Third-Person POV

*FLUSH*

Iroko came out of the toilet stall with the biggest expression of relief on his face. "Ah, I feel so much lighter now."

As he washed his hands, he looked at himself in the mirror, and the nurse's words to him flashed in his mind. He stopped washing his hands and remained where he was, looking down at his newly-scarred hand.

In the end, he thought, not only did I not officially win, but continuing to use Blackout may end up doing more harm than good to me. When I think about it, it doesn't feel like I've progressed at all. Do I really have the right to say I've caught up to everyone after this?

Recalling the voice he had heard in his head when he woke up, he said aloud to his reflection: "You say you're proud of me, but I can't see anything to be proud of. Not yet..."

He made his way to the door, intending to return back to the infirmary as the nurse instructed, but right as he swung it wide open, he heard and felt something run right into it with full force.

"What the..." Iroko looked behind the door and saw someone on the ground in front of him, clutching his head in pain.

"Oh, damn, my bad! You okay?" He went over and stretched out a hand to him. "You were kinda in a rush there, huh?"

The man looked up at him, and Iroko saw he might not have been the same age as him, despite his small stature. What's more, there was a look of shock that came over him as he put his hand to his face.

"Uhhh, you doing okay?"

"Yeah, I am. I'm really sorry about this, though."

"Huh?"

He grabbed the arm Iroko had stretched out and pulled him down toward him, holding a drawn-out wakizashi to his throat. There was no time for Iroko to even process what was happening to him - the blade had already made contact with his skin.

He would have slit his throat clean open had a long staff not come spiraling through the air from the end of the corridor. He saw it just in time and dodged before it could smash him in the head, forcing him to let go of Iroko. The staff went back to Mei Sarutobi as she arrived on the scene with several other jonin and chunin behind her.

"Hey, kid, get away from him!!" Mei cried. "He's a rogue ninja!!"

"Wait... what...?"

"Don't call me that," said the man. He looked at Iroko, there was nothing he would be able to do about him now. "I ain't no damn ninja." Throwing his hood back on, he got back up and hightailed it out of there.

Mei gritted her teeth in frustration and called out to her team. "Go after him! I'll be right behind you!"

The rest of them went on ahead while Mei knelt beside Iroko. "Hey, are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

Iroko put a finger to his throat and drew small amounts of blood. He had been cut but it was only skin deep. On top of that, he was still dazed by the entire experience. He really had almost died just then and would have never gotten the opportunity to continue writing his story. Thank goodness for Mei, he told himself.

"What's going on?" he asked her.

"Um, long story short, that guy just crashed the Exams and made an attempt on the Hokage's life."

The news shook Iroko to his core. "When? Where-- how?!"

"None of that matters at the moment. What you need to worry about is prioritizing the safety of yourself and your peers."

"No, let me help you with the chase! I'm fast, I can catch up to that guy!!"

Mei put her hands on his shoulders to settle him down. "Iroko, right? Listen to me. Right now, you need to think about what it is you can do that will help and benefit everyone. You've got friends back in the infirmary who don't know what's going on and are in danger because of that ignorance. Inform them of the situation and have the rest of you evacuate out of this stadium. Leave the catching of the bad guy to us experienced folks, alright?"

Iroko himself had caught his own hastiness - the whole situation had his brain running a marathon but he would be no good to anyone if he made split-second decisions like that on impulse. He took a second to calm down and recompose himself, and as he did so he thought about Asami.

If she were here, she wouldn't freak out and panic but keep it cool and keep her eyes on the prize.

Iroko gave a heartfelt salute. "Yes, sensei, I'm on it!!"

"Good man, I'll leave you to it then!"

She ran ahead to join her team, leaving Iroko to make his way back to the infirmary, but he was stopped in his tracks when he caught something in his peripheral. A small piece of cloth.

That guy must have dropped it earlier. He picked it up to look at it and there he saw a single red circle emblazoned on a black background. He wasn't sure why but it sent shivers down his spine with how ominous it looked. Is this some sort of symbol or something? It looks familiar...

Just then he heard footsteps coming down the corridor from where Mei had appeared. He was surprised to see who it was.

"Tensho!"

She recognized him and came running in his direction. "Oh, Iroko, hey!! Boy, am I glad I ran into you! What the heck is going on? I just saw like ten jonin running this way."

He noticed her eyes were red and dry as if she had been crying, but he didn't bother to ask. "I'll explain along the way. Right now we need to get to Jin and Itsuki in the infirmary then get out of the stadium! Come on!"

Before Tensho had seen it, he'd slipped the black cloth into his back trouser pocket.

On the other end, Mei had caught up quickly with her team, still giving chase to Momotaro.

"He's fast as hell, huh?" said Mei to Gaki. "Is that just his natural speed?"

"Hard to say, but I can't see any traces of chakra being leaked. How are we gonna catch up to him like this?"

Suddenly Momotaro threw his wakizashi at an upcoming LED light in the ceiling, plunging a part of the corridor into darkness, grabbed it with his mouth then performed the Ram seal. Mei realized what he was doing.

"EVERYONE, FALL BACK!!!"

"Shadow Manipulation Jutsu: Reach."

From the floor, a single black spear shot out and pierced the next light in the shinobi's direction, then more were erected from the floor to destroy even more lights, and more black spears were spawned destroying more of the light and until a swarm of them were headed towards them. Several of the jonin were crippled in fear at the jutsu, completely unable to react in time given how fast it was approaching.

Mei herself had no idea what to do until Gaki stepped forward.

"I got this!!" he shouted. "I'll give you an opening, Mei, so go for it when you see it!!"

He performed a plethora of hand seals then smacked his fists together, causing them to glow orange. He reared his fist back and screamed: "EXPLOSION STYLE: ZERO POINT RELEASE!!!"

His fist landed on the first spear and it blew up, creating a chain reaction of explosions that lit up the entire corridor, erasing the spikes. Momotaro held his wakizashi out and deftly sliced at the explosion as it came his way.

Then, thanks to the explosions hiding her, Mei appeared in front of him before he could register her presence.

"Thanks for the assist, Gaki!!"

Momo moved to block her incoming attack but then Mei had thrown her staff and it swerved around to strike him in the back while she assaulted him on his front. He was caught off guard and ended up having to block both attacks at the same time.

The staff moves on its own?! I've read about them - it's a Monkey Summoning!!

As Momotaro realized this, a large, gruff, and hairy hand shot out of the staff and grabbed him by his throat.

?! The hell is this?!

"Easy, Satoru!!" Mei was grinning. "Just follow my lead, okay?!"

The staff waved itself back and forth as if to gesture a nod. Momotaro shoved its hand off and summoned a legion of shadows forth to swallow them but Mei was faster with the hand seals and unleashed a breath of flames across the corridor. Then she and Satori took to tag-teaming him with:

"Taijutsu technique: Drunken Fist!!!"

Momo was hit with a slew of some of the most uncoordinated strikes and blows from every direction by both Mei and the staff (that now had two hairy arms and legs sticking out of it). He tried to react accordingly to the movement of their arms and legs but whoever he countered he would spend too much of his attention on and would forget about the other earning him a devastating knock in a vital point!

Not only are they too fast, but I can't even predict their movement, who's gonna strike, or whe-- "AGH!!"

Mei came from the side and reverse-kicked him in the waist while Satoru delivered a powerful upper kick to his jaw, sending him into the air. While airborne another jonin appeared above him, touching him ever so lightly on his chest, and said: "Inanimation Jutsu: Locked Paralysis!"

Momo became stiff as a rock, unable to move an inch of his body. Huh?

Then Mei grabbed Satoru by the body, rebounded herself off the wall, and struck Momotaro down, pinning him to the ground with the staff.

"Apprehended! It was a good try but not good enough! Now you're gonna sit tight and get what's coming to you!"

"Good job, Mei!!" said Gaki.

"It was only thanks to you and everyone else. Somebody contact Kosetsu and tell her we've got him!"

Momo made a sniffing sound. "You reek of alcohol. Did my clone seriously just lose to a drunkard and an object with limbs?"

"Wait, what? Clone?"

"Well, my main objective was never to engage you guys in combat so I'll let it slide. Be taking my leave now." As he said all of this, Mei, to her absolute horror and exasperation, beheld his body start to melt into black, turning into a mushy substance, until it became blended with the shadows around them and finally became intangible as just another piece of shadow on the floor. Satoru bowed its head like a wilting flower, expressing its disappointment.

The jonin lady swore. "We've been had!"

"Damn, we should have seen this coming!" Gaki and the other jonin turned around to start running in the opposite direction. "We'll go back the way we came - maybe we missed him along the way."

"Don't bother!" Mei shouted. "We don't know where he is, and even if we did I doubt we could reach him after all this time we'd wasted."

It's all on you now! She toggled her comm channel. "Kosetsu, it's me, we were duped..."

On the dome of the stadium, a blade stuck out of the glass surface, cutting through it and going around in a circle as it did so. When it had reached a full circle a hand pushed the glass off and up climbed Momotaro from out of the stadium.

Once he was on top, a powerful gust of wind hit him in the face, almost blowing his hood off. It was only the afternoon, so the sun was firmly at the center of the sky, barely casting any shadows. Then he flinched.

"Looks like my clone got taken out," he said aloud. "I'd better get a move on 'fore they catch up." He exhaled happily. "It's finally over, huh? Better get to Grief-sama's to report."

At first, he was simply walking across the dome, then he felt he had to start running to avoid something.

He wasn't even fifteen steps away when he heard the sound of someone's shoe connecting with the ground to announce themselves. Knew it wouldn't be that easy, he groaned.

✧✧✧

"ALRIGHT, START TALKING, SNOWFLAKE!!!" Kazue boomed. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!"

Beside him, Baku rubbed his ears in irritation. "What are you being so loud for?"

All the rookies, except Iroko, Itsuki, Jin, and Tensho, had safely evacuated out of the stadium and were gathered at the designated muster point Asami had been shown by Hisao when they'd first arrived. She would have liked to have gone back in to look for the unaccounted four just mentioned but she had a feeling Kazue was not about to let her go anywhere without getting an answer.

And although Kazue was the one to have vocalized his inquiry rather bluntly, she could tell the same question was on everybody's mind.

"There's a rogue ninja that's been loose in the village since about the start of the Chunin Exams."

Some of the rookies had gasped in response while others had a puzzled look of distress on their faces.

"And chances are," she continued, "that was who had just made an attempt on the Sixth Hokage's life."

"Woah, woah, woah, back it up," said Genzo. "You're telling me there's been a criminal in y'all's village this whole time, and you knew but didn't do anything about it?!"

"We only found out about him a week ago, but trying to discover his place of hiding proved difficult due to the nature of his ninjutsu, and there wasn't much information we could gather on him without putting innocent lives at risk. The Hokage had surmised he was here because of the Chunin Exams so he had a plan to draw him here by making the Final Rounds a private event and hosting it in a stadium outside of the village.

"The strategy was to eventually corner him from the inside while the matches progressed... but he somehow managed to get the better of us. We didn't have enough intel on our enemy and that's what got us in this situation."

"Not exactly the soundest of plans he's made," said Baku. "He should have just canceled the Exams and prioritized capturing the rogue ninja from the get-go."

He was right. Asami couldn't argue with that (in fact, she even agreed), so she didn't.

"Wait," Fumino spoke, "I'm assuming all the other chunin and jonin present knew about all this?"

"Yes."

"But how come you're the only genin that was informed - unless I'm jumping to conclusions and someone else here knew about this."

All the other genin shook their heads.

"Would explain damn well why Wataru-sensei's been acting all shifty lately," said Kanbe.

"Our sensei, too," said Ena.

"Hold up, so that's why we haven't seen Boshi-sensei this whole time?" Daito realized.

"And Hisao-sensei," Yuura added. "Asami, what happened to them?"

"I don't know," she took out the comm device in her ear and showed it to them. "In the last message I received from him, he told me the target was already in the stadium and to be prepared to evacuate you if it came down to it. That was it. But I would think they and the other chunin and jonin are chasing down the target as we sp--"

"You didn't answer Goldilocks' f%$#ing question," Kazue suddenly spat. "Why you?"

Asami fell silent. Everyone had heard the unnecessary tone in his voice when he asked. They thought she would not respond but she did almost promptly.

"Without comparing myself to anyone here, I would imagine because of my previous affiliation with ANBU and experience in espionage and covert missions."

"Oh, here we go again with the robot speech, are you even f%$#ing human?!"

Even if Asami hadn't, Yuura had taken offense to that.

Daito put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, Kazue, let's cool it, buddy--"

"Look at that," he rudely shrugged Daito's hand off and snatched the comms device out of Asami's hands, "they even gave her a f%$#ing earpiece for communication and none for the rest of us. Why do you really think that is? It's cos, compared to her, in their eyes the rest of us don't amount to s%$t!! You just waltz into our lives, show us up, and you don't even have the basic decency to show some empathy or humility?"

"Kazue, we said stop!" said Fumino.

"I despised you from the moment I first saw you. Couldn't tell what was going on inside that head of yours 'cos Danzo probably broke you and left you numb. Yeah, that's right, I did my research on you. But what pissed me off even more was how in spite of all that you thought you could join us and be like the rest of us normal people and we wouldn't even bat an eye! How do we know you're not a spy, huh?! How do you expect us to trust your lifeless a$$ when you can't even SMILE?!"

"K-Kazue..." Yuura was fuming, but there was a piece of information in his hurl of insults he could not gloss over. Did he just say Danzo? As in Danzo Shimura? Doesn't that mean she was a part of the Root division? I didn't know that. So, he was the one who had trained her...

Asami was still quiet the entire time. Yuura looked into her eyes and he saw... well, suffice to say he couldn't see anything in them. They were as apathetic as they had ever been.

"I asked you a f%$#ing question!!" Kazue reached out to grab her by the collar, and she reacted, twisting his arm around his back and pushing him away from her.

"Don't touch me," she said.

Baku, Kanbe, and Daito sensed a fight was about to escalate and were moving in to intervene.

Kazue was seeing red. Pupils slit, and fangs fully extended, he let loose a stream of sparks and ignited them, propelling himself forward before the boys could grab him. He was fully intent on beating Asami to within an inch of her life right then and there, and she was prepared to knock him into next week.

But just as he was diving head-first to attack, Iroko had pulled up unexpectedly and bashed his head right into Kazue's, bringing his barrage to a complete stop.

Both boys staggered backward from the brutal clash of temples but Iroko had Asami to catch him from falling. The rest of the rookies were thrown aback by yet another unconventional entrance by the blue-streaked ninja.

"Unbelievable," Asami exhaled. "You really are a brickhead."

"Yeah, I guess I am," he said, clutching his head. "That was definitely not a good idea." But at the moment it was all he knew to do to stop his friend from getting hurt in the mere moments he had arrived on the scene.

He pulled himself up with Asami's help and took a good look at his former friend who was still boiling over. We just got here, and he's already started more drama. This guy...

"Hey, I don't know what's going on here," he said, "but you really need to chill the hell out, Kaz. Where do you get off just trying to start nonsense like that?"

Kazue had recovered quickly and was marching forward again. "MOVE," he said with bloodcurdle.

Then Tensho got in his way. He froze.

"Or what?" she spoke in a low voice with a tinge of pain. "You gonna beat my a$$, too?"

His rage had dissipated. Now he was left with the same confusing mix of emotions as from before, and he hated feeling that way.

"Seriously, dude," Iroko called, "you and I both know that this is neither the place nor the time for this. Calm. Down."

He looked all around him. Itsuki, now that he was there, alongside Baku, Daito, Fumino, and Kanbe, was poised to stop him if he tried anything else. Then he caught Jin's gaze and saw how upset she looked. Tensho remained where she was, staring at him dead-on. She looked like she was about to cry again but there were no tears, and she was ready to handle any more bulls%$# he would have thrown her way.

It looked as if everyone there was against him.

And that hurt to see.

Refusing to look defeated, he held his head up high and walked out of there, almost shoulder-bumping Yui out of the way.

Daito shouted: "Hey, you can't just leave, bro!"

"No, let him," said Fumino. "It should be fine, right, Asami?"

"Yes."

Iroko and Tensho looked on with pity.

✧✧✧

Kosetsu and Hachiman stood adjacent to Momotaro with their weapons already drawn and at the ready. Hachiman had his usual banner at his side, but this time, instead of a mace, Kosetsu was carrying a three-pronged spear. One would never be able to tell what kind of expression Hachiman had on his face for obvious reasons, but Momotaro could see just how livid Kosetsu was, even with her best efforts to maintain her composure. There was a crazed look in her eyes, like one on the brink of insanity while fueled by implacable rage.

Moreso he found himself transfixed with her weapon: Gold-plated and striped in red with a glitter to it that looked far too alluring to not be a trap.

I don't like the feeling I'm getting from that thing.

"You shinobi really do just come out of nowhere and then go out of your way to inconvenience someone, huh?"

"And what gives you the right to run away, home-free, after everything you've done?" she asked. "You think you're exempt from the consequences of your actions?"

Momo smiled. "You sound just like him, the nindroid, I mean."

The wind started to blow more fiercely.

"Where are they?"

"Probably still locked in the pipe room down below, along with a hundred or so of my clones," he saw no reason to lie to her since he would be gone anytime now, and he took it a step further. "I don't doubt they might last a while, but I can't say the same for the chunin down there as well. Eventually, if no one ends up rescuing them they'll probably all end up dying."

"Oh, I'm not going anywhere," she said, seeing right through his ruse. She started walking towards him letting her spear scrape across the ground. "At this point, all that matters to me is getting justice for that boy, and anyone else you murdered in cold blood. I swear, each and every single one of you thinks the same thing, thoughtless violence wherever you go, it's absolutely vile and disgusting; and as of today, I'm done letting you get away with it."

Momotaro noticed something else about her that he thought was either a coincidence or might be worth bringing up to Yusuke as well. "Nice earrings, by th--" He stopped speaking and drew his wakizashi out to deflect Kosetsu's instantaneous attack.

The spear came flying down to meet his blade and cut right through it like water. Momo couldn't believe his eyes. He weaved his way out of her close-quarters assault only to be met with Hachiman. He shoved his banner that was bursting with flames into his face and Momo had to whip out his tessen and deflect it, but his weapon was seared in the process.

Why am I ALWAYS getting TAG-TEAMED?!?

With both of his weapons destroyed, and the sun too high in the air to cast any shadows, at that moment, he knew running away would have to be of the utmost priority.

With one last heave of his tessen, before it crumbled into dust, he generated a force of wind pressure strong enough to launch him several meters away from the two of them and break out into a run. Kosetsu and Hachiman were quick on their feet and were running after him not even a moment later.

Momotaro formed a strange hand seal neither of them had seen before and as he did so, he shouted: "HAINU!!!"

The dog appeared from behind him with a vocal howl and its wings outstretched.

A giant dog with wings on its back, Kosetsu thought. This must be the Summoning Hisao and Issun-boshi were talking about in their debriefing!!

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

He got on the dog's back and it took off down the glass dome. Kosetsu's spear began to disassemble itself, piece by piece, like a construction of blocks. Once it was nothing more than pieces of blocks and blobs it reassembled itself again but this time into a bow and arrow. She took hold of them as soon as they had finished constructing themselves and drew the arrow, aimed at Momotaro, and released it.

The arrow sailed threw the air, making a high-pitched whistling sound and leaving behind yellow glitter. Momotaro tried to move his head to dodge it but it followed the movement of his body and went in that direction. Hainu reacted swiftly and did an aerial spin, intercepting the arrow with its wings.

"Dammit, it's no use attacking from the ground," said Kosetsu. "The further he gets, the less surface we have to run on. We've got to get up in the air somehow or we'll never catch up to them."

"I have an idea, but it is insane," said Hachiman. "So unless you have any other ideas..."

"I don't!"

"In that case, just keep running, and when I say 'now' you grab ahold of me!"

Momotaro looked down at them from above. What exactly are they planning? Are they still not gonna give up the chase? If so, I've got no way of using my ninjutsu at this time when I'm this high up in the air... "So, I apologize in advance, but I'm gonna have to rely on you and the others to get me out of this, Hainu."

He petted the dog's head so it would understand what was going on and it barked determinedly. He had just flown away from the stadium and was now above the trees of the forest. Needless to say, Kosetsu was terrified as they approached the very edge of the dome with nowhere else to go but a thousand-foot-plus drop to the ground.

"Now!!" said Hachiman.

Kosetsu grabbed ahold of him. He raised his banner into the air and cried out: "Summoning Seal: Second Banner!!"

From the pole, another length of wood extended from the base, increasing the already ridiculously long banner, and he shouted after that: "Summing Seal: Third Banner!!!"

The banner became as long as a quarter of the length of the dome, Hachiman himself was barely able to keep ahold of it. The edge of the dome was right in front of them.

"I have limited experience with this so let's hope it works," he said.

Kosetsu was alarmed. "Wait, what are you-- Woooaaaah!!!"

Hachiman stuck the base of the pole at the edge of the dome and then used the main body to lift himself and Kosetsu hundreds of feet into the air. It was the biggest pole vault one would ever see in history. The sheer momentum generated from the energy of the spring was enough to pelt them right behind Momotaro.

Kosetsu readied her bow when she was within range and nocked three arrows this time. One of them was sure to hit Momotaro no matter what. Upon firing, Hainu spun around to face them with his mouth wide open.

Kosetsu felt her stomach drop.

"Hainu Technique:" Momotaro spoke, "Echoing Howl (反響する遠吠え)."

A sonic scream erupted from its mouth and reverberated throughout the sky, destroying the arrows. Kosetsu shrieked as she felt her eardrums pop and she and Hachiman found themselves having been blown off balance and were now falling helplessly.

What was that? A sonic scream? Crap, we were careless, she thought, staring at Momotaro flying away and the sky getting further and further away from them. We made an error in judgment, we should have known the Summoning was capable of abilities, too...

Hachiman was trying to call out to her, but now her consciousness was slipping.

"KEEEEAAAAAR!!!"

She was snapped back to reality by the unmistakable sound of a bird of prey. One minute she was falling, the next she felt herself land on a hard feathery surface, moving at an incredibly fast pace.

"Wh-what?!"

She looked up to see Sasuke Uchiha in front of her at the hem of a massive bird Summoning, which she realized was a hawk. She had known he was in the Village but because he hardly made his presence known to anyone but the Hokage, his whereabouts were anyone's guess

"Nicely timed, Sasuke," said Hachiman.

"What's the situation?"

Hachiman looked at Kosetsu as she sat upright. She nodded at him and then answered Sasuke's question.

"That guy on the flying dog is the target. He snuck into the stadium and made an attempt on the Hokage's life, as well as killed some of our personnel, and is now trying to make a getaway. His main ability is a ninjutsu that allows him to manipulate shadows into tangible objects but his range will be limited now that it's midday. And we only just now learned his Summoning also has some kind of sonic scream ability but it may have even more abilities than that."

"Understood," Sasuke looked back at her. "And the Hokage? Is he...?"

"We can't say for certain at the moment, but I've already sent some Jonin to try to recover and aid him. Besides, the one whose life might really be in danger is Shizune since she took a shot for him."

"I see..." He got up from where he was sitting. "Do you mind taking the reins on Garuda?"

Kosetsu was flummoxed. "Wait, me?! I don't know how to fly this thing!"

"It's not hard. Just pull on those two tufts to indicate which direction you want Garuda to go in, and for anything else, you can talk to him directly. I'll take the fight to the target myself."

Kosetsu snuck a quick glance at his face and saw he already had his Sharingan activated.

Hachiman said: "In that case, I'll stay with Kosetsu and we can devise a way to bring down the Summoning. Sasuke, if you can make him dismount and capture him yourself we'll leave that to you."

"Sounds good."

"Then let's do this." Kosetsu urged Garuda to go closer to Hainu, and the hawk spread its wings to accumulate more speed, diving towards the dog.

Hm? Momotaro looked over his shoulder, feeling a chill on his neck. He saw Sasuke glaring directly at him. Ah. Of course, it's always the powerhouses.

"AMATERASU!!!"

One of Hainu's wings suddenly caught on fire, a black fire that would not go out no matter what Momotaro did. He cursed through his teeth knowing exactly what this jutsu was. Hainu let out a loud yelp and became frantic, going against its master's attempt at trying to calm it down.

Destabilizing Hainu's flight allowed Garuda to quickly catch up to them and Sasuke hitched a ride on the dog and clashed blades with Momotaro.

"Sasuke Uchiha, it's a pleasure," he said.

The Uchiha said nothing in response and instead pushed his full weight on him and threw them both off the dog and into the forest below.

Falling between the trees, he managed to push Sasuke off of him and took to running and parkouring between the trees, Sasuke running parallel to him and at the same speed.

"Everyone's so dead-set on keeping me here," he said to him, holding up his left hand and revealing to Sasuke tattoos of various kanji on his palm, "maybe I should stick around for a bit longer, just to show you why that's a bad idea!!"

He crossed the distance between them with unbelievable speed and struck at him with a tanto in each hand. Sasuke realized he was now moving faster than his Sharingan could keep up with, and advanced his dojutsu to its Mangekyo version.

The sound of steel clashing against steel rang throughout the forest. Sparks flew from tree to tree as they exchanged blows and parries to a blurry degree. Suddenly, Sasuke noticed he was still getting stronger and faster with every second that passed.

This can't be normal, he thought. Is it the work of some jutsu?

It got to the point where the next time Momotaro swung a blow and Sasuke blocked it there was enough force behind the attack to throw him off his feet, causing him to miss a branch and fall. But the Uchiha had quickly recovered.

He was about to return the favor with one of the Rinnegan's numerous abilities but by the time he looked up, Momotaro had jumped right into the shadows of the forest, eclipsing himself from Sasuke's view.

His voice echoed throughout the trees: "Your biggest mistake was having this fight in the dense trees of a forest, Sasuke."

The comment didn't make any sense to him at first, but then he remembered what Kosetsu had told him about his abilities.

Beneath the forest, where the sun hardly ever touched, there would be enough shadows to work with for days down there.

Then I'd better get out of here.

He stopped going after him and turned around to get above the trees.

But it was too late. The moment he turned around, he saw he was surrounded by a wall of pitch-black darkness. No ground, no trees, no light, just darkness. Even the bough he had been standing on just a second ago was absorbed into the abyss. There was nothing for his Sharingan to trace, nothing he could hit or aim at. He was completely surrounded by the dark.

"Now, you'll finally know," said Momo.

Back above the forest, Kosetsu and Hachiman were having trouble trying to stay on Hainu's tail. Any chance it got it would use its razor-sharp claws to swing at them, putting Garuda in danger. But the most dangerous thing they had to watch out for was its Echoing Howl. Even if Garuda was able to dodge the sonic blast, it would still leave a lasting ringing in their ear drums.

"I'm not sure how much more of those howls I can take," Kosetsu touched her ear. It was starting to bleed.

"Me neither," said Hachiman. "So let's change that. Getting close to the Summoning wouldn't be a problem if there was a way to counter the howl."

Kosetsu's eyes darted about, trying to come up with a strategy until they landed on Hachiman's banner. A light bulb came on in her head.

"How durable would you say your banners are, Hachiman?"

He looked down at it, then back at her, and caught on. "Very," he smiled.

Kosetsu urged Gardua to fly faster once again. "I'm gonna get us close again, then you'll do your thing, I'll back up and we can capture it once and for all!!"

This time around, Garuda caught up to Hainu and then flew directly under it. The dog already knew they were there and was craning its neck to fire a sonic blast at them, but suddenly Garuda flew back upright with expert speed and maneuvering, confusing Hainu as to which direction he went in.

Hachiman seized this chance and leaped off Garuda, summoning a second banner in his other hand. Having finally figured out where they were, it swerved its body around and came face to face with Hachiman as he fell from above it.

It unleashed Echoing Howl the moment it laid eyes on him and Hachiman responded by dramatically spinning his banners until it became a flaming vortex and was able to nullify the sonic blast. As soon as he was close enough he landed on Hainu and thrust his banner right into its mouth, canceling the howl, but its limbs were still free to lurch at him.

He held the one banner in its mouth down firmly while using the other one to fend off its limbs.

"Whenever you're ready!!" he called out to Kosetsu.

She patted the hawk on the head and said to him: "Okay, Garuda, I need you to get even closer to it."

"I hope you know what it is you're doing," said the hawk.

Kosetsu was briefly startled by hearing his voice. "So you can talk."

"Only when I need to," he replied, bringing the two of them as close to Hainu as possible without risking injury, "and I consider this to be one of those moments."

Kosetsu stood up and disassembled her bow. I've hardly used this weapon since I first manifested it and I still have yet to master it either ... but if there was ever a time to shake off that rustiness and get familiar with it again, it would be now.

"Summoning Seal: Vajra Lasso."

The band-like marking on her wrists was glowing through her shirt and for just a moment, her eyes had flashed a different color. In her hands, a golden lasso had taken form. She prepared herself to jump off Garuda and use the lasso to subdue Hainu but then the hawk spoke again.

"What is that?"

Kosetsu followed his line of sight and beheld for herself the entire forest ground, as far as her eyes could see, and even the bodies of the trees, were gone and all that was there was a veil of pitch-black nothingness. It threw her into a sense of alarm and forebode.

"That must be the work of the target's jutsu, but how can it stretch so far and wide?! How powerful is he?"

"No, not that, THAT!!!" Garuda cawed madly at what was in front of them, took control, and veered them away from Hainu.

It was a behemoth, a monstrous proportion of unrealistic standards. A bird head the size of the stadium had emerged from the darkness of the forest. Its fur was greyish-green and its eyes, lined with red, had black sclera and blue eyes that seemed faded and white. With its overgrown beak, it drove its head forward to strike at Hachiman.

"WATCH OUT!!!" Kosetsu cried.

He saw it in time. Seeing no other way out of this, he let go of his banner that was now stuck in Hainu's mouth and somersaulted off the dog before the massive bird could strike.

Kosetsu saw him fall. "Garuda!!"

"I won't reach him in time!" said the bird.

"That's fine," Kosetsu made her lasso taut, "just get me as close to him as you possibly can!!!"

Garuda made a full head-first dive for Hachiman, practically letting themselves fall just to pick up speed. Kosetsu could feel her grip on his fur loosening as she was whipped back by the air pressure but she held on tighter than she ever had anything before, glad that Garuda had such tough fur. When she was within range she arched her shoulders back and, against the wind pressure itself, whipped her lasso out in Hachiman's direction.

The ANBU Op saw it just in the nick of time and took hold of it when it was within reach. Immediately Garuda spread his wings out again and took to the skies before they could make contact with the trees, with Hachiman holding on tightly by the lasso.

When the hawk had steadied his flight, Hachiman took to climbing up the lasso. At length, he saw Kosetsu's hand and grabbed it, allowing her to hoist him back onto Garuda's back.

"I owe you one," he said.

"We'll call it even then."

They gazed at the giant bird solemnly, and Kosetsu realized it was the head of a pheasant. With Hachiman off of it and Kosetsu and Garuda no longer vexing it, Hainu flew down into the forest lines almost immediately, presumably to go after Momotaro.

The head of the pheasant itself was sinking down below as well. It was hard to believe the rest of its body could truly be below the trees given the sheer size of its head alone, and Hachiman wasn't willing to.

"Do we know where that thing came from?" he asked. "Something of that magnitude couldn't have been lying down in the forests of Konoha undiscovered."

"I don't think it's native to this region," said Kosetsu. "I don't think it's native to anywhere near here. Did you notice how it went after you but completely ignored the Summoning? I'll bet you it's the same one that was spotted in the Forest of Death, I'm sure of it." But now this begs the question of how many does he have? And how many sizes do they come in, because the one the Barrier Team had caught was a hundred times smaller than that?

"Look," Hachiman pointed down, "the shadows are dispersing."

Sure enough, they were. A moment later, they could see the bodies of the trees and the forest ground again. Gauda flew them down to just below the leaves of the trees to search for Sasuke. They lost contact with him right after he'd thrown himself and Momotaro off Hainu, and the submerging of the forest in darkness and the emergence of the pheasant were not good signs things were going his way. He might have needed help in trying to take him down and they couldn't reach him in time.

They found him perched on the bough of a giant tree, cloaked in a ghastly purple aura that took the shape of a half-baked and crumbling skeleton.

"Sasuke, what happened?" Kosetsu furrowed her brows. "Where's the target?"

The skeleton figure vanished along with the purple aura. Sasuke deactivated his Sharingan and heaved a heavy sigh.

"He was far stronger than I could've imagined. Even with my Sharingan, I had no way of piercing through that darkness. Keeping myself from being suffocated was my best course of action but it allowed him to get away. Sorry."

Kosetsu looked past Sasuke and at the forest for the trees. She could hear the chirping of birds as they began to return to their nests after all the chaos had finally settled.

She might've been livid that he'd gotten away and couldn't get his comeuppance, but she knew it was far, far from over.

"I'm assuming you had a backup plan in place, right?"

"Right, knowing you and how you operate," said Hachiman, "it would be hard to believe you didn't."

Sasuke was as levelheaded as ever. "As a matter of fact, I did, from the very start."

🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾SEVERAL WEEKS LATER🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾

*BEEP*

*BEEP*

*BEEP*

Kakashi had been hearing the same noise from the heart monitor for almost an hour now. In that same hour, he'd been stuck on the same two pages during his reread of the final volume of Make-Out Tactics.

He couldn't focus.

He glanced over again at a bedridden Shizune, strapped to the gurney with a ventilator over her face and hooked up to life support.

He recalled the series of events that occurred after Momotaro's assassination attempt. The only reason why either of them was still alive was that they had been rescued by Hisao and Issun-boshi at the last minute before their lights were snuffed out by Momotaro's Dark World technique, but that had left Shizune clinically dead given what had happened to her just moments before.

As soon as they were out, Tsunade had performed first aid immediately and it was almost like trying to revive a corpse. In fact, if any other medic had tried to resuscitate her they would have failed but Tsunade had made it possible by the narrowest of margins. It was nothing short of a miracle. The moment they heard whispers of breath escape from her body they rushed her to the hospital.

Now she was comatose. And no one had any idea when she would wake up, or if she ever would.

"Well... I sure made a mess of things."

The Chunin Exams had officially been suspended thereafter. News of Momotaro's actions had spread like wildfire throughout the Land of Fire and even into neighboring countries and the LHOW, especially the Hokage, were being given flak for it.

Condolences were given to the families of the chunin and jonin Momotaro had killed, with Kakashi personally visiting and apologizing to them. And although they would hold private funeral services, Kakashi would be sure to attend each and every single one of them if he was invited. Needless to say, the events that transpired left a sour taste in the mouths of every citizen in the Leaf Village. They needed their ninja to protect them and prioritize their safety, and when it came down to it, regardless of whatever the reason may have been, they had failed.

How would they redeem themselves?

He looked back at Shizune one last time then slouched in his chair and placed his book over his head. He'd felt responsible for every ninja involved's injury and death, but, despite how biased it seemed, what happened to Shizune had impacted him the most and so he felt the most responsible for her.

This woman who had given him 110% of her trust and had even taken a quarrel to the chest for him, would now lay strapped to a gurney for an indeterminant amount of time, all because he had made the wrong decision.

This was it. Once again someone close to him had been lost on his watch as the leader. Obito, Rin, Sasuke, now her. The list just kept on getting longer and longer. He knew being the Hokage would not make the job any easier, on the contrary, he was aware it would make it only harder, but he also knew that somewhere in the back of his mind he had underestimated just how burdensome the responsibility of looking after a village could be.

Hiruzen and Minato had warned him about it, and now he felt it in full force. And if this was only the tip of the iceberg of what he would have to go through, was he really ready?

Maybe I should have been the one that was crushed by that boulder, Obito...

A knock sounded on the door.

"Kakashi," Tsunade's somber voice called out to him. "Everyone's arrived. We're all waiting for you in the Office."

He raised the book off his head to get a good look at her. She didn't even bother trying to hide the look of contempt she had on her face. Tsunade was undoubtedly furious at him. If there was one person who cared about Shizune more than him, it was her, and because she had warned him frequently about the severity of the issue, and him having underestimated her misgivings, it was understandable she would blame him for all of this.

"Thank you, Tsunade. I'll be right there."

Walking into the Office, he was surprised to see just how many people had turned up for the meeting.

The Jonin Commander, Hisao, Sasuke, Kosetsu, Issun-boshi, and Mei were all standing in front of him around his desk.

"Everyone," he greeted them.

"Lord Sixth," said Hisao, "are you alright?"

"If I'm being honest with you, Hisao, no, not really. I've seen much better days."

"Haven't we all," said Tsunade. "The Fire Daimyō is in outrage and the news press won't stop trying to squeeze as much information about what happened from anyone they can question about it, even the rookies."

"That's no good," Kakashi sat down in his chair. "I'll send out a message telling them to stop that immediately."

"I can't believe I wasn't there," Kazuki seethed, "and the fact that it all happened only minutes after I had left. Someone should have called me."

"There's no point in trying to place the blame now," said Kosetsu. "We're all responsible in one form or another."

Kazuki looked at her. "Why do you always rebut my statements?"

"Do I? I apologize."

"No bickering," Tsunade interjected. "The purpose of this meeting is to figure out how we're going to move forward from here as a single unit. Anymore arguing, and we'll be even more divided than we are now."

"Tsunade's right," said Kakashi. "If anyone here has a problem with someone else, it's time you put that conflict aside for the sake of the village. We're all adults here so let's try to act like it."

Kazuki continued to glare at Kosetsu while the latter minded her business, fully aware.

"Alright, here's what's common knowledge amongst all of us so far. It appears that the rogue ninja's motive had been trying to find a time and place to kill me, and we can presume that a possible reason as to why that would be is because of my status as Hokage. What we don't know is why he would try to kill the Hokage and why it was done in broad daylight during one of the village's most important events of the year. Does anyone have any news or revelations they can share with the rest of us in light of this?"

"Allow me to go first," said Hisao. "Back when Issun-boshi and I were stuck in the pipe room before my battle with the rogue ninja ensued, and his subsequent escape, I had conversed with him for a few minutes, and he told me something that I could not help but draw a connection to from another previous encounter I had with another rogue ninja. In a moment of anger, I told him that his path of crime and villainy was at an end, and in response, he told me, I'm paraphrasing, that that was hardly the case, in fact, 'it was all just beginning'.

"The last time I had heard something similar to those words was from Zutsumi Ginchiyo, the rogue ninja I encountered when I took my students on their very first mission. He told me he and his partner's motive for attempting to kill Princess Hotaru was to bring about the beginning of the end. It was as if both individuals believed in the same thing."

"One hell of a coincidence," said Mei.

"I thought so, too, until..." Hisao reached for something inside a compartment in his flak jacket. "One of my students, Iroko, came to me a few days after the Final Rounds and gave me something he believed was on the person of the rogue ninja."

He came forward and placed the black cloth on Kakashi's desk for all to see. Tsunade, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Kazuki all frowned when they saw the red circle.

"Creepy...," Mei shuddered.

"This symbol... Lord Shibuki of the Waterfall Village had shown me something exactly like it and told me they had obtained theirs from the rogue ninjas that had assailed my team."

Kosetsu had surmised. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"I, too, felt inclined to believe that Zutsumi's motives sounding verbally similar to the rogue ninja of the Exams' was nothing more than a coincidence but if they both had goals that revolved around killing a powerful figure in the ninja world and both had this cloth on their person..."

"We might be dealing with some sort of an organization of rogue ninjas," said Kakashi. "That's what you're trying to say, right?"

Hisao nodded.

"What scares me most about that idea," said Tsunade, "is how eerily similar that symbol looks to theirs. Is this some kind of revival?"

"It can't be," said Kazuki. "They disbanded five years ago after the death of all their leaders. This must be a new group trying to fan the old flames anew. But why do so now?"

"Would that be so hard to believe?" Hisao answered. "Whether it's a revival or a new group, what do you suppose would be the fastest way to secure the attention of the ninja world? I would have picked a grand gesture of power for all to see, that way it could gain traction immediately."

"Thus, the assassination attempt in broad daylight," Kakashi finished. "They want us to become aware of them."

"What would their numbers be?" Kosetsu asked. "How many of them are rogue ninjas and are there different factions to their organization? We're still no closer to even figuring out if there was an imposter in the village that let the target in."

"Even more importantly," said Issun-boshi, "what is their endgame? What do beginnings and ends have to do with their objective?"

Kakashi's head felt somewhat dizzy. So many questions, but so few answers. He wondered how they would ever find a solution any time soon. Well, one thing was clear from the discussion.

"With how serious this has become, I hope you all understand what this means," he said. "We're going to have to escalate this, and in doing so, it'll be a declaration of our days of peace coming to an end."

"Ugh, really?" Mei pouted. "It's only been 5 years."

Kosetsu shrugged. "Welcome to society. Eventually, something or someone always comes along to ruin the peace."

"So be it then," said Kazuki, slamming his massive hand over the black cloth. "By order of the Hokage and Jonin Commander this 'organization of rogue ninjas' will be made the highest of priorities from here on out. We will hunt them down and we will suppress them, whatever their threat level may be. They want a fight? We'll give it to them. Are we in agreement on this?"

There was a series of nods and yeses across the room.

Finally, Sasuke spoke up. "Then, if we're in agreement, I have a way on how we can get started on that."

✧✧✧

Sometimes, no matter how hard one tries, the feeling will always remain the same.

That feeling of inadequacy.

Perched on the same old pillar that overlooked all of Konoha, while looking down at the citizenry, the same thoughts continued to fester in Iroko's head.

Thanks to the advent of Momotaro, the Chunin Exams had been postponed to an unspecified date, and that meant Iroko's dreams of being chunin would have to hold off for a while, but a part of him was actually glad about that. Not about Momotaro ruining the whole thing, that definitely sucked and had impressed upon him how wary he needed to be of rogue ninjas and their sudden growth in numbers, but at least he now had more time to improve himself.

He had been in too much of a hurry to advance to the next level and it almost cost him his right arm. Furthermore, he doubted that becoming chunin now would do anything about the way he constantly compared himself to his peers and how he felt about himself. There was a conflict of ambition in his heart that Sasuke had helped him to become aware of, and was made even more prominent by his fight against Itsuki that he knew needed to be addressed.

Do I want to become the ultimate ninja to set an example of what makes a true ninja hero, he thought, or do I just wanna be at the top because I can? Which one is my true goal? Is it really both? Or is it... something else entirely?

Come to think of it, what even is the ultimate ninja?

"Hey, there he is. IROKO!!"

Yuura's voice had snapped him out of his trance. He and Asami were standing in the neighboring building. Yuura was waving at him while Asami had a hand on her hip, waiting expectantly. He smiled. Those two were always a sight for sore eyes.

"Yo!" He jumped off the pillar to go meet them.

"We've been looking everywhere for you," said Yuura. "Thought you might be at home or the Edo but imagine our surprise. It was only by chance that we ran into you out here."

"Sorry about that. What's up?"

"Team 24 is leaving the village today. We were just on our way to say goodbye to them."

"Oh, crap, was that today?"

Yuura led the way. "C'mon, if we hurry we can still catch them before they take off."

They got there just in time as they were leaving the South Gate.

"Itsuki, wait up!!" Iroko shouted.

Ena looked back, gleefully. "I told you they'd make it!"

"Hooray, good for you, Ena," Genzo deadpanned.

"If it isn't Team 12," Gaki greeted them. "I'll go on ahead to give you guys a chance to say your goodbyes."

"Thanks, Gaki-sensei."

"So, you really thought you could skip town without saying anything?" said Iroko to Itsuki.

"We didn't mean to. We've been waiting for you for some time already, and thought you weren't going to show up."

"Yeah, that's on him," Yuura started pointing fingers at Iroko. "He'd forgotten it was today and we'd been looking everywhere in the village for him."

"You've seriously gotten way too brave for your own good, dude..."

"Well, we're glad you came anyway," said Ena, who grabbed Itsuki and shook him excitedly, "because Itsuki here had a farewell gift he wanted to give to you! Right, Itsuki?"

"You're not making this any less embarrassing, Ena."

"A farewell gift? What for?"

The Sand-genin looked back at Iroko. "You went out of your way to help me when you didn't have to and were by no means obligated to. And now, I feel like I'm on a better path because of it. This is the least I can do to repay you for that."

"But a farewell gift? That's a little extreme don't ya think? Just some cash for sushi would've been fine."

Itsuki and Ena smiled at each other.

"Maybe," said Itsuki, "but we think you'll like this more."

He handed him a golden necklace, strung by a silk cord. On the piece of gold was carved the kanji: 杰.

"The gold came from the chunk of rock that hit me in the head to symbolize my thankfulness of it having happened," Itsuki continued, "and the symbol is supposed to mean 'greatness' or since that's what you aspire to. Well, do you like it?"

Like it? Iroko couldn't stop himself from looking at it, not because of the gold but because of the symbol and the emotional weight that came with it.

"It's great, but you guys seriously didn't have to."

Genzo let out a sigh. "Enough with the modesty, just accept the damn necklace already!"

Everyone except Asami had been taken aback by his sudden tone of exasperation.

"Genzo!" Ena raised her voice.

"Just gimme a sec, Ena! He needs to hear this. These two took time out of their day to make that for you because they truly believe that you deserve it. What you did out there for Itsuki isn't something they can just repay you for with some cash for sushi. For crying out loud, you literally changed the direction of this man's life!! So if they wanna thank you by giving you a necklace, then accept the freaking necklace and acknowledge already the crazy amount of good you've done here!!"

"Oi, Genzo," Itsuki was now visibly cringing. "That's enough..."

"Sorry, bro, but I just had to get that off my chest."

Iroko realized he was right. In fact, it was the unspoken truth. No matter how big or small a role he had to play, he still had something to do with Itsuki's change of paths, and the longer he continued trying to downplay it, the more it would seem like even he wasn't even aware of how momentous this was.

There was never a need to compare himself to others. He always had his own strengths, and those weaknesses he'd been trying so hard to minimize were what allowed him to reach out to Itsuki in the first place anyway.

He'd come out of the Exams learning a little bit more about himself.

"Greatness, huh?" he wore it over his neck and clutched the necklace tightly. "Yeah, that sounds about right. Thanks, you two, I'll treasure this."

Ena's face beamed. Yuura patted Iroko on the shoulder, feeling happy for his friend.

"So now that you're heading back," said Yuura, "what's next for you?"

Itsuki looked up at the fading autumn leaves. "There's a lot to be done. I'll probably need to apologize to Lord Fifth for my rudeness to him whenever he tried to talk to me about Scorch Style or the Futten clan, and Ena and I did promise the director of the Suna orphanage we'd help out more. But I think, most of all...

"I'll continue my ninja training, but this time with Scorch Style. It'll be harder because everyone from the Futten clan is gone from the Land of Wind so there'll be no one to guide me, and I'm still not ready to try to connect with them again, but I have to get stronger somehow. The Chunin Exams only got suspended, not canceled, after all. I'll be back here again soon enough. I just have one last thing to say, and it's about Kazue."

Iroko sweatdropped. "Oh, yeah, I think I know what you're talking about."

"He's a really angry guy, and he seems to have it out for you the most. I once spoke with him right before his match on the day of the Finals, and he told me how the only ideal that matters in the entire ninja world is strength. Then there was his match with his teammate. And then he verbally, and almost physically tried to attack your friend (sorry about that, by the way) over something that didn't seem like that big of a deal compared to the events happening around us at the time. What I'm trying to say is, I think there's something going on in that guy's personal life, and it's what's causing him to lash out and project his feelings like this."

"You think so, too, huh?" So I'm not the only one that's picked up on it. Then there's a chance Tensho, Jin, and maybe even their sensei have as well. I really do wonder what's going on with him.

"Be careful. He's a loose cannon to have for a rival."

"Yeah, he is, isn't he?" But a rival, nonetheless.

"Hey, guys, wrap it up!" Gaki called out. "Let's get going or we won't make it by sundown!"

"Well, that's our cue," said Itsuki.

Ena stood before Team 12 and bowed low. "Thank you for everything."

Iroko bowed back. "We're glad to have met you guys."

"Asami," Genzo appeared beside her. "If there's any chance you could find it in your heart to go out with me just o--"

"No."

"Understandable. Until next time. (Maybe you'll have changed your mind by then)"

He was walking ahead sooner than the other two had even realized he was gone. Ena gave one last wave to them, then ran to catch up to Genzo to give him a slap to the back of the head.

Itsuki held out his hand to Iroko. "Keep doing you, alright? I guarantee you that's your strongest ability, not any jutsu."

"I know," he shook it warmly. "Next time we meet, we'll both have gotten a little further along in our struggle."

And so, they departed. While Genzo got to talking with Gaki at the front. Itsuki and Ena stayed at the back with Itsuki unable to pry his gaze off Ena, to the point where the girl had noticed.

"What?"

"Nothing. I'm just really hopeful about the future for us now. Thank you for never having given up on me, Ena."

Ena smiled. "Yeah, you're welcome, dummy."

Asami had not said a word during the entire interaction with Team 24 (except to blow off Genzo), but that was because she felt there was no need for her to. This had been Iroko and Yuura's mission while her mission had been to deal with Momotaro, and that was still ongoing. It didn't matter to her that she had been excluded once again even within her own team, because she had done it to herself. But just as she had turned around to leave by herself, still thinking those thoughts--

"Hey, Asami, where are you going?" Iroko called. "You still haven't told us what you think!!"

--there he went again, seemingly never failing to notice her no matter what.

"Of what?"

"Of everything so far! The Exams, the rogue ninja, Itsuki, Kazue, all of it! You probably thought there was no point in talking to Itsuki and them, but now I'm asking you. Just tell us what you think, you're in this team, too!"

"I think..."

She glanced at his necklace.

"I think Itsuki is right. "I think Itsuki is right. "You should just keep doing you, despite everything, the Exams, the rogue ninja, Kazue, all of it."

Iroko's eyes shone. Those were the biggest words of encouragement he had ever heard from her, and it plastered a big fat grin on his face. "Yeah? All three of us together, right?"

"Yeah..."

Yuura, who had been standing in between them the whole time, had sensed his own presence starting to fade between the energy that encircled the two of them. He hadn't been imagining it, there really was something going on there between the two of them, he thought.

But for now, he decided right then and there was the time to cut in.

"Okay!" He put his arm around both their shoulders. "Why don't we go grab something to eat? Dinner's on me!"