A Duty Held By Darkness

Chapter 40: You can't afford to lose

AN: Thanks, Yasha. You know my main access route to this dimension was through you. Turn off your brain, why don't you, won't make anything break on my machine at all.

Anyway, here's the next chapter, folks. It's not my longest, but might be the most dramatic so far.

The genin gritted her teeth and fluidly spun, from one combo attack to another, doing all the moves she knew of, but the jounin kept his hands in his pockets, inspecting the birds idly and moving just enough for her hits to miss.

"I could make it uphill for you, too," she taunted.

He waggled a finger at her, still not turning. "Uh-uh. No bloodlines. You train that with your family. In the field Mizu-nin will turn on you if they see you using it."

The genin flicked her long brown hair to the side with a huff, but still grinning from the adrenaline rush. "You didn't." She readied a handful of shuriken in her hand behind her back.

"You can't rely on the kindness of strang…" His voice suddenly went muffled and she blinked, suddenly feeling something is wrong.

She went to raise her hands, shocked he had found a genjutsu that worked…

…her hands didn't move.

The feeling rolled over her, suffocating her and she was suddenly scared. 'I can't breathe… my heart… what's wrong with it… I can't feel it…. it's empty… it hurts...' She coughed, trying to tell his jounin what was happening, but all the sounds were dulled muffles and her vision was turning black. She felt, rather than saw, her body fall backwards and her head hit the ground.

Her senses grew more and more muffled... it hurts so much… mama…

Kakashi's clone could sense another person had joined the fray behind him.

"Excuse me." A black-haired… was that… a Mist hunter-nin?

Smelled like herbs. Medical. Thank fuck.

"Who're you?" he demanded.

"Haku," the hunter-nin answered shortly.

He wasn't even paying any attention to him, so Kakashi just nodded. Could hardly make things worse. "He has a regeneration technique, but he has to be awake to use it."

"Okay." Haku reached back and pulled out some senbon, and Kakashi jolted as he… oh, that cut off the blood flow in that artery. He'd cut off most of Yasha's lower body's blood circulation with some accurate aiming, preventing too much blood reaching the wound.

"It's difficult, the injury is really close to his heart," his voice (or was that a girl's voice?) said calmly, medically.

"Alright," he acknowledged. He made the low-powered lightning seals a third time and tried again, with no response. He was seriously low on chakra now. He risked a glance at the original – ah, there was Zabuza, pinned against a tree. Senbon in the neck. Chakra movement was slowing down. Dead.

Original Kakashi was running over here. Good. Both Kakashi were low on chakra though. The shadow clone shut his Sharingan eye, pulling the protector down.

"We need him conscious," he repeated to the original.

"Why isn't he waking up?" the original asked urgently.

"Don't know. He's not responding."

The clone let himself dispel, and the original flinched his way through the memories. "Okay. Haku, is that all you can do?"

"I've cut off his blood circulation for non-vital areas. It'll keep him bedfast for a few days if he wakes up."

"If he wakes up," Kakashi muttered to himself, making the same seals, channelling low-powered electrical chakra.

He couldn't believe how little chakra he had left. Even with copying Zabuza's immense Water Dragon technique he shouldn't be this drained. Had he really atrophied that quickly? Without noticing?

"What's that black stuff?" Haku asked concernedly.

Kakashi analysed it quickly. Swarms pooling around. "Part of his bloodline. Don't worry about it."

"And this red stuff?"

"This red…" It's all red, Kakashi was about to say, when he suddenly realised it was chakra. His Sharingan confirmed it. Red chakra, bubbling from within Yasha's body.

'What the fu… what is that?' He shot a glance at Naruto, who was sitting staring blankly off in his direction. No… it couldn't be Kyuubi chakra, but Kakashi had no idea what it was.

He ignored it and laid his sparking hands down on his genin's chest. This time, the heart began to beat again, managing a few weak pulses before it stopped. Kakashi cursed. "Haku, can you drain his left lung?"

The hunter-nin shook his head. "It's moved, I'll miss it."

"Never mind accuracy. We don't have time. Make your best shot."

"As you wish." The hunter-nin pulled out another senbon and stabbed rapidly into Yasha's back, pulling the senbon back out with a spurt of blood following.

One final burst of lightning chakra on the heart, and Kakashi felt a bit light-headed. Fuck, chakra exhaustion. Now, of all times. His eyes widened as Yasha gasped for air, a horrible bubbling sound emitting from his throat.

Kakashi pushed the boy's hands together. "Yasha, snake seal. SNAKE SEAL. DO IT," Kakashi yelled.

Yasha's eyes were unfocused, but his hands made the seal. In seconds the black pooling retreated, and a sizzling sound emitted from the wounds on his body as they slowly closed up.

The jounin, heart racing, watched carefully. It was painfully slow healing, particularly with his Sharingan active. Yasha nearly fell back unconscious, and Kakashi tapped him roughly on the forehead. 'It's still a terminal injury Yasha, hang in there,' he mentally pleaded. 'You've got to keep healing. Come on.'

The silver-haired jounin had to keep doing this, as Yasha was drifting in and out of consciousness. 'Not yet Yasha, not yet. Keep going.'

Despite his best efforts, after a few minutes Yasha passed out completely.

Kakashi, heart thumping in his ears, painstakingly looked over the genin a final time. The deep gorge was still visible in his chest, but it wasn't bleeding anymore.

'At a guess… if he wakes up soon… it's not going to be fatal. He's nowhere near fully healed.'

With a sigh, the drained jounin-sensei pulled down his forehead protector over his painfully throbbing Sharingan. "It's fine, let him rest."

"Need anything else?" Haku asked calmly. The sneaky git had shouldered Zabuza's body while Kakashi had been distracted.

The silver-haired jounin shook his head wearily. Mist was hardly an ally of Konoha, he couldn't afford to appear weak. "No, we'll be fine. Thanks for your help."

"Then, excuse us." With a one-handed seal Haku vanished.

Copy-Nin Kakashi eyed him leaving tiredly, some part of him finding humour in how different their chakra levels were despite their age difference, and turned to the two genin standing a distance away. "Naruto, Sasuke! Yasha's okay!" he called.

"What, really?" Sasuke said in disbelief, his hand instantly snapping over his mouth once he realised what he'd said. He shot a glance at the blond, who hadn't reacted to Kakashi's shout at all.

The jounin nodded shortly. "He's not healed, but he'll live. How's Naruto doing?"

"He's not responding to me," Sasuke replied, dragging the blond back.

Kakashi sighed, feeling something dark cross his vision. "He's in shock. Slap some sense into him. We need to keep moving…"

He mentally cursed as his vision drained to black and he felt his body collapse onto the ground.

"Kakashi?" Sasuke watched the jounin keel over with disbelief. That was all three members of his team out of it. Mentally cursing, he turned to the blond next to him, hesitated, then just slapped him hard.

"Ow!" Naruto overbalanced and hit the floor, gazing up indignantly. "What is… what did you do that for?"

"Naruto, Yasha is fine," Sasuke told him flatly. "Kakashi saved him. He's fine."

"What… wait, really?" Naruto stumbled upwards, ready to pelt over to him.

Sasuke restrained him quickly. "Relax. He's still hurt, you can't grab him."

Naruto stopped straining, tears streaming down his face. "It's just… he's my best friend, and when I saw him like that… I can't lose him..."

Sasuke turned away clicking his tongue in annoyance, but a part of him ached. Once he'd had family he cared for like that.

"Let me help you move him." Tazuna finally emerged from the sidelines, where he had been watching on. It was obvious the bridge builder was guilt-ridden. "It's the least I can do."

Sasuke nodded, his cold attitude deliberately fixed on as he watched Naruto hold onto Yasha tightly, the blond still crying. "How far is it to your house?"

Tazuna nodded, grateful for the lack of accusation in Sasuke's tone. "About half an hour's walk from here. We don't have much by way of medicine, but we can give you a safe place to rest."

Sasuke grunted. "That's fine. Kakashi isn't injured, probably just exhausted, and Yasha can heal himself fully once he wakes up."

"So th-th-they're both fine?" Naruto stammered tearfully.

The last Uchiha nodded curtly. "They'll recover, yes. It's fine."

Sasuke scowled as a memory surfaced unbidden: Itachi mocking him for his weakness as he stood trembling and crying beside the corpses of his parents.

His expression hardened. "Naruto, act like a damn shinobi already, not a damn crybaby. Zabuza might not be the only enemy we have to face. Grow up and pay attention."

Naruto stared open-mouthed at him, shocked for a moment at the insensitivity, before his expression hardened as well, and he shook himself roughly, wiping the tears off. "Okay. Okay, yeah, let's go."

"It's this way." Tazuna gestured weakly, face still pale.

Naruto made some clones, and two Henge'd into stretchers.

Sasuke watched on, his face cold and blank. He didn't dare let himself feel this sort of crushing emotions and weakness again. He couldn't afford to. He had to leave this weakness behind.

"So… what are you?"

"I guess… I'm an angel," she beamed, gazing down at her father.

Wasn't this years ago? Why am I remembering it now? Why does my chest hurt so much…

Her father Kichirou looked up at her with an unreadable expression. "I guess you are, my dear. Now get down."

The wings vanished from her back and she fell into her father's arms, excitedly clapping. "Again! Throw me up again!"

Her father had become stern. "No, no more wings. I don't want you doing that again Kiyomi, you hear me?"

"I'm looking around everywhere, Kiyomi-chan, and I have a surprise!"

The chestnut-haired six-year-old jumped up and down excitedly, clapping her hands together. "What is it?!"

This was my sixth birthday, wasn't it?

"Tada," Kichirou presented an old scroll with a smile. "Oi, wait, don't just snatch it out my hand, it's fragile."

"I know, I'm just… Aaaaaah!" she ran around in circles screaming excitedly.

He sat and laughed as he watched her antics. "Now then, don't tire yourself out. You have some training to do."

She was by his side in a flash, hugging him around the neck and looking eagerly over his shoulder. "What's the first thing? What's it say?!"

"It says… oh, it says…" Her father frowned as he tried to decipher the dated writing. "It's telling me how to tell if you have this bloodline."

"Wait, it's a bloodline?" Kiyomi was downcast. 'I'm not a real angel?'

Kichirou hastily tried to restore her cheerfulness. "If you have this, you have a bloodline. You might have something else." He tried to relax as her emotions flooded into him, unable to stop smiling.

"The Heaven Release carrier should be optimistic, energetic, and should be able to read intention, see through genjutsu and lies… their bloodline is extremely rare, with only one person having it at a time – genetic inheritance is inconclusive…"

"You can never lie to me, though," she said with a grin.

"I've never really needed to."

"You tried not to tell me bloodline carriers were being killed. You thought bloodlines were scary, that they made people into monsters."

"I was wrong. And I was scared for you," Kichirou told her frankly. "If you had used those wings when other people had been around, we'd have to run, flee the country."

"Run away for being an angel?"

"Run away for being different. You could be an angel, a demon, a hedgehog," He tickled her and she squirmed away, "they'd want to get rid of you anyway. And get rid of me too."

"Why you?"

"Bloodlines come from the parents' genes. If you have a bloodline, I or your mother must have it too. Although…" He gazed at the scroll with a frown. "Maybe not in this case."

The six-year-old frowned in thought for a few seconds. "You mean… I'm not like you and mama?" Her pang of sadness went through him as she said it.

"No indeed. You're special, Kiyomi." He smiled and poked her again and she grinned, the sadness vanishing. Eager to continue, he unfurled the scroll further, and read on.

"Ah, there you go. What you're doing now is Empathy. It's sharing emotions with whoever you touch."

"Oh, really? I thought everyone…"

"Not really. That's why people have a hard time understanding each other. They don't know if the person is honest."

"Oh." The sombreness went through both of them. "So I can tell if someone's lying by that?"

"No, that's a separate thing. But I think it's safe to say you have it. You have the Heaven Release bloodline, Kiyomi."

"Heaven Release…" she said, dark blue eyes lit up with tinges of shining yellow.

"Exactly, that!" He pointed at her and the tinges vanished as she looked startled. "I thought that was a trick of the light the first few times I saw it."

"Saw what?"

"Your eyes glow a little every so often. They get tinges of yellow, all over the iris."

"Mou!" she pouted. "I've never seen that!"

"It's a trait of someone with Heaven Release, Kiyomi, when you get excited your eyes glow."

"What about when I'm mad?!" She made her best grumpy face.

He looked at her and started laughing. "Nothing happens!"

"Nothing…" she pouted again, but after a few seconds of Kichirou's laughing, she couldn't hold it any longer and started to giggle back.

"Okay, okay," he calmed her down. "To do this jutsu, make this seal, like this."

She copied him, frowning hard with the concentration. "And then?"

"Then this…"

A few seals later, she held her palms out, and a glowing yellow disk appeared parallel to it, spread between the palms. "Oooh," she whispered in awe as the golden disk glowed brightly. Kichirou watched on as her eyes turned completely golden from her emotion and started glowing to match. "This is much better than the water things!"

Kichirou snorted. "Hey, now. I put a lot of effort into teaching you those."

The shield vanished as she pouted at him. "I didn't like the sticky one."

"The Suiton: Mizuame Nabara [Water Release: Syrup Trap] is a very good technique for catching enemies," he tried.

She wasn't convinced. "It made my teeth sticky. And it tasted bad."

"Ho…" He hummed thoughtfully, eyes still skimming the scroll. Then his eyes grew wide in shock as he got to the end notes. "Hey… no way," he said in a mutter.

"What is it?" Kiyomi quickly put her arms around him and learned over, squinting at the complicated kanji. In a couple of seconds her bloodline linked with her father, and feelings of shock and anger went through her.

Her cheerfulness subsided, she repeated urgently, "What is it?!"

"Your bloodline has an enemy. Death Release."

"Death Release?" she repeated dubiously.

"He's extremely powerful. He controls entropy."

Her face scrunched up at the obscure word. "In-trophy?"

"Entropy. It's the process where things start to age, and break down."

'Like dead leaves?' Little Kiyomi wondered with a frown. "Does he control death?"

Kichirou gave a similar frown, skimming the notes again. "I don't know, but there's a good chance he does."

"Why is he my enemy?"

"You see, Kiyomi, if you get killed, he dies too."

"Whaaattt?!" she exclaimed incredulously.

"But if he kills you, he'll be fine," her father explained. "He won't die."

"What if he gets sick?" little Kiyomi wondered aloud.

Kichirou couldn't help a smile at the non-linear thought. "I don't think that matters. But you and him are balanced – if one of you dies the other dies too. Unless, you kill the other. Then you don't have to worry."

"Why would he kill me? Why not just be friends? We could protect each other!" she suggested enthusiastically.

Kichirou jolted in surprise, then looked down, darkness clouding his face. 'How is someone this pure still living in the Bloody Mist?'

"Papa?" Kiyomi said uncertainly.

"Kiyomi," Kichirou tried to word it sternly, "I think we're going to have to train harder. I don't want him coming here and attacking you."

She nodded, looking serious. "Will he know who I am?"

The jounin spread his hands with a sigh. "I don't know, Kiyomi-chan. The scroll doesn't say."

She tried to reassure him, still feeling the fear and protectiveness from him. "Maybe it won't be so bad. Maybe he won't want to hurt me?"

"I don't know. Maybe." She knew he was completely unconvinced. "But we can't plan for him to be nice – he's going to be very strong and you need all the training you can get."

A few years later, a brown-haired genin was heading home for the day, when a quiet call stopped her.

That was when I was eleven… maybe eleven and a half… a few months ago maybe…

"Kiyomi."

The genin hesitated, and turned, facing the alley. She looked into the blackness, frowning, tempted to activate her bloodline to see clearly. Knowing it would risk her life, she didn't. "Yes, ma'am?"

"Someone needs to speak to you privately. Follow me."

Kiyomi shifted the backpack and sighed, her eyes tinted with specks of gold briefly, then she walked in.

"Leader, I brought her."

Mei eyed the small girl brought in. Eleven or twelve, matched intel, brown hair and dark blue eyes with golden flecks. At a glance, she was confident, but wary – she knew the kind of position she was in. She must have passed several jounin-level Resistance shinobi on the way here.

Nothing out of the ordinary. "Kiyomi, right?" Mei asked, putting on a friendly smile. "Don't worry, you're not in danger." She was surprised when the girl actually visibly relaxed. "And I've heard about your bloodline."

"How?" Kiyomi asked resignedly. "How did you hear?"

"Your father's been asking around about it. We picked up on it."

"You're part of the Resistance, right?"

"Yep. Although, just a member."

Kiyomi tensed, and tried to hide it. Mei was perturbed – she had seen right through her. There was more to this girl than met the eye. Maybe the rumours were true after all.

"Leave us," she ordered her teammates, and they trailed out without protest, although Ao looked suspicious. "And no spying from outside, either," she said after Ao, shutting the door.

Mei activated the hard-earned privacy seals. They weren't Byakugan-proof but she'd glare at Ao to check if he complied later.

She sat, gesturing at the chair opposite. Kiyomi sat down meekly, and Mei leaned forward, sighing. "Kiyomi-chan, sorry for the sudden notice. I've heard you can see through all genjutsu and even lies."

"How do you… never mind." Kiyomi sighed, heart pounding away even as she kept up an unperturbed appearance. She let her bloodline flow, her eyes lighting up.

Mei watched her eyes go from golden flecks to full golden hue, softly glowing. It was almost like a genjutsu the emotional warmth and analysis she felt from them. Mei's face was friendly but her visible eye coldly analysing. "Is it true?"

"It is," Kiyomi told her frankly. She didn't think she could beat Mei – she could hold her own, sure, and there had been no attack that had got past her shield defence yet, but she ran out of chakra way before a jounin did.

She didn't have the speed to keep up with an elite jounin, even with her bloodline granting some level of prediction, and she couldn't hold an all-direction shield longer than a couple of minutes. And without being able to beat speed, she had no way of running.

The genin idly wondered if the Death Release carrier would charge in if she was attacked, and save the day. She doubted it.

For all her childhood anxiety, anxiety that had the Heaven Release carrier training far harder than most, she had never seen a hair of the Death Release carrier. Despite her mother becoming an information broker, not a trace of Death Release had been seen.

There was a good possibility the rival carrier was (a) completely unaware of her existence (b) unable to track her (c) didn't care to track her, trusting her to be powerful enough to hold her own, or even (d) didn't have any shinobi training, maybe not even born in a nation with shinobi.

So the anxiety had proven to be for nothing, but it was still there, constantly nagging in the back of her mind.

Mei in front of her was still looking intently at her. "I'll put it frankly, Kiyomi-chan. The world of politics is full of deception. The world of shinobi, even more so. We need someone who can see the truth and keep this country on the right path."

"I see," Kiyomi said blankly. No lie.

"The current leader, I'm sure you're aware, is destroying the uniqueness and clans that founded this country. He only rules now by fear, by power. But I am gathering the means to overwhelm his power."

Kiyomi frowned at her. "The revolution? So soon?"

Mei noted the use of 'the revolution' not 'a revolution'. So Kiyomi had found out about it. With her bloodline, that would be easy.

"Not soon," Mei stressed. "It may even be years from now. The shinobi don't like his policies – eliminating bloodlines has made Mizu's battle strategies much more predictable. It's the civilians that have embraced the opportunity to wipe out bloodlines.

"Their fear of the Kage has spread to all shinobi, to all bloodlines. It has to stop," Mei said, her tone intense and firm. "Right now I'm contacting every bloodline holder and every sympathetic person to our cause. But I can't tell a spy out, not as easily as you can. If I mean to get this revolution underway, I'll need you."

Kiyomi blinked. "You want me to inspect all your people for spies?" she asked slowly. There had been at least fifty people on the way here.

Mei shook her head. "No, that's not possible. They're spread out and it'd draw too much attention. But my task for you would be checking the ones based in Mizu. Once we've assembled as many as I think is enough, I'll have you inspect the entire group. Only then can we afford to make our attack plan, appoint captains, and so forth."

"Why attack the Kage? Why not just lure him out?"

Mei sat back in her chair, with a sigh. "It would require a significant threat for the Kage to emerge. We'd need a Bijū, or a group of S-Rankers. We lack the funds to even hire S-Rank criminals, and we don't want jounin slaughtered by innocents. And I don't suppose you have a Bijū handy."

"I'll keep an eye out." Kiyomi gave a fleeting grin, still intimidated by the powerful jounin in front of her. "But you were lying about the S-Rank criminals."

Mei smiled, an amused smile. "Good, you picked up on that. Yes, we can hire criminals. But it's a matter of principle. The country cannot revive under the assistance of criminals."

"Are you having difficulty finding S-Rank criminals?"

"Getting them to come to Mizu is fairly easy. Getting them to leave won't be. We'd need a force that we'd have problems with in order to bring a Kage with a Bijū down to a level we can defeat, and the S-Rankers won't fight unless they can win. They don't have a country or family to drive them."

She glanced to the side, her expression turning dark. "I would not put it past him to release the Bijū's full form in order to defend his own life. Either way we have two strong groups we need to eliminate from the picture, and it won't be pretty."

"I see." And Kiyomi was getting the picture. The Kage was stuck in Mizu, surrounded by jounin. They couldn't attack him there, it'd hurt innocents. But the only thing that would pull the Kage himself out of Mizu would be something ANBU teams couldn't easily handle.

And that was, namely, a Bijū, or a group that would outmatch an ANBU team: S-Rank missing-nin.

"Unless there's a diplomatic meeting he is forced to attend, he won't be exposed. I'm not going to risk the civilians. And even if he doesn't notice our plot until after he's expended energy defeating the thing that pulled him out of Mizu… a Jinchūriki Kage is no small matter."

"So I'm not going to be fighting?"

"You're a genin with a valuable bloodline, but a genin nonetheless. I don't want you near the frontlines – in fact I don't want you anywhere near whatever we're doing, barring the approval of people. And even there, your identity will be concealed. So you'll be at minimal risk."

No trace of a lie. "Thank Kami," Kiyomi sighed, slumping on the chair.

Mei nodded, a smile slipping through. "And this will be our only meeting, if that's how you want it, until I need to bring you in to approve."

"I'm concerned, though. If you found out about my bloodline, as did my father, and so on… wouldn't a spy know they were found out by seeing my eyes? Wouldn't they know my bloodline too?"

"A good point, but we'll arrange things for spies." She waved her hand airily. "I'm not worried about having them in our ranks; with those we can feed the enemy false information if needed. I just don't want them knowing anything crucial."

"And what about my parents?"

"I'll contact them if you want." She eyed Kiyomi. "I assume they're sympathetic to our cause."

"My mother's miles away, but my father's at home. And yes, they are."

"Do you want me to contact them, or keep your involvement secret?"

"If it's not dangerous…" Kiyomi said slowly, thinking about it. "…I guess I don't need to tell them."

Mei nodded. "Alright."

The two both stood up, the short Kiyomi looking up with her eyes still shining gold, and Mei's right eye hidden behind her hair. "To prevent drawing attention to you, we won't interact with or defend you."

Mei went around the desk, and placed her hands on Kiyomi's shoulders, looking down at her. Her gaze was warm and firm. "But for the sake of the future, Kiyomi-chan, you must protect yourself."

"I understand," Kiyomi agreed.

Yasha hadn't woken up by the time Kakashi had. The last remaining Hatake insisted on checking up on him, although he could barely move.

Once he confirmed Yasha was stable, he heaved the biggest sigh of relief he had ever had. That was the closest call in all his missions. In fact, Kakashi had only once managed to save someone whose heart had stopped before, in all his long ANBU career and years on the frontlines.

Seventeen people he hadn't been able to save. Normally, there were decapitations and jutsu effects that had moved the low chance to nigh impossible. Yasha's regeneration jutsu had been the only thing that had tipped the scales in his favour. If Yasha hadn't regained consciousness…

Heaving another sigh, he felt like dragging his hand down his face, but his body was so exhausted he couldn't move his arm an inch. He thanked whatever gods had given him a stroke of luck this time. He was so, so close to killing yet another teammate.

Obito. Rin. And nearly Yasha.

A fresh genin and nearly killed by his jounin-sensei's arrogance.

It was hard for him to believe he had once held Yasha's loyalty in such suspicion he had stalked him around for a day. Now he had seen how Yasha's faux-body flicker technique worked, he knew; Yasha could have escaped. The genin would have known Zabuza would only target Tazuna. With his flavour of Henge technique Yasha had a good chance of escaping and leaving his team to die, but instead went to attack an opponent far stronger than him. To protect his team.

It was Kakashi's own negligence and carelessness that had brought this injury on. Oh, Kakashi could blame it on the mission, on Tazuna, but the fact is he had thought himself capable of dealing with a jounin on Zabuza's level. He was confident that whatever problem arose he could handle it.

This was a wake-up call to just how arrogant he had been. He had let himself become lax, and nearly killed his team because of it.

Zabuza had a reputation for cruelty, but his intention to intimidate and scare away the genin was obvious. His water clones could have easily cut down the team in seconds, rather than mock and intimidate.

Well, it wasn't uncommon for shinobi to deliberately build up a reputation more threatening than their character.

In fact, it was only because Zabuza had not tried to kill them straight off the bat, that they were still alive now. Even Yasha's fatal injury wasn't deliberate on Zabuza's side, it was an accident completely caused by the nature of Yasha's technique.

If that hadn't have happened, Zabuza would probably have kept intimidating and injuring them until they either retreated without Tazuna or were incapacitated. The Sharingan saw right through his intentions.

It was odd, though. Zabuza was the Demon of the Hidden Mist. As a child he had slaughtered a hundred classmates.

Why had he grown so soft towards kids? What had transpired over the years?

And Haku.

Haku… Kakashi snorted. He couldn't believe he had strong-armed him into helping… threatening to destroy Zabuza's body before Haku could retrieve it for Hidden Mist, unless Haku helped with Yasha.

And Kakashi knew he had looked absolutely desperate and furiously aggressive as he threatened that. An S-Rank in that state was not something you decide to attack.

Seemed to have done the trick, too. Haku had got his precious corpse, and helped with Yasha – albeit it was impossible to know just how much he helped.

Those swarms were definitely all-out to kill someone, though. If Kakashi had failed to resuscitate Yasha, he would have probably lost his entire team to the uncontrolled carnivores.

That sort of self-destruct was a serious concern, but Kakashi wasn't about to let any of his team die.

The jounin's expression hardened. Never again.

His body was exhausted now, but he swore that the second he could, both his genin and he himself would be taking the toughest regimen they could handle. He'll pull some favours from ANBU buddies. Hell, he'd even enlist Gai.

His glare moved over to the side of the room, where he could see Yasha sleeping, all trace of background scheming lost from the genin's relaxed expression.

This sort of shit was never going to happen again. Not ever.

Not ever.

"Gotta try harder than that, Kiyomi."

"I'm only getting started."

"So was I but you're making me want to finish straightaway."

She grinned, kicking the ground, the water underneath it jumping up at her command and smacking into the jounin – who promptly collapsed into water.

"Come on sensei, you know I can see through water clones."

"I know it," her sensei said from above her in the middle of a backflip, a handful of mud in his hand that he swiped at her face.

She yelped and ducked. "No fair!"

"This is Mizu, sweetheart." The jounin landed, immediately creating ten water clones, way more than she could handle. "It's not meant to be fair."

She frowned, making three water clones (the maximum she could risk). "Fine then."

They all pulled out weapons and dived toward the enemy clones, and a lot of splattering water could be heard.

Kiyomi skidded back across the mud, down to five of her sensei's clones with the original idly watching the birds nearby. She tossed shuriken, not surprised when none of them hit, but the distraction gave her enough time to gain on the original.

"Going for the original, huh? You realise that's an uphill battle," Akio said, not even looking at her as he dodged all her hits. "My clones don't have my level of power."

"I can make it uphill for you too," Kiyomi taunted, dark blue irises suddenly glinting with yellow flecks.

Her sensei waggled a finger, still not looking at her. "Uh-uh. No bloodlines. You train that with your family. In the field Mizu-nin will turn on you if they see you using it."

"You didn't," she huffed, standing back and panting for her breath back as the five clones advanced towards her.

"Don't count on the kindness of strangers…" He was interrupted by a pained gasp, and his head snapped around, eyes widening as he heard her heart stop thumping. "Kiyomi?"

The clones dissolved as she scrabbled at her ribcage, gasping. "I cahnt…" she gasped. "breathe…" Her legs gave out.

"Kiyomi!" He caught her. Head to chest, he frowned in confusion. Definitely no heartbeat. Not even a weak one.

It wasn't like Kiyomi to deceive and she was never good at it either. But he hadn't heard or seen an attack…

His eyes widened as yellow light began to stream out of her body, making it glow. "KIYOMI!"

'Something with her bloodline…?' He might not know the exact details of her bloodline but he knew it wasn't meant to leak out of her.

His mind scrambled. No medics nearby. Hospital… no good, if it was a jutsu giving her medical wouldn't help. He had to find the jutsu caster.

And he couldn't go to the hospital anyway while her bloodline was manifesting. He exhaled, his own heart racing, then suddenly paused as his eyes trailed the glowing yellow light flow out of Kiyomi, upwards and to the side, dispersing like smoke blown by a strong wind.

Except… the wind wasn't going that way.

Akio frowned. That light's direction… could it mean something? He kicked off his sandal and put his bare foot against the grass, using his chakra to burn an arrow across it. Then he picked up Kiyomi and body-flickered to the side.

A few flickers later, the smoke's direction had changed, ever so slightly. He burnt another line in the grass, and flickered again, gradually triangulating the position.

He remembered back in the day where he had learnt it in maths (now that was an awkward topic to teach to soldiers). Get a series of directions as lines on a map, extend them, and find where they all overlap: that's the point of origin of a radio broadcast.

But the key to that was having extremely precise lines (a degree or so off multiplies as distance goes further), so Akio made as many marks as wide apart as possible, rotating Kiyomi so her body lined up with where the smoke was leaking.

It was difficult as he had to avoid being near other people. If a bloodline could be seen, it would cause problems.

After a while the glowing smoke began to fade, and Akio was beginning to tire from overuse of body flickering. It was difficult to do in a chain, and even worse when you have to wrap your chakra around someone else.

It was coming from west (no surprise there, majority of the shinobi nations were that direction), but at a rough guess, it was on line to the Land of Fire. Konoha… possibly.

'But why attack her? Why attack at all? They're not about to start a war. Not even a hint of that. It can't be deliberate.' The jounin's brow furrowed as he looked down at glassy-eyed Kiyomi.

'But first things first…' Akio sighed, wincing as he morphed some chakra into lightning nature in his hands. It hurt, he was completely unused to this nature.

This wasn't going to work, for many, many reasons, first being he had no idea how to do this, but he had to try.

Before he could put his hands down, he felt a gentle nudge, and Akio spun to face it.

No one.

Then he realised it was the yellow "smoke" pushing past him and pushing back to her, with considerably more speed than when it had left. He let the lightning fade and stepped back to a safe distance as the smoke rocketed backwards into her.

As the last part hit her and vanished, her back arched and she gasped, hands briefly grabbing at her chest, then her movement stopped.

"Kiyomi?" Akio tried uncertainly. There was no response, and the smoke had vanished inside her too. "Kiyomi?" he repeated, stepping closer. She was breathing again, he could hear it.

He frowned, and checked her vitals. Breathing fine, heartrate fine… everything back?

Akio heaved a sigh of relief, the frown not leaving his face. 'That's still got to have hurt… can I risk getting medical now?'

"Screw it," he muttered aloud, hefting her onto his shoulder.

Kiyomi woke with a gasp, and tried to sit up, but an unmoving hand on her forehead stopped her.

"Kiyomi." Akio's calm voice interrupted her panicked attempt to get free.

She stopped, still breathing heavily. "Sensei? What happened?"

"You collapsed. Your heart stopped," Akio drawled matter-of-factly, throwing the paper he was holding up in the air, making rapid hand seals and emitting a pulse of genjutsu that wrapped around the entire room, and catching the paper again. "You started to leak your bloodline."

The genjutsu was actually a sound-cancellation. But her teacher could lip-read and Kiyomi could see and hear through genjutsu, so they could communicate even though no sound could be heard.

"I leaked it?" Kiyomi repeated, in shock. "I died?"

Akio nodded abruptly. "Yep, you died. Your heart stopped. With your bloodline showing I couldn't take you to a medic, so I figured you were a goner."

His apathetic way of putting it was both reassuring and annoying. "Thanks, sensei."

"More importantly, when your bloodline leaked, it went off in a particular direction. I've triangulated the position."

Akio turned the paper in his hands to her view, revealing it was a map with lines drawn and crossing over. She sat up, the movement unchecked this time, and looked at it in amazement. "Really? That's, err…"

"It's in the Land of Waves." Akio watched her closely but saw no sign of recognition. "I did the maths twice."

The Heaven Release carrier frowned. "It's not Konoha, but could easily be a Konoha-nin."

"Could be any nin," Akio muttered.

Kiyomi inhaled sharply as realisation dawned. "It has to be my rival bloodline."

"You have a rival bloodline?" Akio asked suspiciously.

"Just one other person. If they die to anyone instead of me, I die too." The genin gripped the bedding tightly, suddenly sombre. "I guess, that's what happened."

"Hmm…" Akio hummed. "And I guess they were resuscitated. Or maybe… resurrected."

"Back from the dead?" Kiyomi repeated distantly.

"It's not very likely. Resurrection is a difficult technique."

'Maybe not for the "Death Release" carrier…?' Kiyomi wondered.

"Very few can do it. But it's also rather unlikely they had someone there who could resuscitate, and knew the rival bloodline carrier would die."

"I've not heard you talk so plainly."

Akio's expression went flat. "People mature significantly when they face their own death. And I'm thinking there's a trip to Wave needed."

Kiyomi frowned at him. "But I'm still a genin. I can't just waltz off to Wave."

"Leader can smuggle us out."

'Mei probably could… but wait…' Kiyomi paused. "Us? Who's going?"

"You and me, minimum. Genin aren't meant to be out alone, particularly not one as important to the future as you are." Akio looked sideways at her.

Kiyomi sighed. She had no retort, although she wanted to deny it. But the ability to tell when something was a lie was extremely important to a power struggle.

"Well, we could take the whole team, but… I'm thinking you want this private. Duel to the death, right?"

"How did you know?"

Akio rolled his eyes. "You said 'die to anyone instead of me'. You implied something else happens if they died to you." His gaze flashed up and down her, and he paused. "I'm guessing you're not fully coherent yet."

Kiyomi gave a faint smile and shook her head tiredly. "No… I feel exhausted."

"Your body turned off and back on, give it a good night's rest." Her teacher's gaze turned back to the overlapping point in Wave, his eyes hard. "You're going to want to take care of things as soon as possible. Now you know where he is."

The genin hesitated. "I… don't know if I want to kill them. They nearly died already. But I don't really have a choice… do I?" She looked up at him.

He snorted at her hopeful expression. "You're asking someone from Bloody Mist era whether to eliminate a threat?"

She released a huge sigh. "I guess that's your say."

The jounin nodded shortly, and then waved his hand dismissively. "Yes, but my say doesn't really matter. As much as I'd happily tear that guy apart, I can't, because that'd kill you. So, it's up to you."

"I guess so." She looked downwards, letting her fringe cover her eyes, as she felt them flash from the emotions running through her. This could be her one chance to eliminate someone… someone who controlled entropy… maybe even death itself…

Eliminate the one person who could cause her death. Make Mei's revolution far harder. And plunge her father into depression again.

Eliminate the one person whose goal was to kill her for the same reason.

Or the person who might not have any interest in finding or killing her. She exhaled, letting herself flop back and narrowly missing the headboard. Her eyes trailed over the tiled hospital ceiling. They hadn't attacked her – not even a sign of them tracking her.

Akio let her think for a while, and then exhaled, breaking the silence. "I'll speak with Leader tonight. Tomorrow we're heading to Wave. I'll come in tomorrow morning and we'll leave as soon as you're able."

"You're not going to attack them?" Kiyomi asked intensely.

"If I do damage, and you kill them, it might not qualify as your kill. I don't know how that works. And I can't resuscitate you."

She blinked up at him. "Sensei…"

"Don't get all weepy on me. Tomorrow at nine."

With a one-handed seal the jounin vanished, and she felt the genjutsu implode invisibly around her, restoring the room's sound back to normal.

She laid back and exhaled noisily, her dark blue eyes betraying how deeply troubled she felt. 'What do I do when I meet them… what do I do…?'

The Slug Sannin looked around, lips pursed. "This base… he's very well equipped."

"He has everything?" Jiraiya asked.

"A lot of things I don't need… I'm not sure if there's anything lacking. I could probably make do without," Tsunade agreed begrudgingly, peering into the cupboards and shelves.

The room was a pristine light blue, and spotlessly clean. It was a long room that stretched on for a good fifty metres or so, providing plenty of working area. In the adjoining corridor, there were doors that lead to three bedrooms, all moderately comfortable but not elaborate. A simple single bed, a chest of drawers, and two simple chairs in all the bedrooms.

Tsunade analysed, but she couldn't feel any chakra seals. Jiraiya scurried about making his own attempts, but eventually agreed with her assessment. "I suspect he turned up since he spoke with me, cleaned the place up, and removed all traces of himself."

"It's fairly likely. He's an infiltration specialist with shadow clones. Mopping up his tracks is well within that line of work."

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune ran over, holding something up in her hand. "I found this, inside the pillowcase."

Tsunade blinked at the small black hair in her hand. "Oh-ho. Jiraiya, got something for you to run back to Konoha."

Jiraiya crossed the room to them in a flash, plucking the hair out of Shizune's palm before the wind of his own momentum blew it off her hand. "YES!" he crowed triumphantly.

Tsunade watched in bemusement. "That hard to track huh?"

"Well, track and identify. I can't risk a tracking seal with this small of a sample, but I might be able to find relatives from DNA." Jiraiya carefully took a ziplock bag from his pocket and secured the little piece of identifying material. "At the very least we can tell if he's Uchiha."

Tsunade's gaze narrowed. "What did he do? The old man just told me to take him down and watch myself around him."

"Heh." Jiraiya chuckled morbidly. "He used a genjutsu on most of ANBU, the Konoha elder council, and the Sandaime himself."

Tsunade whistled, her still-narrowed eyes the only thing betraying her actual distaste. "That's impressive."

Jiraiya's lip curled as he stared at the hair. "We're not sure if he actually used it to do anything. He's textbook paranoid, uses shadow clones for everything. He might have just placed the genjutsu in order to get everyone to tell him the truth behind missions. Sandaime isn't sure how to handle it but because we don't know what's going on, we have to take him alive. No easy feat."

"Why take him alive? Wouldn't you kill him for the genjutsu?"

"He removed it."

"Huh?" Tsunade looked at him totally stupefied. "Why?"

"We don't know, that's the point. He pops back into Konoha with a Summoning seal, gives us a genjutsu removing password, and vanishes off again once the seal expires."

"That's…" the Slug Sannin was at a loss for words. "…bizarre."

Jiraiya could only nod in agreement. "Perfect mission record, besides the whole Uchiha incident. Same as Itachi. Whole thing is bizarre."

"Can you really take someone like that down?" Shizune voiced, wide-eyed.

"Not easily, that's for sure. But we'll make it happen," the Sannin said confidently. "We have a long-term operation in progress, and Sensei has told me he has a covert plan he can execute if we have an ambush scenario. Since he's in a mercenary organisation full of S-Rankers, it's not easy to keep tabs on him."

"He mentioned that."

"Well, he acts like he's keeping tabs on them for us, so while we're receiving the intel from him with no complaints, we're not treating it as reliable. But again, so far, it's all been accurate, although we are unable to track his whereabouts from any of it. He gives us info on a location, by the time we get there he's gone."

"You can't order him back to Konoha?"

Jiraiya shook his head. "Our messages to him are received by shadow clones. We ambush a clone it'll pop and we can forget getting any more intel from him. And with his Sharingan we can't set up seals and it's a royal pain hiding people from him."

The Toad Sannin sighed. "Now, he claims he wiped everyone's memory and placed the genjutsu at the Hokage's command, but the Hokage can't confirm that. Due to all the unknowns around him we have to capture him alive, but his skill set and paranoia makes that one of the hardest jobs Counter-Intelligence department has ever had to do."

Tsunade eyed the hair in Jiraiya's hand, and the barely-noticeable tiny part of scalp on the bottom. "I suppose he destroyed all records of identity."

Jiraiya shrugged. "Worse, he probably never even had any. He probably used genjutsu to get inside Konoha, and stay there, bypassing all the record-taking procedures. He's to all appearances loyal barring that genjutsu, and he won't turn himself in for the same reason he supposedly planted that genjutsu in the first place. So this is a step in the right direction."

Jiraiya pocketed the hair, frowning. "But that's not the worst part. He and the genin he's talking about are working on this big plan lead by someone else, and none of us know what it is – it's worrying. We can't interrogate the genin due to bloodline, and political position, and Yūrei is too slippery for us to catch, let alone question.

"And while the two are working on the same plan, from the same person, the genin didn't know of Yūrei at all. So the plan's modularised – people on a need-to-know basis. There could be a lot of people in Konoha, right now, working to get this plan underway for that third party. And whatever it is, it's big." Jiraiya's tone grew more intense with each statement. "Yūrei happily ran off to join those S-Rankers, and dropped his iron grip on Konoha's command, no hesitation at all. Whatever this plan is, when you think of all the build-up, the sheer power discarded, the scale of it, it's just scary."

Tsunade and Shizune could only stare at him.

When the paperwork would run out, so would his career as Hokage… both seemed about as likely as the sun travelling backwards. The Third Hokage sighed morbidly.

He looked up as an ANBU flickered onto the floor, making a few hand signals, then vanished. 'Jiraiya? Problems with Yūrei's base? Was it booby–trapped after all?'

"Clear the room," he called, and his ANBU guard flickered away.

A few seconds later, when Jiraiya arrived, the Kage's eyes shot over him.

He didn't look at all hagged, in fact he looked excited. "Progress with Yūrei!"

"Really?" the Hokage said in surprise, activating the privacy seals without so much as thinking about it.

"We have a DNA sample from a pillow. Shizune found it."

"A pillow…" The Hokage breathed out, slowly. The one thing that would pick up DNA and Sharingan wouldn't expose easily. "He probably forgot to wash it since the last time he left it."

Jiraiya shrugged. "Actually the building was dusted and tidied up. I suspect he just overlooked this, or it just survived the wash."

The Kage hummed agreement. "Sharingan doesn't penetrate materials well, and hair is hard to spot to begin with. We got lucky."

"I'm going to run it through to the labs."

"Hold on. I'll write a note for them to handle it urgently." The Hokage quickly pulled out a slip of paper and started to write. "It'll still take days, though… so how's Tsunade doing there?"

"I'm still there. I sent this clone before she started, but Yūrei was very thorough with his equipment," Jiraiya informed him swiftly. "He has all the stuff she needs and more, stuff that seems only tangentially related. He seems to have just bought anything."

"Certainly has the cash for it with the number of S-Ranks he's done," the Sandaime muttered, finishing the note and stamping his seal on it. "Can we afford to lose this?"

Jiraiya shook his head. "There's no more hairs, at least, none with scalp attached. This is the only one with DNA."

The Hokage eyed it as if it would spill its secrets from a stiff glare. Quite a large problem could be solved with this tiny fragment. "Fine. I'll keep you updated. Where are you heading after Tsunade's been scoped out?"

"I have a lead in Mizu. The person who brought in my journal was found," Jiraiya explained. "If he points out the exact location, I can hunt around, find more pages and look for information caches along the route. We might get more information on this Shinigami."

The Hokage nodded. "Okay, that's approved. Anything more on Akatsuki?"

"Nothing new so far. They're doing mercenary work, whatever pays."

"Any idea about headquarters' location so far?"

"There's a good possibility they're operating out of Ame [Rain], Itachi reported meeting someone he believes to be the leader there. He was under surveillance and assigned a mission with a partner almost immediately, so he was unable to investigate further. If we don't get another tip, Rain is our best shot."

"Hmm…" The Hokage filled his pipe carefully. "And no sign of Hanzo?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "Itachi didn't meet him. Hanzo could be working with Akatsuki temporarily, so we don't know for sure if they're set up there. Hanzo's keeping information and trade tightly observed as well, so it's not something we can investigate lightly."

"Last resort, then," the Third Hokage concluded aloud. "Well, while they're unaffiliated and just taking contracts they're not a large concern. Is Itachi aware of all their missions?"

The Toad Sage shook his head. "No, just the ones involving him. To the best of his knowledge, they're all paired together, headed by one leader, who has no one above them. The leader's careful not to go into detail on missions with people who aren't participating in them, even if the pairs are nearby."

"Modularised…" A frown crossed the Kage's face. "That's alarmingly like Zack. Any ideas on the leader's appearance?"

Jiraiya shook his head again. "It's not obvious. The leader seems to be using a human remote-control technique, and so far hasn't revealed his true face."

"That's alarmingly like Yūrei."

"The similarities aren't lost on me, but from the little we know of Zack, he wouldn't accept Yūrei back into his organisation, much less Itachi. He'd know Itachi would spy, because Yūrei would know."

"It doesn't matter if you have a spy in your ranks, you can feed the enemy misleading information easily that way." The Hokage lit his pipe and took a puff, before he conceded. "But yes, that does sound like he's not involved. He'd send Yūrei somewhere else, or at bare minimum refuse Itachi. Suddenly changing strategy wouldn't be likely."

"He prefers as little connections and information to be available as possible. He may have a relationship with Akatsuki, or maybe Hanzo…" Jiraiya trailed off in thought.

His sensei nodded. "Sounds like Hanzo. I'll stay out of Mist, though, last thing we want is any inter-village confrontation, particularly with one neighbouring with three of the Great Villages."

The Toad Sage sighed. "You don't have to tell me that, sensei."

"Old habits." The Hokage smirked, handing him the sealed order.

The Sage took it with a nod and hopped straight back out the window.

The next day, before breakfast, Kakashi called the other two to him, not bothering to sit up. "So, how's he doing?"

"Better, I saw him up and walking around yesterday night," Sasuke replied, hesitating.

Naruto gave a quiet sigh of relief. Kakashi eyed Sasuke suspiciously, noting the hesitation. "And his injury?"

"Well, he took off the bandages around his chest," Sasuke gestured. "And I saw, that part's all healed. I'm not sure about his head, though, he left those bandages on."

Kakashi shrugged. "Well, if he can heal his chest he can heal his head. But it's worrying how self-destructive his methods are."

Sasuke grunted. "First the genin exam, and now this," he agreed sourly.

"And even against the 'Demon Brothers' he was injured," Kakashi added, frowning in thought.

Naruto nodded beside them, looking serious. With Yasha out of commission, Sasuke became the most level-headed member. Naruto was enduring it, but having his rival make the decisions wasn't easy.

Something was nagging Kakashi about Zabuza, though. Not just his lack of cruelty. Something else.

And in all the years he'd served his village, he knew not to ignore his instincts.

With Zabuza gone, if Gato could, he'd hire yet another jounin. Unlike Kakashi, that jounin would be at full health. If they attacked before Kakashi recovered, then… that was it, the team 7 was gone.

Earlier, Yasha had made the suggestion to kill Gato. And that was reasonable, but Gato probably had a significant number of thugs under him. Maybe they'd be too busy fighting for power if Gato died, but maybe it wasn't so unorganised and someone would take his place. And unless they were too scared to, the first step that person would do would be rally those thugs to get Tazuna out of the way, just as Gato wanted. Even an idiot would know that a bridge would destroy an empire built on a shipping monopoly.

Whoever had Gato's seat needed to be firmly persuaded not to kill Tazuna. So either Team 7 took on Gato's army of mercenaries, or they threatened Gato, or killed Gato and ensured there was anarchy in his ranks.

As vast as the black market was, Wave was a poverty-stricken country and no big-game criminal would set up stock there. Tazuna had said he wouldn't be able to bring in more boats due to the seasonal tide changes. Of course, once the bridge was built, that was no longer a problem.

But if there were no boats, and no one else on this poverty-stricken island, then Gato would be hard-pressed to find a jounin willing to work for him, particularly now Kakashi had kicked the first jounin's ass. To a potential second jounin's perspective, anyway. The threat was repelled.

It would be hilariously ironic if Gato hired a morality-lacking new jounin and they just killed Gato and stole his money. No reason not to.

But there was that niggling feeling about Zabuza… why? He couldn't still be alive, right? His Sharingan had shown the chakra not moving properly, slowing down. He wasn't stone dead, true, but his body was shutting down from injuries.

Haku's behaviour though… it was odd. He didn't seal the body in one of those black scrolls. Instead he left with it. Kakashi had presumed Zabuza had something physical on his body, but… Zabuza having that?

Kakashi frowned. Those positions in Zabuza's neck… they cut off… oh. Now he saw it.

Zabuza was still alive. Haku had made sure of it. He had been Zabuza's ally all along.

Kakashi breathed out carefully, trying not to let adrenaline kick in.

Actually, that was a relief in more ways than one. Kakashi knew how Zabuza fought now, and out of pride (and the reward money), the missing-nin wouldn't allow Gato to hire another jounin. But injured as he was, Zabuza was in no position to immediately fight Kakashi again, either.

Without really meaning to, Haku had saved him a lot of worry. He had time to recover, as much as Zabuza used to recover anyway. And Kakashi knew his enemy. With Sharingan, no technique could be used on him twice.

At a rough guess, taking into account the near-death state's factors... and Haku knew no medical jutsu (or he would've used them on Yasha)… a week?

Around a week. That Water technique he'd used on the Zabuza lacked the power to break bones or long-term damage, since Zabuza was the brawn type. So the missing-nin just had to deal with chakra exhaustion and bruises. Basically the same as Kakashi himself.

Yep, probably a week.

He had a week to regain his strength and work out a strategy, but in the meantime, his team needed to get stronger.

He turned back to the two subdued genin waiting on him. "Naruto, we can use your clones to monitor Tazuna while he works on the bridge, or we can wait until I'm fully recovered. But there's something you two should know: I don't think Zabuza's dead."

After the jounin had explained things to them, the two seemed satisfied. Kakashi tested his strength, but he was barely able to move around the room, so he called in Tazuna and they agreed to stay home for the day.

He then turned back to his team. "Tazuna has food for today, but Sasuke and Naruto, if I'm not up to it tomorrow you'll head into town with him. In the meantime, you two secure the perimeter, and make sure you know your way around the house."

Naruto nodded earnestly. "What about Yasha?"

Kakashi shrugged and regretted it as dull pain shot around his shoulders. "He'll be fine. Once he wakes up I'll make sure he fully heals himself, then he'll be heading out with you. His intimidation factor is quite an asset – with Zabuza still alive, Gato won't hire anyone else. At worse you'll have to deal with the mercenaries around town, which are little more than bandits.

"But don't assume that it'll be that easy – always expect the worst." Kakashi glanced over at Yasha, and the two boys got the hint.

"Off you go."

A couple hours later, still mulling over things, Kakashi heard Yasha's breathing change and the brunette sat up.

"How are you feeling, Yasha?" the jounin asked.

"I healed my chest, and my headache's gone," Yasha replied.

Kakashi frowned at his expression – it was unusually relaxed. Yasha always had a tension about him, a state of readiness not uncommon to shinobi, but it was gone now. "So you're fine."

"Yep, I'm fine. Thirsty, though, I'm gonna get a drink."

"Okay." Kakashi watched him walk across the room. The way he walked was slightly different, too.

Near-death experience. He was probably shook up over it.

Normally people did the opposite and got even more cautious and edgy, but it wasn't unheard of for people to become calmer and more resolved.

If he wanted to talk, he would. Kakashi knew better than to pry a secretive ally. He'd had enough of that from Minato back in the day, and all it did was wound him up.

Naruto was patrolling around the outside while Sasuke stayed on alert on the roof.

When the blond suddenly turned and ran inside, Sasuke blinked after him, then realised he had heard Yasha's voice. Sighing, the Uchiha dropped down and leant in the doorway to check on his teammate.

Yasha looked back to normal. His regeneration – those tiny insects clearly knew their stuff. Bandages around the head had gone too. His chest… covered up by a new dark grey t-shirt. No blood.

How did Zabuza do that much damage? Could Yasha not pause midway through his attack or slow down? "How does your speed technique work, Yasha?"

The insect user just smirked at him. "Ah, but that would be telling."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. He should've expected that much. Yasha was extremely secretive about his techniques – but then if his allies were compromised they'd have no info on Yasha's techniques, so being secretive made sense. "Well, don't ever use it again. Not on an enemy like Zabuza. He nearly killed you."

Yasha looked thoughtful briefly. "What happened to Zabuza?"

Sasuke shrugged. Kakashi was probably right, but simulating death when you were that injured wouldn't put the body in the best state to heal itself. "He's still alive. A masked shinobi disguised as a hunter-nin faked his death and took him away. He'll probably be back."

"Oh, really?" He seems surprised. Well, Kakashi had been pretty pissed.

Naruto finally released his hug and nodded firmly at Yasha. "Kakashi is going to get us to train soon."

"Well, I guess things are working out?" Yasha asked tentatively.

Sasuke grunted, still thinking.

"What's the plan now?" the Death Release carrier asked.

Naruto animatedly explained, arms waving and pointing. "Me and Sasuke are just watching in case they try to attack again, but Zabuza's probably not going to attack for a while. He and Kaka-sensei fought really hard and they're both recovering."

"And how do you know Haku's name?" Yasha probed.

"Oh, err… he pretended to be a hunter-nin, you know, the guys who chase after missing-nin, so Kakashi talked to him."

The childish way Naruto spoke… it was so at odds with Yasha's careful analysis. Sasuke repressed the urge to sigh.

"He helped with waking you back up," the blond explained.

Yasha nodded. "Alright, fair enough. I suppose I should leave you two to it?"

"Why, aren't you better?" Naruto asked immediately, and Sasuke rolled his eyes at the mothering.

Yasha was clearly put out. "Oh, no, I'm fine. Should I come out with you then?"

Both other boys frowned at him. There was something off with the way he said that – he spoke too quickly. It wasn't like Yasha to be hasty with words, much less lack confidence. Yasha generally oozed confidence even in dangerous scenarios.

Now that Sasuke looked, there was an entirely different air about Yasha. Earlier, Sasuke would've put it down to a genjutsu, but there was no sign of that. Yasha had just been acting strange since… yesterday. Even the blond idiot had noticed, so it was something obvious.

Naruto shook out of his stare and grinned. "If you're fine, Kaka-sensei said you should come out with us. It's okay if you don't want to."

Sasuke hadn't lost his suspicion, and spoke cuttingly. "You did nearly die."

Naruto instantly tensed up, and Sasuke again resisted the urge to sigh at how sensitive he was.

Yasha frowned at him. "Well, I'm fine. I don't mind coming out if you need me."

'Need me?!' Sasuke gritted his teeth, suddenly pissed. Yasha was the idiot who nearly died trying to help. Like hell did the last Uchiha want him out there dragging him down.

"I don't need you," the Uchiha refused flatly. 'Hell, even Naruto froze up.' The Uchiha stabbed a finger in Naruto's direction. "I don't even need the blond idiot there. Both you two were knocked out of the fight, and one of you wasn't even injured!"

Sasuke turned and walked out, slamming the door. Idiots and morons. He hated caring about them, he hated the fact he couldn't stop. He hated that he was still this weak after all this time.

Itachi's smirk flashed in front of his face and Sasuke's fist tightened. He'll never be that weak again. He won't get attached to his team, he won't let them drag him down. In the end it'd be him and Itachi, one on one, and he would win. The team won't be there, they won't be in the way, they won't be hurt.

Just him and Itachi.

He began patrolling again, silently seething.

Several minutes later, an angry Sasuke was still outside, patrolling. 'Easy choke points are those three directions. They're probably just civilian-level mercenaries though, they might not plan their attack so well, so the entire perimeter needs to be watched…'

He carefully turned to watch all directions, ears piqued.

"Sasuke."

Sasuke suppressed his jolt and turned. He wasn't expecting Yasha out here. The other brunette on the team had always been stealthy, but he seemed to have gotten even quieter since yesterday. "What. I'm watching the perimeter."

"Let me help you, then," Yasha offered.

"I don't need your help," Sasuke repeated flatly, and turned away.

Yasha watched after him and spoke calmly. "No, you don't."

Sasuke paused, hesitating at the tone. "What?" he asked, not turning.

"You don't need my help. You don't need anyone to help," Yasha summarised his line of thinking. "But it's a lie, and you know it."

"It's not a lie."

"It is, you idiot. Squads were invented for a reason, and it wasn't because every ninja was weak."

Sasuke eyed him, and his tone became bitter. "Tell me then, how strong were you yesterday?"

Yasha was visibly shocked at the low blow. Sasuke ignored the pang of guilt and kept up his glare.

Then Yasha just smiled, knowingly. "Strong enough to get you angry at yourself for being weak."

Words failing, the last Uchiha flipped out a kunai and eyed him. "If you think I'm weak, let's duel, right now."

'Use that hatred and gain more power,' Itachi's words echoed, and Sasuke fiercely suppressed the memory.

Yasha blinked at him. "Fight someone who's in poor health to prove your strength? What the hell would that prove?"

"You can't rely on an enemy to attack you when you're in full health," Sasuke pointed out, slowly walking closer.

The Death Release carrier changed his stance but didn't step back. "I can rely on my squad if I'm not in full health. That's the point of a team. People are weak in all sorts of cases – sick, injured, asleep, tired, grieving... if you're outside a team there's no one who can lift you up."

Sasuke snorted and stopped walking closer. He had made a good point. "Call out Naruto to help you then. He's attached you like a leech."

Yasha crossed his arms, unimpressed. "How about I call out Kakashi? Do you think you'll stand a good chance then?"

Sasuke blinked, then remembered the jounin was bedridden. "Well… yes."

Yasha huffed. "No, don't be daft. If you think, if Zabuza turned up right now, Kakashi wouldn't be first in line to defend us, you're not very astute."

"If Zabuza turned up now he'd kill all of us. We wouldn't stand a chance."

The Death Release carrier snorted. "Zabuza wouldn't even be able to turn up now without having a team!"

Sasuke opened his mouth, but had no retort.

Yasha sighed, letting his crossed arms unfold and drop. "If you're going to insist on being solo, the only difference it'll make is you'll be the one dragging everyone else down."

Sasuke huffed. "Is that why you were the only one to attack yesterday, and you were taken down?"

Yasha nodded quickly. "Yes, and it was a mistake. You and Naruto handled it by teamwork. Without Naruto, you'd stand no chance, and for all my techniques I couldn't do much solo. Even Kakashi, solo, he did nothing."

Sasuke flinched as the memory of Yasha's ruined body and glassy stare flashed through his head. "Everyone that has tried to protect me has…" Sasuke's breath caught in his throat, and he turned away, something aching in his chest. He exhaled in a short burst. "I'm the only one who should be protecting me. I have to avenge them."

"I'm not going to let you cut yourself out, Sasuke," Yasha insisted. "Like it or not. I made a mistake yesterday, and you're trying to convince me repeating the mistake is a better way."

"It's the only way. Don't you see?" Sasuke snapped, his stomach churning so much he couldn't figure out what he was feeling. "If he comes back, he'll let me live again. But he'll kill you! He'll kill anyone, just to get at me."

The wind blew and the trees rustled noisily. Yasha just stood there silently.

Inwardly, Sasuke cursed. 'I shouldn't have said that.'

Yasha sighed. "Sasuke, that's the wrong conclusion. Distancing yourself will mean your team that relies on you will be attacked without you. The teamwork will be terrible, just like yesterday. The chance of him killing the team is far higher if you're distant, because the team will be weaker for it."

"Oh, shut up." Sasuke turned around and stalked off.

'Hate me, resent me… and when you have eyes like mine, come and face me again.'

His teammate didn't follow him.

That evening, at an inn on the coast, a black-haired jounin was sharpening kunai in swift, fluid motions.

"Kiyomi, are you up for this?" the jounin asked, facing her on his bed.

The brown-haired girl nodded, sharpening her own blade. "I'm up for a fight."

"Not just a fight," the jounin pressed, watching her expression. "This'll be your first kill."

The genin's sharpening paused and she released a sigh, inspecting the blade. "Hopefully, it'll be my only kill," she replied wistfully.

"What are you planning? How will you identify them?"

"I'm not planning to attack as a greeting, if that's what you mean." She spun the blade in her hand, watching the ceiling light's reflection travel up and down it. "He's probably still injured, since he was the one who was really attacked. So hopefully I can just talk to him and see his angle."

The jounin snorted. "And you'll trust him?"

"I can trust the most untrustworthy person," she said, grinning slightly as her eyes reflected golden flecks.

"Right, the whole not-lying thing," he said, humming. "And what if his bloodline lets him lie to you?"

She shrugged airily. "Then I'll make sure he won't."

'So she is prepared to do damage. Good,' Akio approved. "Fine. But let me make this clear, Kiyomi..." She paused at his change in tone and looked up at him.

"If I say you have to kill him, that is an order as your jounin-sensei," Akio told her bluntly. "If you don't do it, you'll be subject to disciplinary action."

She gaped at him. "What… really?"

"Kiyomi," he said patiently, "If I want to kill him for your protection, due to your bloodline problem, I can't. So you're going to have to kill him whether it's you or me who decides he has to die."

"Oh…" She looked down and clenched her jaw. 'That makes sense, but I'm still going to be the reason they have to die, won't I?'

He sighed deeply. "Normally, I'd never put you through that, but this isn't normal. We have a one-off chance to find your counter-bloodline carrier, and this is the one person I can't get rid of myself."

"I understand," she said quietly.

"I'm not going to order you to do that lightly. But I can't afford to have a genin that could collapse at any moment."

"I said, I understand."

"So act like you do," he snapped, and she flinched. "At some point in your shinobi career, you will have to kill someone." He eyed her stiff posture and his tone grew softer. "You're a talented kunoichi and you have a rare bloodline. Being too kind would cause more problems than it would solve."

She nodded firmly. "I understand, Sensei."

"Okay," he said, relieved at her resolve. "Then we move out at 9am tomorrow. Locals will be awake by then."

"9am?" Kiyomi laid back and sighed in relief. "So I can rest from all that water-walking?"

"Numb ankles?"

She rolled over and groaned. "Numb all over."

"You only nearly fell in eighteen times."

She waved a finger in the air correctively, voiced muffled in the pillow. "And I only did fall in three times."

"You could just pull the water out of your clothing anyway."

"I couldn't pull the heat loss back, though," she grumbled. "It's icy in there."

"It is getting onto winter in a few weeks," he conceded. "Does my delicate little flower want to be petted?"

"Go impff ahself mon a rusmy pifforck," she retorted, face embedded in the pillow.

"That's more like it."

"Today, you two are going shopping with Tazuna. I don't need to tell you there'll be mercenaries from Gato. Try to keep a low profile – they won't be shinobi, but they can catch you off guard."

Tazuna coughed. "There may also be pickpockets, so watch your stuff."

Kakashi nodded slightly. "You guys be on your guard, but don't be so tense you draw attention. If Zabuza's still alive, you may not get any mercenaries on you after all – Gato isn't dumb enough to send his goons himself, he knew enough about shinobi to fight fire with fire, but they may attack you anyway."

"Fire with fire?" Naruto looked puzzled. "Is Zabuza actually from Land of Fire?"

Sasuke facepalmed and Yasha looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

Kakashi just sighed. "And make sure Naruto doesn't trip over his own shoelaces or something."

"HEY!"

Yasha flinched from the sound and turned away, and Naruto looked at him guiltily.

Kakashi's gaze flickered back to Yasha. "You okay to go, Yasha?"

"Yeah, I'm good," the brunette said casually.

"You can stick behind another day," the jounin offered.

Yasha shook his head. "Nah, it's fine. I'm a bit jumpy, but I figure some time out would help."

"Hmm." Kakashi eyed him. The regular confidence seemed to be coming back.

Someone like Yasha would prefer to be alone to recuperate. Maybe some outside time would help.

"Alright." He turned back to the team. "Obviously, if Haku attacks you, you'll have to work together. He's close to jounin level, at a guess," he stressed, "so don't hold back. Even if I was there I wouldn't be able to help. He's from Mist, so he's likely to be good with water techniques – if possible, fight him away from water."

Sasuke grimaced. "Fire techniques won't work very well."

"Not unless they were extremely powerful. Water naturally cancels out Fire, and Water is normally cancelled itself by Earth. The other two elements, Lightning, Wind, would be on par with it. Ultimately, it depends on how you use your head. A fireball he has time to block will be easily blocked, but one he doesn't see coming he'd deal with poorly."

"I take it we're not expecting Haku?"

"He acted as Zabuza's backup, and rather than attacking us, focused on Zabuza. He might perform differently apart from Zabuza, but judging from Zabuza's pride," Kakashi's eye lingered on the Uchiha, making a point, "he'd not send Haku to attack on his own. Haku knew I was tired, but he didn't know I'm confined to quarters. They'll both suspect I'm at full power. And on my own, I could beat Haku, normally."

'Maybe,' his brain supplied. 'Didn't do so well against someone who was on par with you, now did you?'

Kakashi pushed that thought aside. "Anyway, that's two good reasons Haku won't turn up. But on the off-chance he does, that's what you'd need to know."

"Avoid water, do teamwork, don't run away?" Yasha summarised.

"I suspect he's faster than you, as well as stronger than you individually. So yes, teamwork, and attack. Make sure he's not around to negotiate though. It's just as unlikely as him coming after you in the first place."

With Naruto's Bijū-level chakra, Sasuke's Uchiha blood that really performed in a crisis, and Yasha's Death Release, there'd not be much chance of all three being beaten.

'They were yesterday,' his brain pointed out helpfully.

Actually… yeah. Well, Naruto did fine, Yasha couldn't use his Release because of his teammates, and Sasuke… hmm. Well, anything could happen.

"Once you finish shopping, I'll be giving you some training."

"You can't get out of bed, Hatake-san!" Tsunami rebuked from the doorway.

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Off you trot."

"Hai!" Naruto sing-songed with a grin.

The three got up and made their way out at varying paces, Sasuke sharing a look with Kakashi.

Just like they'd thought, Yasha wasn't himself yet.

AN: A wild Heaven Release carrier has appeared! (cue battle music)

The plot thuckens.

shuddup i can spell

i spell you to death

avada kedavra

k I'll stop.

Compared to canon personalities, Kiyomi's closest to Naruto, but less... (cough) textbook Shounen MC stupid. She can see through lies and genjutsu, she knows when someone is hiding something from her, and she can share emotions with people with just a few seconds of skin-on-skin contact. This is both a good and bad thing.

Unlike Naruto, she's not brash, but her way to solve problems isn't Talk no Jutsu either.

Her jounin-sensei is all too happy to body the fool who (indirectly) killed his best student right in front of him. With the Resistance depending on Kiyomi's continued survival, and Yasha unable to explain what his motives really are, things aren't looking good for our Uchiha kidnapper.

So, your thoughts on this chapter? Review until the internet explodes!