"We've been lost and alone,

Mad at all the unknown,

When our prayers became more than a dream,

If your heart is alive, scream it into the sky,

Breaking out the alarm hear it ring,"

Sand Planet, Jubyphonic

I watched Yahiko sit up in the window's reflection. The only light in the room came from the moon and a small oil lamp next to my foot.

He scrubbed a hand through his hair as he looked down at himself, at the mattress under him, then at the tatami mats around him. He shoved the spread off himself and stood, wincing, stumbling a little.

I didn't move as he came closer to where I leaned back in the curve of the windowsill. He leaned an arm on the glass above my legs.

"Same night?" he asked, breathless.

I looked up at him but knew I wouldn't see purple marks. They had faded the day before.

"The moon is fuller than it was then," I pointed out.

He made a vague sound as he looked up at it because he didn't pay attention to the sky like I did. "In that case, I have two questions. How long was I out, and where are we?"

"Three days," I told him.

He paused, eyes flicking down. "And the second one?"

"Hyozan," I said, leaning against the glass. "I don't think I've been to an inn before this."

He blinked. "And how did you get the money to pay for a room?"

I gestured to where his weapons pouch laid on the ground. It was empty.

He pushed away from the window to look. "You sold all my weapons," he said in disbelief.

"I gave them to Sana," I denied. "And then she bought a room. She said they'd be hard to sell."

"One, I doubt that. Two, you sold everything but my scrolls," he said, in more disbelief.

"You still have the nagamaki," I dismissed. It was propped up in the corner, untouched.

Yahiko looked at it, then stared balefully at me. "That was enough wire to last two weeks."

"Maybe you should've stayed awake," I said airily.

His mouth opened, then shut. "I think I'm going to cry," he finally said, staring at the wall.

I hid a smile as I looked back out the window. Most of the view was blocked by the building next door, but I could see the moon, so I didn't mind.

"Or maybe someone should've taught me how much things are worth," I mentioned.

"My senbon," he lamented.

"Is the poison gone?" I asked.

He sighed heavily, but turned and lifted his shirt, showing me a bruise that stretched sideways across his front, right below his lungs.

"Turns out Sasori is feared for his poisons for a reason," he said lightly, dropping his shirt. "Really, I'm shocked."

I looked at him, but he waved off my concern.

"Emon isolated it and herself to my liver, and that's all that matters," he said. "Turns out that it's not only pretty large, but warm and wet. I'm trying not to think about it."

I thought about what I knew of the liver. "I don't think there's mucus there for her to eat."

Yahiko looked thoughtful. "All the things I've seen and done and talking about bodily mucus still makes me queasy."

I smiled, and it made him grin.

"Why the liver?" I asked.

"How often did Nagato use his textbook to teach you to read again?" he asked, looking at the ceiling as he rubbed his chin.

"I remember where it is, and only so I know where to stab if I'm aiming for it," I answered. "I know the intestines the best, because if you don't close a wound there fast enough stomach acid can spill out into the rest of the body and do the work for me."

He paused. "Rabid little sister," he said. "But even I know the liver is where toxins are broken down. It's the best place for Emon to experiment without killing me. Or worse."

I hummed.

Yahiko slowly leaned down, wincing, and picked up part of a pile of heat wraps left on the floor, lifting them towards me. He tilted his head.

"My clone told anyone who asked that you had heatstroke, and that was why we came back," I told him. "Had to cover the poison marks."

"Ah. I wondered who carried me back," he said, dropping the wrappings. "I was starting to be really worried about what Nagato was teaching you."

"You were awake. You only needed something solid to lean on," I said back.

He shook his head. "I don't remember anything after I passed out."

"You hallucinated," I mentioned, and watched him freeze, eyes shooting towards me. "She told me you thought you were fishing, and you got angry when whatever it was got away."

Yahiko's face was blank. "Didn't happen, and I'll deny it until the day I die if you say otherwise."

.

.

.

I heard familiar footsteps outside the room but didn't look as the door slid open and Sana came in.

The lantern had burned itself out or been put out while I was asleep, but the sun told me it was around mid-afternoon, and we wouldn't have to ask for more oil for a few hours.

Her reflection eyed me as she closed the door behind her, off somehow. "I paid for tonight and tomorrow, but you're on your own after that."

Her gaze flicked down to Yahiko, asleep or pretending to be with the spread tangled around his legs. She sounded off, too. Almost forced.

I thought to tell her what Yahiko told me about how much his weapons were worth, but instead I watched her glance at me again. It was the kind of glance that made sure I didn't move as she crouched down, or when she pulled a kunai from her pouch and casually held it to Yahiko's neck.

"Tell me who you are," she said, voice shaking. "Who you really are. No more lies."

Yahiko's eyes slowly opened. "I blame our resident Jashinist for making me used to waking up to a weapon at my throat," he said mildly.

"Stop talking," she hissed, nicking him as she pressed blade down harder. "You—You aren't from Amegakure. You used me like a rookie, and I fell for it. So, where are you from, hm? Iwagakure? Kirigakure? The truth, or I'll kill him."

I paused at that, looking over, but I still didn't move.

Yahiko stared at the ceiling. Her grip looked less steady than it had in the reflection, and her wide-eyed stare looked a lot more afraid.

I didn't care that she didn't think we were who we said we were, but I did care about the thin red line that ran down Yahiko's neck and stained his collar.

"You won't," I finally said. "Because if you did, I'd kill everyone here."

She froze, breath hitching.

"I didn't see any shinobi around outside, so there can't be that many. It wouldn't be too hard," I went on, leaning back. "I'd go to Sunagakure after I was done and kill as many as I could there, too. Then I'd let them capture me and say that you sent me, just to show you what living in Hell feels like."

"Tone it down, little sister," Yahiko said lightly.

I shrugged. "It's what I'd do." Because if she did do what she threatened, I'd show her just how little I cared about the people here.

"Yeah, but I kind of want her to work with me again after this."

Sana dropped her kunai and squeezed a shaking hand still with the other.

I watched her stand and back up until she hit the wall. She wouldn't look at me. "You think I would after this? After you ruined everything I built here?" she asked, hugging herself. "What a sick joke."

"I think I'd remember if I did something to earn this," he said, gesturing at his neck as he sat up. "So, what do you think we did?"

She stared at him, searching his face, then looked away. "The timing was too close to be a coincidence. You have to be involved. My luck isn't that shit—"

"What did we do to ruin you?" I asked. "I didn't do anything."

Sana looked at Yahiko instead of me. Her fingers dug into her side. "The Third Kazekage is missing," she hissed. "Presumed dead, because a Kage doesn't just go missing. And everyone saw you come to my shop when you arrived and watched you come back two days before the news arrived from the village."

Yahiko's eyes widened, and then he fell back and smiled.

I hummed, but I hadn't. It was the clone that took Yahiko to her. I thought it'd make our cover story about Ishigakure more believable if no one knew that was a clone.

But that didn't seem to matter now.

Sana glared at him. "This is funny to you?"

"It's not," he admitted, dropping an arm over his eyes. "It's just that it's not the first time."

Hidan hadn't killed a Kage, but Suigiyama had been the closest Yugakure had to one.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Yahiko only grinned.

"What do they think happened?" I asked.

"Doesn't matter. I'm done. Tell Mamoru not to contact me again," she said, and then opened the door and stormed out.

Yahiko shook with laughter.

I slipped off the sill, stepped over his legs as I crossed the room, and shut it myself. "She ignored me," I mused.

"If she didn't, she'd have to acknowledge her beloved Sage threatening a village or two because you could, and it's much easier not to."

I picked up the spread, threw it at him, and he caught it with his other hand.

"Why do I try to make peace with anyone?" he asked himself.

I sat next to him. "At least now we know why he was going to Sunagakure."

He laughed hard.

蠍

"It's too bad we couldn't find what Uncle wanted," Yahiko lamented, leaning over a bowl in his lap. He slurped down a spoonful of chicken, sweet potatoes and greens, signing awkwardly at me with his other hand.

"Paranoid. Suna-nin."

I glanced at the wall, in the middle of biting into hard bread with scrambled eggs in the middle, as if I could see who he thought might be listening to us.

He hadn't said how much he paid for the food, but he was missing three of his scrolls, and he'd been muttering about having to pay extra for the bowl when he came in.

"How long are we staying?" I signed back, holding the sandwich with my teeth.

Yahiko blinked at me. "Talk. Making it worse."

I hadn't had much of a reason to sign and talk at the same time before, and I stared down at my hands for a second, wondering if I could manage it while eating.

Yahiko mimed stabbing himself with a kunai in the background.

"He'll understand when I tell him you passed out," I finally said, too slow if anyone was listening.

Oh well.

I started signing halfway through the sentence, late, but it was hard. "The only scroll you have left is the one with our cloaks."

Yahiko pulled another full spoon from his peanut butter-tomato stew. "I didn't pass out. Just fainted a little."

"Twelve hours, body tells me," he signed.

"Sixteen," I corrected, taking another bite. "It'd be less hot if we go later in the afternoon."

Yahiko looked unamused, and I realized I forgot to respond out loud.

"It's too dangerous to try again after what happened," I said, and he looked even less amused.

"I don't think I'll be a fan of being kicked out in front of everyone."

"It'll be a real pain going back," he sighed at the same time. "Can you believe how unlucky we are?"

"You asked if we could stay longer?" I signed. The egg was just runny enough that the bread didn't taste dry—

"I give up," Yahiko said, throwing up his hands. "Why do I try?"

I swallowed. "You didn't answer my question."

Yahiko sighed loudly at me, but I only took another bite. "I wanted to, but he looked at me the same way everyone I think might've worked with Sana has today. Like I'll go on a rampage if they breathe wrong."

"I might," I mentioned. The sandwich was better than the lizard but didn't smell as good as Yahiko's stew.

He ignored me. "Remember that guy who I got the stew from last time? He's the only one who cooked anything like it when I went back, but I still feel ripped off."

"That's because you were," I told him, wiping crumbs off my mouth with the back of my hand.

"Thanks, Oka."

"You're welcome."

He snorted, but he was smiling too. "I don't think stew guy was one of Sana's clients, but he knew something. If only the people here would tell me anything."

I eyed his stew. "Can I have that?"

Yahiko pulled out his last scroll and tossed it at me. "I'm going to pretend you didn't just ask me that."

"I'm your little sister, aren't I?" I asked, catching it. "It's my job to take your things. Especially when they smell good."

Yahiko ate another spoonful and ignored me. "Since Sasori killed our cover story, there's no point in not wearing them."

"Except heatstroke," I signed back. "You're a bad brother," I said at the same time.

Yahiko ignored that too. "If I want to feel better after you tipped off our imaginary spies, let me."

I tilted my head. "I think I told you before that I wouldn't protect you again if you passed out."

He paused, "I don't think anyone back home will approve if you let me die out here."

"Someone will find you eventually," I signed back. "Maybe alive."

"I don't believe you can get back on your own," Yahiko said airily, waving the spoon at me.

I leaned an arm on my knee. "Doesn't matter if I can or can't. I'll just be a lost teenager. Someone will help me."

"They won't believe you. Especially when they find out you're an Ame-nin, and especially not anyone who might be outside this room," he signed, looking at his mostly-eaten bowl. "And I'm still not letting you have any of this, even if it's a lot more than it looked like when I first started."

I didn't look. "I don't want your leftovers."

"Yeah you do," Yahiko said without looking up. He tapped his spoon against the side. "Tell you what, I give you this, and you keep whatever hallucinations you didn't tell me about to yourself."

I hummed. "Why would I agree to that when you're going to give it to me anyway?"

Yahiko stared at me, stared into his bowl, then dropped the spoon in and pushed it angrily towards me.

.

.

.

I glanced at the front desk, but no one was behind it.

Either the innkeeper didn't want to be anywhere near us, or he'd left town like Sana. Even if Yahiko was wrong and he didn't know her, how did it look that he let us stay here?

How did it look that she'd come here to see us?

"I still can't believe you sold all my weapons," Yahiko lamented, hands behind his head. His cloak was around his shoulders, hanging down his back like a coat.

Mine was tied around my waist. "What do you think they'll do with the bookstore?"

"I bet they'll find a lot of surprises, and not the good kind," Yahiko answered. "If I were her, I would've put my most dangerous books on display before I left."

I heard people in the room next to the lobby, eating and drinking and laughing.

"She made us look guilty by leaving so fast," I mused.

Yahiko shrugged and opened the front door. "Even if she stayed, her business wouldn't have survived. I can't imagine her clients would be happy coming anywhere near here with so much attention on her. And we saw how well her books sell."

There'd been no one inside when we went in, even though the street outside had been full of people.

"She could've tried to stay and prove her innocence, but to what point?" he asked, holding up a hand against the sun. "And she already has experience in starting over."

I pushed the door closed. "I thought you didn't want to be so open about this."

"Yeah, and then I gave up."

I saw the woman with painted lips in front of Minshuku soliciting someone in a beige flak-jacket and heard a boy somewhere behind me being berated for not staying where he was told.

There weren't many people in the street now, but they all seemed to know to avoid us.

"You're plotting," I decided.

Yahiko was smiling as he shook his head. "Maybe I'm just tired of making plans only for everyone around me to stomp them into the ground. Have you thought of that?"

"Do you think they're selling the sandwich you got me yesterday?" I asked, following him into the street.

"I could've said something important, you know," Yahiko said.

I shrugged. "I'll pay more attention when you tell me what we're really doing."

He didn't look down. "I can't believe my own sister doesn't believe me—"

"Excuse me," someone behind us warbled. "Would you help us find my daughter's restaurant? I was supposed to meet her there, but my mind isn't what is used to be, you see, and my brother is a hapless fool. No help at all, that one."

I stopped and half-turned back, taking in the embarrassed smile, her slightly hunched posture, and the old man behind her. His eyebrows hid his eyes and hung down to his chin.

"I'm sure my daughter wouldn't mind feeding you both for the trouble—"

"No," I said, and she paused.

"I don't think these old ears heard you correctly, dear—"

"If you wanted to attack us, you should've before," I told her, fully turning around. "Because this is a waste of time."

Yahiko laced his hands behind his head again. "It is suspicious that you came to us for help. I had to get ripped off just for anyone to do business with me."

Her smile froze. "Is that so?"

The old man shuffled closer and put his hand on her shoulder. "I think this game is over, sis."

"It wouldn't be if you kept your mouth shut, you old bag of bones," she said back, still smiling.

The brother turned towards us. "My sis came here to talk with you, not start a brawl in the middle of the street. She was very insistent about it."

"You talk too much," she said, glaring at him. "I knew I should've left you while you were napping."

I half-turned to Yahiko, not quite putting my back to them. "If you give me the scroll you have, I'll go look for the sandwich person myself."

Yahiko sighed, "Not that I don't have any faith in your bartering skills, and I don't, didn't I just say how empty my weapons pouch is?"

They paused. The old man moved his hand off her shoulder and her eyes flicked down to the nagamaki, then to me.

"You're awfully rude to your elders, girl," she said.

I tilted my head towards her. "And?"

She blinked at me for a second, and then she cackled. "I haven't been spoken to like this since the war. Too many have learned to flatter since it ended."

"Okay."

She only smiled. "You remind me a lot of my younger days."

The brother folded his arms in his sleeves. "Don't you think you're dragging this on too much, sis, even for you?"

"I think it's just enough, you dried up pear," she answered. She looked at me, then Yahiko with shrewder eyes. "As the pear gave away, I think it would benefit you greatly if we talked. A little beetle told me you've been staying at that inn back there."

"A beetle, huh?" Yahiko asked, shaking his head. "What benefit?"

She smiled kindly at him again, and I noticed suddenly the street around us was empty. The woman in front of Minshuku had gone inside.

"If you can make me believe that the rumors around you aren't true, I'll convince the noisier beetles to let you be on your way," she answered.

Yahiko grinned. "You make a compelling argument."

He knew, I mused.

Maybe he didn't know it would be them, but he'd known someone would stop us, and probably thought it'd be one of the beetles themselves.

If I thought about it, they had to confront us before we left Wind Country. They could follow us all the way to Amegakure, but that was dangerous, because no one would start a war over them if they didn't come back.

You'd start a war over one shithead?

"What makes you think we didn't do it?" I asked.

Yahiko paused, then shook his head at me.

What kind of picture did what we said earlier paint? We were shinobi, and we lied about where we were from.

"It would be easy to think you did, but anyone with any knowledge of the situation can see the timelines conflict," the brother answered. "All we know for sure is that you met with someone, and then you went one way and they the other. You left no footprints, but the other party did."

Sana was an agent of our village or from an allied village, we'd told them, and her bookstore was one big trap.

How much more attention would be on us if people went in there not knowing that and died?

"You found marks in the sand where the other party stopped and turned around, I know," Yahiko told him. "A bigger impression, probably, like they'd stayed there for a little while, then more marks where they turned back and kept going."

The brother didn't respond to that, but he lifted his eyebrows to stare at Yahiko. "You should've been arrested, even without concrete evidence, but many thought that might start an incident. Of course, if peace weren't so fragile or the village so weakened, we would be having this talk in a much different environment."

Yahiko's grin widened. "I suppose I'll have to be grateful for that then."

"We could've lied," I pointed out. "We could be missing-nin."

The brother turned that intense stare onto me, but I only stared back.

"You stink of a mission," the old woman said. "It tells me how little you know if you think one of them would be hired to meet with someone else to do something like this, instead of being sent to do it themselves."

Yahiko's eyes widened at that, just slightly.

I wondered what he was thinking.

Knowing what he'd do next, I started back towards the inn, and didn't look as I gestured them to follow me.

.

.

.

I looked at Yahiko as Ebizō picked the lock, grumbling and leaning close to the door.

He could've picked it himself, I knew, or he could've used the key he still on him.

He only didn't because the front desk was still abandoned and there was no one to ask about it, because we'd passed more than one confused patron looking for them, and because it told Yahiko a lot about Ebizō.

It told me that he wasn't like Rini, who Naga thought might need help as she served us. It said he had as much control over himself and his chakra as Yahiko, if not more.

I didn't have the patience for lockpicking when I was little, and I'd never seen Naga do it, but then his hands would always shake when he tried while being watched.

I glanced back at the door when I heard a click, and Ebizō slipped the pin or wire back up his sleeve before I could properly see it.

He'd done it faster than Yahiko too.

Ebizō went inside and Chiyo followed him, patting his arm. "Peace has made everyone soft. I won't hold it against you."

She cackled at the dark look he gave her.

Yahiko smiled at my frown when he took the windowsill. I slid the door closed, watching them take in the rolled-up futon, the smudges on the window, and the barely-there scrape on the mat where Sana's kunai fell.

"Did you find what you were looking for from your test?" Chiyo asked Yahiko.

I heard his startled laugh.

"I only did it out of fairness, since I can't say I know a lot about either of you," was all he said.

They didn't tell him.

It wasn't enough of an explanation that they were old and respected. Why would the village send them all the way here to talk to us and not someone who was already here?

"Where do you come from?" Ebizō asked, but my attention was on Chiyo.

I watched her kneel and slip a scroll out from her sleeve, thinking that all it would take was for me to aim my palm at her if she tried to attack us.

"Amegakure," Yahiko answered easily, settling back.

Ebizō's eyebrows lifted. "Hanzo the Salamander sent you to do this?"

Chiyo unrolled the scroll on the floor in front of her and glanced at me. "Until it's my turn, I thought you and I could play a little game."

I didn't move or speak, watching her summon a wooden board with circles cut out of it.

"Indulge a bored old woman, will you?" she asked.

"Not exactly," Yahiko answered. "Hanzo didn't send us because he doesn't lead Amegakure anymore. Hasn't for a long time."

Both of them stopped at that.

"Hanzo the Salamander was killed, and the effort didn't destroy half of Rain country?" Chiyo asked, scoffing.

"We were hired as mercenaries," Yahiko continued. "I can't really tell you the details, but let's say the husband of our client was killed, and we were the closest ones who would take on a revenge job."

We accept one mission with questionable ethics and everyone starts to think we're a group of mercenaries.

I glanced at the board. "What's the game?"

"And what you're wearing, that's the uniform of this new Amegakure?" Ebizō asked.

"That it is," Yahiko answered.

Chiyo glanced at me, at Yahiko, then at Ebizō. "You believe what he's saying?"

"It's not unexpected, is it? I agree that Hanzo isn't a man to go down quietly, but that place has generally been far too silent for him to still be alive, too."

Yahiko said nothing.

Chiyo didn't look satisfied with that but turned back to the board. "Mancala," she finally answered.

"Never heard of it."

"More entertainment for me watching you stumble around learning," she said, then pulled a small bag from her sleeve and shook marbles out into the holes.

I only hummed noncommittally as I watched her.

"You failed your mission," Ebizō concluded.

"I wouldn't use that word," Yahiko said, waving his hand. "The mission was harder than we were told, but that's not really anyone's fault. Even our contact was misled."

"If you want to stand there until they're done, I'll just play by myself," Chiyo told me, arranging marbles.

I hummed again, and then moved away from the door and sat across from her. Six holes were in a row on my side of the board, and six on hers, with two cylinder-shaped holes at the ends

"What about them misled you?" Ebizō asked.

"I wonder about that," Yahiko said airily.

"I'll only explain it once," Chiyo told me. She pointed at a cylinder-shaped hole. "You win if you get the most marbles there, and that one on the other side can only be used by me."

"You know," Yahiko began. "When Chiyo told me how little I knew about missing-nin, it reminded me of something someone else told me, not that long ago."

Chiyo scooped up marbles from a hole. "You can start from anywhere," she said, dropping one marble in each empty hole after the cylinder one, clockwise. "You drop one in your goal as you go along and keep going around the board until you run out."

"I keep thinking of what your plan was if we did say we'd follow you, and why you seem more interested in who we met over asking me about the Third Kazekage," Yahiko went on.

Chiyo dropped her last marble in an empty hole on my side. "That makes your turn, but if your last one ended up in an empty hole like that one, you take all the marbles across from it and put them in your goal."

"You're doing a poor job to convince me you shouldn't be watched," Ebizō said.

"Ah, that was why I agreed to come back here," Yahiko agreed. "But I think you're going to call them off anyway because it wasn't a Daimyo who sent you here. You came here because you think you know who we met but wasn't sure if it was really them, and you wanted to know if we knew where they went."

Chiyo stared hard at the board, eyes narrowed a little more than before, and it was the only thing that told me that what he said affected her, "The game also ends if you run out of marbles on your side, but if you let that happen, all the marbles on my side get added to my goal. Even if your goal is filled to the brim by then, you can still lose."

I moved to grab a handful on her side—

"You know what the fastest way to see if we've had contact with Sasori of the Red Sand is?" Yahiko asked. "It's to use one of his poisons on us, because the only way we could've survived an encounter with him is if we're somehow immune."

I went still, hand hovering above a hole. The marbles were reflective, different opaque colors, and I hadn't been watching too closely on where she put them, or if she made sure to put them in a certain way.

I dropped my hand, looked at Chiyo, and leapt over the board at her.

Her eyes narrowed a little but she didn't move. Her fingers twitched.

My right hand jerked to the side, just enough for my fingers to miss my weapons pouch, and her other hand caught my punch.

"So, it was Sasori who did this?" she asked distantly, like she'd known, but wished otherwise. Her eyes darkened a little, and I really didn't care.

I spared a quick glance at the blue strings attached to my right arm, and then I laughed, because I barely had to think to absorb them.

Her eyes widened. "What—how did you—"

I only smiled as I spun a kunai into my palm—

"I need her alive," Yahiko said.

I stopped, glancing back. "Need her?"

He was on his feet, nagamaki pushing back against Ebizo's kunai, but he wasn't looking at him. "Diplomacy is important to me," he said, half-exasperated.

Ebizo stared intensely at him. "This isn't a game," he shouted.

I looked at Chiyo again and saw a scroll in her hand, watching the way her nails dug into the material, but she didn't unroll it. She stared at me with suddenly wide, disbelieving eyes.

I leaned closer to her, and her hand shook around my fist. "Keep fighting," I warned. "And I'll kill you. I won't be nice about it."

She dropped the scroll and raised an arm, warding me off or cowering from me, but I didn't think it was just because of what I did or said.

I stood. I didn't know what skills Ebizō had, but most would be hindered by how small the room was, and how many would be caught in the crossfire.

"How much damage could an earth jutsu do here?" I asked, turning my back on Chiyo.

Ebizō stood apart from Yahiko, kunai held up to defend himself if need be. "Don't try to bluff me," he said without looking.

I hummed at that and made the half-snake seal.

His eyes snapped to me. "You can't—There would be consequences—"

"That's never mattered to me before," I cut him off.

He stared at me for another second, and then he held up his hands and stepped back. His kunai bounced off the mat as his eyebrows fell to hide his eyes again.

Yahiko leaned the nagamaki on his shoulder and I took the windowsill.

"Who is Sasori to you anyway?" he asked.

I put my legs up.

"You think we're obligated to answer anything you ask? After that?" Ebizō asked.

Yahiko pointed the nagamaki at him and smiled. "You started it," he reminded him. "And it might've sounded like a question, but I wasn't asking. She's right, you know. I did see a lot of people here."

Diplomacy, he'd said.

He wouldn't do it, but what did that matter if they believed he would?

"If anyone say, outside this room, tried to ambush us on our way out, I can't really say how bloody it'll get," Yahiko said. "If no one does, we'll leave quietly."

What did it matter when I would?

I leaned back against the glass.

"It doesn't matter," Ebizō answered, helping Chiyo up. "There's always been something off about Sasori. If this is how Ame-nin behave during peacetime, he may as well be one of you."

"Well, that's good to hear," Yahiko said, and sheathed his blade as he turned to leave.

I wanted a window like this, I thought, slipping off the sill to follow him.

"It was only up close when I saw—that I remembered—my grandmother would tell me stories of the Rinnegan as a girl, and the power of the last man who wielded it," Chiyo said, and I stopped. "How was someone like you given it, of all people?"

I didn't turn around. "Maybe they should stay stories. Like the one where you came and met us here. Or the one where you threatened the leader of Amegakure and started a war."

I looked, just long enough to see Chiyo's eyes widen before I left, lifting my hand in a wave.

A/N: 蠍 - Scorpion