Author's Notes: Okay, new chapter. It's been a little while since I posted the last ones, sorry, but I have gotten some good work done in the meantime. This chapter, and d the next couple that follow it, will be a little slow paced. However, it's all leading up for a breakneck run to the finish, so please stick around.

Thanks to all reviewers, and hopes for more!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any portion thereof, and make no claims on its copyright. However, all original characters and events are my own property.

Chapter 17 – Mirrored Tread

(the next morning)

Yi awoke with a start, a shudder, and a sensation of a light shaking. It was only after she had sat bolt upright in near terror that she realized she was simply being shaken awake from her sleep. Her eyes opened to see a strange face, one so shocking she could not fail to lurch back a moment. It was a frightful face, blue-scaled skin wrapped around a viscous mouth filled with cutting needle-teeth and whose eyes were empty and murky, lacking color or even white. A moment later Yi recalled the events of the day before, and knew who she was seeing. Hoshigake Ise, she thought, and now she noticed the saddened look in his eyes. It took Yi a moment to recognize it, and when she did she felt deeply ashamed. He did not like my reaction, she felt terrible for it. His is such an honest face, Yi thought, feelings churning and mixed. He wears the reality of his existence openly, hiding nothing, revealing what he is to the world, whereas I live behind lying flesh, shielded from my own mistakes by a normal face.

Ise looked at Yi, and, recognizing that she was awake, let go of her shoulder. "Ninja should by rights be awake before dawn, but I will make an allowance this time given the harsh circumstances," he said, voice matter-of-fact, a ninja going about his business with the seriousness it deserved.

Yi, looking up, saw that it was some time past dawn already, the sun rising low in the desert sky. Watching Ise she realized that he had been awake for some time, for he was armed and ready to face the day, while she remained a mess after collapsing in emotional exhaustion the night before. Subconsciously Yi reached up and touched her forehead, feeling the metal piece hanging there, still tied to her head. The forehead protector meant nothing by itself of course, it was only a symbol, but Yi ran her hand over it with deep longing, confirming that it was not just a dream. Metal and cloth, the simple thing with its four wave mark carried far more than a symbol of identity; it offered to her the promise of redemption, denied so long, to bring back hope into her worthless life.

Recalling the moment of the day before, of the tall shark ninja reaching out and passing the forehead protector to her, Yi forced tears from her eyes, and she turned so Ise would not see, pretending to gather together her meager belongings. With this I might, just might, be able to keep living.

She said nothing of this to Ise, but instead remarked. "How is it you get to decide when we should wake for the day?"

"He," Ise barked out an aborted laugh, a strange sound that sent shivers up Yi's spine, for it reminded her of the shark the day before, the creature that had burst through her skin of Mizuho and almost snapped her apart. She could still feel those massive teeth against her skin, and it made her nervous. I do not trust myself; can I trust one who is at heart such a creature? Yi wondered, but immediately felt disgusted for doubting, looking at Ise as he stared off into the desert sunrise. How dare I doubt him? He knows me better than I know myself, his powers make him the same as me, but he has solved this madness, I am sure of it.

"I get to decide," Ise told her. "Because I outrank you."

"Huh?"

Ise turned and tapped Yi in the forehead protector with a long, blue-skinned finger. "Well, oh newest Mist ninja, I am a chuunin, and you, you are only a genin. So, even if you are stronger than me, I still outrank you. Besides, this is my mission, so I will take the responsibility for giving the orders here."

Yi shot Ise a glance filled with suspicion. "I haven't suddenly become a tool you can order around at will," she said it with some sharpness, but she could sense that he had meant nothing of the kind, and the remark was light-hearted, the first thing Yi had said in such a way in many days.

It did not make Ise's answer any less important. "Of course not, but in a crisis you must accept my right to make decisions."

"You are the chuunin," Yi replied, warming to Ise's style of working quickly enough.

"Good," Ise replied, and he looked Yi up and down. "It seems you are ready to go, but we have a decision to make."

"What decision?"

"We have to decide where to go," Ise said evenly, and Yi felt as if she had been struck across the face with his spear. She had lived without a real plan for some time, and now it came a great shock to hear such a thing, and she suddenly realized she did not know where she was, and remained stranded at a desert oasis in a hostile country. Mist is far, far away, Yi recalled, remembering lessons in geography. My journey is not over. Such a thought did not make her happy. Do I have the will to keep on going? Can you support me, shark ninja? She wondered, looking at Ise, trying to measure the resolve in that strange open and closed face.

"Aren't we going back to Hidden Mist?" Yi asked.

Ise shook his head. "It is not that simple. Mist is a long journey, and it is almost winter now, beyond this desert. It makes things more difficult to determine."

"Why should winter matter?" Yi did not quite see what he was getting at.

"We cannot go back through grass. It would be impossible to deal with the ninja hunting you," he paused. "And me as well by now I'm sure, during the winter. I do not know the route south through the desert, so that is not an option."

"Why not go east through Fire country?" Yi asked, since the seemed the most obvious path to her.

"The Warlord Akai, who gave me this mission, warned me against the Fire country, so I do not want to go that way," Ise replied. "Besides, we'd have to go east through the desert of sand, and I do not know that route either."

"What are the options then?" Yi wondered, trying, unsuccessfully, to imagine a map of the ninja countries in her mind. "My knowledge is somewhat lacking," she admitted.

Ise took his spear and drew marks in the sand. "We are here in the sand country," He drew a large circle. "Mist is almost directly to the east of us," he drew a circle far in that direction. "But can be reached only by sea," a squiggly line formed the shoreline of other countries. "Fire country takes up most of the shore, but there are ports in the north, in Sound country, from where I came."

"So how do we get there?" Yi asked, still wondering what Ise's route was to be.

"We have to go north, through Rain country and Waterfall country, and then across the barren Sound country."

"Can that be done?" Yi asked, curious. "It seems the long way around."

"It is not so far," Ise answered, though there was no certainty in his voice. "I do worry though, that the grass ninja will not give up this chase." He looked at Yi, and she saw the concern in his eyes, the uncertainty, and the fear to fail. "I looked at the bodies this morning, four of these were ANBU. Eight and four by me, that makes twelve ninja lost in this chase, I do not think the grass ninja will give up lightly. Likewise, the roads through waterfall may be closed by snow, I just don't know, I can't gauge land well."

"It doesn't sound like there is any other choice though," Yi replied. "I'll do it if I must."

"Perhaps, perhaps," Ise turned his spear slowly in his hands. "There might be another choice."

"What's that?" Yi asked.

"Well," Ise sat down for moment. "I would like to return to Mist soon, but there is no hurry, I have the better part of three years still to complete this mission. It might be easier to wait in Hidden Rain, where Mist ninja are welcome, until the worst of the winter is over before making the trek back. The grass ninja might give up that way. Damn," he smacked the butt of his spear into the ground abruptly. "I can't decide, and I think I want to see the sea too much. It influences me. What do you think Yi?"

The question had no easy answer to Yi, though her reasons were far different than those of Ise. To go to mist now, or later? Mist is my fate, to be one of their ninja. Yi swallowed, and forced herself to accept it. Yes, that choice has been made, I will go to mist. It is the only way. But now? Yi felt queasy at the prospect, uncertain. She felt comfortable with Ise, the shark-blooded ninja might have fought her yesterday, but she had made a choice, and would trust him now. I trust him, but not all the mist ninja. Yi let her mind wander for a moment, thinking. As it always did that action brought for the devilish specters of the past, ripping and screaming for attention, to lash at her and rip apart all she was built upon now. That decided Yi. I'm not ready, not to go to mist, not now. She knew she had to face those dark images in her mind, the visage of her father, the tormented faces of the ANBU she burned, of the sand ninja Dai, immolated from within, and most of all, the word that spiked through Yi's mind and brought tears and sobs forth with but a thought: Shiro.

"I think it would be better to wait out the winter," Yi told Ise. "I don't want anyone else to die."

It was not Yi's true reason, but it was a real reason nonetheless, and Yi could see that it decided the shark-blooded ninja. He does not want to kill anyone else either; we are both the same indeed, reluctant murderers.

"Alright, we'll go north to Hidden Rain," Ise decided it. "We would have had to pass that way regardless, we can always change the decision if things change."

"Right," Yi replied.

"Fill your canteens then," Ise ordered. "It seems we have enough food to get out of the desert. We must make progress now, before the day gets too hot."

The two ninja journeyed north, crossing back over desert land so painfully traversed before. It was depressing to backtrack, to cross the same barren ground once again, and in the heat of the desert little was said, leaving each of them alone with their thoughts, to try and sort through the confusion in their minds.

Ise had put a brave face on things before Yi, sensing that she needed him to guide her now. He realized that yesterday she had held no plans, no goals, had abandoned herself to the desert. I have to bring her back into the world of the ninja, so she can be a ninja in truth. Ise understood that much, but he was troubled trying to be a leader. I have so little experience in this role. He was a chuunin, yes, holding a rank allowing command of a squad of ninja, but he had never held an actual leadership role before. Such a thing doesn't happen for bloodlines anymore, not in Mist. So I wonder, what do I do?

The shark-blooded ninja had to adjust his plans as he went, and it was troubling. I must bring Yi back to Mist, without revealing her powers. This is not what I anticipated, escorting a targeted ninja. Still, it is not impossible, it is just like any other escort duty, and, Ise thought with a dark grin. Yi hardly needs my protection, she is fierce enough.

Regardless, Ise continued to second-guess his decision to go to Rain, wondering if he should try to press on through the winter regardless. The grass will likely give up their pursuit over the winter, true, but others might piece together the rumors as I did, others more dangerous. Beyond this he was not certain he could trust the hospitality of the country of Rain.

It made for a sullen consideration all afternoon long, as they proceeded steadily over the desert sands, and it put Ise in an angry mood. This was compounded by the simple fact of the desert, and that he must moderate his pace to compensate for Yi's shorter legs. She walked quickly, with the tread of a seasoned traveler, but she could not make up for the more than six inches in height he held over her. Burning heat beat down on them from above, silencing mouths and emptying minds of gentle thoughts, leaving them to the quiet of their mutual troubles.

Ise spent the day in silent thought, thinking on what he knew of the Hidden Village of Rain. Such knowledge came from old lessons, things he had been told about a place he had never visited. Still, his teachers had been there many times, for Mist and Rain were linked. Such is the way of many of the lesser countries, mist and rain, grass and leaf, stone and waterfall, the lesser countries existed in the shadows of their greater founders. Rain is our colony, Ise recalled, established some forty years ago. It was therefore not the youngest of the lesser villages, but it was neither the oldest. A colony in the jungle, a wet land, like mist, but different. Mist village was located on ocean island, swept by ocean spray and storms, one with the sea. Rain was located in harsh jungle, water logged and criss-crossed by rivers, a verdant land of massive trees and endless plants. It was not a place Ise looked forward to visiting. I am a child of the sea, at home in forests of coral, not of wood. The shark does not swim through leaves.

So he spent the long hours putting one foot forward, and then another. As he walked he went through again and again the protocols for contacting the colony village, his rights as a mist ninja. Empty words ran through the shark-blooded ninja's head again and again, formulating just what he would say, a thousand possible stories and excuses, never finding the right one. Ise was not satisfied, and so the miles passed by quickly under his long and tireless stride.

It was full dark by the time Yi mustered the will to say anything. "It is getting cold chunin. How far are we to go today?"

Those words stopped Ise suddenly, and he looked out from the cocoon of his troubled thoughts. He saw the darkness then, and felt the harsh pains of travel his body had, shark-like, ignored completely for hours, feeling untroubled despite the desert's rasping caress. Ise looked at Yi and saw the obvious exhaustion in her. She cannot keep up easily, he recognized, and felt immediately sorry. Her body is still weak as well. She is not a shark; I cannot ask this of her. Still he said only. "Find a sheltering outcrop. Then we can stop."

Yi only nodded tiredly.

They stopped a little while later, eating a cold super of trail rations beneath a monolith of red stone. Darkness extended shadowless around them as they sat in silence even when the meal was done.

At that point Ise stood, and, still silent, worked some simple forms with his spear, finding a release from tension in the strong, sure movements, in the practice he had always done. Yet as he practiced he felt the shark's voice in the back of his head again, the merciless power of predatory speech. It struck him hard then, calling up faces from his past, the last time he had seen the true anger of a shark in ninja. The day his brother died.

As those visions of the past came over him Ise stopped in mid-motion, an action so unnatural the watching Yi gasped audibly.

Faces swirled before Ise, dark in memory, bloody with anger and the pain of death, but Yi's gasp brushed them away just as quickly, preventing them from fully forward. The shark-blooded ninja slipped back into a normal stance then, and looked at Yi with gratitude. A thankful distraction. I do not need false ghosts inside me like that. Ise looked to her and nodded. "Perhaps it is a bit dark for practice. Tomorrow we will stop earlier."

"No, you are quite skilled," Yi replied. "I do not think I have ever seen another ninja use the spear with your edge."

"It is not the most common weapon. It was only something I learned because…" He paused as his brother's face appeared again, the dark mirror to all the power the shark-blood could bring, before shaking the image away. I must focus on this girl before me, I cannot lose control now. "Because one of my family also used it. Still, my skills are not remarkable. I suspect you simply have not encountered a real spear master yet."

Yi did not miss Ise's pause, but she made no comment on it. "Maybe, but I still think you are very talented, Ise." She spoke his name for the first time, realizing that only as she did so. She stumbled over whatever she had meant to say after that, the unexpected name brushing the thought from her mind.

"How flattering," Ise raised a midnight blue eyebrow. "To have my skills appreciated by someone so much more powerful than myself. Whatever my proficiency it pales before your own talents."

"You're mocking me," Yi replied, immediately defensive.

"Mocking you?" Ise sat down before her, shaking his head. "You killed four ANBU and four chunin in moments, while a single chunin and three genin almost killed me. Our skills are nowhere near equal. Your powers are far greater than mine."

"My powers?" Yi said the words to no one in particular, looking away from Ise as she spoke. "Don't say that. Please…" Ise watched in great surprise as Yi lost control of herself then, wrapping her arms about her body and sobbing. "Please, my powers, my powers…" Tears streaked slowly down her dusty face. "Power means nothing. I can't control my strength. You beat me, and all my powers do is cause people to chase me, or kill those I don't mean to harm. Anger burns, it burns in me. Don't you see? I cannot control it, it kills everything."

Slowly, watching Yi squirm and cry, Ise sank to the ground, letting his spear fall away beside him. His hand twitched toward Yi, but then stopped, and he forced his arms down. That is not what is needed now, he decided, curbing the impulse. Instead he spoke. "Stop," Ise told Yi firmly. "Stop now, control yourself."

Yi looked up at the whip crack words, their strong force demanding her attention. She looked deeply at Ise then, her red eyes boring into his own colorless ones. In the darkness that surrounded the two ninja Yi's eyes seemed bestial points of fire from some dark world, threatening to scorch away everything they touched.

Ise refused to look away. "You cannot let this happen to you, Yi," Ise said sternly, holding his voice steady, forcing his emotions down, though in truth he felt he would rather cry alongside her. "Anger burns in you? Well, I have anger within me as well. A different sort perhaps, but the shark's hunger drives me as surely as your fire. I have done terrible things just as you have."

Yi nodded, but she was unconvinced. "You control that shark in you, I saw, when you summoned the creature, it obeyed."

"It obeyed…" Ise paused thinking. "Yes, it obeyed, but it did not obey me as Ise, it obeyed me as a ninja." He sighed. "I think that is the only way we can control these powers, by remembering always our duty to serve as ninja. We must endure that."

"Alright," Yi replied. "I believe you, I truly do Ise. I see the truth in you. Still, I have done things I don't believe even being a ninja can be forgiven."

"Perhaps," Ise began, and then stopped, sitting silent for a long moment. When he spoke again his voice was different, open, bereft of the tones he had adopted as the chunin. "I think we both struggle with the same thing Yi. Also, we are going to travel together for some time. Therefore we must trust each other." He extended his hand to her. "I will listen to anything you tell me, and do my best to offer guidance, if you will do the same for me in return."

Yi reached out and took Ise's hand lightly in her own; matching finger to finger with slow, deliberate care. Her soft fingers spread warmth over Ise's cold and scaly hand, and he felt himself smile broadly then. In that moment he found real hope for the first time since landing in sound country. This girl, we are similar, and she can help me, finally someone is there who will understand what it is like to live this way. We will make it back to Mist. With her strength I am certain of it.

In response to Ise's smile, Yi smiled as well, and some of the darkness lifted from her smoldering eyes. "It is late Ise. We should rest so we can leave the desert as soon as possible."

"Indeed," he replied and laid out his bedroll upon the hard-packed sand. "Dawn comes early."

As the two ninja found their way to exhausted sleep in the darkness, they were watched from a distance. Though a wall of blackness stood between them in the desert night, they were nevertheless observed. A cold figure stood atop a nearby stone, watching without breathing as Yi and Ise fell asleep.

So, the Mist ninja has found you at last, Shiro thought. He is an uncommon man, but strong. Strong enough to get you back Lady Yi, so that this mission may be at last fulfilled. Thinking those thoughts Shiro felt nothing, though it ought to have brought him great joy. His emotions had drained away completely by now, and dispassion ruled his existence.

Yet I wonder, Shiro thought, looking up at the stars with his eyeless gaze. Why do I still follow? The grass ninja lie dead, and the way home is open. Is my purpose not yet fulfilled?

No, Shiro recognized in the darkness, it is not. There is a long way to Mist yet to go, and Yi will not be safe until she has entered the village walls. Something is coming, something to make the danger these grass ninja posed seem as nothing. He spun about on the outcrop, his sword springing to hand. I have claimed many lives already in this quest to guard you Lady Yi, but the true purpose of my existence waits. It is far off yet, but Mizain Yuki would not have sent me on if he had not foreseen greater dangers ahead.

He sheathed the sword again, and settled down upon the outcrop, resolved to watch closer than ever before, the shadow of Lady Yi.