"Nope." I shake my head, continuing into the room and kicking my door shut behind me.

The cat's tail snaps straight in surprise and she glances up at me with a worried expression, "Princess?"

I sigh, "I've just spent the last two weeks in armor, eating trail rations, and freezing my ass off. I need a bath, food, and a good night's sleep in my bed. In that order. Until that happens I can't deal with anything new."

Nell's tail relaxes, "Of course, Princess. Would you like help with your armor?"

I blink at her, "Can you?"

"Of course." She straightens and moves over to me. She has no opposable thumbs, but it quickly becomes clear that the lack doesn't limit her nearly as much as I would have thought. She places the pads of her paws on laces, and buckles, and whatever she wants sticks to them. Allowing her to effectively grip things, thumbs or no thumbs.

I think she's using the chakra sticking exercise. Just with some impressive precision.

Far quicker than I could have done it myself, I'm divested of my armor, then the padding and clothes under it. Normally I would object to a stranger stripping me, but I really don't have the energy to complain.

I watch somewhat dully as Nell darts over to my wardrobe and returns with a simple robe that she helps me into. Tying it closed for me, she finds my shower bag and a pair of sandals that she also helps me into.

Minutes after I entered my room I'm standing outside of it again, ready to make my way to the hot springs. I'm not entirely sure if all that actually just happened, or I'd hallucinated it all in my exhaustion.

I could turn around and open my door to check... or I could go to the springs and deal with it when I get back.

Really, there's only one good answer.

Which is why I turn and start shuffling my way down the hall towards the hot springs.

###

The palace complex has several hot springs. There's one for the Daimyo and his family, then there are the two available to the samurai. I think there are two anyway. They're right next to each other, one for men, one for women. I have no idea if the separation between the two is natural or not; hell, I have no idea if the springs themselves are natural or not.

Wouldn't surprise me either way.

The samurai springs are in the basement under the samurai dorms. Supposedly they're only available to full samurai, but I've been doing a samurai's work so I'm making an executive decision to let myself in.

The corridor leading to the springs is a round tunnel of rough cut stone leading to two doors. The humidity down here is extremely high, which I can't think of as anything but a good thing at the moment. I can feel the heat leaching into my bones, which have felt more like ice than carbon since about the third day in the field.

I push open the right side door, and take a deep breath of the steam laden air that billows out. Just inside the door is a pair of right angle turns creating a little jog that keeps the spring out of sight while the door is open. The cave with the spring itself is dimly lit by lanterns set into small alcoves in the walls. The majority of the cave itself is the hot spring, the pool leaving maybe a yard of stone walkway all the way around the cave. Sitting next to the walls are baskets for bathers to leave their things in.

I make my way to an empty one and strip down, leaving my robe and sandals in the wicker container. Looking around, I take in the other occupants of the spring. It's largely empty right now, maybe half a dozen other women lounging against the edge of the spring, or in one case floating on her back in the middle of the pool.

I take a moment to appreciate being physically eight and lacking any of the hormones that might make this situation embarrassing. Also, now dreading going through my teenage years, again.

To my surprise, I actually recognise one of the women in here. I met Mitsuko, Saki's eldest daughter, when I got tested in swordsmanship on my first day in the academy. She'd graduated from being a cadet the next year, but she'd always been nice to me when we'd met in passing. Offered to be someone I could talk to if I was ever confused by anything, or just needed an older girl to talk to about things. If I were actually eight I'd probably take her up on that, but I'd grown up once before so it wasn't really necessary.

Now, though, I do find myself with some questions I need somebody to answer. So I wave at her, and she waves back happily. I don't know who the friend she's with is, but she doesn't seem too upset at the idea of my joining them, so I head around the pool in that direction.

Reaching them, I put my shower bag on the side of the pool and slide into the steaming water with a moan. For a moment my fingers and toes feel like they're burning from the sudden shift in temperature, and my body shudders from finally being warm. I sink into the water up to my neck and take a moment to savor it with my eyes closed.

When I open them, I find the two older girls looking at me, Mitsuko with a grin and her friend with a raised eyebrow.

A gesture which I returned.

"Mitsuko," the friend drawls, "are you going to introduce us?"

Mitsuko shakes herself slightly, "Right. Nao, this is Ericka Rhostana, my family sponsored her into the academy. Ericka, this is Nao Yoshioka, she graduated with me."

Nao gives a formal little bow, or at least as formal as she can be while naked and sitting down, "It's nice to meet you cadet, you've been causing quite a stir. It's nice to be able to put a face with the name."

I do my best to return the bow, but I'm pretty sure she pulled it off better than I do, "Always nice to meet a friend of Mitsuko's."

"So what brings you here?" Mitsuko asks, "Especially since last I checked you're still a cadet, and these are the samurai baths?"

"I've spent the last two weeks in armor, in the field, moving at an injured horse's walking pace, after getting sent out to hunt down an incursion of missing nin," I tell her flatly. "If they're going to send me out on missions like a full samurai, I'm going to make use of the benefits of being one. And I will fight anybody who tries to stop me." I shoot Mitsuko a look daring her to make an issue of it.

"Yeah, no." She holds up her hands and shakes her head, "I'm not betting anything on a fight with you." Nao laughs at Mitsuko's immediate surrender, which gets her a smack on the arm from her friend, "Shut up. You spar with her and then you get to talk."

"Maybe later," I cut them off, "I'm exhausted. And I actually do have something I want to talk to you about."

"Oh?" Mitsuko sounds interested now, a more serious tone to her voice than the playful teasing she'd been engaged in a moment ago, "What's that?"

"Well... when I was out on the mission I ran into Koji, you know him?"

Both of the girls make faces and nod. "Damn womanizer," Nao mutters.

"Did he do something to you?" Mitsuko demands.

I roll my eyes, "No. He's a flirt, but seems like a harmless one. No, he said something." I explain to the two girls about getting intercepted by the second group of samurai, what their mon's were, and how the Daimyo's was missing. Finally ending with Koji's... offer? Warning? Whatever it was.

By the time I finish Nao is muttering swear words under her breath, while Mitsuko is just scowling.

"Damn," Mitsuko mutters, "I guess they found a way to get to you after all."

"What." My flat question makes Mitsuko jump slightly, then wince.

"Ah, hell. I don't suppose there's any way I can convince you to pretend you didn't hear that?" She asks with little hope in her voice.

"No."

"Damn," Mitsuko sighs, "so you want to know about these sides, and what they have to do with you?" I nod mutely. "Right. So when the war ended a lot of nobles were confronted with some unpleasant facts about where Iron stood in comparison to everyone else. Specifically, that each of the other Nations had hundreds if not thousands of ninja. Ninja, who according to reports, can rearrange the landscape, call down lightning bolts from a clear sky, raise mountains, divert rivers, and all sorts of other bullshit. Things that samurai don't do.

"Furthermore ninja can be produced much faster than samurai can. In the war, when they were really pushing themselves, the Hidden Villages could take an untrained recruit and get them to the front lines in a fifth of the time it took us to produce a samurai. And they managed to do this, at least in part, because of bloodline limits. Essentially a cheat that lets a ninja boost their combat ability far past what it should be given age and training.

"This group of nobles began to feel that Iron was incredibly out-classed. Sure we held the border for the entirety of the war, but at least part of that is because the other nations were all far more concerned with each other. If either of the alliances of the war had turned their focus on us, well that wouldn't have gone nearly so well.

"So these nobles came up with a plan, a plan to turn samurai into something more ninja-like. Faster training time, jutsu, acquisition of our own bloodline limits, that sort of thing." Mitsuko takes a deep breath, "Of course, the Daimyo and most samurai shot the plan down. I don't know why the Daimyo did, but the samurai objected because it would turn us into something more like disposable assets." Well, that doesn't sound good. "The group didn't give up though, and has started to recruit samurai fresh out of the academy to be their proof of concept. Which are the samurai you see around like the group that intercepted you, wearing noble mon with the Daimyo's in a lesser place, or entirely absent now, apparently." Nao growled something that Saki would object to me hearing.

"So what does this have to do with me? Aside from general recruitment, I mean?"

Nao snorts and Mitsuko looks at me like she can't quite believe that I asked the question, but answers it anyway, "What does this have to do with you? Ericka, you're the greatest source of bloodline limits in the country! Your wings, physical senses, sensory abilities, strength, regeneration, sheer talent with physical combat, you're like six ninja clans in one person. Mom's been fending off marriage proposals for you since six months after you joined."

"What?!" I shriek. The other women in the hot spring glance in our direction, but Nao waves them off and they go back to whatever they were doing before.

"Yeah, they want you badly," Mitsuko nods.

"What about my lack of chakra? And why am I only hearing about this now?" I demand in an aggravated whisper.

Mitsuko shrugs, "Well, mom doesn't believe in forced marriages, so she's rejecting everything right now. Besides, even if you want an arranged marriage it's something that's years away from being an actual concern. I'm honestly surprised it took them this long to find a way to get at you, and that it was so half-assed when they did."

I stare at them blankly, "There are people who actually want arranged marriages."

"Sure," Nao shrugs. "I'm one. I'd like a family one day, and it's not like the samurai lifestyle leaves a lot of time for me to look for a husband myself. And as for the chakra thing..." Nao shrugs again, "Well it doesn't seem to slow you down any, so clearly whatever's going on isn't actually a problem. Presumably it wouldn't be for your kids either." I gag slightly at the idea, and the older girl smirks at me, "Don't like the idea of kids of your own?"

"No," I shudder, so very glad it's something that can't actually happen, "I really don't. In fact any man that comes anywhere near me like that I will stab. Repeatedly."

Nao laughs softly, "You say that now, but you'll change your mind." She tells me with a knowing look.

"No, I really won't."

A knowing look that really knows very little.

###

Nell and I are surrounded in a burst of white smoke. The summon... reverse summoning? Really, I have no clue what just happened. It's something like how the summoning technique works, but the intricacies of space/time ninjutsu aren't something I've given any thought at all. Whatever the accurate term is, when the smoke clears we've moved from my bedroom in the cadet dorms, to the middle of a desert.

Dry, rocky earth and sand stretch to the horizon, except for directly ahead of us. We're standing in a ring of piled stones that opens in front of us to a path also marked by piles of stones. A path that leads straight to a single mountain maybe a half mile away. The mountain stretches tall and is mostly bare stone, the peak of it is entirely absent in a way that suggests a caldera. Which at least explains how a single mountain appeared out here in the middle of an otherwise flat and featureless desert.

Nell bows slightly and gestures to the path, "This way, Princess." I take another moment to look around myself, then start forward with a sigh. Yesterday I was too cold, now I'm in the middle of the desert. The thermal shock is slightly unpleasant, even if the heat doesn't bother me any more and I can't get sunburned. Which is really a good thing given how pale I am thanks to living in Iron.

I wonder if I even can still tan?

We walk along in silence. It'd been early in the morning when we left Iron, and I'm still waking up to some degree. Nell is kind enough to let my brain boot up slowly. It takes twenty minutes to reach the base of the mountain, and as we continue to follow the path up the bare stone side of the mountain I finally feel awake enough to talk.

"So where are we going?"

"A place called the Temple of Felidae, a place for all the cat clans to meet and discuss," Nell explains, "We may all be feline, but arguments and internal strife are common. Here the clan leaders try to keep things from escalating. Through here, Princess."

I want to ask more questions, but before I can Nell waves me into a large cave mouth. A cave that turns out to be a tunnel. A two story tall, near perfectly circular tunnel that has to be a lava tube. Something that reinforces my assumption that once upon a time this mountain was an active volcano.

I'll let my questions drop for the moment, I have the feeling that some of them may be answered when we arrive at this temple. I'll probably end up with a lot more pressing ones as well.

The lava tube moves in an almost straight line into the mountain and upwards. It's long enough that in spite of the light entering at both ends of the tunnel, the middle is actually quite dim. The tube opens into a jungle. Mist and fog fill the air and cling low to the ground, while white tendrils of water vapor curl around trees and through bushes. It's a completely different environment than what's at the other end of the entrance tunnel.

I wonder if it's natural or not? And how long this isolated oasis of greenery has been cut off from the rest of the world? An evolutionary biologist would probably have a field day here.

As much as that's interesting, what really gets my attention is the change in the path we're following. Instead of slightly more worn ground marked by piles of stones, we're now standing on a cobbled path marked by matching pairs of statues on either side of the path. Each pair depicts a different species of cat, male and female. Strangely, in spite of the humidity and the huge amount of lush greenery, both the path and the statues are entirely free of moss, vines, or any other flora. The statues are clearly ancient, but unnaturally well preserved.

Unlike the tunnel or the path before it, the statues and cobbles lead us on a winding trip through the jungle. Bird calls and the sound of small animals moving through the trees fill the air, and every so often I catch movement out of the corner of my eye, or a scent on the wind that indicates larger animals live here as well.

I've completely lost track of time, something not helped by the sun not seeming to move in the sky, when the road leads us into a brightly lit clearing. Occupying most of the open space is a massive structure. Carved stone stretches towards the sky in domes and arches and every inch of the temple is covered in frescoes depicting various kinds of cats doing... everything. Sleeping, living daily lives, fighting each other or other summon clans, mourning, celebrating. It's an amazingly detailed piece of art that has to be centuries, if not millennia, old. The carvings are so dense that it becomes a sort of visual white noise. Without conscious effort it's impossible to actually make sense of any of them.

The entrance to the temple is at the end of a decently long staircase made of the same sort of stone as the rest of the temple. The entrance itself is a doorless archway big enough for several elephants to fit through easily while stacked on top of each other and standing side by side with some distance between them. The doorway is bracketed by ponds with artistically floating flowers and giant koi swimming in them.

I can't help but wonder if those fish are kept around as emergency supplies.

Waiting for us in the entranceway to the temple are three felines. A silver, spotted house cat who's standing on her hind legs like Nell, wearing a very nice miko outfit, and is clearly very old given the way her spots are starting to fade into the same silver white as the rest of her fur. Bracketing her is a male lynx on all fours, the size of a very large dog, also very old, but he doesn't look as old as the miko cat. On the house cat's other side is a snow leopard the size of a draft horse. I'd bet on her being the oldest of them as her fur is almost completely white. Only a few faint smudges of slightly different color mark where her spots were when she was younger. The leopard is also blind, if her blank white eyes are anything to go by. It makes her an almost uniform white color, which is a little odd to see, I have to admit.

As we approach, Nell falls back to a bodyguard or servant position, a step behind me and to the left, and bows to the three felines meeting us. Those three all bow to me, the two on all fours simply by lowering their heads, the miko cat the same way Nell does, her forepaws pressed against her 'thighs' and bending at the waist to a right angle. All of their tails, whiskers, and ears show that they're very happy to see me.

"Princess," the miko cat in the middle says in an old and pleasantly scratchy voice, "I am Hehet, eldest sage of the collected cat clans. This," her tail flirts towards the lynx, "Ubiraja, eldest warrior. And this," her tail flirts towards the snow leopard, "is Carmarina, a seer."

"Really, it should be 'the seer'. I'm the only one we have." Carmarina's voice is pleasantly soft. Not as in quiet, but her words almost have a texture, and that texture is soft. It sort of sounds like what I imagine petting her incredibly fluffy fur would be like.

Hehet doesn't roll her eyes, but her ears flick in a way that communicates the same feeling, "Yes. Well. Please come in Princess, your temple is ready for you."

I blink, "My temple? This thing is ancient, there's no way you built it just for me." Even if they started construction the moment I entered this world they'd probably still be building it. And how the hell do a bunch of cats build a temple like this anyway?

Carmarina giggles softly, holding one giant, fluffy paw over her mouth, "Of course we built it for you. We've known that you'd be coming for quite some time, even if we didn't know exactly when." The blind seeress turns her head to face the carvings above the main doors. I follow her sightless gaze and actually bother to make sense of the carvings there.

It's... I...

Above the door is a winged humanoid figure, carrying a sword, and wearing armor that could easily be an artistic interpretation of mine. Armor that has never been seen in this world.

Just what the fuck is going on here?

###

I have a throne.

Like an actual, made for a plantigrade biped of my size with space for my wings, throne.

Why do I have a throne?

The throne is located in an absolutely enormous courtyard. The courtyard is filled with platforms, and chairs of various sizes ranging from smaller than normal house cat sized, to boss summon huge. Each is marked with a symbol, which I assume are the symbols for the various cat clans. All of them are arranged in layered semicircles facing the throne like an amphitheater, the bigger platforms/chairs towards the back. There's a clear space in between the closest seats and my own, which is placed on a slightly raised dais.

Ubiraja, who's instructed me to call him Bira, Carmarina, who insists that I call her Rina, and Hehet, who treats the idea of a nick name with all the disdain she can muster, have all taken temporary seats in front of the dais facing me. Each of them has their own attendant of their own species, who brought them their chairs, small side tables, and the drinks and snacks that are occupying said tables. Now they're waiting behind and to the left of their charge's chairs for anything else that might be needed. Nell has taken the same position behind and to the left of me.

And I say 'chairs' but only Hehet really has a chair. Bira and Rina have raised appropriately sized pillows.

"While we have sent messages to the other clans about your arrival and presence, it will take some time for all of them to arrive. So we should get some things out of the way that would be complicated by too many voices," Hehet says in a matter-of-fact tone.

"The girl," Bira cuts in, earning himself a glare from Hehet at how he's addressing me, "looks to be in shock. Maybe give her a chance to get her paws under her and ask a few questions?"

Hehet sighs, and nods in agreement, "That's fair. Do you have any questions, Princess?" The cat sage shoots a pointed glare at Bira as she emphasizes my title.

"Why do I have a throne?" The words rush out of me, almost slurring together.

Rina giggles into her giant fluffy paw again... If she were a human, I think she'd be the kind of noble woman who always has a fan to hide her expression behind. The paw doesn't muffle her voice at all, though, "Why shouldn't you have a throne? You are the princess."

Hehet face paws with a sigh, "Long ago, there was a prophecy of your coming." What. "That the Princess of Cats would come, and that, though she would look like a human, all cats would know her on sight." What. "That she would have wings, and be armed and armored by her own soul." What. "That she would bring peace and unity to all the Clans of Felidae, even long after she was gone."

What. The. Hell.

How is there a prophecy about me? How?!

Until eight years ago I was outside the universe, there should have been no way to see me coming! Unless the moment I arrived, there suddenly had always been a prophecy?

The Gap is a-temporal, so I guess it's not the weirdest thing I've ever heard.

That would be some of the things that Mia said in her sleep. Bird had some of the weirdest dreams...

Here and now though, "I... What does that even mean?"

"It means," Rina says with what I can already tell is uncharacteristic solemnity, "that you are our Princess, that you will lead us, and we will follow, and that will bring all the clans together."

I do my damndest not to panic.

I've never felt so very much my physical age before. Even if we go by my mental age I'm in no way ready to lead more than a squad. Possibly not even that. I can't handle a nation!

A paw is placed on my shoulder and I'm jolted out of my spiral by Nell presenting me with a cup of tea. My breathing slows down, when did I even start hyperventilating, and I take the offered cup with a trembling smile.

Nell bumps my shoulder with her face and gives me a soft purr before returning to her spot. The head butt is comforting, it feels like something Cait would have done. I take a long sip of my tea before returning my attention to the three cat elders in front of me.

"Relax, girl," Bira says, his rough voice tinged with sympathy, "it's not as bad as you fear, and nowhere near a full time job. We are cats after all, we don't need much leading, or ruling. The clans mostly look after themselves."

"It's when there are problems between clans that we'll need you, Princess," Hehet tells me, "as our judge and arbiter. Or if all the clans have to move together for some reason."

"Like if the snakes try pulling some shit again," Bira grumbles.

I nod, that sounds much more manageable, "And how often will that happen?"

"The snakes pulling shit? Always."

Hehet hisses softly at Bira before returning her gaze back to me, "Not often. And we will try not to waste your time with frivolous issues, Princess."

"And if someone does, you can always make them regret it," Rina says giggling into her paw and winking at me with one white eye. She seems to find the idea amusing and, given that she's apparently a seer, that worries me. "There is one problem we will need to address, though." I look at her curiously as do the other two elders, "The Princess lacks chakra. And while that doesn't seem to be as crippling, lethal a condition as it should be, it does mean that she will be unable to use the contracts."

"Yes," Hehet frowns pensively, "that is a problem."

"Seems simple enough to me," Bira says with a shrug. "When I'm on the battlefield I don't deliver messages myself, I have somebody who takes care of that for me. Give the girl something similar, somebody to hold the contracts for her."

"It would have to be somebody the clans would trust, and would be with the Princess most all the time," Rina adds her two cents.

"I would volunteer," Nell says, stepping forward and surprising all of us. I don't know about the other three, but even with my tea cup in hand I'd almost forgotten she's here, "The Princess will need an attendant, I would volunteer for that position as well. As her attendant I would be required to be near her at most times anyway."

Hehet looks uncertain for a moment, "Well..." she turns to me, "Princess, you will need an attendant, and if Nell is not objectionable...?"

"No! I mean yes! I mean she'll be fi-great!" I look over at Nell, trying not to show how scattered I'm feeling. I don't think I'm succeeding. "Not exactly what pops to mind at the words 'cat girl maid'..."

"I'm not?" Nell looks down at herself appearing to be actually concerned, "Is there something wrong with my appearance?"

My eyes go wide, "No! Nothings wrong with anything! Just..." I scramble for what to say, "I'm tripping over preconceptions that have nothing to do with reality."

Nell folds her ears back slightly, "If you say so, Princess." I slide lower in my chair hoping that the ground will open up and swallow me.

"As... good as that is," Hehet says, bringing us back on topic, "an attendant and a proxy holder of the contracts are very different things."

"Just to be clear, we're talking about summoning contracts, right? I'm sort of surprised you actually have contracts," I shoot an amused look at Bira, "being cats and all."

Bira chuffs in humor, but it's Hehet that answers me, "Yes, well. Most of the clans didn't. The contracts were made specifically for you. They have never been used before, and likely never will again. Which is why letting somebody else hold them for you in proxy would be such a problem. The clans will follow you, but to be commanded by another in a general sense," the ancient sage shakes her head.

"Perhaps," Rina says with a smirk hidden behind her paw, "with the appropriate binding oath? Something to ensure that the contracts can only be used at the Princess' command? Or at least to her clear benefit?"

Hehet frowns, her ears pressing to her skull, "Maybe. What would the oath be, though?"

###

"...swear to only use this contract entrusted to me at Ericka Rhostana, Princess of Cats' word or to her immediate benefit should she be unable to give it." Nell finally finished the last oath. This one to the absolutely adorable and tiny leader of the Sand Cat clan.

"Finally." I think the tiger that said that meant it to be quiet, but he's the size of a small hill so it doesn't really work out. It earns him some reproachful looks, but I pretend that I didn't hear him. I agree with him after all, there have been a lot of oaths sworn today.

When all the clans arrived they took their seats one at a time after bowing to me. Then in front of everybody they each swore oaths on behalf of their clans to me as their princess. And there are a lot of cat clans. Thirty eight to be exact.

Once that was done I addressed them, so glad I'm not afraid of public speaking. The speech wasn't much, just introducing myself, showing my wings, though none of them seemed to doubt who I am, and thanking them all for their prompt response and their oaths of service. Then we addressed my lack of chakra, and our way around it.

That went over less well. I'm sort of surprised that Hehet was right about the issue though, none of them seemed to object to being at my call, but anybody else provoked a reaction. Finally, though, that was settled and Nell swore herself as my attendant, then signed all thirty-eight contracts on my behalf. Swearing the oath that Rina had insisted would work to reassure the clans.

"What?" the gigantic tiger asks of the equally gigantic lioness lounging on an appropriately sized pillow next to him, who is one of several present glaring at him. "The princess doesn't mind." He waves a huge paw at me, and I deliberately take a sip of tea when he does. Again, I agree with him, hearing the same oath repeated so many times got tedious quickly. That the giant tiger is in a chair and dressed in full samurai armor of his size might also endear him to me a little bit. "I'm glad those contracts are finally put to use, I can't wait to get a good fight again!"

The female lion reaches out and bats his head. "Oh, shut up, Abhey," the lioness growls, somehow sounding almost amused as she does, "You're almost six hundred years old."

"So?" he demands, "I'm still fit to fight!" I nearly break down in giggles as he flexes, which proves nothing with the very covering armor on.

"You may be physically fit, but that doesn't change the fact you're more than half blind," the lioness retorts.

"What's that, Karabo? I couldn't hear you over the sound of all the fights I'm going to have."

"Your selective deafness might be a problem for you as well," the lioness says mildly, before turning towards me again, and dismissing the tiger's existence like only a cat can.

Abhey looks like he's about to say something else, so I cough once, which gets him immediately facing forward like the argument he'd just been in had never happened.

"Well... I look forward to working with you all," I tell them, trying to move things along. It's been a long day and I'm kind of ready for it to be over. "And I'll try to get you that fight you want, Lord Abhey," I tell him with a small smile. Abhey grins back at me nodding once, completely ignoring the lioness Karabo's exaggeratedly rolled eyes. "But for now, is there any pressing business that should be taken care of immediately?"

I should not have asked that. The entire courtyard explodes into mayhem as every single cat present starts yelling, yowling, or roaring about the complaints they have that absolutely cannot wait.

I groan softly to myself, I'm going to be here forever. aren't I?

At least Nell's here to give me sympathetic looks and tea.

###

Nell and I reappear in my room in the samurai barracks in a puff of white smoke. I groan loudly. I want nothing more than to fall face first into my bed and pass out, fully clothed or not. I think that the clans have been recording every complaint they've had against every other clan since they first heard the prophecy of my arrival. And all of them wanted each and every one of those complaints addressed immediately.

I went through a dozen things so old that nobody even understood the context to them anymore, before I finally had enough and put my foot down. I'd told them I'd be back in a week, and that they should sort through the issues they have recorded and bring me the ones that are still relevant. And if my time got wasted again, I'd get equal value for it, somehow.

Rina giggling into the silence after I finished really sold the seriousness of the threat, I think.

Still, I'm done now, and I'm home, and now I can just sleep.

Yes...

Sleeeeeeep...

Of course, that would be easier if it didn't sound like a full muster is going on in the hallway. I want to ignore it, I really do. But there's a chance that it is a full muster, in which case I need to get ready for it.

So with great reluctance I shuffle towards the door and stick my head into the hallway. The good news is that it doesn't seem to be a full mobilization, most of the people in the hallway aren't in armor or running to put it on.

I reach out and snag the sleeve of my next door neighbor to get her attention, "What's going on?"

"Rho! Where have you been?" my neighbor demands, then shakes her head. "Doesn't matter, did you hear?" Obviously not, that's why I'm asking. "Someone emptied an entire warehouse of chakra metal and made off with it!"

I close my eyes, a feeling of dread welling up in my stomach, "Which warehouse?"

My neighbor blinks as though that question never occurred to her, "Um... One of the smaller ones to the north, close to the coast across from Snow Country?"

I groan and pull back into my room.

I knew not going after the lone ninja that peeled off from the rest of the missing nin was a mistake.

The problem, of course, being that leaving the larger group of ninja to wander around would have been a mistake as well.

Now we'd just have to hope that we hadn't made the bigger one.