Author's notes: Frankly, this is a brutal chapter. Graphic rape is sandwiched between dark humor and Danzo plundering the pockets of dead ninja, because I apparently like to give my readers emotional whiplash. Sorry about that.

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The first two days of patrol were boring, filled either with Danzo's stupid thoughtful silence or constant lectures with mind-aching exercises. If there was anything in life that Tsume could come close to hating, it was math and all of its stupid numbers. Distance was Danzo's main priority in helping Tsume develop a sense for. It involved math that she thankfully was quite easily able to forget, pertaining to measurement of scent molecules across levels of distance, and the variables that could increase deterioration, such as temperature changes, rain, and wind. Tsume suspected that Danzo had gotten some of the training material from an Inuzuka cousin – probably Oyubi or Fuuko – so he could work with her. She appreciated Danzo's efforts, because not many clanswomen had been patient enough with her brain injury to try for very long, but she just wished that it didn't have to involve so much math and stupid calculations!

Sakumo expressed surprise the second night when she told him that Danzo was working with her to better her olfaction and tracking skills, after Kushina and Kokoro had tucked themselves away for the night. ("The captain is teaching you? Ah, Tsume, I didn't mean to insult you – don't pout at me like that. Danzo-sensei is a teacher at heart – although he'll never admit to anything – but the man is a very harsh task maker, and his heart is very difficult to reach." And Sakumo had given her an unreadable expression as he rested his chin on clasped hands, the fire light reflecting orange off his dark eyes. "Tsume-chan is different though. Danzo-sensei is unusually kind with you. It speaks of a fondness I've seen him have for only two other living persons – the Hokage, and the Head of Internal Affairs. He's guarded even with his own clan and family.") And from the way the conversation went and the unreadable expression on his face, Tsume couldn't help but wonder if Sakumo knew about the brothel and what she did – would Kushina have said anything? Would Kushina even know herself? What if they told Kokoro, and that was why Kokoro seemed to hate Tsume, why she had sent that genjutsu-Orochimaru after Tsume?

Kokoro always had disdain for the kunoichi who often did reconnaissance and seduction missions. ("They give the rest of us kunoichi a bad name.")

On the fourth day of patrol, Tsume detected non-allied shinobi. Thank goodness, the boredom outside of Danzo's stupid lectures and mental exercises was tempting her to try and prank Danzo – and that would probably get her killed faster than any enemy.

"That's funny," she said, wrinkling her nose and pulling Ichi up short. Danzo stilled Juubi (otherwise known by everyone else as That Disobedient Cow) and trained his gaze on her. "I smell shinobi and earth, and I can smell the way they came forward, but it's like their trail just ends in thin air. That just doesn't happen."

The countryside was filled with the rolling hills, gullies, and buttes that Tsume had observed when Grandmother forced her to run nearly nonstop. She couldn't see over the tall prairie grass, which had all died and were crinkly and stiff, but Danzo could easily spot invaders (or their trails through the grass) from Juubi's back.

Danzo turned Juubi's head so they faced the direction that Tsume pointed. "How many are there? Could they be channeling nature chakra?" That had been one of yesterday's lectures. Danzo had theorized that channeling nature chakra cloaked one's own chakra and physical presence with surrounding scents, almost like drawing a blanket around them to mute their presence. Tsume didn't care about the logistics, only that it made it harder for her to smell.

"I…I don't think so. The original trail isn't muted at all, and I could smell forty-two nin. And it also smells of fresh earth." She hunched her shoulders forward and tightened her knees around Ichi. "I, um, I know some of those scents." Especially his – she would forever remember the scent of the man who won her at Auction, who had fathered the child that was taken away from her.

Danzo went very still, his body loose and languid in the saddle. "Earth, as in dirt, and not the country?"

"Yeah. They're Iwa nin."

Danzo dismounted from the horse after glancing around quickly, then shouldered Juubi before the horse could step on Danzo's foot. "How far away would you estimate the fresh smell of dirt to be?" Juubi was only slightly cooperative with Danzo, frequently testing Danzo's limits as if he was looking for any holes in Danzo's constant defense.

"Um." Tsume rubbed her nose, ticked some of her fingers off as she mentally multiplied numbers and carried the thee over... She tapped the top of Ni's head. "About fifty kilometers away, I think? Ni, can you smell the Iwa nin?" Ni straightened her head upward, and then hunched down as her tail dipped low in warning. "How far away are we?"

Ni whined.

"Sorry, I don't speak their language yet," Tsume told Danzo as he cuffed Juubi's nose for making a covert attempt to bite Danzo. Well, actually, she had figured out the bits about food and sleep, but that didn't count. "Ni, give me a wag for each kilometer of distance between us." She and Danzo counted – one, two, three... eight. Ni's tail went still. "Eight kilometers." Tsume frowned. "No, that can't be right. Not by my nose. But I'm only at twenty percent and we're upwind of them – should I increase it to a hundred?"

"What's eight in dog years?" Danzo asked as he crouched down. He made several seals before sinking two fingers into the ground. "This is a technique my sensei taught me – I have a much smaller range that he did because he was a true sensor, but if it's only eight kilometers…" Tsume felt his chakra pulse several times. "They're tunnel-traveling underground – very typical of Iwa – and they are only eight kilometers away. They're heading straight for the wagon train. An underground ambush would destroy the wagons and all the wounded riding the wagons. Tsume, get this information to Mifune-sama and Sakumo. And then you are to stay at the wagon train until the fighting is over."

"What are you going to do? How did you and Ni sense them?" Tsume asked as he mounted Juubi, frustrated that she couldn't smell people underground that were only eight kilometers away. Danzo bit back a shout as Juubi reared before he could balance himself in the saddle.

"I could sense their location and their speed by the vibrations in the ground. Knock it off, you damn cow! Ni can probably hear them." Oh, she forgot that the hearing of ninken was almost as sensitive as their olfaction. "I'm going after the Iwa nin. I'll stall them until the help you fetch arrives, and they'll help me finish taking them out."

"Right now?"

"Nah, feel free to wait until night time. Yes, right now. Go! You are not to be anywhere near the battle."

Tsume dug her heels into Ichi's side and directed him back to the wagon train, which was five kilometers behind. Just as the other three ninken followed suite, she heard Danzo tell himself, "I may just be joining the Second Hokage today, and it's probably because of my own mount. That way, you damn cow! We're going that way!"

As Ichi charged through the grass following the trail that Juubi had made when they paced away from the wagon train, Tsume wondered why Danzo was going to join a dead man. And then her mind bounced down the path of least resistance.

A dead man who had been killed by Iwa shinobi.

Twenty elite Iwa nin, to be precise. Everything that Tsume remembered about the Second Hokage was what Aunt Natsumi shared, before and after the brain injury, lips smiling the whole time while her scent was laden with sorrow.

And Danzo was going off to face forty-two Iwa nin – twice the number that had brought down the Second. Tsume yanked Ichi to a halt. "Stop! Stop!" She riffled through her pockets left-handed the best she could, but found nothing to write with or on. "Those who abandon their companions are worse than trash," she whispered to herself. Danzo didn't have the strength or skills of the man-god Aunt Natsumi often described, even if only half of what she said was true, and Tsume just couldn't let Danzo die. Danzo had done so much for her, and she could never repay him for his rescue. She couldn't lose the steady bulwark he had become in her life – not now, not after all that he had done for her, even if he was a mean old butthead sometimes.

Tsume pulled her forehead protector off. She stared momentarily at her distorted reflection – it had belonged to her sister, and the feelings of pride and grief had been nearly overwhelming when Sakumo tied it to her forehead the morning the wagon train departed for Konoha. She bit the exposed end of her right thumb bloody, and tried writing, "Help!" across the spiral leaf. It wasn't very distinguishable on the tarnished metal. Tsume groaned. "Oh – I'm going to be in so much trouble for this." She saturated the strip with as much blood as she could, biting herself several more times, until the cloth ties were sufficiently bloody. She held it out to Shi. "Get this to Sakumo immediately! Now, Shi, go!"

Shi reluctantly accepted it, backed away a few steps, and then whined. It was a low whine that Tsume had never heard before. "Don't worry about me," Tsume said. "I'll have Ichi, Ni, and San with me. That gives Danzo four allies before help comes, and that's more than what the Second Hokage had." She pointed at the direction of the wagon train. "Go, and lead them to where Danzo and I will be, now!"

Shi shot forth like an arrow from the string, clods of dirt flung from the chakra-enhanced leaps.

Tsume rearranged the contents of her pockets so that her blast tags were in easy reach in one pocket, and her throwing stars in another. Then she took several gulps of water from her canteen, figuring that being dehydrated on the battle field wasn't such a good thing, and she probably wasn't going to get a chance for a sip in the middle of the fight. "All right," she told Ichi, Ni, and San. "Here's what we're going to do. We're going to ambush the Iwa shinobi. We know where they're coming and how many. Surprise is on our side, so I figure we'll take out at least five of them before they know what hit them. Ichi's got my back – well, I've got his – so it's Ni's responsibility to have Danzo's back. San, your main objective is to attack hard and fast. Don't worry about protecting me. The more enemies we take out, the better the odds, and the safer I'll ultimately be."

Tsume took a deep breath. She remembered the last fight she got into – the flood of adrenaline through her body, the chakra-enhanced speed and strength. Her chakra levels felt restored – and even felt larger than when Danzo had rescued her, like a muscle that was bulkier from working out with large weights – but she still didn't have the full use of her arms. And she was really, really bad at throwing stars with her left hand, even though Sakumo had made her practice every night by the fire light.

She decided that she was going to try healing herself tonight to help speed up the process, no matter how angry that made Danzo. Besides, she knew that healing wouldn't make him any angrier than what he was going to be when she charged into the battle after being commanded otherwise.

"I can't think of anything else to say, except…" Tsume grinned and turned Ichi towards the direction of Danzo's charging scent. "Except we're going in like the Inuzuka women of old – cry havoc and lose the hounds of hell!" Or was it loose the hounds of war? She wasn't exactly sure how the idiom went.

With her nose and butt charged with chakra, Tsume leaned low against Ichi's long body to decrease drag as he and the other ninken quietly ran through the tall grass. She admired their sleek lines and the deadly air that surrounded them, like predators closing in on the kill. They truly were beautiful creatures.

Juubi was able to cover more distance because his speed was faster and his legs were longer than the ninken. Tsume was only half-way there when she heard the distant explosion at nearly the same time as she smelled a lot of fresh ground churned up. Danzo and Juubi's scents also changed, and now she smelled the forty-two Iwa nin, all breaking apart and scattering away from where it had been a dense blot deep in the earth.

Tsume increased her olfaction to sixty percent – within seconds, five Iwa scents went static. She smelled Juubi's blood and spike in adrenaline, but Danzo remained unharmed and felt like he was calm and centered, like the eye of a storm. The scent of earth was constantly disturbed – doton jutsu, like the way she'd seen Danzo make a pit. She knew there were jutsu to make the ground spike beneath your opponent's feet, and, uh, other kinds of attacks. She also smelled burnt clay – he had smelled of clay, too. And he was there, using ninjutsu after ninjutsu soaked in his chakra.

She was going into this fight blind. A ninja must always be prepared. She couldn't go in blind – Danzo would kill her! "Can you guys make bunshin of yourselves?" Tsume whispered, even though they were probably too far away to be heard by the enemy. Without breaking stride, Tsume found herself surrounded by thirty ninken bunshin. "Good. Too bad I couldn't attach a blast tag to each of the fakes, because then you could go all kamikaze on the Iwa."

Tsume braced herself the last kilometer. Danzo was bleeding now, and there were thirty-two shinobi left. She pulled several blast tags out of her pockets, and steered Ichi close to tuck a blast tag into the Konoha forehead protectors that the ninken wore around their necks like collars. "Stick those on people when they're not looking," she told Ni and San. Aunt Natsumi had shown her and Kuromaru and Kakashi how the ninken could plant tags and poisons on their opponents, so she knew Grandmother's ninken could do the same.

She could smell Sakumo, now – panicked and enraged – following after Shi with ten other shinobi, swifter than the samurai war horses. Based on the shifting and repositioning scents, Mifune was redistributing the samurai throughout the wagon train, preparing for an ambush. It wouldn't take long for the reinforcements to reach her and Danzo. About – nine minutes? More or less? That seemed like a lifetime to Tsume as everything seemed to slow down, and her thoughts bounced around in her head, too fast to be anything but half-formed.

Tsume stuffed four blast tags under her cast. If worse came to worst… she wasn't going to be taken alive and captured by the enemy, not by the man who had paid so much for her at auction. She didn't want to die, but she also wasn't going to place herself in the hands of a man whom Madame Haori had forbidden to return to her Palace after the third time he used Tsume. ("I don't know how you're doing it, child, but Daisuke-sama is far more brutal with you than my other girls. In my experience, once men have developed the taste of such brutality, it only worsens. The Iwa shinobi already do enough damage as it is. No, I'll not have him return, no matter how much money he offers again.")

Then Tsume added an extra blast tag in her cast, just in case four would only take off her arm, instead of her entire self. When it came to numbers, she understood that more was always better when it came to blast tags.

Just as it had with the Kumo nin, time seemed to slow down as Tsume and the three ninken silently crested the small hill and entered the battle. It looked like some avenging god had cleaved the earth apart with a gigantic ax just a few minutes ago. One Iwa nin, almost dead from his severe wounds, rolled off the edge of the recently-created ravine and screamed as he plummeted down. It sounded like a very long drop. Spikes erupted from the earth intermittently from the earth, skewering an Iwa nin that Danzo used as a shield against one of the spikes. Juubi was a dark blur, kicking and biting, almost frenzied with bloodlust. The tall prairie grass had all been flattened by the fighting, so there was nothing to hide in.

Danzo was a dark blot on the rendered landscape, blocking attacks with a tanto Tsume didn't know he had, making seals with his other hand to produce a severe blast of wind that shredded two more Iwa nin. She could smell his flagging chakra, the heavy sweat smeared with dirt, and the fresh blood that she could see coming from a laceration that arched shoulder to shoulder across his back.

There were twenty-eight Iwa nin remaining, and Sakumo and reinforcements were seven (or so - more or less?) minutes behind her.

None of the enemy noticed Tsume's entrance until after Ichi and San had killed two shinobi by closing their giant maws around human necks, and crushing them. Tsume knew just how fragile the human spine is when you applied enough force – she wished both her arms worked. The third, a kunoichi, died when she angled her head to avoid the thrown star to which Tsume had tied a charged blast tag. The force of the blast blew the kunoichi's head open, and sent the star spinning lightning-fast away from the blast to bury in another kunoichi's knee. The kunoichi couldn't dodge San as the ninken shredded her throat.

Twenty-four Iwa nin were left, and all twenty-four (and Danzo) had now turned their attention on her. Four nin split and ran as ninken bunshin pounced after – Tsume hoped they would keep running long after they realized that the bunshin couldn't harm them. Juubi took advantage of one distracted shinobi to kick him with such force that Tsume heard bones snap. As Juubi trampled another shinobi to death, Tsume shifted half the chakra from her nose to her ears. The racket was almost intolerably loud.

She heard Danzo swearing ("damn fucking brat can't even remember fucking orders that I gave her—"), and wanted to yell that she did remember and that Sakumo was coming with reinforcements. Then the blast from Ni's planted tag made her ears ring shrilly. Tsume dropped the chakra away from her ears just before San's blast tag also erupted. The shinobi that San had planted the tag on managed to remove it and shunshin away before it was triggered.

The ground suddenly erupted beneath her, Daisuke's chakra fueling the jutsu. Ichi scrambled to avoid the needle-sharp points that surrounded him, his paw pads torn bloody as he was unable to completely escape the circle of sharp points unscathed. Tsume braced her cast under his harness as his abrupt spin and cornering nearly unseated her. She stopped breathing as Ichi dove under Juubi – she felt her hair brush the underside of Juubi's belly and saw the flash of an oncoming hoof towards her head. She released her seat's chakra and let herself fall to Ichi's left side. Agony tore through her right arm as she hung her full weight from the harness and her left foot dragged on the ground. Tsume struggled a few precious seconds to center herself on Ichi's back after they cleared Juubi, reapplying chakra to secure her seating.

She threw a clumsy handful of stars at two nin that charged her. Another wind jutsu, stinking of Danzo's anger, bisected the nin. Tsume dropped two blast tags beside them as Ichi slipped through. She heard one mutter a dying protest – "Oh god, no!" – before the blast finished what Danzo started.

Fifteen shinobi remained. Less than half a minute had passed, but it was long enough that the remaining enemy shinobi were able to mentally regroup themselves and shift into the offensive. Ichi was swift and surefooted as he dodged and weaved through the attackers. Most of the bunshin had been quickly and easily dispelled, narrowing down to the real ninken. Ni stayed close to Danzo's side and they attacked together as if they had previously been partners. Tsume wondered just how often Danzo trained or sparred against Oyubi.

And then she forgot everything when she saw him through the sharp pillars of earth, across the field. Daisuke had one hand thrust into a bag that smelled of clay, and his expression was murderous as his gaze met hers. She had never smelled anyone so angry before, not even Danzo or Grandmother could come close, and her inattention to her surroundings nearly cost her. Ichi's abrupt corner made the unknown kunai slice across the side of her left arm, instead of getting buried into her lower back. She hissed as blood stained her sleeve. Shikake's going to be mad that I have to get more stitches in that arm. Tsume almost giggled at how ridiculous it was that she would think of her sire in the middle of a life-or-death situation.

Ichi skidded to a halt just as another spike erupted from the earth, a hair away from the tip of his nose. Tsume glanced sideways at the deep ravine that was far too close to for her liking. She looked over in the other direction – Daisuke threw something at her. She saw a glimpse of teeth and tongue in the palm of his hand, and then Ichi was rearing back as a pinecone shaped out of clay bounced by his paws. Tsume saw it glow bright orange for a second, and then snapped her eyes shut as it exploded. The blast threw Ichi tumbling backwards, and she felt nauseous as her ears rang.

Ichi rolled on top of Tsume, unable to fight against the clay bomb's shock waves. Tsume was weightless for a brief heartbeat as she and Ichi tumbled over the edge of the ravine. She saw Danzo's back – he was fighting another tanto-wielding nin – and then saw him burst through the rising cloud of dirt that the blast had kicked up. She saw the whites of Daisuke's eyes as she and Ichi plummeted.

Tsume released the chakra as she and Ichi struck a ledge that jutted out. They collided with each other and fell further. Ichi snapped at Tsume, snagging her left forearm arm with his teeth and applied chakra to his paws as he skidded down the side of the ravine. Teeth shredded flesh from elbow to wrist the momentum of her weight dragged her through his teeth, and they came to a dangling stop just above the floor of the ravine. Her arm stung, but not badly – everything seemed too far removed from her own body to hurt, even though she was aware of her broken arm throbbing. Ichi whined as he released Tsume and dropped to the ground. His paws were bloody – he had ripped out at least three claws - and blood dribbled from his ears. He tried to walk forward, but fell over with a whine, equilibrium as disrupted as his eardrums. There was just a blot of sky above them, so Tsume increased the chakra at her eyes to see better in the ravine's darkness. She saw the nearby bodies of three Iwa nin who had fallen to their deaths, although they had already been in the process of dying when they rolled over the edges.

Tsume took a deep breath. She felt a deep sense of urgency. "I don't like this," she whispered. She fell backwards as the ground beneath her feet erupted upward again. "No! Ichi!" She slammed her left hand against the rising wall of stone, and left a smeared handprint, blood almost indistinguishable against the hard-packed soil. "Ichi!" A snarling growl was the only reply. She couldn't hear the sounds of fighting, but did hear scraping on the other side, and smelled his presence. She pulled another star out of her pocket as she whirled about and hunched down to minimize herself as a target.

Daisuke was older than Danzo, his long blond hair faded mostly to white and deep lines surrounding his mouth and eyes. He looked calm and collected as he considered her with one hand settled against his hip, but she smelled the fiery stench of anger simmering below his cool appearance. "You make a far better whore than a kunoichi," he said. "And really, I should've known there was something off about you – no girl is good enough to drive a man to a frenzy, yeah, no matter how sweet your cherry was. Especially a homely urchin like you."

She growled at him.

"Ah, how cute." He licked the tongue that jutted from his left palm, almost like he was sharing a kiss. Tsume's stomach swam with revulsion. "But I prefer my whores to scream, remember?" He advanced slowly and deliberately, and Tsume pressed herself against the stone, as if she could become one with it. "They're not going to hear you scream down here, yeah. Even if that one little tree hugger up there managed to kill all my men, you won't be found." He moved in a flash before she could react, one hand closing around her left wrist with a crushing force. The star fell uselessly to the ground. Teeth sank into her flesh, right against the lacerations from Ichi's teeth, as he hoisted her up by the front of her vest to the level of his face with his other hand. His voice was an ugly whisper. "And I will make you scream all over again."

All the focus in her world narrowed down to him. Her mind flipped itself end over end as a memory rushed forward. A man has two heads, Danzo had told her. ("In my experience, men typically follow the head below their belt, and such men are vulnerable to this." He tapped her forehead. "My strength and speed cannot be compared to your thinking, no matter how linear it is, because the head on your shoulders will always outwit a man's miniature head.")

And then another distant voice.

("…your seal has the potential of being a very deadly weapon, if you choose to use it.")

As Daisuke released her wrist and slowly, deliberately, wrapped his hand around her neck, Tsume gathered all the chakra that she used to boost her sight, smell, and hearing, and slammed all of it into her right big toe where she was constantly aware of the seal's buzzing presence. Chakra surged up the line of her leg, like the seal was forcefully blooming open and branding itself into her skin. Daisuke froze, and his eyes widened as sweat broke out on his forehead. Teeth nipped at her jugular.

He pulled her close just to slam her into the stone wall again. "Bitch. What are you? Is this some kind of fucking bloodline?" He ruthlessly shoved his pelvis against hers. She felt the burgeoning erection, could smell his spiking lust that was quickly overwhelming the anger. Revulsion curled in her gut as he licked her cheek. "Nice, yeah. I've always wanted to fuck someone as a battle rages around us. Blood already excites me, and a warm pussy should make the experience explosive, yeah." He rolled his hips and she kicked his knee. "Hah, I think I almost felt that." Blood streamed from her left arm and dripped to the ground. His hand was slick with it. Her blood. It wasn't the first time that happened. She was determined to make it the last.

Daisuke easily stripped off Oyubi's too-large pants before Tsume realized it, and then tore her panties off – the skin on her hips felt bruised from where he ripped the cloth away. He studied her a moment as she glared at him, ready to projectile-vomit all over him as her stomach curdled in warning. His eyes were dilated and his breathing was rapid. She heard his pounding heart through the ringing in her own ears as he grinned. "No, I don't think I like looking at you. The back of your head was always more attractive than your face, yeah. Funny that you should like dogs – I took you the first time like a bitch, yeah. How's about a repeat, sweets?"

He easily forced her face-first against the rough, uneven ground. Her right arm was all but useless as muscle spasms made it lock up, twisted and trapped painfully beneath her torso. Daisuke dug his fingers into the lacerations of her left arm to pin her down, and she felt stinging pain as some of the stitches ripped. His breath – that same, stinking breath – was on the back of her neck as he used his other hand to explore her genitals. A tongue laved her vulva. "You're not wet. Can't have that, yeah, otherwise it would be uncomfortable." He easily ripped away her vest, and then Oyubi's shirt to bare her torso, and bit her little breasts with his hand.

Tsume managed to move her head to the side so he could hear her. "Never stopped you before!" And then she added, because for some reason men seemed proud of their size, "Pencil dick!"

"Oh?" He switched hands, sliding one through her hair and pulling back so tight that her scalp burned and her neck ached, while his other hand – slick with her blood – dipped between her legs again. "Haven't you heard, sweets? It's not the size, it's how you use it, yeah. I think I like you feisty and mouthy – makes up for your lack of femininity. You were never this feisty for me in bed. All you did the last times was scream like a banshee." She felt two fingers prodding ruthlessly, and hoped that his fingernails were clean. His hand disappeared just before she heard the rustle of clothing. "Yeah, they're all busy up there. We have us some time for a quickie."

Tsume could barely move her left arm – her hand felt cold and numb, especially her pinky and ring fingers. She shifted her right shoulder – she still had her trump card. She was going to take the bastard out – make sure he never hurt another woman or girl again – but had to time it just right so he couldn't escape with shunshin. Oh, she'd make sure his climax was explosive, all right. It was going to blow him right out of this world.

Danzo had said that the more the men opposed her or fought their desire, the more frenzied the seal made them. "Stop it," she snarled with a jerk of her head. Fight me fighting you! Bright circular lights exploded in her vision as he slammed her face-first into the ground, but didn't release her hair. She kicked backwards, pounding the bastard with her heels as blood gushed from her nose. The world seemed so much more distant as her olfaction became muddled and dim.

"Well, that's as effective as a cat swatting at the sea's waves, yeah." He released his grip from her hair so he could adjust his position. She heard Ichi howling on the other side of the stone wall, paws scraping rapidly against the stone wall that separated them.

Tsume braced herself as a new agony entered the current mix of pain – he thrust into her, the blood making it sticky instead of slick, and set a brutal pace. He bit her shoulder, uncaring of how he broke the skin, his hair curtaining yellow-white all around her face. Another mouth bit her hip where he rested his left hand. She felt the pounding high in her abdomen, pain lancing and fire burning with every thrust. Danzo had somehow managed to make it feel good, but Daisuke always made it hurt. She was too dry, and he was too rough – membranes tore, and blood flowed. She felt like a sponge being squeezed of every last drop.

His hips were moving against hers with greater urgency, and she caught a faint whiff of his hormones spiking as his climax drew near. Tsume forced chakra into her nose, trying to smell through the swelling and blood, so she could time the blast tags with the exact moment of his orgasm.

She caught the edge of Sakumo's scent.

Dread immediately flooded her, and her stomach swam as she mentally conjured images of Sakumo in Daisuke's position, his own mind broken by the seal. How close was Sakumo? He must've reached Danzo, but had Sakumo found Tsume yet? She couldn't tell with her damaged nose. I can't let him see me like this! She had to turn the seal off – she tried pulling chakra back from her seal, but only felt it burn hotter against her skin. She tried pushing herself upright with her left arm, ignoring the white edges of pain that threatened to drag her into absolute nothingness, muttering, "No, no, no!" Daisuke gently forced her head down, and sucked the skin on the back of her neck. She shrieked. "Stop it!"

"Not done yet, sweets," he whispered against her skin, fully enamored with her now. Tsume desperately wished he would slam her head against the ground again to knock her out. She felt the heat of acute embarrassment flush across her face and bare shoulders.

"You are done," whispered a voice that made the hair on the back of Tsume's neck rise on end and even more dread swept through her, chasing the wave of horrified embarrassment. Killing intent flared around them as she felt a looming cold nothing just below her hands and knees. Daisuke gurgled as a sword penetrated his neck. Tsume glimpsed the blood-smeared tip of the saber from the corner of her eye before it receded. Daisuke collapsed heavily on her, his cock quivering in release as his scent went static beneath the flare of pheromones.

"No," she whispered again, trying to pull the chakra away from the seal. It clung to her, like a greedy leech. She felt the weight of the dead shinobi disappear as Sakumo pulled the body off. His killing intent was smothering.

"It's all right, Tsume, I've got you."

Tsume kicked Sakumo as he touched her ankle. "Stop!" Another burst of adrenaline gave her the strength to push upright and flip herself around. She scooted away as tried to cover herself with her useless arms. He couldn't see her like this! "Don't come any closer! Don't touch me!" Her voice was shrill – tears slid down her face.

Sakumo looked shattered, frozen in place with one hand reaching out to her. His other hand was tight around the hilt of his bloodied saber. His killing intent sputtered and died away.

"Go away!" Tsume shrieked as she clamped her knees together and tucked her legs under. She pressed herself tight against the ravine wall. Semen and blood dribbled down the leg that burned with chakra, blood dripped from her nose and arm – the rest of her burned with embarrassment and agonizing pain. She pulled as much chakra as she could away from the seal, away from her big toe. She wanted to trigger the blast tags and erase herself from this existence, from knowing that Sakumo had seen everything, but couldn't because Sakumo was standing too close. "I want Danzo, now!"

He floundered. "I…"

"DON'T TOUCH ME! I WANT DANZO! DANZO DANZO DANZO!"

Sakumo shrank away like she had struck him. Only Danzo could help – he knew about the seal, he'd turn it off again. Danzo had to help her – he just had to! Danzo was in the same void with Tsume, his soul knee-deep in the deepest, darkest filth that Orochimaru warned her about. Sakumo was Sakumo – brave, strong, goodhearted, and full of life and acceptance for a little girl who just wanted to be wanted. Tsume didn't want Sakumo to want her less because of what he had just witnessed, and couldn't bear to have him want her more because of the seal.

Tsume curled into a ball and clumsily folded her right arm over her head, the cast a heavy, inflexible weight. Maybe if she couldn't see him… She flinched as Sakumo draped his warm shirt over her bare body, and bit back the tears as he departed. She whimpered and rocked, trying to focus on the physical pain of her battered body and aching head instead of the emotional pain that wracked her heart, trying to ignore how Sakumo's scent was too close, too cloying.

On the other side of the wall, Ichi whined and pawed uselessly at the stone wall. "It'll be okay, Ichi," she called out softly. Ichi only whined more, which made Tsume sniffle uselessly and hiccup, because she wanted to make brave, wonderful Ichi feel better, but couldn't, because she was just useless. ("Good little bitch. Good little whore.") She pressed the edge of Sakumo's shirt against her bleeding nose. Gosh – how much blood did she have left to lose?

Tsume hadn't moved from her position when Sakumo returned with Danzo. She couldn't smell Danzo, but knew that he was angry with her. She heard the shuffling gait of Danzo dragging his leg beneath him, and his grunt of pain as he rolled Daisuke's body further away.

"Make Sakumo go away," she whimpered as Danzo knelt beside her and let his hand rest on the curve of her hip. It felt heavy. "I don't want to be seen… Oh gosh – tell me it's not on. It still burns!"

Danzo traced the outside of her bare thigh, seeking any anomalies or characters on her skin. "I don't see the seal active anywhere on you."

Tsume desperately hoped that was a good sign. "It's not working right now, is it? I had to use it, Danzo. I had to distract the man." She peeked over the edge of her cast at Danzo, through the folds of Sakumo's shirt. All she could see was his folded legs and lower torso. She heard Sakumo swear under his breath, and hid her face against the crook of her elbow. "Make him go away, please."

Danzo must've used sign language with Sakumo, since she heard movement but no spoken words. After a tense moment, Sakumo said, "I'll be back after I get the ninken, Tsume-chan. I'll help Ichi out, first. Please, I just…" and then his chakra flared so he could swiftly climb the ravine walls, his broken words left hanging in the air.

Danzo sighed. He sounded nothing but regretful. "Ah, Tsume." The gentleness in his voice hurt so much more than his anger did. "Why didn't you obey me?"

That broke the dam. Tsume failed to stop the uncontrollable sobs. She felt her body shaking as the adrenaline left, and she wailed as Danzo pulled her upright. "He w-wasn't supposed to see!" She felt horrified, ashamed, and guilty. She didn't know what she would've done if Sakumo had been caught in the seal like Daisuke had been. She vowed to chop her toe off to remove the damn seal from her body, so then Sakumo would always be safe. "I'll h-have nine toes left!"

"What are you talking about?" Danzo didn't wait for her response as he split open the seam in the right sleeve of Sakumo's shirt to make room for her cast, and then stuffed her arms into the sleeves. He hesitated when his fingers brushed against teeth-shaped marks that surrounded a breast, before buttoning the front closed with more force than was necessary. After Danzo clumsily sat beside her, he put his arms around Tsume.

Tsume sank into his embrace, desperately grateful that he was protecting her even though his anger was increasing and his grip hurt both of her arms. She felt the void beneath her, surrounding her and Danzo, but that was okay. Danzo didn't let anything stop him from doing what needed to be done – not even great big voids that swallowed you up whole and sucked away all happiness from life.

Tsume suddenly felt dirty. She sank the claws of her left hand into the inside of her left thigh, and shredded flesh. "Get it off!" she screamed, trying to remove the skin that was smeared with semen. Danzo forced her hand away. She thrashed her limbs even though the pain made her vision go white around the edges. "GetitoffgetitoffGETITOFF!"

"Hush. Shhh. Think of puppies, Tsume." Danzo folded his arms around her again, trapping her arms to her sides. "Romping puppies with big flopping ears and wagging tails. Think of Kuromaru – he must be getting big, don't you think? Big like Kakashi is, although Kakashi probably doesn't have flopping ears. What do you think they're doing right now? Are they playing another keep away game with dango? I know you could smell them if you tried right now."

"C-can't smell anything! He b-broke my nose!"

"Hush. I'll look at it, but I doubt it's permanent."

Tsume's sobbing eventually dwindled into hiccups as Danzo rocked, his whispers distracting her from the void and the shame and the overwhelming revulsion that made her stomach and head swim. She distantly heard Sakumo removing Ichi from behind the wall, grunting about how the dog was nearly too damn heavy to be carried out of the ravine in his arms. Danzo wiped her nose surreptitiously with the corner of her borrowed shirt. "I know you want to be clean. Here, we'll use my water canteen to clean up. Will that be all right?"

"Get it off," Tsume whispered. Danzo, using a clean, wet patch from the shredded remains of Oyubi's shirt, cleaned her face, and then wiped her thighs and pelvis clean of semen and blood. The water was clean and Danzo kept his touching to a minimum. After cleaning her up, he carefully and swiftly used another scrap of shirt to dress the lacerations on Tsume's thigh. Then he helped her with the pants – the only article of clothing that Daisuke hadn't destroyed.

"I think we're done here," Danzo said. His gaze flickered to her face. "And you will be staying in a wagon for the rest of the journey." He started poking and prodding her nose.

She clung to Danzo. "No! No, I'll do anything – I'll obey next time, I promise! I'll do anything – even cook for you! I make a great meatloaf, really, I do. Don't leave me – please, don't leave me alone!"

He didn't try prying her loose. "I'm not leaving and you won't be alone. I'm going to be stuck to the wagon myself when Mifune-dono learns that I completely ruptured my hamstring. The chakra exhaustion doesn't help, either. Hold still, now. I have to straighten the bones and cartilage, and this is going to hurt like a real bitch."

It did hurt, but not as much as when Minato had broken the spine out of her broken grip a lifetime ago. It made breathing a little easier, but also renewed the bleeding and did nothing for restoring her normal sense of smell.

"Now I just have to figure out how the hell we're going to get out of this ravine. Take this with your right hand and press it against your nostrils. Yeah, just like that. Don't move it, even if it bleeds all the way through. Do you think we should try henging some wings and fly out? Speaking of wings, let me see your left arm."

Tsume wiggled around until she was comfortable while he cleaned and dressed the bloody bite on her neck. He grit his teeth so hard she heard them grinding together. She had to use the back of her right hand to press the rag to her nostrils. "Can ninjas really henge wings and fly?"

"No, it's impossible – wait… that would be a lie. If memory serves me correctly, there actually is a wandering clan that lives high in the northernmost mountains of Lightning with a bloodline limit that lets them sprout wings out of their backs."

"Oh. That's a really useful bloodline limit." Tsume imagined flying out of the ravine, flying away from the man whose dead body lay too close for comfort. If she had been able to do that, then Sakumo never would've seen what happened. "Gosh, how come I don't have anything useful like that?"

Danzo patted her shoulder awkwardly. "Tsume is plenty useful as she is… even if she doesn't obey her team leader's commands, and even if she's prone to getting severely injured – can you imagine the newfound disasters she'd get into if she had wings? And if I'm not mistaken, it appears that our companion has returned with a rope in hand."

Tsume shrank down as Sakumo approached again. She pulled her legs up to hide from him, pressing her forehead against her kneecaps. It was awkward to tuck her right arm close to keep the torn cloth against her nose, but she managed it anyway. She ignored the painful tugging on her left arm as Danzo carefully administered first aid to the multiple lacerations and torn stitches.

"Danzo?" Sakumo's voice was almost a whimper. "What's wrong?"

A sigh. "Aside from the obvious, you fumbling buffoon? Tsume is mortified. She doesn't want to be seen like this by the father figure she respects and loves the most in her life. I think…" There was a pause as he finished with her arm. "I think she's afraid, if that's possible."

"Tsume-chan is still Tsume-chan. This changes nothing – I love her no less right now than I did when she returned from the dead a few days ago."

"But now you think differently of her, and I think that's what scares her."

At the cold acknowledgement in Danzo's voice, Tsume pressed her face harder against her kneecaps. Maybe, if she tried really, really super-hard, she could melt into herself and disappear. She wondered if there was a bloodline limit that could do something similar.

"Well, yes, I do now think differently." She flinched at Sakumo's words, and tried to remember the importance of breathing. "I've always thought that Tsume is a remarkable person to survive all the lumps that life has thrown her way. I now think it's truly a wonder that she trusts you – or anyone, really – after what just happened. I now think I am ready to kill myself, because I failed to protect her or keep her safe, Danzo." Sakumo's voice cracked. "I failed Hidarime's baby sister, the daughter of my heart, and I can't help but now think of what I'll do if Tsume never forgives me for failing her."

Tsume peeked over her kneecaps. Sakumo looked shattered – his shoulders were rounded forward and his arms hung from his side like two dead weights. He seemed so vulnerable and small without a shirt. She almost gave his back, but knew he wouldn't take it. Dear, gentle Sakumo, she thought in pity. Full of life and happiness – she could feel a looming cold beneath his feet, hungry to swallow him whole. "You didn't fail me. It was my fault," she told Sakumo, forcing herself to speak above a whisper. "I…I made that shinobi rape me."

Danzo pinched her. She figured that was a warning not to discuss her seal. "I knew that man was powerful, and he followed me and Ichi down here. I had to distract him, and Danzo once told me that a man has two heads, and I could outwit the little head below the man's belt."

"That's…" Sakumo wrung his hands. "I can't believe you'd tell her something like that, Danzo. Especially when she's just a genin!"

"It's true though," Tsume said defensively. "My half a brain is better than a man's little head!" Daisuke also would've been dead because of her if she had just triggered the blast tags a few moments earlier, instead of trying to wait until his climax. She would also be dead, but then she wouldn't be facing Sakumo in her shame and humiliation. She choked back a sob. "Why are you so mad at me?"

Sakumo dragged a hand down his face, smearing it with dirty blood. He swayed as if ready to collapse. "I'm not mad – not at you, at least. I'm mad with me, with that dead man, with Danzo and the ninken that were supposed to be protecting their alpha, and I'm sure some of this is also Juubi's fault – I'm mad at everyone who isn't you. I can't… The shock of Shi delivering your blood-drenched forehead protector nearly gave me a heart attack. To lose you when I just got you back – that would've killed me, Tsume. But even with you alive and here with me now, I still feel like I'm losing you."

Tsume felt Danzo's gaze sear the top of her head. "Bloody forehead protector?"

She realized belatedly that it probably wasn't such a good idea to be pressed so closely to Danzo when he was reminded of her disobedience. At least he finished patching up her arm. She dropped her gaze to her feet. Her toes were caked with congealing blood, except her right big toe, which glimmered purple. "Well, you told me to go get help," she said in a small voice, muffled by the cloth still pressed against her nose.

"You were supposed to send yourself, not your own forehead protector drenched in blood!"

"It wasn't that drenched. And besides, you can't just abandon your comrades," Tsume added hastily, as if she couldn't sense the steam coming out of Danzo's ears. "I'd rather be trash than to have you dead! So I came back. And I still got the message to the others, just like you told me to!"

"Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their companions are worse than trash." Sakumo's voice lifted slightly with amusement. "If nothing else, Captain, she remembered Sakumo-sensei's Rule #1, the Golden Rule."

"Oh shit, you have rules? And there's more than just one?" Tsume glanced up to see Danzo pinch the bridge of his nose. She saw his other hand flash through the ANBU sign language – talk after Konoha. She wondered if Danzo was answering a question of Sakumo's, even though Sakumo's hands were still when she looked over.

"Let's go home, Tsume," Sakumo said, carefully approaching. She tensed just as he was within reach. He squatted and rested his hand on the ground, fingertips just a hair from touching her toes. "Home, to Kakashi and Kuromaru, and your crazy Aunt Natsumi."

Home. Longing overwhelmed her heart. Home – where street vendors were roasting chestnuts this time of year; where the Uchiha police roamed the streets and ensured quick and sure dispensation of justice and the occasional ticket for disturbing the peace; where the Hokage would sometimes catch the Unholy Trio in the middle of a prank and praise them for their ingenuity and then follow through with the occasional tip on how not to get caught; where Aunt Natsumi would let Tsume freely roam the stacks and stacks of summoning contracts and daydream of which one she'd one day have, or where Tsume would have to hunt Aunt Natsumi down when she was late for dinner because she got lost again. Gosh, she even missed Uchiha Fugaku, as impossible as that seemed.

"Promise?" she asked Sakumo as her eyes stung.

His smile was small, but genuine. "By all that I hold dear, I promise." She grabbed his hand, and let him gently pull her to her feet. "Come on, I'll help you up, and then maybe you can settle your ninken down – they're being rather difficult for the med nin to heal, and I think Ichi's eardrums are ruptured since he's completely lost his sense of balance – so omeI can back to help Danzo."

Danzo looked insulted. "I do not need any assistance to get out of this hellhole myself, thank you very much." Danzo was collapsed on the ground, barely able to sit upright.

"But, Captain, we—"

"I can walk just fine without you getting in my way and tripping me up." His right pants leg was saturated with blood. So was his shirt.

"You didn't—"

"You're more of a hindrance than assistance, anyway." Danzo was able to flop his hand upright in the air long enough to give Sakumo a rude gesture. Sakumo's eyes narrowed in challenge.

Tsume glanced between Danzo and Sakumo. She stared for a moment at Danzo's legs. "I don't need to help either," she declared, trying not to sound devious. "Because I'm got two working legs, so I can just tree-walk my way up the walls. My arms won't even get in the way."

Danzo glared at her. "You don't have the chakra."

Sakumo rolled his eyes. "And you do?" he shot back with exasperation. "Look, it's obvious that Tsume looks up to you, Captain. Not that I blame her," he hurried to add as Danzo's eye went flat and his face dark, "because you are one of our finest warriors who isn't an emotionally-stunted misbehaving sexual deviant with antisocial tendencies. Um… I think I said that wrong. That is, you aren't misbehaving. Other than being an emotionally-stunted misanthrope, you really are an example to live by. "

"Get to the point, you rambling idiot."

Sakumo carefully ruffled Tsume's hair. It was matted against her head. "I want Tsume to know that there's no shame in accepting help when it's needed, and especially when it's offered."

"I do too know!" Tsume shrank back at the knowing looks that Danzo and Sakumo exchanged, before both trained their eyes on her. "Today doesn't count," she mumbled, feeling exhausted and like one gigantic bruise, with the newly-obtained lacerations in her arm and her thigh and pelvis stinging sharply. Her head also throbbed and her brain felt tight, much like after her brain injury when Tsunade-hime was always coming over to the compound, but even her head didn't hurt as much as her arms did right now.

Tsume was also beginning to feel horrible cramps in her abdomen. As battered as she was, Tsume would've thought she would be one gigantic throb of pain, but it seemed like every separate injury had its own cacophony of sound, and everything screamed a different tune. She reluctantly pulled the crumpled blast tags from her cast, soggy with her blood and sweat but still viable, and handed them to Sakumo. "Here. I was… I really did have it all planned out, I promise. I was going to go out with a bang and take him with me."

Sakumo stared at the blast tags in the palm of his hand, as if he was staring into the void, and the void stared back.

For the first time, Tsume felt like she finally understood Orochimaru.

"This man, Daisuke," said Danzo as he pushed himself to his feet with one leg; the other leg wouldn't straighten fully. Tsume had a feeling that his hamstring was less ruptured and more severed by an enemy. "He was very strong – had a rare bloodline limit known as the explosion release, and I think he was the leader. Fighting the Iwa nin became much easier when Daisuke went after Tsume, since I didn't have to dodge the high-powered doton jutsu. I think I'd be dead if it weren't for her." Danzo's smile was strained and tired. "But that doesn't mean you aren't in trouble for disobeying my orders. I told you to go straight to the wagon train yourself."

Tsume allowed Sakumo to lead her away from the area. Sakumo didn't hesitate to pick her up and sit her on his broad shoulder when they reached the dangling rope. He wrapped an arm around her thighs to steady her balance. "If I had to do today all over again, I would," Tsume said softly as he grabbed the rope one-handed and walked up the rock walls with chakra flaring at his feet. She turned her head and yelled at Danzo. "I wouldn't change a thing, Danzo, no matter how mad you got! Ordering me away to face all those enemy nin yourself, that was awful! You never left me!" Danzo had returned to the brothel. He removed Tsume from that place, and brought her back to the life and the people she loved, even though it got him in lots of trouble with Orochimaru. She blinked back tears as her voice trembled. "So I came back for you the same way you came back for me!"

His voice was distant as he curiously riffled through Daisuke's pockets. "Not the same, brat."

She huffed angrily. "Is too, you butthead!"