(A/N) So the Land of Bears, which was talked about in one of the Naruto fillers, was never shown on the map itself. In this setting, it's located between the Land of Snow and Land of Lightning.
Ninja Profile: Sutsuhi
Ninjutsu: S
Genjutsu: A
Taijutsu: A
Specialties: Plasma Release, Accuracy, Power
Description: Sutsuhi is typically clad in the yellow-lined robe of the Hoshikage, although she forgoes the hat in favor of letting her medium-length deep blue hair hang loose. She has golden-yellow eyes that glow slightly, some say as a result of her unusual birth. In person, she is brash and prideful, suffering no slight against her village, and cares very little for decorum or formalities.
Origin: Sutsuhi grew up a child of a traitor to the Hidden Star, conceived long after he'd absorbed the fallen meteorite and lost it all in one night. However, that event had lasting repercussions on her, as it gave her access to the second known Kekkei Tota: Plasma Release, a combination of the fire, wind, and water natures. With her newfound powers, she kept the village relevant among other more successful ones, and when the Hoshikage Sumaru passed away after naming her his successor she ascended to the rank gladly. However, even her unique power could not keep the Hidden Star from falling apart economically during the era of peace and she has grown more and more resentful as the village she loves has fallen apart at the seams.
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As the sun began to fall with the coming of late afternoon, Kame gladly soaked up the heat. In a very strong contrast to the cold, damp, and grey countryside of the Hidden Rain, the Land of Bears was warm, vibrant and alive. The sun was fully out and beating down on him, yet he was happy to be somewhere as hot as the Hidden Sand- the dank lair of Orochimaru and the Hidden Rain were both repellent to someone like Kame who'd been raised in the desert. The trees surrounding the road didn't extend to cover it, which he was just fine with. The Land of Bears was adjacent to the Land of Lightning but far less well-known, smaller and poorer than its cousin.
After arriving at the Land of Bears base, Kame and Haku had donned disguises before finding the road that would take them to their destination. Although he knew that the filmy layer of skin was present over his own face, Kame couldn't feel it at all and rapidly forgot that it was even there, reminded only when he looked at Haku's altered features. They'd also forgone their Hidden Sound headbands in favor of Hidden Valley ones (ironically). The long walk from the base had started with some small talk between him and Haku but had quickly devolved into a rehashing of an old argument: "I can't believe you could even think that Kisame could beat Konan. She'd just turn into paper and keep him at a distance!"
Haku shook her head. "Two problems with that: One, Kisame was able to create a miniature ocean for miles around him, and two, his sword could eat the chakra in her paper. How would she possibly win?"
"Because she could get outside the ocean and wait him out! He can't just hunt down every little scrap of paper, and eventually he'll run out of chakra."
"But you could say the same thing for Kisame!" Haku grinned, evidently enjoying the opportunity to argue in favor of her favorite akatsuki member. "He has a ton of time to just walk around and hunt down her paper, and if she engages fully, then he uses the miniature ocean."
Kame lapsed into silence, desperately searching for a hole in her strategy, but unable to find anything. Given his similarities with Konan and Haku's with Kisame, this argument had been a popular contest, but at the moment he was stumped as to- No, he thought, I've got it. "Six hundred billion paperbombs."
"Huh?" Haku seemed genuinely confused by his contextless statement.
"Six hundred billion paperbombs!" Kame grinned as he did some quick mental calculations. "Assuming they're as strong as mine, and mine each cover an area of about sixty square meters, then… Konan could destroy thirty-six trillion square meters, or thirty-six million square kilometers."
Haku opened and closed her mouth without saying anything, just slowly shaking her head. "But… if she could do that, then why didn't she? No, there's no way she could do something like that, where did you you hear-"
"Orochimaru told me." Kame's grin grew even wider as he realized how ironclad his position was. Hell, with this logic, he thought, I could probably argue Konan winning against anybody. Realizing that, he thought for a moment before conceding that he should probably change the subject. "Alright, Rock Lee vs Shira."
Haku brightened up and started to say, "Shir-" before quieting and frowning as she evidently considered the point further. "Actually, it's probably a tie."
"Why?" Kame hadn't spent very much time studying basic taijutsu users, mostly because taijutsu was an all-or-nothing path- either you specialized in it, or you were passable at it. Kame had briefly gone through a phase where he thought he'd be a weapon specialist, but due to Rakuyo's superiority in that area and his discovery of paperbombs, he'd dropped the idea. At no point, though, had he put anything besides the basic efforts into improving his hand-to-hand fighting, which left him ill-equipped to think through a battle between two masters of it.
"Because as soon as Shira-sensei or Lee-senpai use the Seventh Breath of Eight Gate, the other one will have to use theirs, and then no matter what happens both of them will die." Haku sounded grim, but that raised another question for Kame.
"Wait, I thought you said that the Seven Breaths didn't hurt your body." Kame tried to keep his tone from being accusatory, but he was frustrated by this revelation: not only did it mean that she'd lied to him before, but it also meant that she'd regularly been subjecting herself to physical harm and he hadn't known about it.
"They don't…" Haku seemed to realize his frustration and started explaining herself. "But I'm not normal, they do hurt Shira-sensei. When he uses the Breaths, it sends a huge amount of chakra moving through his system, more than he can handle, so he gets hurt. But since my chakra couldn't ever leave my system in the first place, and I was using it to improve my taijutsu for years, my system's a lot more used to it, so it just ends up draining a ton of chakra without hurting me."
Kame shook his head slightly, still confused as to how she could handle chakra that intense without suffering some form of harm. Haku looked upwards and considered for another couple seconds before making another attempt: "Okay, so you know how people have to train a lot to use the Breaths? That's because using them puts a huge amount of strain on the body, but training can help you deal with that strain. I was training with moving chakra around in my body since I was little, so I've trained a lot more than anyone else."
"Okay." Kame would have asked more about the Seven Breaths, but it was then that they arrived at a shaky-looking bridge over a huge ravine that Orochimaru had said was filled with poisonous gas. Are we really going to cross- but Haku was already halfway across the bridge, jogging casually without a care in the world. Kame followed along with quite a bit more restraint, eventually reaching the end of the trek and finding himself standing before a set of ancient-looking wooden steps. With the edge of the village in sight, he felt re-energized slightly and sped up, Haku following along behind him, until reaching a large wooden gate with a star painted over it.
Before he could reach it, though, two dark forms darted into the road before him, dressed in purples and greys and wearing headbands inscribed with the star of their village. One of them held up a palm towards them in a clear gesture to stop, speaking in a gruff voice: "You there; stop and identify yourselves."
Thankfully, Kame had been instructed by Orochimaru on how to respond. "Emissaries from the Otokage, sent to discuss strategic operations with the Hoshikage."
The two Star ninja shared a glance at the mention of the criminal Hoshikage, but evidently they'd already received their own orders regarding the situation and stepped aside to allow Kame and Haku through the gate. As Kame walked forward into the Hidden Star village, he was surprised by how normal it looked. The small buildings almost didn't even seem like they housed shinobi, and the village itself was tiny and surrounded by a wooden stockade that wouldn't help at all against a ninja attack.
The second thing Kame noticed was the people- they were all subdued, and while far from the mechanical slaves in the Rain, they spoke very little and mostly just gazed at Kame and Haku silently. The few shops that he could see were near-empty of people, and even the streets were quiet and still. Like the Rain, Kame had a bad feeling in his gut about the inner workings of the Hidden Star, but he didn't have the faintest clue of what it was. After a very short walk, they reached the Hoshikage's building, which (like the rest of the village) was relatively unimpressive and small.
As they neared the small building, one of the guards moved ahead of them and blocked their path with arms crossed. "Only one of you can go in."
Kame wanted to argue, but Haku pushed him forward. "Go ahead, Kame. I'll wait here."
Sparing one glance back at her, he swallowed and stepped past the guard, the other one tagging along behind him. Double doors opened to allow them entry to the structure, which was only two stories. After a very short flight of stairs, Kame found himself moving through another open door and then standing before the Hoshikage. The office was reminiscent of the village in that it was empty-looking, with half-open cabinets lining the walls and a few scrolls and files scattered about. Its only occupant was the Kage herself, lounging in a chair behind her beat-up desk. Her slightly glowing yellow eyes were just as hostile as they'd been at the summit, but her voice was slightly more formal and restrained: "Orochimaru's sent you, has he?"
Kame did his best to respond politely. "Yes, I-"
"And why're you here? What's his game?" At the sensitive question, Kame glanced back towards the two shinobi guards awkwardly. The Hoshikage sighed and waved them off, and after the door closed, Kame turned back and answered.
"Lord Orochimaru will be making an attack upon the Village Hidden in the Valleys in three days' time. Will you-"
The Hoshikage interrupted him again, tossing her deep blue hair away from her face and looking considerate. "Huh, so the snake bastard finally got up the balls to finish him off, then? And now you want me to get my people to help you."
"Yes."
She leaned back and spread her hands helplessly. "I don't see why I should risk what little ninja and resources I have on Orochimaru's personal vendetta."
Kame remembered something else the Sannin had told him: "Lord Orochimaru told me that you'd say that." The Hoshikage's eye twitched in annoyance. "He said to tell you 'You're the next in line.'"
She worked her mouth in annoyance for a few seconds, then shook her head. "Attacking the Tanikage is a fool's game. I don't know what Orochimaru thinks he has up his sleeve, but there's no way that his gang of children stand a chance."
"Why?" Kame hadn't been directed to ask this question, but his personal spirit of inquiry demanded that he do it. "Why is the Tanikage so terrifying? Orochimaru said that he destroyed the Hidden Sound, but-"
"Oh, he didn't tell you the rest?" The Hoshikage's grin returned in force. "The Tanikage destroyed the Hidden Sound, yeah, but he also destroyed the Hidden Snow, the Land of Whirlpools, and Heat Devil Village practically singlehandedly." Kame sucked in a breath- that record spanned more than a century of sporadic tragedies, all of which hadn't been attributed to the man. "Orochimaru's terrified of the guy, and all he can talk about is asking for help in some revenge scheme. Tell him the answer is no, and I don't care-"
She was cut off when a small, angry form launched itself from the corner with a screech and began pelting her with shuriken… that simply bounced off of her annoyed face. When they fell to the desk, Kame saw why; the shuriken were harmless toys folded out of paper. After the failure of their ranged barrage, the attacker leaped up onto the Hoshikage's desk and began assaulting her with tiny arms and legs
"Take that! And that!" The figure, now revealed to be a little boy, swung a fist forward straight into the Hoshikage's face that failed to even budge it. "I'll kill you and become the next Hoshikage!"
"Surashi!" Her voice started out calm, but by the end of the name she was shouting. "What have I told you about stopping these stupid attacks while I'm working!"
"But that's when you don't expect it!" The little boy, probably nine or ten, didn't let up and tried to kick her head, but she grabbed the leg and then picked him up by it, shaking him around. "Hey! No fair! Lemme go, you-"
She flung him off towards the far wall, not very hard but still fast enough to make Kame wince and turn to see the damage. However, he was instead surprised by the sight of Surashi landing with skill beyond his years and sticking out his tongue in defiance. "Nyeh! You're gonna lose to me one of these days!"
The Hoshikage waved a hand and a laser of yellow light scorched the floor underneath Surashi, who made one last disrespectful face and then darted out the door. "Alright, you there, Orochimaru's pawn, my answer is no."
Her expression made it clear that there would be no arguing, so he bit his lip and turned to the door, walking out and down the single flight of steps to be met with the sight of a beautiful sunset. The amazing sight of the Land of Bears' skyline, reds and oranges and yellows mixing together to create a picturesque scene, was enough to make Kame pause in his walking. He started to sit down and admire it until the purple at the very edge reminded him of Haku- that's right, he remembered, Haku's in this village… somewhere…
He jogged forward, noting that there were no longer any guards following him, and checked every shop to no avail. After jumping up onto a rooftop, he noticed Haku and a bunch of smaller kids gathered over by the edge of the village in a small courtyard. As he approached, he also noted the empty buildings in this region of the village- no, the empty buildings all over the village. A good half of the houses looked to be unoccupied.
Haku's voice came into earshot: "So me and Kame got away from the Lightning ninja who were chasing us, but then a jonin came and we were too tired to fight him…" little mutters of sadness ran through the group of nine or ten year olds. "-so we had to run away… but he was too fast! He caught up and almost got us, but then our friend Seikaku saw him and used her bow to shoot an arrow. The only problem was, she was a whole kilometer away." Her somber tone kept the kids quiet as they hungered for the conclusion to her story. "The jonin's sword came swinging around towards us, but before he could hurt us, bam!" She tapped herself on the forehead. "Seikaku hit him right between the eyes, and we escaped."
For some reason, Kame was strongly reminded of his own storytelling to the spider children, but his consideration of that point was interrupting by little cheers coming from the kids, which made Kame a little bit confused- that seemed a bit bloodthirsty for their age. However, he recalled that Haku had called Gunaji and Naruko 'lightning ninja' in her story, which connected the final dot in Kame's mind. Back during the summit, the Hoshikage was complaining about the Hidden Lightning, he remembered, and how they were taking all of the jobs and money. Now there's evidence of people leaving this village and of poverty… I think these kids would clap for any story that ends up with the Hidden Lightning losing.
Haku saw him and waved. "Hey, Kame! Come on down here!"
He obliged, leaping over to her and giving a little wave to the kids before turning and delivering the bad news: "The Hoshikage said no."
"Oh." Haku visibly saddened at the news. "I guess… okay then." At first, Kame thought with despair that her reaction was due to fear of Orochimaru's inevitable wrath, but her glance towards the kids changed his assessment- does she want to help the kids? After swapping to a more neutral expression, she took off her pack and dug around in it until she found the huge stockpile of rations that she'd packed and offered them to the kids as a parting gift.
After they'd left hearing range, Kame shook his head ruefully. "Haku, those were supposed to last us for at least a week. I guess we have to pick up dinner in the village, now," he said while turning back towards one of the restaurants he'd seen. "Why would you just-"
"I think they need them more." Haku shrugged noncommittally, but her tone was not flippant. "While you had your meeting, I walked around the village, and… they're in trouble, Kame. I don't know why, but they're running out of food and money. People are leaving every week for other villages…"
They arrived at the restaurant, ordered, and ate while making small talk that avoided sensitive topics. Haku told him about the kids, who were supposed to be starting their training at the ninja academy, but couldn't because the teacher had left. That kind of undertraining could prove incredibly dangerous if they ended up over their heads in dangerous situations, and further reinforced Kame's worries about the future of the Hidden Star. Once they finished, Haku paid for their meal, tipping generously, and then they stood and started to walk out of the village, only to be met by the earlier pack of children with Surashi at their lead.
"There they are! That one is working with the Hoshikage!" Surashi pulled out a handful of paper shuriken and began pelting them with the harmless objects as they hurried off towards the gate, dodging clumsy tackles from the other kids. As they neared the border of the village, Kame used his off-hand to fold together a shuriken from his own paper, then caught one of Surashi's and deftly swapped it with the new one. When he weakly threw his creation at Surashi, the boy laughed and picked it up off the ground.
"I'm gonna be Hoshikage one day, and you think you can-" The rest of whatever he was going to say was cut off as Kame detonated the smokebomb held directly next to his head, replaced by loud coughing coming from the spreading dark smoke. Kame suppressed a laugh as he stepped out of the village, but Haku didn't even try to hide her chuckling. As they left the village amid empty threats from the kids, Kame was able to ignore the probably terrible future of the village, if only for a moment.
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"Both villages refused." Despite the oddness of what looked like a completely new body, Orochimaru's voice was the same as ever. "I assume you're going to claim that it wasn't your fault?"
How can I play this off? Kame considered his options. If I claim that it wasn't my fault, he'll get upset. If I falsely confess, he'll see through that as well, so… should I just describe the specifics and hope he sees reason? For lack of a better option, he chose the final course and tried to steady his voice as best as he could: "Uhm, the Amekage said that he had to finish 'incorporating' the two villages that he took over, and the Hoshikage said that she… uh… she didn't care about your personal vendetta."
Orochimaru leaned back in his throne and grimaced. "You informed her that she was in imminent danger and she refused anyway?"
"She…" Kame trailed off, then swallowed and began to ask a question- but stopped, realizing that Haku was standing beside him and unwilling to risk her getting hurt. "Yes."
"Ask your question." Orochimaru's eyes betrayed no hint of his intent, but Kame knew better than to disobey a direct order and did as he was told.
"What did you mean by saying she was next?"
"I thought that was obvious," the Sannin noted with a patronizing tone. "You disappoint me, Kame. The Tanikage is due to attack another village very soon, and his primary target is the Village Hidden in the Stars."
"But why-" Kame bit his lip in annoyance at his own inability to stop asking questions.
For the moment, at least, Orochimaru wasn't hostile to the incursions. "His reasons don't matter; the facts speak for themselves. Two centuries ago, the Land of Whirlpools was all but wiped out and evidence I gathered implicates him. One century ago, Heat Devil Village was destroyed and everyone inside slaughtered, again leaving behind traces of him. Fifty years years ago, in the wake of the Fourth Shinobi World War, the Village Hidden in the Ashes was eradicated. Twenty-five years ago, the Hidden Snow village was wiped out under similar circumstances. Twelve years ago, the Hidden Hotspring village officially 'disbanded' but the ninja occupying it were never seen again. Six years ago, Haku's clan and their entire village was slaughtered, and three years ago, the Hidden Sound was destroyed by the Tanikage. That makes us long overdue for another one of his attacks, and the Hidden Star is a natural target."
The problem with that reasoning is that Haku destroyed her own clan, Kame thought. However… if he isn't lying, and the Tanikage really did all of that… "Why not tell the great villages about him?"
Orochimaru's sneer answered the question for him. The visible disgust and pride made crystal clear his opinion on asking for help and essentially admitting defeat to the Tanikage. "No, the great villages are blind. Immediately after the Hidden Sound was destroyed, they were very quick to lay the blame at my feet. I don't need their aid to kill the Tanikage." His eyes dropped out of the middle distance and refocused on Kame. "Now, go. You're to deal with the Hidden Whirlpool and Hidden Waterfall tomorrow, after which we'll lay our final plans. I hope, for your sake, that these next two diplomatic missions prove more successful."
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After the eerie Hidden Rain and struggling Hidden Star, it was surprising to Kame when the Hidden Whirlpool proved to be a completely normal, even thriving village. The Jettokage's silence at the summit left Kame unsure of what to expect, but whatever he had been predicting was not this. In fact, the Whirlpool's many occupants and clearly flourishing economy were both in great health, and its downtown district had more shops than the Sand or the Leaf. The village itself was built out on the water, but unlike the dark and murky moat of the Hidden Rain, the sparkling blue oceanwater simply added to the beauty of the Whirlpool. Made mostly of stone, the huge numbers of buildings spread out onto the mainland and even further into the water, with evidence of construction happening even right then. The buildings themselves had foundations than plunged straight into the surprisingly shallow oceanwater, while networks of bridges and sidewalks made the city traversable and even hustling.
As Kame and Haku walked along the wide main road of the village, constructed of stone and leading directly to the various buildings rather than connecting with bridges, he shied away from the side streets that led out over the water. Growing up in a desert, Kame hadn't ever bothered to learn how to swim, and although he'd heard of the water-walking, he wasn't anxious to try to learn the practice right then and there.
Happy citizens, some clad in the distinctive blue vests of Whirlpool shinobi and wearing the headbands with the swirling spiral pattern, and some in regular civilian wear, filled the streets. Disguised as one of the civilians, Kame itched to enter one of the many, many shops but stayed his course and tried to remain inconspicuous. It wasn't hard to meld into the throng of people as he and Haku gradually made their way towards the Jettokage's tower, meeting no opposition from any of the ninja they passed.
As they walked, Kame took a moment to consider the upcoming negotiations. After the summit, he'd looked into the recent official histories of the present villages, as well as Orochimaru's information on them. The Hidden Star he'd seen in Orochimaru's data was mostly in line with the one he'd seen and the one described in the official books; a village that had long tried to compete with larger ones but with the coming of peacetime had found it harder to stay relevant in the shortage of ninja work.
The Hidden Rain was another story. Neither Orochimaru nor the official records had much information on it after the Great Rebuilding, and even after visiting it in person Kame wasn't sure what was going on within it. His best guess was that the Amekage had used some sort of combination resurrection/genjutsu on the ninja, but that still didn't explain their similar appearances.
Moving on to the Hidden Whirlpool, it was a near-opposite to the Hidden Star. As an age of alliances and peace had been announced, the Mist had been resistant at first but eventually snapped into line. Because of this delay, the wave of unadaptable shinobi who became missing-ninja was much larger and came later than it did for the other villages. Said missing-ninja had moved out into other lands, and the Hidden Whirlpool that had just been re-established by the first Jettokage was in a prime position to take missions to deal with them.
Off of these initial vast profits, the Whirlpool had solidified itself as a legitimate ninja village and actually earned the regular business of the Land of Waves, not to mention large chunks of the Lands of Fire and Water. The first Jettokage was hailed as a genius and as a powerful shinobi, even more so when he'd driven off the three-tails singlehandedly and forced it to retreat towards the southern oceans where it died presumably of its wounds. Since then, the Hidden Whirlpool had only grown as the Jettokage brought together the remnants of both the Chinoike clan and the Uzumaki clan.
The Chinoikes' ketsuryugan eyes and Uzumakis' red hair were both visible in several of the shinobi that Kame and Haku passed on the streets. Kame was shaken out of his thoughts when they arrived at their destination: the tower of the Jettokage, which was at the edge of the city rather than the center. As they approached, a ketsuryugan-eyed guard stepped forward and and challenged them: "State your purpose or leave."
"I'm here to meet with the Jettokage on behalf of the Daimyo of the Land of Salt." No such land existed, but Orochimaru had promised Kame that that specific introduction would get him in for a meeting. Sure enough, at the mention of the Land of Salt, the man's eyes widened and his lip curled slightly.
Does he know who we really are? Kame wondered, but it was a moot point as the man reluctantly waved them forward. As they stepped into the tower itself, the guard gave them one last warning: "Try anything and we'll make you regret it, scum."
Kame, who'd never been one to get upset by the kind of masculine trash-talking that it seemed many people were susceptible to, simply brushed off the threat. Miriki's insults, he thought, now they're a different story. He makes an art form out of it… he felt himself sadden slightly in memory of his friend that he hadn't seen for half a year.
He and Haku continued forward and were directed up a long staircase that spiraled around and up through the tower. Along the way, they stepped on a seal on the ground that dispelled their disguises. Finally, they reached the office of the Jettokage himself and waited patiently until a guard opened the door from the inside and waved them forward to stand before the Jettokage's desk.
Kame walked over until he stood about a meter from the Kazekage's desk, only to see a black seal fade into sight on the ground under his feet. The guard closed the door and spoke in a tone that was about as distrustful as the other guard's: "That seal doesn't allow lying from the people inside it. Hope it isn't too difficult to have some honesty."
Again Kame ignored the jab and faced the Jettokage, who looked even more exhausted than he had at the summit. Deeply sunken eyes with large bags underneath them gazed at Kame and Haku tiredly, and his expression clearly said, 'get on with it.' Kame swallowed nervously before making his request: "Jettokage, I'd like to request-" Wait, there are still Whirlpool ninja in the room. "Uh, my request contains very sensitive information that could cause problems were it to fall into the wrong hands…"
The Jettokage slowly turned to look at the guards and nodded once. Kame wasn't sure how to respond, but it turned out he didn't have to; the guards exited and closed the door once more behind themselves. "Lord Orochimaru has asked for your aid in his upcoming assault on the Hidden Valley village."
The Jettokage didn't respond at all, so Kame anxiously continued, starting to panic a little. "We intend to kill the Tanikage and end his…" Wait, he thought, the Jettokage doesn't know about the history with the Tanikage. Then again, the Tanikage did originally… "We want to claim vengeance against the Tanikage for the Hidden Sound and the original Hidden Whirlpool. Don't you want to see the man who's eradicated so many innocent villages brought to justice?"
The Jettokage finally spoke in a wheezing whisper that caused Kame to notice just how old he really was: "Why is Orochimaru better?"
"Well… because Orochimaru cares-" Kame choked off in the same way he had during the interrogation all those months ago in the Sand. He made another attempt: "I know that Orochimaru has hurt less-" and again, the seal didn't let him lie. "Ugh. I assume that Orochimaru hasn't killed as many people as the Tanikage."
"And why is that?" The whispered question threw Kame for a loop briefly.
"Because I trust-" No, I don't. "Because I think he's a-" He's not a good person. "Because I have to believe that." Kame finally spoke the truth, and it shook him a little bit. The Jettokage still looked expectant, so partly because of his own mental turmoil and partly because of the seal, Kame just spoke his mind. "I have to think that Orochimaru is a good person and is telling the truth, because if he isn't then that makes me evil and a reasonless murderer."
Haku looked at him with concern evident in her expression. "Kame, are you-"
"He uses children." The whisper of the Jettokage still carried enough wait to quiet Haku almost immediately. "Accept your responsibility." Kame shook his head. "I know the cost of lying to myself. Until you can tell me with absolute certainty that you-"
"I'll do as Orochimaru wishes," Kame said without any more hesitation. "I understand that he's done terrible things and will likely continue to do terrible things, but I don't care."
Haku's concerned look only grew stronger, while the Jettokage sank back into his chair defeatedly. "Go," he said, tired again, "My answer is no. The Tanikage and Orochimaru are two evils, but I will not choose a lesser."
The guards came back in and Kame left, applying another transformation jutsu once past the seal that would dismiss it and then marching in complete silence until the Hidden Whirlpool was far behind them. Finally, Haku spoke tentatively: "Kame, are you-"
"I'm fine," Kame snapped.
"No you aren't." Haku's eyes bored into his own and he had to turn away, unable to meet her gaze. "Is Orochimaru… what's going on?" He didn't respond. "Kame?" She spoke more and more urgently. "Kame, what's going on with you!?"
"I don't know," Kame finally muttered. "I think… I don't know, but every second I spend doing Orochimaru's dirty work makes me… I'm evil." Haku started to argue back, but he talked right over her. "I let Hiretsuna kill some kids the other day. I saw Kinzoku murder two ninja and just worried for myself. I saw the Hoshikage trying to do her best with a starving village and all I could think about was how selfish she was for not helping me out…"
Haku grabbed his shoulders and looked straight into his eyes. "Kame, no. What were you supposed to do in any of those situations? Don't apologize when you didn't do anything wrong."
Kame sucked in breath to defend himself, but ended up letting it out raggedly instead and turning back to the road. I think I should feel better after that, he thought, but deep down he just felt worse as he realized that once again Haku had seen him in pain and helped him. It brought his mind back to one night in the Hidden Sand where he hadn't done the same.