A/N: New Chapter! Not too much action, and alot of dialogue. Do bear with it :/

Do read the A/N at the bottom if you have time!

Chapter 21:

"Sensei. You don't know how to play Shogi, do you?"

"No, I don't. I never had a reason to learn." Orochimaru picked up a piece, holding it in front of his face and studying it like it was specimen. "So this is a Gold General. I'm surprised that there are so many different pieces. The Naras make it sound like such a simple game."

"It is," I said while shrugging, "once you learn the basics."

An amused smile spread across his face. "Let's start."

I won the first few games easily, like I expected. Back in Konoha, while I was still training under the Naras, the only person I could never beat was Shikaku. For someone who seemed to have such a lackadaisical attitude to life, the now-head of the Nara Clan was a genuine monster at the game. Even if Orochimaru was considered a genius, it would take him more than a few hours to defeat me.

A thought hit me.

Isn't Orochimaru supposed to be...training me? Looking at my pieces surround his King, I was starting to realize that our roles seemed to have reversed.

"I admit defeat," Orochimaru said distastefully. "Such a fascinating game with so many nuances and strategies. No wonder the Naras like it so much."

"Sensei, how is this training for me?" I asked, hoping my annoyance didn't show. "So far, all we've done so far is teach you Shogi. I don't feel like I've benefited from this."

"Patience is a virtue," Orochimaru said, sipping on his tea. "One more game, and then we'll start the training in earnest."

I narrowed my eyes. "Does it actually have something to do with Shogi? Or did I just teach you the game for nothing?"

Orochimaru shook his head and clicked his tongue in disappointment. "After everything I taught you, don't you feel like you ought to do something in return? Teaching me Shogi seems like a very good deal in exchange for everything you've learned so far."

My words died in my throat. He was right, I supposed, but he could have just asked if he wanted to learn, and not go about such a roundabout way. "I betrayed a village for you," I pointed out.

"That's all well and good, but you've betrayed villages before," he retorted. "Each subsequent betrayal is worth less than the previous. Traitors aren't in very high demand for that reason. Come now, you can start first," he said as he pointed to the board.

With grit teeth, I grudgingly pushed one pawn forward. I wondered what life would have been like if I'd stayed in Konoha. The first few weeks definitely would have been spent in a cell or under house arrest, until it was certain I'd no part to play in Orochimaru's experiments. But with Orochimaru gone and Kushina in a coma, there really wasn't anyone else that could train me. There was Jiraiya, but the man was Konoha's spy master, and probably would have spent most of his time out of village walls—no place for a Jinchuuriki like me.

I made the right choice, I told myself, though I felt my conviction waver when I saw Orochimaru's next move—pushing a corner pawn forward while smiling deviously.

A non-standard response. It wasn't a line I was familiar with, though Shikaku had played it once against me, and I had lost miserably. There was no way Orochimaru could replicate that, could he?

I paused, weighing my options.

Orochimaru pushed the same pawn forward again.

I blinked. "Wait Sensei, I haven't moved yet."

Again, he moved the same piece and I realized he was doing this intentionally.

I immediately pushed another pawn up to defend my undefended pawn.

Orochimaru pushed the exact same pawn.

Naturally, I lost that game.

"You cheated," I said indignantly as I set up the pieces one more.

"No I didn't," Orochimaru said. "I merely changed the rules."

"You can't just change Shogi's rules!" I said hotly. "The game's at least a century old!"

"Then I guess we're not playing Shogi anymore," Orochimaru said smugly. "Come, again."

This time Orochimaru moved his pawn first.

I stared at the board, unsatisfied. Was this his way of getting back at me after losing so many games?

Then he moved his pawn again and I hastily realized that I was wasting time being distracted.

"A coincidence?" Boar asked.

Itachi frowned. Including her, there were eight of them. Additional members had been given to her since Kusa was Orochimaru's last known location. Eight hunter-nins huddled in a small circle in a clearing far away from the settlement. They had tried to locate the lord whom the missing Chunin Squad had been tasked to steal from, but his demise was something they hadn't foreseen.

By now, they had more or less confirmed that they wouldn't be finding any of the missing members. Not alive, at least.

"The timing's too perfect. He died during the party he was throwing. If I was that Chunin Squad, I would have planned the heist then," she said, shaking her head. "Coincidences don't happen in our line of work."

"I was thinking that too," Bird agreed. "Which also means that if anyone else was on a mission to assassinate the nobleman, they would have done it at the same time."

"Tch. But there's no reason to interfere. Their mission tasks are completely different," someone said.

"We don't know that for sure," Itachi said calmly. "We'll need to do a check if the scroll the Chunins were after is actually still in the house."

"Assassination seems highly unlikely," Rat said. "Witnesses said he choked to death. I can't think of a way to do that."

"Neither can I," Itachi said glumly, "which is why we're going to need to split up tonight."

The team stood at attention.

"Boar and Bird, you two infiltrate the Lord's manor and see if the target scroll is still there."

"Yes, Captain!"

"Rat, Goose, both of you try and acquire the guest list to that party. And then follow through by checking if any of the guests are suspicious."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Lion, Tiger, continue looking around the area. I don't think they could have died without a fight. Try finding evidence of a struggle. Blood, weapons, anything. Be careful though, the assassins might still be in the area."

The two vanished without a word.

"Bear, you're with me. We're going to the graveyard and inspect the corpse to see if it was truly an assassination."

Orochimaru's new "game" was stupid.

The pieces were the same. The board was the same. In theory, even if Orochimaru was making moves without waiting for me to do so, as long as I moved quick enough and used existing Shogi strategies, I should win.

Except I didn't. I hadn't won once, and it grated me. I even had him in checkmate positions a few times, but he would move his King or block with another one of his pieces before I could deal the killing blow, which was ludicrous.

Checkmate was checkmate.

This was an insult to Shogi. It removed the importance of strategy. Suddenly things like speed and reaction time were more important, almost like it was an actual...

I drew a sharp breath as realization hit me. Almost like it was an actual battle.

"Why Sensei?" I asked. "Why use Shogi? Can't you teach me whatever it is you're trying to teach me in a spar instead of across the board?"

"Ah. It seems you've finally discerned the truth," Orochimaru said, quite pleased with himself. "A board game would be the easiest way to teach this; it's far easier to visualize using pawns and bishops than with shuriken and kunai."

I was almost stunned. "You...you learned Shogi just to teach me this?"

The thought was almost...touching. Orochimaru hated wasting his time. If he was willing to learn the rules of a completely new game and waste hours grasping the fundamentals...then whatever he was going to teach me had to be mightily important.

He shrugged. "I figured I should get something out of this as well. Shogi might be useful for me in the future, when Otagakure gets a little bigger and I actually need to start contacting nobles and administrators for support."

I couldn't tell if he was joking or not, but my attention became solely transfixed on the board between us as I replayed all the previous games in my head.

"So...you're teaching me to be a general?" I tilted my head and asked. "I don't see myself leading a Shinobi army in a battle anytime soon though."

Orochimaru chuckled and sipped on more tea. He was really drinking that an alarming rate. "It doesn't have to be a Shinobi army."

"You mean Samurai?...You can't be talking about regular civilians, right?"

"Kagura," his voice carried a hint of impatience, "how many clones can you create already?"

"Slightly more than thirty," I said, finally realizing what he was trying to get at.

"There is a reason why Jinchuuriki are called one-man-armies," Orochimaru drawled out. "Though I suppose even eight clones will suffice."

"That doesn't sound like a very big army," I said. Wouldn't more clones lead to more firepower?

"It's not your clones. Your coral walls can act as defensive pieces. Your Petal Star Jutsu is perfect for herding enemies while your Mist Jutsu is ideal for area denial. You have many abilities and techniques that are well-suited to make situational plays. You haven't really involved yourself in team exercises, so you are unfamiliar with this concept, but the squad-based framework Konoha is famous for is an extension of what I'm trying to teach you."

"Which is?" I asked. I was starting to actually feel excited. It wasn't a new technique or a new branch of ninja arts, but this was far better than that. My chakra reserves far exceeded a Jounin's and my Jutsu repertoire wasn't lacking either. Yet, the last time I had a run-in with a pair of Iwa Jounin, I had barely escaped with my life. Clearly there had been some aspect of my battle sense I was lacking, and I could tell that this was it. "And what does Shogi have to with this?" I added.

"In a War Room, a commander receives information in bulk, and then hands out subsequent orders at one go as well. Shogi is a turn-based strategy game which mimics this situation quite well. But the same can't be said for an actual battlefield. The conditions are always changing, and you don't have time to sit back and think. So in a sense, I suppose you could call this..." Orochimaru paused to think. Then his lips twitched upwards. "Real-time strategy."

"Captain, isn't this grave-robbing?" Bear asked hesitantly.

Itachi paused.

"We're putting the body back, so I don't think so," she replied.

"That's true," Bear said in agreement. "Data gathering it is."

With the important questions out of the way, Itachi took a step back as Bear activated an Earth Jutsu. Itachi had a few crows in the air to act as lookouts, and just to be sure, she'd even layered a Genjutsu around the area. They were all just extra precautions—she doubted many people would come into the graveyard in the middle of the night anyway.

The freshly dug soil began to rumble and shake, and Itachi thought the sight to look a little like a weak soil eruption which ended up bringing the new and expensive-looking coffin up to the surface. It was much better than the alternative, she thought, glancing at a shovel someone had left nearby, and she lamented not activating her Sharingan and copying Bear's Jutsu while she had the chance.

This was a relatively small town, and there wasn't an embalmer residing within it. Though with nobles, there was always the possibility that they would go out of their way to hire one. Itachi made a quick prayer that the corpse had been left in its natural state before pulling out a kunai to pry open the lid of the coffin.

The putrid stench of rotting flesh was welcoming to her...for a moment. It'd been almost a week since he'd died, and upon peering inside the coffin, she could already make out the wriggling forms of insects and bugs that had made the cadaver their home.

"Bear. Take out the body."

She was going to avoid touching it as much as possible. Which was why she'd brought Bear along. That, and his affinity to Earth Jutsu.

Grumbling, her subordinate did as he was told, lifting the body from its overly-decorated wooden home and placing it on the ground.

"Cut open the neck carefully. I want to inspect his airway."

She had a few suspicions.

There were chemicals that triggered allergic reactions, but those were fairly obvious and she doubted the village doctors were that incompetent. Perhaps it was a poison that mimicked choking symptoms? Then there was always the chance that she'd find a clump of meat still sitting within, confirming the unlikely event that the lord had in reality, choked to death coincidentally.

Until she checked the airway and the rest of the body for foul play, there was no way of knowing.

"Done," Bear said.

Itachi leaned over and ignited a small fire on her finger to illuminate the area. Using her non-burning hand, she started digging around within the slit Bear had cut, hoping to detect anything amiss.

For a moment, her fingers grazed along something that felt differently from rotting human tissue. It felt stuck to the rest of the body, so using a bit of effort, she peeled it out.

"A leaf?" she asked in surprise.

"Oh, I recognize that species. It's used to make tea."

She turned her head to look at Bear, who immediately averted her gaze and began to mumble. "I have...hobbies."

"A tea leaf," she said in disbelief. "He choked on a tea leaf?"

"Maybe there's more," Bear said.

Itachi sighed, and stuck her hand back into the corpse's throat.

She found two more tea leaves before reaching deeper and finding the true culprit, a lump of food that had decomposed too much to accurately determine what is was before consumption.

"So he really choked," Bear said.

Itachi nodded grimly. Perhaps the nobleman's death was a wild goose chase.

"But to swallow three tea leaves... he must have been very thirsty," he continued to say.

Itachi furrowed her brows. Something wasn't adding up. If the tea leaves had gotten stuck in his windpipe, didn't that mean that the nobleman would have choked on his tea first? Could someone have somehow used tea leaves to force the man to choke? That idea was far-fetched. How did someone do something like that? Who could even...

She gasped.

It can't be him, she thought, already activating her Sharingan.

It was faint, but there was residual chakra still within the tea leaves. There was only one person in the world she knew that went around imbuing his chakra into leaves, and conveniently enough, his last known location was somewhere near the border of Kusa.

"Bear, put the body back now."

"You found something, Captain?"

She nodded.

"I have a report I need to send to the Hokage urgently. This is Orochimaru's work."

This is all Orochimaru's fault.

"Real-time Strategy" was a vague and intangible concept, which made learning it quite difficult. Orochimaru was right—using Shogi as a foundation to learn was definitely useful. It simplified things greatly, and somehow managed to retain the pace of an actual battle.

It was all about creating and spotting opportunities—a matter of who moved first. And yet despite that, I found myself at the losing end almost every game.

"You are quite bad at this," Orochimaru said frankly, during a short break. "At this rate, we'll be stuck at the Shogi Board for a while."

Of course, once I got the grasp of things, our training would escalate to actual physical combat. I resisted the urge to groan. Orochimaru was right. I felt like I hadn't made any progress at all.

"Your foundation is much weaker than I expected," he said, more to himself than to me.

Damn it. This was something I had to learn. According to Orochimaru, understanding this was the key to winning battles where I was against more than one person.

"Oh, I just realized something." Orochimaru was staring at me quite amusedly. "Kagura, you've never actually fought as a team, have you?"

I blinked. "No I haven't," I said, after recalling the past few years. "We only brushed past the topic of teamwork during the Academy."

"That explains it. It's something they only start focusing on during the Genin stage. No wonder you can't seem to get the hang of it," he said, as if he suddenly understood everything.

"I...don't get it." What did teamwork have to do with this? Didn't Orochimaru expect me to fight as a one-man-army in the first place?

He frowned. "Kagura, what are the benefits of having a three-versus-three battle, compared to three individual one-on-one fights?"

"Um...teammates can complement each other's strengths and cover for each other's weaknesses. It adds an extra dimension to the battle, so that everything isn't dependent on technique and stamina." It was a word-for-word repeat of what I'd read in the Academy's textbook, something I supposed made sense.

"Psh." Orochimaru's scoff was obviously derogatory. "That's something a Genin would say. Surely, you'd have a Jounin-worthy answer?"

I racked my brain. But...wasn't that exactly what teamwork was all about? Playing off each other's strengths and weaknesses and executing complicated strategies that would grant an advantage? It was a combat multiplier. When I told this to Orochimaru, he merely rolled his eyes.

"Try again."

I frowned. "Why can't you just tell me already? I have a weak foundation, remember? It's not like I've gotten a lot of opportunities to make teammates..." Considering how much time we'd spent so far, I didn't want to waste anymore.

"The answer is chaos."

His face was smug, like he expected an applause.

"What?"

"Chaos. Disorder. Unpredictability. These are situations that ninjas thrive in."

Orochimaru was onto something...though I wasn't yet sure what. There was something in my brain that simply seemed in awe of his answer but, to be honest, I couldn't figure out why.

"Your answer isn't wrong. But that's teamwork in general. It'll work for Samurai, for ordinary soldiers, even for street brawls. But what is it that makes teamwork so much more advantageous for ninjas?"

"Chaos?" I said uncertainly.

"Exactly. When you add more variables into any system, it becomes more disordered and unpredictable. This is why team training exercises are so important in any organization. The chaos works both ways, to both your allies and your opponents. Team training exercises reduces the chaos on your own end, while aggravating the disorder on your enemy's end. This causes your opponents to make mistakes, which you can then take advantage of."

"I don't understand," I said, puzzled. "Isn't that just normal teamwork?"

"Yes, it is. It's how normal people work as a team. It's how Genin will work as a team. It's also how Chunin who will never make it to Jounin work as a team. They seek to bring order to that chaos by restricting each other with 'fixed roles' and 'set plays'. And that is their biggest mistake, because they end up wasting their time. As ninjas, we are supposed to flourish in the chaos."

There is a fine line between madness and genius, I suddenly recalled reading somewhere. Orochimaru was grinning like crazy, sporting a look of almost pure ecstasy on his face as he continued to explain.

"The best teams work without any communication. This does not come from memorizing positions and strategies, but a thorough understanding of their teammates and sharp battle awareness. Each and every individual instinctively knows what they need to be doing at any given time, and they are uncannily accurate at guessing what their teammates are thinking as well. They are all doing their own thing disrupting the enemy, and yet somehow not getting in each others' ways. And amidst all that chaos, an opportunity will present itself, and whoever is closest will strike. That, by the way, is how we landed our first blow on Hanzo the Salamander. It wasn't me or was it Jiraiya. It was Tsunade, our medic, who had been hanging back the whole fight, only to deliver a solid punch when she saw the chance." Orochimaru looked at me expectantly once he was done talking, no doubt expecting me to respond in some way.

I gulped. A fine line indeed.

"But...isn't that hard?" I asked. "I mean, if beginners and strangers were expected to fight like that...they'd only end up interfering with one another, right?"

"Yes," Orochimaru agreed quite readily, which was unexpected to me. "Which is why only the most experienced ninjas can pull this off. Our flexible fighting styles and squad-based nature of fighting means that this option is viable only to ninjas, and nobody else. That being said, only a selected few will have the awareness and prowess to experience this, while the others will have to go through grueling hours of team exercises to achieve the same effect."

And then I got it. I was a one-man-army.

"Except me," I said as I raised my hands, spinning over a dozen petals above one palm, and creating a small coral structure on the other. "I don't need to worry about such things. I have more chakra than the average Jounin squad. I have a very flexible fighting style, given the many techniques I know. I don't have to worry about other people. I can fight as a team...without actually having a team!"

This...this was genius! It was far better than learning new Jutsu...this was adding a whole new dimension to my fighting style!

"Precisely." Orochimaru's grin looked almost predatory. "You don't need teammates to be strong, Kagura."

Mission parameters have been updated. Priority is to gather intelligence on Orochimaru and his network and motives. Avoid direct contact.

Itachi read the mission scroll that came from the hawk. She pulled out a chunk of rations from her pouch and fed it to the messenger bird, after which it cawed happily and flew away.

"So even if I do find him, I can't bring him back," she mumbled through grit teeth. This was a golden opportunity to retrieve Kagura—she was closer to finding him than ever before, but the Sandaime had given her explicit instructions not to.

He's playing the long game, she told herself, trying to calm down. Having more intelligence will allow us to plan a separate retrieval mission with a greater chance of success.

But we're giving him time to slip away, another part of her brain thought.

She crushed the paper in her hand.

Orders are orders.

And with that thought, Itachi became completely composed again. She made a small hand signal, and suddenly her seven teammates appeared out of nowhere to surround her, awaiting orders.

"Report."

"The scroll the Chunin squad was instructed to steal is missing, Captain," Boar said.

She nodded her head thoughtfully. Did Orochimaru actually want it? Or had his goal simply been the nobleman's assassination? It was possible the Chunin squad had completed their task successfully, only to meet their end when they'd seen something they shouldn't have. She wouldn't know until she investigated further, but understanding Orochimaru's motives was essential to guessing his next move.

Lion went next. "We've searched an area with a radius of one kilometer around the village. We discovered a suspicious house with fresh splatters of blood. I've collected samples and sealed them away."

Itachi pursed her lips. It would have been best to get confirmation that the four's fate as soon as possible. If the blood really was theirs and there weren't any bodies...she involuntary shuddered when she remembered reading the reports of Orochimaru's horrific experiments.

"Lion, Tiger, return to Konoha at once and get that blood tested."

"Yes, Ma'am!" And then the two were gone.

Rat pulled out a scroll from her pouch. "The guest list, Captain. This includes both staff and invited guests."

Itachi unfurled it open, revealing a list that had to contain over two hundred names.

"Rat, do you know who was in charge of serving the tea?"

"I win."

Orochimaru leaned back against his chair, looking neither upset nor satisfied. "It seems you have. As usual, you pick things up at a frightening speed."

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally achieved a three-win streak. The games were fast-paced and short-lived, and we had probably played dozens of games before I achieved my first win. "Real-time strategy" was far more complex that I could have imagined. In the end, I had to break it down into three fundamental skills before I could make any real headway into improving.

Skill one: Awareness. Understanding the nature and environment of the fight, as well as the positions of myself and my opponents.

Skill two: Management and control. Utilizing and controlling my resources in the most efficient manner to ensure that I achieve an advantageous position.

Skill three: Disruption. Identifying the opponent's rhythm and then striking at an opportune time to deal a crippling blow.

When I told all this to Orochimaru, he hadn't seemed very impressed.

"Sounds awfully complicated. I just call it having a good battle sense. It's supposed to come naturally as you gain experience, but I suppose if coming up with this framework helps you understand it, I can't fault you."

In other words, I needed to fight more. Which meant having practical lessons with Orochimaru.

"I'm afraid our training ends here today, Kagura. I'm reaching my limit," he said when I brought it up.

I was quite baffled. We'd only played Shogi. How was that remotely tiring for him? Especially considering most of his victories had been easy sweeps.

"Oh, and Kagura, do get more of that tea. I've grown quite fond of it."

And just like that, my teacher vanished into a puff of smoke.

A...clone? All this time I'd been talking to a clone?

I clenched my fist. Granted, I supposed that for a theoretical lesson like this one, there wasn't be much point in him coming to the base in person, but still... I wondered what Orochimaru did in all his hideouts anyway. He had dozens of them, and was always creating new ones, each with a specific purpose.

The current one I was residing in was his "training institute" base, where he sent promising new Oto-nins to train together. I was technically the supervisor of this hideout, but given Guren's bossy nature and the fact that they liked her more than me, she'd taken the mantle of running this place's day-to-day affairs.

I supposed he was just being cautious. It was a given our relationship wouldn't last forever, since I would leave once I felt there wasn't anything left to learn from him, so it made sense that the locations and purposes of his other bases be kept secret from me.

He was a busy man, with who-knew-how-many projects he devoted himself to, so I supposed the fact that he was even keeping track of my progress was already good. In the meantime, he gave me missions to gain field experience and apply new skills, something I doubted I would have gotten much of in Konoha, especially post-defection.

Unfortunately, my current task wasn't as exciting.

As I kept the shogi set, I tried recalling the name of the tea-maker from the party.

Ah yes. Shitori Kanna.

And then I remembered something else. I was going to need to wear makeup again.

I groaned loudly. As if Guren hadn't had enough fun the first time.

"Shitori Kanna," Itachi read the name plate in front of the house. "You're sure she's the one?"

Bear nodded. "The locals vouched for her. She's been running this business for the past thirty years. It's unlikely she was directly involved in the assassination."

Itachi looked down at herself. She was dressed as a civilian, and was thankful she'd opted to pack some of her own clothes for the mission. The Uchiha were a noble clan after all, making her the perfect choice to act as a prospective customer in front of the tea-maker. Rat and Bear were dressed up as well, pretending to be her bodyguards. They'd done this set-up many times in the past, and quickly fell into the groove.

She slid the door of the shop-house open.

"Oh, another customer so soon?" The woman standing behind the counter looked to be on the thin side, and had a tone of pleasant surprise.

Itachi flashed her a brief and polite smile. "I'm from the Kuga Clan. Are you Shitori-san? I was recommended here by one of my friends. I heard that you grow your own tea leaves?"

The Kuga Clan was an actual clan from Konoha that the Uchihas had dealings with. Itachi had met the clan head a few times, and knew he had a daughter around her age. In the event the woman had actually heard of the Kuga clan, at least the whole charade wouldn't fall apart in seconds.

A happy nod came from the woman. "I do. Would you like a taste?" From under the counter, she pulled up three cups and filled them up with tea from a nearby kettle.

Under normal circumstances, Itachi would have refused. Accepting food and drinks from random strangers was just asking to be poisoned, but she found this the easiest way to get a closer look at the tea leaves the woman used. Graciously, she took the cups and passed one each to Bear and Rat.

A moment after Bear took his cup and studied its contents, he gave her a surreptitious nod.

A perfect match, then.

"I was worried that I might lose customers since the tragedy," the woman suddenly said, "but I can't believe I've actually seen two new faces since." She let out a pleased laugh.

"Tragedy?" Itachi asked, feigning ignorance. "What happened?"

"Oh, the host of the party I was last asked to serve at choked on his food and died in the middle of it. Horrible luck, honestly." Shitori Kanna shook her head. "May he rest in peace."

"That does sound rather unfortunate," Itachi said, continuing the small talk. "Did your other new customer come here because of it?"

"Surprisingly, yes!" She nodded excitedly. "And that little girl liked the tea so much she bought a bag of it during the party itself! I never expected her to come back though."

Itachi felt her hopes drop. So it was a girl, wiping out a possible lead. Of course, it would have been silly for Kagura to return. Why would he, when he'd finished the job already?

"Such a confident little thing," Shitori said blissfully. "The way she carried herself and talked to me. She'll grow up to be a fine lady one day. Must have come from a rich family. And she wore the most interesting bracelet too!"

"Oh?" Itachi pretended to be interested. In her mind, she was thinking of a way to politely ask the woman if she'd seen anything suspicious or of a boy resembling Kagura's appearance at the party. "Do describe it."

"It didn't look very expensive, unlike the rest of what she wore. I've never seen anything like it! There was a weird shape on it...it looked like a comma. We were just making conversation while I was preparing the leaves and when I asked her about it, she said it was a gift from a precious friend. I can draw it out for, if you'd like."

Itachi froze. A bracelet with a comma-shaped object on it? A gift from a friend? It couldn't be.

"Please do," she said softly, barely above a whisper.

It took a moment for Shitori Kanna to finish drawing, but Itachi felt her heart skip a beat when she saw it. From a pouch she was carrying, she pulled out her own bracelet, identical to both Izumi's and Kagura's.

"Did...did it look something like this?" she asked, showing it to the tea-maker.

"Why, they're exactly the same!" the woman exclaimed. "Don't tell me you're that friend that just gave it to her! Oh, but she just left a few minutes ago! If you go now, you might be able to catch up to her and say hello!"

"I think I'll do just that," Itachi said, politely smiling externally but internally resisting the urge to burst out the door in a sprint. "Thank you for telling me."

The moment she stepped out the door of the shop, she turned into a dark alley and immediately summoned several crows.

The other four teammates dropped from the rooftops.

"Young girl, wearing expensive clothes. Should be carrying some kind of bag or pouch to fit the tea leaves she just bought." Itachi struggled to keep her voice firm.

"Find her."

Sight.

Hearing.

Scent.

Taste.

Touch.

In order of importance, these were how the five senses were ranked when it came to tracking.

Or being tracked, for that matter.

Unless there was a literal army after me, the last sense was irrelevant, because detecting ground tremors from possible pursuers was simply out of question.

Orochimaru hadn't even brought up the possibility of me signing the snake contract, so I wouldn't be able to have his and Anko's ability to taste the air, striking out the two above it as well.

Which left only sight and hearing.

It was difficult and suspicious to keep looking backwards to detect pursuers, so for the person being followed, unless they had specialized senses, their ears would be their best friend.

But ears weren't useful in human environments like cities and villages, and really good ninjas could hide their footfalls easily. So Orochimaru had me devise another method a long time ago to detect if anyone was following me. It wouldn't be good if I led someone to our base after all, so this had been one of the first things he'd forced me to do.

"When you create your mist, you can detect the presence of everyone inside, right? Your chakra in the mist acts as receptors and passes on the information to you. So you need a way to replicate that ability using the Petal Star Jutsu as well."

The problem was, of course, doing it discretely. In towns and human settlements, I would use several of the shards in my ring. One or two on the rooftops above me, and three or four behind me at regularly-spaced intervals. But in wooded areas like these, the whole forest was potentially my eyes.

So when a presence far too large to be a bird brushed past one of my planted leaves on a tree nearly fifty meters behind me, I inwardly cursed. I was wearing fancy clothes, and they would restrict my movement in battle. If necessary, I could strip and fight in my underwear, but that was something I would rather avoid doing if I didn't have to.

For now, what was more important was getting more information on my pursuers.

How did they know?

I continued walking, giving no outward signs that I'd noticed their presence. An extremely thin chakra thread—another skill Orochimaru had taught me—emerged out from my finger tip, elongating until it was the length of my arm. I had time—Orochimaru's base was at least another half hour away—though I should probably make a few wrong turns just in case.

I stuck to the edge of the path, and every time I walked past a tree, I would latch my chakra thread onto it, and transfer enough chakra to imbue a dozen or so leaves. The amount had to be small, otherwise any chakra-sensors would be able to detect the fluctuation even from that far.

I continued to walk.

One.

Two.

Three.

...Four.

Five.

...Six.

After a while, it became clear there weren't anymore.

This was bad. I was outnumbered. From their speed and coordination, they were highly trained as well.

This was very bad. Escape was possible—performing the Kirigakure no Jutsu and creating more than ten shadow clones would definitely allow me to gain enough breathing room to run away. But there was always the possibility that they got lucky and followed me instead of a clone.

Still though, we were already all alone. There wasn't anyone else in this part of the forest, as far as I could tell. If they wanted to act, they could have already.

So their goal was just data gathering?

In that case...

I gulped as I came to a halt.

"Come out," I said loudly. "I already know that the six of you are there."

It was time to see just how much "Real-time strategy" had improved my capabilities.

A/N: Hi guys. For those who are truly dedicated to reading the Unlucky Twin, I have a small favor to ask you. Recently, to mark the twentieth chapter of this fic, I re-read the whole story. When I was done, I found myself at quite a loss.

Unlike many of my other fics, I wrote this story with a very grand and elaborate plan in mind, and I've been following that plan this whole time. But somewhere in the process, I realized after re-reading all this...that the Kagura I've written is slightly different from the Kagura that I envisioned. When you compare my writing from the first few chapters to what it is now, you can tell that Kagura has obviously changed a lot. I never truly intended for this to happen so quickly.

As the author of this fic, I don't know how to feel about this development. Which is where the favor comes in. This may take up quite alot of our time, but if possible, can you please re-read the Unlucky Twin, and tell me, from an overall perspective, how you feel things have changed, from my writing style, to Kagura's character, etc, etc.

Of course, most you have lives outside of fanfiction, in which case a normal review will suffice. But for those of you who are as deeply invested in Kagura as I am, I will greatly appreciate it if you could help me and tell me your thoughts in a review or a PM if you're shy.

As always, favs and follows are loved!

~Paulzies