Me and Sasori hurry to our earlier battlefield and find Ayaka and Karura standing near four paralyzed kids. We quickly remove the poison from them and soon we're facing six grim faces. I turn to Kazuto.

"Do you want to say something?" I ask him kindly. He stares at me for a moment, and growls then, throwing his hands into the air.

"Fine, the two of you are better than the rest of us."

"Good. I have paper bags for you guys," I smile widely and all six sigh. Sasori raises his eyebrows at me, and I can only shrug. "Remember, one week. You can take them off when you wash yourself and sleep but other than that – no. And now… You will treat us to some dinner at Thornside!"

Me and Sasori lead the cowering bunch to the restaurant. We get even more looks now than when half of us had had those weird haircuts.

"This time it's easy to tell who lost. The usuals?" A waitress named Aino appears next to us and I give her a nod. The woman in her twenties has been serving us for quite some time and is in the know of us playing Capture the Flag every other week.

The dinner is mostly quiet, the air heavy and sour with bitterness. When it is over, me and Sasori hurry to clean up our traps. It takes a couple of hours and in the end, we head over to my house.

Sasori returns my puppets that he gathered, and I take a quick shower. We spend the evening trying to replenish our stocks and doing some slight repairs that we can do in my room. For some reason Sasori is once more staying over, but it's not like there is any reason for him not to do that either.

"What do you think true art is?" A question cuts the silence when we are already ready to sleep. It almost makes me startle. For a moment I smile at the moon visible from my window, but then I frown thoughtfully. Part of me knows what I should say to make him happy, but I do my best to think of it a bit more.

"Art, eh…? I haven't really thought about that so much. To me, it's like…it's something you create and something you can be happy with, something you can admire. Probably."

"Hm… I believe it should be eternal. Something that stays no matter what happens. Like puppets."

For a moment it's quiet. The second question surprises me even more than the first one: "Why do you always want to hug me?"

"Why…?" I blink, turning to look towards where I hear Sasori's voice from, but in the darkness, I cannot make out anything. I turn my eyes back towards the moon. "Well… Because I like you. You're my friend. And hugging is one way of showing that I like you, that I trust you. Why don't you ever let me?"

"I don't know," I hear the simple truth. "A friend… Do you have a best friend?"

I answer automatically: "Yeah I do."

"Oh?" I can hear a hint of bitterness in his voice. I need to smother a chuckle.

"It's you, you idiot."

"…Oh."

"And you?"

"I guess."

"And who's that?"

"Not telling you."

"Aww…" I sigh and try to find a better position on the hard bed. I stare at the wall for a moment.

"Do you ever think about leaving the village?" I then ask. Sasori is quiet for a long time.

"Sometimes," I finally hear.

"Me too. I think it would be exciting. You wanna leave with me when we're older?"

"I'm not sure about it."

"Hmm. Well, maybe one day…" A yawn cuts my sentence. "Good night, Sasori-kun."

"Night, Risu-chan."

I smile as I feel myself slipping to sleep.

»»-««

Rasa and Kazuto are already there when me and Sasori turn up by the village entrance.

"I do hope that will not come in the way of the mission," Rasa is saying to Kazuto, who's wearing a paper bag over his head.

"Of course, it won't," I chirp happily. "It's just good training, right Kazuto?"

"…Right."

Rasa sighs, shaking his head.

"Oh no," I hear Sasori say suddenly, and blink, completely confused. I turn to follow his gaze to a group of four people heading for the village entrance, meaning they're walking right towards us.

"Oh no," I decide to repeat.

"What?" Kazuto sounds annoyed.

One of the group heads right for us, and I think about whether I should run or stay and endure it.

"Sasori-kun!" The girl shouts and greets me when she gets closer: "Kuro-chan."

I can almost see her annoyed face through the paper bag, and sigh. "Karura."

"Are you happy with the modifications to our teams?" she asks with a grim aura around her. I glance pleadingly at Rasa.

"Sensei, please save me from this vicious female."

Rasa sighs. "Don't you have your own mission to get to, Karura?"

"Hmm? I just came to say good luck to my friends. Please, do have fun."

To me, it sounded like she said, 'please go and die'. She turns her back on us and heads for her own team. I let out a sigh. "Jealous kids."

"Just like you when I was in a team with her," Sasori states, and I shoot him a murderous look.

"I am not jealous!"

"I am starting to think this was a bad idea," Rasa mutters.

"It wasn't!" I announce right away, and my sensei gives me one of his patented looks.

"Good. Do you want to hear your first mission?"

"Of course." I chuckle almost nervously under his gaze. Kazuto and Sasori turn to him as well, but Kazuto's look is focused a bit off.

"You will complete this C-rank mission alone so that I can determine if you really are good enough. The objective is to clear out a bandit camp near the village of Tora. The village head will give you the details."

"Bandits, eh…?" I sigh. "Our first mission was harder than that."

Rasa smiles. "The time limit is 48 hours. I will be waiting here."

I stare at him. "That's barely enough time to get to Tora and back let alone find their camp and fight them!"

"Then I suggest you get moving already."

I huff and hurry along with Sasori by my side. Kazuto goes around in circles for a moment before following us.

Tora is a small fishing village by the sea. Its residents get their money from selling fish and other game. I have been there a few times before since as a small and rich village it attracts a lot of bandits.

"Seriously guys can I just take this off while we're on a mission?" We hear Kazuto's voice from behind us at some point.

"No!" I yell back at him. "And try to keep up. You're falling behind!"

"It's because of this damn bag…"

"You're the one who felt like it was a good idea to challenge us. Now shut up and accept your failure."

"We would get there faster if I did not have this," Kazuto tries to reason.

"Or we can just leave you behind. Let's speed up a bit, Sasori-kun."

"Ah, wait!" We hear one last shout as we leave Kazuto behind.

We get to the village once the moon is high up on the sky. Kazuto has caught up to us during the last hour even though at one point we had left him behind so far we could no longer see him at all. Now we march together to the house of the village leader, only to be stopped right away. We try to negotiate our way in for a long time but in the end, we must give up.

"I'm going to an inn!" Kazuto announces and turns to look pretty much at only me. "You coming?"

I give him a fed-up look even though I know he cannot see it. "No thanks. I will be waiting for that guy to wake up."

"Then I will keep you company," Sasori states and Kazuto shrugs.

"Suit yourselves. Weirdos."

Kazuto marches off and we sit down at a round bench around a tree in the middle of the plaza in the middle of the village. I hide a yawn with my hand.

"Should we take turns watching the place?" Sasori offers and I nod. I immediately reserve the first sleeping turn and lay down on the bench.

"Wake me up when it's my turn." I yawn for one last time before closing my eyes.

I wake up to a light touch on my leg. I jump up right away and notice Sasori nodding towards the house. He gets up when I am only turning my face towards it. A middle-aged man is coming out with one bodyguard. Sasori starts marching towards him and I hurry to his side.

"Oh! Kuroyuri-chan, is it!" The man recognizes me, and I give him a nod in greeting. "So, you're here to dispose of those bandits?"

"Yes."

"Well then. We believe they reside in a cave west of here, near the shore. Bring me their leader's hitai ate after you get rid of them."

"Hitai ate? They were supposed to be just bandits," Sasori states calmly, and the man in front of us glances at him in amusement without saying a word. I shake my head.

"Let's go."

"Should we have done something about Kazuto?" Sasori asks once we are almost at the edge of the village. I purse my lips. "This may as well be a test to figure out how well we can fight together."

I sigh heavily. "Jashin damn it. Let's find the slacker."

After ten minutes of running around Kazuto pops up and we can get going. It takes about two hours of running before we find ourselves in a rocky area near the shore. We stop over cliffs that surround a cove. On the other side is a mouth of a cave, with two bandits dressed in brown guarding it.

"So. Any plans?"

"I say we just barge in," Kazuto offers, ready to jump down at any moment, I glance at Sasori.

"That might be the best course of action if we consider the situation. We need to be done with this in… five hours at most. It may seem like a lot, but we have no idea how many of them there are or if this is even the right place… I think you get the idea." He shrugs.

"Alright. I'll kill those two first…" I try to say but Kazuto already jumps off the cliff and charges at the duo. I sigh. "He still hasn't learned, I see."

"Is he always like this?" Sasori asks when we jump down and stay back, just looking at Kazuto fighting the duo.

"Yeah. He's a disaster. But he's also good cover especially for long-range fighters like you. He really has a knack for keeping the enemy busy."

Kazuto cuts down the enemies fairly easily and charges into the cave. Before we can react, we hear an explosion, and soon small stones and other crap is flying towards us. I cough and wave the dust out of the front of my face before heading to look whether or not Kazuto has blown himself up.

Inside we find one collapsed passage. Kazuto is nowhere to be seen.

"Well," I sigh. "What do we do now?"

Sasori shakes his head. I tap my chin. There might be another way in, though I suspect that… I do summon Ichi and modify its seals so that it would be on a lookout for another way in. Soon the squirrel leaps away.

"Ichi's going to check if there's another way in. Do you have any puppets to help with this?" I gesture at the pile of rubble in front of us, covering the whole passage from ground to the ceiling.

"Not really."

"Mm. Me neither."

Sighing, I wander out the cave. None of my techniques would help with that either…

When I step out, I see five men surrounding the mouth of the cave.

"Well, well." The first one laughs. "What's this? Some Suna brat came snooping around?"

I scrutinize the men with my eyes. According to their words this is their base, so they must belong to the group of bandits we're supposed to destroy.

Sasori jumps next to me and pulls me away from the mouth of the cave just as a blast of wind carries all the stones out of the passage. One of the bandits gets caught in the torrent. Kazuto walks out of the cave, crackling his shoulders.

"There was only two guys over there and neither of them looked like the leader," he announces. I grimace and turn to the now four bandits. The one who had spoken is giving orders to his companions.

"May I?" I ask from the duo. Sasori nods and Kazuto snorts but does not attack. I turn and get my knifes out. I charge quickly at the first bandit, and he can only look surprised when I am already cutting his neck with two blades. As his head flies to the ground, I turn to the three people left.

The brunet leader shoots a fireball at me. I raise my eyebrows and dodge, attacking his friends. They're both using short swords. Together they attack me, the leader circling around us and clearly waiting for his chance.

Time passes, and I can't get a good enough hit in. I even succeed in getting one shallow cut which surprises me. Usually, our enemies can't harm me at all. But maybe these bandits really are a bit better than our other opponents. Finally, the two of them charge at me from both sides and I act like I am not doing anything. I focus on the right moment, and soon four swords hit me.

I land next to the duo. They're staring at each other in shock and fall to the ground. They have impaled each other, having fallen for my clone technique like idiots.

I turn to the brunet who sends a fireball towards me. I dodge and put my knifes behind my back. Then I do a water whip and catch him, giving him a paralyzing lightning shock. It's surprisingly easy to do the water jutsu and I assume the nearby sea has something to do with it. The air here is a lot moister than in the desert.

I wander over to the man and squat down next to him, smiling. "Do you mind telling me where your other friends are?"

The man glares at me and I chuckle. "Silly me, you can't even talk right now. Let me help you out."

I reach my hand to his face and heal its paralyzed state. I get spit on my hands as thanks right away. Looking him straight into the eyes, I make the spit into a small ball and launch it at his shoulder at the speed of lightning. The man growls and his face twists from pain. "Now, now. It's just one bit of information and then I'll let you go," I roll my eyes.

"You're lying. You will kill me the second I tell you anything." I am almost surprised he does not try to reason that I would not kill him. But I suppose I did kill three of his friends just now. Some of our other enemies always look down on me, thinking I can't be capable of any cruelty just because I am still so young.

"True," I admit with a shrug. "But I can also take you hostage and keep torturing you until you drop dead from the pain or blood loss."

The man only glares at me with a grim face. Sighing, I get up and do the quick seals, and stretch my hands towards the man. A small spark of lightning strikes him, and I glance around us. Kazuto and Sasori seem to be searching the area surrounding us.

I hear the man screaming behind me and stop the lightning attack. I can feel my chakra running out and I really don't want to use too much of it now. After all, we have no idea how many of them there are still left. But the man keeps quiet even though he seems to be in quite the pain. I tilt my head. I had paralyzed him. Could I have paralyzed his sense of pain somewhat as well?

I reach my hand to him, healing him a bit and then taking out a kunai and slashing open his calf. The man screams but does not seem to be ready to say anything. I purse my lips. Should I ask for lessons in torture? Nobody gave them usually… It could be a useful skill. I open his other leg as well and heal them, repeating the act once more.

"Nothing?" I smile at the man. "Such a shame…"

"I think I found something!" Kazuto shouts from atop the cliff. I raise my eyebrows at the man in the ground. Sasori joins Kazuto, and I beckon them to continue without me.

After ten minutes my chakra is almost at its end, but the man has told me a few important things: there are 13 bandits left, and three of them are former shinobi. One woman and two men, out of whom the taller one is the leader. Sasori and Kazuto are heading to the right direction. Sighing, I get up and kill the man with one quick strike. I would probably get there too late. Maybe I should've just killed him once Kazuto found that 'something'…

I am about to hurry after the duo, when Ichi leaps to me. I lower my hand to the squirrel and see one picture of Sasori and Kazuto nearing a big group of bandits around a lone house. I seal Ichi in its scroll and hurry after them.

After five minutes I find myself looking at the battle. Seven bodies are already lying on the ground and not soon after two others join them. Out of the shinobi the man had described, the smaller man is already dead. I see the woman and the other man and their hitai ate but I am not close enough to check the symbol. I do see the slash going through both, though.

Sasori is fighting against the two shinobi while Kazuto is finishing the other two. I take out my knifes. The leader of the group seems to be using a bit of water style. I circle closer to the shinobi and charge at them with lightning chakra. Neither of them sees me as I ready my daggers to strike them down.

For a moment, my eyes meet Sasori's, and I change my attack. I strike the dagger only at the woman and shoot a paralyzing senbon at the man. Both fall to the ground.

"Good job guys." I hum as I jump to the paralyzed shinobi, taking his hitai ate with me. His angry eyes follow me, but I don't give him another glance. "Kazuto let's get this to the village head. Sasori-kun, please clean up this mess."

Sasori gives me a thin smile while Kazuto is already hurrying towards the cliff. I chuckle and wave my hand at the redhead, leaving the still alive man into his hands. I run after Kazuto as I put the gray hitai ate into my pocket.

"So, is it easy to fight with that?" I ask from him along our journey. I hear a sigh from inside the paper bag.

"Of course not. But it actually helps me focus on my sensory skills."

"I know, right." I hum. It's rare for Kazuto to admit he has changed his opinion about something.

"Oh well if it isn't Kazuto!" our client exclaims once we get back to him.

"Here." I give the hitai ate to him. The man glances at it once and then starts digging into a box next to him. We're sitting on the floor in his house. One bodyguard is standing at the door in the hallway.

"Here's your payment." The man nods, giving me a brown leather pouch. I take it with a thank you. "Hope to see you again. Under different circumstances, though."

I chuckle and get up. "Pleasure doing business with you. Let's go, Kazuto."

"But can I ask what's with the paper bag?" the man asks, and I smile at him.

"He lost a bet."

"I see…"

When we get out of the house, the first thing I notice is Sasori sitting on the bench near it. He gets up right away when he sees us.

"We got barely enough time to make it back before tomorrow morning," he states and I glance at the sky, blinking in surprise at how dark it has suddenly become.

"Guess we need to hurry," I nod. "Off we go!"

When we get back to the village, Rasa is waiting for us. "You still have two minutes to spare. And I got the word that you succeeded with your mission. Good job, you three. I'll let you keep all the money. We will meet here tomorrow morning at the same time. Rest up well because we will be handling some more dangerous missions from now on."

"Finally!" Kazuto celebrates when Rasa disappears. "Now give me my money so I can buy me more cool stuff."

I sit down in the ground in the middle of the road and get the leather pouch out. I sort the coins into three piles, poking two of them nearer to the boys. Kazuto peers at them in confusion from under his paper bag. "…Why is mine so much smaller than yours?"

I smile kindly at the boy. "Did you forget that you will be giving half of your mission reward money to us? That means you get only 16,500 ryo from this one. And me and Sasori-kun both get 41,250 ryo."

"…Oh. Yeah," Kazuto mumbles as he gathers the money. "Well, I'm off."

"…And I have stuff to do," Sasori states and is about to escape, when my shriek stops him.

"Can I come too? You still haven't shown me how you do it even though I've been pestering you about it for over a year!" I almost sulk.

"So you have." The redhead sighs before shrugging. "Fine."

"Ayy!"

"…Are you really that happy to see me skin a person alive?"

"…I guess?"

"You are weird." Sasori seems to chuckle as he turns around.

"Well, I am your friend, so I guess it's to be expected." I smirk as I head after him.