A/N: Hello! Long time no see :) I was gone for longer than I intended, and didn't get nearly as much done as I thought I would, buuuuuut I figured I would feed y'all anyhow :P I'll give you this chapter and the next one right now. Please let me know if these chapters seem disjointed or if I missed anything, because I wrote all of this pretty spaced apart.

Thanks!

Chapter 28

Things changed as they neared the port city. Charlie could sense it in all of her new teammates- well, Sai didn't really change, but still. Spider and Tiger grew deathly silent about a day away from the city, only communicating in short words and phrases. When they arrived on the precipice of town, they switched to code- body movements unique to ANBU operatives and unreadable to anyone else.

Their eyes seemed to deaden. Though he was all jovial the first day, Tiger said nothing now, his boundless chakra suppressed into a wisp. In fact, all of their chakra was suppressed, because just a mile or so away lied their target.

Nestled close to the water was a rather large building that used to be a citizen school, but had sat vacant until now. Until the Yuuhi Brotherhood had taken it over and converted it into their headquarters.

'Spider- Tiger- Infiltrate' Spider signed with her hand. The two of them had already taken what seemed to be the standard uniform of the Yuuhi Brotherhood- black pants and close-toed boots, black shirts, and black haori with the logo of a setting sun on the back. Their faces were covered almost completely with the black masks that were also par for the course- all they revealed was a narrow strip for one's eyes. On their heads were hitai-ate with the same logo.

Spider had changed her rare eye color for a muted shade of brown, and Tiger had changed his ginger hair for brown as well.

'What- We do' Charlie signed back.

'Outside- Listen- Watch' Spider replied. 'Information- Pub- Harbor- Go to- Hotel- We come- Two- Days'

Charlie and Sai both nodded once and Spider and Tiger took off, releasing just enough of their chakra to be at an average shinobi level. Charlie glanced at her dark-haired friend a moment before they pushed off into the trees, following at a slower pace and suppressing their chakra completely.

They gained a clear vantage point of the compound a few miles in. It was surrounded by tall trees and a heavy amount of barbed wire.

The redhead took cover behind a particularly wide oak that hid her slim form well and watched, unearthly still, as her two comrades approached the main entrance. Two guards at the front stopped them, and they gave the password that had been given to them by the two Brotherhood members they'd managed to steal the uniforms from.

Well, they stole more than just their uniforms, but Charlie wasn't there for that part.

It must've worked, for the guards immediately loosened up, even patting Tiger on the shoulder in solidarity as the two shinobi entered the fold. So far, so good.

Charlie turned on her radio and spoke quietly into the piece. "Let's get to the pub, Mole," she muttered.

There was a silent "Hn" on the other end, and that was good enough for her.

One week later, Sai and Charlie were deep in the trenches.

Spider and Tiger managed to drop in every so often to update them on information they'd gathered (which, Charlie presumed from Sai's frantic letter-writing, was being shuffled somehow to the Hokage), but beyond that, the two younger shinobi were left to fend for themselves.

But that was fine with them. The compound wasn't the only location rife with information about the Yuuhi Brotherhood. There was always a grain of truth in rumors, after all.

The night their cover was securely blown was actually rather fruitful. Towards its end, they found themselves in a pub, looking much older than they normally did.

Her partner in crime (?) was the one who finally called the night to a close. "We're going," the boy said. Sai lifted himself gracefully from the barstool, putting his hands casually in his pockets and glancing at Charlie out of the corner of his eye.

He'd changed his face shape and eye color, but still looked remarkably like himself. Perhaps it was in the blank shallowness in his gaze. Either way, the girl shot the bartender a tight smile as she stood and put a few ryou on the countertop. "Thanks," she told the man, who waved her off with a much more genuine grin. She was wishing quite hard that she was back home and able to use expressions like that.

The two escaped onto the still bustling street and took a left. They were in the center of the red light district, and it wasn't by accident- somehow, Sai had a knack for finding the hottest spots to source from. Still, she didn't know why they were leaving so early. The sky had barely darkened.

She dared not ask him. Instead, they interlocked their elbows, and walked uncomfortably close the entire way to their hotel. 'This is weird,' she thought. Sai's arm was as immobile as granite, all but dragging her along.

"You're being followed," Minato noted, clearing up her confusion and terrifying her all at once. She maintained her pokerface through sheer force of will.

Now that she thought of it, there was a signature that had been in her periphery for quite a while now. She hadn't even noticed it back at the pub- Sai must've. 'I guess I still have something to learn,' she grumbled to herself.

God, but was it strange. She just wanted to turn and ask the person what his problem was. But- his chakra was-

Now that she thought of it, it felt kind of creeping. Creeping and full of intent, like a snake bearing down on a mouse. Her newly-gray eyes glanced up at Sai's unreadable face, the way he scrutinized the people around them with enough subtlety that she hadn't noticed. 'Not a mouse,' she amended. Maybe she was a mouse, but Sai was a snake in his own right.

A stone settled in her stomach.

They made their way to their hotel room, checked in under the names Seijurou and Sumire. Just a happy tourist couple. Their stalker's chakra signature hovered outside the building. She figured he'd either assault them in the hallway to the room- it was a traditional style ryokan, with many wide windows and very thin walls- or in their room, which was more likely. Either was easy to break into- no shinobi worth their salt would ever rent a room there.

She wondered if that was intentional on Sai's part. Unlike most, who seemed content to batten down the hatches and hide, he seemed to invite trouble to come.

No action happened until they arrived in their room and set their stuff down. She and Sai made pleasant conversation about visiting the onsen when it opened in the morning, and about visiting the shrine after. Things any tourist would talk about.

When the signature approached the door to the room and knocked, Charlie exchanged looks with her partner before drifting to the door and pulling it open widely. Her body was tensed for combat, but the form in the doorframe didn't move.

It was a man dressed in dark ninja attire and a face mask, with a hulking form that bore down on her like a train. It wasn't the standard uniform with the crest, but the face mask was recognizeable enough. She blinked several times. "Uh... can I help you?" She tilted her head. Wondering why he hadn't attacked them yet.

He held out his hand. "Protection fee."

She widened her eyes. "I- protection from what? Is this city dangerous?" She glanced over her shoulder. "Seijurou-kun?"

Sai frowned and stood, dusting off the seat of his pants. "What's this about?"

The hulk chuckled roughly and barged into their room, something about his body tensed. Charlie closed the door smoothly in his wake as the man's hand twitched automatically for the kunai pouch at his waist.

"You do realize whose territory you've stumbled on, right?" the man said seriously. He turned towards Sai. "This city is under the protection of the Yuuhi Brotherhood, and anyone who comes in pays the protection fee. So you either give me the ryou, or I take all your shit and your lives, too."

Charlie almost smiled as she felt a wave of Minato's ire.

"Oh," the Brother added, turning to glance over his shoulder at her. "And you. Sit over there." He twitched his head towards the far wall. "If you move, you're dead."

With a hesitant glance at Sai, she did as she was told.

Sai put on a good show, trembling and everything. "Y-You're like- a mafia or something?" he stuttered, newly-brown eyes wide like a deer in headlights.

"That's right," the man crooned with a healthy amount of condescension. He took another step forward, probably intending to turn the boy upside down and shake his change from his pockets, but that's as far as he went.

Because he suddenly collapsed, a gleaming senbon protruding from his neck. Charlie balked, but Sai merely put his hands on his waist. She stared at him, this time her eyes wide, until he shrugged. "He's not dead. It's a pressure point. He'll wake up when we remove it. Move the furniture while I seal the room."

The redhead (well, she was a brunette at the moment, but still) nodded hastily, picking up the stout table from the living area and pushing it against the wall. So too went the cushions and, with a meaningful head tilt from Sai, the tatami flooring.

"We'll interrogate him," Sai mumbled, casting a seal of silence and a seal of protection around the room as she set about hogtying the man. Another useful skill Kakashi had taught them, coming in handy. "Spider and Tiger didn't have time to pump those other two for information before they killed them."

"Do you think he'll talk?"

Sai's gaze was especially dark. "He'll either talk or scream. It's his choice."

Charlie swallowed and repressed a shudder. 'He's... really creepy.' Did ROOT really train them to be that malicious?

With unsettling ease, the dark-haired boy pulled the needle from the man's neck. It made a gross slurping sound, but there was very little blood. Charlie crouched by the man's head, satisfied that her knot-tying skills would keep him well under wraps.

When the man came to, she pulled off his mask, revealing a wide, scarred face creased in rage. He could've been handsome if he was twenty years younger, but age had turned his skin sallow and his eyes haggard. It was a good thing they'd sealed the room and pulled the blinds, because he immediately began squirming and shouting.

"We'll start with an easy one," Charlie told him once he was calmed enough to seethe quietly. It was decided only a moment ago that she'd ask the questions and Sai'd do the bruising. "What's your name?"

"None of your fucking business, you rat bit-"

A solid smack sounded across his pockmarked face. "Answer her," Sai said simply, voice frozen. "Or I start with the toes." There was a hissing sound as he pulled a kunai from his pouch.

"You two little brats have no idea what you're getting yourselves into," the man growled instead. Sai pulled off the man's boot and quickly dispensed his knife over his foot. The man shrieked as the first few appendages were lost to the boy's ruthlessness.

Charlie forced her face into a mask of impassiveness, even as her breath came quicker. 'This is what you have to do. These people are hurting people,' she told herself. 'The quicker we get this over with, the quicker you can go home.'

"I asked your name," she reminded him, concealing her shaking hand in the crook of her knee.

"It's Kaji, you little sl-"

Another smack, and Sai loomed over the man like a dark shadow. The redhead sighed, avoiding the sight of his gushing blood and focusing instead on his pained expression. "Try to restrain yourself before Seijurou-kun really does you in. Next question: how many people are in the Yuuhi Brotherhood, Kaji-san?"

"Like I'd ever tell you little brats!" Kaji roared, fighting his bindings. They were made of some reinforced metal that would not break for anything short of a thousand pounds of pressure. A gift from Kakashi. It seemed like ages ago that she'd received it.

Sai cut off more toes, until all that was left of the man's foot was the pinkie. Kaji screamed this time, banging his head into the floor as tears rushed from his eyes. He gazed at her in furious hatred, face red. " Oh you fucking- cunt!" And gone was the pinkie.

She fought the urge to cover her ears.

Charlie shifted on her haunches in discomfort. "Listen, Kaji-san. I'll be frank. You're not leaving this room alive. So please don't make us torture the information out of you. What we will do to you will vastly outweigh whatever the Yuuhi Brotherhood would do to you for snitching. So please cooperate. I think next he starts pulling fingernails and teeth."

That last part was pulled from her ass, but Sai nodded to back her up.

"The Yuuhi Brotherhood will annihilate you. They'll kill you for what you've done," Kaji said in a rage. "We believe in the higher power of the rising star, and we will die for it."

Charlie watched in horror as foam began to drip from his mouth. Kaji began to convulse, eyes rolling in his head and tendons straining in his neck. "What the hell?!" She stumbled back onto her ass. Her heart felt like it would beat from her chest.

Sai merely sighed and wiped his blade clean. "Cyanide pill. I suppose I should've checked his mouth before he woke up. A rookie mistake."

"Th-that's something you check for?"

"Many organizations use them to keep their people in line," Sai muttered. His nose twitched at the scent of the man's vomit as he slowly ceased to move, and he padded to his things in the far corner of the room. He pulled a black scroll from his bag and unrolled it. "Have I ever shown you how to use this?"

"You haven't." Hazel eyes wouldn't leave the body. A lump of flesh and bone and cloth. How could someone so physically imposing just moments ago look so... insignificant now? His chakra had dissipated into the air as if it'd never been there, as if it hadn't creeped the hell out of her earlier.

Blood was soaking the floor, she noticed absently.

She did not sleep that night, or the following.

They spent quite a while concealing the mess. His blood had coated the floor, sprayed Sai's civilian clothes. The hotel was no longer safe, as some Brothers were bound to come by wondering where Kaji was, and so they had to pack up and leave again. And she was much too wired to sleep, especially in the tall tree they finally decided to camp out at- apparently Hagurashi was quite the tourist destination. No vacancies anywhere.

From Kaji's pockets, they'd unearthed a boatload of ryou- which Sai promptly tossed aside- as well as a small, spiral-bound notebook all about them. Apparently he'd been following them since the night they'd arrived in the city. "How did they know to pick us out of a crowd?" Charlie'd asked her companion, rightfully freaked out.

Sai's black eyes resembled beetles as he replied, "You relax your chakra when you sleep. It is a beacon. I'm surprised we made it as far as we did."

And that's how she learned that Sai watched her while she slept.

Her eyelids felt like lead, and a headache was creeping towards her temples. 'God, I feel gross,' she thought to herself, banging her head against the trunk. It was no use being creeped out by Sai, though, when she felt just as icky. On the other side of the tree, the man of the hour's knife sharpening paused for just a moment.

"You're not gross."

'I haven't showered or slept in, like, two days. How is that not pinnacle grossness?'

"...Okay, maybe you are gross. Do you need to talk?"

An unfeeling smirk rose on her lips. 'Yeah, actually. That'd be nice.' She shifted into a more comfortable position and closed her eyes, meditating on the sound of the wind on the leaves and the birds above the trees.

"You're a sight for sore eyes," she told him the moment she opened her eyes. Minato was sat cross-legged, balancing his chin on his fist as he smiled sweetly at her.

The sweet smile changed into the arrogant smirk that only a member of the male species can pull off. You know the kind. "Am I?"

"Ugh, ew, nevermind," Charlie sniffed, looking away with a cringe.

Minato pouted. "Hey!" But his cornflower blue eyes were dancing as she neared him and plopped down. "I think you are probably the most beautiful thing in this place," he told her.

An unbidden grin. "I mean, in comparison to you..." she trailed, knocking their knees and leaning back on her hands.

"I like to think I'm more handsome than beautiful," Minato gloated smoothly.

"Cocky, is what you are," she mumbled. Then again, anyone with a face like that would be. "I missed your face though."

"Not the rest?"

"Naturally not."

She chuckled as he shot her a sullen look.

They sat in comfortable quiet for a while, just relishing the alone time, before he finally decided to break the serenity. "Are you... okay?"

Her lips twitched up in one corner. "Hard question," she mused. She studied her Converse, the scuffs on the rubber. "I feel like I should feel more than I am. Does that make sense?"

"Sure."

"I mean, it's not really my first foray into violence," she hummed quietly. "But- it wasn't that hard on me, either. I thought it would be." She picked at the black stripe on her shoe. "I thought I would be- I don't know, morally disgusted. But I was just- scared. Scared and anxious. And it was so quick-"

He grabbed her free hand and held it in both of his own, interrupting her thoughts before they could spiral. "Scared? What of?"

"Yes. Of a lot of things. I was scared of that man, and of what he said. But more so..." She couldn't hold his eyes. "You said people find ways to cope. What if my way of coping- is bad? Like- like Kakashi? I didn't... I mean, I thought it was gross, and kind of gory, but I don't feel bad that he died. I don't want to be a killing machine. Like Sai. He didn't even make a face when he was doing that."

Cerulean turned a shade darker. "I was worried this would happen," he murmured to himself, ignoring the frown she shot him. "Listen carefully, Charlie." He held her hand to his face, forcing her gaze upwards. "You remember how I always say that you overthink?"

"Yes." She scowled.

"This is one of those times where overthinking will only hurt you. I admire that brain of yours, but from one genius to another." His handsome features arranged into a serious, purposeful expression.

Like he knew it. Like he'd been there. Sometimes she forgot that the cheesy dork she shared a headspace with was once a highly feared war god.

"Don't. You aren't a machine, and you aren't Sai. But right now, you're a ninja- and you're going to do what you have to. Remember what you came here for."

"Mn." She sucked her lower lip into her mouth and looked away. Maybe she was just having an identity crisis. It was one thing to say 'I'm joining ANBU so suck it' to the Hokage- it was quite another to actually live it. "Do you ever think that maybe... maybe you never knew yourself at all? Like, you just thought you did?"

His silence begged her continuance. "Like maybe... you're a principled person. You wake up every day at the same time, eat a healthy breakfast, maybe you work out. And you're polite to people in the grocery store, and your friends all say you're nice. But part of your job is just... killing people. A big part of it. And you know you're supposedly doing it for the right reasons- but if you're capable of doing those monstrous things, then can you really say that you're a good person?"

She ran an agitated hand through her hair. "I was thinking about it recently. How funny it is. Me, you, Naruto, Kakashi. The damn Hokage. We're all so damn nice to each other. But we have more than a little blood on our hands. And we just... keep living with that."

Who was she, really? Who was anyone? She'd thought she knew herself pretty well. She was a grown woman, after all. But she'd watched Sai torture a man. She'd watched the guy die. And the biggest feeling she had was disgust at the blood seeping into the wood.

Minato didn't have much to say to that. His jaw worked a moment before his words floated out, quiet and gentle. "...Peace in this world is often sought, and seldom found."

Charlie smiled a little, wobbly, unfeeling smile. "Yeah... yeah, that sounds about right."

Once again, Hobbes was winning out. Maybe the natural state of man was war.

Kakashi cursed under his breath as sweat poured down his face. His mask was all but plastered to his skin, and damn if it wasn't uncomfortable, but he had bigger things to worry about.

Such as the cursed Uchiha in front of him, face pale and gray like concrete. Sealing the kid's curse mark had been exhausting- a single misstep, and the whole thing could've blow up in their faces. Thankfully, Kakashi'd had a good teacher.

"You've grown, eh, Kakashi-kun?"

The silver-haired jounin stiffened and turned on his heel. There, in the flesh, was the root of the problem. Orochimaru smirked in a way that sent chills up his spine. "Long time no see," the dark-haired man continued. "Sorry, Kakashi-kun, I actually don't have business with you, but with the kid behind you."

'How the hell did he pop up without my noticing?' Kakashi cursed. "What do you want with Sasuke?" he inquired. It was all about buying time. He'd spent a lot of time in the dark, and he knew the value of having the last attainable Uchiha.

The snake Sannin's smirk morphed into a hungry grin. "You didn't have it before, right? The Sharingan?" Kakashi clenched his fists. "I want it. The Uchiha power."

As he sent his chakra to his fist and the air was filled with the cries of birds, the jounin couldn't help but wonder why a certain redheaded terror hadn't mentioned this. "You're not getting any closer to him!"

"I don't need to." To Kakashi's surprise, the man began to retreat, slowly and decisively. "He's the 'avenger' type, after all..."

Kakashi watched until Orochimaru's form disappeared to turn and look at his prostrate student. Still pale as a sheet. As much as he hated to admit it... 'Orochimaru's right. This seal... it only works if Sasuke wants it to.'

"You look like shit," Tiger said jovially as he landed on Charlie's tree limb/bed. He still wore his stolen Brotherhood uniform.

Suddenly, the limb next to them shifted. Spider crouched and sat, also wearing the uniform.

Charlie sighed and closed her book. "Did you call Mole back?" He'd been keeping watch somewhere a short distance away while she'd tried and failed to sleep.

"I'm here," the dark haired boy mumbled, the tree quivering once again as he appeared on Spider's branch.

Charlie grimaced as all three of them sat there for an uncomfortable beat. "So?" she finally prompted. It had been the required two days, and Spider and Tiger had had to follow the cryptic message they left at the hotel all the way out here- the middle of the woods.

"Well, firstly, I just want to thank the two of you for wasting the second night of the hotel visit I paid for," Spider began, smirking at the unamused snort the redhead gave her. "Secondly, I would like a full rundown of why."

Sai told her.

"Wow. At least your hunt panned out," Spider remarked easily. Charlie's fist clenched and released. Apparently she hadn't just sent them to the taverns and ports for information. She'd sent them as bait. It curdled her stomach a little, but if Sai cared at the slip, he didn't let on. "Did he say anything important?" the team leader further asked.

"'We believe in the higher power of the rising star, and we will die for it,'" Charlie quoted dutifully. She'd been mulling it over and over in her head, so much so that it was hard to sleep. Nothing like this had ever been mentioned in the anime, though she supposed it probably wasn't pertinent.

Still... why was it giving her such a weird feeling then?

"Ah... so the zealot type?" Tiger supported his head with his fist. "'Rising star'..."

"Well, if 'yuuhi' is interpreted as 'setting sun', you could say 'rising star' would be the antithesis, right?" Spider pondered.

"I guess I have to wonder if this 'rising star' is a concept or a person," Charlie said. "Because if it is a person, and we can capture them, the rest of the organization would die off. But if it's some sort of god, or an ideal-"

"It will be much harder to suppress," the woman finished, humming thoughtfully.

"What happened on your end, then?" Sai piped up.

Tiger leaned back on his hands and crossed his ankles. It jiggled the branch to a worrying degree. "What didn't happen?" he gossiped, winking.

Spider shot him a chiding look. "The name of the organization head is Tanizawa Kouichi. Most of the Brothers seem intimidated by him. We never talked with him, because apparently the rank of the people we impersonated was second to lowest."

"How many people in the compound?" Charlie asked.

"Close to 50," Spider revealed, causing the breath to catch in the redhead's throat. "And there are another 25 in the streets at any given time. Almost all of them are former shinobi, but they have a team of about six medics and five civilian bookkeepers. From what I could sense, most of them are chuunin or above- but no S-rank, aside from Tanizawa."

The others didn't seem all that worried about it, but Charlie worried. How could one team of four vanquish 75 ex-shinobi? Was it necessary?

"Did you get a map of the place?"

Spider scoffed at Sai's question and held up the mission scroll. "Who do you take me for? It's at the bottom of this scroll. I also took the liberty of identifying the weak points in the compound's defenses, as well as the scheduled rotations of the guards. It's a well-oiled machine," she finished with grudging respect.

The dark-haired boy took the scroll from her and examined the map before tossing it to Charlie. "Do you have a plan of how we'll attack, then?"

"I propose taking out the compound first," Tiger said. "We can take out the people on patrol as they return, or maybe split up after the takeover to just get the job done."

"We're in agreement, then," Spider replied. "There are more bodies than I thought, and while we can swing it, it'll be tough to keep all of them in one place. So you get to do something after all, greenhorn." Her head turned to Charlie. "You'll be on the outside catching the runners. With your speed, it shouldn't be a problem, right?" The redhead swallowed and nodded. The commander's eyes gleamed with approval. "Just don't take out Tanizawa. Speaking of- how are we taking him down?"

"There's nothing about him in any bingo book, I already checked," Tiger muttered petulantly. "So we have no idea what his abilities are. He does carry a katana, though, and from how built he is, I'm going to assume he trains his body more than anything else."

"Are you implying that you want to take him on?" Spider chuckled.

"Nothing would make me happier," the man replied in a deceptively light tone. Something about the way his muscles suddenly roiled under his shirt, however, made Charlie press her lips together. He was like a cat ready to pounce.

Perhaps that's how he got his name.

"I don't have a problem with that," Spider hummed. "Sai, you'll be support from long distance. Use those pesky senbon of yours. I'm playing medic too, so I'm going to keep away from the action for the most part."

"Understood."

"We'll move in once most of them are asleep. Are we all clear on the plan?" They all nodded. Spider seemed to smile behind her mask. "Well then," she purred, a cat licking her lips, "let's get ready folks."

Charlie's stomach tumbled at the leaking malintent from the lithe woman.