I imagined Pepper bleeding in my arms. Akeno screaming while another Kokabiel stood over her. Mom disappearing for another ten years. Natasha finding Asia's body. Tsunade or Shizune waiting for me in a Konoha hospital room while some enemy prepared to finish what they had started.
Golden lightning crawled across my knuckles. I answered without hesitation. "I would crush them!"
Pressure gathered between my shoulder blades as my wings strained instinctively against the barrier separating them from the physical world. For half a heartbeat, eight enormous shadows stretched across the wall behind me despite there being nothing there to cast them.
My fingers curled against the table. "If anyone hurt one of you, I'd hunt them down. I wouldn't care where they ran, what world they hid in, or who stood between us. I'd make sure they could never touch my family again."
Shuri nodded once. "Exactly."
The shadows behind me vanished.
Shuri's violet eyes glistened, but her voice never wavered. "That is precisely how every person sitting at this table feels about you, my brave and kind son!"
My anger collapsed beneath the simple truth of her words.
Shuri's wrist suddenly flicked. Her chopsticks crossed the table before I could react and struck me directly between the eyebrows.
I recoiled and pressed one hand to my forehead. "Ow!"
Shuri pointed at me with the hand that had thrown them. "That was for believing that you have the right to decide whether or not we can help you!"
I opened my mouth. Nothing came out. She was right. It was an extremely inconvenient time for my mother to be right, but that didn't make her any less right.
Akeno covered her smile with one hand. "Mother's chopstick throwing technique remains as precise as ever… That brings back memories."
Shuri held out her empty hand expectantly. "Someone give me another pair. I may need to reinforce the lesson."
I leaned back in my chair before my mother could acquire additional ammunition.
Pepper's hand remained wrapped around my wrist. Her thumb moved against my pulse, and the worry in her eyes hadn't disappeared, but something warmer now existed beside it.
No one at the table had withdrawn their offer. Not even Asia, although the thought of bringing her anywhere near Pain made every protective instinct in my body scream in protest.
JARVIS's cultured voice emerged from the speakers before anyone could resume the argument. "Mr. Himejima, Mr. Stark has requested that you join him in the laboratory."
I had never been more grateful for Tony's pathological inability to remain at the dinner table.
I pushed my chair back and rose before Mom received replacement chopsticks. "I should probably see what he wants."
Pepper gave me a knowing look. "This conversation isn't over."
I bent down and kissed her forehead. "I suspected it wasn't."
Shuri narrowed her eyes at my attempted escape. "We will discuss the rescue plan when you return."
I backed away from the table with my hands raised. "A plan that does not automatically involve every person I love charging into the Rain Village."
Akeno folded her arms beneath her large chest. "We will negotiate." Her tone suggested the negotiations would begin with her receiving everything she wanted and end with me admitting she had been right.
I turned toward the private elevator before anyone else could volunteer for war.
The doors opened immediately.
As they closed behind me, I caught one final glimpse of my family around the table. Pepper was watching me with worried affection. Akeno had already leaned toward Rias and begun whispering something. Natasha appeared to be calculating military variables in her head. Asia still looked devastated by the idea of someone stealing Konan's memories.
Mom was calmly accepting another pair of chopsticks.
The doors sealed before she could test her aim again.
The elevator descended several floors beneath the penthouse and opened into Tony's laboratory.
Music played through hidden speakers, loud enough to fill the enormous room but not quite loud enough to drown out the machinery. Robotic arms moved around an incomplete suit of red-and-gold armor suspended over one of the work platforms. Holographic windows filled the air above Tony's central workstation.
Half of them displayed equations I couldn't begin to understand.
The other half showed what appeared to be Tony's increasingly spiteful attempt to reverse-engineer the Danger Room from my verbal description.
A wireframe city rotated above the desk. Several simulated buildings flickered, lost structural integrity, and collapsed into geometric fragments.
Tony stabbed one finger at the hologram. "No, the force fields need to provide tactile resistance before the visual projection finishes rendering."
JARVIS's voice emerged from the nearest speaker. "Sir, that would require anticipating the user's physical interaction before it occurs."
Tony waved dismissively at the ceiling. "Then anticipate harder."
JARVIS paused for a fraction of a second. "An inspiring scientific directive, sir."
Tony finally noticed me standing beyond the workbench. He looked up and gave me a short, deliberate nod. It was a simple acknowledgment from one man to another.
I returned the nod and approached the workstation.
Tony closed several holographic windows with a sweep of his hand. "Kid."
I stopped on the other side of the workbench. "Tony."
Tony gestured toward one of the cameras embedded in the laboratory wall. "I heard everything."
My eyes moved toward the camera. "Of course you did."
Tony shrugged without a trace of shame. "My house. My cameras. My potentially apocalyptic family discussions."
JARVIS's calm voice drifted from overhead. "For legal clarity, Mr. Himejima, passive security monitoring is limited to shared areas of the penthouse."
I looked toward the ceiling. "That was almost reassuring."
Tony crossed to a miniature refrigerator hidden beneath one of the counters. "Ignore him. He's still annoyed that I asked him to hack an alien supercomputer we haven't located yet."
JARVIS's voice became infinitesimally drier. "Locating a nonexistent target is traditionally considered a prerequisite for hacking it, sir."
Tony opened the refrigerator. "That sounds like quitter talk." Tony pulled out two bottles of beer and tossed one across the lab. "Catch."
I caught it automatically. The cold bottle slapped against my palm.
I examined the label with suspicion. "You remember that I have almost no alcohol tolerance, right?"
Tony twisted the cap from his own bottle. "You're a Level Six adventurer interdimensional angel ninja. If one beer takes you down, I'm disowning you out of embarrassment."
I popped the cap and took a cautious swallow. The beer was cold, bitter, and considerably less offensive than the sake Tsunade usually tries to get me to drink with her.
I leaned against the edge of the workstation while Tony returned to his stool.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
The mechanical arms continued working behind him. Metal clicked against metal. Holographic equations rotated silently through the air. Somewhere deeper in the lab, a plasma cutter hissed to life.
Tony rolled the beer bottle between his palms. "I've had a couple of big failures in my life." The admission sounded strange coming from him.
Tony Stark could admit to making mistakes. He simply preferred to package those admissions inside jokes, sarcasm, or explanations for why the mistake had technically been someone else's fault.
There was none of that now.
Tony stared through the amber glass of his bottle. "I built weapons without caring enough about where they ended up. I trusted Obadiah long after I should have recognized what he was. I've nearly gotten people killed because my ego entered a room ten minutes before my common sense."
I took another swallow and remained quiet.
Tony's gaze shifted toward a darkened section of the laboratory. "But the failure I still think about every day is Yinsen."
The name settled heavily between us.
I remembered the cave in Afghanistan.
Tony rubbed his thumb over the side of the bottle. "He knew he wasn't leaving that cave. I didn't understand it until afterward, but he knew. His family was already dead. He had no one waiting for him outside, so he used whatever time he had left to make sure I got home."
Tony's mouth twisted into something that held no amusement. "He died buying me minutes."
I looked down at my beer.
Tony inhaled slowly before continuing. "Your mom performed the last rites. I watched something leave his body. I watched her guide him somewhere I couldn't follow, and she told me his family was waiting for him."
The machinery continued moving around us, but the laboratory suddenly felt much quieter.
Tony raised the bottle and stared at the light reflecting through it. "I know he's somewhere better. I know he's with the people he loves. I know he made his choice, and I know honoring that choice means doing something worthwhile with the life he gave me." Tony lowered the bottle. "None of that makes me feel completely at peace."
I nodded because I understood exactly what he meant. Knowing Konan had warned me away didn't make the guilt disappear. Knowing I would have died if I had charged after Pain and the masked man three months ago didn't change the fact that she had spent those months trapped while I built a life without her.
Knowing I had been too weak wasn't the same as forgiving myself for being weak.
I tightened my grip around the cold bottle. "That's how it feels."
Tony studied my face. "I know."
I looked toward him.
Tony nodded slowly. "You wonder whether you had the right to be happy while she was still trapped."
My throat tightened. "Yeah."
Tony leaned forward and rested both forearms against his thighs. "That guilt isn't going away because someone gives you a speech about accepting what you couldn't control. It might get quieter. It might stop waking you up. But there will always be a part of you wondering whether you could have done something differently. Whether you could have gone after her sooner than now."
I stared at him.
Tony tapped one finger against his bottle. "Ignore all of those thoughts and focus on right now." The blue glow from the holographic screens reflected across his face. Tony's expression hardened. Tony pointed the neck of his bottle toward me. "Now I'm going to give you some advice the hand-holding, forgiveness-fixes-everything pussies on cable news would crucify me for."
I lifted an eyebrow.
Tony maintained direct eye contact. "I'm not giving you this advice as Iron Man. I'm not giving it to you as Tony Stark, futurist, genius, billionaire, or international sex symbol."
I waited.
Tony's voice lost every trace of humor. "I'm giving it to you as your father."
The word hit harder than I expected.
Tony had joked about becoming my father before. He had called himself my stepfather, told me to call him Daddy just to watch me suffer, and acted as though joining our family was an inevitable merger he had already negotiated.
This was different. He wasn't performing for Mom, Pepper, or an audience. He was telling me exactly where he believed he stood.
I didn't look away.
Tony set his bottle on the workbench between us. "Sometimes you have to crush your enemies." Tony leaned closer. "You don't always knock them down, give them a speech about friendship, and hope they wake up with a better moral philosophy. Sometimes you stamp them out so completely that they can never come back for you, your family, or anyone else."
I thought about Scott unconscious beneath Xavier's mansion. I had also brought him up at the dinner table when I was telling everyone about my visit to Xavier's mansion.
Tony seemed to read the direction of my thoughts from my expression. Tony lifted one hand before I could object. "Scott is different. He was violated. Somebody reached into his head and turned him into a weapon. You recognized that, and you made the right call."
Tony's face became colder. "But this Pain guy? He stole Konan. He erased or altered her memories. He took away her choices and dragged her back into an organization she tried to leave. That wasn't confusion. That wasn't an accident. That was a decision."
My fingers tightened around my beer.
Tony stabbed one finger toward my chest. "When you and your terrifying psychic girlfriends finally face the asshole with the eyes of a god, make sure he never gets another chance."
Lightning whispered beneath my skin.
Tony's gaze didn't waver. "If those eyes can create a moon, rip them out of his face before you're finished. Destroy them, lock them in another dimension, put them through an industrial shredder—I don't care. Just don't leave a weapon like that lying inside a body because killing the bastard who used it makes you uncomfortable."
The brutality of the advice should have shocked me. It didn't.
The Elemental Nations had taught me exactly how dangerous stolen bloodlines could become. Ninja villages kidnapped children for their eyes, bones, chakra, or other inherited abilities. Kakashi possessed a Sharingan despite not being an Uchiha. Orochimaru had built half his life around stealing bodies and bloodlines.
If the Rinnegan could be transplanted, leaving Pain's eyes intact would be the same as abandoning a loaded nuclear weapon beside his corpse.
Tony picked up his bottle again. "Obadiah tried to have me killed. When that failed, he sent professionals after me. When your mother turned those professionals into modern art, he came back in a walking tank."
Tony took a long swallow. "Some people treat mercy as an opportunity to reload."
Every person I had killed flashed through my memory. The Kumo ninja whose chest my first Lightspear had pierced. Dohnaseek on the California highway. The exorcists and fallen angels who had tried to hurt my family. The criminal whose heart I had stopped with one poorly controlled punch.
I had killed before, but never like Tony was describing. Every death had occurred in the middle of a fight. Someone had been trying to kill me or another person. I had reacted, and sometimes my reaction had been lethal. I had never entered a battle already accepting that the enemy might need to die before it ended.
There was a difference between killing because I had no choice in one terrible second and deciding beforehand that allowing someone to survive would be too dangerous.
I stared down at the beer in my hand. "You're telling me to execute him."
Tony's jaw tightened. "I'm telling you not to lie to yourself about what kind of mission this could become."
I looked up.
Tony spread his hands. "The objective is bringing Konan home. If Pain surrenders, gives her back, restores her memories, and promises to spend the rest of his life building orphanages, great. Call me. I'll send a fruit basket." Tony's eyes became hard again. "But don't build your plan around a monster spontaneously developing a conscience. If killing him is the only way to stop him, don't hesitate at the final second and give him the opening he needs to murder one of your girls."
Jean burning beneath the Rinnegan's power flashed through my head.
Emma's diamond body cracking.
Konan looking at me without recognition while the man who had rewritten her mind prepared to do the same thing again.
My stomach turned cold.
Tony leaned back slightly. "There are things worse than killing an enemy."
I already knew that. I had lived eight years without my identity because someone decided they knew better than I did which parts of my memories I deserved to keep.
Konan might be living through the same violation right now.
I finished the beer in one long swallow. It still tasted bitter.
Tony watched me place the empty bottle beside his. "You understand what I'm saying?"
I glanced at the man who had built an armored suit and hunted down the terrorists who imprisoned him. Despite everything, a short laugh escaped me. The laughter faded.
That was the truth hidden beneath all the brutality.
Pain had already made his choice. The masked man had already made his.
They had taken Konan, violated her mind, and turned her back into a weapon. Rescuing her wouldn't be a conversation. If I went into the Rain Village, I had to be prepared for what bringing her home might cost.
I looked toward Tony. "I'm going to get her back."
Tony nodded once. "Good."
Lightning moved softly beneath my skin.
I thought about Konan's paper clone dissolving in front of me. Get stronger.
I had obeyed.
I set the bottle down with deliberate care. "And if Pain forces me to choose between his life and Konan's freedom…"
Tony waited without interrupting.
I met my father's eyes. "I'll choose Konan."
Tony's mouth curved into a small, grim smile. "That's my boy."
The next morning, my phone vibrated across the kitchen counter while I was halfway through breakfast.
I caught it before it reached the edge and glanced at the notification filling the screen.
STARK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY — CAMPUS-WIDE ACADEMIC NOTICE
Effective immediately, all lectures, laboratories, seminars, examinations, and mandatory academic activities are suspended for seven calendar days. Assignment deadlines will be extended accordingly. Students are encouraged to use this Institutional Wellness and Independent Research Week to pursue self-directed academic enrichment.
I read the notice twice.
The words didn't become less ridiculous the second time.
Every student at SIT had apparently received the same message. The campus group chat had already accumulated several hundred responses, most of which consisted of confused questions, celebratory profanity, and animated images of people dancing on desks.
One student claimed Institutional Wellness Week had restored his faith in God.
Another had already announced plans to spend the next seven days consuming enough alcohol to forget his entire semester.
I slowly lowered my phone. "Did Tony just cancel college?"
Pepper stopped with her coffee halfway to her mouth. Pepper stared at me for two silent seconds before setting the mug down with dangerous care. "...He did what?"
I turned the screen toward her.
Pepper read the announcement. Her expression moved through confusion, disbelief, and finally the cold resignation of a woman who had spent years watching Tony Stark do stupid shit.
Pepper closed her eyes. "He cannot cancel an entire university because one student needs time off."
JARVIS's voice emerged from the kitchen ceiling. "Technically, Miss Potts, Sir has not canceled the university. He has instituted a temporary campus-wide period of self-directed academic enrichment."
Pepper opened her eyes and glared at the nearest speaker. "JARVIS… Just don't…"
JARVIS paused for the exact amount of time required to demonstrate that he knew he wasn't fooling her. "Sir owns a controlling interest in the institution and received authorization from the board approximately forty-three minutes ago."
I stared at the notification again.
Tony had discovered that I needed to travel to another dimension for a rescue mission after already missing far too many classes.
Instead of finding a reasonable solution, he had canceled everyone's classes.
Nepotism. That was the best word for it.
Akeno leaned over my shoulder to read the announcement. "Our stepfather canceled school for you?"
I locked my phone and placed it facedown on the counter. "Apparently."
Rias's blue-green eyes brightened with dangerous curiosity. "Can he also establish these wellness weeks during examinations?"
Pepper directed a flat look toward her. "No."
Rias sat back and lifted both hands. "I was just asking…"
Shuri calmly sipped her tea as though her husband suspending an entire university's classes was no stranger than anything else that happened in our family. "Tony did say he intended to make certain Blake had enough time."
Pepper rubbed two fingers against her temple. "I assumed he meant speaking to Blake's professors."
I picked up another piece of toast. "Technically, this solves the problem."
Pepper's eyes narrowed toward me. "Do not encourage him."
A private elevator chimed before I could promise anything.
The doors opened to reveal Jean and Emma.
Jean had exchanged her usual campus clothes for a dark red jacket, reinforced black pants, and boots that looked capable of surviving something more dangerous than a physics lecture. Her red hair had been pulled into a high ponytail, leaving her face unobstructed.
Emma wore white. Of course she did. Her fitted white pantsuit looked more appropriate for a hostile corporate takeover than an assault on a hidden ninja dictatorship, but I had long since accepted that Emma Frost would wear white to the apocalypse and somehow emerge without a stain.
Jean stepped out first and immediately found me across the kitchen. Some of the tension in her shoulders eased. Jean approached and placed one hand against my arm. "How are you feeling?"
I glanced around at my family. "Outnumbered."
Akeno's pleasant smile returned. "Loved!"
I gave my sister a look.
Akeno maintained the smile without a trace of shame.
Emma crossed the kitchen with measured steps and set a slim tablet on the counter. "Before anyone attempts to exclude me from the planning discussion, Jean and I have already agreed that the final decision must be tactical rather than emotional."
Jean looked toward Emma. "You spent most of the ride here explaining why excluding you would be tactically incompetent."
Emma lifted her chin. "I was presenting relevant arguments."
Jean's lips twitched. "You threatened to buy the Hidden Rain Village."
Emma folded her arms beneath her chest. "Every government has a price."
Shuri placed her tea on the counter. "That particular village may not…"
The humor faded.
Shuri rose from her chair and moved toward the living area. "We should decide who is going before anyone crosses dimensions."
The rest of us followed.
JARVIS dimmed the penthouse windows and projected a holographic table above the center of the living room. The map displayed on it was incomplete—an approximation created from the maps and records Shuri had brought from the Elemental Nations—but it showed the major nations, hidden villages, mountain ranges, and known borders.
The Land of Rain occupied a narrow region between several of the great nations. Its location alone explained part of its history. Every major power surrounding it had used the country as a convenient battlefield whenever they wanted to fight without destroying their own territory.
It was decided that it would be me, Jean, Akeno, Shuri and Rias who would go.
Emma would also stay because despite being powerful, she didn't have the mobility to cross the elemental nations without someone carrying her.
Emma bit her blue painted lips but understood why she had to stay. "I'm not happy but I acknowledge the fact i cant tree hop or fly…yet."
I had a feeling that Emma would want to visit Orario soon, if only just to get a way to increase her physical stats. I could also see that maybe Natasha and even Pepper were having the same thoughts. Both of them were staring at a sealed room nearby.
I glanced toward the permanent portal room leading to Orario.
For a moment, I considered the people on the other side.
Ais would agree before I finished asking. She would hear godlike enemy and probably arrive with her sword already drawn.
But the adventurers of Orario had trained to fight monsters.
Asking them to enter another world and fight human beings with faces, families, and minds was different from asking them to kill goblins or a Goliath.
I wasn't going to drag them across that line because I wanted more power behind me.
Shuri dismissed the holographic map with a movement of her hand. "Then the team is decided."
For the next twenty minutes, everyone prepared.
Shuri returned wearing her full kunoichi equipment. Two short swords rested across her lower back, while kunai, wire, sealing tags, and explosive talismans filled hidden pouches across her dark combat clothing. Her long black hair had been tied into a high ponytail, and the warmth of my mother's expression had been replaced by the focused calm of an elite assassin.
Akeno wore a dark combat dress reinforced with demonic magic. Golden lightning flickered briefly around her fingers as she tested her power. Her violet eyes remained steady, but I noticed her flexing the muscles between her shoulders where her wings would emerge.
Rias had changed into fitted black trousers, boots, and a crimson shirt beneath a dark jacket. Her long red hair had been bound back to keep it from obstructing her vision. Destruction energy pulsed beneath her skin like a second heartbeat.
Jean wore the same reinforced clothing she had arrived in. A faint red-gold glow moved behind her green eyes whenever her concentration sharpened.
I changed into my combat suit. Black and midnight-blue armor settled across my body. Silver channels traced my chest, arms, and sides, waiting to conduct holy lightning. The sealed openings across my back would separate when my wings emerged.
Emma approached while I adjusted one of the gloves. She stopped directly in front of me and examined the suit with an expression that gave nothing away.
I covered one of her hands with mine. "I'll come back."
Emma's gaze searched my face. She leaned forward and kissed me. The kiss was controlled, brief, and far more frightened than Emma would ever allow anyone else to realize.
Emma pulled away and lowered her voice. "Bring her home too. It could be nice to meet another woman that's not a romantic rival at the very least."
I nodded. "That's the plan."
Pepper waited until Emma stepped aside. She approached without speaking and wrapped both arms around me. I held her tightly. Pepper's cheek pressed against my armored chest. Her fingers curled against the plating along my back, directly beneath the place where my wings would appear.
Pepper remained there for several seconds before lifting her head. Pepper's eyes glistened, but her voice stayed firm. "I don't care how many god-eyes, masked ninjas, or impossible techniques they have. You come back."
I brushed my thumb beneath one of her eyes. "I will."
Pepper caught the front of my armor and pulled me down into a kiss.
Unlike Emma, Pepper didn't keep it brief. When she finally released me, her lipstick marked the corner of my mouth. Pepper wiped the mark away with her thumb. "That wasn't permission to do something reckless."
I gave her my best innocent expression. "I would never."
Pepper stared at me.
My innocent expression lasted approximately two seconds.
Pepper exhaled. "That face might work on Tsunade. It does not work on me."
Natasha moved beside Pepper and handed me a compact black pouch. "Medical supplies, emergency stimulants, chemical lights, wire, and three tracking beacons."
I accepted the pouch. "Will the beacons work across dimensions?"
Natasha's mouth twitched. "No. But they'll work after you arrive, and I needed to put something useful in your hands before you left..."
I attached it to my belt. "Thank you."
Natasha placed one hand against my shoulder. "Do not make me explain to Asia why you didn't come home."
The softness beneath her threat made it more effective.
I nodded. "I won't."
Tony remained somewhere beneath us in his laboratory. He had already said what he needed to say.
I turned toward the four women coming with me. Blue light gathered in front of me.
The Senju compound appeared on the other side…
The portal sealed behind us with a soft rush of blue light, leaving the five of us standing in the main courtyard of the Senju compound.
Very little has changed since my last visit. The old wooden buildings remained weathered but sturdy, the garden was still better maintained than when we had first moved in, and the familiar scent of cedar and damp earth hung in the air. Somewhere beyond the compound walls, Konoha carried on as though people crossing dimensions in the middle of a family home had become perfectly normal.
For us, I supposed it had.
Shuri adjusted the two swords secured across her lower back and looked toward the main building. Some of the lethal focus she had worn before crossing the portal softened. "I'm going to find Naruto. I haven't seen him in far too long."
Akeno stepped to our mother's side, curiosity brightening her violet eyes. "Rias and I will come with you. I would like to meet the little brother Mother adopted while we were separated."
Rias nodded and moved beside Akeno. She looked around the compound with open interest.
Jean joined them after giving my hand one final squeeze.
I gestured toward the village beyond the compound wall. "I'm going to the Hokage Tower. Tsunade needs to know what we're planning before we go anywhere near the Land of Rain."
Shuri's expression became serious again as she studied me. "We will meet you there after I check on Naruto."
I nodded and headed for the gate.
The trip across Konoha took only a few minutes.
I could have flown, but walking gave me time to think through what I intended to say. Tsunade was my girlfriend, but she was also the Hokage. Those two roles didn't always want the same things. The woman who loved me would probably want to march into the Land of Rain herself and punch Pain through a mountain. The leader responsible for protecting tens of thousands of people had treaties, alliances, and the possibility of war to consider.
My armored costume attracted considerably more attention than I wanted.
Several villagers recognized me from my previous stay. A produce merchant waved. An elderly man gave my armor a long, suspicious look before apparently deciding that whatever trouble I represented belonged to the Hokage now.
That made two of us.
The chunin stationed in the Hokage Tower's outer office looked up as I approached. His eyes moved over my black and midnight-blue armor, lingered on the silver channels running across my chest, and then widened when he recognized me.
The chunin shot out of his chair and opened the inner door without making me wait. "Lord Himejima. Lady Tsunade will want to see you immediately."
Being called Lord Himejima still felt deeply wrong.
I stepped through the doorway and entered Tsunade's office.
Tsunade sat behind a desk buried beneath enough paperwork to kill a lesser bureaucrat. Afternoon sunlight poured through the windows behind her, catching in her blonde hair and turning it almost golden. Her eyes found me immediately, and a warm smile spread across her face.
Tsunade leaned back in her chair as some of the exhaustion left her posture. "Well, this day just got a lot better." Then her gaze dropped to my armored chest, reinforced gloves, and combat boots. Tsunade's smile vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Her eyes narrowed with immediate concern. "Or maybe not. What's wrong?"
That was when I noticed she wasn't alone.
Jiraiya stood near one of the windows. His long white hair fell around him in a wild mane, and the red lines beneath his eyes made his glare look even more hostile than usual.
He wasn't subtle about it.
Jiraiya would probably never like me as long as I was with Tsunade. I had accepted that. Somewhere between him stabbing me in the thigh during our first meeting and discovering that I was sleeping with the woman he had spent years pursuing, friendship had stopped being a realistic possibility.
As long as he remained professional when it mattered, I could live with his glare.
I rested one hand against the back of the chair in front of Tsunade's desk. "I'm going to the Land of Rain to rescue Konan."
Tsunade went completely still.
Jiraiya's glare disappeared.
I drew a slow breath before continuing. "I brought Mom, Akeno, Rias, and Jean with me. They're at the Senju compound right now. We finally decided I've waited long enough."
Tsunade's fingers curled around the edge of a document. Conflict moved openly across her face. For several seconds, she was my girlfriend, the Hokage, and Konan's distant senior through Jiraiya all at once.
Tsunade placed the document carefully on her desk. "Konoha cannot officially condone this mission."
I nodded because I had expected that answer before I entered the tower. "I figured."
Tsunade's expression sharpened when she saw that I understood. "The Land of Rain is a sovereign country, and Amegakure is an independent hidden village. If I send Leaf forces across its border to attack its leader, every nation surrounding us can call it an invasion."
Jiraiya released a quiet scoff from beside the window, although whether it was directed at politics, me, or the entire concept of national borders was impossible to tell.
Tsunade's mouth slowly curved into a dangerous smirk. "Fortunately, I am not sending Leaf forces anywhere."
I lifted an eyebrow.
Tsunade folded her hands on top of her desk. "You, Shuri, and Akeno are members of the Himejima clan. Daimyo Iroh personally granted your clan noble standing within the Land of Fire after you helped save his life. That title extends to your immediate blood family, including Akeno."
I straightened as I began to understand where she was going.
Tsunade's smirk widened. "A noble house has rights and obligations that have nothing to do with Konoha's mission system. You may travel as private representatives of the Himejima clan, accompanied by personal guests and retainers."
Calling Jean Grey and Rias Gremory my retainers would probably make both supernatural women chuckle.
Tsunade pulled a blank sheet of paper from one of the piles on her desk. "More importantly, some very strange rumors have been coming out of the Land of Rain."
I leaned closer to the desk. "What kind of rumors?"
Tsunade's amusement disappeared. "Hanzo of the Salamander may be dead."
The name meant something even to me. Hanzo had been a legend from the Second Great Ninja War. He had been the man who named Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru the Three Legendary Sannin after defeating them and allowing them to live. Everything I had heard described him as paranoid, ruthless, and almost impossible to kill.
Tsunade tapped one finger against the blank paper. "There are also whispers that the Land of Rain's daimyo is dead."
I frowned as the political shape of the situation became clearer. "If both the daimyo and Hanzo disappeared, someone may have overthrown the entire government."
I think we all knew who that someone was… It didn't need to be said.
Tsunade inclined her head. "Exactly. If a hidden village rebelled and murdered its country's nobility, every daimyo in the Elemental Nations will want to know. As a noble of the Land of Fire, you have standing to investigate a possible coup and determine whether the instability threatens neighboring territories."
I rubbed one hand over the back of my neck. "So I'm not invading Amegakure to rescue Konan. I'm visiting the Land of Rain as Lord Himejima to investigate the possible murder of another country's ruling nobility."
Tsunade leaned forward, satisfaction glittering in her amber eyes. "Now you're learning politics!"
It was still strange that some of the most powerful people in the world submitted to feudal governments.
Ninja could run across water, shatter mountains, summon colossal animals, and trap armies inside illusions. Despite all of that, the Elemental Nations still operated beneath a web of nobles, clan obligations, inherited titles, and political rules that sounded as though someone had invented them several centuries ago and everyone had been too busy fighting to replace them.
Then again, Tsunade was a princess through the Senju and Uzumaki bloodlines. Most of Konoha's important clans were effectively minor nobility, even when they didn't use the title. The people strong enough to change the system benefited from it too much to feel any urgency.
I was now one of those people.
I was also friends with Daimyo Iroh's nephew and niece. Zuko was probably still training somewhere in the Fire Capital, preparing for his eventual rise to the throne.
Thinking about Azula sent an entirely different shiver down my spine. The younger princess's interest in me had been intense enough to leave an impression even after several months apart. I had the uncomfortable feeling that the next time we met, she would resume exactly where she had left off…
Jiraiya finally pushed away from the window. His earlier hostility had vanished, replaced by an expression I rarely saw on him. He looked concerned. "I'm going with you."
I turned toward him. "You are?"
Jiraiya's jaw tightened, but he didn't rise to the surprise in my voice. "Konan was MY student. If this Pain really controls the Land of Rain—there's a chance he's actually Nagato. Another one of my students…"
Tsunade's eyes narrowed at the name.
Jiraiya looked past both of us, his gaze fixed on something only he could see. "Nagato possessed the Rinnegan when he was a child. I trained him, Konan, and Yahiko during the Second War. I taught them ninjutsu because I believed they could survive long enough to change their country." His hand slowly curled at his side. Jiraiya's voice became quieter. "If Nagato became Pain, then I need to see what happened to him. I need to know whether there's enough of my student left to settle this without another war."
He sounded sincere.
That didn't mean I believed peace was likely.
Nagato had already taken Konan against her will and apparently allowed the masked man to erase or alter her memories. Whatever friendship they had once shared hadn't stopped him from stripping away her choices.
I didn't expect a heartfelt reunion with Jiraiya to repair that kind of damage.
Still, Jiraiya was one of the strongest shinobi alive. He knew Konan, Nagato, and the Land of Rain better than anyone else available to us. He could gather intelligence, identify traps, and perhaps reach Nagato in a way the rest of us couldn't.
If diplomacy failed, having another Sannin on our side certainly wouldn't hurt.
I studied him for several seconds before giving a reluctant nod. "You can come. If there's a real chance Nagato can be reasoned with, you'll get the opportunity."
Jiraiya met my eyes without flinching. "That's all I'm asking."
Tsunade's gaze moved between us before hardening into the look she used when issuing orders no one was expected to misunderstand. "If you go, Jiraiya, you are not traveling under official Leaf orders. There will be no mission scroll, no Konoha escort, and no public acknowledgment that I authorized your presence."
Jiraiya dipped his head once. "Understood."
Tsunade pointed at him with one finger. "And if your feelings about Blake create a problem during this mission, I will personally break every bone in your body when you return."
Jiraiya's mouth tightened as his eyes flicked briefly toward me. "They won't."
I believed him.
Jiraiya might dislike me, but he had spent decades operating behind enemy lines and gathering intelligence from some of the most dangerous places in the world. He knew how to separate personal resentment from the job in front of him.
Tsunade pushed herself out of her chair and walked around the desk.
She stopped in front of me and placed one hand against the armored plate covering my chest. Her palm rested directly over my heart. The Hokage disappeared from her expression, leaving only the woman who had waited three months for me to find my way back to her.
Tsunade's fingers curled against the armor. "Good luck, Blake. Bring Konan home, and make damn sure you come back to Shizune and me."
I covered her hand with mine. "I will."
Tsunade rose onto her toes and pressed a firm kiss against my mouth.
Behind her, Jiraiya's glare returned with enough force that I could practically feel it against the side of my face.
Some things, apparently, were never going to change…
Jiraiya and I returned to the Senju compound together.
We heard Naruto before we reached the main room.
His embarrassed whining carried through two hallways. Judging by the delighted laughter coming from the same direction, Mom and Akeno had found him.
Jiraiya and I stepped into the room just in time to witness Naruto's latest battle for survival.
Akeno had both arms wrapped around him from behind, pinning his arms against his sides and squeezing him tightly against her chest. Naruto's feet barely touched the floor. His face had turned bright red, and he twisted helplessly in her grip while Akeno rubbed her cheek against the top of his spiky blond hair.
Akeno tightened her embrace with a delighted laugh. "My little uncle is so small and adorable!"
Naruto kicked his feet uselessly as he tried to escape. "I'm not small or adorable! I'm a full-grown ninja!"
He was twelve.
Mom had adopted Naruto as her younger brother during her years in Konoha. That technically made him my uncle—and Akeno's—despite both of us being older than him.
Akeno apparently intended to exploit that relationship for the rest of Naruto's natural life.
Rias sat on the edge of the couch, watching Naruto's struggle with undisguised amusement. Jean stood beside her with one hand covering her mouth, although the quiet shake of her shoulders made it obvious that she was laughing too.
Shuri watched her children and adopted brother with a warmth that transformed her face. She made no effort to save Naruto.
Akeno rocked him gently from side to side. "Ufufu! Of course you are. You're a very fierce, accomplished little ninja!"
Naruto's whisker marks seemed to darken as his face grew redder. "Stop calling me little!"
Akeno buried her nose in his hair and inhaled dramatically. "And he still has that wonderful new-uncle smell."
Naruto went completely rigid. "THAT ISN'T A THING!"
A quiet scoff came from the other side of the room.
Sasuke sat in a chair near the window with his arms folded across his chest. His expression contained the particular mixture of superiority and irritation that seemed to be his natural resting state. He looked considerably healthier and more mentally stable than when I had last seen him during one of my visits.
Shizune stood beside him.
Sasuke had been living at the Senju compound since his attempted defection.
It made it much more difficult for him to run away again without passing several extremely dangerous women who had no patience for his revenge-fueled bullshit.
I was also almost certain Tsunade had placed tracking seals on him. Possibly more than one.
The little shit had earned them.
If I hadn't reached the Valley of the End when I did, Orochimaru would have Sasuke by now. The snake bastard would be preparing him as a replacement body, carving him apart with experiments, or doing whatever else an immortal lunatic did to a traumatized kid he wanted to wear like a new suit.
Sasuke could complain about supervision after he stopped trying to deliver himself to predators.
Shizune crossed the room toward me. "The others already explained what's happening." Her gaze moved briefly toward Jiraiya. She took in his traveling clothes, the scrolls at his waist, and the uncharacteristically serious expression on his face. Shizune returned her attention to me with quiet understanding. "If Jiraiya is going with you, then Tsunade must have given you permission—or at least whatever version of permission allows her to deny everything later."
Jiraiya's mouth twitched faintly, but he didn't contradict her.
I opened one arm as Shizune reached me.
She stepped into the embrace without hesitation. Her arms circled my waist, careful of the armored plates covering my body. I held her close and breathed in the familiar scent of medicinal herbs clinging to her hair.
Shizune pulled back just far enough to look at me. Her fingers traced one of the silver channels running across my chest plate.
Her cheeks turned faintly pink as she rose onto her toes and kissed my cheek. "Good luck, Blake." The kiss lingered for a warm second before she lowered herself again. Shizune kept one hand pressed against my chest. Pride and worry competed openly in her expression. "I've watched you grow into an amazing and powerful young man. I know you can do this."
The sincerity in her voice landed somewhere deep inside me.
When Tsunade and Shizune had first found me, I had been bleeding to death on an unfamiliar road. I hadn't known how to fight. I could barely summon a Lightspear, had only two wings, and couldn't carry a hundred-kilogram weight on each leg without feeling as though my bones were going to disintegrate.
Now I was preparing to challenge one of the strongest men in their world.
I covered Shizune's hand with mine. "I'll bring Konan home, and then I'll come back to you and Tsunade."
Shizune's fingers curled firmly against my armor. "You had better!"
Akeno finally loosened her hold enough for Naruto's feet to touch the floor.
Naruto twisted out of her arms and stumbled forward. He immediately spun toward us, embarrassment forgotten as he registered my combat armor, Jiraiya's equipment, and Shizune's solemn expression.
Naruto pointed between Jiraiya and me. "Wait—what important mission?"
Sasuke unfolded his arms and leaned forward slightly. His dark eyes tracked every piece of equipment attached to my body. "Where are you going?"
The room's lighter mood faded.
Jiraiya stepped farther inside, and something almost paternal softened his expression when he looked at Naruto. He rested one hand on the blond boy's head, ignoring the immediate annoyed look Naruto gave him. Jiraiya ruffled Naruto's hair. "Blake and I have an important mission outside the village. I don't know how long we'll be gone."
Naruto's blue eyes narrowed with suspicion. "What kind of mission?"
Jiraiya withdrew his hand and folded his arms inside his sleeves. "The kind you're not ready to hear about yet."
Naruto's face scrunched with immediate outrage. "I'm a ninja! I can hear about missions!"
Jiraiya gave Naruto a pointed look. "You're also a ninja who still needs to practice his Rasengan control drills while I'm gone."
Naruto's outrage collapsed into deep personal betrayal. "I can already make a Rasengan!"
Jiraiya lifted one eyebrow. "Forming an unstable Rasengan while half-feral and covered in fox chakra does not count as mastering the technique. You need to be able to use it with one hand."
Naruto crossed his arms and looked away. His lower lip pushed forward in a tremendous pout. "Those stupid water balloons keep splashing me…"
Sasuke released another quiet scoff from beside the window.
Naruto's head snapped toward him. "What are you laughing at, bastard?!"
Sasuke's mouth curved into the faintest smirk. "Nothing, dweeb."
Naruto marched toward him with both fists clenched. "Say that again!"
Shizune stepped between the two boys before they could restart the Valley of the End in Mom's living room. She placed one palm against each of their foreheads and held them apart with insulting ease.
Shizune's pleasant smile became dangerously calm. "If either of you damages this compound, you'll spend the next month cleaning the hospital with toothbrushes."
Naruto froze.
Sasuke's smirk vanished.
Jiraiya watched them with tired resignation. "Keep practicing until you can complete it with one hand."
Naruto slumped beneath Shizune's hand. "Fine…"
For a few more seconds, I let myself watch the absurdly normal scene.
Akeno was still smiling at the little uncle she had just discovered. Mom stood beside her with more of her family gathered beneath one roof than she had possessed in years. Rias and Jean looked strangely at home among them. Shizune kept Naruto and Sasuke from killing each other through the terrifying power of disappointed medical authority.
This was what I was fighting to protect.
Now it was time to bring Konan home so she could become part of it.
XXX
Giving Blake Blue eyes (unlike Shuri and Akeno) is a minor thing, but always something I regretted in this story. However, there is a way to potentially change that with this arc...
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