"Is it really you?" Hazou asked. "Really really?"

Hana loosened her grip. "Check for yourself."

"Kai!" Hazou called out as he dispelled. Nothing changed.

Hana pulled a kunai from a holster at her hip and made a swift cut across the back of one knuckle, holding up the wound for his inspection.

"We need to talk," declared Hazou.

He set up the air dome again, and started setting up the Earth Dome. Hana cut a series of handseals Hazou recognized.

"Water Clone Jutsu!" she proclaimed. "To stay outside and take the seals down if need be," she explained.

The two sat down between the Earth Dome seals, and the clone reached down to activate one and then the other.

In the sudden darkness, Hazou pulled out his pair of yellow Party Tricks, filling the improvised bunker with a happy glow.

Hazou stepped forward to hug his mom again. They were quiet for a long time.

"I was so worried about you, Momma," Hazou said finally. " I-- I wanted to come back and get you, or at least check on you, but it was never safe. There are so many things I want to tell you, and... so many of them are things I can't talk about."

"I understand, cricket," she said, pulling back to look at him and smiling somewhat sadly. "We can get all that sorted out some other time. What can you tell me about? I hear you've been seen holding hands with one of the Leaf girls?" she asked, her grin growing mischievous.

Hazou felt himself blushing. "That's Akane, my… my girlfriend. She's amazing, mom. She always knows how to get me out of my head, especially when I'm down or in a dark place, and she's so warm, and loyal, and strong, and pretty, and she's just the best, and--"

"Ahaaaaa, my little Hazou fell in love when he was off galavanting around the world!" Hana declared, clapping excitedly and then leaning forward to pinch his cheek. He had nowhere to dodge in the confined space of the Earth Dome. "When should I expect grandchildren, hmmm?"

"Mom!" Hazou protested indignantly. "It's not-- we're not-- we haven't--"

"Oh? Inoue didn't get that far in corrupting you?" Hana asked innocently.

"Mari-sensei hasn't corrupted me," Hazou answered, frowning. "She saved me, and everyone else. We'd all be dead without her."

"She led you into a deathtrap. That she orchestrated. You'd still be home without her," Hana commented coldly, looking off into the distance.

"Leaf is my home now, Momma," said Hazou. "Its people are happier, friendlier, better taken care of-- it's where I'd choose to live, if I could pick from anywhere in the world. It's where I did choose, ultimately. I think I can do a lot of good there, for a lot of people, all over the world. If I had stayed in Mist, there'd be-- well, things would be bad right now. Really bad."

Hana raised an eyebrow. "Oh? You personally were absolutely necessary?"

Hazou sighed. "I mean, there's probably someone else in the world who could have done the same, but that's getting toward stuff I can't talk about without clearing it with my clan head."

"Ah, yes, the illustrious Lord Hokage Jiraiya of the Sannin. I don't suppose this unmentionable thing you did has anything to do with why in the world he was willing to take you into Leaf in the first place, let alone adopt you as his and Inoue's son...? Don't answer that."

The acid in her voice worried Hazou. He leaned forward to put his forehead against hers. It shocked him that he could do so -- he'd grown more than he thought. "Momma, I'll always be your son. And Poppa's son. Political convenience won't change that. Can't change that. I promise."

She smiled that sad smile again, and reached out to take one of his hands between hers. "I know, cricket. I know."

"What the hell has been going on here since I left?" Hazou asked after a minute or so of silence. "Aunt Ren is wearing the hat? How did that happen? And what did you mean by 'my answer becomes a giant middle finger'?"

Hana grimaced. "To the best of my understanding? My dear sister was the least contentious among the various candidates put forward. All the clans ended up compromising and supporting her because they wanted a face they could put forward when Leaf inevitably came to collect on Yagura's bills. She's got the diplomatic experience, her last big mission secured the Hot Springs alliance which did a lot for our economy, and all the really dangerous people know that they can assassinate her if it becomes necessary. Or at least, they think they know they can do so. For now she's got them all working as hard as they can against one another, still thinking she's a pawn with no agency, while she scrambles to stabilize her position behind the scenes. Part of that scrambling is that she wants to leverage the blood bond between her clan and the Hokage's."

She laughed ominously. "Of course, a blood bond doesn't mean anything if the member who shares it is exiled. So, she wants to bring me back into the fold, a Kurosawa in good standing once again, at long last. The elders would be pissed, of course, but she thinks she can get me far enough out of their hair that they won't make too much of a fuss, by sending me out as a 'special envoy' to Leaf."

Hazou's eyes grew wide. "You'd get to come back with me? Momma, that's amazing! ...you're going to say yes, right?"

"Of course I'm going to say yes, silly," she chided him. "But up until I actually agree, I have some leverage over her, and I'm going to milk it for all it's worth."

Nodding, Hazou thought quietly for a long moment. "Would you like to come meet my new clansmen?" he asked eventually. "Or at least my… siblings. Teammates. Jiraiya is probably busy. And you could meet Akane, even though she isn't in the clan. Yet. But she probably will be. Maybe. I don't actually know."

Hana leaned forward to place a kiss on his forehead. "Oh, my sweet, sweet Hazou, still letting your brain run a thousand miles ahead of your mouth. Your Poppa was just the same, when he would get flustered, he'd say everything that came to mind even if it wasn't all that appropriate." She stared off into the distance for a moment with a smirk. "I'd love to meet your friends, and Akane. We'll have to--"

She flinched toward the sword at her hip.

The dome around them dissolved as suddenly as it had appeared. Standing just outside its radius was Ren, one foot on a slightly shifted Earth Dome seal, with Izumi several meters back at attention. "Your outer seals ran out," Ren stated, moving forward to offer Hazou the Air Dome pair, "and it seemed an appropriate time to step in. Some very interesting seals, these domes."

She managed to make it sound like an idle observation.

Hazou bowed instinctively, glanced up at his mother's glacial face, and then hesitantly took the exhausted seals from his aunt. "I'll be sure the person who made them for me knows the Mizukage approves of their work," he said as neutrally as he could, reaching down to pick up the not-yet spent Earth Dome pair.

"I'm sure you will," she said, smiling at him benevolently.

"...congratulations on being chosen to wear the hat, aunt Ren," Hazou said to fill the awkward silence that followed.

"Hm. Yes, quite a coup for our clan," said Ren. "Though to be honest I've actually been wondering if I could get rid of the part of the deal that involves actually wearing that ugly-ass thing. Call it a sign of openness and humility or something."

She laughed brightly at Hazou's gobsmacked expression. "No? Maybe just a redesign then? I'll take it under advisement, nephew."

"What do you want, Ren?" Hana asked wearily.

"Well, young Hazou does need to be getting on with his participation in the tournament. And we need to finish our conversation, dear sister."

"...fine," Hana huffed.

Ren clapped. "Nakano, escort my nephew to the holding area and then continue your duties for the evening."

"Ma'am." Izumi gestured for Hazou to follow her. He turned to give his mom one last big hug, which she returned forcefully.

"We'll talk again soon, cricket," she mumbled to him. "I love you."

"Love you too, Momma," he responded. She let go and turned to walk toward her sister. Hazou turned and started jogging toward Izumi, not letting any of the turbulent emotions he was feeling surface in his expression.

-o-

Before too long they arrived at holding area - a training ground on a hilltop just outside the city.

"Alright, there ends my part of the job," Izumi said. "You can wait here until everyone's been taken through the registration process. I'm required to warn you that if the proctors on duty catch you trying to leave and go inform your teammates about what's going on, you'll be docked points in the next event. Have a pleasant night." With that, she leapt off back toward the Tower.

Hazou looked around. He recognized this spot -- it was one of the better vantage points to see the lantern festival from. There were a couple of trees around the area, a pair of proctors chatting with one another on the side of the hill facing the city, and a few dozen genin candidates in the fashions of their home villages scattered about, occasionally clumping with their fellows.

First thing was first: Hazou sat down while pulling out a storage seal, popped his bag of camping gear into existence, and stuck his carefully-folded code word half-sheet into the middle of it before re-storing the whole thing.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

He glanced over to the proctors, mentally reviewing his list of goals for the evening. Since he'd already learned where the other contestants were going to… may as well try for some juicier information.

He meandered over to the pair of proctors, both gangly guys with shoulder-length, stringy hair. Hazou supposed they might be brothers.

"Excuse me?" he asked. They stopped chatting and turned to look at them. "Hey, I wonder if you guys could help me out. My adopted father and my aunt have got me caught in this political battle between them, and I'm going to get really chewed up if I can't even make it to the next event. Do you guys know where it is? I really can't afford to have two Kage mad at me."

The slightly taller one, standing closer to Hazou, grinned and whistled. "Daaaang, Jo, check out the balls on this kid! Thinks he can come over here and pull one over on-- whoooaaa there, what was that about two Kage?"

"Oh, right, sorry. Hi, I'm Gouketsu Hazou, formerly Kurosawa Hazou. Jiraiya -- he's the Hokage? -- he adopted me about a month ago. Kurosawa Ren is my aunt. The two of them are both pressuring me to make 'my true village' look good."

"Uh, Ji?" the shorter one said hesitantly. "I don't think he's kiddin'."

"E-- even if that were true, which I don't think it is, we aren't allowed to just hand out information because he knows someone important," the one called Ji replied.

"Hey, no need to be hasty about your decision," said Hazou. "Maybe I could put in a good word for you guys if you help me out. Or don't, either way."

Jo and Ji glanced at one another for a long second. Ji turned back to Hazou. "Absolutely not!" he declared loudly, making a sweeping motion with one arm while signing 'vantage point' in Mist hand-talk. "We are loyal Mist nin --" (sign for 'death') "--who will follow our Kage's orders--" ('stationary', 'water') "--even in the face of your blatant political pressuring!" ('first', 'sun').

Hazou nodded sagely. "Hmm. Very well. Congratulations, you have passed this secret police test! Your may collect your rewards for loyalty at the Mizukage's office any time this month." He spun on his heel and strode over to a spot where a tree broke line of sight to the pair. There, he cut the handseals for Hiding Like a Mole, took a deep breath, and dropped into the dirt.

-o-

Hazou swapped over to another one of the Tunneler's Friends he had filled up when he first popped up away from the proctors. He was nearing the Tower plaza, and took a deep breath (still an utterly bizarre experience while swimming around in the cold, dark earth) to tide him over for casting Living Roots.

Once he had done so, locating Noburi and Keiko was easy - Noburi was tapping his foot to the rhythm of a classic sea-shanty, and Keiko was tapping out a sequence of prime numbers against a nearby wall. Hazou let Living Roots fade, and swam upward through the earth.

"Psst!" he hissed, his lips barely breaking the surface.

Keiko immediately set up a pair of Earth Dome tags while Noburi called up a clone to activate and watch them.

"Took you long enough," Noburi complained as Hazou emerged from the ground into the dim Party Trick half-light of the interior of the materialized dome seconds later.

"Got interrupted," Hazou said tersely. "Registration is straightforward, you write your own word and tear it in half for later verification. Proctors can ask you to prove you still have it, if you don't you fail the first event. You can turn in a half-sheet to be escorted to the start location of the next event, so we can steal others', and turning in our own can be a last resort. Don't need to do it this time though, I bullied some proctors into telling me the second event starts at dawn on the cliff overlooking the Death Swamp."

Noburi whistled.

"Exemplary work, Hazou," Keiko commented.

"My Momma is alive!" Hazou practically shouted, very nearly cutting into Keiko's praise, unable to contain himself

"What?!" exclaimed Keiko, flinching back from Hazou's outburst at the same time that Noburi responded, "Great!"

"I saw her! I hugged her! I checked for henge and genjutsu! She might be sent to Leaf as an envoy! And my aunt showed up. I think she knows I'm a sealsmith, which... I guess we can deal with that when we get a chance to talk to Jiraiya."

-o-

Noburi was the first one of Hazou's teammates to show up at the holding area.

"So, what was your word?" Hazou asked jokingly as he walked over.

"We were only supposed to put one word? I wrote 'Hazou is a stinker'," Noburi answered nonchalantly. Their voices got quiter as they moved away from the other nin. "Keiko's buddy came back. The weedy little one. Found a residence that looks like the proctors are using it as a central hub. Should bring a Hyuuga."

"Nice," Hazou commented. "Speaking of which, any of our sensor friends find anything yet?"

"Yeah, sounds like they're keeping fake documents in the offices in the Tower. Neji said some papers there have the start time at noon tomorrow, at the Tower. Thought your proctor buddies might have lied to you, but there was nobody guarding them and the drawer was unlocked, so he didn't believe them either."

Hazou nodded, then lay out on the bedroll he'd set up, content to wait for further analysis until the team was all together.

...

When Keiko did show up, she was very clearly shaken. The boys took one look and sprang up to lay out a pair of domes.

"The proctor escorted me past the Mori compound," she said hollowly once they'd lit up the interior of the Earth Dome. "My sister was waiting there. She… she acted like everything was fine. Like she was happy to see me. She said she was proud that I had grown strong enough to be entered into the Exams. That she had been worried I would be unable to keep my-- my promise to come home."

Keiko had slowly curled in on herself, back up against the dome, arms wrapping around her knees, looking for all the world like she was trying to become one of her pangolins. It struck Hazou how small she actually was, for all her terrifying skill in combat.

She continued staring into the distance over the tops of her knees, seeing nothing. "She was so excited that I had maneuvered my way back so I could rejoin the clan."

Her head dropped to her chest, her face hidden behind her limbs now. "I could not make myself tell her the truth. But she realized it. I hesitated, showed insufficient enthusiasm. She did not speak to me like a sister again, after that."

Noburi and Hazou looked between Keiko and one another. "Keiko," Noburi began, "I'm so sorry you're being made to confront this tonight."

"Did you check that it was really Ami?" asked Hazou.

"It was her!" Keiko shouted, not looking up, surprising both her teammates. "I know it was."

"Okay, I believe you," Hazou said, doing his best to sound reassuring.

"That's some good news, though," Noburi offered. "She's still alive and safe. She still wants you two to be a part of each others' lives."

Hazou nodded, before realizing Keiko wouldn't be able to see him with her face buried in her lap and stopping. "I think it makes little sense to assume that her sudden change in demeanor was caused by negative emotion rather than surprise. Given some time to process the reality of the situation, I expect she will come to terms with the new status quo and feel comfortable reaching out to you again."

The whole team was silent for a minute. Then, slowly, wordlessly, without looking up, Keiko stretched out her hands toward her siblings. Hesitantly, Hazou reached out to take her hand. She flinched when they made contact, and she pulled her arms back around herself, shaking her head.

"No, sorry, stupid," she mumbled.

They sat together until the dome dissolved around them.

-o-

"Liiiiine up maggots!" the stubbly man shouted at the assembled genin, squinting their eyes as the dawn beamed straight into their faces. "Listen closely, because this! Is! The! Only time these instructions will! Be! Stated! Proctors will all be carrying a supply of these tokens!" He raised a bag and shook it, resulting in a wooden clinking sound. "The tokens have seals on them! Trigger 'em, they glow!"

He withdrew a wooden disc, and a moment later it began glowing a complex series of warm colors fading between one another, difficult to discern against the sunlight. "Proctors are already waiting throughout the Swamp! Ask us for as many of our seals as you want! You cannot take away any seal that is not lit! You must light the seals in front of us to take them! In 48 hours, you WILL meet back here. You get one point for every glowing seal you turn in to us!"

"Ooooooh, that's evil," Noburi mumbled. Keiko nodded in mute agreement.

"What?" Hazou asked, perplexed.

"Hm? Oh, right, you wouldn't have seen these. Uh, how to put this..." Noburi mused. "They're night-light seals. Put them in a kid's room if they're scared of the dark, use them instead of candles, that kind of stuff. More a way to show off your clan's wealth and sophistication than anything practical.

"They're one-use," he managed to murmur dramatically, "and they only stay lit for twenty-four hours."

"AAAAAAAND," the proctor shouted, "BEGIN!!!"