A day later, Ameruyi woke to the sound of rain on metal.
Her body hurt, and her vision was...impaired.
It was a dry, crackling agony that mapped every place the Dotuki's black smoke had touched her.
Her left eye was bandaged shut. Her right eye opened to a blurred world of grey ceiling and green chakra glow, a Jōtaki medic finishing a round of water-clear healing.
Memory returned in shards. The dam. The two opponents. The searing heat. The capture. Then… Ryugo's voice. Tetsu's hands. Safety.
She tried to move her fingers. They obeyed, stiffly. A wave of nausea and weakness washed over her. Her chakra system felt like a dried-up riverbed, cracked and empty.
The door slid open. Not the medic. Ryugo stood there, leaning slightly against the frame.
'He looks different', she thought, 'Better...'
He indeed looked different. The bandages were gone from his flank. His eyes held a stillness that was deeper, more settled, than before. He carried a presence that hadn't been there two days ago, an additional perk of his sudden growth.
"You're awake," he said. No greeting. Just a fact.
"What...happened?", Ameruyi croaked, her voice raw from disuse and inhaled smoke.
"Mission success. Dam secured. Tanigakure reparations negotiated. Oh, and a traitor found and killed", his words were clipped, efficient, "Zenitsu, your brother, sold us"
"Zenitsu," she whispered.
"Yes. He's dead. Batto and Tetsu finished him." He stepped inside, closing the door
She absorbed this. There was no shock, no surge of grief.
The Sora no Kokoro meditation, even weakened by injury, walled off the raw emotion. What remained was a cold, clear understanding. A flaw in the family line had been corrected. It was logical
"I see", she said, her voice flat, "The clan's shame is immense. I apologize. I put you in danger"
"Nonsense. This was your brother's failure, not yours. Anyway, The clan is here to rectify it", Ryugo said, glancing towards the corridor, "A retrieval team arrived an hour ago. Led by the First Heir"
Ameruyi's one eye widened a fraction. "Haruto-nii-sama?"
"He's speaking with Batto now. It's not going smoothly"
Outside, in the lee of the damaged command tent now replaced by a weather canopy, Commander Batto faced three figures.
They stood like statues carved from grey iron. All wore the simple, practical travelling clothes of the Takeda, straw hats shedding water, faces veiled.
The one in front stood just slightly taller, his posture not arrogant, but absolute. This was Haruto Takeda, First Heir, a hero of the First War, a jonin whose name was spoken alongside Hitori's in tales of Amegakure's pyrrhic victories.
[Haruto Takeda – Lv. 78 Jonin]
His two escorts were chunins, levels in the high 40s, their hands resting on their sword hilts with casual readiness.
"Commander Batto", Haruto's voice was calm, water flowing over stone, "The clan thanks you for safeguarding our sister. We are here to retrieve her. The clan's healers will see to her full recovery."
Batto, his bulk wrapped in fresh bandages under his uniform, didn't budge. He crossed his arms, his face like weathered granite. "Your sister isn't a piece of luggage to be retrieved, Takeda. She's a chunin of Amegakure, attached to the Southern Border Command, recovering from wounds sustained in the line of duty. She stays until my medic clears her for duty or transfer."
A slight tilt of Haruto's head. "With respect, Commander. Her well-being is a clan matter. The… incident… involving our brother Zenitsu necessitates her return. The clan must address this stain."
"The 'stain' was addressed with my greatsword and a Shikabane corpse-puppet," Batto growled. "The plot was against my command, my shinobi. She is material to that investigation. More importantly, she's under my protection. Until I'm satisfied the threat from within her own family is fully extinguished, she doesn't leave this fort"
The air grew colder. The two escort chunins didn't move, but the pressure of their chakra, sharp and focused, increased marginally. Batto didn't flinch. His own aura, a heavy, earthy presence born of mud and survival, pressed back.
"You accuse the Takeda clan of being a threat?" Haruto's voice remained even, but it was the evenness of a drawn blade.
"I accuse a dead man. I'm preventing a possible second act. She stays"
Silence stretched, broken only by the drumming rain. Then, Haruto did something Batto did not expect.
He knelt.
In the mud and the pouring rain, the First Heir of the Takeda clan, a jonin of legendary calm and skill, went down on one knee before the border commander. He then bowed, his head touching the ground. His escorts remained standing, rigid with shock.
"Commander," Haruto said, "On behalf of the Takeda clan, I offer our deepest, most profound apologies. The betrayal of Zenitsu is a dishonor that cuts deeper than any enemy blade. His actions were his own, born of a weak spirit that failed the Sora no Kokoro, but the responsibility for his corruption lies with the clan that produced him"
Batto stared, nonplussed. This wasn't defiance. It wasn't even negotiation. It was… abject submission.
Haruto continued, his voice clear and carrying. "You have my personal oath, and the oath of the Takeda clan head, that Ameruyi will be safeguarded. Her value to the clan, and to Amegakure, is greater than ever. She has proven her strength where her elder brother failed. But more than that…"
He finally looked up, and Batto saw his eyes. They were the same flat, emotionless grey as Ameruyi's at her most focused. There was no anger, no humiliation, only a terrible, perfect clarity. "The debt of dishonor must be repaid. By keeping her under your command, you deny the Takeda the opportunity to cleanse our name through her service. Let us repair this fault with blood and achievement. Let her victories be our atonement"
Batto felt a profound unease. This was wrong. A proud clan heir should be furious, demanding, leveraging political power. This was a cold, logical calculation of honor and utility. It was more frightening than any outburst.
He saw it then. The meditation technique. The Sora no Kokoro. It didn't just grant focus and genjutsu immunity. It cost emotion, turned people into instruments. Zenitsu had failed it, his ambition a toxic flare. Haruto had mastered it, becoming a perfect, calm blade. Ameruyi was somewhere in between.
Batto's instincts warred with protocol. Keeping her was the safe move. But denying a clan's formal, public atonement could create a different, more insidious political wound.
"She is not a token for your penance", Batto said finally, remembering Ryugo's eyes and service, "She is a shinobi. Her achievements are her own"
He made his decision. Team 11 had not just solved the dam's situation. They had uncovered a massive scheme from Tanigakure, potentially avoiding a war. He owed them. And thus, he protected them. He would give them the opportunity of independance.
"They are", Haruto sighed, still kneeling, "And they will bring credit to her unit, her commander, and her village. The Takeda clan merely wishes to… support that path. It can be from the shadows if necessary. Starting by removing the distractions that await her at the clan compound"
Batto understood. Haruto was offering to handle the internal clan politics—the whispers, the blame, the sharks who might see a wounded heir as weak. He was offering to clear her path, in exchange for the chance to rebuild the clan's honor through her
It was a devil's bargain, but one a commander could understand.
"Get up," Batto grunted. "You're making a scene."
Haruto rose smoothly, mud staining his knee, his expression unchanged.
"She stays under my command until she decides otherwise", Batto stated. "You can leave your healers if you wish. You can send supplies. But you will not pressure her. You will not interfere. Her path is hers. Your clan's honor is your own problem. You can repair it by sending more competent shinobi to my border, not by hijacking my best."
A flicker of something—was it approval?—in Haruto's flat eyes. "A fair and wise command, Commander Batto. The Takeda will comply. And we will send more shinobi. Competent ones"
He bowed deeply, then turned, his escorts falling in behind him. As they walked away into the rain, Batto heard the lead escort whisper, too low for normal ears, "Haruto-sama, to kneel like that…"
Haruto's reply, just audible, was the chill of winter rain. "Honor is not in the posture, but in the actions. Emotion is irrelevant"
Batto watched them go, the unease settling into a cold knot in his stomach. He'd won the standoff, but he felt like he'd just bargained with a beautifully crafted sword, forgetting it had no conscience of its own.
From the doorway of the medical bay, Ryugo had observed the entire exchange, his Raikōgan inactive but his mind recording every word, every subtle shift in chakra. He saw the same thing Batto did. The perfect, terrifying control.
He looked back at Ameruyi, lying on the cot, her one eye staring at the ceiling, listening.
"Your brother is interesting," Ryugo said mildly.
Ameruyi was silent for a long moment. "He is the ideal Takeda", she finally replied, her voice devoid of anything resembling warmth, "He sees only the path. The rest is noise."
Ryugo nodded. He understood paths. He had one of his own.
"Rest," he said. "We have more missions to farm. Your brother wants achievements?" A cold, familiar smile touched his lips. "We'll give him achievements. Enough to make the whole clan's head spin"