The sound of the cell door slamming shut behind them had not faded before the entire team turned their backs on Hazō and moved away from him.

Hazō watched helplessly as his closest friends—his only friends—froze him out. Noburi and Keiko moved to the left-hand wall and started talking quietly. Kagome-sensei ran to the right-hand corner farthest from the door and dropped to his knees with his face to the wall, retching violently. Inoue-sensei knelt beside him, rubbing his back and murmuring soothing words, but he waved her off angrily without looking up. She considered him for a moment, then moved away, sitting down with her back to the wall opposite the door. Her head tilted back against the stone; she sighed and allowed her eyes to fall closed.

Hazō watched the byplay for a moment, then moved to join Noburi and Keiko. "Guys," he began awkwardly. "I'm really sorry about this."

Neither genin reacted at all, continuing to talk quietly without acknowledging his presence.

"I quite enjoyed the barbeque with Team Sarutobi," Keiko said. "It was pleasant to have a sense of camaraderie with other ninja again. Which is not to denigrate my feelings for the team—"

"No, it's cool," Noburi said, shaking his head. "I get it. It's nice to see new faces, and even better that they're ninja and we have something in common. Civilians don't really get us, and for this last year the only ninja we've met have been trying to kill us."

"Yes, exactly," Keiko said, brightening.

"Guys—"

"I mean, sure, dealing with some of the civilians have been pretty cool—I really liked doctoring for that lake town—but you can't really talk to them the same way we talk to one another."

"Indeed. There is always—"

"Guys, please, I'm trying to—"

"—a distance between us and them. They cannot understand what drives us and we cannot truly appreciate their lives. Still, I will admit that I have enjoyed our interactions with civilians. If we aren't executed in the morning I think I would find it pleasant to seek out another small town to help."

"Right there with you. With everything I've learned from Doctor Yakushi—"

Hazō moved off, deciding to try his luck elsewhere. With hesitant steps he moved to his fire-haired teacher and crouched down in front of her.

"Inoue-sensei, I—"

"Piss off." She never opened her eyes or moved anything but her lips.

Hazō flinched and backed away, taking a moment to survey his surroundings instead.

The room was large for a cell, perhaps three meters wide and five deep, built of stone so massive it was like being inside a mountain. Dim light came a pair of small candles in sconces on each wall. The only entry was through a pair of heavy doors, the space between them so small that it could only hold one person at a time. Each door was a full thumb-length thick, made of multiple crosswise plies of solid oak, and heavily reinforced with iron; Lady Tsunade herself wasn't going to punch through those. A small window in the innermost door allowed for a jailer to look inside without opening the door. Aside from that the room was completely bare.

The team had been stripped of all their equipment. Their clothes had been taken and replaced with shapeless things made of flimsy cloth. None of it fit and there were no buttons, drawstrings, or other usable parts. It was almost certainly by design that the pants were so baggy everyone had to dedicate one hand to holding them up. There had especially not been anything of a size for a woman as short as Inoue-sensei; she had had no choice but to roll up the sleeves and legs multiple times. She looked like a little girl playing dressup in her mother's clothes.

The flicker of a candle made the light shift across the wall, drawing Hazō's attention to a fine line. He frowned and stepped closer to the wall, fingers reaching out to trace over the designs without quite touching: seals. Walls, floor, ceiling—now that Hazō knew what to look for he could see that every inch of the stone was covered in what were almost certainly explosive seals. This wasn't a jail cell, it was a killbox; presumably there was a switch outside that would allow any jailer to trigger the seals and reduce anyone inside to meatpaste.

With a sigh he settled against the wall opposite Keiko and Noburi, hands dangling hopelessly between drawn-up knees. He banged his head gently against the wall behind him, replaying over and over the careless words that had gotten them all thrown in here. This was worse than Keiko's confession of love; after that the rest of the team had at least been willing to speak to her...well, except for Noburi for a day or so.

Still, maybe that was a hopeful sign? The team had weathered that stumble and restored their dynamic. Presumably they could do the same this time.

"The prisoners will face the walls and kneel with hands behind their backs."

Hazō blinked, looking towards the door. The jailer's voice was muffled but the words were clear.

"The prisoners will face the walls and kneel with hands behind their backs," the voice said again. "Failure to comply will result in death."

Hazō quickly scrambled to his kness, turning to face the wall and putting his hands behind him.

"Prisoner Kagome, you will toss the explosive seals over your shoulder towards the door, then return to kneeling with your hands behind your back."

Hazō heard a sotto voce snarl from the far corner, but a moment later there was a wet thwap on the floor behind Hazō. He risked a glance back to see something that looked like a thin sausage with a long string tied around one end.

Straining his ears, Hazō barely managed to hear a mutter from the other side of the door, although he couldn't make out the words.

"Prisoner Kagome, you will retrieve the other bladder of explosive seals from your stomach and throw them behind you towards the door. You will then resume kneeling, facing the wall, with your hands behind you."

"Stinking cheating godsdamned bullshit stinker eyeballs," Kagome-sensei muttered. Hazō blinked; he'd never actually heard Kagome-sensei swear.

There followed a few more seconds of retching, then another wet thwap behind Hazō.

"Prisoners will not move while the guard is in the room. Failure to comply will result in death."

Hazō waited, silent and immobile, as the inner door swung open. Footsteps came into the room, moving swiftly, and were gone a moment later.

"Prisoners may move freely again," the voice said. Hazō remained motionless anyway until the sound of the outer door opening and closing marked them once again alone.

Inoue-sensei pushed herself to her feet like a woman lifting a massive weight and trudged over to where Kagome-sensei was pressing himself back into the corner like a cornered rat. His eyes were wide, flicking rapidly from side to side, and his lips were locked back in a rictus of anger and fear.

Inoue-sensei's words were too soft for Hazō to hear, but they made Kagome-sensei relax very slightly. She sat down beside him and cuddled into his chest; Hazō watched the sealmaster's arms float helplessly for long, awkward seconds before folding protectively around her. Kagome-sensei stayed perfectly still, except for his right hand which stroked Inoue-sensei's long hair slowly as she dropped off to sleep. The slow rhythm of her breathing slowly soothed the anger and terror from his face, leaving only the fierce protectiveness of a father shielding his daughter from nightmares.

Hazō wasn't about to disturb that scene; he considered making another try at apologizing to Keiko and Noburi but eventually gave it up as a bad job. Instead, he stretched out on the hard stone floor and composed himself for sleep. No matter what happened he'd need to be at the top of his game tomorrow.

o-o-o-o​

Hazō started awake as the inner door swung open. The faint candlelight was drowned out by the humming ball of raiton energy that an unsmiling Jiraiya held in his left hand.

"So," he said calmly, ignoring the way that Inoue-sensei was physically blocking Kagome-sensei from leaping to his feet. "Let's talk." The words dropped to the floor like lead shot, every syllable clattering with threat.

"Sir—" Inoue-sensei began, her voice pleading. "We—"

"Not you," Jiraiya said, his voice imbued with the finality of a headsman's axe. "Kurosawa Hazō: you threatened a senior physician and Leaf ninja. How do you plead?"