(A/N) Holy shit, a lot has happened since I last uploaded. Our house got broken into and my computer was stolen, so I had to use my phone to type out replies to reviews and personal messages for a while. Good news is, my computer is back, which makes larger-scale writing viable again. Here's another chapter, hopefully the first of many for the coming weeks.


Kame kept the paper butterfly's wings flapping steadily in front of him, angling it slightly forward so it could keep pace with his walking speed while staying at roughly the same height. So far he was setting a new record, as it had been in the air for nearly fifteen minutes now, almost twice his previous highest time for keeping it off the ground. Actually, he thought, it's a little weird, every time I tried this before, I got interrupted by-

"Heya Kame!" Miriki slapped him on the back, causing him to lose concentration and drop the butterfly into the dirt of the road.

Yup, there it is. His annoyance mitigated by the fact that he had pretty much been expecting something like that, Kame responded with measured patience in his tone. "What?"

"Just wondering if you knew a guy called Hiretsuna?"

On the other hand, Kame considered, that's very unexpected. "Yeah, I knew him. Why?"

Awadatsu took her place next to Miriki and joined the conversation with an inquisitive voice. "Y'all knew him? Cool! Where'd he go?"

"Once again," Kame asked, "Why?"

"'Cause he's my dad!" Awadatsu said, without the slightest hint of shame. It almost seemed like she had absolutely no clue about what the man had done, putting Kame in a bit of a bind as to what he could say to her. Seeing his (probably pained) expression, she winced and kept going a little less happily: "Oh, it's not- I know he's a bastard, just want to know if we're gonna run into him."

Kame let out a flat "No." before losing his focus when it actually registered in his mind that Hiretsuna- Hiretsuna!- had procreated. Who would… with him? Why…?

"How? Is he dead?" Awadatsu, ever enthusiastic, held no visible sorrow even when asking about the death of her own father.

"He's…" Kame worked his mouth for a few seconds before definitively answering. "Yeah, he's dead. I'm sorry for your-"

"Don't be." Awadatsu waved a hand in a vaguely dismissive gesture, and try as he might Kame was still unable to find even the tiniest bit of remorse or sorrow in her features. "He was a total piece of work- did y'all do it?"

"Orochimaru did," Kame said, noting a small reaction from Haku. That's right, he remembered, I never really told her how he died? Focusing more on Haku than on Awadatsu now, he kept talking with quite a bit less restraint: "Orochimaru extracted the Sixtails from him, which removed the acid resistance but left the acid blood inside him, and… well, it's pretty self-explanatory from there."

"So he melted from his own acid?" Awadatsu snorted. "Guess that's only fair. Can't say I'm sad to see him go."

"But…" Kame struggled with trying to find a polite way to say what he wanted to. "Isn't there something… how did he even end up… Hiretsuna was your dad?"

"Calling him my dad isn't fair to any real dads. He never gave a crap about my mom or me 'til Orochimaru wanted the Nimideru bloodline. 'Course, then he hunts down that bastard child he heard rumors about and drags me off to be Orochimaru's prisoner for years n' years where I never get to see him even once…" As she'd been talking, Awadatsu's face had grown gradually darker and angrier, shedding the calm and happy demeanor she'd been wearing since the morning, but she seemed to realize the change and immediately leaped back to the shallow smile. "He's gone now, though."

"Nimideru clan?" Miriki tossed in a query with curiosity that was a little out of character for him, but Kame knew better at this point than to question his teammate's instincts when it came to emotional interaction.

Awadatsu responded in stride, nodding and gesturing towards her greenish hair. "Yup, Nimideru. Don't know much about us, 'cept we used to be stronger and we can do Acid Release."

Kame was about to ask what it was, but decided to wait a little while in order to avoid seeming overexcited and embarrassing himself. Unfortunately, Miriki decided to do the embarrassing for him by nodding at him and saying, "Awadatsu, you'd better explain what that is, I think Kame might explode if you don't."

She grinned at the jab and despite himself, Kame did as well, although the smile faded from his face as she started speaking. "It's pretty obvious, ain't it? I can make Acid and do stuff with it." A frown crossed her face as she concentrated on something, and then waved an arm off to the side, splattering a tree with some whitish substance that quickly melted into the bark. Kame swallowed, a little bit too reminded in that moment of Hiretsuna's nastier tendencies. "Plus I guess Orochimaru thought we were good with the Saiken or something? I don't know, but that's the real reason he picked up Hiretsuna."

Hiretsuna did say that he got the sixtails to listen to him, Kame considered. Was that because of some sort of kekkeigenkai?

Miriki's joke cut through the mild tension. "I guess it's the reason he got rid of him too, right?"

For a moment, Kame thought that to say something like that was too callous, but a glimpse of the smirking visage reminded him not to take his friend so seriously. "Yeah, I guess it was."

The conversation dipped back down again as they passed by a traveler on the road, most likely a merchant judging from the overstuffed cart and casual dismissal of them. The silence allowed Kame to think through the upcoming trial. The Land of Lightning held Orochimaru's information stockpile, his library of all the research he'd conducted besides the sensitive information on his rebirth.

It was one of the better-defended bases, and its master was one that Kame knew fairly well: a kunoichi named Kirai, one of Orochimaru's most loyal followers and just below the Sound Ninja Four and Grandmother in rank. He briefly entertained the thought of trying to reason with her but dashed it just as fast, because she was of Orochimaru's old guard and loyal to the death. Her brand of jutsu, too, was one that Kame had some brief difficulty trying to think of a way to defeat. They had hours until they reached their destination, though, so that gave him (hopefully) enough time to come up with a solution.

Alright, time to get to work, he ordered himself. Step one was the same as it always was, laying out everything he could consider about the situation in his head. The Land of Lightning base was, in keeping with the village it was designed to keep an eye on, suspended in the mountains among the clouds. However, unlike its legal village counterpart, it was not immediately visible until one approached almost directly to the main gates.

The last time Kame had been inside those gates, the library base had held forty or fifty people, most of whom were lackeys or test subjects. With the order from Grandmother to recall, that number had gone up, but to what degree Kame had no way to know. In fact, the only reason they'd been able to do as well as they had so far was the element of surprise, which may well be gone by now; the prison base had sent out people to attack them. They might not have known that it was us, Kame conceded, but soon shook away the urge to take that easy way out. No, we have to assume the worst or else we'll be the ones getting surprised and killed.

On top of that, so far the only bases they themselves had attacked were the ones in the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth. Both of those places had skeleton crews of cursemarked slaves used for defense and minor missions, but the far greater majority of their populations had been made up of scientists and lackeys. The other two had been barracks and training grounds, but the Waterfall and Rain ninja had done the hard work there, meaning that despite being nearly halfway through their targets, Kame and company had yet to encounter real resistance.

No, he recalled, Itta was definitely really resistant. That creature had nearly killed him and forced Haku past the point of no return. One fight had left Miriki permanently weakened; they definitely couldn't get caught in another one. Where did that… thing… even end up?

Right, nevermind, back to the planning. Assuming that they'd be hostile on first contact, the Land of Lightning base's occupants would be likely to refuse to lower the platform and let them in. That meant they'd be in for a long climb, almost directly upwards, while taking heavy enemy fire…

Damn. That idea went out the window as Kame realized that Haku wasn't able to climb straight up the sheer cliff surface due to her sealed-off chakra network. Maybe I could…?

"Awadatsu," he said conversationally, "can you control the acid release enough to melt handholds for Haku to climb with?"

"Sure," the jovial girl replied, before turning back to the quiet conversation she was having with Miriki. Kame took the information down, moving forward to the next hurdle- the rank and file defenders. There'd likely be more flying-, digging-, and fighting-type cursemarked soldiers, as well as several lower-level shinobi. Kirai was almost definitely the only powerhouse, but they couldn't afford to count out the soldiers in the place.

On the other hand, the scientists they likely could count out. They were almost all noncombatants, more interested in overseeing various experiments of Orochimaru's than defending them. Unfortunately (for them), cursemarked they were, so they'd have to die, and Kame would be the one to track them down by using his Stage One eyes. He discovered that very fragile chakra lines existed, stretching between the piece of paper counting every possible resurrection target to those targets themselves- though it didn't work if they were too far away.

That interaction would allow them to hunt any who tried to run, but the greater issue was dealing with those who stood and fought. Awadatsu was a genin at most, as was Miriki in a fight, while Kame and Haku were still probably each far below jonin-rank in terms of power. To take on such an extreme number of foes, especially if they coordinated to attack at once, wasn't a risk the aggressors should take.

The base was built into the mountain itself, so trying to bring it down from the outside was a fool's errand. Sneaking bombs into it would require more stealth than any of them were capable of, and as Kame had already thought through, a full-out assault was a terrible idea. What's left, he wondered, what's the angle?

First off, he'd have to designate people to deal with Kirai. The Sound's 'Heartbreaker' had a very distinctive jutsu, one that had earned her a slightly less glamorous nickname- The Succubus. When Kame had first seen it, he'd actually been a bit reminded of Miriki, insofar at least in how when she defeated her opponents, it wasn't by fighting. Haku cannot be allowed to fight her, he decided- Kirai's enslavement genjutsu would be inescapable for someone who couldn't use genjutsu release.

A quick verbal check revealed Awadatsu didn't know genjutsu release, either, so she and Haku couldn't be in the fight. That left Kame and Miriki as the only two able to deal with Kirai, and given Miriki's… personal weaknesses, Kame didn't have a whole lot of faith that his less reliable teammate would be of much help.

Still, a warm body in the fight who could release genjutsu was enough. Miriki and Kame would have to be the ones to end Kirai, while Haku and Awadatsu dealt with the incoming hordes of lesser shinobi. They could probably do that, as long as they had a good defensive position, right?

Kirai herself would be a challenge. She knew a very specific brand of enslavement genjutsu that would turn whoever fell first, Kame or Miriki, into her thrall. The kicker was that the victim would continue to see and experience whatever they expected to be happening, even as their body itself did as she commanded. The only way to fight someone like her was to constantly release genjutsu in case they'd been caught, but that meant pausing in the middle of a fight to do a chakra-control exercise over and over. The genjutsu could only be used through skin-to-skin contact, but considering how instantly it took effect, the victim might not even notice they'd been touched and would continue merrily on in their head as their body fought to the death for Kirai.

"Alright, guys, here's what we're going to do…"

( ) - ( ) - ( ) - ( ) - ( ) - ( ) - ( )

Kame readied his wind jutsu as Awadatsu darted forward, lobbing small projectiles of acid that each sizzled a few inches into the stone of the mountain before fizzling out impotently. The base had yet to attack them, but one couldn't be too careful- lowering their guard at any point could lead to a nasty surprise, followed by death. The Nimideru girl peppered the cliff face at rough intervals, yet still no attack came… why would?

"Genjutsu release!" Kame focused his chakra, but nothing changed. Still, he reassured himself, better safe than sorry. Awadatsu was still making excellent progress on her mountainous target, cutting into it with attack after attack, until finally one of her globs of acid disappeared into the illusion covering the base's door.

Now came what was probably the most tactically sketchy part. Kame ran chakra down into his feet while holding more in his forearm and began to charge up the sheer cliff face, ready at any point to release the wind he'd prepared to knock away any incoming projectiles. There was still no resistance, but he didn't let up until he saw his leg disappear into the illusion, following it in until he found himself standing in the alcove before the door to their objective.

He heard Miriki's quiet steps and Haku's somehow even quieter climbing, but Awadatsu's loud breathing and haphazard climbing was enough to make him wince and wonder how they still hadn't been caught-

"Genjutsu Release!" Nothing again. Little flashbacks to the methodically executed Land of Rain base and the ritually sacrificed Land of Waterfalls base both put him on edge, but thus far he had no reason to suspect a similar outcome here. His three allies each clambered up onto the ledge, so Kame finally reabsorbed his wind chakra and straightened up enough to step over to the door, reaching out to open it before catching himself.

Right, we're enemy ninja. Shaking his head ruefully, he reached into a pack and removed several paperbombs, laying them onto the massive steel door in a rough rectangle. While the door was designed to withstand attacks from elemental jutsu, Kame knew the seals placed on it created a defensive anti-chakra field a few inches out from the door itself. However, that wouldn't help when the paperbombs were within the border of the field; in fact, it would only help, because when Kame made the detonation handsign, the resulting explosion was held in. The blast, confined to the area just before the door, was roughly tripled in effectiveness and rather than neatly blowing a rectangular entryway, Kame's bombs shattered the gate into a million metal pieces of shrapnel and sprayed it into the base.

The light of the blast momentarily revealed an interior chamber with quite a few enemies in it, but when the shrapnel and explosion had done their work, few were left alive and none were left in any shape to put up a fight. Kame stepped in, eyeing his surroundings warily, but his initial analysis had seemed to be correct- in a stroke of luck, every defender within the base's doors had been incapacitated in the blast. In fact, it almost seemed too lucky, and Kame quickly brought his hands up to make the sign: "Genjutsu Release?"

Nothing. Kame made his way forward much more carefully now, tossing back some instructions for his teammates: "Okay, remember the plan, guys. We stick together until Kirai shows up, then me and Miriki fight her and Awadatsu and Haku peel off. Okay?"

Three confirmations sounded from behind him, so he stepped forward and began to methodically check each and every downed foe, slashing throats with the kunai whenever necessary. All of the downed enemies were lower-tier cursemarked foes, which made killing them quite a bit easier on Kame's conscience. He noticed out of the corner of his eyes Haku and Awadatsu stepping in with bare hands and acid respectively to aid him in his grisly work. Meanwhile, that little piece of paper he kept in his pocket just kept counting down: from 519 down to 518, 517, 516, and finally 507 by the time they'd finished.

Looking back, Kame reached into his pack and drew out some twine, as well as a paperbomb he'd reverse-engineered from the papers Orochimaru had extricated him and Haku from the Leaf with. The two bombs were flattened against each other and would both go off if separated, making it perfect for traps. I don't think anyone will be able to sneak past us, Kame reasoned, but I'm setting up a safeguard either way.

Ten bombs and ten tripwires later, Kame was fairly sure that no one would be leaving the base without his knowing, especially not the scientists. The shinobi underlings would probably miss the traps, but the mercenaries were more competent and could probably spot them a mile away; that said, the mercenaries didn't have cursemarks and Kame didn't need to worry about their escapes.

When he led the other three around the corner, they entered the central hall of the library, standing on a ledge that ran all the way around the massive hall with stairs leading down to the library floor and exits on either side. To the right was a staircase leading down into the lower levels, where the researchers would be testing their theories, and to the left was a staircase leading up to the living quarters and barracks. However, right before them was the library itself, a massive stockpile of information contained within books and scrolls of all shapes and sizes, fitted on a labyrinth of shelves with only the dimmest of light.

It was strangely abandoned, but Kame knew that enemies could be hiding within the massive shelves. He knew he should probably lead with a round of explosives, but something inside him shied away from damaging all that precious knowledge. By the time he gathered his nerves, it was too late, because emerging from the ground level up onto the top of one of the shelves was Kirai herself.

"Haku, Awadatsu, go. The ninja are on the right." Kame knew he had to get them out before Kirai had a chance to catch them in a genjutsu, and that meant distracting the woman. When it came to distractions, though, he had an ace in the hole. "Summoning Jutsu!"

When Kumokafu emerged from the smoke, she was looking at Kame boredly, then tracked his outstretched arm to see where he was pointing, eyes finally settling on the enraged Kirai. Wordlessly, she shimmered like a mirage, colors shifting around until they finally settled on a new form: that of… Orochimaru.

Well, I guess I know why she's so loyal now, Kame noted to himself. Haku and Awadatsu made it to the door and fled up the stairs, which was exactly what he'd hoped for-

"Genjutsu Release?" This time, a little put off by the last three times he'd tried and it had been unnecessary, Kame was less than surprised when his senses remained as they were. That meant he could continue from where he was right then: looking towards a confused, rapidly growing to be enraged Kirai. At the moment, she was hesitant to attack Kafu's faux Orochimaru disguise.

"My… my lord Orochimaru?" she whispered, eyes wide. "I knew it! I knew you couldn't be gone…" She took a few steps forward towards Kafu, reaching for something in her pocket. "Oh, my lord Orochimaru, you'll have to do better than that!" The last few words were spoken rapidly as she drew and threw a kunai forward towards the summon.

Kafu tried and failed to dodge, taking a direct hit and disappearing in a puff of chakra smoke. Kame glanced over at Miriki, who was eyeing Kirai with a fair bit of interest, before looking back to her himself and catching sight of her beginning to transform into her Second State, growing long and leathery bat's wings and increasing in size, her clothes replacing themselves with a dark armor that barely covered her waist and chest. Kame knew that the armor was just for show, but show it did and Miriki seemed to enjoy it too much.

"Miriki! Snap out of it!"

The Kosuki shook his head a little bit and shot Kame a look. "What, I'm not allowed to enjoy the view?"

"I'll let you enjoy a whole lot more than just the view…" Even Kirai's voice was changed, from a harsh bark to a silky-smooth flowing tone, sounding almost as though she was whispering directly into Kame's ear. "Why don't you lay down your weapons and come with me, I promise I won't hurt you… at least, not in any ways you don't beg for."

Miriki grinned at her. "Oh, I get it…" he tossed a kunai at her, but she evaded it seemingly with ease and waved a finger at him.

"Tut tut, don't be like that… I'm a lover, not a fighter-"

"Yes!" Miriki pumped a fist in the air, much to the complete surprise of both other people in the library. Kame actually turned all the way over to look at his friend, hoping his mind's confusion made it into his eyes, but Miriki ignored him and kept talking: "Yes! Finally, another woman of culture. I see you are also a master of the persuasive arts; this will be a battle for the ages!"

"What kind of little-" Kirai started, breaking character, but she regained control quickly and began to drift towards Miriki with casual flaps. "What sort of battle are you talking about, dear? I can think of more than one way I want to tussle…"

"I'm sure," Miriki replied. "I have that effect on most women. It's nice to see that even against other practitioners of the Way of the Open Mouth, I still have it." Suddenly, Kame noticed a spicy taste in his mouth that hadn't been there before. He frowned and touched his lips, but seconds later dropped the hand, realizing what was going on.

Miriki wants me to do something, he concluded. Attack her? I guess someone has to break the standoff… He surreptitiously dropped a hand down to his right pants pocket, extricating a smokebomb, and then folding it in on itself over and over. In terms of quick releasing, the more dense the projectile, the easier it was to throw from an awkward position. Meanwhile, his other hand dropped behind his back, using a sheet of paper he'd folded into an airplane but then unfolded, making the task of putting it back into that airplane shape a lot simpler.

Meanwhile, Miriki was still at it, now seemingly starting to run out of steam. "So, anyway, how are thing with you? Is the human slave trade working out?"

Kirai frowned. "What-"

"It must be, if someone as smart and capable as you is doing it." Miriki smiled at her, but his eyes flashed over to Kame briefly. "We should do this more often. Do you want to go get dinner after this?"

Kirai opened her mouth to respond, but quickly closed it and narrowed her eyes in annoyance. "I've had just about enough of this for now. We can talk as much as you want once you're in my dungeon and the betrayer," she jerked her head towards Kame, "is dead."

Miriki shrugged. "Alright. So, about Orochimaru…" he fanned himself with a hand. "What a hunk, am I right?"

Kame knew his friend well enough to be expecting something like that, but Kirai evidently was not, as she untensed most of her body, confusion spreading onto her face. "What the f-"

That was all the opening he needed. Kame launched the now-tiny balled up smokebomb, setting it off about three-quarters of the way towards his foe, immediately following it up with an activation of his cursemark's first and second stages, finishing with the airplane. Kirai had leaped up in response to the spreading smoke, but her movements lagged from the surprise attack and Kame's explosive flew straight and true. One handsign blew it up directly beside her chakra signature, which fell towards the ground.

It can't have been that easy, Kame thought disbelievingly. Wait, oh right. "Genjutsu Rel-"

"What the hell, dude?" Miriki elbowed him, interrupting his thought process. "I didn't want to flirt with that woman any longer than I had to, but you had me doing it for two goddamn hours before you finally actually did something!"

"Sorry, I-" Kame stopped the instinctual apology. "Wait, what am I apologizing for? You were the one who didn't tell me anything about what you were planning to do! How was I supposed to know that's distraction banter and not just you being you?"

"Oh please!" Miriki folded his arms over his chest. "You know just as well as I do that my standards are much higher than that six-out-of-ten hag."

"Hag?" Both genin turned to see Kirai flapping, evidently hurt from the explosion but not down for the count. She gestured towards herself, looking down at the demonic armor she was wearing: "Six-out-of-ten!? How dare you insinuate that I'm beneath you?" She took a deep breath like she was about to rant. "I am the chosen of Orochimaru himself, his greatest ally, and you think that I'm-"

Then her talking cut off abruptly, replaced by grim proclamation of: "Wind Style: Relentless Flurry." A surging wave of air that blasted into Kame and Miriki both, flinging them back into the wall and continuing to press them against it. While using one hand to apparently keep up the barrage of wind, Kirai produced a kunai in the other and flung it into the windstream. It accelerated rapidly and Kame had to use most of his strength in order to budge his leg just enough to avoid taking the blade.

"Get ready, Kame," Miriki said through gritted teeth. Kame frowned- What is he talking about?- but nonetheless prepared himself mentally for whatever was about to happen. Kirai casually flung out another kunai, this one narrowly missing Kame's arm, but suddenly jerked in midair and apparently lost control of her jutsu. With the warning he'd received, Kame was quick to rise to his feet and launch a few odd shuriken towards the temporarily weakened Kirai.

Kirai spat, then frowned, and then straightened and dodged the shuriken just in time. "That's a weak excuse for a genjutsu."

Miriki shrugged. "Hey, I'm not pinned up against a wall anymore."

"Don't tell me you didn't enjoy it at least a little bit," Kirai said, now apparently completely back in control of her faculties and temper. "I've seen a hundred boys like you- you're looking for someone like me to show you how fun it can be to give up."

Kame frowned in confusion at his longing gut reaction to her words; the banter that had previously been merely annoying to him was now sounding oddly enticing. Is this her backup for when the enslavement genjutsu doesn't work? It's like Miriki, but with an added mental push for resistant people.

However, aware as he was, hopefully he wouldn't fall to the siren call. Tuning out, he began folding in his hands and balling up Wind chakra behind him using his cursemark's second stage, barely registering her continued words: "Give in. Stop fighting and just let yourself join my side. I promise you'll enjoy a life with me…"

Kame finished his folded paper shuriken, six of them, three made from firebombs and three from normal explosives. At the same time, all three condensed Wind chakra clumps behind his back became ready, so all he really needed before launching his attack was information on what Miriki-

Oh, no… Kame's teammate was currently walking towards Kirai with a dumbfounded expression on his face. Shit, Kame thought tightly, rapidly trying to figure out a way to snap his teammate out of it without giving up his own attack- unfortunately, with his chakra and hands otherwise disposed, there was nothing he could think to do.

Wait, I can still… "Miriki! You have to wake up!" Kame knew it was a long shot, but was still slightly let down when his friend didn't show any sign of response.

Kirai laughed. "Stronger ninja than you have failed to break my charms. Your little friend had already seen how hopeless your situation is…"

At the mention of Miriki, Kame's eyes flickered back over to his ally. Miriki was now at the edge of the balcony, looking up at Kirai with an expression of complete worship on his face, one arm outstretched towards her as she moved towards him. His other arm was behind his back, one finger slightly waving towards Kame-

He was beckoning. Does that mean he's faking being caught? Or actually trapped, and asking for help? Either way, Kame had to do something immediately or both of their lives would be forfeit, so he decided to trust that his teammate had things under control and began to stride forward, dragging the condensed chakra behind him.

Kirai reached Miriki and stretched out an arm to touch the boy's face, which Miriki followed with his own hand on her arm, but just before she made contact, he snapped his fingers together around her armored forearm and yanked her towards him. With a shout of surprise, she tumbled forward, landing in a crouch and turning back towards Miriki with murder in her eyes…

But now she was close enough for Kame to go to work. He closed his eyes in concentration briefly before sending forward one his of paperbomb shuriken towards Kirai's stomach. Miriki dove away from her, clearing the area for Kame to be able to let loose, while Kirai was still unsteady. She narrowed her eyes, but off-balance as she was, she chose to dodge it rather than deflect it, twisting to let it fly a meter or so past her. Big mistake.

Kame detonated his bomb and caught her in the blast, sending her flying slightly forwards and to the side. Taking the damage far more readily than he'd expected, her eyes actually flashed as she altered course in midair to come towards him, hand outstretched and ready to end the fight-

But Kame already had one of his condensed wind-chakra balls held slightly in front of him and when she was millimeters away, he released it. The resulting blast of force sent him flying backwards, far from her, while she slammed into the stone ground hard enough to send little cracks through it. The resilience of her cursemark was not to be underestimated, though, and she stood up with only the faintest hint of being weakened.

Miriki was now behind her, leaning on the railing with a smug expression. "Oi, Kame, can we hurry it up? This is starting to bore me."

Kame growled and Kirai half-turned, indignant again, but Kame's kunai was deflected as she didn't quite take the bait and turned back around just in time. "What, is that it?" She began making handsigns, some sort of wind jutsu, and Kame narrowed his eyes, preparing his other two condensed wind blasts just in case he needed to dodge something.

All of a sudden, Kame felt a sweet taste in his mouth- too sweet, like pure sugar. Looking over at Miriki, the other boy betrayed no signs of having done anything, leaving Kame confused as to why he'd…

Wait. Kame narrowed his eyes, remembering the close call seconds ago where she'd nearly touched his face. Miriki's go-to taste to incite action was spicy, so the change to sweet meant he was trying to get some other sort of message across. Could Kame have been caught in the enslavement genjutsu?

He hesitated, the two balls of wind chakra floating in the air behind him. For him to gather his chakra in the requisite pattern to perform genjutsu release, he'd have to abandon them both and essentially waste his entire Stage Two. Did he really trust Miriki's judgement that much?

Yes, I do, he decided, dropping the chakra and dampening his own inner chakra to almost nothing. "Genjutsu Release," he whispered, and suddenly everything changed.

He was standing facing Miriki, kunai drawn, apparently during a pause in fighting. Kirai's quiet flaps sounded like they were behind him at the moment, and her voice trailed out: "Do it, slave. Pin him down so he can join my little collection."

Kame's eyes next turned towards Miriki, who was also wielding a kunai, and his expression was unchanged. However, the sweet taste was gone without Kame having dispelled it by swallowing, meaning that Miriki knew about the situation as well.

That gave Kame the confidence to charge forward and engage Miriki in taijutsu, trading knife blows. Like all the practice rounds, Kame came out on top very easily and disarmed Miriki within seconds, knocking his former teammate to the floor and holding the kunai at his throat. Now Kirai's voice was closer and more triumphant: "Can't you see? Fighting me is pointless." Kame tried to mentally judge the distance, hoping that his hearing was accurate. "Just give in, and let me take care of everything, forev-"

When she came close enough for her outstretched arm to enter Kame's field of vision, he swung his own arm back and buried the kunai into her torso. She choked on her words and then shouted in pain, but Kame had already drawn a paperbomb from his pouch and swung his other arm around to slap it onto the side of her waist while she was still shocked. The hand that had held the kunai was now gathering Wind chakra as he rolled forward and away from her grasp, finally turning to see her incensed and breathing heavily, bleeding from a deep stomach wound.

"You little piece of scum…" she trailed off, clutching the stomach wound, but to Kame's horror began to straighten up. "But, no matter. You might have gotten lucky there, but the fact remains that you can't handle me. You'll be lucky to last another thirty seconds, no matter what little tricks you try to pull."

"That's what she said," Miriki noted from the ground.

Kirai turned towards him, distracted enough for a half-second for Kame to raise his arm unnoticed and release the Wind chakra there: "Wind Style: Gale Force Jutsu." She was launched flying, as was he, and his landing was a lot rougher than her careful midair repositioning with her wings, but it didn't matter, because he raised one hand and made the sign to detonate his paperbomb point-blank on her waist.

The difference between a point-blank detonation of a paperbomb and the earlier blast that had caught her at its edge was stark. This time, Kirai didn't even have enough time to speak again before being enveloped in a brilliant blast of red and orange flame, leaving behind only tattered remains of her clothes and a few body parts when the smoke cleared.

Before celebrating, Kame made the signs one last time: "Genjutsu Release," but nothing changed and he allowed himself a sigh of relief. Miriki stood to match him and nodded towards their slain foe.

"What a pity. I was lying before, she was at least a eight-out-of-ten-"

Kame shook his head, allowing the tiniest smile to creep onto his face before he laughed. In that moment, Miriki's usually grating humor seemed like the funniest thing in the world to him, so he just let it all out. When he finally finished chuckling and pulled out the paper tracker, he found that the upper level had almost been completely cleared of cursemarked ninja, while the lower level's signatures had all mostly grouped up to hide.

It took a few minutes for them to meet up with the other two shinobi in their party and catch each other up on details, before they turned their attentions to the final objective in the base: the researchers. Another few minutes passed where they trailed down long tunnels, passing by rooms full of scrolls and even some experiments, before finally arriving at what seemed to be a larger hall of sorts.

The door was resistant for a few seconds before Haku kicked it off its hinges to reveal a huddled mass of scientists and their servants, looking at the Shinobi Union squad like they were demons come to life- which was a little strange, considering Kame and Haku's cursemarks had both run out by this point.

Kame made a few handsigns but faltered when one of the men towards the front of the group spoke in a pleading voice: "Please, spare us! We didn't hurt anybody!" A few more pleas joined the chorus, and Kame was filled with doubt- Can I really do this? Execute a bunch of helpless people?

For once, Haku was the one yanking him down to brutal reality. "Tandoki," she said, and it was enough for Kame- the reminder of the little girl whose family had probably been murdered, who'd been experimented on to provide results for these people, was the tipping point.

He made the signs and then breathed out fire chakra into the room: "Fire Style: Burning Ash Jutsu." The scientists began to move- some backing away, some towards the door, and some simply remaining frozen in confusion- but it didn't matter; none were fast enough to avoid Kame next little spike of fire chakra out of his fingers that ignited the cloud of ash. The room was instantly filled with searing flames that lasted only a few moments, but by the time they were gone, only charred corpses were left.

Kame noted the horrified expressions of Miriki and Awadatsu to his left, but was more focused on staring at the deaths he had just personally inflicted. This is my punishment, he thought, I will take responsibility for-

Haku's hand pulled him away from his silent penance. "No," she said, looking into his eyes in a way that made him think she knew exactly what he'd been thinking, "Stop. They might not have been fighting you there, but they knew about evil and let it happen. You can't beat yourself up over everything, Kame."

Kame only nodded, doing his best to follow her advice as they trekked back out of the base and towards their next destination: the Hidden Mist.