Disclaimer: Chapter one it is in. Also: thar be OCs in these parts.

Weird coincidence. I mention Takigakure, then make a chapter (this one) with a ninja from it, and Kabutomaru attacks it. Hah, fun times. And I'm very glad you guys don't appear angry with me for pulling the same trick twice (and both times with a Sarutobi).
Butterfly: Heheheh. You're certainly on track, but there's more than one reason to mention the Akatsuki.
Krazed: Looks like I get to answer a few of your questions this time.

Lima Syndrome is most easily described as the inverse of Stockholm Syndrome, where instead of the captive feeling sympathy for their captor, it is the captor who feels sympathy for their captive. It's not talked about as much because it doesn't seem as staggering as Stockholm, and it just isn't as commonly diagnosed when it comes right down to it. Strong ninja certainly don't have to worry about it, because they know better than to show sympathy to the enemy. Surely, if a shinobi found himself falling to such an absurd thing, it was because of his own weakness, and the best thing to do is to cut it off before the inclination becomes too self-destructive.

Not too long ago, he wholeheartedly agreed with this.

Ginzu was reading over the mission report as he walked leisurely through the countryside. Takigakure kept him as busy as it ever had, because he was a man of experience and leadership. He was punctual and tall with square shoulders, and looked at home when standing by the crashing waterfall with his chin up and chest out as mist and splashes danced. Self-control is important to any ninja, and as such, only the most perceptive could tell that at this moment he was mulling over how to tell the latest news to his best friend.

That is, if she's even home at the moment.

A sliver of gray and brown ran past Ginzu's vision and the report was gone from his hands. His head shot to follow by instinct, watching as a quick snow monkey zipped up a tree and turned itself around on a branch. It leered at him with its red face and made a mocking call, waving and slapping the scroll he'd been reading above its head like a trophy.

Ginzu frowned. He already had a pretty good idea what this was about, and was starting to feel annoyed. Of course, that someone like him could even get annoyed… that was special. It took talent. "Give it back."

The macaque made another mocking cackle and proceeded up through the trees. The ninja sighed, knowing he had no choice but to play along, and jumped to follow.

Branches and leaves zipped past as they dodged from bough to bough. The monkey, being much smaller than Ginzu, dodged without trouble between the sticks and generally took the route that would give the towering Ginzu the most trouble for his size. Clever little thing, he had to admit, but a trained jounin like him was still faster and more skilled.

When he saw a chance to close in quickly, he catapulted himself off a trunk and reached out one of his broad, overlarge hands to capture the monkey by the scruff of the neck. He took hold, and the monkey screeched and tugged away much more easily than it should've been able to. Ginzu hesitated a moment, not understanding why it could escape like that, his mind not fully registering at first that the fur felt slicker than it looked. Then he looked down at his hand.

Blue greasepaint was smeared on his large palm and fingers from where he made the grab. Well, if he didn't know what this was about a second ago, he knew without a shadow of a doubt now. He scowled and started after the monkey again. "BAAJIRU!"

The monkey didn't run like a normal monkey anymore, giving up its simian movements for more human-like acrobatics. On top of that, he didn't seem to have actually been paying attention to where he was running off, anymore, because when the monkey reached the end of the woods and jumped out into empty space over a long drop, he made the scream of a frightened child. Ginzu saw the danger and threw some extra chakra into his legs to leap after him and catch him in his arms. He landed in a crouch and straightened up, holding a cringing monkey.

"Okay, Baajiru. Game's over."

The monkey shivered, then looked up at Ginzu with the most doleful and innocent eyes it could muster.

"Not going to work! Who else puts that gunk in their hair except you? Drop the henge already, kid!"

With a puff of smoke, the monkey disappeared, replaced by a boy with messy blue hair, similarly blue cheeks, and a foolish grin. "Hi, Ginzu-ojisan!"

He sighed and snatched the mission scroll from Baajiru with a free hand. It was scuffed up, of course, and had more than a couple handprints, but it was closed and protected from the greasepaint, at least. "I need to go over this mission before I get back to Taki tomorrow. It's important and has to do with some troubling affairs, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't destroy it."

"Whatever you say, Ginzu-ojisan!" he piped cheerfully. Ginzu shook his head. This kid was like a strawberry: when he was good, he was the sweetest tyke you've ever met, but when he was bad... he was just plain rotten. And he could switch between the two at the drop of a hat. It often made the otherwise calm and collected shinobi want to pull out his hair and mustache out of frustration.

Baajiru hopped down from Ginzu's arms, allowing the ninja to put away his scroll and wipe the greasepaint from his hand onto his pants. "You came to see Okaa-san, right?"

"Is she home?"

"Yep! She came home yesterday from her job! Come on!"

They started off walking a normal pace. The house wasn't far, so they could take their time. "Yesterday, is it? How was she when she got back?"

"She was a little tired and beat up, but she was still able to make me train all day after school."

"You sound like you're complaining."

Baajiru made a shrug with a little hum. "I'd rather play with my friends sometimes, but I wanna be strong like you two, so I guess I don't mind much… and besides, I get bored at that old bag's house. Ow! Leggo of my ear!"

"How many times do I have to tell you to speak of your elders with respect? My great-aunt watches you when your mother is gone out of the goodness of her heart, you know."

"That and for the money Okaa-san pays her. OW! I'm sorry, Ginzu-ojisan! I won't say it again!"

"You'd best not," he barked curtly, then grimaced at the bit of blue greasepaint that had gotten on his hand again. "Baajiru, you need to stop putting this stuff in your hair and on your face. Doesn't your mother make you wash it out every time you get home?"

Baajiru shrugged again.

"So why do you do it. Eh??" He rubbed down hard on Baajiru's head with the already painted hand. "I'll make you answer me!"

The child laughed and a genuine smile took hold. "Well, it's 'cause she told me that when I become a ninja, I'm going to get face tattoos like her, 'cept they're going to be blue like this."

"I understand that, but what about your hair? It's not like she's going to have you dye that blue when you become a ninja."

The smile fell. "Well… it's 'cause my hair isn't like Okaa-san's."

"…But her hair isn't blue, either. It's brown."

"I know, but…" He looked at his feet and kicked as they walked. "I don't like having hair like my father's."

Ginzu stopped dead. He felt an almost overwhelming urge to kneel down and hug the boy, but he battered the feeling down and continued walking before the child could ask what was wrong. That Baajiru had no wish to associate with a father he didn't know and didn't know him wasn't any of his business. It wasn't his place to tell him that his father would love to know about him and would be proud of him, nor should he try to step in and act as the boy's father figure himself. No, he definitely couldn't do that. He looked up and saw they were approaching the house. Good! Something to diffuse the somber air! He picked up his pace and bid Baajiru to follow suit with a gesture. "Oi! Rin!"

A pale, feminine face with purple markings peaked out from the open doorway as Ginzu and Baajiru approached. She walked out to greet the two and smiled warmly at them, and she outstretched her hand to rub her son's mane before she suddenly recoiled and glowered at him. "Ara ara, Baajiru. How many times to I have to tell you to quit wearing that stuff! Do you have any idea how bad it is for your skin and scalp?"

Baajiru frowned. "Do you want me to wash it off, Okaa-san?"

She sighed. "No, not yet. I'll want you to train some, and you might as well wait until after you get dirty."

"Ehh? Training again?!"

"Everyday. Now, after my last job, I need to fix and replace some of my tools, so we wont be working with them for a while."

He pouted. "But I want to work with weapons."

"Tough."

"Why can't I use Ginzu-ojisan's weapons?"

Ginzu laughed, and before Rin could answer his question, he pulled out one of his oversized kunai. "You can't use these; they aren't standard issue. See?" He turned the weapon slowly for Baajiru to examine it. "Way too big for a kid like you."

"Heeeh… that is pretty big, actually. Why are your weapons so big, Ginzu-ojisan?"

"Because I can't even use standard issue weapons." He chuckled and twirled the kunai a little before putting it back away. "My hands are too large. Always were. It made me clumsy with weapons and hand seals while I was growing up, and I still don't really use ninjutsu or tools. Just taijutsu and genjutsu… and genjutsu only when I'm not pressed."

"But you can still ask Ginzu about genjutsu if you have questions, because he is still very talented with it, right?" Rin smiled up at him. Ginzu cleared his throat and pretended that he wasn't getting flattered, and that there wasn't a redness coming up on his cheeks.

"If you say so, Rin."

"Of course I do. Okay, Baajiru. Start with a bunshin no jutsu—make three clones—then, while you concentrate on keeping them up, I want you to walk up the side of that tree."

He whined. "That's too hard! I can't do two things at once like that!"

"Step to it!"

"But I'm not even in a ninja academy yet! Just normal school! Why should I train so hard when it's not going to get me any closer to being a ninja?"

"It'll just make it that much easier when you do enter an academy."

"No!" He crossed his arms. "You push me too hard! And when you leave, you're gone for too long! I hate it! You're a terrible mother!"

Ginzu felt his shoulders stiffen in alarm, even though the child's jabs weren't towards him. "Baajiru! That's unfair! Your mother's just—"

"It's okay, Ginzu," Rin interrupted. "Maybe he's right. I'm a terrible mother."

"But Rin…!"

She crossed her arms similarly and glared down at her son. "I shouldn't have had you, then. Perhaps instead of being a mother, I should have aborted you and saved myself from birthing and raising you."

Baajiru gaped.

"Wow." Ginzu swallowed at stared at Rin. Now that's about three steps past harsh and two steps before childhood trauma.

"I'm sorry, Okaa-san! I didn't really mean it!"

"You didn't?" She looked down at him with comical suspicion, obviously holding back a mischievous grin. "So you don't want me to send you to an orphanage, then?"

"Noooo, no I don't! I won't say such a thing again!" He started tearing up. "I only want Okaa-san to be my Okaa-san!"

Rin burst into a laugh, which prompted Ginzu to follow. "Maah, Baajiru! I wasn't serious! Don't cry! If you get tired, just stop training and tell me, okay? I don't want you to get to the point of chakra burnout."

"Okay." And he set out to the training Rin had ordered. Ginzu chuckled while the two found a place to sit and watch him.

"It's clear where he gets that skewed attitude of his from."

Rin gave him a sideways glance and scratched the back of her neck. "I used to be a nice, shy person, you know."

"Not when I first met you."

She snorted. "You weren't in a position to see me be a nice person when you first met me."

"I suppose not." Ginzu didn't press it any further. He'd long since come to the conclusion that Rin actually was the spiteless woman she'd described herself as before, but had changed because of what happened. It wasn't necessarily bitterness about her experience that he'd call the cause (though that certainly would have played a factor), but what he called "personality osmosis" from being so connected to Hatake Kakashi during that time. Of course, that meant saying Kakashi must've been a piece of work if his continual exposure to Rin made her so sarcastic…

"I feel that I've been rather indiscriminate in my hatred for the people in this place."

"I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you!"

…But Ginzu was more than ready to accept that fact. "How was your mission, Rin?"

"When you're a single mercenary, it's not really a 'mission'. It's just a 'job', maybe even a 'gig', but I'm not getting handed a mission scroll or anything." She laughed and shook her head. "That doesn't answer your question. It went fine. I did what I was supposed to, got paid, and didn't bump into anyone that would make life more difficult for me."

"Still, a mercenary life isn't a healthy life."

"I don't have a choice. Ginzu, I'm a ninja; that's my identity. And besides that I need money. Luckily mercenary jobs tend to pay better than village jobs at the same difficulty… even if they are a bit more risky... so I don't have to take jobs often. And I'll never be short of work, since no one turns down the services of a medic."

"I'm more concerned about how your village will take the freelancing when you return."

"Sandaime Hokage-sama gave me special dispensation, and Godaime Hokage-sama reconfirmed it. All I have to do is keep track of the records for when I do eventually go back. I already wrote up a report yesterday on it and file it with the rest, but that'll just sit there and gather dust like the rest."

Ginzu hummed a low note. "I'm not so sure about that."

"Hmm?"

"I came to give you some news. A lot of things have happened the past couple of days along with the meeting at the summit. The Hokage-Elect Shimura Danzou has been killed."

She blinked at him. "Really?"

"Yeah, so… you should probably get ready to move soon."

"…" She looked ahead at Baajiru, who had fallen again and accidentally lost one of his illusory clones. "…I don't know if I'm ready, yet. I mean, I've been away so long, and Kakashi…"

"Kakashi is why you have to get ready."

"Huh?" She jumped a little. "What do you mean?"

"He's now acting Hokage."

Her eyes popped. "…Kakashi is acting Hokage?!"

"And, from what I surmise on his personality, it won't take three days before he goes into the classified files in Konohagakure to figure out what happened at Matsubaran-zan and finds out you're still alive."

"Oh no…" Rin cringed and held her arms. "Oh no… no, no, no, Ginzu, I can't go back yet! I-I'm not ready to see Kakashi again yet! Not like this! And with Baajiru, I… how am I supposed to explain myself?"

Why is she panicking like this? Isn't this good news? "Rin, you said yourself you wanted Baajiru to go to the academy in Konohagakure, and that you were going to do it as soon as Root was no longer an issue. It only follows that you'd have to talk to Kakashi as well."

"But… I didn't expect it to be so soon. Oh god, what will I tell him?"

"I think he'd just be happy that you're alive."

"I left him behind, Ginzu! I... I didn't tell him about being away because I couldn't trust ANBU or Root to not force the information from him, and he'll take that as my not being able to trust him personally. And... oh god, I left him alone for so long. He kept saying that he wanted to be the one to protect me, and instead of that, I..." She trailed off and shook her head. It didn't matter, because Ginzu knew what she was getting at.

"You'll... just have to trust that he'll get over it, Rin."

"But what about you?"

He gasped involuntarily, and found that his heart skipped a beat. No, don't react that way. That's not what she meant. Don't go interpreting things the way you want. "I'll just... step out of view."

Rin looked unconvinced and scratched the back of her neck again, but didn't question any further.

"I have more news," Ginzu started again, "The person who killed Danzou was that student of Kakashi's that defected. Uchiha Sasuke."

"...Is that so."

"Yes and... well. I'm sorry, Rin. I know I promised you that I could make that boy reflect, but I failed. I didn't expect that the effect of my genjutsu would have ended up so futile, since he reacted so strongly to it at the time. But I… I should've learned to not make this kind of promise."

"That's okay, Ginzu. You didn't even have to do it. The only reason I asked was… I just wanted to make things a little easier on Kakashi and the rest of Konoha. And, well, the Uchiha name."

"…I thought you didn't like the Uchiha."

"I didn't like particular Uchiha."

Ginzu took a breath. No sense pressing that subject. "And there's one more thing."

"…Just how many things happened after that Kage meeting, anyway?!"

"This may or may not be related, but some ninja from my village have been found dead not far from here. The wounds indicate something... very similar to Orochimaru."

She raised a brow. "Orochimaru? He's dead, isn't he?"

Baajiru stopped training and sat down right where he stood, rubbing his arms. Rin glanced over, curious why he quit so suddenly, before she spied his heavy breathing and the pulsing veins in his arms and temples. "Shit, Baajiru!" In a second, she was by his side feeling his forehead. His skin was clammy, and the pulse running through was too fast even for a child his size. "Oh, honey! I told you to stop before you get to chakra burnout! Even though your body can take it, it isn't good to push yourself too hard!"

"I'm s-s-sorry, Okaa-san." The child's voice shook with weakness and pain. "I did-didn't mean to. It's so hard to t-tell when my chakra is low until ever-rything starts to hurt."

She gazed at her son sadly and pulled him against her as he shivered, pulling the messy, blue-and-silver bangs away from where they stuck to his sweating forehead. "You don't have to apologize, dear. I shouldn't have put so much pressure on you to train."

Ginzu felt guilt stab him deep from the pit of his stomach. The project was a success: this child was virtually invulnerable to any jutsu with the effect of draining all life force, or even death by chakra burnout. But the price was experiencing extreme, crippling pain that mimicked circulatory shock (not that the people heading the project cared; he would've simply been slated as a kinjutsu tool). Regardless, the child won't be able to go to school for a few days.

"I'm sorry, Baajiru," he muttered before he realized it.

The boy looked over at him curiously. "...W-why are you apologizing, Ginzu-oj-jisan?"

"I..." Ginzu shook his head irritably, scoffed at himself, and changed the subject. "Stop calling me 'ojisan', will you! It makes me feel old."

"But G-Ginzu-ojisan is old."

"Kid, if you weren't in pain right now, I'd—"

"And aren't y-you my uncle? I sh-should call you uncle when you're my uncle, r-right?"

"...Wha?"

Rin blinked at her son. "What made you think that Ginzu is your uncle, Baajiru?"

"He's Okaa-san's b-big brother, right?"

"What? No. He's just my friend. We aren't related."

"Then wh-why did you use to call him O-'Oniisama'?"

They went silent.

Ginzu opened his mouth first. "That's because—"

"—Because Ginzu is such a commanding and compassionate figure," Rin supplied, "a lot of people consider him something like a big brother. Even I consider him my 'aniki'!"

"Really?"

Rin smiled, eyes crinkling upwards. "That's right!"

"Yeah," Ginzu croaked with a thick voice, and he ran the back of his hand across his face, pretending that he wasn't wiping away tears. "Yeah, that's right, Baajiru."

Self-destructive behavior is often a ninja's way of coping with a world that is crueler than they really could handle, despite what their training tells them. Compared to the others—Unmei's opiate addiction following Hanzou's assassination, Kondoru's downward spiral into becoming fighting maniac on ubiquitous pain medication, or Six-Oh-One's recent suicide after Stockholms finally failed—succumbing to Lima Syndrome was rather kind.

All right! Now, I'm at a bit of an impasse. As it stands, there is at least one more chapter slated for Matsubaran, but the story is actually far from over. I'm coming up to a point that this story will be normal multi-chaptered narrative (and, also, I've pretty much caught up with the manga, so it'll start dividing in terms of storyline soon). I don't know if I should just go ahead and post it through here, or put in one more one-shot chapter on this and start a "sequal".