Chapter 40
Momochi Zabuza had been on his way home after returning from a mission in the early morning hours when he noticed smoke.
The mist had been more widespread than usual that morning, tinted an almost luminescent blueish-white as dawn approached and it absorbed whatever light it could. That had been the only reason Zabuza even noticed the smoke, the pitch black plumes standing out against the ever-present haze that gave the Hidden Mist its name. Had it still been night, he doubted he would have seen it.
Though he wanted to return home and pass out, he instead changed course towards the origin of the smoke. Smoke was a rare sight in Kiri, the damp conditions making it difficult for fires to start, let alone grow large enough to produce smoke. For it to be thick enough to notice meant something had been burning for a while. And at this hour not many people would be awake to notice, so he was unfortunately obligated to investigate it himself.
As he drew closer the streets became increasingly familiar though, his instincts becoming more and more alert. His pace began to pick up from the casual saunter until he was running, his footsteps echoing through the quiet streets as he darted down the pavement.
The mist's hue quickly changed to a sickly yellow and then orange as he moved, reflecting the distant fire. It had a vibrant orange glow by the time the familiar fence of the Ringo clan compound came into sight. He all but vaulted through the gates, racing past the intact house before skidding to an abrupt halt.
Flames consumed the interior of the greenhouse, the frosted windows an almost eye-hurting shade of crimson as the fire blazed inside. As far as he could tell the greenhouse contained the fire for the most part, but several of the glass panes had been destroyed and allowed the smoke to rise freely.
His first thought was that someone had thrown in an explosive through the windows to start the fire, but then he noticed shards of glass scattered around the outside. And just as he registered that, he heard the ear-shattering screech of glass breaking.
The sharp noise made him wince and cover his ears with a pained shout. He then shouted again when several shards embedded in the ground around him, barely managing to dodge. His eyes widened as he snapped his gaze to the greenhouse once more, one more window frame now fully exposed and letting smoke pour out. It took him a second to realize what happened:
The window had exploded.
Later, he would find out that the intense heat inside and early morning chill on the outside had been too much for the glass to endure. At that moment though, Zabuza didn't know why it happened, nor did he particularly care.
All he knew was that the greenhouse was essentially a giant bomb full of sharp glass, and every second spent near it was dangerous.
He turned and retreated from the Ringo compound before another window could burst, ignoring the main house as he ran past it. If Sute had been around she would have responded long ago given how loud that window shattering was, so he assumed she was away on a mission.
Instead he ran for the nearest neighboring house, banging on the door for nearly a full minute until a groggy-looking man answered. He'd clearly been in bed given the state of his clothing, but even in his freshly woken state his eyes had the alert glint that only shinobi possessed. That was all Zabuza needed to know.
"Go to the Mizukage's office and tell everyone there that Ringo Sute's greenhouse is on fire!" he barked. Just like that any lingering traces of sleep vanished, the man instantly ramrod straight and alert.
Zabuza didn't wait for a response, already rushing to return to the greenhouse to try to put out the blaze. He didn't personally care about it, but he knew the plants were invaluable to the hospital and ANBU for medicines and poisons. At this point Sute's greenhouse wasn't just a personal hobby anymore, it was one of Kiri's most valuable resources.
It was only when he got closer that he picked up a sickly sweet aroma that made him skid to a halt once more, eyes going wide with alarm.
"SHIT!" he cursed, hands flying to cover his mouth as he quickly distanced himself with a few backwards leaps. He didn't recognize the specific smell, but it was enough to remind him of the many times Sute had rambled about her work. Though normally she preferred the kinds of poisons that could be slipped into people's food or coated on blades, she had also mentioned that some could be as simple as lighting a plant on fire.
Only now did the full gravity of the situation hit him. Not only was the glass prone to exploding, the interior of the greenhouse was likely full of toxic fumes. Going inside without any sort of proper protective gear would be suicidal, and with the windows breaking it would only be a matter of time for the toxic fumes to spread outside.
He had no choice but to keep his distance and wait for the first responders to arrive. Then he had to wait even longer for one of them to return to the office and organize another team outfitted with the proper equipment to brave the fumes. In all, over half an hour passed before anyone could finally enter the greenhouse, and in that time the windows had begun bursting with increasing frequency, almost one every minute.
Though he had no obligation to stay, Zabuza still lingered to survey the carnage. Even with water jutsu the fire proved difficult to extinguish, the random rains of glass shards making it all the more hazardous. More than one person had to be rushed out for urgent treatment for deep lacerations or exposure to the poisonous fumes when the glass damaged their rebreathers and other gear. A medical team had to come from the hospital to set up an emergency treatment center nearby.
By the time the last ember was finally put out the sun had long since risen. Most of the windows had broken by that point, the empty frames fully revealing the scorched and shriveled remains of the interior. A space once overflowing with lush plants to the point it resembled a jungle now looked more like a barren wasteland, the ground scorched and no shades of green remaining.
As more people began to arrive to assess the damage, Zabuza decided he'd seen enough and wordlessly departed for his apartment to finally go to sleep. His presence wouldn't make a difference; he'd only been the first person to report it, he had no information on the cause to give investigators. His initial curiosity had been sated for the moment, and he knew the gossip mill would eventually answer whatever questions he had.
Later that day he would be proven right by whispers of seals that spewed fire and pipes releasing dry air to fan the flames. The fire had been no accident or sabotage by an outsider, it had been the result of a system meticulously designed to leave nothing behind. It was exactly the kind of thing he'd expect from a paranoid and meticulous individual like Sute, a way to ensure her work would never be used by an enemy.
The question was why it triggered, because he couldn't imagine it not including countless failsafes to prevent an accidental activation. The fire had to be intentional and have some specific trigger, especially since she was out of the village. So, that just left what that trigger was.
It would take another few days before anyone would find out.
Three days after the ANBU team left, they had yet to report to the Hinamizawa outpost in Hot Water as scheduled.
Though most hidden villages did not have permanent ANBU outposts due to the risks and political fallout of being discovered, Kiri considered them a necessity. Traveling to the mainland from the island-based Land of Water took up precious time, whether leaving on a time-sensitive mission or returning with serious injuries that needed urgent treatment. It was only logical to have more accessible bases on the mainland for ANBU to use as a hub for long-term missions and quick deployment.
The Hinamizawa outpost was a one to two-day journey from the nearest port and close to the borders with Fire, and thus a particularly important hub. When Mist ANBU would visit the mainland for any reason, they would often stop there to restock supplies, and briefly rest or treat injuries. Four agents were kept stationed there at all times to maintain the supplies and building, and help pass urgent messages to Kiri.
While most teams came unannounced, they could expect teams to stop by on certain days of every month with a fresh shipment of supplies. So when a full day passed after the projected arrival window of the team with the latest shipment, it was enough to put them on alert. Two of them re-checked the outpost's defenses while the other two set out to search the routes most commonly used by incoming teams.
Twenty kilometers away, they found the results of a massacre.
The bodies of their fellow operatives were strewn along a mountain path. One had been had been simply decapitated, the cleanest of the deaths. Another had been covered in slashes that managed to cut through his armor, mask lying next to him in two pieces and his face a gory mess. The third had been both charred and dismembered, the victim of a kunai with an explosive tag to the chest.
While neither of them were medical ninja, they'd seen enough bodies to know they'd likely died the previous day. No traces of the last member of the four-man unit remained, leading them to initially suspect that they had betrayed the team. Either way, once they confirmed there was no active threat, their priorities shifted to handling the corpses.
The pair followed protocol and one sealed the bodies into black-banded scrolls as the other stood watch. The first two bodies were simple enough to collect and store away. It took an hour to find all of the pieces of the body that had been blown by the explosive tag though, the duo scouring the area meticulously to make sure they didn't miss anything.
In the process of their search they came across the remains of the final man. He had been thrown down the mountainside, body impaled by the jagged rocks at the bottom of the incline. With his status confirmed, they no longer had any leads on the identity of the assailant, but at the moment it didn't matter. They stowed his body in a scroll just like the others and returned to base to update the rest of the team.
At dawn the following day two of the operatives set out to return to Kiri to formally report the incident and deliver the bodies. It would take three days for them to arrive, by which point five days had passed since the greenhouse fire. Rumors had long since turned to suspicion as people speculated on motivations behind the fire, whispers of betrayal haunting the air.
Upon unsealing one scroll to find pieces of a familiar charred and battered corpse though, those whispers would abruptly cease.
Ringo Sute did not receive an elaborate funeral.
Her body was cremated without much fanfare, and the remaining Seven Swordsmen quietly spread the ashes in the swamp. The closest she got to a memorial service was members of her platoon from the war gathering at a bar to drink and recount stories about her antics, both during and after the war. Kisame had sat in silence for most of it, drinking alone as he listened to the tales and offering no input.
The days following the declaration of Ringo Sute's death did not shake Kiri. For all her value as an asset, she had not been a highly public figure like the Mizukage or the Swordsmen. While she certainly left an impression on those she met, she had largely kept to herself. Most people knew her best as the eccentric medic at the hospital who could be found in the company of their jinchuuriki more often than not.
To the common populace, she had been respected, but not seen as a crucial and key figure to maintaining the village.
Others knew better.
Her former colleagues at the hospital, normally stoic and uncaring, all wore black bands on their arms for the next forty-nine days. They had been among the first to understand the gravity of the loss, having worked alongside her every day and seeing her talent firsthand. Several of the policies had been her suggestion, and many trainees learned directly from her. They had long since accepted the teenager would likely become the hospital's director someday, so they knew her value.
With the death of Sute, they lost more than a reliable medic though. Sute had been the one to develop several of the medicines that they depended on. Even though she shared the recipes, some required measurements so precise that even she professed to needing a few attempts to succeed. With even the most senior medics struggling to accurately reproduce them, they ultimately had to scrap those.
Meanwhile within the ranks of ANBU, a scramble began to find alternatives to many of the poisons she had developed. Though her concoctions had at some point become standard in their ranks, Sute had not shared the recipes for all of them. Worse yet, she had kept the secrets behind the antidotes even more closely guarded, to lower the chances of other villages ever learning them. Without access to the antidotes, the remaining stock of poisons became much riskier to use.
Even the recipes she did share could no longer be recreated, either due to incredibly precise measurements, or requiring ingredients no longer available. Several of Sute's poisons incorporated rare, foreign plants or special strains of local plants she had personally cultivated inside her greenhouse. Some tried to recreate the local strains, but it would be a slow process, and one that would ultimately end in failure.
Among the largest losses of all though was her fuinjutsu research.
Though Sute kept most for her own use, several of the seals Sute made had become commonplace throughout various divisions. A simple weight-negating seal could be found on plenty of armor and weapons, and a particularly detailed one had been left on the emergency food stores that could preserve the contents more readily. More recently she had helped place perimeter alarms on the edges of Kiri as well using seals of her own design.
One of her more understated successes was a seal applied to ANBU armor that could conceal their scents and chakra signatures from most sensors. It had been one of her most critical contributions, the success rate of undercover missions skyrocketing with its addition. And with Sute dying a week before a new batch of armor was to be prepared, it was the most urgent of the losses.
Despite the simplicity of its function, the seal itself was incredibly complex to the point even Sute herself had to regularly consult her notes as reference. She didn't personally inscribe the seal on every piece of armor, but worked with a few ANBU who knew enough fuinjutsu to attempt to reproduce it. There would always be a few attempts that would have to be scrapped altogether after a final inspection, and she always took back her notes afterwards.
Needless to say, no one had it memorized. Two days after Sute's death had been officially declared, three operatives were dispatched to her house to retrieve those notes from her labs. The unfortunate soul who opened the door to her lab was greeted with an electric shock that sent him reeling back with a pained shout.
Bells then began ringing inside, and the others yanked open the door to see every scrap of paper on the walls begin to disintegrate.
Panic kicked in instantly and they attempted to enter, but discovered a barrier had appeared over the door that didn't just block them, but shocked them painfully. With no time to dispel the barrier, they could only watch helplessly as every piece of Ringo Sute's research—whether it be fuinjutsu, poison, medicine, or anything else—vanished before their very eyes.
That was why Ao found himself urgently summoned to Sute's house. He knew he looked even more sour than usual as he stood in her yard alongside Harusame and the ANBU captain. He'd been woken up from a well-deserved sleep after a particularly strenuous mission. However, as he'd been informed, the booby traps were too extensive for anyone to tread lightly.
The lab's barrier turned out to be just one of many traps. Further searches of the house had revealed plenty more, including showers of poison-coated senbon and fires which had to be quickly extinguished. With his implanted Byakugan, they reasoned Ao could at least see the dormant seals that littered the house, much to his irritation.
Activating it instantly wiped away any lingering traces of exhaustion and annoyance.
"How the hell did anyone get inside without getting killed?" he asked incredulously. Seals seemed to line every single doorway, long interconnected lines with faint traces of chakra tracing through each hall. He couldn't tell what each one did, but the sight of so many sent chills up his spine. To him, the house itself was practically glowing with dormant chakra.
Beside him Harusame gave a low, throaty hum. "Not all of the seals should be traps. Sute had some tied to bells in her greenhouse to alert her if anyone ever intruded in the house. I suspect that she trapped her labs to repel intruders and destroy her notes for similar reasons."
"Why would she do that though?" the ANBU captain muttered with a scowl. "I get being paranoid, but she'd have to start over on her research, too."
That, combined with Harusame's statement, triggered a realization in Ao, suddenly remembering that conversation on their final mission. Back then he hadn't understood why she had mentioned all that, but now it made sense and he felt a sharp surge of respect for her. Had he been alone he might have smirked as he realized just what she had planned even back then.
As it stood he crossed his arms with a grunt, unwilling to give any of it away. "The last time I worked with her, she said she was paranoid about someone spying on her," he said gruffly. "Said she sometimes thought she saw a shadow following her, and that alarms in her house would get triggered without activating other ones. But she wouldn't find any intruders."
"Yes, she mentioned that to me as well," Harusame agreed beside him with a nod. "She had me inspect the seals two times after the alarms went off, but they were always fine. I also recall her telling Utakata about that shadow. Apparently it wouldn't show itself if she was with others, so sometimes she would cling to him in her spare time until it left. It only seemed to show up for a few weeks at a time, but it happened a couple times over the years."
"She wasn't the type to have many visitors," Ao added dryly. "And the few who did visit knew her well enough to not try to break into her labs. The girl was a certified mad scientist who thrived on chaos, those labs feel like they'd be a death trap even without the literal traps. This actually feels tame compared to what I expected. I'm disappointed you people didn't anticipate some sort of trap. She must have figured the only ones who would try to enter would be thieves."
The dry rebuke had some of the nearby ANBU ducking their heads shamefully, while others began discussing how to best search the rest of her house. Ao paid them little mind, silently applauding the girl's foresight. He had no idea how true that story was, but that paranoia provided a reasonable explanation for why her labs would be trapped to destroy her notes. Notes which would give her a massive disadvantage if ever studied.
At that moment, he had no doubt that Ringo Sute was in fact alive, and he was only just now seeing the scale of her escape plan.
How long, Terumii Mei wondered idly as she sat on her veranda drinking tea, had Sute been planning this?
Mei had no delusions of the fact that the girl planned to run away. Ever since Ao first told her about seeing Sute use the mokuton in her battle against Juzo, Mei knew the girl's time in Kiri would be limited.
It was amazing how many things suddenly clicked into place at that revelation. From the way she devoted herself to training and learning, to joining the ANBU specifically to join the hunter-nin, to even building a reputation as a medical prodigy back in the war as a child. All signs pointed to Sute preparing herself to defect from Kiri with as high survival odds as possible.
The seals ANBU used on their armor to conceal their scents and chakra signatures would make tracking her nearly impossible. Her poisons had become standard among many of Kiri's divisions and she had an antidote for every one, and had devised antidotes for all the other standard concoctions they used as well. The hospital where she spent so much of her time trusted her with access to all of its medicine and supplies, and her work with patients gave her intimate knowledge of their individual strengths and weaknesses.
Really, the more details Mei noticed, the more impressed she grew. Sute had been planning her escape for years, quite possibly since before she even graduated. It made sense, since even a bloodline as rare as the mokuton would place her in danger if their comrades ever found out—no, it would be even more dangerous. After all, the only other known user had been Senju Hashirama. It could lead to accusations of being planted as a spy by Konoha, along with a special hostility for anything Konoha-related.
No, from the start Sute really had no choice but to leave. No matter how well she'd integrated herself into Kiri, how useful she'd made herself over the years, the mokuton would make her a target for much animosity and mistrust. Whether it was Kiri itself or outsiders who knew the mokuton's strength, everyone would see her as a threat first and foremost. Even Konoha would be wary of her since she grew up outside its borders. Mei could not begrudge the girl's decision to defect.
Especially not after seeing the mark of Uzushio on her back.
Mei had only heard of the mark in stories. Children born in Uzushio often had it inscribed on their backs once they came of age, the spiral granting them access past the barriers surrounding the village. With Uzushio's fall it had become something of a legend, as no reason remained for survivors to continue using it when they would return to only ruins.
Until that point, it had never occurred to Mei that Sute hailed from Uzushio, but once she saw that mark it felt obvious. It explained her natural talent for fuinjutsu, and her massive chakra reserves; the girl likely had Uzumaki blood somewhere. More than that, the mokuton had only ever manifested in Senju Hashirama, whose wife Uzumaki Mito hailed from Uzushio. Though only their granddaughter Tsunade remained now, wouldn't it make sense for some of Mito's children to go to Uzushio?
Either way, it only solidified that remaining in Kiri was a death sentence. Sute might have been able to survive after revealing the mokuton, allowed to exist as long as she remained useful, but Kiri had targeted Uzushio for a reason. Their fuinjutsu had made them too dangerous to ignore, to the point Kiri and other villages hunted down even the survivors.
With her mastery of the craft, the risk of Sute trying to take revenge for her fallen village or even just her parents was simply too high. After all, the girl had been a war orphan; it was all too likely that a Mist ninja had been the one to cause that.
Mei had not bothered explaining any of this to Sute. Perhaps she'd already understood, with the way she had simply laughed. The fact that she embarked on her apparently fatal mission the very next day did not escape Mei's notice, either.
Before parting ways Sute had given Mei a hug, and whispered a promise in her ear. "I'll have to tell you what that seal does someday," she'd declared with a coy smirk. A promise to see her again, without explicitly saying goodbye.
Mei had no idea whose body had been cremated under her name, but she had no doubts it was not Sute.
When he first heard the greenhouse caught fire, Utakata was filled with instant dread and grief. Even as whispers of Sute betraying the village started up, he already understood what had actually happened. Sute had explained to him about those seals that she'd designed to store fire, how the entire system had been designed to utterly destroy the greenhouse's contents. The seals could be triggered in two ways:
First, she could activate them manually, whether with a hand seal or some sort of delayed release mechanism. A process which would require her to be physically present to initiate.
Second, they would activate automatically if she died.
She had shown off a sketch for the seal she claimed to have inscribed over her heart, connecting directly to those in the greenhouse. If it did not detect her heartbeat for five minutes the seal would deactivate, and by extension the seals in the greenhouse would trigger.
"If I die, so does all my work," she'd said with a sly smile.
When he'd heard the second part he'd been initially shocked and confused. To him, it had seemed like a waste after all the time and effort she'd put into it. The idea of depriving Kiri of crucial resources never even crossed his mind back then. When he said as much to her though, she'd simply smiled and calmly countered that the endless time she'd spent was why she wanted to destroy them.
Most of the plants in that greenhouse had been her own personal creations, having put countless hours into growing and cultivating the individual strains. They were the literal fruits of her hard work, the culmination of all her research and efforts, and in her own words, she didn't want just anyone to use them.
"If I had an apprentice, it'd be a different story, but most people here wouldn't be able to appreciate them. These plants would just be tools to them, My work and dedication would be an afterthought. It desecrates what makes this space so special. Ameyuri's cousin who owned this greenhouse before me had asked his plants be destroyed if he died for that same reason, so it's only fitting I continue the tradition."
The reasoning had been oddly sentimental for her, and all the harder to argue because of it. That was why even before he heard about the black-banded scroll full of body pieces, Utakata already knew what news to expect.
Everything felt numb right now. He wandered the village listlessly, feeling no motivation to train or work, or do much of anything, really. His best friend, his only friend, was gone. Never again would he hear her crazed laughter, never would he see those eyes sparkle with mischief or get pulled into the swampy training grounds for a messy spar.
All that remained were a pile of ashes and an empty house.
As the days passed in a numb haze, Utakata knew he couldn't dwell on it forever though. As a jinchuuriki, he wasn't allowed to dawdle his days away doing nothing. The leeway he had been given to mourn was extraordinary in itself, a rare kindness from Kiri's ever-expectant elders and administration, but he knew it wouldn't last forever.
On the fifth day after the cremation, he forced himself to go to one of the training grounds to meditate. He sat cross-legged on the damp ground and let himself fall into the mental space he shared with the Rokubi, letting its chatter wash over him. The slug had previously stated its dislike for Sute, and grew more vocal about it after returning from the Land of Frost, but it almost seemed to be trying to comfort him.
"You'll find more people that are better than her," it said. "So you won't need to be too sad!" Utakata barely paid it any mind, just staring into the darkness as he sat in the shallow waters. If his deliberate ignorance annoyed it, the Rokubi didn't let it show. He buried his head in his arms as the slug continued to chatter, until it eventually it said, "You know Uta, I've been thinking. What happened to that book she had? The one with all the seals?"
The question had Utakata becoming more alert, realizing he didn't know. The book hadn't been mentioned by anyone since her death, not even by Harusame.
Almost immediately he ended the meditative trance and began running, ignoring the curious questions from the Rokubi over the still-active link. When it realized where he was going the slug began trying to talk him out of it, its voice frantic, but he ignored it easily.
Entering Sute's house without her felt wrong, but he forced himself to do it anyway, racing to the bedroom that once belonged to Ameyuri. Sute had told him exactly where she hid the book every time she left the house on the mission, even showed it to him. No one else knew about the hiding spot, not even Harusame. And it might be Utakata's chance to finally find answers about her family.
Ever since his conversation with the Rokubi in Frost, he had been stuck wondering just who Sute reminded the slug of. He had only communed with the beast a few times since that mission, but it always refused to tell him. Most of their conversations had been about Yagura being the new Mizukage, and by extension the slug's memories of the Sanbi.
Even now with her dead, it still wouldn't explain, so the book was his last chance to get answers.
As he stalked to the closet the Rokubi still tried to talk him out of it, the link still not fully severed. It was annoying determined to stop him, but Utakata continued to firmly ignore it. Only when he lifted the loose floorboards covering the hole did the slug's voice finally go silent.
The book was gone.
For a moment he stared at the empty spot, his brain taking a moment to process the vacant space. Then he began feeling around the cavity, patting down the earth almost frantically as if his hands would find the book instead of empty air. "Where is it?" he hissed under his breath, feeling panic start to rise. "Why isn't it here?"
"Maybe she took it!" the Rokubi chirped.
"She wouldn't!" he argued, rising to sift through the rest of the closet. "She never takes it anywhere because it's too big to carry, and she doesn't want to screw up all those nested seals again! No one else knows it's here, so it should be here!"
The closet was empty though, the shelves bare beyond some old blankets he threw onto the floor. He growled in frustration as he turned to search the rest of the house, only to freeze as he found Harusame standing behind him.
His mouth went dry as he stared at his master, body suddenly tense and far too rigid. How much had he heard? Could he tell Utakata had been responding to the Rokubi's comments? He couldn't read the man's face, his expression calm and stoic as ever as he glanced behind Utakata at the closet.
"Utakata," he said finally, voice soft. "Are you looking for Sute's book?" The teen felt himself gulp, hands clenching at his sides as he gave a tight nod.
"Yes, shishou," he confirmed. The man hummed, expression still unreadable.
"If that is its hiding place and it's not there, then it is gone. Sute most likely took it with her." The calm remark had Utakata frowning, defiance flaring hot.
"But, the storage seals—"
"She had been working on understanding nested storage seals lately," Harusame cut in. "She never told me as much, but I believe she reached a point where she could safely store the book and retrieve it without unsealing all of its contents in the process. Leaving it unattended for long stretches couldn't have sat well with her given her paranoia, no matter how well she hid it."
Utakata felt frozen, his one lead vanishing before his eyes as his teacher's words sank in. The book was gone.
Harusame eyed him a moment longer before continuing, voice still gentle yet carrying a firm edge. "Utakata, I feel I must remind you, never tell anyone of that book."
"I won't," he murmured, already defeated. He had never planned to tell anyone about it anyway, he owed her that much, but... "But shishou, why are you still warning me if it's gone? If, she's..."
He trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. As if saying it would make it even more real than it already was. Once again his master didn't answer right away, seeming to weigh his response.
"I believe," he finally said, words slow and deliberate, "that if anyone learns that book exists and is now missing, they will ask questions that will only cause trouble." The answer was vague and cryptic, leaving Utakata slightly confused, but Harusame didn't elaborate. He turned and left without another word, leaving the jinchuuriki alone.
Just as he pondered it, he heard a faint whisper from the Rokubi. "Oh, so that's why she had all those bodies," it mused, and he frowned.
"What are you talking about?" he muttered under his breath, but as expected he got no answer, the link finally severing. Usually that was a welcome relief.
This time though, the silence left him feeling even more alone than ever before.
Though he had no proof, Harusame knew his apprentice was alive somewhere.
He had known from the moment she asked him to teach her fuinjutsu that Sute had no intentions to stay in Kiri. He had realized it the day he first saw that book, that she would have to leave one day. After all, only an Uzushio-born fuinjutsu master would be capable of such craftsmanship, their technique visible in every seal inscribed on each page of that massive tome. And as a war orphan, it was clear she had inherited it rather than simply stumbling upon it.
He did not know if the girl knew her heritage at the time, but he could not fault her for planning to leave. The Bloody Mist welcomed the vicious girl with open arms, but once they learned the truth, she would be considered too dangerous to keep around. Had she been an infant it would be another story, but that brief blank period before Ringo Ameyuri found her was simply full of too much room for early indoctrination to risk. It would only take a few memories of her parents to sway her against Kiri.
In truth, he should have reported her the moment he saw the book and realized just who and what she was. He had few qualms condemning a child to death for the sake of his village.
But at the same time, he saw a student with potential, both in terms of her heritage and a keen intelligence he'd already observed. He saw a book with seals and fuinjutsu research he had only dreamed of, resources that any fuinjutsu practitioner would kill to attain even a glimpse.
More than that, he saw the only child willing to befriend his apprentice in a village that otherwise kept its distance.
So he'd agreed to teach her. Had kept silent as he watched her slowly work towards her eventual plans of leaving Kiri, her experiments clearly veering towards that goal. Had called upon his colleagues who still went to the field to supply her with bodies for her more recent experiments, some long dead, others more fresh. Hadn't spoken about the notes he'd noticed in her lab about disguising corpses through a mixture of medical ninjutsu and fuinjutsu, or the map he saw with various countries discreetly marked off.
Harusame was a loyal Mist ninja and a product of the Bloody Mist. No matter how kindly he might act, he had done away with simple sentimentality years ago. But in the case of Ringo Sute, he saw no reason to report her. He could tell the girl harbored no grudge or ill will against Kiri itself, merely a knowledge that the village would condemn her.
Everything Sute did was to ensure her own survival, nothing more, nothing less, and he could not fault her for that.
The fact she left without so much as a farewell left him perhaps a little saddened, but he'd already anticipated she wouldn't take that risk. She had at least made sure to give his other student one last fond memory before staging her own demise, and for that, he felt both grateful and just slightly bitter.
Logically, he understood why she would not tell Utakata of her plans to defect. If she had he would almost certainly want to go with her, and as a jinchuurirki he was too valuable to be able to leave peacefully. Hiding it from him was Sute's only option. That did not remove the bitter sting at the hollowness in the boy's eyes though, the listless energy to his movements in the days after her supposed death had been announced.
Time mended all wounds, and the boy would heal and move on, but in this case Harusame knew this would not be their final farewell. For all her eccentricities and sadistic quirks, she had been too close to Utakata for this to be where their story ended. He didn't believe in destiny, but he didn't need to when Sute would inevitably hunt him down someday and initiate the reunion herself. Even if that required tearing down Kiri.
Until then, Harusame would oversee his student's growth and help him move on, just as he always had.
At that same moment hundreds of miles away, a teenage girl with dull brown hair and dull brown eyes walked along the border of the Land of Rice Fields and Fire. No one would think twice about her other than the fact that she traveled alone at such a young age. Not even the box on her back would earn more than a brief glance.
Word of Ringo Sute's demise would not spread outside Kiri for months to come, but at that moment she was a ghost, exactly as she wanted.
And with this, Sute has finally defected and left chaos in her wake.
Sorry to anyone who expected a glorious and violent defection. Sute's goal is survival, and making a big show of her defection would make her a big target. It's so much easier if they think she's dead. Of course, that doesn't mean she's quitting the shinobi lifestyle. Living a perfectly normal civilian life would be too boring for her~
Unfortunately, I still can't guarantee regular updates. Chapter 42 is... kinda kicking my butt, to be honest. Writing her first meeting with Rei isn't easy because they're both very naturally wary of strangers and he does NOT want to get along, and I need them to for reason. And so far my attempts to write it just feel forced and awkward. So, yeah, gotta figure that out. Yay...
Anyways, thank you as always for your patience! Can't guarantee when I'll post again, but hopefully it won't be too long!