Fate

by PancakeFlying

The Kanbayashi were supposed to die, wiped out and never mourned because in the eyes of the world, they never existed. That is not what happens, nor what should have happened. An black alien creature came for them and burned everything they loved to the ground; Sachi, against all odds, survives when she wouldn't have. This will change everything. Full summary inside!

3. Chapter 3: About first impressions

CHAPTER 3: ABOUT FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Despite having a powerful bloodline limit, the Kanbayashi are mostly scholars. They thrive in academics, a compulsive need to understand, to know. The Dark Release marks on the shape of two diamonds on their palm allows for memories to be stored as chakra impressions inside the mind.

This doesn't mean that their memories can be contained forever, as the mind tends to erase the excess of information to retain what truly it's important. Of course, what the mind deems important does not always align with what the Kanbayashi considers so.

For their memories to be maintained the Kanbayashi use seals applied to the temporal lobes to bind the information permanently. This constructs what they call a 'mindspace'.

Sachi blinks at the void inside her mind. The roof is utter darkness only illuminated by the snowy floor beneath her; on it, flat books are organized in neat towers.

The memories are placed in categories: there's the good memories in a tower that reached her waist; there were also the memories that held everything she had studied up until that point, a tower that had been split in hundreds for her to reach comfortably; the important things to remember at the center of the mindspace; and—

At the corner of the space she had built over the years were the memories that she desperately tried to avoid. A Kanbayashi cannot forget, they have ensured that everything they did or say will always be remembered. Their failures and sins were also recorded, but could be ignored.

The tower held only two books, but the content made Sachi avoid opening them.

Of course, that would have been on a good day. Sachi wasn't experiencing one at the moment, her mind completely thrashed.

Sleep is the brain's way of processing information without any more input of stimulus, as well as rest the body and allow it to grow or heal. The Kanbayashi had taken their bloodline limit and their goal to shape a continuous state of consciousness via seals, offering them full control over their information processing.

Sachi knew this, because that was the first lesson they learned after they put the temporal seals. She also knew that her mind was hers and hers alone and that nothing short of another Kanbayashi interfering could change that.

There was a door now.

Dark red wood, exactly the same as Sumi's study room; she had seen it before, in Sumi's mindspace. It wasn't interfering with her memories but… there.

It unnerved her.

The obvious question was: what was it doing in her mind? Shaping one's mindspace took great effort, and Sachi's style was simpler than constructing that kind of mental barrier. What Sachi wanted to know, though, was: what did that door keep locked?

Opening it was easy enough; the structure foreign but compliant with her mind. Sachi had to squint against the brightness of the adjacent room, completely white except for the the shiny black floor. Sachi got only a glimpse of the mountains of books piled on top of each other, one step forward and then another; mist pooling around her feet, slipping past her.

The memories of the Kanbayashi didn't record feelings, nor thoughts; only what the eyes saw and what the ears heard. In spite of it, Sachi could feel a phantom sensation of coldness, a familiar lull to it that had something else lurking underneath.

It felt like the Needle Forest.

Except, the branches and the spikes were replaced by impossibly tall towers of flat books; memories. Sachi stopped at a particular large one, the base precariously holding the top that she had to crane her neck back to see.

The books had different colors for the covers; some even fancy edging or inscriptions. Just like her own syle of organizing her mind, the memories came bound in a book. Unlike hers, there were too many.

Inside her mind, Sachi was at peace. She had been for some time, letting the flow of good memories wash over her as she tied, bound and hid those that she so desperately wanted to forget.

(She wouldn't).

She knew that something bad happened, very, very bad for her to be so long in her own mind.

Maybe she was dead.

Far away she heard a guttural purr, a rumble that she recognized from shifting icebergs. Sachi went towards it, figuring it was best than wandering aimlessly. She wondered what had happened, for her to have so many things at once; a gift? Had she gotten a fever again?

Sickness had an unique way of interfering with the temporal seals. Distorting the memories and even mixing them without the user's intention. Sachi knew better than anyone that getting sick meant a very through cleaning up.

Until then, it was limbo.

"Did I… find Sumi?" she asked to the laberynth, trying to string together the last of what she remembered. "He was there… at my right—"

Thump.

A book. Red covered with black edging.

Grandfather had warned her about her curiosity, how it always got her in trouble and in situations she could have easily avoided had she ignored the magnetic pull of intrigue. Watching foreign memories were on the top three things she should, by all accounts, not do without supervision; among with trusting strangers and playing with seals.

Sachi opened the book.

The cloudy sky blinks into darkness, Sachi lying down on the floor to let the memories unfold. Eventually, the void clears to show a very familiar face, although younger.

"Your name is Sumi."

He was only a year old, held by his mother in front of a mirror.

Sachi would have smiled at the picture of her aunt had she not known she was dead and—

Sumi was dead too.

There was no other explanation as to why Sumi's memories, from the very beginning, were in her mind. It was a custom of theirs, to pass the memories of the deceased to another so they could bring them to the Archive.

She would have raged, cried and screamed because her beloved cousin was dead. However, her emotions were dulled by the alien structure, an echo of what should have happened has she been in her own mind.

Only curiosity remained; prompting Sachi to continue watching the last remnants of his memories. Sachi watched him grow into the kind young man that she knew he was. Seeing the highlights of his life made her heart break in little tiny pieces.

"This is my new cousin! We named her Sachi." he told the mirror, holding a baby in his arms.

The adventures they had together, and the trouble they both caused.

"One day we will travel together." Sumi promised a young Keiichi one day.

His parents.

"Come back soon, son. And bring a lady for once!" teased Akio, followed by a chuckle of his wife.

Their grandfather.

"You are destined for greatness, Sumi, do well."

His happy memories, from the first time he hunted a bear to the time he was named heir to the Isonash House.

"Come on Sumi, I have a plan!"

A younger Sachi, spontaneously appearing in his life with toothy grins and grabby hands. He had loved her, she knew, showing in how often she was in those recordings. There was also her brother, together for almost the entirety of their lives.

Sachi had misjudged how close they had been.

"Take them away!"

The devastation of Uzushio, Yua's death and then her husband's. The days that came next, mourning and pain. Sachi felt a pang of guilt; she should have been there, taking care of him instead of letting him cry in a corner of his room, wailing and blaming himself.

"We will go up stream and round the bears there." had been Grandfather's last words to him before that creature ambushed them.

Sachi's will faltered there, skipping the painful images of seeing more people die in front of her.

Not fast enough not to see her mother's corpse split in half.

Sachi tore through the pages until displaying the very last one. Much like the beginning, Sumi's life ended with a message in front of a mirror. Sachi saw his tired face and the heaviness in the smile he tried to give and failing miserably.

"Um… this is probably my last message." and it was, although it didn't make it easier to say or to watch "I do hope it works and reaches you… anyway. You are probably wondering what happened."

Sumi took a deep breath. "Sachi, you are the Archive. No, wait! Let me try again, good Gods." he rubbed his hands against his face, sighing before continuing "I'm sorry, okay? I know how you feel about the Archive, and I know that you didn't want to, but— it sounds very, very bad but you were the only one that could have done it."

The girl flung the book far away, clashing against a wall of books; it didn't do anything to stop the memories. Sumi had no right, absolutely no right to ask something like that out of her—

"You can hate me, Sachi. And I will understand if you do for the rest of your life, but please, please don't shut yourself away. I know you, Sachi, and I wish it had been different…" he sobered up, his voice tilting seriously "You are the Archive now, Sachi, and you can't change that."

She would, Sachi knew she would do it. She didn't want the Archive and she wasn't supposed to become one. Chika-sama had promised her mother that she wouldn't consider her as a vessel, it had been the only request for her to be made trainee.

Why, why, why, why—

"Sachi, please." he begged, familiar with how driven she could be. "Don't do anything reckless. You might not like it, but you know how important the Archive is and— Sachi, you have to live, for everyone."

She disagreed.

The mountains of books quivered.

"You have to understand, Sachi. That demon is out to get you, and I can't protect you anymore. I've taken you to a safe place, it's in Fire Country, in the Leaf Hidden Village. I've told you about it, remember? With Mito-sama?"

Sachi didn't care. She had trusted Sumi to protect her, and now...

(Screams and agony; Chika-sama plunged the first two needles in her brain—)

" —Tsunade, Senju Tsunade. She's her granddaughter and the best medic. They will take care of you, but don't trust them. You are the Archive and a target—"

"Don't tell me what to do!" she screamed, making the room shake under her rage "You don't get to tell me what to do!" she shrieked "You are dead!"

And with a bang, Sachi closed the entrance to the Archive.

Ghosts had no power over her.

(She should have listened.)

.

"Morning sunshine."

Hiruzen watched from the door as Sachi gave Tsunade a scathing glare. It could have been the vindictive tone his student had used to greet her, or perhaps because she had bound her hands with bandages and put a chakra repressing seal on her forehead.

Either way, Sachi was not happy.

Sachi was awake and well, or the best she could be considering her health. Tsunade had bought Sachi a few more decades, but not even someone of her skill could mend melted chakra pathways. Hiruzen could tell Sachi's anger by the way the room sparked with killer intent; the girl mustn't know that she was doing it, simmering in a corner of the bed while pinning them with her golden eyes.

And, Hiruzen had to admit, were quite the striking ones.

Late at night, the only timeframe he could spare from his role as Hokage, and the faulty lightning in the room made Sachi's eyes stand out; her scowl discernable in the penumbra. From time to time the seals on her skin glowed, Sachi clutching the blanket around her tighter to hide them.

"How are you feeling, Sachi-kun?"

The girl snarled at him.

"Let me try, sensei." Tsunade said, inching closer to her. Sachi stiffened under the blanket, flattening herself in the corner "Oi brat, you and I have to talk."

A flash of light. Another sneer.

"Sachi—"

"Sumi."

Tsunade stopped.

"Where… Sumi?" she asked, her accent heavy and clipped.

"Sachi-kun, may I come closer?"

"No." a beat later she added "Where, Sumi?"

"He's dead." Tsunade supplied.

Sachi visibly flinched in her corner, light seeping under the blanket before she gathered her thoughts.

"Where?" she insisted.

Sumi had been a polite young man, engaging in conversation and answering questions. He had understood the position he was in, surrounded by a neutral party that was not his ally and depending on their good faith to stay. He was also older and wiser, and more fluent in their language.

Sachi… was not.

Tsunade had spoken about a cheery girl, one that got into too much trouble than it was worth. A loving kid, she told him, attached and loyal. Sumi had been at the center of her life, exhibited in how many instances Tsunade had reported back.

A smart and good kid.

Hiruzen couldn't see it.

"Do you want to know where his body is?" he asked as gentle as he could.

Looking at her brought the image of a feral kitten. She spat and hissed at them in an animalistic fashion, growling with that twisted and gravely tongue the Kanbayashi spoke and shaking in her corner. A trapped harmless beast, overwhelmed by her surroundings and strangers. Hiruzen supposed it wasn't a good picture to paint, but one that they were currently in.

"Yes." she demanded, no less biting.

With an exasperated grunt, Tsunade left the room. Hiruzen, true to the girl's petition, didn't approach. Sachi had been advertized as the answer to all questions, but she seemed pretty lost at the moment.

Hiruzen was too.

"Sachi-kun, we don't want to hurt you." he soothed, Sachi focusing on him with embers in her eyes "We want to know what happened."

Silence.

"Sachi-kun, please don't be obstinate." it wasn't a threat, but a reminder. The girl, young and confused but not naive, catched on immediately; her chakra flared in response. "May I get closer, so we can talk?"

Taking her lack of response as permission, he made his steps deliberately slow into her space. Sachi tensed and backed into the wall, but unless she suddenly developed the ability to go through walls, she wasn't going anywhere. He settled in a seat in front of her bed, the flow of stray chakra prickling at his skin.

"Do you know why are you here?"

"... Sumi take me here."

"Yes. He took you here, do you know why?"

"... heal."

"Yes. Do you know who healed you?"

"Mito-sama's, um… daughter-daughter— Tsunade."

"Grandaughter, yes. You know who is Mito-sama?" she nodded. Tsunade had recalled the memory of the deal between the Kanbayashi and their founding mother. Hiruzen wasn't certain if that was the influence of the Archive or if it was common knowledge in her clan. "Do you know Tsunade?"

"... a bit."

"Good. Do you know who I am?"

She shook her head.

"I'm Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Hokage of the Hidden Village in the Leaves. Do you know where you are?"

She shook her head again.

"You are in Fire Country. Do you know what a Hidden Village is?"

Sachi took a few seconds to answer, mulling over her thoughts. Hiruzen didn't know how much she understood from their conversation, but she nodded curtly, saying "...ninja."

Hiruzen decided to ignore the way she said it, akin to an insult instead of a rank. "Yes, a Hidden Village has ninja in it." had Biwako been there with him she would have rolled her eyes, bless her.

Sachi, as expected, didn't take kindly to being talked in a dumbed tone. "We are trying to help you, Sachi-kun, but you have to help us also. Your cousin brought you here because you were hurt, and Tsunade-chan has done a good job, don't you think?"

More chakra flares.

"Sachi-kun, listen to me child." he said sternly "You might be angry, and you may lash out, but remember this; we aren't your enemy."

Sachi hid herself more under the blanket, mortified. That meant that she knew who had killed her clan, hopefully understanding that she was in no position to put up a fight.

"Sumi-kun used the debt Mito-sama had towards the Kanbayashi. If you don't trust us, at least trust in your cousin's judgement." that brought her some ease, keeping her distance still but with less chakra buzzing around.

"I'm not here to hurt you, Sachi-kun, do you understand that? Good. Your cousin has explained your… situation, and it's an upsetting one; but we don't need to make it worse, don't we? For that I need you to work with me, with us, to help you."

Slowly Sachi relaxed. Her chakra simmered down, a faint hum that was fading. Hiruzen tried very hard to gain Sachi's trust, not so much a child but a threat. Hiruzen tried differentiating the two, Sachi and the Archive. However, the latter was a mystery and the former was two breaths away from lunging at him.

He had to be careful.

They had almost no information about the Kanbayashi, the creature that killed them and what the Archive truly entailed; the only one capable of answering that being Sachi. If they wanted answers they needed to tread cautiously. The little girl obviously didn't trust them and had shown she was capable of destruction if frightened.

(Sachi did much worse if angry.)

The plan was to gain Sachi's trust and slowly turn her around. Tsunade had expressed concern about mental trauma, as well as physical repercussions with seals applied to the brain, and so they treated Sachi as unstable for the time being. Once civilized, they would proceed to gain as much information they could, perhaps gain insight into the Archive. Finally, they would decide what to do with Sachi from there.

Hiruzen's first step was to explain what happened to her cousin.

"Sumi-kun has perished, and he was very adamant about keeping your existence a secret. We couldn't bury him, since that would rise questions that we can't afford to give right now." Sachi hung on every word, paying attention to him with unblinking eyes and swallow breaths "Given the circumstances, we have decided that the best course of action is to cremate his body."

"Cre… mate?"

He really should have noticed how distraught Sachi was; not because she didn't understand what he had told her, but because she did.

Tsunade entered shortly after, bringing with her a wine colored urn with her. Sachi stared blankly at her as she approached and handed her the urn. The girl took it with trembling hands, pulling the lid off immediately and shoving her hand in it.

Hiruzen and Tsunade watched dumbfounded as Sachi took out a handful of ash, the fine grain slipping through her fingers, leaving small shards of bone behind. Drip after drip, Sachi's chakra akin to a broken faucet, began to leak.

"Sachi-kun—"

Naturally pale, Sachi's skin turned grey. The blanket fell around her as she began to tremble, black lines slithering around her body. One didn't need Tsunade's sixth sense for medical emergencies to know that something was wrong with Sachi.

Sachi dropped Sumi's urn, shattering the porcelain and scattering the ashes with a foreboding crack. The chakra repressing seal on Sachi's forehead burst into flames, followed by a storm of killing intent and murder in her eyes.

Only then they realized that, perhaps, they should have asked first.

The explosion came a second later.

.

"Tsunade-sama, the reports— oh, long night?"

If utter exhaustion and frustration could take a human expression, it would probably be the one that Tsunade had currently on her face. Needless to say, it wasn't a pretty one.

To say that she had a long night was an understatement; because there had been several of those. Sachi was a spawn straight from whatever icy hell the Kanbayashi came from, barricading herself in the east wing with so many seals that she had to send clones to avoid blowing up her hospital.

Sachi managed to destroy the entire room and paint the walls with her blood. Tsunade knew this because she had to scrub those damned seals out of every corner to make sure they didn't go off and finish the demolition act she had going on. Every damn morning and evening.

One had to wonder how such a small kid could do so much damage in a short amount of time. Tsunade had seen rage, especially the one mixed with grief, but never like that. Meant to hurt as much as possible, not caring for her own self if it she could inflict pain on others.

Sachi was petty like that.

Tsunade remembered Sachi crying, her body set aflame by golden light while she held her head between her hands. Between the seals, the explosions and their haste to hide everything before the ANBU came, Tsunade was convinced that the worst were the screams.

Agony and anguish; howls and screeches that rasped her throat raw. They haunted her even after they ended, echoing in her mind.

Tsunade had to flee with Sachi in her arms to put her in the west wing, since they claimed that the other one had a pipe malfunction and caused the explosions. Once secured under every padded hackle and strip she had, Tsunade proceeded to heal Sachi yet again.

Sumi hadn't been lying when he said that emotions were a Kanbayashi's bane. The scars around Sachi's scalp opened again, which meant more chakra filled blood on the floor, which also meant even more unstable seals.

In summary, a very long night.

"Thank you, Nohara-san." she gritted

And that wasn't the worst part.

"... I'll leave the reports here. Get some rest, Tsunade-sama."

As if.

Sachi's temper tantrum had caused the hospital to go into lockdown, believing that they were under attack. Hirzen took care of the administration and made up a bullshit excuse while she made sure Sachi didn't cause any disasters.

They didn't understand what caused her to snap, and how to remedy the situation. Sachi, as of yet, refused to speak a word to them. The little girl decided to stay in her corner, watching them with pure hatred, leaking killer intent from every pore of her being.

What bothered Tsunade was that Sachi refused to speak to them. After the incident, and disposal of Sumi's ashes, Sachi had shut herself away. She had caught glimpses of her staring at the walls, crawling matrixes on her skin and on the tiles—

Like snakes in the grass.

Jiraiya had taught her seals, or tried. She knew the medical ones, like the blood stoppers or the paralyzing ones. Her grandmother had shown her the bijuu seal once, and her granduncle had taught her the basics when she was a child.

Tsunade, for all her knowledge, couldn't make out what those seals were. She had had her suspicions when healing Sachi the first time, chalking up to being under stress for not recognizing the matrixes. Now, she knew better.

Sachi's seals were not regular fūinjutsu.

Adding that to the language barrier, the obvious spite she had for them and the Archive, Sachi was starting to paint a very dangerous picture.

Speaking of which, Tsunade had to check on her. The hospital had been busy, more so after a mission gone wrong that she had to work through all day long. Because of that, she had been unable to see if that little tyke was still brooding in her room, and if she was being honest, she didn't want to.

The whole Kanbayashi mess was taking a toll on her. She had seen the memories of her grandmother, and Sumi had told her that those very same memories were currently in that girl's brain. Uzushio was there too, adding insult to injury, and who knows what else Sachi had in her possession.

Getting up and cracking her spine, Tsunade set off towards the west wing. Nurses and medics rushed past her, some greeting her and others mimicking her expression of exhaustion. Everyone had work to do, including the janitors. Especially the janitors.

Sachi's new room was on the ground floor, tucked away in a hallway that no one really went to unless they were crowded.

Like today.

"Oh, Tsunade-sama! I'll finish up here and I'll be ready to use." A janitor, Tsukasa said to her when he spotted her.

"Thank you for the hard work."

"It's no problem ma'am, but Sage knows who used it before, they left all the blankets with blood!"

Sure enough, Tsukasa's cart was filled with blankets and bed covers filled with blood. It wasn't a strange sight in a hospital, a ninja one no less. What caught her eye was one of the blankets, with a red circle and a kanji written in the center.

A shiver ran down her spine, realization creeping slowly in her sleep deprived mind.

"Which rooms have you cleaned?" she demanded in a brisk tone, feeling the ground shift beneath her. "Which room?!"

"R-rooms,t-ten, eleven and…" The old man stammered at her anger. "Twelve."

Sachi's room.

Rushing to the room Tsunade found it squeaky clean and devoid of any eight-year-olds that possessed the biggest recording of information ever conceived.

"Fuck!"

.

Sachi, by all accounts, was not an idiot.

That would explain how a little girl had not only managed to break from the hospital, a heavily monitored institution; but how she had also sneaked her way across a village she didn't know and how not one patrol or ninja had detected her as she crossed the gate towards the forest.

Of course, that same little girl knew seals better than words. Moreover, she had an entire week with only her mind that helped her process all the information she gathered from and concoct a plan.

It consisted in a very simple, yet effective, tactic:

A notice-me-not seal.

Sachi's favourite invention. It didn't grant invisibility, but it did distort her immediate surroundings for her presence to be dismissed. She had been nervous about going under the noses of ninjas, who by Sumi's words where "a troublesome bunch that will cut your throat if you aren't careful" before adding "don't piss them off"; but when the guards at the gates didn't notice her, she relaxed.

Sachi had been a little disappointed in them. She had heard stories, about the mercenaries of the Continent that every traveler needed to stay away from. They had lost Kanbayashi to ninja before, their habits and goals overlapping; sometimes, there could only be one winner.

Of course, she had also taken pride in her seal. Precaution had mover her hand as she put her blood into the blanket she was using as cover. Normally, Sachi would only need one drop of blood for the seal to form. Now, however, she needed to be careful, for her blood was charged with chakra and that could set off her seal. Sachi knew very well what happened when a blood seal went wrong, and she didn't need to wound her body even more.

Thus the extra matrixes. Sachi had used two stabilizing matrixes that would support the main one, adding even more connectors that reinforced the relationship between all three of them to ensure that she didn't blow herself up. The only drawback was that she needed more chakra to keep the seal functioning.

Sachi stopped near a rock formation covered with moss on just one side. The blanket fell off her shoulders, no longer nuclear white but stained with red and brown. Sachi nicked a finger, retracing the familiar sigils with her blood and chakra. Her pathways were useless, true, but at least she could use chakra via her blood, which worked brilliantly when you used blood seals on the daily.

Maybe being crippled wasn't that bad.

The seal flashed one second before settling, the buzz of her chakra keeping it alive as she tied it around herself once more. Sachi started running again, she had no time to waste.

Around her, the forest was coming alive. The young Archive was still coming to terms with seeing the sun and moon chasing one another every twelve hours. It felt wrong, unnatural to spot the moon during the summer just as watching the sun rise in winter.

The strangeness didn't end there. As she ran across the forest floor, with actual earth beneath her shoes instead of snow, Sachi could feel the life brimming around her.

From the songs of the birds, so many and so loud, to the calls of beings that she heard in the distance. There were tracks of animals that she hadn't seen, the prints foreign that she avoided at all costs. It didn't matter, since the beasts that lived in that forest ran away from her just as much, instead of after her.

That was another jarring realization. The forest was… kind.

The redwoods giants made an intimidating sight. Red trunks that rose so up into the sky that shielded it completely, not letting the moonlight slip through between the bushy canopies. And yet, its leaves were wide, the size of her palm; with soft edges and in every shade of green. There was forgiveness in them, a passive sort of existence that clashed with the nature Sachi was accustomed to.

The Needle Forest was harsh, cruel and merciless; it demanded a toll of blood for anyone that dared enter it.

The Redwoods were the opposite. They welcomed everyone and everything. Sachi passed clearings that had shiny blades of grass with morning dew on them, colorful flowers like drops of paint across a green canvas. There were willows with draping branches, and oaks that took to width instead of height.

Green. So much green.

Sachi had grown up shielding her eyes from the blinding snow. Now, under the shade of the gentle giants where green and brown and a myriad other minute splashes of color where the norm, Sachi's perception of normalcy was slowly cracking.

She had seen the memories of the travelers, but reality was much more… imposing. Sachi could feel the breeze that rattled the crowns above, the little creatures that had too many legs climb onto her as she went down valleys and climbed hills of rock. The slumber of the forest was deep an unbothered, the old beings not stirring as she rushed through them.

The notice-me-not seal did not work on the ancient ones, and yet none had come up to meet her or strike her down for stepping on a land not her own.

Sachi hated it.

Every glance she took was a reminder that she wasn't home yet. A despairing sight, nothing she could hold onto to know that she is on the right path. The redwoods were clement, but crushed her nonetheless.

The earth was wrong, the air was strange and the water warm; all of them amiss except the sky.

Sachi squided to a halt into a clearing, recovering her breath. Her eyes searched the sky for True North, the star of the travelers. A beacon of hope when her world had crumbled to the ground, a guide for her pained soul in search of peace. Despite being so far away from home, the stars remained the same, more tilted than not but comforting all the same.

True North will take her home.

The sky was starting to clear around the edges, a few more hours until the sun rose. She had ran for a full day, the first hours filled with apprehension and fear of being discovered.

The seal worked perfectly.

Sachi was confident in her seals, but ninja were quick to act on their suspicion. There was a small possibility that the leader of the village would not give chase; or maybe that she would reach the hopping seal near the Handa village, that would take her to Rice Country before they got to her, but she wasn't betting on it.

Sachi was not an idiot. There was a motive why the Kanbayashi had not advertized their existence; and now that she was the very last one of them, she couldn't trust no one.

Certainly not those that had burned Sumi's corpse. They had come into the room carrying an urn with a parody of the vivacious red that represented her cousin. They had come and told her that it was "the best option", as if becoming ashes was any better than rotting inside a wooden box.

Heathens, the lot of them.

How would Sumi pass now? With his body not returned to the snow by the owls and his soul not heralded by the wolf that ate his flesh? Panic rose in her throat in the form of bile that tasted like iron; the thought of her dear cousin, who had given his life to protect her once more, not being able to rest until he was reborn made her want to scream and wail.

But she wouldn't.

Sumi was dead, and he had kept his promise. It hurt, gnawing at her heart because the only thing that remained from the man that he had been was a shattered urn and the memories he had passed onto her.

Sachi didn't have time to mourn now, she needed to run and to go back home, where everything would be right again.

Home.

The pain blossomed again, deep and constant. Her body couldn't withstand the heat, the burn underneath her skin prompting her to keep running until she reached the soothing cold.

True North beckoned again.

Home.

No time to think, no time to dwell. Sachi was the last of the Kanbayashi, the Archive, and far away from home.

Sachi was not an idiot; she started running again.

.

Inuzuka Ashi was the matriarch of the Inuzuka Clan. One of their best kunoichi and one of the most proficient ANBU Captains, with her companion Haiiro posing a formidable team; their mission count able to shame any aspiring ninja.

The Sandaime Hokage knew this, Tsunade knew this, and everyone that had met her would testify that Ashi was honest and loyal. That is why they had been sent on a high risk mission to obtain information about a dangerous group of outlaws that had fled to Iron Country, fully confident that they would accomplish it or die trying.

"Could you say it one more time?" Hiruzen pleaded, his headache turning worse and worse.

Ashi, experienced and weathered, hesitated. Haiiro was at her side, his cold nose grounding her from her stupor.

"We were coming back from our mission in Iron Country…"

.

Despite being in the middle of the Northern Belt, Iron Country was a neutral country. It didn't employ any of the ninja forces from the neighbouring hidden villages, and has managed to stay out of any conflict that rose between them.

Iron, despite its good intentions, had a small problem.

Because of that neutrality, the country had become somewhat of a safe haven for outlaws and criminals. Prosecution from any Elemental Country without approval of the General of Iron meant an international scandal that could compromise the weapon supplies that they sold to the rest of the Continent.

But when you were someone of Ashi and Haiiro's caliber, it didn't matter.

They sneaked their way into the country, found their targets and proceeded to spy on them for two months. Everything was fine and merry until they stumbled into a group of samurais.

One of the reasons ninja tended to avoid going to Iron, besides the sheer cold, was their military force. Samurais did not stand ninjas in any way, their first impulse was to poke them with their katanas or maybe throw them into those freezers they called cells. Naturally, the Inuzuka left immediately after they realized samurais caught their scent; their mission was done anyway.

To avoid their presence being pinned to Leaf, they diverted towards Rice Country, another neutral country that at least was tame enough not to pose an outright threat. As they fled Ashi's only thoughts were about retiring; they were getting too old for fooling around.

Rice was filled with grassy and swamped fields, the rice paddies the country named after present in every corner of the country; tourists might enjoy sightseeing but ninjas hated being in the open.

They rushed through the country until they reached their familiar redwoods, the old dog using his still young nose to search for a good resting point. They needed to gather their strength, for they had at least two days of travel. Late as they were, having more delays would only make the Hokage to rule them as KIA.

Tsume would kill them both if she had to cremate them, because once they died her sister would be next in line for Clan Head. No one was looking forward to that.

Nearing the border Haiiro's fur stood on end. Ashi, used to her partners tells, asked "What you have?"

Haiiro stopped, looking down at the ground. "Blood."

That was the kind of delay that Ashi didn't need at the moment.

Making a few hand signals, they argued how to proceed. Haiiro pointed below, using his snout to trace the last movements of the scent. The Inuzuka hounds were trained to detect chakra, among other common scents, and Haiiro was never wrong.

Young, he told her with his body language, young and wounded.

They were near the border, far away from the village that could be anyone. Ashi asked him if he recognized the scent but he shook his head. She watched as he flattened himself against the branch they were standing on, his ears pinned back and his tail still. Ashi tampered her chakra down, catching the scent of blood.

It was approaching.

The Inuzuka had heightened senses, and despite wearing a mask, she was sure of her skills. Her sight was being distorted, almost like a genjutsu but not quite. Masking her presence, she followed the foreign buzz of chakra from the forest floor, the leaves and the dirt muffling the steps.

For a moment Ashi believed that the exhaustion was finally getting to her, but then Haiiro bared his fangs silently. The scent was clear, but her sight was blurry.

Underneath the tree was a child running with a blanket as a cape. They both followed in baffled silence as the kid, a little girl, stopped abruptly. She looked around, and Ashi could hear something akin to heavy breathing drowned by the forest. She struggled to keep her eyes on her, an unfamiliar pull prompting her to continue her journey and to look away. They were lucky that they were so high in the canopies or that alien force would have driven them away.

Haiiro bit her calf lightly, his grey eyes sharp and serious as he pointed to the child. Blood she could smell, but there was something else.

Illness.

Ashi had done enough rounds in their clinic to know what a fever smells like, the pyrogens released into the bloodstream carrying a sweet aroma. The girl did look up but didn't see them, holding on to her blanket — and what were those circles? — and continuing her stride.

They watched her stumble but not once stopping, the smell of blood, fever and something else high in the air. Ashi knew that the girl didn't have much time left before she collapsed, but then again...

What was doing a little girl running through the forest?

'Follow?' asked Haiiro moving his head.

They had to go back to the village, no need to check on wandering little girls. Something was wrong, a nudging feeling that bothered her. If her memory served her right there wasn't a settlement or a village near, the border too dangerous for anyone to stay with the aftertaste of war so fresh. Not even a road for the caravans or travelling merchants, just plain old forest for miles and miles.

What was she doing there?

A few minutes they could spare, to make sure, she argued. Just in case. Haiiro understood and followed her as they went a few trees back. The girl ran fast but she had to stop to catch her breath. Everytime she coughed they could hear sloppy, wet sounds. How she had managed to get the flu in the middle of summer was a mystery, but it had to be pretty bad if she was swaying from side to side.

Dropping to lower branches, Ashi could see the girl better, although the strange feeling persisted. She was wearing a loose white tunic and rolled up pants, with too big shoes. The outfit wasn't strange per se, a little big on her yes, but not that concerning.

What did bother her was the scent of a too familiar detergent, that she knew for a fact only the hospital used.

Now that was interesting.

Haiiro noticed as well, casting a confused glance towards her. They went ahead silently, trying to see if the girl had a forehead protector or not. The girl was coughing more, choking and hissing through her teeth. Ashi wondered just how long she had been running, and why?

From where?

From who?

The distortion was starting to bother her. She was familiar with genjutsu, cloaked in one herself, and she could confirm that it wasn't that. Using the hand sign to dispel it could alert the girl of their presence, the sudden chakra burst too risky for her to use. She didn't appear to be a sensor type, or she would have noticed them by now, and too young to be a ninja yet. She couldn't have been older than ten, and she would have heard something if a genius had sprouted in their Academy. Moreover, she wouldn't have been out there alone.

They didn't need to be told that the situation was shady at best. From the uneasy jutsu the girl was using, the clothes, and her scent— something was going on.

Haiiro asks through his body language if they engage; Ashi considers it.

The girl takes a few steps and crashes against a tree, sliding down slowly. The cloying scent of sickness thickens, so heavy that Ashi can taste it at the back of her tongue. Haiiro curls his nose, more sensitive than hers, and frowns.

'Chakra. Blood' he signals to her.

Ashi can pick up the buzz of chakra, but in the same way one can taste water, it's there but it has no flavor; the girl's chakra was the same, with no other feature than just the buzz. Affinities changed chakra, for example, a fire affinity would have a slightly smoky feeling to it, whereas lightning was akin to static. Depending on the concentration of either Yin or Yang, it would be more powerful or controlled. Even civilians, or people with undeveloped chakra systems, had an affinity.

For the girl, Ashi could sense nothing. No affinity, no influence, no nothing; only the humm of agitated chakra around her like an angry hive of wasps. Ashi could taste the blood too, and between each wet cough, both chakra and blood intensified.

Haiiro was right, there was chakra in the blood.

Several red flags were flaring in Ashi's mind. Questions rising, who was that girl, what was she doing alone, why was she dressed with a nurse uniform, why was she sick—?

Ashi knew that the Hokage won't be happy with them for coming late, but he will be even angrier if they let something weird happen in their territory.

Because Ashi was a kunoichi, she took out a kunai from her pouch with a flick of her wrist without so much as the light catching the edge. Haiiro, sensing the change in her demeanor adjusted, spreading his paws and licking his lips. They could hear the girl moan in pain, huffing as she pressed her back to the trunk of the tree and clawed at the blanket she was wearing.

The girl was weakened, sick and feverish; she will stand no chance.

In the split second they took to materialize at her side a crack thundered across the forest, sending them both to the ground with no air left in their lungs and no response from their muscles.

The girl yelps, the scream caught in her throat with an unflattering croak. She falls back, and Ashi can see that her hands are coated with blood.

Next came the panic.

For a kunoichi of Ashi's caliber, and a ninken of Haiiro's, it was shameful to have fallen for such a trap. Ashi can feel the anxiety rising, because her body is stiff as a board and Haiiro's face had frozen in a snarl.

They were completely immobilized.

They could only take shallow breaths, the pain in their diaphragm too great for them to try to do something harsh. Ashi tried dispelling the jutsu with a burst of chakra, but it only frightened the girl more.

The scent of fear is acrid and pungent, and the girl is looking at them with terror. Ashi, at the back of her mind, marvels at how bright her eyes are; yellow and nearly out of her orbits. The girl's eyes dart behind her, and they widen even more. Her skin is pale, flushed from the fever, but it bleaches instantly as she catches sight of her partner.

And then, she throws up.

Ashi would have flinched if she could, the stench of bile, blood and fear overpowering her senses. Haiiro was close to tears.

A pull and a twist, Ashi's chakra was being drained. Her muscles twitched under her skin, small and painful sparks of chakra as it fought the intrusion in her system. Something was blocking her chakra, but not enough to kill her yet. The Hyūga had a similar move with their clan secret techniques, where blocking a chakra gate could prove fatal.

Haiiro groaned, a strangled sound that meant pain for him too. A ninken had a different chakra system, and what for a human was dangerous, for a ninken was deathly.

The thought of losing her partner was enough for Ashi to fight even harder against that… thing that had paused her chakra system. She could feel it shift but not budge.

Meanwhile, the girl gathered her wits and spit the last remnants of her stomach, going from white to green at concerning speed. Ashi would have felt pity if not for the fact that the little fucker had disarmed them instantly.

How?

Speaking was useless when your vocal cords were paralyzed, but Ashi could hear the girl speak. It was a grating sound, syllabes that she hasn't heard save for dying men and delirious cats. She was hissing, her lips trembling as she tried to get up.

"...please…" she said in a whisper.

The fever had went worse. The girl tried getting up and failing, rolling in the leaves with what was her last strength. As it happened, Ashi felt the presence weaken minutely, a last attempt at holding in before disappearing.

She didn't move anymore.

Ashi and Haiiro breathed out at the same time, gasping for air as their instincts were telling them to stab the enemy and cut them to pieces.

"Fuck." were Haiiro's words as he tried putting his limbs under him "You good?"

Ashi nodded, her body still spasming, unable to do anything more than even her breathing and stare ahead. The little girl laid on the forest floor, the blanket awkwardly around her body and rising in short intervals. There are circles and lines on the fabric, a quick sniff indicating that it's blood.

She didn't need to be an Uzumaki to recognize a seal.

Haiiro gets up behind her, huffing curses as Ashi makes sure that the girl is out cold before approaching. Ashi tries to take her pulse but withdraws instantly as the heat startles her. The girl is burning.

"The fuck happened?" he asks, not taking another step until she deems it safe. "Is she alive?"

Trust Haiiro to show sympathy for their enemies.

Ashi tries again. Pushing her around with one foot gains her no response; she fainted. "Barely." she answers Haiiro, who doesn't need confirmation to know that the girl is in a really bad shape. If the fever continues to go up without medical assistance, the girl will not make it through the night.

"What are we gonna do now?"

The girl had pleaded in her last breath. She had begged them for something; it troubled Ashi, to not know what was going on. The girl had a way with seals, because there was no other explanation as to how they almost dropped dead near her, but she was dying. Wearing a nurse uniform but no identification, they could have stumbled upon a foreign spy. Normal procedure was to disarm the target and bring them to the village for a through check up in T&I to strip away any of their intentions. They rarely ended well.

"Check for scents." the dog put his nose on the girl without complaint, Ashi checking over him in case the seal had after effects.

Ashi's chakra was acting up, but it was easing rapidly. She didn't want to assume the seal was tied to the girl, who was slowly fading away before her eyes, but it did have some parallels. Her control was good enough after four decades of practice, and a diagnosis jutsu told her that her partner was in relative good health, if not a little shaken up.

"This smells like Leaf." said Haiiro, carefully scenting her clothes and skin "... and, damn, the princess."

"Our princess?"

"Yep."

The princess meant none other than Senju Tsunade. If that woman had came in contact with the girl then... this was getting more and more complicated. Ashi didn't question her partner, his nose more trustworthy than her intuition at the moment.

What should they do? There wasn't a protocol to deal with suspicious children running in the woods with incriminating scents on them; much less when they knew how to use seals. If they left, she wouldn't make it; if they took her with them, she won't survive the journey.

"Fuck this."

.

Ashi and Haiiro made camp for the night, securing the girl while Haiiro put up the perimeter.

The girl was small, but carrying dead weight for that many hours took a toll on her already tired shoulders. Also, she didn't want to go into the village while it was still daylight, not with a child after her and a very strange story to tell the Hokage.

Her report was going to be a pain to write.

"Clear." Haiiro said, inching closer with his nose on the ground "How's the pup?"

Ah.

"She's not a pup." she chided. Her partner huffed, but didn't argue "I healed the scratches, so she should be waking up soon".

At least she hoped so. Ashi didn't want to bring the corpse of a child and then be sent to T&I for a 'little chat'. Ninjas were messed up, that was undisputable, but there were some boundaries that included not bringing back bodies if not necessary. She was still trying to come up with a good explanation as to why she took her, even though she trusted Haiiro, it was still strange to associate the white haired girl with the Senju princess.

"Should I hunt a rabbit?" he asked.

"I can put up traps if you're too tired."

Haiiro gave her a flat look, "Your traps won't catch a blind rabbit, and I don't want to starve, thank you very much."

"They aren't that bad!"

Haiiro, the damn dog, scoffed before setting off.

"What an ass," but there was no bite. "Guess we're stuck together, huh"

The girl didn't say anything.

Ashi was growing concerned. Normally a child bounced back from injuries, and just a slight knock out shouldn't have left that girl in a coma. When the feeling came back in her left arm she had had ran a diagnosis jutsu on her to make sure that there were no underlying issues. Apart from the black lines that appeared every time chakra got near her skin, there was… something else.

Ashi had felt something reach for her as she sent her chakra through her body. A phantom touch that had her flinching back. The Inuzuka matriarch expertise laid in veterinary medicine, but she was certain that it wasn't normal for something to reach out for her as she tried healing the girl.

The moment had been brief, Ashi not risking messing the girl up even more after she discovered the damage in her chakra pathways. No wonder her blood had chakra in it, with her system so torn apart it was a miracle she was still alive.

And thus was her concern.

Haiiro had picked Tsunade's scent on the girl, which would explain why she was still kicking even though she seemed to have been split apart and put together badly. Although, it failed to throw some light on why that girl was not in the hospital and prowling around Fire Country.

Ashi took out a pair of kunais, just in case. They had a surprise too many with the girl and she was taking no chances for another child coming from the sky. The Inuzuka sharpened her weapons, a grounding technique while in the open. They would eat and rest until the morning; from there it was a little more than half a day to reach the village, just as the sun set. Haiiro would be going ahead to notice the Hokage of their… emergency, hopefully gain a hearing and then—

And then what?

The girl's chest raised and lowered as she slept. She was worryingly thin, with a map of scars and something else that she wasn't sure she wanted to know. Tsunade might have healed her, but why? Was the girl important? If so, what was she doing so far away from the village?

In summary: what the fuck happened?

Ashi felt the girl's chakra stir. It was barely contained, so it gave her an aura of electricity that flickered from time to time; it tickled her nose.

"Ah, you're finally awake." she said, trying for a gentler approach.

The girl's eyes snap open, and Ashi's mind is reminded of ambar jewels, but filled with a simmering anger. She looks at the bindings on her hands and ankles before glaring up at her.

"Don't look at me like that, darlin'," Ashi told her, setting the kunai down, "If you behave I might consider untying you, but I can also put more wire if you don't."

The warning rings true as the girl's chakra flares when her face remains carefully still. The girl sits up with some struggle, obviously in pain but plays it off by looking around.

There wasn't too much to see, really. They stopped under a hollow sequoia, enough cover if the dark clouds didn't disperse and decided to go for a summer storm. It was getting late, the light snuffed out because of the clouds and the late hour.

She also looked with a dismayed expression at the only entrance, the same Ashi was guarding in case she got ideas and bolted. Again. Tiny she might be but she ran like the devil.

"So," she began, catching her attention "wanna tell me your name?"

The girl remained silent, testing the bindings on her wrists. Ashi was waited patiently until she got frustrated, huffed and set daggers with her eyes. "They aren't coming off, darlin', not until you tell me a few things first, 'kay?"

"Will you tell me yours?" she said, Ashi catching the weird pronunciation. Not from Fire, then.

"What?"

"Your name, will you tell me yours if I say mine?"

Ashi was still on active duty, meaning, she was absolutely not allowed to give her real name. Instead, she went with her cover name, "Call me Asami."

The girl's chakra flickered once, "Call me Michiko, then."

"You're lying."

"I'm not," she said, "You said 'call me' instead of 'my name is'. We can call each other any name, but it wouldn't be our true names."

That was fast. "Aren't you a smart one, hmm?" Maybe the girl was older than she looked; wordplay won't work on her. "Well, Michiko, I'm pleased to meet you, even though I hadn't expected to meet you in such a strange place."

'Michiko' didn't try to explain herself, awarding her an unimpressed look that gave her an impression that, somehow, a child was judging her interrogation skills; which was extremely rude. Active interrogation had always been Inoichi's expertise, whereas Ashi had focused on observation and infiltration. Might as well use them.

"Look, darlin' I know you don't want to speak with me but I'm not your enemy," 'Michiko' raised her bound hands, fuming "but I can be. The only thing that's keeping me from not knocking you out is my curiosity, so please indulge me if you don't wanna take a nap."

Just for emphasis, Ashi started sharpening the kunais again.'Michiko' shuffled a little bit away, resting her back against the bark of the tree; not a ninja, not even an Academy student. She didn't exhibit the conditioning that children from ninja villages had with the stiffness on her shoulders that hid the trembling; she was afraid of kunais, but not in the same way that civilians were.

Hidden villages' civilians regarded ninja weapons as tools and even though they were uneasy they had gotten accustomed to them; that girl was not familiar with kunais, and saw them as knives.

So, not from a ninja village then.

"What's going to be, darlin'?"

The Inuzuka kept smoothing the thinly veiled threats with pet names, a sort of good cop, bad cop all in a sentence. 'Michiko' didn't seem that pleased, but at least she spoke next "Why did you tie me up?"

"Oh no, darlin' that's not how this works." Ashi told her with a chuckle. She was the one guiding the conversation, and not the other way around. 'Michiko' had enough courage to take control but not enough to keep trying when Ashi waved the kunai with a fast swipe. "Our deal is answers for cutting the binds, understood?"

'Michiko' gave a curt nod.

"Good. What's your true name?"

"Sachi." she hissed.

Truth.

"How old are you?"

"Eight."

"What's your favourite color?"

Sachi was confused, blinking slowly before answering "... yellow."

"What's your favourite food?"

"Why are you asking this—?" when Ashi waved the kunai she added "Salmon."

"Saltwater or freshwater salmon?"

"Saltwater."

"You like sweet or savoury snacks?"

"Both?"

"Favourite season?"

"Winter."

"Favourite hobby?"

"Umm, reading."

Sachi had had to come from somewhere along the shore. Rice, Iron Country? Maybe even Frost. Salmon grew best in cold waters, so from the north. She had no preference over sweets or salty foods, meaning that she had been familiar with both. Ashi had had a slight suspicion that she might have been homeless or a victim of human trafficking; even an escapee from the circus or a moving caravan. Since she liked to read she couldn't have been neither of those, not when children were expected to work non stop. Winter was also an unusual choice, since Fire Country didn't have winters but slightly chilly months.

So, a mid to upper class home or family from the north; educated but not ninja related. Everything pointed to Iron Country.

"Where are your parents?"

Sachi turned somber immediately, looking down "Dead."

Ashi could scent the sadness coming from her. Grief. The demise of her parents must have been recent or she would have hid her reaction better.

"No more family or an orphan?"

That question seemed to hurt her more than asking if her parents were dead. Sachi's chakra flared in a cloud of thunder, the fizzle sharp and angered. Ashi could only suppose that she had been closer to those outside her immediate family, which foreshadowed issues that Ashi didn't want to dwell on. It was interesting, though, to see her react so viscerally.

"Dead." she repeated, spitting the word.

"Do you know how to swim?"

"Yes."

The sudden change in conversation made her chakra plummet. Apparently, Sachi's mind liked to answer directly despite her obviously unstable mental state, a reflex that spoke of being questioned frequently.

A strict household? Her family was dead, but Sachi's grief was bittersweet. There was anger and hurt, the acrid scent of fear and panic that was deeper than the little scuffle they had a few hours prior. Not something that one would expect from being suddenly orphaned.

Close and yet detached. There had to be something attached to the grief she was wearing on her skin, a burden that came from being left for last. Sachi wanted to be sad, and she was, but she was also furious, and that anger overpowered her pain.

"What kind of books do you read?"

"All kinds." she said after considering it for a few seconds.

Another point to educated then. Ashi was starting to think that maybe Sachi was somehow related to the General of Iron, but given she had been there on the recon mission she would have heard if something like one of the nobility clans suddenly died. Iron had a tendency towards male rulers, but females could step in if the need arose. Perhaps Sachi had been used as a hostage?

It didn't make sense.

Sachi had come from Fire Country but going towards the north. Iron Country couldn't be the place she came from and Rice Country nobility consisted in farmers which Sachi's white skin disproved. That left Waterfall and Frost, without considering Lightning because of the same reason as Rice; and Earth because Fire wouldn't have helped a worm. Those were all the countries that formed the Northern Belt, except Hot Springs but Ashi was certain that Sachi hadn't set a foot there because of the absence of sulphur in her scent.

"Where are you going?"

And wasn't that a loaded question. Ashi had not expected an answer, Sachi very well capable of shutting up and refusing to continue their little game.

"Home," she said in a small voice, "I want to go home."

Ashi knew she was treating with a child, one that had had to suffer a great amount of trauma, and yet the way Sachi had said 'home' made something stir in her chest. Careful, almost a whisper and filled with a deep sense of regret and desperation. Ashi had heard the same tone during the war from the mouths of the soldiers that had been broken so much by it that the only thing that had kept them alive was holding on the concept of home and family.

"Home, I want to go back home" they would say, borderline afraid of saying it outloud in case they died in the next moment. Generally, they did; dying far away from the place that brought them comfort, peace.

Sachi exuded the same type of loneliness. They say that eyes are the mirrors of the soul, and Ashi could say that Sachi was barely hanging from the thinnest thread. Amidst the debilitating solitude, Sachi refused to give up.

She leaned forward, her tiny bones cracking loudly in the hollow of the redwood tree. Her chakra filled the silence next, a sudden surge of strength that was more a desperate act of staying sane than a show off. "I will go home." and she bit every word as only a feral dog would.

All teeth and no bark.

Cute. Ashi matched Sachi's chakra flare with one of her own, overpowering the fizzle with what could only be described as a slap. Sachi recoiled back, simmering down quickly. Ashi was the alpha of her clan; letting puppies bite her ankles was not an option.

Sachi had a frown on her face, her lips tensed in a straight line.

"It sucks that your family is dead, darlin' but don't get too cocky with me." Ashi noted stubborn on her intel report. "Speaking of which, you've told me no surname."

The girl with the golden eyes said nothing.

"Darlin' I'm giving you the last warning—"

"It doesn't matter," Sachi said, "They are all dead. It doesn't matter."

What a cheery response.

"I think it does. I mean, they are dead but you aren't. As long as you are alive it matters."

Ashi hadn't intended to make such an effect on the little girl. Sachi snapped her eyes wide and Ashi could smell the saltiness of tears no yet spilt. "Y-you think?" she asked, her voice strained.

"Of course. Now, what's your surname?"

"Kanbayashi."

"Never heard of it." which was strange in on itself. Kanbayashi didn't ring a bell in any of the important families, at least in the Continent.

As a specialized kunoichi in recon and intel, Ashi knew the upper class socialites in case she came across them. Not because they were dangerous but because they were hell to deal with on a good day. Kanbayashi was not in that list, the closest Ashi could think being Asuyoshi but that clan was all the way in Lightning. Sachi hadn't lied, her body reacting in the same way in which she said her true name.

"Where is your family from?"

"The Heart."

"Come again?"

"The Heart," she insisted slowly, "the Heart of the Needle Tree."

What?

Ashi read her chakra, absent of any indication that she was lying. Either Sachi knew how to fool an Inuzuka or she had hit her head very hard.

"Your family comes from a tree?"

She nodded.

"Like this one?" Ashi looked around the sequoia. Perhaps the Heart had been a small village in a pine forest?

"Nu-uh, bigger. Like, a lot bigger, up to the sky and then it spreads," she makes a gesture with her bound hands "it has sharp needles."

Ashi was pretty sure that the redwoods were the biggest trees in the Continent, growing so high that sometimes it was difficult to breathe at the top. If that 'Needle Tree' was bigger than the sequoias then Ashi wanted to see it too.

"So, let me summarize. Your family came from this Needle Tree," Sachi opened her mouth to correct her but Ashi went on "bear with me. I assume it's somewhere in the north, right? Good. You say your family is dead and that you are going home. What I don't understand is what are you doing here."

Sachi was going home, not running away from it. How did she get in Fire Country in the first place? Sneaky she might be but it wasn't enough to cross several countries back and forth without attracting some sort of attention.

"My cousin brought me here."

Now she has a cousin?

"Where's your cousin?"

"Dead."

Not anymore.

"Wait a second. So, your cousin took you here, but why? Where you attacked or something?"

Sachi flinched slightly and Ashi regretted being so straightforward. She recovered quickly, although a little miffed "My cousin took me to someone... to heal me."

"Could be that that someone was a lady named Senju Tsunade?"

Sachi's chakra startled before she could hide it. So she did know the hime. Tsunade could be intimidating, one of the Sannin no less, but she didn't get the habit of scaring her patients so thoroughly that they remained scarred for life. Sachi was in the latter, blanching again and giving off the scent of fear.

Ashi remembered the strange scars on the girl's body. Ashi didn't want to believe that Tsunade had tortured a little girl, not because she though she was unfit for it — Tsunade could break bones and heal them just as easily— but because she didn't see why it would be necessary.

A headache was forming at her temples. Nothing was clear. Educated but lacking in some areas, alone but resourceful, strange past and relations to Leaf. Sachi's cousin had brought her to Leaf to heal her, meaning that the injuries had been made before coming to the village. Yet Sachi was running towards the place her cousin had taken her away from while remaining frightened about the woman that possibly saved her life.

What was going on?

"You got pretty big scars." she remarked and even though Ashi couldn't see them Sachi curled herself protectively "Tsunade-sama healed you right? Shouldn't you be in the hospital still?"

That question made her jump, guilt written all over her face.

"Did… did you break out from the hospital?"

Sachi looked away.

"Darlin'..." Ashi was at a loss. The hospital had guards for this very reason, since ninjas were very sensitive about closed spaces that weren't their homes. Ashi knew this because even herself struggled to sit still but never ever did she try to get away before the medics let her do so. It was a very bad idea to piss off the medical staff, mostly because sooner or later you would end up in the hospital again and they won't be so nice. "How did you do it?"

There was always a few ANBU guarding the hospital, making sure no one tried to finish a job in killing one of their comrades; Ashi had been one of them. They would keep an eye on every exit, including the underground ones connected to the ANBU section of the hospital. The windows and doors were trapped with only the medical staff (and the guards) having the key to open them without getting zapped to the Pure Lands.

How did a child slip by the watchful eye of ANBU and Tsunade without being caught? And how did she even manage to get out of the village?

"Sachi, answer me."

"I answered many questions!"

"Yeah, no. You are supposed to be still in the hospital, what are you doing here? Why did you run away? And how?"

"Too many questions," she huffed but Ashi could tell she was trying to change the subject, "I don't—"

"Darlin', look at me." Sachi did, her golden eyes glittering in the low light. "What did you do?"

"Nothing!" she exclaimed, "You don't understand! They want to kill me—"

"What do you mean they want to kill you?"

That wasn't possible. Why would they heal her just to kill her shortly after?

"They want to kill me." she repeated, "They want to burn me too, I… I can't, I can't let them— you don't understand!"

"Burn? Why would they want to burn you? Who's they?"

Ashi was getting lost.

Sachi's chakra spiked "Mito-sama's granddaughter and the man with the funny hat! They are bad, they burned Sumi! They burned him and they want to burn me too. I can't die, I have to remember them right? I have to, I can't—"

Sachi was having a full blown panic attack. Ashi's repertoire at dealing with distressed children consisted on fleeing or finding a responsible adult. Obviously, neither was an option here, so she scoured her brain in for something to calm her.

"Sachi. Sachi! Take a deep breath darlin', that's it." Ashi's instincts were telling her to run, the chakra in the air not unlike the chakra of an exploding tag about to go off. Sachi was fumbling with the ninja wire at her wrists, only rubbing her skin raw and making her anxiety worse. Ashi's nose was tingling again, "Sachi! What's your favourite fruit! Quick!"

"They want to burn me!"

"Sachi! Remember our deal, you have to answer me!" Ashi let her chakra sweep once, shaking Sachi a bit to break her from the vicious cycle of a panic attack. It did something, since Sachi's eyes snapped to her in a rage of golden and salty tears "What's your favourite fruit?"

"Burn—"

"Is that your favourite fruit?"

Sachi's chakra swayed with agitation and Ashi saw the exact moment when Sachi's mind took a turn for the worse. It was as if the thin thread of her sanity just snapped. Black lines appeared on Sachi's skin, climbing their way up to her face like greedy snakes.

Ashi gripped her kunai harder.

"Watermelon." Sachi said, in disbelief.

Sachi's chakra dropped like a brick, quick and with a bang. Ashi didn't know what had happened to Sachi but she was short a few marbles. The Inuzuka alpha could see trauma in her, fresh and trigger happy. It was the way that certain words made her crumble to the ground, how her chakra bled around her as the storm clouds above. The mysterious tattoos that came to life when she was in distress and how… broken she was.

Ashi had seen that kind of madness. It struck those that were too young to understand what happened to them and why they were feeling that way and so they… cracked. They tried to clung to normalcy by pretending they were the same as they once were.

In most cases, they only crushed themselves further.

Trauma was hard to process, sometimes not processed at all. The result of that was a perturbed mind, like a bone not healed right; still functioning but not completely.

When Ashi looked at Sachi she saw the same. A pity, really, that children had to suffer such great tragedies so young; then again, Ashi had been a kunoichi since before she knew how to put two and two together. Sachi was not a ninja, lacking any conditioning for dealing with traumatic events, and so she shatters.

And yet, she pulls herself together. She takes the thread of sanity and ties the frayed ends together with nothing but anger and stubbornness.

Sachi's chakra dies down, as much as the ever present buzz can, and meets her eyes with resolve. Is strange how much control she has over her mind and body; to stop her instincts and cut them from the root and continue forwards.

"Watermelon." she says again, her voice steady.

Ashi acknowledges that with a hum. Watermelon is hard to come across in Iron Country. A voice at the back of her head that tells her that it's useless to piece together the strange case of Sachi's circumstances. That girl is something else.

Ashi doesn't know if it's good or bad.

"Why burn?" the Inuzuka continues asking. Gentleness doesn't come often to her, much less when she is on a mission and when she needs some clears answers, but she is willing to give in as long as Sachi doesn't blow up.

Sachi is implying that Senju Tsunade and the Sandaime Hokage want to burn her, out of all things. She is strange, Ashi can at least be certain of that, but there's hardly any motive to kill her outright. Moreover, Sachi was a child, and even though children have died at the hands of ninjas there had always been a motive to it.

(That's what Ashi wants to believe.)

"Because they are heathens." she hisses, every word sibilant with venom, "They took Sumi and burnt him, left him in ashes like a plagued rat!"

Ashi felt Sachi's anger for the first time, a wave of killing intent that struck lightning fast. Had Ashi been the lesser kunoichi she would have slit Sachi's throat from trying to play games, but looking at her expression she found no resolution to intimidate her. Ashi believe this because the killer intent wasn't aimed at her, but at… everything? The world, perhaps?

Killer intent was born out of hatred, a sudden surge of chakra that became agitated by one's desire to savage anyone in their path. When used right, it could desarm any enemy and give pause to the strongest of foes; that is, if it was actually trained as a skill instead of a reflex.

Sachi's killer intent was nowhere near weaponized, being fizzy and thunderous like her personality shifts. Ashi was still surprised, since one had to hold quite the grudge to summon such violence from emotion alone. Sensitive was added to Sachi's list.

"They killed him?"

"The burnt him!"

"They burnt him before or after he was dead?"

Sachi was seething by that point. Killer intent shot up from her tiny form as senbon. Ashi wasn't affected that much by it, a far away acknowledgement at the back of her mind that put a stop to matching the challenge.

"He died and they burnt his body!

Ashi was piecing together the why's of Sachi's behaviour, so upset about her cousin being cremated. Some clans preferred to be buried, whereas others followed the old ways of burning the body until only ashes remained. The Inuzuka had similar customs, mixing the ashes of both dog and human so they would be together in the Pure Lands. It was the highest of honors, to be sent off in such a way; when you were a ninja, seldom you got the chance to die close to home and your body retrieved.

Sachi wasn't so keen about it.

"Your cousin died, right? And they burned the body afterwards…" Sachi's killed intent intensified, turning anger into fury "They…. did something wrong?"

"Yes!" she shouted, "How could they burn Sumi? Now his… his soul won't rest! H-he didn't deserve that!"

Sachi wavered between anger and sadness, choosing the former to punctuate her next words "They. Are. Heathens. They turned his body into ash and now the wolves are resentful, it nearly killed me!"

Ashi was having real trouble following their conversation with Sachi jumping from one thing to another. She had a cousin, now dead; the Hokage and Tsunade cremated his body, which vexed Sachi terribly. Wolves were also involved, Ashi missing how or why.

"You… you have to let me go. I have to go back home before the wolves eat me or they burn me. I have to let Sumi rest, and the others—" Sachi chocked on her rant, swallowing the knot in her throat "I have to feed the wolves."

"Wolves—?"

"The wolves have to eat the flesh of the dead," Sachi explained between gritted teeth, "they are angry at me because, because—" she hiccuped.

"What do you mean 'eat the flesh of the dead'?" wolves had been pushed to the north, the south dominated by the grand felines. Sachi was from the north, but wolves rarely frequented villages or cities, keeping the packs near the untouched forests and mountains. There had been attacks from wolves towards humans, mostly due to people going too far into their territory; they were wild, after all.

But going so far as to say that wolves ate human flesh was too much of a stretch. Sachi seemed completely sure that wolves had to eat dead people, and if she didn't feed them they would come for her.

Ashi was starting to wonder if Sachi was just an imaginary construct that her mind had made up just to mess with her.

"The wolf! You saw it too, the one that talked! It attacked me because it wanted to eat Sumi's flesh and now it wants to kill me because Sumi is burnt!" she wailed.

And then, it clicked.

She couldn't help it, really. Ashi let out a chuckle, turning into laughs as she realized that Sachi was talking about Haiiro. People often confused ninken with wolves, and Ashi couldn't blame them, really. Ashi had seen wolves before, and she had to admit that they looked alike; although Haiiro would argue that they are not.

"You got it all wrong, darlin'." Ashi said, wiping a few tears of mirth. "Haiiro won't eat you, don't worry."

Sachi didn't seem convinced at all. "Wolves eat people!"

"Haiiro isn't a wolf, and they rarely do anyway."

"That's not true!" she shouted, aghast "They eat the dead and then— then you have to eat the the wolf! You have to so their soul can rest!"

"Woah there, eat a wolf? Haven't heard it before." Ashi teased.

The Inuzuka alpha acted out of ignorance, the customs of the Kanbayashi ancient to be brushed of as the far fetched imaginations of a child. In retrospect, it might have been the wrong thing to do. Laughing at someone else's grief and beliefs tended to get you in their bad graces, but Ashi was tired and just done with the whole ordeal, so she just forgot herself for a second.

It only took Sachi a second to paralyze her.

Ashi's body stopped working. Her lungs were fine after the initial shock of being overcome with a force that only let her collapse into the wood behind her. It felt similar as the numbing trick Sachi had done to her left arm, although this time her whole body was unresponsive except for her eyes and breathing.

The Inuzuka alpha saw how Sachi untied herself quickly, rubbing at her bloodied wrists as she finally got them all out. Ashi had put death knots in there, she was sure of it; a technique to avoid any movement from the target, tightening every time they did so.

Somehow, Sachi had managed to find a weakness on the knot and free herself; which was baffling on its own, and paralyse Ashi at the same time. The girl got to her feet, pinning her with her eyes.

One of the difference between Inuzuka ninken and wolves were their eyes. Wolves, as predators, had the yellowish tint to their irises that helped them hunt. Ashi, looking back at Sachi, in the crepuscular light saw the same thing.

A predator.

Sachi pressed the wounds to her wrists, making two drops of blood to fall to the forest floor. Ashi felt more than saw, a sudden creeping presence that made its way towards her. The effect was the same shock that made her muscles tense, not painfully, but enough to make her uncomfortable.

The buzz of chakra spiked, but instead of the all-over-the-place sensation it was more… focused, directed.

Sachi went over to her, steps almost silent in a way that she had seen genin do when taught about stealth. She kneeled in front of her, still wary but calmer than she had ever seen her.

"I'll show you the truth." she muttered.

Ashi wasn't amused, and swore that when she got out from whatever she had done to her she was going to beat Sachi's ass to Iron Country so hard that no medic would be able to heal it. As it was, she couldn't move; so when Sachi gingerly put her hands at either side of her head she couldn't do nothing but stare.

And endure.

The intrusion of another in one's mind was something she and Shikaku often compared as to 'being mindfucked by a sloppy q-tip'. Sachi's style was more akin to 'being mindfucked by a cotton wall'. The dichotomy between the soft edges and the utter unyielding shield that was trying to get past her mental barriers was something that would have interested Inoichi, in the morbid kind of way, but not Ashi.

As any other ninja, she had been trained to put mental barriers to avoid someone trying to get answers without the conversation bit; someone just like Sachi. Inoichi described them as labyrinths to avoid any stranger to get to the important places by criss-crossing the way with trivial memories and thoughts.

Ashi, being close with the Yamanaka by proxy of being in the same ANBU squad, had extra buffers in case she got caught by the wrong crowd. They had served her well, getting captured once or twice in her career; so far, no one had managed to crack her barriers except the Yamanaka.

And yet, Sachi did so easily.

From there she could only watch.

The first thing Ashi saw, because she very well knew that it wasn't reality and yet she was seeing it unfold in her mind, was snow.

Pure, blinding white snow. There was a wall made of thin pointy branches that reminded her of senbon; along the dunes of powdered snow there was a slight mist, painting a picture of white, black and grey.

Ashi, proficient in genjutsu tried dispelling it with every trick in the book; it didn't work.

Laid on the snow was a person, naked as the day they were born. The angle of the image was set low on the ground so Ashi couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman.

It didn't matter, as in the next second a piercing howl startled her. Ashi, and every Inuzuka, was familiar with barks and howls, almost like a second language to them. But that howl was not one of greeting or remotely friendly.

It was a warning.

Under the blanket of black needles appeared the wolves. They had a coat of white fur with only a few grey hairs; their eyes a mistifying yellow that glowed in the shadow of the bare trees.

Ashi had seen many canines in her life, inevitable considering her clan and their partners, but never had she seen something so feral and wild.

A wolf stepped from the pack. It was big, and even when Ashi didn't have anything to compare it with, she knew it had to be bigger than Haiiro. Prowling with their head low to the ground, they sniffed the snow.

They howled again.

This time, the howl was an invitation, setting the time to eat. Haiiro had a similar howl, calling up the pack to feast together.

Realization struck her as the wolf opened their jaws and a row of sharp teeth dove into the belly of the person. Ashi watched as the wolf tore apart flesh and meat and entrails with starving bites and growls of satisfaction.

It was wrong.

The wolf didn't leave anything behind, crushing the skull with a sickening crunch to get to the brain; breaking the femur to get to the marrow and licking it clean. The snow was tinted with blood, the white fur of the animal stained by the meal.

They howled one last time, going back to their pack that hadn't moved an inch while their mate ate alone.

The image stops before another comes into view. The wolf is now dead on a table, people with white hair and golden eyes cheering as an old woman cuts the fur off the carcass and then the meat.

Ashi watches in horror as a piece of the wolf is roasted and served in a soup, little hands taking a spoonful and coming out empty afterwards.

Another pause and another episode. This time its a hospital, a very familiar one that has none other than the princess and the Hokage in it. The former approaches with a wine colored urn, and a blink latter the very same is on the floor in a million pieces.

Afterwards, it's a chase. Smashing a vial to get the janitor's attention, slipping by the nurses and medics and just in front of Tsunade's office; crawling into a dirty laundry carrier and taking clothes and shoes; leaving by the back door of the hospital.

Hiding under the crates of the merchants, rounding the Hokage Monument and giving one last glance at the Hokage Tower. Everything stops after Ashi sees herself, a baffled expression on her face as Haiiro snaps his teeth, right before they go down paralyzed.

"See?" Sachi demands, "Wolves eat people."

If Ashi could speak she would have told Sachi that she was insane.

Thankfully, the cavalry arrived.

"You sure?"

Sachi's head snapped to the entrance, where Haiiro was with three rabbits at his feet. After seeing whatever Sachi did to her, Ashi had a cold shiver down her spine. Sachi's reaction consisted of taking the kunais laid at Ashi's side and point it at him.

Haiiro ruffled his fur "Such a feral pup," he sighed "you said you have a dead cousin?"

She tensed, "Sumi is dead, his flesh—"

"I asked if he's dead."

Sachi nodded.

"So you want to go home to pay your respects, but your Sumi can't be eaten by the wolves because he's burnt to a crisp." Sachi's hands trembled holding the kunai "Listen, pup, you are pretty far away from home and I can smell the fever on you. If you try to go by yourself you are gonna die in two days tops. Don't gimme that face, you are a smart pup, yeah? You know this, but you won't go back to the hime so she can heal you because you are afraid that they won't let you go again."

Sometimes Ashi wanted to kiss Haiiro on that snout of his, he was good like that. Ashi saw as Sachi's will wavered, something that she hadn't accomplished ever since she tried getting intel out of her. Haiiro might not be interested in interrogation, but he does have a soft spot for pups.

"What's chasing you, pup, to be so afraid?" Sachi bit her lip, troubled. "Must be pretty bad if your cousin brought you to the hime, hmm? Now, pup, you are too young to be gettin' into fights like that, and not alone. Why don't you come back to us, so you don't drop dead?"

"I can't die here!"

"You seem pretty keen on doin' it though, running around like a mad cat. How long have you been out of the hospital for? Three days?"

"... four."

Four?!

"Thought so. You must be pretty tired, hungry. But you have this pretty big mission to avenge your family, feeding the wolves and so on, so you can't sit around." Ashi's feeling started to come back, Haiiro's tail fanning around him in a clear order to stand back. Training went both ways. "Pup, why do you have to do it?"

"I'm the last one, I have to go back home and…"

"But why now? You're too young to go alone and you seem pretty lost to me, if you are the last one then they can wait."

Sachi took a step back before saying "Their souls…"

"They are your family, right? They will understand if you take a few days so you don't join them early because you didn't eat or got sick. Your cousin brought you to the hime because you were hurt, so he must have thought that it was safe to leave you there."

"They want to kill me!"

"Why, pup? Were they that bad?"

Sachi hesitated, gripping the kunai awkwardly "They don't understand me—"

"Have you explained it to them?"

She didn't answer.

"I see how it is, then. It's no wonder we aren't gettin' nowhere here, when we don't know anything 'bout you and you don't know anything 'bout us. It's all a misunderstanding pup, you don't have to be so afraid."

The girl pondered that for a few seconds, taken by surprise. Ashi could practically see her think, deciding if she should trust them or not. She took a step forward.

"You are a wolf, you are trying to trick me." she said, baring her teeth "You have come for Sumi but his body—"

"Right, I've come for your cousin." Haiiro retorted, keeping a straight face "So I can eat him and help him pass away, but he doesn't have any meat on him."

Ashi could move her fingers now; if Haiiro kept Sachi busy they might knock her out and drag her to the village without crazy talks and second hand cannibalism visions.

"How do you speak, wolf?" Sachi demanded, her hands clenching. If her blood was spilled then they would be in trouble "Is it the Lady of the Hunt?"

Haiiro huffed. "Pup, you are assuming things. I don't know who that lady is, but you certainly do. Why don't we talk, so can we clear everything?" he goaded, giving her space.

The dog could also tell Sachi's moods by her chakra, and Ashi had no doubt in her mind that he was doing his best to keep her calm. The girl, however, didn't let go of her suspicion; Ashi needed only a few minutes more to be able to move.

"Come on, pup. I promise not to bite you if you don't bite me."

And, just like that, Sachi relaxed.

"You promise?"

"Yeah, sure. I have three good rabbits that I wanna eat, because, ya'know, I don't eat any puppies. I can hear your tummy growling, so why don't we sit so we can talk?"

"Okay."

Huh?

Haiir's tail wagged. "You know how to skin rabbits, pup? I would do it but my thumbs don't work that way." Sachi gave a curt nod, going to take the rabbits. "Up you go, set the fire before the rain comes." he told Ashi, nudging her with his nose and an air of smugness around him "You are hopeless, you know this, right? Was it that hard to speak to the pup without those games?"

The Inuzuka matriarch tested her body. It was still a little stiff, the chakra in her system strangely sluggish. "Fuck you, Haiiro. And you there." Sachi looked up "Are you gonna try something shady?"

"I won't if you don't."

Right.

Ashi sighed, too tired to argue with deranged children in the middle of the wilderness. Nevertheless, she will take the truce Haiiro and the girl had reached with surprising quickness.

Somehow, Ashi knew it would be a long night.

.

"Who taught you this?"

Sachi nibbled on her skewer, happy to ease her hunger. "Grandfather, and my cousin."

She had skinned the rabbits and prepared the meat, just like they showed her in their first camping trip. The masked woman had let her do it, although she could tell she was keeping a close eye on her.

Also, taking the knife away after she finished.

"The same cousin that's dead?"

"Yes."

Hearing a wolf talk was… unique. Sachi didn't know too much about the fauna in the Continent, but she had a slight suspicion that talking wolves weren't part of the regular crowd. Besides, the wolf hadn't tried to eat her yet, so Sachi was positive about 'Haiiro' being a singular case.

Or so she wanted to believe.

"... how did he die?"

"... I… don't know. I wasn't awake." it was the truth. Sumi had done something unspeakable, tampering with another's mind, and Sachi won't ever forgive him for that. He died because he wanted to. "I don't… wanna? talk about it."

The woman flinched slightly. She had a mask over half her face to let her eat; with tan skin and short dark hair, her eyes brown or black since the bonfire cast shadows over her features. "Are you ninja?"

"Um—"

"Kinda obvious, pup." the wolf chuckled, deep and raspy as the woman pinched his nose. "Have you seen one of us before?"

"... not really."

Sometimes, back when Sumi was sent on more journeys he showed her bits and pieces. Akio, his father, had been a high priest of the temple of the Uzumaki, so he got to see some of the other branch of the clan that acted as the military force.

But they didn't have masks on them, or wolves as partners.

"Good for you, pup. Ninja can be pieces of work, sometimes, if you know what I mean. Take the hime for example."

"Hime?"

"Yeah, the princess, Senju Tsunade. You met her right?" she nodded "Real good at healing, but she kinda sucks at people things." he huffed.

"Tsunade-hime is a prodigy, Haiiro, they don't have time for commoners." The woman added "She rules that hospital like a queen, and you can't always be nice when you're saving someone."

Somehow, despite the ninja addressing Haiiro, Sachi felt as if she was the one being chidded. Tsunade had prodigious skills, that was undebatable, but Sachi agreed with Haiiro. For all her greatness, the Senju princess was not good with people. Not when she looked at her as if she was a demon, and certainly not when she was disgusted to even come near her.

"... so you're Leaf ninja."

Both became still for a second before Haiiro barked a laugh. "Nice catch, pup, aren't ya a smart one?" Sachi took another bite, blaming the fever for her hot cheeks. "I mean, ya broke out under the hime's nose, so ya must be quite the cookie, hm?"

Sachi, who was still trying to follow the language of the Continent, didn't quite catch the meaning. Haiiro's partner spoke up next, asking "Why did you leave, darlin'? Tsunade-hime can be quite brash, but it's not because of it, right?"

Again with the same question, Sachi was getting tired of it. "I wanna go home."

"But you can't."

Sachi felt fire in her veins, Haiiro sneezing before she could get a word of complaint. "Don't meant it like that, pup. Your cousin took ya there for a reason, and the world can be dangerous for everyone, even if you're a smart one."

She knew that too well. Intelligence had done them no favours when that creature slaughtered them, but if she wasn't smart, then what was she? If she didn't go home, had she one at all?

If she didn't try, did it mean she had given up?

"... they're different." she said in a whisper.

"Well," the woman said gently "I'm different, Haiiro's different, you're different… everyone's different, darlin', you won't find two people alike and going against the world because it isn't like you… it's gonna be hella lonely."

Oh.

The woman didn't use a condescending tone, nor did she shame her. Sachi was aware that she came from an unfamiliar place with a culture that the rest of the world didn't share nor understand. Going against a current, Sachi was stubbornly holding on the ways that she had been taught and she believed in.

But that's not how the world works.

The idea of normalcy, what was right and what was wrong, dictated who belonged in a group or those who were left aside. The Kanbayashi had been thousands , safe in the Heart where everyone followed the same ideas and the same beliefs, where tradition was glorified and change was frowned upon.

The Kanbayashi had excluded the whole world, and now that they were dead, Sachi was suddenly the strange one.

(Loneliness would kill her faster than a kunai.)

And yet, she longed for being understood.

The woman gave her another rabbit skewer "Eat up, darlin', food makes you feel better."

Sachi searched for pity in her voice, or expectedly masked indifference. When she didn't found anything, she accepted the food. "... thank you."

"How's your head, darlin'? You gave us quite the scare."

Right, she had been dying.

"Better."

Sachi might have underestimated Fire Country. The last trek of her journey she had been overcome with such a high fever that she had been rendered unconscious for at least three hours. How she hadn't died then, or how she had pulled it through, she could only thank the gods.

And the woman in front of her.

"Thank you." she added.

"No prob, darlin', but I have to ask." Sachi braced herself for the inquiries about her scars, or the chakra in her blood, or the seals on her skin— "are you okay?"

She hadn't expected that.

Okay? The emotions hit her like a shovel. Okay? How could she be okay? Her family was dead, Sumi was dead, she was in buttfuck nowhere and so far away from home. Did she even have a home still? And what was that fucking demon that killed everyone? And why, in the name of all that was holy and good, why did they burn Sumi?

She could lie to the woman, dodge the question and feign that it was okay. She wasn't asking out of necessity, but of actual concern. A stranger, who had healed her without missing a beat and didn't press her for answers.

"N-no." she croaked.

That was the truth, clear and loud. She was not fucking okay, because she was alone and sick and didn't know what to do. She wanted to go home, go to her room and close her eyes, pretending that everything was okay and that it was just a feverish hallucination.

No. She was not okay.

"Don't worry pup, it'll get better."

"H-how?" how could it get better after everything that happened?

"It'll come, eventually. I won't tell you that it's gonna be easy, but it won't be that bad forever, right?" the woman said soothingly, poking the fire. "Or that's what everyone says, the truth is that it's gonna suck for a long, long while. You either get used to it or change what's bothering you, but it can get better."

They remained silent for a long time after that, Sachi taking the bit of wisdom while she finished her meal. The woman spoke from experience, that much she could tell, but she was also giving her advice.

Sachi desperately needed to believe that it would change, that it could change. Her current situation was less than perfect, and she was so damn lost as to what to do and what to expect.

Yet, when Sachi wanted to rage against her circumstances, cry and wail because it wasn't fucking fair, and that she didn't deserve any of the pain; she didn't. She had been running for four days without allowing herself to stop, miserably focused on getting away as to not deal with her problems.

She could have been dead, either by her own stupidity, or because the woman and the wolf in front of her.

Luck she didn't believe in, but she wasn't as stupid as to not profit from it.

The woman was right; life sucked at the moment, and it would for a long, long time until she found a solution or moved on. It didn't make it better, but it also didn't make it worse.

In the end, Sachi choose to held on the words of the woman that had saved her, without knowing that she would do so much more than sharing advice.

"... thank you."

"Huh, what for?"

But Sachi didn't respond; looking up in the darkness where True North didn't shine, but the bonfire in front of her did.

The woman had given her a gift, although unwillingly.

Kindness.

And Sachi took it greedly.

.

The next morning was more serious.

"What are we gonna do, darlin'?"

Sachi, in a change of heart, had stopped being difficult. Haiiro, the traitor, had taken quite the liking to her despite Sachi keeping her distance.

The girl shrunk a little bit, hanging on the blanket that she dutifully carried with her. "... they are gonna be mad at me."

Mad was an understatement. If what Sachi had told them was true, then the Hokage and Tsunade would be worse than slightly angry. Details she hadn't given them, telling them that she was supposed to be staying in Leaf until it was safe for her to step out into the world, and that she might or might not be in the hit list of a highly dangerous individual.

Which checked out why was she so scared of them. Ashi would be too if someone suddenly dropped from the trees with a knife, with a wolf that in her culture —religion? — meant death. She did apologize for knocking them out, which was nice, had she not explained how she did it.

Fucking blood seals.

Ashi and Haiiro decided to ignore that tid bit of intel until they reached the safety of their village, spoke to the Hokage and had at least one strong drink. Sachi didn't seem bothered by it, having gone into several tangents on sealing theory that they had tuned out until her fever started acting up.

Another problem. Ashi had assumed that Sachi had gotten a very bad flu, and whereas it had been true, the fever was a more permanent issue. They had saved her life by fighting the infection manually, since Sachi's body was weakened by whatever happened to her that she refused to talk about, but her body was constantly feverish due to the chakra in her blood. Now they were contemplating how to go back without Sachi dying in the process.

Sachi wasn't thrilled at were they.

"Come on pup, it's gonna be fine. I'll talk to the Hokage and the hime, 'kay?"

"You promise?" damn, those were really good puppy eyes. Haiiro completely fell for them.

"Sure thing, pup."

Ashi had a bad feeling about it.

(She was right.)

"Can you chakra walk?"

"What's that?"

At least she tried. Casting a hopeful glance towards Haiiro, she sighed. "We're gonna do this. Get on my back, Sachi."

"...why?" and for emphasis, she took a step back.

"It's faster this way. I don't wanna make you uncomfortable or whatever, but we need to rush a bit, 'kay?" Sachi frowned and Ashi really didn't have time for this. "I promise I won't drop you, darlin'."

Just like a charm, Sachi surrendered.

For some blessed reason, Sachi's magic words were 'I promise', which Ashi was certainly not complaining about when they worked brilliantly. Sachi was hesitant but climbed onto her back and held onto her with her tiny fists.

Haiiro snickered behind her.

...

Transition chapter, woo!

Sachi is awake and she doesn't like it. At all.

Also, introducing my Inuzuka OC'S, Ashi and her partner Haiiro. Ashi is Tsume's older sister and current Clan Head of the Inuzuka. I had to make them up because I couldn't put Tsume in charge so early, and I always got the vibe that Tsume had a cool older sister.