There is a tick box left unchecked, a path not yet fully explored. I attempted it, once; obtaining a Summons. Too soon, too large a drain on my reserves. But this is The Way of Things, part of the pattern which all stories follow, and who am I to say different?

The hand seals are a blur and while the tug on my chakra is far from small, it isn't crippling anymore. The world disappears in a puff of smoke leaving me… elsewhere.

My Summon's realm is rather dreary, almost skeletal pine trees looming to frankly implausible heights and turning the irritatingly loud sun into mere stripes and bars of brief, dusty illumination. The trees shift and sway slowly in a cool breeze, filling the air with a faint creak of stressed wood, causing the shadows to slide over and around each other like a demented barcode or one of those children's line games. But some of the shadows are not moving with the wind.

The bird was stout, almost fat, but solidly built for all of that as it blinked at me with huge eyes and settled on the branch overhead in the little space between the trees, grey-blue feathers rustling.
Owls. Interesting.

"Human. Quite a while since we had a visitor. The Contract, you desire this?"

Her beak clacked sharply as her head twisted ninety degrees to observe me.

I nodded slowly, keeping a wary eye on her wickedly sharp talons as they dug into the wood below her.

"If I might. My name is Hiroki. It would be a great honor if I merited the opportunity to sign your Summoning Contract."

The Great Owl preened, beak straightening a few pinions as she bobbed her head silently before turning back to me, her eyes slightly narrowed.

"Four things we desire of Summoners. Keenness of vision. Silence of Movement. That you keep our secrets. That you prove your loyalty."

I blinked on my Sharingan for a second before ghosting across the carpet of dried pine needles, the slender twigs bending under foot but neither snapping nor crunching before I disappeared for a moment entirely, blinking from depth of shadow to depth of shadow without even a rustle of wind in my wake. I paused at the foot of the tree before smiling faintly.

"I cannot tell you any of the secrets I know, but rest assured that worlds have burned for the things in my head. I suppose we will simply have to build a certain amount of trust over time. How might I prove my loyalty?"

The Bird clacked her beak again, though it sounded somewhat approving, a slight shifting of her facial feathers suggesting a smile. Her wings flap once, and another pair of birds land on the forest's floor nearby. One is smaller, visibly shabby with an anemic, nearly apathetic air of despair about him.

"This one-"-her wing sweeps to encompass the frailer owl-"is to be culled. We must preserve the strength of the clan, the defective are expunged so they may not pollute the gene pool. You will kill him."

I look slowly between the two, the grand plumage of the Matriarch, ruff of feathers almost a headdress, and the little, scruffy thing on the forest floor, miserable and hopeless. What is this? What are they thinking of me?

Oh would some power the small gift give us, to see ourselves as others see us…

Wish granted.

Tenjin.

The figure on the ground staring up at me is thin and loose in the half-light and shade which blends the dull camouflage of the garb into indistinguishability. Not quite that predatory readiness for violence which some ninja carry about them like a perfume, but more a whip, dangling in a relaxed hand, still as a cave for the moment, but waiting only for the faintest gust of wind to set him in motion.

He tilts his head, no trace of internal monologue visible on his features as the steel-blue hood's colors shift under the drifting shadows of the trees.

"You truly desire I should do this thing?"

What an odd question he poses.

"We do."

I blink back to myself and smile cheerfully. Phew! Here I was worried this might be some sort of moral puzzle or something.

"Okedoke!"

I begin to hum under my breath, chakra laced into the sound as it drifts through the trees and shadow, locking my gaze with the little owl's, stilling his trembling with sweet dreams of starry nights and free flight. A whisper of power about my feet lets me glide over the needles without disturbing them at all; showing off was for then, this is for real and a ninja leaves no traces.

The diminutive bird is swaying slightly under the hypnotic effect of the illusion as I come nearer, his eyes glazed, pupils dilated, and body relaxed.

"Hush little baby don't say a word-"

My backhand carries enough force to shatter stone; an owl skull is instantly aerosolized. Decapitation leaves the brain alive for a few seconds, as I well remember; this is kinder, if not cleaner. It is one of my greatest strengths, honed during ANBU, the utter lack of Killing Intent even while sliding the knife home, for truly I have never borne anything I killed any ill will. It's not their fault they were in my way, after all.

I turn back to the Owl sitting on the tree branch, tiny spots of blood liberally scattered across half of my body. She is… slightly sad, I think, though not unhappy. I pause for a moment, consideringly.

"Might I ask why he warranted death?"

She shakes herself a bit, feathers fluffing as she blinks her enormous eyes.

"He stole food from nestlings."

My head tilts introspectively before I nod sharply.

"I see. Very well. Have I passed your tests?"

The Matriarch peers at me intently, before giving a nodding head bob.

"You have demonstrated your adequacy, yes. Ichiko!"

Another owl flutters down to settle on a branch much nearer to the ground. The name is apparently a reference to the single eye he bears, though the empty socket is not quite empty, instead bearing a patch with a swirled seal. I simply must ask them about that sometime, but-

Ichiko tilts his head back and begins to cough before the end of a scroll emerges to be grabbed with a surprisingly dextrous claw. When unrolled across the tinder dry ground I can see that it bears only two other names, both faded from age till the blood is the muddy color of clay.

Blood is such a lovely shade of red, no matter its stage of coagulation. From the unreal bright fresh from the vein, to the crusty black of ancient splatter, I find it most delightful in all its many forms.

My name is done in a few strokes, and as the bond is sealed I can feel the thrum of some deeper connection settling into my coils. I will have to test that, what does it mean?

"The bargain is struck."

I glance back up at the largest owl, who I am increasingly confident is likely to be an important member of the clan, not merely the first to greet me. Her voice carries a weight of command, the tone of one who anticipates orders being carried out. She is quite lovely for it.

"I don't think I caught your name?"

She stares down at me, not arrogant, but assessing.

"Shizushi."

There is another long pause, and the owls that have been congregating silently in the branches nearby lend the distended instant an air of expectation. Ended, still silently, when Shizushi nods her head once more, her gaze losing a little of its cutting intensity.

"Welcome to the Owl Clan."

. . .

May 17, 11 AK

There is one downside to running missions with non-ANBU, they… well they aren't very good. Not that the Chunin pair I'm with are weak or anything! They all deserve the rank, solid ninja all, and the other Jounin isn't bad either, but they are all a little bit… laxer? Not drinking in the middle of the day lax, or something ridiculous like that, but…

Sometimes one of the Chunin, Katsuo?, leaves the edges of footprints on the branches! The other one, Inoue, he keeps doing flips in the air as he jumps from branch to branch of the tree highway, his pale blue hair trailing behind him like a flag. If he had a doujutsu, great. Byakugan can't get dizzy, and Sharingan can process fast enough for such an action to be useful. But without that? No human eye could get something meaningful out of such an action and he's leaving himself vulnerable to an ambush every time he does so.

Flashy, pointless actions like that would never fly in ANBU. Maybe that's what it is really, I'm not necessarily 'stronger' than the Masaru-Jounin, the last member of our team, but I am probably… tighter? More efficient, maybe, like my eyes. Precision and speed; in, out, get the job done.

Well, in general.

The kunai comes out of nowhere, too fast for Inoue to dodge and it hits him in the shoulder. I discover something new about myself. I really don't like seeing my teammates get hurt.

Not. One. Bit.

My next touchdown on a branch becomes three Clones and a Shadow Clone splitting off in all directions. The Shadow Clone is still exhausting; I won't be using any other Ninjutsu this battle, but then again I shouldn't need to. Genjutsu is chakra cheap, even if concentration expensive.

The intangible clones all shoot towards different targets while the solid clone fades to near invisibility, hands flickering through seal after seal as it drops nearly a dozen different illusions on the enemy. The one in front of my actual body gets only an instant of Sharingan eyes staring back at him before the senbon blind him with a side order of lobotomy. But just in case, the kunai in my hand slides out just enough to nick his carotid artery as I pass, feet not even touching the branch he's standing on as I head toward the next landing spot, paths of attack already forming on my mental map to deal with all the other targets in turn.

I am facing away from the battle, and the Shadow Clone has reestablished new Genjutsu after several of the first wave were dispelled. Not all of them get negated, not the subtler ones to confuse depth perception, change minute aspects of the battlefield, or slow the limbs by the barest fraction, the insidious ones that come in the most handy, so the clone dissolves, refreshing my situational awareness for a perfect rebound at the back of the target engaging Katsuo-the-Leaver-of-Tracks.

I fly over his opponent, executing a smooth flip as my hands snake out and grab the sides of the enemy's head. Waist, legs, and arms all fire in tandem to give me a complete 360 spin, twisting his skull around backwards while Katsuo buries a kunai into his torso.

Masaru has his pair well in hand, particularly with the Genjutsu assistance; one loses his head in a ball of flame and the other takes a fist to the gut that doubles him over. The last, the one hiding in the foliage who hit my Chunin with a kunai, loses his nerve and turns to run as the whisper of panic takes its toll.

I am next to him in an instant, hand on the back of his head in a firm grip, and I spin him around and slam his head into the tree trunk.

"Say!" THUD "You're!" THUD "Sorry!" THU-Splutch.

Oops. Well, the last one fighting Masaru is down but still breathing, which is all I really need. But first-

"Hey, hey, you okay?! Hey, Inoue? Hey!"

He grimaces at me, hand on his injured shoulder and spots of pink on his cheek bones as I grip his arms tightly and turn him back and forth, checking for any other injuries.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, it's just a flesh wound, wasn't paying enough attention…"

I stare intently at him from beneath the shadows of my hood which… he likely doesn't really see, but he gets the message anyway, for his blush grows under his tan and he looks away a little.

"Well, then we'll just have to do some remedial training once we get back to Konoha, won't we? Here, let me just-"

The small blade comes out with a jerk, allowing fresh blood to well up from the wound. My hand glows a soft mint and I press firmly onto the injury, rapidly inducing clotting factors to stem the flow. Just a patch job, but with some tightly wound bandages it will keep infection from settling in until we can rest up.

Immediate concerns abated I turn back to the last living member of the ambush party. Missing-nin, going by the scuffed and unpolished Kiri headband and the general disarray of his ink-blue clothing. Something like a quarter of their active forces deserted or fled during the civil war; now their problem is our problem.

Masaru is standing over him and gives me a slightly inquisitive look as I stride over to the groaning form on the ground. My fist tangles into Kiri's hair, pulling him up to look at me face to face.

"Hello. My name is Hiroki. You hurt one of my Chunin. That's very upsetting. Normally, as punishment, I would turn your personality into goo and shape it to my satisfaction so that you could understand the gravity of your mistake, but I'm running a little low on chakra right now, so. Here we have two options. The first is that you tell me why you hit us, and everything you know about Mist. Then I snap your neck. It will be very quick and entirely painless."

He attempts to spit in my face, but I dodge the clumsy act of defiance.

"I guess it's pain then."

I lean forward to shield my face from the rest of my squad. Sharingan spin to life, and I take a moment to savor the the precise instant when the missing-nin finally realizes how severely he has misstepped. Tsukuyomi would be too draining, so I opt for simpler, more immediate methods. It works okay anyway; with a grip on his head I can maintain the flow of chakra regardless of his attempts to interrupt me. The sensation of burning alive while simultaneously having every bone broken is quite effective as a motivator, and the senbon I jab into every pressure point I know with my free hand serves admirably as added incentive.

He is almost vibrating with the intensity of the… experience, and when I pull back a little there are blood and tears and snot running down his face.

"God! Thought you were Genin, Masaru the Hammer has a bounty, easy work! Don't know anything about Kiri, I promise! Please!"

Pupil dilation, heart rate, perspiration, eye movement, chakra network; all consistent. He seems to be honest. I glance towards Masaru, head cocked. He shrugs apologetically, looking a little unnerved. I turn my attention back towards the little former Kiri.

"I believe you."

But promises were made to be kept…

The foot bone's connected to the~ leg bone~ the leg bone's connected to the~ thigh bone~ the thigh bone's connected to the~ hip bone~ or at least it used to be~

Dismembering a live human without killing them too quickly is kind of tricky, but that's exactly the sort of work that medical jutsu helps the most with. Once he's just a torso I pin him to a tree trunk by the skull with kunai through the eye sockets.

I turn back to the crew with a pleasant smile shifting the lines of my cloth mask, slapping my hands together to get a bit of crusty gore off once the job is done.

"Well! That was unfortunate! But, while we're here, anyone need some new organs? These guys don't seem to be anything special, so I don't know if we really need to keep all of their bits. I can do a little field surgery if you're in need. Well, once I've rested a bit. Still haven't quite built up the reserves as much as I would like, more's the pity. But I've got storage Seals, so I can bring some spares along. Inoue? Sure you're okay? Way I see it these guys owe you anyway. Not like they're using them anymore…"

Inoue gives me a long look, glancing between me and the torso on the tree trunk, thick splatter liberally coating the bark in a long stripe down the mossy green length of the wood below. He turns aside and throws up, and Masaru and Katsuo give me perturbed looks.

I flicker next to the heaving Chunin and gently rub his back in concerned circles, pulling his pretty hair out of the way of his sick.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, the bad men are gone, you're safe now."

He cringes slightly, but stops gagging on bile. Masaru walks up a little slowly, still giving me a weird look with his oh so lovely magenta eyes. I'm all smiles; everyone is okay and the enemy is dead. What's left to bother?

"Uh, Hiroki? What unit did you say you were with before?"

"I didn't."

"Uh huh. You uh, handled that guy pretty…" -he looks over the corpse slowly, sucking on his teeth in thought- "...thoroughly."

I give him a firm nod.

"Of course! Truthfulness is a virtue! I told him it would be quick and painless if he answered willingly, but he wasn't feeling that I guess. I don't know if I really blame him either, seeing as he lasted several minutes longer than he would have otherwise."

I heave a heavy sigh as I shake my head, clicking my tongue in softly understanding disapproval.

"Poor missing-nin."

Masaru hums under his breath, one hand fiddling absently with the snaps on his flak jacket, matte black metal clicking faintly as he does.

"...Yeah... Anyway, I think you're about right on the assessment of their value. Maybe take one body back for the medical corp to inspect anyway, never know when you might get lucky."

I nod again and move to the most intact figure, the one I lobotomized at the start of the fight and who has considerately finished bleeding out sometime in the last few minutes. Into the scroll, and we're ready to go.

"Good work team!"

. . .

A/N: The Owl Summons Return! (from one of the alternate endings on SpaceBattles, seriously, go read this on SpaceBattles)

See? Everything will be just fine, don't your fret none little ones. Hiroki is here to shoo all the monsters away. Vigorously. ...The process may involve rather a lot of bleach and plastic sheeting, but by gum those monsters won't be a bother ever again! Just, you know, put in some earplugs if the screaming bothers you too much.

Shizushi means 'Quiet Thought'