The run to Nagi Island was tiring, tedious, troublesome, and boring as watching paint dry. Long-distance running was always boring, but at least with skywalkers the view was beautiful and you didn't need to worry about being ambushed by the local predators. Unfortunately, that option wasn't open to them anymore. Their orders were very clear: use of skywalkers and skytowers was to be kept to an absolute minimum. Jiraiya was worried that their rapid departure from the brothel in Ise might have compromised his agent and attracted increased interest from the intelligence networks of other powers, most notably Mist.

"Ninja lighting out of a city with no attempt at stealth indicates high-priority messages, which makes everyone sit up and take notice," he'd lectured in a hurried meeting immediately before they left. "You did the right thing, but the whole area is likely to be on alert for a while and we can't afford to have anyone see skywalkers in operation yet. Keep on the ground unless absolutely necessary. And avoid people as much as you can. They'll be looking for my agents, better if no one spots you carrying messages around."

They could have done the entire trip in a straight run but Akane ruled that they weren't in that much of a hurry and that it would be better to take it a little easier so as to recover from the marathon trip to Leaf. Therefore, they camped a bit before sunset, above the high tide line on a beach at the edge of Fire. Hazō was surprised at just how uncomfortable it had become to sleep anywhere other than five thousand feet in the air. Still, they had plenty of Air Dome seals to keep the camp safe and a Multiple Earth Wall platform under them to keep anything from tunneling up under it. It was safe enough, and Akane was right: everyone was tired.

They made camp with a minimum of conversation; no one really had the energy. Dinner was unsealed from a scroll, wolfed down, and then they were ready to turn in for the night. They drew straws for watches; Akane was first, Hazō second, and Noburi third. Noburi looked back and forth between his teammates, snorted, and said, "Just keep it down, you two." He then took his blankets to the farthest reaches of the platform (said reaches not being very far at all) and turned on his side with his back to them.

Hazō glowered at Noburi, unsure whether to be annoyed about the jab or grateful for the attempt at giving them privacy. He sat down next to Akane, close enough that their shoulders touched, and set out the sandglass that would tell them when to renew the Air Dome seals.

Akane leaned into him with a faint smile, but her eyes remained locked on the steady march of the waves lapping at the beach a few dozen yards away. "The skywalkers and skytowers were designed around fighting," she murmured. "Escape from danger, provide advantage in battle or in scouting. And yet, there is so much unique beauty that cannot seen without them. The ocean from above, grey as steel and covered in what looks like ripples. The clouds, white and fluffy from above even when they seem dark and gloomy from below. The sunset, larger and more glorious even than this.

"And yet, they hide as much as they reveal. From here, the ocean is green and blue with white foam like lace. The waves that look like ripples, or even just a texture, from above are large and individual from here. And you can't hear the sound of the waves from so far above."

Hazō looked out over the ocean and nodded. "It's funny how much things depend on your perspective," he said, quietly taking Akane's hand in his. Their fingers interlaced naturally, Hazō's pinky to the outside; it felt right. "We've crossed this water in a boat, and on foot, and in the sky. Everything seemed different each time."

"'You cannot step in the same river twice, nor return to your boyhood home as a man," Akane quoted softly. "Everything is constantly changing, including us. I saw it when I was released from the hospital; my parents' house was smaller than I remembered, the colors duller. It wasn't the house that changed, though. It was me."

Hazō nodded thoughtfully, wondering what his home in Mist would look like to eyes that were years older and sixty...seventy? murders wearier than the last time he had seen the place.

How many people had he killed? Those three genin from the Liberator camp. Jōtarō, possibly Komori. That zombie of Arikada's, although perhaps that didn't count. The sixty people on the boat.

Truth be told, it was really only the people on the boat that weighed on him. It was one thing to kill other ninja while fighting for your life and the lives of your friends, but it was completely different to murder helpless civilians who had done nothing wrong. Mirai, Bōsatsu, Ken, Jōtarō...their faces occasionally appeared in his dreams, but they did not yank him awake screaming and covered in sweat. Apparently, no matter how much he claimed to believe that every person was precious, he didn't really value the lives of other ninja as much as he valued those of civilians. Which was exactly the attitude that every other ninja had, except reversed. What did that say—

Akane's shoulder-bump almost knocked him over and did succeed in knocking him out of his thoughts.

"Stop it," she said, smiling at him. "You had mopey face."

He chuckled guiltily. "A little, I guess."

She cuddled closer, shifting so that his arm was around her shoulders. "No moping," she said. "Just sit with me, and let's enjoy the sunset and the ocean."

Hazō smiled and stroked her hair. "I can do that."

o-o-o-o​

"Welcome back," Minami said as the team skywalked into sight over the camp. Orders or not, finding their teammates in the middle of hundreds of square miles of forest was a lost cause, even with 'that spot on the northwest corner of Nagi Island where the river does that double S-bend' as a starting point. Given the low chance of there being anyone in the area except the six of them, and the even lower chance of finding each other on the ground, Akane had authorized a quick fifteen-minute venture into the sky.

"Thanks!" Akane called back, staying a cautious ten yards up for now. "Kagome, where are you? It's us. Leather shirt knife vegetable pan oil peppers wimpy whiney log rocks." (Kagome-sensei had been feeling remarkably paranoid at the thought of half his team being gone for days. It had shown in the passwords he invented.)

"Fire branch mouse poop green fingernail whetstone brush ink paper," Kagome-sensei replied, eeling out from where he'd been hiding under what seemed like an innocent tangle of ferns that should not have been large enough for a human to hide in. "I'm glad you're back. How's Jiraiya-stinker?"

"Good," Hazō said. "Is that curry I smell?"

"Yes," Keiko said. "Do not worry. I made it with no assistance from Kagome."

"Wimps," Kagome-sensei grumbled. "You try to add a little flavor but noooo. Bland as soup, that's the way it has to be. Pansies."

"Kagome, there are times when I think that your tastebuds must have been caught in an explosion," Minami said, with an amused shake of her head.

"An explosion of flavor," Kagome-sensei mumbled. "Stinking wimpy pansy wimps."

"Wimpy or not, I'm starving," Hazō said, reaching eagerly for the bowl Keiko was holding out. Akane and Noburi were crowding in behind him, equally anxious to try the curry now that it had been pronounced non-Kagome-approved.

Minami watched them intently as they shoveled the food in, her foot jiggling impatiently until she obviously couldn't stand it anymore. "How did it go?" she burst out at last. "What did Lord Hokage have to say? Was Goda worth it?"

"Jiraiya said that the interrogation had been 'illuminating' and it was still going on," Noburi said. "Nothing more specific, though. That was right before we left; when we got there we briefed him about the ship and Goda and everything. He said that we made the right call and that he was proud of us for protecting Leaf even though it was unpleasant. He also said that he was worried about things being hot in Ise and that spreading to the surrounding area. He gave us some additional stops to make and some updated messages, then told us to stay covert as much as possible, stay away from other people, and reiterated the 'use skywalkers and skytowers only when absolutely necessary and otherwise stay on the ground' orders." He watched her eyebrows go up and waited until she was just about to speak before continuing. "Which is why we used them for about fifteen minutes, just long enough to find you guys. The rest of the trip was all on foot and, let me tell you, water-walking across waves ten feet high sucks balls. When we finish this mission I say we take a boat home."

Everyone winced at the reminder of the Sunset Racer and her passengers; Noburi caught it just a second after it came out of his mouth. Hazō watched the thought spread across the other boy's face, followed by a desperate effort to find words that would redirect the image and recapture the congenial mood of a moment ago. No such words were found.

"How about you guys?" Hazō asked. "Anything exciting to report?"

"Two encounters with chakra beasts that thought they were higher on the food chain than us," Minami said with a snort. "Or, rather, two encounters with the mangled remains of such creatures after they ran into Kagome's defenses."

Kagome-sensei snickered.

"What's so funny?" Akane asked.

"There was a third encounter which has apparently slipped Minami's mind," Keiko said blandly. "One with a bunch of venomous frogs that were lying in wait in the latrine pit."

Hazō blinked. "Seriously?"

"Seriously," Keiko said. "Kagome and I heard Minami shriek and we came running."

"I did not shriek! I alerted my team to a threat on the perimeter!"

Keiko's gaze was even, her voice without inflection, yet there was still a wealth of sarcasm hiding in it. "I stand corrected. Minami alerted us to the threat. Kagome arrived ahead of me and dealt with said threat decisively, albeit without consideration for the possible consequences of throwing explosives into a latrine."

Minami shuddered and pulled a strand of her hair around so that she could sniff it. "Took me hours to feel clean again."

"I said I was sorry," Kagome-sensei grumbled. "Your own fault for not looking where you were pooping."

"I looked! They were hiding!"

"S'why you stir it first."

Minami looked at him incredulously. "Seriously? You stir the latrine every time you crap? That's disgusting."

"Keeps you from getting bitten on your dumb butt," Kagome-sensei said smugly.

"I have noticed," Keiko interjected, looking to Minami, "that the number and type of chakra creatures increases the farther one moves from civilization. There are precautions necessary out here that are not necessary closer to well-patrolled areas like those around Leaf." She turned back to the rest of the team. "In any case, the frogs' venom was hallucinogenic instead of lethal, although it took several hours to clear from Minami's system." She paused a bit. "It also appears to have had a powerful laxative and emetic effect."

"As fascinating as this conversation is, could we talk about something else?" Hazō asked desperately. "Something less poop-related, like what we're doing tomorrow?"

"We did the drops to the civilian villages in Noodle while you were in Leaf," Minami said, clearly grateful for the change in topic. "We've only got one for Nagi Island, so tomorrow we'll head over to the east side and do that. I imagine the three of you are pretty bushed after that trip, and according to the map it's going to take six or seven hours to get to the drop, so we'll call it a day after the delivery and then start pushing again at dawn." She pulled out a cloth map and lay it on the ground beside her where everyone could see it. "The next stop is Honey and we've got two potential routes to get there, islandhopping up the eastern or western island chains. I want to cross to O'uzu and then go up the eastern chain. It'll add a little bit of distance but there'll be less time on the ocean and it'll keep us a little farther from Mist. I really don't want to tangle with those guys." The look she shot around the fire clearly said especially since you lot come from there. "Although, you said Lord Hokage added new stops?"

"Yeah," Noburi said, setting his bowl down so he could retrieve his notes from the storage seal in his inside left pocket. "And it's a good thing you wanted to go to O'uzu because that's where they are. One on the west coast about halfway down, two on the east coast and—tada!—Todoroki Shrine, all the way at the bottom."

Minami groaned. "I'm sure Lord Hokage knows what he's doing, but that's at least an extra six hundred miles. That'll almost double the time left on this mission."

Noburi shrugged. "'Ours not to wonder why, ours but to slog along and cry'," he said, quoting the unofficial motto of all field ninja everywhere.

Minami sighed. "I know. Okay. Well, I want to get this done with as soon as we can. I sure wish that if he'd let us use skywalkers, though; you can go a lot faster with no terrain to worry about and you don't have to stop as soon as it starts getting dark." She glanced at the map again, then folded it away. "Okay, well, it is what it is. Let's finish dinner and pack it in. If we're doubling the mission time then I'll want to push as hard as we can, so forget stopping early tomorrow."

o-o-o-o​

The morning dawned grey and rainy. 'Rainy' in the sense that a waterfall is a 'fast-flowing part of the river.' Hazō found himself seriously missing the ability to climb above the clouds, out of the gloom and downpour to where sunlight gleamed on fluffy whiteness. But no, they had to slog through mud and murk and rain so cold it felt like ice. Worse, Nagi Island was apparently home to a slew of water-loving insects that found humans delicious. They weren't toxic or dangerous, just annoying. Kagome-sensei had an herb paste that served as a decent repellent, but the torrential rains washed it away within minutes and there was nothing to do but suffer.

Mindful of the urgency of their mission and the fact that it had just been extended, Minami refused to allow them to stop and wait out the rain. Instead, they water-walked across the flooded areas (frequent) and the mud (everywhere) and tried not to complain too much as they shivered and squelched. They stopped for lunch only briefly, huddling under an Air Dome seal while Akane used her Elemental Mastery jutsu to warm them up. The heat was lovely, but it only increased the dread of knowing they were going back out into the rain soon enough.

Given the conditions, it was hardly surprising that it took longer than expected to get to the delivery point. Minami forced them to continue on after dark, moving by the light of three oil lanterns from their storage scrolls, each of which was carefully held under a rain shield. It made Hazō nervous to be throwing that much light around; Minami acknowledged the concern as legitimate, but felt that it was more important to make their destination tonight than to worry about the unlikely chance of being seen by someone or -thing who could endanger the team or their mission.

By the time they arrived at the farmyard it was two hours after nightfall and everyone's temper was frayed. Minami pounded on the heavy wooden door that stood between them and that mythical place, 'warm and dry'.

"Open up!" she called. "We're travelers with news of the world for you!" It was one of the nicer passwords that Jiraiya had set up—much nicer than 'tomato nipples' or 'wow, what an amazing penis on that statue!'

There was a long and extremely uncomfortable pause before the door was unbarred and swung open. The woman inside was tall and gaunt, with greying hair and posture as straight as a spear.

She surveyed them for a moment, then stepped back and gestured them in. "Welcome," she said.

The team crowded inside gratefully. The door opened into what was clearly the main room of a farmhouse belonging to prosperous family. The room was spacious and floored with slates covered in rushes. The walls were heavy timbers caulked with hardened mud, undoubtedly proof against most attack. There was a heavy, well-crafted table with four chairs, and a fireplace big enough to roast a good-sized pig. A cauldron big enough to bathe in was hanging on a spit over the flames, a light swirl of steam rising out of it.

"Thank you for having us," Noburi said with a smile. He gestured to the pot. "What are you cooking?"

"My laundry," the woman said calmly. "I do have food if you're hungry, though. Smoked meat, cheese, bread, and some fruits. The bread is two days old, I'm afraid. Haven't had time to bake."

The words tickled Hazō's danger sense. "Oh?" he asked. "Something happening?"

She nodded. "Two days ago, m'husband and the boy went off to the city for to get some horses; a critter got into the barn and killed ours. Normally none of us would stir out for another month until the caravans come through, but without some beasts we aren't going to be able to get all the harvest in nor get it to market. I been minding the farm my own self since they left."

"The city in O'uzu?" Minami asked.

"Ain't no other cities 'round here," the woman said.

Minami blushed. "Uh, right. Okay. Well, we're here from Jiraiya, obviously. We brought this for you." She fished around in her backpack until she found the relevant scroll, then passed it over. "We are to ask if you have any messages to send with us, or if you need any short-term help. We're on a high priority mission so we can't spend a lot of time, but if there's something simple you need some ninja muscle for then we're glad to help out."

The woman eyed them up and down. "You really ninja?" she asked.

Akane cut a few handseals and murmured a phrase; blue chakra sparks leapt out from her hands and the room began to warm around them. "Yes," she said.

The farm wife's eyes had gone huge at the casual display of jutsu. "Could y'find m'husband, escort him the rest of the way?" she asked hopefully. "He and the boy are traveling in the wagon; it's real solid, probably keep the critters off. Be a lot safer with ninja, though. And the wagon's pretty likely to get stuck in the mud what with all this rain."

The team exchanged looks. "Is there a road?" Minami asked carefully. "We aren't trackers."

"I am."

Everyone turned to Kagome-sensei in surprise. The sealmaster fidgeted uncomfortably. "What? I lived in the woods for fifteen years, had to hunt my own food. Of course I know a little about tracking." He looked towards the heavily-shuttered windows. "Don't know that I could find anything in this mess, though."

"'Road' would be a bit much, but there's a track," the farm wife said. "The caravans use it. It's a little fuzzy but not too hard to follow. So, will you go?"

Minami hesitated.

"I'm sorry," she said at last, shaking her head. "We can't. We've been ordered to stay covert."

For just a moment the woman's face crumpled as hope vanished. It was barely a flash and then she was under control again, but that brief glimpse stabbed Hazō in the heart.

"Of course," their hostess said calmly. "Can't be turnin' aside from your mission to pull a wagon out of the mud." She stood and turned to the cabinet on the wall. "I'll get you some blankets. You can sleep in front of the fire."