(A/N) Cross-posting this to AO3. Was going to do Wattpad as well, until I saw what the entire site was occupied with. Sorry for lack of post yesterday, had three exams today so studying took up all of my time.

Bingo Book Entry: Seikaku

Threat Level: S
Ninjutsu: 4
Genjutsu: 4
Taijutsu: 10

Village of Origin: Hidden Leaf
Status: Attack On Sight
Known Crimes: Treason, Murder (43)

Combat Style: Hyper-long-range bow specialist. Maximum range is thought to be around one mile (unconfirmed). May have some sort of visual aid (unconfirmed). Bears a cursemark, type unknown.

Notes: Attack on sight and chase no matter what, because any attempt at retreat will lead to being shot. Disappeared from Hidden leaf originally, Leaf offering massive bounty for immediate return. Never heard to speak, currently loyal member of Orochimaru's Sound Ninja Four.

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If Hiretsuna was unpleasant to share a massive base with, he was downright intolerable as a travel partner. After leaving the nearest base north of the Land of Rivers' borders with a reverse summoning seal, they were still a good ten hours' walk (and it really was a walk, Hiretsuna refused to even jog) away from their goal, and every minute of the first day had been spent listening to his complaining. Kame hadn't even been able to practice any jutsu, too distracted by Hiretsuna's raving. He'd made one attempt at getting the older man to be quiet, which had been met with several sprays of acidic slime that he'd barely dodged. After that, Kame had given in and just listened. It's not just his hair and skin, he thought sarcastically, even his damn voice is somehow greasy.

"So yeah, Saiken's just flailin' around and slimin everything and everyone, Orochimaru's tryna seal it inside me but catches a tentacle to the face and goes flyin." Hiretsuna waved his arms to emphasize his story. "Sankuryu's doing okay til he gets put into a bubble and starts floatin up towards the ceiling, yellin at us to help him…" He had the slowly growing smile of someone building up to a punchline. "Seikaku does her awkward little blushin thing for way too long, then decides to shoot him outta the sky even though everyone's tellin her not to… and he falls fifty feet and breaks half his bones!"

Kame did his best to fake a smile to match Hiretsuna's gurgled chuckling. The man eyed him and stopped his laugh: "Eh, that one was weak, if yer gonna fake a smile then at least try harder than that. Five suck-up points. Now… where was I? Oh yeah! So, with that idiot down'n'out and Himei being totally useless, I'm startin to consider just walkin away, until… well, Seikaku was always such a prig, ya know? Never even gave me a chance, went straight for Sankuryu." Yuck, Kame thought. I never want to imagine Hiretsuna making advances on anyone, ever. "But then Saiken vomits out this huuuge wave of weak-ass acid, and she doesn't dodge it. Before ya know it, most of her clothes are gone, and…" he whistled.

"If you think there was a chance in hell that I was gonna just walk away after that, well…" Hiretsuna wiggled his eyebrows at Kame, seeming to draw some sort of satisfaction out of the awkward reaction he got. This is even worse than- Kame remembered the girl's underwear joke and revised what he was going to say. This is almost as bad as Miriki. "Orochimaru finally gets his shit together fer long enough to throw up some kinda sealing, and I start layin into the big slug with everything I got, and eventually…" he trailed off, raising his hands into the air and then pointing at himself. "The stupid thing finally gives up."

"That's… nice?" Kame tried to keep the unpredictable man appeased.

Haku piped up for the first time in hours. "What's Saiken like?"

"Huh?" Hiretsuna seemed genuinely confused. "Why would ya wanna know that?"

"Because mine doesn't really have a personality, so I wondered…" Hiretsuna narrowed his eyes in confusion. What; is his pebble-sized brain incapable of comprehending a simple concept? Every day that passed without him voicing them, Kame's thoughts grew more and more sarcastic. Haku sighed looked downcast, continuing in a resigned voice. "Well, I guess Orochimaru didn't explain-"

"Nah, he totally did, I just didn't give a crap." Hiretsuna scratched the back of his neck.

Haku soldiered on despite the implication that he still didn't care. "Okay, then I guess the simple version is that I don't have a tailed beast." That finally got his attention. "I have… I guess it's like a whirlpool? I don't know how to describe it, but it's a mindless… thing… that just wants to consume more chakra. People kept telling me that the tailed beasts were angry but reasonable, but I never… It never said anything to me that wasn't…" she trailed off.

Hiretsuna seemed to actually grow happier with the news, which was mildly confusing until Kame realized why. "Hell yeah! So you aren't a stronger version of me!" Really? That's what he's worried about? "I knew Orochimaru wouldn't replace me!" His glee visibly gave way to a calmer smirk. "Eh, who am I kiddin, nobody could replace me. Especially not a little girl like you… Hako?" Does he not even know her name?

"Uh… my name is Haku." Haku seemed reluctant to contradict him.

"It's gonna be at least two more years before yer old enough for me to care what yer name is, Hako- wait, how old are you?"

"I'm fourteen." Haku seemed oblivious to Hiretsuna's hidden meaning.

"Oh… in that case, wanna see some of Saiken's powers up-"

"Nope!" Kame risked interrupting the man, who turned with annoyance to face him. I really hope Haku wasn't paying attention during that Saiken story. "Uh… Haku asked you a question before, so can you answer it?"

"Ugh. Saiken is… how do I say this?" Hiretsuna put on a thoughtful face and actually seemed to be taking the question seriously. "He used to be a pain in the ass, but I grew on him. Took a while, but he finally got a sense of humor."

"What do you mean by that?" Kame asked, dreading the answer.

"Well, he likes the things I like…" Hiretsuna grinned. "Melting things off of people- I like to do it to their clothes, but we both like to do it to their skin." Kame shuddered. "I want to be stronger, and he wants me to show off his strength."

"But- does he ever try to take control?" Haku asked, seemingly unfazed by the horrifying things the man was saying.

"He used to, but… heh… I put him in his place." What? How? "Me 'n him see eye-to-eye now." Kame wanted to ask more about how Hiretsuna somehow held the reins in his relationship with the sixtails, but before he could, the man was pointing ahead of them and smiling. "There we go, a town!"

Kame looked ahead to see a tiny village, buildings numbering in the tens. There were several farms within sight at the edges, but a large road led into and out of the cluster of wooden buildings. Alright, Kame thought, this is probably just a waypoint town. A stopping place for travelers and a small group of craftsmen and shops for the surrounding farms. Hiretsuna, alarmingly, seemed to be heading straight for a larger building that seemed to be an inn or tavern of some sort.

Kame missed his chance to stop him and had no choice but to tag along, hoping beyond hope that Hiretsuna wouldn't hurt any innocent people. His superior walked past the villagers, drawing stares and a few gasps of recognition at the sight of the distinctive Hidden Sound headband that he made no efforts to disguise. Kame followed behind, eliciting further stares and wondering why the elder sound ninja was walking in plain view. If we're seen, then missions will… wait, they'll scramble teams to come after us, but there are no nearby Hidden Villages, so it should take a while. If we can just avoid a fight, he thought, we should be okay, right? A town this small won't have shinobi in it, so as long as the locals phone for help and don't attack Hiretsuna…

When he pushed a curtain aside and stepped into the tavern, it wasn't as bad as he'd feared. Hiretsuna was sitting on a barstool, shouting at the bartender: "Oi! Get me the strongest sake you have."

The man behind the counter glanced around the room and so did Kame. The other patrons, all seemingly laborers or merchants, were down to a man unwilling to meet either of their eyes. Without any support, the barkeep had little choice but to nod and reach underneath the counter, pulling out a green bottle and moving to pour its contents into a cup. Before he could, though, Hiretsuna grabbed his arm with one hand and removed the bottle with the other, then drained the entire bottle in a few seconds. "Good. Now your food."

Kame was disgusted by his fellow missing-nin, but in the same line of reasoning that had carried him through the last few weeks, his will to make do with his situation overruled his morals. I have to be careful, he thought. If I keep going like this, eventually I'll give up every principle I have in the name of self-preservation. That said, I can't challenge him here and now. "Hiretsuna, why are we here?"

"What d'you think, idiot?" Hiretsuna didn't even turn around, so Kame backed up until he was leaning back against the bar and facing the rest of the tavern. "I want some food and a warm bed."

"But-" Kame wasn't sure how to deal with this. "We can't just walk into-"

"Yeah I can!" Hiretsuna crowed as the barkeeper emerged from the kitchen holding a dish of steaming food. "See? I'm strong enough to do anything I want, especially around some country hicks like these people." He moved forward to dig in, messily stuffing his face.

In no time, the food was gone and Kame actually began to hope that the situation was over. Those hopes were dashed when a cheerful girl with brown hair and eyes, maybe seventeen or eighteen, came walking down the steps carrying an empty platter. "Dad!" she said to the horrified barkeep, "Is there anything else you need me to do, or…"

Hiretsuna's face split in a smile that Kame knew all too well. Ah, shit. He patted the seat beside him, speaking with intense hunger in his eyes despite all the food he'd just consumed. "Hey, you there." The girl turned to look at him with curiosity then revulsion. "Yeah, you. Why don't you come over here next to me?"

"Eww, no…" the girl trailed off, glancing around the room at the silent occupants and at her father who was quivering with fear. Then she looked at Hiretsuna's headband, at the weapons pouch on his belt, and at Kame and Haku.

"Run, Mitaka!" Her father was brave to yell, but the moment that the words left his mouth, Hiretsuna threw out a hand. A splatter of pale slime flew forward and covered the barkeep, who keeled over almost immediately. No… I've seen Hiretsuna's acid eat through solid steel in seconds. Damn it! We weren't supposed to be doing this!

The girl shrieked but Hiretsuna kept his smile. "Hey, hey, don't be so upset, beautiful. He ain't dead… yet." The threat, and demand, were both implied.

Can I really be party to this? Kame glanced over at Haku, who had her hands clenched at her sides. I… I can't just let him do this, in front of her, if only because I don't want her to think I'm that kind of person. He opened his mouth to protest, but a newcomer beat him to it.

An angry teenager came bursting through the door, panting from exhaustion. He obviously took in the situation and then whipped out a sword and began shouting. "Hey! You there, the missing-ninja! Hiretsuna and… uh…" he briefly lost focus, clearly not knowing who Kame or Haku were, but gathered himself quickly. "Hiretsuna! You and your two lackeys are to leave this town immediately!" Despite the strong threats, the boy was clearly only a few years older than Kame and Haku were. His clothes were shoddy and patched and he held his sword with the ready incompetence of a person who had spent many hours practicing the wrong techniques by themself.

The sixtails jinchuriki looked at him with a smirk that only grew larger. "Oh, are you the hero?" The boy's eyes flicked over to Mitaka. "Here to rescue your princess?"

"I'm here to run three criminals out of town!"

Mitaka called to him with a choked voice: "Just run, Toka! Get out of here while you still can! You can't fight these people, they're-"

Hiretsuna stood up from his stool, sending a collective flinch through the room and silencing the girl immediately. Killing intent rolled outwards from him as his voice dropped into an oily, confident tone: "This is gonna be all kinds o' fun. Now, here's the deal: Princess," he said to the boy in the doorway, "yer gonna go upstairs with me. No fighting, no whining. If you don't, then I'll put some acid on yer little hero that'll work nice and slowly, melting into him over hours until it reaches somewhere lethal."

"No! I won't do it!" Toka raised his sword and started to run forward. As Kame froze in horror, certain that he was about to watch an innocent person die, Haku blurred forward and slammed a fist into Toka's gut. He doubled over and dropped to the ground, lying there either unconscious or in too much discomfort to speak any more.

"Killjoy." Hiretsuna sounded cheated. "That's no fun. The best part is when the girl either watches him die, or watches him abandon her. Well, I guess the dying option is still-"

"Hiretsuna." Kame decided then and there that there were some things he wouldn't do, even for survival. If I saved Haku only to sit with her and watch Hiretsuna rape innocent girls, then… "Let's stop."

"Huh?" Hiretsuna looked bemused, but he also wasn't attacking anyone for the moment.

"I said, let's stop." Kame resisted the urge to enter a stance of any sort. As strong as I think I am, he reminded himself, Hiretsuna will destroy me. He kills high-ranking shinobi for fun and has a real tailed beast sealed inside of him, one of the stronger ones. I can't let this turn into a fight of any sort. "These stupid hayseeds aren't worth it. C'mon, can we-"

"Did you forget the ass-whooping that Orochimaru gave you? It was literally yesterday that you were crumpled up on the floor." Hiretsuna's eyes blazed and the smile faded a little. "You better drop this goody-goody shit right now, or you'll be the one melting alive and yer little friend'll be the one watching it."

Kame quavered a little bit when the jinchuriki's eyes flickered over to look at Haku, but steadied himself and kept talking. "Now that we played our hand, the villagers probably already sent word. There'll be more jonin coming, maybe even the Tanikage himself if he knows who we are." This is a gamble on just how overconfident Hiretsuna is. If he thinks he can beat the Tanikage, then he might actually seek out the fight.

After a long silence, Hiretsuna slumped back over and went back into his casual smirk. "I see what yer sayin, if we go now then we can set a trap for 'em at the base. That's a good idea." Kame sagged over in relief, but froze at his next words: "But if you ever contradict me again, especially in public, I'll burn yer skin off."

"Understood." Kame nodded and the burly man rose off of the stool and walked towards the doorway, past the crumpled Toka. Haku fell into line behind him and Kame followed as well, but before he could step out the curtained doorway, he heard Mitaka cautiously speak behind him.

"Tha… thank you." She sounded so unbelievably happy and relieved, but instead of triumph or heroism, all Kame could feel was a hollow feeling of guilt. He left the tavern without even turning around.

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"I've been tryin to do a scientific… study? Experiment? Inqui… Inquisition… Inquiry? It don't matter, what I'm gettin at here is that I've got a lot of different acids, but I don't know which ones hurts the most." It was late at night now, hours after they'd left the small town, and Hiretsuna was back to his incessant talking. "So obviously I'm not gonna test it on me, but hell if I can get people to explain their pain objectively while I melt their arm, ya know?"

No, I don't. The night was growing colder and colder, and although Kame knew that they should be arriving at the base soon, that didn't make listening to his superior's inane (and often disgusting) stories any easier. "So thanks to all the selfish bastards out there, I'm playin it by ear most o' the time. I think the top couple of 'em gotta be the one that takes hours but melts anything, a real beauty I came up with that melts their skin and only their skin, or…" Hiretsuna looked briefly thoughtful. "Naw, it's definitely the first one.

"Even if uncooperative people just scream instead of givin me feedback, they scream the loudest when the acid goes up their arm for hours before getting to anything important." Kame shuddered helplessly, imagining all the innocent people Hiretsuna had done that very thing to. "Plus, there's nothin there for really measuring pain, right? I mean, that idiot on the akatsuki… what was his line? You don't understand… the world?"

"The world will know pain," Haku supplied helpfully.

"Yeah, that one. But didn't he also say-"

"My pain is greater than yours?" Kame tossed out another one of the rinnegan-bearing shinobi's lines.

"Yeah, there we go. Damn, you two are like dictionaries, huh?" I seriously doubt that this guy even knows what a dictionary is. "But how'd he know, eh? Pain isn't somethin people can just add up and subtract. Someday, I'm gonna make a scale of pain from one Hiretsuna to ten Hiretsuna." He smiled and stared happily off into space. Is this seriously his dream? "Orochimaru's all for it; even lets me use some of his clones once he's done with 'em."

Thankfully, the conversation was cut short when they reached their destination. The base didn't appear to be there, but the carving on a large rock in the clearing told them all they needed to know. Hiretsuna led the way over to it, pressing a seal onto the carving, and another nearby chunk of stone shuddered as it slid aside to reveal a passageway. Hiretsuna spoke to Kame and Haku in a slightly more serious tone. "Alright, here we go. I'm putting you two in charge of gathering the… whatever. Imma keep watch."

Kame nodded and stepped forward into the dark tunnel, checking the map in his hands to see where they'd be heading first. This base was wildly unlike the two he'd seen before- while all of them were composed of underground tunnels, this one was painstakingly carved in strict right angles and perfect corners, following a distinctive and intuitive pattern. Kame descended past two floors seemingly serving as quarters for the base's occupants, ending up on the first of many levels dedicated to research.

The first thing we're supposed to get is… Deidara research? What the- Kame looked up and turned into the labeled room to see what looked like a hospital operating room, with medical equipment everywhere and spotless walls. In the center, there was a huge spread of files and several beakers or syringes of fluid. The instructions say to get 'everything on table, as well as all clay samples.' Looking around the room, Kame saw the samples in question, all contained within glass jars. "Haku, do you-"

He turned around to see that she wasn't there, but after a brief moment of panic she poked her head around the door. "Yeah? What is it? I'm doing the rooms that you aren't…"

"Oh… okay then." Kame had just been about to ask her to do that very thing. Grandmother gave me this… whatever it is. He pulled out a scrap of paper and, as instructed, ran a little bit of his chakra through it. A large wooden crate immediately appeared on his hand where the paper had been, startling him so much that he fell over backwards and barely avoided having his foot crushed by the falling box. He began grabbing the files and equipment, shoving them into the box until the room looked bare.

On to the next, Kame thought. Second on the list is… huh? Sasori research!? Is this base dedicated to studying the dead akatsuki? He actually ran to the labeled room, unable to constrain his excitement at seeing the puppet-style master. Once inside, he saw… Well, that's disappointing. There were no puppets, only a few scrolls lying about and a strange cylinder with a seal on it and purple growths coming out of it. Wait is this the seal that let him…

Kame cleaned out the room into the box and ran some chakra through it, dismissing it back into a scrap of paper in his pocket. The next on his list was Kisame, but that room was already occupied by Haku, so he moved on to… Konan.

Wait, this means Orochimaru understands her paper style. Could he… teach me? Kame darted into the chamber and was met with the sight of huge amounts of paper and a few files on the table. After a brief, cursory check to make sure no one was watching him, Kame began digging through the files, finally coming upon one labeled as 'conclusions'. He opened and read it:

Findings: 'Paper Style' is not a combination of Wood release and Wind release as I had anticipated. It is actually simply an advanced transformation jutsu that turns a person's chakra and body into paper, which can then be manipulated. Further investigation revealed sparse records of this jutsu, called "Dance of the Shikigami." Seals and chakra movements are listed below.

Conclusion: Non-useful given my existing, superior transformation jutsu. In addition, requires huge amount of willpower to use without risking death.

'Dance of the Shikigami?' Kame looked down the paper and saw that the handsigns and instructions for its casting were written out. He said that using it was risky, right…? But- he glanced longingly at the power of the akatsuki member he'd most respected, sitting inches away from his face. It can't be that bad, I'll just undo it if-

"Kame!" Haku's voice from behind him shook him out of his silent reverie. What was I thinking? I was talking myself into… he shook his head. "I finished everyone else. Are you done with Konan?"

"Uh…" Kame glanced back to the table, then summoned the empty box and put everything inside it. The conclusion, though, he stuffed into his own backpack. Even if I'm not going to use it, he thought, I want to have it. Maye at some point I'll bring it up to Orochimaru. "I'm done, let's go."

Haku nodded and the two of them turned back towards the base's entrance, climbing the long staircase and out the short tunnel. It was fully nighttime now, the moon high in the sky above them the only source of light.

As soon as they exited, Hiretsuna grinned. "Finally. That took way too long, I was startin' to get bored." He rubbed his hands against each other quickly, then planted himself in a strong stance. "If you don't want to die, you should get back."

Kame nodded and retreated with Haku, flinching as Hiretsuna's chakra and killing intent swelled to fill the clearing. The man started to bubble, calmly then violently, and then a sickly light green energy boiled out from his skin and covered him. Slime began dripping from his body, pooling around his feet in an off-white puddle. "Mmmm…" Hiretsuna made a pleased noise as first one tail, then two, then three emerged from his back and two growths emerged from the chakra over his forehead. "It's been a while since I got to use this." Use what? He raised his hands, then dropped to his knees and slammed his palms down on the ground, opening his mouth wide: "Acid Tsunami!"

A burst of the same sickly-green chakra poured from his mouth, spreading out ahead of him and crashing against the rocks. While the rocks began to break apart from the outpour, most of it was redirected into the base. As seconds passed, the gushing power seemed to only grow stronger and faster until the rocks were completely gone, and then the passage exploded back outwards with chakra as the base was completely filled. Hiretsuna stopped the vomit-like jutsu, straightening back up and cracking his knuckles. The sixtails' chakra retreated back into him seemingly without protest.

The chakra remained glowing and green, but moved more like a liquid now. As Kame watched in awe, the ground above where the base had been began to shift and collapse in places, losing more and more stability until it cracked apart into pieces. The chunks of dirt and stone dropped into a massive pool of acid at least fifty meters across. The lake of acid's surface level dropped at it ate away at the ground at its edges, but did it slower and slower until it eventually stopped. The glow faded, but what was left was a huge mass of white-green acid that didn't show any signs of going away.

That's… this is the power of a jinchuriki. Kame's jaw dropped and he made no effort to recover, until he heard the movement behind them. Shit- He turned around to see four forms come jumping down out of the trees. It was hard to be sure in the moonlight, but a few of them moved in ways that he recognized. One of them slid to a stop in a lazy, confident stance that Kame recognized all too well.

No, he thought. There's no way that they sent… what are the odds of… he's not even part of the Hidden Valley. Despite his mental protests, the figure wearing a Valley vest over their long white cloak threw back their hood to reveal black hair, blue eyes, and the unwavering smirk that, for once, wavered.

"Kame? Haku?" Miriki Kosuki feigned the tone of someone meeting an old friend, but there was an unmistakable and uncharacteristic quiver in his voice that revealed the emotions buried underneath.

"Miriki…" Kame trailed off. Haku seemed unable to speak, and Kame joined her as the two other smaller forms threw off their hoods to reveal a shocked Keikiro's messy blonde hair and Gunaji's mask of rage. Shit. He's going to try to kill Haku or die trying, and I don't want to… why is Miriki here with the Valley genin?

Hiretsuna gurgled out his lazy chuckle. "D'you know these kids? Damn, that's a shame, it'll be awkward when I kill 'em."

"You'll do no such thing." Senshiko dropped her own hood, her grey hair and eyes began to faintly glow white as she drew her kama. "Hiretsuna, an S-rank missing-ninja with a history of rampant murder, rape, and torture. Kame Hakiara, a C-rank missing-ninja who committed high treason against several Kage. Haku Yorutsume, an A-class missing-ninja who committed treason, assault, and murdered one of my students. All three of you will return with me to the Hidden Valley in chains or in pieces." She's… listing us off by our missing-ninja profiles. Why is…? Kame watched Keikiro and Gunaji grow a little more resolute. Oh, it's a way to remind them that we're the enemy.

Hiretsuna actually licked his lips, eyes widening. "Am I, now?"

Haku stepped forward with a valiant (but misplaced) attempt at making peace: "Guys, the reason-"

Then her spiral cursemark stretched out over her body and she whipped to the side, barely managing to avoid the small, sharp rock that tore through the air beside her head. Gunaji growled in annoyance and threw another two rocks into the air, but before he could command them into an attack, all hell broke loose.