"Um… little one, were you talking to me."
A fine rain pattered down. Mari Kurio held her umbrella and bent toward the girl tucked beneath the eaves, smiling as she asked.
Her voice and manner were gentle now, none of the hard edge she had shown ANBU moments earlier.
Had the gate guards seen this, they would have groaned in silence about a ruthless face-lover in a world that worships looks.
"Yes, big sister. Hello. My name is Konome. I heard the village is hunting a spy and there is a lockdown so no one can leave. I cannot see, so I do not know if the ban has been lifted."
At the mention of her eyes, the girl's clear voice sank, as if ashamed of the disability.
Mari glanced at the black cloth veiling the girl's delicate features and felt her tone soften further.
"The ban has not been lifted. It may be a few more days."
"I understand. Thank you, sister."
Polite thanks given, the girl bowed her head.
Drip, drip.
The rain thickened.
Droplets gathered along the eaves and fell in streams onto the girl's head and shoulders, soaking her silver-gray hair into long, dark strands.
She shrank in tighter beneath the overhang to dodge the water.
"Little… Konome, it is raining. Are you not going home."
"My home is outside the village."
Her voice fell lower still.
Mari watched the blind waif huddled beneath the roof.
Home outside the walls, and Kirigakure under lockdown meant the child had nowhere to go.
Now Mari understood why she was waiting here for the ban to end. A weight settled in her chest.
Old scenes flashed. She remembered her own family's murder when she was a child. If not for her brother's protection, she might have ended up just like this.
And with the brother who had raised her now missing, was she not herself also without a home.
For a moment she felt wholly in tune with Konome.
"Do not be afraid, little Konome. Where is your home. Let big sister take you back."
"R… really."
The girl tipped up her face, joy blooming bright.
Mari could not help mirroring that smile.
"But… the lockdown."
"Do not worry. Big sister is a jōnin of the Mist. The ban does not bind me."
A tug of vanity kept her from mentioning that she also had ties in ANBU. Best to leave the heroic image intact.
"Jōnin. Father said jōnin are the strongest shinobi. Big sister, you are amazing."
Konome's surprise was sincere.
Mari's lips twitched upward despite herself.
All her life she had grown under her brother's wing. Most praise she heard was about him, and most people called her Shun Kurio's little sister.
The girl's awed compliment stroked an itch she rarely admitted to. Even her sour mood over her brother's disappearance eased.
"I am not that amazing. So, Konome, where is your home. I will take you there now."
"Thank you, big sister. My home is in Tanzaku Quarters in the Land of Fire."
She said it with childlike candor.
Behind the blindfold, Konome watched the curve of Mari's mouth flatten and let her own smile shine even sweeter.
…
At the corner,
the rain grew heavier.
Fine threads drew a curtain that swallowed the Mist.
On the broad road before the gate,
two figures, one tall and one small, sheltered under the eaves and faced each other.
"You say you are from Tanzaku Quarters in the Land of Fire, that you came with your father to trade in the Mist, that he has been missing a long time, and that you want to post an escort mission to take you back to Tanzaku Quarters to search for your family."
Konome nodded and added a few more details to the backstory she had prepared.
"Then why not ask Mist shinobi to help you find your father directly."
Mari had a nose for seams in a story, and she had found one.
"Father did not leave me much cash. If the Mist cannot find him quickly, I will starve here."
The logic held.
Mari tapped her chin and thought.
Silently, Konome opened the Byakugan and, through the blindfold, examined the brown-haired, blue-eyed woman before her.
Seven kunai and one sealing scroll hidden at the hip and thigh. One thousand two hundred and thirty ryō tucked within her clothes. Five explosive tags pasted at the small of the back. Twenty senbon and four shuriken ready in the tool pouch.
Chakra reserves around jōnin level. Muscle and bone of average toughness. Violet powder concealed under the nail of the right index finger.
Not a taijutsu type. At range she runs. Up close a surprise strike is a kill.
She weighed the fight in silence.
She had staked out this street for three days.
The lockdown hit hard.
Merchants and villagers came daily to ask when the gates would open.
As civilians they had no way to break an ANBU cordon.
But what civilians could not do, shinobi could.
Konome held to one certainty. Until the day a perfectly equal world arrived, any rule made by human society could be broken by human hands.
That iron law held in every world.
And at last she had found someone who could break this rule.
She did not know the woman's name.
But the way the ANBU at the gate had bowed confirmed that her status was not ordinary.
She only hoped compassion for a homeless blind girl would move the woman to help her leave the Mist. Otherwise she would have to gamble by taking the woman's face and trying to pass the barrier. To play that part convincingly, there were questions only the original could answer.
Of course.
Konome knew no genjutsu. If she asked, it would be the physical way.
She watched Mari think in silence.
Under the blindfold, the Byakugan's milk-white iris held a fleck of dead gray at its heart. Hidden by wide sleeves, her fingertips writhed as pale bone stirred.
"Little Konome, may I see your hand."
The budding spur snapped back. Her small hand closed into a fist.
Konome stared, uncertain, at Mari's unexpected request.
How did she know.
Had she been exposed.
Thoughts flickered by, one after another, and she still could not spot the tell.
She pressed the nerves down and meekly offered her left hand.
Mari took it.
Warm and smooth, soft as if boneless.
The back was white as jade and the fingers long.
Mari stroked the tiny work of art and examined it carefully.
Not a Transformation Technique.
No calluses from taijutsu or throwing drills.
Even so, something felt off.
The Mizukage missing. The Elder missing. Her brother missing. Even his subordinates gone. Kirigakure's string of oddities had cranked Mari's guard to the limit.
This girl's timing was too perfect.
Today of all days she had gone to ANBU to ask after her brother. Today of all days she met a pitiful blind child trapped by the lockdown. And today of all days she herself happened to have the power to slip the cordon.
The logic was not impossible.
But there were too many red flags.
And nothing the girl said could be confirmed or disproved. That was the mark of a lie.
Her brother was among the strongest in the shinobi world. Not many could make him vanish. Had he and the others been lured out this way.
Why lure me.
Afraid I would leave the village and find him. So they wanted something to delay me.
Mari chased the guesses in circles.
"Little Konome, earlier I told you I am a jōnin, yes."
"Yes. Big sister is amazing."
Konome, still held by the left hand, did not know what spun in the woman's head and answered lightly.
"Then you probably do not know what kind of shinobi I am."
Mari's fingers closed around Konome's wrist. It felt as if she could snap it without effort.
Sea-blue eyes locked on the slight figure before her. Killing intent filled the space. "Big sister is a sensor-type shinobi. The chakra rolling off you is too blinding."