in their area, of esoteric effects."

    "'Esoteric effects'?" Hazō asked, eyes narrowing. Suddenly he was very present in the conversation.

    Kagome dismissed the topic with a wave. He'd skirted close enough to the limits already. "Not important. Anyway, my point is that our rift research is vastly more dangerous than Mori can possibly dream. I assume that the political issues will be huge, but AMITY is in place and the Hokage is a smart guy. Let's imagine that he can keep it secret for a while, and that when it finally comes out he can talk all the other Kage and leader-types into standing down. He promises to keep the resurrections to a minimum, or maybe he'll bring back some of their people as well. Maybe he talks about the possibility of limitless and unoccupied farmland and promises to provide a tribute of food to everyone, for free, enough that no one ever has to be hungry again. Let's assume all of that. What if we scare the rest of the world's sealmasters?"

    "The what now? Why would...oh."

    "Yeah. The rift is the biggest seal research opportunity that has ever existed. It's storage seals all over again."

    "Storage seals?" Hazō asked, his head clearly spun around enough that he wasn't tracking the tangent. "What do storage seals have to do with the rift?"

    "Storage seals are easy once you have modern topomantic theory," Kagome said. "Except that theory evolved largely by studying storage seals. Whoever invented them did it the hard way, and it's very unlikely that anyone else stumbled on them at random. That means there was a time when only one ninja knew them. One ninja and his clan, since back before the Village Period ninja almost exclusively traveled in families. If only one clan had them, it would be an incredible advantage. 'Clan secret' doesn't begin to cover it. So why are they universal?"

    Hazō thought for a second, then nodded in recognition. "Because whichever clan invented them scared the other clans too much. They either had to give up the secret of storage seals in order to buy their own survival, or they all got killed and the notes were taken from the sealmasters' dead bodies. That choice happened over and over again until everyone knew how to make storage seals."

    "Exactly. The rift is like that. It's crazy hard right now, too hard to be reproduced if you don't already have a rift scar to work with, but as we study it we'll start to build up new bodies of theory and new infusion techniques. It will get much easier. Eventually, maybe a year or a decade or a century from now, it will be easy to open rifts anywhere you like. Rifts to the afterlife, to wherever the bladehorrors came from, to the Seventh Path. Rifts that can be targeted so that they open wherever you like on the other side."

    Hazō thought about that, the potential consequences slowly dawning on him. "Every ninja potentially a Summoner. Every genin capable of opening a rift underneath an ocean on another Path and drowning Rock, destroying fields, wiping away towns." He fell silent, horror spreading across his face. "It would be like when we armed the pangolins, except so much worse. It would be like giving everyone the ability to—" He caught himself before finishing the sentence, his eyes flicking to Kagome and then away. A faint trace of sadness washed through Kagome at the realization that his apprentice did not trust him with sensitive information and, worse, that the distrust was well-founded. He sighed internally.

    Hazō stayed silent for a double handful of seconds, his eyes unfocused and far away, and then looked back to his teacher. "Are you saying we shouldn't do it?"

    "No," Kagome said, shaking his head. "I'm making sure you appreciate the potential dangers before I tell you that I know how to reopen a rift."

    Hazō sat bolt upright. "What?! You do?! How? When did—"

    Kagome held up a hand. "I'll explain." He shifted slightly, sighing. This was the tipping point, this moment right here. He wasn't sure that this was the right path but he was already committed.

    "I'm pretty sure you were right about the rift being an inverted storage effect," Kagome said. "And that we could reinflate it if we could get enough chakra into it."

    "Right. You said this already, but the issue was that we'd need a seal on both sides or the chakra would simply gush out."

    Kagome nodded. "Except we don't need a seal on each side. We need the chakra to stay contained in the storage space just long enough to inflate it a little bit. Once it starts to inflate there will be cavitation around the exit canal, which will cause backpressure, which will cause some of the chakra to catch at the exit, which will inflate the space farther, which will cause more cavitation, and so on."

    "Okay, but with the space being fully collapsed, how do we do that?"

    "These seals that the Fourth invented, they create chakra constructs. I've been taking readings on them and the constructs expand out from a point, they don't form in three-space. If we had the right construct and we aligned it just right, when we switched it on the construct would form inside the rift scar."

    Hazō frowned, thinking about that. "It wouldn't work," he said. "At least, not with the seals we currently have. The constructs are too fragile. They couldn't inflate the scar on their own, and they wouldn't provide enough resistance to a chakra flow to serve as a stopper."

    Kagome smiled. "Maybe. The ones that I've studied so far, probably. Still, something farther down the chain? It's a real possibility. That seal on the Fox's stomach is the last seal in a series of seals that create chakra constructs. Why would the initial seals be about creating chakra constructs, but the last seal in the chain is just a regular seal?"

    He hesitated, licking his lips uncertainly. "This is crazy, but I keep thinking about how none of this makes any sense. The Fourth wasn't a medic and the seals he's known for aren't bioseals. They're regular seals that go on paper, or on those special kunai of his. As far as I've seen, there's nothing in anything he's written or in the seal chain that sounds medical. Plus, as far as I know bioseals are tattooed on flesh. Tattoos don't move around, but you said that the one on the Fox kept moving and changing.

    "What if it's not a bioseal? What if it's a chakra construct that's been..." He waved his hands helplessly, trying to find the right word. "Been embedded into the Fox's chakra system? It's expected to last for the life of the host, so it's got to be incredibly durable. I've only got the first five seals in the chain—well, four and a half—and I doubt that the constructs they produce are tough enough to provide a stopper that would let us inflate the scar, but the other seals in the chain practically must get more durable as they get closer to the jinchūriki seal. If we can find one strong enough, we only need it to provide momentary resistance to an external chakra flow. That resistance would cause the chakra to spread out, which would give us the inflation force we need. At least...if we used enough chakra."

    Hazō shook his head. "Sensei, that's crazy talk. Even if you're right about the jinchūriki seal being a chakra construct, it's probably drawing some of its strength from the chakra system it's embedded in, the same way a board draws strength from being part of a wall. And, by the way, the chakra system is Naruto's. He's not the Fox."

    Kagome waved the objection away. "Whatever."

    Hazō gave him an old-fashioned look. "Even if you could make a construct strong enough, I doubt it would perfectly align with the stress matrix of the rift. You couldn't pump chakra in as fast as it gushed out."

    "Not with a human's chakra emission thread," Kagome said. "But what about the Fox's?"

    Hazō started to retort, then paused.

    "I can't know exactly how much chakra a Beast, especially the Fox, has," Kagome said, "but Pain thought that burning them up would be enough to remake the world. We don't need to remake the world, we only need to cause a momentary cavitation that's strong enough to inflate a storage space a tiny bit. If the strongest Beast went all-in..."

    "That...could work," Hazō admitted reluctantly. "Maybe. But how would you get the chakra in? I doubt that chakra repulsion would be enough, even for Naruto. You can't emit more than a tiny fraction of your chakra at a time, and if he could then he could leap a hundred feet in a go. We've never seen him do anything like that."

    Kagome shrugged helplessly. "That's the part I haven't figured out. You'd want something that could let someone open their tenketsu extra wide, and that's a bioseal. You'd need a biosealer for that...Snakeface, or his flunky. Arikada, if she's still alive. Maybe Tsunade—she's a medic and she worked alongside Jiraiya-stinker and Snakeface for years. Plus, she's got that bioseal on her forehead. Maybe she put it there, maybe Snakeface put it there back when they were working together, dunno, but if she did it then she might know enough for this. Or maybe she's got a medical ninjutsu that could do it, no bioseal required."

    Kagome paused and eyed his student for a moment, checking to see that he was paying attention and not lost in the math. "Even if we could make such a seal, that's not the end of the problems. We'll need to figure out why the Fourth's seal chain gets so weird after number eight, and how to do the rest of them. We'll need to find one that creates a sufficiently durable construct, which probably means we'll need to create tools to measure construct durability. Once we have it we'll need to figure out how to get it aligned precisely enough so that the construct forms inside the rift scar. We'll need to get one of these chakra-emission-enhancement bioseals or jutsu made without losing control of the project to whoever makes it. The Fox would need to be willing to use it, to open its tenketsu so wide that the chakra blasted out like a waterfall. That could be dangerous for it, or at least painful. It might cause damage to the shell's chakra system, and the Fox would need to keep doing it until the rift opened, even if it hurt, and I see no reason why it would want to. Even if we succeeded at all of that and managed to open the rift, I don't know how long it would stay open. Based on what you said about it shrinking, it probably wouldn't last more than a day, two at the most."

    For a slow count of three, Hazō stared at Kagome in amazement, in a way he hadn't done since Kagome first became his teacher. Eventually he nodded in thought as the implications sank in.

    "And then we'll need to worry about the politics," he said.

    "And then we'll need to worry about the politics," Kagome agreed.




    Vote time! What to do now?

    Voting ends on Wednesday, .
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Interlude: Shadow versus Shadow
  • Threadmarks
    • Interlude: Shadow versus Shadow​
    ​

    "Come in."

    With trepidation, Snowflake placed her hand on the door of the lion's den. The ANBU guards standing either side gave her impatient looks, as to a little girl who had the temerity to request some of the Hokage's valuable time, yet not the confidence to so much as enter his office, thereby wasting more of his time by forcing him to wait.

    Social pressure accomplished what courage could not.

    The Hokage was, for a change, not sitting at his desk framed by stacks of papers. Rather, he stood by what was colloquially known as the "assassin bait" window of the Hokage's office, a most peculiar long pipe at his lips. Snowflake watched with fascination as a glistening bubble the size of her fist slowly emerged from the pipe's opening and drifted gently towards one of the bookshelves.

    "That pipe…" she commented without thinking. "It is decorated with Mist's Guardian Dragons of the Depths."

    "A gift from the Mizukage," Asuma said. "Kurenai's been bugging me to quit for years, and this is what happens when she gets fed up and enlists a certain busybody with connections to help. I don't even know exactly what's in this stuff, except that a panel of experts swear up and down it's not dangerous, and even though it's not addictive, it takes the edge off the cravings just enough that I'm going to have to keep importing more. This is the new age of warfare right here.

    "Now," he said after a lengthy puff which produced a bigger bubble still, "what can I do for you?"

    Snowflake marshalled her thoughts. She had spent days workshopping this conversation with Kei, both individually in their heads and through structured practice. There were clear, detailed steps to be taken in the correct order, for she would likely only have one chance.

    "Lord Hokage, I would like to formally introduce myself to you," she said after as many seconds to calm herself as she guessed social propriety might allow. "My name is Gōketsu Snowflake, Companion and divergent shadow clone of Nara Kei."

    The Hokage slid his pipe into a drawer of his desk. He took a seat and made a show of shuffling out of the way some paperwork which was obviously much more important than she was in order to be able to see her more clearly.

    "Ah, yes," he said. "Kei's social experiment. How quickly she adjusts herself to Nara traditions."

    Snowflake felt a flicker of anger. Ever dismissed as a whim, or at best a curiosity. Ever judged by her appearance, the one facet of herself she was helpless to change. Ever denied her personhood, even to her face when she attempted to assert it. She shuddered at the thought of how she might be treated if she were not at least a clone of Nara Kei, capable of repaying open rudeness a hundredfold.

    Yes, this feeling was much more productive than fear when confronting a man with absolute power over everyone and everything she loved.

    "On the contrary, sir," she said. "I am a fully independent individual possessing unique cognition and agency."

    "So I've heard it said," the Hokage told her. "I think it would be a good start to this conversation to point out that the ANBU miss nothing—including that little confrontation you helped bait the Hagoromo into. I'll grant that Lord Hagoromo jumped headfirst into the grave you'd dug for him, but I didn't give you permission for those ceremonies of yours so you could turn around and use them to dance around the prohibition on Gōketsu-Hagoromo warfare."

    "I apologise, sir," Snowflake said, regretting not one second of it.

    "Now," the Hokage said, leaning forward slightly, "let's be very clear about one thing, 'Snowflake'. You and I both know that there are certain unspoken freedoms allowed the Nara by the Hokage, some agreed upon the village's foundation, and others earned over decades of service above and beyond a shinobi's basic duty to Leaf. One dating from my father's time is that the Hokage does not involve himself with Nara social experiments, and the Nara never conduct social experiments that might force the Hokage to involve himself.

    "It's conceivable that a young Nara, perhaps one not brought up in the clan and unclear on where the lines are, might one day go too far in her experiments for the sake of her social agenda. As long as she knows when to stop, a patient and generous Hokage, mindful of the Nara's vast assistance with Leaf's recent panoply of crises, might be prepared to leave it at that.

    "On the other hand, a Nara who keeps going to the point of trying to deceive the Hokage is crossing a line, and on the other side of that line lies the loss of freedoms earned through the effort of generations of Nara ancestors.

    "So with that in mind, I'm going to ask you exactly once, 'Snowflake': are you a Nara social experiment?"

    Feeling the pressure coming from across that desk, feeling the Hokage's will bearing down on her, Snowflake felt a sudden irrational impulse to say yes, to placate the Hokage with what he wanted to hear and avoid bringing down his wrath. Did Hazō truly sit down in front of this man and aggravate him with wild abandon, then willingly return to do the same mere days or weeks later?

    But Snowflake was not any old Shadow-based sapient chakra construct. She was a shadow clone of Nara Kei, the Dauntless, who had withstood the killing intent of more different S-rankers and summon bosses than most women living. If Snowflake allowed herself to fold before mere pressure like this, she might as well be the divergent self of a damselfish.

    "No, Lord Hokage," Snowflake said, keeping the hands balled into fists below his line of sight. "I am a cognitively-independent being acting on my own agency."

    The Hokage met her gaze, looking into the very depths of the soul Snowflake did not possess. Had there still been a floating bubble between them, it would have sat perfectly still, because even the air did not dare move in that long, drawn-out moment of perfect tension.

    The Hokage relaxed. It was as if the pressure on Snowflake's skin had never been.

    "Good," he said. "Pleased to meet you, Snowflake. Now, run me through this whole cognitively-independent business again."

    Snowflake instructed her fists to unfold. They refused. She hoped the Hokage could not see.

    Now, as they had rehearsed…

    "You are aware," Snowflake began, "that the Mori are bearers of the Frozen Skein Bloodline Limit. In return for its powers of calculation and analysis, it strips them of the powers of initiative and associated creativity that others take for granted. They learn mental techniques and workarounds to mitigate this impact from birth, since without them some Mori children would likely be unable even to study at the Academy alongside their peers, and the clan as a whole would certainly be unable to compete with its rivals, much less enjoy its modern-day position of pre-eminence. Superior Mori, one might say those with chūnin and especially jōnin potential, come to develop their own approaches to better suit their unique cognitive structures. Nevertheless, these are compensatory measures. They do not restore the missing functionality of a Mori mind."

    The Hokage nodded. "All of this is in the briefing Kei provided to my father as one of his conditions for joining Leaf."

    Kei had provided far less information than she could have, mindful of Ami's continued membership of the clan, but also motivated by lingering loyalty—not to any specific individual, but to the Mori Clan as an ideal, which could not be imperilled merely for the sake of her own prosperity. In retrospect, the likes of Sarutobi Hiruzen must surely have recognised any lie by omission from the likes of Mori Keiko, but if he had intended to extract more information later at his leisure, the Shinigami took no account of his plans.

    Perhaps it was best not to even contemplate this in the Hokage's presence.

    "The Shadow Clone Technique," Snowflake went on, "creates a perfect copy of the user's mind, with certain restrictions added, and without any Bloodline Limits. However, when Kei uses the technique, the mind created without the Frozen Skein cannot possibly be a perfect copy of hers, nor even a close one. It does not possess capabilities as second-nature to a Mori as breathing, but in their stead can access the full range of natural human ability. The experiences of such a mind, its memories, are only partially legible to Kei, just as a Yamanaka might struggle to process the memories of a being with additional senses for which humans have no analogue."

    Actually, could a Yamanaka read a non-human mind? Was it possible to learn how Jūchi Yosamu perceived the world, to have his thoughts and feelings transformed into words Snowflake could understand? This required immediate—well, almost immediate—investigation.

    "Thus, whenever she uses the Shadow Clone Technique, Kei is subsequently left with a single, internally-coherent set of memories which are only partially legible to her, yet fully legible to any shadow clone she creates in the future, and likewise said shadow clone will be limited in its ability to process hers. Every time, her shadow clone inherits the same unique set of memories, plus updates from the previous shadow clone's lifetime. It is my experience and my contention that a sapient being possessing a unique, coherent, and continuous if not contiguous set of memories meets the qualifications for independent personhood."

    The Hokage nodded thoughtfully. At some point, the pipe had made a reappearance. Whatever mysterious substance generated the bubbles, it lacked the foul pungency of tobacco, or indeed any scent except perhaps the faintest touch of lavender.

    "If I ever find myself arguing philosophy of identity with a Nara," he said, "I'll know I'm in a genjutsu, because no Hokage could ever have that kind of time in real life. I don't have a monkey at this banquet, Snowflake—if you're convinced you're a real girl, and it doesn't threaten Leaf's safety or stability or interfere with Kei's ability to carry out missions, more power to you.

    "I won't claim I haven't considered banning Kei from using shadow clones in public," he added, sending a shiver down Snowflake's spine, "but as long as you keep the OPSEC angle covered and don't push your luck any further, I'm prepared to reward you with a modicum of trust for learning your lesson and working with me rather than around me."

    He had said it. The Kage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, its absolute authority and dictator, had acknowledged, if in a half-hearted and patronising way, that Snowflake was an independent individual rather than a temporary Kei copy with delusions of personhood. She had been given irrevocable permission to exist.

    "In that case," she dared push her luck further, for this was the true objective of today's meeting, "I would like to apply to join the armed forces of the Fire Country and become a Leaf shinobi."

    The Hokage took a long puff of his pipe. A perfectly round bubble the size of a vulture egg ascended lazily towards the ceiling.

    Then it popped.

    "No."

    The Hokage's voice was still soft, but even Snowflake did not miss the hint of iron.

    "Why not?!" she demanded without thinking.

    "…sir," she added sheepishly as the Hokage raised an eyebrow at her tone.

    "Because you are a shadow clone," the Hokage said patiently. "You cannot leave Leaf unless Kei does."

    As if such a trivial objection could have gone overlooked by their meticulous hours of preparation.

    "There are disabled shinobi who are likewise unable to leave Leaf," Snowflake said. "They contribute with activities such as guard duty, wall duty, teaching, or handling classified documents inappropriate for civilian eyes."

    "Your will is not your own," the Hokage said. "As a shadow clone, you have to obey your creator's orders absolutely, even if they would conflict with your Kage's."

    "This is no less true of any clan shinobi," Snowflake said. "You cannot know in advance that a shinobi will choose to obey your orders where they conflict with their clan head's, which are in theory also absolute. You choose to trust them. You have already chosen to trust Kei, or she would not be able to serve as a Leaf shinobi. If you trust that she will not take actions that violate your orders, you must also trust that she will not command me to take them."

    "You're more fragile than a child," the Hokage said. "You can't possibly be relied on to fight for the village as an independent ninja."

    "An attack that dispels me is an attack that does not harm the Leaf shinobi who would otherwise have been in my place, and I can return to duty as soon as Kei recovers or receives the necessary chakra."

    The Hokage took two bubbles' worth of time to think.

    "You haven't graduated from the Leaf Academy," he finally said.

    He could not be serious.

    "As Kei's shadow clone, I possess the full skill set of a tournament-winning chūnin, since expanded with extensive training. Are you questioning my basic competence, and by extension hers?"

    The Hokage shook his head.

    "I should have expected this from a Mist ninja—or, I suppose, somebody who only remembers being a Mist ninja. Snowflake, the Academy doesn't just exist to train children to kill. It takes fertile young minds and nourishes them, through daily instruction over a period of years, with the wisdom necessary to understand the Will of Fire and Leaf's way of the ninja on an instinctive level. I'm not going to cast aspersions on your understanding of or faith in the Will of Fire—this is, after all, the first time we've spoken—but the fact is that it can never be bone-deep in you the way it is in a ninja who was born in the Will of Fire, raised every day in the Will of Fire, and graduated through the guidance of the Will of Fire."

    "This is ridiculous!" Snowflake burst out.

    The Hokage's eyes turned cold.

    "Excuse my phrasing," Snowflake said, unable to restrain herself, "but it is. I am only here, I only exist, because you accepted Kei as a Leaf shinobi with no concern for her upbringing or the ideology of her childhood."

    "My father accepted Kei and the others," the Hokage said, "as a special exception to a rule that exists for excellent reason. He did this because he judged that your team's value to Leaf outweighed the various risks and disadvantages. Skywalkers were a major part of that value, probably the critical part. Time has proven his wisdom in accepting you again and again, but even then, I have had endless occasion to lament that your brother—if that's what he is to you—wasn't raised with a love of the Will of Fire in his heart and the commandment to respect and obey his Hokage engraved on his soul. Even Kei, with Shikamaru's influence to guide her towards the Will of Fire, tried that inane trick with the Concubine Laws as if I were a wall in her way rather than her lawful leader who may or may not disagree with her, and can be expected to have good reasons if he does.

    "If the Gōketsu or the Nara are prepared to offer the Tower exclusivity on some weapon of skywalker-like value which they have had very good reason for keeping secret from me until now, then it will be time to talk of making new exceptions like my father did."

    "But what about Ami?" Snowflake demanded desperately.

    "Ami's value to Leaf also outweighs the various risks and disadvantages," the Hokage said, though he seemed a little less confident this time. "After Nagi Island and the Collapse took a hammer to our institutional knowledge, and then the war scythed down nearly all our remaining elites, we desperately need experienced jōnin who can back up the newly-promoted through those lethal first years. That goes double for diplomacy and infiltration, which are going to be worth much more than conventional combat skills for as long as this peace holds. Frankly, the fact that the Mizukage gave her up so easily makes me worry about what he's got left up his sleeve. As for the other reasons, I'll leave you to work them out for yourself, but it's fair to say they don't apply to you."

    "But…"

    The resignation struck all at once, like a great wave. Snowflake sensed, despite her social skills that shone brighter than the most radiant squid ink, that if she continued to dig, then beyond the soil of the Hokage's dubious arguments, she would eventually strike the unbreakable bedrock of simple "no". She did not know why.

    "I understand," Snowflake said faintly.

    The Hokage looked up, contemplating the rise of a particularly impressive bubble just long enough for Snowflake to gather herself.

    There was still one battle which she might not lose, Snowflake reminded herself. At the very least, if she did not fight it, Kei would be disappointed in her.

    "In that case," she said, "I would like at least to apply to become a citizen of the Fire Country. I was born here, have lived in Leaf for multiple years as a law-abiding townsperson, have fought for it in my capacity as a shadow clone, and can provide character references from citizens in good standing. I am not presently contributing to the economy through gainful employment, though I am as a consumer, but I will do so if you stipulate it as a requirement for citizenship."

    The Hokage gave her a puzzled stare. "I can understand the impulse to serve the Will of Fire on the front lines from those who can fight, or a civilian lusting after the pay and privileges that come with ninja rank in this country, but why would somebody with Kei's influence and wealth behind her care about the technicality of being a citizen?"

    Why indeed. What argument could possibly convey Snowflake's feelings to someone who could open the door and walk out into a street full of people who acknowledged his expressed identity without question? Who never needed to take concrete, real-world steps to assert who and what he was, because in his case they had all already been taken by the moment of his birth? Who never opened his eyes in the darkness and asked himself if it was all a mistake and he really was deluding himself about his personhood as nearly every other person in the world believed?

    Drop by drop, as Snowflake pondered her approach, the realisation coalesced. If the bedrock beneath this conversation was "no", then any argument she presented would meet the fate of her other arguments. All of them would be waves shattering against a cliff, which cared not about the source or content of the water.

    And if that was the case, if the fundamental core of the approach she and Kei had prepared was doomed…

    Inspiration struck, and Snowflake did something she would never have ordinarily considered in the process of pursuing Fire Country citizenship. In fact, she was uncertain if a Gōketsu was permitted to do it at all.

    She decided to trust her Hokage.

    "Because real people have citizenships," she said. "I am a foreign legal entity with no 'foreign' to be from, an outsider to everywhere. I am a shared fiction: a small number of kind people believe that I exist, and others who trust them follow their cues with unknown degrees of sincerity. I do not have a place in this world other than what they give me. To be a citizen of somewhere, to be from somewhere, grounds you in something more than a set of individuals. It grounds you in a place, and in the idea of a place, both things that can change or be changed, but never disappear or be destroyed."

    Technically, she could no longer put it past Hazō to physically destroy the entirety of the Fire Country. Still, the idea would endure, and being a citizen of a ruined or vanished country was a very different thing from not being a citizen at all.

    "Citizenship is also a shorthand for personhood. I can reason, create, and make moral judgements like any educated adult, yet I cannot own real estate or territory, I am technically prohibited to bear arms within city limits, I may be refused employment without cause, I cannot be a member of various institutions and a governing member of most, I am unable to pay taxes, and so on and so forth. I can understand the reasoning for imposing various such limitations on, say, Earth citizens visiting the Fire Country, but everybody has an adult's legal rights somewhere unless they have taken action to forfeit them as missing-nin do. Please remember that I have never been a missing-nin.

    "I was born in and dwell in Fire. Through my support of Kei, I strive for the benefit of Fire. I believe in the ideals of Fire as I understand them. All I ask for is the degree of reality that the Land of Fire grants all the others who do the same."

    Four bubbles had time to come into existence, take shape, attempt to ascend, and then vanish with no evidence that they ever existed as the Hokage pondered.

    "…Don't make me regret this."

    It was like being struck by lightning.

    "Sir?" she asked just in case.

    "Consider yourself on indefinite probation," the Hokage said. "The second I get a complaint from the Merchant Council about a chakra-capable non-ninja threatening civilian business, or someone sues for injury because Kei dispels you and you end up dropping a heavy weight on someone's foot, or an ANBU has to use your name and 'Shadow Clone OPSEC' in the same sentence, or I learn you've exploited a loophole in a law meant for humans, or there is any edge case whatsoever that draws attention and makes people ask what a ninjutsu effect is doing walking around with person rights, you can expect the privilege of Fire citizenship to be withdrawn before you can say, 'Nara social experiment', together with whatever other freedoms I deem necessary."

    Snowflake swallowed. "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

    The Hokage waved her away. "Have Shikamaru bring the forms when he comes for tonight's consultation."

    Snowflake rose, and bowed deeply.

    "I promise you will not regret this, Lord Hokage."

    As she left, she could swear she heard a faint mutter through the closing door.

    "Why is it always the Gōketsu?"
     
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    • Interlude: Honoka's Important Lessons, Part 3
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    • Interlude: Honoka's Important Lessons, Part 3​

    "It's my turn!" Noburi said, his voice filled with exasperation.

    "It is not! Your turn was this morning. There's a sheet, and this is my slot," Mari said.

    "This was supposed to be my slot," Haru said. "Someone scratched my name out and wrote over it." He sent a fulminating glare at Mari.

    "You sent me on errands this morning!" Noburi snapped at Mari, ignoring Haru.

    "What's your point?" Mari's smugness was sufficient to make her a serious contender in the next election for mayor of Smugton.

    "You stole my slot, so I should get this one."

    "Pfft. As if."

    "But we didn't have time to finish the circulatory system yesterday," Noburi said, a hint of a whine creeping in. "We had to leave off right in the middle."

    Kaori walked up to the edge of the training field and sat down next to his wife. He unwrapped the napkin full of warm meat pastries he'd been carrying and offered her one. She took it with a whispered 'thanks' but didn't look away from the argument.

    "What's happening?" Kaori whispered.

    "Shh!" she said, nibbling on the pastry. "I don't want to miss it."

    "Pah," Mari sneered, dismissing Noburi's complaint with a magnificently dismissive wave of dismissiveness. "It's noon, it's my name on the sheet for noon, and I'm your Clan Lady. Your Clan Lady—that's me, by the way—says to hush yourself and go sit down."

    Throughout the conversation, Noburi had been working hard on his mastery of the Kill You With My Brain Technique. Fortunately for Mari, his mastery was lacking. Instead, he merely glowered at her and stalked to the edge of the field, plopping down cross-legged on the blanket next to Aoi and Kaori. He continued glowering at his former teacher.

    "Yeah, he might be willing to fold up like a wet noodle, but I'm not," Haru said, folding his arms. "This was my slot and you scratched my name out so you could steal it."

    Mari turned her nose up and sniffed. "I have no idea what you're talking about. That slot had been scratched out when I got there."

    "Yeah, because that's believable," Haru said with a snort.

    "You mean you didn't scratch your name out, Uncle Haru?" Honoka asked, breaking her silence for the first time. She had been looking back and forth between the various arguing grownup throughout the discussion.

    "Of course not!" Haru said grumpily. "Why would I do that?"

    Honoka ducked her head. "I thought maybe you were busy with something more important."

    Haru dropped to one knee, leaning one elbow on it so that he could lean close to Honoka. "Of course not, Little Sparrow. This is very important."

    "No matter what slander you might be throwing around, it's still not your slot," Mari said. "My name is on the sheet so this hour is mine." She hesitated. "Besides, you're way too violent. No grace, no elegance, no finesse."

    "I fight to win!" Haru snapped, standing up and rounding on Mari. "Screw finesse. Finesse doesn't win fights. Violence wins fights, and the faster the better. That's what a fight is—violence appropriately applied."

    Mari sniff carried with it a wealth of the very essence of derision. "Oh, please. You're getting by on physique. Your form is garbage and you're covering it—barely—with power. That will only carry you so far."

    "Yeah? At least I'm not wasting time on that bullshit Goddess Picks the Flowers form!" He posed in mockery, one wrist pressed to his forehead like a fainting maiden and the other held daintily in front of himself. He pressed thumb and finger together and drew it back as though picking up a piece of paper, or a blade of grass. "Oh! Woe is me! I am so delicate and full of finesse!" He dropped into a backbend, then walked over backwards, kicking his feet back and forth like a dancer. "Oh, la! Finesse!" He walked back to an upright position, sneering and completely ignoring the way that Honoka was breaking down in laughter.

    Mari rolled her pale gold eyes. "Sage's bristly beard...could you at least know what you're talking about before you try to mock it? It's not like that"—she mimed the thumb-and-forefinger grab he had used—"it's like this." She closed her entire hand, thumb still touching forefinger so as to leave an oval space, with all fingers pressed together. "It's not literally a flower-picking move, it's—" She broke off, glancing down at Honoka and then back. She used her free hand to touch her own throat, keeping it casual as though scratching an itch.

    "Bah," Haru said. "A leopard strike will do the same thing but it's easier and more powerful."

    "And completely unadaptive. You can pick flowers everywhere. Joints, nerves, fishhooking."

    "Even if I were willing to grant that nonsense, which I'm not, it's an advanced form."

    "No, it's an excellent training exercise that builds control, precision, and footwork. Later on it turns into an advanced form, and one that is much more effective than that sweaty and obvious clomping around that you call a style."

    "Excuse me?" Honoka said uncertainly. "Uncle Haru? Aunty Mari?"

    Both of the senior ninja looked down at the little girl they had completely forgotten was standing there.

    "Yes, sweetie?" Mari asked.

    "You guys are fighting again." Honoka's eyes were big and she was clutching her hands together.

    Mari and Haru exchanged guilty looks and both took a knee so they could be on the same level as the child.

    "We're not fighting, sweetie," Mari said. "We're having a discussion, and a disagreement."

    "Your disagreement sounds a lot like fighting."

    Haru snorted. "Sparrow, if Aunty and I ever start fighting, you'll know it."

    "Really?"

    "Mm-hm. You'll be able to tell by the trees being torn down and the earth being torn up."

    "And the ghosts of the dead being summoned!" Mari said, wiggling her fingers at Honoka in spooky fashion. "And the dragons rising up to serve as our battle steeds!"

    Haru shot Mari a warning look and she nodded in concession. Talk of dragons wasn't on the table in the Gōketsu household anymore. Not after everyone had seen what it sometimes did to Hazō.

    "That sounds neat," Honoka said, her voice awed. "But scary."

    "Don't worry, little one," Mari said, smiling. "We only do those things when we're fighting for real. Haru and I are just having a disagreement."

    "When the kids at school have disagreements, sometimes we play rock-tag-kunai for it," Honoka said. "Maybe you could do that?"

    The two 'adult' ninja looked at each other warily, then shrugged.

    "On three?" Haru asked, raising one fist in preparation.

    Mari nodded. "One, two, three!" She threw her hand out, palm flat to symbolize an explosive tag. "Hah!" She slapped it down atop the fist that Haru had thrown then brought her hand violently back, fingers miming an explosion. "Mine!"

    Haru glared at her. "Fine. But I go next." He stood up and stomped over to the blanket, dropping down next to Noburi.

    Noburi unsealed a bowl of popcorn and passed it over, whispering, "I think she cheats, but I don't know how."

    Haru grumbled.

    On the field, Mari was ignoring the byplay. She dropped down into seiza and gestured for Honoka to do the same next to her.

    "Are we doing Goddess Picks Flowers again today, Aunty?"

    "We are indeed, sweetie. Now, show me your plucking hand." She watched Honoka form the basic hand position of the form and nodded. "Good. Okay, let's start."

    At the edge of the field, Haru grumbled, "I still say it's a stupid way to teach taijutsu."




    Voting remains closed unless @Velorien reopens it.
     
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    • Chapter 577: No Laughing Matter
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    • "Back off! We're not gonna hurt you if you don't hurt us first, and we're not gonna take a damn thing from your territory, but if you start a fight, you're gonna be vulture-bait before the day's up!"

    The pack of seven hyenas shifted among themselves. Hazō could distantly hear them laughing, soft chuckles and howls that Canzon had assured him were just hunting calls. Despite Canzon's bravado, they weren't backing down yet.

    Canzon turned to Hazō. "Can you show them the meat?"

    Hazō nodded, tapping the storage seal he'd pre-emptively drawn. Immediately, a large cloth bundle popped out. Hazō quickly loosened the rope tying it together, letting the cloth fall around it to reveal a large side of bison-flesh.

    Canzon called out again. "We have a summoner and seals that you've never seen before! You don't wanna fight us, I swear it. Look, we're not gonna hunt on your land because our summoner's gonna give us plenty of food. Let us pass through, and we'll give you five times this," she said, nudging at the pile. "Or start a fight, and you'll end up looking like the bison."

    The hyenas laughed again, then one of them called out, "ten times as much."

    "Oh for the love of-," Canzon muttered before raising her voice. "Five times as much for you to let travelers through your land who will damage nothing and take nothing. It's a free hunt! Just flippin' take it! Or we'll just go through you and leave you for the vultures!"

    Canzon (Intimidation): ?? + ? (tag "Stalwart Summoner") + ? (tag "Free Food Fest") + ? (invoke "Bark, not Bite") + 6 = ??
    Hyenas (Resolve): ?? + ? (group bonus) + ? (invoke "Hallowed Homeland") + 3 = ??

    Canzon edges out the win, barely.

    The hyenas paused, staring at Canzon for a long moment. Eventually, one voice called out, "leave your offering where you stand now." One by one, the hyena hunting pack turned and started to slink away. One of the puppies barked at the retreating hyenas, only to be quickly shushed.

    "Ah, finally," Canzon said. "Could you pop out four more, Summoner?"

    Hazō grabbed the storage seals and got to work. This was the fourth tribe of hyenas they'd crossed since leaving Dog. Hazō had chosen the shortest path, cutting through Hyena towards the mountains. At a full pace, the Horizon Chasers could probably travel over a hundred miles in a day with saddlebags to handle the puppies, but Hazō hadn't accounted for the amount of distractions they'd encountered. Apparently, they'd had the misfortune of picking a path right through the hyenas' heartlands. Their every encounter with the hyenas so far was with the tribes' hunting packs.

    "How come they backed off so much easier than the last ones?" Hazō asked. The second and third packs they'd encountered had stalked the group for longer, getting closer and closer despite Canzon's warnings until Canzon asked the group to fire off some warning-shot ninjutsu. At least Hazō's youthenizer had scared them off.

    "I think it's 'cuz you're a human. They don't know much about you, so I think they might'a wanted to test what you got. Still, the last summoner was Kakashi, and I hear that guy was an untouchable warrior. Sure, making meat appear from nowhere ain't exactly a combat skill – though now I'm wondering if there's anyone out there with the Meat Release. Sounds delicious. I'll see if I can ask Canaria sometime. Anyways, it was a new thing they'd never seen before and I figure they're not gonna want to push their luck."

    Hazō sighed as he pulled the cloth wrappings off of the bison steaks and resealed the wraps. They'd already gone through half their supply of meat for negotiations today – he'd have to acquire more for the coming days.

    "Anyways, they'll leave us alone for now. Let's keep running! All the tales I heard say that there's a big hilly area around a day deep into Hyena territory, so there should be less of the scat-eaters once we get there. Good place to sleep for the night."

    Barks broke out around the Horizon Chasers and they started to run again.

    o-o-o​

    Hazō reappeared in his office in a puff of pale-blue smoke and shook his head to clear away the faint pain of summoning.

    "Gaku," he said before the smoke could even finish dissipating, "I need to go back quickly. What's the status on estate construction? Has the–"

    Suddenly, Hazō was grabbed in a tight hug. He started to resist for a moment before relaxing into it.

    "Akane! You're back! How was it?"

    As the smoke faded, Akane looked up at Hazō and smiled. "It was fine, Hazō," she said, releasing him and taking a step back. "Actually, one of the easier hunting missions I've been on. Yuno's a good tracker, but Edamaru, Inuzuka's ninken, is miles better. We wiped out three dozen nests and dens in a huge ring around the town."

    "That's great to hear," Hazō said. "The people of Yamakoshi will appreciate that."

    "I hope so. How are things with the dogs? Also," she said, grabbing a short stack of papers, "Gaku told me to give you this."

    Hazō grabbed the reports. "I'll assume he got everything written down. Sage only knows if Gaku is capable of making mistakes or oversights." He tucked the papers into a belt pouch, then led Akane away from the desk and onto the short couch in the corner, holding her close in relief. Akane had come back alive.

    "The dogs… Well, we haven't gotten into a fight yet, which is good since we have puppies in the pack. Still, we're encountering way more resistance than expected. It's been three days, and the hyenas are badgering us at every turn. We thought getting into the hills would get them off our back, but apparently their tribes just live all over the place, and they're not letting us go. We're making progress though. We can finally see the mountains now, and I doubt we'll see tons of hyenas up there."

    Akane nodded. "If they're not fighting, what's making them go away? Their leader?"

    Hazō shook his head. "None of the hyenas like us enough. Hyena and Dog have spent a lot of time fighting. I think they're mostly scared, and we're bribing our way through pretty well. Still, Canzon is worried that we might be on some tribe's territory right now, so I do need to get back soon."

    Akane cuddled closer into his side. "I only got back a couple hours ago," she said. "I really want to sit in the hot spring and sleep. Still, could we have just a few minutes longer? I missed you."

    "I missed you too," Hazō said, pulling her closer and sitting back into the couch. For some reason, some part of the tension that had wound its way through Hazō's being in the past few days refused to let go.

    o-o-o​

    Hazō reappeared on the Seventh Path carrying the tiny Canodo, who licked at Hazō's face after the excitement of the journey. Hazō sighed and bent to let Canodo back down to the ground.

    "Oh, Hazō, you're back!" Canzon said, bounding up to Hazō's side. "We've got a situation."

    Hazō frowned, turning to take in his surroundings. "What do you mean 'a situation'?"

    The sky of Hyena overhead had dulled from its mustard yellow shade to a dark, dark brown, and the hilltop was only barely lit – without a moon to shed light on the Seventh Path, only the faintest details could be made out. Their hilltop was relatively isolated from the other hills nearby, separated at its base by a river on one side and a stretch of long-rolling plains on the other, filled with the yellows and greens and reds of the local grasses now dulled by the nightfall. Trees and bushes dotted the ground and the nearby hills, and Hazō could only barely make out the distant shape of mountains as shapes of black against the dull brown sky.

    A howling laugh split the night. Hazō spun around, trying to tell where it came from, but the sound echoing off the hills around him kept him from pinning it down.

    Canzon nosed over to her left. "They're from over there. Another tribe decided to try and hunt us. I got everyone awake. I think we should try to lose them in the thick woods there," she said, taking a couple steps downhill. "Worst comes to worst, we can negotiate. You stocked back up on meat, right?"

    "Just the normal amount," Hazō said.

    "It'll do," Canzon said. "Alright everyone, let's get moving. Hopefully the scat-eaters finish up their chucklefest soon and we can get back to sleep."

    Canzon started leading them down the hill. Hazō could hear the sounds of the Horizon Chasers around him shuffling down after their packleader in their various states of sleep. He stepped by Cantal and, after a quick glance, deposited Canodo in her saddlebag, directly opposite the puppy's still-dozing brother. Canodo quickly reoriented herself and popped her little face out of the saddlebag to look around in the dark. Hazō couldn't help but give her a little scratch under the ear as he walked, earning his hand a grateful lick in response.

    The Horizon Chasers stopped as another howling laugh carried across the hills, now clearly from their left.

    "Ah, sticks," Canzon said, almost in a whisper. "They're getting closer. Let's keep going slow and hope they haven't seen us yet. They'll check out the top of the hill first 'cuz that's where we left all our scents."

    A moment later, another laugh sounded, this one from the right.

    "Did their hunting pack split up?" Hazō asked, striding to Canzon's side.

    Canzon shook her head. "No, they don't split up mid-hunt. Not that far, at least. There's gotta be two of 'em."

    "Different packs don't hunt together, though, right?"

    "Nope. They must be working together. Doublesticks," Canzon swore. "I thought they'd be too territorial to gang up on us, but better a hyena on your land than a dog, I guess. I dunno if we can bluster two tribes at once into backing down. Hopefully they'll take the meat."

    Another loud laugh echoed across the hills. Hazō couldn't quite pinpoint this one, but he watched as the dogs around him turned to face back the way they came.

    "Make that three tribes hunting us. At least these guys are on the other side of the hill," Canzon said. "No time for looking around like a monkey, let's keep moving."

    A fourth hunting call, a howling, echoing laugh, emerged from the valley below them, by the copse of trees beside the river they had been paralleling. The Horizon Chasers stopped.

    "And that makes four," Canzon said as the dogs around her raised their ears and growled. "Aaaaand we're surrounded. Well, the plan's shot, and something tells me they didn't bring all their little prairie-rats together because they wanted to chat. Any bright ideas, Summoner?"


    XP Award: 9 + 3 (brevity) XP
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    Vote time! What to do now?

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  • Threadmarks
    • Interlude: Adoption Interviews – Murai Mio
  • Threadmarks
    • Interlude: Adoption Interviews – Murai Mio
    by @Paperclipped​

    May 29, 1070 (the day after Hazou, Kagome, Akane, and Yuno set out for the rift site on O'uzu)

    Technically speaking, he didn't have any bad intentions. If someone were to confront him (though hopefully the day of buffer time would keep such a confrontation from being immediately lethal), he would have plenty of reasons, and he would argue his honest purpose in doing this. Still, something didn't feel right about seeking out an emotionally vulnerable, rather attractive young woman that he knew his wife would disapprove of, barely a day after that same wife had left on an extended business trip. The guilt wasn't enough to stop him, though. Now that he was the interim Clan Head, he intended to show Hazou up and actually address all his responsibilities in full.

    Noburi knocked on Mio's door. There was no response.

    He waited. He knew she was in there. He'd been tracking her movements in the compound (no, he wasn't creepy, he was just trying to see if he'd have a chance to talk to her somewhere out of instant-Satsuko range), and he knew she hadn't left her room for three days. She was definitely in there, unless she'd respecialized in stealth since she'd been adopted into the Gouketsu, and it had been her sister that had the talent for staying quiet and out of the way.

    Noburi waited longer. Somewhere around the two-minute mark, he started getting worried. He'd been the one to put together the profiles on the new adoptees for Hazou. He knew about this pair. Misa and Mio had been inseparable, to the point where they insisted on having a single room built for the two of them even though they could easily have had plenty of space to themselves. In complete contrast to Misa's shy, reserved nature, Mio had been fiery and outgoing and incredibly protective of her twin sister. Mio had clearly loved her sister deeply to the point of heartbreak and maybe beyond. Would she have…

    Almost without thinking, he tried the door. It didn't open. He stepped back and readied himself to kick down the door, then paused. The clan gave its seals out liberally to its members, and a few of them even took advantage of the opportunity to trap their rooms. Would Mio have done the same?

    No time to think. He pushed chakra through his veins and kicked the door once. He heard shearing and snapping, but the door held. Had she deadbolted it, not wanting to be discovered? He called forth his Water Whip and snapped it through the area of the door's lock, then kicked it again. This time, the door swung open.

    Noburi stepped into the room, releasing his Water Whip back into his barrel. Inside, the room was partially lit by the evening sunlight streaming in through a small window with the curtains half-drawn around it. Noburi looked around, instinctively smelling for blood or feces or rot but found Mio on the bed on the far side of the room. She was under a blanket despite the warm spring air, curled up in a ball facing the door and the other bed beside it. Her eyes were open, and she refocused her gaze to look back at Noburi.

    Noburi stopped walking forward mid-stride. It smelled… bad in the room. Musty and sweaty with hints of urine and feces. She must have used the same chamber pot for days without bathing or even airing the room out. Despite the sunlight streaming into the room, something about it seemed darker than it should have been.

    Slowly, Mio pushed herself up. Noburi's brain caught up to him – he'd just barged into a girl's room while she was in bed. What if she was undressed? Should he leave? Should he ask if- No, as she came to a seated position on the bed the blanket slipped off revealing a plain silk robe. She leaned her back against the wall and closed her eyes as if the effort of sitting up had taken the entirety of her energy.

    After a moment, Mio opened her eyes again and spoke, her voice hoarse. "Noburi." She coughed. "Do you need something from me?"

    "I, uh…" Noburi hesitated. He'd been meaning to get the last adoption interview done, but this was clearly a horrible time for that. "We haven't seen you around the estate for a few days. I wanted to make sure that you were okay."

    Mio looked at him for a moment. He tried to tell what she was doing – maybe trying to discern his intentions, or trying to compose a response – but he couldn't. Her dull eyes were opaque to him.

    She blinked slowly. "You thought I'd committed suicide. That's why you broke in."

    Noburi couldn't help but nod. He took another step into the room. "I don't know how to tell what the signs are, but I know what happens after, in the hospital. People have been coming in since the war ended. Ninja that lost teammates or lovers or family, or civilians that lost… well, anything and everything. Sometimes there's nothing I can do to help them. Sometimes, there is."

    Mio released the arm she'd been using to hold herself up and fell back into bed with a light thump. "Don't worry. If I ever get the courage to kill myself, I'll find a way that doesn't make any extra work for you."

    "I'm not afraid of having work to do, Mio," Noburi said as he stepped fully into the room. He looked around for a place to sit and talk with her, but realized quickly that sitting on the other bed, Misa's bed, which was still untouched and pristine as the girl must have made it before leaving on her fatal final mission, would have been a terrible mistake. Then he remembered that he was a Gouketsu and didn't have to deal with silly logistic questions. He summoned an armchair from a storage seal and sat down in it. "I do what I do because I want to help people. I don't need anything from you. Do you need anything from me?"

    "No," she said. She lay on her side on the bed, facing Noburi, but she looked past him to the far wall.

    "Are you sure?" he asked. "How about I open up the windows and air the room a little? Wouldn't that sound nice? Or I could go get you some food and water. You must have been living off of storage scrolls for a couple days."

    Mio focused on him again. "Why do you care?"

    "Because you're family, Mio," Noburi said. "You're a Gouketsu now. I'm going to do all I can to take care of you."

    "You don't care about me."

    "Yes, I do."

    "What's my favorite color?" she asked.

    "Uh…" Noburi said. "What is your favorite color? I don't know everything about everyone in my family, and sometimes it's getting to learn about each other that brings us closer together?"

    "We're not family," she said. "You haven't said more than five words at once to me before today. No one else in your clan has. None of you give a shit about me. You took three days to find me and I bet you only came now because Yuno went on a mission."

    Noburi raised an eyebrow, then shook his head. He didn't want to untangle the Yuno knot right now. "I haven't talked with you much yet because you're so new to the clan, we were so busy in the war, and you sequestered yourself away right after. It's fair, I know you need time to grieve, but I also want to make sure you're doing okay. Please, can I do something for you here? Maybe I could clean up the room."

    Mio looked at him, then closed her eyes. "We're not family, and you don't care for me. Maybe you could, some day, but you clearly fucking don't now. You're doing what you think a good clan-brother has to do, but we're not fucking family. You and your other teammates are just missing-nin playing at being a Leaf clan and you've bribed a bunch of Leaf ninja into joining you with seals and jutsu. That's it."

    "The bonds between the six of us that knew each other for years are going to be stronger than anyone we just met, it's true," Noburi said, "but that's the kind of thing that'll fix itself over time."

    "You've had Haru and Atomu and Reo for how long now?" she said, sneering. After a moment's thought, she pushed herself back up to a seated position on her bed. "I see how they're treated. They're glad to be here, of course they are, but they know they'll never be part of the clan, not really. I'm not so stupid that I can't tell I'm going to be a second-class citizen here forever, same as I would in any other clan."

    "In Haru's case, at least, that's because of his punishment. He still hasn't gotten over that fully."

    "And that punishment would have happened for one of your little gang of missing-nin? Tell me, if Kagome freaked out one day and exploded six people in Leaf somewhere, would Lord Gouketsu have done the same to him?"

    Noburi paused to think. No, he probably wouldn't have, though it's not like Hazou would have let Kagome off free. He'd probably have had to do something to appease Asuma, and Kagome wouldn't have been let into the city again for sure, but he probably also wouldn't publicly humiliate Kagome the way he did to Haru. Regardless, Noburi didn't see a way that this conversation ended in Mio feeling any better.

    "Why did you join Gouketsu?" Noburi asked.

    Mio looked away from him, toward the window where light was still streaming in from outside. She didn't respond.

    "I've seen your mission record," he said. "You did a lot of till-n-fills. You know that you've made a lot of people's lives better, don't you? We appreciate that, and if you want to keep doing that, we're the right people to help you with it. Is that why you joined us?"

    Mio didn't respond.

    "We really do want the best for you, Mio," he continued. "We're building a better Leaf, and-"

    "I don't care," she said.

    "What?"

    "I don't care about your better Leaf," she said, voice harsh. "I don't care about your civilians. I don't care about your clan's stupid fucking ideals."

    "Then why…"

    "Because I thought you'd keep her safe!" Mio said, suddenly yelling. "I thought Lord Gouketsu, with all his seals and jutsu, would be able to give Misa the tools she needed to stay alive! And now she's dead."

    She trailed off, then scrunched up her face and slumped back down to lying on her side. After a moment, she reached down and grabbed her blanket, pulling it up over her face.

    Noburi stood from his chair and took a step towards her. She'd started crying, sobbing into her bedsheet. What was he supposed to do?

    He sat on her bedside, extending an arm to touch her shoulder to comfort her. She pulled the blanket back down and her face twisted into an expression of rage. "Go away!" she yelled.

    "I understand it's hard," Noburi said, "but-"

    "Get the fuck out of my room!"

    Noburi bit his lip, then stood and bowed shallowly. "Sorry for intruding. I'll be back in a minute to get you some new food and water."

    "Just leave me alone!"

    "No can do, sadly," Noburi said as he re-stored the armchair he'd been sitting in and made his way to the door. "I'm sorry for not checking in on you earlier. I'll do better next time. We'll give you as much time as you need, but when you're ready, we'll be here for you."
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Interlude: Operation Murdersnout
  • Threadmarks
    • Interlude: Operation Murdersnout​

    The towering Pangolin-designed wooden walls blocking the settlement now known as Kago from Kei's sight summarised the state of the Condor Clan so neatly that she was (even more) tempted to call off the rest of Operation Murdersnout and return to the comforting paperwork of the Nara estate. She had learned from Kei—

    Sigh. Was she not safe even within her own internal monologue?

    She had learned from Ruri that Condor settlements did not commonly rely on defensive walls, especially here in the heartlands where slowing an enemy invasion should never have been a concern. Rather, the key infrastructure and residential areas were safe high in the trees, and the ground level held only storehouses, flight training grounds for chicks, and other sparsely-staffed facilities that were easy to evacuate at a moment's notice. All walls could do was block lines of sight to a threat that had somehow slipped past the patrols and the watch perches.

    Such had been the way of the Condor Clan for centuries, perhaps even a millennium, until the Gōketsu reached the Seventh Path. Now, the main body of the village was all but abandoned. Kei could see only the occasional arboreal pangolin climbing through its hollow shell. Kago was a settlement for those chained to the ground, and its walls were not for defending against threats from the outside.

    "Impressive, aren't they, Summoner?" boasted a pangolin not much taller than Pandā, decorated with the blue and green paint of middling rank support and, unusually, wearing a pair of spectacles on his snout, ones whose extraordinary diameter suggested that the wearer both confused size with power and was myopic on a level that made Lord Hagoromo seem like a visionary. (Did the Pangolins have lens-crafting technology, or was this a Human Path purchase she did not remember being involved with?)

    "No one's ever climbed the Kago walls," the pangolin continued, sparing her the need to find a diplomatic response, "though many have tried. They'd be the pride of the town if it weren't for... well, I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise."

    "Summoner," another pangolin acknowledged her more curtly, watching her closely through tiny, narrow eyes.

    "Commissar Panteon," Kei greeted him with equal coolness. The Ministry of Doctrine representative had been the primary negotiator for the skytower trade, and she suspected that his failure to preserve that vital Pangolin advantage was the reason why, years later and in the aftermath of a great war that would have afforded countless opportunities for advancement, those complex blue and yellow patterns on his scales had not changed one jot. Not that Kei felt the tiniest touch of sympathy for the agent who bent the precepts of Pangolin religion for the sake of war while, unlike Kei and Hazō, fully understanding the implications.

    "Panchā," she said more warmly to the intimidating yet unexpectedly courteous mass of muscle that had just brought her here by temporary contract, "thank you for the reverse summoning."

    "It was my pleasure, Summoner," he replied, one set of claws atop the other.

    "You must be Panishu, my other escort," Kei said to the pangolin at Panteon's side, less physically imposing than the first but instead bristling with weapons of unfamiliar design (primarily various lengths of wood in improbable curved shapes, with blades and spikes in places where they would surely tear apart any wielder not covered in armoured scales).

    "It's an honour, Summoner," Panishu said in a gravelly baritone.

    "Excuse me," the bespectacled pangolin squeaked. Kei instinctively disliked his voice, with its undertones of smugness and self-importance that even she could recognise after her years at the Mist Academy.

    "My apologies. And you would be...?"

    "Coordinator Panditto," the pangolin said. "Here by the grace of the Holy Pangolin Empire to bring enlightenment and efficiency to the benighted savages of the former Condor Clan."

    "Watch your words, Coordinator," Panteon warned.

    Panditto cringed. "My sincerest apologies, Commissar. It was a rare twist of the tongue, I swear it. I... I was just so moved by a rare visit from such august personages that I forgot myself, yes."

    Panteon hummed sceptically. "I will expect you to pay a suitable fine for your transgressions before we leave."

    "Anything," Panditto hastened to agree.

    "Summoner," Panteon explained, "it is understood that references to the condors' sinful past are to be kept to a minimum, at least where they may hear. Such associations keep their spirits trapped in an age now ended and sometimes tempt them to act... unwisely instead of focusing their efforts on proper atonement and integration. Kindly take this to heart for our inspection."

    "It is our duty to exterminate the relics of the Condors' dark past, yes," Panditto added, "to hasten the day when pangolin and condor may serve the Holy Pangolin Empire as equals, talon in claw."

    Panteon hummed sceptically.

    On the inside, Kei seethed. She refused to make the same mistake twice, and had come prepared with the best the Nara Library had to offer (Kei hours, vastly overvalued as they were, were excellent for hiring younger Nara to scour it for relevant scrolls while she worked). She was aware of the phenomenon of cultural genocide, the terrifying threat from the devils of Hidden Mist that meant they could not be trusted even in peacetime (as well as of its desirable inverse, the transformation of Mist into a Leaf colony where its primitive and vicious ways were willingly abandoned through Leaf's civilising influence). She was equally aware that her very presence here served as endorsement, yet also that every mission refused would weaken her influence when the time finally came to battle for Condor liberation in earnest. Was the trade-off worth it? Was there a better path that she was simply too foolish to see? The Nara Library contextualised her experiences, yet did nothing to help her choose.

    Kei was powerless here. It was as simple as that. Her purpose in coming to the occupied Condor lands was to witness what she had wrought with her own hands, an act shamelessly overdue.

    That, and perhaps to save a handful of lives. It was likely Operation Murdersnout, or some other trap for an unsuspecting Resistance leader, would have been implemented even without Kei, and this way, she and Ruri would have the opportunity to foil it.

    "Nara Kei," she introduced herself coldly (and pointlessly). "Pangolin Summoner."

    Panditto bobbed his head.

    "Yes, yes, our hero, whose bountiful generosity delivered the Condors away from"—he caught a look from Panteon—"a tragic history and into our benevolent care. I'm sure that in time, their gratitude to you will come to mirror my own. Now, please, come in. Everyone is ever so excited about your inspection."

    -o-​

    This was the day Kei Ruri would save a life. Perhaps even multiple lives.

    How many had she taken? Dozens? Hundreds? You could tell a prospective jōnin, it was said, by how soon they learned to stop counting. Then, too, she'd had the misfortune of living through a world war, where survival meant bathing in more blood every day than one might spill in a week of peacetime. It didn't really make a difference if today would save a dozen, and besides, the Will of Fire taught that the lives of a dozen foreigners were worth less than that of a single Leaf ninja, and condors were as foreign as it got.

    Still, irrationally, it felt good. And the notion of eliminating a risk to Nara Kei, and thereby repaying a fraction of that debt, felt better still.

    Ruri's journey so far had followed the plan to a tee, almost alarmingly so. The Pangolins had consented to allow her a tour of the occupied territories for the purpose of seeking new contracts, knowing full well that no condor would dare agree without their overseers' permission, and for one reason or another, that permission would never come. It was a way of asserting dominance and humiliating a hated foe through her.

    Fools. To any competent shinobi, a display of dominance was nothing but an opportunity to be exploited. It was like dangling a BDSM kink before a seduction specialist, or placing secret documents into a safe in front of a cracking expert.

    So it was this time. Dismissing the representative of a weakened opponent as weak herself, they didn't bother assigning guards that could give a jōnin a second's pause. The only thing that had given her trouble was finding her way to Kago in time—nobody knew their territory better than a boss, but even with Conjura's guidance, navigating it without a proper map while maintaining stealth had been a challenge and a half, and, as ever, lives rested on her punctuality.

    She wondered how Lady Kei was getting on. Ruri's role in the final version of the plan was strictly external to the events in Kago. Lady Kei possessed a will of iron, and was a ninja raised in Hidden Mist besides, but still, Ruri wished she could be there to support her. It would have been a unique opportunity to repay her for freeing Ruri from the quiet despair that had defined her pre-KEI life, where being a clanless jōnin had afforded her just enough power to see how helpless she was to change anything that mattered. In addition, it would have been an equally unique opportunity to close the gap with that withdrawn, distant young woman, and a bond with Nara Kei would advance countless personal and professional goals.

    Well, no point in wishful thinking. Cooperation on something as personal to both of them as the Condor issue was already more of an in than most people outside Lady Kei's narrow familial circle could hope for. For now, Ruri needed to focus on her own specialities, namely manipulation and murder. Lady Kei had a loyalty test to navigate, and potential complications had to be eliminated in one way or another.

    "I come upon the winds of the Conductor's harmony. Will you hear my song?"

    The insurrectionists' camp was well-placed for non-shinobi, which was what had made it easy to find. Ruri had merely needed to follow the curves of the terrain, and look for trees that afforded a clear view of the surrounding area while themselves being out of sight of Kago, yet not too far as the condor flies. Watching the birds up above to identify convenient thermals had been the last touch to narrow down the location.

    Ruri held her arms open at her sides, moderately spread in a stance that said, "I am not hiding any weapons strapped to my body, but am also not ready to flap my wings to fly up or generate a wind." In fact, the Nara had spared no expense in making sure she was supplied with enough storage-sealed weapons and gear, combat seals, and skywalkers to outfit an elite strike team, all ready to use within three seconds. She hoped to resolve this encounter peacefully, but if needed, she would massacre every last member of the Condor Resistance for Lady Kei's sake.

    Instantly, the air was tense with ninjutsu ready to fire.

    "A summoner," croaked one of the condors, "but not the Egg Hoarder. Who are you, and why should we let you live?"

    -o-​

    Within Kago, matters were even worse than Kei had expected, just as Kei had expected. Beneath the brown of the Pangolin sky, so unsuited to these majestic forests, rows of identical Pangolin-style hemispherical earthen hovels served as condor habitation. The orderliness should have been pleasing to Kei's eyes, but it was ruined by the fact that none of the hovels were painted, indicating that either the condors refused to decorate them in Pangolin style or they were not permitted to. A proper Pangolin burrow felt comfortable to Kei, perhaps even safe—for all her love of high places and clear views, in her previous life she had apparently been a rodent—whereas these felt oppressive even from the outside. She could not imagine how they must be to one used to the open architectural style she had seen at the Kei compound, or could now glimpse in the abandoned paradise above.

    Beside her, Panditto chattered on about the many benefits of optimisation, and how the regularity of construction made it easier to provide basic services, ensure that all housing was properly maintained, conduct evacuations in case of attack, and even provide a pleasing, consistent aesthetic. Kei had taken care to blunt the impact by memorising Ruri's limited briefing on the present state of the Condor Clan in advance, but in order not to draw attention to their collusion, she periodically asked questions to which she did not wish to know the answers.

    "Why is it that most of these condors have wings bound with rope? Surely with their sharp beaks and talons, freeing each other would be trivial."

    "An excellent question, Summoner, yes," Panditto replied. "The Bonds of Civilisation are not the barbaric tool of restraint they may appear. As you say, any condor may remove them with their fellows' cooperation. However, in civilised society, everything you do affects others. If a condor turns their back on society and flees, it is those left behind that suffer the consequences—a simple way to teach a very important lesson."

    "Of course," Panteon added, "there is also the matter of a significant reward for any condor that reports a request for such assistance."

    "Indeed," Panditto said with a bob of the head. "As the wise commissar sees, in a civilised society, we all police each other, yes. The pangolins standing over a resentful populace with whips, whether metaphorical or literal, are only a crutch until the day every condor is ready to willingly assist in building our ideal multispecies empire.

    "In point of fact, do you see that condor over there?" Panditto pointed a claw at a small condor whose wings were unbound, and who instead bore a yellow band with the scale-and-claw emblem of the Holy Pangolin Empire around their left leg. They were easy to identify as the other condors were giving them a wide berth.

    "I do."

    "That is one of the Elect," Panditto explained. "These enlightened few have enthusiastically embraced the Holy Pangolin Empire's ideals and laws, and, upon proving themselves, have been rewarded with the Empire's trust in return. As you see, they have already regained the use of their wings, yes, though only on official business. They also have first pick of housing, and other privileges that encourage the masses to follow their example."

    Someone like Akane might have taken the words at face value. Kei, however, was a former shinobi of Hidden Mist. She understood that a police state did not arise overnight.

    Was Kei about to be personally responsible for the creation of a new Mist?

    Her own strength of will amazed her as she refrained from unsummoning herself to run straight to Tenten.

    Instead, the inspection team proceeded deeper into the heart of darkness, where squat, hard-edged workshops were lined around a bulbous central building like stakes binding a great chakra beast to the ground. Condors hurried to and fro, many dragging pallets of raw and processed materials—wood, metal, stone. The Pangolins were wasting no time exploiting their new resources, nor the labour required to convert them into wealth for the empire. How many products of Kago and its sister settlements did Kei and the other summoners transport every day, rewarding the Pangolin occupation with a ready market for its goods, and demand which would require greater supply from the slaves? On how many levels could a single Kei be complicit in their suffering?

    Here, at the heart of Kago's condor activity, the whispers were more difficult to ignore. It was a quirk of summon communication that, because telepathy did not require specific body language, anyone could say anything with impunity as long as no one could recognise (or be bothered to learn) their specific voice. Kei had expected a much more hostile reaction, which indicated that the condors had been warned in advance of the inspection and the consequences of shaming the Pangolin authorities before visitors from the homeland. Nevertheless, total restraint was impossible in the face of the personal enemy of their entire people.

    "Murderer."

    "Monster."

    "Egg Hoarder."

    "Human scum."

    Many paused in their activities to glare at her with hatred or contempt, though none attacked. Perhaps this was the true benefit of Kei's escorts. The strike team concealed in Kago weeks ago would, in theory, be sufficient to protect her once the condor insurgents attacked, and Kei herself had little to fear from any number of flightless civilian attackers, but the sight of Panchā and Panishu looming behind her would hopefully dissuade any hate-blinded fools who might otherwise pay a terrible price for a failed assault.

    A condor stumbled, upsetting a box of supplies onto the muddy road in front of her. A pangolin overseer was instantly next to them, brandishing (though not yet deploying) her whip as she yelled humiliated imprecations about the condor's parentage, personal traits, and sexual preferences (some more apposite than others, notably "you son of a condor").

    Muttering insincere apologies, the condor gathered the spilled goods and retreated.

    Kei: Alertness 49 + 0 = 49 vs TN 20
    Success.

    Kei had not merely survived but dominated the Chūnin Exams. It took barely a second for her to identify the glint of the blades the condor had "neglected" to collect from the mud she had been about to step into.

    Kei: Athletics 50 + 0 = 50 vs TN 50
    Success.

    Thinking swiftly (noticed, the blades would incur severe punishment; unnoticed, they would injure another who trod on them, and then probably also incur severe punishment) and moving more swiftly still, Kei extracted a cleaning cloth from a storage seal, crouched in front of the blades so as to obscure her actions, used the cloth to collect them without cutting herself, then tied it into an impromptu sack and sealed it away before the others could react.

    "I trust there will be no objection to my collecting production samples as part of the inspection?" she briskly asked Panditto.

    "Of course not, Summoner," Panditto said after a second's disorientation. "We of Kago pride ourselves on the quality of our goods, yes."

    Panteon gave Kei a look she could not read, but did not comment.

    "We have found," Panditto observed, "that manual labour has a pacifying effect on the condor intellect, and is also a natural means of teaching them the discipline they will require in order to one day integrate into broader Pangolin society—and in the meantime, they have a simple and effective way to contribute to the Holy Pangolin Empire in return for the many benefits we bring them. Three condors with one stone, yes, though I suppose the expression might be a little inappropriate under the circumstances.

    "Still, condors are people too, and very much imperfect. I hope you will forgive this tiny failure against the background of Kago's extraordinary efficiency, even by regional standards."

    Kei nodded vaguely, still slightly shaken both by her own audacity and by its implications. Now was not the time, however.

    Wait, Panditto would not recognise human body language.

    "Please forget the incident ever transpired," she clarified.

    -o-​

    "My name is Kei Ruri," Ruri introduced herself. "I am the Condor Summoner, accepted by Conjura herself, and sent here on her orders to speak with Contorarian and his band of freedom fighters."

    Slowly, she kneeled on the ground and unsealed a narrow, lacquered box. As the condors watched from their scattered perches with their superior eyesight, she withdrew a feather as long as her arm. It was jet black, but as it caught the light, a shimmer seemed to run slowly down its length even though it had no sunbeam to reflect.

    There was a burst of psychic chatter too unclear for her to make out.

    Finally, a large black bird, slightly taller than Ruri, swooped down from one of the trees, and settled in front of her with a couple of unnecessarily powerful wingbeats whose wind messed up Ruri's hair.

    "You have one of Conjura's own feathers," he acknowledged. "No mere human could fake the radiance of the Conductor's blessing, or even know to try. I am Contorarian. You may speak."

    "Thank you, Contorarian." Ruri respectfully replaced the feather in the box, which she left on the ground. "I am honoured by your trust, as I am by the Condor Queen's.

    "Conjura knows of your plan to assassinate the Pangolin Summoner on her visit to Kago—"

    There was a round of hissing. Ruri sensed that she had misstepped.

    "We do not recognise the vile Pangolin language!" Contorarian spat. "Its name is Tomarigi, now and forever!"

    "Of course," Ruri said. She held her elbows above her head for a couple of seconds as a sign of contrition. "I apologise. I was forced to trick some Pangolin guards in order to make my way here, and their disrespectful words must have stuck in my mind.

    "Your plan is to assassinate the Pangolin Summoner as she inspects Tomarigi, is that correct?"

    "The Egg Hoarder must die!" another condor exclaimed in a harsh croak.

    Ruri couldn't help herself. "The Egg Hoarder?"

    "The Egg Hoarder steals the eggs of innocent condors," Contorarian explained, "but because her blood is cold as ice, she can never hatch them. She sits on a hoard of dead chicks unborn, her mindless greed bringing suffering to all and benefit to none."

    Ruri didn't have the anatomy to make a condor gesture of sympathy or disgust, which was just as well because she was mostly unmoved. Knowing that it would someday help her earn the favour of Lady Kei and her family, Ruri had taken enough till'n'fills to get a basic grasp of village civilian life (and, being a jōnin accustomed to B- and A-ranks, been considered crazy for it, but this didn't really register since jōnin were expected to be crazy). She'd had plenty of time to wrestle with the fact that infant mortality was the norm in the wider world, and survival the exception.

    "Conjura sends you two messages," she said. "First, the inspection is a trap. A large pangolin force was concealed in Tomarigi well in advance, and if you attack, they will kill you while the forewarned summoner escapes."

    Another burst of chatter.

    "That cannot be," Contorarian said with an appalled tilt of the beak. "Our information comes from a reliable source."

    "So does hers," Ruri said. "I'm afraid you've been tricked."

    Contorarian thought for a while.

    "Thank you for the warning, human. We will wait until they believe the trap has failed, then strike once they are en route to their next destination."

    "I'm afraid that's where the second message comes in," Ruri said. "Conjura wishes Nara Kei, the Pangolin Summoner, to live."

    This time, the psychic exchange was practically an explosion.

    "You lie!" Contorarian shouted. "Conjura would never protect the enemy of our race. You think we don't know that humans will always be loyal to other humans over us summons? Comrades, attack!"

    -o-​

    At last, the industrial district lay behind the inspection team. Ahead was the settlement's largest building, spreading out across the terrain in sections of varying heights like a spreading fungus, or a cancer. Panditto grew visibly more excited the closer they approached.

    "Behold!" he finally spread his arms wide as he turned to face them. "This is Kago's greatest claim to fame, the Regional Reeducation Centre!"

    An all-new chill embraced Kei's heart.

    "I have been looking forward to inspecting this site," Panteon admitted. "Assuming it is being operated to the ministry's exacting standards, this institution could serve as proof of concept for a whole new approach to management of the empire's newest territories, and perhaps even at home as well."

    Following a Panditto vibrating with excitement, Kei took a step inside.


    "Summoner, if you would care to do the honours?"

    What was that? She had been in the middle of some performance. What was the heavy object in her hands?

    Slowly, the haze clouding Kei's mind retreated. They had inspected the Reeducation Centre, and found... found...

    Kei could not remember. No, Kei rejected the ability to remember.

    Whatever darkness lay within those walls, it was beyond her ability to process and accept. To even touch it with her mind nearly made her vomit. She could not imagine what could cause Nara Kei, who had visited Mist T&I on a mandatory Academy field trip, who lived with one foot in the world of horrors that KEI ninja considered ordinary life, who had heard every grim tale of fear and persecution from the members of the Rainbow Fire, and who was inducted into mysteries and made privy to calculations that would plunge the average mind into despair to simply... blank out a period of her experience. Coward though it made her, she did not even attempt it, lest she succeed.

    She hoped Snowflake would enjoy the same protection.

    She apologised, in her mind, to the Condor Clan. She had come here to face the fruit of her greed and folly, to take responsibility, yet even now she could not find the strength. The best she could manage was horror and nausea, slowly and incompletely fading.

    "Summoner, are you all right?"

    Still weak, Kei conjured the calming image of Ami in her mind. Of Snowflake. Of Tenten. Of Shikamaru. Of Akane. Of Hazō. Of Mari. She had two homes and three families to return to once this was over. She could hold on a little longer. Besides, the worst of it was over.

    "Summoner, everyone is waiting for you to execute the prisoners."

    Would she never learn?

    -o-​

    In a flash, Ruri was behind Contorarian, a blade at his neck, his body between her and the majority of the other condors.

    "I come upon the winds of the Conductor's harmony," she repeated the message of peace, not caring how ridiculous it sounded under the circumstances. "Will you hear me out?"

    "Filthy, betraying human!" Contorarian hissed. "Why should we listen to a word you say?"

    Ruri suppressed a sigh. She really did not enjoy killing allies, but if someone became an obstacle to the mission and wasn't protected by the Will of Fire, sometimes you had to do what you had to do.

    "In the immediate," she said, "to save your life. In the longer-term, to save your people."

    "What are you talking about?" Contorarian demanded.

    "I know Nara Kei well," Ruri said. "When she became the Pangolin Summoner, they hid the truth of their militaristic regime from her so they could exploit her power. They convinced her that they would buy seals from her in order to secure their borders from enemy invasion, playing innocent all the while."

    "Nonsense," Contorarian gave the rattling equivalent of a bitter laugh. "No warrior of power could be so naive in the face of true evil."

    "Lady Kei is a good person," Ruri said. "Honestly, too good for a world where morality isn't as important as results. And the Pangolins had centuries to plot how to manipulate her when she came. Then, once she learned of their war of conquest, she terminated their bargain at once, though she paid a great price for it on the Human Path. She has learned, since, that she was too late to protect the Condor Clan, and it's left her riven with guilt."

    "I hope you're not expecting me to care about the feelings of the human whose incompetence-at-best killed my friends and family."

    "I am not denying your right to anger," Ruri said. "Nor does she. This isn't a plea for forgiveness. What matters, Contorarian, is that the Pangolins have a summoner who is sympathetic to the Condor cause. If you kill Lady Kei, can you be sure that the next one will be? That they will not willingly assist the Pangolins in their war on the Condor Clan? That they will not sell them skytowers again, or worse weapons still? The Human Path is not a place where kindness and compassion triumph over aggression and greed. It is a place where summoning scrolls are earned only by those who are best at killing. Lady Kei was an exception who found her scroll instead of winning it. Her successor won't be."

    Contorarian thought.

    "The lesser evil, is it?"

    "I would rather say that a tool for evil has fallen into the hands of someone good who was, perhaps, unprepared to handle it," Ruri said after a second. "She perpetrated by accident an atrocity that any other ninja would have done willingly or even enthusiastically, and they would not have stopped as she did."

    "You make the humans sound even more vile than I imagined them," Contorarian observed. Ruri had to respect the calm he was showing with a kunai less than a centimetre from his carotid.

    "People like us have seen too much to have illusions," Ruri said, "about others or about ourselves. Hate Lady Kei if you will, but she is a tool the Condor Clan needs if we are ever to cast off Pangolin oppression and bring back the peaceful world I never got a chance to witness."

    She'd reached the right beat. She let Contorarian go.

    "You claim Conjura endorses this insanity?" Contorarian asked. "After this human murdered the last summoner before her very eyes and hurt Conjura herself more than any in living memory?"

    "Conjura considers her right to vengeance and her pride to be petty sacrifices when the prize is the freedom of her people," Ruri said. "Certainly less than the civilian casualties you are prepared to risk by fighting in the middle of a town, or when the Pangolins retaliate against the only targets within their reach."

    "Bloody fangs," Contorarian swore. "I hate every note of your song, human, and I hate even more that I don't have a counter that satisfies me. You win for now. We will abandon Operation Butcherbeak and wait for an opportunity to strike against a foe whose wickedness is beyond question. It's not as if we can drop a stone without hitting one around here.

    "In fact," an idea seemed to strike him, "if you are truly a friend of the Condor Clan, perhaps you will give us some of those terrible seals the humans apparently delight in. The Conductor will surely forgive us in these desperate times. Do you have anything for demolishing large structures without too much collateral damage?"

    Explosive tags did the job very nicely, especially if one took the time to read up on basic architecture first. However, as the saying went, you made it to chūnin by learning from your mistakes, and to jōnin by learning from other people's. She did not yet know the Seventh Path well enough to understand all the implications of becoming its second merchant of death, nor did she expect this motley crew to have anything to offer her worth keeping a dangerous secret from Lady Kei (who, she believed, would consider it a betrayal).

    On the other hand, there was one more part to the plan which Ruri had not seen fit to share with Lady Kei, not for any special reason, but just because every good ninja kept some cards up their sleeve that even allies didn't need to know about.

    "I'll do you one better," Ruri said. "How would you like near-instant, secure communication with Conjura and other Resistance cells, plus the ability to purchase supplies from any location with Conjura's full funding?"

    Conjura was not yet aware that she would be paying Ruri to supply the Resistance, but Ruri knew it hurt the Condor Queen to be confined to the mountains after the Pangolins finally found an effective, brutal disincentive against her personal raids. Conjura would definitely seize upon a new opportunity to support her people indirectly, and unlike the rebels themselves, she had Condor ninjutsu and contracts with the Wings of Liberty elite available as payment.

    She watched as the candle lit up in Contorarian's head. Ruri had suspected it ever since she learned the lengths to which the Pangolins were prepared to go to in order to kill him, and grown more certain with every new fact she learned. Contorarian was no mere civilian with a grudge. He was too controlled under pressure, too quick to understand.

    His next words proved it.

    "I think we may be prepared to make a bargain... Summoner."

    -o-​

    Comprehension reasserted itself. No element of what Kei beheld was unfamiliar to her. Not the raised execution platform on which they stood. Not the audience whose size indicated mandatory attendance, in this case primarily condors with enough armed pangolins interspersed among them to discourage ideas. Not the bound prisoners before her. (One glared at her defiantly. One wept silently. A smaller condor comforted two who were smaller still.) And, of course, the axe in her hands was unmistakable.

    She had watched such executions repeatedly as a child. Because it was expected of her. Because she lacked the initiative, no, the imagination to refuse. Because persistent failure to attend was said to be noted in one's dossier. Because it was a family activity in which she could be included.

    This was the loyalty test Ruri had hypothesised. Two branching paths, with a price to pay on either side.

    "Could you recapitulate the situation for me?" Kei stalled. Perhaps if she waited enough, Ruri's failure might result in a murderous condo flooding into the square, replacing her problems with a vastly preferable struggle for survival.

    No, that was selfish. If Ruri failed, it would mean she was injured or dead.

    "...Of course, Summoner," Panditto said.

    He raised his voice for the benefit of his captive audience. "The condor Conbikushon has been found guilty of removing his Bonds of Civilisation and attempting to leave Kago without a permit, both grave crimes under Pangolin legislation, yes. Worse still, there is evidence to suggest that he intended to join the condor insurgent forces, a capital crime. Accordingly, he, his mate, and their three chicks have been sentenced to death by triple severance."

    He turned to Kei.

    "As mentioned, you must cut off the wings with the first stroke, the feet with the second, and the head with the third. We're lucky to have you here, Summoner, yes. It's usually a rather slow and grisly process, but you are said to be swift and precise with edged weapons, and you even have chakra powers to help. Once you're done, we can move right on to the welcome banquet. A list of your preferred grubs was sent ahead in advance."

    No such object existed. Apparently, Panteon was not above petty revenge in addition to the more spectacular kind currently in progress.

    "Well, Summoner?" Panteon verbally prodded her. "You are the claw of the Holy Pangolin Empire. Bring judgement down on the unworthy."

    The headsman's axe was heavy as a mountain, pulled down by the weight of all the lives it had already taken. To Kei, who had a full war's worth of lives on her conscience, it should have been as light as a feather.

    Could Kei wield it? To pass the loyalty test would cement her place among the Pangolins, and earn trust which she could abuse for the Condor Clan's sake in the future. To fail risked that the Pangolins conclude she was unworthy to be their summoner at all, and Kei lacked a suitable heir for the scroll. Most people on her shortlist either did not need it (like Mari), must not be trapped into dealing with the Pangolins (like Akane), were fundamentally unsuited to the role (like Tenten), or could not be trusted not to make decisions to the Seventh Path's detriment as she once had (like Shikamaru, who would honour her preferences while she lived (or else), but might well decide to put Leaf and the Nara's welfare first after her death). Were it her, Ruri noted, upon a failed test she would show no outward sign, but quietly arrange Kei's assassination and the scroll's theft in order to prevent her from leaving it to her like-minded family or casting it into a caldera.

    (The comment had led Kei to reflect how fortunate she was to have Ruri as an ally rather than an enemy. Much later, it occurred to her that this might have been the intended effect.)

    Kei raised the axe. Her hands were already drenched in summon blood, her conscience already heavy enough that no amount of atonement would clear it. There was no reason to hold herself above another sacrifice of her remaining innocence, nor to risk herself to protect those whose fates were already sealed.

    Thunk.

    It was the sound of finality.


    "Summoner, what is the meaning of this?" Panditto demanded, staring at the axe buried in the wood of the platform. "Surely you didn't just miss?"

    "I did not," Kei confirmed, forcing herself into an appearance of calm. "On my authority, I hereby declare this execution invalid and pardon these prisoners for all crimes committed."

    Because despite all her vaunted rationality, in the end Kei was a fool who was unable to sell her soul even to save herself, much less for a worthy cause. If she was indeed assassinated as a result of this, she hoped her family could forgive her.

    "What?! You can't do that!"

    "On the contrary," Kei said, thinking on her feet, scouring her discussions with Ami, Ruri, and Snowflake for every idea that might apply. "As a member of the inspection team, it is well within my rights to call out any improprieties and failures I observe, and enforce correction."

    Panditto hesitated, then interlaced his claws in submissive agreement.

    Could it truly be as easy as—

    "And as the head of the inspection team," Panteon cut in, "it is within my rights to overrule you."

    He stepped closer so that the condor audience was no longer privy to their exchange.

    "You cannot save these criminals, Summoner," he hissed. "You lack both the legal and the moral right. There is only one law that matters on this Path, the law of the Holy Pangolin Empire. Just like the rest of us, your choice is to enforce it or to be judged by it. Or do you think it is only condors who are punished when they defy us?"

    Panteon: Intimidation ?? + ? = ??
    Kei: Resolve 69 - 6 = 63
    Kei is bulletproof.

    Oddly, it was Panteon's blatant threat that liberated Kei from her uncertainty. Within the unbearable storm of complexity that was her life, every problem had a dozen theoretical solutions, each problematic in its own ways, but threats only ever merited one response.

    "Commissar Panteon," she said. "You appear to be under the peculiar illusion that you possess any authority over me whatsoever. Allow me to correct you. The only individual on this Path with any authority over me is Pantsā of the Adamant Scales, whom I permit to hold it in exchange for the benefits accorded by our contract. You are nothing to me. You are one of countless minor servants of the power I deal with directly, and if I were to slay you here and now, it would only be a matter of paperwork to replace you. Pantsā's authority protects you, to an extent, insofar as you are not worth the effort that would be necessary to placate him after your death, but you are deluded if you believe a creature as insignificant as you is capable of wielding it against me.

    "Now, on my authority as Summoner, which derives directly from the Polemarch and may be countermanded only by the Polemarch, free the prisoners. I shall not ask again."

    From the look in his eyes, Kei briefly thought Panteon intended to physically attack her.

    Fortunately, whatever Panteon might be, Panditto was definitely a coward.

    "Free the prisoners!" he yelled at the guards.

    There would be a reckoning later, Kei knew, and she would not enjoy it. She might not survive it. Still, for the moment, she had earned the right to remain herself.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 578: A Dog's Dinner
  • Threadmarks

    • A fourth hunting call, a howling, echoing laugh, emerged from the valley below them, by the copse of trees beside the river they had been paralleling. The Horizon Chasers stopped.

    "And that makes four," Canzon said as the dogs around her raised their ears and growled. "Aaaaand we're surrounded. Well, the plan's shot, and something tells me they didn't bring all their little prairie-rats together because they wanted to chat. Any bright ideas, Summoner?"

    Principles of combat, terrain elements, known capabilities of his allies, and overall strategic objectives tumbled through Hazō's mind. The terrain was...not ideal, but it could have been far worse. He and his charges had been hiking up into the rocky foothills of Hyena territory. The ground was covered in low, scraggly bushes that had been pale green in the daylight and were now indistinct blobs in the night. The team had stopped amidst a bare and rocky patch that was roughly a circle and roughly twenty yards across. The rocks along the northern side of the circle overhung enough to provide shelter for the least combat-capable dogs in the group. There was a series of short cliffs behind them and another ranging from their front to their three o'clock. A couple hundred yards to the west were several large tumbles of rock. To the east, the land sloped down to the river. An enemy coming from the north would be unseen until it was directly above them, but nothing was perfect. The sky above was mostly clear. The wind had died, leaving the air almost still; the dogs were unlikely to scent attackers coming.

    All this swept through Hazō's evaluation in two brief seconds and then a plan had crystallized. He placed his fingers in a cross and said, "Shadow Clone!" Four new Hazōs appeared, quickly collected the pre-prepared stacks of seals that Hazō handed them, slotted the skywalker seals into their sandals, and spread out.

    "Noncombatants, gather 'round!" two of the Hazōs called out, pulling lengths of rope from their seals. Meanwhile, the other two Hazōs produced the pieces of a skytower and snapped them together with practiced speed.

    "Hey!" / "Whoa!" squeaked Canajong and Canamo, the pack's two puppies. The skytower clones had each grabbed a puppy in one arm, their side of the platform in the other, and were sprinting into the sky.

    "What are you doing, Summoner?" Canzon demanded.

    "We aren't going to win against four packs," the Summoner said. "We need to get everyone out of here, starting with the noncombatants. Two of my clones are going to set up a skytower high enough that we're out of jutsu range. It's nighttime; if we get everyone up there the hyenas will sweep on by and we can move on later."

    Canzon looked up at where the clones were faint silhouettes against the dark brown sky, legs pumping as they climbed higher and higher. She looked back at Hazō. "How exactly are you going to get us up there?"

    "There's no time to make harnesses," he said, wincing as though the words pained him. "Everyone bite down on these ropes and the three of us"—he waved at his two clones—"will carry you up to the platform. We'll have to go in groups, but we'll take the noncombatants first."

    Canzon blinked. "Are you mad? There's no way. You aren't strong enough to carry all of us in one batch, there isn't time for two batches, and it wouldn't work anyway. People would tear their teeth out and plummet to their deaths."

    "Ma'am, there's no time to argue this," he said. "They're going to be on us in seconds."

    "That's not a workable plan, Summoner."

    He gritted his teeth. "Fine." He jerked his head at the two clones. They pounced, one of them yanking the two trackers off their feet and throwing them over his shoulders while the other grabbed Cancan, the pack's den mother. Both clones grunted their way into the sky, clearly struggling with the weight and snarling at their burdens to stop squirming.

    Hazō ignored the byplay and gestured towards the overhang. "Hunters, under the overhang. Fighters, form up with me in the center. The clones will keep an eye out from above to warn us about attackers coming from the north. We don't have to kill them all, we only have to hold them back until the skytower is set up and the noncombatants are safe. With that done, my clones will skywalk over attackers and rain down explosives and fire."

    Canzon nodded, her eyes gleaming hungrily. "Now this is a plan I can get behind. Canyon, Canny, you've got the west arc. The Summoner is in the center, I'm to the east. The rest of you, under the overhang."

    "But..." Canonical said, looking from side to side. She was licking her chops nervously and her eyes were wide. "They're awfully big, ma'am."

    Canzon's ear twitched in a complex feeling that she couldn't quite tease apart—amusement, frustration, pride, something...

    "Just think of them as teeny-tiny little bison," she said. "Now listen to the Summoner and get under the overhang!"

    "Yes, ma'am!" Canonical squeaked.

    Canonical, Cantle, and Canteen, the three hunters of the tiny and newborn Horizon Chasers pack, hurried under the overhang as ordered. They were young, and lazy enough that they had never been interested in learning to fight as opposed to the easy job of hunting. This was probably the first time they had ever been in actual danger in their lives. Unsurprisingly, they were licking their chops nervously...but they were also facing out and ready to fight. Canzon nodded in satisfaction. Frightened or not, they did the Dog Clan proud.

    "We can—"

    "Storm Element: Wind's Grasp!"

    Hazō would never finish saying what they could do; something grabbed him in an invisible paw and hurled him away and out of sight in a blink.

    A frisson of terror rippled down Canzon's back. Hints of movement showed hyenas coming in from three sides and the team had lost potentially their strongest guardian in the opening seconds of the fight.

    "Eyes up!" she snapped, sweeping her eyes frantically over the darkness to the east.

    "Two west!" Canny said.

    "Unknown, south!" Canyon said.

    Canzon could feel her breathing accelerating and she had to fight down generations of canine instinct to whirl upon those who intended harm to her pack, to join with her pack in destroying their foes, to snap and rend and bite— No. She needed a cool head, and she needed to find the son of a cat who had done for their Summoner.

    The world became muffled around her, as though she were sticking her head underwater; there was still sound there, but it was quiet and distant and strange. She cursed and ignored it.

    There!

    A hyena had been lying flat amidst the bushes about fifty yards to the east, looking like just another unremarkable blob in the darkness. It must have crawled on its belly from the rock pile in order to get close enough for a preemptive strike, but now it had made the mistake of turning its head in order to watch where the Summoner had been thrown. (Was it possible he was still alive?!)

    "Star Element: Nova Burst!" Canzon barked, the chakra-infused words tearing their way out of her throat.

    Silvery light burst forth from her body, condensed into a point, and lanced out in a beam two feet wide. The thermal bloom set the grass on fire in a straight line from caster to target, throwing the entire battlefield into sanguine relief. For one single instant, sound ceased to exist in the world as the silence of the void clamped down...and then it returned with a blast so loud that she felt it in her chest. Her target was thrown back, fur on fire, flesh smoking, and bounced three times before coming to a halt. It twitched slightly and managed to roll back to its belly, paws moving with the incoherence of a fighter whose bell had been severely rung.

    A fighter whose bell had been rung but who was going to get up in another few seconds. Hopefully the Summoner would be back in the game by then, if he was indeed still alive. She had bought him as much time as she could and she needed to protect the others now.

    She turned to find that much had happened in the seconds she had been distracted. Three hyenas had already joined the dogs in their rocky little arena and four more would be here in seconds. Canyon, the second strongest Horizon Chasers fighter after Canzon herself, was trapped inside a crystalline hyena skull the size of a transport sled. A sickly purple cord of whirling chakra led south from the skull back to the hyena that had had cast it and was (presumably) maintaining it.

    Canyon's brother, Canny, a deep-chested dog with black spots and powerful jaws, had dragged two of the initial attackers into a whirling, writhing, biting ball of fury. He wasn't losing, but he wasn't winning either; none of the three could get a solid blow in on their opponents. The third hyena had slipped around the battle and was in midair, descending on her and only two feet away with powerful jaws gaping wide to bite her in half. Her chakra was still chaotic from the Nova Blast and it would be another moment before she could form another one. It was too close to dodge. She—

    The monster was tackled out of the air by a combined rush from Canonical, Cantle, and Canteen. None of them were more than forty pounds and the three of them together didn't mass as much as the hyena, but they hit it with three perfectly synchronized shoulder rushes and knocked it ass over nose.

    "We've got this, ma'am!" Cantle squeaked. "It's just a teeny bison!" He dashed forward, snapping at the hyena's haunch as he went. The massive animal spun to face him but Cantle was already out of range and Canonical was coming in on its flank, teeth bared.

    The hyena caught Canonical's approach from the corner of its eye and spun to face her. She pivoted adroitly on her paws and reversed course, the tip of her tail losing a few hairs as the hyena's jaws snapped closed on where her head would have been.

    Canteen got her teeth into the hyena's haunch and locked down hard, drawing a shriek from the monster. It spun, practically folding itself in half to get at her, but she stayed ahead of it and didn't let go. She didn't try to tear or rip at its flesh; that wasn't her job. Her job was to hold its attention and stay alive.

    Canonical came in on the hyena's off side, going for its throat. At the same instant, Cantle went for its right rear ankle to lame it in case the killing stroke failed.

    The hyena reversed course so fast that Canteen was yanked off her feet with a startled yip. It lunged, head low and rising up under Canonical's attack. It got its jaws into her throat and clamped down with a bite force that could crack bone; a shake of its head and Canonical's corpse hit the dirt, her head connected to her body only by her spine. At the same time, the hyena swatted Cantle aside with a kick that sent him flying, stopping abruptly when he hit a rock headfirst. The young dog yipped and collapsed, visibly dazed and struggling to make his paws work.

    o-o-o-o​

    "We can—"

    "Storm Element: Wind's Grasp!"

    Hazō would never finish saying what they could do; an invisible vice clamped around him with force that would have crushed his ribcage had his Pangolin Conditioning Jutsu not protected him before breaking. He had no time to react before he was hurled to the north, ragdolling through the sky, shrieking in fear as the world flickered around him: flashes of grass and rocks, sky, an incoming pack of red-eyed hyenas, more sky—

    Acting purely on instinct, he triggered his skywalkers and then instantly shut them off again, screaming in agony as the force of his motion jammed sideways against his knee while his feet stayed locked in place. He flickered the skywalkers in tiny pulses until the enemy jutsu broke and he once more had control of himself.

    A dozen-ish hyenas were racing towards him, massive hindquarters bunching and extending smoothly as terrifying cackles trilled from their lips. Had he not had his skywalkers, he would have landed right in the middle of them.

    Too much was happening too fast; his brain was scrambling to find its place again as the fear and pain and dizziness tore through his mental control and left him confused.

    "Star Element: Nova Burst!" Canzon barked from far behind him.

    The world went utterly silent for the duration of one fast-racing heartbeat, and then there was a catastrophe of sound and light from back where the dogs fought. It was accompanied by a hyena's high-pitched scream and the sound of fire.

    A thousand battles, ten thousand lessons, and a hundred thousand hours of ninja training dragged him back to himself, reminded him of what mattered and what his duty was.

    "Got a joke for you, you laughing assholes," Hazō whispered with a tight smile to the yipping, cackling hyenas charging from the north. His hands moved to touch the relevant pockets of his CHAOS suit and two pulses of chakra activated a pair of seals.

    The first, a Multiple Activation Relay Seal, triggered the Banshee Slayer seal on the collars worn by both Hazō and his canine charges. Hazō had been forcing the dogs to wear the collars ever since this trip started and all of them had been piiiissed about it, constantly complaining that they found the things itchy and restrictive. Hazō had explained the reasoning, urged, cajoled, pointed out that he was wearing an identical collar, and finally ordered them to wear the things under his Cannai-granted authority as their security officer. It hadn't stopped the complaining, but it had stopped the actual attempts to remove the collars. It had also cost him a lot of goodwill, but that was paying off now as the Banshee Slayer seals on each of the collars activated, bubbling the dogs' (and Hazō's) heads in a protective sphere of near-silence. It would make it harder for them to know what was happening around them, but it would also protect them from what came next.

    The second seal Hazō activated was one of Jiraiya's favorite toys: a Banshee Fucker. It screamed forth a ululating wail so loud that it reduced Canzon's Nova Burst explosion to a delicate sneeze, a wail so loud that it would be audible for miles in every direction. It was like the end of the world in sonic form, and Hazō was wearing it in the left shoulderblade pocket of his CHAOS suit. Heavy padding had been sewn underneath it in order to muffle the vibrations; simply being near it was painful, and having it actually in contact with your flesh had a habit of causing embarrassing side effects such as internal bleeding and collapsing lungs.

    The hyenas who had been charging down on him—ten, not twelve, now that he had a chance to count—collapsed and skidded, rolling across the rocks and dirt as they wailed in pain and struggled to block their ears.

    Hazō ignored them, not even taking the time to dig out, prime, and hurl an explosive. Canzon's jutsu had lit several hundred square meters of grass on fire, providing more than enough light to make out what was happening on the battlefield. Specifically, it showed two of the dogs down, one entombed and motionless, and the rest beset.

    He charged, legs pumping hard as his skywalkers allowed him to skip past all the rocks and holes and bad footing. He went up and east, looping over where Canzon's Nova Burst victim was struggling back to its paws and looking for a way out of the flames that surrounded it. The hyena collapsed again as the ongoing onslaught of Hazō's Banshee Fucker approached and in the light of the flames he could see traces of blood coming from the creature's ears. His teeth bared without his conscious intent, a vicious glee in his heart as he saw his enemy humbled by the power of seals, the power of human intellect. A tiny whisper in the back of his mind warned him that padding and Banshee Slayers only did so much and that he would suffer the same fate as the hyena if he kept the Banshee Fucker so close to his body for long. He could already feel the pain in his bones, the nausea in his belly.

    From behind him, hyena voices shouted. "Storm Element: Sky Strike!" / "Metal Element: Iron Bullet!"

    Hazō hurled himself to the side and cut his skywalkers, dropping from the sky and rolling across the ground. He clutched instinctively for his chakra, desperate to trigger the familiar enhancement of chakra boost that would lend speed and precision to his evasion, but there was nothing there. His chakra coils were empty from creating the Shadow Clones, barely enough left to sustain life, and he cursed as his body refused to enhance itself.

    A bolt of lightning crashed down from the sky, passing right through where he would have been had he continued forward; it turned the ground to glass in a circle two feet wide. A lump of iron the size of his fist slammed into his calf and a spike of pain wooshed the air from his lungs. He hit the ground hard, bounced while biting back a scream, and forced himself to roll back to his feet and leap upwards, reactivating his skywalkers to get himself above and away from the flames before they could catch on his seals. His ankle screamed in fiery agony but he ignored it and ran.

    "Suck on this," Hazō growled, ripping the padded section of his uniform free and dropping it on a patch of fire-free rock a few yards from the screaming, ears-bleeding hyena. There was no time to finish the thing, but this would be enough for now. It was three-quarters cooked, in the middle of a fire, and disabled by sonic attack. If it wasn't dead by the end of the main fight then he could come back for it.

    "Star Element: Nova Burst!" Canzon cried. She had dashed up the rock scramble so that she could see the hyenas who had moments ago fired on Hazō. The hyena pack coming from the north had gotten their paws under them and resumed their charge once the Banshee Fucker moved out of range. The beam of Canzon's attack blasted at the center of their ranks, but the targeted hyena dodged at the last second and the beam hit the ground behind them. The explosion scorched fur and hurled the hyenas a dozen feet, but Hazō couldn't see any clear fatalities.

    He drew a wooden disk from a pocket on his hip and leaped in the air, triple-jumping off his skywalkers to gain enough height that he could hurl it back towards the pack of hyenas to the north. Towards the ones who had injured him.

    Hazō was no hand with thrown weapons; he hadn't practiced the art since leaving the Academy and 'broadside of a barn, maybe' was about his level of accuracy. The throwing disk landed vaguely near the charging hyenas, endangering none of them, and they laughed hysterically as they went past it.

    And then Kagome-sensei's Goo Bomb seal, the one wrapped around the throwing disk, activated. Cyan syrup flew out from the seal to blanket an area a dozen yards across. Half a second later it hardened into a marginally flexible material nearly as strong as steel. Two of the hyenas had been doused in it and they found themselves pinned helplessly to the ground.

    "Crystal Element: Entombing Skull!" came a cackling voice from the south.

    Hazō looked back in time to see a purple cord of pure chakra flick out of the shadows and snag around Canzon's neck. Crystal exploded out of it, forming around the warrior dog and stabilizing into the shape of a hyena skull with its fangs bared; Canzon was completely trapped inside the body of the skull.

    Canzon and Canyon, the two strongest fighters, trapped. Canonical, dead in a spilled bathtub of blood. Cantle, swaying on his feet with one leg held off the ground. Canny, embroiled with three hyenas while his flanks and back bled freely from dozens of small wounds and abrasions. Canteen, being chased by a hyena five times his size and barely surviving by using his tighter turning radius to lead the monster in circles around Canyon's crystal prison.

    Five more hyenas were leaping onto the rocky circle and would be on top of the dogs in under a second.

    A beam of golden light lanced out of Canzon's eyes, passing through her crystalline prison without affecting it, aimed for the two hyenas that Hazō had gooed up. The beam went through the first hyena's head front to back, kept going, and burned through the second one's chest and lungs. The heat of the attack made the first one's head explode and dropped the other instantly.

    Unfortunately, the attack had not been quite fast enough; the two hyenas got their own attacks off in the instant before they were killed. A ball of iron shattered the crystal prison entombing Canzon and crushed her hindquarters. The wound might have been survivable, but another bolt of lightning crashed from the sky and turned her into charcoal.

    Hazō shivered in fear; Goo Bombs tended to stop human ninja from being able to make handseals, which meant they couldn't use ninjutsu to counterattack. He had forgotten that Dog (and, apparently, Hyena) jutsu were different. Hazō had been skylined and mostly static after throwing; if Canzon hadn't drawn the enemies' fire, Hazō would have been dead for sure.

    "Run!" Canny shouted as a hyena overbore him. He tucked his paws under himself and forced the roll to continue so as to block the lunge of the other two hyenas with the body of their packmate. Halfway through the roll he kicked with his back legs, tearing the guts out of his attacker. When he came back to his feet the hyena stayed down, blood pouring from its belly.

    If Canzon had survived to use her massive area-effect jutsu against the incoming hyenas, if Canonical hadn't been so quickly and brutally killed, if Canyon hadn't been entombed in crystal, if Canny had been free to act in defense of his packmates, if there hadn't been five more hyenas joining the fight...if the situation had been different, perhaps the surviving hunters would have ignored Canny's command and gone to the larger dog's aid. Perhaps that would even have turned the tide of battle, or perhaps not. As it was, Canteen and Cantle turned to flee past the fire and Banshee Fucker to the east and down to the the trees and river where they could find cover and break trail. East was also the direction that gave them the best odds of slipping past the new wave of hyenas.

    Canteen made it, bolting across the stones and into the flames that were starting to burn themselves out. Cantle was a step too slow and the eastmost of the hyenas got its front teeth into his haunch and ripped free a massive chunk of flesh. Cantle screamed in agony and went to the ground but rolled back to his feet and continued to flee, now on three legs. The hyena gave a cackling howl and went after the little dog.

    The five incoming hyena warriors arrived and piled onto Canny, who had set his back to his brother's crystalline prison and was limned in a blazing blue aura. Somehow, the dog held off all seven attackers.

    Hazō's heart screamed at him; he needed to go after Cantle and Canteen, save them from a pursuer that they couldn't hope to defeat. He also needed to save Canny from overwhelming numbers. He needed to deal with the survivors to the north before they could mix in. There were too many needs and not enough time to do them all. And it wouldn't even matter if there were; wounded and without chakra he couldn't hope to survive a close-quarters battle against these hyenas.

    He pulled an implosion bomb from his hip pocket, armed it, and threw it south to where the purple cord of chakra led from Canyon's prison to the hyena who empowered that prison. There was a brief whump, zorp, a grunt, and the purple cord disappeared.

    "Thank you, Sensei," Hazō muttered.

    The crystal skull that had been holding Canyon out of the fight dissolved. The furious dog, having been forced to watch the murder of his packleader and one of his packmates, howled in rage and dove at the hyenas who were attacking his brother.

    He came from the side, attacking the eastmost hyena before it realized the dog was free. Canyon got his teeth into the enemy's throat and tore it free without slowing down, slamming into the next hyena in line and sending it flying into the others. The whole group was left surprised and momentarily off-balance.

    That was all that Canny needed. He lunged and tore a hyena leg off at the thigh, dropping the enemy in a bleeding mess and then jumping back out before the rest could turn and attack.

    The two dogs fought with the sort of perfect synchronization held only by those who had fought together for years. People like Team Uplift, whispered a portion of Hazō's soul that he didn't have time to listen to.

    Canyon and Canny were big dogs, deep-chested and narrow-headed, with powerful jaws and vicious teeth. They moved around the hyenas, preventing them from spreading out and using their greater numbers. They bit and snapped, one of them drawing attention while the other attacked from the side. Canny blinded one of the hyenas with a paw-swipe and Canyon smacked another with a headswipe that knocked out most of the teeth on the left side of its jaw.

    The surviving hyenas recognized a losing fight when they saw one. They lunged forward in a tight group, knocking Canyon and Canny aside and racing after where Cantle and Canteen were fleeing through the last of the fire and the ongoing noise of the Banshee Fucker. Their original pursuer was right on their heels, cackling in anticipation of blood.

    "Plant Element: Shredding Thorns!"

    The cry came from the south, from a hyena that had yet to show itself. In front of the fleeing hunters, the plants swelled to massive size and sprouted thorns half a foot long.

    Canteen yelped and jumped aside as the plants struck. He skirted around the attack and continued fleeing as ordered. The wounded Cantle wasn't fast enough. He was caught by three of the plant stems, his body pierced by massive thorns that lifted him into the air and tore him apart in one swift motion.

    Hazō's head snapped around and another implosion bomb vaulted from his hand towards where the plant-using hyena was already turning to flee. The creature was outside the immediate area of the seal's effect and thus did not have its lungs collapse as the air disappeared from within them. It was briefly retarded in its flight by the wind rushing into the ensuing vacuum and then boosted outwards as the seal ruptured and released its contents to surge forth once more, scouring the ground and hurling medium-sized stones everywhere. The hyena yelped and disappeared into the darkness before Hazō could follow up with another attack.

    Canyon and Canny howled in fury and went after the hyenas who were pursuing Canteen.

    Two of the hyenas glanced back and saw the brothers coming. They yipped in fear and broke off, turning north and fleeing. Moments later the others abandoned the pursuit and fled as well, scattering to both sides. Canyon and Canny snarled in anger but let them go, calling out to Canteen to stop, to return to where it was now safe.

    Hazō looked north, looked south, looked west and east and collapsed to the ground in exhaustion and relief when he saw an absence of surviving hyena combatants. The dogs had paid a terrible price, but the hyenas were fleeing in panic.

    For now.




    Author's Note:

    This battle was rolled out in meticulous detail, 95% of the work being done by the wonderful @Paperclipped, without whom this would not have been manageable given where my spoons have been lately. Separating the QM discussion from the rolls and formatting everything neatly would be a drag and I'm already behind, so I'm only posting some bullets:

    • Hazō took a Mild Physical Consequence ("Internal Bruising") from being too close to the Banshee Fucker for too long.
    • Hazō took a Moderate Physical Consequence ("Cracked Shin") from the enemy ranged jutsu.
    • The Banshee Fucker seal is silenced and expended. You have more.
    • Dog deaths: Canzon (fighter, pack leader); Canonical (hunter), and Cantle (hunter).
    • Hyena deaths: 3 in melee [relatively intact corpses], 2 to Canzon [Nova Burst], 1 to Hazō [implosion].
    • Current status:
      • Hazō has essentially no chakra.
      • Hazō has 4 Shadow Clones extant.
      • There is a skytower half a mile in the air with five dogs on it: two puppies, two trackers, and a den mother.
      • They are terrified out of their minds and the platform is too small for them all but the clones are setting up overlapping platforms so that everyone will have a bit more space.
      • There are no living enemies available to kill.
      • Some injured (i.e. Consequences) hyenas escaped.
      • The surviving, uninjured hyenas have dispersed.
      • Everyone's best guess is that the injured hyenas from these two packs will spread out and hide while the uninjured ones will link up with the other two packs and probably attack again.
      • With Hazō injured, the party can't outrun the hyena packs.
      • It's possible that the noise made by the Banshee Fucker will draw Haiwarai's attention. (Haiwarai is the Hyena Boss.)
    This update was about 10 minutes long.

    XP AWARD: 2

    Brevity XP: 1

    "GM had fun" XP: 2     Honestly, I was so mentally exhausted that getting this done was nearly impossible, but this is the kind of thing I normally enjoy writing and therefore I'm awarding it.

    Vote time! What to do now?

    Voting ends on Wednesday, .
     
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    • Interlude: Operation Murdersnout, Aftermath Part 1​

    It was evening. Kei's polycule had finished celebrating the failure of her latest mission, and now she was alone, it was clear to her that not even Leaf's finest carrot cake (at least, according to the as-yet-incomplete graph of statistical averages of Leaf's carrot cake-serving patisseries) could rid her of the bitter aftertaste of colonialism. Commissar Panteon was nothing more than a gleeful hypocrite, his moralistic pronouncements ultimately self-serving and the fine he imposed a blatant bribe that Kei doubted would ever reach the Ministry of Doctrine's coffers. Yet the other… Coordinator Panditto was more than a petty bureaucrat with delusions of grandeur. He was a dark mirror to Coordinator Kei.

    Kei did not deny the peasants in the villages their personhood as so many shinobi did. She did, however, in her heart of hearts consider the average peasant an unwashed savage—separated from shinobi by lack of education rather than by inherent mental inferiority, yes, but that the gap was bridgeable rendered it no less vast. It was Uplift's mission to civilise them, to replace their clumsy and inefficient ways with optimised ones that would bring happiness and prosperity to both them and their rulers. Uplift was anti-traditionalist at its very core, and if, from her and the others' enlightened perspective, a tradition brought harm to its followers, then it needed to be eliminated, ideally with patience and persuasion, but by any means necessary if it threatened the followers' or others' survival, or was a significant obstacle to Uplift's progress. (Shikamaru once asked her whether she considered it ethical to remove children from their parents if doing so would significantly increase the former's odds of survival or their future happiness. To Kei, it had not been immediately clear that this was meant to be a conundrum.)

    Uplift was defined by a set of values, first loosely indicated by Hazō and then evolved in different but complementary directions by his allies: education for all, optimisation through technological advancement, all human life being sacred, the triumph of humanity over nature, et cetera et cetera. These values had room for discussion and interpretation, but they were ultimately non-negotiable. Their opposites could not be permitted to exist if the world was to progress towards the utopia Kei and the others envisioned, and a culture which refused to abandon those opposites would need to be overwritten. This was not limited to the peasants: Uplift demanded that the Hagoromo either willingly discard their bigoted ways or be transformed so that only the acceptable parts of their identity remain.

    All this was obvious. The peasants themselves would surely agree, once they possessed education comparable to hers. Who would accept the tiniest unnecessary risk of death? Who would struggle to support themselves when they could live in prosperity and use the same time and energy to pursue loftier goals? Who would not wish progress to birth an even brighter future for their children?

    Coordinator Panditto would disagree with Kei only on the details.

    Kei's natural response was that, unlike him, she was correct. The condors did not require Panditto's false Uplift, and if they were gaining anything at all, it was vastly eclipsed by all that they had lost and all they were losing with every second more. The peasants of the Human Path most certainly required Uplift, for many as a matter of life and death, and unlike Panditto's, her values were correct.

    If only that was the nature of values.

    Both Mist and Leaf's core teachings proscribed moral relativism as a certain path to damnation, a way to stray from the wisdom of the ancestors or the Will of Fire and find oneself in a no man's land of temptation and resulting sin from which there was no means of return. Moral relativism regressed people to beasts, the wise instructors taught those unhealthily inclined to question, and shinobi who found themselves uncertain over what should be obvious truths were to hasten to the Office of Moral Correction or the Hagoromo before it was too late.

    Kei, who had first lost her faith in the wisdom of the ancestors, then been parted from the beacon of guidance that was Ami, then encountered the Will of Fire as an outsider too cynical to believe its promises, could not claim that her values were backed by some manner of absolute truth. At best, they were backed by Hazō. What if she was the blind one, not Panditto? Or rather, since that possibility was too viscerally repugnant to consider, what if they were both blind in the same way? What if their Uplifts were on course to exactly the same destination, a tyranny of the newly-empowered intoxicated with their own enlightenment and demanding that the rest of the world become their mirror?

    She had no answer. Nor could anyone answer the question for her, for the world around her was divided into those equally invested in Uplift and those who did not understand it. She could see the flaws in Panditto's vision with agonising clarity, yet her own Uplift seemed immaculate, and it was laughable to believe something even partly of Nara Kei's creation could be without flaw.

    Did Kei have the right to risk creating a second dystopia?

    -o-​

    Part 2 coming tomorrow assuming Pantsā cooperates (with the writing, not with Kei).
     
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    • Interlude: Operation Murdersnout, Aftermath Part 2​

    Ultimately, Kei arrived at no useful conclusion during her sleepless night. Her only consolation was that in the immediate, she could at least harm the Condors no further. Even with her social skills that humbled the most eloquent jellyfish, she doubted she would accidentally persuade Pantsā to move from cultural genocide to the very literal kind.

    (A little voice inside her questioned if death might not be better than being stripped not only of one's agency, but eventually even of the concept. While Kei agreed in principle, she was also aware that she was far too flawed a creature to make such decisions for others while other options remained, and more importantly, as a Mori, she knew never to trust an inner voice that presented death as the ideal solution to anything. Her own voice was troublesome enough.)

    She wished she had had more time to prepare, to wait for Ami to return from her mission or to consult the world expert in provoking demigods into homicidal wrath and surviving the consequences; even in the unlikely event that Hazō had nothing to offer, he would surely appreciate a stimulating diversion from the mind-numbing tedium of long-distance travel. Unfortunately, she was racing against Panteon, whose report doubtless incriminated her in every possible way, and therefore must not reach Pantsā first. As a summoner who could be reverse-summoned into the heartlands at any time, she held an overwhelming advantage, but she could not afford to squander it. Panteon would certainly swallow his false supremacist beliefs enough to dispatch a messenger condor if it meant revenge for his public humiliation, to say nothing of imagined past slights.

    "It gives me pleasure to see you alive and well, Summoner," Pantsā rumbled, his gargantuan form mercifully half-concealed within the shadows of his subterranean audience chamber. In the background, torch flames flickered in a mysterious breeze, ever on the verge of being extinguished, much like herself. "Your celerity in coming to report is... commendable."

    "Thank you, Polemarch." Kei interlaced her rather lacking claws in the proper gesture of respect. "The secondary objective met with predictable success. I learned much about Pangolin governance of the occupied Condor territory, and Commissar Panteon will surely provide a detailed description of his more informed observations.

    "Unfortunately"—Kei launched into the part that might have been a disaster were it not for Snowflake, and might be a disaster still considering divergence did not liberate the latter from their appalling social skills—"the Intelligence Corps failed completely in their assigned task. Either its agents failed to convey the necessary information to the target altogether, or they did so unconvincingly, for Contorarian and his insurgents failed to make an appearance at any point during the inspection.

    "I suppose," she added as if the thought had just occurred to her, "it is also possible that the strike team failed to conceal itself sufficiently, or even that communications were somehow compromised, in which case it may be precipitous to allot all the blame to the Intelligence Corps.

    "I did at least manage to salvage what resources I could, specifically the condor prisoners whose performative execution was intended as a final touch to provoke the insurgents into action according to our preferred timing. As the mission was apparently compromised before it began, their deaths would not have achieved any meaningful objective.

    "Although in the strict sense, the mission was ultimately a waste of my time, I am disinclined to demand additional compensation insofar as I found the experience unexpectedly educational in logistical and administrative terms."

    She waited as Pantsā contemplated her thoroughly-biased, carefully-weighted version of events. Why had Kei, Uplift's least socially-adept and persuasive member, ever been granted the Pangolin Scroll instead of someone like Mari?

    No, Mari as she was then would not have halted the skytower trade. From that perspective, perhaps it had been for the best that Kei received the scroll. Though shamefully late in coming and humiliatingly inept in execution, her decision was one nobody else in the family had been willing to propose, not even Akane.

    "Summoner," Pantsā said, "allow me to express my regret concerning the failure of the mission. Doubtless, you were burning with enthusiasm at the thought of slaying those who would deprive the Holy Pangolin Empire of its spoils of war. Rest assured that once we identify those responsible, they will not escape the consequences of their actions."

    His tone was mild, too mild for a general hearing of the survival of enemies that had presumably taken the lives of his subordinates before, and would now surely proceed to do so again.

    "Yet one point troubles me, Summoner. You were assigned to this mission as a combatant. On what authority did you think to overturn the lawful judgement of the Holy Pangolin Empire and spare prisoners that the court had not ordered spared?"

    Here it came. Kei, a realist, had never truly believed that they could bury this essential point. Instead, she would be forced to gamble outrageously, perhaps with her life.

    "Why, yours, Polemarch."

    Kei could hear Pantsā's tail shift alarmingly.

    "I do not recall granting you any such. Summoner, falsely claiming privileges of rank is a grave crime according to Pangolin law, doubly so for a human who has not even earned a place within the armed forces."

    "What other authority could I possibly have?" Kei asked. "I am not, as you observe, within the chain of command. Nor have I sworn loyalty to the Holy Pangolin Empire, to be bound by its laws as a citizen. I answer to you and you alone, and any action of mine that you affirm is no more or less legitimate than if you had performed it yourself."

    Pantsā gazed at her, his expression as unreadable as that of any giant scaled alien mammal.

    "And why would I ever affirm the contravention of Pangolin justice you performed?"

    Still alive. The gamble had to proceed. Would that there were some kami to appeal to that might tilt chance her way, but even if such an improbable being existed, she doubted its reach extended here.

    "Because.... my loyalty is worth more to you than the lives or deaths of some random handful of condors whose names you do not know and will never care to learn, in some random village that would never have promoted itself to your attention save that an enemy of the empire happened to be in its vicinity—if, indeed, he did at all."

    The torches flickered.

    "Summoners have ever been audacious. Are you aware, Nara Kei, that it is treason to attempt to blackmail the Polemarch of the Holy Pangolin Empire, be the price ever so low?"

    Kei shivered. Was there still time to flee, or was she already within tongue range?

    No, that was foolish. Pantsā doubtless possessed the ninjutsu to kill her ten times over before she could unsummon.

    Time to change tack, urgently. Were it her in Pantsā's place, the argument would have been eminently persuasive and a foundation for more. Why were irrational beings so difficult to model?

    "That was not my intent, Polemarch!" Kei exclaimed, ruining her air of calm control. "That is to say, I believe you may be missing certain possibilities on offer here."

    It was a ridiculous idea, something Kei and Snowflake would never have imagined but for all this time observing Ami and her preposterous plans at work. Still, if Kei could draw upon even the tiniest fragment of Ami's brilliance, any battle was as good as won.

    "As stated, the Pangolin Summoner answers not to Pangolin law or hierarchy, but only to you, the other party in the summon contract. Let us suppose, as only one of countless possibilities, that there is a traitor within the Pangolin ranks, yet insufficient evidence to move against them, and perhaps to do so would destabilise the command structure and impact morale. How tragic that this traitor happens to offer mortal insult to the Pangolin Summoner in a place without witnesses, and is summarily slain.

    "As you alone are the summoner's contractor, it is for you to decide if the terms of the contract have been infringed on, and negotiate suitable compensation if so. Perhaps you might demand reparations, as is common when allies harm each other's interests, to be delivered via you personally. Perhaps you might send the summoner on a challenging mission, which as it happens you were considering sending them on anyway. Perhaps you might impose some punishment that must be classified to the outside world. Or perhaps you might judge that the summoner was the wronged party, and their Human Path right to vengeance is to be respected in this instance. The possibility space of mutually agreed-on consequences is limited only by the sum of both parties' imaginations.

    "Tell me, Polemarch: when was the last time you had access to an extra-legal agent whose actions would not reflect on you whether they succeeded or failed, who was guaranteed a lack of conflicting loyalties within the clan, and who possessed the power, flexibility, and growth potential of a summoner?"

    "And in return," Pantsā reasoned, "this agent would have to be granted considerable discretion in their activities, since the entire conceit would be useless if they only took independent actions that were specifically beneficial to me. Is that where you are leading with this?"

    "What are a few condor lives when weighed against concrete and ongoing benefit to the security of the Holy Pangolin Empire, Polemarch?" Kei dared.

    "You make an interesting case," Pantsā mused. "I shall contemplate, Summoner. For now, you may consider my judgement on the issue suspended."

    A more romantic person might say her stepfather had protected her from beyond the grave, for it was he who had taught her how much a military leader craved deniable operatives, even if in this case "deniable" meant less "I've never heard of those missing-nin" and more "What has that lunatic done this time?" A less romantic one might recall who had inflicted the Pangolins on her in the first place. Kei, who had no romance in her soul, merely wondered how he would feel if he saw her now, committing the opposite of murder and using it as a stepping stone to power instead of suffering the proper consequences. Would he be proud of her? Impressed? Would he finally give her that look of bemused awe that had only ever been reserved for Hazō?

    Not that Kei cared. For now, it would suffice to see Hazō's expression when she reported her expected reward for committing treason to her leader's face.
     
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    • Chapter 579: After Dinner
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    • "Mom, where's Canzon?" asked Canodo, wide-eyed.

    Hazō and his clones had finished bringing the surviving dogs up from the ground. They had finished locating all the bodies and putting them into storage seals. (The dogs got to be wrapped in protective leather before being sealed up. The murderous fucking hyenas could deal with storage stress on their own and if they ended up looking like badly-minced meat then that was their problem.) Most importantly, Hazō and his clones had finished finding reasons to delay this conversation.

    "I'm afraid she's not coming," Hazō said, the words sharp as glass in his throat. "One of the hyenas killed her."

    "And Canonical," Canteen said, shivering. "They bit her throat out. Her entire throat. And Cantle—"

    "That's enough," Canny said, laying a paw on Canteen's head. The smaller dog went silent, so Canny took his paw away and rubbed his cheek down Canteen's back. "It's all right, little brother. We're okay. We're safe up here." He cast a dubious eye towards the edge of the skytower and the bowels-loosening drop beyond it, but didn't say anything.

    "We need to figure out our next move," Canyon snarled. "Those bastard hyenas escaped. They'll be back, and they'll bring more of their mud-sucking ilk with them. We'll need to get them all this time." He turned to Hazō. "Summoner, those seals of yours? Can they—

    "No, Canyon," Canny said. His voice was gentle but firm and his cheek still lay on Canteen's back even as his eyes locked on those of his brother.

    Canyon's head swung around. "We absolutely need to kill them. If we don't, they'll notify the rest."

    Canny chuffed in sad amusement. "Pretty sure the summoner did for that with those screaming seals. Every flea-bitten worthless hunk of meat in this country is going to be swarming towards us. Probably including old Hawoowoo herself."

    "Mom?" Cantamai said, her voice rising with incipient panic at the discussion.

    "It's okay, sweetie," Cantahaoya said. "We'll be okay."

    "We can handle this," Hazō said firmly. "We have options."

    "Options?!" Canteen said. The little hunter's eyes were wide and he was panting. "What options could we possibly have? Canzon is dead!"

    Hazō swallowed. "I'm sorry. I should have...I didn't..." He gave up and shook his head. "I'm sorry. I promise you, we will honor Canzon in ways that are fit for both your people and mine. For the little time I knew her, she was a power. She was funny, and brilliant, and a strong fighter. And she saved my life."

    Silence hovered across the platform.

    "I'm sorry," Hazō said. "Sorry that I couldn't save Canzon, or Canonical, or Cantle. Sorry that I didn't..." He trailed off and shook his head. "I'm sorry. I should have thought more, prepared more. I'm the security officer, your escort."

    "Oh, shut up," Canyon said. "You're not the Alpha. You're not the Creator. You aren't omnipotent and you didn't kill them, so stop trying to take all the drama for yourself. It's those fucking hyenas who should be sorry. Who will be sorry."

    "Relax your jaws, brother," Canny said. "Yes, they'll be sorry. They'll be sorry as we strip the skin off their bones and make them howl for days. But they'll be sorry later. Right now it's about them, not us." He jerked his head towards the puppies.

    Canyon looked at Cantamai and Canodo, their sides heaving and ears low as they looked from one angry or terrified adult to the next. He took a breath and let it out slowly, the tension draining out of his body like water being wiped off.

    "We'll be okay, little ones," he said gently. "Look where we are! We're up in the sky, looking down on those ugly round-ears like the little worms they are. What are they going to do, jump up here?" He looked up and bounced on his front legs, yipping desperately like a hyena trying to get to the skytower.

    Cantamai huff-laughed and her breathing slowed. Canodo watched and huddled against his mother's side.

    "What's the plan?" Cantahaoya asked, licking her pup and nuzzling his ears. Cantamai saw that snuggling was on offer and hurried over, draping herself across her mother's legs and pushing her head under Cantahaoya's tongue.

    Everyone looked to Hazō.

    Hazō felt the corner of his lip trying to twitch into a smile at the sense of familiarity that cascaded through him. Memories crowded in of prior moments when whatever group he was standing in turned to him expectantly, waiting for him to Do The Thing. He squashed the smile with all the power of the Iron Nerve.

    "How do you guys feel about visiting the Human Path?" he asked.

    o-o-o-o​

    Noburi came into the hospital waiting room at a jog. "Hazō?" he asked. "What are you doing here? I didn't think you were back until later."

    Hazō stood up from the seat he'd been waiting in. It was padded, technically, but the padding was so packed down that it might as well not have been there. He butt was killing him.

    "I need your help," he said without preamble.

    "You've got it. What do you need?" Noburi asked, not pausing for an instant.

    Hazō smiled and rested his hand on his brother's shoulder for a second. "Thanks, bro."

    "Don't get all mushy on me," Noburi said. "And whatever it is better not take long. Tsunade-sensei was pissed when the messenger came to call me out of surgery. She told me I could have three minutes, so if this is going to be more than that I'll need to send a message."

    "Ninety seconds," Hazō said. "Grab the canteen, would—thanks."

    Noburi had unslung his barrel even as he was asking for the time estimate. He had a canteen full of chakra water in his hand, ready and waiting for when his brother needed it.

    Hazō pricked his finger on the pin that was set into his belt for that purpose and squeezed out a drop of blood. He slapped his hand to the wooden floor and said, "Summoning Technique: Cantahaoya, Cantamai, Canodo, Cantal!"

    A series of tiny explosions went off around them, each accompanied by a puff of smoke. The nurse at the desk outside the waiting room looked up sharply, saw that the two ninja in the room weren't being hostile, and went back to his paperwork.

    The smoke cleared, revealing two grown dogs and two puppies, all four of them looking around in fascination.

    "One second, folks," Hazō said to the dogs before they could speak. He slugged down the contents of the canteen that Noburi handed him, squeezed another drop of blood from his wounded finger, and slapped the floor again. "Summoning Technique: Canyon and Canteen!"

    Another drink of chakra water and another drop of blood brought Cantorakku the tracker. Yet another brought the final survivor of the Horizon Chasers pack: Canny, the warrior.

    Noburi looked at Hazō with a raised eyebrow, but turned to the dogs and bowed politely.

    "Hello," he said. "I am Gōketsu Noburi, Hazō's brother. It's a pleasure to meet all of you."

    "You smell weird," Cantamai observed. "Are you a fish?"

    "Cantamai!" Cantahaoya said, appalled. "Don't be rude! You apologize to the Summoner's brother, right now!"

    "But he does smell weird, Mom. Can't you smell it?"

    "It doesn't matter what I can or can't smell or how Mr Noburi does or doesn't smell," she said firmly. "What matters is that we are their guests and you are being very rude. Now apologize!"

    "Sorry, Mr Noburi," Cantamai said. "I shouldn't have said you smelled weird."

    Noburi laughed. "That's okay, kiddo. You smell weird to me, too."

    "Noburi!" Hazō said, eyes wide.

    "I didn't say it was bad," Noburi said. "Just weird. Strange. Not something I'm used to smelling. Therefore...strange." He winked.

    Cantahaoya's mouth was open, her head was cocked, and she didn't seem to know exactly how she wanted to react.

    "Noburi, don't cause trouble," Hazō said. "Cantahaoya, humans are essentially noseblind compared to dogs. Most of the time we can't smell you unless we stick our noses in your fur."

    "Oh no!" Canodo said. "Summoner, you poor thing!"

    Hazō laughed. "It's okay. Dogs have advantages over humans, humans have advantages over dogs." He held up both hands and wiggled his fingers. "You can smell me from fifty feet away—"

    Cantorakku snorted and leaned closer to Cantal, the other tracker. "Only fifty?" he whispered.

    "—whereas I can tie my sandals and make a sled."

    "And with that settled, I need to get out of here," Noburi said. "Hazō, glad I could help. Folks, a pleasure meeting you." He tucked the canteen back into its slot on his barrel and started to hoist the barrel onto his back.

    "Not yet," Hazō said, putting a hand on Noburi's shoulder to stop him. "I need two more doses."

    Noburi blinked. "You know you're already pushing Tsunade-sensei's limit for chakra water, right?"

    "I wasn't planning on telling her," Hazō said. "Were you?"

    Noburi looked at him for a moment, then dipped out some water and handed it over.

    Hazō chugged it down and made a cross with his fingers. "Shadow Clone Technique!"

    o-o-o-o​

    A soft rap on the door made Gaku look up. He immediately jumped to his feet and bowed.

    "Lady Mari!" he said. "How may I help you, ma'am?"

    Mari came into the room with a smile and waved him back to his seat as she settled into his visitor chair. She had clearly come from the bath; her hair was loose and slightly damp, a faint scent of strawberries clung to her, and she wore a green silk robe that revealed a trace of cleavage. "Please don't get up, Gaku. I just wanted to ask if you knew when Hazō was coming back. I wanted to talk to him about the NOBURI initiative. Is he around tonight?"

    Gaku blinked. "Ma'am...he's here now. Scribing seals in his study."

    "What? He is?"

    "Yes, ma'am."

    "Wasn't he supposed to be with the dogs until noon today? I thought they were traveling all night tonight so as not to be spotted by the hyenas?" She paused. "Have I lost track of the time difference again? Isn't it still night on the Seventh Path?"

    "It is, ma'am, yes. And yes, that was the plan, ma'am. There was, um, a problem. They were ambushed, ma'am. I'm afraid I don't have the details, ma'am."

    Mari smiled. Gaku was starting to sweat and was staring very fixedly at her forehead as opposed to her eyes or anything else, so she took pity on him by pulling her neckline a little closer and clearing her throat.

    "Ah! Yes. Right. Sorry, ma'am. I know he's scribing seals but I don't know the details. Should I fetch him for you?"

    "No, thank you. I'll check on him myself."

    o-o-o-o​

    "Hazō?"

    "Mari!" Hazō said, breaking out into a smile and standing up. He collected a hug, then stepped back and admitted, "Actually, I'm Hazō BoringStuffDoer. Prime is scribing seals at Leaf General Hospital."

    "At the hospital? Why?"

    "Funny you should ask. Prime is scribing at the hospital, I'm scribing here, Hazō TediumSurvivor is scribing in the clan library, and Hazō ForTheLoveOfTheSageFigureOutHowToPrintTheseThings is scribing in one of the training rooms."

    "'Hazō ForTheLoveOfTheSageFigureOutHowToPrintTheseThings'?" Mari asked, eyebrows rising.

    Hazō BoringStuffDoer chuckled. "Yeah, he's a bit of a drama queen. Anyway, we're all scribing seals while Hazō NeenerNeener is taking the Horizon Chasers pack around Leaf. All eight of them. There was some debate about whether we should split them into smaller groups, give each group a Hazō escort, but we decided it would be better for everyone to stick together and only have two Hazōs in Leaf proper." He guided Mari to a chair and unsealed a teapot and cups, then settled down opposite her.

    "I've noticed a pattern with Hazō," Mari said, sinking into the chair and pouring tea for both of them. "There is a particular type of conversation that we have where I ask him or one of his clones a question and I get an 'answer', after which I now have two questions. The process tends to repeat a few cycles." She sipped her tea, eyes twinkling.

    Hazō BoringStuffDoer smiled, but there was sadness in the expression. "Yeah, that's fair. Let me start over."

    He laid out the story of escorting the Horizon Chasers pack, of the ambush by the hyenas and the resulting deaths, and of the group's escape to the skytower.

    "So, Prime figured that he would just bring everyone here," BoringStuffDoer said, shrugging. "He found Noburi and needed to tank up a few times to get it done, but he did. Now he's sitting in the hospital scribing seals and Noburi swings by once every hour or two in order to give him a refill so that Prime has enough chakra to keep all the dogs on the Human Path."

    "Is that safe?"

    "Wellll...we don't know for certain that it's not safe."

    "I see."

    "It'll be fine, honest. Hey, what's the worst that happens? If Prime collapses, he's already at the hospital!"

    "Mm-hm." She digested that thought. "What are the dogs doing?"

    o-o-o-o​

    "Eeeeeeeeeeee!" Honoka shrieked, dodging around the flag pole as Canodo pounced at her. True to Hazō's earlier words about humans having their own advantages, Honoka's turning radius was way better than her canine attacker's. The fluffy pup went flying past as Honoka blew a raspberry at him and turned to run to the next base.

    Sadly, Canodo had been merely the distraction.

    Honoka turned just in time to get a faceful of tongue-lolling excited puppy emitting a shrill "YORP!" The impact bowled her over on the wet grass and there was nothing for it except to cover her face and shriek-giggle as she tried to escape as much as possible of the slobbery licking.

    "Honoka is captured!" shouted Muramoto Mikio. "She has to go to the jail!" The seven-year-old had a remarkably nasal voice, even for his age, and loved lording his status as a second year over the 'poor little firsties'.

    "I'll save you, Honoka!" shouted Nomura Kotone, one of the aforementioned poor little firsties. She pushed Cantamai off of Honoka, grabbed the other girl's hand in hers, and pulled her to her feet. The pair of them ran away, shrieking in delight.

    "Hey!" Muramoto yelled. "You cheated! You can only save her once she gets to the jail!"

    "Ninja!" Honoka shouted over her shoulder as she and Nomura separated and split in different directions to draw off their pursuers.

    A few yards away, a small cluster of grownups watched in amusement as the children, two- and four-legged alike, played together.

    Cantahaoya looked up at Matsuzaki Nori, the Academy instructor who had been running calisthenics for the first- and second-year students when Hazō and the dogs rolled up. "Your pups seem quite sweet," she said.

    "Oh, they aren't my pups," Matsuzaki said. "You can't pin that one on me, lady! I just do my best to get them tired out, then I give them back." She shuddered. "Ugh. Can you imagine having sixteen kids of your own? The sheer amount of time that would take!"

    "The Shady Hills pack had seventy-three pups," Cantahaoya said. "Everyone pitched in to keep them safe and happy."

    "The Human Path is something like that," said Hazō NeenerNeener (so named after he won the draw to decide who got to escort dogs and who had to scribe seals). "We're standing on the grounds of the Academy, a school where our young go during the day to learn the arts of the ninja while their parents do grownup things like hunting and ninja missions. Teachers like Matsuzaki here take temporary responsibility for them and teach them a particular thing that they are expert in. In the evenings, the children return to their birth families for dinner and bonding and sleep, then the cycle repeats again the next day."

    "Interesting," Canny said. "Summoner, my understanding is that this village of yours contains multiple different families, each equivalent to a pack?"

    "Sort of," Hazō said carefully. "There are a lot of differences but that's a reasonable first approximation."

    "I believe you also said that some of the families are enemies?"

    Hazō struggled not to allow his sudden alarm to show in front of the Academy instructor. He mentally flipped through everything he'd ever said to Canny, hoping that there wasn't anything that would sound treasonous when taken out of context. Or, at the very least, that Canny wouldn't repeat it.

    "Not enemies, no," Hazō said calmly. "In some cases we may be rivals, but everyone who lives in Leaf has the Will of Fire in their heart. People with the Will of Fire in their heart cannot be enemies."

    "Rivals, of course," Canny said. "Still, it brings me back to my question: why are you allowing a rival pack to raise your pups?" He looked over to Matsuzaki. "No offense, ma'am."

    "None taken," she said, smiling. Her hand twitched slightly.

    Canny caught the motion. He looked to her hand, then back up to her face. "Yes?"

    Matsuzaki blushed. "Sorry, nothing."

    "I believe you were reaching towards me. Is there a problem?"

    Matsuzaki's blush grew darker. "Um, no. Really, very sorry."

    Canny looked at Canyon in confusion, then looked across the training field. Sixteen human Academy students, two Horizon Chasers pups, and seven Inuzuka with their nindogs were scattered around in various groupings.

    "Miss Matsuzaki...were you intending to pet me?" Canny demanded, after noticing what was happening at several of the groupings.

    Matsuzaki mumbled something incomprehensible.

    Canny and Canyon exchanged looks, and then both shrugged.

    "Very well," Canny said. He walked over and thrust his head under Matsuzaki's hand.

    "Eep! What are you doing?"

    He looked up at her as though she had asked why water was wet. "You wanted to pet me. The children seem to quite enjoy this petting thing, so I have no objection to trying it. Begin, please." He leaned heavily into her hand.

    Hazō had to clamp down hard to avoid bursting into laughter at the expression on Matsuzaki's face as she began, at first slowly and then more confidently, to pet the massive warrior dog. The blep expression on Canny's face didn't help.

    o-o-o-o​

    "Last I heard, NeenerNeener was taking them to the Inuzuka estate to meet some of the nindogs," Hazō BoringStuffDoer said, "then maybe over to the Academy to meet the kids. Both are big open spaces with lots of non-threatening people who are comfortable with dogs and ninja activities."

    Mari nodded. "Makes sense. Anyway, what are you guys scribing? And why are you making seals instead of research or something?"

    Hazō BoringStuffDoer smiled wickedly and rubbed his hands together. "Mwahaha! It is part of my cunning secret plan!"

    "Which is?"

    "A secret!"

    "Hazō, walking to the hospital would involve putting on proper shoes and doing my hair and fixing my makeup and—"

    "Hang on, why do you have to put makeup on to walk to the hospital?"

    Mari gaped at him. "Hazō," she said, waving a hand around her face, "all this doesn't just happen, and neither does my sterling reputation amongst the people of Leaf as a stunning beauty, fashion trendsetter, and generally put-together grown woman. It's one thing to slop around the manor"—she gestured to her robe and fuzzy slippers—"but I can't go out on the estate like this, much less the streets of Leaf."

    He rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine. Why do you mention this?"

    "Because when you refuse to tell your senior advisor about this 'cunning secret plan', it makes me want to beat you about the head and shoulders with a fish, but if I do that to you then you'll just poof away and I'll have to go track down Hazō Prime, which would be a lot of effort. So, with all that mentioned, could you pretty please with sugar on top tell me about this plan?"

    "Okay, okay!" he said, pretending to cower while also splitting his face grinning. "The dogs were safe up on the skytower when Prime summoned them. When he releases the summoning they will appear back on the platform, still safe."

    "So...?"

    "So, there's no rush. The dogs can spend the next few days on the Human Path playing and relaxing while the Hazō Collective makes skywalker seals. They'll need to sleep on the skytower because Prime can't maintain the summoning while unconscious, but that's no big deal. In a few days, the dogs and Prime go back to the Seventh Path, Prime summons a bunch of clones, and we carry the dogs in litters from skytower to skytower all the way to Pangolin. We'll meet up with Noburi and Kei and roll into the Conclave looking like the second coming of the Sannin."

    Mari nodded thoughtfully, and her expression was pleased.




    Author's Note: The plan is that Hazō and his clones set up skytowers, then take multiple trips back and forth to ferry the dogs from the old skytower to the new one. At each step, they leapfrog the old skytower out in front of themselves and repeat. @Paperclipped did the math and figured out that 'the skywalker dog-ferry' (his words) travels around 4mph, that [lots of math], and therefore Hazō will need about 8 days to get to Pangolin. I originally wrote this with the intent of finishing it with the kids rolling into Pangolin Territory. Then I thought that maybe @Velorien has some stuff he'd like to do in the interim, so I'm going to hold things here for a bit until I can catch up with him.

    It took 12 days for Hazō and the Horizon Chasers to reach Pangolin Territory. (It could have been done in 8, but Hazō's leg wound slowed them down.)

    XP AWARD: 60

    Brevity XP: 10

    @Velorien will open voting and announce whether it's starting immediately from the end of this update, or 8 days later as people arrive in Pangolin, or some other point. Once that's known I'll update the XP awards.

    Voting is open and @Paperclipped will be writing the Thursday update. You may find a safe place to camp out somewhere in Pangolin Territory, or you may proceed directly to the Conclave. Please vote in your choice.
     
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    • Chapter 580: Journey's End
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    • "Are you sure that this is going to be safe?" asked Cantahaoya, staring not down at the interminable gap towards the night-darkened lands of Hyena below, but to Hazō's two Shadow Clones sky-jogging into the distance with the pack's two puppies, Canodo and Cantamai, in their harnesses.

    "Absolutely," Hazō CanineCourier said. "They're only going to run a couple miles, and they have plenty of skywalker seals. We should get moving while we can. The quicker we catch up, the quicker we can send the clones back to take down this skytower and take the next step over."

    Canny eyed the harness around Hazō CanineCourier's chest. "I have to say, I don't really like being carried around like this, especially when being dropped means…" Canny turned his nose meaningfully towards the edge.

    Hazō smiled and crouched down to grab the oversized Doberman and hoist him into the harness. "Even if the straps fail, we have two spare ropes tying us together, and either one can support your weight, as we tested. We'll be fine." Not that Canny didn't know that. Canny had insisted on setting up a series of skytowers to test whether the ropes would hold up under his weight in a situation where the ropes failing wouldn't mean a deadly fall.

    Stumbling for a moment under the weight of the heavy dog as he came to his feet, Hazō CanineCourier found his balance and started off in the direction of the distant Shadow Clones that had now disappeared into the night. Around him, his fellow Shadow Clones lifted Canyon, Cantahaoya, and Canteen, while Hazō Prime stayed back to mind the skytower with the two foragers, Cantal and Cantarakku. Once they'd deposited everyone on the new skytower a couple miles away, a few of the Shadow Clones would double back to help Prime take down the old skytower and move the last few dogs to the new skytower.

    In this way, Hazō could move the entire pack through the sky with no risk of conflict. It was slow – but traveling over hills and valleys and negotiating with every Hyena pack with a bone to pick was also slow. More importantly, moving through the sky was safe.

    Hazō tried to ignore how the dogs had looked at him as he explained how they would be "skyhopping" the rest of the way to Pangolin. Fear and doubt, sure, he had expected those for a crazy plan that kept the whole pack so far from the ground. Instead, as the Horizon Chasers had realized what exactly the plan meant, Hazō could tell that a few of them, Canyon and Canny especially, felt betrayed instead. As if Hazō had been holding out on this perfectly safe way to travel through enemy territory until something had really gone wrong.

    None of them had actually said anything to him, but they'd clearly talked about it at some point while he was on the Human Path. They were doing their best to hide their anger and grief from him. Hazō knew this was a bad sign – that if he wanted to integrate himself into the Horizon Chasers, he needed to be an insider, not someone who they needed to hide their feelings from, but he needed to focus first and foremost on getting them to a safe place.

    With a sigh, Hazō CanineCourier focused on the flickering light from the hooded lantern in the distance, where the two Shadow Clones must have finished setting up the skytower. He started to run.

    o-o-o​

    "To arms, you needle-beaked bastards!" screamed the Pangolin leader. "There's a summoner here!"

    "I'm not here to fight! I come in peace!" Hazō yelled down at the Pangolin outpost in the valley below. They barely looked up at him, instead continuing to rush to battlestations and prepare their defenses.

    With a sigh, Hazō whipped his arm around, letting wooden disks fly free over the valley. He triggered the Multiple Activation Relay Seal that linked them before they flew out of range, causing the chained youthenizers to trigger at once in a roar of flames.

    The Pangolins reacted to that. Many of them dived behind cover against Hazō's "ninjutsu", others curled into balls, clearly relying on the toughness of their scales, while a few simply gazed gormlessly into the display of rapidly dissipating flames.

    At least they'd quieted down. Hazō leapt through the dissipating flames, flickering his skywalkers to come to a stop just above the Pangolin camp, high enough that any enthusiastic soldiers wouldn't try to gore him. Now with their full attention, he yelled out, "I am the Dog Summoner, here to attend the Conclave of Clans called by Pantsā of the Adamant Scales. I am here not only at the invitation of Pantsā, but at the invitation of Monkey King Enma, leader of the Monkey Clan, as well as at the invitation of the Pangolin Summoner, Kei the Dauntless, without whom the previous Condor Summoner could not have been defeated."

    To their credit, the Pangolins did not relax as Hazō gave his speech. Many of them waited and watched him, while others crept slowly to their battle stations or closer to cover in case they needed to dodge another ninjutsu. After a moment, the Pangolin leader stepped forward.

    "Dog Summoner, I am Ypolochagos Panatela. You are an associate of our summoner?" he asked, his deep and gravelly telepathic voice cutting clear through the quiet chatter surrounding them.

    "Indeed," Hazō said. "I am Lord Gōketsu Hazō, leader of the Human Path Gōketsu Clan and clan-brother to your summoner. I have fought beside her for years, and I know she holds Pantsā's ear. Oppose me only if you wish to have word of your needless obstructionism brought before your Polemarch."

    The Pangolins bristled, and Hazō got the impression that he had pushed too far. After a moment, Panatela responded. "Why have you come onto our territory like this, Gōketsu? Why have you not had our summoner escort or accompany you?"

    Hazō did his best to glare. "I had thought this matter was trivial. My group of dogs is tired and unready to proceed to the Conclave after the journey through Hyena. We will rest in a mountain camp for a few weeks before we proceed to the heart of Pangolin for the Conclave, and the Pangolin Summoner will escort me then. I merely wished to inform you that I was present here, to spare you the embarrassment of having Pantsā's first impression of you be disciplinary action."

    "I apologize, Gōketsu, but I cannot break with procedure," said Panatela. "We cannot simply have your group of Dogs on our territory unminded. We will ensure they are kept safe, but they will need to come down to our garrison so they can be kept under watch."

    Hazō replayed his best arrogant laugh. "Try and move them. I am a sealmaster. We will sit back and enjoy the lights."

    At that, the Pangolins finally broke discipline and started to talk.

    "A sealmaster? But-"

    "Wait, did he say-"

    "Gōketsu Hazō? Like that-"

    "ATTENTION!" Panatela yelled, cutting through the chatter of the Pangolin soldiers. He turned to face Hazō. "We are not so foolish as to run blindly into any defenses you prepare. You will fortify your camp well, I am sure. The Pangolin Clan has dealt with fortifications in the past. If you wish to go to war with us, then do so. You will be crushed and your people will die."

    "I will not let you keep them functionally under arrest," Hazō said firmly. "They are ambassadors to your clan, and their freedom is a condition for the Pangolin Clan's alliance with the Dog Clan. Sabotage that at your own risk."

    Panatela stewed for a moment, then said, "I cannot ignore the possibility that you present a military threat to us, even if you claim alliance. We will not restrain your people's movement, but you will reveal your camp to us and let us search it occasionally. Here on the border with Hyena, we must stay vigilant against the possibility of infiltrators."

    "This is unacceptable," Hazō said, "I cannot-"

    "If you cannot accept it, then return to Dog," said Panatela. "I would rather be brought before my superiors for doing my job too enthusiastically than for not doing it at all. We have no desire to draw our summoners' ire. We will not harm your people during the search. Let us ensure you mean the Pangolin Clan no harm, and there will be no further impositions upon your time, Dog Summoner."

    Hazō turned the proposal over in his head, but could find no easy way to convince the pangolins that they really didn't mean to conquer their land (yet). Perhaps in a world where Kei would have had a summon anywhere near the eastern border…

    "Fine," he said bitterly. "But I will be setting sealing traps around our camps by default, and you will only be allowed into our camps while I am present to deactivate them. The defenses will be calibrated lethally. Don't test me."

    Panatela crossed his claws before him. "As you wish, Dog Summoner. Allow me a moment with my troops, then we can begin."

    Panatela tries to command his troops to attack the summoner!

    Panatela (Presence): ?? - 9 = ??
    Panatela spends a FP to reroll!
    Panatela (Presence): ?? - 12 = ??
    Panatela spends a FP to reroll!
    Panatela (Presence): ?? - 6 = ??
    Panatela spends a FP to reroll!
    Panatela (Presence): ?? - 9 = ??
    Panatela spends a FP to reroll!
    Panatela (Presence): ?? - 9 = ??

    Hazō tries to command them back not to attack him!

    Hazō (Presence): 20 + 3 (Invoke "Team Uplift" – his sister is the Pangolin Summoner) + 3 = 26

    Jashin loves Hazō, or really fucking hates Panatela. Hazō succeeds somehow, though it's very close.

    Hazō tries to intimidate them into leaving the Dogs alone.

    Hazō (Intimidation): 5 + 0 = 5
    Panatela (Resolve): ?? - 6 = ??

    Jashin continues to love Hazō, but his base stats are inadequate to take advantage of this. Hazō has to acquiesce to some unpleasant conditions on the dogs' continued stay in Pangolin – namely that their camp will be searched by the pangolins every other day.

    Hazō wins 1 FP – didn't get attacked, ensured safety for the Horizon Chasers? That's a win. Hazou spent 1 FP, so this is a wash.

    o-o-o​

    Three knocks sounded at the door to the hot spring.

    Hazō groaned as he opened his eyes and pushed himself up from his reclining position with his head nearly fully submerged.

    "Hello!" he called out. "This is Lord Hazō. Sorry, but I have the hot spring booked for the next thirty minutes. It will be open for the public again soon enough."

    Instead of any response or footsteps leaving, Hazō heard the sound of the makeshift door to the hot spring creaking open as the newcomer slowly slipped into the hot spring.

    Hazō sighed and started to raise himself out of the water. Would this be Gaku with more urgent business, one of Team Uplift who wanted to bother him during his only relaxation time, or yet another clan civilian who wanted to get friendly with their lord? At least it wasn't likely to be a Tower messenger – they were usually content to yell their messages through the doors.

    "Excuse me, but I really wanted-" Hazō cut off as he saw Ino come through the door.

    "Ino!" he said, relaxing back into the water up to his waist. "Welcome back. I'm glad you made it back safe. How did your mission go?"

    Ino leaned down by the water to give him a quick kiss. She smiled at him, then made a spinning gesture with one hand. Hazō noticed the towels she was carrying and quickly turned around so she could wash off in privacy. "Well enough," she said as Hazō heard her step over to the washing bucket and disrobe. "Actually, not that well. People are really fucked up, you know? I mean, you of all people know that, but I think it's somehow different to know it as a Yamanaka. You get to see inside the heads of some seriously messed up people."

    "Are things really that bad?" Hazō asked.

    Ino shrugged, facing away from him as she leaned down to pour water from a bucket over herself. "It's probably not actually that bad. It's just that no one ever wants the Yamanaka to read the minds of people that are nice and kind and good citizens that help out old ladies and pay their taxes on time. If we're getting called in, the person's not gonna be anyone good, you know?"

    "Yeah," Hazō said. "So, rough mission?"

    Ino shrugged, wrapping a towel around herself as she stepped over to the hot spring and delicately started to lower herself down into the cloudy water. "Not that bad, outside of the mind-reading. Catching up with Sakura was cool, and Shino's always his own little fun kind of weird. I actually spent more time hanging out with Shino than I was expecting. I knew that Naruto and Sasuke got the team back together in the war, but I wasn't expecting that Sakura was actually, y'know, integrated into the team. I'd always thought she was an outsider that couldn't keep up with the boys, but I guess something changed because they were treating her way more like an equal than she'd made it out to be. I wasn't expecting to be a third wheel – well, fourth wheel, but that doesn't really sound bad, does it? – but I might have been if Shino hadn't been there."

    Hazō nodded along, using all his Mari-learned training to avoid glancing at the hint of her cleavage that was above the waterline. "What was the mission, if you can share?"

    Ino shook her head. "Sasuke said it was classified. I don't actually know if he can classify things, but I figure it's better not to end up on the wrong end of the OPSEC mishap leaderboard. Maybe ask him if you really care? After all, he was willing to bring you along. Anyway, I don't even know all the details. Like I said, he and Naruto and Sakura had their little plan, and they only told us what we needed to know. Still, from the minds I read…"

    Ino cut off, staring vaguely into the distance. After a moment, she shuddered despite the warmth of the hot springs water around her, then sank into the water up to her chin.

    "People can be really fucked up, Hazō."

    Hazō smiled sympathetically and scooted around the hot spring to lay a hand on hers under the water. He waited a long minute while Ino periodically gulped and clenched her jaw.

    "Hazō, how am I supposed to deal with the first-hand memory of someone-"

    She cut herself off, closing her eyes tightly and pushing her head under the water. Even her hair got wet.

    When she emerged, Hazō put a hand to her shoulder. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

    Ino sighed. "Some other time, then. How was your mission?"

    Hazō paused to consider how he wanted to explain it.

    "People died," he said simply, turning to face the hot spring wall.

    "Oh," Ino said, voice falling. "Do you want to talk about it?"

    Hazō nodded stiffly. "I… I didn't know them that well. We'd just met a few days before. It was going to be my responsibility to escort them through some dangerous territory, but all the hostiles we met weren't a problem. We bribed them, mostly, but I was trying to gauge how tough their combat squads were and none of them were even particularly strong chūnin. We could have handled them in a fight, no problem.

    "I should have realized that the enemy would never attack us with a combat squad that we'd easily crush. They knew exactly where we were since we were just trying to go peacefully with lots of gifts instead of sneaking through their territory. Instead of sending one combat squad, they sent four. It makes sense now. I'd rather work with other clans to kill invaders if it meant having an overwhelming numbers advantage so none of my people died. I should never have been thinking about whether we'd win in a fair fight. Why would they ever fight fair?

    "We prepared for the wrong scenario, and we got surrounded by four combat squads. I had… an idea for how we could get out of there. It was a bad idea, and I wasted time pitching it and patching holes, time that we didn't have. Instead, I had to go with a secondary plan to evacuate the noncombatants that left me nearly chakra-exhausted and cost me all the time I could have been using to prepare and set up the battlefield in my favor. They gave me nearly a minute of warning! I'm a sealmaster, it should have been a death sentence for them. Instead, I fucked it up.

    "We fought. We fought really well, for all that we'd never fought together before. We were outnumbered more than two to one. A few of my allies were about as strong as genin, and they'd never fought an enemy that was really trying to kill them, not even a chakra beast. Do you know what happens when genin get into a big fight?"

    Ino nodded stiffly. "Yeah," she said.

    Hazō laughed bitterly. "They die. One of them was killed, just like that, her throat torn out. Another was caught by a ninjutsu while he was trying to run. Ripped apart. Three pieces. I had to use three storage seals to pick him up afterwards."

    Hazō took a second to breathe heavily, closing his eyes and letting the sound of the hot spring's bubbling water relax him. "I was using all the seals I could, but the enemies were spreading out or staying close to my allies so I couldn't hit them with my strongest effects. I snagged two at once, but I didn't kill them and I left myself exposed. I was going to die. The leader of the people I was escorting killed them so I would live. She left herself exposed. She died instead."

    Ino didn't say anything.

    "She… was a singer. A storyteller. I'd told her my story of why I wanted to go to the Conclave and unite the clans to fight the Dragons, and she loved it. She said she wanted to join me for it. She said she wanted to journey with me and be there to write each new verse of 'my epic'. Instead she died for me, someone she only knew for a few days. I… I don't know why."

    Hazō and Ino sat quiet in the hot spring. After half a minute, Ino worked her hands up into Hazō's wet hair and started to work her fingers through it, slowly combing the knots out of it.

    Hazō sighed. "The rest of the fight was fine. I freed up our strongest fighters and hurt and killed some more enemies. They ran, eventually, and I got our people up into the sky."

    "Hazō…" Ino said. "Your allies were surprised by an enemy force that outnumbered you more than two-to-one, and you not only survived, but won? Chased off the enemy with only partial losses? In any ninja war, that would be a miracle! You…" she saw the expression on his face.

    "I'm sorry," she said.

    Hazō sighed. "It's fine. It's just that now I can see what I could have done differently."

    "I get it. I've been lucky that I haven't had a teammate die yet, but still… I know what it's like to lose clanmates. With hindsight, it's easy to say what you could have changed to make it so that they'd be here with you, but we can't actually make decisions in the moment with hindsight."

    Hazō didn't answer that. He just sat and thought.

    After a moment, Ino nudged him. "How was the rest of the mission?"

    "Fine," Hazō said. "I had another idea and this one was a good one. It made the rest of the journey easy. The Dogs are safe now – or safe enough. They made it over to Pangolin territory, who are our allies, but the Pangolins are being pricks and are insisting on searching our camp almost every night for 'dangerous elements'. It's got the little pups very stressed and the rest of the pack isn't doing too well after that disastrous fight."

    "Ah," Ino said, leaning into him as she sensed that the most intense part of the story was over. "You know, your stories really don't make the Pangolins sound very nice."

    "You don't know the half of it," Hazō said.

    "Mm. Anyway, mission over? Success? I am noticing that you're here in the hot spring with me, rather than on the Seventh Path."

    Hazō shook his head. "Well, I can spend most of my days in Leaf now, but I should still be on the Seventh Path at nights to mind the Dogs. We'll be advancing to the Conclave soon, but I'm waiting on others to coordinate their arrival with me, and I may face some trouble once I'm there. I'm working on new seals to help me out there."

    "Oh?" Ino asked. "Anything you can tell me about?"

    "Well, I finally got around to learning Jiraiya's Goo Bomb seals that we used at the Chūnin Exams. Oh, and do you remember the macerator seal that I used there? I made this neat upgrade to it…"

    o-o-o​

    Hazō blinked away the smoke of the reverse summoning surrounding him, letting down Cantelabra while turning in a circle as Lady Tsunade had taught him to spot any enemies preparing an ambush at his reverse summoning spot. Instead, he only caught sight of Kumoairashī, making an odd bobbing gesture of respect.

    "Ah, you returned have, Summoner of Dogs. Waiting you for been Kumokōgō has, or our own Summoner for. Saying is she your help that she needs."

    Hazō nodded and jogged to follow the odd little spider that called herself the Empress's Herald as she skittered off through the hallways at a breakneck pace. "Got it. What is it that she needs?"

    "Come have new arrivals. The leader Monkeys of the last night arrived snake with, and the Summoner of Snakes now returned has."

    "Ah," Hazō said as they crossed the threshold into the Orbularium's throne room. "That seems-"

    Hazō cut himself off as they entered the room. Around the room, the various Arachnid guards were paralyzed by the argument happening in the center of the room. The two participants seemed to only be focusing on each other, yet an intense pressure flowed from them in waves, making it nearly impossible for Hazō to step beyond the room's walls.

    "Hey, no offense to you, of course," said Enma, his voice echoing through the room. "I'm just saying, I can't believe Manda puts up with you. Maybe he's finally gone blind in old age, because I figure anybody with eyes ought to see that you're putting your quest for immortality ahead of anything else."

    "Enma," Orochimaru replied dryly. "You are aware we are on the Seventh Path now. You are no mere weapon for Hiruzen to deploy, only to return safely home if things go ill. If I kill you, you will die a true death."

    "Welcome," said Kumokōgō, strained voice cutting through the argument, "Gōketsu Hazō, seal-maker is the who Great Seal has most studied, and weapons whose slain have a Dragon."

    Hazō stiffened as Orochimaru of the Sannin and the Monkey King Enma both turned on him. Some part of him said a quiet prayer of thanks to whichever god had ensured that it was Hazou and not Kagome that had to walk into this mess.

    The waves of pressure washed over him, reminding him of when he was a bystander to Tsunade and Orochimaru's contest of wills, but the Iron Nerve carried him forward into a short bow to the two newcomers. "Welcome," he found himself saying as the strange pressure abated. "To both of you, I am grateful that you are here."

    "Ah finally, Hazō!" Enma said, striding over to pull Hazō into a tight one-armed hug that left him stumbling as Enma released him. "I figured I'd take some extra time to get here so you'd have the chance to prepare me a welcoming party, but I don't see any sign of that Bear-style honey-mead."

    "Sorry sir, I-"

    Enma laughed. "Ah, I'm just messing with you. That damn Nekkar never let me pass through Cat territory. Worse, the flea-infested furball never said that outright, instead leading me on for ages before I finally decided to go the long way 'round through Crow and Raptor, then I had to catch a boat to-"

    Orochimaru cleared his throat. He wasn't particularly loud, yet the sound cut through Enma's words like a scalpel, and Enma stopped talking to glance at Orochimaru, before his expression immediately soured.

    "Nephew," said Orochimaru, turning his slitted pupils onto Hazō. "Welcome, thank you for not keeping us waiting, et cetera. I was informed there were matters of genuine interest in Arachnid. Where may I find the Great Seal and the Dragons?"

    Hazō glanced at Kumokōgō. "The Dragons are restless and they've been staying close to the Great Seal since we killed the last one. After the last massacre, we haven't wanted to send out bait teams, and-"

    "Answer me, boy," said Orochimaru. His posture didn't change in the slightest, yet something in his voice made Hazō shudder. Memories of a distant night at the Gōketsu estate flashed before Hazō's vision. "Is there a point to my having come here?"

    Hazō opened his mouth to answer, but Kumokōgō spoke first. "Summoner of Snakes, you a seal-maker are?"

    "Yes," said Orochimaru. There was a pause in the room, then Orochimaru sighed and pulled a seal from within his robes.

    Thunder cracked and rings of lightning suddenly surrounded Orochimaru. The rings around him started to writhe, turning around and around as wind picked up in the room, and Hazō realized the rings were actually snakes, cobras that were chasing their own tails as they enveloped Orochimaru. As Hazō realized this, the cobras suddenly stopped their spinning to lash outwards with their hoods flared and fangs of crackling lightning bared before suddenly exploding in a thunderous crack and a flash of light so bright that Hazō had to shield his eyes.

    When Hazō opened them again, he saw Orochimaru continuing to stand casually in the center of the throne room, the woven floor around his feet now a pristine patch of white compared to the charred and frayed threads surrounding him. Branching streaks through the ground marked the path of the lightning-cobras that had reached nearly halfway to the walls of the Orbularium's throne room. Belatedly, Hazō realized that Enma had stepped forward, leaving a conical area of the floor behind the Monkey King shielded, including where Hazō stood.

    "I am a sealmaster of the highest caliber on the Human Path," Orochimaru said, tone still bored. "Few if any exceed my skill. If yours is a problem that human methods can solve, I can solve it."

    Kumokōgō glanced between the destruction of her treasured Orbularium and Orochimaru, clearly weighing whether to take offense at Orochimaru's massively offensive act, or to accept Orochimaru's aid. Eventually, she decided. "Consort you become will of mine summiting the butte for. Tonight in Arachnid will you stay marriage of consummation for, then the Butte tomorrow travel by Hazō's tunnel you will. Not wish I do lose Arachnid lives to angered Dragons from, and if in future access to top of butte required becomes, discuss then the bait teams can we."

    "We shall depart tomorrow, at this time," said Orochimaru. "My thanks, Empress. I will return tonight to complete whatever compact you require of me."

    The Snake Sannin turned to Hazō. "Send a messenger to my estate with any further details as required. Arrange Hebiue's stay," he said, raising a hand to point at Hazō.

    A moment later, a blur leapt from Orochimaru's arm to Hazō's, coiling and tightening uncomfortably. A snake head popped up and glanced into Hazō's eyes. A forked tongue flicked out. The snake lowered its head again, adjusting its coils around Hazō's arm yet tighter.

    With that, Orochimaru bowed shallowly to Kumokōgō and unsummoned himself in a puff of sickly-green smoke.

    Enma turned to Hazō, then to Kumokōgō, mouth wide in what could either have been a grin or bared teeth of anger. "What a pleasure it is to have little Oro around. Anyway, I ain't gonna be running out on you, Empress. I heard you have a Dragon problem. What do you need from me and the other eastern clans in order to solve it?"


    Everything below "Practice storytelling with Canaria to recount Dragon stories," in the plan was not executed.

    Timeline for this update:
    • Day 1: Setting up camp in Pangolin, making contact with sentries, returning to the Human Path and catching up on delayed Clan Head work.
    • Day 2 to 10: Hazō starts research on Rocket Boots.
      • Day 2 to 7: A Hazō SC researches Goo Bombs.
      • Day 8 to 9: A Hazō SC researches Macerators v3.
      • Day 10: A Hazō SC does 1 day of prep on Dragon's Roar
    • Day 11: Hazō goes around the various summoners to convince them to support him at the Conclave.
    • Day 12: Hazō continues his quest to convince the summoners, and encounters Enma.

    Hazō could SC train with full SCs on days 1, 11, and 12, but one SC (~3 training blocks) was occupied on days 2-10.

    Goo Bombs

    Hazō has previously rated this seal as "genin-level" – he has no fear and will go at it with no prep and no SSA.

    Callig: 39 + 9 = 48
    Sealing: 50 + 3 = 53

    Callig: 39 - 0 = 39
    Sealing: 50 - 0 = 50

    Callig: 39 + 3 = 42
    Sealing: 50 + 9 = 59

    Callig: 39 + 3 = 42
    Sealing: 50 + 6 = 56

    Callig: 39 - 0 = 39
    Sealing: 50 + 6 = 56

    Callig: 39 - 9 = 30
    Hazō spends 1 FP to reroll!
    Callig: 39 + 0 = 39
    Sealing: 50 - 3 = 47

    Hazō finishes research in 6 days.

    Macerators v3

    The requested improvements are relatively modest, so Hazō will try to go for it immediately.

    Callig: 39 - 12 = 27
    Hazō spends 1 FP to reroll!
    Callig: 39 - 3 = 36
    Sealing: 50 + 6 (Invoke "Creative Idealist", since macerators are a Hazō original) + 3 = 59

    Callig: 39 + 3 = 42
    Sealing: 50 - 0 = 50

    Hazō finishes research in 2 days.

    Rocket Boots

    Hazō is unsure how tough these are, and they are a Kagome seal. He'll do one day of prep and get the answer "Jōnin-level". Therefore, Hazō will make his first roll with full prep and SSA.

    Hazō (Calligraphy): 39 + 16 (8x days prep) - 9 = 46
    Hazō spends 1 FP to reroll!
    Hazō (Calligraphy): 39 + 16 (8x days prep) - 3 = 52
    Hazō (Sealing): 72 + 16 (8x days prep) + 8 (Invoke "Promising Sealing Student") + 6 = 102

    [NB: He's rolling over 100 Sealing – is he really a "Promising Sealing Student" anymore? Perhaps more like "Out-Touched Genius"...)

    Hazō spends 9 days and makes some progress! He thinks he's at best a third of the way done.

    Kagome has looked over Hazō's notes and progress, and mentions that this would be much easier if Hazō learned the prerequisite seal first: Directional Explosives. As-is, Kagome is surprised that Hazō is making progress at all, and reminds Hazō to train his Calligraphy, as there are a few tricky sections in the Directional Explosive and Rocket Boots seal.

    Dragon's Roar

    Hazō's SC has a spare day while Hazō Prime is making an infusion roll on Rocket Boots. To test an idea, he tries a day of prep on the Dragon's Roar seal, and gets back that the TN is "Jiraiya". Remember that this means that the infusion TN could be anywhere between 70 and ∞.

    Seal research summary:
    • Hazō finishes Goo Bombs! The mechanics are already in the doc.
    • Hazō finishes Macerators v3! Tentative mechanics: the new macerators have exit velocity 25 m/s instead of 20 m/s, and are mechanically identical, except that Macerator v2s provided +3/+0/+0 to hit when in melee/in the same Zone/in an adjacent Zone, and the Macerator v3s provide +6/+3/+0 to hit when in melee/in the same Zone/in an adjacent Zone.
    • Hazō makes progress on Rocket Boots! They seem hard without the prerequisites Kagome fulfilled when he invented them.
    • Hazō thinks the Dragon's Roar seal is very hard.

    Neji, Aika, Ruri, Asuma – conveniently, the order in the plan is also the order of increasing difficulty.

    Hazō has no desire to take a mental consequence when he's currently occupied with his SSA Mild – he would rather give up a summoner than suddenly take a Medium and screw up his planned research agenda.

    Neji

    As always, higher Alertness goes first.

    Round 1

    Neji wants Hazō to go away and will use the standard Hyūga technique of being imperious at him.
    Neji (Presence): ?? + ? (Invoke "Pride of the Hyūga") - 9 (dice) = ?
    Neji spends a FP to reroll!
    Neji (Presence): ?? + ? (Invoke "Pride of the Hyūga") - 9 (dice) = ?
    Neji spends a FP to reroll!
    Neji (Presence): ?? + ? (Invoke "Pride of the Hyūga") - 6 (dice) = ?
    Poor bastard. Lacks Jashin's blessing.

    Hazō has no particular desire to respond. Instead, he will simply try to ignore Neji's posturing.
    Hazō (Resolve): 59 - 3 (Mild) + 0 = 56

    Hazō easily avoids any social pressure Neji applies.

    Hazō will attempt to convince Neji of the importance of this situation. Alas, he burned all his FP doing sealing research.
    Hazō (Rapport): 31 - 2 (Mild) + 0 = 29

    Neji will continue the unshakable act and defend with Presence.
    Neji (Presence): ?? - 6 (dice) = ??

    Neji takes ? mental stress.

    Round 2

    Okay, being imperious at him won't work. Intimidation probably also won't work then, and Neji's other strong social, Deceit, seems unlikely to make progress here – there's nothing really that Neji would want to deceive Hazō about, much less damage the Hyūga reputation over. He will attempt to make a roll with Empathy to open Hazō up and understand why Hazō is doing this (and how to make him go away):

    Neji (Empathy): ?? - 6 = ??
    Really Jashin-cursed, huh?

    Hazō will try to reinforce his case with Rapport rather than mislead with Deceit.
    Hazō (Rapport): 31 - 2 (Mild) + 0 = 29

    Hazō's fine. Hazō sees that talking Neji into it isn't making much progress, and will try speeching to sway him on his own merits.
    Hazō (Presence): 20 - 2 (Mild) + 12 = 30

    Neji will attempt to counter with his own Hyūga pride:
    Neji (Presence): ?? + 0 = ??

    Neji takes ? mental stress, and is Taken Out rather than take a Consequence over this. He acquiesces to accompany Hazō as Hazō goes to the Conclave.


    Aika

    Higher Alertness goes first.

    Round 1

    Aika will try to get inside Hazō's guard to build option value.
    Aika (Rapport): ?? - 6 = ??

    Hazō will try to remain friendly to start.
    Hazō (Empathy): 21 - 2 (Mild) - 6 = 13

    Aika creates the Aspect "Let's Understand Each Other" with a tag.

    Hazō will start the same way as always – just try to convince her.
    Hazō (Rapport): 31 - 2 (Mild) + 3 = 32

    Aika will use Empathy to defend – keeping it cordial.
    Aika (Empathy): ?? - 3 = ??

    Aika takes ? stress.

    Round 2

    Aika will explain to Hazō that her interests don't align with his, and while she's open to cooperating in some way with him, she'd rather not burn limited capital on him.

    Aika (Rapport): ?? + ? (Invoke ???) + ? (tag "Let's Understand Each Other") - 6 = ??
    Aika spends 1 FP to reroll!
    Aika (Rapport): ?? + ? (Invoke ???) + ? (tag "Let's Understand Each Other") - 9 = ??

    Ah damn it, but it's not worth more FP.

    Hazō defends with Presence. This is really important to him, and he's not going to back down.
    Hazō (Presence): 20 - 2 (Mild) + 3 = 21

    Hazō takes 4 mental stress.

    Hazō attempts to riposte with Empathy: do their interests really misalign, or can Hazō find a way forward?
    Hazō (Empathy): 21 - 2 (Mild) - 3 = 16
    Aika (Rapport): ?? + 3 = ??

    Sadly, Aika needs time if she wants to help, she can't commit right away.

    Round 3

    Aika will simply try again. This is a big ask.
    Aika (Rapport): ?? + 6 = ??
    Hazō (Presence): 20 - 2 (Mild) - 6 = 12

    This isn't worth taking Consequences over, so Hazō concedes. Alas, he won't be getting Aika's help.


    Ruri

    Higher Alertness goes first.

    Round 1

    Joining arms with Hazō has a cost, one which she will want to extract. She'll agree to go along with the entrance (not that she would refuse), in exchange for favor, both with Hazō and with Kei.
    Ruri (Rapport): ?? + ? (tag "Didn't Think I'd Agree So Easy?") + 0 = ??

    Hazō defends with Empathy – does he see through Ruri's game that she's setting up a win either way, or does he just go along with it?
    Hazō (Empathy): 21 - 2 (Mild) - 6 = 12

    Hazō is Taken Out. He gladly accepts Ruri's help in exchange for support of unspecified type in the future.


    Asuma

    Mari vetoes asking Asuma to join Hazō directly – the power dynamics there would be hard to navigate and Asuma can contribute meaningfully by supporting Enma, who is probably a more respectable figure and who gives a different and valuable angle.

    Social combat summary:
    • Neji has agreed to play along with your plan.
    • Aika has evaded, claiming the need to preserve face among the Summon Clans.
    • Ruri has acquiesced, but under conditions that leave Hazō feeling very favorably towards her.

    Mari notes that with only Neji and Ruri along, it's possible (though maybe not probable) that there'll be greater returns from invoking the "new Sannin" mythos with only Noburi and Kei. Mari also notes that there are going to be endless complexities in the Condor-Pangolin relationship, and that Hazō will cause a number of unknown effects by claiming both the Pangolin and (in the eyes of the Conclave, subjugated) Condor summoners as allies, especially given his reputation.

    Hazō has spent 4 FP in sealing research, and gains 1 FP for victory in social combat against Neji.

    Before you ask, Hazō didn't get a couple of seconds to look at the seal Orochimaru used before it was expended, so he didn't download it.

    XP Award: 45 + 10 (brevity) XP
    GM-fun Award: 0 XP

    Vote time! What to do now?

    Voting ends on
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 581: Adventures of the Mind
  • Threadmarks

    • "An interesting use of chakra," Orochimaru noted as the two of them walked through the tunnel. It was circular and a bit more than two yards in diameter, meaning that there was plenty of headroom but the footing was very slightly wonky. "A tunnel, multiple miles long, through the barrens and up under the butte."

    Hazō, in the lead and holding a Jiraiya's Awesome Daybright Lantern seal in one hand, shrugged and spoke without looking back. "It's easier than having to bait the Dragons away every time I need to change out the HOWS that are stabilizing the Great Seal. Well, slowing down its degradation."

    "Hm."

    "It took a long time to build."

    "Your brother's bloodline is more interesting than I had at first considered."

    A chill went down Hazō's back.

    "Uh, so, when we come up under the butte, it's important to be quiet while we're in the main shaft," Hazō said. "It comes to within a couple feet of the surface—I use Hiding Like a Mole to pass the last little bit when I need to change out the seals. I can't tell how good the Dragons' senses are, but the answer appears to be 'very'. I've noticed them sniffing around a couple of times while I was in there."

    The tch sound from behind him was the audible version of an eye roll. "I had expected better of you, nephew. I would have assumed that during your seal training that loon would have explained the difference between correlation and causation."

    Hazō found himself wondering for a moment whether 'that loon' referred to Kagome-sensei or to Orochimaru's old teammate. Best not to engage.

    "It's possible that the Dragons are sniffing around atop a barren stretch of rock at random times and I only notice it when I'm there, so I assume it's them looking for me," Hazō admitted. "On the other hand, whether or not they're looking for me, we still want to be quiet. Yes?"

    Tch.

    They walked in silence the rest of the way to the butte, then climbed up the interior shaft. It had been easier to build a right-angle turn and a vertical shaft as opposed to a smooth ramp, and for ninja it didn't make much difference.

    Stop, Hazō handsigned. That way. Five yards.

    Orochimaru nodded. "Earth Element: Hiding Like a Mole Technique," he said as quietly as the jutsu would allow. (He had been surprised when Hazō recommended the idea to him; the technique did not usually allow passing through stone, but apparently the rules were different around the Seal.) He slid into the rock and disappeared.

    Hazō settled down crosslegged and slowed his breathing. He placed his hands on the stone and said, "Earth Element: Earthshaping Technique."

    Orochimaru returned just as the duration of his earth-swimming jutsu was due to run out. Hazō had been keeping a silent count of the seconds, splitting his attention between that and the Earthshaping jutsu. The Snake Sannin pushed it a lot closer than Hazō would have been comfortable doing; Hazō's count had clearly been a little fast because he was at 63 seconds, three more than the jutsu allowed, before Orochimaru emerged from the stone.

    "The material is unfamiliar," said Orochimaru, lips pursed. "I have never felt anything like it."

    SHHH! Hazō handsigned. He jabbed his finger up repeatedly, fear on his face. The Earthshaping jutsu trembled in his mental grip and he quickly brought his attention back to it, shoring it up with soothing chakra.

    Orochimaru's eyes narrowed. "Do not berate me, boy," he said. At least he said it quietly.

    Hazō raised his hands in placation.

    Orochimaru studied him for a moment, then recast his Hiding Like a Mole and went back into the stone to inspect more of the Great Seal.

    Hazō sent his chakra forward, infusing it into the stone between himself and the Great Seal. He could tell when he reached it; brushing his chakra against it felt like a burn across his brain, and he quickly yanked his mystic touch away. He spread his energy outwards, up and down along the near side of the Seal, until he had reached the limits of his ability. He withdrew his energy in certain areas and focused until he had the shape he wanted. He checked and doublechecked until he was confident, ignoring Orochimaru's comings and goings as the man made more and more minute-long ventures into the stone to feel along the edges of the Seal.

    Finally, everything was ready. Hazō closed his fist and crushed the stone around the middle third of the Great Seal together, pulling it away from the Seal and packing it into a honeycomb of impossibly dense material that supported the Seal and held it in place, yet also left large empty spaces around it where a human could stand in order to study the massive structure while obscuring as little of it as possible.

    Hiding spot ready, he signed to Orochimaru the next time the man returned from his scouting. Follow me.

    They swam through the rock a final time, emerging into the newly created space. It wasn't wide, not more than four feet at the most, but it would be wide enough. They settled in to study one of the Sage's mightiest works.

    o-o-o-o​

    "This is an inverter," Orochimaru said, frowning.

    Hazō stepped over and looked at the section of stone the older sealmaster was peering at. He frowned in thought.

    "Possibly," he said. "If the chakra entered through here. There's no sign of that, though. The nearest channel—assuming these are in fact channels—is transverse."

    "Obviously, it comes up through the stone instead of running along the surface."

    "If it did then it would be passing right next to this channel and causing destabilization."

    Orochimaru studied the structures Hazō was pointing at for nearly a minute without speaking. Hazō waited patiently.

    "It does, and in the process it reverses the localization," Orochimaru said softly. For a wonder, there was wonder in the Sannin's voice. Hazō stared at him for a moment in disbelief, then shook it off and looked back at the stone.

    "That can't..." He looked back at the stone. "That...wow."

    Orochimaru nodded, his eyes still locked on the Seal before him. "Fifty years and always new wonders to be found," he whispered.

    Hazō looked over the Seal a bit longer and then blinked. "The interaction between the channels reverses the localization on that channel, but look at the other one." He pointed a few feet to the right. "After it passes through that encounter, the infusion would be reduced by half a step and the flow rate retarded, right in time for it to enter this obstumata."

    Orochimaru's eyes narrowed. "That's not..." He stepped closer. "Hm."

    Hazō stared at the structure, eyes moving across the stone. The Iron Nerve vibrated in his brain, pushing the image of the entire structure forward until it glowed, burning at the inside of his skull and the backs of his eyes and making his head throb in pain that he forced himself to ignore.

    "It goes into the obstumata and circulates widdershins," Hazō said. "I think it's having its chirality flipped before it emerges over here, but more important is that the vortex it creates would apply strain to that channel over there. It's making it fork without needing a splitter."

    "Don't be an idiot," Orochimaru said. "That's a splitter right there."

    "No," Hazō said. "It's not. The flow goes over it, not through it."

    Orochimaru sighed. "If it went over it then it would delay the flow through here and disrupt the balance."

    Hazō studied it and nodded. "Fair. What happens after the splitter?" He pointed to the relevant area.

    "...I find this section over here more interesting," Orochimaru said after a few seconds of staring at what Hazō had been indicating. He took a long pace to the right. "What infusion would make sense of this?"

    Hazō followed after him and studied the wall. "I have no idea," he said at last. "Violet would cause it to detonate instantly, red wouldn't be able to sustain the exchange, and it's not arfangled for anything in the middle."

    Orochimaru grunted in frustration. "None of this makes sense. Pieces, certainly. Bits and bobs here and there, but overall? It's madness."

    "Clearly not," Hazō said. "It's working."

    "A madman might catch a deer once a week, but a sane man catches one every day."

    "Then I guess it's not madness," Hazō said. "My question is how in the name of everything are there chakra-conductive channels in the stone? What does it even mean to have a channel without a defined boundary, where the substrate and the channel are the same material?"

    Orochimaru shook his head. "I have no idea. Perhaps there are striations within the stone? Or perhaps it's like this Pangolin tunneling jutsu of yours that made the spaces we stand in, except far finer. Delete hair-thin segments of the stone's internal structure and somehow the chakra flows through the resulting void." He frowned. "Although it clearly does flow across the surface as well."

    "Hey, isn't that an Imagawa converter, and connected to a fourth-chord dissection?" Hazō asked, pointing and hoping that Orochimaru would not notice that Earthshaping was not in fact the same as the 'Pangolin tunneling jutsu', or indeed a Pangolin technique at all. It was available in the Leaf Private Library and Hazō had made very public use of it, especially when it created the Great Seal replica that had so frustrated Leaf's other sealmasters. Once Orochimaru became aware of this fact he could gain the Earthshaping jutsu for himself and, if it did indeed turn out to be the gateway to crafting three-dimensional seals as Hazō expected...well, the completely amoral and frequently immoral Snake Sannin biosealer and former traitor did not need any additional powerups. At least not without careful thought in advance.

    o-o-o-o​

    "Not sure which part of this is weirder," Enma muttered to himself.

    Kumogashi, the spider assigned to coordinate Enma's scouting efforts, cocked her abdomen in curiosity. "Weirder parts are which?" she asked.

    "Hm? Oh, take your pick," Enma said. "I'm allowing a bunch of bugs to lift me a thousand feet in the air in order to spy on scary bedtime stories, the bugs in question have volunteered to have their eyes removed so they don't accidentally see the seal that defies every rule of sealing those two know-it-alls claim to know, or that I paid for the privilege by getting married."

    Kumogashi's abdomen straightened out, twitching furiously. "A great honor marriage to the Empress is! Honored are you! Speak not ill of her should you!" Her chelicerae clicked angrily.

    "Relax, kid," Enma said, checking for the fourth time that his harness was secure, the tow lines firmly affixed, and his telescope safely buttoned in. "Marriage between two Clan leaders is a little more significant than between a couple of random bonobos. You know when the last time was that a pair of Clan leaders got married?"

    "...No?"

    "Me neither. I'm just glad that it's so easy to get a divorce around here, and trust me when I say I'll be taking advantage of that before I eat lunch again. Okay, boys: take us up!" The last was spoken to the four hornets who were harnessed to the tow lines.

    The hornets, their torn-away eye sockets weeping hemolymph, buzzed into the air. They took a moment to verify that they had the balance correct and good separation to avoid fouling their wings on one another, and then they lifted so sharply that Enma's head cracked backwards on his neck.

    "Yow! Take it easy!" he shouted angrily up at them.

    The hornets ignored him and rose higher and higher, until the air became cold and the wind a constant shove in the face.

    "Okay!" Enma yelled after a few minutes. "This is high enough! Hold here!" He waited until the hornets had leveled out, then pulled out his telescope. He slipped the lanyard over his wrist in case of misadventure and raised it to his eye.

    Far, far below and multiple miles away, the butte into which the Great Seal was embedded towered out of the reddish-yellow dirt of this segment of Arachnid. Small stretches of the Seal were visible as fine lines across the stone of the butte, but the vast majority of it was covered by...something.

    He stared, not looking at any particular segment of the picture but merely giving his brain time to parse what he was seeing. There were shadows that made no sense, glints of light (chunks of mica, perhaps?), mounds and coils of...something. The butte was covered almost edge to edge.

    It took time, but eventually something moved and suddenly the image snapped into comprehension. Those shadows formed a shape and the interruption partway along was because of something else lying partially atop it. Those glints of light that had just moved were a leg; he couldn't tell where the rest of the body was, but that was clearly a leg.

    He studied the Dragons intently for two long minutes, ignoring the pressure in his eyes and the thumping start of a headache at the back of his skull. That was the fleshy one. That was the darkness-shrouded one. That...

    Oh.

    Oh, how very beautiful. The curve there was primal, seductive, whispering of... Was that a head? How could anything so perfect exist? The smoothed-out angles were the embodiment of—

    The hornets began to descend.

    "No!" Enma cried. "Stay aloft! Go closer! I need to see her better!"

    The hornets ignored him and continued to descend rapidly.

    "You will obey," he said, infusing a wisp of Power into his voice. "Bring me closer."

    The hornets staggered in midair, their formation coming unglued and leaving him swinging half upside-down. They buzzed furiously, words and fragments of words that barely connected.

    "Obey me. Take me to her." They weren't listening! He reached for the knots of his harness and started to tug at them. They were made of spider silk and glued closed; he yanked frantically, trying to get his nails into the interstices so he could pull them open.

    "No!" one of the hornets buzzed. "QueenMotherBelovedGoddess said obey ArachnidAlliesEmpress! ArachnidAlliesEmpress up five minutes said and down then! No closer said she!"

    Enma stopped clawing at the harness and wrapped his will around the hornet, crushing down with all his rage. "BRING ME TO THE BEAUTY NOW!"

    The hornet cried out and twitched, then went limp and plummeted, its tiny mind demolished by the power of an angry Clan Lord. It fell past him and came to a jerking halt at the bottom of the tow line. The force jolted up through the rope that connected it to Enma, flinging him about. That in turn thrashed the lines that connected him to the other three hornets, making them stumble and spin in midair. The entire formation, Enma with them, plummeted. Panic tore at Enma's mind and he struggled, but all he managed to do was wind himself into the harness and the rope that led to the dead hornet.

    They fell easily six hundred feet before the hornets managed to regain their balance and retake control of their fall. The disorientation and fear was enough to jolt all thought of the Dragon out of Enma's head for just long enough that he could recognize what had happened and shore up the walls around his mind. By the time the image resumed he had firm hold of himself and its seductive power glanced off the diamond-hard shield of his will, of his Self.

    They touched the ground in something that was more a controlled crash than a controlled landing, but it was nonetheless a good landing because nothing was broken on Enma. One of the hornets hit hard and snapped its left rear wing, but it shook off the damage and stood up, its head wobbling slightly.

    "All right are you?" Kumokōgō asked.

    The Empress of the Arachnids had been waiting patiently throughout the scouting trip and, although she hadn't said anything about it, Enma couldn't help thinking that she had wanted to be here specifically in case he needed to be restrained.

    "Yes," he said. "I am. I wasn't, but I am now." He looked to the hornets and took a knee in front of them. "As the Leader of the Monkey Clan, I apologize to you. My actions were unprovoked and my attack on your clanbrother was criminal. I stand ready to pay whatever weregild you ask."

    The hornets put their heads together, wings buzzing furiously for several seconds, and then turned back to him.

    "Help ArachnidAlliesEmpress you will?" their leader demanded. "Aid you will bring?"

    Enma nodded fervently, a shiver going down his spine and out the tip of his tail. "Fuck yes. Those things need to be wiped from the face of the Path."

    "If aid you bring, this enough is," the hornet buzzed. "QueenMotherBelovedGoddess said to obey ArachnidAlliesEmpress as though she were QueenMotherBelovedGoddess. ArachnidAlliesEmpress wants you to bring aid, so Drone Team 87915 must work to make that be. Bring aid and death of Drone 8675309 a good death will have been."

    Enma stood upright and bowed far more deeply than he had ever bowed to a low-ranked member of another clan. "I shall. Thank you, Drone Team 87915. I shall take this story back to my clan and we shall tell of your duty and your honor so long as a monkey shall live."

    "That nice is," one of the other drones buzzed. "Aid for ArachnidAlliesEmpress better would be."




    Author's Note: This update covered two days, both of them spent inside the butte (EDIT: the first spent inside the butte, the second doing seal research). Hazō and Orochimaru were able to understand bits and pieces of the Great Seal here and there, but nothing that would actually help with reverse engineering it or fixing it. In short: there is some overlap between regular Sealing and whatever art is used to make 3D seals, but not a lot of overlap. It's like reading an unfamiliar language that has a few corrupted loan words from your language; you can pick out a word or possibly even a phrase here and there, perhaps guess at a suffix, but the document as a whole is completely opaque.

    (EDIT: You did the rest of what was in the plan, including seal research on a 'dramatic entrance' scene and talking to the others about how to make that work.)

    XP AWARD: 10

    Brevity XP: 2

    "GM had fun" XP: 2

    Vote time! What to do now?

    Voting ends on Wednesday, .
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 582: Clan Affairs
  • Threadmarks

    • "Here, Hazō," said Kagome, stuffing a sheaf of seals into Hazō's hand.

    Hazō glanced down at the seals. Immediately, he recognized the interlocking Yanagihara Transformers that characterized the Fourth Hokage's work.

    "Are these the fifth seals from the jinchūriki chain, Kagome-sensei?" Hazō asked.

    "Yeah," Kagome said, reaching into another pocket and pulling out a second, larger sheaf of research notes to drop onto the dining room table. "They're actually usable now. Maybe they'll do something for you at the Conclave. I dunno what those stinkers are planning but every tool helps."

    "So they're sensory seals, sensei?"

    "Stupid stinking Hokage, making seals that aren't useful in combat," Kagome said. "They sense chakra. Impressive, I guess. Not as hard when you break it down into five different little pieces though."

    "If they're not useful in combat, what do they do?"

    Kagome shrugged. "They're like the chakrascope, but easier to use. It takes a bit of practice to get used to reading the outputs, but it's super useful. Not as precise at reading chakra as the chakrascope – but it's close. And its range is way better – it doesn't reach as far as your chakdar, but it's close. No clue why he needs that level of fidelity. It's not even tuned towards sealing effects like the chakrascope is. I think it's tuned towards human chakra."

    Hazō's eyes went wide. "The seal does precise chakra sensing at chakdar ranges? Is that even possible?"

    Kagome shrugged. "It's possible, though I think even the stinking Hokage's not gonna beat chakra diffusion in the end. Not useful in combat though. I tried setting it up on my arm or something so I could see the outputs while other stuff was happening but paying attention to it was a waste. Not even worth having that level of fidelity on sensing too if you just need to know where someone's gonna hit you from. Still, you could maybe use it to detect ambushes, especially if those Pangolins try to burrow under you or something."

    Hazō smiled. "Thank you, sensei."

    Kagome waved him off. "Just get those idiots to get their heads in line and actually solve the Dragon thing. Once we're done with the whole Archaeopteryx thing, I'm gonna keep working on the jinchūriki seals. I think the next one can be modified to hook up to the rift and push energy through it so that we can collect readings from the Naraka Path. I dunno how long you'll be busy with the Conclave, but you gotta finish the chain seals yourself. It's gonna be tough to make the real rift seal, so we should work together."

    "I understand, sensei," Hazō said. "I want Jiraiya and everyone back too. We will get there, trust me. For now though, let's focus on the tasks in front of us."

    o-o-o​

    Noburi watched intently as Tsunade stormed into another hall in the hospital. Around the room, he saw people jumping slightly in their beds as the Sannin entered and quickly strode across the room. A few tried to get out of their beds and bow to Tsunade. Various civilian minders quickly got them back to rest as Tsunade chose her newest patient.

    He was a young civilian man wearing a plain pinkish hospital gown, maybe in his mid-thirties. He was conscious, with his eyes open and fearfully watching Tsunade's stalking approach. Despite his lucidity, he was clearly weak – he struggled to lift himself to a seated position, and Noburi noted that his breathing seemed slightly impaired. Noburi prepared his notepad to describe what Tsunade would do.

    Instead, Tsunade whirled around to face Noburi. "What does he have?" she demanded.

    Noburi (Medical Knowledge): 47 - 3 = 44

    Noburi tried his best not to flinch, and instead stepped around Tsunade to observe the patient. The man's left arm was covered in spots. At his wrist, the spots were widely scattered and no larger than a pinprick, but by his shoulder, each spot had grown to nearly the size of a ryou coin, and they overlapped with barely any of the man's tanned skin visible between them. Each spot started red at the outer edge, but quickly faded to a dark purple. Noburi noticed that the purple area had a rigid texture, more like a scab than a bruise.

    Noburi tapped one of the spots. Not necrotizing, as he thought. He checked the man's palm. No signs of rashes. He stepped over to the head of the bed and gently pushed the man's right arm away to pull the gown down and check his chest – the spots had spread to the man's left pectoral, but there was no rash surrounding the damaged area.

    "Can you close your fist?" Noburi asked. The man nodded and slowly, gingerly, closed the hand of his damaged arm.

    Noburi grabbed the man's hand. "Squeeze my fingers," he said.

    The man started to squeeze, but despite his effort, the force was very weak.

    Noburi turned to Tsunade. "I'm not sure exactly what he has. There's clearly damage to the muscles of the arm, though I can't tell whether the muscles themselves are damaged, or if the tenketsu aren't letting chakra through and that's causing the muscles to respond poorly. My best guess is it's a syphilis case that has progressed too far, but it could also be another type of infection, maybe in his heart and bloodstream.

    "Reasonable guesses," Tsunade said. "But I didn't ask you for guesses. Diagnose him."

    Noburi gulped and started channeling his chakra. He'd need to do a scan to tell for certain.

    Noburi (Medical Ninjutsu): 32 - 3 = 29

    After a couple seconds holding his medical chakra-wreathed hands to the man's chest, Noburi brought them back down. "I don't know, Lady Tsunade."

    Tsunade scowled at him and stepped forward, making a sweeping gesture with her hand as if to shove Noburi aside. Noburi jumped before he could be shoved by Tsunade's inhuman strength, then grabbed his notepad again as she laid her hands against the man's chest.

    "Guesses are good if they tell you what to check for, but they're damn worthless if you can't actually check."

    Noburi scrawled a note in his notepad, but didn't respond or distract Tsunade as she started treating the patient.

    o-o-o​

    "Akane?" Hazō asked, suddenly waking up as she slipped into bed beside him.

    "Mm. Nightmares. Don't want to sleep alone."

    Hazō just shuffled to the side and let her crawl in. She turned her back to him and he accepted the invitation, drawing close and wrapping his arms around her. He waited there for long minutes, stroking her arm with one hand until her breathing grew steady and regular. Only then did he let sleep come back to claim him.

    o-o-o​

    Hazō pushed himself up on his elbows in bed and saw Akane cataloging her seals and steadily stuffing them into her seal pouch.

    "Morning," he mumbled.

    "Good morning, Hazō," she said, turning to give him a soft smile. She'd been smiling a little here and there. Maybe Asuma had been right, and giving her missions with junior ninja had really given her a space to feel comfortable leading others.

    He watched her for a couple minutes. "Are you headed out?"

    "Yes," Akane said. "I've got another mission."

    "Again?" Hazō asked.

    "It's been over a week since the last one," Akane said. "The world keeps turning even when you're stuck in the seal research labs, you know. We're running a message to Keishi, dealing with a minor chakra beast surge on the eastern riverbank, then coming back. It'll be only two days."

    Hazō nodded, and Akane turned to continue preparing her seal arsenal. This would mark her third mission on normal duty after the discovery of Elemental Mastery's calamitous effects. Asuma and the Leaf delegation had recently returned from the AMITY meeting at Hot Springs and the first phase of the Chūnin Exams. Shortly after his return, Asuma had discreetly mentioned to Hazō that the Elemental Mastery suppression measures seemed to be going well, and that in order to keep Akane in Leaf long-term, that it may be worth assigning her a team of genin after the Chūnin Exam tournament concluded.

    "How are you feeling about maybe taking a team?" Hazō asked. "I know when I asked you earlier, you ended up deciding not to."

    Akane continued checking her equipment for a couple minutes more. Hazō let her. He was finally getting used to ignoring his racing thoughts urging him to say more, and just letting her take the time to think through her words.

    Eventually, she straightened up and leaned on the bed with one knee. "Hazō, I… I just don't think I'm the sort of person that should be taking students. I feel like I can barely figure out what I'm supposed to do. How could I guide someone else?"

    "I understand," Hazō said, "but I believe you know right from wrong better than you think you do. Besides, even if all you do is teach them to fight and keep them safe, I think you'll have done right by your students."

    Akane thought for another long moment before shaking her head. She leaned in for a hug, but Hazō pulled himself out of bed and embraced her standing up.

    "Stay safe on your mission," he said.

    o-o-o​

    "Yes, Lord Hazō?"

    "Ah, come in," Hazō said, waving his hand. Hesitantly, Gōketsu Shinji entered Hazō's study and closed the door behind him. He stepped in front of Hazō's desk and bowed deeply.

    "Oh, please don't. None of that is necessary," Hazō said.

    "Yes, my lord." Shinji said, straightening up and standing stiffly.

    "No, really, you can relax. Oh, I should mention that this isn't disciplinary or anything. I just have a couple questions for you. Please, take a seat."

    Shinji nodded stiffly and sat down. He had relaxed for a moment at the assurance that there was no disciplinary issue, but had stiffened up again at the mention of a 'couple questions'.

    "What can I do for you, Lord Hazō?"

    "You don't need to… right. The Tower has sent me some papers for you. You're eighteen, correct?"

    "That's right, my lord."

    "Right," Hazō said, flipping through the papers in front of him. "Well, they'd like me to confirm that you're ready to be promoted to chūnin. I've seen you sparring at the clan training grounds and you're more than ready. Do you have any objections to me signing this and having you promoted?"

    "Ah, actually yes sir," Shinji said, turning around and digging through a satchel. "I had something for you."

    Hazō took the papers Shinji offered and skimmed them. "A petition to be reclassified as a full-time sealmaster?"

    "Yes, sir. I've been enjoying sealsmithing. I spend a few days every month making seals for the clan, then I spend a few days making seals for the village, and that's the sum total of my real duties. It's way easier than being on the mission rotation, and I can either relax for the rest of the month, or, more realistically, spend the rest of the month making seals and selling them so that I can afford Leaf's good restaurants and good whorehouses. Ah, pardon my language, sir."

    Hazō nodded. "That makes sense. I think Leaf should be more than happy to benefit from your seals. I'll sign this and send it off to the Tower. You know, Kazushi also recently had me sign his reclassification petition."

    "He was the one that told me to try."

    "Great," Hazō said. "Relatedly, I wanted to ask about your teammates."

    "Genda Jitsuku and Nakano Ryōichi, sir? Yes, they've been spending a lot of time around the estate lately. I think they've been more inclined to visit since we moved into Leaf, even if we're a bit… underequipped right now."

    "Right, Genda and Nakano. I still remember them from way back when we were in the Chūnin Exams together. I wanted to ask if you think they will pursue adoption."

    Shinji paused for a second to think, causing his frizzy hair to topple over one side of his head. "I think so, Lord Hazō. They've seen enough of how the Gōketsu treat me to approve of it, I think. Oh, I should let you know: they're a couple. Anyway, I think they're both trying to settle down a little. We've all seen enough friends die to know we've been very lucky to all survive this long, and with Genda and I having both found a way to contribute to the village without being on the front lines, I think Nakano is also looking for a chance to step down. I think he was thinking about becoming an Academy teacher?"

    Hazō considered that. If Nakano became a part of Gōketsu, having an Academy teacher would strengthen Gōketsu's soft power in a very important way. It could even open up avenues for spreading Uplift's influence…

    "I see. Well, I can arrange housing for them, if they'd like. Genda has certainly contributed enough to the clan that I feel no qualms about giving them a place to stay for free, and I would be glad to adopt her. As for Nakano, I'd prefer to see a longer history of service on the estate before I make any such decisions. Feel free to let him know that."

    "Understood, sir!" Shinji said, before saluting, bowing, and bounding off.

    o-o-o​

    "What!? You didn't know?" Ino exclaimed.

    Hazō grit his teeth and squeezed his eyes against the sudden spike of pain. Ino's expression quickly softened and she rubbed the thumb against the back of his palm.

    "Sealing headaches again?" she asked, much more quietly this time.

    "Yeah," Hazō said, closing his eyes for a moment. "I'm fine. What were you saying about Asuma already being married?"

    Ino looked at him with a clear expression of doubt, but eventually continued. "Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei got married in March, but it was a quick, legal marriage because, well, there was a war going on. Then Kurenai-sensei went off to AMITY to wrangle that Mori of yours, and, well, they're only doing the big production now. Well, this isn't even the big production, it's just a private ceremony. I think they'll do the village-wide wedding after the tournament."

    "She's not my Mori," Hazō complained.

    "Really?" Ino said, eyes narrowing slyly. "She sure spends a lot more time around you than anyone else that's not fully a minion of hers. If you're not her Gōketsu and she's not your Mori, what are you?"

    "I'm pretty sure she's perfectly fine being her own Mori," Hazō said. He could feel an undercurrent of tension in Ino's words, a hint of that jealousy she had revealed to him so long ago that he still didn't know how to deal with. How was he supposed to reassure her?

    He decided to change the subject. "So how long were they together before this?"

    "Four years," Ino said. "Some described it as Hidden Leaf's worst-kept secret. I've been bugging them to get married for years! Wait, hold this for a second," she said, offering up Hazō's hand. Hazō looked at her confused, then grasped his wrist as she let go of his hand. She immediately started running towards the wedding venue.

    Sarutobi Asuma, Seventh Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, turned away from his conversation with a Hagoromo priestess just in time to brace himself for Ino's tackle-hug.

    "Asuma-sensei! Congratulations! I knew you'd finally find some sense and listen to my womanly intuition. A marriage on paper is no marriage at all, not without a big, big wedding with everyone there and all the ceremonies and the food and the dancing and everything. Kurenai would never have forgiven you. It's fine though, I forgive you for the crime of not taking my advice sooner. I'm sure in your gratitude, you can write a note to Pantasia saying my bills are on the Tower's tab forever, right?"

    Asuma gave Ino a couple pats on the back, then tried to release the hug. When she didn't let go, he started trying to gently pry her off. "Ino, let go," he hissed. "That priestess took two hours to do the robes right and Konohamaru already screwed it up once. Kurenai will kill you and me if I'm late to the Path of Purification."

    Ino let go and gave her sensei a beaming grin as Hazō walked up. Asuma sighed as he saw Hazō and turned back to Ino. "Really, you had to bring him along? I thought I'd get at least one day headache-free."

    "Oh, don't worry sensei, he'll be a very well-behaved plus-one. He won't be causing any sealing or social failures. I'll just have him looking pretty in the crowd all day. Isn't that right, Hazō?"

    Hazō nodded and mimed stitching his lips shut. Asuma smiled at him and clasped a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you, Hazō. Get in there and find your seats. Shika and Kei already arrived a while back."

    Ino gave her sensei one last hug, then laced her fingers back through Hazō's as they walked through the gates of the Sarutobi compound.

    o-o-o​

    "Hey," Noburi said.

    "What's up?" said Naruto as he worked his way through some slow stretches. Noburi didn't see any Shadow Clones around, though he tried his best not to look for them. Surprisingly, Naruto seemed to use only his real body when Shima and Fukasaku were training him.

    "Where are all the genin?" Naruto asked.

    Noburi shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe they got turned around. Summoning Technique: Gamakōsuke! Could you head over to the main compound and get a confused-looking gaggle of genin in here to donate their chakra?"

    The knee-high crimson toad that fought its way out of the orange-ish summoning fog tapped its bulbous fingers against its toes. "You got it, boss," it said before bouncing away.

    Naruto frowned. "I feel kinda bad about this."

    "About what?"

    "The genin. I wonder how the other jōnin feel about it. When I think about it, it makes sense to use their chakra to summon the Toad Sages so that I can train more effectively, because a small increase in my combat power probably means more for the village than a small increase in a random clanless genin's combat power. So it makes sense to me, logically. Still, they're not going to have their chakra. They're not going to be able to train as effectively. That means they'll be weaker, and they'll be at a greater risk of dying on a mission."

    "That's reasonable," Noburi said. "But surely the odds of them dying isn't going to be substantially increased from being drained just a few days a week so we can summon the Toad Sages?"

    Naruto shook his head. "I'm not sure I want to know the odds. If they were low, maybe that would be fine. If they were high though… Would I be okay knowing that every thirty training sessions was costing one genin life? A hundred? I already don't know how I'll feel if one of these guys I'm paying stops showing up, especially since I know that like half of them feel like they can't refuse because of the jinchūriki star-power. Actually knowing the cold, harsh numbers might be worse."

    Noburi thought about that. "Huh. Yeah, sounds rough."

    "Anyway," Naruto said, grinning, "I definitely think it's still worth keeping up the training for now. Maybe once I've learned all that those geriatric ol' fogeys have to teach, we'll wrap up the chakra sales. Until then, there's plenty of people willing to take my money."

    Noburi nodded and let the conversation pause for a moment as he turned around and looked for Gamakōsuke. No sign of the messenger toad. Perfect, it gave him just the opportunity he needed.

    Noburi (Rapport): 24 + 3 (tag "Prepped with Mari") + 3 (invoke "Zone of Friendship") + 3 (invoke "The Hokage was My New Dad") + 6 = 39
    Naruto (Presence): ?? + ? + 9 = ??

    Oof. Sometimes the other guy just rolls +9 on his dice and there's nothing you can do about it.

    "Speaking of increasing your combat power, Hazō and Kagome are finally getting the chance to look through Jiraiya's massive library of old seals. I was wondering if you ever used any of Jiraiya's seals to fight. If there's something in there that you're used to having access to, I'm sure I could convince Hazō or Kagome to research it for you and supply you with a steady amount."

    Naruto shrugged as he started up a taijutsu kata. "Not really. I played around with a few of J'man's seals before, but seals really don't suit my fighting style, you know? They don't duplicate across Shadow Clones, and saving chakra isn't really a concern for me. Sure, there were a few useful ones I remember – like that one fire-absorbing one I saw him use against Gramps – but I've mostly got jutsu to cover those niches and in the long run I'll just make new ninjutsu to fit my needs. I got no real need for any of them, and I'd rather not depend on someone making me seals."

    "Makes sense. Still, are you sure there's nothing that would give you a marginal advantage? It's like you said, a little increase in your combat power could mean a lot for the village. And hey, we got a lot of seals."

    "Eh," Naruto said. "If you got a catalog of everything J-man had, I'll take a look through them and see if there's anything that I'd like to add to my kit. Still, probably not."

    "Fair enough. I'll see if I can bug Kagome into pulling together a list of seals that might be worth your time. Anyway, looks like we found our genin," Noburi said, gesturing at Gamakōsuke, who came bounding into the clearing with a trail of chakra-drainable genin following close behind.

    "Summoning Technique: Shima! Now, if you guys could please line up and poke your hands into this barrel over here…"

    o-o-o​

    Mari gestured to the Clan Council to flip the pages on their reports. "Finally," she said, "you can see that the revenue from the villages ministered under our organization's care is comparable to the revenue of last year, despite the lowered tax rate. The Ministry's efficacy will only grow with time."

    "That's misleading," said Lord Motoyoshi. "Other villages have also had bumper crops this year thanks to my clan's fertilization ninjutsu, and I know for a fact that you've been hiring ninja to fertilize the fields, as well as build walls. You can't say it's only the wall-building efforts that's raising the revenue when it could just as easily be the other missions."

    "Precisely," said Lady Minami. "This is no different from Lord Fifth's till-n-fill missions, which were admittedly innovative and bore themselves out over time."

    Mari nodded. "It is true that we are taking every advantage we can get, but as with Stone Faces, we are also trying to target the villages most harmed in the war. That they're keeping pace with more established farming settlements is quite impressive."

    "Even keeping pace is questionable," said Lord Motoyoshi. "The other villages are having bumper crops. They exceed the baseline, so your Ministry's villages are well behind it. Overall, we will be taking less tax than we should have, especially given our low food stores and the damage to Fire Country."

    "This is irrelevant," said Lord Aburame. "Why? Because the mechanism that Lady Gōketsu proposed for her Ministry's reinvigoration of the Land of Fire was not dependent on a single harvest, but instead dependent on effects that accumulate over years or even generations. Recovery at this rate is impressive, and promising for future growth."

    Ino looked at Hazō. He nodded. Shino had played his part well, time for her to take over. "I agree with Lord Aburame," she said. "In fact, I have some proposals for how we could extend the Ministry's recovery efforts to ensure we have an even richer crop come next year…"

    o-o-o​

    Follow the fourth order displacement antinodes. Reverse direction every other stroke to balance the chromatic weight. Use the Yanagihara Transformer to translate the displacement… Wait, why does the Yanagihara Transformer translate the displacement, instead of rotating it?

    Hazō flipped back through the pages of Orochimaru's notes, searching for the place where the Snake Summoner had had a back-and-forth conversation with Jiraiya about the design for this seal element.

    "Hazō?"

    He looked up to see Akane in the doorway in her pajamas.

    "Akane?" he asked.

    "Are you coming to bed?" she asked.

    He looked down at the notes, then shook his head guiltily. "Sorry, Akane. I was rushed off my feet with building up a couple new houses after the sealing research today and I hardly got time to study. I'm cramming it in right now and… you know."

    Akane nodded, then padded slowly across the room to give him a kiss, which he gladly returned. She padded back to the doorway, then turned to give him a final glance.

    "Goodnight, Akane."

    "Goodnight. See you tomorrow, Hazō."

    o-o-o​

    Mari slipped into Hazō's office and took a seat in front of his desk for him. She waited as Hazō finished sketching the seal prototype and started writing a brief analysis of possible failure modes. Even for all the value that the careful procedures brought, Kagome-sensei's precautions could still make sealing research last forever. Hazō was almost considering doing the research on his own and independently. Maybe he wouldn't even get that – Kagome-sensei had asked Hazō to use Kazushi as an assistant whenever he was working on non-secret research. Apparently, the young genin had a knack for sealing and an overconfident streak. Hazō wouldn't want to reinforce the young student's overconfidence by showing off his own (fully justified) confidence.

    Hazō penned the last line and set the paper aside for the ink to dry, looking up at Mari.

    "Bad news?" he asked. "You're not looking very cheerful."

    She shrugged. "News. I checked in with Gaku about projections for our clan finances. In short, we'll be fine."

    Hazō frowned. "That doesn't sound like the 'richer than sin, most powerful clan short of the Hyūga' that I was hoping for our clan finances to be like."

    "It'll take a while before we're that rich," Mari said with a laugh. "We've had the money to play ball with the big boys ever since the silk trade came through and the Seventh Path trade network really started working, but we're still nowhere near the level of influence that the established players have. The Hyūga and Nara have been building their wealth since the village's founding, and the other clans have been following suit. We're rising faster than they are, but we started at zero. It'll take us a while to surpass their decades of hard work."

    "Okay, fine," Hazō said. "What's our outlook as a clan?"

    "Like I said, we're fine. We've been burning money on business deals that fell through, various uplift projects and till-n-fills that are basically bottomless pits, and, of course, funding the Ministry, plus the various things you tend to throw money at without thinking very hard. Of course, that all went off the rails with the estate move. While we're not in debt, thanks to that remarkably good deal you secured on the estate sale, we also burnt a lot of cash on ninja-hours, chakra, and all sorts of essentials we needed to keep everyone alive. To get that money, we arranged some contracts for lump-sum cash with various clans and they really rooked us. Did you know that Kurusu is going to be taking almost half our profit from the silk trade this year?"

    "Why's this the first I'm hearing about us being in the poorhouse?" Hazō asked.

    "Because you're really busy with other things and we had it under control," Mari said. "Besides, we're not in the poorhouse. Everyone is alive and we'll be able to keep funding the things we've been funding at the bare-minimum level. Still, we should hold out on taking on too many extra expenses until the Chūnin Exams tournament is done, when the silk trade should give us another big infusion of cash."

    "I see," Hazō said. "Is there any way we could get more money fast? There's a couple more adoptions on the horizon, and I may need to buy tickets if we want to adopt, say, Honoka. Actually, more importantly, we need to actually hire architects to design the estate soon, then secure contracts with the building crews. That's going to be a lot of money too."

    Mari nodded. "Right, so our clan income. The biggest share of it right now is missions. Akane, Jin, Mio, Shinji, Yuma, they're all bringing in good money. Even then, we never use our whole stipend, so if me or Yuno got the time to take a couple A-rank missions, we could get a lot of cash fast. You or Kagome could print more skywalkers to sell to the Tower, and Sage knows they'll buy it. We could expand Noburi's chakra-selling services, but you know why I'm reluctant to do that. Sadly, there's probably no way to extract much more money out of the trade network. It's hard enough to find buyers for some of those summon goods here on the Human Path.

    "That said, we may not be able to get any adoption slots above the basic two – KEI's been stingy handing them out and no one is selling this late in the year. The two we get should be enough to adopt the two new ninja I've seen around, right?"

    "Yeah," Hazō said, "but I'm considering making a pitch to Reo's Technique Hacking teacher."

    "Makes sense," said Mari. "Speaking of which, I heard from Reo. Apparently, his apprenticeship is going well. He's had a couple close calls while learning, but his experience with ninjutsu is helping him a lot. Sounds pretty fun, honestly. He wanted me to ask you if we were fine continuing to fund his tutoring at Haruhisa's exorbitant rate. If so, he wants to take it slow and steady. I think he was inspired by Kagome's teachings."

    "Yes. And we should find room in the budget to support his apprenticeship. Let him know to take all the time he needs to learn – there's no point paying the fee for half as long if he ends up dead as a result of rushing."

    "You know," Mari said, "You can't just say 'find room in the budget' and expect it to happen. Except you have Gaku, so I'll tell him and he'll make it happen. Anyway, I'll see if there's any clan that wants to commit to letting go of one ticket when they refresh at the new year. It'll be tough, given the way most clans want to distance themselves from us, but hey, what else is Haru for?"

    "Speaking of which, why isn't Haru doing missions?" Hazou asked.

    Mari grimaced. "Well, we needed to send someone to the Chūnin Exams to negotiate the silk deals for us. I won't say that Haru screwed the pooch, but let's just say that the Hagoromo might frown upon the levels of bestiality demonstrated. We're making a load of money because we have the best silk in the Elemental Nations, but it's not nearly as much as we could be making. At least Kurusu will be sharing the impact of the loss."

    Hazō winced. "Well, there's always growing pains. He'll do better next time."

    "By the way," Mari said, clapping her hands together, "we have a faction!"

    "What do you mean by that?"

    Mari shrugged. "Every group that gets big enough starts to develop ideological splinters. We have our first. I call it the 'Anti-Hazō' Faction."

    Hazō frowned. "I don't like the sound of that."

    "Eh," Mari said. "It's fine. Haru and Jin don't really buy into your whole cult of personality-"

    "I don't-" Hazō protested.

    "You do," Mari said. "The clan civilians at this point have seen you save their lives through four separate disasters, five if you want to count Orochimaru's arrival and the Collapse separately, and they would absolutely venerate you for that even if you weren't giving them the best standard of living a nobody civilian could hope for. Seriously, Gōketsu clan civilians might have the best life of any civilian in the Elemental Nations not literally born into luxury. Reo, Atomu, and Yuma continue to be intensely loyal. Hell, even Team Uplift is basically a part of your cult.

    "Anyway, it's really not that bad. They both buy into the Uplift idea and the message of the Gōketsu. They mostly buy into what we're doing as a clan. They just don't have a fanatical loyalty towards you. As for the third faction member, Mio… Well, Leaf trained her well enough to follow orders. Anyway, don't worry about it if you're busy. I'll keep an eye on things."

    "Got it," Hazō said, sighing. "Mio had a lot of till-n-fill missions under her belt, right? If the three of them are still big on Uplift, they can take till-n-fill rotations. Hopefully that isn't objectionable, though it limits their income."

    "If you want to give those orders, feel free. I do want to say that we really shouldn't be burning money this fast though. I want to save up for the last stage of the roads initiative."

    "Don't you mean NOBURI?" Hazō asked with a grin.

    Mari sighed. "Asuma nixed the name because, quote, 'this is getting ridiculous and is an incredible headache to me, the person that actually has to deal with all these foolishly named organizations, so please find literally any other tolerable name that isn't maximally confusing to anyone with a brain,' end quote. Anyway, we got the Nara to help survey the route and sent out some civilian lumberjacks with Force Wall saws to clear the path. It's snowed over now, but once it clears up, we'll have to get Kei to have her Pangolins roll the path once to clear the stumps, then we can send in the civilian worker crews to level the ground while we hire ninja en-masse to build the roads themselves."

    "What happened to the plan of draining and killing chakra beasts along the way to fuel the road construction?" Hazō asked.

    "Apart from the fact that none of us can drink that much chakra water and that Noburi doesn't know Earth Element? Well, the ground needs to be level for the three MaRI walls to join up nicely and make a flat road, and that takes more time than just casting the jutsu. It's not nearly as hard as leveling a foundation for a building so unskilled worker crews can do it fast, but not as fast as we could go by draining chakra beasts and building as fast as possible. They ran the numbers; it's basically equally efficient to hire it out as missions and have the ninja protect the worker crews while they're out there. More expensive, but it saves Noburi's time, which currently seems definitely worth it. If you have a better idea, let me know, but otherwise we're going to need a couple million ryō saved up come the spring thaw."

    o-o-o​

    Hazō reappeared in a puff of pale-blue smoke, and distantly heard a second puff that must have been Kagome-sensei's reverse summoning. Hazou blinked away the tears of pain stemming from his eyes as the summoning lurch made friends with his sealing headache.

    He rubbed his hand through Cangue's long fur. "Thank you," he said as the smoke dissipated. "We'll take it from here."

    Hazō stepped across the wide deck of the boat to where Enma stood, staring in fascination at the black, lifeless sky that reigned over the former lands of the Archaeopteryx Clan.

    "That ain't normal, kid. That is really, really fucking unnatural," said the Monkey King.

    "It was weird being on the island, but it was ultimately safe enough. I don't think any of the Archaeopteryx are going to pose a threat to you."

    "I'm not worried about the birds, Hazō," said Enma. "I'm worried about whatever the thing on that island is that's grabbing at my subconscious from this distance and making even me feel scared."


    The Chakra Sensing Seal v1 from the Fourth Hokage's jinchūriki seal chain lasts "1 minute" on the time ladder. Tentative mechanics: with a 20 XP stunt "Sensor Technician," (not required if you've researched the seal) any character can gain a bonus of +15% to Alertness or Examination when making rolls where sensing chakra in the current Zone would be relevant. The seal takes too much focus to attend to, and therefore does not affect initiative.

    Noburi tells Hazō that he's started reliably passing some of Tsunade's "grilling", enough so that she's shifting her attention towards specifics of medical ninjutsu. As she plans on involving him in several real surgeries come the end of the month, Noburi strongly requests that Hazō prioritize Noburi's medical ninjutsu in particular.

    Enma says he'd be glad to take some Arachnids along, even if only a mite. Apparently, a conversation partner would be appreciated.

    With the passage through countries on the return trip already negotiated, Enma doesn't think returning to Pangolin will take as long as getting to Arachnid. Maybe 3 weeks (though Hazō remembers how inaccurate Enma's first estimate for his arrival time was).

    After preparation, Noburi probed Naruto for his interest in seals. Answer: minimal. Mari thinks it's unlikely that Naruto would give up much for seals, unless there's something really good in Jiraiya's library.

    Mari nixed the idea of trading Orochimaru's (good but ultimately not amazing) ninjutsu for a Yamanaka clan-secret Resolve-boosting ninjutsu that almost certainly would confer resistance to the Yamanaka's own techniques. A trade between clans like that is almost unimaginable. The only trade that Mari could imagine is if Hazō could personally convince Ino that he desperately needed the technique personally, and that he would never share it with anyone. Even then, Ino may demand marriage (or perhaps concubinage) from Hazō for clan-secrets reasons.

    Mechanically, the clan is laboring under a Mild ("Tarnished Reputation") from the play campaign against you and a Moderate ("Squeezed Finances") from the sealing failure/sudden estate move. It would have been only a Mild, except your Mild slot was already full. The clan's not in serious trouble, but the effects of the Moderate will keep the clan's finances poor for about a year. Of course, narrative action can fix this.

    Hazō's default policy with Sealing is this:
    • If the perceived difficulty is "genin-level", proceed with no SSA and no prep.
    • If the perceived difficulty is "chūnin-level", proceed with SSA and no prep.
    • If the perceived difficulty is "jōnin-level", proceed with SSA and full prep.
    • If the perceived difficulty is "Jiraiya", do not proceed.

    If you don't agree with this, please vote in something to the contrary with the tag [X][Sealing SOP], e.g.:

    [][Sealing SOP] Kagome-style
    • Always use full prep and SSA.

    Hazō is working with Kagome on the Directional Explosives, and will therefore be using all available prep days.

    Sealing research timeline:
    • Day 1:
      • Hazō Prime and Kagome prep for Directional Explosives.
      • A Hazō SC preps for the Instant Darkness Dome, and finds that it is "chūnin-level". As this cannot be done without SSA, the day is scrapped.
    • Day 2:
      • Hazō Prime and Kagome prep for Directional Explosives.
      • A Hazō SC preps for this Macerator v4 spec, and finds that the difficulty is "Jiraiya". The day is scrapped. (good call saying to prep 1 day for every new seal)
    • Day 3:
      • Hazō Prime and Kagome prep for Directional Explosives.
      • A Hazō SC preps for the Banshee Lover seal, and finds that it is "chūnin-level". As this cannot be done without SSA, the day is scrapped.
    • Days 4-8:
      • Hazō Prime and Kagome prep for Directional Explosives.
    • Day 9:
      • Hazō (Calligraphy): 37 + 3 (IN) + 16 (8 days prep) + 0 = 56
      • Hazō (Sealing): 50 + 22 (SSA) + 16 (8 days prep) + 6 + ? (Kagome's assistance) = 94 + ?

    Hazō has made substantial progress on the Directional Explosive seal. He thinks he's around halfway done. Hazō thinks this seal is chūnin-level difficulty, and that he could finish it much faster without prep days.

    Hazō has gained 1 FP from refresh.

    On the Seventh Path, the Arachnid boat has finally gotten close to Archaeopteryx, carrying aboard it Enma and Cangue, along with a host of Arachnid summons contracted to Kagome. The team is ready to explore Archaeopteryx's former territory.

    XP Award: 33 + 9 (brevity) XP
    GM-fun Award: 0 XP

    Vote time! What to do now?

    Voting ends on
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 583: The Secret of Monkey Island
  • Threadmarks

    • Enma's fur was rippling from the moment they touched the island. Hairs stood up as though he were carrying a Lightning Element technique in his hands. They lay down and rose up again in waves that surged around his body, crashing against the skin of his palms and face in a steady rhythm.

    "You okay?" Hazō asked, glancing over very briefly while still keeping the terrain in his peripheral vision. The other Seventh Path residents remained in the boat and paddled back out away from shore; if there was going to be trouble then better that it only catch the demigod and the human who could disappear in an instant.

    Enma shook his head, a lot of frustration in the gesture and a trace of wariness. "I'm not sure. This place is wrong. Boasts aside, I've likely traveled farther than any land-dweller in this world. I have never felt anything like this. The whole place is...hollow."

    Hazō looked around at the rocky beach and the cliffs that towered above them. He bent down and picked up a stone about the size of his fist. He hefted it thoughtfully, then hurled it against the cliff face with chakra-boosted strength. It hit and shattered.

    "Looks pretty solid to me," he said.

    Enma waved a hand impatiently. "Not like that. It's not the rocks or the dirt, or even the nature chakra, it's..." He trailed off, thinking, and then his eyes went wide and his tail went stiff.

    "Oh, Creator," he murmured. "Oh, no. No, no, no. Please no." He ran forward and leaped onto the wall, swarming upwards at a speed that left him barely touching the stone. He wasn't even using chakra adhesion, instead simply latching onto one tiny crevice and leaping to the next in a surge of explosive power. Hazō stared, drop-jawed, for a moment and then went after him, scrambling up with chakra adhesion. A tiny part of his mind found the feeling strange; the rock had less resistance to his chakra than he would have expected, but that was all to the good. He ran like a lizard, using both hands and feet; wall-running didn't usually involve going up a thousand-foot sheer cliff and not even a trained ninja using maximum chakra reinforcement had the core strength to do it solely on foot.

    Enma was moving much too fast to catch up with, almost too fast to keep in sight of, but Hazō caught up with him three hundred feet up. The Monkey Lord had stopped to survey a cave that led back into the cliff. It contained a large pile of blankets with lanterns on the wall for light, thick rugs on the floors, and a bookshelf of several dozen scrolls. Enma was standing by the bookshelf, reading one of the scrolls.

    "Who lived here?" Hazō said, looking around with a frown. "Servants of the Archaeopteryx?"

    Enma shook his head, not looking up from what he was reading. "I don't think the Archaeopteryx kept servants."

    "Sure, but this is clearly not a bird nest. Woven blankets, woven rugs, a bookshelf? Even scrolls."

    Enma snapped the scroll closed and glared at Hazō, lips pressed tight in anger. "You think only humans can have writing, boy? Residents of this Path have culture and history that rivals or even dwarfs your own. Just because it's different doesn't mean it's less."

    "Whoa!" Hazō said, backing up a step and raising both hands in surrender. "That's not what I meant. I just meant that the Archaeopteryx we saw didn't have hands and their feet didn't look especially dexterous. Their bodies simply aren't built for opening scrolls, that's all."

    Enma closed his eyes, took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and opened his eyes again. He nodded to Hazō, acknowledging that things were once more calm. "Perhaps, but I think you would do well not to underestimate the people of my world. This is a journal." He waved the scroll idly. "If it were written by a monkey then I would say the author was probably a girl, maybe fourteen or fifteen. I don't know if the bird folk mature differently but the thoughts are similar. She's angry at a friend who said something bitchy, mooning over a boy, talking about school...normal things. This shelf here"—he waved at the second shelf from the floor—"is a business ledger. The hand is more angular, neater, probably an adult. The math is neat and accurate with very few crossouts. They used abbreviations for most of the goods and services being exchanged, although the word 'salt' is short enough to have been spelled out." His jaw worked in what might have been anger, or pain, or something else. He gestured to the top shelf. "And this shelf...see for yourself."

    Hazō approached carefully and looked at where Enma pointed. The air was thick with the Monkey Lord's presence, emotion eroding his control and allowing his aura to leak out into the surrounding air. It wasn't directed at Hazō, but still he felt a shiver running up and down his back.

    On the left side of the shelf was a fragment of an egg. It was no larger than Hazō's hand, but the curvature suggested that it would have been about the size of his head. On the right side of the shelf was a drawing, done in colored pigments by a young child. It was the standard sort of stick-figure scrawl that any human toddler might produce, except it was of steep cliffs and soaring winged figures. In the middle of the shelf was a drawing of an Archaeopteryx couple. It had clearly been modeled in this very cave, with the nest of blankets and the bookshelf behind them. The archaeopteryx on the left was slightly smaller and wore a yellow ribbon in her (?) hair, probably silk from the way the light had been painted to shine on it. The one on the right had his (?) pinion feathers stained in various shades of blue and green.

    "Oh," Hazō said, a sick feeling in his stomach.

    "Come on," Enma said, striding for the mouth of the cave. "I want to see the top of this place."

    They climbed, Enma racing ahead while Hazō struggled to follow. He needed to stop and rest twice, once on a ledge a foot wide and once by jamming his arms into a crack in the cliff face and allowing himself to hang until he had his breath back.

    Finally, sopping wet with sweat and heaving for breath, he flopped over the edge of the cliff and onto flat ground.

    Perfectly flat ground. It had been leveled off, scraped flat, and polished to a mirror sheen. A circle carved from the irregular shape of the highest cliff on the island, the excess carved away with inhuman precision. Three hundred and fourteen feet wide, Hazō knew and didn't know how he knew.

    In the center, a circular staircase of two steps, each step eight and six-tenths inches high. Sixteen carven pillars of green and gold marble were spaced around the circumference of the upper platform, each of them eighteen feet tall, except for the one at the east edge which was very slightly higher.

    Inside the structure a single metal perch rose from the stone, its surface scored from being gripped by generations of massive claws. The support column was as thick as Hazō's waist, the four crossbars each six feet long and thick as his legs.

    Enma was on his knees in front of the highest pillar, his long arms collapsed on his knees and head bowed as he wept. His long and mobile tail, for the first time that Hazō had ever seen, sprawled limp and unmoving on the ground behind him.

    Hazō approached slowly, taking care to come from an angle where Enma could see him if the Monkey Lord raised his head.

    "Sir?" Hazō called quietly. "Enma? Sir? What's wrong, sir?"

    Enma's shoulders shook a final time and then he dragged his arm across his eyes and looked up at Hazō. The tip of his tail twitched slightly.

    "They're gone," he said, his voice breaking slightly. "There was an Archaeopteryx Clan, Hazō. They were proud, and wise, and mighty. And now they're gone? How is that right?"

    Hazō swallowed. "I don't know."

    Enma looked around, his eyes dull. "Look at this place, Hazō. You saw what was below—a family. This, here? At first I thought we stood in a place of justice and rulership, that center perch a place for the prisoner or penitent. I don't think that's right. There are four crossbeams, not two. It's intended to let the one perched there turn and face any of those who sit above."

    "Okay...?" Hazō said.

    "Don't you see, Hazō? It's an amphitheater—a place for debate, discussion, storytelling. The one in the center will see the sky behind his audience, something which birds would regard as a place of safety and hope. The audience will have no distraction as they listen."

    "Oh."

    Enma waved out towards the edge of the enormous plateau and the rest of the island beyond. Other mountains, all of them smaller, loomed in the distance. Mist shrouded many of them and much of the jungle that spread out far below, and obscured everything beyond a few miles.

    "I watched out over the island while I was waiting for you, before I came and looked this section over and realized what it was. There should have been tens of thousands of archaeopteryx soaring across all that. I saw two. They were both on the ground, coming out of the trees to snatch a quick drink from one of the rivers and then ducking back. They were miles apart." He stared at Hazō's face for a moment, looking for understanding and not finding it. "They haven't simply had their minds taken, Hazō. They have been broken at the most profound level. They were masters of the sky, rulers of this island, who lived in loving families. Now, they're too terrified to fly and they are each alone. They are hiding in the trees, on the ground. Being on the ground beneath the shade of the jungle is a fine place for the Monkey Clan, Hazō, but it is humiliation and degradation for a bird clan."

    "We saw a few around the mountains the last time I was here," Hazō offered, a sick feeling in his stomach.

    Enma nodded. "Didn't this time though. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there's a few who are still flying. Or maybe something ate the ones that were still flying around in plain sight."

    Hazō digested that. "Is it possible that there is still an Archaeopteryx Lord? Maybe when the previous one was...removed, maybe the mantle passed to another? If so, maybe they're just rebuilding their strength and they'll claim the island again in time."

    Enma smiled, a twisted sight that had nothing of mirth or joy. "I very much doubt it."

    "But it's possible, right? Maybe if we search..."

    Enma chewed his lip for a moment, studying Hazō as he did. Hazō struggled not to look nervous. He couldn't read Enma at all, but the Monkey Lord's aura was quivering in the air and carrying faint echoes of the emotions in the old monkey's heart. Hazō was ready to jump out of his skin at the slightest sound.

    "Asuma likes you, Hazō. Did you know that?"

    "Uh...thank you? I mean...I wasn't sure one way or the other. I didn't think he disliked me, but...I guess I had worried..."

    "Yeah, well, he does. He also says you're a decent fighter and an excellent sealmaster."

    "Thank you?"

    "I'm very confident that there is no surviving Lord of the Archaeopteryx clan, but I can't completely dismiss the possibility. So, I'm going to check. I'm going to be completely focused for a time and I can't afford distractions. I want you to set up a perimeter, then stand back and watch for threats. If it's an Archaeopteryx, leave it be. If it's anything else, handle it with extreme prejudice. Got that?"

    "Yes sir."

    "Good. How long do you need?"

    "I can do a very basic perimeter immediately around this area in about fifteen minutes, but it will be thin. The smallest competent perimeter would take me an hour, maybe two. After that, the more time you want to give me the better I can make it."

    Enma looked up at the ink-black sky, considering. "You have an hour. I don't want to hurry too much but I also want to get back soon. I want to brief Asuma on this and then I need to talk to whatsername—Ruri. Now, leave me alone so I can focus." He reached out and pulled a staff from thin air; it was longer than he was, wood with sculpted metal cladding around the ends. He twirled it twice then sank down cross-legged with the staff across his thighs and allowed his eyes to fall closed. A moment later he opened one of them. "Oh, and once you're done setting everything up, be sure to stay close to the pillars. Close, but not on top of them."

    "Yes sir." Hazō hurried down the steps and started setting up a security perimeter around the amphitheater. Kagome-sensei would have groused about stinking monkey stinkers not giving enough time for proper defenses, but it would probably be sufficient.

    Enma meditated for more than an hour, giving Hazō time to finish and retreat to the base of one of the pillars, on the outside of the ring. Eventually, the Monkey Lord opened his eyes and twisted slowly to his feet. He held the staff out in both hands and began to sing in a language Hazō couldn't understand.

    Hazō watched as Enma began something halfway between a dance and a kata. It started slow, his body swaying in time to unheard music without his feet moving. He raised one foot straight up and balanced his staff vertically atop it, then began to spin in place, faster and faster. After three revolutions he tossed the staff up, backflipped and caught it in midair, and began to dance across the floor of the amphitheater, his movements slow but every strike of his feet slamming into the ground with a nearly subsonic thoom.

    There were neither sun nor moon nor stars on the Seventh Path. The light came from above in a diffuse glow that varied in intensity the same way that it did on the Human Path, rolling through a day/night cycle that didn't perfectly match up with that of the Human Path and seemed to be of varying duration. By the time Enma began his dance the sky was dimming, the threat of night nearing. Both Enma and Hazō ignored that.

    Enma's dance accelerated, becoming more acrobatic, more martial. He struck and spun with his staff, thrusting and sweeping, sometimes holding it in two hands and sometimes in one with the end tucked behind his back. His voice rose louder, the quiet song becoming a demand. Light flickered and crackled along the metal of his staff.

    The sky continued to darken, faster now. The fog of the far mountains and jungles rose into the air and merged with thunderheads rolling in from the west. Lightning crackled through the angry black masses.

    Enma was moving as fast as a sprinting jōnin and, unlike a jōnin, he was sustaining the speed. His staff flickered and spun, the energy around it growing brighter and sharper.

    Minutes passed, the energy of Enma's staff growing steadily brighter and brighter, starting to throw arcs of blue-white light to whatever came near. Hazō crouched behind the pillar, his chakra humming in time to the energy that crackled in the air. Part of it was the chakra of the plateau, swirling around him like an invisible vortex. Part of it was Enma's will, spreading out around him in a cloud that dug its tail into the stone below their feet, latched its claws into the sky, and dragged the clouds closer.

    The sky was fully overcast now, gray thunderhead clouds pressing down towards the plateau. A constant stream of lightning danced among the clouds in a steady rhythm.

    No, not a rhythm. Enma's rhythm, except opposed. Every arc of energy flashing from his staff was echoed in the sky an instant later. Every time his staff slammed against the ground and a moment later thunder cracked in protest from above. Extra beats syncopated against his, trying to break his music, and failed.

    Enma leaped atop the largest of the pillars and shouted to the sky, a Command backed by a lance of sheer presence unlike anything Hazō had ever felt. The Monkey King danced to the next pillar just as lightning struck the one he had been standing on.

    Lightning tracked him around the circle of pillars, always searing the ground half a step behind his heels. He howled and sang, twirled and spun, moving faster and faster until trails of crackling energy lagged behind him. The lightning strikes were more frequent now, hitting multiple pillars at a time with what Hazō would have called desperation had they come from a human enemy. Enma spun and flipped across the amphitheater, touching down and departing instants before each bolt and dancing between them and around them.

    Hazō pressed himself tight to the ground as the sky tore open and water came down not as rain but as an attack on the earth below. It crashed and kicked and struggled against the will of the Monkey Lord, slicking his fur flat to his body. His tail whipped from side to side above his head, behind him and to the sides. It acted as another limb, allowing him to catch the sculptures and carvings on the pillars and pull so that he changed course mid-leap before a lightning bolt could vaporize the air where he would have been. Every single one of Hazō's perimeter-defense seals was washed off the plateau in an instant; fortunately, none of them failed in the process.

    Enma danced and nature fought against him with lightning and thunder and rain and howling wind. The Lord of the Monkey Clan called out, his voice a demand backed by more metaphysical power than Jiraiya had held on his best day. The lightning flashed and the thunder cracked and this time they were on the beat of his song. He continued singing even as he moved, fast and fleet and smooth, untouchable by every attack, and the storm shifted. The clouds became entrained to his movement, swirling in the same circle that he danced through, until a vortex rode the air above them. Slowly, the lightning and the thunder began to join with his song. The thunder became an underlying bass beat while the lightning became the accompaniment, joining Enma in a howling cry of joyful bloodthirst, a Promise that Hazō felt but did not understand.

    Enma leaped back to the highest pillar and thrust his staff into the sky, holding it by the very end. Something far too vast and sustained to be called a lightning bolt struck the staff, a river of white energy that poured from the sky and into the staff and through Enma and into the earth. The entire top of the plateau was covered in half an inch of water, rushing outwards and forming a circular waterfall that plummeted to the earth far below. The water led traces of the energy to Hazō; they flickered over him in painful needles for an instant, forcing his whole body into a massive convulsion—and then the pain stopped and the energy routed itself around him, the water rolling back an inch from his skin and refusing to touch him when he reached towards it. Even the rain parted, falling all around him but not on him. More and more of the sky's strength bled into the earth around them until the water was filled with crackling webs of blue-white power that sparked back into the sky and then torrented away off the edge of the cliff.

    Enma cried out one last time, a final word that Hazō did not understand, and it stopped.

    Everything stopped. The rain. The lightning. The thunder. The wind. The massive vortex of raging cloud above them. Everything hung, in perfect and silent balance, for two long seconds, and then the clouds dissolved away like mist on a sunny morning. In its wake was a glorious blue sky the color of summer picnics.

    Enma dropped down from the pillars, lounging next to Hazō as the last of the water evaporated from the plateau.

    "Well," he said, amusement and pleasure in his tone. "That was fun."

    "What just happened?" Hazō asked carefully.

    "Oh, nothing much. Just a little bit of tearing away the natural course of reality and spackling over the cracks with my soul. You know. Tuesday."

    Hazō looked up at the perfect circle of blue sky that hovered above the plateau and the vast swath of inky blackness that surrounded it.

    "Did...did you just claim this island for Monkey?" he asked.

    "Naaaah," Enma said. "Well, maybe. A little bit. Okay, yes." He looked up at the sky with a satisfied expression. "Not the whole island, just this plateau. Still, if there's an Archaeopteryx Lord living, they're going to know that I did this and they'll come looking."

    "Won't they be angry?"

    "Oh, probably. Having part of your territory taken from you hurts like a motherfucker. Which means it's about the best way to get a ruler's attention. It's also why I only took this little bitty bit. Don't want to hurt them too much if they're out there."

    Hazō digested that for a few seconds. "Won't they think it's the Dragons again and stay away?"

    "Nah. The whole point of claiming the territory is that I've infused my essence into it. The old owner will know exactly who did it."

    "I see." His brain was too boggled to really follow the implications, so he simply sat and mulled them over. "What happens now?"

    "We give it a couple hours, then we admit to ourselves that there's no surviving trace of the Archaeopteryx Clan. You go back to Leaf, I go back to the boat and start back to Arachnid on the double. You have Asuma summon me the instant you can get to him and we debrief about everything we saw. Afterwards, I talk to Ruri and tell her that I've got a new homeland for the Condors if they want it." He sighed. "Then I go back to the Seventh Path and spend three very boring days getting back to Arachnid. Or maybe I jump off the boat and bloody well swim. We'll see."

    "You're going to give the Condors a new homeland?!" Hazō asked, eyes wide.

    "Yeah. Conjura's big problem until now has been that she couldn't afford to break her people out because she didn't have anywhere to stash them. They would simply have been recaptured again, and none of the other clans could afford to take in an entire Clan of refugees."

    "Because the Pangolins would have attacked them to reclaim the prisoners?" Hazō asked.

    "Sure, let's go with that. Anyway, now there's a place where they can go. Conjura will have to claim it and it's possible that there's something dangerous around here that's going to try to eat them, and even if there isn't then the Dragons might come back. Still, I'm betting she'll take it." He winced. "I'm going to have to let her take this patch back. Damnit."

    Hazō thought about the implications. Should he tell Kei? No, strike that. He definitely should tell Kei, the question was when to tell her. And how would Pantsā react?

    "Okay," Enma said, pushing himself to his feet and offering Hazō a hand up. "Time to go."




    XP AWARD: 2 This update only covered a couple of hours.

    Brevity XP: 1

    "GM had fun" XP: 5

    Voting remains closed. @Velorien will write the debrief with Asuma scene.
     
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    • Chapter 584, Part 1: Unforgivable Beauty
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    • Hazō found himself feeling inexplicably anxious as he walked into Asuma's office. His role, in theory, was just to tell Asuma to summon Enma and then go home. He had nothing to add to Enma's Dragon report, and while he could offer his observations on their Archaeopteryx trip, he didn't even understand what Enma had done there beyond the Monkey Lord's obviously dumbed-down explanation. Why, then, did he have an eerie feeling of foreboding?

    Asuma was pacing in front of the window as if sharing those feelings, either not minding or not noticing the chill wind periodically blowing through the room. Though as an elite jōnin, he must surely have noticed Hazō's arrival from the moment he walked up the stairs to this floor, he didn't react to his presence until Hazō gave a polite cough.

    "Hazō." He nodded in acknowledgement. "It's good to see you back safe. What do you have for me?"

    "It's good to see you too, sir," Hazō said. "Mostly I'm here because Enma wants you to summon him ASAP, and asked me to convey that message. That said, if you don't mind, I'd like to hear his report as well. Despite my c##s^ s@%ves with @#e Dragons, I still don't have anywhere as much intel on them as I'd like."

    For a second, Asuma just frowned at him.

    "Yes. Yes, of course. I think you should sit down, Hazō.

    "Summoning Technique: Enma!"

    The puff of displaced air from Enma's arrival knocked a few sheets of paper off Asuma's desk where an anchor-shaped pearl paperweight hadn't quite been pinning them down. Asuma quickly stooped over to put them away before Hazō could see what was on them.

    "You were light on your feet, kid," Enma said to Hazō. "I appreciate it."

    "Good evening, Enma," Asuma said.

    Was it evening on the Seventh Path?

    "Hello," Hazō said conservatively.

    "You're back sooner than I expected," Asuma said, settling into the Hokage chair. Enma remained standing.

    "Fair winds," Enma said by way of explanation. "A little thank-you, maybe. But forget that. It's been a very long day, and you need to hear about the Dragons while I've still got the presence of mind to do it safely."

    "What do you mean?" Asuma and Hazō asked simultaneously.

    "I'll get to that," Enma said. "Hazō, I know you probably want to go home and be with your lovers--Sage knows I do--but you should stick around and hear this too."

    Hazō glanced at Asuma, who gave a nod.

    "So the first part of the mission was smooth," Enma began. "The arachnids got me to where I needed to go, the hornets lifted me up, there was a clear view all the way to the butte…"

    He broke off.

    "Those eyes, though. The hornets had blinded themselves for safety, willingly, because their clan had asked it of them. I was too focused to make much of it at the time, but looking back, it was crazy. Really puts into perspective what kind of sacrifices those clans have been making while we've been sitting back hoping the Dragons don't really exist so we don't have to deal with them.

    "I had a couple of minutes to study the Dragons at my leisure thanks to them. It was… Asuma, it was a hell of a thing. They were just like the reports said, and nothing like them at all. I'm one of the finest storytellers on the Seventh Path, maybe the finest now Karakugo's taken his last flight, and I'm struggling to find the words for the sheer alienness of them.

    "The glass Dragon is both there and not. Even when it's sitting still, you can't see it. You can just make out bits here and there where it disturbs the air. I'm pretty sure it's got arms and legs and wings, but I couldn't tell you how many or how they fit together. I can tell you that it's more visible when there's something next to it that it can reflect. When the red Dragon passed by it, for a second I could see a shape almost like a tail. That means if we have ninjutsu that goes far enough to reach it, or projectiles, or flyers that can get near without dying, their reflections should give us something to target. My worry is that it also means we won't know about it until it gets close.

    "The red Dragon is the creepiest thing I've ever seen, and that's after adjusting to everything I saw at the Arachnid capital. People say 'Dragon', you think big creature that flies, right? No, it's just this blob, this constantly-shifting blob that looks like it's a living pool of blood, and if it has a front or a back, I'm damned if I know how to tell. It's moving even when it's not, and I'm pretty sure touching it is death, because the other Dragons made sure there was plenty of space between them and it—that or it's just extra foul-tempered. Not that I know how they did it, because it kept growing and shrinking so you couldn't tell how big it was supposed to be. There's no way to fight something like that close-up, but it's impossible to know how much of it there is, and my centuries of combat experience tell me it probably regenerates, so you'd have to have a killer of a ranged weapon to do a ton of damage very fast."

    "In the Water Country, there's a chakra beast called the gelatinous tesseract," Hazō chipped in. "No matter how much you injure it, all it has to do is spin on its centre of mass and suddenly it's completely unharmed. It takes two ninja to kill it: one to use ninjutsu to pin it in an area, and another to deal constant damage, probably with ninjutsu as well, until it runs out of regeneration."

    "I imagine the pinning's going to be the hard part," Enma said. "I'm not even sure it's solid, and not a sentient liquid or something.

    "Which is still more than I know about the dark one. I had to stop looking at that one fast because not only could I not see it, if I tried, I stopped being able to see anything else. It didn't even feel like normal blindness—more like total night, with no light from the Firmament whatsoever. There could be anything in there. Worst-case scenario, the way it works is that it's psychic and it knows when someone's looking at it, even miles away."

    Hazō opened his mouth to object about chakra diffusion, then closed it again. Dragons did not obey the laws he knew. Maybe they didn't obey any laws, and just happened to fit into certain mental brackets for now, until they were seen from a different angle, or until they felt like it.

    "In some ways, though," Enma went on, "it might be the easiest to deal with. We don't know what's inside that shroud of darkness, but we don't need to know in order to bombard the middle of it with ranged attacks. The only issue is how to avoid being blinded, especially if we're screwed badly enough to have to fight more than one Dragon at a time."

    "We also won't know if fires off any abilities," Hazō objected. "Scout reports say that anything that goes into that darkness doesn't come out, so it might have a disintegration ability like we saw with the parts of the Dragon I killed, or… well, we just don't know. At least with the blood Dragon, it sounds like we'll be able to defend against its attacks the normal way."

    "This whole thing's a big mess of unknowns," Enma said. "Eventually, there's going to come a point where we just have to go in there and trust our ability to improvise, though the more clever tricks like your skyslicers we can bring out first to even the odds, the better."

    Asuma seemed to finally recover from the paralysis that had set in as he heard more and more about the horrors on course to devour the Seventh Path and then his own, though his eyes were still a little too wide and his posture was tense like he was expecting to be attacked any second.

    "There was… one more Dragon, wasn't there?" he asked.

    Enma looked away.

    "Yeah. Yeah, there was."

    By process of elimination…

    "It was beautiful," Enma said heavily.

    Asuma nodded, inviting him to continue.

    Enma didn't.

    "Enma?"

    Hazō watched Asuma's expression shift slowly from horror to concern.

    "Beautiful," Enma repeated. "It's the damndest thing. I've tried, and I can shape what I feel into an impulse, but the gestalt field just won't transform it into words that somebody else can understand. I can say 'beautiful', because it's vague enough that it can at least point in the right direction, but that's still like… it's like trying to describe a tree by pointing at a discarded sliver of bark in the mud.

    "No," he said, "it's like trying to describe the concept of trees—how they support us, how they nourish us, how they give us freedom—with that one piece of bark. I feel like an idiot just saying it."

    "Funny," Asuma said, "Kei—the Condor Summoner, that is—talked about it as trying to describe the freedom of a bird in flight by holding up a feather. But there's more to it than that, isn't there?"

    Enma was silent for a few seconds more.

    "I lost control," he said in a low voice. "You have to understand what that means, Asuma. I'm the Sage-damned Monkey King. I shrugged off Haijakku's strongest genjutsu even after she tricked me into drinking her tea. I tore a quisling messiah into shreds while my summoner, the greatest jōnin of the Tesshin Clan, was busy clawing his eyes out. My will is diamond that makes my staff look like a twig.

    "This thing made me lose control. It made me shame myself before my allies. Even now, I'm summoning up its image in my mind so I can take one more futile stab at describing it to you, and just from that I have to resist an urge to go back to it. Every beautiful thing I see for the rest of my life will shine a little less because it will be in that Dragon's shadow.

    "It's poison and it needs to die."

    "Shit," Asuma muttered. "I'm so sorry, Enma."

    "I don't need your pity," Enma snapped. "Just promise me that when you go to see the Dragons—and you need to go, because every pair of eyes is another chance to figure out their weakness—you'll have the hornets tie you up tight so you don't do anything as stupid as I did."

    "Got it," Asuma said without any of the pride of a Hokage. "Do you have any tactical insight for when we have to fight it?"

    "Blindfolds," Enma said. "Other than that, no fucking idea."

    A morose silence settled over the Hokage's Office. None of the three looked at each other.

    "All right, enough moping," Enma said eventually. "Let's talk about a different depressing topic so I can at least try to get that damn thing out of my mind. I'm guessing Hazō hasn't told you about our trip to Archaeopteryx Island yet?"

    -o-​

    Part 2 coming tomorrow. Feel free to begin planning, as any incoming forbidden lore revelations will not be time-sensitive.
     
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    • Chapter 584, Part 2: Seducing the Land
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    • "Go ahead," Asuma said with all the excitement of Kagome-sensei hearing that Hazō had come up not with a new seal idea, not with a new application idea for an existing seal, but with a new safety precaution projected to decrease the chances of a sealing failure by 0.1% if not more. Hazō suspected that at that moment, the Hokage would have happily listened to a report about the latest goings-on in the Basement, complete with grisly details, if it meant not having to spend a second longer imagining the Dragons. (After all, what were the odds that Orochimaru's research would result in a deadly esoteric threat to Leaf that could not be defeated through conventional combat?)

    "Archaeopteryx Island is huge," Enma began. "Almost as big as Snake Island, I reckon, at least since the Boars moved in. That made it feel twice as empty when we arrived. Asuma, you've never been to a bird clan's territory, but I used to have a bunch of friends in Crow—still do, in fact, unless they've croaked—and I know what their skies are supposed to look like. There should have been thousands of archaeopteryxes soaring above the island, maybe tens of thousands, all flying in a big storm of chaos that gradually resolves itself into a dense fabric of interwoven patterns once you start learning both about the island's geography and about how a bird summon sees the world. Even if the summons themselves are assholes, which most crows are, watching them doing what they do all at once is a thing of wonder.

    "I saw two. They were on the ground.

    "I can't overstate how hard that hit me, not just the fact that so many were gone—devoured, hiding in terror, or maybe they just couldn't survive having their clan's soul torn out all at once—but how the survivors looked. I don't even know how to describe it to you in a way you'd understand. The Human Path is full of weird shit you couldn't make up if you spent a solid week on Toad mushrooms, but at least there's nothing that can just… un-human a human."

    Hazō and Asuma simultaneously opened their mouths to correct him, but then decided to spare the Monkey King's remaining innocence.

    "Imagine," Enma went on, "that you've got a buddy down at the local bar. You don't know each other's names, and you don't really care, but every now and again you find yourselves sitting on the same branch, and you complain about the weather, and you boast about how hot your latest lover is, and sometimes you get roaring drunk on berry wine and start wrestling and fall off the tree and faceplant into the ground, and laugh about it afterwards.

    "Then one day, you go to the bar, and your buddy's sitting outside, and he looks at your face and he doesn't recognise you. He doesn't say hi. He doesn't wave. His eyes are empty, blank, like there's nothing on the other side. You open your mouth, hoping he'll snap out of it if you say something, and he sees your big teeth and he cowers, like an animal. You try to say something to him, and he runs. The horror of seeing that emptiness inside him, the sorrow of knowing you've lost him and can't get him back, the lament for everything he was that's gone forever… There's no way of dealing with those feelings. They just stay stuck inside you. You can't even mourn him like you mourn the dead, because that's not what's happened to him. He's broken. Destroyed. Like a shell of himself, animated by the last shreds of a memory of who he was.

    "I'm lucky enough that I never knew an archaeopteryx. But I know people, and they used to be people. That was enough."

    Hazō shivered. The description struck close to home in a way he wasn't prepared to voice inside this room. He remembered Noda, and he remembered Orochimaru's version of Noda. Asuma was probably thinking of the banshee heron or the hypnotoad, or whatever equivalents they had in the Fire Country, but Hazō had stood within walking distance of where they were now and watched Orochimaru discard Noda's humanity like a clump of dirt that was contaminating his readings. Hazō had helped him do it.

    "The land was just as bad," Enma went on. "Describing what I felt as I stood on it… that's even harder. You humans just don't have the senses. Nobody does except a clan boss or one of the true sages, or maybe a mystic who's given up all the things you have to give up to be able to see things as they are.

    "The Dragons had torn out its heart and left it for dead. That's barely even a metaphor. Imagine somebody tears your heart from your chest and leaves you lying on the cold ground. You can't move. You can't breathe. There's no life being pumped through your veins. But you're still alive, because you're tied into All that Is, and All that Is doesn't die. All you can do is think, and all you can think about is despair, and there's nobody around to ask for help, and you couldn't ask them even if there was, and even if you could ask them, once somebody's torn out your heart, it's not like they can put it back.

    "That was Archaeopteryx territory when I claimed it."

    "Hold on," Asuma interrupted. "You claimed it? Personally? I thought that was—"

    "It is," Enma agreed. "A clan's home being unclaimed territory is an edge case that doesn't happen. When it does happen, it's unnatural. It's an abomination. It doesn't last long, because nature rejects it the way your body rejects disease.

    "There's a reason nobody does what I did—you're right about that. It's a lot harder and more dangerous when there's an actual clan boss's will there to reject your claim. The land itself will fight you to stay loyal. That's why when we want to take somebody else's territory, we do it the proper way.

    "Even with the Archaeopteryx Lord dead as we suspected, it was a hell of a thing. The land still had its memory of its masters, its children. It fought back, and it fought to kill."

    "You fought the land?" Asuma clarified with an edge of bemusement.

    "No," Enma said. "That's just stupid. No one can fight the Seventh Path itself. No, we danced. There's an art to it, and half of it is in your bones, and half of it is being the Monkey King and the greatest lover who ever lived.

    "At first, your objective is just not to die. But once you can read its rhythm, its true rhythm expressed through the beats of violence, you can start to match it. You move as it does, you breathe as it does, you let your heartbeats synchronise. Then, softly, subtly, you start to lead. You seduce the land, bit by bit, until it starts following your rhythm, first because that's the nature of the dance, then willingly, then keenly like a river pouring into a dry riverbed. Finally, once it's ready to accept you, you open up your soul and let it flow out to fill the rifts you made when you first tore at it with your will. As apology. As healing. As love. You leave a little bit of your soul behind forever, and you get a little bit of its soul inside you, nestling next to the soul of your home.

    "Hazō, I told you that my plan was to give Archaeopteryx to the Condors so they have a new home to migrate to before the Pangolins, or anyone else who wants that territory, can catch on. That's a half-truth. Yes, part of my motivation is to get an ally who's heavily in the Monkeys' debt in a place we could never extend our reach to on our own. Part of it is kindness to those who have lost their independence and their right to be themselves, which are two values every Monkey holds sacred. Part of it is a big 'fuck you' to the Pangolins for crossing a line they knew wasn't to be crossed and shaming the Seventh Path before the Sage, as well as a blow to a resource base I don't want them to have. But those aren't the only things. The wisdom passed down since the first day is that if you forget about politics and trade and war, you're unfit to lead your clan—but if you forget about your responsibility to the land, you're unfit to be a chosen custodian of the Seventh Path."

    Hazō: Empathy 19 + 0 = 19 vs TN ??

    There was something in Asuma's expression that Hazō couldn't read, but he could see the moment of mutual understanding when Enma recognised and acknowledged it.

    "What was once lost can never be brought back," Enma said, "and Archaeopteryx Island will never again be what it was after a millennium of bonding with its people. Even the Sage won't be able to raise the dead when he returns. The best I can do for it is give it back the sound of wings, and a new master whose heart might fit in its chest the way no Arachnid, Shark, or Monkey's ever could."

    Hazō silently updated his agenda. Once he was done learning how to resurrect people, he should look into learning how to resurrect worlds.

    "Hazō."

    Hazō snapped into alertness from the vague, meditative state he had been lulled into by Enma's narration.

    "Everything I've said should just be an interesting tale to you," Enma said in a voice completely devoid of its usual cheer. "You're not a boss, and you don't have a boss's connection to the Seventh Path, and you never will. But I know enough about you. You're brilliant enough to draw insights from the Great Seal and dumb enough to hand out weapons forbidden by the Sage himself as if they were flavoured nuts. If you try to use anything I've just told you to screw with my world, that's a violation of your contract, and I will enforce it in a way so brutal that it will pass into legend—assuming Cannai or one of the other bosses doesn't get there first."

    Hazō glanced at Asuma, aware that issuing a death threat against a Leaf ninja in the Hokage's presence would be 100% treason if he did it.

    "Meddling with the Seventh Path in a way judged to be dangerous by a competent authority means you're endangering Leaf's summoners and therefore sabotaging its security," Asuma said calmly. "That makes it treason if performed without the Hokage's explicit permission. I'm confident you'd never do anything so foolish, but if you did, then out of respect for our long-standing alliance, I would permit Enma to execute the sentence in a fashion of his choosing."

    "I-I understand," Hazō stammered beneath the force of Enma and Asuma's combined gazes.

    Then the tension passed.

    "Relax, kid," Enma said. "I've given you the obligatory warning, but I do have a bit of faith in you. Last time the subject came up, Asuma said you'd finally learned your lesson about experimenting with forces beyond your comprehension without talking to the right people first, and he's a decent judge of character for a human."

    Hazō didn't dare look at Asuma.

    "Well," Asuma said with perfect evenness, "that was a very interesting report, and I can tell I'll be giving it a lot of thought. Thank you, Enma. Rest well. Hazō, you're dismissed."

    Enma said his goodbyes and vanished into the aether. Hazō wished he could do the same, but settled for a quick bow before getting out of the office as fast as his dignified walk could carry him.

    -o-​

    You have received 1 + 1 (Brevity) + 1 (Fun-to-Write) = 3 XP.

    -o-​

    Special thanks to player @_The_Bomb for assistance with the timeline.

    What do you do?

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    Uchiha Minori sat quietly in the Academy classroom, along with two of her fellow ninja. Yes, they were ninja now, and each of them wore a mark on their foreheads proving their hard work. Despite their new status, their soon-to-be sensei had left a cryptic note at each of their houses, telling them to arrive at the Academy before dawn, long before the first classes began. Fortunately, Minori had not been among those few foolish fellows of hers that had sworn never to return to the Academy at graduation. She of course had her fair share of miserable experiences at the hands of appalling teachers. She merely knew that the future was an uncertain thing and that oaths should not be invoked without an absolute certainty of completion – or of death at its hands.

    They had waited for nearly an hour, and classes were still yet to begin. Minori focused her hearing, but she could not hear the sound of early arrivals playing or practicing in the yards outside. Their mysterious sensei still had time to arrive.

    "Should we do something?" said Minami Samiko, breaking the silence. "She's not here yet."

    Sasaki Yuda nodded at Minami's astute observation. "We have time," he said. "They haven't opened the main gates yet. What should we do?"

    Minami shrugged. "My sister said this is a… thing that new sensei sometimes do to haze their students. They show up late to watch the genin freak out, to see if they do something stupid or if they act sensibly under pressure."

    "So, what would be sensible?" asked Sasaki.

    Minami shrugged. "If this were a mission, we would be rendezvousing with an ally, so we can't go too far from the meeting point. Maybe we could stake a lookout on the roof to see if she's nearby, watching us?"

    "That seems good," Sasaki said, standing from his seat.

    "It is possible that the ally already passed the rendezvous location under pursuit. In that situation, she would leave a message for us in the room. Let's not leave the room before searching it."

    Both heads snapped over to Minori as she spoke and she shrunk a little under her stares. She hadn't spoken to them yet, but there had been nothing to say. Now, they were ignoring an important possibility, acting before a plan had been fully formed.

    After a moment, Minami acquiesced. "Yes, that sounds possible too, Uchiha. Let's search the room."

    The three set to work, slowly going through the classroom (irritatingly, already marred by the new intake of students' various affairs), taking care to return things to where they were found. After all, if there were pursuit, why give away information about other parties involved?

    Within minutes, Sasaki flipped a chalkboard and revealed a message on the opposite side.

    Greetings, my potential students

    Sadly, the duties of the clan and village weigh heavily upon me. While I acknowledge that training a new generation of genin is a worthwhile endeavor, I have limited time and cannot train you all. As a result, I have to limit the number of students I take to one. The first of you three to step foot on Training Ground 88 will become my student. The other two will join the general genin corps, with the option to petition for reassignment if you desire. My apologies, of course.

    Gōketsu Mari    ​

    Sasaki started sprinting to the doorway halfway through the message, but Minami was faster and intercepted him. "Wait," she said as he fell back with his head on a swivel. He was clearly deciding between going through her or trying to make his way out of the window.

    Minori frowned. Something seemed wrong about this…

    "This is another thing they do," Minami said with a slight sigh. "Though I would have figured most jōnin-sensei would have stopped by now, since everyone knows."

    Sasaki bristled and Minori sympathized privately. Common knowledge to members of the large and powerful Minami was not always common knowledge to the clanless who lacked senior ninja as mentors. Or to her.

    "Anyway, they make up a test that divides the team to see if we have 'teamwork' and 'cooperation' and blah blah blah. This is a test, Sasaki. Try not to fail it."

    Sasaki looked at her suspiciously. "How do I know you're not lying to me? You could mislead me until you have the chance to claim the prize."

    Minami smiled, puffing her chest out. "I'm glad you think I'm that good of a liar. But if you want, we can visit the Tower together first. We can find someone there that'll tell us that the jōnin do this sometimes."

    Sasaki frowned, but Minori interrupted. "Do either of you know the location of Training Ground 88?"

    They both shook their heads. "Then we must visit the Tower regardless to get that information," Minori said.

    "Unless you or she already knows the location," Sasaki said, "and you're trying to lead us off on a wild goose chase.

    Minami raised a hand to hit him, but stopped herself as he raised a block. "Stop being stupid. If I'm honest, you'll definitely fail the test. If I'm not, we can race from the Tower, but we won't be close enough that I'll get there before you react. If I run off after the Tower person says the wrong thing, you'll outpace me before I'm winded. Let's just go to the Tower and check it out."

    After a pause, Sasaki nodded his agreement, and they set off.

    o-o-o-o​

    Linked arm in arm, the three genin leaned forward and took their first step onto the newly established training ground. Their feet landed simultaneously, or at least as close as they could manage. After a moment's pause to listen for fanfare, Minori and Sasaki unlinked their arms from Minami's.

    "Why did you have us link up arms anyway?" Sasaki asked.

    "It's the right way to do it," Minami said with supreme self-assurance as she walked to the center of the clearing.

    "Did your sister tell you that too?" Sasaki asked.

    Minami didn't answer. She looked around Training Ground 88, which had been surprisingly near the Gōketsu estate. Very few training grounds lay within Leaf's inner walls, as, though they afforded convenient travel, it meant other parties could easily observe your training.

    "Where is she? We passed her test. She should be near enough to gloat if we failed, so why isn't she telling us we passed?"

    "I don't know, maybe-" Sasaki cut himself off as a messenger arrived in the clearing at a moderate walk.

    She was a young civilian girl, perhaps fifteen, wearing the grays of the messenger corps with a Gōketsu red-and-green bandana tied around her upper arm. She bowed briefly, pressing her fingers to her forehead. Minori blinked. Of course the messenger would salute them. Minori had graduated and become a full ninja of Hidden Leaf. Civilians would give her the appropriate respect.

    "Greetings, honored ninja. I carry a message from Gōketsu Mari. She apologizes for her absence, and says that she has prepared a test for you at a location in town. Could you follow me, please?"

    "Uh-huh. A likely story." Minami said, clapping her hands together in the seal of release. "Dispel!"

    Nothing happened.

    Minami looked around for any changed detail, but found nothing. Sasaki cocked his head at her. "Why did you do that?" he asked.

    Minami scowled. "You're not an idiot, Sasaki. You know she's a genjutsu mistress. Also, this is obviously a trap."

    "Why?" he asked. "This test was a farce, there's obviously going to be a real test."

    "Our Tower detour randomized our arrival time," Minori said, as her two compatriots turned to look at her. "Without foreknowledge, Gōketsu must have acted intentionally to ensure the messenger's arrival within seconds of our own. The messenger is not Gōketsu herself, as no one could make jōnin at such a young age." Except him, she added internally. "If the messenger is not genjutsu, Gōketsu must have placed her close to respond to our arrival."

    The messenger paled and held up her hands as the three genin turned on her. "I'm sorry, honored ninja, but I know nothing about that. It was ten minutes ago that Lady Mari told me to walk over from the estate, find you three, and take you to the green building on Tobirama Square."

    Minami turned away from the civilian messenger and huffed. "Fine. Let's play along with Gōketsu's game. But keep your guards up, everyone. This is definitely a set-up."

    o-o-o-o​

    They followed the messenger at a walking pace. Though they could have made it to Tobirama Square much faster through the trees and the rooftop highway, they'd decided to follow Gōketsu's instructions. The morning streets were unsurprisingly crowded – harvest season always kept civilians busy. Leaf had paid a price in blood in the war, but it had clearly bought safety and plenty for Fire's people. Away from the squares, certain alleys were almost packed shoulder-to-shoulder. It was nice, Minori thought, that even with the streets so crowded, people made room for the ninja.

    "Did you see that?" Minami asked, grabbing Minori's arm. Minori flinched, then followed Minami's gaze.

    Minori narrowed her eyes. "The dango stand?"

    "No, dummy. Gōketsu. I saw a flash of red hair."

    Sasaki turned around, scanning the market square around him for any sign of Gōketsu. "Red hair?"

    "Yes, red hair," Minami said, voice rising to be heard above the market din. "Sage above, did neither of you do your research? She's short, pretty, curvaceous, with long red hair."

    "Hair is easy to dye," Minori said.

    "Yes," Minami said. "But why would someone disguise themselves as our jōnin-sensei? Let's follow her!"

    Minami dashed away. Minori glanced at the messenger, who was wringing her hands and watching Minami shove her way through the crowd. Something still didn't feel right to her…

    After a moment's consideration, Minori followed Minami and Sasaki through the crowd. They forced their way through the civilian throng until people realized they were ninja, at which point their way quickly cleared. Minori followed Minami until they reached Tobirama Square.

    "Do you have eyes on her?" Sasaki asked.

    "There!" Minami said, clambering atop a fruit stand. Minori climbed up and saw Minami pointing at a redheaded woman, walking into a green-painted building.

    Minami jumped down and started to race towards the building, but Minami waited and looked around.

    Another redheaded woman, back turned to the three of them as she chatted amiably with a vegetable merchant.

    Another redheaded woman, minding a pair of children trying to run off through the market.

    "Wait!" Minori called out. "There's more."

    As Minami and Sasaki climbed back up the fruit stand, a thought came to Minori. She brought her hands together. "Dispel!"

    o-o-o-o​

    Minori raised her head up off the desk in the classroom and opened her eyes. Embarrassingly, she noticed a little spot of drool on the desk. She quickly wiped it off. Glancing to either side, she noticed Minami and Sasaki with their heads still down on their desks. They had not yet broken the genjutsu.

    Someone had written a message in thick chalk letters on the blackboard at the head of the classroom.

    YOU FAIL

    Sorry, but I have no need for genin that can't recognize such a basic genjutsu. Proceed either to the Academy Headmaster's office to re-enroll for your final year of studies, or to the Tower if you wish to join the general corps of genin. I recommend the Academy, as your skills are clearly inadequate to survive in the field for long.    ​

    Minori waited as her two teammates stirred and read the message themselves. Unsurprisingly, Minami was the first to speak.

    "What does she mean we failed? How in the Sage's name were we supposed to notice a genjutsu from a jōnin!?"

    "There were a few improbable factors," Minori said. "The messenger, as you pointed out, then Gōketsu in the crowd. We would not notice a jōnin unless she wanted to be noticed, so we should have been suspicious."

    "That's absurd!" Minami said. "We're not Yamanaka! Are we expected to read her mind and know what exactly she intends for us to do in every situation?"

    "You knew she was a genjutsu-spec jōnin," Sasaki said. "Dispelling is probably a safe reaction to any suspicion. In hindsight, I should have thought things through myself instead of following you into the crowd."

    "No," Minami said. "That's stupid. This is all stupid." She stood from her desk. "Come with me. We're not going to fail this dumb test. We're going to go talk with my mother, and we're going to make Gōketsu take us seriously as students."

    Sasaki laughed. "What will your mother do? Gōketsu is a jōnin."

    Minami glared. "My mother is a Clan Head. Gōketsu will break first. Come with me."

    "Is that really wise?" Sasaki asked. "We followed your lead last time and failed the test."

    "Exactly, things can't get any worse!" Minami said.

    "Actually, things could get a lot worse," Sasaki said.

    "Whatever. I was right then and I'm right now. Come on, stupid, you gotta leverage connections for power when you can." With that said, Minami stomped out of the room.

    Sasaki glanced at Minori. "Will you follow her?"

    Minori thought for a second. Something still seemed wrong to her. Was the test really over? At the very least, following the hot-headed Minami would likely cause more trouble. Or would leaving her alone to cause chaos make Minori fail the test for abandoning her teammates?

    Distantly, a door swung open, then shut.

    Sasaki looked into the hallway, then back at Minori. "Whatever," he said. "I'm going to go catch up with her."

    He left.

    Expecting the genin to infer exactly what Gōketsu wanted seemed unreasonable. In a situation with two choices, they would never be able to pick the right choice reliably. Instead, the test must be something else altogether. What could it be?

    Minori heard the door to the courtyard slam again, then hurried to catch up to her maybe-teammates.

    o-o-o-o​

    In the Academy, Minami had been the queen bee of her own metaphorical hive of groupies and sycophants. The extent of Minori's interaction with that particular sphere had been merely periodic bullying by various orbiters and flunkies that sought to gain status by demonstrating their superiority over another. Could Minori blame Minami for others' futile attempts to gain their queen bee's attention? Should she? After all, they had done relatively little to her in the grand scheme of things. The Academy's girls had never favored physical attacks, especially after learning to mold chakra when the instructors had become particularly strict about physical altercations. Similarly, bullies' attempts at verbal abuse were limp-wristed at best. Those whose primary aim in life was to taste the heel of another's sandal were not particularly equipped to create barbs with lasting harm. Their best efforts had amounted to barely coherent attempts to mock her for her dead parents. It was far from the worst thing she had endured – no, that had been finding out that her parents were dead. And besides, her clan head had endured far worse, as everyone told her. Therefore, if their words had hurt, it proved only her own weakness.

    Sasaki, on the other hand, had primarily socialized with groups of other clanless ninja. While her elders had always told her that the social gaps between clan and clanless were insurmountable, she had repeatedly seen it done by children too young to recognize and care about the difference. Yet, their paths had never crossed enough for them to truly befriend one another before their social groups had crystallized, such as they were. In a way, the rise of KEI in their final Academy year had only widened the gap. Now, the clanless ninja had ample reason to keep away those of the clans, just as the clan ninja had long rejected them. The rifts widened.

    She wondered if Misa still thought about Minori the way Minori still thought about her.

    While in theory the social gaps between the three of them would close in time, as every other team's experiences predicted, a rejection from Gōketsu would rob them of the chance. Minori could tell Gōketsu was testing them, but Minami and Sasaki had misunderstood the test's goal. Enough dichotomies would prompt a failure eventually. Instead, a single, overarching question would dominate the test's final result. Minori could not discern it. What had her clan head said once, about finding secrets and looking yet deeper?

    For all their social distance, Minami had not lied about her position. She strode into the Minami compound as if lightning itself would wait for her to pass before striking, letting her tiny legs and enormous attitude cow civilians and chūnin and elders alike into letting her through. Many barriers existed to defend the Minami Clan's inner sanctum from attackers, charlatans, and petitioners – they all fell before Minami Samiko.

    Eventually, they filed through a door and took elevated seats, conveniently provided to allow genin to see over the enormous desk that inevitably dominated the private offices of clan heads. Only at this juncture, faced before her mother, did Minami finally deflate.

    Minori observed Lady Minami. She was young, on the kinder side of middle aged. A part of Minori's mind wondered how young she must have been when she had Samiko to look so young. Minori pushed the thought away. Lady Minami was short even for a woman. She wore a pristine white-and-blue kimono marked with the Minami emblem with a strange armband around one arm. Her eyes were a clear turquoise blue like the water in a hot spring, and long, flowing red hair cascaded around her shoulders and reached just below her large bust.

    Something itched at Minori's mind. Something about that seemed wrong. Something about her hair? After all, Samiko's hair was nearly black. Or perhaps her eyes? Before the thought could coalesce, Lady Minami spoke.

    "Hello, Samiko. I take it these are your new teammates? I'd thought you'd be with your sensei right now, rather than bothering me in the middle of the day. What's the matter?"

    "Hi mom," said Samiko. "You know how our jōnin-sensei was supposed to be Gōketsu?"

    Lady Minami smiled and nodded. "Yes, Gōketsu Mari, a very strong and fearsome jōnin. Both beautiful and competent with a mind-boggling mission record. You should be honored to join her squad."

    "But she said we failed her test! She put us in a genjutsu and then I guess we didn't recognize it fast enough because we woke up in the Academy and she said we'd failed!"

    "Oh?" asked Lady Minami. "That's not wholly unreasonable. After all, shouldn't top genin from Leaf's First Academy recognize a basic illusion genjutsu?"

    Samiko preened at the compliments, but pouted as it was turned on her. "It's just not fair, mom!"

    Something was wrong. Minori glanced over to Sasaki. He too was frowning. What had he noticed?

    "Pardon me, Lady Minami, but-"

    "Ah, forgive me," Lady Minami said with a smile. "Samiko often monopolizes my attention. I don't believe we've been introduced?"

    "Ah, Sasaki Yuda, honored Lady. If I may ask, what's that armband you're wearing?"

    Lady Minami glanced at the armband, as if noticing it for the first time. "It's the Clan Gōketsu emblem, of course."

    "Why are you wearing that?" Sasaki asked.

    Lady Minami shrugged. "I wished to show support for Samiko's new sensei. Perhaps now nothing will come of it. You kids really threw a great opportunity away!"

    Something was wrong in Minori's mind. Her thoughts had gone sticky and gummy, trying to find their way to a conclusion but getting mired in a swamp of distractions and false assumptions every time she tried to think the situation through. What was happening?

    Sasaki brought his hands together. "Dispel!" he called out. He disappeared.

    Minori's eyes went wide. They were in a genjutsu. She should dispel too. She couldn't-

    Lady Minami smiled at her. "Ah, how rude. Apologies, we haven't been introduced either. Your name is…?"

    "Ah," Minori said. "Uchiha Minori."

    "The young Uchiha! What a fortunate coincidence! Many know your bloodline for its prowess with genjutsu, you know? Perhaps that's why they paired you with such an incredible, masterful sensei. After all, she is perhaps the greatest genjutsu mistress in all the Elemental Nations."

    A genjutsu mistress? Minori had been trying to think about something like that. That they were in a… they were in a clan head's office? No. Something about the red hair and the armband… They were in a test!

    "My sincerest apologies, Lady Minami, but our possible jōnin-sensei may still be testing us. I believe it is likely that a genjutsu is altering some minor parts of our perception. Would you let me dispel, to see if any details change? Remembering such details may be essential."

    "Oh," said Lady Minami. "That's not polite, is it? Could you save it for later, once you're off on your way?"

    Yes, it was impolite. How could they be caught in a genjutsu within a clan head's office, the most secure place within a powerful clan still flush with ninja resources? Well…

    "Perhaps we were caught at some point while traveling. Please, Lady Minami. It will only take a moment," Minori said.

    "If you insist," Lady Minami said with a sweeping gesture. Samiko looked back and forth between Minori and her mother as if confused. "Though, before you do so, consider for a moment – when do you think you were trapped within a genjutsu?"

    When would they have been trapped? Minori didn't know. There were any number of ways they could have been caught within it. She couldn't say for certain, surely?

    "I'm afraid I have no solid answer to that question. Now, with your leave. Dispel!"

    o-o-o-o​

    The first thing Minori heard was the sound of children playing in the yard. Minori pulled her head up from the desk to see the familiar classroom. Day had broken, and rays of light shone in through the window to illuminate the classroom's dusty interior. It made the writing on the blackboard clearly visible.

    YOU FAIL

    Setting aside your inability to detect basic genjutsu, you are clearly also unable to follow basic instructions. I told you to report to the Headmaster or the Tower. Whatever your deficiency (literacy, basic navigation, I can imagine any number of things wrong with you), failing to follow orders demonstrates that you are unfit to be genin. You may return home. This is not an order.

    Minori, shame on you for not even recognizing your own mother.    ​

    Sasaki looked up from gently shaking Minami. "Good, you're awake. Any idea how we can awaken Minami?"

    Minori thought about that for a moment. "Inflicting pain can help a genjutsu victim break out of a dream state, I think."

    Sasaki looked blankly at Minori, then stepped aside to allow her access to Minami. "You do it."

    One very enthusiastic pinch and one very satisfying yelp later, the three of them stared at the blackboard.

    "What now?" Minami asked.

    "Basic due diligence," Sasaki said. "Dispel!"

    Nothing changed.

    "Drat. Okay, have we actually failed this time? That was a pretty egregious failure, Minori. Your own mother, really?"

    Minami glared. "I couldn't recognize her! Surely you know that. I couldn't even think about the fact that she looked totally wrong!"

    "It seems unlikely that we have actually failed," Minori said. "Previously, she said we failed, yet we were being tested, evidenced by us getting caught in a genjutsu at some point. Now, she has said again that we failed. If anything, the failure message indicates that we're still being tested."

    "Okay," Sasaki said. "Well, I refuse to accept the test is over until she actually tells us, to our faces, that we failed."

    "Hmph," said Minami. "That darn woman. Who does she think she is? Anyway, now that we're out of the genjutsu-"

    "No!" said Sasaki. "We've followed your ideas twice now and they got us nowhere. This time, I'm in charge."

    "Oh yeah?" asked Minami. "What are you gonna do?"

    "For one, actually think things through," Sasaki said.

    Minamu fumed, but didn't interrupt, so Sasaki continued. "Okay, let's brainstorm. We're in a test of some sort. That means that there's a way to succeed and a way to fail. What are the things that could cause us to succeed or fail? It has to be something she can observe, and it's about us. So, maybe we need to say something, or go somewhere, or do something. Are there any other categories of things we could be tested on?"

    "She could be looking for no particular thing," Minori said. "She could merely be testing another quality of ours. As Minami pointed out, cooperation and teamwork are often tested. Alternatively, she could be testing our intellect or some other aptitude – such as the ability to recognize genjutsu."

    "If she isn't looking for something specific, how will she know if we passed or failed?" Sasaki asked.

    Minori shrugged. "Perhaps she will decide arbitrarily."

    "That's dumb," said Minami.

    "Decision-making processes often are," said Minori.

    "Anyway, we can't do anything about it if she just decides to fail us. Let's assume there's concrete criteria for success or failure. Sounds reasonable?" Sasaki waited until the two girls had both nodded, then continued. "First, let's make sure we don't fail outright. I think like a normal test, we could run out of time before succeeding. What else could cause us to fail? Probably breaking the law. Maybe splitting up if teamwork is really being tested. Let's not do those.

    "Okay, next, let's consider what to do to pass the test. If we could pass by saying something, what would we need to say?"

    "We give up!" yelled Minami, before Sasaki or Minori could get a hand over her mouth.

    "Shhh," said Sasaki. "Don't say that. We don't actually want to concede."

    "Fine," said Minami, before raising her voice. "This test is really stupid!"

    They paused for a moment. Nothing happened. "I don't think that was it," said Sasaki.

    "We are currently in a genjutsu, though we cannot detect or dispel it," Minori said to the empty classroom. Obligingly, upon hearing this, Minami dispelled.

    Nothing happened.

    "Perhaps the space of possible things we could say is too large?" Minori said.

    "There's a lot of choices, yeah. Maybe we should go somewhere? She said the Tower and the Headmaster's Office last time," Sasaki said.

    "You're not very decisive for a 'leader'," Minami said. Distantly, they froze as they heard the Academy bell ring. Outside, they heard the sounds of students stop their games and rush towards the Academy doors. No student wished to become the teacher's exemplar of tardiness by being the last to their seats.

    "Fine," Sasaki said. "Screw the Headmaster, let's go to the Tower. We can ask them what they know about Gōketsu Mari."

    o-o-o-o​

    The squares around the Tower were even more crowded than the markets on the eastern side of the city near Training Ground 88 and the Gōketsu Compound (if Training Ground 88 even existed, now that Minori considered the possibility). For all that the area was harder to access for farmers and their ilk, the greater concentration of people made it far more profitable to lure in passersby. Blessedly, now that they wore the headbands, those passersby posed far less of an obstacle than they would have a mere month earlier.

    They entered the Tower and waited politely in line for the attention of one of the skinwastes. Minori observed the hustle around the Tower. Prior to the Collapse, the Tower's bottom floor had seemed intolerably tight from what she had observed. The redesigned Tower accounted for the limitations of the original and had substantially expanded the bottom story. The Mission Board was now duplicated several times across the walls of the open lower floor, and civilians coming in to place D and C ranks were allotted a special area of their own separate from the ninja perusing the publicly posted missions and interrogating the skinwastes about the details.

    Minori noticed a number of other newly graduated genin. None from her class, but others from the First Cohort. They stood politely by the sides of their chūnin-sensei, watching as those same sensei chose from the D-rank section of the board which mundane torture to inflict. For all they'd learned of ninja life to come, they would still be spending large portions of it helping merchants stack crates and chasing down escaped pets. Perhaps, with a jōnin-sensei, the three of them would be able to avoid that end and instead engage in truly exciting missions, the way her clan head had told her. Defeating bandits or overthrowing foreign regimes both sounded more to her taste than peeling onions.

    One of the other newly-graduated genin noticed her staring. She quickly looked away and down. Who was he? Did she even know his name?

    Apparently, they had reached the front of the line while she was examining her surroundings. True to form, Sasaki had taken the lead, yet…

    "There is no Gōketsu Mari on file."

    "What do you mean?" Minami asked. "My sister came here yesterday and gave me the papers. I read them today morning!"

    The skinwaste smiled apologetically at Minami. "Sorry, but there is no ninja of Hidden Leaf named Gōketsu Mari. I checked the register of the Gōketsu Clan. They have no Mari."

    "You're wrong," said Minami. "Check again. Gōketsu Mari. That's Mari as in-"

    The ninja in line behind them bent down to tap Minami on the shoulder. Minami whirled around and the ninja instinctively cringed. She was a newly graduated genin and he was clearly a grizzled chūnin past twenty, yet she had the presence of one born to power, while he was clearly clanless. Despite everything the instructors said, rank was not everything.

    "Apologies, Miss Minami. I merely wanted to ask: are you talking about Inoue Mari? She has been spotted in the Land of Fire recently."

    "Who is Inoue Mari?" Minami demanded.

    The chūnin fumbled with his pockets until he drew forth a Leaf-marked Bingo Book, and quickly flipped to a page, before splaying the book and showing it to the genin.

    HIGHLY DANGEROUS – DO NOT ENGAGE​

    Name: Inoue Mari
    Rank: jōnin
    Status: Confirmed missing-nin

    Original Village: Hidden Mist
    Known Elements: Water, Fire, Wind
    Specialities: Genjutsu, taijutsu, ninjutsu, social infiltration, physical infiltration, psychological operations
    Abilities: Unknown. No survivors.

    Last sighted: Outskirts of Tanzaku Gai. Details classified.

    Description: Short female, 20s, hourglass build, long red hair. Extremely physically attractive.

    Highest bounty: 12,500,000 ryō, offered by Hidden Mist
    For full bounty information, consult appendix.

    HIGHLY DANGEROUS – DO NOT ENGAGE​

    "Dispel!" Minami called out at the reminder that they were dealing with a genjutsu user. Nothing happened.

    "I don't know how many more of those I can manage," Minami said. "I'm running low on chakra."

    "So she's a missing-nin?" Sasaki asked.

    "That's right," said the chūnin. "And a very dangerous one. Why are you looking for her?"

    "I thought she was supposed to be our sensei…" Minami said.

    "Oh!" said the skinwaste. "Would you say that you're trapped in a sadistic cat-and-mouse game with a psychopathic missing-nin who is making you doubt your sense of reality?"

    The three genin turned back to the desk and considered for a moment. "Not exactly cat-and-mouse, and evidence is mixed that she is really a missing-nin, but yes on the other points," said Minori.

    "She really is a missing-nin," said the chūnin. "Don't go on any missions if you think she's targeting you. She's scarier than even Momochi Zabuza. You don't want to mess with her."

    "I don't think we'll need to go on a mission to get her attention…" Sasaki said.

    "Anyway," said the skinwaste, trying to keep people's attention, "I wanted to say that if you're dealing with a sadistic cat-and-mouse game with a psychopathic missing-nin who is making you doubt your sense of reality, you should go downstairs and ask for ANBU Field Guide 448A."

    "There's a field guide for that?" Sasaki asked incredulously.

    "Yes," said the skinwaste. "Make sure you don't ask for ANBU Field Guide 448B. It's very similar to 448A, but accounts for when the cat-and-mouse game has seduction elements that aren't appropriate for new genin like you."

    Minami shook her head. "Whatever. Where do we find ANBU? They'll be able to tell us if she's really a jōnin or not."

    "Right down the stairs, ma'am," said the skinwaste, pointing at a set of sturdy-looking steel double doors that occupied about half of one of the room's sides.

    "Come on, guys," Minami said, storming away towards the door.

    Minori and Sasaki shared a glance, then followed afterwards.

    After some enthusiastic pushing, the doors finally swung open with an extended creak, revealing stairs heading downwards to a dimly lit hallway. Minami stomped down the stairs with no hesitation.

    The hallway was lit only by periodic torches, set within iron sconces in the wall. The hallway seemed to stretch out into the distance forever, with the space between torches growing farther and farther until it resolved into an interminable stretch of blackness. The genin were silent as they walked, until they passed the first mask.

    Minami jumped as she noticed it, then leaped back with a kunai in hand. Minori and Sasaki went to their ready stances, but did nothing else. It was just a mask, stylized to look like a cat, embedded in the wall at around the height of their heads.

    Minami straightened up. After a long second of staring at the mask, she said, "Mr… ANBU? Cat? Sir?"

    The mask said nothing in response.

    Slowly, Minami walked up to the mask and tapped it with her finger. The sound was amplified slightly by the hollow space between the mask and the wall, but there was nothing special about it. It was just a mask.

    "Creepy," Minami said.

    "Yeah," said Sasaki.

    "Let's keep going?" asked Minami.

    "Yeah," said Sasaki.

    There were many more masks. Simple porcelain with only a single color for markings at most, they dotted the walls at random places, always at their eye level. Sometimes, they were just under the flickering torches. Sometimes, they were deep in the dark between the torches, barely visible by the way that the torch light reflected off the enameled markings.

    "This is weird," said Minori.

    "Think it's a trap? That the missing-nin is drawing us in?" Sasaki asked.

    "Nah," Minori said. "We're still in the Tower. We're close to ANBU. We're safe."

    "We've been walking for over ten minutes," Minori said. "If we were traveling west the whole time, we may be outside of Leaf by now."

    Minori snorted. "What, do you think we're under the monument?"

    "I don't know…" Minori said. "This place is weird."

    "Tell me about it," said Minami. "Anyway, we're out of the torches. Now it's just the darkness. Ready?"

    Indeed, they had passed the last torch. Now the hallway continued ahead of them. The stone tiles on the floor grew darker and darker until Minori could no longer tell whether there was still a hallway at all. If the hallway suddenly dropped off, or ended in a wall, or had an enemy lurking in the dark, she would have no way to tell. Why, then, did her legs continue to carry her forwards?

    At nearly the edge of the light cast by that final torch, they passed another mask. Minami and Sasaki passed it by with barely a glance – its features were nigh-impossible to make out in the dark – but something about it caught Minori's attention.

    Two ears, triangles pointing upwards, separated by a downward triangle between them in a color that Minori could not detect in the dim light. A protrusion for the nose, suitable for mounting breathing seals within, and a mouth like a hill, flat on the sides but rising to a shallow peak in the center. Two eyes, each with a point of faintly glowing red within them.

    Minori felt her heart race. This mask, it was…

    "Dispel!"

    o-o-o-o​

    Minori awakened in the classroom. This time, she kept her head on the desk for a moment longer, letting her heart and mind calm down, pushing the thoughts away. She'd nearly pushed herself to her limits with the chakra she'd spent to dispel that genjutsu. There were other people in the classroom now. The Academy students? What would they think of her, sleeping away on one of their desks? Clearly, class had ended, because there was no sound of a teacher, just a few groups chatting away about the meaningless affairs of schoolchildren. As she listened in on their conversations one at a time, a distant bell rung and they finally left.

    Would they have drawn on her face? She'd thought she'd escaped such tortures. At least the Academy students could no longer tease her for drooling – though, embarrassingly, it seemed that the small puddle she'd noticed earlier was only cleaned up in a different world, and was substantially bigger in this one.

    "What the heck!" yelled Minami from elsewhere in the classroom.

    It appeared her compatriots had worked their way out of the genjutsu as well.

    Finally, Minori raised her head, quickly swiping her sleeve over the desk's surface, and looked again at the blackboard.

    YOU FAIL

    Your Academy instructors have been informed that you will not be suitable genin for the village. You may remain in this classroom if you wish. Your next class starts in ten minutes. It covers observation patterns and genjutsu detection. Trust me, you are in desperate need of this.

    This is the last you'll hear from me. Best of luck in the future.

    Gōketsu Mari    ​

    "Well, that's not promising," Sasaki said.

    "As before, she said we had failed," said Minori, "but we were still being tested in truth. The test continues."

    "Not that," Sasaki said. "Just that everything we try ends badly. Is there anything we can do to even figure out what we need to do to pass the test?"

    "I don't know. It's a stupid test anyway. Why are we even doing this? Why can't we have a normal jōnin-sensei?" asked Minami.

    "Focus," said Sasaki. "We're still in the test. I have no ideas for what we could do that's unlikely to be met by a genjutsu that puts us in some confusing situation that ends up with us waking up here looking at the blackboard. There has been no feedback about what was good or bad. We don't know what we're being tested for. Is there anything we could do?"

    "We could wait," Minori said. The two of them turned to face her.

    "Ah, Uchiha," Sasaki said, raising a hand to his cheek. "You have something on your…"

    Minori raised a hand to her face, then let it drop before she touched it. Rubbing it now wouldn't make things any better.

    "Anyway," she said, trying her best to ignore the heat in her cheeks, "we could wait. Our initial instructions were to wait in this classroom for our instructor, and the new instructions here tell us to wait in the classroom. In the worst case scenario, we'll just walk out and try something new."

    Minori didn't mention that the instructors and students and everyone would see them, especially her with her graffitied face, making a walk of shame out of the Academy.

    Sasaki and Minami glanced at each other, then shrugged.

    "I guess we can try it," Minami said. "It's not dumber than this darn test. Maybe it'll work."

    So, they waited, as the sounds of the younger students on their breaks wafted in through the barely cracked windows. The classroom grew slightly colder, now no longer warmed by two dozen fidgeting little bodies, but no instructor came in to relieve them.

    Minori wondered if she should try to make conversation. They'd been silent before, but that had been before the test started. Now they'd had experiences together. Shouldn't that have reduced the barriers to socialization?

    Evidently not. They waited in silence.

    Eventually, the door opened, and a short, curvaceous woman with long red hair stepped in. She was chewing on a dango stick.

    Minami was on her feet immediately. "You!" she cried out as she leveled an accusatory finger at the jōnin.

    "Me!" the woman said in return, with her mouth full of dango. With her free hand, she pointed at herself.

    "You… why, you… Why did you make us do that stupid, stupid test!?" Minami exclaimed.

    The woman pulled another rice ball off the stick and started to chew it.

    "Answer me!" Minami said.

    The woman shrugged. "If was funneh," she said around the dango.

    "Was this really the goal of the test, Sensei? To make us sit and wait for you to arrive?" Sasaki asked.

    "That's completely dumb!" Minami said. "That's not what a ninja should do! If we're in the field and an ally doesn't arrive, should we just stand around looking stupid until the enemy finds us because they captured our friend and found out our location? No! We regroup, try to save our ally or move to the secondary rendezvous point or do something, not just wait around for something to happen to us!"

    "Mhm," the woman said, swallowing her food. "I didn't mean for it to be a good lesson. When you look at it that way, it's a bad one. Sorry."

    She clearly wasn't sorry.

    Minori stood up and bowed. "My name is Uchiha Minori, of the Uchiha Clan. I am honored to meet you."

    "Ah, a pleasure. I've heard a lot about you," the woman said. "My name is Gōketsu Mari."

    "If we have passed the test," Sasaki said, "I hope it is not presumptive to call you Gōketsu-sensei. My name is Sasaki Yuda. I am honored to meet you."

    The woman looked confused. "Well, of course you passed the test."

    "Apologies," Sasaki said. "It seemed unclear to me at the time. In my defense, you did spend a lot of time telling us that we failed."

    Gōketsu frowned. "How could you have failed? You have the headbands."

    "Yeah," Minori said. "That's because we passed the Academy graduation test! At least that's a test that makes sense."

    "Exactly," Gōketsu said. "You got sufficient scores in close-quarters combat, demonstrated adequate ability with thrown weapons, passed an inane written test, and demonstrated control over the Basic Three ninjutsu: Clone, Substitution, and the Dispelling technique. Is any of that wrong?"

    "It's all right," Sasaki said.

    "Then how could you have failed?"

    "How were we supposed to know what your stupid test was going to need from us!?" Minami said, throwing her hands in the air.

    "My test?" Gōketsu asked, her face innocent.

    "The thing you just had us do?" Minami said, sneering. "You remember it, right?"

    "Oh, that wasn't a test," Gōketsu said. "I could call it training, but honestly, it was mostly to mess with you. It was pretty funny, honestly."

    Minori put her face in her hands. Minami groaned. "You're gonna be that kind of sensei, huh?" she said.

    "Yup!" Gōketsu said with a smile. "You kids are not going to have fun for the next few years! It's going to be really awful. Some sensei will make you do physically demanding tasks, or put you through dangerous training exercises to make you feel like your life is at risk. I'm gonna do all that, but while you're doing that, I'm going to make you doubt your sense of reality as well! You'll spend an unknown amount of time thinking that you're not in a genjutsu when you are, a larger amount of time thinking that you're in a genjutsu when you're not, and who knows how long you'll be stuck in a genjutsu without the reserves to dispel it."

    The genin didn't respond to that. After a long moment, Sasaki asked, "...perhaps we could not do that, Gōketsu-sensei? I think normal genin do D-ranks."

    Compared to what Gōketsu was offering, Minori would gladly take D-ranks.

    "Nope!" Gōketsu said with a wide grin. "In fact, I'm looking forward to the look on your face the first time you finish a D-rank only to realize it was an illusion and that your hard work won't be recognized or rewarded. Don't worry, I'll be starting with the easy things, instead of jumping right to letting you get your first kill, only to realize that it was an illusion and you'll need to kill that man again and again until he finally dies for good, begging and pleading for mercy the whole time."

    The genin were silent at that again, and for longer.

    Eventually, Minori spoke. "Why?"

    Gōketsu smiled. "Because it'll teach you something important. Oh, don't worry about your ability to fight. I've seen all your Academy scores, I'm sure you'll end up as exceptional warriors. Learning how to fight, or how to do missions in general, is not what you need."

    "Isn't that what jōnin-sensei are supposed to teach?" Minami asked.

    "It's not the most valuable thing I could be teaching you," Gōketsu said. "The world is full of lies. Everyone will try to lie to you. I'm sure you know your friends will lie to you. Your Academy instructors have been lying to you for years, and lying to themselves while they're at it. Your superiors certainly won't hesitate to lie to you. After all, that's what I spent this whole morning doing."

    "So when you said that you would only take one of us…" Sasaki said.

    "I lied," said Gōketsu.

    "And when you said we failed?" Minami asked.

    "I lied," said Gōketsu.

    "Argh!" cried Minami. "So we should just never trust anything you say?"

    "Not quite," Gōketsu said. "My words won't always be the truth, but they'll depend on it, and they'll give you information about it. Remember, people won't just lie with their words. They'll lie with their actions, they'll make objects that will lie to you, they'll do everything they can to craft what parts of reality lies under their power in order to convince you of things that are false. It often won't even be targeted at you – it may be for your friends or allies, or proles who they expect you to know better than, or they might even be lying to themselves, as I said.

    "The only way you can see the truth, see how the world really is, is to look for it. Think everything through, ask yourself what makes sense and what doesn't. Why does someone say they think one thing, but do another? Why is the propaganda written in this way and not that way? Who shapes the world you live in, and what do they want?"

    Sasaki hesitantly raised a hand. "And why make us kill a man over and over?"

    Gōketsu cocked her head. "Well, apart from the fact that it would be kinda fun to put you through it? It would teach you to ask why. Why is killing this person the best option in my current situation? Is there something here that doesn't add up? What is the information available to me, and how should I interpret it? If you don't want to kill the genjutsu-man, then you need to look for the genjutsu. If I train you to always be looking for the truth behind your situations to avoid doing things you hate, mission accomplished. Besides, there's probably been just as much harm done by killing someone too quickly as by sparing someone you should have killed. Maybe even more.

    "Remember, there's only one truth, and everyone is going to be working against you in your search to find it. I'm going to make you viscerally hate the lies. That's all there is to it.

    "On that note!" Gōketsu said, clapping her hands together, "I should actually teach you something. At what points today were you in a genjutsu?"

    "The whole thing," Minami said. "We were in a genjutsu for all of it."

    "Nope!" said Gōketsu. "That would be too easy. Today was a mix of genjutsu, practical effects, patsies, and other special tricks to mislead and misdirect you. Let's hear a better answer?"

    Minori closed her eyes to think as Minami tried another inane answer. After a minute, she opened them. "We woke up and proceeded to the Academy along different routes, so a genjutsu was unlikely then. We entered the Academy at different points, so we likely made it into the Academy safely. We then traveled to the Tower, which is likely safe, and then to the training ground you asked, where we met your patsy. One person cannot genjutsu three people, so your patsy led us to the square, where you and two collaborators put us in a genjutsu.

    "You made it look as if we dispelled the genjutsu, but actually we entered the genjutsu as we dispelled. You then led us on a wild goose chase with Lady Minami fully in an illusory world while you carried our unconscious bodies to the Academy, until we dispelled again. Then we went to the Tower again, and you had collaborators and yourself disguised in the nearby outdoor markets and hit us with a genjutsu, which lasted until we went into the weird ANBU basement and dispelled again."

    "Close," Gōketsu said with a smile. "Not quite there, but close."

    "What did I miss?" Minori asked.

    "Think about it," Gōketsu said.

    Minori thought about it.

    "Dispel!"

    o-o-o-o​

    Minori felt a hand gently reach her shoulder and shake her. She twitched away from the touch and drew a kunai, but the man who had touched her moved almost as fast to put his forehead to the ground.

    "Please, honored ninja, forgive me!"

    Minami looked around. She was in the back of a rickshaw, which was parked just outside the Uchiha compound. The man seemed to be the rickshaw's operator – he had the characteristic hat and sandals.

    "Explain," Minori said.

    "Ah, a woman met me near the Hokage's Tower and told me to take you here! She paid my fare with extra on top, and said that you were ill."

    "What did she look like?"

    "Well, she had this beautiful red hair, and she was short, and-"

    Minori stopped listening. The other genin were no longer near her that she could see. Was she finally back in reality? Her forehead protector had been removed, but she felt it moving in her shuriken pouch. Perhaps that was why the rickshaw driver had been willing to transport her unconscious body at all. Minori realized that her fist was closed. She opened her hand to see a small note.

    YOU PASS

    Congratulations on surviving day one of training, Uchiha. I hope you're looking forward to many, many more days of this. To prepare yourself, why don't you go home and rest? Don't forget to tip the rickshaw man as you leave, as he also played his part in this whole lie.    ​

    The rickshaw operator was still babbling. Minori tossed him a handful of coins and walked through the gates of the Uchiha compound.

    The civilians here recognized her well, and they were quick to get out of her way and make their gestures of respect. They weren't even Uchiha, but they had lived long enough on the clan's patronage to learn the appropriate motions.

    Minori passed through the secondary walls, into the inner city. Here, it was quieter. Not quiet, but the Uchiha civilians were few in number, and often had occupations in the city. The compound was not quite large enough to support all of them.

    She smiled and waved at the few children that were still playing in the streets and at the few women still washing their clothing in the late afternoon light. They were of her clan, yes, but they were not ninja. They were not the same as she was.

    Minori entered the Uchiha fortress, the heart of the compound. The main family building was meant for the clan head and his family and his elders and his favored jōnin.

    She ascended beyond the first story. Now, the old men were left behind. Now, it was just him and her.

    She entered the parlor. He was there, reviewing a stack of notes of some sort. Perhaps another ninjutsu design project.

    She looked at him. She felt emotions roiling in her gut. She stamped them down.

    He finally raised his head to acknowledge her. She felt the emotions spike again, her attempted efforts at quashing them ineffectual. She tried harder.

    "How was it?" he asked.

    "It was fine," she said.

    He looked at her for a moment longer, then nodded his dismissal.

    Minori clutched harder at the emotion in her gut, deep in her belly, around where the Academy teachers had taught her the lower part of her intestines were. Nothing could be allowed to escape.

    She turned to leave.

    Before she left the room, she felt his gaze upon her once more. She did not know how. His gaze, like many Uchiha, simply had an unmistakable weight to it.

    She turned to face him. He considered her for a moment, then spoke.

    "I pulled many strings to secure Gōketsu Mari as your teacher once we discovered Sarutobi Yūhi would not be taking a team this year. She is strong, skilled at protecting her students in even the most challenging of situations, and a masterful genjutsu mistress. You could learn a lot from her. I do hope you try your best to do so."

    "Yes, sir," Minori said.

    He nodded again and did not interrupt her as she ascended the stairs to her room.

    Minori entered her room and closed her door. She walked over to her desk and sat down, but her brain felt full of fuzz. Could she think like this? Could she study? She glanced down at what was laid out on the desk.

    Profile of Publicly Available Information on Gōketsu (née Inoue) Mari​

    She tucked the file away. That was finished now, there was no further need to think about it.

    Was there any further need to think about anything? Her jōnin-sensei had told her that she was done training for the day. She could rest. Couldn't she?

    Unless…

    Minori brought her hands together.

    "Dispel!"

    o-o-o-o​

    Minori sighed. Some part of her wanted to cry, feeling the warm, now-wet surface of the Academy's desk pressed against her cheek. She added that emotion to the pile and suppressed it too.

    She straightened up and stared blankly at the blackboard.

    YOU FAIL​

    Minori considered the words for a moment. There was no one in the room with her, neither Minami or Sasaki. Was there any test here?

    Before she could stand from the desk and take any action, the world melted around her.

    o-o-o-o​

    Minori was staring dully at the bookshelf to the side of her room. She was still in the Uchiha compound. She turned her neck to see Gōketsu Mari, crouched on the windowsill with the shutters now splayed wide.

    Gōketsu raised a finger to her lips. "Just kidding," she whispered. "Enjoy the rest of your day."

    With that, she stepped backwards out of the window and tumbled away, no doubt to land at the bottom of the building with that impossible precision that jōnin tended to have.

    Minori shuttered the window. She felt exhausted. There was nothing more she could handle today. She just needed to sleep.

    She lay down on the bed.

    Could it really be over?

    She started to bring her hands together.

    She considered it.

    She separated them.

    Minori closed her eyes and, as usual, tried her best to sleep.






    Although this was delayed in order to give the appearance that I am some sort of speed-writing genius, this update was written in advance, not by the charming firebird currently posting, but by the terribly handsome and skillful @Paperclipped.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 585: The Warmth of Bonds, the Cold of Winter
  • Threadmarks

    • Booking out entire restaurants was just matter of course now to the man who'd rarely been able to set foot inside one for the first thirteen years of his life (and spent another rejoicing when the team found a particularly succulent tree root). The Five-Pointed Fruit was at his—well, his triad's—disposal tonight. Anxious waiters hovered in the background, hoping they didn't commit a lethal faux pas in the unknown social terrain of the Mad Clan Lord (Hazō was far from the first to bear the title, but after the Three Cataclysms killed off his rivals, he had inherited it by default) dining with his mind-reading Yamanaka lover and the woman he was cheating on her with, the latter of the two regularly exchanging poison-laced smiles of false affection. Out of the corner of his eye, Hazō had glimpsed a young newbie waiter setting out to approach their table, only to be held back and replaced by a veteran with a mutter that sounded very much like "fish god sex cult".

    "You look positively enchanting tonight, Ino," Hazō said after an appreciative, carefully-paced and subtle-but-not-concealed scan (glory be to Mari) of his girlfriend in her new dress. To no one's surprise, Ino had dressed up for the occasion, with a one-piece dress of blue with gold lace, a softly-sparkling shawl, and gold-and-sapphire earrings each of which individually mocked the trivial expenditure of booking out one teeny restaurant for a single night. "We should expect another Hagoromo inquisition to burst through the door at any moment, because there's no way anyone could look this good without forbidden magic."

    "Eight out of ten for the compliment," Ino said, "minus two points for bringing up the Hagoromo in polite company. Some of us are preparing to eat."

    Hazō laughed.

    He glanced at Akane, who was more of a challenge. The love of his life had spent the day at the training field, and it didn't take a social spec to tell that she'd come here immediately afterwards, probably running late, with the briefest of stops at the now conveniently located Gōketsu compound to wash and throw on the first presentable items in her wardrobe. Obviously, Akane would look radiant in a burlap sack, but it was difficult to find opportunities for praise in the muted green blouse and trousers that put Hazō in mind of a more sophisticated version of her standard gardening kit.

    "Akane, you're also very…"

    The instant of hesitation, though brief, was fatal.

    "It's fine, Hazō," Akane said, but without resentment. "I know when I'm outclassed. I'm not going to compete with Ino on fashion—that would be like you competing with Kagome on safety, or Yūma with Yuno on tracking techniques."

    Not that Hazō himself had a leg to stand on—with his mind elsewhere these days, he'd opted for one of his standard Mari-coordinated clan-colour outfits. Akane would recognise that even if Ino didn't, so he was out of any competition by default.

    "So," he moved on with the utmost haste, "Ino. It's been far too long. How have you been doing? Any interesting missions lately?"

    Ino's smile, already marred with a touch of unease after Hazō's exchange with Akane, faded further still, revealing a weariness she'd previously been concealing with amazing skill.

    "All of the missions, Hazō," she said, "and few of them interesting. I could kiss Ami for making sure no more of my clan died, and then I'd push her into a mud pit for doing it in a way that's left Leaf flooded with spies like rendclaws swarming to a call for aid. Our ranks of competent mind-scanners have been depleted, and we've had more than one case of under-trained fresh chūnin turning foreign citizens into vegetables who aren't capable of confessing to anything. Then Rock or whoever naturally steps in to demand reparations and raise a stink about Leaf aggression, even though most of the spies are civilians, who are disposable and always have been. So naturally, every time anyone captures a potential spy who needs interrogating with a deft hand, they go to me. Then it's either the hundredth by-the-numbers mind scan of some patsy who's probably going to get executed either way, or exhausting myself wrestling with an actual professional who's done things I can't unsee as part of their job.

    "Let's not talk about it," she said after a moment. "How about you tell us some tales of your thrilling adventures on the Seventh Path? I gather from Akane that it's all going to the dogs over there, except the dogs, who are going to the pangolins."

    "Understatement of the year," Hazō said with a wry smile. "The Great Seal's still intractable, the Dragons are still terrifying, and most of the summons are either burying their heads in the sand or outright trying to kill me."

    But with that, memories of the hyenas flickered through his mind. Memories of a plan which was only almost good enough, and the almost being measured in canine lives. Memories of a desperate fight in which he could do nothing. Memories of the dogs mourning, channelling their feelings into vengeance so they wouldn't all go into blaming him for failing to save their pack.

    "I… Ino, people are dying so I can sort this out. The Hornets and the Arachnids are sacrificing themselves to keep the Dragons at bay even as we speak, and there's nothing I can do about it. Even when I should be able to do something about it, I'm not smart enough, or not strong enough, or not diplomatic enough, and people I'm personally responsible for protecting get killed before my eyes.

    "Once upon a time this was an adventure. I got to go on a journey to a distant land. I saw the Arachnid capital, and it was nothing like I could have imagined—a place that simply couldn't exist in our world, populated by alien beings living by laws that make no sense to us. I bargained with an empress and helped outsmart the Sage himself. I witnessed a miracle of sealcrafting that violates everything we know about seals and their limitations. I accepted a challenge with the survival of multiple worlds as its stake.

    "Now, that part of my life is starting to feel like a dream. Everything is a battle, and most of my opponents are the very people I'm trying to save. I can't protect anybody, and I'm barely starting to get my head around how the Great Seal works, never mind how to fix it, and I don't have time because sooner or later the Dragons will get hungry again and then another clan will disappear from the world, and then another. I went to an island that used to have a flourishing civilisation before the Dragons came, and now it's just… dead. Worse than dead. Dead in ways I can't describe even with a summoner's grounding in Seventh Path magic.

    "In a couple of days, I'm going to head to the Conclave and try to persuade the clans to take action against a threat that's real and urgent and can only be faced if they band together. I don't know if I can do it. I do know what'll happen if I can't."

    Wordlessly, Ino stretched out her hand across the table. Hazō took it and held on tight.

    A second later, Akane did the same.

    "I believe in you, Hazō," Akane said. "I always have. I've never met anyone with so much power to inspire. Your calls to action can turn someone's beliefs upside down. You've changed the world over and over just by saying the right words to the right people at the right time. I doubt there will be a single summon at the Conclave whose conviction that things should stay the same is half as strong as your conviction that they all need to act, and that means they'll break first."

    "Just… please be safe, Hazō," Ino added. "I know you're a summoner and you feel you have responsibilities, but your home is here. The people who love you are here. The people who need you are here. Don't let yourself die for a bunch of strangers. At the end of the day, it's the summons who are responsible for the Summon Realm, and if they refuse to stop the Dragons, then we'll do it ourselves—all of us, together."

    Hazō shook his head. "You don't understand, Ino. I don't think we can. The Dragons aren't like chakra beasts. They don't follow the rules we know."

    "You killed one," Ino objected. "It was simple and brilliant, and if I know you at all, it's not the last trick you've got up your sleeve."

    "I don't know if my tricks will work," Hazō said. "There's one Dragon that brainwashes everyone who sees it. Even Enma—the Monkey King, a legend of the Seventh Path, with his alleged will of diamond—couldn't resist it when he first saw it, and he says just remembering it strains him. He can't even describe what it is he saw, except that it was beautiful. I don't know how to counter 'beautiful', or I wouldn't keep getting mesmerised by you two. Even if I could, how are we supposed to find out what other powers it has if looking at it is suicide and you can't describe what you saw anyway?

    "They're all like that, as far as we know. They're not like ninja. They're more like Akatsuki, where you're taking constant losses while you figure out their abilities, and even then, it's possible that you've lost the compatibility roulette and all you can do is run."

    Ino's eyes darkened a little, and Hazō mentally kicked himself.

    "Sorry, Ino. That was insensitive."

    Ino shook her head. "It's been long enough. I can't sit there wallowing in my own feelings while I have responsibilities. Besides, these days everyone else has their own families to mourn."

    Akane reached out and took her hand anyway, completing the triangle.

    "The Dragons already being S-rank threats isn't even the issue," Hazō went on. "The real issue is that they get powers from every clan boss they eat. That's why we can't wait for them to come to us, even if we're willing to sacrifice the Seventh Path. We have to make a stand here and now, or else by the time they get here, they'll be back to the kind of power level where even the Sage could only seal them away—and I'm no Sage yet, and neither is Orochimaru."

    Ino's eyebrows rose slightly in puzzlement.

    "I've finally got him on board," Hazō said. "He looked at the Great Seal with me, and it made more sense to him than it did to me—or at least, it made sense in different but complementary ways. Having him help is a major victory. Of course, it also means potentially delivering him a new source of Sage-tier power, but we can deal with that problem once we make sure there's a Human Path left for him to threaten."

    "Is it me," Ino observed, "or has the world gone insane over the last few years? We're at the point now where I can go 'Oh, yeah, Leaf's most terrifying missing-nin being appointed head of medical whatever and openly buying victims to murder? I guess that was a thing. The other day, my boyfriend went for a stroll with him in another world to try and reverse-engineer an artefact made by the Sage of Six Paths. So, what's for dinner?'"

    Speaking of dinner, the staff were still lurking warily in the background. Hazō strongly suspected they didn't dare interrupt the 'romantic moment' of the three of them holding hands—which his stomach was not happy about, but on the other hand, it was probably best for the waiters' sanity that they didn't overhear a single stray word about the Dragon issue.

    Hazō squeezed his partners' hands one more time and gently disengaged. He cast a glance in the direction of the nearest waiter, and menus were served with all conceivable haste so as to allow the woman to beat a hasty retreat from the table.

    The Five-Pointed Fruit was known for having five different sub-menus: Fire was obviously dedicated to fried foods, Water was the domain of soup, and Earth was primarily vegetables. Hazō ended up settling on the Lightning menu, which was spicy enough to electrocute the tongue, and thus a great way to impress and/or amuse one's dates, depending on whether one's resolve won out against the dish's brutal assault. Hazō was feeling pretty confident.

    "What about you, Akane?" Hazō asked. "It says a lot that we haven't had a chance to catch up for a while despite living in the same building."

    "My news… isn't actually depressing," Akane said. "It's probably for the best that we left it till last."

    "Do tell."

    "I have a new genin team," Akane said.

    "But didn't you say you didn't feel ready for one?" Hazō asked with a frown.

    "It was Lord Hokage's suggestion," Akane said, and the pieces began to fall into place. "I was going to be tied up with tutoring for a while anyway as part of our adoption deal, but this way the KEI get more of the support they need, and it makes our adoption deal a straightforward success for them instead of a grudging bargain. He and I talked it over, and eventually I realised that I was being selfish by only worrying about my own feelings. Leaf doesn't have many people who can serve as genin team leaders right now, and KEI genin especially are very vulnerable until they get some experience and start developing their specialisations. If I can save somebody's life by working hard enough, then I just have to work hard enough."

    Ino gave Hazō a subtle concerned look, but he shook his head. Any offer from the Hokage that bound Akane more tightly to the village was an offer she couldn't refuse.

    "So what are they like?" Ino asked lightly. "Any of them have crushes on their gorgeous sensei yet?"

    Akane gave one of the warm smiles that used to be her default state of existence. "They're lovely. Nakajima's struggling with confidence issues because he didn't stand out at the Academy, but I'm sure with some encouragement he could develop into a real leader. I know I'm not exactly one of nature's leaders, so there's only so much advice I can give, but I'm glad I can be there for him instead of a harsher instructor who might crush his self-esteem without meaning to. Tomoe's already becoming the team's big sister. She's an orphan, and I get the impression she's been lonely for a long time. I think having someone to look after will be very good for her. Also, she's a natural with ranged weapons, and I'm thinking about getting Kei to give her some tips if I can tear her away from her desk for an afternoon. Manato has a very developed sense of responsibility for a boy his age. I strongly suspect he's on his way to becoming a medic-nin, because he's smart, good with ninjutsu for a fresh genin, and can't leave people alone if they need help. I don't think any of them have crushes on me, but you know I don't have a great track record of recognising that sort of thing."

    Hazō cringed a little. He and Akane had taken so long to become aware of their feelings for each other, much less act on them, that the rest of the team had had time to set up a betting pool. Becoming aware of each other's feelings for themselves had been a lost cause from the start.

    "I'm impressed at how well you've got to know them after such a short time," Ino observed. "I have a feeling you're going to be a much more hands-on team leader than Asuma-sensei was."

    "I got some tips from Mari about quick bonding techniques," Akane admitted. "It feels a little bit like cheating, but on the other hand, the sooner they learn to trust each other—and me—the better their odds once they start coming up against real challenges."

    She looked down at her dish of her Water Element: Trout with Ginger Broth Technique (it was amazing what a shinobi was prepared to put up with for the sake of a good meal).

    "I do worry about them. They're such nice kids, and I don't think any of them really understand what ninja life is like, even Manato. What happens when the Hokage starts ordering them to kill innocent people for the good of Leaf? Or when they see the dying peasants in all the civilian villages that Leaf could be helping but isn't? How do I stop them from losing their Youth, or having their hearts break, or having the trauma build up until they just stop caring? Even if we work as hard as we can, Uplift won't happen fast enough to protect them from that, or the other children who are still as innocent as them. I… I don't want them to lose themselves the way I've lost myself, but I don't know what I can do.

    "Sorry," she said. "That was supposed to be me cheering us up with good news."

    "It's fine, Akane," Hazō said. "In a way, what you've said does make me feel better. I'm glad you have more people you care about, and who care about you. Remember how massively Mari says becoming a team leader changed her? Maybe you'll find some answers of your own, even to questions you didn't know you had."

    "We find out who we are through other people," Ino said. "It's a Yamanaka saying. Just like you can't know what you look like without looking in a mirror, you've got to see how you interact with other people, how you feel about them, how those feelings change over time, all that good stuff, if you want to understand who you are. Being surrounded by your family all the time is all well and good, but there's a lot of growing you can only do by making fresh bonds.

    "This is half borrowed wisdom, though," she added. "Mostly my new friends since I became clan head have been the people I need to bond with for the sake of the Yamanaka, like trade partners wavering between us and another clan, or people who might stab us in the back if they don't have enough personal loyalty to me. My actual friends are gone, and I don't have much time for personal business these days.

    "Don't go haring off to get yourself killed for people who don't deserve you, Hazō. This thing between the three of us is a large chunk of my personal business now, and things would really suck without it."

    "I won't," Hazō said. Now that he'd had a bite to eat, the literal fire in his belly was fuelling the metaphorical kind. "You can be sure of that. I know I said the Seventh Path is in dire straits right now, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to blindside the Conclave with my powers of persuasion, marshal them into a single cohesive force that wipes the floor with the Dragons, and restore the Great Seal to pristine condition so this kind of nonsense never happens again. I'm sorry if I gave you any other impression."

    Ino looked deep into his eyes for a few long seconds. He looked back with all the determination he could muster.

    "How could I forget?" Ino asked herself softly. "It wasn't your good looks that I fell for."

    -o-​

    With Enma nearly ready to leave Arachnid to return to the Conclave, Hazō's ability to spend lots of time on the Human Path would soon end. Still, there were a couple novel seals to research before then if Hazō wanted to maximize his odds of creating a favorable environment for Enma's arrival. Hazō's actions weren't pivotal in their plans, but with the stakes being somewhere between genocide and omnicide at the hands of the Dragons, Hazō needed to give it everything he had.

    He donned the raiment of the Hidden Leaf clan head. Over time, the tailors and designers had gotten used to Jiraiya's… eccentric choice of colors. Their initial attempts had been horrendous, but now they'd learned to lean more into the pale pinks and greens, to accent with golds and silvers, and to supplement only the occasional flash of bright color. All the better, as too bright a green may have been seen as a sign of allegiance to the still fledgling Churches of Youth.

    With that done, he finally left his rooms and went downstairs. Mari had spent plenty of time drilling him on the importance of decorum and propriety, and while Hazō rejected parts of the old system wholeheartedly, he couldn't deny the importance of his outward presentation, even when it came solely to maintaining his image within the clan.

    Reo and Yuma were off duty today and were chatting amiably over their morning tea on the couches. Both rose to greet Hazō as he entered, and quickly sat as he waved them down. Kazushi had monopolized a corner of the kitchen table with various papers. He noticed Hazō as his clan head wandered over and gave Hazō a quick nod, before returning to his reading. A copy of Jiraiya's sealing textbook, with pages torn away from the spine and organized according to some conceptual mapping that Hazō couldn't be bothered to understand. The young genin had been voraciously working his way through all of Jiraiya's work. Hazō smiled internally at the thought that Kazushi may one day meet his sealmaster hero.

    Mari came down into the main room and spread her arms above her head as she gave a tremendous yawn. The mistress of decorum and propriety had her hair all tousled up from sleeping, and she wore her massively oversized puffy robe, complete with fuzzy slippers. The yawn turned into a small hiccup, prompting Mari to quickly cover her mouth with a cute half-whispered "excuse me." For all her antics, Hazō wondered if she'd ever fooled any of the other Gōketsu (bar perhaps Yuno) into thinking that Mari wasn't the most lethal person in the room.

    Having drawn the room's attention with her back-arching yawn, she smiled at them and padded over to Hazō with her slippers making soft sliding sounds across the floor.

    "Shouldn't you be with your genin team around now?" Hazō asked.

    "I told them to take the day off," Mari said. "They're going to be wracked with worry the whole day. It's going to be so cute! I'm going to sneak after them around lunchtime to see what trouble they get themselves into while trying to solve nonexistent problems."

    Hazō shook his head. "Poor kids. If only I could hand them some real things to worry about for a day so I could take a day off."

    Mari smiled darkly. "Tomorrow, they're going to wish they had taken the chance. But today is for relaxing." She looked Hazō over. "Seal research?"

    "That's right," Hazō said. "In fact… are you ready, Kazushi?"

    Kazushi nodded, turning his body towards the door even as his eyes remained fixated on the scattered pages in front of him.

    "Kazushi?"

    He finally got the message and turned, swiftly nodded and bowing to Hazō. "Yes, sir! Sorry, I just…"

    "It's fine," Hazō said, laughing. "Put your things away and come along."

    Kazushi scrambled to order the pages and Hazō put on his overcoat. Together, they left the family home.

    Hazō clutched his coat instinctively against the chill winter breeze. The winters were colder in Leaf than in Mist, but never quite so cold as the Land of Snow. Hazō said a quiet thanks to an additional benefit of the ridiculous clan head garments – the layers upon layers of robes helped to keep the heat in quite well on cloudy, overcast days such as this one.

    Despite the cold, the clan's civilians had come out in full force. One of them, Gōketsu Akito, had been a miller prior to the Collapse. While he'd been working as a day laborer while in the old estate, returning to Leaf and having easier access to a riverside (though Leaf's largest rivers sadly didn't pass close to the Gōketsu estate) had made him return to the idea of his old profession. He'd marshaled people to work with him, brought a request before his clan lord, and gotten approval from the Merchant Council (after Mari had pulled some strings) to build a new mill. Now, Akito had turned the forest near the Gōketsu housing area into a lumberyard as they prepared to construct the new millhouse on a plot of recently purchased land in Leaf proper.

    Absently, Hazō wondered if they would need his help to create the millstone. With the Earthshaping Technique, he could carve the channels in the millstone far faster than any man, and he could make the millstone out of a stone that wouldn't ordinarily be carvable, in order to reduce the maintenance required. He needed to find a moment to speak with Akito about it… though Hazō would likely be far too busy to spend a day making a millstone. Perhaps it could take only a couple hours if they carved out the gross form first? Oh, and could he use different stone types, or manipulate densities to make the millstone grind more efficiently?

    Hazō shook his head. There was no time for any of that. He needed to focus on the sealing research. Maybe he could instruct Reo to learn Earthshaping if it seemed worthwhile, but Hazō likely wouldn't have the time to personally prop up every civilian endeavor.

    The wind changed direction, picking up in intensity and carrying colder air with it. Hazō held his coat tighter as he and Kazushi strode through the estate, making quick gestures of acknowledgement to those bowing towards their clan head. Hazō sighed internally. It was a shame that Mari denied his requests for scarves or hats in his wardrobe. Apparently, people needed to see his face.

    There were too many projects happening that he needed to check on. The skyslider project had stalled from the sound of it, and Hazō needed to find a couple days to understand their progress, identify why they were stalling, and come up with new directions for them to explore. The sanitation team claimed to be making progress, but Hazō could see no substantial changes personally, and all their reports indicated that their pipes were still getting blocked on the regular. They were partially limited by "throughput". Hazō always felt weird ordering people to do their business in the sanitation team's various prototypes, but, on reflection, telling civilians where to shit was far from the most offensive order a Leaf clan head had given.

    Too many problems. Beyond the Gōketsu endeavors, Leaf was facing iron shortages as two of the mines near Tanzaku Gai had run dry. The Tower had that well in hand because of its obvious importance to military readiness, but it meant they weren't paying as much attention to the equally important salt shortage, which, if it continued, would make it harder for ordinary people to make it through the winter as the costs of preserved meats from the butcheries would skyrocket. The Ministry was facing the expected problem of middlemen pocketing the profits from the lowered taxes, rather than the common people. Worse, the Land of Fire was dealing with persistent banditry problems – no doubt from refugees and displaced farmers from the war now preying on those that kept their lands and were now enjoying a bumper crop.

    Hazō shook his head and sighed. They were his problems, but he needed to prioritize. To triage, as Noburi talked about. The Dragons. Resurrecting the dead. Becoming strong enough to not get killed by any S-ranker with an oversized ego (i.e., any of them). Those were the problems he could afford to put his time into. The civilian children playing in the streets, the woman throwing clay to make pottery, the cooper and his apprentices carving away at their oak-wood to make a new barrel – their problems were important and worthwhile, but they weren't things Hazō could personally solve.

    Kazushi hadn't spoken at all as they walked, now passing through the granite shantytown that Hazō had erected for the clan's civilians. The young genin had glanced at his clan head a couple of times, but now seemed to have also retreated into his own imagination. Hazō mentally started running through some ideas for training exercises. If Kazushi was going to assist Hazō in his sealing research, he needed Kazushi to be fully alert and undistracted.

    The breeze to Hazō's back intensified. Hazō took one, two more treacherous steps before something in Hazō's mind made him stop. Something was wrong. A few civilians were looking at the sky, rather than at whatever business had brought them out this early in the morning.

    Hazō turned and saw it. The clouds were being pulled down from the sky, funneled down into a point now hidden by a rapidly expanding wall of white.

    Hazō stared at it for one whole, wasteful second, as some part of his mind repeatedly tried to slam the obvious conclusion into his model of the world as the rest of him blindly rejected what was plainly in front of him.

    Finally, Hazō accepted it. Someone had cast Elemental Mastery above Leaf, barely a mile away from Hazō. Hashirama's Village Hidden in the Leaves had lasted seventy years. It would not survive the minute.

    But why would Asuma… No, Asuma would never. Would Asuma teach someone? Maybe another Sarutobi? Shikamaru had thought that even Asuma would find the thought unacceptable. And Akane would never teach anyone, not outside the clan. Would she teach anyone in the clan? Not while she thought she may still be surveilled by ANBU, or even at risk of another mindscan. Who else could it possibly be?

    A mile southwest of here… would be Orochimaru's compound. Had Akane broken under the pressure and finally decided to use her power to end the Final Gift Program without thinking through the consequences? Hazō felt his gut churn. Unlike the rest of Team Uplift, Akane had had friends among Leaf's clanless ninja. She would have known dozens of them from her class and just from being friendly in the way that Akane was. Why had he never thought to ask if she'd known someone who had been taken to be tortured in Orochimaru's Basement?

    The full implication hit Hazō. It hadn't even been three seconds since the "snapping point" of Elemental Mastery, and the cloud already looked close to a mile wide. Hazō had ten seconds at most to take action.

    Hazō's mind dropped into emergency planning mode.

    He could still survive this. He had Rocket Boots on, not skywalkers, but he could swap them out and get away. No, he was thinking about this wrong. He could reverse summon to the Seventh Path and wait out the storm. He didn't need to escape on foot.

    Who could he save? The Gōketsu civilians in the streets, now turning their heads so glacially to follow their clan head's gaze, were dead men walking. They could not be saved. Except perhaps one or two? Children would be easier to move… No, focus.

    Noburi? At the hospital, already engulfed in the cloud. He would be indoors, which would maybe buy him a fraction of a second. He would be by Tsunade's side, and he had his scroll. If he was alive, he was already safe. If he was dead, there was nothing Hazō could do about it.

    Hazō felt his stomach turn over at the thought. He kept thinking.

    Kei would be in the Nara compound, with Shikamaru. The borders of the cloud seemed nearly there. If she was outdoors and had already noticed it, she might be able to reverse summon. If she was indoors, she would get caught in the flood, and she would have no Tsunade to pull out a random Sannin ninjutsu to keep her safe. She was beyond Hazō's ability to influence. Her fate was already decided.

    Shikamaru was going to die in the next three seconds. Ino was going to die in the next three seconds. Hazō felt plans flick through his head to save his friends and rejected every one. He couldn't save them.

    Wait, Kei had implied that the extinction of the Tama would be catastrophic. Would the eradication of the Nara clan cause another apocalypse? Hazō couldn't afford to think about this right now.

    Kagome was training with Honoka in one of Leaf's outlying training grounds. A fractional relief washed through Hazō. Kagome would have the time and skywalkers to grab her and escape.

    Akane…

    Mari was still in the house. If the freezing flood reached the main house before she knew it was happening, she would die. She needed to get her sandals and skywalkers on and her seals ready, but she could still survive. Hazō could still save her.

    Kazushi had already glanced at the strange clouds and had redirected his attention to his clan head. The civilians around them were looking at the clouds, and a couple had turned to Hazō with questions on their lips. He couldn't bring himself to look at their faces. Dead men walking, he told himself.

    "Skywalkers, now!" he yelled at Kazushi. "Grab a kid and run up!"

    That was all Hazō had time to say before his Substitution carried him out of range. Hazō immediately triggered his Rocket Boots, letting them carry him further as he swiped his hand across the nail on his belt. He stopped running for an agonizing moment. "Summoning Technique: Cantamai!"

    The puppy appeared dazed and disoriented, but Hazō quickly scooped her up and plopped her into a pocket before continuing to run. He still had plenty of reserves – could he cast Shadow Clone and make clones to carry people out of the estate? No, there wouldn't be enough time to give them skywalkers. Could he at least have them warn the other ninja scattered through the estate?

    No, he couldn't afford to stop running again to focus on another ninjutsu. He needed to save Mari.

    He kept his awareness wide as he ran, watching as the storm quickly grew to engulf Leaf. The Tower loomed, a massive shadow in the stormcloud, until something within it finally broke under the hyperspeed winds and hyperfreezing rain, and it shattered and fell.

    Thousands of people in the center of Leaf were dying, freezing and shattering in the same way as the Tower that was the symbol of their protection.

    Hazō had to save Mari.

    He knocked the door of the main building clean off its hinges with a snap kick. Already, he could hear the popping sounds of trees on the Gōketsu estate exploding as they were consumed by the freezing flood.

    "Everyone! Mari! Skywalkers, now! Up in the sky, as far as you can go!"

    Mari booped him on the nose.

    Hazō stopped still. The chill wind around him was no longer there. There was no sagging weight in his pocket of the summoned Cantamai.

    Mari laughed, grabbing her hot chocolate and pacing away down the hallway. "Don't forget your gloves, Hazō. You'll freeze up out there."

    Kazushi took a long look at Hazō. "Sir, are you alright? I'm ready to leave when you are."

    Hazō took a long look at Mari, considering what, if anything, to say. In the end, he swallowed it.

    "It's fine. Let's go."

    -o-​

    The second half of this update was written by the illustrious @Paperclipped. Could you tell?

    Voting is closed.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 586: In Which the Conclave is Convinced of the Dragon Threat (April Fool's)
  • Sidestory
    • The Conclave was not just an abstract concept, Hazō learned as the New Three strode into sight of more summons than he'd ever seen before in his life, chatting and arguing, glaring in hostile standoffs one word away from bloodshed and cheerfully sharing exotic liquor that looked like it would kill a human stone dead with a single sip. The Conclave was also a building, a vast Pangolin-style dome painted with a dizzying array of colours that made him think of nothing so much as the Orbularium. To his right, Kei studied the paint with a frown, as if reading something in it that she didn't like. To his left, Noburi puffed himself up further still in his efforts to look heroic.

    They were each dressed in the best summoner regalia they'd been able to prepare. Hazō's, embarrassingly, featured a predatory skull with fangs that reached past his chin, but the Dogs had reassured him that the display would indicate both strength and adherence to Summon Realm tradition, while the armour made of strips of bison leather studded with bone would speak of his prowess as a hunter rather than of his preference for the kind of hobbies only seduction specs needed to know existed. Kei and Noburi had had to spend time practising in order not to laugh whenever they looked at him.

    Not that they were much better. Noburi's Toad gear was fancy in a way that wouldn't look too out of place at a particularly decadent daimyo's court, with complicated layers of robes and swathes of cloth rich with dyes many other summon clans would die for. The ornate staff in his left hand was evidence that the Toad Sages themselves had approved his presence there, while the oversized flyswatter in his right was a hallowed weapon recognisable to any who knew the illustrious history of Toad Summoners past. Then his barrel, even wrapped up in the finest silks, ruined the whole thing completely.

    Kei gave no indication of struggling beneath her unreasonably heavy Pangolin ceremonial armour: a cloak woven of scales shed by ancient clan heroes, mail of a silver metal whose name Hazō didn't know, and a helmet with enormous spikes that symbolised the wearer's readiness to charge headfirst into battle for the glory of the Holy Pangolin Empire. The cloak, at least, Kei would cast off the second any kind of combat broke out.

    "Halt!"

    Twin pangolin guards, each the size of Panjandrum and nowhere near as jolly, barred the trio's way into the Conclave building. Around them, curious summons were beginning to gather. Hazō couldn't read their body language, and he hoped they were just here to watch the confrontation, but there was a very realistic chance that some of them might want to join in, or even turn it violent, now the opportunity was in front of them.

    "We recognise and welcome Nara Kei, the Pangolin Summoner," boomed the pangolin on the left. "Who are the rest?"

    "I am Gōketsu Hazō," Hazō introduced himself first in accordance with their plan, with enough drama to give his presence a sense of weight but not enough to slow the pace of their entrance. "Chosen Summoner of the Dog Clan, son and heir of Jiraiya the Toad Summoner, clan lord of the Gōketsu Clan of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, sealmaster and warrior…"

    He gave a pause of just the right length.

    "Dragonslayer."

    He could hear the psychic whispers begin all around him.

    "And I am—"

    "You have no place here, Gōketsu Hazō."

    Noburi barely got to start his sentence before the other pangolin interrupted.

    "Only those who have received the welcome of Pantsā of the Adamant Scales are permitted to join the Conclave. You, who have arrived without permission, have no standing here. Leave at once."

    This was all well within Hazō's SOP. He'd have preferred to start his first epic speech inside the building where the more influential summons were more likely to hear him, but on the other hand, capturing the attention of so many lesser members of their retinues at once would serve him well when it came to spreading rumours and finding willing sources of information later.

    He breathed in and out once, slowly.

    "Is this the time for us to drown in formalities?" he demanded, taking a bold step forward towards the guards towering over him. "The Conclave did not assemble to argue over the price of trade goods. Each and every one of us is here for one reason only: the Dr@gons are coming, and we must all—"

    He cut off. Something wasn't right. He knew this s3nsation, like something pressing on the outer edges of his mind. Not the subtle whisper of genju+su. Not the complex hammer blow of clone sickness.

    "Dragons?" a pangolin sc0ffed. "The Pangolin Elite Guard are not children to quail at fairy tales, Gōketsu Hazō."

    Oh, no. S#ge's blood, no.

    "UN5#MMO#!" he sho%+ed. "U!@UM#0N N~W!"

    "What did you say?"

    "Could you repeat that, Hazō?"

    Th>n he s@w his own reflection in the sky above, and i% was too late.

    Round 1
    Turn order: Clarity, Kei, Noburi, Hazō

    Clarity
    Supplemental: Activate ???
    Supplemental: Activate ???
    Standard: Move
    Supplemental: Deactivate ???
    Standard: ??? ??? + ? = ??? vs Hazō Athletics 31 + 6 = 37

    We don't have rules for Substitution castling in combat, so these are improvised based on the fact that it makes sense for it to be possible, and that if it isn't, Hazō is dead.

    Kei off-turn
    Supplemental: Activate The Best-Laid Schemes
    I am ruling that The Best-Laid Schemes is a subtype of Combat Frozen Skein and therefore their bonuses do not stack.
    Kei takes 13 mental stress and gains the Mild mental Consequence "Pacified", the Moderate mental Consequence "Apathetic", and the Severe mental Consequence "Lost". She gains +65 to her next roll. The maluses from the Consequences will not apply until the end of the scene.
    Kei spends 2 FP to invoke "Team Uplift" and "Self-Loathing".
    Supplemental: Substitution with Hazō
    Alertness + Substitution = 49 + 20 + 65 + 5 + 5 - 3 = 141 vs Clarity's ???
    Kei wins. Kei successfully Substitutes with Hazō before the attack connects. However, since Hazō failed to evade, taking his place means Kei takes the full stress.

    ??? triggers as a result of The Best-Laid Schemes.

    Combat ends (for them).

    The Drag$n was made of mi++ors. Nothing but mirrors. Hazō could 5ee the three summoners re^1ected in its body, refracted into a mill!@n versions of themselves. It was as if the Dragon was en[ompassing, no, consuming, all of cr3ation with its very presence. It was alien and incre£ible and it sent terror pouring through his veins like lava \/\/inding down the side of the volcano.

    It wasn't alone—he could sense *%at much just from the w>y the nameless sense of Dragonness was still inte*sifying. However, the one thing he knew with perfect Cl^4ity was that they had all badly underestimated the enemy. This Dragon was here for h1m. He knew it even before the shift!ng refl3(+ions revealed what could only be its head, ignoring everyone else to turn towards him, mouth opening…

    Hazō tensed, but he already knew it was t@@ late. It was right abo#e him. There was nowhere to dodge. The air above ri44led—

    He w#$ elsewhere.

    Kei was in front of him. B3neath the Dragon.

    "Kei, n0!"

    She stood in his place, loo>#ng up. Def!&nt. Te++ified. Witho&t regret.

    He reac^d out, but it was f@r too late—

    Then no%~ing happened.

    No bl>ze of destruction. No 3ldritch magic. Nothing.

    No, something must have happened. Kei was on the ground, unmoving. Hazō couldn't even tell if she was still alive.

    Instead, something rose out of her prone form. It was too faint to see at first, pale ice spreading from her into the air in branches like frost spreading across a window. It rose and rose, weaving around itself like ivy, like a dance of snowflakes. It reached beyond the height of the Conclave dome, into the skies where a moment ago only the Dragons had held dominion. For something so vast, something incomprehensible and terrifying, it was oddly… peaceful. Hazō could feel his panic gently fade away.

    What was there to worry about anyway? It wasn't like he could resist even if he wanted to. Without the eyes, a mutant like him couldn't hope to suppress one of the lessers, never mind a Shard. All he had to do was lie there and wait until the White Shard finished the banquet to which the Mori had delivered it. Yes, finally it was all over.

    The gestalt field was a cacophony of voices. Some roared defiance. Some begged for mercy. Some merely wept as they gave up in the face of the impossible. Those further away were cut off group by group as the Dragons reached them. Those closest to Hazō died in calm silence, just as he would soon enough. His part in the plan was done.

    Hazō looked vaguely up from where he'd fallen to the ground. For a moment, his eyes rested on something high above, and then suddenly it was night-time. That was nice. Night was peaceful. He could just drift into sleep and nobody would mind.

    The night shattered. The cloud of darkness above the White Shard split into three as if rent by giant claws. The pieces rained down like liquid, black and oily, but none fell near him. Not that Hazō cared.

    Some small, white creature transfixed by the Shard's branch convulsed briefly, then expired. The translucent ice seemed to grow a little more solid as it reclaimed what had been stolen from it.

    What was the point in struggling anyway? He'd been fighting against ridiculous odds all this time, and where had it got him? The world was still the same as before. Everything just kept getting harder, with no reward in sight. The White Shard would leave soon, with the Mori as a conduit, and then he could just lie here and fade away into peaceful oblivion.

    It was so beautiful.

    A su@#en sharp sensation intru>ed into his head, disrupting his rest. The ice monster's @##ention was briefly locked onto a Drag&n Hazō couldn't see, and a surge of raw bloodlust and ^atred eroded Hazō's blanket of 1eace just a little.

    Hazō spends 3 FP to invoke "Creative Idealist", "(Formerly) Marked for Death", and "Toughened Mind".
    Hazō: Resolve 59 + 6 + 6 + 6 - 6 = 71 vs TN ??
    Hazō spends 1 FP to reroll.
    Hazō: Resolve 59 + 6 + 6 + 6 - 9 = 68 vs TN ??
    Hazō spends 1 FP to reroll.
    Hazō: Resolve 59 + 6 + 6 + 6 - 6 = 71 vs TN ??
    Hazō spends 1 FP to reroll.
    Hazō: Resolve 59 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 12 = 89 vs TN ??
    Hazō passes.

    He had to use this m&ment. There would be no second chance.

    Kei was un53achable. Nob!ri was nowh%re in sight. Hopefu!!y he'd managed to unsummon.

    But Hazō didn'+ know what to do. Someone like him couldn't kill @#e of the Five—it could only b3 one of the Five—at least not with%^t preparation. He could -nsummon, go warn Asuma and the Nara, b^t how much could they do to stop it? This thing was already stronger than the Dr~gons, and it w0uld surely make a beeline for the next Thinker clan, and then...

    He looked desperately £0r inspiration. Kagome-sensei's forbidden lore. His own re5#arch. Random hints dropped by Ke¬, Ami, and Shikamaru. Anything. If the W#%l of Fir3 was real, or the ancestors, or any k@mi with an interest in humanity's survival, surely this was the time to help him. Would the 7eventh Path, if it was truly alive, hear his p&ea for help? He'd even accept help from Jas?in himself, and pay whatever price was demanded later.

    He suddenly ~emembered Daizen. There was something $%zō could do in an instant that had the power to rip apart the Paths themselves. There was something +h3 Sage himself considered so d%;gerous he'd forbidden it to be done on the Seventh P%th. It would -#0bably kill him. It was an #ns^ne idea by any rea$0nable standard. But if ^_^ had taught him one thing, it was that enough chaos could accomplish the impossible.

    He f0rced his numb £ingers to move by sheer willpower.

    Tiger… Ram… 3abbit…

    "Earth Element: Spine of the Earth Technique!"

    A ch?=ra-infused spike of rock e~!pted from the ground next to Hazō—and pierced straight through his seal pouch.

    1d1000 = 527
    1d1000 = 113
    1d1000 = 445
    (…)
    1d1000 = 3
    A MARS seal fails. Considering what it's connected to, no further rolls are required.

    Reality screamed.

    Up above, the sky trembled, then broke into infinite fragments. They writhed as if alive as the colour leeched from them into nothingness, fighting against a mortality that should not have applied to them. One by one, they disintegrated into a watery nothingness, a semi-transparent veil with long vertical tears that exposed hints of nightmares Hazō dared not look at.

    The earth beneath Hazō bent like soft wood, then like flesh, roiling in an unending, fluid earthquake. Hazō was tossed back and forth between enormous chunks of soil no longer bound by the same direction of gravity. His ninja reflexes were the only reason he wasn't instantly ground into paste. He glimpsed enormous yellow fibres running through the bedrock, or what should have been the bedrock, exposed beneath him, glowing with visible chakra until they snapped one by one.

    The ice monster was gone. The Dragons were gone. The summons were gone. Everything and everyone had disappeared before Hazō knew it, leaving the Seventh Path as the only living thing around him—a living thing in its death throes as its very soul was unmade at his hands.

    Then that began to disappear as well. One by one, its pieces fell away—some up into the missing heavens above, some down into the gaps in the bedrock, some sideways past the collapsing mountains in the distance, and some simply Out. They fell into something Hazō physically could not see, could not register with his awareness, but knew to be the final Void that awaited everything, even the afterlife. With that, everything ended…

    …except Hazō's own fall into eternity.

    -o-​

    Eternity is made up of moments, and so is a human life.

    By the time the group reached the island in the centre of the swamp they were down to twenty-seven survivors, all of them wounded and so exhausted they were barely able to keep on their feet. Fortunately, there was a cave in which they could all fit. The island was large and solid, an upthrust of igneous rock with sandstone inclusions; the igneous rock gave a firm foundation and the limestone made for plenty of interconnected caves. Not all easily navigable—the water got in everywhere, and many of the passages were low—but there was room.

    "Eat some ration bars and then sleep," Shikigami-sensei said to the group, once the cave had been declared animal-free and a fire was started. "Three watches, one team each. I'll take first." He waved to Hazō and the other two and moved for the mouth of the cave. The three genin lined up without being told, one knee down and their backs to the outside so that Shikigami-sensei could see the entire arc behind them while he spoke.

    "The three of you are a scratch team," he said. "You were not put together by a bunch of limp-wristed Academy bureaucrats in the city because you had the right grades. You were put together by me, the toughest bastard for a hundred miles, because you are survivors. You survived the Bloody Mist Academy, the harshest gods-damned ninja school on this or any other planet. You survived a close-range battle between a dozen jōnin. You survived a gruelling race across enemy territory, hounded by the forces of the most powerful ninja village in existence. You survived this murderous fucking swamp, which killed experienced jōnin in the blink of an eye. Now you are my genin and you will by every god continue to survive, or I will kill you myself. Are we crystal clear on that point?"

    "Sensei! Yes, sensei!" the other two chorused, their voices carefully lowered in respect for the night.

    "Kurosawa? Are we clear?"

    Kurosawa Hazō blinked, but the sudden burst of disorientation didn't go away.

    Gōketsu Hazō blinked again until it did.

    "Crystal clear, sensei."

    -o-​

    You have lost 10,137 XP and gained 4 FP. You can find your new character sheet here.

    -o-​

    What do you do?

    [X] Talk to your teammates as Shikigami-sensei orders
    [X] Rest until you're sent on the mission tomorrow
    [X] Write-in

    Voting closes on
     
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  • Sidestory
    • Interlude: Chosen for the Grave, Part 25: Realization
  • Sidestory
    • Interlude: Chosen for the Grave, Part 25: Realization​

    "How was your walk, Mr Earl?" Komako called as I came in. She was in the other room and I could hear the water running, so she was probably doing dishes. A brilliant deduction that was well supported by the sound of water gushing from the kitchen seal.

    "Really good," I called back. "Perfect weather, flowers are coming up. It made me feel good. Not great, but not bad or nothing. Hadn't realized I'd missed that."

    Hang on...that was probably bad, right?

    "Excellent!" she called, making me smile slightly. It had taken me four years to convince her that she didn't need to be kneeling seiza at the door when I came in. The fact that now she was shouting from the next room was an odd little delight.

    The running water sound from the kitchen shut off and Komako came in with a smile on her face and a plate in her hands.

    Komako was an older woman, maybe sixty or sixty five. She had a smiling dumpling of a face and a stout body that I knew packed a surprising amount of muscle under the padding. One time, on her day off, I'd happened to see her carrying a bundle of sticks bigger than herself through the streets. I'd run after her to ask what she was doing and if she needed help. She looked at me like she couldn't believe the question and told me that it was for the fire at her home, so she could cook and keep warm, and no, I couldn't help because she had it. I immediately went home and researched a heat-emitting seal with a pressure-activation trigger so that she and other civilians could use it.

    "What's this?" I asked, gesturing to the plate.

    "Is lasagna!" she said proudly. "You always say you miss lasagna, so I made you some. Is it right?"

    I looked at the contents of the pan. Wide noodles, check. Moist, crumbly cheese that was the closest thing to ricotta that could be found in the markets of Leaf. No red sauce, because tomatoes didn't exist here. Vegetables, none of them anything that belonged in an Italian flavor palette. Strips of beef teriyaki in between the noodles. It was almost, but not completely, unlike lasagna and I didn't care.

    "It's wonderful," I said, smiling and taking the plate. "Thank you, Komako."

    "You are welcome! And look! Fork!" She held out a carved wooden bident the length of my hand.

    I took the fork and stabbed it into the not-lasagna, managing to chop a bite out with the side of the device and get it into my mouth without too much splatter. Weird and unlasagna-like it may have been, but it was delicious.

    "Thank you again," I said twenty seconds later, after shoveling the whole slice into my face. "That was amazing."

    "You are welcome! Now, you take a quick bath and then meet your friends, yes?"

    "That sounds like a good plan," I said, nodding firmly. "I've got it from here. You can take the rest of the day off."

    "I have not beaten the rugs yet," she objected. "They are very dirty!"

    "They're brand new," I told her, rolling my eyes. "Like, literally. I bought them last week." I waved my hands in a shooing gesture. "Go on. Go home. Go fuss over your kids instead of me."

    "It is not fussing!" she said. "I am your housekeeper. What would people think if they came into your house and saw dirty rugs? They would think I was lazy! No one would hire me."

    I pressed a thumb into my forehead for a moment. "Komako," I said patiently, "I know for a fact that you have more than five million ryō in the bank. Do you know why I know this?"

    "Because you are a nosy man who sticks his big beaky nose into other people's business?"

    A laugh burst out of me. This from the overly proper, constantly bowing, nigh-mute woman I had met just over four years ago?

    "No, Komako. I know that you have this money because, first, I am the president of the bank and I do periodic audits of all accounts to ensure that the staff have been accurate, that there's been no embezzlement, and that we have sufficient reserves on hand to pay any withdrawals."

    She sniffed. "See? Nosy."

    "Second, I know this because I gave you one million of it when you first started working for me and the rest of it is the wages I've paid you since then. Of which, apparently, you have never spent a dime."

    "What's a dime, Mister Earl?"

    "A ryō, whatever." A spike of homesickness hit me and my stomach cramped up as I thought about all the work I hadn't been doing on the go-home seal. Val was going to catch me out on that at some point.

    "Well of course I don't spend your money, Mister Earl. It is your money!"

    I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Komako. You needing money to live on is why I pay you. You know, wages? You use them to buy food?"

    "Ohhh, psh," she said, waving dismissively. "You pay me with all your seals! I have running water! Me!" She pointed at her face. "In my enormous palace of an apartment, water comes out when I want it to, no need to go to the pump! Hot or cold, whichever I like. I keep my food in storage seals so it is always good. The neighborhood boys, they never get fresh with Eriko or pick on Hidemi."

    Guilt made a cameo at the back of my mind. When I first heard about the 'neighborhood boys' (a euphemism for a gang of teen- and twenty-something young men) hassling Komako's family, I hadn't taken it well. I went down there to tell them to lay off, thinking that my notoriety would be enough, that I could stop the harassment simply by stating that I had extended the aegis of my protection over the victims.

    As if that mattered.

    I had found the gang leader and some of his 'boys' in the market, shaking down a fruit vendor. I had, stupidly, marched up to the leader with my soul filled with righteous fury and my mouth filled with righteous words as I told him to stand down. I forgot to leave him an out, a way to save face. He cursed at me, pulled a knife, and was immediately killed by six ANBU agents who melted out of the shadows. None of us had realized they were there; when I asked Hiruzen about it later he simply raised one grey eyebrow and said that yes, obviously I had a bodyguard following me at all times.

    "Komako," I said, striving for patience. "It is your account. I set that account up specifically so that you would have money. I put the money in that account every week for you to use. It's your money."

    "It's your money, Mister Earl."

    "It's my money until I give it to you," I said, my teeth starting to grit. This wasn't the first time we'd had this conversation. "And then I give it to you, as wages, because you cook me lasagna and do my dishes and my laundry and all that. It's your money, Komako. You should be using it."

    "Psh. It's your money, Mister Earl."

    I pressed on my forehead again. "Okay, I get that bank accounts are unfamiliar. What about the money that I sent to your house? It was a literal bag of ryō. Nice, solid, familiar coins. The messenger told me that he put it in your hands and explicitly told you that it was your wages from me. Is that somehow my money too?"

    "Oh, you mean that young man who was so confused that he went to the wrong house? I got him straightened out and had him bring your money here."

    I took a breath and let it out slowly. We had done this dance before and I didn't have any new steps to try. If I gave her physical ryō, they got 'accidentally' left on the table when she went home. If I sent it to her house, she acted confused and sent it back. For whatever reason, she had decided to be my housekeeper without accepting coin in payment. She was okay with accepting seals and other in-kind payment from me (weird), so I had gotten a better apartment in a nicer neighborhood for her, her daughter, granddaughter, grandson-in-law, and two great-grandkids. I had fully upgraded the place with water-producing seals, an indoor shower, mild heating seals for warmth and intense ones for cooking, plus various other things necessary to bring it to something close to a twenty-first-century lifestyle.

    "Fine," I said. "I'm going to grab that bath, then head out. You should head out, but I'm not going to twist your arm."

    She looked down at her arms, then looked at mine. "Twiggy arms like that, Mister Earl? You had better not try!"




    Author's Note: There was supposed to be another scene after this, one in which Val and Earl and Oli all have lunch to commemorate the sixth anniversary of Phil not showing up. I'm running short on time and energy so I'm going to post this now and call it good. It's a bit of a nothingburger but at least it's a thing.

    I see that my April Fool's of 'closing' voting after @Velorien said it was open until Wednesday didn't work because people didn't keep voting. In retrospect, it was poorly executed; I should have made the 'voting is closed' declaration different somehow. Eh, whatevs. Next year I'll do something better.

    Vote time! What to do now?

    Voting ends on Wednesday, .
     
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