"That tiny piece of a piece of a little lie,

Became another living beast growing overnight.

How can you laugh with them easily?

Showing to anyone a smile but they didn't see,

Your rigid wall keeping all other people out,

But I can see you're hurting, fall even lower now."

-Setsuna Plus, JubyPhonic

A hospital would be here one day.

I stood at the center of the village, maybe a little too far east, maybe not far enough south.

I only knew it by memory, and it was different every time I was out (a little more sick and hungry with Konan, a little more rubble with Kota).

The ache in my chest reappeared, but I didn't mind it so much.

I was surrounded by a circle of makeshift tents made of stone and scraps of wood and mud packed on top. The bones of a rat sat in a neat pile outside of one. A woman sat in front of another with a little girl, teaching her to read by drawing characters in the dirt.

Too thin arms and legs, cheeks so hollow I could see bones.

I glanced up at the sun. Sweat dripped down my neck, but being hot would always be better than being cold.

We could catch fish past the border, cut them up, and hand them out. But it would take all day to catch enough to feed the village, and they'd only be hungry again the next. We'd have to fish and fish until it was our cloaks and the lake fish all over again.

Then we'd hunt the animals and run out of them, too.

And then there would be nothing left but each other.

It was still the same.

I tried to imagine what a hospital would look like. Would the floor be made of stone, or steel? Would it hold up in war, or would it crumble like a tower?

"There's a shinobi behind you," Namekuji said, curled around my neck. "Hiding in one of those tent things. Waiting for you to let your guard down."

An assassin, or Root? Was there a difference anymore?

"It is down," I mused.

Namekuji scoffed. "If you were alone, one of those pointy weapons would be in your back before you knew she was there."

"But I'm not," I said, looking at him. "You wouldn't let anyone surprise me."

Namekuji stared back. "Dumb human."

"I didn't have to bring you with me."

He made an irritated noise at me.

What did a hospital look like on the outside?

"You're not going to turn around?" he asked.

"Do you know what a hospital looks like outside?"

"How would I?"

"You weren't always with Naga," I pointed out.

Namekuji's response was to rub slime on my neck.

I heard footsteps behind me, heavy, too loud to be the shinobi, and then a gasp. I looked back. An old man was on his knees behind me, clinging to the shinobi's vest.

She wore purple, but it only told me what I already knew.

She cursed him, pushing at his arms, but he held on. There were others watching, eyes peering out from other tents, the mother and daughter frozen.

"I won't let you," he yelled back at her, and my eyes widened.

He did it to protect me.

Why?

She shoved at his head, fingers digging into his arms, but she didn't hurt him. Not really.

Because Yahiko and Konan handed out fish? Because Naga brought back the sun?

What did I do worth your life?

I didn't even kill Hanzo.

Frustrated, the shinobi drove her elbow into his nose and he faltered back, blood dripping, but still grasped at her ankle when she took a step forward.

Why, why, why—

Namekuji pressed his head hard against my cheek. His slime was cold. It made me blink, surprise and confusion pushed aside when I remembered that she hid here to kill me. The headband on her forehead had a jagged line through the middle.

I spun a kunai in my hand and darted forward.

Her eyes snapped to mine. She threw up a short sword and my kunai scraped off the side.

She didn't use ninjutsu, and she didn't stab the civilian holding her in place.

I'd never seen a shinobi value civilians before.

I dodged back, out of the way of a wide slash. She yanked her foot free and I pulled, just slightly, just enough to make her stumble. My kunai sunk into her ankle before she caught herself and her leg buckled when she put weight on it.

Too bad.

She tried to get up as I approached but fell again. She held her short sword up in front of her. "There are more of us," she spat. "We won't forgive what you've done—"

I slashed a kunai across her throat and blood splashed on my fingers. I crouched as her eyes widened, as she dropped her short sword to grasp at the wound.

"I don't really care," I told her.

She coughed blood and dropped.

I looked at the old man behind her, struggling to push himself up, the woman from before pressing a rag to his nose, the little girl staring at me with wide eyes. I stood. The woman stiffened when I moved closer but didn't move away.

I knelt in front of the old man and he looked at me with wide eyes, like I was something alien.

"You honor us with your presence," he rasped. He reached for my hand, and then remembered the blood on his palm.

Honored? To meet me?

"The Akatsuki—they promised to free us. And you have," he continued. "You killed Hanzo. He was the strongest shinobi this village ever produced, but you killed him."

If you knew anyone could've walked into his hideout and done it, would you still think so highly of us?

If you knew that it wasn't that we were strong, but that he was weak?

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Gidayu," he said, still staring at me.

"I'll remember it."

He looked at me like I'd handed him a hot meal and I felt something that was almost, almost, warmth.

You thought I was strong, but you still wanted to protect me.

I pushed myself up and walked away.

"You didn't use acid," I noted.

"It's like sparring with a Slug Sage didn't teach you about splash damage," Namekuji said lazily.

"You could've gotten rid of the body, after." I felt eyes on my back.

"But body heat."

"You have the sun."

"You walking heaters wouldn't understand."

の

Mamoru clapped a younger man, then an older woman on the shoulder.

"Shinnai, and Kanae," he introduced. "They're the closest you'll get to loyal."

They faced the broken desk and Yahiko.

Kanae's expression was guarded, eyes cautious. She glanced at Yahiko, then at me sitting on the floor. Shinnai stared at him for a second, wide-eyed, and then he bowed.

"Lord Yahiko," he greeted.

Yahiko tossed a cream scroll up and down, regarding them, but didn't respond to the title. "Have either of you been to Kusagakure before?"

"Not many want to remember, but there was a time when Hanzo promised peace, just as you do," Kanae said. "He was a good leader, for a time. No country took advantage of us under him. We all believed and trusted in him, only for him to turn on us when we needed his leadership the most."

"For shinobi," Yahiko corrected.

"For...?"

"He was a good leader for shinobi, and I wouldn't say so, even then. He chose our military strength over the people. He abandoned the shinobi that fought and bled for this place as soon as they were forced to retire. So many died for nothing," he said, burning holes into her. "But he kept you fed to protect a village that hasn't existed for a long time."

Kanae bristled. "Before the war, the village thrived under him."

Yahiko leaned back. "Tell that to the civilians who lived off scraps and rotten food for the last five years. Tell them that it was because of war that the people around them died of dehydration while shinobi shared nothing."

Kanae took a step back.

"This isn't the time for a lecture," Mamoru-sensei said lightly, standing behind them.

Yahiko's eyes flicked to his.

"I was stationed along the Grass-Rain border, briefly, before Iwagakure took over," Shinnai said.

"Iwagakure isn't holding Kusagakure anymore. They pulled out when the armistice become public," Yahiko said. "That's what I need the both of you. Iwagakure left Kusagaure in rough shape and with peace talks going on, no one's paying attention to them right now. The recently made leader of the village, Issa Fujiwara, agreed to share half of their rice harvest if shinobi were sent to re-build, help with their injured, and look for their dead."

Shinnai frowned. "But I'm not a medic-nin."

"Neither am I," Kanae said. She looked at him differently than before. Reevaluating him.

Yahiko tossed Kanae the scroll. "Any aid is better than none."

She didn't open it. "Kusagakure isn't a civilian village. They must have shinobi capable of setting bones or bandaging wounds."

"They did," Yahiko agreed. "But Iwagakure conscripted most of their shinobi to fight for them during the war. And when they left, those shinobi were forced to renounce their allegiance to Kusagakure and taken to Iwagakure."

Taken. Forced to fight.

Shinnai grimaced.

I thought I saw the worst of the war.

Kanae frowned. "I don't know the terms of the armistice, but that must be a violation of it."

Yahiko shrugged. "I only know what Fujiwara told me."

She unrolled the scroll, frown deepening.

"You'll be going back and forth between Kusagakure and here. You'll help them a little, return with rice, then go back. I can't say how long it'll last. But the village needs this."

"This Fujiwara wanted a six-man squad," Kanae read.

"He'll have to settle," Yahiko responded.

Shinnai stood. "We're heading out immediately?"

He nodded. "Wear civilian disguises until you reach Rain Country," he said. "Just to be safe."

Because they'd be targeted.

Because, even if it was to help, anyone with us was the enemy.

Because the assassination attempts would keep happening.

The people I loved would always be in danger.

Unless it was stopped.

Unless I put all this hate I felt to good use.

Kanae tucked the scroll in a pocket of her flak jacket. "How often should we update you on the situation?"

"As often as you think you need to," Yahiko answered.

Kanae looked at him for another second. "I'll see it done, Lord Yahiko." She shared a brief glance with Shinnai, who bowed again and followed her out.

I listened for their footsteps, barely audible, until I couldn't hear them anymore.

Yahiko sunk down against the desk "That was exhausting," he said. He looked at Mamoru-sensei. "I have to do that all the time?"

"Not all the time," Mamoru-sensei responded. "Only twenty-three hours of the day or so."

Yahiko groaned, tilting his head back.

"Why does Kusagakure have so much food?" I asked.

"Because Iwagakure," he answered. He sunk down further. "There are rice fields all over Kusagakure. Most of it was traded to Konohagakure, Iwagakure, or Takigakure. That's how they stayed neutral for so long. When Iwagakure took over, they stopped trade and used the fields to only feed their own army. Civilians tended to the fields but were rationed, so when Iwagakure left they had a massive excess. Konohagakure would've realized it eventually and put Fujiwara in their debt or replaced him. I was faster."

It was worse somehow than if they'd burned them all.

"And we're allies now?"

Yahiko closed his eyes. "Allies of convenience. I don't want to think about it right now."

"What if Issa doesn't hold up his end of the deal?"

Yahiko was silent. His eyes slowly opened. "Then I'll take what he owes me."

小さい

I stood on the water, just offshore, staring up at the stars sprinkled in the sky.

It was the same as Fire Country, after all.

There were a few clouds, white and fluffy looking, turning the sky a deeper shade of blue when they passed in front of the moon.

The moon was a half-circle, hanging to the right, glowing and bright. I stared at it and my eyes didn't sting. It was softer than the sun, less intense, but no less pretty.

I could stand outside all day and night, just looking at the sky, and I'd be content. If I wasn't a shinobi I'd do this all the time.

"I didn't think the sky would be the same here," Maho spoke.

I tore my gaze away from the moon to where Maho sat on the sand, legs crossed, head tilted back. He wore the same black robe and white belt as my brother.

"Iwagakure was built within the mountains, so it's higher up," he continued. "The sky felt a lot closer there than it does here. I thought it would be different, somehow. But it's not."

I looked at the moon's reflection on the water. "Why was it so easy for you?"

Maho's eyes flicked down. "What?"

"You gave up everything for the Akatsuki. Iwagakure made you fight, but it was all you knew, too," I elaborated. "Yahiko asked you to defect, but he was a stranger. Didn't you have friends? A family?"

"I had a family," he said vaguely. He stared at the sand. "But friends? No, I wouldn't call anyone I knew that."

I watched him as he sighed, as his shoulders hunched. "The answer is a secret. Only Nagato-sensei knows, knew, but—" he sighed. "The Akatsuki trusted me from the beginning, but I didn't trust you. I didn't tell you everything about me, even when you kept me around when you didn't have to."

I tilted my head. There were only a handful of things worth keeping hidden for years.

Would my brother hide that you were a spy to protect you?

He would try and handle it himself, I mused. There was only one person who would hear Maho out if he outed himself that way, and it wasn't me or Yahiko or Joji-sensei.

I turned fully to face him. "Are you a spy?"

Maho tried to smile, thinking I was joking, but it slipped away. My eyes were as cold as the sea.

"No," he sputtered. "I wasn't—that's not the secret. Nagato-sensei wouldn't keep that a secret."

"He would if it protected you," I said.

Maho faltered, eyes going wide. He shook his head hard. "No," he said again. "I'm an Amegakure shinobi. That's all I am."

"Okay."

Maho grimaced. He pushed himself up, looked around, and picked up a rock. "It's—It's an ability," he muttered, curling his fingers around it. "Back when we met, I told everyone I was in the Academy. I knew what kind you'd think of, and I didn't correct you, but I was training to join the Explosion Corps."

"'Explosion Corps?'" I asked.

Maho took a deep breath and threw the rock as hard as he could, high in the air. It glowed, a miniature star, and then it exploded.

It was a small, contained explosion in the air between us, but I still ducked reflexively.

Bright orange faded to black in the water's reflection. I looked up at the smoke, then at Maho. "Oh."

"It's a bloodline trait. Not many have it. When the Tsuchikage found out about it he took me away to be specially trained. I know I had parents, but I don't remember them," he admitted. He stared down at his palm. "I didn't lie about being sent out because there weren't enough shinobi, but I didn't tell the whole truth either."

He made a fist and pressed his knuckles to his forehead. "I was chosen because I could at least get rid of bodies for them, even if I couldn't do much else. 'No evidence, no witnesses,'" he said quietly. "I never wanted to use explosion style after that. I never wanted to be used like that again."

I stepped back onto the shore. "And you thought we would use you?"

Maho didn't look up. "I believed Yahiko but—like you said—he was someone I didn't know."

I looked at him, a boy so broken by war it drove him to heal instead of hurt, and I thought about letting myself care about him.

Just this once. Just one more time.

I cared about Kota and Konan and they were dead.

It was why Osamu stung but didn't hurt, why I'd only thought of him once or twice since he died. I wondered if it would be worth the pain if Maho died.

Sand crunched under sandaled feet and I glanced over at Yahiko. His nagamaki gleamed in the dark. "What was that explosion?"

I glanced at Maho and watched him freeze.

Yahiko nodded at our silence. "Just a suspicious explosion in the middle of the night near our hideout. No big deal. Happens all the time."

"Maho showed me his bloodline trait," I said.

Maho inhaled.

Yahiko blinked. "His what?"

蝶

"I heard you wanted to see me," the bearded man said, sitting on a crate.

A toddler hovered around him, walking on unsteady, slow feet. He dug up handfuls of dirt, added them to a pile, and patted the miniature-mountain down. His shirt dragged behind him, even with the bottom ripped.

Another crate sat across from the bearded man, a stone slab between a table.

I didn't sit.

There were no walls, but there were others sitting around us. Three around a makeshift table, playing a game with rocks and lines carved into stone. A boy and a girl on the floor playing with dice.

"They look happy," I said.

Even though we didn't help them.

The bearded man leaned forward, elbows on his legs, and didn't respond. He looked different, too. Thinner, beard trimmed closer to his chin. He looked a little more like Noriko.

"Do you know where shinobi loyal to Hanzo are?" I asked.

His eyes narrowed.

"There aren't many places left to hide here," I added.

"You're going after them? Alone?"

I looked above him. "Yahiko told me not to kill his would-be murderer, and I didn't. Then someone came after me. They'll go after—" I stopped because the mission to Kusagakure was supposed to be a secret. "If you don't tell me, I'll find someone else."

He regarded me. The miniature-mountain grew wider.

"The others—they don't know you're here, do they?"

I turned away—

"Antei outpost," he spoke. "Northwest of here. You can't miss it. Used to be where shinobi would have their identities checked, two wars ago. I've seen them coming from there, and there's nothing else in that direction anymore."

I glanced back. "Thank you."

"Don't yet. At least five of them are stationed there. The rest are scattered, not as organized. But I'm sure, even for you, that many at once is—" he stopped, because I wasn't listening.

They wouldn't stop.

They would keep coming after us until we were all dead, because they thought they were right.

I'd show them that my way was 'right', too.

"Do you know what they call you?" he asked.

I looked back.

"The 'Wolf of the Rain.' It fits."

I stared at him. He scooped up the toddler. They didn't look alike, but they didn't have to be to be family.

Wolf of the Rain, huh?

"What would you think of me, if I went and killed them?" I asked.

The toddler grabbed his beard, mixing dirt with dark hair, but he didn't seem to mind. "I'd say they started it," he said after a moment. "My view is biased, but I wouldn't think less of you for it, if that's what you meant."

I wondered if the other civilians would think that way, too.

A/N: の - Of, 小さい - Small, 蝶 - Butterflies

Height tally, from tallest to shortest:

#1 Mamoru, #2 Yahiko, #3 Maho, #4 Nagato, #5 Oka, #6 Joji

Joji is a short King and don't anyone forget it. Oka is/will be taller than canon!Konan (give it another year).