Author's Note: This is by far the shortest chapter of Samsaric that has ever existed. I've wrestled with it for a while, and I wrote a lot more content, but there's just already so much that happens in this chapter that it felt wrong to overload it with more. So all the other written stuff is getting moved to future chapters/sideshows. Plus, I've been really busy lately (I moved, got a second job, etc.), so trying to rework this chapter during all of that just wasn't happening.

Fun Fact: Shiryuu means "purple dragons."

Chapter Thirty-Seven - Quixotic

[quixotic—adj. 1: extravagantly chivalrous or romantic; visionary, impractical, or impracticable 2: impulsive and often rashly unpredictable]

"Okay, I have tea, dango, and a pillow. Do you want anything else?"

"Nope!" Anko knelt down on the pillow I'd placed on the floor and grabbed the first box of dango from the coffee table. "If I had known it would get me free dango, I would have told you about my seal a long time ago."

"I wouldn't have known what to do with it if you had." I settled onto the couch behind her, opening my notebook. "It's complex and I can't open it, so I wouldn't have been able to learn anything from it until recently."

"If you can't open it, how can you learn anything from it?" Genma asked carefully from where he was sitting on the other end of the couch.

I looked at him and held up a hand. "I'm a very good sensor."

His eyebrows shot up. "You can feel the seal?"

"Essentially. It will take a while because it takes time to differentiate each line and kanji, but I can." I picked up my pen and pressed my free hand down over the mark at the base of Anko's neck. The distant feeling of the seal shifted to angry lines twisting up against my system. I frowned.

"What's wrong?"

At Genma's question, Anko tensed. I shook my head. "Nothing. It's just . . . not the neatest seal work I've seen." I glanced at him. "Minato's fuuinjutsu is much cleaner."

A smile tugged at his lips. "Speaking of, Raidou should be back in a couple days, which means all three of us will be around to demonstrate hiraishin for you. Seeing it in action should help you make sense of it. When are you free this week?"

I kept my hand on Anko's shoulder and considered the question. "I'm pretty flexible most days after the Academy. Except Saturday of course, with Study Group, and tomorrow. Sunday, I'm working with the mini-Study Group in the morning, but my afternoon is free."

Anko tilted her head back to squint at me, mouth full of dango. "Mini-Study Group?"

"Don't move," I ordered, readjusting my hand. I started sketching out what I could feel. "Hanabi and Konohamaru are starting a study group for their class. I'm helping them out. We met for the first time yesterday, and so far it's just us three and two friends Kono-kun made."

"And you're calling them mini-Study Group?"

"For now," I admitted. "Moegi said she'll come up with something cooler." I closed my eyes and focused on the seal. It wasn't quite like seeing it. Instead, what I got was the feeling of the ink instead of the visual.

"Is Sai enjoying being a genin?"

I opened my eyes and shot Genma a look, frowning. "What?"

"I get the impression he is, but . . . ." Genma hesitated. "Still hard to get a read on him sometimes. I'm getting better at it."

"Ah." I scrawled out a note about instability above the seal quadrant I had partially filled out. "He does. And he likes you. A lot."

He sighed in relief. "That's good to hear. And you know, it's . . . common for shinobi to keep training and working with their jonin sensei even after they make chunin."

"Okay," I said slowly. "Are you— Yosu is putting his team in the Chunin Exams in a few months. Are you thinking of . . . entering Sai for a promotion?"

"Not this next one. Konoha's Chunin Exams are always team entries, and Sai doesn't have a team. But often the Exams outside Konoha are individual entries. The next one after ours is in Iwa, and they never do teams." He shrugged. "I haven't made an official decision yet, and it would obviously be dependent on what he wants, but I think he'd have no problem with a promotion by then. If he wanted it."

"I . . . think he'd like that," I said, mulling it over. "As long as he gets to keep training with you. I definitely don't think he wants to leave that yet."

"I don't want that either."

"Aw," Anko murmured. "You love your tiny genin. How cute. Though, are you sure you don't want to find him a couple teammates for our Exams?"

"I'm sure."

"C'mon," Anko pouted. "You're just worried about putting him through my test, aren't you?"

"That's definitely it," he agreed easily, smiling and twirling his senbon between his fingers. "I've heard your planning. Those poor genin are going to be traumatized." He glanced at me. "Anko got put in charge of the second stage of the Exams this year."

"Oh, that's nice." I lifted my hand as she leaned forward for another stick of dango. "How many snakes are involved so far?"

"Five." She paused and then shuffled around so she could frown at me. "Do I need more snakes? I should add more snakes. Oh! I have an idea! I need paper!" She made grabby hands at my notebook. "Gimme!"

I tore a page out for her. She snatched it up along with my pen and started scribbling away, muttering something about seal traps. After a minute, without looking up, she asked, "How much poison is too much poison?"

"Kami, I love you."

Anko snapped up to stare at him, and I joined her. She grinned. "I'm just that cool, huh?"

He stared back at her with a kind of dawning realization in his eyes. "I love you," he said again.

Anko snickered. "Not that I don't like being appreciated so much, but you already said that."

"I want to marry you."

Her laughter stopped immediately, like a switch had been flipped. "What?" she breathed. "Really? But—" She dropped the paper and my pen. "That's a pretty public thing to do. Everyone'd know."

"I don't care," he said firmly. "I love you."

"That's—" She made an abortive move towards him. She glanced at me, mouth twisting in frustration.

I shifted backward on the couch to get out of her way, taking my notebook with me. It was taking everything in me not to interrupt their moment with my own excitement. But that was exactly it. It was their moment. "Go ahead."

Anko squealed with glee and then launched herself at Genma, landing half in his lap and half on the couch with her arms around him as she dragged him in for a kiss. She broke away to grin at him. "We're awesome."

"I—" He leaned back and arched an eyebrow. "Is that a yes?"

She shrugged. "Technically, you never actually asked me anything."

"Oh, well—"

"But yes, you idiot. Of course it's yes. How could you possibly think I would— You're so dumb," she sighed, stealing a quick kiss. "I love you. And this is," —she pulled back, shifting onto the cushions to squint at him— "wildly out of character for you. Is Kurenai blackmailing you?"

"I'm not scared of her."

I snickered and then slapped a hand over my mouth to try to smother the sound. When they glanced at me, I mumbled, "Sorry, it's— Kurenai is decently scary." I cleared my throat and closed my notebook. "I'll get out of your way."

"What? No!" Anko scrambled back over to the pillow, slamming down onto her knees so hard that I winced. "I promised you could study the seal. You don't have to leave."

"I—" I glanced at Genma and then back at her. "I would think you two would want to, you know, talk? About— Am I really reading this wrong?"

She tilted her head at me. "What's there to talk about? He loves me, I'm awesome, and we're totally getting married. You have a seal to work on."

I stared at her for a long moment. Then I shrugged and reopened my notebook.

"I spoke with Inoichi-san yesterday," Shibi said, not looking up from the papers I'd given him. "He is more than willing to offer his support for our cause. And you did an excellent job forming this argument over the conflict of one clan head taking control of the members of another clan."

"Shikaku helped me with that," I said, retrieving my folder on the Root seal. I stood, pushing my chair back. "In other news, there's this." I started laying out the papers so that they formed the full seal.

Shibi leaned back so he could see it all. "You know how to remove it?"

I hesitated. "In . . . theory. But the problem is that if I make a mistake, the consequences wouldn't exactly be small. Sai would be permanently injured or, at worse, dead. Do we . . . have any idea when Jiraiya is supposed to be back?"

"I have nothing conclusive, but I would think it should not be too much longer. I would assume it would be helpful for him to return for a report on Kiri, given how complex the current situation is. For now, I would prefer your brother not being the test subject for a potentially unsafe procedure. Are we still on for meeting next Tuesday?"

"We are." I gathered up my papers.

"Good. You mentioned you have an appointment to get to?"

"Kamano Saisu is letting me observe a sparring session so I can study his kusarigama use." I sealed my things away and bowed my head to him. "Next week, then."

"Are you going to kill him again?"

I froze, my hands around Yamanaka's throat. "Why shouldn't I?"

Sophie scoffed. "You know it's bad when I'm the voice of moral reason. Is this really going to help you feel better?"

"It might."

"Alright. You do you, then, I guess."

Something bright flashed across the room. I flinched, snapping my hands from Yamanaka's neck to cover my eyes. "What the—"

"Fine," Sophie snapped. "Listen, killing him over and over in your head won't make you feel better."

I tripped over myself as I got to my feet, stepping backwards. I squinted at her, struggling to actually see her through the bright spots in my vision. "You don't know that."

"No. I don't."

Yamanaka moved, surging upward with a hand reaching for me. I shunshined backward, heart pounding. I stumbled and fell. With a gasp, I shot up and away from the hand on my shoulder, reaching for my weapon seal. But that hand was small, and it was black hair, not orange.

"Neechan?" Sasuke whispered. "Are you okay?"

I sucked in a breath and let it out slow. "Sasuke," I breathed. "Sorry, I'm just—" I lowered my hands. "Bad dream. That's all." I leaned forward to squint through the dark at him. He looked tired. "What's wrong?"

"Um." He shifted on his feet for a second before climbing up onto my bed. "I couldn't sleep," he mumbled, settling himself against my side and closing his eyes.

"Oh. Okay." I sank down against the pillow, drawing an arm around him. I kissed the top of his head. "Well, I'm here. I love you."

Eventually, Sasuke fell asleep. I didn't.

I ended up spending the rest of the night—almost all of it, really—in my mindscape, working on my fuuinjutsu notes and complaining about my insomnia to Kurama while he pretended to ignore me, with the feeling of Shisui's chakra burning distantly against my collarbone. By the time morning actually came, I was exhausted and it showed. When I dragged myself into class behind the boys, Iruka shot me a worried look but didn't comment on it. An hour and a half in, I'd almost nodded off seven times during his lecture about shinobi paperwork.

Iruka was in the middle of explaining the procedure for submitting a vacation request form when the door slammed open. "Red! Blondie! I'm getting married!"

I lifted my head, blinking to try to clear the bleariness from my vision. I rubbed my eyes. "I know. I was there when you got engaged."

"I mean now. So you two are coming with me!" She glanced at Iruka. "Sorry, not sorry. I really need to steal your students away."

Iruka gave a nervous laugh. "Um, well, given the circumstances, I think I can allow it."

"Right!" She clapped her hands together and then pointed at me and Naruto. "Let's go!"

Naruto scrambled up and gathered his things, but I stared at her for a moment longer. Then I shot to my feet. "Wait, you mean now now?" I almost tripped over myself in my rush to get past Shikamaru and into the aisle. "That's— Sorry, Iruka-sensei, I—"

"It's alright. This is a unique situation." He motioned to me. "Go ahead."

I nodded. I leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to Sasuke's temple, along with a promise to see him later, and followed Naruto and Anko out the door. "This is sudden," I said, walking quickly to keep up with her fast stride.

"Yeah, well, Raidou's back. He pointed out that it'll be hard to have it when everyone we want is actually in-Village, but guess what!"

"Everyone is here now?" Naruto asked.

"Exactly! Genma's getting the actual stuff set up, and Raidou and Sai are rounding everyone else up for us."

She got us to the shrine through a series of shunshin and the occasional wrong turn. When we got there, a group was already gathered in front of the torii gate. Anko lit up and moved for Kurenai but was waylaid by the miko.

"Is everyone here?" she asked.

Anko blinked and glanced around. She saw Genma standing under the torii gate with the priest and grinned, bouncing on her feet as she gave him a wave. "Yep! Um, does that mean we're ready, then?"

The miko bowed her head and put a hand out to the side to motion Anko into place. Then she moved to stand by the priest, picking up the tray that was waiting there. I took Naruto's hand and pulled him over to where Sai was. Sai looked at me, shoulders sagging with relief. "I don't know what's going on," he confessed in a whisper.

I glanced around the group there—a decent number of thirteen guests, myself and the boys included—and took Sai's hand in my free one. "Genma and Anko are getting married."

"You three have never been to one of these before, so do as I say."

I looked over my shoulder to find Kurenai standing behind us. I nodded. "Thank you."

She kept her voice low. "The salt is first. So when I say, bow until he's done." She glanced at the priest and then tapped my shoulder. "Now." She bowed her head, closing her eyes.

I looked at the priest to see he was picking up a small wooden bowl. I tugged on the boy's hands until they copied Kurenai. Then I released them and bowed my head and closed my own eyes. The priest started saying a prayer, and a few moments later I felt something sprinkle over my head. Not long after that, the priest's tone shifted as he announced Genma and Anko's names. Kurenai tapped my shoulder.

I straightened, glancing to the side as Kurenai tapped the boys as well. The priest finished declaring why we were there and then mentioned a tradition I didn't recognize. San san kudo? The priest turned to the miko and picked up one of the many small cups on it. He handed it to Genma, who lifted it to his lips before passing it to Anko. She did the same and passed it back. Genma sipped one more time and then gave it to the priest. The priest got a bigger cup and handed it to Anko first this time. The third and largest cup was handed to Genma first.

After the priest had returned that cup to the tray, he turned back to Genma and Anko and gave Genma a nod. "You may give your vow."

Genma nodded and cleared his throat. "Right, so, this isn't my, uh, my strong suit, but I guess the point is to make my promises. I can do that. So . . . I, uh, promise I'm yours. That I love you. And that I want to be with you for the rest of my life."

The priest nodded and gestured to the miko. Anko put up a hand. "Wait, hold on. I know it's tradition and— But I want to make a vow too, dammit." She reached out and took up Genma's hands. "Unlike you, I like to talk. So settle in."

That got a snicker from Genma and a couple of the others there. Mainly Kurenai, who then just sighed like she was unsurprised.

"I'm amazing," Anko said. "And you're lucky to have me. I hope you know that, 'cause now you're going to be stuck with me for a long, long time. For the rest of our lives, really. I'm yours. Though . . . ." She tilted her head to the side. "I'm yours, but the name is mine. I'm keeping my name. Should we have talked about that? I'm talking about that."

Genma made an odd noise that sounded something like a choked laugh. "I expected as much," he breathed.

"Aw, don't be such a baby. I know this is the best moment of your life, but there's no need to cry."

He laughed and dropped her hands so that he could rub his eyes. "I'm not."

Anko grinned. "Sure you're not." She took his hands again. "Listen. I love you. Even when you're being a stubborn, paranoid idiot. Eventually, you're going to be an old, ancient, stubborn, paranoid idiot. And I plan to still be there right with you." Still holding his hands, she looked towards the priest and nodded. "Okay. You can go ahead now."

He looked unimpressed, but he motioned the miko forward anyway. She offered the tray to Genma and Anko, and they took the small branch that was on it. Together, they turned and knelt, laying the branch on the ground. They bowed twice each and then got to their feet. The miko was waiting with the offered tray again.

Kurenai put a hand on my shoulder and leaned forward, keeping her voice low. "Take one cup. Drink it when everyone else does."

I glanced back at her. "What is it?"

Before she gave me an answer, the miko was in front of us with the tray. I nodded to her and took one of the cups. I peered into it at the clear liquid. I sniffed and then drew back. It was . . . nutty? But bitter? Despite what it looked like, it wasn't water. Wait, was this—

The priest lifted his cup high. Then he drank. Everyone else did the same, and I rushed to follow. It definitely wasn't water. It was sweet, and there was something strong about it and—

"Kampai!"

Everyone said it all at once, and Naruto, Sai, and I rushed to match them and ended up just a bit behind. The moment the cheer died down, Gai threw himself forward with a cry of happiness and dragged both Genma and Anko into a hug.

"I'm so proud of you!" he wailed. "This is a beautiful day!"

Choza moved forward, chuckling. "Alright, Gai, give them some space." He clapped a hand onto Genma's shoulder. "Come to mine to celebrate. I'll cook."

"Hell yes," Raidou said. "C'mon, lovebirds." He took Anko's hand and grabbed Genma's arm. "Meet you all there!" He disappeared with them in a shunshin.

Sai straightened. "Oh," he said. And then he disappeared in a shunshin as well.

"Alright," Kakashi said, dropping a hand to my shoulder and the other to Naruto's. "Let's not fall too far behind. Are you ready?" When he got a nod from each of us, he activated a long series of shunshin. Enough that, when we stopped, my head was spinning.

Kakashi's grip tightened. "You okay?"

I managed a nod.

"Good. Naruto?"

"Dizzy," Naruto admitted. He tugged on my hand, moving forward. "There's Sai."

I followed him and could hear Sai congratulating Genma and Anko as we reached them. Well, he probably intended it as congratulations. As long as they got the spirit of it, I supposed.

"You're married now. That's good," Sai said. He moved as if to try to offer up a hug. He hesitated.

Genma smiled softly. "You don't have to do that, Sai."

Sai's shoulders slumped in relief, and he ended up just patting Genma once on the arm before stepping back. Naruto pushed forward and stared up at them, rocking back and forth. "I hope your forever lasts a long time."

Genma blinked. Anko cocked her head at him, looking amused. "Our forever?"

"Yeah. Rai said that's what being married is. You pick your favorite person so that you're theirs forever."

"Aw. That's just adorable, Red."

Genma smiled. "She's being condescending about it, but that's a nice way to put it, Pumpkin."

I held my breath, glancing from him to Anko to Naruto and back. My heart was beating fast and loud enough that I was almost convinced that everyone else could hear it.

He faltered. "Mirai?" he asked softly. "Are you okay?"

I shifted from one foot to the other. This was supposed to be one of the happiest days of his life, and I wanted nothing more than to congratulate him on it, but here I was. Making him worry.

"Mirai?"

That made my decision for me. I shoved past Naruto and Sai and slammed into Genma, wrapping my arms around him. I held my breath and hunched my shoulders against the immediate panic that welled up in my lungs. I closed my eyes, focusing on the fact that this was what I'd missed instead of the fact that sometimes I still woke up from nightmares that made it hard to even look at him.

Genma froze, his breath stuttering loudly.

"Honestly," Anko said fondly. "You're being such a crybaby today."

"Shut up," he muttered. His arms drew around me, careful and light as if he was afraid that I'd break at his touch. "I love you," he whispered.

My eyes stung, and I bit my lip to keep from giving in to the urge to cry. Once I'd properly steadied myself, I murmured, "Love you too. And I'm really glad I got to see you get married today."

He shifted, dropping down to his knees. He tightened his hold on me briefly before finally leaning back. "Are you okay?" He reached a hand up but hesitated.

I pulled back and rubbed at my tears. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just— I missed you."

Genma smiled, his own eyes suspiciously glassy. "I missed you too."

"This is stupid."

"No. They're . . . bonding," I said, considering the stare-down that Naruto and Yang Kyuubi had been stuck in for . . . quite a while now. I sighed and slumped into Kurama's side. "It's better than the growling." I summoned up a short chain, the end resting in my palm. "We can give them a few more minutes." I focused on the chain, trying to sharpen my chakra through the end. The final link stretched and flattened and—

It snapped back, shooting pain up through my wrist and knocking me back. I hit the ground instead of Kurama and was left gasping.

"Mirai?" Sai leaned over me. "Did he try to eat you both again?"

I blinked. "I—" I rubbed my head, sitting up. "No. That was my fault. Nato?" I glanced at where he was flat on his back. I scrambled over to him, dragging him up. "I'm sorry. Are you okay?" I cupped his chin so I could look him over.

"My head hurts, but I'm okay. What happened?"

"I was trying to practice with my chains. When I messed up, it made me lose control of the mental plane." I sighed and dragged a hand through his hair, pressing a kiss to his forehead. "I'm sorry. We can try again tomorrow."

"Yeah. I . . . . He doesn't like me."

"Trust is a difficult thing, Nato. And you have to earn it."

"Your Kyuubi trusts you," he muttered, dragging his knees up to his chest and hugging them. "He likes you."

I do not.

"You've been doing this for just a couple months. I've been working with him for years. It takes time. You just have to be patient."

"Was that helpful at all?"

I glanced up from my notes. "It was. The hardest part at this point is going to be the multitasking. You guys get to split the work between all three of you, and I have to figure out how to balance it when it's just me."

Genma settled down next to me, looking over my notebook. "Well, if anyone can do it." He lifted a hand and paused. "Can I?"

I straightened, taking a breath. "Yeah."

He smoothed his hand over my hair and pressed a kiss to the top of my head. "Don't stress yourself over it. Just take your time."

"I will." I closed my notebook. "I work on other things, too. Not just hiraishin."

"Oh?" He dropped his hand and plucked out his senbon, twirling it. "Like what?"

"My chains, for one." I lifted an arm and summoned up a chain. A short one, with the end resting in my other hand. "I'm supposed to be able to shape this. And I'm supposed to be able to use multiple chains to make barriers between them."

"Supposed to?"

"Well, so far, trying to make a barrier has only made me tired. But I've made progress with the shaping!" I concentrated, pulling at the chakra in the final link. I flattened it out and sharpened it. The link lengthened and molded into a kunai shape. It wasn't perfect, still a little rougher than I liked, and it took more concentration than I wanted it to. But so had my chains at first. I shattered the chakra and looked up at him. "Progress."

"That's amazing, Pumpkin."

I shrugged and closed my note book, sealing it way. "And I'm making progress with hiraishin, too." I got to my feet. "Maybe next time, you three can take me in the jutsu with you? So I can feel it?"

Genma took a moment to study me. He smiled. "Sure. If you let me take you to get some dango." He frowned. "Actually, you know what, you don't have to. If—"

"I'd love some dango." I got to my feet. "While we walk, you can tell me about Sai."

He stood. "Oh?"

"He mentioned you talked to him about the Exams."

"Ah." He started walking, hands in his pockets. "I haven't made a final decision just yet. Wanted to see what he thought."

"And?"

"He's worried about being ready but overall seemed to like the idea. Though, Iwa is a good distance away. And the Exams take a while. We'd be gone for a month and a half at the least. Would you be okay with that?"

I'd been away from Sai for much longer than that, so of course I would okay. Besides, Genma would be with him. But the fact that it was Iwa had started me thinking. I smiled. "If Sai wants to go? Of course I'd be okay. You'd be with him, too. That helps."

He smiled, but it was tense. "You sure?"

I frowned. "Of course I am. Why?"

"I— Don't want you to get worried and stress. You don't need your sleep worse than it already is?"

"I'm sleeping just fine."

"Wow," Shikamaru said the moment he saw me. "When did you die?" He snickered.

I shot him a scowl. "Shut up. I just didn't get any sleep last night."

"So that's why you weren't in class today."

"No, actually. I wasn't in class because Shibi and I were meeting with Yosu before his mission. And then Hiashi, who knows how to drag out any political conversation to a ridiculous length."

"Ah. So that's why you're late too, then."

I nodded and looked around. Everyone had broken up into smaller groups and were pouring over books together. They were all clearly exhausted, and I'd never seen Ino look less put together. "Shinobi Games went well?"

"Elimination," Shikamaru said solemnly. "We didn't have your flags, so we improvised. Kaasan gets given scarves every winter and never uses them. Sakura, Ino, Tenten, and Choji were the winners, and I'm pretty sure I heard Sakura say 'real-life iryo practice' in reference to you four times already. So have fun with that."

I turned to look at where Sakura was working with Neji, Hinata, and Shino. "Yeah, that's not ominous at all. She's starting to get a little scary."

"Probably from spending so much time with Ami." He shuddered. "Did you know she threatened to dissect my spine?"

"Ami or Sakura?"

"Does it matter?"

I snickered. "I think it's nice. Ami's mellowed out a bit since she started hanging out with Sakura."

"When I said hi earlier, she said she didn't want to talk to me unless one of us was dying."

"See? Progress!" I clapped him on the shoulder. "I'm gonna check in with everyone. I moved to Sakura's group and dropped to the ground beside them. "I heard you won. Who was your team lead today?"

"Lee," Sakura said, not looking up from her book. "He sacrificed his flag to give us an opening. It was very dramatic. Would you say it's like a chakra transfer when you use the Kyuubi's power?"

I straightened. "What?"

Sakura looked up and repeated, "Would you say it's like a chakra transfer when you use the Kyuubi's power?"

"I . . . . His name is Kurama."

She doesn't get to call me that.

"Scratch that. Don't call him that."

"Mirai, answer the question."

"Right." I cleared my throat. "First, though. What's a chakra transfer?"

She flipped back through her book. Stopping on a page, she found her place with her finger. "'The process of transferring chakra from a donor to the patient,'" she read. "'This procedure requires purified chakra and precise control to avoid the effects of chakra taint and chakra invasion.'"

"Huh. Uh, there's definitely no purifying happening to his chakra, and the chakra is technically already in me. I'm not getting it from someone outside my body. So I'm not sure any jinchuuriki situation would count as a chakra transfer."

She nodded. "Makes sense."

"What's chakra taint? And invasion?"

"Taint is from unpurified chakra. Like an infection that makes you sick. Similar symptoms too, like nausea and dizziness. Chakra invasion is too much, too fast, basically. Like . . . ."

"Trying to fill a teacup with a water hose on full pressure," Shino explained.

"Right. Exactly. Both that and chakra taint make someone feel sick and can cause damage."

I leaned in close to look at the page she'd been reading from. "How sick and dizzy?"

She frowned, squinting at me. "I don't know. Probably depends on the level of taint. Chakra transfers aren't the type of thing you'd be good at. You don't have the control. You would end up hurting someone."

I grinned. "That's the idea. Can I take a closer look at your book? I want to take some notes."

"Uzumaki-sama," Ko greeted, bowing. "The students are waiting in the dojo. I'll bring tea shortly."

I smiled and bowed my head. "Thank you. I appreciate it." We parted ways, and I headed for the dojo. I could hear yelling before I made it inside. I slid the door open. "Warming up?"

Moegi and Udon froze in their mutual attempt to pin Konohamaru down. Hanabi was kneeling at the back of the room, but she shot to her feet when she saw me. "Mirai-sensei!" She bowed at her waist. "I'm sorry. I told them that we should sit and wait for you to get here, but—"

"It's okay." I glanced to the side to find Ebisu sitting against the front wall. "Good morning."

"Uzumaki-san. I expected you earlier."

"I'm on time."

"Early is on time, and on time is late. Omago-sama and I have been here for twenty minutes."

"Right. I'm sure Hiashi just loved that." I cleared my throat and clapped my hands together. "Alright! Let's get started!"

Hanabi moved to stand in front of me. She glanced to the side and frowned. "Sarutobi! Ise! Kazamatsuri!"

Udon squeaked and scrambled up to stand next to her. Konohamaru groaned and splayed out onto the floor. "Ugh, do we have to?"

"Yes." Moegi said, shoving him with her foot. "Stand up. I need to tell Mirai-sensei about our name."

"Oh!" Konohamaru hopped up and shoved Moegi out of the way so he could join the line with Hanabi and Udon. "We chose—"

"No!" Moegi slapped a hand over his mouth. "I chose it, so I get to say it." She turned a beaming smile to me. "We named ourselves Shiryuu! After you!"

"After . . . me?"

"Yep! And your lizards. Konohamaru told us about them."

Hanabi leaned forward to look at Moegi. Then she straightened, looking back to me. "Is it okay?"

"The name?" I shrugged and nodded. "Of course it is. It's clever. I like it. Now, how did everyone do with unlocking their chakra this last week?"

Somewhere outside myself, I could hear my clones working and smell the incense. It was always an odd feeling, being in my mindscape while also being able to feel my knees on the ground and the crick that had formed in my neck from keeping my head bowed. I sighed and leaned back into Kurama. "I'm making no progress."

"Creating a jutsu takes time. I should know. That goddamn Uzumaki made plenty of them."

I paused. Then I tilted my head back so I could squint at him. "Are you talking about Kushina or Mito?"

He growled. "Mito."

"Ah. That makes sense." I frowned. Then I sat up. "Do you feel that?"

He paused. "Feel what?"

"Hold on." I opened my eyes. I straightened and looked over my shoulder.

"You're a pain to track down. I talked to a couple dozen people, and none of them had any idea where you were." Jiraiya groaned loudly as he sat down next to me. "Fixing the place up?"

I listened to the sound of my clones working in the temple. "I wanted it to at least be safe to be in. How was Kiri?"

"Humid. Did someone else die?" He gestured to the incense I was burning at the base of the monument.

"No."

"Huh. Well, anyway, I brought you something from Kiri. Since I'm not sure I could trust the reports, and you were definitely not what I expected, I had to do some guesswork in choosing it. But I feel confident." He set a box in front of me. "You should visit there sometime. When, you know, they're not in the middle of a civil war and recovering from the political assassination of their kage. It's got some nice spots for tourists."

"I've been there." I pulled the box closer. "Though I didn't do much sightseeing. Mostly swimming, actually." I lifted off the lid. "You . . . brought me kunai?"

"There's a smith in Kiri that makes some unique weapon styles. Minato had his own kunai for his hiraishin. I figured you could to, right?"

I lifted out a kunai, turning it so I could study the clip point. But then the base of the blade caught my attention. "Is this serrated?"

"Just the heel. I thought it suited you."

"Huh. Thanks. I like them. I don't have hiraishin figured out yet, though. Progress is slow." I eyed him. "Hmm, would you mind helping me with a fuuinjutsu problem?"

"Really? I thought it looked like you were getting a pretty good handle on it."

I closed the kunai box and sealed it away. "Not for hiraishin." I turned to face him and retrieved my notes on Sai's seal. "I figured out how to take off the Root seal on Sai, but I'm worried that I might have missed one of the failsafes." I unfolded all the pages of the seal that I'd taped together. "I don't want him hurt, but I want the seal gone."

Jiraiya squinted at the paper and then at me. "Let me take a look."

"Are you comfortable?" I set the tray of tea and snacks on the coffee table. I knelt in front of Sai, leaning forward with my hands on my knees. "It's going to take a while to do this right, and you're not going to be able to do a lot of moving from that spot."

Sai shifted so he was sitting applesauce on his pillow. "I'm comfortable. How long?"

"A few hours at least. I have to undo things in stages, and it needs to be slow and steady." I started unsealing my fuuinjutsu supplies and setting them out. "Jiraiya's here to make sure that it's safe."

Sai glanced at him. "Okay." He looked towards the couch." And them?"

"They just wanted to be here to watch."

"Plus, we'll make more tea if you run out," Naruto said, temporarily pausing his card game with Sasuke to look up at us. "And I could make cookies if you—"

"No," I said. "No baking. Not without me to supervise, and I need to be able to focus on Sai."

He huffed. "Yeah, alright."

"Okay." I took a long, deep breath and let it out slow. "Are you ready?"

Sai nodded, straightening and squaring his shoulders. I glanced at Jiraiya. He shrugged and waved his hand at me to get started. "Well? I'm just here as a second set of eyes. You know what you're doing."

I swallowed. "Right." I spread out my notes and picked up a brush. I unscrewed the lid on a jar of ink. "Hold still."

Sai kept his breathing shallow as I started writing across his face and neck. My hands started shaking around minute three, and I had to take a moment to steady myself again.

"Mirai? Are you okay?"

"Fine," I murmured. "Don't move."

I resumed my work, doing my best to keep my lines and kanji clean and neat. Finally, twenty minutes later, I set my brush aside so that I could retrieve the first tag that I'd prepared earlier. "Open. I'll be quick with this."

Sai opened his mouth and stuck his tongue out. I pressed the tag along his tongue, lining it up with the edge of his Root seal. I put one finger on the tag and used my other hand to make a handseal. "Kai," I murmured, pushing my chakra into my fuuinjutsu work.

The ink twisted and moved on his skin. It retracted up into the paper, and a line from Danzo's seal shifted to the lock spot on the tag. I peeled it free. "How do you feel?" I asked, examining the paper.

"Fine." He frowned. "Is that it?"

"No. Not even close. That was just me removing the first trap. This is going to take time."

It took over four more hours for me to pick apart the rest of the seal. As I was draining the last few lines into a tag, my thumb pressed into the paper, Jiraiya shifted to crouch down next to me. "Good job."

I just hummed, not giving him a full answer as I focused on finishing my work. When the last of the black transferred to the paper, I sighed in relief. "There." I passed the papers off to Jiraiya and watched as he burned them up. I started trying to work the stiffness out of my hands. "How do you feel?"

Sai ran his fingers over his lips. "I feel . . . the same."

"Hmm. Try . . . telling me something you couldn't before."

"Okay." Sai frowned, pursing his lips. He nodded. "I . . . was told by Danzo to spy on you and report back to him what your weak spots are." His eyes widened. "I can say that. I said that."

I grinned. "You did. Now how do you feel?"

"I—" He sucked in a breath and stared at me. "Good." He closed his eyes. "Thank you for getting me away from Danzo. I, I couldn't say that before."

I smiled and reached a hand out to him. "That's okay. I knew anyway."

I was trying to run, but the floor was slick with blood. I slipped, slamming into the wall shoulder first. The wooden frame splintered, and the paper tore. I fell through and hit the ground hard. I turned over, staring at the dark hallway through the ruined shoji screen. He wasn't there. No lined mask, no singular red and black eye, no tanto stained with my blood. Obito wasn't there.

"Looking for someone?"

I gasped, scrambling over myself to turn around. I managed to fumble into a half-crouch, one knee on the ground, and stared at the figure looming over me. I choked on a breath. "You're not supposed to be here."

He chuckled. The hollow dots in his eyes started rotating clockwise.

"You're dead," I said, struggling to my feet despite the way my knees trembled and threatened to buckle. "You're dead."

"Have you seen my body? No one's dead without a body, Uzumaki." He tilted his head back so that he could study me. "Of all people, you would know that. Right?"

I turned and ran. The hallway twisted and turned and brought me right back to him. I screamed, and he yelled my name at me in return. I fell, gasping as pain jolted up my body, and stared at the face looming over mine. Pale skin. Black hair. Black eyes. I slapped a hand to my weapons seal and lurched up. His hands came up to protect his face, and I slashed.

He shrieked, and he was so small when he fell back.

Mirai!

Kurama's hot chakra burned up against my skin and in my eyes. I caught my breath. He was still screaming. I dropped my kunai. "Sasuke! Hold still! I'm sorry! Let me help! Don't move!" I scrambled over to him, unsealing a first aid kit. He'd started crying, his arms curled in tight to his chest. He looked up at me. Pale skin. Black hair.

Red eyes.