"So what else is new around here?" Naruto inquired, unsurprisingly, through a mouthful of rice. Ever the impolite one. Although with the mass of eight people gathered around the tiny wooden table, even in their newly renovated kitchen completed by none other than Tazuna himself, most of them were too crowded to care.

"Well," Tazuna began, "ever since you and your Team got rid of Gato and we were able to finish the bridge, businesses here have been able to expand and trade more easily with other countries."

Riku quirked an eyebrow. "Does anything interesting happen around here?"

Thankfully, rather than taking offense, Inari answered, "There's been talk that the mizukage reinstated the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist under legal authority. With all new members and everything!"

"Really?" Naruto's expression changed to one of pure shock. "Choujiro did that? Who all's in it?"

"Well, including the current mizukage, there's more like five members at the moment. They're still working on a sixth and seventh. But the one people typically talk about around here is 'Ouji.'"

"Ouji?" Sasuke echoed. The Prince.

"Dumb name," Kagami murmured into her chopsticks.

Riku, however, was quite interested. "Who is he?"

"He's not quite Zabuza," Inari admitted, "but it's been said he's descended from the thought-dead Yuki clan."

"Like Haku?"

Inari nodded. "Not just that! I hear he's got just as many kills to his record."

"He wears a mask, too!" This time, Mariko chimed in, her tone oddly dreamy. "All that's known for sure is his skill, the mask he wears, and the fact he has long dark hair!" Inari's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, but Mariko continued nonetheless. "I wonder how he got the name 'Ouji.' There's been so much speculation, but no one knows for sure!"

"Now, now," Tazuna interrupted, "I'm sure Naruto and his team didn't come here to fight another swordsman."

Kagami looked hopeful for a moment, prompting her brother to speak before she said anything disrespectful or careless.

"So what exactly will we be doing tomorrow? Naruto-sensei mentioned construction work, but what kind specifically?"

"It's still so weird to hear someone call you 'sensei'!" Inari teased, to which Naruto grinned sheepishly.

"Well," Tazuna continued, "we're still working on finishing the framework. We're almost done outlining the walls. Then we can start on the roof."

"About how long do you think it'll take?"

Naruto may be the next hokage, but he knew next to nothing about building houses. Frankly, save for Inari and Tazuna, none of them did.

"Well, with the team we have, we can probably manage to finish the framing and exteriors within the next few weeks."

"So, what exactly do you want our help on?" Riku asked, clearly confused. "None of us are construction experts. Where does being a ninja come into all of this?"

The room went silent. Tsunami and Mariko looked away, and Tazuna and Inari exchanged uncomfortable glances. Then, Tazuna spoke.

"There have been a few… issues that we could use your expertise on during the construction process."

"Such as…?" Naruto trailed off. Sasuke gazed at the carpenter duo curiously.

"A lot of my men have been getting injured on the job lately. We have enough people that it wasn't much of an issue at the start, but lately things have gotten to the point where it's been interfering with our desired schedule. Some people even think the project is cursed."

"Don't injuries normally happen in this line of work?" Kagami inquired. They certainly did in the ninja world.

"True," Tazuna admitted, "but the rates have been unusually high and depressingly preventable. Falling beams, unfastened screws, things of that nature. Things my men should know better than to do."

"So you think someone is sabotaging the project?" Sasuke surmised. Tazuna nodded. "Why?"

"No idea." This time, Inari spoke, shrugging. "Our family has no enemies that we know of and as we said, the days of Gato and his cronies are long gone. Mariko's family absolutely loves me, so it can't be them, and all the workers Grandpa assigned for this project have been with us for years."

"It could be nothing," Tazuna added. "We just want you here to help keep an eye out, to speed things up, and perhaps do what you can to prevent any more unnecessary accidents. This may be our trade, but none of us have reflexes quite like any of you."

"Then why didn't they send a team with a healing nin?" Kagami questioned, her fingers tapping impatiently beneath the table.

"If anyone can find what's really going on, it's you, Naruto!" Confidence radiated in the young man's dark eyes. "We believe in you!"

Dinner didn't last much longer after that. Riku, Kagami, and Sasuke volunteered to help Tsunami and Mariko with the dishes, making the job a great deal faster, while Tazuna, Inari, and Naruto continued to catch up in the opposite room.

By the time it became late enough to sleep, Naruto was directed to his own room, which had formerly been Inari's when he was a child. Mariko and Inari left the area for what they described as "privacy," which made sense considering their newly wed status, before Tazuna went to bed, as well, pleading old age. This left Tsunami to show Kagami, Sasuke, and Riku to the guest bedroom, where apparently Naruto and the rest of his genin team had slept during their visit twenty years ago.

Tsunami was a nice person. Very motherly, partly from intrinsic nature and partly in anticipation of grandkids, if Sasuke had to guess. He watched as she retrieved bedding for each of them from the closet near the door and regaled the three of them with tales of their sensei. How small he and his team had been, her opinions of Sakura and the elder Sasuke—all nice, of course—and especially how competitive Naruto and Sakura-san's future husband had been. But, as Hyuuga Sasuke stole a glance away while Tsunami stooped down to lay their cots on the floor and fluff the pillows, it became painfully obvious he was the only one paying Tsunami a word of attention.

"Sleep well, you three!" Tsunami called with a tone of finality, her hand waving as she left the room. "See you in the morning for breakfast."

Morning did come and far too early at that. Even Sasuke, who considered himself a morning person, felt the drag. Kagami hid her exhaustion behind a wall of stoicism, and Riku made no effort to hide at all, messy hair, tired eyes, and all.

They ate an impressive breakfast, once again Tsunami and Mariko's collaboration, before heading off to their so-called "work." In the very least, the journey was short.

The first thing Tazuna did when they reached the site at the early hour of five a.m. was find them all hardhats to wear. It felt weird, Sasuke had to admit, donning those strange yellow hats, which frankly didn't fit particularly well, but Tazuna had insisted it was "policy," regardless of anyone's ninja status. It had been difficult enough to convince him that wearing their open-toed ninja shoes was the only option and none of them possessed any close-toed alternatives.

At Naruto-sensei's instruction, Riku was assigned to help the roofing crew prepare, while Sasuke and Naruto joined in assisting with the final woodwork for the walls. Kagami, much to her chagrin, was on supervising/management duty with Tazuna.

If Sasuke were being honest, so far, this felt like a very strange internship. Granted, the day had only just begun, and most of them were considerably fast learners. A good number of his temporary new teammates already seemed impressed with the Konoha nin's strength and speed, especially considering Riku and Sasuke's age. Despite the praise, others still disagreed, saying "What are these children, these people doing here, interfering with my job?"

Sasuke could understand the sentiment but tried to ignore the burning gazes on his back and instead focus on Naruto-sensei's smile in front of him. They were just here following orders. Whether people liked them for it or not, the four of them had a job to do and, at the moment, this was his.

Grays eyes darted from side to side as Kagami walked about with Tazuna. He was still surprisingly spry for his age, Kagami observed, despite Inari's description of "back problems." The elderly man, in between barking orders and instructions, took the time to introduce her to everyone. In the least, it gave her something to memorize rather than feeling bored out of her mind.

The first person she could recall was a dark-skinned man named Takumi, whose name she could only remember because it was the same as Saya's younger brother. The next was a stocky brunette masonry specialist named Jirou, who Tazuna proudly proclaimed as his "second in command." Then another red-headed fellow named Kotaru and a medium skinned man with dark hair named Iteki.

Most names blurred for Kagami after that, except for one other person.

They were far enough into the day that the majority of the workforce had turned to constructing the roof. The one who caught her attention was one of the men working to help fasten the wooden pieces of the soon-to-be overheard structure into place. And that, she could only recall because of the look he gave her.

He stood on a ladder. A worn-looking tool belt hung from narrow hips as his gloved hands held a plank in place for the much stronger-looking Jirou to hammer. His was thin, his face drawn enough for his cheekbones to show, and the hair peeking through his yellow helmet was dark, like hers, only streaked with gray like Tsunami's. Judging by his stance and the way his entire head turned to the side to look in her direction, the narrowed eyes and pursed lips were definitely intended for her. The expression wasn't quite a glare, but it definitely wasn't a smile.

Not that Kagami cared if these people liked her or not. She was aware she was the only female on the premise, and a teenager at that. But it wasn't stigma or prejudice that she saw in his gaze, either. Kagami couldn't quite put her finger on it. It was a look that plainly told her, "You shouldn't be here."

Whatever his motivation, she didn't like the thin man's gaze.

After introductions, Kagami wasn't given the chance to do much else but stand by wait. Everything she learned today was completely new, so she couldn't even help give instructions, not that anyone would actually listen to her if she were allowed to. She envied her teammates. At least Sasuke and Riku were physically able to do something.

"Hey, Tazuna!"

Before her thoughts could go anywhere too dark, an obnoxiously cheery tone interrupted her musings. Kagami turned to see Tazuna's "second in command," the one named Jirou who, mere seconds ago, had been assisting the thin man, but was now walking over to her and the elderly manager. Nonetheless, unlike the weird creepy guy, he actually smiled.

Up close, she noted Jirou possessed a tool belt similar to the one the thin man possessed, although the mason's hips were far less narrow. Bulky, if she had to pick an adjective. The most prominent tool she could discern was a hammer, which she'd seen him using mere minutes ago, among an array of strew drivers and a few utensils she honestly couldn't name.

His top was a sleeveless dark green shirt, already slick with sweat, and his pants were capri-length khaki's, albeit not very clean ones. He practically exuded what she would imagine to be a typical construction worker archetype, complete with faint white scars over his exposed his forearms from what Kagami guessed was a buildup of accidents over the years.

"Ah, this must be one of the Konoha nins ya orders," Jirou stated. His eyes which were a dark purple, almost black color, scanned her and Kagami resisted the urge to shiver. Good or bad, she hardly ever enjoyed the attention. "Kyoko, was it?"

"Kagami."

"Right. Well, good to have you!"

"Such a wonder," Tazuna sighed as Jirou walked away. Kagami raised an eyebrow, prompting him to explain.

"His son's been sick. Chronic illness. Been that way since birth and the kid's only ten years old. His wife cares for him, but medicine is expensive, even with all our trade expansions. His wife stays home with the boy, but Jirou's been here for almost twenty years. Watched Inari grow, attended his wedding, and kept coming here for work as long as I've been in charge. Dunno how he does it."

"Hn." Undoubtedly a sad story, but coming from a village previously ravaged by the Fourth Shinobi War, she'd certainly heard worse. Her gaze lolled to the side until they rested on the thin man from earlier, who now worked alone.

"What's his story?"

"Oh, Shigeru?" Despite the unsettling feeling she got from the man, Tazuna merely shrugged. "He came here about five years ago. Admittedly, I still don't know much about him, but he's qualified and does good work."

She watched in silence as the carpenter, apparently named Shigeru, did his job. It looked tedious, hammering plank after plank in the same manner as all the others. How could they know for sure everything was secure? Hadn't Jirou just been helping him? What would happened if someone—

Kagami didn't even have time to finish her thought. Jirou walked by just as her eyes noticed the beam begin to sway. Before her mind could even comprehend what her body was doing, Kagami moved, rushing forward faster than any non-ninja's reflexes could carry them. The Hyuuga girl rolled, taking the stocky man with her as she did so. Hardly a moment later, something crashed violently behind them.

Voices buzzed as the dust cleared. As suspected, the thin man still resided on the ladder, gripping the soon-to-be roof for stability and well enough out of range of the fallen wooden beam to not be harmed. But, were it not for her, Jirou wouldn't have been.

Kagami jumped to her feet more quickly than Jirou, brushing herself off before stooping over to pick up her fallen helmet as the taller man regained his senses.

Tazuna was the first to run over to them, even out of Naruto-sensei.

"Is everyone all right?" the elderly man said, concern evident in his tone.

Kagami nodded curtly, and at last Jirou rose to his feet as well, rubbing the back of his neck, likely due to whiplash from Kagami's sudden tackle.

"Wha… what just happened?" Jirou's words were a sputtering mess. But, before his question could be answered, Naruto came stumbling over.

"A beam nearly took Jirou's head off," Kagami explained calmly. "We're fine, though."

"Are these the kind of accidents you were talking about?" Naruto-sensei's voice was low, almost inaudible, but Tazuna's nod was more than enough.

"Nothing from that high of a height, though. Even Jirou's helmet wouldn't have saved him there."

"Nee-san!" Next came Sasuke and Riku, who unlike the others, knew she was fine after just one glance.

"All right everyone," Tazuna called, his hands raised. "Everything's fine. Just another accident. Konoha nins are doing their job. Just be more careful and keep your helmets on!"

As luck would have it, even with all the hours left in the day, little else happened. A few of the men congratulated her on fast reflexes, and although she would have preferred her skills to remain unnoticed, in the least, it earned her some credibility.

Regardless, the raven-haired girl's mind raced as she considered the possibilities. Was she missing something? Had Shigeru been the culprit? His origins were certainly shady, but that didn't automatically make him guilty. Falling beams like that were hardly a reliable method of assassinating someone. Had it truly just been an accident? Perhaps Tazuna's paranoia that someone may be trying to sabotage his project was not unfounded.

As if it were planned, a strange presence sprang to life on Kagami's radar at that very moment, only succeeding to distract her further. Her head whipped to the side, byakugan activated, but just as she began to scan, the presence disappeared just as quickly as it had come.

"Is everything all right, Kagami?" By the time her kekki genkai deactivated, Tazuna gazed at her questioningly from the sudden movement.

She concealed the action with an innocent smile. "Just thought I heard something." Didn't need to go spreading rumors before she had proof, nor did she want to alarm the man with her sudden change in eye color. That could have been anything. Today's scare had already been more than enough.

Regardless, whatever she'd felt had definitely been shinobi, but she didn't recognize it. There weren't any other ninja around here. Could she have just been imagining things?

Tobi chuckled to himself as he teleported away from the scene, a smug satisfaction brewing inside him at being able to witness the impressive reaction time of the elder Uchiha twin. Even with Kakashi's attempts to stifle their potential…

He'd been right to bribe that construction worker. Just be careless. Make a few mistakes here and there. No one needs to get hurt too badly. Just keep them on their toes.

That was what he'd told him, but not exactly what Tobi intended. Granted, Tazuna had many projects in the past since the new hokage's last visit almost twenty years ago, but this was the first project since then that was truly personal. A new house for his grandson and his new wife. And, if an abnormal amount of things kept going wrong, Tazuna would reach out to the Konoha nins and of course it would be Naruto's team that went out to investigate—for fuck's sake, the bridge from Konoha to the Land of Waves was named after the guy.

All was happening according to plan. For once, things actually seemed to be going well.

By the time early evening hit and the area began to darken, it was time to call it a day, and Kagami still hadn't seen or felt that strange presence again.

She tried, she really did, to push the thought to the back of her mind.

It certainly helped to know that Tsunami and Mariko would have dinner waiting for them when they got back. Especially comforting, considering both of them were way better cooks than Taisou. Granted, the man did try, he just wasn't gifted in that particular area, which was part of the reason, Kagami knew, that Sasuke had taken it upon himself to learn how to cook, make lunches, and all that other domestic nonsense, because before them, Taisou had never had to.

But then dinner was over and it was time for bed. Sasuke and Riku complained of sore muscles from the day's work. Kagami attempted a compensation by allowing them first dibs on the downstairs shower and saving her turn for last. After that, they donned pajamas and finished preparing for bed, but the three of them hardly intended to sleep quite yet.

"I miss Saya," Sasuke sighed as he tentatively rubbed his shoulder with one hand. Their bedspreads lay in a row with Sasuke's nearest to the door, Kagami's in the middle, and Riku's beside the window. "She'd be able to do something about this neck pain."

Riku nodded in agreement, already lying face down on his pillow, gloves still on his hands despite being in his nightclothes. Kagami knew why. Sasuke knew why. But Naruto-sensei remained oblivious.

"What do you guys think of the other workers?" Kagami asked, almost suddenly.

"What do you mean?" Riku inquired, removing his face from the soft pillow's surface to look up at her. "You mean if I think any of them are actually causing the accidents like Tazuna and Inari mentioned?"

Before Kagami could nod, Sasuke cut in with, "That was a cool move you did, Nee-san, saving Jirou-san from that board falling on him."

"So you don't think it was accidental?" she gathered from his response. Sasuke and Riku exchanged a glance. Both of them now sat up.

"I'm… not really sure," Sasuke admitted, trying to choose his words carefully. "I wasn't there to see what you did."

As much as I don't enjoy it, it definitely worked out that I got assigned to supervising with Tazuna-san. None of them would have any information regarding the true goal of the mission were it not for her currently ridiculous amount of free time.

"Guess we'll just have to look closer tomorrow?" Riku shrugged, oddly nonchalant.

"I guess." Kagami's face went blank as she contemplated the day's events. Should she tell them about the weird presence she felt? About the odd stares Shigeru had been giving her?

But, as Sasuke got up to turn off the light, Kagami felt the exhaustion of the day, even if she hadn't exerted quite the physical effort that Sasuke and Riku had, begin to wash over her.

Tomorrow, Kagami told herself. She would worry about these things tomorrow. And, with that, the dark-haired girl laid her head down and slept soundly until the following morning.

Somehow, nothing else happened the next day. Even with Sasuke and Riku's promises to keep a closer look, none of them noticed anything out of the ordinary. No more objects were dropped. No one made an egregious error. Hardly anyone so much as tripped. It was almost tooperfect.

Shigeru continued giving Kagami the odd stares, but merely left it at that. As for Tazuna, when he wasn't giving orders, he rambled on about "old times," as one would imagine from their grandparents to do, if she had any. In the least, she got to learn a little more about what Naruto-sensei had done to get a bridge named after him and who those "Zabuza" and "Haku" people had been.

She heard a few stories about Inari and the person he used to be—apparently a sniveling, whiny kid—as well as some grandfatherly gushing regarding his new granddaughter-in-law and a hope for living to see his great-grandchildren, but still, nothing unusual.

Things continued this way for a total of two days. At one point, Kagami briefly considered firmly informing the elderly manager that she was just as capable as any of the boys at helping out, but, as he told her story after story, she decided against it. It had probably been forever since anyone had listened to him like this, rather than just writing him off as a senile old man. That, and it was good practice for intel gathering.

It wasn't until the third day, unbeknownst to Team Naruto, that anything interesting happened again.

Kagami still hadn't told Riku or her brother about that strange presence, partly because she wasn't sure if they would believe her, and partly because she hadn't seen or felt it again and wasn't entirely sure if she believed it herself.

In the meantime, she kept her eyes on Shigeru as much as she could without drawing attention. Takumi, Jirou—they were all acting normally. Naruto-sensei was even becoming oddly chummy with most of the workers as they oohed and aahed at the impressive array of scars and muscle tissue on the soon-to-be hokage after he removed his shirt, partly for convenience and partly to show off, knowing him.

They were so disruptive, in fact, that that Kagami had failed to notice that now Shigeru was nowhere to be found. The ladder she'd last seen him standing on was empty, and she had no idea how long he had been gone.

Suspicion growing, Kagami completely missed the fact that Tazuna that was now a good several meters ahead of her, chatting with another worker while the one named Jirou passed her by, looking as if he were about to ask Tazuna a question.

Jirou yelped as Kagami activated her byakugan, her eyes suddenly becoming milky white with prominent veins appearing on either side of her temples.

In the least, it only took one quick scan before she spotted Shigeru again.

Without so much as a word, Kagami took off in aforementioned direction, only causing poor Jirou to yelp once again as this strange girl with the white eyes jumped away. The only thing left was her helmet on the ground, which had fallen off as she began to run.

No one else seemed to notice as Kagami left the construction site. She wanted to see where he would go or who he would potentially return to when he thought no one else was watching.

For whatever reason, Shigeru ventured as far as the forest. For such a tiny man, he could certainly move quickly. He didn't stop until he reached a small clearing complete with pale grass and high trees. The thin man stopped at the foot of one of the tall trees, and by the look of it, he had something in his hands.

Kagami focused her vision, attempting to see exactly what that was, but her concentration broke as she took a step forward and accidentally stepped on a twig, mentally cursing herself as Shigeru's head jolted to the side.

"What are you doing here?"

Kagami drew a kunai, her byakugan pulsating as she stepped back to settle into a stance. But, rather than being allowed to complete her footwork, she bumped into something, or rather, someone.

She'd been so focused on following Shigeru that she'd missed another presence altogether.

"Jirou-san?" His face was set in a smile, like it usually was, only this one was a lot more… sinister?

It only made her recoil all the more when she saw what had been cupped in Shigeru's hands was none other than a baby bird, or at least one of diminutive size with what looked like an injured wing.

He was taking it… away from the construction site?

That explained why he had disappeared from so suddenly. That structure had been up for a while. Long enough for a bird with an injured wing to nest there, apparently.

Jirou made a point to grab at her shoulder, which Kagami's body moved in its own to avoid.

After dodging, she settled back into her Hyuuga stance, her heart racing as she saw Jirou remove a tool from his worn-looking belt: the same hammer she'd seen him using earlier.

"Sorry, Kagami-chan," Jirou began, his expression dark. "It's nothing personal. I was offered a hefty sum to take you or any of your teammates out."

"Any of us?" Kagami's eyes widened. Someone had ordered them to be killed? But why—?!

"Watch out!" Before Kagami could fully register what happened, she felt the thin man's hand on her shoulder as he pulled her out of reach from Jirou's first swing.

Instead, the hammer made contact with the thin man's forearm, and Kagami watched in horror as a resounding crack echoed through the forest and her byakugan witnessed the bone of his forearm snap.

"Move, Shigeru!" Jirou commanded. "I have no qualm with you!"

But he didn't and the next place Kagami saw Jirou hit was Shigeru's leg as the thin man's arms came up to protest his center line. Now plopped on the ground in a haphazard heap, Shigeru couldn't move.

She was on her own.

It was the strangest thing, what happened after that. With Shigeru down, Jirou lunged toward her. This time Kagami didn't freeze, not just because of her training, but because she could actually… see what was going to happen next?

Possibilities flashed before her eyes as she dodged his next attack, but the feeling left as quickly as it came when the man's failed lunge turned into a punch with his opposite hand. This one hit her straight in the face, and although Kagami went flying, she was hardly finished. A streak of blood slid from the left side of her mouth, but she wiped it away with a cocky smile.

If anything, all that had done was wake her up.

The raven-haired girl pushed herself back to her feet from the forest floor. Her byakugan wasn't activated, but for whatever reason, she felt like it didn't need to be. And not that she thought her death glare was all that scary, but Jirou's expression changed from homicidal to petrified in an instant.

"What the hell…" she heard the words, but didn't know exactly why, not that she had time to question much of anything. But had she been able to see through the mason's eyes, she would be able to see the sharingan glaring back at him with a single spinning black tomoe.

Kagami charged forward, uttering a battle cry. She clutched a kunai in her right hand as Jirou blindly swung at her again, now recovered from whatever had caused that brief shock.

She dropped to her knees just in time for it to be a surprise, sliding past the man as her weapon raked across the inner arm of his right hand. If her aim had been correct, which it almost always was, he wouldn't be able to hold that hammer for much longer.

Kagami back flipped to avoid his next hit, then ran sideways up the nearest tree, channeling chakra to the bottom of her feet to maintain her stance.

Jirou had switched hands by now, and as Kagami launched herself in his direction, he attempted to hit her before she could land. It didn't work and this time Kagami aimed her kunai for his leg, shoving the weapon into his flesh and then dropping to sweep out both his feet for good measure.

Jirou crashed to the ground, his right arm slit and his left leg bleeding profusely from the most recent stab wound. Judging by the way he screamed, this particular injury was the first of its kind for him, despite the impressive array of scars she'd seen on his forearms.

Kagami executed another back flip to give herself some distance, eyes scanning for additional presences. She sensed two people headed her way, but they were hardly hostile.

"Sasuke? Riku?"

Within seconds, her brother and teammate appeared, worried expressions on their faces. Sasuke had his byakugan activated. In the least, it explained how they had found her.

"What happened?" Riku demanded, skidding to a stop in front of the raven-haired girl. His gaze rested on the bleeding construction worker behind her and the other, semi-conscious man even further back.

"This one tried to kill me." Kagami cocked her head in Jirou's direction.

"W-why?" Sasuke stuttered. "What are you even doing out here? You shouldn't—"

"I was following a lead with Shigeru-san. Turns out he was just returning some poor misplaced bird to the forest," Kagami cut off, albeit sheepishly.

"So Jirou's the one behind the sabotages?"

Sasuke gave the bleeding man a shocked look. Kagami smirked only to be reminded of the bruise on her face as she made the expression before drawing another kunai.

"Wanna find out?"

It barely took any persuasion, honestly, for the three of them to find out the story behind everything. Jirou had been bribed by an unknown masked man for months to make little mistakes here and there to scare off the workers from Inari's soon-to-be house and maybe even make someone believe it was haunted. Then, when they had shown up, he'd been ordered by the same odd man to kill one, two, or all of them for a much bigger sum.

"So you don't know why either?!" Kagami exclaimed, exasperated.

"I went after you because I thought you would be the easiest," he admitted. Kagami scoffed.

Should've gone after Riku…

"I just... the medicine for my son is so expensive, and I was just offered so much money—"

"And you didn't even bother to ask why?!" Kagami exploded, and without realizing it, her sharingan flashed again.

He went silent before anyone else could speak. A new presence appeared, this one in a gust of wind seemingly out of nowhere.

The formerly silent Shigeru squeaked, reminding Kagami of the thin man's apparently innocent presence. But, rather than looking at him, three sets of eyes turned to the new figure.

A chill ran down Kagami's spine as she saw a hooded figure with a mask of swirled orange peeking out from beneath the dark material of his hood, the only trace of color in his otherwise drab outfit.

"It was me," he said. The hood came down, revealing a full view of his mask, where only one eyehole had been carved. That eye was red.

But, before Kagami could react, an ungloved hand seized her wrist, and the next thing Kagami knew, Sasuke had shoved his sister behind him.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed at whoever this figure was who had just admitted to ordering someone to kill them. He gripped a kunai in his left hand, ready to slice or be thrown, and his grip on it only tightened when this strange figure stepped forward.

When his eyes met the man's single one, his vision began to feel very strange as his body prepared itself for battle.

"Now, now," the man began, both his hands extended to the side in a pacifistic manner. "Calm down, Sasuke. I'm not here to hurt you."

"How do you know my name?"

And, little did he know, as he stared into Uchiha Obito's sharingan, his eyes spun with a single black tomoe just as Kagami's had mere minutes ago.

"Oh, Sasuke." The figure chuckled. "You'll find I know a lot more about you than just your name."

"Real fucking convincing coming from a guy who claims to want us dead," Riku snapped. But, despite the earth user's outburst, the man remained cool.

"Now, now, Riku." This time, his words emphasized a different name. "I know that may not be your only mouth, but do you really have to use it for such foul language?"

The blonde stopped dead in his tracks. Even Sasuke nearly dropped his kunai. All they could manage to think was, How did he know?

"Wait, what?" Shigeru's voice this time. The figure's eyes narrowed in the thin man's direction, and it took until that moment for Sasuke to realize their mystery visitor's eye was red with none other than the sharingan.

Another Uchiha? All the original ones had died in that horrible tragedy except for Sakura's husband, right?

"Oh, you're still here?" The Uchiha's gaze momentarily diverted to the two construction workers, both currently immobile from their injuries. But with one flash of the man's eye, the two of them slumped forward, either unconscious or dead.

"What did you just do?!" Sasuke demanded. He hoped they weren't dead. Could they be? Could the sharingan do that? Come to think of it, his eyes were feeling strange again as the orange-masked man took another step toward them.

"Relax, they are merely asleep," he assured, although Sasuke hardly felt better. "However, when they awake, neither of them will remember any of this happening."

"Who are you?" This time Kagami spoke. "Who are you and why do you have the sharingan?"

"You can call me Tobi," the man introduced, his hands tucked casually behind his back. "Pleased to meet you, Sasuke, Kagami… Riku."

"You still haven't answered any of our other questions, Tobi."

"Amusing, coming from you, Kagami," Tobi chuckled. "Here you are, demanding what I'm doing sporting the sharingan when the two of you are too blind to see what going on in your own eyes."

Perhaps out of paranoia and maybe just a tinge of curiosity, the twins stole a glance at each other. It was only for a moment, but it was enough for both of them to see the color change.

This time, Sasuke did drop his kunai as he and his sister stared incredulously at one another. Riku, meanwhile, gazed hopelessly ahead at Obito.

"How…?" Kagami began, trailing off.

"Is this possible?" Sasuke finished, still staring.

Tobi just laughed again.

"I believe you will find there's lots about yourselves that you do not know. No matter. I'm glad you managed to activate yours, as well, Sasuke. Saves me the trouble of hiring someone else to try to kill you."

"What the hell…?" Sasuke heard Riku murmur just behind him.

"It appears none of you have ever been in a life or death situation quite like this before." Tobi sighed. "Such peaceful times we live in. Shame. I suppose the soon-to-be-former hokage's efforts were not in vain."

"Kakashi-sama? You know Kakashi-sama?" Kagami's tone turned dubious. Her crimson eyes narrowed. "You better start making sense. Fast."

"I paid off Jirou to test you. To see if you or Sasuke-kun were actually capable of unlocking your bloodline limit."

"We already have," Sasuke retorted. "We're Hyuugas."

"Yes," Tobi admitted. But then his body language changed and he said, "But also no."

Silence.

"You see, Kagami, Sasuke," the masked man began, "both of you are indeed of Hyuuga heritage, but a much more powerful bloodline also exists within you, as you have just witnessed." He stepped back this time, his body language once again changing. "As you may have guessed, the other bloodline within you is Uchiha."

"Impossible!" Kagami spat.

"Perhaps. However, I must say, Kagami, with your last fight that did not entirely look like a Hyuuga fighting style."

"I just reacted," she muttered. She hadn't been thinking all that hard about it.

"Where do I come into this?" Riku spoke this time, his tone tentative.

"Well, as I mentioned before, I am aware of the … peculiarity that you hide beneath your shirt and behind those gloves." And, even a second time, Riku still looked taken aback. "All this time, you've been fighting against them, calling it a 'deformity.'" His words were oddly familiar. "But what if I told you that those mouths aren't a deformity at all?"

Riku scoffed. "Then I would tell you you're full of it."

"Haven't you ever wondered why all you've been sent on is stupid missions? Why the hokage saw it fit to send you away during the same time as last year's chuunin exams? The first year you would have been eligible?"

Silence, once again. Tobi took that as an affirmative "Go on."

"I am here to tell you that all of that was planned. Intentional. Kakashi wanted to hold you back. He and Tsunade both wanted to keep you in the dark."

"Dark about what?" Sasuke's tone, in the least, sounded a lot more curious than his sister's. "Why would either of them care about us?"

"Your true potential." As if it were planned, a gust of wind blew through the area, ruffling everyone's hair and adding to the suspense.

From there, the one named Tobi brought a gloved hand out from underneath his cloak and formed a hand sign. Spirals began to appear from seemingly nowhere behind him, and before anyone could think to act, he spoke again.

"I'll be in touch. If you want to know more, meet me by the Konoha memorial stone four days from now, at noon. If you tell anyone of this, I will not be there, and believe me, I will know if you do."

By now, the portal obscured approximately half his form. Then he added, "Oh. And bring Saya. This concerns her, too."

And, with that, he was gone.

The three of them stood frozen for a moment, taking it all in, and wondering if what they had just witnessed was actually real. Of all people, Riku broke the silence.

"So…" the blonde trailed off, "now what?"

"Now," Kagami said, exhaling deeply, "we get back to the construction site."

Three figures could be seen just beyond the horizon. The first of which, Kagami, carried the still unconscious thin man on her back. Luckily his leg hadn't been broken, but his arm certainly had, forcing the three of them to pool their pathetically limited medical knowledge in order to splint.

Jirou, meanwhile, was being carried half by Sasuke and half by Riku. His wounds had been cleaned and bandaged, as well—luckily Saya had insisted they bring some medical supplies before they left—especially the one near his wrist, but admittedly, the two of them were a lot less careful when carrying him than Kagami was with Shigeru.

Kagami noted the shock in everyone's faces, the looks that told her they hadn't even noticed they were gone—and worst of all, she wasn't surprised.

Naruto-sensei, in her opinion, was the worst offender of this particular crime. Tazuna had been spending his time walking someone through a detailed woodworking process he was notoriously particular about. Naruto, on the other hand, had been too busy goofing off with his new work buddies during what was apparently their lunch break.

It didn't take long to explain. The three of them had agreed on a story as they were mending Jirou and Shigeru's wounds quite similar to what actually happened, but without any mention of the masked man or his revelations.

"We'll talk about this later," Kagami had said. "As for Saya…"

"We'll worry about that when we get home," Sasuke assured, forcing a smile, but even Riku could see it was fake; he was just as worried as any of them.

Somehow, everyone believed them about Jirou and Shigeru. The bruise on Kagami's face told enough, but nothing could have matched the betrayal in Tazuna's face when he found out.

The first useful thing Naruto suggested was that Tazuna needed to get Shigeru to a hospital as soon as possible. But first, they needed to wake everyone up.

The dark-skinned man named Takumi set to work on soaking a rag in cool water to dab Shigeru's face until he awoke, which worked in less than a minute. And, as Tobi had said, he remembered nothing of their encounter with the masked man.

The method used to awaken Jirou, however, was much less gentle. Rather than being dabbed, the man was soaked with the nearest bucket of water they could find.

The man awoke with a jolt to a host of disapproving glares.

"What is—where… what happened?" he blubbered. Tazuna stood the closest, arms crossed and looking impressively stern.

"Tell me it isn't true, Jirou. That you didn't accept money to sabotage this project—to try and harm an innocent girl!" Dark eyes glared into Jirou's purple ones. Jirou looked away.

His guilty silence told him enough and that sealed it for Tazuna.

"Leave. Now!" The man demanded. "You are no longer welcome at this job."

"But my son—"

"If you needed money that badly, you could have asked!"

"We would have helped you!" Inari chimed in, backed with a chorus of gruff "Huhs!" "All you had to do was ask."

"That still leaves one question, though," Kagami spoke up. But rather than turning to Jirou, she looked straight at Shigeru. "Why all the weird looks? If you weren't trying to kill me, then why?"

The area went quiet, waiting for the thin man to reply.

"A construction site like this is no place for a child, especially a girl," he began, but before Kagami could retort, he continued. "I had a daughter once. Beautiful girl. Golden hair. Her name was Kin. She was all I had in this world. My wife Manami died when she was young."

"Shigeru—" Tazuna trailed off, his expression struck. "All these years and you never said anything?"

"She died," Shigeru stated. "She died in a place like this. Terrible accident. I had forgotten my lunch one day and she came to take it to me. We were restoring an old structure, and no one knew about the loose bit of roofing and Kin…" he trailed off. His expression pained, a stark contrast to what Kagami had seen these past few days. "Well, as for Kin, wrong place wrong time. I've been drifting to a new place every few years ever since. This is the only trade I know, so I couldn't just leave it."

"I'm sorry." The words left Kagami's mouth before she could fully process them. Loss. Family…

An image of Kagami's mother flashed through her head.

She knew that feeling well.

"I should've said something sooner," Shigeru mumbled. "I apologize for making you feel uncomfortable."

The next thing Shigeru knew, Tazuna's hand was on his shoulder. Then Inari, Kotaru, and everyone else who could possibly fit.

"You're not alone, Shigeru," Inari spoke up, eyes glinting. "We're all here for you."

And, for the first time, Kagami saw the thin man smile.

"So you're sure there's nothing else we can do for you?" Mariko's voice was sweet, almost saccharine as Team Naruto fastened their backpacks, ready to take off for the day's walk back to Konoha. There would be no cart provided for them to hitch a ride on this time.

"We're sure," Naruto assured, although Sasuke silently wished one of them had been courageous enough to request a bento box or two. If there was anything he was going to miss about this place, it was Tsunami and Mariko's cooking. "You're sure you don't want us to stick around until Inari's house is finished?"

"You've already done more than enough," Tsunami said, waving her hand for emphasis. Her expression fell with her next words. "Still it's a shame about Jirou, though."

Tazuna nodded remorsefully. "That it is."

"If you wanna see the finished product, you're going to have to visit again, Naruto!" Inari grinned, changing the subject.

Naruto just grinned back and gave the boy—now a man—a thumbs up. "Sure! See you, Inari!"

"It was good to meet all of you, Riku, Kagami, Sasuke." Tsunami smiled politely and offered them each a bow. "Take care now, okay?"

Sasuke's delight only grew as she brought out a stack of bento boxes from behind her back that Mariko had previously been holding out of sight. And somehow, despite everything, even Kagami managed a smile.

"Thanks!" Sasuke said, accepting the gift. "We will!"

The one named Jirou stood before him, his memory void of their previous encounter. Nonetheless, even if he couldn't recall specifics, the mason remembered enough to justifiably look as uncomfortable as he did during his meeting in the dead of night with his mysterious employer. Admittedly, Obito's choice of rendezvous point at the unguarded outskirts of town probably didn't help. In the past, Tobi had gone to him, but this was entirely different story.

"You said you wanted to meet me?"

"Yes." Tobi grinned smugly behind his mask. Even if Jirou couldn't see his face, he could certainly hear it in his tone.

"So," Tobi began, "I hear you failed."

"I—I—"

"It's okay," Tobi cut off. The man looked at him incredulously.

"It is?"

"Yes. I expected you to fail. Would have been extremely disappointed if you hadn't, actually."

"Wh-what?"

But, rather than answer him, Tobi simply called, "Kisame!" and the former Kiri nin appeared not a second later. If Jirou had been nervous before, he was terrified now.

"Advantage of working with non-shinobi," Tobi gloated, his hands raised triumphantly. "None of you can sense chakras."

"But I—"

"Kisame." Only for Tobi to cut him off once again. "Dispose of him."

"Finally!" Jirou shrank back at the blue man's words, causing him to trip and fall backward onto the damp ground. Kisame, meanwhile, approached his prey, a sadistic grin on his shark-like features. "Something to do…"

"Oh," Madara added, and Kisame stopped in his tracks, Samehada slumped over a powerful shoulder while Jirou quivered beneath him. "Try to make it look like a suicide if you can."

And although he grumbled, Kisame obeyed.

"There he goes again ruining all my fun."

The large man died silently, his face frozen in a mask of fear as Kisame's massive hand obscured his airway.

Tobi merely sighed, shaking his head at the unfortunate sight.

"Can't exactly have him exposing secrets now can we?"

If it helps, the townspeople bonded together to help Jirou's widow pay for her son's treatment after Jirou died. The two of them, in the least, get a somewhat happy ending (Jirou's still dead, though).

Also title drop. Boom.

Aaaand Tobi gets to play the exposition fairy again. I think he likes that role.

More to come as soon as I can manage it. Once again, school is proving to be quite an obstacle to my beloved hobbies.