Chapter 32

Preparations for what they had playfully dubbed "Operation Avalanche" went smoothly for the most part. Further trips into the nearby towns had helped them learn of some more accident-prone areas of the trail, the locals all too eager to warn them of dangerous slopes even without directly asking. They'd marked the regions on their map and headed off to inspect the trade route for good spots to set up their trap.

Scouting the rest of the trail became increasingly difficult though thanks to the fresh blanket of snow from the previous night's storm. They could get away with leaving prints on the actual path, since other travelers used the road fairly often. But for off-trail excursions to scout locations for their trap they had to avoid leaving an obvious tracks, whether that meant footprints or simply bumping into a tree and making the snow fall from the branches.

Shinobi training could only do so much. They couldn't just magically not leave footprints, so they'd had to get more creative about masking their trail.

"This is hell," Utakata grumbled. "This is officially hell."

"It's not that bad," Mei countered with obvious amusement.

"It's pretty dang high up there though," Sute groaned, grimacing as she hiked her knee up to waist level to take another step. After much contemplation they had built stilt-like contraptions to attach to their shoes with the bottoms carved to resembling deer tracks, hopefully concealing their trail. Actually walking in them proved cumbersome though, especially when trying to accurately mimic the gait of a deer.

Combined with climbing uneven uphill slopes over several hours, it made her legs burn.

They reached the top of the slope and slipped behind a cluster of boulders where the ground had been shielded from the snowfall. The two teenagers all but collapsed with a tired groan, their legs sore beyond relief as they scrambled to remove the stilts. Mei further proved the difference between them and a fully trained jounin as she showed none of their exhaustion, instead sitting down almost gracefully and pulling out the map.

"This should be a good spot," she declared, marking it with a pen. "It overlaps with the trade route, and there's sufficient cover for us to flee and avoid the worst of the avalanche. This is the last high-risk zone that overlaps with the route, so that makes three potential places to set the trap."

"Which one should we use then?" Utakata asked as he pulled out a water bottle.

"It's hard to say right now," Mei hummed, tapping the pen to her chin while glancing over the map. "We don't know their exact schedule, so we can't just set it on a timer if we want it to actually hit them."

"I could set up proximity alert seals to detect motion," Sute interjected thoughtfully, and pulled a notebook out of her rucksack to page through some rough sketches of seals. "I worked out a new version of the one on my wrist so that others can use it too, but I can't set them to only trigger if a specific group passes in front of it. A herd of deer could still set them off."

"Can you key it to detect chakra systems instead of motion?" Mei asked curiously, and Sute sighed tiredly.

"I could, but that variation is more complicated." She turned the notebook to show them the matrixes in question, explaining, "Detecting chakra systems is tricky because almost everything with a pulse has one. Usually it's not a problem since shinobi have pretty strong ones, but the caravan supposedly consists of civilians. If the shinobi guards aren't traveling directly with them I'd probably need to adjust the sensitivity just to be safe."

She turned the notebook back to herself with a sigh. "That's at least an extra hour of work, but I'd peg it closer to three with all the testing and breaks to warm my hands. Hard to draw seals when they're numb from the cold, and gloves kinda cut into dexterity," she explained wryly when she noticed their curious looks at the last bit. "And after all that, it could still be set off by an advance scout or another group of travelers completely unrelated to the merchants, wasting our only shot."

"So either way, we'll actually need to be there to trigger it to make sure it's the right targets," Utakata summed up with an understanding nod. "We could still probably use those seals as an advance warning to at least know they're coming and get ready to trigger it. Can we remotely detonate the avalanche?"

"With the seal I have in mind? Not really. It has two parts to make sure you don't accidentally activate it until you absolutely plan to. I can delay its activation and give it an extended 'fuse' so to speak, but it still needs someone to manually trigger it. The longest window I think I could give is three minutes from the initial activation."Utakata sucked in a sharp breath, glancing around their surroundings with a frown.

"It'll be hard to get away while still maintaining stealth in such a short time frame," he murmured.

"Which is why I was looking for places with a decent amount of cover," Mei cut in smoothly. "I figured remote activation might not be possible, so I wanted to make sure the environment would provide decent cover if we had to leave fast, or else had somewhere to take shelter." She nodded to a small cave opening behind them. "Worst comes to worst, we can duck inside those and avoid the worst of the avalanche. Which brings me to the next point," she added, glancing at Sute. "Sute, do you have to be there to trigger the avalanche?"

Her choice of emphasis earned an arched eyebrow from the seal master. "No, anyone can trigger them. It's just a pulse of chakra on the detonator seal, basic stuff."

"Then I think we should split up and set up the seal at each of the three points," Mei declared, and the two teens sat up straighter, their attention fully focused on her. "We don't know when the caravan will pass through, and the first point they pass might not be the best opportunity. Having three potential chances will raise the chances of success. It's also easier for one person to move and hide as opposed to three."

"We don't have comms or any other ways to communicate if we split up," Utakata reminded her, but he had a calculating gleam in his eyes, clearly receptive to the plan.

"We won't need to. When the avalanche is triggered, it will be loud enough for all of us to hear it. We can regroup afterwards, and dig out the person if they're trapped in a cave." She nodded to Sute, adding, "Sute can set up the proximity seals all along the route to alert us when someone's approaching so we can know to be ready, maybe send a clone to check if it's the caravan."

"And if the avalanche triggers but misses them?"

"Then we need a new plan," Mei replied simply. "Two avalanches in a short time would be too suspicious. So it's best to make sure it works the first time." She gave them a sharp look as she spoke, and the pair nodded in silence, their faces firm and resolute. The avalanche was the best plan they could come up with on such short notice, and they'd only get one shot at it. Failure was not an option.

They took a ten minute break to rest before they began making preparations. Sute had already prepared a few paper copies of the seal when the avalanche had first been proposed, the two parts essentially serving as the bomb and the detonator. After inspecting the area she applied the bomb to a ridge further up the mountainside on the back of a tree, a long wire connecting it to the slip of paper with the detonator seal.

"You were literal about the fuse, huh," Utakata murmured as he eyed the wire.

"Yep," she said, handing the detonator to him before she started drawing three diamonds for the perimeter seal onto the back of a nearby boulder. "Okay, you know the drill with this. Corners will light up in the direction where motion's detected and it'll track all nearby movement until the subject leave its range. The more people, the more dots there'll be. Each diamond's linked to a different seal, closest will be fifty meters out and furthest at six hundred. Once you confirm it's the target, just pulse your chakra into the detonator and either run like hell or duck into the cave."

"I'll take the cave," he decided after a few seconds. "Easier than trying to run away without being noticed."

"Good choice," Sute praised as she took out the paper seals to check they properly connected to the diamonds.

"We'll be sure to dig you out if you're the one to trigger it," Mei promised as she began pulling on the stilts, earning a thoroughly unimpressed look from Utakata. "Come on Sute, let's go. We have a lot of ground to cover." Sute nodded, satisfied by her test, and quickly pulled on her own stilts before following Mei down to the path.

They spent a majority of the trek in silence, still concentrating on matching their tracks to a deer's gait while keeping a faster pace than before. They'd slow whenever it came time to place the proximity seals though, Sute taking extra care to make sure they'd be absolutely hidden from view. The three stops took a little under five minutes each.

"So what's the real reason for this mission?" Mei asked nonchalantly after Sute placed the last seal.

"Isn't it to delay peace talks between Kumo and Konoha?" she asked, shooting the older woman a curious look.

"I might have believed that if Utakata weren't here. Kiri would never send him on a mission outside the country just to sabotage a trade caravan. Even if he has an ANBU minder." Sute's eyes narrowed at the casual remark, her mouth pressing into a thin line, and the older woman tossed her a knowing glance. "I know there's more to this mission than the briefing claimed. They're trying to keep us both out of Kiri for some reason."

Sute hummed thoughtfully, weighing how to answer. She had expected Mei would see through the mission's supposed purpose, the woman was too smart to be fooled for long. For that same reason, she knew the kunoichi would see through any attempts to lie. Speaking loud enough to be heard with the gap between them left her wary, even knowing there was likely no one around, so she raised her hands to sign.

'The Mizukage is dead.' Mei's eyes widened in surprise as Sute continued aloud, "Aneurysm. Totally natural and natural. Can happen to anyone."

Mei's mouth pressed into a thin line before she turned forward. "I see. Are you sure there wasn't any foul play?"

"I participated in the autopsy, so yes." Mei just hummed softly, and the two spent the remainder of the trek in silence. All in all it took over thirty minutes to reach the next ambush point from when they originally left Utakata, pretty decent time since it was nearly a full kilometer full of twisting slopes. Only after Sute placed the bomb and moved on to preparing the perimeter seals did Mei finally speak again.

"I take it they already settled on a replacement?" she asked lowly, and Sute nodded, focused on painting the diamonds and accompanying seal on the boulder.

"I don't think I need to tell you who it is," she snorted. "They're going to have him do a demonstration of his power to help ease the transition, which is why they wanted Uta out of the village."

"Tailed beasts do respond badly to other tailed beasts," Mei mused, her tone faux-light with a calculating edge hidden beneath it. "Still, I understand why they'd need to publicly demonstrate his power. Can't imagine many of our colleagues would be happy following a sixteen-year-old." That made Sute pause, barely managing to avoid smearing her brush as her head snapped to look at the older kunoichi.

"Wait, seriously? I thought he was younger." This time Mei snorted, smirking in amusement.

"Don't be fooled by his baby face. Actually, he's probably a little over a year older than you and Utakata. He turns seventeen in April." Sute stared at Mei for several long seconds before slowly turning back to continue painting the seal, her mind still reeling. Doing the mental math, she calculated he became a jinchuuriki at fifteen—no, fourteen, since they'd sealed the Sanbi into him at the tail-end of March the previous year.

The fact he'd managed to adjust to its chakra so well became even more amazing in light of this. No wonder the kid had been set up to succeed the Mizukage, his skill really was prodigal. "How were we never bunched together in the academy?" she grumbled to herself, and Mei laughed.

"It's not that surprising. Yagura actually graduated before you arrived in Kiri. He was in the last group to have the old graduation test before Zabuza slaughtered a class. His family is one of the more respected ones in Kiri, and I believe he was trained as a potential candidate to host the Sanbi before... whatever was done with it," Mei finished vaguely, reminding Sute that most people still remained completely unaware of the whole plot to turn Kakashi's teammate into a jinchuuriki.

No point acknowledging it now. Explaining how she knew that would raise too many questions she didn't want to answer. She pushed the thought aside and mused, "So he was training for it even before he became the host? Helps explain how he adjusted so quickly. Haven't seen it, but I hear he's even better at controlling it than Utakata."

"Does he ever train with the Rokubi's chakra around you?" Mei asked curiously, and Sute shook her head.

"Not really. I think the bubble techniques come from it, but if you're talking about transformations, he only trains those with Harusame." Sute really didn't know much about the Rokubi or Utakata's mastery over its power. He never brought it up and Sute never asked, not wanting to risk touching a sore spot.

She finished the last stroke of the seal and pulled out three paper seals to check they worked, nodding when two red dots appeared on each diamond. "The perimeter seal's functional," she declared, slipping the papers into her pouch before turning to face Mei. "There's no cave here." While searching for a place for the bomb seal she'd noticed no place to seek shelter from the avalanche, nowhere to even find decent cover from snow or rain.

"I'll be the one to stay here, I can just run," Mei responded, and Sute just nodded. If Mei thought she could outrun it, she probably could. The older kunoichi had an intense gleam in her eyes as she studied Sute now, her green gaze hard to read. "You'll have to go to the last point on your own. That will be the first place the caravan will pass. With how late it is, there's also a chance that you'll encounter them before you reach the ambush point. You'll have the most sensitive placement of all."

"I'm aware," Sute responded, tone professional and resolute. If she gave away her presence at all, their targets would be suspicious for the rest of the trip and they'd lose any opportunities to discreetly handle them even beyond the avalanche plan. "Rest assured, I know how to avoid being seen. If I run into them, they will never know I'm there."

Mei held her gaze for several long seconds before nodding, and Sute headed out without another word. Neither had the time for idle pleasantries or goodbyes.

The final point they'd chosen was the furthest of all, almost twice as far from Mei's spot as Utakata's. Between the cumbersome walking and placing the motion seals for Mei's seal, it took nearly an hour to reach it. Even the climb to the high ridge, where the boulders and rough terrain would help conceal her, took a little longer due to the rugged terrain.

Once safely out of sight Sute collapsed to her knees and peeled off the stilts for hopefully the last time. With three swift hand seals wood began to sprout from her side, splitting into two halves and each morphing to resemble a featureless human silhouette. As they did their lower halves shifted away from the traditional human structure, their legs becoming much more deer-like from the knee down.

Sute stared as the two wooden dolls finished forming and stood before her silently, just taking in the scene. "Well, this is nightmare fuel," she muttered, scratching the back of her neck. Between the lower deer halves and the blank, smooth surface of their faces, she had effectively created the most terrifying wooden satyrs ever.

What really got her was that she hadn't even been trying to make them creepy. She had limited practice making wooden clones—especially ones made from her own body and that weren't identical copies of herself—so she'd tried to keep them blank to make it easier to add the deer legs. It hadn't occurred to her that it would make them look like extra creepy mannequins.

She dismissed the thought as she took out the paper seals for the detonator and the perimeter seal, handing them to each clone and waving them off. They turned and began stalking away in almost eerie silence, their gaits incredibly deer-like like she'd planned. Watching them actually move brought its own sense of uncanny valley and wrongness, making Sute shudder.

Did any yokai exist that looked like this? Well, if anyone happened to see these, they would now.

For now she settled against the boulder, letting the clones handle the remaining work. It didn't take long for the clone she'd given the explosive seals to return and hand her the detonator before dispersing, collapsing into a pile of blocky wooden beams and sticks which she brushed to the side. The other clone would likely find somewhere discreet to disperse once it finished its task, hopefully hidden from any potential investigators.

All that remained was to settle in for a long wait.

They all knew when Mei suggested splitting up that they likely wouldn't meet up again until after sunset. They had no idea when the caravan would pass through, only that it would do so sometime today assuming the trip had gone smoothly. Sute picked up one of the blocky pieces of wood leftover from her clone and turned it over in her hands, letting her chakra seep through her gloves to begin molding it like clay. Might as well try something new while she waited.

Around an hour passed as she played with the wood before she felt the familiar burning on her wrist, and she casually tugged the hem of her sleeve to look at the diamonds. When she saw a red dot on the right one though she sat up straighter, eyes flicking to the small symbol beneath the diamond.

Each companion seal she used for the perimeter seal had a single variable-type character in their design used to identify it and pair it to a specific diamond. While she lacked her clone's memories and didn't know where the seals had been placed, she'd arranged them so they would be placed in a certain order.

And the seal that just triggered should be the one closest to her.

Sute intently watched as the dot quickly zipped across from the upper left side towards the bottom before vanishing, moving far too fast for a civilian. She set down the block she'd been playing with with the rest and crawled towards the ledge to peer down. Her hiding spot placed her far above the mountain path, the bare branches of the trees beneath her only letting her to see it thanks to the absence of foliage. It only served to obscure her from view even further, knowing few would look upwards.

Less than two minutes passed before movement entered her line of vision, a single figure in a white cloak darting along a ledge just above the path. The person zigzagged along, dropping down to the mountain road when too many obstacles got in the way before hopping back up to higher ground. Their speed and graceful motion, even as they ran along uneven terrain, left no doubt that this was shinobi.

So at least one guard had split off after all, probably to scout ahead. The odd route they took must have let them manage to avoid triggering the first two seals, though Sute couldn't say if that was intentional or not. That uncertainty left her wary and on edge. If they had picked up on the perimeter seals, the plan would have to be scrapped entirely, but she had no way to communicate with her team.

Time seemed to drag on slowly as Sute waited, Sute mentally counting the seconds. Thirty-seven minutes and thirteen seconds later the person returned, this time using the regular path. When she looked at her wrist she saw the diamonds light up in order, starting with the right and the dot gradually traveling to the leftmost one. The lack of caution made her unease unfurl, some of the tension loosening from her frame.

As soon as she started to relax she stiffened though, eyes narrowing. She didn't need to turn her head to feel the steely cold radiating from the kunai hovering against the back of her neck. "If you're thinking about doing anything, I recommend you stop now," a cool voice commented behind her, and Sute breathed steadily, mentally assessing her options.

"If you wanted to kill me, you already lost the element of surprise," she responded just as coolly. There was a scoff, soft and feminine, and Sute risked turning her head just enough to look at the kunoichi.

The woman behind Sute did not wear the distinct black and white armor of Kumo, instead wearing a dirty white wool cloak over a navy kimono with a white grid pattern and dark gray pants. It made her look like a civilian more than a ninja, closer to the clothing worn by the field workers in the nearby mountain villages. Even the cloth wrappings around her hands, leaving her fingers exposed as she gripped the kunai, looked dirty and worn.

Yet despite the roughness of her clothing, the woman's face had an almost ethereal beauty to it. She didn't have the dark skin or blonde hair so apparently common to Cloud ninja, instead having long, silky black hair that hung loose around her shoulders. Her dark eyes glittered against her pale face, just as dark as the kunai still aimed at Sute's neck.

That same thought kept Sute from dwelling too long, aware of the imminent threat to her life. "You don't look like a Cloud ninja," she observed. More than that, something about this woman was distantly familiar, but she couldn't place why.

The woman hummed softly, her head tipping just slightly to the side. "And you don't belong here either, Ringo Sute," she replied smoothly, and alarms went off in Sute's head. She knew her coloring made her slightly more distinct than the average person, but right now her cloak's hood should hide her hair. She shouldn't have enough of a reputation yet to merit someone recognizing her so quickly, the bingo books didn't have an up-to-date photo.

This woman would have had to spend time studying her pictures, know her somehow. The same voice that told her the woman was familiar now screamed that Sute knew her, that she had met her before and she should know this. Her eyes flickered for half a second to the pile of wood left by her clone, barely visible behind the boulder, but the woman stepped slightly to the side to block her view of them.

"I would advise you don't try to fight either," she added calmly. "There's no water for you to use for suiton jutsu, and all of the trees are too bare to use without drawing obvious attention."

All at once Sute's thoughts ground to a halt, her mind going blank. Mokuton. The woman was talking about mokuton.

Her first thought was that the woman had been spying on her, saw her playing with the block, but no. She knew the woman hadn't been watching her that long, could feel it in her gut or else the woman would have made her move much earlier, which meant she must have seen it before—

And then everything suddenly clicked and the breath escaped her.

The Yuki woman.

Sorry for the wait (again)! This arc has been a little trickier than I'd hoped. I know exactly what I want to happen overall, but I'm getting snagged by some of the details. Timing is going to be really key in the next few chapters, and I wanted to be sure I had it totally nailed before I posted this one. I had to go back and edit this one multiple times while working on the two after it. I think I've got it figured out now, so hopefully I can now go to posting every other week like I planned!

Also, we're seeing all kinds of old faces now. And all kinds of twists. This going to be fun~

See you soon!