Original Publish Date: 28th-February-2016

Updated Date: 29th-February-2016

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Ryne O. Myte, for sharing his own experiences as a US Marine. His insight was invaluable in helping me to understand how military people think, and how they discipline their errant officers when they step out of line. So, Ryne O. Myte, cheers to you buddy!

Chapter 18 – Roads

Storm, in the morning light

I feel, no more can I say

Frozen to myself

I got nobody on my side

And surely that ain't right

.

Surely that ain't right

- Roads, Portishead

Ferry Outside Ashorro Port: 4465617468

If there was any minute, lingering, chance that Scowling Guy and I would get along, it died a torturous, screaming death when I asked him what his name was.

"Masao."

…yeah, we weren't going to be friends.

I made a mental note to keep calling him Scowling Guy; I was not going to call him by that name if I could help it.

I stepped away from 'Scowling Guy' and walked across the bow of the ferry we were on to go and stand next to Mei. I had avoided doing so initially because she looked like she needed some space to brood; but I was reminded of the way first Hinata and later Sakura-chan would snap me out of my funk. So I thought I would do the same for Mei.

She was leaning on the railing via her elbows, looking out over the ocean while the wind whipped her Henge'd hair around. For an idle moment, the weirdness in my chest sent me a mental image of what she would actually look like in that same scenario; the sun glinting off her twirling crimson hair, her considerable bust squished up because of her crossed arms, the perfect eggshell white of her sclera causing her gorgeous green irises to stand out even further, her luscious lips... It caused my mouth to dry up and my heart to beat considerably faster than a scant moment ago.

Hoping to distract myself more than hoping to distract her from her morose thoughts, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind, "You could have taken on that guy without my assistance. Why did you wait till I showed up?"

As distractions went, it wasn't a particularly good one. Mei didn't react for a few moments, still staring out over the ocean, thinking about Log-knows-what. Finally, she turned to me with neutral expression and cocked her head, clearly thinking about what I had just said. She replied quietly, "If I had used any of my more destructive techniques, it would likely have caused a forest fire."

And a forest fire would have attracted attention immediately; the very thing we were trying to avoid.

The fact that she was replying to me was a good sign; it meant that she wasn't closing herself off. I had done that in the past, and it really wasn't helpful in the least. All it did was make me more likely to make a mistake.

I placed my hands on the railing, joining Mei in looking out over the ocean. The sound of the buffeting wind and the humming engine was enough to ensure that we wouldn't be overheard. In any case, Scowling Guy and his partner, a guy by the name of Jibachi, both of whom were sensors, were close enough to spot any eavesdroppers. Well, now that I had Mei's attention, I needed to keep it, to prevent her from slipping back into her funk.

"What are you going to do about that guy? I forget his name, the idiot who caused our plan to fall apart."

She shrugged after a few moments' consideration, "I'll take him aside and talk to him. Make him see that what he did was wrong and find out exactly what he was thinking. Probably keep him on guard duty for the foreseeable future." She turned her head, meeting my eyes for the first time since we had both left the clearing. "What would you do?"

"Probably yell at him; preferably in public."

"You already did that at the ambush site. Other than making yourself feel better, what will that accomplish?"

I frowned at the insinuation that I would only do it for petty reasons, "It will make his peers aware of his idiocy. There is no better way to get him to feel remorse for his actions than being ostracized by his peers. It will make sure that he thinks with his head in the future", I said with a disapproving note in my voice.

Mei tilted her head, wordlessly apologizing as she considered this for a second. "By handing him the scroll with the supplies, I already made sure that he will be thinking of nothing else. His peers are already aware of his mistakes and will already be ostracizing him; they will think he cannot be trusted to watch their backs."

The woman had a point.

Mei turned away from me and looked back over the ocean, a lock of hair blowing across her face as she did so. "At the end of the day, he is one of the strongest fighters in my group. I need his talents in the long run. His actions were borne out of the instinct to protect our objectives; which, by itself, is not a bad thing. Also…" Mei hesitated, but I picked up the trail of thought.

"He didn't trust my judgement", I finished quietly. I wasn't making an accusation, just an observation. I hadn't fought and bled beside these people before today, so it was understandable for them to be wary of me.

Mei nodded, "That will rectify itself, given enough time. However, what I need is for him to learn from his experience and grow stronger. Putting him out to pasture is not something I can afford, either as his superior officer or as a leader. It would speak poorly of my leadership skills if I lost a capable fighter due to my mishandling the situation."

…I knew that. I had known that. I had learned that lesson a hundred times over.

'Why had I forgotten?'

It was only when Mei responded that I realized that I had spoken my last thought out loud. "We all tend to forget some of the lessons that life teaches us, over time." She looked at me out of the corner of her eye, "I daresay you've forgotten more about Fūinjutsu than most people learn in a lifetime."

Once more, she wasn't wrong.

Recognizing the opportunity for what it was, I immediately asked, "What lessons have you forgotten?" I barely knew anything about her; this seemed like the perfect chance to rectify that.

She didn't take the bait, however. She stayed silent, looking out over the endless ocean, ignoring the spray of the salt-water. Her eyes were unfocused; great. I had thrown her into more bad memories instead of improving her mood. I desperately cast about for a topic to distract her from her melancholy; and, as it often did, my mouth hit upon the answer.

"I tried the shampoo you gave me."

She blinked in surprise a couple of times as she twisted her head to look at me, "And?"

I shrugged, "It was all right", I said nonchalantly.

Mei couldn't entirely suppress the smile that was threatening to break out, despite her valiant effort, "Indeed."

I sheepishly grinned at her, causing her smile broke through in its entirety. For some reason, the Henge didn't even register to me; I just saw her full smile on her stunning features, causing a weird fluttering in my stomach.

We both went back to looking back to the calming ocean, but now the atmosphere was cheerful instead of melancholic.

36 Hours Later, Hidden Resistance Base, Water Country: 4465617468

Once more, I was subjected to a bunch of stares as I sat against the wall in the base. It was really unnerving. And creepy.

"Soooo…why do we keep having these large meetings? I thought the Resistance barely met up. Is it all because of little old me?"

Fuyuki rolled his eyes while Shinzō continued staring at me unblinkingly. I took a look around, hoping to find salvation, but apparently everyone in my immediate vicinity had nothing better to do than stare at me; I sighed. There would be no escaping this second inquest, apparently. Finally, in a long-suffering tone, I drawled out, "Fine, ask your questions."

To my surprise, it was the usually quiet Shinzō who asked the opening round of questions, "Is it true that you jumped straight into Mei-sama's Futton (Boil Release) Mist?"

I blinked in surprise; I hadn't expected this to be the cause of my second round of popularity. "Err…yeah."

Fuyuki's eyes widened comically, while Shinzō raised his eyebrows. Fuyuki couldn't contain his excitement anymore; he burst out, "How did you survive that!?"

A slow grin started creeping across my face, "Oh, you know, just my innate awesomeness."

Rather creepily, this did not change their expressions in any way, shape or form. A quick glance around showed me that most of the other people around were also leaning forward in anticipation. Ah, well, I had always loved the limelight.

That didn't mean that I would just hand out my secrets without making them work for it. I leaned forward and spoke in a stage whisper, "Wanna know how I did it?" Upon receiving multiple nods, I made a show of looking around (even though everyone possible was eavesdropping), "I used my chakra", I finished with a wink.

I suppose it counts in their favour that none of them actually used killing intent in their glares. It was a close thing though.

After snickering a little at their expressions, I threw them a bone, "I used a chakra cloak."

Now their expressions were intrigued. One of the crowd asked me, "So you just wrapped your chakra around yourself?" he scoffed. "Somehow I don't think that would be enough."

My smile deepened, "I never specified the type of chakra cloak."

The guy, who had given me the Kiri ID a few days ago (I think his name was Shūsuke but I wasn't entirely certain), spoke haltingly, "You mean…elemental chakra?"

I said nothing; I didn't deepen or widen my smile, thereby neither confirming nor denying his theory.

Shinzō, as I had suspected, was the first to start struggling with the theoretical problem. "Well, if he surrounded his body with Suiton (Water Release) chakra, that should keep him cool enough, right?"

"I don't know, can you really control the temperature of your chakra?"

From there they devolved into a discussion about chakra nature and potency and whether their body temperature affected their chakra's ambient temperature. I stayed silent, mostly because I was interested in the ideas they threw around. Even if their ideas were wrong, it could potentially open up a new school of thought and experimentation for me.

After a few minutes Shinzō decided to try and emulate my Elemental chakra cloak idea. Since he was primarily Water natured he tried to channel Suiton chakra around his body. With a frown, he quickly realized that putting a workable cloak around his entire body would be harder than he realized. Most shinobi primarily used the tenketsu in their hands and feet, and ignored the rest. Even if they did train the other tenketsu, it was mostly to stick to surfaces with them. Actually training themselves to shoot techniques out of their shoulder, for example, almost never crossed the minds of most ninjas; even the Hyūga, for all their famed chakra control, almost exclusively used their hands. As a result, most of the tenketsu in a shinobi's body were almost never used properly.

"Try to get it around your arms for now", I suggested.

Frowning, Shinzō did as I asked, and immediately a wispy royal blue (characteristic of Suiton) film of chakra coated both of his arms up to the elbow. It flickered erratically, but it would serve the purpose I had in mind.

"Anyone here Fire natured?" I asked. Shinzō looked apprehensive all of a sudden; one random guy stepped forward. "Shoot a small fireball at him, nothing that can cause lasting harm." I turned to Shinzō, "Try to redirect or absorb it." He looked decidedly nervous, but walked close to a wall as the area around him rapidly cleared. A few seconds later, a fireball streaked his way.

Channeling as much chakra as he could, Shinzō raised his arms and tried to bat away the fist-sized fireball. He partially succeeded, but the fireball singed his hand, causing him to hiss in pain.

"Why didn't that work?" he bit out, rubbing his slightly blistered hand.

I shrugged, "You tell me."

He thought about it for a few seconds, but it was clear he was stumped. "I even had the type advantage of Water over Fire; that should have worked", he grumbled.

I looked around, but even Shūsuke didn't appear to have made any mental breakthroughs, if the muttering was anything to go by. After a few seconds, I turned back to Shinzō. "Explain to me what you did."

Shinzō, still frowning, spoke, "I channeled Suiton chakra through my hands, like you said."

"Just Suiton chakra?" I asked pointedly; but he just looked confused as he nodded his assent. "Let me put it this way," I said patiently, "you just used Elemental Recomposition?"

A sharply drawn breath from Shūsuke told me that he had finally had his epiphany, but Shinzō was frowning, trying to work through the problem. "Yes, I did the same thing we do while wall climbing or water walking, only with Suiton chakra instead of regular chakra."

Shūsuke had figured it out, and would not be denied, however. "You used Spatial Recomposition as well!?" I nodded in answer, and he continued, "But that would make it a technique!" I gave him a flat look, non-verbally saying 'duh', but he hastily clarified, "I meant, that while you have the cloak active, you're already using a technique; how do you use other techniques to fight!?"

I grinned, "How indeed."

Being mysterious was so much fun.

Both Shūsuke and Shinzō shot me dirty looks, but within moments Shinzō once more fired off another question, "Wait, so I should use Spatial Recomposition while using the wall climbing exercise as well?"

I tilted my head, "It's something to be looked at. If done correctly, it should waste lesser chakra when using the exercise. Focusing on the exact shape of your chakra will almost always give you better results. Take the Suna Puppet Corps for example; their technique is almost purely Spatial Recomposition. Since your chakra pool is not going to grow larger at your age, any training you undergo at this point should be about conserving your chakra to fight just that little bit longer."

There were a few thoughtful looks on the faces of everyone around; there was more than one message in my little lecture. Ultimately, the success of this rebellion would be decided by everyone's individual fighting capability, which is why everyone needed to get stronger. I had dropped in enough hints as to how to improve oneself for almost everyone listening.

After a few minutes, where some other people had started up various discussions on how to improve their techniques or come up with new ones, some of the council members came out into the main area. I noticed that Mei and the idiot were not in attendance; most likely Mei was chewing him out for the mistakes he had made on the mission.

"The next meeting will be held 5 weeks from now", Kitashi, the guy from the last mission, called, his voice carrying to the farthest corners of the room. He then started handing out assignments, the same as last time. Once again, I was teamed up with Shinzō and Fuyuki; but this time we were also accompanied by the kunoichi who had mercilessly teased me along with Mei; her name turned out to be Megumi.

Now that my Henge seal had opened up previously inaccessible avenues of surveillance, I came to the realization that I would be used pretty much exclusively for such missions. The fact that I could fight my way out of trouble was an added bonus.

Our assignment was to pose as a civilian family on a vacation. Megumi, as I had previously surmised, was a sensor of quite some skill, so she would be invaluable while identifying targets. Fuyuki was quite adept at getting into places unnoticed. Shinzō was also quite good at evading attention, and was also good in a fight. I suppose that left me to be the heavy hitter in case our mission went tits-up. I could also infiltrate the targets and perform surveillance adequately, but it wasn't my primary strength.

I volunteered to be one of the kids. I was still not completely familiar with all the customs of the various islands in the Water Nation, so posing as a kid could explain away my ignorance. Fuyuki would be my 14 year old brother, while Shinzō and Megumi would be the mum and dad of the 'family'.

I really had to struggle with Her to make sure that she didn't come out during the transformation; that would be an unmitigated disaster. Thankfully, when I finally used the Henge, it was in the form of a 9 year old boy, not a girl. Phew.

I quickly applied the seal to the rest of my 'family' as we transformed into the ID's that Shūsuke (his name was Shūsuke, I was right!) had given us; I gave Megumi the gimlet eye before applying hers. "Not one word", I growled. She put up her hands in surrender, but had an amused smile at the sight of a 9 year old threatening her with a brush.

I had a pertinent question before we left, "Tell me something. I've noticed that the whenever Kiri shinobi check our ID papers, they only take a cursory glance at them. Why don't they do any checking with any register, or something?"

Shūsuke smirked at my question; or maybe my high pitched, childish voice, it was hard to tell. "Kirigakure does not even keep track of its shinobi by the use of Ninja ID numbers. You think they would waste resources by keeping a register for civilians?" he scoffed.

I glanced at my 'family' for the mission; Megumi nodded, Fuyuki shrugged, and Shinzō didn't react, thereby backing up Shūsuke. "That sounds…unprofessional", I said delicately.

Shūsuke shrugged, "It's one of the many things we intend to change when Mei-sama becomes Mizukage. Most of my missions are to get more of these pre-stamped ID's. I dare not steal one of the Mizukage's stamps, as that would definitely lead to the creation of one of these central registers, in the worst case. So, I stick with skimming ID's from the top. If I get lucky, I find a blank pre-stamped ID. Most of the time, I just steal individual ID's. With your Henge seal, it's enough to steal the ID now, so I don't have to spend too long looking for blank ID papers."

Huh. Yet another difference between how Konoha and Kiri were run. Not having an ID system seemed really pointless; all it did was make it easier for the ninja to turn missing-nin. Still, based on how most of the nation was subjugated, it was literally the least of their problems.

4 other groups left before us, so it was quite dark when we left, once we had finished dinner. But, unlike the last two times, Mei did not come to see me off.

I was at a loss to explain as to why I was so disappointed.

2 Weeks Later: 4465617468

It really should have been obvious, but being an island nation, Kiri inhabitants spent a large fraction of their time travelling via the sea.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed travelling by ferry; I loved the feeling of the spray of the salt water, the vast expanse of open acres of the ocean, the wind blowing across my face.

What I didn't like was the sheer hassle that we were put through by the shinobi contingent every time we had to board one of the ferries.

Once the shinobi heard our cover story, that we were a family on holiday, they started to hassle and extort us. In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best idea to advertise that we were basically going to be blowing up money, but the sheer greed shown by the Kiri shinobi was galling. And I'm not just talking about money.

One time, even as I had been holding her hand as a 9 year old, I saw Megumi get openly molested. It made me sick. If I had been an actual 9-year-old and saw that happening to my mom, I don't know what it would do to me.

Megumi just shrugged it off and said that it was no big deal. The implications of that statement were horrifying, to say the least.

Right now, we were on the way to the first Port City I had landed in when I came in via the Barrel Experience. It was called Ibaraki Port, and we had to pick up the first batch of supplies that had been provided by Konoha. Our guise was that we were peacefully travelling to the port so that we could do some 'exotic' shopping.

Or rather, we would have been peacefully travelling, if it wasn't for this one particularly annoying Kiri shinobi.

"AAAH!" I screamed as the shinobi once again popped up unexpectedly behind me and made a scary face. I ran to Megumi and hid behind her legs, "Kaa-san! That mean shinobi is scaring me again!"

I found it disturbingly easy to behave like a child.

…I'm not sure what that says about my mental state.

To her credit, Megumi, who up until now had been behaving like the perfectly meek housewife, shot a venomous glare that gave even the seasoned shinobi pause. Every mom turns into a monster whenever their kids are threatened, even if it is a pretend mom. It's yet another thing that us Y-chromosome-ers can't understand.

The shinobi decided that some battles aren't worth fighting, and left after giving me a look that promised retribution. Naturally, I stuck my tongue out at him in retaliation.

Once the shinobi had disappeared Fuyuki snickered, "You are such a mama's boy. I bet you're the same with your own mum."

I shot him a look. "I'm an orphan", I said coolly.

The atmosphere was decidedly awkward after that. One never stops being an orphan. It's not something you grow out of. The abandonment by your parents (voluntary or otherwise) leaves a mark on your soul.

As I stared out over the ocean I pondered over the question: if I had grown up with Uzumaki Kushina as my mum, would I have been a mama's boy?

Almost certainly, yes.

"When is our target ship scheduled to arrive?" I asked, hoping to distract myself from my rather embarrassing revelation.

Taking a casual look around, Fuyuki said, "Tomorrow morning."

"Do we have any other surveillance targets in the area?"

Megumi shook her head in negative. I pursed my lips; that meant we would have to wait atleast 3 more days until the next one. We had already gathered intelligence on 4 targets so far; hell, we had gotten lucky and managed to assassinate one of them, a high ranking Jōnin in charge of the western islands. The Kiri sensors were all in a tizzy, wondering how they could have managed to miss an assassin. We had thankfully escaped with another bunch of civilians before the shinobi could turn their pointless violence against us.

The ferry blew its horn at that moment, causing me to realize that we were in just outside the pier on Ibaraki. I hopped on to my feet and stood protectively in front of Megumi; well, as protectively as a 9 year old could be. There would not be a repeat of the molestation if I could help it.

10 Days Later: 4465617468

The last 10 days had been pleasant enough. We had managed to pick up the rather substantial supplies that Konoha had sent us; in a funny coincidence, it was from the same Murasa's warehouse that I had initially met Musuke outside. I hadn't seen Musuke; I hoped he hadn't been caught and executed for being a traitor.

From our next target, we had managed to sneak out a copy of a rather valuable document. It detailed the shipping schedules of all the barges that held the sensors. It would be invaluable to determine where and when the next scheduled shipment from Konoha should come.

Our next target was, once more, a garrison. This would be trickier than last time, because we weren't just performing surveillance on it; no, this time we were going to actually rob it. We had one thing in our favour: one of the shinobi assigned to the garrison was secretly a member of the Resistance. Now, we couldn't simply pull a switcheroo and walk out with weapon supplies; that would put the spy at direct risk. Nor could we knock him out and pretend that someone had used a Henge in his place; that was tactic 101 for spies. So, we would knock out one of the loyalists and then take his place, while our spy would pretend to be a shocked loyalist. It was complicated, but it should work.

Fuyuki and I found ourselves disguised as mice in the dark corner of a tavern, hidden behind a disguised Megumi's legs. We had already been here for a couple of hours, waiting for the off-duty group from the garrison to come stumbling in. Shinzō was loitering outside the tavern, to give us backup and cause a distraction in case things in here got out of control.

Megumi took a sip of her saké, hiding her lips behind the dish as she murmured, "They're here."

Within a few moments, the shinobi garrison group rowdily crammed themselves into the bar. With loud cries they shoved aside a few customers for having the gall to sit at 'their table'. Everyone else was very careful to keep their eyes averted and pretend that nothing was going on; this extended to the management of the tavern as well. In the confusion, our spy managed to take a few steps away from the main group, and Megumi pointed him out for us, "The one with the dark green trousers, at the back of the group. Go!" she called in an urgent whisper.

We scurried in the shadows from table to table until we reached our target; thankfully, he had the presence of mind to stand next to a table that was next to the wall so that we could hide ourselves on his person without any problems. Rather thoughtfully, he had worn an empty weapons pouch on his ankle so that we could hide ourselves quite snugly.

The next four hours were a blurry combination of being jostled around and having to listen to pointless drunken bragging, from our own spy as well as the others. It was really annoying, and uncomfortable, because more than once both Fuyuki and I had been forced into 'compromising' positions, for mice. It was never going to be mentioned again, if I had anything to say about it.

Finally, after a few hours, we got the sense of the rhythmic to-and-fro motion that signified that we were walking, not that we could tell anything by the loud and rowdy behavior of the shinobi. I suspected that they hadn't even paid their bill, but I couldn't be entirely certain.

After a few long, long minutes of walking we finally got to hear a bunch of new voices; this meant that we were probably in the building. Infiltration: successful. Now came the hard part.

It would have been really easy to poison the shinobi who were scheduled to do the inventory check in the armory, but that would have given away the existence of a spy. If we used a debilitating poison on all the shinobi, there was still a chance that one of them would be resistant to it; he/she could fetch reinforcements. We could always kill the rest of the enemies via poisoning, but having a spy benefited us in the longer run.

After a few minutes of more talking and jostling we came to a place without any sounds; hopefully it would be safe for us to transform back now. And right on cue, the ankle holster was lifted and opened. Fuyuki and I scurried out of it in our mouse forms, and saw that we were placed on the pre-drawn Sealing Circle. I could tell it wasn't active, so I squeaked at our spy. I'm not sure how he understood that he had to apply chakra to the Sealing Circle, but he did, thereby activating it.

A few seconds later I had undone my transformation, it's natural chakra flare being stopped by the barrier of the Sealing Circle. Fuyuki followed suit a few moments later.

"When is the next scheduled inventory check?" Fuyuki asked our spy quietly.

"They happen every four hours. The next one is an hour from now", the spy replied equally quietly.

"What's the best place to ambush the person running the inventory check?" I asked at the same volume.

"I would say, inside the corridor where the armory is. Sneaking in there will be hard because there's always a guard, but the corridor itself is always deserted."

Fuyuki and I exchanged a look. "Can we knock out the guard as well?" Fuyuki asked.

The spy shook his head, "No. The guard is always visible. If he's not at his post, it's a sure-fire indicator that something is wrong."

"How alert is the guard who's on duty?" I asked.

The spy shrugged, "He has 6 hours of sitting next to a door, everybody's attention wanders at some point."

An idea was taking shape in my head, so I took a moment to flesh it out. Both of them put were silently observing me, not wanting to interrupt and make me lose my train of thought. "Would it be uncharacteristic of anyone to talk to the guard while he's on duty?"

The spy shook his head, "No, it tends to happen once or twice per shift, so it would not be out of the ordinary."

I nodded, "I need you to get someone to talk to him for about a minute. I'll take care of the rest. Spread the word that you're starting a poker tournament or something."

The spy tilted his head and considered my words for a few moments, "I'd rather just go into the common room and say that the outing today was boring. That way the discussion to make a plan will not be traced back directly to me; and someone will come up with a better idea anyway."

I shrugged ambivalently, "As long as the guard gets distracted for a minute. The rest is up to you."

The spy nodded, "All right, I'm going out. I'll leave the door slightly open. Take care not to let anyone see you."

I grinned savagely, "Trust me, that's not going to be a problem."

The spy raised an eyebrow before shrugging and leaving. I turned to Fuyuki, "Right, see this Sealing Circle we're standing on? This needs to be on our heads instead of under our feet. Make sure our bodies are inside the radius of the Circle."

He nodded and bent, sticking the paper of the Seal to his hands. "Ready? One, two, three!" he called, and we jumped while he yanked the paper quickly and held it above our heads like an umbrella.

"Keep constant contact with me all right? And make sure that you memorize the location of the Seal, you're not going to be able to see it anymore." He looked a little confused at my directions, but stood behind me, his elbows resting on my shoulders. I took a deep breath before molding the chakra for yet another one of Jiraiya's magnificent techniques.

"Ninpō: Tōton Jutsu (Ninja Arts: Transparency Technique)."

The transparency cloak washed over me, and I forced it over the body of Fuyuki (who let out a sharply surprised breath) and the Seal over our heads.

"Let's hope none of the sensors know how to detect body heat", I muttered as we started moving towards the door. The Transparency Technique was pretty much perfect: it dampened smells, it prevented dead skin cells from falling off my body, it bent light around my body so that I appeared transparent. In fact, the addition of the Sealing Circle above us was almost redundant; but there is no such thing as overkill. Body heat detection was the only way we would be detected now.

We crept through the door and found the guard by the entrance to the target corridor. We pretty much stayed stuck to the wall, standing shoulder to shoulder as we waited for the right moment.

Soon enough, one of the other off-duty shinobi wandered in. "Hey, Baiko, we're planning on hitting the brothel next time we go out on the town. You interested?"

Fuyuki and I had started moving the moment the other shinobi had started speaking. Thankfully his back obscured the guard's view of the door, allowing us to quickly throw a genjutsu over the door and slip-in in a matter of moments. I had asked for a minute because I was afraid that the hinges might squeak, but it turned out to be a non-issue.

We spent the half-hour anxiously waiting for the inventory guy to show up, having decided to stick near the entryway of the door at the other end of the corridor, near the actual entrance of the armory. Right on cue, the shinobi doing the inventory walked through the door, walking past us to unlock the armory door.

The moment the lock clicked open, my arm extended and attached a shock-tag to the back of his neck.

He reacted the same way any trained ninja would react: he immediately blew out chakra through the closest tenketsu, hoping to blow away the tag.

Instead of being blown away, the tag got activated by the chakra being used around its vicinity, giving the wearer of the tag a shocking surprise.

Heh, Kurenai's suggestion of 'using the target's own chakra against them' had given rise to an interesting new branch of Fūinjutsu applications.

The best part? The amount of chakra that the guy had used was no more than needed to stick to a single surface; i.e. nothing worth causing an alarm over.

Once we were sure that nobody was coming, Fuyuki and I burst into the armory and shamelessly looted the shit out of that armory. We even took the metal racks they used to keep the supplies on. Within a few minutes, there only thing in that room was us, and all the scrolls we had used to seal everything in them.

I then reapplied the Transparency Technique, and we exited the same way, walking over the body of the comatose shinobi. Once more, I threw a genjutsu over the door; this time, the door would open towards the inside, so we would not be seen against the wall.

After that, we walked out of the place through the front door.

I couldn't keep the grin off my face. We had just committed the perfect crime.

1 Week Later: 4465617468

Fuyuki was dead.

It wasn't completely certain, but the chances increased with every passing second.

We were wrapping up the surveillance on our last target; a ranking Jōnin who oversaw the shipping operations. We had pretty much got all the data we needed before we headed back to rendezvous with the Resistance.

Less than 4 hours ago, Fuyuki had told us, "One of the servants looked like a weak link to me on my last rotation. I'll quickly check him out. I'll be back in 30 minutes." It wasn't completely necessary, but since Fuyuki was willing to pull a solo job, we figured we would let him be.

Needless to say, the 30 minute mark came and went, causing us to be very, very worried.

When the mark hit 60 minutes, we slipped into our alternative disguises and alternative ID's and left the hotel we were in, before splitting up and performing a set of maneuvers that should shake off our tails.

A few minutes ago we rendezvoused at a pre-arranged site. Only 3 of us were there.

As soon as the clock hit 4 hours past the deadline, we exchanged grim looks. The conclusion was inevitable.

"Should we all split up? They might be on the lookout for three people…" Megumi asked.

Shinzō scoffed, "Do you think he's going to talk? He would rather die! All of us would!"

I raised my hand, halting the argument. "Look, we can't take the risks either way. Let's split up in two groups."

Shinzō pursed his lips, but nodded his agreement. "You and me?"

There was no question that I would travel alone; despite the crash course on the life in Mizu over the last 5 weeks I was still not ready to solo-travel. I shook my head, "A woman travelling alone…" I trailed off. A muscle in Shinzō's face twitched, but he nodded his agreement. Megumi, as usual, looked entirely unaffected by my chivalrous behavior.

"Can they figure out your Henge seal?" Megumi asked me, causing Shinzō to pause.

I shook my head in negative, "No, part of the matrix is in a different language. Even if they crack it, it's impossible to reverse-engineer without understanding some extremely difficult topics." An exceptionally few number of shinobi even knew about the existence of Senchakra. I wouldn't be surprised if that number was in the single digits.

Shinzō took off, taking the northern exit from the city. We had planned on talking the eastern exit, before Fuyuki's unfortunate demise, but now we had to re-calculate. Megumi and I took the southern exit. Our arrival at the base would be delayed by 24 hours, and Shinzō's by a further 8, but there was no choice.

A few hours later, under the cover of night, Megumi and I checked into a hotel, posing as husband and wife. We had spent the day in perpetual fear, trying to figure out if we were being tailed or not. Megumi, being a sensor, had a particularly rough time, extending her senses as far as she dared.

We got into bed; and almost as soon as I turned off the light, Megumi turned to me and kissed me with a desperate intensity. Instead of reacting instinctively and kissing her back, I just felt my mind go blank. She stopped kissing me after a few moments, once she realized I wasn't responding.

"If it had been any other night, you would have been hard pressed to stop me", I said gently. "But after the day we've had…" my voice trailed off.

She nodded and buried her head in the crook of my neck, as my grip around her tightened. I felt her tears falling on my neck, causing an uncomfortable itching sensation, one that I bore stoically. She had tried to jump my bones because she needed to feel a connection to life, however tenuous that connection was. That was why it was important for me to let her down gently instead of rejecting her outright. It was the same reason I was holding her now.

After all, after facing death, I needed to feel a connection to someone alive as well.

5 Days Later, Hidden Resistance Base, Water Country: 4465617468

"Why do you always stay outside whenever we have our council meetings?" Mei asked me.

I blinked in surprise. "Err…I guess I never realized I was invited to them."

Mei's lips twitched; and I knew that she was suppressing an amused smile. My face started to flush in embarrassment, and the weirdness in my chest felt even weirder.

"You've clearly fought in an underground war before. Your experience and leadership will be a valuable asset in our own fight." Mei smiled softly, "I admire your instinct to mingle with the rest of my crew and show that you are one of them, but you can also do that by planning successful missions."

…yeah. That was totally what I had been doing. Hang out with the common folk to make them like me more. Yup. You can't prove otherwise.

I followed Mei, secretly glad that she had given me an 'out' that saved my face. She was already a fearsome diplomat. Log only knew how awe-inspiring she would be when she ascended to the post of Mizukage.

Megumi had just finished wrapping up the debriefing of our mission, and the loss of Fuyuki.

The council member who had initially given us our mission, Kitashi, said, "He was only a Chūnin level shinobi. While every member of our Resistance is valuable, we can only count our lucky stars it wasn't someone stronger."

I clenched my jaw in anger, but I held my tongue. The statement was callous, but not untrue. That didn't mean that I could appreciate someone belittling his sacrifice. A quick look at Megumi showed a look of cool neutrality on her face, but after the past few weeks I knew her well enough to be certain that she was seething inside as well.

I shook my head to clear it; but the movement attracted the attention of Kitashi. "Yes?" he asked me.

Put on the spot, I floundered for a moment before opening my mouth reflexively, "Are we doing all we can in regards to recruitment?"

Once more, my mouth surprised me by getting to the heart of the issue. If we lost people, we needed a way to replace them.

Kitashi frowned, "Yes, well…we're always working on turning more people to our cause, but we can't exactly run recruitment drives, can we?"

I pinned him with a dead-eye stare, "Look, you've got a bunch of Genin right? Use them. I refuse to believe that there aren't more people in Kiri who believe in this tyrannical crap."

Kitashi frowned, "If we let more people in, we run the risk of attracting spies in our midst."

I shrugged, "Yeah, and are you sure that there aren't spies amongst the group right now?" I shook my head, "Look, the only way that this ends is with the death of Yagura. To do that, we have to get him pissed off; enough so that he leaves his seat in Kiri and reaches out to attack us. To do that, he will have to know where to go, which is why we will need to entertain some of his spies. Our own spies in his system will keep us informed of any unexpected developments. High risk: high reward."

Kitashi looked uncertainly at Mei, who returned his glance coolly, daring him to find a fault in my logic. He turned to a scroll on the large table and started muttering to himself, "…using Genin…can find more…maximizing resources…can send more envoys to the holdouts…"

That last bit caused my ears to twitch, "Wait wait wait…Holdouts? You mean there are people out there who are not aligned to Kiri? Why the hell haven't they joined the Resistance!?"

Kitashi shot a panicked look at Mei, who didn't react at all. "Umm…" he began nervously, taking another quick peek at Mei, "…some clans believe that this war is not worth fighting."

I couldn't believe my ears. "What?" I asked, deceptively softly.

Kitashi had paled to an unbelievable point; I was sure there was no blood left in his skull. "They think that the war is no different from previous wars. They want no part of Kiri and its constant wars."

The set of his jaw and his hyper-nervousness told me that there were volumes behind the story that were not being told; but I didn't really care at the moment.

"Oh?" I asked mildly. The flinch from Kitashi told me that my tone was not fooling anyone; I was fucking pissed. "And this clan will happily enjoy the era of peace that is to follow without sacrificing anything?"

More than one person shot an alarmed look at Mei; I couldn't fathom the reason why. In fact, I was shocked that she hadn't done more to get this clan on board. "How many battle worthy ninja does this clan have?"

Kitashi had lost his voice by this point; Mei was the one who answered, "About 20; 3 of which are Jōnin."

My eyes widened in shock, "That's a significant number! Why are they sitting out of the fight? Do they think they're better than the rest of the people fighting for their freedom!?"

Everyone in the room was openly nervous at this point; everyone except Mei, who was looking at me with nothing but curiosity. "They have some…unorthodox views on the world and their place in it."

I sneered, "Sounds to me like they need some sense beat into them. Their country is at civil war and they just want to ride out the storm!? That's bullshit!"

Mei raised an eyebrow; more than one person had backed away in fear, "Do you think your tactic would change their mind?"

I grinned, "What, punching them in the face till they change their minds? Hell yeah! Some of my best friends now tried their hardest to kill me when we first met. After trading a few rounds we ended up connecting, and now I trust them with my life."

More than one incredulous look was shot my way, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going on.

Mei scrutinized me with her eyebrow still raised, "Are you confident in your ability to change people's hearts that easily?"

All I needed to remember was how Gaara changed after we had fought. "Yes", I said simply, with utter confidence.

Mei nodded slowly, deliberately, finally lowering her eyebrow. "Very well. I shall accompany you to the last Clan yet to join the Resistance, and we shall see if their minds can be changed."

I grinned and nodded.

Kitashi was staring at Mei in something akin to horror, "But Mei-sama!" That was as far as he got.

Mei raised an eyebrow.

…and I swear I was afraid for my life. She never even used killing intent.

'How do these damn Kage keep doing that!?'

Whatever it was, it wasn't even directed at anyone in particular. And yet when her eyebrow went down everyone in the room drew a relieved breath; myself included.

"Megumi, you can take care of mission assignments right?"

Ouch. Apparently Kitashi's well intentioned objections had just seen him demoted.

I still didn't understand why everyone was so nervous around the topic. I shrugged, I would find out in time.

"Have you eaten?" I asked Mei as we left the Council Room. She shook her head in negative, so I continued, "Right, first we get some sustenance, then we hit the road."

2 Days Later, Honshu Island, Water Country: 4465617468

"Right, so what's the deal with this Clan anyway?" I asked Mei. We had been travelling more or less silently, to the severe disappointment of the weirdness in my chest.

A faint smile graced Mei's lips, "You'll see."

I knew that I was being pranked somehow, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how.

We had only spoken when absolutely necessary on this trip, unlike the last one. Our longest conversation had been when we had checked into a hotel. Unlike the night with Megumi, I had not slept in the same bed as Mei. I had gallantly offered to take the couch, and she had accepted my offer.

Clearly she had something on her mind; as she became more and more withdrawn the closer we came to our target.

"Come on", I needled her, "tell me something atleast!"

Her faint smile grew just a little deeper, but she didn't verbally respond.

"You've met them before right?" I asked.

Her faint smile turned into a faint smirk, "You can say that."

"So will they be happy to see you?"

Her faint smirk turned into a full smirk, "Oh, absolutely not. In fact, the moment they realize that the Resistance is attempting to contact them in person, they will respond with lethal force."

"…" I shook my head in resignation. "That sounds like the kind of thing you should tell your partner in advance."

She let out her beautiful, tinkling laugh, causing me to lose myself for a moment in the angelic sound. "I'm telling you now, am I not?"

Once more I had to take a moment to tear her words away from her melodic voice, just to understand what she had said. "Yeah yeah", I grumbled, not really disappointed. After a few moments I perked up again, "So do they all live in the same compound? Or are they scattered around the island?"

"Scattered", Mei replied. It made sense, with the persecution of the Bloodline Clans at an all-time high, not staying under the same roof was an obvious precaution.

"How do we contact them then?"

"A series of signals. I'll explain more when it's time."

The first signal was buying a particular brand of incense.

"Seriously?" I asked her. She just smiled her beautifully mysterious smile but didn't respond otherwise.

We walked around the small town and came upon the remains of an abandoned house. Mei lit the incense stick and placed it on a blackened windowsill that looked like it would collapse under the weight of the single stick.

I shook my head in resignation. Ero-Sennin had similar signals to keep in touch with his own spy network, but it never made much sense to me. Ah, well, if people all over the world were doing it, it must be successful right?

The next signal was in a town an hour away.

"We need to pluck one of those flowers", Mei told me as we walked under a flowering tree. They were peculiarly shaped, and as we passed a low hanging branch I made to pluck one.

My hand collided with Mei's as we went to pluck the same flower.

I withdrew my hand with a shock as I turned to look at her. My hand was burning with her warmth as I locked eyes with her; I only realized I was smiling like an idiot when she returned it with a full-blown smile of her own. Feeling my ears turning red, I turned away.

Mei plucked the flower and placed it on the shoulder of a small monument in the center of the town; but I barely paid attention.

My hand burned with her warmth the rest of the day.

There were three more such rituals across two more towns, before Mei said, "Now we go to the meeting place."

Remembering what Mei had said about them using lethal force, I asked her tensely, "Doesn't giving these pre-arranged signals mean that we shouldn't be attacked?"

Mei smiled again, causing my weird chest feeling to flutter, "If we're lucky, no."

"Great", I muttered to myself.

As we left the town we started to put our guard up. Mei's walk changed slightly, her footsteps became more deliberate. I, on the other hand, started to hyperfocus on the environment around me, searching for anything out of the ordinary.

I also started preparing a seal, one of the new ones that I had been working on.

"How much further?" I murmured, not breaking my vigil.

"Not long now", Mei responded, taking a wary look around that she managed to make look perfectly natural.

I heard the sudden snap of a ninja wire behind us; a trap had been set off. I immediately spun around, breaking my Henge with a flourish as I redirected the kunai fizzing towards us with a precise blast of Fūton chakra. Mei had dropped into a fighting stance and drawn a couple of kunai, confident that I would deal with the trap behind us; but as I turned back around I saw her freeze, her eyes wide with shock.

A giant bear of a man had broken through the foliage and had thrown a pair of shuriken towards Mei; instead of knocking them away, she didn't react. I snarled and redirected the shuriken with a pair of precisely timed Shinkūgyoku (Vacuum Spheres) from my mouth, before firing two more towards the shinobi. He just snarled and fired off a wordless fireball, his superior Fire consuming my Wind Techniques with nothing to show for it.

In the same movement, he shot towards Mei, intent on beating her with a mammoth fist; I interjected myself and blocked his ginormous fist with my own puny one. Despite being buffered by a lot of chakra, a firework of pain exploded inside my hand.

Still, atleast I had tagged him with the Seal I had been preparing.

It was only when he focused his fist into a half-Ram handseal that I realized that, in return, he had tagged me with an exploding tag.

I used a precise blast of Fūton chakra to tear it away from the back of my hand; but should it activate, we would definitely be caught in the blast.

Thankfully, the moment that the chakra left his hand to activate the exploding tag; instead it activated the Seal I had placed on his hand. To be precise: The Weight Seal.

His hand, suddenly weighing 20 times what it normally did, fell to the ground as if falling from a great height.

His green eyes looked at me in shock.

His very familiar green eyes.

Instead of pressing my advantage, I stopped. I swallowed.

I had seen those eyes before; it was hovering just outside my grasp.

And then the other owner of the identical green eyes broke her Henge and locked eyes with the incapacitated shinobi.

"Tou-san", Mei said quietly.

What!?

I stared in shock, unable to process just what was going on.

But looking at their eyes, the resemblance was undeniable.

"Err…" I floundered. "So the Clan we were looking for was…"

"The Terumī Clan; known for its Futton (Boil Release) Kekkei Genkai." Mei replied to me, still keeping her eyes locked on to her father's. Her father's!

Usually I'm one for exaggeration and pontification, but this time…

"Oh", I said faintly.

…Understatement seemed like the way to go.

Author's Notes: Booyah! Next time: the Ninja version of 'Meet the Parents'! It's going to be EPIC! And we finally, finally get to know why Nanashi will smell like a fish for the rest of the story!

I've not proofread this chapter yet, so do get back to me if you find any errors via Review/PM.

All information about Kiri in this chapter: lack of Ninja ID registration numbers, different islands having different customs etc.; all of it is canon.

The next chapter will contain the heart of the story; it will definitely be epic. It will set the tone for Pain, Hunger and Betrayal. I'm really fucking excited about it. It will contain a lot of angst, soul searching and will definitely ask the deep philosophical questions about war and life and death. I wanted to introduce a Kreia/Darth Traya/ House type of character; Mei's dad seems as good a person as any. I know more or less how the next chapter going to go, but I want your input as well, on one of the most controversial and divisive topics in human history. Here's how.

In many ways, the Kiri Bloodline Wars are identical to Fascism and Nazism at their peak; we will be discussing this in detail in the next chapter. What I want you to do is simple.

Tell me why Fascism/Nazism is wrong. (Or, if you are of the opinion that Nazism/Fascism is justified, why?)