Harbinger

by tigerowl

Naruto's friendship with his teammates Gaara and Haku is put to the test as they prepare to deal with the threat of the Akatsuki. The secrets Jiraiya has kept come to a head, and Naruto must shoulder the responsibility of protecting much more than the Leaf Village. Continuation of Forlorn. AU NaruHina, GaaSaku, NejiTen, ObiRin, OCs *Taoism, Self-Indulgent World Building, longfic

58. Behind the Waterfall

Chapter 58- Behind the Waterfall

Chapter Soundtrack: "Sora-Sky Magic (Movie Edit)" by Manabu Nagayama & Masakazu Uehata

& "Cairo" by Jason Ross

"It's autumn already, you must come to the Sun Garden at the estate. By winter it'll be too bare to enjoy." Kitano insisted sidelong to Fujita, "You and all of your immediate family are invited. I hope Hyuga elders don't give you a hard time about a visit."

Fujita smiled crookedly at the notion, "Just about every time we go anywhere, they do…"

"Elders gave us plenty of grief when we were chosen to act as emissaries for this mission. Even after the Hokage approved it." Hideyasu chimed in, "A friendly visit to the Taketori Estate? Pft. We'll never hear the end of it."

"They're an endless fountain of complaints… Truly, I don't know how you put up with them." Magan, the leader of the Taketori clan, walked alongside Hyuga Hideyasu. Several paces ahead of them, their sons also walked side-by-side. Twin reflections of friendship.

Following Hyuga Fujita's unexpectedly successful bid to convince Hidden Leaf's most senior council of the merits of forging an alliance with Hidden Waterfall, councilmen had unanimously tasked Fujita and any of his interested peers in the Hyuga clan with finalizing agreements in Waterfall. Preliminary documents had been forwarded to Shibuki in the smaller hidden village, returned with favorable comments and small concessions and amendments. Waterfall would be delighted to have a major village formally backing it.

All that was left was to have representatives of Leaf meet with the (tiny) council in Waterfall, and ratify the agreement in front of witnesses. If there was no dissent or further editing required, the accord would be returned to Konoha and within a month's time, trade and other service exchanges could open up fully. Other stipulations would also go into effect, at such a time.

And so, Tsunade dispatched Fujita and his father to act as representatives, and of course Hideyasu had asked Taketori vassals to join them for the three-day journey north. Magan and Kitano had gladly accepted the mission.

The group was crossing over the border of the Fire Country into the lord-less territories beyond where Takigakure had been established. Forests of the region were dense, towering with oaks nearly bare of copper-hued leaves. Banks of old stone and boulders were deposited all throughout, having been displaced by ancient rivers long since dried up. Several stream beds were still rushing somewhere, Fujita could hear the tumble of water in the distance. His eyes followed the summoned whistling duck beside Magan when it suddenly scurried ahead on its paffing webbed feet, diving beak-first into nettle.

The duck pulled back a snail and violently shucked it from the shell, gobbling it down.

"Oh, Su-Su is hungry." Magan chuckled.

Moving up the gradual incline in the land, Kitano wondered, "Hey Dad, why is it that the Taketori clan uses a Summoning contract, but the Hyuga clan does not?"

Magan shared an amused look with Hideyasu, passing the question off.

Hideyasu supposed, "They just never wanted to. Our clan has tended to leave such a skill up to others in our long history."

"There have been a few who used Summoning contracts in the past, but never anything that was made a mainstay of Hyuga techniques." Magan added, "Sealing jutsu and Summoning are the specialties of the Taketori clan, to better balance the Hyuga clan."

"That makes sense." Fujita watched Su-Su waddle ahead, "But…why ducks?"

"Ah! Don't get me started on why." Magan tossed his head, his long pony-tail swinging merrily, "Ducks are magnificent. They can fly and swim, and the Taketori clan boasts a specially trained flock for missions."

"Now you've done it." Kitano mumbled, "He's so proud of them. He won't shut up now…"

For a good long while, Magan did indeed talk their ears off about his fowl friends.

Later in the morning, when the sun had risen high and Kitano's stomach had begun to growl audibly, he voiced his discomfort, "We didn't pack enough food. Dad, can I hunt something? I'm starving."

"You already ate." Magan noted.

"I know. I'm still hungry." The young man groaned, "Just a pheasant or—"

"We are working within a deadline, Kitano, no. Hmph! Hunt a pheasant or some game that you'll have to pluck and prepare— that's a waste of time."

Fujita suppressed a smile and watched his childhood friend banter with his father. It was true. Their rations had not been substantial that morning, but they'd eaten light based on the expectation that they'd be fed at their destination. Also, Kitano was sort of a tenderfoot. He had never been outside of the Fire Country for a mission, this Fujita was aware of. As a result, his friend had not built up as thick of a skin when it came to travel and endurance. Fujita, on the other hand, could say he'd fare well enough even in the Wind Country's desert for a few days.

"So…I'll fish? That's quicker, isn't it?" Kitano smiled teasingly, "I can hear a river nearby!" His father kept grunting at him, shutting the ideas down.

"You do hear one. That means we are close to Takigakure." Hideyasu reminded him, "If we stop now, we'll be late. So hunker down, kids! Once we dispense with the pleasantries and greetings, I'm sure Shibuki-sama will let his guests have a meal."

Fujita unthinkingly drummed his fingers against his own stomach, "That'll be good…I just…really want to see Fū."

Kitano grinned at his friend, "Of course you do. Wasn't she the inspiration behind all of this?"

"Er…in some capacity, yes." Fujita granted, "B-But Naruto inspired it too! I know the value of cooperation because of him."

Hideyasu listened in silence to the conversation ahead, smiling to himself. His youngest child's feelings were not much of a mystery to him anymore. Unlike Hikune, his eldest, who had baffled him with his pursuits and behavior on a regular basis. His heart constricted at the thought of the son he had lost. He took a few deep breaths.

Meanwhile, Kitano continued to gently pester Fujita, "Ah, I get it. So is he also part of the reason you have that new outfit? Hm? Trying to impress—?"

"It was just time for a change!" Fujita contended, his cheeks flushing, "I'm a Chunin now. I'm not lagging behind my peers at home anymore. We've become equals."

"Heh heh! Okay."

As a fashion design virtuosa, Fujita's mother, Kayato, had wanted to commemorate her son's elevated shinobi rank. She'd taken great care in designing a black and white tunic for Fujita to wear beneath his Chunin vest. He did look dashing and more mature— his father had assessed— sporting Kayato's contemporary twist on a Yin-Yang motif. Naturally, the Hyuga clan sigil was embroidered on each sleeve at the shoulder. Though his hair had not grown much past the nape of his neck, Fujita still preferred to keep it in a short ponytail, as opposed to the freer styles worn by the Hyuga. Hideyasu wondered if this preference was because nearly all members of the Taketori clan wore their hair high and tied back.

'There's a lot of cultural exchange between our clans, so we're bound to share styles with each other…' Hideyasu concluded. Unlike his child, he was dressed in the boring fatigues and vest worn by Jounin in Leaf's standard forces. In fact, he looked unforgivably plain standing in with this bunch! Kitano and Magan wore the flattering, colorful robes of the Taketori clan beneath their breastplates and fauld armor.

Hideyasu squinted at the unremarkable brown duck marching with them, relating to it, 'There's no harm in being plain, right? Simplicity can disguise our talents!'

After crossing several natural footbridges, fallen trees over the mountain creek, the group came upon a terrace of land tucked beneath the shadow of a towering mesa of limestone— an earth formation pushed up from the woodland. Atop it, more wild foliage grew, and water crashed down in a series of impressive falls, creating a curtain and billowing mist below.

"This most certainly is it…now we just need to meet up with our liaison to gain entry…" Hideyasu enthusiastically whipped his head around, hoping to spot a shy representative of Takigakure. No one was in sight.

Kitano tapped his feet, trying to control hunger pangs, "Hmf. Where's that greeter? We're not allowed in since the entrance is secret, right?"

"That's why. This village currently has little reason to trust other villages, so the entry method is not common knowledge." Magan rubbed his chin, "Though some can make a guess of how to navigate in…few would be fortunate enough to avoid traps that are set for unwanted guests."

"I bet whoever is supposed to greet us is just finishing their tea now." Hideyasu imagined, "Let's give it a few minutes."

A half hour passed.

During that time, Hideyasu stood and leaned his back against a tree, arms folded across his chest and eyes closed to relax. When a twig softly snapped somewhere in the woods behind him, he didn't even twitch a muscle. Hideyasu had an inkling of what it was, 'My goodness, why are Root agents even following me out here? What do they think we're up to?' When no other commotion occurred, Hideyasu assumed it was best to carry on as if he hadn't noticed the surveillance operation tailing them.

Kitano had begun pacing along a fallen log, puffing and whining, prepared to fish for whatever inhabited the bottom of the falls. Fujita watched him, absorbing some of his friend's anxious impatience, quitting his practice Gentle Fist forms to stand listlessly at the water's edge. 'It isn't very professional of another village to keep us waiting for such an important diplomatic matter…and Kitano-kun is going to drive me up a wall.' He thought to himself, 'The wait will be worth it, I know. I told Fū that I would be here.'

Magan sat on a tree stump, nearly dozing off with Su-Su nestled on his lap.

It was Hideyasu who snapped them out of their funks, "We've been neglected."

All heads snapped around to him, so Hideyasu reasoned, "I suggest…we make a small expedition into this mountain to see if we can find our way in. And…politely inquire why we've been slighted so."

"They might not take our intrusion well." Magan set his duck down and stood, stretching his limbs, "Are you sure?"

"I only suggest it because I want to confirm they haven't had a change of heart, or are stuck in some kind of political impasse because of this unprecedented agreement. If they tell us to leave, we'll do so with the guarantee we won't reveal how to enter the village."

"Wouldn't they not believe us and then try to take us prisoner?" Kitano could envision the scenario.

"They might try to do that…but they won't be able to." Hideyasu smiled blithely, "I'd love to see them try to arrest us."

Fujita couldn't help but smile at the sight of his father's confident, puckish face. They proceeded, guided by the Byakugan as it revealed hollowed-out access points and cavern paths behind the waterfall. The group carried on into the cave system beneath the mesa. In the dim, echoing chamber a few dozen meters in, Hideyasu halted the party with a hand, "Hold on…I can see there's a bit of a challenge to this."

"The aquatic kind?" Magan guessed.

"Yup. To proceed, we have to pass through this pool," Hideyasu pointed to a spring, "And swim through to an exit due north. It'd be about a minute of holding our breath. There's a bit more cavern after that, and hopefully what looks like a surface opening to me."

"Alright. I think we should go first, since we can see the way…" Fujita slowly waded into the pool, and his father and companions followed after him.

Though it was a dark and claustrophobic swim, as Hideyasu had forecasted, they breached into another air pocket and eventually trekked their way out of the cave system. They needed to disarm a few dastardly traps while they were at it.

Magan frowned as they walked uncontested out into daylight, "Unusual."

Kitano was wringing his long ponytail out, "What is?"

"There were no guards at the cavern exit here. We should've been stopped." Magan explained.

When Hideyasu shared a long look with his fellow adult, the same concern etched into their facial expressions. Fujita had also picked up on the problem, "Dad…it couldn't be so serious that they wouldn't post guards, could it?"

"No. By no measure would a village be so careless and leave itself undefended." Hideyasu took careful steps forward, navigating toward a community of cabins on the adjacent bank, "Which could mean they are already defending themselves."

Fujita's pulse was jumping. Yes, it was a known fact that shinobi from Hidden Waterfall were far from the most courageous out there, but they wouldn't hide from Leaf ninja even if they planned to renege on an alliance. 'Fū wouldn't let people here go back on their word. And…no one else knows that our villages have reached an agreement. It was kept a secret.' His chest felt tight, and he tried not to make too much noise as he moved faster toward huts, slinking just behind his father to find a vantage point to assess the environment.

'It's alright. She's alright.' He tried to convince himself, 'No one knew. They're just nervous.'

A wild look crossed Hideyasu's face as he stayed silent, commanding with a hand signal that the party halt. He was using the Byakugan, crouched behind a granary wall. Since he couldn't relay what he'd seen verbally, Fujita also used his Blood Limit to scope what was ahead.

The narrow common area between the assembly of cabin homes was awash in blood, and bodies were scattered all about. Many of those still alive and conscious were paralyzed in fright, their backs pressed up against their residences. Most were bound in some kind of cord to be restrained, and the fight that had taken place had long since ended in the defeat of Waterfall villagers.

Fujita's throat bobbed, containing a devastated shriek as he looked on. How? When had it happened? The blood was fresh. The plaza had gone still as villagers cowered and their attackers, it seemed, ceased the chaos and bloodshed. He blinked and saw a man sauntering past a line of seated, trembling prisoners, and it occurred to Fujita that the black coat with clouds the intruder wore was emblematic of the Akatsuki, according to reports. 'No, no, no! Fū! Where is she? They came for her!' He was too late. Despite his efforts to avoid this threat, the worst had still happened.

Magan's duck Su-Su had flown up and over the top of the mesa to descend into the village on the far side, and paddled across the lake towards the inhabited shore. Since she was a very ordinary-looking animal, Su-Su managed to swim near the community and take in the sights without drawing attention. She had a clear view of a single Akatsuki member's back, and the rows of people cowering, the bodies scattered along the ground.

Ashore and behind the granary, Magan had shut his eyes to share Su-Su's excellent color vision with her. It was a temporary technique that could not gather broader details the way the Byakugan could, but any and all intelligence was now paramount. Kitano kneeled beside his father, tense and silent. Though he was the only one who could not see what was out of sorts, the expressions on his companions' faces said it all. Disaster had struck.

In the span of ten seconds, Hideyasu had taken a head-count of the remaining live villagers, noted the position of one Akatsuki member strolling among captives, noted the second Akatsuki member rooting around the ancestral hall of Takigakure some 60 meters away, and then spotted the village's leader, Shibuki— cords wrapped tightly around his arms and chest, suspended from the high branches of the behemoth great tree at the lake's center. Shibuki was weakly struggling, his face unrecognizably bruised and bleeding.

As luck would have it, the jinchuriki was nowhere to be seen. Hideyasu perceived his son beside him shaking with fear and rage. If his darling Fū was still undiscovered, Fujita would not act rashly. He needed his child to focus now more than ever. There was no way to overstate the danger they were in; outclassed, unprepared, and having to consider that their actions could tip the scales weighing the lives of Waterfall villagers.

Abruptly, the patrolling Akatsuki member stopped in front of a villager who had his head bowed. He was whispering over Buddhist prayer beads.

"Hey!"

The man did not look up.

"I said hey—" The Akatsuki member nudged the villager with his foot, "I'm talking to you, yeah. Look up!"

The weary man looked up at the shinobi with slicked gray hair, who sneered down at him, "Knock that shit off. Don't pray to false gods."

"Those who deny the Buddha are the ones who've snared themselves in falsehood." The man proclaimed. He was swiftly seized by the back of his gi, and the Akatsuki member dragged him out of the line, his family members screeching in fright as he was taken.

"Falsehood?" The ninja grinned, "I can teach you a thing or two, you old shit. I am the most devout person in the great nations, and I'm also the only one who knows the only god worth serving is Jashin-sama." He tugged the bound man several paces away, "Here, this'll do. You can aid me in my worship today."

"Please, spare him!" An older woman sobbed.

He was entertained, "Feh! You wish. Not even for your stinking jinchuriki would I give up a good sacrifice."

Other villagers clamored:

"We'll all be killed anyway..."

"…ahhh-ohhh… Have mercy!"

"Leave him alone, you shit smear!"

"Hey! If you're trying to talk to me, the name's Hidan." The man barked back at them, "If you cowards want to end this day with your lives you'll shut your mouths and witness the power of Jashin-sama."

Fujita's fingers curled into his trousers, bunching the fabric. The Akatsuki member obviously intended to kill that villager. 'We can't just sit here…' He shifted his gaze to his father, inquiring about a course of action. Unflinching, Hideyasu kept watch. He was not ordering an intervention.

Above from the lofty heights of the great tree, Shibuki was distantly shouting: "Unhand him! Unhand him!" He'd lost too many villagers already.

"Not to worry." Hidan smiled like a doting caregiver, maneuvering a terrible, three-bladed scythe to lightly prick the captive's finger, "There. See, you've got nothing to complain about." He stuck his tongue out and let a drop of blood drip from the weapon, closing his mouth to ingest it. Hidan strolled to a patch of ground still drenched in the blood of victims, dragging his foot to create a circular diagram.

Behind the granary, Hideyasu's facial features hardened. He hadn't a clue what was going on. One moment Hidan had been threatening a villager, and the next he'd only pricked the captive's finger. Perhaps for some kind of fetish, he'd consumed a drop of blood from the man. Now it seemed Hidan was mocking those that had perished, smudging their blood on the ground. Fujita and Magan were likewise stumped by what they were seeing.

Then it all happened so fast— before they could process that the odd, disgusting ritual they were seeing could in fact be a technique. Hidan stood on the bloody emblem he'd drawn and his body tinged black, freakishly contrasted by white markings that approximated a skeleton. Wearing that death-like visage, Hidan raised a pike from beneath his cloak, "Jashin-sama, please accept my humble offering!" And he ran himself through the chest, front to back.

Fujita again struggled not to gasp along with horrified onlookers in the plaza. As soon as Hidan had impaled himself, the captive hacked up blood and then doubled over. Fujita wondered if he'd seen correctly, 'Is he…did that injury translate to the villager?!' It couldn't have been any other result: while Hidan pulled his retractable spear free of his body and wiped it clean, tittering happily to himself, the Waterfall villager languished on the ground, dying of a serious wound. Fujita fully faced his father, beseeching him through the pain in his expression: We made a mistake. We didn't anticipate that jutsu! There has to be something we can do!

The man died on the ground in agony while villagers wailed, calling to him. Hidan turned around to pitch taunts at Shibuki as the leader of the village swung frantically, hollering and spitting.

Hideyasu motioned for the group to retreat. Magan ended his Wild Sight jutsu, letting Su-Su swim away to a discreet area as he and the youngsters followed Hideyasu back to the cavern, where Akatsuki members were unlikely to return. They kept their panicked voices hushed.

"We should've done something!" Fujita insisted, "That man died needlessly!"

Hideyasu shook his head, "He didn't seem to be in danger. We didn't know."

"Someone was killed?" Kitano was catching up on the details, "What's going on?"

They enlightened him. Kitano listened grimly, especially puzzled by the sacrificial jutsu that transferred harm done to the Akatsuki member's body to a targeted victim.

"It was the blood." Hideyasu concluded, "He ingested it. That must be what links him to victims, so he can inflict a fatal blow…"

"Hideyasu, you saw that. We saw the same thing. That wound didn't even phase him." Magan recounted, "This enemy is impervious to damage."

Hideyasu let out a long sigh, closing his eyes to think.

Magan was shaking his head, "There's nothing we can do to stop that. Most of our techniques subdue enemies through physical damage. If he can't be wounded, we can't defeat him."

"That's not true. If he can't move, then he can be defeated." Fujita protested sharply, "We just have to incapacitate him. That's the only way to help the villagers and Shibuki-sama."

"That death-god is only one half of the problem," Hideyasu disagreed, "There's another Akatsuki member here. I saw him lurking in the central hall, looking for something. Maybe the jinchuriki…"

"Her name is Fū." Fujita groused.

"Yes, I know. I know her name is Fū. Listen to me." Hideyasu hoped to quell his son's rising distress, "We have no idea what the other Akatsuki member is capable of. We are only reasonably sure they are not expecting us, and that's if they haven't beaten such information out of Shibuki-sama. We can't confirm it. In the event they don't know we're here, still, we're only four shinobi against two S-Class criminals."

"Ah. That's true, but two of our four are the leader of the Taketori Clan, and the Slipfoot Wind of the Hyuga clan." Magan was also weighing their chances, "Hide-kun…maybe we can't take them on directly…but it's possible we can lead them away with a distraction."

"It'd never work. Nothing will distract them from their objective—" Hideyasu pointedly said the name to please his son, "Fū. For now, she's not anywhere that I can see, which is a good thing. Our meddling could make it worse."

"Is there any way to call for back-up?" Kitano wondered in a small voice.

"Not in so short a time, no. We still must send word of this back to Leaf, but we can't expect help to be here when we need it." Magan forecasted.

Staring absently at dripping cavern walls, Fujita plunged into his thoughts and wracked his brain for the best course of action. Hideyasu sensed the turmoil in his child. That same chokehold of anxiousness was tightening inside him too. He didn't want to air out his anxiety here, at such a critical juncture. But blaring at the forefront of his mind was the prospect of losing Fujita. If his boy charged out to challenge the Akatsuki head-on and paid the ultimate price for it…he shuddered. Hideyasu could feel the prickles of a despair so intense he'd probably take his own life just to be rid of it. He'd barely escaped the feeling after Hikune had died.

'I can't be ruled by this fear. It was so hard…to overcome it before. Hikune died protecting those he cared about. How could his little brother, who idolized him, behave any differently?' He kept his eyes closed so his team wouldn't see the buildup of tears, fighting in his own head, 'And how can I be so afraid as their father, who encouraged them and trained them to be ninja? I knew there would always be a risk. I didn't lie to myself and say they'd always be safe. But I…' He took a long breath, 'I can't let go of what I love most. I've never been able to. First it was Kayato, chasing her all those years…'

"Dad?"

Fujita's voice snapped him back to the matter at hand.

"I think I've got a plan that could work." Fujita told him, glancing to his Taketori associates, "We need to work together to do this…but please hear me out."

Shaking off his doubts, Hideyasu took a deep breath, "Tell me."

---

"I said…" A low voice growled, "Not to kill any more of them."

"It was a sacrifice. That's different. Quit trying to tamper with my worship!" Hidan sniffed at his partner.

Unlike Hidan, his companion wore his cloak properly, the lower half of his face was masked, his head covered by a hood that displayed the forehead protector of Hidden Waterfall— with a slash cut through the village's symbol. The sclera of his eyes were vivid red, a chilling and awful contrast to green irises. No gaze could ever rival the leer of resentment he pitched, which did not cease when he looked upon his religious lunatic of a colleague.

"It was one order. One simple request that you could not accommodate…"

"Who seriously gives a shit, Kakuzu? It's not like it affects our mission. I can do what I want!"

Kakuzu reminded him, "They can be ransomed if they are left alive."

"Tch! Who's gonna want 'em? This place could be wiped out and no other village would bat an eyelash!"

"They've been building alliances. Hidden Cloud already agreed to provide emergency protections."

"Yeah right. That's not even an alliance, that's just lip-service. Cloud just wants its hands anywhere it can nab a jinchuriki for military fortification, those desperate twats." Hidan wrote off the possibility, "Besides, they're not going to show up. We didn't let anyone send a distress message."

"Perhaps another village…"

"Are you serious? There's no money to be made here, you greedy shit. It's immoral to be obsessed with material wealth the way you are." Hidan dared insult the former Waterfall nin, "And say, how do you know they're building alliances? Could just be nonsense…"

"A reliable source reported it. These rumors can be confirmed." Kakuzu's spooky stare drifted to where Shibuki was strung up in the high boughs of the central tree, "And material wealth is the paradise of this realm. I don't seek to transcend the here and now. My eternity relies upon paying for goods and services, and remunerations for the inns and establishments you defile with your rituals. It funds the Akatsuki and propels it towards its goal." He pitched the insult back, "Your idiotic disregard for strategy for the sake of your religion makes me wonder how you scratched up a cent to clothe yourself all these years…"

TRANG! Hidan lashed out with his scythe, and Kakuzu blocked the weapon with his forearm against the pole, forcibly pushing back against his would-be attacker.

Hidan was grinning, dark eyes alight with exhilarated anger, "You wanna go you fucking ragdoll? If you disparage my god again you'll have to sew your beanbag ass back together!"

"We have work to do." Kakuzu hissed back.

"Still chasing that bottom line, huh?" Hidan withdrew his weapon, "Watch your mouth. Jashin-sama can hear what you heathens say. You'll be punished." He glanced around at the defenseless prisoners on the roadside, "Fine. I won't send off these lumps if you really need to cash in on them. That jinchuriki will make a better offering anyway."

"The jinchuriki is not a candidate for your rituals. She must be kept alive for the extraction." Kakuzu warned him.

"Can't do a fucking thing when you're around!" Hidan groaned, thrashing his head, "Then at least stay out of my way so I can take the bitch down. Give me some satisfaction."

"You're not half as good at tracking our targets as you are cutting them to ribbons." Kakuzu noted, "I know this village. I was born here nearly one hundred years ago. Each place they could have hidden her turned up empty, which means the jinchuriki may have been sent away for safe-keeping."

"Really? That was a long-ass time ago. What if they came up with new hiding spots since you left?" Hidan suspected, kicking the closest prisoner, "Hey! Fess up! Where's the kid?"

The woman's eyes were hollow with fear, but she didn't say a word.

"Need I remind you all…" Kakuzu walked between the rows of houses, addressing villagers, "I am the one who ripped the hearts from the elders of this village, long ago? I can do it again."

"A traitor like you will never be forgotten by us!" An old man shouted, "I was just a child, but I remember what you did, Kakuzu! You're inhuman. Not just in form, but in action. We will never bend to the likes of you. We've rebuilt our courage!"

"Courage will spill more blood here." The missing-nin leveled with him, "Is that what you want?"

This conversation seemed to suit Hidan, who hung back and reveled in the flimsy bravery displayed by survivors who dared square up against the other half of the "Zombie-Combi" duo.

"Shibuki." Kakuzu addressed the village leader, stretching out a hand towards the line of prisoners, toward whom a freakish wad of black thread began to reach, "Divulge the location of the Seven-Tails. Resistance will not be tolerated a second time."

"Leave them ALONE!" The man in the tree tops howled, "They don't know where she is. You want to pick on someone? Pick on me! I know where she is! Get up here and deal with me!"

"He's just baiting us…" Hidan muttered, "Someone's gotta know…"

Chakra-controlled fibers slipped beneath the chins of several people who were shuddering in their restraints. The threads were so close to looping around their necks…it would only take a twitch of Kakuzu's finger to do it.

A younger man spoke up, stammering, "D-Don't h-hurt us! If y-y-you n-need t-to know w-where F-F-Fū is—"

"SAY ANOTHER GODDAMNED WORD AND I WILL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF YOUR SHOULDERS, SEIICHI!" A woman roared from the end of the line.

Startled, Kakuzu and Hidan gawked at the furious woman. Seiichi indeed did not say another word. Everything stood still for a harrowing moment, and then Hidan gave his head a shake, "-the hell?"

The lady was dark-skinned, puffing her chest out, her face twisted with contempt. She was frantically wriggling her wrists behind her back in an effort to slip her bonds.

"Who's this?" Hidan asked of Kakuzu, gesturing with his thumb at the woman.

"No one remarkable." Kakuzu supposed.

"Get. THE FUCK—" She screeched at an ear-splitting volume, making the Akatsuki members flinch, "OUT. Of. Our. Village."

Hidan had plugged his ears with his pinkies, his eyebrows quirked in bewilderment, "…how was this bitch not carrying on from the start—?"

"THIS BITCH HAS PEOPLE TO PROTECT." Abruptly, the woman launched herself sideways out of the line (arms still bound), onto a swath of dirt that wasn't blood-soaked or stacked with bodies. She tried inch-worming herself around the bend, to make an escape behind the row of cabins.

Harried, Kakuzu extended thread tendrils toward her and reeled her in, dragging her near for inspection. Hidan rested his hands on his hips, rather off-put by her wildly hateful face and lack of fear. "Isn't this a little, you know, unusual for your village?" He asked of Kakuzu, "They're all cowards around here."

"Each generation yields an outlier, few of which I've encountered." Raising his arm, Kakuzu coiled threads around the woman's legs and hoisted her airborne, making blood rush to her head, "If you know of the jinchuriki's whereabouts, speak."

The woman's loose tunic flipped down due to gravity, exposing her chest. Hidan yelped and turned his back bashfully, "HEY. I'm a religious man, why are you trying to sully me, Kakuzu? You freaky deviant! Put her down!"

She was swinging and cursing, trying to make a scene. It was an effective distraction; even other terrified prisoners were somewhat relieved she'd drawn attention to herself. The woman was set flat on the ground, still hog-tied by her ankles. Kakuzu tugged sharply, reiterating, "Speak if you value your life."

"Suck on every fat chode in Tanzaku Quarter and Kuro Town you filthy, heart-nabbing motherfucker!" She caterwauled, "Want me to speak? OH, I'LL SPEAK. Take your buddy's scythe up your ass AND EAT SHIT."

Above, Shibuki was helplessly wailing, "Igi, please…stop this…"

"YOU shut the fuck up, Shibuki!" She echoed back.

"What the hell is with this lunatic?" Hidan was baffled, truly intrigued. Is this what befell the godless people at their lowest?

"Who are you calling a lunatic, you murderous dick louse?!"

"Enough." Kakuzu flicked his other sleeve, from which threads slithered free, at the end of which a kunai had been knotted round. He pressed the knife to Igi's belly and she went still. Her fellow villagers were gasping and whimpering.

"You are hiding something." Kakuzu surmised, "You know who to silence. As such, you know what to silence them for. To stop them from exposing the location of the jinchuriki. In all likelihood…" He pressed the kunai more firmly into flesh, drawing beads of blood, "You know the location as well."

"I'm not exactly sure. I hid the coordinates somewhere…" The woman taunted in a trilling voice, "Huh! Why don't I write to my friend the First Hokage while I'm at it, so he can tell me where he hid your loser ass all these years, YOU TRAITOROUS FUCK."

Kakuzu buried the knife into her gut, outraged, drawing a surprised inhale of air from Hidan, and numerous screams from villagers. Shockingly, Igi bore the pain and kept jabbering, "Not willing to hit m-my vital spots, eh…" She endeavored not to show her pain, sucking in breaths, "You're so desperate to know. No use in…k-keeping me around. I'll never tell…"

"Straight up crazy." Hidan whispered to himself. He was amazed.

"Do you not value your life? I will end it." Kakuzu's pitch rose in severity, and he would certainly relish extinguishing this one, "What do you stand to gain by protecting a jinchuriki? Your village will suffer for it. You and your leader will suffer for it."

"I…d-don't care…" Igi was rasping, "Fuck 'em. The village…everyone's benefited enough from Fū all these years…we need to pay her back."

"With your lives?"

"Sure. A shit fossil like you'd…forget w-what life's w-worth, over t-time…"

"Who dares trifle with the Akatsuki's time like this?" His eyes narrowed in rage, "Give the jinchuriki to us. Who do you think you are?"

Face paling, seaweed hair swaying in her face, the woman smiled wearily, "I'm her mother."

With that revelation, Kakuzu flung Igi free, the kunai pulling out of her to leave a bloody pocket, her wound flowing freely when she struck the ground again, rolling flat on her face. She did not move after that. Friends and family clamored for her.

"Heh heh h-holy fuck…!" Hidan was laughing, delighted, "A mom was making a mockery of you! Hehehehe—!"

It was only a matter of time before Kakuzu's fist came flying for Hidan's face, cracking him across his left cheek and snapping his head to the side. A proper fight ensued: round kicks flying, scythe whirling round to cleave apart columns of raging threads in the space…it was a dysfunctional, disturbing sight for the prisoners. They were forced to observe the petty violence Akatsuki members embraced. The pair took for granted they could not kill each other, stepping over the bodies of those they had murdered in an effort to force cooperation in their search. Nearby, Igi was bleeding out, forgotten.

"HE-EEEEEEEEY!" A loud voice boomed.

Tangled mid-grapple, Hidan and Kakuzu looked up to a rooftop and saw a teenager who was the spitting image of Igi, though not distinctly masculine or feminine at first glance. The Seven-Tails jinchuriki of Takigakure, Fū.

Furious, rust-colored eyes were fixed on the quarreling Akatsuki pair, radiant with determination. The girl raised two middle-fingers at them, then turned around to bolt away, disappearing from the rooftop.

"Fucking finally!" Hidan howled, charging after Fū.

Suddenly, the village erupted in noise again; all villagers shouting nonsensically in protest, Shibuki screaming from the treetops…it was a cacophony. Kakuzu was glad to escape it as he darted away from the settlement, tailing after Hidan as he raced away from the shore and onto the open lake surface where Fū fled.

Igi was moving limply, raising her head, "Tssst! Stop! I need one of you to help me…"

"We're tied up just like you! How?" Seiichi was stumped.

Kakuzu had thrashed her enough to loosen her wrist restraints, and Igi slipped her small hands free of the cable. She pressed one hand to her bleeding stomach, slowly, so slowly rising to her feet, and picked up the discarded kunai on the ground.

She hobbled over to the captured villagers, chiding them, "We can't crack if my daughter's going to intervene…we have to take care of ourselves and get out. If we do, she can get away too." Tiredly, Igi sliced the knife up along cord that had bound her neighbor, "Good. Phew…ah. Shoma, here, take this and cut everyone free. I need to find bandages and a stiff drink."

"Do you really think Fū can handle this? Shibuki-sama has almost never let her face enemies before!" Another woman was fretting, "Igi, she might—"

"My girl is strong. We have to be strong too, for everyone we lost. We survive and then give them a proper burial."

"What do we do about Shibuki-sama?" Seiichi wondered of their village leader, who was still trapped in the great tree.

"Feh! Nothing we can do about where he's at. Leave 'em!" Igi marched on.

---

On the lake, Fū raced like a gust of wind, feet barely coasting on the surface with chakra. Hidan and Kakuzu were closing in quickly.

Over 100 meters of the space was placid water, with unknown depths that stretched down into caverns and pits below the caldera. Slightly off-center stood the towering great tree, beneath which the village's famed Hero's Water welled forth from a secret spring. Up above, the tranquility was pierced by the former-coward-turned-village leader Shibuki screaming his head off, "Fū! Fū! STOP! For God's sake, stop! Do you hear me? Hide!"

He blinked, heard a shing of whirring, sharp metal after the young ninja below had thrown shuriken from a great distance to slice the cord that strung up Shibuki. His arms still winched at his sides, cocooned in cable, Shibuki fell with another loud shriek. He continued screaming with a noticeable edge of confusion as a flock of a dozen ducks surrounded him mid-air, wings fluttering, and guided him down towards the nearest edge of shore off of the lake. Oof! He was dropped on his face, unharmed. After that, the small flock waddled frantically toward escaping Waterfall villagers, as if to attend to them.

Out on the wide expanse of water, Fū turned and faced the intruders. With no preamble whatsoever, Hidan's scythe was pitched at her with predatory glee. And then— she spun. She turned fast with a ballooning dome of chakra pushing out of tenketsu, and the shield bounced the three-bladed scythe away like a plaything, splashing it into water.

Hidan's mouth quirked and he reeled in his weapon by its cable, re-evaluating the youngster facing them down, "Eh…the jinchuriki can do that?"

Kakuzu had caught on, "No ninja can do that except for—" The deception was in full-swing, other ninja appearing behind them: 20 meters to their rear a fearsome ninja in red-and-gold armor and robes had appeared. A few steps behind him was the man in miniature holding an unusual hand sign. The boy pressed his forearms together, splaying his fingers wide toward the sky to direct a swell of chakra…and a Sealing Jutsu began to spread.

"Fuck! Who are these people?" Hidan yowled, standing back-to-back with Kakuzu, "What is this shit? Kakuzu, hey!"

The dome that Kitano had created stretched, expanding in a gleam of transparent amber energy, rising up and outward to cover the whole of the lake, above and below the surface, in an impenetrable sphere. Part of the great tree and its roots were contained, but much of what had been captured was water and the shinobi within the space.

Kakuzu flashed a dour look at his partner, "This water…they don't want you to use your jutsu."

"What?" Hidan's eyes were wide as he was mentally catching up, "Fucking what—? They don't—! How would they know?"

With a discontented side-jab, Kakuzu knocked into him, "Your absurd ritual: they saw it. They've been lurking long enough to observe. We are at a deficit because you can't follow orders!"

"Shut it!" Hidan was baring his teeth, head whipping forward and back to see the armored shinobi (one within and one outside of the Sealing dome), and the phony Fū behind them, "…heh heh! Fine! Whoever these losers are…they still don't have a prayer! I don't have to curse them to kill them!"

Famously lacking in strategy, Hidan charged toward "Fū." In that moment, Magan also raced forward to confront Kakuzu. Beyond on the shore, Shibuki witnessed the battle in stupefaction as the villager named Shoma ran up to him and hastily cut his bonds free.

"That's…not really Fū." Shibuki understood, wobbling to stand, "Shoma, she's still hiding, right?"

"Yeah. I think Igi will be okay too, we patched her up. We're going to evacuate." Shoma tugged on his arm, "Let's go, Shibuki-sama."

"I can't leave."

"You couldn't even fight them if you wanted to! How can you get into that big bubble? It's supposed to keep things out and stop people from escaping, right?"

"A kid is holding that jutsu together." Shibuki was concerned, "If it goes down, they'll need back-up. These must be the Leaf emissaries we were supposed to meet with. Even though we didn't finalize our agreement…they're still helping us…"

"You're hurt. Come with us for now and recover." Shoma pointed out whistling ducks darting through the community, "I know it sounds crazy, but if you hold one of those ducks it'll heal your wounds!"

The village leader was flabbergasted, "A duck!?"

"I tried it! We gave one to Igi! Some kind of healing jutsu I guess…"

"…a-alright. Just for now…but we have to be prepared!" He ran back toward the village proper with Shoma, entrusting their Leaf compatriots to deal with the Akatsuki. After all, this had been the purpose of the proposed alliance: to help each other defeat such a threat. What good was a promise on paper if it wasn't acted on in reality? Leaf ninja were honorable to a fault.

Back on the lake, Hidan was a whirlwind of acrobatics, pitching and swinging his scythe, feeling free to damage the mysterious interloper however he wished. His opponent was frustratingly agile, bending and darting with hummingbird reflexes. Hidan clenched his teeth, paff! Fingertips struck his shoulder, and his arm went a bit funny— scythe handle sagging in his hand. So he struck low, feigning weakness, and managed to jam the blunt top of the scythe into the into the kid's stomach to push back.

Then pop! The transformation of Fū was released as the ninja tumbled backwards and righted himself, white eyes focused on Hidan. He was barely fifteen years old, a head and a half shorter than Hidan— wiry muscle beneath the elegant attire. Fujita stood poised in his stance, hands flat and at the ready, measuring his field of divination.

"You've got balls for a pipsqueak!" Hidan crowed, grinning, stalking sideways, "Gotta get into close-quarters to whack me, huh? Think you'll get away with that? I work in every range and I will cut you like a fucking tofu block."

Fujita knew that even if they were avoiding this invulnerable shinobi's blood-link technique by fighting on water, his expertise in Bukijutsu was going to be difficult to endure. One blow from such a scythe could inflict a fatal injury, if anyone got careless. Thankfully, ninja from both the Taketori and Hyuga clans sported excellent defenses, and so combining such assets ought to stave off injuries. This was how Fujita had explained it to his father.

A Taketori Warding Sphere could prevent most anything from penetrating through it; a globe-like manifestation solid as a wall, but with no other damaging or Sealing properties imbued within it. Also, if anything happened to Kitano while he maintained the jutsu from the outside, it would dissipate in an instant. He and Magan estimated he could keep the sphere up for no more than an hour on his own. Once Magan, Fujita, and Hideyasu were inside the contained space, Kitano would be unable to let them back out without ceasing the jutsu completely.

The next step was to divide the two Akatsuki ninja from each other. Fujita assumed that this wouldn't be very difficult; it was plain to see that they were already quarreling with each other and did not get on well. Once separated, it would be easier to focus on each individual and their respective techniques, and avoid any dangerous combinations. Because Hidan's skills were known, he was considered to be just slightly more manageable. His partner's abilities, however, they had yet to see. Magan had volunteered to concentrate on Kakuzu and ascertain what he was capable of. That left Hideyasu and Fujita to deal with Hidan.

With all in agreement, Fujita then volunteered to disguise himself as Fū to lure the pair away from villagers. And now, he was weaving away from Hidan's strikes, retaliating with senbon whenever there was an opportunity. Hidan stopped once to pluck needles from his arm, which had gone lame from nerve manipulation, "You little shit…"

Beyond, Fujita could see Magan and Kakuzu dancing around each other, and eventually Kakuzu lashed out with a column of dark, piercing threads from his sleeve. Magan's body armor weathered the brunt of it, and he seamlessly segued into hand seals for a Summoning Jutsu. Within the Warding Sphere, he'd summoned an absolute blowout of hundreds of ducks.

Initially, it had the bent of some kind of joke. Both Kakuzu and Hidan were stymied and offended by what they were seeing: a flying swarm of brown ducks crowding the space, quacking and winging wildly. They were pelted by several passing fowl, battering their faces.

When Magan whistled a command, the surging flock narrowed, diverting to slam into Kakuzu in a living ball of momentum that dragged him underwater.

Blinking in utter shock, Hidan processed and left himself open for a moment, then received an opportunistic, savage blow of Jyukken from behind. He cartwheeled over the water, flinching, and tossed his scythe back at Fujita, "You morons think you're a match for us? Those things can't take Kakuzu down!"

As if prophesied, the surface of the lake erupted as someone rocketed up, and Hidan felt a shred of satisfaction, thinking maybe it was good to operate in a duo after all. Except that the person who appeared wasn't Kakuzu. It was a bigger version of the pipsqueak!

Hideyasu aimed down from the arc of his jump, ambushing the scythe wielder and struck him before he could raise his numbed arms to protect himself. He bashed Hidan so hard with a two-palmed Jyukken strike that he was pounded underwater, leaving a divot of air in the lake's rippling surface where he once stood.

Applying his Wind Nature, Hideyasu gave his body a shake and flitted water droplets off of his person to be a bit less damp. Fujita was grinning at him. He couldn't help but grin back.

Ducks began to return to the surface, bobbing around the contained space of the lake, dithering and honking. Then, the two Akatsuki ninja burst up again, scattering the contented flock, sending many airborne as feathers tufted in a panic.

Wild-eyed, Hidan charged again at the two Hyuga, "Let's fucking GO!" Several ducks were cut apart when he whipped his scythe in a high-speed circle.

On the far side of the dome, Magan's defensive, power-blow counters were a match for Kakuzu's Taijutsu, and before he could be ensnared by an excess of black thread fluming from Kakuzu's sleeves, Magan drew the sword at his hip and slashed through the onslaught.

While keeping Hidan sandwiched between a ping-pong-like formation of Jyukken blows, with Fujita's help, Hideyasu's Byakugan kept track of every detail. Waterfall villagers evacuating to a safe hiding place, Kitano's heart rate as he maintained an advanced Sealing Jutsu, Magan's precise counters and whistling commands, Fujita's nimble movements that synchronized with whatever move his father made first.

'I fought my way through the last Shinobi War…so I know what we are seeing is only a fraction of our enemies' true strength. That's what these battles are always like.' Hideyasu was trying to think ahead, anticipating what was to come, 'They're only going to fight harder and test our abilities the longer we are here. We're doing the same: testing for a weakness to exploit. Once their full-power is on display, Kitano cannot let the escalating danger tempt him to drop the Warding Sphere. He knows it…I just hope he has the courage to keep it up if one of us goes down…'

He knew that if things took an unfortunate turn, even Fujita wouldn't have the heart to ignore wounded comrades for the sake of keeping enemies contained. Kitano's resolve couldn't be much different. To that end, Hideyasu was on alert for that single second in which either Akatsuki member's guard opened— to then shred said criminal to pieces. If they learned more about enemy jutsu to have on the record, even better, but neutralizing the threat quickly was almost always the best policy in Hideyasu's book.

Three dozen of Magan's summoned ducks, on command, fired gastroliths from their mouths like a hail of bullets. The assault pummeled Kakuzu back, riddling his coat with holes, forcing him to retaliate with hand signs for a Water technique, "Suiton: Water Formation Wall!" A vertical torrent of water rose up from the lake's surface to absorb the rain of razor-sharp stones.

In the same few beats, Kakuzu's coat began to distend, rustling as something stirred beneath it. Magan grimaced as that something pulled free, hatching from Kakuzu's back: a mass of black threads. The mass plopped down and out of the bottom of his coat, rolling and rising up to stand on the water's surface…dividing into three separate entities, three mobile bodies made entirely of thread. Each beast-like manifestation had a mask roughly where a face should be.

"Let us pass and take the jinchuriki," Kakuzu offered, "Or die."

"Hmph! Surrender." Magan suggested, raising his sword to be eye-level, taking aim.

When they rushed at each other, Hideyasu noted the escalation with his Blood Limit, 'Ma-kun, be careful! We don't know what that is.' If he was needed, he would have to—

The masked beasts simultaneously scattered about the space, and one opened its masked mouth to unleash a massive Wind Style technique after being directed by Kakuzu's hand seals. The Wind Mask Beast fired a spiraling pressure-blast of fronts at Magan, who handily created his own Warding Sphere to protect himself from damage, anchoring his feet to stay steady. However, the elemental attack ricocheted from the large Warding Sphere's internal dome wall, bouncing around the space like a hurricane.

Hideyasu had just enough time to dive past Hidan's carefree scythe swings to grab Fujita in one arm, spin around, and use his free palm to channel the incoming Wind Nature to clash with his own Wind Nature, neutralizing it locally. He took a few deep breaths, his eyes scanning the roaming Mask Beasts, 'These things have elemental jutsu…? That was a powerful technique. In such a tight space, we'll have nowhere to go…'

Tucked beside his father, Fujita was wide-eyed, "Dad! Those are trouble! We—"

The Wind Mask Beast flapped spiderweb wings to propel itself toward Hideyasu, Fujita, and Hidan, as if it wasn't satisfied with its jutsu being snuffed out. Hidan was grousing about the company, "I don't need your shitty thread dolls, Kakuzu, it's just gonna get in my way!"

Now, it was Hideyasu and Fujita sandwiched between Hidan's relentless attacks, and the Wind Mask Beast, pushed to their athletic limits to avoid incoming strikes and counterattack. It did not escape Hideyasu's notice that Kakuzu had to direct a thread manifestation to use a jutsu. As a result, his movements had slowed on the far end of the dome, relying on the other two Mask Beasts to confront Magan as he slashed with expert sword strikes and ordered ducks to fire at will on all enemies. Several ducks even combined their efforts to fire a Water-Gun style technique at Kakuzu, which he took pains to avoid. Wisely so. Each pressurized water jet from the summoned ducks could punch holes into solid concrete, and could do to the same to humans.

The next time the Wind Mask Beast fired its spiraling wind attack, Hideyasu was again forced to counter and dissipate the Wind Element in the technique to protect bystanders. He was well aware that Hidan had come up behind him, scythe spinning by its cable, as the Akatsuki ninja was gleefully about to strike down while his opponent's back was turned.

Fujita had bounded up with a bit of Gouken borrowed from his dear friend Rock Lee, hooking the back of his knee around Hidan's forearm to make him swing backwards (missing Hideyasu) and driving his other knee into Hidan's face upon completing the jump.

"Gack!" Hidan landed in a kerfuffle of splashing, quickly gaining his feet. He was blinking water out of his eyes as Fujita followed up without a moment of delay, pummeling Jyukken strikes into him. Likewise, Hideyasu capitalized on the distraction to begin bashing the Wind Mask Beast around with successive, freight-train like Air Palms, driving the thread creature against the Warding Sphere's wall, bam, bam, bam, bam, BAM! Brutal vacuum waves flattening it so that it couldn't even squirm.

Kakuzu appropriately had a different beasts continue attacks, a Lightning Mask Beast, which fired a savage bolt at Magan that was, expectedly, redirected off of Magan's Warding Sphere as he stampeded towards the offending beast, stretched out a hand lit with Seals on his fingertips, and patted the threat into submission, "Ninpo: Neutral Shell!" With a clicking and cracking sound, the Lightning Mask Beast was surrounded by a chalky, egg-like membrane that could float like a pool toy in the water, keeping the contained creature inside indolent and harmless.

"Doton: Earth Spear!" Kakuzu closed in, his fist and arm coated in diamond-hard Earth Style to jab into Magan's protective sphere, shaking and rattling it with Taijutsu refined over the course of 80 years. He didn't give Magan an inch to recuperate or prepare new seals. The third beast, a Water Mask, was pummeling away at the Lightning Mask Beast's neutralizing shell to free it.

As Magan was accosted, Fujita and his father were itching for an opening to catch Hidan, or perhaps learn how to destroy the Wind Mask Beast. Hidan bounded and raced erratically, grunting and laughing, letting go of a long line of slack of the scythe's cable, swinging it with crazy strength and nearly catching Hideyasu as he ducked— losing a few strands of his hair. Hidan's guard opened as Fujita maintained a safe distance. The boy knew by the time he raced in to hit Hidan, the enemy would be on the defensive again.

It had to be a long range strike. Ever since his return from Suna's Chunin Exam and after being promoted, Fujita had worked day in and day out to learn the Hyuga clan's famous Air Palm; not once had he launched a satisfactory vacuum wave in all that time. Here it would be the ideal attack, and in those milliseconds Fujita knew it, had to act on it. He prepared his form, channeled a burst of chakra, took aim, 'I have to try!'

His bent arms thrust forward and shot the pressure wave, which fell short of Hidan. Fujita wanted to bite his tongue off in frustration when the scythe landed in Hidan's hand again, 'I can't be screwing up here or we'll die! I need to get it right! It never mattered until now— all that practice— this is it!'

Hidan had sensed the pipsqueak creeping behind him, felt him goof up an attack, and so he pitched his scythe at Hideyasu again as the man tangoed with the battered Wind Mask Beast. While Hideyasu dodged, Hidan had enough slack in his line to flip backwards and catch Fujita with a crushing kick. The boy had been trying to attempt another Air Palm.

"Fujita!" Hideyasu did not delay in firing his own Air Palm at Hidan, preventing him from collecting his scythe and striking a follow up. The Wind Mask Beast was then directed to use a jutsu as all backs were turned from it, releasing another ripping gale of wind. The only last-second defense possible was a Rotation, and thank the heavens, both Hideyasu and Fujita spun with perfectly timed chakra shields. It was Hidan who took the full-force of the Wind Style attack.

"A-aaaaaah-! Fuck!" Damaged, Hidan collapsed down to a knee, lacerated but mostly whole, trying to control his chakra to stand on water while also cursing out Kakuzu. Impervious as he looked, he still did not appreciate pain very much, Fujita discerned.

Hidan was less pleased when both Hyugas pounced on him while he was down, ping-ponging him again in a volley of Gentle Fist strikes, and he cursed even more vividly when Hideyasu yanked back on the cable, stealing away with the scythe to seize it by the handle. Hidan pulled on the other end of the cable with a howl, "You GODLESS SHIT! Give me back my instrument!"

"You want this back?" Hideyasu couldn't help his cheeky face, pouring Wind Nature chakra into the weapon, "Here!" He slashed down and loosed an arc of cutting Wind Nature chakra from the blades. Hidan dove and barrel-rolled sideways to avoid the hazard, screeching furiously. Fujita's eyes narrowed— the weapon's cable had looped around Hidan's ankle! Swiftly, he sunk several senbon into the back of Hidan's legs, slowing him.

"Dad!" Fujita warned his father to be prepared to collaborate. The boy snapped two tool scrolls from his belt, throwing them upwards as he leapt. Both scrolls popped and smoked, unfurling vertically in a helix of parchment, "Rising Twin Dragons!" He hurled a meteor shower of summoned weaponry down on Hidan as soon as his father pulled, tripping Hidan with the scythe's cable.

Hidan staggered and fell, spitting angrily, and then gasped in shock as he was stuck like a pincushion with a variety of weapons. Sounds hitched in his throat as he was run through with several full-size swords, needles, kama, kunai, shuriken— weighted chain bolas had also careened down to bludgeon and snare Hidan.

'Ah!' Hideyasu thought to himself merrily, 'I didn't know Tenten taught him that one!'

During this exchange, things had still been happening behind them, and Hideyasu's head whipped around when he heard Magan's cautionary cry as the Wind Mask Beast had retreated to combine itself with the Water Mask Beast. Threads coiled and bonded, then unleashed a brutal Ice Release spike to finally pierce through the shell containing the Lightning Mask Beast.

No sooner had it been freed, the Lightning Mask Beast discharged a tremendous bolt of elemental chakra into the lake. Hideyasu had only just enough time to warn his son to rotate, as he and Magan defended themselves again from the electrified area of effect. Hidan's scream of frustration was ear-piercing.

From beneath Kakuzu's cloak, another lump of threads descended, rising up to take a form similar to that of the others. Startled by the addition, Hideyasu had begun to understand, 'These masked beasts…they definitely have individual elemental affinities. They've been stored in his body…' He looked closer at Kakuzu with the Byakugan, 'And so the fifth must still be within his body. Of course! Five fundamental elemental natures. If these operate the way other elemental jutsu do…then I know how to stop them!'

"The thread beasts! Counter their elemental nature! It will overpower their jutsu and damage them!" Hideyasu commanded, knowing they didn't have many other high-powered options to tear apart the Mask Beasts.

All eyes went wide when the new masked beast opened its maw at Kakuzu's command, and unleashed a fireball that then exploded into a hellstorm of flames. Fujita wasn't sure what his father and Magan had done to avoid the fire, but he had dropped into the lake to avoid the catastrophe below the surface. He could see cloudy tendrils of Hidan's blood dispersing in water, 'If we can keep this up…he won't be able to make that blood-link seal out here on the water. He's going to get tired from the beating, then we can behead him or something!'

Also, his father had an idea of what to do about Kakuzu's jutsu as well. He'd suggested that each masked beast possessed a different element, thusly Fujita concluded, 'We've seen four elements so far. Magan-sama can use some Water Release against the Fire-Type and Dad can use his Wind Release against the Lightning-Type…and if the others are Water and Wind-Type…' He stared with his Byakugan at Kakuzu, 'The Earth element must be in him, maybe his own nature?' Fujita's brow furrowed, 'Then I can defeat him with my Lightning Release!'

When he surfaced again to take a breath, Hideyasu and Magan were already in action. Magan's flock of ducks were airborne, pelting Kakuzu non-stop with eggs that smashed open and leaked corrosive mucus. The Wind and Water masked beasts remained fused, firing ice projectiles at the pestering flock of ducks. Hideyasu had lost the scythe in the tumult, but taunted the Fire Mask Beast's attention to himself by getting too close, and Kakuzu's hand signs formed near automatically when he saw the blunder. Coordinating with his friend, Magan rushed in as the Fire Mask unleashed its hellstorm again, and fired his own Geyser Jet of water from his mouth, usurping the power of the Fire-Style chakra to convert it into empowered Water Release.

The column of steel-hard, rushing water shot through the Fire Mask and shattered it. The threads fluffed apart lifelessly after that. Immediately afterward, Kakuzu leapt and bounded off the wall of the dome, soaring through air to stick down a rain of sharpened threads to pierce the summoned ducks tormenting him. He also formed hand signs, and directed a cheap shot at Fujita: the Lightning Mask Beast discharged its bolt at the boy separated from his older companions.

He hardly even thought it over. He'd seen his father use such a tactic earlier— Fujita extended his hands to brace for the Lightning Element, hoping to counter it with his own, rushing his Lightning Nature to his palms. The sheer force of chakra from the Mask Beast rocked him, his feet slipping on water, gritting his teeth and sweating as he held and held, frying from the heat of the lightning. Stray arcs zapped off in other directions, momentarily buffered by Fujita's pushback…but the jutsu broke through. What remained of the technique struck him and he went flying, blasted back to the dome's wall. The breath was knocked out of him, but Fujita rejoiced that he was still conscious and fit enough to fight…if a bit singed.

"GOT YA!" Hidan slashed down at him with his scythe. Fujita had no time to cry out in surprise when the other of the Akatsuki pair came surging back, tool scroll weapons having been pulled out to leave behind bloody gashes in flesh.

Hidan lost his footing and seemed to slide, then was pulled backwards by a stream of wind. He slipped, screeching, all the way through the space and was tossed into Kakuzu, where the two fell with a splash. Fujita's chest was heaving as he stood there, amazed that he'd been spared from a mortal blow. He spotted his father a few dozen meters away, holding his hands in a curious position, his face blank with focus.

Long ago, Hideyasu had learned to master his Wind Nature in a unique way, tapping into remote interchanges of air pressure that could be controlled with chakra. Though the skill couldn't be used to damage or even cut a target, Hideyasu had learned how to create and direct such breezes to abruptly move targets.

Magan roared happily at his friend, "Slipfoot Wind! We're not at war, but you've still got it!" He then had to contend with an onslaught of Ice Release from the combined Mask Beast, which was pushing Magan's personal Warding Sphere to its limit.

"Dad!" Fujita called to his father, "Can you do that again?"

"Well sure! Why do you think they gave me that ridiculous nickname—?"

"Move me!" Fujita instructed, "There's a fifth element not in the other masks. I can destroy it!"

Ah, the fifth element. Hideyasu understood that Fujita was referencing an Earth Nature, theoretically contained inside Kakuzu himself. Hideyasu was well aware that both of his sons were Lightning Style users, and Fujita had come a long way in his Nature manipulation, but he was not about to throw his own child at the danger.

Hideyasu shot the idea down with a raspberry sound, "Pztt! Nope! Forget it."

"Dad-!"

"You're injured! Leave the rest to us!" Hideyasu was chasing after the Lightning Mask Beast as it retreated from him, wisened up to his prolific use of Wind-Style, to which it was susceptible.

Magan's Warding Sphere dissipated after a cluster of surrounding ice cracked around him, forcing him to retreat. He was out of breath and moving more slowly, having expended so much chakra. He redirected his remaining ducks to fire gastroliths and eggs at the approaching Water-and-Wind Mask Beast. Seeing a weakened target, Hidan had regrouped and charged at Magan…only to be slipped away again, "-aww fuuuck—!" Hidan's distant cry was audible as he splatted against the dome's far wall.

Unfortunately, Kakuzu had the same idea. He'd seized Magan by a mass of threads, grappling with him, forcing him to cut himself free with his sword as the Lightning and Ice Mask Beasts lumbered in to surround him. Outside of the great Warding Sphere, Kitano could hardly breathe, wracked with nerves as his father was ganged up on.

"Dad!" Fujita wanted his father to trust him, to work with him.

Magan was seized again, and Hideyasu rushed towards his friend as he struggled, held up for the masked beasts to take aim. Hideyasu's Air Palm knocked Kakuzu back, who went tumbling over the water as Magan was dropped, and the Taketori leader scraped up the strength to defend himself.

"DAD!" Fujita cried at the top of his voice.

Hideyasu felt a twinge in his chest. As a shinobi, he couldn't ignore a comrade's opportunity to strike, even if that comrade happened to be his son. He felt for the air flow around Fujita, who had drawn the tantō that Tenten had forged for him, and then whipped Fujita forward on a rocketing breeze.

Kakuzu had only just stood and looked up when a pint-sized ninja crashed into him and plunged a Lightning-infused dagger through his chest. His cloak shredded, smoking from the electrical discharge, and a gargling sound passed his lips before he fell backwards again— his main heart destroyed. The remaining Mask Beasts wailed and about-faced; the Lightning Mask Beast seized Fujita with its threaded arm and tossed him away from its languishing master. Meanwhile, the Ice Mask Beast unleashed its final onslaught of ice spires. Hideyasu was able to protect himself with a Rotation, but Magan was impaled on a spike.

No one heard Kitano's screaming at first, but when they did, all realized it was because he had dropped the Warding Sphere to rush to his wounded father. The Taketori ducks fluttered in to gather around the pair, no longer holding off enemy threats. When Hideyasu exited his spin, he saw the masked beasts scooping up Kakuzu's unresponsive body to drag it towards the shore. He saw Kitano heaving Magan away, saw Fujita running towards them to assist.

And Hidan's scythe blades ripped through Fujita's side and back in a spatter of blood.

The blow stunned the boy and he dropped out of a straight run, landing sideways in the water some 15 meters away from his father. In that instant, Hideyasu knew it was a horrific injury but also that Fujita was still alive, slowly sinking, and that as Hidan turned with a cackle and ran towards the shore, Fujita would soon be killed by Hidan's curse. The Akatsuki nin was jubilant, his bloodied scythe tailing after him as he pulled on the cable to reel it back.

Terror and hatred met in an unknowable front in Hideyasu's heart. That focal point of feeling made everything clear, ionizing his thought processes and motions to free a burst of power he'd never known was lurking inside.

His retaliating Air Palm dripped with Wind Nature, very like the maneuver Neji favored. Hideyasu's vacuum wave soared and cut the cable of Hidan's weapon, letting the scythe plop uselessly into water and be rinsed of Fujita's blood. Dismayed as he looked back (a sudden lack of weight on his weapon) Hidan skidded to a halt on the lake, "For fuck's sake—"

Then he saw stars.

Hideyasu had used a windslip on himself, launching forward on a jetstream to barrel into Hidan, pounding him back toward the roots of the village's great tree with non-stop Jyukken jabs. Rapid-fire, drilling blows pummeled Hidan vertically up, grating him against the great tree's trunk, sending bark askew in shavings with a horrible cracking sound. By the time Hideyasu had throttled the Akatsuki outlaw up to the lowest bough of the tree, Hidan looked positively mangled…and yet he'd conjured enough strength to leap away onto a branch. Hideyasu pursued single-mindedly.

'My son! My son!' His thoughts teemed with fear and grief as he moved. Hidan seemed to take on another role in Hideyasu's mind, a visage of some plunderer who would rob him of his children. Hidan was, after all, some freakish incarnation of death. But what right did this monster have to lay a finger on any child of his? When they'd just begun their lives, their careers? When they'd only just begun to learn happiness and responsibility? This creature that delighted in suffering, killing, and serving a perverse god…would have to answer to him.

Hidan whipped around tree branches, leaping and diving like a monkey, ducking beneath wild Air Palm waves, "Heh heh! You're mad! You're mad I got him! He's yours, eh? Is he yours? Ahahahahahaha!" Hidan was reveling in the reaction he'd goaded from the rampaging Leaf ninja, tearing apart the tree-top trying to catch him.

Yes, that was exactly it. He was tormented. At this rate, he'd make a miscalculation that could prove fatal, so it wouldn't do to get carried away in a rage. Hideyasu was well aware of that.

But he'd lost Hikune. His heart vibrated at such a frequency that he couldn't ignore that truth. That anguish.

For so long he'd held his head high, grieving in silence and comforting Kayato and Fujita as they mourned passionately for months. His eldest who was to be steward after him, to shepherd the Hyuga clan toward a brighter future; who was supposed to look after Neji, Hinata, and all of his younger charges. His first child who had intrigued and enthralled him so, as a young, mystified father. The tickle-fights. Star-gazing at night. Berry-picking. Disciplined sparring. Shogi. Tea ceremonies. Summers at the Taketori estate. Questions about girls. Hard-learned lessons. So much pride and joy that his heart could never have been more filled, at least until Fujita entered their lives.

He was gone. Hikune was never coming back. Would never ask him another question. Would never make him smile or laugh, would never drive him nuts with stupid decisions again.

Hideyasu felt droplets sliding down his face, trying to breathe as Hidan raced away from him between brown leaves and gnarled branches.

Ah, but.

In spite of this misery, Fujita took up his brother's mantle with quiet grace. He had been holding his father up all along, without ever really saying anything about it. Hideyasu had depended on him to feel strong again and to look toward a future that wasn't as bleak as he'd pictured. He had blossomed in front of his father's eyes to lend hope, share fortitude, and give his parents something to hold on to, when they'd felt like they were spinning at the end of an unwinding rope in their despair. Fujita had kept Hikune alive in his heart, made him live on. He'd learned so much from all of his friends, and a new, precious older sister.

'If I lose you…' He'd seen that spray of blood. Saw Fujita drop sideways into water, eyes rolling back in his head from the pain of Hidan's blow. There'd be no point to any of this, without him. No point in existing, after experiencing the profound meaning and delight he'd discovered in the little boys he called his own. Were they both departed from this earth, Hideyasu would go absolutely mad and never be apologetic in doing so.

He caught Hidan out on the edge of a branch with a windslip, and Hideyasu hurled him to the branch's opposite end, smashing him into the trunk to finally corner him.

"Don't be so salty! I've got to collect him. He's a prime offering now that he fucked up Kakuzu, it's like he did me a favor!" Hidan crowed with a curling smile, "Go have other kids, if you're so mad! Jeez! They're replaceable!"

"THEY WILL NEVER BE REPLACED!" Furious, Hideyasu charged at the rogue.

Hidan snapped open the retractable spear he'd kept on his hip, likewise racing forward to catch the enraged Hyuga father in a moment of weakness. Body bending and ducking, Hideyasu dodged each swing and slash of Hidan's pike, only returning blows when Hidan opened his guard. The restraint was excruciating. He wanted the criminal to pay for what he'd done to Fujita. His heart was sick with it. But he'd survived the last shinobi war by capitalizing on timing, on seizing the right moment, and he wasn't about to throw that experience away now.

"Not—! Half bad! For a washed-up vet!" Hidan mocked him as he swung and spun, dancing along the branch, "You'll make for a good sacrifice too!"

There was an opening, and Hideyasu had drilled 24 tenketsu closed in a matter of seconds, retreating swiftly, but was tripped in the process. Hidan had kicked a leg out from under him, whirling around on a return to catch Hideyasu's head with his pike. An Air Palm shot the retractable spear out of Hidan's hand in the nick of time, spinning it away before it dropped from the height of the great tree. Hideyasu also fell. Clucking with impatience, Hidan rested his hands on his hips to stand on the branch, wondering what it would take to bring down such stubborn prey.

While the Akatsuki nin gloated, Hideyasu channeled a vacuum wave downward, forcing himself up through air at an angle, his feet connecting with the tree's trunk to bound off of it with momentum. When he jumped up to the branch again, Hidan did not look at all impressed.

"Tch! You're starting to bore me, you old fart! Let's take this downstairs..." Hidan leapt from the branch to plummet through air, since a fall from this height was manageable for him. He'd collect his weapons down below.

Hideyasu sneered, "Let's not."

He shot his hands forward with a Wind Release Air Palm, and cut Hidan into four separate pieces. Said pieces scattered thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk! among the tree's gigantic roots.

The man sucked shuddering breaths in and determined that the threat, as far as he could tell, was neutralized. Hideyasu descended from the tree, racing across the lake's surface and finding that it was abandoned. The Mask Beasts were gone, as was Kakuzu's body. Kitano, Magan, and Fujita were nowhere to be found.

"Fujita!" He cried out in a panic, his Byakugan searching the space. It wasn't as if his son had sunk to the lake bottom in the meantime. He simply wasn't anywhere.

"Over here!" A voice called to him from the shore.

Hideyasu spotted a Genin, a young boy, waving him over. There was nothing suspicious about him that the Byakugan could detect. It was a Waterfall villager. He hurried over and before he could ask any questions, the Genin ushered him along, "Quick! I'll show you the evacuation route. Shibuki-sama said it's still not safe. We already took your team with us—"

Hideyasu had to interrupt, "Where's my son? He was injured!"

"With us! That's why I'm up here, I've actually gotta cover the trail…" The boy kicked dirt over fresh blood trails left behind by Magan and Fujita, who'd been hauled away, "Can't leave traces…oh. Hyuga-sama! I'm Ryuju. Thanks again for helping us."

Hideyasu lightened up slightly, "Ah…that's quite alright."

"Over here." At the far side of the settlement, they came upon a large, dumpster-sized compost box absolutely rank with fertilizer. Behind the wooden installation, Ryuju ducked down and slid aside a panel, revealing a secret entrance to a subterranean escape tunnel, "This way, Hyuga-sama! I've got to close it behind us."

As instructed, Hideyasu descended into the dark, narrow cavern as Ryuju cleaned up their trail and slid the panel shut, clambering down uneven stones into the space. There was only one way forward, and so Hideyasu moved with cautious haste into the dark.

"Did you get everyone down here?" Hideyasu wondered, "Many villagers were still injured."

"We carried them. A lot of us are still trainees, but we managed. Many other vulnerable villagers were hiding down here anyway. It's a newer escape route." Ryuju explained, "Our Elders said we needed new secret paths in case nukenin ever came back to hurt us. So they wouldn't know where to look…"

"How right they were about that…" Hideyasu agreed with a shaky sigh.

He noted grimly that the bodies of murdered villagers still out in the plaza would likely not be tended to until the all-clear was given. Or, until some kind of reinforcements arrived for protection. They couldn't be sure other Akatsuki members wouldn't show up.

The path extended and curved, precarious; naturally carved for the most part with a sad excuse for a walkable path. It'd be difficult for normal citizens and victims to keep their footing in here. Ahead was distant lantern light, and Hideyasu sped up. The tunnel opened into a wider atrium, at the mouth of which half a dozen Waterfall ninja perked up and regarded Hideyasu in alarm. Ryuju fell into step beside him, "It's alright, he's with me! This is Hyuga-sama—"

Hideyasu waved off the formality, since that felt more like his cousin Hiashi's title anyway, "Just Hideyasu, will do. I'm only a steward. Not actually a lord…"

The sentinels relaxed, smiling wanly and letting them pass the checkpoint. Another Genin waiting at the post bounced up to her feet, "Ryuju-kun! What was it like up there? Dad said it was a nightmare…"

"Bad." The boy didn't want to provide grisly details, "It's…so, so bad. I cleared what trails I could. Had to hurry…"

"Come sit with me." The kunoichi pulled him over to her overturned milk crate. Ryuju tiredly took a seat and looked back to Hideyasu.

"Sir, just a bit further ahead you'll find your team with Shibuki-sama. Sorry it's a bit crowded down here…I'm gonna take a break now."

Hideyasu nodded to him, "Thank you." He moved on, stepping carefully all through the space where villagers were huddled up with various belongings, supplies, and odd-and-ends.

Further in, Shibuki was seated with his back pressed to the cave wall, holding up a Taketori summon duck to his battered face. A healing glow radiated from the bird's feathers. Beside Shibuki, Fujita and Magan were laid out on the floor with ducks nestled all around them, tending to their wounds in the same manner. Kitano sat beside them while wringing his hands, conferring with a young Waterfall Medic-nin who was inspecting the unconscious Leaf ninja.

"Hideyasu-sama!" Kitano immediately acknowledged the man who kneeled down beside Fujita, "What happened up there? Did you beat him?"

"I don't know. I doubt he'll be able to ever lift a weapon again, though." Hideyasu admitted, "How are they…?"

"Stabilized." The medically trained kunoichi could not be a day over sixteen years old, "Their wounds were serious, but these ducks have been a great help. I've nearly exhausted all of my chakra trying to heal everyone…"

"Miss, aren't there any other medics here who can help?" Hideyasu felt guilty that her attention was now cemented to Leaf ninja, as opposed to other bandaged and battered villagers.

She shook her head, "My…Shishou got killed. And my…" She gulped, "Another student with me who was in training for Medical jutsu…he's dead."

Hideyasu and Kitano shrunk, shoulders sagging, finally getting a sense of the damage done to Hidden Waterfall, and the lives and talent it had lost.

"It's just me now. I still have a lot to learn…but I have to keep trying. I'll go to Leaf for more lessons if I have to!" She bucked up a little, "I appreciate that you didn't hesitate, and even snuck into the village! We'd probably all be dead by now if you hadn't acted."

Hideyasu shook his head, "I'm more grateful to you, Miss. You helped save my son and my dearest friend's life."

"You can call me Wakako." The girl introduced herself, "And…let's call it even, then. As new allies, our villages should be helping each other."

"That's right, Wakako-chan." Shibuki agreed, setting the duck down and revealing his mostly restored face, "Whatever it takes…we'll cooperate. Don't worry about your training, I'll have that handled for you. I know it was hard losing them…" He choked up, speaking with a cracking voice, "If I'd moved sooner and used the Hero's Water…maybe I could've saved them."

The girl shook her head, "There was no time."

He squeezed his eyes shut as tears rolled down his cheeks, "Even if there had been time, I might've failed. I'm a crummy ninja. A dogshit leader. No one can depend on me, especially now…"

"Now is that any way for a village leader to talk?" Hideyasu chided, "You've suffered a loss, but don't tell yourself you didn't do everything you could have to prepare. You obviously have."

"Maybe. I still could've trained harder…perfected more jutsu, way back when." Shibuki shrugged sadly, "It's too late. Almost a quarter of our population was wiped out, and I know…when Fū finds out…her heart will break. All she's ever wanted was to protect this village."

Wakako stood to give Shibuki a pat, "Don't give up now, Shibuki-sama. I should go find Benio-sama now and see how she's faring. I only saw her and the baby once since I got down here."

"Y-Yeah…please go check on them." He agreed wearily.

"Make sure you see them too, soon." Wakako advised. With that, she was off into deeper parts of the cave.

Shibuki heaved a sigh, tipping his head back, "How can I ever face Benio-chan now…?"

Kitano was curious, "Is she a family member of yours?"

"You could say that." The village leader smiled ruefully, "She's my girlfriend. She's also the strongest ninja in this village, so…I've been thinking about abdicating my position to her."

"Holy smokes!" Hideyasu was bewildered by such a proposition, "Is that even allowed?"

"It is if I say it is!" Shibuki reasoned, "I inherited my title from my father before me, and I clearly don't deserve it. But she does. I've spoken to Benio about it and she seemed amenable to the idea." He scratched his cheek, "She just…uh…may not be ready to take over right away."

"Given the current circumstances, you ought not rush it." Hideyasu agreed, nodding in unison with Kitano. After the village had been ransacked by the Akatsuki, a shift of power probably wasn't going to have the smoothest transition.

"Well, apart from this attack, it's also because we're going to have our hands full for a while, as a family." Shibuki explained sheepishly, "You know, our baby was born just last night. She's exhausted and so was I! When I was making preparations to conclude agreements with Hidden Leaf early this morning, I hadn't gotten much sleep, so I've been…I've just been beat."

"Ah, that'd explain it." Hideyasu was highly amused.

"Oh! Congratulations to you!" Kitano cheered, and then hastily added, "Having children out of wedlock is a bit unseemly. Most unbecoming of a leader." Shibuki was bug-eyed at the teenage boy scolding him, "My Dad says if I ever did such a thing he'd wring my neck and make me join a monastery…"

Hideyasu roared with laughter while Shibuki hung his head in shame.

"Then, Dad said he'd send my child to a monastery to lead a moral, ascetic life as well. Or a convent, if it's a girl…" Kitano went on.

"Okay already." Shibuki grumbled.

"He'd compensate the maiden I burdened with a conciliatory fund—"

"Will you shut up already, little duck ninja!?" Shibuki tossed a duck at Kitano's head. It flapped and quacked, landing politely in Kitano's lap.

Hideyasu had fallen to his back, chest convulsing as laughter erupted from deep in his gut. Of course Magan would say such ridiculous things to his son to preserve the Taketori clan's honor! He was rolling and wheezing, mirthful tears gathering at the corner of his eyes.

"I just thought I'd share what I was told." Kitano said in all seriousness, "I'd definitely do whatever Dad said, if I got into that much trouble. I've only ever been introduced to one young lady I liked, and I was as respectful as could be!" He reported, thinking of Hinata.

Shibuki heaved himself to his feet, dusting his pants off, "Good for you, kid."

"Once you abdicate your position to Benio-sama, you could join a monastery—"

"Alright, I've had enough of your teasing. I'm gonna go check on everyone!" Shibuki barked, marching around the unconscious (but healing) Magan and Fujita, and also the giggling Hideyasu, "Including Benio-chan and our daughter. I didn't do anything wrong! If she'll have me, I'll definitely be her husband! As if I'd be content to keep things so casual! You've insulted me, you blabbermouth…"

"I meant no disrespect, Shibuki-sama." Kitano assured him.

"Yeah, yeah!" Marching moodily, Shibuki waved him off and made his escape.

It took a Hideyasu a while to come to his senses, since he was a chuckling mess. Perhaps his system really needed levity to recover from all of the horrible feelings he'd dealt with before. He was recuperating.

"You know, Hideyasu-sama, after all of that…" Kitano spoke up again, "We still didn't get anything to eat. I'm starved."

"Oh. Right." Hideyasu sat up and cleared his throat, "Surely someone could spare some rations in our moment of need?"

They asked around, and settled for some rice balls and smoked trout— some of the best they'd ever tasted in their lives.

---

Four Hours Later

Dwelling in a cave for extended periods of time was rather daunting, Hideyasu discovered. The eerie dimness, the hushed, anxious voices of occupants, the cramped, damp, rocky space…he understood why this refuge was a last resort.

It made little difference how long they chose to lay low, considering that Fujita and Magan were still unconscious, but mainly for the purpose of sleeping off their exhaustion. When Hideyasu stole a look at Fujita's wounded right flank and back, the deep, puckered scythe scars were completely sealed, dressed in ointment and bandages.

He ran his hand along the top of Fujita's head, petting him absently, 'How much blood did you lose? It isn't as if we have any way to set up a transfusion at the moment. I want to get you out of here, my nugget. So you can be safe at home and recover…'

Kitano was coming and going from the recovery area, exploring. He'd spoken to numerous people in the cave, ascertained that about 11 Jounin remained in all of Waterfall after the attack, as well as 13 Chunin and 33 Genin, not counting Shibuki or the village elders. He reported these findings to Hideyasu.

'Not good. 57 ninja in a hidden village is woefully inadequate. They'll never be able to withstand another attack from the Akatsuki, never mind an attack from one of the Great Villages.' Hideyasu pondered over the predicament, 'The Tide Village still has over 560 ninja remaining, even after it was sacked by the Akatsuki. Granted, many are in training, but that's a better defense. The Great Villages have thousands of shinobi at their disposal…' His thoughts turned to Waterfall's jinchuriki, Fū, 'Where is that child, anyway? Shibuki didn't say anything. Could he really have sent her away in anticipation of this kind of an attack?'

When Kitano returned again with an extra blanket to spread over Magan and Fujita, Hideyasu beckoned him over and whispered, "Kitano…can you find out where Fū is?"

"The jinchuriki?"

"Shhh! Not so loud. I don't want people to think we're snoops." Hideyasu shushed him, "That might still be sensitive information at present, but if we aren't told anything, how can we be sure she isn't at risk or in another location the Akatsuki could strike?"

"I'll get on it." Kitano nodded.

"Good. And find out how much longer we'll be stuck in this cave. There has to be another exit." Hideyasu requested.

The boy set out with such subject matter in mind. Villagers shuffled around and reorganized the space, trying to get comfortable, some softly crying and speaking, other venturing into the depths of the cave to find space to improvise a bathroom. The sentinels at the cavern's mouth changed guard near the entryway tunnel, exchanging places with Chunin and Genin who had taken time to rest. Some still shuffled around in blankets and cloaks to stave off the chill of the cave.

One cloaked newcomer approached the row of milk crates used for seating and then stopped, about-faced, and wordlessly came to stand beside the Leaf ninja gaggle. The visitor crouched down and touched Fujita's cheek as he slept, which threw Hideyasu for a loop. The man was boggled as the Waterfall nin mumbled, "You actually made it here…I kept asking but no one could tell me. Did you…? Get hurt?"

Hideyasu blinked his eyes hard and then asked, "…Fū?"

"KYAH!" She fell backwards, her hood slipping back, "You know me? Who're you—?" Fū got a rudimentary head scan of the man who had addressed and surprised her, "You…you…." Her mouth pulled into a wide grin, "You're that funny guy! HAH! Yes, I remember!"

"We've…met?" Hideyasu was perplexed.

"Only in Fujita's head, we have!" Fū tittered happily, "I saw you in his thoughts. During the Chunin Exam in Suna! He was thinking about you." She explained, "Also, duh, you look like him! Your hair's really long. I like his short. Is he okay? Why is he asleep—?"

"Fū, please, just a moment. Let me catch up." Hideyasu smiled warmly, "I am Hyuga Hideyasu, although…maybe you already knew that, because it sounds like you're a mind-reader."

"I'm not, I'm not! I can just pick up feelings sometimes, when Chōmei helps me get a scan on people. I'll glean a lot of things, but not everything." Fū explained, "What I do know is…Fujita loves you a lot. I think you're his dad."

"I am." Hideyasu chuckled.

She adjusted herself to sit in cross-legged fashion, smiling, "Nice to meet ya!"

"The pleasure is mine." When he gave a slight bow of greeting, Fū awkwardly mirrored the gesture in a frantic attempt to be respectful.

"So…" She looked back at Fujita, "How hurt is he?"

"He'll be alright now. It was a serious injury, but it's been tended to. Exhaustion and blood loss have probably made him tired, so I've let him sleep." Hideyasu assessed, "Were you told what happened? I imagine if you were permitted to act as a guard, you'll know at least a bit of it."

"Sure I know! First thing this morning, I hear: Akatsuki! Get to the hideaway! Shibuki-sama forced me down here, since it's safest. It's downright backwards if you ask me!" Fū fumed in a quiet voice, "I'm supposed to protect everyone. Instead, everyone got hurt because of me, including my Mom! Even Fujita…" She dragged her sorrowful gaze away from the boy, staring at the cave floor.

"I understand." He really did empathize with her frustration.

"Shibuki-sama didn't tell me much about the attack, but I can tell a lot of villagers aren't here." The absences had not escaped Fū's notice, "If something happened to them…I…" Her warbling voice trailed off.

"I'm sorry you have to feel such pain. We did what we could to try to stop it." Hideyasu told her, "It isn't easy to be in your position, young lady. Almost no one asks to be a jinchuriki. It's a responsibility often heaped on those who aren't ready. It can be just as hard…to lead a village and consider that the jinchuriki intended to defend it is a person too, and wonder whether or not it's right to gamble with the jinchuriki's life." He'd gotten an impression of Shibuki's character and how he cared about Fū genuinely, "Don't blame yourself. A time will come when the defense of your home and people will fall to you. Shibuki knows that, and he's been trying to forestall such a thing. I've…done the same for Fujita."

Sniffling, she peeked over at the man, detecting something fleeting in his face. She absorbed what had recently happened to Hideyasu, glimpsing into the apex of heartache he'd come down from.

Eyes wide and teary, Fū said, "I'm so sorry."

He was baffled, "You? For wha—"

"You don't want to lose them. I know Fujita's brother died. He kept dreaming about him during the Exam." Fū confessed softly, "You probably don't want me to talk about that…"

"…Ah. You already did." Hideyasu was not entirely off-put by the subject, even though it stung.

"S-Sorry…"

"Now, now. Stop apologizing. You have much too big a heart, don't cry over my feelings." He gave Fū a thumping pat on her back, "I'll be alright. I got through it."

A gurgle, "O-Okay! I swear…I'm actually tough. But, uh, I'm super in-tune with my emotions."

"Heh! Me too."

"Do you think when we get out of here…we should go to Hidden Leaf?" She wondered.

Hideyasu nodded, "That may be the safest option, if we don't detect any other threats after our exit. If we do face further threats…we may need you and your villagers to stand by until an escort and reinforcements arrive."

"That's what I thought." Fū's curled shoulders straightened as she began to cheer up, "Though…I'm pretty stoked to see the Leaf Village!"

"It is very different from your home." Hideyasu informed her, "Almost five times the size of Waterfall, heavily urbanized and bustling…"

"Oooh! I like bustle!"

While he cracked up over Fū's excitement, Kitano returned and sat down again, frowning quizzically at the cloaked girl present before addressing Hideyasu, "Hideyasu-sama, I couldn't find Fū…"

"I'm right here." The girl was entertained.

"Oh." Kitano greeted her with a small bow, "Ah, it's good to meet you, master of the Seven-Tails!"

"Whoa, easy there! I'm not Chōmei's master, we're friends!" Fū corrected him.

"…oh." He had to wrap his head around that, "Well...that's good. I'm Taketori Kitano. That's my father, there." Kitano indicated the slumbering Magan, "Please know that we and the Hyuga clan will make good on our promise to defend Takigakure from the likes of the Akatsuki, or any other menace!"

"I definitely know it now!" She beamed at him.

His mouth curved up slightly, appreciative of Fū's outgoing personality.

"Did you get any more information, Kitano?" Hideyasu asked.

"I did. I spoke to one of the Elders, as well as Shibuki-sama and Benio-sama. A few shinobi went ahead to the end of the cave system and found a blockage." Kitano reported, "Part of the tunnel may have had a natural cave-in recently because of erosion, which the Elder said is quite common. They already have people working on clearing it. The exit is about 18 meters beyond the blocked area, and all of the stones have to be moved by hand…" He brightened, "But we can continue to move everyone through the cavern after that. They estimated less than an hour …"

"One more delay..." Hideyasu sighed, "Once it's clear, it will take time to move many of the defenseless and injured villagers."

"Benio-sama said that as well." Kitano noted.

"It's stuffy down here. I've been stuck in this cave all day. I need air." Fū was in agreement, "The bathroom situation also isn't ideal. At least we have plenty of food and water."

"It helps to look on the bright side." Kitano noted, glancing at Magan, "I just hope Dad wakes up soon."

"Why not just give him a shake?" Fū suggested, "He's not in bad shape, is he?"

"I don't think so. Wakako-san treated him after our ducks healed the worst of his wound."

Before Hideyasu could voice his opinion that it was downright rude to shake the leader of the Taketori clan awake, Fū had already leaned over and rattled the man. Kitano squawked at the move, wrestling her hands off of Magan, "Hey! Hey! Stop, I didn't say you could do anything-!"

"…herg…" Magan stirred.

"See! It worked a charm!" Fū tittered.

"Kindly don't shake my son like that." Hideyasu advised sanguinely.

"Oh, no, no! Fujita needs his beauty rest." Fū knew it quite well.

"And my Dad doesn't?" Kitano grumbled. He was rather relieved to see Magan open his eyes to a squint, fidgeting as he regained consciousness, "How do you feel, Dad?"

"…ugh. Not great." Magan attempted to sit up, then laid back with a wince, "Ack! That last hit…I'll be sore for weeks."

"Be careful, Dad. Your middle's all closed up, but it was a scary wound. I wasn't sure if the ducks' Restoration could handle it." Kitano told him.

"Seems it was handled just fine! No need to worry." Magan turned his head, smiling at Hideyasu, "You look robust, Hide-kun."

"Don't tease me. I know my hair is a mess right now." Hideyasu quipped back.

"Those Akatsuki members?" Magan inquired.

"Incapacitated." Hideyasu confirmed.

"Hmm, thank goodness." Magan saw that Fujita was unconscious on his left side, "What happened to Fujita?"

"He was also wounded." Hideyasu didn't want to give the specifics, "But he'll be alright."

"So we're not much worse for the wear…and we seem to be…underground." Magan assessed, "Kitano, help me sit up." Kitano had to gently heave his father upright in a seated position.

"We'll be out of here soon, Kitano's dad. Unless Shibuki-sama tells us to stay put for a bit longer." When Fū spoke to Magan, he goggled at the teenager, "Ah. Sorry! I'm Fū!"

Realization illuminated Magan's citrine yellow eyes, "The famous Fū…so we meet. I am Kitano's dad, but please call me Magan."

"Yes, yes! Super nice to meet you!"

"Does anyone want something to eat? How about you, Dad?" Kitano asked, knowing his father had slept through the last meal that had been served.

"I could do with a small something." Magan supposed. They had missed their opportunity for a meal and relaxation earlier. Kitano set out once again, and Fū resisted the urge to interpret all of Magan's surface feelings to figure him out. She was practicing how to make social discoveries through conversation, without clairvoyant assistance.

"Thank you for helping us." Fū shared her gratitude, "I don't know how I'll ever pay you back…for jumping into action. It's something I've never been allowed to do. But…I can design a killer workout, and I'm a pro at water balloon fights. If you—"

"Ha! I don't want to think about my next workout while I'm feeling this awful." Magan was amused, "Watching a water balloon fight? That's another matter."

"Endless entertainment." Fū agreed with an enthusiastic nod.

"Fū." Hideyasu collected her attention again, "For now, there's no need to fret over repayment. If we can keep you and your villagers out of harm's way, this debt can be cleared by you helping our village if it is ever in need. Konoha has its own jinchuriki who will also be targeted by the Akatsuki—"

"Naruto—" When she blurted the name, Hideyasu and Magan's eyes went cartooinshly wide in astonishment, "Uh. Uh! I-! I'm not supposed to talk about it. RIGHT. UH! Forget you heard that! But of course I'll always have his back!"

"I…should've known. You were on a team with him and my son, I was told." Hideyasu recalled, settling down, "I wonder if Fujita is aware and he hasn't said anything?"

"He isn't." Fū assured him, "Naruto asked me not to tell. He didn't want to be treated differently…"

"Whether Fujita was or wasn't aware, he wouldn't treat Naruto differently." Hideyasu was confident in that, "Or, if you're a measure-stick to go by…he would treat you differently, I guess. Yes. He'd treat you with deference and admiration. He already has." The man smiled, "Fujita doesn't fear what he doesn't understand. He's always been open to learning. He treasures his friendships."

Not only did Fū's lip begin to quiver at the sweet admission, but Magan had to turn his face to the side and cough quietly, getting swept up in the emotions.

"Anyway," Hideyasu went on, "Keep that in mind, Fū. The future is uncertain and this fight doesn't end here."

"Yeah…it couldn't be that easy. There's more of them, right?" Fū asked.

Hideyasu nodded, "We don't have an exact count…but it could be anywhere from nine to twelve members of the organization. Perhaps more. The Great Villages have been sharing records of previously profiled members and their jutsu. After today…we'll be adding more details to that list."

"Do the Great Villages share that intel with smaller villages too? Did Shibuki-sama get it?"

"He did. Unfortunately, Waterfall has been attacked by a pair of unknowns." Hideyasu noted.

Fū crossed her arms, "Fujita's Dad…"

"Hideyasu."

"Hideyasu…has anyone ever talked about…getting jinchuriki prepared? Not hiding them, but…really, really prepared? Emergency drills for meeting points and safe zones? Extra training with Tailed-Beasts, honing abilities, and super powerful attacks?" Fū wondered, "If a team of jinchuriki went head-to-head with the Akatsuki, we'd kick their sorry asses!"

"A team of what-?" He gave his head a shake, "Village leaders would never allow it!"

"But imagine the butt-kicking!" Fū insisted.

"Young lady! At least two jinchuriki have already been kidnapped and killed!" Hideyasu reminded her.

"We haven't been able to work together yet!"

"The risks—!"

"There are risks either way! Look, Shibuki-sama never let me stick my nose into anything. Seems like other villages are acting the same way." Fū reasoned, "Can't we make a case for it? I bet the Kazekage—"

"Listen up: the Great Villages don't necessarily see eye-to-eye. They aren't allies. A few are, but not all of them." Hideyasu clarified the issue, "Just because jinchuriki are open-minded and willing to work together doesn't mean their villages are. It's always been difficult to get the Five Kages to agree on anything."

"The Akatsuki should be the thing to make them see eye-to-eye!" She bobbed her head side to side as she repeated the damned phrase, "What's with these stubborn old blowhards? And, like, shouldn't jinchuriki automatically get a seat on decision-making committees because it's their lives being used as a sword and shield for the village? Didn't they earn that much? Not to be locked in an underground shelter and-!"

Fū's shouting made Fujita wince and stir where he laid on the floor. Hideyasu gave her a somewhat displeased look, but then totally got over himself when his son batted his eyes open blearily.

"Unnnghh…uhmf." Fujita blinked hard, waking to strange pains and strange surroundings, "…ah…Dad?"

"Did we disturb your beauty rest?" Hideyasu joked, patting the top of his son's head.

"Beauty…? Hnnrg…" He winced again, feeling the sting of his closed-up wound as he tried to shift, possibly sit upright, "Is…Magan-sama…?"

"I'm okay!" The Taketori leader waved his hand tiredly from where he was seated. Fujita barely saw the motion, but was glad to hear his friend's father was alive and well.

"That death-god cut you and tried to use your blood for his curse, but I stopped him." Hideyasu recapped, "All survivors are now waiting in this underground cave for the evacuation order. Both of those criminals are indisposed…"

"H-How long…was I out?" Fujita asked, shutting his eyes again in exhaustion.

"Four or so hours. You earned it." Hideyasu commended him.

"Earned it?" The boy groused with closed eyes, heedless that Fū was seated on his opposite side, puffing her cheeks in excited silence, "I let my guard down and was hit by a blow I could've stopped! That was careless. I messed up so many times in that fight…"

Since Fū's anticipation had not escaped Hideyasu's notice, and he was aware the young kunoichi had a bond with his son. He decided to be helpful and discreetly clear the space. With facial gestures, Hideyasu communicated his intent to Magan.

"Uh…" Magan sort of understood his friend wanted to excuse himself temporarily, "…you know what? I need to use the restroom. I heard the bathroom situation is perilous down here." He inclined his head, "Hide-kun, could you help me out?"

"Sure, sure!" Hideyasu stepped over to his friend, telling his sulking son, "We'll be back soon, Fujita. Relax for now."

"Hmnf." A grunt of teenage acknowledgment.

Hideyasu assisted Magan in rising and supported him in hobbling away toward unpopulated parts of the cavern. Fujita laid for another ten seconds, fuming at his weakness and failures in battle when he finally had a sense that someone was still near.

"You did great." Fū assured him, accidentally sifting through some of his thoughts.

Fujita's eyes snapped open, "Fū?!"

She laughed, "Yeah?"

"You're alright!"

"I am! I've been stranded down here in this cave. Couldn't fight when it was time to." Fū told him, "Totally lame, compared to you."

"No, I—!" He blinked his eyes hard, "I'm the one who's…" He settled down when Fū leaned over, snaking her arms underneath him, and Fujita wrapped his arms around her shoulders. They smelled like sweat and cave gravel, clumsy in the embrace, but it was a good horizontal hug nonetheless. Fū eventually tugged Fujita into an upright position. When he sighed into the crook of her neck, she felt a shiver run up her back. Not that he'd noticed.

"I wasn't sure if we made it in time." Fujita confessed.

"The fact that you could be here at all, to help…" Fū sniffled with a smile, "Is the best thing in the world. I never expected another village to help us, with the way things have always been around here. You helped change it."

"I…" His mouth curved into a frown, "Don't want to think about what could've happened…if I didn't…"

"Well, you don't have to!" Fū noted cheerily.

"…did you, uh, meet my-?"

"I met your Dad!"

"Ah." He flushed, wondering what embarrassing things his father may have said while he was unconscious.

"Don't worry about it. He was really nice. One of the few people who's ever actually listened to me." Fū assured him, "I wish Shibuki-sama would listen."

"Shibuki-sama is the village leader here. He has to listen to everyone, from within and without." Fujita observed.

"And he's never let me help!"

"Then he must care a lot—"

"Yeah! He cares. I might've been able to save the villagers up there who were killed!" Fū hissed, her temper spiking, "What's worse? Them or me? Shibuki-sama and I would agree that losing all of them is worse than losing one person."

Fujita took a deep breath and said, "Fū…that's the impossible choice a leader has to deal with. It isn't that easy to just decide. Between one and many. It's the worst. You want him to know how you're feeling, but can you understand how he feels too?"

"Of…course I can." She softened immediately, "Literally. I can feel his feelings. It's kind of terrible. He beats himself up."

"Right. Leading responsibly is the hardest thing anyone can do. I've seen Tsunade-sama struggle with it too, and I know she's a great Hokage. That doesn't mean what she does is easy, or that she isn't conflicted over her decisions. It's the same with Shibuki-sama." Fujita wagered, "You help him…by listening. By taking orders. By supporting him. You don't have to be a hero or stand out to be credible. Sometimes, when we perform our duties and bite our tongues…we are serving a purpose bigger than what we can immediately see."

Fū was silent, resting her hands on cross-legged lap, keeping her eyes trained on the cave floor as Fujita spoke.

"I've never been someone important. Never been in a position to lead or be a hero." Fujita told her, "But I started to think…what I could do was just as valuable. A leader's work doesn't matter if there isn't someone there to support them, to carry out their plans and ideals. I'm still a part of what they do. A part of a team and a village. A part of my clan."

"I understand what you mean." Fū agreed quietly.

"What we do isn't easy either. We deal with our own choices and conflicts. It can be hard to perform our duties. I fail so often…and I sometimes slip up and think of my failures as weakness. Even though I've learned that when I fail, it's another step towards getting something right. Sometimes I do get things right." Fujita smiled to himself, "I have to try to trust myself more."

"Maybe I do…doubt myself a little." Fū admitted, "Since I haven't really gotten involved in conflicts or big missions…and people still have a hard time understanding me…I'm not always sure if I'm helping."

"We've about reached the point where you're going to know that for sure. The Akatsuki are here. You'll have to balance carrying out orders and intervening as a protector of your village." Fujita reminded her, "Thankfully, you don't have to do it alone."

Leaning forward, Fū rested her palm over the back of Fujita's hand on the ground, "How will I know? Which one to do—? Stand by or jump in?"

He smiled, "I don't know!"

"But you said all that stuff!"

"You'll know it when the time comes! I'm not supposed to tell you what to do, I'm just giving advice." Fujita defended.

"Yeesh!" She sat back and folded her arms, "Everyone says I'll know it when I know it— like in the heat of the moment! What if I screw up? The consequences are major now."

"You're the jinchuriki for the Seven-Tails, not me. I'm just a diplomat."

"Just a, psh! You're also my best friend and my pen pal. And you're going to be the caretaker of your clan someday!"

"Ah…not anymore." Fujita corrected the statement, "When I was writing letters to you I might've mentioned becoming steward after my father, but…Great Elder Haburo took that away. He wants Hinata-sama to be stewardess in the future. I might stay in the Main House…but if I ever have a family…we'll probably be a part of the Branch."

"What." Fū over-enunciated, "The. Crap?"

"Clan politics."

"Clans are stupid!" Fū declared, "We barely have any clans here in Waterfall. Maybe three? Hey!" She turned around and shouted to other Waterfall ninja, "Pretentious, noble ninja clans are stupid! Am I right?"

A loud, wide chorus of agreement replied to her as she riled up ninja who agreed with her view.

Fujita bowed his head and shielded his face, "Oh my gosh, stop. You're calling me out."

"Nah, just the dumb people in your clan."

---

After a long while, Hideyasu and Magan returned from their spelunking bathroom trip, kibitzing with their children and Fū while they awaited word about the blockage at the cave exit.

Shibuki eventually returned with a baby swaddled in his arms, and accompanying him was the kunoichi who all assumed to be Benio, his partner. At first glance, she was formidable-looking in standard Jounin garb, her skin as dark as river clay, her black hair furling wildly down her back. A bright red bindi was visible at the center of her forehead. When she took a cautious seat near the group, it was apparent she was moving with discomfort. Her middle was still conspicuously distended, even after childbirth. There were bags under her eyes. Shibuki sat down beside her.

"Leaf ninja," Benio addressed the group, "We need to talk. You fought one of our village's nukenin, Kakuzu. I need you to tell me more about that fight."

"Hello, Benio-sama, we'd be happy to tell you whatever you need to know." Hideyasu greeted her cordially. He and his gaggle introduced themselves to her and she nodded to each of them. She was as regal as a tigress in how she comported herself.

"Kakuzu is a master of the Jiongu, the Earth Grudge Fear technique that is a forbidden art of our village. It is no longer taught to students, primarily because a ninja can take advantage of the technique to unnaturally extend his or her life." Benio explained, "Few elders remain who know of or can use the technique."

"You don't look quite like an elder yet." Magan estimated.

"I'm not." She dismissed the statement and said, "I'll speak on their behalf. How many of Kakuzu's hearts did you destroy?"

The Leaf group looked at each other, fuddled.

"Um. Those were in the masks, right? Each mask symbolized a different element." Fujita recalled.

"Yes. Within each mask was the heart of a ninja who possessed a particular Nature Transformation, stolen from shinobi that Kakuzu defeated." Benio told them, "If you did not destroy all five, he's still alive. And he is most likely stealing hearts from the dead ninja above ground who died at the Akatsuki's hands. To replenish himself."

Everyone listening gasped. Their earlier struggle would have been in vain if Kakuzu could repair himself.

"So I take it you didn't destroy all five?" Benio assumed.

"We didn't." Magan confirmed, "Two was barely achievable. It took all of our effort."

"Then you're going to need more help. He will have five hearts when you confront him again. Any reinforcements you've called to Waterfall need to be aware of how his jutsu works." Benio advised.

"Forgive my asking, my lady, but how do you know what his next move will be?" Hideyasu wondered, "His partner was defeated. He may have retreated to get his own reinforcements."

"Kakuzu will not retreat. He has no reason to. I know how he would respond because it is how I would respond." Benio rolled up the sleeves of her black jumper, revealing both of her arms were riddled with pale stitches, "I, too, am a master of Jiongu."

When the Leaf ninja gasped again, Fū shared a good-natured snicker with Shibuki.

"I might be over-stating," Benio amended, "The technique was passed down to me for posterity, from my grandfather. It took a great deal of trust. I do not take full advantage of the jutsu to extend my life, or take new hearts to use the Elemental Natures contained within. I only use hearts willingly given to me at the end of someone's life. Two: one from my mother, and the other from my dear friend."

Curious, Hideyasu and Fujita observed the kunoichi with their respective Byakugan, glimpsing two elemental masks on Benio's back.

"Fire and Earth." Benio clued them into which elements her Mask Beasts contained, "I am naturally a Water Nature, which I use to augment or weaken the Natures of my beasts."

"What a shame you cannot join us in the coming battle, because it sounds to me we aren't out of the woods yet." Magan figured.

She shook her head, "Not even close. It is a shame."

"How about a more pleasant subject, while we wait to make our escape from this cave?" Hideyasu suggested, "What did you name your daughter?"

Benio looked to Shibuki, smiling softly, and Shibuki answered, "Pimiko."

"Aww! Pimiko-chan!" Fū crooned.

Before Kitano could speak up with words of congratulations, Shibuki cut him off, "Nuh-uh! Not one word out of you, duck ninja."

"I was only going to say she was cute." Kitano defended.

Those gathered fawned over the sleeping babe for a while, and Shibuki even allowed Fū to hold Pimiko, after gently passing her over.

All was quiet for a while until Benio broke the silence, "Shibuki."

"Hm?" His eyes fluttered, fighting off exhaustion from not sleeping in over 12 hours.

"They need help." Benio was speaking about the Leaf team, "I know nothing of the other Akatsuki member who attacked…but we know Kakuzu is a threat even a Kage would be hard-pressed to defeat."

"I don't think we can defeat him." Shibuki wisely assessed, "So we need to find another way to survive and get back-up."

She nodded, "You will be that back-up."

"…you can't be serious." His doubt was palpable.

"Remember what I showed you months ago, in training?"

"Don't." Shibuki warned her sharply, ignoring the gawking looks of those gathered near them, "I'm not worthy. I can barely use the technique."

"Do what you can with it. Whatever you can." Benio insisted, "Our village isn't exceptional, I know. But we've produced a part of this threat, and we mustn't ask others to deal with it for us. Shall we not fight fire with fire?" She smiled, "Kakuzu does not know how to share the Earth Grudge. Surely he's never even thought of it."

"Share?" Fujita mouthed the word in shock, noting the flabbergasted look on his father's face as well.

Fū slowly rocked the baby in her arms, saying in a sing-song voice, "Benio-sama's got-some-tricks! Doo doo doo, da doo doo… 'Lil otter pup, I can't wait to teach you how to be a ninja…"

"If I could fight, I would. Seeing as I've used all my strength already to get Pimiko here…" Benio explained, "I'd hoped you would take on this challenge."

"I…" Shibuki looked at her helplessly, and scanned his eyes over the Leaf team before sighing, "I'll disgrace you and the village if I try."

"No. You disgrace us if you don't." Benio corrected him with a fierce glint in her eye, "Give me your hand."

He was hesitating, thinking back on the many times he had run away, failed to master techniques, and would even hire ninja of other villages to protect his home. He shamed his father's memory, his villagers, and his new family. He had hardly improved in strength and will. Glancing at his sleeping daughter, Shibuki did feel a spike of determination in his gut.

Without a word, Shibuki drew a kunai from the weapon holster on his hip and cut a line across his palm. Benio reached out her hand and did not flinch when he sliced open her hand as well. They laced their fingers and pressed their palms flat to meet wounds. Shibuki set the knife aside to meet his right hand with Benio's left in combined hand seals he had been taught. Essentially, he was opening himself to the invasion of a technique. There was a rising flare of chakra between them.

"Unusual, but fascinating." Hideyasu remarked pleasantly to Magan and Fujita on either side of him.

And then, it got weird. There was a rustling at the back of Benio's sweater as a mask was disturbed on her back, unfurling threads from her shoulder and arm. Shibuki and Benio rose up on their knees as they faced each other, their closeness a little too intimate for a casual onlooker if Kitano's mortified squawk was any indication to go by. Fujita turned his face away slightly, but still dared to see what in the world was going on.

Sliding out from her jumper sleeve, a mask with a heart intact within slipped free with the languid motion of a squid propelling itself underwater, gold threads glimmering. The threads sunk sharp points into Shibuki's arm and began to stitch into flesh, up toward his shoulder. He gritted his teeth and hissed in pain, ignoring the bewildered sounds of observers witnessing the transfer.

Benio's face was placid with focus, "This is a Fire Nature. Just a moment." She pressed a kiss to her boyfriend's lips, unabashed by the scandalized noises of the Leaf group, who'd by then tried to stop watching altogether, "There. Now Zinu will understand you."

Shibuki's eyes were wide, "Did you say…Zinu?"

"Yes," She nodded, smiling, "My technique is stronger than Kakuzu's. The hearts he harvests are stolen and not willingly given. Zinu was my best friend for all of my life, until she passed. She's still here and her heart understands. Most Mask Beasts lack will know how to fight alongside you in ways other Mask Beasts can't. You are a part of me, and so now you can control Zinu as I showed you once before."

"Can I?" He was trying not to be skeptical, wriggling in discomfort as the mask burrowed into his back beneath his gi.

"Don't ask. Just do it." Benio commanded, "We have no other choice."

"Well!" Hideyasu interrupted with a red face, "I hope that's over with now."

"It is." Benio confirmed, "I cannot part with Epika, my Earth Release heart. That is my mother. I must keep Epika with me so I can protect villagers here, if there is a need."

"Right." Shibuki seemed fortified, nodding in agreement, "Thank you for trusting me. I'll fight as hard as I can. I won't let you or Pimiko down."

"Of course you won't." Benio's face was soft with affection.

"Pardon me, my Lady." Fū's mother Igi appeared behind the couple, and she gave a half-assed greeting to the current village leader, "And Shibuki too…"

"Igi. How are you feeling?" Though he didn't get much respect from Igi, Shibuki valued her tenacity.

"Just fine. Those ducks work wonders." She inclined her head toward Taketori ducks waddling around the cave, "I'm here to report that we've cleared the blockage. Let's get everyone moving toward the exit."

"Great!" Fū was beaming, and passed Pimiko back to Benio.

"Fū, dear, stay with Benio-sama. Please escort her out." Igi requested, "I'm wrangling a lot of townspeople to get a move-on, since they got comfortable down here. We might have problems once we are out in the open again…"

"The Leaf ninja and I will protect everyone." Shibuki assured her, "I have to give some orders to mobilize Waterfall forces. I'll catch up!" He hopped to his feet and set out in the direction of the entry path, where sentinels were on guard.

Occupants in the cave moved lethargically, most brow-beaten and heartsore after losing loved ones in the initial attack. Now the next step of preserving themselves was underway, and the consensus seemed to be, among villagers and Waterfall ninja alike, that Benio would order the group to move toward the country border. It was imperative to approach Hidden Leaf or get as far as possible into the Fire Country. The proximity increased their odds of obtaining help.

Unfortunately, many had brought their worldly possessions with them and were distracted with packing up. Hideyasu tapped his foot in annoyance, "You'd think a few Jounin and Chunin would see what junk people brought down here and offer to seal it in Tool Scrolls to keep the process moving smoothly."

"That's how an experienced veteran would think." Magan quipped, "Stop expecting so much of them. They'll be whipped into shape after this."

"There's no time for that." Hideyasu was a touch more serious, "This village has long been on the losing side of wars and conflicts. It whittled their numbers down, and I don't know if they can be more agile in response to disaster after this incident."

"It's clear the guidance of another village is necessary to make them finally see what they need to do better." Magan estimated, "We'll get them out, Hide-kun. Hidden Leaf will show them the way to stand on their own two feet and stay standing."

The two friends exchanged shoulder pats, feeling a bit more hopeful for the ramshackle village. Kitano stayed beside his father so Magan could lean on him as they walked. Fujita parted from Fū and Benio to backtrack to Hideyasu, "Dad, I'm going to help some of the Genin move the last of the supplies. Benio-sama asked if I would."

"By all means." The man nodded to him, "You're feeling well enough to lift?"

"My wound is healed—"

"Yeah, but how does it feel?"

"Just a slight sting! I'm a man. It doesn't bother me." Fujita puffed up slightly.

"Heh. So tough!" Hideyasu was amused, "It's hard to believe Benio-sama hasn't uttered a single complaint after, you know, laboring and pushing a baby out! We can't show weakness in her presence."

"…yeah." Fujita agreed faintly.

"Do you want me to help move anything?"

"Stay close to the villagers. This isn't a big deal." Fujita assured him, "I'll be back in a bit!"

Smiling, Hideyasu relented, "See you then." His son took off toward the back of the cave-trekking procession as he continued forward.

Fujita united with the remaining Genin squads of Waterfall, storing the food rations and supplies that had been passed around earlier. Many pulled on packs or began tugging on sleds with rounded bottoms, sliding and bouncing over cave stones as they hurried. Fujita, ever resourceful, had a spare Tool Scroll in which he sealed the largest, most cumbersome loads as a favor to the Genin. They tittered and praised him for the assistance.

"Wait, wait! I forgot my gameboard!" Ryuju chirped, "It'll take me one second."

"Leave it for now—" Fujita was vexed when the Genin ran back to the entry passage, "Ugh. Does he listen?"

"Usually. He just gets antsy when he can't play a game in his spare time. He's a brainy one." A kunoichi assessed.

"I can relate. I'll get bored without my Hanafuda cards after a while." Fujita supposed he understood why Ryuju felt strongly about being able to mentally unwind.

"Oh, you like Koi Koi!?" The kids jumped on the topic. There were some other players among them. They marched at the back of the procession with their luggage as Fujita pontificated about his favorite pastime.

After five minutes, Ryuju had not rejoined the group. Fujita scanned with his Byakugan and noticed the boy was not visible. He stopped in his tracks.

"Where is he?" Fujita muttered, "Could Ryuju have gone somewhere?"

"He might've gone up a bit to make sure the secret entrance is still sealed." One Genin guessed, "Should we-?"

"I'll get him." On swift feet, Fujita turned back to collect the wayward trainee.

Water droplets echoed in the empty space, the air still and soundless. Fujita crept to the edge of the passageway that wound up vertically toward the surface, "Ryuju, you're falling behind…"

A sound came from behind him. Fujita turned back, startled, seeing stone shavings skitter down from the cave ceiling and fall to the floor, clickety clack, and his shoulders dropped again as he relaxed.

Black threads wove around his head and mouth to silence him, and then a cinch pulled taught around his ankles, toppling Fujita front-ways to the floor. He hadn't had the chance to call for help as he was reeled back through the passage like a fish on a line. Even worse, the falling stones had been a precursor to some jutsu: the cave ceiling began to collapse in at the lip of the passageway. It would block anyone from offering help, putting meters and meters of rock between assistance and those captured. Kitano and Hideyasu, nearly half a kilometer ahead, were clamoring as they turned back. That was the last Fujita saw of cave occupants as he was pulled up and up, smashed against stones, squeezed against tight bends in the underground tube.

He was unceremoniously dinged against the broken wood panels of the giant compost bin upon surfacing, and Kakuzu pulled back to drop Fujita on the ground in waning daylight. Fujita was cocooned head to foot in thread, and he knew better than to struggle or make a scene. His white eyes darted frantically around, spotting Ryuju shaking in terror in his own thread restraints on the ground nearby.

"Feh! And you thought you'd actually hook the jinchuriki while fishing around down there?" Hidan mocked his partner.

"This one is from Leaf. A valuable catch." Kakuzu assessed, "The others will follow."

Fujita's eyes were watering. His father said he'd defeated the curse-user! Cut him to pieces!

And there Hidan stood with his scythe in hand, proud as a rooster…his neck, arm, midsection, and thigh had been sewn and reattached after his body had been severed. Kakuzu must have repaired him. Hidan's wounds also seemed to have closed and mended, though Fujita couldn't hazard a guess as to how. When he used his Byakugan, Fujita could see Kakuzu had restored himself to all five masks, with hearts plundered from villagers and fallen ninja above ground. In his chest was the heart of the Wind Nature beast, as it had replaced the Earth Nature Fujita had earlier destroyed.

They were, in effect, utterly undamaged. No pain, no complaints; so unimaginably hardy and physically unbothered that Fujita felt despair settle like dust in his chest, much more aware of how he and his cohort didn't stand a chance, 'They're immortal. They resist damage and can restore themselves…Benio-sama said it's all or nothing to defeat Kakuzu…and we can't.'

A meter away, Ryuju was muffled and softly crying. In his mind, all that he could expect now was to be killed by one Akatsuki member or the other. Fujita felt compelled to help him, but had no idea how to comfort the youngster.

"Can't believe I had to dive down to get my scythe. Look at this knot I had to put in the cable! It looks stupid now!" Hidan complained, and then he regarded Kakuzu's second catch from the cave, "Hey wait a second…I cut this one…"

Fujita tensed. His eyes bored back into Hidan's gleeful stare.

"Kakuzu, when you said you'd pull those fuckers out of their hiding place, didn't think you'd nab this one…" Hidan stooped down beside Fujita, pinching his cheek and waggling the young man's head, "Aren't you your nasty daddy's pride and joy, eh? Can't say my own Mom gives a shit about me, since she's around the world preaching Jashin-sama's truth." His face was deranged with affection and thirst, "But that's still precious isn't it? That bond. It sings in the blood."

"We need to confirm if the jinchuriki is in this evacuation route or not." Kakuzu grumbled, "Stop wasting time, Hidan."

"Why don't you go rip some more hearts out of people while I play with him? He's not much of a talker, so I'll take my time making him squeal." Hidan suggested.

"He damaged me. I have full rights to sundering this one." Kakuzu disagreed.

Hidan frowned.

Fujita kept silent, doing his best not to display fear. It seemed better that the bickering pair were concentrating on him instead of the helpless Ryuju.

"No fucking way." Hidan growled, "This one's mine! I'm gonna flay 'em like a novelty tiger carpet and give his body and soul to Jashin-sama."

"You insist on needlessly wasting time on such things." Kakuzu panned the carpet idea, "Give him to me—"

"Hand's off!" Hidan stepped in front of the captured Leaf nin, snarling at his counterpart, "You hang around only to tell me what not to do, and I am fucking fed up!"

"What difference does it make who does it?" Kakuzu was equally agitated, "Just get on with it!"

"Humph. Well then." Smirking, Hidan rounded on Fujita again, lowering the point of his scythe to Fujita's forehead protector, "Hey kid, where's the jinchuriki at? You seen it? I'll cut you a break if you woof for us."

Kakuzu loosened the threads around Fujita's mouth so he could speak.

The Leaf Chunin supposed, "Cut me a break? You'll literally cut me with that thing."

"Uh. Yeah." Hidan confirmed what was obvious.

"So then why should I say anything?" Fujita reasoned, "The end result is the same. I won't share information."

Kakuzu snarked behind Hidan, "You idiot. Can't you interrogate properly?"

"Shut it!" Hidan snapped over his shoulder, seizing threads to hoist Fujita up, "You're a pain in the ass. You stuck me with a bunch of weapons, and I'll say I'm used to that kind of treatment…but don't think I'm gonna let you get away with it."

"Maybe if you were quicker you could've dodged."

"I don't need to dodge. I'm an un-killable disciple of Jashin." Hidan boasted.

"What good is that if you can't move? Then you're just a complaining sack of guts." Fujita probed for a reaction to test his theory of how to deal with Hidan.

"You!" Hidan stabbed his scythe down into soil, and he clasped his hands on the sides of Fujita's head, "What the fuck is up with Leaf ninja? These fucks. This is amazing. Got your daddy's attitude, huh? He trash-talked me with style, saying Let's not when he was tired of fighting. That asshole. He wasn't enough to keep me down, and you sure as hell aren't!" Hidan roared, "Just like him. Fuh! Too bad I don't have my Mom's temper or powers, or I'd send you straight to hell with a chant like a real High Priest!"

Fujita's stomach was twisting in horror. Was there something more than the curse Hidan had displayed? He seemed to admit to not being capable of whatever that more was.

"Where's the jinchuriki? Go on and spill." Hidan taunted, hefting his scythe up again, "I bet you like your weird white eyes. How about I pop 'em out like grapes? You'll still be able to talk. How about your dick? You're not going to need that in hell."

The threats weren't idle. Scythe blades had snipped through a portion of Kakuzu's thread, skimming down over Fujita's abdomen where, inevitably, Hidan was going to make good on the advertised mutilation. Fujita had retreated from conversation to the sanctity of the mind, prepared for whatever torture was next. He wouldn't speak. He wouldn't beg. He would endure or die with honor.

25 meters away the ground blew apart with tectonic force, scattering soil, rock, and moss. Hidan dropped Fujita and hooted with delight upon seeing a shinobi with iridescent wings rocketing up from the underground, as if his perverse prayers had been answered. Likewise, Kakuzu, and his Masked Beasts lurking several paces behind him, were consumed with the sight of what was hopefully the jinchuriki making a grand appearance.

If there had been any doubt, it was dispelled when Fū stayed airborne in a controlled hover…and had an iron pot in one hand; a pan in the other. She'd stolen them from the evacuees' supplies. Of course she clanged them together at the least subtle volume possible.

"ATTENTION! Attention all scrote-bags!" Fū howled, "Stop whatever you're doing and come get me!"

In those moments of distraction, Fujita shredded the threads binding him with Jyukken, and then pulsed chakra out of his tenketsu to ward Hidan away with a Rotation. Neither Akatsuki member thought his actions were consequential when they rushed toward Fū's position. Fujita bolted over to free Ryuju, slicing through bindings with pinpoint chakra at his fingertips. He hefted the frightened Genin away to race for the cover of the water-filled cave mouth.

'I know Fū came up here to give me a chance to escape, but she's risking too much!' Fujita understood why she had revealed herself, 'I started all of this so I could keep her safe! So she wouldn't have to face this threat directly.' It was too late to agonize over avoiding this conflict. The best that he could offer now was to fight alongside her, in Fū's defense and in defense of her village.

Fujita deposited Ryuju beside a blue spring in the entrance cave of the caldera, "Exit through the pools here, and meet with the other villagers outside."

"What about you?" The boy wondered.

Fujita surmised grimly, "I have to fight them again."

"What if more of them show up?" Ryuju asked as he began to wade into the pool, "How are you going to get away?"

"I'm not going to." It was quite simple. This was why he had matured and gained rank as a shinobi: because he had learned to accept some hard truths. Often, Fujita found that these truths depended on him working around his own deficiencies; staring death in the face.

Fujita darted back into the open air of the village, cutting through the rows of cabins where Kakuzu and Hidan chased the airborne Fū from rooftops. She'd since hurled the pot and pan at her pursuers, who handily dodged…but the cast iron projectiles collided with two of Kakuzu's Mask Beasts and shot them off the cottage they were perched on.

Fū's command of her surroundings was undeniable. She skimmed backwards over roofs and eaves, anticipating gaps and obstacles.

She barely had to tip her head back to dodge Hidan's scythe, fully extended by its cable, then she tugged open the rucksack of Scale Dust she kept on her back. Fū backed into a tall bamboo pole used for drying laundry, bent it with momentum, and then snapped forward to rocket past Hidan and Kakuzu as they continued to move in the opposite direction. Scale dust wafted out in a cloud and ignited with her hand signs, exploding and leveling the courtyard the Akatsuki ninja set foot in.

Though it wasn't a lighthearted occasion, Fū and Fujita's faces lit up at the sight of one another.

"You're okay!" She swooped and caught the boy in her arms, indulging in a hug before they raced in the direction of the lake, "When I heard everyone shouting that you were snatched, there was a cave-in! And we couldn't get to you! So I blew through the ground with Chōmei's muscle to come help you."

"Fū, you know I appreciate that very much, but we've been trying to protect you from capture!" Fujita reminded her on the run, "You should leave—"

"Oh it's too late now, wherever I go…" Fū wagered, "They'll follow. So I might as well uncork a big bottle of regret-sauce on them right here! Shibuki-sama can't stop me now."

"If you must, then I'm with you!" Skidding over the lake surface, Fujita turned in time with the jinchuriki to take on the Mask Beasts that had caught up to them.

Thread tendrils spread wide, stretching their bodies and arms as if to embrace the two shinobi on the lake. Fujita felt the sharp spike of Fū's chakra beside him, and she tipped her bag over her shoulder, fanning scale dust toward the charging Mask Beasts with wings sprouted from her lower back. The blast of ignited scale powder shredded the bodies of the Mask Beasts like primary school tissue paper projects, limbs dangling and flopping, burning and sinking into the lake.

'Fū damaged them, but they're not destroyed…' Fujita was keeping the weaknesses of the Jiongu Technique at the forefront of his mind. He also spied Hidan bolting out of the cabin settlement, speeding out over the water toward them. If they concentrated on determining which Elemental Nature was in each mask to destroy beasts individually, Hidan would have an opportunity to cut them down.

"Fū, can you set them aside? So we can destroy them later-?" He didn't have to explain. Fū had already spat a multi-layer net of silk threads over the maimed Mask Beasts, seized the webbing net, and flew up into the boughs of the Great Tree, her voice echoing: On it!

Fujita launched himself over the water's surface to meet Hidan in a collision of momentum, ducking under the scythe's first mighty swing. He tagged Hidan with twin bolts of Jyukken in the stomach, earning a twinge from the crazed nukenin before clever footwork tripped Fujita front-ways. Fujita was forced to divert chakra to his hands to keep surface tension on the water, and the returning arc of Hidan's scythe would catch him in the back where he'd fallen. Fujita watched it all unfold with his Byakugan, and unapologetically Rotated from his strange position to launch Hidan, and a huge portion of water, up and off of him in a half-dome of spray.

'If we can prevent him from injuring us and using our blood, and keep him where he can't draw a diagram, he is much less of a threat! We can't kill Hidan…but we can immobilize him.' The strategy unfolded in Fujita's mind like a game of Koi Koi, 'Stopping Hidan is like getting the combinations Akatan and Aotan…red and purple poetry ribbons. Tricky, but should be manageable!'

Fū plummeted down from the height of the tree branch when Kakuzu joined the fray below. His sights were set squarely on her as she dove, furious that she had tangled up his Mask Beasts. A column of threads extended from Kakuzu's arm to catch her out of the air…and instead he caught a Scale Dust Clone. The substitute detonated and a portion of Kakuzu's black threads were rended into charred snarls, clumped at the ends and smoking. Even better, the real Fū came down a fraction of a beat later while Kakuzu reeled. Pencil-straight, Fū struck the Waterfall nukenin on the crown of his head with a double-sole kick.

Kakuzu plunged underwater, and Fū gracefully flitted on her wings to flip and stick the landing. Before Hidan could so much as blink while the girl's back was turned, Fujita was unloading an entire Tool Summoning Scroll of weapons at him, forcing the mad priest to dodge and block. Tenten would have been proud of the onslaught.

Unlike Hidan, Kakuzu was less manageable of an opponent. Fujita could not estimate for how long his Mask Beasts would remain in Fū's netting before tearing free. To regenerate, Kakuzu merely had to harvest a heart and incorporate it into his body, storing up to five at a time. As Benio had said, destroying less than five of Kakuzu's hearts was pointless.

'To defeat him will be as difficult as assembling Gokō, the five brights…' The most difficult combination to make from Hanafuda cards consisted of the Rainman, Phoenix, Moon, Curtain and Crane. Together, this combination made for the highest point-value and easily won games…but it was arduous and at times foolish to try to assemble them all. A wise opponent could anticipate such a combination and try to take one of the bright cards first. 'If it's just us fighting Kakuzu, our jutsu aren't enough for Gokō— to destroy each Elemental Mask. But that doesn't mean we can't make more sensible combinations to keep ahead…'

Keep ahead of your opponent in points and you can still win, he and many other gamers understood. He and Fū had to hamper their opponent's from scoring, and amass as many "points" as they could.

Once Fujita's tool scroll had been emptied of weapons (now sinking into the lake) Hidan made a running charge at him, "Quit your fussing and hold still like a good offering!"

Fujita was observing the area as a whole: Kakuzu repairing his arm and swimming up to the surface, Hidan single-mindedly rushing at him, and Fū forming hand signs and directing a jutsu at Hidan. It was mostly guesswork, however Fujita anticipated what Fū was about to do, and so he used a Lightning Style technique of his own 30 degrees away from Hidan's position, "Bolt Burst!"

Hidan took the poorly aimed Ninjutsu for an incompetent blunder until Fū's Gale Breath jutsu swept toward him in timely fashion, and tripled in size after absorbing the Lightning Nature from Fujita's contribution. Cursing, Hidan dropped underwater to avoid being cut to pieces by a strong Wind Style technique again.

There was an ebb and flow to it; making "combinations." They could shift focus from one opponent to another, if they could keep this pace up.

Fujita pictured Fū as the September kiku sake cup card, a wildcard, that he played as a 10 point card in all of his games. The sake cup card always had the character for "long life" printed on it, and of course, his heart had naturally demanded that association be tied to his dear friend. Though her card was valuable, Fujita understood that without other "combinations" there would be no winning the fight, 'We'll need back-up soon. Dad, Shibuki-sama, Magan-sama and Kitano…'

"I have an idea!" Fū shouted in-between spitting silk thread netting, stretching long cables taught between trees and rock formations on the shore.

Fujita backed up towards her as Kakuzu and Hidan resurfaced, "What's your idea?"

"Do you think we can knock 'em out? That'd make things easier." Fū assessed, "Immortals can still get their bells rung, right?"

"I have no idea— it's worth a try! What are you doing-?" He didn't understand the net structure she had created.

"I don't have time to make a proper arena, so I improvised!"

Still, that did not clear things up for Fujita, nor did he feel at ease seeing Fū spit a webbing net in Kakuzu's direction, only for him to snare it in his own threads, commencing a tug-of-war between combatants. Fū's off-handed comments about working out and weight lifting were no lie: her second, earnest yank on the cable dislodged Kakuzu's footing and hurled him forward, towards her! Fujita even heard the nukenin utter a shocked cry. They crashed together in a tumble of Taijutsu, and Fujita resumed his evasive maneuvers around Hidan.

The first punch to the head, and admittedly even the second, did not tip Kakuzu off to what Fū was playing at. For some reason, the petite, lean kunoichi struck like a siege engine, punch for punch and kick for kick stronger in force than any strike Kakuzu could physically muster. He had eight decades of fighting experience over the twerp, and still, he resorted to diverting her strikes with his black threads, lashing and blocking. When an opening finally appeared, Kakuzu sharpened his threads in a narrower column, sweeping horizontally and supposing the move probably would not cut his target's head off.

Fū somersaulted beneath the attack, rolling up into a run, and bounced off of the webbing threads she'd made earlier. Her momentum reversed, and Fū had the gall to drive her knee square between Kakuzu's eyes. Then it occurred to him, as he staggered back, eyesight spinning. The girl must have realized that if she couldn't kill her opponent, that didn't preclude the infliction of other physical states of weakness. She wanted to knock him out…in a fake wrestling ring! He was affronted by the childishness of it.

Kakuzu thrust both arms forward, surging threads at Fū, who timed her own webbing threads well, and both got a grip on the snarl they created once again. Instead of pulling as she had before (which Kakuzu was prepared to counter) Fū rolled rapidly in the air with a flutter of her wings, the spin traveling like wave-motion through threads, and spiraled Kakuzu into water before he could launch a clever counterattack. In flight, Fū zipped behind him again, hooked her arms 'round the web arena ropes, slipped her body between them, and rebounded for a lateral double-kick with obscene propulsion behind it. Not just the force of her flightspeed, it turned out, but two tail's worth of Biju chakra flooding Fū's limbs. The blow connected with Kakuzu's back and shot him underwater like a bullet.

Several meters away, simultaneously, Fujita had found a rhythm to his attacks and counters, flawlessly defending himself against Hidan's increasingly frustrated scythe swings. What few Gentle Fist strikes he could connect with Hidan, Fujita made sure to surge his Lightning Nature into the taps, making Hidan shriek and grouse more.

"It only feels natural to not exert ourselves too much against mosquitoes like you." Hidan was crazy-eyed, baring his teeth, changing his patterns of movement, "Honestly, it's an insult to have to try. You pieces of shit. Delaying the inevitable." He grinned, "You all know what's inevitable, right? What you godless heathens can't escape from—?!"

Fujita ducked another scythe swing, jabbing forward in an attempt to close tenketsu near Hidan's head…and fell for the fake-out. He only realized it as he drew too close, watching Hidan pull the pike from his hip with his free hand, and stab it into Fujita's approaching palm. He sucked in a breath that stuck in his throat, reeling from pain and more importantly, terror. He'd only have a moment to prevent Hidan from ingesting his blood. As Hidan leaned back and away to crow merrily over his accomplishment, Fujita had planted his feet, channeled his chakra, and burst forward with Air Palm. The vacuum wave once again puttered out without breaking on his target. The window of opportunity closed.

Ah, so there was all the hopelessness. All the feelings he had pushed aside in order to deal with this confrontation. Fujita had thought that he could compare this debacle to Koi Koi, and somehow earn enough points, figuratively speaking, to not fail this mission miserably and die. But the thing about his favorite game was that it was random and luck-based, much like most shinobi battles. And to tell the truth, he'd only ever won about half of the games he'd played since he'd gotten skilled at it. This was where reality set in, falling on him like a lead blanket as Fujita watched Hidan raise the pike to his mouth.

As if in slow motion, Fū's sticky web threads stuck to the spear and pulled, comically stretching Hidan's arm to full length as he strained his neck to try to reach with his tongue. Fujita was amazed by how dopey it looked, in spite of his peaking panic. Hidan's growl of frustration was mixed with tinnitus in Fujita's ears as he struck with only his right hand, keeping his left arm folded behind his back. He couldn't risk spreading his blood near Hidan. With relative ease, Hidan swiped his weapons in arcs to ward Fujita away, stuck in a tugging war with Fū.

"Buggy bitch! When are you gonna give it up?" Hidan howled. He sliced the thread with his scythe to free his spear, and was promptly blinded by the light flash of Fū's Scaled Sneak jutsu. Hidan reeled and strung various profanities together.

Then, he felt what must've been the pint-sized Hyuga ninja clamber onto his back and secure him in a one-armed chokehold. Hidan dropped to a knee and wheezed, trying to stay conscious as Fū descended upon them, snatching the spear away and kicking Hidan in the stomach. His weapons plopped into water.

While Hidan swooned, hunched over, his guttural laughs rattled the whole of his body, "…you really are…this stupid?" If they insisted on pushing him so far, maybe it would be better to divide their bodies into quarters before offering them to Jashin, just so the god could hear their screams and wails first.

When Kakuzu resurfaced, his concentration was undoubtedly on his Mask Beasts strung up in the boughs of the great tree. He issued an order to them. Fū and Fujita had put some distance between themselves and Hidan, and watched as Fū's web dissolved up above and released a single mass— a Mask beast of all four Elemental Masks combined. It slowed its descent to the lake with hideous crochet wings, and in what took all of two seconds, charged and fired a beam of mixed elemental chakras.

Fujita plunged underwater and Fū took off to avoid the cataclysm that punched a horrific hole in the caldera wall surrounding the village. What next Fujita could hear, gasping for air as he poked his face up, was Hidan cursing Kakuzu out: "You fuck! That nearly hit me!"

"Get out of the way."

"Warn me if you're gonna do that shit!"

"It seems that I must, since you can't accomplish anything by yourself…"

"I'll fucking kill you—"

"If we combine forces properly, we'll make short work of them. It's the only reason they've lasted this long." Kakuzu determined, "Let's kill the small one first so no one can help her."

The idea stilled Hidan, and he slowly looked over his shoulder at Fujita as he clambered out of water to regain his footing on the lake's surface. "You know what?" Hidan came to a rare accord with his partner, "Sure. Let's do that."

In response to all of this, Fū acted without thinking, and spat a web ball that flattened Fujita against the stone wall, pinning him with sticky threads. He struggled weakly, in disbelief that she had sidelined him, "Fū?!"

"I'm not going to let you two shitscrapers say that as if I'm not standing right here, about to mash you into bloody brain pulp!" Fū screeched as a tinted chakra cloak radiated from her body, creating small gusts of wind and weighing down on the environment with pressure, "How's that gonna feel if you've still alive, you undead pricks? Coming to my village, hurting my people, as if I'm going to stand by and take it?!"

Kakuzu would probably recognize that Fū was the foul-mouthed, protesting woman's child merely from the descriptors used. He had the presence of mind to direct his combined Mask Beast to attack Fū with another beam, but it was the same as firing at empty air.

Not even a dragonfly in flight could have kept up with Fū, armed with Chōmei's chakra, zipping faster than most eyes could discern, repositioning all about the space. In the span of a few seconds, Fū's fortified Gale Breath shattered Hidan against the stone wall perpendicular to Fujita, leaving the Akatsuki member to gasp and twitch. The Wind Nature assault was ongoing, sweeping along the bowl of the village's terrain, scattering loose debris and objects, chasing Kakuzu in his clumsy escape and leaving his Mask Beast unattended to act of its own accord. Well, the Mask Beast naturally attacked Fū once more. And missed.

Wind lashing wildly throughout the village, Fū appeared and disappeared in many positions, like a phantom of air and motion, and finally lingered for a moment to expand the full length of one of Chōmei's wings. Serrated with Wind Nature and Tailed-Beast chakra, the wing cut the Mask Beast in half and scattered its parts. The threads scrambled and disassembled into four separate entities again.

Hidan had pried himself out of the impression his body had left in the rock wall, and dropped down to the lake again to collect his weapons. Over the escalating tornado, he called out to Kakuzu, who he was supposed to be coordinating with, "What the fuck now, eh?"

Kakuzu held up a hand, as if signaling him to wait, "She'll get close again—"

Fū had revealed a pattern of flip-flopping between ranged attacks and close-combat, but Kakuzu realized he had miscalculated upon baring witness to the jinchuriki ballooning out to the full, towering height of the Seven-Tails, stuffing more than half of the space of the village with its form. A roar rattled their eardrums over howling wind.

Fū reminded Chōmei with a bit of "backseat driving" instructions that exploding Scale Powder was currently not an option, even if it could handily impair both Akatsuki members. The blast would level what remained of Waterfall's settlement and could collaterally kill Fujita, who was still stuck to the rock wall in webbing. Then we're just going to have to get these suckers right where we want 'em… Chōmei deduced.

Fujita could hear a mix of Chōmei and Fū's voices call out to him, "Hold on tight!"

Hold on? He was stuck! The gigantic Hercules beetle's wings began to flutter, impossibly fast for its large size, driving such energy into the environment that even a hurricane would have been gentler. Fujita kept his eyes shut, could hardly draw breath as wind sheered through the caldera, ripping structures apart, scattering dirt and detritus that could blind and injure. He could still observe with the Byakugan as Hidan, Kakuzu, and the Mask Beasts were flung away in the wind.

They were carried up into a wind funnel above the village and there, out in the open sky, Hidan screamed for a few seconds and then dissolved into laughter. He was incredulous and not exactly fond of heights, "What the f-uuuck?! How are we supposed to bag this thing—?"

Kakuzu was barely within earshot, soaring a few meters away from him, "I have a failsafe that can contain it, but we should have captured it long before it got to this point!"

Hidan retorted, "Don't go trying to blame me—! WAH—" The wind funnel abruptly stopped, leaving them to plunge from an insane height down towards the ring of the village below on earth.

Also, the Tailed-Beast below them was conspicuously gathering energy for a Tailed-Beast Ball, its aim true.

"Get me down to it. Now." Kakuzu ordered, latching onto Hidan with his threads as they dropped like stones.

"If you can stop it, you better do it quick!" Hidan kicked with two feet, an impolite but effective way of propelling Kakuzu down towards airborne Mask Beasts, which lent their threads in propelling his descent.

Kakuzu's comet-like approach came in with too much speed, and he bounced off of the beetle's horn at first, having to wrap threads around the creatures nose to reel himself in again. He patted a Chakra Suppression Sealing tag onto the creature, then another, and felt the thing jerk beneath him with a squeal. He had never imagined he would have to resort to such an underhanded method, but then again, he had to congratulate himself for having the forethought to prepare for an unknown opponent.

The Tailed-Beast Ball was loosed as Chōmei tipped back, and missed the rest of the Akatsuki cohort. The sphere of energy exploded in the sky, blinding all for a few seconds. A third Suppression Tag was patted onto the horn, and then Chōmei rapidly began to shrink.

Light from the explosion had scrambled Fujita's vision. He was short of breath, his head was spinning, ears ringing. He caught a glimpse of Chōmei crashing down on its armored back, falling skew over the far edge of the caldera, crushing a portion of wall under its weight. The Biju's body was reducing in size as it rolled beyond Fujita's sightline, and Fū, who remained after Chōmei's chakra was locked down, was left unconscious on top of a pile of rubble.

Hidan lashed out with his scythe to sink the blade into a tree branch and controlled his descent. Kakuzu and his Mask Beasts flitted over to Fū and determined that the troublesome jinchuriki was finally under control. Kakuzu would not say it out loud, but he regretted having underestimated the container of the Seven-Tails.

"That," Hidan announced as he scaled a small of hill of crushed stone, "Was ridiculous."

Kakuzu poked the carotid artery in Fū's neck, checking her pulse, "Three Suppression Tags, in any other circumstance, could kill a ninja with inadequate reserves."

"Ain't nothing inadequate about this one's chakra." Hidan granted, "Where did you get those tags anyway? That's high-level stuff."

"Pein-sama gave them to me."

"Heh! He low-key didn't think we could do it?"

"He had difficulties capturing the Six-Tails, who also had support from other shinobi."

"So what? We had the element of surprise."

"We in turn were also ambushed." Kakuzu pointed out.

"And now most of 'em are dead and this village is in ruins." Hidan was giddy over the result, "They should've known better."

Kakuzu absorbed his Mask Beasts into his body once more, and hefted Fū over his shoulder, "We need to move quickly to reach the hideout. I don't want to deal with any more nuisances."

With that, he and Hidan sped off, sliding down the rock pile and out of the caldera.

On the far side of the Waterfall Village, Fujita had wrenched himself free of the sticky web and dropped to the ground. His bleeding hand had stained the white of his tunic, and he struggled to push himself up to stand again.

"Fū…" He wobbled upright, "I need to…"

Adrenalin flooded him again. The desire to chase the Akatsuki team and confront them again sang in his muscles and tendons. He could run, defend, and fight all day, even if those actions ran contradictory to his exhaustion and injuries. His body needed a moment to align again with his mind. To try to help Fū now while she was helpless was a futile endeavor. He'd be killed quickly if he challenged those criminals once more. The rational thought prevailed: that he had to reunite with his team and allies.

But each step was an arrow through his heart as he walked in the other direction. Away from her. After he'd promised Fū in Hidden Sand that he would do all in his power to intervene on behalf of jinchuriki; that he would be the friend she could count on. Naruto's words echoed in his ears, remembering what fate awaited a jinchuriki captured by the Akatsuki: The Akatsuki are searching for jinchuriki to extract Tailed-Beasts from their bodies. I think most jinchuriki die…when that happens to them. Having that much chakra ripped from your body…destroys your system. I'm pretty sure. It's not survivable.

Not survivable.

Tears stung his eyes. Fujita scuttled into the cave mouth and dropped into a spring to navigate the secret entrance of the village.

Fū had once written to him in one of her letters that, eventually, shinobi would no longer be assassins, guards, or war-dog mercenaries in the future. The way she saw it, the commodity that all shinobi nations had been founded upon, violent warfare, was going to become obsolete. For centuries, shinobi had trained for, bred for, and perpetuated their mercenary system to gain power and economic resources. Nowadays, new solutions and ideas abounded, and could solve many problems more efficiently than assassination or confrontation could.

She often shared this idea with Shibuki to quell his fears about being a mediocre ninja. But Fū truly did believe that one day, shinobi would be more like intrepid explorers, scientists, and entertainers. Their abilities might change or diminish, but she hoped that above all else they could enjoy life without bloodshed and hardship.

He didn't see it that way. Fujita didn't have the hope that they'd make it that far. Make it to an enlightened society— they'd be dead before they even came close. This engine of power and warfare would wear them all down to cinders, burning everything out before change could be realized.

He gasped underwater, careless in his swimming through the narrow tunnel, too heartsick to take caution in the dangerous cave system. Fujita reared up on reflex as if to surface for air, but hit his head on stone, no air pockets to be found. He flailed in a panic.

If he drowned here, that would be a pathetic end to compliment his inability to protect a friend.

Hey kid. Kiba's voice drifted to mind, Are you okay? We can stop if you want.

Fujita stilled, closing his mouth, and tried to focus on his surroundings as his air supply dwindled.

Lee's voice, Fujita-kun! Are you feeling better?

With a firmer sense of direction, he began paddling again.

Shikamaru's voice, Thanks for looking after my teammates, kid. He could hear Ino and Chouji's praises from when he had been a substitute on their team.

You're a natural! Tenten commending his handling of weapons, excited to practice with him in the yard at home.

Always speak up for your ideas. I never meant to make you doubt. Neji's reassurance helped him push for the last few meters of a straightaway under water.

I felt bad about leaving you guys in that box. Naruto had told him during the Chunin Exam, Sorry! I had every intention of coming back…

That was it!

Fujita surfaced with a thrashing splash, gulping air, gripping the rocky ledge of the exit spring. Naruto himself had to leave his teammates behind, if only to regroup and act rationally for his part of the mission. It wasn't abandonment— anything but!

He heaved himself up, rolling to his back to take deep, belly-raising breaths. He was soaked, his hand still bleeding, weariness tempting him to lay flat and fall asleep.

But he would do this. He would keep going. Not just for Fū and the promise he had made her, but for all of the friends who had come to believe in him.

Rolling to his knees, Fujita staggered up again, and traversed a portion of the echoing cave before wading through waist-high water to the end where a waterfall crashed. He dipped down to swim under the roiling falls, reappearing with a bob of his head back into the air of the outside forest, at the deepest part of the river.

"Fujita!" There was a familiar shout.

With the last of his strength, Fujita stroked closer to the shore as his father sloshed from the bank into the shallows, pulling Fujita into his arms.

"You're alive." Hideyasu mashed his son's head to his chest, "You're alive."

His knees gave out and he sagged in his father's embrace, "Dad, I'm sorry if I made you worry…"

Hideyasu helped him stand, guiding him back to the shore, "What choice did you have in it? They snatched you away! I had no way to go after you except for the evacuation route, and it took us ages to get out into daylight again."

"Dad, Fū helped me. She saved my life and fought them, but they captured her. Dad—" Fujita tried to muffle his sniffles as he was set down on the ground to sit, "I couldn't help her and I did everything I could. Still c-couldn't use…Air Palm…"

"It's okay." Hideyasu kneeled beside him, patting Fujita's head and wringing water out of the boy's ponytail, "I was scared, I can't lie to you. And she felt it. She felt me panic. I think that's why Fū broke out of the tunnel. I felt guilty watching her go, and seeing Shibuki-sama object…but I was so grateful to her." The man shook his head, his throat tight as he spoke, "I'll always be grateful to her."

Fujita wrapped his arms around his father's back, surrendering to a hug. Some time passed, and he could no longer tell seconds from hours, and he was laid supine in the grass. He heard voices discussing the state of affairs. Fujita drifted in and out of consciousness.

When he woke up properly it was dusk. The forest was tinged in tangerine hues, deepening into the purple light of night. Kitano was seated beside him and startled when Fujita shifted with a groan.

"Up again! You recover quick from a beating!" Kitano was impressed.

"Ki…Kitano?" Fujita turned his head and noticed a Taketori Summon Duck sitting on his injured hand. The healing glow subsided after the duck rose up and waddled away.

Kitano raised Fujita's left hand to examine it, "You're patched up now. Looks like your hand got stabbed…what happened back there?"

"…the worst thing imaginable." Fujita lamented. He sat up, shoulders slumped, head hanging in defeat.

Aggravated, Kitano tugged on Fujita's earlobe to get his attention, "The worst imaginable outcome would be losing Fū and you dying. Really, things could be much worse!"

"I know…"

"I don't want to hear such talk from a Main House lord of the Hyuga clan. The Hyuga and the Taketori don't cower in defeat—"

"I'm not a lord! Dad and I aren't—"

"If something goes terribly wrong in your clan, and Hinata-sama, Neji-sama and the rest cannot protect your clan…whose responsibility is it to lead the Hyuga?" Kitano reminded him with a scowl, "It's yours."

"Erg." Fujita rocked his head back, unable to refute the scenario, "It's my responsibility. Right. Somehow, I'd have to figure it out."

"As I would." Kitano reminded him, "I don't really get a choice. I am the heir to the Taketori clan, and you know that if it were up to me I'd leave all the work to Dad or another skilled ninja. Not to add any pressure, but when the day comes that I have to assume my responsibilities, I will be leaning on you. Just like my Dad relies on Hideyasu-sama and Hiashi-sama."

He sighed, eyeing his friend as Kitano's expression steadily became more playful.

"Someone has to crack jokes after all of those serious meetings." Kitano suggested.

"I wish I were good at it. Fū's better at telling jokes…"

"Well," Kitano smiled smugly to himself, "I'm sure she'll be around…"

"—! What are you suggesting?" Fujita's hackles raised.

"You like her! Once we rescue her, of course she'll want to thank you." Kitano smiled toothily, "You should take her on a date."

"How can you even be thinking of that right now?" Fujita grumbled as he hobbled to his feet, "Way too laid-back! Your head's stuck in the clouds…maybe you're the one who wants to go on dates…"

"Oh no. I have an agreement with Hinata-sama—"

"Why are you always talking about Hinata-sama?!"

It was full-blown bickering at that point.

"She's beautiful! She might become the Hokage. I'd love to take her out somewhere, but she asked me to wait until she dumps her boyfriend."

Stupefied, Fujita shrieked, "Are you delusional? That's not what she said! She won't dump Naruto! He's amazing!"

"Oh?! So your new friend is better than me now?" He ground his forehead against Fujita's as they leaned towards one another, steaming.

"No one's better than anyone, Kitano! You're just being an idiot!"

"They'll make me marry an old hag if I don't marry someone from the Hyuga clan!"

"Then why not talk to Hanabi-sama—?"

"NOW WHO'S DELUSIONAL?" Kitano spun in a full circle, yelling and laughing, "I would die. I've heard stories about that girl! No way."

They disintegrated into laughter and by then, Magan, Hideyasu, and Shibuki approached them.

"How are you feeling?" Hideyasu directed the question at his son.

Fujita considered it. Exhaustion weighed on him, hunger was making his stomach twist. He replied, "I'm not in the worst shape."

"Well that doesn't tell me anything. I figure you'll need another few hours of sleep to recover all of your chakra, but unfortunately," Hideyasu exchanged a glance with Magan and Shibuki, "We don't have time for that."

Fujita straightened his back and listened, unaware of the worried, sidelong look Kitano gave him.

"Fū has been captured." Shibuki announced, "I…don't really have the forces needed to send a team out and look for her. I was hoping you could help me track the Akatsuki…"

Magan's brow was deeply furrowed, "This is far beyond the scope of what our initial purposes were."

"It's not outside the realm of possibility altogether." Hideyasu countered.

Magan shook his head, "We've suffered injuries and are working with half of our strength at best. We've gone without proper sleep for nearly 24 hours, and no one's been eating enough. We should wait here for reinforcements."

"And that'll take at least another 24 hours. Your ducks don't fly as fast as messenger hawks." Hideyasu estimated.

Shibuki's nervous gazed flicked between the two veterans discussing their next course of action.

"Hide-kun…even if we did go…what are we running towards?" Magan forecast morbidly, "The whole of the Akatsuki? All of its members lying in wait? We could hardly withstand a pair of them."

"I know that, but if a squad doesn't tail after those crooks and track down where they're going, we can't expect reinforcements to fare any better than we will. We need to provide them with as much information as possible." Hideyasu reasoned, "If we can do that, even if we are forced to retreat because we are outnumbered or outclassed, there is value in pursuing this threat."

Magan folded his arms and attempted to negotiate, "I don't disagree. But then I don't want the boys coming with us."

"Dad, you can't just leave us here!" Kitano snapped, "We're not helpless kids! Would you really try to make do without our jutsu?"

"You are the heir to the Taketori clan." Magan growled, "Your well-being is my priority before any other objective. If I command you to stay here, as your leader, then you stay here."

Kitano began to protest but Fujita interrupted, "Magan-sama, Dad…we don't really have time to discuss this. We need to get moving…"

Hideyasu smiled wanly. His son was not one to tolerate delays.

"We'll need them." Hideyasu agreed, looking to Magan, "And as I said, if we get in over our heads, we call a retreat." Magan appeared to relent, so Hideyasu turned to Shibuki, "Can you spare any ninja to join us, Shibuki-sama?"

Shibuki nodded and padded back towards the congregation of Waterfall villagers nestled on tree stumps and logs. After a short time, he returned with two experienced-looking male shinobi, followed by Benio and Igi. The baby, Pimiko, was awake and fussing in Benio's arms.

"These are Echizen Tadamasa and Asano Hōzan, Jounin of Takigakure." Shibuki introduced them, and both men nodded to the Leaf ninja, "Tadamasa, Hōzan, meet Hyuga Hideyasu and Fujita, and Taketori Magan and Kitano. They'll be helping us track where the Akatsuki took Fū."

Once the Waterfall and Leaf forces were acquainted, Benio chimed in, "We have precious few shinobi left to defend the village, so please forgive us for not fortifying this squad more. I can send you with extra rations and soldier pills that my brother makes." She offered, adding, "I will guide villagers back into the village while you are gone."

Shibuki was concerned, "What if—?"

"The Akatsuki won't come back. Reinforcements will arrive here first, and the village should be properly defended again. We need to attend to the dead and begin rebuilding efforts as soon as possible. As it is, even if we tried to reach Hidden Leaf now…it's just too far to go with so many exhausted." Benio shared her thought process.

"Fine. Villagers can re-enter the village through the falls, but what about Pimiko? She can't hold her breath." Shibuki pointed out.

Benio smiled, "I'll use Epika to carry Pimiko over the top of the wall. I have a little bit of energy now. I'll get everyone settled inside and try to clear rubble with Earth Release."

"Please don't overexert yourself." Shibuki wrapped his arms around her, fretting. He offered a finger to his daughter to wrap her tiny hand around while she wriggled.

Beside them, Fū's mother Igi huffed, "Quit your worrying about Benio-sama! She'll be fine so long as I'm here! Get out there and save my kid!"

Fujita observed the tittering interactions of the Waterfall residents, accepted a meager portion of rations and a single soldier pill, and soon after led the way around the wide perimeter of rock wall that surrounded the Waterfall village. They scaled the slopes of the mountain north by northeast, coming upon the crushed fragments of caldera where Chōmei had fallen.

"I think they sealed Chōmei's chakra, and that's why Fū couldn't defend herself." Fujita explained as they stopped on the rock pile, "I wondered why they didn't just seal her chakra when they first encountered us…but they truly didn't think they'd need to. They kept mocking us…were more concerned about killing for sport. It seemed like this was more about personal enjoyment to them than fulfilling a mission."

"I got that impression as well." Hideyasu concurred with the assessment, "That was their mistake, and they probably won't make it again. They didn't expect resistance."

Additional observations were made.

"The damage to our ramparts is extensive." Hōzan noted as he craned his neck to look beyond the gash in the wall, toward the far side's holes and cave-ins, "This could take up to a year to repair. An alliance with Leaf couldn't come soon enough, with all of the extra protection we'll require."

"Not to mention all of the new ninja we will need to train." Tadamasa rubbed the back of his head, "My Genin students aren't quite ready…"

"We can think about that later." Shibuki shushed them as he picked his way down the pile, locating footprints in mud, "Following these tracks will be tough at night, but by dawn we can pick up the pace. I bet they'll slow down at some point, so let's push ourselves as far as we can before we take a rest."

The village leader melted into the dark woodland, and the squad dashed after him, wholly unaware of what awaited them.

---

Note: Sorry for the wait folks, I've been distracted for quite a while. The immediate follow-up to this chapter is next, I kind of had to make it a two-parter. I'll sprinkle more chapters for updates over the next few days. Enjoy. _(:3 」∠)_

*Yes, Fū did use WWE wrestler Rey Mysterio's 619 move on Kakuzu. You indeed saw that.

Chapter 59- Betting on Long Odds