Kakashi of the Sharingan was a good listener.
"Koichi isn't going to be happy to learn that the Leaf knows our secrets now," Rei said, standing and brushing the snow from her pants.
"If he's the kind of friend you suggest he is, I'm sure he'll understand that you had no control over losing that information," Kakashi said. "And I'm sure he's happy just to know that you're alive. It's more than many can hope for."
Rei pondered that idea as she watched the icicles in a nearby tree drip in the wake of the sunlight. "I know. Honestly, we've all lost so much. Mangetsu—" Her voice caught in her throat, and it took her a moment to regroup. "All we want is a safe, fair place to live. And some of the best people have died for that."
"Good people suffer and die for their ideals every day." Kakashi collected her bowl from the ground and set it with his own, ready to be packed back into a scroll for travel. "And those of us who survive get a choice: will we continue their work and uphold those beliefs, or will we go our own direction? You've been through more than most, and it looks like you've got more to fight through. Your friends have taken on a huge, worthy task, but it won't be an easy or bloodless one. So." He paused, and Rei turned to meet his gaze. He smiled behind his mask, giving her an open, honest look that warred with his next words. "Are you prepared to die for your village?"
Rei had crossed her arms against the chill in the air, and her fingers bit into her biceps. Die for the Blood Mist? She hadn't thought of it in quite those terms before.
"It needs more salt," Yugao said, having just come up to the pot and sampled the soup. Rei had barely noticed her presence, and she shook her head, trying to recalibrate as the question rattled around in her mind. Would I willingly die…for the Mist?
"I haven't gotten a single complaint," Kakashi said, already picking up a vial of salt from his stack of spices by the fire.
"Well, your soup was tasted by a girl who grew up between an orphanage and an Academy." When Yugao offered a good-natured smile in Rei's direction, Rei had to return it. She wasn't wrong. "You go by Rei, right?"
"Yeah." Suddenly feeling self-conscious in front of these older, more experienced Shinobi, Rei lowered her eyes. "I'm not sure why you're doing all this to get me back home, but thank you. I'll find a way to repay you."
Kakashi and Yugao exchanged a quick look. "You said you wanted a safe and fair place to live," Kakashi said quietly. "The Leaf Village tries to be like that, and the Mist deserves a chance to become the same." He turned back to the soup and sprinkled in a dash of salt. "I guess I'll go kick Tenzo awake."
He'd just disappeared into the house when Yugao approached Rei, sipping at her bowl daintily. "Don't worry if he's a little standoffish to you."
"Hm?" Rei responded noncommittally.
"It's just…" The violet-haired young woman glanced back at the house shortly. "He's had a lot happen to him, and I imagine that seeing another Mist Shinobi, even someone as young as you, would be tough for him."
"Gotcha." Rei had no intention of prying. She'd never see these people again once she got back on the ship to her family. Just because she'd spilled her entire story to a complete stranger didn't mean she was entitled to his. But Yugao was looking at her expectantly, so she asked, "What about you?"
"It's strange. We're typically assigned assassinations, not escorts." She set a hand on her hip as she looked out over the flat stretch of farmland, which sparkled as the snow began to melt. "And the Mist has threatened us yet again. So, why are we sending someone back to them who could return as an enemy one day?"
Rei chanced a look back at her, this young Anbu operative. She stood a few inches taller than Rei, and though she was really slender, she was poised with confidence and strength. Rei really hoped the question had been rhetorical. "The Mist has made an enemy of me, too."
Yugao did not reply; she just finished her soup in silence.
Tenzo was still shaky when he woke, but after he'd eaten and reabsorbed the house, he insisted he was fine. "I promise I'll rest for two days when we get back home." Kakashi narrowed his one visible eye at the younger Shinobi, who amended his statement to, "Fine, three days."
Running across the open land was terrifying, and Rei kept a laser focus on any chakra signatures that could possibly be human. They stayed as far away as possible from anyone she could sense, though the vast majority had completely inactive chakra networks. "Out here, it's mostly farmers and herdsmen," Tenzo explained. "And the odd group of Shinobi scouts to keep an eye out for foreign invaders." The corner of his lip quirked upwards as he shot her a knowing glance.
Rei wondered if Tenzo had recovered Mangetsu's scroll with the Leaf scouts' bodies in it, but she supposed this wasn't the right time to ask. It was, however, the perfect time to ask, "So are you planning to return Mangetsu's sword to the Mist as well?"
None of the three Leaf Shinobi stumbled or even bothered to glance at her as the trees in the far distance grew slowly larger. "Of course we are," Kakashi said. "Everything that you brought into the Land of Fire is going back with you." He chuckled softly. "It seems to me that Lord Third does not want you for an adversary."
As the sun began to fall that evening and they had covered countless miles, Tenzo said, "Inaho Village is probably another four hours or so to the Southeast. Should we keep going?"
"They were expecting us sometime tomorrow." Kakashi had been leading their group, and he slowed now. "We can rest for a few hours, at least. You need it," he said pointedly to Tenzo, who suppressed a cringe.
They elected not to let Tenzo create a house this time, for his own safety. Instead, Yugao produced camping supplies from a scroll and they got to work erecting two tents. "I'll see if I can find some dry wood," Rei volunteered. There certainly wasn't going to be much on the ground, so she turned her eyes upwards into the treetops for barren branches.
Tomorrow. Koichi and Utakata were okay, and they were waiting for her. They were going back to the Mist. They were going to pick up where Koichi's parents and Headmaster Iwa had left off, and they were going to kill the Mizukage.
As she walked away from the campsite, Rei pulled loose bark from some of the thicker trees, stuffing it in her pockets to use as kindling. She hoped that the safehouse was still available. There was nowhere else she could go now. Her hand froze for a moment on a thin branch that she intended to pluck from a tree trunk. There was nowhere else for Utakata to go, either. Or Koichi. They were wanted criminals.
The sun sank beneath the horizon and the sky turned a deep, peaceful blue. When her vision got a little more tenuous, she placed her hand against a tree and closed her eyes. When she felt the tree's life force point her back in the direction of the camp, she had to hold her breath. She was not going to cry. Mangetsu had saved her life, and he had given his for the hope of peace in the Mist. And his last request echoed in her head now. She had to find Suigetsu.
She was just pulling down her last branch when Kakashi found her. "I thought either you had run off on your own, or you'd been attacked." He grinned behind his mask, his one visible eye closing. "I'm glad to see that I was wrong on both counts."
"I got distracted," she said, hefting her load higher in her arms. "Thinking about what's left of my life."
He took half of the bundle and they started back for the tents. "So, what is left of your life?" he asked.
"You ask a lot of questions with hard answers." Rei took a moment to look at this tall, mysterious man in the darkness of a Land of Fire forest. He watched her openly, studying her. According to reports back in the Mist, he'd single-handedly derailed one of the village's plans to destroy the Leaf Village back during the Third Shinobi War. He'd only been a kid, then.
"Well, life doesn't give us easy answers most of the time," he replied. "From what you've been through, you know that."
Rei huffed. "Don't I ever."
"So, how proficient is your Fire Style?" he asked when they dropped the wood between the tents.
"I can't use Fire Style. I can do Water and a little Lightning."
Kakashi's visible eyebrow rose. "I'd think someone with two kekkei genkai would have discovered at least one other nature by now."
A twinge of irritation in her chest. "We're not all geniuses known across the world." Then she fully registered his words. She watched him effortlessly light the wood with a Jutsu, then nearly forced herself to ask the question she'd kept buried beneath her tongue for days, despite the fact that she already knew the answer.
A child of the Kaguya should not be sent back to the Mist.
"So, will we be graced with a five-course meal tonight, senpai?" Yugao asked playfully, tossing a stick into the gently wafting flames.
"I wouldn't want you to get too comfortable out here and forget that you're Shinobi," Kakashi said. "Food pills and anything else you find for yourself tonight."
Rei nibbled on a food pill for a few minutes and listened to the Leaf Shinobi banter back and forth before she decided that she needed time with her thoughts. "I'm turning in. See you in the morning."
She crawled into the tent meant for her and Yugao and slipped into one of the sleeping bags.
Yes, she knew who the Kaguya were, and she knew what they could do.
