"Nah, you're right on time actually." I smirked back, catching my breath and deactivating the Four Legs. Fatigue set in about immediately. I had really pushed myself this time.

The target had blacked out from the blow, blood leaking from his red and inflamed legs, chakra leaving out of his veins and dispersing out into the air.

"Good. Thanks for distracting him. We've been chasing this guy for quite a bit now. Didn't want him to get away." She stepped off him and assessed the damage. "You're not hurt, are you?"

Well. I probably couldn't pull off another jutsu if you held a gun to my head, but for the rest? "Yeah. No injuries. Though there's no chance for round two today."

Two more familiar chakra signatures entered the street we were in, wading through the few civilians who weren't done fleeing for their lives yet. I was thankful so far that they had the good sense to stay out of the way when we fought. I really didn't want to have to deal with the influx of problems accidentally harming them would bring.

….I really hope I don't have to pay for the window I broke through. This is my first mission. I have exactly zero money.

Anko and Hayama finally made their way through the crowd, stopping in front of us and catching their breath.

"Whoo boy. You sure left us in the dust, Aimi! Did you manage to catch him?" Anko asked, hands behind her head.

"'Course. Who do you take me for?" Aimi said.

Hayama was still puffing, bent over. "Arata… Haa… You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. How's my team? I'd have expected them to be here already." I asked.

Aimi winced. "Yeah about that. We ran into them about a kilometer away from here. I think something happened to Tetsuo? They stopped chasing and told me which direction you were in, so I could find you."

He was holding his head earlier. Fuck! Fuck!

"I gotta go. Can you tell me where they are?" She must have sensed the urgency in my voice, because she activated her Byakugan immediately. No hand signs, I noted.

"Northwest. Near a fruit stall. Kilometer away, like I said."

"Thanks!" Saved me from having to track them. I started running. "Meet back at the estate when you can! We gotta share information!" I shouted over my shoulder, not waiting for a response.

"Ah—Hey! What happened?!" Anko shouted as I passed her.

I ignored her in favor of upping my speed. I had to rely on basic chakra enhancements, Four Legs too much for right now, but I made it in time.

I found them exactly where Aimi said I would, near the fruit stall. Tetsuo was convulsing on the ground, his eyes flashing red again as he screamed. A number of concerned citizens crowded around them. Ayame tried her best to make space for him, but the gaggle of spectators were getting bigger in size.

"Hey! Out of the way! He needs his space! This isn't a zoo! So stop gawking!" She channeled some Intent into the air, and that seemed to do the trick, passers by only looking from afar as to what's happening. Shiromaru growled at anyone that didn't want to get the message.

"HRRAAAAAAAAAAAA! MURDERER! YOU ARE DESPICABLE!" Tetsuo screamed, his voice getting shrill.

"Oi! Move along! Now!" I pushed a persistent lingerer out of my way.

"Hey this is my stall! You can't push me away!" He cried, indignant.

"I don't give a fuck. Move!" I drew a kunai, lightning quick.

"Oh hell no, you're one of them!" He retreated as fast as his legs took him, abandoning his little shop.

What. Can't read a headband? Idiot.

"Status?" I asked, kneeling next to Tetsuo at a safe distance.

Shiro responded. "He's been going for a few minutes now. Way longer than last time." And last time wasn't pretty. We were in the middle of training, and he got hit with a stray kunai. No matter what we did, he kept on trying to make the wound worse, even as we held him off. Blood was everywhere. Thank Kami we knew some iryo-ninjutsu by then.

"What was he like before it happened? Any triggers that you can think of?"

He shook his head. "None."

"Ayame?"

She did the same. "He wasn't even doing anything before he just stopped running…" She looked down at him, at a loss.

I nodded grimly. I redirected my focus to Tetsuo. "Hey. You're gonna be okay, alright? Everything's going to be just fine. We're all here for you." I didn't actually know if consoling him did anything while he was like this, or if he could even hear us.

"THEIR NECKS! REVOLTING!"

It didn't mean I would stop anytime soon.

WHO ARE YOU HUH?! WHO ARE YOU TO DEC—ah—Ah!—AAAAAAAAAAAAARGHH!" He clutched his head, the flashing of his eyes switching between red and black faster and faster.

"We're here for you. You're not alone. We're not going anywhere." His fingers flexed and retreated into a fist, only to unravel again, trembling and shaking.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGH!"

"Everything is going to be completely fine."

"HAAA—HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGH!"

We were back at the estate, in Tetsuo's room, watching him sleep. He was quiet now, not even snoring. He hadn't even stirred.

"That… was….." Shiromaru started, but couldn't finish his sentence.

I couldn't blame him. That was much worse than anything we had seen before. Much, much worse.

Ayame ran a diagnostic on him. Aside from lightly damaged vocal cords, which she easily fixed, there didn't seem to be anything else wrong with him.

He was perfectly normal. But.. "We… we might have to send him back." I said. He clearly wasn't mission ready.

Behavior like this is exactly why he was pulled from the Academy in the first place, because if something like this happened while in combat…

I couldn't finish that thought. I refuse to think about what would happen if—Yeah.

"Tetsuo wouldn't want to. He'd do anything to stay on the mission." Ayame said, her gaze not particularly focused on anything. She sat backwards in a chair, limbs draped lamely by her side.

"He'll find he might not have a choice." Shiromaru uttered, resting near my feet, watching the sun through the window. It wasn't even noon yet. I sensed people arriving at the mansion. "Heads up. Team Eleven is here." Shiro announced.

"Joy." I did tell them we would have to talk, didn't I? I stood up. "I"m gonna go greet them. Can you two—"

"Arata. You look dead on your feet already. We'll go. You stay here with Tetsuo." Shiromaru said.

Ayame broke out of her reverie and nodded fervently. "You rest. Whatever they got for us we can totally handle! Right, Shiromaru?"

His look of consternation at the prospect of being alone with Ayame made me chuckle on the inside. "Right." It's not necessarily that he didn't like her, but she could be a bit much sometimes. And Shiromaru was anything but that.

I waved them out, taking the seat Ayame vacated. I listened to the sound of the voices as they met. Ayame had mostly taken over the role as conversationalist, Shiro interjecting here and there. If I wanted to, I could send some chakra to my ears and try to parse what they were saying, but deemed it a waste of energy. They would tell me what had happened anyways.

….

After a few minutes, Tetsuo started stirring. He opened his eyes slowly. "How—How bad was it?"

I waited a beat before I answered him. "Pretty bad. Worse than last time."

"I see." He made to stand up.

Oh absolutely not.

Before I knew it I was on my feet and pushed him back down. "Rest, Tetsuo. Don't—"

"No! You don't! I know what you're thinking!" Voice like a whip. He climbed back up again into a sitting position, but didn't try to stand. "You can't do this to me, Arata. I need to—"

"Need to what?" I kept myself back from sneering, grabbing the seat again. "Tetsuo, what if he decided not to run, huh?! What if he just stayed and came for our necks instead and you fell down!? You'd be wide open! And you'd be struck down! What if another situation like just no—"

"I know! I know, okay!?" He was shouting now. "I know the risks. But I can't stop. I have to be a ninja." He glared at me. "I have to be. My—My sister, I need to protect her. I can't do that if I can't even get through my first fucking mission!"

I held his gaze, not backing down. "Mikoto is a jounin, married to the Uchiha heir. An S-class heir. She is safe inside the village. She will be fine."

"No! No she won't be! You of all people should understand!" He threw the blanket off of him, revealing trembling knees. "You have a sister too. She's pregnant, right? She's in the village, but that's not enough, is it?!"

I felt my eyes narrow. "I became a ninja to protect my precious people."

"So how is that any different from what I'm doing?!"

"It's different because I'm not mentally ill!"

…..The silence was deafening. I didn't even realize I had stood up. I sat back down, the chair groaning in protest.

"It's not—It's not—" He tried.

"I know. And I'm sorry, Tetsuo. It's—Dissociative Identity Disorder has very different symptoms. This is something else. Something not from the medical books. If I had to guess—"

"Don't! Don't say it." His eyes grew dark. "I'm fine. Okay? I'm fine Arata."

I kept from speaking. In the distance, all five of their signatures were on their way here, probably because of the noise.

"...One day you're going to tell me what's going on. And I'm going to listen, and understand. You can't hide forever."

He finally broke eye contact. "...I'm aware."

I hugged my arms, trying to keep myself still. "I'm just worried, okay? I hope you can understand that." And so many more things that I couldn't get into. Things that I shouldn't share. We shouldn't share. But maybe we would have to.

Tetsuo puffed. "Yeah, whatever."

The gang had arrived, and I could tell Tetsuo immediately let go of some of the tension in his body. I made an effort to do the same.

"What's going on here, huh? We heard voices." Anko banged the door open, her eyes shifting between us. "Something happened to Tetsuo, right? Care to explain?"

"Give them a break, Anko." Aimi interjected, entering the room herself. "They'll tell us if they deem it relevant, right?" She lifted her chin at me as she rested her head against the wall.

I nodded. "You won't have to worry about it, no." Ayame and Shiromaru entered next, Hayama following behind them.

The room was getting a little crowded with so many people, but we made do.

Anko sat on the windowsill while Shiro made a new home on Tetsuo's lap. Hayama closed the door. "We already updated them on our findings by the way." Shiro said. I smiled at him and Ayame in thanks.

"So?" I asked, to the more general audience.

"We decided to team up!" Ayame announced.

"Our goals line up rather well, so for the moment we'll be working together to complete the mission." Aimi clarified.

"Fair enough. Where's Orochimaru-sensei? Since you're here I'm assuming he is too."

She crossed her arms. "Busy doing the boring work at the Ninja Station. But mostly just being intimidating. The Ninja Station is kinda like their version of The Tower, so he's making sure the Hot Springs nin don't cause any trouble for us while we work."

"I'm sure they appreciate that." Having Orochimaru of all people breathe down your neck while you try to start something has to be the most uncomfortable feeling ever. They got the casting right on that one, at least. Her lips quirked upwards, but she didn't say anything. "Alright. Give us the rundown for what y'all have done so far." And so they did.

They got here about a week before we did, on more or less the same mission parameters. After introducing themselves to the Yugakure nin they started collecting data on their activities. Mission history, financial records, ninja roster, etc.

Because it's a ninja village, they naturally found a bunch of shady stuff, but there was one in particular Orochimaru lined out for them to follow up on.

On a record of missing nin they were keeping track of, they found an inconsistency. Six different shinobi that had defected in the last three years all had one thing in common. They were taught by, or were on a long-term squad with another, more high profile defector (Ergo, powerful). One who had left only recently.

Now, for a village this size, having the ninja be interconnected like this isn't a surprise. What is a surprise, is that one of those defectors was the guy we fought on the way here. The one Yaketsuku killed.

Now that guy was obviously part of some sort of organization. So, after Yaketsuku got back to them, they started following up on leads. Turns out another student of Mr. Big Shot missing-nin was still in the village as a Legit ninja. When they started questioning him on his relationship with Mr Big Shot, he decided to make a run for it.

"And then we ran into you guys and then we caught him!" Anko finished, making grabby motions with her hands.

"Right. Thanks for the help, by the way." I said.

"Don't mention it. If anything, we should be thanking you, Arata. He would have gotten away if you didn't stop him." Aimi retorted.

"Like you wouldn't've found him right after." I scoffed. "What was the range you said you had on that Byakugan of yours? A kilometer?"

She tilted her head, as mock humility to her countenance. "Couldn't say." She rolled her eyes innocently. At least, I think. Hard to tell when she doesn't have pupils.

"Yeah, that's right! We didn't even need your help, Arata!" Anko crossed her arms. "We totally had this covered. Ne? Hayama?" She turned to him for confirmation.

Hayama squirmed uncomfortably, hiding his face inside the neck of his samurai armor. Aimi mimed at him to lift his head and speak up. It made him squirm more. I saved him from having to answer by speaking up myself.

"What'd you do with the guy? Did you interrogate him already?"

Aimi shrugged, flashing me a look. She knew what I was doing. "We handed him over to Yaketsuku. For Chuugo to deal with." Mm. More efficient, technically, having a Yamanaka work on him. If I trusted Yaketsuku even in the slightest. I shared a look with my team, which didn't go unnoticed by Team 11.

"What happened?" Anko asked, swivelling her gaze between us.

"Do you all… not think Yaketsuku would help us?" Hayama asked hesitantly.

I smiled at him. "We've been giving it some thought. Some things Tsunade said, as well as the lack of other shinobi besides now two Sannin in the area? Well, it's a little suspicious. I wouldn't be surprised if Yaketsuku is under watch by the Hokage or something."

"So like, just like the Hot Springs nin are being cowed by Sensei, you think Yaketsuku is getting the same thing?" Anko deduced, her expression scrunched in thought.

I tried to hide the sliver of surprise I felt. "Yeah, exactly."

"I mean it makes sense!" Ayame said. "They're both Hokage-sama's students! So of course they'll report right back to him!" I heard Aimi exhale through her nose, suppressing a snort. No one but Shiro and I heard, but I filed it away just in case. "He's been here working with Hot Springs all this time, so they're making sure he's still loyal, right?"

"Is that what you think Tsunade-sensei went off to do?" Tetsuo asked.

If… If I hadn't been watching for it, I wouldn't have noticed anything, but. His resting expression was a slight bit more anxious, off-kilter, his voice just a little higher.

"I doubt it. But it's a possibility." I answered.

"Tsunade-sama's not here? She isn't working with us?" Anko asked.

"Nope. Ran off somewhere. She might be working on a Yaketsuku investigation," ('or not') "but I don't expect her to do much of anything relevant to what we are."

"So we're on our own?" Aimi pushed herself off the wall. "Orochimaru's been updated, but he's not going to be helping us either, sadly. He's still at the Station. Something about sacrifices?" She raised her hands in a 'What can you do?' motion.

Well that's not ominous at all. Gonna breeze right past that. "So we need an attack plan, assuming whatever intelligence we get from our capture is corrupted. You found anything about the guy in his files at the Ninja Station?"

Anko did a little hop from the windowsill, standing again. "Yeah! Apparently he was the Yakuza cor… cor— correspondent! Or something." She finished with a grin.

I felt more than saw Tetsuo's gaze sharpening. "Sounds like something to follow up on. The Yakuza might know more than what the public does."

"Or may even be in on it." Hayama finished. Tetsuo immediately stood up, a whining Shiromaru falling to the floor next to him.

"No time like the present to follow up, right?" He said.

"Are you sure you're alright to go out, Tetsuo?" Ayame's expression was frayed. "I mean—"

"I'm sure I'll be fine." Tetsuo cut her off. "Where do we start?"

"The guy's name is Hideaki. He had a contact named Taketa Mai he met up with inside of a brothel. He would pretend to be a recurring customer and reserve a private room with her, but really they would be trading information." Aimi said.

"Who's the smokescreen for? The public?" I asked. Can't really look good to the people living here if your security force was in cahoots with the criminals they were supposed to be fighting.

"No. Well, not entirely." Aimi amended. "Strangely enough it's for the Yakuza itself. Not everyone in there is fully informed of what goes on behind the scenes, and they like to keep important information close to their chests." So, the regular henchmen wouldn't know they were technically in league with the ninja in the area then. Smart move. They're often the first to blab.

"Then off to the brothel we go, I guess." We all headed for the door, but Tetsuo stopped us.

"Wait. I think we should split up. Try to gather more information first. Arata, you have infiltration training, right?" I nodded. "You and Aimi go follow up on the brothel lead then. The rest of us should go around the village first, learn what the Yakuza presence in here is actually about. What they do, how far their reach is, hell, what they're even called."

We were all looking at him. He blushed, and, again, his voice got a little higher again. Almost imperceptibly so. "I just wanna make sure we have everything we need."

"Should we wait for you to finish your investigation first? For the preliminary phase at least, so we don't go in blind." Aimi looked me up and down, assessing my condition. I had lost a lot of chakra in the fight against the now-named Hideaki. "It'll give us time to prepare too."

I wasn't exactly tired but, if we were heading into a possible confrontation it would be better if I wasn't running on empty.

"Yeah, you should do that! We might take a while too, so you can take a nap!" Tetsuo exclaimed. "It wouldn't be good if you died from chakra-exhaustion. Or worse, rhabdomyolysis." He said, with a straight face. "Aimi, you'll stay with him right? Just in case." For safety, probably. Aimi was arguably the strongest among us. Even better than Ayame.

She nodded in assent. "Okay, fine. I'll go and do that." I said. That seemed to be good enough for a dismissal, since everyone but Aimi and Shiro filed out of the door.

'You go with them, Shiro. Tetsuo said he was okay, but you never know.'

He must have overheard our conversation earlier, because he agreed pretty easily. We weren't shy about our volumes. 'Get some rest.' Shiro flicked his head at Aimi. "Don't let him out of your sight, yeah? This isn't Konoha."

She almost rolled her eyes. "I know the deal. Eyes and ears everywhere." Speaking of, we really should be investing in some privacy seals. I didn't have any on hand, (considering they were expensive and Shizuka didn't wanna lend me any) but they would be very helpful in the future. Or now. Now would be nice.

We were back in my room, and try as I might, I could not for the life of me fall asleep. I sat back up, frustrated at my lack of progress. I was going to need my chakra back, and obviously the most efficient way to do that was to sleep.

A few moments later Aimi opened the door, holding a tray of food and water in her other hand. Onigiri and salmon. "Can't sleep, huh?" She said, closing the door behind her. "Move over then."

I made space for her on the bed and she placed the plate of food in between us. "For you. And me. I'm starving." She put her hands together. "Itadakimasu."

I copied her. "Itadakimasu."

…

We ate in silence. That was, until she broke it.

"You have a fun team." She said, her attention on her food.

"That's a word for it, yeah. You do too. I've known both Hayama and Anko since the start of the Academy, and they've always been… colourful. To say the least."

She smiled through a bite of salmon. "They're likeable enough. Not very focused, but that's what I'm here for."

We shared a look of understanding. She knew, alright.

"Feel like a parent, sometimes. But not for human children." I said, burying my feelings in an extra large portion of rice.

"What, like puppies? Running around doing what they please?"

I pointed a chopstick at her. "Exactly. See? You get it."

She smirked, reaching for a napkin. "Don't I just."

We spent the rest of the meal in companionable silence. It was nice, being on the same wavelength with someone not literally inside my brain.

I knew Aimi on some level. We had trained together on and off with the rest of the squad for a few months, but I had never really gotten around to interacting like this.

She seemed cool, and I really regretted not putting in an effort to get to know her before now. Then again, I was pretty busy with the whole making sure we actually had a jounin-sensei thing. Couldn't take my time away from that. Not that it did me much good. She's not even here!

She set aside the plate once we were finished eating and pulled a scroll, a book, and an ink brush from her pack afterwards, laying it flat on the bed. The ink bottle, she naturally didn't put on the bed, but on the floor beside it.

I knew what kind of brush that was. "Sealing, huh."

Her head snapped to face me. "And what of it?" Her tone was noticeably colder. I spared a glance at her forehead. Only branch-member Hyuuga wore their hitai-ate there. The dicks from the main branch liked showing theirs off instead. Bastards.

I really didn't need to tell her she would get in serious trouble if they ever found out what she was doing.

I mimed a zipper going through my lips. She didn't look entirely satisfied, but went back to studying. A few moments passed.

"I could help, you know." Her head lifted back up to me, the motion languid this time. "Granted, most of my knowledge is focused on medical seals and jutsu creation, but. It's something."

She smiled. Even though it was a simple motion, it felt so radiant it made all her other expressions so far look fake.

"Maybe in the future." She went back to her work.

"After the mission."

"After the mission." She acquiesced.

I did manage to get some sleep eventually. When I woke up, it was nighttime.

Aimi was asleep on the other side of the bed, her book acting as her pillow. The bed was made for an adult, so it had plenty of space for her. She didn't have a blanket, though, so I gave her mine.

I opened up my own studying supplies and got to reading, the manor quiet at this time of night.

The Hashiji clan itself weren't in the house anymore. Most of them had fled to Konoha, fearing their safety after the Kusakabe massacre. Only Senzou, the Head of the family, and his servants were still here catering to us.

They all went to bed at night, however, turning the entire estate deathly silent. The perfect environment for me.

After about an hour, I heard Aimi stirring, her heartbeat speeding back up to waking levels. "You must have been tired. Having my first watch fall asleep.." I tutted.

She blushed a strong pink, starkly visible even through the moonlight, partly helped along by her incredibly white skin. Being both a Kaguya and a Hyuuga, she could have passed for a ghost. She was even wearing a white haori to really drive the point home.

"Yeah, well. Sorry about that. I have no excuse." She said, not facing me and a little frantically fixing her hair.

I smiled to myself. "No worries. We're not dead, so."

"Right." She had calmed herself down enough now, her eyes turning analytical. "They came around yet?"

"You would have heard them." None of them, besides Shiro, were particularly quiet presences. Even Hayama. I went back to my scroll, absently working my jaw.

Silence.

"You're working on a genjutsu?" My eyes flicked up. She was watching me measuredly.

"Astute observation." I smirked, trying to loosen the tension.

"...I'm not helping you." I almost laughed.

"I didn't expect you to." I scribbled something down. More to organize my brain than having anything productive down. I wasn't getting very far with this. "I doubt you could either way."

"Oh? Is that a challenge?" She raised an eyebrow.

"It's an assertion."

"Really?" She said.

"How come you didn't notice you're in one right now, then?" Her voice came from right behind me.

I shrieked, dropping my supplies from my lap and standing on the bed, instantly dismissing the chakra from my brain.

She was grinning at me, arms draped over the bedpost. "Gotcha."

"Point proven." I sighed. "Very good use of Demonic Illusion. But that's not what I'm trying to do. This one's a little bit beyond all of that." Or backwards, depending on your perspective. Either way, different.

"And what would that be?"

"It's called the Bestial Illusion series. Completely dissimilar from Demonic ones."

"How interesting." I sat back down and grabbed all my fallen books. I had completely forgotten which page I was on. Fantastic. "Very interesting. Still not gonna help you."

"Then what are you good for?"

She flipped her hair, very ojou-sama-like. "Being better than you, of course."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "You know, if I was meaner, I would have punched you for that trick."

Her grin grew wider. "You would have tried."

I quirked my jaw. "Alright, that's it!" I jumped at her as fast as I could.

She dodged and stood on the ceiling. "You're gonna have to try harder than that." She said, a glint in her eye.

I growled, the sound a little more menacing than intended. "Watch me."

I chased after her, and she jumped off the ceiling with a squeak. Before I knew it we had pushed through the door into the wider mansion, yelling and cackling through rooms and hallways.

Everytime I thought I had caught her, she was one step ahead, slipping through my grip with unnatural grace and getting away again. Sometimes she would run on the walls and ceiling, switching platforms whenever I got too close. Another time she would try to hide in the garden, only to remember I could both smell and sense her.

We probably woke more than one person up, going through the entire mansion. I frantically dodged around a servant peeking out of her room at the commotion as Aimi somersaulted over her and turned the corner.

"Sorry!"

"Don't waste your breath on her Arata! You're gonna need it to catch me!" She said, already past two corridors.

"Practice what you preach, Aimi! I'll get to you no matter what!" I turned and headed for where I knew she was going.

She barked a laugh as I cut off her escape route around the exit. "I don't need the advantage, now do I?"

She ran straight at me and I knew what she was planning to do as she was doing it. She was going to try to jump over me, but I reached for her heel as she spun, only to catch nothing. A mirage.

"Nice try."

She was already outside, doing a handstand on top of the walls. "You have got to be kidding me." How is she using genjutsu against me?

"Are you coming or what?" She started balancing on one hand now, leaning forward a bit. "Frankly, this is embarrassingly easy."

This girl! The audacity! "Oh you've done it now." I gritted my teeth and prepared to launch into my Four Legs when—

When I felt Tsunade surreptitiously enter the compound. I turned to where I caught a glance of her opening a sliding door. Her clothes were torn.

Aimi, sensing my mood shift, was by my side instantly. "What happened?"

"Tsunade just came back. Her clothes were ripped. Specifically her sleeves." Both the cloaks she perpetually wore and the standard shinobi garb underneath were torn.

"Was she fighting, you think?" She turned her head to where I was looking.

"I don't know. Could you check with—"

"Already on it." The veins around her eyes were pulsing, a line-like appearance outlining a mocking of an iris on her eye.

"What do you see?"

"She's… holding a scroll. She's unfurling the scroll. She's… unsealing the contents. That's…. That's a body alright." She grimaced.

"It's not in good condition?" She shook her head, but didn't elaborate. "What then? What's she doing now?"

"Be patient, will you?" She waved at me, lightly. "She's shaking. Like trembling, just kind of standing there. Oh, she threw up." Delightful. Probably her reaction to the blood. "She sealed the body back up and left. She's going to a closet for cleaning supplies I think. Is that a broom? They have weird brooms here." She shook her head disapprovingly. Why is that of note? "Yeah she went back to the room with a mop and a bucket."

We stood outside there spying on Tsunade for a few minutes longer, but all she did was just clean up the mess and get ready for bed. Watching her sleep is where I drew the line so I tapped her to stop.

"That was interesting." I said.

"And doesn't at all clear up whether she's working with us, or doing something else entirely."

"Yeah." We stood there for a bit, letting the moment settle.

I reached out for her lightning quick. Naturally, she dodged.

"Cute."

A/N. So this chapter got away from me a bit lol. I've been waiting so long for these two to finally start interacting I couldn't stop myself. It's gonna be so much fun! You'll see! It'll be great.