Koichi finally caught up with them a little before noon, and it took the better part of the day for them to scout the northern border and remove old traps from the side of the mountain.
"I can't believe how old some of those paper bombs were," Koichi said as they sat down for their evening meal in a small sandwich shop. "I bet they date to back to the Second Great Ninja War."
"Some of them, definitely." Niko Sensei flipped his menu around, scanning their options like he probably hadn't been here a hundred times. For Rei, the experience was novel. She'd never ordered food from a restaurant before.
"What's a Reuben sandwich?"
"Corned beef, sauerkraut, and cheese," said Niko Sensei.
After a brief pause, "What's sauerkraut?"
"Pickled cabbage," from Utakata.
More quietly, Rei asked, "What's corned beef?"
"Just get the sandwich." Koichi leaned forward to take a sip of his water. "It doesn't matter what's in it. It's delicious."
"Okay." Pickled cabbage didn't sound great, and the idea of some combination of cow and corn was too strange for her to wrap her mind around. But Koichi endorsed it, so she was willing to try it.
Niko Sensei stood and motioned for Rei to follow. "This is a vital skill for surviving in the real world," he said. "Watch and learn. This is how one orders food at a restaurant."
They walked up to a desk where a young woman was collecting money and Niko Sensei ran his hand back through his thick hair, just like he used to do when talking with Hina Sensei. Rei rolled her eyes behind his back. She was prepared to watch him order, but her attention was stolen when a large, very obviously male hand settled on the back of her neck beneath her ponytail. It didn't squeeze, but there was a definite threat in the movement.
"It's been a while," Zane Sensei said in a harsh whisper, leaning down specifically to exhale on her ear. "I was wondering if you had run off and died."
Rei was shocked that she wasn't afraid. She had friends and a sensei here to protect her. Her lungs squeezed painfully, and every nerve and cell in her small body urged her to whip around and strangle her old teacher. The one who had murdered Risa.
Her ability, her kekkei genkai, was beginning to thrash behind the barrier as her anger rose. No. Stay back. Build the wall stronger. She had to shut her eyes for a moment to concentrate.
"You've grown in the last few months," he continued quietly. She felt the light pressure of his lips, his nose on the top of her head, and he inhaled deeply while she saw red. "You're looking so much better."
Finally,Niko Sensei came to his senses and stopped flirting with the girl behind the counter. When he saw what was going on, he crossed the six feet between them in two furious steps and wrenched Rei out of Zane Sensei's grip. Rei's footing was tenuous as her sensei let go, but she found her balance and grabbed onto the counter while Niko Sensei kept his body in front of her.
The few people in the restaurant were now staring at them warily. If there was going to be a fight, they were ready to clear out. "Wow," Zane Sensei said, putting his hands in his pockets nonthreateningly. "What an overreaction."
After a few deep breaths, Niko Sensei shut his eyes and straightened. "You're right. Sorry. It's the first time I've brought her in public."
Zane Sensei's eyebrows went up. "You've been keeping her in your apartment for months? Man, it's a wonder she's not white as a piece of paper." Rei's stomach was rolling in revulsion, and her neck burned. She touched her fingers to her throat, wincing at the sting. "Sorry about that, Rei," Zane Sensei said, leaning around Niko Sensei to see her. "He jerked you away so fast that I may have tightened my grip a little too much. Shinobi instincts and all that."
Rei could see Utakata and Koichi from where she stood. Until a moment ago they had been oblivious, but upon seeing her with her hand on her neck, they stood from their seats and started working their way up to the front of the restaurant silently. People were beginning to trickle out, uncomfortable with the new atmosphere, and the girl behind the counter had disappeared.
"Whatever you're doing to her, it must be working." Zane Sensei's voice had taken on a new quality, one that didn't help Rei's nausea. "She's starting to fill out. How long are you going to keep her around?"
"Hey, what's going on?" Koichi's overly chipper voice sounded so painfully fake as he marched over to Niko Sensei and gave Zane Sensei a once-over. "Wow, Sensei, it's been like three years. Did you hear how like half of the Cypher Corps got taken out last week?"
The hesitation on Zane Sensei's part was intentional, heavy. His eyes clamped back on Rei, serpent-like. "Of course. Kisame Hoshigaki graduated the year after me. We knew he'd be the survivor in that group from the beginning. There'd be no one better to eliminate our own."
Utakata took the moment of brief distraction to slide his fingers around Rei's wrist and pull her away from the counter and towards the door. However, Zane Sensei's eyes never left her. She could feel the ice from his gaze on the back of her neck until she was out the building and around the corner.
As soon as she was through the door, the breath she'd been holding exploded in a sob, and Utakata tightened his grip, tugging her towards the street. "Can you run?" He didn't wait for an answer; he just burst into motion, leading her along. She ran on adrenaline, and she didn't see anything that they passed. All she could see was Risa's face the night she'd died.
They finally entered a pretty well-to-do neighborhood, and Utakata pulled a shiny silver key from his jacket pocket. He stopped before a solid black door with a silver knocker. The key let him in easily, and when she hesitated, he grabbed her wrist again and pulled her inside.
She didn't bother looking around. She just fell to her knees and let her trembling arms hold her up. She heard the latches on the door snick soundly, and then Utakata was kneeling in front of her. "What was that about?" he asked. Rei couldn't be sure if his voice was really emotionless, or if she was just too emotional to interpret it. Her anger was gone as if it had never existed.
There was no speaking now. Every time she tried, her voice broke into uncontrollable heaving cries, and her arms finally gave out underneath her. She knew that she looked like a puddle of misery, but she didn't care. How could Zane Sensei appear in front of her on her very first day out of the bunker?
She didn't know how long she was on the floor, how many times Utakata's feet passed her blurry field of vision before his hands were under her shoulders, helping her to her feet. She let herself be led to an expansive dining table, bigger even than the table at the orphanage, and she let herself be served a cup of hot, bitter tea.
While she drank and while her emotions tried to settle rationally, Utakata sat across from her. He kept checking the clock across the room, arms crossed over his chest. To any passersby, he'd look like the picture of disinterested serenity. But Rei could sense the disruptions in his chakra, the questions that he was barely holding in.
When her mug was empty, Rei cleared her throat. "Thanks," she whispered. With her breakdown subsiding, she finally took stock of her surroundings. This was more than an apartment. It was more like a full-sized house with other houses above it. It was immaculate. The walls were a clean off-white with some kind of fancy trim along the ceiling and the floors, and the hard wood floor that she'd cried on for who knows how long was so shiny that she could see her reflection in it from where she sat at the table. Several different rooms could be reached from the open dining room, and Rei looked back at her teammate. Her voice was still strained when she said, "No wonder you don't live at the safehouse."
He scoffed. "We're not talking about that. What happened back there?"
"I don't know," she answered after a moment. "What was he doing there? What was with the touching?" She rubbed at her neck again, relieved that it no longer stung, but knowing that it would bruise.
"Yeah, that's going to be dark tomorrow." Utakata got up from his seat and came around beside her, setting his hand atop her head and tilting it slightly to the side. With an instinct she thought she'd conquered, Rei smacked his arm away. He held up both hands in surrender, backing a foot away. "I've got some salve that might help with the bruising."
Utakata disappeared into one of the rooms and Rei buried her head in her arms. This was not how she'd imagined her first day out to be. When Utakata returned, he held a clear little jar with a decorative glass lid out to her. As she applied the eucalyptus-scented cream to her neck, Utakata sat next to her, resting his arms on his knees. "Can you talk about it?"
"I don't know."
After a short pause, he asked, "Can I ask you some questions?"
"Fine." She felt ridiculous. Zane Sensei hadn't even done anything to her.
Utakata's mouth opened slightly, then shut. Opened again, then shut. He looked like a fish, but Rei couldn't find it in herself to be amused. "Can you explain… why Niko Sensei was shielding you from another Jonin?"
Rei's reflection on the floor seemed much more willing to answer than she herself was. "He was a sensei at the Academy. He killed my best friend."
"And?"
Rei tore her gaze from the floor. "That's not enough?"
A slight tightening of his shoulders, a flicker of bright eyes. "It doesn't seem like it is."
It had darkened outside only a little while ago, but it seemed like midnight to Rei. The darkest part of night. It might as well be; she was revealing her darkest memories. Wrapping her arms around herself in a makeshift hug, one exponentially less comforting than one Kohana would have offered, Rei murmured, "No, I can't. Just living in the B barracks was enough. I don't want to talk about it anymore."
Sudden understanding dawned in Utakata's expression, and Rei knew she didn't have to say anything more. "Oh," he breathed. "I'd…forgotten." He shook his head, looking as uncomfortable as Rei felt. There was nothing to speak about anymore. He knew everything he needed to. So she was surprised when she heard his voice again. "He's the one who picked you?"
"No. Niko Sensei was." When Utakata started and rose to his feet, she amended her statement. "But he didn't do anything to me. He kept everyone else away." Risa's blank face, pale as flour, assaulted Rei's mind again. She lurched up and stumbled to the sink, emptying the contents of her midday meal into the drain.
She slid down the counter when she was sure nothing else was coming up, vision swimming. It was like nothing had changed. She was right back where she was six months ago. She was just a little orphan girl in the cruelest country in the world.
Utakata fixed her a cup of water, and she nearly dropped the unexpectedly heavy crystal glass before she could take a single sip. The water sloshed against the decorative engravings as her hand trembled. "I need to go out and figure out where Niko Sensei and Koichi are. Will you be alright by yourself?"
Rei guessed that she nodded, because Utakata was gone when she looked back up. Crashing her head back against the counter, she wondered if he would care if she crashed on one of those expensive couches. The open living room was only about twenty feet away, and she honestly wasn't sure if she possessed the willpower at this point to get there.
She was just pulling herself into a standing position when the latches on the door began to rattle and slide open. It wasn't Utakata.