"Water?" Hazō asked tentatively, holding out the canteen as Noburi finished his kata.

"Sure." Noburi took the canteen and splashed some on his sweaty face before pouring half a liter of the rest down his throat. "Aaaah. That's good. Did Akane chill it?"

"Yup. Nice having an icemaker handy, right?"

Noburi nodded. "Makes the desert a lot easier. Hope Minami gets back soon so we can get out of this giant suckhole."

Hazō nodded. "No argument from me." He paused, reviewing his wording before continuing. "Noburi, I have something that I feel is very important and would like to discuss with you. I am hesitating to do so because you are justifiably angry with me over my OPSEC breach and I am concerned that I will frame things improperly and make you angrier. Still, I do have some things I'd like to say. Would this be a good time, or should I approach you again later?"

Hazō had to give Noburi credit; the other ninja actually thought about it instead of giving a knee-jerk reaction. "Yeah, this is a good time. I'm not all that angry anymore, I guess. If I were to use your Clear Communication no Jutsu, I think I would say that I am not actively angry, but I am still resentful. I suspect I'm going to be more careful about sharing secrets with you in the future, although I recognize that that's a problem and I'll work on not letting it happen. I will also note that my primary reaction to the issue is 'tired'; I feel that this sort of thing happens a lot with you and I've just gotten to the point of handling the fallout and then moving on. I'm not sure if that's a fair or accurate way to feel, but it's the way I do feel and it seemed smart to share that."

Hazō gulped. "Thank you for telling me," he said carefully. "It was not comfortable to hear but I think it was important to know.

"Changing topics for a moment. I leaked your trump-card technique without thinking about it, so I've been working to come up with a new trump card for you. I wish to say upfront that I don't know very much about your bloodline or how it works, so it's quite possible that all of my ideas are pointless or obvious and well-known to the Wakahisa clan. Should that prove to be the case I hope you won't become angry at me for wasting your time."

Noburi snorted. "It's fine. I never got more than the most basic training in our bloodline, so probably a lot of my ideas are well-known to the Wakahisa clan."

That was encouraging. "My first thought was that it might be possible to drain chakra boost or jutsu. I know that you can't 'see' or drain seals so maybe it wouldn't work, but—"

Noburi cut him off with an upraised hand and a shake of the head. "Doesn't work. I've tried draining Akane's Elemental Mastery effect and gotten nowhere." He shrugged. "I mean, maybe it's possible that I could learn to do it, but it sure didn't feel like it. I had no awareness of the technique's boundaries at all. As far as I can tell it's only living chakra systems that I can affect. The idea about draining the chakra boost out of someone is interesting though."

"Good," Hazō said, pleased to have contributed something. "My second thought was that perhaps you could learn to use medical ninjutsu—or any ninjutsu—through mist. For example, if you could manifest your Water Whip from anywhere inside the mist cloud, or use medical ninjutsu to blind a target or cut their tendons...."

"That...would be pretty insane," Noburi said. "I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it; I like using my ninjutsu to heal, and using it to harm...well, I can't say the idea hasn't crossed my mind, but it seems wrong. Still, it would be one insanely powerful trump card. I'll work on it, just to see if it's possible. Thank you, Hazō."

"You're welcome." For a brief moment he considered bringing up his other, more out-there, ideas. Then he decided it would be better to end on a strong note. "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help with the training. I'm happy to be a test victim if you need one."

Noburi's grin would have sent most patients fleeing in terror. "I'll keep that in mind."

o-o-o-o​

As he retreated from the conversation with Noburi, Hazō considered whom he should speak to next. He had something to bring up with everyone on the team so it didn't make too much difference. In theory it could all happen as a group discussion but that seemed fraught with peril right at the moment. No, anything that complicated the social situation was to be avoided.

Which made the answer to 'who next?' very plain: you didn't get much more socially uncomplicated than Kagome-sensei. The fact that the man in question was currently sitting on top of their shelter making explosives and glaring out over the desert just made things easier.

The sun was going down, its lower edge slouching onto the horizon like a fat drunk dropping onto a tavern bench. Kagome-sensei was glaring at the bloody orb as though it had betrayed him personally.

"May I join you, sensei?" Hazō asked carefully. Kagome-sensei had been even twitchier than usual since The Incident, although he'd been tripping over himself to make sure he didn't seem even remotely threatening to Minami.

"Is it okay if I secure the perimeter tonight, Minami? I won't if you don't want me to. It'll be safe though, I promise. I can tell you—show you! I meant show you exactly where everything is. I'll go through first, so you know it's not a trap. And I can leave some of it out if that's better. My normal perimeter would be a dozen Lesser Barrier Formations, one hundred and forty four explosives, twelve implosion seals on ten-meter spherical detection arranged to—"

"It's fine, Kagome. Go secure the perimeter."

"Are you sure? I promise I'm not going to blow you up or anything. The explosives are only for the perimeter. Hazō could watch me set them up if you want, just to check that I'm not trying to kill you and make it look like an accident. Would it help if I told you how I would do that so you know that I'm not doing that?"

The conversation had not been satisfactory for anyone involved. Fortunately, Minami had been more amused and exasperated than terrified and angry. Whether that said more about her enormous reservoir of forgiveness or her miniscule reservoir of common sense...well, that was an open question.

"C'mon up," Kagome-sensei grunted. He budged over a few unnecessary centimeters, less to actually make room atop the relatively spacious roof and more to indicate the invitation.

Hazō settled down next to his teacher. "How's it going?"

"Way behind," Kagome-sensei grunted, glaring at the small stack of tags in front of him. "Running low on explosives after those crocabunnies swarmed the perimeter three nights ago. Didn't get as many made today as I should've."

Having known Kagome-sensei for more than twenty minutes, Hazō did not bother getting nervous. Kagome-sensei's definition of 'low on explosives' was not quite the same as that of other people. "Let me help," he said instead, pulling out his own stack of blanks and writing materials.

They worked together in companionable silence for a while until the spreading shadows made it too difficult to see the blanks they were drawing. To Hazō's surprise, Kagome-sensei did not jump up and rush inside to where he could use an oil lamp without alerting everyone within twenty miles to their presence. Instead, the man carefully put his equipment away and then lay back, fingers laced over his stomach as he gazed up at the stars. Hazō settled in beside him, likewise enjoying the quiet and the solitude as the minutes drifted by.

The sky was crystal clear except for a few wispy clouds drifting in front of the moon—more giving it a glow than actually obscuring it. The stars were out in force, a gleaming and haphazard carpet of diamonds across the firmament. The desert was silent, the faint noises of the team in the building below them the loudest thing for what seemed like thousands of miles.

"I know it's not easy," Kagome-sensei said quietly.

"Hm?"

"Me. Not easy having me around."

Hazō looked over in shock. "Sensei, that's not true! You're—"

"Don't lie."

Hazō stumbled to a halt, his tongue tripping over itself at the melancholic certainty in his teacher's voice.

"I'm always scared and suspicious and I have a tactically crippled mind, always reacting with explosives. I know that." Kagome-sensei's gaze was locked on the infinite wheel of the stars above them. His voice was calm and soft and sounded as though it came from far away. "I'm too clumsy with people, always saying the wrong thing and getting us in trouble. I don't think ahead enough. I know all that. All I ever wanted was for us to be safe, for you to be safe. You and Mori and Wakahisa and Ishihara; you mean the world to me. Knowing that I almost destroyed everything...."

Hazō stayed silent, frantically scrambling for a response. What did you say to that? It's fine? It wasn't fine. You'll do better next time? What did that even mean?

"We know," he said finally. "We know that keeping us safe is your top priority. No one doubts that. And we're grateful."

Kagome-sensei grunted doubtful acknowledgement. He stared fixedly at the stars and definitely did not look at Hazō.

There needed to be something more here. What would Mari-sensei have said? Something not judgemental, but still guiding in the right direction. "It's just...maybe you could teach us, instead of doing it for us?"

The older man laughed bitterly. "Like a good teacher would. Sure."

Hazō flailed for an answer and couldn't find one. Kagome-sensei had a host of problems, but self-doubt had never been one of them. What did he say?! Kagome-sensei was the reason the team was alive and citizens of Leaf, but in ten seconds he'd nearly undone everything they'd been working towards since going missing.

The silence lasted just a little too long; Kagome-sensei sat up abruptly and pushed himself to his feet. "Anyway, sorry. You know, for being crazy and stuff. Gotta go. Need to check the perimeter." He leaped off the shelter and into the night.

"Sensei, wait!"

It was too late; the older man had vanished into the shadows. Hazō could have caught up to him, since the perimeter wasn't that big. Somehow, this didn't seem like the moment.