Hi everyone! I know this arc has been very different. I hope that this chapter answers some of the questions you have. Thank you to those of you who have been reviewing/pm'ing. Please let me know what you think!

"It's a shame Asuma couldn't come along," Genma scratched his nose. "Talk about the ball and chain."

"They're getting married in a couple of weeks. It's good for them to spend time together," Aoba smiled.

"They'll be spending time together for the rest of their lives," Kotetsu shook his head. "Let him enjoy being a bachelor for a couple more weeks."

"I'm looking forward to growing our bond as brothers in arms," Gai nodded somberly. "By drinking more than all of you put together!"

"We'll see about that," Kakashi shot him a dangerous look. "I won't concede without a fight."

There was a soft whimpering sound off to their left and all six men stopped dead in their tracks. The sound repeated but louder this time. Someone was begging for their life. Wordlessly they darted down the alley, some of them taking to the rooftops while the others took different alleyways to approach the spot.

The pleading began again and Genma tensed. He nearly didn't recognize the voice because of its lack of pompous overconfidence. It was Breaker.

"Please, I've told you what you wanted to know." Genma spotted him. The man was on his knees, ice encasing him all the way up to his neck. "Either let me know or just kill me."

"It's a common misconception that freezing to death isn't painful," Sayuri stepped into view, circling Breaker. "Everyone I've ever frozen has told me that the slow process of necrosis is excruciating. Do you agree?"

"You're enjoying this, you bitch," Breaker panted, his tough guy act completely dissolved in his pain. "You can go to hell."

"I've already been there," Sayuri got close to his face and flashed that dazzling, terrifying smile, like a predator baring its teeth. "It's incredibly boring." She took a step back and her expression softened. "I'm sorry. I really should thank you. It's been awhile since I had full control of my ice jutsu. I appreciate you being my guinea pig. With This fight, I know I don't have to hold back anymore, my powers have fully returned."

"Who the hell are you? Who do you work for?" Breaker strained his neck, trying to flex his way free from the ice.

Sayuri took ahold of his face and turned it towards her. "I am the vengeance, the blade the wrath of a man you and yours murdered in cold blood. If you meet him on the other side pray he will be more merciful than I am. I can only kill you once; he'll have an eternity to deliver your retribution."

Breaker winced and cried out in pain as the ice crawled up his face with icy fingers, encasing his head and silencing his please. Sayuri took a step back when the group descended upon her.

"Let him go, Sayuri," Genma was the first to step into the light. Sayuri looked at him, all pretense gone from her face. Her eyes were focused and determined, slowly moving from right to left as she sized up the number of opponents. As soon as she'd catalogued them all, Sayuri's steely expression pulled into a self-satisfied look.

"You still don't get what's going on here, do you?" Sayuri tossed her hair. "I've been leaving you a trail of breadcrumbs a mile long but you are all just too simple minded to connect the dots. No wonder this town is such a mess."

"Who are you?" Aoba echoed Breaker. "What have you been up to?"

"I would love to stay and explain but I have to go stop an assassination, since you're all too incompetent to do it yourselves." Sayuri gestured to them all. "Good night, gentlemen."

"Now wait one second," Genma stepped forward. "You're coming down to the station-"

Sayuri spun and kicked the frozen ronin, shattering him into a thousand tiny pieces that sprayed the shinobi in an arc. They covered their faces or stepped out of the line of fire to prevent themselves from being covered in powdered corpse. Sayuri used the momentum of her kick to take off at a sprint back down the alley. She moved so quickly that when Izumo and Kotetsu tried to grab her, she dropped low out of their grasp and kept on sprinting. The sudden change in movement at the last moment trapped the two in their momentum, costing them precious seconds towards apprehending her. Before they could right themselves, Gai and Kakashi vaulted over them in pursuit.

The way Sayuri moved changed from a breakneck sprint to a graceful back and forth skate. Despite the gentler movement, the woman picked up speed.

"That's strange," Gai narrowed his eyes. "She's going faster."

Kakashi pulled up his headband and activated the Sharingan. "That's because she's skating."

"But the terrain is uneven. If she tried to roller skate she'd break an ankle at best," Gai was at a casual jog so as not to leave everyone completely in the dust.

"She's ice skating," Kakashi concentrated on her feet. "She's casting an ice path in front of herself and is skating on blades she's formed on her feet."

"Have you fought an ice user like this before?" Gai asked. "I know there was that kid with Zabuza, but could he do this?"

Kakashi shook his head. "This woman is on a whole other level."

"It's a good thing we were with them," Gai jerked his thumb towards the others, desperately racing to catch up. "I think we're just the right dynamic duo to take her down."

Kakashi nodded silently. He was wracking his brain for every ice technique he had seen, and then thinking of a counter strategy. This was promising to not be the relaxing night they had all intended it to be.

…

Strange sounds stirred Beki from her already troubled slumber. She sat up and strained her ears, trying to identify the source of the sound. As her consciousness returned to her, she realized that the sound made of up a combination of crackling, hissing, and an occasional shout.

"Hey," She called up to the night guard. "What's going on?"

There was a thud as the guard opened the door and it slammed against the stair rail. The lights were all on upstairs, which instantly flooded the basement with painfully bright light. Beki heard the rapid thuds of the guard coming down the stairs as she blinked for her eyes to adjust. Before her vision had fully returned to her Beki already knew she was in trouble. The guard's lifeless body was at the foot of the stairs, his eyes blankly transfixed on the roof as his lifeblood pooled around him on the concrete.

"Oh shit," Beki whispered as she backed away from the bars. She looked around her enclosure for a weapon and swore again. We're under attack and not only am I defenseless, I'm practically naked. She looked around for a possible means of escape, ignoring the sounds of multiple sets of feet coming down the stairs towards her.

"So, this is her, huh?" A woman laughed. "She doesn't look so scary to me."

"She isn't," A man replied. "Come on little girl. You're coming with us."

"Fat chance," Beki tried to look threatening. She stood at her full height and waited for their faces to change at the sight of the Drowned Maiden. Instead of terror, the small group looked at her expectantly.

"Is that all?" The man asked, his voice almost as impatient as his face. "Was that supposed to scare us?"

Beki looked down at her hands, still bright and peachy. The hair that fell in her face was still a shiny platinum blonde. Why isn't it working? I normally don't even have to think about transforming and yet here I can't even get my hair to change color.

"I'm not in the mood for a fight," The man waved impatiently. "Knock her out and finish torching this place."

Beki went rigid. "Where are you taking me?" They're busting me out and making it look like I burned the place down. "Who are you people?!"

"Shut her up already!" The man said as he stormed up the stairs.

"Good night, little girl." The woman stuck her hand between the bars, spreading her fingers wide. Beki saw the room lose focus and felt a fuzzy warmth spreading over her.

"Damned genjutsu users…" Beki grumbled just before her body hit the floor.

…

When they reached the woods, Sayuri abandoned her skating and took to the trees. Her speed dropped significantly but she was still able to keep her distance from the Konoha shinobi. She was searching for something, her head constantly bobbing right and left as she scanned her surroundings.

"What are you looking for…?" Kakashi thought aloud. She suddenly stopped and leapt up to the denser foliage above, concealing herself from view. Kakashi's first instinct was to keep an eye on her but he was curious what had triggered her reaction. Down below, a group of shinobi had come into view. There were about ten of them and they were aware they had been spotted. Kakashi grabbed Gai and they followed Sayuri's lead, retreating further up into the branches.

"Come on out," The lead shinobi called out. "We know you're there. Might as well get this over with."

Kakashi concentrated on the group. They were all ronin, from varying villages. The one thing the group had in common was that every one of them appeared to be seasoned mercenaries. Up into the trees, he spotted Sayuri dropping down to the ground out of their sight. She positioned herself against the trunk and readied to strike.

"Here, kitty kitty," The lead shinobi clicked his tongue and some of the others laughed. "We aren't going to hurt you."

Sayuri looked up and caught Kakashi's eye. She winked at him and smiled, holding up a finger for silence. One of the shinobi strayed too close to Sayuri's position and she lashed out, grabbing ahold of her, and pulling her into the brush. The woman didn't even have time to scream. It was silent for a few moments as the group searched for their pursuer when at last one of them called out:

"Where's Sae san?"

As soon as the words were out of the man's mouth, a frozen arm dropped down from the canopy above. The group went on high alert, their eyes and heads darting about as they tried to locate the source. The man who spoke approached the arm and grimaced. He picked it up and sighed. "It's Sae's."

"You think you're funny?" The leader cried out. "You're just a coward! Come out and fight!"

The rest of Sae's disembodied limbs dropped to the ground, falling from the trees and landing with the same soft thuds as ripe apples. The leader looked shaken and some of the others appeared to be losing their nerve as well.

"That's a tad...extreme," Gai said under his breath and Kakashi nodded.

Sayuri darted through the group, lashing out so quickly neither of her targets had time to respond. She was back in the trees before the group could compose themselves. The two men she had struck had confused looks on their faces just before their heads parted from their bodies.

The leader lost his cool he raised his hand to his head and pressed the button on his headset.

"No!" Sayuri cried out, emerging from the trees and charging right for the leader.

"We're under attack! You need to move quickly! Shinobi inbound-" he was able to call out before Sayuri froze his head solid. He fell to the ground, his hands desperately clawing at his encased head. The group surrounded her and drew their weapons.

"Son of a whore!" Sayuri kicked the leader. She looked up at Kakashi and Gai. "You need to get to the shack where they found Seiichiro. They're taking Beki there now." The ground began to fog as ice crept out from under her feet towards the shinobi surrounding her. "You have to save the ambassador."

Two of the shinobi turned to attack Gai and Kakashi but icy hands jutted out of the frost beneath their feet, trapping them. "You don't have time to think about it! GO NOW!" Sayuri cried.

Although no wind could make it through the dense woods, Sayuri's hair floated gently, brightening from coal black to a snowy white in almost moments. Almost instantly her skin took on an icy sheen, paling her to almost the shade of her hair. As the transformation took shape, the rest of the Konoha shinobi arrived, their momentum instantly halted by the standoff they found.

"They're going to assassinate Tsukimori Haruka at the shack they found her father in," Kakashi called out as he and Gai leapt down from the trees. "We'll keep an eye on this group. You need to stop them."

The guards sized up the situation for a moment and then nodded, continuing their pursuit beyond the ronin surrounding Sayuri. "Stop them!" One of the men cried out. A snowball hit him in the face and he turned his attention back to the horrifying woman floating before them.

"Sorry, you're dancing with me."

The shinobi looked at Kakashi and Gai. "Get out of here or we'll kill you, too."

Kakashi stared him down. "You attack us, you die. It's your choice."

…

Beki regained consciousness in a place she only remembered from her nightmares. The stuffy space with its smell of smoke, blood, and burned flesh turned her stomach. She had been thrown on her face down on the floor with so little care that her nose was bleeding from the impact. Her hospital gown was torn and filthy from the floor and goosebumps were forming on her exposed skin. She could hear the voices of the shinobi from the cell earlier. They were arguing about how they were going to "do it."

"Put her on her knees and ram a sword through her stomach," the woman scoffed. "Why make this so complicated?"

"People are going to have to believe she killed herself," The leader smacked his hands for emphasis. "She isn't a seasoned warrior who dishonored herself, she's a teenage girl. Don't they slit their wrists?"

Beki snapped completely awake. Her heart was racing and her first instinct was to run but she suppressed the urge. She carefully turned her head to figure out her escape route. The back door of the cellar was dead ahead. If she rose slowly and sprinted, she might make it up the stairs and have the door open before they could catch her. They were still arguing so Beki took a deep breath, pushed herself up slowly, and ran for the door. The woman shouted and Beki immediately heard footsteps approaching from behind. Her hospital gown was sagging so Beki tore it off and threw it behind her, hoping it would slow them down. As she glanced over her shoulder to toss the gown she saw they were much too close for comfort. I'm not going to make it. Beki was left with a choice: dart up the stairs and try to fight them off or go for the stairs.

At the last moment, Beki juked left and bolted for the other exit. The men who were pursuing her were thrown off balance. One fell flat onto the stairs and the other turned and stumbled after her, falling as his feet crossed in front of each other. He managed to grab at her ankle just enough to throw off her rhythm. There was nothing she could do to stop herself from falling. Beki put out her hands and immediately tried to scramble back up to her feet but the man who tripped her had caught ahold of her ankle. Seiichiro's armor was burned into the concrete beside her, so as she kicked at the man on her legs, Beki wiggled towards the metal plates. The kunoichi was storming over with a murderous look on her face. Beki hoped that she could dislodge one of the plates on her father's armor and use it as a shield or a blunt weapon.

Beki managed to connect a kick square to the nose of the man holding her ankles. He released her, swearing as he cupped his bleeding face. Beki could scramble over to the armor just as the kunoichi reached her. She took ahold of one of the gauntlets and gave it a solid tug. Beki had expected resistance from the metal but instead it came free instantly. The metal warmed on contact with her skin, shrinking to fit her smaller proportions and shaping itself around her arm. She was stunned to silence at the sight of her father's gauntlet forming to her shape.

"Get over here," The kunoichi grabbed ahold of Beki's shoulders and spun her. Beki was surprised to find her arm move as if guided by an outside force, following the momentum of the spin and clocked the kunoichi across the face with the gauntlet. The woman was knocked sideways, lost her footing, and falling face first into the ground.

Beki got to her feet and looked at the shinobi closing in on her. Seiichiro's voice came to her, a memory from when she was young coming to life: "Then the father would fall in battle, and it would be up to his son to remove the armor from him. He had to don the set still covered in his father's life to carry on his fight."

"Tsukimori hold the line," Beki echoed his words as they sounded in his head.

"What the hell?!" The kunoichi spat. "Where'd you get that?!"

Beki stepped backwards towards the armor. She crouched down and extended her hand toward the other gauntlet. It followed its mate's suit, snapping to Beki's hand as if attracted by magnetism and melting to form to her shape.

"The armor!" The leader cried. "But that was her fathers! It shouldn't fit!"

They all approached cautiously, unsure of what powers were at play. The armored skirt followed the lead of the gauntlets. The waist shrunk to fit her frame and shortened to her knees. The shinobi who had grabbed at her ankle made a pass at her. Beki stepped back, caught his wrist, and spun him away. The breastplate and pauldrons snapped on over her shoulders and cinched until it fit her torso.

Tsukimori Haruka had been dragged down to this cellar to die naked and alone. Now as Beki stood there in her father's armor, she felt the chakra of all the ancestors whom had donned it before her. Loudest amongst them was her father. Their presence was a comfort in her hour of need and helped her to stand tall against her enemies. Beki looked down at her hands and her feet, where she caught sight of her father's mask. She crouched, picking up the battered metal half mask.

"Listen, little girl," The kunoichi held a knife up to her. "You try anything funny and we'll make this as painful as possible."

Beki looked the woman dead in the eye as she donned the oni's mask. "Try it."

The long platinum blond hair that had fallen in her face was testament that Beki hadn't transformed into the Drowned Maiden. That meant the looks of fear that twisted these shinobi's faces was for Beki herself. These people, these assholes had kidnapped and murdered her father. Now they dared to fake Beki's suicide to cast all suspicion on her.

"I need to know one thing," Beki raised her head so she was looking down on them, her eyes filled with murderous intent. "Who are you working for? What son of a bitch is behind all this?!"

…

The Konoha shinobi converged on the abandoned shack.

"Dammit," Genma swore. "She was just leading us on. That bitch has probably murdered Kakashi and Gai-"

There was a loud crash as the cellar doors were blown open in a fiery explosion. The shinobi were left standing there expectantly until a familiar blonde head emerged from the smoking maw like a demon out of hell. Beki's body was fully lit from within, her skin swirling shades of gold, crimson, and ochre. Her hair floated gently, which when paired with the blood splattered armor she was wearing completed the demoness look. She turned her steely gaze upon them and for a moment they faltered, forgetting the girl behind the mask for the demon she appeared to be. As she emerged, she dragged along the unconscious body of a young woman. Angry burns covered the woman's arms in the shape of Beki's handprints.

Beki bodily threw the woman at them. "Tsukimori Yasahiro," Her voice was thick and raspy, full of the smoke that surrounded her. "He murdered my father and hired these ronin to stage my suicide."

"Are there others?" Aoba asked, cautiously keep a distance.

Beki over at him, her eyes full of remorseless rage. "Not anymore."

…

"Well that's the last of them," Sayuri heaved a sigh as her hair settled back to inky black. "Do you think they were able to get there in time?"

Kakashi and Gai had moved too quickly for Sayuri, their kunai poised at each side of her throat.

"Okay, okay. I get it," Sayuri raised her arms. "I have some explaining to do." Neither of the men budged. "I'll come quietly, I promise."

"I'm going to bind her hands so she can't use ninjutsu," Kakashi retracted his kunai so only Gai's blade stood between Sayuri and escape. Kakashi stood behind her and began to bind her hands.

"So, you're pretty good with knots then?" Sayuri smiled and Kakashi replied by tightening the ropes. "All right, all right. Bad timing. I get it."

Soon the sounds of the other Konoha shinobi returning. Sayuri looked over at them, the slightest hint of concern on her face. The men were carrying both the unconscious ronin kunoichi, her hands and legs bound, and Beki.

"She isn't dead, is she?" Sayuri furrowed her brows. "You'd better tell me she's all right."

"Beki's fine," Genma scoffed. "She wore herself out burning up the other ronin."

"Let's get back into town." Kakashi gave her a shove.

"What, I don't get a piggy back ride like the other girls?" Sayuri smirked but walked along anyway, her head held high and a self-satisfied look on her face.

"Can't we knock her out so we don't have to look at that smug face she's making?" Genma asked but Aoba shook his head.

"Let it be, Genma."

…

"Hey, wake up," Genma rattled the bars of the cell.

Sayuri opened an eye and threw a smile at him. "It's so charming how much you want my attention."

"You were behind all this, weren't you?" Genma folded his arms. "Who do you work for?"

Sayuri closed her eyes again but the smile remained. "Did you guys manage to catch Yasahiro? Or was he long gone by the time you all got there?"

"We've got shinobi in pursuit," Genma leered down at her on her cot. "He'll get what's coming to him."

Sayuri laughed. "If he doesn't die of old age before you dunces figure out where he is."

"This will go easier for everyone if you just start talking." Genma took out a tape recorder. "I bring this in and it all gets sorted out."

Sayuri flicked a tiny hunk of ice at the recorder, knocking it out of Genma's hands and forcing him to fumble to hold onto it. "I told you once, do-rag, I'm only talking to the Hokage. So, until the crone can find time in her schedule for me, you'll all just have to wait with baited breath to hear my tale."

"I liked you better when you were pretending to be a stripper," Genma scoffed as he shoved his tape recorder back into his pocket. "At least then you pretended to be nice."

"Boo hoo," Sayuri stretched. "What, did you want to spend the night with me or something? When I get out of here I could give you a pity lay."

"As if you will ever see the outside of a cell again," Genma glared. "So, make yourself comfortable."

"Thanks, I will." And so Sayuri drifted back off to sleep with another self-satisfied grin.