Naruto: A Red Eye Hidden by Shadow

by Tatanka4Life

On the fateful night of the Uchiha Massacre, a girl of Uchiha and Nara blood is spared and left with no memories of her past. Now she must walk on the path left by her family to help her build a new future for herself. Her path will be hard, full of struggles and pain, but as long as she has her friends and family at her side she will keep forging ahead, even if it was a drag.

168. Chapter 167: Hearts of Gold

Chapter 167

Eyes of Light, Hearts of Gold: New Friends and a New Home

Don't stop running. Don't stop running.

Through the trees, across the fields, she felt their unrelenting pursuit like a cold tingle at the base of her neck, warning of a predator lurking beyond her immediate sight. Except it was tangible.

Unlike a primal sense of danger, the drumming tremors of over a hundred soldiers charging ahead shook the earth, their malignant steps vibrating through the blood-stained soil and into tense legs, their sandals squelching with every wet slap against the vicious swamp of gore and entrails.

She heard their harsh shouts over the whistle of wind like a slime covered whisper pouring directly into her ear canal. The shrill cry of metal meeting metal reverberated inside her skull in spite of the thunderous roar of galloping horses her heart imitated. Her legs burned, feeling heavy and slow.

Keep moving. Keep moving.

Bodies fell from the canopy. Many wore shinobi uniforms colored red and violet. Some were black feathered silhouettes. Others—fifty in total—were attired in armor resembling that of a samurai.

The corpses splashed against the saturated earth, they crashed against and piled on top of their comrades, some still and silent, some moaning and screaming. All would never rise again.

She hurdled over the dead and dying. She zigged and zagged, evading the lifeless bodies raining from the sky, as though evading the falling stones of a collapsing cave.

Bloodcurdling screams and terrified howls chased her. Corpses rained, and among them were faces she recognized—the faces of shinobi she had slain, and of men she had failed to save.

Their wide, hollow eyes moved inside their lifeless bodies, beneath their unblinking eyelids, following the kunoichi wherever she went. Tracking every step. Even when she passed them she felt their eyes follow, she felt their gazes branding themselves upon her soul—they refused to be forgotten.

Run. Run. Run!

The forests and the fields never seemed to end. The rain of corpses was growing into a downpour. She couldn't evade it forever. She was slower—slowing. Her legs were getting heavier. And her pursuers were getting closer. Closer and closer.

The farther she ran, the faster the temperature plummeted. Soon clouds of condensation were drifting from her mouth on every rapid exhale. Snow was falling.

Suddenly something heavy struck her from above. She crashed and slid against the wet mud, and though she tried to recover, the mud seethed with life and buried her hands in the earth.

Body soaked in sweat and the visceral gore littering the earth, she struggled to breathe, desperately trying to pull her arms free to no avail. Only her head cooperated with commands.

As she turned it, body writhing for freedom, a figure flashed by. Searing pain then burned across her left eye as flesh unzipped beneath unforgiving cold steel. Flecks of blood flitted through the air; now her blood was apart of the swamp, too.

She screamed. Warm blood poured down her cheek and a shapeless void absorbed half of her world, but she couldn't cover the wound to staunch the bleeding—her arms refused to budge. Tears blurred her right eye's vision.

In spite of her blurry and darkened vision, she was able to see a green-haired woman's corpse attired in Snow shinobi armor several feet away from her.

She grimaced as she writhed, but she couldn't tear her gaze away. She watched the very first person she had ever killed claw at the earth, trying to pull herself closer and out from beneath a growing mound of corpses.

The woman's dead eyes stared straight at her. Blaming her. Silently pleading for the mercy she had refused to give.

No doubt she had been the heavy something to strike her from above.

Run, her brain commanded. Run. Run. Run. Run.

Her body refused to budge.

Blinking, a man was suddenly standing above her attired in Stone shinobi armor, tendons in his arms and legs severed, and a gouge in his neck spurting blood into the growing saturation of gore. She could hear the others getting closer. A clay bird flew in the sky.

"Welcome to hell, old friend!"

Then a blade of lightning rose from the earth and pierced her body.

---

Amari awoke with a violent start, sucking in a sharp, bitter breath of winter air as her whole body jolted. Her right eye snapped open to the opaque curtains of midnight; her left eye, as though hibernating, remained shut beneath her bandana.

Her hair was soaked, she realized immediately. A cold sweat dampened her skin, her clothes, and blanket, and beads of perspiration were dripping down the back of her neck.

She felt an invisible Akimichi adult sitting on her chest, crushing her lungs, rendering the act of breathing next to impossible. She heaved and sucked in air through her mouth, desperate for oxygen. No matter how cold, no matter how bitter. She needed air. She couldn't breathe!

Her pounding heart was slamming like a jackhammer against her ribcage, up into her throat, and hammering into her skull.

It was just a nightmare. It was just a nightmare.

The stiff, cold earth beneath her back, eye wide and breathless, Amari frantically repeated the thought as though it were a holy mantra capable of banishing the demons of stress and fear back to the dank and dark pits from which they were born.

She tried to center her mind on the truth of the mantra, she tried to ground herself in reality and wrest control of her breaths away from the terrifying shackles of stress and the fear.

The onset of pain was as sudden as the sting of a bee—and a thousand times more painful. All at once, without warning, the burning muscles in her left arm contracted. It was like she had dunked the limb in hot lava.

At that moment every fiber in her being commanded her to scream. To belt out all of her agony in some form of release.

She didn't. She smothered it into a muffled, meek whimper as she bolted upright against her Will, hand grabbing uselessly at the cramping bicep of her left arm.

Gghhh! Dammit, she ducked her chin into her chest and dug her fingers into her skin. It hurts!

Cold air met her cold sweat. She didn't feel herself shiver—couldn't feel it when the muscles in her arm were on the verge of exploding or ripping straight off the bone. Or both.

Crashing onto her right side as though thrown to the ground by an invisible assailant, Amari curled up into a ball as she writhed, rocking in place and breathing heavily.

Desperate for relief, she tried to massage the stiff muscle. It didn't relieve a thing; in fact it felt like she was peeling the skin back with a cheese grater.

Amidst the throes of agony, as she lay on her side gritting her teeth to stay silent, she caught one glimpse of the darkness of the camp, and immediately squeezed her eye shut.

Dammit. Why were there still mounds of bodies everywhere? She could still see them all. She could still smell the gore and blood caking the earth all around her.

Amari squirmed and flopped onto her back. She sat up suddenly and began to rock back and forth, unable to control her body through the waves of discomfort and pain it was forced to ride. Again she ducked her chin into her chest, teeth grinding together.

Just stop, the Uchiha growled. You're not hurt. You're not surrounded by corpses or sitting in a pool of blood. You're safe. You're uninjured. So just stop hurting already!

Amari hunched forward, clutching her tense and damp forearm in a vice grip. She slammed her right heel into the earth once, twice, and then a third and fourth time. Tears pricked her eyes.

Yet she never screamed. Nor would she. Amari would suffer through the intense pain in silence, hoping and wishing for it to end sooner rather than later.

Eventually it would subside.

She would not sleep for some time after, the ache in her arm lingering behind like the stench of death still present in her nostrils, and so her mind would drift to the war and the pain it would inevitably cause.

She would think of the lives it had already destroyed, and the lives it would go on to destroy. Day by day. Month by month. Perhaps over years. And in the gloom she would wish and hope for it to end sooner rather than later.

And it would, she knew.

Eventually.

---

"So, this Akatsuki group is after me and Chōmei?" Fū asked after a prolonged, contemplative silence

"Right," Amari nodded. Then paused. "Well, sort of. They're after Chōmei and the other Tailed-Beasts. It's not really you that they're after, the same goes for Naruto and the other's like you. To the Akatsuki, you're just the containers they have to take the Tailed-Beasts from. Like a glass of water."

"We're like glasses of water?"

"To the Akatsuki, yes. Think of it this way: It's not really the glass a person wants when they're thirsty. What they're really after is the water a glass holds—the precious promise of hydration waiting inside. The glass is just a…means to an end. A tool which is used to contain their true desire. Nothing more.

"Once it's empty the glass is no longer of immediate use. It's put away or, in this scenario, it's shattered and thrown in the garbage. Except the glass of water in this metaphor is a person and the water the Akatsuki are trying to empty from them is the power of a Tailed-Beast."

"Oh." Fū pursed her lips. She lowered her chin and rested her hand over her abdomen. "I guess I'm just a nuisance to them, huh."

"To them, sure. But who really cares what they think."

"Hehe," Fū exhaled a short laugh. "Yeah. I guess so. They're not friends and they don't want to be friends, so I guess I can be as annoying as I want to be to them. And it totally won't matter if they get mad."

"That's a positive way to look at it," Amari chuckled as they walked among the caravan.

They were settled near the backend of the caravan on their journey to the Leaf Village, wedged between an entire town's worth of refugees and the QRF as they trekked through hills and meadows farther from the border, and finally onto the well-travelled roads of the Land of Fire.

Escaping the early morning chill by cloaking themselves in blankets, Amari and Fū walked beside each other, with one of the Haimaru Brother's padding alongside the Nara—her guardian ninken.

The cloaked forms of Naruto, Shino, and Ino, as well as Karin, who concealed herself beneath a blanket, walked with them. Miss Anbu and Anko Mitarashi chaperoned their group.

Ahead, spread throughout the front and middle of the caravan, were Hana and the other two Haimaru Brother's, Ensui Nara, Genma Shiranui, a Yamanaka member, and, of course, many other Leaf shinobi she didn't know by name. Kazama and many of his unit kept a close eye from the shadows.

Among the middle were the surviving members of the Grass Village and the four members of the Waterfall; their expressions were etched in gloom, defeat, or grimaces as they walked with their injuries. It was expected, given everything they'd lost. But still disheartening.

Guarding over the rear were more Leaf shinobi, shadowed within the shadows by Mr. Anbu, Tsugumi, and several agents of the Crows.

It'd been an early start for many of the caravan. Yet, like Amari, sleep escaped the majority; stress and turmoil had infested their waking thoughts, their bodies, and their dreams. Some merely found the cold earth too uncomfortable, but no one faulted them for it.

Out of her peers, Amari was the first to rise. The act was as natural as breathing, even without nightmares. However, the ache in her arm played a fundamental role today.

She pressed the stiff limb against her side beneath the blanket, almost as if held by an invisible cast. There, and only there, could the limb rest comfortably. Although were anyone to look closely they would see the slight pinching of her eyebrows every so often, proving comfortable was a liberal use of the word.

Thankfully, Fū had questions. Lots of questions. Nearly as many questions as there were stars in the galaxy and worlds in the multiverse. It helped distract the Nara from the ache.

"Do you know why they're after Chōmei and the others?" Fū asked after another thoughtful pause.

"Not a specific reason, no," Amari admitted, shaking her head. "Our best guess is they seek to claim the power of the Tailed-Beasts for some destructive purpose. It could be they want to make each member of the Akatsuki, or at least its leaders, jinchūriki, although that seems incredibly unlikely."

"Why's that?"

"From what little I know of the process, the likelihood they'd all be compatible and the likelihood they would possess the ability to control a sentient being as powerful as a Tailed-Beast is pretty slim. A statistical impossibility, perhaps. The way Lady Mito explained it, a lot of people lost their lives when shinobi began attempting to tame and control the Tailed-Beast's power through jinchūriki."

Fū shut her eyes for a beat. Then her eyes snapped open, wide-eyed and full of wonder.

"Whoa! How the heck would you know someone that old! Are you, like, immortal or something?"

"Heh," Amari exhaled a tired breath. "No, I'm not immortal. Thankfully. Wars, famine, death of all my loved ones—sounds like a drag."

"When you say it like that, immortality does sound pretty awful."

"Anyway, a rogue shinobi used the Reanimation Jutsu to reanimate Lady Mito. Me and Naruto barely survived, and we only managed to scrape by because she was holding herself back against the control of another."

"What's a Reani…" She blinked. "Whoa… You survived something like that? You're like a good luck charm, huh."

"Am I?" Amari tilted her head. "Most of the time I feel like the unluckiest girl around."

"I feel like we're the unluckiest lucky team ever," Naruto agreed. "We somehow always end up in the worst situations—things that are way out of our league. Like Mizuki Reanimating Granny Mito. Somehow we manage to always pull through, though."

He scratched his cheek as he looked up at the sky in thought. "Maybe that means we're the luckiest unlucky team, then? Hm. Or would it be the unluckiest lucky team?"

"Maybe both?" Ino offered.

"Maybe."

"Hey Naruto, why did you call that Mito lady Granny?" Fū asked.

"Oh, right." He lowered his hand from his cheek. "Granny Mito was from my Clan—the Uzumaki Clan. She was a super cool and wise grandma to us in the short time we knew her. Ridiculously strong, too. But she taught us a lot, and… Heh. It's totally weird and embarrassing to say, but I…sorta miss her."

"Me too," Amari admitted.

We only knew her a short time, and yet… Yeah, she was like a wise grandma to all of us. I know she's at peace now, and I wouldn't want to disturb that, but… Amari dug her fingers into her shirt, eyebrows pinching together. But I wish she was still here. There's so much I could've learned from her.

"Could you tell me more about her?" Fū asked.

"If you'd like to hear more about Lady Mito, all you need to do is ask. Later, though," Amari said. "For now, to my original point, it just doesn't seem likely to me the Akatsuki are taking the Tailed-Beasts to become jinchūriki themselves.

"Even the strongest Seal a shinobi can create is fallible to come loose, for lack of a better word, when confronted by their immense power, and that doesn't take into account the general ability of the person they are contained within, their willpower to maintain control over such incredible power, and their psychological state. And what are the odds everyone in the Akatsuki are compatible?"

"Fairly slim," Miss Anbu informed. "Although, in fairness, it is not impossible the prerequisite for entry into their organization is compatibility with the Tailed-Beasts. However, you must then consider the odds of compatible shinobi who are also S-rank rogues, and that brings us even closer to a statistical impossibility than before."

"Exactly," Amari nodded. "Furthermore, they don't strike me as the type to organize something like this on such a flimsy plan. So, I can only assume they have some other plan to use the Tailed-Beasts."

"How?"

"I'm not sure. I can't say what their endgame is; there isn't enough information for me to piece together a firm conclusion at this point. But it's safe to say it's something that threatens the whole world."

"Hmm," Fū hummed, lowering her gaze and pursing her lips.

Although she kept walking, the Waterfall kunoichi's eyes appeared to glaze over. Amari glanced at the girl, then to Naruto, who watched them with his hands clasped behind his head and a clarity in his cerulean eyes.

Fū and Chōmei's relationship is so different from Naruto's and the Nine-Tails, and I think Naruto is beginning to recognize that, Amari thought, directing her gaze forward as she waited for the kunoichi to come around.

Our knowledge of the Tailed-Beasts began with history lessons of the Demon Fox that ravaged our Village before the heroic Fourth Hokage sacrificed his life to save us all.

Amari wondered how much of the real story was still buried. She didn't doubt the Fourth Hokage's sacrifice or his heroics in performing it—countless lives were saved because of him. Yet something stuck out, a question that prodded her brain like a splinter beneath the skin.

How had Naruto's mom, the previous jinchūriki, lost control?

Someone as strong-willed as his mom wouldn't have just spontaneously lost control one day. Not even during childbirth. No, Amari shook her head, she couldn't believe that for a moment. Someone who had taken on that burden as a child, someone who had overcome the hatred and fear to find true love—to start a family—wouldn't have merely lost control.

Not when her family and life, one could say, was only just beginning.

There is more to this than the mythology we were taught, I can feel it, Amari thought pensively. The Leaf told us the story that inspired people to walk in the footsteps of the Fourth Hokage. They wove this tale for a specific reason, just as they have woven the tale of Hashirama and Madara for a specific reason.

Were there other actors hidden in the shadows? Individuals who brought forth the catastrophe and the need for a sacrifice that didn't make it into the history books?

Or, she wondered, had they ensured their names and their deeds were erased to tell a better story? A story of mindless demons and heroic shinobi, as a reminder for the necessity of taming the power of a Tailed-Beast.

Amari wasn't sure. But, in time, she hoped to uncover the truth.

Back then, when we first graduated, our knowledge evolved a little with Mizuki claiming Naruto was the Nine-Tailed Fox. It was our first time hearing the true reason for the treatment he received. The suspicion, the fear, the hatred—the decree silenced their voices, but their eyes and their actions had always spoken for them.

To them, there was no separation of person and Tailed-Beast. They were one and the same.

Steadily we've learned more since we've become shinobi, through our teachers, through Naruto's interactions with the Nine-Tails, through our interactions with Gaara, and finally culminating to our current understanding. Once again because Mizuki peeled back another layer by Reanimating Lady Mito.

Ino stifled a yawn behind her hand. Karin, as a result, yawned as well, the contagion then spread itself to Naruto, but skipped Shino and Amari. Miss Anbu, surprisingly, brought her hand to the mouth of her mask.

We began ignorant, thought Amari. We began thinking of the Tailed-Beasts as Demons. As mindless monsters who only sought to destroy or kill everything in their path.

Slowly we've learned of their sentience. We've learned how they were captured to be used as weapons.

Yet every Tailed-Beast I've encountered before now showed no signs of cooperation with the person they were trapped inside of. Nine-Tails hates us all. He'll kill us all if he ever gets free, in his own words. Starting with me, apparently. How fun, she drawled.

The Shukaku likely harbors similar feelings of resentment for humans, given his and Gaara's relationship.

Shino raised a hand from his pocket and extended a finger; a black insect flew in and landed at its precipice. After a moment it flew off to continue scouting the terrain.

"Anything to report?" Anko asked.

"No. We're clear, for now," he reported.

Fū and Chōmei have broken the template we've come to know entirely, Amari thought, adjusting her arm, and then wincing as aching fangs bit into her tender elbow.

There's actually a level of real communication between them. Amicable. Friendly, even. Chōmei has offered informational support to balance Fu's ignorance on things like my heritage, my ancestry, and even Lady Mito. He even grants her the ability to use what I assume to be his tails as wings.

I wonder… I wonder if there's an honest chance for humans and Tailed-Beasts to coexist. I never even considered it in the Academy, or when we first became shinobi. Hell, I didn't really consider it until after meeting Lady Mito, but…

She hummed softly to herself.

I can't just ignore that they're sentient, that they have their own personalities, feelings, and thoughts. Still, they've been abused by human society for years. No matter how much I want it, the hatred, pain, and distrust they feel isn't something I alone can heal with good intentions.

Even so, I can't help but wonder if we can heal that hatred and pain. If we can ever bridge the divide and coexist in this world together.

Tailed-Beasts aren't going anywhere, Amari thought, lifting her chin and looking up at the bright blue sky. I'm not sure they can even die. So, whether we like it or not, we need to learn to better coexist with them. There's no other way. At least not one I can see that is sustainable for the future.

Because if we continue to treat them as monsters and weapons, we'll only cause more death and misery to the people and creatures of this world.

It had to stop.

She just didn't know how to stop it…

"Okay," Fū suddenly spoke up, "so you sent me away because there was an Akatsuki guy back there at the border."

"Right," the Nara nodded. "I don't know if the Akatsuki members actually know what you look like, but the Stone clearly hired them as mercenaries. Bastards," she added under her breath.

"The Akatsuki also seem to work in squads of at least three," Miss Anbu added.

"Which made them potentially recognizing you or Naruto way too dangerous," Amari explained. "Additionally there was a chance the Stone's forces would pursue us into the Land of Fire, threatening the refugees Naruto's unit had evacuated."

"You were thinking, like, super far ahead."

"As a squad leader, and as someone who wants to one day be a guardian, rational thinking has to prevail over reckless emotion. It's something I'm still working on. Sometimes my emotions get the better of me and…well, I act more like Naruto."

"Heyyy," groused her best friend.

"You act more like a boy when your emotions get the better of you? In what way?" Fū wondered.

"Less acting like a boy," Amari chuckled, "and more acting like Naruto specifically."

"Which means acting first and thinking never," Ino provided.

"I think through things sometimes," Naruto argued, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Sometimes carries the most weight in that sentence," Shino said.

"Hey!"

"You have gotten better with strategy since we became a team," Amari offered as support. "But both of us have a detailed history of getting emotional in the field. There's a certain threshold we pass when we forgo any strategy and start acting on our most reckless impulses."

"Yeah. I can't really argue with that," Naruto yielded, sighing. "But you're still better at thinking when you're emotional. Even when you're being a bit reckless, and willing to hurt yourself to win, you…you just have a level of clarity and strategy I don't." He scratched at his chin with his pointer finger. "I kind of just throw myself at whatever is in my way until I pummel it."

"Either way, it's something for us to work on."

"Back there— wait, sorry to interrupt, but I have another question," Fū apologized but kept talking. "Back there, that power Chōmei felt, was that some sort of special technique you used to take out that Akatsuki person?"

"Yes."

"And is that why you're covering your eye now?"

"Mm," Amari hummed, confirming the truth with a single sound. "Generally, I cover my left eye anyway; its existence is meant to be a secret. However, its a secret that's slowly slipped from my fingers this year. I still do it out of habit, and as a sense of security.

"That power, though… This eye isn't mine, biologically. It isn't suited to handle the strain that technique puts on it, or that's my assumption, anyway.

"I can't really ask anyone to confirm the cause; my Clan didn't share their medical records with the rest of the Leaf, and the only other person I know of who wielded this power was my Papa. But…" Amari shrugged helplessly. "Anyway, when I use it… I go blind, temporarily."

"Wait, seriously? So, right now—"

"Can't see a thing," she confirmed. "And, over time, if I keep using it, eventually my vision will degrade until I am permanently and irreversibly blind in that eye. That's the price I have to pay to use that devastating power."

"And that's why you were so against it," Fū realized, turning to face Miss Anbu. She continued to walk backwards as she spoke. "You knew the dangers. You were trying to protect her."

Miss Anbu nodded once. "You're right. I was aware, and I was trying to protect her."

Fū pursed her lips and turned around again. "I…feel kind of guilty. I was one of the reasons you had to damage your eyes and I didn't even know it."

"There's no reason for you to feel guilty. We needed an assured escape, and this power of mine gave it to us. Blindness isn't so bad."

"How are you so sure of that?"

"I have a very good friend who was born blind. She's a perfectly capable shinobi and functional person without vision."

"But…"

Amari looked at her. "Would you rather have had the Akatsuki or the Stone's forces pursue us, inevitably leading to a battle between them and the Leaf's QRF, which could result in who knows how many casualties on both sides?"

Fū's shoulder sagged. Her features twisted into a pout.

"No."

Naruto sighed deeply through his nose.

"I'd rather damage my vision or go blind completely than let my comrades or innocent civilians die in an avoidable battle. That's just the way I am," Amari said.

"Guilt should not be how we feel," Shino interceded. "Why? Because: Amaririsu values us as comrades and friends, so much so she is willing to damage herself to protect us. It is not bold to say she would die for us, if given the choice. Just as I suspect we would for her. I, for one, am proud to be a comrade she values so deeply."

"And I am proud that you value me so deeply, Shino."

"Of course. You are a comrade and a friend. I'd go to similar lengths for my team and all those I call comrades. That is simply our way. The path we've chosen to walk as shinobi. A universal nindo between our peers, one might say.

"However, though this feeling is mutual between us, and between our comrades present and presently absent, I understand the evident frustration Naruto and Fū feel even now.

"You do not wish Amaririsu to damage herself on your behalf, specifically because this incident involves the Akatsuki. And, as you both understand, they seek to capture and kill you. Were I in your position, I would likely feel the same frustration presently. I have felt it," Shino informed.

"As you may recall, Naruto, I was the only one of our peers who was not present to aid our efforts to recover Sasuke from the Sound Four. I was absent when Amaririsu was killed, when Sasuke was taken, and as my comrades risked their lives and nearly died to recover him. I was absent when Kasai returned, and thus unable to aid Amaririsu in her life or death battle against him.

"However, frustration alone is pointless. Inaction and frustration serves no one but our enemies. Truthfully, there is only one thing we can do—one thing we all must do—to not only ensure Amaririsu never has to blind herself on our behalf, but to ensure Naruto, Fū, and those we consider precious do not fall at the hands of the Akatsuki, this war, or any of the other enemies lurking in the shadows.

"And that thing we must do, to put it simply, is become stronger. Through training and missions, and battle, we must surpass our current strength, and we must do that again and again. We cannot afford to stagnant or suffer inaction due to frustration. We must do what we can to grow stronger, we must come to understand and strengthen our greatest weaknesses.

"This is the only way we will protect each other. This is the only way for each of us to survive the war we face. Against the Stone. Against the Akatsuki. Against all those who threaten those we hold dear."

"He's right," Anko piped in from the front of their small unit. "Sitting around feeling sorry for yourselves and feeling guilty about Shortcake pulling her trump card on your behalf yesterday won't get you anywhere."

She glanced over her shoulder at them with a firm expression.

"You wanna survive the war? Wanna stop the Akatsuki from getting their hands on you? Get stronger. Get smarter. If you don't, you'll die. Or someone will die for you.

"Nobody here wanted this for you kids, nobody likes it, but there's no escaping this. You're up against a war now. Shortcake wants to take on the world itself. So you best pull your big boy pants on now and understand what you're really up against. Because it's only going to get harder and uglier from here.

"You don't have time to feel sorry for yourselves or screw around," she added. "Your days at the Academy are over. Now you're in the world of adults, and it's a cruel, ugly place that plays by a dirty set of rules, squirts."

"Rallying the troops, Anko?"

The amused drawl of Genma drew their eyes to the man, who was standing amid the moving crowd like a pillar amidst a flowing river. He was waiting for them, it seemed. He stood with his hands stuffed in his flak jacket pockets, a senbon clenched beneath his teeth, as always, and a slight smirk on his lips.

"Someone has to warn them," she retorted, a cheeky smile forming on her lips. "Otherwise I'll end up at their funerals. That'll just piss me off."

"Heh," Genma chuckled, half-turned, and fell in step beside Amari. "I don't think this group needs a reminder. You can't scare them like a batch of fresh Academy students."

"Guess I'll just have to try a little harder, then," Anko grinned her sadistic and mischievous grin. "I know a few ways to scare little Genin's."

"Maybe another time."

"Ah, don't ruin my fun, Genma. Besides, these kids need to know what they're up against. We were already neck deep by their age."

"Different time, different circumstances. And none of us wanted to see it repeated," Genma replied, easy-going and measured. "They may have gotten a later start, but these guys have seen plenty of the adult world already. And it's dirty rules."

"Yeah, I know. When did you get all serious?"

"I'll let you torment the Genin later. For now, I have an important message from the Commander," Genma replied, drawing his eyes down to Amari.

Without a single word the Nara knew what the message would be. She shut her eye, exhaled through her nose, and opened her eye again.

"All three, huh?" she asked.

"Yeah," he confirmed. "Sounds like you're walking into a political minefield, kiddo. And the ground is already on fire."

"What can I say? Fire is my element," Amari tried to alleviate the tension in her chest with a half-hearted joke.

"Heh," Genma exhaled a short chuckle, and flicked his senbon skywards. "Runs in your blood. The Commander wants you to prepare yourself to handle them the way you handled Lord Hiashi."

"Got it," Amari nodded.

"Other than that, he'll brief you when you arrive. He also said not to panic and to remember what he told your Shadow Clone."

"It was never your parents intention for you to spend your whole life hiding your true identity or heritage," she recalled his calming voice. "So, if you've decided to cast aside the shadows we've sheltered you within to protect this girl from the Elders and Foundation, I'll do everything I can to support you. It'll be troublesome, but you won't stand alone, 'Risu. I can promise you that."

Just recalling those profound words made her eye sting.

"Why are you so shocked? This is why we've built a circle of trust, remember? You've already gained influence and backing from major players in the political scene. That will strengthen your position when the time comes."

"Okay," she nodded again. More for herself than anyone else. "One fight is over, now it's time for the next."

Genma extended his hand and ruffled her hair. "You'll do fine, kiddo. You're not alone in this fight, remember that. Besides," he smiled, "you're your mother's daughter, after all."

"Hehe," Amari giggled and felt a sense of relief flush through her system. "Being troublesome is genetic for me."

"Heh, true," he said, sliding his hand back into his flak jacket pocket.

"Thanks, Genma-sensei."

"Don't mention it, kiddo."

Amari shut her eye and exhaled another breath, nodding to herself again.

There was a hell of a fight waiting for her back home. A fight where she would finally stand face to face with all three subordinates of the Second Hokage, not as some child they could push around, but as the Head of the Uchiha Clan.

She would finally meet the leader of the Foundation, the man who murdered her cousin and forced Itachi and Aimi into an impossible situation.

I'm ready.

Amari was ready to cast aside the shadows, ready to embrace her heritage and all it entailed. Because she had this circle of trust. Because she wasn't alone in this fight.

"These shinobi here," Izumo's voice came to her, "they don't care who your ancestor is. On a battlefield, we're all Leaf shinobi. Politics, ancestry, Clan status, none of that matters. When we're fighting, all we want to know about the shinobi next to us is this: Will they watch our backs as we watch theirs?"

"And your answer was crystal clear," Kotetsu said.

She had friends. Comrades. Allies. Her influence, whether she had realized it or not, reached far beyond her peers.

"Your ancestor is an old ghost story. But you, Amaririsu Yūhi, are real. You are their comrade, and they are yours. Don't let politicians and their meaningless opinions obscure that truth."

That influence reached even members of the Anbu she didn't know personally, individuals who had known her mother, or who had only seen or heard of her because of the events of the Exams, the Invasion, and the many incidents that had happened since.

The Councilors and the Foundation leader cannot be underestimated, she thought. They've already seen to the murder of my entire Clan. My life and Sasuke's will just be another notch in their bloody ledger. Killing us wouldn't even be an inconvenience to them.

However, as Genma-sensei said, these are different times and different circumstances. Because of the influence we've managed to gain, because of the circle of trust we've built, they won't get to walk all over us.

Besides, only Lady Hokage can dictate what I can and can't do as a Clan Head—she's the Hokage. They aren't.

They no longer had the freedom and power the Third Hokage granted them. Their roles were reduced to that of advisors, while the Fifth Hokage had the final say on all matters. And she wasn't so weak-willed to turn decisions over to them, or to allow their prejudice for the Uchiha Clan to cloud her judgement.

As long as she didn't overstep her boundaries or put Lady Tsunade in a tough spot—or, rather a tougher spot than they were already in, given everything that was happening, the meeting would go smoothly.

That meant keeping her emotions in check and playing the political game, as opposed to acting on raw emotion. It wouldn't be easy, not while face to face with Shisui's murderer and the reason her parents were dead.

For now, though, she had time to prepare herself for the coming battle—mentally and emotionally. She had time to consider her arguments, finely tune them, and ensure no matter what Fū would be protected.

"Hey Genma, think I should give Shortcake another pep talk?" Anko asked suddenly, grinning sadistically.

"Anoth—" Amari's mouth snapped shut so quickly she bit her tongue.

Wincing through a jolt of pain that shot through her mouth and into her arm, Amari's face flushed redder than the Amenominakanushi. Her peers merely looked at her, curious and confused by the sudden silence, and the horrified expression on her face.

Genma merely shut his eyes as his shoulders shook with a chuckle.

"Careful," he warned. "Her head's nearly exploding already."

Of course it was nearly exploding! He knew what Anko's idea of a 'pep talk' was!

Okay, sure, it had been somewhat encouraging, but had he forgotten what Anko had done? Because she could remember it vividly. Very vividly.

It was impossible to forget how she had died that day. Slowly. Sadistically. Exquisitely. Dragged against her Will nearly face first into the Snake Mistress's busty chest, so close she could see her dark-colored bra and cleavage in brain-melting detail.

And it was then, at that moment, as she was nearly dragged into a wonderful abyss of death, that Anko decided to grope her own chest and declare for everyone in the Hokage's office to hear,

"Now I can barely contain my chest and Kurenai's more woman than any man can handle!"

But did she end there? Did she mercifully end her suffering with a quick blow? Did she provide a painless death after nearly causing her head to spontaneously explode on the day of her promotion?

No! She hadn't. Anko left her to bleed and die in flames by clapping her on the shoulder and supportively declaring,

"Chin up, Shortcake! You'll grow into your chest sooner or later!"

So of course her head was nearly exploding! Of course her heart was pounding at the sight of the sadistic glint in Anko's eye, like a predator preparing to pounce on wounded prey.

In her position, at Anko's merciless nature, anyone with common sense would feel the same way!

"Dare I even ask?" Miss Anbu sighed.

"Sure!" Anko couldn't have been happier to oblige.

"Nwooooo!" Amari shook her head rapidly.

"Clearly we have missed something," Shino noted.

"I think I can imagine why Amari might not want us to know," Ino said. "There are a few things that can get her that flustered. Or cause her to faint," she added beneath her breath.

"I kinda want to hear it, though," Naruto betrayed her for his own cruel curiosity.

"What's wrong with a pep talk?" Fū asked innocently and curiously. "C'mon! Let's hear it! A little encouragement never hurt anyone!"

She had no idea how wrong she was. She had no idea what Anko was like. Amari wished she could've turned back time and stopped her from voicing such naïve optimism.

It was far too late.

"I like your spirit, kid!"

Face flushed, Amari sent a searing glare at the Snake Mistress. "I will strap you in a genjutsu and turn your greatest nightmares into reality," she threatened. "And it will be long and painful and you will beg me for mercy before it is over!"

Naruto, Fū, Ino, and Karin shuddered at the threat. Shino didn't react. Genma smirked. Miss Anbu sighed, foreseeing the conclusion.

It was Anko who met her glare head-on with a dangerous and suggestive grin.

"Don't tease me with a good time, Shortcake," she purred. "Think of what your mom would say."

Amari's brain seized at the provocative statement. And as it did she let out an involuntary, mortified squeak.

Then she fainted.

Anko's cackling was the last thing she heard.

---

Karin stifled a yawn behind her hand.

They were getting closer to the Leaf Village. At least that's what she overheard the Leaf shinobi say during their last break, a break, frankly, she appreciated; walking for long stretches was difficult, but she tried despite the weakness in her body, despite how often her head felt like it was spinning, causing her to stumble on flat roads now and then.

Despite that she pushed on. She didn't want to be the deadweight of the group, she didn't want to inconvenience anyone, afraid they would decide to leave her behind for being such a bother.

So, for the first time in her life, Karin was grateful for the presence of the injured Grass shinobi and their need to rest. The thought made her scrunch her nose. It felt…wrong to feel anything except resentment towards them. Even if some had never used her abilities, they would have without hesitation if the Leaf shinobi had never shown up.

Frankly, she preferred to pretend they didn't exist, instead silently extending her gratitude to the civilian women and children among their group; if they hadn't asked for rest throughout this journey, she likely would've fainted already.

Now that they were within a stone's throw of the Leaf Village, what did that actually mean for her? What sort of fate awaited her behind their walls? Another cage, perhaps? Another shade of hell, maybe more vibrant and colorful, but no less torturous?

Would she even be allowed into the Village? Did she want to enter the Leaf Village?

What other choice do I have? I'll never return to the Grass or their shinobi…as long as I'm protected by the Leaf, anyway. I have nowhere to run off to. I don't have the skills to survive in the wild on my own. I'd only become a victim—whether to a hungry animal or another person is impossible to say, but one way or another…I'd die or wish to be dead again.

So…what exactly do I have now? Karin flattened her lips together and lowered her eyes to the road. My mother is dead. The place I called home is now within the Stone's control, and I won't risk getting caught by them for a few precious heirlooms. No matter how much I'll miss them.

She had nowhere else to go, no one else to turn to. Despite being freed, she was still trapped. Trapped by her weakness, by her lack of money—her neck was leashed by an iron chain, and she was trapped inside a rusted cage by a system that valued special abilities like hers.

Behind those bars she could see no escape.

In the end, whether for good or ill, the Leaf Village was the only real choice now. Would the leash be removed or loosened? Would they open the door and set her free from her cage, or merely place her inside a larger, better furnished gilded prison?

Karin didn't know. So far the few people she had met from the Leaf were totally different from the shinobi she had known in the Grass.

These people, these strangers, were compassionate, they actually cared about her and her well-being unlike all the other people she had ever known. Additionally, a Clan Head she had never met already went out of their way to offer her sanctuary and protection, which wasn't to be taken lightly.

Karin squinted her eyes and pursed her lips.

It was…strange. Suspicious, even. She was grateful to be freed from Zōsui. She was immensely grateful for all Naruto and Shino had done to save her. She was grateful for Naruto's sincere smiles and reassurances, and Shino's steadfast and unwavering protection.

What do they have to gain from it?

It was the one thought she couldn't shake. A terrible and ungrateful thought about the Leaf shinobi and the mysterious Clan Head who offered her sanctuary.

However, if Zōsui's guardianship had taught her anything, it was that no one ever acted out of purely good intentions. There was always an angle. A motive. And she could only assume the Leaf's and the Clan Head's angle were the same as Zōsui's—getting ahold of her special abilities.

Karin shifted her shoulders, making a face as she wriggled in discomfort. The guilt of the thought was almost unbearable.

Naruto, Shino, even Anko, they had no secondary motives. She could sense that. She could sense their sincerity, and it made her suspicions feel like a fish was wriggling and flopping around in her stomach, trying to find a body of water.

With a peripheral glance, she checked to see if anyone noticed her sudden discomfort. Anko was ahead and adjacent to her, hands stuffed in her trench coat pockets; there was no way she'd seen it. Ino Yamanaka was busy retying her hair in a bun. Shino was out of her visual sight, but if he noticed anything, he didn't say a word.

Somewhere behind her Fū was asking Naruto all sorts of questions about the Leaf Village—what it was like, if there were waterfalls, what kind of food it had, what his friends were like, if he had friends Amaririsu didn't have, and if he could introduce her to them.

The girl didn't have an off button. Or a relaxed state.

I'll take her sincere curiosity over Zōsui's sincere apathy any day of the week.

Finally, also out of her immediate sight, she heard Amaririsu speaking to another adult Leaf shinobi.

The one known as Genma carried Amaririsu for sometime after she fainted, but had since returned to the front of the caravan. Now another man, someone named Ensui Nara, had fallen back to speak to her.

Apparently, from what she had managed to pick up, they hailed from the same Clan, though it seemed today was their first true meeting. Ensui and Amaririsu spoke respectfully, with hints of friendliness and familiarity due to her blood ties to the leader of the Nara Clan.

Were all the people in the Leaf amicable? She could only hope.

Turning her gaze forward, Karin shut her eyes briefly and felt the Leaf shinobi around her. Shino's chakra was like allowing several hundred harmless caterpillars crawl along her senses, strange, and yet somewhat comforting.

Ino's chakra was how she imagined sitting in a field of flowers felt—soothing, pleasant, with her whole being encompassed by the delicate and rich aroma of new blooms.

Anko Mitarashi's presence was as bombastic as she was. Wild and somewhat off-putting, and deeper…deeper there was a darkness. A presence that wasn't hers, but something else. Something dark. Something hungry. Something…evil.

A chill raced down Karin's spine. She shivered and turned her senses to Naruto.

On the surface his chakra was energetic, bright, and warm, but like the crazy proctor there was something darker beneath the surface. Another being—a Tailed-Beast, from what she heard—that was cloaked in hatred and malice.

His chakra reserves were enormous. So were Fū's. She was another presence as bright as the sun, as warm as a blanket fresh out of a dryer, and as bombastic and energetic as a squirrel fueled by caffeine.

The other presence within her wasn't like the Tailed-Beast within Naruto, though. Although its presence was equally as immense—too large for her to fully grasp at once—it lacked the hatred, the darkness, the self-vindicated and vindictive malice.

Finally, she reached her senses to Amaririsu, entangled herself with the girl's chakra, and felt her shoulders wiggle unconsciously. Chakra was unique to each individual, it reflected them, their personalities, their feelings; the essence of a person could be felt by a keen enough Sensory Type.

For most of her life she'd only ever felt chakras like Zōsui. People who's apathy for her suffering she felt so keenly, she began to wonder if she was as worthless as they felt she was.

But Amaririsu… Her chakra pulled Karin in with a gravitational force of its own. It didn't just feel like light. It didn't just feel like warmth.

Amaririsu was light. Amaririsu was warmth.

In her mind's eye, with her senses entangled with Amaririsu's essence, she could see warm colors stretching as far as the eye could see. And beyond. Beyond the horizon, beyond the atmosphere, towards the edges of the universe, and even farther beyond, leaving behind a trail of vibrant, rippling light, which took on the appearance of a bubbling stream colored in energetic and playful greens and soothing, serene blues,

Sparkles of glistening starlight rained from the light, like shimmering silver tears, glowing, pulsing, humming as they fell all around her. Through the streams of the aurora borealis she witnessed the airbrushed outline of a dragon swimming through the light. It was… It was…

"Are you all right?"

With a gasp, Karin's eyes snapped open, yanked back to reality by Shino's calm voice, and yet her vision was fogged despite the crystal clear lenses of her glasses. Something warm was trickling down her neck, she realized. They were tears.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, quickly lifting her glasses and wiping away the tears onto Amaririsu's long-sleeve as she walked. "This is so embarrassing."

"There is no reason to feel embarrassed," Shino stated.

"If you knew why I was crying…" she muttered, repositioning her glasses on the bridge of her nose.

"Because of Amari's chakra, correct?"

Karin felt her cheeks warm even as her eyes went wide.

How on earth could he possibly know that?

"Why do I know the reason, you must be wondering," Shino spoke in his usual, strange and confident question-answer pattern. "Because: You had your eyes shut and were slowly moving laterally, closer to Amari."

Karin checked her position. Then grimaced, cheeks warm as a summer day. He was totally right. She had drifted closer.

"As I said, there is no reason to feel embarrassed. I may not be able to sense Amari's chakra as keenly as a Sensory Type like you, or see it as my teammate Hinata can, but I pride myself in knowing the character and essence of my comrades.

"In her own words, Amari seeks to reach a hand out to all those lost in darkness. In order to do that, she must burn bright. Brighter than all others. That is her Will."

He looked at her from behind his abyss like lenses, which reflected the sunlight.

"It seems she was successful."

Karin pursed her lips and ducked her head, left red-faced by his confident assertion. She'd barely spoken more than a few words with Amaririsu, most of which consisted of Amaririsu offering spare clothes and Karin thanking her for them.

This is all so embarrassing, she thought, head ducked, awkwardly wringing her fingers beneath the blanket draped over her shoulders. I barely know these people. Amaririsu I know even less than Shino and Naruto. Yet her chakra…

It moved her to tears. How weird was she to just…fall into tears because of some stranger's chakra.

Yet Shino comforted her. He peeled back the mysterious layers of the stranger who's chakra was so potent, so colorful and warm, so…filled with light that her reaction almost felt natural. Normal. Not weird at all.

"You should talk to her," Shino stated suddenly.

"Wha- what?" Karin recoiled slightly, flustered.

Speak to her? He had to be crazy. What was she going to say? Something about how amazing, attractive, and heart-warming her chakra was?

No way!

Just the thought of it made Karin's face match the color of her hair.

She immediately shook her head, hair whipping with the flustered movement.

"I can't. I don't want to bother her. I don't know what to say. And she's busy with that other guy anyway."

"True. It would be rude to interrupt their conversation. I didn't mean to insinuate you should approach her right now," Shino corrected himself. "However, their conversation will not last forever. Furthermore, Amari won't think you are bothering her; I am certain she wishes to speak to you as well."

Shifting her shoulders back and forth, Karin felt the anxiety of speaking to a stranger and the yearning to get closer begin to war with each other.

Why would Amaririsu want to talk with her? Why were these people so…different from the Grass shinobi she'd known for so long? So open, so kind.

Why didn't she sense an ulterior motive?

None of this makes any sense. What's their endgame? I mean, anywhere has to be better than the Grass and Zōsui's people. But still… Why would the Head of the Uchiha Clan offer me sanctuary? Why would the Leaf shinobi take me in with zero expectations? It doesn't add up.

"I don't know what to say," Karin mumbled lamely.

"Actually, you do. You just don't realize it yet."

"Huh?" Karin blinked and looked at the boy. That was strangely cryptic.

"There are questions only she can answer for you," he continued calmly. "Why? Because: She is the Clan Head to offer you sanctuary."

"She's the…" Karin went wide-eyed. "Wait a minute. Are you serious?"

"You'll find that I'm not one to joke around. Especially when it comes to important matters," Shino informed in his usual serious tenor.

"So that means…"

Leaning forward as she walked, Karin peered around Shino to look at Amaririsu. The girl was still wearing a blanket like a cloak, in the midst of some discussion with Ensui Nara, likely pertaining to whatever situation was awaiting her at the Leaf.

She hadn't grasped what that situation was; the girl and the adults spoke around it, using euphemisms or analogies to discuss it indirectly. It was typical—double-speak was the language of shinobi, after all.

So she's the Head of the Uchiha Clan, Karin put the pieces together, bewildered.

How had someone so young become Clan Head? Although, it almost seemed natural for Amaririsu, given her strength and presence.

That certainly explains how Shino received a message so quickly about granting me sanctuary. The Clan Head was right here all along. Right under my nose.

So, what was Amaririsu's motive for offering her sanctuary? Could it actually be altruism? It was hard to imagine someone with Amaririsu's chakra, someone who was tangibly so open and brimming with light, could be hiding a hideous, callous selfishness like Zōsui's.

"As I said, you should speak with her. Before we reach the Leaf," Shino said.

"I…will."

"Good."

Shino retreated silently after that.

Karin crossed her arms and clutched the blanket, closing it more, if for no other reason than to keep herself from fidgeting and wringing her hands. She did her best to listen without patently eavesdropping on the conversation between Amaririsu and Ensui—a difficult task. Not that she understood their double-speak, anyway.

Along the way she heard Fū gasp. She sounded amazed by the description of the Hokage Mountain looming over the Leaf Village. Karin couldn't blame her; the mountain and its faces were amazing, and what little time she spent in the Leaf was often accompanied by wonder.

Compared to the Grass Village and the small towns she'd known, the Leaf Village was a rich and vast kingdom, dwarfing the Hidden Grass Village into something closer to a collection of primitive mud huts instead of a village.

Despite her suspicions, despite her fears, Karin couldn't deny she was looking forward to seeing it all again. Being in the Leaf for the Exams was the closest thing to freedom she had.

Zōsui wasn't around to monitor her every move. Her "teammates" went off on their own often. She had wanted them to succeed, to progress as far as possible, but only so she could stay. So she could savor the small breath of freedom she was granted. Before the invisible chains secured themselves around her neck and wrists again.

Now it seemed her chains were broken.

God, she hoped that was true.

Ensui Nara finally departed for the front of the caravan, but not before patting Amaririsu once on the head while smiling.

"I'd be worried if I was those three, knowing I was up against you."

"Hehe!" Amaririsu giggled. "Thanks, Ensui."

"Stay sharp, kid."

"I will."

Once Ensui had departed, Karin started to make her move. Slowly, one lateral step at a time over long periods of only forward motion, gravitating closer and closer to the sun, pulled in by her own curiosity, and by the warmth.

Every step closer filled her with anxiety. She began to wring her hands and fingers.

Was Shino right? Did Amaririsu actually want to speak with her? What if she found her to be annoying or weird? What if she said something stupid and she revoked the sanctuary she had granted?

What would she do then? What if Amaririsu was hiding some darker ulterior motive?

The anxious thoughts flitted through her mind like busy worker bees moving to and from a hive. Simultaneously, the sun warmed her skin and relieved tension, its gravitational pull drawing the young girl in. Closer and closer. Until finally…

"Hello there."

Karin let out an embarrassing squeak, heart jumping and head whipping towards the sound of Amaririsu's soft voice. The Clan Head was right beside her, smiling warmly, visibly amused by the reaction.

…She had drifted all the way to Amaririsu without even noticing it.

Karin felt her face flush. Why couldn't the earth just open up beneath her and swallow her whole. God, she was totally embarrassed.

"I, um," Karin began to nervously run her left hand's fingers through the red tresses draped over her shoulder, "I wanted to thank you again for lending me your spare clothes…" Her eyes flicked away. "And for…granting me sanctuary."

"I'm just trying to do my best to help," Amaririsu said.

"Why?" Karin couldn't stop herself from asking, though her voice was timid and quiet. "Why are you trying to help me? Why bother offering a stranger sanctuary?"

"Kindness and generosity are gifts we can give each other without needing a reason."

When Amaririsu smiled, turning her head to look at her with that calm and cool onyx eye, Karin felt her heart thump harshly against her chest.

"But I suspect you won't be quick to believe altruism on its own. When I was in a similar position as you years ago, I held the same suspicions of the Leaf shinobi who rescued me."

Amaririsu lifted her bandana off her left eye, revealing the dull lavender, rendered blind by that terribly powerful and emancipating technique she used.

"My brother gifted me this eye. By all accounts, it wasn't mine. The Leaf could've taken it back since it technically belongs to the Hyūga Clan, and they guard its secrets possessively," she said.

Then she pulled the bandana over the eye and looked ahead.

"My other eye is my kekkei genkai—another power greedy shinobi could've taken from a weak and frail child like I was.

"Yet those who saved me didn't take my eyes. They didn't air my secrets to the Village. They welcomed me into the Leaf. They showed me I was actually returning home after many years away. One of those shinobi—a stranger—welcomed me into her home, gave me…everything I could ever ask for. All I ever wanted. All on a hunch.

"Although the words for that lesson came from someone else—a Hero, you might call them," she added with a hint of amusement. "I owe her a great deal as well. But it was the people who rescued me a few years ago who first taught me the power of kindness and generosity. Not with words, but through their actions."

"You were rescued, too?"

"I was," Amaririsu nodded. "But that's a story for another day, if you ever want to hear it."

She did. Maybe. If it was okay to ask. If they actually brought her into the Leaf and granted her sanctuary.

"For now, there are two answers to your original questions. Why am I trying to help you? Why am I offering you sanctuary? First, on a purely personal and emotional level, I want to help you. It's just my way. I want to reach out to everyone I can, that's why I'm trying to become stronger.

"Also, what you're going through right now? I've been there. Or at least somewhere that resembles it. I have the means to help you, as I was helped back then. I can't just pat you on the back, say good luck, I hope it all works out," she stated firmly, shaking her head once.

"It would go against everything I believe in. Everything I want to embody. It'd be a betrayal to the people who helped me when I needed it to ignore your suffering."

Karin twisted and twirled the ends of her red hair around her fingers, searching Amaririsu's chakra with a fine-toothed comb for the slightest fluctuation of a lie.

Her chakra did not fluctuate. It, like the caravan, maintained a steady flow.

"Now, I'm primarily motivated by my personal and emotional reasons, but there is a second point of view. One that operates on pure logic," Amaririsu said.

Again there were no fluctuations, nor did she feel a sense of dread by the admittance.

"Truthfully, on a purely logical level, offering you sanctuary is the only rational option at our disposal."

Red eyebrows pinched together. Karin tilted her head in confusion as she cast a long side glance at Amaririsu.

"How do you figure that?"

"The Grass shinobi—or at least those who were apart of the unit abusing you—want you back. That's a fact."

A fact that gave her chills.

"Emotions are running hot and raw right now. Once again their Nation is a battlefield for a war between two of the Five Great Nations. We may be allies, but that doesn't mean they won't resent us as much as they resent the Stone. They may come to blame us.

"That Shino and Naruto not only rescued you from the Grass shinobi, a fact the survivors are likely aware of, but they and Miss Anko refused to hand you over, with threats no less, is an ember sitting on a powder keg.

"You wield a special power—a power they've grown to rely on. A power they demand you use for their benefit, regardless of the price you pay."

Amaririsu raised her left hand out from beneath her blanket, and Karin saw her features pinch slightly, as if the small movement itself hurt.

"Unique powers, special bloodlines and the kekkei genkais born from them, they draw the gazes of greedy individuals who would rather steal them for their own gain, tame and control them to use as weapons or tools, as you were, or destroy them out of fear when they cannot be controlled. That's unfortunately the world we live in."

"…They're not going to stop, are they?" Karin asked.

Amaririsu lowered her hand and looked right at her. The expression on her face was solemn.

"Not until they get what they want."

Karin swallowed roughly. The sensation of the fish wriggling and flopping in her tummy intensified into a whole school of them, so much so she was certain if she looked at her stomach she'd her belly spasming with their movement.

"But we're not going to let them take you away," the Leaf kunoichi stated firmly, unafraid. "You will never go back to them, do you understand? They will never touch or hurt you again. We won't let them."

At that moment, almost instantly, the fishes stopped flopping and wriggling. No longer did she just want to believe, as she had when Naruto and Shino saved her. This time…

Karin clenched her fingers around the ends of her hair. She felt her jaw tighten and her eyes sting, briefly.

I believe you.

"Naruto and Shino did everything within their power on the battlefield to assure your safety and rescue. Now it's my turn to help.

"The truth is, once we reach the Leaf, everyone here will be asked to make camp outside of the walls." She shook her head. "The Leaf's in a tight spot. There are security concerns about everyone here who isn't a Leaf shinobi. It will be Lady Hokage's main priority to ensure the Leaf remains secure; the last thing we need is to let Stone spies into our walls.

"So, until everyone is vetted and decisions are made by the higher-ups about how to handle settling these refugees, living in temporary shelters outside of the walls will be the future for these people. Shinobi of the Grass and Waterfall included. Which is where granting you sanctuary comes in.

"By extending sanctuary to you, you will enter the Leaf within the day, just like Fū, thus removing the ember from the powder keg entirely. The Grass shinobi can't do something idiotic if you're nowhere around.

"Likewise, you won't have to live in fear outside of the walls, surrounded by shinobi who would force you to use your abilities. You'll be safe and secure inside the Leaf, you will have access to the treatment you need and you can safely start a new life, and they will never be able to hurt you or see you again.

"By acting in this way, we will maintain the security of the Leaf. At the same time we'll maintain a secure alliance between what's left of the Grass and the Leaf by ensuring no conflict ever arises between our shinobi.

"Plus, selfishly, it allows me to figuratively kick those scumbags, so…" Amaririsu shrugged. "Logically, granting you sanctuary is the most rational decision. For all sides."

It sounded thought out. It sounded…like a chance at a real life.

Karin combed her fingers through her red tresses, pursing her lips.

"I…I don't want to sound ungrateful, but…is this okay? Will the Hokage actually…allow this?" she asked.

"I've already spoken to our Jōnin Commander about it," Amaririsu waved off her concerns with her right hand, though it looked more like she lightly punched the inside of her blanket. "Everything is pretty much set up. There's just…a little hurdle I have to cross first."

"What do you mean? What kind of hurdle?"

"It's nothing that will stop us from helping you," she promised. "But…I want you to be able to choose whatever path you want to take, regardless of the special abilities you possess. Shino and Naruto feel the same. So do Ino and Miss Anko.

"However, the Leaf isn't without its flaws. It isn't without its darkness or its scheming politicians. Some will see your abilities as useful for the war."

Karin felt her stomach drop and her hands still.

"Yeah, that look on your face says it all. You look ready to collapse. Heh, now I have more reason to ensure your life is yours to decide. You're not just an asset or an outsider we can demand sacrifices from. Whether you use your abilities or not should be your decision, so I'll see that it is."

Amaririsu said it with such finality, there didn't seem to be any other choice.

"Anyway, once we make it back to the Leaf, and once we get you inside the walls, you'll be staying with me at my mom's house. So will Fū. At least temporarily until we figure out better living arrangements. It may be a bit cramped the first night—the three of us will have to share a bed. We've never had guests stay overnight. Well, except Asuma-sensei, but he and my mom share a bed when he stays over."

Karin curled her fingers tighter into her hair again. Amaririsu was offering her so much. Without any expectations.

"Should you be saying that so freely?" the Anbu agent asked, a hint of amusement in her voice.

Amaririsu rolled her eye. "Oh, like half the Leaf's forces don't already know they're together. They're the only ones fooling themselves."

"Still, you should respect their desire to keep their relationship private."

"It's not like I yell it from the rooftops. Miss Anko has that handled."

"She didn't."

"Well, not from the rooftops, exactly. She shouted the most incredible, crude questions about their relationship the day Lady Hokage was officially coronated."

"I…" The woman sighed. "I shouldn't be surprised."

"I'm pretty sure a third of the population—civilian and shinobi—know they're together because of her."

"Knowing Anko, they probably know more than that now," the Anbu kunoichi shook her head.

"Anyway," Amaririsu turned her attention back to Karin, "we'll also go shopping so we can get you clothes that fit properly, we'll start getting you properly fed, and get you checked up at the hospital. It may feel a bit crazy, at first. But it'll get better, I promise."

A lump built in her throat. Her vocal cords strained.

"I…" Karin cleared her throat. "I, um, I don't know what to say. Except thank you."

"It's the least I can do."

No, it wasn't. Karin didn't need glasses to see how much Amaririsu was doing for her. She didn't need to know the intimate details of the political battle waiting for Amaririsu to know how hard the Leaf kunoichi was fighting on her behalf.

She'd seen the bare minimum of courtesy. Of compassion. What Amaririsu was doing wasn't a bare minimum. Far from it. Like Naruto and Shino, she was going above and beyond to help her. And there was nothing she could offer in return. Nothing at all.

Karin bit her trembling lip and shook her head. "I…I don't think I can repay you. I can't repay you. Not for something like this. I— I don't—"

Suddenly Amaririsu's hand was holding hers. Karin barely realized the girl was guiding her out of the flow of the caravan; the Anbu agent shadowed them.

They made it off the side of the road, where Amaririsu paused and turned to face the red-haired girl.

Eyes glistening, Karin looked off and down at the grass beside them, her free hand resting against her tight chest, the other held in the warm and gentle grasps of the Leaf kunoichi.

I don't think I should go with you, she wanted to say. No words formed. She swallowed the lump, but it was like trying to swallow a brick wrapped in sandpaper. I don't deserve this. I don't deserve everything you—all of you—have done for me.

"Karin."

Unconsciously, against her Will, her eyes flicked to Amaririsu, who then smiled at her, and though there was a chill in the air, Karin felt the warmth of a sun wash over her.

"You won't have to repay anything."

The brick in her throat grew. Her vocal cords strained as her lips trembled and her eyes burned.

"Remember what I said before? Kindness and generosity are gifts we can give each other without needing a reason. This is my gift to you." She shook her head. "So don't worry about repaying anything. I…"

Amaririsu paused, as if a thought suddenly snagged her. She then shut her eye. Her shoulders shook with a short, affectionate chuckle. When she opened her eye again, her smile was somehow warmer than before.

"I have a good feeling about this," she said. "Call it a hunch."

Karin's chest was almost too tight to breathe. Amaririsu's chakra never fluctuated as a liar's would. If anything, its presence intensified with her passion.

Only her mother had ever been so kind or generous to her. Only her mother had ever cared so deeply about her well-being. And yet these people, these Leaf shinobi…

Karin squeezed her eyes shut. Her shoulders and body began to heave as she slowly bowed forward, until, finally, she collapsed to her knees, covering her face with her free hand while her fingers grasped tightly onto Amaririsu's hand.

Hot tears streamed past her glasses and down her cheeks, tears she tried to wipe away to no avail. Soft sobs wracked her thin and frail frame. She could feel the people walking by. Knowing they'd be gawking unfurled waves of embarrassment to join the roaring storm of emotions she could no longer hold back.

Amaririsu knelt down, untangled their fingers, then gently pulled Karin into a warm embrace. She alternated between rubbing the smaller girl's back and running her fingers through her red hair.

Comfort swept away the embarrassment. Karin could only collapse deeper into the kunoichi as her whole body spasmed with sobs.

"Things are going to be okay," she promised warmly. "It'll be all right."

Suddenly, without warning, another pair of arms wrapped around both of them.

"Two hugs are better than one, hehe!" Fū declared.

"Heh. Who can argue with that logic?" Amaririsu chuckled.

Fū then nuzzled into Karin. "I don't know what's going on, but you're my friend now and I don't want you to be sad. So don't worry! If Amari says things are gonna be okay, then they'll be a-okay. And I'll help, too! That's what friends are for. And we're, like, best friends now. Only best friends do group hugs."

She wanted to argue the illogical nature of her last statement. She wanted to question how she could call them friends so easily, almost childishly, when they'd barely known each other for a few hours.

Instead, Karin continued to cry. She cried and cried, hiccuping, soaking Amaririsu's shirt and blanket in tears and snot. Amaririsu never let go, never hurried her. And neither did Fū.

So perhaps this was friendship. She wasn't sure. She'd never had friends before.

But maybe that was changing. Maybe her life was about to truly change.

Here, sheltered in the comfort of two suns, Karin was willing to believe it.

---

Inside the Intelligence Divisions headquarters, at the nucleus, there was little by way of movement or noise, a contrast to the controlled chaos during Mizuki's little jail break.

On that day there were prisoner rosters to pour over, reports filtering in at intervals from the shinobi sent to track, locate and capture or kill the escapees, aid to coordinate and send to Kurenai and Asuma, specific names, like the Grim Ripper, to scratch off, and a mystery to unravel.

What was Mizuki's true motive? Who were his immediate allies? What role had he designed for them? How did they wrest control of the Reanimated Mito Uzumaki from him?

Leaning against the front of his desk, arms crossed and eyes shut, Shikaku collected his thoughts while he patiently waited for the next report. The room was still and calm, the bursts of decision-making, coordination, and problem solving all but finished. At least in regards to the recent incident.

Now that the Stone sat comfortably on their border, having conquered the Grass and placed a friendly puppet government in charge of the Waterfall, stillness and calm would cease to be the norm in the coming days.

Once the Stone finished establishing their foothold, moving their resources, and building their supply lines, conflicts at the border—and beyond—would become their new normal.

And they would acclimatize, as people always did. Every day life would continue for everyone, even the civilians closest to the fighting, no matter how harsh the war became or how many died.

People would continue to live and work, almost as though undisturbed by war. As if it was all perfectly normal.

Perhaps it is, Shikaku thought. Perhaps, for humans, wars have occurred so many times, the repeated exposure has built up our tolerance of them to the point we see them as normal. And perhaps the growing of that tolerance has made such pointless violence, death and cruelty acceptable to us.

We've decided war is an acceptable price to pay for charming ideals like peace, freedom, justice, and securing one's national interests. We've decided it is the only way to maintain our charming ideals. Even if that price is paid in the blood of innocents, in the blood of children, we have decided that we accept that. Would we continue to war with each other if we hadn't?

Shikaku hummed. Perhaps humanity saw their endless waltz of peace, revolution, and war as the only path. Maybe it could be said their minds and hearts had stagnated, accepting a world of war and violence when, perhaps, there were other paths towards peace.

Perhaps that's why it falls onto the shoulders of the next generation to change the world, he considered. Our eyes grow weary, our hearts jaded, and our souls impatient, so we fail to see the less traveled paths. Or we see them as fanciful, because we're so weary, jaded, and impatient.

Children, though, they see the world with fresh eyes. They see injustices, broken systems, and ask why they are upheld. They adventure down new, untraveled roads in the search of a something better. Something more than the dogmas we pass onto them.

Scratching his goatee, Shikaku let a smile tug at his lips.

Philosophizing and pondering on the nature of humanity, war, and the next generation's role in the future, 'Yako would've called him a tired old man. In fact, she would've related him to a hermit, a sage, or a monk, and then she would've told him to spare poor Yoshino from his aging mind, buy a robe, and climb to the highest peak to meditate on the future.

Then, once he was finally grey and wrinkled, like he sounded, then he could come back down and tell her all about his philosophizing. While she worked to guide the next generation and change the world, instead of just pondering about it.

Yeah. That sounded like 'Yako, all right. He could see the smirk on her lips in his mind's eye, and her eyes rolling at his pondering and concerns. Troublesome woman.

For now, though, they sat in the eye of the hurricane. The calm center before a savager storm began.

To the north, the QRF bolstering their border reported nothing of note. No signs of Stone or traitorous Waterfall shinobi. No conflict. No spies or agents attempting to slip past them, or the network of Crows drawing their nearly inescapable net across the southern portion of the Waterfall.

In time they would spread their wings farther north. For now, the immediacy of security demanded the tightest net possible on the southern front of the Waterfall, where new conflicts would begin sooner rather than later.

The Crows are an advantageous asset to our defense efforts in the immediate future, Shikaku thought, rolling his shoulders back when he felt himself slouching. They will be many of our eyes and ears behind enemy lines, providing actionable Intel for subterfuge, sabotage, and assassination.

Additionally, when the opportunity for an offensive maneuver begins, their networks and all of their Intel will give us a anatomical map, so to speak, of vulnerabilities within the Stone's forces. We'll know where to strike and how to strike with the greatest efficiency.

In time, anyway. Now they would gather their strength, build a shield wall, and hold the Stone back on the frontlines. Behind the lines it would be high risk guerrilla operations whenever they found a weakness to exploit. Like Kannabi Bridge.

To the northwest, on the Grass Nation's front, there were similar developments. That was to say all was quiet on the border. For now. The Stone needed time to settle in and move their resources to the border, so an immediate attack of any decent force was unlikely. Not impossible, however.

Additionally, there was a difference between taking land, and holding it. The pacification of a populace, especially one who resented its new conquerers, would not be easy. They would be very favorable to the resistance forces.

Assuming there were any loyal Grass shinobi left, and Waterfall shinobi, for that matter, the Stone would inevitably find itself dousing small, distracting fires deeper behind their lines, in addition to fighting the Leaf. It was a small, potential silver-lining in the coming war.

So, barring the Stone regrouping quickly and plunging headlong into the Land of Fire from the north or northwest, the embers of war would smolder and cool for the remainder of the day.

In the meantime, they had embers on the verge of starting a forest fire within their own walls to douse. A war, one could say, between the past, the present, and the future. High stakes, potentially high rewards, but also plenty of risk.

Shikaku lowered his arms, resting them against his legs as he opened his eyes. He stared at the Chakra Transmission Communication Device and Inoichi, who sat calmly beneath it, still connected to the device.

The Seven-Tails, and 'Risu's decision to protect her, would be a different sort of battle. It wouldn't be fought with blades or jutsu, but with words, influence, and political power.

Fortunately, 'Risu had gathered plenty of influence already, accented and bolstered by the influence she inherited from her parents, cousin, and the years of influence and political power she inherited from the Uchiha Clan itself, which remained untainted in the eyes of the majority of the populace.

Few to this day were aware of the coup planned under Fugaku's leadership—it was an advantage the Third Hokage's secrecy had granted them. Shikaku wondered if that was his intention or a happy coincidence.

Through Ensui he had his niece run through scenarios and practice, as much as one could, for the coming arguments—and there would be arguments. Homura, Koharu, and Danzō wouldn't roll over for 'Risu, especially when her heritage became clear.

A jinchūriki under the protection of an Uchiha? I'll be impressed if they don't have an aneurism then and there.

It'd save them a lot of headaches if they did, while also starting plenty more.

Shikaku exhaled a long breath.

They'll be home soon. And then the next battle begins. Or it could be said an old battle resumes, like this war.

The battle between the Second Hokage's beliefs and the Uchiha Clan's future.

It was going to be such a pain. He could feel it.

Movement at the entranceway caught Shikaku's attention.

Drawing his eyes over, he felt his eyebrows raise and his spine straighten at the man to enter the nucleus of the Intelligence Division. The man beneath the mane of white hair truly needed no proper introduction.

"Master Jiraiya," Shikaku greeted, rising from his desk and crossing the floor to meet the Toad Sage.

Jiraiya greeted him with a sly grin. "Hey, Shikaku! Hope you don't mind me barging in like this. I hear things have been pretty busy since I've been gone. Think you could fill me in?"

"There's plenty to catch you up on, Master Jiraiya."

"Then let's get straight to business."

And just like that another advantage waltzed onto the board.

Shikaku wouldn't waste it.

---

Takako couldn't stop her knee from bouncing.

Sitting crossed-legged, she kept her head bowed to draw as little attention as she could, she kept her eyes locked on the grass, far from the steep walls the Sound and Sand Village had destroyed some months ago, far from the Leaf shinobi guarding over the gathered refugees now settling in outside those same walls.

Her body was hot despite the winter air. She could feel the beginnings of perspiration gathering on her skin. Her bouncing knee caused her arms, folded and resting in her lap, to bounce along with it.

Of all the unreasonable acts she had been forced to take, she could think of none more unreasonable than settling here of all places, outside the walls she once assailed, surrounded by Leaf shinobi—two of which knew her identity.

Takako's eyes flicked up and quickly scanned her surroundings. Riku sat on her right, head also bowed somewhat and lips pulled tight. Yōrō and Kegon sat on her left, solemn and ruminating on the loss of Shibuki and their Village, if she were to guess.

The noisy blond from the Land of Sound was nowhere to be seen. If the world decided to act reasonably, she hoped he had forgotten their encounter at the rundown temple and the orphaned children Kamikiri involved. She hoped he had forgotten she was there. She hoped she became another blurred face among the Sound shinobi he fought.

However, if the world was reasonable, she wouldn't be here in the first place. If the world was reasonable she never would've stepped foot within miles of the Leaf Village. She never would've been forced to sit right beneath its walls.

Takako's eyes landed on a head of blue hair, and her heart jumped. She was near, as she always seemed to be.

Had it only been another Leaf shinobi to rescue them… Perhaps then Takako wouldn't feel that blazing eye on her at every breathing moment, silently monitoring her every move, analyzing her every action, waiting for a reason to act. For evidence of duplicitous or traitorous behavior.

The Uchiha was not looking at her. Their eyes hadn't met since she and the Anbu agent returned with that red-haired girl, and yet, subconsciously, even when the girl's back was turned and her attention drawn to another, like she was to the Seven-Tails presently, Takako felt that eye on her.

It was always there. Watching her every move. Binding her to what could very well be the final, unreasonable act she would ever be forced to take.

What other choice was there but to return here of all places, where death is a certainty should my past allegiances become known? With her eyes always watching, Takako thought, knee bouncing, with her Crows all around, if I did anything except remain at their side, I would already be dead.

The only reasonable choice was the most unreasonable—stay. Stay and prove she held no ties to the Stone or allegiances to them. Prove she was no longer a Sound shinobi by fighting and bleeding to protect her allies, the Seven-Tails, and even the Leaf shinobi. Indeed, even the Leaf shinobi, who would rather see her dead, she had willing fought and bled beside.

Only through these actions might she survive. If she could prove herself valuable as an ally when all of their lives were on the line, then perhaps the Uchiha would grant her mercy.

It's a long-shot, but what other choice was there? Takako wondered, eyes locked on the blue-haired child. All reasoning has burned to cinders beneath the Stone's war-machine. I chose to stand by Shibuki, but traitors forfeited the Waterfall, the one reasonable Nation left, to the Stone in exchange to rule a puppet government. For that, and the Stone shinobi I killed, I will never be welcomed by them.

There were no regrets. Just simple acknowledgement of her situation.

Furthermore, the conquering of the Grass proves there was nowhere to run. Nowhere to return to. All I could do was stay. All I can do is stay, and wait, and wonder what she will do.

Her life was in the Uchiha's small hands. And she didn't have the fortune of being left to die by the Inuzuka this time.

The Uchiha child poked the Seven-Tails on the forehead, who recoiled slightly and tried to stare up at the center of her forehead, puffing a cheek out in a pout. She then poked the Uchiha's forehead in retaliation, quickly following it with a poke to her stomach.

As the Uchiha recoiled, the Seven-Tails flickered behind her to poke her sides while grinning and giggling.

The Seven-Tails sprouted the Tailed-Beasts wings from her lower back and flew off the ground, attempting to retreat with a victorious grin. Her eyes went wide as the Uchiha, not willing to give up, launched off the ground like a loosed arrow, tackling her out of the air, crashing hard against the earth.

Although initially stunned and breathless by the landing, they eventually sat up and giggled as children who had never experienced war or death.

It was a side of the girl Takako never imagined existed. There was always such fiery emotions within the Uchiha when their eyes met, and a coldness not at all unlike the Inuzuka's cold detachment—eyes so cold, they saw her as nothing more than a cadaver.

Yet perhaps that was because she was an enemy. Soldiers weren't meant to fraternize with the enemy, they couldn't show them weakness or compassion. They couldn't afford to on a battlefield.

The Seven-Tails was first on her feet. She offered both hands to the Uchiha and helped her off the ground. The Uchiha then turned the Seven-Tails around and began gently pushing her towards the other children.

As she did, her head turned towards Takako, and the woman sucked in a sharp breath, her heart stopping beneath a crimson gaze. She blinked and found the dark onyx eye staring at her, the crimson having vanished, if it had ever existed in the first place.

Takako mentally shook her head. I'm seeing the Sharingan even when she isn't using it.

Fear had done that to her. Reasonable fear of the highly praised and highly prized eye of the Uchiha Clan.

She wished they had never met. She wished someone else had left her to die that day.

The Uchiha gave the Seven-Tails a gentle shove, said something, and then diverted straight for the gathered Waterfall shinobi.

Takako's heart began to slam against her chest. Yet she didn't move. Couldn't move. She could only sit, knee bouncing, watching her approach step by step, closer and closer, closer and closer, until finally she was upon them.

The girl looked at Takako and Takako only. "I need to speak with you privately."

Not a request. Not a question. The Uchiha commanded a discussion Takako wanted nothing to do with, in privacy that did not exist as long as the Crows and Anbu were shadowing her, about subjects she had wanted to keep far in the past. And yet…

"Fine."

Before the others could say a word, Takako was on her feet, body acting on its own as she was only conscious of how loudly her heartbeat had become.

She turned around, ignoring the silent gazes of Riku, Kegon, and Yōrō, and walked off with all the stiffness of a gagged prisoner forced to walk towards their allies with paper bombs beneath their clothes. The Uchiha was right behind her.

They stopped just outside the encampment, beneath the shelter and cold shadows of a tree canopy.

Takako faced the girl, stiff and straight, certain an execution awaited. The Uchiha's onyx eye lacked the heat of its crimson transformation, instead taking on a bitter chill that awoke gooseflesh across her body.

"You have one chance," the child began, voice no longer resembling a child, but a soldier. "One. I want you to know that before we begin."

"One chance for what exactly?" Takako asked.

"To tell the truth," she stated without blinking. "One lie, one half-truth, one twist, and the mercy our life-or-death situation forced me to give you ends. Right here. Right now. Do you understand?"

She did understand. She had understood the wilting alliance forced by their life-or-death situation, as she put it, the moment it began.

"What am I supposed to tell you the truth about?" Takako queried.

If she was to speak honestly, she needed to know the nature of the Uchiha's questions to avoid undesirable miscommunications.

"Your goals, your motives, your intentions, your loyalties—everything that matters." She gestured her head backwards, towards her allies. "I have no doubt Yōrō and Kegon intend to lead a resistance to retake their home. I won't let someone compromise that at the start."

"You believe I am a spy?" Takako almost laughed.

"I know you were a Sound shinobi," the girl stated, lip curling at the mention of her former Village. "I know you were here on the day of the Invasion, fighting and killing my comrades, and potentially civilians as well. I know Mimi and I left you to die, and yet somehow you survived the Invasion and returned home to work side by side with the rogue Fūma Clan members in the Land of Sound.

"That you're even alive now means you abandoned the Sound Village before Master Jiraiya, Mimi's squad, and Kasai could kill you. You went rogue from a Village of rogues, it's almost poetic. Now you show up where I never imagined, in the Waterfall working alongside Shibuki's forces.

"Rather than assume the worst, which would be all too easy, I'm giving you a chance to explain yourself. I'm giving you the opportunity of a lifetime to convince me I shouldn't hand you over to the Leaf and not lose a wink of sleep over whether or not you deserved to die or not."

Cold. Harsh. But expected. Reasonable, even. For a Leaf shinobi. And also, ultimately, kind.

Were the shoe on the other foot, would she be so willing to give this child a chance to speak? To explain herself? Or would she eliminate a threat and, as the child said, not lose a wink of sleep over whether she deserved to die or not?

How many shinobi had ever bothered to give an enemy a single chance to convince them to spare their lives?

"May I ask why you're giving me one chance?" Takako didn't know what possessed her to ask, yet it seemed prudent, given the unreasonable nature of the world.

The Uchiha cocked an eyebrow. "Would you rather I skip it and hand you over to the Leaf?"

"No. Of course not," Takako shook her head. "You are asking—no, demanding honesty from me, and I am merely asking you for the same courtesy. You have your reasons—justified reasons—for hating me. It would cost you nothing to hand over a former Sound shinobi to your comrades; you may even receive a commendation.

"So why bother giving me a chance? Why bother when you would rather see me die for my actions?"

"You had plenty of opportunities to abandon the Waterfall shinobi and Fū. You could have tried to betray them, aiding the Stone to capture their target in order to spare your life. You could've run away after we escaped pursuit, especially after we parted ways back at the border. Yet you didn't."

"It was the reasonable conclusion," Takako answered.

"Was it the reasonable conclusion to try to destroy the Leaf?"

"At the time, that is how it appeared to me."

The honest answer caused the Uchiha to squint and grit her teeth. "How can you call the Invasion reasonable?"

"It may be difficult for someone such as you, who was born into a prestigious Clan, at the heart of a thriving Great Nation, to understand why shinobi flocked to Orochimaru and his Sound Village," Takako began. "But not all of us are born under such favorable circumstances.

"Some of us are painfully ordinary people, born to small Clans without reputation, or no Clan at all. We work hard, train to our very limits, but for people like us trying hard, training hard, giving everything we have will never be enough. We will still fall short. We will try to reach for the sun, and crash into the ceiling. We will be met by barriers those with Clans will never experience."

"Is that why you join a renowned rogue shinobi?"

"He offered a vision of a Nation without the ceilings the Great Nations have created. He gave us a dream of a Village free from the shackles of the Five Great Nations, where people of all backgrounds, all creeds, unique and ordinary, former criminals and saints, could thrive. The broken could be given purpose. The jaded could be revitalized. The abandoned given a home. The rejects accepted. The weak made strong, and the vulnerable given protection."

Takako glanced off. "It was quite the dream. But, in the end, that's all it was. A dream. A lie finely crafted and molded to convince each of us of his egalitarian Village.

"I was mesmerized. He exudes charisma unlike any leader I have ever known. The Raikage lacks everything Orochimaru possesses in poise and charisma. He's a brute. A dim-witted muscle head obsessed with power."

The Uchiha let out a soft snort and crossed her arms. "You don't say. The Cloud shinobi I've encountered had nothing but glowing praise for Lord Raikage."

The mockery in her voice was nearly matched by disgust.

"There is no doubt his strength and speed are unmatched," Takako said. "However, he is a hammer that sees every issue as a nail. And if you cannot hammer that nail, if you are inadequately normal, what use are you to the Cloud?"

"Intelligence Divisions? Medical Corps? Runners? Sensors? There are plenty of roles besides frontline soldier for shinobi to be utilized in."

"A reasonable and astute conclusion that fell on deaf ears time and again."

"Sounds like you advocated hard for the 'inadequately normal' as you call them."

"I did. But no one listens to a Clan-less nobody. I was some woman from a nameless farm who enlisted, believing the same glowing praise you heard of the Raikage."

"I can imagine your disappointment when you learned he was a 'dim-witted muscle head' who didn't listen to nobodies."

Takako looked deep into the Uchiha's eye. "Would you listen to a Clan-less nobody?"

"Whether you're from a Clan or Clan-less means nothing to me," the Uchiha stated. "I'll take a squad of Clan-less nobodies who can think for themselves and work as a team over a squad of Clan members who think so highly of themselves they jeopardize the mission and the squad."

"Then you are already wiser than the Raikage."

"Somehow that sounds like a low bar." She uncrossed her arms, shifted her weight onto her right leg and placed a hand on her hip. "So, is that why you left the Cloud? Frustrations at not being heard? At being seen as a Clan-less nobody?"

"That was not why I left. It contributed, I admit. However, it was seeing too many young shinobi—my comrades and those we killed—die in order to obtain secret Clan Techniques and kekkei genkais. All in the name of 'strengthening and protecting the Cloud.'

"It's a sickness," she shook her head. "A greed for power that I could not understand then or now; the Cloud's military strength was already secured.

"It was seeing my comrades used in roles they weren't suited for, watching them die, seeing how their bodies were abandoned like empty cans as we fled with secrets, and knowing one day it would be my corpse abandoned if I remained.

"Someday, inevitably, I would be the one to die for a Village that did not seem to care about its own people so long as it could acquire 'useful' Clan techniques or kekkei genkais from beyond our borders. Because we were not good enough. Or that was how it felt."

"Then, after you abandoned the Cloud, you encountered Orochimaru. Right? And being the snake charmer that he is, he convinced you all to become his pawns." The Uchiha shrugged. "I can't say I'm surprised. I've met enough Sound shinobi to know how well he can manipulate and brainwash people. He knows exactly what to say to twist the fractured souls of his targets."

"He does. He gathered us like puppets—pawns. And disposed of us as soon as we weren't useful. Or no longer interested him. The dream we believed in became a nightmare. One I will never return to," Takako stated emphatically.

Some, she knew, would continue to pursue the dream given to them by Orochimaru, believing if they tried a little harder, if they sacrificed a little more, they would someday reach it.

However, that was only a protective illusion, a sedating and fanciful dream to ignore a harsh and cold reality.

There would never be a Sound Village like the one Orochimaru tricked them into believing. There never was a Sound Village in the works.

They were the disposable pawns of yet another power-hungry shinobi in his quest to destroy his former Village and kill his teacher. A man who claimed to be looking towards the future, who portrayed himself as ambivalent to the Leaf and his history with it, and yet was so clearly, in hindsight, shackled by his past.

Takako could not stay there, nor would she ever return. She'd awoken from the aromatic dream, half-dead, lying in a rotten field of spoiled crops and putrid corpses, surrounded by swarms of flies buzzing about and maggots feasting on the decomposition.

It wouldn't matter how long she lay there, shutting her eyes, hoping to return to the dream. There was no returning to a pleasant dream once awoken by a nightmare.

"How did you end up in the Waterfall?" the Uchiha asked.

"An escort mission to the Waterfall Village I used as a means to escape the Land of Sound before it was too late."

"How fortunate for you."

Fortunate in the moment. Whether fortunate in the long-term remained to be seen.

"And how did you become a Waterfall shinobi?"

"An assassination attempt on the Seven-Tails jinchūriki by gung-ho amateurs. They tried to turn me into collateral damage, I helped eliminate the threat." Takako shrugged. "I wasn't trusted immediately, they didn't offer me a headband for one favorable and reasonable deed.

"I wasn't certain I wanted anything to do with shinobi work, either. I had already found work as a stablehand in the morning and waiting tables at a tavern in the evening. I could have shut the door on shinobi life entirely. It would have been reasonable. The Waterfall was a peaceful and neutral Village, I likely wouldn't have seen battle ever again."

"Then why didn't you step away?"

"Do you know the common error amateur spies make? When they effort too hard to blend into the populace, they drink too much, and then their tongues loosen," she explained.

"You learned of their plans," the Uchiha was impressed.

"I did. Once I realized the Waterfall was in danger of falling to the Stone, the only reasonable decision was to aid the Waterfall."

"How do you figure that?"

"Someone of my complexion is guaranteed to be singled out by Stone shinobi. They would use a minor infraction or conceive a lie to frame me as a Cloud spy when the opportunity arose."

"Because of the color of your skin?"

"Because I am a foreigner. A native of the Land of Lightning, a Nation the Stone sees as a threat to their way of life."

"Like the Leaf?"

"No," Takako shook her head. "No. They despise the Leaf for the defeats they suffered at your Village's hands. The Cloud, however, is a Village they see as a true threat to their Nation. As should the other Great Nations.

"While the Leaf enjoyed its peace and spent time rebuilding its forces, the Cloud spent its waking and sleeping hours since the end of the war rebuilding its forces and accelerating the expansion of its military power.

"You likely see the Stone as the real threat presently, and they are, given the numbers they threw at us; they likely have reserved their true strength for battle against the Leaf.

"However, if the Cloud steps into this war, they will be a military heavyweight stepping into a fight of featherweights."

Especially now that your Village and the Sand have suffered due to the Sound's Invasion, she added silently.

"That's not foreboding at all," the Uchiha muttered.

"Anyway, if I did nothing and continued to work as a civilian, and the Waterfall failed to succeed in defending itself, I would inevitably find myself publicly shamed and executed as a 'spy' and a 'foreigner.' The color of my skin would make me an easy target."

"Hm," the Uchiha frowned. "And by aiding Shibuki against the spies and protecting Fū you opened the door to eventually be formally recognized as a Waterfall shinobi."

"Precisely."

"You're a magnet for trouble, aren't you?"

"As are you, it seems."

"Hmph. Can't argue there."

The Uchiha paused, lowering her eyes as she gathered her thoughts. Judging her honesty, perhaps? Takako couldn't be certain of the girl's mind. She could only answer honestly, and hope the hatred the Uchiha felt for her didn't override reason.

Now that they had passed through how recent events brought them together, they would soon approach, Takako felt, the crux of the Leaf shinobi's questions.

What were her intentions?

What were her goals?

What were her motives?

Where were her loyalties?

"You're quick to change your allegiances once the risks to your life outweigh any benefits," she stated.

"Is that your way of calling me a coward? Or are you stating you cannot trust me because I went rogue from two Villages?"

"I'm wondering if I can trust you not to abandon what's left of the Waterfall to save your own skin."

"Who would I betray them to?" Takako questioned. "To the Cloud? They will capture or kill me on sight. To Orochimaru? I do not know where he is and I hope I never see him or his puppets again. To the Stone? I thwarted their assassins, their spies, I killed numerous members of their forces, and those who survived will report all of our identities to their comrades.

"The Sand are your allies, the Leaf will torture me for information and lock me away to rot, if they don't execute me, and the Mist are hopeless.

"So, tell me, who would I betray the Waterfall to? Who can I betray them to? A small Nation the Stone will eventually conquer or install a puppet government to control? The samurai in their isolation? Crime organizations that are more likely to slit my throat while I sleep over minor suspicions?

"I have nowhere to return to. No home awaiting me somewhere else. No motherland safe from the coming war. No family, no loved ones, and no allies except the three you see back there," she lifted her chin towards Riku, Kegon and Yōrō.

"You hate me. You are suspicious of me, and rightfully so; we are not friends, we are barely allies, and only because our situation forced it upon us. Both of us wish the other was not here and that we had never met again.

"However, if you cannot see that the only reasonable path I have is to stand beside the remnants of the Waterfall, that is a fault of your own emotional bias."

"Why not walk away?"

"And go where?" Takako demanded, frustration filtering into her voice. "Once again a Great Ninja War is set to consume these lands. These refugees are only the beginning of the greater humanitarian crisis the Great Nations will cause. It won't take long for anti-foreigner, anti-refugee sentiment to grow once it progresses.

"At least among the Waterfall I have a place in this unreasonable world. At least if I fight there is a chance I can help them retake the Waterfall and return it to its neutral status once more. And then…"

Takako cut herself off. The Uchiha cocked an eyebrow.

"And then?" she prompted.

There was no sense evading or lying now.

"And then maybe it can return to being a Village willing to welcome even a Clan-less nobody. A Village that is led by someone who truly values the shinobi under their command. A near-peer to the Five Great Nations that is respected and not beholden to them."

"A Village that resembles your dream Village? Careful. That almost sounded noble of you."

Takako grunted. "Are you satisfied or not?"

"I still don't trust you. I doubt I could ever bring myself to trust you. Let alone like you." The Uchiha exhaled a long breath and half-turned away. "But liking you wasn't apart of the equation. You told the truth, and, like you said, you don't really have any other options but to fight with them. Even if you did, I doubt you'd leave them now."

True, she wouldn't have. Yet that confident assertion…

Takako furrowed her brow. "I thought you didn't trust me to fight beside them."

"That was before your little rant. I've met a few people like you. People who the Village System hasn't favored. People who see the flaws from the outside looking in."

The Uchiha turned her head to look back at Takako. The woman's breath caught in her throat. A red eye gleamed in the shadows.

"I may not like you. But I think I understand you a little better. You're going to fight for the Waterfall's neutrality and independence on your own accord, you're doing it to retake the place that finally felt like home to you. That's enough for me to keep your history private.

"Just know, if you stray from that and we cross paths again as enemies, or if I learn you betrayed the Waterfall, we won't be trading peaceful words inside a genjutsu."

"A…genjutsu?"

The Uchiha smirked. "The Crows and the Anbu agents would've heard everything if I hadn't, and then you'd be in chains. Or dead."

Takako blinked but could not find any words. She was under a genjutsu this whole time? So, that time she saw the Sharingan…it was real!

"I never walked over to you," the Uchiha informed, as if reading her mind. Perhaps she was. "We never walked off into seclusion. And I never coerced you to tell the truth. You did that all on your own."

She turned all the way around and began to walk away.

"Good thing, too," she added over her shoulder, as her corporeal form slowly faded like smoke on the breeze. "Otherwise you would've met my dragon."

A blast of hot and damp air from two flaring nostrils rushed past Takako's neck. She went completely rigid.

"And trust me, you wouldn't have liked that," were the Uchiha's final words before she vanished.

Takako jolted into reality. She sucked in a sharp breath as the illusion shuddered away, finding herself still seated beside her comrades.

Across the path, the Uchiha was gently guiding the Seven-Tails away.

"Are you all right?" Riku asked. "I just sensed—"

"It's fine," Takako sighed, despite her heart slamming against her chest.

He only just sensed the genjutsu. It all happened within a blink…

"It's fine," she repeated.

"If you're certain…"

Takako swallowed roughly, her throat suddenly dryer than stale bread. She took a moment to breath, to reacclimatize to reality after the illusion, and think of all the Uchiha had said.

After a beat, she nodded to herself.

"I am."

She didn't like the Uchiha girl, either. But, like her, she felt like she understood her a little better.

In this unreasonable world, sometimes that was the best they could hope for.