The war ended without any more major fanfare for Sute after that.

She got a week furlough to recover and spent it huddled in her greenhouse, tending to the plants and just keeping to herself. Once her break ended she was shoved right back into the hospital for the remainder of the war. After the hellish ordeal that marked the end of her last deployment she had absolutely no problem with that, she'd happily take cranky patients over witnessing a stupid girl commit suicide by traumatized teammate.

What she did have a complaint about was the black shadow she kept spying.

It didn't happen too often, but every now and then she swore she saw something from the corner of her eye. Weeks could go by without a sighting, and then she'd see it several times over the course of one or two days. It left her paranoid and frustrated, always on edge, especially since these sightings seemed to be most common when she was in her greenhouse.

Sute liked her greenhouse. The building had been built with seals engraved into it so that the windows appeared cloudy from condensation most of the time, but still allowed sunlight to filter through and bathe the plants in its warm glow. It gave the space a sense of privacy, and felt like her own private forest. During her earliest years in this life she'd spent so much time pretending she was some kind of weird woodland fairy who liked to flitter around battlefields, and her greenhouse had given her warm echoes of those light fantasies.

And now a shadow was invading her life and taking away her sanctuary.

She grew more hostile towards it with each new sighting, snarling curses and threats under her breath, and would then proceed to sulkily seek out Utakata because the thing never appeared when she was with other people and he was the only familiar person consistently in Kiri.

"You sound like a child," he curtly informed her once she'd explained the situation.

"I am a child!" she protested loudly. "I'm ten!" Or maybe she was thirty-eight, since she'd been twenty-eight when she died, but right now she felt like a kid.

"A child with a one million Ryo bounty." Sute opened her mouth to retort but then paused, blinking at him.

"Wait, seriously?"

Yes, she did have a one million Ryo bounty. It had been assigned by Iwa, with five hundred thousand dead and one million if brought in alive. Apparently she'd been implicated in killing a respected elder's grandson at some point, and they wanted her blood. That was... interesting, and somewhat worrisome.

"I'm not going back to the front until this stupid war is over," she declared flatly, slamming the book shut.

"It's heading towards the end anyway," Utakata dismissed with a half-shrug. "Shishou's been talking about it for a while. He said we're kicking up my training after it ends."

"You still owe me an explanation for why you're not on the front," she reminded him, and he stiffened slightly before averting his gaze.

"...Later," he muttered, and then swept out of the room before she could respond, much to her annoyance.

Luckily for Sute, the sightings of the shadow gradually dwindled, and a little over two months after returning stopped altogether. She exhaled a large sigh of relief, and proceeded to just go on with her life.

Around this time, she decided to finally handle a certain task. After Ameyuri's dying orders to raid her bedroom closet led to the discovery of the storage scroll nearly three years prior (and wow, how time had flown), Sute had kept it stowed away under her bed safe from prying eyes.

She hadn't opened it back then, partially because she didn't feel confident enough in her knowledge of kanji to try reading it yet. Also, she had bigger problems at the time, what with her impending graduation and stress over hiding her natural affinity.

But now she was fresh off the front and likely to have a lot of downtime outside of her hospital shifts, so with a deep breath she slammed her hands onto the scroll and funneled chakra into the ink.

Hoshigaki Kisame did not know how he felt about Ringo Sute.

First off, she didn't really flee from him in fear like most kids. She was the only kid willing to interact with him willingly, awkward and weird as it could be at times. She treated him with respect and tended to treat him at the same level she spoke to anyone else, and she dutifully answered his questions as bluntly and honestly as possible. Actually, he really appreciated that part, he always did value honesty and loyalty.

Sute was just really, really weird.

Seriously, she gave him a toe. A toe she obtained by cutting it off a bully's foot with a ridiculously sharp kunai she snagged from Ameyuri's stash, way back when she was five. And then when she was eight, she gave him the most screwed up answer to the sex talk he'd ever heard. Yeah, there were probably more graphic and disturbing ones out there, but seriously, she was eight and casually talking about necrophilia. How did she even know what that was?

No, Kisame knew there was something intrinsically wrong with Ringo Sute, even among the notoriously bloodthirsty and savage shinobi who inhabited Kiri.

Now she was ten going on eleven and overdue for a wartime promotion to chuunin, and he'd been chosen to deliver the news. He had no idea why he had to be the one to do it, because seriously, there were others who'd be much better suited for the job, and he had better things to do than play messenger. But he'd been given orders by Fuguki, his direct superior, and so he had no choice but to comply.

Still, when he knocked on her door, he really didn't expect this.

"So any reason you have a bunch of books, scrolls, weapons and corpses scattered around your house?"

Sute offered him a bland glare as she stood in the barely-open doorway, her clothing ruffled and hair even more unkempt than usual. Even with only a sliver of space between the door and wall to peer through, Kisame could still see all kinds of junk strewn around the floor behind her. Books, scrolls, loose papers, kunai, a katana, a tanto, the tip of a naginata—and also corpses.

Or more accurately, parts of corpses.

By his count, he could see at least one severed arm, part of a foot, the stump end of either a leg or arm, and—was that a tongue? Holy shit, that was a lot of tongues. Any number of disembodied tongues higher than zero counted as too many, and he could see at least three lumpy pink objects splayed across the papers.

"Okay kid, seriously, what the hell?" he asked, and Sute deflated slightly.

"Um, so I kinda found a scroll and unsealed it, and then all this stuff... poofed out?"

"What kind of storage scroll holds this much stuff?" Oh sweet mother of Sage, there was a bunch of severed toes. He was going to develop a freaking complex at this rate.

"...A book with storage seals on every page?" Sute responded meekly, and Kisame just gawked at her.

"...What."

"It was sealed in a scroll, so I guess maybe by unsealing it, it released all the stuff stored in those seals too?" Sute sounded genuinely confused, almost timid, even. "I dunno, there's not much stuff on fuinjutsu. I didn't even know you could use books instead of scrolls. It's kinda weird." Kisame just continued to gawk at her.

He had so many, many, many questions, but right now, he did not want to ask them. He did not want to hear the undoubtedly convoluted answers that would no doubt raise even more questions. His headache was already bad enough without trying to delve deeper into this mess of seals and scrolls and severed tongues, seriously what the ever-loving hell!?

"Fuck it. The Mizukage wants to see you, you're a Chuunin as of two months ago." He shoved the summons notice at her, not really bothering to make sure she had a good grip before letting go, and then continued, "Go see him to get your jacket and then grab Harusame to help clean up. He's a seal master, he can deal with this."

Sute perked up at that, her eyes lighting up. "Harusame—Utakata's shishou?"

What. She knew the Rokubi jinchuuriki—actually, know what, he shouldn't even be surprised anymore. This kid was just unpredictable in the weirdest ways, and good for her for making a friend her age. Maybe the kid could be a nice, normal influence on her, which was probably one of the weirdest things Kisame would ever think seeing as no jinchuuriki could ever be REALLY "normal". "Yeah, sure. He should be in training ground eight today. Later."

With that he turned and stalked off before Sute could pull him any deeper into the web of insanity that was her life. He wanted a normal life, thank you very much.

The second she left the Mizukage's office with her new slate gray flak jacket, Sute took off at a run even while struggling to pull the bulky garment on.

The second she reached training ground eight, she unceremoniously tossed it to the ground in disgust with a silent vow of never again.

Seriously, why did it have that flap extending from the bottom between her legs!? It kept bouncing against her legs when she ran, and overall the thing just felt clunky and heavy. She was a speed-oriented kunoichi before a heavy hitter, no wonder Hunter-nin just wore a yukata and loose pants. Actually, she might just borrow their uniforms in general, or at least take some inspiration from them.

As she silently sulked over it, she barely paid any mind to the two people already on the training grounds. "Congratulations," Utakata greeted blandly, arching an eyebrow as he lowered his golden pipe used for blowing bubbles. "However, I don't think the Mizukage would appreciate you throwing that down on the ground."

"How do you move in that thing?" she demanded flatly, crossing her arms as she eyed his own flak jacket. "Also, side note, when the hell did you get promoted to chuunin? You weren't on the front, and hell if I know when the last Chuunin Exams were."

"I got promoted for field work," Utakata replied simply. "There are still wartime missions that don't require me fighting directly on the front, like scroll retrievals."

"Let me join you," Sute deadpanned. "Please."

"Utakata's position is different from yours, Sute-kun," Harusame interjected, sounding faintly amused. He then looked even more amused when the girl suddenly spun to face him, back ramrod straight and arms at side.

"Harusame-sama?" she asked politely, and the bespectacled man arched an eyebrow at the rare use of overly-respectful honorifics on her part.

"Yes, Sute-kun?"

"Kisame says you're a fuinjutsu master. Are you a fuinjutsu master?" Unnoticed by her Utakata winced slightly at the query, but Harusame merely hummed before letting a small smile play across his lips.

"I am. Why do you ask?"

Five minutes later, the three of them stood inside her house, the two males surveying the chaos in mild states of shock. Kisame had only been able to see a sliver of the mess through the small gap in the door, but standing in the center of her living room, Harusame and Utakata had no buffer preventing them from seeing the chaos in its full glory.

Entire multi-volume collections of books littered the floor in haphazard piles, clearly summoned as stacks but quickly toppling under the weight of everything else. Weapons of every sort seemed to be scattered around the space, ranging from more traditional bladed tools like kunai to spiked iron maces. Layered among the mess were a bunch of scrolls, unfurled to varying lengths and draping over and under everything.

And then there were the bodies.

Two fully intact corpses, largely preserved save for the fatal wounds and their faces, which had been mangled beyond recognition. Four severed arms and three severed legs, each covered in swirling seals of varying complexities. Then four severed toes, six fingers, and a total of not one, not two, but four disembodied tongues, all with the same black markings etched on them. And to top it off, six severed heads.

Overall, it had to be one of the more macabre collections Sute had seen, which was really saying something. At this point she was still torn on whether or not the book's previous owner had been some kind of serial killer or a crazy packrat. Or both.

(It occurred to her as she glanced at Utakata's stunned slack-jawed stare that she should probably find this more disturbing than she did.)

(It also occurred to her that this would probably be a recurring theme in both lives.)

Harusame had been the one to finally break the silence. "Where did you get this book?" he asked, carefully hefting the tome to inspect it.

"I don't know?" Sute replied hesitantly, mindful of Ameyuri's warning not to show the scroll's contents to anyone. To be fair though, she doubted the woman had expected unsealing it to result in an explosion of scrolls and weapons and body parts, and there was no way Sute could possibly clean it on her own. "I just... had it? Ameyuri-san sealed it in a scroll when she found me, but I think when I unsealed it, it unsealed all the stuff sealed inside the book. Or... something."

Harusame just hummed, leafing through the pages with a keen eye. "You're probably right. These pages use some very intricate seals, and just glancing at some of the scrolls scattered around here I'd assume many of these objects had been sealed into those, with the scrolls then sealed into the book. Storing storage seals inside other storage seals is quite complicated."

"I didn't even know that was possible," Utakata murmured, poking at one of the heads with his bubble blower to roll it over. "I... I think I recognize this face from one of the bingo books, sort of. He looks like the Kuromaka Brothers, maybe he's related."

"Kuromaka Brothers?" Sute repeated blankly, tilting her head.

"Missing-nin from Iwa."

"That's probably the eldest," Harusame commented distractedly, still flipping through the pages. "He died about ten years ago but the bounty was never cashed." The two ten-year-olds just turned to stare at him, and then back at the head.

"So these heads are probably from uncashed bounties?" Sute asked.

"Most likely." Sute instantly sighed in relief, earning a confused look from Utakata.

"That's a weird reaction," he commented, his eyes narrowing, and Sute glanced at Harusame before scooting over to her friend to whisper to him.

"There is a decent chance this belongs to my family," she deadpanned. "I'd rather not be related to another serial killer."

"...Wait, another?"

"Don't ask. Please. And also please don't tell him about the family part because I think my family might not be liked in Kiri?" Her voice took on a slightly pleading note, but she knew Utakata would give in. She'd been around him long enough to recognize that literally everyone else either ostracized him in some form or just treated him incredibly curtly, and the human need for actual, pleasant companionship would likely overpower any conditioning he'd received to tell his teacher everything.

Sure enough, his shoulders sagged and she saw resignation flash in his eyes as he nodded. "Alright, I won't," he promised quietly, and she smiled sweetly at him.

"Sute-kun," Harusame suddenly interjected, carefully closing the book. "Would you mind if I borrow some of these scrolls after helping you clean up to study?"

"Um... maybe?" She frowned, instantly on edge at the possibility of him examining the scrolls in deeper detail. Harusame seemed like one of the more honest Mist ninja she'd met, and she thought she was a pretty good judge of character given her experiences, but she still knew too little about him. Utakata might trust him, but that didn't mean he'd have her best interests in mind.

However, as she mulled over it Harusame offered her probably the most kindly smile she'd seen in Kiri to date.

"Don't worry, if you agree I'll make it worth your while."

Two weeks later, Kisame was getting drunk at the bar with Zabuza after a particularly long patrol. "I can't believe we're stuck with grunt work," the dark-haired teen complained sourly. "Anyone can do patrols, and it's not like anyone will breach into Water this late in the game."

"Eh, a job's a job," Kisame dismissed with a shrug. "Not like we'd be sent to the front anytime soon. Kiri's spread thinner than ever after the latest round of casualties."

"Tch, tell me about it," Zabuza grumbled. "This is why that death match policy was so stupid. We killed off half our potential forces before they could even get to the field. Even cannon fodder would be better than nothing."

"You know, when you say it like that, it almost sounds like that little massacre of yours was to prove a point," Kisame remarked with a sharp-toothed smirk. Zabuza merely leered at him, his eyes narrowing.

"Don't you have sake to drink?" he snarked, and Kisame chortled.

"Good point." He chugged down a giant gulp of shochu, a brief but companionable silence lapsing over the pair.

"So did you hear Harusame took on another student?" one man commented nearby.

"The jinchuuriki's not enough?"

"No, he wants to teach someone fuinjutsu now."

"Huh. Makes sense, we don't have many seal masters left. Or, well, any at all. Any idea who it is?"

"Yeah, that 'Mad Butcher' brat from my old platoon. Ringo Sute."

Kisame promptly proceeded to spew his shochu over the counter and Zabuza's arm. "What the hell!" Zabuza snapped, shaking his arm with a disgusted scowl. "Are you freaking kidding me?!" Kisame ignored him, just slamming his head on the table with a groan.

What had he done?

And so at long last the war arc nears the end, and the question of the book is answered!

It's been fun reading the speculation about the book, but I don't think anyone ever guessed it was a glorified storage scroll. With this the book's biggest secret is revealed, though it still has some smaller secrets involved which won't come into play for a long time. More importantly (and excitingly), Sute is now FINALLY studying fuinjutsu!

I've been planning to have her study fuinjutsu for a while. At this point I've made it pretty obvious that Sute's family comes from Uzushio, and she already expressed interest when talking to Tsurugi. The trickiest part was finding a master for her, because there are so few left and I didn't want to create a random OC or just have her be totally self-taught. Then I was looking at the Naruto wiki and suddenly realized Utakata's master in the filler arc is, in fact, a fuinjutsu master, and I seriously couldn't have picked a better fit myself. This is going to be VERY relevant to their futures. (On that note, I finally got around to watching that arc (I don't usually watch filler). It was an interesting story and the themes of masters and apprentices were well executed, but won't lie, I honestly found Hotaru's character kind of bland. She's not going to appear in this fic.)

By the way, some of you may have noticed that this story now has a cover. A user named Shizusasori9 sent me a message asking permission to cross-post this to Wattpad (and she has!), and it gave me the kick to FINALLY draw Sute along with a cover concept I've had for a while. If you guys go to my Deviant Art account (same name as here, "cannibalisticapple"), you can find a reference drawing and two variations of the cover. It's of her as a teen rather than a child like now, seeing as she won't be a kid much longer.

Next chapter is the final one of her childhood arc and marks the official end of the war, and will include some MAJOR revelations, including what I consider to be one of the main twists of this story's setup. Look forward to it!

As always, thank you to all my readers and reviewers. I love reading your speculations and theories, last chapter had a lot of really good ones. Some of you are definitely on the right track, and even the ones that weren't were interesting and creative enough they could merit their own stories. I look forward to reading more of them. I'll see you all next week!