"We should get back," Utakata muttered, hefting half of the load. The groceries and a new blanket had cost Rei a decent percentage of her savings, but what else was there to spend her money on?
"I still have to meet Kisame," she replied, but she couldn't hide her anxiety, her fear. Why wouldn't she be counted under the umbrella of the village?
"That can wait."
"They won't know why we didn't show."
"We'll leave a message with the secretary."
Utakata was too reasonable to fight with, and Rei's mind was otherwise occupied. They did as he'd suggested and took the shortest route back to her apartment, dumping the bags on the floor and locking up immediately. "Niko Sensei wanted me to check on Leo."
"Leo's fine; he's always fine. There are bigger things to worry about right now, Rei."
Utakata was descending the stairs in front of her, and she reached out and poked the back of his shoulder, hard, when they'd reached the bottom. "Why are you in such a hurry?"
He didn't look back at her, but he slowed his urgent pace. "I don't know what you mean."
Rei pursed her lips in annoyance. "I bet you won't know what I mean when I do this, either." Almost without consciously deciding to do it, she kicked a glob of mud-darkened snow at him. Her accidental aim was right on point, and it splattered against the back of his left thigh.
He stopped. And for a moment, so did Rei's heartrate.
"I am not juvenile enough to respond to that cheap shot," he said evenly.
"Oh, whatever." Rei walked past him, not looking back. "You're a Shinobi; your reflexes should have been good enough to get you out of the way."
"Not if I was expecting my squadmate to have my back instead of stabbing it." When she glanced at him this time, he was grinning, just a tiny bit. It disarmed her. It disarmed her enough not to see it coming when he grabbed her shoulder and shoved her to the side, forcing her off her feet and into a dirty snowbank. "Whose reflexes need work now?"
For a moment, her shoulder buried in slush, Rei felt a resurgence of that old panic that used to take over before pain training. But then Utakata was holding his hand out to her to help her up, and she allowed herself to be hauled to her feet. "You're a jerk," she said sullenly, brushing off her jacket and pants. Her fingers burned with the cold.
As per usual, Rei reached out with thin fingers of chakra to ensure that no one was near and watching when she and Utakata got nearer to the safehouse. "Have you seen Niko Sensei and Koichi, yet?" she asked.
Before he got a chance to answer, Rei's mind filled with words that she wasn't creating herself. It was the strangest sensation she'd ever had, and she had to stop mid-step when her focus on something as simple as walking suddenly became too difficult.
Take notice, the voice declared in a deep, male, monotone voice. It sounded vaguely like Headmaster Iwa. Takeru Osaragi has violated the conditions of the Liberators' Seal. Take all necessary precautions.
The moment the voice faded from her consciousness, Rei heard Utakata mutter an expletive. "Go, now. Inside," he commanded, shoving her towards the door of Headmaster Iwa's house. "This is bad."
They ran down the secret stairs to the common area of the safehouse, where Rei was surprised to see quite a gathering of Shinobi in various degrees of tension around the room. Headmaster Iwa was seated at the dining table, papers spread chaotically in front of him, and Kohana was seated to his left, head in her hands and shoulders shaking. A few men that Rei distantly recognized from Utakata's Sealing ritual were scattered about, arguing loudly, but Rei couldn't make out their words. One was yelling across the room at Headmaster Iwa. "What's the next step? We aren't ready!"
Much to Rei's surprise, she easily recognized the two quieter inhabitants who were keeping to the far right, away from the chaos. Kisame and Mangetsu were here, both with their swords still strapped to their backs, both with their arms crossed across their chests. They were like living statues, completely still, observing.
"We need to get a message out to the others," Kohana nearly whispered. Rei barely heard her, but her voice threw the rest of the room into near silence. "But discretely. They're going to be looking for anyone moving in groups or with any special urgency."
"I'll do it," Mangetsu volunteered, stepping away from the wall. "There won't be any suspicion if one of the Swordsmen is patrolling the village and asking questions."
"Absolutely not." Headmaster Iwa looked away from his papers and stood, suddenly animated. "More eyes will be on you than ever before. He's going to be using the Seven to try and hunt us down." Pressing his lips together emotionlessly, Mangetsu nodded once.
"I need to do it." All eyes fell on Kohana as she stood on shaky legs. "They'll be coming for me, anyway. I need to be where they'll expect to find me."
"Wait, wait, wait," one of the unnamed men said, waving his arms before him rapidly. "If they'll be looking for you, they'll look into whoever's home you visit."
"We've prepared for this inevitability, remember?" Kohana crossed the room stoically, setting her hand firmly on Rei's shoulder in passing, taking her weapons pouch from a peg by the stairwell. "I'll leave a short message in each of the agreed-upon locations."
Rei's heart thudded hard. She'd recognized the name that had been so calmly stated into her mind. "What's happened?" she found herself whispering.
No one seemed to want to answer her. It was Kohana who finally spoke. "Now you get to see the real consequences of what we're doing, Rei. My husband was arrested early this morning. We don't know why or what led the Mizukage to him. But something has happened that—" Her voice broke, only for a second. "That made him attempt to share our secret. Now he's under the Seal's paralysis, and no matter what they do to him, he will not be able to speak."
"They'll come for his family next." Headmaster Iwa was coming their way now, and he set his hands on Rei's shoulders, looking her solidly in the eye. "Takeru will likely be executed for his crimes." Rei shot her eyes to Kohana, whose eyes still shone liquidly, but whose face was set in a mask. "And Kohana will likely follow. This is the path we have chosen."
When Rei forced her eyes from Headmaster Iwa's gaze, she saw that everyone in the room wore the same expression: an unmoving, determined look of resolution. Utakata shook his head faintly. "I'll get the message out instead. We can't risk someone tracing the message to Kohana when others find it." When someone tried to interject, Utakata interrupted. "I'm of noble blood. I'll be fine."
"Good." Headmaster Iwa released Rei, nearly knocking her over in his haste to turn, and scribbled something down a piece of paper. "This is what they need to know. Bare minimum. We'll have to cease meeting in person for now."
Rei watched as Utakata gave Kohana a short, respectful nod before disappearing back up the stairs. "Time is short. Koichi would try to stop me." Kohana said, buckling her weapons pouch around her waist and pulling her pale hair back in a tight ponytail. "You'll take care of my son?"
Headmaster Iwa put his hands together and bowed to her respectfully. "With my life."
Rei's eyes burned. Kohana met her gaze for only a moment before pulling her close, pressing Rei's head into the hollow of her neck. "Take care of yourself, dear." Rei kept her eyes tightly shut, willing the tears back, as Kohana raised her head regally. "It's been an honor to know you all." She made for the stairs, but stopped and looked back to Headmaster Iwa. "Tell him…" Her mouth gaped, and she couldn't seem to finish her request.
"We know, Kohana." Headmaster Iwa approached her and pulled her into a tight embrace, letting her sob for several long moments. "We never would have come this far without you and Takeru. Koichi will be under my protection for the rest of my life, however long that may be."
Kohana lifted her head, wiping away the tears from her blotchy face, and nodded.
Then she was gone, ascending the stairs without looking back.
"Rei," Headmaster Iwa said quietly. "Please go check on Koichi."
"No." Kisame Hoshigaki moved for the first time, drawing all attention to himself. "She needs to leave."
"It is not imperative—"
"It is the most important thing we could do," Kisame insisted when Headmaster Iwa tried to interrupt. "We are more powerful than the foundation could have ever imagined in the beginning. But until we have a Tailed Beast of our own, we are only a shadow of them."
"Them?" Rei's voice had fallen to a whisper, her mind racing to keep up with every word that fell from their mouths.
"Lord Fourth and his puppet-master." When Mangetsu spoke now, the muttered and frantic arguments around the room fell silent. "We don't dare speak about it anywhere else. Most of us are now aware that the Mizukage alone is not to blame for the decline of the village."
He turned his gaze meaningfully to Kisame, who said, "The puppet-master revealed himself to me when I killed my predecessor. He effectively has full control over Lord Fourth and the Three Tails."
A Tailed Beast… Utakata had mentioned something about that before the world fell apart. "How are we supposed to get one of those?" Her words pushed a tear over the edge of her eyelid.
"You are going to help us," Mangetsu said. "Tailed Beasts are just sentient embodiments of chakra. And if what we saw a few days ago from you is any indication, you should be able to weaken one enough for us to capture."
"And then implant into the Shinobi of our choosing," Kisame finished.
Headmaster Iwa grunted in affirmation. "Go. I trust you implicitly. Collect Utakata when he finishes his task and take him along. He works well with her."
Rei allowed herself to be shuffled back to her room to throw together a travel bag. Her head was spinning and everything seemed to be wrapped in fog. This wasn't how her day was supposed to go. She was supposed to be moving back to her apartment. She was supposed to be meeting with Kisame to learn how to use her sword. The foundation wasn't supposed to be found out.
Koichi. I need to see him. He didn't even know that his parents were gone.
She was just turning towards his room when Mangetsu stopped her and gripped her bicep, hard. "Hurry," he muttered roughly. "We need to get out before the Anbu mobilize."
There was no chance to ground herself in what was now reality. She was forced up the steps with no ceremony, no goodbyes, and felt the biting winter air attack her cheeks when Mangetsu and Kisame on either side of her led her into the open. All three had swords strapped to their backs, and Rei reached back for the hilt of hers for reassurance. Of all things in her life right at this moment, The Bastard felt most solid.
"Can you keep up?" Mangetsu asked, not looking at her.
"Yes."
There was no need for stealth. No one was around. Not yet.
"They've all taken shelter," Mangetsu muttered as they ran, keeping to the shadows. "Most of them have nothing to do with us, but they're terrified of getting caught in the crossfire." Even having their names mentioned could spell death, Rei knew well.
Rei had never seen the streets so empty. The store owners had retreated, shut their shops and shaded the windows. Homes had shuttered windows. Even the Academy was under a kind of lockdown, and all the students had been pulled back inside. "Isn't it suspicious that we're out here when no one else is?" Rei asked, following Kisame's steps, leaping to the top of the doctor's office with ease.
"No." Kisame paused, surveying their surroundings. "The Seven are fearless. The Fourth will expect us to keep the peace." He sneered with undisguised disdain. "But you? Yes. Quickly." He leapt off the building, each of his strides taking at least two of hers to keep up, and she could tell that the two men were restraining themselves from moving at top speed.
"Maybe we should have Sealed her in a scroll," Mangetsu muttered. Kisame came to such an abrupt stop that Rei almost slammed into his back. Kisame yanked a scroll from his weapons pouch and unrolled it in a single motion, mid-air.
The last thing Rei heard before her consciousness was forcibly snuffed out was Mangetsu's deadpan voice. "I was joking."