Chapter 23 — Kill the Rabbit

"Make sure you listen to Tsunade-san. Do as she says."

"I will."

"Get plenty of sleep when you can. The better rested you are, the more alert you'll be. It's safer that way, okay?"

"Okay."

"Do you have everything? Your kunai?"

"Yes."

"Your rations?"

"Yes."

"What about—"

"She'll be fine," Tsunade interrupted. "I'll be keeping an eye on her."

Kagami glanced up at her. Then he sighed and braced the back of Kyoko's head, tilting his forehead against hers. "Okay. Alright. Just be careful for me, Kyoko-chan. Come home safe."

"I will," she murmured. When he didn't move, she twisted her hands in his sleeves. "Tousan, I need to go meet my team. I don't want to be late."

"Right." His hands shook as he pulled away and smiled tightly. "I love you."

"I know." She forced herself to let go and smile. "You tell me all the time."

"Just making sure."

Kyoko nodded and grabbed at her tanto harness for need of something to hold onto. "I love you too." She stepped back and glanced towards Tsunade, who was watching her with arms crossed and one eyebrow raised. "I'm ready."

Tsunade nodded once. "Alright, Tiny, let's check up on that shunshin of yours." She disappeared.

Kyoko focused on molding her chakra and following. She left quickly so she wouldn't have to look at her father's worried face again. When she made it to the gates, Tsunade was already talking to the other jonin there. Kyoko glanced across his students and straightened. She bowed her head. "You must be Team Shinku. I'm Uchiha Kyoko."

"You're like three," one of them said. Asuma. He . . . actually wasn't hard to look at. It had been years since she'd seen him, anyway. Since anyone had seen him. But when his teammate elbowed him sharply, drawing her attention, Kyoko stilled and forgot how to breathe. Asuma, meanwhile, rubbed his side and shot Raidou a dirty look. "What was that for? It's true!"

"You don't have to be mean about it," Raidou muttered. He looked back towards Kyoko and hesitated. "Though, I thought we were going with another team."

"This is the team," Shinku interrupted, turning away from his conversation. "She is a fellow shinobi, and I expect you to treat her as such. Now that Tsunade-san is here and we have our supplies, we can go. Is everyone ready?"

Kyoko glanced past him at the road leading away from Konoha. She was as ready as she could be.

Asuma, Kurenai, and Shinku were easy. She'd barely known the former, had never had more than a tentative relationship with the second, and had only seen the last a couple times before he died during the Kyuubi Attack. There were memories there, yes.

But none of them were Raidou.

Kyoko kept to Tsunade's side as they traveled, listening to her lectures on anatomy or answering pop quizzes about how to treat various injuries and ailments. She did her best to stay focused and ignore the others, but that was impossible. Asuma was loud and blunt, Kurenai was rude and curious, and Raidou was anxious and friendly.

"If you're a genin, then how come you don't have a team?" Asuma asked, interrupting Kyoko's listing of the bones in the body.

"You're pretty young to be a genin anyway," Kurenai mused. "Maybe they just didn't want your teammates to feel like babysitters."

"That's not fair," Raidou protested. "You seem very nice, Kyoko-chan. And I don't feel like a babysitter at all.

Later, Kyoko was practicing her chakra control with the thread Tsunade had given her when Kurenai leaned in real close, squinting at her hands. "Whatever you're trying to do, it's not working."

"It's a training exercise," Kyoko said. "I have to make the string stand straight with my chakra."

"Tch, that's boring." Asuma wrinkled his nose. "For a little kid, you sure don't seem to have fun that much."

"People have fun in different ways," Raidou cut in. "And there's nothing wrong with training."

Each and every time, Kyoko knew she should thank him. But it was still hard to look at his face—unmarred, unmasked—and so she didn't.

"You know, if I remember right, your father was very clear about you getting some sleep."

Kyoko looked back over her shoulder. Tsunade was standing in the tent entrance, one hand on her hip and the other holding back the flap. "I will," Kyoko murmured. She turned back, head tilted up at the sky.

Tsunade sighed loudly. "Alright, Tiny." She sat down next to her student with a heavy groan. "Want to tell me why you've been so quiet?"

"Quiet?"

"Two days here, and you hardly said a thing to the rest of the team."

"I've been focused."

"Hmm. Any particular reason why you're out here instead of resting?"

Kyoko hummed at that, clasping her hands together and still staring upward. "My father likes to tell this story. He says it was my mother's favorite. The one about the rabbit."

"Rabbit?" Tsunade squinted and followed Kyoko's gaze up into the sky. "What rabbit?"

"In the moon." Kyoko pointed for a moment before letting her hand drop. "In the story, Tsukuyomi Otoko comes down from his home on the moon disguised as a beggar."

"A beggar?" Tsunade interrupted. "Why a beggar? Why is a god coming down here anyway?"

"He was lonely." Kyoko shrugged. "Everyone gets lonely sometimes."

"And the beggar disguise?"

Kyoko frowned. "I don't . . . know."

Tsunade tilted her head at her, raising an eyebrow. "Okay. So he comes down. What happens next?"

"He travels. And while he's traveling, he meets a fox, a monkey, and a rabbit and asks for some food."

"From the animals."

"Right. So the fox goes and catches him some fish. The monkey brings him some fruit. But the rabbit can only get him some grass and worries that isn't enough. So he tells the beggar to build a fire and, once he does, throws himself in it as his own food offering."

Tsunade huffed out a laugh. "You dad tells you this story? How often do you have nightmares, Tiny?"

"That's not the point. The point is that the rabbit doesn't burn up. Instead, Tsukuyomi Otoko saves him and takes him back to the moon." Kyoko pointed again. "And if you look, you can see him."

Tsunade looked up at the full moon, squinting. "Huh." She chuckled and looked back down, dropping a hand to Kyoko's head and mussing her hair. "You're a weird kid. You know that?" With a sigh, she climbed to her feet. "Come on. I'll keep watch, but you need some sleep. You have a big day tomorrow."