Fate

by PancakeFlying

The Kanbayashi were supposed to die, wiped out and never mourned because in the eyes of the world, they never existed. That is not what happens, nor what should have happened. A black alien creature came for them and burned everything they loved to the ground; Sachi, against all odds, survives when she wouldn't have. This will change everything. [Fem!OC] [Fix-it fic]

16. Trials & Tribulations

Beated by Windschatten.

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CHAPTER 16: TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS

The Chūnin Exams were a month and a half away. Genin teams were training hard to be in the best shape possible to enhance their chances at being promoted. Or, if not, then to at least be seen and noticed. Taking missions, heavy conditioning, studying… That was the routine for those intending to take the Exams.

Team Two was on a vacation. Or something like that.

Orochimaru had asked Team Two what they knew about summons, which they had answered with the typical explanation that everyone had heard at one point or another.

Summons were spirits that took the shape of animals, more often than not belonging to a clan themselves, and equipped with a certain number of skills or knowledge that humans might wish to employ. In that case, if one passed their trials, a contract was made to bond summon and human.

"Don't believe summons have human morals," Orochimaru had warned them. "Do not trust them until you sign the contract, and always set clear and strict boundaries."

Team Two was somewhat familiar with their sensei's summons. Yasu visited them often enough, and even though she was slightly cordial, they knew better than to cross her. Kōshoku was the same. In the brief talk they had to thank him for saving them, he had dismissed them instantly.

"I do not serve your kind," he had hissed sharply. "Your gratitude means nothing to me."

Summons were not unusual in shinobi or older clans, but it wasn't common either. Leaf was an exception since it had gathered several clans with powerful bonded spirits; such as the Yamata, the Hatake or even the Sarutobi. However, they all employed Sage Spirits.

"Sage Spirits are a group of summoning clans that have settled in our world ever since the coming of Hagoromo," Sachi had explained. "Snakes, Slugs, Toads, Monkeys and Wolves are a few examples, although there are several branching clans and families with their own influence and power. The title of Sage indicates the ability of using the natural chakra from our world, senjutsu, but that doesn't mean they are willing to use it to aid humans or protect this world."

"But when they do, you gain their assistance," Orochimaru added. "It doesn't mean it will automatically make you stronger, or allow you to behave recklessly. It is a symbiotic bond, and summons will ask for something in return."

That conversation had happened three weeks ago and that very same night, they had packed, said their goodbyes, and set off for the Land of Marshes.

"We will take a longer route," Orochimaru told them when they embarked at Asahikawa Port, in Noodle Country. "Water Country may attack us otherwise."

Kasui feels… cozy sailing through the deep saltwaters. There is something about the salt and the scent of fresh water lulling him into a sense of security. He had never seen the sea or ocean before, born in the middle of Fire Country, but he couldn't deny the surge of kinship when they left the land.

They crossed the Kanashii Ocean first. Crystal clear waters with a bright emerald sheen he had only seen in sunlit grass. "Don't lean over too much," Sachi warned him. "If the water sings to you, don't listen to it."

Kasui ignored her. The Kanashii Ocean was welcoming. Kind, if he were to put a name to the feeling of warmth that bubbled in him.

They hadn't paid anything for the trip, which meant that they had to earn their keep or be dropped off at the next port. They aided the fishermen in throwing their nets, salted the fish and kept them cool. However, they were mainly needed for protection, in case Water decided to attack them.

Kasui couldn't help but think that he would rather live near the ocean. That thought had passed through his mind as they came to a port on O'Uzu Island, changing ships to finish the last trek to the Land of Marshes.

The ports were colorful and alive. The houses bundled together, made of stone and clay tiles for roofs. There wasn't a moment of silence either. Seagulls crooning and cooing, the voices of the fishermen and crew yelling in the harbour, the songs that came from the pubs…

"The sails, grip the sails!"

The Kaijuu Ocean hadn't been so gentle. It was greedy, and it took, and it took, and it took. Kasui had been compelled to take a dive in the Kanashii waters, but in the Kaijuu he had tied himself to the main mast and prayed the ocean didn't swallow him. Harsh. Bold. Terrifying.

And it raged.

Kasui remembers the thunder and furious crackle of the storms. The howl of the gales and the violent waves that shook the ship to her core. Kasui had seen a lightning bolt strike the water and he was certain that the ocean had pulled the light out of the sky by sheer will alone.

Anko had spent those storms hurdling over a bucket and throwing up everything until her very first milk.

"Just look at that…"

Nevertheless, as feral and untamed as the Kaijuu Ocean was, it also held a delicate beauty. During one of the few quiet nights they were blessed with, a moonless one, the water had been far from a mantle of darkness.

The Kaijuu Ocean might devour the light, but at night, some of it was freed to illuminate the surface. Scintillating green and glittering blue that only appeared when the ship made ripples, shy minute stars that greeted them before fading away for good.

(Sachi had told him it was due to bioluminescent algae, but she needed to shut up.)

There were predators in the water. During their journey they had sighted a pod of orcas, and they had been invisible until the moment they appeared at the side of their ship. The black smoothness of their skin, only disturbed by those wide splashes of white, gave them an ominous appearance. He had seen their black fins raise like knives before cutting into the water as they went under.

What he remembers most from that encounter was how Sachi had been very close to tears then, a heartbroken expression as she listened to the clicks and whistles of the whales. The orcas behaved as if they in turn had recognized her, puffing air and spraying water, but Sachi hadn't shared their joy. Kasui hated to see how Sachi had seemed very far away from them.

"The orcas… Do you know who the god of the saltwaters is?" she had asked them when the whales left, only after she let a few droplets of her blood fall into the water and murmured words he hadn't been able to make out. "The true one, that is."

"The Sage, obviously," Anko answered, recovered from her seasickness. "The Sage of Six Paths Hagoromo is the God that created all things and beings. Indra, the Sage's first son, is the god of shinobi, and Asura is the god of civilians."

Or that's what they had learned. Sachi shook her head, and began telling them about a myth.

"There were other gods before Hagoromo, from the Old Pantheon." They hadn't known what that meant, and so they asked her. "The Old Pantheon refers to the original gods of this world. Hagoromo might have been powerful, but he… he is not a true god."

A heretic belief, which would have been funny had Sachi not been heavily solemn. "Cipak-kamuy was the god of wisdom, and Pauchi-kamuy the god of insanity," she said, those names sounding so foreign to their ears, but familiar to her. "Hasinaw-uk, the Lady of the Hunt and her sister, Fuchi-kamuy, goddess of the hearth. Shiramba-kamuy the god of the earth with Repun-kamuy as the god of the saltwaters…" she trailed off.

"Repun…? What kind of name is that?" Anko questions "What did it look like?"

"He was a giant, an orca so ancient and so colossal that his fin was as tall as a mountain, and his tail wider than a valley. He keeps the waters safe, sinking those unworthy and blessing those that deserved it," Sachi paused, unsure if to go on. They tell her to continue. "He… he was not a kind god, and neither should he have been. His back was pierced with harpoons and spears, hooks and arrows lodged in his skin. Embedded with shards and splinters from masts and bowsprit, tangled with sails and shrods. They were all proof of his battles, against those foolish enough to expect a submissive sea without giving something else in return."

Sachi was silent for a long while; Anko and Kasui not daring to utter a word to break the revenant silence that followed after. "The Old Gods… they are gone now."

"Gone? As in… dead? How can a god be dead?"

(When they are forgotten.)

"Gone, but not dead," she rectified. "They are still here, but they don't answer prayers anymore."

(There wasn't a need for them anymore.)

"And they worshiped him? This Repun god?"

"We— They did, some still do. The price of wronging the god of the saltwaters is paid in teeth." Sachi points to the crew around them, missing a few teeth but only the canines. "Doesn't mean you will be forgiven though."

It was Sachi's tone that made it unsettling; respectful but nostalgic. But then again Sachi could be creepy like that sometimes. Telling them stories that made no sense to them. Kasui was more inclined to believe the Eight Tailed Beast was the god of the ocean, but religion had never been of use to him.

It didn't matter, because the next morning, they arrived at the Land of Marshes.

They wave off the crew and captain, deciding to walk the last stretch instead of waiting for the ship to get close to the shore. The captain had been reluctant since the Land of Marshes didn't have a good reputation, but they assured her that they would return.

Anko, Kasui and Sachi are running over the water, laughing and playing together as they cross the ocean. They have to be mindful of the curious sharks and the fish underneath the soles of their feet, but the children jump and slide over the waves as they go.

"Don't drown," Orochimaru advises them as he sees Anko and Kasui wrestling, trying to make the other lose their chakra control until one falls into the water. It was Anko, but Orochimaru was pleased to know that her control had gotten better.

They come closer to the Land of Marshes, catching sight of the shore and the volcanic top. It was a mess of green and brown; only revealing a strip of the stark white sand as they got closer. Orochimaru doesn't have time to linger too long when he feels a wet slap hitting him from behind.

"You," he hisses, seeing Sachi holding the fish she had just slapped him with. It was still very much alive.

Sachi cackles like a witch. "Loosen up, sensei! At least the fish didn't bite you, just look at its teeth! Wait, no, don't, plea— Aurghlgh." Orochimaru pulls Sachi from the water by the scruff of her neck, the girl spitting saltwater. "I... hate you."

"Sensei! C'mon! We got things to do!" Anko and Kasui are shouting at them from the beach. "Hurry it up!"

Orochimaru throws Sachi into an upcoming wave, using a shunshin to get to his only two respectable students. "You're eager."

"We want to take the Chūnin Exams this year, so yeah," Anko says, immensely grateful to be back on solid ground. "We have only a week to get summons before we need to get back, right? Better to hurry it up."

"I don't believe you will have problems finding a summon," he amends, Kasui dragging Sachi from the water in the background. "The trials will be another matter."

They listen, catching on to his serious tone. Orochimaru had trained them to listen to his commands like dogs, which made him strangely proud. Even Sachi, twisting her clothes to get the water out, looks at him and waits. "You will need to do this mission separately. I do not care about the outcome of your trials as long as you are not dead. If you fail to show up in exactly seven days from now on, I will assume you have perished and leave without you."

They nod. "We will complete it."

He shrugs. "You will. I will not be able to help you even if you need it. You are on your own."

The Land of Marshes towers before them, savage and wild. A week doesn't seem that long until you truly consider the fact that no regular human has ever escaped these marshes alive. This land belonged to the summons, and those spirits were not appreciative of human visitors. Orochimaru looks at his students, seeing them lean their foreheads against one another in what he had seen Inuzuka do with their ninken.

They were saying goodbye, and something dark and selfish churns his stomach when he fully realizes that it could be the last time they are together. When they turn to him, the heavy feeling of farewell is replaced by determination.

"Don't disappoint me," he tells them, finding the urge to briefly pat their heads before they leave. They barely reach his ribs, so small but far from helpless. He had made sure they weren't. "I will be waiting."

"Yes, sensei."

Orochimaru watches until the last of them disappears inside the marshes.

From there, he waits.

Back in Leaf, the Hokage is about to end the meeting about the Chūnin Exams.

"In summary," he says, the whole room listening. "The first stage will involve a team infiltration mission. We will stage the three-man battles in the Forest of Death and then the individual tournament for the third stage. Does someone have any other suggestions?" All the jōnin sensei remain silent. "It's settled then."

It was more routine than anything else. The Chūnin Exams were held once a year, and it was an important event if only because it allowed the Daimyō and the Hokage to see the state of their newest recruits. It was a display of their strength, showcasing their abilities for the village as well as the spies that undoubtedly watched from among the onlookers.

This is why they kept the schedule of the Chūnin Exams a secret; only the jōnin instructors knew about the tests and when they took place.

"Permission to speak, Hokage-sama," Hizashi lifts a hand, and the Hokage nods towards him. "Have all the current team genin been entered in the Exams?"

The Hokage was fully aware why Hizashi was asking. All the jōnin sensei needed to be present when they organized the Chūnin Exams. Regardless of whether they let their team take the Exams or not. There were over a hundred instructors there, and yet, one of them was clearly missing.

"Yes, they have," the Hokage lies.

Hiruzen had been woken up by one of Orochimaru's summons a few weeks ago. Kōshoku, if he wasn't mistaken. And the note he'd been given had said:

'I'm leaving with them for two months.'

A very modest notice, even for Orochimaru. Ever since the ambush, Team Two has been like smoke, Hiruzen only catching glimpses of them whenever they came to report after their missions before they disappear immediately after. Hiruzen is torn between the relief that comes from knowing that Orochimaru takes his team seriously and the concern for Team Two growing too fast.

Hiruzen allowed Orochimaru to take bounties, knowing that he was training his students to kill and then claiming them as his. And, judging by the reports, they were good at it too. It wasn't unheard of, although rare, for jōnin sensei to prepare their students for the darkest parts of being a shinobi but… not quite so thoroughly.

In spite of the Hokage's moral conflict, he hadn't forbidden Orochimaru from continuing to bend the unspoken rules about how to teach his team. A week before they suddenly left, Orochimaru had requested safe conducts for him and his students to travel overseas. Hiruzen had signed them, but it had struck him how very odd it was for Orochimaru to ask for such a thing.

The Hokage felt guilty of indulging his student, but he was beginning to regret it as he wondered just what was on the other side of the ocean Orochimaru was taking his students to.

There was no news about Team Two's whereabouts. Hiruzen wouldn't put it past Orochimaru to not send him a single note. Even if it was to let the Hokage know that they are alive. But he worried nonetheless. Ashi was restless too, which manifested in her coming by his office every so often to ask if there were any updates.

"Anything else?" the Hokage asks the room, sensing the mistrust among the other instructors.

Orochimaru wasn't in many people's good graces, which extended to his students by proxy. The ambush of Team Two's first assassination mission has brought unwanted attention upon them, and among it there was also resentment. Which was a shame, but with Orochimaru's ruthless reputation as well as his clan's history people shunned him. Although it also brought about some sort of morbid curiosity, to see what kind of team the Sannin would train them to be.

Orochimaru's absence had been noted by everyone, and the Hokage was certain that rumours would begin to spread the moment the meeting ended. The fact that Orochimaru of the Sannin wasn't in the room could mean that he either wasn't in the village or that he couldn't be bothered to attend because he wouldn't put his team in the Exams. Both scenarios offered more than enough to gossip about and Hiruzen can already feel the headache forming.

"No, Hokage-sama."

"Very well. You mustn't tell your students anything that was discussed here, and to minimize pointless casualties you ought to enter only those that have a chance in passing the Exams," the Hokage warns. "Dismissed."

The jōnin leave, even Dan who excuses himself to speak with the head of Administration to offer his report of the meeting.

Everyone but Namikaze Minato.

"Minato-kun?" the Hokage asks when he notices him lingering at the door. "Is there something you need?"

"Ah… yes, Hokage-sama," he begins. "It's about my team."

The Hokage was acquainted with Minato because of Jiraiya. The boy had been part of Jiraiya's first team, and they had interacted briefly in the past. From what Hiruzen had gathered, Minato was a prodigy among prodigies, and quickly becoming one of their very best shinobi. His almost demure personality was but a trap that hid his outstanding abilities. It was… odd to find someone so skilled and yet so reserved.

"Your team as in Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin?"

Team Seven was another peculiar team. Hiruzen couldn't keep Kakashi in the Genin Corps any longer, especially after Danzō had shown his interest in him. The Uchiha boy was another oddity, a sharingan user so young and without a good shield to protect him. Nohara Rin was all but a necessity, considering that an Uchiha was in the team. She had been just behind Team Two in terms of her academic grades, and had reportedly inherited the good chakra control of the Nohara family.

It was a good team, at least in terms of overall skills and abilities. However, Minato's deep frown told a different story.

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Minato says, sheepish to even address the issue. "I am… unsure about how to handle my students, since they… don't really get along."

The Hokage blinks, surprised. "Is there any sort of conflict outside of usual competitiveness between the members?"

Minato rubs the back of his head, a nervous tick. "Oh, they are competitive, it's just… Kakashi is so far ahead from Obito and Rin that I'm unsure about signing all of them up for the Exams."

"Is it truly that grave?"

Hiruzen had read the reports of Minato's team, and he had noticed some sort of… dissonance between the members, even if it wasn't out of the ordinary. Genin took a while to get accustomed to each other, and their respective personalities could influence their dynamic greatly. Sometimes, that was enough for the team to be split up. An unfortunate fate, since those genin usually ended up in the Genin Corps, which for many meant a life of difficulty if they wished to climb up the ranks.

Minato meanwhile gathered his thoughts. "Kakashi is a genius, and he is hard-working, but he fails to understand the necessity of teamwork. I won't deny that he is very skilled, and he learns quickly, but… he has no interest in working with his teammates or bonding with them," he sighs, defeated. "Obito and Rin get along fine, but then Obito tries to fight Kakashi because he dislikes his attitude, and Rin is left to restore peace between them…"

"... I see," the Hokage remarks dryly. "Have any of your students reached out to you about this?"

"Rin, mostly. She's sensitive to other's feelings and has picked up on the problems between Kakashi and Obito. She has tried to talk with Kakashi, but he has expressed his desire to… 'keep it professional'. And Obito is unwilling to listen to any of us."

Kakashi was only twelve years old, but he had always been precocious. Hiruzen mourns the fact that his father killed himself and left his son to fend for himself. He can't imagine what kind of mindset Sakumo must have had in his last months, but the fact remained that it had seriously impacted Kakashi. One can't even imagine what kind of anguish that child must have gone through when he found the corpse of his father and then bury him by himself.

Because Kakashi had graduated so early, at eight years old, he didn't reach the minimum age requirement of twelve for being selected for a genin team. Kakashi went into the Genin Corps, a decision Hiruzen had been very careful to make public in order to avoid Kakashi… disappearing between the cracks of their system.

But, Hiruzen could ruefully admit that this decision might have scarred him further. The Genin Commander had informed the Hokage about Kakashi bullying the other genin, even the older ones, and monopolizing all the missions for himself. Hiruzen guessed that it was the boy's attempt at impressing his superiors to allow him to go into a genin team, as Kakashi had bargained with the Genin Commander. The result was a considerable mission count in D and C ranked missions, which came with the type of hard earned experience that Obito and Rin couldn't hope to match.

"I can… understand Kakashi's goal to become a high ranking shinobi," Minato confessed, speaking as a child that had been one of the youngest to reach tōkubetsu jōnin. "He knows he has enough skill for it, but he lacks meaningful bonds."

"That is concerning," the Hokage agrees. "The Will of Fire is something we pride ourselves in, as shinobi from the Hidden Village in the Leaves. Incredible skill without a sense of loyalty is meaningless to everyone but the shinobi in question."

A shinobi only working for and by himself is a threat. Hiruzen was aware that the life of shinobi stunted one's emotions and twisted the morals, but he had seen what a 'perfect shinobi' looked like and how they performed. Hiruzen didn't want perfect soldiers.

(Their eyes were hollow, husks of a person. Only good for killing.)

"I know, Hokage-sama, but… I don't know how to help my students. Kakashi is pushing his teammates to participate in the exams because he wants to be promoted to chūnin on his first try. But Obito and Rin are nowhere near that level. Obito… he has enough abilities, but his temper and lack of foresight tends to get the better of him and Rin… She is a good kunoichi, and she performs well enough but she needs to work on her strength," Minato says in a rush. "I… I apologize, Hokage-sama. I do not wish my students to be hurt, and the Chūnin Exams can be dangerous for those who come unprepared but I don't know if Kakashi…"

Leaf shinobi worked in units from the moment they left the Academy. The purpose of genin teams was to create bonds, which are meant to ensure that each and every teammate is looked after. This has served Leaf well, their units going far and beyond to not leave their teammates behind, and thus avoiding deaths that other villages considered a given.

If Kakashi failed to build trust towards his teammates, no one would be willing to work with him. Hiruzen could sympathize with Kakashi, living by himself with no real support and fending off unknown threats that came with being a young shinobi that promised great potential. It would frustrate anyone, but Obito and Rin shouldn't be forced to deal with a teammate that would use them as a stepping stone instead of standing alongside them.

"I hear your concerns, Minato-kun. It is a good thing that you have brought this to my attention, and I can advise you on how to proceed, but you are their sensei," the Hokage reminds him. Jōnin instructors were meant to look after their teams, even when some proved to be more troublesome than others. "If you believe Obito and Rin aren't fit for the Exams, you can withdraw their team, but I fear that it will drive a deeper wedge between them and Kakashi."

That is what Minato was afraid of. Another year spent as genin could mean hell for Kakashi, but it might be what Obito and Rin needed. It was a difficult decision, but Hiruzen wouldn't stand for sacrifices. Obito and Rin could become good shinobi for their village, and although Kakashi was a genius, it shouldn't cost the careers of the rest of his team.

"... thank you, Hokage-sama. I'll bear that in mind," he bows deeply, but his features are still tense.

And then, Hiruzen has an idea. "Team Seven… their problem is teamwork, is that correct?"

"Yes."

"I might… have a suggestion," Hiruzen begins. "Genin teams often have some internal problems, but I am aware of another team whose problem is exactly the opposite."

"The… opposite? As in… too much teamwork?" Minato asks, confused.

Hiruzen strokes his beard, his thoughts racing. "Yes, and I know that their sensei has been struggling with it as well."

Minato, ever the bright one, picks up his meaning immediately. "I understand, Hokage-sama," he says, visibly happier. "May I ask who their sensei is?"

Minato was one of their best, and he cared for his students. Hiruzen also knew he wasn't one to judge unfairly and that he was respected among the high ranking soldiers. Such a good reputation would prove useful, and if Hiruzen was right about this, it might also solve quite a few headaches.

Minato listens, and then bows deeper than before, thanking him profusely. The jōnin instructor wanted Team Seven to succeed, and even though he appeared a little bit taken aback by the Hokage's suggestion, Hiruzen was convinced that he was willing to try it for the wellbeing of his team.

When he leaves, Hiruzen can finally relax. He was… curious, about this new development, and excited to see the results. It was a gamble, but then again, one needed to take risks in order to achieve greater results.

"I wonder how his reaction will be…" the Hokage wonders out loud, a smile upon his lips.

Three days have passed since they began their search. Anko took off for the marshes, venturing deeper into the midst of the jungle. Soon enough she realized it had been a mistake. The humid warmth made her sweat and heave as she made her way through. And the mosquitoes, oh gods the mosquitoes. Those nasty little shits were bigger than her hand, bloodthirsty too, and they kept following her in a permanent cloud around her.

The kicker? There wasn't a fucking summon around.

"Hello? Anything here?" she would yell, hoping for at least one damned spirit to answer her. "You know what? Fuck you too! You are probably useless anyway!"

Anko was seething, so angry that she barely registered her hunger. She had been forced to rely on her scroll for meals because not even a fucking bird came near enough for her to hunt it down. Which was weird since she could hear them caw and crow above her. So far she had seen no sign of life except for those greedy blood-sucking fucks, which she had tried to bargain with on the off chance they could be summons.

No such luck.

There was a hollowness in her too, slowing her movements and numbing her mind. She had first noticed it when she was fighting her way out of a mud pit. No matter how much chakra she put on her limbs she would go down and down. The deeper you went into the marshes, the less energy you had. Something which could have been easily resolved if Anko hadn't gotten lost at some point.

Odd. She had put marks on the trees and tied some ninja wire just in case, but anytime she looked away, those very same marks would simply disappear.

"Fuckin' hell…"

She refused to feel afraid. Her strength came from her powerful chakra and sneaky genjutsu, which, paired with her taijutsu and weaponry, would help her at any given time. But there weren't any battles to be fought, and the only times she used ninjutsu was to light up the way.

At night everything was just that much worse.

The cicadas sang and the birds hooted, an echo through the jungle that hammered against her eardrums. The mosquitoes accompanied her, their high pitched whines fraying her nerves. She couldn't sleep, the noise was too loud, the air too damp and that mucky mud—

And then, it stopped.

Anytime exhaustion won over her, making her almost fall into the bliss of unconsciousness, all the sounds would just… stop. No mosquitoes, no birds, no growls, no creaks, no nothing. She knew a predator was near, but no matter how much she waited for that thing to come out, how painfully she twisted her fingers on a tiger seal, it just… Nothing fucking happened.

Mad. She was going mad. The silence was like a slap, so much that she dreaded closing her eyes in case she dozed off and everything came to a halt. Nothing moved, nothing stirred, just nothing.

There was nothing, nothing, nothing.

And yet, there had to be. It followed her, it was hunting her. She could feel it, how her chakra was sucked out of her, drained until she was dizzy and spinning. Her skin was crawling, but when she passed her hands over her skin, there was nothing on it. But there had to be, she knew there had to be something that slithered under her clothes, beneath her skin and clawed its way up from deep inside her.

Anko had tried meditating. Their sensei had taught them to focus and use their chakra to block anything that might bother them until they were in a trance. When Anko tried to even her breathing and become mindlessly blank, all she knew was rage.

She was fucking pissed.

"Come meet me you cowards!"

Kasui didn't venture into the marshes, mostly because he wasn't an idiot.

They were, literally, on another continent, across two oceans from home. Kasui was not going to push his luck by going into uncharted territory and hope for the best. He had kept to the shores and made a small camp around a palm tree, otherwise spending his days fishing for food —which was so easy when you had a water affinity— and swimming or simply looking at the ocean.

Truth be told, Kasui wasn't that interested in summons. He went along with his sensei's idea because he was curious about how it would go, but now that he was here… he really didn't want to die. The ominous words of Orochimaru about the so-called trials raised all the red flags in his mind. Summons were cunning, and Kasui wasn't sure if he could trust a spirit like that, powerful or not.

However, there was another reason why Kasui remained still: the water was calling to him.

During the day, the water sparkled. The vast deep blue glittering when the light caught the waves just so. It was still the Kaijuu Ocean, but closer to the shore, it was… milder, more tempting to trust. When the days got so unbearably hot that even a loose shirt was too much, he would dive into the cool water, relishing in the feeling of the ripples on his flushed skin.

At night, the water became ink, blending into the darkness so well that you didn't realize you were staring at an ocean before the water touched your feet. The water was cold too, but strangely wily. Kasui knew that if went into the water at night, the ocean would swallow him whole.

The ocean was constant, Kasui observed in the middle of the night, staring at the waves coming and going, coming and going, coming and going… He couldn't sleep, he hadn't been able to since he came to the Land of Marshes. It didn't matter that the peaceful movement of the ocean was lulling him to sleep, because he couldn't shut his eyes for more than a second, continuing to look and look and look.

It was calling him.

He had spent so much time just being near the water that his mind was filled with it. He couldn't hear his own thoughts over the shushing waves. He had salt on his tongue and the sun on his skin and the ocean in his skull. He didn't want to leave, he was happy there.

Kasui wanted to stay there forever.

He wanted to go swimming.

Why couldn't he?

He could. He knew how to swim. He wanted to.

It was night.

It didn't matter.

But it was dangerous.

He needed to go swimming.

Kasui left his glasses with his clothes and went into the water. It was cold. He didn't stop, not when the icy water reached his waist and couldn't feel his feet as he went deeper and deeper. Soon, he couldn't feel the sand and began floating face up, staring at the blurry stars with the ocean around him.

His body began shaking, he was so, so cold. The cramps were painful in his muscles, and when he began to struggle for breath it was too late. The night was oppressive and deceitful, Kasui not able to make out where the shore was, or how far from it he had drifted.

The ocean suddenly became frightening. The water was so cold, the salt stinging his eyes painfully and his throat dry as sand, gritting his voice as he called for someone, something. He panicked, fumbling with his too heavy limbs and barely managing to keep his head over the surface.

Slowly, his legs stopped moving, his arms following afterwards until the only thing that made Kasui continue fighting was the dread of dying. The darkness of the ocean was the same as the sky, and when he went under, the light of the stars faded into nothingness.

Kasui tried to scream, but he only swallowed salt water.

Sachi stayed in the marshes, keeping an eye on the shore just in case as she roamed. She was… happy. Her dream had been to become a traveler, and for the first time, she felt as if she was one. There was so much to explore, so much that she slept the bare minimum to continue discovering all that the Land of Marshes had to offer.

However, despite being renowned for their summons, Sachi had yet to find one. She had caught glimpses of brightly colored birds with unusual songs. But everytime she got near, they all flew away. She had followed the calls of monkeys, and spotted what had to be a lemur, with a red ringed tail that ran away the moment it saw her. The tail of a snake that Sachi decided to leave alone…

She had encountered the shining eyes of a crocodile that looked at her with too intelligent eyes when she went fishing one day. It had opened its long jaws, filled with needle sharp teeth, letting out a guttural bellow that steamed the water.

Sachi knew it had been a summon, but she simply nodded her head and went to another fishing spot.

That had been proof that Sachi wasn't welcome in the Land of Marshes. The animals showed themselves, but left the moment she spotted them. There was life in those lands, from the shore to the volcanic mountains, but they refused to acknowledge her.

"Whatever," she muttered, content to let herself relax and take advantage of the vacation.

It still annoyed her however. She was here to make a contract, and she didn't want to disappoint her sensei.

"I wonder how Kasui and Anko are doing…" she mumbles, filling the silence that accompanied her. "Better than me, I hope." They were strong, they would manage.

Five days had passed, and Sachi was already making her way to the spot Orochimaru had dropped them off. The sun was setting, yet another failed day, and Sachi could do nothing more than check her crab traps and make camp for the night.

"Ow!" Sachi hisses, a crab nicking her on the finger. "You bastard, I'm saving you for last."

A bead of blood gathers on her fingertip. Sachi let it bleed, it was a small cut, it would stop soon. The drop falls into the water, Sachi paying it no mind as she pulls the ninja wire to see if she had managed to catch a fish.

The marsh begins to tremble, Sachi channeling chakra to her boots to stay above the water and avoid being swept away. When she turns, kunai in hand, something massive began to rise from the water—

A… turtle?

Sachi considers it hostile, a dull beak that could very well crush her bones with just a nibble. The turtle turns its head sideways, peering down at her with a giant eye. It's blue and has green spots, and Sachi can see herself reflected in it. The marsh sinks as the turtle finishes emerging from it, a shell layered with greenery between its ridges as well as black and brown markings.

The turtle looks at her. Sachi grips the kunai harder.

"Oh," it says, followed by a chuckle that made the entire marsh vibrate. "I wasn't expecting this." The turtle has a deep and gravelly voice, but far from rough. "What are you doing here, little one?"

Sachi swallows the knot in her throat. That turtle was a behemoth, and she was the size of just one of its nostrils. She can sense curiosity in the being, but Sachi was not willing to trust its whims. "I'm here to form a summoning contract."

The turtle blinks once at her, lazy, before beginning to laugh. Sachi puts more chakra on her feet to stay still as the marsh vibrates and echoes the summon's laugh. Her ears are ringing by the time it stops. "Oh, little one. You are not going to find any spirits to make a contract with your kind."

Sachi glowers. "My kind? What kind am I?"

"I'm not senile enough not to recognize a Kanbayashi," the turtle says, rasping its words. "Judging by your scowl, did you believe we spirits won't be able to know what you are, little one? Your blood speaks for itself, no matter what colors you wear."

That was troublesome. Yasu knew she was a Kanbayashi, but if all summons knew what she was… Fuck.

The turtle chuckles once more. "You are far away from your home. Do you not know how to follow the Traveler's Star?"

She did. "True North doesn't point to home anymore," she mutters, the summon squinting its eye at her.

"A pity," it says, letting out a sigh that ruffles her hair. "Your kind has been here before all of us spirits settled. May I ask how your kind has fallen?"

"No, you may not," she spats, reeling back her chakra. "I'm here to find a summon, not answer questions."

The turtle doesn't comment on her behaviour, but it does inch away ever so slightly from her. "Why would you? Home or no home, you are Kanbayashi, and the gods of the forest don't contract with spirits."

"Why not?" she challenges.

"Curb your temper, little one, it's unbecoming," the turtle chides gently. "You are young, so you may not know, but the reason as to why is… a compatibility problem." Sachi asks the summon to elaborate and the turtle continues. "Do you know the history of the marshes? Why we spirits gather here more than in any other place?"

"The Land of Marshes has a tear in this world's plane of existence," Sachi explains, hearing the whisper of the Archive and the lessons she received from Chika-sama. "The chakra fluctuation that comes from it acts as a hook for the summon's world, keeping both connected and allowing for chakra to be exchanged between planes."

Their world was one out of many. Their existence wasn't continuous, and there were small anomalies that somehow broke the veil that kept them separated from other worlds. Summons or spirits habitated another such world, but they sought after the human one because of the chakra inherent in it.

"Yes. And it was your kind that made it possible."

The Kanbayashi weren't responsible for the tears in their universe, but they were the ones that dictated which spirits could associate with their world. All summons, regardless of their contracts, had to honor their promise to the Kanbayashi. That they could remain as long as they didn't overstay their welcome, and if they did…

The same hook that anchored their world together could be easily severed.

"Spirits feed off chakra. You need it to survive, because your world doesn't produce it like our world does."

The red door rattles in her mind yet Sachi ignores it. Something felt wrong with that statement, but she couldn't pinpoint why. The turtle nods. "We need chakra to continue existing, as well as improve ourselves, just like you humans. But there's something else that we covet… Can you guess what?"

Sachi thinks. Contracts between humans and summons allowed for an exchange of skills, establishing a more stable connection between their worlds. As long as there was a human bound to them, summons could use them to appear in the human world. The price for such contracts was chakra, in most cases, since it would ensure a constant influx of energy between the human and the summons. The results were enhanced abilities, as well as incredible skills and companions that were literally otherworldly.

When Sachi wonders what a summon would want, except for the security of sustenance, nothing comes to mind.

"Time," the turtle answers, noticing her confusion. "Your world has time. A dimension that can bring change just by being present, that can mark both a beginning and an end. Time doesn't affect our worlds, doesn't influence us directly, but it manipulates everything else and the universe itself. We won't age and we won't die because we are stuck in space. But with Time… we can change and perhaps… change the world in return."

Sachi listens, not having considered this before. She knew that summons had extended lifespans, but had not known that they weren't able to die in their own world. However, she was aware that summons could die in the human world or be forced out when the summon's connection to a human was interrupted. But what if the summon remained in the human world? Stuck and at the mercy of time, a dimension that could put an end to immortal beings, not allowing them to return to their endless plane of existence—

"But… you can die, like… die forever," Sachi points out, gaining another chuckle from the ancient turtle.

"Death is also change, little one. Time is infinite, and just because your form ceases, it doesn't mean you cease to exist. Death changes you, but your essence is preserved. Time will transform you, and that is what we seek."

"That's… weird," Sachi struggles to picture a world without time, only space, and it rattles her memories and the limits of her imagination. "You don't know death and yet you seek it."

"And you know of it and fear it," the turtle counters. "We are different. A human would not understand our reasons, just like we spirits won't understand yours. Tell me, do you remember the coming of the Sage of Six Paths, the very same that spread chakra in this world?"

Sachi might, but the fog in her mind wouldn't allow for it. There were certain memories that she was not able to reach; so deeply buried within the Archive that Sachi feared getting lost. The lessons of the Heart taught her that this world itself was devoid of chakra and summons, and that only humans and the gods dwelled here. The Sage was a false prophet, but it was true that he had spread chakra and unified the world under his teachings and wisdom.

(Chakra did not belong to their world. Assimilated by force, preached by ignorance; the Sage had poisoned his believers.)

The Kanbayashi did not believe in the Sage, and Sachi had known that there was something the Archive did not tell them about him. They knew he had existed, that his sons and his legacy had brought a sudden change to their world... but how much? And why? The Kanbayashi clan had been young then, but they remembered, and they didn't accept the Sage. The same went for summons, considered parasites, alien and immoral.

But Sachi had seen kindness in summons, how they would protect their humans even if it meant death. How they would bind themselves to a single family right until the end, and mourn them when they were gone. Yasu, who came to Orochimaru's call even though she was not expected to.

She had seen cruelty in summons too, violent and war-mongering, but they did not betray their summoner.

"Why wouldn't a summon make a contract with a Kanbayashi?"

"It's strange to encounter a Kanbayashi so set in crossing their rules," the turtle says in good humor. "It's not a matter of whether we spirits wish to do so, because I am certain you have quite the exchange to offer, but rather because we cannot."

"Why not?"

"Your clan is the last that is truly connected to your world and not the one that the Sage came to alter. The Kanbayashi serve the original gods of this dimension."

"We do. Is religion taken into consideration when you form a contract?"

"The decision doesn't fall upon you or the spirits. The gods you worship won't stand for such an union."

That shocks her. The turtle speaks honestly, and its eye hardens as it stares. Sachi knows her gods, she believes in them, but to think that they would actively reject the decision of a human regarding their own life—

"The old gods are gone," Sachi says, but she chokes on the words. "Why would the gods not let me form a contract? I'm free to do what I want, what I want to become! The gods do not have a say—"

"Then ask them and stop bothering me," the turtle cuts her off, the marshes shaking with its reprimand. "You are young, little one, and despite what you know, what you bear, there's much for you to learn. There are forces outside of your control, and you might not want to see the truth, but your freedom is but a loose leash."

Sachi bites her tongue. The Archive had extensive knowledge but it couldn't hope to cover anything and everything. It depended on the Kanbayashi travelers, but personal experience, the one that came after decades upon decades of living, Sachi couldn't help to match.

That's why she bows respectfully to the turtle, not as the Archive, but as a child too young to understand. It hurt to be lacking, but it was a small price to pay for a lesson only time could hope to teach. "Thank you for your words."

The turtle takes a deep breath, hissing through its nostrils and coming out as hot air, the water below trembling ever so slightly. "You and your companions should leave soon. You have been causing a ruckus through the whole continent."

Sachi smiles, looking up to see just the tiny bit of amusement in the turtle's eyes. "We will."

The turtle lowers its head, the beak coming down inches away from her face. "Before we part ways," it says, its breath tickling her skin. "Answer me this question. What happened to your kin?"

It strikes a nerve inside her, but Sachi doesn't hear malice in its question. Sachi raises her hands, putting it over the smooth keratin of its beak. "I do not want to owe you anything," she says, the Dark Release marks burning as she syncs her chakra. "Is that your question?"

"Yes."

Sachi doesn't need the Archive for this question, because she wasn't there as Archive, but as Sachi. She shows the spirit the painful memories of the summer hunt, the ones that she had tried desperately to ignore; starting from the face of that disgusting creature smiling at her before she's forced to flee. It's brief, but the image of the Kanbayashi bleeding on the snow and the Needle Forest burning is clear enough.

"... I see," the turtle murmurs, quietly, ruefully.

It's almost an afterthought that Sachi asks "Is it… is that thing one of your kind…?"

The turtle might have taken offense, but the look it gives her is compassionate. "I cannot offer a good answer to you, little one. But, if it may help you, I am not aware that… that being is a spirit from the outer worlds. Not a summon spirit, at least."

Sachi doesn't know if that eases her worries or only worsens it. Researching the Archive to find clues about the alien creature had proven useless, and Sachi was at a loss at what more to do. But, then again, if she didn't do something what would happen to her? Would it come back to kill her? To end the Kanbayashi for good—?

"We will mourn the Kanbayashi, little one. We are different, but grief remains the same."

"Don't," she answers, feeling the shadows close in on her as the cold begins to settle. "The Kanbayashi are not dead, not until I pass."

"We desire what we do not possess," the turtle preaches. "You wish for the permanence of Space while we chase the fluctuation of Time. The answers you seek might be found outside your own mind, for once."

The marshes settle as the turtle goes beneath the water, the shell slowly sinking. "Goodbye to you, little one. May we see each other again."

And then…

It's gone.

Sachi goes over the spot where the turtle had stood, finding it smooth and shallow with water. She takes a deep breath, shaken by the experience, and goes inside the jungle to rest. She's not hungry anymore.

Sachi was restless. The night was still young and she couldn't close her eyes and sleep. The summon's words had raised questions that she didn't have an answer to. It kept her up while the gears in her head were turning over and over again.

She was lost, and not even True North could hope to point her in the right direction. Sachi needed guidance.

And, for the first time since that disastrous day in her snowy homeland, she prayed.

She wasn't particularly religious, but she had been an Archive trainee, which meant that she was responsible for the festivities and holy ceremonies. Sachi knows that Repun-kamuy was depicted as an orca, his statue guarding the harbour, and his messengers would visit them every summer in pods of hundreds.

She remembers the offerings to the God of Earth and Crops, Shiramba-kamuy, depicted a mouse with human hands and a split tail; as well as the Lady of the Hunt, who appeared as a bird with a human song, and Fuchi, a goddess they worshiped in the hearth of their homes.

Cipak-kamuy was their patron saint of the Heart, a god in the form of an owl that guarded the Library and the wisdom it held within. Pauchi-kamuy… was a leech, erased from their worship, embodying madness and insanity.

Sachi doesn't have an altar to pray to, like the obsidian one that she had in her room back in the Heart, which had been warm to the touch whenever she put her hands over the slots and entered her mindspace. She had grown used to feeling the presence of owls, from the white dark-spotted ones that were couriers, to the black horned ones that took the bones of the dead and spread them. The barn owls, with their smooth black eyes and silent flight that often came and went from their temple as they prayed.

(Sachi had tried searching for owls in the redwoods of the Leaf, but there were none.)

Sachi missed them, if only because they reminded her of home, of the unity of the Heart. She had seen the festivals in the Sage's honor in Leaf, but she couldn't help but think that it felt wrong. The dates didn't match up. The god was the wrong one.

"God fucking dammit," she says, hoping that maybe angering the gods would grant her a reaction. Nothing happens, and Sachi sighs.

She was tired, so, so tired. Her eyes finally begin to shut down on their own, and when she fades into her mindspace, determined to go through the memories from today and process them—

There was fog in her mind.

The fog was coming from beneath the door of the Archive, bleeding into her mind and clouding her carefully stacked books. She's confused, and rightfully so; the Archive should not interfere with her mind.

Sachi fears that something might be happening inside the Archive, and without considering it further, she opens the door and steps inside.

She had been reorganizing the Archive as she went through it. The tops of the mountains of memories are completely covered by the fog, so much that it blends with the sky and leaves only a sensation of dullness and blank infinity. Sachi takes a few steps, trying to locate the markers she had left to pick up her reviews of the memories, but finding only the same thick mist.

Something is terribly wrong.

She shivers, and that makes it worse. The Archive didn't allow for bodily sensations, and the fact that she's trembling, feeling the bite of the cold as if she were exposed to the weather of the Land of Snow—

When Sachi turns, the red door disappears, and in the next blink, the white is replaced by darkness.

"Fuck," she curses, her voice echoing in the distance as she tries to find her way back. What happened? Was it a collapse? Was the sealwork in her brain malfunctioning?

But then, a murmur picks up. It makes her stop and listen, and soon enough, the voices begin to yell, shriek and scream. There must be thousands of them, both old and young, male and female, and they are deafening. It's painful, and that is another worrying sign, as she stumbles and falls to her knees.

The voices stop abruptly. Sachi opens her eyes, and when she does, she finds the flat face of an owl with three eyes, two of them bleeding and one of them glowing golden like the sun as it stares at her

Sachi screams and the owl screams in her voice.

"We goin' to round up for yer kids or nah?"

"They are not—" Orochimaru sighs. Why did the whole crew believe that they were his children? Didn't they notice that they all looked different? Or perhaps they thought he had a habit of collecting children from unsuspecting families? "Yes. They should be here soon."

The captain nods, turning the wheel and setting for the Land of Marshes. They wouldn't get near the coast, but they didn't need to. Team Two should be able to make it across the water just fine.

And yet, he can't see any of them on the shore.

Orochimaru had prepared himself to face the real possibility of one of his students not making it out alive. It wasn't that he didn't trust them, he did, but he knew that he had trained them enough to be able to survive. But all three of them dying? That was preposterous.

"Oi, why didja send yer kids to that gutter?" the captain insists. "No good business goin' ovah there. We see 'em bones on the nets."

Orochimaru massages his temples. He didn't tolerate people judging his teaching methods and he most certainly wouldn't stand for criticism on his parenting skills. "They will come soon."

The captain shrugs. "You do you, fella. I don't do no shady business on me boat. Lefting yer kiddies on the spirits' lands ain't gonna do 'em good. We fish and ya kill… but they kinda tiny for goin' for spirits. I've seen 'em bigger and meaner mercs tryin' to get one; they ain't comin' back though."

Orochimaru stared right ahead, not letting the captain make him doubt his decision. Team Two needed to get their summons by themselves, and him being there would only interfere in the process, perhaps even killing them for good. Orochimaru was bonded to the Ryūchi Cave, and even though he paid no mind to interdimensional politics, there was conflict between Sage Spirits of the Continent and the misfits forced to remain in the Land of Marshes.

It was true that the Land of Marshes attracted a good deal of shinobi, hoping to strike a contract, but most of them didn't make it back. There were statistics, and the percentage of success was minimal. But the advantages that came from summons would ensure they would become not only good shinobi, but powerful ones.

But none of his students were back.

"Unusual," Yasu says, her voice snapping Orochimaru from his thoughts to see her wound around the rails he was gripping tightly.

"What is?"

"Your nervousness. It's unusual to see you this agitated," she had a smaller form, basking in the sun so it made her scales shine an iridescent purple. "The salt is burning my tongue."

"I'm not in the mood to humor you."

"Oh? That bad?" she chuckles, and then grimaces when she flicks her tongue. "If you are worried about your hatchlings you can go to them, who is stopping you?"

"I am not nervous," he bites out. "And they are not my hatchlings, they are my students."

"Hm, if you say so," Yasu muses, curling around herself. "They are rather young—"

"It was your idea to give them summons."

"You decided to send them to the Marshes," she points out, hissing in warning. "But I agree, weak hatchlings are only good for a meal."

"Humans don't eat the weak, Yasu."

"No, you only drag them through their lives and make them suffer until they perish," Yasu says, proud. "Eating them is a kindness, better take them young before the world punishes them for being weak."

Orochimaru doesn't say anything more. Yasu's words were similar to those of his mother, but that is neither here nor there; she was dead, and he wasn't, and his students were not going to die either. The Land of Marshes was but a fine line in the distance, only the volcanic top showing. No sight of his students.

"Don't eat them too soon, they are fine hatchlings."

Yasu disappears and Orochimaru continues to stare ahead.

Anko is currently wrestling in the dark. She had charged into the void the second she felt a slight chakra trail. She had tripped over something, falling, but she had managed to catch the thing that had twisted around her ankle.

It was made of flesh, smooth and slippery, and Anko was momentarily disgusted before rage took over. She buries her nails into that thing and flings it around, hitting it across every surface she came across and enjoying the cracks and thuds as she continues her rampage.

Anko was set aflame with anger, so hot and blazing that she didn't realize the thing was surging and going for her neck. Even in the pitch dark Anko can rely on her reflexes, and thanks to her training she avoids the thing from reaching the soft skin of her neck. However, it gave her an opportunity to do the same.

"Ow!" The thing screams as she bites into it, so hard that she tears through muscle and scrapes her teeth across bone. The taste is horrible, bitter and tingly, but she doesn't stop until she bites off a good chunk of meat and spits it aside.

"Fuck you," Anko hisses, her hands wrapped tightly around the end of the creature that dared get into a fight with her. "You aren't shit."

The snake hisses back, but Anko just laughs at it. She will be damned if she lets a simple scaled worm win. "Do you wanna know how it feels to be eaten?" she asks, choking the snake until the bones were straining. "I'll show you how it feels to be prey— Motherfucker!"

Anko doesn't release the snake she has in her hands, but she had felt the wicked sting of a bite in the calf of her leg. She doesn't hesitate to shuffle her feet and then stomp her foot down on the other snake with all her might. The resounding wet crack that comes from it is immensely satisfying.

"I'm going to burn you, you little shits."

Anko needs only one hand to perform the hand seal for a fireball, her body screaming at her because of her exhaustion and her empty chakra pathways, but she pushes forward. She releases the jutsu, and the darkness is lit up by her fire, catching around the trees and the leaves so much that they begin to melt.

"You are ugly fucks," she tells the snake in her hands, keeping an eye on the one still clinging to her leg.

The pain starts to worsen, pins and needles flowing through her blood as the venom takes hold. Anko fights it, cycling her gates in the opposite direction to slow its course and give her enough time to kill those nasty assholes.

"You…" she begins, her throat swelling and closing. "... a-re, goin'—"

Anko falls to the floor, the smoke and the fire choking her as much as the poison. She doesn't let either of the snakes go, the flames becoming distorted. They change colors, from yellow, to orange, to yellow again, to red, to blue— Anko shakes her head, focusing.

"Down."

The last thing Anko does before collapsing is another fireball, the fire licking her lungs as she releases it.

Behind her, two red eyes approve.

Kasui is drowning. Sinking down, down, down. The pressure makes his ears ring, and his limbs continue to stay numb because of the cold. He knows that he has exactly one minute to do something before he is beyond saving. No one will help him.

Alone. Kasui is alone.

He wonders, for a moment, how his teammates will react when they discover his body. Bloated, floating and feeding the fish that pick apart his corpse. Orochimaru will be disappointed in him, he knows, and he will leave his body there, disgusted by his weakness.

But then, if he dies, Sachi and Anko are going to be alone.

Kasui remembers who he is, and what he can do in that exact moment. He lets his chakra unravel though his frozen system, the little warmth managing to spark some strength into his body as he works out a jutsu. Water is his affinity, and he only needs to use it to go back to the surface.

Kasui can't do it. His headache begins pounding heavily, lack of oxygen he decides, and his chakra can't hope to overrule the will of the ocean. Kasui tries to pull the water around him to push him up, up, up; but he only sinks down, down, down.

The water doesn't answer him, and for every stubborn shove he is kicked down further. Kasui doesn't want to die, not alone, not like this. He is going down, and he can't do anything but watch as the wobbly light becomes dimmer and dimmer.

Kasui tries again. He's afraid, so, so afraid, and his head is about to explode. It hurts, and he is alone, and he doesn't want to die. The ocean doesn't move like he tells it to, and so…

Kasui gives up.

He unclenches his fingers and lets them loose, flowing idly as the currents move them for him. The ringing picks up, so much that it's painful and his thoughts are smothered by it.

His heart will slow down, he will lose consciousness and he will take a breath only to swallow water. He will drown, he's certain, and Kasui can't help but feel at peace. He is sad because he won't see his teammates, his sisters ever again, and his sensei will be mad at him for failing. But it doesn't hurt too much, it's a tranquil death, Kasui is grateful for it.

"If the water calls you, don't answer it," Sachi's voice, warped and wobbly, warns him.

"You can sleep, I'm on nightwatch," Anko tells him, and he can almost feel how she threads her fingers through his hair.

Kasui loved them, both of them. His back hits something, and far, far away in his mind he realizes he must have reached the bottom of the ocean. Around him it's only darkness, thick and unyielding. The only warmth he finds is in himself, but that too goes cold when he uses the last drop of chakra to reach, to cling to something as he dies, because he doesn't want to die alone—

And in the darkness and the silence and the cold.

Something reaches for him too.

Sachi is face-to-face with the owl. When she stops screaming, they do too.

Its face is flat and round, white and crowned with black long feathers that then become shorter as they fuse with its long, long neck. It has three eyes, two of which are gouged out and bleeding ink, and the third one glowing golden in the middle of its forehead. The black beak snaps shut, and Sachi can hear the screams fade in the background.

Sachi feels a genuine and primal fear. She was looking at a god, a true god, and the mere disobedience of being in their presence will grant divine punishment.

"C-cipak-kamuy," she whispers, and yelps when the head of the owl snaps upside down with a crunch. "What—"

"Who are you?" they ask in a thousand voices. "Who?"

The words die in her throat, as if any answer she could ever hope to give them will be mistaken. Sachi is speaking to a god, the god of the Kanbayashi, and she is terrified. She had several memories of their statue, depicting them in their form, but they paled against the existential dread they exuded.

Cipak-kamuy was a god.

"Sachi…" she answers, remembering her name. "My name is Sachi. Are you the god of wisdom? Are you—?"

"I do not answer questions," they say, and all the voices they speak through the beak are irritated. Sachi hears a threat. Their head spins, their eye not leaving hers as they do; they squint. "You should be dead, yes?"

What? Sachi blinks, trying to understand what they told her. Dead?

Cipak tilts their head, and Sachi is sure they should have broken their neck. Do gods have necks? Bones? Could they die like a normal human—?

"You should be dead," they decide. "Are you dead?"

"... but… but I'm not?"

Cipak shrills menacingly. "I do not—"

"I mean. I was alive a few moments ago… I am alive. I didn't die, I am not dead. I. Am. Alive," Sachi says, hoping to make them understand that she truly was alive.

"What have you done?" the god accuses.

"Me? I didn't do anything!" Sachi snaps, the fear that puts a tremble to her voice rasping into a yell. "I didn't do anything!"

Wrong answer.

The god disappears, Sachi blinking at the empty space before she feels a looming presence behind her back. She hears what she knows is the sound of something sharp going through flesh, scratching bone as it passes. When she looks down, Sachi sees a black clawed hand sprouting from where her heart should be. Blood doesn't come out but a black substance, the same that was bleeding from the god's eyes.

"Aah—" she gasps, the pain sudden and merciless. Sachi knows this pain, she has felt it before, back when Chika-sama put the final needle through her to pass the Archive onto her. She is on her knees, but she's dizzy nonetheless, faint and slowly fading away. Sachi tries to touch the strange hand from her chest with her own. The meat of her fingers are gone, only bones that scatter to the ground like loose pebbles. "N-no… no, no, no—"

The beak touches the back of her neck. It's cold. "Why are you not dead?"

Sachi doesn't hear the question, watching as the bones of her hands are swallowed by the tar that is the floor. She begins to sink, the cold spreading, the ink from her chest flowing heavily as she does so.

"Do you know what happens when those who are meant to die, do not?"

Sachi doesn't know the answer. What was happening? Why to her? What did she do? Did she do something? Was it a nightmare? She didn't dream, she didn't have nightmares, then why, why the fuck was the god of wisdom tormenting her? Torturing her?

"What have you done? What have you changed?"

Sachi doesn't know.

"Your soul is breaking," the god says, coming into view again, their beak pointing upwards. "For the natural order of this world, you have to die. The equilibrium must be restored. You are interfering. You will die, why? Because your existence is disrupting the universe. Fate demands your death. What is your answer?"

Sachi struggles to get a word out, a scream, a shriek; nothing comes out. The thick tar is going up to her neck, and she can't feel her body underneath its surface. She is dissolving into nothingness, the panic rising bitterly as she gasps and chokes.

"Your Destiny is not yours to fulfill this time. You will go back to the void, so nothing is changed, nothing strays from their path; that everything follows what Fate has foretold." Cipak comes closer to her, their eye shining devilishly. "For that, you will die, yes?"

But it's much more than death, Sachi realizes. It's nothing, it's being forgotten, erased from existence the moment your head went under the void.

Cipak-kamuy, the god of wisdom and the patron saint of the Kanbayashi, is trying to kill her.

Sachi sinks into the pitch black tar, and the last thing she hears is the god asking her:

"What will you do?"

"What yer goin' to do?" the captain asks.

Orochimaru looks at the shore of the Land of Marshes. Still no sight of either of his students. They were late, all three of them, and the ship was bound to return that very same day. They will not wait for them. Orochimaru hears the words he had told his students before departing being spat back at him.

"If you fail to show up in exactly seven days from now on, I will assume you have perished and leave without you."

Orochimaru refused to do so. He vaults over the rails of the ship, running across the water at startling speed. He had not trained those snotty brats for nearly a year just so they could die the moment he left them out of his watch. Orochimaru would rather kill them himself than let some off-brand summon snap their neck.

"Oh? Change of heart?" Yasu teases, appearing around his arm as Kōshoku was over his shoulders

"Find them," he orders. "Now."

Anko has not gotten drunk in her life, but when she wakes up, she decides that the splintering headache she had must be very similar to a hungover. She was pretty sure she hadn't drunk anything suspicious, but as she gathers her thoughts she remembers that—

She had been poisoned.

Anko tries to sit up, but she immediately falls over, cradling her head. Nausea took away her strength, and she had to focus on her breathing to slow down her heart. "What… the fuck."

"You're lucky, not many survive our venom," a female voice comments.

"Yeah? Is luck enough?" she spits bile, coughing up blood. "Wait."

She looks up, and gods, she wasn't ever going to make fun of Kasui's eyesight. Everything is blurred, and when she squints her head throbs.

"Stubborn," the voice chides as Anko puts her hands beneath her body and sits up. "Determined."

And then it hits her.

"What day is it?!" she yells, finding her voice. "Oh fuck, how long was I out for?"

"Does that matter?"

"Yes! Sensei is going to be pissed."

Anko uses all her strength to stand, her legs weak but she wills her body to listen. Her chakra is next, forcing her gates to pick up so she can fend off the exhaustion and the sluggishness.

"Is this… sensei of yours so fearsome that you would rather drag yourself half-dead than... be late?"

"Look lady, you don't know my sensei. He's the best, but he's going to kick my ass into next week if I don't show up on time. Oh god, what if he left? Kasui and Sachi are not going to let me live this down—"

"You're interesting. For a human."

"Yeah? What the fuck are you then?"

Anko soon realizes that she wasn't speaking to a person. Her eyesight becomes clearer, and when it does, she can see a pair of slitted red eyes. The figure they belong to slithers forward, and Anko is faced with a giant snake. A cobra, judging by the hood.

She should have stayed dead.

"What is your name?"

The cobra is long enough to trap her, her whole body rounding up the patch of rock she was standing on. A cave, she was in a cave— A snake's nest. The snake is a rich black color, with spots of crimson that resemble eyes when she opens her hood fully. Her presence commands respect and fear, and Anko is overwhelmed by the sheer power she is cloaked in.

"Anko," she finds herself saying.

"Only Anko?"

"Well, my surname's Mitarashi but it doesn't mean a thing. Anko is what I go by," she answers. "What's yours?"

The snake blinks once, stunned before letting out a chuckle. "Few would ask such a thing when they are the size of a mouse," she remarks, her hood fluttering. "Kija, the Queen of the Eastern Snake Nest. I heard your call for a summon."

Anko is floored. "Really? You answered?"

"Not me, no," she is quick to say. "You don't have enough strength to ever hope to summon me, but two of my sons were… interested."

"Sons…?" she trails off, hearing a small hiss. Turning around, she sees a green snake moving threateningly towards her. "You."

"You bit me!" he accuses.

"I should have done worse," Anko replies, facing that prickly scaled worm. He was bigger than she remembered, not nearly as Kija, but big. Bright green and pink eyes, the snake bears his fangs at her. "You were the one that stalked me! I fucking knew it! What was it? Genjutsu? You—!"

"You were put on trial," Kija cuts off, the strange tilt to her voice making the green snake retreat. "We were not… expecting you to fight in such a manner."

"Fight? I beat the crap out of the bitch," she points to the snake with her chin, her chakra beginning to come alive. "Tasted awful, too."

"See?" the male snake sneers. "She's unfit. Defiant and reckless."

"Mikina," Kija warns.

"Oh, so that's how it is?" Anko challenges. "If you wanted a rematch you should have said so, c'mere so I can pull those pretty eyes out of your ugly face."

"You think you can defeat me?"

"I already did! I had you by the neck, and you think you were the only one with poison? Bitch, do you even know who teaches me—?"

"Stop at once," Kija reprimands, more harshly this time. The cave trembles, and both Mikina and Anko shut their mouths. Kija didn't seem like a very patient spirit. "We have all seen your trial."

Anko wonders about who 'all' is, and when she glances around, she sees several pairs of eyes glowing in the corners. "So... I get Mikina?"

"Don't use my name!"

"Where's the other one?" Anko asks, flipping Mikina off. "Where's the other bastard, the one that bit me?"

Kija appears amused, and when her body shifts ever so slightly, another snake slithers up to her. This one is brown with black and white marbling, pale yellow eyes that were as dispassioned as they could be. Considerably bigger than Mikina, older too, by his measured demeanor, but he was annoyed, if the rattling of his tail was any indicator.

"You cannot be seriously considering this puny mouse as our summoner, Kija-sama."

"Why the fuck not?" Anko demands, offended.

"Mirō, are you going against my word?" The rattlesnake bowed his head. "Anko. You have defeated two of my sons, and it is only fitting that they are to be your summons. You have shown ingenuity and intensity, which we the Eastern Nest pride ourselves in," Kija preaches. "For that, I will offer you the opportunity to forge a contract with us."

"That sounds nice," Anko begins. "But that's not gonna fool me. You let me make a contract with ya? Are you so good hearted, really?"

Kija's crimson eyes squint at her. "Oh?"

"Okay, let's do this. You want something out of me, I get it, I want the same out of you. That's the whole point, yeah? We can pussyfoot 'round this issue, with you trying to con me into a contract that will give you more advantages and possibly fuck me over; and you are gonna kill me if I ask for too much. So…"

After a few minutes of silence, the cobra gives in. "So?"

"So. Let's talk for real. I want a strong summons, one that can help me grow strong myself. What do you need?"

The snake curls around herself, her two sons blinking at Anko with a newfound interest. Anko could be brash and prone to violence when pissed off, but she had learned how to use that anger of hers to help her instead of hinder her. She was angry that she had been put to trial without her knowledge, but she saw the chance of getting what she wanted.

Kija was a summon from the Land of Marshes, and her contact with humans was limited in spite of the probable centuries she had dwelled in their world. Even though spirits could look down on humans, they needed them as much as humans did.

"You're smarter than how you behave," Kija observes, almost as if to praise her.

"Sensei tells me that there's freedom in underestimation, or somethin'. Better to seem dumber than you really are, so others don't expect you to be smart," Anko shows her own fangs. "Easier to kill 'em that way."

The cobra's eyes flashes, pleased, and opens her hood further. "This… sensei of yours, seems wise."

"Yeah, well, that's kinda his job. That's what you want out of me? To introduce you to my sensei?"

Kija flickers her tongue once. "Careful, we haven't agreed on the terms yet."

"Tell me what you want then."

"Kija-sama—" one of her sons tried to say.

"The Continent," the cobra decides. "I want access to the Continent."

"Thinkin' about moving?"

Anko might have joked, but she was serious. She did not trust any of the snakes from that nest, and whatever motive Kija had to go into the Continent could be much more than Anko was willing to accept. The cobra could sense her apprehension, her long body slithering in loops.

"Why do you want to be strong?" Kija asks instead.

"Because I don't wanna be weak anymore."

That was the truth.

Anko was painfully aware of how weak she was. She was the most balanced out of Team Two, but she lacked a true strength of her own. A Jack of all trades, but Anko wanted a weapon she could rely on. She had an ugly scar on her chest that reminded her of how close she had been to dying, how powerless she had been in her last moments before she passed out, not knowing if she would wake up again.

Anko hated weakness in herself. She was never going to be weak again. Never.

(Maybe her nightmares would stop then.)

"Why do you want to go to the Continent?"

But a deal went both ways.

"Power," the snake says, sounding as dangerous as she truly was. "I do not wish to live to survive, I want to be powerful until there is none that can ever hope to stop me."

And just like that, understanding ignited between both of them.

Anko looks Kija straight in the eyes. "I guess we have a deal, then."

The snake lowers her giant head towards her, her tongue unraveling from the depths of her mouth to give Anko a black scroll. "Put your blood, and it will be done."

Anko doesn't hesitate to bite her thumb and bleed her name into the paper. "I'm making a contract with you, Kija. I can use those sons of yours, but it's you and I that are bonded."

Kija chuckles, and her voice is deep and smooth as she does so. "You lack the strength to do so. Summoning a spirit such as me will kill you if you are too weak."

Anko knows. The price to summon was expensive, and sometimes deathly. But Anko had already decided. Mikina and Mirō were good for now, but Anko wanted Kija. The Queen of the Eastern Snake Nest. It had a nice ring to it.

"Just wait," Anko says, a promise to herself and her boss summon. "I'll bring you out into the Continent, and I will be strong."

The snake begins to slither away, the light from the cave slowly fading. The darkness envelops her, but Anko is not afraid. "I will be waiting."

Kasui wakes only to throw up his weight in water and salt.

But he can breathe.

He feels relieved instantly, despite not being able to see anything. There's rock at his back, as well as underneath him, and he can hear the steady splash of water somewhere in the distance. He was out of the ocean, he was safe. Kasui realizes he is shivering, cold and wet and curiously sticky all over. Kasui tries to hug himself to have some warmth, but when he reaches to do so, he touches something slimy on his skin.

"Are you fine, dear?"

Kasui freezes.

The voice was feminine, sounding concerned as her words echoed all around him. A cave, Kasui guesses. But who was speaking to him?

"Who is there?" he asks tentatively, testing his chakra and finding it gone.

"Just me and my daughters," the voice answers, a little bit curious. Kasui is not reassured, but at least he doesn't feel completely threatened. "You are quite cold, dear, are you okay? You have given me quite the scare! The fish almost ate you before I brought you here."

Kasui blinks, trying to catch sight of some light source but it's useless. Judging by the echo the cave was quite big, and there was a ringing in his ears that made him wonder if he had some damage from the pressure. "Where is... here?"

"My home, of course," she tells him. "Your kind breathes, is that right? Forgive me dear, but you were almost dead before I got you. I wasn't about to let someone die, on my doorstep no less! My daughters were so eager to help you. You have… quite a tempting constitution."

The word tempting sends a shiver down his spine. The voice was booming but warm, almost motherly and oddly excited. But Kasui wasn't stupid enough not to question it. "So, you helped me," he resumes, the voice agreeing. "I thought I was at the bottom of the ocean."

"Oh, but you are, dear," the voice confirms, not finding anything wrong with that statement. "My home is on the ocean floor, very nice but quite lonely, if I may say. It's only me and my daughters, and we don't have visitors that often. Are you okay? I can see you getting better, but you are quite small."

"... thank you," Kasui says, trying to find a way to sort this particular situation. He was at the bottom of the ocean, alive, and speaking to… something. Although he was getting better, his chakra filling his pathways slowly, but it would be a while until he could use it.

"My pleasure, dear," the voice chirps happily. "If I may ask, what are you doing here? Humans don't venture this far, and certainly not this deep."

"I… I was swimming in the ocean," Kasui recalls. "But I got… lost."

The voice gasps. "The waters are very dangerous! The ocean isn't a kind place, dear, especially to those that do not belong here."

Kasui could hear the song of the water still, humming at the back of his head. The ocean had lured him, and he had been hooked and then sunk for his idiocy. The ocean was much more than dangerous, it was predatory.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," he sighs.

"What would a human seek from the ocean?"

"Summons, actually."

There is a sort of puzzled silence afterwards, the mysterious voice gathering her thoughts before saying "Oh! Summons? As in, forming a contract with a spirit?"

"Yes. I was hoping to find a spirit to bond with, but I decided to drown instead."

"But… you haven't drowned?" the voice asks, confused as she misses the sarcasm. "Well, at least you didn't die. It's unusual for a human to seek a spirit of the water, the ocean even more so! And yet, I don't understand… Why would you do this? Water spirits aren't that useful for humans who are bound to the earth and…"

Kasui is curious about the voice, whose tone goes up and down like a tune. He can hear it in his head, as if she were talking right behind his ears, and yet he can feel the weight of her voice as a physical presence. It's… comforting, the same feeling he had when he first saw the ocean, and her baffled rants were sort of endearing to him.

"Because there are people I want to protect," Kasui answers without a doubt in his mind. "I wasn't that focused on getting a contract but… I am not strong enough to protect the people I wish to keep safe on my own. Can you understand this feeling?"

The voice falls silent once more, probably thinking about his words. "... I do," she says, almost a whisper that resembles a caress. "The ocean is seldom kind, and having a home and a family requires the strength to protect them from harm. I can… understand your desire to become stronger via a spirit bond. Being small in a world so vast and so uncertain without any help is difficult."

Kasui can hear a story in her words. The voice sounded mature to him, but being in the dark and without his glasses he couldn't quite guess her age. Then again, her feelings were clear as they flowed around him, tickling his skin with nostalgia, sympathy and slight tenderness.

"Are you taking care of your daughters on your own?"

"Ah, yes, yes. It's only me and them, my little Mi's. I have to be careful with them, since they are so delicate when they are so young and tiny; a lot of beings want to eat them, you see," the voice explains. "But, this is the life of those that live in the water, my dear, eat or be eaten."

"Oh," Kasui comments, not quite fully grasping the meaning. "Are your daughters named the same? Doesn't it get confusing?"

"If I had to name each and every one of my daughters, I would run out of names, dear. The numbers amount to thousands, I believe, it has been a while since I counted them all."

Thousands. Kasui's mind blanks for a moment. "That's… quite a lot of daughters. It must be difficult caring for them all."

"Sometimes that's how it is, dear. I would appreciate an aide, but… trust is a luxury at the bottom of the ocean that I cannot afford. Everyone lives for themselves and only themselves, and having something, someone in need of protection doesn't give you too much leeway for bargains, isn't it?"

Kasui nods in spite of the cave being pitch black. "Yeah, and it doesn't help when those that you are trying to protect get in trouble so often. If I had to count every time I had to make sure those two didn't kill each other…"

"Yes! Younglings are unaware of their own mortality, and they behave recklessly!" the voice fumes. "And when you warn them about the consequences of their own actions, they rebuff your advice!"

"Yeah! And you have to heal them afterwards! And do I get a thanks? No! I don't need them to thank me, but then they flung themselves at the first threat they see and it's the same all over again!"

Sachi and Anko were idiots, both of them. Kasui loved them dearly, but sometimes he was just done with them. Anko was getting into poisons, and Kasui had to learn very quickly how to drain poison from her body just so she didn't die foaming at the mouth because she thought it was a good idea to let a snake bite her and build an immunity. Then there was Sachi, who was a walking disaster held together by a mere thread; she was awfully sensitive about her body too, and Kasui had no other remedy than to heal her through her clothes because she didn't want him to see an inch of her skin.

(Kasui didn't like healing Sachi, her body so mangled that it unsettled him to his very core. But the shame of not helping her was greater than his disgust, and so he healed her.

If dark lines appeared when he did so, neither of them spoke about it.)

"So true! Agh, my daughters are very important to me, but they are really trying to kill me with stress. Do you have any idea how many times I've had to cross the ocean because one of my daughters was swept up by a current? Or taken by those filthy hermit thieves?" she says, her voice becoming frustrated as only a mother would; or the only sane person in a team of three. "Do you also have daughters?"

"No, I have two sisters, but they behave like children," Kasui spats, the voice humming in understanding. "They don't have any consideration for their own lives, so someone has to do it for them. That's why I want to get strong as quickly as possible, since I can't trust those two to wait for me to be powerful enough to protect them."

Kasui has enough chakra to warm himself, circling his gates to soothe his pathways. He was naked, and the sensation of something wet and slimy was still there, but he had gotten used to it. He had an inkling about what they were, and so he let them be.

"I hope you get to achieve this, dear."

"Yeah, me too. In fact, why don't you help me? And I help you?"

"... come again, dear?"

"Help me, and I will help you," Kasui repeats, reaching to take a small creature off his shoulder. He couldn't see it but he could feel the smooth shell with tiny spikes, as well as the soft and bouncy body of the being.

A snail.

"Ah, but I don't believe I will be of much help to you, dear."

"You're a summon, right?"

"I am," the voice confirms hesitantly. "But I belong to the ocean, and you dwell on earth. You are seeking strength to protect your sisters, but we are too far apart for me to help you."

Kasui thinks it over. If his guess was correct, the voice belonged to some sort of snail spirit, because just how many humans lived at the bottom of the ocean and had thousands of daughters? He wasn't sure if it was the correct decision, without knowing what kind of abilities that summon had or what she could offer him but… his instinct had never failed him, and he felt safe with her. Just as he felt safe with Sachi and Anko.

"It isn't as if my chakra will be able to summon you to my side," Kasui amends, pinpointing the location of the voice; which was very high up in the cave. "But these ones…"

"Eep!" the snail squeals.

"I believe we can work together," he finishes. "Are you a cone snail?"

"... yes, that is my form in this world," the voice says, interested. "Your kind uses eyes to see, don't they? How do you know?"

"My sensei teaches us a lot of stuff, and my sisters are interested in anything that can be weaponized," he explains easily. Orochimaru would teach them about the properties of anything useful, mostly found in nature. He vaguely remembers Sachi's lecture about venomous animals, and cone snails were one of them. "I can't see anything without my glasses, but I don't need to see when I have the knowledge."

Kasui might not be as smart as Sachi or versatile as Anko, but he was far from helpless. His extraordinary chakra control allowed him the chance to easily pick up ninjutsu, as well as use them efficiently. He was the master of his body, and his will might not compare to that of the ocean's, but he knew he could sweep away anything else, anyone else.

Kasui didn't want a summons that would fight alongside him, his team more than enough to stand next to him in battle, but rather a spirit that could support him. A being that would help him when he couldn't help others, a way for him to protect himself in order to continue protecting others— that was Kasui's goal, to become strong enough that he wouldn't need help, but be able to bring it to others.

"You can transfer your chakra through your daughters?" Snails reproduce asexually, explaining why the summon only had daughters and in great numbers; summons weren't exactly animals, but they took the form of that animal that was closest to their original body in their own realm. As such, the spirit's daughters should be a perfect copy of her.

"... yes," the voice admits, and her tone had become more serious, a fine sense of danger creeping in. The snails that are still on Kasui's body move at the same time, and he can feel a distinct sharp point nibbling on his bare skin. "You're intelligent. Are you intending to use my daughters as a way to transfer my chakra to you?"

The voice is neutral, but having your own children used for such a purpose wouldn't please anyone. "No, I might not have great chakra reserves, but I work with what I have. However, I only have two hands, and if there was a way to have more…"

The voice picks up, and when she speaks next she's excited. "I see! Oh my, you really are a smart one, aren't you, dear? Yes, well, for that I guess there is no one better than me and my daughters."

"Will you accept then? To make a contract with me?"

Kasui can't see a thing, but he knows the summon is smiling. "We will," she chuckles "Although I have never done this before! We will need to speak a lot, because I am not that sure how a contract between a human and a spirit goes along. I have a scroll for such a purpose but… I might be a little lost in the details."

A new sound picks up, a rolling one that goes along the rock floor; it bumps into Kasui's foot, and he taps his surroundings until he picks it up. A scroll, small and thin and yet so heavy with the potential that it held within.

"We will work on it," Kasui says, using his blood to scribble his name blindly on what he hopes is the paper. "What do you want in exchange? Chakra?"

"Oh dear, I have more chakra than I could ever wish for. We ocean spirits have larger reserves than any other summon's, but what we lack is… food."

"Food?" he echoes.

"The ocean is immense, dear, it is difficult to find a partner and a meal. But those earthbound summons have it in overabundance…"

Kasui knew where this was going.

"I guess fish isn't exactly your food of choice."

"You're quite bright, have I told you dear?" she says sweetly. "We summons seek chakra from your world, but there are other advantages that our world does not have. Good red meat is one of them."

Cone snails, besides venomous, were carnivorous.

"That would explain why no one lives in the Land of Marshes," the voice, wisely, doesn't answer. "But you're lucky, I have access to fresh… meat. As long as you don't eat me or those I care about, I think we have ourselves a deal."

"Wonderful!" the voice says happily. "Oh my! We haven't introduced ourselves, may I ask your name, dear?"

"Aeka Kasui, but Kasui is fine. What's your name?"

"Call me Kiyomizu, dear."

Sachi is not doing so well.

In fact, she's agonizing. She can feel her consciousness slip from her grasp, the numbness overtaking her as she sinks in the absolute darkness that is the tar surrounding her. It's… nothing, and everything at the same time, and it hurts but not quite, and Sachi is losing herself.

She hears the god asking her what she will do, and she's so lost, so helpless and alone… She is afraid, because what can she do? Cipak-kamuy was the god of wisdom, their power so far out of her comprehension that when she tries to think about it, she wants to cry. What can a mortal do but listen to a god and do their bidding? Cipak told her she needed to die. For the world to go back to normal, she needed to die right then and there.

But why?

Why?

Why?!

Why?!

Wasn't it enough that her clan had been slaughtered? Chased away from her ancestral home by a creature so sickening that even summons were wary of it? To be forced down with a burden that had ruined her body, her mind, and then left her alone with the memories of the dead?

Dissolving. She's dissolving and she can do nothing about it; and yet, she's angry. She's so fucking angry because what right does a god have to tell her what to do? A god that was killing her because… what? The world being so fucked up?

Because she was alive?

Sachi can see flashes of the hell she went through during the massacre of the Kanbayashi, and how she had been lucky enough for Ashi to adopt her. Sachi had worked so hard. So very hard to build another life for her own, with her new family and those she loved, trying to live the best she could after being torn apart by the decisions of others.

No.

Sachi was going to live.

And she was going to live in spite of those that told her she couldn't.

She summons her seals, because Cipak-kamuy might be a god, but she is the master of her mind. There's a resistance, but she forces her will until the tar dissipates suddenly. She's kneeling again, gasping for breath as a reflex of being overpowered; when she looks up, the god is peering down at her with disappointment.

"Why don't you die?"

"Because… fuck you, that's why." The god doesn't seem to like her answer, but Sachi doesn't give a shit as she staggers to her feet. She will not bow to that god, and certainly not in her own mind. "I am alive, and so I will live. You don't get to tell me what to do, and you will not kill me!"

"Foolish," comes the reprimand, but the god doesn't attack her again. Instead, they straighten their neck, so far up that Sachi has to crane her neck to see; she does so begrudgingly, glaring at them. "You don't understand, yes?"

"What is there to understand?!" she demands, and the mindspace shakes beneath her rage; it's a bad sign, indicating a collapse, but Sachi dares to take a step forward as she bares her teeth. "What can a god like you hope to tell me? Huh? Do you even know who I am, what I am? I am the Archive of the Kanbayashi! If I die, everyone dies with me!"

The god is unfazed, their head rotating slowly. "Should that matter?"

Sachi is baffled, so much that she trembles with shock and then with fury. "Matter? Of course it matters! You are Cipak-kamuy, the god of wisdom! You are the god of the Kanbayashi, we worshipped you! Did all the rites and rituals not matter? All the sacrifices, all the devotion? The festivities, the temples, the shrines— Were those all in vain?!"

"You," she spats with as much hatred as she can muster. "Were supposed to help us! To save us! Where were you when we needed you? When that thing butchered us in our own home?!"

And then, as a last plea to the god that should have understood, that should have helped, that should have saved them, she asks, "We have the same eyes, don't we?"

Cipak-kamuy doesn't say anything, the hollow orbits pouring the same black substance that she dispels immediately as it splatters to the ground. The golden eye in the middle of their forehead, a shade identical to that of her own eyes, shows nothing.

Sachi is crying, all the repressed memories breaking the tightly knit bonds she had put them under, and she is hurt, angry and terrified. She can hear their screams, and then her own, and then everything that came afterwards that made her wish she wasn't alive anymore. "I prayed to you! I begged you! I implored that you would prevent me, us, from dying! My friends are dead! My family is dead! It hurts to live because Chika-sama gave the Archive to me— but I am alive! In spite of everything, I am fucking alive! And you come here, to my own mind, and tell me I should die?"

The god's eye remains unchanged, and Sachi feels the last remnant of her identity as a Kanbayashi snap. She had worshiped her gods, who were not kind but at least they looked after their followers; but she was wrong. The gods didn't care, they didn't give a flying fuck about them, and now—

"Fuck you," she grits, her voice raw as she swallows the howl in her throat. "Fuck you, so fucking much. I refuse to believe in a god that would abandon their people, that would give their back when they needed them most. So, no, I won't die. Why? Because I don't want to. I have a new life now, and I intend to live it to the fullest. You should be ashamed to ask such a thing from me. I survived because of a miracle, and I am not willing to sacrifice myself for you."

"Your claims are empty, and your soul is breaking," they warn her, but Sachi shakes her head as to not listen to them. "I have advised you to do what is best for this world, for its natural course to be reestablished because of your defiance. What is more important than the world you live in, for you to go against what has been set in stone, to what has been foretold?"

"Those that live in it!" she shouts. "What good is an empty world? One barren of the people that I love, that I want to protect? I don't fucking care about the world, it can burn twice over! I live for my family, and they are the ones that I would trade my life for! Not this world, not another world, but them!"

"You don't know the implications of that promise," the god tells her, almost scolding her as if she's a child that is speaking without knowing. "Are those that you swear you love, worth the love you have for them?"

"No," Sachi hisses. "They are worth so much more than my love! They deserve more than I can ever give them, and I will spend my whole life doing just that."

Life was meaningless without love. Sachi refused to live a life without it.

The god's head stops spinning. Then, a screech comes from their beak, filled with voices that Sachi can recognize screaming in agony, reprimanding her for her disobedience. But Sachi doesn't bow, doesn't kneel, and she doesn't even flinch.

"You are foolish to believe you can achieve such a thing," they say in her own voice, and Sachi is revolted by the teasing tone. "You aren't fit to answer this question, and I will have my answer—"

"You know what? I'm done, I'm done talking to you. Get out of my mind, and don't show your feathered asshole again."

Sachi is exhausted, and she wonders if the god will strike her down for insulting them to their face. Instead, they stare at her, and then a hum picks up.

It's the same as it had been when she first met them, and Sachi doesn't know the meaning of it. She only knows that it cripples her, and even her will is weak against it. It rattles her mind, and her seals flutter chaotically. Were they going to kill her? To finish the job? Do whatever gods do to those that have less power than them?

"Those that walk the unwritten path will face a Fate worse than death," they say in a voice so ominous that Sachi doesn't believe it's a voice at all, but a painful screech that she somehow understands.

The hum intensifies, Sachi fearing for her mind as the god flickers before her eyes—

"I have a question, and you will answer me," they order, and Sachi can swear the god is changing forms, into a… being so horrifying that she cannot comprehend what she is seeing, forcing her to look away.

"You have claimed that the love you hold for your family is more important than the Fate of your world, when the times comes, I will ask you again," Cipak-kamuy's only eye shines so brightly that envelops the entire space with light, burning her as she's swallowed in its scalding warmth. "Is it worth it?"

When Sachi opens her eyes she is out of her mindspace, Yasu is gaping at her.

And, for the first time ever since Sachi has known her, Yasu is afraid.

The first student that Orochimaru finds is Anko. In fact, they come across each other as Orochimaru is about to reach the shore and Anko is all but sliding across the water to get to the ship. The relief of seeing her alive is nearly overwhelming, and Orochimaru cannot utter a word before she changes course and goes directly to him.

"I'm sorry I'm late!" it's the first thing she says. "I got a contract!"

Anko shows him a black scroll, but Orochimaru prefers to focus on her rather than her achievement. She seemed fine, but he could see a deep bite mark on one of her legs and she seemed exhausted, if the deep bags under her eyes were any indication. Thinner and quite pale, which made Orochimaru reach to her to see if there were any injuries. If she dropped dead because she had let herself be poisoned—

"Sensei?" Anko asks, letting him turn her face to the side to check her bruises. "Is something wrong?"

"Have you seen your teammates?" he asks instead of answering, the swell of tension agitating him in ways he wasn't sure how to interpret. "We are behind schedule."

Anko opens her eyes wide. "They aren't with you?"

The silence between them sits heavy as they stand on the ocean's surface, and the meaning is even more suffocating. If neither of them had seen Sachi and Kasui, then where were they?

Orochimaru feels a tug of his chakra, Kōshoku alerting him of something as he comes into view. Some distance away, on the shore, they see a boy stark naked emerging from the bushes.

"Kasui!" Anko shouts, which makes him turn to her and squint. "Why are you naked?!"

"Because I can't find my glasses!"

Orochimaru uses a shunshin to get to his side, not a cut on Kasui that he could see, which eases some of his unease. Kasui was alive too, quite well except for his accidental nudity as Anko helped him try to find his camp and get his glasses.

"I believe this thing is yours," Kōshoku remarks, slithering with his head lifted to balance Kasui's glasses.

"Thank you, Kōshoku, it would've sucked not seeing anything on the way back."

"Hn," the snake replies, letting Kasui take his glasses.

"So, are we gonna address why you are naked or is it your thing now?" Anko jokes, but she's standing close to him, nervous as she makes sure he is alright.

"I was swimming, drowned a bit and then got a summon contract."

"Cool, whatcha got?"

"Cone snails, you?"

"Snakes!"

Orochimaru watches as both of his students show their respective summoning contracts to each other, Anko's sleek black one and Kasui's pale blue one. They were alive, and unbothered by the fact that Orochimaru had supposed they had died.

But one was missing.

"Where's Sachi?" Kasui asks when he finds his retaining scroll and unseals some clothes.

Two of Orochimaru's students were alive, and they had summoning contracts. Anyone would count that as a good result, and yet Orochimaru keeps glancing around, hoping to see Sachi appear. She was the weakest of the three, and perhaps the least probable to get a summoning contract; from an objective point of view, Sachi had high chances of dying in the Land of Marshes.

But subjectively, Orochimaru didn't agree. Sachi was crippled, but she was intelligent; she thrived in difficulty, and he refused to believe the Land of Marshes would be enough to kill her.

"Sensei?"

Anko and Kasui stare at him, understanding his silence. Orochimaru wasn't sure if he should comfort them, or tell them to go to the ship. What he knew was that he was not going to leave Sachi behind, even if it meant to burn the whole Land of Marshes to find her.

"You two go ahead and—"

"There she is!"

Sachi appears at the other end of the shore, Yasu's deep purple body curled around her shoulders. Her teammates cheer, but Orochimaru can feel the agitation coming from Yasu through their bond. Yasu's chakra was anxious, such an emotion strong enough to permeate the thin connection she had with Orochimaru, which in turn troubled him.

Yasu wasn't one to mingle in human affairs, only to amuse herself, but to see her so agitated—

"Hey Sachi, over here!" Anko waves at her as Sachi approaches.

All of them notice Sachi's quietness instantly, silent as she looks down as if she had been defeated in a trascendental way. Sachi being silent meant that something was wrong with the girl, and Orochimaru's senses were wary because of it.

"Sachi," Orochimaru calls her and when she looks up, her eyes are haunted.

It's startling, an icy shiver thundering down his spine. Sachi's golden eyes were usually warm, and yet, when Orochimaru looks into them he can only see dread.

(Nobody knew, but that had been the day Sachi changed.)

"Your ship is about to sail," Yasu points out, and her voice is levelled and neutral. It fooled Anko and Kasui, who turned to confirm if the ship was leaving without them, but not Orochimaru.

"We should embark, we are late already," Orochimaru amends, but his eyes linger on Yasu's protective coil.

"Yeah… we should," Kasui and Anko notice Sachi's despondent demeanor, but give her space as they begin crossing the water.

Orochimaru tries staying close to Sachi, in case her chakra gives out and she falls into the water; maybe even ask her about what happened to her. However, Yasu was very clear that he should stay away from her, going as far as showing her fangs in a threatening way. He didn't have a doubt that Yasu would poison him if he dared inch closer, but Orochimaru could very well dispel her from their world.

He doesn't.

Sachi rushes to the ship and when she vaults over the rails, she goes into the barracks without uttering a word. Orochimaru wonders if he should go talk to her, or send her confused teammates to check on her.

He doesn't.

Sachi gets into a hammock, glad to be away from the Land of Marshes. Apparently, it is an invitation for Yasu to stay with her, and cozy herself up against her chest.

They don't say anything for a good while, Sachi swaying as the ship sets course for Nagi Island. Sachi couldn't bring herself to speak, and anytime she closed her eyes, she could see the face of Cipak-kamuy burning with hatred. They had told her she should die, and Sachi might have defied them to their face, but she was terrified.

A god.

She had confronted a god.

Sachi is afraid, because no one could help her. A god, the god of wisdom no less. Cipak-kamuy, omniscient and omnipresent, were the most powerful out of all the gods from the Old Pantheon. She knew the stories, she was aware of what happened to those that crossed such beings, and yet—

Sachi doesn't want to die.

When she thinks about what has happened to her so far, what she has endured, she can't bring herself to agree with Cipak-kamuy. Was life truly that unfair, for her life to be sentenced to suffering and pain just because… she didn't die when she was supposed to? What did it mean, for her to be alive when… she shouldn't?

Sachi's head hurts, so much that she can only lay motionless on the hammock. Yasu shifts around her, the snake's weight grounding Sachi as she is drifting into her thoughts. She didn't want to deal with this. Wasn't it enough that she had to lie to everyone about who she was? That she had to be Archive? Live in fear that a creature would come for her and kill her just when she had found happiness?

She just had to speak to a god, didn't she? She couldn't just… be normal for once, have ordinary troubles like thinking about what to cook for dinner or arguing with Kasui and Anko who got to take a shower first when they got back home. No, she just had to be at the center of it all, again, and now…

And now what?

"Is… my soul broken?" is the first thing Sachi brings herself to say after what feels like hours.

Yasu thightens minutely, her face slithering to face Sachi. Her copper eyes are clouded with such a complex emotion that Sachi can't even begin to figure out. She doesn't want to, too exhausted to even think. "Is that what… they have told you?"

It's not an answer, Sachi knows, but she doesn't address it.

"Yes," she admits, and it hurts to speak, her voice raw and rough. "Do you want to see?"

Yasu doesn't soften, but she settles close to Sachi's face. "I don't believe it's wise."

"Are you afraid of them?"

"Yes."

"... me too."

What does it mean to have known a god? To have spoken to them, and for them to say you should die? The mere existence of a being so powerful that fell under the category of god was mind boggling. One could believe in godly beings, some might be religious and others might not believe in anything at all. Sachi had believed in her gods because that was what she had been taught, but she had never stopped to think about the repercussions of gods being real.

Or a god telling you to die.

"Did you see them?" Sachi wonders quietly, searching for something in Yasu's features.

The snake buries her head in her tight coil, seeking comfort in herself. "Felt them, more like."

That's the only thing Sachi needs; confirmation. She had considered insanity to explain her argument with Cipak-kamuy, but Sachi knew that no hallucination would prove to be so real. Sachi puts a hand over her heart, finding it beating wildly. The scar was still there, mangled and ugly and permanent, aching as if the needle had gone through once more.

Yasu uncoils a little bit, enough for her snout to slide between two of her folds. Her nose is cold, and it touches the little bump in the middle of the scar, the tissue loose even years after it was healed. The snake channels some chakra, making some of the sealwork show. The matrix over her heart is spinning slowly.

"I don't want pity," Sachi tells her, although it is feeble at best.

"I won't give you any," Yasu replies, withdrawing but still keeping close. Sachi prefers to think it's because the snake is mooching off her body heat instead of some newfound kindness in her.

Their relationship was… an odd one. After Sachi had answered Yasu's question, they had reached some kind of truce. The spirit will keep her identity as a Kanbayashi a secret, and Sachi will not trouble the snake further. Yasu wasn't interested in the Archive, prefering to keep herself away from Sachi, but then again she was part of Orochimaru's hatchlings, and so they respected each other at a distance.

Which is why it is so… surprising to have Yasu curled up around her, as if they weren't suspicious of one another, as if they didn't know Kanbayashi and spirits shouldn't be together. Sachi had learned that the gods she worshipped, or had, wouldn't allow her to form a bond with any otherworldly spirit. Now that they knew the gods were real, or at least Cipak-kamuy was, it… just was not worth it.

("Trouble always finds you, Sachi," Sumi told her, after another disaster that involved her. "But you always get away with it.")

"What happens if your soul is broken?" Sachi asks again, more to herself. "I… are souls… even real? What are they? What are they made of? The human body is simple, we have bones, we have tissue, we have organs— If any of those are hurt, broken, we know how to heal them… But souls? What about souls?"

Can souls break? If so, how? And why? What consequences came from having a broken soul? Could they even be healed at all?

"Take it easy," Yasu advises, pressing harder onto her as to bring her back from her mind. Sachi didn't want to sleep. She also didn't want to process all the memories from her… encounter with Cipak-kamuy. But she needed to, afraid as she was, because she wanted to understand.

"It's… I'm tired, Yasu. I'm… tired."

It feels as if it's a weakness, as if she's confessing a grave sin. Yasu doesn't offer words of reassurance, or try to ply her with empty promises that it would be better, that it will be okay. Sachi appreciates it and yet it's saddened by it, because someone like Yasu, a spirit belonging to another world, has to listen to her troubles because she has no one else that will listen. Sachi lets out a dry chuckle, imagining how the conversation would go if she told Kasui or Anko, even Orochimaru or Ashi, that she had just seen god and that it sentenced her to death.

"I thought it would be over, that it wouldn't get any worse…" Her family dead, her home burnt, her identity stripped— And now, haunted by a god. "I like living, I have… so many things I want to do, to see and to discover… I have a home now, a family, and I want to protect them and love them… but..."

But.

Yasu seems to understand, but could she really? Did the summon know how it felt to have the world on your shoulders, with no other way than to face it and continue?

"I can't give up," she manages to whisper, convincing herself to keep going because there was no other option for her. She was the Archive of the Kanbayashi, and so she must live for the lives she was guarding in her mind; but she was also Inuzuka Sachi, and had a promise to keep, and a vow to maintain.

Sachi was torn on so many sides already. Cipak-kamuy suddenly showing themselves to her, to admonish her for nothing else than living, was just a fucking low blow.

"Fuck them."

Yasu sighs, a mix between exasperated and fond. "Only you, Old-blood, would tell the God of Wisdom to… ehem, do that."

Sachi smiles, fragile as it was. "I am crazy, aren't I? Always getting into trouble, and always getting out of it."

Yasu detangles herself, slithering away from Sachi and down to the floor. "Only you know the answer to that question."

Sachi doesn't turn to watch her leave, listening to the quiet hiss across the wooden tiles and up the stairs. She feels marginally better, but she can't help but ask Yasu's retreating form something that has been worrying her ever since she heard it:

"What is… a Fate worse than death?"

And because Sachi isn't looking at her, she doesn't see the expression of utter horror on Yasu's face.

Yasu climbs onto the deck, sensing the other two hatchlings that are expecting her outside the barracks. They don't exchange a word, but when she nods, both of them rush past her to go see their sibling. It's endearing, seeing them care for one another when in need, but Yasu can't manage to say a single teasing remark about it. Yasu's siblings had tried to eat her when she had shown weakness. Human sentimentality is not something she intends to understand.

There is another that is expecting her, Yasu making her way towards him as the sailors let her pass through, obviously unsettled. Orochimaru greets her by letting her slither around his body and clinging to his shoulders.

Then, not even looking at her, he says, "Well?"

"Well?" she echoes, the enjoyment she gets from vexing him dampened by the knowledge she had just gained. "I did as you've ordered, haven't I?"

Orochimaru glares at her, and it's a sight to see such blatant emotion in that boy. He resembled his mother greatly, but he had his father's temper; not that it would work with her. "You've found her," he states, hoping for her to elaborate.

"Yes, I have," she amends. "The poor thing had fallen off a tree, nearly drowning in mud. Not a flattering sight; anyone would be ashamed."

Of course, Yasu left the part in which Sachi was glowing like a bonfire, burning so hot that leaves ignited in her proximity. How she had been drowning, but not on mud, but on a tar-like substance that she threw up from the pit of her entrails. Anyone would be ashamed to display such vulnerability, especially in a place without allies. But there was no shame in being weak after encountering a god.

Yasu had known that something like this would happen. She was old, although not quite as ancient to have witnessed the gods of this world herself. Nevertheless, she could feel them, and she hated the invasive prickle on her scales anytime she got too close to any of those beings.

When she had first met Sachi, a girl that Yasu's summoner was in charge of, her reaction was of full rejection. She was all but drenched in that uncanny aura that all Kanbayashi had, flowing right through her veins and feeding that dangerous mind. Yasu had detected a few Kanbayashi living in Leaf throughout the years, and she had never engaged with them, but she had also noticed their sudden disappearance.

The Kanbayashi would leave four times a year, corresponding to whatever religious festivities they had, but they would always come back.

Until they didn't.

Then, another Kanbayashi appeared in Leaf, alone and too young to be a traveler. And, the most important thing, she was wounded.

Summons and Kanbayashi weren't exactly on good terms, since the latter were all but their jailors. Summons depended on the Kanbayashi for a chance to live in this world, and Yasu was intimately familiar with what happened when a Kanbayashi disagreed with something. That's why the first thought Yasu had upon meeting Sachi was to kill her, dispose of her quietly. It would've been easy too, but she ultimately decided to wait and see.

Perhaps Yasu didn't trust Sachi, but she trusted Orochimaru. Yūdokuna had sacrificed herself and all of the Yamata for him, and Yasu didn't want to be the one to upset Orochimaru. Yasu wasn't blind nor deaf, and she knew of the hatred and suspicion some regarded Orochimaru with. Killing one of his hatchlings would bring him more troubles and perhaps it would send him tethering over the edge.

But Yasu would be lying if she hadn't been curious about Sachi, and how her presence would influence the world. An Archive so young, unprotected and alone, for once at the mercy of those around her instead of dominating them. Yasu was amused about her situation, having fallen so far from grace, but now—

Yasu had felt them, the God of Wisdom. It had been centuries since she had last sensed their presence, but she knew they were still alive. The proof had been laid right in front of her two eyes, as the crackle of thunder raged around the miserable body of Sachi, and a cold so biting and ruthless that Yasu had been frozen in her spot. She had heard the voices too, warped in a screech that was painful to hear, crying out as if a thousand humans were being tortured.

There was a void, a black thick smoke hovering above Sachi's body. The Land of Marshes had a great reserve of chakra, but at that moment, there was nothing. Everything around Sachi was being swallowed, all the life sucked from their very core as the chakra was forcibly vacuumed out of that world. It was death, plain and simple.

But what Yasu saw was worse than death, it was… nothingness.

Yasu had heard the stories, the warnings of the other spirits to never cross a Kanbayashi, for they had the protection of the true rulers of that world. Spirits depended on the Kanbayashi's indifference to live in the human world, but the gods had the last say in it. If one offended a Kanbayashi, there would be a reckoning much more dangerous than whatever a human could do to them.

Summons were powerful, yes, but they weren't gods.

There was a myth, a tale that every settling summon would hear. There had once been a Mole Tribe, a clan of spirits that had settled on an island near the Land of Snow where the Kanbayashi lived. Somehow, they angered the Kanbayashi, and in the next moment, the whole island was gone.

Not sunk, not destroyed, but gone.

And when Yasu stared at that oppressive darkness, with Sachi at its center, Yasu knew it was true. If she dared to intervene, she would be erased from existence, and that was more terrifying than death.

Thankfully, it had been only a moment, and it vanished quickly. Yasu had gone to Sachi, the poor girl convulsing and spitting something Yasu didn't care to identify. Sachi, apart from being smart, was proud; but when the girl looked up to Yasu, and held on to her body as if she was the only thing keeping her alive, she saw only fear.

Maybe that's what scared Yasu, to see a Kanbayashi being punished so clearly by a god that should have been kind to her. If the gods didn't even favour the Kanbayashi, then what stopped them from erasing them all? It had been a revelation Yasu didn't want to ponder about, and what it meant for all of them.

(Before the god left, they laughed.)

"Should I know?" Orochimaru snaps her out from her own thoughts.

"If you are so worried, go ask her yourself."

However, Yasu had other matters to attend to. She had her own promises to keep, and she had sworn to Yūdokuna that she would protect her hatchling. Because of it, Orochimaru mustn't know about Sachi being a Kanbayashi and… whatever baggage came from knowing.

Orochimaru isn't convinced, crossing his arms and huffing his annoyance. "Has she told you anything?"

Sachi had asked her if her soul was broken. Yasu couldn't answer her, because it was true.

Summons were not from the human world, having other senses that allowed them to see what the humans could not. As well as Yasu could sense the gods from that world, she could also feel their souls. It was what summons used to judge a human, and decide if they were worthy to ally themselves with them.

Sachi's soul was a tiny pitiful thing. Filled with cracks and disfigured beyond recognition. It was a beacon of agony, so much that being near her was painful. In all her years in that realm, she hadn't seen a soul so shattered. Yasu wondered what had happened to her, but couldn't bring herself to ask.

(Would you be able to ask someone who is dying how much they have left?)

Yasu slides off Orochimaru, saying, "I cannot stand emotion, it frazzles my scales."

"If you aren't here to help me, why bother coming here at all?" Orochimaru wonders out loud, snappy as he was when he was miffed.

"Because you need some humbling, that's why," Yasu snarks back.

Both of them knew that Orochimaru wouldn't break the contract between them, even when he threatened to do so anytime Yasu managed to annoy him. As Orochimaru was Yasu's last connection to Yūdokuna, so was Yasu to Orochimaru. Not that they would ever admit it.

"Go talk to her, it might do some good for once."

Yasu leaves with Orochimaru's scathing glare on her.

Orochimaru does talk to Sachi, but it's only when they are about to change ships.

"Will you be able to participate in the Chūnin Exams?"

As soon as the question leaves his lips, Orochimaru wants to cringe at Sachi's awkward expression. Tsunade often told him he spoke with a foot in his mouth, which is why Orochimaru paid close attention to the reaction of others. Sachi's was one of shock, then of hurt and finally of righteous anger.

"I will," she tells him, biting every word. "It was my plan to do so, summons or not."

She tries to leave, as she often did when she didn't want to speak to him. It used to pique him, Sachi's disregard of authority, but that was before he understood that as often as Sachi liked being around others, she needed to be alone sometimes.

Orochimaru doesn't call her out, nor does he reinforce their positions. Instead, he asks her "What happened?"

It shouldn't take such a great deal of intent to ask such a thing, he was her sensei, and he had to look after her. But he was aware that he wasn't the best at dealing with highly emotional situations, and Sachi was all but emotionally unstable.

Sachi seems surprised that he would ask, proof of how strange it was for Orochimaru to address something like this instead of ignoring it and going forward. But he tried, and Sachi's anger dissipated into sadness.

"I… failed my trial, I think," Sachi swallows, obviously uncomfortable. She wasn't hurt, Orochimaru had made sure she wasn't, but there was something wrong with her. Wrong wasn't exactly the word, more like something had changed in her, and Orochimaru didn't know if it was good or not. "And summons won't make a contract with me because… of my condition."

It made sense, somewhat. Summons needed chakra to establish a contract, which is why bonds between spirits and civilians were unheard of. A pity. Sachi would have benefitted from an outside influence that wasn't the other two menaces. Orochimaru tells her so, and she becomes sheepish, asking, "Are you disappointed?"

That had never crossed his mind. Annoyed? Perhaps a little, because he had intended for this trip to help all of his students grow, but Anko and Kasui had been successful, and wishing for more would be too arrogant.

It didn't matter if Sachi had a summons or not, because not all powerful shinobi had them, and she will find a way to adapt. But death was irremediable, and risking losing her to make a contract that didn't ensure will aid her was not something Orochimaru was willing to do.

"As long as you are alive, I'm satisfied."

His words sparked something in her dull eyes, and before Orochimaru could react, Sachi lunged for a hug. He was frozen still, Sachi wrapping her skinny arms around his waist and holding tightly for a second before releasing him just as quickly.

"I will make it worth it," Sachi promises him with unshed tears.

Orochimaru is at a loss, and he misses the reason why she fiercely said those words. He decides it doesn't matter, because Sachi was happy again.

Ashi enters the Hokage's office. Haiiro isn't with her.

It's going to be one of those days.

Coincidentally, it also happened to be the first day of the Chūnin Exams. The first stage was about to take place that very same night, and the teams were getting ready with their respective jōnin sensei debriefing them.

But one team was still missing.

"Has there been any news?"

Hiruzen respects Ashi's patience and endurance to wait for two months and some odd days before nearly breaking the door to his office because he had let all three of her wards go on a mission that not even the Hokage knew the details to. It seems his luck has finally run out.

"There haven't been any reports, yet," he adds in an attempt to placate that bubbling killing intent; it does nothing. "But they should be here any time soon."

Of course, he had been telling Ashi that for the last two weeks, and Ashi is not satisfied with it anymore.

"If they don't come by the end of the day, I'm taking my whole clan to track them down."

As in, retrieving only Sachi, Kasui and Anko and bringing Orochimaru back in a body scroll. At least Ashi was straightforward with him, and Hiruzen couldn't say he hadn't thought about the same thing himself. If it had been anyone else, Hiruzen would have marked them as a missing nin if they went AWOL for two months and took three hostages with them. Since it was Orochimaru, however, Hiruzen was more willing to… wait a bit longer.

But everything has its limit.

Hiruzen and Tsunade didn't believe the rumours that claimed Orochimaru had left the village, taking his students with him. That he had killed them somewhere and became a missing nin. But Tsunade was beginning to grow concerned. Not because of the rumours, but because she feared that Orochimaru had found out Sachi was the Archive.

It was no secret that Orochimaru coveted knowledge, and Sachi was the embodiment of it. Orochimaru's lack of a moral compass could lead him to make harsh decisions, and both Hiruzen and Tsunade knew that there was a very real possibility that Orochimaru would use Sachi for his own gain.

(It was true.)

"If they—"

"Sorry for being late!"

The door to the Hokage's office slams open again, showing four familiar faces barging in as if moments ago they hadn't been considered missing. Ashi looked a second away from going on a rampage, so Orochimaru very wisely let his students walk ahead of him. It does wonders, and Ashi's temper dies down when she sees her wards alive and well as she hugs them tightly.

"It seems you've been quite busy," Hiruzen remarks, making sure to send a meaningful look towards Orochimaru who just shrugs.

"You better have a good excuse for not sending any messages," Ashi threatens, but she's too preoccupied patting her children down to follow up on her words with anything more nefarious.

"We missed you!" they say, and Ashi visibly melts.

Orochimaru seems awfully smug, and puts a scroll on Hiruzen's desk while his students distract Ashi from directing her wrath towards him. "I believe it's justified."

"Yeah, watch this Ashi-san!"

As on cue, Kasui and Anko bite their thumbs and slap their hands on the floor, a puff of white smoke enveloping the office. Once it clears, they can all see Kasui having several snails stuck to his body and Anko holding two snakes by the neck.

Ashi becomes very pale, and then very red as she realizes the purpose of Orochimaru's sudden escapade. "You gave them summons!" she howls. "Are you fuckin' insane?!"

"It's a great accomplishment," Hiruzen is quick to say before Ashi strangles Orochimaru to death.

"Where the fuck did you take them?" Ashi demands, taking a very threatening step towards Orochimaru.

"I am not supposed to disclose any information of our mission," Orochimaru reminds her icily, which is not something Hiruzen would stand for. If those two broke into a brawl in the Hokage's office—

"I'll make an exception due to extenuating circumstances."

Sachi, reading the mood, is the one to break the tension. "We went to the Land of Marshes, but I wouldn't recommend it. There aren't any good spots to visit and the food was awful."

"That's because you didn't get any summons," Anko huffs.

"That's because I don't need them—"

"But we're alive, I think that's good," is Kasui's input.

Hiruzen and Ashi just… stare. The Land of Marshes. They just went to the Land of Marshes. The prime location for a painful suicide by being torn apart by bitter spirits which resented humans.

Hiruzen seriously considers letting Ashi beat Orochimaru to a pulp.

"You just… took my kids, for two months, to the fuckin' Marshes to get spirits," Ashi voices her disbelief. "You son of a bitch, you really took three freshly minted genin to get summons. Hokage-sama…" can I kill him? Ashi doesn't say, but her murderous eyes were enough.

"Well, yeah!" Anko agrees "It's so we can win the Exams!"

"You puny mouse, how dare you—" one of Anko's snakes hissed angrily, going as far as to lunge for her neck. Anko doesn't hesitate and takes the snake by his tail and then flung it into a wall, making it disappear in a puff of smoke.

"So yeah!" Anko says nonchalantly, Team Two not seeing anything wrong with what just happened. "By the way, they begin today, right?"

"Yes," Hiruzen confirms. "You've arrived at the last moment."

All three of them grin at the Hokage, seemingly proud of their accomplishment. Something which Ashi doesn't stand for in the least. "Home. Now," she growls, and that tone is enough to make even Hiruzen flinch.

Team Two knows that tone very well, and their cheer dies down and they turn to their sensei for support. Orochimaru points to the scroll on the desk and says, "The reports are in the scroll, as well as their applications for the Exams."

"In that case, there's no need for a formal debrief," Hiruzen comments. "Welcome back, Team Two. The first stage of the Exams begins at midnight. Dismissed."

Hiruzen watches the look of pure betrayal on the genin faces, gaping at their sensei as Ashi all but drags them away for what Hiruzen knows is going to be a very serious conversation. Orochimaru doesn't seem affected, and he bows to leave before Hiruzen stops him.

"I understand that you care for your students, Orochimaru," he begins. "But going as far as traveling to the Land of Marshes…"

"Lately, every person disagrees with my teaching methods," Orochimaru counters. "I was younger than them when I bonded with Kōshoku, and Tsunade and Jiraiya were not much older when they got their own summoning contracts."

"Don't rush it, Orochimaru," Hiruzen warns him sternly. "Team Two is different from you, Tsunade and Jiraiya."

"Yes, I know," Orochimaru answers. "And because they are different they can be better."

So, that's how it was.

Hiruzen sighs, the throbbing headache making him reach for his tobacco. "Taking them to the Land of Marshes might have been… a little extreme."

"It was necessary for them to grow," Orochimaru stubbornly doesn't back down. "Summons will serve them well."

Orochimaru was certain that his decision had been the right one, and there was no way his sensei would convince him otherwise. Hiruzen considers Team Two, and although they are outstanding in their own way, they are still young. Orochimaru was trying to train them up quickly, and Hiruzen would've been inclined to believe it was his strategy to get rid of them as soon as possible. Yet Orochimaru's expression told him otherwise. He believed in his students, and he was sure that they would be able to endure his lessons.

Team Two's exponential growth was due to Orochimaru's harsh teachings, but Hiruzen wonders if it wasn't too… hasty.

It was as if Orochimaru knew there wouldn't be time for him to teach his students at a normal pace; as if he had to train them to the best of his abilities in the shortest amount of time. Hiruzen trusts Orochimaru's judgement, but he was worried about the repercussions of shaping such young children into ruthless shinobi at such a fast pace.

In the end, he gives in. "It's good to have you back, Orochimaru."

It doesn't ease the heavy atmosphere, but Orochimaru does bow to him respectfully. "It's good to be back."

"Now go. I expect a very detailed report for this mission, and do not believe that just because you're my student I won't hold you accountable for this."

Orochimaru hums, and it's just the perfect amount of politeness. "Of course, sensei."

It's thanks to situations like this that Hiruzen considers retiring early.

The dogs' howls indicate their arrival. Tsume and Kuromaru are already out of the door, running towards them before they even put a foot into the house.

"Maul them, Kuromaru! Tear them to bits!" Tsume shouts, all but tackling the genin to the ground. "Where the fuck have you been, eh?!"

Ashi lets Tsume and Kuromaru rough them up a bit, Haiiro coming around the corner to stand beside her as they watch how Tsume throws them into the air and Kuromaru puts his slobber all over their faces.

"Heh, I told ya they would be fine."

Ashi had not fared well the last two months. She had known they were going away, secretive as they had become with their training. But she hadn't expected to not see them in so long. All the Inuzuka had grown used to having them around, and their absence had put them on edge. Waking up and finding an empty house, with their scents slowly fading from their compound. It reminded Ashi of the days after Isamu's funeral, and the mere thought of his death had made her unable to stay still.

But now that they were home she could breathe again. "They're strong pups," Haiiro says, putting his nose on her hands. "Oi pups! Where is my hello?"

Tsume is twirling Kasui around, while Kuromaru has successfully pinned Anko and Sachi to the ground. "Ughf—"

"I hope that's a hi, at least," Haiiro chuckles, deciding to rescue his pups by biting Kuromaru's fat ass and making him yelp. "Come on in, you're stinkin' up the whole place."

"Thanks, Haiiro," they grumble in unison, finally getting inside the house.

Later, there would be a celebration. The Inuzuka were keeping away from now, letting their Alpha have them all for herself before they took them to show them how much they missed their feral puppies. For now, however, a bath was in order.

"Woah, they've grown or is it just me?" Tsume remarks once they're gone, helping Ashi heat up the leftovers for them. "Man, it seems like forever since I last saw 'em!"

They had missed them a lot. Tsume had been struggling with the clinic without Kasui there to help her out. Not to mention taking care of Hana on top of that. The little girl had been crying inconsolably when Kuromaru had to tell her that Sachi or Anko weren't there to play with her, and was heartbroken when he couldn't say when they would be back. Even Kegawa had noticed their absence even if he would never admit it.

Two months wasn't that long, but considering that they had nearly died once, it had worried all of them. Ashi especially, who hadn't been able to have a good night's sleep knowing that maybe they wouldn't come back alive. That's why Haiiro took it upon himself to remind her that their pups were strong, and that they wouldn't get lost so easily. There had however always been that what if at the back of Ashi's mind.

"Oh, it smells nice! Akimichi leftovers?" Sachi is the first one to enter the kitchen, drying her hair with a towel.

"We can cook, you know?" Ashi reminds her.

"Um, no, you can't," Sachi says back, and Ashi had missed Sachi being a brat. "Where's Hana?"

"Kegawa took her to Shiga's place, so she can play with Unari-kun," Tsume answers, looking Sachi up and down. "Did ya get taller or what?"

Sachi was as tall as Tsume now, which was funny in an awkward way considering Sachi was all dangly limbs and sharp edges. She was almost fourteen now, so it was expected, but Ashi couldn't help but stare in amazement.

"You're growing too fast," Ashi laments, putting a plate of fried rice in front of her.

"And you're growing old—" Ashi slaps her up the head before she finishes. "Thank you for the food."

It was good to have them back. Ashi leans over and bumps her forehead with Sachi's, just to feel that she was there with her, that she was safe, that she was alive. She doesn't know when she has grown so attached to them, but she knew she wouldn't ever want to be apart from them. "Don't scare me like this again, 'kay?"

"Yesh, yesh," Sachi nods with a mouth full of food.

Tsume whistles sharply, taking hold of Sachi's arm and tugging it. "Oh, but look at that! You've got a tan!" There was a clear line separating Sachi's slightly darker hands from the rest of her body, as well as a tan mark on her neck where her clothes had covered her skin. "It won't hurt ya if you get a little more into the sun, ya know?"

"I haven't come back just to hear your advice, Tsume."

Tsume and Ashi slap Sachi up the head, the girl grumbling over her food. "What's with this mood, hm?"

"She's just mad she didn't get a summons," Kasui answers, taking a seat at the table.

"Oi, what's up with you too?" Tsume says, pointing to Kasui's skin. "You look like coffee beans."

That was a little bit of an exaggeration, but Kasui was darker than what Ashi remembered. His hair had been bleached by the sun, which made him look as if he had just come out of Lightning Country.

"Well, it suits ya," Haiiro says, pleased to be able to lounge under the table again and have the pups massage him with their feet as they eat.

"See?" Kasui preens, showing off his tan. "We sailed across the Kaijuu and the Kanashii ocean!"

Tsume, who was not yet aware of where they had been those last two months, frowns deeply. "Watcha say? The Kaijuu ocean? What the fuck for?"

"For this!" Kasui waves a blue scroll in front of her. "Anko and I got summons! This one is called Mi."

Kasui then reaches for the back of his head and pulls a small snail. It is bright blue in color, with yellow and orange spots all over it. It has a white shell with small spikes, and they whine when Kasui lets Tsume sniff it.

"Oh, I get it now, that's why your scent's changed," Kuromaru points out, taking his rightful place beside his brother.

"Yeah, how so?"

"You smell salty now," Tsume makes a face, pushin the snail away from her. "And summons? That's why that snake kidnapped you for?"

"He didn't kidnap us, he took us to the Land of Marshes!" Kasui explains, putting the snail on his skin again.

"The Marshes?" the room echoes, the dogs perking up.

Tsume looks to Ashi, who nods to confirm it. "Fuck me, that sensei of yours is insane. But you got 'em, right? Everything went well?"

"Almost, Sachi— ow!"

Sachi isn't sorry for having kicked Kasui under the table, finishing her meal. "Shut up, I don't need snails or snakes to be a good shinobi." Kasui rolls his eyes in a long-suffering way. Ashi supposes this has been a frequent argument between them as of late.

"Snakes? Anko got snakes?" The pups nod at Tsume's question. "It doesn't surprise me, that girl has a way with those critters. That guy must be happy, yeah?"

"She hasn't shut up about it ever since we left the Land of Marshes," Sachi complains "It took her a while to get an immunity to the venom though."

"You're just jealous," Anko declares, trotting into the kitchen.

"Jealous? Why would I be jealous of someone whose summons are trying to kill them?" Sachi says, dodging Anko's punch.

"We're still working on it," Anko answers proudly.

Ashi has missed them, she really has, but she hasn't missed the headaches that come with dealing with them.

"That's a story for you to tell us," Tsume prods. "Eat a bite and then you can fill us in on the details. What's about Sachi not gettin' summons?"

"Dunno, they don't like me," Sachi shrugs, but Ashi can scent some apprehension on her. "But I have cool earrings now!"

Ashi leans over to check Sachi's ears and yes, there were several holes in there. Sachi had, in total, seven hooks in her ears. As in, literal fishing hooks, some of which were askew and not at all centered.

"... why?" Ashi wonders.

Kasui points an accusing finger to Anko and Sachi. "They got into a fight while reeling back the nets, and Sachi stabbed Anko with a hook on accident which caught her on the ear." Anko had piercings too, three, but one of them was clearly a little more jagged. "Sensei told us that it was only fair Anko got to give Sachi an earring too."

"She has seven though," Tsume laughs.

"That's because she thought they looked cool," Kasui sighs.

"Yeah, make fun of me all you want Kasui, but you got one too!"

Ashi and Tsume let them quarrel for a bit until they force them to eat before it gets too late. They had to take the Chūnin Exams that very same night, and although their reunion was nice, it was going to be a challenge for them.

"Are you ready for the Exams?" Ashi asks, and all three of them snap their eyes to her.

They had grown, and not just physically.

They are smiling when they say, "Of course we are."

.