Cutting the reunion short felt wrong somehow. Like I was walking out of a movie right before the good part. We'd barely had time to catch up, just a quick meal around the fire and some light banter before the messenger showed up. But missions didn't care about timing, and neither did Commander Minoru when he wanted someone at headquarters.
"Commander Minoru wants to see you at headquarters," the messenger had said. "He said right away."
Yeah, that was never a good sign.
I stood up, brushing off my pants. "So I guess I need to go."
"Wait, now?" Kushina's face fell. "But we just got here! We haven't even finished eating yet!"
"I know, but when the commander says right away, he means it." I glanced at the messenger, who gave a small nod confirming that yes, this was pretty urgent. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
"How long is that going to take?" She was already starting to pout a little.
"I don't know. It depends on what he wants. Could be a few hours, could be longer."
"Can we come with you?" Kushina asked, already starting to stand up.
"No, you can't," I said quickly, before that idea could go anywhere. "This is a formal summon. Like, commander's orders and everything. It's not just a general briefing."
"So? We're shinobi too, we can—"
"Yeah, but you're genin," I interrupted. "This is jonin business. You can't just walk into a command briefing you weren't summoned to, even if you really wanted to."
Kushina's mouth opened like she was about to argue, but Mikoto spoke up first.
"He's right," she said quietly. "If the commander specifically summoned him, we don't have clearance to be there. That's just how it works."
"But we're on a team together!" Kushina protested, looking between me and Mikoto. "Doesn't that count for something?"
"We're on a team together," Mikoto corrected. "Shinji, Tsume, and me. You're not on our team, remember?"
Kushina's face flushed slightly. "I—well—I meant we're all friends! That should count for something!"
"It doesn't, actually," I said, trying not to smile at her cute reaction. "Not for formal command summons, no." I picked up my jacket from where I'd set it aside and shrugged it on. "Trust me, even if you could come, you wouldn't want to. Military briefings are boring as hell. Just a bunch of standing around while people talk about logistics and mission parameters."
"That doesn't sound that bad," Kushina muttered, but she was already deflating a bit, apparently realizing she wasn't going to win this one.
"It is that bad," Tsume said, not looking up from her food. "I've had to sit through a few with my clan. Shinji's not wrong. It's lots of talking and very little actually happening."
Kushina looked like she wanted to keep insisting she could come along, or at least wait outside or something equally stubborn. She looked like she was fighting with herself over what to say, starting and stopping a few times. Whatever she'd been about to say seemed to get stuck on her lips, and when she finally spoke, it wasn't what he expected.
"You promise you'll come back?" Her voice came out smaller than before.
"I promise. We'll continue this conversation when I get back." I meant it too. I wanted to hear more about what they'd been doing in the village, how their training had been going, what missions they'd completed. "Just stay here and finish eating. And don't wander too far from the main compound, alright?"
"We're not children," Tsume said dryly. "We know how to not get lost."
"I know, I know. I'm just saying—" I paused. "Just don't go wandering around without someone who knows the place, alright? It's still an active base." I glanced at Mikoto. "You'll keep an eye on things, yeah? Make sure they don't end up somewhere they shouldn't."
Mikoto just nodded. "We'll be fine. Go ahead."
Kushina still looked pretty disappointed, but then she seemed to get an idea. She picked up a piece of meat from her banana leaves and held it out toward me. "At least eat one more piece before you leave, okay?"
I saw Mikoto moving out of the corner of my eye. Kushina saw it too. Her eyes narrowed and she pulled the meat back just as Mikoto's chopsticks closed on empty air.
"Oh no you don't," Kushina said, holding the meat protectively against her chest. "This one's for Shinji."
"I was just checking if it was cool enough," Mikoto said, completely straight-faced. "What if he burned his mouth?"
"He's a jonin, Mikoto. I'm pretty sure he can handle hot food."
"Can he though? I mean, look at him, he's clearly—"
Kushina was already moving, dodging around the fire to keep the meat away from Mikoto's reaching chopsticks. They started circling the fire pit like kids playing keep-away, except they were both grinning the whole time.
"Just let me feed him," Kushina said, laughing as she blocked another attempt.
"I'm just making sure you picked a good piece," Mikoto shot back, trying to come at her from the other side.
Tsume shook her head. "You two are idiots."
I couldn't help but smile watching them. Yeah, I really had missed this.
Eventually Kushina managed to circle back to me and practically shoved the meat into my mouth before Mikoto could intercept again. "Ha! Got it."
"You're acting like you just won a war," Mikoto said, settling back down.
"I beat you, which is basically the same thing," Kushina said.
"Only because I let you."
"Sure, keep telling yourself that."
They both sat back down, still smiling at each other. Kushina looked satisfied with herself, but I caught the way Mikoto's smile didn't quite reach her eyes. Just a small thing, barely noticeable, but I'd gotten pretty good at reading her expressions over the months.
I reached over and picked up a piece of grilled fish from my banana leaves, then held it out toward Mikoto. "Here, your turn."
She blinked, surprised. "What?"
"Can't let Kushina be the only one who gets to do that before I leave," I said. "That wouldn't be fair."
Mikoto's expression softened, and she leaned closer to take the fish from my chopsticks. Her lips brushed the wood as she pulled back, and she smiled, looking actually pleased instead of just being polite.
"Thank you," she said quietly.
Kushina looked between us, then grinned. "Okay, that was actually sweet. I'll allow it."
"You'll allow it?" Mikoto raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. I'm generous like that." Kushina turned back to me, her expression softening a bit. "You better come back and not just disappear for days or something."
"I'll try my best."
Tsume waved me off, not particularly bothered either way. "Just bring us back something delicious if they're sending you on a mission."
"Sure, I'll see what I can do."
The walk to headquarters was short, but I spent most of it thinking about the girls. It had been a while since we'd all been in the same place. Felt good to see them again, even if the timing sucked.
I pushed those thoughts aside as I walked through the entrance and headed straight for Minoru's office, the hallway quiet except for the sound of my footsteps and the occasional muffled voice from behind closed doors.
His office door was open when I arrived. I stepped inside and found Commander Minoru standing behind his desk, and the first thing I noticed was his expression. He looked pretty serious, more than usual anyway.
Four jonin stood near the walls of the office, spaced out like they'd been told to wait there. I recognized one of them vaguely, might have seen her around the outpost before, but the others were unfamiliar. All of them were watching me with varying degrees of curiosity and skepticism.
"Shinji," Minoru said when he saw me. "Good. Close the door, would you?"
I did. The click of the latch sounded louder than it should have in the quiet room.
"So I'm guessing this isn't just a simple mission," I said, glancing between him and the four jonin.
"No, it's not." He gestured for me to come closer to the desk. "We have a situation."
I moved forward, stopping a few feet from his desk. The four jonin shifted slightly, their attention fully on Minoru now.
"A reconnaissance squad operating in Ame stopped sending regular reports two days ago. They were supposed to check in every twelve hours. We've tried making contact through the usual channels, but..." He shook his head. "Nothing. Complete silence."
I nodded, waiting for him to continue. Two days wasn't great, but it wasn't unheard of either. Equipment failed, situations changed, sometimes communication just got disrupted.
"I need you to lead a search and rescue mission into Ame." He gestured to the four jonin standing around the room. "These four will be your team. We've got a sensor, a tracker, and two combat specialists. All jonin-level operatives."
I glanced at them. None of them looked particularly thrilled about taking orders from someone half their age, but they kept their mouths shut. The sensor was a woman with short brown hair and a scar running down her left cheek that somehow made her more interesting to look at rather than less. The tracker had that athletic build you got from spending most of your time outdoors, and dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. The two combat specialists just stood there, and I could tell they weren't any happier about this than the others.
"When do we leave?" I asked.
"Within the hour. You'll have time to gather supplies and prepare, but I want you moving before noon." Minoru pulled a map from his desk and spread it out, pointing to a marked location in Ame territory. "This was their last known position. Small village near this forest. They were gathering intelligence on Suna movements in the region."
Ame, huh? I'd actually sent some clones there a while back to search for Nagato, but so far nothing. No sightings, no leads, just a whole lot of rain and dead ends. Figured the kid was either hiding really well or my clones were looking in all the wrong places. And now I was heading back there for a completely different search. Great. The Land of Rain was lovely if you enjoyed constant drizzle and mud that never quite dried. I'd heard enough stories about that country to know it wasn't somewhere you wanted to go looking for missing people. Too many places to hide, too much rain covering tracks, too many groups operating in the area who wouldn't appreciate Konoha shinobi poking around.
But search and rescue missions like this happened all the time during war. Someone went silent, you sent a team to find out why. Nothing particularly unusual about it. So why did Minoru look like someone had just told him the village was on fire?
His reaction didn't match the situation. I'd seen him handle worse news with less tension in his shoulders. Two days of silence wasn't great, but it wasn't catastrophic either. Squads missed check-ins sometimes, equipment failed, injuries happened, communication got disrupted. You sent people to investigate and usually they came back with a reasonable explanation and everyone you were looking for.
Unless the missing squad members included someone important. Someone from a major clan, maybe. That would explain the serious atmosphere. Losing regular shinobi was bad, but losing clan heirs or important bloodline holders was the type of thing that caused political problems back home.
My interest started waning. Politics and clan drama weren't my thing. I preferred missions where the objective was straightforward and didn't involve navigating family feuds or noble houses throwing fits about their precious children being in danger. Still, a mission was a mission, and Minoru had specifically called me here for this, so I'd deal with it.
I kept my expression neutral and professional. No point letting personal feelings leak through when you're supposed to be reliable jonin.
"Understood, commander," I said. "I'll find them."
Minoru reached for a paper on his desk and handed it to me. "Nine members in the missing squad. Their names are listed here."
Nine. That was a fairly large reconnaissance unit for Ame. Usually those missions ran with four or five people max to minimize detection risk. Nine meant they'd expected trouble, or they'd been doing something more complicated than simple reconnaissance.
I took the paper and scanned it casually, reading through the names without much investment. Just getting familiar with who I'd be looking for, what clans they belonged to, whether any of them had special abilities I should know about when tracking them down.
My eyes stopped on one name.
Tsunade.
My head snapped up so fast I probably looked ridiculous. I stared at Minoru, mouth already opening to demand whether this list was real, whether someone had made a mistake with the paperwork, whether this was some kind of joke or—
But the look on his face stopped me cold.
He wasn't joking. That expression told me everything I needed to know. This was real. Tsunade was on that list. She was among the missing squad in Ame.
Disbelief hit me like a brick to the face. For a moment I couldn't even process it. My brain just kept repeating the same thought over and over. Tsunade's missing. Tsunade's in Ame somewhere and she's not reporting back. Tsunade might be—
"Shinji."
Minoru's voice pulled me back. I realized I'd been standing there frozen, still staring at the paper.
"Sorry," I said, clearing my throat. "So this is... high-priority, then."
"Yes. If they're alive, You bring them back. If they're not..." He didn't finish the sentence. Didn't need to. If they were dead, we recovered whatever intelligence we could salvage.
"Right. Understood." I looked at the four jonin again, trying to focus. "What's the situation in the area? Any known enemy activity?"
"Suna's been spotted in that region," Minoru said. "We don't have solid intel on their numbers, but our scouts have reported increased activity." He pointed to several marks on the map. "These locations have shown unusual movement in the last week or so. Could be supply depots, could be them staging for something."
"Or it could be unrelated to our missing squad," I said.
"Could be," he agreed. "But we can't rule out the possibility that they encountered enemy forces and were captured or killed."
I leaned slightly, looking at the map. "What about other players? We've had those hostiles hitting our relay points and resource villages recently. Those rogues must belong to either Iwa or Ame, right? Any chance they're involved in this too?"
Minoru's expression darkened a bit. "There's a chance, yes. Ame's been unstable for years, and with Hanzo consolidating his power, it's hard to say which side he's actually on, or if he's just playing his own game. As for Iwa, we've had reports of their scouts in the area, but nothing concrete."
"So basically we could be walking into Suna, Iwa, Ame, or all three at once."
"That's the reality of operating in that region right now," he said. "Which is why I'm sending experienced jonin with you. And why I need you leading this mission."
The sensor had been quiet until now, but she finally spoke up. "If we do run into multiple hostile forces out there, what are our rules of engagement?"
Minoru looked at her, then at the rest of the team. "Avoid contact if possible. This is search and rescue, not an assault mission. But if you encounter enemy forces and engagement is unavoidable, you're authorized to use whatever force is necessary to complete the mission and ensure team survival."
I nodded. Standard enough orders for this type of mission. Get in, find the squad or what's left of them, get out. Don't start a war, but don't die trying to avoid one either.
"Any other questions?" Minoru asked, looking around at all of us.
"What's the deadline?" I asked.
"Six days maximum. If I haven't heard from you by then, I'll assume the worst and send another squad."
"And extraction point?"
He tapped a spot on the map. "Here. If things go sideways and you need emergency extraction, head for this position. We'll have a squad on standby, but only use it if you absolutely have to. The moment you call for extraction, you're compromising our operational security in that region."
I looked at the map again, trying to commit the important parts to memory. Routes in, routes out, terrain, where enemy forces had been spotted. The usual mental checklist before heading into hostile territory.
"Anything else?" Minoru asked.
I glanced at the jonin team again. "I'll need a few minutes to talk to the team privately before we head out."
"Take the time you need. You've got an hour." He started rolling up the map. "Dismissed."
We left Minoru's office and found an empty briefing room down the hall. The four jonin filed in after me, and I could feel their stares on my back.
Now that I'd calmed down a bit, I was starting to feel embarrassed about my earlier reaction. Seeing Tsunade's name on that list had completely thrown me off. I'd just frozen there, staring at the paper while Minoru watched. The rational part of my brain was kicking back in now, reminding me that being out of contact for two days didn't automatically mean she was KIA. Tsunade was one of the strongest shinobi in the village. She could handle herself. There were a dozen reasonable explanations that didn't involve anyone dying horribly in some forest in Ame.
I was probably overreacting.
Probably.
The thing was, I needed these four to actually work with me if we wanted to find her. My eyes drifted to the sensor and tracker in particular. Those two were the key to this whole operation. The sensor could detect chakra signatures from distance, track movements we couldn't see. The tracker could follow trails that had been washed away by rain, spot signs that most people would miss.
The combat specialists, though? I wasn't sure what Minoru was thinking with those two. We already had enough firepower between me and my clones. Adding two more combat-focused jonin felt redundant at best, and at worst it meant more bodies to coordinate in a fight.
I'd actually wanted to ask Minoru to remove them from the squad back there, but I'd held my tongue. First mission as a jonin, first time leading a team of people older and more experienced than me, and I start making demands about team composition? Yeah, that would've gone over great. My reputation would be dead before it even started. People would call me arrogant, entitled, a nepo baby who thought his rank meant he could throw his weight around.
So I kept my mouth shut and accepted the team as it was.
Still, cooperation wasn't going to come easy. These were jonin, not fresh genin who'd follow orders without question.
I turned to face them properly. All four were watching me, waiting to see what I'd say. Well, no point dancing around it. They needed to understand their roles, understand why I was setting things up the way I was, understand that this wasn't negotiable even if it wasn't the usual protocol. I met their eyes and started talking.
...
We were sprinting across the forest floor toward Ame, the entire squad keeping pace behind me. I could feel the sour expressions without even looking back, especially from the two guys. Look, I got it, they were unhappy about the arrangement, but did they have to make it so obvious? The one with the fresh black eye was sulking harder than his partner, which I suppose made sense considering he'd been the one to challenge me back during the briefing. Losing badly in front of your teammates probably didn't do wonders for your mood. Still, if they were women I could at least find the pouting endearing, but grown men sulking behind me just made me want to shudder.
The arrangement they were so upset about really wasn't even that big a deal. I'd just asked the two combat specialists to focus on protecting the sensor and tracker while I handled the actual fighting. That was it. Somehow, that simple request had been enough to set them off.
They started complaining the second I finished explaining it. Standard procedure this, squad cooperation that, something about me not trusting their skills. I shot down every objection with basic logic. Our mission needed the sensor and tracker alive and functional, not dead. Having specialized roles didn't mean I thought they were useless, just that I was better suited for the combat side of things on this particular job.
That explanation just seemed to make them angrier, which was kind of impressive honestly.
The grumpier one, I'd already started calling him Grumpy-chan in my head after he kept scowling—completely lost his temper and tried to get physical. Probably thought he could prove something by challenging me.
The fight lasted about thirty seconds. I put him on the ground, gave him a black eye and thoroughly crushed whatever pride he'd been clinging to.
After that, the open hostility stopped. Hard to argue with someone who just handed you your ass in half a minute. But they'd been sulking ever since. So yeah, that's why I could feel those sour expressions boring into my back right now.
"Taicho," the sensor said suddenly from my left. "I noticed you went to the Sensor Room this morning. You mentioned you were looking for someone. Do you personally know any of the sensors on duty?"
I almost tripped over a tree root.
So she'd been there. In the sensor room when I walked in looking for Aya. That's why she looked familiar, why I'd had that nagging feeling I'd seen her somewhere before. She must have been one of the sensors on duty.
Couldn't tell her that though. My thing with Aya was... complicated. Really complicated. She was still married, for one thing, even if that marriage looked about as warm as a corpse. And the fact that I'd kissed her, that we had whatever we had going on, was definitely better kept quiet. Especially since her husband was a jonin who could absolutely wreck my reputation if he found out. Newly promoted jonin fooling around with a married colleague's wife? Yeah, that would go over great. My credibility would be shot before I even really had a chance to build it.
"Just looking for a friend," I said, trying to sound offhand about it. Then, because I really didn't want to keep talking about that, I changed the subject. "Also, you don't need to call me taicho. It sounds too stiff. Just use my name."
She blinked, seeming thrown off by the sudden topic change. "That doesn't feel appropriate."
"I'd have to agree with her," the tracker added from my other side. "You're our squad leader. Using your name directly feels disrespectful."
I glanced between them. Both women looked genuinely uncomfortable with the idea, like I'd just asked them to do something wildly inappropriate. Which, okay, maybe in normal military hierarchy it was a bit unusual. But normal military hierarchy also didn't usually have thirteen-year-old jonin leading squads of people twice their age, so we were already pretty far outside standard parameters here.
"Look," I said, trying to keep my tone easy, "honestly, being called taicho just makes me feel old. And considering I'm younger than both of you, that's kind of weird, right? So just... do me a favor and drop it. We're going to be stuck together for the next several days anyway. Might as well be comfortable."
The sensor's expression shifted a bit, like she was actually considering it. The tracker glanced away, then back at me, and I could see her starting to warm up to the idea.
Behind me, I heard one of the guys mutter something under his breath that I didn't quite catch but could probably guess at.
"If you're sure," the sensor said after a moment.
"I'm sure," I said. "So from now on, it's just Shinji. None of that taicho stuff. I'll call you Akane, you call me Shinji."
"Same goes for you, Kasumi," I added, glancing at the tracker. "We're going to be working together for a while. Might as well drop the formality."
I smiled, letting it reach my eyes, because looking approachable was half the battle and I'd gotten good at it over the years.
Kasumi nodded, and I caught the smallest hint of color on her cheeks. "Alright then. Shinji."
The sulking behind me somehow got even more intense. I could practically feel the irritation coming off those two.
"So," Akane said after a moment, her tone a bit lighter now. "Since we're being informal and all, how did you even end up making jonin this young anyway? That's pretty rare, even with the war going on."
"Ah, long story," I said. "Short version is I kept getting stuck with missions that were way above my pay grade, and I guess eventually the paperwork just caught up with everything."
"That sounds pretty modest," Kasumi said. "I heard you killed a bunch of Suna nin during your fights with them. Like, enough that they put you in their bingo book."
"That's just a rumor," I said. "People love to exaggerate these things."
"Is it though?" she pressed. "Because that's what everyone's been saying."
I shrugged. "Everyone says a lot of things. Doesn't make them true."
"Really?" she smirked. "Because Commander Minoru mentioned something interesting during our last briefing. Something about multiple enemy jonin getting blown to pieces by your exploding clones. Apparently that made Suna angry enough to put you in their book."
"Wait, you're actually in Suna's bingo book?" Akane's eyes widened. "I thought that was just a rumor!"
"Oh, it's real," Kasumi said. "Commander brought it up so casually I almost missed it. Just dropped it in the middle of talking about mission."
"That's impressive," Akane said, and she sounded genuinely impressed. "Most people don't make it into enemy bingo books until they're at least in their thirties or forties."
"What can I say? I have a talent for speedrunning my way onto enemy hit lists."
She laughed at that, the sound brightening her expression. "I guess so." She shot a quick glance back at the two guys behind us.
Someone, probably Grumpy-chan, cleared his throat loudly.
I ignored it.
"What about you two?" I asked. "How long have you been doing sensor and tracker work?"
"About five years for me," Akane said. "Started right after I made chunin. Turned out I had a natural talent for chakra sensing, so they trained me up and, well, here I am."
"Seven years," Kasumi said. "Been tracking since I was genin. My family's always been pretty good at it, something about our talent makes us naturally better at reading terrain and following trails."
"That's useful in missions."
"Very," she agreed. "Though it means I spend a lot of time in forests and mud instead of, you know, anywhere comfortable."
"Could be worse," I said. "You could be stuck on Suna's front. Just sand and heat for days on end."
"That's true." Kasumi made a face. "Yeah, I'll definitely take mud over sand."
"Smart choice. Though I have a feeling you'd make even a desert look good."
Another loud, pointed cough from behind us. This time followed by the sound of someone stumbling slightly, like they'd deliberately kicked a root or something to make noise.
Akane glanced back briefly, then looked ahead again, and I caught the smallest hint of amusement in her expression.
"So," she said, her voice casual but with a hint of mischief, "do you have a girlfriend back at the outpost? Someone waiting for you to come back from missions?"
I blinked at the sudden question. "What? No. Why are you asking that?"
"Just curious," she said, sounding innocent. "You just seem pretty comfortable talking to women, that's all. Usually that means either natural charm or lots of practice."
I tilted my head. "I'm just... talking normally?"
"Normally," Kasumi repeated, and now she was grinning too. "Sure. Normal."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing," they both said at basically the same time, which definitely meant it was something.
Behind us, the sulking had evolved into something that felt more like seething. One of the guys, the one without the black eye, suddenly spoke up.
"Taicho," he said, his voice stiff. "Shouldn't we be focusing on the mission instead of... all this chatting?"
I didn't even slow down. "We're maintaining formation and keeping pace. Talking doesn't really interfere with that. Besides, team cohesion matters for mission success. Getting to know each other actually helps."
"I see," he said, in a tone that made it pretty clear he didn't see and wasn't happy about any of this.
"Do you have actual concerns about how we're doing things?" I asked calmly, smiling at him pleasantly enough to make clear the question wasn't really a question.
A pause. "No, taicho."
"Good." I smiled a little wider, satisfied with his answer. "Then we'll keep going as we are."
Akane was definitely smiling now, not even trying to hide it. "You're handling this pretty well."
"Handling what?"
"Nothing," she said, still smiling. "Absolutely nothing."
"…You're playing a dangerous game here," I said quietly, leaning slightly closer to her. "Make them any more jealous and I'll have no choice but to give them a real reason to be. That what you want?"
Her smile faltered for just a second, and I caught the briefest hint of color touching her cheeks before she recovered. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she said, but her voice had gotten a bit quieter. "I'm just having a conversation."
"Right. Just conversation." I kept my tone light. "Keep telling yourself that."
She was quiet for a second, then glanced at me sideways, and there was something almost challenging in her look now. "And what if I am trying to cause trouble? What would you do then?"
"Then I'd say you're braver than you are smart," I said. "But I'd respect the commitment."
She laughed at that, and her eyes stayed on me, watching, like she was curious about whether I was all talk or if I'd actually do something about it.
I reached over, like I was just adjusting the strap on her equipment vest that had gotten twisted a bit during our run. My fingers brushed against her shoulder as I straightened it out, the touch staying there just a little longer than it really needed to.
"There," I said casually. "That was bothering me."
Akane went very still for a moment. Her breath caught slightly, and when she looked at me, there was something almost startled in her expression, like she hadn't actually expected me to do anything. The color on her cheeks got noticeably deeper.
"I—" She cleared her throat. "It was fine."
"Was it?" I pulled my hand back. "Oh. My bad then."
She stared straight ahead after that, but I caught the way her lips pressed together like she was trying very hard not to smile.
Behind us, there was a strangled sound that might have been someone choking on their own spit, followed by some pretty aggressive footsteps that suggested at least one person was very close to completely losing it.
Kasumi glanced between us, then back at the two guys, then at us again. Her expression was somewhere between amused and impressed, like she'd just watched something entertaining and was trying not to laugh about it.
Which, honestly, she probably had.
I'd figured out the obvious a while back. Those two clowns were desperately simping for the girls. Pathetically obvious about it too. Every stiff glance, every forced attempt at conversation, every awkward moment they tried to wedge themselves into a discussion they had no business joining… none of it was subtle. Not even close. They had all the subtlety of a brick through a window, and about as much chance of success.
And the girls? They knew. Oh, they absolutely knew.
They were playing those two like a pair of out-of-tune shamisen, plucking at their emotions whenever they got bored. Just enough attention to keep the guys hopeful, just enough distance to make sure they never actually got anywhere. A smile here, a laugh there, maybe a compliment about their skills during the mission. Nothing I hadn't seen before. The girls probably found the whole thing amusing, watching grown men stumble over themselves trying to impress them while maintaining some semblance of dignity.
I almost felt sorry for these simps. Almost. But then I remembered they'd been sulking at me for the past hour and whatever sympathy I might've had just kind of disappeared.
...
[Tatsu / Grumpy-chan POV]
Tatsu kept pace with the rest of the squad as they moved toward Ame, his jaw tight, his body on autopilot. The trees blurred past. The ground beneath his feet felt solid enough. But inside his head, everything was grinding against itself like broken machinery.
That kid wouldn't stop talking to Akane.
Shinji. The prodigy. Konoha's youngest jonin who'd beaten him down in front of everyone and left him with a black eye that still throbbed every time he blinked. Apparently that wasn't enough for him. No, the kid had to keep going, keep pushing, keep acting all familiar with her like they were old friends instead of people who'd met hours ago.
And the way he talked to her. That casual, confident way he had, that smile he kept giving her. It made Tatsu feel like some kind of joke. He wanted to strangle him. Wanted to wipe that smile off his face and make him hurt the way he was hurting right now.
But he couldn't. Because the kid was stronger. Because the kid had already proven that in the most humiliating way possible. And because making a scene would just make him look worse than he already did.
So he swallowed it. Kept moving. Kept his mouth shut. Kept pretending everything was fine.
Everything was not fine.
By nightfall they reached the border and set up camp. They didn't light a fire, couldn't risk giving away their position this close to enemy territory. They found a clearing with decent tree cover and spread out among the branches. Tatsu drew first watch while the others settled in to sleep.
He positioned himself on a sturdy branch with good sightlines, eyes scanning the darkness. But his mind wouldn't settle. It kept circling back to that fight in the briefing room. Fighting Shinji had felt like sparring with his father years ago, that same sensation of being completely outmatched from the first exchange. How thoroughly outclassed he had felt in those thirty seconds. He'd trained for years, fought in dozens of skirmishes, survived situations that should've killed him. And some kid had put him down like he was nothing.
Like he was a joke.
In front of Akane.
His hands clenched so tightly his knuckles ached, but he barely felt it. The humiliation burned hotter than any pain.
He forced himself to look over at where Akane was sleeping. She'd found a branch a few meters away, curled up with her back against the trunk, face peaceful in sleep. The moonlight filtering through the leaves caught her features just right, softening them, making her look almost ethereal.
That helped. Looking at her helped calm the anger churning in his gut. Reminded him why he was here, why any of this mattered. He was a shinobi on a mission. Professional. Capable. Someone worth respecting.
Hours crawled by. The forest remained quiet. His shift eventually ended and he moved carefully through the branches toward Akane, touching down on her branch with barely a sound.
"Akane," he said softly, keeping his voice low enough not to wake the others. "Your turn."
She stirred, eyes opening slowly. For a moment she looked confused, like she'd forgotten where she was, then awareness returned and she sat up.
"Already?" She rubbed her eyes.
"Time passes," he said, smiling at her. "Take your time waking up. I can cover for a few more minutes if you need it."
A smile touched her lips, brief but seemingly warm. "That's... thoughtful of you. Thank you, Tatsu."
His chest felt warm. See? This was what mattered. Being considerate. Being the person someone could rely on. Shinji could have his flashy combat skills and his cocky attitude. He had substance.
Not everything was about being a prodigy or having a pretty face. Real charm mattered. Thoughtfulness mattered. The things that actually made someone worth caring about.
He turned away to head toward his sleeping spot, missing the way her expression dropped the moment his back was to her. The warmth vanished from her face, replaced by something flat and indifferent.
Tatsu moved to where she'd been sleeping and settled into the spot she'd vacated. The branch was still warm from her body heat. Shinobi were trained not to leave scent traces, trained to move through the world like ghosts, but his mind conjured the idea of her smell anyway. Something floral, maybe. Something soft. He closed his eyes and let himself imagine it, drifting off with that pleasant fiction wrapped around his thoughts like a blanket.
Sleep came easier than he expected.
Until it didn't.
A sound woke him. Faint at first, almost lost in the ambient noise of wind through leaves. But it persisted. Grew slightly louder. His eyes snapped open and his hand went to his kunai before his brain fully processed what he was hearing.
A moan.
Female.
His heart started pounding. He sat up slowly, every sense on high alert, scanning the darkness for threats. Genjutsu. Had to be genjutsu. Someone was trying to mess with them, trying to distract the watch or draw them into a trap.
He disrupted his chakra flow. "Kai," he whispered.
The sound didn't stop.
He tried again. Focused harder on breaking the illusion. "Kai."
Still nothing changed.
The moaning kept going, soft but impossible to ignore now, coming from somewhere in the trees nearby. And the voice... the voice sounded sickeningly familiar, and that made his stomach twist.
No.
It couldn't be.
He started moving toward the sound without really deciding to. His body just carried him forward while part of his mind was screaming at him to stop, to turn back, to not confirm what he was already starting to suspect. Every step felt harder than the last.
It had to be genjutsu. Had to be. He kept disrupting his chakra as he crept closer, muttering "Kai" under his breath, but the sounds didn't stop, didn't change, didn't turn out to be fake.
His shoulders felt like they were carrying weights he couldn't see. His breathing came in shallow gasps. He knew, was absolutely sure now. That voice belonged to Akane.
The sounds stopped suddenly.
He froze mid-step, hands gripped so tight his knuckles had gone white. Silence pressed in from all sides. His heart hammered against his ribs loud enough that he was sure anyone nearby could hear it.
The genjutsu broke, he told himself. That's why it stopped. The jutsu finally failed and now everything would go back to normal.
But he couldn't make himself move those last few meters. Couldn't bring himself to cross through the remaining trees and see whatever was there. His legs refused to obey. He just stood there, trembling slightly, breath caught in his throat, pulse racing like he'd just sprinted for miles.
Footsteps.
Someone walking through the underbrush. Coming from the direction the sounds had been coming from.
Two someones.
Tatsu watched them emerge from between the trees.
Shinji and Akane.
Their clothes were disheveled. Akane's vest hung loose and beneath it her shirt wasn't buttoned properly. He could see skin. Could see the curve of her chest exposed so much it made his vision swim. Shinji was adjusting his pants, tightening them, fingers working the fastening.
The world tilted sideways.
Tatsu forced himself to stand straight. Forced his jaw to unclench just enough to speak. Forced his lips into something that might pass for a smile in bad lighting.
"What were you two doing?"
Akane's face flushed red and she looked away, pretending to be very interested in brushing dirt off her vest. Her gaze darted toward him and immediately skittered away.
Shinji cleared his throat. "I could ask you the same thing. What are you doing wandering around? It's not your shift." His tone was light, almost amused, like Tatsu was being unreasonable for even being awake. "You should be sleeping. Getting worked up and losing rest like this is going to mess with your performance tomorrow. We can't afford mistakes on this mission because someone didn't follow the schedule."
Then he just walked past. Walked right past him like nothing had happened, like Tatsu was a piece of furniture he needed to navigate around. Akane followed behind him, still not looking at Tatsu.
They left him standing there.
Alone.
The fury hit him all at once. A wave of rage so intense it felt like being burned alive from the inside. His hands clenched into fists so tight his nails cut into his palms. He felt blood, warm and wet, dripping between his fingers into the ground. Veins bulged across his forehead and temples, pulsing with each heartbeat. Everything around him started to tint red, his vision narrowing to a single point of rage.
That kid.
That smug, arrogant kid had humiliated him in combat, talked down to him all day, and now... now...
Blood dripped slowly onto the forest floor beneath him, pattering against fallen leaves like rain.
...
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