"Sensei?" Hazō said. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure," Inoue said. She was in the middle of a slow, flowing kata that emphasized flexibility and precision over power. As she spoke she bent double as though ducking under a weapon slash, then rolled forward to tumble past the opponent before kicking backwards into an imaginary knee. "Whatcha got?" She walked up and over in a slow handspring that would have also been a kick to the face.

"I was thinking that it would be good for us to talk with the other elders," Hazō said. "Specifically, the Inoue and the Aida are the ones that hate us. If we went to them politely and asked them to teach us the ways of the village, it might generate some good will. It might help us not get attacked after the council meeting in two weeks."

Inoue rolled her eyes even as she slowly pivoted ninety degrees and dropped into Dragon Stretches Its Tail. "You want us to meet with Takahashi to talk about talking to the other elders?" she asked.

"...yes?" Hazō said, immediately regretting his decision. That was the same tone she'd used the last time she'd shot down one of his suggestions.

"You want us to meet with Takahashi, who just told us that we couldn't meet with him anymore?" Inoue asked, shifting through a slow leg sweep.

"Oh," Hazō said.

"And, assuming that we could get a meeting," Inoue said as she came up, stepped on an angle, and slowly jabbed a Crane's Beak into an imagined victim's ear, "the point of that meeting would be to get his approval to talk to the other elders...which is an inherently political action, which Takahashi explicitly told us to avoid. Takahashi, upon whose good will we are dependent in order to get Keiko the summoning training that is our entire purpose in this village?"

"Oh," said Hazō. "Um...yeah."

"Might I also point out," Inoue said, "that virtually the first thing Yoshida ever said to us was that we should not speak to any of the elders? Yoshida, who is probably our second-strongest ally in the village after Takahashi?"

"Yes, sensei," Hazō said, blushing to the roots of his hair. "Uh...I don't suppose you could sneak in and see him?"

"Probably," Inoue said. "I haven't seen anything that would keep me out, anyway. And I could definitely get a message to him by slipping it onto one of his family members when they're out and about in the village. What's the point, though? He doesn't want us talking to the other elders, so he's not going to approve the idea." She leaned back, arms pulling invisible kunai from forearm holsters and swinging her upper body in a throat-slashing circle. "We could send him a message asking what the deal is with this trial, but if he'd wanted us to know that he would have just told us at the previous meeting."

She straightened and turned, hands floating delicately to her sides as her stance relaxed. She bowed, left palm over right fist, and then grabbed a towel to wipe off the sweat.

"Speaking of trials and our theoretical allies not telling us squat," Inoue said. "I'm done with this bullshit. Keiko is supposed to do some life-threatening trial, but they won't tell us what it is? Screw that. Tonight I'm going to go scout out the shrine so we know what she's probably walking into. In the meantime, I want to get everyone together and talk about how we're going to prepare her. I'm going to grab a quick bath, why don't you put some tea on? As soon as I'm out, let's all talk."

Hazō perked up. "Yes, sensei!" he said. He turned, trotted to the grill that they used for cooking, and started ladling charcoal into the carefully-preserved embers.

o-o-o-o

"Run the list again," Inoue said.

Keiko nodded and started tapping the various storage scrolls and containers that were strapped to her body. Left and right thigh, outside: "Two kunai with explosive tags." Front of left thigh: "Storage scroll, thirty kunai, non-explosive." Front of right thigh: "Rolled up cloth containing thirty explosive tags."

The list went on and on. The most immediate, combat-oriented items were easily accessible on arms and legs—although, interestingly, not in the waist pouches that would normally be used, as Kagome had strongly vetoed the idea before wandering off muttering to himself. The backpack was full of storage scrolls containing utility items. Food, water, messkit, lamp oil, entrenching tool, padded grappling hook and rope, climbing claws, writing materials, animal blood, two sets of clothes in separate scrolls, plenty of ninja wire, some of Kagome's bomb boxes, tripwire seals, and Force Wall seals. ("Don't put 'em in a storage seal," Kagome had said. "It would be stupid. Set your face on fire stupid. Don't seal the backpack, because that would put the seals in storage and that would be stupid. Boom, squash, stupid. Honestly. Stupid.") Everyone turned out their own equipment stashes, sorted through them, and offered contributions. Everything the team's fertile (and, in Kagome's case, paranoid) imaginations could come up with that might possibly be useful was included. In each case, Keiko reached for the correct thing each time and was able to identify the individual storage scrolls in the pack by touch.

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"Okay," Inoue said with a pleased smile. "I'd say that's about as prepared as we can get you in terms of equipment. Let's—"

"No," Kagome said firmly. "It's not."

Inoue looked at him in surprise; the sealmaster lost his confident tone and fidgeted. "Got a couple more things," he muttered, looking at his feet.

Inoue smiled. "And what that be, O crazy-prepared sealmaster?" she asked.

Kagome shrugged uncomfortably, still looking at the ground. "Don't want those stinkers getting her," he said. He shuffled through his backpack and pulled out a wooden scroll case painted white and covered in red danger marks.

"This is a stupid box," he said, holding it firmly and not extending it yet. "Wooden box, full of hot coals. Tossed a couple waterskins in. One's full of lamp oil, one's water. Closed the box and sealed it real fast. When you unseal it the skins burn through, the oil ignites, the water turns to steam, the whole thing explodes and sets everything on fire. Dangerous. Burn your face off as soon as look at you. Unpredictable, might go off instantly, might take a couple of seconds. Good thing to have, though. Area denial, distraction, real good at turning any stinkers that might be following you into screaming charcoal. Also good for burning down buildings, as long as you aren't in 'em. Be careful, yeah? Scroll gets damaged, the stupid box will pop out, boom, flaming everything, screaming, pain and death." He extended the scroll case to Keiko. She took it with all due care and tucked it into her backpack.

"Thank you, Kagome," she said, bowing to him.

"Same from me," Inoue said, giving him a quick hug. "I'm sure it makes you nervous for someone else to be carrying something like that near you. It's really good of you to trust us."

Kagome blushed and fidgeting in embarrassment, staring at his shoes the whole time. "Like I said, can't let the stinkers get her," he said. "She's on my team." He stood silent a moment longer, then nodded to himself and reached into his backpack again, pulling out a rolled-up leather belt in Keiko's size. It was twin to the one that Kagome himself wore.

"Made this for you," he said, not looking at her as he held it out.

Keiko unrolled the belt and studied it. Six wooden disks were affixed around the perimeter of the belt, each within easy grabbing range. Each one was held in place by a few threads—secure enough against normal use, but easy to rip free.

"Explosive seals on the back of each disk," Kagome explained. "Variable timer. One, five, ten meter radius from front to back. Use the small ones if you're in close, bigger ones at range. Don't have to hit the stinker, just get it near him."

"Thank you," Keiko said, smiling. "This must have taken you a lot of time to make."

Kagome shrugged and fidgeted. "Look at the inside," he suggested.

Keiko turned the belt over and examined the other side.

Affixed to the interior of the belt was one long strip of paper filled with a single carefully-drawn seal.

"Shaped charge," Kagome muttered. It sounded like he was having to force his teeth open to let each word out. "Invented them about ten years ago. All the force is one way, so you can set them off in contact with your body and not get hurt. If you get jumped by a whole group of stinkers, get into the middle of them and trip that. Five meter radius. Just make sure your arms are up high. It's a ten degree cone, you don't want your hands getting caught in it."

Keiko blinked in surprise and looked at Inoue, then at the rest of the team. All of them were staring, slack-jawed. This was the kind of secret technique that one did not reveal to others.

Kagome shuffled his feet, then glanced up at Keiko, a worried expression on his face. "It works, I promise," he said defensively. "It's safe, as long as you keep your arms up."

"No, I mean, I..." Keiko stammered. "I believe you. Thank you, Kagome. This is a very generous gift." She bowed deeply.

Kagome blushed hard. "Made one for each of you," he muttered, pulling out the promised items and holding them out. "Might help. Just be careful. Don't be near friendlies when you trip it. Remember, five meter radius."

The team took their belts and tied them on with sincere thanks.

"Is that what I felt on your arm?" Inoue asked. "Back in the village, when I touched your arm, there was something there."

Kagome nodded and pulled up his sleeve, revealing skin aside from face and hands for the first time since the team had known him. Strapped to his arm was a harness that ran from mid-forearm back. Affixed to the harness at various points were a series of small wooden disks, each tied firmly into place. "Shaped charges all over," he said, in the same tone a child would use to admit he'd been into the cookie jar. "One stinker, mob of stinkers, doesn't matter. Boom, squash."

"Kagome, that is amazing," Inoue said. "You're brilliant."

Kagome shrugged, looking at his feet again. "Never been much good in a fight," he said. "Had to figure something else out. Not really that amazing. Anyone could have done it."

Inoue laughed and pulled him down so she could kiss his cheek. "Well, I think it's amazing, and it's really sweet of you to make them for us. Now come on, it's time for dinner and I'm going to make something special as a thank you."

o-o-o-o

It was well past sundown when Inoue slipped out of the cave, leaving a very nervous Hazō and Noburi on guard. Neither of the genin were much interested in talking. Noburi practiced his bloodline, one finger in a bucket containing fish that he'd caught earlier in the day. Hazō tried to meditate while watching the cave entrance, but ended up pacing back and forth instead.

By the time she slid back into the cave, Hazō had turned the hourglass four times and was right on the edge of exploding into a giant tangle of nerves.

"Sensei, you made it!" he said, loudly enough that everyone jerked awake. "What happened? What took so long? I thought you'd been caught!"

She laughed. "What, you didn't have faith in your amazing jōnin-sensei?" she asked teasingly.

Hazō quickly backpedaled. "No, I mean, yes, I had faith, I just didn't...I mean...uh...."

"Relax, kid," she told him, clapping him on the shoulder and dipping a skin into the cistern. She bent over and brushed her hair out of the way so she could pour the chill water over the back of her neck. She yelped with the cold, then straightened up and took a drink from the skin before giving a satisfied sigh and plopping down on the ground.

"Ahhh," she said. "I always enjoy a good stalk, but it's nice to be back afterwards too." She poured a bit of water onto a cloth and started scrubbing her face to remove the soot she'd used as camouflage.

"So," she said. "Interesting news. I found the shrine and got a good look." She pulled out some paper and started sketching. "Remember our friend who said they didn't keep much of a guard anymore? Well, he's a bit behind the times. Six ninja: two at the door, two pairs walking the perimeter. Each ninja has a pair of tapirs with him. I didn't actually go inside, but here's the approaches and the outside layout...."