A/N: Really guys, really? I got five reviews for the first posting of this chapter. Do I really suck that much? Konoha no Gogyou Tokage got a lot more reviews then that.

To the people who did review:

Prescripto13: Thanks! I'm so happy you've reviewed every chapter.

Ladylookslikeadude: Yes, you sense right. As for the chapter being a bit of a filler, a lot of my chapters will be like this: some stuff that isn't terribly important but some elements that will be important in the rest of the story.

Dakuenjeru: Probably. I shall update as soon as the next chapter is beta-ed. Make sure to send your love to ElwynWanderer for being my beta and putting up with my craziness.

The-new-black: Yeah, I have a habit of either making a story that's unique or totally cliché. Thanks.

ElwynWanderer: Thanks!

Boshoku Aliases

Hekikuu: Azure Sky, Akarui's alias

Murasaki: Purple, Azami's alias

Shiro: White, Kaoru's alias

Glossary

Shousen no Jutsu: Mystical Palm Technique

Uzu no Kuni: The Land of the Eddies

Uzushiogakure no Sato: The Village Hidden in the Swirling Tides

Shodaime Hokage: First/Founding Fire Shadow

Waves and Eddies

Rain was pouring down from the cloudy gray skies in the bucketfuls. Akarui was once again carrying Azami on her back, as the brunette was barely able to keep her eyes open at the moment. It wasn't that much of a surprise; Akarui had been pushing her student to her limits in an effort to get out of Hi no Kuni as fast as possible.

Once she had gotten out of Suna, Akarui had decided to make her way to the Wave Country. To reach the Wave Country she had to pass through the Land of Fire again, so she had decided to send out a shadow clone henged into a hawk as a scout to see what Konoha was up to. It turned out that Danzou had been elected Rokudaime Hokage as Tsunade had fallen into a coma. When Akarui heard that, she had picked up her pace considerably as the old bastard wouldn't hesitate to put her name on the list of nukenin.

'Now where exactly was it that old bridge-builder, Tazuna lived?' wondered Akarui as she picked through her memory. The blonde let out a long-suffering sigh. She was cold, wet, and soaked to the bone. All she wanted at the moment was a nice, warm bed so she could go to sleep and be dead to the world for the next few days.

Akarui's eyes were caught by a familiar-looking house and she grinned. 'Finally,' she thought. The jinchuuriki turned her head slightly so she could whisper something in Azami's ear. "Wake up Imouto-chan. I think I've found somewhere we can stay."

Purple eyes flickered open. "Huh?" mumbled Azami, her voice still rough from sleep.

"We're at a house belonging to an old friend of mine," the Kyuubi jinchuuriki explained.

The jinchuuriki strode forward and knocked on the door. It was opened about two seconds later by a black-haired woman in her thirties that the blonde immediately recognized as Tsunami. The woman stared at the duo blankly, obviously not expecting visitors. It took her a few seconds to recognize Akarui.

"Akarui! Come in, get out of the rain!" said Tsunami as she opened the door wider.

"Thanks Tsunami," the blonde said before she stepped inside the entrance/living room and gently lowered Azami to the floor.

The young girl blearily opened her eyes, then tottered over to the couch and collapsed into the cushions. Akarui grinned ruefully and said, "You're going to have to get out of those clothes eventually, you know."

Azami mumbled something incomprehensible before pulling a pillow over her head. The blonde chuckled at her student's childish innocence. 'Is this what a family feels like?' she wondered.

Tsunami watched the scene unfold from the doorway to the kitchen. "I'll get some tea," she said quietly.

Akarui smiled gratefully at her. "That would be really nice, Tsunami."

Tsunami disappeared into the kitchen as the blonde took off her sopping cloak and hung it up on one of the several hooks by the door. Akarui slipped off her scroll holster and placed it next to the doorway beside her cloak. "I'm going up to the bathroom to get towels!" Akarui hollered and walked up the stairs, trying to remember where the bathroom was. When she found the room, she grabbed two white towels and began drying her hair with one before walking back downstairs.

The living room smelled faintly of flowering herbs when Akarui entered the room again. Azami was now sitting up, a hot cup of tea in her hands. A gentle smile touched the blonde's face. 'Yeah, this is a family,' she decided as she wrapped the second towel around Azami.

"How are you doing, Azami?" asked the former Konoha-nin

"I'm cold," Azami whined.

"Drink your tea then," Akarui suggested. "It will warm you up."

The purple-eyed kunoichi nodded idly as Tsunami entered the room again. "Akarui, I gave some chamomile tea to Azami-san to help her sleep, but I can make something else for you," she said.

The blonde shook her head. "It's fine. I haven't slept very well the past few days with all that's been going on anyways. Anyway, where are Inari and Tazuna? I was hoping to see them."

"Well, we heard about Akatsuki's attack on Konoha, and they decided to go help rebuild along with several other carpenters from around here. You are this country's hero, Akarui."

The Uzumaki blushed. "That was a long time ago. I didn't do much of the work; it was mostly Kakashi-sensei."

"But you gave Inari hope, and Inari gave the villagers hope," Tsunami pointed out. "The bridge was named after you, you know."

Akarui stared at the older female in shock. "What? Really?"

"Yep! It's called the Great Akarui Bridge now."

The jinchuuriki shook her head in wonder. "Amazing. I never would've thought…"

Azami interrupted them, asking, "Sensei? How do you know Tsunami-san? And what's the Great Akarui Bridge?"

The blonde chuckled before telling the tale. The rest of the night was filled with idle chatter that held a bittersweet tone for the former Konoha-nin. 'Innocence. What every shinobi wants but will never get.'

She felt guilty for pulling Azami down into the world of blood and hate beside her.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Three hours later Azami and Tsunami were both in bed, but Akarui was still up, sitting on the couch and staring out the rain-streaked window.

As she looked intently beyond the glass her mind filled with images of her former comrades sneering at her, calling her a traitor. It hurt, and it hurt badly because they were right; she was a traitor, she was a missing-nin. The memory of Tsunade giving her the Shodaime Hokage's necklace was heavy on her mind. 'I promised to become Hokage. I promised to bring Sasuke back. I promised not to go back on my word. In the end, they were all oaths destined to fail,' thought Akarui. 'Crap. I sound like Neji now. But…Jiraiya-sensei, what would you think of me now? Would you hate me for leaving Konoha? Would you call me an idiot but support my decision? Would you yell at me and tell me there was a better way to go about bringing peace? But I guess I'll never know, because you're dead now. You're not here to help me anymore, Jiraiya-sensei, but I can just imagine what you'd say to me now.'

Akarui could clearly see her sensei saying,"Suck it up kid! You have people to take care of. You're a leader now, so start acting like one! Stop second-guessing yourself."

'That's what you would tell me. I guess that's kind of what I have to do, huh? I've made my decision; I have to deal with the consequences now.' Akarui thought and smiled sadly as she got up and walked towards the guest bedroom.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The next morning, Akarui awoke to the delicious smell of miso ramen. Her eyes snapped open immediately and she sat up in bed quickly when she recognized the smell. 'Yummy,' she thought, licking her lips in anticipation. 'Ramen, here I come!' The Akarui got dressed in her spare outfit and reminded herself to check and see if her clothing from last night was dry yet.

When Akarui reached the kitchen, she poked her head in to see Azami polishing off a bowl of miso soup as Tsunami stirred a pot of ramen on the stove.

The black-haired woman looked up. "You're finally awake, Akarui. I made some ramen for you; I know how much you like the stuff."

The missing-nin scratched the back of her head sheepishly and grinned. "Sorry. And thanks again, Tsunami. You've been more then welcoming."

"It's nothing really, don't worry about it."

Akarui looked down when she felt Azami tug on her shirt. "Once you're done with breakfast, you're training me!" the younger girl declared loudly, scowling up at her mentor.

Azami's mentor chuckled and ruffled the brunette's hair. "Alright, all right, Imouto-chan. I promise." The last phrase caused Akarui's heart to clench painfully and wince slightly at her ironic, if subconscious, choice of wording. 'I promise. Heh. I promised a lot of things, didn't I?' Shaking that depressing thought out of her head, the Uzumaki sat down at the kitchen table and began to eat the bowl of ramen Tsunami had placed in front of her. 'Thank Kami for ramen,' she thought. 'It's nice to have comfort food. Tsunami's a good cook too, almost as good as Teuchi from Ichiraku's…' Akarui let out a heavy sigh. The hand that held her chopsticks was trembling; the blonde willed it to stop. Unshed tears began prickled at the back of her eyes as a large lump formed in her throat, but the Uzumaki grit her teeth and forced the memories of her former home out of her mind.

"What's wrong, Sensei?" asked Azami, concern clear in her voice.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it, Imouto-chan," Akarui responded, lying through her teeth. She once again thanked Jiraiya for her training in espionage; it had included lying and acting as well.

Over the past two days, since she had left Suna, the beginnings of a plan had been blossoming in Akarui's mind. Since she wouldn't be able to meet up with Temari often, some form of long-distance communication was a must. She had immediately thought of the seal that Jiraiya had mentioned once on their training trip. He had called it the Kokoro Tsunagari Fuuin, or the Mind Connection Seal. She had asked how to do it, but he had laughed and said that he could barely do it and that she would have to work a lot harder on her fuuinjutsu skills if she wanted to do it. Jiraiya told her that it had to be based off of a tangible object, often jewelry. When Akarui later told him of the strange long-distance communication between the Akatsuki members, the Sannin had commented that it might have been some form of the Kokoro Tsunagari Fuuin.

So all she had to do was complete the seemingly impossible feat of reverse-engineering a high A-Rank seal. On the bright side however, she had hundreds of shadow clones at her disposal which would speed up the process one thousand fold and she was the apprentice of the legendary Jiraiya of the Sannin, super pervert and one of the last Seal Masters alive. Akarui had to have picked up something after spending two and a half years with him or else she really would have been a complete idiot.

"Tsunami, do you know of any decent jewelry stores around here?" asked the blonde.

The older female looked slightly taken aback, probably not expecting her to care about such things. "Um, there are a few around here, but Suzuki Hideaki's is the best. Here, I'll give you the directions."

Beside Akarui, Azami frowned. "Hey, what about me?" she demanded.

The jinchuuriki smirked slyly before forming the hand seal for her favorite technique. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," she muttered. Two clones appeared on the opposite side of the table. "You," Akarui said, pointing to the one on the left, "work with Azami. On the right, work on the Kokoro Tsunagari."

Her clones nodded obediently and chorused, "Sure thing, Boss."

Azami blinked before following the grinning clone that Akarui had assigned to teach her. The other one slipped out of the house, probably to find a more open space to practice the Kokoro Tsunagari – seals had a habit of blowing up in your face if they weren't done properly.

Now everything was taken care of, it was time to do some shopping.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Ten minutes later, Akarui opened the door and stepped into a relatively small but well-furnished room. The walls were lined with glass cases that showed dozens of well-made necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and rings. Against the back wall of the shop was a desk with a cash register. A black-haired man in his early twenties stood behind it, dutifully sorting through various bills.

Akarui silently swept up to him before clearing her throat. The man jumped violently and looked around frantically as if expecting someone to attack him. When he finally noticed the Uzumaki, he blushed violently. "S-sorry. Is there something I c-can do for y-you?" he stuttered out.

Akarui's eyes swept the room. When she saw nobody else around, she returned her gaze to the shopkeeper who was shifting nervously from foot to foot."I need to talk to Sakamoto Hideaki," she said bluntly. "Is he in?"

The man nodded reverently. "Right away, Miss!" he squeaked out before exiting through the door behind his desk. Moments later, a gray-haired man who looked to be about fifty appeared from the same door. He blinked once before speaking.

"I'm sorry about my assistant. He's always had trouble around pretty girls," the man said.

Akarui inclined her head but blushed slightly. "Thank you. Sakamoto-san, right?"

The jeweler's slightly wrinkled face broke into a grin. "Yeah, that's me. What can I do for you?"

"I am a wandering seal master. I'm looking for a decent metal smith who can do custom jobs."

"A seal master, eh? I've heard your kind can increase the hardness of metals, but what else can you do? And what's this custom job you've been talking about? "

"I can harden metals, sharpen them, and even create seals that allow me to make people see things that aren't there. I need twelve plain steel discs about a centimeter across on reasonably thick chains and the same number of plain hitai-ate with gray cloth."

Something unintelligible flashed through the man's dark eyes. "You're a missing-nin," he stated.

Akarui narrowed her eyes and let the man see the honesty behind her words. "So? I'll still pay for what I need. If I had wanted you dead, you would be by now. Trust me, I mean you no harm, Sakamoto-san, truly I don't."

Hideaki sighed. "For some strange reason, I believe you. Alright, fine. You can work here improving my jewelry until you've earned enough money to pay for the stuff. After that, I'm going to send you packing. I don't want Hunter-nin in my hometown any time soon."

Akarui sighed quietly in relief. "Thank you, Sakamoto-san."

The jeweler merely smirked and replied, "Just don't make me regret this."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Akarui walked back into Tazuna's house later that day after spending a few hours working with Hideaki. Moments after she entered the house, the clone that had been working on the Kokoro Tsunagari dispelled and bombarded her head with its memories.

Her clone had found a small clearing only a little ways out of Tazuna's home and created twenty-odd shadow clones. They had each set out with a slightly different plan for the seal, and more than half of them had been blown up in the first few hours. One of them had accidentally created a seal that seemed to speed up the body's healing process in a manner similar to the Shousen no Jutsu, one of the more commonly used medical techniques. The blonde mentally filed that away for examination at a later time. Unfortunately, none of the clones had come even close to finding the correct formula for the Kokoro Tsunagari. Akarui pinched the bridge of her nose in a futile attempt to ward off the headache she could already feel pulsing behind her temples. 'This is going to take forever,' she whined mentally. 'I - we – don't have that kind of time. In a few weeks, I'm going to have to move on again. Maybe we could visit Konan? I did say I would go to Amegakure, after all.'

Akarui's eyes snapped open as another set of memories entered her head as her second clone was dispelled. Azami had been put through some of the basic chakra- and stamina-building exercises that most Academy students knew as well as some target practice with shuriken, senbon, and kunai. The brunette was surprisingly proficient with senbon. 'Hmm…I think I still have that scroll of poisons and the other of the nervous system. I should probably pick up a few medical books in the next shinobi village we stop at, for me and Azami both. It wouldn't do for either of us to get badly injured, especially since I can't risk going to a hospital since my advanced healing rate would raise questions I couldn't comfortably answer.'

Akarui created three more clones and sent them off to practice fighting with Tonbogiri, the Rasengan, and the Kokoro Tsunagari respectively.

About five minutes later, Azami walked in through the door, looking exhausted. A shallow cut on her palm bled sluggishly. The Uzumaki let out a small, "tch," before pulling out some antiseptic and bandages and dressing the cut. When she was done, the blonde patted the smaller girl's head kindly. "There ya go," she chirped brightly.

Azami smiled up at her. "Thanks, Sensei!"

Akarui's smile widened and she ruffled her student's hair affectionately.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Two days later found the blue-eyed blonde and purple-eyed brunette sitting down at a sushi restaurant for dinner. All had been normal until Azami had blinked once and began to speak. "The Snow-Haired One is coming," she had mumbled, sounding surprised. Seeing her sensei's blank look, the girl elaborated on her statement. "He's a fuuinjutsu specialist and a medical shinobi, about forty years old and a darn good shinobi. It seems that his path crosses yours more than once over time, but I cannot detect anything else at the moment."

Akarui nodded absently. She didn't think much about her student's words until three minutes later when the duo exited the restaurant and saw a man with steel gray eyes and shoulder-length pale, almost white, blue hair. "That's him!" whispered Azami excitedly. "I know it is!"

Akarui turned to glance over the man. There was certainly nothing about him that really stood out; he was wearing a long sleeved black shirt and black pants. The blonde would have looked over him if it wasn't for the carefully restrained chakra that she could feel pulsing from underneath his skin. 'He's a fuuinjutsu specialist, right? Maybe…' The blonde stepped forward and tapped the man's shoulder. He looked up, startled. "I need to talk to you," she murmured. "We should probably go somewhere more private."

The man's eyes narrowed in suspicion, but he nodded slightly and followed Akarui to the outskirts of the town. When the trio stopped walking, Azami took her place beside Akarui while the man leaned against a wooden fence. "So what was it that you wanted?" he asked curiously.

"You are a shinobi. A fuuinjutsu specialist, correct?" asked Akarui.

The man's voice took on a guarded tone when he next spoke. "I might have been, once upon a time. Now I'm just an ordinary medic."

"I'm working on a seal that you might have heard of before. Does the Kokoro Tsunagari Fuuin ring a bell?"

"I've heard of it, yes."

"I need to complete it. I currently have no idea how to do it, so I've been experimenting with my shadow clones, but I haven't gotten anywhere. I was hoping you could help me with it."

"Why do you want that particular seal?"

Akarui sighed heavily. 'Should I tell him about the Boshoku? If he found out, he might eventually tell more people, which wouldn't really be a bad thing. Or he could refuse to help me, seeing as how I'm a missing-nin, but that would make him a hypocrite since he's probably one as well.' Akarui's mind frantically raced through the possible consequences of telling him why she needed the Kokoro Tsunagari. When the kunoichi didn't come up with anything that would be particularly damaging to her goals, she spoke again. "I belong to a relatively new organization called the Boshoku. Our members are spread out over long distances, so I was hoping that we could use the Kokoro Tsunagari to communicate over said distances."

The man visibly tensed, and his hands slipped back into his sleeves. Maybe he had kunai hidden there? "What do you want?" he asked, nearly growling. "I've heard of the Akatsuki, and if your organization is anything like that, I won't hesitate to kill you!"

Akarui shook her head. "I have fought the Akatsuki before. They are not my friends. The Boshoku's goal is to stop the wars that torment this world. The Boshoku wants peace, nothing more and nothing less."

The pale-haired shinobi stared blankly at Akarui before he burst into a fit of raucous chuckles. "Peace? Are you insane? We live in the world of shinobi! Are you stupid or just crazy?" he asked.

Rage began to bubble and froth inside of Akarui like some deadly elixir. She released the chakra that she had been holding in for that last few days in a large burst and added in some killing intent for a good measure. "How dare you!" she roared, fury written on every inch of her face. "How dare you spit on my dream? On Nagato's and Jiraiya's? You bastard! You have no idea what they – I – have been through! How dare you!"

Her chakra was now visible in her anger, a beautifully deadly, shimmering blue aura around her body. The air was thick with tension and a man lesser then the pale-haired one would have turned and fled, but he didn't. He merely raised his eyebrows and held his hands up in feigned innocence. Ever so slowly, the chakra and killing intent faded as Akarui calmed down. The blonde was still glaring fiercely at the older ninja, however.

"Calm down, kid," he said bluntly.

"I'm not a kid, damn it!"

"You're acting like one."

When Akarui found she had no response to this, she shut up.

"But peace, eh? That's so improbable it's almost ridiculous. You do realize that shinobi have fought each other for more than two hundred years?" the man queried.

Akarui's face hardened and she straightened her spine. "That doesn't matter to me. I will bring peace to this world or die trying," she snarled, her voice filled with determination.

The man shook his head, surprise written on his face. "I've never met somebody like you before. If somebody ever spoke of peace, there was always doubt in their voice. But yours…is filled with nothing but the unbendable steel of determination. Just who are you?" he asked, his voice filled with wonder.

"I am known as Hekikuu. I am the founder of the Boshoku," the blonde said simply.

"That's not your real name, is it?"

"Nope. Mystery's just that much cooler."

The pale-haired ninja snorted. "I'm Uzumaki Kaoru."

Akarui's eyes widened in disbelief. "U…zu…maki…" she muttered. "N-no way…" She stumbled backwards over nothing as her breath quickened. "This can't be possible!"

The newly identified Kaoru frowned. "Eh?"

The jinchuuriki was oblivious to the rest of the world in her shock. "But…I'm an orphan…no way…" she mumbled, not really seeing anything. "Impossible…"

Kaoru blinked. "What's impossible?"

Finally, Akarui came to her senses and shook her head in an attempt to clear it. "My clan name was Uzumaki."

The gray-eyed blinked again, his mouth slightly open. Several moments later, he said, "Well…damn. This was not what I expected when I got up this morning. I thought I was the only one to survive the Uzushio Massacre besides Kushina." When he saw Akarui's blank look, he continued speaking.

"The Uzumaki Clan was native to Uzu no Kuni, now Nami no Kuni, and its hidden village, Uzushiogakure no Sato. The Uzumaki were feared because of their extensive knowledge in the realm of fuuinjutsu. Uzushiogakure and Konohagkure shared a close relationship because the Senju and Uzumaki were distant relatives. During the Third Great Shinobi War, Uzushiogakure was destroyed by Iwa. The survivors scattered across the globe, and all that I know of were hunted down and killed. Anyways, a couple of years before the massacre, a young academy student named Kushina was sent to Konoha to become the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

Akarui's eyes widened. 'Konoha had a previous jinchuuriki? Then how did the Kyuubi attack happen?' she wondered.

"Ever since the Shodaime's wife, Uzumaki Mito, sealed the Kyuubi within herself, it had been tradition to seal the Kyuubi within an Uzumaki kunoichi. Kushina was chosen because of her unique chakra that was suited towards containing the Kitsune."

The former Konoha-nin frowned as she voiced her earlier question. "But if Konoha had a previous jinchuuriki, why – how – did the Kyuubi attack happen? Shouldn't that have been impossible?"

Kaoru shrugged. "I'm as mystified as you are on that part. Somebody probably unsealed it while Kushina was weak. Maybe childbirth? That weakens jinchuuriki seals significantly. But if that's true…are you from Konoha originally?"

"Yes."

"Then you are most likely…"

"Most likely Kushina's daughter…" Akarui said in awe. She knew who her father was and she couldn't have been happier, but now that she knew her mother was most likely the previous jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, she felt as if her chest would burst open in happiness. To someone who had never known her parents, finding out that they were near-legendary people was the best thing possible. Tears of happiness were caught in her eyelashes and the salty water glimmered in the sunlight.

"Hekikuu-sensei…" Azami said anxiously as she tugged on Akarui's cloak.

The blonde looked down and gave her student a watery smile. "It's okay, Murasaki."

"So that's the little one's name, eh?" Kaoru said, eyeing Azami. "Or, more likely, her alias."

Akarui merely smirked in reply. "So will you help me with the Kokoro Tsunagari or not?"

The pale-haired shinobi thought for a few moments before replying, "Here's the deal. I'll give you half of the formula for the Kokoro Tsunagari. If you can figure out the other half in…let's say seven days, I'll accept that you have the potential to stop the wars of the shinobi. I'll join the Boshoku and travel with you."

'This seriously reminds me of the time Tsunade-Obaa-chan made that bet with me over whether or not I could complete the Rasengan,' Akarui thought. "Done," she agreed. "I'll do it."

Kaoru smirked as he pulled a blank scroll out of his sleeve. He lifted his right hand so that it was palm up before a simple storage seal appeared before disappearing again, leaving behind a brush and a bottle of ink. 'Storage seals written on his skin!' Akarui realized. 'Why the hell haven't I thought of that before?'

With a couple flourishes of the brush, Kaoru created a circle of kanji. "There will be a different number of parts depending on how many people you want the Kokoro Tsunagari to work with. Good luck. I'll meet you back here in a week, Hekikuu," the fuuinjutsu user said before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Akarui snorted and shook her head. "C'mon Murasaki. Let's go back to the house."

The brunette nodded cheerfully and hopped after the jinchuuriki as the duo returned to Tazuna's house.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Seven days later, Akarui and Azami stood in the exact spot as they had been seven days previous. Seconds later, the blonde felt a small spike of chakra and looked up. When the smoke faded, Kaoru was revealed standing there with a large scroll similar to Akarui's slung over his back. "Did you do it?" he asked.

Akarui grinned triumphantly as she pulled out a black scroll and unrolled it, revealing a completed sealing array. A smirk touched Kaoru's face as he sighed. "Well, congratulations. I guess I have to hold up my end of the bargain, eh?" he said as he brought out his scroll and unfurled it to reveal several storage seals. The fuuinjutsu specialist placed his hand on the first one and unsealed a copy of Akarui's cloak except for the pure white lining.

The blonde grinned. "I guess that means your nickname is going to be Shiro, eh?"

"I like that!" chirped Azami. "Can I call you Shiro-chan now?"

Akarui placed a hand over her mouth in a failed attempt to stifle her laughter at Kaoru's disgruntled expression. "Oh, and Hekikuu," Kaoru said, clapping his hands together, "shouldn't you activate the seal?"

"Uh…yeah, I was just getting to that," Akarui said as she scratched the back of her neck sheepishly. The toad summoner crouched down and pulled the twelve metal necklaces out of her ninja pouch and put them at the edges of the seal. The kunoichi then tapped a chakra-covered finger at the center of the sealing array, activating the Kokoro Tsunagari. The kanji glowed a faint blue before they receded onto the ten necklaces. The only sign of the seal was the small line of kanji around the edge of the metal disks. Akarui focused chakra into her forefinger before she picked up one and engraved the character for 'Hekikuu' on it before doing the same for 'Shiro' and 'Murasaki'. The blonde handed them off to their respective owners and stood up, dusting herself off.

"Oh! That reminds me…" said Akarui as she pulled three other objects out of her pouch. This time, it was three of the hitai-ate she had commissioned from Hideaki. "Here," she said, holding the strips of cloth and metal out. Kaoru took one and tied it around his forehead, as did Azami. When they were done, Akarui did the same.

"Are you ready, Shiro, Murasaki? We're going to move out now," Akarui said.

"Where?" asked the former Uzushio ninja.

"Amegakure."