Scarlet Justice: Full Blossom - ep. 66
"Moonlit Paths"
[Rocks and Rain, Part 2]

"Yeah. I asked Shikamaru earlier about it, and he said that it couldn't work that way...but I was thinking he missed something."

"He is correct in that you cannot chain these seals in the manner that you would like to. Which means that we have to start from somewhere else with the construction."

We've made good time over the last few days. Tonight features calm weather and clear night skies, which made it perfect to take a full rest and recover before moving on. Ino was very eager to cook for us, and made a delicious dinner that everyone is now letting settle before we go off to bed. Erika and I are going to split the night watch, and we'll all be up at dawn to continue our journey.

Currently, Ino and Erika are discussing a sealing technique that they began work on a few days ago. It made me think about the possibility that I might have missed something in my own studies.

"Hey, Lili. Busy?"

"Not enough to keep you away," I say to Fio as I read. "What did you need?"

"Just some together time, if that's okay."

"More than okay. Come." I lie on my back near the fire, and let Fio put her head on my stomach. My free hand gently rubs at her head as soon as she's comfortable. "Good?"

"Great. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Anything you need, Fio."

"Yeah. Not that I don't like spending time with you, I'm just a little needier than usual. I guess."

"That's only fair, considering what's happened."

"That's true. So, what're you reading?"

"Seal notation. Some examples of past work and theory. Nothing too dense, I suppose. The more detailed books are in the library and archives."

"Studying?"

"In a way, yes. Keeping these things in memory helps."

"That makes a lot of sense. What type of sealing stuff is it? The ones you put into the scrolls?"

"There's not much of a difference in theory and notation, but the execution requirements are different. You can have prepared scrolls to seal away techniques or objects, and you can scribe them on the spot either by hand or with chakra. Applying seals to objects or people manually is more difficult and requires a high level of chakra control. This can also be split into the application of prepared seals which construct themselves automatically from a central point, or seals with multiple stages where the base is applied to the target, and then carefully constructed using various handseals."

"Hm."

"You know that techniques can be activated from seals written onto scrolls. It's much the same in concept."

"Yeah. It's way more convenient to make the techniques yourself though. You can make them as big or as small as you want."

"Exactly."

"So you made an entirely new cascade for it," I hear Ino say to Erika. "That's what you meant. I wonder why he didn't think of it."

"It usually doesn't occur to those who don't have the relevant expertise," Erika replies. "Genius without information only goes so far, not to take away from the brilliance that Shikamaru does display often."

"You're right. Putting all of those next to each other works really well, in a way that I can see pretty clearly. Do you think there's room to expand on it, maybe?"

"You have plenty of room as is. It will be fine."

"Got it. I'll talk with Dad about everything once we get back. Are you two really gonna be okay splitting the watch?"

"We will be fine, I assure you. Both you and Fio should rest as much as possible."

"Alright. Then I guess I'll head off to bed. Night, girls."

"Lili, Fio. Did you need a while longer?" Erika asks us.

"Yeah, a few more minutes if it's okay?" Fio asks.

"Take your time, though I might insist you go to sleep at a later point."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Lili, I will be doing a perimeter check before first watch. No more than ten minutes."

"Understood. I'll keep watch here."

She nods before starting her walk through the trees.

"Mm, I just wanna hang out a bit longer before she gets back," Fio says.

"Not a problem," I say as I set down my book.

This is usually the best time for idle thoughts, for worrying, contemplating the universe and its indifference...and so the list continues in our imaginations. None of those are interesting to go through today.

Fio rests quietly under my touch, and I look upwards to perceive the stars that are in the night sky. It's peaceful in a way that I wouldn't have considered some time ago. Looks like I'm getting better at this thing called relaxation and such. And I suppose that spending so much time balancing on sharp rocks helped. A little.

Hm. I should call Midori later.

"I'm gonna turn in," Fio says. She lifts her head from me and yawns.

"Okay. I'll join you as soon as Erika comes back."

"Yeah. Can we share your sleeping bag tonight?"

"Of course."

"Cool," she says with a smile. "See you soon, then."

I poke at the fire pit and add a few more pieces of wood to it for management. Erika quietly comes through the trees again as I stand up.

"All yours."

She nods. "Thank you. See you in a few hours, Lili."

"Yes. Pleasant night, Erika."

I head to my tent and shed my extra clothing before joining Fio in my sleeping bag. She clings to me as I close my eyes, and quickly fall asleep.

I cook breakfast near the end of my watch, letting the scent of food wake everyone up. We eat, pack up our things, and then continue towards the northwestern border with Grass Country by way of Tenchi Bridge.

Things go normally enough. We're identified by those from the Hidden Grass and start to go through the country as we typically would. As for what we might be doing next, it's really none of their business, and there are no attempts made to pry. Erika suggests that we skip going through the village, and we all agree. That leaves us to move at a good speed through the topmost section of the country – the part with the shortest distance to Earth Country. A day's travel sounds like a good gain to me.

Slipping past the Hidden Rock patrols is as easy as it was the last time. They were lacking in manpower before, and are surely reeling after what happened with Akatsuki earlier on. It would be quite a shock if those two groups were still working together, but not out of the realm of possibility, unfortunately. We spend another night in the wilderness, Ino commandeering a local capable of flight and surveying the area while Erika and I scan the earth for any movement. With nobody in any sort of range to cause us issue, we set up camp.

"Alright, ready."

We will be doing a small experiment before bed, at Ino's request. The newly awakened ZERO System has drawn curiosity from some members of the group, and even if it won't see any notable use in the field yet, it's still good to try out every now and then. I focus and create the technique, and Erika looks after Ino's body as she performs the switch.

"All systems normal," I say to her. "Begin at any time."

"Got it." Ino holds her fingers on one hand up in front of her, before pointing them towards me. "Mind Transmission!"

I let her spirit shove mine aside for a little while, while she explores everything that she can. A short time later, I'm back in control of my body. The System hums along and responds as soon as its master returns, giving me access to the complete view of my surroundings again.

"Was that good enough?" I ask Ino as she recovers.

"More than fine. Um...yeah. That was wild. It was a good thing that Lili didn't go anywhere, because she was keeping that whole thing together with her subconscious and everything."

"So that was it. The subconscious," I say. "I had forgotten about that aspect of it..."

"Yeah. But the amount of information and feedback I was getting was absolutely insane. Being able to keep track of it all, and interpret it, and calculate all of my responses before I even made them...I wouldn't know how to properly describe it. But it's not just numbers getting crunched, I could see shadows of everything."

"Shadows?" Erika asks.

"Yeah, yeah. Like...whenever you shifted your weight, Rika. Or if Fio moved her feet a bit. I could see, like, images of all the places and positions you guys could be, all at once. And if I focused on something, I could understand its state, and what to do next, and...okay, so when I was looking at the fire just now, I could figure out that with the amount of fuel, the burn rate, wind speed and direction, and weather, all of that combined, that it would go out by itself in fifty one minutes and thirty eight seconds."

"The exact same trend I can read," I say. "Fascinating. I suppose with objects and natural phenomenon, or things that could fall into that category, there isn't much in the way of variation in predictions. Against perceived obstacles, the confidence intervals provide unique sets of data to the System's users and affect each outcome as it is generated. Hm. What did you see Fio's leftward tendency as, Ino?"

"At rest it was...about fifty six?"

"Fifty three for me. That confirms a whole lot."

"So from what you have explained," Erika starts, "the path to the future shown is heavily affected by the user's knowledge, ability, and confidence. The System therefore confers a great deal of advantage to those who can harness their memories in order to help with identification of techniques and movements."

I nod and return to normal. "That is correct."

"Truly fascinating. I imagine most would enjoy having a technique like this in their arsenal, but of course it is highly complex and requires esoteric abilities not easily discovered or attained."

"It's probably easier to get yourself a Sharingan, like Kakashi did," Ino says. "They connect pretty well to the existing optic nerve system and use chakra to handle the enhanced visual data streams that result...and with that unique construction comes the issue of genetic compatibility. That's to say that they're built by and for Uchiha. If you modify yourself, I'm sure you can get around it..."

"Pretty creepy, though," Fio says.

"Say that twice. I'm sure that psycho Orochimaru experimented on some poor guy or gal to see if they could get some approximation of an Uchiha body. Obviously it didn't go too well for him, since he was obsessed with getting his hands on Sasuke right till the end."

"Sasuke was his second option, of course," Erika says. Ino raises a brow slightly. "I suppose that was in the classified information we didn't get to."

"Must have been. The creeper went after Itachi first?"

"Lost a hand for his troubles," I say casually before sitting next to Fio. "It was at that brief moment in time when he and Itachi were both in Akatsuki. Sasori held a rather strong grudge against Orochimaru, to the point of thanking me personally for erasing him. I only opened up the path to his demise, as you know...but it would be rude not to accept some praise for my work."

"Hey, you won't hear me giving anyone a story different from what they heard earlier."

"What's your bandit kill count up to now?" Fio asks.

"The new record is six hundred and sixty six, with one kunai in hand, according to Fuu."

She lets out a low whistle. "That's what I call demonic."

"Apparently in the Cloud it's a mere ninety."

"Ah, so they're finally recognizing your talent over there," Ino says with a smile. "Dad said the last guy they gave any respect around there was the Fourth, and that's because he left piles of bodies in his wake each time he showed up. The older generation used to talk a lot about how different the world would be if he were still with us. According to Uncle Shikaku, though, it took a bunch of war feats and being Hokage for him to get that level of respect all around."

"Indeed. You've made a similar sort of impression in peace time," Erika says to me. "Which you should be quite proud of, considering."

"It's good to hear. If the heavens permit it, I will strike even more fear into the hearts of my allies and enemies alike."

"Then I will continue to petition the Supreme God for your success."

"Much appreciated, as always. You can do that before going off to sleep, since I have first watch as scheduled."

"Of course. The usual perimeter walk beforehand?"

"By all means."

She nods and heads off through the forest, quiet as always.

"Since our wives are gonna be up and down again tonight, you can snuggle with me, Fio," Ino says.

"Awesome."

"Try not to charm her too much. I'll want her back in the morning," I quip.

"Promise~. Let's get ourselves ready for bed, Fio."

"Yeah." Fio gives me a kiss. "Night, Lili."

"Good night, Fio."

They disappear into Ino's tent, and I wait for Erika to come back.

"Any requests for breakfast?" she asks upon return.

"Nothing in particular. I'll be looking forward to what you come up with."

"Understood. I will see you soon, then."

"Have a good rest."

She ducks into my small tent, and I add a few pieces of wood to the fire.

"That should add...another half hour, at that rate of burn. I suppose we can see if those estimates pan out, hmhm."

I use my free time to experiment more with the fire before switching with Erika. My sleep is peaceful and I awake to the delicious scent of our morning meal. One more quick cleanup, and we move ahead towards our last stop, on the outskirts of the Hidden Rock. A modest home set safely at the foot of a mountain pass.

Erika knocks politely, and we wait for the door to open.

"Good afternoon."

"Good afternoon," Erika replies.

"What can I help you with, ma'am?" The young girl from last time, known to us as Pink Sparrow, has grown a fair bit since the last time we met. A white blouse and dark skirt, with her now longer violet hair going down to her back. As usual, she has her poisoned weapons hidden and ready for intruders.

"We came to deliver an order made by your father recently."

"More tea, probably. That makes sense. What kind, by the way?"

"It seems he has made an enthusiastic purchase of mint tea."

"He can't get enough of the stuff." She smiles and bows for us. "Welcome back. I was hoping I could see you all again."

"Likewise," Erika says. "Though the circumstances are a bit sombre, unfortunately."

"I heard a bit about it. Miss Asagao, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Fio says. "Nice to meet you."

"The pleasure is mine, ma'am. I'm really sorry for your loss, and I hope you feel better soon."

"Thanks so much. I appreciate that."

"Mom and Dad are looking after some stuff in the study, but of course they know you're here by now. Come on in, and I insist on a warm cup of tea while you wait."

"Far be it from us to refuse such a gentle hostess," I say.

We go to the open living area, where a teapot and empty cups rest on the table. Each of us gets poured a warm cup by our hostess.

"Would anyone like anything extra before I leave?" Sparrow asks. We all shake our heads. "Alright. I'll be back in a bit with Mom and Dad."

She leaves, and we all have a few sips of tea. Very good.

"Sounds like she's way more involved than last time," Ino says. "That's good to know."

"It seems that she's embraced life as a kunoichi in full since the last time we met," Erika says. "I suspect that she will be travelling with us, and assisting in our upcoming mission objectives."

"Another set of hands never hurts," I say. "By now, she's about the age where we started...and with a lot more knowledge in comparison. In my case, at least."

"I never did think about it much, but it is crazy how far ahead you got without having all the stuff that the three of us started with. Rika had her dad to look up to, I had mine, Fio got an early start..." Ino trails off.

"Makes you wonder what things would be like in that case," Fio says.

"She'd have the whole village dancing for her, that's what it would be like. And we'd be averaging a cat fight per day the moment we got into the Academy."

"A 'rivals to lovers' story? I like the sound of that," I say.

"You would. Sakura and I would be fighting over you instead of Sasuke."

A lot of things would change. Naruto and I would be friends faster, and I could form a proper relationship with Itachi, before everything with the Uchiha changed...all of history as we know it would have changed completely. Hm. But how different would I be? Would I even still like girls?

"..."

Silly question. I think that's a constant across time and space. I can't imagine myself being straight. Maybe bisexual, if anything. There are some fine men I wouldn't mind courting.

"Plotting again, aren't we?" Ino asks, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Hmhm~. Always, darling."

"Looks like we have our returning guests at last. Welcome back, girls."

"Yes, welcome back. You've all grown beautifully."

We stand and exchange bows with our remaining hosts, who look about the same as when we left them. The rugged and muscular Brown Bear, with his wild mane of brown hair and neatly trimmed beard. And next to him is his wife and partner Red Wolf, looking as fit as ever with long and well-cared for hair of her own. Actually, she's changed it a bit...it's a nice peach colour now. Interesting.

"Yeah, I was just about to say so myself," Bear says as he takes a seat in front of the table. Wolf sits next to him, and Sparrow goes around to make sure they have their tea in front of them. "Our newest guest is the Miss Asagao we were informed of, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, if you would accept our condolences on your loss. It's hard to lose someone you knew, even from far away." Bear puts his head down respectfully, and Wolf follows suit.

"Thank you very much. I appreciate that. And yeah, the news hit pretty hard...I was hoping to meet him again one day, and talk about a few things that I learned on my journey."

"How did you first meet Han?" Wolf asks. "I would assume out in the wilderness, but he was loathe to wander outside of Earth Country, for reasons we never found out."

"Oh, I assumed you knew. With you being the spy guys and all."

Bear nods. "Mm, I see. No, we were just given need to know information for the most part."

"Then it means Lord Hokage wanted to leave it to our discretion," Erika concludes. "Fio, we are authorized to tell our hosts whatever we might please, as long as it does not compromise the mission."

"Okay. So, the reason I knew Han was because he was my sensei from a long time ago. Back when I was in the Hidden Rock." Fio puffs out rings of steam. "It's 'coz I was born with Boil Release. I used to go by Mutou."

"Oh, my. So you were the little apprentice that..." Wolf puts a hand over her mouth.

"I can't believe it," Bear says. "So you survived all of that?"

"Orochimaru kidnapped me. Did a bunch of...pretty unpleasant things to my body. But I made it, yeah. And that's how I ended up meeting Lili. We're gal pals now! Real good roomies, like the old folks say!"

"Roommates, huh." Bear chuckles. "That takes me back."

"It certainly does. Congratulations," Wolf says with a smile.

"Thanks!"

"Well, it explains why you've been off the radar so far. I'm sure that the Tsuchikage has his suspicions hearing about your work for the Leaf, but with your origin story being pretty air tight, I don't think he could do anything if he tried without risking an international incident or two. Still, we'll be cautious while travelling in the Rock," Bear says. "The mission will be simple enough, and the objectives are loose. It's why we were able to clear Sparrow so easily."

"This will be my first major mission," she says proudly. "I've been training on smaller targets and doing some info gathering while at school. Pretty excited to see what I can pick up."

"Happy to have you onboard," Ino says. "And we'll be at your side if you need anything."

"Between you four and Mom and Dad, I don't think I could be safer."

"There'll be a couple of high ranking shinobi at the service," Bear continues. "Not too many, of course. Just the ones who could stomach paying any sort of respects to jinchuuriki. The top brass is torn up, but as you might guess, it's not because two men lost their lives."

"The direction of Rock's shift in power will be dramatic," Wolf says. "But we don't have a solid lead on what they might be planning. We want to gather up as much information as possible before sending it over to the Leaf, where we can have our brightest minds try to make the best predictions possible. The lords of the Ino-Shika-Cho coalition have formed a situation room in order to process our incoming observations."

"We can work on notation once we get back," I say. "You have three of the finest functionaries in the Leaf ready to go."

"And I'm not too great at writing super neat and fast, but I can get you whatever you need!" Fio says.

"We're already thankful for your help, so we really appreciate what you'll be doing for us next," Bear says with a respectful nod. "This will help keep us at the forefront, and with the way that the other villages are positioned, we really need to be ahead of them."

"What could the Rock do that would cause major trouble at this stage?" Ino asks. "Their options have got to be limited, and it would make a lot more sense to relax and let the other nations come to them. It's not like Leaf is going to run over the mountains and invade them. They're not that paranoid, I hope."

"Aside from the possibility of unwelcome alliances...there's the option of supplementing their forces with the fine citizens of Hidden Stone. Which would be a mess in itself. But what's worse is the possibility of them deciding that they don't have too much more to lose."

"Launching an invasion themselves," Erika concludes. "They have a long standing enmity with Sand, and though they have suffered this recent devastation, they still have enough resources and elites to spare for a major attack in any direction they choose. The Seven-Tails' jinchuuriki has left the Waterfall due to maltreatment, leaving them vulnerable to attack from superior forces. Leaf may choose to back them, but we know where that will lead."

"Proxy wars of all kinds," I say. I stand by my decision to help Fuu leave, but that was because I didn't anticipate Rock fumbling everything this badly.

"A new world war?" Ino asks. "Somehow, I keep forgetting that it only takes that much..."

"We tend to forget those sorts of things until they're as visible as they are now, save for those who spend all of their waking moments focused on the subject," Wolf says. "But we also don't get events as close together as these often."

"Then we should do what we can to keep the worst from happening," Sparrow says. "Everyone has a part to play, right?"

"That's right!" Fio says. "Some of us are good at punching stuff, and some of us are good at being sneaky. And some of us are good at both of those things. But we all need each other to make fantastic things happen."

"We should have about two days before the official event," Wolf says to us. "Since your timing was so good, we can call ahead and have everything we need prepared properly. We can cover the finer details on our way into the village, but for the most part we will be split into different groups. All of us will be at the gathering to listen to the Tsuchikage's speech, and from there we can move. We'll leave Miss Asagao and Miss Kobayashi to pay their respects. With the usual routes cleared up for a short time, Miss Kotowari and I will slip into the more sensitive areas of the village to see what we can gather up. Bear will use his persona to directly mingle with some of the village higher-ups, and the last pairing will be Sparrow and Miss Yamanaka for their own intelligence gathering in a different area."

"I think I have something ready to use for that," Ino says.

"Great. I'll follow your lead then," Sparrow says to her.

"As said, we will go over the details at a later time. For now, please make yourselves comfortable and have a look at the guest room any time you like. We unfortunately only have so much space, so one or two of you will have to rest in this room."

"I could always give up my room," Sparrow says.

"We couldn't do that to you," Fio replies to her.

"Told you," Bear says with a smile. "These kids are way too polite, they'll fight you right back into your own bed."

Erika and I look at each other before nodding.

"Our princesses will be sharing the guest room," I say. "Erika and I will settle for some good blankets and pillows here."

"Agreed. We should have no trouble making that small sacrifice."

"You're all paired up? Really?" Sparrow asks with surprise. "I can't believe it, two sets of girls with girls...never saw it before. Is it okay if I ask like, how you got together? What it's like?"

"We can answer any questions you have," I say. "But perhaps we should wait until after dinner, which is sure to be a delicious treat in your dear mother's hands."

"Well, of course you would know the way to a woman's heart," Wolf says with a small laugh. "I'll go ahead and get started with that extra bit of motivation."

"I've got some drier stuff from the other day," Bear says to Erika. "Did you want a look while we waited?"

"Certainly. We are blessed with time, after all."

"Miss Fio? If it's not too much, could you tell me about the things that you and Master Han did in the past?" Sparrow asks.

"Better than tell you, I can show you some of it! It's still light out, so that's good...let's step outside a bit. I don't want the house to turn into a fog bank, haha!"

"So you have the same bloodline limit as he did?"

"Yeah! It skipped a generation in my first family, and that's why he took a big interest in me at first..."

Ino scoots over and drops her head into my lap.

"I wonder when I gave you permission to do that," I say.

"You didn't, because I don't need it."

"Mm. You're lucky I'm so benevolent." I rub her head gently.

"Luck has nothing to do with it. I'm taking advantage. And I like your lap because it's warm and soft."

"A timeless sensation, yes?"

"Heh. One way to put it..."

The journey is done, and our objectives have been set. For now, the major work has been put away. Tomorrow is a new day, and then after that, we will be making our way to the Hidden Rock. Not just for a last goodbye to Han and Roshi, but to gather clues in order to decipher the shinobi world's new beginning.

All we can really do from here is continue to move forward, and petition heaven for the best outcome.