Made of Fail

Chapter Four
Kekkei Genkai

The next day found Haruo working outside on the farm (Romi was amused at this – a farmer living in a snowy village? But despite the snow, the plants seemed to be doing quite well) and Kasumi doing the dishes after breakfast. Everyone noticed the tense silence that had fallen over Kasumi the day before, but today she seemed much more calm and resolved. Rōshi was playing with Haku and Fū, Sara was off somewhere, and Romi was sitting quietly on the couch, simply watching everyone go about the day through half-lidded eyes.

If Haruo decided to try to kill Kasumi and Haku, she'd have to escape with the two of them. Haku would be confused and scared, and Kasumi would be broken and in shock, making them both hard to transport. The obvious choice of escape would be away from Mizu no Kuni, to a northeastern island country about a day away if they didn't stop to rest. They'd be able to make it, but Kasumi wouldn't work with them, instead being consumed by grief and possible anger. Haku would be confused and wouldn't know what to do.

If Haruo decided to accept them, then it could go either of two ways – the entire family would have to work through it together, like that one time from Romi's home world she heard of a neo-Nazi whose girlfriend found out that she was Jewish. They had to work through it together, and it was hard. Then the neo-Nazi found out he was Jewish as well, and they both became ultraorthodox, married, and had a bunch of little Jewish babies. If they worked through the problem, then they'd be happy and even closer than they were before. If they didn't work it out, they'd both be irrevocably hurt, and feel betrayed. If worse came to worse, he'd attempt to kill Haku and Kasumi, and they'd still have to flee.

The odds were truly against them, but Romi hoped that Haruo's love for his wife and child would outshine all else. Even if it didn't originally.

Romi was torn from her thoughts as she noticed Haruo enter the house, wiping sweat off his brow. "Kasumi," he said, pushing his messy black hair out of his dark eyes. "You said you wanted to talk to me, right?" Kasumi stiffened at this, and Romi noticed her resolution swaying a little, but she quickly shook it off. "Y-yes," she said softly. "It's…quite important."

Haruo was taken aback at the sudden seriousness of her tone, but nodded nonetheless. Kasumi slowly dried her hands with a towel and sat down at the table, her hands on her lap and her eyes downcast. Haruo followed solemnly.

"Kasumi…?"

"Haruo… You love me, right?" Haruo was struck dumb by this statement. She fully well knew how much he loved her! What was the point of asking that question? And in front of their guests, no less! "Kasumi…what are you saying?"

"I…I mean…you'd love me no matter what, right?"

"Of course!"

"Even if I was ugly?"

"Yes!"

"Even if I was stupid?"

"Even then, Kasumi." Kasumi took a deep breath. This was the moment of reckoning. "Even if I…had a kekkei genkai?" There was a long silence as Kasumi waited for her answer and Haruo's mind stopped. This was a taboo topic in Mizu no Kuni, and for his wife to bring it up…

Oh, god.

Haruo stared into her fearful brown eyes for a long time before speaking. "Kasumi…" he said slowly. "I…I need to think about this for a minute – why… How…" Kasumi took a deep breath. "I've had it ever since I was born. I'm originally from the Yuki clan and we are able to manipulate ice. I never would've brought it up, but Kuro-san brought it to my attention that Haku had inherited it, and oh, gods, Haruo, I'm so sorry! I never intended for this to happen. We were supposed to have a perfect life, and have a beautiful life together, and this damn curse keeps me from happiness. I was so scared when I was pregnant with Haku that he would inherit this curse, and now my fears have come true. Please still love me, Haruo!"

Kasumi's tanned husband looked at her blankly before shaking his head. "This… Did you not trust me enough to tell me this alone? Did you think I'd hurt you?" Tears rolled down Kasumi's face. "I know you love me, Haruo, but I didn't know if you'd still love all of me after this. I'm so sorry… I'm sorry."

Haruo gently wiped away his wife's tears. "Kasumi…if you hadn't told me this and I found out some other way, I'd have thought that you were on some sort of secret mission to murder me, I admit. I feel a bit betrayed because of this secret, but I understand why you kept it a secret. I know this is going to be very hard, but we'll work through this." He took a deep breath. "We're going to talk this out later, okay?"

Kasumi nodded and wiped her tears away. "Th-thank you for giving me this chance, Haruo."

Romi and Rōshi took the kids out to let the adults have some privacy as they thought. The bugs in Fū's body had gone into a state of suspended animation because of the cold, and some of them had died – but she was able to find some insects tolerant to the cold and collected them. Haku seemed extremely interested in this, and he Fū got into an animated discussion about Fū's tenant, and the two seemed to get even closer as they shared their secrets.

As Fū and Haku talked and played in the snow, Romi and Rōshi leaned against a tree and talked quietly between themselves. "Haku's got a lot of talent," Romi told him, crossing her arms and closing her eyes. "I'd like to have him trained." Rōshi agreed. "He and Fū are getting along very well, anyway," he responded. "With a little training, they'd work quite well as a team. Fū would be an all-around fighter, and Haku would be a mid- to long-range fighter, a terrific back-up. We'd need a strategist and a close-range fighter, though, to even out their group. Perhaps a taijutsu user, since Fū would probably work well with ninjutsu and Haku with genjutsu and medic-jutsu."

Romi nodded. "But that's only if Kasumi and Haruo let us take him with us. We can't get too ahead of ourselves. Instead, we need to figure out how to get them to release Haku into our care…" Rōshi smirked. "Oh, and you're not worried about 'choosing what's best for them'?"

The brunette smirked. "I don't care," she said a bit more coldly than she intended. "Sara brought me back here, and I have information that can start a war. If I don't use this information to help as many people as I can, then there's no point in having it. I won't go overboard with it, but humans are the stupidest animal on this planet."

Rōshi smirked at this. "Hm," he grunted. "Perhaps you're finally deserving of your demon blood."

Kasumi and Haruo were finally able to talk things out later that night, and that's when Romi made her move, arguing that 'Haku won't be able to thrive in this environment' and 'his growth will be stunted'. She also said that because of his lack of experience controlling his kekkei genkai, he'd 'be in immense danger anytime he stepped outside'. Haku's parents seemed to agree, but they didn't want to be separated from him. Of course, they wouldn't be able to leave with him, for some stupid reason only an adult could come up with, so they finally decided, by the next day, that Haku would leave with the group while they would tie up loose ends and move to Konoha to wait for them.

At this point, Romi, Rōshi, Sara, Fū, and the newly-acquired Haku left to save more people from hell, and bloodlines from extinction.

The group of five decided to explore Mizu no Kuni by 'island hopping' – travelling from island to island to island like stepping stones. Their next stop was another village, where they acquired a small girl who had no kekkei genkai, but lived on the streets anyway. She led them to a group of children, two of whom had kekkei genkai – the scorch release, shakuton, and the explosion release, bakuton. Over the course of a few weeks, all but the kekkei genkai-wielding children had found new homes thanks to the efforts of the group – most in a more affluent area.

The two kekkei genkai-wielding children were given to Sara to take to Konoha – apparently she could turn into a giant bird. Who knew?

Once she got back, Romi was going to force her to spill that damned secret.

The group continued to island-hop, taking any kekkei genkai-wielders to the village of their choice via Sara's giant bird form. Then…they ran into some trouble. Ninja trouble, to be exact.

They were sitting in a circle around their campfire, huddling close to it for warmth – they were on their sixth island, and it was slightly warmer than Haku's village, enough that it didn't snow. Even so, they were shivering and most of Fū's bugs were still in their suspended animation, which took away her most powerful attacks – not that anyone but Rōshi and Haku knew, as far as she knew. Even Romi, who loved the cold, had trouble staying warm. Perhaps it was this island's unique geology which allowed it to be colder then Haku's village, yet still not snow.

Romi had just been following that line of reasoning when they'd been attacked. A tall, muscular man had thrown what looked like a giant glorified butcher's knife over their heads, spinning, before embedding itself in the tree. Haku, Fū, and Romi jumped at this new development, and Romi, being quite protective of 'her young', immediately jumped over to the two children and crouched low on all fours over them, growling.

Haku, not used to Romi's strange behavior, looked at her as if she was insane.

…Which was, of course, true, but that was beside the point.

All of the previous tension suddenly disappeared as Romi actually looked at the sword and stood on two feet. That was when a tall, muscular man hopped down from the trees and landed on the sword in what appeared to be a 'cool pose'. He wore what looked like vertically-striped pajama pants, sandals, bandages over his face and around his neck, a Kirigakure forehead protector faced to the left and cow-patterned arm and leg warmers. He also had a strap running diagonally across his chest, presumably used to hold the sword.

Romi spoke first. "Oi, Zabuza, what do you want?"

Zabuza grinned. "Ooh? So you've heard of me. I'm honored."

"My friend Sara told me some funny stories about you…although you probably know her as 'Chikurin'." It was at this point that the pale man paled even more. "She's come back," he deadpanned, hopping off his sword and yanking it out of the tree before sheathing it. "I knew the silence was too good to last. Where is she?"

"Escorting a little girl with a kekkei genkai to Kumo," she said nonchalantly, leaning towards the fire. "C'mon, get close to the fire – it's warm and you're wearing practically nothing." It was at this point, as Zabuza neared the fire, that Fū spoke up.

"'Kā-chan, who's that crazy man?" she asked bluntly, pointing at him. Zabuza twitched. "Brat…" Romi just smiled. "Musume, it's not nice to point," she chided, lowering her daughter's arm. "Nor is it polite to call people crazy…at least not to their faces."

"I thought it was a good thing to be crazy."

"Yes, but some people don't like being called crazy like we do. They might take it as an insult."

"That's…normal." She spat out the word like poison.

"Yeah, but not everyone can be as crazy as us."

"Yeah, I guess." Zabuza stared at her for a minute. "Did Chikurin corrupt you?"

"She can't corrupt me if I'm already insane," Romi rationalized. "Besides, she goes by 'Sara' now." Sighing, the tall man sat down and Romi introduced him as Momochi Zabuza, the Kirigakure no Kijin, the Demon of the Hidden Mist. She went into a bit of detail about how he murdered his entire graduating class and attempted to overthrow the Mizukage. Haku, ever-observant, noticed something strange. "Onē-san, if he's a nuke-nin, then how come his hitai-ate isn't slashed?"

Romi had taught Haku some of the basics of the ninja world as well as teaching him the few wind and water jutsu that she knew. It appeared that all this teaching hadn't gone to waste.

There was a short pause before Romi smiled. "Well," she said lightly, stroking the fire. "I may be guessing by this point, but I believe that Zabuza-san doesn't see himself as a nuke-nin." Her smile grew wider as she glanced over at the man. "He has a sort of sense of honor despite his bloodthirsty tendencies, and is still loyal to Kiri – just not the current Mizukage, as he refuses to associate with such a dishonorable man. His attempted coup-de-tat is proof of this – I believe that he wanted to free Kiri from such a man and become the new Mizukage… Am I right, Zabuza-san?"

There was a long silence after Romi's musing, and only the crackling of the fire and the sparse wildlife throughout the forest could be heard. Then Zabuza chuckled. "Am I that obvious?" he asked as he leaned towards the fire, looking over the dancing flames to gaze into Romi's multi-colored eyes. "You're probably the only one who's ever realized that."

Romi grinned, making Zabuza blink. 'She looks like…'

"Actually, it took me several years to realize this," she admitted. "But once I did realize it, it seemed quite obvious." They continued their little staring contest, which was only broken by the flapping of wings and a loud thump.

"Welcome back, Sara," Romi said cheerfully. "Zabuza's here."

"Really? Why?" There was a long pause before they all looked at Zabuza, who shrugged. "Heard you had a Hyōton user with you," he explained. "Thought if I could kidnap him and train him, I could add some more firepower to my team. I guess that's not an option now, though." Haku blinked at this, but Romi simply nodded. "Would you like to travel with us?" she asked. "It'd be a big help."

Zabuza glanced over at her blankly. "Why?"

"You're great at Suiton ninjutsu, taijutsu, and kenjutsu. Having you would definitely bolster our firepower without slowing us down. Besides, we need someone to help us train our Hyōton user. You're the best possible choice." Romi then grinned widely again, the force of it squeezing her eyes shut as she hugged her knees close to her chest. "Plus, I think you've got the right idea. I'd like to help you overthrow the Mizukage. I've got some inside information that could help."

Zabuza stared at her for a minute before nodding. "I accept. Just keep Sara away from me."

"What's wrong with me?"

"That."

And so Momochi Zabuza, Kirigakure no Kijin, Demon of the Hidden Mist, joined the group, bringing their total number of members up to six.

It had been seven days since Tarantu had sent her letter to Romi, and during that time, Gaara got several images of what Fū had been doing, dutifully reporting back to his okā-san. He noticed, as he had been trained from birth to notice such things, that she appeared much calmer and happier now that she had some sort of way of knowing that her imōto, her little sister, was all right. This made Gaara happy as well, which simply proved that there was yet another upside to having friends.

When a loved one is happy, you are happy as well. When a loved one is scared, you gain the strength to protect them. And when a loved one is sad, you gain the strength to help them shoulder their burden – and they'll do the same for you.

He still remembered the first time his okā-san told him that.

On the eighth morning, a letter arrived as they ate breakfast. Gaara was happily talking to Temari and Kankurō, when a bird began to tap at the window. Everyone looked over at it, and Tarantu opened the window to let it fly in and perch on her shoulder. "Ohayō, tori-san. How are you this fine morning?" Temari rolled her eyes. "Okā-san, the bird isn't going to answer you."

Tarantu smiled and shrugged. "Yes, but by talking to him in a kind voice, I can show that a) I am not a threat, and b) I am willing to be his friend. Any animal will be friendly to you if you are friendly to him." With that, she began to detach the letter from its leg before frowning. "Frostbite…?" she murmured before looking at it quizzically and closing the window. "I'm going to have to take you Yashamaru-sempai. I'm not good enough to do amputations on birds yet."

She took the letter from the bird's leg and allowed it to hop onto the table and eat some of the seeds Tarantu set out for it, noting that its left leg was completely useless. 'What a shame…' she thought as she opened the letter.

Onē-chan –

Imagine my surprise when I saw your letter! Honestly, sending that kind of bird to a place like this? That leg of his is going to need to be amputated, but I don't know how to do it, so it's up to you. Poor thing.

For the sake of brevity and getting that poor bird some medical attention, I'll keep this short – all will be revealed by eating the beetle's left antenna.

I know – sounds gross, right? But it'll grow back, and it's not you that needs to eat it anyway, so don't start gagging just yet. Give the trio, the Thousand, and the Circle my regards.

Your loving imōto

Tarantu chuckled a bit. Romi truly learned quite a bit – she didn't give any unnecessary information, and absolutely nothing was in code except for the nicknames (the trio were obviously the children sitting at the breakfast table right now, the Thousand would be Chiyo, a pun on her name meaning 'thousand worlds' and the Circle would be Yashamaru, a pun on the 'maru' part of his name, which also meant 'circle'), even though it looked that way – which would make any interceptors run around in circles.

Even so, with the hypothermia and the fact that it was a desert bird that had been sent, it would be obvious to any ninja that the recipient of the letter had been traveling in a cold climate – probably far north or far south – and the one who sent it lived in a desert.

It was a moot point, anyway, as the letter had been sealed with chakra and unopened, so no one could have read the letter anyway. The real priority at the moment would be getting the bird some medical attention.

A bit more island-hopping and Fū's bugs had finally begun to awaken from their slumber – and with that little letter, her secret had been revealed. Now her mommy knew that she could control bugs, and happily, didn't hate her any less for it – although she had been surprised to hear that Fū had been in contact with the Shichibi as long as she could remember, and had taught her. And now that Rōshi was teaching her to work with her bijū effectively, their partnership was developing quickly.

It had been three weeks since the gang had last reformed, and their whole 'get kekkei genkai users out of Mizu no Kuni' plan had been coming along very well. On top of that, Romi had been training Fū in fūton jutsu as well as Rōshi training her with her bijū, Zabuza trained Haku, and Sara trained Romi.

Fū had learned of a terrific side effect of being the jinchūriki of the Nanabi no Kabutomushi – she had natural super-strength without needing to use chakra. She discovered it after effortlessly picking up a rock, which turned out to be a boulder imbedded into the ground, to look for bugs. With a little digging, she found out that she could lift up to eight hundred-fifty times her own weight. Because of this, she was now training to use it in battle. For this, she sparred with Zabuza. He really seemed to enjoy it, despite the fact that he had to go easy on her.

Then she fell into her mindscape after a hard day of training.

It was quiet. A cold, yet gentle breeze steadily blew at her left side, making her hair move to the right. Everything she felt was magnified, and the thrill of it electrified her. Opening her eyes, Fū found herself looking up into a clear blue sky, a rare blue she didn't often see. Turning around, she saw that she was laying horizontally, and below her lay a vast expanse of individual fluffy white clouds. With a grin, Fū dove down and landed on one of the clouds, bouncing lightly into its softness and feeling its dampness.

Then she took a good look at herself. She was naked – not that it bothered her – but was covered by what looked like beetle armor that was attached to her skin and amazingly, two translucent yellow wings with brownish yellow veins grew out of her back. They were Japanese rhinoceros beetle wings. "Woah," she breathed out in awe. Then she grinned and flew off again. "Wahoo!"

After some exploration, she found that at the bottom of the many clouds was what appeared to be a drain. Curious, she flew into it – and as soon as she did, she lost her wings and beetle armor. "Oi!" she yelled out, annoyed. She liked flying! With a pout, she decided to follow the drain to see where it led.

Fū encountered many twists and turns along a long, complex, but clean and modern, circular sewer system that constantly had a few inches of water and a constant dripping sound – at least she could walk on the water. Soon, perhaps by instinct, she didn't know, she reached a large, circular cage. Right smack dab in the middle was a piece of paper with the kanji for 'seal'. She looked up at what the cage held inside it in awe.

"Nanabi no Kabutomushi…" she murmured. It was nothing like she thought it would be – for example, instead of having a round, ovular body, it was long and thin with six legs coming out of its shoulders. Its tails looked like six wings and a strange green tail-like appendage growing out of the end of its abdomen, the Y-shaped 'horn' growing out of its back, and what looked like a single yellow orb peering out behind vertical armored bars.

"Hello, human," it said. "So I am finally able to meet my container face-to-face." Fū looked down shyly, clasping her hands in front of her. "Hello," she said. "It's nice to meet you, Kabutomushi." The bijū chuckled darkly.

"No need for the formalities, Fū," it said. "After all, we are close, aren't we?" Fū looked up at it, a smile on her face. "Y-Yeah!" she exclaimed. "You're my first friend!" To her surprise, it scoffed, buzzing angrily. "Foolish human," it hissed, the anger in its voice making Fū take a few steps back. "What you humans call friends are just bags of flesh connected by strings of jealousy, betrayal, and hate. Friends are useless."

Fū frowned. "Oi! Then what are we?" she yelled. "You said we were close, right?" At this, it chuckled again. "We are partners," it said simply. "I am the prisoner, you are my jail. You are my means to the outside world, and I am your power. It's a mutually beneficial relationship – we are not friends. Friends can turn on you. We are something much closer." This made the green-haired girl look at her bijū in confusion. "I don't get it," she deadpanned.

The demon chuckled once more. "You'll understand one day, human. You'll understand one day."

Haku was having a very different experience. Zabuza trained him as often as he could, molding his talents perfectly. He took to human anatomy very quickly, and was currently learning to use senbon. He had above average aim, speed, and chakra control, but he still needed to work hard on it to be effective. His ninjutsu skills were improving very quickly, though his taijutsu skills still needed a lot of work. Sara had given him a scroll on the Arctic Tern Style of taijutsu as well as some genjutsu scrolls, which he picked up rather nicely. Although Zabuza often complained that he was weak, he knew that he was impressed by his progress.

At the moment, he was practicing his dodging skills against Zabuza's giant butcher's knife.

"Ack!" He ducked the giant blade and rolled to his left before standing again. He knew he wasn't in any danger because Zabuza was able to stop his sword before it did any damage, but it was still terrifying. A low, two-handed sweep of the Kubikiribōchō made Haku jump and do a delicate sideways flip over the blade, landing a bit off-balance on his feet and breathing heavily.

"Not bad," Zabuza said, sheathing his sword. "Take a five-minute break and then work on your suiton jutsu." Haku bowed in respect before sitting down under a tree and taking a deep drink from his canteen. Rōshi sat next to her. "You're doing well, Haku-kun," he said with a smile. "You're developing quickly." The boy smiled. "Arigatō, Rōshi 'jī-san," he said respectfully. "I still have quite a long way to go, though."

The elderly red-haired man shrugged. "Even so, you're doing well. Very few children your age can do what you do."

The two sat in silence for a little bit before Zabuza called Haku over again. "All right, brat, show me what you can do."

Haku showed him all the jutsu he knew – the Thousand Stinging Needles of Death Technique, the Kirigakure no Jutsu, the Water Prison Technique, the Cutting Ice Blade Technique, and the Rumbling Wind Wall Technique. None of the techniques were close to being mastered, nor could he use them effectively, but at least he had the basics down. Zabuza trained him intensely, and by the end of the day he was able to quickly execute the Kirigakure no Jutsu – even so, he was nowhere near being able to use it to his advantage.

However, he would learn – and who better to teach it than the Master of Silent Killing himself, Kirigakure no Kijin Momochi Zabuza?

Romi had finally mastered the art of running on all fours – something no one knew why she decided to learn, but whatever. She'd also taken to the Wolf Style of taijutsu, which focused on bringing down an enemy through reliance on the pack and paying special attention to the eyes, temples, throat, and belly of the opponent – the weak spots. For the pack, Romi used kage bunshin.

She'd also taken well to the Bay Cat Style of ninjutsu, which was a unique style that incorporated the Bay Cat Taijutsu Style and involved…well, playing with the prey for a bit if the user desired and getting it to fall into traps before quickly disabling the spinal cord through the neck, usually striking from the shadows. The Bay Cat Taijutsu Style was similar to the Snake Style in that it focused on flexibility and striking quickly, but it also incorporated tiring out the opponent by dodging and baiting him as she played with him.

She was a beginner in all of these styles, but the fact that her hanyō side contained a Bay Cat demon and a Wolf demon definitely helped her grasp the basics more easily.

As Romi slowly went through her kata, she paid special attention to her feet, making sure she didn't make a sound. At the moment, she was still in her human form, having achieved the first level of her Bay Cat demon form the week before – all it really did was deepen the whisker marks on her cheeks, make her ears a pointy, sharpen her teeth, and turn her nails to claws. Well, it allowed her to use a larger amount of her demonic chakra as well – the physical changes were just a result of the demonic chakra running through her system. Even so, she didn't want to use it just yet. It would be her trump card, her kirifuda, and practicing with it out in the open was a surefire way to make that trump card public – something she didn't want.

Although that didn't mean she couldn't train.

Wiping her brow before speeding up her kata, Romi continued to practice until she ached all over.

Rōshi and Zabuza had hit it off quite well – although they constantly argued, Zabuza seemed to deeply respect the redheaded elder, and Rōshi respected him in turn. The two could sit in comfortable silence for hours.

Rōshi was the watchful eye of the group, always keeping an eye on all of the members to make sure they were safe. He'd also taken up the position of counsel, giving his advice to the youngsters and being the backbone of the group. Even though Romi had taken up the position of the main 'leader' of the group, he was the true leader, hidden by the shadows. Romi always deferred to him when there was a big decision. Zabuza was another quiet leader, but instead of sitting back and giving advice, he muscled in and took charge if he felt Romi was unfit to handle the situation.

Rōshi, however, simply watched over the group with quiet eyes, keeping track of every anomaly and filing it away in his mind. Yes, he liked being with this group. They were surprisingly quiet, and he was able to pass his teachings on to his fellow jinchūriki. He, the container of the feared Yonbi no Saru, had found human acceptance in the most unlikely of places.

Uchiha Madara, the oldest living Uchiha and the current Mizukage's puppet-master, sat on his couch as he gently stirred his tea. Three wildcards had been thrown into the mix. The two last living heirs to the legendary Yin and Yang clans, and Chikurin…the idiot.

Madara shook his head. Idiot or not, Chikurin was many times stronger than he. And with them slowly gaining more followers, his plan would never work. Despite his controlling of one of the five main hidden villages, he was in no position to begin his plan. He'd have loved to have either the Yin or the Yang on his side, but with them under Chikurin, they were untouchable. And with their recruiting of the jinchūriki, he'd never have a shot at them…during this generation, at least.

He could wait. Life was, after all, a waiting game. A hundred years, two hundred years, even a thousand or more… He could wait that long. Once the jinchūriki were once again spread out and vulnerable, Chikurin had once again disappeared off the face of the earth, and perhaps a Yin or a Yang – maybe even both – would join his side…his plan would be put into action.

His victory would be assured.

He would rule over all.

World peace would finally be realized.

Yes, he could wait, he decided as he finally ended his 'special' genjutsu on the Yondaime Mizukage and finished his tea. Patience was a virtue, after all. And once the time had come…

…his dream would finally be realized and peace would be thrust upon the land.

A/N: And that's a wrap! With six more months to travel, Romi and co. are nearing the climax of their time outside a village.