Truth: They were all concerned for Miyako.

The month after Mamoru died was rough on all of Team 9. They watched Miyako grieve and felt her pain, and no matter what they did, they couldn't perk her up, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Sayuri delivered large amounts of Miyako's favorite foods to the Hasekura compound, Kiyomi sang to her, and Ayano gave her jutsu after jutsu to work on to try and distract herself. In the end, with Ayano at the end of her rope, she pulled out her distraction trump card: a C-rank mission.

"You sure you'll be alright without me?"

"I'm not an infant," Kimimaro said pointedly. Sayuri sighed.

"I know, but I just got you back, and I don't like leaving you. I'll miss you."

Kimimaro still wasn't used to these moments of emotion between Sayuri and himself, not to say he didn't appreciate her ability to open up to him, and he to her, but they always made him unsure. "I will… miss you as well."

"I'll see you when I get back," Sayuri said, hugging him tightly before turning to the door. She stepped outside and took off running towards the gate where she was to meet the rest of her team.

"Cutting it close, aren't we?" Kiyomi asked pointedly, gesturing to the sun rising higher in the sky. "We were supposed to be here at sunup."

"I had to make breakfast for Satoru and Kimimaro," Sayuri explained.

"Hey, they can cook for themselves, they're big boys," Ayano pointed out. "When I say I want you here at a certain time, I mean it."

Sayuri hung her head. "Yes, Ayano."

Kiyomi smiled slightly. "So, what's the mission?" she asked.

"Recovery," Ayano explained. "There's a valuable vase two parties in a clan are fighting over in Lightning. One of them hired us to steal it in transit."

"That sounds vaguely like a B-rank," Miyako pointed out, a trace of her old hesitance emerging from the grief.

"There's only mercenary guards, no shinobi," Ayano explained. Miyako nodded wordlessly and turned to look down the road out of the village. Kiyomi and Sayuri exchanged nervous glances, for once united in worry over Miyako. Ayano looked at them and shook her head sharply, advising them against saying something. Truthfully, they were all concerned for Miyako.

"Well, off we go, girlies!" Ayano announced, trouping off out of the gate.

The group walked in silence. Miyako's despair was palpable and greatly reduced the usually-jovial mood among the team.

"Where are we finding this caravan?" Kiyomi finally asked.

"The plan," Ayano began, "is to sneak into the camp during the night and steal the vase. Should we be spotted, we don't have any choice but to start swinging. If they're alerted to the fact that we're coming, there won't be a second chance to catch them with their guard down."

Four people were gathered around a campfire. They all wore the hitai-ate of Kumogakure. They had been sent out to retrieve a vase from a caravan. They'd picked a favorable position along the road and now, having set up camp, they were now waiting for their chance to strike.

The sound of squealing echoed around the camp. A rabbit was pinned to the ground by a senbon thrust through each of its legs. It screamed and writhed as a kunai carefully carved into it, staining the fur with blood. A boy hovered over it, kunai in hand. Green eyes glinted with sadistic pleasure from under the shade of a woven bamboo hat. He was tall, dressed traditionally in a brown haori over a black mesh shirt, black pants, and traditional shinobi sandals. The metal plate proclaiming him to be from Kumo was attached to his hat.

He was watched by a painfully skinny girl whose white hair, pale skin, and pink eyes showed her to be albino. Her face was slightly green and she was folding further and further into her white furisode, fingers fiddling anxiously with the hitai-ate that hung from a loop, trying to block out the rabbit's screams.

"Atumotu," she asked softly. "I think that… Maybe… Uhm… Could you stop, please?"

"Uta Maboroshi," Atumotu sneered, looking up from under his hat at her. He fingered the handle of one of his two katana. "Wimpiest shinobi in the world."

Uta winced and crossed her arms over her stomach protectively. "I just think… well it's making a lot of noise… you might… give away… our position."

"Leave him alone, Uta."

Uta flinched and glanced at the boy leaning against a tree, staring blankly into the distance. He turned to look at her with burning orange eyes, long red hair swinging around his shoulders. He raised an eyebrow questioningly as she continued to stare. Uta hastily stared at her feet, toes wiggling in her straw geta.

"Yes Ganshuyo," she whispered.

Ganshuyo was shirtless and shoeless, clad only in a pair of black pants, his hitai-ate worn tight around his throat. Muscles rippled across his chest whenever he moved and the chain attached to his chakrum rattled ominously.

"Cool it, the lot of you."

The three genin in the camp went still as their teacher spoke. Unari Kotetsu was a member of the esteemed Kotetsu clan and possessed their Steel Release. It was reflected in her attire. She wore a long, chainmail coat, ripped from left shoulder to right waist, revealing her right arm, and a red vest. Her black pants were tucked into metal boots, and odd choice for a shinobi, and her hitai-ate was worn as a belt.

Unari unfolded from where she'd been lounging by the fire and stared around with imperious amber eyes, black hair swinging around her chin.

"Atumotu Osoroshi." She pinned the student by the rabbit with her gaze. "Let the damn thing go. Its screams are giving me a headache."

Atumotu mumbled curses under its breath, but reached down and pulled the senbon from the rabbit. It turned over and limped pathetically towards the trees. A kunai slammed through its head a moment later. Unari rolled her eyes at the antics of her student.

"Dinner's served," Atumotu sneered, rising to retrieve the weapon and the attached rabbit.

"Fear makes the meat tough, leave it," Ganshuyo said carelessly.

"Ganshuyo Kisaragi," Unari said, now looking at the redhead. He unfolded his arms and straightened up, facing his teacher. "Quit playing peacemaker, that's my job. Can't have you upstaging me, can I?" she challenged.

The skin around Ganshuyo's eyes tightened. "Yes ma'am."

"And Uta…"

Uta shuddered as her teacher finally got to her. "Y-Y-Yes?"

Unari leaned forwards and spoke patronizingly slowly. "I know it's hard for you, but if you could try not to be a spineless sap, that'd be great."

"… Yes ma'am."

"Good." Unari stretched back out by the fire, looking for all the world like a content cat. "Now you all know what the mission is."

"Get the vase, get out," Ganshuyo nodded solemnly.

"Tear into anyone who tries to stop us," Atumotu smiled happily, stroking the hilt of one katana lovingly.

Unari snorted. "Much as I know you'd love that, ya little psycho, let's try and keep the tearing to a minimum. Let's not rack up a body count on this one, okay children?"

"Aww," Atumotu whined, leaning back on his hands and stretching out his legs. "That takes all the fun out of it!"

"I didn't think it was very fun to begin with," Uta murmured softly, but Atumotu heard.

"That's because you're soft," he scoffed. "You're barely worthy of the title of kunoichi."

"Don't start," Unari snapped at him. "It'll be a long night and I want to get some shut eye before then. If I have to wake up and stop you from killing something, Atumotu, I'm gonna be pissed."

Night had fallen and the caravan of guards had made camp in a large clearing. They were circled around a large central campfire, wagons around them. The wagons bearing nothing but supplies were left loaded, but those bearing valuable merchandise, like the coveted vase, were pulled in amongst the scattered half-dozen tents.

"Well done Sayuri," Ayano nodded in approval. "That herb you slipped into their food did wonders."

"Thank you," Sayuri nodded, staring at the camp full of dozing men.

"What was it, by the way?" Ayano asked.

"A type of dogwood," Sayuri explained.

"Huh. That'll make this a lot easier. Still, we can't be sure it'll hold them for long. Get in, get out. Miyako, you watch the perimeter on one side, Kiyomi on the other. Sayuri will take the trees. I'll go in and get the vase. Everybody ready?"

"Uh huh."

"Ready."

"Let's go."

"Then get to your places."

The four shot off in different directions. Kiyomi went around one side of the camp, Miyako heading the other direction. Sayuri headed into the trees to get an overview of all of the camp. Ayano headed straight in for the chest they knew held the vase.

Miyako turned around sharply at the sound of a twig breaking. Her eyes widened slightly as she saw swinging white hair vanish around a tree. She scampered closer and peered around the side of the trunk.

"Kiyomi? Why are you-"

Miyako's eyes widened at the sight of an albino girl instead. The girl looked at her with terror-stricken eyes. Miyako reacted and lunged at the albino girl. The world suddenly twisted around her, trees bending wildly.

"Release!" Miyako snapped, annoyed by the minor illusion. She broke through it easily and met the girl's swinging kunai. Miyako shoved her away and got some distance, hurling some senbon. The girl made a few signs and the air around her seemed to shudder, the senbon flying off in random directions. Miyako went flying in and their kunai clashed, arms and legs connecting. Throughout it all, the girl never lost her terrified expression.

Ayano looked up sharply at the sound of kunai clashing and turned in the direction of the squabble.

"Miyako…?"

"Well well, if it ain't Konoha's famous Lightning Bolt, Ayano Soma."

Ayano smirked slightly and turned in the direction of the speaker. A woman in chainmail leaned against one of the wagons. "And you look a hell of a lot like Unari Kotetsu."

"For good reason," the woman nodded indulgently. "That's who I am."

"And yet you're giving me warning you're coming?" Ayano asked. "That's not very smart."

"I'm pretty confident I can take you down," Unari shrugged, shoving off the wagon. "And you'll be a nice little feather in my hat."

"Oho," Ayano smirked. "You're confident."

"Again, for good reason." Unari mimicked her smirk. "What's say we let our kids duke it out while we settle this like ladies? Winner take all."

"You'd better hope your kids are good," Ayano said, sliding into a stance.

Unari laughed darkly. "I feel sorry for whichever one of them ends up with Atumotu. That kid's a real psycho."

Up in the trees, Sayuri's head turned in the direction of Miyako's fight.

"Miyako," she murmured worriedly, and started off around the edge of the clearing, keeping to the trees, intent on aiding her friend.

A kunai whizzed in front of her and Sayuri leapt backwards to the ground, standing up straight. She could sense a chakra signature lingering behind her in the direction the kunai had come from. Bones began to ease out of her palms.

"You can't hide from me. Come out."

The chakra signature came forwards.

"Well well, so you knew where I was. Am I supposed to be impressed?" a male voice taunted.

"No," Sayuri disagreed, shaking her head and rotating to face him. "Where are you from?"

The boy snorted. "It's a little obvious."

"I'm blind. Humor me."

"Blind?" he asked, voice excited. "I've never fought a blind girl before. I wonder if you'll yelp when I cut you? After all, you can't see me coming, can you?"

Sayuri shuddered at the bloodlust in his voice. It reminded her of the Kaguya working themselves up before going off to battle.

"We shall see," she said as he came at her. Bone swords slid into her palms and she blocked both of his hands, hearing the ring of metal. One sword trailed along the length of the weapon, testing the length. Dual katana, she decided, as she pushed away from him. They came back together in a clash, weapons blurring.

Kiyomi could feel three fights going and wasn't sure which direction to go. Sayuri would be fine, and so would Ayano, so she planned to go to Miyako.

She paused as she heard a rustle in the brush. Glancing to the side, she saw red hair peering over the top of a bush.

"Miyako? What the he-"

A huge man rose out of the bushes, orange eyes glowing as she stared at her. In his hand was an odd weapon. It had the handle of a dagger, but from the hilt came a chain that connected to a chakram.

"Not… Miyako..." Kiyomi's eyes bulged. "Whoa. You're big." She smiled. "Fought bigger." She settled back into a stance. "Come on, big boy, bring it!"

The man leapt over the bush with surprising lightness for his size and brought and arm back, slashing it forwards, razor-sharp disk whizzing towards her. Kiyomi parried it with a kunai and started forwards. He was a medium-range fighter, so if she could get in close she had a shot.

Miyako's opponent fought bravely, but in the end it came down to the terrain. The girl's foot slipped at the edge of a gopher hole and she went down. Miyako stomped on her wrist, knocking her kunai away and collapsed on the girl's stomach, pinning her down with a kunai raised.

"P-Please!"

Miyako paused and stared down at the girl under her. Her white hair was splayed around her and she was sobbing, tears running down her cheeks. Miyako blinked. This was new. She'd never had opponents cry.

"They make me," she sobbed. "I don't want to hurt people but they make me, Unari and Atumotu. Please don't kill me. I-I don't want to die!"

Normally Miyako would have just knocked the girl out and gone on with her life. But now she was thinking differently. Was that how it had happened with her father? Had someone they thought was down come up from behind and killed him? No, she couldn't knock the girl out.

But she also couldn't kill her. Miyako didn't have the heart for that, not with the girl looking so pathetic. She was fairly sure it wasn't an act. The girl looked truly beside herself with fear and she'd looked scared from the moment the fight started. And, throughout that whole time, she hadn't ever gone for the kill.

"Do you surrender?" Miyako demanded, going for the only other option. The girl opened and closed her mouth, gasping like a fish as she debated. Miyako shook her roughly. "Do you?"

"Yes, yes!" the girl squealed fearfully. "Please, I surrender, don't kill me!"

Miyako seized the girl by the shoulder and slammed her into a tree. She ripped off her kunai holster and hip pouch and tossed them into the bushes. Miyako reached into her own pouch and pulled out a thin wire, trussing up the girls ankles and wrists deftly.

"Squirm and the wire will cut into you," Miyako said shortly. The shy girl was gone in the heat of battle, and now she was finally able to work out some of her grief. The albino nodded frantically, big-eyed, and Miyako shot off towards Ayano.

Sayuri and her opponent danced and twirled among the trees, weapons clashing, sword on bone.

"You're good," the boy praised. "I'm going to enjoy your blood. I'm starting to want it very badly."

Sayuri scowled. "It says something that you're not the first man to tell me that."

"Oh really? Well I'm not surprised. I've always been fond of blood, and I really think I'll enjoy yours."

Sayuri shouted in dismay as her swords were tangled with his. His knee came towards her side. A bone shot from her knee, piercing his thigh. He shouted in pain as he connected. Sayuri quickly retracted the bone as she went flying, not having any desire to drag this freak along after her.

"What did you do?" he demanded. "What did you do? I saw your hands, there wasn't anything else you could have… Ah, forget it!"

Sayuri's ribs were throbbing but she kept pace with him as he came at her again. But then he moved faster than he'd moved thus far and connected a hard hit to her nose. Sayuri blinked and staggered back as her eyes filled with tears. While it wasn't a problem it did distract her. She blinked, frantically healing her nose and trying to regain her balance. His foot planted in her stomach and Sayuri slammed back into a tree.

He was coming at her again and Sayuri ducked under his foot, dropping and kicking out his leg. He fell, aiming his elbow for her side. His elbow connected with a rib as strong as steel and it didn't break, but he still hit bruised flesh. Sayuri cried out in pain, clutching her side and scrambling towards her feet. He scored a long line along her calf, prevented from going too deep by a layer of bone under the skin.

Sayuri got herself onto one knee before he lunged at her, bearing her to the ground. He flipped her sharply and Sayuri screamed in pain as a sword buried deeply into each of her palms, sliding right between the bones. Ribs erupted from her chest in defense as the boy straddled her hips. He leapt back.

"Bone…" he whispered delightedly. "It's bone! Oh, that's fascinating!"

"One down," Ayano and Unari chorused, separating for a moment before throwing themselves back into the fray.

Kiyomi was panting. She'd thought it would be easy to get at the muscle-bound redhead as soon as she got close enough, but that was presenting a bit of a problem. He was impossible to get close to. She dodged and weaved and twisted and pulled out all the stops but she'd yet to get within arm's reach of him. She longed to use a fire jutsu, but that wasn't a good idea, surrounded by dry brush as they were.

"You just won't go down!" she exclaimed angrily. The guy shook his head stoically.

"No, I will not."

"Argh!" Kiyomi hurled kunai after kunai at him, but he expertly deflected them with the chain of his weapon. It was then that Kiyomi saw her opening, saw the ever so slight hesitation as he put his weight on his left leg, speaking of an old injury.

Kiyomi threw herself down and kicked viciously at his left knee. She connected and there was a crack as the guy dropped to one knee, snarling in pain. She seized the hand holding his weapon and sliced across the back of it. He surrendered the weapon with another snarl of pain and Kiyomi hurled it aside into the brush. She kicked once more, up into his chin, flinging him onto his back. Kiyomi leapt, kunai ready, seeing her chance to take him out. The idiot didn't even have a shirt on, he was exposing a couple dozen vital points.

Kiyomi came down straddling his stomach, and her kunai buried itself into his chest, just under his heart. He gasped in pain, eyes widening. Kiyomi doubled over and screamed as, with his last ounce of strength, he drove his own kunai into her side, above her right hip. He put all of his strength into it, driving it to the hilt into her before his hand thumped to the ground lifelessly. Kiyomi rolled off of him, panting wildly with pain, and ripped the kunai from her side.

Immediately she realized her mistake, cursing herself for not remembering the most basic rule. If you get stabbed, leave the damn thing in you. It's the only thing holding in the blood. Kiyomi learned that lesson vividly as hot liquid gushed over her hands. She pressed them to her side desperately.

Sayuri screamed once more as the kunai cut into her. She couldn't move her hands to defend herself, and they weren't angled properly to force a sword from her palm. All she could do was pay very close attention to the man's movements and try to catch him on the end of a sharpened bone when he came close.

"I'm enjoying our game," he cackled as he darted back from a rib that jutted out towards him. Blood dripped from a few places where she'd pricked him, but her shirt was nearly soaked in blood from the dozens of cuts he'd scored across her. He'd yet to hit anything vital though, those bones of hers were holding him off from going deeper than the skin.

"Get away from her!"

He looked up, eyes widening as a red-haired woman lunged for him, knocking him back with a kick.

"A new playmate!" he said delightedly, picking himself up off the ground and wiping the blood from his mouth with a corner of his side. He glanced at Sayuri. "Your friend looks mad."

"Miyako," Sayuri moaned, wracked with pain. "That freak… Likes blood… Why don't you… Show him?"

"Aw, you want your friend to show me her blood?" he crooned. "How sweet of you!"

Sayuri's hitai-ate had come off her eyes in the scuffle, and she gave him the most hateful look she could muster.

"No… I want her… to show you… mine…"

His eyes widened as the blood rose from Sayuri's body and into the air, forming into sharp points. He turned and tried to run, but Miyako flicked her wrist forwards and the blood daggers sheared through the air, driving all the way through him. Atumotu toppled like a puppet with its strings cut.

Ayano finished off Unari with a crack of her foot across the woman's face. Her head snapped to the side and she spun as she dropped and Ayano grabbed her, reaching into her hip pouch and seizing a pair of chakra cuffs she carried for occasions like this. The bounty on Unari Kotetsu would pay her rent for nearly four months and her clan had some very interesting things going for them. Ibiki would love to talk to her…

"Ayano…"

Ayano looked up sharply in the direction of the whimper. She leapt over a tent and into the tree line, looking around frantically. She first saw the body of a red-haired man with a kunai buried in the chest, and then she saw Kiyomi sprawled next to it, a rosette creeping across her shirt.

"Oh shit!" she cursed, dropping to her knees hastily beside Kiyomi, placing her hands over the girls, keeping pressure on the wounds. The sounds of battle had stopped. "Miyako!" she called. "I need you over here!"

"Sayuri's hurt badly too!" Miyako called back. "Can you bring her here?"

Ayano gathered Kiyomi in her arms and gave one large leap, trying to make the ride as smooth as possible, but Kiyomi still shouted as she was jostled in the landing.

"Shit!" Ayano repeated when she saw the state Sayuri was in, swords through her hands. She laid Kiyomi down on the other side of Miyako, who had one hand on Sayuri's stomach, the blood slowly creeping back into her wounds. Miyako laid her other hand over Kiyomi and the blood started receding.

"Can you heal them?" Ayano asked fearfully, mind flashing back to those years ago when she lost all three students in one mission. They'd been facing Kumo then too.

"Not something this bad," Miyako said, shaking her head fearfully. She looked up at Ayano, tears in her eyes. "They're bad, Ayano, really bad."

"Okay, we need to get them back to Konoha, stat," Ayano said, shakily getting to her knees and taking control of the situation. "I'll have Washibi carry that Kumo bitch."

"Kumo bitches," Miyako corrected. Ayano looked at her, surprised by her language, but Miyako's eyes were fixed hatefully on the wounds her teammates bore. "The one I was fighting surrendered. She's tied over there." She nodded in the general direction.

"Okay," Ayano nodded. She bit her thumb sharply. "Summoning Jutsu!"

Washibi appeared beside her. "What do you-?" The bird's eyes landed on the two bleeding genin. "Oh my." For once he restrained himself from a snappy comment.

"Two captives, that way and that way," Ayano said, pointing in the direction of Unari and Uta. "We'll take them to Konoha. I'm heading for the hospital ASAP, and you go to Lady Hokage. Unari's in the bingo books and the other one surrendered, tell them that. We'll be following soon."

"If I take my hands off them the bleeding will start again," Miyako exclaimed in frustration as Washibi took off to gather his captives. "How are we going to do this?"

"I've got an idea." Ayano pressed her still bleeding thumb to the ground. She swayed slightly as two more large eagles appeared. "They'll carry them and you'll go between."

Miyako noticed her swaying. "I have the cougars…"

"You don't have the chakra for two Summons, running, and using that kekkei genkai of yours all at once," Ayano said shortly. "Now get them on and let's move."

It was an exercise in awkward maneuvering as they tried to get Kiyomi and Sayuri onto the eagles, the girls themselves only barely able to help, fading in and out from pain, but they finally managed it and readied to leave.

"Wait a minute," Ayano said weakly. She walked to a chest and shattered the lock with a sharp kick. Reaching inside, she pulled out a small golden vase totally encrusted with jewels. She thrust the thing into her pocket. Miyako stared at it hatefully. That thing caused all this bloodshed.

Ayano turned back to her Summons. "Now we just need to make it back before the pain gets them."

The herb is Jamaica dogwood. I picked it because it's considered to be a bit dangerous, and can cause bad side-effects, therefore could also be used as a poison. I figured that it would be more likely for a shinobi to have a potentially-dangerous herb on them.