Early morning.
A hazy blanket of clouds clung to the jagged peaks of the Hidden Mist. Walking through the streets of Kirigakure, Hinami felt as though she were living in the heavens; the world before her was a blur, as if a layer of frost had coated a pair of weak spectacles.
The heavy rain from the night before had only ceased at dawn. The water on the streets wasn't deep, save for the murky puddles gathered in the uneven hollows of the pavement.
Tap, tap, splash.
The wooden cane struck the road, occasionally kicking up muddy water from between loose tiles. Hinami's small, fawn-brown boots trod carefully, dodging the larger sprays.
Thump, thump... tap.
The cane stopped. Hinami stood before the great gates of Kirigakure. Her right hand gripped her staff, while her left was held gently by Karin Tōyama. Behind her stood Arata and Ouma, acting as her vanguard.
In the distance, obscured by the mist, Mari Kurisō was negotiating with the gate guards.
"Do you know who Mari-sensei's brother is?" Karin whispered, leaning in close.
The bond between girls is a curious thing; a single meeting can lead to them holding hands like lifelong confidants. Of course, it can just as easily turn into a blood feud over the smallest slight.
"Who is he?" Hinami asked softly.
"Shun Kurisō. He's the Commander of the Anbu, known as 'The Vicious Fang.'"
Arata couldn't help himself and raised his hands excitedly. "Hinami, you probably don't realize how big of a deal an Anbu Commander is! He's the top leader of the Anbu, reporting only to the Mizukage. You could say he's above ten thousand and below only one!"
"You forgot Elder Genji," Ouma cut in with a dry jab, earning a glare from Arata.
So that's it.
Mari was the sister of "The Vicious Fang." No wonder the Anbu were so polite to her, their respectful greetings audible even from a distance.
But the name "Vicious Fang" rang a bell. Hinami searched her memories—not the fragmented images of her past life, but the vivid, visceral memories of this one.
A pitch-black night. A forest like a meat grinder. Blood and mist entwining. A brown-haired, blue-eyed Anbu Commander leading a charge, dual blades in hand. With a single, savage stroke, he had cleaved a man wearing the Kaguya clan crest in two.
That man was indeed "The Vicious Fang."
And the silver-haired, stoic warrior he had cut down... was Hinami's father.
"We're all set."
Having finished the paperwork, Mari returned the ninja IDs to the three students. Karin let go of Hinami's arm to tuck her document safely into her inner pocket.
"Hinami, because you don't have identification papers, you'll need an extra check," Mari said, noticing the girl's stiff posture. She reached out and patted Hinami's hair reassuringly. "Don't worry, it's just a formality."
"Mm."
Hinami nodded, her mind a whirlwind. She didn't know what face to make toward the sister of the man who had killed her father. She wasn't just a "traveler" from another world; she was a soul reborn, her "Mystery of the Womb" shattered by the trauma of near-death. The six years of this life were tiny compared to her previous thirty, but the weight was the same. The images of her mother, who had taught her the Byakugan, and her silent, training-obsessed father, overlapped with the parents she had lost to an earthquake in her previous life.
Mari, sensing nothing, led Hinami to the gates where the crow-masked Anbu was waiting. "Check her," she said crossly.
Crow stepped forward, ignoring Mari's attitude. He had received clear instructions from Captain Otakebi: Don't interfere, don't provoke, but do not let any suspects slip through.
"Little lady, would you give me your hand, please?" Crow's voice was muffled by the mask, but the light, almost flirtatious undertone was unmistakable.
Hinami's world was dark. She didn't know if the Mist had a chakra-detecting barrier like Konoha. To be safe, while waiting for Mari, she had performed a feat only possible with the Byakugan's precision and the Shikotsumyaku's physical control: she had manually terminated her chakra circulation, forcibly sequestering her physical and spiritual energies into her upper and lower reservoirs to prevent them from merging into chakra.
She lifted her hand.
A cold flash of steel.
Hinami felt a sharp chill on her finger, followed by a stinging pain.
"Ah!"
She jerked her hand back as if burned. Even without chakra, the passive traits of the Shikotsumyaku were active. She could feel the small slit on the pad of her index finger already beginning to knit itself back together.
"What are you doing?!" Mari snarled, stepping between them, her eyes flashing at the blood-stained kunai in Crow's hand.
"Easy, easy... just a standard check."
The conflict drew the three students over instantly. They formed a defensive triangle around Hinami, facing the Anbu. Ouma and Arata stood at her sides, while Karin grabbed Hinami's wrist, pulling out medicine to stop the bleeding.
"Everyone, calm down," Crow said, holding his hands up. "The world of ninjutsu is full of bizarre secrets. Spies have Transformation Jutsus that look identical to reality, or Sealing Jutsus that suppress chakra waves. Standard detection won't catch them."
Beside him, Blood Hound added in a gravelly voice: "Even the best Transformation Jutsu is made of chakra. If you break the physical form, the construction fails and the original is revealed."
Mari's expression softened slightly at the technical explanation, but seeing Hinami's pained, wrinkled face made her scowl at the Anbu.
In the center of the group, Hinami lowered her head, nursing the pain.
Her hand was clenched into a fist. Inside her palm, her thumb nail dug into the cut on her index finger, forcing it open just as it was about to seal. The raw pain made her brow furrow further.
She didn't know when the check would end. Her Physical Sovereignty relied on her Byakugan's vision, which in turn relied on chakra. Without chakra, she had lost her fine-tuned control and had to resort to manual, physical trauma to stop her body from "healing" itself in front of the Anbu.
"Good. The Transformation check is complete," Crow said, handing the kunai to Blood Hound. He moved past Mari's guard, his hands weaving a sign as he stood directly in front of Hinami.
Under that ridiculous crow mask, his voice remained light, but his eyes were like knives.
"I'm a sensitive man, little lady. If you're planning any 'surprises,' please tell me now. I'd hate for things to get... unpleasant."