Two days later, Hikari went to look for her partner, Panther. Being incapable of finding him, she went to Danzō's office and knocked on the door. When she was let in, Danzō asked, "Hikari? Why are you back already? I thought I told you to take a holiday?"

"I didn't know what to do to 'take a holiday', so I came back to discuss it with Kōji."

"He got captured and is being held in the Genjū Keikai Shisetsu."

"He's!? What? How? Why? His transformation is perfect! It transforms him right down to his very cells!"

"Apparently, the three new additions to the village that you discovered are more powerful sensors than we had suspected."

"Even so, he's not exactly weak by any measure."

"You said it yourself, the transformation jutsu that he uses is too perfect. The one that he was after, according to the report I saw, choked his bird form, disrupting the transformation. It also seems that he was interrogated by someone that has a passing resemblance to you."

"To me?"

"Yes. The original redhead that was here for about a week before the others came."

"Really? Why would she…?"

Danzō sighed and said, "I don't know Hikari. It could just be that you are both descended from the Uzumaki, so share similar features. In any case though, the Dyrnwyn that she possesses were acquired at the same time as yours were."

"The…then why haven't you given them to me? No. Better yet, why does she have them?"

Danzō sighed and said, "One of Orochimaru's henchmen managed to infiltrate our organisation and steal them before leaving to join him."

"So, she's one of Orochimaru's minions then," Hikari said, gripping her hands into fists and turning to leave to destroy 'Orochimaru's whore'.

"Hikari!" Danzō said, stopping the angry blonde before she did something that would do nothing but get in the way of his plans. He said, "We have no evidence that she has any connection to him other than the Dyrnwyn, which, for all we know, the thief lost on his way to Orochimaru."

"But…"

"You'll get your chance to get them back. But not for a while yet, unless new evidence comes to light."

"So, I just need to find proof then, do I?"

"Yes."

"Thank you," Hikaru said before nodding and leaving Danzō's office. She quickly made her way through ROOT's headquarters and made her way to one of the hidden entrances to the village and went through it. When she exited, she was about five kilometres outside Konoha, barely one from the Genjū Keikai Shisetsu. When she reached it, she went up to the gate guard and said, "Hey, can you let me in?"

"Why?"

"A close friend of mine recently got placed in here for some reason while I was out of the village and would very much like to know his side of the story."

"I see. Normally there are channels that you need to go through, but I suppose that it won't take very long, will it?"

"It shouldn't do," Hikari said.

"Also, you will need to take someone with you too."

"Why's that?"

"Can't have you tryin' ta break this 'close friend' out now then, can we?"

"I suppose that you do have a point there," Hikari admitted.

When she had, the guard lowered the bridge. He said, "Alright, there you go."

"Thanks. But I thought that you were going to go with me."

"No. I need to stay out here to guard this bridge. There are plenty of guards over there after that incident with Fūjin and Raijin."

"I'm sorry, 'incident'?"

"There was a breakout. Didn't you hear about that?"

"No. Three years ago I was a genin, so on a whole bunch of C-Ranks and not in the village all that often."

"Really? That's kinda odd."

"How so?"

"Well, genin aren't really assigned missions outside of the village except in rather extreme circumstances."

"Really?!" Hikari asked, surprise clear in her voice.

"Of course. You are from Konoha, aren't you?"

"Of course I am! Hikari snapped.

"Then how can you not know that? Didn't you go to the academy?"

"I was brought up in ROOT. We must just do things differently there."

"Ah. I see. I guess that makes sense," the guard said as the two parts of the bridge locked in place. Not having any experience dealing with ROOT shinobi, the guard said, "Alright then, you can go now, but be quick about it."

"Alright. Why?"

"We actually lock the bridge up overnight and it takes a while for the mechanism to shut down, so we usually start doing it in about an hour, and, you do not want to get stuck there overnight, believe me."

"Why's that?"

"There's these two really stupid, really strong, brothers hat actually killed and consumed their allies because they tried to conserve their food supply on a long-term mission."

"So what? They're locked up, at night, aren't they?"

"Yeah. But, they are strong enough to bend the bars and go searching for food and, unless the guards have food on them…well…you can guess what happens then."

"Then why haven't they consumed each other?" Hikari asked, taking the issue to the extreme in order to throw doubt on what the guard was telling her.

"Hey, believe what you want. I'm just going on what I hear from the night-shift guards as they go home in the morning."

"Okay. Thanks for this," Hikari said before crossing the bridge.

When she got to the other side, she was met with a number of spearheads pointed at her and blinked at them, a blank look on her face. One of the guards said, "Who are you, and why are you here?"

Hikari thought, 'I think this guy's name is Kōtetsu. One of Tsunabā's gophers. What's he doing in a place like this?' She said, "The Gate Guard on the other side of the bridge said that I could go and see my friend, so long as it doesn't take too long and one of you accompanies me."

Kōtetsu grunted and sighed. He said, "Very well. I'll go with you," and the other guards lowered their spears and let her through. "Who's your friend?"

"He was just interred recently. Apparently under some patently absurd treason charge or something."

Kōtetsu said, "Ah. Alright." As he silently led the girl through the facility, he thought, 'Why does she look so familiar? Better yet though, if they say something 'interesting', then I can report it to Tsunade-sama. Then I...'

But his thoughts were broken when, in a loud voice, Hikari said, "So, is this rumour about some food-crazy stupid brothers residing here true?"

Kōtetsu's eyes widened at the question and started to break into a sweat. He said, "Please, don't mention that word while you're here!"

"Which word? Food? Why shouldn't I?" then, she and Kōtetsu heard the sound of creaking metal.

"Oh damn! You've really gone and done it now!" Kōtetsu said before tapping a button at his waist and said, "Hey, Gōzō, take up the bridge and shut it down."

Hikari heard the gate guard's voice ask "Why?" from somewhere on Kōtetsu's flak vest.

"The 'guest' that you let through, roused Fūjin and Raijin!"

"Damn! I did try to warn her."

Kōtetsu sighed and said, "Maybe in the future you don't mention them, hey?"

"Yeah. Sure. Sorry," Gōzō said, sighing regretfully.

Then, Fūjin and Raijin appeared in front of Hikari and Kōtetsu and Fūjin said, "Hey, you got any food?"

"Uhh…" Kōtetsu said, thinking, 'Damnit! I gave that bar to Izumo about an hour ago!' and looked to Hikari and said, "You…uhh…wouldn't happen to have anything on you, would you?" in a hopeful tone.

"Not for these fat bastards I don't!" Hikari said, offended at the thought of giving over her precious ramen-chan to the oafs in front of her. Fūjin and Raijin's faced transformed into masks of rage as she continued, "My ramen is for me 'n' me alone."

Raijin said, "Oh! It's ramen nii-chan. Dat taste's real' bad!"

"Dat's right nii-chan," Fūjin agreed. "Ramen tastes real bad."

Kōtetsu looked at Hikari fearfully as he felt her gathering chakra and, what he saw disturbed him greatly. Yellow chakra was roiling around Hikari, causing her clothes and skin to become silhouetted and her eyes started to glow the same yellow as her swirling hair. She said, "How dare you!"

"How dare I whad?" Fūjin asked, both brothers' faces returning to its normal one of dazed confusion.

"How can you stand there in frond of me and try to besmirch the gloriousness of ramen!?"

"Id daseds bad!" Fūjin reiterated.

Hikari disappeared from Kōtetsu's sight and reappeared in fornt of Fūjin with her leg extended, the true oldest brother sliding back.

"Hey! She attacked me nii-chan!" Fūjin exclaimed, his face transforming back to one full of rage.

"So she did nii-chan!" Raijin's face transforming to mirror his brother's.

"Oh Shi-!" Kōtetsu exclaimed and started backing away. His eyes widened as he saw Raijin punch down at the young blonde, but Hikari just raised her left hand and actually managed to catch Raijin's fist and hold it in place.

Hikari said, "How can you not realise how good ramen is for when you are feeling down, or when you are stuck out in the cold? Or when celebrating with friends?! Especially the seafood ramen in the Land of Tea?!" and pulled Raijin's hand as she ducked under a kick from the returning Fūjin. Doing so, pulled Raijin's head into the road of Fūjin's foot and he spun around, dazed.

Fūjin said, "Ahh! Nii-chan! Why did you headbutt my foot?"

"I didn't headbutt your foot nii-chan. That ramen loving freak useded me as a shield!"

"I'll do whatever I want in a fight to defend the honour of ramen!"

Kōtetsu thought, 'What the heck is wrong with this girl? She's almost as stupid as Naru…! That's who she reminds me of! But that's impossible. But that twisted ramen obsession and yellow hair, it's a perfect match, so how can…?' Hikari then clashed with Fūjin and Raijin again, ducking and weaving around their attacks. As the fight neared him again, Kōtetsu thought, 'Okay, this idocy clearly isn't going to end itself any time soon, so why was she…oh right! To see that newbie. Maybe he can ptut an end to this.' He then ran off to the cell that he had escorted panther to when he'd been brought to him.

When he got there, Panther said, "It's not time for dinner yet, is it?" his internal body clock telling him that there should be at least another two hours before they were let out of their cells.

"No. some blonde friend of yours came to visit you."

"Hikari? She's here?!" Panther exclaimed.

"Yeah. And she managed to start a fight with Fūjin and Raijin."

At that, Panther clapped his hand over his eyes and shook his head. he sighed and said, "If it's with them, it's probably another one of her ramen rants, isn't it?"

"Then…this has happened before?"

"Unfortunately," Panther affirmed.

"Do you know of some way of stopping her?"

"Short of knocking her out? No."

Kōtetsu sighed and asked, "How is she with genjutsu?"

"Pretty abysmal. But, even if you do knock her out, what about the two Idiot Brothers?"

Kōtetsu sighed and said, "I guess we'll just have to cross that bridge when I get to it," and turned to walk away.

Panther called out, "What if that bridge didn't have to rear it's ugly head?"

"What do you mean?"

"Hikari and I grew up together. I might be able to talk her down if you let me out."

"You are joking, right?"

"Look. Your policy states that in the event of a jailbreak, the bridge is raised so that no-one can get out, doesn't it?"

"That's right."

"So, that means that even if I did try something, that I wouldn't be able to leave anyway, right?"

Kōtetsu sighed and said, "Fine," and unlocked Panther's cage. He then led him through the prison to where he'd left Hikari fighting against Fūjin and Raijin.

When they reached where Hikari, Fūjin and Raijin were fighting, Hikari was saying "How can you try tro deny that seafood ramen is the best?!"

"All ramen is bad," Fūjin explained.

"What is wrong with you Baka-brothers?"

"Hey," Raijin said, "I think she just called me an idiot, nii-chan."

"No. I think she called me an idiot."

The two brothers simultaneously said, "Then…Hey! You called nii-chan an idiot!" and started running at Hikari.

That was when Hikari heard a familiar voice say, "Hikari!"

Hikari's face brightened as she looked for the source. When she found it, she exclaimed, "Kōji! You're here to help me!"

"What do you think you are doing?"

"What am I doing? I thought that that would be obvious. To you at least. I'm educating these two on the errors of their ways. They should be thanking me, really."

Kōji sighed and said, "Hikari, we've gone over this before. Not everyone needs to share your obsession with ramen!"

"Hey! It's not an obsession! It's just a healthy love and respect for the food of the Gods!"

Kōtetsu marvelled that, even as they were holding the inane conversation, Hikari was still easily dodging all of both Fūjin and Raijin's attacks. Koji sighed and said, "So then, it is a rant."

"Hey!" Hikari exclaimed, her eyes turning white.

Kōtetsu asked, "'Rant'?"

Kōji sighed and said, "Hikari has two types of fighting."

"Two?"

"There is a kind of 'strict battle mode', where she is almost brutal in analysing an opponent's style completely and coming up with efficient strategies to take them down. Her second, is 'rant', where she has a problem with what someone says or does and goes to great lengths to convince them that they were wrong. It also tends to include a lot of talking and name calling.

Kōtetsu said, "To quote more than a few Nara's, 'what a drag'."

"Why's that?"

"I've worked with someone rather similar myself. Missions that should be easy, regularly become considerably less so when he is involved."

"I see. Then in that case, you have my commiserations."

"Thanks," Kōtetsu said, relieved that there was at least one other that could understand his pain.

Panther sighed and said, "I know that I'm going to regret this…Inton: Gen'ei Senbon no jutsu!" and a needle of translucent, black chakra formed in his hand.

Kōtetsu looked at it and asked, "What is…" As panther threw it at Hikari.

As it flew, panther formed a series of seals and said, "Gen'ei Senbon: Nesabishii no jutsu!" when he was done. When the needle touched Hikari, it dispersed and Hikari's sclera flashed the same colour before she fell forward, unconscious.

Seeing what happened, Kōtetsu said, "I thought that you were going to try to talk her out of it."

"That's not possible."

"It isn't…? Why not?"

Panther sighed and said, "If it's just some generic problem like a world view that her opponent has, Hikari can generally be persuaded to drop it, or at least find another way around it. But, when it comes to her precious bloody ramen…" he sighed, shaking his head. "On top of that, it looked like those two," Panther nodded at the twins "…weren't ever going to turn around and 'repent'. And if they didn't, there was no way that she would."

"That's…seriously strange."

"Yeah…no. What is strange is that, for Hikari, when it comes down to it, there are two types of people."

"Two 'types'?"

"There are those that love ramen, and those that hate it. And those that don't love it, are the enemy."

"They're the…" Kōtetsu shook his head. he sighed and said, "I don't believe I'm saying this, but what about those that just don't really care for it?"

"There's no distinction for her."

"That sounds just like…" Kōtetsu said, but sighed and said, "Alright, you two, back to your cell."

"We wants food!" Fūjin and Raijin said at the same time.

"I'm really sorry, but we don't have any. Your little tussle caused us to close the bridge early too, so…"

"We WANTS FOOD!"

Panther loudly said, "OKAY!" gaining the attention of the brothers so that they didn't turn on he and Kōtetsu now that Hikari had been subdued. "I've got an idea."

"You've gots food?" Fūjin and Raijin demanded.

Kōtetsu glared at Panther and said, "Did you smuggle it in?"

"No. Not me," Panther said as he walked over to Hikari's prone form. He started rummaging through her pockets saying, "Where is it this time? She usually has at least one on her at all ti…Ah! Got it!" Panther stood back up with a scroll. He laid it out on the ground and said, "Kay!" placing his hands on it. When the smoke cleared it revealed ten bowls of steaming ramen.

Fūjin said, "Isn'dat ramen, nii-chan?"

Raijin said, "Id is nii-chan."

Fūjin said, "We jush dold'at girlie dat we don' like ramen. Why you try an give us dat?"

Panther looked up at Fūjin and said, "Turn around for a second and all the ramen will be gone."

"Oh! It's a trick nii-chan! He's gonna do us a magic trick!"

"Really nii-chan?" asked Raijin.

Panther said, "I'll need you to turn around too, Raijin."

"Okay!" Raijin said, and joined his brother in looking away from him.

While they were looking away, Panther did a series of hand seals and said, "Suiton: Ramenkumo no jutsu!" and raised his hands into the air, causing all of the broth inside the bowls to rise up into the air above them ad form into one giant mass that vaguely resembled a cloud. When he'd set it in place, he said, "Alright, you two. I'm done."

Kōtetsu thought, 'Surely even they can't fall for that?!'

He was, thankfully, proven wrong when Raijin exclaimed, "Hey! Nii-chan! Da ramends gone!"

"So id is nii-chan!" Fūjin said. "Leds dig in!"

Panther picked Hikari up and went back to Kōtetsu and they both sighed in relief as Fūjin and Raijin ate in peace. When they were done, Kōtetsu said, "Alright you two. Now, back into your clls and I'll make sure that you get a double-serving of breakfast."

"Okay," Fūjin and Raijin said and hurried back to their cell.

Kōtetsu and Panther sighed in relief when they heard the creaking of the bars of Fūjin and Raijin's cell. Kōtetsu said, "Speaking of returning to cells…" as he turned to face Panther.

"I know, I know," Panther said and started walking back to his cell with Hikari in his arms. As they did, he said, "Hey, your name is Kōtetsu, right?"

"That's right. Why?"

"I'll understand if you can't answer this…"

"Go ahead."

Panther sighed and said, "I saw a chakra seal on Fūjin and Raijin just now."

"What about it?"

"Do all of the detainees get one put on them?"

"Usually. Why?"

Why don't I?"

"Ah," Kōtetsu said before sighing. He said, "Who knows. That kind of stuff is decided by the Hokage."

'The Hokage?' Panther thought,'Why would the Hokage decide not to seal my chakra? She convicted me of treason! Is she really as weak-willed as Danzō-sama claim?' He spent the rest of the trip to his cell trying to come up with a reason that was even somewhat plausible as to why Tsunade would decide against sealing his chakra. The most likely of which was as some kind of concession to Danzō, though he had no idea what Danzō would be giving her in exchange.

Eventually, Kōtetsu said, "Okay, we're here," shaking Panther away from his thoughts. He said, "Now, hand her over," holding his hands out for Hikari.

Panther said, "I…think that it's probably better that she stays in here with me."

"I can't let her stay with a prisoner."

Panther sighed and said, "I understand, and, if it was anyone else, I would totally agree."

"But?"

"But. Hikari is almost certainly going to challenge Fūjin and Raijin again if she's allowed to roam free."

"I see," Kōtetsu sighed. He rubbed his forehead, thinking on what to do. In the end, he sighed and said, "Alright then," and locked the door when panther passed through. He said, "I'll go and get another blanked for her," nodding at Hikari.

"Sure. Thanks," Panther said, smiling wanly as he thought, 'It's probably going to be me that ends up needing them.'

About half an hour later, Hikari shot up with a bright smile as she said, "Kōji! You're here to hel…" then she saw where she was and frowned at him and said, "You knocked me out again, didn't you?"

Kōji sighed and said, "There was no other way to end that fight. You do realise that, right?"

"Sure there was. those two baka-brothers could have admitted that they were wrong about ramen. Speaking of which…" Hikari said, and took out the scroll that she always carried with her as her stomach growled.

"Uhhh…" Kōji said, smiling wanly as she unfurled it

"Aahhh!" Hikari exclaimed, tears starting ro roll down her face in comedic streams. "Where'd my ramen go?!" she frowned at Kōji and said, "What did you do with my precious?" She gasped, coming up with a dreadful thought and scandalously demanded, "Don't tell me that you…"

"I had no choice Hikari. I had to give it to Fūjin and Raijin, or they'd have killed all of us.

"Baka-Kōji!" Hikari said, her tears disappearing from everywhere except the corners of her eyes as they turned white.

"I' 'thappeneveragain!"

"Oh, good," Hikari said. "Then I'll have to bring more next time," and continued unfurling the scroll to reveal another storage seal with 'Ramen' written on it.

Kōji blinked and exclaimed, "There's more?"

"Of course there is! I had to after you gave the lot of them away 'that' time."

Kōji pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He said, "Hikari, I…"

As he did, in one of the cells on the opposite side, a prisoner thought, 'Hikari? What the hell is he boss' pet bitch doing here? I can't do it now, or she'll raise all sorts of hell and eventually tail my orders back to Danzō. Then ROOT is done for! That can't be allowed to happen while someone as weak as Tsunade, who won't do what has to be done to ensure Konoha's survival still reigns as Hokage.'