Chapter 2

History judges empires and nations by their accomplishments, not by their morals. That's a fact of life as old as time itself. All throughout history people remember the empires with the heroes who vanquished their enemies. With the brilliant minds who forever changed society. And with the artists who created endless beauty and riches. No one remembers the nations that chose peace over war. Morality over science. Or frugality over opulence. No, those are the nations that get conquered and forgotten in time. There is no place in history for them.

It was the very first lesson Hashiba Shiro's master taught him, and a lesson that would stay with him till he died. How could it not when evidence of its inherent truth was all around him nowadays? Just last week forces of the Land of Frost had invaded the Land of Hot Water. They met barely any opposition because the Land of Hot Water's hidden village, Yugakure, had almost completely given up on their military. They shifted their focus to their tourism sector years ago and the result was disastrous. The shinobi from the Land of Frost overwhelmed the few remaining Yugakure shinobi in a matter of hours. And their Daimyo fled to the neighbouring Land of Fire in a matter of minutes.

"So both Konoha and Kumo have mobilised and moved their forces to their borders now. How disconcerting." Hashiba Shiro channelled some chakra in the scroll when he finished reading and threw it in a bin next to his desk as it started burning. He watched the flames consume more and more of the scroll before all that remained was a small pile of ash. He let out a long sigh and leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed.

What a dreadful day. This was sure to move their schedule up considerably, and it wasn't like they weren't already busy to begin with. They had been working on this project non-stop for almost three years now. Ever since the Wind Daimyo got murdered at the Chūnin exams in Konoha. Murdered by Suna shinobi. The man's own hidden village.

Iwa's leadership was convinced that was going to be the catalyst for a new Shinobi World War, so they had started preparations immediately.

At the time he agreed with that assessment. Everyone knew about the strive between the Land of Wind Daimyo and Sunagakure—the Daimyo seemed more enamoured by Konoha than by his own village—but to outright murder him? That was unheard of. And to do it in Konoha no less. It was a brilliant move by Suna, that much he had to admit, but it was also a surefire way to start a war.

And yet it didn't. Despite the death of a Daimyo who was on great terms with Konoha no war happened. Not even the fact that said murder within Konoha's borders meant gigantic damage to Konoha's image as a competent village that was able to protect and secure people within its own borders had mattered.

Shiro had no idea how Suna had pulled that off. The threats and promises they must have made towards Konoha to make them stay their hand after that massive breach of trust must have been enormous.

He doubted the same would happen with this Land of Frost situation though. Especially because it wasn't just Konoha that the Land of Frost needed to calm down. There was also Kumo to deal with. And possibly even Kiri depending on who was really behind this.

Which meant Iwa had to be ready. So the upcoming weeks were most likely going to be long and busy.

The sound of a door opening behind him made him open his eyes. He swivelled his chair around and smiled at the sight that greeted him. His beautiful, freshly showered, girlfriend walked out of his bathroom as though it was her own. With one towel wrapped around her body and another towel around her head, she made for quite a sight. Especially her long shapely legs never failed to excite him.

"Y-you're staring, Shiro-kun." A small blush appeared on the demure woman's face when she saw her boyfriend looking at her legs. She glanced away from him but didn't try to hide the rest of her body from his gaze. "Have you seen my glasses?"

"I have indeed." He turned back around to his desk and grabbed the glasses that lay in the corner before holding them up to her with a smile.

A slight frown of confusion appeared on her face. "How did they get there?" she whispered more to herself than to her boyfriend. The sound of her bare feet on the wooden floor were the only sounds in the room as she made her way to him in small quick steps.

As she reached out for the glasses Shiro's other arm shot out and grabbed her palm. With a soft tug and a surprised shriek from the woman she suddenly felt herself pulled on his lap. A hand on her jaw turned her face upwards, making her look right in the eyes of the older man. He smiled as he saw the blush on his girlfriend's face as she kept staring into his eyes.

She had often told him how attractive and mesmerising she found them. He had always hated his own eyes. Hated how one was green and the other one blue. But the fact that this young woman loved them so much made his younger years of being bullied because of them more than worth it.

Shiro saw her open her mouth to say something and he was unable to hold himself back any longer. Before she could even form a single sentence, he covered her lips with his own, shutting her up in an instant.

It was sublime. His mouth on hers, his hand on her covered breast, and the sounds of her soft sighs and moans of appreciation in his ears. He didn't believe in those preposterous ideas of heaven or the afterlife but if it did exist, he'd imagine it would feel something like this.

He felt her shiver as he opened her towel and the cold air fell on her skin. Shiro moved his fingers upwards until they found their way to her rapidly hardening nipples, causing another moan to escape her lips.

Shiro let out a low chuckle as he pulled away from their kiss. "You grow more irresistible by the day, my love." He gave her flushed body a slow once-over, lingering just a while longer on the area of her breasts.

The blushing woman reached up with her right hand and stroked his cheek. "So do you, Shiro-kun." She smiled as her hand travelled higher and brushed through his dark but greying hair.

"No," he shook his head ruefully, "I just grow older instead. I've merely been beyond fortunate to have met you, even if I might get too old for you soon."

She gave him a gentle smile, and with her fingers still brushing through his hair, reached up and gave him a tender peck on the lips. "Thirty-eight isn't that old," she said as she slowly got up from his lap and stepped out of his reach, "and maybe I find older men irresistible. Which means it would still be true."

"You tease." Shiro laughed as the young woman closed her towel again and put her glasses on before making her way to their sometimes shared bedroom.

"I have to get ready for work!"

Shiro still heard her giggling from the bedroom. He was glad she had become increasingly more open towards him. She was still the same soft-spoken young woman as she'd been when they'd met months ago, but at least now she could talk about sexual things without stuttering. Sometimes she even managed to tease and flirt with him, something Shiro could only encourage. Not that he disliked her demure personality, on the contrary, he loved it. But the idea that she had finally become this comfortable around him was flattering.

He shook his head as he turned back to the opened files on his desk and gave them another once-over. Who would have thought a boring old guy like him could land such a cute girl like her? He really was beyond fortunate.

"Did you burn something?" the woman asked as she came out of the bedroom dressed in her working clothes. "I thought I smelled something earlier."

"An ANBU delivered a missive when I came home."

His girlfriend gave a sound of understanding. She knew he wouldn't elaborate on that. It was forbidden to say anything about the contents of said missives to a civilian like her, so she wouldn't press him for it either. Another thing he loved about her. She respected and understood his secrets.

He dropped his work and turned to look at her. She was standing in front of a mirror in the hallway trying and failing to get her long blonde hair to be less of a mess. "There might be a war soon," Shiro said out of nowhere.

The woman stopped what she was doing and turned to him in surprise. "W-what?"

He looked back at her with a serious expression. "Both Konoha and Kumo have mobilised their forces following the Land of Hot Water incident. Kiri is undoubtedly soon to follow. It is more than likely that they will drag even more countries into the conflict after that. I... too might have to go."

She looked at him with wide eyes, her hair forgotten completely "W-why?"

Her stutter was back. Of course it was after news like that. He gave her a sad smile. Sometimes he forgot the differences between civilians and shinobi. Where an 18-year-old shinobi would sometimes already have the experience and knowledge of a veteran—and certainly be someone who'd seen the world for what it truly was—an 18-year-old civilian like her was barely an adult. And was that any surprise?

All she knew was the comfort and safety of Iwagakure. She was too young to remember the previous war. And ever since that war Iwa increased its security so much that there hadn't been a single successful foreign attack on their village. She was probably taught some things in school, or by her family, possibly even seen some movies. But that isn't the same as experiencing those things. As truly knowing what horrors lay in wait beyond their borders.

"It's politics, my love." He stood up and made his way to her. "The village has to protect our interests and our alliances. We have to appear strong. And seeing as I'm a shinobi of this village I must also help with that."

"But you're in the science division!"

"Indeed, I am." He took the brush from her limp hands and brushed her beautiful blonde hair. "And if we finish our projects in time, I can contribute in that way. If not... I'll have to contribute the old-fashioned way."

The blonde woman stayed quiet and just watched in the mirror how her boyfriend brushed her hair. When he finished, he pulled her hair in a ponytail, let it hang over her right shoulder and leaned down to kiss the left side of her exposed neck.

"Don't worry," he whispered in her ear as he pulled her close against him, his arms around her waist. "Our project should give us an army that will be unstoppable. You've got nothing to fear."

The image in the mirror gave him an uncertain smile which he returned with a smile he hoped would be comforting. When he pulled back, she turned around and looked him straight in the eyes. "How unstoppable?"

"As unstoppable as an army has ever been. Trust me, my master is a brilliant woman. We're making progress. Slow progress, but we will succeed."

She held his gaze for a few seconds longer before she gave him a nod, seemingly satisfied with his answer.

It was at that point the clock in the hallway tolled four times. She glanced at the clock to see if she heard right and her eyes widened when she saw that it was already four in the afternoon. "I need to go. I'll be back around midnight, like usual."

Shiro smiled. "Very well. Good luck at work and do invite your boss and colleague for dinner sometime. We've been together so long that at this point it would be rude not to, don't you think?"

"Ok, I will." She stood on her toes and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "Love you, Shiro-kun."

"I love you too," he said with a warm smile. He watched as she turned around and opened the door, the wind instantly blowing her blonde hair in her face. He chuckled before he noticed something missing. "Wait, Temari-chan!"

The woman turned around when he called her name, her eyebrows raised in an unasked question as she saw Shiro run back inside his house. Within seconds he returned, a white bandana in his right hand. "You forgot part of your outfit."

"Thanks, Shiro-kun!" She quickly accepted the headpiece and put it on without any trouble. Then she turned once more to him as if to ask him how it looked. He gave her a nod, and she gave him one of her warmest smiles in return before she stepped outside. "See you tonight!"

Shiro let out a sigh. Temari's smiles always made his day. It was a smile that, even at his age, still made his heart and the butterflies in his stomach go crazy. Perhaps this day wasn't so bad after all.

He chuckled. Yes, he was a very fortunate man indeed to have a smile like that to cheer him up every day. He walked back to his desk, ready to work. It was a smile worth protecting, and he decided that he would make sure that Iwa's forces would be strong enough to succeed in that task.

Even the best things in life should be enjoyed in moderation, or so the saying went.

While enjoying his sashimi Hashiba Shiro couldn't help but disagree with that sentiment. The shinobi life was way too dangerous to not enjoy every day to its fullest. And that included food, even if that meant adding a few pounds to his frame. So while with a pencil in his left hand he was diligently scribbling his latest calculations in his notebook, with the chopsticks in his right hand he reached once more for the plate of raw fish.

"A casualty rate of 78%," he mumbled, peering over the documents on his desk as he absentmindedly reached for the soy sauce, "not acceptable at all."

He reached slightly forward as he brought the chopsticks to his mouth, his eyes never leaving his work. He had been at it ever since his girlfriend left for work. Only pausing for a few minutes to answer the door when some genin on a D-rank mission delivered his dinner and when an ANBU patrol came to check up on him. Yet he still wasn't any closer to solving the problem in front of him. A problem that had been plaguing their division for over a week now.

He put his pencil down and reached for one of the other documents at the back of his desk. Slowly chewing on his food and savouring the taste of his expensive meal he squinted his eyes as he compared the document to the recent calculations in his notebook.

"Hmm..." He swallowed the food in his mouth and reached for another piece of raw fish. "Perhaps lobotomy?"

Shiro laid the document down next to his notebook and reached for a scroll on the shelf above his desk. While his chopsticks remained busy with his food, his left hand unfurled the scroll with practised ease.

Countless calculations, sketches and diagrams covered the scroll. Some of them going above even his head. At the bottom was the official seal of Tokiwada Kanna, the leader of their project. A mysterious woman, but one who most people in Iwa regarded as one of the most brilliant minds in all the Elemental Nations. And a woman who Shiro was fortunate enough to call his master.

His eyes scanning over the scroll Shiro was quick to find the thing he was looking for. He laid it down beside his notebook and the other document. A smile spread over his face. He put his chopsticks down on his plate and brought both hands to his hair, staring in wonderment at what was before him.

"Tokiwada-sama," he whispered with a chuckle, shaking his head in disbelief, "you're a genius."

He reached for an empty scroll and with a speed that surprised even him began writing. His master needed to know. The answer was in front of them all this time. Finally, they'd be able to finalise their project and nothing would be able to stop the might of Iwa ever again. He laughed. They'd be heroes. People worth remembering in history.

The sound of a key unlocking his door stopped him right before he completed his report. Was it already time for Temari to come home? He looked up at the clock and narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Only ten o'clock, way too early. He resealed the documents on his desk as fast as possible, making sure to start with his master's scroll.

"I'm home." The sweet voice of his girlfriend sounded as the door slowly opened.

Shiro stopped what he was doing and reached for the bo-staff next to his desk. He hadn't survived for thirty-eight years without being extra careful in cases of suspicious activity.

"Welcome home, sweetheart." He made his way to the hallway with slow calculated steps. His eyes trained on the door that was still half-closed. "You're early."

The door finally opened and Temari let out one of her gentle melodious laughs. "My boss let me go early," she said as she made her way inside. She was carrying a long and big package that was obviously too heavy for her judging by how she was struggling with it. "Could you help me with this, Shiro-kun?"

"Naturally." He put his staff against the wall and grabbed the big package from his girlfriend. He made sure to touch her hand and channelled a bit of chakra into it without her noticing. No changes. He relaxed with a slight quirking at the corners of his mouth. He was getting paranoid. Now even resorting to checking if his girlfriend was a henge or genjutsu. "What's in the package?"

Her sweet smile abruptly transformed into something more sinister. Something derisive. "An iron fan."

Out of nowhere Temari took a firm grasp of the package and pulled it towards her. Only to slam it back into his stomach with one incredibly hard shove.

Shiro's eyes bulged out as Temari's sudden attack sent him flying backwards. He felt his recent meal coming up and leaving his mouth as he threw up. His back hit one of the walls in his apartment, forcing his flight to a rough and instant stop.

Gasping for breath he watched wide-eyed as Temari walked into his apartment as though she owned the place. She wore a hard look on her face which was completely out of place on someone as sweet and soft-spoken as her.

"T-Temari-chan," he said between gasps of breath.

"Don't get up, Shiro." There was no trace of the usual warmth in Temari's voice. In its place was an emotion he couldn't quite place. Contempt?

Ignoring the warning Shiro instead channelled a burst of chakra to his feet and lunged forward, trying to reach the bo-staff he had put against the wall in the hallway.

Before he even got close giant chains appeared from behind Temari and shot towards him. They coiled themselves around his arms and legs, stopping him right in his tracks. While struggling against the bindings, he tried to call for reinforcements by flaring his chakra to alert any nearby ANBU. To his horror, however, nothing happened. He couldn't even access his chakra and he gradually felt his body get weaker and weaker the longer he hung in the air.

"She told you not to get up," an amused male voice said from behind Temari.

Shiro gritted his teeth as he saw a short hooded man appear in the door opening behind Temari. The chains that held him captive seemed to come from his body.

"What did you do to her?" he said with narrowed eyes as the chains carried him higher in the air and further into his own apartment. Temari and the unknown man followed him inside with casual ease.

The man didn't answer and only looked up at the captive Shiro as he closed the door behind him. A strange white oni-mask with a giant grin was visible underneath the hood. Shiro couldn't help the shiver that ran up his spine at the sight. The Chakra Chains should have been obvious enough, but the mask left him without any doubt.

"Uzumaki." Shiro's voice was full of derision. "I should have known it would be someone from your clan of rats."

The masked man leaned his head slightly to the side and released a somewhat awkward chuckle. "Really? Should you have? I mean, you invited me over for dinner so I guess you should have somewhat expected it. But still, I must say, if you did expect me then a warmer welcome would have been nice after every-"

"Naruto." The impatient voice of Temari interrupted the young man. As if only now remembering his girlfriend's strange behaviour Shiro's head snapped back in her direction at the sound of her voice. She was at his desk. Looking through his still half-opened scrolls and documents without a care in the world. She absentmindedly grabbed a piece of his sashimi and stuck it in her mouth. "Hurry up and ask him your questions. The ANBU patrol should be here in 15 minutes and we still need to pick up Fū before they notice her distraction."

Shiro heard the boy named Naruto grumble in response. Whether this was out of disappointment that he couldn't play around or out of annoyance that he got scolded Shiro didn't know. The scolding seemed to have the desired effect though as the boy tightened the chains and noticeably straightened up before addressing him once again.

"Hashiba-san," a suddenly more serious Naruto said, "what is Project Don'yoku."

Shiro answered with questions of his own. "Who are you working for, Uzumaki? Konoha?" A sudden epiphany seemed to come to him "Wait, is a Yamanaka controlling her? Or is this another one of your sickening seals?"

Naruto ignored the questions and went on with his own. "How does one bypass the security of the red mountain's upper entrance?"

"..."

"Where is Tokiwada Kanna?" No answer. " Who is Tokiwada Kanna?"

"I'm not telling you anything, Uzumaki." Shiro spat a glob of saliva on the mask of the man in front of him in defiance.

Naruto groaned, not even bothering to wipe the spit from his mask. "He's being difficult, Temari." Naruto's whiny complaint dispelled the serious air in a flash. Shiro wondered if the man had some kind of split personality. It wouldn't surprise him, the Uzumaki didn't get famous thanks to their sanity after all. "Are you sure you don't want to do the whole torture stuff? I thought you liked that?"

Shiro gritted his teeth. You don't become a jōnin in Iwa without getting trained in withstanding most forms of torture, but even he felt queasy at the thought of an Uzumaki doing the honours. Who knew what kind of sick things that clan of degenerates had come up with over the years.

"Once again, Naruto, we don't have time." Temari walked back to Naruto's side, a scroll and Shiro's plate of sashimi in her hands. "You want some?" She asked, nodding towards the plate of fish. The boy didn't answer but only stared in her direction with his creepy mask still in place. "Right, the mask." She turned to Shiro with a sweet smile on her face, one he almost recognised as an expression he was used to seeing from her. "I'd offer you some as well, but I can't reach your mouth while you're hanging there, so it's not much use. Take comfort in the fact that I won't let it go to waste though."

Shiro opened his mouth to say something, but closed it just as fast again. What was he supposed to say here? What was even happening here? What had happened to his sweet Temari-chan to make her this cruel?

The young woman tossed the scroll she was carrying to the creepy boy. "This is the only useful scroll that wasn't sealed off yet. It talks about lobotomy and other human experiments. We can send the rest home so the experts can decrypt them."

Naruto caught the scroll out of the air and looked it over. "Lobotomy? What's that?"

"An old medical procedure that removes part of the brain to make a person more docile," Temari said as she chewed on more of Shiro's sashimi.

The mask made it impossible to see what the boy thought of that information but the sound of disgust told Shiro more than enough. He snorted. "Don't pretend such things are below you, Uzumaki. The Alliance of Nations destroyed Uzushiogakure for a reason. Your kind has no right to pretend you have the moral high ground in these matters."

The mask turned back to him again. "The Uzumaki never experimented on living-"

"Oh, please." Shiro let out a mocking sound as his struggles against the chains increased. He could feel his body getting weaker from the constant chakra drain and he wanted to get out. "You're controlling an innocent civilian's mind at this very moment and yet it is the medical procedure of lobotomy that disgusts you?"

Naruto let out another awkward laugh as he turned his gaze to the woman next to him. He scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, about that..."

Temari sighed. "No one is controlling me, Shiro." She removed her glasses and her bandana, releasing her hair from its ponytail in the process. "I am Temari of the Sand, oldest child of the Kazekage, sent here on an infiltration mission to investigate the rumours that Iwa is building a weapon of mass destruction, and if true, put an end to said project." She grabbed the package she had hit Shiro with and opened it, showing him her big iron war fan. "This is my main weapon. I can do some jutsu on you to prove my point, or you can simply accept that the Temari you knew never actually existed."

Shiro's eyes widened just a fraction, but it was enough to betray his surprise. "What are you talking about? We've been acquainted for almost a yea-"

"It's been a long mission."

Shiro was quiet. He looked between the two enemy shinobi in front of him with an unreadable expression. Could he really have fallen for such a rudimentary honey trap? Him, a renowned jōnin of Iwa?

He thought back to when he first met Temari almost a year ago. The then still seventeen-year-old girl was being harassed by a bunch of thugs in some back-alley. Shiro only stumbled upon them because he got home late from work after his master forced some extra tasks on him. He had taken a different route home to get takeout from one of the restaurants that were still open, which meant going through the more shadier parts of Iwa.

Coincidences upon coincidences. Was it really possible that they planned for all that? How could they have known he would even help Temari? He wouldn't have under normal circumstance. He only did so because she reminded him of...

"My daughter," he whispered in disbelief, "how could you have possibly known about her? Not even the Tsuchikage knows about her."

Temari let out a laugh. "Does it matter? Does anything matter at this point?" Shiro didn't answer. He only stared back at Temari with an intense look. He had to know. Were they the ones who had murdered her? Temari sighed. "All you need to know is that we've got a teammate who is especially talented in intercepting communications that people don't want intercepted."

Shiro frowned. A teammate? How many people did they even have inside Iwa? "To think Suna is capable of..." He shook his head and let out a self-deprecating chuckle. Temari was right. What did it matter at this point? He'd get nothing useful from them. Not like this at least. "I should have known. Someone like you falling for someone like me..."

"You should have." There was no remorse in Temari's voice. No pity for the man whose emotions she had toyed with for months. If anything, she seemed to relish in it. A particular glint in her eyes betraying her feelings of satisfaction at the current state of affairs even if her voice betrayed none.

He wasn't sure if it was just pride in her skills of deception or if there was something else there. Some form of sadistic pleasure or perhaps just sheer cruelty. He had never spotted any form of cruelty in her before. Never even thought her capable of it. But it really did seem like she was a completely different person than the sweet soft-spoken girl he'd gotten to know inside and out.

"To think they train you for these exact circumstances..." Shiro shook his head. He seemed to talk more to himself than anyone else. He groaned before turning to the woman in front of him. "They had forewarned me numerous times about matters of love and intimacy, you know. Yet in the end, it seems like the heart wants what it wants even if it seems too good to be true."

Temari smiled. "It wasn't only the heart that wanted things." For the first time, Shiro wondered if her smile had always been more cruel and derisive than sweet and gentle. How else could it be that her current smile didn't seem out of place at all?

He let out a joyless laugh. "No, I guess you're right."

For a few moments, all the people in the room were silent. It only lasted for a scant few seconds before it was Temari who broke the silence once again. "Answer the questions, Shiro. I'll promise you safety in Suna if you cooperate. You know Iwa won't let you live after this. Not after harbouring an enemy kunoichi for so long and feeding her confidential information."

Shiro gave Temari a long and hard look before slowly returning her smile with one of his own. "You've been with me for months, Temari-chan. Surely you know me better than that?" He shook his head. "No, I don't think I will cooperate. I won't let my life's work be in vain. Torture me all you want, you won't get anything from me before the ANBU do their hourly check up in..." He looked at the clock behind his two assailants. "Seven minutes."

"I thought you would say that." Temari shrugged her shoulders. "My teammates insisted I'd give you a chance though."

This time it was Shiro's turn to mock the other party. "Now, now, Temari-chan. You might be good at seducing, but you need to work on your bluffing. I know for a fact that Suna is in no state to risk a war against us, even without our new weapons. And this is an act of war, you know that. So unless you've got a special technique to get me talking in the next six minutes you will have to kill me and make sure it looks natural. In which case you can forget about getting your answers and stopping our project."

"Don't worry, Shiro," Temari said, "we'll get our answers."

Shiro scoffed. "Not in six minutes. Or do you want to take me somewhere else for a more prolonged interrogation? In that case, I'll have to warn you that when the ANBU discover I'm missing they will presume the worst. Which means they will probably start a full-blown investigation using all their resources. Something they'll also do if my murder doesn't look natural. Surely, you can't think you'd be able to hide from that? They'll find some evidence of Suna's involvement in no-time. And that would mean war. A war I know Suna doesn't want."

Temari was quiet at that, and Shiro couldn't help the slightly triumphant smile from appearing on his face. Iwa's security was too well organised for them to get away with something like this. They might kill him and set Project Don'yoku back a few weeks, but they wouldn't stop it. They would never know its secrets.

"So what is it going to be, Temari-chan? Are you going to risk being discovered or are you going to kill me and let me take my secrets with me to the grave? It is a sacrifice I'm more than willing to make. A sacrifice I'm sure Iwa will remember fondly once people other than me finish Project Don'yoku. But is it worth risking a war for that? Or wouldn't it be better to just run away from all this? Try to hide the evidence that you were ever here? It's not too late. Espionage is not an act of war—we all do it—but murdering or abducting someone like me is."

Temari's silence held on for just a few more seconds before she broke her act as an amused chuckle escaped her throat. "Oh sorry, for a minute there I thought you'd figured it all out." Temari nodded in Naruto's direction, a sadistic grin on her face. "The problem is that only I am from Suna. This is Namikaze Naruto, the Hokage's son. I'm afraid you're dealing with a joined Suna/Konoha operation."

"Ehm, Temari?" Naruto's mask betrayed nothing but his voice made his somewhat nervous amusement more than clear. "S-class secrets and all that?"

Temari only chuckled. Her gaze never leaving the chained up Iwa scientist whose eyes were wide open in shock as he grasped the implications of Temari's words. Could she be telling the truth? If so, how did he not know Suna and Konoha managed to form an alliance at a stage where they cooperated in S-class missions? Did their intelligence division know? No, they couldn't have. Iwa would have mobilised at the mere suspicion of such a tight alliance.

He let out a haggard breath. With an alliance like that Suna didn't need to fear war. They probably hoped for one. This might well be their pre-emptive strike to disable their enemy's weapons before their big force would start their invasion. Was the Land of Frost situation just an excuse for Konoha to mobilise without making Iwa worry about the sudden increased troop movements? Could their forces already be lying in wait? Watching for a sign that their undercover shinobi had disabled Iwa's weaponry?

So many questions. And Shiro doubted that he would like any of the answers.

He looked at the two shinobi in front of him. The strange masked Uzumaki boy from Konoha who had been holding him floating in place this whole time, and his own girlfriend who turned out to be an undercover Suna kunoichi. They were enjoying themselves that much was certain. Or at least Temari was, with her cruel smiles and mocking comments. He couldn't see what the boy was thinking but his whole demeanour made it seem like he was having a splendid time.

He wondered whether this was all a game to them or if they were simply glad to rid themselves of their undercover personas. Maybe they were just insane. Pretending to be another person for this long would take its toll on anyone's sanity he supposed. It's not like people didn't call him insane for his experiments and his obsession with certain projects. Perhaps it was true that sanity was all in the eye of the beholder.

Either way, this wasn't good. If they didn't have to fear discovery, then they could take him anywhere and torture him for days on end. Even he would crack at some point. He had to get out. He wasn't planning on dying or being tortured just yet.

"Don't worry," Temari said. And if Shiro closed his eyes he could almost pretend that the words of comfort came from the same sweet girl he had always thought she was. As it was though, all he could see was her strange cruel and discomforting smile. It gave those same exact words a whole other meaning than the comfort he wished they would instil. "I already said we don't have time for torture." She looked towards her masked partner. "Is the seal ready?"

The boy lifted his shirt and looked down at his stomach. An intricate seal was glowing brightly on his belly. "Almost. Just a bit more."

"Good. Let me know when you're ready."

The Uzumaki nodded his head as he let his shirt fall down again.

"What kind of contemptible experiments have you been doing on yourself, Uzumaki?" Despite his efforts, Shiro couldn't suppress the slight tremor of discomfort and apprehension from sneaking into his voice. The Uzumaki were infamous for their dealings with Angels and Demons alike, and for some reason he didn't think that seal on his chest was there as a blessing from some Angels.

The boy looked back up at Shiro. "What?" Shiro felt like the boy was giving him a confused look behind his mask. "Unlike you, I don't do experiments on myself. This is just a normal seal, nothing experimental about it."

Shiro narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "What makes you think I do experiments on myself?"

"Your eyes kind of give it away, idiot. They're different colours."

Temari was the first to respond. "It's called heterochromia, you taikomochi."

"So?" Naruto said with an indignant huff as he turned to Temari. "What difference does the name of the results of his experiments make?"

Shiro looked at the boy as though he'd grown a second head. Was he really being constrained by such an idiot? He looked at Temari but saw her looking at the boy in the exact same way.

"Are you- No, never mind." Temari sighed and made a dismissive gesture. "Is the seal finished? We've got four minutes left."

"Yeah, yeah." The boy waved her off and to Shiro's surprise slowly started stripping. Getting rid of his shirt, pants and even his strange hood, until all that was left were his boxers and his strange white oni-mask. "It's done."

"Great, then finish it. We've wasted enough time with the nice interrogation method that you and Fū insisted on trying first."

The undressing apparently came as no surprise to Temari, and Shiro couldn't help but wonder how often she had seen the boy naked before. A strange pang of jealousy went through him even though he knew how ridiculous that was in the current situation.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll still finish before the patrol arrives," the Uzumaki said sounding somewhat annoyed. "No word from Fū yet though?"

"No." Temari took a few steps back to the furthest corner of the room. The plate with raw fish still in her hands. "She's probably just a bit late, you know how she is."

Naruto grumbled something that Shiro couldn't make out before he spoke up more clearly. "If we go through with this while something happened to her the whole plan will fail. You know that, right?"

"This was your plan, Naruto. Since when did you start doubting your own plans?" Temari took another bite of her now almost finished stolen meal as she leaned against the wall without a care in the world. "And have some more trust in Fu. She's a big girl, she can handle herself."

"She's fourteen."

"Exactly. Just one year younger than you are and the same age you were when we started this mission."

"Yeah, but she doesn't-"

"Just get on with it, Naruto!" She threw her now empty plate to the boy's head who was quick to duck below it. "Fū will be fine. Worry about us instead and finish this thing before the ANBU patrol arrives."

"Fine, fine."

A frown appeared on Shiro's face as he listened to the confident way the two were behaving. Were they underestimating him? Did they really believe they could extract the information they wanted in less than three minutes? Or did they think they had the skills to outrun an ANBU patrol while holding him captive? If that's what they were thinking of then they had another thing coming.

He opened his mouth to say exactly that when a sudden tightening of the chains around his limbs stopped him in his tracks. Slowly but surely the chains began pulling at his limbs. Pulling in four different directions. His eyes widened in sudden panic as he looked from the masked Uzumaki to the cross-armed Temari. Where they really going to kill him like this? Without getting any answers? Without even trying to make it look like a natural death?

More and more the chains pulled on his limbs, putting a strain on his body he knew it couldn't handle for much longer. It hurt. And the worst thing was that he knew it would hurt a whole lot more if the chains continued pulling like this. He didn't want to die. Not like this.

"Please," he whispered in sudden desperation, looking Temari in the eyes, "don't."

She only smiled back pleasantly and gave him a cheery wave. "Bye, bye."

Before he could say anything in return, a loud sickening pop followed by the sound of tearing flesh rang through the room. With one final sharp thug of the Chakra Chains, his limbs got pulled from his romp.

His eyes and mouth opened wide in a silent scream as unimaginable pain coursed through his body. Pain on a level of intensity he had never felt before. He wanted to scream as loud as he had ever screamed. Yet before he even had a chance to make a sound, the chains that had torn the arms and legs from his body released said limbs only to pierce themselves into his chest before he could fall to the ground.

It all happened in a single second, yet to Hashiba Shiro that final second could have been an eternity. An eternity of watching the woman he loved smile and wave at him as his limbs got torn from his body.

He decided he hated that smile. That insufferable smirk. His last thought before darkness claimed him and the pain finally ended was how he wished that someone would wipe that smile from her face forever. Let whoever accomplished that go down in history as a hero. He'd gladly give his spot up for that.