Heat pressed into every breath.
It sat as a thick, wet weight—stagnant air dragging until the lungs failed to fully expand, pulling as if through wool.
The island seemed to be boiling itself alive before the storm could finish the job.
Every inhale brought a sharp salt-sting and the stickiness of fir resin at the back of my throat, the scents strangling against a sulfurous bite rising from the volcanic soil.
Sweat stalled on my skin, turning the mesh undershirt beneath my tank top into a restrictive layer that chafed against my ribs. My polarized glasses kept sliding down the bridge of my nose, the frames slick with grit. I pushed them up, my thumb catching on the dark-pink half-zipper of my top, as Pakkun's short legs pumped relentlessly ahead.
"Quit lagging!" he barked, his voice muffled by the forest floor.
"We're not lagging, you're just tiny!" Naruto shot back. He vaulted over a massive spruce root, bare shoulders bronzed and gleaming. The dark netting of his mesh tank top clung to his skin, and the zipper tabs on his orange shorts bounced with a percussive clinking as he landed.
"Less talking, more moving!" Anko snapped from the rear.
We wove through the wind-swept firs, the flickering shadows of the trees creating a strobe of blinding light and rhythmic darkness that made my eyes ache. I lost depth again, stumbling once as I misjudged a root's height. I burst through a wall of brittle thicket bushes that scraped at my thighs, and the canopy finally broke.
The forest opened into a clearing.
Skidding to a stop, Naruto kicked up a plume of dry ash. "There!" he shouted, his arm snapping upward.
High in the spruce canopy, something small caught against the rough, mineral-crusted bark. Fur—brown and coarse. Membrane—stretched for gliding. And there, weaving through the needles, a very unmistakable tanuki tail flicked in the dappled light.
"Yes! Get it, Gamakichi!" I pointed, the weight of the Fuma Kunai in my hip pouch shifting as I rebalanced.
Gamakichi, perched on Naruto's shoulder now, puffed his cheeks.
"Sticky Syrup Shot!"
He spat a glob of viscous, purple liquid. It arced through the stagnant air—SPLAT.
A direct hit.
The squirrel squeaked—POOF.
Smoke exploded outward, thick and smelling of ozone. For a second, the sound dropped out, the dead space filled by the smell of chakra-singed fur. My focus slipped in the haze. The branch snapped back, empty.
My pulse thudded in my ears as I waited for the smoke to clear. Nothing.
"Still Bunbun," I muttered, snapping my fingers as the disorientation faded. "He's just cycling forms."
Pakkun growled, his nose twitching near the ash. "He's fast. Move!"
Breaking underfoot, the ground gave way as we pushed higher. The forest thinned into ancient volcanic stone that broke through the soil. Roots clawed at the cracked grey earth where traction became a gamble. Idate drove forward just ahead, light on his feet, his white calf wraps absorbing the shock of the basalt while the wind shear bit into my sweat-chilled skin as we crested the ridge.
We froze.
Stocky bodies broke out of the treeline at the forest's edge. Serow. They stood like moss-covered boulders, unblinking eyes picked out against the grey stone.
"Don't startle them," Pakkun warned.
Naruto moved to step forward, but his sandal caught a jutting rock—CLACK.
The stone went flying.
The herd exploded.
Hooves thundered against the basalt, a vibration I registered in my teeth. Bodies surged in a chaotic mass of fur and muscle. Naruto lunged for a passing shape, but his footing failed on the loose grit; he slid, catching himself on his hands as the herd blurred past.
"—ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" I hissed, trying to hold onto one line of motion.
"In the middle!" Idate shouted. "There it is!"
Inside the chaos, a tanuki tail wove through the goat-antelopes like a flag.
"LET'S GO!" Naruto yelled, already kicking off as the ground softened.
We hit the marshland—the "Golden Decay" of peat and shallow water. The first step sank six inches into the cold muck, a jarring contrast to my overheated skin. Reed beds rustled. Hooves splashed through the mire as sika deer scattered.
"Keep following the one that went into the marsh!" Pakkun barks.
The herd split at the treeline. Naruto tried to pivot, but the saturated earth gave way under his weight, orange shorts splashing into the peat.
"Dammit!" he yelled, struggling for purchase.
Pakkun circled a patch of reeds, his nose twitching in frustration. "The scent's breaking! Too much water!"
I skidded to a stop, the air catching halfway in and never quite filling my lungs. I scanned the wetlands—the deer were already vanishing into the reeds.
"Come on, Sylvie," Naruto started, wiping mud from his face. "Do your—"
"Shut up and get ready," I cut him off, my voice tight.
I hesitated, gauging the weight of what I had left. A hollow ache deepened in my gut as I tracked the motion—too many bodies, too much water. If I didn't lock the terrain now, he'd sink into the silt.
I stepped forward, the water shifting around my ankles. I closed my eyes and reached out, focusing on the slow-moving currents beneath the peat. I pressed chakra downward, thrumming heat rising into my skull. Facial muscles locked with the strain; my glasses slipped further down my sweat-slicked nose as the marsh answered and the surface locked flat.
"Water Style: Stillwater Domain."
The give under my feet locked solid as the ground stopped giving and took my weight.
The cranes reacted first, a concussive pressure of wingbeats rattling my eardrums as I forced my focus through the white blur of feathers, searching for a single line of motion. That one? No, just a startled doe. There? Another false lead. Edges smeared for two long beats. Then—the tail. Among the trapped shapes, one deer separated from the rest with a low-slung, frantic energy.
"Got 'em!" Idate grinned.
Exhale coming late, I felt my legs trembling. "Twenty-five seconds, Naruto. Go!"
Naruto didn't hesitate. He grabbed Idate, yoinking him onto his back. "Now... show you... outran a train!"
Chakra flared at his feet, the heat causing a faint hiss of steam where it met the mud-slicked surface. He drove forward. He didn't run; he skimmed—his sandals clacking with a sharp, percussive sound against the surface. As he neared the boundary where the solid sheet met the rippling liquid edge, he overcorrected mid-stride, his mass shifting to compensate for the sudden change in tension.
"NOW!"
Idate pushed off Naruto's back, his launch slightly mistimed as the traction beneath them softened. He twisted midair and tackled the deer, and it broke under them just as the rigidity gave way. Idate sank to his knees in the mire, his hands diving into coarse, wet fur. Something sour and animal hit—musky a second later—as the animal let out a sharp, chirping resistance.
POOF.
Smoke burst outward. When the sight cleared, a small tanuki lay pinned beneath Idate's chest.
"…Gotcha," Idate panted. He adjusted his grip, wrestling the squirming weight as the tanuki tried to bite his white calf wraps.
Behind them, my jutsu cracked.
The marsh liquefied with a wet shlurp, the recoil sending a jolt through my heels. Knees dipped as the ground lost its grip, and a wave of nausea surged, my motor control lagging behind the sudden release of chakra. I caught myself against a fir trunk, my hands shaking. Sweat stung my eyes, blurring the treeline until the world felt tilted. My glasses hung crooked; when I reached to straighten them, my fingers lacked the precision to find the bridge.
"Already handled."
The voice drifted in from the treeline—lazy, familiar. Kakashi. I leaned against the trunk, blinking hard until the silhouettes finally resolved. He stood at the marsh edge, hands in his pockets. Slowly, another silhouette sharpened beside him: Anko, arms crossed, her burnt-orange skirt a vibrant smear against the golden reeds.
Her eyes picked out Bunbun beneath Idate. Then they narrowed. "Hm."
Idate stiffened, clenching his jaw as he hoisted the tanuki by its scruff. "…What?"
Anko tilted her head. "You're Morino, right?"
He froze, his breath still coming in short, ragged hitches. "…Yeah. And?"
A slow, predatory grin spread across her face. "I fought your brother, Ibiki, in the Chūnin Exams. He nearly took my arm off before I pinned him."
Idate adjusted his grip on the angry tanuki, refusing to look away. "Ibiki's... history... is his own," he managed, his chest still heaving. "I'm the... one... on the clock."
Anko cracked her knuckles, the chainmail producing a metallic chatter. "He was more fun. You've got his stubbornness, but you're stiff. Don't choke on your own history, Wasabi."
Idate turned away, but I saw his lips curling up for a fraction of a second before he masked it.
Pakkun trotted forward, testing the air near the tanuki. "Target confirmed. Mission complete."
Bunbun squeaked and, in a sudden burst of spite, licked Naruto's face.
"—EW—!" Naruto recoiled, wiping his cheek with his mesh sleeve.
Laughter broke through, carrying through the still, heavy air. I glanced upward. High above, thin cirrus clouds had started to creep in, veiling the sun and turning the light a bruised purple.
The atmosphere cinched shut.
We had the tanuki, but the storm was only a day away.