Author's notes: I am vastly amused by the thought of ninja versus parkour champions.
o-o-o
o-o-o-o
o-o-o-o-o
"Okay, so how many does that make?" Anko sat on a trash can and lightly knocked her heels against its blood-splattered side as Hotaru rearranged her released kikaichu. The bugs reluctantly drew away from the still body that lay prone on the filthy alley floor.
"Eleven." Hotaru sighed and swept loose hairs away from her face. "Hokage-sama was right – this is a plethora of missing nin city-wide. It's been a very profitable trip, all things considering." This latest missing nin wasn't a target so much for the reward as he had been in cahoots with Orochimaru.
"I still hate it. This place stinks, it's dirty, I want to go home, and I still can't see why the ANBU can't do this themselves."
Hotaru squatted to roll the body onto the storage scroll. "Because they have more important things to do, and you need the experience in ambushing targets with your seal active without alerting the local populace. Now, La just informed me of another target in the village's west section, getting friendly with a prostitute there. How do you think we should ambush him?"
oOoOoOo
"Do the voices!" Kiba yelled as he jumped up and down on the inn's bed. The springs squeaked with every jump. Cat wondered if the people in the next room over ever questioned the racket they heard – probably not; rhythmically squeaking bed springs in such a questionable establishment usually indicated adult-level activities, not hyperactive toddlers.
"Voices!" Naruto agreed as he laughed and clapped his hands. He was on the floor beside Kuromaru with his back pressed against a warm flank. Kuromaru thumped his tail on the floor in ready agreement, clearly glad that he wasn't being asked to do the voices. "Frog-san's voice is so cool! Yours needs work."
Cat sighed behind his clay mask, and rubbed the back of his head self-consciously with one hand. In his other hand was a colorful short story that Jiraiya had written about Namikaze Minato and his genin team, with the absolute assurance that it was family-friendly. (Hotaru had already double-checked it for accuracy and rating, and had given her approval for it being family friendly. As to its accuracy, she said, "No, Minato was never scared of frogs, and no, sensei never rescued us from any killer salamander-crocodile monstrosity from the sewers of Pinko. He was too busy trying to run away from the civilian parkour champion trying to deliver pizza.") "Now, you kids know that I can't do voices. You should ask Wolf-sempai for that."
Kiba threw his unopened package of crackers at the figure who had his back turned towards everyone, face buried in Jiraiya's latest chapter. Cat knew that such particular work was not family-friendly in the least. The crackers fell short of hitting the silver hair. Wolf didn't even acknowledge the poor throw. "It's your turn to do voices, Yamato," he said in a low voice, not even looking up from the latest chapter of Icha Icha Ecstasy. His brother could be such an embarrassment. Thank goodness that Wolf wasn't reading the book in public, and Naruto and Kiba were too young to care.
"Stop breaking character, Captain."
Kiba kept jumping on the bed. "Yeah, Kakashi. Stop breaking character."
oOoOoOo
Tsume had the distinct feeling that the Raikage disliked her. Or loathed her. Maybe even despised her. She could smell his simmering ire from three rooms away, and knew it involved her. Well, she was used to inspiring dislike, loathing, and despicability in others – it didn't come quite as easily or as often as disdain, irritation, and caution, but she considered herself a woman of many talents.
("Anytime you make your enemy react irrationally can be worked in your favor. And in this – like so many Inuzuka women before you – I expect you to have plenty of talent."
"I think that's a little harsh, Captain."
"Shut up, you buffoon. You willingly bred with one, therefore your opinion of the Inuzuka women is questionable.")
But she wasn't going to worry about the Raikage's ire. There were more important things at hand, or close to her heart. "So, does it look like I'm going to survive, Doc?"
The head of the medic team, his bald head hidden beneath a handkerchief and gray-blue eyes were covered by amber-colored glasses, dabbed the sweat that gathered at his brow with the back of his sleeve-covered arm. "Oh, you'll definitely live to survive this stupid mistake." Unlike his colleagues, Hekieki hadn't been impressed with how Tsume earned her injuries. Tsume couldn't tell if he was upset with healing a Konoha nin, or if he was always this angry and resentful with everyone. He snapped at and chewed out everyone who did something wrong, lackluster, half-heartedly, or too slowly. Which, so far, included everyone.
Karui was sulking over in the corner, doing her best to stay out of Hekieki's way, and Darui smelled like he was rethinking his decision to stand at Tsume's side and oversee the healing to ensure that no one took advantage of having Tsume's life quite literally in their hands.
"Will I retain full use of everything?"
Hekieki curled his lip at that. "Would you even notice when you don't even have half a brain?"
Tsume managed to check her immediate response of planting her too-large-and-smelly boot into Hekeiki's ribs. The man hadn't been anywhere near her brain. "I meant my arm." Cousin Megumi could totally help Tsume learn how to fight one-armed. "I should be able to recover full function of it, right?"
Hekeiki gave her a look that reeked of disdain. "With as much traumatic damage as you've done to your nerves? Perhaps. But you'll be feeling the pain for a long time to come. Just make sure that once this is healed, you get full rehabilitation and physical therapy for it."
Fair enough. Getting the rehab and therapy would require Tsume to be kept in Konoha, which suited her just fine for more time with her newly increased family, and making sure that Danzo's training was kept to a reasonable level.
The medics didn't completely patch up Tsume – it felt like they only healed her half-way, figuring that it was probably better for everyone all around if she was out of any particularly dangerous zone, but not well enough to be a source of trouble. Healthy ninjas could cause a lot more damage, but Tsume knew that one couldn't accurately calculate the desperation of a wounded shinobi.
When Hekeiki completed his work and dismissed Tsume and her two Kumo companions, Killer B was waiting just outside the door. "Now that you're more stable, the Raikage requires that you come with me to the Tomb." He held out the gigantic coat to her, so she shrugged it on and left the right sleeve dangling loose. He then secured Amatsu in its makeshift sling to her back.
"What's the Tomb?"
Killer B's words were abrupt. "Don't ask."
Oh – it was one of those topics. Okay. Tsume pressed her lips together and vowed to be on her very best behavior. She was aware of all the different scents and eyes that focused upon her as she, Darui, and Karui followed Killer B outside the building and onto one of the glorious sculpted ice bridges. This one spun and rose high in the air, crisscrossing Kumo until it finally ended at the iced-over face of one of the mountain peaks that surrounded Kumo. From what Tsume could tell, Kumo nestled in the V of a small valley, and the residents had tunneled through the surrounding peaks. The snow-covered man-made structures were sharp in angle, almost as if imitating the forms of the peaks, and deep snow filled in all available spaces.
She followed Killer B inside the small opening. The frame of the opening was a half-oval, outlined with what must've been intricately-carved weapons, long worn smooth from a usually-steady wind. Today, in the midst of the freshly-fallen snow and the frigid cold, the world was still. Tsume felt like she was stepping into a mausoleum, and felt justified in thinking so.
The darkness smelled of stale corpses and old death. Tsume boosted her vision slightly, just enough to make out rounded walls and ceiling overhead, also carved with intricate images of weapons and warriors. Here and there, she also saw vague images of multi-tailed beasts. She slowed when she saw a scene of a single human figure surrounded by nine multi-tailed beasts, but Karui prodded her rather painfully in her uninjured side.
"Keep moving, Inuzuka."
Darui's voice brought Tsume's eyes back on her path faster than Karui's words: "It's none of your business."
"Right. I'm sorry." Tsume hurried to catch up to Killer B, who hadn't slowed his wide stride or pace. "Right. No asking questions, no gathering Intel. I know my mission parameters." Tsume mentally replayed the orders from the Hokage and Danzo's stern directions. The hallway opened into a large cavern where dim torches cast weak light. In the muffled echo of their footsteps and the darkness that seemed to swallow everything up, somehow the Hokage's orders crisscrossed with Danzo's directions. She was fairly sure that the Hokage hadn't told her to seduce the Hyuuga, especially on account of how badly the last time she tried to get on the down and low with a Hyuuga went. Her senses felt warped as she became acutely aware of the mountain's untold weight bearing down on her head. She wanted to go back to sunshine and puppies.
"...ume…"
Tsume glanced sharply to her left. The whisper – a distant call of her name – threaded across her senses once again. To the left, she saw wrapped, human-sized cocoons lined up against the wall. Karui prodded her in the back again, making Tsume realized that her steps had slowed once more. "Sorry. Thought I heard something."
Karui was silent for a moment, and then said in a whisper that was swallowed up by the decay, "They say the dead speaks."
"Who says?" Darui's voice was amused.
"Well, them. The dead haunt us, don't they?"
"The dead only haunts us if we allow them to, Karui. They're fed by our imagination and guilt."
Tsume did her best to go through life without guilt, and Aunt Natsumi always said she had a lively and active imagination, but didn't think that she was haunted by the dead. If she were, she figured that there were a few people she wouldn't mind hanging around – Kushina and Minato would be awesome ghosts, she figured. Grandmother Shinzou would be like the worst nightmare ever. Somehow, she'd make Poltergeist-Grandmother haunt Obito.
Something skittered in the dark, like multiple legs scraping lightly against stone.
Rats, Tsume's nose told her. Her imagination gleefully conjured something different. Tsume had long decided that Karui and Darui weren't so bad for being Kumo, so she was really glad they were at her back. This place reminded her too much of Orochimaru's lair when she had stayed behind to help Yamato, and Danzo had remained to protect them from other escaped experiments.
In the distance, at the end of the large cavern, the wall opened into another small hallway. Killer B paused by this, looking back and waiting for his tardy companions. "Sorry," Tsume said.
Killer B remained silent as he led them through the small hall. The walls here were smooth of any adornment. The hall ended at a small room where the Raikage stood with three other men on the other side of a dais, on which a raised wooden table stood.
The Raikage nodded to the table. "This will be the final resting place for Hyuuga-san. We respect him, Inuzuka-san, for protecting his daughter and for defeating a warrior, but respect doesn't diminish the dishonor of your Village killing our diplomatic envoy."
Tsume looked at the wooden table. The dark, cold surroundings seemed like such an awful place to leave the body of a Konoha shinobi. Theirs was a world of sun and trees, of blue sky and warmth. She had never given much thought of what would happen to her remains if she died – rarely gave thought to dying in and of itself – but decided then and there that getting buried in a cave was not how she wanted to go.
But if this is the price I would pay to keep Konoha safe, then it is a price I guess I would gladly pay.
Tsume dipped her hand down her shirt and searched around for the storage scroll that carried Hiashi's twin. Darn thing must've shifted over… "What?" she asked defensively as the Raikage growled in irritation. "I tucked him safely on the left side and it's not the most accessible place when you don't have a right arm, okay?"
Karui prodded Tsume again – no doubt as a reminder to be respectful to the Raikage. She could smell Karui's fear and the Raikage's simmering rage. Well, she was every bit as respectful with the Raikage as she was the Hokage, so it just wouldn't be right to be more respectful, right?
Please, stop thinking.
She mentally drop-kicked the Danzo-voice out of her mind as she finally found and removed what she was searching for. "There we go. Hyuuga-san, just as promised." She felt a fleeting sense of shame when she saw that the storage scroll was smeared with her blood, dried and flaking, marring the otherwise pristine paper. Sorry, Hyuuga-san. She lightly placed the scroll on the table and gestured to the Raikage. "Could you unfold it so I can release the seal?"
Without hesitating, the Raikage stepped forward. His movements were crisp as he unfolded the scroll. Tsume couldn't tell if he didn't believe she'd booby-trap the scroll, or if he expected his guards to immediately dogpile her if he did trigger a trap. Once the scroll was unfolded and lay open before them, the Raikage stepped back once more.
Tsume made a hand-seal and concentrated a moment. She hoped that the old blood was enough to open the storage scroll aaaaaand… nope. It wasn't. With a sigh, she reached back and nicked the tip of her left index finger on Amatsu's edge, and then spread a line of fresh blood across the parchment. The seals on the parchment glowed for a moment as Tsume released the storage, and the body of Hyuuga Hizashi puffed into place. His skin had an ashen pallor – pronounced even more with death – and he wore his brother's robes. The seal on his forehead was hidden beneath the Konoha forehead protector.
On a whim, Tsume reached out to one of the limp hands and gave it a squeeze. It was as cold as the cavern. "Good partings to you." They hadn't been friends, much less acquaintances, in life, but Hizashi was Konoha, and that was good enough for Tsume. Konoha was her territory – she would live and die by it, and so she would live and die by everything and everyone within Konoha's boundaries.
She barred her teeth and snarled at the Raikage as he stepped close. "A moment, sir."
The Raikage's eyes narrowed. Tsume felt his killing spirit like a smothering weight – greater than the mountain above. She held his gaze long enough so that when she turned away, it was a clear indication that she turned away of her own choosing, not because she felt intimidated. She turned her eyes back to Hizashi. She pushed his hair back away from his face – it looked as stern in death as his twin brother's was in life. Hizashi had a young son, Tsume remembered distantly, a son whose mother had died in childbirth six months ago, along with a stillborn daughter.
"Thank you," she told Hizashi sincerely, playing with a lock of his hair for a moment. It was as soft and as silky as she suspected. "Thank you for all that you've done for your Village." This is a rotten way to pay back your loyalty, she thought to herself. She tried to imagine, if she were Hizashi's son, what would she want to know about her father's last moments? What words and descriptions would make that unknown son's heart swell with pride? "You were a fine shinobi, and an even finer father. You did what you could to protect your young. And I swear, upon my mother's heart, that I will make sure your child grows up, knowing that you brought no shame upon your family – no matter what this butthead here might say otherwise," she added, untangling her fingers from Hizashi's hair long enough to jab one toward the Raikage. He growled at her, but she ignored him.
"Huuyga-san," she sang her Clan's prayer for their dead, "we shall speak your name in the sun and the wind, and your memory will live on, with every generation that follows." She was off-tune, again. Oh well. She was Clan Leader because of her herding and territorial instincts, not her singing talents. She took a deep breath, committing Hizashi's scent to memory, and turned back to the Raikage. "He's yours now." Then she stepped away and turned to Killer B. "I don't want to remain here. Please let me go." She huddled in the heavy coat as a chill invaded her bones.
"Go." The Raikage's voice seemed loud and dismissive in the dim light. "Keep her out of trouble, Killer B."
"Yes, brother."
Killer B looped an arm around Tsume's hips and steered her from the Tomb. It would've been more diplomatic to place his arm around her shoulders but that wasn't practical given the extent of her injuries even after the medics saw to her. His hands were firm and were probably warm, but a shiver seized Tsume's muscles. Her right arm ached and burned as they stepped out of the Tomb and entered daylight – bright from all the light reflecting from the stark white. A fresh world; a new world, just waiting to live, with life asleep beneath the deep layers of snow and earth. Tsume felt her eyes sting from more than just the bright light. The air was harsh against her throat as she drew in a deep breath.
"How does a bath sound?" Killer B asked.
Tsume swiped quickly at her stinging eyes. She was still acutely aware of how badly she smelled. As she fussed with the green and yellow yarn tassels on her scarf, Tsume wondered if some of her stench permeated the storage scroll. A quick covert sniff back to the Tomb (easily explained away with her damp eyes) confirmed that she was just being irrational. "Sounds like a good plan."
Besides, the sooner and further away from the Raikage she was when they discovered the seal on Hizashi's forehead, the better.
oOoOoOo
Darui lost his apartment to Killer B in a decisive battle of rock-paper-scissors.
"Huh. Knew I should've gone with paper." Darui and Karui both looked mournfully at his scissors as Killer B radiated smug triumph beside them, his arms crossed before his broad chest. Tsume admired the elegant swan with its spread wings majestically poised over her head, and tried not to be obvious about overhearing her companions.
"I challenge you, sensei!"
"No."
Tsume peeked around the tail feathers to see Karui sulking and kicking at a bit of snow that covered the ice-bridge. "But I don't want to go back home. She's still there."
Tsume focused momentarily on the house most marked with Karui's scent – there was a lurking creature there that turned and hissed when Tsume smelled what was going on. And she could have sworn that there was also a lashing tail and ears pinned back. Well, that was odd. She wasn't used to things being aware when she sniffed them out, much less getting the impression of their general shape.
"Nii shall dote on you endlessly once you tell her how you got dropped off the Great Gorge."
Karui kicked at the snow again, face falling into a pout. "But I don't wanna be smothered, especially when she's going to want to know how I survived." She gave Tsume a sideways glare of resentment.
Darui looped an arm over Karui's shoulders and pulled her along. "But think of how grateful your teammates would be once you rescue them from Nii's clutches." As they veered away the forked path of the ice bridge that spiraled down in an elaborate staircase, Darui tossed something over his shoulder. Killer B caught it with one hand –it was a set of keys that jangled as he stuffed them in his pocket. "Come." He placed one hand against the middle of Tsume's back and applied gentle pressure. "Darui will definitely have more clean towels than I would."
oOoOoOo
Darui's home was a clean, slightly stale from his prolonged absence, and cold apartment dressed up in beige colors. Tsume watched as Killer B made his way through it, restarting the faded heating seals, and also releasing the few simple traps that Darui placed. "The water shouldn't be frozen," he told Tsume over his shoulder, "the building manager makes sure that the pipes remain in working condition all year round."
Tsume figured that the building manager probably didn't want to deal with pissed-off shinobi who just came home from a death-defying mission only to discover that the pipes had frozen and burst open. "Wise man," she said.
"Would you like some help?" Killer B gestured to her arm.
"I should be able to handle the sling by myself. I'll need help scrubbing my back – and you stink too, so you should join me."
"After I get this place warmed up and ready. I'm going to get some food started too, because I'm hungry."
Tsume was glad that Killer B didn't hover as she made her way to the bathroom. It was traditional-styled, which meant she had to wait to fill the tub with hot water as she scrubbed herself down. While the water was running, Tsume rustled up a few buckets and found the soap. She shivered in the cool air as she carefully stripped her dirty clothes off and threw them into a separate bucket with hot water and soap to work some of the crud soaked loose. Darui had originally assisted her in cleaning the blood off her skin and from under her nails after the fight, but little could be done at the time about her clothes.
Tsume carefully looped her scarf over a hook that hung from the nail. Then she nudged her hair. "Hide in the scarf until I'm done with the bath. I'm going to scrub all this filth off, and I don't want any of you to get washed down the drain." She felt a crawling sensation in her scalp as the kikaichu obeyed. One by one, they jumped from her hairline to the scarf. After the kikaichu had settled down, Tsume finished stripping off her clothes and set about washing herself one-handed. It took several buckets and a lot of soap before she felt clean. Her hair squeaked as she wrung water out of it. By the time Tsume was ready to slip into the now-filled tub, Killer B politely knocked and then entered the room.
"Still want your back scrubbed?"
He smelled nervous, as if half-expecting her to change her mind. Tsume kept her back turned towards him as she offered the sponge over her shoulder. "Sure." His hands were gentle as he rubbed her back. Wide sweeping strokes in the areas that hurt the least had tension leaving her body as she turned to limp putty in his hands.
"Hmmm. Where've you been all my life?"
"Way up north." Killer B carefully rinsed her off.
"Need me to get your back?"
He chuckled. "I think you're better off getting into the tub before you fall over on me."
The tub looked rather inviting, all things considering. Tsume slipped into the steaming water with a happy little sigh. She leaned against the far edge of the tub, draping her right arm with a clunk over the edge where water wouldn't reach the plaster, and rested her chin beside it. She closed her eyes and increased the chakra at her nose as Killer B scrubbed himself. She concentrated on her surroundings, taking note of who and what was present. As Killer B slid into the water beside her, smelling infinitely better than when they first arrived at Kumo, Tsume increased her olfaction even more.
Across the wide, mostly-empty, cold expanse of the north, it was easy to find Shikotan. It was harder to find Naruto now that Jiraiya had tweaked the seal, nor was it easy to find the others amidst the putrid stench – there was blood, though, lots of fresh blood and the rank odor of fear that thankfully didn't belong to any of her teammates. Tsume opened her eyes and stared at the bathroom wall. She didn't dare go to her maximum level with her current level of injury.
"What are you thinking?" Killer B's voice was a soft purr as she felt a hand stroking her shoulders.
"Nothing much." ("Simpleton Tsume…" "I'd ask what you're thinking, but that would require you to have a valid thought in the first place…" "That's the problem – you don't think!") "I'm just sitting here, wondering what my children are doing." Hana and Kabuto would be on winter break, working with the puppies under Yukina and Oyubi's guidance. It was about time for them to choose their partners – later in life than was traditional to be assigned partners, but Tsume hadn't had the ninken to spare until now. Tsume wasn't going to let herself worry about Naruto and Kiba – not yet, anyway. Not until she was more healed and closer to Shikotan.
"Tired?"
Tsume took note of her current level of energy. She felt drained, especially after handing over the body of her fellow Konoha nin, and really didn't feel up to having sex right now. She felt unduly grateful that Killer B was offering her a temporary out. "Yes. I think I should get some rest first."
Killer B slid one hand up her left arm, and planted a kiss against the crook of her neck. "Understood." Tsume turned to face him, and struggled to keep her face relaxed and neutral –something otherly flashed behind Killer B's uncovered eyes, and she felt like she was being scrutinized by something vast, ancient and hungry. It seemed to swell as she leaned forward and pressed a dry kiss against the tip of Killer B's freshly-shaved chin. "It will be much better when I'm rested," she whispered as a thrill raced up and down her spine. She wanted to be the sole focus of that other presence.
"Undoubtedly."
oOoOoOo
The pallet smelled of Darui and wasn't too comfortable, but it had six blankets, which was sufficient in keeping Tsume nice and toasty through the night. Killer B, resting on a pallet that he had pushed up beside hers, only had one small blanket. He wasn't cold or asleep, but Tsume still felt like she was being watched by something very large and very hungry. It had to be the Hachibi. After she wriggled around to find a comfortable spot where her right arm and shoulder didn't ache as much (no pillow for her knees, no extra pillows for her head, none for her ankles – man, she hated roughing it), she reached out and touched the exposed skin on Killer B's neck with her right hand. He immediately turned to face her.
In the darkness, Killer B's eyes were shadowed, but Tsume still thought she saw the great tailed beast lurking just beyond, watching her with an intensity that she had never felt before. She wanted to reach out and touch the Hachibi, to pry its mind open and see what made it tick. If she could understand just a little about the eight-tailed beast, maybe she could gain a better understanding of the nine-tailed beast.
"I think you're remarkable," Tsume told Killer B.
He raised his eyebrows at that. "I wasn't expecting to be told that. 'Remarkable' isn't a word often associated with me."
She clumsily traced his jaw in the dark. The hinged arm brace that Hekieki had stuck her was light and flexible, but also made her more prone at bumping her arm against things because of its swing. "You and the Hachibi don't seem to be in conflict." She didn't think that Kushina and the Kyuubi had been as close – Tsume had never seen or sensed anything otherly about Kushina. At least not that she could remember, which left Kushina with a lot of latitude to be otherly. "And you actually seem peaceful with the Hachibi. It's so remarkable to me."
Killer B propped himself up on one arm. The blanket fell back to reveal etched muscles wrapping a strong torso. Tsume fought down the urge to see if that six-pack was as hard as it looked. "You realize that now you know my secret, I have to kill you."
Since Tsume couldn't smell any threat or danger, she gave into her urge. Yup, the muscles were as hard as she thought. His abdomen twitched beneath her questing hand. "We're talking the little death, right? How do you two get along so well?"
He touched a spike of her still-damp hair, twirling and twisting it around his index finger. His eyes became shadowed for a moment with something that looked like regret. "Your son is the jinchuuriki for the nine-tails."
Tsume froze, and then she carefully pulled her arm back as her mind worked frantically. The Hokage had warned her about this. She felt the pit of her stomach drop as she imagined little Naruto chained and dragged across the countryside with nine Kumo nin, and then she vowed that she would kill anyone who got between her and her child. Never again will I abandon Kushina's son. He's mine now. Mine mine mine. "Did I say something when I was hurting really badly?" Her foot-to-mouth filter always seemed to disappear when she was injured but felt safe, and she felt very safe in Killer B's company.
"You're becoming angry. Please don't be angry." He attempted to smooth down her wild hair. "I only know because like recognizes like – although Naruto probably didn't know why we seem so alike. It's just that he has something that I always wished I had – a loving mother. I won't allow the Raikage to take that away from him." He grinned to lighten the mood, but Tsume thought she saw a flash of fangs momentarily superimposed over his.
If Killer B had no desire to pry Naruto and Tsume apart, and he had given his word that he wouldn't allow the Raikage to separate the two, then that meant that it was best to capture mother and son. Which meant that she would likely never be allowed to leave Kumo. Huh. This particular scenario had never occurred to her or the Hokage.
To distract Killer B from her suspicions, Tsume reached out to his abdomen again and stroked it lightly. "You didn't have a loving mother?"
"I was an orphan when I was chosen. I had no one."
What a lonely, unloving life. Tsume sensed a world of loss and pain lurking beneath Killer B's words. That could've been Naruto. She dropped her hand lower, and felt bold as her questing fingers stroked his length. She felt it engorge more at her deft touch. "No child should feel abandoned." Even though Shinzou had been unnecessarily cruel, Tsume had still found refuge and love with Hidarime, Shinchuu, Aunt Natsumi, Oyubi, and a variety of cousins.
"This hardly seems to be a conversation if you're feeling well-rested for other activities." Killer B leaned forward to kiss a trail from Tsume's hairline to the line of her jaw, and then back to her lips. His mouth felt hot against her skin, and she felt the other presence loom over her like a rolling fog. He carefully kept his weight off her injured side.
"Fair enough." Besides, she wanted to see if the Hachibi's presence would make itself a little more known if Killer B's barriers dropped during sex or orgasm.
Killer B pushed the covers away from Tsume. The air was cold but not frigid as it caressed her bare skin, tightening nipples and making the hair on her arms stand on end. His hand was deliciously warm as he traced one breast, thumb flicking against her nipple. "How do we want to do this?" he asked between kisses. "I don't want to hurt you."
It seemed like it was the first time anyone had ever told Tsume that. She felt her eyes sting for just a moment before she pushed the emotions down. Her mind flitted to several different positions, but she rejected most of them on the basis of requiring more flexibility than what her arm could afford her. "Lay down and let me be on top." That would keep the pressure off her limb and torso.
He grinned. "So, you feel up to riding me again, do you?" The presence of the Hachibi, lurking just beneath the surface – it reminded Tsume uncomfortably of the void that always seemed to follow at her footsteps, just waiting for a chance to slither beneath her – gave her a heady, bold buzz. The thought of mounting Killer B as the Hachibi's lightening chakra flickered across her skin sent a bolt of pleasure through her body.
She sat upright so she could push against his chest with her left hand. "Of course. I have a horse named Juubi, so I'm quite experienced with powerful beasts between my knees."
"He's real?" Killer B allowed himself to be pushed down. "I thought the Bingo Entry was a joke." Tsume slid a bare leg over his as she shoved more of the covers back. Stupid things felt like they were trying to smother her.
"He terrorizes Konoha. Even Sakumo is kind of wary of Juubi, and Danzo really doesn't like Juubi." Tsume kept the fact that Danzo didn't like anyone who wasn't the Hokage, Sakumo, or Kagami to herself as she wiggled around until she was seated across Killer B's pelvis. His erection felt hot against her cool skin. Killer B ran his hands along her torso, fingers skimming against the scar on her lower abdomen, before he reached up and kneaded both breasts carefully. There was a smattering of blue and purple bruising present on her left breast and side, but it didn't hurt when he touched. Contact with her breasts stopped feeling sexual and no longer excited Tsume as it once did after breastfeeding two children, but men always seemed to enjoy looking and feeling, and the smell of their arousal did more for her desire than the touching ever did.
Tsume braced her left hand on the mat beside Killer B's head and undulated her hips against his. She loved the way his expression changed and how he placed his hands on her hips, enjoying the languid movement and the curling pull of arousal in her pelvis. "I could do this all night," she whispered as she leaned forward and nipped his jaw.
"I wish you would." He slipped a hand between them to fondle her, fingers seeking and sliding. Tsume shifted her hips forward, and then mounted Killer B fully. He was comfortably wide and she was wet enough to enjoy the friction as she tossed her head back and grinned. Killer B's breath hitched at that – she felt his chakra flare and the simmering presence of the Hachibi spike. She watched his face carefully as he closed his eyes and let his head fall backwards. The two chakras flexed and mingled, one cresting as the other rose.
The only sound for several long moments was skin slapping against slick skin as Tsume leaned forward and braced herself. Killer B gripped her hips and moved his with more power. She felt her eyes roll back as the shifted angle let him hit that sweet spot. Heat swept through her body, momentarily pushing the pain back. His eyes flew open as she nipped his jaw, and she gasped.
The pupils weren't round.
She dropped her left arm, shifting her weight from her hand to her elbow so she could run her fingers through his hair. It was damp from their earlier bath and now from sweat, which was starting to bead at his forehead. Killer B wasn't the only one watching her as she dragged her fingers over his brow, the bridge of his nose, and then traced his lips. As she followed through with an opened-mouth kiss, she tightened her vaginal muscles and tilted her pelvis.
Killer B surged against her, almost sitting upright as he dug his nails into her skin. Power coursed around her, the smell of demon flooding her nose as ying and yang chakra flared. She felt her seal burning beneath her toenail, and was momentarily distracted as she forced it down, struggling to keep it from blooming open and ripping more chakra from her to feed its own dark strength. Killer B's growl was inhuman as his hands dropped away from her hips to grasp her buttocks, squeezing and pinching.
The change in position made fresh waves of pain wash through Tsume's body – pleasure doused like a fire beneath a downpour of rain. Determined that at least one person/creature/hybrid would have fun, Tsume squeezed her muscles again and watched as the curving eyes focused on her. She kissed Killer B again, the cloying stench of sexual arousal and the Hachibi nearly blocking all other scents, but he still tasted human. She pressed her left hand against his chest and felt the vibration of his heart beneath her fingertips.
Killer B's movements took on a sense of urgency. She smelled the spike of his pheromones as his arousal reached for its peak. She pulled her mouth away from his so she could press her face against his shoulder, teeth scraping his skin. She wondered if she was the only one who saw the eight-tailed demon in sex, or if Killer B just didn't have sex with anyone because it wasn't a rare occurrence. The grip on her buttocks tightened painfully as he came with a harsh grunt that almost sounded like he was uttering a name, hips jerking against her own.
Tsume braced her upper body with her left hand as Killer B collapsed backwards. The cool air made the hair on her body prickle, so she carefully laid down beside him and pulled all of her covers over her body. Killer B rolled into his side so he could brush some of Tsume's wild locks off her face. "Did I hurt you? It's not usually over that fast for me."
"I'm fine." He looked downcast anyway, so Tsume shoved a foot from under her blanket so she could slide it up his leg. "Well, you know, now we have to do this again, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke." The coarse hairs that covered his skin made her foot itch, so she rubbed it against him for a satisfying scratch. "I take it that sneaking out of Kumo so we could meet up and have a secret torrid affair will be out of the question."
Killer B grinned. "Unlikely to happen. You'll just have to become some sort of diplomatic envoy more often."
"I think that Konoha and Kumo would catch on sooner or later if your Head Jounin kept going around kidnapping innocent little toddlers. It'll get to the point where you'll have parents up in arms every time anyone from Kumo was in the general vicinity."
"That could get awkward, yes."
They continued to talk about meaningless things, voices growing softer as sleep stole over them, faster for Killer B than for Tsume.
Just before she drifted off, Tsume allowed herself to wonder why Killer B had called her firefly.
oOoOoOo
That morning, before Killer B awoke, Tsume finally managed to completely mute her seal. She hoped that Killer B wouldn't notice anything too different, maybe chalk it up as a side effect of sleeping with her, but it was an incredible relief to finally silence the damn thing. The mornings after were usually let-downs after you realized what the person looked like in the harsh brightness of daylight-tinged reasoning. She shoved off the blankets and padded softly to the bathroom, shivering in the cool air. She managed to find her clothes, still slightly damp after Killer B washed them, but dressed in them anyway after cleaning between her legs. She was gratified to smell clean with clothes that only had a few stubborn bloodstains remaining.
She couldn't secure Minato's forehead protector to her arm as she preferred, so she knotted the ends with her teeth and left fingers so she could loop it around her neck like a lasso. She figured she could kick anyone who might take advantage of it and strangle her. Once her morning ablutions were completed, she made her way into the kitchen. Killer B was awake and stirring as she poked around Darui's supplies.
The more she thought of it, the more she realized that she was probably in tremendous trouble. Technically speaking, Killer B had probably saved Tsume's life by keeping her sheltered and tended to after her extensive injuries. In the morning light, where the void seemed the furthest from her, Tsume felt slightly ridiculous for thinking that everything pointed to the very strong possibility that she and Naruto would be kept, but so far the only thing that had gone right with her mission was the successful delivery of Hyuuga-san.
As far-fetched as the suspicion seemed, Tsume knew that she couldn't just ignore it.
What would Danzo do? Well, that was always a simple formula to go by. Make sure to sneak away with the least amount of fuss and notice, and then not get caught. Danzo was all about subtlety – warfare that combined stealth, finesse, and manipulation over flashy and powerful. Finesse was something that Tsume was notoriously lacking in, and she couldn't even make up for the lack of such with flashy and/or powerful techniques. If she did try sneaking away, Tsume knew that there was no way she'd be able to survive the trek through the cold and the snow without needed supplies, so she'd have to steal those and storage scrolls to seal items safely.
Theft didn't exactly fall under the list of things that would make this mission a failure, but it also required Tsume to go looking for such scrolls, which could easily be misconstrued as looking for Intel. That was definitely on the list of no-no's that Tsume had been forced to memorize.
Maybe being subtle and sneaking out wasn't the way to escape. The more Tsume tried to think of doing what other people would do, it failed to include the fact that other people were limited by their fears. The only thing that Tsume was limited by was the need not to start a war that the Hokage had explicitly ordered her not to start. So it was probably best to play out events by ear. The likelihood of being kept by Kumo was probably just a symptom that she was obsessing too much over inconsequential statements, like building a Hokage monument out of a child's pile of sand.
After all, there were a lot of people in Konoha who didn't like Tsume, so why did she find it necessary to think that a hostile village would want her way more than her own village?
Besides, Tsume knew that nothing short of death would keep her away from her children and her Village. After all, Amatsu wasn't the only deadly weapon that Aunt Natsumi had given to her. If it came down to it, Tsume was prepared to unleash hell, and no one – not even Kumo – could stand against such an assault.
additional notes: When I wrote the scenes between Killer B and Tsume, I realized that this is probably the healthiest sexual relationship that Tsume will have in her entire life. Which kinda sad. But also really nice of Killer B, because he's a decent sort of guy.