A Hundred and Thirty Two

by Hellsig Otoupeim

She will live six times Hinami's death. 132 truths about Kiri, Mist Seduction Squad Shinobi and Founder of Musei. (Because she wasn't always Kiri, because she didn't always love Genma and Shikamaru, because there hadn't always been a demon in her head.)

Disclaimer: Kiri, Musei and it's council members are mine, as well as a few Kiri Shinobi. Any character you recognise belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, creator of Naruto.

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I

Kiri Fuyumi is born on the twenty first of December. She's a small and quiet baby, with big red eyes and a paper pale skin. Her parents take a look at her and fall in in love with the little girl. She's an only child, but her mother has been pregnant three times before they had her, and she is a long overdue blessing to their family. Kiri Fuyumi is desired by her parents; she is loved unconditionally.
She is also their first child, and that is why they believe themselves incredibly lucky to have such a quiet, smart and well behaved little girl. If her behaviour is a little odd, they say nothing. Kiri is their daughter.

II

Kiri Fuyumi wasn't always Kiri Fuyumi. She was named Rez', short for Rezef but no-you-may-not-call-her-that thankyouverymuch. Her dad filled the papers whilst he was high on something that shouldn't have been inside a hospital room and by the time her mom got wind of the news, it was too late.

III

Kiri Fuyumi isn't Rez. She loves her Kaa-chan and her Tou-chan with all of her fervent toddler body, she loves them like the moon loves the sun, and all is well in her world. Kiri loves her parents, and that's why her first word isn't Kaa-chan or Tou-chan. It's "Papamama." Neither remember in which order –but she loves them both equally and that's why they believe she might have just said both at the same time. Kiri gargles happily and Rez smiles. She likes making people happy.

IV

Tou-chan is twenty and Kaa-chan is sixteen. He is a shinobi and she is a civilian. Later on, Kiri will learn that her mother had been brought up in the Akasen, that she was a prostitute and that Tou-chan loved her regardless. Tou-chan used to be in a clan, but he never speaks of them anymore. Tou-chan never speaks anymore. He died when he was twenty three.

V

Rez grew up with two siblings, smaller and whom she loved to death. She hardly remembers their faces, which makes her cry at night because she's forgotten their names and they were her family dammit. Rez had a cat which she named Sneaker in a moment of childish entertainment, a mom whom she loved to death and worked herself to that very state so her kids could go to a good school, and a dad who wouldn't have been able to find the toilet in his own house with how stoned he was all the time. Her mom was twenty seven when she had Rez and her dad eighteen. He's always been just another child to take care of. Rez loved them all to death though.

VI

No matter how much she loves her, nineteen is not an age at which her Kaa-chan can support herself and a child without Tou-chan. Rezef remembers a mother who worked too much and a father who might as well have not been there, and she wonders if things can ever change.

VII

Kiri gurgles happily when the Red lights flicker on at night, when the girls in the Akasen let her play with their beautiful hair but when Kaa-chan comes back in the morning for some sleep, she makes sure to be extra quiet. Kiri misses her Tou-chan, but Rez shushes her and lulls Kiri to sleep.
Kiri might be Rez, but Rez is the elder sister of two adorable terrors and she knows her way around a kid. It feels weird, being both the kid and the mother, but Rez has done weirder things before.

VIII

Kirikagure no Sato is a beautiful place. It's full of poverty, always damp, dark and dreary, but when the sun shines and a ray of light pierces the clouds, everything glitters softly and the whole world is showered in sparkles. Everybody stops working when the sun shines, just stops and looks at the skies. Shinobi, civilians and street rats alike. It's a reminder that Kiri can be beautiful. Kids play in the streets in the fine rain and life goes on in Kiri no Sato like in any other village. Children are killed and girls are raped and shinobi drown their sorrows in alcohol, but Kiri no Sato can be beautiful. Like a diamond.
Like the edge of a Kunai.

IX

Her mother is twenty five when she catches a virus. Kiri doesn't really know what it is, but it makes her mother lose weight and she can't get up some days and her chest hurts. They say the virus isn't the one killing her, but it's weakened her so much that anything could. Kiri doesn't go near her mother, because Kiri is a little girl at nine years of age and she could give her mother an illness she won't be able to heal from. Kiri doesn't want her mother to go. (But the shell of a woman who paints her lips red and forces herself up at night when she has no energy is not her mother.)

X

Kiri is seven when she enters the academy. Her mother cries, but she knows it's for the best. Little girls like Kiri die if they don't know how to fight, die or become like her, living with her child in a brothel, and she doesn't want that for her precious Kiri. Kiri is seven when she enters the academy. The other kids are rough and scruffy, but Kiri comes from the Akasen. She dresses well in her rags and makes sure her appearance is compelling despite the poor man's soap she uses. She smiles and flutters her eyelashes, speaks like her Nee-chans and soon, Fugio Sensei pulls her to the side after lessons. Kiri meets Hinami-san that night.

XI

She tells her mother about Hinami-san. Kaa-chan's eyes dim and her hand strokes her eight years old's daughter's chin.
"_I knew Hinami. She lived here when a was a little girl, before the nins swept her away and never gave her back." Kiri doesn't quite understand, but Rez does. She gets it. The next day, she goes to school wearing a ratty combination of orange and brown. Fugio sensei laughs. Hinami takes one look at her, as she arrives to pick her new charge up, assesses the change and slaps Kiri upside the head.
"_good, brat. At least you understand what you are getting yourself into."
Kiri wishes she had done so sooner.

XII

Rez remembers wanting to be a doctor. She'd wanted to go into plastic surgery, the cosmetic kind, and make loads of money without having to ever deal with something traumatic –like the acid burns reconstructive plastic surgeons sometimes saw.
Now Kiri just wants to survive.

XIII

Kiri is six when the Third Great Shinobi War breaks out.

XIV

Kiri is eight when she meets Hinami. Hinami was ten when she met her sensei. (Hinami is kinder than her sensei was. She lets Kiri return to the Akasen at night, because she understands that there is a community there. In return, Kiri invites Hinami to come with her for dinner at the Matron's. Hinami refuses.) Kiri is nine when Hinami sweeps her away from the red light district. Her mother's dead, and she is never going back.

XV

In the end, Kiri is without a parent –like Hinami was. She sees some of herself in the girl.

XVI

Despite being an albino, or maybe because she is an albino, Kiri is absolutely beautiful. She has her mother's fine features and her father's chakra pools. She has the grace of a shinobi and the class of a civilian. Kiri understands both sides to the village in a way clan kids can't. Kiri is the village. (How ironic.) Kiri is beautiful.

XVII

She rues this beauty every day when she wakes to another lesson with Hinami. Kiri doesn't want to learn how to make men lose their heads. She doesn't want to remember the twenty kinds of poisons that generate pheromones, doesn't want to realise none of them have antidotes, doesn't want to come to terms with the fact that she is being fashioned into a Seduction Nin.
Kiri no longer wants to be rich, no longer wants to spend her life in luxury. She'd rather be poor than do those honeypot missions, would rather run through the woods than rest on silk. But Kiri is a shinobi of Kirigakure no Sato. She is one of the waves that make the sea, one of the droplets in the oceans and she will perform her duty to her village.

XVIII

Kiri's first mission for the war is given to her little after she turns eight. She's just began training under Hinami sensei, but it doesn't matter much to the higher ups. As far as they can see, she is cannon fodder until she can survive well enough to be an asset.
It's a simple, quick, get-in-seduce-kill-get-out mission. Kiri doesn't hesitate to poison the man, doesn't hesitate to let his big hands roam all over her, doesn't hesitate to use the strange jutsu Hinami sensei taught her to make his heart beat the poison faster. It's her first mission and it's a success.
It's however not her last.

XIX

Hinami sensei once tells her there is a way out of these missions. She offers Kiri her kunai, and the little girl doesn't understand. She is ten.
"_if you want out, remove what they chose you for. Take away your beauty."
She grabs Kiri's hand, firmly encloses the kunai and places it in her mouth.
"_if you think out there is better than here, come on. Do it." Kiri tugs at the corner of her skin, tests the flesh and the kunai bites at the commissure of her lips. The pain hurts.
She removes the kunai with shaking hands, and Hinami sensei watches her silently. Kiri never complains about the missions again.

XX

She meets a boy called Hijame when she's ten. Hinami sensei says nothing when Kiri begins wearing her nice furisode when they finish training, says nothing when the girl uses make up and experiments with her hair. Hijame is thirteen, with brown eyes and a soft smile when he catches sight of Kiri. She thinks she loves him, and Hijame tells her he does as well. She offers him what she is. Hijame takes it all.
She comes back to her sensei's apartment that night, reeking of sweat and semen and sex, and Hinami sensei only watches her silently as Kiri goes to take a shower and slips in her bed. She has flicked the lights off and is about to go to sleep when the woman opens her door. Kiri turns to look at her.
"_was it worth it?"
Kiri blushes, nods and believes she has found love. Hinami sighs and tells her to get up and put clothes on.
They go to ANBU Headquarters, slip into the quiet building and enter a room that's dimly lit. There are boxes of pregnancy tests, condoms and pills stacked up in a corner, a good amount of booze all over the place and a boy talking to a grown shinobi. Kiri recognises it for what it is; the Seduction Squad's mess. Both men look up when Hinami and Kiri arrive. Her blood runs cold. (It's Hijame.) She understands without needing to be told.

XXI

Kiri still thinks it was worth it.

XXII

Hinami tells her, one day, that Kiri's a waste of intellect. The eight years old is reading a book on medical ninjutsu, her mind still very full with knowledge from Rez's past life as she tries to draw links between the here and there. Kiri's just managed a medical palm and is currently trying to see if she can pierce together the molecular formula of a poison Hinami is particularly fond of, when the woman comes in, takes a look at the concentration on her face and the way her eyes read the texts and the various scrolls on the table, and promptly tells her this. She tells Kiri that she's too smart to do the things she's been slotted for, too good at healing to be a seductress, to good at fighting to be a healer, too good at seducing to be a fighter. She tells her she's a waste of intellect, a greedy skill thief. Rezef understands what the woman is trying to say. (Kiri has been living with Hinami for a year, and the woman has come to love her. She's scared Kiri will be whisked away to the front lines if people realise she can reverse engineer poison, can break apart bones with a simple tap and has an uncanny grasp on her chakra.) Hinami tells Kiri she's a waste of intellect –so the little girl stops sparring with other kids, stops trying to mingle with them and instead only fights Hinami, only heals Hinami, only speaks to Hinami. The woman may be broken, but she's got enough life inside of herself to protect Kiri in a way neither of her parents could.

XXIII

Kiri's eleven when the War ends with a victory for the Konoha-Suna front. Her village has lost a lot of good Jonin, most of ANBU is gone and there are only a few hunter nin squads left. What was once a militaristic village is coming to rely more and more on the civilians to keep it going. Trade is encouraged and the Yondaime directs Kirigakure no Sato to recovery quickly. Her village is strong.

XXIV

Kiri's eleven when the War ends. She hasn't been on the battlefields, too precious gathering information, but she is still broken. There are nights when she hides in Hinami sensei's bed because she cannot fall back to sleep on her own. There are nights with the grabbing hands of men, men that only exist in her dreams anymore, and nights when she doesn't remember anything other than the dust, the pain and the darkness.

XXV

Rezef is good at chakra control, but Kiri's average. Really, Kiri would have been dead a hundred times over if it weren't for Rez, Rez who immediately hones onto the chakra inside her body as something foreign and teaches Kiri how to control it. Rez, who's hyperware of chakra and can sense fluctuations in a person's signature as easily as she can breathe. Rez, who remembers a lifetime of pain and work and hurt and dedication and is able to share it with Kiri. Kiri's incredibly lucky to have Rez, but Rez wouldn't have survived without Kiri in the first place. Rez needs Kiri, just like Kiri needs Rez.

XXVI

Kiri's twelve when she gets put on a Genin team for the Chunin exams. It's odd, weird even, that she should share everything she is with the kids. She has heard that Konoha always placed their brats like that –but Kiri doesn't understand. Surely having a sensei to yourself is better? Surely being in a class with other people, kids who are going to compete for the same spot as you, is better –because it forces you to be the best and work harder and run faster?
Kiri's twelve when she gets put on a Genin team. Hinami is her official guardian, but Kiri doesn't reside with her in Kusa. She's forced to operate with a sword swinging asshole, said asshole's sensei and a young boy who likes ninjutsu. The latter's fine –rather smart, agile and good with his head. The former's an idiot, a brash and reckless idiot who will get them all killed if he isn't careful.
Within an hour of knowing him, Kiri has the boy wrapped around her finger. He does as she asks and quietens when she shushes, offers her an extra blanket and makes sure she gets the best share of food. His sensei looks amused and the ninjutsu specialist is half intrigued, but when Kiri looks backwards and sees Hinami's nod of assent, that's all she needs.

XXVII

She makes Chunin in these exams. (Hinami is a harsh taskmaster, someone who wants nothing short of perfection, and she won't let Kiri off until she gets it.) There's a written exam which makes Rez scoff –it's got nothing on med school, a survival part where they get tossed into the city and must reach the arena without being caught, and matches which are meant to showcase the power of the nations.
Kiri aims for middle of the road in the exam (thankfully so, because the results are published and the top three rookies die there and then by the hand of an angry Iwa Genin), bats her eyelashes at an Akasen Matron for the second and allows her teammates to be the show by ending her enemy quickly in the third. She gets her vest when she comes back to the Village, but discards it promptly. Hinami nods approvingly at that. (It's such a horrid shade of blue.)

XXVIII

She never tells Hinami what she had to do to hide her Genin team from the Kusa ANBU scouting the city. (Bending over and simulating and touching a man twice her age.)The elder woman knows anyway.

XXIX

The Genin Kiri fought in the exam was a thirteen years old kid from Konoha. He wore dark glasses and had two teammates, one who chewed constantly on a senbon and the other who wore a bright green jumpsuit. Kiri had won well before the exam had begun. (She slipped into the kitchen of the inn they stayed in, poisoned the tea with a blend she had homemade and waited. When she got to the arena, she flared her chakra for half a second, activating the poison. He was already losing when he came down to fight her.) If the proctors noticed, they never said anything.

XXX

Kiri remembers being ten and fighting a war. She remembers being dropped under enemy lines with her sensei, with no word as to when they would be picked up, just the order to gather as much information as they could. She remembers having to run from a passing Jonin who had recognised Hinami. She remembers being caught and pleading-pleading-pleasing, because that was all she was good at and Kiri had to survive.
Kiri remembers being ten.

XXXI

Kiri will never admit to having slipped back into the kitchen, the night after the Chunin exams, and replaced the poisoned tea with a regular one. She will never admit to the fear that ran through her when a soft voice interrupted her motion, freezing the mist Genin in her stance as she looked to the side. It was a middle aged man, Jonin from Konoha if his headband was anything to go by. He had two scars across his face that would have immediately put her out of business, and there was the senbon chewing kid standing next to him, staring suspiciously at her. He was the one to have spoken.
"_what are you doing?"
Kiri's hand froze with the antitode, her fingers clenching around the bottle as she looked up to the window. She could make it in a leap. The bottle rested softly against her skin as she looked back. The kid's eyes were narrowed and she remembered he'd won his match as easily as she had hers.
Kiri tossed the glassware to the boy and jumped simultaneously. He dodged and replied with a senbon to her neck, one she caught with her teeth as she rolled out. Kiri had time to see his eyes widen, before she disappeared from sight.
As she got back to the hotel, she wondered if they had realised it was the antidote she had aimed at their head. (If they hadn't, their teammate would have been dead within three hours.)

XXXII

Kiri goes to sit on her parent's grave when she feels down. She tells them about her time in the Village, about what Hinami sensei taught her to cook or about how her training's going. She never tells them about the men she's smiled for, the services she's given to older shinobi in exchange for poisons or weapons or silk. She hopes they never have to know.

XXXIII

Hinami sensei tells her she'll never meet someone who's not scared or repulsed or fascinated with her. She tells her that Seduction Squads never leave people unfeeling, because Seduction Squads are the very things everyone fears. Feelings, feelings of love and home and happiness, being used against one's village. She tells her that she'll never meet someone who won't want to break her or own her or kill her. Kiri believes Hinami.

XXXIV

Five days before the Kame festival, Kiri is assigned the same mission Hijame was once before. She stares at the scroll as she remembers soft lips and gentles caresses, thinks back to all these times the hands on her body had been rough and demanding and decides to do her best to make the kid enjoy this chance. She takes his virginity at the festival, after some sneaking around and a few giggles, stays with him as he falls asleep and brings Hiro-kun back to his sensei's flat whilst the smile is still on his face.
The man nods and thanks her. She goes to report that very night –and Hiro's eyes stare at her uncomprehendingly. She wonders if Hajime felt the same pain in his chest as she does. (Kiri sends a box of chocolate to Hajime as a thank you soon after.)

XXXV

Despite not wanting to broadcast Kiri's skills, Hinami sensei doesn't stop teaching her. Sometimes, Hinami takes Kiri along on missions. (As a partner, she says, but Kiri never has to worry about men touching her during those.) It's a good form of training, because it brings money home to feed the growing girl. Sometimes, Hinami makes Kiri fight her. They lash out at one another with words and senbon and silk, anything being done in order to gain the upper hand for a few seconds. Kiri's strokes tap Hinami's skin, closing off Tenketsu in her arms, but the woman replies by stabbing a senbon through her shoulder. It's coated in a poison she doesn't have resistance towards yet, so Kiri quickly sets Rez onto the task of breaking it down as the women engage in a Taijutsu bout. Hinami almost always wins, but Kiri's fine with that. It's Hinami.
Sometimes the training isn't as conventional.

XXXVI

Hinami touches Kiri all the time. A brush of her shoulder, a stroke in her hair. It's training, as much as anything else is, so Kiri replies in kind. She nuzzles her sensei's neck and her breath puffs across her collarbone and it's training. The lines blur, but it's alright. Hinami sensei teaches Kiri how to satisfy a woman, how to pitch her moans and fake her sighs. She teaches Kiri how to fuck on the countertop, how to get cum out of the carpet, how to have wild sex in the bathroom without slipping and cracking her skull. Hinami's hands are soft when they slide across Kiri's skin, but it's training so the smaller girl doesn't mind.

XXXVII

Hinami dies at twenty two. Kiri resolves to live her lifespan six times. Once for her because Kiri loves the woman. Twice for Hinami, because her sensei didn't have enough time. The last three times, however, belong not to the past; Kiri will live thrice in honour of their future together.

XXXVIII

Kiri remembers being ten. She remembers falling down behind enemy lines and her sensei picking her up. She remembers making a blunder with a client and her sensei cleaning up for her. She remembers falling sick because she had forgotten to do the jutsu before she went out to collect information and Hinami holding her hand as they stepped into the clinic.
Kiri remembers being ten. (She doesn't allow herself the luxury of forgetting.)

XXXIX

Kiri's fourteen and she is in love with her sensei. Hinami's twenty two, has been taking care of Kiri for the past seven years and there is nothing the two women haven't seen of each other. Hinami once told Kiri that no one would look at her without wanting to own her, break her, kill her –and Hinami lied.
Kiri's fourteen, and she has never been happier.

XL

Kiri's fourteen when her world shatters.

XLI

Hinami has got cirrhosis.
It's intense scarring on the liver, the type gotten when the tissues have been replaced by tougher, less flexible ones. It slows the blood flow down, stops the absorptions of vital nutrients and prevents the breaking apart of toxins.
She got it on the job.
Hepatitis C; a sexually transmitted disease than causes liver cirrhosis and can be followed by cancer. It's too advanced for anyone to heal, but Hinami doesn't care. The first thing she asks is for Kiri to have a blood test and checks that whatever has affected her hasn't gotten the girl as well. The hospital's grubby, but with a whole sixty percent of Mist being shinobi who need their blood regularly tested, it's over and done with in a matter of instants.
They have Hepatitis C.
Hinami's beautiful skin bruises more easily. She begins to forget to take care of herself, starts not to reply to her name, has trouble concentrating and sleeps more during the day. The medics say they can't do anything for Hinami. Kiri wants a transplant (she'll bring a matching donor back by his dick if she has to), but the Village refuses. (Transplants are expensive, don't have a very high success rate and with a scar like that, Hinami would never be able to do her job again. She isn't good enough at anything else for the transplant to be worth it.)
Kiri's illness can be treated. She's younger, doesn't have the years of alcoholism that Hinami does and her body has been attacking the disease for a while now. All the medical ninjutsu she's practised has increased her natural uses of chakra in immunity, and Kiri feels wrong. How can she survive something that kills Hinami?

XLII

She dies in autumn. Kiri's kept her at home, has done her best to make sure Hinami is comfortable and looks as pretty as ever in her last weeks. She's too weak to get up from the bed, so Kiri spends her days curled up by her sensei's side. She's too forgetful to remember her name, so she talks to her softly in between the night and the day, tells her all about the Hinami she remembers and the shadow listens. Kiri stops telling Hinami she is her student, tells her she is her love. She stops telling the woman she's sick, rather tells her she was fighting for her village when someone poisoned her. Kiri tells Hinami everything she wants to hear, tells the frail twenty two years old that she is her world and Hinami dies with a smile on her face.
She dies in autumn. Once they are done with her body, they give it back to Kiri. It's a small urn, one she runs her fingers over reverently, as if it were her sensei's skin. It's the last thing she has of Hinami.

XLIII

On some days, Hinami was lucid enough to remember her name. They were the days when Kiri would offer to do something, offer to try and run her chakra through her veins and try to heal her. Offer to hunt a donor down and attempt the surgery herself. Offer to end Hinami here and now. (Offer to find a legendary medic and force her to heal Hinami.)
On some days Hinami only remembered what she told her. These were the days Kiri and her stayed in bed, the days she cooked her favorite food and always the days Kiri went to get a blood check on. She goes to the hospital almost daily, and the hole from where they take her blood every three day for four months doesn't heal. Kiri can't find it in herself to care.
It's such a small price for Hinami's smile.

XLIV

With Hinami gone, Kiri's alone. The streets of the Akasen look wrong and the brothel she grew up in has been replaced by a food stall. She is told that two shinobi had a fight in there one day, and that the next her brothel wasn't standing anymore and half the girls were dead.
With Hinami gone, Kiri doesn't know who to spar with. She doesn't have a sensei, but at fourteen and a Chunin, she doesn't need one. She doesn't know anyone her age, because she left the academy early and never had the time to speak to them. She doesn't know people from the Seduction Squad because Hinami didn't like hanging out with them. Kiri is broken by the war now that Hinami isn't there to hold the tape together. Kiri's alone. She doesn't know anyone, and her home Village is cold.
The sun shines on the rooftops but Kiri keeps her head down.

XLV

She scatters Hinami's ashes at the next storm.

XLVI

Kiri's back on the active roster very soon. She's lost everything but her training, and when she wears her furisode and paints her face, Kiri feels like Hinami's still around. She tricks herself into smelling her perfume, seeing her hair in the sink and hearing her voice. All she's got left are memories, and Kiri hates memories.
Hinami is far more vibrant than a mere memory.

XLVII

Her first mission after Hinami's death is the assassination of the Fire Damyo's Son. He's not the heir but the second born, and Kiri's to dispatch of him before the winter solstice. She shrugs and accepts the mission, because Hinami isn't here anymore to stop her. There's no one waiting for her back home.

XLVIII

Her first mission after Hinami's death is a success. Her target is killed and no one ever realises that papers have gone missing from his office. She comes back to the village without a scratch, her hair as perfect as ever and wearing a beautiful kimono he has gifted to her. Kiri hands her mission report and disappears before news of his death have even spread to Konoha.
She is sent out the following day again, with a new objective.

XLIX

Hinami means non-concurring. Kiri thinks it suits her. The woman was a series of deliberate actions, one after the other. She was like a book, closing a chapter before opening a new one. Kiri's more like a river. All of her rushing towards one goal in a multitude of different ways.
Kiri misses Hinami.

L

She loses tracks of the missions that went well and tries to recall those that went not-too-well, instead. (Like that time she was pretending to be an Iwa civilian and a bunch of bored Jonins got to her and she had to open her legs even though she could have killed them all.) She doesn't scar, she has her medical ninjutsu for that, but Kiri keeps track of the missions that went not-too-well, because these missions are scars on her heart. (Scars on her liver.) She remembers being alone undercover, because that's what being a Seduction Nin is like, she remembers putting brown contacts in and dying her hair gold, because she wasn't Kiri anymore. She remembers many things. (She tries not to do so selectively. Kiri also remembers the flowers she is given, the smiles kids grant her and the gentle touches, sometimes. She tries not to forget.)
Kiri doesn't have the right to forget.

LI

By the time she's fifteen, Kiri has two years of darkness under her belt. She doesn't have a Bingo Book entry, but the Yondaime likes her. He gets her to sit in his office, sometimes, and talk to him about random stuff. He asks her how she handles her missions, because he may be a thirty years old man but he remembers ANBU. Kiri thinks it's his way of apologizing. It's his way of granting her recognition without showing her abilities.
Kiri's fifteen and she's killed two damyos, five Heirs, ten Samurai and hundreds of shinobi and Kunoichi alike.
Her name is not in the Bingo Book, and that is a testament to her skills.

LII

Yagura takes her home, sometimes. He walks with her to her apartment and sits inside her house for a cup of tea. His ANBU leave them, and both find it funny that they can't realise what's going on. They think Kiri can't stop being seduction Kunoichi even when at home and that their Yondaime is just having a bit of fun, but Kiri and Yagura understand this is purely platonic.

LIII

She meets Hijame again, on the streets. She's walking home with a grocery bag in each hand, having been forced to take a month's leave and finding the fridge empty, when Kiri feels someone by her shoulder. She's surprised to see the Chunin, even more so when he picks one of the bags up, grins roguishly at her and help her carry it home. Kiri doesn't have to ask what he needs to recognise that look in his eyes.
Hijame is nineteen when he loses his sensei.

LIV

Kiri's slowly trying to make friends. Hijame introduces her to a few of his 'mates', all of which are happy enough to meet her up until they realise that she's a Chunin and can't talk about what she does when she gets a summon. They understand that missions are secret, but there is always some leeway. Eventually, Kiri gives in. She tells them she specialises in assassination missions.

LV

The boys don't hang out with her again after that, and even Hajime tries to look the other way when she crosses his path on the street.

LVI

Yagura knows about the Sharingan man who inhabits his head. So does Kiri. He tells her, sometimes, about how he loses an hour of his life and he doesn't remember why. He tells her he's signed papers he doesn't remember reading, tells her he doesn't trust anyone anymore, and Kiri understands that the Mizukage isn't hanging out with her for the sake of hanging out with her. He wants Kiri to look into it.

LVII

She's off her leave the next day and out of the village by dawn. Kiri doesn't come back until a year later, a metre long report in her hands and a few more scars on her liver. She walks into Yagura's office without knocking, using the communication seal he's given her to alert him of her presence, but it's the red of a Sharingan that glances her way. Kiri thinks she's fucked.

LVIII

Obito Uchiha works for Madara Uchiha. It's a mind blower, but Kiri is standing right in front of the very man. She goes for humour.
"_eh. You haven't grown, Yagura-dono."
An eyebrow rises, red receding back slowly to pink, but Kiri's seen it.
"_report."
It's definitely not Yagura. He would have punched her through a wall for mentioning his height, would have made her sit down and simultaneously pressed her for answers. It's not her Yagura, and she feels cheated. Kiri smiles and bullshits. (If she's gonna die, she might as well try to survive first.)
"_I've followed orders, attempting to track down the placement of the unknown Jinchuriki. The one-tail, two-tails, seven-tails and eight-tails Biju were naturally already part of our intelligence and although I have sent the files through to you, Mizukage-dono, last months, there are no extra information I have picked up upon." Kiri pauses for a second, thinking back to a few weeks. "The Hachibi likes to make bad raps." She offers. Obito doesn't react. "Four-tailed Jinchuriki is currently travelling north east towards Yuu. He uses a steam release and walks alone. He's got no affiliations as far as I could pick up on and is simply trying to survive. He has, however, been given quite a fair bit of shinobi training. I paid some bandits to attack and his steam jutsu has been very well examined. The five-tails was a bit harder to find. His container has been acting as the guard for a pretty prissy princess from a clan. She's got some nasty secrets, which I'm pretty sure I could use to make the guy come to us and hand over his demon. He'll be the easiest to get down as long as we are careful not to injure the girl. Regarding –"
"_when did you get here? and what the hell are you on about?" Kiri looks her Mizukage once over.
"_nice to have you back, Yagura-dono. I've found what we were searching for."

LIX

They never manage to get rid of his parasite.
Yagura is found to have been manipulated, a rebellion is organised and all Kiri can think to do is run. Take Yagura and run. But the Mizukage refuses, refuses even when Kiri starts talking back to him, refuses when she begs, because Yagura is all she has left. He watches her, watches her with those pink eyes she fears will turn red, but they stay pink and Yagura stares at her. He looks at what he created, looks at what he has brought this village, looks at what he has done to her. Yagura doesn't feel remorse, doesn't feel regret –because he would do all these things again. What Yagura feels is sadness.
It shouldn't have to be like that.
But it is. So Yagura takes Kiri deep into the bowels of T&I, to the old Uzumaki they keep down there, and suddenly they are the only three people in the world to know. Kiri kills the red head, helps Yagura limp out of that prison and body flickers home. There's nothing there but a couch and a bed, but Yagura's been here often enough to recognise her place. (There's a smell of jasmine in the air, one that lingers even three years after her death.)

LX

Kiri is sixteen when she becomes the Sanbi Jinchuriki.

LXI

It gets crowded, up in her head. Isobu is a calm and kind beast, if a little weary of humans, but as soon as he realises that Kiri isn't normal, he allows the little girl in. He likes Rez, because Rez is a little bit like him. A trapped soul. Rez and Isobu talk a lot, about being trapped and not really wanting to get out and being tired –things that Kiri can't understand but feels, in her guts. She listens, and she makes sure to let Isobu take control sometimes, to spend more time with Rez.

LXII

The last few months with Yagura are beautiful. Kiri feels more whole than she has had in a long time, her smile more real as she tries to enjoy every single moment she has left in her Village. Kiri doesn't want to go, but she understands that by associating herself so closely with the Mizukage she has painted a target on her back, and that the Godaime will want her dead. Yagura helps her plan her escape, makes sure she'll be far away from the Village when it happens, because Kiri has got the Sanbi inside of herself and he doesn't want it released on Kiri no Sato. Yagura loves Kiri. (Both of them, in his own little twisted way.)

LXIII

Two days before the Rebellion, Yagura personally hands Kiri a mission. It's on a black scroll, the burn-before-reading-if-you-can kind, and Kiri doesn't even glance at it as she zips it up inside her pocket. She'll read it when she's away from the Village.

LXIV

It's three in the morning when Yagura walks her to the gates. She gives him her apartment key, asks him to clean out the fridge and tells him she's left two days' worth of meals.
He won't need any more.
She's paid the bills and closed all the windows. All he needs to do is take the food and wait. Kiri is almost through the gate when she turns around and hugs Yagura with all her strength. It's nothing to scoff at, because she's been working out with him and trying to keep up with a Jinchur –with her Yondaime is not a small feat. Yagura hugs her back just as tightly. She doesn't want to let go, because he is the sole thing she's got left, but Kiri understands. It's not about Yagura or herself; it's about the village.

LXV

Kiri hates Kirigakure no Sato with a burning passion. It's taken her father away. It's taken her innocence away. It's taken her mother, her sensei, her Yondaime, her friends-herfuture. Kiri hates the Village, hates it as much as her father loved it, as her sensei loved it, as her Yondaime loved it. Kiri hates the Village like her mother used to. It's a cruel, cruel village.

LXVI

Kirigakure can be beautiful. If it is given the chance, Kiri no Sato can be beautiful. It's also why she loves it.

LXVII

Kiri's roaming in Wave when the news reach her. (She knew it would happen. It still hits her with all the strength of a hurricane.) Yagura's dead. Her heart drops in her stomach, leaps in her throat and threatens to choke out, but she's got to keep her cover so Kiri waits until she's hidden to break down.
Yagura's gone. She won't be "safekeeping" Isobu, as she had made believe. She won't be seeing Yagura again. She won't be going back home. (Where is home now?)
Kiri's alone again.

LXVIII

It's Rez who suggests Konoha. Kiri doesn't care any more, apathetic and wondering why she's bothering, but Isobu shows some resistance towards the idea. He doesn't want to be used as a weapon, and Kiri gets that. She didn't either, before Hinami and Yagura died. Now? She couldn't care less.
Kiri broke with the death of Hinami, but she lost everything when Yagura died.

LXIX

She reaches fire country in spring. She's seventeen now, she thinks, but she isn't too sure anymore. She's chewing on the end of a senbon because she wants to trip and see it stick through her neck, plays with explosive tags and hunts preys she can't eat by herself. Kiri wants to be found, wants to be taken and killed and put out of her misery. She hates it, and she hates herself even more at the thought that she's given up. She's given up, given in to the rage and the anger and the pain and she just feels numb. Kiri hates it.
She thinks Yagura and Hinami would be very disappointed with her.

LXX

"_what are you doing here?"
Kiri looks to the side, smiles sloppily to the ceramic mask with the face of a something on it and drowns her glass.
"_attempting to get cirrhosis." Oh god it hurts. "And you?"
"_you've dragged three hunter nins in with you through our borders." Kiri looks down at her glass, fills it and drowns it.
"_they won't attack civilians, and they won't kill me." She's saying too much, but she doesn't care. "Why don't you do their job for them?"
The senbon at her lips bops up and down as she chews on it, the clinking of metal against ivory teeth soft in the bar's ambience.
"_where did you get that?" she looks down at the needle and remembers. (A boy with brown eyes, an antidote and Hinami, Hinami who looked so proud.)
"_down memory lane. Caught a dream in my hands and within a blink it was gone. Traded steel for an antidote, left through a window like a broken thief and ran home never to speak of it again. Why do you care?"
The ANBU is silent for a long time.
"_a stranger gave me an antidote one day, and I spit a senbon at her only to watch as she caught it with her mouth."
Kiri's hands still, her heart beating painfully in her chest as she tries to hold onto something golden. It's a memory, with the hue of youth and a warm hand on her back.
"_eh, what a surprise. How's your teammate?"
"_very well, both of them."
Kiri nods and wonders if he'll let her finish her sake before he kills her.

LXXI

"_you are still here?"
She looks up to the mask of the something, then back out towards the city. Kiri had never seen a sunrise, only the red light as it dispersed through the mist and turned dawn the colours of blood. Bloody mist. What a convincing name. She isn't wearing a furisode today. Kiri expects to be gone soon, and she doesn't want to have to mind the silk as she travels. She looks like the woman she becomes on mission, the one that can think straight and take actions without needing to consult the bottom of five sake bottles beforehand.
Kiri likes that woman. She wishes it were her.
"_yeah."
"_don't you have somewhere to be?"
He sits with her and Kiri wonders why he hasn't killed her yet.
"_I'm waiting for them."
"_the hunter nins?"
"_no." she murmurs. "The ghosts. They are coming. Can you hear?"
She's a little unhinged, she supposes. It's from all these times Yagura smacked her. Her throat closes as she blinks away tears, looking forward, forward and not backwards because backwards is bad, bad-badbad.
"_yeah. I can."
Kiri whips her head around so fast she thinks she'll snap her neck. The holes of the mask are staring at her, staring straight at her and into her soul and Kiri cannot help but feel as if they see her. Her hands tremble as she grips his armour.
"_you can?"
"_yeah."

LXXII

Kiri refuses to die.
It's something she realises, between one life and the next as she awaits the hunter nins from her village. She will not die. (She has Hinami's life on her hands and a promise to Yagura. She will not die, because she is the only one to remember them for what they were and she won't let them be forgotten.) Kiri will not die. She'll live six times Hinami's death, to a hundred and thirty two.
The three hunter nins surround her.
She wonders if she knew them. She wonders if she spoke to them, reported to them once. She wonders if they see her for who she was or what she is now. She wonders if they see her at all.
"_Kiri Fuyumi. You are under arrest from the Mizukage, Godaime of the reign. You are to follow us back to Kirigakure no Sato and undergo judgement there."
She thinks she has fallen very low, has fallen further than anywhere she had before in her seventeen years, because Kiri doesn't feel fear in that instant. She has Isobu at her side and Rez at her back. She is invincible.

LXXIII

They come to her.
Even as a mist Kunoichi, Kiri has spent a long time away from her village; and as such she has gained an understanding of what lies out there that no regular shinobi has. (She's swapped it against dinners at home, a family and friends. Kiri isn't sure it's a good swap, but it's hers.) She's seen the wilderness and has lived in it, she has seen the pockets of nins just trying to survive. Konoha, Kumo, Kusa and even some from the old Yuu. She's seen shinobi from all around the nations, hiding together in little settlements. They live in the fear of being found, shy away from contact and try to carry their lives as normal –but Kiri has heard their whispers. She's one of them, now. But Kiri refuses to bow.
She is Kiri Fuyumi, the Sanbi Jinchuriki and bearer of Yagura's legacy. She's got a ghost on her lips and she will live up to her name.

LXXIV

They calls themselves lost, but Kiri tells them they are Musei. They call themselves forlorn but Kiri tells them they are simply hers. They call themselves worthless, but she tells them they still need to be polished.
Kiri finds them, quietly. She looks for them, hunts them out and gives, gives to them all that she is if they give her all that they are. Soon enough, her Musei spread across the lands. She unites lost groups and watches as they become one. Kiri builds her Village, because she refuses to be anyone's tool but her own.
They follow her because they agree.

LXXV

She is twenty one when they call her Yamikage. She pretends she doesn't hear it, because Kiri isn't there to enslave them. She's there to give them a place to rest, a place to hide and a place to grow. Kiri loves them, loves them like she thinks her parents loved her, but Kiri is twenty one. She doesn't want the weight of their lives on her back.
Kiri is twenty one when they call her Yamikage. She names their Village Museigakure no Sato.

LXXVI

Sometimes Kiri wakes up and wonders where she is. Sometimes she forgets she is Yamikage and wonders if she has been kidnapped. If Hinami is going to come and save her. If Yagura has noticed she isn't back yet.
And then Kiri remembers.

LXXVII

Musei is a spider like construction. They live under a dome of glass, buried deep inside the ground. It's a beautiful construction, one that had the Suna and the Konoha nuke nins cooperating. Their wide open window is sealed against entry, thanks to a few Uzumaki who have sought out refuge in their midst, and the temperature is controlled by some of the best Yuki's around. The compound they live in is never in darkness, the Kumo ninjas having developed a system based on lightening chakra to store energy and activate light bulbs. Kusa nins are in charge of the inner gardens and as Kiri watches them bustle about, she wonders why peace can only be achieved when it's done by desperate people.
A Kumo nin jumps onto a crane, wobbles a bit and is immediately stabilised by the Suna ninja next to her. A kunoichi from fire helps her unload the paint she's brought and both of them get going with decorating the newly finished town hall.
There's a building they will never call the Academy, where the children go to learn how to be a ninja; but only if they want. If they don't they have another place, one they call Gakko, where they can go and learn any trade there is. Cooking, cleaning, painting, gardening, sewing and even the Merchant art. They teach maths and chakra theory so that the civilians can hire shinobi, teach geography and history and every single ninja in the village is required to participate.
None complain. Musei is a spider. They have a branch everywhere, a limb that stretches out across all the nations and unites them.

LXXVIII

Kiri likes the beach. She didn't used to, before –rather she had no particular affection for it. Now Kiri can spend hours on the beach, just staring at the waves. People respect that about her, and no one ever bothers her when she is like that.
Isobu loves the beach, and although Kiri doesn't care for it too much, she cares for Isobu enough that the beach becomes one of the places she goes to think.

LXXIX

Inside Musei, she isn't Yamikage-dono. They keep that for when people are around, people who don't understand Musei yet. Inside Musei, Kiri is just Kiri. Some people call her Fuyumi-sama, if they are still new, but those she started with, those she first reached out towards –they call her Kiri. They do it, because she isn't their Kage.

LXXX

Arashi is old by Mist nins standards. She finds Kiri as the seventeen years old tries to drown memories in alcohol, sits beside the younger girl she remembers from when she still hid behind Hinami's kimono and begins to talk.
Arashi has got nowhere to go. She was on the ANBU guard to the Yondaime, and now that he's dead she's got a warrant on her head. The new Mizukage wants her dead, because Arashi remembers Yagura and she is loyal to Yagura. She remembers Yagura in a way Kiri doesn't. He was her Yondaime, but he was Kiri's friend.
Neither really knew the Yagura of the other, but it doesn't stop them from speaking about him all day long and laughing and trying to piece together something that sounds vaguely like home.

LXXXI

Kiri leads the village in all matters that regard the outside world. Inside Musei, there is a council. It's comprised of shinobi and civilian, two from each faction of the city. As Musei grows, the number of shinobi and civilian who make up the council grows as well. In the end, there are over forty people on the council. It's chaos all the time, with people not listening and adults arguing and civilians and shinobi tossing things at each other.
Kiri thinks it's beautiful.

LXXXII

Kiri thinks Yagura would be proud of her. She's twenty and the Sanbi no longer spends his days behind bars.

LXXXIII

She still sees Genma. Sometimes, Kiri surfaces in fire country. She waits about for a few days, hangs around Tanzaku Gai's Akasen and suddenly Genma appears, just like magic. Genma smiles when he sees Kiri. Sometimes they walk around Tanzaku, sometimes they leave for somewhere else and sometimes Genma walks her back to her hotel room. He never stays though.

LXXXIV

She protects them. As a Jinchuriki, she stands as the most powerful of the villagers present. Kiri's role is not to enforce the law. It's to make sure that no threats will ever find out about Musei.
She personally runs background checks with those who come in, makes sure they won't harm the ones present and Kiri is the only one to place the seal on their body that will prevent them from talking about Musei. Their lives depend on the secrecy of the place, and Kiri will kill anyone who threatens her people.

LXXXV

She has found something else to live for. It's a village that runs underground, a place where children laugh on the streets and girls aren't raped and kids don't get sent to war. It's a place she has built with her hands, a place she protects with her sweat and a place Kiri loves.
She hopes Yagura and Hinami can see her now. They would be so proud.

LXXXVI

The Uzushio masters spent two years designing the seal for Musei. During that time, Kiri had to kill twenty shinobi because they threatened to betray them. (She is twenty two and she already has the blood of her people on her hands.) Now that they have the seal, people are free to come and go out of Musei as they wish. She's given them back their freedom, has given them back her trust –and Kiri hopes that she'll never regret it.

LXXXVII

At first, it was just Kiri. She roamed the lands and tried to find settlements, talked to people who would listen and spent time with those who were scared. She tried to find a home, but there was no home to be found so she created one. At first, it was just Kiri, strong eighteen years old Kiri with a head full of dreams. And then it was Kiri and Arashi. And then it was Kiri, Arashi and Midori. Eventually, it became Arashi and Kawa, Midori, Sora, Niji and Zen –and Kiri, nineteen years old Kiri pushed in a role she doesn't recognise.
She lost herself in this creation.

LXXXVIII

It's Genma who makes Kiri stay.

LXXXIX

It's Shikamaru who saves her.

XC

Musei is the first Village to have the train.
It's something they have had within their world for years, but the coal on which trains operate over-ground is wasteful. Rez tells Kiri about machines that could reach 430km/h, cover the distance between Konoha and Suna within two and a half hours. A specialised work force of Shinobi and Civilian from all over the Elemental Nations spends four years developing the machine.
The first train runs from Central to Iron and is able to move the entire population of Musei over seven hundred and thirty kilometres within two and a half hours. Central is situated on the sole remaining Uzushio Island, at the border between Haran Bay and Kaizoku Sea.
It takes a grown ninja five days of travel to cover the same distance.

XCI

"_I was sent here to watch over you."
"_you are doing a good job. Haven't left my side since we met." Genma shakes his head, keeping stride beside her. He's removed his ANBU uniform and lounges around with her as a Jonin, hands in his pockets and a senbon at the corner of his mouth. Kiri hasn't given his back, but he doesn't ask for it.
"_I sent a letter to the Hokage yesterday. She'd like to meet you."
That stops her right in her tracks.
"_Senju-hime?"
"_the one and only." The only woman who could have saved Hinami. The only woman who could have saved Hinami. Kiri is twenty four and she is filled with a bitter resentment, with a fear that spreads along her spine and rips through her, rips through all that she is. Kiri wants to go, to go and look at Tsunade Senju in the eye and make her see what has happened to her, a child soldier who lost all the women she loved to illnesses she could have cured with a touch. She's bitter, full of bitter, bitter resentment and anger and… Genma sounds hopeful. Like there's something to be gained from this meeting.
"_why?"
"_I think… I think she wants to know why you are here."

XCII

Not everyone inside Musei is nice. It doesn't mean that they turn them away.
Musei collects the scum of the earth, the shinobi that have killed too much and been kicked out of their countries for it. Musei takes in without distinction –but Musei also kills.
Kiri writes their name on the great Obelisk. She does not make a difference between them and those that died in combat, those that died under their glass ceiling or those that left them. They are all Musei.

XCIII

Central is not in the middle of the Spider at all. District Four becomes the second metropolis. It's situated right beneath Konoha, with emergency exits all over the Village. It runs low down in the ground, stretches all the way to Otafuki Gai. Kiri spends a lot of time in the Fourth Faction. It gets nicknamed Ho, short for Ho-Musei. Silent Fire. It's in their Shidashi, their Fourth Leg, and Kasai and Midori represent it on the Council in Central. It's the second set of rails they put down.

XCIV

She's wearing the Furisode the Damyo of Water has given her, with a nice little hair clasp, gifted to her by the second Lady of the Heir of Stone after she got rid of her annoying husband. She's put red on her lips and Kiri doesn't look like a Kunoichi. She looks like a Musei.
Genma's watched her get ready with a sort of morbid fascination in his eyes. He isn't allowed to let her out of his sight until the Jonin commander comes to get her, which Kiri supposes is an honour but right now at this instant she's more busy trying to find a way to keep her favourite senbon, his senbon, on herself without being blatant about it. She settles for adding it to the pin, refusing the urge to do as he does and chew on it. It's a fantastic stress reliever, but dreadful for the enamel.
Kiri looks at herself in the mirror, makes sure the layers of her furisode are properly set and walks to the door just as knocks echo on it. Genma pulls it open as she slips her wooden geta on, but if the guy standing at the door thinks her dress odd he doesn't say anything. Kiri looks up and stops.
Oh. It's Genma's Jonin sensei. She nods respectfully and makes a small movement of her head.
"_shall we?"
Nara-san nods, Genma shrugs and Kiri falls into step beside them.
"_can you handle the rooftops in that?" Genma asks dubiously.
"_of course not."
He stares at her for a second, trying to decide if she has just sassed him or if she really cannot, before Kiri sighs and takes off. Oh. Sass it was.
Shikaku-sensei just looks at his grown up little Genin, with all of his twenty eight years, and shakes his head.

XCV

She never tells Tsunade about Musei.
She desperately wants to, wants to have a reason to stay within Fire country just so that Kiri can stay with Genma. But she never tells Tsunade about Musei.
She won't do that to her people.

XCVI

"_what business do you have within Konoha?" Tsunade's lips are ruby red, and Kiri wonders if they are as poisonous as they look. The woman is strong, but her hatred for her is stronger. (She doesn't forget Hinami. She will never forget Hinami.)
"_I am a trader, looking for business."
"_what do you trade?"
"_what do you need?"
Kiri hates Tsunade. (Kiri can heal now, she can heal like the woman before her can. The second host to the Sanbi was a healer and most of her knowledge Isobu is happy to share with Kiri.) Kiri knows how easy it would have been for her to heal Hinami.
Kiri hates Tsunade.

XCVII

Musei only has one law.
Your freedom ends where other people's begin.

XCVIII

She presents herself as a steel trader. Next time she comes to Konoha, Kiri brings along two shinobi and a civilian; Ishi, Midori and Riyoku. Ishi is an expert civilian haggler, easily arguing prices until they are half what they were and keeping the seller feeling like they have made a good deal. Midori oversees the training of younger kids in Katon jutsu, and Riyoku is a Jonin from Kumo. They are the ones who will be in charge of producing the steel Musei will trade for money.
Tsunade takes a look at the weapons they have to offer and the deal is set by the evening. (She has a reason to be in Konoha now.) Kiri feels something bubble inside her chest when Genma is assigned to be her handler whilst she remains in the Village. If Midori (sweet Midori who has been with Kiri for the past seven years) notices, she says nothing.

XCIX

Musei is made up of Ten Districts, Central not whistanding.
Ame, Tsuchi, Mizu, Ho, Kusa, Rai, Ta, Kaze, Taki and Onsen. They spread under the earth, each directly linked back to Central by a fast track train in a giant star network. They have connections between each other, but every Faction soon develops their speciality. Children wanting to learn earth ninjutsu are sent to Tsuchi. Silk is imported from Ta, directly under Rice Paddy country. Mizu controls the water supplies and Rai ensures they never run out of the electricity required to make the trains work. Kusa keeps them fed and Ame is their backdoor to the West of the Nations. Kaze teaches the Wind natured and Ho is their main market. Taki is their police force and Onsen their holiday destinations.
But District 0, Genesis as they call it –Engen. Engen is where they live. It's where the great Obelisk stands, where Central controls all of the Spider. Central is the heart of Musei, and they nickname it Uzu. In memory all of those who fell to fear.

C

Musei means Unvoiced.

CI

Kiri's twenty four when the Konoha Crush occurs, shortly after Musei first finishes building its railroad. Kiri and Genma were something-that-wasn't-anything-yet at that time. (She saw how tired he was, how stretched for allies they were and how much so many people had lost.) She witnessed a crushed orphanage and children huddling together under the ruins, pain and hunger and fear unvoiced. (Kiri spoke to her council of those Musei who never made it home.)
The following day a work force of a hundred swarmed the city. Hardly anyone noticed, the Sandaime dead and most nins too tired to pay attention. Konoha's reserves didn't run out during the winter despite the lack of crops, the prices dropped on the market to ensure everyone had food and the orphanage was rebuilt, larger than before.
The hundred shinobi who had sprung out of the ground were gone by the time Tsunade entered the Village. (But Genma noticed. And Genma told Shikaku. And Shikaku kept an eye on Kiri from there on.)

CII

They never stop calling her Yamikage. They just do it behind her back, acknowledge her with a name that remains unvoiced. It's so Musei.

CIII

Genma is part of the seduction squad.
Kiri is twenty six when learns it via the grapevine, from the Musei who have spent time on the surface of Konoha. There is nothing the Spider cannot provide her people with, but for all it tries, Musei isn't quite like the homes they have left behind. (It doesn't need to be. Musei is more.)
Sometimes, those who have left their souls behind like to come back. They pop around the city, take a look around and try to abate their pain. Melancholy is a strong feeling. Tsunade closes an eye to these appearances, and Kiri thinks it's because Shikaku suspects she has something to do with it. He's not wrong.
Kiri learns that Genma is part of the seduction squad from the grapevine. (It was written all over him and she half suspected it, but the truth still hurts.) Some of Musei's children manage to have a look through the archives, and although there are no missions directly pertaining to Genma and Kiri, the fear does not abate.
Genma still has the power to make Kiri stay, but there is a gap between them. Kiri holds too many secrets, and Genma doesn't tell her too much. His touch is hesitant and sometimes, when Kiri leaves, she hugs him too tightly. They are afraid.
Genma's made Kiri whole again.

CIV

Kiri never promises them renown, glory or riches when they join Musei. What she tells them about is acceptance, happiness and safety. It's what all of them seek.

CV

Sometimes people take Musei as voiceless. Kiri is always adamant in rectifying those ideas; her Musei are not voiceless. They are merely unvoiced –songs waiting to be sung and lives wanting to be lived. They are unvoiced, silent and waiting. Happiness doesn't have to loud and safety can be found within stillness. It's the Musei Truth.

CVI

When Konoha is attacked by Pein, Ho-Musei stands strong. Kiri thinks it's a testament to their faith. When Konoha is restored by Pein, the ten years old Shidashi sees its sick and dying healed. Hope blooms anew and resources are diverted from all the other Branches to Ho. Musei might be Unvoiced, but it is not heartless. When the time comes to move, Musei will move –they will do so in silence. Musei is an unvoiced truth.

CVII

Kiri is twenty nine when war toils over-ground. The Akatsuki are making themselves known and Jinchuriki are beginning to fall. Musei does not fear. Kiri is theirs, and they will lay their lives to stop the Akatsuki from reaching their Yamikage. It has nothing to do with her title and everything with the hand she extended when they fell into the darkness.

CVIII

Kiri fears for Musei when war makes itself known. She fears she'll be taken and leave her people weaker. She fears she won't be able to shield them from the outside. She fears Musei might fall back down into darkness.
Kiri tells Genma about Musei on that day. She is twenty eight and he's thirty one, and they've been tip toeing around each other for eleven years. Kiri loves Genma, with everything she has, and that's the reason why she shows him Musei. He tells her he loves her as they stand in front of the Obelisk. (He's got the seal by the time he comes back out.)

CIX

The war breaks out when she is twenty nine. It ends the same year.
The population of Musei drops by half.
At the dawn of the conflict, Kiri and the council gather. The war is something that affects them all, even Musei so carefully hidden. Kiri will be thought after and hunted so that the Akatsuki's utopic plan can be put into action. The Council fights and debates for two days and a night before they reach to a common agreement; Musei will go to war.
Kiri is the one they turn towards to lead them during this war. The council disbands in favour of her autocracy, and the woman is given far more power than she wants. (Far more power than she knows how to handle.) She is twenty nine, has got a quarter of the world's population looking up to her and all their lives to safeguard.
Kiri refuses to force her people to fight. (Many do. It's their duty, because Musei needs them and it is time they give Musei back what it gifted them. They will fight to defend their homes, fight for their freedom and Musei is proud. They might be a silent force, but they are a power to be reckoned.) A quarter of the shinobi population is sent to help with the alliance, Kiri using the cover of her trading company as means to justify the sudden onslaught of able bodies. The kage welcome this small army, thirty six million strong.
Of her people, twenty and a half million come back.

CX

Kiri is the only one to know where the seals go on a person's body. She is the only one to know the exact array required to prevent people from talking about Musei, and she is also the only one able to unlock their tongues.
There is a barrier around Musei. No one else but her and the Fuinjutsu team that build it know about the protection. It automatically sets the seal on whoever passes through. Kiri's written a technique on the barrier. It's chakra brushes, a mix between chakra scalpels and ink brushes, and Kiri is the one to have created it. She's never used that technique before, and no one knows of its existence. It's her best insurance. Every single person who crosses the barrier into Musei automatically gets the seal branded on their hearts. (It's barbaric and crude, something she would have never considered doing if Kiri didn't think it vital to Musei. Her people come first. Always.)
She hopes that one day she'll break the seal and Musei will stand strong without it. She really does.
But Kiri is patient. For the time being, she will brand her people and hide them away –up until the world is ready to accept them.

CXI

Kiri is thirty when Genma admits to her he is SS. She has known for the past four years but something clears between them when he introduces Shikamaru to her. 'Maru, as he ends up being called, is a nineteen years old Jonin who's trying to find a spot for himself after the war. He is Shikaku's son and he lives in his shadow; because a dead man bears no fault. The Jonin commander was a friend of Kiri's, someone she looked up to and respected –and he is gone. (He was never Musei, but it doesn't mean he wasn't hers in a way. She blames Isobu for this possessiveness.)
Kiri is thirty when Genma admits to her he is SS. 'Maru is a teen who's been forced into growing up, someone who enjoys cloud watching and has lost himself since his father died. 'Maru is someone she loves before she knows him, because Shikamaru is Musei. Kiri loves Shikamaru, not like she does Genma, but like she does her people. Maru's Musei. He just hasn't come home yet.

CXII

Kiri is thirty two when she walks in on Genma and Shikamaru. (She remembers Hinami and soft skin and gentle hands, and Kiri isn't surprised. She half expected it.) It hurts, in a way only Genma can hurt Kiri, but she hides it well under a thick layer of perversion. Kiri leans against the frame of the door, watching silently as the two men fuck like beasts –and it's hot. She doesn't deny that it turns her on, that it makes her want to toss her clothes away and join these two. (She is scared of rejection, so she stays put and watches as they climax.) Genma is the first to notice her. Shikamaru guesses it by the way Genma tenses and the room's atmosphere turns from sunny to glaring.
"_that was hot."
She's the one to break the silence and, with the three words, the air around them turns back to a pleasant afternoon. (Kiri hurts, but Genma is more important. And Shikamaru, now.) Kiri is no hypocrite.
For all she loves Genma, she still bears Hinami on her skin.

CXIII

Shikamaru goes on a mission when he turns twenty. He doesn't come back home.
Genma spends the whole week after his supposed return tense, snapping at her and refusing to touch Kiri. Shikamaru isn't home, and the man doesn't feel whole. (Kiri hurts, because she used to be enough. She isn't anymore. She'll never be enough again, and somehow that tears at her soul and makes her want to cry. Kiri isn't enough anymore.)
Shikamaru doesn't come back home. Kiri goes and fetches him. (He is Musei, one of her children, and she will not allow them to be harmed. Musei are hers, just like Genma is, and even if she isn't his, Shikamaru is and Kiri will do her best to keep Genma happy.)
Musei finds Shikamaru drugged and sluggish on a market that should no longer exist. Kiri brings him home.
(She tells Genma Shikamaru is safe, but Kiri keeps the boy away. She hides him within the folds of Musei, takes care of him and makes sure he is whole. It takes two months.)
Shikamaru is Musei and he is Genma's and Genma is hers and Musei are hers. Kiri takes care of what is hers.

CXIV

If Genma is the Sun, Shikamaru's Venus. (Kiri's the asteroid belt.)

CXV

Kiri sends a second force away, at the eve of the war. Fifty six percent of her army, eighty two million men, Kiri dedicates them to finding and eradicating the Zetsu nests. Her people spring up all over the place, from Bear to Wind, Nagi Island to the Land of Key. Up all the way to Snow. Her people spread across the earth like a great tide. How many die, Kiri does not know.
Out of the original eighty two million men, twenty five million come back to Engen. (Musei pays a heavy price for peace.)

CXVI

Shikamaru is the first one to kiss her.
She's brought him back to the surface, has given what was hers back to their world, but Shikamaru doesn't forget the woman who hid him until he could heal. He doesn't forget the girl who refused to lose Genma and let him in, doesn't forget the looks she sent after the senbon user when she thought no one was looking. Shikamaru doesn't forget.
That's why he kisses her. (He owes her so much, and it's but a fraction of this that he gives back.)
Kiri stiffens when he first does. They've just had dinner, the three of them –as they are prone to do ever since Kiri found out about him and Genma. Genma's hands are running across Shikamaru's skin, holding tightly onto the Nara that has just been brought back to him and he's been eating 'Maru with his eyes all throughout dinner. Kiri rises to do the dishes (he doesn't understand why she doesn't just Suiton Jutsu them), taking their plates away and telling them to get the hell out of her kitchen coz it needs cleaning. It's a lie. The kitchen's spotless –Kiri's really adamant about that. (Never mind that it's not actually her kitchen.) Genma pulls him from the kitchen but Shikamaru resists.
Kiri's turned away from them, already at the sink and with the water running. Shikamaru walks up behind her. (She's short. He's never quite noticed it.)
He nips at her ear, the shell of it, tugging gently and brushing her white hair away with his hands. Kiri stiffens, and the plate she was holding disappears under the water. Shikamaru turns the tap off.

CXVII

Kiri is selfish, and that's why she relaxes into his warmth; because she hasn't been touched in far too long. Shikamaru burns her.
She hasn't been touched in three years. Genma's been avoiding her skin as if she were a leper, turning his eyes away from her every time. He's guilty, sees the way things are turning but Genma loves Kiri, loves her like he would a comfortable pair of pyjamas or a soft blanket. He loves Kiri because she is there and she is never going away.
Genma loves Shikamaru with all the rage of a roaring fire, where a single touch can ignite an insatiable hunger within him. Genma loves both Shikamaru and Kiri –but it's different.
Kiri gives into Shikamaru without much resistance. (She's been there, for three years she's been there, but where was Genma?)
Kiri doesn't know how she can still love Genma, but she does. (He is kind, loves her and cares for her. His face lights up when he sees her cooking dinner, and he sits across from her at the table. Genma loves Kiri, and she knows it. That's why she's still here.) Kiri loves Genma, but she is tired. (She's loved for so long she doesn't remember how to.)
Shikamaru brings Kiri back. (Kiri from before Musei. The Kiri who loved Hinami enough to wreck the earth apart after her death. The Kiri who felt. The Kiri who let everything drop to help Yagura. This Kiri. The Kiri that dreamt Musei.) He does it with incredible patience, with small nips and gentle touches. He is twenty two and she is thirty three, but Kiri is a forge gone cold and Shikamaru rekindles that fire.
Although Genma is the one she stays for, it is Shikamaru who saves Kiri.

CXVIII

Kiri meets Yukino Nara at Shikamaru's twenty third birthday party. His team is there, a pregnant Ino and a happy Choji. They have brought their other halves, Sai and a golden girl from Kumo. She flashes Kiri a smile and the woman recognises her as one of Musei's she has given back to the world. Kiri is glad to see her happy. (Musei is glad to see one of its own happy.) Genma and she stand out a little from the crowd, keeping to themselves somewhat, but everybody acknowledges their presence as the one of Shikamaru's Taichou and his girlfriend. Ino teases Shikamaru about finding his other half, and he observes tradition by turning a blind ear to her nagging. Ino waddles back inside whilst Maru's left alone. He lies down on the porch, propped on one elbow as he stares at the skies with a bottle of sake in his hands.
Genma and Kiri step out to join him. The night is young, and there is something on the air that electrifies them. There's a sense of finality within today.
Kiri kneels beside Shikamaru, pulling his elastic band off and running her fingers through his pony tail.
"_I miss him too." Murmurs Genma quietly. There's a moment of silence during which Kiri carries on stroking his hair and Shikamaru leans against Genma. And then;
"_Ino's stupid if she thinks I need a half. Three thirds make a whole."
It may be Shikamaru's birthday, but he is the one gifting them with the most beautiful present.

CXIX

By the time Kiri's thirty six, they've linked all the Hidden Villages to Central. People from all over the world mingle and share, the market place bustles with silk and food and spices from all over the Nations. It's a whirlwind of colour, a vortex of life hidden underground. Their glass ceilings are not limits to be shattered –they are protections against the outside world. Kiri has created a place where dreamers come to die and dreams are lived.
By the time Kiri's thirty six, half the population of the Elemental Nations belongs to Musei. (They are hers)

CXX

Shikamaru is the third corner to their triangle, and Kiri is fiercely grateful towards Genma for bringing him into her life. Shikamaru and Genma are Kiri's.

CXXI

"_you said you'd bring the girl you've been spending all your time with to this gathering." Yukino steps out onto the porch, a plate of petit fours in her hands as she offers some to Kiri and Genma. They take one, polite, but Shikamaru can feel the weight of their silence on the air.
"_it's not a girl."
"_the boy, then." Yukino appears unfazed, setting the tray onto the wooden planks as she kneels beside her son and takes the sake bottle away from him. "You shouldn't let him drink so much, Genma-kun."
"_sorry, Yukino-san."
"_do you know, then, who Shikamaru has been spending time with?"
Yukino Nara may have married into the family, but she is not stupid. She knows her son likes the man before her, knows it like only a mother can.
"_Mom." She ignores him. Genma tries to find the right words (Sorry, Yukino-san, but your son is fucking both his father's student and said student's girlfriend.) It's Kiri who sweeps in and salvages the situation.
"_Shikamaru has been spending time at our home."
"_and you are fine with that?" Yukino suspects the truth, but Shikamaru has turned the table since then and Kiri is so glad.
"_of course. I love Shikamaru." His mother looks surprised. Her eyes flicker between Kiri and Genma, try to assess the situation. Shikamaru decides to clear the air now.
"_I'm with both of them, Mom."
He's said it. He's said it. Shikamaru closes his eyes and tries to go to sleep. (Maybe when he wakes up, everything will have been just a dream and he can make some half assed excuse as to why he doesn't want to go to his own birthday party.)

CXXII

It's only later on tonight that Shikamaru realises what Kiri said. It makes him feel warm from the inside.

CXXIII

His mother invites them to dinner the following day, and Kiri can see that Yukino is trying. Shikamaru is all she has left, and the woman loves him. She loves him with all she is, loves all of Shikamaru. Yukino loves her child. (Kiri was too young when her mother was healthy. She cannot remember it, but she knows it's the same eyes as her mother's.)

CXXIV

She never gets angry. (That's a lie, but Kiri makes sure to make them believe it the truth.) Kiri is a laidback person by nature, and Isobu is not an angry Biju. He is bitter, hurt and hurting from years spent behind bars until use and despair have accepted them. Kiri never gets angry (at least not in public.) Isobu might be free in her mind, but they would seek to take him away. The least she can do is protect him.

CXXV

The world never knows of the Musei force that died to kill the Zetsu. Musei's truth is silent, and all those who are ready to see Musei have guessed why the war was so easily won.
Madara might have been half mad by the end, but even madness cannot outshine military genius.

CXXVI

Kiri gives a lot to the world. She thinks it her duty, because the world has given Kiri so much.
(It has given her a loving mother and a gentle father. It has given her Hinami and Yagura and Isobu and Rezef. It has given her Shikaku and Hijame and Musei. It has given her Genma and Shikamaru.)
That's why Kiri doesn't complain when she loses things. (Her loving mother and her gentle father. Hinami and Yagura and Shikaku and Hijame and Genma.) She keeps giving, because the world has gifted Kiri with so much already. (Isobu and Rezef and Musei and Shikamaru.) And sometimes, the world takes pity on Kiri and gives her what it took back. (Genma. Genma.)

CXXVII

Sometimes Kiri wishes Hinami were here. When Shikamaru worships her body and Genma loves her, Kiri sometimes imagines Hinami's soft hands on her body. She lives with the breath of a ghost on her skin, but Kiri never regrets it. Hinami is too precious for regrets.

CXXVIII

Musei has killed Kiri.
It's made her tired, made her old before her time. She feels the weight of their lives and Kiri isn't Kiri anymore. She is Yamikage and Kiri and Fuyumi-san, but she isn't Kiri. (She isn't the SS kid, she doesn't glitter in the sunlight, she isn't the Bloody Mist. She isn't Kiri.)
Musei kills Kiri.
(She's one of the many names on the Obelisk, because there are some people who die even though their heart still beats.)

CXXIX

Kiri is proud of the woman she has become. (Despite loving a boy eleven years younger than herself. Despite letting Genma slip between her fingers. Despite not doing all she could to save Shikaku.)
Kiri is proud of the woman she has become. She hopes Yagura and Hinami and Papa and Mama are as well.

CXXX

Musei is strong. They were strong all along. Someone just had to show them this strength. (It is Kiri's honour to do so.)

CXXXI

Unlike her first name, she wears that one with pride.
Her father named her Kiri, because the sun shined when she was born. He stepped out of the hospital, ready to go to the registration office as the three names her mother and him had selected ran through his head. Natsumi, Haruhi, Akiko. And then his eyes looked up, up to the clouds that had parted and made the town sparkle like diamonds, up to the blue expanse of the sky and the shimmering town –and he named her Kiri. For the beauty of her Village, when given the chance to be beautiful.

CXXXII

At the top of the Obelisk, someone engraved these words.
The greatest things remain Unvoiced.
Kiri's heart beats every time she sees it, her hands shake when she thinks about the truth of those six little words and her mind whirls. If the amount of people who stare at the Obelisk every day is anything to go by –she is not the only one. Musei flows through their veins.