As the mist faded, the first thing Yuhi searched for was the chunin. Among the cardinal rules of combat was never letting the enemy out of sight. She held the bell tight and rang it again while her eyes scoured the ground, darting among the trees. Her sight finally landed on the chunin, who now had a short sword stabbed through the back and a kunai dug into the throat.

Takuma pulled the kunai out. The blood spurted as the chunin’s body fell to the side. Takuma and Uchiha, still alert, stared down at the chunin for a few more moments before Takuma pressed his foot into the chunin’s throat for a few seconds before pulling back. It was gruesome, disrespectful, and made her stomach squirm.

Her hold on the bell lightened; she no longer needed to ring it. As she dropped down from the tree, Takuma disappeared using the Body Flicker Jutsu. She jogged to Uchiha, her eyes sticking to the dead body.

“Where did he go?” she asked.

“He went to check up on Inuzuka and the Minoru.”

Yuhi noticed that the Uchiha was breathing heavily. The sheen of sweat had almost cleared the blood and dirt on his face. Then she saw his eyes. The tired but deep red eyes of the Uchiha clan stared at her.

“Y-You… your Sharingan.” She knew that he didn’t possess it already.

“Huh, w-what?” Uchiha's hand went to his face. It seemed he hadn’t noticed. Yuhi pulled a pocket mirror from her weapons pouch and held it before his face. The Uchiha looked stunned as he stared into the mirror with his eyes widened. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times before he got the words out. “I did it…. I did it…. Thank god, I did it…”

He looked relieved as though a burden had been lifted off his shoulder. He laughed a weak chuckle as he stared at the sky. When he looked back down, the eyes had reverted to their original onyx color, and he looked exhausted like he could fall down the next moment.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

He nodded. “Yeah, just tired.” He then sat down on the ground and stared at the dead chunin. “We did it,” he said. “We killed the bastard… and survived.”

“We did,” she said.

She noticed the short sword in the chunin’s back belonged to Uchiha. He had been on the ground, risked his life, and from the looks, had landed the killing blow to the chunin…. While she had hidden in the trees, ringing a damn bell again and again without knowing if it was working.

When Fuma gave her the bell and told Takuma would know what to do with it, she was confused. But it immediately struck her. A bell. A bell for the Genjutsu: Bell Sound Clone. Takuma wanted her to ring the bell for him.

She was deeply skeptical about Takuma’s plan working. Bell Sound Clone was an auditory genjutsu and used the sound from the bell as the carrier of the chakra. She didn’t think the plan would work because the bell was so far away from Takuma, and he had no control over the bell. For the genjutsu to work, the user had to load the sound waves with the chakra, and for the user to do that, they needed to know when the sound was produced. Takuma had outsourced that job, trusting her to do it for him— he was lucky that she knew to ring the bell at equal intervals so that Takuma could count mentally to know when the next ring was coming.

Most importantly, lacing the sound with chakra was easier when the source was close. With her ringing the bell and Takuma moving constantly in battle, the simple task of imbibing sound waves with chakra shot up in difficulty.

“Did Takuma put the chunin in a genjutsu?” she asked. The fog from the Hidden Mist Jutsu obstructed her view of anything that was happening inside, so she didn’t know if the plan was successful.

“I don’t know,” he said. “It was very hazy, but I saw the chunin standing still, so I took the chance. Wait, I remember now; the chunin asked Takuma if it was a genjutsu. Takuma nodded after he stabbed him in the throat.”

Yuhi’s eyes widened. It worked. Takuma pulled it off. He had managed to pull off the genjutsu while being in a disadvantageous position; not only was he gathering the chunin’s focus on his own, the difficulty of casting the genjutsu had gone up due to the situation. But even in those circumstances, Takuma had managed to pull it off.

And she was supposed to be the genjutsu specialist in the group, Yuhi thought bitterly.

———

.

Arisu dragged her feet towards Yuhi and Uchiha. Her arm was killing her; she was hit directly by an earth bullet in her shoulder, and it had all but disabled it for the moment. She could tell it would take medical help and some physical therapy on top of it to get full functionality back.

“Yuhi, check him for injuries,” said Arisu. She placed a small scroll on the floor and weaved a release seal. A puff of smoke later, a full-sized field emergency medical kit sat over the open scroll.

Yuhi had Uchiha lay down and begin treating the ‘Damage’ team member. As Arisu turned to walk away, Yuhi called out,

“What about you?”

“I’m fine. Go look at Akimichi as well. I’m going to see how the others are doing.”

She located Yamanaka looking after Nenro and Masaaki. Both were lying unconscious on the ground. On the other hand, Yamanaka was sitting beside them, holding his head with a pained look on his face.

“Are you injured?” she asked.

“No, no, I… I’m fine,” Yamanaka replied with a groan. “I overdrew my hand. Taking over five of you was a strain. None of you were actually cooperative with me.”

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Yamanaka had taken control over the bodies of Arisu, Nenro, Masaaki, Akimchi, and Uchiha at least once during the fight, getting them out of the danger’s way or alerting them of risky situations. Arisu didn’t like someone else taking control over her body and instinctually resisted, but she recognized Yamanaka’s contribution— he had probably, at the very least, prevented serious injuries, deaths even. She shivered at the thought that there were Yamanaka who could take over minds and bodies without the person ever realizing they were possessed.

“Especially him,” Yamanaka pointed at Nenro. “He really didn’t like me in his body.”

“It’s an uncomfortable feeling,” said Arisu, “but thank you for everything.”

Yamanaka waved her off. “Everyone had a role. I just played mine. And I’m okay not being in front, facing that monster,” he said.

Arisu nodded. She might not have been completely detached from the fight like Yamanaka, but she was more than comfortable snipping at the chunin with her Baby and explosive tags from a distance. She had gone close when Nenro and Masaaki had gone down and understood what risk everyone was facing.

“Can you carry them? Yuhi’s doing emergency treatment. I can take one of them.” One of her shoulders was still good.

“No, I’ll take them both,” he said, glancing at her bloody shoulder.

They returned to where Yuhi was treating Uchiha and Akimichi. Takuma hadn’t returned yet. Her eyes went to the chunin. Blood leaking from the neck had pooled around the head and shoulder. She shivered when the intrusive thought of the chunin getting up and killing them all before they could react flashed past her mind.

“He’s dead. I checked his pulse,” Uchiha said. Arisu gave him a nod.

Arisu had been working with Takuma since he exited training and entered active duty. They had gotten closer when she joined him in the Narcotics Taskforce— working under him as his second-in-command made her privy to much of Takuma’s day.

She knew that he woke up early in the morning to train every day, and he showered at home, but for the past few months, he had been showering at the office because he had been training more in the morning because he had to cut short his after-work short as he had started working late. She even trained with him in the morning a day or two every month, and Takuma trained early, and he trained hard— called it a habit instilled into him.

But not once in the spars or raids had Takuma ever shown that he could use the Hidden Mist Jutsu. So when the heavy fog covered the field, her vigilance had shot up, thinking it was the chunin either trying to escape or, worse, wiping them out while they couldn’t see. But as it turned out, it was Takuma.

She was well aware of how dangerous Takuma was in the field. They had been on plenty of raids and arrests for her to know how Takuma operated. Setting leadership aside, Takuma was aggressive as a combatant. He gave one chance for surrender before ensuring none had any attention to resist by using force that bordered on excessive.

A point that they had discussed and fought over multiple times. Keeping him in check had become part of her job. A job she had done well; they had complaints, but she had made sure nothing stuck. The Narcotics Taskforce was a new initiative, one led by a genin— they had to be careful how they operated. Takuma was a good leader, a better manager, but no one could be perfect. Thankfully, Takuma wasn’t a one-man department, and everyone covered each other’s backs.

“Looks like everyone’s gathered.”

Everyone looked to see Takuma emerge from behind a tree. He was supporting Minoru, who was limping, his foot bleeding from a nasty cut. Beside them, Inuzuka and his ninken were dragging three people behind them.

“Are they dead?” asked Arisu.

“Two of them,” said Inuzuka as he sat down on the ground. His ninken settled in his lap.

Arisu walked to Minoru. “Are you alright?” she asked.

“I… think I’m going to stick to being a sensory-nin,” Minoru said with a pained look.

Arisu chuckled.

“You need to improve your combat abilities,” Takuma interjected with a frown. “You can train with me once a week in the morning if you want. Give me a year, and I’ll make sure you won’t die in the field.”

Arisu chuckled as she shook her head. Takuma had been trying to train Minoru for months now, but the latter refused to accept Takuma’s offer because Minoru knew he would be trapped if he accepted.

“Arisu, lie down. You’re bleeding,” Takuma said as he laid Minoru down.

“So are you,” she said but followed the instructions.

Takuma poked her in the shoulder, and she yelped in pain. “What the fuck!?” she hissed at him.

“I can still move my arms,” Takuma chuckled. “You did a good job out there. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.”

“I know; you should thank me more,” she said.

Takuma smiled as he disinfected her wound.

Arisu stared at Takuma. After a moment of silence, she said,

“Thank you.”

———

.

Uchiha Gouki stared down at the ground. He didn’t have the energy to lift his head or even raise his eyes. All he wanted was to sleep for a week and not do anything, which would be an appropriate way to spend time after a B-rank mission— but he knew he wouldn’t get to do that because the moment he revealed that he had activated his Sharingan, he wouldn’t be left alone for a week. There would be relatives coming home to congratulate him, the ceremony that happened after an Uchiha activated their Sharingan; all the preparation involved in that. He would be swamped for at least a week.

Just thinking about it made him tired. He contemplated holding back the news for a week before revealing it to his parents.

“Congratulations are in order.”

Gouki glanced at Arisu, lying on the ground, getting treated by Takuma.

He smiled. “I didn’t even know I had activated it. Yuhi had to tell me. The mist was so thick that I could barely see anything anyway.” Gouki glanced at Takuma. The Hidden Mist Jutsu was a known way to obstruct the Sharingan, but one required extraordinary skill in the jutsu to obstruct the Sharingan with great effectiveness.

Maybe it was because he had just activated it that Takuma was able to blind him even with the Sharingan activated… or Takuma was just that good with the Mist. He couldn’t say for sure.

“Will you be staying with us?” Takuma suddenly asked.

Gouki furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”

“Yes, what do you mean?” said Arisu.

“Well, with the Sharingan, your status in the clan has changed. Doors which were closed before are now open. You probably can get any opportunity you want right now. Which raises the question: will you stay with us or move on?” Takuma said as he continued to treat Arisu.

“Of course, he’ll be staying!” said Arisu.

“It’s not a sure thing,” said Takuma. “His situation has changed. He has new options in front of him now. He should take time to think them through and make the best decision for himself.”

“You don’t want me on the task force?” asked Gouki. It sounded like Takuma was trying to kick him out.

Takuma laughed. “Are you kidding me? An Uchiha with Sharingan; of course, I would want you on the team.” He looked up at Gouki. “But that might not be the best course of action for you. I care for everyone on the team and want to see the best for everyone. As the person in charge of the task force, I would hate to lose you, but as a teammate, I would have you doing what you deserve.” Takuma pointed at Gouki’s eyes with two fingers. “Those upgraded eyes of yours change the situation…. Think about it, Gouki.”

Gouki stared at Takuma, who moved on to treating Minoru.

He had been part of the Narcotics Taskforce from the very first raid on the Maiko Triad before Takuma had even floated the proposal. He had been there every step of the way. Seen their ups and downs and participated in their victories and losses. He had worked hard to make the Narcotics Taskforce what it was today.

He didn’t want to move, but as Takuma said, he now had more options and, indeed, had a choice ahead of him.

And just like him, Takuma too had a choice in front of him with the situation brewing back at home with the change of leadership, which was all but sure to happen, looming on the horizon.