Chapter 56: Summoners & Sealers​

"...so, do you agree?" Hazō asked.

Keiko looked at him calmly. "You believe that the best choice of summon for me to acquire is a scout?"

"Yes, exactly," Hazō said firmly. A faint trickle of concern began trickling faintly through the back of his brain. By now he'd started to notice a pattern of how conversations went when he finished explaining something and the other person calmly repeated a summary back to him.

"A scout."

"Yep." The trickle was turning into a steady flow.

"Instead of, say, a ninjutsu teacher?" Keiko asked. "Or a merchant who can advise us on constructing this trade empire you keep mumbling about?"

"Um...," Hazō said. The trickle had turned into a flood and warning bells were blaring in his head.

"Thank you for the advice," Keiko said calmly. "I will definitely give it the consideration it deserves."

"Um...right," Hazō said. He looked around, hoping to find a distraction. "I, ah, have a thing, that I need to do. Now. Yes. It's over there, away from here. Excuse me." He hurried off to where Akane was running through kata on the far side of the camp.

o-o-o-o​

"Hi, Keiko!" Pandā said, idly using one heavily-clawed hand to wave aside the puff of purple smoke that came with his summoning. "Pandā, Second Circle Specialist of First Army reporting for duty!" He clapped both fists to his chest, then down and to the outside. Pangolins, Kei noticed, were not very good at making fists—the claws got in the way.

"Hello, Pandā," she said. "Would you care to join me?" She waved to the other log that she had set up next to the fire on which she was making tea. They were a short distance away from the main camp; she had no interest in a repetition of what happened the last time Pandā had interacted with the entire group.

"Don't mind if I do," Pandā said. He waddled over to the log and plopped down on the ground, tail curled under him and legs spraddled out in front. "Where are the rest of your clan...er, team?" he asked, looking around.

"I thought maybe we could talk with just the two of us," Kei said. She picked up a small carryall and held it out. "Would you like some ants? You mentioned enjoying them, so I gathered as many as I could. I had some trouble containing them, but there should still be a good number left."

Pandā flipped the bag open eagerly. A tongue that was nearly as long as his body slid inside, swirled around, and came out covered in small black bodies before disappearing back into his gullet.

"Oooh," the pangolin said. "Yummy. I'd always heard that the ants on the Human Path were spicier than ours. That's definitely good. Thanks!"

"You are welcome," Kei said. "Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?"

Pandā's eyes lit up and he sat a little straighter. "Oh, yes! Ooh, ooh, I know why you wanted to talk alone! Did you want to discuss taboo subjects? Sex, right? That's a taboo subject for humans? I bet you wanted advice on something you weren't comfortable talking about in front of your clan matri—er, your leader. Have you decided you want to mate with Noburi after all? I can totally help with that. I've read all sorts of things on human sexuality and positions and even assistive devices like—"

"No!" Kei said quickly. She took a moment to breathe, counting silently until the flaming crimson of her face had settled back to something a bit more normal. "No, that is not it. Actually, I wanted to ask you about pangolins and the Summon Realm."

"I'm your pangolin for CultAnth questions," Pandā said, slurping a few more ants out of the bag. "What did you want to know?"

"First of all, what sort of things should I be careful about?" Kei asked. "I do not want to give offense to anyone while I am in the Summon Realm. What should I avoid doing or saying?"

"Nothing special," Pandā said, his tail swiping back and forth casually. "Just be polite, that's all."

"What does polite look like?" Kei asked patiently. "I suspect customs are different for humans and pangolins."

"Oh, right," Pandā said. "Um." His claws tapped nervously on his underbelly. "Well, don't step on anyone, obviously. Say please and thank you. Um...oh, right! Don't forget to...."

There followed a not-terribly-well-organized flood of information. Despite Kei's best efforts, she found herself struggling to keep track of it all.

"That should be enough to get you started, anyway," Pandā said cheerily, after two hours of rapid-fire infodump. "We can go into formal etiquette, shopping etiquette, and status comparison another time, but I don't want to overload you."

Too late, Kei thought.

"Anyway, was there anything else?" Pandā asked.

"Well," Kei said. This was the part of the conversation she was dreading. The consequences if it went poorly were too awful to think about without going very deep into the Frozen Skein, and that seemed like it might be dangerous to do around Pandā, or any pangolin. Fortunately, Mari-sensei had made some suggestions. "When I spoke to the Polemarch, he told me that I was free to negotiate with other pangolins in order to establish summoning agreements with them. I would like to do that, but at the same time I don't want you to feel insulted or abandoned. What would you suggest I do?"

Pandā looked at her as though she were brain damaged. "Mind? Why would I mind? I'm your liaison—my status goes up when yours does, and your status goes up the more pangolins who contract with you and the more high-status they are." He hesitated. "You will still summon me, right?" he asked worriedly. "I mean, I know I'm not much of a fighter. I've had the basic militia training that everybody gets, and I'm doing boot camp with First Army, but that's about it. Still, I'm sure I can be useful in all kinds of ways. I can—"

"Fear not, Pandā," Kei said. "I will definitely continue summoning you." She smiled, because smiles helped.

"Phew!" Pandā said, dropping his jaw open and puffing out an exaggerated breath. "That's a relief."

"It is a relief for me, too," Kei said. This time the smile was not forced. "I was very concerned about what your reaction would be. I did not want to alienate you."

Pandā brushed away an imagined fly with the back of one hand. "No trouble at all. So, let's get you some more summons!" He rolled forward, curling into a ball and then uncurling up onto his feet before pacing back and forth. His claws tapped furiously on his underbelly as he thought. "Let's see...ooh, I know! The first thing you had me do was be a lookout, so why don't we get you someone with sentry experience?"

"Actually," Kei said, "I had another thought."

o-o-o-o​

"Akane, do you have a minute?" Hazō asked carefully, waiting until after his apprentice had finished one kata and was about to transition into the next.

Akane straightened up and turned to him with a smile. "Of course!" she said. She grabbed her towel off the ground to wipe the sweat off and took a long pull on her canteen. "What do you want to talk about?"

"It's about Keiko," Hazō said carefully. "You and Keiko, actually. I'm a little worried about the two of you."

Akane sighed and sank to the ground. "I know," she said sadly. "Back in Iron, I offered to be there if she needed someone to talk to. Unfortunately, I phrased it as 'being a big sister', and that turned out to be a poor choice. She's been angry with me ever since, and I don't know how to fix it."

Hazō blinked. That was...rather more perceptiveness than he'd expected from his exuberant apprentice. He dropped down beside her, settling into a relaxed cross-legged position.

"I think the problem is that you're such opposites," he said. "The Mori bloodline is all about ice and cold logic. It makes her pessimistic, maybe even cynical. You're all about fire—energy, optimism, the Spirit of Youth." He licked his lips nervously. "Actually, I think the 'youth' thing is the best example of that...I think it rubs her the wrong way because it makes her recognize how pessimistic she's being. Pessimism is tiring and depressing; Keiko can't let herself believe that optimism is a viable way to look at things, because it would mean that her view wasn't the best and that she was hurting herself by holding onto it."

Akane's laugh was sad. "Hazō-sensei," she said, "when was the last time you heard me use the word 'youth' to Mori? Or, for that matter, even around her?"

"Uh...," Hazō said, casting his mind back. "I'm not sure?"

"That same conversation where I offered to be her big sister, back in Iron," Akane said. "I haven't said it in her presence since then."

Hazō blinked. "What?"

Akane patted him on the knee in an amused way. "I'm not an idiot, sensei," she said. "I know my optimism annoys her, and I know that the concept of youthfulness especially so. I'm not going to change who I am just because she doesn't like it, but I can respect her feelings and not say things that I know bother her."

"Oh," Hazō said. The world seemed to have suddenly turned sideways. When they sparred, Akane was always complimenting him on the youthfulness of his taijutsu or suggesting that they fan the flames of their youth with a billion pushups. Now that he thought about it, though...had she actually used the word when the team was together?

"Thank you, Akane," he said. "That's really nice of you."

She smiled and straightened her legs, lifting herself effortlessly back to her feet. "Come, sensei!" she said. "I have developed what I think is a most youthful counter to that twin hammerfist technique you like so much!"

o-o-o-o​

"Are we ready?" Hazō asked.

Kagome-sensei frowned, looking around and ticking points off on his fingers as he mumbled to himself. "Cube of Earth Walls, southern side open, reinforced with Five-Seal Barrier, check. Cube surrounded by Force Walls, check. Force Wall Seals in place to close southern side, check. Seals are...yes, properly infused and ready, check. Cube is empty except for seal, so nothing to react with except air. Check. Multiple Earth Wall berm around cube to channel blast...hm." He stepped over to the berm and checked that the Five-Seal Barrier was active and properly reinforcing the berm. "Check." He looked over at the two water clones who were peeking up over the top of the berm. "Observers ready and watching, check." He turned a slow circle, ticking off the rest of the multitudinous defenses that constituted their sealing lab.

"Hmph," he said, sniffing. "Probably won't kill us. Where's the target?"

Hazō produced a twist of paper from one pocket and reached to set it on the seal inside the experimental cube.

"What the stinking hells do you think you're doing with that stuff?" Kagome-sensei snapped, grabbing his wrist before he could set the paper down. His student froze.

"I'm...using it as the storage target?" Hazō said. "It's just sawdust."

"Get away from there!" Kagome-sensei said, shooing him back. "Sawdust burns!" From a hip pouch he produced a tiny blob of mushy red stuff, which he set in the center of the seal. "Berry," he said, pointing proudly. "Split it open, take out the seeds, use the squidgy part. Doesn't burn, won't hurt if it hits you at high speed. If it turns into steel before hitting you at high speed then the flattened-out shape will spread the impact. If it turns into a ravenous spikey monstrosity then at least it'll be a small one. If it dissolves into acidic goop then it won't do a lot of damage to the landscape. If it implodes into a tiny pinhole rip in the universe then nothing big will be able to get through. If the water gets pulled out of it and converted into high-pressure steam then there won't be enough to matter. If—"

"That sounds great," Hazō said quickly. When Kagome-sensei started listing failure modes for seals it was important to distract him. "How long a timer should we use?"

"Ten seconds," Kagome-sensei said. "Plenty of time for you to get back to the bunker. Wait until I'm there, though." He turned and jogged off.

Hazō waited until his sensei called "Okay!", then set his right hand on the Force Wall seal that would close the experimental box and the tip of his left pinky finger on the Poor Man's Yellow Flash seal that they were working on. He twisted his chakra into the experimental seal, quickly activated the Force Wall, and instantly Substituted away; running in the armor took way too much time.

The timer might have been set to ten seconds, but Kagome-sensei made him wait in the bunker (Multiple Earth Walls, Five-Seal Barrier-reinforced, surrounded by Force Walls, three Force-Wall-protected exits including a tunnel which had taken four days of heavy work by Hazō and a small company of clones made by Hazō, Kagome, Inoue-sensei, and Noburi) for two full minutes before they went out to see the results of the experiment.

"Success!" Kagome-sensei said, smiling happily.

Hazō looked askance at him. "It wasn't successful, sensei," he said. "Nothing happened—I don't even think the seal activated."

"We're still alive, aren't we?" Kagome-sensei said. "I call that a success. C'mon, I'll have the clones clear it out and we can try again."

o-o-o-o​

"Damn," Hazō said, his heart plummeting. It had seemed so simple, he'd really thought it would work this time.

"Woohoo!" cheered Kagome-sensei, throwing both fists in the air. "Nine tries and it hasn't done anything awful!"

o-o-o-o​

"Rats," said Hazō.

"Thirty-seven attempts and no horrible monstrosities trying to eat our faces! It's a record!" Kagome-sensei capered like a madman, shaking his butt and waving his hands spastically.

o-o-o-o​

"Ninety-one, yay!"

o-o-o-o​

"Two hundred and sixteen and the berry exploded! Too bad the scroll turned into mud."

Hazō sighed.

o-o-o-o​

"Disappeared...disappeared...disappeared...disappeared...," said the first clone, indicating that the target had in fact been taken into the modified storage scroll. The other clone was silent; had the berry reappeared it would have been repeating whatever the last number had been in its count of seconds.

"That's amazing!" Kagome-sensei said. "Only five hundred and sixty tries and we're halfway there!"

o-o-o-o​

"Okay, they're all dead. Let's try it again."

o-o-o-o​

"Hey, don't feel bad! It was only a little fiery explosion of doom, and the Force Walls contained almost all of it."

Hazō looked at the small forest fire downrange from the testing area. He sighed.

o-o-o-o​

"Disappeared...disappeared...disappeared...disappeared...," said the first clone. "Ten...ten...ten...ten...," said the second.

Hazō gaped. It had worked! After a week and a half of constant effort and countless failures, it had worked! The Poor Man's Yellow Flash seal—Hazō's very first original seal—was finished!

"Nice!" Kagome-sensei said, clapping him on the back so hard Hazō stumbled. "Now let's check that the target never turns to snot and comes out of the seal backwards!"

o-o-o-o​

Pandā was shifting nervously from foot to foot, his claws tapping a nigh-thunderous tattoo on his underbelly.

"Remember," he said, "be polite! Make the peace sign when you walk in then don't move your hands unless he tells you! Stand straight and keep your eyes level. Don't talk unless he asks you a question, or he'll rip your tongue out and strangle you with it. Don't meet his gaze or your head will explode. Turn around, let me look at you." He patted nervously at Kei's clothes, smoothing out invisible wrinkles as she turned in place. It seemed some part of her brain did not consider pangolins to be people when it came to touch, which was a fascinating revelation she had precious little use for.

"Okay," he said, taking a deep breath. "Let's go." He interlaced his fingers, straightened as much as he could, and walked through the door.

The office was small and cramped. There was a desk opposite the door, at which was seated a pangolin who could not have been more obviously military if the word had been painted on his chest. A neat stack of virgin clay tablets rested on the desk to his left waiting to be written on, and a larger stack of filled-in ones were stacked to his right. The sole window looked out over a training field on which several dozen young pangolins were running, jumping, slashing at steel training posts, and otherwise learning the arts of war.

Kei was careful not to look at any of that. She straightened until her spine ached, kept her eyes straight ahead and her fingers interlaced.

The pangolin who awaited them was almost as tall as she was and far more massive. There were faint traces of cracking around the edges of his facial scales, suggesting that he was old for his race. No matter how old he was, Kei had not the slightest desire to test him in combat.

"Sir, Pandā, Second Circle Specialist Recruit of First Army, reporting as ordered, sir!" Pandā shouted in his reedy tenor. "Sir, I have brought the Summoner as you instructed, sir!"

The other pangolin rose smoothly to his feet and paced to Kei, walking a slow circle around her. His tail tapped the floor behind him in a measured beat. Kei felt herself starting to sweat.

Before she could react he grabbed her hands and lifted them up to his snout, turning his head so that he could get an eye almost against her skin. He examined her fingers minutely for a moment, then let go. She put her hands back in front of her belly, carefully keeping her fingers interlaced and not moving as he poked her in the thigh, the side, and the bicep. He reached up to her face; she had to struggle not to pull back from the frankly terrifying claws, but he peeled her lip back with exquisite gentleness. After a moment he let go and stepped back.

"I am Pankurashun, Senior Combat Instructor of the First Army of the Pangolin Nation," he said calmly. "You will address me as sir. Specialist Recruit Pandā has requested that I speak to you, so I have cleared five minutes from my very busy schedule. You are the Summoner for the Pangolin Clan. Acknowledge."

"Sir, I am, sir!" she barked.

"State your name."

"Sir, my name is Mori Keiko, sir!"

"Stand easy," he said. She relaxed very slightly but kept her fingers interlaced. "Mori, you have fewer scales than my newborn granddaughter and your hide is positively squishy. Your claws are nonexistent. Your teeth are inadequate for fighting. I assume your people have some sort of combat arts, but I despair of teaching you ours. My expertise is martial instruction, so I find myself at a loss for why you are here. Explain."

Kei took a deep breath. "Sir, I have spoken to Specialist Recruit Pandā at length about the combat training he has received. It's true that I would not be able to learn the taijutsu style of the pangolin, but I have a request...."

o-o-o-o​

Akane came back into camp with a small deer draped over her shoulders to find everyone waiting in an arc around the fire.

"Happy Birthday, Akane!" they chorused. (Well, except for Keiko, who said 'Ishihara'.)

An enormous smile split Akane's face. "Thank you!" she said, dropping the deer. "I wasn't sure you would remember!"

"C'mere, kid," Inoue-sensei said, pulling her into a hug and squeezing her tight. Akane squeezed back just as hard and laughed when Inoue ruffled her hair.

"Sit," Inoue said. "We've got a beef stew for you—well, it's actually a chakra-spiny-snakey-thing, but it's sort of like beef. Noburi and Keiko found some herbs and Hazō had nothing to do with the cooking, so it should be tasty."

"Made these for you," Kagome-sensei said hurriedly, looking away as he extended his cupped hands.

"Kagome," Inoue-sensei said reprovingly. "We agreed we were going to do presents after dinner."

"Sorry," the sealmaster mumbled, blushing furiously.

Inoue-sensei laughed and touched his arm reassuringly. "It's okay. Tell you what, let's get served up and then we can all do presents."

Akane was hurried to a seat next to the fire and a bowl of fragrant stew was pressed into her hands. The others took their own bowls and settled around her. Akane held her bowl but didn't start eating just yet. Instead she sat, bright-eyed and excited as she waited to see what the others had planned.

"Now?" Kagome-sensei asked, looking at Inoue-sensei.

"Now," she said, smiling at him.

He bounced to his feet and shuffled over to her, holding out his cupped hands. "I made these for you," he said again, opening his hands so she could see what he was holding.

She looked for a moment, then looked to him for permission before picking up the two empty ring boxes. She slipped them on her fingers with the boxes facing up like empty jewel sockets.

"Not like that!" Kagome said quickly. He took her hands and twisted the rings around so the boxes were facing in. "Blow your face off like that. And the stinkers would see them, ruin the surprise. And rain could get in the seals, ruin everything. Wear 'em like this. Here, watch." He held up a hand, revealing that he was now wearing a ring box that he'd apparently conjured from nowhere—or, at least, had palmed out of his belt pouch without her noticing. He extended his hand to the side so his palm was pointing at a training log that was dug into the ground a few meters away. He shifted his thumb slightly.

BAM!

Everyone except for Hazō jumped as the training log was demolished, fragments of wood flying everywhere.

Kagome-sensei looked nervously at Akane, but she was too startled to say anything. "Um, you wear it in a fight," Kagome-sensei mumbled. "Point your hand at the stinker, boom, squash. I've got some seals for you. Need to train a bit first, though. Um. Yeah."

Akane blinked and stared, speechless.

Kagome-sensei started to jitter, looking at her nervously. "Do you...do you like them?" he asked hopefully.

Akane leaped up and grabbed him; Kagome-sensei yeeped and struggled for a moment before realizing that she was just hugging him. He stopped struggling mostly because he couldn't breathe.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," Akane said, letting him go so she could lean back and look him in the eye. She immediately grabbed him and hugged him again. "You are most youthful!"

"erk!" Kagome-sensei gasped. "Can't breathe!"

"Oh, yes!" Akane said, letting go of him and blushing faintly. "Sorry!" She suddenly seemed to remember something, glanced at Keiko, and grimaced.

"Thank you, Kagome," she said. "You are very generous, and I am deeply grateful."

Kagome-sensei blushed furiously and looked away. "S'nothing," he mumbled, shrugging one shoulder. "Glad you like 'em."

Akane laughed, bright and loud. "I love them. Will you help me train tomorrow?"

"Uh-huh," Kagome-sensei said, nodding. "Um...yeah. That's it. Happy birthday." He shuffled back to his log and settled down, bending over his bowl of stew and gulping down several spoonfuls so that he had an excuse not to look around.

Inoue-sensei slid down to his end of the log they shared and bumped shoulders with him. He glanced at her in surprise; she gave him a smile and an approving nod, which only made him blush and eat even more intently.

"Okay, my turn," Noburi said, setting his bowl down so he could rummage in his pack and bring out a small wooden box. He walked around the fire and held it out to Akane.

Akane took it from him and examined it carefully. It was the size of her two hands together, smooth and polished. The wood was pale birch, the top and bottom covered in a carefully-drawn grid. The hinges were brass, as was the clasp that held it shut.

She shook it gently, but there was no sound. Curious, she opened it up.

The inside of the box was a series of padded compartments, each individually-fitted to hold a single tiny shogi piece. The pieces were individually carved, no two exactly alike, yet it was clear which piece was which.

"It's a travel set," Noburi explained, not moving from where he stood in front of her. "The time on the beach, when you taught us all those games? That was the happiest I've been since I first entered the Academy back in Mist. I wanted to get you something to remind you of that time, so I convinced one of the Kannagi artisans to make it, back in Isan. I had to explain the rules and what the pieces should look like."

"I love it," Akane said. "Thank you Noburi. This is a most—this is a wonderful gift." She touched his hand in gratitude for a moment.

"Look again," Noburi said, grinning widely and gesturing to the pieces.

Akane frowned, puzzled, but bent to study the pieces carefully. After a moment she straightened up suddenly, eyes wide. She looked at Noburi and burst out laughing. "Very clever," she said.

"Thanks," Noburi said, grinning. "Glad you like it." He gave her a nod and took his seat again.

"I think I missed something...?" Inoue-sensei said.

Akane held up one of the pieces. "Each of the pieces has the usual kanji on it, but there's a second one, very small and faint, in the bottom right corner. The kings say 'heart'. The rooks say 'water'. The bishops say 'ice'. The knights say 'explode'. The gold generals say 'iron', and the lances say 'face.'" She laughed again and nodded respect to Noburi.

Noburi smiled back before glancing at Hazō with a smug expression that almost audibly said Beat that.

"Me, I guess," Hazō said. He stared at his hands for a moment as though trying to figure out where to start. "Mine's a little different," he said. "I need to explain a couple things first, though.

"My father died when I was five. When I first heard, I thought I would become a shinobi so that I could find the man who did it and kill him." He shrugged one shoulder. "I eventually accepted that that wasn't going to happen, but I found other reasons to be a shinobi. I joined the Academy, fought my way up the ranks. I didn't have all that many friends while I was there; I tended to ask 'why' too much, and it made the instructors angry." He snorted. "Also, my family's bloodline meant that I was fighting way above my age in taijutsu, and the older kids didn't like getting beaten by someone two or three years behind them.

"You all know that our Bloodline Limit is called the Iron Nerve," he continued. "I haven't told you exactly how it works, though—well, except for Inoue-sensei. It isn't just an enhanced kinesthetic sense, it's eidetic muscle memory. I can replay any movement I've ever made, of any muscle in my body. I can speak words exactly as I said them before, reproduce a seal blank perfectly every time, trace my finger over the letters on a page and then reproduce that page years later...lots of things.

"Growing up with the Iron Nerve isn't easy. You have this constantly growing library of past movements in your head, and your body gets confused. It replays random memories at random times, which means you fall down a lot, thrash around, suddenly punch a wall or a family member, wet your bed...it's embarrassing, and it's dangerous. My parents had to carry me most of the time until I was two, and then I had to wear a helmet and pads all the time until I was three.

"One of the things that helps is practicing fine motor skills under controlled conditions. I started learning the flute before my first birthday. If I always played the same tune, while sitting on the same chair in the same room, facing the same direction, it made it easier for my brain to find the flute-playing movements that I was looking for. Once I started being able to reliably recall the motions associated with the music, it got easier to walk without suddenly falling over and slamming my head into a wall because my body had decided I was trying to go up a flight of stairs."

He fell silent for a moment, looking back into the past. "Poppa loved to listen to me play the flute," Hazō said. "Every time he came home from a mission, I'd play this silly little 'welcome home' song for him. Because of the Iron Nerve the song was always exactly the same. He liked to say that everything in the field was always chaos and death, but this song was reliable and steady...and it meant that he was home, and that he'd escaped the chaos again." He laughed. "Actually, until I turned three what he used to say was 'Aha! Cricket is playing the song! The Chaos Monster has been defeated again!' And then he'd tickle me. After he died, I never played that song again. Couldn't even touch the flute, because it reminded me too much of him."

He looked around the circle at the somber faces of his team. "The Kurosawa kicked momma out of the clan before I was born, because they didn't want her to marry poppa. They approached me a few times as I was growing up, trying to convince me to leave momma and come rejoin the clan, but I told them no, they were no family of mine and I wouldn't want people who were so vicious and mean."

He swallowed and cleared his throat. "So, the Kurosawa weren't family. Poppa died when I was five. Momma was all I had left, and I lost her when we left for the swamp."

He looked at Akane and smiled; it was a bit watery, but it was an honest smile. "Akane, before you came along we were a team. We were friends, too, but mostly we were a team. Since you came we've started to open up to each other. We've shared our pasts. We've celebrated each other's birthdays—not just with boxes of dango, but with meaningful gifts. We have become happier since you joined us, and stronger."

"Not just stronger," Noburi said quietly. "Alive. From what you told us, if she hadn't distracted Ken while you were fighting Bosatsu, we'd all be dead right now."

Hazō nodded. "Yes. Alive. And stronger, and closer. And because of that...." He turned around so he could reach into his backpack where it leaned on the log behind him; his hand came out with a shining metal flute.

Everyone froze as Hazō lifted the flute to his lips and blew a melody. It was simple and it stuttered in places, the way a young child would play, but it was sweet and bubbly like a forest creek. The night seemed to fall quiet as the silvery notes carried on the breeze.

It wasn't a long tune; soon enough it came to an end and Hazō set the flute aside. "Thank you, Akane," he said, looking his apprentice in the eyes. "You have helped make this team into a family through the power of your..."—he flicked a glance across the fire at Keiko, flashing her a teasing smile—"...happy personality. We may not always get along and we may annoy each other, but I'm told that that's normal for family."

Akane's eyes were brimming. "Thank you, Hazō-sensei," she said quietly, having to pause and clear her throat halfway through the words.

"Damnit, Hazō, now I'm all weepy," Inoue-sensei said, pouncing on him and noogying his head furiously with one hand as she wiped her eyes with the other. Hazō ducked aside, but not fast enough to dodge the fearsome (and completely expected) hair ruffle.

Akane was on her feet and waiting to hug Hazō when Inoue stepped back. The genin squeezed her sensei tight, then turned and glomped Inoue-sensei, who laughed and hugged her back. Akane released the shorter woman and turned immediately to Noburi, who was sitting closest, and hugged him too. Kagome-sensei, sitting on the log to Noburi's right, looked uncertain, as though his body were trying to stand up and he wasn't letting it.

"C'mere, you," Inoue-sensei said, pulling him to his feet and hugging him before passing him on to Akane and pulling Noburi up into a hug.

Akane turned from Kagome-sensei to find Keiko standing two short steps away. The older girl hesitated, opening her arms slightly in a very small invitation. She closed them again at Keiko's millimetric shake of the head, seeming disappointed but not surprised.

"Hazō's mention of family and what it means is apropos," Keiko said quietly. "I too have a gift for you."

The team stopped and turned to face her, listening expectantly.

"Please be still for a moment, everyone," Keiko said. "I promise there is no risk." She nicked her finger on the edge of a kunai, squeezed it until the blood flowed, then slapped her hand on the ground.

"Pankurashun, I call you!" she said. There was a silent whump of chakra, a puff of purple smoke, and a giant pangolin stood before them.

Inoue-sensei's stance shifted slightly. She was finally healed enough to be combat capable, although still moving a bit stiffly. Her face had slipped into the blank mask of a ninja going into a fight.

"Be at ease, matriarch," Pankurashun said, bowing slightly to Inoue-sensei. "I am no threat to you or your young." Inoue bowed shallowly back to him, but did not take her eyes off of his as she did.

The pangolin looked around the circle, surveying the others. "It is my honor to meet you all," he said, his voice rough and gravelly. "My name is Pankurashun, Third Circle Senior Combat Instructor for the First Army of the Pangolin clan. From what young Keiko explained to me, I would be the equivalent of a senior drill instructor in your Mist Academy."

He turned to Keiko. "I yield you the log, Summoner."

Keiko bowed to him, her fingers interlaced, then turned to Akane.

"Ishihara Akane, what Hazō said is true," Keiko began. "We have become closer, become more like family since you have joined us. Some of the credit for that goes to Inoue-sensei and some to myself, Noburi, and Hazō. Some of it goes to you...and proportionately more of it than would be expected given that you have been with us a shorter time than we have been together.

"Unlike Hazō, I had a large family before we left. As he said, I did not always get along with them. Thus, my cousin and I cordially despised one another, yet when one of the boys at the Academy attempted to hurt me, Yōta beat him senseless.

"I have no idea if I still have the family I had in Mist," she said. "Since we left...well, family is complicated. One rule, however, is inviolate: you support one another when it matters. Since joining our group you have done everything in your power to support us, yet I have not lived up to that same ideal. I have not...." She hesitated, grimacing as though tasting something sour. "I have not been as...youthful, as I should." She seemed like she was trying hard not to gag, but she managed not to sound disparaging when she said it.

"Tell her what you told me," Pankurashun rumbled.

Keiko took a deep breath and shifted her feet as though bracing to lift a heavy weight. "I went to Senior Combat Instructor Pankurashun with a request," she said. "He had no interest in assisting me until I said to him:

"'Sir, I have a teammate named Ishihara Akane. She is a skilled warrior who has saved my life and those of all my friends. She has looked out for us, and has been nothing but honorable and helpful to me. She is warm and happy in a way that I cannot be, and therefore we have trouble working together...no, I have trouble working with her. That is a failure on my part that I am trying to overcome, and it is a threat to the safety of my team. Pandā explained your training methods to me, and the ways in which you and the other instructors help your recruits to grow; will you please do the same for me, and help me show Ishihara that I want to be a better teammate, and a better person?'"

Akane stood, frozen like a deer in lamplight, her eyes huge and her mouth hanging open.

"Understand me well, human," Pankurashun said, staring hard at Akane with his snout twitching back and forth. "I have taught personal combat and unit tactics to generations of pangolin. I have fought in more wars and border clashes than I can remember. I fought in the First Condor War, and served in the Polemarch's Guard. I have known fourteen different human summoners, trained nine of them, and been summoned to fight beside twelve. I have never before trained any human who was not our summoner, and I find it doubtful that I will train a second during your lifetime." He gestured to Keiko with claws that could have shredded steel plate. "The highest virtues we instill in our recruits are loyalty and unity. Any pangolin who betrays his comrades or damages the effectiveness of his squad will be taught to fly.

"Young Keiko here has a serious attitude problem that would earn her a plugged nose were she a recruit in one of my classes. She recognizes that and is attempting to change so that she may live up to her responsibility. It is my duty as an instructor to help the young succeed in these duties. Therefore I have agreed to help her by helping you.

"You have no scales, claws, or tail, so you cannot fight as a pangolin does. Given these differences, I could not directly teach you our war arts even if I wanted to. Instead, I will teach you the basic training technique that our recruits use. It will toughen your skin while in use, providing you with a small amount of protection. More importantly, the tougher skin is less flexible, so you will need to work harder to move as you normally would. This constant resistance will help you grow stronger and fitter more quickly. You will not disclose this technique to anyone else. You will not attempt to study it or modify it. You will not record it. You will not pass it on, even to your teammates or to Keiko herself. Acknowledge your understanding." He stopped talking, studying her carefully to see that she understood.

"I understand, sir," Akane said, bowing very low. "I will not study, modify, record, or share the technique."

Pankurashun nodded, the motion a sharp jerk of the head like a sword coming down. "I hope you appreciate exactly what you are being given," he said quietly. "Your teammate is going to be in debt to my sept for a very long time."

"Thank you, Pankurashun-sensei," Akane said, bowing even lower than before. "I do understand it, and I do appreciate it. This is an honor beyond anything I could have expected."

Straightening, she bowed almost as low to Keiko. "Thank you, Mori," she said.

"Please call me Keiko," her teammate replied, bowing back.