Published: 5/17/2019

Previously: Their mission at the mine leads Kakashi and Suzu to fight with two Iwa ninja; Kakashi is provoked with a comment about Obito's eye; Suzu jumps in front of a Chidori.

Kakashi's hand, coated in squealing lightning, stopped inches away from my chest.

"Are you crazy?" I breathed, heart pounding, as electricity danced across my skin. "Kakashi, what the hell are you doing?"

Kakashi was frozen in place as he stared up at me. My outstretched arms began to quiver.

"Kakashi!"

He jerked back with wide eyes, and the electricity in his hand extinguished. Petrified was the only word to describe him. His face was a snapshot of pure, unadulterated terror.

"Are you crazy?" I repeated, shaking as I slowly lowered my arms. "You can't just break out your signature technique and… and kill an Iwa ninja! Everyone would know. There would be no way to hide it! This is the exact international incident we said we had to avoid!"

"I…" Kakashi stuttered and clutched his wrist. "I…"

A moment of terrible silence passed. Kakashi's shoulders began to tremble, and I realized that he was having a flashback, just like I had when I'd met the Iwa company on our sabotage mission. He was remembering something bad. He was—he was remembering Rin, wasn't he? It occurred to me with belated horror that I had, for all intents and purposes, just re-enacted Rin's suicide attempt.

"I'm sorry, Kakashi," I said weakly. "You should… let me handle this. You should go outside. I'll take care of it."

He stared at me mutely.

"Go on," I repeated. "I'll take care of it."

There was another long pause. Then Kakashi hid his face, turned away, and sprinted for the mine's entrance.

"That was not my intention," Kazuto's brother said when I turned to stare down at him.

"Do you have a death wish?" I asked in reply. Taunting enemies was one thing, but Obito's eye was no mere taunt.

The Iwa jounin had no response for that. He pursed his lips and looked away.

"Get up," I said flatly. "We're going back to the village. If you're still stupid enough to try something after this, I'll cut your legs off."

Kazuto and his brother climbed to their feet. I stepped forward and put my palms on their throats, leaving seals stretched out across their necks.

"Walk," I said.

"Weren't you going to cut our legs off?" Kazuto's brother muttered as he began striding towards the mine's entrance.

"Oniisama, please," Kazuto groaned. He might have put his head in his hands if he had been able.

"If you want, we can have it both ways," I offered coldly. "Shall I take your head before or after the dismemberment?"

"Geez, I got it," Kazuto's brother grumbled. "Sorry."

Kakashi was nowhere to be seen, but Pakkun and Bull were waiting for me outside, which made something in my chest feel tight and remorseful. I went over to them and crouched.

"He went ahead," Pakkun replied to my silent question. "He asked us to walk you back."

"Thanks, Pakkun," I sighed.

It was well into the night now, but the moon was full and the path to the village was well-lit by its light. We made our way up in silence. Eventually we found our way into Kubo's yard, where I made Kazuto and his brother sit on the ground with the dogs as their guards.

The engawa door quietly slid open behind me. Kakashi emerged looking as though nothing had gone wrong; he was now clothed in his usual gear, tilted Leaf hitai-ate and all. His gaze was iron-clad in indifference.

Cleanly avoiding my gaze, he stepped out onto the engawa and regarded the two brothers noiselessly. Pursing my lips, I removed my shoes and climbed up to stand beside him.

"Well," Kazuto's brother said as the staring contest went on and the silence began to stretch. "Is this the part where the tree-huggers interrogate us?"

Tree-huggers… he had called us that earlier as well. Was that really a foreign nickname for Konoha-nin? What would that make an Iwa-nin? A rockhead? Kazuto caught sight of my dubious stare and sighed.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, bowing as deeply as he was able from the ground. "He's not usually this rude, but sometimes he can't help but pick a fight even though he knows it's a bad idea."

The older of the two Iwa siblings aimed a scowl at his brother. Kakashi went on impersonating his namesake and continued to stare at them, unmoving as a scarecrow.

"What are your names?" I asked, inferring that he meant for me to do the questioning, and held up a hand when Kazuto's brother opened his mouth. "I want Kazuto to talk."

"My name is Kazuto Akiyama," Kazuto obliged before his brother could make any smart remarks. "My brother is Junichi Akiyama."

"You are Iwagakure ninja?" I asked for confirmation's sake.

"Yes. But we're not here on orders from our village," Kazuto quickly informed. "The village has nothing to do with our activities here. We're acting independently."

That was an interesting tidbit of information, although not necessarily a surprising one. As I had already observed, Kubo's mine was far too small to be of any substantial use to Iwa.

"And what is the reason for these independent actions?"

"That is..." Kazuto hesitated. Kakashi and I raised eyebrows in synchronization, and Kazuto flinched. "...It's because—"

"Bite your tongue, Kazuto," Junichi cut in. Kazuto gave him a chagrined look.

"Bite yours," I cut back, irked now. "If you think our desire to avoid an international incident gives you free reign to provoke us, think again. Just because we cannot kill you with Chidori does not mean we cannot kill you at all."

Was that big talk? Perhaps it was. In truth I didn't want to kill him. After the slaughter of the Iwa company I didn't want to kill anyone. But "not wanting" and "unable" were two very different beasts indeed.

Perhaps that thought crystallized into a sliver of killing intent; Junichi seemed to fight back a sudden shudder. That more than anything appeared to put him on good behavior, and Kazuto was free to speak again.

"The reason why we have been stealing from these mines…" he began haltingly. "It's because—well, it's because of Sakuya."

Sakuya, I noted to myself, was the name they had spoken during their mud clone diversion.

"Who is Sakuya?"

Kazuto let out a weary sigh. Then, ignoring a burning look from his brother, he said, "It's complicated, but I'll tell you. Maybe you could even help us."

"Kazuto!" Junichi hissed despite himself.

"It's not like we have a choice either way, oniisama," was Kazuto's resigned reply. He returned his gaze to us. "We don't have a quarrel with you or anyone in the village. We are doing this because one year ago our family friend, Miyu-san, died. Responsibility for Sakuya fell upon us because she had no relatives."

"And Sakuya is…?"

Kazuto closed his eyes. Then he said, "Sakuya… is a first generation summon animal. A giant mole."

There was a long beat. Kakashi and I looked at one another. Then we looked back at Kazuto.

"A giant mole," I repeated.

"Yes. She's approximately the size of two houses… perhaps twice as big as this building here. Miyu-san met her up north, farther into the mountains."

I considered it. It… wasn't impossible. Giant animals were not unheard of in this universe; Gamabunta was the size of several houses, as were Katsuyu and Manda.

"For a while, things went well with them," Kazuto continued when it was clear I was going to keep my silence. "They were terrors on the battlefield. Sakuya would burrow underground and collapse entire cliffs to get rid of enemy platoons. She made rockslides and earthquakes… she was like a force of nature. But one day, well…" he sighed and looked away. "They went to battle. Miyu-san ordered Sakuya to tear up the field. Sakuya went on a rampage and she's been uncontrollable ever since. Miyu-san was killed."

"A rogue summon?" I murmured. I had heard of such cases before. Without a summoner to give them direction, they usually kept to their last order—to fight—until someone put them down. But as far as I knew such cases only ever occurred with smaller summons, such as ninken, and usually only with those who had not been trained in speech. Owners of contracts with larger summons almost always had successors, but it seemed no such person was in place for Sakuya.

"It would explain a lot," Kakashi finally spoke. "The large battle on the southern cliffs… the frequent earthquakes…"

"This Sakuya is the cause?" I looked to Kazuto and Junichi. They nodded.

"We've been keeping her docile by overfeeding her," Junichi informed after letting out a long sigh of resignation. "But we were late this month and she's been awake for several days now. Thanks to you lot stopping us, she'll be in even more of a rage."

"Stopping you—" I stared at him. "Do you mean to say that this is why you've been stealing iron?"

"Iron ore," he corrected tiredly. "Refined iron would make her ill. Though that was what some of our comrades wanted, I wanted to avoid hurting her if I could."

"Truly?" I was agog. "I thought moles were insectivores."

"Do you think a giant mole the size of two houses could be satiated by bugs?" Junichi raised an eyebrow. "While she does eat grubs and the like, mineral-rich earth and rocks are a large component of her diet. It's the reason why she can dig through cliffs and solid stone—her claws were made for tearing rock formations apart."

What a fantastic tale… but not, upon deeper consideration, an implausible one. As Kakashi had already observed, the presence of a large rogue summon capable of creating rockslides and earthquakes would go far in explaining what was otherwise being ascribed to ghosts and vengeful spirits. Furthermore, several uninformed parties had already collaborated the claim that there had been a large battle between ninja nearby… I looked at my teammate.

"I'll send a shadow clone to confirm it," he decided after a moment. Then he looked at the Akiyama brothers, who were still sitting on the frozen ground. "Pakkun, you and the rest of the pack stand guard. We're going inside."

That was a rather unilateral decision, but I didn't argue because it was clear he had something to say to me. As well he should, I thought a little wearily. I didn't regret stopping him, but that had been a bad situation.

Kakashi slid the door shut as I seated myself on the tatami. Then he sat down across from me.

"Don't tell Sensei," he said.

"I… pardon?" I blinked, flummoxed. I had been expecting something else just now—anger, or an accusation, or...

"Don't tell Sensei about tonight," Kakashi repeated. "About the Chidori thing. Don't tell him I froze up like that."

Alarm bells began blaring in my mind. I regarded him cautiously.

"Are you suggesting I omit something in my post-action report?"

"He doesn't need to know," he replied resolutely.

I found myself in an uneasy silence. As expected, that was not something I could let fly. As a recent release from the western ward, there was absolutely no way I could let that fly.

"You should reconsider," I said softly, wondering what approach would be best to take in this situation. In the Earth girl's memories, Kakashi Hatake had lived a life burdened with great unhealed wounds. If I did as he asked and looked the other way, he was sure to just bury this whole entire incident and run onward without facing it. And where would that end?

A red haze began to rise from the floor. I looked down, away from reality, and considered the sea of corpses that had come to make their home all around me. They were shredded into bits every one of them, missing arms and legs and heads. And of course they were, because I had made them that way. They were going to stay that way forever, here in this bloody ocean.

"He doesn't need to know," Kakashi repeated.

I looked up at him. Then I flattened my hand in one of those gory puddles, pulled my threads from it, and drew them across my throat. Kakashi stared as the chakra-infused wires began to bead up with blood.

"You can't have forgotten," I said as I dragged my palm across my throat and then held my dirtied hand, stained wires and all, out to him. "You can't have forgotten it already."

He had seen the carnage that was still with me now. When I had looked away from my own troubles, he had been there to see the result.

"I…" For the second time that night Kakashi was robbed of speech. He looked at me and then down at my red-smeared hand.

"I'm sorry I made you experience that," I apologized as I drew it back to my lap. "I didn't consider what jumping in front of you like that would make you remember. But if you froze and you're worried about what Minato-nii will tell you to do if he finds out about it, you know we can't omit it."

"But…" Kakashi's fingers wrapped around his wrist again. The great fear returned to him, dark and vast and terrible. "But I…"

"If I had been in my right mind, I don't know if I would have killed those ninja," I began reflectively. "Maybe it doesn't matter because I would have chosen to kill them anyway. But I don't think I would have suffered like that if I had done things a different way. I guess it probably would have been painful in a different way… but it wouldn't have been like that."

I had regrets now that I would shoulder for the rest of my life. Regret—that was the wages of running away. I hated the deal I had made. I thought of Kakashi Hatake in another world, standing in the rain and regretting his whole life, and wondered if he would say the same.

We descended into silence. We sat in seiza across from each other in the darkness of the room, one thin beam of moonlight between us. Kakashi's fingers, white around his sleeve, slowly loosened, and an indeterminate amount of time passed before we rose and headed to bed.

The next morning I woke when it was still dark. I stared for a few minutes at the ceiling in confused silence before I rolled over and looked for Kakashi. He was dead asleep on the other side of the brazier, covered face still and bathed in a dim orange glow.

I sat up and wondered what had woken me before I caught sight of a shadow moving across the rice paper of the veranda door. Curious, I rose from the covers, picked up a shawl, and silently slid it open.

Junichi was asleep on the grass between Urushi and Guruko, head just barely visible from underneath the blanket we had dropped on him, but Kazuto was on the engawa, awake and leaning on the storm shutters with hands still bound behind his back. He was staring out into the veil of night in watchful silence, expectant and waiting.

"What are you doing?" I asked softly. I wondered if I ought to be concerned. What could he be waiting for? Had there been more collaborators? Did he have backup?

Kazuto straightened. Then he looked at me from over his shoulder with dark eyes and a face cast in shadow.

"Sometimes at night I wait up for her," he told me. "Without even meaning to. I just stand up and wait for her."

"For Miyu-san?"

He nodded. I wrapped my shawl over my shoulders and went to stand beside him, remembering the days when Akihiko and I would look up on the training fields and wonder when Yoshiya would arrive. But he never did, and we had always been left waiting.

"How did she die?" I asked.

"From behind. Someone nailed her in the head with a fuma shuriken."

Gruesome. If it hadn't beheaded her that meant it had split her skull. I wondered if he had seen the body.

"It must be the same the world around," I commented, thinking of how Auntie would sometimes go silent and stare out the window late after dinner. Years had passed and she still did it. "There are folk like that in Konoha, too."

Kazuto looked at me sidelong. Then he let out a sigh, and condensation curled out from his lips in wisps.

"Oniisama says there's nothing to do but move on," he told me distantly. "I guess he must be used to it since so many of the jounin have already died. But Miyu-san was the first partner I ever had."

I looked at him.

"Around him I act like nothing's changed. I keep busy and take missions like I never stopped, but it's all a lie," Kazuto said bitterly. "In my heart I stand still. I'll watch forever… night will never end and I will never stop waiting."

He was a different person from before. That Kazuto had seemed bright, naive, and polite. This boy was tired, resentful, and defeated. He stared out over the lawn with dull eyes, and his gaze lingered with vague unhappiness on the form of his brother.

"I'd like to be alone for a while longer," he said a few moments later.

"All right," I acquiesced. I searched briefly for the rest of Kakashi's ninken, who were spread about Kubo's yard in various poses of leisure. But their lazy gazes were all trained on the Akiyama brothers, so I returned to the room and laid down again, leaving Kazuto to his thoughts.

"Suzu."

I blinked into immediate wakefulness. This time it was light and Kakashi was kneeling beside my futon, already dressed and looking fresh for a new day.

"What's wrong?" I mumbled as I simultaneously pushed my hair out of my face and pulled my blanket over my chest.

"My shadow clone dispelled," he replied. "They're telling the truth. It's a giant mole. I went ahead and told Kubo about it."

"What did he say?"

"Only that he wants no part of any ninja grudges," Kakashi replied with a faint shrug. "The villagers were not pleased to learn he has been harboring shinobi in his house. They didn't appreciate being deceived by us, either. Kubo has requested we finish our business promptly so he may pay us and send us on our way."

That was a rough break. Though he was essentially telling us to hurry up and get out, I was unable to resent him for it. Dealing first with financial pressure when the thefts had started, then with the stress of concealing us from the village as a whole, and now the fallout of that deception… our presence here would only continue to complicate things for him. The poor man had only wanted someone to get the thieves out of his village's livelihood, but he got a metaphorical pipe bomb instead. It was no exaggeration to say that this entire situation was a hair's breadth from explosion.

"Did he say anything about the Akiyama brothers?" I questioned as I glanced toward the engawa. Kazuto's silhouette had vanished from the door. "Is he going to press charges against Iwa?"

Even though the brothers had claimed they were acting independently, I didn't doubt someone would be willing to make the other case. Now that the armistice was in place and open combat was forbidden, people were already fighting across the continent via trade guilds and international legal disputes. It was a given someone would be willing to try their hand at concocting a slander campaign against Iwa for stealing from innocent civilians in the border countries.

"He'd like to wash his hands of any involvement with them," Kakashi shrugged again.

Well, that was probably the more prudent move. Ninja politics were so cutthroat. Kubo would only suffer more if he tried to get involved.

"We're free to do with them as we see fit, then?" I sat up and bit my lip. Taking an Iwa-nin as a prisoner would be just as bad as killing one with a Chidori would have been, if not worse. If we had ended up killing Junichi, in the worst case Konoha could have claimed we acted without authority and shunted the blame to us. But if we brought Rock shinobi to the village and used Leaf facilities to contain them the whole village administration would be implicated.

Kakashi seemed to follow my thoughts and concluded, "We have to find a way to solve this amicably. The only way to fulfill our mission objective is to send them out and make sure that they don't return."

"Meaning we have to solve the root problem," I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. "We need to figure out this rogue summon situation."

As if to prove the point the room suddenly lurched violently. This time the earthquake lasted for almost a minute, and by the end several fixtures of the room had come loose and fallen over. Weary and not at all well-rested, I pulled my legs up and put my forehead on my knees.

"Were we given discretionary funds for this mission?" I asked plaintively.

"A modest amount," replied my teammate. "Why?"

"Let's buy the ore the Akiyama brothers intended to steal from the villagers. We shouldn't let her go berserk like that if we can help it."

Half an hour later we had three storage scrolls full of ore, a back full of glares from the villagers, and two hostage Iwa ninja trying to explain the location of their rampaging mole to us. Eventually we just decided to have them lead us to her themselves and set off in the direction of the cliffs. Kakashi cut their bonds so they could run properly, but while he did so I put my index fingers on their windpipes to remind them of their leashes.

"For such a tiny kid, you've got an iron fist," Junichi commented, features twisting downward as he prodded at the seal on his skin. "Ruthlessness must run in your family. Touch-application seals… none of our fuuinjutsu masters can replicate it."

That was no small wonder. From what I had gathered Minato only knew how because Kushina's mother had taught him. It was an Uzumaki secret and I was very blessed he and Kushina had deigned to share the knowledge with me. I wasn't sure if they'd even told Jiraiya how.

I didn't deign to reply to him, so Junichi tsked and the run went on in silence. At one point he turned and began speaking to Kazuto, but Kazuto seemed quiet and lost in thought. I wondered if he was feeling sleep-deprived, too.

But thoughts about sleep deprivation quickly flew from mind. Sakuya was a frightful being. Junichi sent the ore down with a mud clone and ten minutes of pure terror followed; the ground erupted in an explosion of rocks and dirt and dust, and even at a great distance the shaking was so violent that all four of us fell over. Farther down the ravine another section of the cliffs collapsed completely, demolishing the landscape even further. Kakashi and I latched onto a nearby boulder and clung to it like our lives depended on it.

"I don't know of any way to resolve this," I said into my hands as the Akiyama brothers led us down into the debris so we could take a look at Sakuya up close. "Physically restraining that much raw power is out of the question. Any sort Earth Release prison will be absolutely useless. Genjutsu might work, but I don't think either of us have the skillset needed to employ techniques on a summon animal's chakra system… do we?"

"I have no relevant experience," Kakashi admitted. "Fuuinjutsu?"

"The biggest barrier I've ever made is only about ten square meters," I shook my head. "We'd need Jiraiya-sama, probably… or Kushina-nee or Minato-nii." Outside of those three and some select persons in the Special Forces, there were very few people with any sort of sealing expertise beyond the basics.

Junichi looked over his shoulder in horror. Well, to a foreigner who knew them only through their kills and not by their other talents, that certainly would sound like a lethal lineup. If any of the three of them were to appear, containing Sakuya would probably become the least of his worries.

"Inuzuka tamers, maybe?" I suggested doubtfully. Sometimes they were called in to deal with unruly summons. "We could try asking for their help."

"For a giant mole from Iwa?" Kakashi looked at me doubtfully. "What help would they be? Sakuya's not a canine."

We soon descended into a crumbling tunnel. Then we found Sakuya wedged between two boulders, curled up on her side. Staring up at the size of her and watching her sluggishly shift her massive claws about made me wonder how a person could ever die with such a creature at her side.

"Miyu thought that way too," Junichi commented. "And she paid the price for it. She was a fool."

Despite the harshness of his words his voice held a tone of vague regret. I got the sense then that Junichi was the type of man who had trouble expressing himself. He was abrasive and gruff, but the fact that he was here taking care of a deceased fool's summon animal, stealing from border villages and fighting so desperately with us to keep his operation going…

A chunk of the roof came loose and crashed into the ground behind us. Junichi and Kakashi simultaneously decided reinforce the ceiling of the cavern, stepped forward, and began making doton hand seals. Kazuto and I watched them for a moment in silence. Then the younger Akiyama brother went to Sakuya's side and buried his hands and face in her fur. He stayed like that for a long moment, clinging to her side in silence.

"Suzuka-san, do you think it's hopeless?" he eventually asked. "Do you think finding a way to save her is impossible?"

"No, of course not," I quickly reassured, sensing despair lurking in those words. Kazuto let out a knowing laugh and regarded me with sidelong glance.

"Kind of you to say," he said. "But I think you see it too. Everything you thought of, we tried too… Earth release barriers, genjutsu traps, seals, summon trainers, everything."

"We still have more options to discuss," I pointed out reasonably. "That was hardly an exhaustive list."

He looked at me again before turning his face away.

"It was stupid of me to think an outsider could help," he said, clutching Sakuya's fur once more.

"That's what you get for trusting your enemies," Junichi said. He had finished his Earth Wall reinforcements and now slapped his brother on the back. "Tree-huggers besides. Come on, let's go."

Kakashi and I moved toward the tunnel entrance. I could tell by the look in my teammate's eye that he was already deep in thought.

"You really never know when to shut up, oniisama," Kazuto muttered.

"Oh, are you angry?" Junichi smiled a little, looking pleased that his brother, who had been unusually quiet the whole morning, was talking now. "My bad. Come on, hurry up. Let's go back to the village talk things over with these brats."

"Hey now…" I gave him a piqued look. Junichi shrugged at me as he passed. Then he glanced back when he saw his brother wasn't following.

"Kazuto?"

Kazuto looked at us over his shoulder. In the same moment I heard a sudden onset of chakra sound, and Kakashi and I jerked around in unison as we sensed the activation of a jutsu.

"I think it's time to put an end to all of this, oniisama," Kazuto murmured, finally drawing away from Sakuya's side. Once he pulled his hands back we could see clearly that they were folded into a seal. "You should know by now too that we can't go on like this."

"What?" Junichi spun in place as the ceiling began to tremble again. "Kazuto! What are you doing? We just reinforced this place! Are you trying to kill us?"

"Leave, then, oniisama," Kazuto replied. His eyes had dimmed into that same dull darkness from this morning. "I'll take care of her myself. You moved on from Miyu-san. Move on from here, too."

"Are you insane? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Are you trying to undo everything we've worked for in this past year?" Junichi shot off a barrage of questions in rapid fire, looking with panic between his brother and Sakuya.

"Kakashi," I hissed and tugged on my teammate's sleeve. Tiny streams of dirt began to pour in from the cracks in the ceiling. "We'll be crushed to death if we're in this tunnel when it collapses."

"We need to go," Kakashi shouted as the rumbling above us grew louder. He grabbed Junichi's arm, but the Iwa jounin immediately jerked away.

"Kazuto!" he yelled to his brother as he strained against my teammate's grip. Kazuto just sank to the ground and leaned into Sakuya's side, silent. "Let's go! Kazuto!"

The world began to crumble. Kakashi and I exchanged glances. Then I seized Junichi by the other arm, and we turned and sprinted up to the surface as quickly as we were able. We didn't stop until we were up on the cliffs overlooking the ravine, far from Sakuya's tunnel. Only then did we turn to stare as the ground below us buckled and folded in upon itself. A sound like thunder clamored in our ears as it disintegrated; a minute later there was nothing left but a sunken crater full of rocks.

A/N: Well, would you look at that. That's pretty much the Sakuya arc in its entirety. Next time we'll have maybe one scene with Junichi to tie up loose ends and then that'll be that.

Thanks as always for your feedback! I love hearing from you all.

Cheers,

Eiruiel