After Keiko finished talking, Hazō hesitated, thinking carefully. "Keiko...with respect, I'm not sure we can do this mission," he said. "There's just too many unknowns. How strong is the Condor summoner? Jiraiya said that all the summoners are 'near the top of the ninja game'; we couldn't hope to take on someone as strong as he is. Who is it that's selling the Capybara contract, and how strong are they? Why are they selling it instead of using it themselves? How many of them are there?"

"We can answer most of that with some simple scouting," Noburi said. The words were supportive but the tone was dubious.

"Okay," Hazō said. "Let's say we go there and scout the place. Condors can fly, so skywalkers don't give us the sort of benefit that they would against most ninja. They can come up and get us." He turned to Keiko. "It sounds like there's two parts to this mission: Stop the Condors from getting the Capybara contract, and retrieve the Capybara contract for the Pangolins. Would it count as mission fail if we only did the first part?"

She paused. "I believe accomplishing only the first objective would be minimally satisfactory, in the sense that I would be verbally chastened but not suffer consequences," she said reluctantly. "Obviously, they would strongly prefer that we achieve both objectives. This is my first significant mission for the Pangolin clan and I find myself with a strong desire to succeed. I expect that a complete success would open many doors for us with the Pangolins. Access to more and better jutsu, stronger summons, physical resources, and so on."

"Pandā, what do you think of that?" Mari-sensei asked.

"I agree with Keiko," the young Pangolin said, drumming his claws on his underbelly nervously. "But I'm not an officer, so I could be wrong. Still, the Pangolin Clan is the most powerful on the Seventh Path. You could get some great stuff from us. Way better than you're likely to get here on the Human Path."

The team exchanged dubious looks.

"I think we need to prioritize our own survival," Hazō said. "We definitely can't fight these people on the ground, and I'd even be worried about trying to scout them at ground level. I see two options. We walk in from really high up and drop bombs on them, or we go to Leaf, dump the whole thing in Jiraiya's lap, and let him do it. With all the resources of a Village behind him, he wouldn't have any trouble."

"That would mean that Leaf would get the Capybara contract," Kagome-sensei said. "You want to give the contract for a bunch of infiltration experts to those stinkers? They'd be sneaking around putting lupchanz in the ears of all the other Villages in no time." He sniffed disgustedly. "Besides, the aerial bombing idea wouldn't work. Can't get enough accuracy." The mournful look on his face bespoke dozens of hours of gleeful yet frustrating practice.

"Yeah...about that," Hazō said.

The entire team groaned.

"What did you do, Hazō?" Mari-sensei asked.

"Nothing! Well, I mean, I had an idea. But I haven't tested it or anything...."

"An idea?" Kagome-sensei asked, excited. "What kind of idea? Is it big?"

"Um...probably," Hazō said. "I was thinking about your stupid boxes, sensei. I think if we combined them with the macerators we could scale them up a lot. And I think I know how to make them a lot safer."

"Yeah?" Kagome-sensei asked, rolling one hand in a 'go on' gesture.

"Well, say we make a box and put a bunch of granite in the bottom so it doesn't burn through. Then we pile in as much wood as the seal will hold, and set it all on fire. When it's burning really well, we seal it into a macerator that's set to grind things very small and eject them at top speed. When it gets unsealed it'll be a wall of fire going really fast."

Keiko raised an eyebrow, immediately followed by a hand.

Hazō smothered a sigh. Something embarrassing was coming, he just knew it. "Yes, Keiko?"

"Why is the box necessary?" Keiko asked. "Couldn't you just get a big log, light part of it on fire, and seal it by having the non-burning part touch the seal?"

"Madness!" Kagome scoffed. "You can't do that! That would...uh...that would.... No, wait, that would totally work."

"Right," Hazō said, struggling not to blush. "Sure. Let's do it that way."

Kagome's eyes were huge and dewy as he considered. "Giant wall of fire.... Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good. We'll have to use soft wood, though. The macerators can't grind up the hard stuff." He frowned. "Pity. Lot less heat. Probably only scorch the stinkers a little."

"A 'giant wall of fire' will only scorch them a little?" Mari-sensei said, one eyebrow arched. "What did you want it to do?"

Kagome-sensei turned a feverish gaze upon her. "Fwoosh!" he mouthed, fingertips coming together and then exploding outwards. "Ashes." He swiveled back to Hazō. "Come on, we need to go try this!" He reached to grab Hazō's arm, clearly determined to immediately drag his apprentice off for some thermobaric fun. Hazō twisted aside.

"Hang on, sensei," he said. "We still need to figure out our next move."

"But, but...explosions! Giant, fiery explosions!"

Hazō patted the older ninja's hand, feeling a certain sense of unreality as he did. "Just a sec. Okay, Mari-sensei, what do you think we should do? Go after the scroll directly, or go to Leaf?"

Mari-sensei thought about it. "Keiko, if the Condor summoner died, would their Condors be banished back to the Summon Realm?"

"Yes," said the Pangolin summoner. "Summoning works by creating a series of aetheric connections between summoner and summoned. The connection is what lets a summon stay in the Human Path. If the stabilizing end of the connection—that is, the summoner's end—were broken then the connection would snap and the summon would be sent back."

"Okay," said the jōnin, "so if we managed to skywalk in without being spotted and take out the summoner with some really big bombs then we wouldn't have to worry about the Condors." She nodded thoughtfully, then turned to Hazō. "How big are these new toys you're talking about?"

Hazō shrugged helplessly. "Not really sure. I'd need to test them."

"How long will it take to figure it out?"

"Not long, I think," he said. "We'll need some time to set up on the testing range and we'll want to run a few trials. Kagome-sensei, what do you think—couple hours?"

"Sure," the explosives expert said, jittering from foot to foot. "Sounds right. You know, if we actually start at some point."

"Right," Hazō said. "Let's do this."

o-o-o-o

"Heee heee heee! Againagainagain!"

Hazō carefully closed his mouth on the words 'there is something wrong with you, sensei'. He resolved to stand a little...no, a lot...farther back this time. Instead of a 'wall of fire' they'd gotten more of a 'rapidly expanding fiery doom-ball'; the heat from the blast had left him lightly parbroiled even from behind the safety bunker.

o-o-o-o

"Huh," said Mari-sensei, eyeing the swath of blackened testing ground. "Okay, how fast can you make those?"

"About this fast," Kagome-sensei said, holding up a double fistful of seals and a manic grin. "Need to get some more wood, though. And draw a few more seals. Maybe do some more tests. Yeah. Anyway, need a little longer to make enough."

"Uh-huh," said Mari-sensei, clearly thinking about what sort of numbers Kagome-sensei typically considered 'enough' when it came to things that went bang. "Let's go with what we've got for now. Come on, we need to talk to the others."

o-o-o-o

Thanks to Kagome-sensei's disturbingly enthusiastic response to the massive fiery doom-balls, the testing had taken most of the day so the conversation took place over a firelit dinner. Pandā was notably absent for this part of the discussion.

"It looks like maybe it's feasible to grab the blue ribbon," Mari-sensei said carefully, between bites of her pseudo-rabbit kebabs. "There's a lot more uncertainty than I like. If we don't get the summoner on the first pass then we're going to be swarmed by Condors, one of whom will probably be carrying an S-rank ninja."

"There's another factor," Noburi said. "This exchange is happening at the Hinago Medical Facility. How is it going to look if we blow up a hospital? We caused an international incident when we destroyed part of one building in a resort complex."

"That...is an entirely valid point," Mari-sensei said, biting her lip. "Yeah, that tips it for me. Keiko, I'm sorry, but I cannot countenance this mission. We should speed up our schedule on applying to Leaf for citizenship."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Still a stupid idea," Kagome-sensei mumbled into the salad he was busy eating with his fingers. "Lupchanz. Ten minutes. Tops."

Mari sighed. "Kagome, I understand how much you dislike the idea, but it seems like the least-bad of a bunch of bad options. If we try to do the mission and fail, we're all dead. If we try to do the mission and succeed then we'll have demolished a hospital and confirmed ourselves as international terrorists, which means a lot of hunter-nin on our tail. If we don't do the mission then Keiko is in trouble with the Pangolins."

"Could just leave," Kagome-sensei mumbled truculently. "Ignore the stinking critters. Not like hunters are going to find us if we just keep heading east. Or west. Even south. Not north, though. Snow sucked. Yeah, probably south."

Mari-sensei pondered that for several long seconds, jolting out of her thoughts only when Keiko shot her a reproachful look. "Yeah, we couldn't ask Keiko to give up on the Pangolins," she said. "I mean...unless you wanted to, Keiko? Don't get me wrong, Pandā is adorable and a great kid, but the Pangolins haven't actually been that useful to us so far. Pankurashun taught Akane a training jutsu, that snotty one taught you a stronger but limited version of Zephyr's Reach, Panchipāma killed a ninja for us, and Panjandrum dug our base in fucking Snow. Balancing that is the fact that they've been consistently rude and distrustful to you, seriously underpaid you for the skytowers, and are now asking us to go on a mission that is way out of our league. Are you sure you want to stick with them?"

"Yes," Keiko said firmly. "Nothing worthwhile is won without effort. That training jutsu that Senior Combat Instructor Pankurashun taught to Akane allowed her to effortlessly dispatch one of Arikada's zombies. Panjandrum's digging abilities mean that we can have a secure base anywhere in a matter of hours, as well as being very helpful for Kagome and Hazō's sealing research facilities. The Pangolin's Reach technique has the potential to be extremely powerful and effective given enough practice. It's not surprising that they are a bit standoffish for now, as I am still proving myself to them."

"Okay," said Mari-sensei, holding up both hands placatingly. "I still don't think we can do the mission directly. Let's head to Leaf, notify Jiraiya of this whole mess, and go from there. Maybe we can do the mission with Leaf backup, if they're willing to let us out. I wouldn't count on it, though—my expectation is that they'll hide us away and send their own team."

Keiko looked sour. "Yes, sensei."

Mari-sensei spared her a regretful glance before taking a breath and visibly gathering herself. "Okay, I guess that means we go to Leaf. Kagome, I know you don't like the idea, but I honestly believe it's our best chance. We're going to end up dead if the Pangolins keep sending us on missions this far out of our weight class, so we'll all have to—" She paused as a thought obviously struck her, and continued in a nervous tone. "I mean, I guess you don't actually have to. Am I asking too much?"

"Huh?" Kagome grunted, a piece of half-chewed cress hanging out of his mouth. "T' muf?" He paused to swallow. "Too much how?"

"Asking you to go to Leaf," Mari-sensei said. "I know it's really pushing it, and I'll understand if you feel like you can't go with us." She sighed. "I'm sorry, I didn't think this through very well and I'm improvising as badly as I usually do. I honestly think that we need to go to Leaf and stay there, or the Pangolins are going to keep sending us on impossible missions until we're dead. It's not fair to drag you along though—I know how you feel about the place after what happened." She swallowed, eyes flicking into memory for just a moment. A barely-visible shudder went across her shoulders and then she clearly forced herself to smile bravely. "Anyway. I won't make you come. To be honest, I don't want to go myself. I just...." She trailed off, biting her lip. After a moment she looked away, her hair falling into her face as she did. "I just don't see a better way." Her voice wobbled on the last word.

Kagome started to reach out, then pulled his hand back, then reached out, then pulled his hand back, before finally patting her very carefully on the arm. "There, there," he said uncomfortably. "Of course I'm not going anywhere. Can't let you guys alone where the stinkers can lupchanz you, or cut you open to see how your insides squelch, or kill you and bring you back as obedient zombie slaves, or—"

Hazō cleared his throat and Kagome guiltily stopped ticking possibilities off on his fingers.

"Really?" Mari-sensei said, looking up at him through her hair. "You'll come with us?"

The sealmaster nodded convulsively. "Uh-huh."

She smiled and squeezed his hand. "Thank you, my friend. I don't know what we'd do without you to watch out for us."

Kagome swelled up in pride.

Mari-sensei shifted seats so that she was sitting beside Kagome-sensei. She looped an arm around his elbow and leaned her head on his bicep. "Okay," she said, oblivious to the frozen statue that had moments earlier been a forty-ish man. "We want to end up in Leaf and safe. How do we do that?"

The entire team turned expectantly to Hazō.

The genin sighed in irritation. "Well...getting there isn't a problem with the skywalkers."

"They probably have skytowers up," Noburi pointed out. "They'll see us if we just try to 'walk too close to the village proper."

Hazō shrugged. "Fair point. Still, we can get across the borders safely and we aren't likely to be attacked on the way—"

"Sky squid," Kagome-sensei mumbled without moving a single muscle aside from his tongue.

Hazō rolled his eyes. "We aren't likely to get attacked on the way. Nothing is ever completely safe. Still, we should be able to bypass the borders and all the patrols, so we won't face any ninja threats. We'll stay well away from the clouds so that our skywalker seals don't take water damage again. When we get to Leaf...Mari-sensei, what do you think about using those 'in case of emergency' recognition codes that Jiraiya gave us? Does this count as an emergency?"

"Close enough," she said without moving from her position against Kagome-sensei. "It's urgent, anyway. When he sees and hears what we've got I'm pretty sure he'll forgive us the minor breach of etiquette."

Hazō nodded. "Okay. Well, in that case, I think we can probably just—"

o-o-o-o

"Tomato Nipples! Tomato Nipples! Tomato Nipples!" Noburi shouted, eyeing the sandglass with impatience as the last few grains trickled through. "Tomato Nipples! Tomato Nipples! Toma—oh thank the kami. Hazō, your turn." He handed the 'glass over and turned for the fire to get some tea. He'd been shouting the recognition codes over and over for twenty minutes and his throat was sore. The deliberately-smokey nature of the fire didn't help either, but it was the best way to attract whatever stumble-footed, inattentive, idiotic, stupid, useless border patrol ninja that happened to eventually pass through the damn area.

"This seemed like such a better idea before," Hazō mumbled, turning the timer over and setting it on the stump that had been placed there for that purpose. "Tomato Nipples! Tomato Nip—"

"You don't have to shout," said a ninja in Leaf attire, fading out of the trees. "We're here. Who are you and why are you using the emergency codes?"

"About time," Noburi mumbled from somewhere behind Hazō.

"We're agents of Jiraiya's," said Mari-sensei's grizzled-male-ninja henged form, appearing at Hazō's elbow like magic. "We've got information that he needs, urgently. And, speaking of information...'Tomato Nipples'? Really?"

The Leaf ninja had the grace to look embarrassed. "Yeah...I think he tries to make up emergency codes where you're only going to want to use it if it's a real emergency."

Henged-Mari-sensei grunted. "Guess so. Anyway, we need to see h—"

"What's with your friend?" the Leaf ninja demanded suddenly, pointing behind Hazō to the rest of the group.

With a sigh, Hazō turned to find that Keiko and Noburi were each holding one of Kagome-sensei's arms in a no-honest-this-grip-is-completely-casual way that coincidentally kept the sealmaster's hands away from his belt. As a result Kagome-sensei was able to hurl only dark glares and sub voce imprecations along the lines of 'stinking mumble Leaf cheating stinking eyeballs mumble hiding in the woods and mumble mumble mumble show them. Show them all.'

Mari-sensei didn't even bother turning around. "He's had a rough deployment," she said. "So, meeting with Jiraiya, right? Got urgent information for him."

The Leaf ninja eyed Kagome-sensei warily for a few more seconds, then gave a crisp nod. "Right," he said. "I'm not letting you into the city without more than a code, but you can wait at the gate while I fetch Mr. Tomato Nipples." He put two fingers in his mouth and blew a quick series of whistles, then turned for the trees with an over-the-shoulder, "Follow me."