A/N:

sarahmchugs

It was supposed to be sudden, but I hope it wasn't too jarring to read.

What do you mean try to get new eyes? She can't just regrow them like she heals broken bones and she isn't a medical nin. So even if she'd wanted to it's not like she could have just walked up to one of the corpses and taken their eyes.

cassianaswindell123

Jiro is way too cute to die. Also, don't worry too much about Chikako. She handles getting hurt herself way better than one of her friends getting hurt.

Peruna

Thank you. I enjoy any kind of feedback and since it's not like I'm getting completely overwhelmed with reviews taking the time to answer is really no problem. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter (and Kit).

Diehard gamer

Good, it was supposed to be unexpected. Things with the other yokai went well so far, but they can't all be nice and cuddly. I promise there will be plans in the future that actually work out the way they are supposed to (at least that's the plan).

Yes, technically her eyes did get ripped out. The eyeballs are gone, but there is no facial scarring or anything. Personally I think the worst part about the Witcher wraiths are their tongues. At least if we are talking Wild Hunt.

. . .

X - Orphans

The next morning - or evening, Chikako really had no idea what time it was - she woke rested for the first time in weeks. Jiro had picked berries, collected nuts and even caught two fish for them to eat. He also seemed awfully chipper for someone who had done nothing but complain about her training since it had started.

The little tanuki practically vibrated with excitement while they ate, but he kept silent. At least until Chikako had swallowed the last bite. Then he pounced on her and she reflexively snatched him out of the air.

"Open your eyes!" He shouted, completely ignoring that he was dangling from his scruff. She had no idea what he expected to happen, but humored him anyway. If he was finally ready not to break down sobbing whenever the topic came up she was game. As soon as she did as asked however his mood completely changed. She could feel his whole body sag like a wet noodle and hear a low whimper from deep within his throat.

"Jiro?" Chikako asked carefully, not wanting to upset him any more than he already was.

"He said they'd come back!" Her little tanuki shouted and she realized that he'd completely expected her to have eyes again.

"Kit you mean? He probably didn't know any better. I do heal faster than most people after all."

"No! Kit doesn't lie and he said they'd come back!"

"Don't you think I'd know if that was true?"

"He doesn't lie!" Jiro insisted, but it sounded a lot more like defeat than defiance.

"It's not a lie if he actually thought so," she tried. It didn't help. Jiro was angry and sad and probably felt betrayed as well. This time he didn't start crying though. Instead he poofed out of existence and back into the Void. Chikako was a little startled by his sudden disappearance and half tempted to call him back before he did anything stupid. It wasn't like he had to answer her summons though. If he didn't want to come he wouldn't, so all she could really do was hope that her estimation of Kit was right and the kitsune wouldn't hurt her friend.

Chikako sighed as she stood up. Sometimes Jiro really was the yokai equivalent of a moody teenager. On the bright side, while he was busy having a temper tantrum she could go looking for the Shinobazu without putting him at risk.

Thanks to her training with Kit the journey back into Frost took no time at all. If anything she was faster than she had been before and it soon dawned on her that the kitsune had tricked her after all. He'd done to her exactly what she'd done to Neji during the chunin exams, only his deception had been so masterful that she hadn't noticed until now.

During training she'd had no one to compare herself to other than Kit and he'd made sure to always keep the gap between their apparent skill levels precisely the same. If she hadn't been so exhausted all the time it probably would have occurred to her that her subjective sense of getting better couldn't have been as wrong as he'd made it seem, but he'd kept her too busy to sleep, much less come to any conclusions.

Now though, while she was racing through the canopy, it was more than obvious. Blind though she was her steps were swift and sure. She didn't even have to think about where to step and because there was no field of vision limiting what she knew about her surroundings she was ready to dodge in any direction at any time, should the need arise.

Most shinobi, unlike civilians, knew that their world had three dimensions. They were used to moving on the ground and in the air. To them an attack from above or below was no more unexpected than one from the front or back. Even with that awareness though they tended to only consider what they could see when deciding where to go next. Humans were visual creatures at heart and they would always rely on their eyes most of all. There were the rare exceptions like Konoha's Inuzuka clan, who trusted their noses above all else, but that merely meant their limitations lay with a different sense. Only the best of the best managed to take all of their senses into account when making decisions and Chikako had never been that good to begin with.

Loosing her sight had forced her to rely more on sound, smell and chakra to move around, but that wasn't the same. When she'd asked Kit for his assistance she'd hoped he'd be able to help her compensate for the loss faster. Instead of merely working around her lack of sight though, the kitsune had made her a better shinobi. It wasn't perfect of course. No sense could ever entirely replace another one, but as far as fighting was concerned Chikako had everything she needed.

Still, she wasn't going to ask Kit for more training anytime soon. He'd taken Kakashi's title of 'worst teacher to ever walk the earth' with frightening ease and then set the bar so high that she wasn't sure anyone would ever be able to challenge him for the position. At least with her sensei she knew for a fact that he wouldn't let her die, by accident or otherwise. With Kit there was always a chance that he decided she wasn't worth his time anymore.

As far as Chikako could tell the kitsune approved of intelligence, cunning and ambition. Manipulation was fine, in fact he wasn't happy without any kind of verbal sparring or trickery, while at the same time abhorring outright lies. Apparently only idiots had to rely on things other than the truth and Kit seemed to consider stupidity a mortal sin - literally in some cases.

Outside of combat Chikako hadn't seen him interact with anyone other than herself, his sister and Jiro, but it was easy to tell that the kitsune did not suffer fools. During training she'd constantly had the feeling that she'd been walking a tight rope. He tended to give her a little slack whenever she misstepped, but unless she could prove that he'd underestimated her - like in the prison - he'd punish her for it. In fact, approximately sixty percent of her training had been punishment for failing something.

If Chikako had to rank her teachers she'd put Zabuza and Itachi at the top, followed by Ibiki, then everyone who had ever taught her anything, no matter how minor. At the very bottom of that list was Kakashi. Usually she'd end there, but now she'd have to expand the list to include every single person who might possibly ever teach her anything, so she could put Kit below all of them.

Of course if she had to rank them by effectiveness the kitsune and her sensei would be at the very top. They'd also share that place with Orochimaru, Danzo and every shitty thing that had ever happened to her, forcing her to learn quickly or die. Not exactly exalted company. Not that any of them were likely to care.

One positive aspect of Kit's training was that the degree of control she had achieved meant that she could now isolate her body against the cold of Frost. Which, unlike using chakra to keep her body temperature up, cost almost no energy because she could reabsorb most of it. It also came with the added bonus of automatically masking her scent and making sure nobody could sense her body heat either, which was nice because that way she didn't have to keep three different techniques up. The only drawback was that hiding what she was doing from sensor types was a little more complicated, but all things considered she preferred this method. Although the face Kit had made when she'd demonstrated how she'd done it before had been incredibly funny. He'd spent approximately thirty minutes ranting about imbeciles and savages, giving her a much needed brake.

In any case, Chikako was back in Frost and not freezing to death. All she had to do now was find the Shinobazu so she could pay them back for hurting Jiro. With a little luck there was even a bounty on their head so she could buy some actual food instead of hunting and gathering it herself. She still couldn't cook anything that tasted better than edible and without Sai to teach her that wasn't likely to change any time soon.

Her first stop was in the nearest village that had a police station. Frost was a small land and, even though they had a Hidden Village, their shinobi force was tiny. They didn't even have enough people to patrol their borders efficiently, which was why they frequently sourced out jobs to the police, foreign shinobi and bounty hunters.

The cut Frost took from those jobs was substantial, but with Konoha to the south-west and Kumo to the east there wasn't a lot of work going around for the minor players. They usually took what they could get without making a fuss. Gatsu, the bounty hunter she'd met in Hot Water, had said that Frost was one of his favorite countries. He'd get a job and once that was done he could visit Hot Water for a short vacation and then repeat. He did warn her to stay away from Lightning though. Apparently the Kumo nin thought of the border as more of a suggestion and annexed strips of land whenever they could get away with it.

The police station Chikako found herself in by midday, she guessed, was empty except for one very helpful officer and a few mice that hid in the walls. When she asked whether there was a price on the Shinobazu the woman was more than happy to share everything she knew about the group, including their last know location. She also informed Chikako that one of their members had been captured and that a team from Konoha was supposed to escort him to Shimogakure. She suspected that the group might try to interfere and free their comrade, but didn't know which route the foreign shinobi were likely to take. She actually apologized for that, which Chikako found rather funny.

Less entertaining was the prospect of running into a Konoha team. For a mission this simple the Godaime would have likely selected rookies. Not fresh genin though because those weren't supposed to fight other shinobi. Which of course meant there was a very good chance that it would be one of the teams that had attended the Academy with Chikako.

Last time she'd chosen not to engage. This job wasn't one for trackers though, so Hinata's team, meaning Kurenai, wouldn't have been assigned to it unless there had been nobody else in the village with the necessary combat qualifications at the time. Then again, logic hadn't stopped Tsunade from sending Team 8 into Bear, so Chikako was really just guessing.

If the genjutsu mistress was present she'd have to stay out of sight, but otherwise she could probably get away with helping out a little. The only other jonin with genin teams who were also likely to recognize her on sight were Gai and Asuma. Chikako was almost certain they would ask questions first and try to throw sharp things at her later, and with anyone else she could simply pretend to be a bounty hunter. Which was technically true at the moment, so Kit wouldn't even have a reason to skin her alive if he somehow got involved.

Decision made Chikako marched out of the police station and headed back towards the border to Hot Water. The officer hadn't been able to giver her a route, but she had been certain that the Shinobazu member had been captured in the Land of Fire, so that was where the team would come from. Of course even with a small country like Frost Chikako's senses couldn't cover more than a tiny fraction of the border, so she had to do a little more digging.

Since this was an official mission the Konoha team would have to check in with one of the outposts along the border. There were only a handful of those and if some random police officer had been informed about the prisoner transfer then the shinobi at the correct outpost had been as well. All Chikako would have to do was find the right one.

If she remembered her geography correctly there was a river that originated in Waterfall, made it's path through Iron, Fire and then Hot Water, before flowing into the Haran Bay. It wasn't a direct route by any means, but unless they meant to carry the prisoner or let him move around, going by water would be fastest. It would also mean that they wouldn't enter Frost through Hot Water, but rather use one of the port towns to the south.

That in mind Chikako traveled along the south-western border and didn't let the fact that no outpost on the way was preparing for visitors discourage her. After all, that just made it more likely that her assessment had been correct. Or really, really wrong, but she decided to be optimistic for a change.

She got distracted however before she could continue her journey to include the southern harbors. Chikako cursed and moved east, into the frozen forest. She'd just thought about Gatsu a little while ago and now she could sense him with a group of weaker signatures, probably children, as well as that of a massive animal. The bounty hunter was positioned defensively in front of the small group, but unless he'd learned a few new tricks Chikako was willing to bet it was mostly for show. He'd try to fight and maybe he'd even distract the animal, but then what? Gatsu was neither samurai nor shinobi. He didn't have the training to deal with something that big.

As she got closer the contours of the chakra signatures got sharper. The animal appeared to be a bear. The biggest one she'd ever heard of had weighed about eight-hundred kilograms. This thing would weigh in at at least twice that. Other than it's size though Chikako couldn't sense anything unnatural from the animal. Of course it could have been violently pink with spots of neon green and she wouldn't have been able to tell, so she'd reserve judgment for the time being. Right now the most important thing was to neutralize the threat to her friend and his charges.

Chikako used three Body Flickers in quick succession, chaining them so that the pauses ware barely even perceptible. Her eyes wouldn't have been able to keep up with that kind of speed, but her sense of chakra could and so all that limited how far she could go were the environment, how much strain she was willing to put on her muscles and how much chakra she could spare for the technique.

She arrived on the back of the bear, wakizashi already in hand. One forceful downward thrust had the black blade sinking into the animals neck, severing the spine. It's limbs gave out and the massive bulk of it's body crashed to the ground, the noise of the impact muffled by fur and snow. Chikako leaped off and finished the kill by laying her palm on the bear's skull and releasing a burst of chakra to turn it's brain into mush. She smelled lightly charred flesh and fur from where the burst of chakra had burned the animal and there was probably gray matter dripping from it's nose. Not the prettiest death, but fast and as painless as she could have made it.

She turned around to the group at her back as if to regard them, but the action was mostly habit. If nothing else then the cloth bandage she had wound around her head would let anyone know that she couldn't actually see anything.

Silence greeted her and the tang of fear hung in the air. Gatsu's posture had relaxed slightly at her arrival, but now it was as tense as it had been before. The children seemed delighted that they'd been saved, yet they stayed back without complaint at the bounty hunter's hand gesture.

"You okay?" Chikako asked. She'd opted for friendly, but all she'd managed was neutral. Even though she knew exactly where everyone around her was, interacting with this many people she couldn't see made her a little uneasy. Especially because one of them had a club pointed at her and the rest seemed to be carrying spears or staffs. Never mind the fact that not a single one of them actually posed a danger to her health.

Another beat of silence, then: "Foxlady?"

Gatsu sounded stumped. She'd bet his eyebrows had shot to his hairline and she could tell by the movement of his head that he was looking between her face and her tattoos. Chikako hadn't been sure he would recognize her at all, but it seemed the man's observational skills and memory were as good as he'd always claimed.

"It's Wraith now, you already know that though," she smiled in another attempt to calm him down. Chikako didn't know what exactly she'd expected him to do, but the wary step he took away from her wasn't it.

"I've got no trouble with you," he said, while at the same time gripping the hilt of his club with both hands, likely to keep them from shaking.

"Relax would you?" She frowned at him. "I don't know what you've heard, but I don't kill my friends and as far as I'm concerned we got along just fine last time."

He didn't move or say anything. She didn't either. His indecision was obvious and she'd give him however long he needed to make his choice. Chikako wasn't in too much of a hurry. The Konoha team wasn't expected until two days later, at the earliest. Her and Gatsu hadn't been the greatest of friends, but she liked the bounty hunter and he'd given her valuable information when she'd needed it. If nothing else she'd rather keep him as an ally, also she wanted to know what was up with all those children. Gatsu didn't seem like the babysitting type.

"Fine," the bounty hunter huffed. "Kids, meet my friend Wraith." And suddenly she was surrounded by an army of curious little humans. Half gushed about how cool her entrance had been, excitedly jumping up and down and asking her a million questions. Could she teleport? Why did Gatsu call her Foxlady or Wraith? She didn't look like either. Could she train them? How old was she? Would she be their new big sister? Meanwhile others complained about the cold and being hungry.

Chikako drowned them, and Gatsus laughter at her discomfort, out, hoping they would leave her alone faster if she didn't react. She really had no idea how to deal with all that energy. If was like a horde of little Jiro's on a sugar high, only worse. Then one of the kids said something about the Shinobazu. Her head snapped around to the little boy and he froze in shock. The sudden motion startled some of the children so badly that they yelped in surprise or jumped away from her.

"What about them?"

"Uhm ..." He trailed off and she really wished she could have seen his face. Telling when someone was lying, or in this case knew more than they were saying, and figuring out which questions to ask to get more information was so much easier with visual clues. Gatsu didn't let her not-quite-stare at the kid for long.

"The twerps here hired me to save a guy named Gantetsu," the bounty hunter told her. "We got a problem after all?"

"Depends, what's his relation to the Shinobazu?"

Gatsu heaved a sigh that sounded as if someone had just placed the weight of the world on his shoulders. He didn't start explaining though until Chikako agreed to come with him. Getting the children fed was apparently more important than making sure they weren't on opposite sides after all. She decided to take it as a sign of trust.

He led them out of the Forest and into the port town Chikako had initially been headed for. Judging by the way people stopped as they passed, heads tracking the group, she suspected they got more than one odd look. Gatsu by himself wasn't all that suspicious if one was willing to overlook the giant club. Chikako's outfit screamed shinobi though and she supposed a bunch of armed children weren't exactly normal outside of Hidden Villages either.

The bounty hunter didn't seem to care about all the attention they got, so Chikako didn't either. She wasn't trying to keep a low profile.

"So," Gatsu started once they'd all settled inside of a restaurant by the ocean and their food had arrived. "This Gantetsu guy is part of the Shinobazu. They break into houses, kill everyone they encounter, steal whatever they can carry and burn the rest.

"Right bunch of assholes if you ask me. Anyway, Gantetsu didn't like that they were killin' kids, so he started rescuin' the little buggers and hidin' them. They got a real place in the woods. There's like two dozen more of them out there, really young ones too.

"They told me Gantetsu wanted it all to stop, but he couldn't just leave because the Shinobazu would keep doin' what they were doin'. So he decided to let himself get caught in hopes that they'd come rescue him and get sacked as well."

"And the children?" Chikako asked with a frown. "Why rescue them at all if he was just going to leave them behind. Especially if some of them are as young as you say."

"Hey!" One of the girls chimed in. "Gantetsu was good to us! He gave us money and taught us to take care of ourselves and he said he was gonna come back as soon as they let him go!"

She seemed really upset and completely oblivious to the fact that the man would most likely be sentenced to death once he arrived in Shimogakure. He might not ever have completed his shinobi training, but to most Hidden Villages that didn't make much of a difference. Frost's ninja would consider him a traitor and that alone, even without taking his other crimes into account, was reason enough for an execution.

"Well, that's why they hired me," Gatsu reassured the girl when he saw Chikako's frown. "We wait until the other Shinobazu members are caught and then I free Gantetsu."

"You?" Chikako asked incredulously. "Just you?"

"What's that supposed to mean? I know I'm not some great shinobi, but I can take a few police officers. 's not like Frost got all that many ninja runnin' around."

"They sent a Konoha team with the prisoner Gatsu. That means you'll be facing at least three shinobi, probably four, and since they expect combat it won't be a group fresh from the Academy either."

"Damn it!" The bounty hunter cursed, slamming a hand on the table in frustration. "You sure? I kinda like the kids and I'd rather not go back on my promise to help 'em out."

"Yeah, I'm sure. Even if I wasn't though, the Shinobazu got some shinobi training as well, regular police can't deal with that or they would have already been caught."

"I like you Foxlady, but you're bad luck."

"It's Wraith and I'm really not," Chikako grinned at his grumbling, but affectionate tone. "I actually got a score to settle with the Shinobazu. Can't make any promises about your guy, but if you can get him out I won't stand in your way."

"You think that blond guy from last time is gonna be with the Konoha group? Kid was really annoying, but he made it all work out in the end."

"No," was all the answer she gave him, suddenly in a somber mood. Naruto probably would have been able to make this work as well, but as far as she knew he was still on his training trip with Jiraiya and would be for another year or so.

Gatsu easily picked up on her change in mood and didn't ask any more questions. Instead they shared what information they had on Gantetsu and the Shinobazu and made plans. Depending on which Konoha team was with the prisoner Chikako would either show herself or pick off her prey after the confrontation was over. In either case Gatsu and the children would stay at a safe distance and wait for their chance to get to Gantetsu.

They made a few backup plans and discussed contingencies, but nothing too detailed. It was good to be prepared, but by now Chikako knew first hand that no plan survived contact with the enemy and getting hung up on the small things would only be a waste of time. Good shinobi needed to be able to improvise and change tactics on the fly.