Second of 2 Chapters posted 9/10! If you don't know what Katashi's summons is, go read chapter 10 first!

Katashi woke up late in the morning some weeks later – it was his day off and he'd just returned from a retrieval mission in Frost. For a change, nothing truly unexpected had happened. His next mission was going to be twice as obnoxious he was sure, because he doubted the Kazekage had given up on killing him.

"Nothing unusual to report, Arashi-san," Jingoku said, buzzing over from his usual perch in the weapons-and-wire windchimes he'd built near his window for just that purpose. The sapphire headed and green-girdled hummingbird that had met him first was now his primary contact with his summons, remaining present unless he actively dismissed him for stealth purposes.

It had been decades since the hummingbirds had a summoner – if Katashi's guesses based on the questions they asked were right, the last one had been around during the First Shinobi War, the other two had been well back in the Clan Wars era. The birds were understandably curious about the world they'd been restricted from for so long so Katashi had given blanket permission to wander at will – so long as any interesting information came back to him, and his teammates had constant monitoring.

The sheer volume of average-size hummingbirds made both requests simple enough to carry out and his new summons near immediately started pulling more than their own weight.

The chakra output problem had apparently been taken care of due to his method of gaining the scroll – since it hadn't been passed down or found outside the summons realm, he'd opened a gateway for the birds to exit and they were taking full advantage. It was a bonus he was thankful was at the very least unknown by the majority, if not entirely unknown outside of those with such a contract, because it made his hummingbird scouts all the more unexpected.

"Thank you Jingoku-san," he murmured, sitting up and getting ready for the day – he had nothing more strenuous than some grocery shopping and gear-maintenance planned so he forwent most of his weapons and armor. Going entirely unnarmed was out of the question for any shinobi, and even civilians in Suna carried at least a knife on them.

The bird simply chittered before returning to his usual perch by the window – Katashi opened it before he left the room and Jingoku flew off, undoubtedly meeting up with some of his own comrades and waiting for Katashi to head outside himself. It would be a while though, in addition to eating his own breakfast, he wanted to speak with Kaoru.

"Fucking piece of shit," he heard her growling in the living room as he approached, " 'It's simply a matter of chakra control, you should manage fine with your reserves' as if all kunoichi have shitty reserves and epic control you condescending jackass!"

He breezed past the frustrated woman and into the kitchen, calling over his shoulder, "Tea? Any food? I think there are some leftovers in here or I could make something."

"Tea please and whatever you're having is good thanks," Kaoru called back, returning to snarling imprecations at the wooden leg prosthesis she'd been offered to test for the puppetry unit. Takeshi had apparently made some connections with the group and they'd been willing to offer her one of their prototypes for testing. Puppetry-masters had already a long-established practice of prosthetic usage but for those that weren't masters at the technique it had never been considered an option.

If Katashi remembered right, Baki had ended up with puppetry-legs at some point in the never-happening future, so they had become more widely available eventually, but he'd never heard of them outside the puppetry corps before then. Things were shifting already.

He'd finished modifying the sign-of-life seal Kaoru had wanted while he was in Frost – and just in time, as Mizu was due to happen in a month at the most. Time to see what else they could change.

***===***pagebreak***===***

The Yondaime Kazekage hadn't had such an interesting and entertaining thought-puzzle in a very long time. Certainly, there had been interesting puzzles, and entertaining puzzles, but all the interesting ones were important and risky and needed his full attention at all times, making them exhausting. And the entertaining ones had been entertaining in their subject matter, not their complexity, and were invariably dull.

But this one – the one his youngest had handed him when he'd been recovered from a kidnapping attempt, green eyes so like his mother's actually showing something besides cool disdain, flat nothingness or berserker rage – this one was both.

Interesting, because somehow one of his shinobi had slipped through all the nets he'd formed to catch geniuses, bright stars of brilliance that may one day outshine him and bring all of Suna under closer scrutiny, and managed to explode onto the scene in a way that suggested careful planning. If not careful planning in the outing of his genius, very careful planning in the staggering of his flares of brilliance.

Entertaining, because the man was not a true threat yet, not in the least. He had no connections outside of his ANBU team, one of his teammates in IA and retired out for medical reasons, the other crippled and barely of use, potential puppetry prosthetic or not. The shift leader, Bakemono Eiji – he had been a problem, one or two times, trying to shelter those that were good, too good to risk – but he had clearly washed his hands of the issue with his handling of the seeming mission failure to save a teammate.

So soft, the Kazekage scoffed, examining the files he'd already memorized yet again. The man was a fool, should have gone to Konoha with that attitude, he'd fit right in with the tree-hugging lunatics. But he wouldn't let this genius go, because soft-hearted or not Konoha was too strong as it was.

Suna couldn't bear the scrutiny geniuses would bring. And he needed to play out his plans, stay in power a while longer and bring Suna to greatness while others thought they lurked in mediocrity, so he could not suffer geniuses to live. Too much of a risk now, too much of a risk then. If he were to be honest, until he was ready to retire, it would be too much of a risk always.

Geniuses were dangerous. They drew attention, unwelcome attention in their village's weakened state. They were unstable to boot, just look at the mess most of them made of things – Orochimaru, Yagura, the Uchiha, even Iwa's notorious Jikobu genius was a loose cannon and Kumo's bizarre jinchuuriki relations just didn't bear considering – between that, the inevitable attention they drew and the war that often followed their showing off, it was a wonder anyone tolerated the blasted people.

"I am tired of seeing this man dance through things unharmed," the Kazekage finally spoke to the only other person in the room, the ANBU dropping to one knee the moment he spoke, bowing his masked head, "You will accomplish the diplomatic mission to Mizu's leader, Yagura, after disposing of Makiguchi Katashi. Arrange it so his death does not affect the alliance. Upon your successful return, your teammate will be granted extended and paid leave to recover from injuries. Should you fail to return successful, I see no reason to bleed further money into a waste of resources. Am I understood?"

"It will be done, Kazekage-sama."

***===***pagebraek***===***

Katashi sighed, swinging his feet idly as he sat on a balcony on a civilian ferry that drew close enough to their target island to make water-walking feasible. It was a fairly large ferry, a three-night trek with stops at two islands before circling back to the River Country port they'd started in. Ikku was not particularly happy, especially since they were in strict chakra-suppression mode, meaning his usual remedies for sea-sickness were out of the question.

While he would never wish misfortune on his teammate, not one of his team, it was useful that he had basically locked himself in their bunk quarters and refused to emerge aside from seeking more water and crackers from the ship's store.

After all, it meant the man next to him could sit down with a sigh and ask, "Your brother still sick?"

"Your sister still hunting for you?" he replied with a laugh, the black-haired man groaning and saying, "Don't remind me Hikari-san! I don't see why she's so angry with me, I'm just the escort! Tou-san made the contract!"

"And your tou-san sent you in his place for just that reason I'm sure," Katashi snickered, playing along with the ruse that Hatake had set up in the short day he'd had to figure out how to follow them without being made as a shinobi. Ikku's presence, while a pleasant surprise in most circumstances, made this particular self-assigned mission rather difficult.

The Hatake had avoided using henge and instead applied hair dye and make-up to give him a darker skin-tone, hair styled to flop down over his left eye. A reinforced kage bunshin of Naruto had used his bizarre transformation jutsu to turn into a young woman who bore a strong resemblance to Hatake's disguise and who was apparently furious at her brother for escorting her to an arranged marriage to some hideously fat and wealthy merchant in Kiri.

"He so owes me for this," Hatake-as-Naka groaned, burying his face in his hands, "I'll be lucky to make it there alive!"

"Maa, she won't kill you, just maim you, I'm sure," said Katashi-as-Hikari – no disguise was needed for him really, but he added some auburn to his hair to give him a bit of a different look.

Ikku hadn't bothered with a disguise at all; considering how little he was seen out and about in the ferry that was just as well. They hadn't wasted any effort on it.

"You could at least pretend to be sympathetic, Hikari-san," Hatake whined, voice pitched a few notches higher than his usual alto in a way that made Katashi's vocal chords ache; that must be painful to keep up.

The whine was followed up by a joking shove, one hand on his shoulder, the other coming under to shove against his cheerfully blue and green knitted sweater, one tightly rolled piece of paper wedging its way through the knitted stiches and settling with a barely present murmur of chakra against his heart. Katashi-as-Hikari laughed and elbowed the man, adding a little extra force, a little extra surge, to pass on the message that the delivery was smooth, the package was secure. That was all they could afford to communicate aside from cover-story banter and jokes, Naruto-as-Sister appearing in full fury soon enough and sending Hatake darting for cover to the amused sympathy of onlookers. They were all well familiar with the Naka family saga by now.

Settling in the two-man bunk he shared with Ikku, he stretched out with a sigh and let himself sink into a light doze, waiting until his teammate left to pull out the rice-paper and examine the message and seal inscribed so delicately onto it.

Armored vest, gauntlets. Don't die.

Smearing his blood across the storage seal, he caught the gifts Hatake had smuggled him and clung to them, allowing himself a brief moment to inhale deeply, taking in the scent of his new-forever teammates, the biting tang of metal and leather and oil smelling indefinably of home, a different home, a less secure home, but no less home.

All he could afford though, Ikku would not be long. He quickly pulled the armored vest on, testing mobility briefly and was well-satisfied – layers of fabric mixed with leather, concealing thin overlapping plates of metal and ceramic that covered the majority of his torso. While similar to standard flak vests, it was unique in the fact that it was both extremely lightweight and chakra enhanced. That process was usually bypassed, if not avoided, because while useful it made the person wearing the armor into a beacon for a half-decent sensor.

It was yet another reason Hatake armor had been so valued – and the clan's scion had only taken it further. Originally they had simply dispersed their chakra enhancements throughout the armor to the point that it didn't show as a chakra enhanced set of armor, it showed up as a single explosive tag. Useful.

With a sage for a student and supplies and assistance from the forge masters of Tetsu no Kuni during some of their recovery periods, Kakashi had developed a technique to enhance his armor to the peak of structural stability while weaving the chakra in such a way that it blended in perfectly with natural chakra. Even more useful.

After all, so long as he kept the vest and gauntlets covered, there was no reason for Ikku (or, more importantly, anyone else) to realize that he was armored in anything besides his ANBU standard pieces. Which gave him an edge.

And, as one old shinobi saying went, gain an edge, take a mile.

***===***pagebreak***===***

Katashi quickly fell into the usual pattern with Ikku, taking the lead with the other ANBU trailing two steps behind and slightly to the left. It was a matter of an hour to ditch the ferry and leave no trace of their ever being there beyond the rosters – with the number of people on the ferry, their disappearance would probably not be noted. With the reinforced bunshin Naruto's clone would probably spawn to further the cover up, they would get away with it scot-free.

The better part of that hour was actually spent running across the undulating water of the ocean, the salt-content actually making for an interesting contrast in the amount and regulation of chakra – Ikku had stumbled a few times before getting the knack for it. Katashi had done the same, once upon a time-not-yet, but now his immediate adjustment was probably just taken as another sign of his deception with regards to his abilities.

And, behind them a few miles, was a faint and well-concealed chakra presence that Ikku would never sense – his sensory range was more for close-quarters ambushes than long-distance detection. Hatake was tracking them.

Setting foot on the shoreline, he quickly darted up onto the cliffs, Ikku dropping to one knee beside him in the scrub and Katashi quickly started signing a plan.

Half day, potential ambush, scout, he gestured, Me point, you secondary.

Ikku tilted his head and gave the single confirmation sign, Katashi nodding and springing forward again – there wasn't much time to waste after all. This wasn't a particularly large island, but the ambushers were undoubtedly already here, and he needed to make sure things would work out so that he and Ikku made it out alive.

Ideally, he could convince Ikku that he was dead and his teammate would escape, further selling the ruse to Suna. Kaoru – please let the seal work, let it work don't be stupid girl stay safe please – would know it was false, would hold things together for him – Takeshi-friend-brother-center don't hurt don't grieve won't be real promise – but the more he could keep Suna as a whole in the dark, the better.

Halfway through their scouting run, that flicker of chakra that had been following them settled along the shoreline to the north, closer to Kiri and closer to the assigned meeting point, though still distant enough to not be within anyone's average sensing range. Having him there, close enough to feasibly serve as back-up with a bit of delay, far enough that there was no risk to them being discovered as cooperative just yet – it eased some of the tension that was thrumming through him, gave him something to look forward to when this was resolved.

They'd found no signs of ambush, and every sign that the meeting would go smoothly. By the time they'd finished the search, finding traces of the Kiri contingent they'd be meeting but nothing suspiciously large so they, as courtesy dictated, did not pursue – by the time they'd finished, it wasn't long before the meeting was supposed to happen in the first place.

Katashi hissed out a breath between his teeth and pulled out the mission – an ornate scroll, offering terms of alliance that were to be either agreed to or negotiated with – between Suna and the unspecified side of the Kirigakure civil war. Ikku was watching with calm eyes behind his mask as Katashi took off his Crow mask; the porcelain was hooked to his belt and he felt oddly naked without it, the feeling only worsening as he dropped the hood of his burnoose and pulled down his turtleneck. Taking a settling breath and tossing the scroll casually between his hands, he cast a bemusedly resigned look Ikku's way – what strange lives we lead, neh old friend? - and took a resolute step forward, intending to start a brisk walk towards the meeting point.

Rasping steel a weapon Ikku was in danger move stars filled his vision.

A faint keen exited his throat and he looked down, one tessen deflecting the ninjato but not enough the blade was buried in his side his lung oh kami it hurt the other tessen had hurled a barrier wind around them, curling to deflect any hurled weapons that came for him and his team and his partner and Ikku-san teammate-friend-precious-dead-yet-not why?

"So you improved your armor. It was to be a quick kill, taicho," Ikku said quietly, pulling the sword from his side and picking up the scroll from the ground. "But the blade was poisoned."

Of course it was, Suna was poison, was lethal as the desert she dwelled in, harsh and cruel but when you proved yourself you won so very much it burned in his veins, fire in his blood dropping him to his knees with a strangled cry, tessen falling from numbing fingers as he clamped his hand down on his side.

"I will finish the mission," Ox – that was Ox, not Ikku, never Ikku, not again – strode away and Katashi felt his heart breaking at every step. Kaoru it had to be why else would he - ? He was a failure, he'd failed in every way that mattered failed Kaoru was crippled Takeshi was hurting and scared and hating and Ikku was leaving him for an ambush.

Palm slamming into the ground, he snarled, twisting his chakra into a rough healing jutsu learned from Haruno Sakura, the pink-haired medical genius who had quickly surpassed her legendary sensei out of necessity and a grim joy in her work – it was harsh, yanking the poison from his wounds and if there was too much creating wounds in its wake, but he needed the speed far more than he needed gentleness.

Because they were still his team and he would not fail!

Green chakra boiled around the hand still clamped to his side, teeth clenching down and nails digging into the dirt because it hurt it fucking burned and boiled and lashed and cut and when would it be over he didn't have time for this shit - !

There. There. The poison was gone. He'd lost blood, but he had soldier pills to compensate for the moment. He kept pulsing healing chakra to his side and popped two pills into his mouth, dry swallowing and shooting forward, arriving near the meeting point soon enough and finding Ikku surrounded by four at least jounin-level shinobi – no masked man, not a surprise, but a bit disappointing in a well of course it wouldn't be that simple way – and fighting for his life. He had gone in expecting the usual level of treachery, but had gone in expecting the forging of an alliance.

He had not gone in expecting an ambush to the death.

Katashi dropped down to one knee, none of the combatants noticing him just yet – he had chosen his approach rather carefully after all – and eyed the situation, trying to keep his mind on the task at hand while a portion of it he carefully partitioned away railed and wailed at the sheer injustice at the blasted treachery from his teammate what had he done where had he gone wrong why was his team falling apart he'd tried so blessed hard and he was losing them all –

Kawarimi, he thought, snarling through the gibbering mess, that would do it, with some tweaks.

For a basic jutsu, it was surprisingly underused. Oh certainly, it was taken advantage of to avoid blows or inconvenient situations (Hatake's scarecrow came to mind) but it was seldom used to swap out with another shinobi, despite the massive potential of that to both save comrades and work as a perfect kill set-up.

The reason was three-fold, he had found.

First, it required more chakra to do it with a living thing than a dead thing. And exponentially more chakra to do it with a human as opposed to an animal, which meant you ran a high risk of being exhausted after performing it, leaving you in a bit of a bind.

Also, it was extremely disorienting for the target, so if you were going to use it to evacuate a comrade, your comrade would likely be on his knees for a few stunned moments, so it had best be in a safe spot. If the comrade was in the situation where a save by kawarimi was needed and feasible, this safe spot was doubtful.

Finally, channeling that much extra chakra into an E-rank jutsu required modification of the handseals, three quick seals that could be cut to one turning into eleven seals that could be cut to seven. This cut down on its usefulness for a quick escape, and the large amount of chakra necessary combined with the time needed to enact it meant that the build-up was easily detected, making its usefulness as an assassination move rather low.

But for a situation where he needed to gain the attention of an ally by flaring his chakra, get Ikku to an area where he would be slightly concealed, while he himself was riding high on two soldier pills?

Well, it was tailor made.

Crow mask discarded – he wouldn't need it anymore – he painted a simple word onto the white porcelain with shaking, blood-stained fingers.

Hopefully, Ox would obey one last order from his taicho.

"Kawarimi no jutsu!"

Run!

A/N: Hey all! Sorry for the delay - I post on Ao3 first and then often forget to come over to and post, that's why there's two at once today. Hope you enjoyed and thanks for sticking with this story!