Author's notes: Can I complain about geography, yet? Because if I don't complain about geography, then I'm going to complain about Kishimoto's inability to keep a decent timeline. (I will complain about the inconsistant timeline in another chapter.)

I can't figure out what's going on with the weather and the geography. I can't figure out distance and travel time in the Elemental Nations. In writing this story that spans multiple countries, it's really hard to be consistent with distance and what weather should be like based on the macro- and microclimates, and the influence of the oceans on the weather and climates, because Kishimoto is inconsistent with his own world. The inconsistencies show up more easily in the written word than it does in manga, I suspect. Some things don't translate well between different medias. I have researched a lot on topography and geography and climates. I like to research. I spent two days researching bees, just so I could write a small scene of the Fire Daimyo beekeeping and lavishing praise on his beloved bees, as Kushina accidentally inhales and swallows a bee.

So, you know what? I'm going to blame the effects of chakra on nature. And Kaguya. She doesn't have any role to play in this story, except to take the blame for the inconsistencies of geography and weather. Someone has to take one for the team, and Tsume is feeling a little too battered to keep taking one for the team. We'll let the Rabbit Goddess feel special.

I swear Kishimoto just reached the point where he started doing drugs for plotlines and was like, fuck it, I'm going with that idea while under the influence of LSD.

Also, the Lands of Here and There are canon (although I suspect they're anime-exclusive), but I can't make heads or tails of the official maps I have found. Or maybe they're unofficial maps, and that's why they make no sense.

(It's not that I think Kishimoto is a lousy story teller - he's not. Kishimoto created a very rich, vibrant world, and his characterization is spot-on and consistent with the characters he likes, and I don't think the inconsistencies are so much flaws in canon as it is just a sign that he was still fleshing out the world and playing around with establishing rules. Like the first time we see Kakashi summon - he had to apply blood to a scroll, whereas in later scenes, summons are used with a combination of blood and chakra. Well. Except for those scenes in the middle of the Chuunin Exam, where a bunch of Sound nin were attempting to summon with fuuinjutsu written on the ground... okay, the storytelling is shaky... Anyway, I'm just saying that it's hard to keep things straight and consistent when you're publishing ongoing work by the month, whereas with a novel, you can go back fifty thousand words and add in that scene you didn't realize you needed to make the plot work eighteen chapters in the future. I don't think he's a bad story teller. He just could've done a better job making well-organized bullet points.)

o-o-o

o-o-o-o

o-o-o-o-o

The adolescent ninjas were awakened the next morning by Jiraiya. Minato snapped awake at Jiraiya's approach, Kushina flipped over onto her stomach and snorted something about "five more minutes, Kokoro-chan," and Tsume buried her nose in her pillow. "You've been busy," she told Jiraiya darkly. "And so has Oyubi-chan." At least Oyubi had loads of fun, judging by the floating haze of her pheromones and endorphins clinging to Jiraiya's skin.

Jiraiya looked solemn and slightly smug as he wagged a finger at her. "A gentleman shouldn't ignore the needs of a grieving woman. And having thoroughly attended to her needs, I'm supposed to deliver you to Danzo-sensei."

"Way too much info, you old pervert." Tsume's imagination did just fine with the information her nose provided; she didn't need any auxiliary details his words provided. Tsume glanced sideways at Minato, whose face was burning bright red. "You might wanna stay away from the weapons stock room." She ignored Jiraiya's twitching eyebrow as she reached for a pair of sturdy sandals that had been commandeered the day before from Hotaru. "And don't borrow the oil that's supposed to be used for sharpening kunai."

"Hey, it doesn't irritate mucous membranes!" Jiraiya declared defensively.

Kushina sat upright. Her glorious red hair was tangled and floating from static electricity. "Oil? Do I want to know?" She squinted a bleary gaze at Jiraiya. "Sounds kinky."

"And how would you know what that word even means?" Jiraiya demanded, crossing his arms in front of himself and trying unsuccessfully to look scandalized.

"Oh, please, sensei. Spare me the shock." Kushina waved her hand dismissively. "Kokoro-chan and her brothers have been very open and educational. They said the difference between sexy and kinky was the difference between the feather and the whole blasted chicken." Everyone stared at her for a long, awkward moment, and Minato's face continued to burn red. Tsume wondered how a man could have sex with a chicken, unless he had a really, really small cock. Then she wondered if maybe chickens were a euphuism for cocks in general…

"What on earth has Sakumo been letting you girls learn? Never mind. I need to borrow Tsume and her wonderful nose here." Jiraiya swung his arm open and gestured with his hand. "Danzo-sensei wants to update gathered information that I can send to Orochimaru by way of my summon. That will hopefully make up a bit for the delay we've had with Kushina's capture and rescue, and Tsume's chakra exhaustion."

Tsume pushed down her resentment as she stood upright. It wasn't like she was the only one whose injuries had slowed them down. Granted, Danzo had shoes and she didn't, but it still wasn't fair to pin all the blame on her – Danzo was such a butthead. She left her blanket with Minato, who was raising his hands in surrender when Kushina belatedly realized he had somehow managed to sneak into their company once again.

Tsume silently followed Jiraiya as he carefully and slowly led her through the cavern system. Her body was aching again now that most of Nirami's treatment had worn off, and her right hand throbbed inside its cast. There was also a spot on the back of her knuckles and hand that itched really badly, and she attempted wriggling the fingers of her left hand under the plaster to scratch. Her fingers were unfortunately too short, and there wasn't enough free room in the cast to successfully rub the back of her hand against the plaster. Jiraiya led her out of the caverns, and Tsume was dismayed to see that the sun hadn't even risen yet.

"You got me out of bed how early?" She kept the volume of her indignant question to a loud whisper that didn't carry through the thick underbrush of golden-leaved bushes and still-green ferns. Jiraiya didn't answer as he carefully looked around and beckoned her close. Tsume regretted leaving her blanket with Minato as she shivered in the cool morning air. The temperatures were more temperate in the south-eastern border of Whirlpool than Earth, a microclimate that was unusually warm despite being early December. Tsume bashed the mosquitoes that sought out her left elbow, and then regretted such as the wave of pain washed through her right hand.

"Follow me carefully," Jiraiya said once Tsume had joined his side, swallowing the whimper she wanted to make. "We're going around the patrols and various traps, and I don't want you getting hit with poisoned senbon again." Tsume nodded her head obediently.

Jiraiya led her up the hillside through the lush forest, careful to avoid the traps. Tsume was more careful about how she removed mosquitoes before they could bite. Tsume also didn't have to tell Jiraiya where the patrolling sentries were, as he was able to avoid them easily with his own abilities. Tsume marveled at the skill of this man, studying his broad back as he paused, crouching down. He often made others around him assume he was a buffoon, when in reality: he was an amazing shinobi. (She briefly wondered if Minato was the same, and then…nah. He would always be Mooncalf to her.)

Then Tsume realized that Jiraiya's exceptional skills of sneaking around and not getting caught had probably been developed and honed at the women's side of the hot springs. He was instantly recategorized as a buffoon in her mind.

Jiraiya turned around and faced Tsume. He raised one eyebrow at her expression. "I see that you're thinking." He hesitated a moment, and then flashed a tight-lipped smile. "Why do I have the sudden urge to make a run?"

She glared. "I just realized that you're good at sneaking around so you can spy on women, you lech."

Far from being offended or ashamed, Jiraiya's face and scent brightened with amusement. "Danzo believes that all things have the potential to be fashioned into viable weapons. I believe that every moment has the potential to provide training experience." He crouched down so he was eyelevel with Tsume. "These are the philosophies that make legendary shinobi – the attitude that separate the quick from the dead. It may not seem like much, but it gives us an unexpected edge over our enemies. Just like you have an unexpected edge."

Tsume brushed the fingertips of her right hand against her nose, disturbing a mosquito from her cheek. "This, right? And why do the bugs like me more than you?"

He lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. "Because you're sweeter than me, obviously. The sensitivity of your nose is certainly an unexpected edge – but that's to be expected from an Inuzuka, no matter how strong. I don't know if anyone truly can appreciate the power of olfaction in general when humans are such visual creatures." He tapped her toe. "I was actually referring to your siren seal."

"My siren seal?" Tsume shifted her feet, unable to hide the embarrassment regarding her discolored toenail and the memories of the brothel.

Jiraiya held both hands into the air, fingers splayed wide. "Now that we're alone, I'm going to give you information on the seal that I swear upon my life I will not share with anyone you do not specifically tell me to. I won't even breathe a word of this to Hokage-sama." He hesitated a brief moment. "Danzo, Orochimaru, and I are the only ones who have studied your siren seal and understand what it does – or used to, since Danzo thinks it doesn't work anymore. I'm going to borrow a page from Danzo's book and tell you that your seal has the potential of being a very deadly weapon, if you choose to use it."

Tsume turned her feet inward – pressed her knees tightly together. She had concentrated the last two days on not thinking of the vivid memories that overwhelmed her mind before she passed out from chakra exhaustion. "I dunno. I can get the information even better with my nose, so I don't have to… seduce enemies, you know." If she was ever forced to publicly admit anything, it would be that she very much liked not spreading her knees wide and allowing someone to rut against her body. She was grown to dislike the odor of semen.

"I wasn't exactly thinking of information, and there's more to seduction than just sex." Jiraiya hesitated a moment, studying her face. "Look – have you ever heard of the legend of the Whirlpool sirens?"

"Whozzawhat?"

He sighed. "I thought not." He folded his legs beneath himself, and then patted the ground. "Have a seat. Make yourself comfortable. This is probably the only time it's just going to be just the two of us without the risk of eavesdropping, and I want you to fully understand your potential."

Tsume gingerly sat down. The ground was covered with a thick, damp moss that made her butt feel cold and wet. A cluster of ferns tickled her face when a gentle wind drifted through the forest, so she batted them away. Then she batted at mosquitoes. Shouldn't the frosts have killed them of yet?

"The sailors of Wave and Whirlpool share a legend of sirens that lure sailors to their death. The sirens are beautiful sea maidens who…" Jiraiya paused in his gesture, where he had been indicating a vaguely roundish shape with his hands. He eyed Tsume with his hands frozen in the air. "Well, anyway, the sirens would perch themselves upon rocks jutting from the sea, and they would sing. The hypnotic beauty of their songs would attract the attention of the sailors, who ignores their dangerous surroundings in order to approach closer to the sound and the sight of, um…." He eyed Tsume again.

She eyed him back. "This story is about naked women. Why am I not surprised? And yes, I know the mechanics of sex. I engaged it quite frequently these last few months, and I know enough to know that you know what you're doing, based on how happy you made Oyubi-chan."

"Okay, first of all, we," Jiraiya indicated the two of them by pointing back and forth, "are never going to discuss the mechanics of sex. Ever. I certainly don't need to hear a twelve year old compliment me on my technique, because that's just disturbing, understand?"

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Then don't have sex where I can smell it."

"You can smell ink-stained sugar from almost a thousand kilometers away – I may as well become a celibate if that's my standard."

"Okay, fair enough."

"Anyway, I'm not the one who made up the legends on the sirens; I just study them because I like folklore, and, actually," Jiraiya blushed, and wasn't that a bizarre sight to see, as he shyly poked his fingers together, "I like to rewrite legends into more modern versions that explore lore and legends with characterization and plot. Look," he said rapidly, wagging his fingers in Tsume's face, "everyone needs to have a safe hobby that lets them de-stress, and mine is writing. Don't judge me."

Tsume crossed her eyes at his wagging fingers. "Okay, okay, Jiraiya-sensei…" Then she added, "I don't judge you. I like to de-stress with cooking and playing around with spices."

He grinned at her, and tapped her nose. "I bet I would love to try some of your cooking. Anyway, I'm trying to not be explicit and make you uncomfortable about this legend. Now, the sailors are experienced seafaring men who know the dangers and treachery of the sea. But the lure of the sirens would override the men's good sense, and the men would crash and sink their boats on the rocks. Now, the sailors of Wave claim that the sirens would wait for the men to drown before eating them."

"The sailors have my sympathy." Tsume squashed a mosquito that managed to successfully bite her knee, and smeared blood down her leg from it. She swiped the blood away with the pointed edge of her fingernail.

Jiraiya ignored her. "The sailors of Whirlpool, however, claim that the sirens would rescue the drowning sailors, and use their enchantments to turn the sailors into fellow sea creatures."

Tsume scrunched her nose up. She knew where the topic of this story was heading. "I thought you said that the sirens were sea maidens."

Jiraiya tilted his head in thought for a moment, and then twitched, as if turning his mind away from its wandering track. She caught a whiff of desire, but it wasn't for her. Jiraiya's lack of desire towards her actually lifted Tsume's spirit. It made her feel like a normal preteen. "Anyway, the point is, seduction is more than just recon and Intel, and doesn't have to be just sex. Seduction is an allure that captivates a person's interest, and commands attention. At its most basic, your seal is an enchantment for men. Once their attention is caught, they become entangled within your snares." Jiraiya traced the knuckles on Tsume's left hand. "I cannot begin to express the power you now hold." He dropped his hand away from her body. "I'm sorry. I couldn't remove the seal, and it has a suicide design that deteriorates any modification to essentially turn it off. However, I found a loophole that allowed me to attach a modification that lets you control the strength of the seal. Danzo knows that the seal is on mute, but I didn't tell him that you can adjust the strength, that you have the ability to unmute the seal as you will, like fiddling with the volume on the radio."

Jiraiya studied Tsume's face as he made his announcement. Tsume remained silent. She heard the twittering calls of lingering birds, and the twittering bird-like calls between two ANBU agents communicating with each other. Her knuckles beneath the cast were itching again. She attempted to wiggle a finger under the cast to scratch, but she hadn't gained any more room since her last attempt.

Jiraiya seemed to realize that she didn't understand well enough to appreciate her curse-turned-gift. "Any questions?"

Tsume nibbled on the edge of the cast. Scraping the plaster with her teeth didn't help the itch either. And it tasted bad, too. She didn't necessarily want to have anything to do with the seal, but she vaguely remembered how Danzo told her the second time he modified her seal that her body, mind, and heart were her ultimate weapons. The seal was part and parcel with her body, now, which meant that it was part of her array of ultimate weapons. It was, she figured, like a rabid animal, except now it was on a leash, and she got to decide when to drop the leash.

Tsume finally looked up at Jiraiya. "What do you mean controlling the seal's strength?"

Jiraiya swept a misquote off her cheek. "It's kinda like how Danzo explained to you the strength of your sense of smell. How you can make it fifty percent of its maximum, or a hundred, depending on how much chakra you concentrate to your nose. We talked about you, in case you're wondering. The same with the siren seal. I have the default setting for the strength modification set at zero percent. At a low level, like fifteen percent, the seal won't trigger unbridled lust in men – it'll just be an attraction that incites their curiosity and makes you… desirable. One that you can lure them in with, like a distant siren song. Perhaps it's not information we want from the person you're luring in, but the actual person. Like a missing nin with a bounty on his head."

Tsume had a brief image flash through her mind – she was seated naked on a rock with waves crashing all around, and Danzo was sailing towards her in a boat, the expression on his face the same as that night in the brothel when she found him sneaking along the ceiling. She pressed her knees tightly together at the mental image, then shooed away more insects. "Are you sure it would be like that?"

"…Reasonably sure." He shrugged. "It's like developing any new jutsu or seal. You can speculate until the cows come home, but you aren't going to actually know until you test it out." He waved his hand dismissively. "And you're not allowed to test out the ability and limits of the seal until you're at least thirty years old."

Tsume imagined herself as a thirty year old siren. In her mind's eye, she was as tall as Jiraiya, she had a massive bust to rival Tsunade's, and her hair was smooth like Hidarime-chan's had been. "A lot could happen between now and when I'm thirty. That's…" She subtracted quickly with her fingers, and was affronted. "That's eighteen years!" She mentally added a lot of grey hair to her image. "I'm not waiting until I'm thirty!"

"Twenty-eight, then."

Tsume poked Jiraiya's kneecap. "Fourteen."

"Certainly not. Especially with the involvement of puberty. Twenty-nine."

"You added an extra year!" She attempted to pinch Jiraiya's thigh, just above the kneecap. Attempting to pinch flesh that was solid muscle was next to impossible. She patted her hand against the muscle in appreciation and envy of the solid heaviness. "Oh, hey. You're a stud under those ridiculous clothes, aren't you?"

He swatted her hand away with a scandalized huff and a dismayed twitch of his bushy eyebrows. "You—! Just for that, thirty-five!"

Tsume narrowed her eyes, and then did some more quick mathematical calculations on her fingers. Lessee, divided by nine, carry the three... She gnawed at the plaster again as the wicked itch reminded her that it was still just beyond her reach. "That's in dog years, right?"

"Look, Tsume-chan. I know your clan is all about canines, but that's taking it a little far, don't you think?"

Tsume tugged at the moss. Then she picked up a dead bush branch and studied it for a moment. "Most Inuzuka die before they hit forty," she said without looking at Jiraiya. "Grandmother, Aunt Boshi, Aunt Natsumi, they're the unusual survivors." She slid the branch into the space between her cast and hand, and finally managed to scrape the itch into submission. "What good does it do to hand me a weapon that I can spend a lifetime honing, and then tell me not to use it until I'm near my expiration date?" When Jiraiya remained silent, Tsume poked him with her branch.

Jiraiya was pleased. "Because your first weapon should always be your mind."

Tsume winced as his words stung, and hunched her shoulders. "Well, there's a lost cause." She tossed the branche morosely to the ground.

He clicked his tongue and touched her shoulder with one gentle hand. "I didn't mean that as a putdown. Your mind is… unconventional. So you've got a few shortcomings, but good shinobi don't allow themselves to be limited by such – just look at Danzo. He only has one eye, but he can still fight better than most Hyuuga with their almost-limitless vision. I bet most ninja can be defeated with half your brain tied behind your back."

"I don't have half a brain to tie behind my back."

"So?"

Thinking in numbers and math didn't help with the whole half-the-brain thing, but Tsume figured she sort-of got what Jiraiya was trying to tell her. "Okay. So developing my thinking skills would be better than developing my seal."

"Wrong. They should be developed together. My sensei – our Hokage – always says the best ninja achieves Heaven and Earth. If you lack one, you must seek the other, and only that way can you obtain both. Heaven is your mental strength." He tapped her forehead. "Earth is your physical strength." He tapped her right hand in its cast.

Tsume thought a long moment, one finger pressed against her lips and both elbows flapping to keep the mosquitoes distracted. She tossed out his words and kept the ideas, and sorted through them. She turned the ideas around in her mind, until something clicked into place. "And a good shinobi must be able to use all weapons at her disposal, whether it's her mind, or her seal." She narrowed her eyes. "A good shinobi must not be limited by age."

He grinned at her. "Now you're thinking. But a good shinobi should be proficient in the basic skills before moving on to the complicated, and your seal is very complicated."

She struggled with the concept for another moment, and then turned the idea inside out. If time wasn't a factor and skill was… She crossed her arms resolutely in front of herself and gave Jiraiya a stern look as her mind went down the path of least resistance (it didn't make her head hurt as much). "I get to work with my seal when I become chuunin." Unless she somehow wound up like the Eternal Genin. In which case, she'd renegotiate the terms with Jiraiya when she turned eighteen. He wouldn't be able to tell her no then… especially if he was the first person she tried the seal on.

Jiraiya ruffled her wild hair. "Fair enough. But you have to test your seal out on someone who knows about it and agrees to be your guinea pig, before you try it out on the enemy."

Ah hah!

"And I have to pre-approve the person you want to test it on before you tell them anything."

Double ah hah! This lined up perfectly with her own nefarious plot, so Tsume agreed, and they stood up together. She patted off the clinging moss from her backside, annoyed that the moisture had soaked through her clothes.

"Now that we've got that subject covered, we still need to meet up with Danzo."

Jiraiya turned away and continued through the forest. Tsume sighed and reluctantly followed after, embarrassed with the thought of facing Danzo after he had so abruptly dismissed her the night before. Jiraiya eventually led her to the top of a sweeping hill. Danzo stood beneath the shade of a maple tree crowned in just enough bright red leaves that frosts hadn't managed to shock off the broad branches. Unsurprisingly, the mosquitoes apparently liked Danzo even less than Jiraiya. Danzo leaned against the broad trunk like a blot of darkness, his scent mingling with his surroundings like he belonged. Tsume studied the leaves for a moment, feeling drab and plain before such rich autumn splendor. She self-consciously touched her hair with her left hand, and thought of Hidaime and Kushina's smooth locks of hair, fluttering in the wind.

After a moment, Danzo stepped away from the trunk and silently beckoned her forward with a crook of his finger. Tsume immediately went to him as he crouched down. His hands flashed through several seals before he touched Tsume's forehead lightly with two fingers. A cool sensation washed over her body. "A genjutsu to keep the bugs away." He twirled his hand. "Face that way," he said. His voice was a hushed whisper, barely audible above the birds' morning song. Tsume obeyed.

Jiraiy's face scrunched up. "Oh man – you can use a genjutsu? I've been channeling this nature chakra all this time with the risk of turning myself into a block of stone, when I could be using a simple genjutsu instead?" With a pout, Jiraiya stepped close, and then crouched down to Tsume's right, just beyond reach. She didn't know why he seemed so upset; he hadn't been channeling enough nature chakra to effect his scent.

Danzo settled a sturdy hand on Tsume's shoulder. His whispered breath stirred her hair. "The Intel you obtained in the brothel is a few weeks old, by now. Still useful, but not as much as immediate Intel. I need you to maximize your sense of smell to one hundred percent, and seek out those scents that you detected in the brothel. I'm going to need details of forces, surroundings, distance if possible, anything you think would be useful, especially if they're still located in Waterfall."

Tsume nodded her head – this was it! She could prove that she was useful, that she wasn't just a silly little overemotional girl scared of something in the dark when Danzo had turned her away, even though her sister was dead and that wasn't just nothing – and then braced herself for the overwhelming onslaught as she pushed almost all of her chakra into her nose, far past the threshold of where the world didn't quite spin. The world was suddenly gigantic to her senses, magnified to unbelievable proportions. She ignored the burning agony at the top of her scalp, the pounding rush of blood in her ears, and how the world spun really, really fast. The spectacular colors of her surroundings diminished and blurred in her vision as the ground beneath her feet became swirly. She smelled…

Grandmother's abdomen is torn open, gastric fluids mixed with infection and blood, and her scent is fading as death hovers closely … Kuromaru is happy, he has rolled in the mud just outside Konoha's upper hot springs with Kakashi and both are playing keepaway with four fresh-baked dango from the impatient Aunt Natsumi, as Aunt Bashira looks on and laughs and laughs … Danzo smells of Tsume's pheromones, of the cave and ash and brothel with patchouli and cinnamon, of regret (has never stopped smelling of regret – the scent is everywhere in all of his trails that crisscross the world, including a very faint, exceedingly old trail where salt and snow meet together in Wind)… That jerk Uchiha Madara whose scent lingers with her own in the Nara forest is sleeping beside a fire in the Land of Mountains… Hidarime scattered with several others – including an Aburame, and how the insects mourn! – tainted with fresh dirt and blast tags, ash mixed with blood mixed with fear and pain and Hidarime's dear, beloved ninken, may they rest in pieces … Kushina's trail of sun-warmed soil and fishcake from Grass to Lightning is like a blaze because of the trail of hair that still lines her path, but her path also lies through the Land of Whirlpools, to a wrecked Village where blood has split, even Sakumo's, where ashes and ghosts and grief saturate the land with salt and alligators … Tsume's blood, fresh. She is bleeding, just as traces of her blood still remain in the Nara forest hundreds of kilometers and six years away…

Tsume grasped her hair with her hands, the fingertips from her right unable to do more but slide, while she gripped tight with her left. The familiar and (mostly) well-loved scents overwhelmed her with details– not just in current time, but of the past, as well as an untold multitude of other scents whose stories she had no preexisting knowledge of. She immediately tracked the trail she and Grandmother had taken four months ago from Konoha, all the way to Tetsuzanshi, and the trails of all who had crossed their paths, blazes of life and story that lit up the world. She tracked Grandmother's trail from Tetsuzanshi down to the Land of Vegetables, and then the Land of Birds, and then the Land of Grass where her scent changed abruptly when caught in the same blast zone that killed Hidarime.

She tracked Danzo's trail backwards, from Tetsuzanshi to Grass, to Konoha, to Wind, and the thirty-seven people he killed (and could smell, precisely, how twenty-one of those people died) between Wind and Tetsuzanshi. And she smelled Jiraiya's trail across the continent, the many different toads he summoned, and the only two women (Oyubi and a kunoichi from Hoshi) whom he had sex with in the last eight months. Tsume was momentarily surprised – she expected many more women – and she used the surprise to push her brain from the familiar, to concentrate on the distant and barely-known. She concentrated on it, trying to remember all the different details that bombarded every thought and awareness.

Through the rush of blood in her ears, she heard a distant voice, smelled the anger in the coiling dark scent. "…back down, Tsume!"

"I knooooow what'm doing." She drew back some of the chakra from her nose anyway, dropping from far above one hundred percent, to fifty percent. She had gone way beyond the established one hundred percent – what was she thinking when she shoved all that chakra into her nose? Oh, yeah, something about forgetting fearless bouts of stupidity? Danzo had only meant for her to take it to where the world began to spin and then drop it just under, and she had blasted far beyond that threshold, like it didn't even exist on her scale. The world seemed so small, so distant now. She vaguely recalled feeling… senseless last time? Yes, without any sense of the world, long ago in the Nara forest, staring blindly into what might have been a green canopy of leaves after the spinning red eyes shredded and shredded. Nothing to see, smell, taste, touch, hear, or feel. A floating nothingness soaked in pain and overwhelming wonder.

Her eyes ached. She brushed the back of her hand against her eyes, and smeared the tracks of blood that dribbled down her face. "Oh." She was distantly aware of how Danzo held her upright, one arm wrapped securely around her torso. She could feel that anchor her to the world. She focused on what she could. "Oh." Colors swam and tilted, but not as bad as before just passing out from chakra exhaustion. "I messed up, didn't I?" Her voice sounded very distant, as if it was bouncing back through a long tunnel.

Danzo settled Tsume's limp body on the ground, and cradled her head with his large hands. "Do as I tell you. Roll your eyes. Good, good." He dabbed the blood away from her cheeks. "Now cross them like you're looking at your nose – yes, like that. Does any of that hurt?"

"Have a headache. 's not bad." Her lips felt numb, like when the dentist had to give her shots, but she could still feel the insides of her mouth and tongue.

"Does anything seem blurry or dark?"

"Blurry, but it's getting better." She could see Jiraiya's expression as he hovered worriedly over Danzo's shoulder. Jiraiya smelled of fear, and Danzo smelled of fear and anger.

"Good. Perhaps you've come out of this without even more permanent damage." Oh gosh, she hadn't thought about that. "Did you find the camp?"

"Yessh." The problem was that the camp wasn't the same as a month ago when she first got the information. She distantly supposed that it was a good idea that Danzo was making her get fresh Intel. And this was the price to pay, yes? To suffer for Konoha, so Kushina-chan didn't have to. Except Kushina-chan couldn't smell and track like Tsume could… Okay, she was suffering for Oyubi-chan. That would be okay, too. Oyubi had suffered enough these last few months, what with thinking that Tsume was dead, and now knowing that Hidarime-chan was also dead, and all Oyubi got out of her suffering was a very good orgasm from Jiraiya.

Danzo produced a canteen and a handkerchief from his pockets. As Danzo wet the handkerchief and cleaned her face, as she smelled Jiraiya hastily summon a toad, she spoke. Her tongue wasn't feeling very cooperative.

"The camp ish shtill there in Wwwwwwwaterfall, and it's got all the th-th-shupplies stocked up there, but most of the people aren't therrrrre." She weakly waved her right hand, which Danzo began scrubbing when she noticed that blood leaked from beneath her fingernails. "Whyy am I doing thiiiiissss?" she asked. Her head pounded like it was caught in a vice and someone was tightening it. "I didn't hur' my handth." She thought a moment. Her thoughts felt like they were crawling through molasses. "At leasht not today."

"Back on track, child. So most of the forces aren't stationed in the enemy camp?"

"Nnnoooo. Motht of fortheth left. Juzt a shhhhkeletal crew to run it, while everyone elshe ish zircling Grash into Rrrrrrain and towards F-F-Fire ." At least her body didn't hurt like it used to – not compared to her head, and she was used to her head hurting. It had been over a year since her last terrible headache, though. That was a good thing, right? And her tongue wasn't working. Grandmother always said Tsume was better off with a silencing seal slapped on it. She tried to imagine Orochimaru's seal on her tongue instead of her toe, and then decided not to – she already knew what it felt like for men to bite her tongue. She stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry all over Danzo, and felt her mood perk up. So she did it again. "Thhhhthththth." That was way more fun than s's!

Danzo swiped his face and sighed. "Please stop spitting on me. How many forces are stationed where in what circles?"

Tsume forced the words through the numb lips and stubby tongue. Numbers, locations, sloppily-calculated distances, identifying factors of forces and geography, time; she described everything her nose told her as gentle hands cupped her head and cool chakra soothed away all the pain.

Somewhere between describing the three children that had followed the Three Sannin in Rain, the path of the Iwa nin who won her on Auction Night, and the red Uchiha eyes in the Nara forest that were now in Mountains, Tsume slipped into a comfortable void of nothingness.

oOoOoOo

Tsume awoke to laughing calls of, "No fair! Give it back!" She rolled over and nearly fell off the narrow hospital bed that she had been tucked in. Kushina was flopped belly-down on the examining table, her feet kicking in the air as she reached for a shougi game piece that Minato dangled just out of her reach. Osamu took advantage of Kushina's distraction to snatch some pretzels out of a large bowl. It was Himewari who noticed Tsume awakening first. The ninken wagged her tail eagerly as she wriggled forward on the bed sheets, butting her head against Tsume's left hand. At the thumping of the tail, Hotaru turned away from the game and grinned when she saw Tsume.

"Oh, finally!" Hotaru exclaimed, scooting across the room on Nirami's wheeled stool. She slid to a stop beside Tsume. "I know that Inuzukas are so notorious with their reckless behaviors and a death wish that it probably qualifies as an obscure bloodline, but don't you think you're taking it a little far?" She didn't wait for Tsume's answer before twirling around on the stool. "Wheeeee!"

Tsume peered over the edge of the blanket that had been tightly tucked around her and scratched Himewari's ears. Kushina finally snatched the piece away from Minato. "Good to see you're awake. You looked dreadful when Danzo brought you back from outside, believe it!"

Tsume didn't even bother searching her memory to figure out how her latest adventure must've ended. She'd be so glad when she got home – she spent more time dealing with injuries since leaving Konoha than in her entire life! "It's a talent," she said, trying to sound prim and noble, like a Hyuuga.

Minato grinned at her. "The talent is that you survive. Oof!"

Kushina withdrew her fist from Minato's ribcage, and turned towards Tsume. "Want to play war?" she asked, holding the shougi piece out in an offering. "We couldn't find the pack of cards, so Minato had the brilliant idea of using shougi pieces instead." She tilted a glare towards him as he rubbed his ribs. "And I was winning too, until someone started sneaking my pieces."

Minato gave Kushina a pointed look. "Yes." He tapped his breastbone. "Ninja's the name, cheating's the game."

Tsume grinned and sat upright. Her body was stiff, but the only part of her that still throbbed in pain was her right hand. From the smell of it, she had Nirami to thank. "I wanna cheat – er, I mean, play!" Osamu and Hotaru helped Tsume sit on the wheeled stool so they could scoot her across the floor to the examining table. Himewari never left Tsume's shadow, and settled down at her feet to keep them warm.

Minato explained how they dividing the shougi pieces face-down into an equal number between each person, and the pieces were used to advance on the linear, winding track that was split into multiple squares. In each square was a carefully penciled challenge or reward. Kushina had drawn the track with the use of a permanent marker on the back of the shougi board. It sounded like a brilliant idea to Tsume, since she was incapable of memorizing the strategies for playing shougi, and barely understood the different pieces. The function of the pieces meant nothing, in this game; their only purpose was to serve as an advancing marker for the player.

"We used to play this game all the time back in Uzu," Kushina said, her eyes and odor heavy with grief.

Just as Minato finished explaining the rules of the game to Tsume, they were interrupted by Oyubi's entrance. "Ah." She smiled at them, her face bare of any mask. "I'm about to leave for a two day patrol and may not be back by the time you leave." She crossed the room with graceful, quiet steps, and knelt beside Tsume. After a moment of hesitation, she gently slung an arm around Tsume's shoulders and pulled her into a hug. Tsume buried her nose in the crook of Oyubi's shoulder and smelled the clan of Oyubi's sire, stronger now than it had been when Tsume left Konoha. Genetic scents only shifted dramatically in an Inuzuka when they awakened the bloodline limits of their sires, and Oyubi was a little older than normal for such to happen, but Tsume was glad for her. Oyubi's eyes had definitely matured in the last two months.

"I'm going to say this now, even in front of these fine young friends of yours," Oyubi flashed a smile at the other adolescents as she pulled back from Tsume, "because, should I die in this war and we don't cross paths until we reach that great big kennel in the sky, I want you to go through life knowing the truth: you are a fine alpha, and you will make a better, greater clan leader than your sister could've."

Oyubi pressed a finger against Tsume's lips to stop her immediate protest. "Hear me out. I knew you would be greater when I saw you surrounded by weapons, and you stared down the captain while protecting a newborn male baby. Protecting those whom you perceive weaker has always been a part of you, even before the brain injury. This recklessness comes with the brain injury, yes – but then again, you never hesitated to stand up for others before the injury." Oyubi smoothed Tsume's hair back, her dark eyes soft and reflective in the lamp light. "From what I remember, your mother never hesitated either – you've both gone forward, doing your best to do what's right by your pack. She'd be so proud of you."

Tears pricked at Tsume's eyes.

"That's the purpose of the alpha, from the very beginnings of our clan – to protect the pack. But somewhere along the way, we lost the meaning of pack, replacing it with clan. I know you can restore that willfulness to protect the weak that Grandmother Shinzou has scorned, which is something Hidarime didn't have the courage to do."

Tsume blinked rapidly as her vision blurred. Oyubi pulled Tsume into a hug again. "I love you," she whispered, before she and Himewari departed.

Tsume's companions were silent for a moment as she blew her nose into her sleeve. Tsume rubbed her ankles together. "Gosh… That's the nicest thing anyone in my clan has ever said to me."

Minato was the last of those present to turn from Tsume to the board game. His gaze was almost as heavy as his introspective consideration.

Author's addendum: Yes, Jiraiya totally writes fanfiction for legends and lore. We all have to get our start somewhere, right?

Also, this is what happens to Tsume when she blows past her limits, because of how Madara messed with her brain, and why she was in such a bad condition in the Nara Forest:

"Of course she did!" Tsunade's hand tightened around Tsume's head, but she eased off the pressure when Tsume stirred with a sharp cry. "She doesn't have the short-term memory to process and 'keep things in mind', you idiot! And why the hell are you doing any teaching with an Inuzuka in the first place? When an Inuzuka increases chakra in their nose to increase their sensitivity, the chakra in the processing centers of the brain dedicated to the interpretation of scent data also increases. Tsume's brain tissue is so sensitive and her threshold is so low that when she increases chakra like that, her internal pressure elevates significantly and causes miniature blood vessels to burst. When her brain hemorrhages, her liver malfunctions and causes pathological activation of her clotting factors. Her body throws out inappropriately-placed clots, blocking blood flow to other organs and hastening their failure, while being unable to prevent bleeding from other areas – like her eyes, nose, ears, and throat, where the majority of blood vessels have burst from the internal pressure." Tsunade fell silent as the glow in her hands increased. "Disseminated intravascular coagulation was what nearly killed her the last time. By the Sage – she looks almost exactly the same now as when her grandmother brought her to me from the Nara forest. At least this time, I know what to do, what to look for, and how to fix the problems, so there shouldn't be any more brain damage."

Tsume was originally meant to pull this stunt with Danzo and Tsunade, instead of Danzo and Jiraiya, but I was never able to figure out how to get Tsunade into this scene, so I cut it from the story. Disseminated intravascular coagulation has a 40% mortality rate.