Noburi was careful to arrive promptly for his date. He came through the door and stopped dead as he beheld the most terrifying sight he'd ever seen.

Yuno was wearing a dress. And makeup. And not wearing her axe.

"The day has become quite lovely," Yuno said, fidgeting nervously.

Inoue-sensei had spent endless hours henged into Yuno's form, drilling him on how to (not) react to whatever might happen and what the appropriate responses and actions would be in almost any situation. This situation had very much not been covered, but there was at least a default option he could fall back on.

"It is indeed a very pleasant day," Noburi said. Only a faint widening of his eyes revealed the way his world had just been turned inside out. "I had thought to walk a bit."

Yuno's head came up and the room seemed to brighten as she almost literally glowed. "I had thought the same!" she said. "Maybe we could—"

The governess in the corner coughed reprovingly.

Yuno's glow vanished. "Um...."

Noburi frowned at the governess; Yuno's smile came back. "I had thought to go fishing," he said. "Would you be kind enough to tell me where the fish might be?" This had been possibly one of the stranger aspects of the romance training that he'd been given by Ms Scary Lady. (As he mentally thought of the old woman whom the Kannagi had assigned to be his tutor.) Apparently, hunting was not considered a suitable activity for a date because it involved blood. Fishing, on the other hand, was highly approved of; it was clean (as long as you kept the caught fish alive while you were still fishing) and the fish could be eaten afterwards, so the date was actually productive time. Of course, it was also a high-risk activity. Asking someone on a fishing date and catching plenty of fish showed that you were a good provider and made you desirable. Not catching fish could sink the relationship right there.

Any Wakahisa who couldn't catch fish would have been laughed out of the clan.

Yuno's eyes were very large. "I, um, uh, yes. You want to— Um—"

Noburi started to panic. "Not if you don't want to!" he said. "Maybe something else? Um, we could, ah—"

"No, fishing would be excellent!" Yuno said. "Yes, definitely! I know a good spot! I'll get my things!" She hoisted her dress up to her knees and bolted out of the room.

The governess sighed and rubbed her temples.

o-o-o-o

"This is a beautiful spot," Noburi said sincerely. It really was; the river bent south here for a few hundred meters before resuming its usual west-to-east path. The embankment was grassy and gently sloped, and a small eddy meant that the water moved only very slowly, so it remained clear and smooth. The only downside was that the still water was a pleasant vacation home for mosquitos that apparently considered Wakahisa blood to be haute cuisine. On the upside, the prevalence of insects meant that the fish were jumping.

Yuno finished setting up the last of her six lines. It had taken several attempts, as the unfamiliar clothes restricted her movements. The first two casts of her lines had gotten tangled when the skirt tripped her; she'd nearly fallen on her nose, but fortunately Noburi had caught her.

Once she had the lines placed and pegged down, she looked at Noburi uncertainly. "You don't have a line with you?" she asked.

Noburi's fingers flicked through some handseals. He knelt at the edge of the water, resting his palm lightly on the surface. "My clan fishes a little differently than most," he said.

Ripples spread out across the surface as half a dozen gasping fish floated up from the depths. A shimmering tendril of water erupted from the water, slapping them up onto the grass one after another. Noburi paused long enough to pick them up and dump them in the water-filled tub he and Yuno had brought for that purpose, then settled down next to the Kannagi girl. The fish twitched weakly for a few seconds until their chakra recovered from Noburi's drain, then began swimming in angry circles, clearly feeling that someone, somewhere, had cheated.

Yuno laughed gleefully.

o-o-o-o

Not too far away, Hazō and Akane crouched, keeping watch on their teammate. They looked around quickly as the bushes rustled and two Kannagi ninja emerged.

"Hi," the older one said, giving the two a friendly nod.

"Hey there," Hazō said, carefully suppressing any hint of uncertainty. "How's it going?"

The senior ninja shrugged. "Can't complain," he said. He looked at the couple fishing on the river bank. "Mr Kannagi thought maybe we should keep an eye on Ms Yuno," he said. "The Gasai have been causing some trouble. They blame us for the council change."

The younger ninja snorted. "Idiots," he muttered. His senior gave him a quelling glare.

"Oh," Hazō said. "That's probably a good idea, yeah."

"I'm Kannagi Hibiki," the senior said. "This is Kannagi Kiyoshi. I thought we should stop by to congratulate you."

Hazō frowned and looked at Akane, who was just as puzzled as he was. "For what?" he said.

Hibiki looked surprised. "Well, for finally walking out together," he said, gesturing back and forth between the two foreign ninja. "We've seen you sparring together all this time, but it's nice to see that you're finally taking your relationship to the next level. It's a little late in the year—the baby will come next fall—but that's fine."

Akane blushed so hard it was amazing the air didn't ignite around her. Hazō went pale and stammered.

"We're not/That's not—" they said together, before cutting themselves off and looking at one another. "You've got it wrong/No, no—"

Hibiki smiled knowingly and patted Hazō on the shoulder. "It's fine," he said. "My wife and I had a few illicit meetings when we started courting. If you haven't told your clan head yet, I promise I won't say anything."

"That's not—" Hazō said. "We aren't courting!"

The younger ninja frowned. "Then why are the two of you walking alone by the river?"

"We're keeping an eye on our teammate!" Hazō said, while Akane nodded hard enough to snap her own neck.

Hibiki eyed them knowingly. "Mm-hm," he said.

"We are!" Akane said.

"Absolutely," Hibiki said, waving the issue aside. "Whatever you say."

"No, really!" Hazō said.

"I believe you," Hibiki said, clearly not believing.

"I don't," the younger ninja muttered.

"In any case," Hibiki said. "We should leave you to get back to your...activities. "We'll go watch from upriver a bit. Have fun." He gathered Kiyoshi up by eye and the two of them vanished into the brush.

Neither Hazō nor Akane were able to look at each other for the rest of Noburi's painfully long date.

o-o-o-o

When they finally made it back to the fort, Akane made a point of staying outside 'to train' while Hazō quickly ducked inside to do absolutely anything that didn't involve being near his apprentice. Fortunately, it wasn't long before Keiko and Inoue-sensei returned from Keiko's latest training session with Takahashi. Keiko took one look at the agitated Hazō and went outside to join Akane. Inoue knelt down and started putting a soup together for dinner. Hazō gratefully took the opportunity to babble out everything he'd been thinking lately that was not Akane-related.

"...but before that, I think you should talk to Takahashi about whether we can deal with Aida," Hazō concluded.

Inoue stared at him for several very long seconds. "Just to get this straight," she said. "You want us to try to build a connection with the Aida by offering to heal their clan head."

Hazō nodded, feeling pretty pleased with himself. "Yup," he said. "We need to involve ourselves more in the life of the village. You said it yourself—there's too many agendas, too much behind-the-scenes maneuvering. We should make contacts and start to get a handle on it."

"And part of what you want us to negotiate with the Aida for is building warm winter shelters and making winter clothes," she said, stirring the soup.

A tiny little warning bell started ringing in the back of Hazō's mind. "Yes...?" he said.

"Uh-huh," Inoue said. "Now, before we reach out to the Aida, you want us to ask Takahashi's permission."

The warning bell got louder. "Yes?" Hazō said.

"Takahashi, the one who told us to stay completely out of village politics," Inoue said, still not looking at him. She dipped a bit of the soup out and tried it, shook her head, and tossed in another pinch of rosemary.

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"Uh...," Hazō said.

The light dimmed as Kagome came in, momentarily blocking the door. He was carrying an armful of firewood large enough that he could barely see over it. He glanced at Hazō, standing uncomfortably by the fire, then dumped the wood in the corner before starting to quickly stack it on the cord that he'd already put there.

"What's up with the kid?" Kagome asked Inoue.

"He thinks we should ask the Aida for help winterproofing our quarters," Inoue said.

Kagome frowned and straightened up, absently brushing his hands off. "Why?" he said. "I've been living in the woods for fifteen years, I think I can winterproof a shelter."

"...oh," Hazō said.

Kagome peered at him in confusion for a moment, then shrugged and went outside to get more wood.

"Um...the clothes?" Hazō said weakly.

"I told you back in the lake town that I could do seamstress work," Inoue said. "I've got a sewing kit, and I'm pretty sure we can trade with the villagers for furs or whatever else we need. If not, we can hunt it ourselves."

"Oh," said Hazō.

"I appreciate the thought, though," Inoue said. "Nice to see you thinking ahead."

"Right," Hazō said. "Um...so, I guess we don't need to talk to the Aida?"

Inoue tasted the soup again, then tossed in another pinch of their steadily dwindling supply of salt. "No, that's a good plan," she said. "We'll just offer them healing, we won't make a big thing of it. You, Noburi, and I should go talk to them about it tomorrow morning. Speaking of which, how did his date go? Did you see anything interesting while you were on overwatch?"

Hazō froze.

o-o-o-o

Mrs Aida's hunting injury proved to be severe; her thigh had gotten badly torn up by something, although the clan was very tight-lipped about exactly what had happened. Given nothing but village medicine, she would never have walked again. Noburi wasn't able to restore her completely, but he got her to the point where she had only a bit of a limp and was still able to function as a ninja. It didn't entirely reverse the clan's stance on these heathen missing-nin, but it definitely mellowed things out. More importantly, it netted the team the thing they had most wanted: the perfect present for Kagome.

o-o-o-o

It was mid-morning on the 18th when Hazō came to find Kagome. Winter had settled in with a firm grasp; there was snow on the ground and the wind was picking up day by day. Kagome and Akane were in the woods, gathering even more firewood. The fort was already packed to the rafters with it, but Kagome insisted that they couldn't have too much.

"Naito-sensei?" Hazō called. "Where are you?"

"Over here!" Akane called, a sudden grin splitting her face.

Hazō turned and caught sight of them, trotting over through the ankle-deep snow. Kagome frowned, one hand automatically going into his belt pouch as his apprentice closed the distance.

"What's wrong?" Kagome demanded. "Is there a problem? Are the villagers attacking?"

Hazō shook his head, smiling. "No, sensei," he said. "I'm here to invite you to your birthday party."

"What."

Hazō laughed; Noburi owed him five ryo. "Today is your birthday, sensei," he said. "We're having a party to celebrate. We have presents for you!"

Kagome's hand came out of his explosives pouch and hung limply at his side. He looked at Akane's delighted grin. Then looked at Hazō. Then at Akane.

"Party?" he asked.

Hazō chuckled. "Come on, sensei," he said. "Everyone's waiting. Here, let me get that." He flicked off a few handseals and summoned up an earth clone to carry the firewood that Kagome and Akane had gathered so that the three real people could get back to camp faster.

Kagome followed along, still seeming utterly baffled. When they arrived at the fort he stopped dead; the door was sealed off with an Earth Wall and everyone was standing out front with smiles on their faces and full packs on their backs.

"You lot haven't been eaten by a swarm of lupchanz, have you?" Kagome asked suspiciously.

"I promise we haven't," Inoue said, walking forward slowly with her arms extended. "You can check if you want. Now c'mere and let me hug you, birthday boy." She stopped a few feet away, offering the hug without forcing it on him.

Kagome's eyes flicked around like a nervous horse's for another moment, but slowly he extended his arms. Inoue stepped into him and hugged him so tight he oofed. She was so much shorter that her head was pressed tight into his chest, her sunset-red hair spilling down her back in a sharp contrast to the light-brown furs that Kagome wore. Kagome was stiff as a board for long seconds but, when Inoue refused to release him, he eventually put his arms around her as carefully as though she were made of spun sugar.

Eventually Inoue released the hug. With a big smile she grabbed his shoulder and pulled him down to her level so she could buss him soundly on the cheek.

"Happy birthday, my friend," she said, cupping his face with both hands. His eyes were big as saucers. "Our lives are better because you are in them."

"Uh..." he said.

Inoue laughed and let go. "C'mon," she said. "It's cold out, and I want some soup." She took him by the elbow and towed him back to the others. "Now, we have presents for you. Typically they'd be a surprise, but we don't want you to be nervous so I'll tell you what they are if you want. I promise they aren't dangerous and I'm pretty sure you'll like them. Do you want to know, or can we surprise you?"

"Uh..." he said, fidgeting nervously. "No? I mean yes. I mean, you can surprise me, I guess."

She hugged his arm tight. "Good!" she said. "Okay, well, in that case, come with us. Your first present is over by the mountain."

"Hold on, sensei," Akane said. "We get our hugs, too!" She bounced over to Kagome and glomped onto him. He staggered under the impact of muscular and enthusiastic girl, but smiled and hugged her back.

"Okay, that's enough!" Inoue said. "I'm freezing my very cute butt off out here! There can be more hugs once we get to the mountain." She grabbed Kagome's hand and trotted off, laughing and pulling him along behind her. He followed willingly enough, although he looked utterly bewildered. Pleased, but bewildered.

His bewilderment turned to amazement when Inoue tugged him into a small cave half a mile from the Aida clan leader's house. The cave had seemed only a couple meters deep and four or five wide; in actuality, the 'back' of the cave was a carefully sculpted Earth Wall. It didn't reach all the way across, meaning that there was a narrow gap on the left side. They slid through the gap, only to find another wall a meter deeper in, this one reaching from the left most of the way across to the right. Three more such baffles had them winding back and forth until they broke out into the actual cave.

It was big, maybe fifteen meters deep and ten wide, with an arched ceiling that reached nearly eight meters at the highest. The stone sucked the heat away, but the lack of wind left it feeling relatively warm compared to the outside. Several lanterns had been lit and placed at various strategic points through the cave, leaving the place bright enough that the team could look around.

The light glittered and danced across water-slicked walls that scattered the light in a thousand diamond sparkles. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, each speckled and whorled in green and blue and brown. Flowstone draperies on the walls showed layers of brown and white. The floor was rough and pitted, with dozens of stalagmites thrusting upwards like the teeth of some immense creature.

"What is this?" Kagome asked.

"Home," Hazō said quietly. "If you want it to be."

Kagome frowned. "What are you talking about?"

Keiko offered a rare smile. "You have been uncomfortable since we arrived here in Isan," she said. "In part because our quarters were more vulnerable to attack than you would have liked. In thanks for Noburi healing her, the Aida clan leader ceded us this cave. The clan has known about it for generations, but they've never used it—it's too wet for them to store things in or live in, and the entryway was large and straight so that the wind came right in, making it unsuitable even for kenneling the tapirs."

"Of course, they aren't us," Noburi said with a grin. "Hazō?"

Hazō tossed off a string of handseals and then dramatically raised his hands. At the back of the cave, a platform of stone half the width of the cave and five meters deep rose from the floor, forming a smooth surface. A second sheet of stone tore itself free of the back wall and angled up until it met the ceiling, creating a rainshield above the platform.

"My turn," Noburi said. He stepped to the platform and took a taijutsu stance, walking through the moves of a made-up and overblown kata full of shaking fists and fierce growls. "Water Releeaaaasse: Condense Water!" he shouted, hamming it up like a kabuki ninja going into battle.

Instantly, the surface of the platform was bone dry and Noburi was holding a globe of water the size of his two fists. He leaned forward, slurped from it as though it were a canteen just to be silly, then tossed it aside.

"Behold!" he said. "Dry!"

"And you saw that Hazō-sensei already put the baffles up in the entryway to keep the wind out and make the place defensible," Akane said.

"We figured we'd let you set up the defenses," Inoue said. "If you don't like it we'll go back to the fort, but we thought this could be good. Light and heat will be a little tricky since we can't afford to have much smoke, but I have some wind jutsu that we can use to herd the smoke out if it gets too bad."

Kagome was turning in a slow circle, staring around in wonder. "It's wonderful," he said, his voice wobbling a bit. "But what about food and water? Stinkers could park outside, leave us to die of thirst."

Inoue flashed him an urchin grin. "Wait right here," she said. She nodded at Hazō. "Do your thing." Without waiting for the genin to do anything, she turned and trotted out.

Hazō nodded to her retreating back and tossed off another Multiple Earth Wall jutsu. More walls rose up from the ground, forming a cistern two meters on a side and a meter deep.

Inoue was gone for under two minutes; when she returned it was in the company of half a dozen other Inoues, each of them carrying a pair of large, water-filled buckets.

"Look! Water!" they chorused. All seven of them poured their buckets into the new cistern, then six turned and trotted back out to fetch more.

"There's a good-sized stream about a hundred meters that way," the remaining Inoue—presumably the real one—said. "We can store as much water in here as we like, and Noburi is going to be pulling more out of the air all the time anyway. As to food, we'll hunt a lot before it gets too much colder and fill our storage scrolls. We can have months of supplies in here, no problem."

Kagome's eyes were brimming; he swiped at them with his sleeve and sniffled.

"Can I put explosive seals in the entryway?" he asked hopefully.

Silently, every single member of the team produced a wad of seals and held them out.

"I would also suggest setting up some of your Force Wall seals at an angle," Keiko said. "Set them at various heights on the way in and invaders would be likely to decapitate themselves."

Kagome swallowed hard as he collected the seals from each of them. He stood, clutching the wad of paper to his chest and looking around like a dog that had just wandered into the meat room and couldn't decide which piece to eat first.

"There's one more thing," Hazō said. From inside his tunic he produced a small velvet bag, which he offered to Kagome cradled in both hands.

Kagome took the bag from him and gave it a careful examination...or, at least, he started to. He paused after just a moment, looked at Hazō, looked at the rest of the team, and then opened the bag and looked in.

He went very still and swallowed hard before reaching inside and pulling out a small puzzle box made of a red wood that had been polished to a rich glow. The center of the top was etched with fine lines forming a lattice of hexagons and triangles. Each of the other sides had a series of fragmented lines on them, arranged in no particular pattern.

Kagome frowned at it for a moment, then blinked as he registered the trihexagonal pattern on the top. "Basket weave..." he said. His lip trembled.

"Well?" Inoue said. "Open it, silly!"

Akane touched the side closest to her. "The key to this side 'Youth'," she said.

"Ice," Keiko said, touching a third side.

"Water," said Noburi, pointing to a fourth.

"Earth," Hazō said, tapping a fifth.

"And mine is 'Heart'," Inoue said with a smile. "It should have been 'Heartbreaker', but that's a little too closely associated with me."

Kagome cleared his throat before starting to poke at the puzzle. He slid panels back and forth until each side showed the kanji for its key word. When the last one clicked into place he was able to slide the top of the box off.

Inside the box was a wooden tray, carved to hold a small inkstone, inkstick, and a very small silver-handled brush.

"It's going to need a lot of seals to properly defend that entryway," Inoue said. "We figured you'd need at least one full inkstone to make them." She smiled. "Also, look at the bottom of the stone."

Kagome pulled the inkstone out and turned it over. On the bottom was glued a piece of paper with a seal on it. A very familiar seal.

"It's a copy of the one that you stuck on my back when we first met," Hazō said. "I drew it, but you'll need to infuse it."

Kagome cleared his throat. "Thank you," he said, his voice hoarse. "This is...really nice. No one's...well, I mean, I've been in the woods so long...and, before that...thank you. Really."

"Oh, we're not quite done," Noburi said, laughing. "Keep looking."

"The tray lifts out," Akane hinted.

Kagome lifted the tray out with careful fingers, revealing a velvet-lined bottom in the center of which was a ring woven from five strands of hair: three black, one brown, and one flame-red.

"Happy birthday, Kagome," Inoue said, hugging him tightly. Moments later, Kagome found himself crushed in the center of a giant group hug.