70 meters. That was the farthest possible range my telepathy could reach Shiromaru and have it still be intelligible. Past 70 meters we could only really send feelings and inclinations. Past 80 meters, even those would fail. We could maybe vaguely guess at each other's position. Past 100 meters, it was practically a dead line.

So, currently, we had both Aimi and Shiromaru sit in the (very shifty) cafe next to the red light district's third most popular brothel. Since I wouldn't be able to use an earpiece for long distance communication, this was the best we had. Aimi would stake the place out with her Byakugan and give me updates through Shiromaru. Say, the relative position of important people, possible escape routes in case things went haywire, maybe to catch details I couldn't, and anything else that might pop up.

'...I just realized we're making a seven-year old view the insides of a brothel.'

I entered the building two thirds of a meter taller than my usual countenance, one of Michiko's seals strapped to my back. I had to swagger in. This one was supposed to be overconfident.

'She says she's used to the sights by now. You'd be surprised how many people are actively doing it at any given moment.' That's disgusting.

I was now blond, with a little bit of a beard and a rough exterior. I had a small scar on the end of my lip suggesting… well Michiko wasn't clear on what that suggested but I doubt it was anything good.

'So she sees that, like, all the time? Should we even go into the major privacy implications of that?!'

I had the local noble's clothes on, courtesy of ransacking one of the Hashiji nobles' closet. Don't worry, we'll return it when we're done. Hopefully in one piece.

'She says she doesn't wanna talk about it.'

I didn't know enough about the local fashion to know if it was something only Hashiji nobles would wear, or if it was broad enough to be just about anyone wealthy around these parts. Nevertheless, we took the pieces that were least recognizable.

'I feel like we really should though.'

A blue yukata, over an expensive cotton undershirt. The yukata was loosely fastened, to show off the 100% cotton shirt. Apparently, cotton's pretty rare in the Elemental Nations, so having it is a big status symbol.

'Preaching to the choir here. One more reason to despise the Hyuuga.'

My name is Matsubara Takahiro. I'm from a wealthy merchant family from Tea who produce toothpaste as their main revenue source. Downright boring, really, but it would do as a cover. No one questioned why you were moderately wealthy from producing toothpaste. Everyone needed toothpaste, but getting rich off of it? Unlikely. And no one's gonna bother researching it, of all things. Like I said, it would do.

'To be honest—Aimi notwithstanding—is there anything good about that clan!?'

Walking in, it was not at all what I was expecting. To be honest, I don't know what I expected, but this wasn't really it.

'I mean, Hinata was nice. From your stories I mean.'

On the surface, it was just a completely regular inn. If the smell of sex wasn't so overbearingly strong, and there weren't any geisha advertising outside, it could pass off as one. The walls were even soundproofed, but to my Inuzuka ears they might as well not be.

'Yeah she was great. One of my favorites, really.'

There was an older lady manning the reception desk, flipping through a few files. She had glasses on and wasn't paying any attention to me until I sauntered up.

I could hear his smirk from here. 'Oh yeah? Why's that? Because of her—'

'I'm gonna stop you right there.'

"Excuse me, ma'am?" My voice came out rougher and much older than it usually did. My tone had to be rough, polite only so far as I could be bothered with. "Hello."

'I'm just saying. That must be a huge bonus.'

She looked up. "Ah. A new customer! Do you have an appointment? I see you didn't walk in with anybody."

'Sir. I am seven.'

I flicked my eyes over to the entrance. Sure, there had been a few who tried, but I skirted around them as if disinterested in their looks, and not really because I had somewhere to be. "Yes, you see," I cocked my jaw to the side. "I was hoping I could place a… reservation with a certain somebody." I grinned, lifting my head so I could look down on her some more. "A lady by the name of Mai-chan?"

'Seven and a half!'

I couldn't see it, but I could hear her heartbeat speeding up. She was nervous. Does that mean she knows what I'm here for?

"I see. Give me just a minute." She started leafing through schedules and profiles, and I caught a picture of Mai herself.

Late 20's, early 30's. Brown, curly hair. Giant glasses over big eyes. Sharp jawline to match the hard look in her eyes. Harder than the one I was currently wearing. Interesting. She didn't seem to be the type to work at a place like this. Then again, my life experience in such things is severely limited.

'Ugh. Whatever. Back to business. You caught the picture, right? Can you find her?' I asked Shiromaru, and thus Aimi.

'On it.'

Looking back up she looked like she had exhausted all her options already, just from that search. Half of it was probably performance, to make it look like she was doing something, making the rejection easier. "Sorry, sir. Mai-chan is unavailable at the moment. The earliest I saw I could pen you down for is next week monday." Her expression was clipped, expecting a bad reaction.

'Nope. She's there. In room seven, working on paperwork or something. Don't worry, we're getting the details. Aimi brought a notebook.'

"Aw, I'm sorry ma'am. But I really have to insist. She came," I leaned in close for this part, unleashing some Intent. "Highly recommended."

The fear was definitely on her face now. Dang, now I don't get to use my toothpaste backstory! Oh well.

"She's in room seven, right? Don't worry, it'll be quick. Just guide the way." Her eyes flicked to the security guy, a giant dude with a scary looking axe strapped to his side. Luckily, he had no ninja training, so a simple Bestial Illusion: Doddering Haze was enough to put him out.

"Of—of course! Follow me." She stood up hurriedly, guiding my way in.

'Anything I need to watch out for?'

"I trust you'll be keeping this little visit off the record, Ma'am?" She flashed her gaze between me and back ahead repeatedly.

"Yes, whatever—whatever the guest's needs." She nodded with a jitter. "House policy."

I smiled at her. "Thank you."

'Mai's chakra signature is honed. She's shinobi trained.' Great. Just great.

'Approximate strength?'

'She said she doesn't know. But it's not jounin.'

'That's still not reassuring.'

'S— —ys t— — bes— —e co—.." Oh it's already cutting out. Great. Just great. Thankfully I could still feel him, and a pulse of thought alerted me that he could still sound off an alarm if needed.

The receptionist lady softly knocked on the door. No pattern, so it's likely not a secret code. Although, a lack of a pattern might be more telling.

The door opened by a crack, Taketa Mai staring us down suspiciously. She was pretty much exactly the picture. The only difference being her hair was done up in a bun.

"Madoka-san. Who is this?'

She gulped, clearly sensing being between two dangerous entities. "A guest, ma'am. He said you came highly recommended."

Mai's eyes narrowed. "I see. Thank you, Madoka-san." She said in dismissal.

She couldn't leave fast enough, already turning a corner and leaving back to her desk.

Mai just kind of stared at me, as if trying to solve a puzzle. I raised an eyebrow. "Well? You gonna let me in? I'm paying good money for your time here." I was, in fact, paying exactly nothing, and that Madoka lady didn't exactly go over prices.

"Right." She slowly opened the door further, stepping away so I could walk inside. I was especially weary when I passed her. She probably wasn't going to attack straight away, but a ninja had many tricks to gain an advantage.

I sat down in the chair at her desk, arm draped over the back. She had a desk, interestingly enough. That left her to stand, right in the middle of the room.

I smirked. First victory goes to me. "Nice place you got here. How often do you use it?" I asked, not expecting an answer.

Naturally, she didn't give me one. "Who are you?" She crossed her arms. "Better question, who are you with?"

I shrugged. "Listen. I'm just here to follow up, okay? I don't know if you heard, but your previous contact got himself arrested."

She stayed silent for a bit, probably wanting me to elaborate and give myself away. I said nothing, just stared at her. You're gonna have to try harder than that.

"'Arrested' is one word for it." She said eventually. "I heard they hunted him through the entire village, the savages." Another hook in the water.

I snorted. "Can you believe they sent a squad of genin after him? And he lost? Frankly, he deserves his fate."

"Genin, huh? Is that what you are?" I looked at her and spread my legs into a—what was it called? Mansplaining? Manspreading! Uh… manspread? Whatever.

"Trust me. I'm not no ordinary genin."

"Right. What do you want then?"

"Just some reassurances that the Red Dragon will lay low for a while. The Leaf is already grubbing their filthy little paws in everything. Don't wanna complicate matters." I turned the hand resting on the back of the chair.

Her arms uncrossed, instead resting behind her back. Where weapons usually are. Message received, lady. "You should know I don't decide that."

"Then pass it onto your boss, will you? Or better yet, arrange a meeting." I reached my free hand inside my pocket. There wasn't anything actually in there, but if she wanted to escalate I would show her I wasn't afraid to do the same. "Although, I doubt you trust me enough to do that, of course. I'm just the stand-in."

"You're right in saying that." She uncovered her hands behind her back, slowly. "Why didn't you come earlier? Hideaki was arrested over twenty-four hours ago. Is our arrangement not valuable enough for you to make it a priority?"

I made a show of getting impatient with her, fidgeting and clenching and unclenching my hand inside my pocket. "I told you already, the Leaf is too close to our operation to make any overt moves. You know they threw a Sannin in the middle of the Ninja Station?! With him keeping an eye on everything it's a miracle we're getting anything done in the first place!"

"A Sannin?" She asked, and I could see the regret on her face. That was a slip up. Which is curious. She didn't react with fear at the name, or calculation, having known it already, but confusion. Every ninja alive knows who the Sannin are after the last war. Their deeds are that well-known.

The fact that she doesn't means she's not a Hot Springs-nin. She's in-house. A Red Dragon. But then why does she have ninja training? This is getting too confusing.

"A monster of the Leaf. They got a heavyweight poking through files they really shouldn't." I decided to throw her a bone, hoping that'll make her trust me more.

"So? You came to me for what exactly? You want to know what we're going to do next?"

"We just need you to stay out of things for a bit, until this all blows over." It wasn't gonna blow over, but apparently she wouldn't know that.

"Can't do that, unfortunately. We've got too much going on at the moment. Boss would say the same."

Mmm. I'll go out on a limb here. Maybe—maybe the massacre wasn't the big fish. There might be more to this than just that. What were the Kusakabe in charge of? Mostly natural resources. The most important of which is their iron mines, which supply a good chunk of Konoha's needs and is a large part of the tax burden on the vassal state. If they were after the mines all along—

Thank you Tetsuo for the research break!

"I know it doesn't look good for the mining operation, but honestly, taking it out from under his nose isn't going to work."

Her guard eased up by quite a bit. Got her. "Fucking hell. Don't scare me like that!" She rubbed her neck. "Seriously. That's Hot Springs' opinion? They want us to halt now?"

"Your fault for believing I'm someone else." I scowled at her. Remember, you're cocky, not a spy. Your ego got in the way of clearing suspicion instead of just cutting to the point, nothing else. "And I don't make the rules. I just follow em'. And for now that means waiting."

She shrugged. "On your hides. They paid good money to have them sooner rather than later."

They?!

There'a third party here? Who's paying the yakuza and/or Yugakure for the iron mines? What is going on!?

"Money's good. Having our necks attached to our heads is better. If the Leaf found out it'll blow the whole thing to hell."

"Fair enough." She pushed her glasses up. "How long's the wait supposed to be? Boss doesn't like sitting on his laurels and we've been waiting too long already. We killed them like three days ago!"

Wow she is really giving me everything now. Definitely not a ninja. "Two weeks, at least. Or until the Sannin backs off. Either way, two weeks should be enough for the Leaf to let down their guard."

I got up to leave. She had given me plenty of information to act upon. It would be better to relay this to Orochimaru and have him deal with the rest. If the yakuza were the ones who killed the Kusakabe, it means that Mai isn't the only Red Dragon with shinobi training. I'd rather not get caught in a fight I can't get out of.

"Leaving already?" She turned to watch me as I passed her. A modicum of suspicion back into her features.

I clicked my tongue. "Like I said. The Leaf's in everything now. Got stuff to do. Trails to shake off. The works." My hand was on the door handle. "It was a risk even talking to you today. What if they were tapping this conversation right now?"

She rolled her eyes. "You know damn well this room is properly sealed off. Don't get your knickers in a twist." She shooed me away. "Now go do whatever it is you Yu-nin do when we're not around."

I grinned at her. "Yes ma'am. Will do."

I left the inn promptly, the same sauntering walk I had kept up this whole time. Turns out it's pretty hard on your hips, so the moment I was no longer in sight I quickly dipped for the bathroom in the cafe Shiro and Aimi were hiding at and deactivated the seal. Changing into my regular clothes was a bit of a mess, but I managed not to get any pee on the yukata, so I called it a win.

Once done I found their booth, and sat down opposite to them. Aimi's Byakugan was already off.

"So? Give us the rundown." Shiromaru said.

"Tell me we got at least a little bit out of that." Aimi looked sick in the face. Probably from having to watch all of that.

"Hah! Well! Do I have something for you!" The grin on my face was evidence enough really. That went absolutely perfectly. The only negative is having to discard my toothpaste backstory.

Honestly, not a huge loss. Way too much fucking work, and no reward! Suck it Michiko!

"Wow, that's amazing Arata! You must be really good at this stuff huh?" Tetsuo said, eyes bedazzled upon given the rundown of the info I managed to collect.

It was well and solidly night time by now, the city lights like a swarm of fireflies illuminating the city. Not two hours had passed since my very enlightening conversation with Taketa Mai, and we had reconvened altogether to debate what to do about it. For now, we were going to be following her to see if we couldn't catch their base, maybe even a scent profile we could track for one of the leaders.

So, we were sneaking on top of the rooftops, following her trail at a respectable distance. She had the good sense to use a Camouflage Jutsu as soon as she walked out of her room, meaning she was pretty much invisible to everyone else. Excluding us, of course.

"Hardly." Anko said. If she wasn't currently pushing off of a ledge she'd be crossing her arms. "Anyone could have done what he did with a simple Transformation Jutsu. I could have gotten that information in half the time!"

"No, I don't think so actually." Aimi said calmly. Her Byakugan was active. I told her to keep it on, since the Camouflage Jutsu also masks scent, Shiromaru and I wouldn't be very useful in tracking her. "I watched their lips, so I saw the conversation. I'm not that good at it, but I could tell you would have given yourself away about immediately." Ayame snorted. "And she was checking for Henge as soon as he walked through the door, so that avenue's out too." I did not know that, but it explains her behavior as I passed her.

Anko did not like that answer, not at all. But she's learned to deal with me, so she let it go. Don't think that relationship will ever warm, sadly.

I smiled at Aimi for supporting me. "Thanks for the vote of confidence." We stopped on the roof of a tailor, waiting for Mai to gain some distance first. She was walking, not in a real hurry.

She shrugged. "Just means you're gonna be doing the second infiltration as well. You can do cold entries too, right?"

Cold entries are the classic type of infiltration where you enter hostile territory without the enemy knowing. A hot entry is what I just did. The enemy knows you're there, but they don't know you're the enemy, say, disguised as one of theirs, or one of their allies.

"More or less. Michiko focused mostly on hot entries," Since she's a seduction specialist, "but Shizuka gave me some pointers on cold ones. I'd be better off than any of you anyway."

"Good enough." Tetsuo said, his voice a tad lower than usual. "Are you ready, Arata? I think she just entered a building."

"Alright. Give me a moment to prepare." I closed my eyes and gathered my chakra.

I personally didn't know the Camouflage Jutsu, so I wouldn't be able to use that to hide my presence, but I had another weapon up my sleeve. Genjutsu.

See, just because I was currently focusing on Bestial Illusions didn't mean I completely ignored Demonic Illusions. In fact, I needed a solid base in those to even begin to understand how to create my own Bestial ones.

Demonic Illusion: Chameleon Cloak is essentially a more advanced version of the False Surroundings technique. A step up from the usual fare, if you would. It conceals the user entirely using an area-of-effect genjutsu. It's also much harder to notice, if your movements aren't too erratic. The trade-off is that it doesn't mask sound or scent, so you're on your own for those.

My focus directed the jutsu, guiding the chakra to layer over me, rendering me entirely invisible. The problem with using this over the Camouflage Jutsu is that you'd have to maintain the technique the entire time. If you lose concentration for even a moment, instead of others seeing through you, they would just see a black spot moving around. Obviously not very useful for stealth, unless you're hiding in a cave or something.

My chakra control was good, doubly so for genjutsu, so the only negative I really had for this jutsu was a small delay when casting.

Demonic Illusion: Chameleon Cloak

When I opened my eyes again I could see the others looking around for me, as if I moved from this spot at all. I resisted the urge to laugh.

"Alright." Anko jumped. "Ready to go. Keep me updated through Shiromaru if anything happens, okay?"

I entered the alley Mai did, going down the stairs into an underground location. She had dropped her Camouflage Jutsu now, fiddling with the key to the door. I kept back a few meters, just in case. The now opened door led down to even more staircases, the only thing breaking the monotony was a light every few meters down.

An underground base? Interesting. It's about the worst environment for a ninja, which is probably on purpose. An enclosed space? Limited maneuverability? A ceiling that kills you if it collapses? Not ideal. Well, Rock ninja would probably have a lot less problems with it, if I had to guess. I heard a ton of their bases are actually underground.

…Does that mean this is a Rock base?

I'll keep my assumptions in check for now, lest my heart blows out of my chest. Heading straight into one of those is very much a death sentence right now. I shuddered.

Some fifty meters down, the stairs stopped, instead a hallway splitting off three ways leveled out the floor. Mai took a left turn, passing some other guy who definitely looked like he was in the yakuza. With the tattoos and everything. Very curious.

Finally she reached an elaborate looking door, made from expensive wood and knocked. Is this the boss' office?

"Come in."

She opened it cautiously, as if expecting it to slam closed if she pushed too hard. "Banchou-sama. I've come bearing news."

"Ah, Mai-chan. Have a seat." A distinctly male voice said. It sounded distracted. I slipped in through the door right before she closed it and stood next to it. If they found me out, I'd rather have a quick escape, thank you.

The boss character looked like he came straight out of those yakuza games. Suit, scraggly beard. Cigarette, long hair. I had to suppress a twitch of my nose. Not many people in Konoha smoked. I did not miss the smell.

"I'm afraid I have bad news, sir."

"Ah, what happened?" He was writing in some sort of form, his eyes not on her.

"A Yugakure-nin came to visit today, but it wasn't Hideaki."

He let out a puff. "I figured. Sure took their time getting a replacement out."

"Yes, umm. He told me—He told me ah—" She grimaced.

"Well?" His eyes were on her now, and I could tell he wasn't the patient sort, even if he tried his hardest to exude that type of air.

"He told me that we had to put the Mines Project on hold."

On hearing the news, he covered his face with a hand. "Ah fucking dammit. Did he give you a reason why?"

"He said that the Leaf has a… Sannin? In their business? And that they're waiting for him to clear out first. They said to give them two weeks."

The boss' eyes widened. "A Sannin? Do you know which one?"

"He didn't say. Just that it's a he."

He tapped the fingers on his desk. "Well, that changes things. I can see why they'd be cautious." Suddenly he slammed his fist down. "Fuck!"

"Is it really that bad, boss?"

He sighed. "Yes it is. I know you're relatively new here, Mai, but the Leaf are all a bunch of monsters, and the Sannin are the worst of them. The things they did to this place in the last war…" He trailed off, a faraway look in his eye.

"So what do we now, boss? We've got too much money riding on this to be stopping now, I mean—"

"I know. But we can't move without Hot Springs. Just not gonna happen. We're already in too deep."

A strong silence overcame the two. In the meantime I worked on memorizing this guy's scent profile. His was fairly distinct, the smoke only adding to it.

Now, to just get away while I still could, I had to wait for one of these two bozos to open up the door.

"This is exactly why we had him on our payroll. And what does he end up doing? Absolutely nothing!" He suddenly shouted. …Who's on the payroll? Don't tell me….

His voice came down to a normal level. "I'll send someone to inform the rest that we're holding off on claiming the mines for now. You're dismissed, Mai. Thank you."

She didn't rise from her seat just yet. "Uh sir? If I could ask, the Yugakure-nin used some kind of confounding technique on the guard we had present. I just wondered what that was, if you knew."

She went into a brief explanation of what happened to the guy I put a genjutsu on. Seems he didn't get out for hours. I feel kinda bad now.

And intrigued. I knew that someone with no chakra training barely has any resistance to genjutsu, but to that extent? Very interesting.

"That sounds like a genjutsu alright." He had a glint in his eye.

"It's a chakra technique? Do we have a scroll for that too?"

"Wait. Hold on a second, Mai. What did this guy say his name was?"

Mai's eyes swiveled in confusion. "He didn't say, sir. No, he didn't mention it."

"What'd the guy look like? You checked for henge right?"

She nodded her head furiously. "Yeah, yeah I did. He wasn't under any sort of transformation jutsu." Thanks for the seal, Michiko. The only thing I appreciate you for. "He was tall, blond hair with a beard. Strong jawline, slightly crooked nose. Ego the size of a mountain."

"Mmm. That doesn't sound like any Hot Springs nin I know. And there's no way they'd send a rookie over to do Hideaki's job…." His eyes widened. Slowly.

Uh oh.

"You think he was—"

"Fuck! Mai?! Were you followed?!" He immediately stood up from his desk, pulling a sword out of absolutely nowhere. My chakra sense told me this was most definitely a jounin.

Ah fuck.

"I don't think so, sir! I didn't see anybody! And I came here under Camouflage!" She stood up as well, body language erratic.

"Doesn't matter. The Leaf has so many fucking tracker clans it's unreal. Any of them could have followed you back here!"

He stormed out of the room, Mai hurriedly following him. I did the same, hoping against all hope he didn't hear me.

He stomped on a red button inside the hallway, setting off blaring alarms through the entire base. "HEY! WE GOT A POSSIBLE BREACH OVER HERE! CHECK EVERY AVENUE! EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY OF THIS GODFORSAKEN PLACE! IF THERE IS SOMEONE HERE I WANT THEM DEADER THAN A DOORNAIL, GOT IT!?"

Oh shit. Oh shit.

His voice blasted through, somehow louder than the alarm. I set off my own alarm towards Shiromaru. Hopefully it would reach him this far down. In reality, I knew it wouldn't.

Which way was back again? Oh right.

I broke off from the other two. I would be much safer far, far away from them. When I came to the stairway I saw it was blocked off by a metal door.

…If I tried to break through this thing it will attract a lot of attention.

I waited until the farthest chakra signature from me and dropped my genjutsu. I would need all my mental capacities for this.

I took a few steps back and shot a boatload of chakra through my limbs, Four Legs activating like a motor gearing up.

"Passing Fang!"

The air whistled as I sent my full-power Passing Fang straight through the door. The metal positively screeched, and I knew every single person in the vicinity would have heard.

The metal fought and fought against me even as I tried my hardest to make it give way. Brute strength was never my forte, so I ran out of juice before I could get it to break.

"Haa..Haa…" That didn't mean I didn't succeed. A small hole in between the wall and the door opened up, just enough for me to squeeze through.

"There he is! The intruder!" That came from behind me. Oh fuck.

The stairs felt like they were swallowing me in. Trying to traverse them felt like I was in a nightmare where there was a monster chasing me and no matter what I did it just kept getting closer.

Except this was real. The monsters were real.

Four legs clawed their way to the top just as I heard something sizzling behind me.

"Water Release: Scalding Fountain!"

I jumped over a straight beam of water threatening to impale me. It absolutely eviscerated the wall, the resultings splash burning hot on my clothes.

I turned back into the street, connection with Shiromaru reestablished.

'HELP! HELP!"

A rush of knives flew in my direction this time, and I jumped to dodge. His aim was apparently good enough to guess where I would jump, because a few still manage to snag into my legs.

I collapsed down onto the ceiling of a yakisoba shop.

"AARGH!" Fuck! That hurts! They were stuck deep. I can't move my legs! No! No, can't stop! Have to keep moving!

"Arata!" Ayame's voice was clear even through the noise of the city. "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"

The attack redirected the attention of the two guys who came out with me. I could see a white blur floating over rooftops and landing near them.

More people came from the underground. "Tetsuo! Triage Arata! Ayame's with us!"

Shuriken and kunai started flying. A lightning jutsu came from the ground and shot outwards. It was kind of hard to follow from my vantage point.

Tetsuo landed next to me with Shiromaru, a worried look on his face as he ran through the hand signs for the Diagnostic Jutsu.

"Arata? Can you talk? How is your injury?" It hurts like a bitch.

"Ah.. Yeah. I can. I think they only got my legs. Nothing else. How's the blood?" His hands ran over my whole body, checking anyways. Which was standard procedure, really.

"You haven't lost too much yet. I'm gonna start pulling the knives out now okay?" I nodded.

I was not gonna like this—

He pulled the first one out. "AAAAAAAAAAAHH!" Tetsuo immediately got to work closing the wound.

He took out another one. My scream was masked by an explosion. Someone had set off a seal tag. From the corner of my eye I could see two yakuza ganging up on Hayama, deflecting his sword strikes with mounting ease.

"Shi—Shiro. I'mma need you to go down there and help Hayama. He's not gonna make it otherwise."

"But Arata—You've never been this injured before!"

"Yeah I got that. But he needs the help more than I do. Go." Shiromaru grit his teeth in frustration.

"Fine." And he was off, already transformed into me.

Tetsuo pulled out another knife.

"AAAAAAHH! You'd think that'd get easier!" I could feel my heartbeat in my throat.

The Mystical Palm flared to life under Tetsuo's hands. "Just one more, Arata. Then we're done."

The sounds of battle were getting louder. The number of distressed chakra signals increased. More people had joined the fight. "I think we should retreat. We're two squads of genin. We're not gonna win this."

"We could." He said, measured. I couldn't make out the tone of his voice. "But with you like this, I don't think we'd make it very far."

Great.

"Well, what are our other options?"

The second to last wound on my leg closed up. His hand started hovering over the last knife, the green in it had fizzled out again. "Are you rea—"

Chakra signal incoming!

I flew through hand signs. "Bestial Illusion: Anxiety's Jaw!" The yakuza stopped in his tracks, frozen to the spot. Tetsuo quickly drew his tantou and sliced the guy's throat. He fell down, gurgling.

"Oh. Nice catch, Arata. I didn't see him coming." He smiled.

Another one!

My hands weren't fast enough. "Tetsuo!"

A large blade came for his head.

An even larger snake came for the assailant's neck faster than I could fully see. The guy's sword clattered to the ground as he wrestled it, but one twist of the snake's jaw and its fangs pierced entirely through.

He stopped moving. On second look, I recognized that snake. Big, ugly brown, larger than average incisors.

That's one of Orochimaru's snakes!

As soon as the snake confirmed it's kill, it calmly slithered over to us, eyes peering over the battlefield. It felt like…. a watchdog.

I never thought there would be a day one of his summons would be a reassuring presence to me, but that's the crazy world I live in now.

"Thanks for saving us, eh.. hebi-san?" Tetsuo said. Asked? It didn't react.

"Somebody pinch me."

"Why?"

From here I could see other yakuza getting attacked by snakes, ambushed from corners or a collection of them assaulting from up front. I searched for Orochimaru's chakra signature and found him facing off against another Oni Transformation user, supporting Aimi.

She had her entire spine out, keeping the enemy on his toes as Orochimaru shot off ninjutsu after ninjutsu after him.

A giant golem of earth he conjured punched through blood red arms. The impact blew him through a house. Aimi chased after him and the golem moved to follow. Orochimaru didn't. Why?

Another large signature had entered the battlefield. The boss had drawn his sword, facing off against the Sannin with no fear.

Orochimaru opened his mouth. He opened his mouth wide. And something came out of it. A handle, then the whole blade.

He had drawn the Kusanagi no Tsurugi.

They flew at each other.

"Alright. Last knife, okay?" Tetsuo brought my attention back to the roof I was on.

I grimaced. "Go for it."

A/N. Bit of a plot-heavy chapter. Sometimes I feel like I don't focus on it enough, so I guess this would be a change of pace for some. Lemme know what you think!