Hi everyone! I know there's been a bit more of a delay on this one. I appreciate your patience. The shinobi war has a loooot going on and I have a lot to coordinate for it. I'm going through the process of figuring out how my story/characters are going to fit into all this and its proving to be pretty challenging. I had a lot of ideas for what I was going to do with the fourth shinobi world war but logistically they aren't all working out. That means a lot of reformulating and putting some of the content I'd already developed on the chopping block.
For this arc, once the war gets started, I think we'll be doing the longer chapters (the 10k ones, I think). What that'll mean for you is a slower posting schedule but you'll get longer chapters. Seeing as the ninja war only took place over the course of a few days (which seemed waaay longer to me for some reason. And I read the manga. I don't even know how you guys got through it with all the filler arcs in the anime. Hayate? Seriously?! He died in season one! I don't think he was ever mentioned again in the comics after the chunin exams.) I have to tell you, I'm hella sad my canon doesn't really go anywhere near the Kabuto vs Itachi fight. Or Tobirama. That would have been a lot of fun, but what can I do? I know there are a lot of things you guys would like to see from the war. I can't wait to hear what you think of this chapter or any thoughts or ideas you have going forward. Feel free to PM or review for any questions/comments you have. That said, enjoy!
Yuki made her way to the priestess's living quarters. It was late evening, near midnight, and Yuki figured that Ren had probably come home while she had been down in the tomb with Reika. As Yuki walked up those familiar steps, she experienced déjà vu. Just as she suspected, the doors were impossible to open normally. After a few minutes of trying to wiggle her way inside, Yuki sighed and kicked in the door.
"Ren?" Yuki called out. Her voice reverberated off the walls, like mocking ghosts whispering back at her. Looking around, Yuki could tell this building was a little more taken care of than the others and attributed the extra caretaking to Ren. Even as a babe, Yuki recalled Ren always making the best of her situation. She had a second-hand porcelain doll that had been dropped, its arm broken and carefully glued back together. Ren would wrap little ribbons or her own jewelry around it to make it pretty. Yuki saw similar "bandages" on the ugliness here: fresh flowers in cracked pots, carefully mended tapestries covering drafty cracks in the walls. Yuki even noticed a new handmade rag rug in the old bathroom.
The room Yuki had shared with so many priestesses was now a sort of studio apartment for Ren. She had subdivided the room a little differently. Her sleeping space was the same one Yuki had used as a girl in the back corner of the room. Pictures of her with her team, baby pictures of her and Beki, and postcards were pinned to a corkboard she'd hung on the wall. There was a study space with a simple desk stacked high with old tomes and new letters. Her clothes and other personal effects were in the section opposite her bed. Yuki walked over to Ren's desk and spied an open planner draped over some of the books. Marked in sparkly acid green gel pen in all caps was a line that ran through the current week and a message that said, "SUPPLY RUN TO GETSU".
"She isn't even here," Yuki tossed the planner back on the desk. "Would've been nice if someone would have mentioned that." Yuki glared off in the direction of the archives. "Then again, I'm starting to get the feeling Ren is the responsible one around here. No use in sticking around, then."
As she walked towards the center of the room, she got a better look at Ren's pictures. A familiar blonde braid caught her attention and drew Yuki in for a closer look. In one, Ren and Beki were academy age and were sporting bright foil party hats. Ren had hers poised in the center of her forehead like a unicorn and Beki's had fallen off center. They were both holding up shiny new Getsu headbands over a graduation cake. Yuki smiled at her daughter's gangly preteen body, all elbows and knees and teeth too big for her head. The only difference in Ren's appearance was her cheeks were a little chubbier then. The other pictures were similar ones, some with Daiske hovering awkwardly beside or behind the girls and some without. The three always looked happy, though, which brought Yuki some comfort. It pained her heart to see those memories and to not have any personal connection to them, but such was life.
The prevailing silence of the shrine had almost become background noise, Yuki slowly growing accustomed to only the sound of her breathing and heartbeat to keep her company. Which was why when she heard the singing her heart leapt into her throat. She crossed over to the window and slid open the shutters cautiously. At first, Yuki thought it was fog rolling in from the mountains. Then she remembered it was coming from the wrong direction. This fog was coming from the direction of the tomb. The other thing that stood out was this fog was too thick and too high. It wasn't fog at all; it was smoke. Yuki searched the sky for any sign of fire and found none. She recalled the overgrown underbrush, dry and brittle as tinder. Regardless of where the fire started it would rip through the woods and old buildings like they were doused in gasoline. Her eyes widened, and she froze for a moment as she watched the smoke clawing its way from the woods towards the shrine.
Yuki ran out the door as fast as her legs would carry her towards the main hall. "REIKA!" Yuki screamed as she slammed through the front doors, knocking one of them off their hinges. "Reika, we have to go now!" She pounded down the stairs, her heart throbbing to the rhythm of her feet on the steps.
Nothing. Reika was gone.
Yuki's eyes darted around the archives, hoping somehow she had missed her. She tried to think where Reika could have gone in such a short amount of time. As she surfaced, the smoke had reached the shrine proper. Yuki choked on the gray smog and it stung at her eyes. She cried out Reika's name again as she stumbled out the doors, weighing her options. Tears streamed down Yuki's cheeks. She ripped down a curtain, tore off a rag sized piece, and soaked it with fine ice. The ice melted into the cloth. She held it over her mouth to filter out the smoke. The measure was successful in easing her breathing but did nothing to alleviate the daggers in her eyes.
The singing was getting closer. It seemed to be coming from everywhere at once, a long slow chanting accompanied with the occasional chiming of bells. The voices were all different, some high and sweet, some raspy, some deep and rich. It was beautiful. Yuki recognized it as something ceremonial in nature, mesmerizing and mysterious, but she couldn't quite make out the words. Her curiosity almost matched her fear. Fortunately, for Yuki survival was always a stronger instinct.
Yuki took one more desperate look around for any signs of where Reika had gone. The smoke made it hard to see tracks. Yuki's only option was to pray that Reika had seen it coming before she did and headed down the pass to safety. Yuki took to her feet then, as quickly as the treacherous smoke would allow her. The process was disorienting and Yuki had to watch her footing carefully. She prayed she was heading for the pass. Under normal conditions Yuki would reach the trailhead in a few minutes but with no visibility, it seemed to be taking forever. Yuki payed close attention to the singing. Regardless of how pretty it was, the sound was unsettling. Her gut was telling her to keep her distance. To her surprise, no matter where she went, it never seemed to get closer or further away. After what seemed like an eternity, Yuki recognized the narrowing in the trail and the skeletal trees that marked the end of the shrine and the beginning of the pass.
Yuki's feet stopped dead, almost skidding cartoonishly to a halt. Her body had reacted before her mind had processed it: a figure vaguely discernable in the smoke and shadows. It was hunched over, moving in inhuman jerks along the trail as if searching for something. For the first time in Yuki's life, she was truly afraid. Hair stood up on the back of her neck and her heart beat so hard she was terrified the sound would give her away. The creature raised its strangely shaped head and let out a bone chilling cry, a mixture of anguish and blind rage. At last, Yuki could feel it, the same sensation she had felt down in the tomb. The smoke, the singing, and now monsters. No, not monsters. The Maidens were free. Somehow being able to identify her enemy brought her no comfort.
Knowing she had only moments before she was detected, Yuki dropped low and cautiously stepped off the path into the woods. She moved slowly, practically crawling, through the underbrush on her hands and knees to avoid detection. She could hear the thing nearby, wheezing, rasping, making guttural snarls. Yuki heard it dragging something heavy along in the dirt beside it. She held her breath as she passed it, skirting as closely to the cliffside as she could but knowing that only put about fifteen feet between them. After what seemed like an eternity, Yuki stood back up, feeling she was a safe enough distance away to run normally without being detected. In her rush to get away, as Yuki stood she slammed her head into a low-lying branch. She stifled her whimper and held the spot as her vision swam. Yuki paused and held her breath again, praying that it had been soft enough the thing hadn't heard. It was quiet again. No singing, no rasping, no dragging in the dirt. Then Yuki heard the snarl behind her.
Not daring to look back, Yuki ran at full speed down the pass. Branches and bushes tore at her pants, the skin of her arms, her hair. Yuki never slowed, hearing the crashing in the underbrush behind her. She bobbed and weaved through the familiar woods in the hopes that her time playing in them as a child would save her. A branch caught her in the face. Yuki felt the warmth of blood trickle down her cheek, tasted the bile in her throat, but she kept running. She could hear the thing wheezing behind her, feel it groping the air, trying to grab her.
Up ahead, the pass reached its narrowest point. The mountainside pressed dangerously close to the steep cliffside, the path maybe only two arm spans wide. Yuki knew that was her only chance at survival. As she approached, Yuki transformed into the Yukionna and drew in all the moisture around her. The thing let out an otherworldly screech behind her, just inches from her back. Yuki let loose all the water she had gathered in a massive block of ice. It was like a glacier had been dropped square in the middle of the pass, too smooth to climb and jutting out enough beyond the precipice that it couldn't be swung around.
Yuki didn't stop running. She heard the thing wailing angrily behind her, but slowly the sound fell away. It was trapped. Yuki wouldn't let herself feel safe, though. That's exactly when a person was at their most vulnerable. Despite her heart beating like it was going to jump out of her chest and the screaming in her legs, she raced all the way back down to Kami to Akuma.
It was the middle of the night. The streets were barren and the fog was slowly rolling in for the night. Yuki made her way to the only person who would be up at this hour, the only person who would believe her.
"Toramura!" Yuki cried as she pounded on the door. "Open up, for the love of God!"
Within moments, the door swung wide and the exhausted face of the blacksmith stared out from the dark before her. "What the hell woman!? Your blades can wait till morning-"
"The Three Maidens," Yuki panted. "They're free. I can't explain how but the bitches woke up. There was smoke and singing and I don't know what else."
Toramura grabbed her roughly and pulled her inside. "What did you say?!"
Yuki swallowed hard and smoothed back her still white hair. "Its gone to shit up there, Toramura. Reika was showing me earlier, the seal on the Maidens...it was breaking. War is coming and I think the Maidens are coming with it."
"Did you see them?" Toramura asked. "How can you be sure it was them?"
Yuki looked him dead in the eye. "I saw... I don't know what I saw. I didn't get the best look at it. Let's just say if I'd gone in close enough to check, I wouldn't be here to talk to you. I felt it. Evil. Pure, enveloping, all-encompassing malevolence. It was everywhere, like a million eyes watching with an almost palpable hunger. We need to evacuate."
"Are we going to have enough time?" Toramura looked out the window to see if the apocalypse was politely waiting to be let inside.
"I blocked the pass." Yuki buried her face in her hands. "I really hope Reika got out. I couldn't find her. I tried..."
Yuki was gently slapped with something. She opened her eyes and looked at the source. Two gauntlets, gleaming even in the soft ambient light. "You're going to need these." Toramura dropped them into her hands. "For all the good they'll do."
Yuki nodded, swallowing hard. She slipped the two gauntlets on and tested the blades. The action was sharper, more precise, and the claws extended quickly and seamlessly. It was as if they were a part of Yuki, responding the way a real pair of claws would come out of a cat. They were sharp, too, and strong enough to be used without the ice tekko geki.
"Come on, wolf," Toramura said as he opened the door. "We have a village to rouse."
…
Yuki was grateful the village had been aware of the strangeness at the shrine before they called the evacuation order. They were annoyed but complied without question. Had Yuki come to them on her own, however, with no previous evidence to support her, she doubted a single person would have headed down the pass. The earth ninjutsu users raised a wall of rock behind them to seal off Kami to Akuma. Only until the war's over, they had said. The ornery villagers planned to return to town and clearing out whatever evil had taken up residence at the shrine. Yuki held her tongue. It was not her place to tell them what to do. She could only pray that the whole situation would work itself out beforehand.
The trek down the mountain was quiet and uneventful. It was surreal for Yuki, having come home so hopeful and leaving with her tail between her legs.
Reika.
The thought hit Yuki like a runaway truck. Her friend, up there alone with those monsters. Reika had never been a fighter, a hunter, or even good at hide-and-seek in the woods. No one in town had seen her. Reika had either managed to slip past everyone or she was trapped back up at the shrine. Yuki bowed her head and closed her eyes tight, praying with all her might that was the case. A rough hand gripped her shoulder. Once Yuki had finished her prayer, she opened her eyes and stared at the source of the contact in the darkness. Toramura was facing forward. To an onlooker, it wasn't clear whether he was supporting himself on Yuki or if it were the other way around. In the gruff, unaffectionate way they had all been raised, he was trying to comfort her.
Toramura had only been ten years her senior when Yuki was born. As young girls, Reika and Yuki had been tasked with traveling into town for supplies. Toramura had been an apprentice to the old grizzly blacksmith at the time. His hair was pure black then and hung into his face as he worked. While Reika would dawdle talking with the other girls their age or gossiping with the old women in town, Yuki would go and watch him work. Yuki had looked up to him, adored him like an ornery older brother. Yuki would sometimes ask him questions about his work or tell him stories of what she had seen out in the woods. Toramura usually called her cruel names, like "halfling", "wolf", and "yurei". It never really bothered her, though. If he really had a problem, he would have told her to leave, and he never did.
Most of what Toramura made then were tools: plows, hammers, axes. He was skilled for one so young, but his work shined best when it was tools of war. The elder blacksmith had always tsked at Yuki's interest in such base arts but Toramura had understood. That's why for her fourteenth birthday, he had gifted her the gauntlets. "A wolf needs teeth," he had said.
Now he was old enough to be her father and that's how he was treating her. "She was troubled, Winter one." Toramura knew what was on her mind without needing to ask. "For years, even since before you 'died', Reika wasn't quite right. She made strange decisions, forsook traditions...Reika neutered the shrine. Turned it into a den of philosophers; thinkers, not doers. This place has never been kind to the soft or the weak." Toramura squeezed her shoulder again. "You've learned that time and time again. This wound is just a fresh one. With time, like all the others, it'll ebb to another dull ache in your joints."
Yuki nodded, making it look like she was wiping her nose on her sleeve when it was really wiping away her tears. "I know her odds aren't good but I'm hoping she's still got a chance."
He shrugged. "Maybe," He looked over at her. "Sounds like you're getting soft, too."
Yuki flashed him a quick, sad smile. "No, I just have faith in her."
…
The people of Kami to Akuma spilled into Getsu a few days later. Yuki headed to Seiichiro's old office, her heart heavy and her feet exhausted. When she walked through the door and saw Ren, the ache in her chest doubled. I have to tell her about Reika and the shrine.
"Hey," Beki beamed. "How'd it go with the grouches back home?"
"As well as expected," Yuki collapsed on the couch beside Daiske, who recoiled somewhat. "There was...something unexpected happened."
Yuki was so much more somber than normal that all three were at full attention. Yuki was a live wire, more energetic and lively than an average person, even when under extreme duress. She cracked jokes on the battlefield, tracked enemies for hours without the slightest hint of getting tired. Sitting on the couch with them now was a zombie by comparison.
"Are you all aware of what's been going on at the shrine?" Yuki's eyes tracked them one at a time and each of them nodded in turn. "The situation there escalated."
Ren blinked. "What do you mean? Were there actual ghosts or something?" She couldn't imagine how the situation could get worse. Well, there could have been ghosts. And the ghosts could possess people, Ren supposed. That would be bad. But that sort of thing was impossible, wasn't it?
Yuki shook her head. "Reika and I tracked the source of all the activity. There was a tomb I was unaware of, deep in the woods to the south of the shrine."
Beki and Ren blanched so quickly Daiske could almost hear it happen. If Yuki noticed, she kept it to herself.
"The tomb contained the surprisingly well-preserved remains of the Three Maidens. The power they gave off in there was unlike anything I had ever felt before. It was sentient and intense; violently angry." Yuki leaned forward and clasped her hands between her knees. "Reika and I did some investigating in the archives. We discovered that during Shinobi World Wars in the past, the Maidens would become active and 'incidents' would start to happen."
"Like the voices?" Ren asked.
"Yes," Yuki kept her eyes on the coffee table. "Reika suspected that the reason it was so bad this time is that the shrine is virtually empty. She thought that the Maidens killed off the other priestesses to prevent them from conducting the extra rituals and ceremonies to strengthen the seal over the Three."
Beki cringed. Only a day before, Ren and Beki had been talking with Daiske about all the real-world explanations for the phenomenon at the shrine. That was a practical person's knee jerk reaction to hearing about the occult: there was always a rational explanation. If anyone else were here, talking about rituals and paranormal activity caused by three priestesses that died three hundred years ago, they would be laughed out of the building. Yuki spoke with an authority that gave her words a chilling gravity. She spoke and it was truth. If there was a rational explanation, Yuki would have found it. All that remained was the ground shaking realization that the supernatural was real and it was coming for them on a fast horse.
"I was looking for you, Ren," Yuki glanced up apologetically. "The Three escaped their tomb. The Burned Maiden swarmed the place with smoke so thick you could cut it. I could barely breathe and I couldn't see for shit..." Yuki's voice trailed off, a haunted look in her eyes. "I tried to find Reika. I called out to her, went to her rooms, but she was nowhere to be found. I thought maybe she had felt it coming first and had headed down the pass for help. After I got to Kami to Akuma, I found out that wasn't the case. No one knows where she is. There's a chance she was able to slip past us or she's hiding up there."
Ren's jaw was agape, her brows knit and her eyes dancing darkly. "You just left her up there?! Did you even try to fight them?!"
"The Maidens?" Yuki scoffed. "Ren, I was alone up there, with three ancient powerful shinobi with the home court advantage!"
"You fought Orochimaru, didn't you? Isn't he all scary and shit?!" Ren kicked the coffee table furiously. It coasted across the floor and would have smashed into Yuki's shins, but she held up a hand and stopped it dead with an open palm.
"One on one, I fought Orochimaru," Yuki's gaze was steady and her tone level. There was the slightest hint of venom in her voice. "And I wouldn't exactly say that fight went well. This would have been like me taking on the three Sanin in their heyday in the neighborhood they grew up in. I would have gotten my ass handed to me and then no one would have been able to warn Kami in time. The Three Maidens would have swept through and killed everyone and would be descending on Getsugakure right now like a swarm of locusts."
Ren was seething but she bit her lip. There was no denying how heavily the deck was stacked against Yuki. It was a natural reaction to look for a culprit after losing a loved one. Yuki interpreted the lingering silence as a question and continued. "The thing that made the Maidens so terrifyingly dangerous was they were the ultimate team. What's the use of dousing the Burned Maiden when it strengthens the Drowned? What's the use of electrocuting the Drowned when you're being seared and choked out by the other two? It was suicide to take them on three hundred years ago and its suicide now."
Daiske shuffled uncomfortably and Beki reached out and put an arm around Ren. "I'm sorry," Yuki said at last. "I wish there was more I could have done. Despite our differences, Reika is my friend. I sincerely hope that she got away or that the Maidens were so focused on getting down the pass she was able to hide."
"Funny, seems like all your friends end up dead," Ren folded her arms and leered at her. "Your parents, your sister, your husband. Who's next, Yuki? Why don't you make friends with the Maidens so you can get them killed, too?"
Yuki held her tongue but her dander was up. Ren's words had strung a line of dead bodies before Yuki's eyes, some of which Ren wasn't aware of. Yasahiro had been her teammate alongside Seiichiro all those years ago and both were dead, now. Her twin sister's face, barely a ghost on the edge of her memory, holding her hand and shaking with eyes glazing over. Kakashi had died in the attack on Konoha, too, although he had managed to come back. That didn't erase the haunting visions of him draped lifelessly over the rocks, gazing blankly at a steely sky. I'm a magnet for death, violent, ugly ends. Struggling to keep her composure, Yuki stood and headed for the stairs. Ishida needed to hear the news as well. If they survived the war, the people of Getsu would need to rally to deal with the Maidens. Toramura's words echoed in Yuki's ears, that she was getting soft, and so she paused. She glanced over her shoulder at Ren.
"Hold onto that anger, little one. Channel that into your bow and take it out on your enemies during the war. If your sister really didn't make it, I'll be waiting. You can settle the score with me then."
…
Two days after Yuki returned from Kami to Akuma, everyone was called to arms. The King gave what Beki thought was a lukewarm speech about upholding the beliefs and values of the people of Getsu and sent them on their way. The march toward Kumogakure was mostly uneventful. The shinobi from Getsugakure traveled in a great pack, fueled by a strange mixture of excitement and anxiety. The fear of death was great but the tantalizing morsel that was glory always rode alongside his grim companion in war. Beki recognized many familiar faces in the crowd. Blessedly, Team Hunter had to be somewhere far behind them, because Beki saw neither head nor hind of Shinichi, Yuu, or Bo. Ren and Daiske traveled alongside Beki and Yuki. The playful mood the four had shared in the past was absent on this march. Daiske and Beki floated between Yuki and Ren. Although since the night in the ambassador's office there had been no open conflicts, there was no denying the icy glare Ren shot at Yuki whenever she looked her way.
They all were wearing their battle best. Yuki had kept with her all white ensemble, explaining that although she stuck out like a sore thumb three seasons out of the year, she blended in with her own attacks enough to compensate for the target she bore the rest of the time. Ren hadn't yet earned the rank of chunin, so she wore no flak jacket. Instead, she wore a sleeveless wrap shirt and leggings with her quietest pair of shoes. She brought along her bow and a couple of quivers of arrows. Whenever they had to stop for the night, Ren foraged for supplies and made herself more arrows. The arrows sticking out of her quiver were more colorful every morning; bouquets of bright fluffy feathers. Daiske clothes were the same as always, shades of brownish gray with his charcoal flak jacket to protect him.
Beki was of course decked out in full armor. Her father's set, shrunk down to her size, was even more ominous now than it had been when Seiichiro donned it. Black splatter patterns covered the dark green patina that looked suspiciously like baked-on blood. Something Beki had noticed over time was that although it was her father's armor in appearance, structurally it was slightly different. The shoulders were more pronounced on Beki's set, making her appear larger and more intimidating. The breastplate and back of the armor were elongated to give her the appearance of being a few inches taller. The decorative elements were more pronounced on Beki's set as well. It took so long to notice because Beki didn't make a habit of looking at herself in mirrors in armor; she wasn't going for appearances when she was wearing it.
In a weird way, Beki was sure it was her father's doing. When the armor had taken to her body, perhaps it was his discreet guidance behind the changes. He was doing whatever he could to make his daughter look bigger, meaner, and scarier. Alone it was intimidating enough. When she added her father's oni mask, however, she was transformed from a formidable shinobi into a demoness. The nights they spent on the road inspired Yuki's creative side, which she expressed by finding little ways to make her daughter even less approachable. She spent her evenings braiding and adjusting Beki's hair, until at last she settled into a faux mohawk. Yuki had braided Beki's hair in tiny tight rows, feeding into a fat, thick braid that ran right down the middle of her head. It gave her headaches at first, having her hair so tightly coiffed. Overtime, however, her head got used to the redistribution of weight. Beki started to like the style. It kept all her hair out of her face and shortened the length of her braid overall. A long braid was a serious safety hazard; an easy handle for an enemy to control her with.
At last, they arrived at the meeting place for all the allied shinobi's forces. Beki gasped at the sight of so many bodies; it was a literal sea of people. Some officials had walked over to the higher-ranking soldiers and were coordinating Getsu's placement in the ranks.
"How did this go last time?" Beki glanced nervously at her mother. "Did you guys have to stick to your own kind or were you tag teaming with people from other villages?"
Yuki glanced down at her. "What, in the Third War?" Yuki scratched her head. "We were against each other. Back then, we would be told killing people from X village was top priority. The next week, we would be assigned to work with people from X to take out Y. It wasn't like this, Beks. I know its hard for you but go with the flow. We'll get where we're supposed to go." Yuki gave her a reassuring hip bump. "I won't leave you alone. Don't worry."
Despite her mother's assurances, all Beki could do was worry. The closest thing to a widescale battle she had been involved with so far was the chunin exams. That had been structured, monitored, and controlled. This would be a free for all and to be honest, Beki didn't even know who they were up against. It sounded like they were taking on the Akatsuki, but from what Beki had gleaned there weren't really that many of them. Besides, Naruto had taken down their leader when he attacked Konoha. Were Akatsuki's forces so numerous that it would take an army of what looked like a 100,000 shinobi to stop them? Her eyes scanned the familiar faces of her countrymen. Some were friends, some enemies, none of which who would deserve the cruel fates about to be laid upon them. She swallowed hard, her memory slipping back to the burned-out aftermath of Suna and the rubble of Konoha after the Akatsuki's attacks on the villages. Was that what they all had to look forward to? Cities left in ruin and mass graves?
Someone asked a really good question about the shrine. Since I don't have any maps handy for you guys, the shrine is secluded up in a mountain range. There's really only one pass to access it, and that pass starts at Kami to Akuma. By Yuki putting up the glacier and the shinbi sealing off Kami to Akuma, the Maidens are sort of quarantined up there.