(This is the second chapter of The B-Plot posted today. The other one is a standalone. For now.)

Yatsu

Yatsu has been awake since four in the morning. He doesn't especially want to be, but between his duties to the main house and his lousy sleeping habits, he's awake long before his alarm clock twitches to life. He doesn't have time to lie on his futon and laze about when the work of the household always needs doing.

He's already spent two hours this morning assisting around the Hyūga compound. From cleaning the rooms of absent shinobi, to helping prepare breakfast, to chopping firewood, his mornings are anything but free. After this he still has to serve tea to whomever he's told to, gather linens from every room in the compound and bring them to be laundered, and assist in the kitchen until every member of the great and noble Hyūga clan is ready to start their morning. Or at least the important ones.

So what if his mother is coughing alone in her room, being ignored in favor of the main house's many members? So what if he's already seen Taiga and Hiroto rendered unconscious by the seals on their foreheads, and been unable to sleep between the gripping fingers of fear? Yatsu knows that the only people who matter to the functioning of the main house are their own. Everyone else is a nail to be hammered flat.

Yatsu stills his shaking hands, trying to make the tea tray lie level. If he shows any signs of hesitation, Elder Harumi will make him join the others. He can't afford to be bedridden and delirious on the same morning he has a mission. Those who shame the clan don't last long.

"You'll be fine, Yatsu-kun," says old Anzu as she swiftly rearranges the tea tray so it balances. Yatsu blinks at it slowly, as though the idea only belatedly makes it through his head.

"Thank you, Aunt Anzu," Yatsu murmurs mostly out of reflex.

Anzu gives him a long, patient look, then pats his arm with her gnarled hands. "You've done this several times before. Harumi will not hurt you."

Yatsu just nods, because there is no point to arguing with Anzu now. If he wants to prove her wrong, all he needs to do is be late. But the satisfaction of being right is no replacement for being alive. Once again, his mother's face steals into his thoughts—kind, but starting to become vague as the years pass. He can't leave her alone in the world.

"Then follow orders," Anzu says in a much cooler voice. Her hand tightens on Yatsu's arm and he feels a thrum of chakra run from her fingertips and into his arm.

Anzu is insulated from the worst excesses of the main house by her position. No one wants to see the head cook incapacitated. She isn't entirely ignorant of what Elder Harumi is to the rest of the branch house. But to save herself, she'll let Yatsu face the gauntlet with just a kind word behind him. She so seldom interacts with the main house directly, she's almost never at risk. Yatsu can't quite work up the energy to hate her for it.

Still, if he's late he'll look death in the eye. Yatsu has no intention of allowing that to happen. And so, with a shallow bow to Anzu for her unwanted advice, he heads for the Elder Harumi's quarters as quickly as he can without disturbing the tea.

Elder Harumi lives in the center of the compound, near the area shared by the head of the clan and his two sons. Yatsu has little to do with either the heir—Hiashi—or his twin, the latter of whom is consigned to something near foster care in the branch house. The branch house guards the main house and their precious Byakugan, and it's only right that the branch house and the main house are tied together by the bonds of two brothers. Twin brothers, even!

It's a pretty fiction that gets some branch house members through their days. Yatsu is not one of them. All it means is that the head of the clan is cold-blooded enough to sacrifice his own son to a lifetime of servitude.

Elder Harumi's door looms ahead of Yatsu, and it's all he can do to keep his paces evenly spaced. No need to put this off even longer.

Yatsu announces, in perhaps a weaker voice than he's entirely comfortable with, "Your tea, Harumi-sama."

"Bring it in, then," she snaps impatiently.

Yatsu swallows down his fear and opens Elder Harumi's door one-handed. She sits at her writing-desk, contemplating some sort of poem propped up on a holder, while a fresh sheet of mulberry paper lies across the flat surface in front of her. Her sleeve is not drawn back to write, however—instead, her brush is still on its holder and her sumi inkstick and inkstone are both untouched.

And Elder Harumi is looking at him out of the side of her head, because he can see the bulging veins in her face even from the doorway. He doesn't know her maximum range. Her Byakugan is active and he doesn't know how long she's been watching him. Elder Harumi can see his heart beating and just as easily stop it dead.

Yatsu doesn't dare respond in kind. The Byakugan is not a threat in the hands of the main house—it's a promise, and one of pain. To turn his eyes on Elder Harumi would be to incite her wrath.

Yatsu enters the room with his eyes directed firmly at the floor, and does not channel a single scrap of chakra toward either his eyes or his hands. I am no threat, I am no threat…

He places the tray on the floor next to her table. Elder Harumi is a calligrapher without peer, and sullying her implements is an insult he might not survive making. Then he bows deeply, pressing his forehead to the floor.

"You have better manners than the last boy who brought my tea," Elder Harumi remarks as she carefully shuffles to face the tray. Yatsu didn't prepare it, so if there's something wrong, her wrath hopefully won't fall on him. "Sit up."

Yatsu hears her lift her cup from the tray before he manages to get upright again. He keeps his eyes on the floor, letting his hair droop forward and hide them from view. If he makes himself small and nonthreatening, perhaps she will take pity on him and send him from the room unharmed.

"Go amuse yourself elsewhere, boy," Elder Harumi orders. "I have no desire to be stared at all morning."

Yatsu bows his head, grateful for the reprieve, and leaves as quickly as he dares. Elder Harumi's Byakugan is probably still active, so running is out of the question until he is finally unobserved. But he has no idea when that may be, so he has to fight to keep his pace slow and measured though his heart hammers against his ribs.

Yatsu makes it halfway back to the kitchen when the pain hits. No—

It starts on his forehead, almost cold at first. Then molten iron is injected into his head. His vision goes white with pain, and he stumbles into the wall. He can't breathe—his fingernails dig into his headband and none of it helps—

Just as quickly as it strikes him, the pain vanishes. When Yatsu gets his vision back, he's on his knees and gasping for air. His hands shake with mingled shock and fear, both of which start to bleed into something that might be anger.

Yatsu can't think of anything he did wrong. Elder Harumi got her tea, dismissed him without issue, and let him go. He is out of her line of sight and should have been safe. Or perhaps, with her Byakugan, all Elder Harumi really decided was that if he threw up, fainted, or died, he could do it somewhere other than her room.

"Yatsu-san? What are you doing on the floor?"

Yatsu pushes himself up into a sitting position, only to meet the eyes of the clan head's younger son, Hizashi. The kid is probably only about eleven, still young enough to not have the slightest clue what he's risking by even being in this part of the building. Perhaps the clan head might discipline Elder Harumi for striking his son, even if Hizashi is just a branch house member now.

Or perhaps not, and the kid is just stupid.

Hizashi wraps both of his hands around Yatsu's left bicep, shaking him insistently. "Yatsu-san? Do you need to see someone?"

Yatsu isn't sure what to say to that. While the Hyūga clan does have medics, he'd have to explain why he needed a checkup. And no one would allow a clan member out into the field after being affected by the Caged Bird Seal, even if the activation was just enough to hurt like hell.

"I'm fine, Hizashi-kun," Yatsu mutters, forgetting the proper honorific. This boy will lead the branch house one day, won't he?

Thankfully, Hizashi doesn't seem to notice. Instead, he helps Yatsu to his feet.

"Thank you, Hizashi-k—um. Hizashi-sama?" Yatsu tries, and he's fairly certain he's missed the mark yet again. He must be more confused than he thought.

Hizashi frowns up at him. "You don't have to call me that, Yatsu-san. Come on, I'll get you back to the kitchen."

Using the child almost as a crutch, to Yatsu's everlasting shame, the two of them make their way back to the kitchen. Hizashi is shooed out a moment later. Immediately after throwing the branch house's heir-apparent out, Anzu hands Yatsu a fortifying cup of tea as a sort of consolation prize, or at least that's how he feels about it.

"How did it go?" Anzu asks, her voice hardly audible under the bustle of the kitchen.

Yatsu glares at her. If not for his headband, she would see the seal standing out across his forehead from its recent activation. Not that it ever really goes away.

"That bad, hm…" Anzu shakes her head. "I'll see if I can't get a main house member to put on a headband when Elder Harumi is finished with her tea."

Yatsu bites back his first five responses, all of which are rude. What comes out instead is, "Why didn't you come up with that scheme earlier?"

It still counts as "less rude."

"Elder Harumi requests tea too early in the morning for me to call in any favors," Anzu replies frostily. "The worst thing that could have happened is if Elder Harumi became impatient."

Yatsu's eyes dart toward the door. He knows perfectly well what happens when the main house truly loses their tempers at branch house members. Taiga and Hiroto are just the most recent examples of the main house's abuse. There are others. There are always others.

Anzu sighs and suggests, "Go and see your mother before you have to leave for your mission. Take the rest of the morning off while you can."

Let without much in the way of options, especially so close to nine in the morning, Yatsu just bows his head and leaves.

His mother, thankfully, is awake by the time he makes it back to their shared quarters. The sun is up and shining, and someone helpfully wheeled her out into the warm sun. Under a blanket Yatsu made himself, she looks serene and content. When he arrives, even if he still feels unsteady, the weight on his shoulders seems to lift.

"There you are, dear," his mother says, opening her arms for a hug, which he gladly gives her. When he pulls back, he carefully takes note of her face.

Her eyes don't quite focus the way they used to, and the lines on her face are more prominent than ever, but she's smiling at him. Her long hair is shot through with intermittent streaks of black among the gray. With her Caged Bird Seal obscured, Yatsu can almost pretend it's just tiredness and old age that sap her vitality.

"Your eyes are a bit red," his mother notes, putting both of her hands on the sides of his face.

"I've just been awake for too long, Mother," Yatsu lies, averting his eyes. He considers for a moment, then reaches back behind his head and pulls out the hair tie keeping his long hair out of the way. "I have a mission later today, though."

"Again?" his mother fusses. "You just came back from one."

Strictly speaking, Yatsu completed his last mission several weeks ago. But he's not certain how much of what she says is motherly fussing and how much is related to her genuinely losing track of time. Days in the Hyūga clan compound bleed together.

"You know how it is, Mother," Yatsu says quietly. "I have to go soon."

Yatsu's mother frowns, as if searching for a word that's just not coming to mind. She pinches a bit of his hair away from the rest and twists it between her fingers. Her hands both shake when unsupported, but she doesn't seem to care. "Not too soon? I can still fix your hair for you."

Yatsu closes his eyes, then sits down with his back to his mother's wheelchair. He makes sure she can reach his hair to do what she wants, then says, "Of course, Mother."

Fuse

It's probably not a good sign that the first thing Fuse hears, upon waking on the morning of a mission, is a rock hitting her bedroom window. The second is her partner Teikō, bolting upright and bouncing off her bed with a growl in his throat and all the fur along his spine standing up like a saw blade to boot. Fuse sits up groggily to the sound of furious barking as it begins, already crabby to start the day.

From down below her partially-open window, a familiar voice shouts, "Fuse-chan? Fuse-chan, you're going to be late!"

As Teikō's ears perk up and he subsides with a grumpy growl, Fuse stretches and yawns widely. She pushes her hair back out of her face and gives up on the idea of more sleep. The sun spills across Fuse's bed as she rolls out from under the covers, before turning on her heel and sticking her head out the window.

Down below, a big yellow dog with floppy ears barks, "Don't make me come up there and get you!"

"What time is…?" Fuse pauses, her eyes falling on the alarm clock nearby. Which had not gone off when she needed it to. Between that and the position of the sun—"I'M LATE!"

Teikō sits back at the door, his butt planted firmly on Fuse's mission boots so she won't forget them. Instead, she rushes around her apartment in a panic that definitely means she'll forget her footwear. Between cramming a breakfast bar into her mouth, trying to sort her sleep-braids out and failing, and packing her mission bag, the shoes are the second-furthest thing from Fuse's mind.

"Fuse-chan, do you need any help?" asks her cousin's voice from outside the door. While her partner Asagi continues to bark encouragement from outside, Satomi is clearly thinking of pushing her way into Fuse's apartment.

"I'm—ow—fine!" Fuse replies, finally giving up on her hair and undoing all of her ties. Her fluffy brown hair immediately droops into an unmanageable mass with braid crimps in it. She'll deal with this later.

"No, you're not!" her brother yells from the next bedroom over.

"Shut up, Shippō!" That said, perhaps another set of opposable thumbs will help speed things up. "But you can come in, Satomi-chan!"

Satomi strides into the room a moment later, with her partner Asagi at her heels again instead of barking at the window. She surveys Fuse's space, taking in the general state of disarray. Fuse meant to wake up early and pack then, but this plan has clearly gone out the window along with Fuse's composure. Satomi can tell just by looking, so she snags her younger cousin by one shirt sleeve to get her attention.

"Yeah?" Fuse asks, halfway into a pair of pants. She has one leg conquered, at least. The other is stuck at her ankle and has her balancing on one foot.

"Clean yourself up and I'll pack for you, okay?" Satomi suggests, her voice full of fond exasperation.

Fuse sticks her tongue out of her cousin, but does as she asks. While Satomi and Asagi bustle around the apartment—to Teikō's vocal disapproval—Fuse prepares for her mission. She gathers the kunai on the nightstand, including the one imbedded in it. She doesn't really use shuriken much, but she scoops them up from around her unrolled jutsu scrolls and accumulated tea cups just in case. She double- and triple-checks her mission gear once her weaponry is assembled, and makes sure that Teikō has his equipment collar as well. While she was caught without a working alarm clock, Fuse has no intention of being caught flat-footed in the field.

"How'd you know to come find me?" Fuse asks, picking through her room in the last few moments she has before it's time to go. She has to have a ration bar here somewhere. It's a tasteless and leathery substitute for food, but it works in a pinch and will keep her from being hungry five seconds later.

"I just knew you'd forget your alarm," Satomi grunts in response, as she crams a bedroll into Satomi's mission pack. It is a task that takes both hands and possibly a foot. "You were out too late last night, and you always forget when you go to bed late."

"I don't always forget," Fuse gripes, against all evidence to the contrary.

Teikō makes a noise that might be a canine laugh.

"Oh, you forgot too," Fuse mutters. Kunai and shuriken gathered, road food packed… Hm. Maybe there's still something she's forgotten in her haste. Oh, the boots! "Satomi-chan," Fuse adds as she tugs her shoes on, "is there any more information about the mission so far?"

"Aside from the briefing?" Satomi asks, and at Fuse's nod she just shakes her head. "Sakumo said he'd rather talk to all of us together."

"You can't even tell me who else is on the team?" Unlike normal mission briefings from the Hokage, where all of the members of the team would get info together, Fuse had only been informed she had a mission by Satomi. On one night's notice.

Satomi's face does a complex dance, like she's trying and failing to hide either a laugh or a grimace. It's not clear. Then she goes back to trying to stuff the bedroll into Fuse's pack.

Fuse wrinkles her nose. That seems...ominous. "Okay, not telling me anything doesn't actually make me feel better."

"You'll see when we get you out of here," is Satomi's response.

Definitely ominous.

Fuse zips up her shoes up to her knee. Tapping her heel on the floor to make sure they're tight, she decides she's ready. "Teikō, we're ready to face...the gauntlet."

Satomi flings Fuse's pack at her, and she catches it and slings it onto her back with the ease of long practice. Sure, it only needs to go downstairs, but it's fun to pretend.

Satomi grins and says, "And now, it's time for breakfast."

To Fuse's ears, it sounds half like a prayer. As Teikō and Asagi push ahead of them and out of the room, joining the family's other dogs' voices in a cacophony of cheerful barking. Fuse and Satomi follow their dogs down the stairs and into the mad rush of activity that marks this household's mornings.

Most of them don't even live here, Fuse laments. No, instead her parents are everyone's favorite aunt and uncle, and this means every Inuzuka in the clan between the ages of six and fifteen have crowded into the big gathering room on one end of their house. Her brother might be eighteen, but he's among the kids and eating his fair share of the massive breakfast spread out on a banquet table. Nearby, the dogs have their own galley of dog-friendly food and are eating their share with considerably better manners.

Asagi and Teikō are already eating alongside their pack-mates. Waste not, want not.

Satomi and Fuse share a glance before they rush to fill their own plates. An Inuzuka feast is not to be missed.

"Hey, that's my fish!" Shippō yells, as one of the other kids snags the last scrap of meat from the big serving dish.

The cousin in question blows a raspberry at him before devouring the chunk of fish in one bite.

"Early birds, Shippō. Early birds," Fuse says sagely, before deftly swiping a bowl of rice from the crush of people and putting two flat omelets on top of it. After a split second to think about it, she adds a few pieces of pickled daikon to her bowl and chows down.

Shippō swears under his breath, then decides any extra hot air can be saved for the food competition.

Miyako

Miyako waits at the meeting-place for almost half an hour before the first of her teammates appears. Though she does not know who will be accompanying her on this particular assignment, she has prepared herself for any and all eventualities on this mission. The last step is to prepare her mind for the task ahead, and meditation serves that purpose when other activities will not.

"Miyako-chan, morning!" Wataru says as he arrives.

Miyako opens her eyes slowly, blinking the bluish cast out of her vision. Perhaps she has been here longer than she thought.

Wataru grins up at her, shielding his eyes against the rays of the morning sun. While there are benefits to meditating atop a light post, her teammates' necks do not experience them.

"Is this all your stuff down here?" Wataru asks, but he clearly doesn't expect an answer. Instead, he flings his pack—full to bursting with explosive notes and his supplies for making them, among other things—at Miyako's. The two standardized Konoha supply packs would match, if not for the differing contents that make both of them bulge in different ways.

Miyako drops to the ground without a word, landing in a casual crouch. Upon landing, she immediately makes her way to her pack and starts clipping her weapons back onto the holsters she's left empty while meditating. She has several of them.

"Guess we're on the same mission this time, huh?" Wataru says, cheerfully stating the obvious.

It always sounds like he's asking a rhetorical question, but Miyako understands his tendencies well enough by now. Wataru knows she doesn't enjoy small talk, and thus can hold both sides of a conversation at once until she decides she wants to participate. It is an interesting balancing act for the chattiest shinobi in the village.

Miyako clips her katana to her belt, on the left side of her hip. She's always forgone the kunai that shinobi prefer, retaining her wakizashi. For range, she has a recurve bow and a quiver. For mid-range, she is carrying a naginata on a collapsible pole. Anything else is wasted weight.

"It's pretty easy to spot teammates like this," Wataru says, jabbing a thumb back over his shoulder and toward the gate. "Just look for the guys looking like they're looking for guys."

Miyako raises an eyebrow. Not the most eloquent phrasing he's ever used.

"Yeah, I know." Wataru shrugs. "You try looking for the next one?"

Miyako sighs. "Is there a point?"

"Well, no," Wataru admits. "But it's a way to kill time, and after that it's gonna be all killing people, so we might as well break it up a bit." He scratches his permanent stubble, then winces as though he's forgotten something. "Dammit, my razor."

Miyako hands him her wakizashi, sheath and all.

"...I don't know about you, but this seems like overkill," Wataru says delicately, trying to hand it back. "I'll just deal with the beard, okay?"

Spoken like a man who did not, in fact, live by the sword. But then, Miyako has always known that little detail about Wataru, even if he obsesses over weaponry in abstract. For him, it always comes back to bombs.

Miyako lets Wataru beat a hasty retreat as fast as he wants and hand the sword back to her. She has a different concern: Going by the body language of the newest person to enter the square, there is another person looking for a group with which to wait. Miyako may not be interested enough to reach out with her chakra sense, but she has working eyes.

"Him," Miyako says shortly, inclining her head to the other new person.

"Wha—? Oh, right," Wataru says, hitting the heel of his hand against the metal plate of his headband. "So, who's our new teammate? Want me to guess?"

Miyako shakes her head. If he guesses wrong, it will be a social catastrophe. Almost as bad as the time that her sister-in-law had used the wrong end of the chopsticks to pick sashimi off the plate.

Miyako briefly closes her eyes against the memory. Suzume is long gone.

"I could read his lips from behind," grumbles their newest acquaintance as he approaches. To Miyako, he says somewhat louder, "Don't cover for his idiocy."

Miyako does not know this particular shinobi, but the white eyes are a clear indication of Hyūga clan heritage. Originally, seeing so many pale eyes in one place unnerved her—now, with more experience regarding how the Hyūga clan members actually behave, they just annoy her. He wears his hair in a loose, low ponytail that obscures his ears, and his clothing is more robe-like than Miyako is accustomed to seeing shinobi wear. Having long, loose sleeves like that seems like it would interfere with the delicate stances and precise strikes of the Gentle Fist style, but Miyako has never been one to correct a potential opponent's flaws before she tears into them.

"Oh, Yatsu-kun!" Wataru says with utterly false cheer. Miyako knows this expression: Wataru means to annoy this man into submission. "You're less scorched than I remember."

Yatsu's left eye twitches. "If it wasn't for your overzealous mine-laying compulsion—"

There is a long scrape of metal touching metal. Unnoticed by either shinobi, Miyako has retrieved her sword-cleaning kit from her pack and started sharpening her katana's business edge.

"You've met Miyako-chan," Wataru goes on brightly. "She's on our team too."

Yatsu looks one smart remark shy of activating his Byakugan. Miyako watches him, unblinking, as the Hyūga clan member gathers the scraps of his patience to forcibly calm his temper. She can see this mission will be...interesting. Even this soon.

If she must use her killing intent as a weight to keep the peace, she knows exactly where to apply pressure now.

As a sign of peace, or nearly so, Miyako inclines her head to Yatsu. "Miyako Yukishiro."

"Yatsu Hyūga," Yatsu responds grudgingly, tossing his head like an angry horse.

"And Wataru Gekkō!" Wataru puts in, perhaps feeling left out.

Miyako prods Wataru in the back with the hilt of her sword. On cue, he deflates.

Yatsu looks carefully between them. Miyako does not want to speculate too much, but Yatsu looks like someone who would enjoy scheming. Her mother is—was—somewhat similar. Perhaps he will probe for weakness.

Yatsu opens his mouth to say something. At that exact moment, however, Miyako spots someone wearing the same expression he had just a few minutes ago. In fact, this person is accompanied by another person who is striding directly for them, so perhaps the look of abject confusion is not as common as Wataru insisted. There are also two huge dogs trailing along after them, each muttering to the other in the way that Inuzuka dogs do.

"Hello, everyone!" says the woman who arrives first. She's older than Wataru or Miyako by a slim margin, with long red fang marks tattooed on each cheek. Her dark eyes are brighter than is probably justified this late in the morning. She does know that their mission is supposed to be leaving in a few moments, does she not?

The woman behind her has the same tattoos, marking them both as members of the Inuzuka clan. Wataru had taken Miyako out on a cafe date once before, and in doing so had provided her with a spotter's guide to Konoha clans. They're so visually distinct that many of them don't need particular clan uniforms or symbols visible in the open, but often they wear their marks proudly anyway.

Though, in Miyako's opinion, the dog-ear bun hairstyle makes the second woman look much younger than she probably is.

And the second woman causes an immediate reaction in Yatsu. His eyes narrow and his expression shifts into a sneer of pure disdain. "Fuse."

Her expression, upon spotting him, resembles the face Miyako's eldest brother once made upon stepping in dog feces. "Yatsu."

This team is going to get along brilliantly. Miyako is sure of it.

"Ten ryō on Fuse-chan," Wataru whispers to Miyako, secure in the knowledge that the two subjects of his bet are unlikely to notice.

The first Inuzuka woman, looking between Yatsu and Fuse, has an expression that says she's realized she's just walked into an active minefield. Her yellow, floppy-eared dog takes in the scene for a second or two, then gives a canine shrug and starts chewing on his rear left leg instead of bothering with human nonsense. The other dog, big and brown and jowly, is sitting perfectly at attention while the two shinobi throw death glares at each other.

If Fuse or Yatsu had been Sharingan-wielding Uchiha instead, one of the two feuding team members would be dead already.

Before the two of them can make good on the implied death threats, there's a sound like a thunderclap. The noise alone makes all the shinobi wince, while the dogs leap to their feet with their teeth bared. At their core, they are still dogs.

Miyako watches carefully for the smoke that shows the Body Flicker jutsu is in use, unfazed by the racket.

Poof! And thus does their glorious leader appear in a burst of white smoke, as predicted. Miyako is getting used to shinobi eccentricities one aspect at a time, but at least this one is a convenient discovery.

This person is someone Miyako knows more by reputation than anything. While he's tall and his white hair stands out in a crowd, the real aspect Miyako has always focused on are weapons. And the White Light Chakra Saber is a tantō that she admires from afar for its sheer cutting power.

The White Fang of Konoha, Sakumo Hatake, stands before them with a casual smile on his face.

Miyako feels it when Wataru snaps to attention. "Captain!"

Yatsu and Fuse, who were at each other's throats a moment ago, each relax from their combative stances. Yatsu compresses his expression into professional-under-pressure as best he can, while Fuse crosses her arms and looks away sulkily.

"Does anyone have any last-minute adjustments to make?" Sakumo asks, as though his team hasn't just barely avoided fracturing in front of him.

Miyako wordlessly picks up her collapsible naginata and compresses the pole a little further. Then she sticks a sheath over the blade.

The unnamed Inuzuka woman follows the movement with her eyes. Then her eyes fall on the bow, the swords, and the rest of Miyako's gear as she packs the sword-cleaning kit away. "Are...are you sure all of that is necessary?"

"She likes to be prepared!" Wataru answers for Miyako, not sounding at all sheepish. "I'm sure it will all be useful, Satomi-senpai."

Miyako takes note of the honorific. Wataru uses "-chan" on so many women that this title stands out, even if he's usually joking the rest of the time. He must hold Satomi Inuzuka in some esteem. After the meetings the team has had so far, it is a nice change of pace for two people in this group to be happy to see each other.

"The rest of us are ready to go, Hatake-san," Yatsu says, bringing his arms to his sides, perfectly straight and under control as though he only plans to bow. All of the hate that marred his expression is gone now, but Miyako is not fooled. He and Fuse do not get along.

She does not want to imagine what will happen if the two of them are left alone to sort out their differences.

Sakumo takes all of this in with the patience of a Fire Temple monk.

Satomi looks to him, nervous energy clear in her frame.

"Let's go. I'll tell you what our mission will entail as we travel," Sakumo says, iron seeping into his tone. "Fall in."

Together, the team of six darts through the open gate.

Wataru

Sakumo, in his infinite wisdom, doesn't tell anyone the full extent of their mission until they make camp for the night, after a full twelve hours of running. While Wataru isn't a stranger to long days, traveling north from Konoha sets his nerves on edge. They didn't go toward Kitano Town, which is more toward the northwest than their vaguely eastern heading, but some of the landscape looks the same and will for quite some time. Maybe their destination is Uzushiogakure instead?

He really hopes it is. Kitano Town still makes his skin crawl.

Miyako's hand lands on his shoulder, jolting Wataru out of his thought spiral. When he looks up, a grin pasted on his face, her stoic silence is somehow more comforting than words. Miyako pats his shoulder again and moves on to unpack her things, and Wataru is free to take a deep breath and move on.

Sakumo gathers them by the fire once everyone's dinner—mostly rations—is occupying their hands.

"Our mission is information retrieval," Sakumo explains in a completely level tone, "and the Hokage has officially assigned two squads to my discretion. I will lead Yatsu-kun and Fuse-san for one objective. Satomi will lead Miyako-san and Wataru-kun for the other."

Given that the rest of them are all chūnin, it's not really surprising that the two jōnin—well, Satomi's a special jōnin—get to lead. Wataru does feel sorry for Fuse-chan since she has to deal with Yatsu, but he's much too happy to get to stick with Miyako to feel much sympathy.

Yatsu and Fuse, meanwhile, are already glaring at each other as though they both wish they could set the other on fire with their minds. Sakumo has one hell of a job on his hands.

At least it's not Wataru's problem!

Honestly, he feels a little bad about that. He usually tries to look out for the younger members of his team and keep their spirits up by being a clown, but Yatsu paralyzed his arm the last time they met. There are such things as grudges.

"Bring it back in, people," Sakumo reminds them, and both Yatsu and Fuse snap back to attention.

Satomi levels a glare at both of them.

Miyako settles herself into a seiza position next to Wataru's arm, serene. Or at least stoic again. Sometimes, it's hard to tell when she doesn't feel like talking.

"Our first objective is to retrieve an informant from the Land of Water," Sakumo goes on, as though no one temporarily reverted to being five years old. "The second is to stop the inevitable pursuit and draw them off long enough to ensure our escape. Two full teams should give us enough of an edge to get everyone home alive, but this is an A-rank mission for a reason. Any questions?"

Wataru raises his hand. "Who's the mark?"

Sakumo looks like he wants to sigh, but it'd compromise his dignity. "Our current information says to expect a woman about your age, but disguises are perfectly possible. Once the first team makes contact, she'll join our escape effort or else she'll die. Our best efforts will not pull a dead weight."

Wataru feels Miyako nod in patient agreement. Of course she does.

"Who's going to make contact?" Fuse asks, for once not sounding bitter about having to be in the same conversation as Yatsu.

"Our team will." Sakumo crosses his arms when it looks like Yatsu might protest, and says, "You have two different sensor abilities, and I'm the team's captain. The Hokage specifically ordered me to make contact."

"Works for me," Wataru says with a shrug, leaning back.

"Who cares if it works for you?" Yatsu demands. "You're with your girlfriend."

There's another scraping metal sound. Somehow, Miyako has acquired a kunai and is patiently sharpening it. With the rest of the team's eyes on her, Miyako glances up with deliberate slowness and puts her hand against Wataru's arm.

Wataru grins at her while Sakumo says patiently, "Leave your personal problems in the village."

Yatsu huffs, but he still subsides with bad grace. Fuse sticks her tongue out at him while he's not looking, because of course she does.

It's like dealing with children. Only Wataru is reasonably sure that children are a lot easier to deal with than bratty adults. Children, for the most part, don't have a problem with telling him exactly what they're thinking instead of couching their replies behind four layers of passive-aggressive mannerisms. This team needs a good brawl to sort out everyone's feelings, since it seems the usual routes of spirited debate or getting yelled at by team captains aren't working.

Sakumo leans forward, his hands clasped in front of his mouth. As his dark eyes land on each member of the team in turn, they all automatically sit up a little straighter. His gaze focuses on Yatsu, and then Fuse, and he says, "The village is depending on our success. While we are a full day's travel from home, I can still send you home with your tail between your legs if you aren't capable of handling this mission."

There isn't really much to say to that announcement. While Wataru can see Yatsu's jaw grind from a couple meters away, no one so much as makes a peep. They do all have a sort of professional pride—sure, they're paid to lie, cheat, steal, and murder—but there's such a thing as a job done well. No one here has ever been refused a mission when it's already underway. "Unreliable" is one of the worst reputations in the business. It's a dire insult, but one that Sakumo, of all people, has the right to make.

"We'll travel together until we reach the border," Sakumo continues, as though he didn't just threaten everyone's careers. "After that, we'll split to complete our objectives. Wataru-kun, Miyako-san, Satomi, I don't expect to see the three of you until we reach Konoha territory again with our informant."

Satomi nods grimly as she strokes her partner's head. While they have the team's focus trained on them, she takes the opportunity to say, "Wataru-kun, I'd like as many explosives as you can create for this mission. Miyako-chan, I'll be relying on your sword." She pauses, her expression turning sheepish. "And...everything else you brought."

Asagi lifts one ear when Miyako pointedly returns the kunai to Wataru's weapon pouch. Wataru didn't notice it disappear in the first place, but he supposes it's nice to know Miyako isn't just summoning them out of thin air.

"You know, not nearly enough people ask me for that one," Wataru says with a grin, while Miyako continues sharpening her other weaponry. "Right, Miyako-chan?"

Miyako glances up and nods once.

"For good reason," Yatsu mumbles. When Wataru looks at him, he turns his face away as though pretending someone else talked.

At least Wataru isn't going to be on his team!

With the conversation effectively over, Sakumo assigns himself first watch while the rest of the team settles in for the night. Wataru makes certain that his sleeping bag is as far from Yatsu's as possible in case the other man decides to kill him. Just as a precaution.

End Part 1/2

AN: This story is a two-parter, and a continuation of sorts to Miyako's story in chapter 4 of The B-Plot, wherein she left the Land of Iron. That story, likewise, is an expansion of the file uncovered by Kei and other characters during chapter 76 of Catch Your Breath.

This takes place thirty years before the canonical beginning of the Naruto series.