Redesign

by xLilim

Complete / Life is a fickle thing, but death is certain. MadaraOC

21. The War For Kurata 2

Chapter 21 | The War For Kurata II

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The hottest summer brought forth desperation.

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With the setting sun dyeing setting the mountain's icy sheen ablaze with color, Mio watched Sako occupy Takuto's empty seat beside her with a suspicious, teasing smile that read she had caught them doing something improper. She'd just finished running around the entire mountain donning weighted clothes and heavier weights and sat talking to the medic-in-training, far from inappropriate behavior between friends.

Despite the initial discomfort of the ridiculous combination, she had begun to see results to her grandfather's laborious training. She was quick enough to run alongside other Kuronuma shinobi her age, but not nearly stealthy enough to avoid leaving a trail of footprints on the snow and every morning she reminded herself to step lightly, to mimic the way the other shinobi moved and ingrain it into her head. She listened to their advice and questioned her grandfather about anything she may not understand. She observed training sessions fronted by Enya and Uzuki, the oldest of three female elders as well as his mother, who oversaw the conditioning of the adolescents completing their Strength Training.

Mio wanted to be ready for Strength Training before it invaded her peaceful Heat Training because she was drawing closer to the day her grandfather gave her to assess the situation. She would need to combine the two to finish faster, even though faster meant one complete year, it sure beat the initial three year stretch. Once she completed those, she'd ingest the black water via ritual and start learning the jutsu by copying it with her Sharingan, which in of itself presented a problem she didn't want to address.

Everything fell into place. She could see her own life slowly begin to unfold, wrought with hard work and questionable commitment, but there. She could do as she pleased once she mastered the Kuronuma clan's techniques and she planned to make her grandfather proud by keeping his treasured artifacts out of the wrong hands. She certainly did not understand the true importance of the ten mysterious artifacts, but she resolved to trust in his word.

So when Sako appeared with that knowing smile and glinting, teasing eyes, Mio wanted to run as far into Mt. Hyōga's caves to avoid whatever inquiries she planned to bombard her with, even though she was fully aware it had everything to do with her chummy attitude with Takuto.

"You're pretty friendly with Takuto-san," she said sneakily, as if she had never seen them interact in the same manner several months ago.

"Yeah, we're friends."

"So are you two finally dating?"

The questioned didn't faze her as Sako might have predicted it. No, she wanted to say, because I'm promised to your husband. "No. We're friends. It was never like that between us. I have someone I like."

That piqued her curiosity. "Someone you like?"

"Izuna."

"Izuna? But you're here and he's somewhere else," strained Sako. "You have so much to do here that you might never see him again, and what about the betrayal? Do you think he'll forgive you for choosing to follow Taiga?"

The betrayal no longer mattered. She lied to him about her feelings. She could have told him then that she wanted to be with him however he wanted them to be together, that she would do anything for him. She would. That is how Madara convinced her to betray Sachiyo, by telling her it was all for Izuna's sake and because he would never say anything like that and lie, she believed him. And now, she was stuck in an unwanted situation because she couldn't think of a different lie to tell. Saying she was in love with Taiga was the first thing that popped into her head and she regretted it, but…

She made a deal with Taiga as well, for Sako's sake. She would become his woman one day and that further dampened her chances of ever seeking happiness with Izuna. She was certain that Izuna would one day become the only man in the world capable of making her happy. He was her first friend and her confidant; he made her feel comfortable enough to drop her guard. She never felt that way with anyone. She could tell him anything. That's what it felt like to be with Izuna. That's the type of life she wanted with another man. Simple and uncomplicated. She wouldn't have to try because she was certain someone like Izuna was easy to love. She already loved him. Maybe not romantically, no, but she loved him in a way that could evolve into it.

"I'll see him again," she hesitated. "Madara promised he would come back for me, so I will see Izuna again."

Sako seemed confused. "Madara?"

Mio smiled, though the memory of it stirred a different emotion in her. Perhaps hope. "He told me I could be with his brother if I wanted, but that I'd need to be patient and wait for him."

"Do you plan to go back to them?" asked Sako dubiously.

"I owe Sachiyo-sama and Izuna an apology," she answered. "I won't ever be okay with betraying them. It hurt me more than I expected it to, more so when I saw the way they looked at me. Sachiyo couldn't even see me. She turned away. Izuna, I hurt him the most, and I hate that I was the reason he felt like that. I want to say sorry, I want to repay them somehow and the only way I can do it now is by finishing my training here. So, you're right, I do have a lot to do here. I have family here, too."

She felt her lips tugging up into a bigger smile as she stared into the wide street and the people leaving their homes to light the torches for the night. "I thought I lost everything when my mother and father died. I thought I could never go back to feeling that close to another person, but I have a grandfather that really watches over me and a great-grandfather I can't figure out. I have cousins and nieces now. I have friends. Everyone here knows who I am. And It's beautiful here. It's cold, but it's beautiful here and I hate that I'm going to have to leave, but my place is out there."

"It's a mountain of giants," agreed Sako, mirroring her emotion, "but it is incredibly beautiful. You have great family here and Okimi-san and Enya-san's twins are to die for. I remember when Minako was that small. She was adorable, but she never let me sleep at night. I was so happy once she turned one and she started sleeping normally."

"I remember," murmured Mio, recalling the nights she spent in the compound listening to Minako screaming throughout the night. It usually took Sako walking around outside with her baby bundled in a heap of blankets before she would quiet down. "She was a nightmare."

Sako laughed, nodding her head in agreement. "She was, she definitely was, which is why I'm glad she's five and I can just tell her to go to sleep and she listens. She really likes it here too. There are so many children here. I didn't expect there to be so many. The Kuronuma clan is so different from the Uchiha clan…sorry, I just never got used to it."

"I won't deny it. In every four Uchiha there is a snake, and you came into our lives when the entire compound was full of them. I can understand why you felt that way, but I'm happy that you can feel safe here."

"Mio!"

Mio turned to the cave entrance from where her grandfather emerged. He gestured her over. It was time for her two-hour bath in the special spring. She stood and turned to Sako, excusing herself.

"Mio."

She stopped.

"I'm sorry for being such a burden in your life," Sako whispered. "I couldn't handle being married to Taiga and I just—I said so many things to you that I wish I could take them back. I really wish for you to find Izuna and that he forgives you and that you live a happy life with him. You shouldn't worry about me anymore. I'll find a way to speak to Taiga and undo this already broken marriage. I'm tired of not speaking up before and leaving it all to you. You're only fifteen and I put such a heavy burden on you."

Her apology was littered in pauses and soft, teary tones. She meant every word.

Mio wished it came earlier, but in reality, she was glad it came at all. She regarded Sako with an easy smile. "It's fine, Sako. I appreciate the apology. Thank you for it."

Sako's beautiful face looked relieved when a new smile appeared on her lips and the tears dried in her eyes. She stared at her with glassy blue eyes, but they glimmered with happiness, and they were okay. Everything felt settled between them. It was as if Mio needed this from her to feel her decision was her own mistake and nothing to do with Sako. She appreciated that bit of the burden lifted.

Ushio, the dimpled man with the huge body, called Sako over. He carried Minako over his shoulders, both of them waved at her to hurry to see the bonfire being lit for the festivities scheduled for that evening in celebration of Musashi's birthday. There would be a feast, wine, games, and dancers. Everyone eagerly awaited the day since the end of the shadow storm and had been planning it for the last three months, prepared to go all out even if it meant having to trade with the Iron Country the following morning.

Mio was a part of the group heading into neutral country alongside Eito, Takuto, Ushio, and his father, Takeo, to restock their food supplies. It normally took two Kuronuma shinobi, one medically oriented, and two merchants to procure fresh produce and meat and every day supplies from a special building in the Iron Country to get through the rough terrain in Kurata, but yesterday, during preparations, Eito insisted on attending and Musashi requested she be his bodyguard. She didn't like the responsibility, but she did want to experience a different season.

Mio walked up to meet Shin by the cave entrance. "How old is Musashi turning?"

"Ninety-nine," he answered with a huge smile.

"Ninety-nine?" She certainly expected over sixty, but not over ninety. She didn't think ninety-nine year olds should look as youthful as her great-grandfather. "You're joking…right?"

"If he dies before he hits triple digits he owes me some serious money," he said seriously.

"Why aren't you joking?"

"Because he really is ninety-nine, Mio," he told her as if it were perfectly normal.

"He's ninety-nine and you're what? Eighty?"

"Hey, do I look eighty to you, young lady?"

"No, you look thirty, but I know you're not, mom was in her late twenties when she died and I'm turning sixteen this year—how old are you?"

He stared her down, mouth drawn into a frown. "You know, you're pretty rude, asking a gentleman his age."

Narrowing her eyes, she called him the one word that would elicit a response from him, "Stalker. Perverted old stalker. That's what you are."

Shin gasped dramatically. "You take that back!"

"I bet you are eighty, you stalker," she accused, pushing past him to enter the cave.

"We have good genes, Mio! This clan has really good genes!"

She wanted to call him out on his bullshit because Takuto's grandmother actually looked like a grandmother. She was a purebred Kuronuma and had stringy white hair, age spots, a wrinkled face, and weathered body. There were a ton of old people on the mountain that had Kuronuma blood in them and the rose-colored eyes to prove it that complained about the damn cold and looked their age. She didn't think this clan had good genes, nor did she believe they discovered some sort of fountain of youth. No, there was something else they weren't telling her and curious as she was, she didn't want to know. The idea of that secret alone rubbed her the wrong way.

.

.

Two hours later, the festivities were on a rise—the laughter was louder, the feast seemed never ending, everyone's cups were full, and the bonfire in the center of the plaza colored the surroundings with a pale orange glow. She joined Musashi to congratulate him on turning ninety-nine and give him the jar of blackberry jam she bought to gift him after overhearing him say he couldn't find that specific brand anywhere. She half expected him to deny the number, but instead, he shocked her by wrapping an arm around her shoulders in gratitude for the gift and said the last thing she expected, "If I make it to triple digits, your grandfather is going to owe me some serious money. Twelve months to go."

He made eye contact with his son in the busiest crowd and repeated himself, "Twelve months, Shinya! Get your wallet ready!"

"You'll be dead in three, old man," Shin shouted, the crowd around him exploding into laughter. "So get ready, Eito, as soon as the mummy croaks, you'll be the new Shugosha and we can have parties all year long."

"Sounds like a plan!" Eito smiled from his position behind one of the wooden tables with a platter of food in his hand.

"What the…hell?" Mio grumbled, loud enough for the irritation to reach Musashi's ears. His laughter seized and she found him staring at her with what looked like understanding as he detached himself from her. They took death lightly, they who had just started to recover after Tasuku sent Mikazuki Gouki and a hoard of mountain bandits to kill several of their civilians.

"Forgive the insensitive joke, Mio," Musashi said, patting her shoulder. "After recent events, this sort of behavior is unacceptable."

She nodded dumbly. She didn't expect an apology. "It's…okay."

He smiled, tucking the jar of blackberry jam into his robes. "How has Heat Training treated you?"

"Good," she answered. "I think."

He pressed the back of his hand to her cheek. "Well, you're certainly warmer than you were when you first arrived last year. That means it is working…not that I doubted it. You're a natural."

"Musashi-san," she started, earning a strange look for her use of honorific. "Sorry, great-grandfather is a mouthful…uhm…I wondered why you are so certain—why you and grandfather are always so certain of these things, of many things. Do you have people all over the world spying for you or…is it…"

Trailing off she found her eyes falling to the sphere that hung from his neck, the grayish smoke turning several shades darker as it spun with the ferocity of a hurricane and she felt compelled to touch it. The glass surface shone against the firelight an ominous red as if the flames set it on fire and before she could stop herself, the pads of her fingertips brushed the cold sphere and she felt a surge of chakra claw up her hand and arm.

It paralyzed her. It strummed fear into her being, a fear that came with an understanding that this sphere was a dangerous item.

A prickle of pain assaulted her earlobe and she snapped out of her paralysis, widened black eyes meet the curious pair staring back at her. She touched her ear, merely touching the pearl of the drop earring filled her with a surge of heated chakra that burned through her chakra pathway system before dissipating within her own flow.

She sucked in an exaggerated breath, feeling her lungs constrict painfully, becoming aware of the dozens of people crowded in the plaza and tried to ease the panic building at the pit of her stomach, the one that made her want to run somewhere safe—somewhere alone, somewhere where it would just be her and her thoughts. She needed a place to breathe.

Yes, she needed to breathe.

Why couldn't she breathe?

Shin appeared before her, taking her by the arms. "Mio, breathe," he urged in desperation. She would if she could, but the more air she tried sucking into her lungs, the more trouble it gave her. He gently patted her cheek, trying to hold her upright when her body would rather be on the ground writhing and she knew she ruined her great-grandfather's celebration. "Come on, Mio, breathe. In and out. Come on. You can do it."

With bloody fingers twisting in her hair, she sensed Kikyo's body temperature drop with every weakened pound in her chest. The poison dagger sat embedded between her lungs and every drop of blood pooled under her. She could barely speak, she was struggling to breathe, the color was stolen from her face—she was too pale and Mio sat terrified of her, seeing her like this without a stitch of proudness in her beautiful face or that glimmer of hidden joy in her eyes.

"Breathe, Mio," her mother spoke, and though paralyzed in fear, she obeyed. "Come on, Mio, in and out."

Why would that memory resurface in her head? Why did it have to torment her now? Was it what he said?

Her throat closed up and she gasped for breath. She couldn't stop the rest of the world from spinning. A sharp cold spread across her back and then a warm hand held her face up so as to focus her hazy gaze where she stared into her grandfather's troubled eyes.

This was embarrassing, she hated herself for making such a spectacle, and then, as the thought crossed her head, she blacked out.

.

.

Mio was greeted by a splitting headache and the navy blue peeking out of the crowned structure that served as a ceiling in her home. She tried sitting up, but a firm hand shot out to push her back into the comfortable pillows stacked behind her. She turned and met Okimi seated directly to her right in the middle of concocting some witch brew in her black cauldron. Around her, images blurred in her periphery and with every sudden movement, she remembered how she got here. She heard voices emerging from beyond the paneled screen now separating the dinner table from where she lay, all three belonging to her relatives.

"I don't recommend moving," Okimi said quietly, removing her hand from her shoulder to stir the boiling pot with a ladle. "Give me a moment, this is nearly done—healing herbs mostly."

She inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled. Everything that occurred felt like a bad dream. She wanted to think it was a nightmare because she didn't like the distress it caused her, she felt drained—emotionally and physically drained as if she could do nothing anymore. It was a strange feeling, one she wouldn't be inclined to go through again. "Okimi, what happened to me?"

Okimi opened her mouth to speak when Shin stepped out from behind the screen.

"You had a bad reaction is all," he answered, crossing his arms over his chest. Behind the screen she could still hear Musashi and Eito whispering.

"Bad reaction to what?"

Okimi moved over with a steaming cup in her hand. She slid one hand under her back and helped her onto a reclined position. "Drink this." She held the strange smelling concoction in front of her lips. "It'll burn like hell and taste worse, but drink it to the end. It'll remedy the imbalance."

She didn't want to, but Shin shot her a stern look and she opened her mouth. Burn like hell was an understatement. Mio lost all sense of taste as soon as the liquid spilled into her mouth and when she swallowed the thick, dark substance, she wanted to gag. Fire trailed down her esophagus and slowly spread to the rest of her body.

She coughed violently, droplets of the substance spewing from her mouth. She cupped a hand over her lips, unable to stop the urge to vomit, but Okimi forced it away.

"Uncle, help."

Shin took her hands in one of his and kept them pinned over the duvet covering her body. Okimi pinched her nose until her lack of oxygen forced her mouth open. She couldn't taste anything, she couldn't feel her tongue, it felt like her entire body was overheating, or maybe it was the fire in her stomach.

"It hurts!" she shouted, thrashing.

"I'm so sorry," Okimi said, distressed.

She tipped the rest of the liquid into her mouth and her protests died out with the fire.

Once released, she let out a strangled groan and curled up on her side unable to contain the tremors pulsing through her. Everything was burning, she could feel her insides throb as if they were melting after the wave of fire swept through, but she didn't want to think about it. It scared her. She didn't like this feeling. Everything hurt. Even crying hurt, but she couldn't stop the tears. All the pain squeezed them out.

"I don't think she was strong enough for this," Okimi stressed worriedly. Her cold hand touched the side of her face and she winced. "This had a completely opposite effect. It doubled her fever and the imbalance is still there. This'll kill her if I don't do something."

Shin carefully tucked the blankets under her body and gathered her into his arms. "I can't afford to send her to the Iron Country without this, no matter the risk, she runs a worse one out there," he stated. "Mikazuki Gouki and Uchiha Konoe won't give up searching for her and if they capture her, Mio needs to be strong enough to get away from them on her own."

He lowered his eyes to her. She could only stare up at him blearily. He took her by the chin. "Listen to me, Mio, you had a bad reaction to the earrings I gave you," he explained in a patient tone. "The rules have always been the same, one artifact to one guardian, because one alone is exhausting. The artifacts are different from any other special item, they're parasitic and mostly feed off chakra, but sometimes, they tap into something else and it causes a reaction."

One artifact to a guardian, she repeated. Both earrings were two artifacts. One being sealed within it. Did that alone cause the reaction? Is he trying to have me killed?

"The Shugosha alone is the sole person capable of holding the guardianship of more than one artifacts, all ten even, at one time, but every so often there turns out to be one exception," he continued. "Today you touched the Time Sphere and activated it along with your own artifact."

She blinked in disbelief, forehead beaded in sweat. She didn't need to be wrapped in all these blankets; she was sweating enough to soak through her clothes. What did that mean? Activating her great-grandfather's sphere and her own for that matter, she didn't receive instructions. She didn't expect to get a proper explanation until at least a year after she became somewhat proficient in black water techniques at the pace her grandfather had been going and his distinct like of keeping an edge of mystery in her life.

"If you activated, it means you're a candidate to become my father's successor."

What about Eito?

"I never expected another candidate after Eito," came Musashi growly voice. He appeared from behind the screen with Eito. "I was right about one thing, though, my bloodline did end with Mio."

Shin must have caught the strange look on her face because he explained. "It dictates an end to a generation and the start of another. Since you've become a candidate for the sphere's succession, you are at the helm of your bloodline. Even if you don't inherit the sphere yourself, your children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren will be the Shugosha of your bloodline until another person emerges."

That sounded like a lot of responsibility.

"There'll be time for explanations once you return from the Iron Country. Until then, you need to sweat this fever out." He touched her face. "It seems your body's adjusting to the concoction. Okimi?"

"Uncle, grandfather, Eito, I'm going to ask the three of you to leave while I help Mio get comfortable for the night," she told them. "I don't think it's a good idea to have her travel after this."

"Mio can decide tomorrow morning," suggested Eito. "I don't mind staying behind so long as she gets better."

"I agree." Shin returned her to the futon, still wrapped in the blankets. "It'll be up to Mio."

Once the three men left, Okimi gathered cold water and raided her belongings for a change of clothes. She helped release her from the thick blankets and exposed her to the indoor chill. The only fire burning was underneath the cauldron by the empty brazier.

It took a lot of effort on Mio's part to seat herself. Her body was still shaking, but when Okimi pressed a damn towel to the side of her face she sighed in relief.

"I wish I could promise that will be the first and last time you drink that, but I can't."

"What was it?" She sounded strange and she was certain she bit her tongue at least twice while formulating words.

"Uncle and grandfather insisted you ingest the black water. I mixed it with herbs to make it go down easier, but it really makes no difference—it's god awful. When it gets into your chakra pathway system you'll be able to mold it and replicated with chakra. Of course, most young children take it once they've completed Heat and Strength Training, never before. It seems like you are adapting well, the fever will only go down a couple notches, so you'll have to get used to the altered temperature, but now you won't have to worry about freezing to death up here. Right now, it'd be like spring to you, but don't think of rushing outside now."

"That was the black water?" she asked, astounded. The thick, tasteless, scorching liquid was the rumored black water and it was unlike anything she might have expected. She lived a three-minute nightmare without respite, a moment where she thought she might melt from the inside out and that there was no peace, not anything that could save her. "Will I…will I be okay?"

Okimi answered with silence and an expression that worried her. She'd never seen the Kuronuma medic at a loss of words.

"Okimi," she called uneasily. She could barely utter the question. "Is it bad?"

The woman lifted her eyes to her, pale eyebrows drawn in disquiet and her mouth set in a tight, reluctant line. Regardless, she spoke. "I won't lie to you, I don't believe this is something that should be kept from you simply because uncle forbade it," she begun, taking the folded towel from her face to soak it in water. She squeezed the excess water out and put it to Mio's neck. "It's unnatural to ingest the concoction when you haven't completed the steps, you can combine certain steps, but you can't skip to the end without repercussions. I'm sure it won't hinder your learning capabilities or your mastering of the jutsu, but you will always be at a risk of imbalance. I've only heard of a similar case occurring to my mother's oldest brother, my mother told me, she says it's not constant and the symptoms only persist for a couple days, many times it goes away overnight."

"I thought this was a bad reaction to the two artifacts."

"It is, and normally when guardians have bad reactions to their spheres, they've already ingested the black water and having one more cup of it mixed with special healing herbs makes sure it doesn't happen a second time. Every one experiences this at one point during the inheritance period: when an artifact is passed from one guardian to the next. The artifact is parasitic so it also needs time to adjust to its next protector and we have the bad reaction when it's acknowledged you properly. Uncle was supposed to give those earrings to you once you finished training. That was the original plan at least, I don't know why he decided to pass them onto you earlier and it's better not to ask, he's got a way of avoiding these topics like a plague."

"So…will the artifact continue forgetting I'm its guardian and have to verify on occasion?" Mio questioned dubiously.

"No, if it forgot you're its guardian it'd reject you and that's never pretty. The imbalance will happen because your body wasn't ready for the black water; you'll only have ninety percent control over it alone. That ten percent can cause the imbalance by preventing you from properly restoring your chakra and if your chakra is being messed with by some foreign agent, the artifact will try to force it out, thus 'causing the imbalance. Honestly, I don't know how much sense this makes. It's hard to explain it, but you'll be fine far longer than you won't be. All you'll need is a special brew, which I'll be happy to make for you, and when tremors or fevers start, you simply take a whole cup full and everything should be back to normal in a couple days."

She nodded. She figured she got the gist of it.

"I prepared extra for you to take with you tomorrow," said Okimi, waving her hand towards the cauldron. "If your fever breaks, you'll only be a tad woozy and shaky tomorrow, but you won't have to worry about your health. Now, let's clean off the sweat and get you into some clean clothes." She reached for her sweater and backed away, giving her a confused look. "Do you mind? I mean, I can step out and you—"

"It's fine, I'm not shy," she said. "I can barely lift my arms. I'm sorry for making you do this."

"It's my job and you're family, you don't need to apologize for anything."

Mio tried to help her along the way, putting some effort in moving to make it easier for Okimi to remove her clothes and clean the sweat off her skin. She paused at the sight of the long scar on her forearm and glanced up, eyes burning in curiosity.

"This one," Okimi began. "How did you get this one?"

"Agility Training. This one, too." She pressed her forefinger on a tiny scar over her wrist. "It cut into my wrist when the war started to spill into the Iron Country."

"I once slipped in the springs' caves and nearly killed myself. I have a scar in the back of my head." Okimi lowered her head, long tendrils of white hair spilling from her shoulders, and pointed to the very back, a few inches above her nape. "Right around here. It helped to have medics for parents."

She straightened out with a smile. "I have a couple more. I should have opted to be a normal medic like my dad instead of following in my mom's footsteps. It would've been easier; I could've been an expert by now. It doesn't matter. I just wanted to be a medic like them."

Mio smiled. "I wanted to be a spy like my parents. Being a shinobi terrified me—it was the fighting, all the wars that took them away for so long and brought them back bloody and bruised," she whispered. "They told me stories about their adventures. I'm sure half of them were lies, but I remember all of them. Dad was the better storyteller, but mom, had the funniest ones like this one time she—"

She stopped herself, the smile on her face disappearing.

Okimi wiped down her whole arm and found another scar over her elbow. "Tell me about this one," she said, moving along. "Did you dislocate it at one point?"

"I was learning chakra control, scaling trees, walking on water, channeling it—everything," she started, appreciating the subject change. If she missed them, it was over. She couldn't miss them when it's been over half a decade. "My mother told me I couldn't rest for the day until I scaled the two highest trees in the forest that surrounded our cottage. I had to scale each twice, to the very top. I had to be able to stand there. I made it halfway to the first before I fell straight through three branches in the adjacent tree, dislocated my elbow and with the jagged edge of one broken branch stabbed deep in my arm."

She remembered the day all too clearly. Kikyo set the bone in place and wrapped it tightly along with the cut. She promised to get someone to treat it right away, but that she needed to try scaling the tree a second time. "You'll need to be able to do these things even when you're severely wounded. If you can't even do the basics, you won't survive long out there." She scaled it a second time, too weakened and panicked to reach the middle. She barely made it a quarter way up before she slipped and slammed face first into the trunk. She lost one of her baby teeth that day and it wasn't even loose. She never wanted to climb another tree again.

"I bet you can see where your mother got the tyrant from," commented Okimi.

"I think grandpa is perfect."

"Did you hear that?" Shin squealed from behind the entrance. "She called me grandpa! She's always been so formal; I didn't think she'd ever call me grandpa! Sometimes she just calls me whatever she wants, mostly Shin—"

"Shut up!" snapped Okimi. "Eito, shut him up!"

"I think he's heard you. Oh—uncle, don't cry. Okimi is always that mean."

"It's not that, it's just such a touching moment. I just—I need to sit down. Don't just stand there, father, find me a seat."

"Get away from me, you're spewing snot everywhere—Shinya, no, I just had these robes made!"

"Do I need to separate you two?" Eito threatened and they silenced. "Come on, let's go to Miko's house and get some porridge for Mio."

"Perfect idea, Eito-kun, Miko makes the best rice porridge on the mountain," Musashi praised. "Lead the way."

Okimi huffed. The medic helped her remove the loose shirt she was wearing and begun to wipe her back off. "The curse of embarrassing relatives. Mt. Hyōga is full of them."

Mio quietly listened.

"Well, you can't hate them, they're a hell of a lot more reliable than other shinobi families out there," the medic continued thoughtfully. "Honestly, I think it'd be a dull life without uncle and grandfather. You should know, if either one of them ever gets out of control, you call Eito, he's a secret weapon."

"I figured after the response they had to his threat."

"You have a scar on your lower back, too," Okimi observed.

"Such is the life of a shinobi," she responded. "I got it during one of my first missions. Someone tried to kill me, I barely escaped the worst of the blow. It wouldn't have scarred if there was a medic around, it wasn't too deep."

"On your shoulder too."

"Kunai, stuck in deep and then Madara pulled it out wrong. He wanted to convince me to be a medic."

"Medics are incredibly handy. They're good to have around, but why didn't you want to be a medic? Is it because of your parents?"

"I wanted to spite Madara," she admitted. "I wanted to honor my parents. I get anxiety around other people's blood and I can't be bothered to help everyone I see hurt. I just wanted to be useful in a different way. A spy is great."

Okimi helped her change into lighter clothes fit for a summer day and tucked her into bed, urging rest. Mio thanked her properly and found herself falling asleep much faster than anticipated and for the first time in years, the dreams were peaceful.

---

Mio stirred.

Shin met her eyes in the darkness surrounding them. Too worried about the state of her fever, he found it difficult to sleep and stayed seated by her side to offer his help if she were to need it. She hadn't moved an inch since she fell asleep before he returned with the porridge promised to her and he ended up eating it himself afraid of being wasteful.

"What time is it?" she asked groggily.

"Too late for you to wake, go back to sleep."

He carefully smoothed out the blankets on her and changed the cloth on her forehead for another. Although, she was out of danger and the tremors were gone, her fever hadn't broken.

She yawned and he wanted to die, she was adorable. "Why aren't you asleep?"

"Not sleepy," he lied, smiling. "Wanna hear a story?"

"No."

"It'll be a good one."

"No."

He stopped himself from laughing. "Okay, let me tell you about another artifact, how is that? The faster you learn about these, the better I say."

She nodded with her eyes closed.

"It's a scroll this time," he started. "It's a big one and the inside is empty and it's somewhat cursed. It's the only artifact that's currently outside of Kurata because it can only be handled by its protector and that so happens to be an old hag in the Water Country."

"She's probably younger than you," she accused sleepily.

"Definitely not. She's been the Fate Sphere's guardian before Musashi came into power," he went on. "Rumor has it the old hag's been 'round since the Sage of the Six Paths. So, I don't know why we call her Hag, she's practically a mummy."

She said nothing, so he quietly laughed at his own joke.

"The scroll is very important," he continued. "That's the one that should never fall into the wrong hands. Every action and decision a person makes in life can alter the future, they open different pathways and all those different pathways can create others until there are hundreds—over a thousand decisions leading up to the conclusion of one's life. Hag reads them. She can see a person and tell them the exact decision that will open new pathways or what might close others. She can read them all through to the end. She can see your life in all its outcomes and tell you exactly how it can end."

His granddaughter's breathing was shallow a sure sign she succumbed to sleep. He smiled.

"I hope you never have to meet her," he whispered. "She's a crafty old fox and she'll lie to you. She'll show you the moon and the stars, all the pretty things you want to hear and will sweep the ugly under the rug. She'll steal your money and lie to you. So, Mio, if you ever do meet her, take Uchiha Madara. She won't turn you away if you're together."

He already knew the four pathways of her life. He hoped that there would never come a time where she would need to engage with Hag.

---

Shin trudged into Musashi's home. A single oil lantern sat in the center of the round table and its powdery light scattered to its wide surroundings, caught in the gold embroidery of the slowly swaying drapes. Musashi's was the largest yurt in the encampment because it consisted of two joined together by a short wooden passage. The main one consisted of ten seats that aligned the wall and the center table as it was designed to accommodate the ten artifact guardians even though it never truly fulfilled its purpose because there had never been ten guardians at once. Inside, he found Musashi drinking a sweet-smelling tea and Eito standing by a brick fireplace built into the back of the yurt with a bulk of freshly chopped firewood in his arms.

"Morning, uncle," Eito greeted, setting logs inside the hearth. "I didn't think I'd ever see you up this early."

"Today is an important day, I couldn't sleep," Shin answered. He stayed up most of the night watching over Mio.

"Worried for Mio-chan?" asked Musashi, setting out two more cups and pouring hot tea into them.

"You shouldn't. I'll take good care of her off the mountain," assured Eito, using a match to start a fire that swallowed any lingering shadows against the red and gold designs of the thick fabric strung from the lattice frame.

"You are aware of what is being asked of you, yes? Protecting Mio is practically a death trap for any shinobi, no matter how talented," Shin stressed, taking the gestured seat offered to him by his father.

Eito joined them as well. "Fully aware, but that is the job of a Shugosha candidate and I am willing to die for it."

Musashi gave the young man's shoulder a squeeze. "That is very brave of you."

Bravery? Shin wanted to laugh. Perhaps, it was a noble way to go if you were going to die anyway. Eito wouldn't live past another year or two and because of it; he wanted to choose the way he died. He would do it for someone that needed to live and he only had two pathways, allow the successor to die and leave the sphere without a Shugosha to fall into the wrong hands or sacrifice his life to ensure the successor is captured and protect the Shugosha line for many generations to come.

"Yes, it's certainly brave." He took a sip of tea. It was too lemony. Disgusting. "I'm leaving the mountain as well."

"What do you plan to do?"

"Kill a man and threaten a woman," he deadpanned.

Musashi's eyes narrowed. "We have laws against killing and acts of violence, Shinya."

"Yeah, I don't care."

"That Chiho was a bad influence on you, you used to be such an agreeable man," his father grumbled.

"An agreeable man doesn't throw a rebellion against his own father," Eito commented. "Chiho-san was never a bad influence. Honestly, I think uncle was the bad influence."

"Blood shall not be shed in the country of Kurata," Shin interjected, uninterested in the course of the current conversation. He didn't want to talk about Chiho; he didn't want to remember how he lost her and how she took Kikyo with her. He didn't want those reminders because he already suffered through them. "That is the only law I honored, but blood was spilled and the Climate Sphere has weakened. The weather only changes with the seasons and it warmed several degrees since the shadow storm ended. The snow will undoubtedly melt in the next two to three years. It would take years for our clan to find another suitable area to play host for the artifact and we don't have that kind of time, neither one of us does."

"Will killing Tasuku solve anything?"

"It'll make me feel better," Shin offered with a shrug. "I want the clan to be prepared to welcome foreign shinobi. He'll make it impossible to accomplish that."

Eito sighed. "Mio-chan won't be happy 'bout this one bit."

"You plan to request an audience with the Senju clan? Do you not think Uchiha Madara is keeping them busy enough?"

"Most definitely, but ours is an alliance they can't afford to give up, the Senju will remove their shinobi from the Sun Country and will come here. Mikazuki Gouki will take advantage of my absence and try to invade. So as a precautionary set up traps around the mountain in the case of an attack and move all non-shinobi underground. Shinobi younger than fifteen as well, I don't want novices on the battlefield."

"You speak as though you believe the Mikazuki will reach our mountain," Musashi commented suspiciously.

"I say it because I know he won't stop until he does."

"You have some twisted logic there, uncle. You'd kill Tasuku out of boredom, but you won't kill Mikazuki out of revenge."

"Oh, I would never give him that. If I wanted to kill him for something, it'd have to be for getting boring or for attempting against Mio's life," Shin admitted. Interesting as Mikazuki Gouki was in terms of mental ability and his decision to follow a fool like Uchiha Hiryuu didn't come close to dwarfing how annoying a villain he was. Once he stopped being interesting, he'd surely have the incentive to kill him. "Never revenge. He'd like it if I fought him with that intent, he'd have something to use against me. Moving on, can I trust you'll make preparations here, father?"

"This better not be another one of your experiments," Musashi threatened.

"Mio's life is in danger; this won't ever be an experiment."

"And yet, you want her to get captured by the enemy?" grumbled Eito in a morbid tone.

"Mio doesn't yet understand the gravity of her position and I think once she fully comprehends, she'll see the world a bit differently."

"This is beautiful and all, but what're you going to do when she finds out you're staging all of this?"

Shin faced his father. "We'll hit that bridge when we get to it." He left his seat. "I'm going to wake Mio, it seems she overslept. You should return to your home, Eito. I don't need anyone spreading lies about you having secret meetings so early in the morning."

"I still need to get my stuff together."

Shin headed for the entrance.

"Shinya," called Musashi.

He turned slowly. "Yes, father."

"Don't make a mess of this."

Shin laughed all the way out the door and down the street until it died in his throat. The last thing he wanted was mistakes. That's why he was going to see that insufferable Hag all the way in the misty shithole she called home. Mio needed to survive the encounter with her aunt and Mikazuki Gouki. She would need to put to use all the years she spent learning to be a spy and he needed to be sure she wouldn't crack under pressure. Only then, he could trust that she would get through whatever hardships life planned to throw her way.

There were so many things he wanted to teach her—about Kuronuma ninjutsu, about life, about the artifacts, about everything. She was still young and prone to teenage stupidity. She had so many emotions she didn't understand and he wished he could convince her they weren't all bad (except the guilt, that was bad), but his objective changed from the moment Mikazuki Gouki allied with Tasuku. He didn't expect it to happen, which means the Hag lied to him and it would be the last time she would dare.

Shin startled Mio awake.

She stared up at him and then looked around strangely. "Did I oversleep?"

He touched her forehead. "Your fever broke," he said, smiling. He took a risk suggesting she drink the black water this early in the stage. He gave her a weakness that would last her until the day she died, but he wanted to think that there was a good reason. She would need the black water to survive any unprecedented encounter she had. He was doing this for her because he was confident it would save her and that the Kikyo incident wouldn't repeat itself. "How do you feel?"

She grabbed the damp rag that had fallen from her head and struggled onto a seat. "I still feel warm."

"That's a discomfort you'll have to grow used to since the black water is going to get into your bloodstream and chakra pathway soon if it hasn't already."

"Okimi said I would never be okay," she began hesitantly and he prepared himself for the words that followed. "Why would you make me drink the concoction if you knew this would happen?"

He humored her with a kind smile. "Nothing will stop you. Imbalance can be remedied with the right medicine and Okimi will always be around to make it for you. You can view this as a weakness now, but one day you'll understand that I did this for your own sake."

"Even giving me the earrings?"

"Definitely giving you the earrings," he assured her with a firm nod. "They look better on you. Now, do you feel well enough to travel to the Iron Country?"

She nodded.

"Okay, come on, go wash your face and brush your teeth and dress in something fit for a heat wave," he told her, moving away from her. "I'm going to inform Eito that he will be going and then I'll make you some breakfast."

He left his home for as long as it took to make it to Eito's home on the other side of the mountain and dillydallied with all the other morning people. He even met up with Ushio and his father to discuss their road plans and assured them they would have nothing to worry about with Takuto, Mio, and Eito accompanying them. They were near done preparing the wagon intended to make the descent down the perilous valleys and wondering how to get it down.

"Just make Eito carry it."

"Carry it?" asked Takeo, Ushio's father, a small man with head full of gray hair.

"Or Takuto. You can ask Takuto to do it, but he's very clumsy on the way down the mountain, so I wouldn't recommend it if you want to keep the wagon." Shin grinned. "Eito should be more than enough."

He decided to head straight home to make breakfast, but stopped himself. "Oh yeah, about Mio, she's a lovely girl, very quiet and very polite, she'll be very obedient—she respects her elders—but you see, she's also fifteen and attracts a lot of unnecessary attention from old perverts. So, can I trust you to, you know, threaten them a little if they dare even look at her wrong?"

"Threaten them, sir?" questioned Ushio.

"Yes, threaten them," he confirmed with a nod. "Mio, she's my grandchild, I mean, would you want old perverts looking at your granddaughter in any way?"

"Leave it to me, Shinya-sama," said the old man. "I will gladly gauge their eyes out if necessary."

Shin clapped him on the shoulder. "Perfect. Well, safe trip."

He prepared a light breakfast for his granddaughter and dug through her pack to make sure everything she needed was stored inside, though she grew angry that he disorganized everything. She didn't eat much because she was too concerned in putting everything back into the right place before Takuto showed up to take her away.

Everyone was already gathered in front of the bridge when he walked there with Mio and Takuto. She turned to him nervously and he reached for the strangely shaped dagger on his belt and offered it to her.

"Why?" she asked, putting her hand on the black handle.

"Extra protection," he offered. "Also, keep your guard up. There's a chance there are Mikazuki shinobi in Kurata."

"Thank you."

"Oh, and this, take this, too," he said quickly and offered her a brown ball covered in tiny scales he procured from inside his robes. "Keep it somewhere warm, okay? And if you need anything from me, knock on it twice."

Mio slid the dagger inside her kimono top over her stomach held in place by the sash tied around her waist where her clothes easily disguised it and she could draw it from its sheath if necessary. She took the round thing from her grandfather; the exterior was tough and felt more like a shell.

"Knock on it twice?" she asked, looking up.

"Twice."

She stowed it away in her bag between an extra sweater and clothes. It was heavier than expected, but she was also carrying the weight bars her grandfather created to run laps around the Iron Country during the time they would spend there. She was also carrying a tightly sealed jug full of that ever-boiling concoction Okimi prepared last night. If her fever rose, she was advised to take another cup full. "I'll take care of Eito."

He nodded. "I know you'll do your best. Take care of yourself and remember you have Kuronuma blood running through your veins. With the black water in there, you would certainly be able to melt metal if you wanted."

She smiled and waved goodbye as their small group started on the bridge pass. Even then, he saw her hesitate before stepping onto the wooden bridge. She clutched the rope tightly and glanced at Eito worriedly. He offered her his hand and she took it, not expecting him to hoist her onto his back and spring forward to use the back of the wagon to jump across the whole bridge. She screamed as soon as she hit the air and clung to him like a lifeline even after they were safely on the other side facing no danger.

Shin tried not to laugh as he brought his hands together to form a hand symbol and his body melted away into black, bubbling tar that slipped through the cracks in the earth beneath the snow.

.

.

Tasuku burst into his gargantuan screen room and yelped at the sight of Shin seated behind his desk with dirt and snow caked boots sitting on his calligraphy. A grown man yelping. How embarrassing.

Three heavily armored guards appeared, among them the commander of Tasuku's laughable army, and each surrounded their master protectively with spears pointed at him. He promised not to laugh. He also told himself he wouldn't lay waste on the castle itself. He came with the sole purpose of making due with a promise he made with Tasuku, not killing him like everyone else thought he would.

"Dismiss them," he said, waving them off. "When have I ever posed a danger to you?"

"Out," Tasuku ordered. "Behind the door, but out."

The three left obediently. Tasuku straightened his robes and stepped closer to the table. "What is it that you want? I called my army out of the towns and have refused an audience with the Mikazuki clan's envoys. I followed your orders. You have no business here."

Shin pulled his feet down and stood. He stepped around the table to meet him eye to eye. "I commend you for making it seem as though you were obeying my orders, but I killed five Mikazuki on my way into the castle and know there are others stationed all around Kurata waiting for the right moment to strike. You have not raised arms against my people, yes, you understood the warning, but tell me, what is it that Mikazuki Gouki promised you? More wealth, an island nation, power? Give me one good reason not to rip your spine out and wear it as a necklace."

Tasuku swallowed hard, bug-eyes popping out of their sockets. He trembled and stumbled over his words. "J-Just give him the girl, Shinya-sama," he hesitated. "She isn't worth what he plans to do to Kurata."

His hand shot up to the lord's throat, his blood boiled. "She is worth a thousand of your pathetic, power-hungry lives," he told him, so silently, so coldly the old man seemed to wither in his grip. "I would faster allow Kurata to be destroyed than have my granddaughter captured by that trash. You wouldn't understand. Family for you has always been an obstacle; why else would you have killed your own nephew? To the Kuronuma clan, family is everything, if even one of our own is endangered by people like you, we band together and get through it."

"By running away!" grated Tasuku, fingers attempting to dig into his captor's hand. "The great Kuronuma clan is a band of cowards! Everyone knows that! You hide away in your secret mountain deep in Kurata instead of going out there to make a name for yourself! You clan turned coward during the first wars, ran as far from the battlefield with their tails between their legs! The great Demon clan is—"

Shin applied pressure to his neck, squeezing until he felt his hand shut his air passage, and smiled at his pleading look. "Well, in every band of cowards there's always a stubborn man and with every stubborn man there's a dangerous man," he said calmly, lifting his other hand to the lord's left eye. He forcibly pressed apart his eyelids, the pads of his fingertips touching the whites of his eye. He laughed as the old man registered just what was about to happen. "And I'm the abomination."

Tasuku opened his mouth and a guttural noise came out from deep in his throat, a cry for help from the guards currently struggling to break down the door. Shin glanced in its direction and watched a thin stream of black water fill the cracks, beginning to harden into them ensuring the door felt like a metal wall.

"W-why?" Tasuku chocked out.

"Honest? I was bored."

Shin pushed in further and Tasuku let out a blood-curling scream.

---

Mio jerked around in the direction of Kurata Castle.

Takuto and Eito paused behind her, following her gaze to the snow coated structure.

"Something wrong?" asked Eito.

"I thought I heard a scream," she answered dubiously.

"Maybe the wind?" suggested Takuto with a shrug.

The wintry winds had been howling since they made it onto the wide exit road that would take them onto a crossroads outside Kurata's eternal winter. However, Mio was certain she heard a loud, almost deafening scream coming from that general direction because the sound of it worked down her spine and reminded her of a person in great pain. She wondered if she just imagined it.

Yeah, she probably did with all the wind.

"Yeah," she agreed, turning away. She ran with Takuto and Eito at her back to catch up to Ushio and his father, Takeo, who paused after realizing they lagged behind.

"Something wrong, Mio-sama?" asked Takeo, a friendly man with crinkly gray eyes and a bristly mustache.

"No," she replied, attempting at a pleasant smile.

"Your unconscious smiles are better," Eito whispered to her left.

She startled and he laughed, running to have a seat at the back of the wagon complaining about being tired of walking. "You're just lazy!"

Eito hooted with laughter and held his sides. "You're on to me, Mio-chan!"

"I'll scout ahead. Grandfather told me not to trust that there aren't Mikazuki shinobi in Kurata. You stay here," she ordered, running up astride the wagon. "Eito, keep your eyes open."

"Yes, ma'am."

Mio took the lead and the rest of the trip to the Iron Country was marked by peace. With the proper permission, their group gained entrance through the front gates of the first time. Since her removal from the country, the area returned to being neutral and completely tranquil. She enjoyed the idea of having traveled to the Iron Country without a hitch, but at the same time, something felt wrong and she couldn't quite place it. She tried to ignore the nagging feeling, but she was starting to break out into hives.

"Mio, would you stop scratching your arm, it'll make the itching worse," snapped Takuto.

They were currently standing in a building charged with organizing all Kuronuma trades run by a short old woman with a hook nose and a gray bun on her head. Takeo was currently discussing what was arranged while the woman's three grandsons begun hauling the merchandise into the wide lobby for Ushio to start packing into the wagon and nobody offered to help him.

"Yeah, Mio, stop scratching your arm because it's making me itchy," complained Eito, mirroring her scratching.

"Don't stare right at me," she told him irritably. "And stop standing around, help Ushio-san pack everything into the wagon. We're supposed to go straight back."

"Oi, the itchy girl," called the old woman, leaning over the counter. "You and your rose-eyed friends are shinobi, no?"

Eito snorted and quickly slapped a hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing.

"Yes," she said, trying not to glare at her cousin.

"I need a favor and I'm hoping I can entrust you three with it," the old woman said with a grin. "I'll pay you well if you get it done, though I don't need to."

Mio glanced at her male companions for answers.

"She's right. As part of the agreement we have with the Iron Country, Shin has allowed us to work for them if they need help since they're already doing enough by providing us with top-rate supplies," Takuto explained.

"Takuto and I will go, Eito will stay here."

"No way, I'm going too."

"What about your health?" Takuto demanded.

"What about it?" Eito returned with a joking smile. "It's still there."

"What about Takeo-san and Ushio-san?" asked Mio. "They're supposed to return to the Iron Country immediately."

"Oh, you sweet child, after some rest," announced Takeo, leaning on the counter fanning himself with his hand. "We're not shinobi and all this traveling has taken its toll on us. We planned to rest for a day or two here before taking on the journey."

Mio's ears turned red. She forgot they weren't shinobi. How could she forget that? "Sorry."

"We'll go, just tell us what you need," Takuto interjected, stepping forward.

"Just hunt for these plants, some are harder to find than others, some are poisonous, some are medicinal—don't ask questions, just find them. You might have to go far for some of them, but I'll provide the supplies." As soon as she said that, the oldest of her grandchildren carried out three packed bags and set them at Takuto's feet. "If there is anything you need, feel free to go out and buy it, I'll fund that for you. Here's the list and good luck finding them."

Mio picked up the three bags and hoisted them onto her shoulder. She peered over Takuto's shoulder at the long list of plant names she didn't recognize as well as locations. The farthest locations they were sent to were the Wind and Fire Country. She recognized all the specified towns (and their outskirts) and could easily pinpoint them on a map, but she had no idea what any of those plants looked like.

"Oh, I forgot to add them, but some rosemary and lavender as well," added the old woman, pulling a brown sack full of coins from under her desk. "The town's fresh out of those, so you should probably visit a good merchant town if you know any and buy in bulk. This should be enough for all your trouble. Once you return, I'll pay you the rest. Meanwhile, we'll be taking good care of your friends here, so don't keep 'em waiting."

"If you expect us to go to go as far as the Fire Country while making stops in these towns, it'll take weeks to get back," said Mio. "And wouldn't it be better to just buy everything here in bulk from merchant towns."

"Pick 'em, buy 'em, it don't matter as long as you bring 'em." The old woman gave an unconcerned shrug. "Some I can assure you, you won't find with any seller."

Mio looked at Takuto. "I only know one merchant town guaranteed to be in stock at this time of year for all things here and it'll take days to get there."

"One of us could go back to Kurata and request for help," Eito suggested. "Getting this back as quickly as possible is priority and if all three of us are gone, who'll help Takeo-san and Ushio-san take this."

"The question is which one of us goes?" Takuto questioned.

"Well, it can't be Mio, if there's Mikazuki shinobi on the mountain and they see her traveling alone, they won't hesitate to attack her," reasoned Eito. "And it can't be me because I have to stick to Mio at all times…so?"

"But you're not physically fit to make this trip," Mio said firmly. "What happens if you have an attack?"

"Apart from the obvious?" he toyed, earning himself a glare. "Well, it won't matter if I rest when I need to and move at a good pace. Besides, I'm stronger than two of you both put together, so it's not like I'll be dragging you down in that department. I need to be used, Mio, so use me."

Mio sighed. "I don't know any of the plant names on the list."

"I know all of them," Eito replied with a victorious smile. "I wanted to be a medic until they told me I couldn't so I read up on a bunch of plants and whatnot as a hobby. I think they should have let me be a medic anyway; it would have been so ironic. Ha!"

"I'll go, but I'll be catching up later," stated Takuto. "Tell me where you plan on going, I'll meet you there."

Mio removed one of the bags from her shoulder and handed it to him, giving him the exact location by word of mouth. She hoped he remembered as well as she did, but to be safe, she asked the old lady to cough up a map so she could mark the quickest route since he was practically a stranger to the world outside Kurata. She asked him to be quick for Eito's sake. She wasn't sure she could handle him alone, especially when she was recovering from the black water ingestion and another imbalance was prone to happen a couple days after the initial bad reaction. She didn't have any trouble the last couple of days, so maybe that's what had her breaking out into hives and not that nagging feeling that told her something was wrong.

"We're going to make a stop at my old home," Mio announced as they headed out the gate, "where my parents lived."

"Going to reminisce?" asked Eito.

"I hid a treasure box underneath my bed," she told him. "I filled it with objects that are very important to me and I want to get it back."

"Why didn't you take it with you from the start?"

"I was afraid about what it meant if I did."

Eito arched an eyebrow.

She never went back for her treasures; she hadn't made a mention of them since she told Madara that time so long ago. She didn't think there would ever be a time when she would return to the cottage after everything that ensued. She imagined the cottage might be withered away by the time she found the courage to go, but she spent nearly as many birthdays without her parents than she had with them.

It was now or never.

---

Mio succumbed to nostalgia because the objective led them to the Fire Country and a peace that could only be likened to the Uchiha clan's absence. However, there were still battles where the Senju clan was concerned and on their way through a ghost town, one remaining citizen informed her that several clans were periodically hired to wage war against the Senju and Uchiha clan in an attempt to stop the ever-growing tension between them that stemmed from an uprising in the Sun Country. The man mentioned Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama in the same sentence and with a wise nod, claimed that they would be names known throughout the world if the war ever came to an end. And then he went on.

"Oh, yes, their brothers are also quite the famous pair." She perked at the idea of hearing about Izuna and Eito noticed. "Apparently, they're in the middle of a fight. You should avoid the swamplands…that's where it's harshest. Ah, if only the Uchiha clan and Senju clan stopped trying to kill each other, there may be some peace in this world."

Nobuo entertained them with all sorts of gossip he's heard from his travel to the merchant town and convinced them to stay a couple days with him in his ghost town.

"Of course, I think what should really be the focus is the Kuronuma clan," he said one evening over beer and crackers in his tavern.

"Oh?" Eito leaned in completely engrossed. "Isn't that the weird mountain clan from Kurata?"

The man nodded in affirmation. "You've heard of Kurata, eh? Beyond the Earth Country."

Mio decided to play along. Sometimes gossip turned out to be facts in disguise. "Is that the place that's supposedly stuck in one season?"

"Yes, always winter, and there's a rumor the Kuronuma clan are all part bear."

Eito giggled, slapping the wooden table. "Part bear? That's ridiculous."

She figured he had one drink too many. "But there are a lot of rumors about them going around. They say they're really cannibals and that they devour anyone that dares venture onto their mountain and that they make their houses out of people's bones."

"What about the rumor about them being a clan of snow giants?" started Eito, pausing to take a big gulp from his beer. "They say that all the snow is their doing, almost like they have a Kekkei Genkai that gives them the ability to make snow."

"Nonsense," the old man snapped. "They're definitely part bear. Someone claims to have seen one turn into a bear."

"No way!"

Transformation Jutsu might have helped, but Eito was definitely swimming in the sea of alcohol alongside their older companion.

"Yes! Just turned into a bear, right in front of him. This same person said he watched the Kuronuma destroy a house with his bare hands."

Anyone could do that with the right chakra control. She made an attempt to seem shocked.

"The rumor goes that they alone are as strong as a bear," the old man continued with a grin. "But that aint even it. The Kuronuma clan have special objects on their side, weapons I hear that can do very strange things. Everyone's talking about 'em, but no one's brave enough to go up there to prove it. Don't you think it's weird that they're up there with special weapons instead of here using them against everyone else? Don't you think they could defeat all shinobi clans? Maybe they would create a dictatorship?"

No weapons as far as Shin told her, mostly a dragon's eye, Musashi's sphere, the earrings, a cup, a giant, cursed scroll and a calligraphy brush. She didn't know what the sealed artifact looked like, so she didn't even try.

"Maybe they're protecting them from everyone else and that's why they don't want to get off their mountain," answered Mio, sloshing the liquid in her glass. She didn't want to drink anymore, but she didn't want to be rude about leaving half of it behind. Maybe if I just finish it in one gulp… She braced herself for it and drank it all.

"You really think the other shinobi clans should be weary of the Kuronuma clan?" asked Eito, reaching for the pitcher to pour himself more beer.

Mio watched Eito fill her glass as well. She wouldn't get out of this without a headache. She could tell him she didn't want to drink it, but what if he called her out on being rude? Isn't that what her father used to say? "You always finish everything in your cup. If someone poured it for you, you finish it."

"Definitely."

The conversation veered off quickly and yet, she couldn't believe there were actual rumors that the Kuronuma clan was hoarding secret weapons with special abilities. It was a surprise why no one bothered invading, but she remembered the terrible weather conditions. She was already used to it after being there for over half a year, but anyone else would have perished. Then again, she had black water in her system now, which meant a warmer body temperature and the heat in the Fire Country did her no favors.

Mio drank three full cups before the talk ceased when someone entered the tavern. She was concentrating on her fourth glass.

"Uhm, excuse me, is this town as abandoned as it looks?" came a young woman's wondrous tone.

Mio didn't have to look in her direction to know the young woman was smiling or that she was accompanied by four others, two adults and two others around her age—all shinobi. Knowing this made her feel happy that the alcohol hadn't messed with her as much as she thought.

Nobuo dragged his seat back to stand, a bit wobbly on his feet. "Not with me 'round. I've got food and shelter for a cheap price. Yer shinobi an' I want no trouble, so if you'd be so kind as to give me yer word not to bring any trouble round these parts, I'll treat you to a good meal. This town's seen enough."

"Two Uchiha, one Ito, one Motou, and a civilian," murmured Eito at her side, pouring more beer into her cup while peering over her head.

She forced his hood over his head. "We're getting out once they find their seats. We'll apologize to Nobuo for being unable to stay and thank him for the hospitality," she informed him. "We'll camp out in the forest."

"But what about my back?" he complained.

"What about your back?"

The group of five stepped past her periphery as she brought the drink to her lips. One civilian, a girl that resembled a mouse pursued a slightly older girl wearing embroidered robes with a sunburst insignia on the back. An Ito shinobi followed close behind them, the knot that served as its clan symbol was sewn into the sleeve of his shirt. The Uchiha to appear passed by together and she felt someone touch a strand of hair, flipping it off her shoulder.

She opened her mouth to shout at the one responsible, but he didn't bother to stop. He walked on ahead, spikey black hair that fell down to his back, and strapped to his back was a gunbai, a giant wooden fan that stood as tall as he did.

She tipped her head back and drank the rest of her beer. Madara.

He took a seat in the back where he was easily staring in her direction and in an adjacent table, the other Uchiha accompanying him turned out to be Katsura, the sturdily built man that once served Tajima faithfully. Katsura caught her staring and opened his mouth, but Madara waved his hand to silence him as old man Nobuo worked his way around the table serving drinks.

She finally recognized the shitty Sun Country medic, Motou Yayoi, was among them. Nobody looked battle worn, rather they seemed to have been traveling a great deal and were in need of the rest.

"Someone you know?" asked Eito curiously, hiding a slur.

"Uchiha Madara, Uchiha Katsura, Motou Yayoi, her assistant, Mika, and Ito Kaname," she murmured, unsure how she knew those last two names. "I might be lying about those last two."

"Should we get going?"

"Can you travel?"

"I might fall off some tree branches, but I'll make it out alive."

"Should I carry you?"

"Yes, yes, Mio, carry me." Eito got out of his seat and handed his luggage to her. "Here, start right now."

Mio stood and heard a chair clatter from the other side of the tavern.

"Katsura!"

A dark blur appeared in her periphery, faster than she could react. Katsura had lunged himself at her, but shortly after making it an inch close to her, Eito grabbed him by the neck and slammed him to the ground.

The wooden flooring split under his body and he coughed blood. Eito put his foot to his throat, about to lean in threatening when Madara zipped towards her charge, Mio's body moved on her own and the resulting standoff elicited a yelp from the Sun Country natives.

Madara held his gunbai to Eito's neck and she pressed her dagger's cold steel to his jugular. The Ito shinobi remained standing in the distance, but he managed to catch her weaponless hand with nearly invisible string that sliced her skin like a skilled knife.

"Put the dagger away, Mio," Madara ordered with a menacing growl.

"Deactivate your Sharingan, it won't work on him."

"It'll work on you."

"I'm almost scared," Eito commented, jittery.

"Shut up! This is your damn fault!" she shouted.

"No, it's this assholes fault for attacking you," grumbled Eito, grinding his foot into Katsura's neck. "Mio's a lady. You shouldn't attack a lady."

"She's a fucking traitor!" Katsura spat. "Traitors are treated with death—argh!"

Nobuo exited the kitchen, shocked by the sight. "I told you no trouble! An' you've gone and messed with my guests, too!"

"They're not guests, they're shinobi as well," Yayoi blurted. "That girl's an Uchiha and the other one's a Kuronuma!"

"Shut up, you shitty medic!"

"Shut up, you shitty medic!"

Mio and Madara found themselves glaring at one another for the simultaneous outburst.

In one swift movement Madara knocked the dagger from her hand and it flew across the building until it stabbed into the wall behind the Ito shinobi, who yanked hard on his strings.

She cursed as her body was hurled in the air. She flipped, landing on the side of the wall and watched Madara swing his gunbai hard enough to send Eito crashing through the entrance.

"Damnit Madara!"

She uncorked her dagger before the Ito jerked the strings towards the ground. The fine string had cut into her wrist and the blood that poured from the tiny wound burned her constraint until it snapped. She righted her body in order to land on her feet and ducked under Katsura's sword, stabbing his thigh as she rolled over the ground.

"You little—"

Mio sprang outside with the Ito shinobi and Katsura in hot pursuit and spotted Eito midair with a huge gash running from his shoulder to his stomach as a great fireball incinerated a path towards him.

"Madara!"

Black, spiraling towers sprang from the ear, sizzling into the dark clouds. Many appeared beneath the fireball and snuffed its light. Soon as they did, Eito appeared to be standing behind them all and forming a single hand gesture the towers slipped into the dark craters that brought them to the surface.

She spotted Madara tossing his broken gunbai aside and pointing his sword at him.

"Mio, your dagger!" Eito commanded.

Nobody planned to listen to her; the least she could do was provide Eito with protection since she couldn't go up against Madara. She threw her dagger at him, but didn't see if he caught it because she ducked under one attack and sidestepped for another. She jumped onto the nearest rooftop, glancing in Eito's direction feeling like a complete failure for being unable to protect him. This shouldn't have happened in the first place. It might have been avoided if Madara would have been faster than Eito when it came to stopping Katsura from murdering her. Why the hell were they all fighting each other anyway? Well, she knew exactly why the Ito shinobi and Katsura were trying to kill her, but not Madara's determination to fight her cousin.

Was this because he was angry with the Kuronuma clan for defeating him the first time they were in Kurata? Was this his way of proving he could defeat one? That was it. It had Madara written all over it and now he was clashing swords with the clan's most important person, second only to Musashi.

She needed to think of a way to put an end to this, but first—

Katsura came at her from the left and she prepared to spring into the next rooftop when she noticed the tightly woven wire on her legs preventing her from moving. She took the full brunt of Katsura's attack, the cold metal biting into her skin and stared hazily at the splatter of blood that fell across his face and shoulder before he let out a piercing yell.

Mio clenched her jaw and slumped forward, looking up at the Uchiha trying to stop the burn of her blood mixed with the black water. She smeared the blood on the strings and broke their hold by kicking her feet, but her palms pinked and started to annoy her with a slow burn. She ignored the steady pain and reached to grab Katsura by the arm, catching him off guard.

"What the hell is this?" he demanded.

She forced his arm back and slammed him face first into the rooftop where his struggle ended, but hers began as the blood begun to soak into her clothes and irritate her skin with prickling reminders of her unfinished training. She searched the surrounding area for the Ito shinobi, but found silence apart from the sound of clashing swords.

Mio took a step forward and felt her foot stiffen. She lost her footing and fell straight into the ground. She could feel her temperature rising and the black water pouring from her wound marking her skin a bright red.

"Eito!" she screamed with her last breath. She opened her mouth to call for him a second time, but her throat closed up and rushing to her was a darkness she didn't miss.

---

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Please remove the incompetent medic from my sight."

"I'm not incompetent!"

"Nearly killing a patient is synonymous with incompetent! Now, get out before I kick you out."

"Yayoi, get out, now."

"Fine!"

A door slammed open and closed.

"Can I go? I really need to pee again."

"Just go, Eito-sama."

"Okay, awesome."

Mio opened her eyes. The sunlight flooding into the room was nearly blinding and she made out blurred shapes standing around her. Takuto was closest to her and near the window, facing out, was Madara.

"Can you swallow?" asked Takuto, holding a cup in his hands.

She nodded, though she wished she hadn't because she knew what was in the cup. She didn't have a choice and decided to drink it fast, but the burn was as unbearable as it was the first time she consumed it and the effects were that much harsher.

She almost gagged. "It tastes bad."

"That's an understatement and you know it," he said with a bright smile. "Now, get comfortable, you need to break that fever before you plan to move on."

"How are Takeo-san and Ushio-san?"

"Enya-sama is escorting them, but I've got some news about Tasuku-sama," he said wearily.

Madara turned, having recognized the name.

Mio grimaced at the sight of him as Takuto pulled the covers up to her neck. "What's happened?"

"Tasuku-sama's been attacked. They said a very dangerous man broke into the castle, killed several of his guards and gauged his eyes out."

She tried to move and flinched. "Gauged his eyes out?"

"Yeah, and tried to force him to eat them."

That reminded her of the threat her grandfather made when Tasuku leered at her. "Where's Shin?"

"Nobody knows. He tends to disappear when people need him."

"If you're talking about your creepy grandfather, he stalked me out of the Lightning Country's border," Madara interrupted and he showed them a calligraphy brush. "He dumped this on me and told me not to lose it, then left to take care of business in the Water Country."

A dragon's eye, a cup, Musashi's sphere, the earrings, the cursed scroll, and a calligraphy brush—six of ten special artifacts entrusted to the Kuronuma to protect. The words rang clearly in her head and an idea sprung in there to keep them company.

"How many artifacts does my grandfather have?" she asked.

"Only three, you don't think that's—"

Takuto glimpsed at the calligraphy brush in Madara's outstretched hand suspiciously when Eito walked in, saw it and then looked at Madara in disappointment.

"For shame, Uchiha Madara, you almost killed two Shugosha candidates in one night," he blurted, shaking his head. "The Nature Sphere is wasted on you."

So it is the artifact.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Madara demanded, staring at her like she was the only person in the room.

"My grandfather just involved you in something very stupid and I would apologize for it, but you nearly killed the Shugosha candidate I'm supposed to be protecting," Mio grumbled.

"He shouldn't have attacked Katsura," Madara sneered.

"He shouldn't have attacked Mio," Eito shot back. "We Shugosha candidates are supposed to stand together."

"I told him to stand down."

"Oh, he listened pretty well."

"Well, he's dead now, get over it!"

Mio forced herself into a seat, bewildered by the news. "Katsura's dead?"

"So is Ito Kaname," Madara added in an accusatory tone.

"Who killed them?" she asked and regretted it instantly.

"Mio, Uchiha Katsura suffered terrible burns," Takuto replied. "They weren't enough to kill him, but combined with the organ damage he received from a kunai being thrust in his torso made all the difference. As for Ito Kaname, he had his jugular severed, bled out in the neighboring forest. Don't you remember any of this?"

"Wait? You think I did it?" she demanded from Madara. "Is that why you're looking at me like that?"

"You were fighting them and I don't know what you're capable of."

"He nearly cut me in half, it's his stupid fault for getting all that blood on him," she retorted. "I never stabbed him or that Ito Kaname, him especially, he was there one moment…I could sense him and then he disappeared. I knocked Katsura unconscious. I ended up falling out of a rooftop shortly after."

"Someone set you up," Takuto stated, then grabbed her reddened arm. "That's why you have hives. You've known all along and you're ignoring it and unconsciously stressing over it."

"Nobody gets hives from that."

"You do, apparently."

"She does," Madara agreed.

"Shouldn't we be worried about who really killed your friends?" she shot back.

Madara turned to Eito, set on spiting her. "She's also violently allergic to grapes."

Eito laughed. "Mio, that's adorable. I mean, who's allergic to grapes?"

"That's what I said."

Takuto pushed her back down. "Can everyone just get out? Mio needs to rest."

Madara lifted the calligraphy brush pinched between his thumb and forefinger. "What am I supposed to do with this useless thing?"

"Not lose it," Eito told him before leaving the room.

"Okay, I'm going to," Takuto said, stepping out after him.

"Madara."

He stopped.

"We need to talk."

Madara shut the door and stepped closer to her. She reached out for the calligraphy brush and he allowed her to take it. "What is it?"

"Depends on whether my grandfather asked you to protect it or not," she answered, turning it in her hand and feeling a strange resonance with her own artifact. If Eito hadn't confirmed it, this feeling of hers did. She was starting to hate the artifacts.

"He just asked me not to lose it."

"Don't." She returned it to him. "It's important that you don't and that nobody steals it from you."

"Who's going to want an old calligraphy brush?" he asked, putting it away.

"People."

"And I'm supposed to trust you in this?"

"Unfalteringly."

"Why aren't you in Kurata?"

"Why aren't you in the Sun Country?"

"I'm on my way back."

"Why did you leave?"

"Are you supposed to be out here? The last I heard you were chased out of the Iron Country by Mikazuki Gouki." He turned it around on her, which made her that much more suspicious about him hiding something from her.

"Don't worry about him. He's in Kurata trying to chase the Kuronuma clan out of Mt. Hyōga. I'm out here doing favors for an old lady while simultaneously protecting my cousin, Eito."

"It doesn't seem he needs any protection."

"He's a special case, you wouldn't understand." Mio flopped onto her side. "I'm going to sleep."

"You're not going to ask about Izuna?" he asked suddenly.

"Can I?"

"He's fine."

She settled for that.

Madara left the room quietly, but outside in the hallway she could hear him running into the Motou girl, who was blabbering again. She didn't catch anything being said except Madara's final words.

"We're leaving."

She closed her eyes and tried to relax.

.

.

A cold hand on her mouth shook her awake and she stared deep into the cold black eyes that could only belong to her aunt, Uchiha Konoe. Everything clicked into place, from the uneasiness that wrapped its arms around her in the guise of wintry gales in Kurata and the overbearing intuition telling her to be weary of her surroundings outside of it.

"Caught you, little mouse."

She wished it could have been a nightmare, but an unnatural glow lighting up the room and the sound of a struggle outside told her otherwise. She was too weak to fight, her body suffering from the imbalance and raked in tremors. The malicious glean in her aunt's eyes unnerved her.

Outside, she heard Eito's agonizing scream and it rattled her.

"Eito-sama!" cried Takuto shortly after something detonated.

She forced her aunt's hand from her mouth unable to stop her shaking. Eito's safety was a hundred times more important than her own. "I'll go quietly," she started pleadingly. "Call them off. Don't hurt them. I'll tell you anything. I'll do anything."

She hated to grovel, but she promised to take care of Eito. She wouldn't fail him today.

Konoe dragged her out of the bed. "Where's your luggage?"

Mio stumbled forward and caught herself on a nearby wall. She pointed to the three bags she had been carrying, each placed by the entrance.

With a kunai pointed at her and the obvious threat hanging between them, Konoe grabbed all three of her backs and hoisted them all in one shoulder before forcing her through the door, her long thin fingers wound tightly over her nape.

Her heart clenched as the night's wind swept across her cheeks. Eito was on the ground, pale hair dyed red and his eyes searching until they found her. He smiled, a knowing, bitter smile.

Mio seized Konoe's wrist and tried to flip her onto her back, but her aunt was quick on the offensive.

Konoe kicked her legs, dropping her onto her knees. She grabbed a handful of her hair and forced her head back. It felt like her scalp was on fire.

"Don't kill him," she begged.

There was a sadistic glimmer in her aunt's eyes.

Mio realized she made a mistake. With her heart drumming in her chest, she watched a malicious smile spread across Konoe's lips seconds before they ordered the death sentence.

"Kill the white haired brat. The beat the other one bloody. We'll need a messenger to go tell Shinya the news."

Eito didn't struggle when one Mikazuki shinobi exposed his neck and his smile didn't face when the kunai spilled his blood. He never broke eye contact with her, not even as his life fell away in large quantities.

She failed her clan. Musashi's successor died because she specifically pleaded for his life to a woman unworthy of being called family. She knew better than to do or say stupid things. She spent all her life knowing she should never expose her weaknesses so easily, but she did. She did and now Eito was dead.

"Eito!" she called with a broken voice. "Eito!"

Konoe yanked her onto her feet and with one swift jab of her elbow to her head, Mio lost consciousness before she could shed the first tear.

---

Mio gasped, woken by a bucket of ice water in the middle of a dank prison made of gray walls. She lifted her eyes to person towering over her as she struggled to sit with her arms bound behind her back, cuffs and chains around her wrists, the light beyond the metal door glowed orange against the wall. She welcomed a new burst of pain when the tin bucket was smashed against her skull and her body collapsed. She bit back the scream. She swallowed her emotions. She was a prisoner and all her secrets were dead with what little hope she had of leaving Mikazuki Gouki's grip.

Her vision cleared. Konoe stood over her once again, smirking delightfully.

"Breakfast time," Konoe announced and tipped the bowl she held in her hand over her head. "I hope you like it. I made it just for you."

Steaming soup fell over the side of her face. She failed to muffle the agonized scream that ripped through her throat. Freshly boiled, the liquid burned every inch of skin it fell upon them as she was battered by hot chunks of vegetables and meat.

Konoe let the bowl fall on her head; the edge nicked her right above her eyebrow with a jagged end that cut through before clattering above her head. With a cruel laugh, she kicked her tremulous body over and stepped on her torso.

She gasped, feeling her foot applying pressure on her ribcage.

"I don't know what Mikazuki Gouki wants with trash like you," Konoe spat. "I don't care what he plans to do with you so long as I don't have to keep following that asshole's orders. So be a good prisoner and tell him all he needs to know."

She kicked her for good measure.

The droplets of blood slithering from the tiny cut above her eyebrow reminded her that the black water burned several degrees past boiling point and she drank a whole cup of it. Whatever happened here wouldn't be as bad as her grandfather's idea of training. This wouldn't turn into another nightmare in her life.

She'd survive this. No matter how terrified she was. She promised herself to survive it.

Konoe slammed the door behind her, shutting her away in darkness.

The smile on Eito's face resurfaced in her mind and the scene to follow replayed endlessly, a slow torture that no physical pain could ever amount to. She curled on her side and forced the tears from her eyes.

Konoe won if she saw her cry.

However, her heart felt as though it had gone through a grinder—there were only chunks of it left and yet, she was still alive.

---

Sleep was unattainable. She closed her eyes reminded of how easily it had been for that Mikazuki shinobi to snuff out Eito's life. She wondered if Eito had reached his limit. He fought a harder battle against Madara, but she never bothered to ask the result of it since they looked healed when she woke.

She thought of Takuto on the ground already beaten bloody and unable to move. She had a thousand different scenes unfolding in her head, each worse than the last. In the long hours she spent within her cell, she thought of everything but herself.

She promised to keep a clear head to think of a plan. She couldn't think without being reminded. Being reminded meant recalling Konoe's promise that Mikazuki Gouki was already on his way to her. She didn't want to think of what would happen then, to her or the earrings, but she was starting to feel the weight of the responsibility shift on the scale, outweighing her idealistic interpretation of the duty. She believed she would spend enough time in Kurata training that once she left, if she ever did, she would be strong enough to pick up the slack.

She regretted not thinking ahead, not wondering about failures.

Mio's eyes wandered to the corner of her prison. Konoe left all her things there. She confiscated her weapons so they served as meager decoration in an otherwise dull surrounding.

"Keep it somewhere warm, okay? And if you need anything from me, knock on it twice."

She dragged her body onto a seat as the image of the scaly brown ball came to her with the sight of her belongings. She watched her aunt remove all her knives and anything that could be used as a weapon, but she didn't take the ball.

Slowly and very quietly, Mio pushed herself to stand, the weight of fresh bruises and ailing muscles made the struggle, but she managed to wobble to her things. She dropped down into a seat, her back facing her things and with a quick jerk of the chains binding her hands together, she grabbed hold of the inner flap of the bag. It should be right between her clothes.

She searched clumsily, feeling only the scratchy fabric against her trampled fingers when she discovered it, jostled further into the bag. She didn't have the energy to drag it out so she tried knocking it through the bottom of the bag against the hard ground.

Two solid thunks greeted her ears, followed by movement in her hand, and a squeak. She scrambled away and observed, horrified, as her bag jostled from side to side before something small poked its head out from between the folded clothes. It stared at her with beady eyes, taking in the sight of her and then sniffed the air.

She swallowed thickly.

"Yer not Shinya, but ya smell like him."

It talked. Its voice low and nonthreatening with a feminine touch.

The animal squeezed out the rest of the way.

Armadillo. It was an armadillo. Her creepy grandfather gave her a talking armadillo to ask for help.

"Ya plan ta sit there an' stare all day, eh? Or are ya telling me why ya smell like Shinya."

"He's my grandfather."

"Ew."

The strange armadillo rolled into its defensive shell and traveled closer to her before unraveling again, its tiny nails clicking against the ground.

"Didn't think he had it in 'im to procreate."

"Can you help me?" she asked hesitantly, ignoring the comment.

It stared right at her with those beady, judging eyes. "Probably not," it uttered, yawned and rolled back into a ball, making its way back to the warmth between her clothes. "Good luck not dying, kiddo."

She thought of kicking the damn thing to see if it would help that way, but the door opened and Konoe reentered with a new weapon to try out on her.

Mio resigned herself to the torture.

---

Konoe gave no reason why she harmed her on a daily basis. It didn't seem to be Mikazuki Gouki's order, but he didn't seem to care what happened to her so long as she was captured and delivered alive by the time he decided to make an appearance. Her aunt took advantage of that fact and exercised the power she held over her. She was a professional. Torture was Konoe's forte, so she was good at it.

The imbalance symptoms persisted in the passing days, her fever rising to a dangerous degree and her stomach begun aching with hunger pains. She tried keeping track of the time, even went as far as asking the useless armadillo her grandfather gave her, but there was no way of telling how long she had spent trapped in her little cage. She was filthy. The bruises on her were reddish purple, some of the hits had broken the skin and the black water infused blood crusted over the shallow cuts.

She received deeper cuts on her back, the deadly puncture of the knife carving across her shoulder blade. Raking against the skin, over and over again, until every line drew a new character and every new character birthed a new insult. Once the slow carving came to an end, she had a second of respite, listening to the fire crackle and split the wooden logs as Konoe burned the metal red.

Mio watched helplessly, insides writhing in pain. The blood was slowly losing its burning defenses or maybe she lost so much she was beginning to lose touch with reality. She couldn't see beyond the haze of her vision or think beyond the ache in her body. She endured for a single reason: she was too stupid to bend. Konoe would be thrilled to hear her beg for her life, it would be music to her ears and Mio was stupidly stubborn.

She wouldn't give her that. She would let her feel like she won any battles between them when this was underhanded from the start, but maybe she should have tried harder—if she had been even a little more determined when Shin's training grew harsh, if she had gotten through it all without complaints and quitting, she might have been in a better situation. He might have never considered giving her the earrings earlier. He probably would have waited until she finished, she could have been done now. She could have been in the middle of Strength Training, sparring with another to strengthen all fighting aspects. She would've had a fighting chance when Konoe came in like a thief in the night. Eito wouldn't have died. Takuto wouldn't have gotten hurt.

Why did any of this matter? She committed the mistakes she wanted to make. She was dealing with her consequences.

Isn't this what she wanted? To solve her own problems without anyone getting in the middle?

She felt so stupid, so useless, so childish.

Hands clenched, Konoe fisted her hand in her hair and yanked her face away, viciously ripping off strands. She bit down hard, eyes shut tight. "You've gotten so pretty, Mio," she cooed, poison clinging to her words. "Everyone's always going on about how pretty you've gotten, even Gouki-san says it, says you remind him of Kikyo, the same face…not the eyes, though, you have your witch grandmother's eyes. I remember her well, the outsider, the loner—nobody wanted her near. She shamed us all. Should we fix that?"

The burning knife neared her eye's periphery. The heat radiating from it tickled the barely scabbed wound above her eyebrow bone.

"Kikyo should have stayed away from my brother," she spat. "She manipulated him until he turned his back on his family. We wanted the best for him, he had so much promise and then your cursed mother came along and took him from us. If it wasn't for her, he'd still be alive."

"Gouki killed him," Mio grated, infuriated by the mere mention of her family, her fingernails digging into her palm until they were bloody. "He ripped him limb from limb while he was still alive and you're working for him!"

"Don't talk back to me," Konoe snapped, slamming her head into the ground. "You know nothing, you stupid child, so stay quiet."

The tip of the burning knife sliced through the scab and it made its way across her temple. She struggled, trying to bend her knees to stand, but Konoe slammed her back into place. She tugged at her constraints with bloody hands and felt one chain snap.

She heard it clearly.

Oh.

It sounded like hope.

She pulled apart her wrists and begun to strain, unable to stop herself from screaming when Konoe began to draw another line of blood right across the first with morbid amusement. She felt another chain bounce of the wall and clutter to the ground.

A little more.

She brought them together, arms trembling, and jerked her body to the side. The knife moved along with the motion, slicing straight across her cheek, startling her aunt.

Konoe cursed, raising her arm to bring the knife down into her face.

Mio kicked her in the side with enough force to send her barreling back into the wall of her small prison. She scrambled backward onto a seat and then her feet.

The kunoichi recovered quickly, eyes burning in ire. "You little bitch."

One last yank and three chain links fell to her feet. She let her arms drop to her side, breathing heavily. She didn't know where she found the strength to stand or how she managed to break the extra chains, only that when the cuffs were cutting into her skin, the blood and black water combination melted the links away.

Konoe lurched forward, gripping the knife.

Mio moved back. She hit the wall and gasped when she was slashed by the weapon, one straight line across her stomach. Then Konoe repositioned the sharp point to stab her straight through the chest and she shut her eyes tight, her feet glued to the ground in fear.

The impact never came.

She only heard the sound of her breathing, and then something warm splattered on her face.

Slowly, she opened her eyes.

Konoe stared at her, wide-eyed, blood spilling from her mouth. The weapon in her hand clattered to her feet and through the gaping hole in her chest, she saw Mikazuki Gouki standing at the entrance.

"Damnit," Konoe murmured, a broken sound. She came crashing to her knees and the light slowly left her eyes.

Mio stared at him and the bright green eyes she remembered from all her nightmares of the monster that started it all. She stared at him in disbelief, in fear, in disgust and couldn't think of looking away. She looked straight into the face of her parents' murderer and he looked back into hers, victorious.

When he approached, she fell to her knees unable to go on and her heart hammed like a desperate bird trapped in a cage. His shadow fell across her body, shielding her from the sunshine spilling from outside. He was huge, not as tall as her grandfather was, but he was built like a bear, all bulging muscles and menace.

He touched her chin. She flinched away, but he persisted, taking her by it and turned her face to see the damage on around her temple. "I trust her death is enough of an apology for your maiming," he spoke, confident that it would be the case.

A dagger's handle was sticking out of his belt and it bore the Mikazuki's slashed crescent insignia.

She couldn't bring herself to say anything because the only thing going through her mind was that he killed Konoe, her aunt. She hated her for the torture, for always treating her badly, for working for this man, but she didn't exactly wish her dead. She ordered Eito to be killed, tortured her until she wished her death came rushing to greet her so she didn't have to live with all the pain the last several events caused her.

Maybe she just wanted to run away. Run and run and run, in circles or to new places, she just wanted to go somewhere far where everything was safe because that is what she did. She thought of escape when things got hard. She was all bark and no bite.

She blinked, tears rolling from her eyes.

"You won't be harmed from today onward," he told her, brushing back her hair. He paused, his eyes filled with surprise and his fingers brushed against her earlobe, the rings in her earrings clinking softly. "Ahh, Hag was right, you do have them now."

Hag. Guardian of the Fate Sphere.

Why would she tell Mikazuki Gouki about the earrings?

She was suddenly thrown back into the past, remembering her mother asking her to run into the forest and wait for a man who would surely help her while Gouki destroyed the house as if he were searching for something. She recalled Shin telling her that the earrings were supposed to have passed down to her mother.

It was always about the earrings.

"The Hag says I need you alive if I want the rest of the artifacts."

"Why?" she croaked, throat dried.

Information. She needed information. Be practical. The door was wide open. He was the only one in the room. The only bag she needed was in arm's reach. The shinobi beyond this dank cave were too far to sense. There was a knife in his belt and if she learned anything about the Mikazuki clan in all the years she spent fearing them is that they carried poison daggers.

His eyes narrowed. "Does Kuronuma Shinya not intend to tell you that you're Kuronuma Musashi's true successor?" he inquired, mostly to himself. He frowned. "I suppose not."

"Konoe ordered his successor to be killed," she uttered painfully. She avoided breaking eye contact no matter how terrified staring into the green hue haunted her. "Eito was the one. I'm a…I'm a mistake."

"The Hag is never wrong in her knowledge of Musashi's successors," he told her. "Nishiki, Shinya, Hagane—his direct descendants. Nishiki died at the hands of Shinya and in turn, Shinya's candidacy was revoked, Hagane married a barmaid and had Eito, the last of Musashi's candidates. You are the start of a new line of Shugosha—your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren will inherit this from you. That's why it is important that you stay alive."

"I don't understand," she whispered, unyielding to the shock.

She didn't have time to judge her grandfather for killing his brother, not when this was the one and only chance she had of successfully escaping. She could stay, act mild and pretend to listen to him, she could sell her soul to make this another mission where she is the spy infiltrating the enemy's territory and gain his trust. However, if he got his hands on more artifacts, if he went on to exterminate the Kuronuma clan…she wouldn't be able to handle all of that.

She measured her time. His defenses weren't all the way down, but her vulnerability must have lessened them.

"The beauty of the Shugosha is that they can hold all ten artifacts at once and that they can manipulate who will possess them," he revealed. "Once we return to Kurata and kill Musashi, you will take the sphere from—"

Mio swiped his dagger from its sheath, turned it in her palm and stabbed it deep into his stomach before he realized it was gone. She ducked under a powerful punch that crushed the wall behind her, rolling towards the bag containing her grandfather's talking armadillo.

He let out an ear-splitting bellow as she stumbled outside into a long rocky pathway. She dug through the bag for the scale armadillo, her aching legs pumping towards the gaping exit. She couldn't see beyond the sunlight shining in her eyes or hear anything except Gouki's sluggish attempt to pursue her while barking out orders to people she didn't see.

She dropped her bag when she found the armadillo and hurled it into the nearest wall. It unfurled and landed on the ground with a furious squeak. On its tiny, wobbly legs it began chasing her.

"What was that for?" it exclaimed.

"I survived!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "Now, help me!"

"Shinya will hear of this!"

The damned thing jumped up, bounced off her shoulder and gained speed.

Furious, Mio ran fasted, backed up her leg when it was in range and kicked it straight into the face of a Mikazuki shinobi. The tough exterior of its defense managed to break his nose and bounce off beyond her line of vision. The unknown man fell into the cave. There was no sign of others approaching.

"Good! Now do something useful, you filthy coward!"

She stepped over the unconscious shinobi and crossed the entrance. Grass stretched out beneath her feet and past the clearing, she recognized the great forest of towering trees. She was still in the Fire Country, standing closer to Senju territory than Uchiha, but she didn't care where she landed as long as she outran the poisoned Mikazuki Gouki and whoever else dared chase after her.

The armadillo let out a shrill yell directed at her. "You're as bad as that devil child!"

"Maybe you should listen!" she snapped, rushing for the trees.

To her far left, she saw the Mikazuki-Uchiha camp and about of a hundred shinobi idling about when one finally took notice spying her cross the wide plane, followed by the roar of his superior to have her captured.

The armadillo jumped on her shoulder, stabbing its nails into her tattered clothes. "Do something!"

"That's my line!"

Half a dozen shinobi sprang forward; among them were Uchiha she recognized for being some of the best trackers in the clan, which dropped her escape rate down to four percent, though it wasn't much before at a meager twelve percent. She didn't have enough chakra to do anything other than run; the earrings had steadily drained her throughout her captivity.

"They're in sight!" shouted the armadillo in her ear.

"How far?"

The sound of kunai slicing through the air answered her question.

She jumped into the highest branch, grabbed onto the tree and scaled it before jumping into another canopy of leaves. She caught a sturdy branch and swung off it, landing haphazardly on the mossy ground. A sharp pain rushed up her right leg. A sprain. She shouldn't be running on a bad leg, but she managed to put enough distance between herself and pursuers after changing her direction.

"Do you see them?" asked Mio, the heat bearing down on her.

The armadillo turned its little head to her. "Ya know, yer pretty fast," it said wondrously. "Yer definitely one of his if ya can outrun those trackers."

"Thanks."

Mio thought of running straight for Sachiyo's home in the countryside, but that was an expected move. It would be stupid of her to run straight into a trap, so she thought harder and longer and made the worst decision she ever made in her life.

If the trackers caught onto her trail, she'd plunge straight into Senju territory. The Mikazuki-Uchiha wouldn't be dumb enough to engage them, not with so few numbers and she was confident in her ability to maneuver her way out of Senju territory before any one realized she was even there.

She stopped running to catch her breath; never in her life did she ever think she could outrun any of those people with these wounds. The sound of water was near. If she remembered correctly, there was a waterfall nearby—straight ahead and down a plunging pool of gigantic rocks embedded in the harsh river below.

Mio stilled, a bead of sweat rolled off the tip of her nose and dropped into the grass beneath her feet.

Behind her, a branch snapped and that was her cue to run. She jumped into the nearest tree and scaled to the very top as a group of shadows sped past her location. She peered through the leaves, pushing apart tangled branches without making a sound. There were four Mikazuki shinobi and two Uchiha.

Her lungs were burning, the soles of her bare feet were aching with fresh cuts, her whole body trembled, and her heart fluttered wildly. She couldn't breathe correctly, she found herself teetering dangerously close to giving into her exhaustion because all she had was one useless armadillo. Well, she rescinded that. The stupid thing did help keep her focus on running by scouting where the others went.

A sword flew straight at her, catching the sunlight on the blade. It sliced across her cheek and stabbed into the trunk behind her, stealing the breath from her lungs. The armadillo rolled into a ball once more and fell off her shoulder.

"You stupid coward," she grumbled, jumping down to catch it before it hit the ground.

She could hear the stupid fools arguing behind her as she changed direction.

"He's said to catch her, not kill her!" one shouted.

"I missed on purpose!" argued the owner of the sword.

"Gouki-san won't be too pleased about that cut on her cheek, you heard what he said! Even one drop of blood of hers is shed and we're dead men!"

"I've got it!"

Mio started to pay attention to her surroundings belatedly, once the crashing waterfall was screaming in her ears and her attempted escape led her to the rocky edge before the plunge. She stuffed the armadillo in her kimono top and tightened the knot of her sash. It didn't matter which way she ran she would be caught. She reached her limit, she bled out to the point that she progressively began losing consciousness and her limbs were becoming too heavy a burden.

Her last hope was the waterfall and it terrified. If she hit a rock, the impact would kill her. If she hit the water, she'd be swept under the current and hurled into the river like something broken. The added bonus, she didn't know how to swim. She tried to learn, but she didn't want to after she could walk on water.

She was standing at the edge of a waterfall with no option but to gamble her life away, she'd never been so scared in her life.

The Uchiha and Mikazuki appeared grinning delightedly.

"You're a useless armadillo," she complained, hitting the scaled ball through her clothes.

"Back at you, worthless kunoichi!" it retorted.

"Come quietly, Mio, we promise not to hurt you," one Mikazuki demanded.

"Don't worry, she won't go anywhere, she can't even swim," an Uchiha laughed.

"I heard she's even afraid of heights," the other Uchiha added. "Look at her she's shaking. There's no fight left in her."

Mio took a step back, every bone in her body quivering, and she fell straight down the towering waterfall.

Lightness. She felt nothing until the waters rushed up to meet her and enveloped her in its sea green depths.

She watched the air bubbles flutter past her head as a constricting panic took root in her chest. She should have remembered the basics, despite never learning to swim, but her head went blank. She didn't have a mind for anything. She felt her arms and legs flailing before the rivers current flung here against her a boulder and the oxygen left her.

The water slipped into her lungs, burning as it went down, and she sunk into unconsciousness just as a loud splash rippled across the distant surface. She feared the worst. One fool was probably stupid enough to take the same risk.

She'd lost.

She hoped that at least the stupid armadillo knew how to swim.

---

Mio gasped, eyes snapping open, believing to be dead, but the air she sucked into her lungs was familiar and clean. She jolted onto a seat, clawing at her body for the armadillo she concealed inside her clothes but found nothing. She feared for its life until she spotted it beside her.

"Are you hungry?"

She whirled around to the glow of a campfire and the hunched form of a young shinobi with white hair nibbling on a skewer of cooked fish. Her heartbeat quickened, in the faint light of the fire she could see the insignia of his clan sown onto his collar.

"I..."

He rose from the log with another skewered fish in his hand and crouched down in front of her where she could see him clearly. She forgot to breathe as he thrust it before her.

The fact he looked her straight in the eyes disconcerted her. She saw fire set deep within them that frightened her. She lowered her gaze to the charred exterior of the fish and felt her stomach twist uncomfortably.

She recognized him as Senju Hashirama's younger brother.

"Forgive me," she said softly, blinking up at him. She sounded strange. Probably the water. "I can't eat fish."

He gave a nod, looking unfazed, and bit into her share. "It's undercooked," he admitted, "and small. There weren't bigger fish in the river and I'm not an expert when it comes to fishing. Do you fish?"

Mio felt taken aback by the easiness of his aura, but knew to take precautions. Uchiha and Senju were natural enemies in the battlefield and it didn't matter that she did not wear the crest to give her away, but she had to lie. She needed to protect herself, but she was not entirely ungrateful. She nearly drowned, but he saved her.

"It is…peaceful," she answered.

"Are you any good?"

"I assume I am."

"How about hunting?" he went on, eating what remained of his undercooked fish. "Do you hunt?"

"I never tried."

"If you don't mind me asking, what were you doing in the middle of the forest?"

"I do mind," she answered. "You have yet to ask my name and question my intentions."

"I considered it, I thought it might bombard you and you haven't thanked me yet."

"Well you thrust a fish into my face."

"Oh, so now it's my fault?"

"It was kind of you, but would it make a difference if I thanked you now?" she asked.

"If you did, I wouldn't believe it."

"I would mean it," she said, looking him in the eyes. "I fear the waters. Drowning I fear most and I would have if you had not saved me. I can't swim."

He left his place at her side and crossed over to where he kept his luggage. He must have traveled far and for quite some time given the considerable amount piled in the edges, either that or he brought a companion. He pulled a leather pouch from between his bags and fresh clothes from within a larger back. He returned to her side, dangling the sloshing liquid in the pouch before her and handed her the clothes.

Mio stared at him oddly, but took his offer with a grateful nod.

"I imagined you must be cold," he said, looking at her with an odd curio.

She glanced down to the sight of her bruised skin and the gauze wrapped around her stomach and shoulder to staunch the bleeding of one of Konoe's many tortures but there was nothing more. She had been sitting before him, misguided by the heat of the fire, topless.

"Happy about yourself?"

He shrugged. "It wasn't half bad."

She clumsily tugged on the clothes he provided as he shuffled away with a hint of a smile.

"You should have told me," she grumbled.

"Your clothes were drenched and your wounds needed tending. They were severe enough to question my medical knowledge as well as your profession. I should have tied you up and interrogated you. Even young girls like you pose a threat."

"Why haven't you?"

"Because the rings on your wrists and the bruises on your body suggest you may have been victimized before scampering off in your delirium," he admitted. "I gave you a chance and you haven't even given me your name."

She lowered her eyes to approve his assumptions. Now she didn't have to lie.

"So, do you have a name?" he asked again.

Mio fastened the new kimono top with a green sash. She stared at him awkwardly. "Yes."

"Well...what is it?"

"..." Mio glanced from side to side, bewildered by the prospect of providing a fake name. She usually had one on the spot.

"Are you going to tell me?"

"Pio," she answered quickly.

He looked dubious. "Pio?"

"Like the noise a chick makes," she explained, determined. "Pio."

He nodded slowly. "Pio...it's a good name."

"No it isn't. My grandmother was a lunatic."

"I'm Tobirama," he offered. "A name for a name."

"Tobirama is a better name."

"So, Pio, do you live around here?"

"No."

"Where is your home?"

"Kurata, I used to reside in the village that was decimated three months ago," she answered. It wasn't a complete lie since she used to live there before making the move to Mt. Hyōga.

"Then you're staying in Mt. Hyōga with the Demon clan?"

He sounded like he was interrogating her now.

"They saved us from the massacre," she said defensively. "Whatever rumors you may have of them are wrong. They're kind people on that mountain, not dangerous at all."

"The nearest village is a couple miles south, but I'm waiting on my companion. He's a medic, I'll have him look at your wounds," he said for a change of pace, though he looked suspicious. "Coincidentally, I'm also heading to Kurata, so I'll make sure you get there safe."

"You don't need—"

"It won't be free, but I will. This place is full of members of the Uchiha and Mikazuki clan and the roads are overrun with bandits. A girl like you shouldn't be walking around alone and unprotected." He stilled. "How did you get here from there?"

"The Iron Country has an open trade with Kurata. I saddled in with an old friend to visit family there." The lie easily fell from her lips. "He sent me to find lavender when it happened…"

He seemed to understand what she was hinting at as he nodded.

"You can run your errand on the way."

She didn't know what lavender looked like. Maybe she could recognize it by smell. All she knew was that he bought the lie and the last thing she wanted was to be associated with the Uchiha-Mikazuki alliance, though she was certain he knew nothing about it. She didn't think she'd say it, but she was somewhat glad about the torture Konoe inflicted on her. They made a great scapegoat.

Deep down, Mio was agonizing. If someone saw her with a Senju, she'd be terribly misinterpreted, and worst, she was indebted to him.

"Can I ask why you're going to Kurata?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah, the Demon clan hired the Senju clan to find their missing princess and protect her from the Mikazuki clan. I've been out here looking everywhere for her, the Kuronuma accompanying her was sure she was still in the Fire Country. I'm starting to think she's over that waterfall upstream. Rumor has it they've made a camp there."

She stopped asking questions even though she had a million now (complaints to go with them as well) and picked up the armadillo, returning it to the inside of her clothes.

Mio heard approaching footsteps but noticed Tobirama remain in place. She followed the sound to some rustling bushes and behind them emerged Takuto.

"Find anything?" asked Tobirama.

"No—Mio!" Takuto exclaimed rushing to her. He hesitated at the sight of her injuries before pulling her into an embrace. "Everyone's been looking for you, Mio."

Mio was almost caught up in the moment, but her eyes were glued on Tobirama.

"Mio, the missing princess?" he questioned.

"Why didn't you say you found her?"

"Because she lied and said her name was Pio."

"Why Pio?"

She grabbed Takuto and forced him to look at her. "Tell me Eito is alive, Takuto, please," she whispered mournfully. "You saved him, right?"

Takuto's face darkened, his hand finding her elbows and shook his head. "By the time I came to, he was long gone."

She let him wrap his arms around her as she bit back the frustrated tears, reminded of everything Gouki told her as she awaited the perfect moment to lash out. When he asked about it, she didn't want to say anything. She was trying to process it all. First that she was finally safe with Takuto present, but she couldn't help feeling uneasy around the Senju.

Takuto healed the worst of her afflictions, but there were others that would scar. He suggested they travel once she's rested and prepared to make the long trip from the Fire Country to Kurata, but she refused to stay any longer.

She wanted to go home. To Kurata and to her grandfather.

---

Mio didn't ask questions. She didn't speak one word on the way to Kurata. She closed herself off to everything to the point that even the useless armadillo started to worry about her current state. She didn't think there was anything wrong with her; she just figured she endured enough to find solace in herself. Everything she didn't want to happen had happened, but it wasn't as if she didn't get anything out of it. Perhaps it wasn't the complete truth, but it was enough of a revelation to the dangers of the artifacts.

It cost her parents' lives. The earrings she wore were the reason Mikazuki Gouki targeted her family and her mother didn't even have them. They died for not having them. They died because that Hag sold them out. She told Gouki everything about the artifacts, probably more than she knew.

She wanted to question the hiring of the Senju clan to protect her, but if she was Musashi's last successor, she understood that she had no say in the matter.

When she arrived to Mt. Hyōga, her silence persisted and her mood darkened in acknowledgement of all the Senju stationed outside the Kuronuma's mountain and inside. She met with her family; Shin and Musashi were the first people that rushed over to make sure she was fine in a very embarrassing display. Sako and Minako were practically blubbering, reluctant to let her go until Okimi guided her home to ensure she was physically fit. Takuto and Shin accompanied them all the way.

Mio was seated on two cushions with her back towards the men as Okimi cut through her bandages.

"Anything in particular I should be worrying about?" Okimi asked, directing her gaze to her protégé who listed a number of things. She begun scanning her body for anything he might have missed. "You did a fine job with most of these, but I do detect some internal damage from a large wound down the torso, you still have a cut on your chin. Some nerve damage around your arm stemming from the shoulder down. You also twisted your ankle. Judging by most of the damage you suffered, you were tortured for days on end—once or twice every six hours. Does that sound about right?"

"I'll kill them," grumbled Shin.

"You don't need to worry about that," Mio spoke hoarsely. "Mikazuki Gouki already killed Konoe for doing this."

"You met with him?"

"Yes," she answered. "I stayed long enough to hear about who was feeding him information."

"Hiryuu," Shin said immediately. "That big-nosed bastard has always been snooping around the Kuronuma; I wouldn't be surprised he confirmed the artifacts existence—"

"It wasn't Hiryuu, it was Hag."

Everyone stared in shock as if they couldn't believe their ears. Who would? To hear someone that's been a part of the secret for as long as she had suddenly betrayed you, who wouldn't be?

"Are you sure?" her grandfather pressed.

"Gouki stared directly at my earrings and said, 'Ahh, Hag was right, you do have them now,'" she revealed. "He went onto further confirm this by talking about Musashi's previous successors: Nishiki, Shinya, and Hagane."

"I didn't know you were a Shugosha candidate, uncle," Okimi exclaimed, taken aback.

"That was a very long time ago," Shin answered stiffly.

"He also told me why you stopped being one. Taken out of context it sounds pretty terrible." She waited on his response. "Judging by your silence he must have spoken some truth."

"We can talk about this later. I need to concentrate on picking up where Takuto left off and Mio, you're going to be staying away from training for at least a couple of weeks, longer if the nerve damage is as bad as I think it is. I can't fix everything." Okimi repositioned herself behind her, taking a sterilized scalpel in her hand after bathing her back in alcohol that became Konoe's writing board of insults. "I can get rid of some of the scarring, but it'll hurt."

"Takuto, we should leave Mio in Okimi's hands."

Shin and Takuto exited Okimi's home and she got to work. She reopened several wounds with the scalpel with Mio lying on her stomach attempting to muffle her screams in a pillow.

The harsh procedure snuffed what little energy she had remaining that once Okimi patched her up all she wanted to do was sleep.

"I'll be checking up on you every day until you're better," Okimi assured her. "So stay away from any type of training until I give you the okay. You have to start taking better care of yourself."

"Eito…he…"

Okimi lowered her eyes, saddened by the name. "He was given a proper funeral," she said shakily. "Takuto made sure of that. He fought bravely and…I'm happy that he lived as long as he did. I just…I just wish he could have stayed a little longer."

"I should have protected him better."

"Don't blame yourself, Mio," she begun, putting her hand on her shoulder. "Shinobi die every day. Eito fought hard to stop the Mikazuki from taking you and that's what matters to us. As candidates, you were supposed to protect each other. He was doing his duty and you were hurt. Nobody blames you."

Mio cried. She rubbed the tears from her eyes helplessly. "I just feel like I didn't get to know him well enough and then he's gone just as we started having fun," she whispered. "I saw when that man took his life. It was the only thing I remember every moment that Konoe tortured me. I just couldn't get his face out of my head…the way he looked at me, the way he smiled. I don't know why he smiled. Was he trying to make me feel better? What did he think that would accomplish?"

Okimi sidled over, wrapping an arm around her with watery eyes. "You're alive, Mio," she said against her head. "I believe that's the only thing that matters to him. You are alive. Grandfather still has a successor. That is all he ever wanted. He always knew he was going to die because his condition kept worsening and in all the time everyone spent their time worrying about him, he worried about not being unable to take over for our grandfather. Do you know what he did? He promised to find someone that would and swore to protect them. When you came to Kurata the second time, he was ecstatic and nobody understood why. He just ran around the mountain and nobody could catch him."

She blinked up at her cousin. "What?"

"Why do you think Enya was there to save you when you fell? Eito kicked him out of Mt. Hyōga and told him to find you because you were the successor," Okimi revealed. "It seems he knew before our grandfather did. So, please, Mio, don't feel guilty. He wanted to find you for so long and meet you. You bonded with him in a way you could only bond with another person that carries the same burden. That's why it feels like you won't ever be able to cry enough."

Like there was a gaping hole in her chest that couldn't be filled by consoling words or time. Like a part of her laid down and died beside him. She couldn't speak or nod in agreement. She just cried with Okimi.

"That's the Shugosha's burden."

---

xl: Part 2 of 3.

This was supposed to be up on the 16th since it was a giant and I got lazy editing halfway though (okay, a quarter way through), but then something incredible happened. Gather 'round, listen to this.

My 7-year-old nephew is always going around breaking things, mostly his toys (he wrecked his 3DS and I think I threw the biggest fit because I was in the lone party of people against getting him one...I knew he was going to ruin it and it was only a matter of when). So, on the 15th, he broke a pipe in the front of the house so there was water spewing everywhere, it was disastrous, and everyone was trying to cover his tracks before my mother came home (it's her house, he broke a pipe in his grandmother's house and everyone was freaking the fuck out). After he does things like this, you know, break big things...he goes through a sort of cool down. It can be months before he takes something out.

The cool down didn't happen this time. No. On the 16th. He broke the internet. The router. He wrecked the router and the only source of internet was my sister's smart phone so I spent some time on tumblr on her smart phone and totally forgot about the chapter, not that I know how to post from a smart phone.

Well, we got a replacement on the 18th, but I'm still a little late on the delivery.

There's a stomach virus going around the house. It's taken down my brother, my sisters, my niece and nephew. It's down to myself, my mom, and aunt to survive the epidemic. I was basically out there passing out vomit buckets for like the entire night. I won't let it get me. I just got rid of my damn cold!

Anyhow, the chapter happened, it was long, and I hope it made 4 days worth the wait.

I still plan on making that post on my livejournal. Since all the patients in this clinic are finally down for the count and it's 6AM, I'm going to sleep.

Part 3 is in the works. It'll probably be shorter than this (no, it will).

Also, Madara wasn't even supposed to be in this chapter, but what can I do? He can't stay away.

YamiKitsuneKami, that0nelittl3girl, crazyuser, Aries01xD, and Loteva thank you for reviewing the previous chapter and I hope this offering was good too.

Thank you for reading!