Jiraiya pulled her along swiftly as he might an unruly child. A civilian, he would have carried. A student, he may have trusted to follow. But not her. There was none of that now. None of that since Rin tried to grope past the twilight into the fading warmth of the sun.
Obito had been there. Just as she had left him—two years younger. Unmarred and whole, even in his left eye.
"Stop, no! We have to go back!"
"We will not."
Jiraiya stood tall, looking left and right but not at her. There was pressure in his grip that was born from fear but that was wrong because Obito was her teammate. Obito was her friend. He wasn't a simple ghost or a spirit or a bakemono or a ma. Whatever Jiraiya must have thought he was, Obito wasn't it.
Rin twisted free from her mentor's grip. When he reached for her again, she shouted,
"No! Not until you tell me what's going on!"
Rin had been taught to listen to her elders. Her betters. Disobedience could get her killed on the field. But this was Obito. He was her teammate just like Kakashi was her teammate and her claim on them overpowered any inadequacies she might have felt at that moment. Rin was a shinobi of the leaf. Her duty was to her teammates in war or peace.
Jiraiya looked at her then. Saw that she was maybe a finger-width away from pulling knives on him and instead, unraveled a scroll in his hand and bit his thumb, letting the blood dribble down the slick page. Blood mixed with ink and a toad appeared, as tall as a man and three times as wide. It furrowed its deep orange face, eyes bulbous and angry under the shadow of its brow.
"Gamatarou, there is a grave due north. You will know when you see it."
"Tch, was it disturbed?"
"No." Rin said in denial. "Why would anyone..."
"We must consider all possibilities." Jiraiya said sternly. "Your teammate was an Uchiha. There are those who would pay through their nose to get ahold of the clan secrets and your team left his body there."
"We had no choice."
The excuse sounded weak even inside her head.
Jiraiya shook his head.
"Minato should have burned him."
"Obito is not a ma." Rin snapped.
"Ma." Jiraiya repeated, rubbing his palm up and down his weathered face. "That's what the river folk call their walking dead. It's appropriate Rin. Do you know why the dead start walking?"
She knew. Her great-grandmother used to tell her stories when she was young. Back before she was conscripted into the lifetime of war. Ma were the souls of those whom had been denied their burial rites. Restless, they would rise at night and haunt the river.
"He wouldn't."
"You do not know what a spirit or may not do young lady." Gamatarou croaked. "Your teammate is dead. That means that the rules of the living do not apply to him. Grudges are born in blood."
The toad spat in the dirt and headed north. And when Rin looked back, when she had the courage to raise her chin high and look back, she saw tongues of flame where the grass started, leaping blue like a string of will-o'-wisp.
The sky ran black between the stars.
Behind her, Jiraiya sighed.
"We stop here then."
+++++7+++++
Jiraiya dug a small pit and started a fire of his own. He took a pinch of spice and sprinkled it between the logs. The fire burned bright orange, crackling on pieces of salt before settling down.
For the first time, Rin wished that she'd paid more attention to her great-grandmother's tales. In a way, her great-grandmother would have been perfect for this situation. Her great-grandmother wasn't a shinobi. The old bat detested Rin's work. But she knew about spirits. She had grown up in the land of rivers where the running water was either a boon or a curse. Her great-grandmother knew how to appease spirits and avoid what would anger them. She knew the words. She knew the steps. She was the last of her kind because her mother was too busy and Rin herself had been too arrogant to listen.
Her great-grandmother would have known what was happening. She would have called Rin stupid but she wouldn't have glued her lips shut like Jiraiya, staring at her as though she was something diseased.
The fire grew large enough to bathe Rin with a fierce sort of warmth. And when it did, Jiraiya wordlessly took a gourd from his belt and handed it to her. She uncapped the gourd and immediately cringed. It smelled foul. Anywhere else, she would have dumped it at her feet, Sannin or not. But she took the offered drink. She coughed and fought the urge to vomit as it curdled in her mouth.
"Swallow it." Jiraiya said sternly as he sat across from her, using the fire as a barrier between them.
"What is happening?" She asked.
What had she seen?
She knew that in medicine, stress could cause hallucinations. Her hand trembled as she held it up to the light. She could almost feel his presence at her finger tips. She could swear, when she had reached out for him, he was there. Obito had called out for her. He didn't die when the rocks fell down on him. Only after. After they left him. And even without her great-grandmother's bedtime stories, she knew that the angriest ghosts were those with grievances.
'Are you angry at me Obito?' She thought. 'Do you blame me for leaving you there?'
"You were possessed."
"Huh?" Her head snapped up. "But how? I've been with you since the village."
Jiraiya shook his head. As though fearing eavesdroppers, he took another pinch of spice and sprinkled it over the fire. Above the popping noise, he asked,
"Your teammate died during a mission. How?"
Rin held her tongue. For some reason, she did not wish to tell him. Jiraiya already knew what happened. When his star pupil came back missing a student, he would have gone through the records and known why Obito was gone. Why Kakashi covered his left eye and why the Uchiha, their coldness to Obito aside, were furious.
And that should have been enough. Did he not understand that they went on a mission and left their teammate to die under a pile of rock?
Only, maybe, Obito didn't die. Obito died later when Kakashi's eye turned. When Uchiha Shisui's eyes turned into the patterns his elder clanswoman Mikoto called the mangekyo.
Obito was left behind. It was her fault. She was the team medic. Had been. She should have been. She shouldn't—Rin had been a liability. She got caught by the enemy ninja and Obito paid the price for it.
As a medic, she could not regret. Only look forward. Save the ones that could be saved. But now, as a shinobi, as a kunoichi, as a pupil to one of the Sannin, She wondered what she could have done right.
Her teeth clenched shut.
"Rin," Jiraiya said impatiently. "This is important. Something unhinged the Hatake brat into turning traitor. It wasn't just a teammate dying."
What did Jiraiya know of her teammates outside Minato's stories? That one was a Hatake, the other an Uchiha. Both from great houses. One turned traitor, the other a martyr.
"Kakashi wanted to bring him back.
"Bring him back?" Jiraiya said in alarm.
Rin realized how that must have sounded.
"Not like that. No forbidden techniques. Just, bring his body back to Konoha where he could be buried."
"The Uchiha are burned, not buried." Jiraiya replied darkly.
She knew. But his teammates were alive. How much did he understand having a corpse for a teammate?
She remembered what Shisui told her the last time they spoke. Kakashi had wanted a technique. A burial technique specifically for the Uchiha. Kakashi had wanted to bring Obito home.
"We were supposed to go back for him." She said, her heart breaking.
Jiraiya's expression softened into regret,
"Ah, forgive me Rin. That was cruel of me."
"I want them back." She sniffled, wiping snot on the back of her hands. "I want them both back. This stupid war is supposed to be over."
Her tears spilled past her chin. She could no longer see the fire. "I miss them so much."
Jiraiya let out a sigh.
"I miss my teammates too."
+++++7+++++
Gamatarou returned, just before dawn, to report that the deed was done. Obito's grave was gone. Jiraiya handed the toad back his summoning scroll without a word.
Now, sunlight shone on top of their heads. Grass rustled at their feet.
It felt surreal.
Jiraiya cleared his throat.
"There are two types of possessions. The first is an active possession. The second is a passive possession. Some priestesses do not call them possessions at all but a guardian spirit. A house ghost or an ancestor who fought bravely and died before their time."
"Do you think Obito could be my guardian spirit?" Rin asked hopefully.
Jiraiya shook his head. "I do not. The Uchiha burn their bodies for a reason. There are no written records of Uchiha possessions. But my father was a Senju through his mother and through them, I know that ghosts can be vindictive."
And as soon as Jiraiya mentioned his Senju grandmother, Rin knew that Jiraiya would not be fair to Obito.
"There must be a way to find out." She said. She remembered certain house ceremonies at the beginning of the year. Like leaving the doors and windows open. Preparing an extra seat for grandmothers and grandfathers she never knew.
Their search for Orochimaru was put on hold. Jiraiya did not want to take her back to Konoha in her state. And the Earth-Fire border was a treasure trove of supernatural artifacts, gravestones and shrines built to appease the departed.
"Ah," A shrine priestess said, laughter muffled from behind the dished face of a monster she could not name. "The gentleman has discerning tastes."
Jiraiya preened at the praise.
With a flourish, the shrine priestess tucked the box of charms back into her sleeve and instead presented a second box made of dark wood. The lid was patterned with stripes of mother-of-pearl and when opened, screeched in protest from the rusted hinges.
Jiraiya squinted at the items inside. Rin fought the urge to sneeze. Something about the shrine made the back of her head itch. She twisted her fingers in her lap, tracing shapes in the thick cloud of incense.
"Here."
"Eh?"
Jiraiya held out a small pouch to put around her neck. It was small but a masterful piece of work. Each panel was folded with different colored silk, stitched together with a gold thread.
"A wise choice." The shrine priestess said. "It's a trap for spirits that mean you harm."
"Nothing's happening." Rin observed after she put it on.
"Then perhaps there is nothing that means you harm."
"You serve a demon." Jiraiya reminded her.
"Yet you are still here." The shrine priestess was old. Closer to Jiraiya's age than a girl's. In the back country, people were far and few in between. Wars drove people from villages. Peace pulled them back. But there were graves that needed tending. Spirits who wanted to be heard.
"What can you tell us?"
The woman shrugged, tucking her scarf around her wrinkled chin.
"She has a ghost of a child clinging to her. Perhaps it hopes that she will be its mother. More than that I cannot say."
"Is there anyone we can speak to around here?"
The shrine priestess' voice was guarded.
"There is a clan closer to Iwa that practices Wu."
"Wu?" Rin asked.
"Tsk, perhaps you know it by a different name. They are onmyouji that divined victories and defeats during the last war. They will know what you must do."
Jiraiya thanked her for her services and placed a handful of ryo in front of her. The shrine priestess cut a short nod.
"My dear." She said to Rin. "A word."
Rin looked to Jiraiya. Jiraiya nodded.
As soon as the door closed behind him the shrine priestess said, "Be careful girl. Your teacher walks a path of ruin." Her hand closed around the ryo, shiny metal peeking out from under the stump of her fingers. "Have courage. You live yet."
Rin nodded and at the last minute, made an offering of ryo.
The shrine priestess smiled from behind her mask.
"Take care."
+++++7+++++
Infiltrating Iwa was easy.
Officially, it was peacetime. They should have been able to waltz in; they weren't looking for a fight.
But their new alliance was still raw. Rin could not say that she wouldn't kill the first Iwa-nin they came across. She still had the exploding tag in her bag. The one with the name of the Kamizuru chunin she killed.
The village they went to was renowned for fortune telling. It did not have a name. The locals called it the-place-between-the-rocks. When she saw it, she understood why.
Early morning, fortune tellers were setting up shop on the streets. Bright lanterns hung from decorative poles. People shouted their wares. Catch of the day. Imported fruit. Some announced proven love tonics on top of their lungs. Others passed around flyers for a kabuki performance at a nearby inn.
As the sun rose, the light touched upon the eight petals of a lotus carved into the mountain side making them appear to sway. And at its center was a manor fit for a daimyo.
"You won't be able to get in sirrah. Not without an appointment." Said a barmaid, serving them drinks. She had shooed them into a corner as soon as she caught their state of dress and stink, away from an opulent corner where a card game between three men and a maybe-prostitute was ongoing. "The Seifuujin clan, they are secretive. Why, it took the Earth Daimyo a boon to seek audience and even then, it is said that the head's sister-wife forced his hand."
The barmaid crossed her arms under her breasts, pushing them up for a great effect.
Jiraiya fumbled with his wallet and tipped her with a piece of actual gold.
Rin sighed.
"Bring me your best wine."
The barmaid winked.
"Of course."
"What is a sister-wife?" Rin asked.
The barmaid glanced at her.
"Lord Tegaki has a sister. The Honorable Tosogare. He married her to consolidate power. It is said that he killed his elder brother when he wasn't powerful enough to oppose him."
A table went flying in the air.
"You lying whore!" A man shouted.
"Oh kami-sama, not again." The barmaid muttered, tucking her breasts back under her collar.
Rin saw that the game in the corner of the room had ended and judging by the pile of money the woman had in her lap, the men lost badly.
When the men threatened violence, no one stepped into help. Not even the barmaid who had cowed a busboy into fetching someone named 'Kuroi'.
The way the men were moving, the woman didn't have time to wait for 'Kuroi'.
Before a fist landed on the woman's powdered face, Rin kicked the man's knee out from under him, causing his head to crack on the seat of a chair. He fell with a groan and a large dent on his forehead.
"I did tell you that you would lose." The woman said in a surprisingly deep voice, pocketing her winnings in her gold-embroidered sleeves.
Rin's eyes narrowed.
"Wait, you're not a..."
"Just because your brother is one of Tegaki's lackeys...!" Another man blustered. Jiraiya sat him back down with a swift chop to the top of his head.
"That's no way to speak to a lady."
"How rude Enma-san." The woman laughed. "Are you implying that I cannot defend myself?"
The woman she had saved was a man.
The man Rin had knocked to the ground began to crawl away.
"Sora!"
A man burst in the bar and took in the scene.
"Kuroi," The cross-dresser pouted. "Where have you been?"
"Where have I been—" Kuroi sputtered. "Where were you?! You're supposed to be at the compound!"
"Oh yes that," Sora tossed the barmaid a coin for her troubles. "I suppose I can go back now."
To Rin, he winked. "Thank you miss." And dropped a kiss on top of her head.
Rin blushed. Despite the makeup and the strange state of dress, the man was very good looking. She caught a scent of cinnamon and pepper before he turned around. "Say, you two are here for a reading right?"
"Yep." Jiraiya said, picking his nose. Rin mimed a cutting motion with her hand. Her mentor ignored her.
"Come to the compound." Sora invited. "Tell them Sora sent you."
Kuroi despaired in the background.
After they were done with their meal—on the house, the barmaid said, on account of the fact that the tables were the only casualties.
Rin noticed that their barmaid, Yachi, did not return the gold.
"Sora likes to have fun when his man is not around." Yachi explained. "And if he is around, he likes to sneak out."
Rin decided against asking the obvious question. Like why Sora was married to a man. Or why he was dressed like a woman. An unmarried woman at that. With her luck, it was probably a clan matter.
The onmyouji of the-place-between-the-rocks were tall. Even their women were able to look Jiraiya in the eye without much effort. And Jiraiya was trying but it was probably hard for him to remember their mission when his eye was in line with his favorite assets.
"Sensei." Rin hissed when the Sannin began swaying from blood loss.
"Such busty beauties." He sighed.
"You here to have your fortunes read?" A woman asked in a bored tone of voice.
"Of course my dear." Jiraiya simpered. Patting his wallet, he said, "If you could point us to your very best..."
The woman's eyes went to the wallet first.
"Sora asked for us." Rin interrupted. She had worked at the markets long enough to spot a hustler when she saw one."
The woman immediately lost interest.
"Fine, follow me."
+++++7+++++
"My friends from the bar!"
Sora had changed out of his kimono, abandoning the heavy obi for something no less elaborate. The white and mint furisode flowed with dabs of texture that made it appear as though the fabric had been spun from sea foam. Rin felt her face grow hot when she realized that his collar was sheer and climbed in a lattice pattern just under the bob of his throat.
He bowed once behind him to a shrine and to them which they reciprocated.
When they sat down, she saw that there was another in the room with them.
Kuroi was there and his glare could have set the room on fire. Beside them, a young man had taken up position in front of the sliding doors.
She startled. Judging by Jiraiya's reaction, he too had not sensed either of them.
"That's just Kuroi and Kyou." Sora introduced helpfully. "Just ignore them."
The two men wore no visible headbands. Either they weren't shinobi or they were missing-nin.
Clearing his throat, Sora spread majong sticks in a fan on top of his reading table.
"So? What can I do for Jiraiya the Toad Sage? Your health? Family? Wealth? Or even love?"
"We're not here for that." Jiraiya said and placed a Hokage's seal on top of the table. "We'd appreciate your discretion regarding this matter."
There was a pause. Sora considered the Hokage's seal for a moment. He tapped the metal, allowing it to ring hollow in the room.
"Well then, this is serious." He tucked a hand up his sleeve and took out a pack of cigarettes from the inseam. He did not light it but the end glowed with the strike of red flame.
"The Fire Daimyo has no power here." Kuroi pointed out. "Sora, you don't have to do this."
"But where is the fun in that?" Sora asked, blowing smoke. "So, no love for you then?"
"It is of a spiritual matter."
"So it is." Sora sighed.
Jiraiya cleared his throat.
"I expected to seek audience with Lord Tegaki."
Sora leaned back, feeding ashes into an elaborate fire pot at his knee.
"Ho, Lord Tegaki doesn't see just anyone."
"Show some respect." Kuroi rebuked at the same time. "You are speaking to Sora of Yamagaze."
"Don't scare them Kuroi." Sora replied mildly. He turned his attention to her instead. "Were you surprised that I was a man?" He asked kindly. When she nodded, he continued, "It's tradition. Practitioners of Wu are women you see. If a family does not produce girls, the eldest unwed boy takes the part."
"But..." Rin's voice became small. "Yachi said you were married... and you're wearing..." She mulled this over for a moment. "Are you...?"
"That's right." Sora grinned. "Despite this face and dynamite body, I'm still a virgin. As pure as driven snow."
Kuroi mock-retched quietly in the background. Kyou said in a flat voice, "Get on with it,"
"But then Kuroi is..."
She snuck a look at Kuroi.
"We were wed." Sora laughed. "But alas, no luck in bed."
"If it's payment you need," Rin started, tugging on the pouch around her neck.
"Keep it." Sora said. "Only fools spit in the face of protection."
"Then you will help us?" Jiraiya asked.
Sora clenched his cigarette between his teeth.
"I am Sora of Yamagaze. Third of Tsuyoshi and the least." Kyou and Kuroi winced. "But I will hear your story mononoke-san."
He stared at her for a moment. "I did not know they made taishiki out of the Uchiha clan."
Rin swallowed.
"Kyou." Sora called. The young man looked away. "Kyou." Sora repeated insistently.
"Che." The young man huffed and turned around, sliding the doors open. "Get up old man, we're being kicked out."
"Rin is my student and responsibility." Jiraiya said.
"You have no love for the Uchiha." Sora warned. "If you get caught in the backlash, I cannot guarantee that you will like what you see."
"I am a shinobi of the leaf."
"Even so."
After a moment, Jiraiya asked, "Rin?"
"I'm fine sensei."
"Ah. Call me if you need me."
"I will."
Kuroi sat behind her. His hand on the tanto tied to his waist. If he struck, she would have no way to defend herself. As Kuroi had reminded her, she was in the Land of Earth. Iwa territory. A Hokage's seal could not protect her.
"Please do not be afraid." Sora said gently. He pushed the table aside and lit a second cigarette. The remains of the first went in the fire pot where it burned along with sticks of silver vine. She would have claimed blaspheme except neither Jiraiya nor she had mentioned Obito's family name.
"How did you know?"
Sora held her hands.
"How do I know anything?"
And gently blew smoke in her face.
When she opened her eyes, Obito was standing over them.
"Obito." She gasped, trying to get up.
Sora held her firm and chakra sparked between their palms, cackling like the beginnings of a chidori.
"Rin." Obito answered. The smoke from Sora's cigarette swept through him but stopped at something unseen behind the ghost of her dead teammate. Instinctively, her hair stood on end.
There was a clear line between the living and the dead. The dead were to be respected. But they were not people. The things behind Obito felt wrong.
"Obito," She ordered. "Get away from there."
The muscles in her calves bunched, ready to spring at any moment. She squeezed Sora's hands once and if she hadn't been so desperate to grab Obito and to get him away, she wouldn't have looked back at him. She would have missed the expression on Sora's face entirely.
Sora was frozen. He had become pale, almost the exact shade of the kimono he wore and the lattice that cradled his throat.
"Sora." Kuroi warned, sensing something amiss.
At his voice, Sora let go and a wave of chakra flattened everything in the room.
"What the ever-loving fuck?!" Kuroi exclaimed when he got up.
"Aha." Sora shook as he set the fire pot upright. "Ouch, I should have expected that. My apologies."
Kyou and Jiraiya scrambled over the broken doors. Once Jiraiya was sure that she was alright, he sat down against the wall with a relieved sigh.
"I haven't lost a student since Minato was a genin. Don't you dare tarnish my record now."
"Kuroi." Sora grinned. "Can you get my brother?"
"Why?"
Sora ignored the question.
"And Kyou, please let Lord Tegaki know that we have a client in need of his skills."
"Send Kuroi for both." Kyou said, bored.
"Aha, but what would people say about a married woman alone in a room with a bachelor."
"You are with clients. That's hardly alone."
"Please."
"Che." Kyou looked away and with a body flicker, he was gone.
As soon as he was satisfied that they were alone, Sora immediately bent over the fire pot where he spat gouts of black blood over the hissing embers. His blood broiled and cooked between the silver vine, filling the room with the smell of rancid meat.
Rin knelt at his side. She pressed a palm against his back but could not find mortal wounds. Nothing that tugged at her chakra coils begging to be fed. Sora's chakra began to retreat deeper inside him as though bleeding somewhere she could not see. And at the moment she feared that it might disappear, Sora stuck his fist in the open flame.
"Jiraiya sir! Help me!"
Jiraiya pulled him back but Sora was surprisingly strong. His sleeve had caught on fire and began to smolder from the silk clouds to his wrist. Rin ran her hands over the cracked skin and smoothed the blisters back in the flesh.
"Sorry," Sora huffed, "I didn't mean to scare you."
She had no water. Water took up space so shinobi carried water tablets to treat any water they might have to drink. Rin took the container of fermented drink off Jiraiya much to the Sannin's protest. Once the tablet dissolved, she rubbed it across Sora's lips, urging him to drink.
Sora did not drink.
He began to sag in Jiraiya's arms. She felt his chakra ebb once more. And as she prepared to pump his heart, a stranger took the place of Jiraiya, folding the limp body of Sora into the crook of his arm. Sora barely stirred. She saw a trail of blood starting from one nostril.
The newcomer wrapped a hand around Sora's throat.
"Souken!" Kuroi protested before Rin could.
"Kuroi, the sword." Souken demanded.
"Souken-sama,"
"Now."
Kuroi drew his tanto and brought it down on Souken's wrist. Something unseen, intangible, unknowable, dispelled itself with a scream. Jiraiya spat out a short curse But Rin quickly unraveled the bandages from her pack, half-fearing that the man would be left with a stump. But he raised his hand and brought it down on the fire pot—these men and their obsession with fire, she thought—biting through his lips. All the while, he did not let go of Sora.
"Guan Shi Yin Pusa, Guan Shi Yin Pusa, Namo Ami..."
Kuroi hurriedly shaped his hand into tiger-ox-rat and poured a stream of water over Souken's head.
"Kai."
Sora coughed up a puff of smoke and began to breathe more easily.
"Are you alright?"
Kuroi's gaze snapped to Jiraiya.
"Are you serious?!"
"Kuroi." Souken said softly, wiping his forehead. "Take them to Tegaki-sama."
"What?" Kuroi sputtered, shock of black hair falling across his eyes. "But you."
"I will be fine."
"Let me take a look at it at least." Kuroi pointed, gesturing to the burns on Souken's hand.
"Kuroi, you can look at it when you come back." He smiled. Sora's smile. "I promise."
Kuroi went down on one, reluctant knee.
"As you wish."
+++++7+++++
"What was that?" Jiraiya asked as they hurried through the compound.
"Bad news."
"What does that mean?"
Kuroi's eyes were hard.
"Half the things I hear about the Uchiha are hearsay. But I know a taishiki isn't created on whim."
"What is a taishiki?"
"It's a spirit." Kuroi grunted. "I don't know what you call them in Konoha. It's a spirit deliberately drawn from a child by starving him under a rock."
Rin choked.
"Who was he?"
"He was my friend." Rin said fiercely. "And I failed him."
They arrived at a garden, richly planted with water lilies and reeds. Koi swirled lazily in the water, fanning their silk fins through the spotted sunlight. Rin had no time to appreciate such beauty. She followed Kuroi past the glorious stems of blue iris and cardinal flowers to a woman swinging her legs like a girl. At her breast napped a baby, a newborn, with a soft skull and curls of fawn-colored hair. Rin's heart melted at the sight and she wondered if Kushina's was a boy or a little girl.
"Kyou-chan was by." The girl remarked in a syrupy voice. "Tegaki is inside. He's upset."
An attendant kneeling beside her, clearly an honor guard, glowered at Jiraiya.
"This is an urgent matter."
The woman waved a free hand, cooing at the baby when it stirred.
They entered the grand hall of the Seifuujin. It reminded her of the time she had visited the Uchiha compound with Minato and Kakashi. The clan leaders sat in a semi-circle in front of a divider decorated with butterflies. She thought she spied a scrap of pink slither behind it.
Kuroi bowed. A man stood as he did.
"My apologies Lord Sousuke."
"Sora?"
"The Honorable Souken is with him." Kuroi answered.
Sousuke dismissed him with a grunt. But he looked to the man at the center, Seifuujin Tegaki.
Tegaki nodded.
"Go."
Kyou, who had been waiting, followed Sousuke out. After a moment, Kuroi did as well.
"And what does Jiraiya the Toad Sage want with us?" Asked a young woman in lieu of her clan head. She handed Lord Tegaki a lit pipe and he breathed deep, waiting for an answer.
"I seem to have a ghost problem."
"You are aware you are unwelcome here."
Jiraiya held up the Hokage's seal.
"You are onmyouji. You serve whomever has the deeper pocket."
"Charming. You always were." Tegaki sneered. "But the taishiki has harmed one of my own. I cannot let the insult slide. Do you wish him sealed or banished?"
"What?" Rin protested. "No, this is Obito. Don't hurt him."
"Do you know what your friend has become girl?" Tegaki asked. "He is on the precipice of becoming something that not even the Shinigami will swallow once complete. Your Pure Land is beyond him now."
"Can't you help him?" Rin pleaded.
Tegaki bore his teeth in a wolfish grin.
"I don't have to."
"Please."
A figure rose from behind the butterfly divider, casting a crane's shadow over the family head. Tegaki's eyes widened and at once, the Seifuujin bowed in allegiance to the man who drew back the blinds.
"Then allow me."
[1] Onmyodo ('The Way of Yin and Yang') is a traditional Japanese esoteric cosmology, a mixture of natural science and occultism - onmyouji
[2] Furisode are the most formal style of kimono worn by young unmarried women in Japan.
[3] Mononoke - vengeful spirits, dead spirits, live spirits, or spirits in Japanese classical literature and folk religion that were said to do things like possess individuals and make them suffer, cause disease, or even cause death. It is also a word sometimes used to refer to yōkai or henge ("changed beings").
[4]Taishiki - A type of ghost, usually a very young child or a stillbirth used here with a bit of creative license. A taishiki can be created by starving a child in a very dark place. Food is offered to them and when they reach for the food, their hand is cut off. The hand is used to control the dead child's soul.
Creative license is applied here. There is different lore regarding this type of ghost depending on which literature you reference.
