So. Life's been busy. Couldn't even peck out a couple of thousand words over the days. I should be working on F:SC (I am, for those who read it, btw). Saber ftw.

Anyway. Thanks gaiz, for your humorous responses to that sex scene. I received a review from someone concerned over the rating. No worries, though. This WILL be bumped up to M, just not yet. You'll have suitable warning ahead of time before it gets to that part.

Guest reviews:

FanaticFanGirl: Pfft. Yugito wouldn't be able to subject herself to that humiliation. In my mind, she's totes a virgin. An adorably shy, easily embarrassed virgin. On second thought, let's dump her in the men's bathing area, just for fun! As for Gaara - Hotaru will prolly meet him. Who knows. And will they be a couple? Pfft. No. Hotaru digs older guys and women. Dating anyone younger would be like dating her own kid. lol

J: Yeeeeeeah, that mental arc was cray-cray, huh? Need to liven things up a bit, yo!

Guest: You're so polite. I'd prolly laugh, if I weren't shocked, and then go get a camera for blackmail's sake.

Chibinelly: So, you'd pull a Uchiha. They love gouging out their eyes.

"The dawn alights every feature, every touch of nature, every taste of beauty, and with each approaching one, I proudly move forward through life to accomplish whatever assigned duty of me. Regret is not something I lack, but I've gone too far – I can never turn back. So, I'll instead look on and on at that wondrous haziness that shrouds you as you rise up above. I will continue to push, to forge, to be ever more; I'll continue growing stronger, as ever defiant as you, that sun I have always loved."

Slowly opening my eyes to the pitch-black of the night, I groaned and tried turning over onto my side for some more rest. Obviously, night time equated to sleep time, so one could hardly blame me for wanting to do exactly that. It was another five minutes before I realized that my body was completely amped up and ready to take on a new day. I turned back around to squint at the clock on my bureau, only to see it read out that it was three in the morning.

My body begged to release its energy on the world and cause chaos and destruction, or at least get food.

My body could go fuck itself. What normal person gets up at three in the morning?

Ten minutes later saw me grumbling to myself as I shuffled down the hallway into the toilet room, popping back out some time later to instead shuffle into the bathroom itself. I freshened up, washing my face, brushing my teeth, and whatever else would give the illusion that I was completely ready to take on the new day. I was walking out of the bathroom when the door to my sister's room opened and she came out, her dark eyes meeting mine almost immediately. The two of us looked at one another for a bit before she shifted her gaze away without a word, and walked past me into the living room.

Clucking my tongue, I turned away to go back to my bedroom, but stopped myself and frowned. I put my hands on my hips as I considered the current situation – we couldn't go out on a mission the way we were. It was just asking for trouble, one way or another. With a long, dramatic sigh, I turned back around and went into the living room, staring at my sister as she gracefully moved about the kitchen.

"Morning," I greeted, leaning against the kitchen table as I watched her.

Anko simply gave me a nod, and I relaxed along the length of the table, trying to stretch my hands to reach the other side. I was just some centimeters short of doing so.

"When's our mission start?" I asked, sticking to something as comfortable and not emotionally-inclined as mission parameters.

Anko cracked about ten eggs into the pan, mixing them with butter. After she began stirring them, adding in some pork joules (freshside!) as well, she finally answered softly.

"We need to be at the gates promptly at five."

I looked at the clock hanging up on the wall. Three-thirty. I still had to pack. Damn.

"How long's it take to get to Suna?"

"At your speed, five to six days."

When I didn't ask anything further, our conversation ground to an immediate halt. I bit the inside of my cheek, glaring at her with some annoyance before shrugging my shoulders and giving it up for a botched job. If she wasn't going to talk to me or address the elephant in the room, then fine. I didn't really care. It was pretty annoying though, and I didn't want to have to deal with a mission in absolute silence. Plus, I wasn't sure who the guy would be who was going with us. If he was any bit as silent as my sister currently was, it was going to be a long week, or however long it would be before we finally came back home.

I ran my hands through my hair – it was growing out, and I either needed to steal one of Anko's hair ties or just go to a salon and get it chopped off into some kind of (Sasha) fierce hairstyle. I'd ask my sister to do it again, but considering she couldn't go anywhere near me without wincing just barely, or adopting her ANBU emotionless state, that just wasn't going to happen.

Closing my door to my room, I quickly got started on putting my gear together, like Yugito had always helped me do. I threw in a bunch of empty scrolls, ink, brushes, additional underwear, – because, obviously – clothing, weaponry, and whatever other nonsense I could think of. I jogged out of my room and dashed into the kitchen, jumping onto the counter just for Anko to send me a glare. I ignored her as I pulled out a bunch of energy and nutritional bars for later consumption, as well as a couple of electrolyte packs for dumping into my water canteens.

"You won't need that much," she grumbled. "We'll be gone for two weeks, max."

"Some of us are still growing," I argued back. "I need munchies."

She didn't bother responding, but as I was walking back, I barely heard her mutter, "I'm technically still growing, too."

I ignored that comment, because, while it was technically true, sure, I was more important. If I thought I needed ten nasty nutritional bars just in case I needed some kind of snack, then whatever. It wasn't like we couldn't buy more. I stuffed all of the disgusting things into a side pocket and then sat back and looked at it. I tentatively picked the bag up and grunted. It was heavy. Of course it was. I'd packed half of my room into it. I didn't know any storage sealing seals, so I was stuck. Well, if nothing else, it would make for good training. I could always foist it onto my sister if things got to be too rough. I'd just throw it at her.

Bah. It would have to do.

Now, moving onto getting dressed for the day. A vest, a short-sleeved shirt, a fishnet shirt under it, cargo pants that could transform into shorts with a touch of chakra, my forehead protector... That sounded about right. Laying each article on my bed, I then began shimmying out of my pajama bottoms, folding them up and putting them on my pillow. I hopped around to pull my pants up, because putting them on the normal way is boring. It was just as I was getting ready to take off my shirt that a knock came at my door.

"Breakfast is ready," came the muffled voice of my sister.

"Gimme a sec. I'm getting dressed."

Silence answered me and I thought that she might have gone back into the kitchen, but instead, she murmured, "Can we talk?"

I let go of my shirt and crossed my room to the door in a few short strides. When I opened the door, she met my gaze silently, and I stood back, motioning for her to come in. Anko walked in slowly, sitting down on my bed next to the stuffed bag. An eyebrow raised as she stared at it with a slight frown.

"Overkill, much?" she asked, making eye contact with me.

I scoffed. "Shut up. My missions have a tendency to always go wrong."

"I'm not carrying it for you."

"Shut up. Yes, you damned well will."

A shadow of a smile crossed her lips before slipping away as she leaned forward and looked at me seriously.

"Listen, Hotaru," she began, her hands clasped in front of her. "About...yesterday. That... I'm sorry you had to see me in that position."

This forced a snigger out of me. "I don't know – there've got to be better ones out there. One where, you know, you're actually touching one another?"

Her glare was quick to come. "Knock it off, I'm being serious. I... If I had half the chance, I would've never allowed you to see me like that. That's a side of me you shouldn't have to see."

"There's nothing wrong with satisfaction," I said, more or less repeating my words from yesterday. "I didn't give a damn that you'd chosen to do that. Hell, I think Kurenai was more miffed about it than anyone else."

"If only it were that simple," Anko muttered. "There wasn't anything satisfying about it."

"How about inserting Tab A into Slot B next time?"

Her hands clenched tighter together as she shot me yet another glare. "That isn't funny."

I sighed. "Look. I get it. You don't want me to see your dirty side. That's fine, but, life isn't always so kind, you know? I saw it, you know it, I know it. Can we just move on?"

She looked less sure about the idea than I did, and I changed tactics.

"Fine," I said, trying to appease her. "Then, why were you doing it in the first place if it wasn't pleasurable?"

Anko didn't answer and only lowered her gaze. I barely kept myself from rolling my eyes.

"Next question, then. Why are you still doing it? What does it accomplish?"

Another non-answer. Okay then. "Why does it matter whether I know or not?"

That made her sit up fully. "You're my sister. My little sister."

"Your point being?"

"You died, okay?" she snarled. "Yes, I know that you were out on a mission, but for all records and purposes, you were dead to the majority in Konoha. Dead. I started having...sex...because I couldn't take it. I couldn't deal with your absence. But now..."

"Now, I'm back, and you feel that you should have stopped because the reason for beginning was a lie from the start, but you can't stop, and the fact that I now know about it makes you ashamed of your weak will and the desire to be clean pushes you into a state of further guilt, but you're so deep – no pun intended – that you don't have a clue on how to just stop cold turkey," I rambled, using my fingers as guides for the points I'd made. "Am I getting warm?"

She stared at me with disbelief, and I made a short smile. "Kurenai and I had some time to talk about your issues. So, am I getting warm?"

Anko frowned and turned her gaze downward. "Yes."

"So, you're a necrophiliac?"

Her head popped up so comically fast that I thought she'd get whiplash. "What? NO! What the hell, Hotaru?"

I looked at her with some confusion before tilting my head and reviewing what I'd said mentally. "Oh, oops. I meant 'nymphomaniac'. Hah, they're just too similar."

She looked decidedly less amused with the concept than I was. Anko scowled at me.

"No. I do not love sex."

"All right then," I conceded. "You don't love sex. You don't want to have sex meaninglessly. You don't like the person you currently are because of your actions. Seems to me like your sole option is just to stop. Period."

Anko's lips firmed. "It... It isn't that easy."

"Look," I finally snapped. "It is that easy. Let me tell you something that I feel you really need to know."

I crossed my arms over my chest, walked straight up to her, and stared her down. "To be honest, Anko, you are my hero."

Her eyes widened and when she tried to correct my way of thinking, I hissed out a warning.

"You are. Period," I told her with a scowl of my own. "Why? What other reason do I need other than the fact that you are my sister and have done everything in your power to be a good role model for me? Look, Anko, when things need doing, you do them. When you discover a problem, you fix it. When people picked on me, and you finally found out, you dealt with them by giving me the means to do something about my situation. You've never babied me, never made me feel like less than I am. Sure, things started off pretty rocky, but now?"

Sighing, I shrugged my shoulders. "You're better than this, Anko. You're better than that loser that plopped himself in your bed. You're better than everything dogging you down right now. I know you are."

At the end of my monologue, I gave her the slightest of smiles. "You're a go-getter. You can do anything you set your mind to. So, set your mind to not having sex with idiots for no reason other than to fill that empty part in your heart. I can't have sex with you or anything, and I won't even consider it, but I'm here whenever you need to talk, 'kay?"

Anko's eyes studied me searchingly before some of the shadows fled as she motioned for me to come closer. Her arms wrapped around my frame as she pulled me in close enough to feel her loving warmth. I nestled my face into niche between her shoulder and neck, my own hands clutching at the fabric of her shirt. One of her hands swept through my hair gently and I sighed softly.

"I love you, Anko," I murmured. "That won't change, even if you have sex with every man in the world. Make sure to do tightening exercises if that's your goal, though."

I heard the soft rumble of one of her rare chuckles. "When did you get to be so wise?"

"I woke up," I softly said, and it was true, both figuratively and technically speaking.

We continued to stay like that for a few more moments before she let go, a beautiful smile gracing her face. It was soft, sincere, and gentle, and I hadn't seen anything like it for a long time, since before my mission, even. She pushed me back with minimal force, nodding towards my clothes on the bed.

"Get dressed, so we can eat. We don't have much time left."

I gave her a grin and bounced backwards away from her before moving towards my clothing. I pulled my shirt up over my head, folding it and adding it on top of my pillow. Just as I was picking up my next article of clothing, I heard a sharp intake of breath from Anko as her eyes locked in on me, both narrowed deeply.

"What. Is. That?" she asked me, her words stilted.

With some befuddlement, I gave a sweep around my room with my eyes, frowning when I couldn't see what was so out of place. Anko was at my side in a flash, her hands grasping my arms as she turned me to face her fully. She slowly placed a finger against my stomach, its touch so soft that I backed away before I could let out any sort of embarrassing giggle. I patted my stomach and looked at her with annoyance.

"It's my stomach, thank you very much."

"Don't give me that," she snapped at me. "What the fuck is that scar? It's half the size of your entire damn torso!"

I looked down and understanding flooded me. "Eh. Kiri mission gone wrong. I told you my missions have a tendency to go awry."

"The fuck, Hotaru?" Anko barely managed to get out, what with how pissed off she suddenly was. "I didn't do that to you!"

"Nah, it was some other dude," I told her with a shrug. "But, I got healed. Problem solved."

She shook her head with obvious disbelief, her hand running down her face as she tried to get a hold of her emotions. Not bothering to move her hand away so I could see her expression.

"What was his name?" she muttered, most of the words muffled.

"Sorry, what?" I asked, before her hand slipped away from her face, showing an expression full of fury.

"His name," she repeated. "What was it? Do you know?"

I held up my hands placatingly, as I tended to do as of late. "Anko, listen, it's over and done, and –"

"What was his goddamned name?" she yelled out, surprising the hell out of me.

I hesitated half a beat before childishly shouting back, "Well, gee, I don't know, Anko. I was a bit too busy getting sliced up to get his name!"

She flinched back as if I'd slapped her, and ran a hand through her hair, her jaw tightening.

"What else haven't you told me, I wonder?" she whispered harshly.

"Anko," I tried slowly, but she turned away from me, snarling that I get ready so we could leave.

I sighed when she left my room and looked down at the scar running along my stomach. Truthfully, I'd forgotten all about it. The fact that we'd just made up and were back to square one again was not lost on me.

Anko and I approached the main gates at about ten 'til five, her refusing to, yet again, make eye contact with me. At least, this time it was because she was pissed and not stupidly guilty for something she had no reason to be guilty over. I trailed behind her by a few steps, my now lighter pack – Anko had promptly tossed out half of the shit I'd put in there, along with three-fourths of my snacks – hoisted on my shoulders. Two people waited at the guard station as we came up, and one was very familiar to me.

"Hitomi-sama!" I exclaimed with disbelief, causing the woman to turn and look at me, her mouth widening into a smile.

"Hotaru-chan," she replied easily, her confidence obvious.

I just stared at the woman all geared up, her own battle pack on her back. Just like yesterday, her hair was swept up into a high ponytail, her forehead protector securing it into place. I strode right up to her, a smile on my own face as I neared her.

"What are you doing here? You're coming with us?"

Hitomi chuckled and place a finger in front of her lips. "Shh. I'm technically not here. I'm not taking an active part in your mission, but I need to evaluate how you perform in a combative situation, psychologically and emotionally. Neither your sister nor your third party member are suited to such an analysis. I can also act as a med-nin if so necessary."

"Speaking of," interjected my sister, "who is our third teammate, for that matter?"

Hitomi's smile seemed to tighten but she turned her gaze to the man standing right next to her. Both Anko and I looked at the man, and I paid attention to his short dark locks and jet-black eyes. He wore a jounin vest, something that was made of tougher material than my own chuunin vest, a vest I'd made certain to leave at home because it was ugly as fuck. Anko hadn't been impressed, but nothing I'd done thus far impressed her today, so whatever. Bah, she hardly ever wore her vest either, so she could jump off a bridge for all I cared – as far as that was concerned, anyway.

The man's eyes flickered down to look at me, and he held eye contact with me for some time before closing both of his eyes.

"Greetings," he said, his voice soft, but full of authority. I noticed Anko stiffen just slightly when she heard his voice. "I am Uchiha Shisui. I will be the leader for this mission to Suna. I will also be in charge of evaluating your combative ability to ensure that it is up to par for your official rank, amongst other things."

He bowed his head slightly, and the three of us women automatically did the same in return. When he turned away to show the mission missive to the guards to prove we had authorization to leave the village, I saw Anko clench her hand into a fist.

"What's he doing here?" she muttered under her breath. "Why isn't he on the front lines?"

Hitomi turned to her. "He was rotated out, just as you were. He will most likely return once this mission is completed."

My sister hardly looked satisfied with that answer, but hid her emotions behind a mask when Shisui returned and gestured for us to leave the village. He took point, and once he saw that we were ready to go, dashed down the path away from the gates. Both Anko and Hitomi matched his speed, and I came up along afterwards, trying to match him without taking off my seals. I hadn't actively used my body for a long while though, and it was like trying to kick an old engine back into gear.

Shisui leapt into the trees and we bounced up after him, our pace never slowing until we'd traveled for around four hours straight. I'd started growing winded at around two hours, and by the time we doubled that, I was barely making it from one branch to another. The Uchiha had long since noticed a ways before, but never said a word, and most certainly never tried to switch the tempo for yours truly. In fact, he still hadn't until I came to a complete halt, my hands on my knees as I breathed in and out harshly.

Anko, Hitomi, and Shisui looked back at me, almost unforgivably in my eyes, as I basically hacked out a lung. I took in a deep breath and held out a hand to silently ask for them to wait a bit longer. Shisui seemed less than impressed.

"You finally admit to your weakness?"

I coughed another couple of times before shaking my head. "No," I wheezed. "I'm good. Just, ugh, give me a few more secs. I'll be good to go real quick."

Anko seemed conflicted when Shisui narrowed his eyes at me and said, "Strength in oneself lies in being able to distinguish when one is at fault. You should have admitted that you could not keep up that pace hours ago."

I was taken aback by his frankness and the obvious disapproval in his voice, but he ignored me after that, instead looking at the other two women.

"We will rest here for now. Mitarashi...-san, please set up suitable traps around the area to ensure we are not ambushed. Hyuuga-sama, if you could perform a quick sweep of the perimeter to detect any possible chakra signatures? I will summon a hawk for casual passive surveillance."

"Sir," Anko murmured before vanishing from sight as the veins around Hitomi's eyes bulged when she activated her Byakugan.

Shisui glanced at me as he raised his thumb to his mouth. "As for you, go rest while we finish making preparations."

I kind of felt insulted that he'd written me off so quickly, but with Hitomi doing her job and Anko gone to make traps all over creation, there really wasn't much left for me to do. I was tired and didn't really have many skills under my belt. As Shisui brought forth one of his summons, a feeling of uselessness came over me. I hadn't felt like this for a while – Yugito had treated me like an equal, and Anko normally did as well. Hitomi had treated me like a kid, but obliged me most of my desires. Kurenai...was Kurenai. 'Nuff said. Shisui, though...

Turning away, I hopped down to the forest floor, took off my pack, and sat back against a tree trunk. I crossed my arms over my chest and breathed out a slow sigh. I felt, rather than saw, Shisui appear next to me. The man sat down on the floor, crossing his legs in front of him. Hitomi was right behind him, and she rested in a seiza position. About twenty minutes later, Anko flashed into existence, and shrugged off her pack as well. Shisui gave us all a cursory glance before pulling out a scroll and placing it on the grass in the middle of our circle.

"Despite the initial reasoning for it," he began, "this break comes at an opportune time. I'm not sure how much any of you were told about the parameters, beyond that it was a simple messenger mission."

When no one said anything, he tapped at the scroll. "This scroll holds important information concerning our fight against Kumo. While I won't say it's going altogether well for our side, Kumo is too cornered from our willingness to display their underhanded tactics with the world. We aren't the only village with doujutsu bloodline limits, nor will we be the last. If they are, under the guise of peace, willing to snatch at the children of the best village in existence, there's nothing stopping them from going into all of the other countries and doing much of the same."

Shisui sat back slightly. "Obviously, all of the major villages are aware of their treasonous ways. And, while they might have the power to hold off Kumo, the smaller villages most certainly don't, and this is to say nothing of even smaller sanctums that do not even have the manpower to be called a hidden village in the first place. One of our men on the inside acquired much desired information regarding the Raikage's intention of garnering even more power for their village." His gaze shifted to me quickly. "Including something called The Lost. From what we know, The Lost is a defunct program from many years ago, but many of the participants forced into it were not merely from Kumo. They were from Iwa, Suna, Uzushio. Name the country, and they most assuredly had someone from it."

This made me stiffen slightly, and Shisui eyes made contact with mine. There was nothing warm about his gaze, and I shivered involuntarily.

"Is there a problem, Mitarashi-kun?"

"Yugito said that what with the Raikage being new to his position, he wasn't aware of the crimes committed with that program," I mustered out. "That program was before he donned the hat, after all."

Shisui turned away. "Is that what the Jinchuuriki told you? Perhaps, at the time, it had been true. However, when our spy found his way into their record vault, there was more than just twenty-year-old information stored there. He had intentions to restore it back into actuality once he realized such a thing ever existed in the first place. Not only that, but Kumo has been making various plans concerning possible occupational strategies. There is little doubt in everyone's mind that Kumo is the powerhouse of all of the nations, the biggest one, in fact. It could, single-handedly, take down any country it chose. The only reason it doesn't is that the Raikage, on the outside, professes the to be beneath him. For someone who values power, such as himself, I find it disconcertingly hilarious that he would create such a front."

Hitomi made a small sound of understanding. "This scroll is more than simply important information from the Hokage to the Kazekage, but more a critical piece that may finalize the battle between all concerned countries. Ah, and Suna has the impenetrable prison buried under leagues of sand that cannot be opened without specific techniques – techniques only taught to specific people within that village. The moment it reached the Kazekage's hands, Kumo would never be able to get to the scroll without enlisting the help of other countries, but those countries would hardly deign to step in for Kumo's benefit once they found evidence of the country's deviousness."

"In which case," continued Anko, "not only is Kumo going to be attempting to retrieve the information, but that could go similarly for any other country that happens to catch wind that we have this valuable intel. Which means the most dire threat facing us will probably be..."

I caught on almost immediately. "Iwa. Not just them, either, but all of the other little villages around that might want in on a way to bring Kumo down."

"Exactly," agreed Shisui, nodding his head. "Well said. What other dangers might we face, aside of Iwa, Mitarashi-kun?"

I mentally brought up a map of the Elemental Nations in my head. "Possibly Tani, Ishi, Kusa? Ame's still suffering inner difficulties and probably won't be able to send out anyone of significance, but I'd say the second greatest threat would more than likely be Kusa. They also have a bunch of different poisons at their disposal, and without much real understanding of everything they know, we might be at a disadvantage. Plus, illusions are their forte as well."

The Uchiha gave me a short smile of approval at that. "Precisely. We won't truly be 'safe' until we're behind the walls of Suna's village. Unfortunately, due to no one's fault of their own, we'll have to take things a bit slowly. More than likely, we will need to make a pit stop every two to three hours, so that no one takes on too much fatigue. I estimate that, providing all goes well, we will reach Suna within five days, six days at the most."

I knew no one was blaming me, but I still felt bad about being the cause of our slow progress. If I only had a way to...

"Wait, there might be a way for me to keep up with all of you."

Three sets of eyes locked on me curiously, and I chuckled hesitantly.

"I's got summons?"

What do YOU think is going to happen over the course of Hotaru's mission? Will it go badly? How will it go badly? (I want to know your answer so I can laugh in your face.)

Also, when I read stories by new authors, I always wonder at why they are all like, "OMG, TEN follows! You guys are so amazing!" Dudes and dudettes, don't limit yourself to such mediocrity! Shoot for the stars! I'm shooting for DoS's popularity. Will I ever make it that far? Nah. Will I sure as hell try? ...Sure. :)