



Hazō tried to give Inoue-sensei a subtle death glare for the name she’d given him, but unfortunately, his elaborate headdress narrowed his line of sight too much to make eye contact.



“Verily, my child,” he instead intoned in his best mystical voice, “if thou dost seek the best future for the life within thee, then for but a modest fee I shall consult the wisdom of the spirits on thy behalf.”



Honami, a tall, very pregnant girl with wavy shoulder-length blonde hair and a daisy-pattern kimono, studied them for a second, then nodded and closed the door of her room behind them.



“Please be seated, Lady Priestess,” she gestured to one of the room’s two chairs. “I don’t normally talk to priests and the like, but I feel you should try anything once.”



“Thou hast my gratitude,” Hazō said. “Now, before I call upon the spirits, I must ask thee some questions about thy life here at the Mizutani Hot Springs, the better to focus on thy mystical energies.”



“As long as you understand there are some things I’d rather keep private,” Honami said. “I’ve just brewed some tea. Would you like a cup?”



“’twould please me greatly,” Hazō replied. One of Inoue-sensei’s teachings was that placing oneself in a guest-host relationship with the target established a feeling of trust, and of familiar circumstances which caused people to naturally relax.



Honami reached over with the kettle. But as the spout went over the cup, her hand slipped, splashing the hot liquid over Hazō’s hand. Hazō felt a surge of pain – followed by horror as his disguise disappeared.



Honami backed away, her eyes wide but oddly unsurprised.



And then she opened her mouth to scream.



Hazō: Tactical Movement said: 15d100 = 842 Click to expand... Click to shrink... Fast as lightning, Hazō crossed the room, and clapped his hand across her mouth at the very last moment.



“We’re not here to hurt you,” he hissed. “We just want to talk.”



In response, she bit his hand. The same hand.



The extra dose of pain was too much, and he involuntarily let go. Honami made a break for the door, her mouth opening once again.



Just as she placed her hand on the handle, she froze, her eyes glazing over and her mouth falling closed. Hazō looked over to see Inoue-sensei’s hands together, forming an unfamiliar seal.



As per their drills, Hazō got out some rope and cloth, and securely tied and gagged Honami, taking care to avoid putting pressure on her abdomen.



He turned to Inoue-sensei. “I don’t suppose you can…?”



Inoue-sensei released the genjutsu and shook her head sadly. “I told you, kiddo. I can’t. Not anymore.



“I’m going to stand watch outside. You do the talking.”



As Inoue-sensei left the room, Hazō came up to Honami. With his disguise now broken, he faced her as his ninja-geared thirteen-year-old self.



“Miss Honami, I promise we’re just here to talk.”



Honami stared at him. He could see tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes.



“Now, if I take off that gag, will you promise to hear me out without trying to raise an alarm?”



After a couple of seconds, Honami finally gave a reluctant nod.



As soon as Hazō removed the gag, she burst out in tears. “Please, please don’t hurt the baby. I swear I’ll do anything you say. She’s no threat to you, and she’s only a half-blood and she probably won’t inherit Kiyoshi’s bloodline anyway. I’ll do anything, just don’t take her away from me!”



“Please, Miss Honami,” Hazō said as gently as he could. “We’re not here about the baby. We don’t even know who Kiyoshi is.”



Honami sniffed, the tears slowly stopping. “You… mean that? You’re not from his clan?”



Hazō shook his head.



“And you’re not a Hot Springs ninja here to take my baby?”



Hazō shook his head again. “We’re ninja from far away who have been assigned on a mission here. If you give us a chance, I’m sure we can find some way to help each other.”



Honami visibly calmed down as she thought about this. “You could be lying to me. They say ninja always think ten steps ahead. Maybe you’re just trying to manipulate me into not resisting while you do… whatever it is you want to do to me. Maybe that lady isn’t really outside, and I’m still in that illusion spell she cast on me, and you’re trying to twist my mind so I do what you want. Maybe you’re just buying time for some kind of ninja magic or secret drug to take effect so I’ll be completely in your power.”



That took Hazō by surprise. Honami didn’t look like the perceptive type, but apparently appearances really could be deceiving, even if you weren’t a ninja. Still, he didn’t have a good answer to that observation. Certainly, Inoue-sensei would have been happy to do any and all of those things if the objective demanded it, and had in fact suggested something much along the same lines. It was Hazō’s insistence on the potential for uncoerced long-term cooperation that had them negotiating the way they were.



As such, it wasn’t going to be easy for Hazō to allay her suspicions. Any line of argument could be perceived as manipulation, and if Honami decided to treat them as enemies, they’d be in the disastrous position of having to either silence her (which would mean killing an innocent and would probably wreck the mission when her disappearance drew attention) or use tools such as blackmail which had a risk of failure and would still cost them a potential ally.​ “Greetings, Miss Honami,” Inoue-sensei began in her best wheedling voice. “This”, she indicated Hazō in his ridiculously over-the-top Transformation Technique robes, “is High Priestess Fūka, seventeenth generation oracle of the Kannagi line. The Kannagi specialise in the futures of young lovers, newlyweds and pregnant women, and so after we heard of your condition High Priestess Fūka decided to come straight here in order to offer her fortune-telling services to you.”Hazō tried to give Inoue-sensei a subtle death glare for the name she’d given him, but unfortunately, his elaborate headdress narrowed his line of sight too much to make eye contact.“Verily, my child,” he instead intoned in his best mystical voice, “if thou dost seek the best future for the life within thee, then for but a modest fee I shall consult the wisdom of the spirits on thy behalf.”Honami, a tall, very pregnant girl with wavy shoulder-length blonde hair and a daisy-pattern kimono, studied them for a second, then nodded and closed the door of her room behind them.“Please be seated, Lady Priestess,” she gestured to one of the room’s two chairs. “I don’t normally talk to priests and the like, but I feel you should try anything once.”“Thou hast my gratitude,” Hazō said. “Now, before I call upon the spirits, I must ask thee some questions about thy life here at the Mizutani Hot Springs, the better to focus on thy mystical energies.”“As long as you understand there are some things I’d rather keep private,” Honami said. “I’ve just brewed some tea. Would you like a cup?”“’twould please me greatly,” Hazō replied. One of Inoue-sensei’s teachings was that placing oneself in a guest-host relationship with the target established a feeling of trust, and of familiar circumstances which caused people to naturally relax.Honami reached over with the kettle. But as the spout went over the cup, her hand slipped, splashing the hot liquid over Hazō’s hand. Hazō felt a surge of pain – followed by horror as his disguise disappeared.Honami backed away, her eyes wide but oddly unsurprised.And then she opened her mouth to scream.Fast as lightning, Hazō crossed the room, and clapped his hand across her mouth at the very last moment.“We’re not here to hurt you,” he hissed. “We just want to talk.”In response, she bit his hand. The same hand.The extra dose of pain was too much, and he involuntarily let go. Honami made a break for the door, her mouth opening once again.Just as she placed her hand on the handle, she froze, her eyes glazing over and her mouth falling closed. Hazō looked over to see Inoue-sensei’s hands together, forming an unfamiliar seal.As per their drills, Hazō got out some rope and cloth, and securely tied and gagged Honami, taking care to avoid putting pressure on her abdomen.He turned to Inoue-sensei. “I don’t suppose you can…?”Inoue-sensei released the genjutsu and shook her head sadly. “I told you, kiddo. I can’t. Not anymore.“I’m going to stand watch outside. You do the talking.”As Inoue-sensei left the room, Hazō came up to Honami. With his disguise now broken, he faced her as his ninja-geared thirteen-year-old self.“Miss Honami, I promise we’re just here to talk.”Honami stared at him. He could see tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes.“Now, if I take off that gag, will you promise to hear me out without trying to raise an alarm?”After a couple of seconds, Honami finally gave a reluctant nod.As soon as Hazō removed the gag, she burst out in tears. “Please, please don’t hurt the baby. I swear I’ll do anything you say. She’s no threat to you, and she’s only a half-blood and she probably won’t inherit Kiyoshi’s bloodline anyway. I’ll do, just don’t take her away from me!”“Please, Miss Honami,” Hazō said as gently as he could. “We’re not here about the baby. We don’t even know who Kiyoshi is.”Honami sniffed, the tears slowly stopping. “You… mean that? You’re not from his clan?”Hazō shook his head.“And you’re not a Hot Springs ninja here to take my baby?”Hazō shook his head again. “We’re ninja from far away who have been assigned on a mission here. If you give us a chance, I’m sure we can find some way to help each other.”Honami visibly calmed down as she thought about this. “You could be lying to me. They say ninja always think ten steps ahead. Maybe you’re just trying to manipulate me into not resisting while you do… whatever it is you want to do to me. Maybe that lady isn’t really outside, and I’m still in that illusion spell she cast on me, and you’re trying to twist my mind so I do what you want. Maybe you’re just buying time for some kind of ninja magic or secret drug to take effect so I’ll be completely in your power.”That took Hazō by surprise. Honami didn’tlike the perceptive type, but apparently appearances really could be deceiving, even if you weren’t a ninja. Still, he didn’t have a good answer to that observation. Certainly, Inoue-sensei would have been happy to do any and all of those things if the objective demanded it, and had in fact suggested something much along the same lines. It was Hazō’s insistence on the potential for uncoerced long-term cooperation that had them negotiating the way they were.As such, it wasn’t going to be easy for Hazō to allay her suspicions. Any line of argument could be perceived as manipulation, and if Honami decided to treat them as enemies, they’d be in the disastrous position of having to either silence her (which would mean killing an innocentwould probably wreck the mission when her disappearance drew attention) or use tools such as blackmail which had a risk of failure and would still cost them a potential ally.​

​

A sudden insight gave him pause. Maybe… maybe this was a time for a leap of faith.



“Miss Honami,” he said. “There’s nothing I can do to prove our good intentions to you right now. There’s no trust between us. But if you don’t trust me, at least trust yourself. What does your intuition say about us? Are we friend or foe?”



Honami looked him in the eyes. There was something deep behind her gaze, something that momentarily made his breath catch.



After what felt like a lifetime, she drew herself up authoritatively (at least as authoritatively as she could while still tied up).



“I have a duty to the people at Mizutani,” she said in a firm voice that almost didn’t waver. “You must swear to me that you won’t hurt anybody I’m responsible for – not the staff here, and not the customers who rely on us to protect them. Swear it on your mother’s life.”



Hazō went still. His mother’s life? He didn’t even know if she was still alive. But if she was… could he do something like this? Did he have the right to make an oath that affected her future? Hazō was agnostic at best when it came to religion, and there were a lot of superstitions you didn’t subscribe to when you had the power to reshape the material world with your mind alone. But some things were sacred, even to ninja, even in Hidden Mist, and few more so than family bonds. A ninja who had no one to fight for was nothing more than a killer.



He chose his words very carefully. “I swear on my mother’s life that my team and I did not come here to injure or kill anyone, and that we do not intend to do so except in self-defence and avoiding collateral damage as much as possible.”



Honami frowned, visibly running the sentence back and forth through her head. “And you don’t expect those intentions to change in the future. And all of this goes for torturing people as well, mentally or physically.”



Hazō inwardly winced. Somehow, he felt the balance of the negotiation shifting away from him, even though he was still a ninja and Honami was still a tied-up civilian. But she had him and she knew it – once he had committed to letting her go, she had the advantage, because all she had to do to ruin the mission was to expose his presence.



“I also swear that we did not come here to torture anyone mentally or physically, and that I don’t expect those intentions to change in the future.”



At least she hadn’t asked him to directly swear that he wasn’t going to hurt anyone. Hazō suspected that she’d taken care to judge how far she could push him, given that most ninja missions involved some form of harm to the target, and trying to force an oath that directly prevented him from accomplishing his mission would not end well for her here and now.



“And you won’t damage the inn itself…” Honami said, then hesitated.



“Except in self-defence and then as little as possible,” she conceded. “As before.”



“And I swear that we do not intend to damage the inn itself, except in self-defence and then as little as possible, and that I don’t expect those intentions to change in the future.”



Honami slumped in relief, her shoulders sagging as she fell back against the wall. “You… you can untie me now.”



Hazō did, but made sure to stay between her and the door.



“So what do you want from me?” she asked eventually. “You put on that ridiculous getup for a reason, didn’t you?”



“I think we can help each other,” Hazō said, relieved that the conversation was getting back onto a familiar track. “You said that you think someone is after your baby, didn’t you?”



Honami’s hands unconsciously went to her stomach. “Kiyoshi was a Hot Springs ninja who came to our resort about seven months ago. We fell in love straight away. But he left the day after we… you know…” she blushed, “and I haven’t heard from him since. I’m afraid that his clan found out about me, and now they’re keeping him prisoner – or worse. I know that ninja would never let a normal person have a baby with one of their special bloodline powers. Any day now, they’ll come to take her away from me. Or maybe they’ll just kill us both. I know an ordinary life like mine doesn’t mean anything to a ninja.”



Hazō flinched.



Then his mind honed in on an important statement. “You said your baby would have a special bloodline power?”



Honami nodded. “When we first met, Kiyoshi was boasting about what a powerful ninja he was, and how he came from a powerful clan and had a… a limited bloodline. It was a little over the top, but I thought there was something charming about how he was trying so hard. I don’t know what the bloodline was, though, and he never actually told me the name of his clan.



“I’m sure it was just to protect me,” she said with just a little too much force, “until he came back from his journey and married me.”



“And you need someone to protect you in case people from his clan turn up,” Hazō concluded.



“Me and my child.”



In the short term – while they were at the resort – Hazō didn’t think it would be a problem, at least as long as everything went smoothly and they didn’t get identified and forced to exfiltrate in a hurry. Bodyguard duty was a staple of ninja work. But what would happen afterwards, when they had to leave? They couldn’t stick around forever, even if they decided to make the resort a base of operations.



Then an idea struck him.



“This is one of the most popular resorts in the Country of Hot Springs, isn’t it?”



Honami gave a proud smile. “That’s right. This year, we’ve had more customers even than Imomura. We’re making so much money that Mother is talking about hiring a second genin team.”



Her face fell. “Of course, it’s not like the first one was able to keep you out. All that wealth, and I still can’t feel safe.”



To his surprise, Hazō understood. As a missing-nin, it had been such a long time since he’d felt truly safe, even with people he could trust watching his back.



“So,” he returned to the point, “you must be paying a lot of taxes to the Village Hidden in the Hot Springs.”



Honami nodded.



“In other words, your resort is responsible for a significant proportion of their income.”



Honami nodded again, her smile a thing of both satisfaction and bitterness.



“And if you happened to be the proprietress of Mizutani Hot Springs,” Hazō concluded triumphantly, “then the ninja wouldn’t be able to touch you without cutting their own throat.”



Honami’s eyes glittered with new possibilities. “You know, I’d never thought of that before. It would get Father off my back too. Owning a hot spring is as high as a low-born person can rise in this country, and then nobody short of a noble or a ninja can tell you what to do."



She grinned as she followed the line of thought. “I heard that a few years ago the yakuza tried to move in on Izumo, and they had two daimyo’s guard squads and three angry ninja knocking on their front door the very next day. Nobody wants anything to happen to the person who’s been taking care of them during their holidays.”



“That’s right,” Hazō said. “Now, how would you feel about a team of ninja helping you ensure a smooth and early succession – once we’re done with our current mission?”



“Just tell me what you need,” Honami purred.

​

-o-

​

You have received 15 XP.



You have received an additional 1 XP for omake excellence.

​

-o-​

Noburi’s research report:



Noburi can’t sense chakra through mist, and is kind of confused that Hazō would think that, especially since they haven’t been in any mist for a while. He admits that this is an advanced Wakahisa technique, but not one he knows or has so far reverse-engineered.



He has practised sensing chakra through water a lot over the past months. He can identify chakra sources within long range (5 x Vampiric Dew level in metres) in terms of distance, direction and rough size. He can drain them within medium range (Vampiric Dew level in metres), and do so selectively.



While draining someone, he can now sense their chakra pool in enough detail to estimate their current size relative to ones he’s sensed before (“a bit bigger than Hazō’s”, for example). He is inordinately proud of this achievement. If he can touch someone and concentrate for a second or two while in water (i.e. more than a brief tap during combat), he can also identify one or more elements that the target uses frequently (the more frequently, the less time needed to identify it).



In addition, he has learned to drain water-walking ninja, their limited area of contact with water made up for by the fact that they are emitting chakra directly into it.



Noburi made sure that Keiko was in hearing range when he explained all this. Her expression made it impossible to tell whether she was impressed.

​

-o-​



What will you do now?​

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