"Ah, my young friends have returned," Shintarou said, standing up from the shogi board where he'd been playing against himself. "And you've brought a friend."

Inoue-sensei's henged face glowered. "Yeah. A friend. These are my friends, so don't think you can take advantage of them, you stinker. Try it and I'll—"

Hazou put a hand on her arm. "It's all right, sensei," he said. "Breathe. We're all friends here."

"I'm not," Inoue-sensei grumbled. "Stinker."

"Anyway," Noburi quickly jumped in. "We're here to pick up the drugs." He pulled out a ryo pouch and set it on the table with a faint clink!

Shintaro opened the pouch and quickly counted the money. He nodded, satisfied with the amount, and whisked it into the back room, returning a moment later with an oilskin-wrapped package about one hand length on a side.

"Here you are," he said, laying it on the counter. "Now, were there any rumors you'd like to feed me? When you're leaving, where you're going with the drugs, how much money you're still carrying...anything?"

"Uh...," Noburi said. "No, nothing like that. A couple of business things, though. We need to find a telescope; do you know where we could get one?"

"Hm. Unusual item, and expensive."

Noburi shrugged but said nothing.

Shintarou considered the group for a moment. "I could probably get you one," he said. "It would take some time, though."

"How much time?" Noburi asked. "We're actually leaving later today, and we probably won't be back for about a month, so—"

"A month?" Inoue-sensei said, in the scratchy voice Kagome's alias had used in the alley. "I thought we were coming right—" She cut herself off when Hazou's grip tightened on her arm. "I mean, uh, yeah! A month! Maybe two! Yeah, definitely two!"

Noburi sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Yes, well," he said to Shintarou. "These identities are compromised, so we're leaving fairly soon. How long would it take to get a telescope?"

"Perhaps a month, more likely two," the storekeeper said, pointedly not taking note of Inoue's outburst. "And, as I said, expensive. A quarter million ryo."

Noburi choked. "A quarter million?!"

Shintarou looked down his nose at Noburi. "Stop being dramatic. Yes, a quarter million. Even then I'm giving you the 'good customer' discount. I'll barely make a profit on the sale, I'm only offering it in the interest of maintaining our business relationship."

"Yeah, I'm sure," Noburi said sourly. "Well, we'll get back to you on that. Now, if you'll excuse me, we need to go."

"Travel safe," Shintarou said. "I'll look forward to discussing it more when you get back, many weeks from now. Although, of course, should any other party of four ninja whom I have never seen before walk into my shop before then, I'll be equally glad to haggle with them."

"Of course," Noburi said blandly. "I would expect nothing less. Good day."

o-o-o-o​

"Okay, so now we need to find the ninja from those patrols that we met in the alley," Hazou said. "We let them them know that we're leaving but coming right back under different henge, so that they'll be spreading the word too. That way everyone is sure to hear it. We'll need to split up, though. Six people is too obvious."

"Hang on there, bucko," Inoue-sensei said. "Telling Shintarou should be enough. He took the bait, and he knows that we want the word put around. More importantly, I don't like us splitting up and Arikada could be showing up any time now. We can't afford to let her get into the city or we'll have to wait until she leaves to engage. Best if we just get out there."

o-o-o-o​

"You're really serious about this," Mari said, looking at the pile of apparently random objects that Akane was carefully laying out on the ground. "I have to admit, I thought you were pulling my leg and we were just going to find a hill or something."

Kagome nodded furiously, a giant grin on his face. "Uh-huh! It'll be great! Rock solid—no, better than that! Rocks can roll out from under you, or if some idiot starts poking at the walls they can blow up, or melt into gooey puddles that kinda look at you, or start bleeding or whatever. Not this!"

"Explain it to me again," Mari said, her voice a bottomless well of dubiousness.

"It is a most youthful invention, sensei!" Akane said. "Hazou-sensei conceived of it, Kagome made the seals, and I built the framework. You see, you take one of these wooden blocks"—she held up a chunk of pine the size of her head with a large hole bored into the center of each side—"and you connect them like so." She picked up one of the thumb-thick oak dowels that she'd pulled out of a storage-sealed bag a few minutes ago. One end of the dowel went into one block, the other end into another block. More blocks and more dowels were rapidly assembled into a grid three meters across.

"See, this is the best part!" Kagome said, too excited to wait for Akane to explain. He grabbed one of the extra-long coils of ninja wire off the ground and started running it around the frame, placing a small loop on top of each block and then balancing another block on top to hold it in place. A lifetime of experience as a hasn't-died-yet sealmaster made him check that each piece of the wire was in the middle of its supporting block and firmly anchored.

The precision was obviously pure reflex, because it still left him plenty of attention with which to chatter. "See, the frame is a bunch of different things, but the wire is all one! That's the trick—the seal only works on one object, but a wire is just one object! You can run it around all you want, then on to the next piece, and it's fine. And when you're done with it you just take the seal off and the wire collapses so you can pull it up with you and there's no way for the stinkers to get to you because you're up in the air! It's like being in a tree, except the tree doesn't want to eat you!"

"Go back to that part about the wire collapsing," Mari said. "That sounded like a bad part."

"It's fine, sensei," Hazou said. "As long as the seal is in place the wire is literally unmovable. We'll make sure that the seals are firmly fixed and covered so that they're immune to the weather. There's no risk, I promise."

"Uh-huh," Mari said, eyeing the platform even more dubiously.

Kagome stopped laying out the wire and looked at her, hurt. "You don't trust my seals?" he asked piteously.

Mari ducked her head guiltily. "No, I do," she said. "It's just...well, I mean, we're talking about standing on thin air, supported only by some wire. It's a little daunting." She saw his face and hurried to add. "I'm sure it'll be fine, though! Probably lots of fun too, once I get past the adjustment. Yep, can't wait to try it!"

Akane laughed. "It is most youthful of you to be so open-minded, sensei," she said. "I myself am quite looking forward to it." She looked over and saw that Kagome had finished getting the last of the wire in place and affixing the various components of the Five Seal Barrier. Without waiting to be told, she and Hazou moved to opposite sides of the platform and hoisted it up as high as they could reach. Kagome brushed his fingers across the center seal and pushed a tiny pulse of chakra into it before stepping back and nodding to Hazou and Akane. The two genin lowered the frame down, leaving the wire hanging in midair, unsupported, with a lattice of heavy wooden blocks balanced on it.

Mari absently finger-combed imaginary tangles out of her hair while studying the latest bit of wizardry to come from the warped mind of her students.

"Isn't it a very youthful invention, sensei?" Akane asked happily.

In the silence of her own mind, Mari sat on the first reply that came to mind...and the second, and the third. Outwardly she smiled brightly. "It really is," she said. "Okay, let's do this." With a silent prayer to the gods of fools and teachers of unfortunately inventive young ninja, she leaped up onto the frame. The thing was just as solid as Kagome had promised, without even the tiny bit of sway you would feel on a tree limb. The loops of wire provided platforms wide enough for a ninja to stand on, although a civilian would have plummeted to their death instantly. Still, a little chakra adhesion to hold oneself in place definitely seemed called for.

Mari forced herself to look calm and supportive as Hazou and Akane passed the frame up. Internally, she started preparing to help make the next level of insanity.

o-o-o-o​

Twenty minutes later, they were so high up that the wind was whipping her hair everywhere. It was exactly as awful as she'd expected, and she didn't dare look down at the ground so far below. Gods, she hated heights. If she fell from here she wouldn't just hit the ground, she'd splash. Every bone would shatter like glass, leaving her—

No, she reminded herself firmly. If she fell from here she would just henge into a blanket and float to the ground. Which was good, because that was literally the plan for how to get down. The kids, irrational little monsters that they were, were actually looking forward to that part: pull the seals off so that the wire collapsed and everyone plummeted to their death...or, at least, to their you're-good-at-henge-right-because-you-better-be.

For this final level they'd woven the wire densely enough that it was possible to lie down in something that definitely wasn't comfort but at least wasn't actively painful. Still, it was better after they spread out the blankets (carefully selecting the ones that most closely matched the current color of the sky) and unsealed some some boards to lay on top so that the wire didn't cut into delicate bits.

Or, at least, it was comfortable until that was all done and she had nothing to distract herself from the fact that she was going to need to spend hours, possibly days, lying on mid-air a bazillion feet in the air while looking down at the ground nauseatingly far below in hopes of spotting an incredibly lethal sealmistress that the team would then have to go try to capture. Capture. Admittedly, the emphasis was very heavily on the 'try' part of that; there'd been a lot of discussion and everyone was solidly onboard with the "if it's convenient but let's not go too far out of our way we'll just make sure that we don't smoosh her head yeah that sounds like a better plan" plan).

Well, Kagome wasn't so much onboard with it as he was grudingly willing to grumble instead of flat out oppose. He'd campaigned vociferously for the 'boom, squish' plan but been roundly shot down by Keiko's point that explosives were fairly likely to smoosh Arikada's face which would be fairly likely to make Jiraiya smoosh the team's faces.

So, yes, the team at least needed to try to capture the insane, bioseal-wielding, loves-collateral-damage sealmistress. Why? Because clearly Mari's mother had been right and the kami would take vengeance on little girls who sassed their mothers. The vengeance had been pretty long delayed, but it was all the more evil for the wait.

With a carefully suppressed sigh, Mari settled in to keep watch.

o-o-o-o​

Only the Iron Nerve was keeping Hazou still as he waited for Arikada to arrive at the ambush site. He wasn't sure if things had gone well or poorly; on the one hand, they'd lucked out with the timing. They'd been on watch for no more than a few hours before Hazou had spotted what had to be Arikada's group. They were coming cross-country at a speed that was a lazy amble for ninja, but still faster than any civilian could have maintained. He'd lucked into seeing them from far off; there had been just enough time to signal the others, scramble for the ground, and put together a hastily-prepared ambush.

Well, if you could count "six people lying down under camo blankets" an ambush. Hardly what he—or Kagome!—would have preferred. Where were the seal traps? Where was the giant marsh that would let Noburi drain everyone in the area? Shoot, they didn't even have enough misterator seals to make a decent fogbank before the enemy arrived. (Also, he really needed to figure out a way to wreak horrific vengeance on Inoue-sensei for tagging his brilliant invention with the silly name 'misterator'.)

He silenced his thoughts as he heard the faint sound of footsteps rapidly approaching. Very, very carefully, he lifted one corner of his camo blanket the tiniest bit, just enough that he could see out. The team was scattered around the immediate area—they hadn't known exactly where Arikada would pass through, although they had a pretty accurate guess—so there was no way to coordinate. Whoever ended up being closest was responsible for calling the attack.

Here they came...closer...closer...three of them. Two men, the left-side one broad and stocky, the right-side one wiry with blond hair. In the middle ran a fat woman with patchy skin and hair like bristles.

Hazou blinked and looked again. Her skin wasn't just patchy it was...diseased? He couldn't tell from here, but there was something wrong. Oh, lovely. A strange-looking sealmistress who specialized in bioseals. This was gonna go great.

"Look ou—" the blond ninja cried, pointing to where Keiko hid under her blanket.

Ambush spoiled, the team threw their blankets off and leaped to their feet. A year of practice together and specific prep for this exact encounter allowed them to act as one: Hazou, Akane, Noburi, and Kagome hurling PMYF and misterator (again: vengeance required) seals in all directions, while Keiko and Inoue-sensei dealt with the guards.

Keiko apparently decided that perceptiveness should be its own reward, because she targeted the blond ninja with a pair of kunai. The weapons seemed to vanish from her hands and disappear into a blurred line connecting her to her victim.

The man was fast, but not fast enough. He managed to barely twist aside from one weapon and deflect the second. Instead of blasting straight through his chest and out his back, he turned it enough that it hit his collarbone instead. In the end he might have preferred the instant kill; the kunai sank into his flesh right up to the hilt, the point sticking a full thumblength out his back. He screamed and stumbled as the pain hit, but managed to stay on his feet.

While planning for this encounter, the group had identified a weakness in their team composition: they had only one person with significant ranged attacks. (At least, ranged attacks that didn't demolish the entire landscape.) Everyone agreed on two things about this combat: first, the guards needed to be dealt with immediately so that the whole team could focus on Arikada. Second, for anyone except Keiko, dealing with the sealmistress's guards was going to require getting uncomfortably close to the sealmistress herself. Kagome had loudly advocated that he should 'boom, squish!' the guard while Inoue-sensei shut Arikada down with genjutsu. Inoue-sensei had regretfully turned the idea down; she was not confident that a bioseal expert wouldn't have unusual senses that would allow her to automatically defeat genjutsu. No, they were going to need to take Arikada down the old-fashioned way: by beating her like a drum until she fell down. And before doing that, the guards needed to be gotten out of the way, which meant getting close to Arikada. Finally, Inoue-sensei had put her foot down and declared that she would be the one to bell the cat. After all, she'd laughingly said, she was still the best in the group at "getting up close and personal."

There is something extremely personal, almost intimate, about literally snapping another human being in half.

The stocky guard barely had time to react as a red-haired streak came in from his side, slid behind him, and grabbed him by the collar. Chakra anchored Inoue-sensei's left foot to the ground for leverage as she yanked her victim's head and shoulders back, forcing his body into a convenient arch. Simultaneously, a dainty foot lashed out in a snap kick that took him in the small of the back and sent the fragments of his spine out through his belly. He folded backwards around her foot like a wet rag doll, dead before he could even scream.

Arikada saw it happen and laughed.

An instant later, the dead guard's head exploded, practically in Inoue-sensei's hands.

"Sensei!" Hazou screamed, hurling himself forward. He'd barely taken two steps before his brain caught up with what his eyes were telling him: his jounin was all right. Somehow she had seen what was coming and hurled herself backwards, curling into a ball and rolling away fast as the explosion bloomed behind her. When she stood up she was covered in soot and her hair was singed, but she seemed unhurt.

Which left Hazou with a problem. Namely, he was in mid-charge at a probably-insane sealmistress who could apparently make people's heads explode. And she was turning towards him.

"Nope," he said, vanishing into a kawarimi with one of the logs that the PMYF seals had dispensed all over the battlefield.

The area was hazy with fog from the misterator seals—not enough to block vision, but enough to reduce it. Still, Hazou was able to see well enough to see Keiko slice her thumb on a kunai and slam her hand on the ground.

"Pangolin Summoning Technique: Panchipaama!" Keiko shouted. Purple smoke exploded everywhere as the eight-foot scaled monstrosity that was her combat summon appeared. "We need the woman!" Keiko called, pointing at Arikada.

Panchipaama's massive head swung towards the enemy and locked onto the wounded ninja who had just been implicitly declared unneeded. She dropped forward, curling into a tight ball and racing towards the enemy ninja. Her scales lifted up slightly, turning into bladed scoops that drove her forward at impossible speed and sent a rooster tail of dirt up behind her. Arikada leaped frantically aside, but the wounded guard wasn't nearly fast enough to evade before the massive ball of bladed scales rolled over him.

In that instant, Hazou was forced to reevaluate some of his beliefs. He had met two pangolins so far: Pandaa, and Pankurashun. Pandaa was small and adorable and acted like an excited kid. Pankurashun was massive and had command presence practically oozing off his body, and he had long claws...but he hadn't actually done anything except talk and take Akane aside to teach her a jutsu. The hunched-over posture and wiggly trot that was a pangolin's normal gait had made even the massive warrior seem less threatening than he might have.

When Panchipaama rolled over the unknown ninja, Hazou was forced to abandon any thoughts that even vaguely hinted at "not threatening." The man wasn't crushed by the charge, he was splashed. There was no other word for it. Blood and viscera exploded everywhere, a hand flew off to the south, and when the invulnerable ball of death that was the pangolin went past, all that was left was a red stain well-mixed into badly torn-up soil.

Arikada looked around the battlefield at six enemy ninja, a summoned pangolin the size of a small building, and the dead bodies of her two guards. Hazou could almost hear the woman's thoughts as she decided that this patch of ground was a good place to not be.

"Bye," the sealmistress said with a nasty smile. She crouched slightly and leaped; her legs seemed to explode, the heavy flesh blasting away from her body and hurling her through the air in something that was so far beyond a normal chakra-powered ninja leap that there were no words for it. The explosion tore Panchipaama apart, banishing the immense pangolin back to the Summon Realm with a scream of frustrated rage.