CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN:
They never got a chance to make a camp.
Sansa only noticed the team when they were minutes out from their location; their chakra blended well with the earth around them, unlike the chakra signatures she was used to.
'Three-hostiles/approaching-fast/hide-run-fight-?' she signed. Chiyoko looked confused, but Kabuto sprang into action, scanning around them, assessing the terrain.
'Country-?' he signed.
'Iwa,' Sansa guessed, judging by the earthy feel to their chakra– she had noticed that Kiri tended towards cutting winds and rough, choppy waves.
Kabuto's mouth thinned. 'No-time-run/fight' he signed and Sansa nodded, arming herself with kunai.
"Someone's coming?" Chiyoko asked, her face almost white it was so pale. Belatedly, Sansa realised she hadn't understood the signs.
"Yes, the Iwa team," Kabuto filled her in, "Fuyuko– tell us when they're sixty seconds out."
Sansa nodded– but in the end, she didn't have a chance to.
Sansa didn't even see what caused the explosion; she just felt her body being thrown into the air before she hit the ground so hard it knocked the breath out of her. Her ears were ringing, she couldn't hear, she couldn't see, her neck was wet and sticky and the world was spinning sickeningly around her as she tried to force herself up, clawing her way to her hands and knees only to be violently sick, her throat burning as she gagged and retched and emptied her stomach of the mixed rice with roe and grilled fish she'd eaten earlier that morning at the inn. Her head felt as if someone had forced a kunai through her ears and her eyes and was twisting them around and around and around–
Still retching and gasping, Sansa slipped forward, her palms scraping against the rocky surface of the ground as she slid from her hands to her elbows. Then, without warning, two hands seized her ankles and she found herself being dragged underground.
Sansa struggled against the grip, panicking as she felt the crush of the earth around her. Its wet, heavy weight was pressing against her eyes, forcing its way up her nose, into her ears. In her desperate struggle, she felt something crunch in her knee, a wet clunk-snap, and she automatically opened her mouth to scream at the flare of white-hot agony that followed, only for damp, heavy soil to force its way down her throat. Desperate, Sansa let seals blaze to life on her palms, bracing herself.
This explosion was at least more contained then the first. It still sent her into the air, but she was out of the suffocating earth at last. Sansa barely managed to roll with her landing, too dazed. The Iwa genin who'd dragged her underground was swearing loudly, staggering about, and she could barely keep her eyes on him as her vision swam in and out of focus. He turned to her and she thought he might have smiled at seeing her state, at how helpless she was in this moment.
Sansa was already reaching for Kurama's scouring, burning chakra, not ready to die without a fight, when the Iwa shinobi choked suddenly, bright blood bubbling at his lips. A moment later, he keeled over, collapsing dead on the ground and revealing Kabuto standing behind him, his gear slightly tattered from the explosion but Kabuto himself still in one piece.
Looking mildly put-out, he walked over and knelt beside her, his hands already glowing green as he pressed them to either side of her head. Sansa almost moaned in relief at the sensation of his slippery-cool-sly chakra sliding along her own, melding almost as perfectly as Naruto's and accelerating the healing the way Kurama's burning chakra did, only without the pain, instead leaving a sort of tingling numbness behind. "They were clearly aiming to take you out," Kabuto said, and Sansa realised she could hear him now. "That explosion was aimed directly for you– they didn't see Chiyoko-chan or I as a threat."
"Their mistake," Sansa murmured hoarsely, because neither of the other two Iwa genin were interrupting Kabuto as he healed her, nor could she feel their chakra. Kabuto's smile was as sharp as the blade of a scalpel.
"Yes, it rather was," he said, moving his hand down to her mangled knee, which bulged oddly under her tight leggings. "You're a sensor," Kabuto said as he carefully rotated the joint into place while Sansa gritted her teeth against the pain, white-hot and agonising, speaking so softly that Chiyoko, several feet away and almost invisible in the thick mist, wouldn't have been able to overhear.
"And you're a liar," Sansa whispered back as slippery-cool-sly chakra melded once more with her own, healing the dislocation even faster than her natural, Kurama-enhanced Uzumaki healing could.
"Like recognises like," Kabuto said lightly, lifting his hands from her skin.
"Yes," Sansa said, sitting up carefully. "Like does recognise like– those hand-signs I used, do you know where I learnt them?"
Kabuto stilled, and there was something dangerous about that stillness, like a snake about to strike.
"You keep my secrets," Sansa said, letting enough of Kurama's chakra slip through to turn her eyes fire-bright and eerie; a threat and a promise, all at once, "and I'll keep yours."
After all, she assumed there would be many people interested in knowing where a seemingly-ordinary genin had learned Root hand-signs well enough to be fluent.
Kabuto stood from his crouch and reached out a hand, a smile flitting across his face. As Sansa took his hand, letting him pull her to her feet, she understood that her offer had been accepted. He would keep her secrets, and in return she would keep his.
At least for now.
Seeing that Sansa was standing, Chiyoko finally rushed over to her. "Are you alright?" The other girl fretted, looking like she wanted to pull Sansa into her arms. Chiyoko's eyes then widened as she looked over Sansa. "How in the– how are your clothes still clean?" she asked incredulously.
Sansa looked down at herself. Her hands were filthy, caked in mud. Her neck, she assumed, was covered in sticky-tacky blood from her bleeding ears, and her face was just as filthy as her hands, but her tunic-dress, her leggings, even her boots, were in as pristine condition as they had been when freshly tailored; not a speck of dirt or drop of blood marred the pure, snowy white.
"Seals," Sansa admitted. "They protect my clothes against damage– everything from fire to dirt to water to blood."
"I'd call it frivolous, except that's likely what protected your internal organs from the explosion," Kabuto said and Sansa half-laughed, half-snorted, a sound that would have horrified her Lady-Mother, should Catelyn Tully have ever heard it. Then again, should Lady Catelyn have ever seen Sansa in the state she was in now, she would probably have passed out in shock– or horror, when she realised her sweet daughter was a murderer.
"Let's go find somewhere to set up our camp," Sansa said, sobering at the thought of Catelyn. "But first–" she swiped her hand over her neck, collecting some of the tacky blood half-dried there, then reached under her flared sleeve to rub the blood against the moon-mark, pushing through a burst of chakra and tugging on the bond in her soul that tied her to her Pack.
In a burst of chakra, Lady appeared, lips already pulled back in a threat, fur bristling as she took in Sansa's state. "You're hurt!" she snarled, the pony-sized wolf swinging her head around to Kabuto and Chiyoko, lips pulling back further from her sharp, dangerous teeth. "Did they hurt you? I'll kill them!"
"They didn't hurt me, they're my team," Sansa rushed to explain, when Lady looked as if she was about to tear into her teammates. "Kita, love, these are Kabuto-kun and Chiyoko-chan, they're my teammates. They both helped save my life."
Lady gave them a suspicious look, then turned to face Sansa, lowering her head so their eyes were level. "You're okay?" she checked, nosing at Sansa's neck and licking at the blood there, the force of which almost knocked Sansa over, leaving her having to grasp onto a handful of Lady's thick fur to stay upright.
"I'm fine, dear heart, I'm fine," Sansa reassured her. "Kabuto-kun healed me, there's nothing wrong now."
"Good," Lady said with a huff.
"But there are other people hunting us," Sansa said, which caused Lady to growl, the sound a deep rumble that echoed, "yes, yes, hush darling," Sansa urged, tapping Lady's nose firmly, "we need you to help guide us, and protect us, can you do that, Kita?"
"Of course," Lady said, giving Sansa's neck a final lick, before turning to the very surprised Kabuto and Chiyoko. "I'll protect you both too, because you're precious to my Fuyuko-chan," she said generously. Kabuto reacted first, bowing to her.
"Thank you, Kita-san," he said, Chiyoko hastily following his example, and Lady looked chuffed at the respect. Sansa hit her lightly on the side of her muzzle, lest she grow a big head.
There was a welcome sense of security that came with having such a large wolf accompanying them, even after being attacked. Sansa, Kabuto and Chiyoko followed Lady's lead as she wove through the thick mist, hunting for a site that matched Kabuto's specifications. Eventually, they found one and while Kabuto and Chiyoko immediately got to work setting up traps, Sansa started to press seals into the trees, Lady guarding her back as she had to wander further away from her teammates in order to set up an early warning system to let them know when any of the other genin were passing close by to their campsite.
The four of them gathered back at the site as the sky turned dark; the mist was too thick for the stars to shine through, leaving them wary of getting lost on the mountain and being unable to find their way back to each other. They didn't dare light a campfire, using Sansa's seals for heat instead, huddling together to choke down the disgusting, flavourless ration bars.
Sansa had used a modified storage seal Mito taught her on her canteen in order to store an excess of fresh water within the much smaller metal container and after drinking her fill she passed around her canteen to the other two, letting them drink greedily. She then used some of the water to try and clean the now dried, caked dirt off her face and hands, hating feeling so filthy.
Letting Lady return to the spirit realm hurt, but Sansa knew even she didn't have an endless supply of chakra and she knew better then to waste it when she would potentially need every last drop over these next three days. Lady looked just as anxious as her, snuffling at her hair and whining piteously before disappearing.
"She is very protective of you," Chiyoko observed. "I thought she was going to eat me, back when you first summoned her."
"You should have seen what she did to Danzo," was Sansa's reply, mostly just to see the lightning-fast smile that flashed across Kabuto's face. In truth, Sansa hadn't summoned Lady to the fight against Root, but Lady had certainly come up with many descriptions over the years of what she'd like to do to Danzo.
"There's lots of rumours, you know," Chiyoko said carefully, "about... about him, and... and what he did. To you, and to other people."
"They're probably all true," Sansa said softly, "or at least, containing an element of truth. Danzo was a complicated man, with a complicated vision of what a strong Konoha looked like. When people... endangered that vision, he had them removed. He committed many reprehensible acts and due to the... sentiment of certain members of government, he was able to get away with it. What happened to me was just one crime amongst many. Only, it wasn't even a crime," here, she smiled bitterly, "because there was never any law against it. And that? That is the worst part of all."
Chiyoko bowed her head and didn't ask any more questions.
Kabuto just looked at her, something she couldn't read in his eyes, his chakra oddly still and just as unreadable.
They shared watch duty amongst themselves that night; two sleeping, while the third kept guard, watching the alert seal that Sansa had set up for any signs that another team was close. There was no activity that first night, nor was there any the following day, but the second night, during Chiyoko's watch, the warning seal lit up a brilliant, blazing red.
Chiyoko had them upright almost immediately; they were already dressed, but they were armed in moments, Sansa reaching out to sense how many were after them. She immediately paled. "There are four teams nearby, all Kiri, all together," she breathed and Kabuto hissed through his teeth while Chiyoko let out a soft cry.
"How many summons do you have?" Kabuto demanded.
"Two that I can bring to a battle," Sansa said, after a moment of thought. Lady was a given and Taiyō was young, but he was older than Lady and eager for a fight, eager to prove himself. The rest, however... Gin, Haya, Katsu and Suki hadn't trained to be in a fight, not the way Lady had, not to mention Sansa honestly didn't know if she had the capacity to summon so many of the wolves– the last time she'd summoned them, it had been after having her chakra sealed for three years so she'd had quite the surplus, not to mention she had to have enough chakra that she could still fight, so she wouldn't be useless.
"How long can you keep them here?" Kabuto pressed and Sansa thinned her lips, thinking.
"I don't know," she had to admit, "I've never pushed to that point. Until they're injured so badly they have to return, I would guess."
Kabuto nodded. "Do it," he ordered and Sansa nodded too.
"How are you both so calm?" Chiyoko demanded then, her voice edging into hysteria. "There are people trying to kill us!"
Sansa turned to Chiyoko, her eyes narrowing. "You chose to be a shinobi, Chiyoko!" she snapped. "You chose this life, so now you have to live with your choice or die for it! It's either going to be you, or them, so decide now– are you going to curl up and wait to die, or are you going to fight?"
Chiyoko gasped for breath, panic written over her face. "I– I don't want to die!" she choked, unshed tears thick in her petal-pink eyes.
"So don't," Sansa said, lifting a hand to her mouth, to slice into the skin with her sharp teeth, "fight." She swiped her bloody hand against her moon-mark and pulled on her bonds with her pack.
The two wolves appeared in a burst of chakra that would have alerted anyone within five hundred yards of their location; the Kiri teams hunting them would know exactly where they were now. But it didn't matter.
"Hunt," Sansa ordered and her wolves howled as they leapt forwards; their howl was one of rage, of violence; it was a call to hunt and it set Sansa's blood singing, had her taste adrenaline, sharp and hot at the back of her throat, even as she swayed at the drain of her chakra.
Kabuto caught her as she stumbled, his hand firm at her back. "Can you still fight?" he asked her and she nodded, slipping Shion from her sleeve to wield in one hand, a kunai in her other.
"I can still fight," she said, not trying to hide the sudden eagerness in her voice, the edge of something wilder, huskier, ready to spill blood under the silver glow of the moon. Kabuto merely nodded.
"Then let's go," he said.
They arrived at a bloodbath.
***
The four Kiri teams had clearly joined up to take the Konoha team out and the twelve genin fighting against the pair of wolf summons was chaos. Four of the twelve genin were already dead on the ground, torn apart by the wolf summons that had taken them by surprise, and two more had been caught in the traps set up around the camp– one was little more than a shrivelled rag, thanks to Sansa's seals, and one was stuck in place, helpless to Lady's jaws clamping around his throat moments later.
As Sansa watched, however, a pair of twin swordsmen– well, one swordsman and one swordswoman– managed to corner Lady, only for Taiyō to leap in to take the blow in her place, the older wolf disappearing in a blur of pale smoke as the damage inflicted forced him to return to the spirit realm. Sansa cursed, even as her heart thudded in relief that Lady was unharmed.
Still– half down, half to go.
Kabuto, Chiyoko and Sansa leapt into the fray. Sansa slid under the guard of the closest Kiri genin, one far too used to fighting larger opponents from behind the reach of his sword, and rammed her kunai into his gut, twisting before wrenching it out sideways, sending his entrails spilling; as he fell to his knees, screaming out his agony, she did him the mercy of slitting his throat from ear to ear, splattering her face with blood.
She didn't have time to celebrate her victory; she immediately found herself ducking the swing of a sword, twirling around the slash of deadly iron before slamming her palm against the chest of the one who wielded it. The clone exploded in a burst of water that plastered her hair to her scalp and Sansa cried out as she felt the glancing bite of a sword to her hip, staggering in place, barely avoiding a second strike.
It was the twin swordsmen from earlier, the boy and girl pair who'd taken out Taiyō; Sansa was forced to retreat under their assault of sweeping slashes and long stabs, barely avoiding the blows as they rained coordinated strikes down at her that she had to either dodge or parry with the iron-edge of her tessen. Knowing she didn't have the strength to match the blow of the swords, Sansa held the war-fan in a reverse-grip against her forearm in order to deflect the blades at an angle, using their force against them to slide off the iron edge of her tessen.
Sansa could feel the deep bruises she was gaining and, crouching to avoid a blow, took the opportunity to throw a kunai at the open-toed sandalled foot of one of her opponents, making him bellow out in pain and stumble, an opening she took ruthless advantage of; a second kunai sunk deep into his throat and he dropped, while his partner let out a scream of fury and came at Sansa in a frenzy, attempting to split her in half from above and only just failing.
Sansa's hands danced through the hand-signs Jiraiya had drilled into her head, pulling the moisture from the air into a whip; it was shaky, but solid enough to lash against the girl's sword-arm, slicing deep into the tendons of her wrist, causing her sword to drop from her grip. But being forced to drop her sword didn't make the girl less dangerous. Sansa tried to get close, to finish the fight, only for the girl to lock her feet with Sansa's own and roll her weight sideways, pulling them both to the ground.
They rolled until the girl's superior height and weight had her pinning Sansa down, her blood-drenched hands moving to Sansa's neck, her grip as unforgiving as steel and so tight that Sansa could feel something grinding in her neck as bright spots burst across her vision as she tried to struggle with limbs that felt heavy as lead.
Distantly, through the roaring in her ears, Sansa heard Lady howl her rage. Moments later, the girl was torn away and Sansa gasped; frantic and ragged, her vision blurring as the pressure suddenly eased. She managed to stagger upright, one hand clutched to her throat, only to watch in horror as the girl who'd had her pinned, who Lady had saved her from, managed to retrieve her sword and, her expression twisted in hate, feinted a perfect low thrust, only to slam the sword up into Lady's tender belly, the bloodied, pointed tip emerging through Lady's back. Already, pristine fur had started soaking crimson.
"Lady!" Sansa howled as Lady disappeared in a burst of light-coloured smoke.
Wildfire poured through her bones, under her skin, flooding her chakra pathways, scorching her heart; Sansa roared through a mouthful of fangs, reaching out with claws, aiming to tear out the throat of the pitiful insect who had dared to hurt Lady, who had wielded steel against her heart, her soul, who had forced her to witness Lady suffer under the blade of a sword once more.
A different insect tried to step before her and Sansa's clawed hand plunged through its gut, clenching a handful of its spine and yanking, breaking it with a crunch, before shoving it aside as she stalked to the frozen insect, pouncing as it tried to run.
Sansa knocked it to the ground, ignored the sword it tried to swing at her, catching the blade with a hand coated in burning chakra, the steel melting to sludge in her grip. The insect tried to scream and she tore into it, her claws ripping through skin and muscle, cracking open bones and shredding organs as her teeth closed around its throat, feeling hot blood flood her mouth as she tore it out with a sharp wrench of her neck.
She left the pitiful insect where it fell, a steaming, stinking mess, turning to the frozen field, all the little insects watching in terror as she stalked forward, eyes fixed on her prey–
***
The wildfire doused suddenly, leaving Sansa swaying, gasping, falling to her knees. She stared down at her hands, dripping with gore, nails sharp and caked with... something... and blinked, confused. The last she remembered was gasping for breath and then–
Lady–
Oh.
Sansa recognised the aftermath of Kurama's chakra now, the rawness of it, like a sunburn turned inward. She cringed, looking at her bloody hands with new eyes, coated as they were with human viscera.
Her chin was wet.
Her mouth tasted like blood.
Sansa leaned to the side and vomited, chunks of ration-bar mixed with blood that wasn't hers splashing on the rocky ground beside her. She was too afraid to look up, terrified of what her teammates would think of her, clamping her chakra sensing down, not wanting to feel their disgust-horror-panic.
"Do you know how many blood-borne diseases there are that can be transmitted from ingesting blood?" Kabuto's voice broke the silence. Startled, Sansa automatically glanced up at him, only to see he mostly just looked out of breath from the fight they'd just been in. Beside him, Chiyoko was pale and blood-splattered but there was no horror in her eyes and she managed a small smile when Sansa's eyes met hers.
Still, Sansa found herself trying to explain. "Kita has had some... bad experiences with swords before," she said, her voice scratchy but legible. "She was badly hurt, for someone else's pleasure. That's what... triggered me."
"I think triggered is an understatement," Kabuto said, looking past her. Sansa looked over her shoulder and cringed at the still-steaming heap of... of body parts; even amongst the bloody battlefield of mud, blood and bodies, it was... extreme in its sheer animal brutality. "But it helped to save our lives, so I'm not complaining," Kabuto finished, as if that was that. Chiyoko, surprisingly, seemed to agree.
"But now we have a... slight problem," Kabuto said, and Sansa realised for the first time that the three of them weren't the only still-breathing people on the small battlefield– there were also a single living Kiri genin at Kabuto's feet, alive but unconscious. "I helped knock Chiyoko-chan's opponent out while you were, ah, dealing with her teammates," Kabuto explained. "What do we do with her?"
Sansa grimaced. "What we agreed to do at the start of the exam," she said. Chiyoko blanched.
"You mean–?"
"We have to," Sansa said firmly.
She knew Kabuto understood that the Kiri genin had to die. He had to have known, considering their agreement at the start. What she wanted to know was why, then, he'd chosen to keep the girl alive?
Then it hit Sansa.
Oh, that bastard.
Chiyoko's hands were still clean– well, as clean as a shinobi's could be. Even in this fight, she hadn't killed her opponent, hadn't even managed to finish the fight, with Kabuto needing to step in at the end.
Sansa knew what Kabuto wanted to do and she hated it.
But still... she understood and she hated that she did.
"Chiyoko," she said, hating herself for it, "if we don't kill her, she's just going to come after us again. You should never leave an enemy alive behind you. We need to do this. You need to do this."
Chiyoko blanched, shaking her head wildly. "I can't!" She protested, horrified. "I can't!"
"Are you or are you not a shinobi?" Kabuto asked her, his tone oddly gentle despite the harshness of his words.
Chiyoko was trembling so badly she could barely hold her kunai. "Please," she choked, "I can't!"
Sansa looked her right in the eye. "The one who passes the sentence swings the sword," she said harshly. "If you condemn a man– or woman– to death, you do them the honour of doing the deed yourself. It is what they deserve."
Chiyoko's head swung between them, her eyes wild. Whatever she saw, it had her heaving a gasping breath and moving towards the unconscious genin, her kunai flashing forward. It was a textbook perfect cut, neatly severing both common carotid arteries. A near instant kill.
It took Chiyoko several minutes to stop shaking so wildly, bent over the body and watching the blood spill, first gushing out in spurts, then slowing to a steady seep. Finally, she straightened. She was bone-pale, but her face was set in a way it hadn't been before. "I'm ready," she said softly.
"Yes," Kabuto said, and he sounded almost proud. "You are."
He felt contemplative. Sansa just felt heavy, knowing that she'd destroyed a child's innocence for the sake of the girl's survival. But Chiyoko would survive. Sansa would make sure of it.
"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you from that," she apologised anyway but Chiyoko shook her head.
"No," she said. "You were right. The one who passes the sentence should swing the sword. And... you were right earlier too. I chose to be a shinobi; I chose this life." She smiled down at Sansa, stiff but genuine. "Thank you." She said.
There was blood on her cheek.
In silence, the three of them had the unpleasant task of searching the twelve bodies for tokens. Not that they needed them, seeing as they still had their own and the Iwa team's. But it would make a point.
Sansa was also considering leaving the dried blood on her, just to make the point of turning up to the gate drenched in blood, bar for her still-pristine white clothes. In the end, though, after they'd collected the four tokens they hunted down a river, braving the icy currents in order to wash the filth off them. Sansa also rinsed her mouth liberally before they returned to their camp, just as the sun started to rise.
They were attacked once more before the end of the third day. It was another Kiri team and Sansa, Kabuto and Chiyoko fought side-by-side against the two who got past the traps; the third, caught by the seals, was already dead on the ground.
Chiyoko fought with a viciousness she had lacked in the last fight; she was a blur of movement, a brace of kunai in each hand– the moment Kabuto's feinted kick at his side distracted the boy she took the chance and jammed one of the kunai through his eye-socket, following through to use the boy's own momentum against him to jam it deep and leaving him shaking wildly on the ground before he went still.
As Chiyoko fought her opponent, Sansa used her tessen on the other genin, this one wielding a half-tanto like those favoured by Root; she used one of the joint-lock techniques Hiromi had taught her, locking the girl's wrist and forcing it to bend unnaturally until it snapped and she was forced to release her tanto. The girl backed up, not spotting Kabuto behind her until too late; she tried to defend, but he merely knocked aside her raised arm to brush his green-glowing fingertips against her chest. She collapsed moments later, blood bubbling from her mouth.
"Chakra scalpels," Kabuto answered Sansa's silent question.
"How the fuck," Chiyoko said, as she stared down at their six blood-soaked tokens, once they'd collected their newest acquisition, "are we not dead."
It wasn't even really a question.
"The favour of the gods," Sansa answered anyway. Kabuto snorted, but Sansa wasn't joking. Their survival at this point was a minor miracle– Inari-sama was watching out for them. Or perhaps it was the nameless, raging gods of Uzushio who stood behind them, eager and hungry to spill Kiri blood.
"We're supposed to be dead," Chiyoko said blankly, apparently more caught up on that fact then either Sansa or Kabuto. "We're not– we're not special; well, you are," she said to Sansa, "but they hate you here. We're supposed to– to die. They sent us here to die, because we're just– just nobodies. How are we alive?"
"Too much spite," Kabuto suggested.
"Most definitely," Sansa agreed.
Chiyoko stared at them both, like she couldn't quite believe they existed, then threw her hands up in the air in defeat, exhausted laughter spilling from her. "I hate you guys so much," she said, and there were tears in her eyes even as her chakra bloomed in affection, warmth and something that lingered close to possessive.
Kabuto looked like he didn't quite know how to deal with Chiyoko's outpouring of emotion but Sansa simply laughed too, reaching out for both her teammates hands and squeezing, letting her chakra brush against both of theirs.
She may not have thought much of having a team originally, but for better or worse they were hers now.
At the end of the third day, as the sun sank in the sky, the three of them finally made their way to the gateway. Yagura was waiting for them, along with a number of Kiri shinobi, Jiraiya and Eri. Yagura's purple eyes gleamed as they approached and Sansa changed her direction slightly, from where the proctor was waiting to receive the tokens, over to the Mizukage instead. Obligingly, Yagura held out a hand and a hushed silence swept over those watching as Sansa dropped six blood-soaked tokens and one pristine into his palm. Their own, and six for the eighteen genin they'd killed.
Sansa didn't say a word, even as Yagura's smile widened, simply turned and walked over to Jiraiya who looked like he wanted to both hug her and strangle her. "I'm dying for a bath," she told him, "and a toothbrush. I need a toothbrush rather desperately. I think I still have bits of that boy's throat stuck in my teeth."
"You," Jiraiya said helplessly as everyone went silent again, "are such a little shit."