"To live is to suffer. To survive is to find some meaning in the suffering." — Friedrich Nietzsche

Eleven

She wasn't sure where she was, but the distinct taste of sand in between her teeth was severely off-putting.

The next thing that registered was everything that led up to her current predicament, whatever that was. The riot, Korharu… she clenched her jaw. She couldn't let herself think about that or she wouldn't be able to stop the tears from welling behind her eyes. It was easier to focus on her surroundings, to figure out where she could possibly be. Unfortunately, the most likely option was that the Iwa nins had caught her and that she was being held prisoner.

Then again, the sand that was still in her mouth was suggesting otherwise. Not to mention it was crazy hot and unbearably dry. Just thinking of water made her want to open her eyes and take her chance with whoever had found her.

She'd come to the conclusion that someone had found her because after she'd stuck Sakumo-sensei with one of her arrows, she'd decided to hell with it and used the Bolting Arrow one more time, not sure where it would send her or if it would work at all. She'd never attempted to use the seal with such a small amount of chakra, and wouldn't have been surprised if the chakra exhaustion had killed her.

When she tried to move her limbs, she was pleasantly surprised to find that they weren't tied down or restrained in any way. They were heavy with the weight of chakra exhaustion, but otherwise free of cuffs or ropes. Sighing in relief, she tried to sit up, but found that her entire body ached with the aftereffects of her escapade in Iwa and laid back down, deciding to familiarize herself with her surroundings.

She was lying in what seemed to be a small room with adobe brick walls and sparse furnishings, including the full bed she was lying on, a small nightstand, a dresser, and a single lamp. There was nothing on the walls, no windows, and nothing else to suggest where she might be. Just from the walls, she'd guess Suna, but that didn't exactly make much sense, so she couldn't really come to any solid conclusions.

Damn, I'm bored, she thought idly as she counted the spots on the ceiling. The ceiling was a different material than the walls, probably drywall, and had the distinct markings of water damage scattered across the far side by the door. Luckily, it didn't take long before the door to the room opened.

Whoever she was expecting, the person that came in definitely wasn't it. He couldn't have been more than ten or eleven years old with fiery red hair, not dissimilar to an Uzumaki's, and slightly duller red eyes. Her Suna theory was confirmed by the forehead protector that the boy wore. He was slight in stature, but she didn't let that fool her, especially in Suna because of their Puppet Brigade. The members of that unit weren't physically imposing, but were much more creative in their methods of killing, so she didn't want to tick this boy off.

Still, she was a ninja, and as soon as the door opened she went for her weapons, which weren't on her person. (Of course.)

Interestingly enough, as soon as the mystery boy realized that she was awake, his eyes widened and he faltered with the water jug in his hand. They simply stared at each other for a minute before the boy seemed to gather himself and cleared his throat.

"I, uh, brought water. I also thought you might want food because of the chakra exhaustion, but I wasn't sure when you'd wake up, so…" He trailed off and looked down at the water in his hands.

"Thank you," she croaked, her voice thick with the lack of water and scratchy because of the sand that seemed to coat her throat. The boy realized this and came forward to hand her the water. She sat up slowly and accepted it gratefully.

After that, the two sat in silence. She had no idea why this Suna boy had her in some room, or if anyone else knew about this, but she was content to wait him out. Not many eleven-year-olds would be able to sit still for very long if they had some secret mystery person right in front of them, and if others knew about her and he was instructed to keep watch, then she wouldn't want to say anything anyway.

He seemed to be struggling with something, but apparently came to a conclusion because he met her eyes and said, "No one else knows you're here. If you were wondering."

She was wondering, but wasn't going to tell him that. "Is that why I'm not restrained?"

He tilted his head, but didn't comment. Instead, he went over to the dresser and opened the top drawer, pulling out a set of clothes that looked like they'd fit her. "There are undergarments in the other drawers, but they might not fit. These clothes look about your size, and your weapons are in the nightstand. Your quiver and bow are outside. Whenever you leave, I'll give them back to you." With that, he turned to leave.

"Wait." She wasn't about to let this mystery boy leave without at least some information. "What's your name?"

Leaning on the doorframe with his eyes hooded by his hair, he replied, "Nothing that would matter to you." He left without another word.

The next few hours passed mundanely, mostly filled with her playing target practice with a shirt she'd strung up on the ceiling via shuriken. She'd throw kunai at the shirt until she only had one left, and then use the last one to knock one down, and go from there. She was going to get up and pace for absolutely no reason, but she was slipping in and out of consciousness for a good four hours after the mystery boy's departure because chakra exhaustion was a bitch like that. Eventually, she just gave up trying to entertain herself and decided to ponder the moral quandaries of life, which just drove her to the brink of batshit insane because she couldn't give a flying fuck about things like that.

Her boredom and general uselessness was getting to her so badly that she was briefly considering using a kunai to nick her fingers just for some fucking entertainment, even if that was watching herself bleed. (Yes, she did realize she was being morbid— sue her.)

Eventually, after an indiscernible amount of time, the door finally opened again and in came the same red-haired boy. This time he was carrying a tray of food, which looked to be some kind of stewed rodent with rye bread and a cup of something that didn't look, or smell, like water. (She wasn't as finely in tune with alcohol as Sakumo-sensei, or Jiraiya for that matter, but from her limited experience she was decently sure that it wasn't sake, nor was it anything distilled.)

"I brought some food," the boy said flatly, handing her the tray. He spared short glance at the kunai on the ceiling before turning his gaze back to her. "What's your name?"

That posed somewhat of a problem. She was fairly well-known because of her status in the Bingo Book, but a probable Genin or low-ranked Chuunin from Suna may not be privy to that information, so she wasn't exactly sure she should tell the truth. Then again, this boy seemed to have a familiar air about him that she couldn't quite place— it surrounded him, and it reminded her of herself in some odd way. And damn, wasn't it going to bug her until she figured it out.

"How do I know I can trust you?" she asked instead because the silence had gone on long enough. "How do I know that you're not just some decoy so that I talk?" She didn't really believe that, but quirked an eyebrow anyway, curious to his reaction.

He shifted uncomfortably and she decided that he didn't need to stand. She sat up and patted the end of her bed. He didn't say anything, but did take the offered seat.

He cleared his throat, which she'd found he did to alleviate an awkward situation. "You don't, but it's not like I know anything about you. Your name— your village even." He glanced up at her. "You know I'm from Suna."

That's somewhat reasonable, she thought. So she said, "I'm from Konoha. A Jounin." He nodded and told her that he was a Chuunin— had been since he was eight. It seemed slightly young to her, but then again, Sakumo-sensei's son was due to graduate the Academy in a few months and he was only five, so she supposed it wasn't too unreasonable. Especially since they were all on the brink of war.

"Why am I here?" she asked because, honestly, that question was getting to her. She'd thought about it for hours, but hadn't come up with any reason why this boy would have taken her— wherever— and help her out.

The boy shrugged somewhat, as if he wasn't quite sure himself, and replied, "You appeared right in front of me, on the brink of death, and there was nothing to suggest you were an enemy, so I brought you back to a lesser-known Suna operations base only used during active wartime. We're underground, if you were wondering about the lack of windows and water damage." He shrugged again as if that was that.

She coughed and shifted. This kid is probably the oddest eleven-year-old I've ever met.

"When can I go?" she said instead. She didn't want to offend him any more than she probably already had.

Another shrug. "Whenever you want. I'm not keeping you here. I'd recommend at least another night to recover from the chakra exhaustion, but it's completely up to you."

As he left again, she reminded herself that whatever that feeling was, she wasn't going to pinpoint it if she left. She slept decently that night, not even having her familiar nightmares that just wouldn't let her go of late.

X.x.X.x.X

She woke to shouting.

Not the kind of shouting like when you woke up to an ambush or stray bandits or anything like that. No, this was obviously some type of argument, though she couldn't really hear what it was about from her closed off room. She did, however, recognize the voice of the boy who'd been helping her out. So, curiosity thoroughly peaked, she carefully cracked her bedroom door and directed chakra to her ear so she could hear.

"What are you doing here?" a woman whom she didn't know shouted shrilly. "How many times has this been in the last month? Ten? Fifteen? Twenty? This isn't healthy!"

He isn't supposed to be here? she thought as different scenarios filled her brain.

"That isn't your choice, okay? I'm part of the Puppet Brigade, so it's my job to create newer, better tools for killing, isn't it?" the boy shouted back, his voice obviously shaking from the emotion behind his words. Whatever was going on, the boy was not coping well.

That just made her sense of familiarity flare up again, and she had no idea why. But something about this boy was reminding her of herself— and it was maddening. Even this exchange with some mystery woman was almost giving her déjà vu. She shook her head— this wasn't helping.

"I don't care. You're my grandson and I refuse to let you waste away in here with nothing but inanimate puppets for company. What would your parents say?" the woman implored. By the boy's reaction, it was the wrong thing to say. His voice was dangerously low and threatening.

"Don't you dare talk about my parents, not when you ignored my mother like she was some common whore and almost kicked my father out of the family for marrying her," he spat, his words laced with venom, his voice dripping daggers.

There it was again. That nagging feeling, that familiar sense of… of… Shit. That's why something about him felt familiar. Suddenly, she felt the pieces click together, and it made her immediately shut her door and stop eavesdropping on the boy's conversation with his grandmother. Now that she figured it out, she felt like a total dick. She sat back on the bed and laid down across the middle, her head dangling over the edge, as unwanted memories came to the forefront of her mind. She closed her eyes and pressed her palms to her face to try and forget about—

"Fine," the woman whispered, but she caught it because they'd moved closer to the door. "Fine. Rot in here for all I care. But don't come crawling back to me." A few seconds later, the sound of a door slamming could be heard and it echoed throughout the entire adobe.

BAM! The door to her room was kicked in with such a vicious force that she jumped and immediately loosed a kunai in the vicinity of the doorway. It was deflected without a thought, and before the boy, who was angry beyond belief, even looked at her, he picked up her stray kunai and plunged it into the wall to his left. He pulled it out and stabbed the wall again, again, again, again. It was relentless, and he kept at it for a good ten minutes. Just lashing out at the only real thing in the room that he wasn't in danger of breaking should it face his rage.

After a while, he wound down, his explosive anger calming down into a simmering frustration, but it was obvious that whatever had gone down not exactly a frequent occurrence, but one that hurt.

She recognized the grief that clutched at his heart like a vice, the hurt that weighed his shoulders down, and the loss that saturated the air around him. It was clear he was drowning, drowning and no one was there to throw him a lifeline. She recognized it because that was her not even two years ago, being buried underneath a wave of guilt and grief and depression. She hid it with anger and sarcasm, not letting anyone close to her in case they went and died on her, too. This Suna boy that found her just screamed drowning.

The boy took a heaving breath and slid down the wall, sitting on the floor and pulling his knees to his chest with his head between his knees. There was silence for a moment where both of the occupants of the room couldn't bring themselves to break the quiet.

Finally, he raised his head and looked in her direction. "You weren't supposed to hear that."

She didn't respond. There wasn't anything to say.

"It's just that—" he choked out, biting his lip. "They— my parents— she has no right to say anything about them. They—" He cut himself off again as tears prickled his eyes. "They were all I had left, and she still has the balls to tell me to get over it.

"What does she expect me to do? What does anyone expect me to do? I'm a ninja, and hopefully a good one, but I— I can't get over my parents like they were strangers, or just another random ninja, even if it's been five years. They weren't perfect, but they raised me, they got me interested in puppets, they were there for me even when they came back from a mission completely exhausted or injured. Now what am I supposed to do? Get an apartment? Live by myself? I can't keep staying with Lady Chiyō, as she's made perfectly clear. I'm in the Puppet Brigade, so we don't have teams, and either way Chuunins are mostly solo if they're old enough.

"And what do I do with you? Some random Konoha ninja that I'm not even supposed to be talking to, let alone have brought within a mile of the village! I just—" He couldn't continue and tried in vain to wipe away the tears that were spilling down his face.

She wasn't sure she could help him out at all, especially considering she was barely over her own grief, but she knew better than anyone that sometimes you just needed another person to understand. Not feel sorry, or give you pity, or offer condolences, but understand. "My father was killed two years ago. Killed because I wasn't in the village. Killed because I wasn't careful enough in hiding him. Killed because of the enemies that I made." Her words were barely audible.

She took a deep breath. "His death was my fault. I still don't know if I forgive myself."

That made him startle and look up at her with wide eyes. In that moment, he looked like the young boy he was more than ever. "What did you do?" The unrestrained hope in his eyes almost broke her heart.

"I hunted down the man responsible and killed him. He had a family, friends, people who cared about him. I never forgave myself for that, either." She turned her head away in an attempt to block out the painful memories. The memories of her father's dead body, of the man's slit throat, of his family's terror and hate-filled eyes as she killed their father, husband, friend. Tears burned hot behind her eyes, but she pushed them back.

In a low, shaky voice, she told him, "Don't ever go after whoever was responsible. Don't… It just kills you again inside, reminds you of how disappointed they'd be. And I—" She choked back her tears. "I know my father would be disappointed."

He didn't say anything, and for that she was grateful.

"I… I never did tell you my name," the boy said after a minute. He glanced at her with those light red eyes as if he were debating whether or not he was crazy for doing this. "It's Sasori. I'm a Chuunin. Eleven."

She blinked, finally able to connect a name to this odd boy. "I should probably return the favor. Sora Kuramoto. I'm a Jounin. Eighteen."

X.x.X.x.X

They'd sat in silence for a few hours before Sasori had left, saying that his recent time off was up, and that he had to report for another mission. Sora had nodded and it went unspoken that she wouldn't be there when he got back. Of course, he'd have to stop back to the base anyway for his puppets once he found out the mission specifics.

It didn't take long, and next thing she knew was that Sasori was back with a slightly worried expression on his face. She didn't need to ask to know that whatever was about to go down, it wasn't going to be pretty or easy. (She knew what that was like.)

She was sitting in the open lobby-ish area by the front of the base when he'd come back. As soon as he came in, he began scrambling around, obviously looking for something but having no luck, and after a few minutes of futility he just sat down on the nearest chair, running a hand through his hair.

"What's wrong?" Sora asked.

Sasori sighed. "I can't find my newest puppet additions. It's supposed to be a new poison that paralyzes the victim for twelve hours, and it would be damn helpful for what I'm being told to do, but it's not here even though I swear that I completed it."

Sora thought about anything she might've seen, but not only did she not know what she was looking for, but she didn't know her way around the base like Sasori probably did. So she settled with a neutral shrug. Sasori just heaved another sigh before disappearing into the back storage rooms that he told her he'd converted a year ago into his puppet workshop.

As soon as Sasori disappeared behind the workshop door, Sora began entertaining a crazy idea. She was well-aware that she should be heading back to Konoha immediately now that she's in decent enough condition to use the Bolting Arrow, but Sasori was just interesting to her. He was definitely a lonely kid, and he reminded her so much of herself that she couldn't help but want to stick around just a little longer. Besides, he obviously was a genius with puppets. If war did break out, she damn well hoped that Suna and Konoha would be allies. (Or at least that she wasn't the poor sap fighting against him.)

Soon Sasori was back, and Sora decided that the least she could do was look for whatever he'd been working on. She knew how important any advantage was in a fight to the death, and she really didn't want the kid to die before she could have a decent conversation with him. Besides, she'd never been to Suna and wouldn't mind being shown around before she had to leave. (Which she had to at some point.)

Sasori came back in decked out in a black tunic-like top that had a high collar with black ninja pants and the standard hip pouches and kunai holsters. His forehead protector was tied firmly above his eyes to keep his hair back. As Sora was quickly realizing, Sasori wasn't exactly the most talkative person. The outburst from yesterday was a rare, if not nonexistent, phenomenon, and he was prone to long hours in his workshop making and improving puppets or heading out to receive a new mission. As far as Sora knew, there wasn't anyone he interacted with on any personal level except for his grandmother, who he obviously was less than thrilled to talk to. (She wasn't all that surprised. She'd heard the reports of what Lady Chiyō was like from Tsunade before.)

As he left, Sasori met her gaze and nodded to her. There was true gratitude in his eyes along with such a deep longing and resignation that she wondered how anyone had missed it. Then again, she knew that a person only saw what they wanted to see better than most.

That did it. It was stupid and reckless and illogical, but she wasn't going to let go of this Suna shinobi so easily. It wouldn't be hard to track him with her summons, and if she could track down his poison, or at least some kind of poison, she could provide a little support.

The biggest reason that she was going to all this trouble was simply… instinct. Something was telling her she needed to go after this boy, and she'd never been one to go against her instinct. It rarely ever failed her, and for whatever reason, her gut was telling her to go after Sasori.

He left quickly, obviously not eager to be late, and she let him go so she could figure out where his poison could be. Sasori said he'd been in his workshop day in and day out to finish Crow's newest addition, so she was skeptical that he would've misplaced it here. And the only other person besides herself that was in here was…

Lady Chiyō.

She must've taken it, though Sora had no clue as to why the head of Suna's hospital would do that. Not to mention that Lady Chiyō was a close advisor to the Kazekage and therefore shouldn't have a reason to take a poison that was probably not as good as what the higher echelons of Suna's military government would be able to either develop or procure.

Either way, it looked like she was about to break into the Kazekage Tower. Huh. She was just getting into the habit of trying to piss off every village she stepped foot in, wasn't she?

The best part was that she didn't even need to worry about getting inside Suna because of the Bolting Arrow. (Man, wasn't she glad she invented that seal? Talk about tiring actually having to infiltrate places the mundane way.) So, shouldering her quiver and readying her bow, she nocked an arrow but didn't draw back, formed a one-handed rat seal, and said, "Fuuinjutsu." Her surroundings swirled in a familiar pattern and not but a second later she was standing in a back alley not far from the Kazekage Tower. A grin worthy of the Chesire Cat spread across her face and she decided she needed to develop something to detect fuuinjutsu usage within Konoha's village limits so this didn't happen to Konoha.

Still. She was about to have some fun. (It would've been almost worth it to see the look on the Kazekage's face if she'd appeared in his office, but didn't think that the Hokage, or Suna, would appreciate that.)

To avoid detection as an outsider, Sora reigned her chakra in so that it was virtually nonexistent and put all her weapons away after making sure the area she landed in was at least temporarily safe. There was no way that she would be able to pull off a complete civilian (her instincts were too ingrained), but that hardly mattered because ninja tended to be really lax within their own village, mostly due to their trust in the border security. It was probably a good thing that no one knew about the Bolting Arrow but a select few in Konoha.

After ensuring that she looked like a civie to the unattentive eye, Sora set out toward the Kazekage Tower. She wasn't about to just waltz in since the security there would catch her pretty quickly, so she planned to use Suna's own technique against them: chakra strings.

A skilled puppeteer could use chakra strings to manipulate not only puppets but living humans too, and after a run-in with the technique, Sora felt it would be highly useful in her arsenal. She was no expert at it by any means, but she could manipulate people to a believable degree— most of the time. Admittedly, she was a little iffy, but her chakra control was exceptional, good enough to be a medic nin had she wanted to, so once she'd practiced a good deal, she was passable.

Now all she had to do was injure herself enough to gain access to Suna's hospital, which was attached to the Kazekage Tower, but not too severely so she was still able to get back out again. To ensure that her weapons weren't found, she made use of the tattoos on her arms.

When Jiraiya-sensei had showed her and Minato the final step in storage sealing, she'd been a little skeptical at first. The idea of having permanent seals on your skin wasn't unbelievable, but she thought they were rather obvious if that's all you did, so when she designed her seals, she weaved the seal into another, more artistic design. It was complicated because she had to use an old Uzumaki structure that was rather difficult to work with, but in the end it looked to the untrained eye as if she'd tattooed the Uzumaki swirl mixed with the Konoha leaf in an admittedly beautiful array.

Unfortunately, it did identify her with Konoha, but that was actually something she was banking on to get medical treatment right away. Technically, Suna was allies with Konoha, so they probably wouldn't detain her, and the circumstances she was going to set up to injure herself were going to shed a poor light on Suna.

Her only hope was that this stunt didn't start the Third Shinobi World War. (Crossies, right?)

Now that all her weapons were sealed into her arm tattoo, she used chakra strings to snag the burliest looking Jounin from the crowd of rooftop ninja. The shimmering blue strings were nigh invisible and connected in all the right spots. Immediately, she directed the man to run at her as fast as he possibly could, and she suddenly flared her chakra and took off running with the Jounin supposedly 'hot on her heels'.

The effect was instantaneous: ninja all over the village noticed the sudden chakra flare and it wasn't long before they spotted her and the random Jounin chasing her. Sora snorted at their response time— if an unknown was in your village and being chased by one of your ninja, shouldn't you react a little faster?

Reaction times aside, Sora knew it would be long before they came out of their stupor and went to support their fellow ninja. The benefit of the doubt wouldn't be on her until the facts came out at the hospital, but she needed to be injured by this man 'chasing' her so that her story would be at least semi-believable. Luckily, she still had old bruises from the fight a day ago with the Iwa ninjas that could help corroborate.

Manipulating her fingers to send the Jounin at her with a kunai, she acted as if she stumbled so she could hit the ground hard. She pretended to try and block the kunai, but had the Jounin follow her movements and slash her in the upper arm, gouging deeply. She hissed in pain, but otherwise made no noise. Then, relaxing her muscles to take as minimal amount of damage as possible, he maneuvered her fingers so that the Jounin skewered her in the shoulder, just slightly lower than the actual bone so the healing was faster. Finally, to be as legitimate as possible, she made the man stab her in the side as she gritted her teeth in pain.

Suddenly, half a dozen high ranking ninjas were surrounding them, and Sora severed her chakra strings. The best thing about them in her opinion was that were undetectable if the recipient doesn't already know the feeling. They can't be traced or proven to be used unless they were seen directly. The Suna Jounin shook himself as regained control of his body, and seemed to be lost as to what actually happened.

"Who are you?" a woman barked in Sora's direction. Obviously they would assume her to be the threat first.

She needed to bank on the mission that Sakumo-sensei completed and claim she was seeking refuge, so she said, "Sora Kuramoto, a Jounin from Konoha. I was injured in a previous mission and needed medical treatment." She grimaced at her wounds and was suddenly glad that her chakra was not fully recovered from the Iwa mission. All evidence suggested what she said was true.

"Why were you being chased?" a man asked, more toward the Jounin Sora had manipulated than Sora herself.

Obviously, the man had no idea. "I— uh… don't know?"

No one commented, but Sora could tell that threw them slightly for a loop. The man who'd asked the question scooped her up from the ground and began to jump rooftops toward the hospital. She admired the village as they headed there.

Suna was an unforgivingly harsh land, yet it was beautiful in its own cruel way. The adobe bricks, flat-topped roofs, and squatted, low ceilinged buildings spoke of a minimalist mindset born out of necessity which seemed to dictate the life here. The civilians were straight-backed and proud as they went about their shopping and daily lives, almost as if no matter what was thrown at them, they would stand tall, the only thing unwilling to succumb to the blowing winds, scorching temperatures, and grating sand.

They reached the hospital quickly. Sora was dumped on a stretcher and taken to a room with a gruff medic nin. She pulled out bandages and some medical tape, setting them on the tray to the side before performing all types of diagnostic jutsu and, eventually, healing jutsu. Sora sighed as her cuts and bruises were healed, along with the gash on her arm and the wound on her side. Even her chakra spiked a little higher after she was finished being treated.

The side wound was bad enough that it still needed to be bandaged to keep the raw skin from ripping open again. The medic nin warned her that if she did anything too strenuous then she was at risk for pulling the barely-closed wound and making the scarring worse, or going as far to rip it open again and having it get infected, which would be much harder to treat. Sora just nodded and awaited the two people she knew would come to see her.

It didn't take long, and Sora's expectations didn't disappoint her. The Third Kazekage, Tetsunaka Amori, came in first, followed quickly by Lady Chiyō.

Sora had never personally met Tetsunaka Amori. He was known all throughout the Elemental Countries as the strongest Kazekage to ever lead Sunagakure, but since she was obviously only a Jounin, and not a diplomat at that, she'd never had any reason to meet the man. Now that she was up close and personal with him, she could easily see why he was such an effective leader.

He had the air of superiority, but not the arrogance of some like the Raikage. He held himself squarely, was highly analytical and observational (according to the eyes sweeping over her and the room), and from the stories of his fighting capabilities, she'd be hard-pressed to pick a victor between the Third Kazekage and the Third Hokage. In her opinion, it would probably be a long battle and come down to situational complications and environment.

Either way, this was one of the most powerful human beings in the world, and let it never be said that Sora Kuamoto denied respect to those that deserved it. She inclined her head and greeted, "Good afternoon, Kazekage-sama. Lady Chiyō."

The Kazekage nodded at her while Chiyō seemed to get right to the chase. "What were you doing in our village?" the older woman barked none too kindly.

Sora gestured to herself since she thought the answer fairly obvious, but managed to keep the mocking out of her voice when she replied, "I was carrying out a mission for Konoha when my team was ambushed and slaughtered. I barely escaped due to some lucky fuuinjutsu and most of the assailants having had an elemental affinity disadvantage. Sunagakure was the closest resource for medical treatment that wasn't hostile, so I tried to make it to the hospital when I was attacked by one of your ninja."

Chiyō bristled. "Are you implying that our ninja was responsible for your predicament?" she spat venomously.

The Kazekage put his hand out to quiet his advisor. Sora watched him warily, though she hid it well behind an ANBU-esque facade. "I'm curious as to how you managed to get into the village, Kuramoto-san. Tensions are running high and our ninja are on alert, as I'm sure you can understand."

Sora nodded politely and gestured to the walls around them. "If you may excuse me, Kazekage-sama, I can't tell you until we are in a more private location. Our village may be allies, but there are plenty who are not, and while I don't doubt your integrity or your capability to root out spies, this information is highly classified and I can't justify telling you in such an open setting."

As expected, the Kazekage simply nodded and turned for the door. "I will await your recovery, Kuramoto-san," he said as he exited. Chiyō wasn't far behind him, though she shut the door a little more forcefully than was strictly necessary.

The second the door was closed, Sora got to work. She made a Shadow Clone and then repressed all of her chakra so that she could sneak out without suspicion. There were no doubt ANBU watching her, so her only chance was her faithful Bolting Arrow, which she didn't want anyone to know about save maybe the Kazekage, but that didn't hinder her. She weaved one of the few low-level genjutsus she knew which just temporarily distorted the vision before unsealing her weapons and gearing up. As she always did when Bolting, she nocked an arrow but didn't draw back, raised her right hand in a one-handed rat seal, and whispered, "Fuuinjutsu."

She appeared just outside of Suna, not far from Sasori's workshop, with her bow drawn in case of any threats. Even though she was outside Suna didn't mean she'd let her guard down. It was too ingrained in her.

Her second storage seal on her body was a seal weaved into the body of a coyote on her right hip, underneath her shirt. It was hidden in such a way because the scroll contained in the seal was her most prized possession, something even more valuable than her bow:

A summoning scroll. More specifically, the summoning scroll for coyotes.

Unrolling it, she bit her finger and swiped her blood along the paper before slamming it down onto the ground and shouting, "Summoning Jutsu!" After a puff of smoke, in front of her stood a beautiful, and rare, black coyote with a silver streak through its tail. Sora pulled out a tool of Sasori's that she nabbed from his workshop so that the coyote she summoned, Kishi, could track him. Kishi lifted his head and sniffed at the air before pawing the ground and taking off. She followed Kishi, keeping pace with him easily, before smirking to herself at how easy her grab-and-go was.

For as great as Chiyō was supposed to be, apparently that was mostly rumor because all it took to steal something directly on her person was to get her angry. Sora had Sasori's poison alright— Chiyō had been ignorant enough to keep it on her person and then be dumb enough to get close enough to a skilled S-rank Jounin known for her unparalleled infiltration and deception techniques. All it took to distract the woman was simply a well-placed, politely disguised insult, a seal that functioned like genjutsu but was undetectable, and her snagging the actual thing. It helped, though, that she could smell the foul stuff as soon as the old hag had stepped into the room.

The Kazekage, however, was an entirely different matter. That little trick might've fooled Chiyō, but Sora wasn't so arrogant to think that she pulled the wool over a Kage's eyes. And because there currently weren't any ninja being deployed to track her down, he must've known she would come back...? He had to have known that the White Fang killed Chiyō's son and daughter-in-law, and if he was well-versed in the current Bingo Book like the Hokage, then he would well know that Sora Kuramoto was the name of one of Sakumo's teammates.

Then again, everyone knew that the Kazekage wanted peace with Konoha, so maybe he was giving her the benefit of the doubt? That was unlikely too because he wouldn't be that naïve.

Kishi stopped abruptly, yanking Sora out of her thoughts and bringing her attention to the matter at hand. Gauging her surroundings and along her map, she figured she was close to the Wind/Rain border. Her coyote yipped quietly before standing rigid and snout pointed slightly northeast. She nodded and Kishi left with a puff of smoke.

She took off northeast and it didn't take long to come across Sasori. He was using two puppets to fend off half a dozen indistinguishable enemies. Another boy about Sasori's age was trying to fight off three ninja that seemed to be Genin, maybe a Chuunin. She couldn't tell where the attackers were from, but that hardly mattered. Drawing back her bow and nocking three arrows, she released the string and barely registered the sharp slap! of the bowstring on her arm guard. All three arrows hit their targets in the necks of the three unsuspecting enemies.

Her entrance drew everyone's attention immediately of friend and foe alike, and Sasori's eyes widened while the other boy took a defensive stance, unsure of whether she was an enemy or not. Sora smiled with all teeth and nocked two more arrows. They puncture the necks of two more adversaries.

"I thought you might want this," Sora said in a playful tone as she handed Sasori the poison. He kept looking from her to the vial of poison before he nodded his thanks and grabbed it from her to adjust his puppet. She jumped right back into the fray.

With his new advantage, Sasori was a killing machine with his puppets, especially since the poison temporarily paralyzed its victims. Sora barely had to do anything, but decided to take the highest ranking one: a green-as-grass Jounin that was too arrogant for his own good. She shouldered her bow because she didn't think she'd need it for this fight. Palming two kunai, she lunged.

Upon closer inspection, the offending party here was a group of Iwa ninja— which just made Sora growl menacingly. Iwa pissed her off to no end and she wasn't about to let this group of idiots get away with whatever the hell they thought they were doing here. Whatever they wanted with Suna's lesser-known border areas couldn't be good, so she snarled and jabbed at her opponent.

He wasn't even fast enough to dodge her first blow and took the kunai with a very unmanly yelp before he was kicked viciously in the solar plexus and sent flying. Sora chuckled and dashed forward to grab the man by the hair and slam his face into the sand, making sure it got up his nose and into his eyes. He choked, but she just laughed and used her second kunai to slit his throat.

"Pathetic waste of space," she hissed as his body slumped back into the sand.

Losing spacial awareness was common during a fight, and Sora found herself scanning what was left of the area they'd all fought on. Sasori was finishing up with a weak-looking ninja while the rest of the opponents were sprawled on the sand, very much dead. The other boy that had been fighting with Sasori was trying to fend off a likely Chuunin, but it was clear he was out-matched. Sora was a good three hundred yards away from him, so she pumped chakra into her feet to try and get to the boy in time to stop the sword strike she saw coming…

But it was futile. She made it just a second too late, and as she decapitated the Iwa nin she saw the boy's arm get severed by his enemy's blade. The boy screamed and his knees gave out, but Sora caught him so he didn't get sand into his newly amputated arm. Luckily (discounting his earlier lack of luck), he still had his elbow, so if any functional prosthetics were ever made then he would be have a higher chance of gaining mobility back.

Unfortunately, right now he was bleeding out. If Sora didn't get him to a hospital within the next ten minutes, he'd be at risk for death via blood loss. (And wasn't that a charming way to go?)

Sora picked the boy up and turned in Sasori's direction. "Do you know any genjutsu?" she demanded.

Sasori blinked as he took in his comrade's condition, but nonetheless replied, "A few B-ranks. Sensory distortion, false darkness, the like."

"Use a sensory distortion because I'm going have to Bolt with both of you if you want your friend here to live," she barked as she shifted the boy's weight to draw and arrow out of her quiver. He was in tremendous pain and, contrary to popular belief, was still very much conscious. His panicking was just accelerating his bleeding and she changed her estimation to five minutes. Any longer and he was at the very least at risk for brain damage due to lack of blood (therefore oxygen), and at the worst— death.

Once the genjutsu settled over them, Sora handed Sasori the arrow and said, "Hold this. I'll explain later. Fuuinjutsu!" And they were gone.

When Sora had wanted to pop into the Kazekage's office earlier, she was joking. This time, however, she didn't have the time to appreciate his shock. "Kazekage-sama, I'll explain in a minute, but this kid is going to die if someone doesn't treat him."

She respected Tetsunaka Amori five times more when he just waved away his ANBU and called in the medics while giving her a calm nod. She passed off the still-nameless boy and sat down heavily in a chair across from the Kazekage's desk.

Amori waited until his office had been cleared out besides Sora and Sasori before he spoke. "My biggest question is how you appeared out of nothing in front of my desk."

Before she did anything, Sora bit her thumb and used the blood to draw a wide-range privacy and security seal on the floor in front of her so that no unwanted ears could intrude. She received an interested raising of eyebrows from Amori, but nothing else.

Sora nodded and slid her quiver and bow off of her shoulders. Removing an arrow, she placed it on Amori's desk and then channeled chakra, tapping the shaft so that a bright blue seal formula shined for the naked eye to see. "This is a seal of my own creation that I made while studying under Jiraiya-sensei. It's a long-distance Space-Time seal that allows me to teleport anywhere in the Elemental Countries where I've placed the beacon seal. This formula on my arrow shaft allows me to use my arrows as a conduit so that I can teleport more than just myself at any given time. It's called the Bolting Arrow.

"If I want to 'Bolt', as I've dubbed it, I tap an arrow shaft before I shoot it to place the sealing formula with the specifics on my destination. I can only 'Bolt' to locations where I've placed the beacon seal. During the creation process, I made sure that only my chakra or chakra from one of my blood relatives would activate the seal."

The Kazekage nodded and inspected the arrow on his desk. He didn't know any fuuinjutsu besides the typical storage scroll and explosive tag, but just from a cursory glance, she was very serious about its capabilities. Straightening, he said, "Where and when have you placed a beacon seal in my office, Kuramoto-san?"

Ah. This was the war-starting part. "Well, on a previous visit from the Hokage…" She didn't feel the need to explain the rest of that. "And where? On the underside of the chair I'm sitting on in blood ink."

Kudos to Amori for not blowing up, Sora thought as she locked eyes with him. I don't even want to think about what would happen if this was the Raikage. She shuddered to even imagine it. There would probably not be a Raikage office nor a Sora Kuramoto anymore.

All the Kazekage did was give her an unreadable look before sliding the arrow back across to her. She put it away immediately, not liking one of her prized possessions being handled by others.

The Kazekage sighed and crossed his arms. "I want to know what you're here for, Kuramoto-san. And why you felt the need to take a poison from Lady Chiyō."

She launched into the story of how she got there with Sasori finally speaking up to add to his recollection of events. After they were finished, the Kazekage sent Sasori out of the office with instructions to go to medical before he finally went home. He hesitated, but knew it was futile to argue, so he bowed and left. Amori rounded on Sora.

"What are your intentions with Suna?" he asked, though there wasn't any malice or heat behind his words. It seemed, at least for the moment, that he was merely curious.

But Sora only heard the accusation. That's she'd try to take advantage of Suna, or use her seals to invade the village, or something equally as preposterous. He was accusing her, her, of betraying an ally. If Konoha taught anything, it was teamwork. And if Sora had learned anything throughout her tenure as a ninja, it was that one did not betray their allies. Maybe she'd forgiven herself for her father, maybe she'd forgiven herself for the man she killed out of vengeance, and maybe she'd forgiven herself for some of the lives she'd taken over the years, but she would never, for the rest of her life, forgive herself for getting Korharu killed. Getting her best friend killed because she couldn't see the obvious facade that Akio had been putting up. Sakumo-sensei probably lived, but Korharu was dead. And all because she had abandoned one ally for another.

Akio might've once been the only person as close as a brother to her, but now that he was gone, she knew that Korharu Funaki had been the closest friend she'd ever had. For that matter, had she ever gotten the guts to find out, it might've gone further than that.

So for this man, Kazekage or no, to stand in front of her and accuse her of purposefully betraying an ally when not having been provoked, was one of the worst insults she'd ever received. (A small voice in the back of her mind told her he was just protecting his village, but she ignored it.)

Besides, Sasori, no matter that small amount of time she'd known him, was quickly becoming like a little brother. He was a lot like her, and he reminded her of what it was like to be that young and naïve and to not understand the grief you were drowning in. If at all possible, she didn't want Sasori to have to wade through that alone. Sora knew she would've killed to have had someone that could've helped her when her mother died. Her father, too.

"Of course not!" Sora shouted, not giving two shits that she was yelling at Tetsunaka Amori, Third Kazekage. "I don't betray allies, not unless they've already stabbed me in the back, and Konoha and Suna are, in fact, allies. Not to mention that Sasori, no matter how closed off he is or how cold he wants to appear to everyone, is sinking, and it would be a waste of not only a damn fine ninja but a great kid. So my 'intentions with Suna' are pretty damn straightforward."

Tetsunaka Amori was a lot of things: strong, intelligent, observant, cautious; but one thing he couldn't say he'd ever been was very caring. For his village, yes. For individuals, no. He wasn't a monster and didn't enjoy killing or war, but he wouldn't shy away from them or go to the ends of the Earth to protect anyone. He didn't have any living family and had never started one.

Watching this Konoha shinobi stand up for one of his soldiers so readily and so vehemently, it made him realize something: the one thing worse than fighting with allies was fighting without them. War was coming— the entirety of the Elemental Countries was a tinderbox soaked in gasoline. One misstep and the whole thing would burst into flames. The question wasn't about if, it was merely about when. The only question the Kazekage had was:

Who would be fighting whom?

The messenger hawk sent from the Kazekage to Hiruzen Sarutobi not an hour later ensured one thing: Suna would not be in the mood to chop down any trees.

Phew! A little longer to update than I wanted, but well worth it.

No one saw that one coming, did they? I have to admit, I'm really happy with this chapter. I'm screwing over all of canon and rewriting the way I probably would've in the first place. The Third Shinobi World War will be all kinds of fucked up, believe me.

I'm also pretty sure this will end up a trilogy. If Promises Could Be Kept, A Promise Long Forgotten, and The Promised Land. I already have the basic timelines.

Get ready for characters that most of you have forgotten about to play big parts, and get ready for upcoming oh shit! moments. Kakashi is coming back, but there will be some angst. Or a lot. Just a warning.