Guilt is a marvelous thing. It can drive a person to do the unbelievable.

Kuroppi was guilt. She had become guilt. It wrapped long tendrils around her like a giant squid and threatened to drown her sanity.

The two dots her her eyes became three, and those three dots became three slash marks.

Kuroppi looked up at Sasuke and smiled darkly.

"Mangekyou Sharingan!"

"Mangekyou Sharingan!"

The words echoes through the small hall that served as a battle field.

'Kuroppi's got the sharingan!' thought Anko. 'Now let's get the hell outta here!'

Aki sweatdropped. 'They went through with the plan even though we're already out?'

'What's going on?' was the thought going through the heads of Banshou, Kon, and pretty much everyone else except Orochimaru...

"Why is there blood on my nice clean floor!"

Kiiro's voice laughed weakly. "I didn't know I had so much blood... Look, Kuro-chan! I can poke my guts!" she poked at her innards, which were in danger of falling out.

"That's kinda gross," Haku said.

Kiiro poked in the wrong place-- her ruptured stomache. "AAAAH! STOMACHE ACID! IT BURNS! Kuro-chan help me!"

Kuroppi said nothing as she was in a world of her own... the way only an Uchiha can be.

The Uchiha avenger's molecules were disconnected and bits of Sasuke floated around like gas. "Where am I?"

Kuroppi's face appeared in front of him, only bigger. "In this world, I control all things." The gigantic Kuro-face smirked and melted away as Sasuke felt himself become solid.

In a few second, fire surrounded him.

"I can keep this up for a pretty long time, but in the real world only a few seconds have passed," Kuroppi's voice was everywhere.

As Sasuke burned, swords and shuriken started coming at him.

"STOP!" he cried. The fire only got hotter, and the projectiles only got faster.

"Only 59 seconds, 59 minutes and 71 hours to go."

Sasuke slumped over, horrow etchied out on his face. Kuroppi blinked, and her sharingan deactivated.

"Everything's blurry..." she said aloud.

"It'll be like that for awhile," Haku said, "If I recall Aki-san's words correctly.

Kiiro nodded slightly and slumped over. "Damn you Kuro-chan... this hurts. Wow... so much blood..." Kiiro looked down at her bloodied fingers... "Tee hee... blood... now get me out here so I won't stay dead."

"Famous last words," Kuroppi said.

"No, these are my last words: OW!" Kiiro laughed insanely: "HAHAHA! HAHAHA! HA-"

And Kiiro was silent.

"Was she purposefully laughing like the Sicilian from 'The Princess Bride' or was I imagining things?" Honemashi said aloud.

Kuroppi sweatdropped. "Knowing Kiiro? You probably weren't."

"I need to see that movie," Banshou groaned. "Everyone keeps quoting it at me and I haven't seen it!"

With Sasuke out, Haku put his ice mirrors down and sighed. More nameless Oto-nin came at him, but Honemashi drew them all back:

"Honesenbon no jutsu!" This sent needles from his exposed chest, arms, and back in every direction (except the ones in which his comrades were).

"Such a body..." Orochimaru chuckled. "Hmm..."

The snake sennin appeared behind Honemashi. "My dear boy," he said, "Do you crave power?"

"Not really. Now let Aki and the rest of us leave." the last Kaguya glared dangerously.

"Do you really think you can scare me?" Orochimaru chuckled.

Kiiro's world was surrounded by white clouds. "This is heaven? Damn, it's pretty boring here."

"It's only boring during the day," came a voice from behind her. "We throw wild parties all night long!"

"When do you sleep?" Kiiro asked the voice sarcastically.

"Usually about right now. But I'm bored too, so I'm training. Damn! Wish I had my frying pan at times like these. But noooo, Orochi-teme just HAD to take it off hands before I died. Now I don't have it!"

Kiiro whirled around. "Mama-- err Warai Mamoka?!?"

The brown-haired, blue-eyed lady giggled. "That's what they called me. Did you just call me Mama?"

"Yes, I did. Warai Kiiro at your service!" Kiiro did a mock bow. 'Okay, so I'm dead for the time being. But I have a feeling this won't be so bad.'

"You could be the most powerful being in the world," Orochimaru chuckled. "Eternal life and youth are at your fingertips."

Honemashi turned to Banshou (who was still fighting). "Hear that Banshou? He's trying to sell me eternal youth?" When Honemashi said the phrase, 'eternal youth,' he spoke with great irony.

"HA! Good luck," Banshou sniggered.

"That's not somethng I tend to crave for," Honemashi added. "Now let us go."

"Okay, but all the same..." Orochimaru leaned over and bit Honemashi on the neck. "That's the earth seal."

Honemashi collapsed.

Aki/Fuyu stopped attacking Kabuto.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" And Aki charged at Orochimaru, her clothes torn and her haired mussedm the whole of her spattered with the generic Oto-nins' blood.

Orochimaru chuckled and sidestepped. "I think I'll let you go for now. But Kon-chan, Honemashi-kun, we will meet again! Kuroppi-chan too."

"Oh I'm really looking forward to that!" Kuroppi said sarcastically.

"How do we know this isn't a trap?" Anko challenged.

Orochimaru chuckled. "Oh, it isn't. Why would I trap you when I can come find you anytime I want?"

"He has a point there," Banshou said, picking up Honemashi's small twitching form and promtly dumped him on Aki.

"TO MIST!" the arm-regrower announced.

Kuroppi slung Kiiro over her shoulder. "Let's get this idiot back. She'll annoy all the demons in hell."

"We're not supposed to be down here," Mamoka whispered.

"But all the interesting people go to hell!" Kiiro whined. "And also I've heard the demons live here." she grinneed fanatically.

The blonde girl's mother sweatdropped. "You came here to meet demons?"

"Yep!"

"Well good luck with that." Mamoka disappeared.

Kiiro stuck her tongue out in the direction of the place her mother had been a few moments before. "Demon-hater, racist!"

Ussura appeared in front of Kiiro. "I thought you went to Heaven! You're not allowed down here."

"KAWAII!" Kiiro glomped the small kitsune. "SQUEE!"

Ussura smirked. "Yes, yes, I know I'm cute. Please leave?"

"But there's no demons up there!" Kiiro whined. "I'm not gonna be dead very long so why should I bore myself up there? I just want to meet demons because they're a higher life form and 'cause they kick ass! There's nothing wrong with wanting to meet beings you respect!"

Ussura sighed. "Well... I suppose you could meet my family. They thought it was very funny that when I finally got summoned, you died about five minutes after you summoned me." she glared.

Kiiro hung her head. "I am very sorry."

Ussura giggled. "It's okay. I thought it was funny too. I work all this time to be strong just so I can be a good summons... and then my dad places a restrictive seal on me three days before it happens! When I'm like this I can;t even breathe fire..." she made a face. "Which sucks."

Ussura stuck her tongue out and made a rasberry noise. "Thbbbb! Oh well... wanna meet them? My family?"

Kiiro gasped. "You really mean it?"

"I mean it. We kitsune haven't been summoned since before Kyuubi-ojiisan (grandpa) started acting up. Being the first kitsune summoned for the first time in three hundred years is a pretty big deal, specially becuase I was too little to be summoned back then," Ussura explained, walking down a path that had appeared out of nowhere.

"Kyuubi's your grandpa?!?" Kiiro squeaked. "HOW COOL IS THAT?!?"

"Very cool," Ussura agreed. "Okay, here's the family cave."

Two foxes the size of large stallions galloped out. "Imouto-chan! You're late for lunch!" One was dark orange and the other was almost pastel-colored.

"I was dragging Kiiro behind me," Ussura said exasperatedly. "Human's aren't the fastest runners. Kiiro, these are my brothers. They're twins. The darker one is Anzentenko-niisan and the lighter one is Tanshokutenko-niisan! But I call them the Hell Brohters because they're the brothers from hell."

"We live in hell," Tanshokutenko said, sweetdropping.

"So that makes you the sister from Hell," Anzentenko chuckled.

"... Good point," Ussuara said. "Good point. Anyway, this is Kiiro! And she summoned me."

"--When I was alive about an hour ago." Kiiro interjected.

"Your dying act was to summon this brat?" Anzentenko chuckled.

"Yep! Isn't it awesome?"

A deep rumbling voice answered Kiiro's hypothetical question. "If it means we kistune will be summoned again... then yes."

Kiiro gasped. "Who said that?!?" she said, spinning around.

"My name is Inari no Kitsune. You summoned my daughter, and from my knowledge I know that you will not be here in Hell for long."

The blonde girl faced the cave to see to red eyes gleaming. "Hai, Inari-sama! That's the general idea. Unless they were lying to me. Which I doubt."

"Well then..." Inari chuckled. "I don't suppose you could summon the rest of us in the future? This place gets really old after awhile..."

Kiiro gasped, then smiled. "As soon as I develop enough chakra, I will!"

"Excellent," said Anzenteko. "Terrorizing damned souls is getting old."

"Still pretty fun though," Tanshokutenko pointed out.

"Yeah," Anzentenko agreed. "You're right. It'll never get old. But variety would be appreciated. Can we chase around people who bug you? Chasing is good. We promise not to hurt anyone!"

Anzentenko lowered himself so his head was lower than Kiiro's and made puppy dog eyes.

"How can I resist that face?" Kiiro said, making the average 'squee' expression. She then chuckled. "And during a fight? Feel free to hurt the enemy. Same for the rest of you guys."

The twin foxes cheered and danced around, whooping and cantering around in a circle.

"He's just letting us go?" Kon whispered as she and Anko walked out of the Otogakure gates.

"Looks like it. But he's probably gonna capture you again," Anko said, grinning evilly. "It's times like this I'm glad he rejected me."

"Lucky," Kon grumbled.

"C'mon! I've got a dead body bigger than I am over my shoulder and I'm still faster than you!" Kuroppi called from up the road, where she was walking with Banshou and Aki (who was carrying Honemashi).

"I bet she went to hell just to see the demons," Kon chuckled.

"Yup! Probably," Anko agreed.

Aki sweatdropped. "Is she really that obsessed with demons?"

"Oh yes," Kuroppi said. "She's sewing Bijuu plushies."

"Has she sewn one of me yet?" the Hokou's voice asked.

"I think so. She was sewing them by number of tails in decending order. Last time I went to her house, she was almost done sewing the Rokubi (six-tails)."

"If she's sewn one of me, I want to see it." Aki's face grinned, then smiled softly. "I'd like to see it too," Aki admitted in her normal voice, embarassed.

"Then there's the whole nicknaming thing. The only ones she says she'll never nickname are demons and Kages. I think she holds them at the same level," Anko said, sweatdropping.

Kuroppi shook her head. "No, she holds demons higher. That's why she thinks the Yondaime (Fourth) sealed the Kyuubi somewhere instead of killing it. She says if it's sealed insiode a person she will hug that person and 'maybe some of Kyuubi-sama's awesomeness will rub off on her'."

Aki sweatdropped. "Didn't the Kyuubi attack Konoha?"

Kon nodded. "She says that's 'really awesome.' Then she rants about how she was born a year too late or she would've been born on the same day of the attack and then she'll start ranting about something irrelevant like her dad or her dead brother."

Aki stopped. "Dead brother?"

"Five minutes older, born dead. She never even met him," Anko said through her teeth.

"Say, Kiiro-chan, how is your brother?" Mamoka asked curiously. Kiiro was not supposed to have been in Hell, so some Seraphim had (forcefully) pulled her out.

Kiiro spit out the drink. "Mama, my brother was born dead. Shouldn't I be asking you?"

Mamoka stared at her daughter. "Kiiro-chan, dearie, if your brother was born dead he'd have been born silent. And trust me, he wasn't." she covered her ears for emphasis. She screwed her eyes shut tight. "And neither were you."

"Well, then, I haven't seen him. Maybe he died after you did?" Kiiro suggested. "Mayb it was so horrible that Fuyuki-obasan wouldn't want to tell me."

Mamoka nodded. "That sounds like my sister, all right. I'm surprised she let you become a ninja! I mean, you do look a lot like me. Okay, sort of like me. You look more like your dad..."

"Speaking of which, who was he? Fuyuki-obasan won't tell me that either!" Kiiro made a face.

"We've been over this before," Mamoka said, grinning evilly, "If they won't tell you then neither will I."

"Whyyyy nooooot?"

"Because I so love watching you squirm!"

Aki stopped. "It's getting late," she said, pointing ahead to the lights of a town. "We should rest over there for the night."

"Good idea," Anko agreed. "Listening to the Kaguya boy's whining is getting annoying."

Honemashi glared. "Have you any idea how painful this curse mark is?"

Anko glared back. "For your information, I do." Anko pulled the collar of her shirt down a little so that they could see the mark on the back of her neck.

Honemashi gasped. "I had no idea..." he said.

"Does it really hurt that much?" Kon asked curiously.

"Yes."

Kon looked up thoughtfully. "I wonder..."

"Don't. Even. Go. There," Anko said.

Kon smirked. "I was joking. Do you really think I'm that much like him?"

Anko looked away.

"Enjoy your stay," said the maid as she closed the door behind the group. The room was in the traditional Japanese style, with tamami mats on the floor and a brush painting of some girls in Kimono on one wall.

Kuroppi sat Kiiro's corpse (which she told registration was not dead but asleep) against the wall, and Aki set Honemashi down on the couch. He winced and rubbed his neck.

Anko stared. "How are you able to keep concious?"

Banshou giggled. "Because he's kickbutt!"

"Not that it doesn't hurt a helluva lot," Honemashi muttered.

"Just don't activate your chakra," Anko advised. "Then it'll hurt a helluva lot more."

Honemashi groaned. "How do I make it go away?"

"You can't," Anko sighed, "But we can get the seal repressed so that it only activates of you tell it to."

"How?" Kon asked curiously.

"Well, it includes a lot of seals and a lot of pain." At the word 'pain,' Anko grinned sadistically. "Of course, Honemashi, the sooner it's done the better."

Honemashi looked suspiciously at Anko. "Are you it's neccesary or are you just the sort of person who enjoys causing others unneccessary pain?"

"Both. Definitely both," Kon and Kuroppi spoke in monotone.

"I see." Honemashi sighed. "Let's get this over with..."

Anko smirked. "First, remove your shirt."

"... ARE YOU SURE THAT'S NECCESSARY?!?" Honemashi yelled frantically.

The Oro-reject glared. "If I had to and I'm a girl, then you have to."

Honemashi sat on the floor, surrounded by seals.

"Okay, here we go. Just for the record, this'll hurt almost as much as getting the mark in the first place." Team Four's sensei smiled sadistically. "Shall we?"

"I don't have much of a choice, do I?" the Kaguya boy muttered. "Let's go."

Anko bit her thumb...

"Wait!" Kuroppi said. "I have an idea!"

"What?" Anko asked, put out because she had been about to put a small child into a world of physical discomfort. (err maybe she's more like her sensei than she lets on...)

"If I use Tsukuyoumi on him while this process happens, then he won't have to feel any pain," the surrogate Inzuka pointed out. "Then he won't scream and no one will run in and think we're doing some creepy religious ritual or working for Orochimaru or both."

"You do have a point there..." Anko sighed.

Kuroppi sat down near Honemashi. "Look into my eyes... Mangekyou Sharingan! Tsukuyoumi!"

Honemashi was, strangely, in the middle of what looked like an academy classroom.

"Where exactly am I?" he called out, knowing Kuroppi would hear him. Said Uchiha appeared in front of him with a puff of smoke.

"You're in the academy classroom. Sorry but this was the first place I thought of. Or would you prefer the muted-color void I used to torture Sasuke?" she raised her eyebrows.

"No, I'm fine," Honemashi said, sweatdropping. Kuroppi shrugged and went to sit down in one of the seats.

"I sat here," she said thoughtfully. "Kiiro sat next to me. Kon sat on the other side of Kiiro. If I remember right, the academy teacher made Anko-sensei sit in the back somewhere so he had less chances of being hit by the explosive kunai she threw everywhere."

Honemashi chuckled. "That sounds like her, all right."

"Damn Uchiha," Anko muttered under her breath, "I wanted to see the Kaguya pretty-boy shriek..." she but her thumb and put it over Honemashi curse mark. The seals on the floor around him all flew to surround the mark and seal it away.

"Done," Anko said proudly. "Kuroppi, you can undo your genjutsu now."

Kuroppi said nothing.

"KUROPPI?!?"

"Maybe you should just tell her you like her," Kuroppi suggested, sitting on a desk, her legs swinging back and forth casually.

"It's not that simple," Honemashi groaned, slumping in the chair he was sitting in. "With my condition, you see..." he trailed off.

"Hmmm..." Kuroppi thought. "But she doesn't think of you like the way people do because of your condition, does she? She instated it after all. That would be sad."

"That's the problem. I don't know!" Honemashi yelled, face red. "I just don't know."

"Well, that certainly explains why Orochimaru's proposition didn't seem to tempt you."

"Yep," Honemashi agreed, "Because if I work for Orochimaru, I won't be of any use to her."

Kuroppi furrowed her brow. "Wait a sec, I'm getting a message from outside." she closed her eyes and scrunched them tight, then after a moment reopened them. "Anko-sensei's done and your body stopped jerking. You're all right now."

"Why would my body have been jerking?" Honemashi asked, sweatdropping. "I feel no pain."

"Technically your body was in pain. I just made your brain think it wasn't," Kuroppi explained.

"Oh, okay. That makes sense."

Kuroppi put on a calm expression. "Well, Honemashi, I'm glad we had this talk." she said, sounding very like a psychiatrist.

Honemashi rolled his eyes, chuckling. "Me too, Kuroppi, me too."

Kuroppi smiled."Ready?"

Honemashi nodded, and the Tsukuyoumi session ended.

Aki smiled. "Tomorrow, we reach Mist and your friend will be no longer dead."

Kon stared at Aki. "Remind me why we can't just revive her here?"

Haku spoke for the first time in three hours. "The jutsu is very taxing on Aki-san's body," he said. "She'll be unconcious for at least three days. Knowing this, the people she chooses to save are generally taken to Mist where she can become incapacitated with less chances of someone attacking her. If we revived Kiiro in Konoha, then the council might use her fainting as grounds for war."

Honemashi sighed. "They hate her for Hokou, but they can't afford to lose what they consider such a valuable tool."

"In addition, when Kiiro wakes up, she'll be very stiff from being dead," Aki added. "I have herbs at home which will speed up her returning to her normal state."

"That makes sense," Kon reasoned.

The Konoha-nin all nodded (because the three Kiri-nin aka Mist-nin and the one Suna or Sand-nin already knew this so they didn't have to nod).

The next morning, Aki was the first to rise. She got up, showered and got dressed. When that was done, she pulled out a scroll and unsealed a bag of rice and a rice cooker.

She plugged the rice cooker into the wall and filled it with water and rice, humming to herself.

The smell of rice cooking woke up Banshou, Kon, Kuroppi, and Haku.

"I brought the soy sauce this time," Aki said, "But I forgot the seasoning."

"I packed seasoning," Haku offered, pulling a small container of Furikake flakes out of his kunai holster.

"And they were in your weapons bag, how?" Banshou asked, raising her eyebrows.

"I didn't have enough room in my bag," Haku said.

Anko yawned and sat up. "If all else fails, he can sprinkle them in someone's eyes."

Everyone laughed at this.

"We're gonna get to Mist today. Will someone wake up Honemashi? I'm not doing it," Banshou said.

Everyone laughed at this as well.

Kiiro smirked. Sneaking into Hell from Heaven was awfully easy... and vice-versa. The Guardian Angels who monitored the border were way too lax on Casual Dress days.

"There you are!" Honemashi's voice growled. "Why are you sneaking from Hell into Heaven?"

"Because when the Guardian Angels find me in Hell they first constric my chakra momentarily and then bring me back up here anyway," Kiiro muttered. "I just wanted to visit my summons and her family, who are maybe future summons. What's wrong with that?"

"You're not a cursed soul. You don't belong in Hell," Honemashi said exasperatedly.

"I know that! Why are you here anyway?!?"

"Your body reaches Mist today so you should start syaing your goodbyes..." Honemashi shrugged.

Three guard angels ran up to Honemashi and hugged him. Since it was casual dress day, they were all wearing floral print Hawaiian shirts with cargo shorts. "You're taking her away?" they asked hopefully. "They make our job so hard!"

"Yeah, Aki's bringing her back today," Honemashi said, "So you don't have to worry about that."

"I better go tell Mom!" Kiiro said. "Last time she couldn't find me she was as worried as--- wait they're not worried down there! Just demonic or a cursed soul who did something bad! But she was worried, anyway."

"You're mom's that-a-way, continuing the search for your brother," one of the Guardian Angels said roughly as all three let go of Honemashi. He sounded as if he thought this was silly.

"What do you know about him that makes you use that tone?" Kiiro asked skeptically.

"You're brother's not dead, Kiiro. You'll probably meet him at some point," another Guardian Angel chuckled.

Kiiro grinned. "I gotta go tell mom!" she ran off in the direction that the angels had said her mom was.

"Kiiro, wait!" Honemashi ran after her. "I need to explain the resurrection process so you undestand what's happening!"

"Mist is only ten, eleven miles from here," Aki said conversationally as all eight shinobi (one dead and carried by Kuroppi, one asleep and carried by Aki) walked down the dusty forest path. "We'll get there soon."

"Aren't we slowing whatever your mission was by having you do this?" Anko said. "Your mission should come first."

"It did. Our mission was to find out more about Otogakure," Haku said, "Which I warrant we did. Possibly more than we wanted to know, with things like exactly what it's like insdie that cell." He smiled.

"Definitely going to be good information though," Aki said. "For instance, we know that he's probably going to be keeping an eye on Kon-- no offense meant."

"No offense taken," Kon said. "I kinda got off easy there, didn't I?"

"What exactly were you doing?"

"Orochimaru showed me around, explained some of his jutsu, tried to get Sasuke to say more than 'hnn,' and had me watch him torture some people," Kon said, "No big deal. Did you know that rubber spatulas are excellent for slapping people with?"

"You tortured people?" Anko gasped. Maybe Kon was turning into her father!

"Just Kabuto," Kon said. "Metal spatulas work well to. But with rubber ones you get this excellent wet 'thunk' sounds along with the screamed of pain..."

Aki grinned. "I'm glad to hear that."

"You should be. Kabuto's a pervert," Kon said.

"Did he assault you?" Kuroppi laughed.

Kon smirked in a way that might remind one of her father. "I don't think he would dare mess with his boss's daughter, do you?" she said creepily, obviously imitating Orochimaru.

Anko raised her eyebrows. "You can never tell with Kabuto... maybe if you steal his conditioner he won't try anything." The six ninja that were alive and awake laughed.

Kabuto rubbed at his recently sealed-off curse mark absently. There was something different about that girl...

Kon sneezed.

"Maybe Kabuto was talking about how pretty you are," Anko taunted.

Kon gave her sensei one of her better death glares. "STOP THAT!" she yelled.

Kiiro furrowed her brow. "So, pretty much, when I'm resurrected I'll be asleep for a few days then stiff for a week?"

"Maybe two," Honemashi said. "But it's better than staying dead isn't it?"

"Hellz yeah."

"I think I see it!" Banshou called down to her comrades below. She was sitting high up in a tree, looking to see is Mist Village was visible yet. "See that big grey thing in the distance?"

"I can see it," Kuroppi said, "But only with my Sharingan."

Anko sighed. "How far? Once we get Kiiro there I need to take Kon back to see Hokage-sama about the whole daughter-clone thing."

"Not too far. An hour or so if we run!" Banshou leaped from her tree and onto the ground, starting to run. "Let's go!"

Kuroppi re-adjusted the blonde girl slung over her shoulder and ran after the arm-regenerator. The others followed close behind.

The gates were made of a slick grey stone, polished a hundred times over and gleaming slightly in the sun.

"Here we are," Aki panted, stopping her run. "Kirigakure: The Village Hidden in the Mist."

Me: I tried to be more descriptive... did I do okay, Kuro-chan?

Kuro: We'll see.

Kiiro: REVIEW! I'm almost not dead anymore! (does a dance) Being dead is so boring!