A/N: Psst. Itachi's in this chapter.

Lesson 1

'When you do something right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.'

Shin had only ever left her village five times.

The first time was for the Chuunin exams in Iwagakure. Easily the worst two weeks of her life. Her group was disqualified in the second round when one teammate got his arm chopped off in a labyrinth. Needless to say that team fell apart rather quickly.

Her second genin team consisted of herself and two other border-settlement boys: Oruhai and Aku. The trio bonded instantly. They took the Chuunin exams a second time on Shin's fourteenth birthday, this time in Suna. The tests proved about ten times harder - and bloodier - but by some miracle, they passed.

Oruhai gave Shin her first kiss then. It was a sweet memory – they'd been all cut up and bleeding and were darling innocent teenagers and they'd both passed out cold two seconds afterward.

The third time Shin left her village was for a field mission with her Genjutsu trainer. They'd traveled to lightning country, which apparently was the optimal environment for casting and fine-tuning illusions. She didn't know how much the lightning actually helped, but her pupils couldn't dilate properly for weeks afterward. Shin was quite confident she would never go back.

The final two and most recent excursions were to Konoha. Not a huge change of scenery, sure, but the urban lifestyle held a certain appeal for Shin. For a while she'd considered transferring there. It was a fleeting fancy, however, as Jae-Jin had positively erupted at the thought of Shin escaping her maniacal clutches before the age of eighteen. The long diatribe she'd had to suffer about urban decay and gentrification was brutal, and she ultimately decided it wasn't worth the trouble.

The point was, Shin didn't have much experience with foreigners. But she also wasn't an idiot.

For one, the shinobi in front of her was the size of a small dinosaur.

For another, she couldn't name any Hidden Leaf ninja who made a habit of sharpening their teeth into razor-sharp points. A purely unnecessary aesthetic change which had the desired effect of being absolutely horrifying.

And lastly, he was under the most advanced transformation jutsu she'd ever seen in her life.

Shin tried to subdue the bubble of panic in her throat. She was loathe to imagine what the guy actually looked like if his disguise was this utterly monstrous. What confused her was the mask-like quality of the jutsu itself. It felt somehow… disconnected from the man sitting in front of her. As if a transformation was being projected onto him from someplace else.

And for all the evidence that the chakra was there, flickering and wavering before her eyes, her shinobi senses couldn't detect it at all. Had her eyes not picked it up - thanks, ironically, to the abysmal lighting - she would never have known it was there.

She'd never seen anything like it. Which meant this guy certainly did not belong in a small-time interrogation outpost hidden in the country. And whoever he was, he outranked them even more dramatically than her colleagues could have suspected.

Three minutes of silence passed between them. Now that her eyes were adjusting to the light, Shin could clearly see his gigantic face leering down at her like the grim reaper. A pit of nausea settled firmly in her stomach.

"Where are you from, Kaicho? You don't strike me as the small-town type." She mentally rehearsed the three covert hand-signs which would trigger a building-wide alarm, should something disastrous happen. Boar, Ram, Dog.

Kaicho grinned. Probably because he could easily pop off her arms and use them as chopsticks. "Not too far from here. I like to travel."

"What brings you to Fire Country?"

"Simple business. I don't really like coming around here myself, but a good friend of mine enjoys the scenery."

"How nice. Do you usually get picked up by interrogation teams?"

He blinked innocently. "We didn't do anything wrong. Figured I'd let your friends clear up any misunderstandings before we get on our way." His grin widened. "We don't want any trouble."

Shin nodded understandingly. This guy freaked the shit out of her.

"Thank you for your patience, then. And I'm sorry your visit was cut short, but we take our safety very seriously here…" She let her eyes dry up so that her vision blurred. The henge stayed clear, and it occurred to her that it must be a genjutsu as well. Great. "So are you one of those missing-nin who kills people or just takes their money? And doesn't smiling like that hurt your face?"

"Yes, yes, and no. But you're only detaining me for one of those things, aren't you? Tell me," he leaned forward and Shin eyed the table legs warily. Exactly how strong was steel, again? "How's a tiny thing like yourself end up in this kind of place? Shit-hole in the middle of nowhere... most scrappy young ninja find Konoha's a much more exciting prospect, don't they?"

"Guess I live to under-perform," Shin replied blandly.

He snorted. "Come on. Don't you want even a little bit of action? Never wanted to take down a smuggler or a gang leader?"

"No..."

"A handshake from the Hokage? A nice big wad of cash? Fancy new weapon?"

"I guess I've always wanted to sharpen all my teeth like a lunatic."

Silence.

Shin glared down at her hands. Why couldn't she just shut up for once?

Kaicho grinned slowly. "I like you kid," the deep timbre of his voice exacerbated the pounding in her head. "No pretenses - that's cute. Can I give you some advice?"

Shin shrunk in her chair miserably. "No thanks…"

The sheen of saliva made his teeth gleam all the brighter in the dark. "Interrogation is a lame gig. Bounty hunting - now that's a profession. Nice and violent. No secrets, no lies, no grey areas. Just a job and a paycheck."

"Is that what you do?"

"Nope. But doesn't that sound like the life? Time's up." Shin blinked and glanced at her watch. Huh. He was right. "Go tell those psychopaths behind the glass what you think of me, yeah?"

Shin nodded, somewhat in a daze, and stood from her chair. That had gone about as badly as expected. It was clear he was more dangerous than anyone had anticipated. The question was, what brand of dangerous was he? Cocky? Crazy? And why did everyone keep calling her things like 'kid' and 'little one'? She was taller than Jae-Jin, that had to count for something.

Speak of the devil. The door swung open before Shin could reach it, revealing her supremely irked mentor. The woman's eyes were narrowed crossly. Oh yes, she despised Shin's technique; but not everyone could pull of Jae-Jin's special brand of cold-blooded surgeon dominatrix, could they?

She was also blocking the way out. Shin stared.

"…Sup, senpai?"

"Report."

Shin looked over her shoulder at Kaicho, who was preoccupied with checking Jae-Jin out and whistling. She turned back to her with a frown. "In front of the prisoner?"

"Did I say out in the hall?"

That seemed like a pretty reliably Bad Idea. Shin's mind whirled to figure out what the hell Jae-Jin was playing at. Public humiliation seemed like a stretch. Was this punishment for the prisoner or for her?

Shin leaned forward with her back to Kaicho, mouthing the words 'Are you nuts?'

Jae-Jin grabbed her by the collar and yanked her down to eye-level, only barely muttering 'Trust me.'

Shin sighed and straightened, doing her best to ignore the mountain of a missing nin behind her loudly rooting for a cat fight.

"Subject, Kaicho," she began awkwardly. "Family name undetermined. Judging by his accent he's from water country, could be Mist considering subject's comfort with the concept of violence. Subject is under an extremely advanced hybrid henge-genjutsu, anchored by an outside source of chakra." Jae-Jin's eyes widened fractionally. Kaicho stopped smiling. "My suspicions place subject at A-rank or higher, likely in contact with shinobi of similar level close by, possibly participant in an organized network of rogues. He also, uh… talks kinda loud," she finished lamely. Silence greeted her. "It is my… not very professional opinion that we contact Konoha and request more appropriate confinement for him and his companion until further investigation can be held. He gives me the impression that he's capable of getting out of here whenever he feels like it. It's either true or about to be true with a little outside help... Do I have to continue, this is really uncomfortable…"

"Very good, Shin. You're dismissed," Jae-Jin muttered distractedly, eyes trained on Kaicho.

Shin stood there a moment longer. Her anxiety to leave Jae-Jin alone had glued her feet into place. As if she could do anything if the prisoner decided to go all murder-crazy on them now, but a nasty feeling was developing in her gut and she was not eager to dismiss it.

As if hearing her thoughts, the older woman shot her a poisonous scowl. Shin sighed and decided Jae-Jin could handle herself.

Shin shuffled back into the hallway quietly, ignoring the distracted pats on the back and 'good job's she got from people she'd never seen before. A guy who apparently found her hilarious introduced himself as Riyoshi and offered to help her out with her paperwork tonight. Shin declined. Her head still felt a bit like being held under rushing water. It was that feeling when you lean too far back in a chair, and for a second your stomach tickles at the realization that you're going to fall. So you throw all your weight forward to catch yourself and suddenly all the blood in your torso feels like it's just… gone.

Yeah. That's what this felt like.

Paperwork duty never seemed like a more liberating prospect for the day. Exhaustion was practically seeping from Shin's pores – there hadn't been so much excitement around here in… well, ever. As she pressed her key-code into the lock, a welcoming scent of ink and old books wafted over her. The archive was where Shin spent most of her waking hours at the outpost. Her bunk in the storage closet was a notable exception, but that was less choice and more 'barely tolerable alternative'. If Jae-Jin didn't regularly harass her into maintaining it (something about discipline, she hadn't been listening) she'd have dragged her cot into the archive long ago.

Shin's flimsy desk sagged under the weight of the newest stack of paperwork. It was beyond her how a place with such limited traffic generated so many files– there were monthly psyche evals for the staff, assignment briefs, personnel files, prisoner logs (which updated from time to time and had to be re-filed weekly), medical reports and more. If she tried, she was sure she could recite the greatest strengths and most debilitating weaknesses of everyone in the outpost, alphabetically.

In fact she sometimes suspected this was the very reason Jae-Jin so often strong-armed her into these tasks. It was an uphill battle for that woman, trying to get Shin excited about interrogation.

Shin lit her lamp with a match and got to work. Thinking was the last thing she wanted to do. She hadn't seen hide nor hair of Jae-Jin, or any other outpost staff for that matter, since the fateful observation session in room 708. Kaicho apparently was putting on quite the show. Demanding hourly meals, permanently warping three steel chairs, carving obscene cartoons into the walls - with kunai they repeatedly confiscated - and offering creative tips to the torture team were only some of the feats she'd gotten wind of. For a guy who went through so much trouble to stay disguised, he sure made a racket.

A knock at the door startled her from her thoughts. It edged open without waiting to reveal one of the other archival assistants, Mei; a stout girl with glasses thick as bottle caps.

"Evening, Shin!" Was it evening already? Yikes. "I got you temporary logs for the new detainees. Don't put them anywhere yet, we're still waiting on supplemental files from Konoha." Shin nodded, taking the stack of papers without comment. Mei gave her a once-over, eyes bulging in an off-putting manner. "Exciting day, huh? Don't worry, nobody's been getting any work done."

Shin glanced down and realized she hadn't filed a thing since she'd sat down. So much for not thinking.

"Yeah. Any news from those two?"

"Jae-Jin-san took a crack at the big one after you left, but nothing useful came of it. I told everyone: Using medical torture on someone who looks like they escaped from a lab? Recipe for a big fat nothing. And lookie here, I was right!" Without asking, the bespectacled woman pulled out a stool and plopped down beside her. Shin suppressed a sigh and settled in. She'd only spoken to Mei a few times, but they'd made an impression. "Did you see the size of that guy? Like he could generate his own magnetic field."

"Yup. Freaky."

"And did they tell you he's under a genjutsu? Doesn't seem like the type, right?"

"Yeah, I noticed."

"Oh, that's right, you spotted that! And did they tell you it's also a henge?"

Shin leaned on her hand. "You don't say."

"Yes! A hybrid technique. So weird, right? And I'll tell you, they should have put me on the interrogation team because I said over and over again…"

Minutes dragged on as Mei regaled her version of the day. Shin learned nothing new, aside from the fact that Jae-Jin was apparently in the worst mood of her life after the prisoner giggled in the face of her infamous 100-scalpel-fingerprint technique. It was her most beloved invention - a colorful jutsu which boasted microscopic chakra scalpels that could sever each and every nerve in the fingertip. Kaicho's skin was apparently somehow resistant to chakra blades. "They all vanished!" Mei claimed. "Sucked up into his chakra, just like that. Jae-Jin-san was exhausted afterward."

Shin bit her fingernail. She wished someone would just let them go already. Every minute they kept those missing nin in the holding cells was a minute they could decide to just kill everyone and get on with it. And all this for a minor poker game hustle? Let Konoha take care of it, if they could be bothered.

"What about the other guy?" she suddenly felt the need to ask. "There were two, right? Has anyone questioned the second one yet?"

Mei looked confused for a moment, brows contracting in thought. "Oh, yes. I guess there was another one, wasn't there…" Shin was overcome with a slight chill of dread. "No, I don't believe so. Maybe they're waiting until more information comes in."

"Nobody's even talked to him yet? That doesn't sound right."

"Well it's been a busy day," Mei snapped. Shin blinked. "I mean, we're all a little on edge. It must have slipped someone's mind. I'm sure they'll get to him tomorrow."

Shin's frown was deep as Mei suddenly stood. The dazed look on her face was worrying. "I think I'm going to head in for the night. You should too Shin-san, you've been through a lot." And just like that she scurried towards the door, seeming suddenly ghostlike in the dim light.

"Mei-san, are you okay?" Shin called after her. She received no reply. Just the hurried rush of footsteps as Mei disappeared around the corner.

Well. That couldn't be good.

Shin stared at the plaque above the entrance door. Floor 6: Observation rooms.

"This is a bad idea," she muttered to herself.

The halls echoed with her footsteps as she made her way toward the holding cells at the back of the tower. One thing she'd had to get used to about this place was the lack of windows. It was impossible to tell what time of day it was unless someone told you, and even then it didn't really make a difference. Operations continued day and night here; no rest for the wicked and all that.

Strangely, there was no one around on this particular floor. It was where they were holding the second missing-nin, but the excitement she'd hassled through on Kaicho's floor was nowhere to be found here. Security wasn't lax exactly, but it wasn't nearly as impressive. Shin clicked her tongue. Jae-Jin was always harping on about how the quiet ones were who they had to worry about. Where was that specialty brand of paranoia now?

At the end of the hall a pair of jounin rested leisurely against the door she was seeking. There were no observation windows up here, which left prisoners to be monitored exclusively by security camera. The two on guard duty didn't seemed too peeved to see her approaching. One of them even waved.

"Shin-san," he greeted as she approached. Did she know him? "It's Riyoshi, we met this morning."

Ah, that was it. "Riyoshi-san, hey. How's guard duty treating you guys?"

The other jounin shrugged, lips quirking at Riyoshi's slightly put-out look. "It's been quiet. This one doesn't make nearly as much noise as the big fellow." He shot a curious glance down at the blue file tucked beneath Shin's arm. "Are you here to talk to him? We didn't get clearance to let anybody in."

"No, I just wanted to ask you guys some stuff." Shin eyed the door nervously. It was sealed, like Kaicho's cell, with chakra-resistant locks and sound-proofing material. Even still she couldn't help but feel distinctly watched. "Have either of you felt tired at all today? Or, I don't know... sort of out-of-it while you've been standing here?"

Riyoshi and the other jounin shared a look. "Not really. It's been boring but not 'put-you-to-sleep' boring." He plucked a toothpick from his pocket and popped it in his mouth. "Tensions are pretty high, if you haven't noticed. Why? You think somebody's trying to pull one on us?"

"Not really…" Shin frowned. "I don't know what I thought. It just seems kind of weird, doesn't it? That nobody's very interested in this prisoner while the other one's doing all-" she made a vague hand gesture, "-that, upstairs."

Riyoshi frowned. "No offense Shin-san, but shouldn't you talk to Jae-Jin about that? It's not your place to question orders."

Shin blinked; that was kind of uncalled for. She hadn't taken Riyoshi to be a stickler for rules, if his earlier admiration for her... dazzling sense of humor was anything to go by. But then again, she didn't know the guy. "Oh, sure. Sorry, I didn't mean to imply-"

"It's alright," He said quickly, suddenly looking a little bewildered himself. "Don't worry about it. I think we'll all feel better when this whole thing is over with."

"Right," Shin said. She eyed them both, that cold rock weighing in her stomach again. "Well I'll let you be then. Holler if either of you need tea or something."

The other jounin nodded politely as Riyoshi went back to chewing on his toothpick, a tense line between his brows. Shin turned on her heel and made her way back toward the staircase, trying in vain to make sense of the softly muttered conversation which followed her.

"What the hell is this?!"

The shout was punctuated by a distinct crack of ceramic breaking over tile.

Shin flinched as the scuffle of feet echoed loudly from the kitchen. It'd been two days since the fateful incident with Kaicho, and though attention was waning on their wayward guests, tensions at the outpost were reaching a critical mass. Someone from the infirmary shoved past her as Shin attempted to sneak her bowl out of the break room, throwing themselves between the two chuunin currently biting each other's heads off. Another crash signaled the argument was far from over, and Shin scuttled out of harms way as quickly as she could.

"Oi, Shin-san!"

Shin nearly dropped her rice in an attempt to steer clear of another medical staff. Until she realized he was talking to her, and awkwardly stayed put.

He jogged down the hallway towards her, breathing harshly. "You're wanted in Jae-Jin's office. What's going on over there?"

Shin didn't follow his gaze, knowing what would greet her. "Some idiots fighting over a dirty mug. It's actually not the dumbest argument I've heard today."

The man combed a hand through his hair, looking as frazzled as one could reasonably look in a crisp med-nin uniform. "Tell me about it. What's gotten into everybody this week? I can't tell you how many broken noses I've had to heal in the past 48 hours."

Shin frowned. She could believe it. It was rare she passed anyone in the hall recently without earning an annoyed scowl and a hard brush to the shoulder for one thing or another.

"Beats me," she muttered unhappily. "I wouldn't bother asking anybody about it either. It's always 'tensions are high' or 'everyone's just on edge'. Or my favorite, 'things will calm down when the Konoha nin get here.'" Her lunch was looking more and more unappetizing by the minute. "It's like everyone dipped into the crazy juice and didn't invite us."

The med-nin, whose name Shin couldn't place, clicked his tongue and drew his eyebrows together. "I can't say I blame them. The mood is so foul upstairs. Yesterday I splinted a broken arm the wrong way just to make it hurt more for the idiot who ruined my lunch break." He smiled jovially. "Maybe they have a point. I'm sure once those missing-nin are out of here this whole thing will blow over."

Shin repressed a shudder. "Ha, yeah."

"Well, I'm going to go help Li out. Looks like another black eye is in the works."

Shin forced a smile as he rushed off. As soon as he vanished from sight she ducked into the nearest available storage closet and shut the door firmly behind her. Exhaling, she slid down the wall.

She'd almost forgotten. Everyone here was a psychopath.

It took a few minutes for the sounds of the skirmish to die down. When it did, Shin made sure to step out as quietly as possible and dump her rice in a trashcan on her way out. Her appetite had been suitably spoiled.

On the way to Jae-Jin's office, she stopped by the 6th floor.

Room 610. The mystery prisoner's room. It was a place she'd ended up multiple times in the fast few days. She didn't know why, but it unnerved her to be away from it. The ominous feeling she got when she stood there never lessened, and she couldn't help but think the answers to this whole mess were in there, with that creature. A poltergeist quietly reigning chaos.

Not that she could stop any of it even if she could get in there. So there she was again, just staring. Waiting.

The jounin guard who usually stood sentry with Riyoshi rounded the corner, a napkin full of onigiri in his hand. He didn't look surprised to see her. "You again."

"Me again," she confirmed, not bothering to elaborate. He said nothing as he rested languidly on the wall beside her. "Where's Riyoshi-san?"

"Infirmary," he said, popping the rice ball in his mouth with a pleased look. "Twisted ankle."

"That sucks. Was he in a fight too?"

The jounin eyed her curiously. "No… Was there a fight somewhere?"

"A more accurate question would be where hasn't there been a fight." She sighed, tearing her eyes away from the sealed hatch. "I have a bad feeling about all this. Yesterday I saw two grown men almost throw jutsu over what color the Kazekage's hair is."

"Red?"

"'Auburn' or 'sunset'" she mocked in a whiny voice. "It's getting out of control. Something weird is going on and it's got something to do with whoever's in that room."

"You don't know that," he said boredly, gently licking the tips of his fingers clean. She'd never seen anyone enjoy onigiri so much. "I believe they say misery is infectious."

"Someone has to start the infection," she eyed the door hard. "And I don't know how, but patient zero in there is behind it."

He tilted his head. "You could ask him."

Shin shot him a bland look. "I could also sit here and wait to die."

"You don't think he'd tell you?"

"It doesn't matter, Jae-Jin-senpai would murder me before he ever got the chance." She watched him fold the empty napkin between his fingers, a small, forlorn twist to his lips. "Do you want me to get you another one of those?"

His eyebrows lifted. "Why would you do that?"

"I don't know. I'm the intern…" She shuffled her feet awkwardly, face heating up. "Never mind. I have to go. Good luck with-" she gestured vaguely at the door. And on that awkward note, she made her escape without looking back.

Jae-Jin's office was arguably Shin's least favorite place in the world. The explicit medical diagrams she could handle; the jars of samples lining the walls just gave her the creeps. That and the perpetually 'just-used' look to any stray medical tool lying around gave Shin reason to never come in here without a pair of sterile gloves and a therapy appointment lined up.

She'd arrived a few minutes late. Luckily Jae-Jin was nowhere to be found, so Shin took the opportunity to look closer at the photos hanging crookedly behind her desk. There was an older picture of Jae-Jin shaking hands with Yamanaka Inoichi and accepting an award at Konoha's annual T&I conference. Shin grimaced. She sure looked thrilled for a woman who lectured anybody with ears on the emptiness of institutional gratification.

It was also upsetting to think of Jae-Jin getting any sort of award for what she did on a daily basis. But then again, the shinobi world was full of upsetting things.

Ten minutes passed and her mentor had yet to make an appearance. Shin's foot began to tap restlessly. She really hated this room. Surely Jae-Jin would understand if she just… came back later? Or if not understand, offer her a less horrible punishment than usual. She was the late one, after all. Shin reasoned that if she scribbled a note and came back in thirty minutes, the consequences should be bearable enough.

So that's exactly what she did.

Thirty minutes later Shin stood in the vacant door-frame of Jae-Jin's office. Her note remained on the desk, apparently untouched.

"Huh," she said. Weird.

Another hour passed, and the abrasive torture-fanatic was still blissfully absent. Shin checked her watch. The notion of a shower was becoming more and more appealing. She could count on two hands the times she'd 'accidentally' been exposed to a small amount of contact-poison at the hands of her devious mentor.

It was unlike Jae-Jin to be late, however. With a huff, Shin poked her head outside the office and waved down the first person to pass – a young-looking man with lots of scars and a shock of purple hair.

"Have you seen Jae-Jin-senpai anywhere? She was supposed to be here hours ago."

The kid sneered. "What am I, her babysitter?"

"Oh just shut up with that already," Shin snapped. "You're stressed, tensions are high blah blah, I get it – have you seen the scary lady or not?"

In lieu of answering he pointed down the hall. Shin followed his line of sight and was greeted with a familiar form stalking towards her, covered head to toe in tiny spatters of blood.

"Squirt!" she barked. "Stop flirting and follow me, I need your help with something."

Shin scrambled to follow her as she strode right past the office and down the hallway.

"You need my help?" she said suspiciously. "With what?"

Jae-Jin did not answer, only reached into her pockets to remove a pair of keys with gloved hands. Upon closer inspection, Shin noticed the blood stains scattered across her normally pristine coat looked weird. Almost like-

"Senpai!" Shin spluttered. "Are you bleeding under there?!"

Again Jae-Jin did not answer, simply pushing Shin by the shoulder into an unmarked laboratory. The lights were off, and Jae-Jin turned the lock once they were inside.

"I've been working on the 100-scalpel-fingerprint and I think I've figured out how to optimize nerve damage," she said. Shin finally noticed how wild her eyes were, a frantic energy about her that seemed distinctly insane. "The problem is getting it past that damn giant's chakra absorption technique-"

"You've been practicing it on yourself?" Shin balked. "What the hell?! You could have been paralyzed!" Not to mention driven mad by the pain – those blood stains were everywhere.

"Yes, yes I realized that too," she said with a deranged smile. "Which is why I'm trying it on you."

Shin instantly pumped chakra into her legs and pounced on the nearest table. She barely dodged a kunai headed for her side. Jae-Jin whipped a glowing hand towards Shin's arm, only just missing as she skirted backwards. Shin swiped the table clean in her haste, sending lab instruments shattering across the floor. The debris acted as projectiles in the chaos, and Shin only just dodged a beaker as she aimed a kick to her mentor's chest.

The bloodied woman blocked it easily, clearly the more talented combatant of the two. Shin managed to jump a good distance away, thanking whatever divinities existed that her mentor thought to incapacitate herself before deciding to go on a psychotic rampage.

"Senpai, cut it out!" She dodged another kunai, this one passing dangerously close to her throat. "I think you're under some kind of – ah," A shuriken pierced the wall right where her head should've been. "Some kind of genjutsu!"

"Stop. Being. Difficult!" Jae-Jin shouted, punctuating each word with more shuriken. Shin skidded beneath a table on the far side of the room and heaved it onto its side as a shield. "If you're not going to take your observations seriously then I'll just need to motivate you. How does one experiment per failed assignment sound?"

Shin took cover as a sudden cloud of senbon materialized above her. They pierced the table with an outrageous sound, forcing Shin to twist to avoid the punctures.

She popped her head over the table incredulously. "BAD!"

Jae-Jin declined to reply, opting to charge her with hands aglow.

Shin thought fast. She had to knock her out somehow. If it was a battle between herself and Jae-Jin, Shin was going to lose. Her best bet – her only bet – was to render Jae-Jin out of commission.

"Look alive, squirt!" The table suddenly cleaved in two with a loud crack. Jae-Jin appeared above her, two gigantic chakra scalpels hovering over her fists. "This'll hurt less if you hold still!"

Shin lurched to the side as a blade sliced a long scar into the wall. She rolled to evade the other and hopped to her feet. Mind racing, she grabbed hold of a nearby chair.

Jae-Jin lunged once more and Shin ducked. Reaching up beneath her she quickly caught the tail of the older woman's lab-coat. With a maneuver that seriously tested the biological limits of her upper body strength, she dragged the chair forward and twisted behind Jae-Jin, shoving the lab-coat over her head with her other hand. Jae-Jin's black ponytail disappeared beneath the cloth, trapping her inside the coat. Both chakra scalpels tore through instantly, but it was all the time Shin needed to slam the chair over Jae-Jin's head.

A loud 'thunk' indicated that her attack landed.

It did not have the desired result.

Jae-Jin bellowed with rage. She tore the coat open with a vicious snarl. Shin swallowed and snatched the chair back up. She aimed a kick at Jae-Jin's legs to knock her off balance while speeding through the hand signs for a fire jutsu. The kick somehow managed to glance a particularly nasty cut, sending Jae-Jin stumbling to the side. Shin was granted just enough time to grasp the legs of the chair in her hands and force heat into them. The jutsu was weak, but it would do the trick.

Using all the strength she could summon, Shin twisted the scalding legs of the chair around Jae-Jin's body with a deafening screech. She dodged the furiously slicing hands made clumsy by fury, and effectively caged the woman within a metal pretzel. With one last burst of heat, Shin slammed her palm against the wall and welded the chair's feet into the aluminum plating of the laboratory.

Shin pitched backwards at once, only just avoiding Jae-Jin's livid thrashing. The metal was still scorching and her mentor was starting to look a bit singed. With a panicked gasp Shin summoned a water jutsu. Immediately frigid water showered over the caged woman.

Steam erupted like a powerful geyser, overtaking the entire room.

For a moment all was silent but for the hiss of vapor cooling in the air. Shin felt dread seep into her pores.

Then, Jae-Jin roared.

"Sorry senpai!" Shin called, darting out of the lab and into the hall. Curses followed her out and she was sure the beating of a lifetime awaited her once this whole thing was over.

But that could wait. This madness ended now.

Shin cut across the tower in a sprint, reviewing the facts. No one from Konoha had come yet, and no one had tried to interview the second prisoner. Another realization instantly dawned on her: Konoha wasn't coming at all. But why? She knew word had gotten to them, she'd filed the transmission logs herself.

There was one person she could think of who might have the answer.

Mind made up, her hands blew through the signs for a teleportation jutsu. She appeared on the 6th floor in a puff of smoke, gasping for breath as the strain of battle finally caught up to her.

Riyoshi and the other jounin stood before her, looking startled.

"Shin-san," Riyoshi greeted, eyebrows raised. "You look… bad."

Shin shot him the most unimpressed look of the century. "I need to talk to the prisoner."

"I already told you-" Riyoshi failed to finish as Shin grabbed him by the collar, yanking him down to her height.

"Jae-Jin-senpai just tried to kill me," she seethed. "As her only direct inferior I'm deeming her unfit for work and taking over as my own supervisor. I give me permission."

Riyoshi brushed her hands off harshly, looking about ready to fight himself. "That's not how that works and you know it. Get lost, Shin-san."

Shin groaned and rolled her shoulders, about to slip into another battle stance when the other jounin suddenly put his hand up.

"Why don't we let her in," he suggested. His tone was amicable as he gestured to the door. "She has a point. No one has been by to question him yet and I'm curious."

"But…" Riyoshi began, mouth slanting in a conflicted frown. "We're not cleared to…"

The jounin shot Riyoshi a curious look, and his mouth snapped shut. "I'll take the fall if anyone finds out. Shin-san's responsible, what's the harm?"

"I… okay." Riyoshi ceded. His uncertainty was palpable, but the other jounin simply turned to deactivate the chakra seals.

A flicker of blue energy signaled the seals' weakening, and the door clicked open. Normally Shin would be disturbed by how easily the two upper level shinobi gave in to her half-assed bullying, but this was no time for protocol. Without further delay she stepped past the jounin and into the holding cell.

It took a moment to understand what she saw there.

The cell was empty.

Behind her the hatch clicked shut once more. A flare of chakra confirmed the seals had reactivated and she whirled around to see the unnamed jounin, hands relaxed by his sides. He wasn't smiling.

"Oh," she whispered.

The guard stepped toward her. Shin tensed, but he only moved past her to the table in the center of the room. Her eyes followed him as he eased back into the chair.

He gazed at her impassively.

"You wanted to speak with me."

Shin sat slowly, unable to keep the trembling from her voice. "What... what are you doing to the people here?"

He tilted his head a little, but didn't answer. Shin waited. When it didn't look like he intended on speaking, she reworded the question. "I can't detect a genjutsu, and it would take a lot of chakra to cast one on everyone in the building…" Levels of chakra he apparently didn't have. Or if he did, it was disguised from her trained senses impeccably. "Are you the anchor for that henge on the guy upstairs?" She asked suddenly. With dawning horror, she realized she didn't need an answer – it was very clear who the source of all this madness was.

The man continued to watch her. Unlike Kaicho, there was nothing to indicate he was under any sort of transformation whatsoever. This guy was a genjutsu user of a level she'd never seen before. He could make her see anything. He could make her do anything.

Her entire body thrummed with a single carnal instinct: run.

"Aren't you curious…" he suddenly said, "about what we mean to do here? Your staff has been upturned, your security rendered useless, and yet here we sit. Compliant in our cells."

Shin internally flinched as Jae-Jin's voice snapped in her head, 'Facts, not motives'. But that wouldn't do. This wasn't just any missing nin. He was baiting her, sure, but without any means of defending herself Shin figured motive was more information to gain than nothing at all.

"Are you offering to tell me?"

"Hm," he supplied helpfully. "Perhaps I don't need to."

Shin stared at him. His eyes were small, face narrow, hair some obscure mix between silver and blonde. A perfectly ordinary, uninspiring face. And somehow still, it seemed to stare right through her skin and down into to her weak, transparent excuse for a heart.

"You're waiting," she offered. "You're trying to draw somebody's attention. That's why the Konoha nin haven't come yet… they know who you are and they're trying to decide how to deal with you." Her cold hands clasped each other tightly beneath the table. "Meanwhile, you and Kaicho-san are making a show of throwing the outpost into chaos. Broadcasting it. Things will keep getting worse here until they can't ignore you anymore. Until they give you what you want."

His hands rested delicately in his lap, feet crossed lightly as he watched her. Not a flicker of expression flitted through his eyes. "It seems you've come to your own conclusions about the situation. So what would you like with me, Shin-san?"

Shin's mouth was dry. She was not sure she could choke out any words, much less the panicked ones buzzing through her mind like bees in a forest fire. She could trip the alarm system. But who would answer? And if her suspicions were correct, that would give him exactly what he wanted. A loud, blaring distress beacon screaming for Konoha to get a fucking move on.

And Shin was almost ready to give it to him.

Likely seconds from death, one strange question rattled stubbornly in her head.

"That transformation jutsu… how did you make it?" She asked, heart pounding. "How did you weave a genjutsu into a henge?"

This prompted a raised eyebrow. The first reaction from him through this whole affair. "Would it matter if I told you?"

Shin shrugged shakily. "Maybe."

"I will answer your question with another question," he said, suddenly leaning forward. Shin froze at once. "Your comrades are in danger. They will begin eating themselves from the inside out in a matter of days, if I am left to my own devices. Are you interested in stopping me?"

His eyes pierced through her and control slipped away instantly. She blurted the truth, "I don't know."

"Will knowing a unique genjutsu save any of their lives?"

"No."

"Are you a coward, Shin?"

"Yes."

"Are you going to die here, in this room?"

"Yes."

His hand thrust forth and gripped her by the throat. Spinning red eyes bore down upon her.

"Are you afraid?"

She gasped, eyes watering uncontrollably. "Yes!"

"Show me."

Her hands rose rapidly and moved of their own accord:

Boar, Ram, Dog.

A deafening blare exploded throughout the room. In seconds she was tossed aside and the door to the holding cell slammed open. A plume of purple smoke flooded in from the hall, and the hulking form of Kaicho emerged from the threshold. Only it wasn't Kaicho. It was blue skin, beady eyes and the most massive weapon she had ever seen. A grin split across his giant face.

"Time to rock, kid!"