Published: 5/5/2019


Crouched behind a boulder a couple hundred feet from the entrance, I circulated chakra in my ear once more, hoping that I had misheard it. But alas, the replying melody left no room for doubt at all. There was a chuunin standing outside. And not just any chuunin, I thought darkly as I sat back on my heels and pushed my bangs out of my face. That was the twang of a Rock shinobi. Kubo had been right after all. For whatever reason, Iwa ninja were involved in this mine, and this mission was just as dangerous as we had anticipated.

I tucked my reference scrolls into my sleeves and sank deep into thought. More likely than not he was surveilling. That meant he was aware that I was here—and that I had been here for some time. How was I going to explain my way out of that? I was still dressed like a civilian and I hadn't used any loud or flashy skills that would have given me away to someone outside, so that was good. But what business would a kid from a Watanabe caravan have in a mine attached to a minor village on the Kusa border? For what reason would she have spent nearly an hour and a half inside? There wasn't anything. Not really. Unless…

Fifteen minutes later, after I had sprinted a suicide drill from my boulder to the back wall, I stuck my fingers in my hair and pulled my bun into loose disarray. Then I put my hands into my pockets, located a bottle of eyedrops, and squirted a generous amount into each eye. To finish off, I dashed the palms of my hands against the rough ground, drew blood, and then promptly began sprinting—at civilian speed this time—out the mine's entrance.

The result was cinematic. I charged sobbing into my observer, red-faced and teary-eyed, and flailed about for a solid five seconds. Then I calmed down and put my hands on my knees, trembling.

"Holy crap," the Iwa chuunin said, absolutely flabbergasted. "Are you okay?"

He was, I observed, my age, or perhaps a little older. He had blond hair and brown, almond-shaped eyes; he, too, was dressed in a winter kimono and haori. Currently he was staring at me in astonishment.

"S-Sorry," I gasped, half for effect, half because his bug eyes were extremely comedic and made me want to burst out laughing. "I… I got lost. I was exploring, but I… didn't keep track of where I was going. I don't know how long I was stuck in there. It felt like hours."

I straightened up then and shook out my hands, making sure he saw the scrapes as I did so. I thought with regret that I should have torn a hole in the fabric over one of my knees. That would have been a more convincing way to imply I had been tripping about in a panic.

"Oh," the boy said, and a bit of the incredulity in his expression began to drain away. "That's pretty scary. Why'd you go in if you don't know the place? Are you not from around here?"

"No, I'm from a trading family with a Watanabe caravan. My cousin and I got separated from the train so we're waiting in the village until they come by."

"Your cousin?" the boy regarded me with an inquisitive look. I took silent note of his interest and filed it away for later.

"Yeah, he's back in the village. He's probably wondering where I am now…" I groaned as if I were anticipating a lecture upon return. Then I turned a question of my own. "Are you from the village? I went around saying hello to people all afternoon, but I don't think I saw you."

"Oh, no," the boy quickly denied. "I'm from—the neighboring village, actually. It's about a half hour away. I was visiting one of my friends."

"Oh," I said. It would be too obvious to ask for his friend's name, so I refrained. "My name's Suzuka. What's yours?" I inquired instead, fishing for more information.

"I'm… Kazuma," the boy replied. "Nice to meet you, Suzuka-san."

"Nice to meet you, too, Kazuma-kun." I smiled my friendly social smile. "My cousin and I are staying at the village chief's house. If you visit your friend again, why don't you come say hello to us, too? The caravan's not due for a while, so it'd be nice to make friends while we wait."

Maybe it was a risk to be so forthright about our location, but a single evening of eavesdropping on village gossip would be enough for him to figure out where we were staying anyway. Not mention offering the information without prompting would make for good smokescreen.

"Oh, um, sure," Kazuma said, looking suddenly spooked. I recognized that look—it was the look of someone who was worried about getting too deep into a shallow lie. Oyuki had slapped me upside the head more than once for wearing that face. Though I was hardly a seasoned infiltrator, Kazuma seemed to be even more inexperienced than I was.

"Uh, my brother told me to be home by sundown," he said quickly. "I'd—I'd better go."

And sure enough, that was panic. He was forgetting his cover story. The afternoon was waning, it was true, but Kazuma had claimed his village was only a half hour away. There was plenty of sunlight for a half hour's walk, but he was acting as if he had farther to go—which meant, in all likelihood, that he did.

Incognizant of this glaring red flag, Kazuma turned and made a hasty retreat. I smiled again as he threw a haphazard wave over his shoulder.


"You're back late," Kakashi commented from the veranda. He was standing expectantly with his arms crossed; he must have been waiting for me. Pakkun, who had been laying at his feet, stood and jumped into the bushes as I removed my shoes and joined him on the engawa.

"Sorry," I apologized. "I ran into a bit of a complication."

"Oh? What—" Kakashi paused and then squinted at my face. "...What's wrong?"

"Huh?" I blinked at his sudden concern, and he motioned to my eyes. "Oh! Nothing's wrong. Let me explain," I laughed as I fished out my bottle of artificial tears.

"It's some luck he just so happened to be there at the same time you decided to investigate," Kakashi mused after I had related the details of my encounter. "I wonder…"

"You wonder?"

"Well, tell me what you found first."

"Ah," I said. "It was interesting. At first I thought I was doing the technique wrong, but I checked again when I got outside the mines..."

"Oh?"

"Well, the thing is—you know how every living being generates chakra, even civilians?"

He nodded.

"There was no traces of chakra emissions at all in the mines, to an unnatural degree. Even untrained civilians should have been leaving at least minuscule traces behind, but the whole place was wiped clean. It was completely blank."

"Meaning someone erased the emissions," Kakashi inferred. "And the only ones who would bother to do that… that'd be ninja covering up residual traces of a jutsu."

"Exactly. Even if I hadn't met Kazuma there, it's more than enough indication that shinobi are involved. For thoroughness' sake I checked the villagers' tools, too, and nothing was suspicious or overworn. It's unlikely they're responsible."

Kakashi sat back on his haunches with a thoughtful look in his eye. He was silent for a brief moment. Then he said, "I'll give Kazuma's description to the dogs and tell them to keep a lookout while they keep the perimeter. I have a feeling they're about to make a move."

I tilted my head questioningly.

"While you were gone I viewed the records on the mines' monthly output for the past year. The irregularities started a few months before the armistice was signed—the total monthly profits decreased by about seven percent, compared to last year's production. So I began looking at the weekly records, and I discovered that the dips always occur in a single week as opposed to over the course of the whole month," he informed. "The week this occurs seems to shift erratically—half a year isn't enough to pick out a definite pattern—so I can't say anything for certain, but I looked at this month's figures and noticed that a dip hasn't occurred yet..."

"It's the end of the month," I observed. "If what you say is true, it will have to happen this week."

"Exactly." Kakashi nodded.

It was good news in its own way. I thought it would have taken longer for a window of opportunity to emerge, but it seemed like we had arrived at precisely the right time. If I hadn't known better, I would have been tempted to say that the mission was shaping up to more straightforward than I thought. But in addition to how badly that would be tempting fate, the only thing this discovery really meant was that we were charging into a confrontation with Rock ninja even sooner than we had anticipated, so there was no celebration to be had there.

"Well, the picture is certainly coming together now," I commented, "but that still leaves one question. Just what business do Iwa ninja have stealing from a small-time mining village like this? If they needed new iron sources, it would be far faster to just buy the land outright. That is, if a mine as tiny as this one could ever serve the needs of a village the size of Iwagakure."

Kakashi opened his mouth to respond, but then a violent shaking interrupted him. We paused as the ground rocked forcefully, knocking decorative fans and paintings down from the guest room's walls.

"The locals mentioned there had been a lot of earthquakes recently," I recalled once the tremors had ceased. "It must be common in these parts."

"Probably," Kakashi agreed as he removed a fallen wall scroll from his lap. "These mountains are on a natural fault line."

We got up and spent a few moments replacing the various decorations in the proper places on the wall. Then we sat and Kakashi spoke again.

"In any case, it's likely that this Kazuma was surveying the area in preparation for the next theft," he said. "We should begin monitoring the mine tomorrow night after the workers leave."

"So we are opting for a direct confrontation after all?" I questioned quietly.

"I don't know if we have any other choice. The local authority is only a militia, after all. They don't have the capability to trap and contain shinobi, so even if we tried to hide behind Kubo and the villagers, anyone with half a brain could figure out that we're the ones responsible."

True enough. When he put it like that, there was no point doing otherwise.

"With that said, though, we can still conceal the fact that we're Konoha-nin," he added. "We'll hide our faces and wear unmarked clothing. If we're lucky they'll assume we're from another village, or that we're unaffiliated shinobi."

If only we should be so lucky. Kakashi and I both exchanged glances that made it clear we didn't believe it for a second, but still, it wasn't like the alternative—blazing in with our uniforms and ranks on full display—would help us any, either.

It was late enough then for us to stop for the evening, so we shut the veranda doors against the chilled air, faced in opposite directions while we changed our clothes, and then got ready for bed. Kakashi began tidying up his books and putting them aside, and I spread out my futon beside the warm coals of the brazier.

The next morning Kakashi obtained a copy of the mines' layout from Kubo and began mapping out the most efficient way to rig the area in our favor. While he was doing so, I heard bits of a noisy discussion outside, so I got dressed and went to investigate.

"Say, Suzuka-chan," one of the grannies I had spoken to yesterday called when she saw me emerge from Kubo's yard. "Did you pass by the cliffs to the south when you were coming to the village?"

"Hm? No, we came in directly from the east, by the way of the Yurisou Ravine," I replied. "Why?"

"News this morning came in with a passing peddler," the woman sitting on the porch behind the granny informed. "There was another landslide after the quake last night. With that the entire passage has collapsed. No one can come through that way anymore."

"No one was coming by that way to begin with," grumbled another. "Not since that big shinobi battle took place there, anyway. It's bad luck, I tell you. There are vengeful spirits out there."

"Vengeful spirits! Yeah, right," scoffed the woman.

"I'm serious! It's dangerous over there."

"Dangerous? Sure, but not because of ghosts. People are just avoiding it because they don't want to set off any leftover traps or ninja magic…"

I stayed in with this conversation, curious, until I learned that in the months before the war ended the nearby cliffs had been the site of an extremely large-scale battle between Iwa and the Sannin-led Leaf forces. Apparently the cliffs had been in a perpetual state of collapse ever since, and were disintegrating more and more with each passing earthquake. Most of the villagers were of the opinion that it was merely a coincidence that this string of earthquakes was happening just after the battle, but the little granny's husband was convinced that it was the work vengeful spirits who were unable to pass on because of their violent deaths.

Kakashi seemed uninterested when I shared the story with him that evening. Having buried a variety of seals and wire traps in the ground before smoothing everything over with doton techniques, we had retreated to a ledge high up in the cavern and were now lying in wait for the appearance of our thieves.

"I wonder if it was Orochimaru-sama or Jiraiya-sama who led them," was all he said in reply. His unruly, eye-catching hair had been stuffed into a bandana, and he was dressed head to toe in plain black. I had a hood and a cloth mask as well, and for androgyny's sake, he had lent me some of his clothes so I could hide my figure in the baggy fabric. Not that I had much of a figure to hide; I was only twelve and as flat-chested as ever.

We passed that night without any results, and just before daybreak Kakashi shook his head, so we handed the watch off to Pakkun and the other dogs. The next night was much the same—as was the next. But the fourth evening brought us what we were waiting for.

I quickly tapped Kakashi's shoulder and began signing at him. His gaze sharpened as I fingerspelled Kazuma's name, and he pulled his mask down just far enough so he could sniff the air.

Two, Kakashi signed back at me.

Probability brother? I asked back.

Likely.

Action?

Wait for enemy move. Engage on my signal.

I threw on my I&E stealth jutsu while Kakashi employed his own presence-concealing techniques. Then we laid flat on our stomachs and peered over the edge to watch. Two figures silently entered the mine.

"Oniisama, wait," a boyish voice floated up towards us. "I still don't think this is a good idea."

"Good thing you're not in charge, then," was the terse reply. "Be quiet, Kazuto. We can't afford to wait any longer."

Kazuma—Kazuto—grabbed his brother's arm and said, "Oniisama, wait. We can just find a new source. We knew we would have to abandon this site eventually. I told you what I saw—we shouldn't risk it."

"And I'm telling you we have to," Kazuto's brother snapped back. "We don't have time. Sakuya's already awake enough to be moving around—we need to get the ore now."

"Oniisama—"

"Kazuto, would you just shut up for a second and help me?"

Kazuto pursed his lips, but he complied, and he and his brother began making hand seals in unison. The moment they slammed their hands onto the ground, the seals planted beneath the surface exploded in a storm of wire, wrapping them head to toe in steel thread. Kakashi jerked a hand forward before jumping. I leapt off after him.

"Shit," muttered the older brother as we landed in front of him. Kazuto just put his forehead on the ground and let out a sigh.

"Question them here, or take them back to the village?" Kakashi wondered. He moved to drag the two towards the wall.

"I think—" I began. Then I stopped, feeling a sense of grave foreboding, and seized his wrist. "Wait!"

The two wire-bound figures' faces suddenly seemed to melt. Then we were standing in front of two piles of formless mud.

"Bunshin," Kakashi cursed under his breath. Before I could blink there was a hail of kunai, a rapid string of kawarimi, and then the telltale clashing of steel. I bit my lip and found myself being drawn into a furious hand-to-hand spar. Ducking under swings and aiming wild kicks at one another, we traded blows for a solid minute, throwing punches and deflecting strikes in rapid succession. Only after I had landed a solid heel in my opponent's side did I have a chance to break away and see who I was facing.

Where his brother had had warm and pleasant brown eyes, this man's irises were a stormy gray, dark with determination and cunning. He was wearing a blank hitai-ate, but he was tellingly dressed in browns and reds. I noticed with concern that he only had one sleeve—an iconic mark of an Iwa jounin.

Worried, I fell back until I found Kakashi's side. He immediately slid into place on my six, and for several minutes we fought with Kazuto and his brother from that position, carefully guarding one another's backs.

We appeared quite well-matched with our opponents, and we quickly found ourselves deadlocked in a cycle of endless blocks and deflections. Ordinarily that would have worried me; as skilled as Kakashi was, we were both physically adolescents, and the team with the taller man would win in a battle of attrition simply by the fact of his size. But there was a certain underlying panic in the Iwa brothers' movements. They were rushing, and badly. The leapt at openings they didn't have and were recklessly aggressive. Even I could see that.

Kakashi was a wolf for weakness. Seeing our adversaries' desperation to force the fight to a close, he feinted right, swung left, and then faked the beginning of a backstep sequence when his strike was blocked, baiting the older brother forward. As he did so, he twisted his torso and slapped an open palm against my free hand.

I understood in an instant what he wanted. With a twist of chakra I placed a Strings of Fate seal on his hand, and he quickly swung back around. I dove forward in tandem, and in a moment Kakashi and I had clotheslined our opponent to the ground. Kakashi dove on top of him, smashed his knee into his opponent's stomach to wind him, and pressed the edge of the kunai against his neck.

"Don't move!" Kakashi barked at Kazuto, who immediately threw his hands up when he saw his brother at Kakashi's mercy. "Throw down your weapon!"

Kazuto obliged, flinging his tantou out of his hands. I quickly darted forward to collect it and bind his hands. Ones I had his arms behind his back, I forced him down onto his knees and held him there.

Kakashi and I exchanged glances, panting breathlessly. That had not gone according to plan… but it could have been much worse. Cautiously, we both got up and brought our respective prisoners to the cavern wall. Kazuto complied without resistance.

And then, head lolling and lip split, Kazuto's brother wheezed out, "I know you."

Kakashi and I paused. We looked at him. Then, slowly, we looked at one another. A bluff?

"I know you both," he said. "Kakashi… of the Sharingan. Konoha's Bloody Threads."

Oh. Oh, no, not a bluff. Wide-eyed, Kakashi and I regarded one another again. What had given it away?

Slowly, a smirk emerged on the older brother's face. He lifted his bound hands and pointed at me. I immediately looked down. My ponytail had come out of my hood… and my wires were still hanging from my fingers.

"A one-eyed teenager and a girl with wires," the older brother chuckled, finding his voice. "Who else could you be? Our commanders warned us all about you and your teacher. The Yondaime Hokage and his students."

Well, then the jig was up. Appalled, I threw back my hood and pulled the stifling cloth from my face. We had figured we wouldn't be able to hide our village affiliation, but to be personally named just like that... if just holding a handful of wires was enough to identify me, I would have to figure out countermeasures when I made it back home.

"What, got something to hide, little boy?" Kazuto's brother taunted when Kakashi left his own mask in place. "Too scared of Iwa to show your face?"

Kakashi just stared down at him coldly. I felt a sudden surge of deja vu. Kakashi's frigid glare… before our reconciliation, I had been on the receiving end of that look too many times to count. He clearly bore no love for Iwa-nin.

"Scary," commented Kazuto's brother, at which point it became apparent that he was purposely trying pick a fight. Well, I thought as I looked at him tied up on the ground there, at this point he didn't have any other option but to try talking his way out. Tilting your captors and making them lose composure... I supposed it was admirable of him to try.

"Interesting thing about you, Copy Ninja," Kazuto's brother began with irksomely slimy casualness. "There's a story going around about your Uchiha eye."

Kakashi only snorted, incensed. A bad premonition fluttered in my gut.

"People call you Leaf-nin tree huggers. They say you're all about feelings and teamwork, but we know it's not true," Kazuto's brother said slyly, as if confiding a secret. "We know the truth about your village. Swimming with kekkei genkai… well, it's no wonder people without blood limits get jealous."

My eyebrows flew up as Kakashi's drew together. This man was an outsider with absolutely no means to comment on Konoha's blood limit politics. He was so out of his depth that anything he said would be impossible to take seriously. Surely he didn't think he was in any position to imply—

"Still, cannibalizing your teammates for body parts. Well, anyone could understand the sentiment, but it takes skill to throw a friend on the chopping block without overplaying your hand. I'm impressed with you," he praised. "I wonder what sort of sob story you had to spin to convince the Uchiha to let you keep the eye you stole."

In an instant the mine was filled with the screaming sound of Chidori. I was stunned. Not only had this man taken just the blindest, wildest shot, it had connected—Kakashi had bought it. His Sharingan was already out. My teammate lifted his arm, murder in his eye.

"Oniisama!" Kazuto screamed, horrified, as Kakashi's figure blurred. Kazuto's brother's eyes went wide with shock; whatever effect he had expected his goading to have, this evidently was not it.

I reacted without thinking. Launching myself into a blind shunshin, I angled myself between my teammate and my enemy. My vision immediately filled with the angry spark of lightning; my brain, behind a second in time, caught up with my body, and I instantly felt my stomach drop in horror as I realized what I had just done.

I had just jumped in front of a Chidori.


A/N: Would you look at that? I finished my last final of college on Saturday and then promptly spat out an entire chapter.

Depending on how the next chapter turns out we may finish the Sakuya arc. If that happens, it'll be exactly half the size of the original Sakuya arc (from six chapters to three) despite the fact that I actually added more content this time around instead of taking any way. The writing of 17-year-old Eiru continues to astound me, and not in a good way.

Thanks for sticking with me! Drop a review if you have the time.

Cheers,

Eiruiel