"I can't remember your scent,

It's covered by waves,

I'm going to grab hold of the rest of my dreams,

So wait for me,"

-give it back, Cö Shu Nie

Nagato hadn't thought of himself as an angry person, not until Oka pushed him, and he realized just how angry he was.

How long did he and Oka suffer because Konoha-nin killed their—

His anger was like a kettle on a stove, filling, overflowing, spilling all over the floor and under his feet while he desperately tried not to hear the shrill whistle behind him.

He didn't know, didn't want to know what would've happened had his anger spilled out on its own, scalding and setting fire to everything around him.

How much guilt had Tsunade-sensei's nindo left him with—

If that'd happenedhe didn't think he'd ever be able to put himself back together again.

His was all too aware of it now, that anger.

How could Yahiko tell him he couldn't understand how he felt when he was keeping himself together through sheer will alone—

Nagato heard that distant shrill whistle in his head as he fell, eyes fixed on where Zetsu's white half hid underground.

He wished he didn't remember the aftermath of Osamu's death.

He'd studied anatomy so much that he knew what each severed piece used to be, where they were supposed to go, how wrong it was that they were everywhere—

The earth caved in under his feet. Mud flew up as he reached down, breaking through the dirt until he felt skin that was at once smooth like a petal and wrinkled like rotten fruit. Even with nature energy he could barely sense Zetsu.

His chakra felt the same as the grass or trees normally, but he was human, too, just enough that he stood out like a dying sapling in a green field.

Nagato grabbed a shoulder—

"Hey, wait," the plant-man began, pushing aside dirt to stare at him. Half of his body was deformed and he was cocooned in a fly trap. "How can you sense me?"

Nagato didn't answer. He kept his eyes on white Zetsu as he bit his thumb, shoved his palm to the ground, and summoned Namekuji.

"You're her brother, right? I don't think eating you will help Tobi, but no one's ever been able to sense me before," Zetsu thought aloud. "What do I do? You won't let me get this close to you again, but she's watching us—"

Namekuji appeared next to him—

"Take us to Shikkotsu."

—and de-summoned himself just as fast.

"Oh, well." The spines of the fly-trap curled up to envelop him, and then they disappeared and reappeared in the middle of a grassy field. Zetsu stopped to look at the bright blue veins of a giant tree as Nagato made the reverse ram sign.

"Where did you—"

Nagato spat stomach acid at him, bubbling through the arm he held up and hissing at his torso and face. The green spines creeping over him melted into green sludge as Namekuji shot acid at it from the outside.

But even as Zetsu's jaw dripped like wax, he didn't stop smiling.

Has a muscular system, but not a circulatory one. Plant-like in the lack of human organs.

A droopy hand shot up through the spray and grabbed his wrist, surprising him into breaking the sign as he jerked back.

Even if he hadn't, looking at the face forming in the puddle told him that acid wouldn't kill Zetsu. This wasn't any kind of immortality he'd seen. Even Hidan had taken hours to heal enough from a crushed heart to yell at him.

Nagato backed off, watching Zetsu sit up, healing as pieces of himself kept dropping off.

A white spot was forming on his wrist, growing into wriggling fingers and part of a hand. He didn't look at it as he wasted nature energy to make his slime coat thicker. It made him slower, but the jutsu, or whatever it was, fell off with the slime he was dripping.

He watched Zetsu hold his face together and knew he couldn't fight Zetsu without Sage Mode.

"Ah, you can even take care of my spores? That's no fun," Zetsu said, his speech mangled. "But I've learned a lot. It's too bad I couldn't kill you. Well, bye-bye."

Nagato was trying to kill him, and it was just a game to him.

Zetsu waved, his face drooping down, and Nagato didn't move. He kept watching as Zetsu patted the ground in confusion. "Huh. I've never had this happen either."

Nagato clenched his fists.

"This isn't a pocket dimension, is it?" Zetsu asked. "How would you even have one?"

"I don't need one. Shikkotsu recognizes my hostile intent. The earth won't answer you here. You should've left when you had the chance."

Zetsu poked at the dirt. "One of the lost Sage lands? Oh! You were the student of that big-breasted lady—"

"Distract him for me," Nagato said over him.

"Huh?"

Acid sprayed Zetsu from behind and Nagato sat and crossed his legs, bringing his hands together as he released a tense breath. Zetsu's sputtering faded into silence. The only time he couldn't sense chakra was when his full concentration was on the nature energy around him.

He let the nature energy he had left act as a tether, a place where he could pool nature energy without having to slowly guide it under his skin. He breathed out as nature energy became a second layer on top of his coils, knowing he'd given himself another forty or fifty seconds.

It was this thought that broke his concentration.

He opened his eyes to Zetsu, less than an inch away from him.

He was reaching for him, dripping skin into his lap. A branch with a bright blue vein was wound tight around his middle, and smaller branches had grown from it to tie his legs together. His skin where the branches touched him was slowly wrinkling.

Zetsu didn't seem to notice that it was eating his chakra, but Nagato did.

Nagato felt Namekuji's chakra in the air. He was smaller, chakra sluggish, laying on the roots of a tree. Nagato went to him first. The second Nagato touched him Namekuji started eating his normal chakra.

"I didn't realize he'd be so much trouble," he murmured.

"Humans," Namekuji said with extreme disdain, but settled on his shoulder.

"Aren't ninja supposed to ask questions to a captured enemy?" Zetsu asked curiously, hanging limply.

Nagato ignored him. He touched one of the branches. "Please let him go."

The branches immediately released him, creaking back into their original shape. He knew Namekuji wouldn't get that chakra back.

"What now?" Zetsu asked, holding his arms out.

Nagato grabbed him by the arms, spun, and threw him as hard as he could northwest, where he thought Anyatsu was. It was her part of the forest. The trees blurred together as he followed Zetsu, sensing her enormous chakra long before he saw the flattened trail of grass where Zetsu landed.

He'd rolled into a tree, his limbs bent at odd angles and already fixing themselves. The skin around his middle wasn't wrinkled anymore.

A round silhouette towered over the trees. She had her attention on him, even if he could only make out the two yellow stripes that went up her back.

"I came up with a joke, but it doesn't work if slugs don't poop. Do they?" Zetsu asked.

Nagato ignored him again. He let Anyatsu prod at his nature energy with her own chakra, identifying him. It felt like being poked with needles, but people weren't meant to be in the presence of slugs like her. Her chakra was just as brittle as it was poignant.

"You're no fun at all."

"If I give you half my chakra, will you eat my enemy?" Nagato asked.

She probably couldn't hear him, but she could feel his intent.

"More acid? Tsk, tsk."

Nagato didn't look at Zetsu. He felt her consideration.

"Don't question me. I'm not the one who wanted to talk to you," Namekuji said to her.

He'd come up with the idea while Zetsu was tied up. Anyatsu could absorb chakra too, and her acid was more potent than Namekuji's.

What would happen if Zetsu was exposed to both?

"I wouldn't ask if I had another choice," Nagato added. "I can't kill him. He can't die, or he heals too fast, but he's a threat to me. If you can't contain him, then no one can, and he'd cause trouble for everyone here. But, if he doesn't die, he might be able to give you infinite chakra."

He felt Anyatsu's interest wane.

Namekuji shot acid behind him again and the white spots growing up the tree turned into puddles.

Zetsu never stopped smiling. He made Nagato think of Hidan. Confident in his ability to not die.

"I'll give you all the chakra I can without killing me," Nagato amended. "If he escapes, I'll take any punishment Lady Chiyaku gives me."

He felt her interest again, more for the former than the latter, and waited for an answer.

What he wanted to do to him almost felt like cruelty. He didn't think Zetsu understood what would happen to him.

"I almost feel sorry for you," Nagato said.

"I'm so bored."

"He's delusional," Namekuji decided.

"What for? You're the one wasting your time," Zetsu said with a shrug. "Another me will pop up tomorrow, and you'll have to do this all over again."

Nagato paused, "Even if that's true, you're the one who killed Osamu-sensei. You helped killed Kota. It might've been so unimportant that you don't remember it, but I do. Yeah, I have to get rid of you because of your connection to not-Madara, but you made it personal."

"Well, maybe they shouldn't have been so easy to kill—"

"I don't think not-Madara can either or he would've been doing it already," Nagato spoke. "He wouldn't send you alone if he could make more of you. If I were him, I'd want to watch Hidan to figure out how he works, but he's not always with Oka, and you only watch her. Why wouldn't he do that if he could?"

It was Zetsu's suddenly uncertain expression that gave him the answer.

"It's Oka, isn't it?" Nagato asked. "He needs her to do it and you still think she'll change her mind. Even if she does, do you think she'd want to make more of you?"

Nagato looked at him and it was the first time he thought Zetsu looked human.

Anyatsu projected careful acceptance at him, but he hesitated.

The look in Zetsu's eyes was that of someone realizing exactly who his sister was, and who Nagato was, too. Of realizing too late that he was someone.

Nagato saw someone they could use. They knew so little about not-Madara, and white Zetsu knew everything.

If he was on their side—

Mamoru-sensei would kill him, and Oka, and Yahiko. At least one of them would never forgive him.

choose peace.

every time there was a war, everyone said it was for peace.

He closed his eyes. He couldn't feel Anyatsu's presence anymore and his slime coat was in dried clumps at his feet.

Nagato lunged at white Zetsu, grabbing him as he reared back—

"Wait—"

Namekuji spoke for him as he dragged Zetsu forward and threw him down in front of a piece of Anyatsu that fell from her main body. Namekuji drenched his hands in acid as Nagato watched Zetsu pushed himself back.

"—don't—"

Nagato stood between him and Anyatsu and watched her devour him.

"Quit sulking," Namekuji said as Zetsu's fear dissolved. "I'm the one who's going to be lectured if you don't do what you agreed to."

He shouldn't feel conflicted, but he was. "Feeling like this is stupid, isn't it?"

"What's stupid is how slow you move, flesh-bag," Namekuji said in annoyance.

Nagato ducked his head to hide his smile.

犠牲

I held an apple slice just above my lap, skewered on the end of a kunai.

It wasn't fried, but it was the closest Naga could get with only Yahiko's fire and water. The skin was soft and wrinkled, the inner part browned and burned at the edges.

It was the same deep red as the clouds on my cloak.

Konan told me once that the apples in Kumogakure were yellow.

"Ameyuri Ringo," Yahiko read, thoughtful-sounding as he waved his half-eaten kunai-apple down at the open book between him and Naga. "She sounds promising."

The picture on the page was black and white and hand-drawn, a woman with hair sticking up around her head like ears and her mouth open, showing off rows of sharpened teeth. The description at the bottom corner of the page was small, but I made out 'dark red hair'.

Naga studied the page. "She's not a missing-nin."

The symbol on her forehead protector was two rows of wavy lines.

Yahiko took a bite and waved the kunai at him. "And she won't be with that attitude."

Naga ignored him and flipped the page.

Yahiko swallowed. "If we're clever about it like, say, offering to pay her more than Kirigakure for her services—"

Naga aggressively flipped to the next page.

Hidan sat with his eyes closed under the earth part of the wall and ceiling.

I twisted my kunai-apple back and forth and wondered if there were apples in that other place where Kota was.

"There are no Iwagakure ninja in here," Naga murmured.

Yahiko tapped his tiny slice against his chin. "I'd be surprised if they were considering, well..." he trailed off, thoughtful-looking. "I don't know where to start between the forced occupation or the mass kidnapping."

"You irritate the shit out of me," Hidan said suddenly, eyes closed more tightly. scratching the back of his head.

"He speaks," Yahiko said mildly, taking a final bite.

"Shut the hell up." Hidan stood and pointed at the bingo book. "You're a bastard and whether or not Iwagakure put their shit ninja in that book has fuck all to do with whatever the hell you're talking about. There are different books shit villages have for their own shit ninja and you're insane if you think they'd let that fall into the hands of Kusagakure."

Yahiko stared at him in shock and disbelief because of how much he'd spoken, kunai frozen near his mouth.

"But there are Kusagakure ninja in here," Naga said, tracing a finger over the description of a page of a man with a square face, wide eyes, and no pupils.

"Keep staring at me like that and I might start to get the wrong idea," Hidan said to Yahiko, grinning wide, "Or I might just decide to help you out by removing your eyes for you. It'd be a pitiful, even disgraceful offer to Lord Jashin, but He'll forgive me."

Yahiko focused on his kunai instead of answering, "If I had to guess at why, it's a little of both. Iwagakure has proven that they don't care much about Kusagakure as a place and wouldn't protect their ninja in the same way as their own."

Naga wordlessly flipped the page.

Hidan's eyes slid toward me. "Wipe that smug-ass smile off your face before I do it for you."

"It's not smug," I denied, and bit into my apple slice. It was less sweet than a plain apple, but not bad.

Hidan shook his head again, "See, this is why I hate you the most. It'll take all day to make you repent for all your blasphemy."

"Maybe," I said, taking another bite.

He looked at me for another second, then sat back down. "So damn annoying."

"What about him?" Naga suggested, tapping a corner of another page.

Yahiko looked down and rubbed his chin. "Sasori no last name, huh?"

"None of us have last names."

"Hmm," he said back, still rubbing his chin as he glanced at Hidan.

Hidan ignored him. "You really think Sasori of the Red Sand is going to come here to, what, play ninja?" he asked. "Fat chance. Even missing-nin have some standards."

I thought of pointing out that he was a missing-nin, then remembered that the earth part of the ceiling wouldn't hold for as long as it did when it was stone. I licked apple juice off the kunai kunai instead.

Yahiko waved his kunai at him. "That's more like it. I was afraid for a second there that you were deathly ill or something—"

Hidan stood, stretched his arms above his head, then launched himself at him.

Yahiko rolled away from a kunai slash, pushed off the floor on his hands, and landed on his feet on the wall.

Naga didn't look up.

Hidan glared at him "You're the worst kind of bastard. You don't know when to stop talking."

"True, but what's the difference between A-rank and S-rank?"

Hidan stuck a finger in his ear. "And here I thought she asked stupid fucking questions."

Yahiko walked down. "I think I should remind you that everything I, and by extension we, know came a little at a time through other people. You see how little we know about most things every day."

Hidan only closed his eyes.

"I know the difference in principle," Yahiko continued. "But what it means exactly—"

"Shut up," Hidan hissed. "S-rank, you dumbass, is flee-on-sight. The Yellow Flash was S-rank because he single-handedly knocked Iwagakure out of the war. It was crazy shit."

"Surprisingly informative, even if someone with thinner skin probably would've committed many acts of violence on you by now. So many—"

"A-ranks," Hidan cut him off. "Like Ringo, can be killed if you corner her with two or three squads of jonin. Shit's like a warm up for S-ranks."

"Stop doing that," Naga told me, amused. "I'll make more, but you're going to give yourself an infection."

I considered the freshly-licked kunai. "It's clean."

"You cleaned it in sea water."

"So?"

Naga made an exasperated sound.

"So, what you're saying is that we should go exclusively after S-ranks," Yahiko concluded.

Hidan looked at him through one eye. "Why the fuck do I bother talking."

"It won't be that bad," Yahiko said back. "We already had a missing-nin test run, and I think it went pretty well."

He carefully did not look at Hidan. Hidan eyed his scythe.

"What rank were you?" I asked.

His eyes slid over. "Who says warm water gave me one? And even if they did, their ranking system is a joke."

"You almost destroyed a village without help and you killed everyone at the inn. Wouldn't that be S-rank?" I asked.

He waved this away, staring at the wall. "It's fucking sad that you think warm water is a ninja village. Hasn't been that in years. All that's left there are cowards and civilians," he paused, then laughed hard. "Hey, I can say the same about that shitty inn. Except I finished off all those heathens."

I hummed. "You still fought in the war."

Hidan said nothing for a few seconds. "B," he finally hissed, then stalked out of the room.

When you go a day without driving off purple eyes—

I didn't care.

Yahiko looked at the doorway. "That was... surprising."

He hadn't even looked at his scythe as he left.

"It doesn't say much about him," Naga said after a second, eyes on Sasori's picture. "Only that he uses puppets and poison. And that it's better to die than to be captured by him."

Yahiko whistled. "Appropriately terrifying."

Sasori was blank-faced and wearing a forehead protector, but the hourglass in the middle was crossed-out. Like Hanzo's shinobi.

Naga sighed, "Now how do we find him?"

"Don't worry about it so much," Yahiko answered. "We might not know a lot about the criminal side of ninja, but Joji-sensei would. Mamoru-sensei, too. Well, assuming Amegakure tried to track down missing-nin at some point."

Naga shut the book. "Even if they can, we need a plan to convince him to come here. It won't be like it was with Hidan. It wouldn't be smart to hope it works out when we talk to him, if he lets us—"

Yahiko bent down behind him, and slung an arm around Naga's shoulder, pulling him close. "Don't worry about that either. I'll take care of it. I won't think too hard about the Iron Country side of things, and you let me handle our shinobi problem."

"But—"

Yahiko tightened his grip and Naga choked and tapped urgently on his arm.

"I don't hear any objections," Yahiko said airily.

Naga tried to speak and choked.

"It's almost like I hear your voice," he added wistfully.

Naga dug his fingers in, but Yahiko didn't react.

"What did Joji-sensei say when you told him about how you used the nagamaki?" I asked.

Yahiko patted Naga's head with his other hand. "Not concerned at all?"

I shrugged. "He could get out if he wanted to."

Yahiko shook his head. "Every day you find a new way to hurt me."

Naga couldn't stop a small smile. Yahiko didn't look, but squeezed until Naga's face went red.

"He lectured me," Yahiko answered as Naga finally shoved him off, gasping. "Gave me a very long chastising about it being an extension of myself, how careless I am, et cetera."

"Hidan's right," Naga muttered, rubbing his neck. "You are an ass."

"That's not what he said."

I tossed my kunai up and caught it. "Will you do it again?"

Yahiko paused. He smiled and laid back on the floor, lacing his hands behind his head. "Joji-sensei and I see the nagamaki in a fundamentally different way. I get that the nagamaki is like part of his body for him. I do. But no matter how hard I try I can't see it that way. It's the most important thing I own, but I knew it'd make it out of that fight better than I would've if I let you blast me."

He closed his eyes. "I think Joji-sensei would rather die than break it. But Jiraiya-sensei taught us first. At the end of the day a blade is just a blade, and we matter more. Joji-sensei made me see it's a little more complicated than that, but the way I was taught to fight was with that mentality."

He taught us that kunai, shuriken, wire, and short swords were tools. Just tools. I held my kunai above me.

Would a few years split between Joji-sensei and Mamoru-sensei have changed how I was taught to see a weapon like this? I didn't think so.

Yahiko tilted his head towards Naga, "Hope that gave you something valuable to use if Iron responds."

"It didn't. Not even a little."

"It's the thought that counts."

.

.

.

Hidan sat against the wall just outside the room and listened to the voices within.

Yahiko, the dumbass, being a dumbass. Nagato, who was just full of so much shit.

And Oka, who irritated the hell out of him every time she opened her mouth.

"Tch."

He didn't get any of those dumbasses, didn't know why they cared so much about including him, didn't see what the hell they got out of him being a part of their shit group.

Hidan hated all of them, but he didn't get up and leave. He slid down the wall and listened to Yahiko talk about his dull ass sword.

A/N: 犠牲 - Sacrifice

ft. That Distant Shore for Hidan's POV.

Shockingly, White Zetsu being a 'non-combatant' but also easily immobilizing three out of five Kage and their bodyguards at once to save Sasuke make writing fight scenes difficult.

Obito can make more White Zetsu. It's just one of the requirements is a certain statue...