"(Everything I gain) I lost it all,
Now all the times are changing I find myself crying all alone,
(Everything) is right here,
and now I know I can persevere,
Go forward on my own,"
-Bakusou Yume Uta, Studio Yuraki
Nagato carefully lowered his sister down onto the sand and heard the chameleon summon follow him.
It was surprisingly quiet for being so big.
It inspected her, then turned around, as if to defend her if the fight between Kisame and her other summon got too close.
The jagged tear across the middle of her mesh shirt exposed the freshly healed, little white scars across her stomach from the serrated skin he'd put back together.
They made him think unwillingly of his own scars, which he didn't consciously think about anymore—at least not until Mei had pointed them out.
The curling burn scar along the back of his right hand and licking up the right side of his neck were pale and just pink enough to be noticeable against his paleness. He'd never had a reason to think about whether he was attractive or not.
And he wouldn't let his mind find one.
"Can you understand me?" Nagato asked the chameleon tentatively, distracting himself.
It tilted its head down at him, and he still wasn't sure.
Usagi, she'd named it.
Rabbit.
"Where do you come from?" Nagato asked, mostly to himself. The toads and slugs lived around elemental nations, but he knew the salamanders didn't.
Yahiko had once tried to describe to him that they lived in another country across the ocean, and that there were more summons and summon lands there than people, but Nagato couldn't wrap his head around it.
It was hard to picture it. Somewhere else with their own people and politics and wars that he'd never heard of before.
He wondered if 'Usagi' was summoned from that place across the ocean.
Nagato stood and the chameleon blinked once, sluggishly, as he hesitantly reached up and put his hand on its neck.
He closed his eyes, gently prodding its chakra with nature energy. It had a lot. More than he did, but a lot less than Kisame. Its chakra felt like nothing he'd sensed before.
It was… reflective. Like a shard of glass that was stepped on and cracked into a dozen pointy edges, but still showed a person's warped reflection back at them when it was looked at—
Usagi moved and Nagato opened his eyes. He realized a second later that Usagi was trying to shake his hand in a way that looked a lot like it wanted to be scratched, so he obliged.
Usagi's eyes shut in pleasure and Nagato let the nature energy leave his body and return to the grass beneath his feet.
"He won," Namekuji said suddenly, sounding disgruntled about it, like he'd had some stake on the other outcome.
Nagato looked.
The dog summon was trapped in a massive water prison. The summon thrashed and clawed at the water, filling it with bubbles as it tried to snap at Kisame, but it couldn't move.
"That was fun," Kisame said, barely out of breath, his right hand within the prison. "But it's time for you to go home."
Samehada looked asleep on the water next to him, her tongue hanging out of her mouth, bigger and fuller than before.
The dog summon kept thrashing, but it was slowing, snapping weakly at him a few more times before it went completely limp.
Kisame pulled his hand out before the last bubbles reached the top and the dog summon popped into smoke the second the jutsu was released.
Kisame didn't move to avoid being soaked by the water that rained down, and only turned and met Nagato's gaze, assessing.
Nagato wished he could've sensed him then, just to see how much chakra he'd lost since he began fighting.
Kisame had gone easy on Oka, and that meant something.
And it meant something else that Kisame reminded him of Yahiko when he smiled. Or, the version of him that had stopped meaning his smiles after Konan died.
Kisame's eyes flicked to the side, watching someone climb out of the water between them.
"Mangetsu," Kisame immediately greeted the white-haired shinobi, and Nagato knew that Kisame had only said it for him.
"Kisame, hey," Mangetu greeted back, but his eyes were on Nagato, which made him cautiously curious. "Not surprised, eh? So you knew I'd—"
"Follow me, yes," Kisame finished for him, lighthearted and unreadable. "We're supposed to watch out for suspicious activity in each other, after all."
"Yet, only one of us was."
Kisame grinned and said, "I'm no babysitter. Orders not to do something have always been suggestions. But I wasn't fully sure you were here. My sharks kept missing you, but there's no hiding from them in open water."
"They're persistent," Mangetsu agreed, just as lighthearted. "But even they wouldn't catch me unless I wanted to be caught."
"You are slippery," Kisame said, neither agreeing or disagreeing with him. "So then, why did you reveal yourself?"
"I saw something interesting. No partner assigned to spar with you ever shows anymore for a reason. It tends to take a team of our best medics to fix the mess Samehada makes of someone, and only rarely do they succeed. It looked like you were pulling your punches, and sure, that is interesting, but taking less than a minute to fix someone hit head on by Samehada and doing it by himself without breaking a sweat is... new."
"I'm Nagato of the Akatsuki," Nagato introduced himself, still petting Usagi. He felt like he was missing a lot that was said between them.
Mangetsu had one of the Seven Ninja Swords on his back, but he wasn't dressed like a mist-nin, like Kisame.
"Akatsuki," Mangetsu repeated, rolling the word around on his tongue. He glanced at Kisame. "How much were you restraining Samehada?"
Kisame only showed him his teeth.
Mangetsu put his hands on his hips. "Not mercenaries. They're not your style," he thought aloud. "So why are you playing around with foreign-nin?"
"He's an Uzumaki," Kisame offered, and didn't answer the question.
Mangetsu's gaze slipped back to Nagato. "I see that."
"Her too."
He looked down at Oka and blinked. "You're sure?"
"Must get her looks from the other parent, but there's no mistaking that chakra."
"Lucky her."
"Yeah."
We used to look more alike, Nagato didn't say, when we both had brown eyes.
They were a brown that looked pitch black most of the time, but brightened to the color of hazelnuts in the right sunlight.
It was the only feature he had that tied him to their dad.
Oka didn't have as dark of a skin tone as Etsudo, but she was darker than Yahiko. She was like a mirror-image of their dad, but with a softer face—
"The Uzumaki's partner is very tired of meat shaped bags of water talking about him in front of him," Namekuji spoke up while he was distracted, deadpan.
Mangetsu and Kisame both stopped speaking to look at him.
"It talks," Mangetsu said first. "Does the big one talk too?"
"It thinks your teeth look like they're rotting," Namekuji said snidely.
Mangetsu blinked, showing off his teeth as he said, "I brush my teeth as often as I can."
"Sorry for your genes then."
Nagato started scratching Usagi again, pretending he didn't hear either of them as he asked curiously, "Is it true that you can turn any part of your body into water?"
Mangetsu glanced at Kisame. "Bold, isn't he?"
Kisame didn't look back at Mangetsu, and that seemed to send a message of its own.
"Possibly," Mangetsu finally answered, in a tone that would only be as indulging as he curiosity lasted.
"And that the blade on your back is the Nuibari?" Nagato asked.
Mangetsu looked at him more sharply. His eyes snapped to Kisame, who shook his head in a 'not me' way.
But Kisame had told him, in his own way, that he didn't trust Mangetsu. Mentioning that he'd been evading his sharks, the orders to spy on each other, Nagato knew that was for him.
Was he warning him just for Oka?
"The Nuibari must've made hiding harder, but you still brought it," Nagato thought aloud. "You must've been expecting a fight."
Mangetsu's expression froze.
Nagato felt Kisame's stare again, but he didn't seem bothered by what he said. Which meant he had been waiting for Nagato to catch up.
"The Mizukage works fast," Nagato said, finding the answer in Mangetsu's silence. "Is it only Byakuren that knows Kisame is a missing-nin, or has he spread it to Gengetsu already too?"
Mangetsu didn't move for a long time. He looked at Kisame in silence.
Nagato could tell that Mangetsu trusted Kisame even less than Kisame didn't trust him.
Kisame would've already known that the medics here weren't skilled enough to fix his wounded.
"If you're not loyal, why are you spying on Kisame?" Nagato asked.
"What a headache," Mangetsu said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't know what you think you know, but not much would change if I became a missing-nin."
"No one does everything you did for your mission to abandon it because of a medic-nin," Nagato reasoned. "You wanted to do it, but whoever you want me to heal is above that for some reason."
"He's good," Kisame said, grinning at Mangetsu.
Mangetsu tightened his hold on his neck.
"Something, or someone, must be tying you to the village—"
"Stop," Mangetsu loudly interrupted him. Then, "Are you leaf-nin?"
"Wouldn't be alive if they were," Kisame answered for him, looking like he was enjoying the show they were putting on.
Mangetsu dropped his hand, looking less tense than he had the second before. "You're getting soft, Hoshigaki."
Kisame sent a sharp, amused grin his way. "Oh yeah? Come over here and say that to my face."
Mangetsu didn't respond. "Don't worry about any ties I might or might not have, foreign-nin," he said. "Just tell me the cost of your abilities. You want me to join whatever you roped Hoshigaki into?"
"No," Nagato said after a second. Saying yes was the easy path, but he knew what that would look like to Kisame, that they were only wearing him down until he agreed to join. "If you agree to stay out of what'll happen, I'll do it, but only after I hear the details of their condition. If it'll take too long, it'll have to wait."
Mangetsu tilted his head. "You want the village?"
"No. We were hired by someone else who wants to become Mizukage," Nagato answered.
"Terumi," Kisame provided, cutting through his vagueness like his tongue was a kunai.
"Should've helped the dog eat him," Namekuji muttered against his shoulder, and Nagato carefully didn't react to that.
Mangetsu looked at Kisame like he was trying to solve a puzzle. "You're with her?"
"Nah," Kisame said and didn't elaborate.
Mangetsu eyed Kisame, then shrugged. "Sure, fine," he said to Nagato, but didn't shift his gaze. "If Terumi wants to burn Kirigakure to the ground, I'll grill some ikayaki over the fire."
"I need to know about her condition," Nagato reminded him.
Mangetsu looked at him, then away. "Not here. Water's too open."
"I would know if we weren't alone," Kisame mentioned.
Mangetsu said nothing.
"It's not only me and Oka. More of us are hiding out at the bottom of Minakami. We can talk there. It's safe," Nagato told him.
They'd have to move out of the alley if any more mist-nin joined them, he mused.
"I didn't think Amegakure had people like you," Kisame mentioned, giving him away again. "Rain-nin were always small fish in a big ocean."
"That's why I didn't come alone," Nagato said. "Enough small fish grouped together can take down the biggest predators, can't they?"
Kisame eyed him again and didn't answer.
"Wont the sensor-nin get suspicious after they realize that you let us live?" Nagato asked him.
Kisame grinned and said, "Not if they stop breathing."
Usagi suddenly did a full body shake, making Nagato pause and turn, and as he met Usagi's unblinking gaze he realized Usagi had done it to get his attention.
Before he could think more on how aware Usagi might be, Usagi turned completely invisible.
Nagato blinked, but only his hand against Usagi's scaly skin told him that the summon was still there when all his other senses tried to convince him Usagi wasn't.
"It disappeared," Mangetsu said, blinking like he couldn't believe it.
"Interesting," was all Kisame said.
Usagi didn't become visible again but turned, deliberately slow so his hand didn't slip off, and lowered itself towards him.
Nagato prodded out with nature energy again, but stopped immediately when it gave him a headache. There was a hole where Usagi was, a nothingness, like all the little slivers of glass that made up Usagi's chakra had been turned to reflect the sand and the sky.
If he didn't use nature energy he didn't think he would've felt anything. His senses would've slid right off Usagi.
He felt Usagi open its mouth wide, the tip of its tongue sticking to his wrist and gently reeling him inside, and thought he understood what Usagi was trying to tell him.
Usagi let go when he pulled back and Nagato wordlessly knelt and lifted Oka in his arms. Usagi wanted him to get inside its mouth. His hand hadn't disappeared when he touched Usagi, and his mind was confused, but he still did as he was told.
"We don't need to kill them. It'll attract too much attention," Nagato said. "I'll go with Usagi, and our chakra will vanish. It'll look like we died."
He didn't wait for a response before awkwardly maneuvering himself into Usagi's mouth as his eyes insisted nothing was there.
His headache worsened.
Namekuji made a disgusted sound as saliva stuck his sandals to the tongue and he had a hard time pulling them up while also trying not to hurt Usagi.
Nagato didn't go too far in, which made it cramped, but he still made them fit. Usagi stayed relaxed and unmoving the entire time, but he still tried to be quick.
He caught the two mist-nin exchanging a glance before Usagi's mouth closed and he was left in the sticky dark.
.
.
.
Nagato watched Yahiko and Hidan play dice. When he'd climbed out of Usagi, on the wall above Yahiko and Hidan, Yahiko had just nodded a few times like sure, this may as well happen.
Hidan had eyed Usagi for a second, then lost interest.
Chojuro was still asleep, but not on Hidan anymore.
Usagi had burst into white smoke once Nagato was out, having barely been able to fit its head in the alley. It made him realize that Usagi's ability would only be useful in wide, open areas. Usagi hadn't left marks on the wall, but would on the sand, or on the grass of a forest, and was too big to sneak between most trees.
Nagato leaned back against the wall with Oka's head on his leg.
If she hadn't stubbornly summoned Usagi, her chakra exhaustion wouldn't have been half as bad. From what he could tell, it seemed like each summon took only a little less than half her chakra. Doing it a third time would've killed her, and still, he didn't think it would concern her if he told her.
He'd never seen a summoning seal like hers before. It'd seemed like Usagi was following her will, until Usagi had shown that it had some will of it's own when it wanted to be scratched.
Nagato watched Yahiko roll a set of dice, and quietly accepted that he probably wouldn't get any answers. How could he, when none of them, least of all Oka, understood the Rinnegan?
He paid more attention to the game. He didn't need to ask to know Yahiko had made it up, or that the dice were stolen.
The dice landed on one and five and Yahiko scratched a line in the ground with the now-blunted edge of a kunai.
Hidan scooped up the dice, tossed them down between them, and looked annoyed when they landed on three and two. He didn't make a scratch on his side.
He looked up as Kisame and Mangetsu finally caught up, wondering if Oka would name one of the summons 'Getsu' if he asked.
The moon to her rabbit.
Kisame strode into the alley and walked around them, taking his place against the back wall.
Mangetsu stopped at the opening, his eyes instantly finding Chojuro. "Now that's interesting."
Yahiko glanced up briefly, and Hidan looked more annoyed at the interruption.
"Mangetsu, right? Want to join?" Yahiko asked.
Mangetsu looked him over and said, "We just met."
"Sure, but I'm trying to make a better first impression than I did last time," he said, waving him over.
Kisame loudly scoffed.
Mangetsu glanced at Kisame for a few seconds, then gave Yahiko a sharp smile and shrugged. He ambled over and crouched, making a loose square. He studied Yahiko for a second. "You're in the bingo book."
Yahiko paused. "So I am," he drawled, and said nothing else about it. "You can call me Yahiko," he added after a second.
Mangetsu studied Hidan next.
"Skip the bullshit. I've heard it before. You going or not?" Hidan asked, staring back at him with bored eyes.
Mangetsu glanced at the dice as Yahiko held them out to him. "If you teach me to play, sure."
Yahiko dropped the dice in his hand and explained the rules. If the dice added up to an even number, the roller got one point, but if it added up to an odd number, it was no points. If both dice landed on the same number and it was even, the roller could steal a point from anyone they wanted. If it was odd, the rules became reversed. Whoever ended up with the most points after ten rounds won.
"And now Nagato has no excuse not to play too," Yahiko finished, giving him a look.
A help me make friends with these ninja I don't completely trust look.
Nagato felt amused. He snuck a quick, hopeful glance at Kisame, who only shook his head once.
Mangetsu shook the dice and let them fall. They landed on two and two, and he immediately stole a point from Yahiko.
"Alright," Yahiko said mildly, scuffing a line in front of him with the scraped handle of the kunai. "If you want to play it that way."
Nagato half paid attention to the game as he dug out the scroll Oka had sealed her cloak in. He might as well see if it was mendable. He wouldn't force Mangetsu to speak if he didn't want to.
Hidan rolled six and two, Yahiko rolled one-one, and Nagato rolled one-three.
Mangetsu held the dice for a long time, looking between them, until his gaze finally settled on Nagato. "She should've died a long time ago," he finally told him. "She was kicked in the chest during the war. It ruptured something inside of her."
Mangetsu's gaze went to Hidan, who was staring at him, and he opened his hand, letting the dice drop.
Two-five.
Mangetsu picked up the kunai in the middle to scratch a point on his side.
"The person you're talking about is Ringo?" Kisame asked, faintly surprised. "That firecracker is still alive?"
Hidan rolled five-one.
Mangetsu smiled, all teeth. "Never met a person more stubborn than her."
Kisame grinned right back and it looked, somehow, more genuine.
Yahiko rolled a five-five and stole Mangetsu's point.
"Where is she?" Nagato asked, rolling a three-four.
He scratched in his point as Mangetsu's gaze lingered on Yahiko.
"Gengetsu," Mangetsu finally answered. "She's been steadily getting worse."
Mangetsu, still looking at Yahiko, rolled a three-three, and then pointed two fingers at Hidan's scratches.
Nagato knew instantly that Mangetsu had just unknowingly started a silent war between him and Hidan.
"They said you escaped alone," Kisame pointed out. "Another lie?"
"I did," Mangetsu said, "I retrieved the weapons and the corpse that did it and turned them in. But you don't really get breaks if you're me. I went looking for her body while I was out there. The others too, but mostly just her."
Hidan rolled five-five, immediately looked at Mangetsu, and Nagato smiled. He was the only one left who wasn't cheating.
One-one. Yahiko didn't look Hidan in the eyes as he took a point from him, and Hidan tsk'ed loudly.
Nagato, with more amusement, rolled two-six.
Mangetsu shook the dice in his hand but seemed distracted. "She was still alive when I got there," he said. "Long trail of blood from dragging herself through corpses for two days."
"Well, shit," Kisame said back.
One-one. Mangetsu stole from Yahiko, who only nodded expectantly.
Another five-five. Hidan stole back from Yahiko.
"It was easy to smuggle her back in the village when everyone was out there, but no one would waste medic-nin on a lost cause. They'd have killed her to free up a bed, or let her bleed to death to not waste their time," Mangetsu added.
"Lord Mizukage would have your head if he knew you left her out of your report," Kisame said, still grinning. "Explains why you never got the other bodies."
"I wish him luck in cutting it off," was all he said back, giving Kisame a harsh smile.
In the silence, Yahiko rolled two-two.
Nagato rolled a three-one, added a point, and went back to feeling out the tears in the thick fabric. The cloaks were supposed to be hard to tear, made out of some flexible plastic along with all the dyed thread, but Samehada had sliced it apart like it was nothing.
Mangetsu rolled six-six.
"Ninja," Yahiko dramatically sighed when he was stolen from again.
Hidan rolled four-four and stole from Mangetsu again.
Chojuro sat up slowly behind Yahiko, squinting as he smothered a yawn, feeling around for his glasses.
Yahiko handed them over without looking as he rolled six-six with his other hand.
Nagato rolled six-four and quietly added another point as Chojuro put them on, as Hidan glared at both Yahiko and Mangetsu and Mangetsu stared at Yahiko again.
Chojuro sucked in a harsh breath the second he could see properly, his pupils shrinking to tiny dots as he took in Mangetsu.
"L-Lord Mangetsu—"
"Chojuro, hey. What did I tell you about the lord thing?" Mangetsu said casually.
Chojuro swallowed.
Mangetsu leaned back and dragged his gaze over to him. "You didn't tell me you'd made so many friends while I was gone."
Chojuro looked at Mangetsu, at the rest of them, and radiated confusion, looking like he didn't know what to do or say.
Yahiko reached out and ruffled his hair without looking, ignoring his yelp of protest.
In the end, Nagato won.
A/N: Ikayaki is grilled squid
fun fact: chameleon tongues are 400x more sticky than human tongues