Chapter Text
"Koyuki nee-san!" a cheerful-looking girl beams skipping towards Koyuki who smiles at her.
"Matsuri... how is your jutsu coming along?" Koyuki smiles, looking at the academy student fondly.
"I'm making great progress!" Matsuri beams.
"I cannot wait to see it once it's complete..."
"I'll nail it within a week or so, you can count on it!" She beams.
"Would you like some ice cream?"
"Okay!"
A shadow follows their every move.
"Oh? Koyuki? What a surprise... and hello there Matsuri!" Setta smiles amicably. "Here for some snacks?"
"Yep!" Matsuri beams.
Koyuki smiles at the two of them as they gush over the ice cream flavours, mainly Matsuri however since it's her favourite snack.
Koyuki glances at the roof of a house where loose dirt falls out of, hopefully, it's just one of the ANBUs assigned to protect her... if not... well... Koyuki is in no position to judge what the sand village might do...
But that might soon change...
"Koyuki-san! What flavour do you want?"
Koyuki pushes that to the back of her mind before joining the others. Meanwhile, on the other side of the pathway Hayate gapes at a beetle he found on a ground, so focused on trying to capture it... he didn't notice a shadow slowly closing it on him.
"Gotcha!" Hayate beams, grabbing the beetle in triumph until he was swooped out from the sky, his fan and beetle dropping onto the ground.
"Curse you hammerhead beetle!" Hayate exclaims.
It was dangerous to mess with Setta and Koyuki... lucky for these bunch of rogue nins however, Hayate is much easier to distract.
"Hey! Put me down!" Hayate exclaims, trying to wiggle out of the hawk's grip.
"Are you sure about that?" the rider muses as they are several feet above the village.
"Do you know who I am?! I'll kill you!" Hayate exclaims, frothing at the mouth in anger.
"We know exactly who you are, Hayate-chan~"
"Chan your head!"
"You will bring the demon bird to us," another replies, flying beside him.
"You've captured the wrong person... the demon bird cares for no one!"
They say nothing to that, making him struggle despite their threats of dropping him from this height. He has no weapon nor do they know if he knew any jutsu that would soften his fall but certainly not, there is no known jutsu that does that.
"Do you want to die so easily?" the guy on the hawk frowns.
"I rather die than let it fall into your hands!" Hayate exclaims.
Another guy bursts out laughing, "Good! Looks like the little squirt isn't as useless as he looks!"
"Useless?! I'll show you useless!" Hayate exclaims, struggling anew.
"Suiko... can you not provoke him... I'll really drop him and we'll only make the bird angry-"
Koyuki and Setta finds out later that night about Hayate being missing and the ANBU noticing suspicious-looking hawks above the village.
"Once available they will send shinobis after them... so you are not to leave the village," a gruff-looking man orders them.
Setta says nothing and neither does Koyuki but Setta knows that Koyuki won't let it slide. That is how he found Koyuki, preparing to leave the village. She isn't even being stealthy, the guards must be knocked out by Koyuki before she even stepped foot here.
"Nakano showed me that I may not be alone in this world... that is why... I want to follow in her footsteps... and protect those that are important to me..." Koyuki had said to Setta one day. He is a little suspicious but a part of him is glad that she finally found her purpose in life... and her smile... seems less empty than it was before.
"Alright! Let's go save Hayate!" Setta stretches.
"You don't need to follow me," Koyuki muses but her snow does nothing to stop him.
"Hayate is my brother too y'know-" Setta retorts.
Though they are only partially blood-related... Koyuki used to hold an unfair grudge against her older and younger step-brothers. But now she had seen that she shouldn't blame them for their parent's mistake.
Hayate may be foul-mouthed and arrogant... but he still wants to be the older brother to both of them. When they were younger... Koyuki used to stare at them while they play in jealousy but whenever Hayate tries to approach her, she'd run away.
"Why does big sister always run away when she sees you?" Setta had asked one day. "Is she really that scared of you?" he teases.
Hayate's eyes widen before wobbling, "Is he really?" he whines.
"N-no... I'm just joking! Did you ever just try... to talk to her?" Setta asks. It wasn't clear who the older brother was if not for their age difference.
Setta smiles, looking at Koyuki's back as they travel through the vast desert in sand-covered snow.
They can become a family now that their father is dead and stopped chaining Koyuki to what she couldn't even control. Setta sees a bright future for them.
Koyuki's eyes widen, breaking apart the snow as a hawk zips towards them.
"That's fast..." a boy muses, the same boy that had his hawk capture Hayate is here.
Koyuki brings Setta to a safe space so he can set up his puppets. Koyuki steps forth into the open, being the distraction, doesn't even turn around as snow pushes up from the ground, punching the hawk that dove back towards her in the chin.
Ryugan tsks before sending two more hawks to swoop towards Koyuki and using their talons to grab at the snow as Koyuki moves it to protect herself. It seems that she cannot get any closer... Using the snow, she pulls Ryugan into the ground.
Suiko charges towards Koyuki, slamming his armour into her snow and absorbing the chakra from it. Koyuki's eyes widen as the snow starts to fall apart around her. She continues to put snow, upon snow up before jumping away herself, keeping her distance.
Setta's puppet uses the chance to trap Suiko only for a Hawk to knock the puppet away.
Setta frowns, moving to change his position when he realises that Ryugan is standing behind him.
"Please follow us, or your friend here and the other one will get it," Ryugan replies. "If I hear or see a snow out of place I will kill him," he raises the kunai towards Setta's neck.
Koyuki couldn't move carelessly... the snow shifts behind Ryugan and his kunai grew closer to Setta's neck, drawing blood.
"Okay... you can have me... but release my brothers," Koyuki replies.
"Ryugan I found this girl nearby too," Suiko pushes Matsuri towards them.
"Matsuri..." Koyuki frowns at disapprovingly.
"I'm sorry... Koyuki nee-san... but I'm worried about you!" Matsuri exclaims, tears in her eyes.
Koyuki offers her hands towards her which she immediately took. Koyuki pats Matsuri on the shoulder in a way Setta would do to Hayate.
Setta smiles sadly at them, Koyuki doesn't hug them at all but Koyuki did praise Setta whenever he was working on his puppets and even pet his head once and cared for him when he worked too late.
"Well they can come with us then, we'll release them once we're done with you... besides who knows if they will cause problem if we release them," Ryugan grins.
"We won't, you still have our elder brother don't you?" Setta asks.
"It's not like you're in the position to bargain," Ryugan muses. "Follow us and you'll be spared."
Ryugan pushes him towards the mountains. An ANBU watches them behind a boulder.
Chapter Text
Pan looks at the shogi board while Abe is chewing at his fingernails.
"Checkmate."
"Amazing! It's been a month and I haven't beaten Sato-sensei... not even once!" Abe exclaims.
Suzuko was jolt awake by Abe's exclamation, she had been leaning against the wall of Sato's home.
"If you kids want a really good opponent you should try Aoi-sama... I used to play with him sometimes..." Sato chuckles.
"Wouldn't it be unfair?" Suzuko muses.
"Is this really all what you pulled me here for?" Pan narrows his eyes at Suzuko who shrugs.
"I don't even know how to play this game, yet Abe here thought it would be a good idea for us to learn," Suzuko shrugs.
"Shogi is a great game to train strategy! Besides! Pan used to play against me all the time and yet he was never this serious when playing against me!"
"You were still learning the rules, there is no point in beating you every time... that way you won't learn," Pan snorts.
"Is that why you let the snow kid go?" Abe muses, "If I were you I wouldn't know mercy at all!"
Pan looks away on the ground. He wonders if he would spare that kid if he could... in the heat of the battle he didn't seem to think about it.
Nakano, Shi Tai and Hakuno seem the type to spare them but Pan would always finish the job... so why didn't he?
Maybe it was because she was a lot like Nakano's true face. Nakano thinks that she may hide it well but Pan knows that there is darkness inside of her...
An ink sparrow flies into the board, eating the silver general.
"Ah! Suzuko!" Abe exclaims in annoyance as Sato returns (when did he even leave?) with new cups of tea for Pan and Suzuko.
Suzuko opens her palms for the sparrow to spit out both the pieces and a piece of paper.
Abe looks at the sparrow in disgust as Suzuko reads the note in its mouth as it tweets at him.
"I'm needed," Suzuko replies. "How about you Pan? Want to come?"
"For what reason?" Abe pouts, as if unable to let Pan go.
"The more people that come the better," Suzuko grumbles. "I'm going to have to grab some people though, it's an important mission."
She said nothing else before walking away despite Abe's protests.
"It's your mission why are you asking other people to come anyway?!" Abe exclaims.
"Some missions may mix and match some people, depending on the mission requirements of course, if they are asking for people it means that the mission is probably important..." In the middle of Sato explaining it to Abe, Pan is already rising and leaving.
"Hey! You still haven't beaten Sato-sensei in a best of three!" Abe exclaims.
"It's fine. The game can continue later. The mission is more important," Sato chuckles, taking a sip of his tea.
"Still... I was the one that reserved him first," Abe pouts. "Say sensei what about that barrel you said you would get for me? Has it arrived yet?" Abe asks in excitement.
"Ah... about that-"
The corridor echoes with multiple footsteps, Koyuki, Setta and Matsuri are taken to their hideout. They must be very confident if they were bringing them to their hideout. Setta has a bad feeling about this.
But Matsuri is confident that Koyuki has a plan to get out of here without dying... right?
The corridor is suffocating to her, but if she slowed down, Suiko would shove her. Koyuki keeps close to Matsuri to catch her if she should fall.
"I think this is close enough... isn't it?" Setta asks.
"We are almost there, quit your whining!" Ryugan exclaims.
"Don't worry Setta-san... I'm sure the ANBU would easily find this place..." Matsuri whispers but her voice carried to the ears of their captors.
Ryugan bursts out laughing, "They sure did! But they didn't really go that far..." he grins.
Koyuki seems to be the only one who noticed the corridor around them were littered with trinkets from their village, though no headbands and just pieces of grey porcelain littered about. But for them to defeat the village's ANBU... must be some fearsome people...
They finally reached the center of the hideout where a huge stone lay in the middle with markings on the floor.
Setta could probably decipher it. Koyuki didn't need to do that however to know that thing is bad news.
"Welcome, Ms Koyuki... you should be honoured to be the key to bringing back god into this world," a man smirks, walking out of the darkness. Behind him is Hayate who is knocked out cold and tied behind a pole.
"Hayate-san!" Matsuri exclaims, "What did you do to him?!"
Ryugan pulls out a sword and aims it towards her.
"I said quit your whining! You're so annoying!"
"Now now Ryugan, there is no need for that," a woman muses as she walks out from the other side. "It's fair that they are concerned after all... he gave us quite a lot of trouble trying to hurt himself... we had to take measures to be sure that he doesn't do anything too detrimental... but say..." she looks at Koyuki up and down. "I didn't think the demon bird's host could form connections, from my information you had quite a terrible childhood don't you?"
"We will help you by taking that demon bird's chakra, then you can find peace in your next life!" Ryugan cackles.
"If you want Koyuki-san's chakra you'll have to do it over my dead body!" Matsuri exclaims, popping out smoke bombs that she hid in her sleeves.
Suiko muses his armour to suck in the smoke.
"Ryugan what is this?! Didn't you frisk the girl before bringing her in here?!" Kujaku exclaims.
"I did! And so did Suiko!"
"Enough..." Hoki, who seems to be the leader, walks towards the edge of the markings on the floor. "We have the advantage here, do not lose it, after them!"
Chapter Text
Koyuki flies their way back into the desert but it was hard to find their way back through the sandstorm.
"Won't they chase us back to the village?" Setta asks worriedly, he has Hayate with him and their snow is much more secure.
"At least we will have reinforcements there-" Koyuki grumbles, for some reason this sandstorm is quite strange. First of all, sandstorms seldom happens out here, even with sandstorms, Koyuki still has a way to search through the storm and yet it seems that her extra eye couldn't see the village anywhere.
"We might have fallen into their trap..." Koyuki mutters.
A shift in the air, forces Koyuki and the others apart. She finds a nearby boulder for them to make a shelter out of while Koyuki deals with the chasing hawks.
Before Koyuki could do anything however she feels something prickle on her head, her eyes widen, gingerly touching her hair to find blood. Koyuki's eyes widen before calming her breathing. It was still unnerving for her to see blood but she has been working on it.
It would also be bad for her to Penguin-out with Hayate, Setta and Matsuri nearby who she still needed to scold her for being so reckless but luckily Setta was quick to move.
"We need to help Koyuki-san!" Matsuri exclaims, trying to stop Setta from pulling her but he insists with a tug.
"We will just be in the way! You need to bring Hayate back to the village-" Setta replies. "Sorry about this-"
"Wait Setta-san!" Matsuri exclaims but it is too late. A thread that he had set up in advance, pulled them towards the village. Whatever is making Koyuki and Setta lose their direction would probably not interfere with something solid.
That meant however that they would be lost now. But Setta needed to help Koyuki, if not... at least made sure they didn't get the penguin spirit inside of her...
Koyuki doesn't move from her spot but made sure to keep track of every single person attacking her. She was too distracted to realise that someone could attack her from below too. She hadn't put her snow between sand particles, her mind on more pressing matters, she would have had her captured if a puppet hadn't burst out of the sand with Kujaku shrieking.
Suiko tries to use the commotion to grab Koyuki but her sand moves faster than her brain would when it comes to defence, while she tried not to make it a habit, it was still reliable when needed.
Koyuki uses her snow to push Suiko away and swipes at the hawks circling around her. The snow couldn't do much with Suiko's armour so once Koyuki had the hawks pulled out of the sky, she focuses her attention to get Suiko's armour off or broken.
"Dodge you stupid bird!" Ryugan exclaims, the only hawk left in the sky only for it to be grabbed by the snow. Ryugan and Hoki leap away from the hawk, he takes out his sword and it cuts through the snow with fire.
Koyuki narrows her eyes. It was too much to focus on at once, her snow plentiful but if Koyuki isn't focused, they have a hard time doing what they are supposed to.
Setta commands the puppet from behind a boulder, but Kujaku knows about the sand puppet techniques and with a long blade, sends them to tangle his chakra threads which are supposedly tough enough to survive by normal blades. But for it to be tangled... it was troublesome for him and made his puppet crack and shrivel out of control.
Setta sends a puppet that looks a lot like a puppet made for drilling towards her on her supposed blind spot on her back but she hears the movement through the wind before pulling it another one and pushing the puppet off course but not before her sword is slashed into bits.
'Black Secret Technique... Titan Drill!'
It was a bad idea for her to attack Setta so she glances at Hoki who predicted this nods towards her before pulling Ryugan aside before he could get back into the fray.
"Handle the puppeteer, let Kujaku join us," Hoki orders.
"What?! But-" Ryugan exclaims only for Kujaku to use her swords on him. "Foul!"
"Stop fighting with each other!" Haki exclaims, leaping out of the way of the snow as Kujaku uses her wind style to send wind blades towards the snow that is attempting to attack her.
A stray slash would have completely taken Koyuki's arm off if not for a small pale green sphere jumping in between them, creating a shield with its plates expanding that completely blocks the force of the attack.
It chirps with a high thrill before rolling towards the tank, Suiko, being too small and quick to stop, smacks him straight under the chin.
A swing of ink hits Ryugan before he can even look at Setta, blinding him.
"How did you find us?" Setta asks as Suzuko lands in front of them.
"We had a byakugan user," Suzuko muses as Samuru lands behind Ryugan and kicks him aside.
"Go Kyuutai!" Abe exclaims.
The sphere chirps before knocking Kujaku around and bouncing back towards Suiko. A sword pierces through Kujaku and an explosion breaks Suiko's armour apart. Junko pulls her sword out of Kujaku, an orb appears and she bites into it, Kujaku's body falls limp onto the sand.
Junko swiftly flies towards Suiko like a ghost before solidifying again to kill Suiko as well only for him to block her sword with his arms. He uses the chance to swing Junko towards Junki who was standing behind him, catches Junko but hadn't expected to be knocked so far away with his brute strength.
"What... what did she do to Kujaku?" Suiko grits his teeth.
Ryugan didn't even know but he is silent after the death of one of their teammates. They needed to stop fooling around. He summons four more hawks to attack Koyuki. Hayate who is awake and was the one who directed them towards the barrier, swings his fan towards the hawks throwing them off their course.
"You... you didn't need to come for me," Hayate grits his teeth, even though it was a small wind he managed, he looks winded, like he had just ran a thousand miles.
"Weren't you going to kill yourself if we didn't come and save you?" Koyuki frowns.
"Yeah... that's what we're supposed to do anyway," Hayate scoffs, swinging his fan again to push Ryugan away. That swing took out his strength to even stand, Matsuri is immediately at his side.
She is trying to think of ways to help, Junko and Junki are the ones who came to help them but they seem to be unable to make a dent in Suiko's strength despite him being riddled with holes from Junko's sword.
But he also used a part of his armour to block Junki's explosions.
Koyuki uses her snow to sink those armour pieces, now free to focus on one thing, is reaching out to help them. But that is what their leader is counting on.
"You are mine-" They were too late to stop him as a huge blade pierces through her snow and her arm.
"Koyuki-san!" Matsuri exclaims in horror, prompting the others to look at them.
Hoki grins but his victory was short-lived as his chest is pierced through by a lightning bolt.
"What the hell took you so long?!" Suzuko exclaims, she summons an equal amount of ink hawks to counter Ryugan's hawks.
Koyuki shakily looks down at the wound on her arm. Koyuki has no choice but to use the penguin's power to heal herself if she didn't want to die but that was what Hoki was counting on.
Hoki's body shatters into a million pieces as the chakra from the penguin and his dying body flies towards the statue that they had thought was left in the hideout but the markings on the floor and the statue were all a fakeout, all they needed was the demon bird's chakra and a host body to be sacrificed to their leader's corpse.
Koyuki immediately uses her snow to bury that new body but a green barrier flickers around him.
The snow however doesn't differentiate between friend or foe. Suzuko combines her ink hawks into one and focuses on saving Hayate and Matsuri along with Junko and Junki as the snow threaten to sweep them under.
"Tch! Master Seimei! We are but your humble servants! And these kids are your enemy!" Ryugan exclaims.
Seimei looked like he would have just left them there but green orbs flies towards them, helping them out of the snow.
"So... this is the power of Piko..." his voice echoes as he watches as Koyuki struggles to keep herself awake but the snow is threatening to drown her human self too.
'Relish control to me... I'll kill everyone! I'll kill everyone!'
Chapter Text
"Koyuki-san!" Matsuri exclaims only for Hayate to pull her back.
"Don't- or you'll get into the crossfire," Hayate grumbles.
Suzuko dumps another bottle of ink out, creating another hawk for Pan while the one she is on down in a nearby forest. Looks like the barrier is Hoki's making, with his body gone there is no one to hold the illusion.
Seimei seems contemplative when looking at the ink hawks.
Pan watches them with a sharp eye, but Seimei seem to notice him in return.
He holds out his hand, fishing out Kujaku's swords from the snow before throwing them at Pan who's hawk easily dodges the first one but didn't expect the second one. The ink hawk splits but Seimei hadn't realised that he purposely maneuvered the hawk above him so he can dive towards him with his lightning blade.
Seimei uses the broken pieces of Suiko's armour to block Pan's lightning blade only for a clone to be behind him but Seimei easily blocks his attack with a green orb.
"Pan!" Suzuko exclaims, in a hurry to draw another hawk, Suiko and Ryugan however had been sent towards them to keep them busy.
"Koyuki-san!" Matsuri screams at Koyuki to wake up. Which seems to work a little as she sees Pan about to touch the snow, she snaps out of her trance to pull up the snow from the ground. Pan immediately jumps up, and at the same time the ink hawk zips through Ryugan and Suiko.
The hawk grabs Pan mid-air and zips far away.
"Why resist? What does it matter if that one dies then? Unleash that power... only then you can defeat me," Seimei muses as he watches Ryugan and Suiko attack the group. Without their weapons it was going to be hard but they still managed with their taijutsu.
Suiko was one they had trouble with, Suzuko is too busy fighting to control the ink hawk under Pan so he is pretty much far across the snow trap now.
Matsuri and Junko both attack Ryugan while Junki continues to bombard Suiko with explosions even if his arm is completely blown off, he continues to charge at them with his body, head and legs.
Hayate looks at him in disgust before glancing at Setta who is as much as a sitting duck as he is with his puppets broken.
"You probably don't want to look at this..." Hayate covers his eyes.
"I've seen gore before..." Setta mutters, "Shouldn't you be the one with your eyes closed?" Setta muses as he watches Hayate's face contort.
'Fire style! Maximum explosion!' Junki leaps onto Suiko's shoulders and completely blows his whole body up.
Ryugan easily knocks Matsuri aside and was wiser than Suiko and dodges Junko's attacks, putting distance between them. He tries to escape with another hawk only to find that he could only summon a baby hawk.
He tsks before running as strokes of ink come alive and attack him, this however allows him to put more distance between them. But there was not much room for him to run to except for the forest.
'Screw this fight- I want to live!' Ryugan exclaims internally and the baby hawk in his arms tweets in agreement.
Samuru, Junko and Junki chases after him while Suzuko looks at Koyuki and Seimei, worried.
"Give me your power," Seimei grins as he swings a huge flexible sword towards Koyuki who has been fighting her transformation this whole time but the more she tries to use the snow, the more transformed she becomes, almost half of her body has already been changed.
Suzuko attempts to help only for Hayate to stop her.
"You will only get caught in the crossfire- we only need to step in if she loses it..."
"But that will give him what he wants doesn't it?" Suzuko frowns.
"It's too late at this point," Setta shakes his head. "Unless you want to die for her, we can only hope that she snaps out of it."
"That's..." Suzuko stops as she seems to be focused on Koyuki who roars, a deep honk, making Hayate shiver involuntarily, which didn't go unnoticed by Setta even as he feels it deep in his bones... the penguin did rampage in the hidden sand for a moment, Hayate described it like a grueling sound of lightning... as if lightning could feel and be angry at the world.
Setta understood that reference now that he had heard it for the first time.
'Koyuki...'
Koyuki grits her teeth, she is pretty much drooling from the effort. No matter what anyone says... how was she going to start resisting a full-on transformation after years of letting it free?
Who cares if she were to let loose anyway? Her friends are at a safe distance away... isn't it better if she dies... right here? The village can handle this strange figure anyway... can't they?
Seimei smirks at her, as if pleased to see the life being sucked out of her.
Isn't it easier to give up?
"Koyuki! If I'm not giving up! You better not either!"
Koyuki's eyes widen, looking to see Nakano looking at her in determination. If she was in her right mind she would have realised something wrong. But all there was was Nakano's expression, deep in belief... in her-
Koyuki roars, a human shout as she pulls back from the transformation, the penguin reduced to snow and dust.
"What?!" Seimei exclaims, not expecting her to be able to completely hold back the transformation.
Suzuko sighs in relief, having used most of her chakra just to reform the hawk from afar just so that Nakano can arrive here on time.
She didn't even know how Pan knew Nakano was coming or when he even got the time to call Nakano who she last heard was out training.
"What... you keep saying that you didn't know what people needed emotionally..." Yuri muses as she looks at the battle from a distance.
"I don't... it's easy to know what she needed from experiences after all... Nakano can easily touch the lives of many people..." Pan replies.
"And you can't?"
Pan says nothing to that.
Chapter Text
Koyuki's eyes never felt this clear. To think that she would be able to push back the transformation without tearing herself into pieces. She takes a huge breath, like she had just been submerged for so long and gotten a huge breath of fresh air.
"Come on Koyuki..." Nakano mutters like watching a wrestling match.
Hayate glances at Nakano before looking at Koyuki who straightens her back and easily moves her fingers, her human ones.
To think that Koyuki would have someone like that... maybe if he had been stronger... he would be that person for Koyuki. But he is just glad... but also bewildered that this hidden leaf genin, who seems so badass when they fought in the chunin exam is the source of strength for Koyuki.
Deep down, Setta would feel the same.
'The Spear of Piko-'
A snow spear appears in her hand, Seimei moves to use the green spheres to block the spear only for him to be attacked from the back by lightning. Yuri and Pan had appeared behind him on a platform Koyuki had created for them.
Pan attacks him again, a lightning ram charging towards him, he tsks, using his spheres to block the lightning ram but invertedly causing his front to be vulnerable. The armour should have absorbed the chakra from the spear but the spear is too fast and his inability to decide made him lose.
He stumbles before falling onto the ground, coughing up blood as the snow reaches into his body, tearing it apart from the inside.
"H-how-" his body is then pulled into the snow, burying his whole body before Koyuki slams her palms onto the snow she stood on.
'Giant Snow Burial!'
Smoke like particles sizzle and flies into the air, the ghost of Seimei dying once again. Koyuki sighs in relief, feeling that the battle is over and the body buried in the sand is void of life. She collapses onto her knees.
"Koyuki!" Hayate exclaims, running towards Koyuki along with the others.
"Koyuki..." Nakano's voice is relieved as Koyuki looks up at her with a smile.
"You're here?" Koyuki asks as if reuniting with a family member, not really believing that she is here either.
"Yes... I'm here," Nakano smiles.
"I want to work hard... and become an existence acknowledged by other people... I thought that looking at Tengu Nakano... ties with other people... for me until now that was just logic and murderous intent... however, there's something I've understood just a little..." about the ties they go so far for and isn't ashamed to let it show... suffering, sorrow and happiness can be shared with someone..."
Setta smiles. "You idiot..."
Hayate, Nakano and Koyuki looks up to him in surprise before looking back at Koyuki who scoffs with a small smile.
Yuri and Pan stand a certain distance away, Yuri looking at the talented kids while Pan looks melancholic at them.
Pan walks away to see what they were going to do to that runaway member of the group. He had told Junki through Yuri's butterflies to not engage and let the sand village enter their hideout and handle everything else.
With Ryugan's weapons and summonings dead, it's highly unlikely he'd be able to do anything drastic. Though he was unable to escape the sand ANBU's pursuit which had been relentless with all the ANBU they had already killed... they were eager to get some revenge.
But with the way Pan was moving earlier... Koyuki frowns, she wonders if Pan was having the same problem as she had before Nakano reached through to her. Even though he is in the same team as Nakano... it seems that she believes him to be part of their friend group.
But did Pan feel the same way?
She asks herself as she looks down at the Shogi board.
"So long as Nakano is happy... I'm fine with anything... if it makes her feel better that the power of friendship can save the world then it's fine... she is still young after all... she will learn about reality sooner or later... it's how it is with us shinobi after all..." Pan replies.
"And you know about reality... don't you?" Koyuki asks, still staring at the board.
Pan sighs, closing his eyes, "Yes... of course... some things just cannot be solved through friendship."
"How would you know if you don't try?" Koyuki asks.
"I already have..." Pan replies as Koyuki places her piece down. Flashes of bloodied shoes and broken bodies flashes through his mind.
"So have I... but still... I believe in Nakano..." Koyuki replies.
Pan smirks before moving his own piece. "That is fine..."
"Don't you?" Koyuki asks.
The trees rustle in the wind as they play shogi in a hallway a lot like Sato's only no one is around.
"Whether I believe her or not is none of your business is it not?" Pan asks, "Is that why you called me out here?"
"I just wanted to see how good you were at this game..." Koyuki muses as she makes her move. The board is shrinking, the game is coming to a close. "Besides, I heard some rumours about Haru wanting the Tengu chakra and was wondering..."
Pan's next move is aggressive and sharp. He is nearing his win, the game should have been over several moves ago but Koyuki is playing quite aggressively as well, taking advantage of his openings when she can.
If Pan was serious about this game he would have seen it coming a long time ago but he seems to have the same problem with Seimei when it comes to facing off his opponent.
"... if you can protect Nakano... maybe she would be safer with me..." Koyuki muses.
"Like they will allow you to take the Tengu chakra to suna..." Pan snorts but his expression is annoyed as Koyuki checks his king, winning the game.
'This was pointless...' Pan grumbles, not liking the way Koyuki seems smug about beating him.
"Hm... we'll see..." Koyuki grins before standing up to leave. "It was fun playing with you... let's play again some other time," she adds before walking into a room that is loud with chatters and Nakano exclaiming Koyuki's name.
Pan stares at his defeated King before tossing them aside. Abe can clean up the mess he made by bringing this here.