"You have knowledge we lack," Yoshida said. "Knowledge I think will outweigh the harm you do merely by being here. If you keep your screw-ups to a minimum, we might be able to come out of this with both sides enriched, and nobody being blown up or trampled to death. That is, of course, provided you agree to my conditions.

"Let Kōta go free.

"Stay away from the other elders.

"Let me do the negotiating on your behalf.

"Don't do anything stupid."

She locked gazes with Inoue-sensei.

"Well?"

Inoue studied the older woman thoughtfully for several seconds. "You keep talking about my team's screwups," she said calmly. "I think perhaps there is some confusion here. From where I sit, my team has been nothing but polite and generous, and has been very poorly treated in return.

"Your tapirs attacked us on sight," she shrugged. "Fair enough, they're animals. It would have been easy for us to kill every one of them, but I instructed my team not to hurt the tapirs while we waited for you to show up. When your team showed up I tried to parley. They ignored me and attacked immediately. I demonstrated that we had complete martial superiority, but deliberately chose not to kill anyone and I kept the breakage to a minimum. We came here voluntarily to treat your wounded, despite having no obligation to do so. We've done that for days now, making no demands on you. We made a friendly offer to train with anyone who wanted to. Your thug was offensive to my team, but they remained polite and professional. Kimiko sparred with him; when he discovered that he wasn't good enough to beat her he turned it into a lethal fight. He would have killed her if I hadn't intervened."

Inoue's face got hard. "We've been extremely tolerant, but no one hurts my students and walks away. You're very lucky that all I did was cripple your brat. Where we're from it wouldn't have been nearly so gentle; if a Mist ninja had attacked a representative of a friendly foreign power, that Mist ninja would have been executed and reparations made to the foreign nin in order to prevent a war."

Yoshida opened her mouth to say something but Inoue raised a finger warningly. "Don't," she said. "Just don't."

She paused, studying the older woman again. "History and geography lesson," Inoue said. "Your village is in the Land of Tea, which is a second tier country in the Elemental Nations. West of Tea is the ocean, this section of which is known as the Hanguri Gulf. On the other side of the Gulf is the Land of Fire, the most powerful country in the Elemental Nations by a good margin. Five or six of the most powerful ninja in the world live there. One of them, possibly the second most powerful, is a man named Jiraiya. He's known as the Toad Sage, and he's the spymaster for Fire."

Yoshida shifted slightly, frowning in confusion at the seeming non sequitor, but she didn't interrupt.

"We met Jiraiya a little while ago," Inoue said. "It was an interesting meeting. The first thing he did was kick all of our asses at once, just to prove that he could. He made the point that once the question of power levels was settled we could get on with reasonable discussion. We knew we couldn't kill him, we knew he didn't want to kill us, so there was no reason for tension.

"I think I'm going to take a page from the most powerful non-Kage ninja I've ever met," she said. "Time for you to face facts: my team and I represent a level of military force that your village cannot cope with. It's possible that you could bring us down, but the damage you would suffer would be catastrophic. There might be a few of you left afterwards, but you would cease to exist as a village. More likely what would happen is that we'd kill a whole bunch of you, then escape. If we escaped without injury—which is what I would expect—then we would just leave you to bury your dead. In the unlikely event that you managed to hurt or kill any of us we'd hang around and slaughter your patrols until your military was eliminated. Then we'd come in and erase every trace of Isan from the face of the earth. Every person: dead. Every building: destroyed. Every tapir: rotting in the sun. We would make it like your village had never happened. Do you have the slightest doubt that we could do this?"

Yoshida's face was growing steadily redder with fury. "Don't you threaten me, you little—"

"Shut. Up," Inoue said. "Answer the question. Look at the number of seals surrounding you and recognize that we have at least one sealmaster in the party. Think about the way I demolished your patrol and took out Kōta before you could blink. Think of how one of my genin batted him around before he decided to escalate. Do you have any doubt that we could flatten your village if we really wanted to?"

Yoshida looked as though she'd swallowed a lemon with bugs in it. "No," she ground out.

"Good," Inoue said. Her tone got friendly again and she smiled. "Then let's put this on a better footing. We don't want to hurt you, or upset your village. Honestly, we think you guys are amazing to have built what you've built while staying completely off the map for so long. I think we could really help each other a lot, and I would like to. We'll leave if you want us to, but it would be a missed opportunity for both sides. Do you want us to go?"

Yoshida chewed on the lemon a little longer. "No," she finally said. "As much as you're going to flip everything upside down, we need to establish contact with the outside world in a controlled way, and you're our best chance to do that."

"Good," Inoue said. "Now, you're right that we don't know your culture. We could easily misstep without a guide, and you would be the best guide we could ask for. We aren't willing to be your puppets, but we are more than willing to be your partners. Let's talk about the best way to make that happen, okay?"

The lemon got a little smaller and Yoshida nodded. "Right," she said.

o-o-o-o

"Akane, are you awake?" Inoue asked softly.

"Hm?" the injured girl said, her voice muzzy with sleep. "Oh, hi sensei. Yes, 'm 'wake."

Inoue knelt down beside her. "C'mon, kiddo," she said. "I need you to be really awake for a bit."

Akane blinked and rubbed her eyes. "Okay," she said. "I'm awake."

"We're going to be meeting with Ms. Gasai this afternoon," Inoue said. "We'll be talking about what to do with Kōta, the boy who hurt you. The expected punishment is that he'll be kicked out of the ninja corps and made a laborer for the rest of his life. The other option is that we ask for him to be assigned to us as a junior kōhei and servant. Socialize him, be seen by the village to be generous and teachers with a lot to offer. Personally, I'm fine to have the little bastard carrying slop buckets for the rest of his life, but Keiko pointed out that you were the one hurt so you should be the one to make the call. What do you want us to do?"

"Save him," Akane said instantly, not even pausing to think about it. "He is a good fighter and a benefit to his village. He should not have his life ruined by one impetuous mistake."

"You sure, kid?" Inoue asked. "He's an adult, he should have known what he was doing and controlled himself better. He's not going to like being around us, and if he loses control again it could be bad."

Akane's eyes were already drifting closed, but she smiled up at her teacher. "He will be all right, sensei," she said. "He just needs a good example." She half-lay and half-dropped back on her pillow and was out like a light.

Inoue watched her for a moment, then shook her head. "Okay, kid," she said. "We'll try it your way for a little while."

o-o-o-o

"Thank you for meeting us, Ms. Gasai," Inoue said, bowing deeply.

Gasai was old, at least seventy, and stick-thin. Her skin was loose in places and stretched tight in others, and she had liver spots on her hands, her neck, and probably more under the loose kimono she wore. She'd taken the time to do her makeup and put her hair up in a severe bun, held in place with a pair of metal spikes.

"It seemed the thing to do," Gasai said, bowing shallowly. She sat seiza on a very small dais, putting her an inch or two above her guests. That and her severe expression helped to magnify an already formidable presence. The austere room added to the effect. It was large, empty, with a floor composed of thin slats of blond wood and paper walls in a style long since gone from every ninja village in the Elemental Nations. The inch-high dais in the center of the north wall and the long scroll with her clan crest hanging on the wall behind her gave the impression of a throne room.

Inoue straightened up and half-smiled, clearly recognizing the manipulation tactics and unmoved by them. To her left Yoshida eyed her with barely-suppressed concern. Hazō and Noburi watched silently from one side. They'd been told in no uncertain terms that they were not to speak unless explicitly spoken to and even then to use the fewest words possible.

They'd been kneeling here for an hour now. A tea ceremony had been performed—different from any that Hazō had seen before, and more formal. Yoshida had briefed them on it ahead of time, and it was a good thing she had. The Isan tea ceremony was even more convoluted and fraught with meaning than flower arranging. The full formal version that they had received was a sign of respect and dutiful welcome with overtones of distance and lack of connection. An abbreviated one asserted either dismissive superiority or casual friendship, depending on precisely which steps were skipped. A sloppy one meant contempt. A simple brewing and pouring meant deep intimacy, and was done only between lovers and best friends. The gradations had made their heads spin. The choice of tea was even more meaningful. Gasai had chosen a bitter, smoky tea instead of one of the light flowery ones, but she had also offered honey: contention, but with the possibility of reconciliation.

"The tea is lovely, Gasai," Yoshida said with a shallow nod. "A perfect choice."

"Thank you," Gasai said. "Although I admit I can claim no responsibility for the selection."

"Oh?" Yoshida said. "Who chose it, then? Your grandson, perhaps?"

"Oh, no," Gasai said. "He would never choose such a tea. No, it seemed an appropriate choice for our guests."

Yoshida flicked her eyes to Inoue. The infiltration specialist held the tea to her lips, her eyes falling closed as she inhaled the scent and visibly savored the bitter taste.

"How is young Kōta?" Inoue asked. "This does seem like a tea that he would enjoy. Although, perhaps he would prefer a bit more honey. The young usually do."

Gasai raised an eyebrow; for just a moment, the faintest trace of something that might vaguely have thought about becoming a smile drifted across her lips.

"Indeed," she said. "As to how he's doing...I am told that he will recover completely, despite the severity of his injury."

"Yes, his injury was most regrettable," Inoue said. "Training injuries happen, though. If you'd like, I would be happy to have our medic-nin look him over. Endo has been treating my student, Kimiko; she suffered a training injury in the same fight and she's doing very well. Endo studied at an excellent hospital in a city not far from here, in fact. A lovely place; several thousand people, many artisans. They produce beautiful glass, paper, books, medicines, and more. Quite safe too, since they have a large police force."

"It sounds interesting," Gasai said. "It's a pity I won't be able to see it. I fear I'm far too old for such a trip."

Inoue nodded in sober acknowledgement. "Well, they have multiple trade caravans leaving the city every day. I'm sure at some point one of them will be nearby."

"Hm," the older woman said, sipping her tea slowly. "That's true," she said.

"Speaking of Kōta," Inoue said, "once our medic has healed him, I wonder if perhaps he would like to join us for some additional study? His taijutsu is excellent, and I think he would make a good sparring partner for my team. I'm sure we could learn much from him."

"That's too kind of you," Gasai said. "I'm afraid he's needed at home, though."

"Ah, I'm so very sorry to hear that," Inoue said, setting her cup down gently. "I would very much have enjoyed having him around."

Gasai paused. "Perhaps we could arrange something," she said finally. "We could probably arrange his schedule to give him an hour free in the afternoons. It would be difficult, but you are our guests and should be accomodated."

Inoue bowed her head in thought, her right forefinger absentmindedly stroking the edge of her cup. "That's very kind of you," she said, looking up. "I had been hoping for a bit more time with him, though. Is there any chance you could give him some time off from his duties?" The finger had stopped moving and was resting very lightly on the lip of the cup.

Gasai's mouth tightened for an instant, but then she smiled and bowed. "If you wish it," she said. "As I said, you are our guests and deserve whatever hospitality we can offer. I'm sure there are many things that you and Kōta could help one another with."

Inoue smiled and picked up her cup again. "That would be lovely," she said.

o-o-o-o

"How did it go?" Keiko asked, not looking around from where she was watching Kagome dig up the ground in a shallow trench around their fort. The fort was now at the center of a ring of stakes with a ten-meter kill field between the stakes and the walls of the fort. A bit of twine had been strung around the stakes to make a notional fence. Kagome was muttering something to himself that sounded like "Stinking liberal stinker...giving away locations...shouldn't be coming here anyway...."

Inoue raised an eyebrow. "What's his problem?" she asked, hooking a thumb towards Kagome.

Keiko sighed. "One of the village toddlers got away from his mother for a moment and nearly walked into the minefield. I made him put up the markers to delineate how close someone could safely come to the fort. He is of the opinion that it compromises security since"—her voice dropped into a good approximation of Kagome's—"'those stinking stinkers shouldn't be coming over here anyway if they don't want to get pasted'." She paused; when she continued her voice was dry as dust. "I think the word 'spoilsport' may also have been used."

Inoue laughed. "Yeah, I can see that," she said. "C'mon, both of you come inside and I'll brief you."

o-o-o-o

The following morning found the team outside and just finishing breakfast when Kōta slouched over, hands in his pockets and a face like a thunderstorm.

Inoue just barely caught Kagome's arm before the sealmaster could throw a spray of explosive tags at the young blond.

"Why are you stopping me?" Kagome growled, glaring at Inoue but not struggling. "That's the stinking stinker who nearly killed Ish—Sasaki!"

"And he's here to make amends," Inoue said, smiling. "I'm sure he's very sorry for losing his temper and wants to make it up to us. Right, Kōta?"

"Whatever," the young man growled, not looking up.

"OW!" he said a moment later. He was facedown in the dirt, Inoue's foot on his head and his arm jacked up behind him, although not as far as it had been yesterday. "Let me go!"

"Choose better words," Inoue said calmly.

Kōta looked disgusted. "Let me go, please," he growled.

"Choose a better tone," Inoue said, pulling his arm fractionally higher.

"OW! Fu—" Kōta cut himself off and forced himself to breathe. "Please let me go, sensei," he said politely.

"Better," Inoue said. She released the submission hold gently and backed away, taking her original seat again. "Please, won't you sit with us?" she said, gesturing to the ground in front of her.

Kōta eyed her darkly and rubbed his shoulder as he took seiza on the edge of the blanket they were all sitting on.

"Did you come to thank Endo for fixing your shoulders?" Inoue asked.

Kōta looked sour for a moment before Inoue's open-hand strike to the side of his head knocked him over.

"Did you come to thank Endo for fixing your shoulders?" Inoue asked sweetly.

Kōta turned to Noburi and bowed deeply. "Thank you for fixing my shoulders," he said politely. "It was kind of you."

Noburi smiled. "You're welcome," he said. "They're going to be weak for a couple weeks, so be careful with them." He turned to Inoue. "Go easy, sensei. You'll undo all my hard work."

"Hm," Inoue said, offering a dismissive sniff. "Was there anything else you needed to say, Kōta?" she asked.

Kōta kept his face very carefully schooled as he turned and bowed deeply to Akane. "I am very sorry for injuring you," he said, holding the bow. "I lost my temper and acted inappropriately."

Akane smiled. "Thank you," she said kindly. "I apologize for my own behavior. I was disrespectful during our spar, and that was wrong." She rubbed her head with an urchin grin. "I will definitely not do that again. Your kick is extremely youthful."

Kōta looked up to see if she was mocking him, but there was nothing but sincerity on her face. Slowly, he sat up.

"That uppercut and axe kick combination was especially youthful," Akane said. "Would you be willing to teach it to me?"

Kōta seemed utterly bewildered, but before he could say anything Noburi cut him off.

"Hold up there!" he said. "No taijutsu practice for you, missy! You're still on bed rest!"

Akane grimaced but nodded. "Yes, sensei," she said with a sigh. "I will be good."

Noburi shook his head and looked at Kōta. "You would not believe how hard it is to keep her in bed," he said in a conspiratorial whisper. "All this 'youth' seems to have addled her brain."

Kōta seemed even more bewildered and settled for simply nodding.