Hazō gaped in shock at Noburi's news.

Noburi's expression labeled him very clearly as Smugley Smuggington, King of Smugton. "Yep," he said, hitching his thumbs inside his lapels and rocking back and forth on his heels. "Legendary clan technique. Kids my age think it's just a story that the adults are making up. Figured it out all my own."

"That is most y— impressive, Noburi!" Akane beamed.

"You can say 'youthful', Akane," Keiko said, her teeth only slightly gritted.

Akane blinked in surprise and looked at her teammate. "Thank you, Keiko, but I do not want—"

"It's fine," Keiko said. "Senior Combat Instructor Pankurashun explained to me that teammates need to be accepting of one another, and that any recruit who forces his squadmates to smother themselves in order to keep the peace is deserving of a plugged nose."

Glances were exchanged.

"That's bad, yes?" Mari asked carefully.

Keiko nodded. "Yes, that's bad."

Akane smiled. "Thank you for making the effort, Keiko," she said, bowing slightly. "It is...extremely youthful." The smile turned into a wicked grin and she winked at Keiko; a non-Mori person would have appreciated the joke and snorted in amusement. Keiko, of course, was much too Mori to do such a thing. At all. No, she absolutely did not express any amusement, no matter what it looked like.

"Excuse me," Noburi said crossly. "Legendary technique? Brilliantly figured it out all on my own? This was my moment, guys."

Inoue-sensei patted him on the head. "Yes, and a very good moment it was. We're so proud of you."

Noburi sighed. "Fine." He held up a hand to cut off Hazō before the other genin could start talking.

"Yes. The same as through water. Yes, for both. Yes, omnidirectional or directed. Half a dozen or so. No, except for my overall limit. No, it needs to be contained."

Hazō closed his mouth, blinking. "What?"

"Well," Noburi said, a sly grin on his face, "I saw you about to vibrate into another dimension with all the questions that were struggling to get out so I thought I'd answer them first. I know how you get, Mr. Mew. Can't have you exploding from excitement. Or getting so distracted that you choose your words poorly."

"Yeah!" Kagome said. "No more bad word choice, Mr. Mew!"

"But—"

"Indeed," Akane said, nodding soberly. "Word choice is important, sensei. Noburi is doing you a great service by preventing you from getting so excited that you forget."

"I hate you all," Hazō grumbled.

"D'awwwww!" Inoue-sensei said, ruffling his hair furiously with both hands. "You're adorable when you're sulking!"

"Hmph." Hazō glared at her as he finger-combed his hair back into place. "Anyway, uh...." He paused, remembering Noburi's answers and trying to match them to questions. "You can drain through mist as well as sense, you can drain and sense at the same distance in mist and water, you can drain either omnidirectionally or against up to half a dozen or so targets at once, and...um...."

Noburi clucked his tongue disapprovingly, shaking his head at his teammate's failure. "I'm disappointed, Mr. Mew. The only limit on how much I can drain is my overall capacity. I can put as much chakra as I want in my barrel, but there's an upper limit on how much chakra I can keep confined, regardless of how many containers it's in. And no, I can't just drain past my limit and let the excess diffuse. I need it to end up in water as a storage medium."

"Oh," Hazō said, thinking it through. That put a lot of beautiful ideas straight in the macerator seal.

"Can you sense my seals?" Kagome asked, narrow-eyed. "More importantly, can you drain them?" An unobservant person would have thought that Kagome was wringing his hands nervously. Only someone who knew him would recognize that the paranoid explosives expert was actually petting the ringbox on his left palm.

"No," Noburi said quickly. "That was about the first thing I checked, because it would have made catching Arikada really easy. I can only sense and drain living things. Seals, chakra ink...they're totally invisible to me."

The whole group sighed as thousands more beautiful ideas leaped into the macerator seal, screaming their death cries en route.

"That would have been really nice," Inoue-sensei said wistfully. "We could maybe have caught the gold ring on this one. I think now we'll have to settle for the runner-up prize."

"What about your genjutsu, sensei?" Akane asked. "If you can catch Arikada in a genjutsu she will be helpless."

"But it leaves sensei defenseless," Keiko said. "Arikada will have other ninja with her."

"Uh...what about that one that you, um, used during the meeting?" Hazou asked, waving vaguely and trying very hard not to look at Kagome. "You said it lasts for minutes. You could hit her with it for a moment, shut it off, and be able to fight again."

Inoue-sensei shook her head. "No, it doesn't work like that. It's a very minor effect—it just makes the target happy and relaxed. When you shut it down they're still happy. It's just normal levels of happy, though—it's like if you just had a really good day. It won't change their actions or interfere with their abilities, and they return to their set point pretty quickly." She looked at Kagome guiltily. "I'm really sorry about that."

Kagome shrugged. "Why?"

Inoue-sensei blinked in confusion. "Because...I shouldn't have used a genjutsu on a teammmate without their permission?"

"Everything worked out, right?"

"Yeeess...?"

"So what's the problem?" He shrugged. "It was the first time I've been relaxed in..." He paused, head cocked and frowning in thought. "Huh. Well, anyway, it was nice to feel relaxed for once, and it's probably good you did it; I was too wound up to be careful, and if I'd kept talking that stinker Jiraiya would have realized just how much I knew and killed us all. You probably shouldn't do it too much, though. Could get addictive. Can't keep everyone safe if I'm all blissed out." He looked into the woods, frowning a bit. "Hm. Come to think of it, I should check the perimeter." He rolled up to his feet and trotted into the woods. The rest of the team watched him go.

"Okay," Noburi said. "That just happened."

"Moving on, I'd like to talk about ways to protect Inoue-sensei when she's using genjutsu in a fight," Hazō said, clearly determined not to let things get derailed. "I've been thinking about it, and I have a list here—"

The whole team (with the exception of the world's best apprentice) groaned.

o-o-o-o​

The dragonflies were quiet, but Hazō and Noburi had learned in a very hard school. The faint little buzz had barely reached their ears when Hazou blind-fired a kunai to his left. The attached macerator seal went off, spraying water everywhere.

The macerator was an impressive piece of work for someone who had only been studying sealing for a few months. Still, it was only a bit better than a prototype at this point. Sure, it crunched up what was put in it, but it didn't crunch as hard or as finely as Hazou would have liked.

"What's the matter, sensei?" Akane had asked, after catching him glaring at one of his seals as though having a personal dislike for the inoffensive bit of paper.

"It doesn't chew enough," Hazō grumbled.

Akane blinked. "Excuse me?"

"It doesn't chew enough," Hazō repeated. "I want it to get the particles smaller, and to be able to chew up more things. It won't even damage most kinds of wood, for goodness sake!"

Akane digested that. "Well, what do you want it to be able to damage?" she asked.

Hazō looked at her with an atavistic gleam in his eye. "All the things," he whispered. "All of them."

Hazō shook his head, forcing the memories away. He still wasn't completely happy with the performance of his seal, but it was good enough for this purpose. He could feed in a lot of river water and get out a lot of mist. It didn't cover as much area as he would have liked and it didn't last as long and he wanted—the water tended to precipitate out in fat droplets after only a few minutes—but for those few minutes it was enough.

The dragonflies had been buzzing happily through the sunlit woods, thinking dragonfly-ish thoughts about maybe finding a nice fox or rabbit somewhere, paralyzing it, tearing the tender flesh off its bones for a tasty meal before laying their eggs in its dying carcass, and then flying home to the nest for a lovely full-bellied nap. They had most certainly not been expecting to find themselves suddenly locked in a fog bank.

To the extent that a creature with a brain the size of a grain of rice can be said to be surprised, they were surprised.

The surprise didn't last long, though. With a nigh-audible schlorp, the chakra was pulled right out of them and they crashed head-first into the forest floor.

"Watch it," Hazō complained. "You got me with that drain as well as the bugs."

"Oops?" Noburi said, shrugging unrepentantly.

The mist wasn't thick enough to block vision at short range, so the two genin had only a little trouble locating their downed prey. Hazō sent an Earth Clone to pick up the two bug corpses, drop them into the collection bag, and bring them back.

"Bag's getting full," Hazō noted, hefting it thoughtfully.

"Grind 'em up, I guess," Noburi said. "Still seems like cheating."

Hazō gave him a withering look. "Did you want to spend hours with a mortar and pestle?" he asked, dropping the bag full of dead dragonflies into another macerator seal. "It's not like we have a lot of time, here, and this way is fast. Now come on, let's go find some more."

o-o-o-o​

"What was it like?" Mari-sensei repeated, stirring her dinner bowl slowly, her mind clearly turned inwards. "It was strange. Like being in a really crowded room with people talking loudly about parts of my life. Or maybe in a storm, with pages of my diary blowing past. Chaotic. There was a presence there, huge and looming over everything. Not like killing intent, not even hostile...maybe like a face in the clouds, up above everything. I couldn't follow everything that was going by, so I don't know how much she actually saw. I managed to...I guess you could call it 'grabbed a few of the pages' to keep them away from her eyes, but that simply attracted her attention to them."

She looked up, an urchin grin on her face. "Of course, that just showed me that I could make her see whatever I wanted. Turns out it didn't need to be things from my memories, either. Anything I focused on or imagined, I could put it into the storm and draw her eyes to it. I know she was seeing things other than what I was showing her, but I could control it a little bit." She laughed. "And hoo boy, did she see some stuff. There was this one thing, from when Jiraiya and I were together back in Yuni. See, there's this trick you can do with—"

Kei shuddered. "Speaking of seeing things!" she blurted. "Kagome, Agent White said that your transformation was excellent. Can you tell us a little more about your abilities there? How much of your mass can you change?"

Kagome froze, his spoon stuck in his mouth and his eyes flicking around defensively. "Fum?" he mumbled. He chewed and gulped the spiced chicken down. "Some?" he repeated.

"So, more than half?"

"Uh..." Kagome was suddenly extremely focused on wolfing down the stir fry in his bowl, shoveling food in until his cheeks were bulging like a chipmunk's. "Viff if gud!" he said, nodding at Akane and waving his bowl. "Fanks!" He gulped down the mouthful and grinned maniacally. "Love the spices! Really...um...uh...really youthful!"

The sun had set an hour ago, but it lurched back above the horizon momentarily just so it could shine forth from Akane's smile. "Thank you!" she said. "I was surprised by how well stocked the village was. And they wouldn't even let me pay. After Hazou-sensei raised the walls for them they pressed food and spices into my hands until I had to ask them to stop."

Kei frowned. Kagome's attitude made no sense. "Kagome, are you uncomfortable with talking about your skills? I don't wish to pressure you, but it would be useful if we were all aware of one another's abilities."

"No no, it's fine!" Kagome said. "I'm totally fine with talking about my abilities. Not an issue at all, really. Totally fine." He smiled to show just how fine he was, although it was more of a 'rictus of terror'.

Hazō hurried to interject before things got worse. "Speaking of abilities...Kagome-sensei, do you have any thoughts on how we should prepare for whatever abilities Arikada might have?" Hazō was particularly proud of that bit of wordsmithing. He had flow-charted forty-six separate possible conversations about this subject. The ones that featured any use of explosives during the converation were pruned first, followed by any that involved spending two hours searching the woods for one's interlocutor. After applying several more filters he had chosen this as the best lead-in.

"What do you mean?" Kagome asked guardedly. "How would I know what the stinker can do? Do you think I know her? Because I don't! Just because I'm a sealsmith doesn't mean I know all the other sealsmiths. Why are you asking me?"

"Well...." What? No, that wasn't in the flowchart!

"I believe what Hazō means is that our enemy's defenses will very likely be oriented around seals, and you are by far the greatest expert we know at using seals for defensive works," Kei said calmly. "Not only are you expert at the craft, but you are brilliant. I believe there to be a very high probability that you are more intelligent than Arikada and can therefore outthink her."

The whole group looked at Kei in surprise.

"What?" she said. "It's true. He is extremely intelligent. Also figuratively paranoid, extremely suspicious, and enormously destructive."

"Keiko and Kagome, sittin' in a tree—" Noburi sing-songed, before ending with a startled "mph!" as Mari-sensei pulled him into a headlock with one hand over his mouth.

"Are you making fun of me?" Kagome asked suspiciously, looking narrow-eyed at Kei.

She frowned. Her team seemed to be having a great deal of trouble following simple concepts tonight. She was fairly certain that she'd been communicating clearly.

"I notice that I am confused," Kei said carefully. "I feel that I have been extremely plain in my speech, yet apparently I have not. Could someone please explain what they think I have said so that I may try to correct any misunderstandings I have caused?"

"You said I was paranoid and suspicious and destructive," Kagome said. "That's not very nice."

Kei looked at him as though she'd just noticed a hole in his brain. "I said figuratively paranoid," she said. "I was attempting to speak in the vernacular, as I felt it would aid in communication." She sighed and shook her head. "I see now that I was wrong. You are not paranoid, Kagome. 'Paranoid' is a clinical diagnosis of insanity, meaning maladaptive compulsive behavior. Your behaviors are all extremely adaptive in the normal course of ninja life. Ergo you are not insane, ergo you are not clinically paranoid. In the vernacular, however, 'paranoid' means anyone who takes unusually thorough precautions to ensure their safety and the safety of those they care for. This is a most laudable trait, and you are the best example of it that I have ever met."

Kagome's narrow-eyed gaze became positively squinty. "So...I'm not crazy?"

Kei pondered that one. Technically she should take no position on his mental state, as she wasn't qualified to make a diagnosis of insanity. She suspected, however, that this was not what was needed at the moment. What was needed was a comment that would make Kagome feel supported and affirmed. A simple 'no' would suffice, but it wouldn't be ideal. What would be better?

She breathed out, imagining that she could see her breath for an instant as the ice spread through her body. (Forget this.) Around her, a three dimensional map of conversation trees spread through the air, (give up) each node tagged with potential expressions, words, and probabalistic projections of associated emotion. She surveyed the map, turning her mental viewpoint (you are a failure) rapidly as she reviewed the (you ruin everything) possibilities. (foolish, useless, stupid child) Kagome needed reassurance, (worthless) but it couldn't be empty platitudes or lies. (give up) It also needed to be phrased in (give up) a way he would accept.

There, that one.

With the ease of long practice, Kei pulled herself up out of the ice and smiled at Kagome. (Smiles help, her mother always said.) The dip into the Frozen Skein had been barely a flicker, not enough time for anyone to have noticed the pause. There was plenty of time to remember to smile.

"No, Kagome, you are not crazy," Kei said. "You are the sanest among us, because you recognize how dangerous our lives are, yet you confront the knowledge instead of shying away."