"Shinju? Sekiei?" The two masked women tilted their heads toward their commander. Unlike her subordinates, Seidou of a Hundred Returns went bare-faced. Each sensō-onna saw the concern and dread etched upon their leader's slightly-worn face. Although other parts of her face appeared youthful, Seidou had frowned enough in her life to leave permanent lines by her mouth and furrows upon her brow. "Any sign of the boys?"

"I didn't think you'd care this much for a couple of boys, okaa-sama." Indeed. She'd garnered a well-earned reputation as a man-hater over the years. "What happens if we don't find them?"

"Aside from the Hyūga Clan openly declaring Koyamagakure an enemy of their village? I hate to break it to you, ladies. One of the missing boys is the heir apparent and the other is his identical twin." Sekiei turned to face Shinju, and then both glanced back to Seidou. "The last time I spoke with the Hokage and his council, they all but said Konohagakure's favor is on us; not the Akane. Do you want to ruin that?"

"Why would our actions ruin that?" Sekiei could hear some of the junior girls demanding the different Akane Households open their estates to them. The Akane were getting mouthy and threatening to use their pheromones, but most of that was just defensive talk. The instant they saw a sword pointed to them, they stopped grandstanding and began to plead for their lives. "The Akane did that, not us. They've remained on the black list since the Second Hokage came to power. The Third's been kissing your ass since you took office."

In the distance, an angry Akane man shoved a young sensō-onna to the ground. "NO! You knife-happy cunts aren't coming into my house without a warrant! We aren't living in the warring states era anymore, little girl." The sensō-onna gestured for one of her superiors to help assist. Shinju groaned and murmured to Seidou that she'd be right back. Her hand was already on the sword hilt. A loud shriek punctuated the air shortly afterward.

Seidou didn't intervene, but she folded her strong arms and exhaled slowly. "Konoha didn't differentiate between the Akane and non-Akane when they embargoed us. Our people starved, ladies. What makes you think they'll differentiate this time, now that Hyūga Hiashi is a hostage?" She knew from experience that was what would happen. The Hyūga Clan was one of the most influential and affluent families in Konoha. If Hiashi or his brother died, their relatives wouldn't rest until all their allies within the Hidden Leaf wiped the Hidden Knolls off the map.

Neither Sekiei, Shinju, nor any of her other girls had anything else to say to satiate Seidou's fears. This could backfire in the worst possible way and she knew it. Windows shattered, people screamed in all directions, and this could well be it: the moment she had long predicted. The Akane bubble had broken. Two foreign children were missing and the Hidden Knolls had devolved into crisis mode.

'You warned me, sensei,' Seidou thought, grimacing as she heard another visceral scream come from one of the nearby Akane estates. The shrieks escalated, along with the sickening squelching sound of swords lodging into human flesh. She paced back and forth, chewing on a thumbnail until she bit beyond the quick and drew blood. 'Even back then, you thought something like this could happen. I just wish I could ask you what you'd do…'

As much as Seidou wished she could concentrate on other things, the latest guests at the inn were rancorous enough to be heard from upstairs. With her mother too busy to tend to the men, the fifteen-year-old took her place. "I take it the food is to your satisfaction?"

They were large men: very strong and sturdily built with a substantial amount of padding over their muscles. Seidou kept a private tally of every shinobi clan that frequented their town of transients because they all seemed to end up here eventually. None stayed. They, just like the many merchants, all passed through the Land of Moors in their journey toward larger, more important places.

This time, she was mistaken. One of the two guests wasn't a man yet: but rather a teenage boy close to her own age. He, along with a man who resembled him enough to be an uncle or father, laughed so loudly that she could hear them halfway across the den.

"I love your country's cuisine!" the boy confessed. "It's so spicy and savory! Do you have any more?"

The older man patted the bench, insisting that Seidou take a seat and join them. Wanting to be polite and a good hostess, she agreed. Nobody stayed, but the world around her fascinated her greatly. "We don't want to put you out of your way, young lady," the man insisted. "My son and I are taking a mission together and are merely staying the night."

"You're from the Akimichi Clan, correct?" The man seemed slightly surprised a civilian would know any foreign clan names beyond Uchiha or Senju. Just beneath that surprise, Seidou could see the pride in the man's eyes, not to mention the love he felt for his family name. Good for him. "I'm keeping tally of all the different clans who pass through here, you see. My mother used to be a–"

"Seidou!" The girl stopped talking and turned around to see her mother's worried, disappointed blue eyes staring back at her. Her eyes were wide and round as saucers. "They're our guests!" Her voice quivered, warbling like a startled songbird. "Leave them be, love. They have work to do and don't need you bothering them."

"She's not bothering us, ma'am!" the Akimichi boy insisted. "We like the company! It's been a long time since we…we, uh…" His words did nothing to calm the innkeeper's nerves. Her hands trembled and he realized something far beyond them was going on.

"If we're rude to our guests, nobody will want to stay here!" Anger wasn't the proper word for how Seidou felt about her mother, but neither was frustration. Confusion wasn't all that apt, either. She supposed she merely didn't understand her mother's hesitance and it left her annoyed. "Why can't I talk to them?"

Her mother sat across from her at their dinner table. A simple red miso soup with udon noodles sat between them, wafting its flavorful steam into the air. Seidou was taller and bulkier than her mother, with sturdier features and a harsher face. And now that she was growing into a woman herself, Seidou privately envied her mother's soft, graceful beauty. Girls built like Seidou were lucky if they were married off at all. Most of them couldn't aspire to much more than farming or hard labor.

By comparison, women like her mother were painted by inspired artists and showered with riches. Even the inn that doubled as their home was a gift from a wealthy nobleman who admired her mother. Seidou only found that out recently: courtesy of a beautiful blonde kunoichi who recognized her mother a couple of years ago. Before she could get any more information, her mother shooed the woman off.

"They aren't from here, Seidou. You can't trust them."

'You say that about everyone. Is anyone trustworthy, mother? At least by your standards?'By now, Seidou was convinced nobody was born here: herself included. Everyone merely ended up in the Land of Moors as transients. Then they'd find a better place to set up shop and leave.

"And they're from a formidable clan. The Akimichi are terrifying in combat, darling. They're—"

"You used to be a kunoichi," Seidou pointed out, arms folded defensively. "And yet you tell me nothing about those days." Her mother wrung her hands and averted her gaze. Her eyes threatened tears as she shook all over in revulsion. "Each time I try to dig a bit more information out of you, you change the topic and make sure no one gets a good look at your face. And yet, for all these years, I've never seen anyone come after you. You're retired, right?!"

Silence. Only silence.

"Or did you go rogue?" If Seidou had learned anything from their transient guests, it was that shinobi never retired. At least, they didn't do it outside of those brand new shinobi villages that were starting to crop up in the major nations. Maybe that older Akimichi man could retire someday, provided he lived that long. "All I can figure is that someone's after you and you're afraid they'll find you. And that's why you never–"

The abrupt and blunt force of her mother's hand across her face caught her by surprise. Seidou lost her balance and the hot soup spilled across the table. "STOP TALKING! Please! Just…stop. You don't…you can't…" But even more disturbing than the slap were the bewildered, shaky sobs coming from a woman who typically carried herself with such dignity and grace.

It was the iron curtain of secrecy and paranoia that finally drove Seidou away. Her mother's inability to be honest and open with her wore upon her last nerve. "You set aside money for me. I plan to take it and leave."

And there they were again: the wide and frightened eyes of a woman who realized she'd soon lose everything. "Darling, please. Don't do this to me. You don't understand what it's like out there."

"You're right," Seidou reaffirmed, curling one hand into a fist. "I don't, but I have no one to blame for that aside from you. You told me nothing, even when I gave you opportunities to open up and share with me for years. I love you, but I can't stay here anymore. I received an offer to train under a kunoichi from one of the great villages."

Just two days ago, the beautiful blonde in the lavender kimono returned. The woman told Seidou she was passing through on her way to meet the same nobleman who bequeathed this inn to Seidou's mother. When Seidou asked if she could come along, the woman extended an offer.

How could she refuse? It was claustrophobic here. Over the past few years, her mother's ambivalence became maddening to deal with. Some days, she'd hold Seidou close and call her a beloved pearl. Other days, she insisted her daughter was the bane of her existence and she wished she'd never had her.

"You showed me enough to ensure my survival. It's time that I learned more from those who are willing to teach me." Few words could hurt her mother more. "I can't live in a bubble with you, mother. I'm afraid from here on out, you're on your own."

"Do you love me, daughter?"

"I'd have to be a bad daughter not to. What about you, though? Do you love me, mother?" She had expected a yes or an of course; but not a deafening silence. For over a minute, Seidou waited for something. It never came. That was answer enough.

As she departed, ready to meet the kunoichi from Konohagakure no Sato, Seidou could hear her mother's distraught, heartbroken sobs from the other side of the door. Even as she made her way down the stairs, the wailing remained audible. The two women would never see each other again.

'Those boys probably have a loving family who will be out for blood once word of this gets to their village.' Seidou continued to bite her nails until one of her sensō-onna stopped her. "What if we don't find them? What if they're already dead by the time we discover their whereabouts? The boy's an heir apparent: practically the crown prince of the Hyūga Clan."

She briefly contemplated sending a falcon with a letter to Sarutobi Hiruzen, just so he'd be aware of the Akane Clan's treachery. There was just one problem: it wouldn't quell the anger. One scandal was all it would take for Konoha to wipe their precious village off the face of the earth.

One by one, the Akane households were ransacked with the irate clansmen and clanswomen threatening bodily harm to their assailants. Seidou's girls paid them no heed, at least until the Akane got in their faces. A restrained Head of Household stared up at Seidou with terror in his amber eyes. "Don't kill me!" he begged, pheromones wafting out in fright. "All I did was stay at home and have a quiet day with my wives! PLEASE! You have to believe me. We're innocent!"

Seidou tried her best not to roll her eyes, but these people made it so hard to take them seriously sometimes. "You are?" she repeated, marching closer to him with her hands on her broad hips. "That's interesting. How can you claim innocence when you don't even know what we accuse you of? My ladies and I aren't in the business of killing innocent people, Taro."

"Bullshit!" the man spat in her face. "You murdered our clan head! And if it wasn't you, it was at least one of your masked little bitches! Lord Katsuro was innocent, too. He never hurt anyone in his entire life!"

'No. Katsuro may not have intended to, but that's hardly the same thing.' The sheer number of girls Seidou had adopted because their own families could no longer feed them was an indicator of the damage Katsuro's naiveté had caused. "I never ordered a hit on Katsuro. You mean to tell me he's–"

"We found him in an alley with a HOLE in his chest! He's DEAD, Seidou-dono. We don't understand. Why has it become open season on the Akane?! We were your neighbors! Your comrades! Your–"

"That's enough simpering, Taro." Seidou grabbed hold of the front of Akane Taro's shirt with a strong, forceful hand. The Akane man stared into her dark blue eyes, hoping to find even an ounce of sympathy. He found none. "A member of your clan abducted two Hyūga boys. Until we get answers, this will only keep happening. Where are they?"

"I don't know."

Seidou abruptly raised her knee and rammed it into the man's groin, causing him to crumple in her arms. "Wrong answer, Taro. Ladies…?"

"So your mother was Nakiko, eh? I knew she looked familiar! Come to think of it, you do too."

Seidou could scarcely take her eyes off this woman. Her light blonde hair reminded her of sunlight on an early winter morning and there was something almost snow-like about her soft, cream-colored skin. A touch of pinkness spread in her cheeks, which nearly hid an array of freckles so faint that Seidou had to look closely to even see them. There, along with that faint trace of sun damage, were a few laugh lines and crow's feet: her only indicators that this beauty wasn't quite as youthful as she first appeared.

But the woman's eyes were what caught her attention most of all. They were sharp, cold, and the exact same shade as a steel kunai. Finding freckles was one thing; but she had yet to find even a thin, pinprick-sized pupil in those hazy gray depths. Pretty as she was, those eyes were almost corpse-like. They unnerved her, and the woman's almost honeyed tone unnerved her even further.

"We were on the same mission fifteen years ago: right before she became pregnant with you, in fact."

"If that's true, then you couldn't have been much older than me when you met her. You don't even look like you're thirty." The woman smirked at that and ate another mussel from her dish. It was hard to wrap her mind around that. This woman hailed from one of the five great villages! They'd partnered on a mission in her mother's past? Knowing her mother would never provide answers, perhaps this willowy woman could fill in the gaps.

"I just turned thirty last month," the blonde confessed, "but I'd appreciate it if you kept that to yourself when we meet the Daimyo…just as you should hide the fact you're Nakiko's daughter."

"Why?" the teenager inquired. "He liked her well enough to give her property. She owns that inn you visited, Yanagi-san."

"You don't know, then?" Yanagi sighed and averted her gaze, using two bird-boned fingers to rub her temples in frustration. "The inn isn't the only thing Lord Akui gave your mother." She didn't like Yanagi's tone or the way her eyes seemed to see right through her.

"The Land of Moors is a pivotal place on the globe. It's a tiny nation with a long history of international trade as a convenient midway point to some of the larger, wealthier lands. When the previous Daimyo took ill, all of your country's neighboring powerhouses had different ideas on who should succeed him.

"General Akui was who our Hokage wanted to see in power. Your mother was also hired to help put him in charge. Her clan had a long history of infiltrating noble families and serving as bodyguards, confidantes, and prized assassins in court. Having her do as I did and pose as a courtesan wasn't too difficult, considering how attractive she was."

'Courtesan?' Seidou's head was spinning, her imagination going to some of the darkest places it'd ever gone.

"In order for Akui-sama to come to power, we had to eliminate the competition one by one. It…heh…it really was a woman's job, considering how we did that, along with so many inexperienced girls." Men were more likely to go into combat and wage wars. Women had it in them to kill key people and change the course of history. Yanagi had destroyed dynasties at her Hokage's command. "It will become dangerous for you if he finds out you're his bastard, Seidou."

Her appetite was gone. Did this man reject her mother and give her the inn to hide the fact Seidou existed? Did her clan reject her for having a child with no father? Was this why Seidou grew up without one? What even was she!? Her heart refused to calm in her chest. The man Yanagi sought to destroy was her father and she'd be expected to participate. "Did he love her? At least tell me he loved her."

Yanagi slowly shook her head and sipped the last of her plum wine. "The Shodaime has no more love to give Akui-sama, either. I'm going over there to be greeted as an old friend. I'm anything but. If it's too much for you to assist me, then–"

"No. I'm doing this, Yanagi-san. I'll help you take him down."

General Akui, the man who usurped and stole power within the Land of Moors, was Seidou's first kill. During her tutelage under Yamanaka Yanagi, she had learned firsthand how a lady could manipulate men in a world that tended to favor males more highly. She had learned what weapons a kunoichi needed to carry close to her heart.

So long as it remained a man's world, a lady needed to guard her heart. Seidou felt nothing. Hardship after hardship, she endured until her freelancing days came to an end immediately after the First Great War. The world never found out she carried the blood of an overzealous general in her veins. That blood was hers alone.

And her blood shed so much more in her lifetime. Akane Katsuro, however, was not her kill. The man was too high profile to assassinate, which was why none of the sensō-onna were given orders to destroy him when he came back. The villagers hated him enough to do that on their own.

'I need to find the other Konoha shinobi and let them know we're trying to locate the missing children.' Akane Taro could believe whatever he wanted as Shinju and Sekiei broke into his house to search for Hizashi and Hiashi.

"OKAA-SAMA!" Sekiei called out. "THERE'S NO SIGN OF THEM IN THE HOUSE! WE'LL MOVE ON TO THE NEXT ONE!"

Before Seidou could open her mouth to bark another order, she caught sight of a boy chasing after a dog. Upon his brow and on the dog's bandana, she noticed the familiar leaf symbol. "Excuse me! Boy!" The boy came to a halt and turned pale when he noticed all the masked women. The dog stopped, too, and whimpered. "Were you one of the Konoha shinobi hired to guard Akane Katsuro?"

The boy tensed up, reaching for a shuriken. "So what if I am, lady!? He's dead now! We failed! Everyone's gonna pack up and leave after–"

"After you find the missing Hyūga boys, correct?" The boy threw the shuriken. Seidou threw one to match, cancelling both weapons out. "You must think my sensō-onna and I were responsible for one or both of those things. I can assure you we aren't."

"A masked woman was seen leaving the back alley where Katsuro-sama's body was found. Don't pull that shit on me, lady!" The chubby kid growled like a dog, digging his long and sharp nails into the fabric of his flak vest.

'Ah. He's an Inuzuka,' Seidou mentally noted. 'That must make him Kaede's teammate…Neyuki, I think she called him.'

"Got anything you want to say, you crazy bitch!? We know your ladies did it!" Even the dog snarled.

"Did you smell the body, Inuzuka-san?" Seidou inquired. "I can vouch for all of my girls at that time. I only just found out Katsuro died. We've been trying to locate your missing teammates since last evening."

"Kaede and Mikuro aren't missing. They're–"

"Then it's the boys on the other team. Just calm down and listen to me, would you?" Seidou held up her hands to indicate she was no threat. "Perhaps we can work together to find them." When the boy remained hesitant, she chose to share one additional note with him. "Kaede trusts me. Does that mean anything?"

At some point, Hiashi nodded off and went to sleep. Despite not knowing when he dozed off, he found himself wide awake the instant he heard a woman shriek and scream further down the hall.

"KILL ANYONE IN A MASK YOU FIND!" he heard her wail. "MAYBE IF WE STAIN THE STREETS WITH SENSŌ-ONNA BLOOD FOR A CHANGE, THAT FUCKING ZEALOT WILL STOP TORMENTING US!"

Akane. Sensō-onna. None of that mattered to him anymore. Koyamagakure was a hell mouth and all Hiashi wanted was to leave with his brother, Buyo-sensei, and Fugaku. It wasn't lost on him that Fugaku wasn't among them. Even if he were, Hiashi was fairly sure he'd have found a way out by now.

The smell of Akane pheromones hit his nose and he shivered, feeling cold in the cell. Since he and Hizashi were separated, he couldn't even curl up to his brother for warmth. He could see him, though, provided he kept his byakugan activated. Hizashi kept trying to charge at the walls and the door in search of a weak point.

"I already tried that," Hiashi murmured, absentmindedly touching his newly shortened hair. It still felt wrong and he shuddered to think about how he probably looked. His own father probably wouldn't recognize him. "The walls are stone. I couldn't find any weak points."

"So what?" Hizashi snapped back, throwing his body to the door. It groaned, but didn't budge. "You just want me to give up and let these people do who-knows-what to us? To you? They were talking about selling us on the black market, Hiashi. Or did you tune out when they said that?"

He'd been asleep. Hiashi wrapped his arms tightly around himself and shivered in a combination of disgust and horror. Black market trade was a legitimate concern. Considering how overly protective his parents had been of every Hyūga child, branch or otherwise, he'd known about it for years. Still, it was one thing to know it existed and another to run the risk of experiencing it firsthand.

"You'd better pray this negotiation goes well. I might come back for an eye next time."

But once Hiashi's mind started operating along these lines, he couldn't shut off the horrible scenarios his brain created. He saw an ugly future where Hizashi would be strapped to a table and butchered before his eyes: ripped apart and sold in tiny pieces to heartless foreigners who wanted to know what made the Hyūga clan tick. He'd hear his twin's cries for help and be powerless to do anything other than watch and scream out his name until he went hoarse.

In that same future; he imagined himself being put on market like an animal and being man-handled, poked, and prodded until somebody bought him as a slave or test subject. It was a future where his parents never found him, Buyo-sensei and Fugaku mistook them both for dead, and life continued in Konoha as he endured an endless stream of unspeakable horrors, knowing no one would ever save him.

Bile lurched in his stomach, threatening to leave his lips. 'They'll come for us,' he realized bleakly. 'We'll be torn apart and sold. That or our parents will be forced to pay a ransom to get us back: just like these people had to do with Katsuro-sama.'

"Loud, isn't she?" Hizashi sighed. "Maybe you slept through that part, too. They found Katsuro-sama's body in a back alley. Someone murdered him."

"I know your family is far from hard-pressed for money, but my family wanted to express our gratitude to you and your teammates." Chigusa grinned and gestured for the twins to hold out their hands. "I already caught up with Kaede-chan and her little boyfriend."

"Neyuki has a name, Chigusa-san," Hizashi reminded her. The Akane girl laughed and handed over two small velvet bags stuffed with Koyamagakure's coin currency. One was ruby red and the other a beautiful shade of cobalt blue Hiashi couldn't help but admire. "How hard is it to remember a name?"

Chigusa kept her sweet smile and gave each of the boys a kiss on the cheek as well as a gentle hug. The kiss was enough to make Hiashi's face tingle. He almost reminded her that his clan hated being touched and he didn't appreciate having his personal space invaded, but what Chigusa uttered under her breath made him change his mind.

"We can never thank you enough for bringing him home. Our clan hasn't had hope for so long. But with this, I finally feel like things are heading in the right direction again. He's so grateful. I'm grateful, too."

And now, Akane Katsuro was dead. That was a sad thing to hear. Katsuro seemed naïve and inexperienced as a leader, but he'd always struck Hiashi as kind and well-meaning. He was kinder than his own father, anyway. Chigusa was lucky to have him.

Katsuro had expressed his gratitude to the boys multiple times during their journey to the village. This man, Chigusa's father who had suffered for years at the hands of a cruel and merciless outside world, had died in the hometown he'd longed to return to. What did this mean for them? Just how bad was this going to get? And would they have an option to leave before things reached critical mass?

"I guess that means our mission is over." A huge wave of guilt-tinged relief swept Hiashi as he exhaled. "We were only here to watch him, but he died. We failed, but at least it's over…right?" There was no point in sticking around long enough to help Chigusa and Akane brethren hold their own against Seidou of a Hundred Returns and the sensō-onna. This was no longer their fight.

"I already killed four, Shinsa-sama," he heard the man from earlier call out to the screaming woman. "What do you want us to do with the masks?"

"Collect them. We're going to infiltrate. We can use them for–"

It buzzed together and Hiashi didn't catch the end of the conversation. A high-pitched grating noise came from Hizashi's cell followed by a metallic groan and a thud heavy enough for him to feel it. "Hizashi? Hey, what did you do?"

"Hurry up and unhinge the bolts on your door. Mine were rusted."

For a brief moment, a new surge of courage filled Hiashi's body. He hurried over to his cell's door, checked the doorjambs…and noticed his were brand new. There was no way he'd be able to damage them. Swallowing a huge wad of saliva, he shook his head slowly and tried his best to swallow the frustrated scream building in his throat. "I can't get out," he confessed in a shaky voice. "You have to help me."

"There's no time for that! I'll come back, I promise."

"Hizashi, please…"

The byakugan could be a curse at points. He could see his brother as he left: running into the shadows and working toward his escape. Despite this, Hiashi was still very much trapped in his cage. All he could possibly do was scream Hizashi's name and beg him to come back. He tried, but only a hoarse squeak and angry tears came out.

He'd been left behind.

Although Fugaku heard the festival music in the distance, the dirge coming from the Akane District's central forum drowned most of it out. Chigusa insisted earlier that her clan wasn't trying to be rude when they barred Fugaku and the other foreigners from seeing his body. Akane corpses apparently wafted everything out during rigor mortis. Their pheromones were at their most potent right before decomposition started. The body then wafted out a toxic cloud that could incite madness, illness, and even possible death to anyone with a weak tolerance for the pheromones.

Since Fugaku had gotten sick from simply shaking Chigusa's hand, touching Katsuro's cadaver would probably kill him.

From outside, he could see how the Akane laid out their fallen leader's body. Katsuro rested upon a stone slab in his finest silks and brocades. His long dark red hair was loose and neatly, lovingly brushed. In his hands, now deprived of all their rings and other jewelry, a bouquet of pink carnations rested. Even more flowers and powdered saffron were placed inside the massive hole in his chest, treating his torn torso like the world's most macabre vase. A shroud covered his face, doused in an essential oil he didn't recognize due to how strong it was. Incense burned, placing the body in the heart of an aromatic cloud reminiscent of sandalwood and marigolds.

Fugaku watched as Chigusa pulled the shroud back to give her father's cheek a final goodbye kiss. Her amber eyes pooled with tears and she broke into sobs, hugging the body and telling him through strained apologies how sorry she was she couldn't protect him. With each word, Fugaku felt his heart sink further.

Just last night, Chigusa had asked if he would consider relocating to Koyamagakure, or at least try to convince his clan to move so the Akane could stand a better chance against Seidou. Fugaku knew it wasn't possible and had told Chigusa as much. If the Uchiha Clan moved to Koyamagakure, they would die even faster than Katsuro did.

Every sob he heard from his friend as her mother and the sister-wives pulled her back into the crowd tore him apart to the point where he didn't even realize his sharingan was on. It felt more painful than before, but he chalked it up to the pheromones.

Akane funeral practices were far different from what the Uchiha performed at home. Uchiha deceased were dressed in lightweight white cotton yukatas, placed inside bamboo coffins, and cremated near the Naka Shrine. The Akane sang from within the chamber, holding incense sticks as they circled the corpse and put the shroud back in place.

One thing remained the same, though, and that was the hushed whispers between the older clansmen who now wondered who would succeed their fallen leader. Fugaku heard Chigusa's name thrown around, but he heard other names as well. Shinsa, mostly.

From the other side of the courtyard, he could see his friend dabbing her wet eyes. 'You won't want to lead, Chigusa,' he thought to himself as he steadied himself on a nearby stone column. 'If they name you, your life will cease to be yours alone. Your kin will own your every private moment, tell you who to marry, and call you selfish for keeping secrets.' Someday, sooner than he would like, he and Hiashi both would know that pain.

That poor boy was probably scared shitless and wondering how long it would take for Buyo or Fugaku to find him. Iwao and Buyo were hot on the twins' trail, and Fugaku knew they'd refuse to leave without them. As soon as the wake was over, he'd join the manhunt. And somehow, he suspected Chigusa would offer to help. She was their friend.

An Akane couple left the forum together, holding hands as they moved toward the stone gate to smoke. Fugaku watched as the woman offered a lighter to her husband and the two shared a cigarette. They treated him as though he were merely part of the scenery. The man wept and curled into the woman's bosom, wrapping his thin and spindly arms around her waif-like form. She caressed him, stroked his back, and let her fingers get caught in his long hair.

In the somber, foggy distance, his eyes spotted a familiar figure running toward the forum. Fugaku jumped the wall and ran closer, noting quickly with his sharingan that a henge no jutsu wasn't under effect. Although he couldn't tell immediately from appearance alone which of the Hyūga twins managed to escape, he jumped the fence and rushed to meet the boy. As soon as the fog cleared enough for him to better see, the green mark on the boy's brow made it obvious which brother he was.

Hizashi was clad in nothing but his undergarments and shivered in the cold, barefoot with bloodied cuts on his feet. Fugaku quickly took off his jacket and wrapped his teammate in it. The brothers weren't that much younger than him, but he couldn't help but feel protective of them. After losing Nawaki two years ago, he'd vowed he'd never lose another teammate. Never.

"Thanks, Fugaku," Hizashi murmured, pulling the fabric closer to his cold body. Every puff of breath he exhaled was a visible cloud. He curled up closer to his teammate, trying his best to warm his body up against his friend's. Decorum be damned, he was cold. "They…they still have Hiashi…"

"They? Who are they?" Hizashi didn't answer in words. He craned his neck to the right, gesturing toward the funeral. "You can't be serious. They're grieving."

Hizashi dug his fingernails deeper into Fugaku's shoulders and shot him an angry glance. "I know what my eyes saw, okay? One of them even cut off Hiashi's hair and gave it to Buyo-sensei as a warning. There are some sick, depraved people in this clan, Fugaku. We didn't do this place any favors by bringing Katsuro-sama back here. All we did was stir up the bad blood. Now this whole village is going to tear itself apart."

"Buyo-sensei and Iwao-taichou are with Mikuro. They're looking for Hiashi. I was going to join after the funeral, and–"

Fugaku smelled Chigusa long before he saw her, but there she was: standing in the mist and still dressed in her funeral clothes. She bowed, trying to express her humility toward the two boys. "My clan has been nothing but trouble since you brought us here. Please, allow me to come with you and save your brother…before it's too late."

"Like I'm going to trust you!" Hizashi snapped. "After all this, I don't think there's a single Akane that I can trust—you included!" He grabbed Fugaku's arm and pulled him along. "Your father's dead, Chigusa. This mission is over. We don't owe you anything anymore. Come on, Fugaku. I just need to put on some clothes. Then we go look, together, without her."

Mikuro recognized how bad this could get. If Buyo and Iwao went into search and destroy mode, then they ran the risk of assaulting the future leader of this village and damaging later relations with Koyamagakure. Danzō was fully convinced the future rested upon the shoulders of this powerful and allegedly immortal kunoichi. Kaede had vouched for Seidou of a Hundred Returns and was out there right now: joining the sensō-onna in their hunt for the missing Hyūga boys.

While everyone else handled the heroic part of this mission, Mikuro was stuck having to eliminate the bitch that kidnapped the twins and tried to force Konohagakure's hand to assassinate Seidou. Akane Shinsa was pungent and hell bent on revenge: wafting her hate from every pore. One faulty move, one step in the wrong direction, and there was no telling what would happen to Hiashi and Hizashi.

"You're risking your relationship with our village by doing this," he warned, but he wanted answers. This entire village made no sense to him. "The Hyūga Clan carry a lot of political clout in Konoha."

"And now they'll know what it's like to live in constant fear," Shinsa murmured, her hands refusing to stay still at her sides. Her fingers kept twitching, as did her yellowed eyes. She placed a shaky hand to her brow, grimacing, and Mikuro smelled her intensely enough to feel his own head threatening to split. Every sound and syllable to leave Shinsa's lips made him see and feel red-hot pain. "You don't have a monster like Seidou in your village, do you?"

Danzō had his own faction of ANBU, but that was hardly the same thing. ROOT acted in the village's best interest, but did so in the shadows: so far beneath anyone's radar that not even the Hokage was fully privy to their actions. Sometimes, black ops were necessary. There was nothing private about Seidou or the sensō-onna. They were this village's police, homeland security, military, and everything else.

Every last part of Akane Shinsa was twitchy. It was almost like someone had galvanized her nervous system at a low voltage. It struck Mikuro as peculiar, having heard rumors that the Akane only kept the healthy and beautiful alive. Shinsa almost seemed palsied. Why did he and his colleagues have to fear such a fidgety, jumpy creature? The bitch's body looked like it would fall apart if the wind blew a certain way.

"That's quite a hand tremor you have," Mikuro noted. "Are you ill?"

Shinsa didn't answer him. All she did was tightly pull her coat closer to her shaking body and shoot him a dirty look with her bloodshot amber eyes. When she stormed off to get her supplies, she murmured something along the lines of did what I had to do. Her teeth were yellowed and brown from rot with bluish, bloody gums.

An Akane man only a few years Mikuro's senior took a few steps nearer and shook his head slowly. "I know she can be difficult to deal with. How's your head?"

He didn't smell anywhere near as strong. Mikuro barely noticed the scent at all. 'It's threatening to split in two,' the Shimura boy wanted to say. 'Why do you care?' Instead, all he did was glower—not that the man could tell beneath the boar mask. Instead, Mikuro shrugged.

The sadness in the Akane man's eyes couldn't go unnoticed. "I'm sure you're in pain. Shinsa-sama deliberately abstained from what is necessary to dilute her pheromones. She refused to let anything out until Katsuro-sama came home. Please don't think ill of her. She did this to protect us."

"So the tremors–"

"We aren't immune to our own toxins, Shimura-san. If they reach a high enough potency; they can tax our sanity, our health, and even the health of those around us. Shinsa-sama doesn't mean to cause any permanent damage to your village. If she did, she would have touched those boys with her bare hands. The contact alone would have killed them."

Mikuro balled his hand into a fist until it hurt. He was just glad this fucker couldn't see the "drop dead" glare he was shooting him from beneath his boar mask. "If your new clan head thinks we'll forgive this transgression, she's sadly mistaken." The moment he caught a visual on either of the Hyūga boys, he'd take the bitch down himself. "Tell her I'm ready to join her in the hunt."

"Neyuki! Neyuki, over here!" Fugaku wasn't sure if the Inuzuka boy caught sight of him or not, but he knew what would do it. This one time, Hizashi wouldn't scold him for throwing a rock. He missed his target and it was a miracle he didn't hit a civilian, but Neyuki jumped in surprise and waved the instant he saw Fugaku and–

"Holy shit! Boy, am I glad to see you guys!" Neyuki barked excitedly, beckoning them to come closer. Ashimaru wagged his tail excitedly and scampered over to lick Hizashi's hand. The Hyūga normally grimaced when the animal did such things. Today, all he wanted to do was hug the dog and pet him. Neyuki scampered a little closer, apologizing under his breath when Hizashi asked him why the hell he wanted to smell him. "Ashimaru and I just got stuck in a rut trying to find you two because this entire town's covered in pheromones! You'd think it was rut season!"

Hizashi shivered, though neither Fugaku nor Neyuki were certain if it was more from the cold or his anger. Huffed breaths left his mouth as furious clouds. "I know where my brother is. I had a chance to escape, but he's still there. I couldn't take them by myself and…"

As Hizashi continued to talk, Fugaku couldn't help but pick up on how his friend's body language had changed since earlier. The twins had been going through a rough patch during this mission, but this was the first time Hizashi had intentionally left Hiashi behind. Still, he could tell he didn't want to see anything bad happen to his older brother. As frustrated as Hizashi got with Hiashi at times, it was comforting to realize he still loved him and wanted to save him.

"It's no wonder you couldn't find him," Hizashi murmured, reaching for a kunai. "He's being held prisoner in an Akane basement."

That's when he caught sight of a taller, sturdier presence nearing them. A heavyset woman with dark brown hair approached, wearing the armor of the sensō-onna. Hizashi activated his byakugan and readied himself to the stance his father and mother both had shown him as the ultimate defense a branch Hyūga could legally perform. To parallel Hizashi's efforts, Fugaku's sharingan was on and at the ready to copy whatever technique this woman threatened to throw their way.

And yet, Neyuki didn't join them. He sighed and shook his head. "Guys, no. She's helping us look. That's—"

"Seidou of a Hundred Returns," Fugaku growled. "I'm all too aware."

That woman was the cause for this whole mess, if Chigusa and Katsuro were to be believed. Chigusa and her siblings grew up without their father. The Akane clan was politically decapitated for years. The people lived in fear, afraid of their own village. They'd done this despicable, cowardly thing out of fear: fear of this woman, no less! He reached for one of his ceramic shuriken, ready to throw it.

Seidou merely stomped one foot to the ground, causing the earth near the two teenagers to bounce and knock them off balance. "Will it make you feel better to harm me?" She asked. "If so, can it wait until after your missing comrade is returned to you? I am trying to assist you."

Fugaku didn't buy it. Every story he'd heard regarding Seidou of a Hundred Returns described her as a militant zealot who trained her girls to participate in Akane-centric genocide. By shaking this despot's hand and turning to her side, this could very well mark the death of an entire clan. He didn't want that kind of carnage on his conscience.

"The Akane didn't conspire together to do this terrible thing," he murmured, noting that the large brunette nodded her head in silent agreement. "Most of them are at the funeral, mourning their loss."

Hizashi stepped closer to Seidou and even politely bowed. This one time, he would speak over Fugaku and take the lead because he couldn't trust his friend to remain impartial. Help was help. "I'll show you where they kept me, Seidou-dono. Follow me."

They had a perfect visual on her: the great "goddess" of war the locals feared and revered. With a perfect ambush, they could hit Seidou of a Hundred Returns fast and hard enough to make it difficult to recover. S&D experts learned quickly the importance of speed and efficiency. If they didn't subdue a target in a short enough time span, the mission could turn ugly.

"You can't be serious," Buyo growled. "This is well beyond our mission's scope."

"They're your students and yet I'm the one who's willing to do what's asked to set 'em free. You don't see what's fucked up about that, Buyo?"

Iwao had only just received Mikuro, Kaede, and Neyuki for this mission. They were nice, well-behaved kids who were so used to acting without a mentor that he barely had to do anything. He could turn them loose and just expect shit to get done. They were great! "I don't get you sometimes. Those kids are our sensei's nephews. You promised her–"

The Aburame man waved a hand to silence his Akimichi teammate. "I know, Iwao." But a shinobi couldn't let emotions get in the way of a mission. They failed to protect Akane Katsuro for the duration of the Red Sun Festival. The man was assassinated under their care. Today was the final day. Once the sun set, the team would have to move out: with or without Hiashi and Hizashi. Orders were orders.

"You have no heart, man. No conscience at all."

Buyo didn't correct Iwao. He did, however, launch a botfly swarm at a mob of masked women who attempted to sneak up on the pair. That, he could argue was self-defense. The women screamed, especially as the insects began to chew and gnaw their way through their bodies. They shrieked, stumbling and falling atop each other until one masked girl stepped forward and launched a blue and bright flame hot enough to melt her mask. As the porcelain turned to mud and dribbled to the cold earth below, hissing and sizzling as it hit the stone, Iwao caught sight of the face beneath and his jaw dropped in disbelief.

"Kaede?!"

Ashimaru barked and led the charge, not minding in the slightest that three boys and a grown woman chased after him. If anything, he enjoyed the attention and hoped to get a belly rub or a piece of that nice beef jerky the Uchiha boy kept in his ration packet for all this trouble. Other ladies followed in the distance, ready to break into combat should anyone come after their leader.

Seidou momentarily froze and gazed upward at the tall and towering marble estate taking over the entire hill. Tall white columns covered by frosted-over and dead ivy accentuated the home as scarlet Akane Clan banners blew with the wintry wind.

Small golden-eyed children chased each other in a rime-covered courtyard, chucking snowballs at one another. They laughed and ran about until they tired themselves out: oblivious to the people observing them from below. They were equally blind to the many broken and bloodied bodies resting at the foot of the hill: torn and mangled from the chaos that broke out today.

Other men and women walked through the estate in their funeral regalia, talking to one another. From the distance, Hizashi's eyes were able to read lips. They were discussing Katsuro's funeral. They all belonged to the Head of Household as her spouses, her children, or her servants.

"This is the place," Hizashi insisted. "I know because when I ran, those brats up there screamed and tried to get their parents to put me back." There was even a lump on the back of his head from where one of them managed to pelt him with a snow-covered rock. He caught sight of the hesitation on Seidou's face and frowned. "What is it?"

"That's Shinsa's household."

That name didn't mean anything to Neyuki or Hizashi; but Fugaku knew that was Chigusa's older sister. "Shinsa's a head of household?" he asked, not sure why he expected a woman like Seidou to answer him. She stood like a ghost from the war-torn past: an era when villages were still new. Some days, it frightened him to know that the whole world had been at war only two generations ago.

"She's more than a head of household, kid. Shinsa's the worst Akane in the village," Seidou confessed, reaching for a hand fan. "That crazy bitch bombed my old estate. She set fire to several of my old properties and poisoned many of my girls. A mere touch from her is enough to kill." She noticed the hesitance on the boys' faces. "Cover up. Don't let her touch your skin. Be careful not to hyperventilate or take deep breaths."

Neyuki laughed nervously, stroking his dog's fur. "You sound like you've battled her before."

"Oh, I have. I've fought Shinsa many times," Seidou admitted as she readied herself into a stance. "In fact, she killed me two weeks ago. If you'd like to wait outside with my ladies while I rescue your brother, Hizashi-kun, then–"

"Seidou-dono?" Fugaku interrupted, "Forgive me, but I don't trust you. Our two teams were paid by the Akane Clan to protect Katsuro-sama from you and your sensō-onna. Now that he's dead, and we don't know who's behind it—"

Seidou huffed out a long sigh of exasperation. "I know where you're going with this, kid. Katsuro wasn't killed by one of my girls. They're all accounted for. We can discuss that later, provided you–"

An onslaught of shrieks filled the air as the sensō-onna were attacked by large, flesh-eating flies. Seidou's immediate response was to duck and cover, pushing Neyuki and Hizashi to the ground with her. Fugaku was spared only because he'd been out of reach. True to the women's words, the entire sky turned black from this impromptu plague of botflies.

"Buyo-sensei…" Fugaku murmured under his breath. He noted the grin on Hizashi's face. "Sensei's finally come!"

As impressive as the botfly swarm was, that was nothing compared to the blue glow that immediately followed it. Large portions of the swarm went alight and glowed like fireflies in the incandescent blueness.

"Oh god…" Fugaku felt his heart in his throat because he had no idea what this meant. He only knew whom. And there she stood: a half-melted porcelain mask barely staying on his crazy cousin's face. The mask's grin was long gone and plopped onto the earth below. Uchiha Kaede smiled viciously in its place. She came down, dressed like the ladies in masks, and bowed.

"SEIDOU-SAN!" she shouted. "THEY'RE TRYING TO KILL YOU! I COULDN'T LET THAT HAPPEN!"

And for once, Seidou had no words. She stood to attention again on her sturdy, thick legs. Fugaku had noted the determined expression on her face earlier: dutiful but respectful. What he saw now was anger seething just below the surface. For a brief moment, his eyes met Seidou's and a chill filled him. No one had ever stared him down like that in his life.

You made a terrible mistake, those eyes seemed to say. You and the whole of your village.

Seidou shoved past the boys, rushing with her sword drawn into the heart of Shinsa's estate. Every Akane that got in her way was killed with precision and speed the likes of which Fugaku had never witnessed before. Even though the smell of the estate's heart was enough to nearly bring him to his knees, he chased after her and could only pray the others were following behind him.