Hizashi didn't growl, but it was a very near thing.

He'd never been more certain in his life that the elders were actively campaigning for the destruction of the Hyuuga clan, and he hated them for it.

"Are you the clan head? Are you? Are you? No—none of you are. My brother is the clan head, and he decreed that the caged bird seal would be removed." Why were they even having this conversation? The seal would be ready, at the earliest, that winter, and fall was barely beginning to edge up to Konoha's door.

But then, Hizashi knew exactly why the elders were trying to reinstate the seal—his brother was in the hospital, still weak and exhausted from the latest of Orochimaru's attempts. And he'd been an ardent supporter of the seal, finally managed to push it through when enough of the elders died during the byoki attack that new elders had to be introduced, elders as young as forty, elders who were more willing to trust Hiashi, to see the immorality of their current control.

Only three had ascended, and only two who supported the new seal (more because of its additional uses than its less depraved nature) but two was enough; Hiashi's vote counted as three and there were only five elders.

But now he was in the hospital.

Now there were three elders who wanted the caged bird seal, the labor it provided them, free of any cost except the cost to their souls.

And they could do it, they could overturn Hiashi's command as simply as they wished.

But he would just reinstate it the second he came back.

So instead they were trying to change the contract with Yamanaka Rento, they were trying to find out what it would take to include the caged bird seal in the new seal and then pay it, force Hiashi to allow the seal or else become a contract-breaker.

In his mind, Hizashi knew that Yamanaka Rento would never agree.

In his heart, Hizashi knew his brother would rather break the contract then allow the new seal to contain the same shackles.

But it had been hours, now, hours of torture as the seal was activated over, and over, and over again, and—

It was breaking him.

They wanted him to be the one to talk to Rento.

Probably thought it would be more convincing, that way.

He knew he should probably accept.

He knew he should probably bend, go there.

But what example would that set?

No, he would take it.

Take it until he physically couldn't any longer.

Let the elders try.

And, most of all, let them see how his twin responded to the image of himself, of the suffering, of what it was like to be pushed so far that Hizashi could no longer stand, could no longer—

Another wave of impossibly intense pain.

Hizashi screamed.

One, maybe two more uses, and he'd lose his voice.

But he would not give in.

.

Miki smiled, babbling up at Ibiki as he carefully pushed the ball back the baby's way.

"When will you learn your new team?" Aiko asked, handing him a cup of tea.

"Not for a bit," Ibiki said. "Loads of promotions, so they're sorting through them all and creating teams out of the leftovers."

He kept the bitterness out of his voice, but it was a very near thing. At every step in his education he seemed to be held back, denied promotions he was already prepared for.

Of course, he hadn't really made it that far into the tournament section anyway; maybe he wouldn't have been promoted even if he was old enough.

(He thought he'd just gotten an unlucky pairing, but still.)

"Well, easy money until you do," Aiko said. "Miki's an easy baby, and Konoha's still running me and Yasuo ragged."

"Hey, um… you were friends with my mom, right?"

"I was, yes."

"Did… did she, um, tell you… who my dad was?"

He didn't look up, but he could feel Aiko's eyes on him.

"Only in very vague terms. You could ask Aunt Sakura? I think she talked a lot more about it to her."

Ibiki made a face.

"Maybe one of your mom's old roommates?"

"They're all dead," Ibiki said. "Or abroad. The local ones both died during the byoki attack."

He still didn't look up, just kept passing the ball back and forth to Miki. Miki was having a blast, at least; his pudgy little hands reaching out well before the ball was in reach.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

Ibiki hummed. It had been nice to have them, to visit them, but they'd just been friends of his mom. It didn't hurt as much as it would have if any of his guardians had died.

(It had hurt, though.

(Had killed, that he hadn't asked any of the hundreds of questions he had when he had the chance.

(Had ached, that he'd never gotten to really say goodbye.

(Had pained, that he'd never really expressed his love, how much he appreciated them keeping him in mind, bringing him little gifts, telling him stories.

(It had hurt.)

"I really don't know who your dad was," Aiko said. "She just told me that he was nice, and made her really happy. You'll have to ask Sakura if you want more."

"Yeah."

.

Their name was spreading.

It was a point of pride for all three of them—even when they were focused on something else entirely, their side missions taking on bandit camps, missing nin, and infiltrators had been steadily bumping them up, up, up in the BINGO books.

Soon, Kakashi was sure, they'd be S-ranked—they were A-ranked already, and that was with their sealing secrets remaining just that.

Not, mind you, that Kakashi was going to let his 'furry secret' slip—not only had it been pounded into his head what a bad idea it was to let his condition slip, but it was also—

It was one thing to be known, and in the BINGO books.

It was one thing for a clear illustration to be included, for a detailed description of their skills, or even seemingly-irrelevant information.

It was quite another for the three of them to be their own entry.

They were in the BINGO book too, of course, as individuals, but far more lowly ranked, with much, much lower bounties.

Those weren't the entries that excited Kakashi.

The entry that excited Kakashi was the one for the three followers of Hachiman, a description—given that it had him and his teammates as divine protectors of the people—which pleased him.

They wore all black, covering their clothes, hair, face—everything.

They were slightly different sizes, of course, but what few sightings of them survived hadn't seemed to have caught that.

Instead the BINGO entry was only somewhat sure that there were three of them, and not more or fewer.

What it was sure about was that they were deadly.

Or, at least, they could be.

Rin had very strong (very negative) opinions about killing Fire locals, so usually when they caught a local doing something awful they just strung them up in the nearest town center with an explanation in simple language written on the offender's clothing.

Obito was sure that's why they'd gotten a name in the first place.

He was probably right.

Kakashi was mostly just proud of all the zeroes in their bounty.

"How would they prove it was us?" Rin asked. "I mean, couldn't they just grab some nobody, wrap them up in black fabric, and turn them in?"

Obito shrugged. "That's probably why the bounty's only for living captures. They'd want to, like, interrogate us and stuff. Hey, can you read the known skills again?"

Kakashi grinned. "Yeah. So, we're known to have a mastery of all five elements—"

"Both of you suck at water. Suck. Mastery isn't even in sight. I'm not even a master at water! I just know a few jutsu!"

"—enhanced tracking, strong genjutsu, sword mastery—"

"None of us use a sword. How did that get in there?"

"—large chakra reserves, chakra hiding, chakra sensing, poison use, poison immunity, and access to storage seals."

"It's amazing how much they don't know," Obito said. He sounded very content.

"Watch them find us!"

"This is so completely not what we're supposed to be focusing on," Rin moaned. She was trying to suppress a smile, though, so Kakashi ignored her.

Far above them the colors of the sky began to change, the sun settling in and allowing the world to be blanketed in darkness.

Kakashi grinned, pulling on his headpiece and standing. "Almost dark, Obito."

Rin moved too, helping Kakashi clean any trace of them from their camping site while Obito re-sealed the last of their things.

"East or west?" Obito asked. They'd lost the trail last night, but it seemed unlikely the current blob of byoki they were chasing was going to keep heading north in the time it had to get away—they might have been chasing it north, but that was mostly because they'd been driving it away from the coast, and had ended up pushing in that direction quite by accident. Now, however, they had to guess where the controlled byoki—because this blob was fleeing, which meant it was currently acting much smarter than it usually did—would go next.

"West, I think," Kakashi decided. "More land, more possibilities."

"So, toward the Land of Rice?" Rin confirmed.

Kakashi nodded.

The three of them didn't need any other sign—they were off, and the chase continued.

.

Fujio had not been caught sneaking out of the hospital.

He'd just been caught in the general vicinity of the hospital, looking perhaps more furtive than normal.

That wasn't sneaking.

It was just walking.

Maybe he was trying to be quiet because it wasn't even dawn—maybe he'd sensed his sister's eyes on him and that's why he was looking around!

He didn't know what it was, if it was the fact that she was refusing to let go of him or the fact that he was being bodily dragged back toward the hospital, but he had a feeling Sakura wouldn't believe him.

He didn't—

This was not a conversation that he wanted to have.

Ever.

Ideally, he'd be dead and buried before anybody had to find out.

Unfortunately, he'd severely underestimated Sakura's strength and ability and they were almost at the hospital doors and he couldn't get free and—

"Wait!"

Sakura stopped.

Fujio didn't want to continue.

She moved to start again.

"Wait!" He took a breath. "Look, it's—it's not anything bad, or anything. Or, like, anything… awful."

"Then why were you sneaking?"

He really wished she had a point, really wished that ninja sneaking out without medical permission wasn't such a well-known issue.

"I just had to go in for a check-up, that's all."

"And you snuck away?"

Fujio was sure his entire everything was red. "I got a stupid STD, okay?"

"That's it?"

"I promise."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Hope it's a treatable one."

"Thanks." Fujio deadpanned. Then Sakura actually let go of him, and he nodded in more sincere gratitude. "What were you doing here anyway?"

And now it was Sakura's turn to look reluctant.

"Just… checking some things out."

"What things?"

"Job-related things, not health-related things." Which severely diminished his ability to be a pushy brother. That wasn't fair.

"Fine, fine. Don't tell me."

"I won't," Sakura said. "Don't worry."

"Alright, well, if that's all—"

"Actually, can I ask you a favor?"

Fujio groaned. "Really?"

"Really."

"Fine. What?"

"Could you go with Rento to the meeting at the Hyuuga Compound tomorrow? I feel like they're going to try something, but I can't get enough time off."

Fujio rolled his eyes. "And I'm in town, which means I must be off. Yeah, fine. Are you really worried, though?"

Sakura's eyes looked deader than he'd ever seen them. "Yes."