She slept lightly, each ripple of the cloth waking her up, wondering if the guard had returned. The sun rose, weak light gently sliding its way under and around the cloth. Atsuko's stomach clenched. Would they let her see Yukina? Would they come for the villagers and force her to join them? Not that she wasn't willing to work beside them, but she couldn't afford the time. She dared not speak to Kaoru again. The guard would be listening carefully to see if Atsuko was planning to make a run for it.

No one came. Villagers shifted and stood moments before a different guard flung open the curtain.

"Everyone up, time for work!" he shouted. No one moaned, no one protested. Atsuko looked around. All the faces were withdrawn and locked onto the floor meekly. They filed out obediently. Kaoru even seemed a completely different person, head bowed, muscles loose.

A spear shot out between Kaoru and the villagers, stopping her. "Not you," the guard said.

"Wh…what?" They'd never done this before, Atsuko realized. Did they know Kaoru was the fire behind the villagers? Or was this because of Atsuko?

"You have been summoned. Come with me." The spear reverted back to its vertical position. Kaoru looked at her people, hesitating.

"Now!" the guard snapped. Kaoru turned to glance at Atsuko, who nodded slightly. It wasn't time yet. Kaoru went peacefully and meekly. As she vanished behind the curtain, the spear once again left its owner's side to point at Atsuko.

"You. Go with the villagers."

"But…I'm waiting here so I can see my friend."

"You will see her later. For now, go with the villagers."

"I don't understand. Where are they going?" Any sane person would notice something was off.

"In exchange for helping your friend, we require your services. Go with the villagers and you will see your friend."

Giving in, Atsuko nodded and passed beneath the spear and through the cloth. Not yet. She needed more information first.

Bright sunlight shone in her eyes, nearly blinding her as she had her first daylight glimpse of the inside of the village. As she expected, it was small. She saw only a few other huts, none as large as the one she'd been in or as the one she could see on the other side of the clearing. That was where their leader sat, ruling over his little kingdom.

As she fell in line with the villagers, she kept her head down while noting every single landmark and piece of information she could gleam. The path they tread on seemed worn enough to point to the wheat fields. Indeed they passed through a side gate in the wooden wall, likely opened to let the villagers in and out only to harvest the wheat.

Even at dawn, the day promised to be warm. Atsuko dreaded having to take off her cloak. A keen eye might catch the tan pouch at her waist, or the black thigh pouch that held her knives.

One of the guards walked right behind her. She could almost feel her eyes boring between her shoulder blades. Sweat prickled at her hairline and down her back. How long could she keep this charade up?

The trees spread out, opening onto a large wheat field partially harvested. It seemed enormous. She counted fifteen villagers, most of them too weak and elderly to be doing physical labor. Where were the young people? Did the leader do something else with them? Or had they been slowly executed for resisting?

A trio of other guards were waiting for them by the field and watched as everyone picked up a scythe. Giving weapons to the subdued? As she picked hers up, though, Atsuko saw that the blade had barely enough edge to cut straw by sawing at it. It would do little damage. If the village got together and attacked all at once, the blades wouldn't be pleasant for the guards, but hardly deadly. Were they not worried about a mob attack, or did they have something else planned?

Too many questions. Atsuko knew that as a shinobi she should have figured out most of it already. But her teachers always said experience was best, which was why it was important to go on missions. Develop the skills, get the experience. As she swung the dull scythe, bending a swath of wheat, she was glad she'd build up her physical skills or it would be a long day.

Atsuko swung at a clump of wheat. The blade brushed over them like a hand, not even bending them. Eventually, by watching the other villagers, she learned to change the angle of her swing to at least break the stalks.

The sun rose, bringing the temperature with it. Burning under her cloak, she had to get it off or risk overheating. Glancing at the guards, she waited until they were turned away or distracted, she hid the pouches and wrappings among the stalks of crudely cut wheat. If they caught her with anything that identified her as a ninja, any advantage she had would be gone. Assuming she even had one. At this rate she hadn't amounted to much.

"You're cutting it too high," Kaoru said, approaching from her neatly swatched section of wheat. "Swing upwards like this." She demonstrated, cutting through a smaller section than Atsuko had been grinding at, but actually severing the stalks. "They keep them dull so we don't 'hurt ourselves'." She snorted. "What's up with the new look?"

"Just trying to blend in," Atsuko replied. "I've left some supplies here so they don't take them off me. Can you keep an eye on them?"

"Sure thing," Kaoru replied with a small grin. "You let us know when to act," she said with a wink and went back to her swatch.

"When did you get back?" Atsuko asked.

Kaoru froze, her face draining to a pale white. "A while ago."

"What did they do to you?"

"I represent the village. Their leader, Kei, once in a while tries to convince me to give him more of our supplies. Of course we have nothing more to give him, but he demands it anyways. It's hard to be strong, but I do it for my people." She gave a half-smile.

Atsuko exhaled slowly. They still hoped that she could save them, that she was working on a brilliant plan when really all she was doing was stalling until she could make a single move. Her goal was to get to Yukina and Gisuke. She couldn't save these people, but Yukina could. If she could get to her, Yukina would tell her what to do.

"Hey you," shouted one of the guards. The villagers stopped working and looked up. The guard pointed towards Atsuko. "The new one. Come here."

Her stomach sank. They noticed the pouch. No, they would have acted earlier. Tossing aside the scythe, she walked towards them as casually as she could. "Is it my friend? Is she okay?"

"The leader wants a word."

She waited until his back was turned to gulp.

#

The walk back to the village passed in silence. Atsuko looked again at the village, noting guard changes. Their stations didn't seem to stand out, so the only main obstacle was the sheer number of guards. Unless the leader had more hidden somewhere, which she had to be prepared for.

Maybe it was the lighting now that the sun was high in the sky, casting brilliant light across the village. Atsuko saw a hut far behind the other ones, by itself with a pair of guards in front of it. Quickly, she cast her eye around, hoping no one noticed her staring. That must be where Gisuke was.

Leading her to the main hut, the guard hung back and poked her in the back with the butt of his spear, indicating she should go in. Timidly, she pushed on the door and walked inside.

Compared to outdoors, the hut was blindingly dark. Blinking, it took several long seconds to see the shapes of the people in the room. A handful lounged around the center around a weary-looking fire. The leader wasn't sitting on his chair, but Atsuko saw a long dark shape lying next to it with a splash of red poking out of the top.

"Yu…" she started to say, but managed to cut it off. Running up to Yukina, Atsuko threw herself to the ground and pulled at the tattered blanket wrapped around her friend.

"Are you all right?" she whispered. Yukina didn't move. Atsuko shook her. Nothing.

A wave of cold fear crashed over her. What did they do to her? What were they going to do with Atsuko?

Too terrified to move, Atsuko heard the leader approach from behind, his boots hitting the crude wooden floor with an echoing thump.

Atsuko waited for him to speak. A pulse beat under Atsuko's palm so she knew she wasn't dead. But why was she unconscious? What was going on?

"Your friend is alive, as you can see," he said. "We've been taking good care of her."

"She's unconscious."

"But alive. Come, you must be hungry."

Her nose pricked at the scent of warm bread and roasted potatoes. She turned her head slightly and saw a villager carrying a tray of food towards them.

"Come, eat," the man urged again. Atsuko was hungry, and the food smelled incredibly delicious. Plus she had a part to play.

Atsuko turned as the villager placed the tray on the floor. Grabbing a piece of bread in one hand and a potato in the other, she proceeded to stuff her mouth.

The man reached out and took a piece of bread for himself. Atsuko followed the hand up to the long thin man now seated in his chair. Dark hair hung down to his shoulders, his body angular and sharp. He noticed her watching him with small black eyes and when she flushed and turned back to her food, he smirked.

"Is she going to be okay?" Atsuko asked.

"I don't know. I guess. We're not exactly doctors."

A shiver ran down her spine. "Maybe I should get her to one." She put the half-eaten potato on the plate and reached for Yukina. Long fingers wrapped around her wrist in an iron grip. He'd moved so fast. She inhaled a scream.

"It's best not to disturb her." The fingers released her. Heat flowed into her fingers as the blood was allowed through again. It would bruise.

"How do you know if you're not a doctor?"

"Oh, I know what's wrong with her. I just don't know if she's going to be okay."

"What's wrong with her?" Atsuko managed to ask.

He grinned, half-chewed bread glued to his teeth. Atsuko closed her eyes and stood, taking time to smooth out her shirt and get her terrified thoughts together.

"Would you please tell me what's going on?"

"Ha!" he barked and she nearly jumped out of her skin. He pointed a piece of bread at her. "You are not who you say you are."

"I said I was lost in the woods."

"Hunting, wasn't it?"

"Yes."

"With no hunting gear?"

"I was not the hunter."

"Then why were you hunting?"

"Because we need meat."

He slapped her across the face, hard. Her head whipped around. She tasted blood. But she turned her head back as she wiped the dripping blood away with her hand.

"Why were you hunting?" he asked again.

"Because we needed to," she growled. He punched her. The cut on her lip deepened and the bone in her jaw tingled.

"Why were you hunting?"

This time she didn't answer. He sighed and nodded to his guards. Two of them grabbed her arms and yanked her off her feet. They dragged her backwards.

"What are you doing? I swear we were hunting! Why won't you believe me?!"

He reached around her and one of the guards placed a red-hot poker in his hand. Breath caught in her throat. She could feel the heat radiating from the white-hot tip. Hot air assailed her nose as he brought it to her face.

"Why are you here?" he asked.

Sweat dripped down her face. The poker drifted to within inches of her face.

"WHY ARE YOU HERE!"

"She was running away and I couldn't find her!" Atsuko sobbed. "She said she was pregnant. I had to find her before…" she broke down, her tears evaporating next to the poker. She forced herself to look him in the eye, pulling on every shred of subterfuge and strength she had. "Please. No one can know."

He considered her for a while. The poker wavered by her cheek, then he lowered it. Exhaling with a genuine sob, she didn't notice him lift it again.

The shock of the hit delayed the pain for half a heartbeat before searing pain exploded across the left side of her face, leaving her gasping for air. When her lungs found purchase, a scream burst out of her chest. Eyes closed from the debilitating pain, incredible heat neared the tip of her nose. Her eyes flew open. Blinking through tears, she saw the poker and threw herself back against her captors. She thrashed, screaming, throwing her body weight in any direction it would go that wasn't towards the poker. Fingers dug into her arms but it was nothing compared to her face.

The leader laughed, thrusting the poker towards her again and again, but not touching her. Finally, exhausted and in agony, she slumped against the guards.

"If you're going to do it again, just do it," she breathed.

He grinned. "Just checking." He made a show of shoving the poker back into the fire, then knelt in front of her. Grasping her chin tightly, his fingers brushed across the fresh burn. She flinched, but he tightened his grip, forcing her to look at him. "I admire your fortitude, but I think you are still hiding things from me. Consider this a taste of what I can offer." Glancing over his shoulder, he considered Yukina's prone form. "My power here is unlimited, my reach infinite."

Hard overpowering black eyes held hers for a heavy moment. Then he let go. "Take her back to the fields. We'll try again later."

An icy stone formed in her stomach as they yanked her to her feet and dragged her out of the hut. Yukina still lay there and Atsuko hadn't done a thing to help her.

The guards let her walk back to the fields, keeping their fingers locked around her arms. She didn't understand why. It's not like she'd given them a reason to think she was dangerous or brave. They passed by the clearing where she could see the hut Gisuke had to be in. If the leader had burned Atsuko for suspecting she lied, she couldn't imagine what he'd done to Gisuke, dressed as a ninja and caught sneaking around the village. He might even be dead.

Gisuke. He was in that hut, possibly dying or dead for all she knew. She had it in her power to do something about it. Muscles quivered, ready to move when her brain gave permission. The burn on her face ached and stung, the pain stabbing deeper as she flushed with shame.

Atsuko was a shinobi. What had she done about her present situation? Did what the bad guys told her to, and got herself hurt while doing absolutely nothing for her friends and comrades. This was behavior she would expect back when she'd first met the ninja from Konoha. Back when her life was ruled by fear. She had no reason to fear now. After years of training and missions, she was perfectly capable of doing something. So why was she frozen, unable to do anything?

For a brief moment, the ache of indecision vanished, like she'd passed through to the other side. As if a weighty burden had been lifted, she felt lighter, agile, in control. As the feeling faded, Atsuko saw that she had a choice. She always had a choice. Fear was a burden, but she could choose to let it fall away. Each step she took towards the field was a choice. All she had to do was make a different choice.

Swinging an arm up, she slammed a fist into one guard's face. Before the second could respond, she kicked out with the opposite leg, feeling her foot connect with his knee. Tendons crunched and he went down screaming. The other guard pulled out a long nasty knife and slashed at her face, but she dodged easily, body wired with hours upon hours of reflex training. She didn't have any weapons, but she didn't need any. These men were no real threat. Spinning, she kicked and punched with precision, catching him in his weakest areas. On the back where the kidneys were. The throat. The ankle. As he went down, she almost felt the knife thrown by the other guard aimed at her back.

Turning her arm behind her back, she activated a chakra shield. The knife clattered to the ground. Gasps from the guards interrupted their screams.

"Shinobi!"

Their voices were loud, attracting more guards. Opting for efficiency, she found the knife thrown by the guard and threw it back at him. He screamed as it slammed into his shoulder. The other guard passed out from the pain, and she leapt into the air to land on the conscious one's chest. Gasping from pain, she saw fear in his eyes.

"You have a choice," she said calmly. How strange to feel so confident after such paralyzing fear. "I had a choice. I chose to fight. What will your choice be?"

"I surrender!" he wheezed. "Please, don't kill me!"

"You seem frightened of me."

"You tried to kill us!"

"No, I think it's because someone finally decided to fight back." She punched the side of his head in the temple, knocking him out.

Standing, she took stock of her new situation. Alive and uninjured, she'd managed to emerge completely unscathed. She frowned, irritated because she could have done that earlier and saved everyone the trouble. At least they seemed far enough away to have not alerted any other guards, but those screams would have carried. Someone heard them.

Atsuko dragged the bodies out of the path and hid them. It wasn't her best work, but she was pressed for time. Satisfied that anyone coming to investigate wouldn't find them quickly, she backtracked through the trees.

Crouched behind a bush, Atsuko looked out through the branches at the hut she suspected imprisoned Gisuke. At first it seemed unguarded, but she saw movement in the trees. Interesting. Were they hoping to trap her? Did they know she was the one they were looking for? It stood to reason that someone could have figured it out. It wasn't exactly a secret that shinobi traveled in groups, young ones in threes. Gisuke had been imprisoned as a shinobi, and then two people around the same age come in with a suspicious excuse? It would be an easy trap. Good thing she was a shinobi.

Ennobled by her recent triumph, Atsuko still remained cautious as she circled around the hut, looking for the guards. She found one leaning against a tree. She seemed distracted, but whatever kept her attention to her hands still left her ears open to any strange noises. With practiced agility and silence. Atsuko approached from the front. Jumping in front of the guard, the woman seemed too startled to scream, and Atsuko knocked her out, then paused to listen for backup. No one came.

She searched for the next one, and ended up finding three before satisfied that she had a clear path to the hut. Adrenaline and the rush of battle left her fingers trembling. Hoping that her courage was still holding strong, she approached the hut, scanning it for any traps. Having worked with Yukina for long enough to have a taste for traps, Atsuko didn't see any. These thieves, though, seemed to favor guards so she approached the hut cautiously.

Creeping up to the door, she knelt at the door, leaning up against the door, listening for movement. Deep snoring almost made her laugh. Just one guard who seemed to be leaning up against something since he sounded like he was standing. Listening harder, trying to drown out the snoring, she heard a second person, lightly breathing farther in the center of the hut. Gisuke!

The door was locked, but from the outside. Atsuko slowly and carefully tried to unlock it. The padlock required a key, and she didn't have time to find it.

She stood and took a deep breath. Whirling, she slammed her foot into the door, shattering it into splinters. A hole appeared, and she launched herself in, ignoring the splinters biting at her skin, tearing her clothes. She landed on the floor in a roll and came up, planting her fist in the snoring guard who was just waking up. The guard didn't have a chance to wake up before Atsuko knocked her out. Leaning forward, Atsuko struck out again with her foot, catching a second guard in the chest. The air left his lungs and he fell to his knees, gasping for breath. She hadn't been sure about a second guard and was glad she'd decided to err on the side of caution. She knocked out the last guard before he caught his breath and called for help.

Straw and wheat filled the hut in piles, but the center was left open. Gisuke sat slumped in a chair, ropes wound around his body. He still wore his shinobi clothes, the Konoha headband still tied on. She saw dried blood beneath his sagging head.

Rushing up to him, she gently lifted his face. He seemed unconscious.

"Gisuke!"

At the sound of his name, he stirred. His face was covered in cuts and bruises, and she suspected the rest of his body was in similar shape.

"Atsuko?" he wheezed through cracked lips.

"It's me. Pull yourself together. I'm getting you out of here." She went through the guards' clothes and found each had a water pouch. She placed one at Gisuke's lips. At the taste, he seemed drawn to the water and gulped voraciously. Despite his thirst, she pulled the pouch back. Gisuke had mentioned that giving water to injured people, especially if you didn't know the extent of their injuries, could do more harm than good. Her hand shook as he moaned.

"Come on, let's get you out of here." She untied the ropes and got a shoulder under his arm. Gisuke tried to hold on, but his feet couldn't get purchase under his own body. She dragged him to the door while he muttered apologies.

"It's not your fault. We didn't plan this well."

Outside the hut, nothing had changed. The birds sang, the guards lay limp on the ground. Still Atsuko didn't waste time and moved him into the woods where she could still get to him but his likelihood of being caught by the guards was less.

Satisfied they weren't followed, Atsuko propped him up against a tree and examined him for wounds. Most of his wounds were surface bruises and cuts, but she was worried when she pressed his ribs and he recoiled. Considering he'd been tortured, he was in better shape than she'd expected.

"Can you tell me what happened?" she asked gently.

He reached for the water pouch and she handed it to him, keeping a hold on it so she could pull it away. He took a deep breath, leaned back, his closed eyes to the sky.

"I should have been keeping a better eye on my surroundings," he said finally. "Turns out there's a lot of guards and their paths overlap. A lot. I managed to get a few of them, but not enough to prevent getting captured."

"They knew you were a shinobi?"

"Yeah, one of them recognized the headband. I don't know if they know I'm from Konoha, but it's easy enough to figure out."

Atsuko frowned. The thieves seemed pretty dug in here. It seemed unlikely they'd try to proactively attack Konoha. But she'd also thought it unlikely a shinobi scout would get caught.

"Where's Yukina?"

The tips of her ears tingled hot and a chill went up her spine. "We had to lie our way in. Yukina's pretending to be sick." She halted, the words stuck in her throat, so she left it at that.

Gisuke narrowed his eyes at her. "Atsuko?"

"Their leader is keeping her close. I figured since they'd gotten you that they'd put the pieces together and figured out Yukina and I were with you. I don't know what they've actually been able to figure out, though. Their leader is fierce but good at hiding his hand."

"What does he look like?"

Atsuko described him and Gisuke visibly shivered. "He's the one who did most of the interrogation and torture." His voice was low and full of anger. "He enjoyed it far too much."

And to think Atsuko had been trying to outwit him. She was lucky to get away with what she did.

"I'm going to get Yukina out of there. I don't know if we can stop the thieves after all that's happened, but if we can at least regroup, maybe Yukina can think of something."

"I don't know how much use I'll be, but I can still move. Mostly."

"Don't worry about it yet. I don't want you rushing in just to get hurt more, or killed. At this point, I'm the only one who can roam free, but I know that's not going to last."

"What do you mean?"

"Like I said, I think their leader is onto us, but he hasn't done anything about it yet. Apart from assigning me to the fields to work with the villagers."

Gisuke's eyebrows rose.

"I have a feeling that while the guards and thieves of this band are your normal sort of thug, I think there's more to the leader. I don't think we've seen his full abilities yet."

"Did he do that to your face?" Gisuke asked quietly.

She reached up to brush the burn with her fingers. It still hurt, but she'd mostly managed to push the pain aside. "Yes."

As a medical ninja, she knew he itched to heal it. She put her hands on his. "Not yet. I need to maintain my story as long as I can. Plus you need to rest. We're going to need you later."

Reluctantly he nodded, tension leaving his body.

"I'm going to try to get Yukina out. You stay here, rest, and be ready. Do not enter the village. You're not up for it, and I don't want to have to rescue you again." She forced a grin. "And if you have to get to someone, the fields are just over there." She pointed. "Most everyone is old, but if you see a young woman named Kaoru, you can trust her."

"Got it. Leave the water, please. I promise not to be a damsel in distress."

With a snort, she left the two pouches in his lap and stood, glancing up at the sun. It was getting late. Word would be getting out. Her cover was definitely blown, but if she could hide that she was a shinobi just a little bit longer, maybe she could get Yukina out without getting either of them killed.