Eroninja

Kashike stood behind a sitting Baki, who was currently negotiating a deal with the Prime Guild Master who oversaw the Adventurer system of the Land of Ruins. The grey-haired man, who still possessed a build which suggested that he was once an active adventurer, had introduced himself as Pluton Aizach and was in the midst of trying to up sale them from the deal Baki had originally come looking for. “Lord Baki, while making this adventure an open bounty on magic weapons and items would ensure that it gets posted in all the guild halls. I fear it would most likely result in your receiving only the most inferior of items. I would recommend that instead, you invest in one of our expedition packages.”

Baki frowned as he crossed his arms while stating, “I’m sure you do, and I’m sure that it has nothing to do with how even at the bottom end of the package list I glanced over, it would cost several hundred thousand gold coins, which considering the transfer rates between the ryo and gold would possibly put my costs at over a million ryo. Well outside the Kazekage’s allotted budget, all without any apparent guarantees of success.”

The guild master sat back in his chair and ran his fingers through his mustache and down to his chin several times as he thought of a counter, before eventually settling on, “While it is true that it is a sizeable investment. I can almost guarantee that you’ll only be left with inferior items going with such a widespread campaign. Furthermore, depending on how much interest the request piques. You could still be on the hook for a considerable amount of coin and be left with nothing but junk. Now you could mitigate that by refining your request further to exclude items with specific effects, or which are apprised to a certain level. But I think you’ll find that unless you are offering a substantial reward, which can go into the thousands or even millions of coins for the more incredible items, you’ll find it difficult to convince adventurers to part with them. Particularly since such items would be all the more valuable to them for their next adventure.”

Baki sat silently for several moments before stating, “I don’t understand, are you saying people would not honor the request? Although, I suppose I shouldn’t be that surprised in a system where one can literally brag about earning rankings as a thief.”

To Kashike, it appeared that Pluton needed to bite his tongue to keep from firing off a retort, which she assumed would be related to how not only were shinobi noted to be particularly skilled thieves, but also assassins. She wondered briefly if it was part of some strategy on Baki’s part, but eventually settled on it being just a byproduct of his gruff nature. Which, while it made him popular among the shinobi of Suna since he didn’t speak in the flowerily language of a politician, like many councilors did. It wasn’t doing him any favors in the current negotiation. This led her to wonder if perhaps it was instead a part of Gaara’s strategy to send Baki, who would ruffle Pluton’s feathers, only to follow up with a more adept councilor who would then find it easier to win the guild master over.

Proving himself to be a rather adept politician, Pluton let the comment pass as he explained, “It isn’t quite that cut and dry, you see. The problem lies in the type of request you would be making which is essentially just a bounty. It is typically the type of quest that a party of adventurers picks up as a supplement to a main one. For example, if they accept a request to clear a cave of… oh let’s say giant spiders and find a rank nine dagger on the corpse of an adventurer that failed in the task before them. Well, to begin with, chances are that they are a party of greenhorns in the first place since that would be a one-star request. So, even though the dagger would be at the very bottom of the spectrum, likely only possessing some charm that prevents its edge from dulling or nicking, as the party would probably just be starting out, it would be made up of members carrying unranked equipment so they would probably keep it, until such a time as they come across something better.”

“I see,” Baki said after considering the information for a moment, “So, what you’re saying is basically your adventurers are always chasing that next bit of better gear, and only turning over that which they no longer have a use for.” Receiving a nod, the Suna councilor asked, “Then what pray tell would make this expedition option you are peddling any different?”

Again, the Guild Master looked like he had taken offence, and would like to make that fact known. However, instead he replied, “The Expedition Packages would allow you to choose exactly which dungeon or site is to be explored. Be it a new one, or one which paid out previously but still had levels left to explore. It also tends to attract the most competent adventurers generally of the silver and gold variety. Occasionally, you’ll get a platinum ranked adventurer who is down on their luck and looking for a steady paying job.”

“Tragic,” Baki stated gruffly, before asking, “But, as your adventurers seem to claim the best items for themselves, why would I pay them for their hand me downs.”

Kashike had to stop herself from laughing, as it was apparent from his body language that Pluton was at his wit’s end. But he proved himself to be quite the salesman as he managed to keep the annoyance and anger from his voice as he stated, “As the financier of an expedition, you’ll have right of first refusal on any items discovered. Should you pass, then the adventurer who discovered the items will have the opportunity to decide if they wish to equip it. If they choose to, they will pay a percentage of the fair market value to you in gold coin or trade. If they pass, it will be sent to a bidding house where you will split the proceeds, seventy-thirty in your favor.”

Baki allowed himself to look marginally pleased by the arrangement, but nevertheless asked, “What guarantees are there that your adventurers will report their finds?”

The Guild Master hoping to continue to win the councilor over said, “There will be a guild presence of administrators on site to oversee the cataloging process. They will take note of the adventurers’ starting equipment and inspect their possessions after each return to the exploration site’s camp. Granted, some still try to cheat the system, but I assure you that any who are caught find their membership status in the guild revoked. You can also assign your shinobi as overseers to watch over the items and camp.”

“Can they take an active part in the investigation of a site?”

“I’m afraid not,” Pluton replied to Baki’s question. “If the camp is attacked by monsters or raided, naturally your shinobi would be allowed to help defend it, but otherwise you’ll need to leave the exploration of the site to the professionals.”

It was Baki’s turn to bite his tongue at what he thought of Pluton’s description for the Land of Ruins adventurers, so instead he stood and said, “I’ll have to contact the Kazekage before I can fully commit to anything. But chances are you’ll be hearing back from me or another representative shortly.”

Pluton rose to his feet as well and extended his hand which Baki shook while the guild master stated, “I look forward to hearing a favorable reply.”

Baki inclined his head and then began heading towards the door while Kashike fell into step behind him. Upon leaving the Guild Master’s office, Baki made his way to the stairs that led down to the first floor, but suddenly came to a stop before turning to look over the second-floor railing. Gripping the stone rail, he stared down at the guild hall which looked to be a combination of banquet hall and administrative office, as there were numerous tables set up most of which were filled with adventurers all eating or drinking. Numerous waitresses ran moved among them dropping off drinks or food for the men and women gathered. Off towards the back of the room was a counter were several uniformed women sat who the adventurers approached when they picked a job from a nearby board, or after they had returned from a mission and were looking for payment.

While Baki appeared lost in thought, Kashike scanned the room while making a general threat assessment of the various warriors gathered. She had just come to the conclusion that she’d be able to clear the room with little problem when Baki asked, “So, what do you think of the proposal that was offered?”

Kashike was a little surprised by his inquiry, as most of the trip had been made in silence. Not that it had bothered her, since she had been assigned to high profile clients in the past who would try to chat her ear off while she was trying to concentrate on her surroundings. Others though would ignore her either because they viewed her presence as being similar to a piece of furniture or because they felt she was less capable then her male colleagues. Yet, while there were some in Suna’s Old Guard who viewed her as a waste of an open Anbu spot, as they assumed that she’d drop out at some point to start a family, and as such the resources dedicated to her training were better spent on a candidate with testicles. She didn’t get that feeling from Baki. Instead, she believed he simply understood the difficulties of her job and didn’t wish to contribute to it with idle chitchat.

Although, at times she felt a certain hesitance from Baki, as if he wasn’t entirely sure of the validity of his current mission. She wondered if his question was a momentary slip brought about as his doubts raised to the surface, and he was looking for further confirmation of them. Or, if it was just as it appeared, and he was requesting a simple assessment of the proposal they had just heard. Deciding to err on the side of caution, she indicated the warriors before them as she stated, “Well, if these adventurers are indicative of who we would be hiring for an expedition. I’d say that they vastly overrated their worth.”

Baki let out a gruff sounding chuckle, before replying, “I can’t say I disagree with that assessment. Although, to be fair, despite this being the main guild hall, I doubt any of their top adventurers would be found here.”

“Because most of the dungeons and ruins surrounding the capital and the country’s eastern edge have been picked clean,” Kashike said crossing her arms beneath her impressive bust as she rested against the rail in a manner that allowed her to keep an eye on the denizens below.

Baki favored her with an impressed smile as he stated, “It’s good to see someone studied the mission pamphlet despite this being a shit assignment.”

“I never said that,” Kashike said as a part of her worried that some displeased element opposed to her elevation to Anbu was spreading rumors about her.

Baki held up a calming hand as he said, “No, I did when the Kazekage assigned you as my bodyguard. This is typically an assignment you give snot-nosed genin so they can get a little experience under their belt. Not a competent member of the Anbu.”

Kashike felt a small burst of pride at the compliment Baki had paid her, as he was something of a local hero to the people of Suna. Due in part to his coming from a relative unknown family and then working his way up towards not only the Shinobi Council, but the head of its Jounin Forces. A role he had served in not only during the previous Kazekage’s tenor, but the current one’s as well.

As the feeling faded though, she felt some concern edge its way in as it became clear that Baki had some serious misgivings about his assignment. “Perhaps, the Kazekage felt that considering our limited interaction with the Land of Ruins, it was better to put our best foot forward.” She indicated the warriors below as she added, rather than giving a false impression of weakness.”

Baki considered her words for several moments as he studied the mismatched or cheap looking equipment that many of the gathered adventurers wore. Which, although there were a few older warriors among them, the room mostly ran towards the younger side of the spectrum with most looking to be in their mid to late teens. “Perhaps,” he stated after redirecting his focus on Kashike. “Still, while these warriors don’t appear to be anything special. I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss their training methods out of hand. They’re far harsher than ours.”

Kashike arched an eyebrow from beneath the Oni mask that she wore as she stated, “Oh, I wasn’t aware of any particular schools of training. Nothing came up during my research.”

Chuckling mirthlessly, Baki replied, “Not surprising as its one of the oldest ones out there, although it is more a law than a particular school. The law of the jungle, Kill or be killed.” Indicating the warriors below, he explained, “From what I’ve been able to gather, the dungeons that litter this land are not just the homes for the creatures that inhabit them, but actually seem to spawn them. The theories as to why run the gambit from it being an experiment that ran out of control, to its being a kind of security measure with the dungeons having been the storehouses of riches gathered by some long dead civilization. Which as you can imagine, considering the treasures one can find within, generates no small amount of interest for those willing to challenge them.”

Kashike believed she understood the point Baki was going to make as she stated, “So, you’re saying that while they may not look like much. They still probably have more experience then genin or chunin of comparable age.” Receiving a nod in reply, she added, “It’s strange though. You would think the guild would establish some universal method of training. I imagine it would stand to benefit them as well as its members.”

Baki began to head down the stairs, and after she fell into step beside him, he stated, “I wouldn’t be so sure of that.” He chuckled as Kashike’s masked face turned towards him quickly, and he could easily picture the confusion written on her face since Baki was a big proponent of the Suna Academy system and insuring it kept its curriculum from growing outdated. Clarifying his point, he explained, “What I mean is, take a look at your situation. What is it that most of your detractors throw back at you regarding your joining Anbu?”

Kashike frowned as she replied with a fair hint of bitterness, “That the time and training I’ve received would be better applied to someone who doesn’t pose a risk to dropping out of the program if she ends up getting knocked up.”

Baki nodded, and threw her for a loop when he stated, “A fair complaint.” Undoubtedly aware of the effect his statement had on her, he elaborated, “That isn’t to say that I necessarily agree with such complaints myself, and I can certainly understand why you feel it is unfair. But, have you ever considered why they feel that way?”

“Why would I?” Kashike replied defiantly. “They’re just old fossils opposed to change.”

Baki shook his head disappointedly as he replied, “Spoken like one who only sees their own point of view as valid.”

Kashike felt a spike of anger as she replied heatedly, “Oh, and what pray tell could ever make their opposition against me valid? And what the hell does any of it have to do with the Guild’s lack of a training program?”

“Well for starters,” Baki said as he held the door of the guild hall open for her, “Did you notice that there was no shortage of female adventurers back there?”

Kashike paused, although it wasn’t due to Baki’s question, as she instead began scanning the area to make sure there were no threats. Once she was satisfied, she began moving again and replied, “So what? There are plenty of female kunoichi as well. It’s just when they want to advance that it becomes a problem.”

“Agreed,” Baki stated in a manner that left her feeling like if she was playing a shogi match she was about to be put into check, “But, what if I told you that doesn’t appear to be the case here?”

Kashike frowned beneath her mask, “I would say that I find that hard to believe.”

“Because you allow your own experiences to define everyone else’s as well,” Baki said matter of factly. “The men you call fossils, came from a different era then you. One in which we were slowly being strangled to death by the treaty we were trapped in with the Leaf, and as such, the resources we had to throw into such things as training became less and less. Therefore, why would you throw resources towards someone who might have a drunken escapade one night that gets her knocked up and sees her potentially dropped from the program if she decides to keep it? Let alone, those who are actively planning to one day start a family. By comparison to the men you call fossils, you’ve come up through the ranks in a time of plenty, and while you might feel that means they should change their thinking. What happens when these good times end, and we enter a period where we have to make the tough choices as to who is more deserving.”

“Then you give it to those most deserving,” Kashike stated. “Unless you’re saying men are that by default.”

“No, although it could be a point in their favor” Baki replied definitively, before countering, “But, even barring that, are you so sure you would make the cut in such circumstances, even with removing the pregnancy issue being a concern. I mean while you’re highly competent in all the expected fields, in the Anbu that merely puts you at the middle of the pack as you don’t excel at any of them among your peers.” Kashike wanted to retort that meant there would still be plenty of people beneath her who would be cut first. But she could easily imagine the numerous counters that Baki could make in turn. The jounin councilor continued, “I’m not saying this to say I agree with your detractors, only to say that the issue isn’t so cut and dry as you believe it to be. As, take a woman like the Hokage of the Leaf, if there was one of similar caliber among our forces who was inclined to become an Anbu, the policies you found barring your path would also bar hers if we strictly followed what your detractors wished. That is why I said having a strict structure of training or developing talent is not necessarily the best in all cases. For you see, the purpose of such things is to fit people into a mold, and when it sees people who lack certain qualities the mold says they need to possess, the system rejects them because that is what such a system is meant to do. This is a necessity since the system in most cases is meant to streamline the process to make it repeatable and to help determine who is most likely worth the effort to dedicate the necessary resources to developing.”

Although Kashike still wanted to push back, she couldn’t deny there was a fair amount of truth to Baki’s words. But, felt there were still enough deviations from the system that ended up becoming fine shinobi that showed that it might be the system that was wrong, such as the former teammate of her fellow member of the Suna Paranormal Support Group, Sen. Stating as much, she explained, “Well don’t people like Commander Shira of the Earth Corridor Outpost show that despite not matching what the system would hold up as an example of what a desirable candidate should be, show that they can still become excellent shinobi.”

“Of course,” Baki replied before coming to a stop as Kashike held up a hand near an intersection as she suddenly sensed something was off. Although, he felt the sudden spike of malice as well, he continued to talk to lure whoever it had originated from into believing his guard was lowered, “But, do you believe that would be an indictment of our training system. I would argue such examples prove its effectiveness. After all, our Academy system, despite what most people believe isn’t meant to turn out the best shinobi money can buy. It is to turn out as many competent shinobi as possible, with a minimum investment of time and money. Anyone telling you otherwise, is selling you dreams. Yes, Shira did in fact become an extremely competent, and perhaps even superb shinobi despite his limitations. But he had to work twice as hard as any of the ones the Academy produced to achieve similar results. Moreover, he benefited extensively from the Kazekage taking a personal interest in his development. Not many shinobi can claim to have one on one training with the Fifth Kazekage. Which while it was the Kazekage’s time to give, only showcases how much additional effort was required, which could have been directed to other pursuits.”

Kashike frowned beneath her mask, since the same case could be made against her rise to the rank of Anbu, except the person that had taken a personal interest in her advancement was the Current Head Anbu Captain. But that wasn’t the only reason for her current scowl as the slip of killing intent that she had felt had disappeared, and she couldn’t find any sign of who had leaked it. She began walking again, and while keeping her guard up said, “So you’re saying that having no training system is actually beneficial to people such as myself or Shira.”

Baki shrugged as he replied, “I suppose that all depends. Chance are the two of you would probably end up dead in such circumstances. After all, the Guild system throws untrained adventurers right into the mix of things, and while they do have ranking system for their requests. They don’t really limit who can take them, so a bronze ranked adventurer, their lowest, could theoretically take a Five-star request from day one. Not that their One-star ones are comparable to our E-ranked missions where combat rarely, if ever is expected. Many a would-be adventurer on the other hand never returns from their first request.”

“I see,” Kashike stated, as she began to see the bigger picture Baki was creating for her. But, was also beginning to feel a sense of unease as they turned down onto a street which led to the hotel they were staying at. Unable to place what was causing it as the street seemed to be almost deserted, she said, “So, what you’re saying is that as the Guild has no investment in their adventurers from the get-go. So, they truly cannot complain about who does what, since by the very fact that they survived, it shows they had a certain level of competency. Still, it is kind of hard to imagine it would produce steady results.”

“Why?” Baki asked a little confused by her last statement, as well as by just how light the foot traffic currently was as the street had been rather bustling with stands and visitors that morning, “Nature has been doing it from the very beginning. The strong flourish, and the weak perish. If anything, our Academy system just gives the weak more chances to improve before the punishment for failure becomes too harsh. Many of our genin only truly beginning to see just how dangerous being a shinobi is just before the time that they take their first chunin exam. Here, there are no training wheels. As such, while for our purposes it may be more feast or famine when it comes to picking talented adventurers from the lower ranks, especially in what is considered a safe zone. The tradeoff is that by the time they reach the upper echelons, almost all of them would be considered S ranked or perhaps even better. By the same token, because the Guild doesn’t have any investment in how the adventurers arrive by their skills, it also isn’t going to place restrictions in their paths to heard them into taking certain actions. It’s a mindset they had the luxury of arriving at because as opposed to shinobi, there never seems to be a shortage of young hopefuls with dreams of being the next great adventurer.”

Kashike wasn’t sure what Baki meant by that last part, since the Academy never seemed to run short of people applying to become shinobi. But she quickly realized that Baki was likely referring to a time before the founding of the Major Shinobi Villages. A period of time where due to the attrition the various shinobi clans were experiencing had resulted in most of their active duty shinobi being in their early teens, or not even that old. Which, while they would have been trained in their clans’ arts almost from the time they could walk, still resulted in untried and untested children being thrown against each other in almost unceasing combat. The Shinobi groups that would eventually band together to form Suna were slightly different in that regard. But mainly because most of them didn’t derive from Clans and had instead been composed mostly of mercenaries that were without Kekkei Genkai which had banded together to fight on an even keel with the Clans. As a result, when Suna was founded in the aftermath of Konoha’s own, it was actually the first of the Shinobi Villages to establish an Academy, since it had quickly recognized that it had needed to develop uniformity among its forces as well as upcoming generations since it didn’t have a reliable talent pool of skills the same way a shinobi clan would. Where as a Konoha, for example, had been able to get away with assigning members of various clans to completing their missions. But, when the first Shinobi World War had broken out, Suna had actually come out of it in the best condition as its academy system proved vastly superior to the mentorship program the other villages had used, although Konoha would still technically be considered to have been the premier power at its close. However, the Leaf quickly closed the gap as the Third Hokage established an Academy of his own, which forced the various clans to learn to work together, not to mention opened an avenue for non-clan villagers to become Shinobi. Which as a result, by the time the Second Shinobi World war broke out, Konoha no longer ebbed out its victories based solely on the might of the clans that had joined it, but because it had become a cohesive fighting force.

Guessing the Guild of the Land of Ruins never needed to learn such lessons because the Supply of adventurers never outpaced the demand raised by the requests it received, Kashike believed she understood Baki’s greater point, which was that the people opposed to her being a member of the Anbu weren’t just necessarily sexist assholes, as she had described them on more than one occasion. But, were opposed to it based on experiences which had shaped them to believe a woman might not have the same conviction to the job as a male counterpart would. Which, Kashike was forced to admit, could be the case, particularly in a time where such a choice might come down to who was more likely to make sure there was a payback of the expended resources. After all, while she had allowed one relationship to end because it would have meant giving up her dream, Kashike realized that in many regards her relationship with Naruto was preventing her from feeling the full brunt of her choice to join the Anbu. Particularly in regard to having a family, since while having children didn’t appear to be in the cards at the moment as far as Naruto was concerned. Her taking him as a lover had in essence prevented her biological clock from playing a factor in the decision she had made. After all, if she had just achieved her goal without Naruto in her life, She couldn’t exactly say that she wouldn’t feel the pull to become a mother growing stronger, eventually leading to a point where she would prove her detractors right as the window of opportunity for her to know the joys of motherhood slowly became smaller and smaller.

Kashike was about to admit as much, although obviously leaving out the parts regarding her lover, but came to a stop as she understood what was making her uneasy since the street appeared all but deserted. “Shit, we need to get out of here.”

Her words caused Baki to also instantly go on guard as he replied, “What? You believe…”

He trailed off as they could hear a soft murmuring coming from several of the multi-storied buildings lining both side of the street. Kashike, quickly realized what it was due to her studying up on what threats they would potential face, and so knew that unlike with shinobi who used handsigns to cast jutsu, in the Land of Ruins, many low level members of the mage class needed to chant in order to cast similar effects that they called spells so shouted, “Scatter!”

Baki leapt away from her while she did likewise as several fireballs and bolts of lightning flew out from various second floor windows. Unfortunately, it appeared that rather than targeting just the spot where they had been standing, the mages had decided to blast apart the entire area, and as a result she ended up landing too close to where one of the fireballs impacted. Which blew her off her feet, as the wind was also knocked out of her. She landed roughly on her back and fought against the darkness that was clawing its way in from the edges of her vision as she struggled to get back up. An effort that she redoubled as she noticed numerous adventurers appearing from the buildings where the spells had been launched from, most of whom seemed to fixate on the man that she was charged with protecting. Although, a handful turned towards her figuring it would be in their best interests to eliminate her before she had a chance to recover.

*****

Yuugao was caught by surprise as the street suddenly became a battleground, mainly as she had been in the process of berating herself for the slip of killing intent that she had released when she caught site of her target. However, that wasn’t the only reason that she attributed to her having missed the trap as Kashike’s appearance had also caused her to begin questioning her current course of action. Particularly, as she knew of the uphill battle that the brown-haired woman had fought in attaining her current position and could only imagine how her detractors would use her charge being murdered under her watch against her. This naturally had setup quite the internal conflict within her, as almost for the first time since starting out on her journey to kill Baki, she couldn’t just fall back on a contingency plan as even her infiltration of the Kazkekage mansion had been setup years in advance for the occasion her target turned out to have become the Kage. A not unlikely development as she had always figured the person that had murdered Hayate had been rather highly placed in Suna’s hierarchy. But, had also been a contingency against her target not being in the Wind Village for either a mission, or on the off chance they had retired.

Upon spotting Kashike, the part of her that Yuugao had been trying to suppress since beginning her self-appointed mission had pleaded with her to come to her senses. It tried to remind her how the woman looked up to her, since she too wished to claim the top spot of Suna’s Anbu Division. A goal which would possibly be dealt a death blow should Baki meet his end while under her protection. That was if she survived the current encounter, as she noted several adventurers making their way towards Kashike as she slowly tried to get back to her feet.

Her gaze drifted from Kashike to Baki, who was further up the street and trying to make his way through the throng of those seeking his life in order to save the woman in charge of protecting it. Yuugao felt the same violet urge that she had previously and allowed it to set her feet in motion as she darted out from the alcove she had ducked into when they had stopped. The dark hooded robe that she wore over the Suna Anbu uniform, an item of clothing which she assumed was favored by thieves and assassins within the Land of Ruins did little to slow her as she made her way towards Baki. A part of her hoped that despite her wearing the robe to blend in, her sudden appearance would give the adventurers threatening Kashike pause, which would allow her to eliminate Baki, thereby likely eliminating their need to hurt her. However, this didn’t appear to be the case as the man closest to the still downed woman raised his sword over his head in order to bring it down on her.

Yuugao felt a soul rendering tear within her, as she abandoned her charge to leap towards the adventurer and removed the blade that she had tucked into the belt holding her robe closed. She landed on the opposite of him after removing the arm that he had raised above his head. He stumbled back clutching the bleeding stump, while his two companions moved to charge her with weapons drawn. She spun to face them and tossed several shuriken she had palmed upon landing using her free hand. Many of the spinning projectiles were battered away by one of the men using the axe he wielded. But the woman accompanying him wasn’t so lucky as one bite deeply into the side of her neck, while another hit her square in the face. She cried out in shock and pain as she clutched at the geyser erupting from her neck, which distracted her compatriot enough that his weapon was still out of position when Yuugao closed with him, and split open his belly. As he sank to his knees trying to hold his guts in, the woman took a weak ineffectual swing at her, which Yuugao sidestepped before bringing her own blade down and through her neck just above where her shuriken had struck.

She turned away as she shook the blood from her sword and sheathed it before she moved to help Kashike to her feet. Dropping to one knee, she disguised her voice as she said, “Grab onto me.”

Kashike hesitated, obviously untrusting of the stranger offering assistance, but her eyes traveled over her handy work and it appeared she understood that there wasn’t much reason for her savior to be playing games, especially if the objective was her and Baki’s life. However, Yuugao tensed as she felt a presence come up behind them, as Baki having made it through the gauntlet stood with his back facing her as he held of the the remaining adventurers while saying “I don’t know who you are. But you have my thanks.”

Yuugao felt a twitch in her hand, which she knew would be cured if she quickly pulled her blade and buried it in his back. However, Kashike chose that time to throw an arm over her shoulder to accept help back up to her feet, making her wonder if she had sensed the desire, and had acted to hinder her. The dark part of Yuugao cried out in frustration, while the light portion which had broken free of the box she had tried to keep her when she had leapt to Kashike’s aid, simply pulled the woman up to her feet with her. Looking over her shoulder she stated simply, “We need to move.”

“Lead the way,” Baki stated as he produced and threw several exploding pellets in order to cover their escape

*****

Rock Lee watched with a fair hint of annoyance as Naruto was chatting with a group of female adventurers at a nearby table. An annoyance mostly brought about as the Blond man had seemingly taken charge of the mission, with even Kakashi and Gai appearing to follow his lead. A lead, which currently had Lee having traded in his favored green jumpsuit in for animal furs as he and Gai were dressed up like some sort of barbarians. While, Kakashi, Tsume and Hana were dressed in tunics and simple trousers that seemed to be a favored choice of adventurers that seemed to be almost quasi-bandits. Tenten and Yakumo were wearing robes that seemed to be the standard garb for a class that Naruto had described as mages. Whereas Moegi was wearing the white robes similar to that of a priestess. As for Naruto, he was decked out in a shiny suit of armor which marked him as a more specific class of warrior known as a Paladin. Which further annoyed Lee since while most people present seemed to be regarding him and Gai, with some hint of suspicion. Those same gazes seemed to instantly switch to speculative interest when they looked upon Naruto, at least when those gazes belonged to men, with a fair amount of them holding more carnal interests when they belonged to women.

Although annoyed, since the current difference in reaction to their presence just seemed to be salt in the wound that he believed Naruto’s current status as the Hero of the Leaf had inflicted to his pride, considering their supposed shared starting point of underdogs. Lee had to admit that it wasn’t due to anything Naruto had done, since his current attire had been intended for Kakashi, who had turned it down in favor of the tunic, which he had paired with a scarf to cover his face. A small downturn of his lips when Kakashi had refused led Lee to believe Naruto had truly wanted his teacher to wear the armor, likely as he imagined he’d have to forego his usual mask. Lee was also forced to admit that even Naruto’s taking the lead, was due in part to actions he had undertaken seemingly without Kakashi’s knowledge, when he had created a clone to travel on ahead of them, at a pace even Lee would have to consider blistering since it had not only apparently reached the Land of Ruins a full two days ahead of them. But, had apparently been able to gather intel on how the relatively unknown land conducted itself, and had secured the attire they currently wore.

Knowledge Naruto was apparently putting to good use as the table of women giggled appreciatively while he charmed them, likely while gathering still more. Which truthfully stung Lee’s pride all the more, mainly as while he had accepted that in the battle for Sakura’s heart he had lost. One thing he had taken away as a consolation was the belief that, thanks in part to his relationship with Kasumi and Fuki, if there was one place where he outshone the Uzumaki it was in regard to his sexual prowess. After all, while Naruto may have won over one woman, Lee spent his nights with two and had slept with some of the most attractive women the Land of Fire had to offer, thanks in part to his night job as he liked to call it.

Yet, watching Naruto currently, Lee found himself doubting if this was a belief he could even cling to any longer. Although, the seeds of that doubt had been planted at the onset of their journey to the Land of Ruins, as he had noticed how the female contingent of their party seemed wholly smitten by the Uzumaki. Most notably for him being Tenten, who often mixed in flirtatious innuendo during her interactions with Naruto, in a similar manner to how she had with Neji back before he had soundly rejected her. Which, while he couldn’t be as sure of the other Leaf kunoichi that had joined them in Suna, he was fairly confident many of their mannerisms also indicated a deep desire for the jinchuriki. Even Tsume, left him with the impression that if Naruto made a pass at her, she’d flush like a schoolgirl as the hardedge that she had possessed before they had reached Suna all but melted away in the Uzumaki’s presence.

Then there were the adventurers that Naruto was currently chatting up, who had appeared to be rather standoffish when he had first approached him. Yet, now appeared as if they would gladly accept an invitation to his room to join him in more private accommodations. Lee imagined more than one would gladly accept even if they weren’t the only one to do so. Mainly as a result of the disappointed looks the Uzumaki received as he politely disengaged himself from the conversation, and began heading over to join his fellow Leaf-nin.

Upon sitting down, Kakashi looked up from his book to ask, “Did you learn anything of interest?”

“I think so,” Naruto replied sounding a little unsure, “They were telling me that apparently some sort of conflict erupted yesterday. They don’t know what about, but it apparently involved members of a dark guild and an unknown party.”

“What’s a dark guild?” Moegi asked hesitantly, afraid she was asking something foolish.

“My guess is it would be the equivalent of what we would consider a missing-nin,” Naruto answered giving a reassuring smile. “It kind of sounds like most legit work the Guild offers includes things like escort mission, or exploration of ruins. While Dark Guilds offer jobs for the more unsavory work such as contract killing, and its members are made up of those who’ve been kicked out of the guild.”

“While interesting perhaps,” Gai stated sounding unsure as to why Naruto would think it is relevant, “I do not believe the incident would be tied to Yuugao.”

Naruto frowned before stating, “I can see why you would think that. Particularly, if she was behind the diversion at the Kazekage mansion. It would lead one to believe that she didn’t know where Baki was, and so needed to ascertain his location before you guys arrived in Suna. That doesn’t leave her a lot of time to get here, get in contact with a dark guild, and get the resources together to stage an attack.”

The Uzumaki trailed off, and Lee got the impression that there was more that he had to say but didn’t want to give voice to since it would make the concerns that he had more tangible. A response that Lee found rather strange and wondered just how close he had become to the Anbu Captain while they had lived under the same roof. But, after a moment Lee interjected with a point of his own which supported his sensei, “More to the point, if she had headed to Suna to eliminate Baki personally, it seems rather strange that she would farm the job out now. Especially, as the advantage would lay almost exclusively with her since she would only have to contend with a single kunoichi, as opposed to an entire village’s security.”

Naruto inclined his head in acknowledgement of the point, but stated, “I get where you are coming from. But I feel as if there’s something else going on that we aren’t seeing.”

The annoyance Lee had been feeling at the Uzumaki’s seemingly taking over the mission boiled to the surface as he asked heatedly, “Oh, and what special insights lead you to believe that. Until a few days ago you were lounging around without a care in the world. Despite having suffered another defeat at the hands of Sasuke.”

Lee could tell his response caught everyone present by surprise, most notably his sensei and Tenten. He also noticed that the female contingent of their group gaze’s quickly turned disapproving, while Tsume seemed to be suppressing an urge to growl at him. However, most frustrating was Naruto’s response as he calmly stated will ignoring the dig at him, “Well, for starters, it appears that Baki was here yesterday to negotiate something with the guild leader. If he completed his task and left to return to Suna chances are we should have run into him or picked up some sign that he and Kashike were heading back. This would also be the case if they decided to head somewhere else, since Tsume and Hana’s partners are circling the city to see if they can pick up a trail. As we haven’t been alerted to their partners succeeding yet, chances are that they didn’t leave. So, either they have unfinished business here, which if the negotiations stalled yesterday would typically mean that we should have seen them. Or, they were possibly involved in yesterday’s incident.”

Lee knew it was a fair hypothesis to arrive to but wasn’t willing to give Naruto the point as he stated, “As you pointed out, there wouldn’t be time for Yuugao to arrange for it.”

“Agreed,” Naruto stated, “Which is why I said I feel there is some crucial bit of information we are missing.” Sighing in annoyance, he added, “Kabuto set this all-in motion, and while I agree he probably fingered Baki as Hayate’s murderer. I’m just not sure what he hopes to gain from it.”

“It should be obvious,” Lee said quickly, “He’s aiming to disrupt the alliance.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Gai interjected, causing Lee to look disappointed. “Even if Yuugao’s goal was to avenge Hayate, and she succeeded, so long as the Hokage turned her over to face Suna’s justice, chances are no permanent damage would be done. Many would just see it as an unfortunate act with people on both sides understanding the emotions that brought it about. Granted, that wouldn’t prevent people in both villages that are keen on seeing the alliance disintegrating from trying to use it. But truth be told, I believe the Hokage and Kazekage value the Alliance too much to allow such an incident to ruin it.”

With his sensei seemingly backing Naruto, Lee felt his desire to push the issue wane so asked, “Then what does Kabuto stand to gain by arranging for a bunch of disgraced adventurers attacking them instead?”

Gai seemed unsure of that himself, but Naruto stated, “Unfortunately, with Kabuto involved, it could be just about anything. Maybe he aligned with a power somewhere that had a grudge against Baki, and so he decided to get Yuugao involved confident that she would take him out. If he did get a Dark Guild involved, it could be because he didn’t know Baki wasn’t in Suna and feared Yuugao would miss her chance.” With a sense of urgency, the Uzumaki stated, “But truthfully, none of that matters right now.” Turning his attention to Kakashi, “With your permission, I’d like to take Tsume and Hana with me to investigate where the attack took place and see if Baki or Yuugao were involved in the attack.”

Kakashi inclined his head, and then ordered, “I guess it is as good a place as any to start. While you’re doing that, I’ll take Tenten, Yakumo, and Moegi to start checking with local inns to see if they are staying in the area. Assuming it was related to them, we can probably start in the same general vicinity since they may have been heading to their lodgings after their meeting. Gai and Lee, you two stay here just in case we’re off base, and they just decided to get a late start today.”

“Roger, Kakashi,” Gai said giving his customary smile and thumbs up as the group split into their assigned teams. As they headed off, his smile faded while a look of concern appeared on his face, “Lee, was it not unnecessarily cruel to throw Naruto’s loss against Sasuke into his face like that?”

“How so?” Lee said with a fair amount of venom in his voice, “He deserves to be reminded of it considering the promises that he made to deal with Sasuke. Yet despite failing spectacularly, rather than dedicating himself to finishing the task, we find him playing around without a care in the world.”

Gai was a little taken aback by the intensity of the negative feelings that Lee seemed to be harboring towards the Uzumaki. Trying to dampen them somewhat, he stated, “I was unaware of Naruto making any such promises. To my knowledge, what was at the heart of the matter was a difference of opinion in just how the people of Konoha should go about making sure Sasuke pays for his crimes. If his position that we not become the enemy that we seek to stop constituted a promise on his part, does that not mean that those who believe such as you that Sasuke should be eliminated no matter the cost have made the same promise.”

“And how are we supposed to when the current leadership of Konoha lacks the will to do what is necessary,” Lee responded quickly.

Gai shook his head in disappointment as he replied, “That is a rather convenient position to take. The side I oppose failed, and so is wrong, but we lack the means to put our own beliefs into practice.”

“Are you saying I’m wrong?” Lee asked angrily, “That if a contingent of us went to the Hokage and demanded that we be allowed to deal with Sasuke our way, that she would just let us do so?”

“No, I’m rather positive that she would oppose you, and tell you to get the hell out of her office,” Gai responded calmly. He could see his student was about to state how that proved his point, so he added, “What I’m saying, is that you’re the ones being cowards.” Lee looked stunned at his talking to him in such a manner which allowed Gai to continue, “I’ve noticed a bitterness growing inside you ever since Naruto joined the mission. Its poisonous root is easy enough to see, which is that you’ve grown jealous of him. “

“I’m not jealous of him,” Lee said dismissively, “He’s a fraud…”

“Lee!” Gai cut him off harshly, although making sure his voice was still soft enough that it didn’t raise above the background noise of the numerous conversations being carried out.

“How am I wrong?” Lee questioned his teacher passionately, “Nothing of what was originally presented about him turned out to be true. Everything was staged to create this impression of some underdog who got by on grit and determination. If Neji had known the truth about him, that he was a son of a Hokage, and housed the most powerful of tailed beasts, then he would have never dropped his guard to allow him that victory and his current status would have evaporated with it.”

Lee winced internally at the disappointment Gai wore on his face, although he made a point not to show how much it affected him. His teacher shook his head, as he replied, “Personally, I don’t believe that. His path to his current renown would definitely be different. But I have little doubt he would still have reached it.”

“You don’t know that,” Lee countered quickly.

“No. No I don’t,” Gai admitted, before retorting, “No more than you can be sure that he’d have simply faded into obscurity had he been defeated at the Chunin Exams.” Gai reached for the mug of the local ale that he had ordered and took a hearty drink of it before giving a scowl to a young team of adventures whom had taken an interest in them, perhaps finding the philosophical debate taking place to be out of character for supposed barbarians. Fearing provoking him further, they quickly found other places to stare, which did bring a slight smile to his face, along with memories of the passionate young man they were currently discussing as he asked, “Yet, do you know what makes me believe that?” Receiving a quick shake of the head in reply, Gai pointed to his chest with his thumb as he stated, “It’s because of what lays inside…”

“An all powerful Bijuu,” Lee interjected causing the smile to again slip from his Sensei’s face, and to his receiving a truly disapproving look from him.

Gai sighed disappointedly, before replying, “I would hope you know better than that. But I suppose this mission is showing why you do not.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Lee asked sounding insulted.

Gai didn’t answer for a moment, as he noticed a well-built red head staring at him, who although not dressed in furs like him as she was wearing rather skimpy attire, made him suspect that she was perhaps from one of the barbarian clans which littered the mountains of the country. He tried to scowl at her in a similar manner as he had the other group, but she simply smiled at him. Before seemingly losing interest, as she stood and began making her way from the banquet area up the stairs.

“I mean,” Gai said his voice taking a hard edge as his focus shifted back to Lee, “It’s easy to sit there and grow jealous of another’s success. To fire off the biting comment and the like as you feel yourself being overshadowed. But, what have you done to rectify it? I’ve noticed your annoyance at Naruto seeming to take charge of this mission, but rather than trying to make your own contributions, you instead busied yourself with trying to tear him down. But it isn’t going to work, and the reason is because whatever failures you can try throwing into his face, he’s already moved beyond them. Yes, he was bested by Saskue, and you can try to pretend that he was just lounging around when we found him in Suna. But you know better. He was taking the steps necessary to ensure their next meeting goes differently. That’s no guarantee that it will, but he isn’t wasting his time away just lamenting about his failure. Whereas you, never seemed to have grown past your inability to best Neji.”

“That is ridiculous,” Lee retorted quickly.

“Is it?” Gai asked. “Then why do you focus so heavily on his supposed humble beginnings?” Lee was about to provide the reasons why he felt it was important, but his sensei didn’t offer him the chance. Although, he found it didn’t matter as much of his argument was defanged as his teacher stated, “Even if it was some con to artificially create a hero narrative, Naruto needed to have the grit and determination to keep meeting the expectations placed on him. His match with Neji being but just one, and while you may feel and even be correct that Naruto would have failed in that instance if he wasn’t the host of the nine-tails. You’re forgetting one very important thing.”

“What would that be?” Lee said rather defiantly.

“His journey wasn’t without its fair share of failures,” Gai stated with a determinedly gaze in his eyes. “You took part in one of those failures, and despite how I’m sure if asked, Naruto would admit to it being one of the lowest points in his life. Chiefly when considering what Sasuke ended up becoming. Within weeks he was taking missions again, before heading out for a training trip to get stronger. As a result, it was Sasuke who ended up coming up short, and…”

“What is your point,” Lee interrupted, causing a look of surprise to appear on his sensei’s face.

Again, a look of dissatisfaction with his pupil’s attitude appeared, although he tried to soften the feeling by telling himself that Lee had just hit a rebellious age rather late. Still, he spoke with a disappointed tone as he stated, “What I’m trying to say is that while the cycle between Naruto and Sasuke will inevitably end with one or the other’s death. In the meantime, they are pushing each other to greater and greater heights. You on the other hand, allowed Naruto’s victory over Neji to be yours as well. You never cleared that hurdle yourself, and instead said to yourself, well this underdog did it, so it is the same as me having done it. But, seeing what advantages he has, although I would say they mostly worked against him until around the time of the Chunin Exams, has made you begin to question if he cleared that hurdle in the same manner that you would have. And, if he didn’t, what does that say about you?” Lee felt a chill from his sensei’s words, which grew more pronounced as Gai said, “A difficult question to ask oneself. Particularly since if answered one way, it means that in reality, you’ve never advanced past the first hurdle you faced. Yet, rather than face that harsh reality. You’ve decided to try to tear down Naruto, feeling that if you can force him into the role of a swindler who pulled the wool over the eyes of the people of Konoha, then your own inadequacies don’t matter.”

Lee stood abruptly, as he said heatedly, “I will show you who is inadequate.”

“Very well,” Gai said calmly, not enjoying the anger in his pupil’s eyes even as he was the one that had purposefully poked it to its current levels. Holding his hand towards the door, he challenged him, “Go out there and prove to yourself just how little you have advanced.” Lee’s face nearly broke into a sneer, which Gai felt truly worried of as he felt it showcased just how dangerous and easily those righteously calling for Sasuke’s head could become the thing they claimed to hate. Still, he didn’t let it show as Lee turned and stalked away from him, unaware of how he had already failed as he allowed his personal feelings to cloud his judgement and had abandoned the assignment they had been given. Although, Gai reasoned that in his own way, he had also done the same as he was hijacking the mission himself in hopes of breaking through to his student before he became too convinced of his own righteousness and thus in time would allow him to turn everyone who wasn’t with him into an enemy that needed to be destroyed. He chuckled mirthlessly to himself, as he felt that perhaps both him and Lee could stand to learn a thing or two from Naruto. Who although he seemed to also have his own unspoken agenda in regards to the current mission, was at least working in conjunction with everyone in completing it, even those such as himself whom he seemed inclined to try and keep somewhat out of the loop as to why he was pursuing the mission so passionately.

A matter Gai would normally try to puzzle out but had found himself rather distracted by his concerns with Lee. But believing that matter, while not exactly resolved was in the process of being addressed, was about to turn his thoughts towards why Naruto did seem so invested in the mission, but stopped as he noticed the woman with long fiery red hair had returned and was now approaching him. Gai frowned internally, as he took note of ornate red and black jacket that she was wearing which exposed most of the sun kissed skin of her chest and stomach. Which, as the only thing she had on outside of shoulder guards to cover her upper arms, was a large belt that only partially obscured the fact that she was wearing just a black thong beneath it, meant there was very little left to the imagination. A fact Gai appreciated, as he checked out her shapely legs as he focused on tribal tattoo on the outer side of her right thigh. She approached him unarmed, although she was carrying a pair of large mugs which she set down next to him, and as she sat on the bench beside him with her back to the table, “You’re not from around here?”

“I don’t know what you mean, miss…”

“Risty,” the woman replied giving a playful smile. Leaning in, she said, “I mean that most barbarians that I’ve ever met have barely been able to speak two complete sentences let alone the vibrant back and forth you and your young… son maybe seemed to be having. And, even if you two were family, well the idea that it would end without some bloodshed… that’s a big no, no when an elder’s authority is being challenged.”

“You seem to be rather articulate yourself… for a barbarian,” Gai replied, and almost immediately had to defend himself as the woman grabbed one of the mugs that she had placed down and attempted to slam it into his skull. A move he easily blocked, by smashing it with his forearm, which although it surprised him with how tough it was, his forearms had broken harder and heavier things before.

Risty easily leapt away as he tried to catch her with a kick as he rose to his feet as well. Noticing himself surrounded, by a majority of the adventurers, Gai realized his debate with Lee had likely attracted too much attention and not just from the red-head although she had likely raised the alarm. A theory which proved correct as she approached him now armed with a mace and shield, as she said, “For the record, I’m not a Barbarian. I’m a Benevolent Bandit of the Wilderness.”

“My mistake,” Gai stated, not bothering to arm himself with the axe Naruto had procured for him to fit into the role he had been meant to play.

“You can say that again,” Risty replied rather playfully. “It would be a shame to have to mess up such an already rugged face. So, why don’t you just tell us what you dark guilders are up to?”

“I’m afraid there’s been some kind of misunderstanding,” Gai replied, “We’re not associated with any dark guild.”

“Then who are you with,” a gray-haired man in fine clothes stated from the second floor.

“I’d rather not say,” Gai replied turning towards him without dropping his guard, “But, we do not mean you any harm.”

“I guess we’ll just have to go ask your companions,” the man replied giving the others a signal to attack. “I’m sure after a few days stay in a cell you’ll be more open to sharing.”

Gai prepared himself for the onslaught to come as he said, “Perhaps, but stating as much is the easy part. Let’s see if any of you have what it takes to make it happen.”

*******

“You should have smashed his smug face in,” Tsume vented as she, Naruto and Hana made their way to the location where a dark guild had apparently wrecked some havoc.

Naruto gave her an amused smile even as he replied, “I don’t think that would help resolve Lee’s issue with me.”

He sent a look towards Hana, hoping she would back him up. However, understanding the silent request she didn’t exactly help the situation as she said, “Don’t look at me. I’m with mom on this one. You should have fucked him up.”

Naruto felt a sense of annoyance, directed mostly towards himself since he supposed that he should have known better as the Inuzuka tended to solve a lot of their interpersonal issues with their fists. The feeling didn’t last long as Tsume let out a short gruff laugh, before stating, “That’s telling him.” Tsume grew serious though as she added, “Look, I know you probably think fighting is the last thing you should be doing considering what we’re trying to do. But sometimes… you just have to show people exactly where they stand and in the harshest way possible. If Lee is going to invoke your last fight with Sasuke, show that prick exactly what such a fight would be like.”

“That seems to be a surefire way to ensure he comes to resent me,” Naruto stated as they turned onto the street where the incident took place.

His Inuzuka lover gave him a look of concern as she stated, “I hate to break it to you, but from where I’m standing it looks like he already does.” Naruto frowned at her words, but it grew deeper when she turned away to curse, “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me?”

Naruto didn’t need to ask what she meant as although the street looked like it had been blown to hell. Rather than being cordoned off so a proper investigation could take place, it was open to the public. A public which was uncaringly trampling through it.

Tsume looked away and was about to inform him that they’d probably be better off joining Kakashi and the others in checking the local inns. However, she ended up focusing just past him, and began heading towards a small alley. He and Hana followed in her wake. They paused as she approached the edge of the building at the alley’s entrance and began running the tips of her fingers against a section of its exterior.

Naruto noticed that the spot she was rubbing was discolored in that it appeared cleaner than the surrounding area. Tsume pulled her fingers away and rubbed her thumb against them before standing and looking down the alley stated, “Unless I’m losing my touch, it appears the fight spilled in this direction.”

Hana nodded as she began moving down the alley, while Naruto, although confident his the older Inuzuka’s instincts were right asked, “What makes you think that? As opposed to it having concluded back there?”

Tsume gave him a feral grin as they began following after Hana, and then explained, “Strategy for one. Regardless of who these dark guild types were targeting. Odds are they do not want to have a prolonged conflict.”

“So, they would attack from an ambush,” Naruto stated earning himself a nod from Tsume. With that detail, he began to fill in the rest, “Which, assuming that was what destroyed the street, and it failed to eliminate their targets would mean they likely needed to get in close to finish them off, and were unable to contain them.”

Tsume nodded, but noticing her daughter had come to a stop asked her, “What’s wrong?”

Hana waited until they came to a rest to state, “There were definite signs that the fight spilled this way, and while I haven’t picked up a scent I’m familiarly with yet. Something feels off, but I can’t put my finger on why?”

Tsume frowned as her own senses were telling her as much as well. Particularly, as she could still make out many of the tracks and signs of a running fight having taken place in the alley, which hadn’t been cleaned nearly as well, likely because whoever had cleaned up afterwards had figured it was outsight of the average passerby and so didn’t need to put much effort into tidying up. After a moment of studying the tracks that had led them there, she noticed that several looked to be pointing in different directions, “It looks like those in pursuit hesitated here for a moment, and met up with a group that had arrived from the other direction.” Her gaze then traveled further down the alley in the direction they had been heading, and noticing fewer tracks heading that way, which considering how it had appeared two groups had met where they were standing stated, “It appears like a number of them didn’t make it beyond this point.”

It was Hana’s turn to frown as she stated, “That doesn’t make much sense though. There don’t appear to be any signs of some trap or jutsu which would suddenly…” She suddenly looked up, and began leaping between the buildings, until she disappeared onto the rooftop. “They came this way…” she called down, which caused Naruto and Tsume immediately began following up after her and came to a stop as Hana finished her statement by saying, “…and my guess is they likely were up against shinobi.”

Naruto could only nod in agreement, as while whoever had been responsible for removing the bodies might have done a less than stellar job of cleaning up after them once it had moved to the alley, they hadn’t even bothered to remove the bodies once it had left them. Although, he supposed that it could just be a matter that they hadn’t realized the battle had continued up to the rooftops. A fact that they would probably be made aware of sooner or later, due to the number of carrion birds gathering.

Many of which took flight as the three of them began walking through the corpses with Hana confusingly stating, “It doesn’t make sense that they would split their forces. It doesn’t appear that they lost the trail.”

Noticing that a majority of the dead were dressed similarly to Hana and Tsume, Naruto said, “Actually, it kind of does.” Sharing some of the details he had learned from the clone he had sent ahead, he explained, “Judging from these guys clothes and equipment, my guess is they focused their training and talents in things requiring agility. They were probably guys like scouts or thieves. The people that kept on chasing on the ground were probably more heavily armored like me, are more focused towards combat and defense so probably couldn’t make it up here.” He pointed towards a few of the corpses that were dressed in the garb favored by the mages as he added, “Those guys would probably have spells that allowed them to continue the pursuit.”

“Spells,” Hana said repeating the word as she didn’t truly understand it. “Is that something similar to jutsu?”

Naruto nodded. “Somewhat, but more specialized. While we use the term justsu as a catch all for any shinobi technique. A spell is more in line with mystical techniques as opposed to physical ones, like firing a fireball or erecting a barrier.”

“This whole system seems rather inefficient,” Hana stated dismissively, “I mean it takes two or three people to match the abilities of just one shinobi.”

Naruto was about to agree with her but stopped as Tsume suddenly scattered some of the braver birds that refused to surrender their meal, knelt down next to the corpse, and flipped it on its back to reveal a kunai was imbedded in its eye. Looking back towards her daughter she said, “I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Granted, in a lot of scenarios I would tend to agree with you. One such one being in a scenario were a group of shinobi are put up against an equal number of adventurers. But, while you would probably be more inclined to give it to the shinobi because they have more skills to fall back on. At the end of the day, it all comes down to who uses their skills the best.” Refocusing her attention to the corpse, she slipped her finger into ring at the end of the kunai to pull it free of the eye socket it was lodged into and sniffed the handle. Her eyes grew wide as she recognized the scent, which she identified by stating, “It was Yuugao who killed this guy.”

Naruto felt elated by the news, even as he was concerned as to why she had been targeted by a Dark Guild. Hoping to track her down, he asked, “Do you think you’ll be able pick up her trail?”

Tsume stood and for a moment beamed proudly as Hana upon her declaration had moved in the direction of where the kunai had likely come from to see if there would be more signs that Yuugao had been there. Although, doubtful there would be, she replied, “Not unless she continued to drop bodies like they were breadcrumbs for us. She’s not one to leave signs if she doesn’t want to be found. It makes me wonder how these clowns found her.” Looking around at the other bodies, she added, “Although, I don’t think she killed all of these guys.”

“She didn’t,” Hana confirmed as he waved them over to where she stood next to the shredded remains of what had once been a woman. Indicating the body, she stated, “I think it might have been Baki.”

Naruto asked with no small amount of confusion coloring his voice, “So wait, she and Baki are both being targeted by this dark guild.”

“No,” Hana said with a shake of her head, “I think the more likely scenario is Baki is the one being targeted, and Yuugao came to his and Kashike’s aid. She was probably tailing him when they tried to ambush him.”

“What makes you so sure? She could just have been pissed someone else was trying to steal her kill,” Tsume asked as although she also believed it to be the most likely scenario, she could see their shared lover wanted it to be true so was less inclined to ask himself.

Hana aware her mother just wanted to be sure they were in agreement about what the battlefield was telling them explained, “Well for starters, the positioning of the corpses would indicate they were attacking in a single direction. So, upon reaching the roof, all the attackers vectors are closing to a similar point. Which includes the one you confirmed would have been killed by Yuugao, and indicates that she was with them.”

Tsume inclined her head, as she agreed with her daughter’s assessment but asked, “Okay, but what makes you believe Baki was here. I haven’t been able to pick up any scents related to him or Kashike. I’m guessing that they’ve both disguised or covered up their scents. Even if their mission was just some negotiation, it doesn’t appear either of them were the type to get sloppy about making it easy to track them.”

Hana couldn’t fault her mother’s nose as she hadn’t either, so she indicated the corpse she was near as she explained, “I have seen wound patterns like this before, on Hayate’s corpse.” Both Naruto and Tsume were caught by surprise at the revelation so she explained, “After he was found, I was called in to see if the Triplets or I could pick up the scent of the killer. But there was nothing for us to find. My guess is that if Kabuto was there also, then he probably helped clean up the scene, as Hayate’s sword was missing.”

Naruto inclined his head that it made sense, since with a clan like the Inuzuka present in Konoha, it was hard to imagine the killer wouldn’t have been found unless he had cleaned up after himself. Still, with the evidence pointing to the fact that Baki was indeed the killer, a part of him did begin to fear that perhaps Yuugao may have hired the Dark Guild to lure Baki into dropping his guard around her. However, he quickly shook it off, trusting that even if she truly still desired his death, she wouldn’t go about it using such underhanded methods. But had faith that regardless of what her intentions were for Baki, she would never intentionally wrap Kashike up in them.

He was pulled from his thoughts as he noticed that Tsume and Hana were now walking along the edge of the roof around the area where it had appeared that Yuugao, Baki, and Kashike had made a stand against the adventurers that had followed them up to the roof. “What is it?” he asked as he came up behind him while they scanned the other rooftops.

“Looking for a sign of…”

“There,” Hana said interrupting her mother as she leapt to the next roof and crouched down where she landed. Naruto and Tsume followed suit with the older Inuzuka stating, “Good eyes pup,” as she landed. Naruto wished he could be as congratulatory as the roof was similar in style to the previous one in that it only slightly pitched on top before dropping down to a steep angle to allow water to flow off when it rained, but without the numerous corpses littering it, he couldn’t say why his Inuzuka lovers felt Yuugao and the others had moved to it. He did notice that Hana was crouched down next to a spot where a tile was missing in the interlocking pattern, which was a few spots below where one looked to have been smashed. Perhaps sensing his confusion at why it stood out to her, Hana explained, “This tile was smashed when the one just before it was pushed out of position. It looks like it caused them to stumble.”

“Them?” Naruto questioned.

Nodding, Hana pointed to another spot where he could just make out what appeared to be a handprint in some muck that had built up over the years. Even to his untrained eyes, it seemed rather out of position when considering where the knee would have needed to be to have smashed the tile if the shinobi it belonged to had fallen. Recognizing what it likely meant, his concern for his lovers ratcheted up immediately as he stated fearfully, “The one that stumbled, had someone leaning on them.”

Hana gave a quick nod, but before Naruto could begin to give into panic, Tsume placed a hand on his shoulder as she said, “Relax, odds are that whoever it was isn’t that badly hurt. They probably just had the wind kicked out of them during the initial ambush.”

Naruto knew it was more than just an attempt to calm him down, especially as he began to run the facts through his head. Realizing that the handprint meant the one being supported had been aware enough to brace themselves when they had stumbled. Moreover, as the two Inuzuka with him hadn’t picked up any other scents outside of those lingering on the weapons they had left behind, it also likely meant the person being helped wasn’t bleeding. He began to feel secure in the knowledge that they were alright, at least until Tsume who had moved further down the roof stated, “I’m starting to pick up a scent that might be Baki’s.”

“Good,” Hana said standing to join her mother.

“Good?” Naruto repeated with a hint of worry, “Wouldn’t that mean…”

“Relax,” Hana said touching his arm reassuringly, “It just means the scent masker that he’s using is wearing off. It’s because of all the fighting. He just burned it up in his system.”

Still not entirely reassured, since it meant one of his lovers was likely the one being supported, he asked, “Then shouldn’t you be able to pick up the scent of who the other one fighting would be?”

“It’s probably Yuugao,” Tsume called back, “The shit other villages use to mask their scents is nowhere as good as what we Inuzuka produce. It tends to fail when you need it most, while ours actually works better the more you sweat.” She gave a smirk as she stated proudly, “Why do you think it is that my clan hasn’t picked up the scent you coat your bitches in after a romp?” The smirk faded as she grew serious again upon stating, “There’s something else I’m picking up. It was hard to pick up before due to all the corpses.”

Hana nodded as she had picked it up as well, “It smells of ash and dirt tainted with death. Like the soil of a disturbed grave. Whoever it belongs to, followed them when they fled to this roof. It looks like there was a brief scuffle, my guess is it was against Yuugao, before the scent’s owner was knocked from the roof. I’m guessing that’s when Yuugao and the others attempted to pull another vanishing act.”

Tsume nodded slowly, while Naruto began to get a haunted feeling as he stated, “It sounds like Yuugao isn’t the only one looking to even things up with Baki, and I’m afraid that I have a good idea of who it is.”

*********

Yuugao could feel Kashike’s eyes still burning into her, which she was doing her best to ignore since she imagined the younger woman felt rather betrayed by her actions. Particularly, since Kashike had unceremoniously unmasked her upon reaching the sewers, where she had made a small camp upon first infiltrating the village through one of the large drainage pipes. Under normal circumstances, Yuugao would admit that the younger Anbu had impressed her, as even under such dangerous conditions, and while still partially dazed, Kashike hadn’t just blindly accepted the story she had tried to give of being just a passing stranger who wished to help.

She smiled despite herself, as she admitted Kashike had played her beautifully as after entering the labyrinth of tunnels and ruins which the capital was built on and now served as its sewer system, Kashike who had insisted that she had recovered enough to stand on her own suddenly made as if she was feeling lightheaded. Out of instinct Yuugao had reached out to steady her, but suddenly found herself pinned against a wall with a large serrated knife pressed against her throat. Baki, while perhaps not any more trusting of the masked stranger helping them, hadn’t really seen a reason for the sudden hostility. At least until Kashike had answered the yet unasked question on his lips of what she was doing by tossing a mask on the ground before him.

Baki upon seeing the mask of a snarling Oni, in the style favored by Suna’s Anbu, picked it up and after inspecting it to verify its authenticity stated, “Hmm, so it appears you’ve killed one of our Anbu before. Were you perhaps hoping to use this to get close to me, and eliminate me yourself, and those other adventurers got in your way?”

Before Yuugao could answer, Kashike ripped the cloth mask that she had covering the lower half of her face away. While she was surprised to see the shock that appeared on Kashike’s face, which she again had to credit her fellow Anbu as the knife’s pressure against her throat didn’t lessen in the slightest. What was somewhat surprising to her though was Baki’s lack of surprise at her presence, which he illuminated as he said, “I always figured this day would come. Still, I’m rather surprised you would come to our aid. Was the thought of someone else being responsible for taking my life too unbearable for you?”

Kashike was understandably confused by Baki’s acceptance of Yuugao’s presence, which carried through in her voice as she asked, “What do you mean, Lord Baki?”

“He means,” Yuugao said her voice dripping with cold fury, “He knew there would be a reckoning for his killing my fiancé?” Kashike looked back towards him in shock, and although Yuugao saw an opening to disarm her, she didn’t take it.

“It does tend to be how things play out,” Baki admitted calmly, “Still, it doesn’t answer why you would seek those adventurers on us, only to help us escape.”

“I didn’t send them,” Yuugao replied, which earned her a snort of disbelief from Kashike.

Who then quickly asked, “Please! Do you expect us to believe that?” She indicated the gear Yuugao was wearing as she stated, “You’re practically a palette swap version of the guy that tried to jump Lord Baki and me after we fled to the other roof.”

Yuugao couldn’t exactly fault the woman for her distrust, or how as a result of it she was leaving out an important detail. Which Baki apparently hadn’t missed as he commanded, “Let her go Kashike.”

“Lord Baki,” the kunoichi said in protest, “We can’t trust her.”

He gave her a grim smirk as he stated, “Perhaps. But, if it hadn’t been for her, we probably both would have lost our heads to that white hooded swordsman.”

Kashike held the serrated knife in place for a few heartbeats longer, before sighing as she stepped back and returned it to the empty sheath on her belt. However, she didn’t drop her guard completely as she kept a grip on it, along with its matching partner located on her opposite hip. After an uncomfortable prolonged silence, Baki asked, “So, if you’re not here for my life…”

“I didn’t say that,” Yuugao interjected causing Kashike to tense in preparation to draw her blades, while Baki remained strangely calm. “But there is one thing I want to know before we move forward with what I want. Do you regret what you did?”

“No,” Baki said almost immediately.

Kashike prepared to intercept the purple-haired woman, while wondering if she’d be able to stop her without inflicting serious harm to her. However, rather than attacking Yuugao closed her eyes for a moment as sense of calmness descend upon her as the black part of her soul calling for revenge was bottled up once more at which point, she stated, “If you had said anything else. I would have killed you.” While Kashike was caught off guard by the statement. Baki on the other hand didn’t seem to be, nor did he appear to be too surprised as she added, “But, I will be taking you back to the Leaf. You will be made to answer for what you did.”

To her surprise, Baki inclined his head as he replied without protest, “Very well.”

Kashike though was of a different opinion as she moved to stand between them and stated, “She doesn’t have any authority here, Lord Baki. Tell her to get lost.”

Yuugao felt flash of anger, but quickly smothered it when Baki placed a calming hand on Kashike’s shoulder as he stated, “You are correct. But there is now a legal issue that needs to be resolved. Yuugao has chosen to interpret the current treaty’s forgiveness of crimes committed during our joint operation with Sound against Konoha as not applying to my silencing her fiancé. It is not an opinion I share, but one I’m willing to see settled through civilized means. Particularly as I’m confident they will see it my way.”

A fear Yuugao shared, as the temptation to just settle it with her blade rose once more. “What makes you so confident that will be the case?”

Baki gave the Anbu Captain a grim smile, which seemed to convey that he was well aware that the goal that she had originally sought had been his death. He sounded a little flippant as he replied, “I’d rather not give my defense away. But, deep down, you know that if our roles were reversed and an invasion the Leaf was planning was about to be exposed by somewhat spying on your conversation, you would have acted in the same manner. More to the point, he wasn’t the only Leaf-nin to die by my hands during the invasion. Just as many of my comrades were ended by your hand.” He then tossed her the Oni mask as he added, “Case in point.”

Yuugao stared down at the Oni like Anbu mask which she had taken off of one of the many Anbu that she had killed during the invasion, much as she had with the uniform hidden under her robes. She imagined that the mask that she had tried to hid behind was mocking her although the voice it used was her own as the hate filled part of her tried to get her to follow through on the goal that had set her on her journey. Strangely, she found the anger just wasn’t there, since she was forced to admit that her hands were just as stained in blood. Which, while Suna may have been the aggressor the last time their villages came to blows, although she imagined they would say it was an action they were forced into due to how unfair the previous treaty had been. It didn’t change the fact that there were people who felt the same pain as her as a direct result of her actions. Some of whom wouldn’t care what the law said if they knew who it was that had taken their loved ones from them. Which, Yuugao knew meant if she wanted to be able to break the cycle of violence in the manner the current treaty had intended. It meant that someone had to first accept that not every injustice could be settled with an eye for an eye. And, some people would just need to be able to forgive or at the bare minimum move forward without receiving the justice they wanted to see applied. It wasn’t exactly fair, but those able to do so would at least be contributing to making the world a place more in line with the vision Naruto had, and she felt it was time for her to do her part.

Of course, that wasn’t to say it was easy since the voice trying to lead her astray, upon seeing that stoking her anger wasn’t doing the trick, began to try to guilt her into it by asking her what Hayate would want. It proved somewhat more effective, but she was still able to resist for the most part. A matter made easier, by Baki pulling her focus from its inward-looking direction as he said, “I believe you said you had a spot we could hide away down here. Perhaps we should get going so we can rest and plan how to extract me out of this situation that I find myself in so I can get my day in court.”

Yuugao nodded, as she had taken the lead while she guided them to the camp that she had setup in order to hide after she had completed her assassination, figuring the local government would frown upon her killing a visiting dignitary. A belief that Baki hadn’t shared, as he had believed that perhaps the local guild hall had sent the adventurers after him. A possibility that Yuugao couldn’t exactly rule out as they may have accepted a job to eliminate him, which while perhaps was being bankrolled by Kabuto, she knew who he had sent to oversee it. A person she had already crossed blades with briefly, and who was the man that she had originally set out to avenge.

Yuugao quickly stopped her reminiscing, not wishing to think about it further and looked up from the pile of glowing rocks that she had used a fire jutsu on to heat up to see Kashike still wasn’t making use of them as she continued to glare at her from the opposite wall. The brown-haired kunoichi hadn’t said a single thing to her, although they had enjoyed ample opportunity to talk, brought about due to their each taking turns on watch to make sure they weren’t discovered. With another window coming to a close, she felt the temptation to try to explain herself. But feared it would only make it worse. So let the silence linger on.

Which allowed her mind to wander back to the topic of the man dressed in white robes similar to the ones she was wearing. A topic she didn’t wish to think about, but knew she’d be forced to confront it sooner or later. Opting for now, since it would soon be her turn to take watch, Yuugao wasn’t too surprised that he would gravitate to something similar since they both had mastered the same swordsmanship style back when they had been competing to make it into the Anbu division. “Hayate,” she thought to herself sadly as she felt tears gathering near the corner of her eyes. It wasn’t lost on her that unlike most people trapped between the sadly repeated question of how best to honor those lost to violence, either through revenge or forgiveness, she would be able to ask the person directly. But, in truth that was a confrontation that she now truly hoped to avoid. Although, she feared that much like she had recognized his technique during their short clash, he knew of her involvement in protecting Baki from him as well.

Returning to her memories, she recalled aiding Kashike in following after Baki as they retreated from the street of the initial ambush. The smoke screen behind them had done the job of sending the initial group of ambushers into a confused panic. Still, while it normally would have been enough to lose them completely, as they would have had multiple means of disengaging without leaving them a means of following. With Kashike still in a daze, they had needed to flee on foot with her fellow Anbu resting one arm over her shoulder as they walked side by side. Baki had led the way as he made for an alley, likely hoping the smoke would hide where they went leaving their ambushers to believe they had vanished. Unfortunately, things didn’t go their way as the ambushers hadn’t put all their eggs in one basket, which was revealed to them as more adventurers began to spill out of the various alley ways further down the street. This included the one they had been heading to, but Yuugao managed to kill the first to appear with a thrown kunai which had caught the woman in the neck sending her blood splattering along the building she had appeared from behind.

Baki didn’t halt his charge, as he tore into the others that followed the woman out killing several with a wind blade that he had tossed down the alley allowing them to proceed further. As they had moved down the alley, Yuugao found her gaze drawn to the wounds on the body, and recognized that the attack had been the same he had used on Hayate. She had felt the urge to bury her blade into his back, but she noticed more adventurers spilling into the alley in front of him to cut off their escape, while the path behind them was similarly closed off. Yuugao put her desires on hold as she knew she would need him to help protect Kashike as they each defended in a direction. However, Kashike had a different idea as she said, “Go up. I…I can make it.”

Yuugao did as instructed, leaping with Kashike between buildings until reaching the roof, where the younger woman did stumble a little and placed a steadying hand her hip. Yuugao imagined that it was at that point when Kashike had first felt the mask, or perhaps had while walking and faked her stumble to confirm it. A moment later, Baki appeared although he had run straight up the wall. He had taken over helping Kashike, due to several adventurers appearing on the roof a few moments later, although they had managed it by leaping between the buildings similar to how she had. A few of the spell casters also seemed capable of making the trip up although they looked as if they had been propelled by a force from below, like they had been launched by a catapult. However one, a man dressed in similar robes as her and who had traversed the distance in the same manner as Baki had also appeared, which revealed him to be far more skilled in the use of chakra, which had been why Yuugao had marked him as the most dangerous.

Although their attempt to separate themselves wasn’t a complete success it had noticeably thinned out their opponent’s numbers as she could hear shouts from below as the more heavily equipped adventurers seemed unable to follow. As most of the ones that had joined them on the roof had appeared near her, Yuugao passed Kashike off to Baki as she quickly used her sword to eliminate them, while she also targeted the chanting spellcasters with kunai to prevent them from firing their jutsu.

Despite being somewhat hampered with Kashike, Baki killed several of their opponents as well using his Blade of Wind technique as he made his way to the opposite end of the roof. Yet, in spite of how they had made short work of many of the adventurers, the man in white had not joined in the fighting, instead he had passed along the edge of the as he moved in the same direction as them while keeping his distance. Something which suited Yuugao just fine as she cut down a man dressed as a thief and prepared to silence a chanting spellcaster while Baki and Kashike leapt to the next roof. However, upon landing on the other side, it appeared one of the tiles they had landed on was loose causing them to stumble and fall to their knees. It was at this moment that the man in white sprang into action as he suddenly took off like a streak leaving multiple images of himself in his wake, and launched himself across the distance with the intent of beheading Baki, although she imagined Kashike’s was destined to fall as well.

Yuugao had expected as much so rather than engaging with the spellcaster, she had tossed a kunai which caught the man in the eye, while she angled herself to intercept him. Leaping from the roof as well, she forced him to block her blade which also caused him to land short of his target. Which, although he was closer to Baki then her, due to his finding himself caught between them, he quickly recognized he was in a poor position. Yet, rather than charging Baki, he recognized that for the moment she was the greater threat as she’d just run him down the moment that he turned his back to her.

Yuugao parried his slashes, and almost immediately was struck by a sense of familiarity as they danced around each other trying to find an opening in the other’s defense. A feeling her opponent likely shared after a particularly challenging number of slashes and parries which although to anyone watching would have been almost too fast to follow to the two of them had been like falling into an old routine. Which as they finished caused the man in white to stumble back in surprise and perhaps horror as he said, “It can’t be… Yu…”

However, he didn’t get the chance to finish as he was caught by a blade of wind which slashed him across the chest, causing him to spin away and fall over the edge of the roof. Yuugao stood horror stricken as she had also realized who the man in white was and imagined that she had just witnessed a recreation of the event which had claimed his life the first time. She stared at the spot where the man she had once planned to spend the rest of her life with had disappeared for what felt like an eternity, but was pulled back to their need to escape as Baki shouted, “Hey, get it together. There’s more of these guys after us in case you’ve forgotten.”

Pulling herself together, she could hear footsteps and loud crashes echoing through the building they were currently standing on as adventurers attempted to reach the roof. Also aware that if she didn’t get going she’d be subjected to a reunion that she was no longer sure she wanted when considering who she had aligned herself with, she turned away and began racing towards Baki where she stated upon passing him in order to leap to the next roof, “Follow me, I know a spot where we can lay low for a while.”

Yuugao sighed, as her memory returned her to the portion of the journey towards their current location where Kashike unmasked her again reminding her of why she was being subjected to the brown-haired woman’s glare. She again felt a desire to apologize, but the moment passed as she became aware of footsteps heading towards them. Looking towards the black sheet she had hung so searchers wouldn’t notice the entrance unless they were practically right in front of it, she stood as Baki stepped into the large room which once might have been a small home before it had been built upon by the city above. Wordlessly, she stepped out of the room as she moved to stand near the edge of the tunnel, and could hear the sounds of adventurers off in the distance as they searched for them. She frowned since although they sounded like they still were off a way, they hadn’t been there during her last watch leading her to believe it would only be a matter of time before they found them. Meaning that sooner rather than later they would need to find a way out of the city, since she doubted her previous entry point was still valid considering how many men they had poured into the sewers.

*********

Kashike watched as Baki took a seat where Yuugao had been sitting moments before, and after a few moments asked, “How’s it looking?”

“They’re getting close,” Baki stated, “I started hearing them about halfway through my watch. My guess is they’re using some sort of grid search pattern. Although, it is strange they haven’t seemed to be making much progress.”

Kashike nodded, but then surprised him by stating, “When we do go, we should tell her to get lost.”

“Any particular reason?” he asked after watching her a few seconds.

“How about that regardless of what she said about wanting to take you back to face trial,” Kashike replied with a voice fueled by the betrayal and hurt that she felt, “The fact that she was able to track you down here while wearing the uniform of one of my comrades says she is full of shit. She likely infiltrated Suna looking for you, and only followed after when she realized you weren’t in the village. She had to know her chances of extracting you alive from Suna were near zero, so she went there looking to kill you.”

Baki was a little surprise by how hurt Kashike sounded, although he figured it may just be that Kashike had truly come to believe in the Alliance between Konoha and Sand, and so was taking it personally that a high-ranking member of the Leaf had wanted to assassinate him. He also felt that it could be related to how Yuugao had attained the position of Anbu Head captain, and so was upset at her being willing to toss it away since it would be such an uphill task for her to achieve the same. “Well to be fair, she didn’t deny that she set out to kill me. She just said that wasn’t her desire now.”

“Yes,” Kashike said bitterly, “After saying if you had answered her wrong, she would have killed you.” To her surprise, Baki chuckled softly in response which after a few moments, prompted her to ask, “How did you know that was the right answer.”

“I didn’t,” Baki answered, “But it was a true answer, and she recognized that.”

“What do you mean?”

Baki leaned a little closer to the rocks as their glow was fading, and replied, “Her fiancé had stumbled upon a meeting between Kabuto and me as we discussed the invasion. At the moment we discovered him, there was only one course of action open to us. If he had gotten away, the invasion would have been uncovered and likely more of my comrades would end up dead as the Leaf would have been better prepared to repel us. On some level, she understands that, and so if I had said I did regret it or offered apologizes now years later after leaving the matter unsettled for her, she’d just see that as me begging for my life.”

Kashike sent a look towards the sheet blocking the entrance, before stating, “Still, we shouldn’t trust her. If she changed her mind once, she could do it again.”

“Normally, I’d agree with you,” Baki replied after giving the matter some thought.

“Sir,” Kashike began to say a hint too loudly hoping to get her charge to see reason but stopped as he held up a hand.

“I can understand why you feel that way,” he replied giving her an understanding smile. “If I was in your position, I wouldn’t want the person I’m guarding to be fighting back to back with someone harboring the desire to plunge a knife in it. But I truly believe that time has passed, and besides, I doubt those hunting us will just let her go now.”

“No, I suppose they wouldn’t,” Kashike admitted while fearing what she’d tell Naruto if Yuugao got killed because they had cut her loose. However, balancing that with her duty she asked, “What makes you so confident she isn’t going to turn on you?”

“Your presence funny enough,” Baki stated causing her to frown in confusion. He chuckled as she did little to hide it before explaining, “During the ambush while you were out of it, she charged right at me. I believe in that moment, she fully intended to take my life. Yet, she suddenly swerved off course to eliminate those that threatened you. That at the very least told me that whatever she desires for me, well she isn’t prepared to sacrifice those not related to her vendetta to achieve it. So, since we have a better chance of surviving together, I believe for now at least, I have nothing to fear.”

Kashike inclined her head as she accepted his reasoning. Even if she suspected that wasn’t entirely the case, since she imagined a good portion of it was also because she didn’t want to even inadvertently be responsible for Naruto experiencing the same pain as she had. Kashike did find that it lessoned quite a bit of the negativity that she had been feeling, since she hadn’t realized that Yuugao had essentially sacrificed her opportunity for revenge to save her. Granted, she didn’t know if that meant that she could entirely trust her to see her charge safely through the current situation, but it did serve to restore some of the admiration she had harbored for her.

Yet, before she could contemplate the matter further, Yuugao, who had pulled her hood and mask back up suddenly burst into the room as she stated, “We have to go. Now!”

Kashike pulled her mask back down and followed after Baki and her into the tunnel. She frowned though as while she could hear the sound of clanking armor in the distance indicating groups searching for them, they didn’t sound close enough to warrant the concern Yuugao had shown. Nor, did it explain why she was leading them in the direction the noise was emanating from. A matter Baki wanted some clarification on as he softly stated, “You know we’re heading right towards them.”

“Yes,” she answered without looking back as she continued to silently run in the direction where the noise was coming from, “But I’m willing to bet there are fewer of them ahead of us then we were led to believe. We weren’t meant to flee this way.”

Kashike’s eyes went wide as she realized that the clanking armor was meant to lull them into a false sense of security while the real threats surrounded them. A possibility which switched from theory to fact as suddenly the sounds of people giving chase suddenly came from every direction except the one in which they were already heading, which prompted Baki to stake, “Do you imagine they have a sensor with them?”

“I don’t know,” Yuugao replied, “They could, or one of those spellcastor types knows a technique which revealed our position. In either case, they’ve probably known where we were for a while and were just getting into position. I only realized what was going on because their position hadn’t changed despite how much moving they were supposedly doing.”

“I think I see why,” Baki stated as they approached a wall of heavily armored warriors with shields who were marching in place.

The three of them came to a stop, with both Kashike and Yuugao facing the direction they had come from as the lighter and faster group that had been meant to entrap them began to slowly approach, while Baki faced the enclosing wall of steel to their front. Kashike pulled her serrated knives while contemplating which direction would be best to charge, figuring it would probably be the wall of armored men since she believed that she had a trick or two they wouldn’t be expecting which would give Yuugao and Baki a chance to flee. She paused though as suddenly two robed men in white suddenly burst from among the armored warriors ranks as they charged towards Baki, who calmly tossed a few shuriken at them. The bladed projectiles struck true causing the men to burst into smoke, Kashike had just processed that she had seen a couple of shadow clones meet their end, yet before she could even begin to figure out what it meant, Yuugao said, “They’re just a distraction.”

“I’m aware,” Baki replied calmly as he looked up towards the ceiling to reveal a third robed man descending towards him. To her surprise, it looked like Baki intended to take the blow, yet just before the swordsman struck, Baki had his feet swept out from beneath him by Yuugao. He tumbled to the ground, and Kashike wondered for a moment if Yuugao had betrayed them. Although, Kashike recognized her fellow Anbu’s actions had caused the blow to miss. Kashike was given further evidence that she had acted to save Baki’s life when the man in white moved to stab the prone Suna-nin, only for Yuugao to charge him with her sword drawn. The robbed man swung at her in turn, and almost effortlessly sliced cleanly through her blade, although Yuugao seemed to have expected as much as she was already moving away from him. Still the robed man tried to press his advantage but was forced to turn his attention towards Kashike as she tried to strike at his exposed back. He quickly spun to face her, and she could tell he was surprised when her blades resisted his as she also charged them with her lightning natured chakra.

Although disappointed she had revealed her trump card, meaning the armored warriors she had intended to charge would likely be aware their armor wouldn’t offer overly much protection from her, she at least received some satisfaction in seeing the masked man’s strange black eyes registering his surprise that he hadn’t sliced through her knives. But she didn’t have long to bask in it, as he was forced to jump away when Baki having returned to his feet tried to hit the man from the side. He landed gracefully in front of the lightly armed warriors that had been at their back and held up his hand in causing both groups to come to a stop.

Baki stepped between Yuugao and Kashike as he stated towards the robed man, “I see you’ve picked up some new tricks since the last time you used that attack on me.”

“No,” Yuugao replied softly as the man began pulling down the mask and hood he wore. She blinked back tears as she looked on the face of her former lover as she explained, her voice heavy with emotion, “If you had taken that hit before and survived it was only because you had faced him after he was already suffering from a disease which was causing his chakra coils to deteriorate. By the time your paths had crossed, he could only summon the two clones before entering near chakra exhaustion.”

Kashike could see that Baki quickly realized that he had only survived his previous encounter with the man that she assumed was Yuugao’s fiancé by the thinnest of margins. A fact that wasn’t likely to repeat as while the disease the man had been suffering from was genetic in nature, although it typically showed up during childhood with a primary symptom being a period of prolonged coughing until their chakra network was left ravaged making it near impossible for those afflicted to become shinobi although a few tried to defy this fate.

But in truth, Kashike didn’t suppose it mattered overly much at the moment since she recognized that the disease which had ravaged him in life, wasn’t going to be a factor now that he was an undead zombie with unlimited chakra. Still, despite being face to face with the man that had killed him, his gaze was focused squarely on Yuugao, who was still wearing her mask and hood as if hoping against hope she wouldn’t be recognized.

A wish that wasn’t granted as Hayate said, “Yuugao, you seem to be aware of who this man is, and what he has done. Why would you and the Leaf side with him against me?”

Yuugao pulled the mask down to reveal a woman on the verge of breaking as she began to answer, “Hayate…I…”

However, her words were drowned out by a shout of, “Rasegan: Big Ball style.” Which in turn was drowned out by the giant explosion which erupted at the center of the wall of armored warriors to their rear. All three turned to see Naruto stepping out of the dust while dressed in silver heavy armor with a cape swirling about behind him, with a growling Tsume by his side who appeared to be dressed as a rogue of some sort.

To her surprise from behind them Hayate said, indicating they had crossed paths earlier, “You again. I told you to stay out of this. It doesn’t concern you.”

Naruto’s gaze flickered between Yuugao to Kashike before stating, “And, I told you that it does. Now please stand down. I give you my word that Baki will be brought back to Konoha to answer for murdering you.”

Hayate sneered at the Uzumaki as he stated, “So what? Even if by miracle of miracles they lock him up. Ignoring the fact that the village has already swept mine and every other death committed by these backstabbers under the rug with their treaty so they could put it behind them. What does that do for me? Does it give me the life that was stolen back?”

Naruto shook his head sadly, before countering, “No, but by that token. What does killing him do? You’ll get the same thing out of it.”

“Maybe,” Hayate admitted, “But, then again, I’ll get the satisfaction of knowing he isn’t in this world any longer either, not just sitting in a cell awaiting release someday to carry on. Probably to a hero’s welcome. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll finally be able to rest in peace knowing my killer is gone too.” Focusing on Yuugao, he said while holding his hand out to her, “If you have ever loved me, Yuugao, stand aside, or better yet, join me. Avenge the life together that was stolen from us.”

********

Yuugao was torn between the two men that she loved as she stood with them on either side of her their mere presences acting like magnets trying to pull her to one side or the other. Her gaze was primarily focused on Hayate, although she could feel Naruto’s eyes on her. Still she kept them on Hayate’s dark eyes which although black still showed the love that he harbored for her, preserved in time since for him it had only been a few days since they had last seen each other. She felt the part of her which had first set her off on her journey to find Baki, demand that she take her former lover’s hand, that she finish the task that she had set out to do. Yet, as the moment lingered on, she could see a hint of confusion and even anger begin to build within Hayate’s eyes.

At which point she turned to meet Naruto’s gaze, and she expected to see a similar storm of feelings building within him. But, to her surprise his eyes remained remarkably similar to how they always appeared, in that despite the obvious concern which he was currently feeling for her, they also shown with the same love and understanding that always appeared within them whenever she bothered to look whether during a sparring match or just after making love, which admittedly the two sometimes intermingled. Moreover, unlike Hayate, who was standing as if he could will her over to him, Naruto’s stance was calm as his hands remained by his side, as if patiently waiting for her to take her place by his side. Although, after a moment he gave her a soft understanding smile, which seemed to speak to her as if to say, “Do what you have to.”

Yuugao looked away then, and truthfully found it impossible to look at either of them. She focused ahead on the man’s whose actions years earlier, had eventually led her to this very point in time, and she realized that if where she stood was the present. Then the two men to her sides represented the other two points in time, and like time moved in one direction much as she should. “I… can’t,” she said her soft melancholic voice seeming like an explosion in the mostly silent tunnel. Although, her answer was clear to everyone as only one man had appeared to ask her a question, to the two men that loved her, her answer was infinitely more illuminating.

Which although Naruto would have loved to rush quickly in order to take her up in his arms, he wasn’t given the chance as Hayate ordered, “Kill him, and anyone that tries to stop you.” Causing the adventurers behind him to surge forward as they tried to complete the job.

Author’s note: Hello again everyone. To begin, as always let me start by thanking all those who take the time to read and review. They continue to inspire, and drive me ever on ward. I hope this chapter proves to be worth the wait, I know it is a bit of a cliffhanger, but it could always be worse, since a part of me consider ending the chapter before Yuugao gave her answer. But, considering my current updating pace, I considered that to be a tad too cruel.

Just to keep everyone in the loop as to what I plan to update.

1) Eroninja Chapter 99

2) Limelight: Mabui

3) LBB: Meet Samui’s Team

4) The Pride until current arc is finished. Maybe 1 or 2 chapters.

5) The Promise

6) Eroninja: Chapter 100 Chunin Exam arc.

So again, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. So until next time, take care. Sincerely, The Lemon Sage.

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