Tis a nice night. The weasel thought to himself, his black nails giving a barely audible click-clack against the stone floor. Small tendrils of flame danced to a silent rhythm behind their paper shrouds; casting soft illuminations with their crimson pirouettes.

Evelyn's door was shut to the outside world. With a light scratch, it opened slightly, a single eye peering down. After a moment's consideration, the frame then gave him enough space for an entry.

"I need your help." Evelyn firmly shut the door behind them.

Benji gave a confused look to the scattered piles of paper set about her room, giving the impression a storm made of parchment had passed through. "Was all dis?"

Evelyn tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, tiptoeing carefully around her orchestrated thought process. "Benji, when I first met you, you said you could smell certain people."

"…err, yea?"

Evelyn turned around fully to face the small rodent. "I need you to find Kisame and give him this." In her hand she held a small scroll, wrapped tightly with cord. "I have no one else I can trust with this…please."

Benji scratched at his cheek with a back foot for a moment. "Kit, ya mind explanin' was goin' ons in tha head of yours?" He tip-tapped over to the closest paper, squinting at the scribbled notes hastily written all over. Words like seal and gateway were circled feverishly. "…kit?"

A sudden snap of her fingers brought his attention back to her. And for once, he regarded her seriously. Rather than a timid or crying visage, her eyes were nothing but focused. "Benji. You are all I have here. This is important."

"..ya, bu-"

"Listen to me, okay?" With an extension of her arms, she presented to him a makeshift platform with her cupped palms. The weasel squirmed over and sat upright in her offered hands, to which she brought face-level. "I need to stay here, okay? I can't leave this place just yet…and I wouldn't even know where to start looking for him. You are the only one who can, please, I need you as a trusted friend and companion."

Benji tittered his whiskers at her for a moment. Beady black eyes regarded large blue ones. "You know he was left 'hind fer a reason."

"I know."

"You trus me dis much?"

Evelyn gave a long inhale. "I have to. I don't have a choice."

The weasel glanced to the scroll set down on her desk, and then to the articles littered about. "Did Nara-sama-"

"Can't know about this. No one here can." She set him gently down upon the floor, and then proffered him the scroll. "Travel fast, and be safe, okay?"

Benji contemplated her request. Leaving the keep, and sending information of sorts to the blue brute? This girl was clearly losing her small amount of sanity if she thought he wouldn't say something to the others. He was their companion, after all.

But…

But she almost appeared to be a wholly different person, standing before him with a calm façade and determined persona. Whatever exchange occurred between her and the old woman seemed to have lit a spark of fortitude within her. Was he really going to do this? For her?

"You've been a good friend to me, Benji." She said sincerely, and when he looked to her face, for the first time, he saw a genuine smile. It was like the sun breaking free from the clouds. "And I need friends right now."


You've been a good friend to me, Benji.

Whisk

The duly appointed messenger had set about his journey, a small scroll secured snugly to his person. Dis is crazy! I'm gonna die for dis! Despite his troubled thoughts, he thrust his small snout into the air, picking up the remnant scent of Evelyn upon her former companion. Wherever he was, he was gaining ground fast, and the smell would soon dissipate within the coming days. He was lucky a linger of it still remained, carried by the far winds. And with that, the rodent traveled hastily.


Evelyn watched her small furry friend leap from her window and scurry off into the cover of darkness, to the beckoning world beyond. Truth be told, she wasn't truly convinced the weasel would come to her aid and do as she requested, and instead would opt to tell his superiors and hand over her scroll of information.

She had to make the risk decision of giving valuable intel over to a potential enemy, but with the stakes as high as they were, she had little choice. Gathering her sheaf of papers from about the room, she sat upon her neatly made bed and set them before her. Crossing her legs and twirling her hair around a finger, she reviewed her notes carefully.

The night was young, and she had some work to do.


"We'll reach base by tomorrow around nightfall, perhaps midafternoon if we keep this pace." The Golden King's second-in-command relayed to the traveling band. The other members she had brought as reinforcements groaned as they rubbed their sore muscles and tender feet. The breakneck speed at which they had been traveling was no thanks to their newest addition, as Kisame was steadily growing more impatient with each passing day.

Three days.

Night had settled over the canyon they were passing through. Three days.

He was alive, still. No new involuntary incidents had been transferred to his body, yet. The group he was being escorted by kept their distance from his person and made no attempt on his life, for now.

Three days had passed, and his anger was slowly building. A storm of violent emotions and thoughts were brewing in his mind, building momentum under the tension of his muscles and the roiling of his blood. All of his 'what if's' and 'should haves' had been dealt with and stamped out. He didn't have the time or energy to deal with his past mistakes, not anymore.

If he was going to retrieve his bonded partner back to him, he needed every advantage he could lay his hands on. And by all the gods themselves, when they were laid bare in his palms, he was going to wring them dry.

"We'll be there by sunrise tomorrow." He called out to no one in particular, ignoring the upheaval of objections. "Let's go." He looked to Jun, his face giving no room for arguing.

With a swift nod, she turned and crossed her arms at the group. "You heard him, let's move out."