They hadn't moved camp in two days; a record. The captives were extremely glad for the rest, but it made the remaining guards exceedingly nervous and cruel. One had used the seal to choke Tsubasa when he had coughed too loudly. He sat in sullen silence, struggling to not gasp and further stress his damaged throat. Hardly a one of them didn't have a rasp from that particular punishment.

The morale, never very high to begin, plummeted. They were all sullen and antsy, like caged and starved pit-bulls, ready to turn viciously upon anything if it meant escape. Then, for want a better subject and wanting to just take her mind off of the present, Suzume asked, "Katsuro, what're your parents like?"

The boy blinked yellow eyes at the girl, her once glorious pink hair short and ragged from hacking it off to leave a trail. He ran his tongue over sore, sharp teeth. He'd gotten a kick to the mouth recently. "Well… you know my mom's Raikage…" he said slowly. Kameyo, Tsubasa, Haku, and Kotone dragged themselves closer to listen, anything to distract them from the reality. "She's awesome. Well, as moms go, I guess. I dunno. I have no other moms to compare her to, do I?"

"What about your father?" Kotone was resting her head against her upraised knees, eyes dull and clouded with exhaustion. Her face was thin, as was everyone else's. Katsuro shrugged wearily.

"I never knew him. Died before I was born, mom says. She doesn't talk about him. She always looks like she's going to start breaking things when I push it, so I never ask anymore. I asked Grandma. She said he was an ANBU, like mom, and they did missions together. He was killed by my mother's sister fifteen years ago, and mom was framed. That's about it." He looked at Suzume. "You?"

"My mom's a medic ninja, and my dad is chief of the Military Police Force in Konoha," she smiled at the memory of her home village. "The force was founded by the Uchiha Clan years ago, and used to mostly be made up of clan members. Then there was a massacre years back, so it was only dad and Uncle. Non-clan members started to run the force. The legacy was continued," she seemed proud. "And it gives the shinobi a rest because we won't have to deal with every single little disturbance. Kotone-san, Haku-san?"

The two Kirigakure ninja didn't even raise their heads to chorus, "Dead." There was an awkward silence before Kotone yawned and asked, "Kameyo-san? What about your family?"

Kameyo scowled, freckles standing out like dirt against her skin. She scratched her tipped nose before saying, "My parents are dead. No siblings. My grandpa raised me in Iwagakure to become a shinobi, like my parents. My grandpa was my mother's father, so he didn't have my blood-limit. If I die here, the Iwamori Clan dies with me."

"A cheerful thought," Tsubasa said sarcastically. Kameyo sneered at him.

"Yeah, whatever. What's your first name, anyway? Who the hell names their kid 'feather'?" Tsubasa sniffed haughtily.

"I never use my first name. It's stupid."

Suzume was instantly curious. "What is it?" Tsubasa looked deeply uncomfortable.

"I always go by 'Tsubasa', even back home. It's better than my given name… Sora."

"But Sora's a nice name!"

"It's a girlie name," Katsuro said with a weary grin.

"No it's not," Kameyo looked disappointed at Tsubasa' name being so… normal.

"Yes it is. Sora-chan, Sora-rin, Sou-chi-" Haku poked him sharply in the spine.

"Don't be mean." Katsuro stuck his tongue out at the pretty boy and subsided into silence.

"Anyway, I've got a clan to think about back home. My grandmother is the matriarch and my mother is next in line. The line passes from female to female." There was a snort from Katsuro but no insults came. They were saved from making further forced conversation when the guards returned with a limp form between them. It was a boy and he looked unconscious. They chained him to the very end of the line and roused him with kicks. Hurriedly, always looking around and over their shoulders, they got the rest of their captives moving.

Suzume felt both ecstatic and mortified at the same time, her mouth going dry. The boy glanced at her and smiled. But his smile looked pained, a purple knot on his head and blood caking his hairline. "Hey, Suzume," he whispered. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw his eyes. They were pools of rose-tinged white like some perverse version of the Byakugan.

"Oh, kami, Haruki."

"You look like shit, Hyuuga," Katsuro said, grinning shakily. "You're a shit-head, if you let them get you." Haruki shrugged and examined the chains on his wrists.

"That'd make you a shit-head too, since they nabbed you."

"Are you Hyuuga-san? What are you doing here?" Kotone's mouth a thin white line, her lips pressed together as she tried not to faint.

"Someone had to come rescue you guys," Haruki chuckled grimly. "Couldn't do it yourselves, could ya?"

"So that's why they're so nervous," Haku murmured. "If you got here on your own, then the older shinobi must have as well."

"I didn't come on my own," Haruki corrected, too quietly for he guards to hear. "Miho, Namiki, Koga, Yuuta, Hanami, and Yuuta came too. Also the Uotani twins and some Torakiba girl."

"Izumi's here?" Katsuro hissed. "How the hell did mom let her get away? And Asuka and Kazuki too…"

"Namiki?" Suzume repeated. She looked down at the ground. "Did… do you know that… Megumi…"

"He's dead." Haruki finished for her. She nodded, not looking at him. "Not even three days ago. They just slung him into the swamp, no proper burial whatsoever-"

"Aunt Hanabi found him, along with your dad and Inuzuka-san." Haruki squeezed her hand reassuringly. "He's getting a good place on the memorial stone, I can guarantee it." Suzume sighed.

"I just wish… wait, if you're here… you don't have the Byakugan, do you?" she looked up the scant inches between their heights, searching Haruki's eyes. "How hard did they hit you in the head? You've got that internal bleeding blush."

"It's not that, exactly…" Haruki began. "I really don't have much of an idea of what it is. I have no pupils, and I can't see normally, but I can see chakra, Suzume! SEE chakra in absolutely everything." He said with relish. Suzume gnawed on her lip, a habit of hers that many found endearing.

"It doesn't look… healthy," she said frankly, nearly tripping over a rock and thanking Tsubasa for catching her. "I mean… if ever a technique looked pathogenic, that does." And it did. It looked a bit like a really bad case of pink eye, save for the lack of pupils and the manic violence that lurked just under the surface, making the user relatively unstable. Haruki brushed her off.

"I don't care. I don't like it, but I don't care. Just… when I snap, run, okay?" Suzume blinked.

"Haruki-"

"No. And the rest of you-" he glared around the listening captives. "I don't care what you do. Just run back to your villages as fast as you can."

"What about the others that came with you?" Kameyo asked suspiciously. "Why'd you get captured, anyway?"

Haruki sighed impatiently. "I let them capture me. The others are within 100 meters at all times. That's Hamono's Byakugan limit. I give the signal, and we're all free and those guys-" he glared at the back of a guard's head. "-are raccoon shit."

Author's Note: No, that is NOT the Byakugan Haruki's got. –shudders- Frankly, I don't know what it is either. It's something twisted,evil, even. Don't think it's cool or you'd like to have it. It was born of hatred and deep resentment, of violence and the urge to kill without mercy, to slake an unquenchable lust for blood. It's just beneath Haruki's surface, waiting for any sort of trigger to release and wreak carnage and slaughter. Hate is an ugly thing, though comforting sometimes. It will get a hold of you and not let go until you die. It will drive away all those you care about and destroy you from the inside out. It is a waste of living. Make your peace with whatever or whoever you dislike, and go on your way. Life is too short to hate.