Author's Notes: More about Suzumebachi's life here and another new character is introduced, a quiet chapter, but important.

Other Gifts Continues

Thoughts ran fast through Suzumebachi's mind as she left headquarters, trying to sort out the many implications of the day. Soon enough, however, one urge overrode all the others. Hunger. The Tsuchikage's masterful presence had subdued it, but Suzumebachi was ravenous once more. She hurried back to her apartment, even though it was not yet sunset. Her body required food.

Her room, and the joint industrial kitchen shared between four rooms of four, was empty for the moment, the other ninja still fulfilling the duties of the day. Suzumebachi sighed in relief at this, knowing she would have at least a little time to sort her jumbled thoughts out. She cooked a simple but substantial meal and ate hungrily, but her attention was elsewhere. Images of Chul'To and Harvestman surged through her mind, competing for attention, occasionally edged out by the black outline of her tattoo, or the yellow and black casing of the forbidden scroll of her grandfather. Recognizing swiftly that she would have to deal with each in turn, Suzumebachi organized her thoughts one by one. First the tattoo, that was easiest. It came from the scroll; the Tsuchikage had been examining it when he performed the technique. The answers she wanted regarding it could wait until she examined the scroll. The scroll also surely contained the strange form of summoning the Tsuchikage had used to call forth Chul'To, but the strange yellow jacket, the Vesp, was far more of a mystery.

Suzumebachi did not know what to make of her. She had summoned massive insects before, some much larger than Chul'To, but the Vesp had possessed a vibrancy those could not match, and obvious skill. Was it the only creature the scroll could summon, or were their more? She resolved to read that portion of the scroll soon, and very carefully. Beyond that, she recalled Chul'To's seeming displeasure at revealing how she might be summoned and commanded, but a weapon had not seemed such a great price. Her only guess was something to do with the strange material from which the insect's weapons were made. In the end Suzumebachi decided Chul'To could wait until summoned once again, the Vesp would surely prove a source of answers when she could be asked in person. Chul'To had seemed to know something about the effects of the tattoo as well.

Only Harvestman remained. He was the strangest of all, a being even more foreign than the Vesp, though he was still human, at least in shape. Why had he done what he did? Suzumebachi shivered at each memory, realizing how many times he likely could have killed her had he truly desired it. The Tsuchikage's cryptic partial revelations had not helped. It seemed unbelievable that a man could spend almost all his time below ground. She could not understand a person able to live like that. It was all very disconcerting, especially as Suzumebachi now knew Harvestman had brought back her grandfather's scroll. She owed the alien ninja a debt, perhaps a great one, and had no idea how to pay it. Being indebted to a creature who considered her life so casually as Harvestman did sent consistent chills through Suzumebachi.

She continued to mull over these various topics while cleaning away the dishes and carefully placing the scroll in a hidden panel within her bed frame. She added a simple genjutsu, one of the bare few she knew, to cover it, suspecting her roommates would quickly steal the scroll if they knew its true nature. Normally her cousins' status as family members would have been some protection, but in this it only increased the danger.

Only moments after the scroll had been hidden the door opened, admitting one of Suzumebachi's cousins. Kamizuru Kuroari was Suzumebachi's second cousin on her mother's side. A year younger than Suzumebachi, and surprisingly similar in appearance, though she wore her hair even shorter, cropped above the ears, she was the only one of her roommates in the village at the moment. The wasp ninja had not wanted this meeting so soon; she had hoped to avoid Kuroari until tomorrow, when she had a set of answers prepared. The younger girl was less hostile than most of her relatives, but the two were by no means close.

"You're back early cousin," Kuroari had the habit of calling all her relatives cousin, ostensibly out of friendship, but Suzumebachi knew it was because she had trouble remembering names. "I thought you still had extra repor-" She paused suddenly as she glimpsed Suzumebachi's face. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Suzumebachi sighed, recognizing that this would not be easy.

Taking a closer look Kuroari glimpsed the truth. "A tattoo? I thought you couldn't aff-" She snapped her mouth shut again, knowing Suzumebachi didn't like to talk about her financial troubles. Kuroari, though hardly rich, had been blessed with a generous jounin sensei that still sent her gifts even after she became a chuunin last year. "Anyway, it's nice, but, um…isn't it a little obvious?"

Suzumebachi glared at her cousin, not in the mood for such things.

Kuroari changed the subject. "Um, I don't recognize it," she said, trying to be diplomatic. "I mean, it's some kind of wasp, but I'm not as good with those as you are."

"It's a dryinid," Suzumebachi answered. She was always willing to explain insect matters to others, and Kuroari wasn't the time to feign questions of that sort, she never kept quiet when she knew an answer.

"Oh," the slightly younger girl exclaimed. "I though it looked familiar, I've seen some of those in with my ants, not with wings like that though. Tough creatures, with those claws and all."

Silence dragged on after this comment, for Kuroari ha nothing else to say, and she couldn't help staring at the tattoo on Suzumebachi's forehead.

"It wasn't my choice," Suzumebachi said at last, recognizing that she would have to offer some explanation, and not feeling in a mood to lie. "But I have it now so I won't hide it. Otherwise I can't say anything else."

Kuroari took the hint in Suzumebachi's hard expression and cold words and didn't say anything else. She turned and walked over to her own bed, across from Suzumebachi's, but not really so far in the small room. The younger ninja took a book from a slender shelf above her bed. "I've been assigned to work with father strengthening the formica mounds+ in the hill forests, we're trying to breed out a dry season batch of alates before winter so they can be tried near the Grass border in the spring, so I should be around for a while. Did your schedule get changed?" The question was posed idly, but it was far from idle. Suzumebachi knew Kuroari was a reasonable girl, dutiful, intelligent, and not judgmental, but as young chuunin from the same clan the two couldn't help but be seen in a sort of competition with each other, though Suzumebachi's recent disobedience would have seemed to remove her as a threat to Kuroari. It was natural for the other girl to want to know if that situation had altered.

"Yes, but you needn't worry about it," Suzumebachi answered, luckily figuring out a perfectly convincing story just as she realized she needed one. "I've just been assigned to work on some old dead-end jutsus. I don't think they'll let me do much of anything until spring comes." That was more truthful than Suzumebachi wanted to admit. Once snow closed in on Iwa village in a few months, hardly anyone except the most elite ninja or those already with assignments to less snowy areas would have missions. She would likely be training all the way till spring.

"Well, I hope you can make something of it," Kuroari replied with perhaps genuine support, and perhaps scornful relief, Suzumebachi couldn't know, she hadn't allowed herself to get close enough to the other girl for that, friendship was a two way street of risk. "I've got a dinner meeting with the trap wardens, since they figured we should treat them if they bothered to come into the village, so I'll be out for a while. Were you going to check the hives later?"

Only now did Suzumebachi recall that she hadn't checked on her precious hives of bees and wasps since yesterday evening. She was tired, and wanted to take more time to think over the events of the day, but she couldn't bring herself to neglect her creatures anymore. Probably it would make her feel better anyway, or so she made herself believe. "Yes, did you want to tag along?"

"Would you mind terribly?" Kuroari asked as politely as she was able, which was quite polite really, she had a much more intellectual polish than Suzumebachi.

Thinking about it, Suzumebachi decided to be kind to her cousin. Kuroari had been about as polite as could be expected about the tattoo, and that made her predisposed to be nice. Besides, with the other girl there, perhaps she could focus only on the hives, that seemed like a potentially restful distraction. "Alright, but you have to let me come with you on your mound probes one of these nights."

"Done, we'll find one when father's not there to harass you," Kuroari turned to go. "I'll see you at the hives later."

Suzumebachi nodded.

The wasp ninja's thoughts remained a jumbled mess for a while, and she headed over to her hives early, poking and prodding at the stacks and spheres containing thousands upon thousands of her many insect allies, natural bees and wasps and ninjutsu enhanced varieties both. The insects did not require the great care of animals such as dogs or cats, but they could not be left alone completely. With autumn coming on she had to make certain the temperatures in the hives would remain stable, and that there was enough food stored for the winter. She took this opportunity to perform many of the various irregular maintenance tasks that she had put off for a while, and instructed Kuroari as well when her cousin arrived well after dark.

Coming back tired Suzumebachi discovered that once again she was hungry, and hoping this was not going to become a trend, made another quick meal before going to bed. Surprisingly, her mind quieted easily and she fell asleep almost immediately.

- Kamizuru Kuroari: Kuroari means black ant or carpenter ant; she's an ant specialist instead of a wasp specialist (though ants, the Formicidae, are a part of the Hymenoptera, the order containing all wasps, bees, and relatives).

- Formica mounds: Wood Ants of the genus Formica (common in Northern Europe) are known to form huge colonies built up in massive mounds that may be as much as 2m high and contain millions of workers, some colonies expand to have many queens spread across several mounds.