We move hideouts, and our new surroundings are dusty, full of boulders, hidden in the shadows of cliffs. I have a feeling that Kabuto encouraged Orochimaru to choose a place that had less grass and trees and life to upset me. But I don't care where we are anymore. I'll manage, no matter what.
There aren't many herbs where we are, so Kabuto meets with a supplier once a month in a nearby village. I make the case for me to go instead, to get out of the hideout and into a place with a little livelihood. "We're far enough away from Konoha that no one should recognize us," I tell Sasuke as I get ready. My hair has grown out past my shoulders now, and the hood doesn't quite hide it. "It'll be fine."
Sasuke shrugs, sipping his medicinal tea. "Just don't draw any attention to yourself," he says.
"Why?" I say. "Worried that if I get caught, you won't get your favorite snacks?"
Sasuke gives me an imploring look. "If you're not back in two hours with those snacks," he says, "I will come get you myself."
"Okay, okay," I say and laugh, patting his cheek. He pushes my hand away. "Be right back."
The town I visit is small, and I'm supposed to meet with our supplier at a dango shop. I eat a few as I wait. Sasuke's snacks are on the table in a plastic bag. I have enough for the two of us to share.
Behind the counter, the workers trade out for their shifts. The other customers have finished eating and file out of the shop, leaving their payment on the table. A waiter comes by and starts cleaning at the same time someone approaches my table and slides onto my bench, shifting the vibrations. They place a knapsack almost identical to mine on the space between us. I finish off my dango, pushing the plate away.
"Thanks for your help," I say, picking up the new knapsack. "Your payment is in my bag."
"Consider this one on the house," says the supplier, and I stop, half-raised in my seat.
This voice. I know this voice. But I haven't heard it in – years.
"Are you so comfortable in your new role," Rei says, lifting a cup of tea to her mouth, "that you don't even recognize me?"
"What—" I glance up, making eye contact with the waiter who comes by to pick up my plate. "Nao," I say as he takes the remains of my meal. Behind the counter, the cashier opens the register with a clatter. "Hiro."
They have the whole restaurant captured. People who approach it outside inexplicably turn away or divert their eyes. There must be a whole genjutsu around this stand.
It must have happened when they were changing shifts with the workers, replacing them slowly one by one, moving around so close to me that it pulled the vibrations in every direction so I wouldn't feel it.
"You're safe now," Rei says, leaning her cheek on her fist. "That is, you're safe if you want to be."
Her hair is pulled into a bun. A new scar runs across her cheek and down her neck. It healed well, leaving only a dark mark where the scar probably once split open most of her face. I could have healed her so that there was no reminder left. Otherwise, Rei looks the same, her eyes a mix of green and brown, changing in the light.
"What are you doing here?" I say, knowing that the answer to how did you find me? will undoubtedly be the spirits.
"We're Kabuto's suppliers," Nao says, wiping down the tables.
"He would have recognized you," I say. "From the exams."
"Unlikely," Nao says. "But we had that covered, just in case."
"Transformation jutsu," Hiro says from behind the counter. "We change our appearances each time we meet with him and tell him it's so we can protect our market. He doesn't know us well enough to recognize our chakra."
"Neither do you, apparently," Rei says, kicking her feet up on the table. "Or maybe you've forgotten. It's been a year and a half, after all."
I can get away, easily. Rei wouldn't follow. She would keep waiting until I came back – and she knows I would come back. Maybe not next month, but maybe the month after. I wouldn't be able to stay away.
"What are you doing?" I repeat, unable to find a better response.
"We've been looking for you. What are you doing?" Rei asks as I move out from behind my table, the knapsack over my shoulder. "I told you not to get wrapped up in this. I told you I would come back."
I squeeze my hands into fists. I'm not going to argue with Rei. I know how she can get, so adamant and persuasive when she believes something to be true.
In the end I made my own choices. I brought myself here. I let the ashes of my life in the village fall around me, and I made a new one. I did this. I did all of this.
"I'm fine," I say. "I have a plan. I'm not the person I was when you left."
Rei blinks at me, unconvinced. She sets her hand flat against the table, her thumb pressed against the edge of it. She says, "Do you still want to break the bond?"
The bond. The mention of it is usually enough to pull it to the front of my consciousness, making me fully aware of it, filling me with Sasuke. It doesn't happen this time, and I know, somehow, I'm stopping it the way I used to, blocking it with every fiber of my being so that Sasuke doesn't hear a word.
"I will break it," I say. "In my own way. I have a plan."
Rei eyes me carefully, standing herself. She reaches for me, brushing the ends of my hair. She curls a strand around her finger. "Your hair is long now," she says and lets me go.
"If you say you have a plan, I trust you," Rei says, waving to her teammates. They discard their aprons. Nao snatches a stick of dango and ducks into the back of the store. "We'll keep tabs on you. There's a gift for you on top of Kabuto's supply," she says as Hiro slips out the back as well. "Don't let the others see it."
It doesn't make me nervous that Rei has found me. She won't tell anyone where I am. She would never put anyone in danger like that. But seeing her again does stir something inside me, a feeling that I haven't felt in a long time. It takes me a while to place it.
I open the knapsack when I return to the hideout. Without waiting for Kabuto to take inventory of it, I upturn the knapsack to see what Rei was talking about.
Wrapped neatly in a soft linen cloth is deer antler. A small note is tucked under the folds. I smooth the note out, reading the careful words written there.
Sasuke appears, his footsteps soft as he approaches from behind. "What happened?" he says, and the bond flutters at the sound of his voice. "You disappeared for a while."
"Nothing," I say, giving him a sidelong glance. He meets my gaze, holding it, waiting for me to tell him why the bond had closed off for a few minutes. Sasuke could dig around in my head for the answers if he wanted.
I lift up the bag of snacks and grin. "Just wanted to surprise you with what snacks I brought back."
He scoffs but snatches the bag from me. I laugh, holding the crumpled note behind my back.